**Malon**
She wanted to scream, no she wanted to make him pay as she saw these mysterious men fire darts in Shaun. She growled and reared herself down ready to plow the human down like her father had shown her many times when the cloaked figure appeared. She immediately took Shaun into her arms to protect him from harm. She nodded as she heard his word and ran off.
She took Shaun into their home and placed him into bed. Her body slowly shrinking down to her human form with tears in her eyes. She wiped her eyes and noticed the darts in Shaun's arm and opened up a draw with a first aid kit inside. She removed the darts and placed some bandages over the marks they left. She stroked his head, "It's going to be okay....I'm....I'm going to call my dad. You just rest okay?" she spoke softly giving him a soft kiss on his forehead as she went to the phone and called her dad's cell.
**Mino**
Mino arched his back as he left the baths and dried himself off. His muscles feeling relaxed and refreshed from the warm treatment. He reached for his clothes and started to shrink into his human form when he noticed his cell going off.
"Hello? Malon? Hey lil buttercup how are you-. Wow...slow down hun what happened?" Mino's eyes frowned. "Alright, Malon I want you to lock the door. Do not allow anyone in unless it's me, or your mother got it? Good, I'm coming home right now."
Mino immediately threw his shirt on and pants on, and went into the girls bath. "Linda!"
Linda turned with a smile on her face, but it soon faded as she saw her husband's face. "Mino? What's wrong?"
"We need to go, Malon and Shaun ran into trouble."
Linda's face darken, and she quickly grabbed her top and bottom pieces of her outfit. "Excuse me Yukiko, I have to go. Please forgive me." she said as she dashed off with her husband. Mino got into the pickup truck, but because of Linda's large were form she got into the bed with her paws on the roof as Mino gunned the gas and the truck flew off down the road towards their farm.
At first Jewl was very wary of the place, the noise, the strange machines, the glowing lights. Then the hologram appeared and her heart skipped a beat. A translucent person?! She had no grasp of what a hologram was or what it could be, and John had never been cruel enough to delude her with stories of ghosts, so she couldnt even make a mistaken guess as to what the thing was and quickly hid behind John.
She listened, she watched, she tried to understand. Recordings, she had heard the words before, when she was smaller her father had suggested she keep a sort of journal, an inventory of her thoughts, a recording of her musings, and had given her small pen and robust note book. Jewl had never found a use for it, never really needed a journal, and had lost it. Some guilt shot through her at the thought, since it wasnt long after that that her father had disappeared.
Still, because of it she understood the concept of records, and she obviously knew what memories were. So she listened in stunned silence as the eerie image of...someone who was almost her, began to spout out facts and short answers, most of which she couldnt understand. Life signs? Absolute circumstances? Impaired brain functions? They all sounded important, if only she understood their meanings.
Then the recording began to play and she almost jumped out of her skin as an image of her Father, just as he had been before he disappeared, was displayed. At first she was terrified of the holographic doppelganger, but as it spoke, she recognized its mannerism and speech patterns intuitively, and realized that whatever it was, it was undoubtedly her father.
She listened as he told her that it was no longer safe to stay in their home, how she had to leave and become part of society, about how she had to avoid materialism, and how he would always love her. Tears rimmed her eyes and she reached forward to touch his face as the recording ended, her fingers moving through the image as though it wasn't there. That seemed to shock her back to reality and she withdrew her hand quickly, almost as though she had been stung.
She still didn't understand a lot, she didn't know why all this was happening, why it wasn't safe, why her father here knew less than her ghostly father's recording, what all this machinery was, why June looked so much like her, why anything was the way it was. But she knew at least one thing, her father had loved her, perhaps he still did, and his wish, maybe even last wish, was for her to leave and integrate with the other parts of human society.
And so, confused as she was, she stepped back next to John, saying nothing, unable to say anything. She looked down at the ground, her mind filled to bursting with questions, and waited to see if John would produce anymore answers from the ghostly woman.
John looked down at Jewl, heartbroken to see her reaction. He didn't have much time to dwell, though, as June suddenly rematerialized. "Was that helpful?"
"John nodded to himself as he looked around the room. "What i's this place?"
"This i's... was... your old lab, though i believe it's been sometime since either of us have been here."
"My, lab?"
"Yes, laboratory, I believe i's what you called it. This i's where you used to come for your experiments. This i's where you built me."
John was genuinely shocked at that. "You?"
"Yes, in fact this i's where I was housed for the longest time. If it wasn't for that turbine, we wouldn't even be here." she said, gesturing to it.
John frowned. "How do you mean?"
"All of the systems of this place are powered here, myself included. It's what kept this place together for so long. Without it, this place would likely collapse from age decomposition."
"I see..." John said. "Wait, how it i's you are continuously functional outside of here then?"
"Well, your ambient energy is usually enough for minor applications and to keep me... stable." she stated. "Not to mention the amount of free energy in that place you've spent so long in."
John frowned again, before it sunk in what she meant. "The city. of course..." he thought out loud. "So, how has that thing been running for so many years? It must be running on almost ideal conditions, but..." he trailed off, realizing that saying that it sounded impossible would just look very stupid right now.
"Well, almost ideal, yes, But..." she trailed off a bit herself then. "...Well, you see, running me off of this directly again after so long will likely have over stressed the whole thing... By the time I'm finished here, so too will it be."
John considered what that would mean. "Oh dear..." he thought out loud again before quickly asking: "So you have no idea what's might have happened or what this could all mean?"
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, my answers are limited, you must ask the right questions."
John thought for a moment, then looked straight into the image's eyes, hard, then slowly said: "Who am I?"
One corner of her mouth twisted up a bit, almost like a smirk. "That, i's the right question." Then she was gone, the lights returning back to normal. Suddenly, there was a tremendous frowning and creaking seeming to come from the walls and Earth themselves.
"I think that's our cue to leave." He stated, before grabbing the pendant and starting to rush for the door and the corridor outside, with Jewl in tow. As they made it back to the house, the floor, ceiling, walls, everything would begin to shake. John would lead Jewl as quickly as possible outside, before the entire building would collapse in on itself, all it's years seeming to come back to it at once. John would start to rub the back of his neck a bit. "Why i's it nothing can ever be simple?"
Jewl had so many questions, had so many things to ask the strange woman. Seeing her go brought a cry from her lips, but why? Aside from her desire for questions, she couldnt say. When the room began to shake she made for the exist, her agile body moving faster than John, taking his hand to move him along more quickly. She began to feel a burning in her head then. Entering her home and seeing it about to collapse, her legs suddenly refused to move. This was her place, her home for years, forever, it couldnt just...collapse. But reality didnt agree with her and if it werent for John she would have gone down with the ship, as they say.
The shallow pit left behind from the collapse promised that little would be recoverable. A single mangled piece of the juicer poked out of the rubble, the last sign that anyone had ever lived there. But John had bigger problems. Jewl had collapsed and was gasping softly her eyes closed, her face flushed red. Touching her head he would find that she had a tremendous fever. She coughed weakly and cracked her eyes open for a moment but said nothing.
(Freaken irobot quotes)
($50 to whoever can successfully name everything I've so far ripped off lol XD)
"Oh, shit!" John yelled as he saw Jewl go down. He immediately checked her pulse and breathing, both not good. "No." She was biting up like mad. "No." She looked like she was having a seizure. "No, no, NO!" he howled. He his mind raced, trying to figure out what to do. How could this be happening? Why was it happening? Why, why WHY!?
Suddenly he went very calm, a single conclusion in his mind. He removed his pants, allowing room for him to allow the growth of his tail. He poised the stinger over her neck. "Jewl," he said, "You have brought me back to the land of the living. Now its my turn to return the favour. I don't know if you can hear me, but if you can, then Im not going to lie to you: this i's going to hurt like a sumabitch." he then quickly brought his stinger across her neck, leaving a light gash. Please... Fight it Jewl... you're all that's left...
Shaun slowly sat up with a light groan, looking around slightly at the blurry surroundings, "Oh crud, my glasses. Mom's gonna kill me, ah, MALON!" He shouted as he stood up, quickly losing his balance and stumbling a bit, the last memory he had being almost getting shot, the rest was a complete blur, "Malon!?" he shouted again.
A most curious thing happened as his stinger cut her, the wound sizzled as her body seemed to...reject the poison. It frothed out about her neck and then the cut seemed to close slightly, almost like an eye squinting shut, not healing outright but close. John would then realize that Jewl was more than just human. Not a were, not quite, but more than human. Her Fever leveled out, not getting higher but not lowering either. Applying it to were, her biology was easier to understand. Wolfsbane, in controlled and treated doses, could suppress or even destroy lycanthropy. Its symptoms were simple, fevers, headaches, seizures, and weakness. But it wasnt happening because she had consumed too much, but instead too little. The years and years of Wolfsbane inside her was struggling to contain a disease it had never destroyed, and the internal battle now seemed to be killing her.
John had a choice to make. He could attempt to feed her raw Wolfsbane, something that could kill or cure her, at least for the time being. Or he could bite her. The addition of his own disease would, or at least should, defeat the lingering traces of wolfsbane in her system, and then natural were regeneration would take over from there. Of course, this would unleash the disease inside her, and there was no telling what would happen after, or rather, what she would become. Her life and future were in his hands.
**Malon**
As she locked the door, she heard Shaun shouting. She rushed up the stairs into her bedroom wearing a large t-shirt that she used as pajamas that covered her body. "Shaun, Shaun I'm here." she said as she went to him putting her hands on his shoulder. "Relax, you're okay. You're okay." she said cupping his face to let him calm down and see her brown eyes looking into his. Her hands were still slightly shaking as her nerves were wracked, but she tried to smile for him.
"For Fucks' Sakes!" John shouted as the poison was rejected. So she was indeed at least part were. Shit. At least the fever had stabilized at a livable level... For now.
He looked around: plenty of wolfsbane. His bite should also do the trick...
"So that's how it i's, huh? I either 'dope' her for the rest of her life or I 'activate' her and curse her to follow in my footsteps?!" he howled to the heavens above, his rage beginning to boil over. He was sick and tired of this. He didn't even know who he was yelling at; actually, he was pretty sure it was indeed nobody.
Suddenly a thought came to him. He put the pendant that was in his hand back around his neck. He then sat on the ground, and shut his eyes. Slowly, his breath began to still, and hissing became free and open. He began to search with all his senses. There! he found her. "To Me!" he called, in the recesses of his mind. The entity obliged, entering his sanctorum of thought.
The world melted away then. All that was left was a blank, white expanse... With John and June in the centre. "Greetings again. How may I be of assistance?" June asked.
"Are you aware of what i's happening?"
She shrugged. "In a way. Youre thoughts tell more than I had perceived."
John nodded. "You mentioned you helped me with my own mind; do you think you can help sort Jewl's?"
She shrugged again. "I am unsure; I would need more or less complete and total access, or at the very least total cooperation."
John nodded again. "I see. What about a bridge? Could you link us?"
"I, could try." she said, sounding unsure.
"Very well then: try to help her sort herself out; if that fails, try to open a channel so I can help her; if all else fails, we fall back to a new plan."
"Are you sure about this?" she asked him, sounding almost worried from the thoughts she was getting.
"No." John replied coldly. "but I'm certain that if we do nothing, she will perish. She has a right to choose for herself, I just hope she let's us give her that right."
The world suddenly came back into being. John's snapped wide open, his breathing coming back to him in large gasps. He scrambled to his feet, moving himself over to where Jewl was. He slipped off the pendant again, and placed it around Jewl's neck. "Change of plan Jewl." he stated. "We're going to try to fix the problem directly -- or more accurately, help you fix it yourself. But we need your full permission to do this. If you can here us Jewl, be brave: it's your life to live however you choose, so please, for our sake, please choose to live it!"
Meanwhile June would be trying to follow Jewl's consciousness, and Jewl would feel a strange sensation, like someone was knocking on the doors of her mind.
(I reject your reality and substitute my own. :p)
Shaun let out a noticeable sigh of relief, "Good, you're alright," he smiled as he hugged her, "Scared I'd lost you for a second there, ugh, man, feels like I got hit by a truck." He groaned as he rubbed his head a bit, "What happened, I kinda blacked out for a bit." He listened closely as Malon recounted the story, scratching at his head a bit, "Thought I smelt leather, figured it was you, man, who were those guys?" He wondered aloud as he rubbed at his arm where he'd been tranqed, "Whoever they were, they knew what they were doing."