Paranoid Investigation [Drug Bust Case File #38 Mission]

Rampage followed along with the others, it was odd really, here they were in a place where they could very much get killed, and most seemed eager to be here, hell to an extent Rampage herself was eager to be here as well. At least things seemed to be going smoothly, and as they reached a door at the end of a hallway she looked over at Runaway then Wicked as they talked about the key, honestly finding that key was quite helpful, though why they let that one demon have it was a mystery, then again he probably could have gotten it and then never gave it back, and the people working here just left it as that and got a new one.

In the end it really didn't matter, the door opened and what was inside was something that apparently took the wind out of the sails of everyone else. Rampage for her seemed oddly fine, honestly considering the things she had to endure before, this...this wasn't that bad, and as she looked around she started to take in the look of things, "Well this probably explains the disappearances.." she thought to herself, and then Wicked started to scream and she looked over to her, though it looked like the masked guy had that covered, she turned to see how Runaway was doing and she seen the girl staring at one of the vats, the body in it started talking and Rampage watched as the girl was reaching for her gun.

Reaching over to her Rampage put her finger in the way of the hammer, it hurt as the hammer came down but it stopped it from firing and gave her the time to flip the gun's safety on and then take it away from Runaway "Little one, I believe the last time we did something along those lines of not really thinking in front of the detective she probably had a few choice words she wanted to say to us, she's the detective here....we are the hired muscle for the most part...let her decide what to do...besides....we don't know if anything in here will react badly to being shot....and explode for example.." she gently placed a hand on the girls shoulder, then after a moment she then picked her up bodily and gave her a hug and gently pet her head "It's going to be okay...we are here to stop them after all..." she said to her in a gentle tone.

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Doctor Fate was...silent. He stared at...whatever the fuck kind of Human Centipede shit that was being presented to him in a strange sort of stupor. For once, the cleric was silent. There were no memes that came to mind, nothing he could say to try and pretty up the fact that what they were looking at was the most fucked up thing he'd seen in his entire life. His expression was unreadable behind his mask, though the laid-back smirk that usually hid behind it was completely absent, as he gripped one of his wrists. He was aware of someone shouting, but it felt about a thousand miles away. Eventually, he took a deep breath, and summoned his Persona, shattering his chains.

Fate wasn't sure what he was feeling. There was anger, certainly, but more than anything else, he felt nervous. Was this what was going to happen if they got caught by the clowns? He...couldn't let that happen. At least not to himself. Deep down, he knew he'd readily abandon the others to escape this sort of fate. It was only in his nature. As a con-artist, you just had to roll with punches. But here...he knew what he had to do.

"There's nothing we can do for this...thing. Doctor's in my name, right? So let me pull the cord. I'll give it it's medicine. Just...look away if you don't want to see."

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"They're well funded, far too well. They're being bankrolled." The detective readily agreed with Wicked as she observed the many implements and machines at use. It was looking less of a hidden and make-shift narcotics lab, but more of a professional factory. This bode ill. If they had such resources, surely they had other places like this. That fact caused her spine to shudder. How many pills were being distributed? How many would be infected with that insanity? The potential numbers were frightening, but it strengthened their resolve, at least for a moment.

When Raidou met face to face with that one tweaker on that fateful night, she once believed it was just the beginning. Oh, how right she was. For all of her efforts to retain the professional facade, the shock couldn't be even more apparent and the repulsion ever more so when the rank odor hit her nostrils. Even Gotou seemed to share her sentiment, but would find himself glaring at first at the talking corpse. There was pity to be had with such a victim, but others chose to show it by eccentric means.

In light of their reactions, the Kuzunoha had to bury down her shock and her smoldering fury. There was the mission and they couldn't afford to fail here.

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With Rampage taking care of Tamsin, Raidou decided to force her attention onto the Witch who was on the verge of losing it. She stepped in the direct path, the line of sight the Psyche-Terrorist was training on to destroy. The Kuzunoha did only let a hand rest on the hilt, but did not draw it. Rather, she did not make any motions suggesting she saw her as a threat. Yet her eyes were sharpened like a steel blade when she began to calmly regard Wicked, in a way that forcibly commanded her attention. "Did you forget what we're here for, Wicked? I didn't bring you to indulge in destructive impulses. I trusted you enough that you can help me take down these depraved people and not jeopardize what we aim to do. I won't tell you not to destroy it, all of it deserves to burn. But if we want to shut this entire operation down so no one else becomes a victim, we need to investigate first. Please, call off your Persona."

She firmly grabbed Doctor Fate by the shoulder to keep him from jumping the gun.

...Fate huffed, but dispelled his persona. In-Fighting would just make things riskier, that much was for sure. He still felt like he should do something, but he wasn't willing to get on Raidou's bad side on this one. As much as he was already a bit apprehensive of her, she'd probably been doing this a lot longer than he had.

But the gun didn't fire. At first, Tamsin blamed the horrible thing in front of her, Panic intensifying, but then she noticed the hand, and followed it to it's source: The calm -always calm- Isabelle. How could she be so calm right now? Tamsin just stared as Isabelle took the gun gently from her trembling hands. The words she was saying made
sense. Tamsin was hired muscle in this gig, not really much beyond that. That was rational. but Rationality had gone out the window when she'd seen this place. These people.

Tamsin had not expected the sudden embrace, lifted off the ground even, by Isabelle. She was held and warm... and the gentleness of it smoothed out her panicking mind. Panic fled, anger drained, and what was left was deep and simple sadness. The simple innocence of a child not understanding the world. Confronted with something they couldn't hope to fathom. It was just like the divide, really. Maybe...it had never really ended. [color:839b=66cc00]"These people..." Tamsin's voice was low against Rampage's shoulder, as she gripped the large girl like a needy child held in their mother's arms after a tantrum, "...why?"

Why did this have to happen? Why did people do this to each other? There were no answers yet...And the answers probably didn't matter. Only the actions they took would matter. When Isabelle eventually put Tamsin down, her goggles were foggy from tears. So much so that she had to turn away and remove them to wipe her puffy eyes. "Thanks...Rampage." She said finally, turning back to the creature they'd been faced with. Finally she took in the true shape of the scene. Patty was boiling over, Doc was offering to put the thing out of it's misery, and Raidou was attempting to put them both at ease. Archie had wheeled on Wicked too, it seemed, but in her own turmoil, she hadn't caught what he'd said.

Her eyes rested on the nearly dead experiment finally, and she approached. Now that her initial revulsion had cleared, she could smell the intensity of rot and chemicals, the acrid smells mixing together in a foul concoction. Finally, she brought her eyes up to meet the empty sockets of the man. The terror rose in her gut but she fought through it. "Who did this to you? Do you have any names? Remember any faces?" She swallowed against the bitter reality of who and what she was talking to. She would deal with that emotion later. "We can't do anything for you. But we can make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else."

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"The FUCK outta my way, Jingles!" The witch shouted the bard down as she continued to gather power, her brain filling with images of all the violence and carnage she'd dish back for this twisted shit, all the curb stomps she'd do, how she'd burn people alive, nothing was too good for them and it all had to be COMPLETELY DESTROYED. Patty was thinking with anger and the only thing anger thought about was the most horrible way to hurt anyone that got on her badside and right now she was in a pretty damn good position to level this place. She even knew how she'd do it. She could give a fuck less who was inside when it happened, smart people wouldn't be here and everyone else was too far gone to be saved. Fuckin' send a goddamn message to the dumb bastards that thought this was okay! The pressure began to pulse as she sharply cocked her head baring her teeth.
"YA! I fuckin' CAN blow this place up, why'n't you fuckin' WATCH ME!? Let'em come, I don't give a FUCK dude! I'll blow them up too! Don't like it!? DON'T BE HERE!!"

Even Doc spoke up about it but Wicked was far past listening to reason at this point. As if she hadn't thought of this already, no difference between being euthanized and being vaporized. Quick and painless either way, she was pretty damn sure she could aim around Jingles and shoot past him. Patricia wasn't about to get stopped.
"Why'n't you gimme a minute. I'll save ya the fuckin' hassle," she hissed as Bridgette Bishop continued to warp and shift but Jingles wasn't the only one to get in her way. So did Raidou. In her selfish state of anger the witch could only get even more furious and combative. She clenched her teeth and growled, stepping forward and knocking her head back with her chest out. If she wanted to step then Patty would fuckin' dance. The lanky girl actually growled at the shorter chick.
"YOU forget you didn't fuckin' bring me here!? Fuck you, Raidou! You're not the GODDAMN boss'a me! RRRRRRGH!!" She wasn't gonna be intimidated by Raidou, not right now. She knew what she was capable of. What they BOTH were capable of and if she had to fight her she would and it'd be a hard one but she was beyond being talked down from the ledge. Patty was the reason people installed chainlink fences up by the ledge. Not because it would slow her down but because she was someone to sprint up and swan dive off the fuckin' top and she'd do it here too.

The witch's energy was primed and ready to explode and engulf this nightmare in a blaze just as fierce, the pulsing of the air was signalling that as the pressure intensified. But she paused. It wasn't Raidou with her hand on her sword. It wasn't Jingles ready to get in front of the fireball. It was the kid. Tammy. Some punk orphan that didn't belong in any of this was asking the most fucked up thing she'd ever seen leading questions like it was the most normal job in the world. It made Patty question what she was doing here and the fundamentals of the situation: if everyone was here stopping her...

...or if she was getting in everyone else's way like always.

The witch's breath whistled in and out of her nose as she snarled at the detective in front of her, it felt like forever. Before Wicked made a violent arm motion off to her side. Her staff spun twice in her fingers before discharging all that pent-up energy into a blast at the tip and rocketing toward one of the containment tanks. No matter what it manifested as it would destroy the tank and the creature inside of it. Fire to boil and shatter the glass, ice to snap-freeze and do the same from the temp change, lightning that would charge it and cause it to explode, wind to pressurize around it and make it implode or earth to manifest as a rock that erupted into a shrapnel shotgun blast on impact it would all end the same.
"This is fucked up...!" The anguish could be heard in her voice, how close to crying she was. But the witch relented and stepped back.
"Fine. Fine! Do your fuckin' detective shit or whatever, I don't fuckin' care...! Take me a fuckin' picture or some shit...!" Wicked stomped away from everyone in a fit, swinging her foot at the glass on the ground with a loud "FUCK!!" as she retreated into the corner of the room and lit a cigarette. Whatever. She'd blow this place to kingdom fuckin' come when everyone was done chasing dead ends. All she was fuckin' good for anyway.

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Seeing that Runaway was doing okay now Rampage gently let the girl go, it was rather clear that Wicked was also affected by all this, and considering how the girl was acting it was obvious it really got to her, she even threatened to blow the place up with them all in it if they were not fast enough, and Rampage, well she wasn't honestly sure if she would have done that, really there was only one way to see if she was okay and so she walked over to where Wicked was, she wasn't good at the whole detective thing anyway.

As she walked over to the now smoking Wicked she lowered her voice a bit "Hey you doing okay?" she asked simply as she stood next to the temperamental witch "Look I don't understand why such a personal reaction...but if your willing to talk about it I am willing to listen, if not then that's your choice, I am not going to force you to, these guys make it sound like it's easy to set something like this aside....but it can leave scars on people or make them think of things they don't want to...I know that much, I don't know why it affects to so much, but I don't need to know to see it's an issue." she said as she stayed by Wicked "If you need to hang out after all this is over we can if you want...I have a feeling a few people here will need some sort of relaxation..."

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It was over.

Raidou found her shoulders slacking from the sudden loss of tension as the Witch relented. She was almost sure that Wicked was going to activate and shoot all of that accumulated power at the entire room. But, hearing Tamsin's voice seemed to stop it all, like a voice of reason that they all needed. Watching that attack hit to the side and crush the contents of that test tube, it was truly understandable. All this anger was mutual. None of this can be forgiven, nothing can be. The Kuzunoha only pulled down her cap and looked back to the victim who was now speaking to Tamsin.

"Ha... Ha... I-It all start-t-ted... as... a... g-gig from... night c-c-club f-f-for F-F-aust. As wait... staf-f-f. Free drugs... and m-money. But they...Ha... brought us here... All... clowns... faceless, but... smiling... laughing... Like... Nightmare... Bag...head... did... things... Ha... Ha... Ha-orrible... things... Eating... drugs... f-from... demons... and becoming... demons... Ha... Ha ha!" The creature painfully wheezed and cackled out at her. It spasmed in pain and groaned, but nothing would happen, just the pangs of the results of their transformation. It was clear that this thing was growing weaker as the tubes continued to suck all of its life from it by each ounce. Of course, there truly was little what they can do for it. Its very existence was an affront to life.

"Are there others like you outside of this room? In this building?" Raidou inquired gently. While the stench was strong and the view horrifying, she retained her professional composure, if only barely.

He painfully replied with the empty sockets addressing the detective. "N-n-no... J-j-just... me... and us... Ha... There's... other... labs out there... I... don't know... where... B-but there's... t-terminal s-somewhere... w-with... info... I... don't know... anything... else."

Raidou quietly nodded. There was no dead end here, but she was glad it was fruitful and didn't just simply prolong his suffering for nothing. "Thank you, Sir. Is there... anything we can do for you?"

"I... wanna... sleep." It wheezed at her and even painfully held out a hand to grasp at the many cords digging into his flesh. "This... This isn't living. Please... While I'm still... Myself... Ha ha ha... End it... Now..."

The Kuzunoha nodded at Doctor Fate to finally continue what he offered to do. She wasn't going to stop him this time, especially at a personal request. It wouldn't be difficult for him to find it and finally put an end to it.

Fate nodded slowly, summoning his persona once more. "No taking it back this time. Last chance to find a corner to stare at instead." He took a step forward, deciding to ignore Wicked. He couldn't stop her, and he wasn't interested in arguing with her. Let her rant, he didn't particularly care. All he could do was put the thing out of it's misery. Something about it felt wrong, but...he'd already been an accessory to one murder. Might as well kill for a good cause, this time. "End it, Asclepius." With an angry cry, his Persona created a small ball of green light, that quickly turned a darker shade, and formed into an arrow.

With careful aim, Asclepius unleashed it upon the poor, unfortunate soul.

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Bolt of light pierced through the creature, causing it to spasm on one moment and then expire on the next. Raidou narrowed her eyes at Doctor Fate. It's true that she asked him to put him down. Though to deal that kind of pain, it seemed unnecessary. But it did the job, nevertheless. She wordlessly pulled down on her cap before finally moving back towards the entrance away from the scene itself. The Kuzunoha gave a firm nod towards Wicked, she knew what to do.

The reply from the creature was not what Tamsin had expected. The pit in her stomach only deepened as it spoke. Bag head...or Nightmare? Nightmare Bag head? definitely seemed like it was trying to give a description. And Club Faust. That could matter. Tamsin averted her eyes, stared at the floor and tried to hide in calculations at the words themselves. But the smell at the sight lingered even if she tried to close her eyes.

That was when it asked for death again. Tamsin's fingers twitched. Last time it had mentioned that, she had almost unwittingly answered it's request. Now Isabella had her gun. But it was just as well. She was too hollow to use it this time. In fact, she couldn't even look at the creature as Doc silenced it once and for all. The wet sound of limp tissue mingled with the sound of the metal that had been woven through it's body.

And something snapped inside Tamsin's chest. The girl doubled over and lost the scant contents of her stomach onto the tile floor. If anyone attempted to pat her back or console her while she vomitted, she would weakly bat them away. "I'm gonna..." She said weakly, as she staggered back and drew herself to her full height (which wasn't really that much), "..." She didn't finish her statement, only stalked from the room with purpose. She didn't notice the look from Raidou to Patty, or anyone else for that matter, she simply stalked right out of the room, and turned left.

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The witch flexed each of her fingers, they popped under the strain. The amount of pure rage blasting through her body was hard to even explain. She was mad enough to harm and kill, to do it herself with her own hands, to rip someone's throat out with her teeth and take peel their neck open. Pure unadulterated bloodlust. She hated everyone, everything, every sensation and every idea. It was nothing but HATE. Wicked chewed on her filter growling to herself. It should come as no surprise that she snapped, her own voice wasn't that low. But it wasn't any shocker what she chose to express either.
"Do I LOOK fuckin' okay...!?" came a shout as she opened her arms aggressively.
"This is FUCKED. UP. This is fucked up!" Her voice cracked with the sorrow she felt as she pointed her cigarette accusingly at the behemoth minotaur. "Look around you! Look...! That was a GUY...! That was a guy! Rode the subway and-...fuckin'...! Had a family that loved him and shit...! Look at him, look what the FUCK they did...! Understand!?"

The witch smirked an upset smirk with a cocked head and flicked her cancer stick into the room and lowered her own voice.
"If this doesn't fucking disgust you you need'a get your GODDAMN head checked. If you ain't as fuckin' mad as I am right now you don't get it. You'll never get it and maybe I fuckin' hope you won't 'cause that lesson's a fuckin' bitch to learn. Try me." Patty found herself leaning in pretty close with clenched fists but she was always the problem like that. Cow girl was tryna talk her down, Patty wasn't having it. Fiery yellow eyes gazed intensely into the enormous woman's. Her coat began to snap with static. But she was done. Not here. Not now. And if ever that was it.
"Psssssh! Fuckin' whatever. Talk to me tomorrow. Bet." This time wasn't a suggestion or blowing her off, it almost sounded like a challenge as the skinny witch pulled herself around the huge chick.
"Only thing Imma do tonight is set the fuckin' world on fire..."

Wicked twirled her revolver in agitation. The bastards were hookin' people with drugs and kidnapping them to be experiments. Faust was doin' it. They could learn more on the computers around. Big fuckin' surprise. Not a single goddamn thing she didn't know already or would of found out by doing things by herself. If she'd did what she wanted to do in the beginning they'd be exactly where they were right now but without a few more ugly memories. And people wanted to call her fuckin' stupid. Whatever. Fuck'em. She knew what she was doin'. Should of just come here alone, done it early with no one to get in the way and stop her. She'd be done by now and wouldn't have to put up with bullshit or a guilty conscience.

Patty watched him die. She did little more than wince. He was dead when they found him.

Tammy couldn't handle it either, she couldn't hang. Wicked didn't blame her. You had to go through some fucked up shit to be able to move past this, she knew she wasn't. But she was gonna do somethin' about it. She had enough hate in her body to keep moving and boil past any reservations she had. It probably wasn't a good thing but when Life knocked you down you got right back up and you socked that cocksucker in the face and showed it how MAD you were. So whatever. It wasn't about vengeance or payback. Patty would be an agent of fuckin' Karma. Bitches were gonna get the world dropped on'em. The skinny witch didn't react aside from stepping around the pile of bile and past Raidou, giving her a hard look.
"Hnnnf. The fuck outta my way." She'd lost her patience for anyone that wanted to stop her and she really REALLY didn't have the energy to merc any nosy bitches right now. This was a waste of her time and sense of well-being, she didn't learn a goddamn thing from doing things the "smart" way. Now she was gonna do things her way. The way they should of done shit from the start.

Patty approached Doc and smacked him on the arm lightly, just to get his attention.
"Hey. Yo. This ain't a job for good people, dude. Let a fuckin' psychopath handle it. You ain't responsible for anyone." He was shook, she knew that. It'd take a social retard to miss that. But he didn't have to do that. She was already going to Hell, not like she'd get there any faster with a higher stack of bodies. Wicked stepped before everyone and turned back to issue her final warning to anyone still present.
"You're in the splash zone. Disappear or I'll fuckin' disappear you. Last chance." She stood twirling her revolver, spinning it, catching it, snapping the hammer forward and back over and over to give people a chance to leave.

And she stood some more. And she thought a bit. About just how angry she was and why she was angry. About how she'd wreck everything and turn this place to ashes. About how many people wanted to stop her and how far they were to go to try to do that. And, to her surprise, she thought about what a smart person would do and how everyone else felt. It didn't stop the anger, not even a little bit. She was still mad. But she couldn't use it to get anywhere, it wasn't gonna accomplish anything even if this place needed to be destroyed. No matter what she did it wasn't gonna make her feel any better. She accepted it. And how much people hated her. But they didn't matter, they could hate all they wanted. She'd show them.

Patty looked at her gun, growled, and stuffed it back in her coat. She despised admitting they were right, because they fuckin' weren't. Should of torched this place without steppin' in, it would of saved a bunch of time and heartache. But no. If she was gonna do this she was gonna do it smart. And she'd never listen to anyone else ever again. The druggie brought her fist up and lightning flew threw her and outward across the ground in a flash, Bridgette Bishop appeared with an unamused expression.
"So this is how it's gonna be, huh...?" The witch canted her head as her ethereal thrall extended her hair out and...

...the carnage never came. The ghostly being's hair turned hard as stone, conjoining into spikes of hardened dirt as it struck precisely and without the wanton destruction one would expect. Tubes were severed. Cords were crushed and cut. Components were gummed up and the internal mechanism was clogged with packed earth. Wicked would disable the machine. The smart way. Like no one ever expected her to. Because they thought she was a stupid rage beast. Well they could get fucked! See just how fuckin' smart she was, fuckin' smarter'n all of'em! There came no explosion or burst of power, just the grinding and wheezing of a dying machine, if that, considering the gears were halted and unable to spin through the clods of dirt she'd stuffed it with. It was ruined like this and she didn't even have to melt it or blow up the building. They still had shit to do. It wasn't over. Wicked threw her coat behind her and stomped toward the exit of the room. She wanted to hurt something. The night wasn't over yet, she'd get her chance. That rage was still there and it wanted to see things bleed.

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As the team approached the door, they would find that the key was all it took to unlock it. Inside looked to be an empty control room outfitted with many screens, just like the rest. However, it stood out with most of them working and a variety had an eye in many places in the area. All of them were clearly managed by what appeared to be a central computer that could be used...