A Researcher's Gambit I
| A Researcher's Gambit I | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 11 June 2013 |
| Location: | Goug - Shinra HQ |
| Synopsis: | With all the materials gathered together, Rhia finally begins...the experiment. The final gambit that she has been working towards. The Black Beast has risen. And Goug is within it's sights. |
| Cast of Characters: | Rhiannon Zellen |
| Tinyplot: | A Researcher's Inquiry |
Goug - Shinra Headquarters: Lab 0012 - 04:58 AM
Standing in front of a familiar stasis pod, a certain Shina scientist smiled darkly, idly twirling a long, thin cartridge filled with a black substance between her fingers. Within the pod, a small ball of dark material floated within, pulsing periodically as if awaiting her next move...
"The time has come. All the materials have been gathered."
Rhiannon's voice echoed softly through the confines of her laboratory. Still playing with the liquid cartridge rather carelessly, she used her other hand to type into the computer console below. "Time to begin the process." After a couple moments of typing, Rhia hit the enter key, causing a small slot off to the side of the console's keyboard to open up. Without missing a beat, she inserted the object held between her fingers; a small cartridge containing Leida's blood. The computer accepted the offering and the black blood quickly began to drain from the small receptacle containing it, funneling through a network of tubes till finally, it drained into the stasis pod.
The ensuing reaction was immediate.
The ball of darkness began to draw in the blood, absorbing it and adding it to it's own mass. It grew larger for a moment, and then, red cracks began to appear across it's surface. "Good, good, an excellent reaction. The blood turned out to work perfectly. I will have to thank Leida and Garland again personally later." The scientist's smile grew a tad wider as the dark substance in the tank continued to grow ever larger...and larger....and larger. Soon it grew too large to be contained by the pod holding it. The glass began to crack ever so surely. Silently, Rhia took a couple steps back and as if on cue, the glass of the pod completely shattered with great force, sending glass shards flying every which way. A piece of shrapnel grazed her cheek, drawing blood momentarily, but just as soon as she had been wounded, her blood retreated back into her cheek and her wound sealed itself.
"Excellent. All according to plan."
She nodded to herself, bringing a hand to her cheek as she observed the growing mass of darkness and red energy. And it did not stop there. There was a momentary pause before suddenly the process sped up by multiples. From within the mass, an otherworldly howl echoed outwards, and likely throughout all of Shinra HQ.
And then it happened.
The darkness began to split up, growing two...three...four...five...six heads. No, even more than that. Each time she thought she finished counting, more appeared. They were long and vaguely akin to a snake, each head growing a pair of slanted red eyes. At this point, the ceiling of the lab could no longer hold the creature and it burst upwards into the next floor, and the next, and continued upwards still. Several of the heads' eyes locked onto Rhia, scrutinizing her for a moment before suddenly losing interest. Not her. She did not have what they wanted.
'Hearts'
It was hungry.
All at once, the creature's heads darted out through the the opened ceiling and burst through walls. The ensuing screams and yells were all Rhia needed to hear to know that things were going just as planned. "Yes, my dear. Go on. Eat your fill. Become a beautiful weapon of darkness~" Giggling in amusement at the following debacle, she just stood there, arms loosely crossed as mass of darkness; The Black Beast, began to feast. Devouring everything in it's path.
"What the hell IS that thing!?"
"Oh gods, look at it!"
"It ate him! Ate him whole!"
"Stop panicking and SHOOT! Someone call for backup! We need to push this thing back NOW!"
Such were the screams and yells of despair to be heard from Shinra Soldiers and other employees on duty at the time as the Black Beast raged. They stood little chance. With each heart devoured, it grew larger, and larger...soon, Shinra HQ was not big enough to hold it. It burst out of the building and right into the streets of Goug, an immeasurable amount of heads scrambling and coiling about. Curious citizens opened their windows to the sounds of raging howls of anger and hunger echoing through the night skies only to find...a beast of darkness towering over their buildings.
Those too close barely managed to scream in terror before they were devoured, their hearts added to the collective. And so the beast would grow just a slight bit larger...and larger...and larger. Eventually, flames began to appear around the epicenter of the beast, it's numerous heads having tripped wires and fuel bunkers, causing explosions and fires, destroying cars and other vehicles...
"Perfect. Eat as many hearts as you can..." Rhia murmured to herself, sitting upon the Black Beast from some point and watching the veritable carnage with a hand brought to her cheek and a pleasant smile on her face. As far as she was concerned, this was ALL for the sake of science. So what if a couple hundred thousand people were potentially sacrificed to the darkness for the cause?
The time of reckoning as come for Goug...
The Blast Beast has risen.
