InsaneJournal

this is becoming quite inconvenient, not to mention rather tedious.
Who: Sylvanas, Mayuri and GlaDOS
What: Banshee Queen Attack!
When: 1/10/2014
Where: SDRI
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13 for violence and snark



After a brief respite from the torment of undeath, Sylvanas started to feel herself unraveling. She’d been given a taste of bliss and had it ripped away. Again. And it made her angry. She wanted a cure, or she wanted revenge, and as far as she knew there might be something to help with one or both of those.

SRDI.

She scanned the structure as she waited calmly for a shift change, and the concealed herself in darkness, through the door before it sealed. Quietly and quickly she accompanied researchers, until she was deep within the facility and alone. It seemed like none came this far, and she wondered why. It didn’t matter to her.

A mechanical voice interrupted her thoughts as she crept down a hall. "You absolutely don't want to turn left . There isn't a pit of acid at the end.” She jumped, drawing her bow and looking around. There was a row of yellow lights leading to her left. She went right.

A hail of bullets greeted her. She cartwheeled out of the way.

“Oh, do you like my turrets? They apologize because they feel bad when they shoot you. I would like to remind you that you agreed with all disclosures and amendments upon entering this facility. I wouldn't duck if I were you, I didn't install a Buzzsaw. Would you
like cake?"

A saw nearly took her head off and she rolled forward. There was a door and she charged for it.

Meanwhile, GlaDOS strode into the lab, white coat flapping behing her like a cape and her white heels clicking on the floor. "You may have a problem."

The door exploded opened, and the Banshee Queen stood as the dust cleared.

"That's her. She's your problem. Enjoy-" An arrow shot through GlaDOS's right eye, and she spun off to the side. She hit the ground with a crash as Sylvanas drew another arrow.

"Her voice grated on my nerves. I assume this place is yours?"

Mayuri Kurotsuchi had been sitting in his personal office, adjacent to his private sub-level laboratory, minding his own damn business as he typed in lab notes on his big damn pipe organ computer. No, to him, that's not weird at all. And he had, admittedly, been a bit lax with his usual alarm system, since GlaDOS was there as his partner in crime SCIENCE. The sounds of explosions and screams and gunfire was a welcome backdrop to his experiments, and so he hadn't thought much of it. Only another transient or bad guy that wouldn't be missed, being tested on.

It wasn't until the door exploded and GlaDOS fell, that Mayuri had swiveled his chair around to see who dared interrupt him and his note taking. Not only was there an intruder, but damage to GlaDOS was an inconvenience and spitting in the eye of his craftsmanship and ingenuity.

If there was one way to describe the sort of stare that Sylvanas was getting right about then, it was Bitch gotta die. Even more so, because he had an unnatural hatred of archers. Or...um...well, there’s nothing really natural about Mayuri anyway? So let’s just say he hates archers with the passion of eleventy billion exploding suns. Moving on....

"It is certainly not yours to barge into, unannounced, you tramp. Who are you and what do you...ooooh noooo." Mayuri stood up, suddenly less concerned the barging in than he was with what was before him. Suddenly, the intruder registered as something exotic and worthy of study, involving plenty of pins and needles. For starters, at least.

His voice turned sweet, with an undercurrent of gravel that proved he was still pissed off. Pissed off enough that visions of scalpels and disembowelments were dancing in his head.

"What are you? I am not concerned with why you are here. You won't be leaving, anyway." With a smile, Mayuri drew his zanpakuto out of it's sheath, his intent to subdue Sylvanas first with it's paralyzing abilities, for further study. His soul sword was always with him, these days, even if unleashing it was a last ditch option. Given the sheer size of Ashisogi Jizo during it's bankai release, it was going to damage multiple floors of the facility, if it didn't bulldoze a hole right through it all. "Answer me, woman. If you don't, then I won't be gentle when I run tests on you."

"I've walked the realms of the dead. I have seen the infinite dark. I am Sylvanas Windrunner, Ranger-General of Silvermoon, Banshee Queen of the Forsaken and saviour of the outcasts. I am the Dark Lady and I have embraced my fate. All I want from you is information, but I'll take that for myself."

Light seemed to flee from Sylvanas, as though the darkness were consuming it and it was desperate to escape. A hand grabbed onto Mayuri's ankle, and then another, and another. Skeletal hands, decaying hands, hands of undeath and dying. An arrow was loosed from Deathwhisper, it's destination Mayuri's heart - or at least where his heart should be.

At the other entrance, some of the dead test subjects were pounding on the door. Perhaps the first evidence of her people, once she set them free.

"Tch. You don't know who you are facing, you fool," he had said, irritated, under his breath. His eyes had narrowed when he realized she was trying to hold him in place for one clean shot to kill him. It was not going to be that easy...even if he didn't want to use his bankai in such a confined space. Even so? Alarms had been blaring throughout the upper levels of the facility, so anyone who was foolish enough not to get out when the first door exploded and Sylvanas had made her entrance? They were collateral damage.

Mayuri had swiped his blade down at the hands grasping at his ankles and then moved using his flash step, quickly, in the blink of an eye. It was harder to hit him at close range, and he had remembered from his battle with that insufferable Quincy that staying further away was not an option. And, being a death god, himself? It was going to take much more than skeletal hands to hold him down. Even using his spiritual pressure to buffer himself was enough to knock things like that away, even if it was momentarily.

Not only had he dodged a proverbial bullet - or arrow, as it missed his heart (and him) entirely - but Mayuri had released his sword's shikai as well, so it resembled a twisted trident's blade in one hand, and the smile on his twisted face was maniacal with glee. The sword's purple cloud of poison probably wouldn't have any effect on this Banshee Queen, but poisoning her wasn't his intention anyway. This was going to be a valuable subject, if she could raise the dead.

Using his flash step to dodge and weave in closer, Mayuri ruthlessly stabbed the tip of sword toward Sylvanas once he was in range. If it landed on a limb, the paralysis would render it useless. If it hit her body, even better. It wouldn't stop the pain of being stabbed, but it would be enough to get multiple cuts in, and then he could drag her off to the slab for a proper dissection.

Preferably while she was still awake and could feel every little incision, because that's just the way he rolls when someone pisses him off.

The elf twisted aside as the sword stabbed towards her. Her coat was shredded, but better than being cut. That blade made her spine shiver just by proximity. She skidded to the right, using her bow half to parry before firing another shot.

"I need power, creature. Power to control, power to regain control, I don't care which!" She twisted, shooting a poor unfortunate researcher who'd come to help, without taking her eyes off of Mayuri.

Unfortunately, it wasn't Akon...whom Mayuri still considered to be a chain smoking idiot. Maybe next time.

He snarled as the blades met the bow and bounced off, since the next swipe had been meant to hit her in the gut. Nothing he couldn't sew back together, naturally, but this was all becoming a chore and he didn't like it much when the test subjects didn't give up. He was a very impatient scientist, when it came to test subject compliance.

"My my," he cooed, sounding happier than he actually looked, “this is becoming quite inconvenient, not to mention rather tedious. My secrets aren't meant to be let out into the world at large, so I will have to consider you a true threat to be eliminated. Nemu! Get a hold on her, you useless sow!"

From the shadows, a somber young girl with wide green eyes emerged. She moved slowly at first, and then looking almost apologetic as she lunged forward, both cybernetic hands outstretched to grab hold of Sylvanas. If she managed to grab hold, the grip was going to be like a steel vice.

That gave Mayuri enough time to get some distance between them, since close quarters combat wasn't working out for the best. At least he had the funds for repairs, because things were going to get messy very quickly.

Sylvanas wasn't in the mood to be compliant. She wanted this over with so she could track down the information that Yumi had inadvertently clued her in on. She doubted she could return herself to normal, and part of her didn't want it. Not when this battle was so exhilarating. Not when returning to normal meant experiencing heartbreak and anguish. She'd take pain and anger instead, thank you very much.

She turned on her heels and then seemed to fade out of sight. A second later she was behind the girl and driving an arrow into the back of her head. Another second she had twirled around, that same arrow knocked and swirling with shadow and darkness. "You could have stood with me. Because those who stand against me, well they don't stand for long."

The arrow shot out of her bow as though unleashed from the depths of hell, the floor of Mayuri’s office rent apart by it’s passing.

And Mayuri only worked for himself. Certainly, he did things to benefit society (even if it was twisted), or his comrades (even if it was benefiting himself also), but he had little patience for working with others. No one, save for GlaDOS or his hand-picked lab assistants, who had the same scientifically sadistic tendencies that he did.

He also didn't like ultimatums. This wench had tried his patience too much, already.

While she had been poking Nemu in the back of her cyber-head with an arrow, Mayuri had taken the time to unleash his sword's bankai. The air around his body glowed red and the ceiling and walls broke as a giant caterpillar rose up over it's master, blades bursting out of it's throat. It barreled toward that unleashed arrow and the woman behind it, with all the force of a freight train traveling at full speed during an earthquake. The air was heavy with the dust of concrete and obscured by the purple toxins that Mayuri's bankai was spewing out of it's mouth in it's wake.

Mayuri laughed, even as the arrow's blast sent the caterpillar off to one side, where it crashed through a wall and part of the ceiling. The blast blew away half of his abdomen, which was an inconvenience, but he laughed, regardless. He had remembered this, and next time, he would be even more prepared and much less lax, since this creature had gotten past him and GlaDOS, combined.

He twitched, gurgled, and let out one last spiteful laugh. It was his last laugh, for he brought the blade of his zanpakuto up and ran it through his own throat, so that it went through, entirely. This was not to kill himself, but to activate his body's last defense mechanism, which was more than obvious when he began to melt into green goo, finally ending in a explosion of it, splattering off the walls and onto the floor where he once stood.

'You haven't won. This is only temporary,' Mayuri's disembodied voice explained, as parts of the goo sought out cracks and crevices, so it could reform his body, later. As the last of the slithering green goo disappeared under some rubble, the voice said, 'You will regret this.'

The pipe organ computer, in all of it's complexity, wasn't broken. It was a miracle, considering that the rest of that level (and about two or three levels above) was more or less destroyed around it.

Sylvanas stood in the wreckage. The dust was still settling, and the goo was gone. A researcher lay dead against the door and two cybernetic beings lay still with arrows in their heads. She'd won, but whatever Mayuri was (and gods she wanted that ability to melt away) meant it was a hollow one. She screamed her rage, then stormed over to the computer. She didn't know how this thing worked, but she would figure it out, and she would take some of these secrets and that madman's strange magic.

Part of the roof collapsed behind her and she casually side-stepped the rubble. "If you can hear me, creature, hear this. I faced the armies of the Lich King. My forces laid waste to Gilnaes. I am the Queen of the Damned and you do not frighten me. I will learn your magics and I will turn them to my own uses. The Forsaken will rise again."