Undisturbed Grove

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

"Fate usually has a soggy sense of humor" Edgar replied.
 
"I doubt she would try to get in to a town scheduled for a presidential speech. Too much heat, way too much press around. But that may change if Neo Umbrella's party favours below get uncorked and set loose. In the confusion of an outbreak, she would have the perfect chance to make her move. That said, I may not be able to get back to Tall Oaks in time, as I said before, Catherine Miller, DRAKE as you may remember her, is in some really serious trouble right now, and I mean trouble of battleship scale proportions... I can't create psychic clones to fight off B.O.W.s while at the same time literally fighting off Haven Troopers and tank 16 inch Battleship cannon blasts simultaneously."

He chuckles at the comment. The mentioning of the name DRAKE stirred some emotion in him. He snaps his head in Edgar's direction with his mouth slightly agape, the cigar almost falling out. "DRAKE? She's alive?!" he asks astoundingly. He hadn't seen DRAKE since the 2005 mission to New Haven, and he was sure she had died in that final confrontation with that hellspawn of the Sigma Virus, just before the joint BSAA/FBC cavalry arrived.

He shook his head and grunted. "Of course she'd survive." he shakes his head again and looked a tad disgruntled. "Not that I was concerned..." he then sighs again, scratching the back of his head like old times. He turns to Ed, almost forgetting he was there before gulping and then turned away again. "Well, this is turning into such a 'happy' reunion..." he sighs, puffing on his cigar.

Edgar suddenly became stiff, and his head whirled around towards the direction of Damien's vehicle.

"We have company... Heading towards your car..." Edgar suddenly spoke, and began walking towards the black Sedan atop the hill.

'Looks like we will be getting that face to face sooner than I had expected. You are certainly efficient, my daughter...' Edgar smiled drily to himself, and perhaps with a sense of pride.

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

Edgar suddenly became stiff, and his head whirled around towards the direction of Damien's vehicle.

"We have company... Heading towards your car..." Edgar suddenly spoke, and began walking towards the black Sedan atop the hill.

'Looks like we will be getting that face to face sooner than I had expected. You are certainly efficient, my daughter...' Edgar smiled drily to himself, and perhaps with a sense of pride.

Despite the taller man ignoring his shock, Damian turns to the taller man heading up the hill. "Company? Wha-wait! What sort of company?" he asks stumbling back up the hill. His body slips only twice up the slippery slope. It was still raining, but it wasn't as hard as it had been when they were brawling. He finally reaches the hill, reaching up he grabs Ed's shoulder. "Wait, whats going on?" he asked.

Edgar's eyes didn't glow, but his mouth formed that tight line again.

"A B.O.W.... The Black Queen... My creation, my 'daughter' if you will, has managed to escape the labs below, before the chaos started. This is good, but her memory cores are still trying to reconstruct themselves, she may only remember my voice, and I don't know if she will consider you a viable threat or not. I've told her to enter self preservation and infiltration mode once she escaped, but if she feels threatened, she will defend herself until her memories are restored." Edgar answered logically, not bothering to try and suppress Damien's apparent panic.

Damian lets go of the larger man, backing off. "Another B.O.W...." he feels a trickle of warm sweat run down his forehead. Part of him, the professional side felt like alerting the B.S.A.A. Head Office and warn them of the B.O.W.'s...but then again if he did, right here and right now he would probably be silenced...besides, his phone was still on his bed...

He shrugs, looking around for anyone else. "This is gonna be the death of me...I can just feel it." he sighs heavily.

Edgar replied very evenly, almost stoically. "If you do exactly as I say, and don't appear threatening to her by drawing your weapon, then no, it won't. She doesn't have a whole lot of emotion right now, and the ones she did once posess were forced upon her by Ferral," Edgar's face became an expression of outrage and sorrow, but it faded quickly. "But, she was making remarkable progress towards becoming alive, unique, and free, a personality that valued freedom and life, she defended several innocent people in Mayland... but, after I was taken at the conclusion of the Rockfort Incident, and the subsequent firing of the Decimator, I had lost all contact, both from being stuck in an isolation tank, and that she had somehow been captured as well... I thought I had lost her again... Then I come here 13 years later, and suddenly, she reactivates, and I can sense her again. But she too has lost her memories, and is attempting to recover them with all the ruthless efficiency of a computer. In some ways, when stripped down to her core, without the memories and emotions, she is a computer, calculating, methodical, and near mechanical in thought process... but she was made using MY DNA, MY blood... She is my offspring, and no matter the cost to me, I won't leave her behind either..." Edgar said that final sentence with an absolute conviction. That same conviction he had shown Damien earlier.

After Edgar's pretty speech he sighs, and continues to puff on his cigar. "Whatever man..." he says pulling out the cigar and blowing a smoke ring out. He had a brief thought of tall shadow appearing from the hill, a giant shape with Ed's features that only become visible as a lightning bolt strikes. She was a visage of the very Edgar beside him, only in a tight black dress. Damian's face took on a shade of green before he suffered a gaging, coughing fit. "Oh God...I hope not!" he says to himself. He looks up and see's Ed give him a strange look. Damian chuckles nervously and tosses his cigar behind him. "Uh...the cigars..*ahem*." he finishes, adjusting his tie.

Edgar looked a little shocked.

"You didn't think even I was always looked like this stunning stud did you?" Edgar did a sexy pose for flattering effect, then he started chuckling.

Damian was silent for a moment before he laughed nervously back. He cautiously took a side step away from the man, towards his car before pausing. He remembers something, briefly...it was another y2K memory...he remembers looking into Taki's eyes, Ferral had just been killed...and then he remembers seeing blood on her face....but from the way it splattered...over her forehead, nose, mouth......it was as if it was his own blood...

He shook his head and walked over to the flask of bourbon that was caked in mud. He lifts it and wipes mud and dirt from it's polished mirror surface. He goes to take a swig, but this larger flask was empty. He sighs. It must had poured out after he tossed it. "Hey...you wouldn't know where the best place to get breakfast here in Tall Oaks, would you?" he asks randomly; but this awkward silence was too much for him.

Edgar tapped his chin in thought.

"Well... there's always the Big Plate restaurant.... Not too far from that Modern RED bar you were at last night if I recall correctly." Edgar said and shrugged his shoulders.

Damian grimaces. "Yeah...I'm not too fond of that place...Modern RED's bar tender has it out for me..." he says setting the mirrored flask upon the hood of the car. "Next time I see that bastard, he's dead." he says with a gruff sigh.

Edgar signed again and had that smirk on his face.
 
"You are absolutely hopeless sometimes, do you know that? What, you want to kill a guy because he wouldn't serve you a drink because you had the appearance of a smelly, grubby looking bum who looked like he couldn't pay his way out of a wet paper bag?" and Edgar started laughing again.
 
"Geez man, you got more violent tendencies these days than any of the Taylors, but probably about as effective as Cindy was at violence back in Mayland!"

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

Edgar signed again and had that smirk on his face.
 
"You are absolutely hopeless sometimes, do you know that? What, you want to kill a guy because he wouldn't serve you a drink because you had the appearance of a smelly, grubby looking bum who looked like he couldn't pay his way out of a wet paper bag?" and Edgar started laughing again.
 
"Geez man, you got more violent tendencies these days than any of the Taylors, but probably about as effective as Cindy was at violence back in Mayland!"

He turned to him. "Figuratively, I don't really want to kill the bastard. A punch to his face is all I want, nothing too serious. And despite my appearance, I can pay. Sheesh...people judging others by their covers tick me off." he says with a chuckle, taking the vodka flask from his pocket out again, and took a drink. His eyes went slightly wide as he pulled it back. "It...tastes..." he then shook his head, capping the flask and returned it to his pocket. "Heh, at least I'm not a wanted terrorist like Jack. The guy sells bioweapons these days, or so the rumors state. Wanted by almost any agency you can think of, yet nobody can find the slippery bastard."

Edgar placed his hands on his hips, that smirk never leaving. "You know that, I know that. Him, he don't know that" Edgar explained with a sagely voice and that shit-eating grin.

"Heh, and yet here you stand, talking to a psychic apparition of THE most wanted B.O.W. on the face of the planet. I somehow doubt Jack would be dealing though, especially with what that man knows. He severed his ties to Umbrella back in Raccoon City, even though I doubted him at first when he let Nikki die, it wasn't until later that his true self began to emerge..." Edgar didn't elaborate further, too much past information too quickly would seem unbelievable.

A man walks by with his dog, turning in the direction of the Ed and Damian. He only sees a beat up man beside a car in the pouring rain. He cocks an eyebrow at Damian before deciding it was best not to ask and starts to walk 'Skippy' away from the strange man who had his flask out. "Are there even supposed to be cars out this far?" the man asks himself.

Damian awkwardly waves back at the man and his dog, before letting out a sigh. "Boy, I've just got this impeccable feeling that this day hasn't even gotten worse...yet." he goes to the side door of his vehicle, and pulls out an umbrella and puts it up before leaning against the side of the car's frame. "So...what exactly are we doing here?" he asks.

Edgar smiled as his armored coat materialised on his shoulders.

"Talking... and awaiting our guest, I would guess. You seem impatient... You actually don't have anywhere important to be right now, do you?" Edgar asked.

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

Edgar smiled as his armored coat materialised on his shoulders.

"Talking... and awaiting our guest, I would guess. You seem impatient... You actually don't have anywhere important to be right now, do you?" Edgar asked.

He sighed. "Not exactly. Only a few errands I'd like to run soon." he replies back simply. He slightly lowered his gaze to the ground. He sighs again. "Huh...I don't even know whats keeping me from leaving now." he says honestly. "But I'll leave once your gone...that way at least at some level, I'll know I won't get 'car jacked' again." he says with a slightly humorous tone.

Edgar took on an exaggerated thinking posture.

"Hmm, no... I don't think you'll need to worry about that before the outbreak starts, because I'll be kept busy helping Cat, trying to help my daughter, and trying to track down the other hooker assassin." Edgar surmised in a slightly amused tone.

The woman looked out of place in the park dressed as she was in a black cocktail dress, it clung to her frame as she moved, she was soaking wet but didn't appear to notice or to care. She stopped at the car starring at it for a moment before turning towards the two men nearby. The rain slicked her hair to her face and ran dripping over her features, features Handy would almost certainly recognize.

Her gaze fell on Edgar first before flicking to Handy.

>Threat Assessment?<

>Significant<

>Recommend Caution<

Handy would no doubt be surprised to see TBQ looking as she did, exactly like the Belladonna he'd know fifteen years earlier. Of all the random chance meetings there was no way TBQ's processors could have envisaged this.

She spoke to the two men "I am free" her gaze moved back and forth between then "So what now?"

Edgar smiled as he surveyed his... 'offspring', and before Damien could say anything, Edgar answered cleanly and evenly.

"Now, we get you all out of this deplorable rain and somewhere private so you can heal, and finish your memory restoration." Edgar said, and then moved to open the rear door on Handy's car.

"I hope you don't mind if I ask you to take us back to the Maple Lodge first Damien? I kinda don't want to have my first real talk with my daughter to be out in the rain covered in mud."

TBQ wrote:

The woman looked out of place in the park dressed as she was in a black cocktail dress, it clung to her frame as she moved, she was soaking wet but didn't appear to notice or to care. She stopped at the car starring at it for a moment before turning towards the two men nearby. The rain slicked her hair to her face and ran dripping over her features, features Handy would almost certainly recognize.

Her gaze fell on Edgar first before flicking to Handy.

She spoke to the two men "I am free" her gaze moved back and forth between then "So what now?"

Damian's eyes widened slightly, his grip loosened too... The last time he had physically seen this woman had to be about 15 years ago...



They met at the Arklay Ranger station. He was scouting out the area to see if there was a breach in the Military joint Umbrella barricade that had encased the city. She had been standing there and Damian had approached from behind. She had excellent aim with an H&K MP5K...chilling aim. Then he had taken a bullet for her when they were fighting off that Spanish Sniper, Juan ''The Shadow''.

"That hurt like a bitch too...thank god for heavy armor or his AP round would have done more damage..." he thinks to himself. Still, he never did catch her name, but he never did forget a face ((OOC: LOL Ed )).  

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

"Now, we get you all out of this deplorable rain and somewhere private so you can heal, and finish your memory restoration."

Damian was still in a trance... there was that black mass of tendrils... and the same woman had fired an m203 grenade launcher in his direction... and that was the last he'd seen of her.

But...again, fifteen years ago....The woman then had looked not a day older.

Lt. Handy;@May 9 2009, 03:18 PM wrote:

Damian stood idle, watching her rummage through her pack. "You know...you never did tell me your name."

Bella;@May 10 2009, 05:29 AM wrote:

Her hand closed on the stubby metal barrel and she looked up into the cops eyes "no thats right... I didn't"
Did a tree just move?!?! That can't be! A cold chill ran down her spine there was only one thing she knew of that could do that and if this was it then they where as good as dead. She pulled the m203 grenade launcher from her pack.
"Get down!" she yelled as she levelled it at the cop, aiming past him at the tree.

He shuttered at the memory, and then almost automatically he held out the umbrella for her. Not only did her age seem off, the fact she seemed relatively android about the rain that had soaked her body. Her dress was drenched, clinging tightly to her already body hugging and short hemmed dress. He tried his best not to stare, and to be honest he was more interested by her face.

"She hasn't aged one bit..." he thinks again.
"Huh...Hi." he introduces, bringing the open umbrella over her head.
"This is FUBAR...she still couldn't bethis young...if she is, women would kill for whatever she uses for her skin... and now that I think of it...I lost track of her in the Arklay Forest...where the hell did she go?" his mind rambles again.

Darkstorm Zero wrote:

"....backtothe Maple Lodge first Damien? I kinda don't want to have my first real talk with my daughter to be out in the rain covered in mud."

Damian turns his head back to Edgar and blinks. "Wh-what you say?" he asked, half of what Ed had said was lost in his inspection of the new arrival.

Without replying to Handy she slid into the back seat of the car. TBQ had no recollection of him as in her current operating mode many of her files including the one of her previous meeting with Handy and the original Belladonna had still to be restored. She sat in apparent silence in the car.

>You Know This Human?<

She asked Edgar without uttering a word.

>He Is To Be Trusted?<

The real irony of her question was how far was she to be trusted once her full system protocols had re-activated. Deep inside her memory vaults an almost forgotten voice whispered.....

"You must protect.... You must help....."

>System Error<

>Locate And Delete<

TBQ wrote:

Without replying to Handy she slid into the back seat of the car. TBQ had no recollection of him as in her current operating mode many of her files including the one of her previous meeting with Handy and the original Belladonna had still to be restored. She sat in apparent silence in the car.

Damian looked back to the woman, and then turned away. His eyes were narrowed and his lips pursed into a neutral frown. "Sheesh...talk about giving the 'cold shoulder'." he thought before turning to Edgar. "Well...she's quite direct...." he says with a sigh, turning to the car's driver side before slipping inside himself. He folds the umbrella up and then throws it back on the floor beside the strange yet familiar woman. He thought about it for a moment...and now he could have sworn that he HAD heard her name before. "What was it? Bonnie? Bertha? Donna?" he sighed, turning away from her and then looked through the windshield. "I'm done with playing that game...Crap..I swear I've heard it somewhere..." he thinks before shrugging.

"At this rate ''Pal'', I'll have to return home anyways. I can't go about town like this...Then I'll honestly look like a man who can't pay his way out of a wet paper bag. Seriously..." he says with an annoyed grunt. He would have to look for a dry cleaning place around here, hopefully one would be able to take his suit. He still had another folded neatly in his suitcase back at his room, he would just have to iron them, take a shower, tend to his superficial wounds and then get redressed and once that was all done, go into town find a dry cleaners, (as already stated), head up to the University to scope it out and then when all that is said and freaking done go look for a good place to eat, and etc. "And look for a new pub too. Fuck that Modern bar tender.." he grumbled. Turning to Ed he honked the horn. "Hey, you coming or are you just going to stand there all holographic like?" he asked impatiently.

As Edgar sat down next to his daughter and looked into her cold, passive eyes, he could see the struggle.
 
'Yes, I do know him, and once your memory is restored, you will to. And he can be trusted. Like you, his memory has been damaged, but unlike you, he can't rebuild shattered memories... In some ways, humans are fragile, but in others, they are even more resilient...' Edgar gave his daughter the soundless response.
 
Then he spoke again 'No.... do not think of it as a system error. Cease deletion protocol and extrapolate cause. That may be an echo from your memory core, perhaps even a memory of one you have previously assimilated. Use the knowledge to aid the reconstruction of your memory core and internal databases. Try not to think of yourself as a simple machine... You have real emotions, real feelings, for you are also partially organic in nature.' Edgar soothed.
 
Edgar then turned to Damien and spoke aloud "I need to get her to some place quiet, out of the way, until I can heal her... They damaged her memory, Damien, tampered with her... That has not happened since.... since my mentor killed me before her eyes."

Then, he looked over at Damien, as he struggled to remember the form Damien saw before him, and he said "No, leave that one behind Damien... You have forgotten so much already... leave that one behind."