94/I Know What You Did In The Dark

I Know What You Did In The Dark
Date of Scene:	14 July 2023
Location:	Obsidian Tower - Dark Laboratory
Synopsis:	(Content Warning!) Takashi and Hotaru move to end an unsanctioned and unsanctionable experiment on their own initiative.
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Hotaru Tomoe

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Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi has asked Hotaru to meet him back in his lab, late at night. When she asked what the reason for meeting him so late was in her text, he simply responded:
        4D Hara.
    Referring to the hint that she dropped him in their very first meeting. When Hotaru arrives, Takashi is leaning back in his chair, his feet propped on the desk. There's a Newton's Cradle on his desk, the metallic orbs knocking each other back and forth. It lends the whole situation a sort of constant ticking, like a clock running too fast.
    "Hey, Tomoe-chan. There's... The thing you talked about. I looked into it." He begins, and he doesn't sound upbeat at all. Instead, he sounds like like whatever is on his mind is heavy, weighty - the kind of weight that drags you down.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe didn't usually go out late at night. In fact, she almost NEVER went out alone late at night... So the fact he told her to, and what he referenced...

She came. Luckily, almost nobody was ever home, anyway. So it wasn't like anybody noticed. She did use an obsidian door, though.

She glanced at the ticking cradle for a moment, before looking at him. And he looked serious. She, on the other hand, looked grim. "It's... not nothing... is it?" she asked softly. "How... how bad is it?" Oh, if she had any idea... She glanced out the window. "You called me here, at this hour. So... it can't be good. Can it?" she asked. A little nervously. Fearfully. Not for fear of what might happen. Fear of what might have happened.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "It's..." Takashi began, stretching out a hand, looking at his fingers, balling his hand up into a fist and then stretching his fingers back out again. "It's not good, no." he said. "It's not right. It's not..." he doesn't finish, shaking his head.
    "Tomoe-chan... do you believe that some things are beyond... that some 'people' are beyond redemption?" he asks. "That there comes a certain point where what someone does is so much - where the risk of harm they present is so much - that it simply has to be dealt with?" he asks. "Do you think there are some circumstances that require you to act now, even if you must act in an aggressive - even a violent way - because the situation demands a response on that level?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe nodded. "Yes," she said.

And it might have been... surprising. It certainly was to Hotaru, for her to say such a thing. More than that, though, it surprised her... that she meant it. There were people like that. People who were beyond redemption. People who had done such terrible things, such horrible, awful things... that they couldn't be... that they had to be stopped. Put an end to. Even if there weren't a lot of them. They were there.

"... I don't... know how many... but... but I think there may be. What... what happened? What did you uncover?" she asked, before gulping. "Is it... was it... worse... than I though?": she asked gently, nervously. Fearfully...

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi took another breath. "I'm asking because... we could try to go through this... through the chain of command. We could try to bring it to light, and get it dealt with like that. Maybe it would work. But it wouldn't be quick, and in the meantime it could keep going on. Or, maybe, they don't even choose to stop it for whatever reason..." He looked at her. "Or... we can deal with it ourselves. Right now. Tonight. We can henshin up and stop it."
    "Because I don't know what you thought you saw. But. They have managed to, somehow, get something like a stable portal to the Dusk Zone open for a brief period." He paused, and took a deep breath. And tried not to let it get to him. Let his personal feelings about people who grew up much as he did, color his view. Tick, tick, tick went the orbs on the cradle. Another big breath, almost shuddering, before he spoke again. "They've been... experimenting with it... by pushing people through it when they open it. People who aren't like me. People who don't come back through the portal. Who can't survive in there. As a test."
    Tick, tick, tick.
    "Kids from some of Obsidian's owned orphangaes. Teens, usually. Your age. My age. Sometimes, younger. I don't know how many. I don't want to know. I don't want to think about it."
    "I just want to stop it. Now."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Hotaru Tomoe stared at him, cocking her head to the side. He was talking about... He was...

And then, as he explained it... he could see the horror on her face. Most kids wouldn't understand what he was saying. Most kids weren't the child of Dr. Tomoe. While she didn't understand all of it, she understood the basis. She knew that things going through the dusk zone...

And then he said they were... they were just people. Kids. No magic. No protections. Nothing. The full horror of it shook her and she had to stop for a moment, clutching her chest. Then, slowly, lifting a hand to her amulet.

<Standby, ready!> it called out in its dark, ominous voice you'd expect from a horror movie. The kind of voice that sent chills down your spine. The voice you'd expect to hear right before you died.

"Luminous Titan, execute," Hotaru said.

The amethyst necklace around her throat glowed with an ominous, dark energy before erupting in a flash. A strange, crescent glaive formed over her and she reached up, grabbing it in both hands. Purple light washed over her, covering her wrists, torso and feet in purple, tainted light. A moment later the light on her wrists turned into metal wristguards, the piece over her torse turned into a dark purple and gray half-caped suit, akin to a one piece bathing suit, with a butt-cape, a belt and a V neck scarf. Then her feet were covered in metalic boots. Despite the ominous voice, her outfit was more akin to a super hero suit than the foreboding, ominous device she wore. <Firefly, engaged!>

He had his answer.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi Agera watched as Hotaru Tomoe became Firefly, her device - her glaive - gripped firmly in her small hands. Determination. That's what he saw on her face. He nodded. He didn't even smile. Normally, he would have been happy to see his kohai, his small fighting protege, with such determination to fight.
    Not tonight. Tonight was not a time where he would smile. Instead, he swung his feet off the desk where he'd had them propped. Got out of his chair. "Right then... looks like you and Luminous Titan are ready."
    <STANDBY, READY> announces the device that sits on his wrist in a stern, mid-chidlian male voice. "Axion is on board too. So... Axion, Execute."
     <BARRIER JACKET>, the device suddenly becomes garbled, and its voice abruptly switches to a Belkan female voice, continuing without a hitch. <SCHATTEN UMHANG, AUSFUHREN BESTATIGT!>
    The device bursts a blast of dark blue negative energy in front of it, which Takashi punches first one arm through, then the other. That energy continues to coat his arms and body, before he pushes himself through it completly. On the other side, he is now wearing a much heavier-looking version of his lab coat, with somewhat plated looking armor beneath it - his Barrier Coat. Long pants, heavy boots, all combined to give him the look of a cross between a scientist and some sort of combat personnel. His Device assembles itself, building a gauntlet around his right arm that goes all the way up to his eblow, a hybrid of multiple kinds of technology, with Axion's jet black stone resting on the back of his hand. Lastly, shadows of negative energy obscure the features of his face, with glowing red eyes peering through the smoky visage.
    <BARRIEREMANTEL UND> <SHADOW GUISE READY> the device reports, in its twin voices.
    "Let's go pay this lab and its owner a visit. It's not really floor 24 going up - it's the 24th subspace fold, a hidden lab that is listed as dysfunctional in the Doormap. She arrives at 2am every night, even if she's just doing research and going over her data. We have half an hour to get ready for her. Whether she has someone with her or not, we're terminating this experiment tonight. For good."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly nodded, watching him transform. He... he looked... good wasn't the right word. He looked different. He looked determined. He looked dependable. And from Firefly, that was a compliment. She was used to being let down. But... from him, tonight? She felt she wouldn't be.

But right now, she was also struggling to suppress that desire... to hurt. To let that side of her out. She thought back to that child she'd seen. Not so long ago. Just... a little bit ago. Had she... done something... They could help her. She prayed they could help her.

she let him take charge. She knew which floor it was, but if there was a hidden lab, something else there...

He had to lead her. She'd follow. And she... she would help them. She would STOP whatever this was and she would help those who couldn't help themselves.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Professor Hara wasn't a youma. Wasn't a monster. Didn't come from one of the Dark Kingdoms or the Dusk Zone. She was just a woman, a person. That's what had thrown Takashi for a loop, what he was still considering even now. It was one thing to drain someone's energy. It was another, far less acceptable to Takashi thing to lock them in a mirror, steal their dreams, to harm them in the short term. There were already parts of Obsidian Takashi disagreed with. But. She wasn't doing any of that. She didn't have a grand plan, like Takashi did. She wasn't uniquely talented or capable. She was just evil, as near as Takashi had been able to figure out. She just didn't care for the lives of others, didn't see the people she threw away like trash to even BE people. Didn't seem to acknowledge their suffering. It had sent Takashi through a spiral of anger, depression, confusion, and all the way back around to anger again, when he finally sent Hotaru the messages.
    There wasn't a reason, not a reason he could find or come close to accepting. And the experiment wasn't sanctioned - that's why she'd built her awful little lab on the 24th fold, away from prying eyes. This... regular person, had done this. Well, she had to have some Dark Energy in her, Takashi thought. But when she walked into the room and saw Firefly standing there, glaive in hand - and Riventon slid in behind her, between her and the door?
    Riventon felt no Dark Energy in this woman. No amulet, no trinket that was radiating it. The only thing that was creating Dark Energy on the woman was the woman herself - and not like a second entity inhabited her. Like the sole source was just who she was. Was she like him? No. No she couldn't be like him. Because he never would have done this. She might have looked as human as Takashi or Hotaru, but to do what she did - she was a youma that looked human, at BEST.
    "You're not supposed to be - how did you get in here?" she asked Firefly. "This area is restricted and... and you're not supposed to be in here." Riventon shoved her from behind before she knew he was behind her, causing her to stumble forward towards Hotaru. "You're not supposed to be here, either. Or doing what you've been doing..." he said. Now, she was stuck between the two of them, and Riventon barred the only exit out of the dimly lit unofficial lab...

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly stood there, watching. Waiting. She'd been... patient. She'd tried to be patient. She was smart, yes. For a twelve year old. She WAS a smart twelve year old. But... that was because she had a lot of time to study. No friends and all that. You could study from a hospital bed.

But a lot of what went on in this lab she couldn't understand. she couldn't even BEGIN to understand it. Dusk zone was a place she only barely understood, it was a bad place. A place where people got hurt. But it wasn't... something she could fully grasp. She'd only seen things in it, but never been there.

But she knew one thing. People were sending things to the dusk zone. People who weren't like her. Who didn't have devices. Protections. She didn't understand exactly WHAT was happening...

But she knew it was bad. She'd walked around the room, looked at the machines. Seen some of the records of those... lost. Saw a weird doll left in a strange glass case, as if it was dangerous. She hadn't touched it, but... she'd wanted to.

Because she remembered that doll. That girl had been there. Had held it.

Riventon should have spoken first. But Firefly couldn't stop herself. "Where... Where is she? Where is THAT GIRL?!" she asked. No, yelled. Her hands were shaking when she looked at the professor. A voice inside her... telling her to end her. To end this. To destroy her. To pass judgment for her crimes.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The Shadow Guise served to obscure Riventon's features, which was not truly necessary to conceal his identity, because of the Veil. And usually, it let his emotions through - the angry ones, the intimidating ones. But not today, today it stayed blank. Today it hid other emotions.
    The woman deferred. Syllables left her lips but they weren't words, they weren't answers. Finally, she stood up straight. "The girl?... The subject - the one with that doll..?" she looked over at it. "The subject is gone." she said after a moment.
    "Do you even have the courage to say what you did?" Riventon asked, and outstretched his hand at her. A ball of dark energy collected in his palm, inky and dark, dripping like a liquid, the drops evaporating before hitting the ground. He then turned his hand to the side and blasted one of the machines - one of the ones where the data was kept. And blasted a hole clean through it. "You can't even own up to it? That's because you knew how wrong it was when you did it. Answer her." He pointed his hand back at Professor Hara and another ball of energy began to collect in it.
    "I sent her to the Dusk Zone! Through the portal, just like the others!" Professor Hara shouted, suddenly. "And we studied what happened, alright? Only this time there was a reaction with the doll and we're still studying it. You're... You use Dark Energy, you're one of us, you're part of Obsidian, you understand!" She turned to Firefly. "And you... you're... Tomoe's girl? Your father, you think he's not doing things like this too, running his own experiments with Dark Energy?!"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was shaking as the woman talked. Clenching her glaive so hard her hands hurt. The SUBJECT?! The glaive came down. The blade hitting the ground, the clange echoing through the room. She was controlling herself. Barely. "She's... gone?" she asked. Before looking to the doll. No. No no no. She hadn't... If only she'd done... something. If only she'd stopped them. If only she'd been stronger.

But she had tried to do something. Had tried to interfere. Had tried to stop them. But she'd just been a child. Weak. Helpless. Unable to. Nobody had listened... Except Takashi.

But those facts did nothing to stop that hurt, that despair. That anger.

And it peaked when she mentioned her father, a few tears starting to go down her cheek. "My father is NOTHING like you!" she screamed before lunging forward, her glaive up, blade out. and he could see it. That anger, that movement. That loss of control. She'd likely regret this, but in that moment... she'd been pushed. Hard. And while she might not under the full ramifications of her acts, it didn't stop her from reacting in that anger and rage.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    <VERBINDLICHES SCHWEIGEN.> rang out from Riventon's device as he dissapated his channeled energy into a binding spell. But not on the Professor. On Hotaru - on Firefly. Smoky purple circles locked around her wrists and ankles. Stopping her from connecting with the professor, from putting pointy metal to soft flesh. Firefly's glaive tip gleamed in the dim light, just a few moments from the Professor's face.
    "No." he told Firefly. "This isn't your act."
    Professor Hara's eyes bulged. But then she took a deep breath. "That's right. You can't just kill me. You'll have to tell your superiors, and they'll tell mine, there's a whole process. And I'll show them the results of my work and it'll be you two that are in trouble!" she said.
    With Firefly still in the binds, Riventon reached down and grabbed Professor Hara by the collar of her jacket, and started to pull her towards the inactive gate on the wall of the room. "You know, considering you're not acting according to the rules, I'm not sure why you think we would." Riventon said as he tugged her towards the gate. "But you're right - I'm not going to just kill you. But... it's kind of minor compared to the rest of what you've done, on top of everything else, I just can't respect a scientist who would test on others something they would refuse to ever test on themselves, under similar conditions." He said, and outstretched his hand, using his own energy to power the gate the professor had built, opening a temporary quasi-stable portal to the Dusk Zone.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was suddenly stopped. She grit her teeth, trying to force her way through. Trying to... But after a few seconds, the rage reduced. It didn't stop, though. When the woman told her how there were 'channels'. And worse, that she was going TO TELL people that this was GOOD! She didn't even sound apologetic, she sounded so... so... so...

Firefly struggled again. "We can't just..." But then she stopped when Riventon talked. She stared at him. What was he...

And then he opened the gateway. He... he wasn't going to... And she stopped struggling. And instead, she watched. Bound, helpless, just watching.

Waiting. A part of her said to stop this. Another part of her said... good. Another, final part of her said that she should just end her life. Not throw her in. What if she survived? But...

She supposed... this... was justice. She'd have every amount of chance the children did. Her eyes turned to the doll again. In its little glass case.

None.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon was pretty sure the woman was saying... something. Begging, maybe. Pleading? It all sounded so very muffled to him. So far away. The ones that had been through this portal before her had probably begged too, he thought. She didn't stop. He'd seen the records, the notes. Not even names, just Subject Numbers. He looked into the portal, regarded the strange unearthly beauty of the Dusk Zone. It was like a second home to him. Eeerie, strange, and yet also... peaceful.

A few moments later, the portal closed. He waved his hand and the binds around Firefly's legs and arms vanished. Riventon started blasting holes into the ring and strange magitech machinery that created the device Professor Hara had used to open the portal. No callouts from his device. No attacks named, just raw, angry Dark Energy being used to smash like the destructive force it was, no elegance, no containment, no control.
    And nobody else in the room except Firefly and Riventon.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly watched and... she didn't even try. She was gone. She would never hurt anyone again.

And then, she was free. She could move. She was free. And... it meant nothing. She looked around. This... this 'research' was foul. It was evil. It should NEVER exist. It could NEVER exist. But Riventon was destroying it. Hotaru...

So instead, Hotaru moved to the doll. There was the shattering sound of glass. She reached out, her device flashed a warning. The doll had dark energy... but...

She didn't care. Gingerly, she picked it up. As delicately as she could, she picked up the doll and she held it. Before, very slowly, she crumbled to her knees and began to, silently, cry. She didn't sob. Didn't try to undo what had been done. Didn't ask for it to, somehow, be fixed.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered to the doll she now held. "I'm so, so, so sorry..."

So many 'what ifs' flowing into her head. Meaningless. Hollow. There was nothing more she could have done. She'd been weak... she'd been helpless. Nobody had listened to her...

Takashi was right. Sometimes... you had to be someone they couldn't ignore. You had to make small fires, before the forest became an inferno.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon blasted through machines, equipment, tools. Walls. Computers. He generated and hurled Dark Energy in destructive waves and streams until he had none left, and then bashed his gauntlet-covered fist into a few expensive looking pieces of equipment, too. Until he was too tired. Until he was too low on energy. Until he had gotten some small fraction of the feelings hidden behind the mask out through his violence.

His breath was heavy, causing his whole body to rise and fall.
    For a time, he had considered that after the situation was handled, he could occupy this lab and use it as she did - it would be a big upgrade from his tiny space. But, that was before he knew the extent of what had gone on in this room. Now, he couldn't see it as a lab. Only as a graveyard.
    Finally, he spoke. "Firefly." his voice rang out. "After we leave here, nobody will ever return to this room. It will float in subspace without the anchors for it, until it fully degrades to nothing, and the Door will be destroyed." He walked over to the wall by the Door they had entered, and but something decidedly more technological from his lab coat pockets against the door. A bomb. A conventional little bomb, nonmagical, with a timer. On the doorframe. "Five minutes." he said as he pushed the red button on the stopwatch that made up the makeshift explosive.
    "And... Remember this, Firefly. You were locked in my bindings. There was nothing you could have done. You made no decisions. You didn't even have the ability to do so." he said, his voice trying to stay even. Doing a mostly successful job of it. "We should go."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly nodded, not saying anything. She just held the doll, occasionally glancing around. Something... There was one thing. "T-thank you, Riventon-senpai," she said softly. He'd... listened. They hadn't been able to stop it. But at least they managed to make sure it wouldn't happen again.

And when the timer was started, she slowly got up. Clutching the doll. One last apology. She started to leave, but then paused. One last thing by the doll... One folder.

She opened it and was greeted with a picture of the doll... and the child it belonged to. Her name. Her history... She closed it before walking after him. However, she held out the folder to him and then, softly... "This... shouldn't... be forgotten..." she whispered. She... couldn't stop any of this. She... she might even be able to realize it, one day. Maybe. She then walked through the door, after him. A name she would never forget echoing through her mind.

"Her name was Kanna Hisakawa."