Wipe the Smile

[Winston C. DuFrense]

Winston could not be doing with this. Things had suddenly become very dangerous, and it really demanded his attention. Unfortunately, he had one Frank Cox tailing behind him -a liability he'd have to get to safety before engaging the real threat. That and the klaxon only added to his headache, and he didn't dare even think of all the paperwork and extra time he would have to pull investigating and reporting exactly why the present emergency was a reality. There was not much to do, however, but pull through it. First thing first -get Cox back to her cell and lock it down.

A task that wasn't helped by her flying towards the floor. With a single grunt, he stepped forward to catch her midair before her face planted itself firmly on the solid ground. With his other hand, he was already reaching for the key. As dangerous as it might have been to let her outside of a cell unrestrained, they would be too much of a burden for her -and him- to deal with. He swung her around, grabbed her by the wrist and set about unlocking the cuffs. "Frank, I need you to listen very, very, very carefully to me now," he shouted over the alarm. The cuffs popped open and were hastily slung back on his belt. "Because you already know what the Hulk can do. Except what we have here doesn't discriminate in the slightest. Do everything I say, and you might not get turned into paste."

A series of stomping boots sounded outside, and a squad of fully armed and armoured soldiers ran by, assault rifles and shotguns held tightly in their gloved hands. One stopped by the cell. "Sir!" he called out, throwing Winston another such weapon.

He nodded in response, and the soldier departed. "I'm going to take you back to your cell. Don't try to escape, stay very close to me, and if I say run, you run your ass off and find somewhere to hide. Understand?" He loaded a few shells from the gun's holder, then pumped it hard. "Things might get very ugly, very soon."

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

Frank tried really hard to listen, she did. Her head kept spinning and she kept thinking that the black guy had some kind of eyepatch or something, which definitely was not real. He seemed to be uncuffing her too, which really didn't help focus on the whole "this is reality" bit of things. She focused more or less though, nodding as he explained that their Hulk could just turn things into paste. That definitely didn't sound good. Frank was just so hungry though...

Stomping boots, and soon Frank was facing various soldiers, which, again, didn't help her hunch that this was all just some strange, near out of body, experience. One was saying something and throwing a weapon toward Winston. Frank's eyes widened and she stared, "Am I gonna get one of those? no, wait, probably not, since stuff and---" the soldiers were going and Winston was talking to her. Focusing was just so haaaaaaard. Frank tried though, staring at the image of Winston she was pretty sure was the real one.

"Sure thing! Candosville, baby doll," she said, giggling a little. "Not sure that I can really run though; everything's kinda spinny and stuff, but I can give it a shot," she watched as he loaded the gun, her eyes widening. Suddenly being in her cell, where, yeah, things were boring, but quite safe, sounded like a plan.

[Winston C. DuFrense]

Heh. he had to smile at that one, despite the situation. It was a real emergency, but he couldn't help but grin just slightly. "Yeah, in your dreams you're dreams you get one of these. As a 'guest', we can't very well have you using all the best toys." The gun fell into a tight grip as it was raised to shoulder height. He took a few strides out of the cell and peered down the corridor. They'd have to get uncomfortably close to the source of the klaxon's woes in order to get to the cells. "If you can't run, walk, very briskly. I'm going to do what I can, but your life is as your hands as much as it is mine. Now move."

He nodded in their direction and followed in the footsteps of the soldiers that had previously passed them by. The stressed, bull-like roars were still echoing loudly past them, and it was soon followed by more human, but still unintelligible shouting, and metal being pounded by something heavy again and again. If things were as bad as Winston suspected, they'd have no choice but to terminate the target for good, despite how much the doctors would protest. They'd have to make do with a corpse and whatever samples they had. "Remember, stay close," he whispered back, eyes never leaving the path ahead. His steps were rapid, but cautious and his stance low.

"M1 is about to breach tier 2 containment! All units, respond immediately! Subject CANNOT be allowed to es- JESUS!" The radio exploded with wild, panicky radio chatter, just as the sound of something coming off its hinges rattled the very walls.

"Oh, shit," Winston spat. "We have to hurry," he sharply added. Forgetting caution, he began to jog along the weaving labyrinth of corridors and hallways. Countless doors passed him by, but he took no heed of any of them, fully aware of the direction he had to go. The roars and shouts only got louder and louder. "Don't look," he ordered as a long line of floor-to-ceiling glass panels came to pass. They looked down upon a large, concrete, warehouse like space. A goods elevator and spiral staircase offered access to the floor, where a flock of soldiers were nervously positioned behind boxes and barrels, their weapons aimed at a huge vault door. Dents from within appeared on the thick steel with every passing second.

"READY!" the commanding officer screamed. The metal groaned in distress. "Stand true men! Do not let this monstrosity take another inch!" The door creaked and groaned as it was gripped and pulled at by an unrelenting force. "And..."

The door practically disintegrated in a burst of pulverised masonry and shrapnel. A colossal, bloody mass of shifting, writhing organs, pulsating muscle and snapping bone squeezed through, lashing out at everything and everyone it could reach. Its bulbous arms flung oozing pus and gore over every surface they came near.

The room lit up with the song of a small armoury.

"Ah, shit."