The Hungry Ghost of Shanghai

The Hungry Ghost of Shanghai
02/03/2014
Record time 00:05:11
 (Kate arrives outside of a newly constructed office building in downtown shanghai. The lobby is strangely under populated save for the receptionist sitting behind an enormous white desk. Kate greets her and asks for the office of Mr. Hao, the receptionist directs her to floor 7G office 112 and then points to the row of elevators behind her. After entering the elevator Kate notices that 7G is the seventh level of the building’s basement and that there are another 19 levels below it that require a key card to access and the elevators themselves seem to be bigger than those of a normal office building. The elevator stops only once at 2C, where a pair of security guards wheel a large metal crate into the elevator. As Kate completes her descent to 7G, she can hear a familiar clicking sound coming from the crate, the guards exit the elevator one floor before Kate. As Kate exits the elevator she finds herself in the same type of sterile metal hallway she and Kenzie encountered in Fukushima and right in front of her, office 112. Inside Mr. Hao is speaking with a woman in a lab coat who appears to be in her late 50’s.)
Xue Zhen hao:  (looking at kate) Right on schedule, Dr. West this is Karine Magnusson one of our newest contractors.
Kate: (Kate wears the typical clothes of a working girl - short skirt, low-cut top, thigh-length leather boots, a minijacket and a small handbag. She wears heavy make-up and a deep-auburn wig. She looks pretty different, and even her mannerisms are changed. She gives a greeting in English with a Norwegian accent.) “Hello.”
Helen West: A pleasure to meet you Ms. Magnusson, Mr. Hao would you like me to accompany you during this interview or can I return to my team?
Xue Zhen hao: I feel it would be best for everyone if you conduct your interview in conjunction with my own (mumbling under his breath) so we don’t waste another half a million in funding.
Helen West: (glaring at Mr. Hao) very well, Ms. Magnusson…Xue, please follow me.
Kate: (Kate does as she is instructed, standing to follow. She gives Mr Hao a sultry smile and winks before following after Helen West, putting a little extra sway into her hips.) “There is no need for a doctor’s exam. I am clean; no diseases.”
Helen West: This is a bit different than anything you have previously done Ms. Magnusson, we do not need to screen you for STI’s but I do need to know a little about your family history. Are there any members of your immediate family who are either schizophrenic or on the autism spectrum?
Kate: (Kate gives Mr Hao an uncertain look before turning back to Helen West.) “No. I do not understand. Why am I here if not to work?”
Xue Zhen hao: We are looking for a very specific type of woman to donate some genetic material  to an ongoing research project, Ms. Magnusson . Have you have ever worked for any kind of law enforcement agency? Interpol, Federal Security, etc.
Kate: “Of course not. You know what I do, yes?”
Xue Zhen hao: Are you a firearm enthusiast then? Because you a have callous on your right trigger finger.
Helen West: Exposure to gun powder shouldn't affect anything Mr. Hao, what about traumatic stress disorder, have you ever been in a life or death situation?
Kate: (Kate rolls her eyes at Xue’s observation and seems further irritated by Helen West’s question.) “What, you think I have a safe job? I know how to shoot, and sometimes I have to, so yes, both to questions. What kind of sample are you talking about? And when do I get paid?”
Xue Zhen hao: Assuming you meet our prerequisites, we will pay you upon extraction of the sample. as to the kind of sample, I will leave that to you and Dr. West to discuss.
Helen West: Tell me about your dreams, do you ever dream of being in hell or in space?
Kate: (Kate gives Dr. West an incredulous look.) “What? What are you talking about? What have dreams got to do with anything?” (She slows her pace, holding her handbag in front of herself protectively and begins looking around as if for a way out.)
Helen west: (sliding her key card in the elevator lock) we are merely establishing your mental health Ms. Magnusson, sometimes people in your...profession use hallucinogens and that can interfere with our research.
(the elevator doors slide open, Mr. Hao stands in the far left corner of the elevator, Dr. West stands next to Mr. Hao, leaving Kate the far right corner of the elevator)
Xue Zhen hao: what about your education did you finish school? Did you attend university?
Kate: (Kate answers by attempting a palm-strike to Xue’s nose - then following up with a chop aimed at West’s throat. Hao is knocked out. However when Kate moved to strike Dr. West her hand is blocked by a shield.)
Helen West: impressive, I didn't think your temper would let you get this far, but apparently you have more self control than we initially predicted…this settles it, you must join the seraphim initiative.
Kate: (Kate remains in a combat stance. She tilts her head slightly and frowns, then pulls the only really important thing out of her bag, dropping the bag itself - it’s a can of mace spray, standard working-girl repertoire. Spraying Dr. West liberally, Kate watches carefully for the shape of the shield, looking for gaps.) “You know, these things are irritating.”
(the mace is pulled together in front of Dr. west into a single ball before disappearing)
Helen West: Are you going to come quietly or do I need to summon security?
Kate: (She grins) “I don’t know why you’re even bothering to ask.” (She gathers her will, shaping anima around her hands, forming a pair of translucent green punch-daggers. She sets about attempting the pierce the shield in a frenzy of blows. The blows are thrown back at her sending her flying in to the wall, Dr. West remains unimpressed)
Helen West: (entering the elevator) as you wish dear, (she hits a button on her phone and the base locks itself down and begins to sound an alarm. the elevator doors close and Dr. west disappears.)
(The sounds of combat boots on metal rapidly approaching Kate can be heard in the hall as the halls fill with yellow mist)
Kate: (Kate watches the mist filling the corridors and laughs.) “This was a really bad idea.” (She performs a couple of stretches and advances into the hall to meet the owners of the boots, ready to put up a fight. Kate is met by a squad of heavily armed Third Sunday security personnel)
Squad leader: (raising assault rifle) on the ground now, hands behind your head.
Kate: “Or what? You wouldn’t shoot an unarmed woman, would you? You’ll spoil my outfit.” (She opts to raise her hands instead. The squad leader fires a warning shot into her right leg.)
Squad leader: get the ties, take her to Q1, doc is waiting for her there.
(behind the guards Kate can barely make out the silhouette of some kind of black creature on all fours)
Kate: (Kate blinks, looking down at the bullet wound in her leg. She looks back up at the squad leader, nonplussed.) “You son of a bitch, you shot me!” (Kate gestures with one hand, then the other. The first gesture draws some of the blood from the wound, shaping it into a thin, see-through screen between her and further gunshots. The second gesture flings a small blood spike at the squad leader’s throat. She’s maybe drained herself of a half pint for these two things.)
(The squad leader falls another security guard rushes forward with a collapsible baton, the other two cover him)
Kate: (This suits Kate very nicely. She trained for years with the use of an Asp (a collapsible baton) with the metropolitan police. While the man is between her and his colleagues she reshapes the shield into just a large blob of blood, and then propels this at the man’s face, intending to disarm him while he’s distracted and claim the baton herself. The bullet wound is slowly closing. Very slowly - no anima boosting her talents.)
(the charging squad member has been knocked out, the two other guards have yet to move.)
Kate: (Kate wastes no time in following up, the baton held parallel with her forearm. She moves to distribute what she intends as a series of crippling blows between the two men. The baton passes through both of them; they are nothing but projections from the security system)
Kate: (Kate keeps an eye out for the creature she saw in silhouette as she hurriedly strips the guards of useful equipment. She takes the squad leader’s rifle, body armor, and ammo. Her wound is no longer bleeding, but not yet healed. There is no sign of the creature she previously observed, the elevators have all locked themselves down. However out of the corner of her eye she sees a white heel disappearing around a corner.)
Kate: (Kate sets off at a rapid pace, rifle to her shoulder but barrel lowered, making after the owner of the white heel.)
(There is no in the hall around the corner only locked doors.)
Helen West: (over the PA) if you give up this foolishness now, we can promise you comfortable accommodations and access to the internet. However if you continue to resist we will have to take proper safety measures.
Kate: (Kate advances down the corridor slowly, checking for signs of life or movement, examining each door she passes for anything of particular note.) “Well gosh, that sounds tempting. But I wasn’t planning on sticking around long enough to be one of your toys.”
Helen West: I see, I will have to make do with body then. (The PA has clicked off)
(behind Kate a door flies open and then slams shut)
Kate: (Kate whirls round, scanning for targets, ready to open fire.)
(She sees nothing, another door flies open and slams shut and another and another. The hall is now a symphony of slamming doors, the temperature has begun to drop and in the distance, a pale Chinese man is staring at Kate)
Kate: (Kate mutters to herself) “Telekinesis, possible spiritual activity… Sometimes I hate my job.” (She calls out to the man.) “Hello! Can you stop with the doors? I think if we’re going to try and kill each other the least we can do is introduce ourselves.”
(The man slowly begins to rise up off the ground as the doors all fly open, papers flood out of the offices as the man begins fly towards Kate.)
Kate: “And I thought the Chinese were polite..” (She isn’t yet certain the man is on the attack or if he’s just being dramatic, so she opts to duck into a side room while the doors are all open. After a quick visual check of the room she’d turn to cover the door, backing away.)
(the door slams shut behind her, she can hear a lock clicking on the door.)
Helen West:  (over the pa) thank you for cooperating dear, security will be with you shortly.
Kate: (Kate actually growls.) “Fuck you!” (She expends about half a clip into the door lock before she starts kicking at it. The door does not budge, the lock remains intact. Behind her though kate sees a pair yellow eyes come out of the darkness followed by a snout and a pair pointed black ears and a glowing blue ball hanging from a collar.)
Kate: (Kate speaks in a rush) “Okay. Right. You knew I’d come in here. You’re intelligent, so maybe you understand me. You didn’t attack me in the hall, so I don’t know whose side you’re on. If you’re going to try and kill me though, can we get on with it? I’m in a bit of a hurry.”
Tuk: (jumps up and licks Kate’s face, under his collar is a note)
Note: sent back up, click the button up top and say “Tuk home” if you're in trouble
-love Connar
Kate: (Kate laughs at being licked (even though she’d normally hate it) and ruffles Tuk’s head affectionately before she reads the note.) “Tuk, I am so glad it’s you. Stay close, I’m not done yet.” (Kate picks up a piece of paper and gives herself a paper cut on the end of her right index finger. A little blood wells, and she forms something resembling a blank key. She inserts this into the door lock and tries to open it, letting the parts of her ‘key’ that don’t fit soften, like someone making a wax impression of the lock. It takes a little while, but eventually she settles on a shape that she tries to turn all the way.)
(The door opens, there is no sign of the man from before, Tuk runs outside and disappears back into the shadows)
Kate: (Kate reclaims the blood, sealing the shallow cut much faster than the bullet wound, which is still healing. She ignores the pain of it though as she walks, and she heads back towards the elevators.) “I’m on the wrong floor I think.”
(the elevators remain locked and there appears to be no way of activating them from this floor. As Kate contemplates her situation, the elevator behind her opens followed by a metal door and out steps one of the Ak’ab human hybrids.)
Kate: “YOU’RE security? I’m disappointed.” (She takes aim and begins firing shots into the poor creature’s head, trying to ignore the occasional recognizably human feature.)
(The bullets stop about 200cm from the creature before falling to the ground)
Ak’ab man: (raising its wings) (screeches before tackling Kate and wrapping its proboscises around her head and neck)
Kate: (Kate gives a brief cry of alarm and tries to hold the thing off her. She guesses the nature of the protection is kinetic and so, struggling to hold the thing off long enough to not get her head swallowed, she uses her bullet wound again. This time she forms her blood into a slowly growing spike and tries to grow it through the Ak’ab-man’s body, hoping that the lack of sudden impact will let her pierce the thing. Spike grows and just as Kate's head is about to be pulled into its mouth, the Ak’ab man finds itself impaled and struggling to free itself, its proboscises begin flailing wildly freeing Kate’s head in the process as it tries to understand what has happened)
Kate: (Kate takes a deep lungful of air as her head is freed, but the weight of the struggling creature keeps her down. Though she’s not happy with having to do it, she decides to sacrifice the blood that forms the spike (because honestly, who would want that back after knowing where its been?) and, with a grimace at the effort it costs her, she boils the blood within the creature, attempting to kill it by cooking it from within.)
Helen West: (over the PA) this is excellent data you’re providing us with; please keep up the good work.
(the Ak’ab man dies as his blood boils, As the creature dies the insect like features begin to fade away revealing the body of a 12 year old boy.)
Kate: (Kate stares in horror as she finds herself holding the body of a boy.) “No!” (She shifts, getting to her knees and laying the boy down, checking for a pulse she knows she won’t find.) “No, no, no…” (She looks up in grief and anger and shouts) “You BASTARDS! I will KILL you for this! Do you hear me? You’re DEAD!”
Helen West: Now this is an interesting reaction, we were convinced that you were indifferent to children at best but apparently we have found a soft spot.
Tuk: (emerges from the darkness and sniffs the child’s face before entering the elevator and scratching at a spot on the floor.)
Kate: (Kate stands, white-faced. She checks the rifle’s clip, discards it, and slaps in the spare, chambering a round. Wordless and grim, she enters the elevator with Tuk and kneels to scratch his ears and investigate what has his attention.)
(One of the tiles is loose it looks like there is something behind it)
Kate: (Kate moves the tile aside to see what’s there.)
(On the other side of the tile there is a lever used to open an emergency hatch into the elevator shaft. As Kate opens the hatch she can hear a voice in her head chanting)
The Buzzing: Z19, Z19, bingo!, bingo!, bingo!
Kate: “Good find, Tuk.” (She slings the rifle across her back and lowers herself into the shaft. She guesses that she’s being guided to the floor that’ll help her most as she starts her descent.)
Tuk: (leaps down and vanishes into the darkness)
(as Kate begins her descent, she can hear the elevator start back up.)
Kate: (Kate looks up in alarm, finding herself in sudden need of a plan. She looks around hurriedly and does the only thing that occurs to her - she starts breaking things. Willing a blade into being formed from anima and chaos magic, she hacks at the cables that run along the mag-rail, but prepares herself to abandon those efforts and transfer herself to the underside of the elevator.)
(the cuts are successful and the elevator is stopped in its tracks, though Kate has lost the light in the elevator shaft as well.)
Kate: (Kate clings to the side of the shaft in darkness for a moment.) “Ah. Well.” (She keeps the blade formed, the glow of the magical weapon the only thing she can see by, if barely. She resumes her descent, more slowly in the almost total darkness. Occasionally she waves the blade around to see if she can find any wall markings, like a floor indicator. Hours pass, but Kate eventually makes it to the bottom of the base, on the elevator doors there is an enormous red Z19 and nowhere else to go)
Kate: (Kate spends a few minutes resting. She’s tired, aching and she’s feeling the blood loss quite keenly, her head not quite spinning but not far off. After a time, and having regained a modicum of strength, she stands and looks for a way to open the doors, reasoning that the emergency hatch on the elevator probably means emergency door access too. She finds a red lever next to the door that will open the elevator in case of an emergency)
Kate: (Kate readies the rifle, switching it from her back to hanging across her front, and tries the lever.)
(The door slide open in front of her is a large console overlooking a body of water containing glowing blue rods.)
Kate: (Kate breaks into a grim smile, recognizing the set-up for a reactor of some kind. She approaches the console and looks for ways to put as big a spanner in the works as possible.)
(As Kate looks over the console, she feels the temperature in the room begin to drop. As she turns around, she sees the Chinese man hovering behind her, his eyes have turned black and he has begun to unhinge his jaw revealing a large set of pointed black teeth.)
Kate: (Kate gives a shallow bow, not taking her eyes off the creature. As she straightens she flings out her hands and a half-dozen glowing green knives fly through the air towards her foe.)
(the knives pass threw him, as the rifle is sucked from her hands and thrown down the elevator shaft. the man then begins to fly towards Kate and seizes her by the wrist.)
Kate: (Kate uses her free hand to lift the wig from her head and places it on the Chinese man, backwards, in an effort to obscure his vision. A snap of her fingers and a spark sets the synthetic hair alight.)
(Kate and the man fall on the console struggling for control, hitting buttons and throwing switches the entire time. As the man attempts to bite Kate, she sees Tuk emerging from the shadows and biting down on the man’s arm and pulling him off Kate in the process.)
Kate: “I was going to go about this logically, but I see you’re not going to give me the chance.”
(yellow lights click on and a alarm begins to sound. the man dissolves into thin air as the PA clicks on)
Helen West: I think we are done here for now dear, feel free to destroy this base at your pleasure. The data we have gathered from you has been most useful and I think the next batch of experiments will be better because of it. If I were you though I would start climbing now, I don't think the bees can put you back together after a nuclear explosion.
Kate: (Kate leans her hands on her thighs, getting her breath.) “Well you would say that. But I have no intention of climbing that fucking shaft.” (She puts a hand on the console and sends a surge of anima through it - if anything wasn’t buggered before, she thinks that would probably take care of it. She beckons Tuk over.) “Come here, Tuk. Time to leave.”
Tuk: (trots over to Kate and looks up at her)
Kate: (Kate crouches to push the button on the device on Tuk’s collar.) “Tuk, home.”
(A portal to Agartha opens up on the wall behind them, Tuk backs up slightly to get a running start before leaping in, and an unseen force grabs a hold of Kate’s leg and pulls her in after Tuk)
Memory card full