Originally posted by MadMel
"Hardly clueless." was Andrew's reply. On any other morning, the elemental would have been irritated by Julien's attitude, but the sample drove it from his mind. "This thing is a marvel. This 'glop' as you call it is a completely unique bio-material that's never been seen before. It has the ability to transmutate from liquid to solid and back near instantaneously. The electricity needed to power the 'brain' of this thing travels along the molecular chain of the liquid, and even over a distance - Almost exactly the same as the water screens Blaze and I invented. Something, I'm assuming the Hive, will pre-program the slime with orders, and it will carry out these orders any way it can, either as a liquid mass, or by forming a body, or an army of bodies, as we saw with Club Thunder."
"Specifically with this case, the last thought this sample would have received is to retreat, and it has spent all night blindly following that objective." Andrew gestured again at the struggling ball of slime contained in glass. "This 'chain of command', so to speak, is similar to those found in insect colonies. A termite lives only to follow to orders given by the termite queen. If you cut a termite away from it's queen's control, it will become a mindless segment, unable to do anything. Similarly, if you cut a part of this slime away from the 'brain', it will be rendered a helpless pool of sludge."
"More to the point" Andrew went on, seeing that Leon was staring blankly into space, absently sipping his coffee. "We can track this thing. So far my electronic eyes only reach as far as the city's limits, but if you give me time, maybe a day or two, I'll be able to conduct a global search for the source of the Hive."
"And I assume that you will want a team to go after it," Julien responded. "That can and will be arranged. But I have a question. Since you can track the host through the use of reverse bio-engineering, couldn't the host track the location of its missing piece via these molecular chains? What I mean to say is if the host slime gets in contact with enough electricity, wouldn't that just power it up and this little fella right here becomes a lo-jack of some sort?"
Originally posted by Lt_Champion
Bonnie uses her powers and strength to keep a grip on Rock, who is fighting her the entire time. It takes alot of balance for her to keep Rock from jerking free.Rock struggles against Bonnie until her necklace is removed. She looks at Ben in that moment. When he asks her, she responds with a simple, "No," her eyes on his, "I do not." She says this firmly, choosing the pain of remembering all that hurts her, refusing to forget them. The pain of even thinking of forgetting Lance and Lucian and her family hurts her more then anything. She cant let herself forget.
"Then what is the point, Rock," Ben asked in a booming voice. He saw both Bonnie and Rock shrink back a little. "You do not want to forget them. That's understandable. But it is the memories of them that causes you to harm yourself!
"I know you are tired of hurting. I can see it in the dark circles of your eyes. I know you are tired of being in pain because the bruises all over your body speaks for themselves. And we both know that Donny is not responsible for all of them.
"I know you are emotionally tapped save for the guilt and rage and loneliness you feel. You are weary and alone and that is completely your fault." Ben wasn't going to pull anymore punches in dealing with Rock. She needed to hear this.
"I am not saying that you are alone cause you killed Lance because everyone, yourself included, knows that you did not. He left because he had to deal with things that were out of his hands and hard to deal with in a public position. He lost his child and the woman he loved. I can only assume Lucian left for personal reasons, as well. And that hurt you. I would be a fool to say otherwise.
"But the fact that you decided to keep a hold on to that pain and loneliness was your decision. When people reached out to you, you shut yourself off. When people offered you help in dealing with your issues, you blew them off. You became comfortable in your pain. And in turn, you allowed yourself to believe that people thought you a monster because everyone kept their distance from you.
"And that is true. People did stay away. But not because they thought or think you are a monster or a murderer. They stay away because you make them stay away. So what do you expect to happen. You became so far gone in you delusions and told yourself so many times that you are a killer and a monster and that no one wants to be around you that your mind believed it. You convinced yourself so thouroughly that your mind has even made of hallucinations to compliment your insanity.
"It could all be so simple. But you would rather make it hard. You do not have proof that either one of them is dead. All you saw was a man in a mirror. And he told you himself that nothing you saw was real. And if what you have seen, what you have done was real, why am I not in pieces for having to kill my wife? Why is Sam not destroyed in murdering her loved ones. Hitosu? Katt? Bonnie? Kaida? We were all there and had to do some pretty gruesome stuff just like you. But we realized that it was not real and that was validated even further when Pintar told us they were all just illusions."
Shaking his head and moving from Rock's face, Ben dropped her necklace. He turned around and dropped his head. Speaking quietly and in a solem tone, he said, "If you are not willing to allow people to help you, Rock, if you are not willing to even try, then there is no point of you staying here. We are wasting our time and manpower in trying to finds ways of helping you. You are wasting our time by being here and doing nothing to make a bad situation a little better. Bonnie, you may release Rock.
"She is no longer a student at the academy and no longer in our care. Gatherum transportis." Ben's incantation summoned Rock's guitar and a bag of her things to the room. He turned back to face her. "You may leave when you are ready. You are not required to see anymore doctors, but they will be ready to help should you so desire it. However, this school is a place where people come to seek assistance and help and clearly you are not one who desires either of those, so you are no longer welcomed here until you decide you are ready to make a change.
"We cannot risk the program because you are so caught up in your fantasy world where you think you are so powerful to be able to kill man who can cast you aside with furrough of his eyebrow. I cannot allow you walk free with the use of your powers for fear of public safety. I know that you can take care of yourself, Rock. I have seen you do it before.
"Strike Force will be informed of your dismissal. You can keep in contact with anyone you want at the school through phone calls, email, text messages, whatever way you can so long as you do not set foot on school property until you are mentally and emotionally stable to be around other people here.
"I am so very disappointed and saddend that it has come to this because I had so much faith that you would pull though. But in the end you have let more than just yourself down and I am not willing to sacrifice the good of the many for the good of just one. Goodbye, Rock. And good luck. You are going to need it. Desdendae." And with the wave of his hand and the utterance of the incantation, Rock was teleported into the nearest town.
He looked at Bonnie with saddend eyes and said, "Let us go. We have work to do."