Oryo Ryou/Experiment 2542
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
(Every story has a beginning. Oryo Ryou 's story is no exception)
The little whitehaired girl sat on the table, almost more like a scared animal than a human...her eyes wide as once again, she was confronted with flame...
The flame torch ignited, spraying over the child, burning her clothing off, leaving just the elfin child, without so much as a burn....She looked up mute at her tormentors as once again, she was tied down so that samples could be taken...
"I don't like this, " she heard one of the technicians say...She looked over at the feminine voice, currently hard with disapproval. "We should be treating them like children, not lab rats...look at how scared she is..."
"She's not yelling out. Used to though, til Alf beat the crap out of her one time. After that, she learned to keep her trap shut. She's not really intelligent, if she were, she'd be speaking by now..." was the reply from the scientist in charge of the testing...
"Unless Alf beat the crap out of her for talking back, too..."
"And that is enough out of you, Ms. Smith. One more word, and you are back on the street..now do your job and take 2542 back to her cell.."
The woman started to remove the straps, whispering to the girl gently.."Come on, it's over now, little one..." She looked down at 2542, picking the girl up in her arms. Instinctively, the girl wrapped thin arms about the woman's neck, crying now..."Let's go back, " she said gently, wrapping the girl in a blanket for the trip back....
Quietly, she said to the girl.."I'm going to give you a name...You look like that woman in the anime I just watched..How do you like the name, Ryoko?"
The girl looked at Caroline Smith with an appraising look, understandably suspicious...
"Come on, it's all right to talk to me, I want you to know that, Ryoko. I just can't call you by numbers, so want this to be our little secret?" Caroline asked, smiling..."Otherwise, I'm going to wind up calling you Stitch..and you look nothing like that character.." she chuckled.
The girl looked at her with serious eyes...she had known no joy in her short life...and tilted her head...then...for possibly the first time..smiled. It was hard to tell if this was an instinctive response or genuine emotion, but the girl was reacting! Again, Caroline gave the girl a tight hug as she set her down in the small cell, and proceeded to dress her...not with rough hands probing where they shouldn't, but with respect and dignity. Again, the girl smiled, shyly..
The next day, Caroline made a point of stopping at the girl's cell. Experiment 2542, was, according to the Crey Industries records, the last survivor of a group of clones created in hopes of improving their ever growing ranks. These would be impervious to anything the heroes of Paragon could toss at them. So far, only one had survived the testing that would determine how much damage they could take.
Experiment 2542, ostensibly a pyrokinetic, although she had yet to show any signs of that ability. A waiflike girl, apparently of mixed Oriental/occidental parentage, with white hair and light brown eyes...and slightly pointed ears.
As she swished the card in the magnetic lock, she heard the girl whimpering...no doubt in terror of more torture...
As Caroline entered, she saw the girl, curled up in the furtherest corner of the cell, shivering in terror. Then she remembered. Normally, Alf was the one who took the child to and from the experiments, with the girl usually howling in terror. However, Alf was currently in Paragon custody..ironically, for child molestation...
"Dear Lord, did he do that to you...Ryoko, Alf is not coming back. Not now, not ever. Not for a long long time.." She kneeled down, pulling a stuffed toy out of her backpack. She'd told security it was for her desk, but now she put the toy down near the girl. "And if I have anything to-"
"Ne..no? No....bad...man?" The girl spoke timidly, her voice almost a whisper, yet she empathized her words as she tried to speak..."
"No bad man..." Caroline smiled..and held her arms out...
The girl threw herself at the woman, crying and sobbing...
"Miss Smith, what have you done to tame this one?" The head technician was surprised to see 2542 so...well, well behaved. "Are you some sort of empath, or a horse whisperer?"
Caroline smiled. "I've just been working with her...she is intelligent, I believe, just that her last handler seems to have brutalized her."
"Yeah, pity about Alf. One of the best handlers of the test subjects...scared the hell out of them, but with their powers, that's really the only way you can handle them...odd how this one's powers haven't emerged so far. Better not get too attached to her, though. She's due to be terminated soon..."
Caroline was struck dumb with horror...after a moment, she spoke. "Why?"
The little girl also looked up at the tech...."Terrr-minn-nat-t-on?" she asked, innocently. She wasn't trusting of everyone yet, but she had progressed. The look she gave the man was curious as she struggled to understand...
Time passed, as Caroline continued to work with the girl, to prove that there was some spark of intelligence, of sentience, that she wasn't just the lab rat everyone else seemed to believe. Ryoko started to speak, haltingly, and Caroline was now teaching her to read. The girl was already proving to be intelligent, perhaps genius level, given how fast she absorbed information. But no fire could be seen, no matter how the girl tried to summon it.
Ryoko was also starting to dress herself, and was now bathing on a regular basis. Mercifully, at some point someone had at least taught the girl to use the toilet. Ryoko was doing everything with pride. Now she insisted on bringing an extra gown with her when she was taken to be subjected with the flames. It was such a contrast to the way she had been for so long.
Then came the day, when Caroline heard the tech talking...
"2542 is progressing, and is showing she can train. There are no signs of pyrokinsis, and I don't think she is. I recommend she be taken for DNA processing immediately, so we can create more like her. Pity we will have to put her to sleep to do it though...?"
Caroline slipped away, from the lab, heading to the girl's cell. It was getting on towards evening, and the guard shift would be starting shortly. It was the perfect time.
Ryoko looked up as Caroline came in.."Hi, " Caroline smiled to the girl. "Put on your overalls, and get Bunbun. Want to go home with me?"
The girl smiled.."Yes!" she exclaimed as she hugged the woman, then proceeded to dress.
"Listen, we are just going to go out the front way. I'm going to tell them I'm taking you to be processed, but when we get out, we are going to meet some people in Paragon City. Do you understand?"
"F..Fib? Isn't..thaaat...baad?"
"Not this time, honey. Now, hurry...there, now grab Bunbun and keep quiet as...-" Then Caroline turned.
Her boss stood there, revolver in hand. "And where do you think you are going, Ms. Smith?"
"She's to be processed, you know that. I heard you..." Caroline protested...
"So why is she wearing clothing instead of her gown? She's not going to need clothing where she's going. You know she's just a lab rat..."
"She's not, she's intelligent, she can reason, Ryoko knows what you are saying!"
"So..she now has a name? I think you have gotten to be too involved in this, Miss Smith."
The girl suddenly ran at the man's legs, flailing and screaming..."Nnnoooo..NO!" she yelled clearly, as she was grabbed roughly, the gun pointed at her head...
"We can just terminate her now, Miss Smith. The bullets are adamatium..and will pierce her brain, I'm sure of it..." He swore as Caroline grabbed his gun hand. Letting the child go, the tech struggled with the woman. 2542/Ryoko screamed in terror..then that horrible sound.
The sound she would never be able to forget, as long as she lived. Caroline slumped over as the bullet pierced her heart...
"Noooo!" Ryoko screamed, again starting to flail...and flames appeared in her hands, burning the man's legs before he managed to throw her into a wall.
Then the wall burst into flame as tears ran down the girl's cheeks as she screamed incoherently, pushing herself off the wall...somewhere, she heard someone yell about demons. Ryoko didn't care as she held Caroline in her small, thin arms...protecting her...not understanding...as the world burned about her...
"Good lord! I am getting too old for this!"
Mystik Paladin swore as he heard the cries, feeling every bit his age, as he searched the rubble of the Crey laboratory, following the cries, glad for the armor gauntlets that allowed him to dig thru still smoldering wreckage...
"What is it?" Magik Lass, a young teenager in training herself, rushed over to the dapper armored man (if anyone could pull that off, it was Mysty, as he was affectionately called).
"Look at this..." Gently he pulled the sobbing girl out of the rubble...looking down at the woman, partially burned, although the child had managed to preserve what was probably the real cause of her death, as well as a stuffed toy bunny..."Not a scratch on the girl, not even the start of a burn..."
"Is she still alive?" ML asked, looking at the child in the man's arms, who now clung to him, sobbing still, as he gently calmed her down.
"She is...poor thing...what was those cretins doing with a child, I wonder...and why was she trying to protect the woman.." Gently, Mysty picked up the child in his arms, carrying her as he would one of his own grandchildren..."can't be more than five.."
So the long journey began...
