Wooden Expressions

Who: Keto, Wildflower, Tree
Where: Near the Drive Room
When: After the creation of the corrupted personality
=====================
There was a faint creak of trembling wood as the Tree tried to lean
sideways to look around the corner. After trying for a good few
seconds to persuade its trunk to bend, it simply thrust a couple of
branches round before bouncing on its way. Behind it followed
Wildflower, holding a pack of syringes in her left hand while
wielding one like a throwing knife in the other. The two of them
left a small trail of clones behind them, writhing on the floor as a
scorpion clone tried unsuccessfully to remove a syringe from its face
with its awkward claws, while a wasp clone buzzed pathetically on the
ground, its wings holed by Tree branches.
"If we can get to the Drive Room, perhaps there'll be a way we can
stop all this - get Holly back, get all the clones off the ship or
something," hissed Wildflower. She had to confess that she was
(somewhat guiltily) enjoying throwing syringes at bastardised
versions of her ex...the running for her life wasn't so much fun, but
hey.
A groan came from along a nearby junction, and the two spun on
their heels/roots combination. A bloody hand reached around a
corner, followed by the damaged body of Xavier Keto.
His left hand was clenched around the barrel of what Wildflower
vaguely recognised as a medibay-requisitioned gun. Apparently at
some point all the shots had been fired and Keto had resorted to
using it as a club. The other hand was empty, with the fingers
contorted in such a fashion as to suggest perhaps all the bones were
not in their correct configurations. Keto's clothes were ripped to
shreds, his skin following suit, leaving him to draw a thick trail of
blood in the floor behind him as he hauled himself along, one of his
legs twisted back against itself at the knee. He paused as he saw
Wildflower and the Tree, then burbled something and collapsed onto
his elbows.
*Rustle rustle?* managed the Tree, its branches quivering
slightly. Wildflower knelt down and lifted Keto upright. He was
surprisingly light as she supported him on his one good leg, his head
rolling to one side as he repeated his statement, before coughing and
releasing a small cloud of blood into the atmosphere.
"I think he said 'Just when things looked at their worst,'" she
said, sighing and rolling her eyes. She propped Keto up against the
corridor wall in a sitting position, taking his pulse.
"It's no good, I'm going to have to stay here," she said, pulling a
small vial out of her pocket and breaking open a new sterile
syringe, "Tree, you're going to have to go on from here. Get into
the Drive Room and try and fix this thing! They seem to be trying to
herd everyone towards the Promenade - don't let them get you. I
don't think we can trust these guys for a second!"
The Tree hesitated for a second, looking down at the two figures
crouched in the corridor. Then, slowly, it straightened its bark
with an audible crack.
*Rustle.*
-- Two Minutes Later, In The Drive Room --
The Jack clone that had so recently been part of a corrupted Holly
subroutine turned as the banging on the door changed. Moments
before, it had been the banging of dozens of clones trying to break
in, attempting to kill Dante and Aurora...who, unknown to the clones,
had slid down the escape chute seconds before the arrival of the
program clone.
Now, however, the noises were changing to worried buzzes, followed
by scared buzzes, followed the the sounds of flesh and wings being
torn apart, mingled with hollow-sounding thuds. The program clone
was, for want of a better word, curious about this.
Then there was the sound of twisting metal, and the emergency
release on the bulkhead door was suddenly shattered. A wooden spike
speared its way through the mechanism, grasped, and twisted. The
huge door swung open on its hinges, slamming against the wall with a
resounding boom. Silhouetted in the doorway was a shape the clone
couldn't recognise.
*Rustle!*
=================
OOC: So I'm playing about with the Tree for a while, I felt like
having Keto injured. ;) Don't kill the Tree, please! I like it!