Post by Ransack Manson on Mar 16, 2021 13:03:31 GMT -6
 See the animal in his cage that you built Are you sure what side you're on? The following is an excerpt from the transcripts of recordings found in the files of Dr. Reginald Royce: The first tests were...inconclusive, but the patient’s resiliency was certainly impressive. I saw something in him - in Ransack - that I’ve never seen in other subjects. I have been firmly convinced that we can connect the universe around us to other planes of existence since the events of my arrival here at Devil’s Gate. Some - Richard Michaels, for one - see the work I’m doing on this matter as a means of bridging the gap between our living world and the afterlife he is so convinced exists. I, on the other hand, know that this work is a means of activating a beacon to other realities that surround this one, to opening a connection between worlds that might allow one to navigate the divide with intention instead of happenstance. >Papers shuffling In popular media, they refer to this concept as a multiverse. Michaels is adamant that there is but one divinely originated universe, so to him, the possibility of the beacon is proof that heaven and hell are real. In my learned opinion, he is partially correct. Heaven and hell are real, but...they exist as alternate planes to the universe that we presently occupy. They are but two of the seemingly infinite alternate universal planes of the multiverse. When I’m inevitably proven correct, then there may be hope that I… >Knock at the door ...Yes? >Inaudible voice Yes, yes. I’m com... >Recording ends abruptly Pete Harper remained there kneeling on the concrete floor of the tunnel looking up, agape at Ransack Manson. Harper looked on and witnessed Ransack battle against the force within him. Harper understood that force to be the ethereal being of the departed Raging Dead, and in that moment of revelation, Harper was overwhelmed with a cavalcade of thoughts and emotions. He muttered to himself as he remained there on the concrete floor. “Dr. Royce was right all along. He...knew. Somehow he just knew.” Ransack shook his head as he regained control of himself slowly but surely. He looked down at Harper kneeling before him and his fear was replaced with internalized inquisitiveness, How did ‘Nate’ know Harper was coming to kill me? As Ransack’s rational understanding of the fact that Harper came prepared to put him down settled in, his eyes reflected the pain coming to terms with such an overt betrayal by a man he had come to see as a protector and friend from the time they shared at Devil’s Gate. The madman’s throat constricted as his epiphany grabbed him by the neck, and he weakly eked out a question for Harper. “Why, Pete?” Harper’s head turned in confusion. “Ransack? Where’s Nate?! Bring Nate back!” Ransack winced in pain as the internal struggle for control overwhelmed him yet again. Gust’s voice rang out from Ransack’s husk again. “If I take over completely, Ransack will die from shock, Pete. Your beacon will be gone.” A new tear ran down Harper’s cheek as he closed his eyes to defeat the visual dissonance of Gust’s voice coming from Ransack’s body. Harper imagined his cousin as the man standing before him. “He doesn’t know how to share himself right now, and every time I show up, it’s torture for him. He needs your help, Pete. Teach him what you learned from Royce. The Doc was more right than he was wrong. Ransack needs you. I need you, Pete.” Ransack suddenly collapsed to his knees. Harper looked on and knew that Nate was gone and Ransack was back in control. Harper quickly rose to his feet and rushed to help Ransack off the ground. Ransack looked at Harper with the eyes of a hurt child whose father whisked him up into his arms. The pair shared a moment of eye contact, and an immense peace washed over the tunnels. For a moment, Ransack forgot about Harper’s gun, and Harper forgot about the whole reason he’d come to Vegas in the first place. For a moment, Harper was again the closest thing Ransack had to a friend, and Ransack was a patient Harper was built to protect. Harper helped Ransack back to his feet, and Ransack leaned his body into Harper’s as if demanding to be held. Harper’s brow furrowed in pity, and he wrapped his arms around Ransack’s much thicker frame. Ransack began to sob into Harper’s chest, and through the gasps of his full on melt down, Ransack snorted out, “Why’d you do it, Pete?” As the words escaped Ransack’s mouth, he wrapped his arms around Harper’s waist and lifted Harper from the ground before slamming him to the concrete with a belly-to-belly. All the air inside of Harper escaped him the moment he impacted the ground, and Ransack took advantage of his incapacitation. “WHY’D YOU DO IT, PETE?!” The intensity in Ransack’s violent retribution increased with every second, and in short order Ransack had jammed his disgusting, unwashed fingers into Harper’s mouth and latched on with a Mandible Claw. “WHY PETE?! WHY?!” Harper felt himself fading fast in the hold, but as if someone turned out the lights in Ransack’s head, the madman released the hold and collapsed in an unconscious heap on Harper. Harper swiftly pushed Ransack to the side and sat up gasping for air. As his lungs filled again with the rancid air of the tunnels, Harper’s eyes watered and he coughed. “Thanks for the save, Nate.” Harper moved his jaw back and forth with one hand while reaching back with the other in a lame effort to massage the muscles of his back which tightened up when he was slammed into the concrete. Ransack laid on the floor in a heap as Harper looked on to ensure the madman was still breathing. He was. Harper relaxed just a little, but kept himself on guard just in case. As Ransack laid there, Harper grabbed his spotlight and began to examine the supplies that Ransack had amassed and stored around his throne. Harper pined for some kind of restraints. Rope, maybe?, he’d thought to himself. As Harper inspected everything, his light cascaded across an extension cord that had to be at least 50 feet long. He grabbed it and proceeded to hogtie the downed madman before attempting to wake him up. At first, Harper tried to nudge Ransack’s ribs with his foot, but Ransack didn’t stir. Harper then squatted down by Ransack’s head and reached for the bottom of the madman’s mask to remove it. As if he had been struck by lightning, Ransack immediately returned to consciousness and began to trash against his bindings and make awful noises that caused Harper to take several steps back. “Just stop before you hurt yourself. I’m not going to hurt you, Ransack.” Ransack began to slam his own head into the concrete repeatedly, and Harper looked on in horror before sliding his own hands under Ransack’s forehead and stopping him from self-inflicting a repeated head trauma. Harper grew frustrated and called out for some possible assistance, “Nate…?” Ransack calmed himself knowing how preferable it would be to the alternative of having The Raging Dead flip the kill switch again, and Harper pulled his hands back to his sides and stepped away from still-restrained Ransack. “Like I said… I’m not going to hurt you, Ransack.” The madman turned his head up toward Harper to look at him. “I wasn’t ever looking to hurt you, Ransack. I had come to stop you from hurting anyone else. But now? I…” Harper choked up and paused for a moment while shaking his head. “I know that things aren’t what they seemed to be, and that the best thing I can do to stop you right now is help you.” Ransack’s eyes narrowed as he mindlessly strained against his restraints and stared through Harper. “I need to help you win this tournament. I need to help you get back to Devil’s Gate. I need to Dr. Royce to know that you’re him. You’re the beacon.” Ransack laughed to himself. “What’s so funny?” Ransack looked up again to make eye contact with Harper. “At least be honest.” Harper shrugged. “Ok. Fine… I need your help to find a way to bring Nate back for good.” “You need my help to put everything right where it belongs, huh?” “Yeah, I guess so.” “Then untie me or I’ll bash my own fucking brains out on the ground so you get nothing, Harper.” Harper agonized in the moment. He knew what he had to do, but just as was true of what was about to be more broadly required of him, he was struggling to bridge the gap between what he wanted to do and what he needed to do. Better not look him too closely in the eye Are you sure what side of the glass you are on? |