11-24-2016, 11:54 AM
Sarah smiled with a face that seemed far more genuine than it truly was. This girl was able to play the game well… and from the pause in her stride just a little while ago, she’d started to realize who she was playing with.
Sarah idly bounced the poke-ball in their hand, as they strode past meaningless street after meaningless street. Part of her wanted to take up the offer that Sabrina had so casually thrown out earlier - an invitation to battle, to fight. Still, Sarah was no fool - whoever this prime was, she’d been around significantly longer than Sarah. She’d had time to get used to the rules, and time to accumulate power. The Queen of Blades generally shied away from getting into a fight when the deck wasn’t stacked in her favor.
For now, the Pokemon Master could keep her little Marsh Badge.
Still, Sarah had to admit she was impressed with Sabrina - even if she could see a few little cracks in the edges of her story.
Really, the fact that Kerrigan couldn’t see the full story behind it gave every hint of credit to the woman. The only thing stopping her story about being a mild-mannered researcher - other than her own body language hinting at something just a little more vicious, even if those moments that Sarah caught were fleeting and quickly fixed - was the Arcanine.
The Queen of Blades still had Zerg DNA floating through her veins, and as soon as the flame-colored canine appeared from its capsule, her instincts immediately urged her to study every facet of the creature, all obvious weak-points, it’s similarities to similar species in the swarm, it’s body language… and for Kerrigan, it’s psychic feeling.
Yet as Kerrigan checked the creature’s mind, she immediately felt something that Sabrina hadn’t told her of. Within the mind and it’s surface thoughts, most were of loyalty, a need for orders, and an utter lack of any personal goals or forethought. It’s thoughts were curiously slow, and in the end, while the simple dog’s thoughts were far too unformed to even form true voice, Kerrigan was very familiar with this subdued, stitched-together psyche.
Neural Resocialization.
Kerrigan had no idea if Sabrina had done the grunt work of brainwashing the pokemon herself, or if she’d simply obtained it from someone, but she was also apparently unbothered by it. Given her psychic nature left her unable to be truly unaware... at least not with her own canny nature to account for.
Straight line my ass.
Still, Sabrina hadn’t caught on to the fact that Kerrigan had telepathy of her own… though she wasn’t so foolish as to push her luck by reading the other prime’s mind herself. She’d played a decent hand… she just didn’t know who she was truly speaking to.
Sarah smiled broadly at that moment, now, when asked who she was. She’d feign a win to the woman… and she’d find out just where her moral compass truly sat. By the end of Kerrigan’s words, she’d know, one way or the other, just what lay within the heart of the pokemon gym leader.
After all, she’d earned a little honesty for entertaining the leader of the swarm.
“Well, why not? Ir is the first time anyone has ever asked me who I am.” Sarah responded.
Usually, all they ask is… “Why?”
“Once, I was a human… much like yourself. Just like you, I found my own talent for Psychic abilities at a young age - a little… outburst of telekinesis.” Kerrigan stated. Once, she’d thought of that as a traumatic memory.
Her head came apart Her head came apart!
Now, it was simply her first kill, and she couldn’t resist smiling a little as she continued to speak. “Humans are just as fragile in my universe as yours, with a few exceptions.” Sarah said. “Those who are able to access psychic power, though - those are more common. In the Koprulu sector, the ruling government takes every psychic child they can find, and enlists them in the ghost program - once they’re done with you, you become an emotionless assassin that kills when you’re told to. I wasn’t an exception” Kerrigan continued, thinking back.
Not an exception. Just exceptional.
“Eventually, someone found me. Restored my mind.” Kerrigan continued. “Right as the zerg began to pop up all over the Koprulu. As a psychic, I was useful because of the Zerg’s search for psionic power. They sought to fight the protoss - absorb their genetics and add them to the fold. To do that, they needed psionic powers of their own.” Kerrigan paused for a moment, drinking in the look of interest in Sabrina’s face. Not disgust. Not horror. Her expression seemed to say she was taking notes.
“The terrans didn’t know that, of course, but they knew that the zerg were drawn to psychic energy. So they developed an emitter - a way to boost the signal that telepathic wavelengths sent out. It allowed them to draw the zerg to a world, and when they got there, they’d infest the planet, eating every life-form on the planet, and the Confederacy - our valiant government - saw this as a genius way to wipe out any planets that dissented against them.” Kerrigan stated.
“As the man who freed me wanted to rebel against this confederacy, he instead saw these tools as a way to destroy them. So I helped steal the emitters, brought one to their capital planet, drew the swarm to lay waste to the world… and was promptly abandoned to rot.”
At this point, Sabrina’s eyes lit up, and it seemed that she’d actually managed to surprise her for once with a part of her story. Perhaps it was due to the easily-seen foolishness of the act. Perhaps she didn’t expect
“I knew too much. Arcturus needed to be blameless.” Sarah continued, absentmindedly noting her slip of the man’s name. “So he left me to die amongst the zerg. Instead…”
Sarah grinned, her breath catching as she remembered that beautiful moment, where she’d emerged from the Chrysalis.
“Instead, I was transformed. Enhanced. I went from a human with psychic powers, to the perfect fusion of human and zerg DNA. Something more than either race.” Kerrigan finished. “My psychic abilities, my physical body, everything was brought to an unmatched height - all for the purpose of serving the Zerg leader - the Overmind. Until he went from ultimate hive-mind of the swarm to a rotting mound of flesh and brain matter.”
At this point, Sarah stopped, noticing the expression on Sabrina’s face. There seemed to be a shifting tide of emotions. Satisfaction, caution, curiosity, confusion - Sarah simply breathed in, though in truth, as a zerg she didn’t need to, and continued her story.
“After the great Overmind was killed, there was no one left to rule the swarm… except for myself. And so, I took power over the trillions of zerg that swarmed across the Koprulu sector.”
“...And what did you do with this swarm?” Sabrina asked with a tone of urgency.
Sarah smirked at the woman for a moment, and for just a brief moment, the predator behind the sarcastic visage was there before her. Sarah wondered what her reaction would be. For most, she imagined she’d be seen as a threat, for moral reasons, or simply pragmatic survival instinct. She could have always misjudged Sabrina, after all - this could be the push that drove the girl to run away, or report her as a danger to the omni-present stormtroopers that walked these streets.
But Kerrigan rarely misjudged, and she was certain Sabrina had few scruples. What mattered to the girl before her, she was quite certain, was power, control, evolution.
They were two sides of the same coin. Partnership with a woman like this would be easy.
“I became the Queen of Blades.”
Sarah idly bounced the poke-ball in their hand, as they strode past meaningless street after meaningless street. Part of her wanted to take up the offer that Sabrina had so casually thrown out earlier - an invitation to battle, to fight. Still, Sarah was no fool - whoever this prime was, she’d been around significantly longer than Sarah. She’d had time to get used to the rules, and time to accumulate power. The Queen of Blades generally shied away from getting into a fight when the deck wasn’t stacked in her favor.
For now, the Pokemon Master could keep her little Marsh Badge.
Still, Sarah had to admit she was impressed with Sabrina - even if she could see a few little cracks in the edges of her story.
Really, the fact that Kerrigan couldn’t see the full story behind it gave every hint of credit to the woman. The only thing stopping her story about being a mild-mannered researcher - other than her own body language hinting at something just a little more vicious, even if those moments that Sarah caught were fleeting and quickly fixed - was the Arcanine.
The Queen of Blades still had Zerg DNA floating through her veins, and as soon as the flame-colored canine appeared from its capsule, her instincts immediately urged her to study every facet of the creature, all obvious weak-points, it’s similarities to similar species in the swarm, it’s body language… and for Kerrigan, it’s psychic feeling.
Yet as Kerrigan checked the creature’s mind, she immediately felt something that Sabrina hadn’t told her of. Within the mind and it’s surface thoughts, most were of loyalty, a need for orders, and an utter lack of any personal goals or forethought. It’s thoughts were curiously slow, and in the end, while the simple dog’s thoughts were far too unformed to even form true voice, Kerrigan was very familiar with this subdued, stitched-together psyche.
Neural Resocialization.
Kerrigan had no idea if Sabrina had done the grunt work of brainwashing the pokemon herself, or if she’d simply obtained it from someone, but she was also apparently unbothered by it. Given her psychic nature left her unable to be truly unaware... at least not with her own canny nature to account for.
Straight line my ass.
Still, Sabrina hadn’t caught on to the fact that Kerrigan had telepathy of her own… though she wasn’t so foolish as to push her luck by reading the other prime’s mind herself. She’d played a decent hand… she just didn’t know who she was truly speaking to.
Sarah smiled broadly at that moment, now, when asked who she was. She’d feign a win to the woman… and she’d find out just where her moral compass truly sat. By the end of Kerrigan’s words, she’d know, one way or the other, just what lay within the heart of the pokemon gym leader.
After all, she’d earned a little honesty for entertaining the leader of the swarm.
“Well, why not? Ir is the first time anyone has ever asked me who I am.” Sarah responded.
Usually, all they ask is… “Why?”
“Once, I was a human… much like yourself. Just like you, I found my own talent for Psychic abilities at a young age - a little… outburst of telekinesis.” Kerrigan stated. Once, she’d thought of that as a traumatic memory.
Her head came apart Her head came apart!
Now, it was simply her first kill, and she couldn’t resist smiling a little as she continued to speak. “Humans are just as fragile in my universe as yours, with a few exceptions.” Sarah said. “Those who are able to access psychic power, though - those are more common. In the Koprulu sector, the ruling government takes every psychic child they can find, and enlists them in the ghost program - once they’re done with you, you become an emotionless assassin that kills when you’re told to. I wasn’t an exception” Kerrigan continued, thinking back.
Not an exception. Just exceptional.
“Eventually, someone found me. Restored my mind.” Kerrigan continued. “Right as the zerg began to pop up all over the Koprulu. As a psychic, I was useful because of the Zerg’s search for psionic power. They sought to fight the protoss - absorb their genetics and add them to the fold. To do that, they needed psionic powers of their own.” Kerrigan paused for a moment, drinking in the look of interest in Sabrina’s face. Not disgust. Not horror. Her expression seemed to say she was taking notes.
“The terrans didn’t know that, of course, but they knew that the zerg were drawn to psychic energy. So they developed an emitter - a way to boost the signal that telepathic wavelengths sent out. It allowed them to draw the zerg to a world, and when they got there, they’d infest the planet, eating every life-form on the planet, and the Confederacy - our valiant government - saw this as a genius way to wipe out any planets that dissented against them.” Kerrigan stated.
“As the man who freed me wanted to rebel against this confederacy, he instead saw these tools as a way to destroy them. So I helped steal the emitters, brought one to their capital planet, drew the swarm to lay waste to the world… and was promptly abandoned to rot.”
At this point, Sabrina’s eyes lit up, and it seemed that she’d actually managed to surprise her for once with a part of her story. Perhaps it was due to the easily-seen foolishness of the act. Perhaps she didn’t expect
“I knew too much. Arcturus needed to be blameless.” Sarah continued, absentmindedly noting her slip of the man’s name. “So he left me to die amongst the zerg. Instead…”
Sarah grinned, her breath catching as she remembered that beautiful moment, where she’d emerged from the Chrysalis.
“Instead, I was transformed. Enhanced. I went from a human with psychic powers, to the perfect fusion of human and zerg DNA. Something more than either race.” Kerrigan finished. “My psychic abilities, my physical body, everything was brought to an unmatched height - all for the purpose of serving the Zerg leader - the Overmind. Until he went from ultimate hive-mind of the swarm to a rotting mound of flesh and brain matter.”
At this point, Sarah stopped, noticing the expression on Sabrina’s face. There seemed to be a shifting tide of emotions. Satisfaction, caution, curiosity, confusion - Sarah simply breathed in, though in truth, as a zerg she didn’t need to, and continued her story.
“After the great Overmind was killed, there was no one left to rule the swarm… except for myself. And so, I took power over the trillions of zerg that swarmed across the Koprulu sector.”
“...And what did you do with this swarm?” Sabrina asked with a tone of urgency.
Sarah smirked at the woman for a moment, and for just a brief moment, the predator behind the sarcastic visage was there before her. Sarah wondered what her reaction would be. For most, she imagined she’d be seen as a threat, for moral reasons, or simply pragmatic survival instinct. She could have always misjudged Sabrina, after all - this could be the push that drove the girl to run away, or report her as a danger to the omni-present stormtroopers that walked these streets.
But Kerrigan rarely misjudged, and she was certain Sabrina had few scruples. What mattered to the girl before her, she was quite certain, was power, control, evolution.
They were two sides of the same coin. Partnership with a woman like this would be easy.
“I became the Queen of Blades.”