Made a snippet for @jennpy out of love for Spider!Jack.
“It’ll just be for a peek,” Rhys insisted as he knelt down to grab a can of juice from the vending machine, popping it open before taking a quick sip.
Vaughn narrowed his eyes at him behind his bifocals with arms firmly crossed.
“Yeah. That’s what you said about going in here the last time and they nearly fed us to the stalkers!” argued his friend lowly while eyeing around them to ensure no one had overheard of their ‘indiscretions’ with the notorious R&D department.
“Well, you don’t have to come, Vaughn. Come on, aren’t you the least bit curious about that empyrean creation that greasy scientist was blathering on about?” Rhys asked while straightening himself, utilizing his charming smile.
“Nuh uh. That’s not gonna work on me today, Rhys. I’m serious, bro. They’re gonna tear you to pieces if they catch you snooping around in Lab 19’s jurisdiction again.”
Rhys frowned at his friend’s lack of support as well as his charisma’s failure to win him over. Taking another smooth sip, he waved the other off with his robotic hand before attempting to crush the can in his organic hand to little avail, instead tossing it to continue his illusion of ‘coolness.’
“I’m telling you, Vaughn, those guys have something and it’s oozing a payload,” the cybernetic man pressed sounding a little more agitated now as he began to storm off.
“Oh really? And is it really worth staking your life over?” His best friend shouted behind him, staying put in the cafeteria while the salesman wandered off to only god knows where.
There was something huge in the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve. Rhys could feel in his bones, the call of unfair conquest. Sure, he was supposed to be with the rest of the group for his indoc, but he just couldn’t resist the chance to show up a rival Handsome Jack fanboy wannabe. That Professor Nakayama guy really got under his skin with his smarmy talk of knowing the true Jack and being the only one that could ever please him. Jack was a person… to-be-idolized-excessively-from-afar-and-never-ever-directly-interacted-with. That was basic fandom 101, and Nakayama was doing it all wrong.
Rhys wasn’t even going to get into how the overindulgent PhD managed to have the gall to put his Handsome Jack adoration out in public like a raving lunatic. Ugh. The cybernetic man needed to find out what it was this unnerving scientist was so smug about and knock him off his high horse. Of course, he could never tell Vaughn that this was the real reason he kept habitually sneaking from the main group. This was his own private vendetta…
Strolling calmly through the halls with a quick smile and casual hello to the socially incapacitated lab rats he passed, Rhys kept on the lookout for anything that could tip him off to Nakayama’s ludicrous experiment. The supposed geneticist had boasted that it would be something no other person could ever even dream of accomplishing, much less successfully harness the unique power of. So what could it possibly be?
Stopping within one of the open hallways, Rhys feigned watching a flock of slag-infected rakks fly past the large scaled window as two other scientists conversed nervously nearby.
“I really wish Nakayama would stop talking about it… I don’t really think our Jack clone is going to… well… impress anyone. Much less Handsome Jack himself…”
“Shhh! What if he’s tapped into our Echoes again? You know what happened to Jim!”
“Eugh. Good point. I’d rather not get thrown into Jack’s chamber over on the east wing… Rest in peace, Jimmy.”
Rhys activated his Echo, immediately pulling up details on the map of the facility. It seemed he would be paying the east wing a little visit…
A Jack clone… Could Professor Nakayama actually have managed it? Rhys’ mind reeled with a quiet despair. No wonder the balding man was so high and mighty during the briefing. But what if… he took it?
Rhys’ cybernetics had gotten him through several of the flimsy forms of what they considered security through use of his rhyswinz.exe burning through firewalls with relative ease. Now he had made it to the fabled chamber that apparently housed the… Jack clone? He eyed the glass walls that allowed for observation near the entryway. A massive steel reinforced door stood between them which led Rhys to wonder why it was they would have to place so much security… and what was with all the webs?
Maybe he was in the wrong place. Then again, the webbing did look incredibly golden and silky… Perhaps the Jack clone had varied tastes during his… progression? Rhys wasn’t really sure what to think, but he definitely knew he wanted to catch a glimpse of the clone. He peeked through the glass but nothing seemed to appear within the terrarium. It was a little odd.
Giant webs. Weird trees. And… butterflies? What the heck sort of habitat was this for a Handsome Jack clone?
Okay, now this wasn’t just a matter of petty theft. This was a damn rescue.
Hacking through the final defense line the system had, Rhys engaged for the final door to open wide with a hiss as it pressurized to the adjacent chamber. The salesman yelped as a torrent of butterflies hurdled into the room, attempting to escape somehow, which surprised him before scattering. The climate of the terrarium was much warmer than he’d expected as he stepped inside. A soft mist coated the floor, concealing his skag skin shoes within it.
What was he getting himself into?
Shaking his well coiffed head, Rhys pressed on with his holographic sensor emanating from above his palm in search of life larger than three feet. Fortunately, only a single blip appeared on his screen which indicated much deeper into the strange forest-like area. He wasn’t even sure how large the domain even was, yet as he progressed, the trees began to all look the same, each bearing some sort of fruit. After scanning around the peculiar environ, Rhys discovered that he was standing in the middle of a citrus grove which somehow made the situation even stranger…
Nakayama was going to surely pay for this if there was actually a Handsome Jack clone somewhere trapped inside there.
Venturing on toward the blip indicated on his directory, Rhys found himself getting caught several times not paying attention and incidentally colliding into the golden strands of sticky webbing. Fortunately, the salesman was strong enough to pull himself out, but it left an eerie feeling in him as to what it was that may have created it. It didn’t have the typical thickness of a normal spider web. This was much bigger.
To Be Continued…
There will definitely before more. I just wanted to get this much out of my system before I overdo it. I gotta brush up on some arachnid anatomy before I start making some serious Jack scenes. Eeeee! Hope you liked it!
