Of What Measure is a Non-Human (Invite Only)

[mugenginga]

Makoto's face fell about half a second before Mal showed back up and Simon noted his appearance. The teenager looked ready to cry, but instead he scrunched up more and more or less buried his head in Simon's chest. No tears, but he looked like someone had killed his pet dog. That is to say more than usual. River looked pretty neutral, but it sure wasn't a smile. There was a very slight frown, and her head had looked up about the time Makoto had shown his reaction. She might have empathized had Jayne not put her brother in danger too.

Zoe's eyes had widened when she saw Mal's face. That expression... that expression she hadn't seen in years. In fact, she'd only seen it once. She took a step forward, shoving her gun into the hands of whoever was nearby. It happened to be Zero, and he almost dropped the thing out of disgust. Well, didn't she look upset. He held the gun between two fingers with distaste and dropped it in River's hands. She blinked and looked at him and glared, but he walked over to a tree and leaned back. Looks like he had more evidence of human fragility. There was a smirk at the corner of his lip. Oh dear, would the broken little man be able to function? His smirk became more than a trace when Mal asked his question.

"I don't know, Captain. You're acting awfully human right now," he said with a sneer, "Aren't you a little broken to be doing anything?"

[Jilak]

Simon looked back at the captain. As rude as Zero had been about it... he had a point. Malcolm was broken right now. Was it really a good time to make a move? Plus, without Jayne, they were short one man. One of the few crew members that had any fighting skills, at that. Kiyoshi had all but threatened war on the crew. Could they really handle it without one-man-army Jayne? Sure, River had beaten the Reavers, but Simon wasn't too keen on putting his little sister in another combat situation... but before he could react, the captain was responding to Zero.

"I dunno. Are you? Pretty recently you've gotten your ribs broken and nearly gorram killed yourself trying to make a point. You can bleed, your bones can break... sounds pretty human to me. Your program's so corrupt now, can you really call yourself a virus any more?" Mal asked, getting in Zero's face. The two were nearly touching by this point.

"Don't underestimate me. Not ever." Mal finished.

[mugenginga]

Zoe had whirled on Jayne and gave him a glare that would have made any sane individual grateful glares couldn't kill. Zero would have exploded if they could. The virus just gave her reaction a smirk. River's eyes narrowed and she looked at Zero. What no one would realize is that she was trying to figure him out. All she could see was code. Code she couldn't read. Code that had changed.... from lots of blue twos, ones, and zeroes to... lots of zeroes. The ones were forming a pattern, but binary was one of the few things she didn't know. But there was something there. Makoto tensed up as the tension of the humans in the area rose, and he clutched onto Simon with a surprising amount of force for his general condition.

Zero, on the other hand, had snarled at Mal's accusation. The reactions were fine until he'd called him human. He was a fucking god. More than that, he was above the gods, and no inferior little microbe of a mortal was going to imply he was as low as him. Zero took a step forward as Mal finished the distance, and their noses were about a centimenter from each other. One could almost see the sparks flying between them. And then Zero realized something, and his smirk went to a psychotic grin, revealing his teeth.

"The Captain's in trouble...!" River managed to get out half a second too late.

Because Zero hand thrown his hand forward as if he were going to punch Mal in the chest, but hand and entire lower arm had burst into very lightly blue tinged digital distortions... and his hand went straight into Mal's chest. A bit of data manipulation later and Mal's heart had stopped, Zero stepped forward enough so that their chests and even the tips of their nose were touching. He was about to speak when a bullet shot in his direction, and passed through him.

"Do that again and you all die," Zero said, his voice sounded dark and mechanical, like technology from Earth that Was known as a "Talkloid". Zero's grasp on Mal meant that he'd be in massive pain and unable to breath, but he was conscious... for the time being, "You were saying, human?"

[Jilak]

Mal's eyes widened as Zero's hand went straight into his chest. Apparently, he'd managed to touch the man's Beserk Button. He couldn't breathe. His heart had stopped. The man could kill him here. Simon was terrified, half-holding, half-hugging Makoto. This was bad. Zoe's bullet had gone through Zero. He couldn't be shot, and his hand was in the captain's chest. This was going worse than it had gone in a while.

Mal, however... Mal smiled. He grunted, presumably due to the fact that he couldn't breathe. Talking was no easy feat, but he managed it, gasping between phrases, trying to collect oxygen that wouldn't come.

"Always a... slave to the coding, eh Zero? I was just... sayin' how you're a... demented, human, son of a bitch... just like how I remember you were when I met you..." Malcolm wheezed, smile widening. He then left off, giving a quizzical look towards his arm.

"But you... know what I don't remember...? My arm being covered in blue twos..." Mal left off. And he was right. His arm was indeed covered in streams of blue twos, which ran up his arm from his palm. Just like the last time Zero had come in contact with him. Only this time... it didn't stop. It spread over his body, covering him. The black device within his palm rose to the surface, once more visible. Mal was forced back from Zero with great force, crashing into a large tree. It, too, was soon covered with the coding. Malcolm likely would have screamed, had he still been conscious. A voice came from his palm. One familiar to a select few. Agent X.

"Thank you. We have everything we need, now. It couldn't have been achieved without your help. All of you. Every move you would make, we've had mapped out. Especially our good Captain Reynolds'." As the voice faded, so, too, did Mal. He disappeared in a flash of light.

[mugenginga]

Zero smirked. Slave to the coding? Who said anything about deleting reality, right now? Right now, he just intended on destroying one very annoying human. After that, who knew? Free to do whatever the hell he wanted, he was slave to nothing and no one. Captain Malcom Reynolds had freed him. And he intended on telling the foolish mortal that before he deleted him when Mal pointed out his arm. Zero almost didn't look, thinking it some sort of trick, but really what could the man do if it was? He looked down....

...just as Mal was thrown backwards. The completely unplanned turn of events allowed the laws of physics to effect the virus as well, and he was thrown against the tree he had been leaning against minutes earlier, his physical form solidifying and his back arching with the surprised pain. He dropped to his knees as Agent X' voice came from the device.

Everyone was just sort of standing there in shock, not sure what the hell they could do here. Zoe had glowered at Zero and raised her gun to try again when he'd warned her. River's eyes had been darting everywhere, trying to come up with a solution. Makoto had begun to tremble, and Simon's shirt was a bit wet from a few tears. When Mal was thrown off, Zoe had fired another bullet. It had missed because Zero had been thrown backwards. No one had run towards Mal, but River's eyes had widened when the voice came. She winced and clamped her hands over her ears.

_{"Two by two... two by two..."} she muttered as she rocked back and forth.

When Mal had vanished, Zoe had moved rather fast. Zero was pulling himself up when he suddenly found the end of a gun rammed into his mouth. Zoe was glaring down at him, her finger firmly on the trigger. Her voice was calm, terrifyingly calm.

"If I can't kill you, you kill me and I waste a bullet. If I can, you better start talking. What the hell just happened to the Captain?"

[Jilak]

Simon was... flabbergasted, to say the least. First, Zero. Nice, lovable, Zero, tried to kill Malcolm. That was the first great surprise he suffered. The second was what happened to Mal. He disappeared in some sort of... coding error. Simon wasn't sure how to describe it. It was just incredibly surprising. And there was Zoe, putting her gun to Zero again. Zoe putting herself in incredibly danger for the crew was no surprise. To be quite honest, it was almost... comforting, in an odd sort of way.

Simon sort of awkwardly patted Makoto on the head. He wasn't... entirely sure what to say. Honestly, he himself needed comforting right now. He wasn't even sure how he was still standing after the emotional turmoil this day had been. But it was his job as an older brother.

"It's okay... I'm sure the captain's fine, he's gotten out of worse scrapes..." Simon stumbled out. Truth was, though, the only 'scrape' Simon could recall that even came close to the current one, Mal had lost.

--

Elsewhere in the forest, Jayne was incredibly curious. He'd just heard two gunshots come from the direction Mal had run. He was almost tempted to investigate. But no, the man had made it perfectly clear that if he saw Jayne again, he would murder him. Besides, the crew didn't need him any longer. They had Zero now. It was probably best for Jayne to take up root somewhere else, he surmised.

He grabbed Vera, holding it partially for comfort, partially because he needed to get it fixed as soon as possible, and began the longest walk of his life...

[mugenginga]

Zero's eyes had widened as the foul taste of metal was shoved into his mouth. He almost gagged from the surprise. Makoto still seemed terrified, and River as still rocking back and forth, chanting under her breath. She'd moved on to the second half of her rather infamous little phrase by this point, the part about colored hands.

The virus grabbed Zoe's gun, and she was less then a second from pulling the trigger when... his entire body began to distort and blue twos danced all around him. His eyes widened for half a second before he folded in half from what looked like indescribable pain. His distorted scream might have been heard if it weren't for the other scream.

River had dropped to her knees and was screeching. This was followed half a second later by Makoto as well, and he managed to thrash in a way that dropped him right out of Simon's arms. He threw his hands over his head and continued to scream, although it already sounded like he was going hoarse. River managed to get one intelligible sentence out among the cacophony.

"SIMON, MAKE IT STOP!!"

[Jilak]

River. If not for all the screaming, Simon would have beaten himself up. He'd forgotten about his little sister in all the commotion. And now she and Makoto were wailing. Something was wrong. He'd noticed Zero drop, even though he hadn't heard him scream. However, there were more important matters at hand at the moment. River and Makoto. He wasnt' entirely sure how to handle this, this wasn't something he'd been prepared for. The captain was possibly dead, Zero was making a Face Heel Turn, and River and Makoto were... seemingly in incredible pain. Today had gone from bad to worse.

"Mei-mei, it's okay, shhh shhh shhh." Simon stated, embracing River, trying to sound as calm as possible. It didn't work very well. His attempts at keeping himself under control were incredibly obvious by this point. Simon was placed in an awkward position here. River he could handle. Her occasional outbursts, he'd been prepared for. River AND Makoto however? That would take a bit more practice.

"Makoto, I'm here for you, calm down, Zoe's got the situation under control, I assure you." Simon called, looking to Zoe. They needed leadership right now. What they had was a missing captain, a missing engineer, a rogue virus, two terrified teenagers, and Simon, who was practically a nervous wreck at the moment. If anyone was going to be able to take hold of the situation, it would have to be Zoe. Simon was having enough trouble taking control of himself.

[mugenginga]

Zoe's initial reaction had pretty much been sort of just... freezing up. This was not something the battlefield trained you for. Fast actions, good shooting, respecting authority, making the hard decisions without batting an eye... totally. People turning into distortions, putting their hand's through your superior's chest, bursting into blue data and screaming... not so much. She hadn't shot the gun, so she had no gorram idea what was going on with Zero. She did know that River and Makoto were screaming, seemingly in response to Zero. She gave a determined frown and then flung the butt of her gun at Zero. It knocked him clean out, and the data stopped dancing as he fell to the side, a visible lump growing on his head.

Simon hadn't really being doing much for River. She was still screaming, although there were hiccups and signs she was trying to stop. Makoto's screaming had faded, but not because he wasn't screaming. In his condition, he was already mostly hoarse. By the time Zoe popped Zero in the head with her gun, he'd lost his voice. But the instant the data stopped dancing, River had collapsed into sobs, pushing her face into Simon's chest and trying to push her entire body closer. Makoto... wasn't stopping. While the sound was more or less gone, he was still tensing as if he was trying to scream. It took at least ten seconds after River had stopped before he curled up into a tight ball and began to sob into his knees.

"Simon, are they okay?" Zoe asked, flipping her gun back around. She still had focus on Zero, but he looked quite out. She was trying to sound tough still, but traces of concern came through. She wasn't sure what had happened, but River was a reader.... was the boy?

It was almost impossible to hear with her face against Simon's chest, but a single word came out of her mouth.

_{"Sh-shadow..."}

[Jilak]

"They seem to be calming down, but... I don't think any of us are okay. The captain's gone, Zero has gone rogue, and now..." Simon trailed off, however, as River spoke up. It was rather hard to hear, and even then sounded rather muffled, but it sounded like 'shadow'. Simon... had no idea what she was referring to. It was like 'Miranda' all over again, the only difference being that it was quite a bit less violence. Well, all things considered, at least.

"What do you think she means, 'Shadow'? Does it hold any form of significance to you?" Simon asked, looking to Zoe. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Simon remembered something concerning the term 'shadow'. But he remembered a lot concerning the term. He assumed she wasn't speaking of shadows as in those formed by light, but... if not, then what? Her Miranda incident had spoken of a planet, so maybe... there was a planet named Shadow? Simon couldn't remember ever visiting it, so if there was, it was an outer planet he'd not yet had the virtue of visiting. Might not get the virtue of visiting, with the captain gone...

[mugenginga]

Zoe gave a puzzled look at the term shadow. She hadn't heard River, but Simon apparently had. And she'd said "shadow"? She frowned, lines of frustration growing on her face. The first guess someone would make was in relation to light and darkness. But there was that case with Miranda... she walked over to River and crouched down so there heads would be parallel. River still had her head pressed into Simon's chest.

"River, is there anything more that you know than that word?"

_{"Not a word.... a name..."} River muttered into Simon's chest. She seemed aggravated for some reason.

Meanwhile, Makoto was still giving silent sobs. The others were there, but... he had probably done something wrong by collapsing. And Simon had his sister, and she would be more important... but it didn't mean he didn't feel abandoned.

[Jilak]

The situation wasn't exactly getting any better. It wasn't getting any worse either, to be fair, but that was mostly because it was as bad as it could get. To recap, the captain was gone, Zero had gone rogue, and River and Makoto were dealing with some sort of psychic backlash. Worse yet, as Simon was busy dealing with River's outburst, there wasn't much he could do for Makoto at the moment. It was troubling, really.

"A name... are we... talking to Shadow?" Simon questioned. It wasn't true of the Miranda incident, but it was always good to check. What occurred to Simon, though, was even if they got River and Makoto calmed down, even if they got a lead on where Mal was, they couldn't exactly... leave Zero there. There was no telling what he'd do. Really, at this point, him going on a killing spree seemed a likely outcome.

Plus, Zero seemed like he'd be pretty fun at parties.

[mugenginga]

Zoe looked troubled as Simon repeated what River had said. A name. She didn't think River was speaking for anyone, though. No, a name. Mal had vanished. A name. She looked over at Makoto for a moment before lifting her head to look at Simon. She looked dead serious. The only time she'd been more serious was in the events following Wash's death.

"Has the Captain ever mentioned his past to you?" she asked, her voice flat. She knew the answer, Mal wasn't exactly an open person, but...

And what did this whole situation have to do with Mal's home planet?

[Jilak]

Thus it was Simon's turn to sport a puzzled expression. He was... absolutely confused. The captain's past? What relation could that have to River's psychic fit? Although, to be fair, if it did, Simon would have no way of knowing. Mal had never been the most... open gentleman he knew. He had no idea what the man's home planet was, he didn't know exactly how old he was, he didn't even know if the man had a middle name. He could be Batman for all Simon knew.

"The captain... never talked about his past, no. I mean, there were the rare few occasions when he would mention the battle of Serenity Valley, but that's all I know. Why? Is Shadow... the captain's middle name?" Simon questioned, raising a brow.

[mugenginga]

Zoe shook her head and kneeled down so that she was level with River. The boy was a problem, but for now they had to go with their best lead. If his reactions were that of a reader, there wasn't anything that could be done for him anyways. Her soldier practicality was coming through again.

"River, honey, is there something going on with Shadow? Is the Captain there?"

River stopped shaking for a moment and sat up. She seemed instantly calm, out of nowhere. Makoto continued to shake, though. She looked at Zoe and bit her lip as if deep in thought.

"Shadow's the source... the Captain's the source..." she said, looking as if she understood the words about as well as anyone else probably did.