Undertow - 6.0 - The Siren Rises
Rise
EPISODE CREDITS:
Luke Alphonso as Waylon Grant
Abigail Turner as Jonny
Jordan Cobb as Alex Webb, The Siren
Alexander Doddy as Nick Ballard
Bianca Skinner as Derby Bell
Kenneth Faircloth Jr. as Various Dark Fathom Agents
---
Dan Boud as the Narrator
Written by Damian Szydlo
Direction by Amanda Hufford
Sound Design by Chris Henry
Script Editing by Jupiter Sanders
Show theme by Doug Maxwell
TRANSCRIPT
FADE IN
[The scene opens to the sound of an alarm; fighting, gunshots going off and being deflected as Derby Bell rushes into the fray, slashing and killing guards]
NARRATOR
The steps of her dance had long since fallen to senseless repetition. It was nearly insulting how little art there was in this. A seemingly endless cycle of killing uninspired defenders that had long since become more chore than challenge. There was a disappointment in this entire assault that was hard to quantify. She’d expected to feel a rush; to be overcome with the thrill of testing her skills against waves upon waves of opposition. That her mind and body might be pushed far past her limits in a way they had never been. Instead, there was just a numbness… an emptiness to the slaughter that threatened to break her resolve as she followed the Siren's song through the seemingly endless halls of Poseidon's Reach.
[Fighting dies down as she kills the last of her active opponents]
DERBY BELL
[breathing heavily]
“Is that all of you, then? Probably not… but one can hope.”
NARRATOR
The persistent urging of the Siren's song allowed little time to pause and survey the grisly work she’d wrought. Neither did it allow her to recognize the exhaustion that was setting in. Shaking her head to herself, she silently acknowledged the summons, collecting herself before assuming a brisk yet silent jog down what seemed to be yet another random corridor of this labyrinth.
Derby wasn’t sure if it was intuition or desperation that drove the hope that she must surely be close to her target by now. To her daughter. The thought of the girl Alex had been came with an amount of discomfort for the assassin. It was no secret that Derby had never thought of herself as a mother; a feeling which had made the kidnapping and presumed death of her only child somewhat easier to process. It was better to not have attachments afterall. Attachments could be leveraged against you. The same way she’d done to Jonny not more than a year ago in taking the life of the merc's father as a way to push her to confrontation. Now, as fate would have it… here she was, deep under the surface of the Atlantic ocean. Ready to… what? She thought. To bring Alex home? To make up for lost time like a regular family might? Unlikely. This right here is the sort of murky purpose family brought.
Her thoughts were barely broken by the precognitive warning of danger that had been a regular visitor to her mind since starting this attack. Letting instinct propel her actions, Derby Bell leapt into the air, spinning gracefully around a blind corner to skirt low and sweep a would-be ambusher off their feet. Without hesitation she swept her blade upward to cleanly sever the cybernetic arm of another agent before slipping the tip of the sword through his chest, the monofilament edge finding no hindrance in passing through both flesh or bone. With a sigh the assassin gently removed the man's gun from his remaining, shaking hand before turning it on the still scrambling first attacker who was desperately trying to find their feet.
[pistol shot]
SIREN
[echoing/mental projection - take audio from Siren Intermission - DO NOT RECORD HIGHLIGHTED]
“Get me out of here! Get me out of here right now! Mom? Please don’t let them…”
DERBY BELL
“Alex?”
SIREN
[still a psychic projection]
“This isn’t right. I don’t want to be here anymore. Get me out, get me out of here! -”
DERBY BELL
“Hold on, baby girl. I’ll be there soon… Unless… [chuckles to herself in relief] I already am. That’s you, isn’t it? Calling out from behind those big ol’ security doors? Locked up tight.”
NARRATOR
It was. She could feel the answer screaming through every inch of her exhausted body. This time it wasn’t one of her gifts, or at least not one of the psychic modules she’d had implanted in her mind. No… this was far more raw. Primal. The bond between mother and daughter; intensified by a powerful psychic link. In this place, it was blood that cried out to blood.
Her child, once sacrificed to the altar of progress, was now back from the dead and waiting on the other side of that now unprotected door.
Steeling her resolve and calming her spirit, Bell closed her eyes as if she were drifting off into some lucid sleep. Searching for and finding some inner well of tranquillity before she would even dare to attempt to call upon the power of the most challenging implant she owned.
Intangibility: Arguably considered to be one of the most difficult arts a psychic mind might master, even for Mer adepts. As it were, only the most gifted vessels and mediums could maintain the state for mere seconds at a time. Cautionary tales warning against attempting it were abundant; featuring horror stories of psychics that had found themselves entombed within a wall or as part of a piece of furniture. Their molecules reformed fatally mid-attempt at passing through some solid object or another. In this aspect, Derby Bell was unrivalled. Becoming a ghost of sorts had always felt - well, like dreaming, she supposed. As if she were projecting her spirit outwards, leaving the flesh behind before waking up to find it had rejoined her.
[sound effect as Derby passes through the door]
The observation room was massive. The deck circled around what seemed to be an impossibly large oceanic tank that Dark Fathom had internally dubbed ‘the Heart’. This place was… uncomfortable. It felt like the last step before one might walk off the edge of the world itself and straight into a vast nothingness. From its depths, a dread loneliness permeated the area, of something so… isolated and divorced from the rest of the world that it felt absolutely alien to the reality in which it existed. She imagined it might be similar to having a peek at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Into a place where human eyes were never meant to see. Yet here she stood; staring into the void at the body of a woman, suspended and anchored by dozens of hoses that seemed like tentacles fading off into the deep… Not at all the image of the happy little girl that danced somewhere deep in Derby’s memory.
DERBY BELL
“There you are. It’s time to get you out of here. There must be a holoscreen around somewhere…”
[sound of Derby pulling down a large holoscreen from the ceiling before hitting various buttons on the interface. She’s talking to herself as she works in this instance]
“Alright. Vitals check out. I suppose I should at least thank these terrorists for keeping an easy to navigate interface. Let’s be honest, though. Half of them are probably illiterate… Necessity being both the mother and father of innovation for these bottom feeders. Hmmm. Purge system? Obviously not. Wait, wait. Scroll back. What the fuck are they feeding you, girl? Some sort of cocktail of nutrients and sedatives… Heavy stuff on an empty stomach. We’re going to have to get you a steak or something when we get topside. Alright, what else have we got…? So… many options…
Ahhh. There it is. Initiating retrieval process… NOW! Rise and shine baby girl. Let’s see what they’ve done to you…”
[sound effects of the retrieval process. Alex is retrieved by large machines and brought to a holding room in the observation deck, tubes being pneumatically uncoupled from the Sirens survival suit and finally the doors open to a weak, slowly waking Alex Webb]
DERBY BELL
“Look at you. My little phenom. The whole world wants whatever it is that makes you so special. Let’s see just what that is.”
ALEX WEBB
[disoriented, separating dreams from reality]
“How long have I been in this… place? Locked away, sedated… drifting between life and something else. It’s like I’ve been everywhere and nowhere all at once but… you… I saw you. I remember that much. You’d been pulled beneath the waves and… you were swimming between large, spinning blades and I was afraid you wouldn’t make it but, no, that’s not it. I wasn’t afraid. I knew you’d come out the other side. [bitter] That’s just you, right? You never give up… unless you’re giving up on me.”
DERBY BELL
“Ungrateful child. Simpering. You’re stronger than this. You need to stand up.”
ALEX WEBB
“Ungrateful? Why should I be grateful to you -”
DERBY BELL
“Not to me, though a little gratitude for getting you out of this mess wouldn’t hurt.”
ALEX WEBB
[suddenly very numb as she realises her mother hasn’t changed at all]
“To them, then. I should be grateful to Kraken.”
DERBY BELL
“Who else? Don’t you understand? Can’t you see? They forged you into their Scion. Heir to the throne. I can feel the power coming off you in… waves! That’s why they fear you. The power you command. The gifts that they gave you? These… guppies down here could only hope to control you through sedation. But not anymore. Come on. We’re getting out of this place and when we get topside? We’ll -
ALEX WEBB
“Do what, mom… take over the world? Hold the city for ransom? I don’t care about any of that… I just… Can we just go home? I’m so… tired… of whatever this is. Whatever I’m supposed to be.”
DERBY BELL
“Don’t interrupt me. If you moved as quickly as you spoke, we’d be halfway out of here by now. Home. That’s what you want, right?”
ALEX WEBB
“I… I can’t. My legs… I haven’t walked in years, mom.”
DERBY BELL
“Fine. [bridges the distance between them and starts helping Alex up] Come on, now. Put your arm over my shoulder… just like that. If we hit any resistance I’m going to probably have to drop you. A couple of bruises worth your freedom?”
ALEX WEBB
“Yes… I just… I can’t be here anymore -”
[Elliot opens the doors to the observation deck for Waylon and Jonny as they come running in.]
WAYLON
“Derby Bell!”
DERBY BELL
[To Alex]
“Looks like your boyfriend made it to the party.”
[To the intruders]
“Sorry to have jumped ahead of the plan, Fish man. You move too slow for me. That’s the problem with you Arcadians. Too much talking. For my cred, You got a problem? [draws her katana] Just kill your way to the top.”
JONNY
“Is that right? History shows I’ve punched your lips shut for you more than once. To think of it, if you don’t go ahead and step away from that girl, we’ll be about set up for another go.”
DERBY BELL
“Doesn’t have to be that way. We might have had different ideas on how to get this job done, but we’re both on our way top-side, right? You want this girl safe, so do I. That means we’re on the same team.”
JONNY
[to Waylon]
“Fuck. Don’t you just hate it when they make sense? What do you think? I mean, I’m not keen on being the baddie here despite how much I want at her.”
WAYLON
“Strangely, I find myself at peace with it.”
WAYLON (NARRATOR)
[sound of a gunshot in slow motion]
“I could see it playing out, just the way I imagined it would. I had already committed myself to the fate I’d made. To the necessity of it. Carefully planned out my crime and locked it away within my heart; gambled that Derby Bell’s precognitive senses would be filling her mind with warnings of danger. She’d naturally be looking to Jonny as an obvious source to which that violence might manifest. This would prove to be an invaluable distraction for dealing with someone who rarely made such mistakes. I had already brought my pistol to bear behind the folds of my trench coat while Jonny weighed the situation; what was best for the job against the fulfilment of her own grudge… and answered with a gunshot. The only thing that I hadn’t considered, as I pulled the trigger… was Alex.
[sounds of the underwater base being shaken and compromised, ruptures spilling through the now shattered glass of the observational tank. Waylon’s pistol shot goes wide.]
NARRATOR
“The world shook and the ground swayed before the enormous will of Alex Webb, now standing without her mother's support, eyes glowing with golden light that emanated from the experimental cybernetic augmentations laced throughout her skull. She’d sat by, taking it all in. Waylon’s desperation, her mother’s cruel ambition. Even Jonny’s desire for revenge. She’d played the part of a weakened child long enough for each of them to earn her disappointment… all the while ‘the thing beneath’ had grown closer, reacting to her own growing temper.
Alex Webb had been the centrepiece to the ambition of others for far too long.
ALEX WEBB
“ENOUGH!”
[trying very hard to calm herself down while perhaps contemplating the full scope of her demand.]
“When… When is it enough? What’s the price tag on it? The compromise? [suddenly very disappointed as she processes the events] Waylon… how could you?”
WAYLON
“I… I needed to be certain she wouldn’t…-”
DERBY BELL
“Don’t be too hard on him. Honestly, I’m actually impressed. Really didn’t think he had it in him. I see you, Fishman.”
JONNY
“If this isn’t the most ass-backwards, fucked-up turn of events then I don’t know what is.”
WAYLON
[ignoring the others]
“You don’t understand. Alex… she…”
ALEX WEBB
“Do you think I didn’t know what was happening, Waylon? That my mother had given me up to Kraken? Why do you think I told you not to follow me? Told you not to ask questions. Told you to just let me go?”
WAYLON
“I couldn’t… I knew they had gotten to you. That you weren’t leaving on your own accord. That you’d never leave us like that. I needed to know why. If there was a way to help I had to-”
ALEX WEBB
“No. No you didn’t have to do anything other than respect my wishes. I was trying to protect you, Waylon. Don’t you understand? They… Kraken… they get whatever they want. I was trying to protect you and the conclave. I… I even made it a condition. That they leave you alone. But you couldn’t respect that, could you? Couldn’t fathom that sometimes bad things happen to people like us and that it doesn’t matter that our little friendship was the brightest… the best thing in our tiny little lives the day before the world got so damned complicated. We’re pieces on the board, Way. Why don’t you get that?”
JONNY
“Umm… so sorry to interrupt this little airing of grievances, but I think we might need to consider getting out of here. Whatever that was that hit us, this place is jinxed now. Ocean ‘ll be in to join us anytime now.”
WAYLON
[still ignoring everyone but Alex]
“Alex… I would have understood if you would have just -”
JONNY
[muttering behind them]
“Or go ahead and ignore me, I guess?”
ALEX WEBB
“What? If I had just trusted you? No, I did. I thought you knew me, too. Better than anyone. Figured that if there was anybody in this world who could understand and just… respect my wishes it would have been you.”
[bigger rupture happens, Jonny curses!]
WAYLON
“I remember now. Everything. Broke through the memory restrictors. It was you that asked them to do that, to erase my memory.”
ALEX WEBB
“It was… They were talking about a Mer asking questions. Digging in deep. I knew it had to be you. I just didn’t know any other way to stop you from… doing this. They were going to kill you.”
WAYLON
“I’d have sacrificed anything to keep you from… whatever fate this is. Whatever they’ve done to you.”
ALEX WEBB
“That’s just it, isn’t it? I would have given anything to make sure both you and the enclave were safe… and that’s what I did. The unstoppable force meets the immovable object… Or too many martyrs, not enough crosses.
I… never meant to hurt you… but this was my sacrifice to make, not yours.”
WAYLON
“I…-”
[BIG damage and buckling now, water RUSHING in]
JONNY
“Alright, you crazy kids, it’s REALLY time to go now. Bell, hate to admit it but we might need you to get out of here. Door all but collapsed when this place started to buckle.”
DERBY BELL
“We’ll have our dance some other time, then? Don’t even think about getting it twisted. Once we’re done with this? My daughter will be coming with me. In the meantime - After… [strains as she psychically peels back the damaged doors] - you.”
JONNY
“Oh, I expect to have that conversation soon enough, mom-o’-the-year. Fuckin’ hell.
[Calls Nick on the Holo]
”Nick, how you holdin’ up? We still have an exit?”
NICK BALLARD
“Jonny! What in the name of the Core is goin’ on down there?”
JONNY
“Unimportant, Nick. Concentrate, yeah? Exit still clear?”
NICK BALLARD
“Just Jonny telling me to concentrate while you lot bring the whole fuckin’ house of cards down on us? Bloody hell. Way’s still clear but our window’s closin’ fast. Personnel are fleeing this literal sinking ship by the dozen. Our dear Jillian Hart among them. Get here quick, would you?”
JONNY
“That’s the plan. We’ve got the girl with Derby in tow. No doubt we’ll be coming in hot so be ready to move… the damage from where I’m standing seems to be a wicked kind of bad.
NICK BALLARD
“Acknowledged. I’ll leave the car runnin’ then. You just get here.”
[FADE OUT]