Bargain Backlash (Harley)

[Jake Muller]

Characters Appearing: Jake Muller, Harley Quinn
Location (s): Dining room, Vastreach Space Station
Previous Thread Name.: Harsh Bargain (with Otto Octavius)
Plot Summary.: After making a new deal with Doc Ock himself, Jake adjusts to a genetic change that has caused some unlikely backlash to himself. Perhaps a distraction is needed?

[Jake Muller]

Jake had taken his fair share of odd deals. He had even had his deals he has backtracked on and changed mid-job when the offer seemed more promising. Some sort of backfire was expected for a profession such as his. But, this one had been more than he had ironically bargained for.

His weapons had molecularly been altered to a point of deadliness and fortification that would make them extremely difficult to contend with. But, the machine had not just changed his items, but his own physical being as Otto had mentioned. Is this what he had meant when it helped Kaine? For the better part of a week that he had been there, his entire body had felt like a bad case of the flu. He felt hot and chilled to the bone all at once, shivering and sweating as if wracked with fever, body and joints aching in a way he had never dealt with before. Constant hunger nagged at his belly, just like when he was a kid with so little food in the home, a horrid pain he never thought he would feel again. His muscles likewise felt like they had a mind of their own, throbbing, contracting, twisting in knots, feeling as if he might break from his very skin.

Finally, his body seemed to find a balance genetically, that morning Jake howling in pain in the room he now called a temporary home as the entirety of his body grew in mass slightly, bony protrusions extending from flesh as parts of his muscle became visible, scaly skin showing beneath exposed skin as fabric blended into what had been his skin. Before he knew it, what had been Jake Muller was replaced with a serpentine Tyrant, the young man staring in the window of the reflection of what he could mistake for a monstrosity he has fought before arriving to this world. What had that machine done?! Lightly, Jake had traced his twisted, mutated appearance, not able to recognize himself anymore. For the first time in years, genuine fear shown in his four eyes, causing him to slowly fall to his knees as he tried to make sense of what he had become, what genetic changes had been wrought to his DNA.

In such shock, it took him a few hours to find the strength to move again. Stiff muscles twitching and joints popping, the young bastard son of Wesker finally shaking himself out of it, ‘Come on Jake! You can figure this out!’ He told himself, gritting his fanged mouth as he narrowed his eyes. He had to focus. Panicking would get him no where..,Closing his golden, red pupiled eyes, Jake took a few deep intakes of breath, gradually steeling his nerves and focusing on the image of his human form. Maybe he could change back, he had to try. Even then, it took a good several minutes before his form contorted, painfully, back to its original state, causing the red head to gasp as he became whole again. “I may have to rethink this.” He muttered to himself, drenched in sweat by this time and shakily getting himself to his feat.

He needed to find something to occupy his mind.

Snagging his karambit knife and pistol, he carefully tucked them away in his belt as he left his room, wiping the sweat from his brows as he made his way towards the commissary area. Moving towards one of the areas that resembled a sort of steakhouse restaurant, Jake put in an order of five sizable round steaks, medium rare and grilled with a slight charring, a meal done in seconds thanks to the technology the space station was equipped with. Usually, Jake wouldn’t have ordered this much food, but he felt like he could eat a herd of elephants at this rate. With impatience, Jake swiped up the plate once the food was ready, grabbing some silverware along the way and a few canned sodas, turning to find a spot closer to the observation windows…and only then realized he wasn’t alone. Across the room he finally took notice of a blond haired young woman, decked in red, black, and blue and died hair tips, her complexion strangely pale in comparison to most people.

“With a get-up like yours, you’d think I would have noticed you a lot sooner.” Jake spoke up towards the woman as he approached her table.

[Harley Quinn]

It had been a few months since the Clown Princess of Crime was reunited with her friends in this new world and she had already grown accustomed to her new space-station home. Most days she preoccupied herself with busy work around the station, though she recently began to delve into Doc's latest project. One could imagine the surprise that overcame Harley when she heard that the newest arrival at the space station was none other than Nora Fries herself, beloved wife of one of Gotham's rogues. The woman's brow furrowed as she looked over the reports in her hands, taking a sip of her coffee before looking over the woman's vitals once more. Same exact condition as her husband, but with the added kind of ice powers. Incredible. "At Least everything looks normal here." She muttered more to herself as she scribbled a few notes at the corner of the page.

Placing the papers to the side she took another sip of her coffee, absentmindedly looking around the cafeteria, her eyes landing on a man she was sure she had never seen before. "Could say the same to you, G.I. Joe." She retorted back as the man approached her table. Harley eyed the man curiously. She had heard that Doc brought on a new fella into the fold, she didn't really know what to expect. From the look of him, she had him pegged as ex-military, a few of the Bat's rogues seemed to have that same air about them.

"Yowzah! Somebody's hungry, eh?" She teased as she leaned back in her chair, her fingers twirling the end of her pigtail. "You the Doc's new guy? I heard a little bit about you, Doc says you and him have some kind of deal or somethin'?" She eyed the man curiously as he finally took his seat.

"Oh! Seems I forgot my manners! I am the one and only, Harley! Harley Quinn. A pleasure to meet ya!" She greeted as she extended a hand to the man.

"And you are? Oh! Lemme guess, you're a morally dubious, stone-hearted ex-military man. Amiright?" The woman joked as she nudged the man beside her. "Haha! I'm just teasin' ya new guy. But I am right, right?"

[Jake Muller]

Jake gave a faint smirk at the remark. Well, least the lady had a bit of humor.

Setting down the plate and sodas, the man pulled out a seat near the woman eyes briefly scanning over what she had in front of her. A few files of some sort that she seemed to have been working on before his arrival, faint curiosity showing in them before directing his gaze back at Harley. “You could say I’ve had a sudden change in appetite lately.” Jake remarked in response, giving a slight shrug of his shoulders as he picked up a knife and fork, cutting into the first two thick sirloins. His mouth was already watering, realizing how much his hunger had gone up with this sudden change. Hopefully not to the level of the B.O.Ws he had both observed and fought over the past few years. Hungering for human flesh, or any other living creature, as a mindless creature of baseline primal instinct made his stomach turn in knots. That is far from something he would ever want, even as a mercenary.

Mentally shaking this worry aside, he took a large bite, savoring the first decent meal he had had since he really got to Median while he let Harley talk. Swallowing that first bite, Jake answered her first question, “Look, I ain’t the Doc’s “new guy”, let’s just get that straight.” He spoke dismissively, “Its more of a business opportunity he offered that was better than I had going so far. Gave me a few upgrades and in return he gets the slimy little scientist trying to get their hands on the secret of this place. More or less, a win-win for us both.” ‘One I may be regretting.’ Jake kept the last part to himself. The last thing he had expected was the machine to alter his genetic make up, make the dormant C-virus mutate with whatever had been passed down to him from his father. Something he would have to discuss with Otto about. It felt like the bargain was turning far more in favor of the scientist than himself at this point.

Taking a few more bites though, the man tried not to let the thought get to him too much. Chances were the changes were irreversible, meaning he would have to learn to live with this permanent backlash. It was one of those times his gambling with better deals slapped him right in the face.

Though, Jake raised a brow at the woman as she introduced herself. “Harley…Quinn…?” There was no hiding how befuddled he was by her name as he swallowed his food, placing his knife down to shake her had in return. “Like the clown doll? Weird name, but nice to meet you, I suppose.” He would definitely have to wrap his mind around that one, but connecting her appearance and name…Perhaps it would explain a lot. “The names Jake, Jake Muller. And you’re mostly right.” He spoke in regards to pegging him as the military type. “More like an insurgent, not necessarily a soldier, more like a former freedom fighter-turned-mercenary.” He confirmed. If one could label a liberation army a real military outfit. They had certainly used military tactics and called themselves as such, but they had never been true military. And he had long since forgone that life anyhow. What benefit had they been after a while? Especially if he had gotten his fifty million dollars from the US National Security bureau.

He could have been set for life if not for that portal.

“So, what sort of universe did you come from? Everyone seems to have a story, I can wager you’re no different.” He inquired as he focuses on his food again, scarfing a fair bit down in a short time. During their talk he had already consumed three of the steaks, only pausing to finally crack open one of the Pepsis and gulping down half of it. Man had this week taken it’s toll on his body.