"Want to live forever? Sure, everyone does, but eternal life comes at a price, and not everyone can afford it. Here at Immortality Incorporated, we believe that everyone should be given the chance to live forever, and unlike other companies, we care"
Founded in 901 S.D. after the launch of LAD some months ago, Double I is a company that hoped to capitalise on the general idea that people could live forever. Unfortunately, with the secrets of LAD well kept behind the doors of Karma, this seemed to be a prospect unlikely ever to see the light of day.
The company was founded in the wake of a botched LAD operation when the family of operative Dwayne Austin was not recovered in time to return them to any semblance of a normal life. Disillusioned by this, operative Austin tendered his resignation to the ranks of the good and great and returned to downtown where his family had lived. Using his connections and all the money that he had managed to save over the years, he set up a free clinic where he began to treat all those who could not afford the massive costs of Karma and Dark Lament. The initial success of the clinic was immense, and soon, the name of Austin was all around downtown, especially for the fact that if people could not afford to pay, he would let them off with the promise that they could come back later when they had the money.OF course, the good will of austin quickly became taken for granted, as more and more people began dropping into the clinic, getting patched up, and then leaving without paying or ever having any intention of paying. Several raids on the clinic by those not smart enough to realise that no money was being made by the clinic, and in one of those raids, Austin was severely injured. Patched up by the rudimentary SLA medical account he had maintained by himself, austin had the misfortune to find himself being treated by several people who remembered him from his operative days, and it is to be said that his post healing treatment was less than sterling. After too long without oxygen and several weeks of recovery just laying on a bed hoping for the pain to end, Austin was released to go back to the clinic that he made so many months ago.
Austins work rate did not loosen off after his injury, if anything, in his absence, the amount of work to be done had increased. Several of the people who had had their families saved by austin had continued the work he started, keeping the clinic alive while he was gone. However, the good and noble man who had been Austin had died under the injuries that he sustained that time ago, the man who returned to the clinic was a different man altogether, he worked faster, tried harder, and took more risks with the lives of his patients. Over a few months, many of the ordinary patients began to desert the clinic, no longer trusing the ability of the man who had once been an angel in their midst.
The moment of truth came when a dying operative was brought into the clinic, an ebon by the name of Lumen, suffering from exhaustion, multiple bite wounds, and a case of poisoning from the bite wounds. The people who had dragged her there were several downtowners who she had been saving from gang gunfire while returning to her home. The injuries that she had sustained were too much even for Austins tremendous capabilities, and even as her life ended, the clouds gathered overhead, the rain beat down even harder than normal. Austin railed his fury and anger at an uncaring god and the storm answered him with thunder and rage. Lightning lanced down into the building, channelling into the medical table and the prone form laying on it, Austin was blasted back from the table, crashing unconscious into a heap on the floor as the electrical systems of the building shut down. He awoke to darkness, and a soft sound of breathing, and as he opened his eyes and looked, Lumen sat up from the table and Austins world was complete.
Finally, he had the secret of life within his hands, and he set about constructing a new building, from which he launched his new company. He enlisted the help of Lumen in what he now saw as his personal crusade against the company he views as responsible for the deaths of all those close to him.
His whole life after death policy consists of passing ridiculous amounts of electricity through the cadaver after healing all the injuries that they had at the time they were brought in. This very often has no effect whatsoever, but looks very flashy, and convinces most of downtown that all that could have been done has been done. Sometimes, something does happen, and the person is "jumpstarted" back into some semblance of life. The only unfortunate side effect is that the sheer volume of electricity passing through the poor "patient" often fries various neural synapses, leaving the patient with memory loss or worse. This is, of course, a small price to pay for eternal life isn't it?
Austin no longer cares who he heals, and is on no ones side any longer. He will heal anything brought to his door, in the hope that one day, he will be able to put Karma out of business, so that the tragedy that befell his family would never happen to any one else.
Immortality Incorporated charges 10c per rejuvenation, this is the same, no matter what the nature of the injuries, if the money is not available, Austin will take goods or services, and has amassed an enviable line of people owing him favours and other such things. In the event that the patient has died, Austin will hook up the charger and zap the patient with everything that the building has. This has a one in five chance of actually jumpstarting the patient, and can be attempted up to three times before the electricity charge will fry the corpse.
Every time that the charge method is attempted, the patient will lose four points from skills (At GM's discretion), and one point from both DIA and CONC.
The charge method will only work if the patient is newly (within four minutes) dead, after that, it will merely make an interesting smell with the body cooking.
Austin has not broken openly any of the rules of SLA, and is careful not to do so, for fear of bringing their wrathful arm down upon him. However, it is noted by the SLA authorities that there are a rather large number of downtowners who owe their lives to him, and to try and remove him before he becomes a problem could cause riots that would cost far more to sort out than leaving him to his delusions.
Comments always appreciated
The Pagan in the Darkness.