Steele Syndicate ~ Recruiting see post #2

[Taigeku]

Oh but what a wanderer Taigeku is!

He trudged slowly through the trees and underbrush, no destination nor creed, until the faint murmer of voices sparked his lazy interest. He sighed deeply and stomped through the trees, and prickerbushes with displease. As he neared the opening, a giant mansion with big, scary guns came into view and he blinked a few times before seeing a familiar character whom seemed to be at the mercy of one such gun.

"Ah..." His voice was only audible to him, leveling around that of a hushed whisper.

As he finished his blinking fiasco, he lazy sat, stretching out his legs, letting the skin fold over his miniscule scrapes and rips. Any onlooker would see a skinny, frail and pale 20 year old sitting in the grass and soil near the giant mansion, but not too close with only a pair of goggles, a bandana, and some skinny jeans. His feet and hands were quite dirty... it hadn't rained in some time.

[Umbra Ex Nihilo]

Little did Taigeku know, he was being followed....

And that shadow, that entity that trails him by no more than a breath, just might be here for a similar reason. Oh, whatever could that reason be?

Yet, not a breath from him to be smelled; nor a footstep be heard; and what of sight? Can one truly observe a shadow, that absence of light and substance?

[Tacitus]

((For reference, Jade is generating a field which is ******** the hell out of any waveform not based on visible light with the area now covering roughly half the grounds. Even then artificial means of deciphering visible light are being disrupted. The AI should have no way to notice the real Jade, and any data being gathered is pretty much gibberish. If it helps, Jade is VERY visible to the deciphering of visible light by the human brain due to the fact that he's effectively a strobe light at the right frequency to make him nearly an eyesore.))

The figure quite calmly raised a hand in a balled fist towards Torran at a non-threatening speed. After a brief pause the middle finger upon his hand rose up in a not so friendly salute. He merely left it there as he leveled a flat stare at the man past opaque shades, "I may be based upon a computing system more complex than anything on this planet but I've enough of a personality to tell you to ******** off. You talk to me like a god damn person. I can't kill you, but I can pump you with enough nanites to keep you alive after being skinned alive, so don't push me by condescending me."

All across the property the multitude of images split and split again in the AI's sensor range before they all paused almost in time with the original giving Torran the finger. Each copy looked to the nearest input for the AI and gave it a similar treatment. It would be noted that so far the reproductions had only been seen outside. When the images dropped their hands so too did the original. He smoothed out his jacket as he slowly regained his composure, "Again, and be ******** polite. All you damn humans are too ******** abrasive. Just calm down and ******** ask me like you have some manners." One could almost feel the '********' rolling off of him. Actually, the images were all holding up signs to that end. He really liked that word.

[Kiro_Hoto]

From behind the over-excited robot, a patch of black exploded along ground moving at an alarming rate. As it winded down its path, the shadow took a lengthy yet thin spread. It manuevered at a quick pace, only slowing at the outter edge of the androidic being's range. Meticulously, the shadow began taking a three-dimensional shape from the ground. It's body at first only a large blob of black, but arms thinned out, as well as legs, and a head. A complete replica of the man whom stood in the forest before. The black shape took tones, his red hair standing out to match his red eyes. Dare you stare to long, you could feel as though your soul was being drained from you.

The nineteen-year old looking guy stood grinning wide, his gaze flat upon the bot and the man. Whether they even recognized his position was of no concern to the man. Rather, he only cared to gain sight of this phenominon.

"Marvelous show." His voice was quiet and non-threatening. Instead, it had the tone of glee.

[Iron Ronin]

((Noted. For future referance however it should be noted that KAI is linked to Torran via central nervous system. Its exclusive, meaning the death of one wont do any harm to the other but for all intensive perpouses think of them and alternative personalities of the same mind. They function much the same way. If he can see something, so can she and vice versa. However for the sake of argument we will say she can only see the ones he can see and has taken the afore mentioned security measures BECAUSE she cant see more.))


A smile dawned his countenance. This....whatever it was...was at least semi-sentient. It certianly had a personality as well as a sense of humor. Given that this thing had not taken any overtly hostile actions, and given he could now sense a multitude of presences, he decided to make a calculated risk.
He waved his hand to his right and the gun emplacment ceased targeting and decended back into the ground.
Likewise he had KAI begin to pinpoint and track the locations of everyone else on the grounds via the advanced sensor package on the J.O.C. Risks he would take....but he wasnt stupid.

"Very well. Im currently still trying to figure out what you are but i will settle for why you are here if you feel so inclined as to tell me." The smile never dropped. "Oh and please stop taunting my AI. She has a tendancy to be easily worked up. When that happens its endless work on my part to calm her down. Very much like having a wife actually..." he actually chuckled at the memories that one brought up.

Meanwhile KAI had zeroed in on all the presences on Syndicate grounds. The vast amount of sensors at her disposal made the task simple and was executed in 1.427 nanoseconds. Of course a couple of them she had to use the higher capacity sensors but she found them non-the-less.
There was however the matter of this thing that Torran was talking to. The damned thing wasnt on any of her sensors but one!
This was going to require some research and an extensive overhaul of her system capabilities.

[Taigeku]

Taigeku rocked a bit in place, oblivious to the man behind him, and clicked his tongue. A moment later he curled his knees up to a forty five degree angle and wrapped his slender, pale arms around his knees, his fingers lacing in front of the caps.

He was learning alittle about his new body every day, one being that a hermunculous doesn't quite have the same eyes sight as a human, as in maybe a little better but nothing significantly so. His eyes did get confused and crossed a few times as he chuckled about the oh-so-human gesture of the raised middle finger. He didn't really understand the offensiveness of it, but he thought to himself, that the humans probably didn't either.

Though being a hermunculous was far greater then improved sight, olfactory, and the rest of the senses; he was immortal. No, not that he can't die but more like... he will never age.

It was fun to think about...

He sighed as the guns relaxed a bit, but they did seem very menacing.

[Umbra Ex Nihilo]

Oblivious to his surroundings?
The professioned shadow did not like stalking one who did so little of danger. A fight would be the most likely response to such occurances.
And so as easily as he moved so close to Taigeku, he moves away. Blending visually into the shadows as noiselessly as falling leaves. He approaches Torran; though the AI could scan for him and potentially relay his position to the man. Unknowningly being 'spotted' by the AI, Umbra will still be as camoflauged as a sniper a mile away - only 30 ft. from Torran.

[Iron Ronin]

KAI quickly fed a real time image to him via a corneal overlay implanted in his left eye. It worked similar to a scouter and was remenicent of picture-in-picture on a TV. It showed him a map of the grounds, in miniature, and the locations of every being on it. The threat gauge quickly discarded the data on those identified as non-combatants, i.e. squirrles, birds etc., and gave a color to the remaining.
The being in front of Torran was given a firm red halo denoting high threat. The others were given corresponding yellow or green halos depending on a multitude of factors.
KAI warned him of the nearing assassin but he did nothing but ready his defenses. He had delt with many "professionals" before and for the most part they were no threat. He wondered if this one knew poisons were useless? Eh...he would learn soon enough if not.

Adjusting the J.O.C. to be an effective weapon was tricky for most. Getting the positioning right from orbit, making sure the solar collectors and energy shields were active, making sure the focus was correct, and a hundred other small tasks to do before the thing was able to fire. These things were tricky. But not for KAI. It took her roughly half a second to do a systems check, another 2 nano-seconds to aim, 2 seconds to put the beam on split and finally 1 second to get position correct and on standby.
If Torran gave the order it would take her .0001 seconds to fire a beam at every target, correcting for possible movement and planetary rotation of course, that was hotter than the core of the sun. The beam is a quarter inch in diameter and would vaporize anything found on Earth instantly.
Now it was just the boring task of waiting. Oh well she would read the Library of Congress collection a couple times to make sure she remembered it all.

[Tacitus]

((*shrug* Whatever.))

For a few long moments the entity glares at Torran through the opaque shades before his head shifts upwards slightly. Despite his eyes being hidden it is clear that he is glancing upwards as though he knows the orbital cannon is above and active. He contemplated whether or not the satellite could detect its immediate surroundings and the space dwelling organism that was now headed for it. Marked with scars upon a tanned orange flesh over a black frame the mass measured two hundred meters in length with the dark frame sitting at twenty meters in diameter. The fleshy hull extended slightly further but three long spires swept out from the rear straight out ten additional meters each. Without the outer flesh it could have certainly been a giant cylinder floating through space but the orange growths gave it a triangular shape. It was currently in a slightly higher orbit than the orbital cannon with the long end without the spires pointed towards the planet.

He directed his attention back to Torran and a smirk flitted across his lips, "...but without any of the benefits, I'd wager. For your purposes of human comprehension you may call me Jade. My records indicate that an entity composed of thousands of minds in unison entered into a pact with a woman by the name of Taimei. Records also indicate that she was slain in a salvo of cleansing orbital fire that she herself called upon." He pauses for a moment as if stressing the point before continuing, "I was deployed as a replacement to that entity. I am currently exploring this world as was he, but with a return to my original, classified, purpose. I do not believe I have had the pleasure of being reintroduced to the Steele family, and as such, here I am."

[Iron Ronin]

Oblivious for the moment to the goings on in space, for the first time his grin flatered.
"Taimei was my wife." he paused a moment to gather himself. "If that is true then you are welcome here. Keep to your word and you will find no hinderance. I only ask that you report to me as to anything you do regarding myself, my property or my people."

[Umbra Ex Nihilo]

Kunai throw. 'nuff said.
At the back of Torran's head.
Yeah, what?

[Tacitus]

The gleam of power came not from his eyes but from under the hem of his shirt and inside the cuffs of his jacket. The coruscating light seemed to reach out at speeds that defied human comprehension. The display was unnecessary as by the time his flashy show had even begun the power he held had already altered the projectile mid-flight. The edges of the kunai flashed into a dark green color in a random pattern which would cause the object to wobble. Furthermore, the whole seemed to have been weakened from within as if molecular bonds throughout had become unstable. It was by no means unstable by the definition of explosive or radioactive but brittle with a healthy portion of the mass removed.

Jade was not concerned with the projectile directly but its presence offered an opportunity and a fuel source. By the time the projectile reached Torran a deafening crack followed by a series of groans and snaps filled the area. The first crack had been as a stroke of thunder leaping from the barrel of a gun Jade now held but aimed nowhere near anyone in particular. The assailant would not have to deal with a bullet large enough to tear through a tank but a rather significant tree, which seemed to be missing half of the base of its trunk, falling victim to gravity in his direction.

[Taigeku]

Taigeku smiled a bit and started drumming his fingers on the tops of his own hands, and swayed his head back and forth. His heavily sprayed hair bounced a bit while he heard the thunderous crack of the railgun blow a hole in a tree. As the woodchips flew every, Taigeku grasped some with his telepathy and whirled them around body in a miniture twenty peice train set of woodchips, lazily.

He loved goofing around and waiting to pick a perfect opportunity to mess with people. He began humming "Entombment of a Machine" by Job For A Cowboy and widened his eyes at Jade.

[Iron Ronin]

Torran hadnt moved in the slightest. The only defensive action he took at all had been done long before he was attacked. A broad smile crept upon his face.

"Do you want to take care fo him or shall I?" he spoke to Jade.

[Umbra Ex Nihilo]

Umbra takes the thundering 'CRACK!' as a convenient distraction. Still unaware that he was being steadily observed, he charges toward Torran from behind in a bursting pattern of movements[Tech: After Image]. First zagging to the right 10 ft. Then to the left another 15 ft. The next movement brings him above Torran and coming down fast with blade wielded in two hands.

Silence is his battlecry.