×「 NEW MILLENNIUM━ ◟☆!ic

SECOND MISSION SET

GO	100.0%	[ 32 ]
Total Votes:			[ 32 ]

[Artemyes]

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____________________ ⊰ if i go crazy then will you still call me superman? ⊱ ____________________________________ ⊰ if i'm alive and well will you be there, holding my hand? ⊱
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"Yes, I do!"

Ah.

... Was that right?

She seemed louder all of sudden, than she had before. Or perhaps that was just the quietness of the library making her voice reverberate about them more noticeably. Despite his less than friendly or familiar acknowledgment, she still grabbed at his shirt, trying to impede his progress. He stopped then, not because they were making a scene near the exit of the library (which they were, not that he particularly cared) and not because he'd recalled who she was either. The redhead stared at her hand, and the delicate digits clinging to the material of his shirt as if that would be all it would take to keep him from leaving. He did not lift his gaze until she had completely released the fabric of his clothing, and out of sheer habit, he smoothed it out with a cool flick of his hand.

She seemed to sense his intentions to leave still, because the girl immediately stepped into the midst of his path, to prevent him from doing so. 'Just wait a second', she said. "... What?" he said, an impatience tinging the edges of his tone, fixing her with a look that said he was waiting, but that he wouldn't wait much longer. It was all good and well that Mr. Troy Morison had been so compliant, but it still wasn't the best idea to linger around too long afterward, nevertheless.

"I-I'm Maia."

Ryder crossed his arms, wondering if that was all she'd wanted to say. Alright, Maia. He was on the verge of asking if that was all, on the verge of just shouldering past her, but then she said something a little more interesting. She said she'd known him from back in the government. From back then, how many years had it been? This time, Ryder looked to her - to Maia with a different sort of gaze; the indifference had melted ever so slightly, and he leaned down towards her as if the closeness or her scent would spark something, searching her face with a more aware sense for something recognizable. "Maia," He repeated, only then thinking that she did look somewhat.. more familiar. The slightest inklings of memory filtered through - a stark white room, a loud banging of the walls, a small and quiet voice speaking, and --

"Yeah. Right." Ryder scoffed, straightening his frame to its full height again, giving a small quick shake of the head. "As good as a person can get after all that s**t," he replied, at the same time curious and not curious on as to how she had ended up here as well. She didn't seem too put off, despite the fact that he had not acknowledged her as someone familiar the way she had with him; how she set her gaze unwaveringly on him had told him as much, though. And then she went and asked if he wanted to go have a drink somewhere. "I'm kinda busy here," he said, though it wasn't really true; he had what he'd come for, and the others knew that he'd return whenever he did - with their prize in tow. He laughed a short bark of a laugh though, at Maia's last words. "You sure you got that right? There ain't much I could've done to make it 'okay'."

He would've said more, but something was bothering him. Ryder was not quite sure just what it was, but he knew something was up. He was not the type to question his instincts, which bordered somewhat on that of an animal's, and right now they were telling him to be wary. Attention diverted, he glanced into the library again with a bit of a puzzled frown.

"... Huh. The hell?"

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⊰ i really dont mind what happens now and then, as long as you'll be my friend at the end ⊱

[saitama-san]

pulvis sidereus pulvis( ♔: IFYOU'RENOTALLOWEDTOSTOPx.
ps: everything is but the dust of██ ██ ██ ██ ██x.██ ██ ██ ██ ██x.██ ██ ██ ██ ██x.██ ██ ██ ██ ██
the starscontinue moving FOR➔ ◞WARD! l—like this❛I want you to remember you're ×not a l o n e』
pulvis sidereus pulvis sidereusI cannot pretend to be someone weakx.I cannot pretend to be someone weakx.I cannot pretend to be someone weak
everything is● ● ● ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ I SMILED AS I TOLD YOU STRAIGHT ⇡
but dustKEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx.KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH xx. KEEP THE FAITH
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pulvis sidereus ██ ♚｡向かい風の中 spica caelum.❜░█ x. ██ ♚｡ありのままに richard montgomery high.❜░█ x. ██ ♚｡生きること infiltrating.❜░█


It was easy infiltrating the school, fortunately for her she was still able to pull off as a schoolgirl, something she was glad for once. Usually her young looks gave her nothing but nuisances and trouble--heck, sometimes even a combination of both--and she was forced to prove she was not a doll that could easily be snapped in pieces. Walking through the school hallways, she listened to the boy guiding her ramble half-heartedly. Honestly, she did not know why he bothered in the first place. Its not like she cared about how the teachers were like here, though any other new student would have. Gazing out the window, her thoughts drifted to her fellow agents on the same mission as her.

Really now, was it absolutely necessary to send three people to recruit a mere schoolboy? Spica was pretty darn sure David and Kirra would've sufficed. ' They just had to add me into this mission, didn't they? ' Sure Marc was indeed a superhuman who could poison others with his blood (or something like that, she wasn't exactly aware of his powers nor did she care for them) that was under the government but that was the past. Besides, how was he going to poison them or even fight three other superhumans where there was civilians? She left out a scoff at the idea because it was..well, just ridiculous really. Unless they were an overpowered superhuman, no one would try to fight three at the same time. Though she was hoping that it wouldn't result in a fight and that David or Kirra would deal with Marc before she got there. That way, she could report to her oh so called superiors her mission was completed and go home. It was unlikely though because she knew very well how David acted. And truth be told, he wasn't the best person to act as a persuader.

As if on cue, she spied from the corner of her eye David chatting with a person who seemed way too familiar in the building across. ' Wait isn't that Marc? ' Stopping in her steps, she questioned the boy in front of her suspiciously. " Oi, I thought we were going to upperclassmen's floor. " It was more of a statement than anything though. " Hm? Oh we were but we got to attend the student orientation silly! " He answered with ease which Spica promptly decided to ditch the useless guide to catch up with David. Touching the glass on one of the doors, she went into it before vanishing without a trace.

" You got quiet all of a sudden, is there anything wro--?! " the boy said, turning around to see she had disappeared. " E-Eh, where'd she go..?! "


pulvis sidereus pulvis sidereusIN THAT SPAN OF CLEAR SKY WE ARE FREE TO PAINT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT
IN THAT SPAN OF CLEAR SKY WE ARE FREE TO PAINT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT IN THAT SPAN
IN THAT SPAN OF CLEAR SKY WE ARE FREE TO PAINT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT OF CLEAR SKY
IN THAT SPAN OF CLEAR SKY WE ARE FREE TO PAINT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT WE ARE FREE
IN THAT SPAN OF CLEAR SKY WE ARE FREE TO PAINT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT TO PAINT WHATEVER
IN THAT SPAN OF CLEAR SKY WE ARE FREE TO PAINT WHATEVER COLOR WE WANT COLOR WE WANT
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❝OH, TRUE COLOR」

Emerged in a pool of reflections in the school, she surfed through them, seeking for the one closest to David but unseen by Marc. Going to the glass window behind Marc, she debated if she should make a move or wait until David negotiated with him. It didn't take long for her to decide when she heard her co-agent blabber on. " Know anyone named Marc? With...with, like, a c? Like m - a - r - c? Because I think I'm supposed to be looking for a guy named Marc! Or maybe it's Nrarc. " She gasped in horror as he basically BLEW not only his cover, but her's and Kirra's cover as well. " YOU IDIOT, YOU BLEW OUR COVER NOW HE KNOWS WE'RE LOOKING FOR HIM STOP TALKING ALREADY YOU BABOON!!! " Spica yelled out him, furious that he just basically put their whole mission in jeopardy. It was useless though, David was unable to hear her and all he would be able to see was a girl that was very pissed off if her body movements and glare did justice for her anger.

God damn it, did she had to do everything around here? Hopefully this Marc kid was slow otherwise David was never going to hear the end of it.

[monsieur sushi]

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Cillian stuffed both hands in his pockets and followed after Paxton, deciding that he wanted this done and over as soon as possible. He stifled a yawn with his hand. At least the mission was almost over now. Almost. Just one more trip down to where the confiscated tech was and they were done. Sort of. There was also talk about a new recruit, but we’ll get to that later.

He stood off to the side once they reached the main floor, curiously watching Paxton as he ordered an entire squadron of guards to shoot him. Cillian would’ve thought the man crazy had he not known it would only serve to fuel his ability more. Of course, the guards readily complied; they probably thought his partner had a death wish. As if.

Not wanting to be upstaged just yet, Cillian withdrew a hand out of his pocket and slowly tapped a rhythm on the seam of his pants. Frost began forming on the tips of his fingers until it engulfed the entire length of his right arm. It slowly solidified into ice until it covered the side of his neck down to his fingertips. He turned to face the guards just in time to see Paxton’s display of power. Cillian picked off the rest that weren’t automatically incapacitated by the sudden burst of energy with his mock ice sword.

He used his arm as a shield against the sudden spray of bullets coming from a guard’s rifle. The ice cracked against the heavy pressure, but Cillian automatically lowered its density to prevent it from fully shattering. He smashed the lone guard in the face with the ice while simultaneously tripping him over with his feet. His free hand caught the rifle twisted it around to smash a guard behind him in the face. The man yelped in surprise and dropped his weapon on the ground where it accidentally fired a bullet into another guard’s feet. Cillian almost laughed at the irony of it had he not been so busy gutting the man in front of him. He turned his full attention to the one that got shot.

”No need to thank me,” he murmured to the guard whose foot was all bloodied and torn apart by a comrade’s stray bullet. Cillian decapitated the man in one fluid movement.

Another one tried to surprise him from behind, but a deft throw of an ice dagger on Cillian’s part made quick work of the man’s jugular. He seemed to be aiming for the neck a lot today. The spray of blood, unfortunately, found its way onto Cillian’s collar. He frowned. So much for trying to stay bloodless.

He met Paxton’s gaze, his right arm defrosting. ”That’s all of them. For now.” No doubt the rest of the security had already been alerted to their presence. They weren’t exactly subtle with their ‘infiltration’.

A hand grasped onto his ankle. Cillian calmly looked down to see a guard futilely aiming a gun at him. He stared at the man stoically, crushed his hand, placed a palm against the man’s cheek and willed him to ice over until even his blood remained perfectly frozen.

He quirked his lips upward as he stepped over a dead body. “It’s best we leave now before more of them appear.” Cillian pointedly moved towards the elevator and pressed the button to go down. “The faster we get out of this place, the better.” Not that it wasn’t fun with the whole ‘go ahead and kill people freely’ thing. It had been long time since he’d actually done anything lethal to anyone.

The three shuffled inside as the elevator doors opened. Cillian pressed the button that would lead them to the tech and Sandy. She’d probably been waiting for a long time already, what with them fooling around with the guards. He wasn’t going to complain about that any time soon. In any case, he allowed the two to converse or do whatever they pleased while he stayed silent, leaning against the elevator rails in contemplation. Cillian created a small sphere of ice and moved it to and fro between his fingers, silently wondering how this would end. Probably with the four of them escaping with Max’s tech unscathed, seeing as the security was particularly abysmal.

The doors opened with a loud ping. Cillian hastily willed the sphere of ice away from existence to prepare for an ambush.

The sight that greeted them was… nothing.

Surprisingly, not a single guard stood ready to shoot the intruders down. In fact, the hall leading to the confiscation room was almost confusingly empty. Perhaps the guards had all been rounded up within the main hall? If that was the case, then it was a seriously idiotic decision on their part.

”Odd,” Cillian muttered. But hey, never look a gift horse in the mouth. He knew that much at least.

He waited for the other two to join him before walking towards the doors. Unfortunately for them, it was not only bolted shut by a mind-bogglingly intricate lock, but it demanded an access code and a security ID. Fortunately, they were superhumans. Therefore blasting the door wouldn’t be too hard of a task.

Cillian turned to Paxton. ”Think you can blow it up? Or would you rather he used his ability?” He asked, inclining his head towards Max. ”Either way, we’ll need to do something.”

x

[silvieon]

Lee had very little patience for idiots. This was why he was currently massaging his temples, trying to push the killer headache that was starting to come on, because of some blasted policemen who didn't know their ******** place.

Oh, yeah, maybe it was also because he only had a bagel for breakfast because of the stupid new intern and had to leave before he got his second and third one. Stupid assignments.

"Director owes me dinner for dealing with this," Lee muttered, cracking his knuckles and his neck in anticipation when he saw a figure appear from the shadows.

“That would be me~ That’s such a rough thing to do ~ But I like it rough.”

Lee stalked forward, arms folded protectively over his chest (no telling what the guy's power was, but it had to be pretty good if he was getting away with all these bank robberies; never hurt to be protected, you know), with every word the guy said. He was just digging himself deeper and deeper, though, Lee hoped that he was aware of it. Still, the closer he got, the more details he could make out in the man's face, the more...familiar he became. He couldn't really place it, but...somewhere. He'd seen those features somewhere.

"Let's get a few things straight here. I'm not with the police. I don't give a flying [********] about what happens to any of these people," he said, standing toe - to - toe with the robber, grabbing his collar and hauling him up. The hostages were shouting at him indignantly, calling him names (like they wouldn't call him names anyways). Well screw them, he was saving their pathetic butts. "So let's see you blow this place sky - " Lee paused, the words dying in his throat. Lee had definitely seen his face before. Last time, his eyes weren't glowing green (did he have the same power as Lee did, maybe?), but he looked the same, for the most part. His eyes softened, losing their green edge to them.

"You know...I waited. When I woke up," Lee began slowly, keeping his eyes trained on the man's face. "I thought you'd be there. Sounds really silly of me, doesn't it. But I thought...that there could've been a chance that you'd be there, you know." He leaned in close, lips brushing the man's ear as he spoke. "I think that I still have to take you in. But the least you could do is give me a name." Lee's hands were still curled around the man's collar, still holding him up against nothing but the air. He could hear the whispers of the hostages behind him, but he only listened to disgruntled murmurings once a day, and he'd filled his quota up outside with the police. (Those assholes.)

"If you come quietly with me now, and no one gets hurt, I can try to help lighten your punishment," he whispered into the man's ear, throwing a wary glance over his shoulder at the hostages to make sure they hadn't heard him. They're just love to know that Lee would try to get the bad guy off. Love. It. 'Director's going to have my head for this. Right after that dinner,' Lee thought, stifling a smile at the thought of the Octagon Director absolutely losing his s**t.

Because that was definitely what would happen, too. It would require an explosion radius of at least two miles. At the two mile mark, there would still be a 50/50 chance of hearing loss, probably. Not literally, of course, but still.

[NeverAging]

Que Zero;;

Kid?

Well, excuse him Princess.

A slight look of annoyance flashed across his face, before he remembered she was just a scared little girl in the middle of a dangerous fan store. Obviously, the fear had blinded her senseless, because Que was no child. He was a full grown adult of like, ten years or something. He was fully capable of reproduction, probably, and he was a trusted agent of the government and made important life decisions and dealt with the consequences all by himself and stuff. Que's second set of clear eyelids blinked sideways. If he were a sassy kind of guy, he might have leaned one hip out, crossed his arms, and smacked his gum while he did a Desperate Housewives scowl. But alas, he wasn't sassy. He was just Que. "Miss, I'm going to need you to evacuate the building." His voice was barely over the 'quiet inside voice' level and she probably didn't hear him anyway.

Oh, but she noticed Antony. Typical. Que waved his hand at her, to get the girl's attention, because like hello this place was dangerous and she needed to leave, but Antony was philosophizing about irony or something so Que went ignored once again. After a quick introduction from the oh-so-deep Antony, the girl announced her name as Rave Breaker. It kind of sounded familiar. Or maybe it didn't, Que wasn't good with names. "Yeah...and I'm...nevermind." Whatever. She flashed him a thumbs up anyway.

She rocketed up up and away to fight crime and ceiling fans. Que scratched his elbow, looking at Antony. "...well, I...guess we could..." But he had already dove into action. "Okay." Rave Breaker made a good argument. She was obviously superhuman, and they might as well work together. Though, she didn't really factor Que's fighting ability. "You government boys deal with the blades." Um. No thank you. Antony could fight on the front lines, and Que would find a way to help from a safe distance. Maybe find a way to shut down all the fans or something. There had to be an off-switch somewhere, right? Make he could cut the power to the building or something...no, but then they would be fighting in the dark. Que took a step back, accidentally running into a table of those hand pump +water squirt fans for the hot summer afternoons. Argh, Que hesitated, then picked them off the floor and reset them on the table. Maybe it was only the big fans that were crazy. They were on sale for 20% off, but Que doubted anyone would want to come back to this place after...well, after this.

Que had barely turned to get looking for some sort of power box when he heard a whirling behind him. Que flinched, expecting his head to be sliced off since he didn't have enough time to drop to the ground, but he wasn't. He opened his eye and saw one of the little hand pump fans vibrating on the table. Vibrating towards him. IT WAS EVIL. It fell to the floor, slowly making its way to the little frogman's foot, its fans spinning violently. Que squinted at it. He should...d-destroy it. But he couldn't! But Antony and that Rave chick were busier with much bigger and scarier fans. But he couldn't! But he had to! But he couldn't! BUT IT WAS HIS JOB. It was now or never.

Que curb stomped the fan to death.

Que covered his mouth, because he realized he had been squealing like a little girl with a spider in her hair. He picked his foot up, grateful he was wearing heavy boots, and scrutinized the broken fan. All its miniature blades broken and snapped into pieces. Que kicked it with his shoe, flipping it over. No vibrating. He squatted down, picking up the demolished fan. It seemed dead. Maybe all that was needed to kill them was just...completely breaking everything? It made sense, right? "Antony...Antony!" Que jumped to his feet, looking around the store. He could be anywhere, same with that other girl. "You have to..." That intense stomping action had him a little winded. "I think you...uh, have to break the whole thing! Like..." He shook the broken hand fan for emphasis. "Completely."

[golden dewdrop]

provisional's use only, dnt ♚ pro ♔ pro ♚
provi██████████████████████████████████████████████████

pro ⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰⋰
pro
provisonalcode name: heist provisonal's use only real name: caine provisonal's use only power: ability mimicry
provision ⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
provisional's use only. provisional's oops, i guess i shot ya. my finger's on the trigger i had a bullet with your name on it
provisional's use only. provisional's use only. stealing is a crime. click, click i'm a sex pistol. my love should be illegal. real deal baby, i'm no counterfeit


Playing on the defensive seemed like the best choice so far, Caine wasn’t aware of whom exactly he was dealing with, but they seemed awfully familiar. His voice, his body build, and even his facial structure. Who was he? Heist was staring face to face with him, yet still couldn’t put a name or a location. If Caine was going to play offensive, he might run out of time before he could make a quick escape with his hoard. Taken in, stripped and interrogated? That wasn’t his style. It was best to just wait it out and dodge whatever bullet came at him, enough time for a full recharge.

Before the cocky man could utter a single word, hands on his collar lifted him off the ground. ‘That’s going to leave wrinkles.’ It was hard to breathe, feeling the edge of the collar dig into his skin; but Caine couldn’t stay quiet with those remarks and struggled to make commentary, releasing a small chuckle from his throat as he began to retort, “Oh? Well then, why are you here?” he said with a slight smirk on his lips, glancing towards the noisy hostages. Honestly, they were yelling at their savoir for crying out loud - wait a second. That just might play to his advantage, aside from the fact that he was held up in the air like he was nothing, all 145 pounds of him, but Caine didn’t react. He let his body hang in the air like a ragdoll.

Caine cocked his head to the side for a moment, seeing that the other man had trailed off suddenly. “Hey… What was tha –“ Then it hit him, those eyes staring at him, fading away their green glow as if weakened – he has seen them before.

He remembered now as the dark-haired man was forced to listen to those sappy words. What was he doing now? Ah… How cliché, lips brushing against his ear, sending chills down his spine causing him to wince. “So you remember me ~” It would’ve been easier if his foe just bit his ear off. What a tease, but so was Caine. “You know… that’s just not my style, Baby Cakes,” he whispered back, glancing towards the hostages with his lips curled into a wide smile. “You people like to call me “Heist” isn’t that right, -- Lee, was it?” A small giggle escaped, mocking the other, aggravating him. How terrible was it for a man to not know the name of someone he slept with, yet the other party did? Surly, Caine figured this would’ve killed the intensely strong man. Caine was digging a deeper grave than he thought he would’ve.

The criminal’s hands now moving reached up and gently took hold of Lee’s wrists, staring into his opponent’s eyes. “Ah, I would take you up on that offer… If you were the one punishing me ~” a tongue ran across his lips, “but too bad, I like it loud…” taking the opportunity to take notice that Lee didn’t want the hostages to hear – it would play to his advantage after all. Taking in a deep breath, Caine raised his voice so all could hear;

“DARLING! ~ I’M SO GLAD YOU’VE COME TO JOIN ME ~~ I MISSED YOU SOOOOOO MUCH!”

The hostages began to shuffle, muttering about the situation. They believed his act.

“OH! THIS IS THE BEST HONEYMOON EVER, SWEETHEART ~ HOW ABOUT SOME FIREWORKS, HUH?”

And with a quick motion, Caine reached into his pocket and clicked on a trigger button that exploded on touch at the back room. No one was there, but nobody knew that. Bombs were set out all around. Screaming was heard and the crowd was getting agitated. ‘The party’s getting started. What are you going to do about it, Lee?’

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provisional's use only. biatch◜☇ MISSION: ♥⊱ HEIST

[manoot]

____HAVEWEPUTTHESECHILDISHTHINGSAWAY ─── ♛
IT'S THE PRICE, I GUESS, FOR THE LIES I'VE TOLD____THAT THE TRUTH, IT NO LONGER THRILLS ME____WHY CAN'T WE LAUGH WHEN IT'S ALL WE HAVE?

The coffee was all gone. She asked Henry to be a sweetheart and go refill her cup and when he’d refused, she punched him squarely in the arm. And then she’d sunk down into her chair and waited, refusing to discuss the mission without her coffee. Mary often made the excuse, what’s a car without a battery, referring to her own abilities via metaphors or whatever. But really, she enjoyed making Henry run around like a stupid gofer every morning.

Punkass kid didn’t realize what was coming when he decided to cut her off on the way to work. HA HA HA.

When he returned, she took a deep sip from the coffee mug that had '******** you henry' elegantly painted on it and smiled meekly at the all-business woman sitting in front of her. ”That dead expression on your face really compliments that suit.” Mary put the coffee down and lightly tossed the file onto the table. ”You look really nice today, Carol.”

”The report. Did you read it.”

Blink twice if you’re a human being. Blink never if you’re Carol. The younger woman batted her eyelashes. ”Uh, what? Oh – heh, yeah. I mean, yes, I read it.” Mary paused for a moment, taking another sip of coffee. She didn’t even like coffee, to be completely honest. Her eyes flickered over to Henry for a brief moment. Yeah. Just ******** that guy. ”Oh, hey, I have a funny story to tell you. I was coming in on my way to work today and – listen, Carol, I’m going to need you to blink for me. Just once.”

The unblinking woman managed to ignore the super human and press forward. She'd done it many times before.

”Suit up already, Spari, you’re going online. You’re wasting time, people are in danger. Antony and Que are already there.”

”R – right.”

Sometimes she wondered what Carol’s sex life was like – I mean wh – NOPE. Marrin found her way to the room next door, and the room next door then transported her somewhere else completely. Somewhere where her powers weren’t blinking out and she didn’t look like a damn baby dragon that could only cough up weak balls of fire. And the funny thing was that Mary never felt too bad about that until she found herself in the virtual world and she remembered everything she was missing out on.

She began moving forward, patting her pockets out of habit to make sure she had everything. She then stopped because there was nothing even in her pockets and she looked DUMB. The gun rested in its holster and what was basically a huge, ugly battery was strapped firmly to her back. Mary was so ready to ******** some cooling systems up. So ready.

Nearby, to her immediate left, there was a rusted watermill, made of old metal. Wait, were they called watermills or mills or windmills or no, they were watermills because the water made them, uh, mill stuff. But despite the running water, the device did not turn due to the greens that had grown through the wide holes and it them in place. Marrin had never seen a watermill herself. She wasn’t even sure if they were used anymore, since there were obviously better ways to do… Mary squinted at the structure. To do whatever it was that they did.

The rest of the area was just tall grass that scratched at her arms and an overgrown thicket of green s**t a ways away. Mary continued to venture forward, trying her best to ignore the windmill mill watermill thing to the left because everything about it looked dangerous.

But...

But danger was her middle name, son.

”Can't be tamed,” she whispered dramatically into the sudden gust of wind. She turned in the direction of the mill and used the thick plants to climb up onto the rundown machinery. Hell yeah. Mary steadied herself and looked out into the sea of grass, admiring herself before she felt that breeze again.

When she carefully turned, Spari spotted it. It. The fan, the Devil – Bladed Fan. But it didn’t look anything like the Devil – Bladed Fan she had been imagining in her mind, the one with ten tentacles and revving chainsaws on every blade and a huge ugly demon face painted in the center and huge legs that allowed it to close the distance of a mile in one small step.

It was just a fan.

Like, the fans they sold at Marty’s Fan Mart.

So very cautiously and with the utmost care, Mary just kind of kicked it off the ledge. Huh. The device made a splash when it hit the water and sunk to the bottom, too heavy to be immediately carried off with the current. The girl snorted, speaking into her mic so that both Antony and Que could hear her.

”What does yours do? Mine blows wind,” she said sourly, kicking at the solid brick building the mill was held up against and nearly falling. Mary flailed her arms and regained her balance, just as a blade shot out from the water and grazed her cheek. ”WAIT, WOW, ********] She pushed herself up against the wall. It seemed that she had underestimated this cooling system.

In total disregard of that fact that she had contacted them, she heavily scolded them for distracting her and almost killing her and if she died they would have to pay for her funeral and everyone attending would be required to wear fake mustaches and her ghost was totally going to haunt them for the rest of their lives and they would never be able to get girlfriends with her ghost following them around at every waking hour, even when they peed. Then she disconnected.

And while she'd been preoccupied, more Marty's Fan Mart fans had appeared around her, all aimed at her with the power on high. ”THANK YOU FOR THAT. I AM, UM, VERY MUCH ENJOYING THE BREEZE,” she shouted over the wind and the mechanic sound the fans were all making. ”PERHAPS A LITTLE TOO CHILLY FOR MY LIKING. IT WAS ALREADY PRETTY COLD WHEN I GOT HERE.” They weren't very talkative, or maybe they just weren't the best listeners. ”HOW. IS. THE WEATHER?”

Spari dodged several blades that flew her way, retaliating with a compact explosion that took care of a small portion of them. ”Weather's a touchy topic. I see. I understand.”

The machinery she stood on creaked threateningly. The vines wouldn't hold this piece of crap in place forever. Mary took hold of the dark window ledge, at first with only one hand, but finding that she wasn't strong enough to pull herself up, she used both. In the time that it took to climb up and accidentally smash the window in her haste, the Devil - Bladed Fan had cut her several times already. She managed to climb onto the roof after violently blasting a ******** of fans aside.

”SORRY FOR KICKING YOU SORRY FOR KICKING YOU I DIDN'T KNOW JESUS IT WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN.”

[claw breeze]

Information had always been something that Zale had, yet didn´t need. Though there was a lazy grin on Zale´s face as he brushed against the teenage female by his right screeching something into the phone, the grimace he gave at knowing that she had given the school director a friendly hand to help with a…¨problem¨ earlier on in the morning was enough to make Zale stop on his tracks and get a weird look in return. When he bumped into another teen – fifteen, went to a gay bar the night before and he loved hoodies – ¨Ah, you lu´hoodies too? S´cool.¨ He somehow managed to slur the words together while speaking lowly, retracting his hand as the other wore a cautious expression on his face. Or well, more of a ¨who are you and what purple dinosaur did you eat before coming here to bother me¨. Or maybe it was even a ¨dude, your rainbow beanie is so cool where did you get that¨. To which, he would have responded with the same lopsided enthusiasm that he wore while talking to others, ¨from the dumpster next to the Señor Keyes´ Sombrero Shop.¨

¨…what?¨

¨Ah, did I say it o´loud? I mean, one´s go´to wonder why a beanie was nex´to a sombrero shop… wai´, where are y´going? Awh.¨ He spiked his voice with light disappointment – or was it amusement, he could never tell anymore with the way that the wind played with his ears. It played and the silence on the street was even more palpable from where he stood. That may just be the bacon he had in his pocket though. Good bacon could never be wasted, the colors on it pretty as the red look on his face as he – keeled over a building. He blinked, and looked back. There was the ring of a slap and the sounds of people arguing. He couldn´t make out the words but they were pretty close. There was an aching on his face. He probed the spot with his forefinger and didn´t so much flinch as he blinked over it. It sort of hurt?

¨…so you slept with Anne!?¨ Oh, his sister, Zale pondered. She was nice. Really nice with pretty, soft yellow hair of corn and oh, she was his love even though she was his sister. The woes of incest in the new millennium, Zale knew, were becoming even more complicated with each day.

But wasn´t his sister actually a middle aged man in the midst of a mid-life crisis with thirteen piercings and leading a protest against wearing clothes in public?

He paused, looking up at the sky, taking the pleasant weather in without paying any attention to the metallic taste in his mouth.

(In the back of his mind he thought about stumbling into unfortunate situations, being shoved into a practically nude body and taking in the waves of memories that made them both floozy, and accidentally unraveled the many mysteries of them both as he made yet another ¨connection¨, which resulted in a black eye and his underwear being stolen. Again.)

It was a nice day. Really nice, and in fact, he should have had a small poodle to accompany him with this pleasant journey of absolute pleasure. There was a slight skip in his step that fully escalated into a walk in the park as he crossed the many points of the city, people taking in the sight of a homeless, rainbow beanie, fuchsia hoodie wearing hoodlum that to be honest just looked like a bum. And he was – the landlord had kicked him out of the building for the sixth time this month, even though Zale insisted that he had actually paid the rent. The landlord, used to dealing with stoners and junkies, took one look at him and sighed with pity before shoving the few items of Zale´s into his arms while he promptly then pushed him out onto the street. Zale sat outside for ten minutes as he whined like a drowned cat-puppy mutation, indian-style on the floor and playing with a disheveled doll. He forgot about being homeless three minutes afterwards as he watched a cute cat jumping into a nearby dumpster. He followed, and turned up with the beanie that he currently wore on his head. It had been a very productive day, in his humble opinion.

There was no particular destination on Zale´s mind. There was the irritated itch on the back of his mind that he always got after coming into skin-to-skin contact with other people (it always left him in a cranky mood, always, and that was probably the reason that he had been punched earlier – oh, so that´s what happened this time) but more importantly, it kept Zale feeling as high as if he was on clouds. The streets were painted with neon colored, even if they slurred all over the place as he tried to near it. He held out an arm and tried to catch the flaming colors, but he never got any closer to them, which made his throat close up with something until he decided to focus on another thing.

He walked in a regular pattern of one, two, three, snap of the fingers, whistling a common love song that had been playing on the radio for the last couple of days. Every three minutes he would stop and look at the wall next to him up and down exactly four times before deciding that it was fine the way it was without Zale vandalizing it. He would ignore the looks that people would throw him as he passed by them, a combination of cloths and raggedy clothes that in no way had any sense to them – the long plaid skirt that he had on matched well with the baggy pants that he had underneath, even if he kept stepping on them with his sneakers every now and then.

His situation wasn’t unfortunate as he made it out to be, though – there were many, many worse places that he could be.

“ Hmmm wha’this buildin’ here….?” And he looked up. It looked massive from what he could see. There were people around, so many people walking on the sidewalk that Zale naturally curled into himself over into a hunch to try and avoid people bumping into him. Was it supposed to be day, or night? He could never figure it out, everything just smelled the same altogether. Plus the curry that his subconscious had been turned into was already making him dizzy enough to not realize that he was stepping into the building.

“ What’m I doing here…” He muttered to himself, taking in the scene slowly. “ Whoa. So many books.”

It was true, though. Everything seemed to be covered by books. All the pretty ebony tables, all the studious people drifting along page after page. Something tugged at his mind and told him that he’d never really ever been in a library before, (maybe if one counted the government records, then he could say that he’d read at least once in his life and what was he thinking about again?) and the occasional memory that slipped into his mind made it easy to weave through the countless aisles of bookcases. It was hard to concentrate, though – every few seconds he seemed to be slipping away into the unknown, because of the random person that he managed to bump into. A strangled sound caught in his throat when he managed to choke on it, coughing into his fist almost obnoxiously and having almost every person within a fifteen feet radius look at him with distaste in their eyes.

“ Mister, are you alright?”

And there he saw the littlest brat that could ever be found. Was he four? He had to be. No other age could there be someone as little as he was. Something told him that he should have been awed at the cuteness of it, and in some way he was, but there was no helping the sharp frown as the child tugged on the skirt. He didn’t answer because he didn’t have to. The child waved to his mother and called him over while asking why the strange man had a skirt on and smelled like bacon. Thank childhood’s continuous cause of ADD.

“ But bacon is nice. T’ is really the food of t’soul, ya’see.” He muttered to himself almost twenty minutes later, huddled in a small corner of a bookcase when he was repeatedly bumping into people that clearly had no business in being there in the first place. So he retired himself into a slightly less populated site of the library, and enjoyed the silence for a bit, leaning his head against the wood and ignoring the slight discomfort of the position.

His leg started to jiggle along. And hell, the leg was the captain here, and if it said it was tired of sitting down then he was going to sit up. Or, more likely, he was going to start wandering around trying to figure out where the exit was because he hadn’t been paying attention in the first place. He passed by a couple of aisles – few people were walking up and down the bright hallways, but there were one or two occasional wanderers that he could easily side step. Once, he thought he saw a flash of long hair paired up with red hair, and they seemed to almost trick Zale into remembering something but then – “ Nop’, not doing tha’.” No business where there shouldn’t be – he hadn’t been with Underground for quite a few days now, and the novelty of going against the Government was starting to wear off. A small part of the few lucid neurons told him that jumping fences on the whole “war” was not smart, but he’d gotten away once and he could do it again.

He whistled slightly as he approached a part of the library that was filled with tables, and he was planning on getting a way to get back to the exit when – ooooh, nope. Nope, crap, nope. Lucid thoughts for once filled his brain as he dove under a table and sat Indian style with his back to the other tables. That had been a government dog, hadn’t it? And the people he saw there earlier – there was no way that he hadn’t seen them at least once before, Underground or Government he didn’t know but either way he was screwed.

Where had all the bright colors gone, anyways? Zale grimaced at the pounding in his head. It was worse than a hangover, he’d tell you that.

He got several glances from some people, and for once decided that maybe being inconspicuous would be a good idea. And that would mean getting a book.

Yes! Good plan, good Zale.

Now.

Where was he supposed to get a book when he was under the table?

He let his head thump against a wooden leg, and sighed. But then his imaginary dog ears that he had imagined for himself earlier – or not really, he was wearing an animal headband under the cap the hoodie – as he heard footsteps coming near him. So he stuck his leg out in hopes of getting their attention.

“Psst. Psssst.” He whispered (rather loudly, but he didn’t care at the moment). “ H’lo?” He peered up at the person, orange hair and blue eyes assaulting his senses but no more so than the pile of books that she had in her arms. Checkmate.

“ I know t’is sudden, but I’m in a library, and I’m in a bit of a predicament – I’ve n’ books. And th’pretty pile you got up in there seems swell. W’you mind lending a poor guy one for a bit?”

And then he actually looked at her face and he frowned. “What’s a youn’ un like you got doin’ with so many books, tho’? I mean, I ge’the importance shamncy things, bu’there’s lotsa things you could be doing with that time. Like eatin’ corn dogs. Or spy-huntin’, that’s fun too. Do y’like readin’ a lot? I’ve never really done so much myself, I haven’t really had the time b’fore...”

Yes, he was stalling, and for a good reason, so he told himself. As long as he got that girl standing there, she was covering him from the other guy and therefore, he’d have enough time to get out before he was noticed. Plus books were always a good way to cover your face. He’d known that when he’d pretended to be asleep on missions with pages over his face.

It was a fool proof plan, and there was no way that anyone would see him!

Yes. Perfect.

He would cackle evilly, maybe he should – no, nooo, he was a good homeless guy. Bad Zale, get into character.

“…yo’ hair reminds me of the Tabby I got at home. He’s a good cat. Cats are beautiful in life. Don’t you think so?”

[IC4RU V-EG4]

HIRUAKATSUKI

i'm ℓeaяning to ＦＡＬＬ ↓↓↓ ( ☆ )
XXXXXXXXXXXXw h e n x i ` m x g o i n g x d o w n , x d o n ` t x w o r r y x a b o u t x m e
▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ DON`T TRY THIS AT HOME ▇▇▇▇▇▇
XXXXXXX↘x P R E T E N D Y O U D O N ` T S E E
XXXXXXXXI T x S H O U L D ` V E x B E E N x M E

Vise had gotten bored waiting for reinforcements and resorted to stabbing cereal boxes. He slipped them under his jacket, and just shadow-stabbed them, watching donut-shaped oats spill onto the linoleum. Stupid cereal boxes. He eventually found a Transformer toy in one box of Apple Jacks and decided to call it a day for murdering innocent breakfast grains. Whenever Hellfire summoned him, he would have the device necessary for calming his master's mad veins of fire (because he's hot-blooded, get it? hahahah...).

“For love and justice, the pretty sailor-suited soldier Sailor Chachi! In the name of the sparkles, I punish you!”

He thought he heard the automatic doors snap open. A roar and scream was heard from a couple aisles over, along with the grim sound of tearing flesh and metal. Who the hell was Chachi? Vise steadied himself in a defensive stance, listening closely for what might be coming towards him. What he saw was far from expected... He found his narrowed eyes glaring at a girl about his age with a blonde bob-cut. Her appearance was far from menacing - more like someone who popped out of an anime style magazine. Before he could protest against or attack her, she zoomed into his personal space with a tackle hug, catching him off guard completely. Wh- wha... A sign of affection? She was shaking his hand.

“HIHIHI YOU’RE A CUTIE ~ I’m Chachi! What’s your name?”

So this was Chachi. Paying no attention to the frivolous comment on his appearance, Vise was about to answer her first question when they multiplied tenfold. She was really chatty and he learned to ignore the questions early. He was about to leave her behind when she tugged him back, completely oblivious to his obvious resistance, and dragged him towards the Goldfish aisle. Nobody else Vise had ever met would so openly harass another in such a friendly manner; the situation was surreal to him. Chachi treated herself to some boxes of Goldfish crackers - her mouth didn't stop running. He wondered how much longer she would talk before she let him speak, but there didn't seem to be a chance of that any time soon.

Now that he thought about it, why was Chachi in Walmart? Didn't she see the police blockade? Wasn't she scared away by his flaming large ham of a master? What the hell was Hellfire doing anyway? Where were the government agents?

Unless... she was one of them? Vise blinked at the girl in front of him, who was in and out of the dressing room at alarming enough speeds to make the doors spin, and wondered. Seiten Inc. knew the government employed superhumans at earlier and earlier ages, so a teenage agent wouldn't be completely unrealistic. Vise /was/ thinking about killing her, so it wouldn't be a complete loss if Chachi was one of them, though it might be difficult in the day without his shadow weapons. Sorry Fadu, Vise is kind of a sociopath.

AGH, CAMERA FLASH. As one with the power of shadows, Vise wasn't particularly fond of blinding light. The henchboy rubbed at his eyes and the blurred picture Chachi was showing him began to sharpen. It was the both of them, Chachi to his side with a peace sign. She was just having the time of her life, wasn't she? He was beginning to feel irritated. Silently fuming, he watched her waltz around the Walmart in her silly, cheerful demeanor. Being dragged around wasn't in his schedule. Vise was somebody who loned wherever he pleased and he decided he didn't like this extroverted character - what was described as "outgoing" was interpreted as "pushiness". For a moment more, he contemplated her involvement with law enforcement, but as far as he could see, she was unarmed. No weapons, no powers.

... She couldn't be a government agent.

"Chachi, leave."

That's all he said before taking this opportunity, while separated from her hand, to vault over the shelves and closer to his master. Those government agents would be here any moment and he didn't want to be dragged down by this strange girl he'd just met.

- -

"Nobody can get things half price anymore, hahaha!" the lameass villain cackled from Walmart's rooftop.

The officers side glanced at each other, beginning to roll their eyes at the scene before them. True fact: every two minutes into a Hellfire raid gets 20% less scary. Killing people by frying them alive and attacking the citizens with robots was one thing, but the enforcements that arrived soon learned that Hellfire, although serious about causing terror, acted like he was screwing around all the time.

"... Men, we're officially on standby," the lieutenant officer ordered. The men shoved their guns back in the holsters and the crouching citizens from behind the cars began to stand.

"NO, WAIT! I'm not finished!" he stamped his feet impatiently from above. Frantically searching for something to have the public grieve about, Hellfire's gaze dropped below his feet: the large blue capital letters of the Walmart logo. He singed the 'ALM' out of the sign, letting the burning letters crash into the parking lot in a mini bonfire.

"Look! Now it just says 'WART'! HAHAHAHAH!"

"... "

And the policemen began to talk of the weather and smoke cigarettes behind their vehicles, completely unconcerned.


` codename ✱〈 vise 〉KiD IC4RUS

[IC4RU V-EG4]

millennium ██████████████████████ .★. ██████████████████████
xx ═════════════════════════════════════════════════
millennium i never wanted it to go this far , x never thought it would be so hard
millennium ▽x but now i'm left with nothing else
millennium ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━


Marc remembered specifically swerving out of the preoccupied boy's way to avoid colliding with him, but it happened anyway. [******** mainstream," he spit out in frustration, staring down the kid who so absentmindedly pervaded his path. "I was headed home before you crashed into me."

What is up with my characters bumping into the motormouths. Marc let the friendly brunette babble on, only to insult him again as he dodged the clarinet case. "Watch where you're swinging that, conformist! I'm starting to wonder if you have any tact at all," Marc fumed, snootily straightening his posture. David seemed to excuse him, however, and continued to treat him warmly.

"Unlikely. And I'm always interesting. It's part of being unique," he smugly emphasized the last word, as if to remind David that he was more special than he was. This was the part where Marc planned to walk away, but then David mentioned his name, which was very interesting to him. Why would he be looking for him? If he was the Marc being spoken of, that is. His pesky curiosity was enough to bait him back into conversation.

"If you're looking for Marc Lavinge, yes. You're looking at him. Also, Nrarc is the dumbest name suggestion I've ever heard. ... What are you staring at?"

Marc glanced over his shoulder to find nothing but an empty window overlooking the parking lot.


■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ x ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
━━━★ ★ ★ x ❝ you're so damn difficult. 》_______________

[Brethil24]

WHITETEXTIN【CODENAME-DATABYTE:~】jaden%▐▌
EMPTYSPACESINMYCODE░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ʜᴇʟʟᴏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ! ʜᴇʟʟᴏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ! ʜᴇʟʟᴏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ!

⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
It didn’t take Jaden long to exhaust her options. Finding the fan’s power source was easy enough, as was jamming it without shutting down everything else in the building, but despite the fact that it wasn’t even getting any electricity any more, the fan continued gleefully flinging around blades like there was no tomorrow. If people weren’t in danger of dying at the moment, Jaden might have stopped to complain that that didn’t make any sense. At all. Then again, somehow a computer virus managed to infect a fan that shouldn’t even have a system complex enough to affect and make it go berserk, so maybe she should be complaining.

Outside of that there didn’t really seem to be much else she could try. Jaden couldn’t find anything else in the store that might be useful, and when she glanced at the video feed to see what was going on, she was startled to find…some random guy staring at her. For a few very paranoid seconds Jaden panicked over how she’d been found out when she was just watching and sadafjs what if she got arrested or something. And then the boy blinked. And then he walked away. …Okay that happened.

Jaden shrugged and was about to look around one more time when a strange stream of data swished by before disappearing in the general direction of the fan. Hesitantly Jaden probed the fan to discover that there was an entrance of some sort, though it was rapidly closing up. Jaden looked at the video feed, watching as a girl valiantly thrashed at the blades flying through the air. Diving right into a mysterious virus ridden object probably was a very stupid thing to do, especially if the people in the real world could clear things up. But on the other hand just up and leaving while people were in trouble didn’t seem right either, especially if she could do something about it. After all, in the end a virus was just a packet of data right? And Jaden was very good at dealing with data.

If her dad was here, he’d probably demand that she get out right now. He’d say something about not being a hero, and staying safe, and how she wouldn’t be able to handle it. But her dad wasn’t here right now. He was probably in trouble somewhere, either captured by those bad guys or on the run from them, and if she ever wanted to find him again, running away all the time wouldn’t be an option. Filled with a sudden surge of determination, Jaden rushed forward, squeezing through the gap in the barrier around the fan just before it popped shut. What followed was an incredibly disorientating adventure as she tumbled through the outer layer of the fan’s code before it finally spat her out.

For a brief moment Jaden was pretty sure she’d messed up and died. After all, there was air and sun and wind and grass and Jaden hadn’t felt any of those things in years, which probably meant she was in heaven or limbo or whatever came after you died. Jaden wasn’t quite as upset about the idea as she probably should have been, though she was crying as she lay on her back and stared at the blue, blue sky. She’d forgotten how much the sensory deprivation had bothered during the first few months after she…after the experiment. It wasn’t like they could do anything about the computer being unable to transmit smell or taste or touch, at least not until several years had passed, and even then the devices Dad managed to cobble up were rudimentary at best, only able to give vague pictures of the outside world. It had been much easier to forget that such sensations existed in the first place.

But now Jaden was lying there, the grass tickling her arm as she raised a hand (her hand) up to her cheek. She touched it, marveling at the dampness and pulled her fingers away to look at them. And then she froze. Jaden was 98% sure that skin colors did not come in silver. Staring at her hand, Jaden flexed her fingers experimentally, and a series of patterns that looked suspiciously like circuitry flashed beneath her skin. Already the more logical part of Jaden’s brain began piecing together what had happened, but she wasn’t quite ready to acknowledge the fact yet. So instead she reached over and grabbed a blade of grass. It felt like grass (probably), but now that she was actually paying attention Jaden realized that it also felt a lot like a packet of data. Just to make sure, she began teasing it apart, focusing not on the leafy plantness of the object, but instead on the whisper of code she could just barely sense. After a moment the leaf dissolved into pixels, and with just a minimal amount of effort it soon collapsed back together, this time forming a four leaf clover.

‘Right, that makes sense. Everything is made of data because I am online. And I am online because that is where I live. Following a path from one machine to another does not magically transport you to the real world, and if it did that would be really weird. Right.’

Telling herself that she believed that one hundred percent, Jaden got to her feet and began looking around. A quick inspection revealed that her whole body was covered in the silvery material, though some portions were lighter, giving the impression that she was wearing something like a leotard (Jaden did not know how she felt about that). Aside from a lot of grass, the only interesting thing around seemed to be a water mill of sorts. It was covered in a swarm of angry fans and had a person flailing around on the roof. Wait a person!

Mouth gaping open, Jaden ran forward to get a closer, distracted by the fact that this could be her first interaction with someone that wasn’t her father in almost a decade. Ahhh, was it really a person? Like a real flesh and blood a person? But how would a person get in here? Maybe the girl had undergone a similar procedure. But then again Dad invented the transfer technology just for her, and it seemed unlikely that he would just use it willy nilly. Well, maybe she was a super advanced AI. That would be cool too. Judging by the way she was screaming the other girl sounded like she had a lot of personality regardless, so talking to her should be fun, right? But…then again this would be her first face to face conversation in years. What if she messed up and said something weird and made a terrible first impression? And wasn’t it kind of suspicious that this girl suddenly showed up out of no where and was now blasting fans? What if she was dangerous? Jaden slowed to a stop, suddenly feeling self conscious. Ahhh, what to do… Maybe she sho- ASFKGJHALSKJH FAN!

Jaden dove to the side, narrowly avoiding a blade to the face. A small number of fans had broken off from the main swarm and was heading right at her, and she began desperately looking around for something to defend herself with. Unfortunately there was still nothing around except for grass, and when one fan flew right at her face like a deranged kamikaze pilot, Jaden panicked and threw an arm up to block it. Which really shouldn’t have done anything except mortal peril apparently did wonders for triggering powers you had all along but hadn’t really realized were applicable for this situation. Instead being torn to shreds by an angry fan, Jaden’s arm instead pixilated and turned into a glowing sword. The fan then promptly ran into it and cleaved itself in two.

Jaden would have liked to have spent another second staring at her arm now sword, but there were still fans out for blood. So instead she resumed running towards the water mill and waving her sword arm around wildly as she went. Miraculously she managed to make her way to the base of the building without getting too hurt, and after fidgeting uncertainly for a moment, Jaden looked up. That was a lot of fans. And a lot of explosions too. “Ummm, Miss, are you alright up there? Errr, I can help if you want!” Jaden waved her sword for emphasis and accidentally impaled another fan.

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▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ｓｏｍｅｄａｙ ｍｙ ｈｅａｒｔ ｗｉｌｌ ｂｅ ｅｒｒｏｒ ｆｒｅｅ

[silvieon]

"Oh, you're Marc? Jeez, I was expecting someone - hey, hey hi, Spica!" David waved excitedly with his clarinet hand at the girl in the window behind Marc. "That's Spica there, see? Look, she's waving at me!"

He grinned at Marc, holding out his not clarinet hand to Marc. "Anyways, hi, I'm David, it's nice to meet you, Marc!" When the other boy didn't shake his hand in return, David frowned, but was undeterred. Instead, he grabbed Marc's hand himself and shook it, grinning satisfied at that. 'How rude, though, not shaking my hand. It's not like I'm going to bite it or anything,' David thought unhappily, still shaking Marc's hand.

Still shaking.

And shaking.

"So I hear that you used to work for the government!" David said cheerfully, still shaking. "D'you want to come back and try it again?" Marc's face was totally not happy with David's question, he could see it. Sort of. Or maybe he'd just eaten something disgusting. That was Zack's face, or at least, David remembered that being Zack's face, like way back when David had dared him to eat that jalapeno pepper in that restaurant all that time ago. The super nice and polite words that were coming of Marc's mouth were totally like Zack's too.

And then it was David's face that turned sad, frowning down at his still shaking hand. Zack...

'Stop, bad David. Bad David,' he berated himself, almost knocking himself in the face with his other hand, until he remembered that his clarinet case was in that hand and ended up barely avoiding his face and knocked himself in his chest instead. Whoops.

"I'm going to go check to see if I have a bruise on my chest now, don't go anywhere okay!" David said over his shoulder, finally letting go of Marc's hand, and running off in the other direction. Considering the fact that David was pale and thin and not muscle - y at all, when he took off his shirt in the bathroom after setting his guitar case down over the sink, he should've expected the reddish area right in the middle of his chest. Hmm. Maybe he should put ice on it when he got home. Was that what you did with bruises? David never really paid attention to that kind of thing. Too much work.

The paying attention thing, that is.

"Heyyyyy, Spica, if you're there, I think we need to go with Plan B. He's onto usssssssss. And also, do you think I should put ice on this red spot here? Do you put ice on that kind of thing? Hmm. Wait, what're you doing in the boy's room any - oh, oh, I didn't know there was someone in the stall there. Um. Hi. Um. Bye," David said (all at once, wow he really could talk), running out of the bathroom with his clarinet case and shirt held protectively in front of his chest and guitar slung over his back, leaving a really confused but pretty cute boy behind him. He ran off to the drama classroom. No one would be there. Probably.

"All right, clothes, clothes, clothes...clothes... Wait, maybe I should change first. Hmm," he thought aloud, glancing around the room, and then out the door. And then out the door a second time just to make sure that no one was coming before he closed the blinds (no need to let Spica see) and quickly stripped, before closing his eyes and tried to block out the pain of the transformation.

David was skinny and not muscular and all, but he was also pretty short, for his age. And Lee was tall. Really tall. And now his bones were stretching uncomfortably, and wow, he was pretty sure that he was never going to try transforming into Lee ever again, because Lee was way too tall.

"All right, clothes, quick, what if Marc runs off," Lee!David murmured, in Lee's voice, as he looked around quickly for clothes that...hopefully would fit (the teenagers who were Lee's size didn't exactly "do" the drama thing). Wow that was really disconcerting. He actually sounded just like Lee. So creepy. Too bad Lee talked a lot.

"All right, time to go find Marc," Lee!David said, standing in front of a mirror, making sure the clothes...mostly fit. All right, so the vest was totally not a thing that Lee would wear, and also he was sort of missing Lee's weird...hood....shirt...thing that he always wore. But you know what, he thought he looked pretty good. Certainly a hell of a lot more fashionable than Lee usually looked. Plus, Lee should really consider himself lucky that David wasn't going to use the feather boa, just saying.

"Showtime," Lee!David tried to growl out the way Lee always did. But he just...sounded weird when he did that. Ugh, stupid Lee.

After making sure that his things (and especially his clarinet and guitar) were hidden away properly, he stealthily made his way over to where he'd left Marc before. Except that he was kind of missing the Marc part. He caught sight of his head, peeking out into the parking lot.

"Hey! Marc! I mean, Marc, get your a** over here, you..." Shoot what was he supposed to call Marc? He wasn't...Lee enough for this, this was hard. "...asshat!" David didn't like swearing, okay.

"Listen here, Marc. I need your help, okay? There's work we need to do over in the Octagon and I've gotten really short - "

"What is this bullshit."

Oh.

Oh dammit.

"David, I ******** know that's you! Who gave you permission to shapeshift into me? Whose bright idea was this, actually? He and I will need to have words."

Wow, Lee. Just. Wow. Way to give him away. Way to go.

"Lee, come on, I almost had him - "

"I am so not in a ******** good mood right now, so you will shut the hell up and let me talk to Marc, or I will have your head on a ******** platter and I'm - s**t you look like a kicked puppy. How do I look like a kicked puppy. I'm sorry, sorry, dammit, Marc, help me out, he's going to cry and it's going to look like I'm crying!"

"M - marc, Lee is a gigantic idiot and he's so rude and...and... and make him stop he's really loud!" Lee!David sobbed, cowering behind Marc's shoulder.

Well, so much for Lee's reputation.

[manoot]

____HAVEWEPUTTHESECHILDISHTHINGSAWAY ─── ♛
IT'S THE PRICE, I GUESS, FOR THE LIES I'VE TOLD____THAT THE TRUTH, IT NO LONGER THRILLS ME____WHY CAN'T WE LAUGH WHEN IT'S ALL WE HAVE?

What is that?

She ducked her head, narrowly avoiding a particularly pissy fan, and took the chance to turn her attention to something other than the murderous blades for a moment. There was something new here. "You know, guys, I'm not really up for a boss fight today so if that's your crazy Devil - Bladed mom or something, I'm getting the hell out of here." Not that her wanting out of the virtual world meant the tech assholes would let her out ... or that she was pussying out!

A hand went to her ear piece. "Carol," Mary murmured, as quietly as possible, but it was doubtful that the stranger would be able to hear her over all the noise and from that distance. The super human attempted to stumble to a safer area on the roof, but the fans blocked her path. A thought occurred to her. Wouldn't it be stupid if they were all out eating - "I CAN HEAR YOU JERKS EATING CURLY FRIES."

Well maybe they weren't.

Mary took a well deserved cut to the shoulder for not paying attention. She retaliated, destroying another patch on the roof and making moving around all the more dangerous. She frowned at the destroyed fan in her hand. They were mocking her, or at least she felt like it. She angrily pulled hair out of her face repeatedly before giving up and concentrating on not being hit instead.

"Now you all think I'm a big ******** baby. ******** you, I'll be right back."

It looked human, she supposed. It looked human besides the hand that shifted into a lethal weapon. Whatever it was, whether it be another super human or the angry mother fan coming to avenge her angry electronic babies, it was making its way towards her with speed.

"What were you saying, Spari?"

"Hey, Carol, I know you must be lonely and all but I'm kind of busy right now. I wish you wouldn't bother me while I'm on the job, you know? Okay byee." Sometimes Carol was so unprofessional for a strictly professional lady.

A path from the roof to the ground was hurriedly made with a series of small blasts, broken bits of fans flying into the water. Hastily, Mary slid off of the building and steadied herself with a hand, trying her best not to look like she had just tripped in front of this stranger.

It took the shape of a human, but its skin was silver. Which wasn't so weird, Mary supposed. It looked like a girl - she looked like a girl. And when this girl moved, lights appeared and disappeared across her skin. Her hand was a blade, the only thing preventing Mary from simply leaning in and poking and prodding the child. Yes! Child! Whoever she was, she couldn't be older than eighteen. This was an interesting new development. And what Mary deduced from all of this was

???????

The kid said something about helping, and Spari had been about to object - maybe it looked like she was getting her a** kicked, but she most assuredly was not - before a sharp, threatening blade was stabbed into the center of an incoming enemy. "If you ... really want to -" Mary rubbed away blood from her nose in irritation and embarrassment "- but you better not get hurt because you probably have a mom or dad worried about you and I don't want my a** getting sued."

Who the hell was this girl? Mary stood there observing her for a moment, forgetting the chaos. Did they know each other? Did they work together? Was she a friend of a friend or were they next door neighbors? Finally, Mary decided she recognized her from

???????

"Do I know -" Spari clamped her mouth shut and abruptly began to move, tugging Jaden along by the shoulder. "Stupid a** fan -" A blade went whizzing through the space in between the two heroes. "Son of a -" Several more flew by, perhaps shearing a few of the girls' hairs off. "GOD DAMN IT, WHERE ARE YOUR MANNERS, I'M TRYING TO HAVE A DISCUSSION, ******** OFF." The nearest infected object was violently grabbed and punted across the field of grass.

She turned around to face the younger girl. "We'll talk later. After this problem is taken care of," Mary frowned at the somewhat depressing number of opponents compared to herself and this stranger. "And then you can answer all my intrusive questions and tell me who you are in the name of, um, justice. And the government or ... blah ... blah blah."

[sunset lullaby]

i f　 w e　 c o u l d　 p u t　 i n t o　 w o r d s :
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　███████ ( ◞♛ every second someone lives on ██████
______ 　　　*we feel ●urselves live ●n　　　　　　　cecilia lewis | library　　　)


▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆▆



It didn't take long for Cecilia to return to the area she'd secured for herself as she'd become quite accustomed to speed walking. " So I've got a few hours or so I suppose to sit here & mull over these books before I take the rest ho --- !! " She halted abruptly both in the middle of her murmuring and her stroll as she looked down at the obstacle infront of her. A human leg. ' Just great. On top of meeting a bunch of former govs, I've come into contact with a murder victim's missing body parts. Fabulous. ' The woman thought sarcastically before attempting to walk around. She wasn't quite sure what fool fell asleep in a library and slept as wildly as putting their limbs out all over the place but she wasn't too eager to find out. And that's when the voice came. She sighed and stopped moving altogether, turning to look at him with somewhat of a scowl. Not only did he seem to not grasp the fact that she was a rather busy woman but completely disregarded the timeless rule of no loud talking in a library .. even if he did try to whisper it. She leaned down slightly to get a look at his face and lo & behold, it was another !

' Damn it all. I was hoping to avoid you people and now you're talking to me ? UGH. ' The only brightside to her situation was that none of them could recognize or at least, she thought none of them could. Her eyes scanned the young man infront of her, though now that she looked, he was clearly a few years older than herself. She could only gather that he must've been from before the rebellion as well though she'd never interacted with him much. His clothing looked to be picked from a thrift store and hastily thrown together in any attempt to have clothing but his smile & carefree tone told her he could more than likely care less. Her scowl diminished slightly at the thought and she decided if for nothing else but old time's sake that she could hear him out. ' A book ? He's definitely not taking any of my personal books. He can have one of these medical books ... then again, I need to at least get a bit of work done while I'm here. ' She mulled over the thought before glancing down to the books in her arms. Her thin arms were getting rather tired of heaving these around everywhere though. " .. Are you going to give it right back when you're finished reading ? " Her question was simple but then just like always, she was back on the offense. " Why can't you just go get one anyway ? This is a library, after all. " She pursed lips as he began to question what she was going to do with so many books. ' Read them, you fool. What else would I be doing ? I'm obviously not holding this for my health. ' Perhaps it was rather rude of her to think that but she often got upset when she was reminded of how others perceived her : some ignorant little girl.

Far from it ! If she were to keep up with appearances though, Cecilia decided it might be best to play the part of a young girl then. " I need them for a school project. Research paper on the history of diseases. " The orange - haired female replied softly, adjusting the books as she continued to stare down at the other. It wasn't too far from the truth and more than likely, she would end up having to write a report on her research once she got back. An eyebrow raised at his comment of spy - hunting. Was he still active but with the underground now ? Just great. [******** perfect. Of all people to run into, an underground operative. Not that she had anything against them personally and if it were up to her, she may have even joined them but for some reason, underground operatives labeled anyone associated with the government as an enemy. She hadn't had many encounters with them and she certainly didn't want to start now, getting caught up in some rumble at a library of all places. " Yes, I like to read often ... if you have the time to sit here and talk to me, you have time to read. " She reminded him. There were better ways to spend time and in her opinion, it didn't include eating corn dogs. She blinked when he told her that her hair reminded him of his cat. Her eyes flitted to the short cloak she'd been wearing that donned small cat ears at the top. Had he been watching her .. ? ' He might not be a complete nutcase. No, he's a stalker. A creepy one at that. Or perhaps even he himself is a spy for the underground ? ' As he continued his idle conversation, Cecilia couldn't help but wonder what ulterior motive he had. No one hides under a table and just so happens to start up a chat with someone who works with the same government who'd abandoned him .. especially not when there were two others just like him only a few aisles away. No, that was too perfect of a coincidence. She had only just opened her mouth to respond to his question when---

BOOM!

The hell ? It couldn't have been from one of the computers and it was obviously rather real. Cecilia initially believed she must've been hearing things but as the distinct scent of smoke and burning paper passed by her accompanied with a crackling noise, it became all too clear yet she still couldn't believe it. No .. this was just a simple library ... it couldn't possibly be a ...

" ... fire ? "

[Brethil24]

Max. I have posted for him. He'll get a format later.

Their following escape from the upper levels of the prison went smoothly enough, though Max got the distinct impression that his two escorts were showboating a bit. Whatever. The two supers could kill as many hapless guards as they wanted, as long as they still got out of here in one piece. There was no love lost between Max and the prison guards, even if none of them did anything outright abusive (Max did not count sneering the word ‘degenerate’ every time the opportunity arose). The bastards were the ones keeping him from his daughter, even if they were just ‘doing their jobs’, so they could all die in a ditch somewhere for all he cared. He’d seen enough in his lifetime that a few mangled corpses weren’t much of a bother any more.

So Max hung back as the two did their job, and when they finished mopping the floor with their attackers he followed without complaint, not even bothering to step around the growing pools of blood that covered the floors. He might have grunted in agreement when the ice manipulator (had he given a name?) mentioned that they should hurry things up a little, but then again he was a little distracted at the moment. It was comforting, the idea of getting his tech back. He always got a little twitchy when he didn’t have some project to work on, and the very idea of someone fiddling with his possessions, let alone Jaden’s body… Well even if his powers weren’t strictly combat oriented, exacting a swift and brutal retribution would be easy once he had a weapon he could work with.

The basement level was suspiciously empty, especially since someone had to realize they’d be coming for his tech. Perhaps they had some trap that would keep them from escaping? Well, even if it was a trap, they couldn’t exactly turn around and waltz out the front door. No, Sandy was pretty much their only ticket out of here, and she was waiting up ahead. Still, Max made sure to remain somewhere between Moxie and Ice Guy as they walked down the length of the corridor. If there was something waiting to ambush them, Max didn’t want to be right next to it when it happened.

Upon reaching the door, Max was almost pleased to see the complicated lock baring their way. Sure it was a considerable obstacle, but it was the first decent piece of technology he’d seen in weeks. Might even make a decent warm up. Shaking his head, Max stepped forward and raised a hand to rest against the keypad for the door’s lock. “Save the explosions for something I can’t hack. We’ll need them then.” He might not be sure of the specifics of their powers, but he understood one thing; everyone has limits. The last thing he wanted was for the two of them to run out of juice right when things decide to suddenly turn south.

As he’d suspected, the security mechanism was complicated but not particularly inspired; cracking it was more tedious than difficult, and even then that was only because he was a bit out of practice. Vaguely Max found himself thinking that maybe it might have been faster to let Moxie blow the door to bits, but by the time the thought finished forming the light was already flashing green and he could hear door unlock and slide open. He skipped the possibility of a snappy remark in lieu of entering the room as quickly as possible, though he did nod curtly at Sandy as he walked past, which was a considerably more courteous greeting than their last interaction. He then headed straight towards the third shelf from the back and crouched down to open the largest box on the bottom row.

The body was a beautiful piece of machinery, even in its half completed state. Years of practice had given much insight into how he could best emulate the human body, and if it weren’t for the portions of exposed metal skeleton and the fact that the torso was attached to the legs by a few cables, Jaden’s body could have easily passed for a regular human girl taking a nap. Max wouldn’t hesitate to call it his finest creation once it was finally completed (Jaden herself was a collaboration, a joint project between him and his dearly beloved wife; he still had a hard time believing anything from him went into creating the vibrant creature that was their daughter).

Scooping Jaden’s body into his arms, Max carefully rearranged the tarp swaddled around her to cover more of her features, though it was still painfully obvious that he was carrying a human sized object. He then walked over to where Moxie and Frosty were talking to Sandy about something and inclined his head towards the shelf he’d just looked at. “Most of my stuff’s over there. Should be labeled. I think they have the rest in that closet over there.” Shifting Jaden’s body so that one of his hands was free (Note to self: New metal alloy may be a stronger and more reasonable priced alternative to titanium, but it is heavy), Max grabbed the door's handle and cracked the small electronic lock keeping it closed. He had just enough time to realize that there was something a lot more complex attached to that simple lock before he got a face full of bright purple gas. Coughing violently, Max dropped to his knees, forcing his stinging eyes open to see a spinning room being filled with more purple smoke.

“s**t.”