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POP! The other car lost some of its balance as one of its tires was rendered useless. WIth a command from the godfather, Ibane used the limo to ram into the other car's side causing it to spin to the side of the road. It was over, but Max could've sworn he heard someone from within the car yelling something unusual just before they were out of hearing range. One of your distant relatives is an Admin, and he or she is probably the screw up! Maxwell... the Hales... had no known Admin relatives. Perhaps it was just the result of that particular Black sector drug gang hallucinating from its own drugs, or they were just making excuse to mess with him. The limo reached its destination without further incident.

Later that night, Maxwell was staring at a sea of reporters and their cameras. He was in the middle of commenting on the White sector crisis. "I'm willing to do my part to help out in any way that I possibly can--legally, that is." The crowd chuckled upon hearing him say that. "In all seriousness, I will help fund the Admins and their reconstruction efforts." He said the last of his comments, and then introduced Cwen to the stage for her to share her own comments and opinion on the what the media was now calling, "The White Sector Crisis."

((Ah... I mentioned a book in Armand's last post. Who says the pen can't be used still?))

The distinguishable Dr. Parr ignored the demanding yells of his name from his clearly naturally frazzled lab assistant and the not so audible stomps of her angry feet. The flashing of the lights and the crumbling Sector were enough to mask the sounds of her feet as he skipped off in the direction of his lab.

The White Sector was crumbling, but the red haired scientist intended on getting to his lab and managed to do so safely by dodging falling rubble and ducking under collapsed ceilings and sparking dangling wires. Elliot caught up to him as he reached the lab. "Good? Quite marvelous, actually. Ah, but Ellie, weren't you supposed to be fleeing to the outside world?" the scientist grinned. "What are you doing here?"

Without bothering to wait for an answer, the red head strolled inside his lab and began looking for whatever it was he was looking for. Fortunately, the lab wasn't too damaged. Whether that had to do with Armand messing with the lab constructs was a question that no one would probably ever ask. The lab was, however, subject to more catastrophe just like the rest of White Sector, and despite this impending notion, Armand simply hummed lackadaisically as he perused certain areas of the lab to search. Eventually, under a pile of parts, he found an unlabeled lab notebook of some sort. "Ah! Here we go! Now, for that other important item." He shoved the notebook into Ellie's hands. "If you would be so kind, I'll be ready in a few."

If Ellie bothered to flip through the notebook that appeared to look really like a lab notebook on first impression, she would probably not understand the point of the notebook. Inside were what appeared to be random doodles. Random kiddie doodles that looked like they had absolutely nothing to do with work. Since Armand wasn't quite the professional expert artist, she might not even figure out what it was he was trying to draw. However, on one page, there were stick figures of her and designs of ElliotX, and the special functions that ElliotX would have over Ellie. That, Elliot would definitely be able to recognize. There was some chicken scratch scrawl on Ellie's personality too.

Armand kept searching and sighed. "Hmm... where did that go? I can't leave without it. It's too much." He raised an eyebrow as he dug through his desk, and tossed a couple of papers out of the way, one of which seemed to be a design on a coffee maker for Ellie, which obviously might look normal but couldn't be treated at face value. After taking rather long ridiculous long minutes of time, Armand was victorious. "Voila!" He plucked a pen. A simple pen with some decorative value from a drawer of the desk. Just in time too. The area behind the desk began to cave in.

"Alright, now we can dash to the peculiarities of the outside world! Time to go, Ellie." Armand beamed and grabbed Ellie and began to drag her out of the lab.

Flarn Zeglos – Ekruh mechanic
What were the chances of that?

After having evacuated, Flarn had simply went back to his workshop to tinker with the machine he had been playing with. It might have been a toaster when he started, but it certainly bore no semblance of it anymore. On the inside of his screen, the press confrerence was being played live, allowing him to find what had caused the collapse of part of the sector. It was one of the many modifications that he had made to his suit over the year that he had been using this version. It was basicly his car, giving him freedom of movement in the city. His cockpit lay in the torso and head, controls configured to his prefrences.

Hearing a knock at the door, Flarn turned to see who it was and accidentally knocked over the 'toaster'. It hit the ground and lainched a coil out of itself which lodged into his arm. Thankfully the arms were comletely mechanical, resulting in the loss of use in one arm, but no damage to himself. "Well, Bl'gart...." Moving over to the door, he opened it with his other arm to find one of his usual customers waiting. Knowing what he needed, Flarn moved into his workshop again and lifted a small box off of a shelf and passed it to him. "Everything should be in there. If there's anything missing, let me know tommorw and I'll get it to you. Stepping out behind him, Flarn locked the shop behind himself and set off for the Rust HQ. It was time to speak to Jack again for some newer parts. His suit was due an upgrade soon anyway.

Aubia had a lot of work to do. Ideas had been running through her head, forming into plans. She needed a team, yes, that was what she was looking for before the Admin Compound practically imploded.

But first.... the reporters. And how. Aubia merely repeated the same story she gave Elliot.

"I'm sorry for the panic, we believe it was merely a glitched meter. Yes, the evacuation was protocol. Contractors will be repairing the Compound tomorrow."

Aubia sighed, annoyed by the persistent questions, and walked away.

__________

That night, Aubia Schultz was also at the press conference. She had to be there, of course. She was an authority among the Admins.

She watched the man speaking, Maxwell Hales. She smiled. He was willing to help? Her plan became just a bit more real. Crime or not, he would be useful.

Aubia also admired the politician who spoke after him, Cwen Hazard. She had sensibility, and clout as well. In fact...

The Admin leaned forward slightly, and moved towards the stage. As she predicted, a new wave of flashes went off as Aubia stepped up after Cwen, still wearing her Admin uniform. She didn't really intend to do any sort of show stealing, but this was for Warlock.

For Warlock, and for Klox City, Aubia told herself. Just put on your Admin face and go to work.

"My name is Aubia Schultz," she said audibly, and the microphones picked up her voice easily, projecting it around the room.

"I'm sure by now, all of you know the story of the White Sector Crisis. A minor, but crucial mete malfunctioned, and we failed to recognize the issue before the Compound sustained some mild structural damage, and the emergency protocol had to be carried out - hence, the evacuation."

"As Admin," Aubia continued, her stomach feeling like it was about to lift up and fly away, "I hereby unveil the Warlock Recovery Team, a project the Admins have been working on for some time now. I can't give you any details due to security reasons. I wish I could though, believe me. It's absolutely fascinating in its extent and procedure."

She smiled, and gestured toward Maxwell and Cwen.

"The gist of it all is, the Warlock Recovery Team is a group of people selected for their intelligence and skills to assist the Admins in diagnosing the cause of these incessant glitches, and if necessary, even accompany us to physical repairs."

"I am delighted that Maxwell Hales and Cwen Hazard have offered their assistance, and on the behalf of the Admins - excuse me, on behalf of the Administrators of Klox City, I ask that they please accept our invitation to the Warlock Recovery Team."

Oh, in the name of all that is sweet and good of Aeon, please let them say yes!

Antoinette du Soleil was at the Press Conference, of course. She watched Aubia Schultz as the Admin spoke... but, for the life of her, Antoinette did not know what she was talking about. A Warlock Recovery Team? Why had she not heard of this? She usually made it her job to know as much as possible, but this was news. Who was on this team?

She couldn't hold back the brief flash of jealousy that overtook her. She should be on that team. She was more than smart enough, more than capable. Damn the system. She was better than half of her so-called superiors--hell, she was better than three-quarters of them! Damn it all. A scowl made itself present on her otherwise attractive, if somewhat calculating, face.

Cwen knew there were many people at the press conference, but she didn't realize that the Admins would take the chance to speak on stage at the press conference because the press conference had been organized by Maxwell for her and him only.

Aubia Schultz of the Admins. For all of the words the Admin was speaking, they had better get the problem fixed, whatever it was. Warlock Recovery Team? Recovery? Is there something we're missing here? For a moment, Cwen got a strange image of the city with huge bandages all over the place, and the city itself strangely complaining about being old and cranky. She mentally shook the image away. Strange.

When Aubia mentioned an invitation to her and Maxwell, the politician smiled. How could they refuse after speaking on the side of the Admins? Besides, they could make sure the Admins got the work done if they were on the team. Cwen glanced at Maxwell with a stony look that dared him to refuse and nodded. "Of course, we would be -" Before she could finish the acceptance, a dusty "old" man in a wide brimmed hat and a somewhat tattered jacket walked up and offered his services. Ughhh... It almost reminded Cwen of a bad love scene proposal act. Body guard? Unfortunately, Cwen recognized the man's face. He was a detective on the police force. How rude to simply interrupt. Cwen barely contained a frown and glare at the detective. Maxwell would probably know exactly how she felt at that moment. Bad timing. Attention gremlin...

Detective? A detective from Klox Police, asking her directly to work on the team? Aubia's cheeks turned slightly pink, momentarily flustered. Just what had she done?

"Miss Aubia Schultz," she repeated calmly, in her Admin voice. She shook his hand. But, if she had her way, it certainly wouldn't be a 'little team'. In her mind, it was a network - people all over the city, working toward the same goal. If Aubia ever said it out loud, she would be called radical, crazy, possibly dangerous.

But really, all she wanted was to find and fix Warlock. Today had proven that the Admins couldn't rely on the network any longer. They would have to reach for the physical branches of Warlock, and begin the Recovery from there.

"I would honored if you also joined," she replied to Alexander. "Though," Aubia said lowly, so that the microphones would not easily pick her voice up. "I don't think it will be just your services as a bodyguard that will be put to use."

She looked out to the reporters, smiling. This was completely worth crashing the conference.

"In fact, I believe we Admins will be working very closely with the Klox Police Department..." She looked back over to Hale and Hazard. They better say yes. They had to. They were already on her list.