Private Roleplay~ IOD

asi • 26 December 2012 at 5:38 PM

"Good." Karen twisted the key in the lock and after freeing herself, stalked quietly away, heading for her own office. She was tired and not in a particularly good mood.

Raven was startled when someone walked into her room. She thought they were going to kill her from boredom, or more immediately, starvation. Actually, dehydration came before that, didn't it? But she wasn't very thirsty.
She glowered at them, as if a glare could physically make them leave. It wasn't Two or even his assistant (unless he'd replaced her that quickly), just some lowly of Second D. "I already told Two," she hissed coldly. "I'm not saying anything. You're wasting your time."
The girl sat down on the chair opposite, and kicked her heels together, looking a little tired. After a few second of looking at her, the girl from Second took something out of her pocket and tossed it to her. Raven caught it and recognized it as frozen yogurt. Not much of a meal, but it was better than the food given at the cafeteria. She gave the girl an odd look. Was this going to be a, 'good cop, bad cop' act?
"Two keeps on leaving these around. What a waste. I was going to have it myself, but you look so starved I felt bad."
Raven glared. She hated being pitied. "Aren't you guys supposed to be torturing me?"
"Oh! We prefer the new-fangled psychological methods now! Much less effort. Much less mess!" the girl told her eagerly. "So why won't you tell us, huh? Where the rebels are," she questioned curiously.
She decided she may as well be honest, as long as it didn't give anything away. "Because you'd try to kill them. They were my friends." Emphasis on the past tense. She knew her friends were still in there, somewhere. And if she had to die for them, she still would. Riley... Would understand.
The girl nodded in perfect understanding. "Oh, we don't want to kill either! But you know, some people just have to die! You know that right?"
Raven did not want to admit that, not at all. "Not these people," she growled, growing annoyed at this girl.
"It's for the safety of everyone," the girl explained.
Were they still talking about the rebels? "People like Gene, Damon, Seven and Evie? Them too?" she demanded. "On television?!"
The girl smiled sadly. Raven wasn't sure she was only a nobody anymore. "We do what is necessary. Here, a spoon," she tossed the utensil at Raven and left.

taffy789 • 26 December 2012 at 6:55 PM

Seven materialized away quickly, leaving only a gust of wind slowly blowing down the hallway.
Six quickly followed suit, trying to get as far from Eight as possible.
Zach turned, pondering what could have been wrong in A-C, but smart enough to know not to ask Eight for an explanation. He let out a tired sigh, and was dreaming about his new, fancy leaders dorm, which he would have all to himself, when he heard Eight speak behind him.
"Hope you enjoyed the tour~. ...But then again, I always like to get some nice blackmail on the newbies~."
... Zach barely had enough time to react to Eight's punch from behind, and he turned around, grabbing her wrist to prevent the blow from landing on his already scarred shoulder.
Before he could perform his next instinct-which would've been to break her wrist-Zach made the mistake of looking upwards, meeting Eight's pure black eyes...

awesomeness • 26 December 2012 at 6:56 PM

Suddenly, pain shot into his arm-a quick jab, almost like a needle...no, it had been a needle. Or more like hundreds of needles, all at once.
No, now he was hungry. Scared? Sick?
Too many emotions, feelings, memories filling his head in a blink of the eye and disappearing just as fast. It was as if he was a computer dumping files into a memory stick, except now the said computer had an extreme case of vertigo...
It took him a minute to fully realize what was happening...followed by another minute taken to calm himself and stop struggling against Eight's power.
He figured the leader was glimpsing over his past memories-most likely the more powerful ones-to see what had happened in his past, out of pure curiousity? Zach knew the leader liked to invade personal space, but this was insane.
There was no use in struggling however...he had nothing to hide, nothing the leader could really use against him. The past was completely worthless to him anyway.
He took a deep breath before a new wave of memroies rushed past him-more needles and IVs piercing his arm, mored hunger...all of these from back when he was at the government lab...before IOD.
He steeled himself, not wanting to show how much the clashing emotions and moving memories started to unerve him, especially with Eight ready to blackmail him at any point.
The memories started to flash by faster...and suddenly, he was at IOD, a newbie.

taffy789 • 26 December 2012 at 8:52 PM

Zach knew what memory was next, and he had to admit to some level of worry-mostly because he'd heard horror stories of Eight using the most horrifying memories of people to torture them...and he wasn't quite positive they were just rumors.
As Eight approached the memory, it seemed as if she noticed the negative connotation Zach had with it, and the memory sharpened-becoming more vivid.
Instead of being aware he was standing in a hallway at base...Zach felt as if he was actually back at A-C, the remains of the massacre solidifying in front of him, somehow becoming more real the more Eight focused in on the memory...
Yet the emotions stayed the same no matter how vivid the memory became-very little sadness, more bitter acceptance. This seemed to annoy the blue-haired leader, as she suddenly pulled a face and broke the connection, pulling away from Zach's grip on her wrist.
She watched him stumble backwards, the vertigo of Eight's invasion still causing his head to spin.
"Man, that was BORING~! Your emotions are CRUD!" Eight complained before skipping off, down the hallway, without so much of a second glance towards Zach, who had now sunk down to the floor, looking a bit green.
...


(I agrees with Eight. Zach's emotions are crud. Stupid logic. XD )

asi • 11 January 2013 at 5:47 AM

Clay was snoring. It was probably the most painful thing you're ever heard, dry and raspy.
It bothered him, so he couldn't get back to sleep.
Why was Damon even here? Slowly, he remembered the events of earlier that day. The challenger had struck him and everything had gone black. He should be dead.
If Seven was here and snoring, he definitely wasn't in heaven. After a few minutes Damon couldn't bear it any longer and screamed for someone to save him.
A figure previously unnoticed slumped over in a desk chair jolted awake, and after a few moments eye-rubbing and such, stepped into the light and, using Falchion sign-language, introduced himself as Bliss.
"Where am I?" Damon demanded in signs. "And why are we signing?"
"Seven is not ready to wake yet. To do so may be damaging," he replied. "You are in Coreka Hospital. By One's orders."
One huh. What did the vixen want with him still?

"I suppose you'd like to tell me why that girl who sides with the Ferals is still alive?" One asked innocently.
Two was silent. He'd refused to let her into his office while he was doing paperwork (since she'd last broke in, he'd done wonders to the security), so now she resorted to COMI telepathy, the ridiculously expensive technology of the IOS. How annoying. "I thought she might be able to help me with the paperwork," he explained quietly, before concentrating and breaking off the connection.

One was lying on her bed in her room.
"What paperwork?" she asked blankly.

There wasn't any point to delaying any longer. One had told him to do it. He may as well go ahead and order her be killed now.
"Two!" he looked up, surprised. How had someone actually got into his office? "Wait! You can't kill her!"
He recognized the girl. It was... The lieutenant of the previous Three, Lily.

taffy789 • 11 January 2013 at 6:13 PM

When the floor had finally stopped spinning, Zach picked himself up, bracing one hand against the wall, just in case.
He could now see why Eight was a leader-once he'd looked into her eyes, it was impossible to break the connection. Her power was...very powerful. If she could cause memories that vivid without the need of eye contact, Eight just might be unstoppable...which was a horrifying thought all in itself.
Finally feeling steady enough to walk, Zach started in the direction of his new-probably ruined by the fangirls-office.
Eight's memory attacked hadn't shocked him as much as it made him nauseous. Though, he almost felt sorry for the other new leaders, if Eight planned on getting some "blackmail" on all of them...

---

Eight flipped through the papers once more, pouting at what she saw.
It seemed as if there was a dramatic decrease in ferals in the area over the last few weeks leading up to the Truce... Swift and fast.
Not that it was usually any bad news, but she knew that the Falcions hadn't sent any teams out to the area for feral hunting, the Glaeroes hadn't been active in the area any more than usual...
Eight sighed. She pondered if this information would be enough to get someone to check it out firsthand...she decided she would have to ask Two about it later.

asi • 19 January 2013 at 1:12 AM

"And he bought that?" Raven gaped in disbelief at the girl in front of her, completely forgetting her usual tsuntsun attitude. "From you?"
Lily, the assistant to the previous Three, nodded, looking noticeably pleased with herself, oblivious to the implied slight. "Yeah! He even said that if you'd really done such a good job you ought to be promoted! You're gonna be a new assistant, just like me! This is so awesome!" she hugged the startled Raven, who started wondering whether she was also suffering from memory loss like Riley, because she barely even remembered this girl, let alone enough for the other to lie so much for her.
"Unbelievable," she muttered. "I mean, this guy's supposed to be in charge of torturing people for answers, right? You'd think he could spot such a du-" she coughed a little to cover the insult up. "Lie."
Lily just shrugged. "He wasn't paying enough attention, he was working. Must be hard now he lost Gene, she was really good at what she did..."
Raven nearly choked on her own spit. "I'm not going to work for TWO now am I?" She didn't know what he wanted with her, but staying away was definitely high on her priority list.
"I don't know, I still haven't been told whether I'm staying in Third or not," Lily chatted carelessly. "Or what's happening with divisions doing what... Usually One sorts it out by now, but I guess this one's new and everything, it may take more time. Last time it only took two hours before we got the note and everything! I was originally assigned to Nine, actually, but Ivory said-"
"Okay, okay," Raven said quickly to shut her up. "Just get me the hell out of here!"

taffy789 • 19 January 2013 at 1:49 AM

As Zach walked into his new office, he was suddenly attacked by the overpowering scent of man perfume(he was sure there was no cologne that would ever smell that flowerly), and the scent quickly brought back his nausea. He held a tissue over his nose and mouth like a surgical mask to prevent himself from gagging on the heavy perfume, and then proceeded to take a long look at his "new" office, which was now shreded to pieces by the old Five's legion of crazed fangirls, per expected.
"Shreded" wasn't exageratting either-Zach could clearly see that they had even tore the stuffing out of the chair by Damon's desk during the rampage, and had scattered it all over the room. He didn't even want to LOOK at the filing cabinets that had been smashed to pieces and had gotten their contents flung across the floor.
To make matters worse, Zach disliked cleaning, but loathed cleaning up other's messes more.
The new Five sighed, glancing around his wrecked office once more. Hopefully, his first order as a leader could be to get some of his squadsmen to take time off of their break and force them to clean the place up for him... Or he could just get some one to torch the place and easily get some new furnishings for himself.
Upon rethinking, Zach figured it may not be the best of ideas-the room was most likely coated with enough "cologne" to send the whole base up in a great ball of fire...


(Could this be considered "First World IOD Problems"? XD )

asi • 19 January 2013 at 6:08 PM

Riley had been wandering idly down the passage when he noticed the door to Damon's old office had been bashed in. Reluctantly he gave in to curiosity and looked inside the room. He was immediately relieved the leaders had not updated their rooms to coincide with their numbers earlier, for if they had, he would be inheriting what Damon left behind.
And it wasn't pretty, although from what he knew of the previous Five's tastes, he was certain it was better off this way around.
Riley always kept his expressions nowadays carefully detached, but he was sympathetic to the new guy as he told him; "Well, at least you don't have to go through a dead person's things..." It looked as though whatever destructive creatures had wrecked the room left none of the former owner's personal possessions behind. In fact, looking in, he could see the door leading to the adjoining bedroom had also been killed, despite the ridiculous secruity leaders were given, and the room even more devastated, if that could be believed. It could be just like taking out the trash. Whereas the place Riley was going would be untouched, as if the old Three would be coming back any day... Riley found that kind of scary
"Actually," he muttered to himself, glancing again over the trashed office; "it looks a hell of a lot like Four- well, the new Three's office." It was true. He had been in the room once before for a mission, when he had not yet been picked up by Two or recovered his memories. The new Three was strange. He must have elected to stay in his old room, and that was why Riley was getting the old Three's, which from what he'd heard, was a lot bigger. He didn't really care for that, but it's not like he got a choice.

taffy789 • 19 January 2013 at 8:35 PM

"I beg to differ." Zach replied without turning to face the leader behind him, "Having to deal with a dead person's things means you can pawn off the things you do not want without much of a complaint." He shrugged, and glanced over the room once more before turning to face Riley(the tissue removed from his face by this time.)
"Not to mention that this room still needs to be fumigated. I don't want to smell as Lavender did." Zach knighted Damon with his new nickname on the spot, after finally being able to place the smell. Usually, giving a nickname-especially a mocking one-to some one of higher rank was not on the list of Zach's "good ideas". However, since Damon got demoted, Zach considered him to be fair game. Nicknaming some one such as Two, for example, was still not such a good idea.
"Anyway, you're the new Four, correct?" Zach glanced Riley over once, thinking.
"I think you should really talk to Eight about your job duties. She gave an explanation to all the "newbies". It was pretty informative-surprisingly. I'm sure she'll be more than happy to go over it with you..." Zach shrugged as if he was giving Riley a bit of friendly advice instead of throwing him to a shark for his own amusement.
He pondered what the Four's power was...he wasn't really paying attention to his fight all that much, honestly. His own power couldn't tell him what it was anyway...
In any case, he knew nothing about the guy, so what a better way to start to know some one by sending them to a deranged psychopath?

asi • 19 January 2013 at 9:01 PM

"If you want to pawn Three's old things, be my guest," Riley shook his head, finding the idea distasteful himself. This guy did have a point about the smell, however. Three didn't seem to be known for floral scents as far as Riley knew, but he hadn't been there yet. For all he knew, there was three-year old fish rotting over there.
Lavender...? Oh, he meant Damon. Riley was honestly finding a bit difficult to keep up with all these names, especially when most people used the numbers and Threes and Fives kept changing around... What a headache.
Eight? Riley wasn't exactly eager to take Five's advice here. She was that strange girl Two... Saw so much, right? But he supposed the guy was right, he'd have to find out about his work sometime, and he'd rather not approach Two, as he had just set that girl from Raven's memories- who had apparently been his sister's friend- on him with a story to get Raven out. It was simply the idea that Raven had actually been working for the Third division when she went to the rebels, and hadn't told him out of paranoia or fear or something.... It was weak and he wasn't particularly hopefully it would work, but anything was worth a shot. If he was lucky it could delay Raven from being hurt, Riley just had to cross his fingers that Two wouldn't suspect him.
He gave a mental sigh and a quick nod to Five and headed on his way, deciding to visit Eight once he had seen to his new room and office.

taffy789 • 19 January 2013 at 9:27 PM

Zach nodded back towards Riley, and then turned back towards his destroyed room, supressing a smirk. The boy seemed...mild? Calm? Normal? Which were all good signs-they most likely meant he wouldn't be that much of a threat-but Zach knew you could never really know. After all, he did beat Damon, and was a leader as well...
Sighing, Zach started to wonder if the boy would go to see Eight after all, and what would come from that meeting...

~~~(Little did Zach know, Eight doesn't care about redos. XD) ~~~

"Spike-y! Can we call a meeting~? I found something pretty cool~!" Eight called out from outside of Two's office, pounding on the doors. "I think it involves craters~! I mentioned them to you earlier, did you forget?" She mentioned this, knowing that she had barely mentioned them to Two, and that he wouldn't have thought anything of it anyway.
"Two? I think it should be checked out! Oh, and we need to throw an ice cream and cauliflower muffin party for the newbies! We need streamers! Spiky~~~!"
The leader then proceeded to begin kicking at Two's door, acting as if he was ignoring her when in fact she'd begun to call for him just a few seconds prior.

asi • 19 January 2013 at 10:24 PM

Two was forgetting something.
He tiredly rubbed at his temple, as if that could make the pounding headache go away and help him remember. He couldn't take any more panadol because he knew too much would result in acetaminophen toxicity and liver damage. Transplants didn't come cheap on IOD or even the hospital, Droideka- no, Coreka. Time to give Battlefront a break before he started calling the Falchions 'the Empire'.
Not to mention the stuff always made him go a bit loopy, in fact, the mistake with the hospital's name proved it was already taking effect. He really ought to stop taking panadol or he'd end up writing things like; "We need more cereal, particularly Rice Bubbles" on the arms report. ... They didn't even get cereal here.
He continued to ignore the ache for a few moments until he realized it was coming from outside. He shut his laptop and listened. Two's walls were supposed to be soundproof but somehow he could still hear Eight's voice. It seemed she'd forgotten the doorphone, again, he thought, flicking the controls to open the door and let her in. (The fact that he could use his playstation controller to open the door and everything always made him feel a tiny bit happy, like a kid riding up and down an elevator. He resisted the urge to do it again and shoved the controller into one of his drawers, out of temptation and more importantly, Eight's reach). (If you were wondering whether he was working or killing "rebel scum" at that moment, the answer is both. If Two is good at one thing, it's multitasking. He still managed his usual workload and several hundred games of Doodle Jump while training Riley).
It was then he remembered what it was he'd forgotten.
"..." He pulled on the shirt he'd left lying around after training and buttoned up, thinking absently that it was a little lucky he only had a habit of going around his rooms half-dressed, not in a towel or anything, unlike someone he remembered and didn't care to mention...

taffy789 • 19 January 2013 at 11:32 PM

Given the fact that Eight was in the middle of kicking a door when Spike had the courtesy to open it for her, she immediately lost her balance and fell into the room.
She quickly picked herself up, rushed to Two's desk, and threw the folders from her hands onto his desk, ignoring the fact Two was buttoning up his shirt.
"We need to order more fudge pops! Seriously, the freezer is out of stock! I thought that was a priority here?" Eight cried out, visibly upset. She then turned melodramatic, turning from Two and sitting down in front of his desk, completely silence.
The silence didn't last long, however, for Eight suddenly popped back up, laying her chin on the edge of the table.
"The newbies need to get a party. Do you think they would like cauliflower muffins or sour cream pudding?" The leader asked in complete seriousness, pushing the folder containing the information she'd gathered from the rapidly decreased feral rate in A-C. "This is also important for some reason...but I forget why. It might be about the fudge pops." Eight frowned, as if she was attempting to remember why in heck the folder was important in the first place.

asi • 20 January 2013 at 2:16 AM

Two nodded vaguely along with everything she said. The cameras got everything, so he never really bothered to listen. Especially when she started talking about fudge pops. He honestly had no idea what those even were. Did Eight even like these strange foods she wanted to feed the newbies, as she called them? Who knew. "Sure. And you know you could have both, if you like."
Her hair was nice today. Then again, any hairstyle would suit Eight. Kind of like a blank canvas. Why did she even change her hair all the time? It wasn't the first time he'd asked himself this. Two had been told once that girls always liked to change their hair after they broke up with their boyfriends. Considering how she dated, it would probably fit the pattern, but it wasn't like she cared. Maybe it had something to do with her power, memories. What if it was her way of dealing with the ghosts..? More likely than not, there was no reason at all. He just worried that dyeing her hair so much was harmful. He'd heard that eight out of every ten people who constantly colored their hair died of kidney failure...
"Just don't give my Four food poisoning," he murmured, taking the folder and leafing through it quickly as he spoke.
"Ferals, huh..?"

On walking into the office, Riley's first thought was WOW. Perhaps Five had been right when he'd spoke of selling off the leader's things. This was just... There was no doubt as to the old Three's number one obsession. The walls were glass cases showcasing innumerable weapons, all of them shining brightly as if polished yesterday. There was nothing you couldn't find in this display, nothing at all. Even what looked like nail clippers were shinning brightly next to blades longer than Riley was tall.
The rest of the room was empty, save the single white desk curved like a crescent moon in the center and a couple of plush leather office chairs.
The second thing he noticed was how BIG the whole thing was. It was absolutely ridiculous. He could fit the whole cafeteria in here... No, Riley could see his entire mansion from his childhood sitting comfortably in his room.
His agoraphobia quickly kicked in and he backed into the corridor, hurriedly pushing the button and watching the door close on the dead guy's office.

taffy789 • 20 January 2013 at 3:03 AM

Eight's eyes sparked with something so rare to occur to the girl-clarity.
"Oh...yeah! That's what is was!" The girl stood up suddenly, as if she had just solved some question of great importance.
"The feral count at A-C dropped suddenly-intel says that no Glaeroes have been seen being deployed to that area, and none of our feral-hunting groups have gone anywhere near there either. I think something else is killing them...which should be checked out. Hopefully the whatever it is won't kill whoever we send!" Eight choose to end her speech on that ever-so-hopeful note.
"So, Spike-y, what cha think? I am not great at this intelligence stuff?" The leader smiled, her mood suddenly spiking to a high "gleeful".

asi • 21 January 2013 at 2:00 AM

"Dropping, or dying?" Two questioned sharply, skimming again through the report with a practiced eye. The difference was everything. Unfortunately, he couldn't expect a clear answer. With the snow there, things disappeared easily, to say the least, and dead bodies were no exception. The population decreasing didn't mean death, though. His expression hardened with the memory of one place, where he'd seen Ferals captured, tortured and experimented on... Spike shook his head. There was no way that would happen again.
He drummed his fingers lightly on his desk. "Didn't we mysteriously lose a team there two months previously? Their bodies were never found, just a scene of battle... In fact, wasn't it the same investigation team that picked up that girl from First, Raven? And I think," Spike said slowly, "that it had one of our new leaders in it, too..."
Things were getting interesting again.

"Want a little help?" The reason Riley had inherited such a ginormous freaking ocean of an office, the new Three, greeted him. "I knew him and everything, so if you really want to move all his precious blades, I should probably be the one to look after them..."
Riley silently raised an eyebrow, it seemed to him the guy was having trouble accepting his predecessor's death. That or Three was looking to steal Riley's new found fortune. If he sold all these swords on Ebay, he wondered how much he could make...
"Be my guest." He didn't have a use for the weapons or money they'd make anyway. As Four he'd get good food and everything. He had no wish to waste his time on books or video games, or start smoking, to list what he knew of Two's expenses.

taffy789 • 21 January 2013 at 12:33 PM

"Hmm? Uh, dying, I think? Not really sure-it's hard to tell. Though the numbers suggest that something is, in fact, almost hunting them...like a cat and mice!" Eight smiled, happy to find such a good comparision.
"Also, whatever it is seems to be slowly moving towards A-D, the Rainforest, and you can see that by seeing where most of the ferals are disappearing..."
She trailed off, glancing at Two expectantly.
"So, what do you think? Should a team go check it out?" she continued to pester, obviously impatient about what would happen with the information she discovered.

asi • 21 January 2013 at 7:16 PM

"Obviously," he drawled, turning his attention back to his laptop and surreptitiously opening a game of Minesweeper. "Don't send anyone weak... Is that all?" Two asked lightly, clicking a few random tiles until he landed a section free space, remarkably enough in the shape of a dinosaur...
It wasn't as if he didn't like having her around, he just didn't want to look like he did.

taffy789 • 21 January 2013 at 11:15 PM

"Nope! That's pretty much it!" Eight grinned, and snatched the folder from Two's desk. "Thanks for letting me pick a team, Spike-y! This is so cool!" She smiled at the leader, obviously overjoyed at being able to choose a team for the mission.
Very quickly, the girl took off for the door, only to stop mid-way to it, rocking back-and-forth on the balls of her feet as if thinking about something.
"Mmmmm. Oh, Spike? Try the one on the top left!"
With that, she was gone.

~~~~~

Annabell was milling around the hallways of the base, still shocked by the end of the Truce... At least Riley was okay. It meant that it was one less person from the School she had to count as dead...
"Hey! I remember you~!" The high pitched, over-enthusiastic voice was straight from Annabell's nightmares-if she had been able to get in any sleep for the past few nights, that is.
She wasn't sure what unnerved so badly when it came to the number...perhaps it was just the fact that she'd taken notice of her? Annabell was aware this was a rather idiotic reason to be frightened by some one...but it struck the girl as weird never-the-less.
Also, Eight being stark mad was another perfectly sound reason to want to stay out of her path.
"Oh. My. Gosh. I totally remember you~! You're that one girl! The one with the hair! Oh yeah! Mmm, you seem strong, wanna get promoted? Of course you do, free ice cream, come on!"
Before Annabell could reply, Eight grasped her arm in a deadlock, and started to pull her down the hallway against her will.
"Oh, I'll go help Spike-y test his little pet. And I think he said something about taking a rebel chick and this other leader guy? I think I remember them...well, this should be fun for you all!"
"..."
Annabell wanted to reply, but was honestly too frightened to.


(Pfftttt. XD I don't know why I enjoyed writing this so much... Just how Eight forced Annabell to do something for her is priceless to me... XD Heading towards Riley and Mr. Explosive Chicken Man. Ouo )

asi • 22 January 2013 at 2:33 AM

"And that's that."
Riley watched silently as all the weaponry was carted off by Three's slaves- uh, underlings...
"Thanks!" Col said happily. "Fain would get really upset if any of them went missing."
He wondered why this guy was under such a strong misapprehension about the former leader, then remembered that the old Three hadn't actually been confirmed dead. He had just assumed so when he'd been taken off the board. But Col seemed to expect him to return. .... Did that mean he was going to lose his room? Riley did really want something smaller. "He isn't dead then?" he asked abruptly.
"Huh? Well... It was his time to retire anyway," Col replied, suddenly cautious.
"You don't think he's dead." Riley honestly didn't care if this guy was alive or not, they'd never even met. He just needed clarification. When people keep telling him conflicting things, it confused him even more than he was already.
Three turned and looked at him seriously. "Do you know... The muffin man?"
"..." The muffin man?! Riley shot the other guy a suspicious look, not sure what he was trying to pull, then slowly shook his head. "No. I don't know of the muffin man..."
"So only one of us knows the muffin man..." Col couldn't help but smile. "Sorry. It's what our fortune teller calls themselves, literally, Muffin."
Fortune teller? Like someone who could see the future?
Col nodded to his unspoken thought. "They're a weird character, just as mysterious as our One- actually, despite having met Muffin in person, I don't know whether they really are a guy or not either- and not often helpful in their predictions, but it's routine to check it out for the leaders. It would be inconvenient if one of us were to die suddenly, I suppose, so One likes to find out what they can. You can refuse," he added when he saw Riley frown. "Fain didn't though, and from what he's mentioned of it, it's likely he's not dead. Also, the Glaeroes would usually tell if they'd done in a leader..." he mused. "Anyway, Muffin would be able to say whether Fain is still alive or not..." Col drifted off on this thought, and Riley was distracted by the information of a Fortune Teller. He remembered something he'd forgotten; his sister, Alexandra, who was now missing, had had a knack for predictions.

taffy789 • 22 January 2013 at 8:06 AM

"Oh, hello Four! Hello, Mr. Explosive Chicken!" Eight called out as she approached the two.
She skipped up to them, still dragging behind her a very pale-looking Annabell.
"So, Four, do I have mission for you!" Eight smiled at Riley, handing him a small map of the areas A-C and A-D.
"Ferals have been disappearing in A-C, and, more recently, on the border of A-D. we're going to send you, her," she motioned to Annabell, "And two other people I THINK Two told me to get, and send you all on the mission to go check this thing out? Sound fun? Not that you have a choice, anyway...Okay, I'll go get ready and dress accordingly! Meet the other two at the South gate in half an hour sharp, got it? The teleporter will know where to take you. Have fun!"
She talked very, very fast, without giving Riley any time to ask questions or try to reject the offer. Eight then quickly left on her way, leaving a very awkward Annabell standing in her place, looking rather confused.

asi • 22 January 2013 at 5:07 PM

"What?! Don't call me that, Eight!" Col groaned.
Riley turned to him, holding the map a bit like how you'd hold someone else's sock. "I thought leaders got to chose their missions," he stated.
"Yeah, well, you don't mess with Two," Col said as he mysteriously vanished into thin air.
Riley shook his head slightly, he knew that much already. Despite the ridiculous range of weapons he'd got from the dead(?) Three, any of which he could have taken for himself, he'd opted to keep what Two had given him, the twin dao. After all, he had Raven all locked up, his only friend he could remember from his own head.
"Oh, hey Annabell," he eventually noticed her. "Fun...?"

Raven followed Lily into her quarters. It looked like she'd be rooming with the chatterbox for a while. On walking in, she saw a white envelope on each of their beds.
"Oh, look! I bet these are about work arrangements," Lily flopped down on her mattress and tore the letter open. "Looks like I'll be working as the new Three's assistant, and his old one'll be staying in the same department as well... Col's alright, I guess. Hey, that's weird... It doesn't list Two's replacement assist. I heard from Gene he's a complete workaholic, can you believe it?! Hope he'll be alright by himself..."
Raven raised an eyebrow. If torturing people was your job, being a workaholic wasn't exactly what Lily made it out like.
Hesitantly, she opened her own envelope. It seemed like she wouldn't be able to work for Riley like she'd hoped, so she may as well get it over with and hear the worst...
"Assistant to number Five." she dropped the card of the floor and slowly ground her foot into it. "..."
"Five? Wasn't that that guy...?" Lily asked slowly, thinking.
Raven looked at her.
"Yes! That guy, Five! He's utterly gorgeous! I mean, nothing like Fain, but still! Drop. Dead. Gorgeous!! Totally strong too, did you see that fight? Against Gene? Oh my gosh Raven, you totally have to trade with me... Please!"
"Uh, no!" Raven snatched the card back up, away from Lily's pleading eyes.
Col would be a million times better than ZACH, but she was sacrificing herself for the sake of this poor, innocent girl. That was that.

taffy789 • 22 January 2013 at 9:40 PM

"...Eight dragged me into this." Annabell sighed, "I'm guessing she means "fun" by her standards...so I think that's a sound reason to be pretty worried."
Annabell looked away from the new number, thinking.
She told herself she would mention what had happened to Alex to Riley after the Truce...and now, it was that said time, and she STILL wasn't sure how to tell him.
Instead, she rocked back and forth on her heels, awkwardly trying to form the discussion plan in her head. When she finally got a good one, she took a deep breath.
"Uh, so, Riley...you remember Alex, right?" She started, still not looking directly at Four, and instead at a wall in front of her.

~~~
"And that's your mission." Eight smiled at the new Five, who was frowning while staring at the map.
Zach looked up, about to ask a(mostly likely sarcastic) question, when the girl interrupted him again.
"My information says this other girl I need to send is your assistant now. Care to explain it to her?" Eight handed him a small envelope before skipping off.
"..." Quietly, he wondered who he would get to boss around for the remainder of the year-or-so he mostly likely had left, considering his position...
He scanned his eyes over the number, which striked him as familiar...
After reading it over a few times, he finally remembered who it was.
Zach smiled a smile that was only comparable to Two's when he was torturing others.
Shadow, Shadow, Shadow...
He chuckled rather darkly.
This was going to be fun.

(.______. He...stole Two's smile. DX And is creepy. Die! D:< //scared// PS: Why do I get a feeling that Zach and Eight's definition of "fun" is strangely similar at this point? XD )

asi • 22 January 2013 at 11:52 PM

"Y-yeah...?" Riley was a little startled at the sudden change of conversation. Raven's memories didn't seem to show his sister being particularly close to this girl, so he didn't know why the subject was being raised. Still, even though he didn't think he and Alex had ever been particularly close- especially after losing contact once their father died (in a motoring accident? he strained to remember) and she ran away from home- he was understandable anxious to find out what had happened to her.




At the same time, in A-I, the wastes...

The girl with the grey-silver hair strode into the heart of their base, footsteps echoing loudly, as her sides weighed down by the multiple swords which hung from her belt, but it was a weight she was used to, a comforting one.
She was greeted in passing by several of her comrades, whom she in turn acknowledged with nods or sharp looks but never with words, not until she found who she was looking for; the ice-power known as Zan.
"Hey, beautiful," he looked up and welcomed her in his manner customary for all of her gender, and a smile that didn't reach his frosty ice-blue eyes.
"I did what I was told- and saw Riley competing in their little games. Is 'he' back among them?" she asked, taking a seat next to him.
Zan nodded. "Yeah. Now that the big guy is gone, me and Chase have to handle all the work," he complained to her. "You know how well we get on. He always ruins my mornings!"
She rolled her eyes. "How are the new recruits coming?"
Zan leaned back and closed his eyes. "The Feral numbers have been dropping too much in A-C, I swear the people will notice, though our ally will no doubt cover them up on his end. Not to mention he just dropped off another shipment- guess it's handy being a torturer, plenty of people in his hands no one will miss.... And then I bet this place is going to be real full soon, with whatever you've done at the Falchion's.... Am I right?" he opened one eye slowly and fixed it on her, his gaze piercing.
"That's right...." she allowed herself a small smile. "They searched me so thoroughly when I arrived, but oh-so suspicious Raven got through. Then I just needed to slip it off her and empty the stuff into the water system... In two days, they'll be turning- and now I know the layout of the entire base, it'll be a piece of cake..."
Zan sighed quietly.

smilies • 23 January 2013 at 4:43 AM

Once the girl- he remembered she used to be called Stella, one of Alex's old band from Super School- had left, Zan remained lying on the floor for a time. He wished he could sleep, properly sleep. The rocky ground was pretty uncomfortable though, so he eventually sat up to avoid getting knots in his back.
He didn't like all this stuff, honestly. Zan liked things quiet, and relaxing. Fighting was not relaxing. War definitely wasn't relaxing. This whole rebel movement, so not him. Chase was in his element here, that guy loved excitement and chaos and the thrill of the fight. It really was no wonder they didn't get along...
But Zan didn't have a choice in the matter, he was literally stuck here. He couldn't find Blaine. Literally, the guy was gone, and without him, if he walked into a Falchion or Glaeroes base, he'd be shot down instantly as a Feral. He could, but didn't take to the idea of roughing it out there alone. It sounded uncomfortable, and he'd get attacked by a Feral or picked off by a patrol from either side. He admired Xela doing just that, but she was crazy enough to be heading straight into Glaeroes territory! That was practically suicide, unless with Alex she could find a way to appear a user, and on their side.
Riley's power was decent to him though. Here, he was safe, for now at least. And besides, these guys had been the ones to take Blaine away, right? It followed that someone here might know a way to get him back.
He knew the rebel's goal was great and all, for the powers, but really, Zan wanted no part in it.

taffy789 • 23 January 2013 at 7:55 AM

"Well," Annabell drew another deep breath, and turned to face Four, "we were on a team together during our first mission. About half way through it...she just cracked. Too much to deal with lately-with IOD...and all."
She didn't bother to mention other contributing factors, considering his own death/disappearance could very well be one of them.
"She turned suicidal. When she was actually about to go through with it...her power took over and she left. We reported to the leader who sent on the mission that she'd died, so they would try to hunt her down on anything." Annabell paused, glancing at the wall yet again.
"So sorry, Riley."

~~~~

Zach was glad that the envelope had included where to find Raven's dorm, which had came in handy once Eight had left him with the task of finding his new assistant.
Once he located the room, he rapped his knuckles against the door quickly, and called out, "Shadow! You in there? Come out, Eight gave us a mission! Come on!"

asi • 23 January 2013 at 1:41 PM

"Thank you," he said quietly, "for telling me."
It was so, so hard. To wake up and find the people you care about, that you don't properly remember them anymore, and they're gone. How can you begin to try to be the you that you used to be without the people who made you, you? He had been so relieved when he'd found Raven, it was like staring at a jigsaw puzzle to which nothing fit, a big empty square with nothing even to go from, then finally finding a piece. Even if it's just one tiny square, the first piece was vital, because it's the difference between something and nothing. Thanks to Annabell, he felt like he had another piece. He knew it must have been a bad memory and hard to talk about, especially bringing the bad news to a sibling... Luckily, for twins, they didn't look very much alike. Riley's eyes were greener and her hair was... Redder. Yes, he was starting to remember more and more, but it was a very slow process.

"..." Even if for cute little Lily's sake (please note that she doesn't even like that girl much) she had determined to put up with this guy, it was really very irritating for him to come directly over, straight after she had just got out from Two's torturing chambers and finally landed a comfy-looking bed, and start banging on her new door!
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Raven yelled back, grabbed Lily's EXTREMELY HEAVY (too late to turn back now) weight set (why does she have a weight set, and such a heavy one too? Raven had thought her much too weak...) and hurled it at the door, hoping the resounding crash would do something nice like permanently render the idiot deaf.
Uaah, she didn't want to work for him...! Leave her alone...

smilies • 23 January 2013 at 2:42 PM

However, if there was one thing in this place that almost made Zan want to turn around and become a... A humanitarian, it was this. Her. What they, including himself, were doing to her.
Angelina Strauss was hanging suspended by chains from the ceiling. Her skin was extraordinarily sickly pale and coated in a thick sheen of sweat. Her breathing was labored and irregular, her pulse weak, and her temperature had this past week often skyrocketed before suddenly dropping alarmingly low, where it was now. There was no sign of external injury, but it was internally that mattered. She was half-conscious, half in a trance-inducing coma, plagued with nightmares, trapped in her dream world. Occasionally, her eyelashes would flutter, or a sudden wind- in a closed stone chamber deep in a mountain- would run through her dull blonde hair, sometimes only signs of life she'd give. Once or twice a day, she would almost seem to wake, but her pale grey eyes were unseeing and she'd mutter things deliriously, words without meaning.
And he supposed half of the Falchions would be just like this in a few days.
With most, the less stable ones, they did not have to resort to such harsh methods. Sometimes a simple knock on the head was enough to allow the power to take control. From there they could do whatever it was to make the user disappear. But this weak little girl was giving more resistance than anyone before. Still, it had allowed them to develop this narcotic which would no doubt rip apart the Falchions when it took affect.
"Angel," he called hesitantly, setting the tray down and taking from it a plate of the food Zan had brought her. "You hungry...?" He waved it around under her face, hoping without hope the food odor might elicit some kind of reaction, for the nth time. C'mon, where was she getting all this energy, she must need food... No, it looked like he'd be eating alone again today.
Zan sat down and grabbed a fork, staring moodily at the plate. Considering this body was accustomed to lab rat food, it was really quite good stuff, he supposed... But still not that appetizing. Well, they weren't the Falchions and didn't have helicopters dropping off supplies or anything.

taffy789 • 23 January 2013 at 6:09 PM

"You're welcome." Annabell replied, compulsively moving her hair from her face. She still felt terrible for Riley-not to mention the fact that having to break the news to Alex about Leon was still fresh in her mind... If this was going to keep happening, maybe she should start taking psychology lessons. Actually, a psychiatrist at IOD wasn't that bad of an idea...though impossible, considering how many patients there would be.
"I'm going to go get ready." Annabell informed Riley, giving a slight wave to him as a goodbye. "See you in half an hour, then." With that, she left the Four to himself.

~~~

Luckily for Zach, his power tended to pick up on heavy, flying objects hurling straight towards him-even if it was through a door. He quickly scooted back, and laughed when he heard the loud thud against the metal.
"Somebody's angry." he smirked, ready to prod at further anger if Raven gave him the chance.
"When you're done throwing heavy objects, you can meet the group at the South Gate in thirty. Dress warmly...oh, and I wouldn't try to ditch. Eight said that Two picked out the team himself. ...Wouldn't try to cross him."
The Five let contentment drip into his voice-if anything, he was determined to get the most out of this arrangement. Raven seemed like a prime target to pick on. Also, he could always learn something about the Rebels while she was employed under him. The fact that she hadn't been killed yet like he'd expected her too was either a good or bad sign...
With a final shrug, Zach left to go get ready.