Loa Blood

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Monolith

I watched the two kids eat, remembering how I had enjoyed going out with Hope & her family. What in the Hells was Faith doing here!!??!! If anyone could get into trouble, then that kid could! Well, there was nothing I could do about it now but see what she knows & try to keep a low profile ( I snorted aloud at that thought, drawing a glance from my breakfast companions & a few people nearby).
" well you two, it looks like breakfast is done. I'm headiong off to the Coda facility to report for work, so I must be going. Thank you for the company, & take care."
I slowly got to me feet, giving the kids one last look before I left.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

"Coda..."

Kell was staring at the table. His gaze slowly rose to Monolith, and something strange and desperate in his eyes made the big man freeze. Monolith recognized that look from his cop work. It was the look of someone or something back into a corner -- someone with nothing left to lose.

"Wait."

His voice was steady, a bizarre parallel to his gaze. He stood up slowly, his legs shaking yet his voice belying everything else.

"Don't go. I think... I need your help."

Raising one shaky hand, Kell stared down at it. Strangely, his face looked surprised that he was shaking so much, as if he was completely unaware of that fact.

My body... my mind... both crazy... infected... what can I trust? Do I have some sort of ultimate superego, immune to all delusion? Some crystal fragment of soul that holds my true personality? Or is all of it just memory? If so, I am doomed, because the Loa Blood will change that memory, change my personality, conform it, pollute it...

I can't control myself anymore. I don't have to tell them where I'm from or what happened. I just... need to be somewhere safe until the craziness ends.

He began to shiver all over, shaking like a madman as he stared down at his hand, eyes wide. He seemed to be looking right through it, lost in his own thoughts.

Aaah, who am I kidding!? This craziness won't end! It's always been here! It's human!

And I HATE being HUMAN!

And, just as suddenly as he had begun to shake, he froze.

...of course.

He smiled gently, oblivious to the stares of Mary and Monolith.

Confusion is human. A search for an unattainable perfection is human. Life is human -- and death is human. Whether we are animals or gods, we will never achieve what we aimlessly strive for... the perfect win-win situation of love without strife and yet an ordered cosmos to boot... yes, that is human.

The answer is now simple.

Then, to the even greater surprise of his companions, motes of light, stronger than ever before, began to rise out of his hand out of nowhere. He slowly raised his other hand, and motes of pure darkness, immune to the sunlight, rose up from there. He glanced back and forth from his hands, still oblivious to the others.

I will transcend humanity.

Yes. It can be done. Look at me. I am Creator and Destroyer.

Still lost in his thoughts, he reached down to the table and grabbed the edge with the hand emanating darkness. The darkness began to spread slowly along the wood, and to the horror of his companions, with soft snapping and cracking the wood began to fizzle away and completely disappear, scattering into dust. Then, reaching out with his hand of light, he grabbed the destroyed edge of the table and motes of light began to gather around the crumbled parts... causing the table to regrow.

Even stranger: the newly grown wood seemed healthier than the dirty part of the table Kell had annihilated.

"Darkness recedes, light pushes. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I am the Purifier... I have the power to remake the world with this. Look at me... look at me... what sort of twisted God am I..."

Only then did he realize he had spoken that last thought aloud, and he looked up, as if recovering from a daze. His tough demeanor now gone, he seemed lost and embarassed, as if ashamed of what he had just shown his friends.

"I... I..."

He sat down hard on his chair, looking back and forth between Mary and Monolith before slumping down on the table and covering his face with his arms.

"I... I'm so afraid. No, no, DON'T look at me. Don't look at me. I don't want anybody to see. So many people are hurt and I don't want to hurt anyone anymore... I... I don't want to hurt... anymore..."

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Monolith

Wait. ........ Don't go, I need your help

I stopped & turned to look at the kid, & then his hands changed. I could feel the power in his hands, & see how shaky his control was in his eyes. I watched as he destroyed & rebuilt the table, & saw that madness was very close in his eyes.
" Kell, why don't you come with meI'm going to meet some people that can help us learn how to control and use our gifts. You don't have to come if you don't want to, but I would really like for you to join me."

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Faith

Price takes Faith down to the beach, where the sprawling tent-city of the Draconian refugees lies. In the evening, muscians play, and the refugees gather around a bonfire to drink. They all know Price, although they seem a little wary of the cop in their midst.

Faith meets the man with seawater blood, and a man with toasters for hands, drinking through a long straw. A six-year old girl, out well past her bedtime, is accompanied by a large purple squiggle in the air. She feeds it sandwiches. A young woman dances by the fire, dissolves into a flock of songbirds for a few seconds, then reforms and continues dancing.

"Do you dance?" Faith tosses her curls over her shoulder and grins at Price. She hasn't let anything startle her outwardly, is warm to everyone, and blends in shockingly well.

"No, not really." Price smiles back and holds up his hands while shaking his head and leaning deeper into his seat on the picnic bench.

"Too bad." She tosses her coat to him and joins the dancing by the fire. In her homeland everyone dances. It is in their blood, in the heartbeat, in the wind, the sun, the stars. Barefoot in the sand and laughing when songbirds swarm around her and then reform into the danceing woman on the opposite side of the fire she seems very at home among the outcasts. Perhaps because, in truth, she is one herself.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Mary

"Oh Kell..." Mary whispered softely. "What have they done to you?"

She wanted to reach out to him, but didn't dare. Her hands opened and closed aimlessly in her lap.

Monolith's offer seemed sincere, but really, who could help? No one. They used in the guise of help. But it wasn't her place to say anything.

It also wasn't her place to help.

"Maybe you should go with him, Kell. I can't do anything for you, not about this."

 

[SpectralDragoon]

Dex had laid down across from Kryna and Andante and closed his eyes but made no attempt to feign sleeping. He rested his eyes and held his wounded side as he listened to them speak. Now he sees that there is definitely more to Kryna than a first glance could tell you. Or a second glance and a stare for that matter.

After the plane landed and they helped Andante off and into a cab to go to the hospital he said goodbye to Kryna and headed back to the hotel, telling her that he'd see her at the Coda assignment. With that, he had kissed her cheek, caressed her face and turned away.

He got himself a cab and made his way back to the hotel where the clerk flags him over to tell him that a delivery was made to his room by Reva. He thanked the attendant and makes his way up to his room to see what kind of toys he's been supplied with, and if there are any instructions.

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

"M-Mary..."

Kell looked up at his childhood friend from long ago. They had not met each other often, as their parents were only colleagues, and he didn't know much about her, but something, a trace of the familiar...

"Mary, I'm so frightened to leave you... I just... I don't know... I feel silly..." He chuckled wryly, the laugh of someone trying their damndest not to cry. "You're familiar, for some reason... I'm scared that if I let go I'll lose all trace of my past life, and with it, who I am... Mary..."

Why do I care? Why do I want to be Kell Claudas, anyway? Who is Kell Claudas but a deceptively complex organism arrogantly convinced of his own intelligence and free will? And I can be that as any human.

No. Better to let it go. Let it ALL go. Let my humanity go.

But... Mary...

...what is this weakness? What is this fear!? I must conquer it! Now!

He bowed his head quietly.

"...keep in touch, please. Who knows. You might see me on the news or something. Heh."

He got up slowly and turned to Monolith, looking up into the big man's eyes. For some reason, Kell's eyes seemed out of place -- there was no better way to describe it -- but Monolith couldn't place why.

"Let's go... whatever you called yourself."

That's what it is, realized Monolith. His eyes seem old. Too old for that young body...

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Mary

The pain in her head and her natural wariness battled with the lonelyness in her heart that echoed the lonelyness in Kell's voice.

"Hey!" She called after the two of them in a light hearted voice. "You guys sticking me with the check?"

She scribbled her address on a napkin and pressed it into the hand she'd seen the lighter colored motes emerge from. "You don't look like you have a place to rest your weary head, let alone take a bath. After you do this Coda stuff come by my place and I can help you with that part of stuff. Then we can catch up better over cream puffs and some ale."

She glanced up at Monolith. "I'd invite you too, but I live in a rickey old place, you'd bust through the stairs or the floor or something."

She squeezed Kell's hand as she pressed the napkin into his hand. "I'm at the very top floor, in the attic. Don't forget, Ok?."

She surprized herself by being utterly sincere. The lonelyness in him called out into the darkness in her. And she didn't want to be alone in the dark any more.

 

[SwampThing]

The package in Dex's room contains a grey nylon mask, and an elaborate metal glove. He'd seen the blueprints back in Reva. The glove is specifically designed for Dex to send images from his mind, though his fingertips, via satelite to the agency's computers in Reva. The glove had been designed before Dex's light-generating ability had developed into a powerful weapon, so unfortunately the fingers were completely covered. He would be unable to project light from that hand while wearing it.

There are also plans and documents for Monday's shipment of Loa from Dracon Island. According to the agency's Draconian sources, this would be the last salvage trip. The Draconian monsters have been breeding, eating each other, using their transformative powers on each other, and digging into the rest of the Loa Blood left on the island. Their mutations are growing worse, more powerful. The island is now declared deadly by GAIA, and off-limits to all.

According to the plans provided by the agency, there is going to be a larger military presence at the next shipment, in anticipation of another Killer Bee attack. The top-secret time and location of the shipment are taken from sources in Draconian Inteligence.

The last thing in the package is a letter.

"We have been monitoring your cover identity. Apparently you became directly involved in the shipment you were meant to secretly observe. Also, you have allowed yourself to be seen by the media. These are grievous offenses, which would normally result in termination of your contract. However, all this shall be overlooked, as you appear to have infiltrated an organized superhuman group, and Coda security. Congratulations, you have been promoted, and your salary adjusted accordingly.

"Your original orders have not changed. You are to secretly observe and record the arrival of the Loa Blood. Your new assignment is to observe and record the activities and abilities of the superhumans operating in Bay City, and the research operations of Coda Corp. We request that you wear the enclosed mask when opperating publicly, to protect your identity for future undercover work, and ease of travel.

"While we have every confidence in your abilities, we will be augmenting your surveillance in light of your new responsibilities. Destroy these orders after you have read them. Have a nice day."

 

[SwampThing]

Coda

Monolith is given a spacious warehouse adjacent to the glittering Coda tower. The oversized furnishings are all in steel and concrete, and there are a few large suits of clothes, both casual and formal.

Mr. Thorne is pleased to offer Kell a temporary security position along with Monolith. He says he will have to inform the police about Kell's employment, and asks if Kell's destructive ability is under control, or if he will require special restraints for his own, and others', protection.

A tour of the facility, and a briefing on their assignment, will begin when Dex and Kryna have returned from their affairs.

 

[SwampThing]

Thursday!

Tuesday morning, Kate Becket had walked out of the asylum, and kept walking until she was well away from the area. She's an Argon woman, dark skinned, in her forties, very fit. She stripped out of her orange asylum uniform, and lay naked in an alley until a man discovered her. She'd brained him with a rock, and stolen his clothes, keys and wallet. She carefully burned the body in a dumpster, and smashed his teeth. She sold the car for cash, and spent most of Tuesday shopping in hardware stores.

Wednesday, Kate broke into a low-security lumberyard in the industrial district, and built her crude, but powerful bomb. She left it in the shed closest to the high-security paint factory next door, with a long fuse burning. Then she hung out at a truckstop until a driver picked her up. When he fell asleep after mindless, mechanical sex, she suffocated him, and took his truck.

Thursday morning, the bomb in the lumberyard went off, setting fire to the paint factory. Kate wished she could see it. Such pretty, coloured flames. But this fire was meaningless, hollow, empty. There were no people inside. Kate waited until the firetrucks were well on their way to the blaze before driving her stolen truck downtown, with a small barrel-fire burning in the back. Kate drove onto the main downtown thoroughfare, thick with rush hour traffic, and then swerved into a gas station propane tank. She was running, a block away, when the fire in her truck ignited the spreading gas. The road is blocked off by a burning truck, with gridlock growing all around it. The other major road downtown has been closed for construction of the clock tower. Downtown is sealed off.

Kate had stashed everything she needed in the bushes outside the majestic Church of the Wheel. Attendance had dropped in recent years, but she could still hear a crowd inside, raising their voices in morning prayer. Men, women, children. She chained the doors shut with heavy padlocks, spread gasoline around the outside of the building, and threw a small firebomb through the large, round stained-glass window.

Someone in the street shouted at her. Kate pulled a hammer from her pocket, and dented his skull. She drew a flaregun, and shot down the next closest pedestrian. Then they all started running away. Kate climbed the fire escape of a building nearby, and stood on the rooftop to watch the church burn in peace.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Mary-Thrusday

Mary crept about her apartment trying not to wake Kell, who slept on the saggy couch. Sitting in a window sill overlooking the grimy dawn she bent over a notepad and wrote:

Does the spider see the entirey of it's web?
Or only feel when some string is tugged?
Can she know each line and anchor?
Or only when a thread is touched,
Or worse, broken?

The longer she stayed with the mood-morphing Kell, the more she remembered of their time together. But not anything that would be of intrest to anyone. No secrets to sell or puzzles sloved. Just children playing and parents in the background. Not her parents, of course, her parents were still lost in the mysts of her time deformed mind. But another set of foster parents, professional people, the woman had retired however. She still had sway in her feild however. They went to many functions.

But Mary had tasted something on the wind. A chance comment? A look in the snake eyes of too many people. She had seen that before. Hunters laying traps, but not springing them yet. So she had escaped. She hadn't warned anyone. Wait. That wasn't quite true. She'd told her foster parents that she had bad dreams. Death dreams. And she'd told Kell.

But they had just tried to comfort her. She was far, far away when the nighmares came true. She glanced over at Kell, and wished he had been too.

 

[PoliteSuccubus]

Faith

Thrusday morning found Faith sleeping on Price's couch. She'd wanted to stay at the beach and get more of a feel of the place, but his gentlemanly ...or was that cop...nature wouldn't let her stay alone. Since he was beat she allowed him to offer to take her home.

He had a very typical cop place. Set off the street, functional easy to clean furnishings, and the most lived in area the desk filled with notes and cups of cold old coffee and an overflowing ashtray.

"You can take the bed..."He'd offered. But she had laughed.

"I did that once, in college, the guy said he got up to go the bathroom in the middle of the night and automatcally returned to his own bed." She tilted her head and wrinkled her nose at him. "I of course believed him, but learned not to sleep in other peoples beds unless I exspect them to be in it too."

The couch was a foldout and extra blankets and pillows were rounded up in a jiffy.

"Thank you for a lovely eveing." Faith told him and kissed his cheek.

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

He wakes to see Aya by his side and she is holding his hand, he looked at her and he smiled as he saw her sleeping soundly, he smiled and sat up. Ghost felt 110 percent better, well other than his wounds and all, but he knew they would heal up. He let go of Aya’s hand and he stood up and began to stretch, he than looked around and he didn’t know where he was, he heard movement and talking from the next room, he looked to Aya and he walked over to her and saw a budge in her pocket and it looked like she had a gun, he took the gun from her pocket and smiled at the thought that she took his gun for him. He leaned down and kissed her on the lips and walked to the side of the door where he heard someone coming in. As soon as the two people came in they walked right by Ghost hiding beside the door and they saw that Ghost was gone, the two attendants looked to the woman and the man turned to see a gun held to his head.

Ghost “Don’t you even think about moving, or I will blow your fucking brains out. Now listen to me very carefully, I am a crazy motherfucker, so you better answer my question quickly and truthfully. And I will pull the trigger and kill you and everyone in here if you fuck up.”

He didn’t give the man a chance to respond before he held the gun up to the air and fired a shot to the sky and hit the ceiling. The voices were loud in Ghost’s mind and he was having a hard time pushing them away, he again put the gun to the mans face and looked at him with a very intimidating face.

Ghost “Where the fuck are we and who are you people? And remember the clock is ticking, if I feel you are lying I will kill you and the rest of the people out there. What did you do to me!?”

He looked over to the other person in the room and gave her a murderous glare.

Ghost “Don’t you fucking move!”

He forgot that Aya was in the room, but the voices in his head were telling him things of killing everyone and avenging his people. Ghost tried hard to push these voices back, but they were overwhelming him.

 

[SwampThing]

Underground doctor's

Kryna hears a gunshot go off in the next room
___________________________________

The male nurse holds up his hands and looks panicked at Sugar.

"Please, please calm him down! Look, sir, you were brought in by some of our regular clients, Tag and Pol. Your treatment was paid for by the Cold Blood gang, and all we did was patch up your wounds. I swear. Please, we don't want any trouble, you can just walk out of here. No one has to get hurt."

 

[Jacobo_Curious]

Kell's eyes were closed, but he could not sleep.

After paying his part of the bill, Monolith had taken him to the Coda corporation. Fortunately, the man in charge had seemed to respect his private, so Kell tried to be polite. Whether or not he wanted to admit it, this might be his best option. Kell demonstrated his powers (though he had begun to feel tired), and said that his powers were activated at will, and would not harm anyone accidentally. Even so, he now wore sleek-looking black leather gloves over his hands, matching his battered black jacket and black khakis.

He did not wear black to impress. He wore black to mourn.

Though, admittedly, he did look pretty good in black.

Raising his head finally, he got to his feet with surprising stealthiness and walked to the bathroom, his soft black sneakers making little noise even on the creaky floorboards. Sighing quietly, he turned the rusty tap for the bath and closed the door. Mary would be able to hear, of course, but he really needed to clean himself. Pulling the old curtain closed, he turned on the shower, kicked off his shoes, and stepped in.

The water was rather cold, of course. Not even lukewarm. But it suited him fine.

Slowly, he raised his arms and let his jacket fall off, the dirt and grime washing off it. Pulling off his white undershirt, he glanced down critically at his flat but not particularly defined stomach. Pulling off his pants and boxers (black, of course), and kicked off his socks, he stood quietly in the bath, feeling safe as he washed both himself and his clothes. He glanced out of the dirty window, looking at the night sky, and reached to the washcloth to wipe the dirt of the window. However, he froze, thinking quietly to himself -- and then with a smile, reached for the window, his hand glittering with darkness.

The dirt softened and melted, running down the window and into the tub, leaving the glass as clean as it had been the day of its forging.

Then, chuckling to himself with a new idea, Kell glanced at his slender body and raised his arms, focusing as motes of light gathered around him, landing on himself.

And he began to grow...

He started to laugh, looking at himself. His arm muscles practically bulged, and his torso was like that of a bodybuilder. His figure was completely disproportionate to his height. His appearance was unbelievable -- and then his stomach started to hurt. Badly.

He had the sinking feeling this wasn't such a good idea.

"Bah," muttered Kell, sprinkling dark dust on himself. "The fun part is the exercise itself, anyway. Even though it never gets me anywhere."

He deleted most of his added muscles. Most of them.

"Ah, vanity," he said again, twirling slightly. He could be proud of his appearance, now. He had never looked so well-defined -- though his slender, boyish build and medium height remained. He glanced at himself in the window and smiled slightly.

Huh. I guess I'm not bad looking...

Reaching up and chuckling, he spent several minutes burning away the infections and blemishes that had appeared thanks to the filth he had been living in, purifying his body. He practically gleamed with health when he finished, the cold water cascading over him.

...is there anything I CAN'T do with this power?

Reaching over, he pointed at a bar of soap, narrowing his eyes.

"Destroy."

Nothing.

"Do it!"

Black motes continued to fall from his hands and dissipate, but they would go no farther.

If... if I could only project my energies...

He shook his head gently and smiled, dropping his hand.

"What any human would give for a chance to rebuild themselves..." whispered Kell, looking into the tub. Despite it all, he felt ashamed of himself. Is this what he was going to use his power for? How petty.

Still, what ISN'T petty...

Opening the window, he hung his sopping wet clothes out to dry, wringing them out and leaving them to be cooked in the Bay City sun for morning. It was time to sleep, however. He stepped out of the tub.

Then he remembered that ALL his clothes were soaked.

"Ah... oops."

Flushing slightly, he took the towel, dried himself, and wrapped it around himself, sneaking back to the couch and covering himself with it.

I, ah, just hope she doesn't try to pull it off of me in the morning...

Kell looked up, smirking slightly at his self-conscious thoughts before letting that expression fade too, simply staring at the ceiling, as if able to see the night sky right through it.

What adventures await me?

Do I even care?

Mother... Father...

 

[Abraxas Winterlight]

Monolith

I would have never thought that money could be spent so fast on so many custom things at once, tho that bed probably won't get any use, & I'll look ridiculous in the tux ( what the hell is it for anyway???)

Thurday morning saw me returning from the docks. I had been down there at the request of one of my old mates remembering old times & swapping lies.
I was still in a good humor until I saw the thick column of smoke, & heard the sirens. Looking around to make sure nobody was nearby, & that I was on natural ground, I lept straight up into the air about 100 feet, & saw what the commotion was about.
shit!

I started running then twoards the church, as there were too many firemen running around to leap there. In a few minutes I was there, & saw that the firemen hadn't made it yet. People were screaming, & I could hear the panic in the Policemen trying to contain the scene. I picked a spot away from the doors, figuring that the people inside would be trying to get out them, and ran full-tilt into the wall , crashing my way through the brick and into the church.

GET OUT!!! THIS WAY, NOW!!!!!

People started streaming by me through the hole, while I scanned for survivors.

 

[SwampThing]

Smoke pours out through the Monolith-sized hole in the church's wooden wall. A few people stumble out, but the giant stone man can see that most of the people in the church have passed out from the smoke. The floor creaks dangerously under is bulk, and the timbers overhead shudder. If Monolith goes any farther inside, the whole church burning is likely to collapse on the people still inside.

 

[Lady_Siren]

Nikki accepted the mans offer following him to the bar. "I'm afraid that I will be on the news here as well soon. I just killed a bounty hunter. It's started and Aralia won't stop until I'm dead." She lowered her eyes sighing softly "I suppose it was naive to think I could escape." She looked at the man "Listen to me, I'm such a baby sometimes" she laughed softly " I don't even know your name. Yet I feel your sincerity. Is there anyway you can help me?"

 

[RoyalPurpleVelv]

Kryna Ennairy

Kryna hears the gunshot in the next room she sighs heavily. “Here we go again.”

She helps her brother to the floor, there’s no need to remind him to keep low. Pulling out her stunner she creeps up to the room the gunshot came from and listens to what’s going on.

After hearing the doctor working to soothe the insane man she decides to go back to the waiting room and stay near the door, ready to drop anyone coming through it with a gun.

 

[SwampThing]

Little Aralia

Mark takes Nikki to meet some fat old men in rich suits. A few young toughs sit around them, casually scanning the room and playing cards.

"My name is Chapel," says one of the old men, "Kasper Chapel. And you're Nikkola Hall. The telekinetic. Do you want to be safe from the Aralians, and the Argo authorities? We're very good at hiding things from both. And I would very much like you to consider me a friend.

"Tomorrow, we will work out the details. Tonight, take it easy. We'll tell stories about the old country. We'll play cards. I'll bet you're a mean card player."

They're still talking and drinking in the morning, when the dawn sky fills with smoke, and people in the streets are screaming.

 

[amon_darknight]

Ghost

He looks at the man, and he thinks back and he remembers Pol and Tag, he than lowered the gun and put it to his pocket.

“I am sorry, I have been on edge. I don’t know what the hell the cold blood gang is, but thanks for patching me up. I again apologize for what I have done. But I live by two rules in my life, one is DTA, do you know what that means? Think about it and if you don’t know, let me know and I will tell you, and two, is don’t hunt what you can’t kill, so as you can see I am a crazy motherfucker.”

He looked to Aya and smiled at her as he saw the shocked look on her face.

“Aya, I don’t know if you want to stay here with these people, I will stay here if you want, but there are things on the outside that I need to attend to.”

He looked around for one thing, where was his Katana, surprisingly he still had his sunglasses still on. But he starts to think, what if this was a set up. He takes out his gun again and looks to the man.

“How do I know this is not a set up of some sort? Even if you know what DTA means, let me tell you again. DTA means Don’t trust anyone, and that is a rule and a moral I live by. So my friend, what is it worth to you that I don’t shoot you in the head right now for trying to set me and that beautiful Red Headed Goddess over there up, how do I know you weren’t one of those assholes that I am hunting, one of those people that invaded Marrow island. What can you do to prove that to me.”

He again points the gun to your head and has a serious look on his face again.

 

[SwampThing]

Underground doctor's

"Ash, ash, ash, . . . P-prove it to you? Your sword! Your sword's in that closet. We wouldn't be giving it to you if we were enemies, right? I swear to you I don't know ashes about Marrow Island. I'm just a nurse. I don't what you have to do with the Cold Blood. They're a Sejealan Ninja clan. Loa-worshippers. Please, just don't kill me."

 

[SpectralDragoon]

Dex, Thursday Morning

Dex had left the small black case unopened, preferring to spend some time looking at the plans Reva had included rather than find out what was inside. He sat on the bed with the documents spread around him, analyzing the up and coming security job. A few hours later he had cleared the papers off and got a few hours sleep, just dropping onto the turned down hotel bed.

Now he examines the equipment from his corporation, packing strewn around at his feet, holding the glove up in front of his eyes and turning it over slowly. His gray fingertips trail over the shiny and highly reflective metallic surface. After a while he slips it on, stretching his fingers into a new factor in his life. He makes a fist, feeling the snug embrace of the glove.

Underneath the glove had been a gray mask. He tried it on, looking in the mirror through the surprisingly translucent material that made up the stylizing of the masks eyes.

Small ripped pieces of paper swirl and disappear in the toilet while Dex carefully removes his clothes and the bandage to take a shower while waiting for breakfast he'd ordered from room service. He does his best to clear his mind as he leans on his hands against the shower wall. The cyber glove on the sink reflects the steam that wafts around him.

 

[Lady_Siren]

For the first time since she left Aralia Nikki felt safe. She enjoyed the card playing and even won a few times. She used to play cards with her father all the time. After her mother died though he rarely even talked to her. Pushing aside those sad thoughts she focused on the present. It was then she became aware of screaming. Jumping up she ran to a window noticing the sky was filled with smoke. "What the hell is going on?"