World in Turmoil

[Midtime]

Alethei looked up. There was a figure, standing there, watching him.

He was armed, Alethei could see that. A large sword was sheathed at his side. He was looking at Alethei with a cold expression, but a slightest flicker of confusion passed across his face. Then it was gone.

Maybe this man would give him orders. Then he wouldn't be lost anymore. Perhaps he would fight; Alethei could deal with that. He would see; perhaps, just perhaps, his life would have meaning again.

[DOOM Bringer]

What was this boy doing here at this time of night? He stared intensely at the boy but the boy just stared right back. It was odd, most adults would cower at the sight of Slash, especially considering he was currently covered with blood, but for some reason this kid didn't flinch at all. The boy looked strong and lean, but he was completely unarmed and not a threat to Slash at all, unless it's a trap. Slash approached the boy, hand clutching the hilt of his katana, you can never be too cautious and asked in a loud rough voice, "What the heck are you doing here, kid?"

[Midtime]

Kid? wondered Alethei as the stranger approached.

"My designation is Alethei." he corrected. "Are you here to give me orders?"

[DOOM Bringer]

"Orders?" Slash asked. What is this kid talking about? The blank stare on the kid's face made Slash consider that he may be serious.

"Listen kid, it's past curfew. If you get caught out here, you could get hurt or in serious trouble. What were you doing out there in the Ocean anyway?"

[Midtime]

"I floated here after the tiltrotor I was riding in crashed in the sea, and my creators died." he replied. "Are you here to give me orders?" he repeated.

[DOOM Bringer]

"No kid, I ain't here to give you orders" Slash said to the confused child. "Listen if you want, I'll take you to a safe place, you could get hurt out here." This kid reminded Slash of himself, cold and foreboding, an empty person. There was only one place in this town that Slash knew was safe, but he hadn't been there for a few years, since C ruined it all, but as much as he didn't want to go back there, he couldn't leave this kid on his own. He would take the kid to his old family home, it was abandoned and he knew it was safe, the only thing that could hurt Slash there were the memories. "Follow me kid, I'll keep you safe." Slash started walking, but he stopped after a brief few moments. The kid wasn't following him. Slash sighed, "That's an order kid."

[Midtime]

Alethei followed the man. He had said he wasn't here to give him orders, but he had given him an order. Those statements conflicted. Everyone had a purpose, didn't they?

But, as he thought, the answer came up as no. Not everyone could receive orders from a higher power, because then there would have to be an infinite number of people. And nothing in life was infinite.

So, he followed him.

They walked for some distance, through the new, vast jungle of structures. There might not be an infinite number of people in the world, Alethei deduced, but there certainly were a lot more than he had thought. A lot of things he had presumed were suddenly proven wrong, now he was asking questions.

His contemplative thought was interrupted. His new escort held up a hand, a sign Alethei was unfamiliar with. He also said, "Stop." That was something he could understand. He stopped.

Though he could see very little in the twilight effect of the buildings, Alethei heard some giveaways - a scuff of a foot there, the crunch of a shoe on paper. He knew they were surrounded.

"Get behind me." said the man. "These people want a fight."

Alethei found this conflicting as well; firstly, he was trained from birth to fight; what could be dangerous enough to stop him from completing his function? Secondly, even if the guardian's aim was to protect him using his own fighting skills, they were surrounded. There would be no difference between in front and behind.

Still, it was an order. He shifted so that he was behind the man, who had excruciatingly slowly drawn his sword.

Suddenly, the men revealed themselves; all well-built, brutish and wearing a mocking expression.

One of them, obviously the leader, spoke. "Well, well, well. What have we here? Two little birdies, caught out at night." His tone was singsong, provoking. Alethei tensed imperceptibly; it was clear they wanted a fight. He saw his guardian's knuckles going white on the hilt of his katana, now recognizable; he understood anger, but he saw it as abstract, something he would never have himself.

The men leapt, coordinated, like the very first levels of the Game. They were sloppy, and slow, so slow. But something so slow must hide power, and he dodged the ones coming at him, just in case. He found it unusual that they crashed into one another, when it was so easily avoidable by twisting.

His guardian was fighting off the other two; he was slow as well. Perhaps they were being leisurely, each expecting a quick kill and thus not fully exerting himself.

One of his own three, enraged, lunged at him again. Alethei stopped both his fists instinctively, and found that they were weak. How weak? He squeezed. The brute's face contorted in pain. He squeezed harder. There were several audible cracks and the attacker collapsed.

That weak.

The second of his group pulled out a stun gun, but by the time he aimed, Alethei was beside him. He executed a chopping motion intended to cause enough pain to make the opponent drop his gun; instead, a sickening crunch sounded and the man fell, his lower arm hanging at an awkward angle.

The last one decided to run away rather than be mutilated like his friends. Alethei struck out with his foot, intending to knock him unconscious as well. Instead he crushed the unlucky person's ribcage, killing him instantly.

He then realised that he had broken one of the strictest rules that had been forced upon him since birth. He hadn't been ordered to fight. But he had fought anyway. My own decision.

His mind, as devoid of fear and other emotion as always, made another decision, something that until now had been as alien to him as the first. He had broken one rule; a punishment was sure to ensue now, whatever he did. These men had attacked without apparent reason, meaning it could happen again. He reached down into the folds of the dead man's blood-soaked coat and found a stun gun and a large broadsword. Neither were efficient or ensurably lethal, but they were better than nothing, and the man wouldn't be needing them. He took them and the belt used to hold them - his bleached white lab suit had no pockets - and put them on.

He turned around to see his guardian plunging his katana into the second of his opponents, mortally wounding him. He pulled it out, wiped it on the grass, and sheathed it.

 

"Let's go." said the man, his tone layered with mixed feelings.

[Niwrem]

Interesting... I shall join in.

 

Name: Niwrem (Many call me "Niw" for short)

Age: Forgotten (Looks like 10 - 12 if you ask me)

Gender: Male

Personality: Late for the plot. Cries in silence usually. Kid type-Sadistic. Doesn't like killing. Happy-go-lucky. Doesn't want to grow up. Thinks very quickly when calm. Mind goes blank when in panic. Mind and body can be in sync easily. Full of surprises. Quite Timid.

Speciality: Escaping and Spying.

Faction: Against C.

 

Additional Detail: Likes to follow trusted people closely. Ignores people who says "I dare you to do this". Invents some very <_< harmless <_< weapons which he makes from most of the junk he collects. Usually they are used more of a means of escape.

Useless Detail: Likes shiny things. Likes to pick up all sorts of things that fascinate him (even junk).

 

Fine!

Background/Involvement: None! Read "Age: Forgotten"! Boom! Gone! (This is a great way to be lazy.)

[Midtime]

((Excuse me... But I've noticed that for me there's a key part of the form missing (no offense meant, Levy). The background. Only Axon and I have any information on their past.))

[Loc]

"Yes, if you would give me the information of the next base we plan to infiltrate, I don't want an easy one either. That last one there was no one even worth fighting, I sniped all of them from a distance. They were more of a distraction than a fight."

[antiaircraft]

Axon traced his finger across the touch screen in front of him, and a printer next to Loc began to roll out a stream of finely printed pages. The pages contained coordinates, maps, schematics, and surveillance data. Everything Axon had been able to gather over the past few months. When the printer finished, a stack of paper close to a hundred sheets thick sat on its tray.

 

"This is everything I have, on every one of C's bases I know of. I hope the resistance knows how to use it effectively." Axon paused, considering the risks and benefits of the next move he was about to make. "I hope that the resistance and I can come to a - mutual relationship." The printer let out one last piece of paper, this one had a list of e-mail addresses on it. "I will continue to gather as much information as possible. Here is a list of e-mail addresses you can contact me through. Use each one only once. I wish you good luck."

[Guest Levy]

The craft plunged, undetected, into the Artic ocean. Deeper, and deeper it went into the murky waters before it's lights couldn't be seen from the surface anymore.

 

The craft's cabin filled with bone chilling water. Water cold enough to kill any human without first drowning them. The creature driving the craft was uneffected. Then the craft crashed into the ground with great force, allowing it to disappear beneath the ocean's floor.

[DOOM Bringer]

Although he didn't show it, Slash was completely amazed and even a little bit horrified. That kid just killed a few fully grown men without even batting an eyelid! He's crazy! Slash was wary of the boy following him now, and he kept an eye on him at all times. Slash would fight a little boy if he felt threatened, but he sensed that the boy would only strike out if attacked first.

 

The walk wasn't far and although he had abandoned this place long ago, he still remembered his old surroundings. From a distance, Slash spotted his old house on the hill. It was a two-story house made of rotting wood with smashed windows and trash discarded all around it. It was an old, abandonded dump, discarded by the world and forgotten by all but Slash, I wish I could forget. Although there was no emotion on his face, Slash was overwhelmed with nostalgia. He quickly wiped the memories from his mind, ancient history, forget about it and walked up to the front door. Like the rest of the house, it was crappy and rotting. Chances are it was still unlocked, Slash had been the last one here and there had been no need to lock the door, I was supposed to leave for good.

 

Slash pushed the door open and was about to walk in when a question suddenly struck him. He turned, faced the boy and said with a tinge of sadness in his voice, "Hey kid, I just realised. I never even asked you your name. What are you called kid?"

[antiaircraft]

Axon terminated the link with the resistance fighter, relieved that the information he had obtained was in the hands of somebody who could actually do something with it. Strained from the day's events, he took a few deep gulps from his cup of coffee, and then logged on to an MMORPG and lost himself in it for about an hour. Then he curled up on his bunk and slept for two hours, waking up early the next morning, ready for the day. A few minutes later, the newest batch of surveillance data from his (now slightly altered) satellite hack poured in, and he began to analyze it.

 

((@Levy: So is Ayde going to do anything?))

[Midtime]

Alethei considered mentioning that he had, in fact, mentioned his designation. But perhaps his guardian had been unsure of what he had heard.

"Alethei is my designation." he stated. Looking around the place they were in, Alethei wondered why they had come here. This wasn't a genetics facility. It wasn't even military. A structure fallen into disrepair. He sensed a certain feeling of sadness in the man's voice when he spoke now, as if the place was somehow of sentimental value. Not to mention fear. Fear of what? He did not know.

It never occurred to him to ask the other's name; according to the rules which he followed so closely, it was not necessary.

He was amazed that his guardian had not even reprimanded him about his previous actions, let alone punished him.

 

His further delves into the parts of life he had never explored before were interrupted. "You should be safe as long as you stay here." said his guardian. "I'll be back after some time." Safe from what? Another question Alethei never thought of asking himself. Though the place didn't seem very safe to him. Not hidden, fallen into disrepair. The rotting door wasn't even locked. Perhaps the building sported hidden defenses, though Alethei found no evidence of it. But orders were orders. Stay here.

 

He wasn't unusually hungry, or tired; he had been deprived of food when in long levels of the Game, and he had barely slept for almost a year.

 

He moved to what he saw was the best defended position in the house, and his guardian left.

[Loc]

Doc Loc didn't feel like a base infiltration today so he went for an hostage. He flipped through the papers, then there was one Alethei, he was a lost commander of C's armys, though very young, he was destructive, and powerful. He was going after him, a hostage like this would be useful. After heading back to his base ((which will remain secret for now)) he climed onto his motorcycle and sped off.

[antiaircraft]

Axon pored over almost an exobyte of monotonous surveillance data, searching for and marking down anything of interest. Then, when he had finally finished sweeping the hours of images and communications, he picked out the pieces of information that he had marked and went over them with painstaking precision, sometimes spending as much as fifteen minutes enhancing and re-analyzing a single pixel. When he finally finished off the batch of data, he would move over to his computer, pulling out a keyboard, and spend the next five minutes or so with his other daily tasks, including stealing funds from various military organizations and writing specialised programs for clients. A particular task completed, he would have a mere two minute coffee break before the next batch of surveillance data rolled in, kicking off the cycle once more.

 

To any normal person, spending the majority of their day continually carrying out these meticulous, unrewarding tasks would have seemed daunting, but computer work was Axon's life. He had a natural talent for it, and a love for the machines and their simple, logical processing had driven him from the moment he had first placed his hands on a keyboard.

[Guest Levy]

Ayde was continuing her survailence when she got a transmission from command.

"Heavy weapons specialist 021, cancel your survailence of sector 168. You have been given orders to survey the area around the American Pacific coast for any debri which may have survived the self-destruction of CP-098."

"Understood." she responed in her normal monotone voice. She dismantled her sniper rifle in a few seconds and activated her suit's camoflage system. The system was the most advanced from C's arsenal. It is designed with thousands of microscopic camera on all sides of the suit sending the image seen from one side to thousands of corresponding monitors to the other side. In syncronization, this camoflage makes her nearly invisible to the naked eye. Perfect for escaping a forested area undetected.

[Midtime]

((@loocem: Alethei is not listed in any records apart from the minds of his creators. He is also a prototype test experiment, to be killed and dumped in the sea once his full potential is gauged, not a commander.))

[antiaircraft]

Axon had just finished another few hours of non-stop work when the transmission was intercepted by his botnet. A red flag icon appeared on his screen, and the short encrypted message was opened automatically. The program he had written for handling these occasions immediately identified the encryption as US military standard, and cracked it within 15 seconds while Axon calmly sipped his coffee. Then the message was displayed, and he almost choked.

 

BIG1 TO ACE3, ACE5, ACE16. COMMENCE PP42 ON HEARTHLET.

 

This is nuts, thought Axon as he reread the message. Years of experience had given him a fluent knowledge of US military codes, despite the fact that they had not been used since C's takeover: BIG1 meant that the message came from the highest level of authority - the president or one of his aides. ACE3, ACE5 and ACE16 were presumably combat groups of some sort. Most intriguing was the use of PP42 - a clandestine assault operation - and HEARTHLET - a recently coined term used to refer to the underground bunker widely presumed to be C's dwelling place, but Axon knew that C never stayed in the same area for more than 24 hours if he could help it.

 

Either the US military was really desperate enough to make a suicidal assault on C's authority, or this was a trap to lure any resistance fighters in the area to their deaths. It merited surveillance - Axon quickly pulled one of the NSA satellites out of orbit to keep track of whatever was going on.

[Loc]

There was a smudge on his papers, it was not Althei, but Theli, who he quickly killed, but upon returning to his base he saw a very strange building, destroyed, not very protected at all, perfect. He could use it as a forty-second base.( For he has lived all around the globe) He bust open the door and decided to explore.

[Midtime]

Alethei had been checking the downstairs area for anything that might reveal whether it was something more than it appeared to be.

Then he heard a familiar sound. Faster and softer than what he was used to, but still unmistakable.

Footsteps.

Someone was coming.

He knew his guardian would not have bothered to be quiet about his arrival. He wasn't that sort of person.

He ducked behind the door soundlessly, his combat training kicking in, just as it burst open.

[Loc]

Loc jumped back as the door bust down, he didn't think there was anyone (or anything) in there, but it was habit. There was a kid sitting there, he didn't look scared, or even surprised, but before he could think more about it, the kid made his move.

[Midtime]

Alethei twisted around the intruder, in case of an attack based on instinct. He then delivered a short series of quick, efficient jabs, before the opponent could respond. The first two were at nerve clusters on the elbows, disabling any movement with the arms; the second two at points just below the knee, well known to doctors, causing a short spasm of the legs and thus bringing the opponent to the ground. The fifth and final was at a point on the spinal cord, knocking the opponent out.

He would probably be out for a few hours, long enough for Alethei to restrain him and remove any hidden weapons. Coming out of battle mode, his brain prodded his consciousness. You attacked someone from your former masters. If they weren't intent on eliminating you before, they are now. You've decided your allegiance.

The intruder had that cold, predatory, perfectly toned look about him; Alethei had never seen anyone like that who wasn't an assassin sent by his creators. He couldn't be blamed for instantly assuming the stranger's origin. He wondered why he had incapacitated, instead of killing.

 

After half-mummifying his target - which was necessary to restrict all but vital movement - and removing (and, in some cases, donning) an army's worth of assorted weapons, Alethei resumed his defensive pose and position, and waited for his guardian.

[Loc]

Loc was spiraling around in a dream, it was a pot of fluid, pouning into space. Slowly as the pot emptied the dream faded away.