[Xero]

Anya blinked at Templer's response, keeping pace with him

"I didn't mean don't do anything, I just said getting in a fit over it wouldn't solve much." She clarified with a shrug, before continuing. "Action is all well and good, but letting something get to you will just make you do something dumb. I don't know all that much about this place, or wars, or anything like that, but I do know what I'm talking about when it comes to people screwing up over being bothered by something."

The polka dot haired woman gave Templer a small smirk before adding a final comment. "Some of my jokes rely on it."

[Ryo-Wolf]

Julie vaulted across another alleyway, hitting the opposite roof in a roll that quickly returned her to her feet as she continued running. Damn it, she had overslept again! She barely had time to put on her running gear before heading out the door. Thus, here she was, leaping off a 20 story building onto its 18 story neighbor wearing only a sports bra, cycling shorts and her shoes. If she were lucky, she might be able to get into the locker room before anyone actually saw her, but she'd have to be quick about it.

"I seriously should have found a closer apartment!" Julie complained, jumping over the edge of the roof and landed against the wall of the opposite building. She quickly used her powers to increase her adherence to the wall, sliding down several stories before jumping off and onto the fire escape of the building she began on, and then from here jumped to the much shorter building beside it.

"Almost there...Just need to hit it at the right angle..." Julie muttered to herself, leaping to another building. She could see DMAC HQ now, standing 4 stories tall. She couldn't get in through the front door without somebody spotting her, and that meant admitting that she was late to work. But the third story was the gym and shooting gallery, and she knew the senior officers liked to leave the windows open to air out the stench of sweat. It'd be the perfect entry point!

As she approached, she jumped to the building beside DMAC and slid across the wall, using her powers to walk across it until she found the open window. Success! She quickly turned her powers up until she completely halted against the wall, giving her the leverage she needed to leap off and into the building.

"You're late." Jason remarked, seeing Julie dive through the window and land in a roll from his position near the punching bag. Julie immediately righted herself and cursed, moving quickly towards the door, red with embarrassment.

"Nice clothes, by the way." Jason joked, hearing the younger officer moan in annoyance as she left the room.

[Lathis]

Templer took in Officer Vedrana's words as he continued up the stairs to the third floor, finally smiling and shaking his head in bemusement. "Well, perhaps you're right. I've never exactly been known for my sense of humor, but in a place like this you have to be prepared for the unexpect-"

His statement was cut off when he noticed the subtle sensation of something, or someone bouncing off of him. He looked forward . . . only for his eyes to widen in shock as he noticed Officer LaRue standing before him looking far more flustered and lacking in clothing than he'd ever seen her. Quickly, he coughed loudly into his hand to distract from his embarrassment and turned back to the more fully clothed females behind him.

"Ahem! Speaking of which, Officer Li, Officer Vedrana, may I introduce you to Officer LaRue?" Looking back at Julie out of the corner of his eye, he struggled to hide his smile. "Good morning, Officer LaRue, you look . . . well today . . ."

[Ryo-Wolf]

Julie just stared at Templer for a few moments in annoyance and embarrassment before she simply vaulted over him, and the two women she didn't recognize, and quickly made it the rest of the way down the stairs without stopping. She didn't even slow down until she hit the door of the woman's locker room and was halfway to the showers.

"Oh, of all the people to run into! I'm never gonna hear the end of it from that womanizer! Shit! I should have just used the vents!" Julie complained to herself, stopping at her locker and undressing before grabbing her towel and heading twowards the showers.

[Ertwin]

Tyler made his way up to the gym, discretely teleporting passed the new recruits, if he was lucky he'd have a chance to spar with whoever was up there before the montonomy of the day began. Tyler teleported into the gym and spotted Jason. Tyler paused for a split second in dismay, punching jason always hurt. "Are you waiting for me? I do tend to like variety in my sparring partners, this is the third time this week you've been up here when I come looking for a sparing partner"

[Xero]

Anya curiously looked the way the new woman went, named LaRue according to Templer, after making an impressive jump over them. Probably someone with a physical ability, since she didn't appear to have the muscle to pull that off normally - though, she did appear to be in good shape from the brief look she'd gotten of her. Shrugging off the slightly strange encounter, and turning to Templer, she made a guess based on LaRue's clothing.

"So, you guys have a Gym?"

This post has been edited by Xero: 30 August 2009 - 11:21 PM

[Ryo-Wolf]

Jason glanced at Delman for a moment, sizing him up, before returning to the punching bag.

"Just exercising, like always. I suppose I could use you for a punching bag, though, if you really wanna take a beating today. You fight back about as well as one." Jason replied, never stopping in his assault of the bag, trying to work up a sweat.

[Ertwin]

"yeah but if I use the knives on you're favorite punching bag you might get mad, at least you don't tear" Said Tyler without skipping a beat. Tyler drew a pair of knives from sheaths on his belt, moved to the center of the floor, practicing motions while he waited for Jason to finish pummeling the bag.

[Lathis]

Templer shook his head once more. Apparently good things did come in threes . . . though bad things were supposed to as well, and he'd only run into one bad instance so far today. Well, what were the odds of that old superstition actually holding up?

Never look a gift horse in the mouth, and all that, especially when one of those gift horses was wearing bicycle shorts.

"A gym? Indeed we do, it's just past the firing range," he replied quickly.

He gestured briefly to the number of firing lanes and the distant targets, but since he hadn't thought to bring any firearms, there wasn't much point in dallying. Rather, he led his new comrades through the nearby doors and into the gym.

"Ah, well it appears we have more introductions to make," he explained, as he noted both Jason and Officer Delman already in the gym. "Officer Cray, Officer Delman, good morning. I'd like to introduce our two newest recruits, Officer Li and Officer Vedrana." He gestured to both of the female officers with a wave of his arm.

He then turned to the girls. "Hey, maybe one of you would like to try sparring? I'm sure Officer Cray or Officer Delman would be interested in seeing what you're capable of."

[Ertwin]

"Now now Officer Templer, lets not be mean to the new recruits, Jason doesn't seem to be up to sparring, however I am, and in order to demonstrate, why don't you and I spar?" said Tyler with a smile, "They'll get to see some sparring, and I'll get to see if you learned anything new since the last time we sparred"

[Lathis]

Templer looked around to everyone present. "Well . . . I suppose if no one has any objections?"

When no one offered any argument, he shrugged and took several steps forward to the center of the room. Taking his usual stance, standing straight with his hands at his hips and his back straight, feet only a few inches apart, he nodded to Tyler. "Feel free to begin whenever you like, Officer Delman."

[Ertwin]

Tyler grinned and Sheathed his knives, before quickly teleporting above and behind Templer. Tyler grabbed Templer's Shoulders and swung his feet into the back of Templer's knees. Templer didn't flinch, he strengtened his aura, and took a swing at Tyler, who tried to use a basic aikido move to throw the anchored Templer, Templer just smiled and slammed Tyler into the floor.

Tyler quickly teleported away, and drew his knives again. Tyler rapidly teleported back to the floor between Templer's legs, swinging upwards to scrape his blade across Templer's crotch in a slash that would have castrated him were it not for the armour. Templer swung his arms down at Tyler in an axehandle slam as Tyler quickly teleported away, and started getting up off the floor 10 feet away.

Templer turned and bullrushed towards Tyler, who teleported just behind Templer less than a second before Templer could hit him. Tyler kicked back inbetween Templer's shoulderblades. Templer pitched foreward, but expected the attack and exstended bars of his shield from his feet to intercept Tyler as he landed. Tyler landed on a bar and started sprawling foreward before teleporting away and rolling to a stand accross the room.

Templer now standing again, exstended a 3 foot bar from each of his hands. Tyler grinned and teleported foreward to meet Templer head on. Tyler and Templer clashed blades for a few minutes, Templer varying the lengths of his blades to try and trip up Tyler who would intermitantly teleport backwards a foot or two to dodge a strike.

Finnally Templer Feinted by curving his bar into a hook to try and snare Tyler's arm, Tyler side stepped only to get smashed in the face with a shield Templer had suddenly formed on his other hand. Tyler fell sprawling back, nose bleeding.

This post has been edited by Ertwin: 31 August 2009 - 02:07 AM

[Lathis]

He knew it had been more luck than anything that had allowed him to surprise Tyler as he did, so Templer did his best to conceal his smile as he offered his hand to the more experienced fighter. "An excellent fight, Officer Delman. I think I've finally learned all of your tricks," he added jokingly. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced over at the ladies whom had been watching the fight, hoping to gauge their responses.

[Ertwin]

Tyler grinned as he stood up, suddenly teleporting behind Templer again, delievering a kick square in the back, sending Templer face first into the floor. Templer looked up outraged, only to see Tyler grinning appologetically as he exstended a hand to help Templer up, "Sorry about Templer, I wouldn't want you to get too overconfident."

[Xero]

Anya watched the sparring session with interest, mostly because she was curious about what each officer's power was. It turned out Delman could teleport, an ability she didn't know was possible before, so it was pretty cool - and Templer had some sort of energy construct thing going on with that glowing field of his, which was also cool as she hadn't ever seen such a power in action before.

The actual fight was impressive as well, much better than anything she could have pulled off, and she winced slightly at Delman getting smacked in the face with one of Templer's constructs. That had looked like it hurt. She almost laughed at the look on Templer's face when he got caught off guard by a cheap shot from Delman, but gave him a congratulatory thumbs up over his small victory anyway, even if he'd gotten surprised at the end.

"You guys are pretty good." She stated cheerfully. It was probably pretty hard to fight a teleporter, especially one who looked as skilled as Delman. She certainly didn't think she'd be able to fight him off, though the moment he got close he would have been disarmed, so who knows. It was likely the man could still kick her butt ten different directions at once, if he was half as good unarmed.

[Lathis]

"You guys are pretty good."

Templer looked up to see Officer Vedrana give him a thumbs up, but couldn't stop blushing from falling for such an obvious attack. She was likely just humoring him after that embarrassment, so he quickly turned to Tyler.

". . . Thank you for another important lesson, Officer Delman." He then spun and gave Jason a quick salute. "I'll leave the rest of the tour in your capable hands, Officer Cray, I need . . . to get some paper work done from yesterday."

With that, he quickly exited the gym and made his way for the stairs.

[Animus]

Fate quickly snuck in the front doors, making his way towards the locker rooms when he froze, the footfalls, and figure coming towards him meant that'd he'd been caught coming in late. Sighing, he turned around to find a hand waved as the figure passed. Too thin to be Jason, too male to be any of the girls, there was nothing blocking his sight between the two figured, leaving only a few people left, and based on attitude, "Sorry, sir. I didn't mean to be late. My alarm clock didn't go-"

Len shook his head, "Forget it, I'm not Todo. Or that stick in the mud, Lukas, boy. Just, go change. And don't snoop around here today." Shrugging, he continued on to Todo's office, knocking once before letting himself in.

Fate looked confused for a moment, before heading upstairs, and towards the lockers, stopping by the gym as he did, noticing the gathering, "Something wrong Offic- erm... Len? He seems... off today."

~~~~~~~

Stepping into Todo's office, Len didn't bother to stop to see if he was busy, before finding an empty spot on the corner of his desk, and sitting down.

"I've got a couple of questions, sir." Len sighed, leaning back against the table and looking towards the television, despite it being off, "First of all, how much access do you have to my file? And secondly, though less importantly, I was thinking of looking into a British arms manufacturer, to uh... use the DMACs funds and acquire weaponry that our friends upstairs keep blackballing us on. It's been twenty-five years since I last heard about them, but I'm sure they're still around."

Stopping for a moment, he shook his head, "Oh, and Templer. His attitude worries me. He's going to put us in serious danger if he keeps up with this 'save them all' business..."

[SnaggleR]

As Xian watched the sparring match between Templer and Tyler, it gave her a good idea of what the two of them know about their powers. Tyler's didn't give much to work with, but she thought he could work in the energy dispersion when he teleports a bit better. She was, however, quite impressed with Templer's display of control over his aura. However, he left before she had a change to talk to him, so she walked over to... Jason?

"That Templer guy has pretty good control of his Spirit to make weapons out of it like that." Jason just looked at her like she was crazy. "What's that look all about?" Jason just shook his head and went back to pounding the punching bag with incredible force. "Too good to talk to the new girl, huh? Fine." Xian turned around and started walking off in a huff. As she left the room she called back, "Your punching bag is about to break anyways, you jerk!"

Having been abandoned by her guide to an inhospitable jerk, she decided to try to see if this place had some kind of work shop; logic dictated that it would be on the bottom floor, so she headed that way. Once down there she noted someone going into Todo's office, and decided to see if he could tell her where her destination was.

"... the DMACs funds and acquire weaponry that our friends upstairs keep blackballing us on. It's been twenty-five years since I last heard about them, but I'm sure they're still around."

"Who's still around?" She cringed slightly as the two men looked at her with looks that clearly said 'Get Out.' "Oh, um, guess I should mind my own business? I was just wondering if we have like a work shop or something that has equipment for me to tinker with?" she asked, ending with a please-don't-kill-me smile.

This post has been edited by SnaggleR: 31 August 2009 - 08:45 PM

[Lathis]

As soon as Templer made it downstairs again, rather than go to his desk, he instead went to the locker room to pick up his gear. A moment later, he was back in the armory and used his passcard to sign out one of the CFG's they'd confiscated from the Razors . . . then, grabbed another and holstered both weapons.

There was still no sign of Serge yet, which was odd since it was already past time to get to work. Not that he was worried, he knew that Serge could take care of himself, but the pair of them were partnered together for the day . . .

Ah well, not much of a concern there. Rather than dwell on it, and more than eager to get out of the precinct, he made his way to Todo's office. He noted the odd congregation of Todo, Len and the new girl, Xian, hanging about, but didn't bother to think too hard on it.

He nodded quickly to the new member. "Officer Li," he greeted in a genial tone before turning to Todo.

"Captain, I just wanted to inform you that I'm going out on my scheduled patrol now. I'll be in the eastern sector sewers, doing a follow up on the small incursion of mutants that gained access in that area. Officer Centrifuge hasn't arrived yet, so please send him to catch up when he does. I'll call in when I arrive in the eastern sector."

Saluting sharply, he nodded again to Officer Li, then began to make his way to the entrance.

[Exit]

"Oh shit... its already noon?"

Alyssa woke up with a raging headache and no remembrance of what she'd done the previous night. She got up, stumbled slightly and realized she was still drunk from the night before. With a shrug she took put on some fitness clothing, a short tight black bra and some shorts and went to go work out. Hopefully there would be something there like Templer or Cray so that she could get a good workout. Not too many people hit hard enough for her to actually get a decent work out fighting.


***

Sunlight sparkled against the water, gemlike in the perfect weather. He was standing in front of a tree, a few feet from the edge of Tier II. Although it was actually shaped like a trapezoid and it's official name was Shimizu II, many altered still called the place the Pyramid. Old habits die hard. The Pyramid was located out on the bay, separated from the mainland by a series of bridges and causeways. There were other ways to get there too, but they were mainly underwater and highly illegal. In the last few years, a number of attacks had brought down several of the original ways into the pyramid. Only a few had been repaired and now GATE had heavy patrols along the borders, land and sea, along with standing check points on all of the causeways.

Nearly every day since DMAC and GATE had battled it out against Human Hope in the Pyramid, Serran Carrde had sat watching the GATE patrols. It had been several years now, but still it was his daily habit to slip away from whatever he was doing for an hour between noon and one. Hidden safely behind anonymity and routine, he watched the patrol routines of the GATE troops. In the past, they had often had platoons, with armored mechas standing by, but now it was usually a pair of guards, with the rest of the unit in reserve at the ends of the bridges, mostly because of the limited access from the Pyramid. It meant that they had heavily concentrated numbers of troops at the ends of the bridges. With the militia patrolling far more heavily than ever before, it allowed GATE to cut back on its visible presence, although they were still stockpiling personal in very close proximity to the largest concentration of altered and mutant civilians in the entire world. Eventually, Serran though, the city government had to cut down on the guard size, just to save money. The wear and tear on personal and equipment isn't something a city can put up with for very long. GATE, however, seems determined to maintain an extremely hostile presence, always just one corner away. As for the militia, most of them barely know the difference between their asses and their faces. Let alone the right side of a gun. There are a few however... His mind drifted off. The militia was its own unique problem. Many of them were just trying to keep the areas they lived in safe. The problem was that they turned in altered troublemakers to GATE, instead of allowing the altered community to deal with them itself. As a result, there were many unfairly handed down judgements that could have been much lighter. As always, GATE dealt with an iron hand.

Bored with his daily routine, Serran moved away from the windows and continued walking, lost in thought as he rehashed what they'd gone over again and again.

Many common civilian altered had nothing at all against the government. They were happy. Of course, they were in the minority, but it wasn't unheard of. Other altered were just too scared to contend against the government, not an uncommon occurrence either. But with many altered turning traitor, the armed rebellion is deep for sure. Some had gone deep underground, hiding even from the altered populace themselves. Of course there were the radicals, too stupid and bold to hide. They plastered themselves on altered and mainstream media, making their cause well known. Although some of their faces were known, Serran, for his part, had made sure that he’d always used a mask whenever engaged in armed activities. He made sure that anything he did was not recorded by never using his powers unless absolutely necessary. Jamming cameras and recording devices was another method of avoiding detection. Thanks to his former military past, he had a small number of contacts that allowed him to check the backdoors of various agencies for reports on his own activities. He could amend them as he needed to keep things as shadowed as possible. So far, at least, GATE had apparently not noticed anything out of the ordinary.

The recent increased attacks had merely driven the rebels even deeper into the civilian populations, both in the mainland and in Shimizu. Ever since that DMAC department opened up, there are altered who have been seeing them as a good idea and turning in rebels in the hopes of either joining that department or gaining good standing with the government. Thankfully, I haven't had to deal with traitors. Yet.


Serran walked past a familiar face, a woman of somewhat striking appearance, with dark purple hair and a cute-looking face. Her skin tone was a royal blue color that complemented her hair, but made her stick out quite a bit. He made no attempt to hide his appreciation for a pretty woman as they passed. I've never had the courage to ask her whether her skin is tattooed or just her natural color. Would be interesting to find out... She smiled and patted a palm, a gesture hidden to passersby by their bodies. Serran glanced down at his own palm and noted a black dot undulating like something alive. The members of his individual faction all had the same tattoo somewhere on their bodies. It was a cell of eight and each of them were highly dedicated to their cause, having grown up experiencing much of the same neglect and abuse that the others had. Their little group had never been in contact with any of the larger organizations. Deeming the MAA, Reclamation and other such more well-known groups as leaky rat-infested boats, Serran and his friends had never joined any of them, but carefully laid out their own plans. They knew some of the people mixed up in those groups. They knew what those groups were trying to do and what they had in mind. Serran and his friends kept as close tabs on the altered rebellion cells as they did on the GATE troops that patrolled near them. And now, apparently, something had happened. It's about time... sick with waiting for something to happen. Hopefully this is another step toward our reach for true equality, away from living in a city guarded by soldiers.


The undulating tattoo was their usual calling sign. They had something that needed as many of them as possible to meet as soon as possible. Serran continued walking the way he was heading. A food vender had set up shop close-by and Serran was following the scent of barbequed pork. I shouldn't be eating this stuff, but it is so good. Smokeyyyyy. Munching on his snack, Serran continued rambling through the footpaths of the Pyramid as he watched the other altered go about their business. No other place on Earth had the population of altered that the Pyramid had, with the most public appearances of altered powers, with people flying around, others walking with visible wings or tails, not to mention the various off skin colors. Serran always appreciated the variety, having snuck into the main city more than once, just to recon a bit. There, although humans had a wide variety of appearances, it was nothing compared to the cacophony of things that the altered and mutant populace could field. It was no surprise that very few humans were actually comfortable around an acknowledged altered.

A few more bites and he was done, licking the remnants off his fingers with relish as he tossed the stick into a trashcan. Then he headed towards a bank of passages that held living quarters, offices and a few stores. One of them had a few people loitering outside of it and as he came closer, Serran recognized several of the faces, neighbors and friends of the people who he’d come to see. They were gathered around something that he could not quite make out.


“Hey, what’s going on, people?”


Serran started in, pushing past a woman with furry tails and a man with green reptilian skin to see what was holding the center of attention. A bubbling hole was burned straight through the metal of the passage. Coming closer, he could see that the passages below were likewise eaten through. The edges were covered in a sparkling purple... goo. As he stepped even closer, a chuckled echoed softly behind his ears.


“…Jack?”

Serran looked around uncertainly as an incredulous look started creeping onto his face. The onlookers gasped as a Cheshire cat-like grin glimmered in the air before him. Serran leapt back and started to drop into a fighting stance. But then the sizzling holes through the Pyramid floor started flickering and before he knew what was happening, Serran had been yanked or pulled forward. He threw his hands out, expecting to start falling through the floors as his face hit solid metal. Instead, he found himself.. somewhere. He wasn't sure where. Vision swimming, Serran got up and looked around, half angrily, half bewildered as peals of laughter started echoing down the hall.

"Jack!"

Sparks of purple flew around Serran's body before a ghost-like apparition appeared before him. Serran tried to hit it with a fist, but he stumbled through.

"Nuh uh uh! Don't lose your temper, big man! Just because you're all muscle bound and shit doesn't mean I can't take you without even trying!" The purple ghost solidified into a vaguely purple tinted man. "What's going on, Ser."

Jack was a mutant with the ability to create realistic illusions that could alter anything his imagination could think of. If he wanted to be transparent, then he looked transparent. If he wanted a hole in the group to appear, then it was so. It was extremely useful for parlor tricks and simple subterfuge, although maintaining things beyond a few seconds got tiring very quickly.