[Other FULL] Λtlantis Λwakening [IC] [M]

[Swolligator]

Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England

November 12th, 2012


"Oakley…"

Wyatt continued to utter her name within the folds of a deep sleep. Ever since they had teleported on board that ship and Wyatt had been shot after hearing her name yelled, memories and strange, vivid dreams plagued his sleeping hours. In this particular dream he was running through what seemed like the backstreets of some middle-eastern country, chasing after a giggling girl whose fleeting golden hair was all he could catch a glimpse of. She taunted him in his dream, giggling as if it were all a child's game. Desperately he ran on as her hair disappeared around a corner, or he heard her giggling from next to him.

Exhausted, he finally caught up to her, placing his hand on her shoulder and turning her to face him. Instead of the sweet, innocent, childish face his memories remembered, the person standing in front of him was someone else. This little girl pointed to the darkness in front of her where two glowing red eyes menacingly glared at him. Stumbling backwards, he tripped over his bow; his clothes having been replaced with his Syndicate issue outfit. From the shadows the monster towered over him; its palms the size of his torso and fingers the size of limbs. He made a rushed grab for the bow, but its colossal hand smashed down on the weapon.

"Oakley, STOP!" He screamed at the top of his lungs but the beast continued to proceed forward.

Wyatt continued to crawl backwards, trying to push himself further and further away, but she easily towered over him. Those massive red eyes were no longer the gentle green of his sister's but feral and angry. The little girl he had protected when they were just kids was no longer here; in her place stood the monster she had become.

"Oakley! Snap out of it! It's me, Wyatt!" He yelled at the monster yet it only seemed to make things worse.

He shivered as its salivating mouth dropped closer to his face; its breath almost burning the outfit off of his body. As much as he tried to remember that it was his sister, he could not get past the monstrosity that now fully loomed over him. Bringing his arms up in defence, he squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for it to eat him.

"Oakley!" Wyatt screamed as he sat upright in his bed. With heavy breaths and sweat beading down his forehead, he couldn't have been more thankful that it was a dream. This was only the second dream since the boat he had that involved Oakley but was by far the scariest dream he had ever dreamt. Rubbing his eyes and taking in a few deep breaths, he sunk back into his bed, trying to stop his heart from racing so quickly.

He lay there in bed, staring up at the ceiling thinking everything over. He had made such a big leap when he had taken Jeremy's hand. In the last month alone he had discovered his Atlantean heritage, pretended to be a superhero and also invaded a ship full of heavily trained guards to rescue some others and get out with single bullet wound. He went from University archer to secret spy agent in a matter of weeks; life seemed to be getting away from him rather rapidly.

"She's just like you."

Wyatt jumped as much as one could while lying down, pulling the blankets up around him as he scrambled backwards. "What the hell, do you not know about personal privacy? Jeez man, get the hell out!" He yelled at the creepy Blind Prophet who stood in front of the door blocking the entrance.

"You weren't imagining it, Oakley was on that ship." The Blind Prophet leaned against the doorway, his foggy eyes creeping Wyatt out even more. He had been distracted to even notice the man open and close the door; for someone with sight based abilities he could be really blind sometimes.

"How do you know that? Who are you?" Wyatt kept his eyes on the man, still weird out by his sudden appearance.

"I have seen a lot of things. I saw her on the ship, and I've seen you two meeting again." His speech was gentle and collected, like this was just an everyday conversation. Yet something about his speech sounded like there was a hidden meaning to each and every word.

"What do you mean that she's just like me?"

"She's Atlantean as well. Similar to the dream you just had."

"How? How can you do that? You look at people like you're looking past them. It's like you're seeing things no one else can see." Keeping up eye contact, Wyatt blindly patted his hand on his bedside table, grabbing the cold fabric of his shirt and slipping it over his head.

"It's my ability; my affliction. But I'm not here to talk about my ability. These people aren't your friends; they're not here to help you but only to control you. Use them while you can and then leave. It's what's best for you." The man refused to move from his position, neither did his voice change pitch or intonation worrying Wyatt even more.

"What the hell, man. Seriously, get the f*ck out of my room!" This guy was weird, acting like he knew what was going to happen. He was just trying to mess with his head; maybe it wasn't the Syndicate he should be careful of but this Prophet.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." The Blind Prophet picked up his white cane from its position leaning against the wall before leaving Wyatt to his own devices.

After the man left, it took Wyatt a little bit to come to terms with the situation. When he was ready he got out of bed and headed straight for the shower in the adjoining personal bathroom. It spent several minutes under the water after washing his body to let the water run over his head and cancel everything out. It felt good to finally get away from everything and escape from the world even if it was for only a couple of minutes. When he got out of the shower he wiped the steam off of the mirror standing over the basin. He looked back at the man staring back at him; cocking his head from side to side to get a better look at his profile. Next he flicked into Infra-Red vision, then back to his normal vision. As soon as he did so he noticed a flicker every time he changed his vision. Jumping between his normal vision and the other visions accompanying his ability, he found that his irises changed colour to match.

As he looked closer into the mirror, he noticed that every time he zoomed in or out through his vision, his irises would shudder as if they were moving back and forth like a camera lens. His discovery was interrupted by a banging at the door to his room.

"Hurry up, dickhead, everyone's waiting on you!" October's angry voice seemed to carry through the ear and he was sure his door was rattling more than it should have.

Quickly throwing on his Syndicate gear, he opened the door to find October still standing there angrily. "Sorry, was distracted."

"Stop w*nking over that Russian chick and get out here, we're got a mission." October flicked her hair behind her shoulders as she turned on her heels and walked down the hall.

Closing the door behind him, Wyatt made his way to the common room where everyone was assembled and fully decked out in their Syndicate issue gear. Even young Fletcher had his own, small suit on. As they all sat on or stood behind the couches, the Directive stood in front of the TV; his face never moving from the serious look he always seemed to wear.

"It's good of you to finally join us, Cale." The Directive spoke in his familiar monotonous voice, "As you all know, the Syndicate runs a banking firm to work not only as a façade but also to fund our operations. Currently we're trying to form a merger with another banking firm, but things aren't quite going smoothly. There is one cog in the gears that is refusing to agree and thus, needs to be eliminated."

"So now it's a hostile takeover?" October asked sarcastically, "why do you need all of us to take out this one guy?"

The Directive glared at October, "Think of it more like corporate espionage. We've got all hands on deck because we need to make this as smooth and inconspicuous as possible." Gesturing to the TV behind him, the black screen lit up to replace the previously watched cartoons with blueprints of the bank's headquarters and a look at their plan of attack.

​

 

[Skymin]

New Atlantis (Lindholm), Sweden

November 12th, 2012


The evening went a lot less eventful than the rest of the day. After Devon and Oakley had made it back to the town hall (and Devon had changed out of his wet clothes), it wasn't long before Atticus and Misha had dinner prepared for them. Emery, the thief, ate with them, though spent his entire time quiet, hiding in the shadow of Misha (who was the complete opposite, laughing at anything anyone said). Everyone from today had been invited, so those interested did, and there was enough food to go around.

After dinner, Atticus hosted a sort training session (to which Oakley and Frederick joined in, Devon watched and everyone else did whatever) in one of the halls, focusing on general self defence than the ability training Oakley had been used to with the Librarian, or that short time she had on the gun range in the AUP HQ. When everyone was tired enough, they all headed to bed in their respective rooms, most of the guests heading home for the night so they could sleep in their own beds and the rest bunking with their friends.

* * *​

"Helloooo?" The front door swung open, a familiar voice and her loud heels echoing through the foyer. Being quite early in the morning, nobody was really awake but Imogen was going to make sure they were. "Is anybody hooooooooome?"

"Imogen?" Atticus was first to emerge from his room, his dreadlocks pulled from their tie and quite all over the place. That, and this pyjamas consisted of a pair of sweatpants. "What are you doing here?"

"Aw, sweetie, did I interrupt something? Is that why it was just you and Misha who came out here? I didn't realise your type was old, greying, fat, Russian men." She gave him a wink as Atticus made his way down the stairs. "Is there something I need to tell Annie?"

"Are you done yet?"

"Not quite. Round up your posse, honey. I'm not just here for a visit."

* * *​

"So everybody's awake now? Good." Imogen smirked, then noticing the extras who had joined in on this meeting. "Who are this bunch?"

"Residents of the island who want to join our cause. There's Henri and Si--" Imogen pulled up a hand to cut Atticus off.

"That's great. Wonderful even. Good for them." Her voice dripped with sarcasm. It wasn't exactly subtle. "But the kids will have to stay home today. I'm only here for the slightly more experienced." She nodded her head towards Del, Dom, Oakley, Thayne and Devon. "I really don't care about anyone else at the moment. Oh, and I need that klepto guy too."

"How do you know about Emery?" Atticus frowned. Oakley wsa a little surprised he wasn't reacting to her obviously mean comments. "What do you want with him?"

"I do read your reports, you know. And apparently he's crucial for this mission I'm about to talk about. Orders." She shrugged, then turned and faced her five of interest. "So, I'm sure you guys have heard about Pandora's Box at one point in your life. If you haven't, let me refresh your memory; Pandora's box was a box filled with all the evils in this world given to her by Zeus. Zeus told her not to open it, but of course, the stupid idiot she was, opened it and released the evils. The only thing left inside was Hope.

"If you haven't quite realised yet, most of history always has something to do with an Atlantean. So, we've been given the task of obtaining this box. And an anonymous tip has quite convieniently given us the location. Well, almost. Speaking of which," Imogen turned around, and poked her head outside through open door she had come in. The cold air coming in was quite chilly compared to the heated inside but Imogen really didn't seem to care, "oh look, she's finally here. Super."

Through the doors came a familiar face (to some), dressed in her usual attire of black. With two primary black wearers in the room, Oakley had to compare the similarities between her and Delta. Though, this familiar face was far more committed to a goth look than Delta was.

"Otto!" Oakley blinked, surprised to see her. She hadn't seen her since before Paris.

"Oh good, you know eachother. Then I don't have to bother with introductions. Oakley, please tell us all who this bundle of rainbows is." Adeline shot Imogen a cold look. Although Oakley had known her to be a little emotionless, she could surely spot an insult when she heard one.

"Um, everyone, this is Adeline. She is the Librarian's... um, assistant?" Oakley looked at Adeline for confirmation.

"And daughter. And please, call me Otto." Her voice was exactly the same as Oakley remembered; stiff and slightly cold but honest.

"Yes and Otto has kindly agreed to guide us to this Pandora's Box. Where did you say it was? In a museum exhibit?" Imogen arched her head towards Adeline. She didn't look very impressed with her company and less so that she had to work with them.

"Yes." Otto nodded.

"Wait, if this is such an important artefact, why send this lot? Why send Devon?" Devon immediately scowled at Atticus, though he had a point. If this mission was so important, why send them? Were they understaffed? They had barely any training, with Delta (other than Devon) being there the longest (which was just over a week).

"Do you not have faith in our little heroes?" Misha raised an eyebrow, his hand still firmly on Emery's shoulder as if it had been glued there. Atticus looked at Misha briefly before Imogen answered the question anyway.

"I don't know. I didn't pick them." Imogen shrugged. "Ask Emil. Or the Librarian. Whoever was calling the shots, I don't know." She sighed, looking a little irritated as her eyes fell on each of her new companions, giving a wink to Delta at the end. "If you have any questions, please make sure they're important before you open your mouth. Thanks."
​

 

[Retro Bug]

New Atlantis (Lindholm), Sweden

November 12th, 2012

The sound of Imogen's voice wasn't at all delightful, in fact Delta just wanted to put a pillow over her head and go back to sleep. She had only just gotten back to the house after spending the night at Aoife. To go from that to learning about a box, meeting some girl who was apparently The Librarian's daughter, though Delta had doubts that someone had actually wanted to sleep with him, and prepping for their next mission was a bit too much. Thinking of the night left a smile on her face as she pivotted to the person next to her, Dom. "Ready for another mission?" she asked, purposefully ignoring Imogen's wink completely and hoping Aoife wouldn't read into it.

"Do you want my honest answer?" Dom said with little enthusiasm. The previous day had been more than what he expected. Sure, there was a little kink here and there, but overall it was a great, relaxing day. He spent as much time trying to unwind that he skipped out on the little training session in favor for time to himself. Dom only wished it lasted more than a day, he could really use a rest. Since he joined the AUP there had been too many missions and too much get up early and listen to Imogen yap time. He just wanted to get up and go back to sleep, not go on some mission he didn't sign up for. Pandora's Box? Dom was pretty skeptical on its actual existence. "Let's just make this one faster than the last one."

The last one? Thayne thought as he overheard the two beside him. How long had they been apart of the AUP? He could have definitely talk to one of the higher-ups about the mission, had the only one who knew not've been Imogen. He had just met the woman and yet, she already gave off a strange vibe. The looks on his teammates faces only seemed to confirm something was wrong with her. There was also the fact that having the chat with Mel over leaving again probably wouldn't go over well.

"What was the last one?" He asked, directing his attention to Dom and Del. Maybe this won't go over as bad as the talk on the plane.

"It was the one where we went to save you and your friends," Dom explained, turning his attention to Thayne. "It wasn't fun. I'm really hoping this isn't a repeat."

"You guys helped save us? How long have you two been with the AUP?" Is this why they didn't like me before, he thought with a shocked look.

Under a different circumstance Delta wouldn't have tolerated Thayne standing so close to her. Though, for some reason his presence wasn't as bothersome as it was in their last encounter. Delta briefly considered answering his comments, "Who do think saved you? Imogen?"

"I just didn't think the Project would've sent recruits out into a mission like that." It definitely wasn't something Thayne thought most people would do. Granted, most people didn't have a group of superpower toting young adults around. "The Royal Family barely let their kids train let alone something like that."

"Yeah, well, the ARF is an embarrassment so that's no surprise," Delta said dismissively, the ARF was just one thing she wasn't willing to think about at the moment. She thought for a moment, glancing at Aoife who was speaking to Henri before turning back to the company in closer proximity. "Maybe it's a good thing you got kidnapped that was probably the most exciting thing to happen to you, ever."

"Well, you're right about it being the most exciting thing. Yesterday was a close second and barely anything happened." At least, I'm not being threatened.

"Just don't associate yourself with them anymore," Dom said, a little more disgruntled than he was previously. He turned his gaze away from the small group then, more interested in the far wall when the conversation about the ARF began. "They're not worth your time."

"Are you about done with this history lesson? Because I am getting real tired wi--" Imogen's eyes suddenly widened as she started to gag and choke, leaning over to spit out a large slug onto the floor. She spat again, removing the taste of her mouth and looked up, her eyes furiously glued to Henri. Then suddenly, she was gone and appeared next to him, her gun now in her hand and thrust into Henri's temple and with her other hand, grabbed his cheek and squeezed them hard.

"Don't you. EVER.Do that to me again. EVER. You got it?" She pushed the gun harder into his head, but Misha's own hand pulled it back, sand now covering the gun.

"Imogen, leave him be. He vas only playing joke."

"Get your hands off me, you filthy, f*cking piece of sh*t." She pulled her arm out of Misha's grip, the sand slipping from her gun and gave Henri one last disgusted glare before striding angrily outside the door. Otto looked rather unalarmed at the situation, blinked a few times and followed Imogen outside. Oakley, shocked, rushed to Henri's side.

"A-are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Henri said, rubbing his freshly assaulted cheek. "Maybe next time I should make it come out of her ass, then she wouln't be able to walk so fast!" He burst into another round of laughter, spirits undampered by his near death experience.

Delta stood there wordlessly, to get in the way of Imogen right now probably wasn't the best idea. The reaction to Henri's joke wasn't far from something she would've done if it had happened to her... What did that say about her? A variety of emotions were all represented on the faces that had looked at. Simon had somehow managed to place himself as a barrier between Aoife and Imogen. Was this how people perceived her? That violent? That aggressive?

She wanted to say something to Aoife, but what? With this many people around she couldn't, it wasn't a good idea. People could get the wrong idea. Instead Delta opted for the less talkative route, "We should go." She turned and left without another word or glance toward anyone.
​

 

[Swolligator]

Renegade Flat, London, England

November 12th, 2012

When they had finished breakfast, Luciana and Andre took the liberty of taking all the excess food and placing it in the fridge for later consumption. Leaving the hotel's dirty plates on the trolley, Enrique nodded to Scott whom opened their magical portal door back into the now relatively empty hotel dining room. Throwing his hand out in a flashy manner, Enrique pushed the trolley with a large gust of wind emanating from his palm, sending it nearly flying through the door and into the wall across the dining room. The two high fived as plates flew everywhere as the trolley crashed into the wall, but before Scott closed the door, he took a spray can from his stockpile on the bench. Leaning through the door, he spray painted a large upside down Anarchy symbol in similar fashion to the one he had drawn on their own wall.

"Hasta la vista!" he called out to the shocked waiters before closing the connection to the dining hall. They never hit the same place once; least the owners became wary and tried to catch them.

In the meantime, Nora had brought James over into the lounge where they sat talking to Andre. The couches weren't in the best of conditions; scorch marks from cigarette burns and claw marks marred the upholstery while the tattered curtains half blocked out the sunlight. All the members of the Renegades had been taught from their first day how to access God Mode; and Andre warned that many had failed too.

"The thing about God Mode is that it's essentially about becoming more than human." Nora had hear this all before when she had first joined, albeit from a different source, but she let Andre continue on with the honours, "For the early humans, Atlanteans were like Gods, so it's all about accessing that inner Atlantean side to yourself."

Nora took up her turn to speak, "It's not something you can learn to do in a day; you need to really understand yourself. It could take weeks, it could take months, but we'll all be here to help you out." She gently placed her hand on top of his.

"First we're going to teach you how to kill yourself, amigo," Enrique jumped over the back of the couch, landing next to James. As soon as all eyes were on him, Enrique disappeared in a blast of wind that buffeted everyone around him. Two seconds later he had reformed across the room as the tiny twister went from a gust of wind back into the Hispanic boy. "You're an Elementalist like myself and Nora, so for you the first step is to literally become your element."

"Ignoring the show off, it's probably the easiest and at the same time hardest thing to accomplish. It's like breaking the seal off of a bottle; once you've opened yourself up, there is a lot of potential lying beneath. Already your abilities give you an affinity for electricity, now it's just about turning the rest of you into it." At this point Nora felt she could relate the most to James since her ability was almost a subcategory of his. Knowing what she had gone through, she believe he would have to do the same.

"We'll be going to a substation, amigo, Luciana and I will be around to help you out, but you gotta do this yourself. We can't hold your hand like a little niño, 'kay?" Enrique laughed, before shouting out to Scott, "Scottie, get us a substation, amigo?"

When Scott yelled out to Enrique that he was ready, Enrique and Luciana took James through the door. Around them electricity seemed to crackle in the air and the annoying buzzing reverberated in their ears. The place was void of any human life; the only people daring to go into a substation being the electricians and so far there was no reason for them to be here. Yet. Above them the moon still shone brightly in the sky leading Enrique to concluded that they were somewhere on the west coast of America. He hoped that they were in California since he wouldn't mind creating a little havoc back here.

The night was a bit chill, but Enrique had dressed for a British winter, meaning that he was almost ready to start sweating. "Now it's up to you, big boy, take as much power as you need, then I guess just do what comes naturally." He waved his hands around at the scene around him.

"My advice, James," Luciana took this moment to speak least Enrique talk over top of her, "is that you're changing from a solid state into a plasma state which is impossible. But if you sublimate from a solid into a gas and then ionise from then unto plasma, using your electricity to push apart from molecules, it should work." Luciana soon realised that James probably didn't understand a word she just said, "Listen and feel how your body reacts, if something feels wrong, then you are probably doing something wrong. Relax, feed off as much energy as you need, and then assimilate; become the electricity."

Enrique raised an eyebrow, he for one did not understand a word she just spouted, "at first just try it with a hand or even a finger, learn how to lose form then reform. It's not hard, you just gotta feel it, amigo. Ready?" Enrique took a couple of steps back with Luciana, they didn't want to be hit my and energy he flung off. Both were prepared to step in when need be; Enrique standing in front of Luciana since he would be able to almost block anything that came for them.



​

 

[Swolligator]

São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

November 12th, 2012

Sheets of papers and thick textbooks lay strewn across the wooden floor of her Brazilian apartment as the first tendrils of day began creeping through the break in the curtains. The bed was only a mere three or four steps away yet Sabina had fallen asleep at her desk, her head resting softly against her arm while a small bit of drool fell out the side of her mouth. It had been a long, studious night as she cramped what more information into her head as she could. Beneath her resting head, several bolded words outlined the thesis of her Masters:

TRACING THE ATLANTEAN GENOME; DUAL EVOLUTION OF ATLANTEANS AND HUMANS

At her bedside table the alarm clock burst into life as two radio hosts began chattering in Portuguese about the recent developments of Russia's growing war against Atlanteans. In her groggy state, Sabina pushed herself up from the desk, wiping the saliva from her cheek and turning the alarm clock off. A day didn't go by without somebody bringing up Atlanteans as some sort of threat against the rest of humanity. There was so much more that could be gleamed from the arrival, or reinvigoration of the Atlantean race, that if everyone wasn't so paranoid, could actually further both their races and the life of the planet. Yet everyone seemed fearful of an Atlantean going Supernova and blowing up the entire planet or being sucked in as one created a black hole. It was that same fear which now threatened her thesis proposal as she hoped for a pro-Atlantean panel.

After a refreshing shower she began relaxing her breathing in the mirror. Her thesis was almost bordering on pseudo-science rather than genetic science, and given the approval she might be able to back up the claims she was making. Anyone in her position would be nervous making such a presentation. With shaking hands she grabbed for the several pill bottles lined up perfectly against the wall behind the taps.

One by one she threw her head back as she swallowed a pill from every bottle. Estrogens, Progestrogrens and Antiandrogens were just some of the pills she took following up on her operation. Smiling to herself, Sabina was beginning to see the wider effects of her therapy take effect; even her Adam's Apple had shrunk in size, not to mention her voice had finally stabilised it's higher pitch and body looking even more feminine. She closed her eyes, murmuring a quick prayer to Jesus and God, not only thanking them for giving her the chance today but also for the smooth transformation.

Lucky for Sabina, she had picked out what she was going to wear last night, giving her time to grab a coffee from the vendor on the street before making her way up to the Universidade de São Paulo where she would make her presentation. Groaning at the mess on her floor and desk, compared to the tidy bookshelf and benches her small apartment possessed, she decided to leave it for the morning and clean up after her thesis.

"Olá, Carlos, how are you today?" She asked the fairly handsome coffee cart man as she enjoyed the morning sun streaming into the streets below and illuminating it with a warm glow.

"Olá, Sabina, I'm doing well, thank you. Why aren't you looking beautiful today!" He smiled at her and giving her a slight wink. He was always flattering to customers, but Carlos had known her for the duration of her procedure and was one of the few people still talking to her.

"Thank you Carlos, when are you going to buy that coffee shop?" She asked him while he brewed her usual mochaccino coffee.

"If I bought the coffee house, I would get to see you every morning! How about this, if you ace this thesis, you can have free coffee at my coffee house. Deal?"

"Carlos, you won't let me pay for coffees anyway!" She laughed at his proposal, "but okay then, it's a deal." She leaned over the large coffee machine and shook his hand, taking the coffee once he had finished and offered it to her.

"Blow them away. You've got this!" Carlos reassured her as an older man came along and ordered an espresso.

Joyed at the morning, she smiled at him and proceeded along her way. It was a nice walk to the university as Sabina wove her way through the streets of Sao Paulo, heavy with the burgeoning morning traffic, and took her roughly twenty minutes to walk from her apartment complex to the university. Looking at her watch as she arrive at the Science department of the world acclaimed university, she realised she had a lot of time to set up for her presentation.

"…as you can see from the genetic markers between the Homo Erectus and Homo Habilis remains, there was something present that helped the Homo Erectus further along the evolutionary chain. Now if we look at similar genetic marking between an Atlantean individual and a modern Homo Sapien, we can see a similar gene that activates a human into an Atlantean. Cross reference this from remains of individuals from the New Zealand Disaster, we can see that these people didn't mutate and degrade; they were forced upon with the Atlantean Gene, which their bodies could not handle. This isn't the sort of mutation that arises from genetic tampering, but rather from the passing of a viral disease. Given the necessary funds, it wouldn't take long to trace the exact point where Atlantean and Humans not only started intermingling, but also when the Atlanteans first arrived on Earth." Sweat was beading down her forehead, but she had done it, the main part of her thesis was over just like the way she had practiced it time and time again. Now it was all up to the judges and their questions.

"You say when they first 'arrived' on earth, what do you mean by this?" an older man with a large moustache asked her, his pen in hand ready to critique her response.

"That Atlanteans arrive already fully evolved, or at least, evolved to the point where we Homo Sapiens are at now. I believe that the Atlanteans aren't a branching in the Homo genus evolutionary tree but rather the ones who guided its evolution." She stopped to take a breath and collect her thoughts as all three of the panel judges began writing fervently. "Ancient cultures talk about Gods coming down from the sky and teaching them the basics of life. Prometheus gifting the first humans with fire, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Ra the god of the Sun. What if these mythological figures weren't just explanations for why things are but actual accounts of Atlanteans. Why have we only discovered evidence of the Homo Genus and not the Atlanteans?"

"So you're saying that the Atlanteans could be aliens?" the female judge spoke, from what Sabina could tell the lady didn't look much older than herself.

"It wouldn't be a possibility to be ruled out. For humans to possess Atlantean abilities despite being born of human, it would make sense for us to be made 'in His image'." It was always touchy to introduce religion into science when the two didn't often mix, but if she could do her research, she might be able to finally connect the two.

Eventually the questions moved on from her final statement to more general questions about the rest of her thesis as if they were testing her on the years of studying she had put in. Once it was over, the judges had a quick deliberation in a separate room where they compared notes and worked out the final score on whether she passed or failed. In the waiting room, her hands shook as Sabina tried to drink even a mouthful of water from the cooler. Even though she knew that there was nothing more she could do to improve her score, she was nervous about the outcome.

"Sabina Romero?" The female judge asked as the three of them left their small conference room to approach her, "we're happy to report that you have passed your Masters. Well done and congratulations on all the hard work."

Sabina burst into tears, not of sadness, but of joy. With her Masters out the way, she could work on her PhD and research on a more practical and scientific basis. All that hard work she had done had finally paid off and she couldn't wait to let Carlos know so that he would finally buy his own coffee shop. Sabina didn't mind that her tears had ruined her carefully applied makeup, she walked down the streets of São Paulo with her head help high and feeling like she was on top of the world.

When she arrived at the cart, her beaming smile told Carlos everything he needed to know. Picking her up in a hug, the two embraced in a hug and cheered at her achievement. "I guess this means I have to buy that coffee shop now." He exclaimed before kissing her gently on the lips.​

 

[Legend]

Atlantean Royal Mansion, Boston, England

November 12th, 2012

"Oof!' Nathaniel groaned as a pillow struck his face. He slowly grasped the pillow before tossing it aside and shuffled around in his bed. "Five more minutes," he moaned as he hid under the covers. He just had a good night's sleep and was very certain that he could sleep for another day or two easily. It seemed good sleep was hard to come by nowadays and all he wanted was a little more. In his dreams, the harsh realities of the world were forgotten. If he could delay the inevitable a little longer and live a peaceful life in his head just for more moment, he would take it. It wasn't an escape. It would be a reminder.

"I think you've slept enough already," Antonia said, gearing up for another pillow strike. Nathaniel turned to his side and draped the covers his head with another louder groan. Antonia almost seemed to sigh as she slammed the pillow down on Nathaniel. She did two more times for good measure, before the man finally threw his covers off.

"Fine, fine. I'm up," he rose from his bed, rubbing his eyes with one hand before looking up at Antonia, his eyes finishing their adjustment to the light. Nathaniel scratched his head and yawned. "What time is it?"

"It's about lunchtime," Antonia said flatly. "You don't want to sleep the day away do you?"

"I wouldn't mind, actually," Nathaniel admitted as he picked himself up and slid over to the bathroom, yawning again as he did it.

"Hold up," he stopped him grabbing his one arm. "Let me look at your face." Nathaniel couldn't help but blush lightly as she spun him around and stared intently at him. He could feel himself pleading "What?" but never mustered the words. Perhaps he was too tired. It always took him a while to get the brain turned on. "Your face looks a lot better. You are healing up pretty fast."

"Isn't that a perk of being an Atlantean?" Nathaniel asked rather plainly. He had just assumed that was how having superpowers worked.

"Well, yeah. More or less," she replied release Nathaniel from her grasp. "Go take a shower. You smell. I'll wait outside," she said, somewhat teasing though if Nathaniel was actually awake he would probably agree. Nathaniel only nodded and walked into the bathroom. The whole exchange felt odd, but in a good way. In fact, he would admit that he rather enjoyed the feeling. For once since his ability manifested, everything felt normal. As he turned the water on and leapt into the shower (trying to make it as cold as he could to wake up), he tried to generate some thought. Not a conspiracy theory. Not some grand explanation for anything. He wanted to drum up a plan. Nathaniel was in a place of opportunity. At least that is what he felt and he needed to figure out what he was going to do. With all the different factions flying around and lacking any real information, Nathaniel was admittedly lost. He had little to no idea what the AUP had planned. Sure, he could take a few guesses, but really that wouldn't amount to much. The Librarian was just an enigmatic and Nathaniel lacked any means of contacting him either. The other groups were complete mysteries. And all he knew about the ARF was what they told him. If Nathaniel was going to act, he needed information. He was on the right track on planting himself in the ARF and earning some brownie points with Leo was a good start. But that was one member of many.

As he ran his fingers through his hair, his eyes glanced up the ring the Librarian gave him. Nathaniel had almost forgotten about it. "Why did he give me this? What the hell is he planning?" Nathaniel gritted his teeth and in a frustrated twist of the knob forced the shower short. All these groups and confusing motives made Nathaniel increasingly mad and even a calming shower to put his ideas into action only reminded him how useless most of it was. No matter what Nathaniel wanted to do, he lacked the power, influence and means of doing so. For every step he could make someone somewhere would be bound to mess everything up placing him back at square one.

Nathaniel stepped out of the shower and in a daze searched his room for clothes. A clearer head would realize that he didn't exactly pack or anything when he joined the ARF or the Librarian for that matter, yet his clouded mind did not care. He opened a drawer only to raise his eyebrow. "Clothes? Here? These are mine too…" Consequently, Nathaniel rationalized that the ARF had intervened and nabbed most of his belongings. When they did it was anyone's guess. He had just finally noticed. All the other days he must have not bothered to actually act upon it. And who could blame him really? Between kidnappings, training and missions, Nathaniel hardly had much time to think…other than a brief stint in the library. Even then, Nathaniel was more reading philosophy which wraps up the mind anyway.

Nathaniel chose to ignore racking his brain for how the ARF, simply accepting that they had using their resources and probably an extensive database on every Atlantean. After all, he had registered with them. All the paperwork he filled out was bound to have his temporary address in London. At this point, they probably pulled him out of university and told his parents what was going on too. At least it saved him the trouble of calling them and checking up on them. Not that Nathaniel was exceptionally close to his parents anyway. Well, maybe he would like to talk to his dad. He only sighed as he quickly put on a rather plain outfit and stepped out of the room.

Antonia saw Nathaniel close the door and smiled. "Took you long enough. In fact, I think you take longer than me," she chuckled. "Are you hungry? It's just about lunchtime." She finally asked, titling her head forward.

"Sorry about that. I…I had a lot on my mind," he said, shaking his head. "But yeah, food sounds good." The two walked down the halls, with few words exchanged between the two. Antonia led the way to the cafeteria, with the tall Atlantean following behind as he looked around the halls, trying to take in the sights of what seemed to be his new home. Fly back a few weeks, Nathaniel would never imagine he would live in a mansion of this scope, for these reasons, with these people. It seemed all too unreal, but he had to remind himself that this was the new normal. This was the new reality had to come to accept and face.

The cafeteria seemed grim. Despite the (usually) good food and wholesome variety, there was a strange tension in the area. There was little conservation in air and even fewer smiles. They were just students minding their own business, being left to their own devices. Antonia quickly nabbed a plate of food and sat down at a nearby table. Nathaniel took longer, starving, and practically stacked sandwiches on top of each other. He followed suit, sitting across from Antonia and began to slowly and politely devour his food. The awkward silence of the two sitting soon got to him however, and Nathaniel cracked under the thick air of the room. "Everyone seems a bit…out of it," he observed. "Something happen?"

"They're scared," Antonia said after a few moments. "And you can't blame them, really. We were attacked. This place isn't as safe as it used to be."

"But Leo and the others claim it is still sa-"

"Don't tell me you believe all that?" Antonia interrupted.

Nathaniel looked down and took a breath. "No, but I want to."

"We all want to," Antonia sighed. "But…the way things are going I don't think we are going to be safe. At least not for a while." Nathaniel only nodded, solemnly listening to Antonia. He silently agreed with her. "I feel like we are at war, Nate. But Leo and the others seem… they seem to be pretending that everything…that everything is okay or something. This place is supposed to be a sanctuary…" Antonia was becoming visibly frustrated at the whole thing, almost growling at the end.

"Leo is doing the best he can," Nathaniel tried to assure to her. "He's a good man."

"Just because you are good person doesn't mean you are a good leader," Antonia said flatly. "It's not a secret that Leo hasn't been all there as of late. He's been dealing with a lot of things, sure, but…but." Antonia stopped and looked around the room, appearing to collect her thoughts. "Being a leader means making tough decisions. Leo can't make those. I don't think he ever will be ready to do that. We need a leader, Nate. A true one."

Nathaniel's mind flashbacked to the last words he heard from Nix. You are true leader. Did he have what he took? Could he handle the burden of leading anyone? Considering his past failures, he wasn't so sure. "Maybe you are right," Nathaniel finally admitted. The two exchanged glances and went back to eating.

This time, Antonia broke the silence. "Are the rumors true? About James?"

"What are the rumors?"

"Some say he ran away. Others that he got kicked out. You hung around him a lot. I just figured you would know."

"We got…separated on the mission," Nathaniel struggled to say, wanting to keep the truth from everyone. Otherwise he would involve Nix in all of it and the man seemed to go through enough every day keep his secret from the others. "He just never came back with us. I have no idea what he's doing. Contrary to popular belief, we aren't that close."

"Are you sure?" Antonia smirked. "It sure didn't seem that way. The way you talk about him, you seem awfully worried."

Nathaniel stared at his food, fiddling with it. "That's cause I am," he said before pausing. "In a more normal world, we would never talk. Maybe we would be acquaintances but even that may be stretch. I know you never thought much of him. After all, he isn't the best person. He's belligerent. He's reckless. Quite frankly, he's an assh*le. But he's a friend. He's got all the potential in the world, but he's lost in this crazy world. All he needs to find is the right path. And right now, I am worried that he's on the wrong one."

Antonia nodded, appearing to understand where Nathaniel was coming from. "Well, what do you say about doing some training now? Wherever your friend is, he's probably not skipping…what do you boys call it…leg day? If you know what I mean."

Nathaniel laughed lightly. "Yeah about that. What do you say about doing it later? I don't really know a lot of people around here. Really I only talked to you and James…oh and Austin, but I haven't seen him around lately. Mind you if you introduce me to some of your friends? You know, so I don't feel like such an outsider?"

"Sure. Follow me," she said with smile. "I'm sure you will fit in just fine."

​

 

[Swolligator]

Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England

November 12th, 2012


Beacon Bank was just one of the several independent retail banks operating within the British Isles with partner companies within the European Union. The Directive had told Wyatt and the others that while in the midst of negotiating a merger with the company, one of the major CEOs decided against the merger. With the possibility of the merger now falling through, they were tasked with making look as inconspicuous as possible. Then again, Wyatt was currently sitting on the rooftop the Syndicate building with a long ranged sniper rifle on his lap. Pyrrha sat next to him with her own sniper rifle, hers possessing a scope.

From this position he had a bird's eye view of the surrounding city scape including a direct view of the main commercial street. If everything went okay, then Wyatt wouldn't have to fire a shot off today. Then again, when he looked back at how much practice he had with such a firearm over the last twenty-four hours, he was almost looking forward to using it.

From his prime position he watched the humans on the streets below crawl like scurrying ants, using his enhanced vision to pick out the subtle figures of his colleagues. Adrian and October stood at a newsstand to the left of Beacon Bank's central office with Fletcher holding their hands as if he were their son. On the right side Seamus leaned against a coffee cart, his coffee rapidly cooling in his hands as he chatted up the cart attendant. Daemon meanwhile stood across the street, watching them all from afar, ready to jump in when they were given the signal.

"'All the world's a stage', do you know the quote, Pyrrha?" Wyatt asked as he ran his finger up and down the barrel of the gun sitting safely in his lap. He was relaxing, sitting cross-legged as he gazed out over the ledge.

"I do not. It is famous, no?" she asked Wyatt, her back to him. Since she didn't have his visual prowess, she was resigned to tracking the progress of everyone through the scope on her rifle; paying close attention to Daemon.

"It goes, 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts;' What do you think it meant?" Quoting Shakespeare wasn't exactly his idea of small talk, but it was something to while away the time. It had been a while since Wyatt and really enjoyed the outside air, but then again Winter wasn't exactly his favourite time of year.

"It mean one man spent too much time alone," she shrugged off his attempt to talk to her and continued to peer through her scope.

"It's good enough," he muttered under his breath. Yesterday this girl seemed like all she wanted to do was be with him and now she was giving him the cold shoulder as if he had done something wrong.

"Wyatt, stop flirting and get your head in it," October's voice scolded him over their connected network.

"Made my knees weak," Seamus muttered into his mic making Wyatt feel slightly uncomfortable. The guy was usually alright unless he was purposefully trying to turn any comment into a one of a sexual nature; to the amusement of everyone but the speaker.

From his vantage point, Wyatt could easily see October roll her eyes at Seamus' comment. Stepping aside from her boyfriend and their 'child', October made herself look as if she fumbled; dropping something from her handbag only to crouch down to the ground to retrieve it. With both hands on the ground, Wyatt watched as the veins down her arms began to show before the whole building began to shake and sway from beneath him. Once the shaking stopped Wyatt readied the rifle, tucking it into his shoulder and propping the barrel on the ledge of the building. The two of them needed to keep vigilant in case the others failed and they became the final option.

Once the shaking stopped, Adrian helped October to her feet. Wyatt was sure the girl could walk on her own feet but the way in which Adrian supported her suggested that October couldn't stand by herself. Wyatt wondered if it was just overuse of her ability on such a large scale or something more ominous. For now he continued to watch as business men in suits streamed out of their offices to mill about on the side path. Pyrrha and Wyatt began searching the crowd, looking through the multitude of faces for their target.

"Seamus, to your left, dark grey coat," Wyatt spoke into his mic after locking his vision onto the man; Walter Pryce.

"I see him, marking now." Seamus said goodbye to the shocked attendant and made his way through the crowd of people. When he was close enough, he pulled off the cap to his mochaccino before staging what looked like a stumble as he cast the contents of the cup on Walter's suit. They seemed to have a brief altercation before Seamus moved off and back within the folds of the crowd.

When Seamus moved off to meet Daemon across the road, Adrian called to the truck driver to start moving down the street. From across the road Daemon shot a small, bone projectile from his palm which struck the wheel of the truck before skittering off into the drain. The truck swerved, now barrelling off of the road wildly and into the group of men the Walter Pryce was a part of. The men scattered in all directions with Walter heading towards the building meaning that the truck would miss him. Adrian, October and Fletcher moved into position, just off to the side of the truck as it would hit them. As it closed in on them, the immediate area around them including a couple of suited men began shimmering the bright blue as Fletcher shielded them all from danger.

From their vantage point, Wyatt and Pyrrha both took in deep breaths as they watched the scene unfold before their eyes. The truck struck the side of its bonnet on Fletcher's shield, causing it not to grind to a halt against the shield but rather to change direction and slide into the entrance of Beacon bank. Keeping his eyes on the marked Walter Pryce at all times, Wyatt watched the man as he held up his hands like it would stop the truck from hitting him. He could see the terror in the man's face and even the sweat beading down his forehead. It was the last image of the man being crushed by the massive truck that seemed to burn into his mind.

"K-k-kill c-c-confirmed," Wyatt stammered into his mic as he turned away to vomit beside him. Though he hadn't physically killed the guy, Wyatt was still responsible for being an agent in the man's demise. That last look he got of Walter now haunted him. He felt short of breath, like he was having an asthma attack, dropping the gun to his feet as he stumbled from the precipice.

Falling to his hands and knees, he began to focus on his breathing, trying to calm himself on what he had just seen. Worried, Pyrrha ran over to him, rubbing a soothing hand on his back as she consoled him over it. Without his vision, she had only seen the truck hit the glass doors of the building, but she had her fair share of blood on her hands. "Don't worry, Wyatt, it passes." She remembered the first time she had killed someone with her own hands; it wasn't something to take lightly.

"It's not that, Pyrrha," he managed to cough out between breaths, "seeing him die like that made me sick." She rolled over onto his side, looking up at her, "Knowing I killed him, it... it felt good." His first thought that maybe he was a psychopath since he had never had the tendency to kill before.

"Wyatt, that is not good." She now looked at him like he was a monster.

"But it felt, so good." He remarked before collapsing on his back to stare up at the cloudy sky above him.

​

 

[Retro Bug]

New Atlantis, Lindholm, Sweden

November 12th, 2012

To turn down food was simply just not in the nature of Simon, there had never been a situation where he would willingly part his presence from it. Food was his ultimate weakness and one of the reasons he pushed himself on keeping in shape day in and day out. Unfortunately he was fresh out of protein powder, which the AUP had graciously ordered just for him. So, Simon made the decision, if there was any day to skip working out it was today besides it was leg day. This also meant that day and the day he decided to binge eat were one and the same. Regret would've filled him if the food hadn't already done it. Laughter caused food to fly from his mouth, the good vibes caused him to smile more than he had in quite a long time. The whole event felt very warming, like a family. Not that Aoife wasn't enough, his sister was awesome, she was always looking out for him even though he was the elder (by three minutes!) sibling. Plus, the Martells were consistently that second family if he ever needed them. It was a different family type of family, one could never have too many friends.

To attend the Self Defense training session taught by Atticus felt necessary especially if he was going to be an official member of the Atlantean Unification Project and so he did. As night became dawn Simon drifted to sleep in the guest bed provided for him, though his house wasn't far from here he suspected it'd already be occupied. The day had been much more eventful than any other day. That morning he awoke early, it was a habit he was meaning to break due to the fact there was almost no one up at this time. However, Simon heard the front door close and he leapt from his bed to greet whoever he would find there. With Simon's hair almost resembling a bird's nest and pajamas that were covered in stains he probably wasn't in the best state to be anyone's first sight of the day. The face he saw was... his own, well, only slightly.

"Aoife!" Simon said taken back, his sister was never, and he meant never, up this early.

Aoife itched the back of her head then proceeded to respond, "I... got worried about Bunches."

Bunches! The name itself brought a wide grin to Simon's face, "How's the little guy? We have to bring him with us!"

"Or we can have Rosa babysit him for us," his sister said as if it was the most obvious idea in the entire universe.

There wasn't a point in arguing with Aoife she always got her way and today would be no different, at least not yet. Simon decided to approach another topic that he sensed would be over in less than five second, but, hey, a guy could try? Right?

"Tell me something, sis, what are you doing?" Despite the question sounding general, it was anything but. Aoife knew it, Simon knew it, that was how they started dangerous conversations.

"Well, currently my header brother decided to play twenty questions with his slightly irritated and worn out sister," she snapped back. Aoife's entire body postured had conformed to her not so appreciative attitude, her arms were crossed, her voice was drenched with indignation, and her head was cocked to the side just the right amount.

To push this conversation any further was signing his death warrant. Simon was ready to pay the price if it kept his sister from making another mistake, "I don't want another Jennifer Blake."

"Simon!" Aoife threw her hands down in anger, yeah, he had pushed the wrong button and this time he may have slammed it. A livid Aoife stalked off toward her bedroom before she said something at the very last moment, "I've only known her for less than a day... don't make something out of nothing."

Immediately he retreated into his bedroom to seek out solace and the appropriate separation from Aoife. He sat on the edge of his unmade bed with his head in his hands. He ran his fingers through his messy hair a multitude of times before he let himself fall back onto the bed. As if he was making a snow angel his arms went up and down slowly. A cold item caused Simon to retract his hand back to his body, turning his head every so slightly to the right he saw a roughly torn piece of paper and something that laid on top of it. There was scribbles on the paper: a casual misspelled word and words that were crossed out all together, it read (without the mistakes):

Simon,
Consider this your first mission. This key is meant to be important, find out why. Also, don't let anyone see that you have it.
-Del

Del? What? As far as he knew she had no authority in the Atlantean Unification Project there wasn't any missions she could assign to him. Regardless it felt nice that had thought he was worthy enough to do a task for them. It was a great necessity to first examine the key without touching it. Even if his Atlantean ability had so far only kicked in when the item was placed on his person. It was a light gray, he was sure there was some special name for this particular shade. Three jewels were placed on the handle, all green in color and all perfectly symmetrical. When it came to keys it appeared to be like any other key except for the gems in the handle, the key was cut which meant it had to unlock something, but what? Why did Del think it was important? All of this in combination of being frightened from the last time he had used his ability made Simon wary.

To screw up on his very first mission (official or unofficial) wasn't going to set a good precedent. What if they needed him in the future, would he freeze up and become utterly useless? No, he had fears to conquer and teammates to please. In a hurry he shut the door to his bedroom and picked up one of his shoes on the way back to his bed and unlaced the shoelace from it. From there he strung the lace into the loop on the top of the key, and prior to placing it around his neck he put himself in the center of the bed. If someone asked Simon to specifically detail how it worked he wouldn't be able to, it was hard describing his ability. Normally he'd shut his eyes and fiddled with the object(s) and then the visions overwhelmed him. Everything had to plucked through, it was like a thousand TVs were all on at once and he had to turn off all the ones he didn't care about. By the time he had turned off one "TV" a thousand had turned into ten thousand, then twenty thousand. The older the items were and/or the more owners of the items the more "TVs."

Not this time, something was different. There wasn't a thousand TVs, hell there wasn't even a hundred. He could add or subtract as many TVs as needed. It was if something or someone was slowing down his ability. To make things gentler on himself he focused on specific events, for now it was the exchanges of the key. He saw the most recent exchange between a man about his height and Del on a boat. The man, who's history Simon had briefly touched upon only to see a flash of fangs and back away from it, had come in contact with the key not through person-to-person exchange but simple luck. Simon was starting to garner that this key was very old. A woman had lost the key while she was on the run, from what or whom Simon hadn't a clue. A man had simply dropped the key after having one too many drinks. It was lost and found many times. He could not tell the exact thoughts or the exact feelings (he could read body posture and other physical signs) at the time any of the owners had it, that was Aoife's ability.

Simon could hardly believe how much easier it was to use his ability, of course he kept slipping up and other non-exchanges would constantly pop up, but he didn't feel suffocated for once. Unsure of what exactly was looking for, as Del hadn't specify, Simon perused until he found himself at or near the beginning of it all; the creation of the key. Whoever had crafted the key had never actually touched the key (long enough) or they somehow managed to avoid leaving behind a print of their existence. A woman with tan features was the first to touch the key, her olive skin was complimented by her long, brown locks. Visually stunning were her irises that were of a brown variant, both of them locked onto a box, it was technically like a crate with its size and purpose, located in front of her. Unsure if it was happening because of how untrained his ability was or if it was because how old this residue was, but the finer details and most of the scene itself was blurry and fuzzy at parts. The intricate design of the box was hard to make out, a swirl, actually, it could've very well been a zigzag for all Simon knew, ran around the sides. With one hand on top of the box and the other inserting the key the lady looked determined. The lid to the box raised up and... and... something was pushing Simon away. What seemed like furrowed brows and clenched teeth signaled to Simon for some reason this lady was angry, really angry and it must of had something to do with the box. He tried again and again to get a glance inside, but there was a block in place each time. Whatever was in that box was intentionally not letting him peer inside its content. A quick search resulted that the box had only been opened this once.

A scene like no other unfolded and forced itself onto Simon, a mass panic of people running every which way while the key laid on the ground next to the opened box near the ocean. Individuals fell over and never got back up again. Hysteria had made its home among these people for reasons unknown to Simon. Some took to the sky like birds (some actually transformed into birds) and others used an array of unusual talents to try and escape this place. At one point it might have been stunning Simon imagined, but it was hard to accomplish that feat with bodies strewed across the landscape. Horrendous was the only word to describe the incident. He had tried to cancel his ability, to back away, he didn't want to see the deaths, he couldn't, he was stuck in a cycle. Box open, death, destruction, box open, death, destruction, over and over and over again. A shrill voice and a slammed door awoken Simon, he sat up in his bed drenched with sweat and breathing heavily. He was free of that nightmare and the first thing he did was throw the key to the far corner of his room. Voices outside his door beckoned him to investigate only to see some girl and Atticus having words. Summoned like pets, they weren't even introduced to this new person and by the way she spoke with authority Simon assumed she was a higher ranking member. Henri, Mel, Aoife, and himself were all automatically excluded from the mission due to lack of experience. The mission's objective: retrieve Pandora's Box. No. It couldn't be. That key, the key that had showed him the death of hundreds, if not thousands of people, unlocked Pandora's Box.

By the time Simon's thoughts had settled there was a gun on Henri who was next to Aoife and the lady had rage-filled eyes similar to the girl he had seen. Was the lady he saw Pandora? Protective instinct flooded him, he managed to find himself between Aoife, Henri, and the gun. Why didn't he have the ability to blast lasers from his eyes like Cyclops? He would've blasted this girl. A movement on the ground caught his eye, a slug. Damnit Henri, if he kept doing this to the people in the organization they wanted to join they wouldn't even make it in the front door. Moments passed before Simon parted ways with his close friends as he noticed Del exiting the house. Should she know? Wouldn't it be better if he kept the key that way no such destruction would ever take place again? All these questions and more popped into Simon's head as he retrieved the key. For a small amount of time he just stared at the key once it found its way back into his hand he wondered what was the right choice. No, Simon had done his part, he found out why the key was important. Now, the hard decisions, the one that might be irreversible were best left to someone else.

"Del!" Simon called out once he stepped out into the chilly weather with only his pajamas and tennis shoes.

She whipped her head around causing the beads in her hair to fly, Del was pretty unique. Her leather jacket blew in the wind and the two keys (more keys? really?) around her neck danced in their places. The emotion on her face was unreadable, he was sure if she wanted to kill him or was just confused by his presence. He held out the key yet her face stayed the same emotionless state.

Shivering he wrapped his arms around himself and without knowing where to start Simon picked words and jumped into it, "This key, whoever gave it to you... Well, I know who gave it to you actually. I mean, I don't know his name or anything about him because when I trie-"

"Simon!" Del stated loudly and took the key from him when she got closer. She examined it and untied the shoelace and threw it back at Simon giving him side eye.

"Okay, okay, that's Pandora's key," Simon grinned as he watched Del's eyes grow and emotion creep onto her face, score one for him. "Yeah, that unlocks the box, but just remember the story, yeah? Death, destruction, I would just throw it in the nearest ocean immediately. You don't want to know what I saw."

"You're right, I don't." Ouch. Score one for Del. She was cold, but at the same time warmer. She took off toward the jet then stopped and turned around. "Good job, Simon." Simon responded the best way he knew how to, a toothy smile.

It was out of his hands now. Whatever was fated was bound to take place. All he could do now was sit back and hope that tomorrow would come minus the surplus amount of evils that could be released and kill them all.​

 

[Quest]

New Atlantis (Lindholm), Sweden

November 12th, 2012

Imogen's heels were first on the plane, her heels clicking angrily against the floor. She waited for the rest of her 'team' - Del, Devon, Oakley, Dom, Thayne and this Klepto guy - and waited until they were all seated before she spoke. Her arms were crossed, her brow was creased and the look on her face said that this was not going to be a 'fun' or 'easy' mission.

"We're going to a museum in Cairo to fetch this box. In case any of you are unintelligent monkeys who don't read the news, which I think some of you might be," she shot some violent looking glances around the plane, "Cairo is where some dumb archeologists found some artefacts from Old Atlantis and managed to piece together that the original Atlantis exists. It also was victim to a terrorist attack almost a week after that idiot River Beleren thought it would be a good idea for the world to know," she put her hands up, using her fingers as quotation marks, "the truth."

"The Egyptian Museum. In Cairo." Otto added in, in case anyone needed to know.

"Yes, I know which museum it is. I wasn't finished yet. Don't interrupt me," Imogen said, hissing and glaring at Adeline. "Now, I would have waited until night to steal from a museum but I'm just about done with patience for today. We're going now. It's a five hour flight. And if any of you dare pull any kind of sh*t like that again, I will throw you all off this plane and make sure you hit your parents' houses. Unless they are dead, of course." She sneered at Delta and quickly exchanged rather dirty looks at the rest of her team before disappearing behind the curtain to the cockpit.

Had Delta not fully embraced her parent's death long ago that comment would've stung a bit more, both her parents were dead and nothing she could or say would change that. The amount that it had been brought up in the past week was more than it had been in years. It did dampen her mood having to think such morbid thoughts. Those thoughts led her to other more productive thoughts, like, how they were going to steal from a museum during the day.

"Is anyone else going to say it?" Delta toyed with the key that hung around her neck, her finger constantly going over the small gems embedded in the handle. An adjustment to her body position allowed her to see mostly everyone, "We're going into a highly famous museum in the daylight to steal something from it. We're not getting out of there without our faces plastered on every newspaper worldwide." Were they really going to go through with this? On one hand infamy sounded fantastic, there would be tons, in the millions, of people who know who she was. That would really put her on top. On the other hand it would not help the events that were happening all over the world, Anti-Atlantean protestors would rallying around this event and use it as another reason why they should pass stricter laws.

"Get ready to be the world's first well known supervillians, because the world will know us after this."

"Maybe we can throw her off the plane and make sure she hits the museum. Then she can get the artifact herself," Dom growled, visibly enraged. He'd already been furious when Imogen threatened Henri not moments before, but now his emotions rose to new, fiery levels. Imogen's comment had not been directed at him, but her brazen insensitivity lit him up. Her comment hit wounds that were much too fresh. Dom had a history of getting angry, but not this much. It got to the point where one could faintly see his breath or the steam coming out of his ears. That and his whole body hurt, but that only fueled his fire. Dom quickly found a seat on the plane, not interested in standing. "If we fail I hope that means we won't be going on any more of these damn missions."

"If we fail, who knows what would happen to us," Thayne replied as he sat across from Dom. He could definitely understand why they needed to get the Box, but not with the methods that Imogen seemed to be implying. "How are we supposed to get out of there without being labeled as criminals? The place is more than likely filled with security people who would try and stop us, and if we do anything to fight against them..." His voice trailed off as he thought of what could happen to them. He was sure that if they were forced to, they would fight, but that only seemed like it would put them into an even worse situation.

"How exactly are we going to go about this?" He asked as he turned his attentions to Adeline. If anything, she would hopefully be able to answer. There was no way they'd get a straight answer from Imogen.

She answered Thayne almost immediately. "Mr. Baumann will guide me to the box's exact location. Everything else is up to Ms. Green." Emery had been silently sitting, looking rather nauseated, even before the plane had taken off. Oakley swore that was the most she had heard Adeline say in one go ever.

"Maybe the museum is closed today." Oakley checked her watch; it was Monday, just around 8 o'clock in the morning. Museums wouldn't usually be closed unless for maintenance, which she couldn't check without the internet. Or ringing them. "Or maybe they're just going to give it to us, because they support Atlanteans. Or maybe Imogen's ability is she can do the Jedi mind wipe thing."

Devon screwed up his face, shaking his head with his arms crossed. "Her ability is she can change her face and body. If anyone is not going to jail for this, it's her."

"She seems to be the kind of person who would steal the thing as one of us just for the laughs," Thayne said. "From the sounds of it, this heist only needs you three. Where do we come in? As distractions? The fall guys?" The were more and more holes as Thayne thought over what they were about to do. Sure, this Box could probably help the AUP somehow, but was it really worth all the trouble that they were going through.

The more discussion that went on around her the more irriated Delta had become. She was in a perfectly fine mood this morning, hell, she had tolerated people more than usual. Then came Imogen and the gun incident, next Imogen bringing up her parents, and finally Oakley and her ridiculous comments. "Tell me something Oakley, do you think the cameras just magically stop working if the museum's closed? Do the security guards just evaporate into thin air?" The annoyance was clear in her tone of voice, and how she rolled her eyes after ever one of Oakley's sentences. If anything Oakley's constant optimism was her most exasperating trait. "Naivety isn't cute."

"I'm just trying to think positively." Oakley frowned and slid down her chair a little.

"Or as everyone else likes to call it, stupidly," Delta said this crystal clear so that everyone in the vicinity could hear. Oakley grumbled and slid further down her chair.

"What we need is Annie." Yeah, the senior member of the AUP was really good at computers and things. "Maybe she could hack the camera system, better yet perhaps she could just erase our identities as a whole." It was a good idea in theory, but who knew what Annie was doing right now or if she even knew of this mission. Thayne was right; they were the fall guys, they were only here to help get Imogen to the end point. She voiced her agreement, though she doubted this would ever happen again. What was this mission teaching her? How to knockout a security guard in four seconds flat? Delta had said this once, but once she gotta the proper training she would leave the Atlantean Unification Project and not look back.

"Except Annie isn't here, is she?" Dom snapped, irritated by this conversation as a whole. "I sat through an entire dinner and didn't meet anyone named Annie so unless you have a way to contact her right now I don't see her as very relevant." Honestly, Dom didn't know who Annie was in the first place. If he met her he didn't remember her and if she wasn't here he could take a good guess that she was in France. AKA somewhere too far away to matter right now. "If Annie were going to hack anything, don't you think they would have planned that already? That wouldn't exactly be something we'd have to worry about. When did you even expect her to hack the camera system? After we've already been seen, attacked, and arrested? Thanks, that'll really help out with out media coverage." This whole conversation had been one bad suggestion after another and something told him that nothing said today would top that one. Then again they did have five more hours. They were probably just getting started.

"Well, even without Annie, Imogen wou--" Devon started, albeit a little quietly before Delta piped up.

Delta was a bit taken back that the person to speak out against her was Dom. She had felt the heat, but she was not expecting the heat to be directed at her. Why was he going after what she said? They had only known each other for a mere four days, but Delta thought that they were usually on the same side of things. Potentially on the route of being friends... Instead he had angered her further. There was so much she wanted to say, so many words to get out, and so, so much anger. "Congratulations Dom, I'm glad you sat through dinner and that automatically means you know every single member of the AUP by heart and were able to meet each and every one of them," she mocked with intense sarcasm and a few loud claps. Immensely uncomfortability plagued her to be sitting next to him was only furthering her upsetting her mood. More words were spilling out and Delta just didn't care, "You'd know Dom I'd like to introduce you to the 21st century where a lot of people have phones, and the internet, and our heads aren't in our as*es like yours. Therefore we don't need Annie to physically be here, Imogen can call her, so yes, she and hacking is still a very realistic option." All his comments were so short-sided and rushed like he hadn't actually took the time to think about them and had dismissed for no reason at all. "There you go with your supreme and vast knowledge, I didn't know you had anything other than the inability to control yourself and lots and lots hot air."

If there was two things Delta wanted to do right now it was: scream and to punch the living crap out of something or someone. Her fists were already clenched and crystallized, ready for a fight. Nothing but rage pumped through her veins and it felt like nothing was going to soothe this fury inside of her. Leaving was the only option, so that was what she had planned on doing. Yet there was one more thing that had to be said and it was because she wanted him to hurt, she wanted to see him in pain, and most importantly she wanted to win. Delta stood up and shouted (she wanted everyone to hear), "You know what I'm glad your parents are dead and I bet they are too so they don't have to see what their son has become. A killer, a pathetic son of a b*tch at that. I bet you passed out before you even had a chance to go to their house. I bet you didn't even get to say goodbye because you just had to fight James Hazen and you lost worse of all." Delta had leaned onto the table for some support and then started to stalk off toward the back of the jet at the end of her sentence.

One last thing to be said and this one wasn't as loud as her previous comments, but audible enough for Dom to hear, "If Paris hadn't have happened to them, you would've." Done. She was done and she raced down the aisle in order to sit as far away from anyone and everyone. Had she gone too far? The looks on their faces or the comments they were going to say would tell her in time. Where was all this anger coming from? Right now she couldn't care less, she wanted to hurt everyone in sight, no, kill.

Devon leaned back in his chair as Delta fired up, him and Oakley silent while she seemingly became more and more angry. His meetings with Julian seemed to flash in front of him as he saw the obvious indicators of rage and felt himself going through the steps, one by one, of how to stop yourself. When Delta was done, she stormed off to the back of the jet and Devon found himself empathetic towards her. It wasn't exactly a wanted feeling - Delta had given him more crap than any of the other juniors - but he could see himself; the first time he found out about his ability, in his room late at night after a particularly awful day of 'sympathy' from the other members. Rage. It was bittersweet.

After a few moments of silence, he got up, stretched his back out and started to follow Delta down the back of the plane before an arm grabbed his. He looked back, a nervous Oakley frowning at him. He frowned back and pulled out of his grip, ignoring her concern. As much as he liked that she cared, he didn't want her turning into another stupid, sympathetic AUP member. But he remembered what she said, about these people around him and how they were meant to be 'his friends'. He didn't agree with her at all about that, but he took what he could from it; they were sharing this experience with him, so the least he could do was see their side of it.

He took a seat near (definitely not next to) Delta, leaving some silence in between them (by fiddling with his phone) for a few moments as he let her catch her thoughts. When he thought enough time had passed, he spoke. Not with sympathy, or condescendence, but as exactly he'd like to be treated.

"Y'know, it helps me sometimes when I count backwards from one hundred." He said. It wasn't the first step he'd take, but Delta had already done those steps; stop the situation and walk away from it.

To look up and see the presence of another person was strange. When Delta realized it was Devon that made it even stranger because she didn't particularly like the kid and wasn't afraid to show it. Had he come to bring up her mother again? If there was anything for him to gain in this situation Delta couldn't see it. There was no conversation, only silence. The heavily breathing in and out through nose was getting softer as she had time to mull over the thoughts in her head. A nod was all she gave to Devon's suggestion as Delta still wasn't sure if she was okay with him here. Anger had seeped into every corner of her person, would counting do anything? If she thought it he would never know that she had done it... sto... dziewięćdziesiąt dziewięć... dziewięćdziesiąt osiem... dziewięćdziesiąt siedem... dziewięćdziesiąt sześć... The continuation of count carried onto until Delta reached ninety. It was boring, but it kept her mind off the the situation.

"I went too far, didn't I?" Delta wanted someone to tell her she didn't, but she knew she had. That was the whole point, to go as far as she could and dig the knife as deep as it could go. Devon hadn't even made her this angry, maybe its because she didn't like him from the start. However, he did have information that was classified, perhaps she could use this moment to get it out of him. She looked at Devon on his phone and then back at the ground before asking, "What's exactly in my file?"

"Lil' bit." He raised an eyebrow at the change in subject. She hadn't even tried to ease into it at all. "Uh, things. And stuff. Why? Was there something you wanted to know?"

Gee, Devon really knew how to be specific and Delta wasn't looking forward to pulling teeth, "I want to know what's known about me. I don't want people like Imogen using such information to catch me at a disadvantage." Skeletons lurked in her closet and she wasn't ready for them all to come tumbling out or to used as blackmail.

"Oh. Well, Imogen's a b*tch, but I'd just assume she knows everything about you. That's what she does with people she... likes." Devon fiddled with his phone a little longer before handing it to Delta, her file on view. Only hers. "Here."

Delta reached out for the phone and peered down on the text that was present on the screen once it was in her grasp. Basic information was first, name, age, birthday, and stuff like that. After that it expanded onto more personals things, her family (the location of her sister was listed as unknown), her close acquaintances, her whereabouts the days after the reveal. How did they know this information? How in the world did anyone get this information? Annie was the most likely the culprit to obtain the information, though Delta wasn't sure what the reason for it was. The ability to track her after the reveal... How? It was all so much. Perhaps Devon would know, "Why is this necessary?"

Devon gave a small shrug. "Background checks, I guess. Sometimes people find the AUP, sometimes people get specifically chosen, some people are just found by chance. Maybe they want to see if investing in someone is worth it. Nobody has really told me since these files aren't on display to everyone. I just know everyone has a file." He gave a scowl. "Some of them have tighter security than others, though."

By the looks of this Delta had been either found by chance or chosen. She leaned back in her seat as she scrolled further down. It seemed more like the latter of the two, when Misha had kidnapped her he had already knew her name, which meant they hadn't found her by chance. How did they even know she was Atlantean? The first two weeks after the reveal she hadn't gone outside much, if at all. When Delta had she definitely didn't activate her ability, nor had she told anyone. Genuine curiosity propelled Delta to ask, "It doesn't say here... was I chosen?" Despite the question not being answered or acknowledged the wheel's in her mind started turning at warp speed, "For this? To be a fall guy!"

If not for a quick moment of rational thinking Delta would've thrown Devon's phone as far as she could (perhaps even hitting Dom with it) instead of simply handing it back. The anger was starting to rise up in Delta again and there was little temptation to stop it. "What Unification have we achieved? None, if any. How are we even making progress? Nothing is shared with us, we're just expecting to go out on this missions with minimal details. I think I would very much like to know what exactly is the specific goal we're reaching for. Through what means are we achieving unification? Don't feed me bullsh*t either." She expected Devon had an answer, he had all the files on his phone right here, certainly his snooping didn't stop to what was written in each file.

"I don't know, it doesn't always say." Devon took his phone, going back to whatever wikipedia page he was reading before. His eyes flicked back up as he felt the hostility rise again, making a face at her last statement, feeling more offended than he would be at one of her stupid names. He had not once told her a lie or tried to deceive her intentionally in any way (except for his ability, but it's not like anyone asked). Why would he start now? What would be the point? "The AUP is all about 'peace'," he used his fingers as quotation marks, "and 'safety from the evils of mortals'. Whoever recruited you would have given you some dumb pitch about protecting Atlanteans against whoever wants to hurt us. I know different members would give you different stories on what 'unification' truly is, but dad's always told me he just wants us to not be afraid of... existing." His voice trailed off a little, his mother's face popping into his head before he continued. "I guess that's the point of New Atlantis. But since the AUP is meant to protect Atlanteans against whatever, I'd say that Imogen or dad or whoever made this mission thinks there's some kind of anti-Atlantean weapon in this box. Or something that would make life easier for us. Or a pro-Atlantean weapon that the ARF want. Probably something along those lines. Then again, 'Hope' isn't all that specific."

A... weapon to ensure peace...? Her hand had wrapped around the key she had been given back not too long ago. What kind of weapon would get rid of the horrors happening to their kind that no one, not even the ARF, was doing anything about? In the center of it all was were Delta wanted to be, she wanted to subject those who had tortured those kids on the boat to the exact same treatment. Their abilities weren't science experiments, they were people too and deserved to be treated like any other human despite the fact that they were more than that. People like those on the boat were still out there. Who knew who was their next target? It was then Delta shut her eyes and hoped that somehow this Atlantean gene had skipped her sister. Her sister should have a normal life, one without this kind of stress. However, there was still a chance, however slim, that she was Atlantean and she was out there in a world full of people that potentially hated her, wanted to use her like a guinea pig, and worst of all, wanted her dead. It was a lot to take in, along with the information Simon had given her before she boarded the jet.

"I..." Delta swore in Polish, it always felt natural to talk in Polish even if it wasn't her first language. There was so much to say and there also wasn't. "Perhaps that'll change our role in the game," she muttered and shifted in her seat. The AUP were lax players thus far and Delta was already itching for more excitement, maybe this time the ARF would come to them. "Hope..." Who cared about hope? Surely not Delta.
​

 

[Swolligator]

Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England

November 12th, 2012


After a rather eventful morning, Wyatt and the rest of the crew retired to the Syndicate Headquarters where they were quickly debriefed on their successful mission. Throughout most of the debriefing, Wyatt remained solemn and closed off from the others. The entire meeting was essentially the Directive going over the details and how everyone had reacted accordingly. Another couple of minutes and they were out of the board room in no time. Once out, they all returned to their living quarters only a short ride up the elevator. While they kept silent for the duration of the elevator ride, once the doors opened up into their spacious living area, they started talking.

"Now that we have some free time, we should go out." October was the first to raise her voice, then again she always seemed to have an opinion about everything.

Everyone looked at her like she had suggested the worst idea ever, "I think all the shops would be closed after that earthquake, love." Seamus chimed in, although wasn't entirely against the plan.

"Give it an hour, enough time for people to get changed, and all the major shops will have their stores safety checked and will be open in no time." October obviously had been thinking the whole thing through on their ride up.

"We have nothing better to do," Adrian wrapped an arm around October, "plus it'll be good to get some fresh air without being on a mission." He leaned his head against October's as a sideward hug.

Fletcher simply shrugged at the idea, after losing his brother and now Jeremy, he had become even more shut off from the rest of them and also began spending more time down in the training facility. Pyrrha and Daemon on the other hand were excited to get out and see what England looked like; after being kept on the boat for so long, they were sick of being indoors. With everyone on board, October lead Pyrrha to her room where she outfitted the Russian girl into one of the many clothing items she had at her disposal. Seeing as all of Adrian's clothes were outfitted for his peculiar figure, it was up to Seamus and Wyatt whom both had the Syndicate retrieve their clothing from their flats to outfit Daemon.

An hour later and everyone was waiting on Pyrrha and October; the latter of which having taking Pyrrha into her room almost twenty minutes ago. No doubt October was giving Pyrrha the beauty treatment of her life. Wyatt had lived with Anastasia long enough to understand how certain girls could take so long to get ready. After what seemed like forever the two girls entered into the living room causing all of the boys to take in a deep breath at their beauty. Wyatt was surprised that October was not only able to make herself look beautiful, but even Pyrrha was stunningly beautiful. A bit embarrassed at not only showing so much skin with October's rather revealing clothes, but also with how much attention she was getting, Pyrrha tried hiding herself shyly. October however had other plans and kept Pyrrha from hiding behind her.

"So, let's go guys." October said rather nonchalantly as she paraded herself and Pyrrha in front of the boys and over to the elevator.

"Dude," Seamus slapped Adrian's chest with the back of his hand, "your girlfriend is hot!" he whispered before following the girls like a love sick puppy.

The elevator ride down was taken in silence. The girls' perfume seemed to deafen the air around them and the boys were too tongue tied at the moment to speak out. Once on the ground floor they headed for the garage, exiting out via the employee entrance around the back of the building. Excited to have left the confines of the building, they began talking amongst themselves, even Fletcher piped up now and again as he held October's hand. From the CBD, they headed to Bullring; one of the major shopping centres within the central Birmingham city.

Almost immediately upon walking into shopping mall, October twisted her hand out of Adrian's and instead grabbed Pyrrha's, "Pyrrha and I will go buy her some of her own clothes," October flashed the Business Card emblazoned with the Syndicate Banking logo and her name etched into it.

All of them had their own bank cards excluding Pyrrha and Daemon who were recently new and had theirs own the way. Despite doing mostly training and having the occasional mission in the outside world, they had an almost bottomless pit of income for the lack of actual work they did. Although they rarely got time to get out and enjoy the world for what it is.

"Sure, I'll txt you babe," Adrian bent down and kissed October before she scooted off with Pyrrha in tow, leaving Fletcher with the guys. Adrian then turned to the guys, "So I might as well help Daemon buy some clothes, you guys can either come with us or have a look around."

Looking at one another, Seamus and Wyatt shrugged while Fletcher latched onto one of Adrian's hands; obviously wanting to go with him. "We'll head off in this direction," Wyatt pointed in the opposing direction to the row of clothing shops Adrian and Daemon were to head to.

"Alright, well meet us in the food court in an hour, we'll have lunch." And with that Adrian took the two younger guys with him in the direction of the clothes shop, leaving Wyatt and Seamus in the middle of the mall.

"Soo, how'd you end up taking out wannabe superheroes?" Wyatt began talking after several steps of continued silence. Wyatt had sparred with Seamus on occasions, the man was a good fighter, but mostly their trainings were different and by the end they were too exhausted to even form coherent speech.

"Hah, it's kind of a funny story," Seamus stuck his hands in his pocket as they strolled through the store. "Me parents weren't the wealthiest, but me dad was a complete nutcase. Heavily Catholic, alcoholic and abusive, tried to take his rage out on me mum one day. I stepped in and took the hiding for her; he put me in hospital for 'being a hero'." Seamus kicked at a discarded bottle cap and shook his head, "after that he continued to do so up until the day I became Atlantean. By then I was out of home, yet still visited me mum to comfort her. He tried to punch me and my face turned into, well this." Seamus motioned to the blueish metal that had formed over his closed, right fist.

"I'm… sorry, didn't mean to hit a nerve," Wyatt felt a pang of regret for asking, but Seamus had been so upfront about it like it didn't quite worry him.

"Nah, don't phase me no more. After that I kind of moved around. Then me bro gives me a call and says some masked superhero killed me father in 'self-defence'." Seamus air quoted and scoffed, "he wasn't a decent man, but he was me father. So I tracked down the guy, took an eye for an eye. He never donned the cape again."

"♥♥♥♥ man," Wyatt was taken aback from the turn of events. He barely knew his own father and couldn't imagine the scenario Seamus had been in, but would he really kill someone for killing his father? His stomach seemed full of butterflies as he remembered how he had felt after their mission; the giddiness almost taking over.

"What about you?" he looked over at Wyatt, smiling weakly.

"Pretty boring, actually. The Directive approached me after Archery Nationals, gave me his bank card and said that the company wanted to hire me. Next minute Jeremy teleports into my room, offers me his hand and we arrive at the headquarters." Now that Wyatt really thought about the events that had lead up to this moment, he was actually glad that he had taken Jeremy's hand that day.

"And your family? They're okay with you joining this 'Banking Firm'?" Seamus nudged Wyatt with his elbow.

"I haven't talked to them in over five years."

"Oh, I'm sorry man, didn't mean to."

The two continued to walk in silence until Wyatt again decided to break it, "So that comment you made to Adrian about October, aren't you gay?" he asked hesitantly.

"Oh," Seamus let out a nervous laugh, scratching his head, "I'm bisexual. I like both genders, think of it like a seesaw."

"Everyone wants to ride you?" the two guys cracked up laughing.

"I swing both ways. I just can't make up me mind is all."

Wyatt and Seamus continued to talk, laugh and joke as they wandered aimlessly around the mall. On occasion they would enter a store and look at everything on sale or even trying on clothes. They didn't buy anything though, simply looking was enough. They soon came across a store that would fit them suits, and being the boys they were, decided to try on differing suits and pretend to be sophisticated. In the end the time came for them to leave and the pair soon left the store dressed in their own suits they purchased with their Syndicate Bank cards. While Wyatt was decked out in a simple black suit with a grey waist coat, black tie and baby-blue shirt, Seamus decided to purchase a while suit with matching white shoes, rainbow suspenders for what he called "♥♥♥♥s and gigs", a red tie and rather nice white shirt.

Intoxicated with the amount of money they had just spent, the two made their way to the food court where they soon sound the rest of their group sitting at a large table eating McDonalds. "Good afternoon, my fine chaps, how might we be on this most marvellous day?" Wyatt badly imitated an Oxford accent while Seamus tried not to giggle.

"I'm sorry, was that a happy meal you two children wanted?" October snapped at the two. Looking down, Wyatt could see multiple bags sitting either side of Pyrrha's and her's chairs.

Sad that the others didn't appreciate the humour, Seamus and Wyatt set off, returning to the table once they had procured food from Burger King. Everyone seemed to sit in silence as they ate, far from the usual chatter they had over the table back at the Syndicate Headquarters. "So a question that's been bothering me, what was that stuff you injected into yourself back on the boat, Adrian?" Wyatt asked once he had finished his meal.

Fletcher and October looked at him like he had said the dumbest thing ever, "Its adrenaline. Did Doctor Meier or the Directive never tell you? Adrenaline is like a drug for Atlanteans; it's one of the main forces behind our superhuman feats. For almost all Atlanteans adrenaline is the thing that keeps your eye sight in Infra-Red or allows October to shake the windows out of buildings. By introducing more adrenaline into the body, it shocks the system into bolstering your ability to a level you wouldn't reach under normal circumstances."

"So it's like Atlantean steroids?" Seamus asked raising an eyebrow.

"More like an energy drink, the bigger the energy boost, the harder you'll crash when it wears off." October spoke through her forkfuls of salad.

"It's an 'in case of emergency' sort of thing. When you got hit, Wyatt, was justifiably an emergency." Adrian pinched a leaf of October's salad resulting in a death stare from her as he munched on it smiling at her.

"How did you all become a part of Syndicate?" Pyrrha asked shyly from beside October as her brother nodded in agreement. The two new recruits hadn't been there when Seamus had asked a similar question.

"My father brought me in when I was about twelve," October started off with her story since she had been the first of this latest batch of recruits to arrive at Headquarters, "He knew well in advance about Atlanteans and all that, so when I started developing powers he brought here. At the time there were others who did what we do now… but I was kept separate from those people."

"I lived in Rio until about a year ago," Adrian was the next to talk, "October was sent to recruit me and so eventually I joined. Fletcher here was at the Syndicate when I arrived, him and his brother Kieran were in a similar position as October."

"But they came well after I had." October added in.

Then all eyes turned to Wyatt, "I was just a university student until the Directive approached me after archery nationals. Then Jeremy appeared in my room and teleported me to the headquarters."

"Who is zis 'Jeremy'?" Daemon piped up for what seemed like the first time since meeting him on the boat.

"Jeremy joined a couple of years after I did, but before Kieran and Fletcher. He teleported us from place to place; it was his ability. We lost him rescuing you two from the ship." October almost spat out the last words like she blamed Daemon and Pyrrha for Jeremy's capture.

They spent another couple of minutes chatting around the table before deciding to head home. October managed to convince Adrian to carry the bulk of her bags back to the Syndicate headquarters while her and Pyrrha walked on ahead chatting like they had been friends for a long time. Wyatt hung back from the rest of the group, Seamus walking only slightly ahead of him, deep in thought and smiling at the rest of their group. Despite having known these people for as little time as he had, he felt closer to these people than his family or Anastasia.

​

 

[Quest]

New Atlantis (Lindholm), Sweden

November 12th, 2012

Thayne watched as Devon got up and followed Delta to her seat. I didn't expect that, he thought as he remembered back to their last flight. They looked like they were on good terms... It wasn't everyday you saw something like that happen, particularly between friends. "What the hell just happened?" He asked as he turned back to Dom and Oakley, although it was obvious that the question was directed more towards him. He knew it was pretty early in the morning and having somebody like Imogen around doesn't help, but was it really necesary for teammates to retaliate against each other like that?

"What do you think just f*cking happened?" The temperature in the plane had risen rapidly since Dom's encounter with Delta. It was safe to say that he had never been this angry in his life and Thayne's stupid questions weren't helping either. Dom drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair; it took a lot to stay put in his seat right now. By the way he looked it would be a real effort to get Dom to have a conversation now, let alone calm him down. Maybe the smell of burning fabric would do the job for him.

Oakley kept her mouth shut, her eyes flicking between Dom and Thayne, doing her best not to look back at Delta and Devon. She was worried and a little scared, but not of Dom or Delta specifically, but of the plane dropping out of the sky due to overheating or a crystal arm shaped hole. Developing a fear of flying while on a plane wasn't exactly the best of timing. She gripped the arms of the chair, the top of her hands flicked with specs of armour. She gave Thayne a strained smile when he looked her way, really having no idea how to react to the situation except avoid it.

"I think two people aren't friends anymore." Thayne said, his face screwing up as he responded to Dom. "You guys are teammates, aren't you? Why the hell would you start fighting? That Imogen chick pissed you off?" If there was one thing Thayne hated, it was friends fighting. "Why don't you go take it out on her instead?"

"Shut up, Thayne!" Dom snapped, a puff of fire escaping him as ghe spoke. Steam escaped his body with every breath. It was like seeing your breath in winter, only it was really hot. "I've been with this group for four days. I'm not anybody's friend and I don't need that teammate ♥♥♥♥ either." If he really cared about teammates he would have picked his team, not forced on a plane with this group.

"Please stop fighting," Oakley squeaked, barely loud enough for anyone to hear. There had been too many arguments between them within the last few days. Weren't these people meant to be friends with one another? Why had they given up on each other so easily?

Part of Thayne knew that it wasn't a good idea to keep the conversation going, but of course, he also knew some things needed to be said (or possibly yelled in this case). "Why should I?" he asked as his tone rised to match Dom's. "How does me stopping help the situation? Why don't you open your eyes for a minute? The two of you are part of a team. You're here, aren't you? You could've left whenever you wanted to, and yet, you're still here. Cool down for a second and put some actual thought into what you're saying and doing!"

"Please," she whined, a lttle louder, but still went unnoticed. "Please stop."

Open his eyes? Open his eyes!? Dom considered his eyes wide open! There wasn't any mistaking the last few moments or the last few days. He didn't pick this team and he certainly didn't pick this mission! He never once asked to go to Lindholm and he didn't volunteer to get on the boat that saved Thayne's worthless little *ss. Dom got up from his seat and went down the isle, fists clenched and fire in his eyes. If he was going on this mission he wasn't going to spend it getting lectured by that waste of space. He raised his fist and threw the first punch.

"Stop fighting!" Oakley wailed, and suddenly found herself inbetween Thayne and Dom, her face directly in the punch's path. She yelped as it collided with her cheek, not sure whether the force or the heat hurt her more. She stumbled, falling back into Thayne, her armour on her right hand and cheek instinctively growing suddenly to protect her from another attack.

Thayne barely caught her before raising his hand to immediately force the black matter to encase the attacker, moving it further up his arm until it eventually covered all but Dom's head. "Are you ok?" He asked the girl quickly, noticing her armor spread. He had expected the man to do something, but Oakley was a different story. She was definitely a tough girl.

"Y-yes." She said, rubbing her armoured cheek with her unarmoured hand. Her eyes had glazed over slightly, and noticed Devon standing up from his seat from the corner of her eye. "I just want everyone to stop fighting." Rubbing it really wasn't making it any better. She was rubbing metal after all.

"I said to cool down and think, didn't I?" He yelled at him, trying to insert some sort of confidence with a nod to Oakley. "Look, we're trying to get this Pandora's Box, aren't we? You know what's in it. It's hope. Now, I don't know anything about your parents except for that you're looking for them, but don't you think that hope might just help you? We're trying to get it as a team. No matter how much you think we all just happen to be here or how none of us are friends, we're still a team. You need us in order to get what you want. Rely on us just this once and let's do this!"

Time seemed to slow down after his punch hit Oakley rather than Thayne. Where had she even come from? Dom couldn't say. She had been silent since the Annie issue and now she finally decided to show up and at the worst possible time. His anger which had long ago boiled over was quickly rushing away. Now he only felt sick. Sick for what he had done and sick for what he would very well do in the future. This wasn't the first time he'd gone too far since joining the AUP or after Paris as a whole. Paris was when everything spiraled out of control and that out of control feeling made him remember not Thayne's words, but Lucien's, Julian's, and worst of all Delta's. His eyes found Delta and darted away as soon as they landed. His sickness turned to shame.

Thayne watched as the emotions seemed to flash across Dom's face and let the barrier holding him release. If anything, Thayne could tell he didn't need it anymore. Giving Oakley a quick look, he turned back to the shameful looking man. "I know I probably didn't use the right words, but are we cool?"

Dom nodded, his mind very obviously on something else. "Yeah." He turned away without another word, making his way towards the head of the plane and taking a seat at the front, very far away from the others.

​

 

[Legend]

Atlantean Royal Mansion, Boston, England

November 12th, 2012

Antonia walked down the halls of the mansion with a small spring in her step. Being the social butterfly that she was, she fully intended to introduce Nate to every member of the Royal Family including those Antonia barely talked to. At first she thought of introducing Nate to the main band of students that dominated the mansion; Garrett, Nix, Marilyn, Jessie, Oliver and Rebecca. However she remembered overhearing Garrett talking about some sort of intensive training schedule and wasn't too fond of interrupting it. So instead she took him down to the library where several other students sat playing a game of Atlantean Poker around a small, circular table; the gaming having just started.

Clearing her throat, the students turned around in their cheers to give her their attention, "Good Morning guys, mind if we join you?" She asked, grinning widely, before pulling Nate to take a seat on a stool next to her. "This is my friend, Nate, say 'Hi' Nate." She elbowed him playfully in the ribs.

Nathaniel mouthed an "ow" at Antonia, innocently reminding her that his ribs were still a nagging injury. "Hey guys," he said with a wave. "Nice to meet you all." Normally, Nathaniel would insist on shaking hands but with such a game going on, he didn't want to disrupt more than Antonia had already done. "Looks like poker," he observed. "I'm not bad, but I'm probably really rusty to be completely honest."

"That doesn't matter," Antonia smiled at him, "Jake, send us each a hand." She called out across the table at a dark haired brooding youth.

Hovering his hand over the pile of cards, the brooding youth named 'Jake' closed his eyes before five cards each began flying from the top of the pile alternating between the seven players including Antonia and Nate. "I'm Jake," he spoke in a deep, sullen voice like he had lost all hope for everything, "this isn't quite normal poker, think of it more like strip poker with Atlantean powers instead of stripping." He motioned to the three girls and guy sitting on either side of him to introduce themselves.

Sitting between Jake and Nate were two girls; the closest to him had dark skin, green eyes and long dyed-blonde hair that hid half her face, "I'm Amara," she introduced herself with a slight giggle, "Stephanie," the other girl with fair skin, brown eyes and pixie cut ginger hair said.

Between Jake and Antonia, was a tall, dark-skinned boy with black, curly hair and brown eyes, "I am Apollo, nice to meet you," and next to him a latina looking girl with blue eyes and shoulder-length auburn hair, "Elisa, it's a pleasure."

Nathaniel nodded at all of them with a geninue smile, finally expanding his circle of friends to more than just a select few. Well, this was all permitting they would actually like him. And he would remember all their names, but he tended to be relatively good at that. The thought of him not breaking out of the slightly self imposed shell was slightly bothersome but he threw in the back of his mind and simply slid the cards he was dealt closer to himself. "So, what exactly am I doing with my powers? Showing them off or something?" Nathaniel asked with a raised eyebrow as he cocked his head back a bit. He never actually played strip poker but knew enough of the rules to know how it worked. You lost a hand you had to strip...or something like that. But you couldn't exactly strip yourself of powers. Hopefully one of them would be nice enough to explain the rules a bit so he didn't look like a hulking idiot throughout most of this little game.

Jake rolled his eyes like Nate was meant to know the rules of play prior to joining them, and so Elisa took it upon herself to explain the rules to Nate. "So the deal is, that we play poker as normal, but when ya lose, ya gotta lose a body part. Like so." Elise put her hand of cards back on the table before her right arm became an green, insectoid raptorial leg like that of a Mantis. Reverting her body back to it's natural form, she continued explaining, "obviously it's all dependant on ya ability, so arms are the last things to go. Once ya entire body is gone, you're out of the game."

Antonia sat rigidly throughout the exchange, with her ability, she wasn't quite sure how she was going to play it, but she would wait till it came around to that point to do anything. "So Nate, you ready to play?" She asked him, a little excited at the prospect of playing.

Nathaniel's face twisted in thinking how he would do it, before reasoning that it wasn't going to be too hard considering his ability. "Yeah, I think I got this," he said aloud to everyone in attendence. "Let's get this game started then!"

It took two rounds to get into the full swing of things, Antonia finally deciding on crossing off each body part she lost with a pen while the others utilised more creative methods. Elisa already had an insectile leg while both of Apollo's legs were like that of a monkeys. Across the table, Jake had one leg covered in what looked like a varying array of coloured post-its. Meanwhile, two bad hands had Nate's legs turning into pillars of ice and next to him, Stephanie's legs fused with the couch as they were mere shadows from her waist down with Amara next to her had two skinny legs with smalls tufts of fur near the bottom of her waist.

By the end of the game, Antonia's head, body, legs and arms were covered in thin red crossed while beside her, Nate was practically a human iceblock. With Apollo regressed to a Chimpanzee, Elisa to a rather large Praying Mantis and Stephanie now simply a shiloutte of her body against the couch, the final round belonged to Jake who was all but covered in post-its from neck to toe and Amara looking like a failed science experiment as a three-legged sheep sporting a single human arm. After a small bleet from Amara, she pushed in her remaining chips and revealed her hand; a Flush.

"I win," Jake said looking even more sullen than ever and sounding like it was such a nuisance for having won as he placed down a Royal Flush. With a rather angry sounding bleet, Amara turned her arm into a hoof and leg in accordance with the rules before they all turned back to their human forms. Jake sighed heavily, "do you want to play another game?" he asked in a rather flat monotone.

"Yeah, sure," Nathaniel quickly responded. "I mean as long as she is okay with it," he turned to Antonia, who simply smiled and nodded.

The next game went much smoother for Nathaniel and the others, with everyone appearing to be more open with each other. Well, except Jake. From Nathaniel to gather, he was like one of those kids who stayed in the corner of the lunchroom in highschool, refusing to only talk to his other brooding friends. He tended to avoid those guys. Apollo frequently talked about food, but when Antonia mentioned she liked bananas, he flipped out, firmly stating he hated them. It wasn't that he disliked the taste, but after a while the whole joke about his animal morphology and bananas became verily tedious. Elisa was being overly friendly with Nathaniel, bordering on flirting with the man. That made him all too uncomfortable as he could feel Antonia's cold stare pierce through him, despite changing his torso and most of his arms into ice halfway through the game.

"Did you guys know that female praying mantis' decapitate males after sex? It's true. I read it on Wikipedia," Antonia said with a frightening smile.

"Is...is that a fact?" Nathaniel said with uncharisteristic shiver as he felt Elisa stare into his eyes as he hid behind his cards.

"I didn't know that!" Elisa said sounding suspiciously like she knew it all along.

"Oh, it's true. What do you think Nate?"

"I-I-I fold...and look at that, I'm basically out!" Nathaniel said, freezing up the rest of his body into a legitimate iceman. He felt strange though. As if his body wasn't simply coated with ice. He'd done that before in a few training sessions with James and even the few fights he had been in. He felt easier. More natural. As if he was almost becoming ice. It was a strange sensation. One that both frightened him, but excited him. He played the next few games trying to simply enjoy the experience with a few new friends, but his mind kept escaping back to the strange feeling that his ability had planted in him.

"I'm out. thanks for the games, guys." Antonia threw her cards into the middle of the table, drawing over the same crosses on her arm that she had made before leaving the others to their final rounds. By the looks of it Elisa was winning this round, but Amara wasn't too far behind her.

Leaving the others to their card game, Antonia got up, walking over to the stairwell before asking Nate, "Well, do you want to meet some more people? Or train a bit, Snowman?" She smiled at the nickname she had thought up on the spot for him.

"How original," Nathaniel said sarcastically before slowly converting his icy limbs back to their original state. He wasn't exactly sure what he wanted to do, if he was to be honest. Either one sounded fine to him. "I'm not sure, really. Anything you want to do in particular?" Nathaniel posed the question back to her. "I guess we could train, but only because I don't know what else there is to do here," he finally admitted, feeling almost stupid by continuing to ramble on.

"I..." Antonia paused for a second, collating her thoughts before proceeding, "I know someone who might be good to train against. Lemme go get them." She darted up the stairs, but halfway up she stopped and turned back to Nate, "Meet me outside by the swimming pool!" She said before sprinting off to some end of the Mansion.

"Do....I need a swimsuit? Damn it, she's gone," Nathaniel said under his breath. Sighing and scratching his head, Nathaniel neglected going to his room, figuring that worst case scenario he'll just get changed later. He wandered around the halls, trying his best to greet people with a gentle "Hello" as he passed by. Getting himself outside was easy, but Nathaniel could of sworn he did a lap before finally reaching the swimming pool. Though why was the pool outdoors? Maybe he was just used to indoor pools. He felt those were cleaner and probably much easier to take care of. To be fair, he wouldn't exactly know since working as a lifeguard or anything like that seemed boring and waste of time.

It didn't take Antonia long to find and convince Ruby to join her in training Nate. She knew that the dark-red haired girl fancied Nate to a degree, but stepped back when Antonia made it clear the two of them were together. Grabbing Ruby by the hand and effectively dragging her like she did with most people, Antonia led her outside to Nate waiting patiently by the pool.

"Nate, this is Ruby. Ruby, Nate." Antonia huffed as she quickly introduced the two.

"We've met, briefly." Ruby stated matter of factly, "On the pier in Portsmouth." She offered Nate her hand remembering how he had accidentally bumped into her.

"I remember. Good to see you again," Nathaniel said. She looked vaguely familiar, but he wanted to at least appear confident in his statement. He returned her gesture with a gentle, yet firm handshake.

"Cool, now that you've met, Ruby here will help you train." Antonia said smiling at the both of them. "You're both Manipulators, so it should be a fairer fight."

"Sounds like you just don't want to beat me up again," Nathaniel said with a chuckle.

"Well, maybe," Antonia said, streching out the last syallables for effect. "I'll head back inside while you two go at it." Antonia intended to watch from a distance, mostly because she knew how widespread Nathaniel's ability alone could be. That and she also knew he could handle himself at this point. He was learning fast, though he always seem to get himself hurt. That was a bit worrisome.

"Right," Nathaniel said as Antonia walked away from the pool, and making her way back to the mansion. "So I guess we better spar then?"

"Yes," Ruby said flatly. Nathaniel took a few steps back and cracked his knuckles and neck, streching out a bit. The last fight he had, he allowed himself to take a lot of hits. This time he was hoping to avoid such a mistake. Ruby appeared to just stand there. This left Nathaniel a bit confused. What is she doing? Aren't we going to fight?

"Um, are you ready?" Nathaniel asked as he wrapped up his last bit of streching.

"Yes."

Nathaniel at this point just felt odd. It was training, sure. But hitting a defenseless person seemed wrong. Especially a girl. Perhaps, she just needed a reminder that Nathaniel had intended to get something out of it. He took one step forward and fired a single ice bolt towards Ruby. It was meant to narrowly miss her and only prove a point. He aimed the bolt towards her arm and it barely grazed her side, leaving a cut on her skin. It bled a bit, which he felt a bit bad about. To be fair, his ability was not exactly suited for "safe" training sessions. Ruby hardly hesistated and simply acessed the injury as if she was used to minor cuts and bruises. She placed one hand on the cut and drew a wave of blood from the cut. The wave shaped itself into a bolt similar to Nathaniel's own attack and she fired it at Nathaniel. It flew past his face with great speed. She didn't have his accuracy but she had the element of surprise. I see. She can manipulate blood. She needed a way to draw her own first.

Ruby drew another portion of blood and launched a number of projectiles. As they were shaped, they resembled his own signature ice spears. Which meant one thing, he needed to dodge. Now. Ruby fired the attack, Nathaniel made a break for the pool. He seemingly dove into the water, but froze it as he was about to land. Rolling across the new ice surface he created a finely crafted ice castle to hide behind. It was solid and thick enough to withstand the barrage of blood spears that bombarded his defenses. Well those spears are clearly solid. I guess she can soldify her blood at least. Now I just need to figure out how to approach her without being slashed up to pieces. At this point, Nathaniel figured he could turtle up behind his ice fortress and wait until she passes out from blood loss. Undoubtedly, she would have a finite supply and eventually faint. What kind of training is that though? He literally would gain nothing from that. As he fiddled with every kind of approach, a spear of blood pierced through his ice wall, its end inches from his cheek. "What the-" he shouted as a couple more shattered his defenses.

Ruby forced her way onto the surface of the pool, stepping on the parts Nathaniel had already frozen. He took a few steps back, freezing any water beneath him. It seems she can soldify her blood into varying hardness. Enough to pierce my ice walls. I mean blood is thicker than water, but still. "I'll admit. You got a cool power, but I think you need to cool off a bit," Nathaniel said. Using the trick he just learned and a little innovation, Nathaniel changed his right arm into solid ice and slammed it down, cracking the more delicate ice Ruby was stepping on and sending her into the cold abyss of the pool. "Have a nice dip!" He said with a salute. Nathaniel placed himself at the other side of the pool, leaping off his little walkway onto dry land.

Ruby soon freed herself from a watery grave and picked herself off the ground slowly. She seemed visibly cold, shivering slightly as she stood up. Her breaths were shallow. A side effect of Nathaniel's cold reply to her thrashing of his frozen castle. Ruby fired another blood spear, this one faster than the rest and kept it connected to her body as if to prevent Nathaniel's further escape should she make contact. With little time to muster an effective dodge, Nathaniel covered his body in ice, hoping the increased defense would be enough. The blood spear pierced his left forearm, remaning engraved into his body. Nathaniel held his ground as she attempted to yank him back towards herself. He was clearly heavier, but with little leverage he was unable to pull her towards himself. Then a lightbulb flashed in his head. Grabbing the lance with his right hand, he began to freeze the blood lance. The ice crept closer to her and began to freeze Ruby's hands. The blood lance eventually snapped as Nathaniel broke free and slowly walked over to the shivering Ruby who's hands were clearly frostbitten. She tried to muster another attack but Nathaniel grabbed Ruby's hands and formed a pair of ice handcuffs.

"I think it's safe to say I win," he said with smirk.

"...yes. Yes you did," Ruby didn't want to admit it, but she had to.
​

 

[Skymin]

Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt

November 12th, 2012

The plane landed in Cairo without any more issues, the sun now well into the sky, probably around 2 in the afternoon or so. Imogen had lightened up a fair bit as she shooed everyone off the plane, handing over a handful of something (assumably money) to the person who had guided her down at the airport. From there, was a large van waiting for them, large enough (hopefully) to bring back whatever they were searching for at the museum. There was not a lot of talk on the half hour drive, Imogen glaring at anybody as she spoke on the phone. As everyone had been stowed at the back (asides Adeline, who had shotgun), it was hard to get a clear word from what she was saying, only that it wasn't idle chit chat.

As expected as they found a park (in the employee area), the museum was not the quietest in the world. The carpark was not packed, but not empty either and people entering and exiting the museum were easily seen. The weather was a crude shock from snowy Sweden, being almost like a perfect Summer's Day, around the 25C/77F mark.

"I'd hate to be here in the Summer." Oakley said, peeling her winter coat off as the sun beat down on her. She peered over at Delta, envying her singlet top but not her mainly-black attire. Imogen stepped out after everyone else, silently counting the troupe. Delta, Dom, Thayne, Oakley, Devon, Emery, Adeline and Imogen. There was quite a few people on this mission, though she assumed Imogen had given everyone a part to play.

"Alright kiddies, here's the deal; we're here to take Pandora's Box. Or whatever is inside it. Whichever's easiest. So here's what we're going to do: split up into groups. Blondie, Klepto and Del, we're going in first and Klepto here will help us find this box. It's either gonna be on display or in archives, so we'll probably have to steal some uniforms.

Hot face and Dog breath, you'll be the distraction. You'll come in after us and find a good place to... distract. Goth girl and... you," she gestured to Thayne, "will come in after them and scope out where the cameras are.

So when I give the call, you'll," she nodded at Dom and Devon, "start a fire or something, whatever's easiest. Eat them for all I care, just get everyone out." Devon gave her an irritated look, but she ignored it. "While they're distracting, you two," she nodded at Thayne and Adeline, "will very casually start disabling cameras with your spider-web crap and... shadow stuff. Figure it out. Make sure you're subtle and out of sight.The guards will probably leave when the fire starts, but your job is to make sure their eyes aren't on us.

"There'll be a small window where we can do this before the fire department or animal control get here, so once you two are done making a mess, radio in and I'll direct you to us and we're all gonna get this out of here and leave. Should be cake."

She handed out radios to everyone, which almost looked exactly like mobile phones and added a groan as she remembered something.

"Oh. And we need code names juuuust in case someone is on our radio line. So pick one and for the love of Christ please don't be ridiculous about it. Just call me Queen. But you," she intercepted before Devon could open his mouth, "you are Mutt." He closed it and frowned, but didn't argue. "And you're Klepto." Emery looked a little stunned about being singled out, but like Devon, didn't argue. It looked like he wasn't going to do a lot of speaking anyway.

"Otto." Adeline said in her usual stiff and plain voice.

"Can I be... Knight? Because Knights wear armour?" Oakley piped up. Imogen rolled her eyes.

"I really don't care."​

Project Stargate Facility, Norlisk, Russia - PART ONE

1983-1984

There was not a lot in my life that I could say that I was proud of.

When I was a boy, my mother, father, twin sister and I lived in a small house together. We never had a lot of money, which my sister and I were well aware of. To make up for this, we tried hard in school. We did what we could with what we had and we did well. Our parents were proud of us, and I was proud of us.

When it came for us to choose our own way in life, my sister and I went in very different directions. My sister became a teacher and I enrolled in the army. I could never explain why I chose to be a part of the army, not even to myself. All I knew was that I wanted to protect the ones I loved and I could have done that in any other profession, but I chose to fight.

When my basic training had been completed and I could call myself Sergeant of a platoon, I was tasked with an espionage mission to investigate Russia and their Cold War efforts with a few of my men. Our mission completely flopped, however and we were taken in as prisoners of war to a concentration camp of theirs. It wasn't long before we were told that the camp was something they called an "experimental project". We weren't given much of a choice and were forced to participate.

First, we were rounded up and 'tested' for any 'medical conditions'. Those whose needles formed lumps on skin were kept and any others, we were told were sent to other camps. I was part of the kept and from then, my life had completely changed. In the next few, short weeks I met the love of my life and the most awful and most evil people in the world.

We were paired up with the oddest people of assorted professions. It wasn't just soldiers who had been in on this experimental project, but nurses, teachers, butchers, chefs, tradesmen, bread-makers... all kinds of people. And they weren't all Russian or American either. It seemed like the Soviets had round up anyone who fit their conditions for this experiment and were surprisingly kind to their subjects.

At first it was more physical training than anything experimental. Compared to the bread-makers and teachers, I was a god of combat. Of course, these people had not been training in the army for a good part of their lives, though my partner, despite being a nurse, held her own up quite well. It turned out she originally enrolled into the army in Poland, but her asthma let her down.

Emilia, she introduced herself as. She was as beautiful as she was strong willed and constantly surprised and impressed me, despite her her hostility and sarcasm at times. All were things she enjoyed doing very often.

Of course, we were all so ignorant and naive to figure out what was coming next. After the Soviets were convinced we could fight, we were rounded up and told a variety of strange stories nobody would ever believe would be true. About a hidden 'master' race that we carried within our genes, and that we could harness wondrous abilities if we practised them. Many of us, including myself, didn't believe a word any of them said. That was, until they showed us this strange, blue crystal. After that, it was as if somebody had turned on a light bulb in myself. There was a searing pain down my back and suddenly, I could see... everything. Well, not everything, but that's what it felt like. Specifically, I could see flashes of my future, but only the next few seconds.

It seemed that it wasn't just me that received powers, but each one of us had been gifted with a unique ability. Some had slightly useful abilities, like being able to tell the time without looking at a watch, or being able to instantly fall asleep, but others could breathe underwater, lift impossible weights or even fly. The more stronger and radical the ability though, the more it came with a price. Many of us, including myself, had to spend weeks to get a grip on ourselves. To experience déjà vu and then some for every second of my life made it heavily confusing to sift reality from this 'dream'. Emilia visited me everyday, using her ability to heal mental injuries to help me get a grip on reality. Without her, I would have surely gone insane.

When we had finally come to terms with what we were, we were sent straight back into training with our partners, albeit with hostility. It seemed whatever we were training for had become more of an issue and the supervisors began to treat us like prisoners. Questions which were usually palmed off we were now getting punished for. Not meeting standards meant now we were to be beaten for. And some of us disappeared and were never to be saw again. We realised that these abilities made us a threat and a liability and the supervisors were using fear rather than respect to keep us here. Some of the supervisors had their own abilities (although the majority of them were normal, but toting heavy weaponry), which made trying to escape even more dangerous. What horrified me most was when Emilia showed compassion for some of the other prisoners, she was beaten for it. That didn't stop her though. When at times, I felt I was useless and now a prisoner for what I thought was to be protecting my country, Emilia was the one to show me hope. She never gave up. Not even once.

Emilia was the one who suggested we try to escape. Some had tried on their own and had been punished for it, but it was Emilia who was the one who suggested we band together. Many of the prisoners were supporting, but fearful. In the end, we had three of us who lead the fight: myself, Emilia and a strange man named Jonathan Cooper with the ability to persuade anyone with his words.

The plan was simple, but delicate and less than fool-proof; Jonathan was to persuade the more powerful (Atlantean) guards, one by one, to turn on their comrades, I was to stick by him and watch the future to make sure nobody would catch him and Emilia was to keep our mental state in top shape so that we could keep up our abilities as long as we could without breaking down or fizzling out. After that, the rest of the prisoners would join us to overwhelm the rest of the guards and escape. There were issues, however, which could be come an issue. Jonathan and I were not the greatest with our abilities (Jonathan could only persuade one person at a time and for only a few minutes and I could only see 20 seconds into the future at most) but with Emilia there leading and supporting us, it was the best plan of action.

The 12th of January, 1984. The day we chose had the least amount of guards on duty, which meant less enemies, but less deaths. We began in the early morning, where the groggy guard minds were at their weakest. The plan at the beginning went well, Jonathan managing to persuade three Atlantean guards to silently take out their comrades, but not killed. That was Emilia's only request. However, when the fourth guard began to be persuaded, I could see the future where the strain on Jonathan became too much and the mental strings were broken, all four guards snapping back to reality. It was too late when I warned Jonathan though and they all turned on us immediately. Luckily, the other prisoners made their move to attack and the facility turned into a battlefield.

The next few minutes felt like a life time, with the future ahead of me constantly changing as each punch was thrown. It was then I discovered my ability relied on the decisions of those around me, as well as my own. As soon as someone decided to take out someone else, the future changed and with so many people affecting my own future, it was a chaotic mess of violence, blood shed and death. I stuck to Emilia and Jonathan, keeping their futures close to mine, doing my best to keep them safe. Jonathan had enemy drones fighting for him, I was disarming and defending, and Emilia? She was leading the fight, right at the front of the line, constantly sacrificing herself for others. She was strong though, and was not easily overwhelmed by her attackers. She kept her head straight, morale strong and never backed down.

We began to overwhelm the enemy and soon, we were at the front gates, attempting to break through. As soon as the gates were cleared, they burst open, a flood of Atlanteans running for their lives. We thought the fight was over as we ran down the snowy mountainside, but bullets whistling past told us that snipers had been positioned on the roof and were intent on taking us down. So, I ran as fast as I could, losing sight of Jonathan and Emilia as I panicked and prayed to God that I escape with my life. Fellow Atlanteans around me were picked off one by one but I didn't stop for them. I kept running until I couldn't run anymore.

I collapsed after a few hours, my legs refusing to stand any longer. The snipers and guards were out of sight but not out of mind, other Atlanteans who had followed me down continuing down the mountain to the closest village they could find. It dawned on me, after 20 or so of my comrades had passed, that I had not seen Jonathan or Emilia for some time. So, I waited for them. Surely they had made it down, they were the strongest people I had ever met.

I was glad how many of my comrades had made it down with me, some bidding their goodbyes as they passed me, but I grew worried after the first hour when both Jonathan and Emilia were missing. Another hour passed, and Jonathan came into view, panting heavily with a gunshot in his arm. He was okay, taking the time with me to bandage it up with strips of our clothing (our bodies were too numb from adrenaline to care about the cold), but said he had not seen Emilia since the snipers had begun to pick us off. I thanked him for everything we had done together and he continued on, heading for the road further down the mountain.

I waited. I waited another hour, two hours, three hours, an entire six hours before Emilia came into view. At first, I thought it was my imagination but as the darkness pooling around her disappeared from the light poking through from the sun rising in the east. She had two bodies on her shoulder, those of our comrades who had been shot in the leg and could not run anymore. She had turned back and helped them both with getting down the mountain and using her ability keep them sane. She placed them at my feet, obviously more exhausted than I had been six hours prior but kept strong on her feet, using her nursing knowledge to remove the bullets then and there with what we had. When she had covered the wounds as best she could, we helped them both to the closest town, dropping them off at a hospital before we went on our way. We considered stopping, but knowing our enemies, they would search for us. So we went on our way and never looked back.​

 

[Swolligator]

Outside San Diego, California, United States of America

November 12th, 2012

Watching James learn to literally become his element reminded Enrique of his own experience going through the same motions. When he first met Raguel and the rest of the Renegades, he barely had any control over his ability. If anything his ability seemed to have the better of him as it often caused him a lot of trouble and his Mexican family a lot of damage. It wasn't common for him to be at school and suddenly a large gust of wind to blow through the school in a strange occurrence. Even walking by himself he would be trailing a breeze or even a miniature twister. Since he was younger than he was, and in a point of time where Atlantis was still a mystery, he didn't quite understand what was going on. At first people called him names like 'el Diablo' and 'hijo del Satan' as they understood about as much as he did. As the days turned into weeks and weeks into months, Enrique began to experiment with his ability.

It had been seven weeks since his ability had manifested. In the height of summer, class was dismissed and everyone headed down to the bay to cool down and play in the ocean. While Enrique enjoyed swimming in the ocean as much as the other kids he was also ousted and they refused to play with him. In the end, he was a teenager and after the weeks of gruelling abuse from everyone he decided he had had enough.

Ignoring the whispers and lies that drifted from the other students gossiping on the beach, he changed into his swimming togs and dove into the ocean. It felt amazing to have to cool ocean water touch his skin kissed skin, but when he came up for air he could tell something was wrong. Wading through the gentle waves were seven of the older boys heading straight for Enrique. At first he brushed it off as them trying to scare him but as they drew closer and he could see the angry looks on their faces, he began wading further out to sea. Despite his frantic paddling, the boys were on him in minutes in water that was up to his neck. At first they only pushed and shoved him between themselves as they had encircled him, but it soon grew more violent as they began yelling and screaming at him, pushing his head under the water and refusing him air.

Then everything happened in a blur. The turbulent water around him began to pick up, surging around like a washing machine and lifting him above the surface of the water. The older boys scattered as he was pushed higher and higher until he opened his eyes to find himself several feet up on the top of a hurricane. Peering down, everyone on the beach looked like ants as they scurried about; frightened at the scene that was rushing towards them. Giddy and pumped with adrenaline, Enrique willed the wall of rotating wind and water forward and began heading towards the beach.

One by one, his miniature hurricane picked up the older boys and tossed them to the side, growing the closer it got to shore. The power was maddening as it flooded his system, causing him to push further and further. From the shore he headed across land, making his way towards the high school near the centre of the town.

"Yo soy el Hurrican!" Enrique screamed over and over again as the people and buildings were paved beneath his massive onslaught.

Once the initial thrill and adrenaline finally petered out from his system, Enrique found himself weary and his ability begin to slip. With Enrique tired, the hurricane began to lose its ferocity and was rapidly losing height. When it couldn't sustain his weight anymore, Enrique dropped a couple of feet to the ground, breathing heavily as his vision began to blacken. Before he blacked out, a mysterious, angelic woman appeared next to him and lifted his limp body off of the ground. When he came to he was lying on top of a bed in clothes that weren't his in a place he didn't know. And that was how Enrique met Raguel and the Renegades.

From that point on, Raguel and the others pushed him through weeks of training to control his ability. After the first two weeks he was so sore from all the training that he felt like passing out every night, but he had sufficient control over his own ability. Then they taught him to become his element. At first, it was a simple task of making his fingers into tiny tornados but then it soon grew and within another week, he was feeling the exhilaration of becoming entirely wind. It felt like a rush, the biggest rush you could ever have but it came at a price. Every time Enrique turned back, he felt and started to look older. It still didn't stop him as he used it as even more incentive to not only train his ability, but also put it into practice. His test run had been a Hurricane Isaac.

Now watching James on centre stage, he couldn't help but feel giddy with excitement to watch James go through the same procedure. At first James drew in the electricity from the plant around them, not enough to short-circuit, but enough to leave it on a low power level. He seemed to be positively glowing with energy by the end of it and Enrique began to twitch his leg nervously as he waited for the performance. At first James held his hand up in front of his face; the sparking electricity rolling around his hand until it too became a construct of pure electricity.

Suddenly there was a large bang, followed by James emitting a very large burst of light. Shielding his eyes, Enrique tried to see what was going wrong but it was just too intense for either him or Luciana. When it dimmed more, a weight seemed to drop in his stomach as James was nowhere to be seen. They tried searching for him, calling out for him, but there was no reply. Where he had been standing his clothes had fallen to the ground; burnt with scorch marks and holes where electricity had obviously escaped. He had become his element, but he hadn't returned.

Enrique picked up a card that was showing through a hole in James' pocket. Curiously he looked over it and turned it round, only to see a picture of what seemed like a tribal bird on the reverse side. "Hey Luciana, don't you think this looks like Raguel's…" he called out, only to be interrupted and he felt the presence of a woman behind him.

"Looks like my what?" She asked him before plucking the business card sized piece of cardboard from Enrique's grasp. Looking at it, she laughed, tossing it back to the ground, "Don't you worry, my children," Raguel spoke calmly to both Enrique and Luciana, "it looks like my brother, Gabriel, is trying to play a game. I think he'll be disappointed to find out Mr. Hazen here didn't quite make it."

Smirking, the strikingly beautiful, brown haired lady walked towards the door Scott had left open for them to return to the flat. "Come, my children, we have chaos, anarchy and vengeance to wreck upon these mortals." She said before walking through the door, Enrique and Luciana following with the scant remains of James' clothes. Curiously, Enrique kept his eyes focussed on the small tattoo present on the inside of her wrist. It was the same picture as what was on the card.​

 

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

River Beleren and Austin Tseng - Atlantean Royal Mansion, Boston, England

River took a quick look through the folder as she waited for Austin to arrive in what was considered her office. Unofficially, she was the so called guidance counsellor to the children of the Royal Family; her Telepathy allowing her to get to the roots of any psychological issues students were feeling. She didn't do it invasively however, it was always up to the students whether they wanted her help or not. But in this case, she couldn't help but interfere. Austin had been among one of the students taken aboard the ship and rescued by the mysterious group, but what was more worrying was the conditions he had been kept in. As far as she could tell, whatever they had done to him in the intervening hours had caused significant mental instability and a fracturing of his conscious self. She had asked Ruby, a sweet and gentle girl around the same age to send Austin to her office where she hoped she could help him with his problem.

Austin had a good idea of why River wanted to see him. Of course it had something to do with his "friends" #8 and #17, and probably about his outburst with his real life friends at lunch today. He stopped by River's door and knocked, then entered when he heard a response.

"Hi Austin, please come in and take a seat," she motioned to the two chairs opposing her, "how are you feeling today?"

Austin sat down in the left chair, and messed with his hair sort of embarrased-like.

"Uhm, you know, sorta shaken up from the boat incident and all. Otherwise, I'm fine." Austin swung his legs back and forth in his chair as he spoke.

"That's... good to hear," River shifted herself, sitting upright, "Are... are the voices in your head causing you trouble? I overheard Kaido and Garrett talking about your...outburst. Is there something I can help with?" she asked him, her face contorted with worry.

Austin hung his head and remained silent for a few seconds.

"Well...sort of. One of the voices is a right ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and is always annoyingly right. He's always arguing with me and pushing my buttons. I know he isn't a real person, but that doesn't make him any easier to get along with, or ignore. The other voices aren't all that bad, if somewhat chatty and bothersome."

River shifted her pose, now leaning on her knees with her elbows, "I can help, Austin, but in the end it is only you who can fix it. If you allow me to, I can clear away all that excess chatter; make things less noisy inside that head of yours. However, those dominant personas, the ones you call 8 and 17? I can put up a barrier inside your mind that will let you manage them; let you be the dominant voice, but in the end it's up to you whether they stay or go." She was looking him deep in the eyes, she really wanted to read his mind right now and find out just what it was like in that mind of his, but she promised the students that she would not enter their minds without their permission. "Are you okay with these premises?"

Austin looked up at River.

"Can you really do that?" River nodded her head. Austin looked down again. 17 appeared in the chair beside him.

"Dude, what the f*ck. Don't listen to this chick, she's going to screw with your mind. Take control, you know." Austin glanced over at him.

You're full of ♥♥♥♥, bro.

"Yeah no ♥♥♥♥, I just don't want you to let her block me out." 8 appeared behind 17 and crossed his arms.

"For once I agree with 17. This isn't going to be healthy for us."

"For you, or for me?" Austin said outloud without realising, "Look, I don't care what you guys think because you're both ♥♥♥♥♥es. I'm getting rid of you and thats that."

"Is that your final decision, Austin?" River held out her right hand for him to take; contact would make it easier for her to do a better job. Even though Austin spoke outloud during his last conversation, she could still hear the vocal projections from the other Austins within his head.

"♥♥♥♥ no."

"Yeah hell no this isnt happening."

"Yes," said the real Austin, "Please." The other Austins started bickering behind him again.

Moving her hands up to his head, she placed an index finger on the temple eitherside of Austin's head. "Alright Austin, this may hurt a bit."

Focusing all her power, River shut out every single mind from around the Mansion and focussed slowly on Austin. Unlike other members of the Royal Mansion, Austin hadn't had the specialised training to block River out. Then again, there were still two facets of his mind that were making her job harder. Entering his head was like entering a Labyrinth with so many twists and turns it seemed like she was running in circles. On more than one occasion she found herself coming into dead ends sometimes twice in a row. It was a hell of a journey to navigate someone's brain, but River's ability made it ten, even a hundred times simpler.

When she finally left the labyrinth, she came across what her brain could only process as a wide open meadow. Filling the meadow, various versions of Austin each with a large red number emblazoned on their shirts milled about like dazed sheep. As she walked up to one, he look back at her with a sheepish grin until one touch with her hand and he simply vanished. This was the first time River had actually done something like this, and was learning as she went. Moving closer to the centre of the field, she continued to tap each Austin lightly on the shoulder, feeling the ground start to angle up hill. Near the crest she could see three Austin's angrily glaring down at her while a fourth sat on a throne just behind them. Concentrating, River then threw her arms out wide, causing all the secondary Austin clones to vanish from view leaving only the four remaining Austins on the crest of the hill.

"Austin, listen to me." She pleaded to the figure sitting on the throne, "I can't get rid of these three; it's something you need to do for yourself. Austin, I'm begging you, restrain these ones and take control!"

"Get out of our head, B*tch." The nearest Austin said before shoving River down the hill.

Snapping out of it, River felt her body being pushed backwards, falling over the back of her chair. When she got back up, Austin was just sitting there with his eyes closed. Softly, she pleaded to the Universe, wishing that Austin regain control. She had relieved the pressure of the many so he could have the power to restrain the remaining three.

Austin watched as River vanished from the meadow.The other three stood around, complimenting each other on their "clever" victory. Austin just watched. And watched.

"Austin." A voice came from behind his throne. Austin twisted his back to see who was calling his name this time.

"Austin, its me, your father." Austin just stared at him. His father walked toward the front of the throne, and Austin followed him with his eyes.

"What are you doing here, Dad?" Austin 17 asked. Dad just ignored him. The other Austin's asked similar questions but their Father just ignored them. Finally when all was quiet, Dad spoke to Austin.

"Austin, you need to take back control of your life. You can't rely on others to do things for you, or make your descisions."

The Son finally responded, "I'm not fit to make any descisions, and I'm not able to do anything myself. I'm not smart, I'm not strong, I'm not even mentally stable." He lowered his head, "I'm nothing."

"You're right, you are nothing." Austin looked up, confused at his father's reply.

"You are weak, you are helpless, and you are a failure. But only because you choose to be." The other Austins started to close in on Austin's father.

"Until you decide to take control, you never will be. The choice is yours, Austin. Not mine, not River's, and certainly not these clowns." Austin 8, 17, and 31 grabbed Dad and started to haul him off.

Austin stepped off of his throne.

"Don't," he said to the three clones. They stopped momentarily, but then kept going.

"I said no." This time they all stopped and let go of Dad, only to start walking toward Austin menacingly. Austin held up his pointer finger.

"Not so fast, you almost forgot your entire existance relies on my choice to allow you to exist, and I've about had enough of you three doing things out of my favor. So from now on, you do what I say."

 

[Swolligator]

Syndicate Headquarters, Birmingham, England

November 12th, 2012

After their shopping trip, Wyatt decided to head down to the Research Lab and practice with his new sniper rifle. While they had been away in town, Dr. Meier has been working on what he called 'modifying to better suit the wielder'. As far as Wyatt was concerned the rifle felt fine when he had it set up on the roof, but if the doctor thought it needed modifications then who was he to argue with a professional.

"Ah, Mr. Cale, just the man I wanted to see!" The doctor seemed ecstatic at Wyatt arriving causing him to raise an eyebrow at the welcome. He moved away from his central computer terminal and up to the table in front of the large, glass window.

"Sure. Was that meant to be a pun?" Wyatt made his way down the tiers of computer terminals to stand next to the doctor as the two stood over top his specialised rifle.

It took a while for the doctor to realise the pun he had made before breaking into a short, caffeine filled bout of laughter. "Heavens no, I've just finished modifying your rifle and thought you might want to test it." Doctor Meier waved his hand at the pre-set scenario that covered the entire floor in the training room below.

At the far end, a tall, two storied structure jutted out from the wall complete with patrolling guard robots and high walls. Leading up to it was a bit of cover; a small hillock, some trees, even a rock. It was a scenario Wyatt had run through once with the others but all they had used him for was backup and his ability to see through walls. This time though, Wyatt was determined to go through the simulation alone, just him and his gun filled with rubber bullets. From his scanning of the robots, he knew how they move, their weak spots and how to power them down.

When the doctor gave him the thumbs up, Wyatt descended to the field below, making sure his rifle was all tightened and to his fitting. It felt slightly lighter than before the doctor had modified it as he had switched out some of the parts for lighter material parts and it also had the added feature of a silencer. The doors rolled open at the bottom and Wyatt immediately darted behind a tree to his left. Carefully, he made his way over to the shaded hillock where he set up the stand for his rifle and lay down on the grass. Zooming his vision in, he counted two robots standing next to the entrance while four robots patrolled the second floor and two on the roof above them.

Wyatt calmed his breathing and focussed, the top two robots would rotate around every minute, while the four below were on a forty-five second time lapse while the two guarding the door stood still. Aiming the sniper rifle up, he focussed on the two at top; taking them out at the right time would not disrupt the robots below. Taking a moment to get into rhythm with the change, he cocked the bolt as he loaded a bullet into the chamber, letting out his breath to fire before cocking the bolt again and firing quickly after.

The two robots dropped still as one was hit square in the head target and the other one slightly to the left. Wyatt was short of celebrating when rubber bullets began pelting the hillock he was lying on. Retreating, Wyatt rolled to behind the tree as the four sentinel robots continued to fire while the two guard robots began progressing towards him.

Watching the battle from the safety of the control room, Joshua Meier couldn't help but smiled at Wyatt's tactic. Pressing a button on his connected tablet, he called the Directive, "Evening, I have Mr. Cale down here with me; I think you might want to watch this."

In his office, Daniel stopped leaning on his chair to watch the live feed Doctor Meier was sending him. In it he watched Wyatt fight the robots in a simulation by himself. He was surprised by the way Wyatt was now acting; more confident and even cockier, the kid was pushing himself to shoot for more deadly targets than he had on the boat. It was an interesting improvement and no doubt the performance this morning has something to do with it. At any rate, his superiors would be more than happy to know that Wyatt was finally on the same page as them.

Cursing under his breath, Wyatt slipped out from behind the tree and fired off at one of the sentinel robots, taking it out in a heart shot. Throwing his entire plan out of the water, he sprinted forwards towards the door and encroaching robots. Rubber bullets started leaving welts on his skin but he forged forward, cocking the bolt and rolling to duck behind a boulder before firing at another robot; disarming it. Moving on from this position, he cocked the bolt again, sprinting towards a guard robot and swinging the butt of his rifle into its head target, causing the robot to crumple to the ground. Continuing on with the momentum, he used it to propel his body three-sixty degrees before firing a bullet off, taking out another sentinel robot.

With two left he cocked the bolt a final time, sprinting at the final guard robot and jumping at the last second, planting his boot right into the robot's body target. Pushing himself off of the robot he arced his back, flipping his body backwards before aiming and firing at the final robot. When he saw the robot fall to the ground, he smacked the butt of his rifle into the last downed guard robot, causing the simulation to finish. Battered and bruised, he smiled as he made his way back to the elevator on the other side of the training room.

"What did you think, Daniel?" Joshua asked, happy at the results that were now displaying on his screen.

"I think..." the Directive lowered his chin and rested it on his closed fits as he sat up on his elbows. "I think it's time we put him into the field. Nice work Joshua, send Mr. Cale up to the board room, I have the perfect mission for them."

The screen went blank just as the doors to the elevator flung open and Wyatt strode through. "So doc, what's up?" He asked with a smirk on his face. He knew that he had technically failed the mission, getting riddled with bullets would have left him dead but it was only a simulation.

"You've made excellent progress; it seems that the sniper rifle was the perfect upgrade from that archaic instrument." Doctor Meier gestured to the bow and arrow that sat on the wall with other random assortments of weapons the doctor had cooked up. One even looked like a lightning rod. Switching out the rubber bullets for a cartridge of 7.62x51mm bullets, Doctor Meier clicked in the cartridge before laying it back down on the table in front of him. "Oh, the Directive wants you in the board room. Best hurry up there." The Doctor winked at Wyatt before returning to his work space.

Curious at the doctor's gesture, Wyatt moved to the elevator and rode it up several levels to the board rooms. He ran his hand over the welts that had appeared on his arms from the rubber bullets but they were quickly settling down. Obviously the doctor seemed pleased at his results aside from the fact he was effectively shot multiple times, but after seeing the competition on the boat and in Paris, Wyatt really needed to step up his game.

He was the last one to arrive at the board room as everyone turned around to watch him enter and sit down at the back. "As I was saying, we've tracked down the facility where they are holding Jeremy and another Atlantean in Morocco. We assume this is just a temporary port call while they wait to sail onwards, so we'll be moving out right away. Seeing as we don't have Jeremy to teleport us near, we'll be doing an aerial drop over the dockyard."

"When you say 'aerial drop', you don't mean parachuting, do you?" Adrian's knuckles went white and Wyatt could help but wonder if the big tough guy was somewhat afraid of heights.

"Exactly, Mr. Santoro, it will be a night mission so you'll be covered by the darkness. Seamus and Wyatt, you two will be landing north of the compound, make sure you can get visuals to the rest of the crew before they land. October and Pyrrha, you'll be dropped to the left of the compound, you're to make your way to the middle as quick as possible, retrieve Jeremy and the other Atlantean then get out of there. Adrian and Daemon, you two will be dropped off south-west. Your task is to create a diversion that will bring the guards to you. Seamus and Wyatt, you two will be on standby. Any questions?"

Everyone looked at one another; it was another team assignment but they were more reliant on each other now. There wasn't any time to coordinate or practice, it was an all or nothing rescue mission. They Syndicate had been rather quiet without Jeremy around and it would be good to have him back again.

Coastal Morocco, Casablanca, Morocco

Wyatt and Seamus were the first to dive out of the place as it flew inland over the coast of Morocco. Below them they could see the brilliant lights of Casablanca shining brightly but their target wasn't the city itself rather the dark dockyard on it's coast. Above them no doubt the rest of the Syndicate were following but Wyatt had no time to focus on them, instead he focussed on the target below them, using his vision to get a better look at the rapidly ascending ground. From what he could see, there was a patrol of guards that walked around the perimeter of the dock armed with simple handguns but where he assumed Jeremy was being help captive, there were roughly ten guards. With Seamus only just off to his left, Wyatt shifted course before the two guys landed safely in their drop zone only meters from the front gate.

"Eight perimeter guards, ten specialised guards. Proceeding to front gate." Once they cut the parachutes off, Seamus and Wyatt moved up to a small hill, lying down while Wyatt set up his sniper rifle. From his position he had a perfect shot at the guard standing in the tower over top the gate and was slowly timing the two pacing below. Focussing on his hand-eye coordination, Wyatt moved the gun to match up with his sight, firing a bullet that caught the top guard in the throat. The guard slumped to the floor without making a sound while the two continued to pace below him. Next Seamus crept up to the gate, and when he was ready, Wyatt took out one of the guards while Seamus jumped up and strangled the second.

Moving up, Seamus opened the gate just as Wyatt arrived and the two scaled into the tower after hiding the bodies in a dark corner. To the south the saw the blazing of gun fire as Adrian and Daemon no doubt sprung some sort of distraction to keep the majority of the guards busy. With Seamus watching his back and keeping an eye on Adrian and Daemon, Wyatt turned his attention to the two girls slipping through the crates. October constantly updated their path to their destination, Wyatt making sure to take out any human obstacles that would hinder their path. While the majority of the guards were busy down at the south, there were still two hanging around the structure where Jeremy and another Atlantean heat signature were blazing. Just as the girls rounded the corner, Wyatt took out both guards standing at the entrance as October called it too close.

With Jeremy and the African Atlantean rescued, October and Pyrrha each helped one and moved towards the front gate. Adrian and Daemon retreated from their distraction and began making their way from the docks. Wyatt took the liberty to shoot one of the guards that was chasing after the two boys, causing the rest to hide under cover and start moving towards them. With everyone successfully out, Wyatt and Seamus joined the girls below to help take some of the weight as they bolted into the darkness. At their rendezvous point from the compound, they all boarded a helicopter that took them from the outskirts of Casablanca to the nearest airport where they boarded a private plane (paid for by the Syndicate) and made their way back to England. It was early morning before they got back to the Syndicate HQ. After dropping Jeremy and the Nigerian girl off at the medical bay, they all retreated upstairs to their beds.​

 

[Retro Bug]

Outskirts of Doha, Qatar

November 12th, 2012

The golden sun beat down on the two figures standing atop the sand dune. Raguel squinted as she looked down upon the expansive cityscape that lay before her. With sand in her shoes and the sun seemingly burning every inch of her skin, she was about ready to leave this place only they had something to do before they left. Standing next to her was her shorter, Middle-Eastern protege whom she had spent the last couple of weeks training under the gruelling sun in some corner of Qatar. These past weeks of training had all culminated in this moment where Marwa would prove to herself and Raguel that she was ready.

"So, are you ready to do this, my child?" Raguel asked Marwa with her silken voice, not taking her eyes off the city that unfolded before them.

Sunlight felt… How did it feel exactly? It felt like she was back with her friends again laughing and catching up on the latest gossip. It felt like the last hugs she had given them before she stumbled upon their bloody corpses. It felt like the love and admiration she had for her father before he essentially ordered the execution of her kind nationwide and kept her prisoner. Warmth, comfort, and happiness were all things she hadn't felt in the weeks following her escape. Anger bubbled its way to the surface only to be pushed down by sheer will. A numbness had settled in nicely, however long it was there to stay Marwa didn't know or care.

The training that took place up until this point hadn't solely been used for Marwa to hone her ability as an Atlantean but to allow her to learn how to wade through the emotional turmoil. It was a lesson in how to reserve the rage, pain, and anguish for a more appropriate time. Emotions were a tricky thing; they could deceive and manipulate a person if they fell victim to them. She was far better off repressing them than allowing herself to experience that… vulnerability. Some of that training had managed to be devoted toward her ability. Learning how it worked, how to control it, and how to make it better. It was up to Marwa now that Raguel had prepped her for weeks for this and to back away simply wasn't in the cards.

Was the wreckage and disaster about to occur a good idea? Maybe it was, maybe it was not. It surely would be a fun one. An event that would shake up the state of how things were being handled and viewed. Marwa was going to show that Atlanteans were stronger, that they were faster, and how much smarter they were than their human counterparts. The execution of her kind was an unforgivable act. An eye for an eye, no, that was child's play. This was much bigger, for every Atlantean killed a city habited by humans would be destroyed. Did those cities happen to have Atlanteans in them as well? Of course they did but sacrifices were to be made if they were to advance the pieces on their chessboard. Pawns were at the frontline for a reason, everyone had their part to play and their parts were shorter than hers.

In this situation actions spoke louder than words so the meek girl's response to Raguel's statement was done a bit differently. The removal of three scrolls from the purse that hung down from her shoulder was the start. Nothing had gone to waste on her during her intense training sessions she had stayed up for several nights perfecting these scrolls for this very moment. Each scroll signaled a phase of an attack, each more deadly than the next. The first was the direct attack; the most obvious move that a player could do in a game. As soon as the first scroll was unraveled beasts leapt off the page, some modern, some ancient, yet they all had one purpose: to be agents of chaos. Sweat beaded her brows, Marwa knew it was worth the pressure she was putting herself under. She reached for the next scroll after she had willed the first round of fiends away. Second was the move the player wasn't aware of until it was too late, an attack that relied on keeping the opposing player occupied. The monsters from this scroll did not travel on land as these ones preferred to be underneath it. Their movements released tremors and quakes and when they emerged from the ground they swallowed things whole, people, cars, and some of the smaller buildings just to name a few.

By the time Marwa utilized the third scroll to commence the final attack or if they were using chess terminology, approaching checkmate, helicopters circled in the sky like vultures. No doubt recording such an event for the news, and Marwa would let them. However else would she be able to see the impact she had and the look on her father's face when he was dragged out of his palace by a being of her creation? They needed to capture the message she had left for the world. From where they stood it was perfectly visible, she had leveled just the right amount of buildings and caused enough destruction to spell out, "Free the Atlanteans."

Fatigue had claimed Marwa as its victim and she soon fell to her knees in a coughing spat. Looking at her now opened palm she saw the sight off blood. Knowingly she had breached the limits that kept her safe and she was gladly paying the price for it. Marwa had done this for herself, for Raguel, but most importantly for the world. She kept her eyes opened for as long as she could to see the city burn and to watch panic unfold brought greater pleasure than she had imagined. Would the world listen? That was a good question, a question that only time would give an answer to. Leisure time was not something they had in vasts quantities. Marwa grinned as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand removing the traces of blood. All that work she had poured herself into had paid off precisely like she expected it to.

Raguel caught the girl as she fell, guiding her to kneel on the hot sand. She had done well, extremely well, and Raguel smiled at the destruction her new protege had caused on the city of Doha. The message was perfect, and with their anoniminity, the global press would be struggling to find out who was responsible. They would blame both the ARF and the AUP with both organisations fumbling to blame the other and seem innocent in their whole affair. Helping Marwa to her feet, Raguel slung the girls arm over her shoulders and, grasping Marwa around the waist, helped her back to the small, deserted factory they had been staying in.

Laying the girl on a stretcher, Raguel fashioned a cup of green tea with an assortment of other herbs and gave it to Marwa. "Drink up, my child," she spoke calmly and softly to the girl, handing her the drink, "my mother used to make this for me when I was a child. Even Atlantean children sometimes succumb to the drain from their abilities."

Thankful that Raguel had been there to assist her back to "base" (an abandoned factory) otherwise Marwa wasn't sure what she would've done. It was dumb to have pushed herself that far, she only wanted to prove her worth. There had been chitchat about the other members of the Renegades, that's what Raguel had called herself the organizer of, and Marwa worried she had a lot to live up to. Questioning wasn't her strong suit, technically it was speaking, she worried her English wasn't up to standard. She spoke French better than she spoke English and that was to impress her father.

Cup in hand she began to wonder about the mysterious lady in front of her, Marwa had always avoided personal conversations because Raguel had treated her with the same respect. In a timid voice she brought up a question she had been wondering for weeks, "What brought you to Qatar?" Was it her ability? When she accidentally summoned a creature that massacred and maimed over thirty people in her school and drew in the national press? Raguel was the one to put a name to it, Artistic Animation. Destruction was its only purpose it seemed, at least it was something Marwa was good at that. Seeing as she destroyed her school, friends, family, and she could officially add the city she grew up in onto that list.

"It was you, Marwa, you who drew me to Qatar. I saw a misunderstood girl who could achieve greatness being treated horribly by disgusting humans." Raguel almost spat the last word from her mouth. To her they were vermin; the lowest of the low.

"Why don't you like us?" It took Marwa a second to realize that she had mistakenly called herself human. No, if she was a human she'd be at home right now and she would have been dealt a better hand. The word disgusting implied Raguel no longer considered herself one as if there was a clear separation between Atlanteans and humans. Marwa was one up until three weeks ago making it a harder change to adjust to. Correcting herself ever so softly, "I mean, humans." Humans had all the power, they were the majority, and they were in ones making the rulebook. Wouldn't it be beneficial to befriend humans? She had only thought on this subject for a few minutes so Raguel probably had a hundred times that under her belt...

"A long time ago I had a sister, her name was Uriel. She was a kind-hearted Atlantean with powers that were greatly beneficial to us Atlanteans and the Humans. She would not hurt a soul and acted as the ambassador between us keeping peace for a long time. One day, when she was doing diplomacy in what was once Asia Minor, she was severely wounded and burnt at the stake. The humans said that she was a threat, but we all knew she would never hurt anyone. Ever since then I have wanted to erase humans from the earth, only to have been stopped by my brothers." Raguel furrowed her brow, remembering the flight of rage she had hurtled into as she decimated everyone within the city of Babylon. Raphael had been the one to finally grab her wrist and stop her carnage, but ever since then, they had ceased any act of genocide against the humans she had taken. Finally though, after centuries of planning, everything was finally beginning to culminate.

Tragic. Any condolences Marwa gave wouldn't do any good, a loss like that cut deep and words from a person you barely knew would not heal or lessen the pain. She too was resenting the presence of humans, Atlanteans were being treated like any other minority and it was disgusting. A taste of their own medicine is what they deserved from time to time. The Renegades were just the group to give it to them in spoonfuls. Two words stood out to her, Asia Minor. Raguel didn't look a day over thirty and the Asia Minor hadn't been called the Asia Minor in quite some time. Her mother said to never ask a lady her age but certainly this was an exception to that rule. After taking a long sip of the herbal remedy Marwa decided to risk it, Raguel wouldn't train her just to kill her three weeks later... Would she? "How... how old are you?"

Raguel smiled at Marwa's hesitancy to ask the question. It was certainly human custom for women to hide their true age, but for Atlanteans, with the prospect of immortality readily available to them they often took pride in their longevity. However for Raguel, her age meant that she had been around a long time; a long enough time to forget just how old she was. It had been over several hundred years since she had stopped counting her age. "I am about twenty-five." It was most likely more than that but she wasn't in the mood to fully calculate. "Twenty-five hundred years, that is."

To be granted conversation with someone who was so open was lucky. Kindness always had a limit and to overstep such a limit was not a place Marwa wanted to find herself in. Living that long felt more like punishment than a pleasure. Death would be a friendly face to everyone but the immortal. At what point did they just stop making friends because they knew they would just die eventually. Years would mean nothing. Was this simply Raguel's power? Immortality or did all Atlanteans live forever? Marwa asked exactly that, "Is that your ability or can all Atlanteans live as long as you have?" As morbid as it sounded Marwa wanted to die sometime in the far future. Allah was waiting for her and to put him off for 2,500 years was a bit much.

"All full Atlanteans can live forever. Some said it was a curse when we fell from grace. Others that it was our final form. We may be immortal, but we can still choose to die." Raguel felt saddened, it had been many years since she had last seen her brothers and sisters, and well over two thousand years since her people. At first her brothers had been the ones to keep her going, now it was this constant thirst for revenge that spurred her onwards. It felt like a shame really, she knew for certain that Marwa and they rest of her Renegade group would not live past 200 years. Their human DNA tainted the surperior Atlantean DNA causing it to be less effective.

Relief sunk in briefly and Marwa hoped that it hadn't shown on her face. How not to show her every emotion had been a work in progress for years. In a final gulp Marwa finished the rest of the liquid in her cup. She nodded in response to Raguel's comment and was officially finished with that line of questioning. There was more she wanted to know for her writing and Raguel was such a great source. A source that went back about 2,500 years in fact. She was the luckiest writer in the world. Perhaps it was better to shelf those questions for a later date and not abuse or strain their relationship with a game of twenty questions. "What are we doing next?" Marwa hoped it was a simple enough question. Worrying was something she did better than anything else and to be worried that she was annoying was at the top of that list.

Raguel looked across at the bare concrete wall, focusing on it as if something was out of the ordinary before looking down at the small, gold-plated watch that covered the bird-like tattoo on her wrist. "One of my other recruits should be joining us, soon. Once he gets here we'll go somewhere a little more... colder." As much as she didn't like the cold, Raguel found the constant heat even more unbearable. "You'll meet your new family and we'll start planning our next move." Looking back at the wall, Raguel was starting to get impatient, surely Scott had gotten her message and was in the process of creating a doorway to them.

Weeks had passed since Raguel had taken Marwa under her wing yet she hadn't had the chance to meet a single member from this supposed band of misfits. A smile grew on her face as she heard the word family because that was something she craved now more than ever. Hesitation settled in after the happiness when she remembered how her actual family treated her. Was she about to jump back into something that had left her permanently damaged before? Moving too quickly could become quite problematic to her health and compromise her safety. Though, the perfect time to learn how a real family acted was presenting itself to her.

Imagination and media always portrayed family as this unbreakable bond, but that wasn't true. Weren't family members the one that were supposed to keep you safe? Family didn't lock you up in a building and make that person starve. They were the ones that a person counted on during difficult times. Marwa longed for that feeling, not a family who locked her in an attic and wanted to forget her existence. She wanted to be wanted for something, for anything really. And if Raguel wanted her front and center solely for her ability that was fine. Willingness to forsake her health and safety for unwavering support and a comfortable home was seeming more and more allowable. What if she was dwelling too much on the past? Only two days had she been a prisoner, only two days without food... What if she was letting it affect her too much? For now she'd consider it a risky move but it wouldn't be long before she had her next twenty planned.

The thoughts of her relocating somewhere else that was not in the Middle East rattled around in her head. A break from this wretched place and from the people that lived in here couldn't come sooner. How many had perished in the attack? How many of those hated and slaughtered her kind without mercy? Not enough was the only answer she could muster up. All of these decisions brought upon change, a change within her as a person and major changes to her life. Whether or not it was necessary was a discussion to be saved for a later date. Each movement Raguel made was closely monitored under a keen eye. How was this new member arriving, by plane? Wouldn't that be too grand? Waiting was the only option she had so that's exactly what Marwa did.

As if out of nowhere, lines began forming on the opposing wall, arcs and circles, some were erased soon after being formed. It took a minute for the picture to finally come together as some sort of sliding door before it grew from simple lines of ink into the actual thing. Once it was complete, a short, blonde haired boy poke his head through, "My Queen," was all he spoke as he bowed his head at her before moving out of the way to allow the two ladies to enter.

Giving her hand to Marwa, Raguel lead the small girl through the door portal and into the lounge of the Renegade flat. Once they had both stepped through, Scott shut the door behind them and it soon dematerialised into smudged ink on the walls. Clearing her throat, Raguel summoned all the Renegade members to where she stood, "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Marwa, she is our newest recruit, so make her feel at home. Marwa, this is Scott," she gestured to the boy behind them who had opened the door, "Enrique and Luciana," next she indicated the Hispanic boy and Cajun girl standing next to each other, "Nora and Andre." this time she pointed out the punk girl whom waved back and the Portuguese man whose left side seemed to be covered in burns.

From behind them, Scott had opened up another door and two more people stepped through, "This is Pietr, Pietr this is Marwa," the tall German man bent down to shake Marwa's hand, welcoming her to the group. "and Carla," the lady that stepped through after Pietr looked like she had serious bags under her eyes and held a baby in her arms. She simply nodded in acknowledgement at Marwa before returning to give her baby affection.

"Marwa, I don't expect you to remember everyone right off the bat," she smiled at Marwa, rubbing her hand on the girls back, "Nora is dinner ready?"

"Sure thing, Boss," the punk girl saluted and they all converged to the dining room where a large platter of food was laden on the table. They all sat around and begun eating, laughing and talking and catching up as everyone was finally under the same roof together.

As the portal formed on the wall Marwa tilted her head memorized by the sight of it. Atlantean abilities were outstanding, the fact that someone could accomplish something that really made Marwa excited. The opportunity to take Raguel's hand into her hand was almost missed because of this. A boy that was near her age came forth from the portal and announced Raguel as his queen, an odd thing to do. Stepping through was easy enough and the feeling wasn't like she imagined.

Introduced to the rest of the members felt intimidating with all of their eyes glued to her practically dissecting her. An onslaught of people were introduced to her all at once and to get she would remember their names if it killed her. If only she could sneak away and write all of this in the notepad she kept contained in her pursue. The baby had to be the cutest member of all. Marwa only nodded to Raguel's statements as she wasn't quite sure what to say. The same happened through dinner, nods here and there, very selectively did she chose to say something and that was only when she was called upon.

Once dinner was finished, Nora and Enrique helped Luciana clear the plates and dishes from the table while the others started to discuss their next plan of action. With Raguel at the head of the table, all attention was drawn to her as their leader. "Seeing as all our latest targets have been statements; Marwa here in Doha about the incarcerated Atlanteans and the band in Paris against the Anti-Atlantean press, it's time to up our game. First we need a distraction, an attack simply for panic and fear."

"We haven't hit Dublin yet," Nora tossed into the conversation as she leant on her chair eating the core of an apple and spitting the seeds out at Scott.

"Ireland is pretty Atlantean friendly," Andre added, chewing on a chicken bone, "would be a perfect way to get the humans to target the ARF."

A group setting was the type of place that Marwa liked to avoid. It required social skills that she hadn't quite managed to master or even like doing. Therefore she remained the quietest at the table while nodding her head at each suggestion as to not appear rude on her first encounter. She had read something or maybe she had seen it on television about a certain trivia fact, it was about the city that had the most Relief Centers in Europe. Bu... Bucharest? No, its location was more western... Marwa lowered a hand to retrieve a writing utensil and a slip of paper from her purse. The name of the city was written in neat, cursive handwriting. Carefully and intrically she folded the paper as if it were an art, and to her it was, before it was slipped to Andre.

Feeling the paper make its way into his grip, Andre couldn't help but take a look at the Middle-Eastern girl Raguel had brought with her and had introduced as 'Marwa'. Without looking he unfolded the paper and brought it closer to him, glancing down at it before crumpling it up in his hand. "How about Budapest? It supposedly has the most Relief Centres in all the EU." Andre smiled at Marwa for her suggestion.

"Perfect Andre," Raguel commended the man, "You and Pietr can take Marwa with you, I trust that you'll keep her safe. Nora and Enrique, you two will head to the Vatican, it's time we struck out against those who kill our kind." Raguel was of course mentioning the latest spate of attacks on Atlanteans rallied by known church goers. "As for timing, we'll hit a week from now. It will give plenty of time to think of a plan and get ready." With that Raguel got up from the table and walked into the hallway. There was a small shine of light and what sounded like a fluttering of wings and soon the tall lady was nowhere to be seen.

When everyone began clearing from the table, Andre stayed behind to talk to Marwa whom seemed a little shocked. "Hey, are you alright?" he asked the girl, placing the crumpled piece of paper on the table.

All of it was a little much to take in, at least she had a week to get used to it. Everyone was ready to play their part, Marwa couldn't afford not to do well at hers. She nodded at Andre, was this the part where she explained herself? He was expressing concern for her well being making her almost consider doing just that. To justify such acts would only say that there was something wrong with them so Marwa left it at the affirming nod. A common thought was that there was something wrong with her because she wasn't a fan of verbal communication.

Only at this point was she able to get a closer inspection of his face. He must have quite the tale to tell, would he speak it to her? The right side of his face was more familiar to her and it should be considering the amount of time she studied the prestigious Atlantean Royal Family. Not to mention the "small" crush she had on him. The leaders of the Atlantean Royal Family were like celebrities, more Leo than anyone else. Hell, she couldn't even remember the other's names if she hadn't written them down. The researcher in Marwa couldn't help but wonder about him. There was plenty of research she had to catch up on, Andre's death, however, was not one of those things. A fair bit of publicity had been kicked up over his death that happened in Berlin. Speculation was the only source for the exact nature of his death. His brother must be absolutely clueless that Andre was alive and worse working against him.

Her unsuppressed curiosity led her to ask a question instead of acknowledging the paper he had placed the table, "Does your brother know you're alive?"

When she asked the question, Andre looked down at the table, grabbing the ball of paper and playing with it between his hands. Rolling it from one palm to the other, he thought about the same consequences that haunted him after he had made his decision. Letting Leo and the others think that he was dead was liberating, but it still felt cruel to do such a thing to someone who was family. "No, he doesn't." Andre said solemnly. "Does your family know you're alive?" he asked her.

If Marwa had let herself she would've laughed and laughed until she had tears in her eyes at such a question. It was an odd feeling talking to him, on one hand she wanted to give nothing away that might come back to haunt her but on the other she wanted to be honest with the guy she fantasized about marrying and having a family with (a girl could dream, couldn't she?) It was decided since before her birth who she would marry being an Al Thani women and all. Some days she would like to picture her future differently, especially after knowledge she was an Atlantean. One day she had stumbled upon Andre's picture, he was handsome enough to fit the role of her husband momentarily. Daydreaming about him was less about him and more about what he represented, contentment. "They don't care," Marwa looked away as she spoke and stared at the walls that contained graffiti on them. She had been honest yet hadn't given up too much she hoped, "Yours does."

"All Leo could care about was staying in power. The others were happy to follow him; it's the same reason Rose, Justin's sister, left." Andre had a lot of animosity towards the Royal Family. It had been the one thing that had ultimately torn his family apart. His brother became distant, replacing him with River and the others, and also blaming Andre for their father's death. Andre had followed Leo to England instead of staying in Braga because Leo had convinced him it was the right thing to do. "Where did our Queen pick you up from?" Andre tried turning the conversation away from himself.

"Qatar," She muttered. If he even knew where that was she'd be impressed. It was an overlooked country in the Middle East and in the world in general except for that they were the richest country per capita.

"Qatar..." the country didn't ring a bell in Andre's head, since he hadn't paid too much time to Geography in High School. Leo was the one who was good with country names and capitals and all that boring political stuff, all Andre had wanted to do was play football, tennis and any number of sports. "It's obviously Middle-Eastern, but I don't know of it, sorry."

It was to be expected and a shrug of her shoulders was all she gave in return. The need to show him up was strong so she proceeded to do such, "Braga's the third largest city in Portugal, it was named the European Youth Capital this year, and has the oldest Christian Archdiocese in the world." After saying such facts Marwa realized that he hadn't told her or even implied any information about where he grew up. He was going to think she was some crazed, murderous, psycho stalker instead of the committed researcher/writer that she was.

Andre was a bit more than surprised when she started listing off facts about Braga; facts even he himself did not know despite living there for most of his life. He laughed it all off anxiously, scratching the back of his head. Obviously this girl had done her research which, while being flattering was a little bit scary. Just how much did she know about him and why did she know that?

Embarrassment came in full force and Marwa started to feel the anxiety creep up as well. It made her uncomfortable in her own clothing. An itch that wouldn't be soothed. To impress him was what she meant to do not scare him away for good. She left without a farewell to Andre, though knowing that she would seen him around only made the situation worse. Raguel had assigned them to the same mission. Luciana was her savior and showed her to a room where she was to stay that had the new clothes that Raguel had gotten her. Even a new easel and several canvas, scrolls, and other paper materials to create on. An appreciative Marwa got to work on the newest bunch of creations, praying it would keep her mind off the incident that had occurred. Already she had screwed up within a matter of hours. She only had a week to prepare works of art that would stun the citizens of Budapest and also the media.
​

 

[Swolligator]

Des Moines, Iowa, United States of America

November 12th, 2012


The wind whipped through his hair as Vic cast his arms out wide. From up here he could the entirety of Des Moines spread out below him like a blanket of glowing lights. Such a breath-taking sight to behold, after today he doubted he would ever be able to see something like this again. It was closing in on dusk and below him people were leaving their offices and moving onto their homes and families. Being so high up, they seemed like ants milling about on the ground which made him smile a bit. Existing above it all almost gave him a god complex; how easily it would be to forget the individual for the greater masses. Just like everyone else.

From his vantage point he could see the school in the distance. Even just looking at it brought a sickening feeling to his stomach. Every day he had to sit through the abuse from his so called 'peers' while the teachers turned a blind eye to it all. If it wasn't the constant 'Vic loves d*ck' marked on his desks and locker, it was the constant bullying about his apparent lack of ability. When Derek Kaile's tattoo manifested on his leg, the massive jock suddenly had the ability to make all the girls want to be with him. On the other hand, when Vic's tattoo spread up the inside of his arm, there was nothing. Not a single drop of ability to appear. Every day for the past three weeks they laughed at the tattoo he tried to cover up, calling him a 'freak' and 'abomination' for not having an ability like all the other Atlanteans. And right now, he had had enough. From the corner of his left eye he could see the dark curls and licks of his tattoo as it soon became fuzzy from the tears brimming in his eyes.

Looking away, he felt the tears come on fully as they began rolling down his cheeks. He hated all the people at school, he hated his parents for ignoring his pleas of help, he hated the fact that he was gay and absolutely hated the fact that he was a failed Atlantean. It had taken him a week to think up the plan that would lead him to standing on the precipice of his father's insurance building, and another week to get everything ready to do so. Finally he was here, stories of concrete below him just waiting for the embrace. So without a second thought, he jumped.

They say half of all jumpers regret their decision on the way down. As Vic watched the ground close in on him at a rapid proximity, he couldn't help but feel like this decision was a bad idea. With nothing to do but shield himself from the rapidly encroaching ground, Vic simply brought his arms up in front of his face and waited for the final impact. Screams echoed out from the footpath as everyone watched with abated breath. Vics body dropped like a rock as people gasped and waited for the inevitable impact to happen.

The steady, rhythmic beat of the heart monitor was the first thing to assault his ears. Around the room he could hear the shallow breaths of other people surrounding his bed which puzzled him since he was an only child. Surely he should have been dead following the plummet; Vic had researched the height to know full well that there was no way for him to survive. At first he thought his arms were heavy after being asleep for a while, but when he moved his wrist Vic could tell there was something restraining him. Giving a strangled gurgle from his throat, Vic heard the bodies move around and wake up as he opened his eyes.

The hospital room was private. There were no other patients in the room and his wrists were restrained not only by similar shackles that they would mental patients, but also handcuffs. At the foot of his bed and on either side were four men dressed up, not in standard issue police getup, but rather with bulletproof vests. Lolling his head to the side Vic could vaguely see an anagram emblazoned on the shoulder of the nearest person: A.T.L.A.S.

"Wadhapen?" Vic lolled his head to the opposite side but the man there ignored him and simply spoke into his sleeve.

Immediately all four men leapt up from their seats. Standing with backs straight at attention, the click of heels announced a lone woman entering the room. They all refused to make eye contact and stared straight ahead of their position as she walked into the centre of the room. "Victor Thomas?"

Through his fuzzy vision he could see that she was tall, taller than all the other men in the room. By the way the men stood at attention, she was definitely in charge of them. Her hair seemed professionally short and from what he could tell, she had fairly sharp features. He was sure that she had just asked him his name and simply nodded instead of trying to mumble out some slurred vocabulary.

"My name is Amanda Tell; I work for the Atlantean Threat Logistics and Assessment Section. We deal with any Atlantean who poses a threat to the safety and security of the American people. Two days ago, you Mister Thomas, achieved a threat level causing us to intervene." Her voice was sharp, much like his teacher Miss Robinson who always told him off for things that weren't even his fault, making Vic feel like he had done something wrong.

"Wah- what do you mean?" He managed to croak out, "I don't have an ability, I fail as an Atlantean like I fail at killing myself." He moved his eyes from her face to the foot of his bed. He would have kicked himself if his whole body didn't feel like it was being weighed down, much less the shackles on his wrists.

"Don't lie to me Mister Thomas, your destructive behaviour caused the lives of four innocent people as well as sending twenty others to hospital. The damage you caused in the CBD is nearing irreparable; all in all you're costing the taxpayers a hefty amount of money."

Vic was astonished; the last he knew he had his arms in front of his face as he squeezed his eyes tight before he hit the ground. Now after waking up in the hospital and getting this barrage of… of blame, he wondered exactly what had happened. "I don't know what you're talking about, what happened!" He exclaimed, his throat feeling raw as he tried to yell.

Pulling what looked like a tablet from under her arm, Amanda tapped the screen fervently before placing it on the tray at the feet of his hospital bed. The video grew to fit the screen showing CCTV footage from just across the road of where Vic had jumped. It skipped frame by frame showing the workers walking the street at first, but soon people began to stop and look up at something above the range of the camera. Frame by frame they all seemed to be pushed back by an invisible that rocketed to the ground ahead of Vic's body. It easily flattened the roof of the taxi he soon fell into but also made the ground in a four foot radius concave inwards. People around him were flung to the side and the windows even four stories up shattered when he hit the ground. It was an unseen, an unmeasurable force that had occurred.

"It's called a Telepathically-Induced Force of Repulsion. It allows you to create a force the pushes nearby objects away; in this case you use the force to combat the downward pull of gravity effectively slowing your descent but pushing everything down around you."

Vic couldn't help but watch the video play over and over again as he fell down and collide with the taxi. It was like having an out of body experience as he still didn't quite understand how he survived that fall. An Atlantean? Sure, he had the tattoo present on the inside of his arm, but he didn't have any ability at all.

"Mister Thomas, there is no denying that this is you and that this is your ability. Do you understand what this means? You have been marked as a Level Three danger threat, pending Level Four which either makes you an enemy of the country, or a weapon." Amanda retracted the tablet from the foot of his bed, tapping it a few times before hovering her finger over a different window. "Will you join us, or do I have to get these men to escort you out?"

Everything was happening all too fast for Vic to fully comprehend. Firstly he was still unconvinced about his latent supernatural ability and he still didn't know how exactly he survived; her explanation sounded wrong. Secondly somehow this all made him a threat to everyone? There were far bigger fish to fry like that guy with lightning or the girl with diamond skin. At first he simply shook his head, trying to ignore all the information that had suddenly been thrust upon him. When he noticed the men around him tighten up he realised what he had done and quickly nodded in approval. "I'll help…I guess." He spoke weakly, not quite all there.

"Good, once the Doctor has checked you out, we'll take you with us." She tapped a response on her tablet before tucking it under her arm and heading for the door.

"Wait!" He tried to push himself up but the nearest guy placed his hand on Vic's shoulder, forcing him back onto the bed. "What about my parents?"

She turned around to glare at him from over top of her glasses, "They think you're dead. There will be a memorial at your school tomorrow. You are now no longer Victor Thomas; we own your life." Without another word she turned on her heels and walked out the door. When she was gone the timid doctor moved into the room and hurriedly ran through his pre-dispatch assessment.

A day later and the anaesthesia had long worn off. He had been secreted from the hospital under the cover of darkness and driven in the back of a van out of Iowa. Wherever they went, Vic had no idea, but five hours later the van was pulling to a stop. From the echo if the front doors they were somewhere bound by walls of concrete, but until the bag was lifted off his head and the back doors opened up did he realise where he was. Plastered on the walls of the car park in capital letters was the anagram A.T.L.A.S. written over top of what looked like a minimalistic eagle in mid-flight.

"Welcome to ATLAS headquarters, Mister Thomas. This will be your new home. If you will follow me I will take you to your new living quarters." Without waiting for him to get out of the vehicle, Amanda stalked off, leaving Victor to push himself out and follow behind her.

"Where are we? I mean, I know it's the ATLAS HQ, but where in the US are we?" He followed behind her soon realising that he was being followed by a detail of guards.

"You'll know that when your security clearance is upgraded. For now, you'll stay here and train." They entered an elevator and started heading up, the floors lighting up as they passed each one before stopping a few floors up.

The doors opened up into a central plaza covered in grass with a single statue of a man holding up a globe on his shoulders. Strangely enough, the place wasn't lit up with lights but rather bioluminescent plants and shrubs. The ceiling and wall behind him were solid concrete while the wall to his right was solid glass. Across from the elevator guards sat in a room lazing around a table with monitors switching between cameras behind them while to his left had several curtains, some with their blinds closed. Leaving the elevator, they walked across the grass to the living area behind the solid glass wall, opening a glass door and entering.

The room was split in half with a bench separating the kitchen from what appeared to be a lounging area. Off to his left, a hallway seemed to lead down and around the solid concrete wall. Sitting at the table were three others looking older than him dressed in their pyjamas. The closest one to him was a dark skinned girl with shoulder length black hair and thinly rimmed glasses, next to her was a large American guy and behind them a small Asian girl with her eyes glued to a cell phone.

"These will be your new teammates: Gamer, Tank and Harpy. If you have any questions they will be able to answer them otherwise this is your new home." The three continued to ignore Amanda and Vic and carried on with what they were doing. "There is a landline in your room across the plaza, you can use it to call me but only if it is an emergency. Is this clear?"

Vic simply nodded, he was going to ask her a multitude of questions that were plaguing his mind but the way her face stayed stern he wasn't quite sure he wanted to push her buttons. When all was said and done she left him in the company of his new teammates and retreated to the elevator. He felt a little awkward just standing in the doorway, so he moved to the kitchen to find something to eat. Spying an apple on the counter, he moved around it until he was opposite the others before grabbing an apple and taking a bite. He didn't realise it until he finished chewing, but the apple was the first thing he had had to eat in nearly two days. Not wanting to look bad in front of the others, he took occasional bites of the apple least he look greedy and starving.

"What's your power, noob?" the dark-skinned girl known as 'Gamer' asked him, prompting the other two to giggle under their breath.

He stuttered and stalled, the question having taken him off guard, "something about repulsion, I guess?" He could barely remember the name Miss Tell had given his ability the day before nor what it even meant other than sparing his life.

"What do you mean 'you guess'? Are you a total scrub or what?" Vic didn't even know what the hell a 'scrub' was, he guessed it was perhaps some offensive term for and Atlantean like himself who didn't really know about their ability.

"Bro, j-chill man," somehow the words seemed awkward coming out of Tank's mouth, like he was trying to be something he obviously wasn't, "it's all good 'round here, don't be tripping, aight?" If Vic were to guess where this guy was from, his first thought would be Detroit.

"Don't listen to the white-trash, nub, despite his name he can't even tank for sh*t. Harpy and I always end up with the most aggro. Seeing as a scrub like you don't have a tag like the rest of us, what's your name?" The way she talked reminded Vic of the nerds back at high school, but this girl looked like anything but.

"V-Vic, Victor Thomas," He managed to stutter, "what about you guys?"

The all cracked up laughing like he had said something wrong, "Victor Thomas? Are you serious? Man are you lucky to be here, two first names is just plain wrong." This time the Asian girl, Harpy, spoke up but still refused to move her eyes from the screen in her hands.

Ashamed, Vic bowed his head. Of all the places he could be and all the people to be with, he was with these older kids who were making fun of him. Now more than ever he wished he had died on that fall, or at least had been returned to his parents. He could only imagine how upset they would be thinking that he was dead. Just dwelling on the thought brought tears to his eyes; he never chose this lifestyle, never chose to be an Atlantean.

Seeing a tear drop from his eyes to the sink the others stopped laughing, "We're sorry dude," Tank spoke, his deep voice now softer, "we were just having some fun hazing you, we didn't mean to make you cry. Oh man, I feel so rachet right now."

"Scrub, how did you end up here?"

"I-I-I killed four people trying to kill myself." It took him a while to force the words out. Just saying the words validated it to himself what exactly he had done. Four innocent people had died and he hadn't; his life was not worth those.

"That's harsh man," this time Harpy took her eyes off of her screen and looked straight at him. "We'll call you Victory," she spoke confidently, nodding at the others.

"How come?" Tank asked, turning himself to face her.

"Cause Vic here, he beat Death. Those four were just Death being a sore loser, Vic won fair and square."

"Scrub, look at me," Gamer seemed to command all of his attention, "Harpy may not know how to lane properly, but she has a point. The moment you jumped was the moment Victor Thomas died. When you landed; that was the moment Victory was born. Tank here will show you where your room and the showers are, so get ready because you're one of us now."

"Thanks guys, it-it really means a lot," Vic wiped the tears from his eyes. For the first time in forever he finally felt like a part of something; like he was somewhere he belonged. All these others had cast off the names that held them attached to their previous lives so he would too. The Victor Thomas of two days ago was no longer.

Victory was exactly where he belonged.​

 

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

Atlantean Royal Mansion, Boston, England

November 12th, 2012

After their training session, Garrett and the others had retreated to lunch before heading off to their rooms to shower and relax. Soon after though, they found themselves sitting in classes as the Royal Family resumed their usual schedule of classes following the invasion. It had been the first time in days that the Royal Family had seemingly gone back to it's normal routine, but it was a much welcome one. They only had two classes to attend to; Garrett, Kaido and Jessie headed off to Maths then English while the others had either History, English or one of the Sciences. While they were all happy to get back to classes, they all remained somewhat distracted, constantly looking between each other as they confirmed within themselves their little secret army.

"Robert Frost is such a depressing writer!" Garrett exclaimed as they left the classroom, heading down with the rest of the students to the dining hall for dinner.

"Yeah, well wait until you have to study post-World War One Germany," Oliver butted in with Rebecca on his arm.

"Try Organic Chemisty, it is by most the worst." Marilyn piped up from behind them.

They all continued to complain about their classes, trying to one up each other before taking seats at the table they had so infamously claimed weeks ago. Garrett and Kaido were the first to grab food, both coming back and starting to wolf their food down before the others had a chance to get theirs. Oliver brought Rebecca back hers while Marilyn used her Telekinesis to summon all her food onto a plate in front of her.

Nathaniel had just finished cleaning himself off after training when Antonia pounded on his door to collect him for dinner. She hounded him with a few questions, mostly asking about how his sparring match with Ruby went, while chatting a bit about her own ventures without him around. He answered nonchalantly, mostly staring at the arm in which Ruby impaled with her blood spear. What was strange was the minimal injury he suffered. He remembered he attempted to change him limbs into ice (an experiment he was forced to do during Atlantean poker), so did that minimalize the injury? Sure, what was left was a large scar, but it hardly bled. However, asbent minded he was, entering the noiser hall stirred his mind awake. Antonia seemed to scan the room quickly and found some friends of hers, dragging the larger Nate along with relative ease.

"Hey guys!" Antonia called out from across the room, waving furiously at them, as her and Nate arrived in the hall. After grabbing some food, she pulled Nate over to meet them as they found two spare seats. "Everyone, this is Nate. Nate, this is Garrett, Kaido, Jessie, Rebecca, Oliver, Marilyn and Nix." she pointed to each one in succession around the table as they all waived at Nate when Antonia called their name. He simply waved and greeted each one as Antonia pointed them, shaking hands with those closest to them.

Austin battled with the voices in his head as he tried to play Pokemon in his room. River had given him an excuse to take the day off from his studies, so he decided it was a good chance to catch Rayquaza and attempt to find Latias. Austin 17 kept insisting the use of great balls over ultra balls, and #8 said that there was no need to even catch Rayquaza as he already had a high level Salamence. Austin warned his other selves that the timeout corner was waiting if they kept bickering.

"Oh come on, are we not allowed to say anything anym-" Austin "tssk'd" #17 and shut him up. #8 got the message and remained mute.

After a few hours of ♥♥♥♥ing around route 130 and 131 trying to find Latias, Austin gave up and went to the cafeteria for dinner. Again he reminded the other two to "stay inside" while he was in public. Austin entered the Dining Room and grabbed some food.

Oliver noticed the Asian boy that had been rescued from the ship come into the dining room, 'Hey guys, what's that kids' name? The crazy Asian one from the ship." He was asking everyone at the table, but more directed at Kaido and Garett whom he had seen them hanging out with on occasion.

"That's Austin, what about him?" Garrett asked, seeming offended that Oliver had asked him about Austin. Obviously there was something going down between them which made sense since Austin was neither at the meeting nor training.

"We should invite him over, make him a Royal Guard." Oliver suggested, wincing as he felt a kick hit his shin from across the table.

"Royal Guard?" Nathaniel asked, after taking a gulp of his food, looking around at each of the students at the table.

Everyone looked between each other, unsure of what to respond, until Rebecca decided to talk, "It's a little.... side project we've decided to try." She looked at the others before continuing on and lowering her voice, "We become the vanguard that the Royal Family needs, a kind of, response team. We train, we work together, and next time there is an attack, we fight." The others just nodded in agreement, they couldn't have worded it better themselves.

"So what we're trying to say is," Garrett took a pause to finish his glass of water, "will you and Antonia join us?"

Nathaniel and Antonia looked at each other, not exchanging a word between them. Nathaniel knew that Antonia was going to say "yes." The first time they truly met, Antonia was beating down those soliders that attacked the mansion and refused to run away. Himself, there was a tinge of doubt, though perhaps doubt would be a poor way to say. The word "vanguard" echoed in his mind. The Oracle called me the Frozen Vanguard didn't she? Is this what she meant?. Still, it was a cause he would back. One he would be willing to join even without prophecies looming overhead. "Yeah, we're in," Nathaniel answered for the both of them.

"Cool, now that you're onboard..." Oliver turned around in his seat, "Hey!" he called out, "Austin, come over here man! Sit with us!" He motioned with his hand to the empty seat next to him. On the other side of the table Garrett and Kaido glared at Oliver who smiled widely at them. It was those two who had the beef with Austin, not the rest of them. Plus it wasn't very nice to exclude someone like that.

Austin heard Oliver yell, but didn't act like he did right away. Should I sit with Kaido and Garrett after what happened at lunch?

"Yes."
"No."

I wasn't asking you two. Austin made up his mind and turned to the table. He walked over without smiling and sat down beside Oliver. What could possibly happen?

"Hey Nate," Austin said awkwardly,"Antonia, Marilyn, Nix, Garret, Kaido."

Antonia waved politely at Austin, replying with a simple 'hello' while Marilyn and Nix nodded their heads, acknowledging him joining their table. Garrett and Kaido on the other hand simply looked sour and returned to their food albeit eating a little quicker than usual.

"Glad to see you are still around," Nathaniel said as Austin took a seat.

"Hey Austin," Oliver began, "how old are you? What about you, Nate?" Oliver wasn't just asking out of curiosity, with one quick look at Rebecca, she knew exactly where he was going with this.

"Twenty-one," Nathaniel said. "I can drink everywhere in the world now," he added, trying to make a light joke out of it.

"17." Austin winced at the number of the voice in his head he hated most, "But I'll be 18 later this month."

"That's no problem. There's a pub in Boston, only a short drive from here, which we like to visit from time to time. DId you two want to grab a pint tonight? Ruby will probably come with us." Oliver winked at Austin, Rebecca flicking him on the leg as she saw the suggestive gesture.

"Erhm, sure," Austin started, "But I don't really drink that often..."

"As long as they make a good rum and coke," Nathaniel said, cutting Austin off.

"Nice." Oliver said with a smile on his face. Dinner was over shortly after and everyone seemed to disperse from the dining room to either head downstairs to study, play games or generally muck around.

About an hour later, everyone met back in the garage; Rebecca had invited Ruby along to drinks with them as her an Oliver had discussed about trying to set Austin up with someone. With everyone in his truck, Oliver slid out of the garage and began driving towards Boston. It was about a ten minute drive through the curtains of blackness before they arrived at the city. The Royal Family liked to keep themselves separated from the city to avoid any casualties, but also so they weren't bothered by those who disliked them.

The pub was fairly quaint, nothing too special about it. Like most it hard bar stools near the bars where sad and grumpy men drunk deeply and rows of booths along the windows where groups of people talked loudly. Four pool tables split the room between the bar and the booths while a jukebox sat near the end of the bar playing some sort of country-western song about 'timber'. While Rebecca and Ruby took seats at the table, Antonia bound up to the bar, flashing her ID and ordered wine for the three girls, next to her Oliver ordered two jugs of larger and brought it over with three glasses.

Pouring a glass for himself, Austin and Nate, Oliver held his glass up in the air, "Cheers guys!" He toasted.

"Cheers." Austin repeated the toast. A few drinks wouldn't hurt, but could take some of the sting off of the past few days.

"Cheers!" Nathaniel said hearitly as he knocked back the drink. Shame it would take him a lot longer to feel anything, if he bothered to drink any more. The last time he was at a bar, he was discussing conspiracy theories with James. He wondered what he was doing. He was sure he was fine, and thinking about it wasn't going to change anything. Nathaniel had bigger things to focus on, but that would be for other day.

"So Austin, how're those voices today?" Oliver asked rather obtrusively.

Rebecca nudged Oliver in the side, "Austin, don't listen to my idiot boyfriend. I don't think I've seen your ability yet, what is it? If you don't mind me asking?" She glared at Oliver and his lack of privacy.

Austin took a sip of his larger and grimaced a little, both at the unusual concoction and Oliver's question. Rebecca's was a little bit easier to answer, so he chose to ignore the fact that Oliver said anything.

"I er, control light. Lumokinesis," he added, remembering the official name.

"That's so cool!" Ruby exclaimed sitting across the table next to him, "Haemokinesis; I control blood." Moving the conversation on, "Where are you from in America? Your accent is a dead give away." she asked him.

"Manhattan," said Austin, "New York City. Well, I grew up in Queens, but I've been in Manhattan for a while now. Where are you from?"

"Oh cool, like Spiderman," she smiled at Austin, Spiderman was perhaps her most favoured hero of all time, "I'm from Cardiff in Wales, my mum's from Libya hence my dark complexion." Ruby referred back to her rather dark skin tone.

Another couple of drinks later and Oliver suggested a game of pool. Thinking he was being funny, he split the balls and turns up into 'couples', Antonia and Nate would break and start, then Austin and Ruby and finally himself and Rebecca. What he didn't account for was Antonia to have used her ability beforehand.

"Watch this," she whispered in Nate's ear, as she broke, the number two ball fell into the right middle pocket. Their numbers were now 1-5. One by one she sunk each of ther balls followed by the black ball leaving everyone gaping at her prowess.

"I don't know if that's fair or considered cheating, using your abilities like that..." Oliver accused only to stop and have realised he had inadvertantly outed them in the bar. As he turned around he could hear the bar drop silent as all eyes turned on them.

A large burly man got off his stool, making his way over to them and taking the pool cue from Oliver's hand. "I suggest you all leave. Promptly." He said in a rather deep, booming voice.

Nathaniel made his way over to the man, slightly shoving Oliver out of the way. Perhaps it was the alcohol in his system, or the fact that for the first time in a while he felt as he was part of a group, but the man's behavior lit a spark in the man. He, for a time, frequented places like this and as a result, liked to think he had experience in dealing with people like him. Usually being civil worked, but Nathaniel for whatever reason wasn't feeling too civil. He looked at the man dead in the eye and snatched the pool cue from his hand. "I think we'll leave when we are good and ready. If that's okay with you."

The tension was rising in the bar, and Oliver refused to listen to Rebecca whom started pleading him to walk away. Finally giving up, her and Ruby left to go sit in the car, Rebecca having stolen the keys to Olivers truck from her boyfriend's pocket. Antonia meanwhile stood next to Nate, if he was going to get in a bar fight, so was she. She had always wanted to get into a brawl in a bar, despite being the only girl present, she could easily take down any number of the men here.

"Hey Austin," Oliver said, sounding rather cocky, "do you wanna get into a bar fight?" A wide, alcoholic induced grin stretching from ear to ear on his face.

"Do it." said Austin 17 immediately.

"No, dont listen to him, you're going to get your ♥♥♥♥ wrecked backwards."

"Don't be a little whiney b*tch, 8, Austin can kick every human in this bar's ass with his eyes closed."

"No I think you're overestimating his abilities on this one. Are you drunk? Can we get drunk?"

"F*ck dude you're the drunk one if anyone. Look at Austin Prime he's barely even buzzed."

"That doesn't mean that we shou-"

Austin turned to his imaginary friends and expelled them with a loud, "YOU DON'T F*CKING TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" Unfortunately every able bodied patron in the bar was around to hear that, and a haymaker to the face sent him to the floor. Austin sat up, furious, and everybody stood still for a second. Then mayhem commenced.

Oliver was stunned not only at Austin's rather strange outburst but also at the guy who flat out punched the kid in the face. It was as if the whole world stopped to watch Austin fall to the ground, but the moment he sat up, everything resumed and the place erupted into chaos. Oliver ducked as the man who had confronted them first swung a wide punch aimed at his head, dropping to his knees before springing back up. He shoved his shoulder into the man's stomach, propelling the both of them towards the bar. There was a sickening crunch, but the man seemed unfazed by it just as the two guys next to him sprung from their seats and each grabbed an arm of Oliver's. With a wicked smile on is face, the burly man pushed himself off the bar before laying punch after punch into Oliver's stomach.

Before the man could land another one, Nathaniel plowed into the man, driving his shoulder into his gut, spearing him through a table into the ground. As he rose from the ground, he hurled two wide punches to each of the men grabbing Oliver. However, as Nathaniel gloated at his surprising intoxicated accomplishment, another smaller man grabbed a bar stool and struck Nathaniel's back, bringing the larger man down to his knees. The smaller man lifted the bar stool for another overhead strike, but Nathaniel rolled out of the way. Though the alcohol was slowing his movements, he could now feel it in his head becoming dizzy at the sudden shaking of his head that had just occurred. He was now clearly disoriented with his eyes being glazed over as he attempted to regather himself.

Austin blocked another blow to his face as he tried to regain footing. He grabbed a barstool to try and lift himself up but someone pulled it out from under him and he fell to the ground again. The man then proceeded to use Austin's stool to attack Nate, who managed to roll out of the way of a follow-up blow. Angrily, he yanked the man's leg towards him, causing the barstool theif to fall on his ass. On all fours now, Austin bear crawled over him and laid an elbow into the man's nose, with a audible crunch as the only response. Austin stood up but someone grabbed him from behind and lifted him high in the air. Austin madly kicked out with his legs, striking another man in the gut. Now extremely pissed, the guy Austin kicked grabbed his legs and held them together.

"F*ck you!" Austin yelled as he struggled to get free, just not strong enough to do so.

Luckily Antonia was in the vicinity. It seemed that most of the guys in the bar were too focused on taking out the boys and not worrying about the small, agile girl that was slowly dropping bodies like flies. Seeing Austin being lifted high in the air, Antonia vaulted over the top of the pool table, launching her legs straight into the man's rotund gut. He let go of Austin to nurse his would, causing the poor boy to fall right into Antonia's out stretched hands. "Looks like I've saved your life twice now," She smiked at him before dropping Austin to his feet to pursue another fight.

Running towards her next target, Antonia soon caught herself slipping on a puddle of beer, only to graps the leg of the pool table and swing herself enough to take the legs from under two burly men. Pumping her fists in success, she soon lost herself in the crowd of men, overjoyed at being able to participate in such a brawl.

Having recovered from his attack after being freed by Nathaniel, Oliver grabbed two handles of beer from the bar much to the demise of the bartender and promptly smashed them around the heads of the two men who had been holding him. As they both slumped to the ground, blood now flowing from their heads, he aimed a kick into the kidneys of the unconscious guy who had started this all before jumping over his body and looking around for someone to hit.

Nathaniel regained his composure and raised from his kneeling position, having somehow avoided most of the ensuing choas. As he stood tall, he knocked one guy in the teeth and another he delievered a solid kick to the gut. Another slugged Nathaniel in the face, but with everything dulling his senses, he barely felt it. He headbutted that one and plowed his way to the door, realizing the waves of angry patrons was virtually endless.

Austin backhanded a shorter man in the face and followed with a left uppercut under the chin. Sending the man reeling, Austin turned and ducked below a punch. He swept the feet out from under his assailant and finished him off with a falling elbow to his neck. He then sprung himself onto his feet and blocked two hooks from the guy he backhanded earlier, and countered with a karate chop to the juggular. Before he could celebrate his victory by rejoining the fray, blue lights erupted outside and men began to scramble from the pub.

Seeing the lights, Oliver tapped Nate, Austin and Antonia on the shoulder, motioning for them all to follow him out a side door. Oliver had come to this bar countless times before, and gotten into bar fights here too, so he knew the general layout of the place. Charging through the crowd, he ducked into a hallway that led to the bathroom. Passing by them he kept on going until he turned another corner only to bust through the emergency exit; sending the alarm wailing. Looking to his sides, Oliver was anxious to get away, least they be taken to the station, but his saving grace came in the form of Rebecca flooring his truck down the alleyway. Smiling at his girlfriend, he waited for her to stop.

"Get in, quickly!" She ordered them all as Oliver took the opportunity to climb into the deck of his truck, holding his hand out to help the others jump in. Ignoring his open hand, Antonia leapt at the truck and vaulted into the deck truiumphantly. Nathaniel, not as elegantly, practically fell into the car, fidgeting into a comfortable position. He melted into his seat when he finally got in, feeling his head spin in the confined space of the car. Austin grabbed Oliver's hand and slid in beside his fellow brawler. When everyone was practically in, Rebecca planted boot and the truck zoomed off into the night, back to the mansion.

Nathaniel, of all of them, wasted no time in trying to get to his room. Everything was pounding and he wanted sleep. For whatever reason, all the alchol he had consumed (which he lost count of) was gradually building up. This made every step painful. Antonia quickly noticed this and helped him lumber over to his room. Without bothering to take care of his nightime ritual, Antonia just threw him onto his bed and let him sleep, returning to her own room with a chuckle.

Austin did likewise, making a beeline to his room. He fell onto his bed face up, head in hands. At the foot of the bed Austin 17 and 8 play fought each other.

"Bam! Pow! Dude Austin was like SHOOSH!" 17 reenacted Austin's backhand on 8, who pretended to fly and crash through the window. He jumped back in with a flying kick like Antonia's, sending 17 reeling. Austin snapped his fingers and his ghosts disappeared, and he rolled over and turned the lights off with his power before falling asleep.
​

 

[Retro Bug]

The Museum of Cairo, Cairo, Egypt

November 12th, 2012

Names, really? The entire situation felt idiotic like there was no way in hell she was going to call Imogen any sort of royal title or Oakley a knight. Knights were valiant and queens had class those two did not fit those description. Devon was a mutt however and klepto was a klepto so those names would stick. Thayne was bothersome and Dom no longer existed in her book.

"Call me..." Delta pretended to take a moment to come up with a name, "Actually don't call me anything, I really don't want to hear from any of you."

Rolling her eyes at their ridiculous names but not bothering to complain about them, Imogen held up her phone-looking-walky-talky and shook it in her hand.

"Don't lose these. Otherwise you'll get left behind. On the other hand, one less mouth to feed." She shrugged, smirking at them before tucking the phone into her pocket. She then played with her face for a moment, and Oakley watched in awe as Imogen's face became mallable like clay. Soon, she looked much older, around Mr. Baumann's age, though the rest of her body was still of her twenty-five year old self (Oakley had to wonder if that was her real age, or her face that she showed everyone was even her own). "C'mon lovelies, let's go find us a box."

She lead the way, heading towards the front doors with Emery, Delta and Oakley in tow. So, Emery and Imogen were meant to look like parents, and Delta and her sisters? She felt a lump in her throat at the thought of Delta realising this. Were they meant to act like sisters? Perhaps Delta's usual hostility was the way to go.

When they reached the doors and were prompted to pay entry, Imogen handed over foreign looking money (Oakley had never seen Egyptian currency before) and they were allowed entrance into the museum. The infrastrucuture was a grand spectacule along with the amount of exhibits seemed endless to Delta. Each wall was designed to fit the each of the displays, the work that went into each room wasn't overlooked. She had never been in a museum before and wondered if they all looked this outstanding. However, they weren't here to look at the wallpaper or stare at rocks and artifacts that were a thousand years old.

"Which way, magic man?" Imogen said to Mr. Baumann, her hands on her hips. Oakley's stomach churned as she stared at Imogen's face, the thought of having her own face mallable like that making her sick. She wanted to look away, but she couldn't. It was so eerie, how alike it was to Imogen's old face but... not? Imogen glanced at Oakley for a second, rolling her eyes. "Don't you dare throw up on my feet."

Emery concentrated for a moment, making contact with Imogen's bare palm. He frowned at her almost immediately. "The thing you hold most dear to you right now, it's not a box. It's something I can't take from you. It's your ability."

Imogen groaned. "Can't you see my top five?"

"Uhh..."

"Ugh." Imogen turned to Oakley, smiling sweetly. "Honey, can you please lend our friend here your lovely necklace so we can get this ball rolling?" Oakley's eyes widened, looking down at the Librarian's locket and back up to Imogen, shaking her head.

"N-no, um, how do you know what it is?"

"Anything that shade of blue is unmistakable. Please, sweetie? It'll only be for a short while. Then you can have your safety blanket back."

Delta's irritation was beginning to show as she looked at all the exhibits and displays like someone who would come to a crappy museum would. The fact that Oakley was now forcing her to do this longer than necessary made her speak up, "Oakley, if you don't give the man your necklace I will rip it off then crush it afterwards, got it?" She spoke in a hushed tone with her half smile on her face so someone who passed by wouldn't think twice about their conversation.

Oakley whimpered a little, unclipping her necklace and slowly handing it over to Mr. Baumann. She felt her control loosen as soon as it left her fingers, regretting leaving her coat in the van. Her breathing became manual now, keeping her pace. Her hand started to tingle, and she knew that the armour would eventually grow in time. But at the moment, she would be ok, tucking her hands into her pant pockets.

"How's that, can you see it now?" Imogen said, tapping her foot impatiently. Emery paused for a moment, furrowing his brow as if he was mentally shuffling through Imogen's things she held most dear to her, eventually opening his eyes and pointing further into the museum. "Can you see where it is?"

"It's blurry. Since you don't actually know what it looks like. But I can feel it resonating downstairs."

"So the archives. Nothing exact? Like a room number or anything? Not even what it looks like?"

"No. But it doesn't feel too far away, I can guide you which way."

She cursed, pushing her glasses up her nose. "I guess we better go get some uniforms then. That might be fun. Let's go find some."

"You mean, we have to wear some disgusting person's clothing?" The thought of that sent shivers down Delta's spine. Sure it was a good plan to dress in the correct uniforms to gain access to the basement.

"Better than being in some disgusting prison." Imogen shrugged.

"Well might as watch how a pro does it," Delta said with a smirk. Before the rest of the group had a say Delta was off to find the nearest guards on duty. Her expression changed from smirk to a more worried look. A victim was in the doorway between two displays and was slouching against the wall once his eyes locked onto Delta he stood up.

"Mister, these girls are fighting in the bathroom! There's-" She stopped purely for the dramatic effect, she imagined she was someone more like Oakley... pathetic. The guard nodded and proceeded to radio in backup as he followed Delta except she didn't know where the bathrooms actually were. "There's blood everywhere. I think they're Atlantean! You have to hurry!" The big bad wolf in sheep's clothing was a fitting description of Delta as she followed the signs that clearly pointed out the bathrooms a detail she had missed during their entrance. Two more guards had met them at the door Delta only hoped Imogen and co were close behind. Taking care of two guards was a piece of cake, three? That was a whole different ballgame.

The guards yelled they were coming in and Delta followed suit. The look on their faces when they saw the lack of fighting or anyone for that matter was absolutely priceless. "Oh, did I say girls are fighting in the bathroom and blood is everywhere? I meant a girl would be fighting and there was going to be blood everywhere." Delta slammed her arm into the head of the nearest guard that she had crystallized prior to the swung, which catching the guard off his game left him unconscious. With the element of surprise now gone Delta would have to work harder to dispatch and relieve the remaining two of their garments. One guard fired his taser and it hit Delta square in the abdomen, also known as the section of Delta's body she always crystallized first.

"That's cute," She grabbed the wires and yanked them toward her causing the guard to stumble forward. A twist of her body allowed her to kick the guy in the face with her heels and that was enough to leave him helpless on the floor. Why did the last guy always put up the biggest fight? He threw a punch right away only to have Delta grab his wrist with her hand and crush it with all her might causing the guard to fall to his knees. Kneeing him beneath the jaw probably sliced his tongue in half but since Delta was in a generous mood that's all she did. Well, not true, she knocked him in the head with the butt of her gun and then proceeded to do the same to the second guard who was still very much conscious. Stripping the clothes off these people would be left to Imogen or Oakley she had done pretty much most of the heavy lifting.

"Nicely done." Imogen clapped her hands after watching the show. She had intentionally held out a hand for Oakley as the fight started to stop her from interrupting, knowing that one, Oakley would ruin it and two, her armour would have gotten the best of her. "It's too bad they were three men. Oh well, I work with what I've got." She leant down, finding the most feminine looking guard and and moulded her face. It took her a few minutes (Oakley felt herself feel sick in the process again), but she went from middle-aged woman to male guard with breasts. Out of one of her pockets, she pulled a long strip of fabric (like a bandage) and wrapped it around her bust. It didn't do the most specifc job of making her look like a man, but her face was all she needed to get past them.

"So, three uniforms and four of us, who is not going to be playing dress up today?" Her eyes fell straight on Oakley, the shortest, and Imogen smirked at her. "Sorry sweetie, you're playing lookout today, so act like you just punched three guards in the face and walk with us. We'll head down to the archives and you make sure nobody goes down there after us. And I guess the rest of the entourage can head in now too." As she passed uniforms to Emery and Delta, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, holding the button on the side and spoke into it. "You can come in now. Not all at once, obviously."

Imogen obviously knew her way around, walking down the halls with a professional look on her face. Oakley made a face, trying to look in trouble, but she couldn't help but feel like she had no idea what she was doing. She'd never really been in trouble before. Nor had she robbed a high profile museum during the day, but, y'know, priorities. As expected putting on the clothing was gross and the sooner it came off the quicker she could take a shower. Delta on the other hand felt at ease like this was her natural element. The adrenaline still coursing through her veins from the fight made it that much easier. If she was going to be the best she was going to have to do better at missions and make sure the higher ups noticed her for more than just... killing. Her drive kept her focused on how this mission would be completed even if Delta had to do it all herself.

Using the key card on her, Imogen swiped through, snatching the keycard danging from Emery's pocket and handing it to Oakley, adding a "just in case" and she, Emery and Delta disappeared behind the door. Oakley poked the card into her pocket and took a seat at a nearby bench, pretending to be doing nothing or waiting for someone, she wasn't quite sure what.

The archive halls were white and boring, the only thing decorating them were the doors which were equal lengths apart. Emery lead the way this time, his head up in the air as if he was looking at or smelling something. There was nobody else down here, which surprised Imogen. She expected to pass maybe a curator or fellow guard but nope, nobody. She had picked today rather than another day of the week as it had the least amount of people rostered on, but she didn't expect nobody. These were priceless artefacts for heaven's sake, she could make millions on just a stupid necklace. And maybe she would.

"This one." Emery stopped, pointing at door G-A with the words 'Private Collection" underneath. Were you allowed to store private collections here? It just seemed... well, not unsafe, but unnecessary for an overpriced storage unit. Whatever. Imogen swiped the card through, but was denied access. What? She noticed the number lock on the side, but surely guards were allowed universal access? Well, actually, now that she had thought that aloud, that just sounded dumb.

"Two, One, One, Two, Two, Zero, One, Two." Adeline's voice came through Emery's phone, which was on his jacket. Imogen punched it in, and was allowed access. She scowled, snatching the phone from Emery.

"Your father better not have duped us."

There was only silence from the other end and Imogen thrust the phone back to Emery's chest, opening the door. The room smelt... old. And musky. Like your grandmother's house, but worse. There were various paintings, scrolls, and bits of crap lining the entire room, but it was decorated like the room was expecting company. The floor was laid with a carpet, leading up to a crate-sized box, decorated with swirls and (what Imogen assumed was) Atlantean crap. She went straight for it, ignoring the other priceless artefacts, quickly inspecting it. It was locked, that was for sure. A few tugs at the lid confirmed that. She whipped out a knife and jabbed the box as hard as she could, the blade not even leaving a dent. She made a face and turned back to her group. "Looks like we'll be hauling the entire thing out." She flipped out her phone-radio. "Yo, Mutt and Brimstone. Time to start making a scene. Otto and Reaper, start taking out cameras. Preferably ones that will mask our exit. The door to the archive is just past the cloakroom, you'll see Knight there. When you're done, she'll let you through the door."
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