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Atlantis Arising [M] [Most Original 4Q '11] [Best Veteran 1Q '12]

Nikolai Afon - AUP Headquarters, France

"Mr. Afon!" A voice shouted out from among dozens of computer towers littering the room, cables snaking across the floor threatening to trip unsuspecting people. A man stood up from behind one of the computer towers, revealing who could only be Wade Harrison. He appeared to be in his mid thirties, although he was rather skinny, perhaps he worked out to stay fit. He had short dark hair, and a shaggy looking goatee. He was dressed casually, jeans and a tee shirt. He knelt and plugged in one last power cable, and then walked over to Nikolai and Cooper. Nikolai couldn't place his nationality, perhaps American.

Cooper formally introduced Nikolai to the man, confirming Nikolai's suspicions, "Nikolai, this is Mr. Harrison."

Harrison immediately shook his head and responded, "Mr. Harrison was my father. Please, my name is Wade. I'll be your tutor for today. And this is your classroom," gesturing to the many computers around the room. "Thanks for bringing him down here Cooper, I'll take it from here."

Cooper took his leave, giving Nikolai a "Good luck", then taking his leave, closing the door behind him. Wade put his hand on Nikolai's shoulder and looked him in the eyes. Wade's eyes were a sort of hazel green, his Atlantean tattoo spiraling from one of his ears and making it's way down his neck. "I've spent all day setting this all up for you," nodding towards the mess of computers, clearly proud of his set up. "Each computer is set up to its own router. The computers are placed into twelve different groups with a different amount of computer in each group and each group is connected to its own router and then that router is connected to a modem. Basically, it's a family tree of computers!"

Nikolai had always been computer geek, loving technology even before his ability, but this was an impressive set up, even for him. Nikolai nodded his approval, saying, "Quite the elaborate set up you have here!" He wondered what Wade would have him do with the computers, whether he would hack them like he did on the plane, or some other exercise.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry," Wade letting go of Nikolai's shoulder. "We've been paired up for now because of our similarity in abilities. In the same way you can travel through electronics, I can travel through a person's thoughts. It's exceptionally hard and I am definitely no master but I can try and help you control it and speed the process up. Annie was telling me of your exercise on the plane so, I kind of did that, but bigger!"

Now it made sense why the two were paired up. So Nikolai was to do some sort of thing similar to on the plane, except now much more difficult, and interesting. "Alright Wade. Shall we get started then? What do you want me to do exactly?"
 

HELENA ANDERSSON - AUP Headquarters, France

Helena gave him a weak smile back. "Yeah," was all she could think of saying. "So where will we be training?" She tried to change the subject. Even though she was still a bit wary, she admitted willingly that she had overreacted before.

"I think I know what things I want to train. About my ability, I mean. I'm pretty fit, physically, so you don't have to worry about having to train me that way. I do parkour, you know," she told Atticus. She wasn't really sure why she was telling him that... well, maybe it could be good to know for the AUP. "I want to be able to stay invisible for longer times... and without having to put almost all of my focus into it. And I want to be able to make other things go invisible at will, instead of randomly as it seems to be now. Then, perhaps eventually I could make other people invisible along with myself. Or what do you think?"

How much could he know about her ability anyways? She was a bit puzzled about Emil giving Atticus the task of training her instead of Natalia; he had a tail, that wasn't really an ability similar to hers. And he was quite a new recruit as well, if Helena had understood the dinner conversation correctly. Not that she was the one to judge people before she had seen their worth. Atticus had seemed like a careless but brave person so far. Usually, that wasn't the kind of people she disliked.​
 

Cira & Alex Gaile - Under the Vatican, Rome, Italy


Should've figured he had a power suited for insomniacs. As Otto led Cira down, she pulled a book out about James' experience as a pirate. "It's interesting," she said, and he didn't doubt it. He memorized the journals around where she pulled it out, trying not to mess up the Librarian's ordering and screwing with the memory ability's accuracy.

Apologizing for Cira's father, James included a promise of a delicious breakfast before getting into training.

With what I've seen so far, I can't honestly doubt anything this guy puts his mind on. Cira was half-jokingly expecting a restaurant in the morning.

They were led to separate floors, split by a spiraling staircase and containing what were pretty much miniature homes without the kitchen. The Librarian must have collected quite a bit of cash over the years to afford all this luxury, and any old coins could probably sell for thousands or even millions. Thanking him for the hospitality and warning of visitors as the Librarian left to his own devices, Alex and Cira went to two different stories, one to read, and one to use the bathroom and go to bed. For some reason, Alex wore pajama pants under his clothes, probably for sleeping on the plane.

Sitting down in the lazy chair on his floor, Cira opened up the book Otto gave him. The Pirate Life, the cover had on it.

Oh~, with a yo-ho-ho, the pirate's life is (arguably) fun to be, the pirate's life is (debatably) fun for me.~ It was read in a sing-songy tone, clear that James enjoyed himself. Cannot say I enjoy myself like the others when it comes down to pillaging fellow seafarers. But the fresh, salty air and the open sky without a fear of storms due to a rugged and sturdy ship, there is certainly little not to be happy about when it comes to a life on the sea. Except maybe the hygiene, or lack of, so to speak. The breaths of my shipmates all reek of rum and fish of all sorts. I refuse to get started on the latrines.

Okay, perhaps later.​
 
Brian Sheppard - Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England


"Okay Brian, follow me," Cobalt said after the pair finished eating. The older man led Brian out of the room to their destination.

The Oracle, thought Brian. An oracle sees into the future so I assume this would be her power. Obviously, why would he be wrong? The teen looked to the man beside him, hoping to ask him a question before meeting the woman but instead saw the man shaking as they walked to the Oracle's room. His emotions were on a borderline of fear, surprising the young teen before walking into the room, where upon walking in, he saw the oldest woman he had and probably would ever see.

She was bony and withered, only illuminated by a single candle which gave her the illusion of being much, much older than she really looked. She sat in a cross-legged position and only opened her eyes after an introduction by Cobalt. They were a cloudy white, looking as if they had cataracts and were blind. The thing is, she saw Brian. Whether it be because she wasn't blind or some mystical power, he didn't care. He just knew it was plain creepy.

Purposely letting his mind reach her's, he looked for any sign of emotion from the woman and found none. It was oddly maddening. Is she hiding them, he thought. Everyone and every being has emotions but why can't I see her's?

The woman soon pointed her finger at him, speaking in an old dialect the teen had never heard before. Seconds later she switched to English. "You must decide in the end whether you will stand up for others, or stand up for yourself," she wheezed before putting down her hands and closing her eyes.

Cobalt once again bowed to the woman and Brian awkwardly did the same before being brought out of the room. Again, Cobalt asked the young man if he had any questions before walking forward.

I better not ask about my prophecy, he thought rather shocked. It's something I need to find out myself. "Well, who exactly is she?" he asked. "I mean I understand she is the Oracle but there seems to be something else about her."
 

Michael Cale and Oakley North - Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England

Michael turned his head to see Oakley standing in the doorway, having to blink a couple of times to make sure it was actually her. It took him a few seconds to register, but he quickly covered and beckoned her in, swinging his feet over the side of the bed and motioning for her to sit beside him. Sweat started to bead down his forehead, the sister he had not talked to in so long, there were so many words he wanted to say, so many things he wanted to discuss, but they all felt like bile in his mouth.

"H-hi Oakley," he managed to choke out, "what uh, what brings you here?"

Oakley took the seat, though didn't sit as close as she could, leaving a little space between them. She kept her eyes on her hands for a moment, which were clasped together on her lap, before she met eyes with Michael. They looked like they hadn't aged a day since she last saw him. And she could hold it back no more. She grabbed him, hugging him tightly with her head on his chest as she began to sob furiously.

"I'msosorryMichaelIreallyamIwantedtoseeyoubutIcouldn'tbecauseithurtsomuchbutImissyouandI'mreallysorry," she gurgled, her words lost between her tears. She took a deep breath, trying to catch her sentence. "I'm really, really sorry. I don't know what to do anymore."

Michael was shocked, he hadn't been ready for this much less anything close to what was happening and did not know what to do. After a few seconds of being stunned by Oakley's outburst, he wrapped his arms around her, visions from their childhood playing across Michael's mind bringing tears to his eyes.

"Shh," he whispered softly to her, "it's all right, Oakley, I'm here now and that's all that matters. It wasn't your fault at all, you couldn't help what happened, I was the one who failed you." Michael recalled seeing a young Oakley crying at Madrid International Airport as he boarded his flight to the United Kingdom; the last moment he saw her before now.

He gently began to rock, trying to calm her like he did when she came back after being bullied at school. Tears welled up in his eyes, slowly creeping down his cheeks as he inwardly cursed himself for not being there for her as she grew up. "I-I don't know what to do either," he managed to stammer through quaking breaths, "but we have each other now, and that's all that matters." Michael hugged Oakley tighter.

Oakley stayed silent for a minute, letting her tears out. It was good to just cry it out. She needed to, but had been too afraid that something would happen with her armour. She also spent the short minute wondering what would happen afterwards. What would she do when she needed to give the Crystal back? She knew that growing too dependant on it would mean that she would have no control over her armour but... and Michael? Would she go on avoiding him? Would this encounter grant her the peace and closure she needed and would she no longer get nervous around him? Maybe she just needed to chill out. It wasn't so easy though.

Oakley pulled back, wiping her eyes and nose with a sniff. She looked back at Michael, his eyes also glassy from tears. She let out a small giggle, she always thought her big brother had been too tough for tears. Apparently not.

"So, um, what's new?"

"Uh," Michael was stumped, a lot had happened in the intermittent time between their last encounter many years ago and the stroke of fate that landed them back together, "so uh, I can kinda see through walls," he didn't really know how to explain his ability and it was, for some reason, the only thing that came into his head.

"So, how about you?"

"Oh," Oakley scratched her nose, not really expecting an answer like that. She did mean what he had been doing with his life, but whatever. She gave him a slightly longer answer. "Well, I was in France before this at the academy. Then, uh, this happened and I was living with dad for a little. And now I'm here."

She rubbed her face with her left hand. "Where do you live now?"

"I have a student flat in Lancaster, nearly finished university before all this started happening." Michael hardly missed his flat, they were probably wondering where he was, but he doubted that they would care in the end. It had only been a couple of days, the rent wasn't going to be payed until next week, so they wouldn't worry at all.

"How is your father?" It came out a little colder than intended, but Michael felt estranged enough from the man to denounce any sort of parental influence.

"Father?" she said, frowning. He was their father. She knew they had their debate, but surely Michael had dropped it. She knew her father was sorry, though she wasn't sure what Michael thought. "He's... good. He's living in London at the moment. I... kind of abandoned him yesterday."

"Oh," was Michael's only reply, he hadn't known his father was in the same country, if the man ever meant to make amends of Michael, he hadn't made any sort of move yet. But then again, he was probably in the same boat as Michael, not knowing where the other was and waiting for them to make a move.

"So, what do you think of our prophecies?" Michael figured they needed to talk about it eventually.

"Oh, yeah," Oakley had no idea what to say. She had almost forgotten about it until Michael reminded her. Betray those who are closest to her? She had deduced before that she had no one. No one yet. "Yeah, I don't know. Um, what about you?"

"I-I-I really don't know what to make of it, if it comes true, it comes true, I guess..." he trailed off, he really did not know what to think of it, and although he had practically said that he didn't care about it, he was worried about getting close to anyone. A brief scene played out in his mind where the two of them ended up yelling each other, in another instance they were fighting. In his mind, it was as if it had already happened.

"It's getting late, after the last two days, I think sleep in a proper bed would be good for the both of us."

"I guess so," Oakley said, confirming it with a small yawn. She only meant for their reunion to be brief; she had to give back Mr. Oak's crystal and avoid getting caught by Kieran at the same time. Not that she feared Kieran's consequences, she just didn't want to be seen as the person that lied all the time. Not that she did, her oath in French was not what Kieran thought it was. "When we talk next... It might not be the same without this." She looked at the crystal in her left hand, opening her palm to show Michael.

Michael looked at the crystal in her hand, he had seen it around the necks of Blayze and River and wondered how the little crystal could have such a big impact on people. It did however seem similar in colour to the one the Royal Family had lifted into the sky a week ago. "Maybe, I guess, it could be different..." Michael didn't know how to respond.

Oakley got up off the bed, heading for the door, she was a bit hesitant leaving, but it was late, and the both of them needed sleep. "Um, good night..." she said at the door.

"Yeah, good night, Oakley..." Michael mumbled loud enough for her to hear, it was weird saying her name after having not said it for such a long time.
 

Daniel "The Directive" Cain – Syndicate HQ, Birmingham, England


"I suppose you two have a bit to catch up on," he spoke towards Adrian and October, the two standing arm and arm with each other, "go grab what sleep you can," he finished giving a nod.

"Thanks Boss," Adrian said, waving goodbye to Erika as well. The two headed off to the rooms, discussing the things they had been doing since they last saw each other. Although most of upper management despised it, Daniel thought it was alright that they had a relationship, after what October had been through, she needed something normal in her life.

"Jericho, make yourself at home, the rooms are through that door, I'm betting the jet-lag is probably catching up to you," he motioned at the door that the others had passed through, before turning to Erika, "come, join me on the couches, make yourself comfortable and I can tell you what we are." Daniel led her over to the couches, sitting on one of the couches and relaxing slightly from the days stress.

"My name is Daniel Cain, however everyone refers to me as the Directive, and essentially I am the one that makes sure you all are somewhat happy and liaison between you guys and upper management. The company itself is called the Syndicate, although the façade we run under is simply an insurance company. You are here because the Syndicate has information on you and your ability, and we believe that you will be able to aid us in times to come." In all honesty, Daniel knew very little about the company's true motives, only what they wanted him to know, and as long as they didn't bother him while he was doing his job, then he was happy not to bother them. "Here we will help train you to get a better grasp on your ability and give you a safe haven to live, however later on we may need to recruit you and your ability for certain tasks, tasks we won't know about until they come up."

Daniel continued to watch Erika, Adrian had managed to convince her to come a long, he didn't want to put that all to waste and scare her off; really, they needed her. "I have been a bit brief, sorry about that, it is pretty late though." He glanced up at the clock, noting that it was bordering on midnight, "Do you have any questions before we head off to bed?"
 

Atticus Forsberg - AUP Headquarters, France

They all entered the elevator together (the second set. There were a total of three elevators in the AUP building though one was out of order), Atticus, Helena, Natalia and Annie and the doors closed shut behind them. With a shudder and a hum, the elevator could be felt moving down. Then, Helena started asking questions. Whoa, was she eager for someone who had cold feet ten minutes ago.

"Um, haha, well, the training rooms are below. Mr. Bernot's floor is the ninth floor and the hanger is ground floor and then... uh," Atticus stopped to think for a moment. Remembering stuff had never been his strong suit. He only really needed floor eight and floor four. And maybe floor nine. Floor eight was one of the 'housing' floors (floor eight and seven both housed AUP members and their guests) and the fourth floor was IIC; Information, Intel and Communication. That was where he usually got briefed or where he could talk to people, like Annie.

"Floor three is the training halls," Annie piped up, blinking slowly. She looked deathly tired and it was heading well into evening. Atticus could never understand how she stayed up so long, he could barely pull an all nighter and that was when he was pumped full of Red Bull or something. The floor stopped at the fifth floor and Natalia readied herself to get out, spinning Annie's wheelchair around to exit.

"This is the Health and Wellbeing floor," Natalia told Helena with a nod. "I'll see you soon, Ms. Andersson. Don't get lost, Atticus," she narrowed her eyes at Atticus as the elevator doors shut behind them. Atticus quickly stabbed level three. At least he wouldn't forget.

"I haven't been training," he admitted in Swedish, trying to air up the mood a little. "I had plenty experience with fighting and stuff so they didn't bother doing any exercises. My tail has felt practically like an arm from the start anyway so it's not like I needed any training." He shrugged. "I'm just a guy. Natalia will come back down to help you with your invisibility stuff."

The doors opened at the third floor and they both stepped out. Oh, crap, which room did they have to go to? An empty one, surely? Mr. Bernot hadn't told them anything specific. The first room right in front of them was 3A but as he poked his head up at the door window, he saw a million computers, Wade, Nikolai and Cooper having a conversation, though it was short lived as Cooper turned around and exited. Atticus jumped out of the way, a little stunned as Cooper gave him a sly look.

"Spying, are we Atticus?"

"D'you know which rooms are free?" Atticus said in English, ignoring whatever kind of tease that was.

"Nobody else is training at this hour, so they all should be. 3C is the biggest and the cleanest today, I've been told," Cooper kept walking towards the elevator. "Good luck, Ms. Andersson."

"Thanks," Atticus gave a wave and led Helena down a hall to room 3C. As Cooper said, 3C was pretty decent. A giant, blank and boring room about two thirds the size of a football field. What could they possibly need with all this room. It echoed loudly as well, Atticus' footsteps bouncing around the room. He held back the childish instinct to yell out something stupid; he didn't want to seem that dumb. "I guess this is it." He said it quite loudly to satisfy his inner child.

The doors banged loudly open suddenly as Natalia made her entrance. Gee, that was quick.

"Oh, good, Cooper said you'd be in here," Natalia proceeded to take off her coat and placed it neatly on the floor towards the wall. "Would you like to start right away, Ms. Andersson?"

"How's Annie?"

"Gerard put her right to sleep almost immediately."

Atticus felt his presence unwanted but didn't leave the room, instead taking a seat next to Natalia's coat. It looked expensive. Natalia whipped her head around, giving Atticus an eyebrow raise.

"Will you be staying, Atticus?"

"I got nothing better to do," he shrugged. She sighed heavily and turned back to Helena.

"Is he too distracting? Do you want him to leave?" Natalia asked the Swede.​
 
Erika - Syndicate
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------​

Erika gave a last glance towards Adriane and October, arm 'n arm like they weren't afraid of being judged. She got the impression that the community that existed here was very open. Or, at least, that was what she might assume. She met Adrian's wave with a knowing smile and a brief nod of the head, acknowledging him. It felt more /right/ than waving, somehow. It was this point that Erika turned her attention to those that remained, namely the one that began talking. After a brief conversation with 'Jericho' Daniel turned his attention to Erika and asked her to take a seat on the couches. Erika obliged, moving over to sit down next to the male. She crossed her legs and leaned back in a relaxed manner. Excitement over the prospect of what lay ahead was keeping her focused and awake. Before she could start with the barrage of questions Daniel started answering them, or at least a couple of the obvious ones such as whom he was. When he finished however he offered her a chance to ask her own questions. Finally! She knew he was tired, but there were a few things she was intent on asking before she went to bed. The way Daniel had phrased these tasks made them sound a bit ominous, as if they were legally binding or something.

"Well... How does this training work, and... does that mean I basically have to help out around the place with whatever needs doing?"

Erika paused for a moment before abruptly holding up a finger as if to ask for a second.

"Oh! Two more things..? Is there a library nearby, or a bookstore? ...Just reading material in general? Also, if I get new questions later on where can I go for that..?"

Erika seemed thoughtful. She was trying to think of anymore questions she wanted answered right then and there as opposed to ones that could wait. After a brief moment she seemed to settle with what she'd already asked, allowing herself to simply listen. To her this was what she wanted to know for the immediate future. She also probably wanted to know where specifically she was staying. She assumed he would tell her that before long on his own anyway though. It seemed like something that didn't need to be asked to her anyway.
 
Jericho Heiko: Syndicate Headquaters?

Jericho made a face when Leon (his name was Leon, it turned out) put this emphasis on his name. It was annoying, to say the least. Not that he was going to rage and harp about it, but... What's wrong with Jeri? It was a valid name.

"Give it a day. You'll see just how important I am." Yeah, right. Jeri was skeptical on Leon's proclaimed importance, but was interested in what he would do to prove something, if he would at all. He waited to hear a little bit about Mr. Important's power. Leon lifted his hands, as if to start the show, but instead he put them behind his head and yawned. The story of his tease was that he was tired and he'd show them on "their next assignment". Jericho raised a brow. Next assignment?

The thought of having an assignment and one that would require the use of his powers concerned him. An assignment for what exactly? He couldn't imagine, but like before, he felt that it would be nothing that he'd find necessarily enjoyable. Neither would the law. Jericho shook the thought out of his head, not wanting to think about what he could be possibly doing. He had no competence with his power, maybe they wouldn't put him on anything. Jeri heard a ding! from the elevator and looked behind him. It was about that same time that Jeremy and then Archie left.

Jericho's eyes went wide when he saw the people come out of the elevator. Inside the elevator was a man with... with... Holy sh*t! Four motherf*cking arms! Okay, sorry, but... His idea of an Atlantean superpower or ability or whatever wasn't some freak of nature mutation like that. It wasn't even close to pretty either. The extra arms located under his ribs were small little T-Rex arms that were none too pleasant to look at. F*ck! It was like looking at a goddamn alien or some disabled kid. You knew you weren't supposed to stare, but... But it was so d*mn hard! I mean... Look at this guy! Forget what those things were supposed to do, he was half afraid he might touch him with one of those on purpose or by accident. This wasn't going to be something he was going to get used to. Jericho wondered if there were more people in the Syndicate who was freaky like that, or even in the entire Atlantean population. There must have been, since this guy existed. It begged the question of why this guy was even here! Really! That didn't look useful at all! All it did was make you look like you needed an amputation (and Jericho wouldn't have minded if they gave this guy one either). Jericho's stomach turned a little. Holy sh*t. He hoped he wouldn't eat with him for breakfast.

Oh yeah. There was this girl there too. She was astonishingly less interesting to the eye as four-arms over there. She has extraordinarily long hair and many, many freckles. He never understood why girls seemed to like their hair to be just as tall as them. He was sure not even girls understood that. Rapunzel's life wasn't exactly the best to imitate. October exclaimed a name and once again, his attention was taken away from Mini-Rapunzel and back to Two-Arms-Too-Many. There was an extreme moment of shock and stupefication when October threw her arms around--who he now assumed was--Adrian and planted a big kiss on his cheek. Seriously? Godd*mn!

That girl had a weird *ss fetish. That, or she really enjoyed Adrian's ability: Manipulating four key points at once, and with great ease. Anyways, the fact that he had four arms just seemed like it would override everything. Maybe she really, really enjoyed the look of deformed men and women, or maybe she was a chronic visitor of 4chan and got desensitized. Then again, she could also have baggage. Not just any baggage, the freaky, serial-killer kind of baggage you always see in the movies or channels like Fear.net and SciFi (or was it SyFy now? (he really hated that logo change)). He'd just do his best to stay out of it...

"Jericho--" Eh? Jeri looked towards Daniel or the Directive or whatnot. He'd totally forgotten he was there. "--make yourself at home, the rooms are through that door, I'm betting the jet-lag is probably catching up to you." Oh yeah, probably. Though, he didn't feel it right now. Maybe the difference of sitting on a plane for ten hours or so to getting snatched out of thin air and then suddenly somewhere else, was the difference. It'd probably kick in tomorrow. What a great day that will be. And speaking of jet lag... Where in the world was he!? He never got the chance to ask. For some reason, he never thought to concern himself with it until just this moment. Now that he was thinking about it, he had a chance to get worried about it. Instead of using this area to worry about, he nodded to the Directive and gave a short goodbye and goodnight to him and the girl (whom he found out was named Erika from Directive talking to her).

He left and went through the previously mentioned doors. Jericho tried to think of the possible places he could be. He quickly made the general assumption that he was somewhere in England. Most everyone seemed to have an accent (except for Jeremy who sounded like his was Canadian or something and was steadily making that transition into Brit-hood). Yeah... He was probably in England. But where in England? Everyone seemed to already know, since they didn't ask. He would assume that Leon already knew, but Stevens...? Well, that kid was just... God. F*cking Stevens.

Jericho walked down the hallway of rooms. He assumed that he would have to find an empty one. He didn't want to since that would mean opening every door. However, he noticed that each door had a name tagged to the wall for each resident. Good! That just meant he'd have to find the one without a name on it. The only problem was that every door seemed to have a name on it! Fletcher, Jeremy, Leon, Archie, Octo-- Wait... Archie? Jericho stopped short and looked at the above name tag. The sounds of guitar came from inside of the room. Archie was in there now, clearly not disturbed by this at all. Please, tell me they just work fast...

Jericho walked faster down the hall, but didn't get but few paces before he was met with his apparent room. This room, just like the others, had a name on the door. His name. How this came to be, he could not answer. He couldn't have been talking with everyone very long after he had said yes. There was no way they could have carved his name onto a tag and then nailed it on that quick. It was almost as if... Like they knew he was going to say yes. Or, even more concerning, they were going to bring him here anyways. What if he had said no? Would they have let him go or forced him into the group? There wasn't a lot of things he'd seen so far that made the Syndicate look like a group that took "no"s politely. Jeri had been asked to come here, but he couldn't tell if that was normal or if that was Jeremy's courtesy. After all, he had just grabbed Archie on the shoulder and snatched him away, no "Wanna come?"s or "How about it?"s. He couldn't tell if asking was optional or if Jeremy was just low on time. Jeri shuddered, images and thoughts of what could have happened going through his mind. He was just glad he didn't refuse again. Or maybe that wasn't something to be happy about...

Jeri grabbed the doorknob and entered the room quickly but somewhat tentatively. Upon entering, he found a sight that was less easing than his pre-picked room. Everything was already there. The bed was made and every shelf and nightstand seemed to have something on it. Something he liked. These were not just normal bedroom add-ons that he may or may not need. Those things that happened to be in his fancy. No, these were items that he generally and honestly preferred. Most importantly, there were items in the room that he recognized. Things that he owned. A bad feeling stirred in Jericho's stomach, one that made him feel like he was going to hurl, but he knew he wouldn't.

The door closed slowly behind him as he looked this way and that, seeing the radio-clock, the bedsheets, the dresser, the chair in the corner, and even that d*mn racquetball that he smacked himself in the face with earlier today, all set neatly and arranged just as if he'd left this very room, not his own home. Jeri's heart beat a little faster. He wouldn't have been surprised if there was a man in a suit sitting the corner chair unnoticed. When he was finally spotted he'd say something like, "Do you understand now, Mr. Heiko?" and then go into a very revealing monologue on his impending doom. Jeri could only guess as to how they knew what to get and how they had. The whole stalker theory came to mind again. They could have been watching him, waiting for the "great roundup" which seemed to be his initiation. How long would they have to do it, though? To know what he liked, what he didn't like? That took a while of research. More than just a couple of days or a week. Much, much more. This wasn't just him either. He remembered the guitar playing out of Archie's room. How in the world could he have gotten a guitar on such short notice!? This may have been a trend in all rooms. Was he the only one that saw this? Or did they just not care? Maybe he was the only one who didn't notice, like those stories about the kids who go to camp and all of the counselors and the campers and even their best friends are somehow in this big conspiracy that involved just that one kid. He doubted it--but hey--the idea had to come from somewhere! He believed he read a story about Animal Crossing on this kind of thing.

Aside from the outlandish, much more likely and concerning ideas came to his mind. The thought of strange men in his house, taking his things without his knowledge or permisison, and then shipping them over here... It wasn't a good one. His mom was shy, like a rabbit, and his sister was just nine. What if they were there at the time? Then what could have happened? It was saddening thinking about practically abandoning his family--practically? No, he did--without word for a strange organization he knew nothing about to learn about a power he knew nothing about, and now--not only that!--they could be dead because he joined the organization. Suddenly he wished he was that kid on the street that had no family ties/didn't care about their family. It wouldn't be so bad then. Jericho shook his head, he had to get this out of his mind.

He went and sat on the bed, placing his head into his hands. Jeri groaned. He thought his day was bad when he had to talk to baldy (just thinking about him made flashes of his death come to mind--Jeri shuddered at them), but now it had become fairly obvious to him that this was the worst part of it. God, why did he leave? Why didn't he at least write a note!? He was so stupid! He sighed and lifted his head, letting his chin rest in its place. Well... No use in beating himself up about it now. No amount of worrying could magically fix this. However, the thought put him at no ease, he thought about it anyways. Jericho yawned, he was tired as well. It was probably time to get some sleep. The phenomena of the dream world was almost the best way to get your mind off of things and guaranteed to make you less drowsy!

Jericho pulled himself farther into the bed and swung his feet over. He didn't bother removing clothes or even getting under the covers. He didn't even want to look in the drawers, or the closet. Besides, that was too much work right now. He was tired. Jeri rolled onto his side and closed his eyes. He sighed deeply before making his attempt at shut-eye. His mind was busy, but Jeri was an expert at sleeping. It didn't take but moments for his mind to go away.

(OOC: I apologize for any inaccurate descriptions. <_>)
 

Daniel "The Directive" Cain – Syndicate HQ, Birmingham, England


"We having training rooms in the levels below, each are quite advanced in the way of equipment, and with a team of scientists behind it, they can help you to become better, stronger. As for helping out, your job is to learn more about your ability and become stronger, when we have an assignment for you, we will let you know. As for helping out around the building, people are hired for that, so you don't need to worry." Daniel realised how abstract he was being about the situation, but really there was no easy way to describe the assignments they would send them on; each was different.

He waited as she paused, obviously constructing her next statement for him.

"Oh! Two more things..? Is there a library nearby, or a bookstore? ...Just reading material in general? Also, if I get new questions later on where can I go for that..?"

Casting his mind back, Daniel did remember there being a book shop a few blocks down, but was unsure of its exact location. "There is a phone in your room, if you ring reception, they will be able to help you out with any queries, as for the bookstore, when you get a day off, if you take a walk around town, I remember there being a bookstore somewhere close by."

To him, Erika was probably one of the more interesting Atlanteans they had picked up recently; the others seemed content with their situation for the time being, however Erika seemed to be starting to settle in more. He knew about her ability, and compared to the others, it was interesting, affecting her body more so than the others.

"Is there anything else?" He stifled a yawn, looking forward to being back in his bed.

Cobalt Chimura – Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England


Cobalt often found himself questioning who exactly the Oracle was, "The Oracle is one of the original Atlanteans from Atlantis. From what we know, there was some cataclysmic event which involved Atlantis sinking beneath the waves. Somehow she survived, washing up on the shores of Ancient Greece where she was called the 'Oracle at Delphi'." Cobalt flashed back to his childhood, his mother explaining the history of The Oracle to himself and the others.

Returning to the present, he continued on his story, "The original Atlanteans possessed immortality and as such were able to live forever, however as soon as their blood mixed with that of humans, their offspring became mortal. Throughout history, The Oracle appeared every once in a while, until the ancestors of my family found her, vowing to protect her from then on. As such, she now lives here with us under our protection."

They had now made their way outside, the moon hanging high in the sky. The water from the fountain trickled lightly as they passed it, the small gusts of wind rustling the leaves of the trees. "The Oracle has seem all that has been, and all that can be, she is constantly seeing fragments of the future, so isn't really with us most of the time, if you get what I mean…" Cobalt shivered as he remembered her ghostly, vacant stare.

Cobalt felt the jet lag catch up with him, his body becoming heavy and a yawn escaping his lips, "is there anything else?" he asked somewhat impatiently.
 
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((OOC: If Skymin wants to raise a fist at me for how I portrayed Natalia and Atticus, go ahead xD but it's not that bad, is it. ))



Helena Andersson - AUP Headquarters, France

The room was huge. Helena had a hard time understanding that there would be several rooms like this here. And they were all meant for training recruits in? Atticus took a seat by the wall, not intending to leave.

"No, it's fine if he wants to stay," Helena said with a smile in reply to the last question while she took off her ripped up leather jacket and put it on the floor next to Natalia's coat, giving a new smile to Atticus. She felt a little awkward for having posed all those questions to Atticus before, when it turned out it would be Natalia who trained her after all.

"Fine then," Natalia said, not completely content perhaps, but apparently leaving the subject and ignoring the man for the time being. "Bring your jacket here by the way."

With a quizzical look, Helana obeyed. Then they got started.

Natalia's ability was to walk through walls. It was probably more complicated than that, but Helena chose to think of it that way, in order to grasp it somehow. That ability didn't help the Swede much in the initial training, but Helena soon understood that there might have been other reasons for why Natalia made a good trainer. She was a rather strict but patient coach. She made Helena turn invisible, then distracted her. Again and again, Helena lost focus when Natalia asked her questions about her life in Stockholm, about her family or about other things that made her mind and thoughts wander. Helena grew tired rather quickly with the failures and at some point was close to snap at Atticus just for looking at her efforts. But she managed not to.

Helena took a deep breath and turned invisible for the countless'th time this night.

"Imagine your arms being invisible. Your legs are invisible. Your head is invisible," Natalia went on as she slowly strolled in a circle around the girl.

"I'm invisible, yeah," Helena muttered. She couldn't see her own fringe, nor her legs or arms.

"Do you have a boyfriend at home?"

This next question made her almost flinch for a second. Of course it was a rather obvious thing to ask about Helena's life at some point, especially since Natalia was starting to run out on questions about her family or history. But Helena had always found the subject of boyfriends a bit touchy. She wasn't sure why. Perhaps because she wasn't one of those pretty, tall, bright girls, but rather the tiny, athletic girl that was cute but maybe too tough to cuddle with. Or something. She got a little annoyed with her own thoughts and clenched both her fists. That was her old life, though. If this was her new life, then she would turn her bad energy into good energy. Or... or something.

Natalia stopped and looked at her. Helena sighed. Was she visible again?

"Well done," Natalia said and her eyes flew past the place where Helena was standing.

"I'm still invisible," Helena said, looking up at her bangs without seeing them. "That's..."

"Just remember how you did it," Natalia said and started strolling again in a wider circle. Helena could see Atticus smile where he was sitting and felt happier. Maybe she could learn how to do this after all!

They continued for some more rounds, and Helena did indeed manage to stay invisible true all of the coming distractions, even when Natalia poked her head from behind and threw Helena's jacket over her without warning. It looked quite funny, a black jacket just hanging in the air.

"That's our next problem," Natalia said when Helena finally turned visible again, panted a little and took the jacket down into her hands. "You say that you've been struggling with making objects other than yourself invisible."

"Yeah," Helena said, wrinkling her forehead. "It just happens, sometimes easily and sometimes without me noticing. Like the gun in Atticus' car... and a package of chewing gums just the other day." Just before she had seen those life changing news on TV...

"Well, what are you wearing?" Natalia asked, putting her hands on her hips. Atticus snickered in his corner, earning an angry look from his colleague.

Helena thought about it, looking down. "Clothes..."

"Objects. They turn invisible along with you. But you never think about them as extra objects. You see them as an extension to your skin when you turn invisible, right?"

She had never thought of that at all, nodding slowly now.

"It was the same when I started moving through objects. I thought that I couldn't take other objects or people with me. But my trainer," she smiled at some memory here, "opened my eyes to the obvious. It's all in your mind. How we choose to view things."

Helena nodded more eagerly. It made blatant sense. She wasn't a very mindful person, perhaps, but she wanted to make this work. "So I have to... just stop thinking about things as... things? And see them as parts of my body?"

"Well, it should be enough for you to realize that you are already able to make objects other than your own body go invisible. You've done it this whole time." She pointed at the jacket in her hands. "You weren't wearing that just now, and suddenly your mind saw it as a foreign thing. Here," she took it from Helena and stepped back a little. "Do it."

The Swede took a deep breath and turned invisible once again. It wasn't difficult at all to do it anymore. Thinking about it, she had probably stayed invisible for longer duration here in this room than ever before. She was already getting stronger...

"Now, here's your jacket. It's been disappearing along with you for the whole day before you took it off before. Right?" Natalia tossed the bundle that was the black jacket to Helena, who caught it with both her hands. Her invisible hands.

For a few seconds, it looked like the jacket floated in the air in front of her. The ripped arm gleamed in the light from the lamps above. "It's just my jacket," Helena mumbled. And with that, it disappeared like if it was turning into mist and then into nothing. "I did it!"

Natalia crossed her arms over her chest and smiled approvingly. Atticus clapped a little, but looked moderately interested still. Helena didn't care however. She had won a victory here.

"What's next?"

"We're soon done for the night, actually," Natalia said, looking at a clock. "Even Atlanteans need sleep, you know."

"Wait, just one more thing!" Helena said, turning visible again and moving up to the other woman, hesitantly grabbing her arm. "Can I try making you invisible?"

Natalia looked thoughtfully back at her for a moment. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. It would definitely be useful if you were able to to that. But don't get your hopes up and don't be disappointed if you fail," she said.

Then she gently grabbed Helena's hand and removed it from her arm. "I will be observing though. Atticus will be the test subject."

A little gasp was heard from where the red head was sitting and both woman turned their heads his way. He got up from his place but looked a bit unwilling. "You know, just beause I have a tail doesn't mean I'm a lab rat. But alright."

"Just come over here. Her ability isn't an offensive one. There's no way you could be harmed if she doesn't make you invisible."

"If she tries it on you, you could try walking through a wall while being invisible! That would be even more useful."

"One thing at a time!"

Helena looked from one to the other. Natalia's eyes were sharp and serious, while Atticus smiled mischievously at her and walked up to stand beside the Swede. Natalia then stepped back and watched while Helena grabbed Atticus' sleeve carefully.

"I think it's better with skin contact," Natalia commented. "You just learned how to make a lifeless object turn invisible and it would be rather unpleasant if his clothes were the only things to disappear."

"Oh, for crying out loud," Atticus said in Swedish, rolled his eyes and grabbed Helena's hand briskly instead.

Helena hid a giggle before turning invisible. The immediate result was that Atticus stood and held hands with nothing. Natalia watched as if waiting for something.

"Um..." Helena said, trying to figure out how to do the same thing with a human as she had just done with a jacket.

"Don't you dare think of me as your clothing," Atticus muttered.

"You're not helping," Natalia said when Helena did giggle and turned visible again. "Again!" Her face wasn't looking as calm anymore, but at least it rather wore a look of interest that one of pure impatience.

Helena got a grip of herself by closing her eyes and calmly turning invisible. Atticus hand in hers felt big and strong. Would it help if she thought of him as a mannequin doll or something? A lifeless object. Then again... it was lifeless objects that had been the problem up to now. A living body was like her own body, and she was able to make it disappear with hardly any effort at all now. So if she just imagined the hand she held... as a continuation of her own arm. With her eyes closed, she imagined Atticus tall body in her mind. It was almost as if she could feel it through the small contact they had through their hands. Feel it and make it disappear along with her...

"Good!" she heard Natalia's voice exclaim.

"Is it... working?"

"Ugh..." Atticus said weakly and Helena decided to open her eyes slowly, without losing the focus she had worked so hard on earning earlier.

Atticus arm looked like it was dissolving, inch by inch. By the time it reached his shoulder, his eyes were big as teacups and stared down. Then he let go and his arm plopped back into visible existence again.

"Why did you let go?" Natalia angrily said.

"One thing at a time!"

"Don't give me that!"

Helena turned back visible too, ignoring the quarreling. She smiled and looked down at her hands. Good work, she told them, or her body, or herself. She wasn't sure of who she could thank for this, but the worries from before took up little place in her mind now. She could turn invisible and no matter how you regarded that fact, it was freakishly cool.


​
 
Nikolai Afon - AUP Headquaters

"Alright Nikolai," Wade said, gesturing to the hub of computers linked together in the room, "This is your training. On each of these computers, there is a specific line of code, a key, if you will. This "key" will be heavily guarded by multiple layers of programs determined to keep you away. Each time, you will need to retrieve the code, then move on to the next computer to find the next key. Once you have found one from all twelve computers, enter the thirteenth computer here," gesturing again to another computer, "and enter all twelve codes to end the training. Using my ability of reading minds and such, I'll enter yours, and will monitor your progress. Are you ready?"

Nikolai grinned, hoping now for a real challenge. "Lets do it." Nikolai sat on a chair in the middle of the room, and cleared his mind of all thoughts. Extending his mind outward, he felt around, more stumbling blindly than searching, until he encountered the first computer he was to enter. Allowing himself to be sucked into the computer, his mind went blank, then the information brought light to his eyes in streaks of light. The colors solidified forming concrete images. Nikolai looked with confusion on the world he had discovered inside the computer, looking strangely similar to the movie Tron. After a moment, Nikolai heard a voice inside his head, first vague mumbling, then solidifying into words. "Nikolai, can you hear me?"

Nikolai winced for a moment at the contact, then replied, "Yeah. I can hear you. Why does everything look like this?"

Wade grunted, "Give me a moment. Ah! Hmm, interesting. Well, how I see it, when you enter something with your mind, your brain wants to process it into something familiar, something you can relate the information being processed to. In your case, being in the computer terminals reminded your mind of the Tron movie, so your brain processed the information into that kind of understandable form. Make sense?"

"Yeah, I think so." He started walking along what appeared to be a highway, with a large city in the background. "I suppose that's where I will find what I am looking for. If only there was a way to get there faster..." As he said this, a jet black motorcycle appeared, with streaks of yellow light on the side. "Now this is more like it." He quickly hopped on the bike an took off towards the city zooming along the digital highway. "Aren't you going to be constantly nagging away at me Wade? Seeing as how you are a voice in my head, that is."

Wade laughed, echoing inside Nikolai's mind. "Well Nikolai, this is training, but also an evaluation of how good you exactly are. So while I would love to be picking away at your sanity being the voice in your head, I'll remain silent and watch for the most part. And I don't think that there is much I can help you with here, most of it will be up to you."

"Fine." The bike accelerated along the highway, and Nikolai arrived at the city quickly, decelerating as he entered the city. It was strangely desolate, as if the large city with digital skyscrapers had been abandoned, and was now only a ghost town. He continued through the city, moving slowly towards the center where he hoped to find the key he was looking for. Nikolai kept a vigilant eye, and accelerated into an alleyway and braking immediately. He poked his head out to confirm what he though he had seen, a lone man walking down the center of the road. He checked the functions available to him on his bike, and selecting "Identify" he targeted the man, who still hadn't seen him yet. The bike ran a diagnostic for a moment, then came up with a name flashing on a digital readout on the dashboard of the bike saying "Norton Security". Nikolai grinned, this was going to be a breeze. He accelerated quickly out of the alley and drove straight for the program, who now finally noticed him and started to sound an alarm. The program was just a moment too late however, as Nikolai rammed the bike into the program, smashing it to the digital concrete and exploding into hundreds of tiny pixels.

Wade spoke up, "Well that was....one way of doing it. I hope you realize that you cant just run over everything you see and win, right?"

"Yeah, I know." There was a large thud that shook the ground, and a large mech lumbered around the corner, its footsteps beating the earth. "Doesn't look like I will be running over that any time

Later...

Seven computers and many battles later, Nikolai exited from the computers, his head pounding, drenched in sweat. His heart pounded and he felt weak, which was strange seeing as all the work he had done had been mental. Wade got up from a chair on the other side of the room, and walked over. "Good job. You made some excellent progress today, I for one am very pleased at your progress. With some work...well, the things you could do! Getting there wont be easy though."

Nikolai got up from his chair, his legs weak, still strangely tired from the training. "So what happens now?"

"Now, we sleep! Even we Atlanteans cant go without sleep! And besides, it sure looks like you need it. Don't worry, this stuff wont be going anywhere. We can get back to it tomorrow. If you're still up for it that is."

The tall Russian grinned. "Up for it? That was some of the most fun I've had in my life! Difficult and exhausting, but fun." Nikolai yawned, "Sleep sounds pretty good right now though." The man only vaguely remembered Wade leading him to where he would be sleeping at AUP, and collapsing on the sheets, allowing himself to fall into the oblivion of his dreams.
 

Cira & Alex Gaile - Under the Vatican, Rome, Italy


The thin journal didn't have much to it in terms of taking up space, looked like it had some water damange, and had a few pages torn out, but it was still full of content.

Taking the alternative name of Benjamin Hornigold, I became a pirate for the adventure and to see what pirating could bring, but I never expected to become a captain of my own vessel and a crew of well over a hundred so soon! However, I was happy to have a trusty second-in-command who was full of potential, Edward Teach. He learned the things I did as I showed him. The young man didn't even realize he had an unawakened ability to breathe underwater by developing gills when he's submerged, which only made him that much more useful a pirate, and an excellent swimmer. I handed over command of my previous sloop of ships to the promising Teach once I acquired my thirty-gun vessel, the Ranger.

...

I tried to refrain from attacking English vessels out of my pride, but the crew... they seemed to disagree with me. They didn't have a care to give, and I was hearing talks of mutiny. And it certainly happened; I was overthrown. I didn't want to put up a fight with my own crew when they came to a consensus over me. I was left with a single vessel and my crewmen who continued to believe in me. I recalled something about a pardon, as well, so I went to the King who issued them.

The rest of the journal went on to talk about how "Benjamin" became a pirate hunter after receiving his pardon in the Bahamas. Edward Teach, his former lieutenant and then known as Blackbeard, was even one of his commissioned targets. In 1719 he supposedly died by crashing his boat into an uncharted reef during a hurricane, but considering he was up and running, on top of cooking and actively using thousands upon thousands of different abilities, the crew may have just been too lazy or scared to search after washing up. The journal had a piece of newspaper in it about that, and that ended the book.

He decided against reading about the latrines. Either that, or one of the pages that were ripped out had the tale of the horrendous loo in them. By the time Cira finished, it was well past midnight and figured he needed to get some sleep. Leaving the Librarian's journal on the nightstand next to the bed, he picked out a set of pyjamas from the closet and headed to bed. It took a little longer than usual, since he was adjusting, but the necessity for getting used to his ability and the distraction from the book got him to sleep easier.​
 
Erika - Syndicate
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Erika listened to Daniel's response and her brow furrowed. The way he phrased it made it sound like these assignments were going to be a problem. If they weren't bad, there'd be no need to be so vague! ...After a brief moment Erika shook her head no and got up, briefly adjusting her over-sized pants before turning to face Daniel.

"I guess that's all I've got for now..."

She looked at Daniel expectantly however, as if she did in fact have another question. This however might seem like an obvious answer though. She didn't know where, specifically, she was staying! She quite frankly didn't expect to be able to easily find what she assumed was something akin to a hotel room on her own. It suddenly occurred to Erika that she had no idea how long she'd be staying here. This adventure had so far turned out to be quite unnerving for various reasons. She supposed she was still here by choice though. She might as well hope for the best, as there was nothing really stopping her from heading home if she felt like she needed to.
 
Brian Sheppard - Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England

Brian simply looked at Cobalt in amazement. Apparently, the Oracle was an original Atlantean and even immortal. Well, Brian thought. That would explain her really old age.

Brian felt odd to have met someone so old and possibly powerful. At first, he thought she was an Atlantean like him, though with the power to see the future. Instead, she was someone even older than the Greek Empire as well as someone mentioned in it's history. She had been known as the Oracle at Delphi, a person he had heard about when his class had read part of one of the ancient Homeric Hymns. She was practically the Oracle.

Impatience entered his thoughts as silence occurred between him and Cobalt. "Oh," Brian started, finally feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over him. "Sorry about that. There isn't really anything else I need to ask. I mean, it's probably bedtime anyways so why keep talking."

Brian yawned as the wind went through his hair and[ continued to follow Cobalt through the night. Yep, it was certainly time for bed.
 
Helena Andersson - AUP Headquarters, France

They didn't try freaking Atticus out anymore, but Natalia did force Helena to go through some more concentration training before she finally called it a night slightly later than planned. As Atticus led Helena back from the training floor to someplace she could sleep in, the Swedish girl had her head full of thoughts. Atticus noticed.

"Hey, try not to think about stuff too much. I've found that it's probably better to just, uh, go along with all this now."

She looked up at him as they entered the elevator and he pressed the number 8. What was his story, really? He had stopped Emil before it could be told, not even briefly. But she wouldn't ask. Maybe it was better to just go along with it, like he said. The fright that caused outburst before, was gone now.

"Sorry about earlier... again," she felt obligated to say.

Atticus shrugged with a simple smile. "I don't blame you for being freaked out by Emil."

Helena almost let out a giggle again. What was with all this giggling lately? They reached floor 8 and went out. It seemed like Atticus wasn't sure what room was hears, because he peeked in through every other door as to see if it was unoccupied. Finally, he seemed to find one where the sheets were newly changed and no bags or stuff lay around, save one. The bag that Helena had packed and brought on that day when she had gone to the Atlantean Center to be registered and brought before the Royal family... earlier today. So much had happened in one single day. She felt like she wasn't the same person anymore. She was now a super hero who could turn invisible, and she had one friend who had a tail, one who could speak to machines and one who could walk through walls. A look from Atticus told her that he noticed her thinking too much again. She gave him an excusing smile.

"You've got your own bathroom," he said. "Somebody will probably wake you up for breakfast. Godnatt!" And with that, he closed her door. His footsteps quickly died in the hall outside.

Helena got changed and brushed her teeth very fast. When she lay in the bed, which was pretty comfy thankfully, she tried to do what the red haired man had told her to; just go along with it. It would be a new day tomorrow, anyways.

​
 

Michael Cale – Atlantean Mansion, Boston, England


"That was some talking," Michael jumped as Stephanie whispered in his ear as he closed the door behind Oakley.

"What the-" he exclaimed, "have you been here the whole time?!" She must have heard everything they had spoken about, something Michael wasn't even sure he was really happy talking to Oakley about, but they had needed to.

"I was here all along," she stroked Michael's shoulder, "like I said; my Pheromone Manipulation makes it so people don't notice me. You just didn't notice me there." Stephanie stopped stroking and kissed Michael on the cheek.

Michael hesitated, he wasn't sure what to do, but for some strange reason, he felt relaxed around Stephanie. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but he liked her, something about her enticed him, bringing him in closer and ensnaring him. Michael didn't complain; he enjoyed it. "You are amazing," he turned around to face her, staring into those green, cat-like eyes of her.

Michael leaned in for a kiss however Stephanie pulled away, grapping his hand instead and leading him around to the door. "Stick close to me and be quite, we'll have some fun…" she smiled that wicked smile at him that drew him in more and more; the mysteriousness of her enticing him further.

No one saw them as they half-crept, half-ran through the mansion, down the stairs and out into the cool night air beyond. They ran for about five minutes before slowing down to a brisk walk, the mansion now a fair distance behind them. Out of breath, he laughed nervously, trying to breath in between gasps. Michael had always been one for following rules, stepping out of line and getting in trouble wasn't really his style; it was exhilarating to finally do so. "Where are we going?" he managed to huff between breaths.

"There's a local tavern on the outskirts of town, we can grab a drink there," Michael simply nodded in agreement as she laced her fingers in his and they walked hand in hand down the dark, lonely road.

"So why me?" Michael looked down at his feet, and then across at Stephanie, "Why are you only showing yourself to me?" It was the one question that had plagued Michael's mind since their meeting only a couple of hours ago.

Stephanie went quiet, so Michael gave her fingers a little squeeze but she still looked off into the distance as she continued walking, "Having Pheromone Manipulation as an ability, you become aware of how people are feeling just by their smell, and in some cases, you find two people whose smell, whose pheromones match perfectly. You are that guy for me Michael, the guy whose pheromones match mine perfectly." She turned and kissed him, this time on the lips.

Michael's heart began to race, the kiss allowing endorphins to flood his system and his heart flutter madly. It isn't every day you meet a girl proclaiming that she is attracted to your smell, but Michael had not been in a relationship for a long time, he wasn't complaining, and deep down inside himself, he knew he really liked this girl too, he just did not want to admit it.

It was well past midnight when they returned, slightly drunk as they snuck back into the Mansion, trying to keep quiet as they tip toed to Michael's room. They had spent hours at the pub, dancing to the music on the stereo while people around them cheered at the football and drinking all manner of beer and spirits. Laughing quietly to themselves, they collapsed on Michael's bed, somehow crawling under the sheets and falling asleep, Michael's arms wrapped around Stephanie's body.

Michael was woken up by a sharp rasp on his door that aggravated the hangover that clouded his brain. "Yeah?" he answered back, pulling the pillow over his head.

"Get dressed, quickly." Blayze ordered from behind the door. Michael grudgingly agreed chucking on the clothes he had worn the previous day. A quick look in the mirror showed bags under his eyes as he tried to stifle a yawn. Once dressed, he followed Blayze down to the cafeteria where many of the students were already finishing their breakfast. Grabbing a plate full of food, he made his way to an empty table, looking around for Oakley as the majority of people began filing out.
 

Atticus Forsberg - AUP Headquarters, France

Morning. Ugh. Well, at least it was better than last night, waking up in a cold room in Sweden. France was not that much less cold, but the AUP Headquarters had heating where as that dingy motel that would apparently 'attract less attention' (according to Annie. Maybe that was a prank?) did not. Atticus rolled out of bed, prepping himself for the day. He quickly showered, washing out his hair (but not with shampoo. Self-made oils were the only way, which Annie and Natalia found rather disgusting) and got dressed into something comfortable, like he always did; t-shirt, jeans, his favourite leather jacket and a pair of converse, with his tail wrapped up around his body. He was glad the AUP always supplied people with extra clothes and these ones were not half bad. He had been wearing his last lot of clothes for two days now since he refused to be bare skinned at all during his time in Sweden. He silently cursed his father's heritage.

He emerged back into the main part of his room and noticed a pair of dark blue jeans on his bed side table. They probably had been there the whole time but Atticus had failed to notice them in his groggy state; all he knew is that he didn't put them there. He picked them up and inspected them, noticing a note pinned to the front with what looked like Swedish hastily written on the front. Annie, no doubt.

Bär det högt och stolt! Kontrollera rumpan. - Annie

Like the note said, he checked the back of the pants, noticing a small, clean cut hole fashioned into the jeans. Loud and proud, huh? He quickly changed his pants and let his tail push out the hole. Damn that Annie, but he smiled anyway.

Atticus glanced at his clock (7:18am) left his room and continued down a hall, looking left and right in the room doors until he hit Helena's. He poked his head in quickly, Helena still sleeping quietly. She looked totally at peace but what he found most amusing was that her own visibility wavered in and out as if someone was flicking a lightswitch on and off. It reminded him of stories he had heard about Natalia from Annie, about how when she first found her ability years ago, she also accidently used her ability in her sleep and had to always sleep on the bottom floor or else she would fall through not just her bed, but entire floors.

"Helena? It's morning," he said, waiting for her to stir. When she opened her eyes, he gave her a thumbs up. "Rise and shine. I'm meant to take you to breakfast. But you can shower and stuff first. I'll be outside." And left with another thumbs up.

He wandered down about three doors until Atticus found Nikolai's door. Again, he poked his head in, finding the Russian to still be asleep and stepped in, repeating Nikolai's name until he woke.

"Hey Nikolai. Time to wake up," he said, having to prod Nikolai to make him wake. "I'm supposed to take you to breakfast. Shower and get dressed, I'll be outside!" And gave Nikolai a thumbs up and left the room. He didn't go far, leaning on a wall in between the two doors, waving hello to other members who had managed to drag themselves out of bed and were walking their way down the hall to the elevator. Now, which floor was the kitchens again?​


Adeline "Otto" Russo - Under the Vatican, Rome, Italy

Adeline woke up in the morning much later than she usually did. She didn't sleep often but tonight, she had slept for a whole eight hours! Usually, her average was between four and a half and six but eight? She must have really worn herself out to slept in that late. Or perhaps she was having a pleasant dream, though she didn't remember it at all.

A glance at the clock (07:42) and a change of clothes and Adeline was strolling down the hallway, her ears perked up as she heard voices in the main kitchen. She didn't bother eavesdropping, walking through and not batting an eyelid at the newcomer seated comfortably in one of the dining chairs, hands clapped around what looked like a delicious coffee. Of course, the Librarian had said he expected guests in the morning.

The Librarian himself was at the kitchen bench, creating some kind of culinary masterpiece while exchanging casual conversation but clapped his hands as Adeline revealed herself.

"Oh! Dearest Adeline, you're awake!" he beamed at her as he usually did when he welcomed her each morning. "You certainly slept in, didn't you? How unusual of you! You must have been exhausted!"

"Yes."

"Well," he pressed on, gesturing a hand towards the guest. "This is a representative from the AUP. Her name is Natalia Zaytsev!"

"Good morning, Adeline. It's a pleasure to meet you," Natalia put her hand out to shake Adeline's hand. Adeline only stared at the hand before Natalia slowly pulled it back.

"It is Otto."

"Oh yes, I do keep forgetting your nickname," the Librarian obviously lied. He didn't forget a lot of things. "Did you know Natalia is Russian? Isn't that wonderful! Russia is such a mysterious place. Each time I go, it seems to have new secrets to share with me! Well, actually, the North Pole is probably more mysterious since it's such a wasteland but so beau--

"Sir," Adeline interjected.

"Yes, I'm sorry to interrupt your story," Natalia took a sip of her coffee. It looked and smelt incredibly strong, "but unfortunately this was intended to be a meeting of business, not pleasure."

"Why can it not be both?" the Librarian mused. Natalia smiled back politely.

"Unfortunately not," she continued. "Mr. Bernot has told me to meet with you today to try and rekindle our relationship. Unfortunately, as he has told me, your communications with eachother have been rather... stretched?"

"Hm, yes..." the Librarian (with slight distaste) took a sip of his own coffee as he kneaded dough into perfect bases for Apple Turnover. Adeline took her own seat at the dining table opposite Natalia, carefully picked one of the many crossiants in the center of the table and began to slowly munch on it.

"Mr. Bernot apologises for his lack of communication and hopes he can make up for his mistake."

"Where is Mr. Bernot on this fine morning? Why has he sent you to deliever his apology and not come here himself?"

"Unfortunately, he has been quite busy with his current project. I'm sure he would have come out himself if he was not so wrapped up in it all," Natalia polietly chewed her strawberry tart. The Librarian's face remain unchanged. It was not often he looked annoyed. Natalia seemed to notice this too. "He really hopes you do accept his apology. The AUP very much miss your support. And if you do accept his apology, Mr. Bernot is willing to give you full intel and information on all of our past, present and planned projects for the future."

Now, the Librarian turned to her with a hint of a smile in his face. Natalia looked almost worried, if one could do that with a straight face. She had kept her cool the entire time, despite the Librarian's hesitance to answer. She must have been used to things like these.

"Dear Emilio does know how to treat his friends well," the Librarian turned back to his turnovers. Was that sarcasm? Adeline wasn't sure. "Well, Ms. Zaytsev, I will accept your proposition but Emilio doesn't really need to give me access to all his intel; I already know what's going on."

Natalia widened her eyes a little.

"You already know?"

The Librarian gave a chuckle and smiled quite slyly, spooning the apple mixture into his turnovers. They looked delicious already.

"Please, Ms. Zaytsev, you people do need to not assume there is anything I do not know."​
 
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October Carter – Syndicate HQ, Birmingham, England


October rolled over, placing a kiss on the lips of the hulking Adrian beside her. She ran her fingers lightly up and down one of his arms, marvelling at the extra pair of arms that wrapped around her. All four arms were the same length, and Adrian's training meant they were quite muscular as well allowing him to lift up to twice what he could with one set. After meeting with Adrian and bringing him back to the Syndicate, they had hit it off, training together as they got along quite well. Neither regarded Jeremy with anything but disdain, however Jeremy brought that on himself when he chose not to fight. So they ended up being the only two training, and despite being pitted against each other multiple times, soon became close.

She was interrupted by the sharp, incessant beep of the alarm clock on the bedside table. Rolling over, she whacked the top of it, hitting the snooze button that would allow for ten more minutes of rest. When she rolled back, she was greeted by an open-eyed Adrian.

"Morning, how was your sleep?" He asked her, briefly resting his eyes before opening them again.

October cuddled further into Adrian's ripped body, "The best in a while, it's been lonely without you here."

"I'm back now," he wrapped his arms around October, giving her a hug, "so it's back to the normal routine. I assume Fletcher and Jeremy are up already, I'll go wake up the younger ones, can you wake up Erika and the other guy?"

Something sparkled in October's eye, "you mean Leon? Of course I can!" She slipped into a bra and underwear, throwing on one of Adrian's shirts that came down to just above her knees. She left the room, blowing a kiss towards Adrian on the way out.

Walking lightly down the hall, she watched each nameplate carefully, looking for the one with "Leon Nef" etched into it. It didn't take her long before she found it. Carefully opening the door, she made her way into the room, creeping over to the sprawled figure. Taking off Adrian's shirt, she bent over till her face was only an inch from Leon's face. "Wake up, sexy," she whispered in his ear.

Leon opened his eyes and observed the figure in front of her, before replying, "How much?" a smirk covering his face.

Slapping Leon across the cheek, she pulled Adrian's shirt on, storming out of the room and slamming the door. Angry, she made her way down to Erika's room, composing herself into a nicer mood before knocking politely and entering.

"Erika dear, its breakfast time," she said cheerily with her head through the door. She closed the door behind her, making her way down the hall and into the lounge area where Jeremy sat at one end with Fletcher. October positioned herself at the other end of the table, ordering a bowl of muesli and yoghurt.

Adrian Santoro – Syndicate HQ, Birmingham, England


Once October left, Adrian stretched out in bed before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and putting on the pair of jeans sitting on the floor from yesterday. He was still quite tired, after having spent only a couple of days in America had been enough to give him bad enough jetlag. The world still felt like it was uneven, but not to the extent it had been when they arrived, so apart from a couple of minor stumbles, he had no trouble really moving.

Adrian left his room in time to see October enter Leon's room, her apparent excitement about waking Leon up worried him; Adrian knew October well enough that she was probably going to try and annoy him in some way. Regardless, Adrian walked in the opposite direction, coming to the doors of the two new recruits; Jericho Heiko and Archie Reevs.

He knocked quite loudly on both doors before he entered them, "Up and at it guys, get dressed and join us for some breakfast!" he announced before leaving them to their own devices and headed towards the kitchen. At the table already sat Jeremy and Fletcher at one end, with October at the other end, slowly eating her muesli and yoghurt. Adrian ordered Bacon and Eggs accompanied by a protein shake and joined October at the table, sitting next to her as he waited for his meal to be brought out to him.

Every so often, he would look up at the door, waiting for the others to arrive for breakfast until his freshly made breakfast was served in front of him.
 

Archie Stevens - Syndicate HQ


There was a loud knock on the door, which then opened and Adrian entered the room.

"Up and at it guys, get dressed and join us for some breakfast!" He announced before retreating from the room.

"Right see..." Archie yawned "...you at breakfast." He said to no one in particular. He gave the alarm clock a brief glance before deciding to snooze for a couple more minutes. After a couple of minutes had passed he propped himself up and looked around his room. It was strange to think of this as his room but it was now. There was also the fact that he wouldn't be studying any more but it was too much to thinks about so soon after waking. The first thing that he did was locate the clothes that he took off yesterday, he noted that his stuff hadn't arrived yet. But then again he hadn't expected it to, it would have been a little creepy if it had all just appeared in his room over night.
He pulled on his jeans and t-shirt and washed in his en-suite. Looking in the mirror he saw that his hair was a mess an what with having no hair gel he couldn't sort it out. Well at least he didn't have to wear that jumpsuit. Finally done with his ablutions he left his room and headed into the main living quarters.

"Morning." He nodded in the direction of the Syndicate guys who were already eating breakfast. Four of them sat around the table. At on end sat October, who was wearing so little as to be distracting, next to her sat Adrian with a protein shake and a half eaten plate of eggs and bacon. With his extra arms and body builder diet Archie made a mental note not to mess with him. At the other end of the table sat Jeremy, the person who out of everyone here Archie felt he knew the bast and a little kid. The kid was only like six or seven. So was Jeremy a dad, he seemed too young to be a father.

Anyway he ordered him self toast and a glass of orange juice. He waited for his orange juice before heading over to the table. The seat he choose was opposite Adrian. He took a sip of his orange juice before looking up at Adrian.

"So what's the plan today?" He asked, trying to ignore October who was wearing what looked to be one of Adrian's shirts. "Training? Have you, as in the Syndicate you not you personally, got some kind of training plan for each of us?" Archie's toast arrived, he took a couple of pieces off the rack and began to butter them. "Oh and I didn't really introduce myself yesterday, did I. I'm Archie." He added offering Adrian a hand shake, which isn't easy due to the fact that he had four arms. "Though you may already know that." He spread some marmalade on his toast and began to eat.
 
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