Union: The Lucky Sevens ((Creative and Recaps))
By
Wolfram,
Posted on: 2011-04-04 02:54 in Roleplaying
Adrift
Alex's body didn't create energy from nothing. The demands of her speed and strength, and above all her rapid healing, came at the cost of a ravenous appetite that would seem surprising on someone with her build. On the plus side, she was able to store energy pretty well, so as long as she remained at rest she could keep going without food or sleep better than most.
Right now, the problem was remaining at rest.
Alex leaned against the warehouse wall, keeping guard over the door for her shift. Technically there was no need for shifts, since Zoe far surpassed Alex in her lack of need for sleep, but Alex couldn't sleep anyway. The wrongness of this world, of... everything gnawed at her mercilessly.
Julio. That had been her first thought, when AC talked about her family waiting. She could miss Julio waking up. She could miss him dying. It had been maddening to have no control over which of those was the final outcome, but that was nothing on what she felt now.
And the place... ruled over by those Arachnos scum. Surely the people here lived in terror, although the strangely dressed, shaven-headed men who patrolled the docks with placards and pamphlets that meant nothing to her seemed to have no fear of standing up to the authorities. It was like a bizarre, twisted mirror of Praetoria, a place where the government promoted suffering and lies and those who stood against it were the heroes...
...or perhaps just selfish cabrónes who thought Lord Recluse's throne would fit them better.
She wanted to go out there and start killing men in black-and-red armour and not stop until she found a way back home. But how many were there? In Praetoria they'd been in small strike teams, staying under the radar, unprepared for the wrath of Powers Division. Here, they were an army. She'd seen another of those huge, eerie gunships, like the one that had attacked the power plant in Neutropolis, cruising the skies in the distance; it couldn't have been alone. No, she had to keep a low profile, protect the others.
A small part of her wondered who was going to protect her, but she silenced it. She had to be strong, now more than ever. She couldn't show weakness. Everyone was counting on her. She had to do what Julio would have done.
He would have known what to do...
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
Originally posted by Dante
Sorrowshade was reading. Sat in the corner of the abandoned warehouse, she had considered standing guard but as Alex clearly needed something to do, she had decided to embark on some information gathering.
Once the team were settled, she had performed a sweep of the area, getting a feel for their location. From the central, elevated city to the somewhat unusual power plant situated on the mountain, Zoe had reconnoitred until she was satisfied that she knew the lay of the land. Feeling geographically more secure, she then begun the second stage of her information gathering. Locating a news vendor, she had robbed them at gunpoint, choosing only to steal a copy of each publication while they cowered in their stall. She had returned to the warehouse with a bundle of newspapers and magazines and a small, portable radio that the news vendor had been listening to.
She had taken to a small part of the derelict office and then began to read, the radio chattering away in the background. If Zoe was at all concerned by their sudden displacement, she wasnt showing it. The dead are rarely surprised by anything and so she had taken to establishing their position with machine-like efficiency. Clearly the Etoile Isles were a questionable place, ruled with an iron fist by Lord Recluse and his private army. Zoe considered briefly whether it was worth trying to infiltrate such an army but logistically, it seemed like a dead end. Far better to exacerbate their continuing feud with the other private army in the area, Longbow. If she was to create chaos and disarray amongst the Primal Earth armies, some work on either side would be needed.
Her other mission seemed far more interesting to her. She had no time for traitors to Praetoria, their fate was virtually sealed as far as she was concerned. Although she would offer them a chance to repent, their loyalty would always be in question as far as she was concerned and if they had proven to be disloyal once, could they be trusted in the future?
She looked up over their temporary base and wondered if anyone that she had travelled with could fit that description. Only time would tell, she thought and went back to reading.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
Originally posted by Ammon
Harlan slept fitfully in a chair, a book still open beneath his hand in his lap. Perhaps his colleagues would assume his age was responsible, but in truth he'd barely slept in the past few days. Finally, all the efforts and trials of recent days had caught up, now that things seemed past any point at which wakefullness could immediately help. The kids would wake him if anything happened, he reasoned.
The scouting had been useful. Taking the opposite direction from Lieutenant Black when she'd suggested scouting, Harlan had come upon a university campus and not been challenged at all in going in. He'd managed to borrow several books from the large library that looked as if they may be helpful. 2 from the History section and a couple on Geography, topped off with an almanac of world facts, and a book about engineering that he hoped might give them an idea about the technology differences here. The ancient history seemed much as he recalled it, from a brief skimming of the chapters, but the book about recent history, well, most of the latter 20th Century read like fantasy.
Harlan had fallen asleep with the Atlas on his lap. His dreams were filled with images of lands he barely recalled from the days before the Hamidon Wars. Places he'd visited once or twice, like Paris, and Hong Kong, before the wars had made such places nothing but a vague memory. In dream, he once again soared across foreign skies, wearing the bright costume of a hero, occassionally seeing people below waving up to him.
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
It didn't surprise Alex exactly that her errand was over quickly. Finding herself at a loose end, she headed to the library Harlan had talked about to see how that bit of recon was going.
She didn't have much trouble locating two of the others. Adam had done the best he could with his modified uniform, but he was a long way from blending in with the casually-dressed students wandering the university. Still, he was inconspicuous next to Harlan's new costume.
Adam looked up from the book he was reading. "Hey there Alex," he said.
Alex grinned. "Hard at work, huh?"
"Yes, more or less," Adam said. "Looking at all the books..."
Harlan looked up from his own book. "Hey, 'Lex," he said. "How'd your errand work out?"
"Not bad," Alex replied. "Grabbed anything that looked like it'll last. Tinned stuff. Don't wanna have to make too many trips." She appraised the two men. "We definitely need to get you guys some new clothes..."
"I think I stand out a little, yeah," Adam said.
"Not when you're stood next to Harlan," Alex pointed out.
"I saw a suit that looks like my size," Harlan said. "In a place called a pawn shop. I'll go get it later."
Alex frowned. "Did you say a porn shop?"
"Uh..." Adam trailed off.
Harlan shrugged. "That's what is said over the door," he said. "Pawn, like the chess pieces, but no sign of games in the winnow"
"Right..." Alex said. "Well, clothes are clothes.
"Thing is, if you watch the docks a while, people flyin' past in gaudy outfits don' get much attention," Harlan said. "I reckon a flyin' beardy in a suit is gonna get noticed way more."
"Right... So there are lots of them about, then?" Adam asked.
"Yeah, dunno if they have a powers division, but they sure got a lot of candidates fer one," Harlan said.
"Have either of you seen anything in the way of police?" Adam asked.
"I ain' sure," Harlan replied. "Seen a lot of those Spider Uniforms aroun', an' there's some kinda gold colour uniformed guys around a lot of the rooftops."
"There's a few security companies I've seen in different uniforms," Alex put in. "Didn't go close enough to check the names."
"So they've privatised security here?" Adam mused.
"Book I got says that each island has a kinda ... dual government," Harlan said. "A civil and a military or Security. The spider suits are the military I reckon, under a Marshall according to the guide book."
"And the civil?" Alex asked.
Harlan shrugged. "Not seen enough to tell yet."
"Probably just a puppet anyway," Alex said.
"Guidebook mentioned some guy called Aeon," Harlan went on.
"The hooded men don't seem to like him," Adam said.
No-one seems to like anyone that much here," Harlan replied.
Alex shook her head. "Wonder if this whole world is like this?" she said. "All... crazy."
"It's no Praetoria, that's for sure..." Adam said. "I know there are other islands. We're only a few miles off the coast of the USA."
Alex nodded. "There's an America still here, right," she said. "Maybe there's a Mexico too. I've only ever seen pictures."
"Yeah, here..." Harlan pulled an atlas from the shelf beside him."We got one of these back at the warehouse too."
"Does it let you know what these places are like?" Adam asked.
Harlan gestured to books on Italy, France, Great Britain, and others, lining the shelves.
"Hard to imagine all those places still existing..." Alex said.
"Looks like this world only ever fired three nukes in action," Harlan explained. "There's a history section over there I raided last time. No Hamidon war, no nuking of cities all over the world."
Alex shook her head. "Makes no sense."
"An' yet, there's a kinda world peace," Harlan continued. "No real wars other than with something called a 'Rikti'. Not a lot on that. Seems to be too recent fer the hsitory books."
"There'd have to be peace," Alex said, "before they could plan to invade Praetoria."
"Hey, tha's an idea ...," Harlan said. "Whatcha think they might have on Praetoria? Anythin'?"
"I got no idea..." Adam said.
Harlan turned to him. "Adam, can yer find yer way aroun' these computers they got?"
"Ah, of course!" Adam made his way over to one of the library computers, and began getting to grips with it.
Harlan frowned at the screen on display. "What the Sam Hill is a 'Google'?"
"A really big number, basically," Adam said. "I assume... Maybe it's a search engine..?" He began typing in the search bar. "Hrm... Shall we try Praetoria?"
Harlan shrugged. "Yeah."
Alex leaned back against one of the bookshelves as Adam went to work.
"Well, looks like we're known as some sort of 'evil twin dimension'," Adam said at last.
"I never met many evil twins back there..." Harlan said.
"I don't know," Adam admitted, starting a new search. "Let's try 'Howling Storms'."
Alex looked up. "Anything?" she asked.
Adam studied the search results. "Holy cow..." he muttered. "You ARE someone's evil double!"
Harlan leaned close, peering at the screen. "**** you. I'm the good 'un."
"This guy died in a war saving the world," Adam continued. "Honestly? I'm a bit suspicious of you right now. You are slightly shifty."
"Heh, see. He wuz an amatuer," Harlan countered. "I survived the Hamidon Wars."
"So this is the same guy?" Alex asked. "Harlan in a different world?" She clutched her forehead. "Everything about this freakin' world is messed up."
"Hey, think we could like, fake his ID?" Harlan suggested. "Make out he was only missin' presumed dead?"
"He's MIA, so maybe," Adam said.
"I mean, if he died in a war," Harlan mused, "maybe he had some sorta military clearance or somethin' right?"
"Hrm..." Adam started another fresh search.
"What about you?" Harlan asked. "You got a ... double?"
"Lemme see..." Adam typed his name into the search bar. Alex couldn't see what came up on screen from where she was, but Adam's reaction made her move forward. "...I think I do," Adam concluded, staring at his alternate-universe self.
"Ho-lee," Harlan muttered. "Whut is he?"
"It seems I'm basically evil," Adam concluded.
Harlan grinned. "Figures."
"You guys are world-famous here?" Alex groaned. "There's no justice."
"We ain' checked yous yet, Alex," Harlan pointed out. "Uhh, jus' a thought, but don' mention this ta Zoe fer a while."
Alex looked at him. "Why not?"
"If she has a double I swear it'll cause us untold problems," Harlan said.
"Yeah... I can't see her taking it well," Adam agreed.
"She'll either wanna commandeer tha' body o' the livin' one fer 'Police Business'," Harlan explained, "or we'll end up wit' two of 'em both freaky."
"I think you're readin' too much into it, hombre," Alex said.
Harlan sat down at the next computer along."Is ... I jus' type into the box, right?" He struggled with the unfamiliar interface until he managed to type in his own search. "We need somethin' like this at the warehouse," he said. "Where we got some privacy."
"We could always get a computer and wire it to the internet here," Adam suggested.
"Y'can do that?" Harlan asked? "Great!"
"Well, we need a computer and some wire," Adam continued.
"I bet we can buy one somewhere," Alex said.
"Right," Harlan said. "There's some kinda market in a truck by the dock. I didn't see any computers, but they did have all sortsa stuff..."
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.
On 22/03/2011, the Powers division team of Precinct 7 was ordered by Praetor White to apprehend a Resistance leader known to have passed intelligence to Arachnos insurgents.
The team - Active Current, Adam Sparks, Forceburst, Howling Storms, La Zorra, Street Spartan and Sorrowshade - pursued their target, Firebrand, through a portal to an Arachnos laboratory on Primal Earth, just as Firebrand detonated a series of bombs that destroyed the portal back.
Lost and alone in an unfamiliar world, the Sevens fled the collapsing lab before Arachnos reinforcements could arrive, and found an abandoned warehouse on the Cap au Diable docks in which to lie low.
Their story continues...
Knights Exemplar: Wolfram, Autumnfox, Starlit Spirit.
Militia: The Portent, Wavekite, Mr. Sandman.
The Cadre: WarpLocke, Zajin.
Numerous others.