RP: Die Screaming [Die Screaming] Purgatory

Metal Gear Molu

Though they were actively evading and trying to flank these carnal, shadowy assailants in some sick game of cat and mouse Lupin at least took solace in the fact that the heat given off by Molotra's skin and engines helped stave off the slight chill that came with his half-naked state. Between giving directions the barely dressed marksman muttered a few colourful expletives under his breath each time another scrape or future bruise was added to his legs, he was already tense and on edge from the gunmen that could be lurking around any corner, so poor Molotra would feel Lupin's long fingernails dig into her shoulder when the lightning illuminated the towering structures in the distance.

There was no power outside and the place they woke up in seemed to be running on its last legs... what had happened? was the war still going? was this some occupied planet that'd recently been hit with heavy orbital bombardments?

Who was that voice in his head and were they still in there?

There were so many questions and still no answers, those fuckers who were armed to the teeth didn't look like they were wearing gear from any coalition or military he was familiar with - and why did they act like he hadn't screamed out his own allegiance to the NSMC?

Maybe a lot more time had passed than he'd realized, were the mighty Greens now nothing more than a memory?

Then the figures emerged ahead of them, shit kicking off as rounds cracked past the conglomeration of Lupin and his stout companion.

"Shit! hard left, there's an alcove, take cover!" he yelled out over the concussive cracks of rifles firing, pulling at one of the mousy woman's shoulders to desperately try and steer her into the slight bit of cover as the ringing returned to assault his ears in full.

Ding Ding Motherfuka


Carina's eyes narrowed as she watched the display. That straightjacket had been for show. Or close to it. A play considering how easy Locust seemed able to squirm out of it. Gone was the seemingly terrified, almost childlike innocence in her pleading, the look of terror and wariness transforming before her eyes as the gray-cast woman steadied herself against the locker. And what she saw did indeed cause her to hesitate. Seeing the dead-pan look of her would-be killer pluck the scalpel so casually free with not even a wince of pain.

So far, everything she'd seen, the woman coming up with hit or miss, shot in the dark answers. Last names, with the sole exception being her mother's. The fact she hadn't mentioned to the fuming medic where they were. It was lies, all lies. Half-truths maybe. But as that look returned, the look of that coldblooded murderer who had dispatched those two Red soldiers as easily as Lulu could polish off an energy drink confirmed things for her. Her memory on that ship, nearly dying, crushed, bleeding out, Locust locking up. Otto, and Lupin, and then another stranger reaching out to her just as her vision faded to black. Only to wake up in a morgue, wearing medical scrubs, the previously 'masked' Locust terrified of her. The woman had been unfeeling at being stabbed. Her KNIFE being close at hand when it had mysteriously disappeared when Locust had spirited her away.

Holding that sharp medical implement now, edge down. She was ready to slash. Flicking with the thing be more difficult, but not impossible. And with Nepleslian know-how, probably fucking sharp. She grew up around sharp pointy things. Marine combat knives, switchblades from her uncles, the balisong which she'd cut herself upon repeatedly trying to learn how to use until Azalea Marida, adopted Helashio daughter to that thick-headed, lewd arrogant Sund Wakir on Francia had taken pity on her and taught her a thing or two. Suku'd distrusted the man and his teaching her the finer points of beating the shit out of someone or rather swindling, of larceny which was incredibly legitimate imported goods of which even her uncle Wii had secretly approved of.

Though once Locust stood to her 'full' height, more hunched than straight, Carina was shorter of the two. But from her position, she hadn't had to stare up at the woman. It allowed her to keep an eye on both the pleading, and back peddling Locust who had seemed to regress back to a fearful state, and the weapon in her hand.

At that cold murderous look from Locust moments before, the Sanroma scion had rolled her shoulders and expected to hear vertebrae popping. Instead, it had felt... weird. Almost unnatural in the ease and smoothness of the motion. Now at Locust's insistence, Carina brought her arms up, one cradling against her chest, which, for the moment went unnoticed as the elbow of her other rested atop it. She'd still had the lighter, the laser off, her hand had closed into a fist around it while the raised hand flicked itself forward as if she were tossing down a card in some game.

"Ya'eva experience wakin' up, feelin' like'ya chest was gonna cave in?" her voice soft, velvety, she flicked another invisible card. "Tha' feelin' of ya'rib givin' way with a crack'n that feelin'a pain as it tickles'ya lung? Then all'a sudden' it gets REAL hard't breathe?"

She flicked again, taking a mincing step forward. She didn't replicate Locust's dead-hollowed eye stare. What she wore now was that look that had made many a patient, ID-SOL, Nepleslians, Marines, Navy, grunts to that bitch Ran 'Red' Rui fear for their lives while in her adopted mother's care or rather tread real damn carefully around the volatile woman. She'd grown so accustomed to blood during her childhood have often seen it on Suku and in the medbay in general. Seeing her birth mother dead, shot, double-tapped, corpse cool on their bed having just come home from school with her report card and of all things, a suspension for having fought another kid for making fun of her mom and her work.

She'd waded through an active warzone on Starbase Golding to help activate the station defenses while her father, who had at the time wanted nothing more than be rid of her fought with ESG and grenade amidst his fellows. She'd been six, or was it seven? She couldn't rightly remember, she'd been so damn scared. Then she'd witnessed a Private get a red round from a first-gen HHG into the woman's chest leaving a nice gaping hole all the while the tyke was eating what passed for 'food' during those early days of Nepleslia's independence from Yamatai. And god fucking help you if it had been blueberry muffin day. Riots would've ensued. And had.

"No one'round t'help. Can't talk." flick, "Then'ya sides get sliced open by some faceless'bitch with'a sick thrill for hurtin' kids." smiling slyly then, Carina took another step forward. "'Eva' wonder what it's like t'bleed out in zero-g? Splattah's everywhere. Jus' kind'a streams out like a fuckin' juice box. Then? Makes a kind'a dome. Makin' it hard t'find the wound. Passin' out from bloodloss, oxygen goin'. Ain't fun lemme tell'ya."

Carina didn't flick again, this time instead she brought a finger up to the corner of her lip, that dangerous, Suku-like glint to her eye. "You bein' here. Me wakin' up in'a lockah. Y'got no chicken legs now. 'an I jus' saw a wee tad'a tha' bitch behind them scardy eyes'a yours." with her free hand, she waved it out a little, "This is some fuckin' con, 'an it is shit." she then pointed to her nemesis. "You'tho? Y'gave tha'fuckin' game away." then in a stage whisper: "'an lemme tell'ya, I already was wonderin' what'y head would look like smashed tha'fuck in. 'an it'd prolly put me off blackberry jam f'eva." moving her head from side to side, once again expecting those little pops, and meeting disappointment she just smiled that smile she'd used to get in school when someone threw the first punch as if saying thank you.

" 'an bitch, y'pickin' a knife fight wit' someone who grew up aroun' them fuckin' things. So I'mma make'ya a promise." with a flash of teeth her smile turning feral, Carina finished, "I ain't gonna' hurt'ya ass too much." the way she'd been standing after her few steps forward, and right back from the moment she'd had her hand on that poor trolley who'd given its life in her fit of rage had been ready to spring forward, brace, or backpedal if the then-unknown woman had tried anything. Whatever had been waiting to happen.

Carina

A sense of unease settled despite Carinas growing confidence and willingness to throw down with her former terror.
The trembling and darting eyes of Locust had finally sunken back to the sunken deadpan she was familiar with as the older woman once again seemed to simply look through her as if she wasnt there.

Her posture; Formerly defensive as she kept her bearing sideways to prevent a smaller target loosened and slacked until her taunt shoulders sagged and she simply stood with a slight hunch as her grip on the scalpel loosened to the point she held it just underneath the blade with just her thumb and forefinger.

In a pocket of her mind Carina knew what came next. Not in the way one might read body posture or even predict an outcome from experience. But in the back of her mind, like watching a fuzzy screen coming more and more into clarity she saw a scene play out.

Locust, despite her non-cybernetic legs, lunged; Closing the distance between them in an instant. And just like she saw in her mind the woman seemed less than tangible as Carina was forced to jerk into a defensive posture and the light turned away from the murderous psychopath, her darker skin and hair blending in with the darkness around her.

The blow didnt come from the front. The slapping of bare feet on blood-covered tile flooring simply stopped and by the time Carina was able to bring the lighter-light up again Locust was gone. But she knew what came next, and the little knife-fighters instincts kicked in as she managed to swing around surprisingly faster than she thought and plunged her knife into the dark.

There was a hard thud and a feeling of light resistance. But as she brought the light to bear and saw it buried half way to the hilt between the operators ribs a warm sensation started to cover her hands as viscous black blood began to run and coat the knife and her grip.

There was more to the scene, she now saw. But reacted too slow as with a gentle tenderness and without even wincing in pain or showing any emotion the operator casually cupped Carinas cheek, her hand sliding past her not in the seeming limpness of death but instead grabbing a handful of hair and wrenching her head back.

Blood leaking from her lips, even now pulled into a tight line, a horrible feeling like a frog caught in her throat overtook Carina, and then bloomed into a tight and growing burning sensation deeper in her throat and then the back of her neck and into her head.

Half of her vision seemed to turn grey, as her body first felt immensely heavy and then felt nothing at all. Slowly and without grace, Carina slumped and began to twitch on the ground as the scalpel penetrating her lower jaw and into her brainstem caused her to jerk and choke.

Locust, still in her view as her deathgrip on the lighter occasionally gave the dying girl a glimpse of her once-again killer. She looked dis-interested in Carina in muchb the same way as a haughty child might look down at an insect before crushing it.

Before her vision faded and her mind burnt out she was able to whitness Locust once again wrench a blade out of her body. It cause her to fall to her knees and hunch slightly over carina, but not for long as she placed the tip of the blade to the bottom of her own jaw and with a violent motion slammed the flat of her hand into the but of the knife; Burying the blade to the hilt in her own soft flesh...

Otto And Tobias.

With his quick thinking, Tobias' snap-shot was anything but a risk. His training and operations package cybernetics and nanites packages reflexively correcting the slight deviation in his aim and while the rifle didn't kick out any tracers to follow it was redundant as the distant dark figure with the rifle jerked violently and staggered.

Otto, behind Tobias, was able to follow the exchange as well, but was able to see before Tobias as the second was also struck but depressed the trigger on their submachine gun and stitched a line of automatic fire directly at their targets who had just turned into the oncoming fire in an attempt to dodge...

Lupin And Molotra

Molotra was jerked and steered towards a depression in the wall in the form of an alcove sporting two drink fountains that she could likely fit in between and out of fire.
Lupin, for his part had thought they would make it before a series of cracks past his head from one direction startled him and caused him to follow the trajectory of the round towards their mysterious and blue-balled attackers.

Somehow and with a growing pit in his stomach, he knew what came next as a burst of automatic fire flew through the hallway from the attackers and in his and Molotra's direction.

Perhaps it was a feature of his cybernetic eyes, or perhaps the adrenaline rush to his brain causing time to seem to slow down. But regardless he was able to watch, and unable to turn away as a small but growing conical object spun at him and arduously came closer and closer like it was passing through molasses and towards his left eye.

Little prince~ A voice cooed to him in a smokey and strange tone as for a fraction of a second the vision in his left eye went black.

And then everything went black.

On her back, Molotras' rider went slack and teetered off of her with a thud.


Location Unknown

Six individuals suddenly found their surroundings drastically change before their very eyes and beyond their perception. Hospital walls faded in their colors to a grey monotone and then to black before all contrast and depth and definition now simply looked like an impenetrable black void all around them.

Otto, and Tobias now suddenly cut off from his camera viewing with a sense of nausea and vertigo watched as the enemies, still falling towards the ground lost all matter and joined in the darkness all around them. The form of Molotra suddenly became more clear to them as she alone was illuminated despite giving off no light.

And she could see them just as well, oddly, as all walls and windows and form around them seemingly melted away into a great and all-encompassing darkness as if they alone stood in an open expanse without detail that only they could see each other in.

Lupin, a limp figure on the ground despite knowing and having felt his death gasped at Molotra's feet treads and found his vision working perfectly. His cybernetic eyes couldn't pierce the veil around them, but he was the first one to get a glimpse of Carina several douzen meters away and an unfamiliar woman slumped ontop of her; Both laying on the ground. How he knew it was Carina, Lupin couldn't say for sure.

Carina woke with a gasp of sheer panic and clawed towards her throat only to find no unnatural objects or surgical implements impaled inside of her. There was a lingering feeling of pressure like a frog was caught in her throat but it quickly faded as she found herself healthy if a bit shook.

Ontop of her, Locust casually pulled herself off of the recovering medic and staggered to her feet. She was still dawning the loosened straightjacket but the absence of a blade of any sort piercing her side, or even the blood gone. Even the spot in her thigh where the scalpel had pierced her thigh was clean and blemish-free.

Before a coherent thought could form in Carinas head or action could be taken she was scooped up by the larger woman like a child with one arm under her knees and another on her back as the operator began to casually bridal-carry her towards the rest of the group.

"You weren't wrong. About it all being a con." Locust stated casually in a terse tone that lacked hostility despite the fact they had just seemingly killed one another. "But not in the way you think, Sanroma."

Carinas faculties quickly began returning to her as a sense of deja vu began to settle and her desire to deck the woman for a growing number of reasons clashed with not only her demand for answers but also an even larger desire for the bitch to stop carrying her like a goddam child!

It was fucking embarassing!

T̴̨̼̙̬͍̫̖̤̥̜̟͋͋h̷̨̧̝̳͖̻̫̜͂͑̐̈́̈́e̶̜̩̞͖̻̪̜͂͘ ̶̨̧͖̖̦͈̈́̋̾͒͂̉͂̎͘̚͝V̸̰͈̹̯͕͇̩̺̭̮͈̝͐͋̀̈́̔̿͋̈́̉͑ơ̶̬̐̎̔̄̂̒͠ĩ̶͉̞͎͖d̷̘̭̫̄?̴͇͈͖͚̪̓̄̅̾͂


Lupin coughed and spluttered as one hand clawed at Molotra's rubberized tank tracks, though as much as he heaved and hacked no phlegm came out, some distant part of his potentially compromised mind remembered the sensation.

The process of installing his brain-spider had not quite gone according to plan, the surgery itself had gone without a hitch though the anaesthetic had worn off earlier than anticipated. It wasn't the clearest of memories though the uncomfortable feeling of an intubation tube having not yet been removed was unpleasant to say the least, especially when combined with half-lucid images of shadowy figures just at the edge of his vision.

Luckily, Lupin had almost immediately been put back to sleep so that he could recover and be extubated when appropriate.

It was a similar sensation, the feeling of something filling his throat that no amount of heaving could displace, though it slowly settled and Lupin's head raised up enough for his wild eyes to see the few other people in his immediate vicinity. Not that there was anything beyond them, it was just his brain's way of rationalizing the strange situation unfolding around him.

"Put her down... identify yourself!" he snarled, Lupin's subconscious working hard to take care of him as he tried to catch up with it, as loud as it all was it felt silent next to the presence of an unknown voice once again mentioning royalty.

She?

Who was she?

She was... Carina?

How did he know that? Why did he know that? Was that the truth?

A million questions hurled themselves at him before young Master Kennedy shook them aside, desperately scrambling around for Molotra's pistol, a brick... anything really.

Though as much as he tried to focus on what was tangible, one question lingered like a bad taste in his mouth.

He'd just had his face melted and been riddled with gunfire in recent memory, so why did he feel perfectly fine?

Empty Zone

There wasn't really a word for such a snap between two such distinct states of being. One minute Molotra was terrified beyond conscious thought, driven to blind panic by the sheer absurdity of the world that surrounded them. The heavy impact of a water cooler to the face... and then, just a snippet of horror when she caught the wet spray of Lupin's messy demise mere inches away from her face.

She didn't even have time to process the concept of him being gone before the whiplash of this new place struck her right in the soul.

Another place. Another Lupin?

A simulation. It had to be a simulation. But she couldn't connect to anything? She couldn't even detect anything?

Lupin; She was getting to like him, but this wild expression on his face was terrifying. Molotra wasn't even sure he was ever real anymore- Still, didn't want to move, didn't want to crush his fingers between her tracks- But were they even her real tracks? Why were those simulated? These assholes could just simulate her walking around and keep it simple!

"T-t-take your f-f-fingers outta me fukkin t-t-treads!" Molotra heaved in mixed frustration and fear, using their metal hand to push Lupin to arm's length. They were already feeling tremendously trapped, and not being able to move their 'legs' made it overflow into a paralyzing cold sickness. "What's going on? W-who is doing this? Who are you p-people? Is this a hack? I'll... I'll... I'll lagspike this bullshit and crash our brains all at once!- I'm w-w-warning y-you!"

She couldn't hack. She didn't even know what this larger lady was. But that generally made a pretty good threat to non-spacers.

Did that actually exist? Did anything exist?

The back of her mind clawed at her for answers, still wanting to know if that gunshot killed Lupin. That Lupin. But he was also here? Was this him?

"T-th-s c-ant b-b-e re-rea-lllll"

Twilight Zone

Carina's burning hatred for the woman, her cocksure attitude that she'd unraveled it had translated into a brief, harrowing, and perhaps brutal engagement. Growing up with such things could impart much, but being on such unknown ground had held many disadvantages that continued to pile up one after another. Brief as it was, the grey bitch proved a little too damn much for her liking. Using the darkened room for cover while she tried to counter the shadowy assault. And somehow, somewhere she'd managed to get a hold of her precious weapon. Locust's footsteps, audible as they were came in close, Carina having reacted by plunging the knife into the dark. An almost smug sense of satisfaction tickled her mind as a warm liquid began trickling on her hand. Right between the ribs!

Feeling the desire to twist the literal knife in, readying to plunge the blade back and forth into the creature's chest. She never even got the chance to go beyond that first stabbing. If she'd had the time, the little medic would've probably have reflected on it all. Though with her hair yanked back, and the shock blossomed in her dying mind, her vision had lost its color and her sight began to cloud over what she saw last before her death wouldn't get the chance to be questioned. For whatever reason, her killer had rammed their knife under their jaw, Locust, it seemed to join her in death.

And then... her eyes flew open and ragged gasp for air. One of her hands, shaking a little with urgency felt across her neck. That gasp had introduced her to an ache within her chest while she gulped a little in satisfaction at finding nothing sticking out of her throat. An unsubtle motion drew her fragile attention long enough to register Locust donning the jacket. It didn't make much sense to her then. Everything a jumble and fuzzy even as she was scooped up.

As Locust walked, the motion helping to shake her awake bit by bit as that haze of confusion began to dissipate. But really, it was her seemingly now, real killer's voice that brought her attention into focus. And with a heave of her chest, the sharp intake and exhalation of the breath seemed a warning to some tart reply likely laced with enough insults and curse words to make even a soulless killer blush. Oh. She took a small bit of comfort that the bitch had, had admitted that it had indeed been a con. Though as her mind began to clear further and her ever-burning passion in laying her out flat grew, Carina was left to wonder. It had been a con. But not in the way she th- the line of thinking died there as she realized just how she had been carried.

All she managed was a low rumbling in her throat that gave way to an unintelligible croak. But at the very least as she tried and failed to raise a fist in answer instead, her face was alight with fury. But a familiar voice drew her gaze until she found someone who looked equally as familiar. Her eyes narrowed a little while taking it all in until they began to grow wide in recognition. What in the hell was going on?!

[REDACTED]

Tobias swayed for a moment, the forcible disconnection of his mind from the cameras took time to recover from. Vertigo caused him to stumble, and for a moment he felt as if he was going to fall down into the strange void that they all now found themselves in, though he was relieved to find that his footing was sure.

His IPG conditioning kept panic from setting in, and helped him center his mind as it recovered from the strange experience and the rapid shift in environment.

His mind whirled, what had this been, some sort of evaluation? And who was it that had whispered into his ear?

It couldn't have been Deuce... The hacker thought at first, but then shook his head. He knew better than that now, with all of this craziness. Looking to Otto, he gestured towards the others and began to approach.

"Well, we're all alive at least," He said as he approached, "wherever we are." The operator looked to Locust before speaking again. "I assume you've got some kind of explanation?" Before following it up with a quick message over the IPG commnet, Even if you can't tell the marines, I'd like to know what the hell this was.

Unknown
Otto

All of the time vents that had unfolded this far, seemed...to make little sense to the now less confused sniper. Seeing Locust once again, wrought a flood of memories, back from their near suicidal mission in space. Staying quiet until he found his opportunity,"Now that I have a solid assumption to what has happened, Deuce, where are you? I have a hard time believing you and the rest of the IPG Spooks , no offense Tobias;I have questions and I'd like some damned answers, as would we all it may seem." The older man, now even more so seemed calm yet his Stern tone, betrayed his demeanor and better judgement. Seeing most of his team did come as a relief, despite everyone's rather, shaken mental state. The questions began to queue in his mind, as the again now older sniper waited to see or hear either Deuce or Locust respond.

Everyone Except Quilly (Whose quilly?)

With everyone's sense, and in some cases, lack thereof all accounted or unaccounted for the scenario they found themselves in seemed to continue to unravel with every passing moment and action.

With a shout from lupin, Locust casually obeyed and released Carina, who, surprisingly didn't fall on her backside and instead seemed to float in mid air; The feeling of some kind of flat surface beneath her without an end as if she were already on the floor. Meanwhile, as she continued to walk towards the group Locust seemed to shift in perspective slowly as if seen through a magnified lense to the point where she was now walking upside down and was slowly coming down to level as if she was walking on a ramp.

As if his now deteriorating mental state couldnt get any worse for lupin, Molotras demand for her treads found the young hanyan suddenly without fingers!

There was neither pain nor blood nor any sensation; When lupin looked at his hands he simply found that one of them simply ended at the knuckle as if they had never been there in the first place.

For Otto and Tobias things took a different route as with but a thought from Tobias, Duece was simply there before them all. She was on her knees in a strangely familiar seen to Tobias as she looked up from the hilt of the strange rapier plunged deep through her chest, her hands wrapped around a disembodied hand without color or texture holding the hilt. With her cybernetic body and augmentations Tobias knew it was an injury Duece could easily shrug off.

It would have been so, and the hellion seemed about to act when around the blade an aura started to permeate with a flicker and the blade erupted in blue-black flames of plasmic energy as Duece burned from the inside; Flames burning out her eyes and out of her mouth now open in a silent scream as the blade withdrew and faded into nothing leaving an equally now incorporeal corpse that slowly disolved into the ether. The scene had played out just as Tobias had remembered, but also couldnt remember.

For Otto's shout and demand he suddenly found himself tripping forwards, a force behind him pushing him with a staggering amount of force.

"And who are you to try to demand anything from me, washout?" A familiar voice sounded behind him and Tobias; The familiar visage of... A much younger Duece?

The girl before them, and it was clearly a young woman in her early teens, was a perfect younger version of the affirmed hellion with the exception of the roundness of youth in her face and a much smaller and less developed body. For Tobias who had known her best there was a strong sense that he didnt know this girl; The uncaring disdain she emitted towards Otto and himself and the lack of humor or the faux mask of smiles she had always bore a foreign concept on a face of a familiar stranger who looked upon them like insects beneath her boot.

And just like she had appeared, she was gone.

"Dont think. Dont speak." Locust stated casually as she walked past them, her every step-changing her angle of descent as if she was walking horizontally across a spiral staircase until she was once again level. "Not unless you know what to do or say. You'll waste your turn otherwise" Her tone sounded just as deadpan and uninterested as she finally came to the center of the group. Somehow, despite seeming like she had been walking from a mile away she had barely moved a few feet with carina still just behind and above her by a few feet.

And then she too was just level with the rest of the group, sitting on the ground...

Locust, disinterested with the rest of the group continued on, or appeared to when she simply kept walking in place without moving in the center of the group. Before it could be commented on, however, a distant pinprick of light came into focus in the direction she was pointed.

It was distant at first, then when finally noticed was closer and closer without any signs of cutting or jumping; As if the group was moving towards it at high speed. It came more into focus as not a point of light but a spotlight without a source that pointed at the ground. It illuminated a shape dimly that came more into focus as details they had simply not noticed suddenly came into being as they looked around only for everyone to find the void had changed once more.

They all stood in a room, barely furnished but with a spartan desk with nothing on its surface but a picture turned away from them. There was deck-plating beneath them like that found on starship interiors, and where there should be walls on any of the four corners of the room there was simply the continuation of the void.

The silence, oppressive and terrifying as it was gave way to the distant startup whine of what first sounded like a Claxton but instead seemed to stretch on and on until it was just one long note. And then two, and then three. It continued on and changed in pitch until the same few notes of a soft-strung instrument could be heard not unlike a violin but impossibly hard to place.

And when the mind was done processing the now recovered sensation of sound it could finally understand that their was now one more occupant in the room.
Sitting at the other side of the desk, in a gaudy chair that bordered on being called a throne, an old woman appraised the group with a quirked brow as if she had been their all along.

She was old, easily the oldest person any of them had ever met, and wore the loose and baggy fitting uniform of the IPG and rank tabs denoting her as a rear admiral in the black fleet. Despite her age she was firm and neither shook nor blinked as she continued to stare at them with the slightest hint of mischief in her eyes until Locust casually took a seat.

When she pulled a chair out of thin air, four more appeared next to her, as well as a rubber mat ontop of the carpet that hadnt been there before, perfectly spaced between the chairs for Molotra to fit between a pair of hard and uncomfortable looking metal chairs.

The old officer didn't acknowledge Locust, and simply stated in a dry tone.

"Sit."

And everyone found they were now in a seat with the exception of Molotra on the rubber mat.

Their was a sense of vertigo at this and a pit in the stomach but slowly the gang returned to their senses to find Locust casually stating nonsequiturs that seemed to continue to change reality around them but as soon as they heard them the words were easily forgotten.

First reality seemed to split into a kaleidoscope of versions of the room as if looking at reflections of reflections, Then Duece was there and then she wasnt, followed by others who appeared and disappeared just as fast. Finally, the void, still dark, seemed more defined but also more terrifying as shapes and silhouettes could now be percieved all around them; Just outside the tough of the light above them.

There were some small as a child, and others larger than a warbear in size. Some of them appeared humanoid in shape while others only vaguely so or more mechanical in nature as distant and only just visible tracks of red eyes numbering from single pseudo monoeyes to massive collections of eyeclusters watched the group with intense interest.

Finally there were now others with the group in the room, also now in chairs seated in a semi-circle around the desk. The red pilot; Facet was there still in her flightsuit, a dead and vacant look in her eyes as she gazed down into her lap unmoving. An elysian woman with beautiful brown-chesnut wings folded behind her in a tailored NSMC set of fatigues was now there, drenched to the bone. The younger Duece sat between Locust and Tobias, the still present look of annoyance plastered on her face as she sat with her arms crossed and looking expectantly at the older woman.

Finally, there was a figure behind the older woman. She was female, that much seemed obvious from the proportions. But any other details seemed to bleed away when appraising her. This woman simply stood stock still, watching from the shadows.

"I'm First." The new-duece stated with a tone of finality as her voice cracked. It might have been cute if she were less unnerving to be near. She opened her mouth and began to speak but the words were silent. After some time the older woman also began to speak in response but was also deathly silent. From the way Duece' lips twisted into an even deeper snear she could not only hear the older woman but didnt like the answer.

"She is ███ ████ ██ ██████" Locust stated, somehow making a painful sensation of static fill everyone's ears until she continued.

"We'll avoid the cliche by having me ask her last to explain to you all what's happening. Be glad, it means you can ask her any one question and she will answer it truthfully. No it is not a joke. Yes, this is really happening. No she isn't a genie and cannot grant wishes."

"Make it count, and be as specific as you can. I doubt any of you will get this chance again."

Everyone and now Quilly!

Quilly was confused and disoriented but was slowly coming back to her senses. She had spent an exhausting and traumatic amount of time on what appeared to be the roof of a hospital in the middle of some kind of super-monsoon! She had been fighting for her life as hundred mile an hour winds tried to throw her around, and rain accelerated to insane speeds by the wind felt like stones slamming into her.

She somehow knew these marines around her, each by name, and somehow she knew they all knew her.

She even knew the red, the spacer, and the brat who occasionally side-eyed her like she was a bug she wanted squished!

Then the operator, somehow knowing her too! Spoke and she somehow quilly, just like everyone else, had something she knew she needed an answer to.

T̴̨̼̙̬͍̫̖̤̥̜̟͋͋h̷̨̧̝̳͖̻̫̜͂͑̐̈́̈́e̶̜̩̞͖̻̪̜͂͘ ̶̨̧͖̖̦͈̈́̋̾͒͂̉͂̎͘̚͝V̸̰͈̹̯͕͇̩̺̭̮͈̝͐͋̀̈́̔̿͋̈́̉͑ơ̶̬̐̎̔̄̂̒͠ĩ̶͉̞͎͖d̷̘̭̫̄?̴͇͈͖͚̪̓̄̅̾͂


Lupin's muscular, slightly bared chest could be seen rapidly rising and falling through the partially unzipped front of Molotra's one-armed jacket, the young man's lungs heaving as his big, orange eyes stared down at his malformed right hand. There was no blood and no pain despite his missing digits... there was nothing in this unsettling void that defied all reality. Surely it was some artificial construct, right? that was the only way any of this made a lick of sense.

Reality was not some putty to be reshaped and morphed on a whim, that simply wasn't how it worked, right?

The half-Hanyan was brought back to his senses by the sensation of cold metal against his practically bare ass, sucking in a small breath at the surprise, though his newly acquired padding did at least help to take some of the discomfort out of the seat's hard surfaces. Despite being slightly in shock Lupin could recall everything that'd been said perfectly, or at least, everything that he didn't remember as painful static that made the young man want to claw at his skull.

Locust's warning to not think stuck with him in particular, and with a few shallow breaths to collect himself, Lupin tried to put his nubbin of a hand out of sight and out of mind as if that might do something. His swirling, ethereal peepers darted between those assembled around the table, taking note of as much as he could. From the youthful appearance of the bitch that'd blown his face off to the scrub-clad form of Carina whom, like himself, seemed a bit older and more physically mature.

He knew this Elysian supposedly, Quilly something... though that conflicted with Lupin distinctly remembering he'd never met one of the religious bird folks before, most of what he knew of them was what his father told him~

It made his head swim, and the swirling masses moving at the edges of his vision certainly didn't help settle the lad's nerves.

There was so much he wanted to know... but he only had the one question, if Locust was to be trusted.

She wasn't, but that was beside the point.

"Miss, I~" Lupin started with a frown across his boyish features, swallowing thickly as his big, amber puppydog eyes looked across to the old fleet admiral with the shadowy woman behind her.

"There's this woman's voice in my head I've heard twice now, I'm not sure if it's a memory or something else but... it keeps warning me of danger and it also keeps calling me something. Why does she keep calling me little prince? I'm just some nobody from Funky City~"

Welcome to the Spookzone
We've got fun and games!

WIt's a stirring of plumage and skin, the power-washed birdie opened her eyes slowly. She couldn't keep the groans silent as her aching joints decided to, one by one, report that they still hurt. Sonuvabitch, that hurt. The last time she was caught outside in a storm that bad was... Ah, what, when she was six? And nearly got swept away by the winds, there. Experiencing another storm was an unfortunately familiar experience to the demolitionist.

What she didn't remember, though, was how she got inside... Quilly's memories were hazy, but she swears she felt herself fall off the building at some point - but nothing seemed to be broken. Not like it mattered, at least for now, given that her wings were not only thoroughly roughed up, but also dripping off enough soaked-up rainwater to create their own thunderstorm. They also weighed about as much as a kid's comic book collection, each.

Rolling her head around to get some semblance of motion back, the blue-eyed Elysian took a look around the room, seeing these... Strangely familiar faces. Some of them were looking at her, too. There was also some woman who seemed to be opening up an AMA sitting.

Quilly followed up Lupin's question with something a bit more basic. "How the heck... Did I get here? I don't even remember where that storm came from, but I blinked and now I'm with everyone else?"

The Tempting Fate Zone

Molotra was at the point of heaving by the time they got to the mat, passing through another traumatic and confusing snippet of reality, before moving right onto the next. Doubling over, the rotund brown-haired tankoid pressed both hands to her face, panging their nose quite badly with the metallic right palm.

She didn't want to harm Lupin. He was cute... He even helped her build that bed that one time... But that almost made him more suspicious, in a head so full of wrong. The life she remembered had always been about sneaking around rotten cargo holds, bending broken things back into a half-working state, lobbing the odd stream of lead towards a hostile shadow...

All that, it just made this whole situation feel... Exceptionally staged.

This was either a god or a brain hack.

But why her? What use would it have for her trusting a random Nepleslian solider? Which one of these memories were real, and which one weren't?... Why was she overcome with a feeling of sympathy seeing that bird-girl's wings all damp and strained?

You're a spacer, damn it... Compute this...

"There are four potential parties who could have done this..." She spoke spitefully, through it sounded less than intimidating with their raspy, uncertain voice. "Has the IPG ever killed a Nepleslian public official to keep their organisation in power?"

It was a gamble, just to see how they reacted. A real IPG agent would be dismissive, or probably not admit anything to some annoying tank-pleb. A Kuvexian or Yamatain agent would be fine with painting them in a bad light. A fellow Freespacer would be bluntly honest, and throw the IPG under the bus.

The void
Otto

As his reality continued to warp, Otto's senses extended and retracted back to and from functionality. The life he craved for so long. Now seemed desperately far away. As the old Rear Admiral came into view and his bare backside now pressed against the cold metal surface of the chair; his skin responded with goosebumps across his body. Looking around, he noticed, Semi familiar faces. All looking like his new team, and younger deuce, seemed to concern the man greatly. Flashing a dangerous glance at the only woman and Shadow behind her, His mouth opened slowly, and for the first time since joining the 309th. Otto's voice waivered, and was laden with concern." Tell me, what became of my lover. A Yamataian, member of the royal family? What happened in my absence?" His question was asked....yet he dreaded the answer. Nothing else seemed as important as this, right here...right now.

The Brainspace

Tobias frowned, sitting to the side of Deuce-not-Deuce, and looking towards the Elyian. Quilly, he remembered her from... somewhere? What was she doing here? Staring at the Elysian, he tried to remember, but came up empty every time, as if something had been pushed into his mind with no care for providing context.

Glancing to Not-Deuce, he thought for a moment. This couldn't be her, even a brain spider wouldn't have saved her from having her head burned from the inside out, and everything pointed to this being some kind of strange memory-impression of Deuce, or a long-outdated backup of her mind.

Yes, the hacker rationalized, the only reasonable answer is that this is all in our heads. Frowning in thought for a moment, There's no point in trying to be cagey about things anymore, before asking his question, he finally spoke;

"What is the IPG doing to us?"

Straight from M.C Escher We Present...

Carina hadn't been able to help but gawp a little at her surroundings. Things shifted, changed, brightened. Darkened. It was like a bad salcra trip. Stuff those crazy horned bastards, the Iroma grew. Oh. It was glorious stuff. But apparently whatever she'd chosen had, had some serious mindbending properties to it. THAT was the last time she'd ever try something like that again. Yet when everything was said and done. Her fury abated only just slightly as finally they were all made to sit on chairs that seemed to meld together as if from thin air. The dry voice coming from that aged face, the baggy uniform, and badge of rank. A rear admiral eh? When she found herself seated, the medic frowned once more, feeling uncomfortable as she stared down, wiggled around once, twice, eyes going a little wide and her lips parting before clamping shut with a click of her teeth.

The kid, or whatever the hell passed for one piped up first. Voice cracking, Carina looked to the slip of a thing. Early teens indeed. Though once her lips began moving and silence filled the gap between whatever was being said between the twerp and old woman, she watched with eyes momentarily unclouded with the burbling fire in her belly. Not so much as a blink as she looked from one to the other.

As her nostrils flared more out of shocked surprise co-mingled with a mighty dose of confusion at that... then there was noise like nails on a chalkboard hate mating with t.v static hit her ears from Locust as she'd begun to introduce this old lady. Jokes? Questions to be answered truthfully? Carina already knew a con was in play. Yet according to nine thousand shades of gray sitting primly as you please it wasn't what she was thinking. And then, in the void between their little area of light the glowing dots of red, eyes maybe? Monoeyes? Were there suits blending in the background? They all seemed to stare. Yet with a squint, some wraith stood still as a statue behind the old admiral. Too little to make out a face, yet she saw feminine curves. So a woman stood there. With hands in her lap, the jarred young woman continued observing until she heard another familiar voice.

Lupin's voice. Lulu, the gangly, awkward sniper. That voice, familiar, yet now deeper caused her hazel eyes to go from wide-eyed surprise to narrowed slits. As he spoke, she looked him up and down, the seriousness of her stare, and the innocent confusion of his question almost causing her to guffaw. Mainly because of the outfit. Wait... why in the HELL was he wearing panties to begi- nope. That was for a later date and time. And who sweet ever-loving hell would she never let him live it down! Provided they lived of course. But at that HICK female accent, Carina's head immediately whipped right in Quilly's direction, her eyes alight with some vague recognition even as her hands had seemingly involuntarily begun checking the pockets of the scrubs she wore with fervor.

Old women. Tween killers, whatever Locust was, glowy eyes, and now a filthy islander! Oh. Sure. The Rokin islands were a nice enough place to visit as far as the islands went on Nepleslia. Still not as beautiful as her homeworld's though. There wasn't a thief, criminal, or ganger on the New Detroit landmass worth their salt that wouldn't have gotten a whiff of it at least once or twice. Bastards would rob you blind if you let'em. She could respect a possible comrade in the criminally inclined arts if pint-size lived up to the rep. As the others' questions came in turn, the rolling mechanical machine, a 'spacer? Huh... she remembered a few. Including some crazy-ass redhead, she'd tried to rob once. Almost got away with it to if it hadn't been for one of those murderbots of theirs. 'course both of them had ended up in some sort of argumentative loop for a good fifteen or so minutes before realizing Carina had hot-wired the two-seater airbike ready to get the fuck out of Chusset.

IPG, IPG, IPG.

With a slow blink, her head turned to Otto. His usual rock steady voice wavering although his question made her eyebrows shoot up. Having grown up with a father who'd detested the Yammies along with a bunch of goofy, oddball uncles who had their misgivings she'd held a dim view of them for years. Well! This was certainly news to her ears. Yet what sealed the deal was Tobias' question. Well. He'd boasted about being IPG. Or at the very least trained. Granted in her book that was about as a good thing as saying you dipped your wick in a Neko. Damned cats. With an audible snort, she immediately had him pegged for a bottom of the barrel member if he was sitting with the rest of them and questioning.

With a click of her tongue, she began to mutter. The word 'Relativity' came up, her characteristic, fluctuating polyglot accent fallen away to something more akin to having had elocution lessons hammered through their Nerimium skull. It'd been followed up with another muttered word, 'Surrealism' and then an audible exhalation that seemed filled with mirth. That was what the whole trip had been like so far. She'd bet her last DA not many in this twilight zone horror show paid much mind to Nerimian things anymore. And if they did? Screw'em. They'd packed their bags, and went home like a deadbeat dad leaving his pregnant one-night stand behind. That was as close as she could come to making sense of the place and situation.

"Fucking Escher indeed." her words finally audible enough followed by a slap of her hands-on thighs that now seemed a little plusher than before. Looking to the object of her ire once more, Carina rubbed at her throat again before lurching to her feet, mind having been made up the moment she'd decided to try and kill Locust in whatever fresh hell that had been earlier. That moment of seemingly womanly... well, more womanly than the atypical borough Apagos girl's distinctive pronunciation gone she sauntered over to Ötto. Foregoing thinking of the fact he wasn't exactly dressed to impress, she smacked him on the shoulder companionably and looking him dead in the eyes.

" 'ey, buck tha' fuck up, Spectah.' " she said loud enough for their little collective group to hear. Back in the old days, the Corps had, and still had a healthy dislike for the IPG. Except back then mainly because they'd felt threatened in being one-upped in badassness such were the early days. And the simple fact who in the hell liked spooks, to begin with? Derogatory names had of course cropped up. Probably more than there were parts per cubic centimeter of wasted marines in the Green Ocean on a minute basis. And a few had even been crafted as terms of respect. Such as the one she'd just used. Then looking to the ones who'd labeled her would-be savior a washout, she thumbed her nose at the two. Mini-Duece, and Tobias.

'Yeah, that's right, Tweenwave and Bottom Barrel, I said it.'' her look seemed to imply with a little lift of her chin before giving the man a little shake of the shoulder and quite simply backed away, eyeing the weirdly young Duece and keeping Locust in her field of view as she drew close enough to turn and smack a hand on the admiral's desk. Maybe a little too hard, her hand stung like a bitch to the point she slid it back a little on reflex.

"All dis questionin' shit, e're one askin' IPG this, IPG dat." she nodded with her head a little toward those seated behind her. "Barrel Bottom'n, Rollo back'dere jus' pretty much called'ya out." really, the little Type-2 gave off a bit of deja-vu and had all but found the little tankette cute enough to give her an affectionate nickname from the get-go. Freespacers were alright in her book, they'd gotten browbeaten by some insane bloodthirsty cat admiral for no good reason and felt pity and kinship with them in some of their eccentricities. Helped she was DJ ENtropic fan as well. And the other one? Well. She knew his name. But Carina wasn't going to acknowledge it. You don't snub someone who had put their neck on the line for her and get put on the same rung as a normal Nepleslian in her book. Oh, she knew her back was to all those agents that had gone on that royal clusterfuck of her first mission. And again she'd reminded herself. Her mind had been made up.

" 'an I called out'dat dis was a fuckin' con to good'ol Mactibilis ovah there. 'jus not one I thought. Frankly, I don' trust'ya. Ain't don nothin't make me trust'ya. But..." with a sharp exhalation, she gave the older woman, whom, her grandmother probably would've smacked her on the head for going this far with.

Carina's eyes didn't twinkle like this lady admiral's had when they'd first arrived. But they did hold an interest of a sort. Yet the bold, if rude'n ballsy girl flicked her gaze from the woman seated, to the shadowy female silhouette behind the uniformed elderly woman. "Is it you? Or is it'er?" and looked back.

Nowhere.

Questions where asked and statements were made one after another and simultaneously as the nu-duece and the older officer spoke soundlessly. There was an oddity of perspective when one, like carina, attempted to gleam their words through lip-reading or concentrating only to find it nearly impossible to focus on either of them as if the eyes merely slid on past and refused to focus.

And then Carinas outburst and actions called an end to all that. The Nu-Duece looked surprisingly unalloyed and rather contemplative as to whatever she had learned and ignored Carina. But Locust, for her part, moved to dart out and pull Carina back with a shout as Carina approached the desk and slammed a hand down.

For the first time, the Rear Admiral turned her head instead of just simply side-eying anyone in the group and looked past the aggravated party in front of her and towards the grayscaled operator. The distant yet still audible tone of strung notes seemed to intensify momentarily as a new distant note plucked once and then faded back to the fore.

And then Locust froze in place, arm extended and almost brushing Carina's shoulder, her words somehow forgotten as they were cut off with a momentary echo.

And then, just as quickly as she had settled the interruption the woman turned back to look forwards; Directly at Carina. There was the clear impresion that she was looking through the girl instead of at her. And for the first time she acknowledged everyone's existence as each and everyone seated suddenly found that the womans eyes had flicked exclusively to themselves alone.

And then without any sensation or even notice each and every member of the group was separated in an instant as the void around them seemed to kaleidoscope as the desk and woman separated into a half-dozen partitions of herself; Each back to back with a member of the team facing one of them and now separated from each other. There was a sense of claustrophobia as if there were walls all around them and all sounds cut off beyond them as if in a room all their own despite the fact that they could see each other.

With the slightest twitch of a smile the older woman began to speak to the querries before her...

Lupin

"I'm glad to see at least some of the youth still have manners these days." The woman spoke casually in a voice that was a familiar yet unidentifiable sultry tone edged with the distant raspiness often found in those old warhorses used to yelling commands.

There was a sense of ease, familiarity, and comfort emanating from the old admiral that was now matched with a soft and reassuring demenor as the deadpan shifted to a more comfortable and casual expression that now matched her posture as she visibly relaxed and slackened her posture.

"To answer your question, however, little prince" She chimed, her voice now recognizable as the one in Lupins head to the best he could recall. "I will tell you the tragic tale of just another faceless corpse of war; A girl so far out of her depth with the responsibility she bore and ran away from without ever knowing she had it."

And so she spoke. She told Lupin the story of a simple soldier now so distant in the old Nepleslian Star Army and her unremarkable past in the burgeoning foster system.

She had died, unknown and unloved. Just one of many in a growing pile of dead in the wars against the elysians that the Nepleslians partook in for their overlords. The story had very little if any relevance to his question until she then circled back and began to speak again.

Classified experiments, abductions of DNA samples from hanyan royalty, black-book cloning, and eugenics programs to improve and stabilize deteriorating Nepleslian DNA. All leading to a spattering of abandoned clones into the foster system when the program collapsed. All leading to this girl and her death.

"And it was from her that we made you, Little Prince."

Quilly

"Rather a waste of the opportunity, dont you think?" Was the answer to Quillys' question as she was segregated like everyone else. Before she could answer, however, there was a pressure on her head and everything came rushing back.

The repressed, or perhaps blocked memories flashed by at incomprehensible speeds but still she could see them.

It wasnt always the roof. Different places, different times, different scenarios. She saw them all from a point of view she knew was her own. Sometimes she was alone, sometimes she was with the team here now or with just a few of them.

Lupin, younger and now older. Molotra and her quirky if blunt remarks about her Elysian parentage and people as she occasionally tried to pluck a feather from her wings, Otto the ever serious, Tobias usually uncaring but always vigilant, Carina and Locust and their strange flip-flopping between outright murdering each other to uneasy ceasefires.

There were others, barely remembered. Sometimes they died and she never saw them again, sometimes they died and she did see them again in another loop.

And with that the memories ended with the same scene every time.

This same woman, this same situation, the same scenario, the same questions.

Except for this time everyone chose something different...

Molotra

"Actually there are nine." The woman corrected Molotra's statement about the number of parties that could be involved but then smiled.

"But ill give you that one for free." She offered with a jaunty wave.

"As for your question; Yes." She stated without even attempting to lie or divert the truth. For any conclusion Molotra might have drawn from the logic path however was muddied as the information still didn't seem to be base. The thing before her; For she somehow knew it wasnt Nepleslian, wasnt one of the free folk. It was too perverse in a way she couldn't place, and the way it domineered every single node and possible connection...

On the polysentience, in its vast and bottomless depths, giants dwelled. Cinereal, Relay moon, Arsenal, etc. The great old and powerful super-AI stayed static as great suns in the poly. They were bright and violent in the data they consumed and recycled and it wasn't uncommon for more distant or excentric ghosts, programs, or knowledge seekers to watch from a distance and try to glean some knowledge or path from the hyper-processing bleed-off of any of the great super constructs and their inconceivable projects and calculations.

The thing before Molotra felt like one of those old ghosts that sometimes spent decades just watching. How it would either drive them insane and cause them to deteriorate and lash out and turbulent the Polysentience for a time in their wake, or come to some sort of epiphany which usually saw the formation or rise of some new sect or group within the free folk.

This thing was similar to one of these ghosts. But was also foreign enough to clearly not be a relic of the free folk. It was a young (by spacer standards) entity likely less than a century old. And it was somehow linked to the greens in some way. Or had always been so...

It was with this revelation that the strange choards around her suddenly made sense as the rivers of data passing through and around them in the chosen media of the being before her and even started to correlate with Molotra in a way she could distinctly connect to. She knew that if she thought her mind could survive the encounter she could pull the veil away in the same manner that even the smallest of pins could still burst a balloon.

Otto

There was no hesitation, no consolatory tone, not even a frown as the woman simply shattered Ottos world.

"Your lover and child are dead. Murdered."

There was a silence at the revelation that there was more than just her. A crushing weight settled in Otto's chest and seemed to press down to the point it became hard to even breathe. But there was a small light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

That too was dashed when she continued.

"Her backup in the Motoyoshi family vault was corrupted beyond retrieval. Rare as it is for her kind it is the final death."

A million thoughts surged through Ottos' mind. How? Why? Who? He knew he needed these answers, to know who did this and why. He needed to-

The woman looked on in an impassive tone and shook her head almost imperceptibly side to side as an answer.

He only had the one question...

Tobias

"Doing to you? Nothing." The rear admiral stated casually her hands unclasping to reach ever so forwards and pick up the old picture frame and offer it back-first to Tobias.

The photo was old and was an actual developed photo in some old format her didn't recognize of a large class-photo style picture of just over two dozen people lined up in four rows of six with the tallest likely standing over the others on some platform in the back while the front row knelt.

The twenty-four were flanked by three individuals, two of which women.

One of which was the older woman before him.

What drew the eye however was not that, but the strange familiar sensation Tobias got when he studied any of the group. They stood in their two lines in black fatigues without insignia or identification, each of with a serious look on their faces as they stood at attention towards the photograher.

There was Duece in the back row, fourth from the left. Despite the fact she looked somewhere in between the age where Tobias had seen her last and this newcomer she had the slightest pull at her lips of her trademark hidden grin.

There was Dreamy Steve in the row beneath her, lacking his mustache but still the most pole-thin compared to the group.

Locust was in the same row as Steve, looking oddly timid but clearly older than the rest; Despite a boy in the row beneath her blocking off his view Tobias somehow knew Locust was secretly holding hands with a young boy on her right with the pudgy fat of youth still on his face. He looked more confident than Locust and was clearly her moral support and not the way around despite clearly being younger.

Each and every face told a tale of hidden personality that Tobias could almost capture if he looked at them hard enough. Names eluded him but he knew they were just at the very edge of his mind, waiting to come forth if he could only remember.

And then, in the bottom-most row he saw it. Just as the Admiral spoke again he saw a face he knew shouldn't be there but the longer he looked knew somehow it seemed less and less of a lie despite somehow needing it to be.

"You are not, and never were, in the IPG" She stated casually as Tobias looked at his own face on one of the people in the picture.

Carina

The admiral didn't answer carina right away and instead simply leaned back in her chair and really appraised her. The separation from the others was instantaneous but still left enough time for her to process that it was disorienting and left a rare moment of silence between the two.

"The semantics of that question is much more complicated than I suspect you can comprehend." The admiral stated plainly, holding up her hand to forestall any outburst or remark from Carina.

"Lambda" She began, mirth sneaking into her tone as she leaned forwards enough to look Carina in the eyes. It was the first time Carina could recall actually, really looking deep into them and it was unsettling just how cold the womans gaze was to the point it extinguished some of the fire Carina had. "Has already asked i explain that all to you, So you'll get the answer regardless."

"Instead I think this time is better suited towards reflection on our actions and our manners, don't you think, Carina Gabrielle Sanroma?" Her tone suddenly turned icey cold as she drew out the word reflection. "We have some time to burn anyway."

Before any meaning could be interpreted Carina found herself sitting down again, her arms refusing to move from her sides as her gaze stayed locked onto the older woman. Unabated and unfettered; Scenes started playing before Carina from an onlooker's point of view from floating screens in front of her.

Scenes of intense violence and mayhem, savagery beyond normal human limits were committed.

All by Carina.

Time after time she watched herself wake, often in the morgue but sometimes in other places in the hospital. There was a terrifying savage glint and rage in her eyes unfamiliar to her that seemed to overtake her when time and time again she and Locust would play a game of Hide and Seek through the hospital with the winner being one or the other of them who would track their counterpart down and brutalize them into unlife first.

There were others. Lupin, Sebastian, Quilly, Tobias, Otto, Molotra, and some she didnt recognize as she would encounter upon waking up or in her desperate mission of seek and destroy. She would either leave them behind in the case of her teammates or savage them beyond what even she thought was capable in the case of random shadow-like people that got in her way when they got in her way. In latter encounters that seemed to blend together as scenarios repeated themselves she would avoid or use these third-party groups to her advantage as slowly she learned the routines and actions down to a science.

Eventually, after two-douzen encounters, Carina finally overcame Locust for the first time. The operator didnt even balk or flinch at her death.

Six encounters later Carina had learned Locusts methods and techniques enough and bested her again.

The encounter after was a controlled attempt to put practice into testing out her hunch and ended up with her getting the drop on the operator just like she expected and maiming her before she killed Carina.

Time and time again the encounters became one-sided as Carina seemed to adapt and overcome Locust with a surprising reservoir of strength and cunning. By the fourty-fifth encounter, it turned from the two of them hunting each other to Locust playing the defensive. By the fiftieth, It began to turn cruel as Carina exacted horrific fantasies upon the woman who actually begged and pleaded to her on deaf ears.

It wasn't long after before Locust's mask slipped and she started to make mistakes and even show visible fear. Not long after that the woman actually tried to broker peace to deaf ears.

By the eightieth scenario, the hardened operator had become the bawling mess Carina had encountered in the morgue. Eventually, even she became tired or pitied the operator and simply used her like a taskmaster to a slave to accomplish her objectives as she tried to dismantle The Con.

On the one hundred and thirty-fifth scenario Carina awoke in the same drawer of the same morgue as she had almost a half-hundred times. She and the rest of the team had been wiped of their encounters for one last scenario, but Locust and her Trauma had remembered everything and followed the path she knew from trauma and muscle memory to release her sadist of a master. And then it played out as she remembered; Locust begging and bawling, the scalpel, her knife, them killing each other and then the void.

"I had my doubts at first but you really did turn out better than expected." The woman commented, suddenly in a chair beside Carina and watching the macabre montage alongside her. "You'll make a fine addition to the family, I'll even separate you from the fodder you were with and pair you with Lambda since you are so fond of her."

With a blink, the screens were gone...

The Void

As quickly as they had been separated reality folded back and the team found themselves sitting together again silently while the answers they had just received sunk in. For some like Duece it seemed not to phase them, For others like Facet who still sat and appeared mind broken they likely hadn't even asked one. Locust, for her part, was sitting stock still and watching Carina with a side-eye and appeared all the world ready to bolt into the void itself from the way she began to hyperventilate.

Seeming oblivious to any of this the admiral shuffled some papers that hadn't been there before and cleared her throat.

"Now if that's all I think we can move along and get you all processed?"

This Time On Reboot, Molo Crashes The Firmware

The tank had been confused by the outburst of the small black haired girl. Generally somebody who looked that young was a yammie. But it would have been a bad disguise. An accent thick as syrup, too- Hold on, 'Rollo'?- was she talking abo-?

Too late. Another portion of reality snatched away again.

Molotra reflexively went into a defensive pose as this ancient woman teleported in front of her, rotating half way with her mechanical arm behind her, preparing for a punch...

The invasiveness of this... projection? Though... all just too damn perfect?...

"N-Nine?" Her voice barely stuttered out, quite out of her depth. A mind distracted by other, more ethereal details. "B-B-But why w-would you admit to t-that?..."

The hole in her psychology formed by the lack of direct-access knowledge ate at her once more. Her head moved around again, searching desperately for Lupin, even though it wouldn't have helped. She knew about some big war computer that got stolen; It was the basis of her original creator, the huge super-syntelligence known as Cinereal. The one she had fought so long and hard to escape from. Even a human body was just a cog in a machine to something that vast and immoral.

Her mind raced, wide blue eyes locking with with the pale and older ones of this individual. It was an expression like a child finally noticing the strings of a puppet in action. No lag or weird texture warping. The skeleton was applied to the mesh well, avoiding the uncanny valley effect an alien might produce. The invisible whisper of data lines going in and out...

But then what was this? The hole in her knowledge changed into a pit, as she was overcome with the sensation that it was that void, personified. Was it inside her head, watching her from the inside out?

Reality warped again- But Molotra was above it now, entranced. Hacker or not, her muscle memory grasped at the functionally it needed to form a new connection. Watching the subtle changes gave them a small sense of what signal caused which interaction...

Holding her breath, she took one long gaze at the 'old woman'... and then she opened her other eye, to extend her consciousness right down into that abyss.

The Void

"Oh~" was all Lupin managed to mutter before realities converged once more, those thick eyelashes the half-Hanyan possessed fluttering a few times as his face slowly shifting from a deadpan stare to a frown of deep contemplation.

Was this thing presenting themselves as an old admiral to be trusted? surely not~ though this was one hell of a ruse to create simply to implant some lies. There were much easier ways to go about this... which made him more towards this being legitimate.

What did this mean for him if it was in fact the truth? Were his parents okay? What responsibilities would this information coming to light force onto his young shoulders?

Surely not, Lupin was a nobody content to just retrace the steps of countless marines before him and live a decent life... but why had he enlisted in the first place? the Imperium was an alright place but Lupin wasn't a particularly patriotic individual. Shit, had he been unknowingly influenced into following a pre-determined path this whole time?

With another blink his eyes began rapidly darting between the faces of everyone at the table, did any of them know? were any of them in on it?

Of all the familiar faces at the table he was suddenly very aware of two that were missing, the friendly demoman whom he shared the nickname "Lou" with and their pacifist Sergeant, neither of which had been in particularly great shape the last time he saw them.

The prospect of being bastard royal offspring brought about by shadowy eugenics programs and all the consequence that came along with that was shunted from the forefront of his mind as Lupin's ember-like gaze settled onto the apparent IPG Admiral, "Processed? wait, where is Sergeant Valentine? where is Louis?!" Lupin began demanding as his imposing 6'3" figure stood fully upright and the chair he'd been placed in fell over, hands gripping at the edge of the table with enough of his newfound strength for it to offer an audible creak of complaint.

The Office of Doom and Gloom and Other things.


Carina sat in silence, simply staring at the elderly woman who sat behind her desk with unblinking eyes. Her hands were balled tightly into fists, knuckles had gone white and seemingly oblivious of those around her. She hadn't even really heard the woman. Her ears ringing, and yet more silence filled the void for her even as Lupin spoke up making his demands for answers. Even the hyperventilating Locust had been forgotten. She was thinking. Replaying what she'd seen and what she had personally just experienced perhaps minutes before. The sensations of death had been there. The warmth of sweat and slickness iron-copper scent of blood along with whatever had passed for the woman beside her had felt real enough.

Her bottom lip found itself chewed upon, the salty metallic taste that trickled and tickled her tongue told her she'd made herself bleed just a little at that. She had things to say. On her mind. Then as if unbidden, her lips began to move but no words lept forth. Instead, it seemed as if she were counting. And with each number another scenario had played out between the two. Cruelty, rage, sadism. Oh, Carina knew she had her fair share of anger and attitude to match. But this? What she had seen? Her lips continued to barely move but move they did. As soon as one was done, it was reset another played out that seemed to steadily become worse. More savage. Brutal, bloodthirsty. Her nostrils flared as she reached good old lucky one hundred thirty-five. And then, with an exhale she cast her own side-eyed glance Locust's way soon after having recounted the events to herself. The steely glint to her hazel eyes was apparent before she looked away and then to whomever this was once more.

Whatever it had been for, about or over was between her and self-restraint. Then for the first time, she blinked and looked to everyone else, her expression one seeming on the verge of erupting in some fashion. Most she recognized yet she still hadn't come to feel the same with the little Type-2, nor the equally small birdwoman and back only to cast her gaze to her hands. Now clean and free of cuts, gore, blood and other bits. She opened one, closed, flexing her fingers and then the other as if considering something. With a sudden shudder, her lips twisted into the beginnings of disgust and the feelings of nausea that came without thought or care churning in her stomach.

The Office
Otto

The Rear Admiral's words echoed in his head, a million other questions ready to fire, volley after volley. "Children? I had children?" His question fell on deaf ears As Otto let this realization sink in. Sitting back in his chair, the Older man, for the first time in his life, felt the pain of true loss. A single tear began to well in his eye, as he returned to the group. Dabbing his cheek, looking confused as his cybernetics began to lightly malfunction."why didn't she tell me?" His question escaped from the Corporal's lips, attempting to refocus on his mission and goal the crushing weight of her answer, seeming unreal.