~~ Runaways: War in Sin City ~~ Late Sign Ups Open!

[Roy Karrde]

Runaways: Lost in Sin City
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

In a series of five years in the early 1980s, children admitted and babies born in the Las Vegas General Hospital suffered mysterious deaths, their bodies burned in fear of a possible viral outbreak in the city that the babies and children were said to be exposed to. Their grief stricken parents were given the ashes for burial and they eventually moved on with their lives.

That is everyone moved on with their lives except for the children. They were snuck out in the cover of the night, too young to know what was happening to them, and were taken outside of the city to one of the many military instillations that populate the Nevada desert. There under the code name ‘Candy Box’ these Children were exposed to radical gene therapy, or surgery, designed to give them extraordinary abilities to aid in assassinations.

By the late 1990s, the cold war was over, and the children had become young adults, all at the peek of their training. They were then set out upon covert missions, designed to assassinate, or disrupt targets or governments. Usually these missions ended up as wet work, meaning the teens came back bloodied. Afterwards to prevent psychological trauma, the memories were erased, and they were prepared for their next mission. Never remember what they had just done.

In the year 2008, the summer heat is just beginning to dim in the Nevada desert. To the teens and adults it could as well be snowing outside, since they have not seen the outside world in nearly twenty years, other than in their missions. That is until today, one of the laborers tasked with taking care of them decides to take pity on them, sneaking them out of the base before her and most of the children were either captured or shot.

The few that were able to flee, make their way through the desert and arrive in a city that they can hardly comprehend. A city of lights, lasers, and scantily clad women. This is Sin City, This is Las Vegas. With only the clothes on their back, and no where else to go, the teens set out to survive in the city of lights. Everything is new and exciting, but soon they learn they need to find shelter for the night.

That is where they meet Mr. Leone, one of the many mafia families that control the Las Vegas Casinos. With a Mafia war brewing, Mr. Leone discovers their extraordinary abilities, and their training to assassinate targets. He soon puts them to work, taking out targets that threaten his casino, and to destroy the other casinos.

The teens reluctantly agree to do this, but with each mission, with each death, they begin to remember more of the secret life that the Government had wanted them to forget. But with a war brewing that they have caused, can they discover their parents, and be able to escape a life filled with death and destruction.

Powers:
Invisibility: The pigment in your skin has been significantly altered, and changed to be more like a Chameleon. Except instead of just being able to change color, the evolved power allows you to copy wallpaper, and any other solid, non-moving object behind or in front of you. Allowing you to blend into the background effortlessly. ~ Roy Karrde/Kalad

Stretch: With Bones and blood vessels reinforced with rubber and jelly, and your heart greatly strengthened, your body is able to stretch to incredible lengths, allowing you to scale a building in a matter of seconds. As well as being able to slingshot items or yourself.

Morph: With the molecules in your body in a constant flux, you are able to take the shape of anyone or anything. Yet are limited to only your body mass and below, and with smaller animals and people, only a limited amount of time in that form, before your heart begins to have problems. The excess mass will form as a object on your back such as a backpack, in which it will be kept. ~ Shizo

Hacking: Your body has been infused with computer fibers and circuitry, as well as a built in WIFI modem. Allowing you to hack into a computer just by touching it, or limited remote hacking. Allowing to control and manipulate one or many computer systems. Yet the more you do, the more control and concentration it will take. ~ PolHaruko

Pyro: Your pores have been replaced with ones that excrete a type of jelly that can be easily ignited. Allowing you to create balls of flames within your hand, or to allow your entire body to be lit on fire for a limited amount of time Dark-San

Ice: Your pores have been replaced with ones that excrete a type of jelly that can be easily frozen. Allowing you to shoot out a stream of ice from your hand, or to cover parts of your body in ice for protection or to provide extra damage ~ Mystic_Clown/



Name: Kyle Taylor

Age: 23

Gender: Male

Character Description: He is tall and some what lanky, standing around 6'2" and around 160 pounds. His hair is black and incredibly messy, his skin is a pale while, although it does have odd patches on it, each patch a different color in which he did not fully revert back to his normal skin tone. The most noticable one is on his left cheek and a deep green color. His eyes are also two different colors, one red, the other green. This again another side effect of his powers. He wears a old black suit, the inner white shirt wrinkled and having turned some what yellow, with the shirt only half way tucked in. The entire suit looks like it hasn't been ironed for years, and has the same splotches of color on it that his skin has.

Powers: Invisibility

Forgotten History: The mission that caused the most trama for him was killing the seven year old daughter of a French President. Wearing fake finger prints he was assigned to strangle her to implicate another country, and thus begin a war between them and another enemy of the state.

Personality: Since his powers revolve around non interaction, he is usually a wall flower when it comes to social engagements or anything non buisness. When it comes to actual battle plans he is a amazing tactician. He is proned to frequent violent outbursts, and does not like to be surrounded by people, instead he enjoys finding a secluded corner.

Other: His weapon of choice is the P90.

Kyle Taylor

The fog of battle remained clouded around my eyes as I walked through the corridors of the Candy Box. Or at least it felt like a battle, my body ached in ways that had to be un natural. Yet the last thing I remembered was falling asleep in my bunk, and now here I was, walking down the octagon shaped hallways back toward my bunk.

I glanced toward my teammates; the question was always there, even though none of us asked it out loud. ‘What just happened, why do we feel like we just got hit with a sledgehammer?’ At least we did not ask it out loud, in the dull monochrome gray hallways where our voices would carry.

“I feel like I am going to sleep for a year.” I sighed, the concrete blast door sliding away to reveal our room, a large rectangle room painted in the same color as the hallways. The only distinguishing feature being several bunk beds and several chests infront of them for clothing. “May I be the first to ask what the hell just happened?” The words flowed out of my mouth the second the blast door slid shut.

“Don’t, just don’t.” Allelujah shook his head, collapsing on his bunk.

I glanced at the others, giving them a slight shrug before pealing back my coat to find a nasty looking bloodstain on my shoulder, as well as a few new splotches of color in other places. “Fade, how many days…” I asked, tending to my wound.

Fade shot me a growl in annoyance, as everyone seemed to wait, we had snuck in a calendar and electronic watch into the room, that way we were able to figure out how many days we missed during these little amnesia trips. “Eight… eight days.” She checked off the calendar before handing it over to the next person to hide.

Each person dealt with the shock in their own way, the shock of realizing that eight days of our lives were erased from our memories. “Its better than being gone for a month right?” I offered, getting into my bottom bunk as Fade crawled into the one above me.

“Whatever.” She mumbled.

Even with my eyes closed I could feel that the rest felt the same way, the roll of their eyes, a shake of the head. No one seemed to really care anymore; it was something almost natural like sleeping or peeing. “Yeah.” I yawned back, trying to concentrate on the natural noise of the room, the soft sound of the air being filtered in, the movements as everyone got situated for the night, the spray of sparks as some one cut through the blast door.

I bounded out of bed, my eyes remaining locked on the door in utter shock. A line of blue light went around the door, making a somewhat hurried and messy cut. “Come… on…” The familiar voice of Sergeant Carter grunted as she pushed the part of the door open.

“Ma’am?” Martha looked on in shock as the sergeant waved us through the doorway.

“We don’t have long until they notice that I disabled the security locks, I am getting you out of here.” She waved us on as we stepped through the doorway and out into the hall.

“You heard her, come on.” I rushed over and grabbed Martha’s hand dragging her along through the doorway and out into the hall.

Nathan glanced up and down the hallway, placing his hand against the concrete walls. “The security alarms are resetting.” He warned as Carter rushed us down one hallway after the next, leading us through what felt like a endless maze.

“Where are we going?” Martha whispered as I realized that I was still clutching her arm as we ran.

I glanced back at her and then up at Carter as we stopped at a ladder leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. “I don’t know.” I whispered back as Carter instructed Nathan to disable the security locks on the hatch. “Maybe to the surface.” I added as bullets suddenly went whizzing by us.

“Hurry!” Carter barked as the sound of footfalls filled the hallways, followed by more bullets. “Allelujah, we could use some return fire.” She commanded as the hatch swung open.

Natural light suddenly poured in, blinding us for a second as something fast and loud rushed by near the hatch. “UP!” Carter screamed as she pushed each of us up the hatch. Given the choice, between the loud sounds above us, or the death in the way of gunfire coming from staying in the hallway, I gladly choose to climb the hatch.

“Hurry.” I called back to Martha, climbing the ladder and into the new world beyond, the first thing I noticed was that it was hot, almost unbearably hot, the second being it was loud as we climbed out onto the asphalt, all around us metal machines screeched by narrowly dodging us. I grabbed Martha’s hand, helping her up the last few rungs of the ladder and onto the asphalt.

“You’re next.” Carter yelled from below, grabbing Allelujah and pushing him up the ladder, everyone was above and out of the hatch except for the Sergeant.

“What about..” I yelled back at her as she reached for her gun.

“Just go.” She slid the hatch shut, locking her down below with the rest of the guards. The hatch slid shut, locking us into the unknown and shocking world above the compound.

Alright there is the escape, try and establish your character and the escape, as well as your shock of being pretty much climbing right onto the street in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. Good luck everyone and I hope you have fun with this!

[Haruko]

Name: Nathan 'Nate' Fry
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Character Description: Around six foot even, Nate's hair is auburn and shaped like this. His skin is fair with a grey eyes; and a face that always seems to be serious. His build is lanky, built to be swift(as he seems to be quick to react - much like a computer itself) while completing assassinations or trying to hack into other bases while in stealth. He likes to wear denim jeans and a white short sleeve, as well as a blue and white long sleeve much like this. His favorite pair of black sneakers always seem to be on him, as well as a cat5 cable bracelet around his left wrist.
Powers: Hacking.
Forgotten History: A perfectionist who is always serious; mistakes always took a mental toll on Nate. Previous missions include him accidently killing a child instead of his assigned target(similar events have happened as well with animals), and messing up with his hacking and almost getting himself killed.
Personality:Is known to be serious 99.9% of the time, and a perfectionist all of the time. Smart, decisive and always curious; Nate is much like a computer himself. He's detached himself from most of his colleagues and tends to bond with computers and electronics more - except for the one government personal that he took his last name from. She was the only one who could make him laugh and smile, something he hasn't been able to do since he lost contact with her at age eighteen.

Is known to dislike most things(including his name); although he has a liking for bitter food. And white rice..
Other: Last name is taken from government personal "Catherine Fry", who helped raise him. Is left handed.



Nate Fry
because we all have our wishes..


As we walked back to our rooms after our last mission; which we assumed only on the fact that our bodies felt like they were put in a rinse cycle for too long - the feeling of our memories being buried by the people we worked for, I looked along the gray colored corridors, listening to the sound of the wires throughout the building.

The only thing that calmed me, since her death.

We soon made it into our room, one that we shared with each other. It's pale colored walls matched the hallways, the only difference in the rectangular room was our bunk beds and the chests in front of them, which stored clothing. As well, the electronic noise was always so high in here; perhaps due to the security door's lock. It was almost too loud, but bearable. It washed away the feelings that I'd get when trying to remember past missions, so in that fact - maybe the loud noise was a good thing.

I laid down in my top bed, my bunk shared with Allelujah who took to resting in his as well. It was Kyle that spoke up about our missing days.

"Eight..eight days."Fade spoke, and I glared at the ceiling - it was less than times before, sure. But having those days missing bothered me...much like missing a piece of code. Did I kill anyone innocent during those days? What computer was I using..what was the mission?

All these questions circled around in my head until the voice of Sergent Carter through the door's noise, and the brief breaking in the electric pulses as the door was opened by force.
"Come..on.."She grunted, her face pressured as she halted the door with her bare hands.
"Ma'am?"Martha looked at her as Carter waved at us through the doorway. I jumped off of my bed and touched the ground, in curiousity as to what Carter was doing..was she insane?

“We don’t have long until they notice that I disabled the security locks, I am getting you out of here.”She replied in a hushed whisper, and we - one by one - walked through the doorway and out into the hallways. With Kyle reassuring Martha to come, I started to hear the electronic pulses come quicker, and I placed my hand on the hallway to reassure my assumption; the security alarm was being reset.

"The security alarms are being reset."I looked at Carter after doing a brief overview of the hallway, and with a nod, Carter rushed us down one hallway, and soon after another. Much like an endless maze, us being the rats looking for the cheese. Or the bats seeking the fresh air.

All of our running soon paid off, as we stopped infront of a ladder that led up to a hatch in the ceiling. The noise surrounding it was much more than normal; it was probably the most secure thing in the compound..

"Will you have a problem disabling it?"Carter asked me, and I shook my head as I placed my hand on the hatch - pulses forming between me and the hatch. A lot of locks, one by one..

Natural light poured into the dismal hallway as the final lock told me it was open, and the hatch revealed the life on the surface. It was then that I felt Carter pushing me onto the surface, followed by what seemed to be a screeching sound as a bright light that was heading towards me curved to the side. Quickly getting up onto the asphalt, everyone followed suit; except for Carter herself.

"What about.."Kyle yelled to her, and she took her gun out as the hatch slowly started to slide shut.
"Just go!"She replied sternly, and with that the hatch closed; and the worst probably would happen to her..

'He doesn't deserve to be treated like a computer!'Her voice echoed through me as the sounds of horns honking at us intensified. Ignoring them and looking until the street was clear of the bright lights from the cars, we made it onto the sidewalk of what seemed to be a very bright..and noisy city. My thoughts were still on Carter though; who if didn't die from the gunfire prior, would die by the hands of her superiors..

Like Catherine..




Next post will probably be 3rd person, haven't been in the mood to do it lately though.;/

[kalad1]

Name: Tanya, prefers to be called "Fade"
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Character Description: Caucasian, and standing at 5'8", her most obvious features being her Crimson red hair which is to her shoulders, and her eyes, one of which is yellow, and one of which is red, and despite her efforts to get them to turn to more normal colors when turning visible, it never seems to change. Starts off wearing slightly ratty jeans, a black long sleeved t-shirt, and a baseball cap pulled down to cover her eyes.
Powers: Invisibility
Forgotten History: In general, her missions involved the killing of a single person, and evasion of various security forces, however, on one mission, she was given orders to kill a Guerilla leader in south america, and was given authorization to kill more than just him if she deemed it necessary. She ruthlessly slaughtered the man, and all of his immediate guards, a total death count of twenty-five in the middle of a heavily fortified camp.
Personality: Tanya is normally very sedate, laid back, and decidedly apathetic, normally whiling away her time as best she can. However, on a mission, or a situation similar to a mission, she gets energetic, and starts smiling, genuinely enjoying the thrill of stalking and killing other people.
Other: Is ambidextrous, and prefers quiet weapons such as garrotes, or knives.

Tanya "Fade"
___________________________________________
I felt great, tired, but great. Sure my arms and body ached, but I felt the undeniable, fading remnants of a sense of accomplishment. I didn't give the grumblings that my fellows did as we headed down the sterile corridors.
Sure, I kind of wondered what I'd been doing during the times I couldn't remember, but it wasn't as big a deal for me, I mean, it wasn't like anything really mattered anyway, though I did kinda wonder why I always had new clothes after one of the blank periods, and my hair was always wet too.
As the blast door shut, we all began to go to our bunks, while doing various small tasks, I was getting into my bunk when I heard Kyle speak up, asking how long it'd been.

I let out a small growl as I fetched the calendar and watch. What the hell did it matter? Why did they bother? And, most importantly, why the hell did I have to help out with the stupid task? Checking the watch, then the calendar, I did a slight mental calculation, and replied, "Eight, eight days." I then passed it to one of the others, glad to not have to bother with it for a while. Laying in my bunk, I barely noticed Kyle commenting that it was better than a month, to which I uncaringly replied, "Whatever."

I lazed about in my bunk, and almost fell asleep before I noticed someone was cutting through the door. I immediately went camo, disappearing from sight in the dark room. Offhandedly, I noticed that Kyle hadn't. Then the metal fell away as the cut was completed, revealing Carter, who pushed the metal in enough to make an opening, stating,

"Come... On..."

What was the woman, nuts? This was... bizarre. I didn't drop my camo, but she, just for a moment, gazed piercingly where I was. Reluctantly, I dropped it, and followed with the others, still looking at her. We ended up running down one hallway after another, eventually ending up at a ladder.

I followed the others out into the heat, my face not showing any emotion as the hatch shut behind us. Not like I cared if the woman got herself killed, or worse.

[Dark-San]

Name: Allelujah Haptism

Age: 23

Gender: Male

Character Description: A general outlook from one's perspective, Allelujah looks like any other typical mixed blood race. But in actual fact, he is just an ordinary Caucasian that is just tanned due to his regular exposure to extreme heat. Standing at 1.85 metres and weighing around 85 kilograms, besides his skin colour, the facial features that stands out the most would be his eyes, hair style and his voice. His eyes were particularly large and sparkling. Whenever he gets into trouble, he would gives off a real innocent look that almost resembles a puppy. And that impression always gets him off the hook. His hairdo is just plain untidy. Allelujah never combs his hair and hence they would remain spiked all the time. Besides possessing a thick German accent, he would usually speak in a mild gentle tone, which makes him behaving rather gentlemanly. Due to his way of speaking and the way he stands out, he is quite approachable to be friends with.

Powers: Pyro

Forgotten History: Assassination of other countries' top leaders that are deemed as enemies to the state, terrorism mission that were carried out to jeopardized the enemy's weapon facility, massacre of the entire town population because they were witnesses to a classified secret etc.

His alter ego was borned out of Allelujah's guilt during his last mission of massacring the entire town folks. Instead of killing just men and women, he was forced to kill even childrens. In fact, his last infant victim for that mission was an eight year old girl who was hugging her deceased mother. She was hugging the body real tightly, crying out for her mom.

However as Allelujah approaches, she screamed at him and pleaded for her life. As a government agent, Allelujah was forced to murder her in the end since failure in this mission or any, would mean he and the rest of his own kind would be deposed of.

The regular brain washing sessions though made him forgotten the main bulk of that incident but from time to time, he would still remember the glimpse of the little girl that pleaded for her life.

Personality: Allelujah is suffering from personality disorder. In within himself, he had created an evil alter ego that does most of the government's dirty work for him. Allelujah calls him 'Hallelujah'. Allelujah is basically a quiet, well- mannered and down to earth fellow. Easily approachable and when his buddies were in need of assistance, h would always lend a helping hand.

Hallelujah on the other hand knows nothing but only killings, murders. He pays no little attention to life. And he even thinks that killing as his hobby.

Allelujah and Hallelujah though shared the same body does not frequently 'meet' each other. When it is a peaceful time after a misson, Allelujah would be the one that has awaken and Hallelujah would be the one sleeping. The reverse happens when it comes down to a mission.

Others: Since most of the human body's composition is mainly carbon based, Allelujah's gel once applied to a human skin even in small amount, it would seeped into the host's body and dehydrates them from within before the body eventually loses all its moisture and bursted into flames. These are usually Allelujah's techniques when it comes to secretive missions like assassinations.

Hallelujah's favorite killing style on the other hand would be more showy. He would catapult his gel like substance onto his surroundings and with a click of his fingers, those things which his gel would come in contact with would ignite.

Allelujah would also sometimes covered his entire body with his gel and ignite him in order to hide his identity if needed. Hence he is always been nicknamed the 'human torch'.

Since the process of burning would always required oxygen, much of his killing techniques, with the exception of the first technique, would be useless if the enemy could limit that variable.

** ~ **

Allelujah Haptism Part 1

"Save me, Father!"

That was the last words, which I could barely remembered. The moment I regain conscious again, I had already been escorted by two military uniformed privates into my bunk.

"Yeah, you can leave me alone. I will just walked in myself."

Keeping my voice tone low, I muttered those words to the privates before making my way into the bunk.

"May I be the first to ask what the hell just happened?"

"Don’t, just don’t."

Kyle piped the question in order to break the weird silence and I had to promptly reply back in the form of courtesy. However extreme exhaustion got the better of me, my legs could no longer support my weight and I just plainly fell onto my bed when I entered into my private space.

My head hurts, my entire body smells like rotting garbage.

"Boy, my life sucks"

With that I placed my hand onto my face, trying to get some sleep when I realized that my hand was moist and smells like it had come into something metallic. That smell is so distinguish that all of my platoon mates could even recognized it in an instance. Blood, it was.

"Did I just killed again? Or was it Hallelujah that did it?"

Shaking my head to brush these thoughts away, I managed to convince myself that resting now is my upmost priority and other things are secondary. I laid comfortably on the bed with my eyes noticing the swirling ceiling fans. The mechanical aspect of this invention is great, it simply go swirl and swirl and swirl ...

'Hallelujah'

Scene reenacted: Allelujah was undergoing some form of counseling after the apparent 'mission' was finished and the 'brain- washing' session completed. He was restrained by chains and held onto a iron- made 'throne' rather forcefully. And over the end of the table was an old man, in which Allelujah normally referred him as 'Father'. As expected, that old man would be the counselor.

The scene begins with Allelujah losing his conscious and 'Hallelujah' now taking over. Allelujah's last word to 'Father' was asking him to save him from this mind torture.

"Now, are you still Allelujah Haptism or just 'Hallelujah'?"

"Who do you now expected, motherfucker bitch?"

The abusive language had started to ring some bell. 'Father' shook his head in disbelief and started questioning the insane personality.

"Who do you just kill today?"

"I killed a drug lord, his two offsprings and of course his beautiful maiden. The rest of the security guards that he employed were finished off by the rest of the busybodies. But at least I had the privilege to transformed the entire detached bungalow into a hellish furnace. By the time I did it, my entire killing count total up to ninety- nine preys."

Taken aback on how, 'Hallelujah' clamly speaks of killing. 'Father' begin throwing in more questions into the interview to investigate several issues.

[i]"Do you remembered how you murder the family?

"Me, murder? No 'Father', I was simply hunting. A prey simply only needs to be eaten obediently. But no, these fools were struggling and cursing as I restrained them with used clothes.

I first started out with the two kids, the drug lord has. I applied my gel substance onto their skin and had them tossed one side. Twenty minutes later, the kids exhibits signs of extreme dehydration and burning. The drug lord was pathetic. He was begging me to stop and even offered his wife in exchange for the an antidote to save his kids.

Of course, there wasn't an antidote to begin with. I took up the offer and had my way with his prized wife. When he finally found out about the solution non-existence, he got mad but clearly begging me to stop all these. In the end, the kids could take the pain and died in front of his eyes.

His wife well, through the sex ritual, I had some of my secretion all over her torso area and also some inside of her. With a simply 'click' of my finger, her beautiful crafted body was instantly reduced to ruins. Now that is art!

As for the drug lord, ..."

"Okay enough of the details..."

'Father' obviously disgusted at the way in which 'Hallelujah had his total memory intact, he went on to questioned him further.

"Now tell me, 'Hallelujah'. Why was it that you are able to remember and evade the brainwashing process? It is rather surprising that your personality comes out unaltered. After all, we had spend millions in perfecting this technology."

"Perfect? It was of course perfect! I was your creation remember? You guys forced Allelujah to take on cold- blooded missions, you guys were the ones that forced him to undergo those mind- exhausting brainwashing sessions. If I don't protect him, who will?

Of course, the 'perfect' technique you guys are referring to only works on Allelujah's mind and not mine."

'Hallelujah' shrieks at a loud tone much to the annoyance of 'Father'. He gave an instruction to two of the guards behind him before making his way out.

"What insolence! Take him away, guys."

"Why are you running away, 'Father'! Look at me, look at how much the monster inside me has grown! Hahahaha..."

'Halleujah' menacing laughter slowly echoes away as the two military guards drag him out of the interrogation room into the hallways.

Allelujah Haptism Part 2

Scene reenacted: Allelujah was awakened by his comrades and soon persuaded into escaping.

"You are next!"

Ushered by Carter, what greeted me was a New World out there. The lights blinded me for a second as I made my way out from the escape hole.

"Whatever out there, it is a brand new world!"

With that I put my hand onto Kyle's shoulders for reassurance that we are truly free.

** ~ **

I took a slightly different 'route' from the other by emphasizing more on character development. And to do that, I did a couple of anime research regarding double personality. With one being Monster, hence the phrase 'Look at me, look at how much the monster inside me has grown!'.

For the idea on trying to illustrate killing as a form of hunting, I had used some examples from Rosario+Vampire's latest English chapter, the phrase used was 'A prey simply only needs to be eaten obediently'.

As for killing instantly being referred as an art form, I used the same speech from Naruto Shippuuden. Deidara anyone? ^.^

Hopefully that clears much of the doubts.

*Tags Roy instantly*

[Shizo]

Name: Martha (nicknamed Mothra for reasons)
Age: 22
Gender: F
Character Description: She stands at 5'8" with a small chest, thin build, and delicate features. She's a heavy girl, however, because most of that 'thin build' is muscle. Her skin is dusky and would be even darker if she got a tan. Her eyes are a wide black. Her waist-long hair is supposed to be black, but she enjoys using her abilities while off-mission to change it to unnatural colors. Her favorite shade at the moment is purple streaked with blue. She cares little about clothing, so she usually dons a large white t-shirt and grey pajama pants when off duty.
Powers: Morph
Forgotten History: Not sure what to put here, so I'm winging it.

With the ability to transform her body at will, Martha can perform any mission in a way no other member can: in plain view. She has become a master at altering her physical appearance to perform missions in plain sight. More than once she was sent to assassinate someone in the guise of another to utterly destroy the standing of the one she is copying. She is also able to spy on a facility with a great deal of efficiency, since she can walk in through the front doors. Her mastery of shape-shifting allow her to be a one-woman search-and-destroy squad. She can spy as any sort of unobtrusive animal (she's even been brought into military bases as a puppy or cat) walk in as a sentry or guard after assuring the original won't interfere, and walk right up to the target to kill them with no one the wiser.
Several mercenary companies and petty governments have fallen at her hands, most with no one realizing that it didn't collapse internally, and the rest with someone thinking it was an established enemy or rival who decapitated the organization.
She's had far too many missions where her target died thinking their best friend and confidant was the one who betrayed and murdered them. Their horrified and disbelieving faces would haunt her off-duty self if she could remember them.
Personality: She's developed something of a split personality. Off-mission, she's a shy, quiet, and slightly ditzy. She does have a memory like a titanium snare, but it never comes into play until she is on-mission, when she becomes a no-nonsense, cold, calculating bitch who can easily wear two faces when her off-duty self can barely wear one. (Note: these are not two different personalities. They're two different mindsets that arrive at different conclusions from looking at the same evidence or memories).
Other: Loves animes such as Haibane-Renmei and Kino's Journey. She also has a pink plush bunny named Kumagoro that she enjoys having near her. Making fun of Kumagoro or attempting to take it away without permission will invoke her on-duty persona, and no one wants that.


Martha
**************
I was sitting quietly on my bunk, quietly reading a Winnie the Pooh book one of the people here had given me, when Kyle came back. The others sometimes teased me for reading it, but I liked Pooh. I liked how, no matter how silly or absurd his plans and actions are, everything turns out all right. He was like me: simple. That did not mean stupid; I was not stupid. I knew I could concentrate and focus and analyze the world through complex, logical eyes. I could be just as clever as anyone else then, maybe even more clever. But when I was here, quietly reading, surrounded by my friends, doing that seemed silly.

Kyle had been gone eight days. We knew that because of the calendar. I couldn't remember who found it, but now we could count how long we were Gone. When someone Left, we'd make a mark on the calendar. When they came back, we counted the days. Sometimes it was just one. Sometimes it was a month. I was usually the one Gone for a long time. I didn't like that, not knowing what happened in that time. There are some not-knowings that were okay, like who smuggled the calendar and the watch. That didn't matter. However, that was my life, my time, my experience that I was missing. We were all missing bits of life, and we all didn't like it.

Sergeant Carter opened the door. That usually meant one of us would be Gone. Except she was using a blowtorch. It was pretty: the sparks that flew through the air and dimmed to nothing on the floor, the hot glow of metal as a strip of it heated and became mallable enough for her to push it away.

"Ma'am?" I said, surprised, instintively grabbing Kumogoro by an ear. Why did she open the door so violently? Why didn't she open it the normal way?

“We don’t have long until they notice that I disabled the security locks," she said, gesturing us toward the door. "I am getting you out of here."

Oh, I thought. That explained why she opened the door like that. But where were we going? Where was there to go?

"You heard her. Come on." I must have been sitting still, because I didn't move until Kyle grabbed my arm and pulled me toward the door and into the hallway. I never liked the hallway. Seeing it always meant I'd be Gone or I Left. Besides, no one lived there. The sterility hurt. I just let Kyle lead me along as the others took care of details. Escape. This is an Escape. An Escape to where?

"Where are we going?" I asked Kyle. He looked back, seeming surprised about still holding me, which was silly. How could he forget?

"I don't know. Maybe to the surface." That made me feel better. At least I wasn't the only one who didn't know, and if Kyle didn't know either, then it might be a not-knowing that didn't matter. We were under a portal in the ceiling. Nathan opened the door. Tiny explosions in metal chambers sent sculpted lead hurtling toward us at incredible speeds. The problem was the high momentum bullets were aimed at us. We hurried through the ceiling as the sergent and Allelujah fired back: the sergent with bullets, Allelujah with actual fire. Well, fire jelly. That'd be bad on toast. Kyle pulled me up.

Our Escape was to an inferno. That's what I first thought. It was so bright I felt I'd go blind. I was so hot I felt I was incinerating. Neither happened. I clutched Kumogoro tight as my eyes adjusted. It was a world of stone and asphalt and giant self-propelled metal weapons. I thought we walked into a trap until I saw the weapons were trying not to hit us. People were in the cockpit. To aim? Why would they stay in the weapon to guide it? They'd be injured during impact.

The portal closed with a heavy clang and we ran out of the way of the manually guided weapons. There was grey stone where other people were standing. That must be a safe zone. We stood there. Kyle and Allelujah talked.

So many people! All of them strange and unknown. There were lights blinking everywhere! At Lights Out, it must be really pretty, all of them sparkling in every color imaginable. I realized something. I didn't want to bug him, but Kyle had always been one willing to think I'm simple, not stupid. Besides, this was a not-knowing that was important.

"Kyle?" I asked. He turned to me. "Where's Sergent Carter?"

"She...." He was hesitating, rewording the truth for me. He didn't need to, but he did anyway. "She stayed behind so we could escape."

"She's still underground?"

"Yeah, she is."

"So she's dead," I said, "or will die." He and Allelujah both looked a bit startled, which was odd. Didn't they think of that? "They wanted to kill us." I explained. "They'll want to kill her, because she helped us Escape, and they don't like that we Escaped." I smiled and turned back to amazing array of people, clothing, and lights. "I liked her. She was nicer than the others."
******************


The Strip. So full of Shinies....

[Roy Karrde]

Kyle Taylor

To our left, to our right, in front of us, behind us. The machines with their loud noising and blaring alarm like sounds surrounded us. Inside were people, ranging from a variety of shapes and sizes, all with their eyes focused on us. This, this was what we trained for, what we prepared so long to do. What was the use of all the years of our training if we could not survive two minutes in the outside world?

“Allelujah.” I found my voice, which was surprisingly firm despite feeling as if I was being shaken apart inside. Part of it could possibly be his hand on my shoulders, helping provide a bit of supportive strength. “Do you think that you could…”

“No, not a chance.” He quickly spoke, cutting my sentence off while glancing around at the variety of machines around us. “There is no way I could burn them all.”

My mind began to try and analyze the surroundings. Allelujah was right, we couldn’t take on all of these horrible machines, and staying here was not an option. “Fade? FADE!” I yelled, looking around and noticing that she was not with us anymore.

“There she goes.” Martha pointed out, directing all of us to look to our left where a car’s window curved and disfigured for a moment as Fade passed by it while using her powers. Although she was heading toward a large building which had a pathway where people that were not in machines were standing and gawking.

“Hold on, I have a idea.” Daniel spoke up, swinging his arm to a long pole with a light connected to it, near the building that Fade was heading into. “Grab on.” He added as we each wrapped our arms around him.

“Well at least we didn’t have to use plan B.” I smiled at Martha, wrapping a protective arm around her back while using my other arm to cling to Daniel’s stomach. She gave me an inquisitive look as Daniel pulled in his arm, instantly yanking us from where we were and slinging us to the pole. “Having you become a big dinosaur and smash our way to safety.”

Martha gave a small giggle as we climbed down the pole and into the crowd of onlookers. “Everyone… look.” Nate was the first to speak up pointing inside of the building we were in front of. Inside was thousands of lights, thousands of people, and even more machines.

Not to mention the most beautiful and wondrous display of colors that I had ever seen in my life. “What do you think Nate? Can you feel anything coming from inside?” I asked, moving to his side, hopefully his powers with computers would give us some sort of heads up to what lay inside.

“Not really anything dangerous…” His voice sounded far off for a moment as his eyes remained fixed on the machines inside.

“What the hell is everyone waiting for!” Fade appeared at my side, grabbing Martha’s arm. “Have you all forgotten that we are supposed to blend in? Well let’s blend in.” She growled impatiently, dragging Martha inside with the rest of us in tow.

“Allelujah.” I grabbed his arm as we entered inside the ‘Treasure Island Casino’ or at least that was what the sign said. “Keep a eye on some of them.” I whispered. If anything were to happen, Allelujah had the power to create a diversion or to take down almost any enemy.

“Everyone!” I called out, letting go of Allelujah’s arm. Once I was sure I had everyone’s attention, I took in a long deep breath and surveyed the surroundings. The place, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. “We’ll meet back here in one hour, try to learn everything you can.”

I glanced around at everyone, my eyes finally landing on Fade. “And try not to make a scene.” I added, a small smile crossing my face.

The group quickly dispersed and suddenly the weight of command fell onto my shoulders. I knew that I had more important things to worry about, like trying to find food and shelter. Yet at the same time all I could think about was the group, and all of the horrible things that could possibly happen.

Alright Treasure Island does have two Buffet’s next to the Casino floor, like all Las Vegas Buffets they are filled with amazing food but you do have to pay to go to them. Also they do have shops inside of the Casino, mostly with clothes in the window, but with other things. The actual Casino floor is huge, with almost every Casino game imaginable there.

In my next post I will introduce Leone, and get us our Penthouse room!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vegas-fan/406865976/ <- Lobby of the Casino, where we are at, and one of the Buffet in the background.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/84114160@N00/1632272887/ <- Outside of the Hotel

[Magi of all]

Name: Daniel Williams
Age: 19
Gender: Male

Character Description: In a perhaps ironic choice by the government, Daniel only stands about 5’ tall. This, combined with his brown hair and eyes has allowed him to remain rather discreet. Due to the rather odd shapes his body has been known to take, Daniel prefers loose fitting clothing. His current attire consists of a plain t-shirt and a pair of black shorts.

Powers: Stretching

Forgotten History: Due to the rather limited combat nature of his powers and the fact that his features are obviously American, Daniel was most often employed on Homeland security rather than foreign assassinations. His missions dealt more with recon and spying rather than outright killing and Daniel has spent a great deal of time away from the base on missions. Of all the agents, Daniel favors gun the most, particularly sniper rifles. His common killing method is to stretch around so the shot comes from a different angle, allowing for a quick escape. Many of Daniels missions have left him with forgotten friends around the country, most of them hurt by his sudden abandonment of them.

Personality: Daniel has developed an odd form of schizophrenia due to the alterations made to his body and brain. In order to allow maximum function in the filed, Daniel’s nervous system is capable of stretching with his body. The procedure affected his brain and has been causing rather odd problems, one of which is split personalities. Unlike normal schizophrenics, Daniel can actively communicate with his different personalities and does so frequently, both in private and in public. The main Daniel is rather easy going and laid back, while the other personalities differ in varying ways.

Other: Daniel was part of operation contingency, a safeguard by the government incase on of the other ever went rogue during a mission. The operation has two distinct phases, passive and active. In the passive phase, Daniel will tail the others on missions, observing them and determining if they are loyal or a threat. In active phase, a brainwashing procedure takes over, causing Daniel to hunt his fellow assassins relentlessly. Active phase can only be triggered by a specific sequence of code words known only by the top brass.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whenever they come back, they always complain about being sore. I never understood that, the soreness. I never felt that, no matter how hard I worked. It must have been the stretchiness of my muscles, letting them twist and conform to my movements and exertions. Of course, I hadn’t been on any missions lately anyway. Something about an instability or some such crap. To me, all it meant was a bit of time to relax.

“Relaxation is for nerds ya stupid newb!”

“Shut up Crane,” I mumbled to myself, careful to keep the sound of my voice low. My roommates may have been technical freaks and nutcases, but talking to yourself about people who weren’t there was still freaky.

Turning on the bunk I stared at the calendar. My last stint was gone, hidden behind the current month. I was gone longer than most of the others, with Martha being to only one who rivaled my time in the outside. She didn’t seem to think much of it, but I considered it a sort of rivalry, to see who was gone the longest. She had me beat by a day, a though that slowly nagged at me. Well, one of me anyway.

“We should have beaten that stupid bitch long before now. She’s making us look weak”

“Shut the hell up Crane. Martha’s my friend, don’t talk about her like that.”

“Do I detect the hints of love in the air?”

“You shut up to Drake. Your psychoanalysis is neither wanted nor needed.”

It was around this time that a rather curious buzzing noise assaulted my ears and forced my compatriots (read: mental assholes) to shut up and pay attention. The back of my mind registered the noise and light to a blowtorch, but the front of my mind was too amused by the word blow to notice.
Sergeant Carter entered the room and promptly informed us to get the hell out. Well, not those exact words but the ideas the same. We were leaving, which was unprecedented. I mean, we all left at some point, but not all at once and not without an escort. For some reason, this did not sit well with me. Neither did the odd glance the Sergeant threw my way as we hurried out of the room. Still I pushed the thoughts to the back of my mind, focusing on the escape we were apparently making

There were bullets in the hall. I could tell since I took most of them to the back. Not that it hurt, what with the rubber bones and all, but still. Shooting escaping personnel in the back was just plain rude. I continued to cover the teams metaphorical and physical ass as we ran towards a hatch leading… out I suppose. As we ascended the hatch, I had to stretch out of the way of the covering fire. Allelujah needed to work on his aim. As I passed by the Sergeant, she gave me that look again. I cocked my eyebrow (“hehe, cocked” “Not the time Crane”) and stared back at her.

“Ignore it, it’s their only hope.”

As I was about to ask what the hell that ment, she shoved me out of the grate and I landed in a war zone.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Holy SHIT!?!?! It’s a rainbow”

Ignoring Crane’s mental shout, I followed the others to what looked like a safe area. Well, compared to an asphalt battle field with giant piloted bullets.
Kyle and Alle (cause Allelujah had the most annoying name ever. Don’t even get me started on Holly) talked about something, with Martha joining in on occasion. The entire thing seemed boring, but I listened anyway. Fade’s name was shouted, blowing any cover she may have had. (“There’s that word again.” “Stuff it Crane.”) Seeing as how this talking was doing little and we were still in the open with no way to scout, I did what I usually do.

“Hold on, I have an idea.” I swung my arm up to grab hold of a light pole, if it could so be called. The thing seemed like it would hold my weight for a bit, so I continued with my ever so brilliant plan. “Grab on.”

Give all the sissy talk you want, hugging feels nice. (“Could this have something to do with your lack of a childhood and the absence of a parental figure?” “Don’t care Drake.”) It feels even better when you whip through the air. But I digress; I got us to the front of the building.

As we landed in front of the building there was more talking between those who were more or less in charge. Part one of the inviso twins (not that they were twins, but hey, roll with it) conversed with the hotman, something about being prepared or something.

As the Nazi hyenas danced in the back of my mind, I also heard something to the effect of don’t make a scene. He said it to Fade, maybe in a joke, but I took it to heart. This made it all the harder to resist wrapping my arm around my head several times before saluting. Since I couldn’t do that, I walked in behind them, hoping this place would offer some answers.

“Or stripper.”

For once, I didn’t tell Crane to stuff it. Everybody likes strippers.

[Haruko]

Nathan "Nate" Fry
wishes selfish, or selfless;

It was until Daniel snapped them onto the sidewalk that Nate took notice of his surrondings. So many lights, the noise was like a light hum*; and the atmosphere was just busy over all. He mindlessly followed his colleauges as he only payed attention to the lights; until that is, something bigger came along.

Rows, and rows of machinery. Each of them talking to to each other, as if sharing some secret. He couldn't quite make it out; it was either about the odds of winning or how many losses each machine had. Besides the machine's chatter, there was a strange air to the whole place; as if the whole..thing was a machine. Or the air was..

"Odd.."Nate mumbled to himself as he looked around, the place didn't have a hostile air to it; just very busy. He looked over to his colleagues, who seemed to be more thrilled at the fact that they were outside in the first place."Everyone, look.."He pointed out to them the scenery that laid before them, and soon enough a few gasps spouted from it's amazement.
"What do you think, Nate? Do you feel anything coming from inside?"Kyle asked, moving to Nate's side - who remained with a fix gaze looking at the machinery at the room.
"Not really anything dangerous.."His voice replied, trailing off as if it were in the distance. It was so tempting to try to touch one of them; yet he knew it was probably safe to stay with the rest..unless..

“We’ll meet back here in one hour, try to learn everything you can.”Kyle's voiced gave the order, and as if taken off his leash; Nathan slowly walked towards the slots - machines polished with a golden hue. His eyes remained fixed on one in particular, ignoring the sixty-something year old sitting in the chair playing it as he walked up to it's side, touching it as the woman pulled down the lever.

'Win..'He thought to himself as he closed his eyes slowly, and it was quickly followed by the chimes and whistles of the slots. The old lady jumped up in shock as the tokens poured out, and she smiled as she collected them all. By the time he reopened his eyes, the lady had her hand on his, and was laughing madly.

"My my, my lucky charm!"She looked into his eyes, which were in shock at the reaction of the old lady. He understood the odds were against her with these machines; thats what they were programmed for. But was winning this good? "Sit, sit. Tell me about yourself."

And so he did, sitting besides the old woman in the empty slots chair next to her. He said that he was Nathan Fry, and he liked machines - although not with as much enthusiasm as the lady did with the slots. He would let her win minuscule amounts; not at much as the first try - only to see her reaction light up with each time. And although he didn't care much for the conversation with her..she was a real person. Not a military personal, or one of his colleuges. It was a chance of a lifetime to observe, and anaylze.

He had lost track of time completely, and wasn't sure how close it was to the meet up time. The air in the place left an odd feeling to stir within him; as if the whole building was one machine.*

"Well..I must thank you somehow."She smiled, and looked around in her small, thin-strapped purse. Pulling out a $20, she smiled and pushed it to Nathan; who looked at it curiously. "You look starved, and there is a nice buffet table nearby. Treat yourself, ok?"
"Uh..sure."He nodded quickly, and added the "thank you." She laughed at his politeness and walked off to who seemed to be an old man - his back hunched over the blackjack table.

"..Now that she had mentioned it.."Nathan looked at the twenty, placing it in his pocket as he looked for the food. The noises in the place were giving him a slight headache; and having to manage them all was leaving him starved.

[Shizo]

Martha
************
I looked around. This place was so....there were a great deal of adjectives that could be used. "Busy" seemed like a good one. This place was Busy. It was bright, and people were moving around as though they did not care when Lights Out was. They'd continue busying about as long as they wished. The world was in tan and light, and there were green plants in the tan. There was a long line of food, but you needed to give the person at the start of the line something to get in. It seemed that the people dressed in a certain uniform worked here. I wandered into a slightly darker room that was filled with more Busy lights and chimes and bells. Nate was speaking was a very old woman at one of the machines. He seemed to be allowing her machine to chime and light up, though she didn't seem as interested in that as the shiny discs that fell out. Most of the people around here, actually, were Sergent Carter's age or older. Besides the machines, there were cardplayers and spinning wheels and drinks and laughter and groans.

I knew in the back of my head, though, that something different than basic observations were going on. I was already forming new faces to use as possible disguises. I was reviewing resources, positions of the different tables and machines, where the security cameras were and where they were aimed.

Nate got up and left the woman. She had given him something. I walked over to him before he had gotten far. "What is that?"

"Wha-oh, Martha." He held the paper up. "She gave me some money since I...Well, you were watching, right?"

"Those machines give money?"

"Yep, though they're meant to not give much."

"How do they work? Normally?"

"Well, you put some coins in, pull the slot, and if the three wheels inside align with the same picture, you get some money. Most likely, though, you lose the money that you put in."

I furrowed my brow in thought. "Then...if you'll lose it, why risk it?"

He shugged his shoulders and walked away. "I'm not sure. I guess it's the hope of making it big."

I continued surveying the room, one half of me looking at everything in amazement, the other half carefully studying how this world fit together.
***********

Yeah, so if anyone wants to bug Martha, she's just wandering around.