A short, rather slim guy paced his office. He couldn't do calls standing still, even online ones. He wore a white button-down with the buttons unbuttoned, an untied black tie and brown pants that certainly weren't panted particularly well either, and he had no idea what that even meant.

"Investigation continued to no avail." He said into a microphone hooked up to a janky old laptop on his desk. "I went to the Reed Memorial Library where I was told I'd find my info, only for the newspaper archives for the 2014 kidnapping of Lesean Macleod to be, um. Nonexistent." He clearly enunciated what he was looking for, and waited for the pen scritching on the other side of the Skype call to stop.

"Could you repeat that, Mr. Sisiese? Not sure I got it all. I was, uh, looking outside. Looks like there's a satellite flying real close."

"Just call me Nakhte, dude. You know you don't have to keep checking on me, right?" Nakhte put his hands on his hips and smiled gently at the non-video laptop that couldn't at all see him. "Sometimes I don't get anything, and I'm not a fisherman, I'm not gonna starve if I don't get a bite. Like a fisherman, though, I can also go awhile without talking. In other words, Eyckmann, I'll live."

"Oh." The journalist's chair protested in a symphony of creaks over the call as he leaned back. "And—and yeah, you know there's not much on my end to listen to. This story's good, but... you'll lemme know if you find anything, right?"

"I will. Not that you couldn't also cover the dozens of other cases I'm taking while cops and admins stonewall me." Nakhte replied. "You know, cheating spouses and stuff."

"Oooh, I could pitch it like 'I asked a PI what the job actually is!'" Eyckmann scritched away some more. "You've been really down about these kidnapping cases recently, you deserve something a little lighter."

Nakhte smiled. He could always count on Eyckmann to be interested. The intense stare and the wide smile was almost audible through the call.

"Alright, well, just the other day—FUCKING SHIT!" Nakhte fell on his ass as something smashed through the ceiling.

Suitfall happened on February 18, 2017. The air ripped and whistled as what would later become the powered armor wielded by a select few fell from the sky into Marbury, Massachusetts, founded 1897, population 10,000. All around the city, people were overcoming their shock or confusion and distributing abstract points for... something. The black boxes gave holographic readouts commanding them on one simple thing:

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

Nakhte was not going to waste the machine he had created.

"I'm fine, Eyckmann. You'll have some results soon enough. I gotta go."

The city was in full chaos. All over, suits were activating and their owners were taking them for test runs. Nakhte was done hiding from the cops. He was done turning on the news today to get a new name to add to a vigil, tired of seeing dystopian fiction come true over and over. His machine stomped down the street, glistening with scales, hands sparking with energy. A mortar extended from an armature on his back into its hands and Nakhte barely felt the recoil from inside as it fired, the shell slamming into the Police department. He reloaded and aimed another shot, ready to wipe this monument to oppression and control off the face of his innocent town.

edited 6th Mar '16 9:21:05 PM by Taco

Adam reclined in his hard plastic chair, phone in hand as he watched the lines of code appear in his computer's command console. The virus he had installed on the computers that had been brought to Blair's Allware Repair were finally starting to give him results. Scratching his scruffy chin with his spare hand, his weary eyes tried to sort through the information on-screen. But it was all scrolling too fast for his tired eyes to track. He took a big slurp from the seventh energy drink of the night... He squinted his eyes as he looked out at the window. The sun was up, although there was an overcast.

"Hello, thanks for calling Blair's Allware Repair!" spoke up a cheery voice on the phone, causing Adam to flinch and drop his beverage. "This is Amy speaking, how can I help you?"

Loud noises which could only be described as equal parts real choking on energy drink and fake cold coughing erupted from Adam. "I'm s-sorry, Amy. I... I don't think I can come—"

"Of fucking course not," Amy replied, her voice harsh. "Adam, this is your third 'sick' day this month. Just book a day off like the rest of us, you ass."

"N-No! I'm really [cough] sick!" Adam moaned, flicking over to see if there were any new videos to watch of kids getting kicked in the face. They never ceased to make him smile.

"Listen. If you try to call in 'sick' one more time this month, Blair is gonna fire you."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Adam said in the least sorry way possible. "Do you want me to come in and have you puking your ring up?"

An angry defeated sigh caused Adam to grin. "Fine. Whatever. Stay at home. But I swear, if I see a single new post on your shitty blog, I'm coming down to kick your—" Adam could hear the sound of the bells chime over the phone.

"Sounds like you have work to do."

"Drop dead."

Before Adam could come up with a clever retort, the line was cut. Amy was the one co-worker at that worthless job that Adam could stand but it was starting to look like the feeling wasn't mutual. Maybe if he took her on a nice vacation. Somewhere with less rain and more...

*CRASH*

"What the hell?!" shouted Adam, jumping away from his now crushed computer.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

The screen changed into... what looked an awful lot like some robot create-a-character menu of some sort. Despite his first instinct to charge downstairs and file a complaint with the landlord, he followed the instructions, a grin growing on his face.

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

The sound of the transformation was like that of a heavenly chorus to Adam. "You bet your sweet mechanical ass I won't."

Marbury West First Bank

"I'd like to make a withdrawal," cackled Adam, his voice more deep and guttural sounding to those outside the mech. He watched from the wide vision as tellers whimpered and cried from Red Bull's sudden entrance. "And by that, I mean this is a stick-up. So you jackasses better hurry up a give me a nice big bag of money or this Red Bull will give you an early grave instead of wings."

Alexandria Memorial Hospital

The beeping of medical equipment and shuffle of Hospital staff outside the room was the prevalent sound as usual. Just another day in the life of leukemia patient Ciel. She had the window open in an effort to have a nice breeze flowing threw the room, and also perhaps blow in some smell other than that same old sterile scent that always decorated the hospital. She was currently in a skype call with her brother, talking about her day.

"Nah, just another standard day here. Not much going on." She said weakly, but with her usual bright smile.

Her brother Johnathon returned the smile, but one could see the worry in his face. He was always worried. After all, these days it felt more like just a wait to see if she could even survive another week. Ciel of course noticed.

"Hey, don't give me that face. I've... come to terms with things. If we could find a way, I would take it, but I don't see it happening any time soon. Meanwhile, I like at least being with these people. You meet so many different people in this place... Its rather wonderful."

"I'm sure you'll get better soon, sis. We will find a way. And the day we do, you and me are going to go out and have you the best day of your life. I guarantee it." Johnathon said. This was something he has said quite a bit, in efforts to cheer her up.

"I'm sure... Well alright. I'll talk to you tomorrow John. Go have some fun, go get a drink or something. Have yourself a good time."

"Alright... I'll check in on you later tonight alright? I worry to much to wait til tomorrow."

"Fiiiiiiine. Tonight it is. Bye."

-bloop-

Ciel let out a small sigh as she looked calmly out the window, lost in her thoughts. I wish there was some way to get healthy... But... Heh... I doubt we'll ever find somethi-

BOOM

A small box crashed by Ciel's bed,

Do not squander what you have been given

Ciel looked at the menu that had popped up, her eyes widening in wonder.

Oh believe me. I won't.

edited 6th Mar '16 7:54:00 PM by SolusLupus

The world exploded, and from under his cover point he wasn't too sure what was going on. He really couldn't hear much over the massive explosions from artillery that filled his vision. Fortunately, one of the collapsed houses gave some minor cover - he wasn't too sure it would hold up under the barrage, but it turned out to do so. He breathed a momentary sigh of relief - holy shit the artillery strike didn't kill me - before he turned to look outside.

He saw a lot of dead men in green uniforms. He saw a lot of men in grey uniforms charging.

Holy shit. The artillery strike didn't kill me.

The man charged, hoping he'd be able to get into the nearby house without being turned into a pulp. His heart raced. Some of the soldiers in grey took potshots, but they must have been fresh from the creches - they all missed, by the grace of God. The whizz of bullets flying past him and the zip they made as they hit everything that wasn't his six-foot tall moving target were cold comfort, however, because in the end all it means was oh cripes someone's shooting me.

He took stock in the house and waited for them to come, flicking his rifle to automatic. He didn't even bother using the scope, at this range it didn't matter. As they came he unloaded; they didn't quite seem to get the message, and continued charging. It felt surreal mowing down a squad of infantry with his rifle, for the two seconds it lasted before running out of ammo. He pulled the trigger again as another squad charged in, hearing nothing but a click.

"Shit."

Thinking quickly, he drew his sidearm and sprayed wildly; it seemed to force everyone else into cover, buying him some time. He took a moment to stay in cover, reloading his weapons, when he heard the telltale ping of a grenade's safety lever being pulled.

"Well I guess it's fuck me day, isn'-"

Neil Findlay ceased to talk. The last thing he saw before his screen turned black and his avatar was mutilated, was the green, rounded casing of an impact grenade about to land on the floor in front of him.

"-t it." He sat back in his chair. It had felt electrifying to play Rambo in a game where any bullet stood a reasonable chance of killing you, but just like your life at any point in Frolicking with Firearms, it never did last. He took a few moments to appreciate it before appearing back at spawn, his soldier carrying a new name.

Of course, one of his friends was nearby.

"Hey, Tycho!" The man himself turned around, and headed over. In his hands was a gun so ridiculously large◊ that for a moment he boggled over it and completely forgot what pleasantries he was going to give. "Um... what is that?"

"Oh, this?" Tycho repeated. Given that this was a modern-day first-person shooter, and not, say, Sword Art Online, characters were far less expressive than necessary for communication. Instead of doing anything a sensible person would do, Tycho walked over to give a closer look. "I found this off a dead guy shortly before I fell back. Because dying sucks."

Neil snorted. "You telling me you wouldn't give your life for your country if asked?"

"Not for something pointless, like you do on the daily. Seriously, how many deaths will it take-"

"All of them." was the swift interjection. Tycho continued as though Neil had never spoken.

"-before you learn that being Rambo doesn't work?"

A silence ensued, broken only by the explosion that usually came from newbies accidentally hitting "Grenade" instead of "Radio" and blowing somebody else up, and the friendly fire from nearly everyone else (server rules be damned) that quickly avenged an accidental act of collateral stupidity.

Tycho stared out for a moment. "Ouch, he clipped a whole squad. They won’t be happy about that."

"I work in the internet, Tycho, I can afford to be stupid in an environment where acting dumb is not punishable with loss of your livelihood." Today had been a tough shift down at Bridgewater Internet Service, a nice and modern place in one of the older buildings running along the Walker River - in as much as it could be a shift. Being a network engineer meant being on-call 24/7, and as Tycho had learned from the many annoyance-fueled rants, it also meant dealing with everything going wrong, oftentimes at once. Fortunately, today was not one of those days - but it had still been a rough day, and it carried in his voice.

"'Ey. Donacdum. Let's just go and take a point and play it slow. What happened today?" The two caught a ride with a passing transport truck.

"You know Old Faithful, right?"

"Pretend like I don't," Tycho snarked. "I do so love your flowery descriptions."

"Okay. Old Faithful is - was, I guess? - this really shitty Cisco router. And when I say shitty, oh boy." Everyone else on the truck leaned in to listen, most just admiring Tycho's grautitously large shootbang. "I swear the thing is held together with the tears of dying system admins, the grace of God, and the dust that's collected inside it during its... I'd say five hundred years of uptime. It was probably built by Galileo himself, and hasn't seen maintenance since people still thought the Sun revolved around the earth. Fortunately, this was one of the times where management isn't acting stupid as shit - our major backbone router is one of the newer models, and Ol' Faithful just handles our intranet."

The truck was silent, for the most part. People either weren't listening or were talking with their own friends.

"Now, today was relatively slow, so I thought it'd be a good day to try and tell them for the fiftieth time 'hey, this thing probably has a steam turbine for a power unit, we might want to replace it with something that can understand what an Internet is'. But unfortunately, management being manglement, they don't want to replace it until it fails - which it did, today. Which meant everyone in this building didn't have Internet. Which means management acted like it's the second coming of Christ and screeched at us to solve the problem."

"Yeah, that sounds normal," chimed in a voice from the other end of the bus.

"Amen to that, invisible brother," Neil continued. "Uptime is god. So naturally, about three minutes before I'm about to try and fight a war that’s already been lost, guess what fails? Old fucking Faithful."

"With all the time you've been bitching about the thing, and the fact you just said it failed, I can safely say I didn't see it coming." The sarcasm dripped from Tycho's voice, like a waterfall but significantly less so. "I'm surprised it took this long. RIP Ol' Faithful."

"Yeah," mumbled Neil. "Rest in pepperoni, you cancerous stack of shit. So anyway, it starts when we lose connection. I swear, every eye in the room puffed over to Ol' Faithful, which starts to whine in a very distressing tone. Sort of like a dog that wants treats, only the dog is actually a router and it sounds like it's going to encounter a halt and catch fire error in about two minutes. There's a bit of hushed communication and then April brings out the straw holder. Oh man, poor Vlad drew the short straw. Dude saved our bacon from getting fried tonight; next time I see him I'm gonna get him a six-pack, on me. Least I can do."

The truck screeched to a stop as distant gunfire filled everyone’s ears. The squad stops for a moment to check their maps and see where the commander placed their attack orders; "Hill Billy", a quaint (really, dumb) name for a place that had changed hands at least a dozen times since Icy Crevasse loaded onto the server. Plodding out, they continued. "So Vlad gets on the phone and starts telling them that there may be a slight disruption in service for the building, while everyone else kind of dithers about. If they were anything like me, they were either trying to see what the problem with the router was, or take cover in case it went up like Kaputnik."

The troupe of men took cover in a nearby apartment complex, setting up and firing potshots. This was a story in the making; none of them felt the need to interrupt it. It wasn't like this battle wouldn't take a few days real-time to win, anyhow. "Eventually it becomes abundantly clear that whatever's wrong with Ol' Faithful, she's given up the ghost. I can't exactly say why, but it's just that feeling you get when you know it's dead. As you know, we just don't shut the thing down because it's so old, so decrepid, and so slow sometimes at everything but routing that nobody's sure if it'll actually come back on. Every time we get a blackout at least one of us has been praying to the gods of IP that it'll turn back on. So I bite the bullet, run over, and pull the plug, because the thing sounds like a Mustang's turbocharger."

Neil's annoyance is punctuated by the deafening blast of Tycho's anti-tank rifle. "Heh. He thought his vest would keep him safe. He thought wrong."

"And today, like I said, was the day it didn't turn back on. The building becomes a headless chicken for a little while as we tried to figure out what the hell to do. Vlad looked battle-focused, he seemed like he was the only person actually successfully getting things done, and he was talking with management. After about an hour of scrabbling about, trying everything we could to get connectivity, Vlad finally stopped everyone and said he was getting Management to ship over a spare router. After that everything was hunky-dory; we plugged it in, did all the config work, and just like that it was the end of the shift. Christ, today was shit."

"Hey, jackass," shouted one of the other men in the house, carrying a more modestly sized sniper rifle. "You gonna sit there bitching about your day, or are you going to actually help us excise these dead-grey-" He didn't get to finish as a sniper round caught him through the neck, but it got Neil focused. "Right, right, the video game," he stated, nearly as though for the past five minutes it had been an afterthought

He had barely gotten to shooting for thirty seconds - just a few poorly-aimed potshots as he began to get into the groove - when he heard a whistling. Tycho did something very violent and nasty to someone with his portable artillery gun before stating, "Hey, Neil, your mic dying again? I am hearing some mad whistling coming through it."

Neil thought for a moment. "...no, it shouldn't be. I swear, if this is Windows 10's updates messing with my settings again-" He punched in Shift+Tab like it was second nature, and had barely clicked Settings on the Steam Overlay before something hit the ground so hard he dove right from his seat. Neil couldn't really hear much over the massive blast it made, and he was sure his microphone had picked it all up.

A moment passed, still in shock, before he took stock of his situation. Some things had been knocked over. Something in his house shattered; he hadn't heard it but somehow knew anyways. His computer - oddly enough - still seemed to be in one piece, and he could distantly hear the chatter of a machine-gun through the headphones that had been yanked from his head. He put on his headset and was immediately assaulted over VoIP with a bunch of questions asking if he was okay. They had just heard an explosion, after all; for all they knew his house could have been hit with a mortar round.

"...I'm fine, guys," he responded, and people quieted down. "Gonna head over to a calm place here and then go check out what, exactly, is going on. Maybe I'm getting swatted and the flashbang went off early," he joked, which drew a round of laughter. Nervous laughter, but laughter all the same. "I'll need a few minutes." Neil got up, took a deep breath, prepared for a tripod straight from War of the Worlds to vaporize him, and then walked outside.

He got an obsidian black box, which had carved a nice crater in his front yard. Against all common sense, he walked over to it. A hologram flashed into existence, tinted. It shifted from across the chromatic spectrum before flashing over to green.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED.

A wide, thin stream of light scanned over his eyes, and he squinted and brought his hand up to his eyes a moment too late. But that was all the machine had needed.

LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED.

BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED.

BIOLOGY ACCEPTED.

NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

All of those messages passed by in a matter of seconds. A holographic display of some sort appeared, and he walked up to it. It was a detailed list of features, vaguely akin to a flyer from a supermarket, if that flyer was advertising such things as plasma cannons, artificial intelligence, jump jets, and other various types of giant robot paraphernalia.

200 POINTS TO ASSIGN. ENTER NEW USER SETTINGS NOW.

Neil blinked. He might be away for longer than he had thought.

"Men in Black comes to mind right now. I don't think you've seen it, but we should after this settles over. It's the scene where one of the characters, the one Will Smith plays, he's sitting on a bench with Agent J after he's just found out that aliens exist and the government's keeping them a secret."

Somehow, he felt at home in this, despite the fact he'd had it for a sum total of 40 minutes. The buttons were analog; they were what he could understand. From his house he had a nice view of the city. He hadn't moved out just yet; that would be suicide, given that every line of communication he had tapped into, regardless of difficulty, was pure chaos. The police scanner was wildfire; Twitter had lit up like Burning Man. Things in the small hamlet of Manbury were not okay.

"So he wonders why, and he asks, 'Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.' And Agent J just looks at him... not like he's an idiot, but like he doesn't know. And he says 'A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat.'"

He could hear police sirens. Explosions, dull and off in the distance, so much scarier when they weren't just lines of code being run through a processor. Obviously some of the people that had gotten suits were doing exactly the thing the boxes had warned them not to do.

Or maybe they were following its instructions to the letter.

"Fifteen minutes ago, I thought that boxes that gave people robots wouldn't fall from the sky." Neil sighed, and looked out over the city - feeling simultaneously empowered and endangered. "Safe to say I feel a lot like Will Smith right now."

Greenville College, approaching Dorm Building A

It was another uneventful evening for one Laura Nagase. As a college student at Greenville College, life for her every day was like a routine. Wake up, go to classes, study hard, wind up impressing everyone, and go back to sleep at the end of the day. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. It bored Laura to no end. She was pretty much at the top of her class, and successful in damn near every subject, but she felt no challenge from it all, no satisfaction. Something had to just shake it all up, but she didn't know what could.

Walking back to her dorm after eating dinner at the university center, Laura was deep in her own thoughts as she caught a glimpse of the majestic mountains that sat near the campus. A familiar sight for her, as she'd passed this way multiple times. However, her train of thought was interrupted when suddenly something small crashed into the ground right in front of her.

"What the...? What is this thing?", she said.

Suddenly, the cube roared to life as a message displayed on a holographic screen, causing Laura to jump back a bit.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

In an instant, the screen then displayed what seemed to be a ton of various options for what seemed to be some kind of armor. Laura curiously browsed through all the options as thoughts began running through her head.

"Hmm...with something like this...maybe I could solve all this city's crime and corruption, and bring about real justice for all...", she said to herself.

After selecting her options, the box gave one final message as it transformed into the machine she had created, with a surgical interface to implant her with all the enhancements she had selected.

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

"I have no intention of doing so.", Laura said before stepping inside her newly-crafted armor.

Outside Marbury West First Bank

Outside the bank, another figure in armor approached. What was once an average, if ace college student was now something...more. The clanking of metal could be heard as the now fully-suited and upgraded Laura had come to answer the alarm of the bank, currently being robbed by some other suit user.

"Time to see just what I can do now.", she said to herself before walking up the steps to the entrance of the bank.

"It was thirty last week!" A man with dreadlocks and a rasta hat complained.

"Yeah, well, it ain't last week anymore, is it shithead?" Charlie held a baggie of pot out, dangling it like keys in front of a baby. "Fifty, or you don't get shit. Now that B-Dawg got his ass sent to jail, I rule this fuckin' town, so you're payin' me fuckin' fifty Jamal."

"Fuck you!" Spat Jamal, his frequent customer. The man nevertheless reached for his wallet, then paused, looked at something behind Charlie and ran like hell.

Charlie stared at the retreating man, confused, before shrugging. He'd find someone else anyway - there were always people willing to buy in this town, or at least the shitty parts of it. That was the whole reason he lived in the Projects. Though he always found it ironic that he got most of his money from poor people. Charlie turned to walk away and look for his next customer.

And bumped right into a burly police officer.

"...so, uh, any chance you're here to buy?" Charlie asked, hopefully.

"See, shit like this is why nobody likes the cops." Charlie complained to his one and only cellmate, an irate woman. "Thank Christ I only have one strike so far."

"Shut the fuck up." She said.

And then people starting freaking out. Something about things falling from the sky? Whatever it was, the cops were going batshit over it.

A whistling sound and a tremendous crash ensued, and when the smoke cleared a box was visible. He and the woman both walked toward it at the same time, looking over it together. They looked at each other. The woman grunted and motioned for him to touch it. Charlie rolled his eyes and muttered 'bitch'.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

"Well fuck me." Charlie said, tapping through the options.

"Not if you were the last man on earth." The woman responded. "What is it, anyway?"

"Fucked if I know." He said, and they sat in silence for a moment as he finished up his choices. "But it looks cool."

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN

The woman took a step back as Charlie was transformed. When he stepped out, she gaped at the glowing eyes affixed on her. He strode slowly towards her, and she took a step back.

She didn't have time to scream as Charlie slammed her head into the wall, reducing it to pulp and killing her instantly. He took a deep breath, feeling more alive than he ever had.

And then the building blew up. Charlie climbed out of the rubble and noticed the colossal robot that had just fired on the police station. He raised a fist in the air.

"HELL YEAH, FUCK THE POLICE! WOO!"

He took off running in a random direction, as fast as the souped-up cars he only dreamed of, laughing all the way.

edited 6th Mar '16 9:05:48 PM by kagescorpionakki

The Wylder House

Saturday - February 18, 2017

It was the early morning in the Wylder House. It wasn't a particularly large property or well decorated, being rather old. It only had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and two floors. The ground floor had a kitchen, a dinning room, a bathroom, a living room and the hallway with stairs up. Meanwhile the upstairs which only had the two bedrooms and one of the bathrooms. There was also a cellar to the house but it was filled with just a lot of junk, little more. The houses main redeeming feature in value was the fact it was located on Marbury's coast. It had a rather nice view and access out to the water.

Inside the house on the upper floor, snoring can be heard from one of the bedrooms as Niket woke up. He had only gotton a few hours of sleep but he needed to handle things around the house, he knew his mother Samantha was fast asleep, though considering she works afternoon shifts at Alexandria Memorial Hospital and then night shifts as a bartender at Brooks, a local bar. It was understandable. She had debts to pay off like the houses mortgage, Niket and his brother Kaiden to pay for and wanted to try and save money for Niket to go to college... It was a hard life, especially after Niket's father Caylien died in the military when he was young, while his mother was still pregnant with Kaiden. Niket could barely even remember anything about him, most of it was based on the plaques and paintings downstairs that greeted him every morning.
Yet he climbed down from his bunk bed and went to his dresser, begining to change. As usual the first thing to put on was his eye patch, he didn't want Kaiden seeing what it looked like without it on ^note It looks pretty bad... and the necklace his younger brother gave him. Going to his closet and pick out out his current preferred outfit, currently a black shirt and a orange t-shirt but it varied. His brother soon woke up, groggy, he was up all night playing games as well but he was never a morning person anyway...

"Hey Nikky, you’re up early..." Kaiden says rubbing his eyes.

"Nah not much, you can go back to sleep."

"I'm already up now.." He says turning and pushing himself up.

"Well then you can help me out then with the chores for once, the least you can do with me needing to collect your phone after you had it taken away in class..." Niket says in a stern but friendly tone. It was true though, Kaiden managed to get his phone taken away during english class at Marbury First Middle School last week, he never meant to cause trouble but he always found a way to do it.

"Fine, sure... Your taking out the trash though." He says bargaining.

Successfully it turns out. "That’s fine, just you get to do the dishes instead." He says finishing getting changed.

His brother would just remain in his pyjamas however as they went downstairs to have breakfast. Niket trying to be responsible and clean up as much as he could as he prepared breakfast. He was making pancakes. Why...? He wasn't actually sure, maybe his brother tricked him or maybe he was just hungry for them, either way.

He went over to the calendar to check if there was anything he was forgetting as he prepared breakfast and saw something he forgot about. Seacrest Highschool - Greenville College field trip. Oh yeah that was coming up. Great just what he needed, more time out of school for everyone to run wild while he tried to study. Seacrest High being of course the towns and Niket's Highschool. He was top of most of his classes but it didn't seem to mean much, Naiyma Wreves still makes fun of him anyway... She was one of his fellow classmates, nice girl, a friend, though Niket might prefer it if it was a little more than that.

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a crash from outside near the beach. Niket rushed out to see if anyone had gotten hurt, his brother trying to finish a pancake and find some shoes to put on before rushing out. Niket found a small crater where the sand had been disturbed. There was a box...?

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

Niket was baffled as this was sounded and he investigated. Seeing the menu and starting to select stuff, a little confused but at the same time intrigued.

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN

Suddenly he is knocked back by what he thought was some joke or similar. His brother rushing out to report the news he heard while getting ready and his eyes looking with excitement and terror at Armarune...

It wouldn't be long before Niket got his act together and wow... Would this be life changing for him. He might be able to stop people from getting hurt like he did. Stop the pain he knows his mother endures to fix day in and day out... A burden kind of large for a fifth teen year old but he wanted to protect his family and friends and by association where they live, work and study! Really he wanted to protect everyone but he had his priorities. After-all it seems a storm had arrived and he could not escape it. Not that he would want to anyway...

edited 6th Mar '16 9:26:03 PM by darkdestinysoul

Vincent was relaxing on his couch, enjoying what he was certain to be another great lazy day. Without any jobs for the day, he was free to do what he liked, and that posed the question: Just what to do? He could go into town, maybe visit the small hardware store down in Main Street that he normally went to to stock up on stuff for when he went out on a job. He and the owner, Caleb Jenkins, were on good terms, one of the few people that Vincent would call his friends.

His thoughts were interrupted by his cellphone ringing. With a groan, afraid of it being a call for a job, Vincent picked up the phone, looking at the caller ID.

Dad...ugh, I suppose I can't dodge him forever.

He braced himself for the conversation with his father, the genius. His father, the brilliant mechanical engineer. His father, whose shadow Vincent had been living in for just about his whole damn life.

"Hey Dad."

"Vince! How are you? You settling in all right?"

With a silent sigh, Vincent rolled his eyes.

"I'm fine. Everything here is...fine. Can't complain. Things are quiet enough."

"You know, you can always come back home. Your mother's worried sick about you. Says she doesn't like the feeling of you being millions of miles away and not just a few blocks over.

He knew it, he knew that would come up.

"No, really, I'm fine. You can tell Mom I'm staying out of trouble. I'm not going to end up dead in some ditch. The people here are friendly enough. So...you wanted something?"

"Well, I realized that your mother and I have a free week coming up, and that maybe we could just come on over for a visit. You know, catch up and all that."

Vincent didn't even need to think about the answer.

"Uh, going to have to take a raincheck on that. A friend of mine's invited me on a camping trip next week. Already said yes and gotten all the stuff I need, so...sorry."

Blatant lies of course, but the last thing he wanted was for his parents to come to town. He'd made lies like this so many times, he'd stopped feeling any guilt from them.

"Well, can't you cancel? I'm sure they can postpone-"

Just then, the whistling sound of something falling nearby did a little to pique Vincent's hearing. The crash from his back yard that followed however...

"What the hell?"

"Vince, what's going on? What was that sound?"

"Uh, car crash outside. Sorry, got to go!"

He hung up. If they were worried about him, his parents would come over within a day, guaranteed. He rushed outside, only to be confronted by some sort of pod...

"What the heck is this...?"

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

Vincent leaped backwards at the pod opening and speaking to him.

"HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL?!"

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

He hesitantly stepped towards the pod, looking at the interface.

Like something out of a video game...okay machine, you got it!

Skies over Marbury

"WOOHOOHOOHOO! This is awesome!"

The hovercycle form of Raptor sailed through the sky, Vincent holding onto it for dear life, a look of exhilaration on his face. Something caught his eye down below though. Something going on by the bank...

Time to swoop in and put this thing to good use!

He swerved to to dive sharply towards the bank.

Vincent swerved to a stop a short way in front of the bank. Looked like someone else in a suit was already outside...

"Yo, you know what's going on inside?"

edited 6th Mar '16 10:06:59 PM by UndyingPhoenix

It was a beautiful day outside in the lazy town of Marbury, and here was a nerdy Asian girl named Elise staying inside of her messy room rolling her head back and forth as she died in CS:GO again, on a final round that'll decided the victory between her team and the enemy team too, as if the loud whiny little kids complaining how his own team sucks, despite the fact that he has the lowest K/D ratio wasn't enough.

"Let's just play CS:GO, you said," Elise's girlfriend complained in their private skype chat. "My legs ain't feeling it, you said, we'll gonna stomp on these scrubs-"

"shot up, m8," Elise tried to meme herself out of her girlfriend's rant. "No one cares, m8, you're just as much of a scrub as these guys, just...eat your cereals, m8."

"...eat my cereal, Elise?"

"Yeah, Emma," Elise mumbled in between her chuckle after she realized how shitty her joke was.

"...What is seriously wrong with you, come on," Emma said, though Elise can hear how hard she's trying to muffled her giggle too, before Elise said, in a slightly more serious tone, "By the way, Emma, it's 1v5 for you, I know that it might sound scary to you but trust me, this is your time to shine, get ready for some clutch time."

"Of course it clutch time, darling,"Emma boasted. "In fact, I'm taking your AWP, Elise, I am going to avenge your death. WITNESS ME-"

And soon after she picked up the sniper rifle and head outside, she got headshotted immediately.

The sound of a kid screaming, "Terrorist win" and the bellowing laughter from Elise was a beautiful symphony of salt and tryhardiness, not that Emma could hear it since Elise can hear that she has thrown her headset onto the wall and stomping out of her room.

Soon after that match, Emma finally got back onto her headset while Elise fucked around Youtube for a moment to wait for her to come back.

"Ah, finally, you're back, honey~" Elise started off their post-match conversation.

"Yeah, I am, I've just got done taking a piss," Emma replied.

"Sounds great, to be honest fam-"

"On you, you goddamn scrublord. I will make you drink every last drop of my urine, you slut!"

"Oh, woah, Emma!" Elise replied in jest. "That's pretty lewd, I gotta be honest with you, but I'm down for it, but I appreciate it if you would make it rain on my sexy body instead of in my mouth, I'm pretty sure you're gonna kill me with that much salt in that urine. HAW!"

they may not have a webcam on, but Elise damn well knew that Emma's shaking her head right now. After a deep sigh from her, Emma simply said "I love you, Elise, but for fuck's sake."

"I love you too, darling," Elise cheekily said.

"Ahh, yo, for real tho, it's been...fun, kinda. In a 'laughing at ourselves in how bad at video games' kind of way' but I'm gonna take a nap. Remember to come to my match tomorrow, alright? At the Jouji gym-"

"Pfft, as if I'm going to miss your match. The gym's literally, like, 2 blocks down the Greenville College, and the college itself is 4 blocks down to my house. How am I going to be late.?"

"May I remind you about that one time that your parents let me into your room and carry you to my car when we're supposed to be on a fancy dinner date?"

Elise, snickered a bit before reluctantly said "Y-y-yeah. Could you, like, at least dress me up in something nice, it's so embarrassing for people to stare at me in my pajamas."

"But that's the way I like it. I like it when you're so shy and blushing all the time. Plus, with that pjs, it's like Im dating an innocent 12 year old girl."

"Oh wow, you're breaking my heart, dear~"

"That's the way I like it, babe. Anyway, see ya. Kiss kiss."

"Kiss kiss-KYAAHH~," just her luck that she signed off the call before a sudden loud noise and impact has landed in her backyard. The impact was enough to shock Elise out of her chair and sent her racing out of her house to see what the fuck is going on. There, she found a black box half buried into the ground. Elise was careful not to get too close to the box, in fact she's contemplating calling the authority for something as mysterious, and perhaps just as deadly, as this. Apparently, she's close enough for the box to activate and shout something like

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

and

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

Elise was kind of reluctant about taking advice from a device that was dived down from the heavens above but a fancy screen popped out of the top part and it intrigued the dumb girl enough to get closer and inspect the screen. And then, the martial arts option caught her eyes.

"Ohh..."that is the sound of a girl who are about to change her own life.

not too long after the Suitfall incident was a crazed person in a suit running at just below the supersonic speed around the suburban neighborhood like an absolute madman, chopping down every tree she sees with her fists and kicks.

Well, minor correction on that sentence. An absolute madwoman, because that's Elise in the suit. And she's loving every minute of it, she has never felt so...light, precise and heavy hitting before in her life. Her movement felt automatic, like a decade of experience is behind every technique she suddenly learned and perfected. Well, that's what veteran soul and martial arts thingy do to the head, right? Speaking of which, what else can a cyber brain do-

"Hey, errr.." the suit's AI spoke up. "what's your name again?"

"Elise Ainsworth!" the girl shouted out in adrenaline filled ecstasy as she threw a fell tree into the air and punch it, disintegrating it into little raining splinters.

"And what's my name again?"

That question made Elise paused in her tree killing rampage to ponder about that question a bit before asking "What do you mean, do you not?"

"I've just been recently developed when your...erggh...I still can't believe you call your suit 'Waifu Material'..."

"Well, it's got everything a perfect housewife have," Elise sassed while she's doing a sassy pose; her small ass sticking out, her left hand on her hip and the right playing with her long twin ponytail black hair. "But if you prefer, just call if 'Waif'."

"Ech."

"Oh, by the way, your name's gonna be Natalya, for the formal name, or 'Cyka Blyat' for the Russian equivalent."

"Rrright, as I was saying, I wouldn't recommend going out to the world and advertise to them that you've powers beyond their comprehension, especially not in front of a police station, where, I assumed, the police officer found you destroying public property and-"

The AI was interrupted when a black box had struck the North Precinct Police Department, then not soon after it got destroyed even further by a mortar, to which a suit arisen from the rubble, though it looks more minimalistic than hers.

"Well, I dont have to worry about that, at least," Elise retorted after that strange turn of event, though she has more thought that she has managed to reached this police department so fast, despite the fact that her house is a fair distance away. She inspected her surrounding and find a big green looking suit at the distance, with a mortar held up high.

She dashed to his side in a blink of an eye and asked "Yooo, any reason why you're blowing up a police station? I mean, I guess it's to free your buddy in there but it's pretty rude, to be honest, what with you potentially killing police officers in there.."

In retrospect, though, now that she got a closer look to the heavy suit, she realized that he looks...much scarier than she thought.

Marbury Police Department, North Precinct

"Holy crap, I don't even need to turn my head to look at you!" Nakhte was still sort of blown away by what his suit was capable of. He didn't know the Hawkeye enhancement would be this powerful, but there you were. Her setup was much smaller than him, too, but that pilebunker on her arm still meant business. No sense in being mean. "In a broader sense anyone locked up by the cops is probably my buddy, but that part wasn't intentional. I just felt the need to do something with this armor now. I thought this might be the fastest and most visible way to do it. You ever heard of a kid named Lesean Macleod?" He held up his arms and the mortar racked itself again; he held them up a bit longer and the marksman's rifle on his other shoulder flipped down into his hands before he started firing again. "One of many."

Now that the police were pouring out to see what was happening Sobek could fire warning shots as they fled. The few that opened fire were greeted with pings, ricochets, and failure, followed by a warm phutt as Sobek placed a round between their eyes. Without infrastructure to support them, the cops were just well-coordinated vigilantes; they would only be a threat if they chose to be after his warning. As he reloaded with a clip that slid out of his palm Nakhte kept talking nonchalantly. "What about you? You done anything particular with your suit yet?"

Greenville College - Odette Ahlgren

"I tell you, Oddie... We're nowhere near Kickstarter Material. We're more like... crappy 5% mark, unfinished RPG Maker project you guilt your friends into trying out"

That... was the voice of reason, Jeremy Anderson, speaking with an entity of pure unreasonableness by the fancy vending machines they had installed by a path to the courts.

"Oh come on, have you seen the sheer waste that gets enough money to publish? We're living in the future currently, the barriers of access to the market are barely a step high! It's only to the bold who dare step forward who reap the rewards of our time!" is Odette's enthusiastic response, aiming to the stars despite the fact that she was a couple feet further away from them than most.

The two could hardly be more different... Odette was a short, baby faced, pale, blond, blue eyed, doll like bundle of energy and chaos... Jeremy was tall, well built, dark skinned, dark haired, dark eyed guy you'd assume was on some sort of sport's scholarship instead of being the gentlest nerd in the computer science department.

"I think by looking upon the shining prize atop the hill you're missing the fact that the hill is actually a mountain built pebble by pebble by the failure of legions upon the cursed land where dreams go to die" remarks Jeremy with his hands on his pockets, beginning to outline their problems "The story of our mythological hack and slash adventure with RPG elements is amateurish at best..."

"... I'm the head writer"

"... Our head programmer had never touched the language we're using until after the project began"

"... I'm also the head programmer..."

"And our head artist is going to die producing the 568 CG scenes (More could be added as needed during development) our project director instructed her to draw" finishes Jeremy just as Odette, the project director, starts to slip in some bills to the vending machines.

"Hey! I think you're really underestimating Meg's talent, drive and dedication to the project... besides, that's why we're getting her..." goes little Odette, standing on her tip toes to mash with a fury on the button that would produce a veritable flood of energy drinks "... Some pick me ups, so that Meg can keep working. I think she only needs to sleep like... 6 hours every two days, don't you think?" goes on the tyrannical little Odette as she begins to fill Jeremy's arms with can upon can of drinks.

"You're the freaking devil, you know that Oddie?" says Jeremy with a little sigh right before a nice, cold can of coke was pressed against cheek... for the which, Odette had to jump onto a nearby bench and stretch all the way up in order to reach.

"Oh shush, Jeremy... you know it's the most fun you've had since Professor's Middleton's Gerbil Experiment went wrong" says Odette, letting the coke fall onto his pile before she opened her own orange soda can "Let me worry and dream a while"

"Heh, just make sure we don't have to use exponential math on a little mammal's reproduction rate to fix this one particular problem you're bound to cause us" says the big guy.

"Don't worry, the only thing multiplying in those numbers are the error's in Clark's code and there's a reason why I set him up to design the Super Secret Final Level" says Odette with a smile, practically drinking in one gulp all her soda before casting it off on a nearby recycling bin "Now hush and deliver the drinks onto our head artist! She should be alone on the club room, right?" adds Odette with a little wink... and to see the expression in Jeremy's face at that was all that she really needed.

Jeremy was off not long after that, leaving Odette alone to walk alone on the extensive campus. One of the best parts of building just against the damn mountains was that Greenville College had quite a ways to expand... all into lovely nature. The campus was really nice in that way... trails that led into all sort of departments and buildings here and there... nothing was crammed, and while sometimes the distances you had to run through to get anywhere got kind of ridiculous, it gave one a lot of time to think... and tons of sights to see.

Odette truly felt blessed since she got here... at first she was nervous, though optimistic. Now all that was left was the second part. She made some lovely friends that helped her find who she truly way... and to their misfortune once they were a bit too deep in the experience to back out, she turned out to be a bit crazy. Reap what they sowed, shouldn't have poked too deep in the cute, blond runt. Here she was free to have fun... free to express herself and not care what anyone thought. Free to let her imagination run wild and spend her days doing whatever her heart wanted.

And it is upon these contemplation, walking alone behind a deposit where some stray rabbits sometimes gathered that Odette would come to win a very particular sort of lottery... that the Heaven's themselves would deliver upon her a Fate beyond her wildest imaginations.

The crash was startling to say the least... but what she found, would turn Odette's life around forever. Her bright blue eyes lit up as she marveled at the impossible technology... and then was given 200 points with the which to make the most off.

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

Indeed... what will her friends think, once they saw she, of all people, had gotten into something way worse than Professor's Middleton's Gerbil Experiment.

The world may not be ready for her... but she was more than ready for this.

In the Mountains at the limits of Greenville College - Odin sitting on her Throne

One who plays at being a God sits upon her throne, knowledge delivering itself to her mind... the net of humans abuzz, panic and mayhem seeming to be the order of the day "Dear... some people really are animals... the moment they are handed power, they wield it recklessly to test it's destructive abilities.... Fuck the police, really?" mumbles Odin to the other figure present upon her throne room, one whose expression hardly changes as the Goddess rests her cheek upon a delicate, closed fist, elbow resting on the soft armrest of her throne.

"Frigg... send Geri and Freki to patrol the limits of the College. If anything bearing a signal like that of our machines is picked up by the sensors send them a message to talk with me or be eliminated. And... let the wolves move silently... nobody in campus should actually see them. Guard dogs are better left unseen right now... Huginn we'll send to see what the hell is up at the bank"

"Understood, Allfather" is the mechanical response of the lady standing at her side, blue eyes glowing as she begins to move up to the task.

"Well now... what to do now that, if I'm not dreaming, I'm in the biggest mess of my life?" asks Odin idly to herself tapping her fingers together as she awaits for her crow to get over to the bank... though truly, her focus was on the image of the campus upon her mind... and deep in the net where she was looking to make contact with others who had stumbled upon this power. She decided to make a thread only those who had come upon this power should understand.

Odin the Allfather Asks... Are you of those who chose their fate, among 200 points coming from the stars?

Miss Smith impatiently waited for her bags to come out of the baggage area, checking her watch to make sure she was still on time.

5 hours, good.

The agent spotted the first of her bags coming into the open, followed by the others. She quickly rushed over and picked up her things before going out to her rented car and following the directions pre-programed into the GPS. It took a few hours but eventually she arrived at the programmed location...a suburban park.

Miss Smith parked and made a call to her handler at the agency.

"This is Tallmadge and sons, how may our business be of service to you today?"

"I have some dresses that were in need of fixing, name Miss Smith, would you please transfer me to the manager?"

"Just one moment." There was a click before the man on the other end of the line resumed speaking. "The line is clear, What's bothering you Miss Smith?"

"Mr. Jones, are we quite sure this is the landing point it's all very...quaint."

"The computer boys are usually right on the money, just establish the perimeter and don't let anyone else near whatever it is."

Miss Smith grunted and hung up, stepping out of the vehicle and approaching a nearby officer on duty, flashing him a badge to quickly for him to get a clear view of.

"Agent Brie Johnson, DEA I need you to help me cordon off this section of the park..." She pointed to a nearby cluster of trees, "...it's crucial for an ongoing investigation."

"Uhh, I don't know about..."

Miss Smith held up a finger to stop him and quickly wrote down a name and number on her notepad before pulling out the page and handing it to the officer. "That's the name of my boss and his phone number, give that to your boss and he can verify, in the meantime I'm going to get started."

As she expected it didn't take long before the officer came over and began helping her tape off the area. She brusquely dismissed him once they were done and she began setting up the monitering equipment.

She didn't have to wait long.

It wasn't more than half an hour before a mysterious black box crashed down in front of her.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED. LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED. BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED. BIOLOGY ACCEPTED. NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

Vanessa's hand was hitting the speed dial even as the "menu" sprung into existence.

"This is-"

"Whiskey Tango Foxtrot."

"Clean, what's wrong, Miss Smith?

"It's landed, it looks like it wants to give me a damn robot suit, like the one in that superhero movie."

The line went quite for several minutes before there was the click of a reconnection. "I've talked with the higher ups, all other agents have failed. They want you to accept the suit, get any information on other users as you can, report back via dead drops. Eliminate any who may present a threat."

"Understood."

"One more thing, I'm sorry, Miss Smith, but you're going to be labeled as rogue for the foreseeable future, very few in our organization will know about it. We gave you enough funds for a safe house on a burner card in the dash of the vehicle. A list of other landing locations will be transferred to your tablet Good luck, Vanessa."

The line went dead.

Do not squander what you have been given

Like I have another option. She thought to herself as she stepped forward.

Outside Alexandria Memorial Hospital.

Vanessa gazed up at the small hole in the side of the building.

Good to know the eggheads were right.

The woman unobtrusively slipped into a narrow alley way and activated her suit, allowing the metal to cover her, the stealth going up a moment later. A couple of quick grapples later and She was sticking to the side of the building beneath the hole, carefully pulling herself up to peer inside.

Alexandria Memorial Hospital

Ciel scrolled through the options in the menu with amazement, looking at the different options she had. This one thing in particular... Hydra... Nanites... Is it possible that it could? But if I were to upgrade to the second tier, would I be able to heal the rest of the people here along with me? No... It would require too much... She looked up at the TV for her room, the news switched on, reports describing several objects falling in different places and attacks on the Police and a Bank. "Attacks... So I'm not the only one..." She let out a small fit of coughing.

"People may attack... I... Have a chance to defend these people... Create a safe haven for those that were attacked... That's it... That is what I'll do... This colossus shall be my castle... And I it's queen." She let out a small, weak laugh at how high and mighty she had just sounded. Her, a 19 year old girl on the verge of death, claiming she'll protect an entire hospital full of people. Well... With what was in front of her, she very well could. "Whelp... Let's see if this actually works." She finalized her options, and pressed her finger against the enter button, the cube letting out a bright light.

Alexandros - Control Sphere

Ciel felt a strength in her body that she had not known for years. The nanites had worked! She... As amazing and impossible as it felt, was healthy. And this armor... This... rather skimpy armor all things considered... Nonetheless it was incredible. In the open spherical space that she was in, levitating above the platforms far below, she pulled together several computer screens and keyboards for observation and management. The main control of her mech was being handled by this control band on her head, so she could easily use her new advanced computers to more effectively monitor.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Ciel." Said a voice from nearby, causing Ciel to whip her head around in shock, causing her head to dizzy a bit from a sudden movement that she hadn't experienced in quite a long time. She found herself looking at what looked like a robotic girl with white hair, and red and green eyes. The avatar drone she had selected. Which must mean... "You're my AI right?"

"I am indeed, Ciel." She said in a calm tone. "I am here to assist in weapon and drone management, as well as to pilot in your absence if need be. I also notice... That you have allowed me to be uplifted. I do not know just yet how this will progress, but I will thank you in advance for allowing me this opportunity to have a self."

"Y-yeah." Ciel responded, still a bit shocked. "So... What's your name?"

"I don't have a name yet. You would think that would be the duty of a creator, would it not?"

Sass. Wow she really does seem to be developing quick.

"Hmm... Alright then... Perhaps... Rose. Rose sounds good... Right?"

"A fine name indeed. Now down to the thorny matter of what we do next, Queen Ciel."

Okay now that's scary. One, that was a fucking pun, two I couldn't tell if that Queen comment was sarcasm or not.

"It was."

That's also scary.

Ciel shook her head as she returned her gaze towards her screens, as she started to analyze the situation that was growing across the city.

"Please at least tell me that there are friendlies out there..."

edited 7th Mar '16 1:21:18 AM by SolusLupus

Inside Marbury West First Bank

The wide vision afforded by Red Bull made watching all the tellers filling the bags a lot more fun. Adam could zoom in on their panicked faces as they ran around like ants at a particularly messy picnic. Admittedly, that was mostly his fault, as piloting a multi-legged mecha for the first time was no simple task for a normal human being. But he was no normal human being; he was Adam Kraft, genius dropou—

His attention shifted immediately as he picked up on radio chatter. Too casual to be police. And if the reports were true about the sheer number of pods that had fallen from the sky... Well, that left only one option: other suit pilots.

While there was no doubt in his mind that he could crush anyone who had the courage to fight him one-on-one, there were at least two mechas out there, judging by the question one of them posed. Such a cowardly tactic to employ... Adam would love to give him a piece of his mind but he had bigger and better things to do.

"Hurry up!" he snapped at the tellers. "Unless you want front row tickets to a full metal stampede."

The Wylder House

The machine was huge, frightening, yet oddly fascinating. It wasn't long before he stepped aboard, his brother would try first if he didn't. Niket stepping on, and looking around, there was quite a bit of room in this behemoth. The drones sitting by the side, fascinating in every way but he didn't want to just sit around and study as he made his way towards the head. His brother also climbed in and was gawking in amazement and excitement to it all. Referring to all of this being like a cartoon or video game... It did oddly have that feeling.

Regardless he arrived and took got himself positioned, feeling his nerves and the suit became part of him. He could see soo much around, feel soo much and for once didn't feel like the bottom of the litter. Just look how big this thing was!

With that Niket, though it did startle his brother who ran over to ask if everything was okay before seeing his brother pilot as the bay closed and Armarune as Niket decided to call it, based off a creature he dreampt of like this for a creative writing class; began to move into the ocean, levitating and gliding through the air in its coil...

So yeah... He was going to be sensible about this but with this brother right there egging him on... Cue the joyride as he sees how fast this thing can go across the coastline and with how fast this thing was it wouldn't take them wrong to get to the northern edge of the city and to start diving down the river, remaining just bellow the surface but watching and listening in on everything that was going on.

edited 7th Mar '16 3:26:22 AM by darkdestinysoul

Marbury, Little Zeon

Loran looked around, it was a good day. The T-28 he had built looked awesome - although... it... was... only the chassis right now, neither the turret with the main gun nor the MG turrets were done but still. As such, Loran decided to bring the thing out for testing - after all he just had finished the Road wheels - when you just attached 12 wheels with the Holt Caterpillar system you want to know if you have the... 'honor' to do the whole thing again because something doesn't work.

Loran stepped out with the model and looked around, he was in a middle class neighbourhood here - why it was called Little Zeon^Note I'm shit with names, that was the first thing that came to my head of all things was beyond him - but still, a big garden wasn't something too unusual, and theirs was even a bit bigger than the other ones. He looked at the sea, it was nice living so close by it - not only could you go to the Dolphin beach at the tip of the western peninsula whenever you damn well pleased when you're living not even 1 mile away from it but also you could even test out warship models without many problems. Another perk of living in Little Zeon was, that the Marbury Police Departement was just down the street a bit to the east, so Crime Rates were quite low.

Loran looked a bit around, the giant tank still in his hands. He knew that on the other side of the Bridge, just before the fork in the main road was 'Side 7', the model store that his mother owned. Said mother came around the corner just now "Hi there, I'm home~" She looked at the tank - mind you that thing was nearly 1,5 meters in length "So that's why you needed all the materials, good job~" He nodded "Thanks mom." Judging by the bags she held she just came from the weekly Farmers Market in the west. Loran placed the tank on the test track, near the beton cube commonly refferred to as bunker, that was marking the start.

Just as the motor was starting up and the exhausts pipes started coming to life suddenly... something fell out of the sky, the impact crater only a few centimeters away from the tank which somehow got past this unharmed "The f*ck just happend!?!" At least he survived his first artillery strike.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED.
LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED.
BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED.
BIOLOGY ACCEPTED.
NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.
200 RESOURCES TO ASSIGN. ENTER NEW USER SETTINGS NOW.
DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

After Loran - instead of doing anything smarter like... oh you know, call the frikkin' police, get in and tell your family or basically anything other that would involve 'getting the f*ck away from the freaking little hellcube' Loran decided that he might as well make a suit like the one that brought him his 2nd place at the Mech building competition. After he was done creating Ultimo he wondered for just a moment if it was a smart idea to use the Cyberbrain. But before he could do anything else the procedure had already begun.

Loran looked at the sky, for some reason he lied on the ground, what had happend? Shaking his head he wanted to shake away the rests of the dream, that was cut short by a particular Mech standing right in the garden. What the very actual f*ck? "Hey! Don't you black out on me again~" He heard a playful voice and first thought he'd may be halucinating "Wha-What... who's talking here?" "Me of course~ who else?" As he looked down something that could only be described as a palm sized Red Oni stood on his chest, waving. She wore her black hair in a long ponytail, and wore what looked like a garment made of crossing bands on her chest, but the weirdest thigna boout her was, that her lower body somehow seemed... strange, as if it was mechanical, though he was too dazed to properly see "I'm Aicha you silly~"

Loran at this point abandoned the rest of thought and decided to just go with it. "Okay... Aicha, what am I supposed to do now?" "Well... get into the mech would be a good start." Without questioning Loran got to the machine, the centaur like thing was currently kneeling on the grass, a few cables, each as thick as an arm hanging from it. As he approached it a hatch on the front opened. The inside was surpringsingly large, somehow like in a tank, it was cramped sure, but considering what was around it it seemed spacy. As the hatch closed Loran could hear a 'swish' as the cockpit was sealed away from the outside. Besides the Terminal were Aicha stood only a single monitor was lit, as Loran looked around he suddenly felt as if he knew all of this, he didn't know how, but he knew exactly what he had to do. Tthere were a good 100 buttons and levers around him, but he knew those were only for emergencies when the Brainwave harness wasn't functioning properly. He started the mech per thought.

Igniting reactor. Fusion mass - Stable. Reaction - At normal level. Pressure - Ok. Now switching from external to internal powermode. Power levels - Nominal. Releasing external powercable. Activating Life-support-system. Airflow - Nominal. Coolant-circuits - All funcioning. Initialising AI. AI selfcheck report - No errors. Beginning sensor check. Activating optical camera. Visual feedback - Check. Activating thermal sensors. Thermal feedback - Check. Audio sensors - Check. Comm-system - Check. Artificial muscle stimulation - Check. Now releasing holding clamps. Ultimo standing free. Weapons - Check for all.

As this checklist was going on more and more monitors were flickering to life. "You're a natural~" Aicha smiled "Now, how about you test this out a bit? Don't want to stumble around when you get into combat." Deep in Lorans brain there was a slight rest of reason that wanted to ask why he would get into a fight, but that was soon gone. Slowly Loran made Ultimo stand up and soon started to make his first steps in the suit. With only a few steps he was out of the garden. He dcided to get to the beach to properly test out the suit without risking collateral damage.

edited 7th Mar '16 7:55:38 AM by Sergey_Smirnov

Elise merely stood by the side, leaning on one leg while crossing her arm. She was never really down with those rebellious, extremist type of people that will, if given a chance, make a mixtape with them basically rapping "The government is corrupt, they're literally Hitler, burn down the banks, churches and police stations, I'm spiritual lyrical individual miracle etc".

And her perception of this vigilante definitely lowered when he shoot the police officers in the head. Yes, those guys were shooting at him but that's because he'd just fucking blow their place up. Then he asked what she has done with her suit as if this is a golfing session.

"Well, I've been testing it out, you know, run around a bit, punching trees like Minecraft on crack...Really ironic, since I've been struggling to learn kickboxing for the past several months and the knowledge has been bestowed upon me instantly from a box...Wanna test it out, mate?"

Marbury Island - Jess Taras

There was only one thing Jess loved more than doing these rap shows while rolling hard off some premium molly powder, and that was all the thick, little high school girls that came to her shows in their high-waisted jeans. Or better yet, leggings. They were usually more tripped out than even she was, and Jess had what she liked to call 'Magic Beats' and her best trick was making panties magically disappear.

"Cause I'm the nigga, the nigga nigga, like how ya figure? Getting figures and fuckin' bitches. She rolling Swishers, brought her bitches, I brought my niggas, they getting bent up off the liquor. She love my licorice, I let her lick it. They say money make a nigga act nigger-ish."

"BUT LEAST A NIGGA NIGGER RICH!"

"I be fucking broads like I be fucking bored Turn a dyke bitch out, have her fucking boys, BEAST!"

The islands were the best place to do these shows because they weren't exactly what the officials would consider legal, especially with the aforementioned drugged-up highschool kids. But Jess had nothing to complain about. It was bumping, the sand was nice and hot, the scenery was especially beautiful, and she made mad stacks off the people showing up for her every week.

"Got your girl on my line, world on my line. The irony, I fuck em at the same damn time. She eyeing me like a nigga don't exist..."

"GIRL, I KNOW YOU WAN DIS—"

The party was suddenly interrupted by an unexpected guest. People screamed out as a huge black box fell from the sky, landing right in the sand with a huge boom. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but a bunch of people nearby were knocked on their asses. Everyone stopped their dancing and started to inspect the strange box. Most of them were totally high, so they probably weren't even sure if what they were seeing was really there. Jess stopped the music pretty quickly, and shouted out from her microphone.

"Hold up!"

Everyone stopped, of course. Jess's people knew when to listen. She climbed down from off the stage and a path was cleared for her to walk up to the box and inspect it herself. The holographic glow was freaking her out.

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN.

"Well, shit."

Jess played around with the thing, strangely cognizant. It wasn't long before the machine gifted her with a very special toy. From the outside, it looked like Jess was being taken by a monster. Four long tentacles sprang out and wrapped around her, and she struggled as she was pulled into the suit. At first it was a mess of wires and metal, but it seemed to morph and wrap around her body, tearing at her clothes and throwing the tatters away. She emerged from the console, her face covered in a cool mask with glowing eyes, and her body in a form-fitting light bodysuit with most of her skin exposed. The four tentacles were now on her back.

Jess didn't really have time to think as she felt a rush of energy and euphoria after a brief sting of pain. It felt like waves and waves of information was being flooded into her brain all at once. She felt herself truly integrate mentally with whatever this suit was. It was like it pushed out the molly with a much better drug. Her brain was completely changed. She felt powerful.

"Holy fucking shit..."

The people around were basically freaking out, some of them starting to record video of Jess on their phones. People talked amongst themselves, trying to figure out what was going on.

"H-hey! Check the news! These things are appearing all over the city and everyone is going crazy!"

Everyone turned towards the water when they heard a loud boom, and saw a huge fire rise up among the buildings in the skyline of the city. An explosion. Shit really was popping off.

"Damn..."

Everyone was looking at Jess, like she was the one who knew what to do. She thought for a moment. Her mind was racing, still on a high from whatever this feeling the suit was giving her mind. It was a little hard to concentrate. Every sound and moment and color in the crowd was heightened. She could feel the four tentacles, able to control them all individually. There was a large cruise ship that they used to sail to the island, that everyone could use to get back.

"Okay, everyone on the boat."

Marbury, Dolphin Beach

Loran had arrived at the beach now, still practicing how to walk properly, coordinating four legs with a brain used to coordinate only two legs was hard work, finally he was getting the hang of it. "Good~" Aicha nodded "Really good~ Now, why don't you practice a bit shooting? I see that there's a wreck down the beach~" Indeed, at the end of the beach was the wreck of the Reliant, a medium sized container ship that once stranded here, right now it was nothing more than a rusty wreck in which children could play. "I'll load blanks into the Missle launcher, you won't destroy anthing with them, but they're a good way to get to know the suit and what it is capable of." Loran nodded "As you wish~" He could hear muffled clunks as the missles were unloaded and the blanks were loaded into the launcher. "All ready, now, look at the wreck, imagine locking onto it, wait for the lock-on signal and imagine firing the missles, easy enough, isn't it?"

Sure enough Loran did so, after he located the wreck he imagined the missles locking onto the thing, shortly after that a ping could be heard and the words 'Missle Lock' flashed on the main HUD. Loran now gave the mental command to start the missles. And as he did he could feel the suit rocking a bit to the rear due to the recoil as the missles shot out of their launchers, after a few meters they crashed to the ground as their engines had only fired for a split second to catapult them out of the launchers and simulate the recoil of a real shot. "Goood~"

Marbury Police Department, North Precinct

"Look, you've got a point that I ought to figure out my suit's capabilities..." Sobek fired off a Sonar ping, but in the open street he couldn't get much of an idea who was or wasn't in the station. "But I've got something bigger pressing on me right now, and I need to get that done first." He racked the rifle and plodded down the street. "As soon as I've got what I need, I can spar, but I don't know if what I'm looking for will still be there if I wait any longer. If you want to help, that would get us our fight sooner." Sobek shifted around to still have its eye focusing on Elise, and extended his hand to shake. "I dunno if you want to use callsigns, but I do. My name is Sobek."

Alexandria Memorial Hospital

There was a bright flash of light from the hole, blinding Vanessa, when her vision cleared there was a giant floating mech, hovering above the hospital. Behind the mask, her eyes widened.

O...kay...then. I suppose the mission starts now. Floating fortress definitely takes priority.

The agent launched herself higher up the building, beginning to run up the side of the structure until she reached the edge, leaping up as high as the suit would take her before attaching a grappling hook to the robot and reeling herself in.

She attached herself to the structure and began climbing until she found a small opening in the structure and slipped inside, finding herself in an interior hallway.

Find me a schematic, use the spyware if you have to. She thought to the suit's AI, staying cloaked so as not to alert any security measures.

Neils Cockpit

A small holographic kitsune flashes to life near his side, shimmering a bluish white, and covered with lines, to use a comparision he would understand, at the moment she looks a bit like Cortana, a glitchy, unstable Cortana as she flickers on and off at the moment.

"It is not something that could have been predicted, one can only base there predictions off the information they have avaliable" she paused, and glanced around the inside of the mech, surveying it so that she could use the control layout in future responces, but then she continued. "Besides, what do you think this is like on my end, you just encountered your first mech, this is my first every thing"

Accel accounting

Roughly 12 hours before Sven's life changed drastically, Sven was working his office job at Accel accounting on the western side of the peninsula. His immediate higher up, Barry, had been hassling him about finances and budget cuts. Too Sven, it was an average day where he just seemed to go through the motions. until a voice from someone he actually gave somewhat of a damn about spoke to him.

"hey Sven, how are you holding up? Saw the boss hassling you again"

Sven didn't really like most of his co-workers, or more like he didn't care, so he never bothered to learn their names and they in-turn had never bothered to learn his. Ian was an exception to that rule though.

"Ah its the same old, same old Ian. He does this every time because he thinks I'm stealing money."

the two men laughed for a bit.

"if you really were, you'd probably have moved out of this city by now"

Ian laughed but Sven just got depressed and laid his head down on his desk which quickly made Ian stop laughing.

"I'm gonna be stuck here forever getting yelled out by a man who's overweight enough to be two people, what god did I piss off?"

Ian walked over, patting Sven on the back once he got over to the sulking man.

"just always look forward towards tomorrow you know?"

"yeah, too bad tomorrow is gonna be the same as today"

"you never know"

after their little chat, Ian left heading back to finish his own work and Sven would stop sulking in order to do the same.

after a few hours Sven would depart, catching a bus to the North eastern part of the peninsula in order to get a ferry ride back home.

Ferry/Rigel Island

to connect the North Eastern Island with the main land, a Ferry ran every day from the north eastern point of the Marbury peninsula in order to help workers from Rigel island commute to their jobs on the mainland.

Rigel island itself was only slightly populated, most of the people on the island were either first generation immigrants or people that hated being around the city. some of them worked jobs on the main land but a decent amount of them were fishermen as well.

However that was about the extent of Sven's knowledge. Many of the people on the island were older than him by a long shot, and since he had come to this land as a Child he was more well adjusted to the culture in Marbury rather than that of his homeland, so he always felt like something of an outsider even among people that may have been from the same place.

Due to this lack of social life, Sven's routine after arriving back on Rigel island was to immediately head to his 2 room house on the southern part of the Island and turn on the TV to fall asleep to while eating what ever he could scrounge up for dinner.

of course this routine was shattered as a black box smashed through his roof, crushing his television.

"What the hell?!"

Sven fell out of his chair as he scrambled to move back

LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED.

"YOU SMASHED MY TV!"

BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED.

Sven walked up to the box, picking up a piece of debris to wield like a club.

BIOLOGY ACCEPTED.

"Stay calm Sven, stay calm, just a black box that...fell from the sky"

NEW PILOT ACCEPTED.

"New pilot, what do you mean new-"

and then the screen displaying the options available and the 200 points appeared before him. Sven found himself selecting choices before he even knew what was happening and the voice gave him a final message as the box transformed.

DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN GIVEN

Sven nodded and looked at his suit, finally before him he had the chance to make his life exciting and escape the boring doldrums of Marbury. He knew what he was going to do, and he was going to make sure that this would be the greatest time of his life.

Present time

the troublesome raven and its master now stood off the coast beneath the water of the main peninsula on the eastern side. Sven was beginning to regret not getting anything besides Gills but at the least he knew he could wouldn't die of suffocation as he waited and took in any info he could pick up being broad casted and it was better than staying on Rigel Island where half the people were freaking out over the 'monster' he was piloting.

"Picking on those weaker than themselves, rather than finding an equal they instead seek to lord themselves over those without the same powers. Cowards."

The suit began to trudge towards the shoreline, he was going to go deal with those that were causing trouble personally. and perhaps find an opponent that would give him the adrenaline rush he felt he needed.

edited 7th Mar '16 3:26:55 PM by Bcom

"Yo, Ed? You still up for tonight, right?" Tony said into his phone as he was walking out of his appartment in Southwestern Marbury; Not the greatest place to live in, but the neighborhood was quiet, and he had a somewhat good view on the sea and the Sanderssen mountains stretching south. "I dunno, you got any place in mind? You've been here longer than me, you should know the cool places!" He continued, walking down the stairs towards the parking lot, fishing for his car keys in his pocket. "You know me, man, I'm fine with anything! Plus, I'm still salty I was single for Valentines Day, and that I cocked up that job interview Wedne- No, that girl you showed me last week clearly wouldn't have worked, neither would have that guy the week before! Point is, I just wanna have a nice Saturday evening for once, that's all."

Tony sat on the hood of his car, lighting himself a cigarette as he was listening to his friend over the phone, absentmindedly looking out towards the sea. Huh, that's odd, he thought to himself, You usually don't see shooting stars that early in the eveni- Oh wait

He jumped up a bit at the loud crash of the airborne projectile hitting the beach hundreds of meters away, letting out a loud "Holy shit" as he started jogging towards the impact site.

"Okay, crap, hang on a moment Ed, shit just happened, I'll call you back in a minute!"

"What the genuine fuck is that thing?" Tony asked himself as he approached the cube, tentatively prodding it with his foot as whatever's hidden inside suddenly came to life.

ORGANIC LIFE DETECTED
"Oh crap, please don't be aliens, please don't b-"
LEVEL OF SENTIENCE ACCEPTED
"Uh, thanks I guess?"
BRAINWAVES ACCEPTED
"What the hell even are y-"
BIOLOGY ACCEPTED
NEW PILOT ACCEPTED
"Look, cube thing, I think it's a bit early in our relationship get int-"
200 RESOURCES TO ASSIGN
ENTER NEW USER SETTINGS NOW.
DO NOT SQUANDER WHAT YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN.
"Oh fuck the hell yes. "

Moments later, the Chromeheart was soaring above the neighborhood, its quatuor of jet engines blaring as Tony made his suit climb higher and higher, letting out a satisfied sigh as he stopped his ascent one kilometer in, slowly cruising over the shore.

"Oh man, this is the best thing ever!" Tony said as he idly glanced down below, noticing some explosions in the distance coming from the town. Shit, looks like a clusterfuck down there, he pondered as he tapped into the news feeds, quickly flipping through the channels and taking a quick look at the internet which promptly exploded at the news.

"Welp, I ain't the only one, huh." He added as he reached for his radio, trying to make the damn thing work.

"Yo, can anyone hear this?" He asked, to whoever could hear him.

Marbury, Dolphin Beach

Suddenly Aicha's eyes grew dull "The Audio Sensors are picking up the sounds of multiple explosions, the nearest ones around 3,2 Kilometers to the South-East. Broadband transmissions I could pick up indicate that something went wrong in the police department, multiple calls for assistance." Loran snapped out of it "What?! That's near our home - we need to help!" Aicha only nodded shortly "As you wish, plotting optimal course now... course plotting completed, displaying course on main HUD now. I've unlocked all weapons." With that Loran and Ultimo started to run into the direction, always following the plotted line on the HUD. "Yo, can anyone hear this?" Loran quickly answered "Y-Yes, this is Loran speaking, who's there?"