Realistic or Modern Ascendant

[Axell]

Zahara

Izzy beamed excitedly, small currents and sparks of electricity dancing about her body as she hung onto every word Artemis said."I'm thinking of hyper-threading a multi-core processor. That way if there are let say 4 cores in the multi-core then with the hyper-threading it will act as 8 cores and inhance the robots ability to perform tasks."She said. It was almost a shame that they couldn't sneak off so she could tear into that High-Bypass ratio Turbofan that he had.


@Scaver

 

[Scavenger]

Artemis

"I see it would make sense to try and hyper thread an existing processor but yo would have to be very careful that you didn't generate latency problems on the threads due to the core having to constantly switch between threads. You would also need an advanced stability system so your probobally looking at X,Y and Z gyro's to stabilize, then another set to measure the angle to feed into the primary actuators in the knees and hips. What are you looking for in terms of a brain, a simple go here do this or a more complex system that can make simple or even complex decisions on the fly." Artemis replied.


He was getting so excited that he didn't notice the small sparks around Zahara. His hand had also begun to move over the surface of the sheet sketching again almost subconsciously at the same time the mental link is solidifying and he's beginning to send images of how segments or even how the entire robot will look.

 

[ApfelSeine]

Qiang grinned, adjusting himself to his normal posture and resting a hand on his hip as he regarded Joan. He found her rather intriguing, and it pleased him that she had noticed so quickly. Of course, that meant that he couldn't keep playing his fun game, but at the very least Joan would be amusing to talk to. That was generally more interesting to Qiang in the long run.


"I knew I had you pegged right when I decided that you were a sharp one," Qiang said. He attempted to look casual by folding his arms behind his head, though with his heavy bag, he was thrown off balance a bit. Somehow managing to keep from falling over, Qiang grinned at her. "How're you holding up? It's been a pretty long journey already and we've still got a ways to go from the looks of things."


He tilted his head with what appeared to be genuine curiosity. It wasn't as though they weren't used to demanding tasks, but now that Qiang had found an interesting person to talk to, his attention had been diverted from wondering what the agency's plans for them were.


@Joan the Rebel

 

[Refusedstone]

Marcus Taggert



​

Marcus beamed at the Doctor with a slight grin. He agreed with him fully. A mission like this could go sideways fast and having him along to help made him feel a bit easier. The company began to gather as a flurry of footsteps drummed on the ground. A


A smaller frame knocked against his larger one and Marcus turned to meet them. Zahara, you made it. I was starting to think that you weren't coming. He offered a faint smile and a faint smile and pointed to the backpacks," Grab yourself one. Kat's sending us out on a field mission. We're gonna explode this place and set up a forward base."


The more he said the words the more he believed them. His eyes floated over every one of his teammates. They had become like a family to one another. In most cases, they were all they had.

 

[Verse Zero]

Ekaterina





Kat looked around as the group gathered. Like the Gifted the security team was of a myriad nationalities. Three Americans, a Russian like herself, German, Frenchman, Japanese, and New Zealander. Agency 51 drew its recruits from across the globe, clandestine, and with the resources of various countries pooling in it's budget each soldier was decked out in the finest of technologies available. The merits of each member of the security detail was known to her and excellent. All had seen service in one conflict or another, multiple operations, and several medals awarded et cetera.


Kat once more looked at her watch. The Gifted had taken to conversation among themselves. Fine by her, stealth was not part of the mission, and it would help distract them from any difficulty along the way.


Kat nodded to the trooper next to her as put on her helmet. Fitting the buckle under her chin. The trooper, an American, spoke to the group, "Alright, we're moving out! civvies in the center, everyone else form a perimeter, Maxwell bring up the rear."


"Aye," came the reply from the American named Maxwell, a giant of a man in his mid-thirties. Maxwell took up the rear and with his M4-177 hanging from it's strap in front of him he used his hands to make an ushering motion. "Alright ladies and gents let get this show on the road!"


Kat turned around and started walking. The security team spreading out to form a loose circle perimeter around the Gifted. The hike began in earnest as they moved towards the looming forest.


Alyxa


Alyxa started off, in the front of the group, she didn't know enough about turbo fans and gyros to be a part of the conversation behind her anyways. So she just hooked her thumbs under the straps of her backpack and started walking after Kat and the lead soldiers.


Ekaterina


Kat moved towards the forest. Occasionally lifted up her P90 to look through the sites and scan the horizon through her magnified lens. Her head moving from left to right methodically, disciplined, vigilant. The forest was green and the foliage was sparse. Perfect. Little risk of making too much noise crunching on leaves and thrashing through plants. Little risk of any of the Gifted also getting some form of poison ivy or what not. Was there even that plant or a plant like it anywhere near this place? Ekaterina did not know for sure. The amount of information the science team had to work with kept them perpetually swamped.


As she ducked behind a tree to avoid a low hanging branch she looked about. Sunlight was good. The top of the forest must not be terribly thick then. Looking up, Kat saw that it was not, ample view of the sky could be seen.


Kat moved on with the group trailing behind her. She could hear Maxwell behind everyone speaking so those in the front of the group could hear. Maxwell, the gentle giant. Kat smirked at the thought.





"Let's keep it together now boys and girls!" Herding the Gifted to keep them more or less in one blob. Easy to keep watch over. Easy to protect.


Kat trudged on through the sparse undergrowth. The forest smelled---the wafting of this fragrance seemed to strike her all at once---it smelled fantastic. Like an ambrosiac of soft lemon fragrance with what was it? Sweat pea? It was strange but not unsettling. Just odd. That's when she noticed flowers growing. Coming over a slight slope she saw flowers here and there. They where beautiful. Further, their petals had a slight glow of blue, some form of luminescence. It was odd that it could be seen even in daylight. It felt awkward to look at visually. Looking to the left and right she grimaced. The flowers seemed to array off to the right but the left remained clear.


Lifting up her comm bead she spoke, "We got some odd foliage in front of us that sweeps right. We are moving left."


Confirmations and comments about the smell came over the comm bead before dying down. Kat briefly looked back to see Maxwell pointing and talking though she couldn't hear what.


Alyxa


"Anyone smell that?" Alyxa looked about her as she continued walking forward. A trooper with a face clothe and shades stopped, pointed at her, and pointed left. It was the Frenchman and she understood. He wanted her and everyone to move left. There was something unsettling to Alyxa about this forest. Something odd or out of place. She couldn't guess what.


She heard Maxwell behind her speaking and looked back.





"Benjamin, Marcus, Zahara, everyone we are angling left. Going slightly off course a bit. Head towards the left side of that slope Kat is standing on." The slope was just high enough to block a view of the flowers. Did not want to alert anyone to potential danger. There was just something off about those plants. Though Alyxa did not know this.


Ekaterina


Kat heard the American to her left, Joseph, Southern Alabama accent in her ear, "I think there is something up ahead. Looks like a statue, can see it through my sites, in a tiny circular clearing in a flat area."


"Move up and check it out. Take Dietrich with you." Two soldiers moved up rapidly using the trees as cover. Disappearing through the woods briefly as they angled in from the West. Kat kept looking back at the flowers. They seemed so enticing. Like she wanted to just go up and touch them. The nape of her neck felt cold. She shuddered.


"Dietrich here. It's uh...a statue of some sort. Classical?"


Kat looked back to see the group continuing on to the left as they had been directed. Kat moved off along the ridge to separate the group from the flowers. As she moved the statue became more in view. Classical?


A minute later she understood. Before them stood a statue roughly eighteen feet tall. The marble was pure white and smooth. Vines shrouded parts of the arms and legs. Like a natural green draping. The statue depicted a woman in a toga, a scepter adorned with flowers in her left hand of her height, and a bird on her shoulder. A crown of some kind in the shape of leaves was about her head. Her eyes looked down. As if passing judgement.


Dietrich was walking around the statue. Touching something near the base. The platform the woman was standing on. There was something there? Brushing the vines away revealed an inscription in a flowing script.

 

[Joan the Rebel]

Joan Ardent


Joan chuckled. "I'm doing fine, though I am rather curious as to what we'll find." She frowned slightly when Qiang nearly fell over. "You want some help balancing that? A bag that's too heavy can be a lot more dangerous than no supplies at all."


She glanced up as the order was given to move out. Taking a deep breath, she began moving forward, keeping half a foot or so away from the others. If a combat or similar scenario came up, she would need to move fast, and it would be difficult to do that if she was in the middle of a group. Still, she needed to stay reasonably close, both to keep the security team happy and because there truly was safety in numbers, especially when the 'numbers' consisted largely of trained agents and superpowered people who could do things like generate electricity, turn to steel or stone, and create illusions to confuse an enemy.


Joan frowned when the oddly pleasant smell reached her nostrils. Something was...off. Perhaps it was just the fact that Atlantis Island was so alien, but she couldn't help but feel like the smell was dangerous. She pulled the bandana up over her nose and mouth and tightened it before tucking the end into her shirt. Her frown grew deeper when the order was given to bear left.


I'm not going to be kept in the dark just because they don't want to disturb us. I'm already disturbed. It's not like I haven't handled it so far. With that thought, Joan braced herself for the coming nausea and touched the agents' minds. Sorting quickly through them, she pinpointed Kat as the one closest to the area they were supposed to avoid and focused on her. She got a brief glimpse of the flowers before withdrawing. She shuddered when she saw them. The flowers were beautiful, in a dangerous way. As she withdrew from the agents' minds, she began to feel slightly dizzy. She grimaced and forced herself to keep on like nothing had happened.


By the time the dizziness had faded, they were moving up the slope, and Joan was thinking about the flowers carefully. Everything about them was enticing, in a terrifying way. No wonder the security force hadn't wanted the group of Gifted to see those. She wondered briefly if Kat or any of the other agents had noticed her mental contact, but then she told herself not to worry about it. Even if they had noticed, what were they going to do about it?

 

[RIPSaidCone]

"Just a few more minutes." The pilot had informed Ashley, well Pvt. Ross for use of a more formal title as the younger girl sat at the back of the helicopter, a UH-60 with "United States Army" embedded on the tail of it, she was busy polishing the lense of her camera, a high-definition and very expensive one given to her by the Army and paid for by the taxpayers, it was the definition of near-perfection and she loved it. Minutes later when the camera was in working order and as clean as the day she got it she put it back into it's cover and gently placed it back in it's rightful bag. Her hands nervously patted against her thighs as the strange landmass appeared over the horizon, the helicopter approaching closer and closer. This was really one of Ashley's first deployments to a significant area if one could say, she'd been to Canada to film joint training between her own Army and the Canadians and she'd went to Alaska to film winter exercises but she'd never been sent somewhere so important before and so she was understandably nervous about the whole thing.


Within another few moments, all of this time having been spent by Ashley in a trance like state, letting her daydreams get in the way again. Shaking the thoughts of what her visit to "Atlantis" might be like her mind reminded her that she didn't have to daydream it anymore as she was now there for real. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder as a man in a high-vis jacket ran over to the helicopter and slid open the door, Ashley thanking him with a nod as she hopped out, beige colored boots hitting the ground below as she took in the scent of the Atlantic ocean. It was almost like being at the beach. Her eyes looked over the camp in-front of her and it wasn't long before a man, most likely belonging to the Agency given his attire introduced himself to her and gave her brief directions to where she was supposed to go.


It turns out she was pretty late, a quick sense of panic surged through Ashley at that thought. Five seconds in and I've already screwed it up. Her brain as always not being that big of a help when it came to calming her down. She noticed a large-ish group moving away from the camp and sprinted towards them, hoping she could perhaps slide in the back and not be noticed, the likelihood of that was very low but it couldn't hurt to try. A hand went behind her to keep her backpack stable as to not damage the equipment inside it as she caught up to the group, slowing her pace down considerably as to not make that much noise upon arriving, didn't want to make a big entrance after all.


The group had gotten a bit of distance between themselves and the camp in a pretty short amount of time, Ashley wasn't quite sure if the group had noticed her little entry to their ranks but she didn't much mind as she instinctively unzipped her camera from it's place in her bag and took it out, turning it on as she begun snapping the very, very occasional photo of well..everything really. She did have orders to document literally everything she saw, and to report on anything strange or suspicious about Atlantis or anything else, come to think of it the Army was pretty on edge about everything here. It made Ashley think as to whether or not she should be concerned, but there was a security detail and so it was fine, probably. -- They approached a statue and Ashley took photos of it from pretty much every angle she could find, making sure to make a mental note of anything odd about it at the same time. There were flowers as well, photos were taken. A large ridge, photos were taken. Rinse and repeat really. Ashley kept quiet, wanting to be an observer as was her role.

 

[Johannes]

Benjamin Artz

Benjamin smiled with politeness as Zahara and Artemis raved on about their technological plans. Though he could not understand a lick of what they were saying, Benjamin found the idea of a camp with the technology and accommodations of advanced hotels to be a funny thought. Soon Ekaterina had the group moving. The Gifted were clustered in the center surrounded by the troops. Typical herd formation. Benjamin decided to stay towards the sides, not at the front or back. This way he could see all of the Gifted more easily. Benjamin could smell what wafted through the air. It was pleasant, but uneasy. Perhaps like a drug coated to smell friendly? The thought unnerved him so he put on a medical face mask to minimize breathing in the smell.


Benjamin heard Maxwell from the back herding the group to stray left. Odd, perhaps they saw something they wanted to avoid? The things that were making the smells? Benjamin was tempted to go right but decided against it as he did not want to upset the leviathan that was Maxwell or Ekaterina. Benjamin noticed Joan grimace before faltering a bit in her walk. The woman seemed to recover. Moving through the group, Benjamin put his hand on Joan's shoulder.


"Hey there, you alright?" Benjamin asked ignoring the large statue they began to approach. If one of the Gifted was feeling sick, that was his concern. Perhaps it was the smell getting to her? Or was Joan using her powers? Benjamin was well aware on the side effects many of the Gifted go through when they use their abilities.

 

[Joan the Rebel]

Joan Ardent

Joan sensed Benjamin coming up behind her and turned to face him when he put his hand on her shoulder. She began to pull her bandana down to talk to him, but the smell hit her again, and she quickly tugged it back up over her nose. She smiled at Benjamin. "Yeah, mostly. Hang on a second." She unslung her backpack and quickly removed a dust mask from one of the pockets. After replacing the backpack on her back, she tugged the bandana down again and pulled on the small mask. She sighed with relief.


"Y'know, that smell may seem nice at first, but I don't trust it at all." She nodded towards the statue they were approaching. "This whole place is weird. Take that statue, for instance. If it weren't for the vines, I would assume it hadn't been there very long. The marble looks brand-new. Also, this place is supposed to have been under the ocean for centuries, right? So how has it sustained itself?"

 

[Scavenger]

Artemis

Engaged in the conversation Artemis couldn't help but be distracted by this very odd smell that had washed over the group. Without the distraction of the conversation he began to pay attention to the thoughts around him again, that when he heard an unknown voice in his head and he saw through their eyes as they lined a digital cross hair over him. Immediately his mind went into emergency mode as he sprinted to the nearest tree and crouched down behind the it while loudly shouting in Ekaterina's and Maxwell's heads. "Someone at the back, some form of reticle, not a normal member of the security team. His sense of panic was heightened as he picked up the waves of unease and worry coming from the security team.

 

[RIPSaidCone]

Ashley Ross

It hadn't taken long before Ashley begun to notice the very present and very pleasant smell that was roaming around in the air around them all. She noticed that the rest of the group or some of them at least had begun to cover their faces and so she wasted little time in covering her own mouth and nose with fabric, some spare that she hadn't bothered to get rid of. Now more than happy that she'd been lazy at the time. She continued taking photos, her mind roaming around the options on when to begin filming the area rather than simply taking photos but she figured that she'd have time to do it all over again with a video later on. However her thoughts were shaken from her as she suddenly felt a little off, her hairs standing up slightly as she closed her eyes, as if she'd gotten something in them. By the time she'd opened them again one of the group had rolled into cover in a seemingly panicked way, Ashley's mind running through what might have happened, she grew increasingly on edge.
​

 

[Refusedstone]

Marcus Taggert

​

The company had begun to move out into the unknown. The sunlight seemed to dance under the leaves of the trees above as they passed further into the thicket. The plant life was different here and these plants would have to be studied thoroughly.


Marcus had taken note that the armed soldiers had formed a perimeter around the gifted. Somehow he'd ended up towards the front of the group. As they trekked down the path, a strange, heavy scent crept us his nostril. "Ughh what the hell is that?" He called out as he reached into his bag and strapped the high tech face mask to his head. The mechanism hissed as he exhaled outward and lit with a brilliant blue at its seams.


In these sort of situations, he'd prefer to keep talking to a minimum, but the smell nearly made him lose balance. He shook it off and noted that they'd veered off onto a different course, but he didn't catch a good glimpse of the object ahead.

 

[Verse Zero]

Ekaterina





Kat was uneasy, she didn't bother with Ashley, she was just taking pictures. At least she wasn't going down the ridge to get a closer look. Then Kat would order her back if she did. The flowers and statue was unnerving to her. It didn't look out of place. That was the issue, and Joan pointed that out with utmost clarity. The whole island, itself vast, appeared to have been here all along. By all accounts the only thing living on this island should be seaweed if not dead or dying bottom dwellers from the Atlantic Ocean. No. Entire forests, woodlands, swamps, and snowcapped mountains just arose out of the sea without the slightest hint of being underwater at all!


Kat gave the signal to form a perimeter, and the soldiers about them formed a quick perimeter as the Gifted where brought close to the statue. Kat looked back to see Benjamin tending to one of the Gifted, drats, they could not afford to have setbacks right now. Not so soon into their first expedition.


Kat walked back to Benjamin and Joan. "Everything alright?"


But before a reply could be made Alyxa spoke.


"There is an inscription. At the base of the statue. Look!" Dietrich brushed some vines away to reveal an itched inscription in a flowing script. Alyxa walked closely, cautiously, as she examined the statue. She frowned. "This is no language I've ever seen. Its written in boucephelon style, look how each line alternate from left to right and vice versa. Intriguing. But...I have trouble making out any of it. The characters are not like any alphabet I've seen. Like a combination of Ancient Greek, Latin, and Proto-Germanic."


Kat herself frowned at these remarks. Linguistics was generally well over her head unless it involved a mission. So she'd leave it to Alyxa to think all she wanted on the statue.


"Alright, everyone group up near the statue!"


She had to get this expedition moving. They where closing in on the Western districts of Atlantis. Kat looked back as Alyxa touched the statue, then collapsed. Hardly a sound. Dietrich tried to lunge and grab her, only managing to slow her fall, and even as her head touched the ground Alyxa's eyes opened. She had not even been out for a second.


"Hera."

 

[Johannes]

Benjamin Artz

Benjamin nodded and formed a face of contemplation. Joan did pose an excellent question; an island that supposedly rose from the ocean with no sign of ever being submerged. You would think that there would be leftover salt from the ocean at least but not even that. The island posed many mysteries. Benjamin noticed Ekaterina as she approached him and Joan.


"Will Ms. Ard- I mean, Joan says that everything is alright." Benjamin stated. "But she should make sure she is adequately hydrated." Joan's woozy behavior from earlier could have been simply a dizzy spell or the result from using her abilities somehow. Either way, she should stay hydrated and not over exert herself. Benjamin heard Alyxa taking her turn to ramble on about stuff. Benjamin sighed, these Gifted knew a plethora of knowledge on their specific fields and Benjamin would just stand there as everything goes over his head. Alyxa touched the statue and her body went limp. Benjamin let out a panicked noise and quickly ran up to Alyxa. Her fall was slowed by a nearby soldier but Benjamin was still concerned. Before he could begin any evaluation, Alyxa regained consciousness. Hera? The word ringed a bell. A goddess or something but that didn't concern Benjamin.


"Are you alright?" Benjamin asked Alyxa worriedly.

 

[Scavenger]

Artemis

After seeing that no one else was panicking about this development Artemis leaned against the tree and took deep breaths. He then focussed on this unknown thought pattern and picked up images of cameras and different places to shoot videos and picture, he also picked up images of army fatigues and time spent in the army. Deciding that in fact this person is not a threat and is in fact part of the team he edged out from his tree and moved back into the middle of the group.


"If it wasn't the new person scaring the guards then what is it. Well only one way to find out" he muttered as he focused on all of the voices surrounding him and he picked up images of a field filled with odd looking flowers. Just as he was about to run up and ask Kat about what happened he heard a large burst of mental white noise from the statue and noticed Alyxa collapse. As he moved towards the statue he focussed on Alyxa and began asking mental questions "What was that, are you ok, what happened".

 

[RIPSaidCone]

Ashley Ross

Ashley's senses had dimmed down as the group seemingly calmed as well. Her mind quickly focusing back onto the task at hand, which was documenting of course. The group had eithered not noticed the fact that there was a newcomer with them, they hadn't seen her slip in or they simply didn't mind. Ashley hoped it was either the second or third one of those. There was a large statue, which she of course took pictures of. The group had been told to gather up around the statue, which Ashley of course done. Someone had called out that there was writing on the statue and so obviously the best thing to do was to take pictures of it.
​

Ashley poked herself through the group and took a multitude of photographs of the strange language, making sure to capture all of it in her lenses. Whilst still allowing it to be seen properly, but one of the girls had touched the statue. Only to collapse to the ground a milisecond after, Ashley grew concerned once more. Others went to go and assist her and Ashley felt that the best course of action was to just stay back and remember this event. Slinging her camera over her shoulder as she took out her notepad and pen, scribbling on it. "Group member touched statue only to collapse - Quote: Hera." Hera was a goddess, Ashley knew that much. In school she'd had a little interest in Greek and Roman culture.

​

"Are you all sure that this place is safe?" Ashley questioned rather formally.

​

 

[Verse Zero]

Ekaterina


Kat rushed over and knelt next to Alyxa. "What the hell!" Standing back up quickly she looked around rapidly, "Nobody touch anything!" Everyone was on edge now. Even as the security team moved to form a perimeter. Scanning the forest about them through their weapon's sites and keeping silent on the communications network.


Alyxa seemed alright, trying to get up, "I'm alright I just touched it--and--everything went dark. But there was this sharp voice, a woman, shouting the name Hera. Then...well...here we are." Hera, wife of Zeus according to Greek mythology, and one of the Olympians. This was a statue to her. It honestly did make some kind of sense if the Atlantean's worshiped a polytheistic pantheon similar to other Indo-European peoples. I mean Atlantis was a fabled city and heart of an ancient empire that supposedly had once dominated the known world in it's entirety.


Kat had to think quickly, and decided, "Alright, Benjamin stay close to Alyxa, we need to press onwards. Come on people let's move it!" This was all seeming to snag on unexpected problems. Maybe the gifted where too sensitive? How come Alyxa had been rendered unconscious while the troopers who had removed vines did not? Maybe they had a connection to this place? There where a dozen questions and possible solutions. The only thing Kat knew for certain was that she had a mission, and that mission was to reach the city, and set up an FOB for the entire expedition on the island.


As Kat turned back towards the statue a few of the troopers where already moving forward, they where more cautious now, careful to stay low and largely out of sight. Kat began to follow after them, "Ashley, perhaps it's time for you to hold your weapon more than your camera." Kat didn't mind the photographer, a liaison, but she wouldn't have them stop for pretty pictures either.

 

[Johannes]

Benjamin Artz

While Alyxa seemed to be alright, Benjamin was placed in full worry-wart doctor mode. As the team moved out, Benjamin continued to check Alyxa's health. Whilst walking sideways, Benjamin held Alyxa's wrist checking her pulse. "No headache? No light-head feelings?" Benjamin asked before moving on to check Alyxa's pupils by flashing a penlight pass her eyes. The doctor was considerably wary of the statue on the island. This Atlantis held unknown potential and concerning Benjamin, the worst kind of potential: harm. "Let me know if you are feeling anything else out of the ordinary." Benjamin stated as he put his examining equipment back in his bag. It was rather strange. No sign of any other trauma. Typically, suddenly going unconscious was the sign of something serious. Benjamin began to worry about what else could harm the Gifted. Was it just that particular statue? Was it any kind of statue? How could they tell? The regular personnel were completely unaffected. While lost in these thoughts, Benjamin anxiously fiddled with his bag strap.