Once more, Gloriosa, with the feels.

[sharlene79]

Once she had a cell number to send her data to Lori nodded her head with a sense of accomplishment. “I’ll be right back guys. I have to get back to my body to call. It’ll take a minute to set up security protocols.” She hesitated for a moment, then vanished.


A moment later she suddenly sat bolt upright and looked around for her wheelchair and getaway case. She held up a single finger to ward off questions from Duncan and shushed him. Then she grabbed her laptop and phone and got everything booted up. It took her a couple minutes, Finally she punched in the number and waited.


Her usual protocols included blocked ID, a firewall on her phone and firewire, Malebolge encryption using her own algorithms and even a voice scrambler. The first moments of their response would include a speed dial to call her back later - defaulting to her security protocols. In this area it wouldn’t use the cell towers.


Paranoid? Maybe. Better safe than dead.


She waited for the group to answer her, then spoke up, her voice distorted by the modulator. “Listen first please. My end of this will be secure - encrypted. Your end is not. So no names, no mention of locations, no mention of abilities. For lack of a better name, for now just call me random stranger.” She chuckled a little. “Don’t worry, the map app is downloading. Remember, GPS probably won’t work once you go too deep. Neither will you be able to call out or receive updates. So if you have questions, now is the time.


“Again, my apologies for scaring anyone. For me this day has been a mixed blessing. I have tried to use this ability for … for a very long time. Today is the first time it actually worked. Personally I believe each of you was affected and have abilities - even if they aren’t apparent yet. Further I believe these abilities have much to to do with our psyches as well as physical environments.


“If you like I can arrange a rendezvous with us and figure out something in the way of a place to crash while things die down. If not, I recommend you avoid using bank cards, credit cards and the like. Avoid traffic cameras, cameras at ATM’s banks, stores, buses, subways, and the like. If any of you went through the medical tents you should check yourselves over for radioactive tracer dustings. It’s generally illegal and rarely used. But just to be safe ….


“Any questions?”

 

[Kagura]

It turned out the kid was waiting outside of the church, and despite her search Robyn had yet to find the other two. “Did my friends show up yet?” she wonders, eying the street way and seeing the many cabs that seemed to drift by. His question seemed to fall on deaf ears as she scanned the streets; now that she thought about it the woman hadn’t given her a way to contact her. All the people Robyn had just seen were ‘confidants’ of Lori’s too, which basically meant Robyn wouldn’t get to know. That is…if they did know anything.


Robyn cursed under her breath, they couldn’t have left her alone…her fingers absently tap her hand as she eyes the street a moment more. They would be here soon. Else she would find them.


Turning back to the Jevel, she smiles and seemed to recall his question despite her own tirade of thoughts. “I decided that the big explosion hole was where I needed to go” she comments, making it come off as sarcastic despite being serious. “Then I fell…a lot” is what she finishes with, thinking back to her escapade and shaking her head at the idea. “C’mon, while we wait for the others, it’s probably best I get some other clothes” is her final decision, looking around the Soho area.





“Although, the area’s sort of dingy…” Robyn comments with a slight frown, shrugging it off before heading down the street. The first place she enters is a simple shop, clothed mannequins in the window and the odds and ends of brand names. She wasn’t sure if they were knock-offs or new enough that her hospital life permitted her from knowing. Without trying anything on, she bought as much as one of the hundreds would afford her.


The next pace she headed was the parlour, down the street ad after clarifying that she would need both a dye and a cut, she sat down and waited her turn. In case police were on the lookout for a red-head, she would need to get rid of the red locks that she had faked in order to look like the real Robyn. Eying Jevel, she suggests, “After this we can go where you want?” the girl had been dragging him around after all. As she is ushered by the hairdresser, her hair is washed and dyed an off-black, slightly blue looking under the light. Cut shorter, to her shoulders, she watches them dry and comb it, sending her off after she gives them the other hundred. With a gesture she offers the kid the lead, confident enough that she won’t be recognized now.

 

[ErisianDialects]

Being relocated to an area that was more designed for test and to stop people being injured. That was what the nice scientist who brought him some food and bottled water would explain to him, at least. Of course, he needed to convince the woman they wanted to send with him, and so he would move to meet her. It was only because one of the locals had called her by name that police had identified her.


"Kai, huh? Nice name. Did you know it means dog in Cornish? Still, better than mine. At least you're not named after a watch. Horace."


A faint smile crossed Horace's lips, surety, as he waved and shooed the policeman away. He wasn't altered, but he was sure he was dying of radiation poisoning, the merest touch of another person was causing him pain, and his hypochondria was making up symptoms as he went.


"You and I have been selected to be the first people to be moved to our new temporary residences until more trucks arrive. You coming, or you going to spend all your time sulking? I'd like to try and get on the cameras before they pack up and leave. Besides, we've been told we'd have time and space to ourselves, means we can sit and plot how to get away from our guards."


He didn't know her, he didn't know what her reactions would be. He was just trying to be nice, not to lead, but to explain to her what was going on. He would incline his head. She had been trouble, from what he'd heard, and uncooperative, it was why they had sent him.


"Or do you want to spend time locked up here with these losers, until someone tazes you and throws you to the wolves. I've been promised comforts for us both if you play along a while."


He wouldn't really wait for an answer, he'd spelled it out. He would smile at her, inclining his head, and expecting her to follow, he would start to walk towards a pair of policemen who were keeping their distance.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Garrick stood outside the Quarantine Zone cordon. He was quite proud of his work there, he really was, but, well, everyone followed orders, didn't they? The taskmaster was pushing him to play a very fun game. He had made sure that more than one of his former clients had been in that area, and he had heard at least one of them had escaped. It improved his mood highly. One of his sources had started calling the poor evolutions Altered. It was a name that he was going to make sure would stick.


He stood in front of a few cameras and made sure that they saw a figure getting placed in one of the newly arrived transportation vans. The figure had their head covered.


"I have attempted to go in and meet the people being held unlawfully, but police have not allowed anyone to enter or exit, they will not give us a statement. People being held without reason or cause, and are being moved to Pentonville prison. Doctors, scientists and police are all here. The government has said that this was caused by a riot, but friends, loved ones on the inside say that the riot started when people began to show signs of some kind of change."


He would gesture, and his pet cameras would show the ice cube before panning back to him.


"Now, either this is some army experiment gone wrong, or," Here he would pause and laugh, "some kind of alien invasion or something else just as silly. It was much more than a riot. I seem to be the only one demanding an answer from the government. Exactly what happened here? It wasn't a riot. These people have somehow been altered from normal humanity, but they are still people, who deserve better treatment than modern day concentration camps."


A policeman would move up behind Garrick, and he would not resist, his arrest going out live. He was being arrested for attempting to incite a riot, and the cameras were broadcasting it live across the country, and most importantly, his groundwork as being one who organized a trust and charity. He had also made sure that his arrest would go stright onto youtube.


The fact that he was being put into the same van as the bound man would make things interesting. His first duty was removing the black bag from the man's head right in front of the officer who arrested him.


"Let him breath, you don't want to be the man who let a prisoner, even an unlawful one, die on his watch, do you? Hello sir, Garrick Rake, philanthropist and lawyer, not that much of an oxymoron. Do you wish to press a civil suit for police brutality?"


Ambulance chasing at it's finest.

 

[Goddess]

She squinted her eyes as she looked up at the man. She didn't like talking to people she didn't know, the men in uniform where just fun to mess with. The gears however started to turn in her head as he began to speak about leaving toward a new residence. Time alone to plot for an escape. The thought made her mind jump to a yes but of course something told her to take it slow and think it out more. A guy coming up to her just to help ,where there even people like that. Sure things are getting out of hand but this was a little sketchy.


He seemed funny when he told her what her name meant but then again it came across as rude. Time was ticking and her brain acknowledged him walking away. She looked around the room, then at the smaller boy who kept pointing at her and tugging on his mothers garments. She looked toward her other side seeing an old man lick his lips and twitch his eyes. The decision was a no brainer In this case. Slowly getting up from her chair and putting her hands in her pockets. Stomping on the guards foot when she had walked out of the tent.


The guard growled, taking slight steps toward her till she put a pep in her step and jogged up beside the man. "Horace Is it..? Don't become friendly here got it. I'm not sure what your up to but if you pull anything , I'm not afraid to put you on your ass. I got moves you know, I can use them." She glared at him before giving him a smile that spread from ear to ear. "Thanks though, getting me out of there."

 

[Mitheral]

“Hang on,” Duncan spoke up. “If any of them have matches or lighters, there is something useful to know. In that area the flames should always flicker toward the explosion crater and away from the source of air. That crater will create a low pressure system operating much like a rotovap used to dry out a chemical sample or evaporate off more volatile liquids in a chem lab.” His voice trailed off for a moment as he realized that last part probably sounded a little … nerdy. “Uh … something I read once.”


“Also, if we are going to set up a place for all of us, we’ll need a rough count. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that most of us lived in the QZ.” He glanced over as Lori held up fingers to indicate the number. “Nevermind the count. Sounds like we need something spacious. I’d suggest the country but I …”


Lori was shaking her head and making gestures at him - people toking, shooting up and drinking.


“...or maybe a couple places, so that our different lifestyles won’t conflict as much.” He had friends who did all those things, but cared little for it and forbade them in his home. First of all, he didn’t need the trouble. Second he took care of his mind and body and didn’t care to pollute it. “I can handle any construction needs.” He sounded slightly distracted. “And I may be able to get us power off the grid. I had this idea for perpetual motion - and an engine that would be about 800-1200 percent more efficient than anything on the market. Just theory, but it might just work. I need some paper and to look up a few things. There was something I read…”

 

[Snek]

Jevel followed the girl down the street and to the clothing department and the hair styling place. He shrugged when she suggested that he lead them to their next destination.


"I don't really need to go anywhere. I don't have police chasing after me like the rest of you guys do. I've got two mates that are probably wondering where I've run off to, though. They're back at the university quarantine site, though, so I probably won't be seeing them for a while."


He paused for a second, looking out the window of the hair stylist place and up at the sky.


"About those other two, earlier by the cabs...I don't think we'll be seeing them as soon as you anticipated. I think those blokes might'a ditched us. After all, they were so eager to get rid of us, eh?"

 

[Ozmic]

For a moment, Gerry stayed back from the others, catching bits and pieces of the scattered conversation as he tried his best to keep what was left in his stomach down. Granted, all that being shitty pub food and various types of alcoholic bevs, he was very much against being sick again. Not only was it just completely asinine in front of others, but it wasn't exactly a favorite or usual activity of his. "What a day," he moaned regretfully, putting a cigarette to his lips and lighting it in a cupped palm. He hardly even noticed the pug lapping at the vomit, but when he did, he shooed the thing away, mirroring its owners orders and the toss of a pebble. The weird looking thing panicked, then lay down next to his feet and go to sleep. "Huh."


Keeping quiet, he listened to Angry Girl and Pierced Chick go back and forth, and Pierced Chick start to relay just what the 'ghost' was saying. Before he could wrap his head around it, though, the pierced one snapped as well, ranting about this and that at the other female. Gerry huffed a little and tried to hide a joyless smirk, watching for a reaction. The other just... seemed to go along with it, almost defeated and even asking for a truce eventually. The male just shook his head and sighed, taking another drag from his cigarette as the others figured out whatever they meant to do with the mobile.


Before too long, a distorted voice garbled it's way from the cellular's speakers and addressed them. Gerry couldn't help but grin at the 'cloak and dagger' feel of it all. "Random Stranger. Bloody hell," he said to himself with a snirk of laughter through his nostrils. "So, avoid anywhere there's people," he repeated, moving toward the group again after he'd tossed his cigarette away. He lit another one almost automatically, trying to gauge the other's reactions. "No questions from me, Random, but I agree and that sounds like a damn fine idea. Better to get together and all that."


Giving a bored shrug, the male turned away from the gathering of people and the phone, rubbing his eyes for a second. Just the sight of all of this... it was eating at him. Being able to 'see' all the energy around them and even that given off by the mobile was making him almost dizzy. It was a giddy and euphoric feeling, but not in the very least pleasant. Concentrating, he worked at toning it down again, eyes sliding a bit shut as he exhaled a plume of blueish smog into the air above.

 

[Kagura]

When Jevel seemed to voice the exact theory that was running around in Robyn’s head she paused, suddenly staring at him. Grabbing the boy’s shoulders, her fists automatically clench around his t-shirt and she stares him down. “Why would they do that?” the now ivory-haired forces the lightness of her words, coming off very broken. A crooked smile made its way across Robyn’s face “There’s no reason to leave us” her hands trail down from his shoulders. “I’m sure they just got stuck at the quarantine zone” is the excuse she provides as she grabs his hand and drags him along.


He had nowhere to be after all, and Robyn did not like being alone very much and Lori and Duncan had already left her. The fact that they were taking so long was probably due to the riots and a moment ago she has decided to head back to the quarantine zone. Despite coming up with the idea, she didn’t understand the logic of going back to the area she had just escaped from. With the new thought in mind, she decided to get as close as she could to said area.


There was probably no way she could find Lori’s and Duncan’s cab, as there were probably a couple thousands in London alone. Not to mention the fact that Robyn was slowly coming to terms with the fact she was left behind, depression gathering. She couldn’t have lost her first friends outside of the facility already…Dropping Jevel’s hand, she stands uselessly on her tiptoes to peak over the crowd and relentlessly getting shoved by the people passing by. The slight downhill into sadness was now turning into anger, what exactly had Robyn done to make Lori pass her off?


With a huff, she relaxed back onto her feet with her hands on her hips, having no clue on where to go next. “The police are after everyone like us” she notes, eying Jevel as she tests the bluff, “I don’t exactly have anywhere we can stay” is her final note.

 

[Snek]

Jevel was shaken a bit as the girl suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders. He tried to protest when the girl grabbed his hand, but it was clear that this girl was not one to argue with. It was too late, anyways, Jevel could already feel the draining sensation from earlier as she clasped his fingers and pulled him along. "Maybe we shouldn't try to follow them. After all, that large fellow looked rather dangerous."


"Wait, why are we going back here? There's no way that those two would have returned to this place," Jevel said as they arrived at the quarantine site. He eyed the girl suspiciously as she fruitlessly attempted to peek over the crowd.


"There's something you're not being honest about...tell me."

 

[Vive]

"Hey...truce?"


Sebastianne narrowed her eyes, trying to discern Angry Girl's tone. She didn't sound sarcastic, but after the display with the rock, Sebby didn't fully trust her either. However, with no other option of getting out of the tunnel except relying on her companions to lean on and drag her foward, Sebastianne nodded. "Yeah. Truce."


Sebastianne took the smartphone from the Angry Girl's trembling hand, and held it stupidly for a minute before it started to ring. She put it immediately on speaker so that the rest of the group could hear them, glancing around wearily to see if Grass Girl and the Bearded Man were paying attention.


The first thing she noticed was that the timbre of the voice was even less discernible than when it had been talking to her as a ghost. If it hadn't been for the fact that Sebastianne had heard the voice say "I'll be right back, guys. I have to get to my body to call," Sebastianne would have questioned whether or not it was the same person talking. The apparent mistrust this mystery person immediately made Sebby wary. The lack of a name added to Sebastianne's sense of unease until she realized that she didn't know the names of her other travelling companions, either.


In any case, Sebastianne was put on her guard enough to have misgivings about the offer of arranged accommodation. And not using her debit or credit cards for a few days? Sebastianne frowned. Clearly, whoever was talking to her was a conspiracy nut. Surely of the thousands of people that had been in the QZ during the riots, they weren't the only four people that hadn't been adequately processed. It was likely that the medical records were missing for more than a few people, so wouldn't she just be able to blend in to that large group of undocumented people?


"Yeah, I have a question," Sebby replied at the prompt, "Where should we meet up?"


Sebby regretted the question almost immediately after she asked it-- did she really want to meet up with this sort of person?


A second distorted voice filtered over the speaker, somewhat deeper than the first. It didn't take much to see that this guy was probably some sort of scientist-- Sebby didn't understand half of what he said. Even if she did have a match (which she didn't) she wouldn't have known what he expected her to do with it, besides light it. Not knowing what he was talking about made her feel stupid, and subsequently persuaded her that she didn't want to follow their suggestions at all. In fact, it made this whole idea of them all living out in the countryside like they were living in some X-Men movie so completely unpalatable.


However, Sebastianne kept her mouth shut. Ultimately, these people had no control over her actions, and once they got out of the tunnel she could just walk away from all this madness and go back to living her normal life. Which would probably happen pretty soon-- Sebastianne was expected to show up for work at the Lazy Lion in eleven hours, if her ankle could withstand it.





While the rest of the details getting sorted, Sebby pulled out her simple mobile, whose reception seemed to be down to one bar. She flipped it open and saw the text that Chloe had sent to her almost an hour ago. r u alright. should i pick up? A chill of deja vu trickled down Sebastianne's spine as she read the message. She could have sworn she'd read those words earlier that morning, but the text appeared to have been unread.


Steeling herself against the feeling, Sebastianne replied: Yeah. If you could pick me up at the UCL campus or something, that would be great.





Chloe texted back a minute later-- a text that was probably slowed down by the low reception.. for sure! b there asap

 

[sharlene79]

Lori did NOT like the idea of living in the country at all. While the girl she had been as a child might have loved it, for a woman in a wheelchair it just wasn’t practical. And from what she had seen of the group they would stick out like sore thumbs.


“No, inner city .. or maybe just outside that. Somewhere we can all still blend in and not draw undue attention. somewhere where all the amenities we are accustomed to will still be available. Somewhere not too awful far from where we lived - within a few miles at most. Somewhere close to public transportation for those that need it to get to work.


“I can help with the expenses in the short term. Also, if you all want burner phones I can have Duncan pick some up. I’m not going to waste my money if you don’t want my help though. It’s just an offer. Fact is we ALL have new abilities - even if they aren’t apparent. Even the … uhm … Boy Scout … with me,” Lori smiled at her reference to Duncan, “I think has some abilities. Nothing superhuman. With him it is pretty hard to tell. He was extraordinary to begin with.”


Lori finally paused, then finished up. “I am still compiling data on what happened, who was affected, who responded, timelines. It may take sometime, but eventually I’ll reconstruct the events of today. For now though, let’s set a rendezvous point. Do not be surprised if I am a little slow. I plan to make sure we aren’t tailed. I will be watching everything I can.”

 

[Haley]

Emilyn watched it all in slow motion. Not that she had a choice though, the blunt was hitting her pretty darn well at the moment, she looked to the pierced girl who was on the phone with, what did they say earlier? A ghost? Yeah, she was on the phone with a ghost, sounded legit to her. She smiled and nodded as she listened to the ghost-lady talk and help them set up a rendezvous point for them to all meet up.


"I've always wanted to meet a ghost, you know I used to watch tales from the crypt as a kid..." She said and nodded her head. She raised her eyebrows and slowly stood up. The words that the ghost woman were saying about them all having abilities were hitting her a little late. "Oh my god, what? He's extraordinary already? Did... did he start this... wait, no-no... Is he a ghost too?" She asked, not really loud enough that the phone's receiver would be able to pick it up though.


Emilyn wasn't really sure what to do, she wasn't sure how to feel about all this either, she generally just wasn't sure about anything at all. All she did know was that another being was being cryptic and mysterious but telling her that they were going to help. For all Emilyn knew, it was the voice of one of the bloody government science-man people that were trying to make them go to the quarantine tents earlier. For all she knew she could have been genetically altered years ago while in her mom's womb. For all she knew she could have grown up with all this just laying dormant inside her waiting to be awoken and just now the abilities are coming out of all the test-tube babies and-and now they're collecting them to make some suPER HUMAN ARMY THAT WILL BRING ABOUT THE END OF THE WORL-


"Whoa man, I need to stop." Emilyn frowned and raised an eyebrow as she looked at Puddin' who was sleeping next to the bearded man's feet. "Oh, I'm gonna be late for work." She mumbled, forgetting all about the freak-out within her own jumbled mind as it switched to her shift at the adult romance store in down-town London. "My boss is going to be pissed. I forgot to stock the new penis-cake tins that we received yesterday. Oh, and the shipment of feathered boas, shit..." She sighed and tapped her knuckled against her forehead. She chewed on the side of her lip and tried to think of a good excuse to give her boss.


"Sorry, Boss... I obtained super powers... lemme have a go at your garden. No... Sorry, sir! I happen to go on an adventure too...." She paused and looked around the tunnel.... "Middle earth...I had to return the ring to Mordor, you understand." She giggled slightly at her own stupid joke and turned to look at the rest of the group. "So, when we head out? I'm starving."

 

[Mitheral]

Duncan finally recommended a rendezvous point, selecting what he hoped would be the simplest path for the group Lori had found. More importantly, he hoped it would bring them up out of sight from public view. Lori offered to pick them all up with taxis around 0900 … or a bus about 0930. On hindsight she opted for the bus. There were simply too many people to keep arranging for taxis. And she knew where she could get a bus and driver on short notice.


St. Anne’s. Despite being a catholic church, it catered to non mainstream people - gays, lesbians, transgender types. (This is a real place guys. I did some research on it.) She knew the people there. It was one of the few places she trusted. And a healthy donation would secure the use of the bus for a day - assuming they didn’t need it for something else. Best of all, there would be no credit checks and cash would work for a donation. And the bus would be fitted for the handicapped.


+++++++++++


Once the phone conversation was over, Duncan turned to Lori. “I need to grab a few things from a store. I can take care of it while we wait on a cab.”


“Cash! You need to use cash.” Lori responded quickly.


“Not all of us carry wads of cash around on us…” Duncan hinted. “I’ll pay you back. Well, unless I am also getting a bunch of burner phones. That’s --”


Lori cut him off again with a finger yet again. “I can cover them. What did you need?”


Duncan tried not to smile at Lori’s belief that her finger could stop him from speaking his mind. She was an odd blend of terminally shy and control freak, quirky in a way he found oddly amusing. “Some notebooks. I just have some ideas to write down. And I doubt you want me playing with your laptop. I’d really like to hit a university library. I could also use some graph paper, protractors, french curves, and other drafting equipment.”


Lori shook her head. “Just buy a laptop - a new one. Take me with you and --” she stopped. “Oh … wait … no stage gear. Just use mine for now. I’ll set you up with a user ID and password. I have drafting and graphic arts programs on there. Plus some sound reproduction and composition programs, some high end math software, and … other stuff. Or we can pick one up after we meet the rest. If people can’t go home yet, we’ll need groceries, phones, ID’s…”


“Okay, okay! Are you SURE you want to share it? I am going to go out on a limb here and consider the likelihood that you are going to need it shortly to do a bunch of hacking. You ran background checks on our other two friends. Odd, I don’t recall you doing one on me. But for some reason you seem to trust me.” He smiled gently. He had already worked this mystery through.


Lori reddened, which only confirmed his suspicions. “You already ran a background check on me - before today. That would mean you live close … and …” he grinned. Lori was really turning red now. “Uh huh …” He had been about to tease Lori about stalking him. Instead he forced his tone to a more neutral and calming one. “It’s alright. I’m glad you decided to trust me. Believe it or not, that means a lot.”


There was an awkward silence before Duncan spoke again. “Well stores for computers probably aren’t open yet. Maybe we can pick up a gig stick or two to copy data to transfer once I can get my own laptop. I have one back at my place, but I have a feeling it is going to be a problem to get back to for a few days. I wonder how long we will be locked out.”


Lori’s had calmed down. “Not forever. The whole point of the quarantine was to keep information from getting out. But I already have measures in place to put information out on a viral level. I was recording everything that happened. Of course, if the police search my place, that fact may occur to them. I made one mistake when I left. I took my flash drives, but I didn’t think to replace them with some blanks. I also wiped my drives. Pretty thorough wipe too. I really hated to do that.”


Duncan nodded. “Right, well let’s not keep them all waiting.”

 

[Rifleman]

Daniel stood around zoning out into space before shifting his hand into his pocket and pulling out another cigarette as he walked away to get his vehicle, he shrugged his head as he was cleared, he figured he would be, there was nothing wrong with him, well at least from what he thought, and his cellphone, he thought he would get a-hold of his dad to see if he knew what the hell happened. Instead he found himself lost, again, so he figured he would stop, sit-down and wait until someone would come by and help him with directions.


He grabbed his lighter slowly before feeling his head began to hurt, he didn't know why, it just felt like he got hit in the head by a truck. He rubbed his head slowly and exhaled a puff of smoke, as his headache, migraine, whatever it was got worse and worse. All he wanted to do was find his car, and get it running, so he can go home and get some sleep. First the events that happened earlier today and now this pounding headache. He placed his cigarette in his mouth and began to inhale a puff of smoke before spewing it out through his nose. He shrugged slowly, before saying.


" What else can get worse.... "


He knew saying that was pretty much an omen, but things really couldn't get much worse. He glanced around for a second, trying to find a clock of some-sort so he can figure out the time, and along with that, where the hell he was. He somehow managed to find his way to the medical tents by following people, but instead he can't find anyone, so he's hoping that someone would hopefully find him.

 

[Kagura]

Robyn could only look a little stung at Jevel’s comment, but mostly her visage was an image of confusion. Sure, she hadn’t been honest a lot, or just about any time she was with him, but she was wondering what particular time he was referring to. “What?” is all she manages to get out, quirking a brow in his direction as they stand about a block away from the quarantine. Remembering his early questions, she goes off that; “Yeah…I don’t know them all that much either” she takes a stab in the dark.


“Truth is, I met them a short second before you did” Robyn gives a sheepish smile and looks away. “But I don’t really know where else to go…” she shrugs quite uselessly, noticing some vans filling with those who tested positive . “They’re taking everyone who’re testing positive” she points, and then continues, “Here’s not exactly safe…and I can’t think of anything else except a house”

 

[Chaotic]

So they were meeting up … at least most of them seemed to be. She hadn’t missed the chance to quickly glance at the pierced girl’s private conversation when the opportunity had presented itself. Knowledge was power, after all, and power was something that she was quite sorely lacking right now. Quite honestly, however, Alani wasn’t sure how she felt about the idea of meeting up with a group of individuals with unknown powers and was less than thrilled at being grouped with them. Recent events – most of which were started by the woman conducting this process – had put her into a very us versus them mentality. Considering herself as one of them seemed positively ridiculous to her.


Taking her phone back from the pierced girl with a rather complicated emotion on her dust and grime colored face, the girl just nodded to her own thoughts before sighing. “We need to get moving,” she muttered as the familiar ping of a received data packet signaled for her to start loading the map. “While stranger mentioned that our end wasn’t secure … they failed to recognize that since they were over speaker there would be some feedback of their messages to our speaker. I don’t know enough about technology to know if it’s a condemning overlook or not … but I don’t much want to be considered public enemy number one for helping get you this far if that’s quite alright.”


As she turned to start down the tunnel, she paused as a wave of guilt followed by fear followed by frustration crossed her face. Hesitantly she turned back towards the pierced girl as a renewed set of shivers wracked her body before she very cautiously ducked under the girl's arm to help her keep her weight off of her sore ankle. Alani knew herself as a blunt and driven individual with a penchant for swearing that would put most sailors to shame, but she wasn’t cruel and had a strong distain for anyone capable of leaving another living being to suffer unnecessarily. It would appear that even in this stage of confused horror she was incapable of abandoning her moral compunctions …


The girl now supported against her shoulder, she turned again before something else made her pause and shake her head in mild annoyance as a slight smirk crossed her lips. “My … if that isn’t a fucking evolutionary flaw …” she muttered under her breath before bringing up the camera app on her phone. A small grin passed over her lips as she turned it to face the man and watched his expression carefully as he had no choice but to notice the faint glow in his eyes. It was an eerie effect that would make his abnormal heritage a bit more obvious than the others and could lead to them all getting caught eventually.


Alani sighed as she brought the map of the tunnel systems back to her screen before pulling the others along. “Remind me that we’ll need to find you a good pair of shades when all of this is done … preferably a reflective set … that should kill some of that fucking beacon of ‘hey, I’m not normal’ you have going on,” she smirked. With that established, she took a moment to gather her bearings and plot out a course on the map.


For how badly everything seemed to be going today, she couldn’t help but notice that her guardian angel seemed to be working overtime to an extreme. By some miraculous twist, most of the route that she chose didn’t even touch the large crack which was distorting her phone’s display. Furthermore, the easiest route out took her to the basement lab portion of one of the science buildings where she often made her home. There they would be able to find a rather unused unisex bathroom which – in spite of the fact that it was going to be a squeeze – should allow them time to clean off some of the grime before making their entrance into public.


With that decided, the girl took the lead while still attempting to help the other woman as best as she could. After about a 15 minute walk through the tunnels which proved remarkably under cared for, they found their exit. Alani cautiously opened the door a crack and glanced up and down the hallway to find it dark and abandoned as the power had been turned off to avoid problems during the evacuation procedures. Quickly she ushered the others out and down the hall to the small bathroom before taking to scrubbing her face and arms as best she could and fixing her hair into a more respectable looking messy bun. Hopefully, she thought to herself as she made a face at the mirror before moving to allow the next person access, their luck would hold a short while longer and these quick fixes would see them through this.


The approximate meeting point was only a few minutes walk from this building. 'Stranger,' as the ghost had identified herself, had been rather vague with the details of how they were finding one another, but she reasoned that the woman already knew what they looked like ... she hoped, anyway. Her current plan was to finish this up before joining the group of college idiots who were undoubtedly gathered to gawk at the recent tragedy. From there the pieces would either fall into place or would decide to condemn them all. In either case, she got the feeling that things were about to change in a big way ... perhaps she would even find time to slip away from them into the chaos and avoid this horrifying ordeal.

 

[sharlene79]

Duncan started to suggest the Student Center as a choice for a place to meet. It was public - which did NOT thrill Lori at all. She vetoed the idea before he could even retract. Of course his reasons for a more secluded pick up point was harder to explain. He studied the map and picked a location that held no meaning whatsoever.


Lori studied the location and gave her begrudging approval. It was close enough to the campus that it wouldn’t be a long walk. It had access for a small bus to get to a curb to pick them up. There were places for the group to wait out of sight. The only downside were all the traffic cams. She was just going to have to hack those if they were still active. It wasn’t like she hadn’t been hacking them for years. She knew every last one by number and maintenance schedule. She hadn’t spoken the location, merely sent it as one of three locations marked A, B, and C … in case the first two were compromised.


Duncan smiled. “First one was too public, and a possible target for follow up explosions. We still don’t know if that was the last. My money says this isn’t the end of it. Shall we head out?”


Lori nodded. “Yeah, the way those guys were going they could be bumbling around for awhile. And I want to stop off at a storage unit.”


“Is the side trip absolutely necessary?” Duncan asked.


“Nooo, actually it isn’t. I suppose I could hit it later. We’ll need to go there later to make new passports and ID’s for everyone - assuming they want them. We do need to pick up those burner phones. I think 20 should be plenty. Yes, extras. But let’s get over to St Anne’s and see if we can’t use a minibus and driver.”


++++++++++++++++


The entrance to St Anne’s was literally a block away - an easy walk. Once there, Lori made a request to see the Mother Superior herself about a large donation. The look Lori received by the nun that responded was one of doubt. But Lori insisted and explained that the nun hadn’t been assigned to St Anne’s the last time she had visited. The got a retort by the nun that she had been assigned to St Anne for years. Lori nodded and held up a large wad of cash. Then she put it away.


“The Mother Superior. Please. I am in need of Sanctuary once more. I need to discuss this with her and her alone. This is for your safety.” Lori was firm on this point.


It took Lori all of 5 minutes with the Mother Superior to get what she wanted. The Mother called the nun, Sister Christina, back into her office. A few minutes later the nun returned, stern but quiet. Sister Christina led them out to where the minibus was parked. “This is highly irregular. I hope this isn’t for selfish reasons. This bus is used for other critical duties. People in need depend on it.”

Spoiler

<p><a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2013_10/57a8be407dc7a_SisterChristina2.jpg.7c856e5ce4178f8edbbb6ad527bf2683.jpg" class="ipsAttachLink ipsAttachLink_image"><img data-fileid="7770" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2013_10/57a8be407dc7a_SisterChristina2.jpg.7c856e5ce4178f8edbbb6ad527bf2683.jpg" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" alt=""></a></p>

Sister Christina


“And so they will today. Did you bring your shopping list?” Lori smiled. “The Mother Superior also suggested you might know some places that might let a home or temporary habitat for a short term. I have about a half dozen friends or so in need of temporary arrangements. I hope you can be tolerant. They aren’t creme de la creme of society. Ordinarily our paths would never cross. But … I couldn’t turn my back on them.” Lori felt a twinge of guilt. “The girl I sent - with the broken arm? She took off?”


“I’m afraid so. They waited for you, then left,” Sister Christina gave an almost chastising look.


“They were supposed to wait,” Lori frowned. “Well, we have a couple places to go. Then we go and meet up with our new friends.”


++++++++++++


As they rode Duncan finally had a moment to try to talk with Lori. The girl seemed to be aging from shear stress as the day progressed. But instead of just talking to her, he chickened out and talked shop again. “So you have some ideas what happened this morning?”


Lori shrugged. “Not yet. I’ll need time to go through stuff and … try to figure it all out.”


“Uh huh. I take it you plan on taking everyone’s picture? Or were you going to sketch them from memory?” His eyes twinkled.


“Well, clearly pictures would be better …” Lori started.


Duncan was nodding. “So why haven’t you taken mine?” He began to grin as he spotted Lori’s flush. Then he laughed. “Me you trusted from the word go … which would mean you did a background check on me before today. I take it I am the Guy Next Door? I’ve been stalked.”


Lori looked mortified. But Duncan was laughing. She couldn’t even get a word out for almost a full minute. “N-not q-quite next door. B-but you were tearing the place ap-part s-so I checked you out.”


“I said it was okay,” Duncan’s voice was calm. “So ideas?”


“Huh?” Lori asked.


“About the explosions.” Duncan reminded her.


“Oh! Uhm no … you?”


“Yeah, a few.” Duncan stopped there.


That frustrated Lori into prodding Duncan for something more than a grunted vague response. “Well?”

 

[Vive]

From the second the group had escaped the tunnels, the voices returned. If anything, they seemed worse. On top of all the sounds of people talking, and possibly the instruments playing, there was now this screeching sounds that varied from high to grating pitches that made absolutely no sense to her whatsoever. In addition to the images and the words that fled her mind before she could read them, there seemed to be a constant stream of numbers-- mostly zeros and ones-- shimmering just behind her actual field of sight.


If Sebastianne hadn't been so focused on her internal problems, she probably would have been grateful that the Angry Girl was keeping her propped up as they walked along. Surely, though, the four of them and their animals made one hell of a motley crew as they walked through a pristine university building, with its tiled floor and bright lights that seemed to highlight the grime on their skin and clothes.


Sebastianne was not entirely comfortable with the notion of sharing a bathroom with this assortment of animals and people, and retreated to a cool demeanour until she took her turn at the stainless steel sink. In fact, a "thought" that was not altogether hers seemed to share the opinion, although it was not an articulate thought at all. Suddenly she felt a distinct dislike for Puddin' the pug. Seb was baffled by the irrationality of the thought, since up until now the pug had been growing on her.


When it was finally her turn at the sink, Seb started by washing the cuts and scratches on her hands with plenty of soap. Seb was pleased to find that it was harder to concentrate on the thoughts when there was a much more immediate and painful concern that demanded her attention. Then she took the piercings out of her eyebrow, nose and lip before washing the dirt and makeup and blood off of her face. When she looked up into the mirror, drying her face with a paper towel, a plain face stared back at her with skin that was splotchy from scrubbing. For a minute, she looked so...normal. And then she washed off her piercings and put them back in place.


Next, she attended to her Divine Winter t-shirt, which had a large tear which exposed her midriff. Realizing there was nothing to be done for it right now, she just buttoned her camisole over the tear-- something was still nagging at her. But it was hard to pay attention to that because she was starting to get a headache from the screeching, and the sounds and why couldn't they just fucking stop already? And then a piece of music filtered to the front and although she couldn't pinpoint it, it was certainly an electric guitar riff. Divine Winter t-shirt. An image of the band members, whether hers or otherwise, pushed its way to the forefront of her mind."Wait. You," Sebastianne said, turning towards the Bearded Man. "You're from the band. Divine Winter, yeah?"


She blinked, trying to focus on reality, but all she could think about now was that dog and how it was much too close to Isis. And although Sebastianne didn't really care one way or the other right now, she couldn't stop the thought from adding itself to the chaos. What the hell kind of side effect was this?


"I need to get out of this bathroom and look for a first aid kit," Sebby said, not ready to have another breakdown in front of these people again. She hobbled past them, tugging on Isis' leash, who seemed to require little encouragement to follow Sebastianne down the hallway, which was eerily deserted-- likely classes had been cancelled once the university had realized that an explosion and the QZ had interrupted class activities for the day. In that case, they were just lucky that this building was still open...


When she turned the corner from the bathroom, Sebastianne ignored her ankle's protest and sunk to her knees, her rucksack preventing her from sitting flush against the wall. In any other circumstance, she would have been checking all her equipment to make sure it wasn't broken but, right now, all Seb wanted to do was crawl into a little ball and either stop existing or wake up from whatever mad dream this was. Isis stood a little ways away, checking the hallway for prey.


111010 "Wonder what's going to happen" screeeeeeeeeeeeeeech 0111 "Classes today have been" hope my shit doesnt get stolen "When are we allowed" scrreeeeeeeeeeccch Rainbow sky after the "Reporting that altereds" "people being moved to Pentonville prison...modern day concentration camps" 020101010301011202


Wait-- what?


Screeeeeeech...Wish that screeching would shut the fuck up..."Altered misper suspected of stopping powers..." Someone stopping powers? Seb tried to focus on that. Riots were reported you gonna stay until you "How's gran?" Love you. "... vanished during riots. Male, early 20s, blond hair, around 170cm. Sending image to police unit three now."


Sebastianne saw the image of a boy, probably a little younger than herself, standing amongst the police officers. She tried with all her might to focus on that image screeeeeeech and sear that memory of his face "bloody start to the" price drop to traffic is terrible be there into her skull. This boy could stop her powers. She needed to 1010122201110101 "restoring communications all over Greater London" find him before she was shipped off military involvement, as no one to Bedlam, or... this concentration camp for "altereds".


Sebastianne shuddered in fear at the thought and pulled on Isis' leash a little to suddenly. The cat meowed her displeasure and batted a clawed paw at Sebastianne's hand, adding another set of cuts.


The fear of being imprisoned, along with the possibility of finding someone who could make her, for a lack of better word-- normal-- spurred Seb to action. The deserted building made poking around the empty classrooms in hopes of finding a first aid kit much easier. Not that Seb had paid much attention in high school, but she remembered that the chemistry class always had to have a first aid kit, in case of an emergency involving something as dangerous as baking soda. A little ways down the hallway, a sign indicating "Lab C" was plastered over a doorway. Sebastianne shouldered the door open and went over to the big white box hanging from the wall with a red cross painted on the front. She cracked open the case, pulled off her combat boot and sock, and took some medical tape from the case since there was no tensor bandage. Then she wound the tape around her foot and swollen ankle until she couldn't move her foot, put her sock back on, and tightly laced up her combat boot before putting the first aid kit back in place and limping back to the unisex bathroom, Isis in tow.


"So, you know how I can...hear things, right?" Sebastianne started, once she'd close the bathroom stall once more, squinting and fluttering her eyes as her focus drifted in and out of reality. "I think I heard someone, or maybe a few people... I'm not sure.... say that they're starting to lock up "altered people" somewhere. And I think there's someone out there who can stop people from having powers." She looked at them all with desperation in her eyes. "Please. I know we're supposed to meet with....Random Person. But I need to find him." Throughout the the entire morning, this was the first time Sebastianne-- despite her "altered state", despite her ankle and her scrapped and and her heavy rucksack-- had actually asked for help. Seb looked at the Angry Girl, who had carried her this far. "I might be able to find him..."





Even to herself, she didn't sound very confident.


"Divine Winter guy-- my name is Sebastianne Leflar, and here is my mobile number," she said as she pulled a pen from her rucksack and wrote her number on his arm. It was a small gesture, and one that might have been taken for flirting if it had been anyone else. However, Sebastianne wasn't the sort of girl to get along with people. It was meant as a gesture of trust-- of a show of solidarity for what they'd gone through. Sebastianne suddenly felt bad for texting Chloe to come pick her up. "Send me a text or call me, if you can, when you guys meet the Random Person. We'll figure things out from there."


A large part of Sebby felt like she was running away from them. The thing was, she wasn't sure if she cared or not. All that she cared about for the moment was making her powers stop.


"Alright, you're coming with me, then?" Seb asked the Angry Girl. "Let's see if we can't find this guy."


+-+-+-+


After many minutes of intense concentration, trying to filter out the garble from the important stuff, and circling the QZ by following snippets of images of a blond boy who appeared in the background of images people in front of a hardware store, a hair salon and a church, as well as occasional radio transmissions which were presumably from the City of London police force, Sebastianne and the Angry Girl found themselves as spectators in a rather large crown of people. There, mixed in with the rest of the crowd, was the blond boy. Relief flooded through Sebastianne; it was all over. This nightmare of a power would be gone soon.


How the hell the police hadn't picked him up yet was nothing short of miraculous, but Sebastianne suspected they had bigger things to worry about.


Seb and Angry Girl shoved their way through the crowd until they were standing next to the blond boy and a girl with black, shoulder-length hair. "Hey-- you with the anti-power," Sebastianne muttered, suddenly exhausted and now sporting a pounding headache after the massive effort it had taken her to push out all the irrelevant shit from her head.. "Can you like, heal me or whatever the **** it is that you do? And then, you might want to follow us out of this crowd. I think the police are looking for you."

 

[Chaotic]

Alani had agreed to go for several reasons – very few of which made sense to her. Perhaps the most logical reason was the use of the term ‘altered.’ It implied that this had been done to people rather than her previous assumption that extraordinary people were actually causing this. Undoubtedly the strongest reason, however, was the cold chill she felt when she heard this man’s ability. The manifestation of a nullification ability would make this individual the highest priority anywhere. With the current systematic fear that seemed to be controlling the actions of quite literally everyone he was in grave danger.


For a while now the girl had recognized where the outburst of powers would probably lead. Her time in the tunnels had given her time to collect her thoughts to some extent, and she had decided that the most probable outcome for those still in the quarantine zone was experimentation followed by extermination. This person that the pierced chick – no … that Sebastianne had mentioned was currently in more danger than any of them. The ability to cancel out ability and manifest a null effect in the extraordinary individuals that had appeared would mean that they would need him. Most probably the tests would be extensively tilted towards a study on the physiological changes that might account for this manifestation. He would be left alive, of course, because they would require time to understand or duplicate the resulting abnormalities.


That didn’t say much, however. The person was different and thus very easily categorized as not human. A lab coat and properly worded proposal would probably get any half-baked research facility permission to run dissections or ‘surgical examinations,’ as she supposed would be more acceptable terminology, on his still living body. After all, what they found there could be a matter of national security – the ability to subdue the ‘altered’ for observation and future weapons development …


“Not here,” she muttered calmly as her companion's mutterings drew her contemplations to an abrupt halt and her eyes trailed sadly over the young man in front of her. After the initial glance over she feigned a yawn and stretched as she glanced around to make certain that no one had overheard the pierced girl. Fortunately, most of them had been distracted by the renewed racket caused by the arrest of some man in front of the cameras off closer to the quarantine zone. Luckier still was the fact that the cameras were all pointed away from the group.


“I don’t know about you all,” she announced a bit louder as she let her stretch end with a sigh, “but I think those crews have a much better view than we do … what say we get a breakfast tea a bit down the road and watch the reports from there?” The suggestion – and her intent – was to be as natural as possible. Normal people would find this fascinating and the coffee shop would probably be packed to the brim with people trying to cram in to watch the news feeds on unfolding events. Now that the power was on the local sit down meal places which boasted television stations would all probably be cashing in, actually. The crowd would offer some degree of safety and possibly a blanket cover to escape behind when she figured out where to go next. In the meantime, they would simply be more curious bystanders which would blend into the crowd … It should work for the time being, at least …

 

[Snek]

Jevel was standing near the quarantine zone with Robyn when they were approached by the two women. They looked (for the most part) average, but one of them had piercings in her nose, eyebrow, and lip. Jevel never liked piercings; they set him on edge. The idea of anything metal constantly penetrating through his skin repulsed him more than almost anything else. He hated shots for the same reason.


The pierced one opened her mouth and spoke, but over the uproar of the surrounding crowd it was difficult to make out what she was saying. Jevel did catch a couple of snippets here and there, things like "heal me" and "follow us" and "police". He knew enough to understand what she meant. Her partner spoke up louder, as if attempting to cover up what her companion said. Why would she do that? Jevel asked himself, and then he realized how much danger he was in.


Because of his abilities, Jevel realized, he had become an extremely valuable asset to whomever he allied himself with. Heaven forbid the government learn of his abilities...he shuddered at the thought. Who knows what they might do with him? Experiment on him? Use him as a weapon against other altered people? If he didn't want to cause an outright war, Jevel knew he would have to be as discreet as possible, much more inconspicuous than he was used to being. Who was to say the police weren't already looking for him? He had already made his power known to the police force at the university site, and his colleagues, who could tell the police what he looked like, were most likely still there. They needed to get moving, and NOW.


He looked at Robyn and gave her a sideways nod, as if to suggest that they follow the two women to the less-crowded place that the had suggested, and then turned to the two females and gestured for them to lead the way.

 

[Mitheral]

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=51.524714,-0.130532&spn=0.000901,0.002411&t=h&z=19


The place Duncan chose wasn’t ideal, but had met with Lori’s begrudging approval. He suspected she would only have been happy with some unknown South Seas island. The spot he had picked was the east side of Gordon Square Park, just a half block south of the Department of Anthropology and only a block and a half from the Chemistry building where the others had surfaced.


Lori had had Duncan plug her 12V adapter into the bus cigarette lighter so she could operate her laptop. As they travelled she began locating a number of people and tagging their movements, making notes. She found Robyn and Jevel in the most unlikely of places. Robyn had done a fair job - amateurish by Lori’s standards - of altering her appearance. But then under the circumstances and with a lack of professional gear, it wasn’t half bad. But it hadn’t fooled facial recognition software in the slightest.


Thing of it was, Lori wasn’t really looking for them. She was looking for the mother and child she had seen in the medical tents. But without having a picture or facial recognition parameters to search for, it was a lost cause. Besides, she had no coverage in the tents. Without going out of body again it was unlikely she’d find anything.


Lori concentrated instead on capturing images of faces of those in charge for later database searches. It was a long shot, but better than nothing. Of course, she also had other resources, but those were elsewhere. And accessing that meant going to one of her storage units. And she would have to go through all the data from her old intranet. Information was there to be sure. But is was going to take a lot longer than ahs had before the meeting. So she switched over to monitoring the area of the rendezvous - for a full square block, watching for agents, stakeouts, anything.


She then split her screen and began pulling up random people from the crowd - onlookers mostly, and created a couple BOLO’s on them as escaped Altered’s, with last seen locations, and prepared to give the authorities something to chase at the push of a button. But she didn’t use the hacks. One of her many rules of survival was not overusing an MO.


“So what makes you think this might have happened before?” Lori asked. Duncan had had several theories ranging from aliens to time travel to failed experiments.”


“Lot of things. The main one is the use of the medical tests and the very specific test being run. genetic testing is damned expensive. A simple Paternity test runs anywhere from 100 to 250 EU. The higher end of that covers 16 standardized points. But there are numerous markers that are not generally tested. As the Altered appear human in every way, I am going to guess that the 16 aren’t affected. That means that some other area has been affected - probably one of the ‘junk’ DNA regions. For these people to have found the right tests so fast and be able to tesl thousands of people means they KNEW what to test for and had the foresight to bring the right testing materials.


“Second. You recall all the dead police and destroyed vehicles around the building where the first explosion took place? Someone knew SOMEthing was about to happen. This was no accident. Someone followed the clues - probably left intentionally - and laid a trap. This happened with malevolent intent. I suppose there’s a chance someone got off a shot and damaged something that blew up. But there is no known technology that could produce the effect here today.


“I am not convinced this is random mutation either - even if triggered. What you can do …? That isn’t random at all. It is entirely possible that the explosion was intended to trap US by way of the cordon - or at least as many of us as possible.”

 

[Kagura]

It was rather surprising when two girls seemed to stumble out of the crowd, one pierced just about everywhere she could be on her face while the other looked plain in comparison. What had drawn Robyn’s attention to them was when the punkish girl called out to Jevel by his power’s name. Her stance slightly widens a defensive maneuver in case they have bad intentions with the boy who had stuck by her side until now. The girl seemed unmindful of their surroundings, considering they were detaining people with powers exactly like his right behind them.


The plain looking pretty-girl seemed to cover up for her friend, muttering to her for a moment before starting the act. She suggested heading down the street to get breakfast, to watch the reports, but Robyn knew it was strictly to talk shop. There was a part of her that wanted to follow, wanted to relent to the easy pull of the crowd, of friends. Their interest in Jevel put her off-ease…where had they learned about his power? She remembered that he has used it quite freely, so she could assume they had seen him, but she could also assume they were using the boy. Jevel gave her a glance when she looked over and nodded, seeming to confirm that he wanted to follow them.


If anything, this alleviated some of her tension, but just in case the two were leading them elsewhere, Robyn stepped forward to take the lead. “I know a place” is all she notes, but in truth, the only building she knew in this area was the building she stayed. Still, it didn’t take her long to find a coffee shop, and she tried her best to stick close to Jevel in their formation. Entering the slightly crowded building (most of the patrons around the televisions), she leads the group to a table. After taking a seat and quickly glancing around she leans on the table, into the group, “How do you know about his power?”


While usually Robyn would be quick to adapt to the group mentality, she was worried for her friend’s safety. That came first right now.

 

[Vive]

Sebastianne refrained from grumbling or simply yelling at the blond boy to use his power on her. She had no idea how his power worked, so she needed to stay on his good side until he chose to "heal" her. Suddenly Seb wondered whether or not he could heal permanently, or if it was only for a few minutes. Did he even know the extent of his powers? Sebastianne was still trying to figure out her own powers, but her brain was too tired from simply trying to process all the information for her to critically analyze her condition.


Just before they entered the cafe, Sebastianne stopped, slung her back pack off her shoulder and set it on the ground. She pulled out her laptop, hoping that she would be able to access the internet in the cafe now that the power had apparently returned. Then, she placed Isis in her rucksack, who tried to squirm out of Sebby's grip once she realized what was going on. No No No! That cat wanted out! Sebastianne wrestled with the feline for a minute before forcing the cat's head into the pack and zipping it shut, praying that the cat would shred the rucksack or the camera bag to bits before they left the cafe.


Sebastianne felt a thought of murderous intent push all the other thoughts aside. The girl shuddered and shook the thought out of her head, and then heaved the rucksack back on her shoulder, hoping Isis wouldn't squirm around too much while they were in the cafe.


Once inside, Sebastianne had an eerie feeling of seeing herself and their group from some angle above their head, as if she had become disembodied like the ghost-thing. Yet, at the same time, Sebastianne was still fully conscious and within her own body.


She looked up, and saw a small security camera pointed at the entrance.


Suddenly, everything clicked. Well, sort of.


All the "thoughts", so many that is seemed like both a cacophony and a blurr-- all of them had been recorded by electronics. Security cameras, radios and phones. It suddenly seemed strange to her that she could not recall a single clip of any tv show, movie, and very few webpages. Yes, she had tapped in to an uncountable number of "thoughts", but she had gotten better over the past hour of catching snatches and retaining her grasp on them for a few seconds. It was like she was catching splinters of thoughts instead of slivers. In any case, very few of the "thoughts" she could recall seemed to come from the internet. Surely if she could tap in to phones, she could tap into computers, too?


In a daze, Seb sat down at an empty table and booted up her laptop, displeased to find that the wireless in the cafe was so slow that it took a full minute for her browser's homepage to load. Sighing, Sebastianne shut the laptop and carried it under her arm as she approached the till and ordered a large coffee and a bagel. She sat back down next to the Angry Girl, across from the anti-power boy and girl with a haircut that resembled her own-- really, if the girl acquired a few piercings and a grungier set of clothes, she could probably pass at Sebastianne to the uncritical eye.


The first thing that struck Sebby was that these two must have known each other before the explosion, since the blond boy had nodded to the girl to follow them. In Sebastianne mind, the girl's question confirmed this thought. Sebastianne sipped her coffee and watched the other groups of people in the cafe as she thought about her answer. The normalcy of the coffee shop was calming after the utter strangeness of the past few hours. Now that Seb wasn't straining herself to use her power, she could try to push it all to the back of her mind, athough it was still difficult to follow her own thoughts without getting interrupted by a particularly interesting set of words or visions. Finally, she responded rather lamely, given all the time it had taken her to think, "We overheard one of the police officers talking about a boy who had stopped altereds from using their powers during a riot. That's what they're calling people who have...changed. Altereds."


Sebastianne knew it wasn't a full explanation of how they'd found him, but now that she realized that the full implications of being outed as an "altered", Seb had no intention of mentioning her own power, now regretting that she'd revealed it to him at all. She still wished for the boy's help, but now she was worried that he'd turn her in to the police, as he'd done so many other altereds. "Now, I have a few questions-- why did you help the police?" Sebastianne nodded to the telly in the corner of the cafe. "Did you know they were imprisoning people? Did you think that these altereds had caused the explosion?"





Underfoot, Sebastianne's backpack wriggled and she heard faint meowing. Apparently, Isis had moved on to pleading with Sebastianne for her freedom.

 

[Alexina]

“I do NOT get paid enough for this.” Drew muttered as she found herself moving from sections just outside the area. She would get one place calm enough only to have to move to another or head back to calm it again once she left it. “I swear why can’t today be clearing scum off the streets like normal . . . noo they turned me into a freaking babysitter.” She hated this, stupid laws not allowing normal cops to carry around even a piece. Like a taser could do much? Then again she did get a minor amusement when she had to hose down the crowds from time to time. “Why can’t the bloody idiots see we’re trying to keep them safe? Quarantine easily means we’re trying to keep something INSIDE for a reason.”


This was grunt work and grunt work that had no satisfying end in her eyes. Catching a perp was thrilling, chill inspiring, and the chase and challenge of finding them and hunting them down was better than any wild hunt could be. This though . . . this was dull and annoying, sure you could get stampede, or over taken by the crowd, maybe killed, but for her there really was no trill. If she wanted to do this for the rest of her life she would become a rancher to cattle it was about the same thing. If she wanted the boredom she might as well get a stiff office job.


Pausing as she caught a scene by a local lawyer go down she merely shook her head. Garrick . . . she knew him, he was way more trouble than he was worth. Hard work undone, at times easily making her feel under-appreciated. She had warned him many a times he better not get her face on the camera again, he can get into all the trouble he wanted, she would stay out of it as long as he wasn’t getting in her way. If he spotted her she might even give him the bird when she thought no one else was looking. What was that bastard up to this time? She pondered only to glance into the area again. “Move it along people.” She called over her megaphone after the cameras seem to be done with the show. “Nothing more to see here . . . we’re handling the situation the best we can. The more you corporate the faster we can get done with this mess.” Yeah that was a hoot . . . what the hell WAS going on inside after all, limited cops to boot as well. Hell all she knew was a few good men were inside when it went down and now . . . even they were probably trapped in the mess.

 

[Cream Martinez]

Igarashi slowly stirred the coffee in his styrofoam cup as he stared into blank space, seemingly at the sign that read 'Quarantine Zone' just ahead of him. He raised his cup to his mouth and sipped from it. He held the black and bitter concoction in his mouth, letting his tongue absorb the taste. The gears within his mind whirred as he mentally worked out the findings of his investigation the night before. Subconsciously, his hand brushed against his trenchcoat, as if he were sifting through the documents. He was only supposed to be here for the narcotics, but....anything to keep his cover. After all, this might hit Japan as well- he needed every information for the Metropolitan as well as Ueda. He swallowed the coffee, then set the cup aside on the hood of a patrol car, before catching a random cop by the shoulder as he passed. He licked his teeth to get at the lingering taste before speaking.


"Is it pronounced quaran-teen, or quaran-ta-in?"


The cop gave him a baffled look and shrugged his hand off, dismissing him entirely, before rushing to contain the masses. Igarashi raised his eyebrows and shrugged, turning his attention elsewhere, such as that redhead detective over there. He craned his neck slightly to have a better look at her. Hmm, didn't seem that happy with the circumstances, despite this being quite the break from his backbreakers back home. He whisked his coffee away from the hood of the car, physics causing some of it to spill on the shoes of another cop. Ignoring the outburst of anger, Igarashi downed the rest of the coffee and tossed the cup aside and snatched up another from some poor tosser who decided it would be fine to mimic him and place his expresso on the car. Clasping one hand over his left ear, he slid right up to his fellow detective.


"Heh. Just like people to behave like mindless ants, called to media focus like ants are to sugar. Furthermore, human nature dictates that we do what we are instructed not to do, and not do what we are supposed to do, such as ponder the correct pronunciation of 'quaran-ta-in'." He paused, as if unsure of what to say, then held up the styrofoam cup, grinning. "Coffee?"