Jansen waited for Myers to receive his message. He was outnumbered and even though he thought he could trust Nina and Threkk, he still wasn't sure if he was completely safe. At any moment a dozen more men could come through that door, following the tracking chips. Who knows, maybe whoever did this knew that someone had tried to take the chip out and was dead and now he had to clean up the scene. Nina was still crying and Jansen noticed the other smuggler grab a blanket and cover the dead man's body. He had let his guard down. Nina was crying and the concern for her wellbeing had made him complacent. Before he could react, he was staring down the barrel of a gun. Jansen was still crouched by Nina as he froze. "Ty who the hell is this and why is he with Nina?!" In an instant, all of Jansen's training kicked in and he slowly stood up. "Woah, hey, listen uh... Eli, right?" He carefully took a step away from Nina. He didn't want her anywhere near this if things went south. "Eli, I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to help. Just, put the gun down and let's talk about this like civilized men, alright?" His tone was calm, soft and reassuring. "Eli, nobody needs to get hurt, okay? We don't need anyone else to end up like him..." Jansen performed the move to perfection, he gestured with his eyes over Eli's shoulder and it caused him to subconsciously glance behind him. In his defense, it was a natural human reaction, even if for a split second. It was all Jansen needed. In a flash Jansen pulled out his pistol and had it aimed directly at Eli's head. "Put the gun down, now," Jansen said, his calm demeanor gone, replaced by a confident sternness. "I don't want to kill you." Without taking his eyes off of him, Jansen spoke to Nina softly, almost in a whisper. "Nina, you need to go in the other room."
Bishop cursed under his breath at his rookie mistake. With all of the chaos going he let his eyes slip from the cop. He had been in worse situations but he was in a confined space and he didn't want his friends caught in the crossfire. He looked over at Nina, "I hope you know what your doing baby girl." Bishop lowered his arm, his pistol automatically retreated up the sleeve of his trench coat. "Alright slim, let's get one thing straight. That girl right there is like my little sister and if you do anything to hurt her, you better believe Ty ain't the only one that's gonna be on your ass," he sighed. "But Nina is a good judge of character. And if she can trust you so can I. Don't make me a liar." Bishop could see the shock on the man's face but he turned to Threkk and said, "Get rid of the body. I'm going to see Sebastian." Bishop turned back to the officer, "You ready to walk the walk?"
Myers wondered if Pardosa had accidentally or purposefully left his comm wide open. He could listen in to every word being said, and it didn't bode well. Being ten times wiser than he looked, Myers ignored Pardosa's question and instead kept listening intently. He rushed out of the ZPD office, sprinted around the back and fired up his bike. All the while, the situation on the other end seemed to worsen. Suspecting a trap, Myers screwed a silencer onto his old-fashioned 9mm, triangulated Pardosa's position and sped towards the man's location. You ready to walk the walk? Was Pardosa being lured into some sort of mystical order? Or was he in with smugglers? Perhaps this was all an infiltration attempt into the smugglers infrastructure, but what was his role in that? Myers forced his questions aside and took a few deep breaths. The shopping advertisements in front of the darkened building made it look twice as dreadful as the next shack on the block. The front door seemed to beg for retirement, and Myers graciously fullfilled that wish by unhinging the door with his shoulder. He could just spot Pardosa, a girl behind him and a man with a gun up his sleeve. Within a second he had his gun aligned with the man's head. "Drop the gun, NOW!"
“Thank you Eli. I trust him don’t worry. Please be careful," Nina said with a smile. Nina was happy to have Eli on her side. He was more reasonable than Ty. “Woah!" Ty said. "No way you're gonna let him off just like that? Are you nuts, Eli?” Ty got up in Jansen’s face. “Why the interest all of a sudden porker?” “Ty, sit down,” Nina said “No, Nina you need to stop being so trusting. You don’t know this guy.” “I am great judge of character, stupid. It's what I do now go sit down. You’re upsetting me," she said, giving him an angry stare. “I don’t like this one bit," Ty grumbled as he stared at Jansen. "You screw up, Pardosa and your head is mine.”
Eli had lowered his gun and Tyson had threatened him. Jansen holstered his pistol while Threkk dealt with the body. There were no more tears in Nina's eyes. Now they were fierce and willful. It seems she's tired of being the wilting flower, Jansen thought. Good for her. He was just about to formally introduce himself when the door flung open. Myers burst into the room, gun drawn. "Drop the gun, NOW!" he said, pointing the gun at Eli. Jansen wondered how he had found him but then realized he had left his comm open. He must have heard everything. "Myers!" Jansen said. "Stand down, the situation is under control. These men are smugglers, yes, but we have a much bigger problem. These men are being turned into slaves for some kingpin named Sabastian. He put tracking chips in their necks and if you try to remove it, it kills you. That's why I called you here." Jansen hoped he could trust Myers but at this point there was no turning back.
Myers eyes flicked from Jansen to Eli and back again. His brow furrowed, sweat began to seep between his finger, loosening his grip on his gun. His mind struggled to cope with the slurry of words that Pardosa was throwing at him. Things were never as simple as they looked. Slowly, he began to realize what sort of company he was in. The girl didn't ring any bell with him, nor did the man with the gun up his sleeve but Pardosa had called them smugglers. Narrowing his eyes, he lowered his weapon inch by inch. "Who's Sebastian?" he demanded. He clutched tensely to his gun and his eyes only left the man in front of him in search for a quick getaway. "And why are you helping them?" he asked from Pardosa, trying to defuse the situation with words.
"Sebastian is the reason that man is dead. There's way more going on here than you can imagine", Bishop said as he started pacing back and forth. A faint beeping caught his attention and he held up a finger to get everyone to focus. Everyone stared as Bishop ran to the workbench. He found the origin of the sound and shouted. "Everybody get back! The chip's beeping!" Everyone fell to the floor, trembling at the thought of a bomb ending all of their lives. The beeping increased in beats and ended with a small poof. Bishop rose to find the chip smoking and left out a sigh of relief. "Looks like they short out after a time," Threkk stated. Bishop blood was boiling, "What the hell is he thinking?!" He wanted to answers. Sebastian was a brother to him. Why would he put him and so many others' lives at risk like this. Bishop and Sebastian both had done their share of killing but never like this. With the release of anti-Psyon weapons being put in civilian hands, all Bishop could see in the near future was a war. " I have to find him!"
The patter of feet nearby had her snapping awake in an instant. Remaining painfully still, all senses trained outward, Estelle waited. There it was again. "Shhh -what if the Wilder wakes up?" a boy's voice caught her attention. Someone moved close to her head -probably peeking under the bed- when another voice on her other side spoke up: "So what if she does? Didn't the doctors say they'd put her under sed-a-tyon?" she struggled to pronounce the last word, and Estelle couldn't help the tiny smile that quirked her mouth, but she stifled it before they could notice. "They said they'd wished they could have sedated her, nitwit." the boy hissed. Movement near her head again had her struggling not to move. "So she's still alert and able to do serious damage. They don't even know what level she is!" "Ooooh let's ask!" the girl squeaked, and before the boy could sputter a warning Estelle felt a small hand prodding her in the back. "Hey, wake up. Are you really dangerous like they say ya are? What level are you? Why are you in the hospital? Why does the Psyon like you?" Estelle hadn't wanted to startle them, but her eyes opened and she rolled over to stare at the girl. "That Psyon does not like me. He just kept me from blowing everything up. And how did you get in here?" She said bluntly, but the little girl had that look on her face that suggested she'd found something out and wanted to brag about it. "He likes you he likes you! Why else would he have carried you in?" She giggled, and Estelle's eyes narrowed in annoyance. She knew better than to try and make the kid think otherwise- she'd been that way when she was her age. "Newt are you nuts? This is a Wilder!" The boy's words cut off with a squawk when Estelle turned her head to look at him. His dark grey eyes were wide with alarm, and as he edged away from her and out from under the bed he muttered to himself, "knew this was a bad idea. . ." Before she decided against it, she sighed. "Look, kid. I'm not about to hurt you. And if you could not say the 'W' word I'd appreciate it, because that's not what I am, if anything." Estelle pulled herself out from under the bed as well, and the girl plonked onto the bed next to her, immediately burying her hands in Estelle's long, wavy dark brown hair. "Do you look different when you get mad?" Newt asked, and Estelle sat still while the ten-year-old -probably the boy's younger sister- started to get her unruly mane into a braid. "You have soft hair- what kind of powers do you have?" "Yes I look different, and, again, how did you two get in here?" Estelle asked, ignoring the other question. The boy was looking between the two of them with the oddest look on his face. "Security was distracted by an accident down the hall -we snuck in." Newt chirped, and when Estelle looked at the boy he shrugged, defeated. "She really wanted to see you. Not much I can do if she sets her mind to something." A smile threatened to cross her face. So much like how she and Matt used to be . . . No! Can't lose control. Can't let it out. She stifled the painful lump in her throat before her powers could go out of control again. Hurting these two -even accidentally- was out of the question. The two kids noticed her hair and eyes begin to glow and change despite her attempts to keep them from doing so, and they stared, agog. "Wow . . ." Newt threaded her fingers through it, mystifying Estelle. The boy, though nervous, seemed more curious about Estelle than scared. She blinked several times, wondering whether to cry or to laugh when she realized that other than her appearance, nothing had happened. She was . . . dangerous. Yet they treated her like a normal person -a very interesting kind of person- but still a person. "Wilders are monsters, Estelle . . ." her father's words echoed. A watery smile finally broke through. Maybe I'm not a monster yet.
A shadow moved down the streets of the Pisces platform. The shadow was a man, a man with a, though temporary, purpose. He sneaked towards a tall building, a building like all the others. It was coming closer. He reached the building and climbed the fire ladder on to the roof of the building, his thoughts went to what may be inside. A wilder powering a machine. Both unethical and very interesting. At the top of the ladder, he jumped onto the roof, scouting for a way to get down into the building. He quickly found a trapdoor and descended to the metal platform below. The big building had no rooms, like a warehouse. It was dimly lit, but he couldn't see any people. In the middle of the room there was a sarcophagus-thing which stood upright and a lot of cables coming out of it. There also seemed to be a machine hidden in the cables. "That's probably where the wilder is." Evans mumbled to himself. He guessed that the few people who were in the building were in the control room, and the rest had probably gone home for the night. He turned on his primitive signal jammer, so that se security cameras would not see him apart from a little shimmer, if they were old. If not, he'd probably be dead soon. He descended down the stairs to several platforms until he got to the ground floor. There was a small control room to his right, like a building inside a building. He peeked inside one of the windows. 2 people. This was going to be easier than he thought, but still hard. He readied his wrench.
Drugged, Matthew blinked lazily at the ceiling. It's surface seemed to bend outward into a wicked smile, then he lost all notion of space and time as he plummeted into a dream. -- "Hurry Matt! We're gonna miss the bus!" Estelle called over her shoulder as they chased the hover-craft. "Well -we actually already missed it, but you get my point!" her face split into a huge grin at that and she laughed despite their current situation. They both knew that if they ended up missing school today their parents would have both their hides. "You think that's funny?" Matthew wheezed as he skidded to a halt beside Estelle. "We're dead," he concluded, letting his shoulders drop uselessly. The transport sped away from them until it was but a shimmering speck in the distance. Annoyed, Matthew scowled at Estelle. This was all her fault, she'd wanted to play another game of hide and seek on their way to the Virgo station. "So what are we going to do now, genius?" he demanded. The fact that he'd lost a few marbles to her during the past week didn't help relieve his foul mood. "Uh..." Estelle stared off into the distance for several seconds, ideas rapid-firing through her mind. But none seemed very good, or possible. Unless... A nearby transport tube caught her attention. 'The look' crossed her face. Not just a look of mischief, but The look, as Matt called it. "We could try the tubes." she suggested with a sly glance out of the corner of her eye. Matthew flicked his eyes skyward and shot up a silent prayer to the digital clouds. Estelle's sly, half-slanted smile combined with explosive vividness in her eyes never promised much good. Preparing himself to meet whatever collateral damage would befall him this time, he nodded at Estelle. It always took him a while to get into the same, bouncy, screw-the-rules state that Estelle so easily slipped into. How she managed to get equally excited about breaking a whole array of laws as opening up a birthday present had always been beyond him. "Alright, but we better hurry," Matthew said as he checked his wristwatch. Estelle grinned, pulling her identification card out of her pocket and swiping it. Access denied. The panel bleeped. She swiped it again. Access denied. Swipe. Access denied. This went on for several moments, faster and faster, until Estelle finally stopped with a huff, glaring at the thing as if it was stupid. "Open!" she yelled, punching the reinforced glass with a tiny fist. When she moved, her hair momentarily flashed, as if in the sunlight, but in fact it was quite something else. Matthew wondered why Estelle was shouting at an inanimate object, but said nothing of it. The door barely even vibrated in response before there was a loud clunk and it slid open, and a tiny marble rolled around in the middle, coming to halt in the center of the tube. Estelle didn't know it, but she'd turned the locking mechanism on the door into said marble. "See? It worked." she said smugly, then flounced in as if she owned the place. Matthew looked on in amazement. Part of him wanted to yell at her for drawing so much attention, on the other hand, what she'd just done was.... "Wicked," Matthew grinned as he kicked the marble into the tube. He savoured the high-pitched clinking sound of the marble rolling down the tube. His excitement faded however when a shadow loomed over them from behind. Matthew spun around and spotted a police officer just ten feet away. "You two, halt!" he called. Matthew shot a meaningful glance at Estelle, then sprinted into the tube. "Last one out is a tosser!" He didn't really know what a tosser was, but it sounded cool when dad said it. Perhaps it was someone who was really strong and could toss anything, but that didn't seem to make much sense. He decided to ask his father about it when, if ever, he returned from school. "Hey, no fair!" Estelle called after him, ducking beneath the officer's hands when the man made a grab for her. Her backpack smacked into the officer's face, knocking him to one side and giving her enough time to catch up with Matt, but not after she stuck her tongue out at him. The officer sputtered in indignation, struggling to get up, but they'd already gotten away. "Ha ha! Hey do you know what we're gonna have for lunch today? I'm starving!" she said when she came alongside him, then grinned at the look Matt gave her. She was always hungry. "Pig," Matthew said, throwing a playful punch at her shoulder. "Grumpy." "Porker!" Estelle stuck out her tongue, "scab!" Laughing, their feet echoed along the hollow tubes as they made their way towards Virgo.
Zodiac Police Officer Ray Mitrata awoke with a pain shooting down his right arm. It was an agonizing pain and when he tried to use his left arm to grab it, he realized he was restrained. His arms and legs were tied down and he was on his back, staring at a blank, grey ceiling. He could hear people milling about and slight metal percussions as instruments bumped into each other. The smell was sterile and cold. Mitrata could tell he had been given drugs, as his vision was blurry and he felt light-headed. "He's awake," someone said. Oddly, even the voices, like his vision, were blurry and distorted. He strained to hear them. "What do we do?" This time it was a female voice. "We do what we were told, we take him upstairs. Call him and let him know we're on our way up." Feeling the table he was on begin to move, he tried to turn his head, but there was a strap across his forehead."Wh-, wh-," was all he could manage to say. The signals going from his brain to his mouth were not arriving in one piece. A man's face loomed above him. "Don't try to speak," he said, his face obscured by a mask. "It'll take a little while for the anesthesia to wear off. Just try to take it easy." They wheeled him into a transport tube and then offloaded him down a corridor. The ceiling here was very different than the sterile grey from earlier. Large golden lights hung from the ceiling. The square tiles were ornate, with silver lattices throughout. A door opened and he stopped. The door closed and his restraints were taken off. Slowly he was helped into a large leather chair. It was some type of office and there was a large wooden desk in the center. The whole room was circular, and besides the door they came through every inch of wall space was transparent and Mitrata could see all of Zodiac. He knew where he was. The top level of the JainCorp building. He had been in this building many times but had never been to this level before. It was then that he noticed the pain had subsided from his arm. While he couldn't feel the pain, he also couldn't feel the sensation of touch, either. Looking down at his right arm, his face went white. There, where his arm used to be, was a metal appendage. Five finger-like accessories adorned the end of it and where it was connected to his shoulder, there was some kind of bio-bridge connecting his living tissue to the metal circuitry. Before he could process the fact that his arm was gone, a voice spoke from behind the desk. "There's no reason to be alarmed, Officer Mitrata." The voice was calm and calculated, and Mitrata noticed that there was a man sitting in a chair behind the desk. "In fact," he said, "you should be relieved, thankful even. There are those who would pay a million credits for what is now part of you." "What the hell did you do to me?" Mitrata hissed. A look of concern crossed the mans face. "Do to you? My dear Mitrata, we saved your life. In fact, my team has significantly improved your life. Amazing job, too. They are the best at what they do." He stood up and slowly walked over to one of the windows and looked down. "I can assure you I am not here to hurt you which is more than I can say for your fellow officer in Quarter Two." "What do you mean?" "You were sent to arrest a certain unsavory individual yesterday and things..." He turned and looked at Mitrata. "Well, let's just say I know who came out on the winning end of that battle and he still has both of his arms." "Pardosa..." The man knelt down in front of him. He was an older man and wore glasses that seemed too small for his face. His chin was strong and the muscles in his neck seemed out of placed bulging out of his suit and tie. "Yes," he said, "Jansen Pardosa. The man who attacked you for doing your job and is currently conspiring with multiple known criminals. He already attempted to murder a police officer, who knows what he is capable of." "How do you know all this?" He laughed. "We know everything that happens on Zodiac, Mr. Mitrata. Information is a neccessity for our business and knowing things allows powerful men such as me to remain powerful." "Pardosa is finished," said Mitrata. "As soon as I get back to headquarters he'll be arrested and he will rot in prison until he's dead." "I'm afraid I can't allow that to happen." "Why the hell not?" "You see, everything comes with a price and when we brought you in here you were, for lack of a better word, dead. But JainCorp has certain assets that came in handy with your particular circumstances and, well, here you are." "Look, I appreciate you saving my life and giving me..." Mitrata raised his robotic arm and flexed the fingers. "This. But-" "Perhaps I'm not being clear. Zodiac police have already been informed of your situation. We saw to that." "So they know I'm alright?" "On the contrary, Mr. Mitrata, we informed them of your death. In fact, they should be taking possession of your remains as we speak." "The fek are you saying? Are you saying you told them I was dead?" "Yes." "You bastard! I'm not dead!" "Of course not, but now you belong to me, you are now property of JainCorp." "You can't keep me here!" Mitrata shouted. "Yes, we can and we will. As far as the rest of Zodiac are concerned, you are dead and I reserve the right to make that a reality but for now, we have work to do. We share a mutual interest, you and I." "Oh yeah? What's that?" "We both want Jansen Pardosa dead." "That low-life slumbitch? He's nothing, why would someone like you care about him and who the hell are you?" The man placed his hands together and stared off into the distance. "My name is Kenneth Chadbourne and Jansen Pardosa killed my son and I will make him pay and you are going to help me whether you like it or not." He pressed a button on his desk and two men burst into the room. They grabbed Mitrata and began to wheel him out of the room. "Have a nice evening," said Mr. Chadbourne. "We will talk again very soon..."
Between a rock and a hard place. A loud bang rented the air. The sound of debris crashing down trailed after it, then screams and gunfire. “What was that?” the boy asked wide-eyed. He looked at Estelle, “what's going on?” Footsteps, too heavy to be that of another child, yet too light to be that of a guard, stalked the hallway. A scream, another burst of gunfire, then a thud. The boy and the girl ducked underneath Estelle's bed, terrified. Two gun-toting masked men, dressed all in black with a whole range of explosives and guns strapped to their belts, stepped into the room. Silence buzzed the air between them and Estelle as they took in their environment. “Not very impressive, is she?” “No.” Before Estelle could reply she was hit by a military-grade stun gun. She collapsed to the ground and spasmed. The one that had fired the shot lowered himself to her height and took off his mask, revealing his red hair modelled into a spiky crest. A golden earring pierced his left ear, his eyes were hollow and his cheekbones almost pushed through the skin. He smiled sickly at Estelle, rummaged through his equipment and took out a needle. “See you in an hour, honey.” “Boss,” the other one began. “What about them?” Silvester traced his buddy's finger to the two quivering children hiding underneath Estelle's bed. “Could be a few more creds, right?” Silvester nodded, “seize them.” A small, rusty transportation craft, carrying five armed rogues, the Wilder girl, and the two children, left the military district as the ZPD and armed personell began to flood in. “Base,” Silvester said into his comm-device. He let his eyes slide over the restrained and sedated wilders, “we have our score.” – Agent Myers had no time to respond to Pardosa's words. His comm vibrated impatiently and a voice cracked through the static. “All units report, we have a military breach on the Psyon Research Center. Assailants are armed and dangerous. All standby units move out to quarter I, Gemini, PS Center. Lethal force is authorized.” Stunned, Myers lowered his gun and gawked at Pardosa. A military breach? Things were getting out of hand fast, and he couldn't help but think that these smugglers were at the root of it.
Two guards unconscious on the floor. He just hoped he did not hit them too hard. His wrench was heavy and could easily cause a nasty concussion, but he bet they deserved it. After taking a check on and deleting all the security camera footage of his little break-in, he snuck across the floor to the big machine. The sarchofagus was big enough for a small human, but he probably would not fit in there. It was easy to open from the outside. The first thing that reached him was the smell. Then the sight. The next thing he knew was lying on his back, having jumped as far away from the sarcophagus as possible. There was a dead man inside. Probably his excrements caused the smell, because he was not rotted. "Came too late" Evans wispered. There was no time to mourn, he needed to get out of there. He ran out of the door when a grav car stopped outside. He heard a loud bang as they kicked in the door. After a quick look around the corner he established that it was safe, everybody had gone inside the building except the driver. Evans began to run down the streets. He ran and ran and ran some more. His apartment might be safe, or might not. They might be following him, so he ran until he reached a transiton to another platform. Gemini, it was. He caught a glimpse of the guard running away from the platform to a big building where there seemed to be some sort of commotion. The transition was easy to get through without any guards, just a little bashing and prying and voila! The door opened. He ventured forth into the Gemini platform, and whatever awaited him there.
