The Thirteenth Key

[Teapot]

Sem's new epic RP, bitches. As I said in the "preview topic" over in General Fiction, this is already closed to new members, so we will not be accepting more. Anyone attempting to join who doesn't already know that they're part of it is breaking da rules and will be shot on sight. Survivors will be shot again.

Anyway, on with the show. There are actually two posts here - one you've seen before, one you haven't.

Rain lashed the grey walls of the alleyway. It was nearly midnight, and the only light source was from a street lamp that towered above the dirty path. It was the sort of night where no-one was about except those that had to be.

Sprinting along the path was a young girl, her mousey brown hair whipping around her as the fierce wind caught it. She was breathing heavily - she had been running for a long time. She rounded a corner, and put her hands on her knees. She was out of energy - out of breath - out of time. The footsteps faded slightly - she'd lost her pursuers, for now.

This girl was Claire Fury. She had run away from home.

"No! I am not letting you control me anymore!"

Her parents had immediately contacted the police, and they had been searching for her for over a week. She had just walked for that time, foraging food and water from passers by whenever she reached a village or town. Mostly, however, she had kept to the shadows and back alleys, for fear of being found.

"Get back here, girl! We are not done with you!"

Finally, they had found her, sleeping outside a friend's house - she had arrived there in the middle of the night, so had decided to just sleep outside until the morning. This proved to be a mistake. The police had found her outside, and she barely escaped from them - from her parents.

"Hey! It's the girl! Don't let her get away again!"

After that, she had just ran for her life. The last thing she ever wanted was to go back to her parents - she couldn't bear that. However, something else was in store for her, something far more sinister. As she huddled against the wall, waiting for her heart to stop pounding and her head to stop spinning, a piece of the wall exploded next to her - it had been shot. In her misery, her pain, her breathlessness, she didn't hear a new set of footsteps approaching.
"Get out of here, kid. This is our turf", she heard. Looking up, she gazed into the eyes of a man who could easily kill her if she did not obey. He had a shaved head, square-set features, and in his hand was a handgun. He wore a simple black jacket with the insignia of a fox etched onto it. The very way he held it showed that he knew how to use it - and he was clearly the one that had fired at the wall. It was the only warning shot she'd get. Behind him were other men - all armed like the first man was, some more so. They wore the same jackets as their leader, with the same fox insignia. These men were clearly part of the same gang.
"I won't hurt you if you just leave this place - run far away, don't look back.. It's for your own good. Please."
The man she'd just registered as a cold, emotionless killer was almost pleading with her. Desperation cracked through his voice.
"I-I'm sorry, sir, I'll jus-"
She never finished her sentence. Bullets whistled through the air from her side - and she saw why the nameless gang leader had been desperate to get her out of the way.
"Oh SHIT, they're here! GET DOWN!" The nameless man's voice rang out over the shots. Pushing her down to the floor, he pointed his weapon towards the source of the gunshots and squeezed one, two, three rounds through it. Running through the hail of bullets, men dressed in green jackets charged wildly, firing their guns at everyone and anyone they could see that wasn't wearing their symbol.
It was a massacre. Claire couldn't move, couldn't even speak, lest she attracted the attention - and bullets - of these barbarians that were killing each other for no reason at all.

Seconds passed. Minutes, maybe even hours passed - no-one knew. Claire stayed in the same position, frozen stiff with fear. Eventually, the last gunshot rang out through the air, and the only sound left was the rain, still hammering down on the area. Claire looked up - everyone was dead or dying, except for one man. Squinting, she attempted to make out the colour on his jacket, to see if he was going to kill her or set her free. The seconds ticked on, her eyes shaking and blurring. She blinked. The person walked closer with each blink, each step almost drowned out by nature's lashing lament on the walls and ground. Eventually, her vision returned, and she saw with horror that the last man was a green-jacket. Now fate was to deal the next set of cards - the ones that decided what happened to Claire Fury next.

The man grabbed her. He sneered in her face as he dragged her upwards , pressing her against the wall as he searched her pockets for anything of value. Then, his hands crept... crept... searching her further, his eyes steely and cold. Suddenly, he dropped her and whirled around with a jump as he heard a faint voice.

"Leave h-her alone, you b-bitch. Sh-sh-she is innocent." she heard the redjacket leader stutter. He was severely injured, having been shot in the chest, but miraculously, he was still alive, although unable to move. Greenjacket walked over to him, and Claire, for what was possibly the fourth time that night, was powerless. Frozen in shock, as if in slow motion, she saw Greenjacket take the pistol from his belt, saw in seemingly infinite detail as he clicked the safety off, and as he pressed it to the redjacket's head.

"NO!" she cried. She jumped up, as a bolt of adrenaline surged through her, and lunged at the greenjacket before he could destroy yet another life. What happened next, she did not know. Rage overcame her, and she saw red, she saw white, she saw anger and misery and suffering and coldness, she saw the true pain in the world, she felt true hate, and then she saw nothing, only heard a voice in her head that said to her, simply:

"Kill him."

And she did, but she did not know how. She simply gripped him, with her hands, her mind, and extracted the life from his body, releasing it into the air using nothing but her willpower - and something new, something alien, lurking at the back of her mind. Released from the depths of her subconsciousness. She released him, watched emotionless as his lifeless corpse thumped onto the ground. Watched the horror on the survivor's faces as they saw a 13-year-old girl kill a grown man.

And then there was blackness.

"Commander? Yes, I'm checking in."

"Yes, sir. total, I, er, 'acquired' 6 children today."

"Thank you, sir, I trust the other officer's exploits were as fruitful."

"Very good, sir. Goodbye."



***



Claire awoke shivering, coated in a cold sweat. She rubbed her eyes blearily. Looked around.

Wait.

Where was she?

What had she done?

She'd killed a man, that's what she'd done.

Panic.

She had to run!

She had to get out!

Claire jumped off of the sofa she had been sitting on, charged through the nearest door, nearly knocking a girl of the same age as her over, and dashed at the front door. Flinging it open with somewhat excessive force, she ran outside.

And then realised where she was. She'd woken up in her friend's house - the girl she'd nearly flattened was her best friend, and now she was outside. Exposed again.

By the time she'd stopped running, Claire was very, very lost. She'd managed to get herself into a new part of the city that she'd never come across. She sat against a wall, and surveyed the area around her. Her dark blue jeans were stained with mud, and there was a rip in the right leg. Her top, a blue tank, wasn't much better. Although it was in slightly better condition than her jeans, it was still covered in mud and had become quite shabby, after a week of wear. Claire herself was slightly battered and not in the best of states, either - her hair was caked with dirt and she was covered in cuts and bruises. Despite this realisation, Claire knew that her personal appearance wasn't particularly important. She still wasn't safe from the police who were probably still looking for her. And the gang she'd become caught up with ;ast night would probably want to kill her as well. So Claire started to move again, wandering thorugh the streets and roads and marketplaces, looking for somewhere safe to go.

Eventually, she came across an open patch of grass - very useful. It allowed her to run easily from her persuers, as there were many exits. No-one would find her here.

Claire walked to the middle of the park, to a group of trees that stretched tall, their brown branches intertwined in some sort of fateful embrace. Despite the trees' presence, the space between them was light and ary, simple to see into or out of. She walked into the natural circle - sat within it. Contemplated. Lost herself in thought.

Minutes, maybe hours passed. Claire was never sure how much time passed, but she was jerked back to reality when she heard a screech of tires, and footsteps. Before she could turn around to see what was going on, a man grabbed her shoulder. He was tall, but non-descript. Impossible to describe. He almost blended into the scene behind him. Behind him stood a large green camper van - the driver's door was open, as was the back door. The windows were tinted and impossible to see through.

"You might have something we want, kid." he growled, as he gagged her roughly. "You're coming with me." He tied her hands together, shoved her into the back of the van, slammed the door, and, a few minutes later, drove off. Claire thrashed against the sides of the van, against the doors. But it was no use. When she finally looked around, she gasped - but the sound as muffled by the cloth over her mouth. Five or six other children were also sitting there, some crying, some simply silent. All gagged, all at the mercy of this man. Once again, Claire Fury was powerless to her fate. But not for long.

ETA: Changed a detail in the penultimate paragraph, and added a little more text to the last paragraph.

 

[Sem]

This world was very different from other worlds, thought a creature as he stood atop a large building overlooking large city. Most worlds had a single dominant race that controlled the planet and its resources. This planet however, had several different species of equal intelligence, and though co-existence was at times very difficult, and there were many past wars to prove it, they had managed to live peacefully for a while now.

Something was stirring up lately though. There had been more vanishings, and it was apparent that the rate at which the abductions occurred was increasing. And so there he stood, watching.

He was by no means a hero, or a creature that everyone recognized, but as everyone seemed reluctant to do anything for fear of harm coming to their beloved children, and political powers were taking to long to reach intelligent conclusions about what to do. Someone had to take action, and get behind the idea behind the kidnappings. The mass stealing of children made no sense whatsoever. It obviously wasn't for the idea of murder, for out of the hundreds now missing no bodies had appeared and the men could never hope to run for long.

People liked to blame it on pedophilia, but that made absolutely no sense either when thought about carefully. Also the fact that the children seemed not to be taken at random, but seemed selective, as if the nabbers had specific targets. Two children could be playing together and only one would be taken. It greatly confused everyone, but few people new better. In this world of magic millenniums old, this mass abduction could be for terrible reasons.

It was late afternoon, and the light the city was bathed in began to slowly turn golden with each passing minute. The creature scanned the streets and public areas, hoping but at the same time not hoping for an abduction to occur.

The creature was small, a bit short of a meter, if you didn't include his tail. He was covered in a coat of thick gray fur. He resembled an otter very much, only he had deep blue fins atop his head and along his spine, as well as on his tail. His webbed hands were hidden along with his arms in the sleeves a black hoodie jacket of sorts, which on him resembled somewhat a miniature trench coat. His ears were a bit longer than those of an otter and his blue whiskers resembled those of a catfish than a mammal.

His ears twitched and he looked towards a park to his right. He saw a perfectly common, non-suspicious, green campervan with a man coming out, blending perfectly with the rest of the crowd. He quickly grabbed a girl from where she sat and strongly held her arms and walked her towards the van and forced her in, but in a way that seemed like he was simply walking her to the car and helping her inside. These men were good.

The creature wasted no time as was off before the van had even started to drive away. He had lept from the building and was free-falling. He moved his arms from underneath himself to over his head in a swiping motion. Suddenly as if out of nowhere, water appeared from the air and guided him up and threw him across the street and onto a lower building. What the creature had done was call upon any water molecules in the immediate area and forced them together. He was an effective and experienced manipulator of water, one of the few on the world gifted with such a level of power.

He landed squarely on the roof with a splash of water around him. He forced his arms out behind him, the water rose from the ground and attached to his back and froze in such a way that it appeared he had grown four spider-like legs. Then he rushed off towards the still visible vehicle. He ran across rooftops and jumped from building to building with great speed.

He caught up to the the street the car was driving on and turned left to follow it, making a large jump from the building, across the street to another one and then followed the van. It was his plan to simply follow the van until it reached the destination, but for some reason the driver found out he was being pursued and began to make erratic movements, turning this way and that in order to lose him.

The creature, Sem he was called, realized that going about this the easy way wouldn't work; these people were smart. He caught up to the car and then jumped off the building so that he was soaring over the street right behind the car. He drew his limbs back and then threw them forward, curling his body. The ice-legs broke off from his back and were flung through the air like javelins. Sem was sure not to aim for the van itself for fear of injuring one of the children. He aimed two at the tires and two to the road ahead of the driver.

The icicle spears missed the tires, hitting and embedding themselves in the asphalt before melting completely, so as not to harm other drivers who were by now panicking. The other two spears flew on ahead and created a sort of road block, Sem hoped the driver would attempt to stop, losing much needed speed, allowing Sem to get onto the vehicle itself. Instead, however, the driver just kept on going and crashed through the ice.

Sem growled and swiped upwards with his right arm, turning his body so that his feet touched the floating sheet of ice he had just created and pushed off, landing safely on the nearest building and watched as the ice flew through the air, melting just as it hit the opposite building, making a loud splash.

Pursuit this way was too difficult, civilians got in the way too easily and there were many places for the men to escape. Sem shook his head a bit and sat on the corner of the building facing where the van had been moments ago. He allowed the shattered icicles to melt and drain into the sewer system below the street.

He was going to need help if he wanted to get to the bottom of this.

 

[Artiste]

It was nearly sunset, the sun bathing the entire town in a gold-red tint that gave it an unrealistic sense of beauty, even considering that it had a large amount of traffic, and looked outright ratty in some places, though you couldn't notice it now; if somebody wanted to put the town on a postcard, this would be the time to take the picture. The air, even, was remarkably crisp and fresh, also unrealistically. A visitor to the town seeing it now might make the mistake of buying a home there.

A very plain-looking green camper van was speeding through town, while an odd otter-like creature was in hot pursuit. Annabel had seen a man from the same van grab a girl from the park, tie her up and put her in the van a few moments ago, and had darted up to the awning she was lying on to get a good opportunity to jump onto the van's roof and ride all the way to the place where they were taking the child. And, of course, the driver had started swerving to and fro once he found out that the otter-creature-thing was tailing him.

"... Purrrrfect, that creature's making my plan nearly obsolete," Annabel said, irritated, as she poised to jump once the van was in range. She leaped, adrenaline flooding her veins as her feline legs pushing off the metal bar of the awning, and she flew towards the van. She felt lighter than air in her three-foot-long body, her orange fur and hair being whipped by the air, and her blue tank top fluttering in the breeze, whereas her tight, black shorts didn't move an inch, considering their tightness. Her senses were temporarily heightened, for some reason, and she could hear things a mile away, even through the traffic, could smell the gasoline from the vehicles and the odors of the people.

She would've made it, but for the fact that the otter-thing had shoot icicles, which embedded themselves in the pavement the exact second Annabel jumped, thereby causing the vehicle to bump slightly after hitting them. She missed, to say the least, landing catlike on her feet on the side of the road opposite of the awning, ears folded flat against her head. She sighed heavily, looking back at the otter-creature, which had created a magical sheet of ice, which it used to jump onto the nearest building. She saw ice fly through the air, melting as it did, splashing a few inches to the right of where Annabel had been only moments before. The thought made her shudder.

She made her way toward the building the otter had landed on, jumping from structure to structure, higher and higher, hoping to speak with him, and to gather information on the man in the van, and the girl he had abducted. It, now revealed to be male, was wearing a black hoodie, which actually acted as a trench coat for the short creature. He had long ears, longer than those of an otter, and blue whiskers that vaguely resembled a catfish's.

"Hello. I saw you shooting ice at that van; thought maybe you knew a bit about it. Name's Annabel, I'm a cat, if you hadn't noticed. I saw you chasing that van earlier, and wondered if you had some info." She glanced him up and down, looking for any obvious things that allowed him to control water to such a degree; finding none, she realized that he must be one of the few gifted with amazing power on the planet, and remembered vaguely in the back of her mind some odd instances happening, which might imply that some dormant power might lie in Annabel as well. She sure hoped so, though her power was more along the lines of improving her cat reflexes even further than they already were, making her amazingly quick on her paws, and giving her strength far beyond what a cat should possess.

OOC: Dang it, that seems short. D; Oh well, scrapped for time, best I can do for now.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"Well well well..." A voice said, followed by some footsteps. "What do we have here..." The voice was chilling. It was frightening. It had a soft sound, but an almost sadistic quality to it, as well as sounding genuinely interested. "A cat and an otter-fish..."

The owner of the voice certainly looked odd. His hair, for starters, was ice blonde and very messy, falling just short of his eyes. His eyes were very unusual. They looked half closed, with very vivid purple marks underneath them, as though he hadn't slept in a year. His skin was very pale. He looked almost deathly. Around his neck was a black scarf, which fell neatly over his shoulders and down his back. Covering his upper body was long dark coat with too many pockets to count. On his legs, all that were visible were surprisingly tight black pants, made out of an unusual material, and on his feet, combat boots.

"So you, too, are interested in the van... I think my interest lies with the girl in the back of the van..." He said. Something in his coat clinked. "Excuse me, allow me to deal with this."

He stepped past both of the unusual creatures, and started to unbutton his coat, abandoning his scarf completely. The coat, it turned out, was covering a doctor's lab coat. He abandoned the thicker of the coats, and pulled his lab coat on properly. He threw the tails behind him, revealing his chest. This was the most frightening part about him. His torso seemed to be made up of three different patches of different coloured skin, one the same pale white, one an odd blue colour and the third an almost healthy colour. It was also revealed what had clinked - three metal bands were attached around either leg.

"Hear my voice, those who sleep beneath the earth, and rise to follow my will," he said, pulling a skull out of one of his inside pockets. Instantly, the ground around him cracked, and skeletons started pulling themselves out of the earth, surrounding him.

"Rise my servants... Stop the van," he ordered. Instantly, the skeletons started shifting and... combining? Within seconds, the skeleton numbers had been reduced to just three monstrous looking things. Then, they gave chase to the van, moving with incredible speed, and resembling how a gorilla would move.

"Oh, you two..." he said, realising that the otter-fish and the cat were still there. He pulled his coat and scarf back on, then turned back to them. "My name is Sai Koro."

 

[Sem]

Sem turned his head once to see who was addressing him. This Annabel was very blunt and to the point, but she was a cat so it figured.

Sem returned his gaze to the van speeding away. "I have no more information than you do, I'm afraid." he shrugged. "This little chase was an attempt to get some information, though, that failed. My name is Sem by the way."

He sat in silence for a while, pondering the whole situation and the appearance of this feline creature.

"If you're so interested." he began, turning his head so that he looked her in the eye. "Mind helping out? I'm not so sure why you're interested, but surely more can be done if we work cooperatively than separately." He turned away again. "It'd be nice to get to the bottom of this and calm everyone down, and get those kids home."

"Well well well..." said a voice from behind the two. Sem heard footsteps coming towards them. "What do we have here..." The voice was male, but it sent a chill down Sem's spine and made his hair stand on end. "A cat and an otter-fish..."

Sem looked up to see the speaker and found himself staring at an oddly dressed male of an age he could not determine, but one this was for sure; he looked like he belonged under six feet of earth.

"So you, too, are interested in the van... I think my interest lies with the girl in the back of the van..." Sem heard a clink. "Excuse me, allow me to deal with this."

Sem watched as he threw off his coat revealing his torso, which seemed comprised of different patched of skin. The man summoned up skeletons from the earth below and had them give chase to the van.

Sem was transfixed on what had just happened and there were a few moments of awkward silence as the sun dipped lower over the horizon.

"Oh, you two..." The man said, turning and gathering his garments. "My name is Sai Koro."

Sem eyed him over for a brief moment, not at all too sure on who this Sai was. "You can call me, Sem."

 

[Artiste]

Time seemed to freeze in the few seconds before it happened, the sunset losing its brilliance, the noise of all the traffic going away. Annabel's fur stood on end, and her ears folded back against her head as the voice spoke from behind her, "Well well well..." That voice was so indescribably chilly and just plain creepy, that she shivered violently when he spoke again: "What do we have here... a cat and an otter-fish..." Those words somehow got Annabel a little ticked, since she didn't like being called a cat. It seemed somehow racist to her, she was part human, too. Or, whatever humans could be considered as, be it actually humans, or foreign creatures to the animals, on their planet.

"What of it?" Annabel asked, bitingly. She glared at the creature, quite murderously. She had a sudden, violent urge to take a bath, for some reason. Cats always have that urge whenever they're nervous, annoyed, or embarrassed, and just when they're dirty, which Annabel was certainly not. She took baths, unlike every other cat in the entire planet, probably, because she actually liked the water. She probably had more tiger in her than house cat. That would explain a few things about her temperament and strength; and her temper as well.

She gasped inaudibly when she saw the creature's skin. It was three separate patches of differently colored flesh and it scared the heck out of Annabel, which was for sure. She gasped again, audibly this time, when he pulled a skull out of one of his pockets, said a little chant sort of thing, and skeletons came out of the ground. She watched them wearily, on guard for whatever the heck might happen, but was relieved when nothing did. She was still on guard the entire time they stood there, though she didn't let it on.

"Oh, you two..." the creepy man said in his oddly chilling voice, yet again making Annabel shiver, though she could conceal it this time around. "My name is Sai Koro."

"You can call me, Sem," said the otter-creature after surveying the situation a bit. He seemed just as tense as Annabel was, and she was sure that he'd be a formidable ally if they got into a fight. Though, if the skeletons attacked, even once they combined, you could say, into three instead of a small army, then they probably wouldn't be able to win in a million years.

Annabel hesitated before introducing herself as well: "Name's Annabel. Learn it, fear it, and don't forget it." She had said that in the most cold, cruel way possible. She wanted this weirdo to remember her, in a good way or bad... she didn't care either way.

The sun had set by then, leaving the entire town bathed in an ever-so-dim light, making it hard to see. For everyone except Annabel, that is. You’ve got to love being a cat, even if you don't like being called one. She couldn't remember if otters had night-vision or not. She loved it, personally. She supposed that her green eyes were glaring out of the semi-darkness in a scary way. Well, more hoped than supposed.

OOC: I'll run it through Word later, I've gotta go. Like, now. Camping 'Kay, I'm back from camping~ post has been run through Word.

 

[Teapot]

It took nearly an hour for Claire to calm down completely. Eventually, she just lay down on the floor and curled up, attempting to block out the rumbling of the motor and the quiet squeaks of the other children as they shuffled about attempting to get comfortable themselves.

A long time ago, things had been better than this. At least, Claire thought so. She didn't really remember too well. She vaguely remembered a time before her parents' breakup. She did remember a birthday party - her only birthday party. She was about four or five at the time, she couldn't remember, and her hair was blonde and too long. It kept getting in her eyes. She vaguely remembered sitting on a table. Her mother, too thin but still beautiful to Claire's eyes, was giggling and laughing along with Claire's friends at something. She'd long since forgotten what.

Bump.

The camper van hit something, jolting everyone in the van out of their thoughts, out of their sleep. The sunlight had retreated, leaving only the blackness of night, punctuated by the pinpricks of stars. The van was swerving madly - there was something trying to stop them from reaching thir destination.

Bump.

This time, something lunged against the side. Claire looked around quickly, to see what looked like a pile of bones hit the window. As it fell away, it reformed to reveal a vaguely humanoid shape - made completely out of bones. A skeleton. It leered at the passengers inside, then dived onto the driver's door, attempting to force it open.

The driver kicked open the door, attempting to knock the skeleton off. The skeleton took the advantage, and dived inside. Suddenly,only-too-familiar cracks rang through the air - the driver had shot the skeleton in the head repeatedly. Ir flew away with a clatter, the pile of bones smashing against the ground and disappearing into the distance - the van had gained speed. It charged on at high speed, trying to outrun anything else that might be there.

The dusty windows showed that it was pitch black by the time the van finally rumbled to a halt. They were fast approaching what could only be described as a bunker - it was a slow building made out of thick concrete, with only skylights for windows. At the back was what looked like an extension, with privacy glass adorning the windows. This part was clearly new.

The driver got out of the van, walked around to the back, and stuck his head in.
"Right, folks, we're here. I'll tell you why you're here when you get inside. Please, no funny business. I don't want to have to" - he produced his pistol again - "hurt anyone. Got it?"

Suddenly, he whirled round, and squeezed the trigger of his pistol, pointing it at the roof of the van. Click. It was empty. Clare span around from where she was sitting, and saw another skeleton standing on top of the van. This one was larger. It dived at the driver, who narrowly dodged it, rolling out of the way.
"Everyone, get out of the van and into the building!"

Everyone ran for the nearest door, Claire included. However, as soon as she stepped foot outside the van, the skeleton stopped attacking the driver - it looked around, and started loping towards the crowd of children running for the door. Clearly, it wanted the children rather than the driver. Quickly, they reached the door - which was locked. Slamming against it, the kids started hammering for admission as the skeleton moved ever closer. Suddenly, it broke into a charge, heading straight into the crowd of children, knocking them flying, grabbing others, throwing them aside roughly, until it came upon Claire. It stopped, concentrating on her. Yes, she was the right one. Suddenly, it grabbed Claire and started running off with her slung it over it's shoulder.

Then there was another crack, and the skeleton's head exploded in a jet of light. Claire hit the ground with a thump.

"David, you really should stop attracting the undead monsters. It's unhealthy both for you and your little friends.." A woman, with sleek black hair in a ponytail and garbed in a labcoat, was walking towards her By her side was a plasma rifle - it was smoking. It was clearly the weapon that had destroyed Claire's short-lived captor.

"Nice to meet ya, kid. I'm Jenny." She extended a hand, pulling Claire to her feet. "Come on, we haven't got all day."

OOC: More later!

 

[Teapot]

OOC:Much, much later... here's moar post. Sorry for the long wait, the real-life generator has been in overdrive.

When Claire and the other children stepped into the bunker several minutes later, they all became silent instantly, taking in their new surroundings. In the middle of the room was a huge machine - it was impossible from the outside appearance to tell what it did. Around the outside were about a dozen pods, all with wires and gadgets protruding from the base. Each pod was connected by overhead wires to a large device in the middle of the room, with even more wires protruding out from that and snaking in and out of the other objects in the room. The rest of the room was a lot simpler - although there were still a lot of gadgets around, the room's walls were clearly the original walls that were there when the bunker was being used for it's original purpose. They were grey, and made entirely of thick concrete. One wall contained several doors - the other, one larger one that had clearly been built in recently.

"Welcome to your new home, kids," Jenny announced. "I'll take you to your rooms now, it's getting late." She led them through the newer, larger door, and into a large chamber. This was split into two sections, seperated by low walls - one was a common room of sorts, with tables and seats scattered around the room. Around the edges of the room were cabinets and work surfaces - one corner was clearly a kitchen of sorts, whereas another housed stacks of paper and drawing equipment. Against one of the walls was a small bookshelf that was screwed to the wall - it containing books and other reading materials. The remains of dinner were still on the tables, but apart from that, the room was clean and tidy - a lot moreso than the main bunker. There was also skylights in this room, but they had blackout glass so that nobody could see inside. The other section was a sleeping area - bunkbeds lined the walls and there were doors that presumably led off to bathrooms. The rooms themselves were filled with children - from as young as three or four years old, to about ten - but there were a scattering of teenagers around. Some of the children sat on the floor scribbling, some were talking to each other while sitting on their beds, but they all seemed fairly contented and healthy. All in all, there were about 30 children in here.

***

"OK, you'll be working with us for a while. We need all of you to be good, and help us research something special - it's a cure for cancer, so nobody ever has to die from it again," Jenny spoke, softly. She was mainly speaking to the younger children, who gave a general murmur of approval from the younger children. At the moment, Claire didn't really know what to think, so she just listened further.

"At the moment we just need you to find a bed for yourselves - we have a lot spare, so don't worry. There's food over there," - she pointed towards the kitchen, "and I'll be back in the morning to let you know what's going on. OK?"

With this, she left, locking the door behind her with a click - locking Claire and the children in. Claire walked over and sat down on the bed nearest a large window, which was barred from the outside and also had blackout glass. Nonetheless, it still let some light through, and light was something she liked to have as much of as possible. Without so much as a thought to changing clothes, Claire quickly fell asleep. It had been a long day.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"Fear it?" Sai said. As he spoke, every word sounded like a dark chuckle, yet he was not laughing. "I do not fear things like you do... Death means very little to me... Nothing you can inflict upon me causes me any discomfort." He looked down at his clothes, the coat and scarf he had left on the floor, then looked away. "Oh dear..."

"I unnerve you two." It was not a question. It was a statement. He spoke with confidence and certainty. "I understand that... However, it appears we have the same goal... I suggest an alliance... Even if it is just temporary." Sai reached into his pocket again, taking out the skull he had used earlier and holding it up, pointing it in the direction that the van had driven off in.

"We have a few moments before my servant returns..."