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All stories have one thing in common.. They're made of parts. These parts include a begining, a middle.. an ending.. and then you throw in a bunch of details to fill out the gaps and you have the makings on an epic. Or maybe a rushed sequal.. but you won't know which one this is untill you play it, do you?

Most stories start at the begining.. This.. isn't most stories.. This story accually began at the end.. the end of a universe. Two mighty titans were locked in climantic struggle as a dieing universe imploded around them.. One a giant shining beacon of hope.. the other a fell beast composed of the spawn of 7 siblings.. maybe it was 8 siblings.. this happened a really long time ago afterall.

Seconds before the universe finally collapsed, one of the two warring titans finally bested his rival.. unleashing an attack so powerfull it whiped the loser from existance.. no a trace of his foe was left.. The victor has no time to enjoy this event.. and the universe swiftly and compleatly surrounded his form.. compleating the end of existance...

The remaining life-energy of the victor had an effect on this dead universe.. the victor's life disperced and merged with what little remained.. At first, nothing happened.. and then.. EVERYTHING happened.. Light, sound.. matter .. and eventually.. life. This took untold millions of years, of course.. It always takes a long time.. that's just how this sort of thing works.

Now.. with the ending over.. we move onto the begining. In the new universe, a familiar blue and green planet began to form life.. this planet, the third of nine planets that orbit a particular sun.. featured abundant forms of life..

This planet atracted a race of creatures who called themselves the advent.. they were looking for some form of super being with which to enslave, adapt.. and use as weapons against some unnamed foe.. Eventually the advent left.. some say theye were afraid of what they had found.. some say they grew bored becuase what they were looking for isn't here... oh wait.. Nevermind.. Almost no one knows anything about these creatures.. as mankind wasn't around yet..

Eventually, one of the species left behind by the advent evolved into humanity.. most of them still carrying traces of advent genetic manipulation.. These creatures would become today's zoanoids in time..

In this new world, Chronos had a peacefull rise to power.. they are regarded as a private nation.. and the zoanoids they brought into the world serving to make it a better place.. Very few people commit crimes anymore.. Not many people want to deal with a little old lady turning into some kind of giant monster, even if they're a giant monster themself.. same goes for wars between countries.. Almost no one wanted to deal with an entire army of transforming monsters. Religion was still a big cause of conflict.. battles over relgion were the main cause of conflict in this new war.. Chronos, realising that the 'gods' people worshiped were in fact the advent.. kept thier mouths shut. It amused them when people killed each other in the name of some gods who were never real.. When conflicts became too great Chronos would always manage to quell the fighting..
In essance, Chronos was not only the world's economic leader despite the small size of it's countrie's borders, but they were keepers of the peace.

Chrons processed only the most loyal into Hyper zoanoids.. these hyper zoanoids, being so much stronger than the average zoaforms of most of humanity, were the hands of chronos.. keeping the peace before things spiraled too out of control.

Most of the time...

Two religions continued to defy chronos.. two religions who have very much in common, yet are mortal enamies of each other. Both are cults spanning worldwide, each dedicated to the worship of a being that existed outside of chronos's records.. The two beings worshiped deffinatly weren't advent.. as most 'gods' people worsiped could easily be. This worried chronos.. esspecially when they discovered the Whisper Points.

It's unknown who was the first person to stumble across a whisper point.. they seemed to manifest in several places around the globe overnight.. and people who slept in one claimed to here voices in thier dreams.. people across the world were able to identify the same voices as others upon testing.. An event that puzzelled scientists working on the project to no end.

Along with the whisper points.. brief instances where the laws of physics seemed to dissapeer cropped up over the world.. Chronos silenced the media's knowlage of these events.. if such things became public knowlage then the populace would spiral out of control even beyond thier ability to handle situations..

This brings us to the present day... a day like any other.. yet the start of something that would change everything..


Deep undergroup.. in a natural cavern somewhere under the mid-west united states... a congrigation of cultists, each wearing brown robes marked with a white spider on the front... These figures were preying to a zoaform close to ten feet tall,, it's form no listed in any of chronos's databanks.. this woman.. a lost number who somehow mutated out of her standard zoaform.. was the leader and founder of the cult of the glass spider.. Her face gazed upon her followers.. the most loyal of her pack.. and a had she a mouth in this form she would have smiled.. but instead her pleasure reflected throught her mental voice.
"My friends... Our painstaking work against the Abomination's worshipers has atlast come to fruitation." She held up an old journal.. it's age indeterminable. "The spder's whispers have lead me to the sacred Book of Kintaro.. who we beleaved to be an ally of our great spider"
Cheers went up through the crowd.
"When translated.. this book will undoubtable tell us how we will finally disposed of the abomination's spawn.. the brood of my foul sister and those she calls her own!"
The crowd cheered even louder as the woman raised her hands higher. On her back, four long white multi joined legs twiched as she rose them too in victory.

The crowd cheered even louder than before as they all rose thier hands in celibration.


Across the country.. a man, lets pretend his name is Phillip, was climbing out of bed after smashing his alarmclock to bits.. he overslept.. and on the first day of his new job too! He cursed his luck.. this sort of thing was always happening to him.. Muttering under his breath as he ran out the door after hurriedly getting ready. He managed to catch a bus to work and snuck in before his new boss realised he wasn't there on time.. sighing in releaif, he booted up his computer when he felt a steely grip on his shoulder.

"ACK! I DIDN'T MEAN TO OVERSLEEP! HONEST!" He stammered out and turned around, only to be greeted not by his boss.. but by his best friend, Riede.. who managed to get him the job in the first place. "Oh, it's just you.. Geeze Riede.. don't fucking do that."

Reide laughed.. he was a tall black man with a well groomed appearance. "You need to relax, Phil.. don't go crazy or anytihng" Reide slapped Phillip on the back in a goodnatured friendly sort of way. "I'm gonna get some coffee.. remind me to show you aruond the office later.. introduce you to the guys.

Phillip scowled for a moment, then smirked. "Sure.. get me some coffee too?" Reide was always sneaking up on people.. it was only natural, as he was a scout type zoaform.

"Pffft.. screw that.. Get your own damn coffe" Reide laughed as he walked off, waving slowly.

_____________________________________________________________________-
OOC- GASP! I met a Deadline!
Well.. Game's up people.. time to see where we're headed.

The day began like any other day. Reilly dragged himself out of his bed a minute before his alarm was scheduled to begin its irritating ring. The girl next to him moaned softly. He almost forgot about her, then again most of that night was a blur. He sat there, studying her, a name. He needed to remember her name. His eyes caught sight of her shirt and jacket, strewn by the door to his modest accomodations.

"Well, at least she's no hooker, like last time." He mused, standing up and tugging on a pair of boxers and then slipped into his jeans. "Where's that damned shirt?" He cursed in a whisper. "I need to get there in half an hour and I don't have my damned shirt!" Another moan came from his bed and he bit his lower lip as she rolled over to where his body had been lying only moments ago.

"Rei-Reilly?" She managed to sleeply string together his name.

"Sorry love, I need to be getting to work." He bent down and kissed her on the forehead only to feel a temptingly warm hand slide up to his back and tug him back down atop her.

"You've got a way with words you know?" She purred into his ear. "Talkin' all sweet and like so early in the morning." He didn't resist and fell back into bed.

"What can I say darlin', its one of my many charms."

4 Hours Later

"Corwin, you're late."

"Sorry boss, your daughter likes it a little rough in the morning." Reilly grinned as he sat down in the briefing room, his fellow co-workers grinning from ear to ear.

"We told you not to let her down home with him boss." One of the guys piped up from the back. "But no, you thought Corwin had morals." Corwin sat there sprawled in his chair with a smug look on his face as that of his superior officer's face grew a more violent shade of red with every passing laugh of his subbordinates.

The loud roars of laughter died down within a few moments as assignments were uploaded and displayed on the sceen behind their commanding officer. Corwin and a squad of five others were to be dispatched to put down some resistance. A recent spike in Anti-Chronos activity had kept him and his teammates busy these past few weeks, not that he minded, though he did always hate tearing up all of his clothes on the job.

"Help my kitties stuck in a tree!" a little girl shouted

"Radical! I'll go save it with turtle power! Kowabunga dude!" a large blond man shouted as he leapt out of the bushes.

"Why were you in the bushes?" the little girl asked "And what's turtle power?"

Vincent ignored her questions as he transformed into a huge turtle like beast "That's turtle power...as for why I was in the buishes....err... you don't wanna know."

The kitten in the tree hissed. Vincent turned to the tree and gave it a good kick knocking it over in one blow.

"MreaaaaoooW!" the cat ran away with the little girl chasing it.

"Alright! It's radical gnarly Reaganomics dude!"

"Get off my lawn you damn hippies! What did you do to my tree?" An old man shouted as he ran out of the house changing into a vamore.

"Whoah chill out old dude, I was just saving a kitten!" The old man vamore began blasting lasers at him chasing Vincent away.


Later

"Old man whithers is billing us for the tree...." Naomi, a short goth girl with spikey hair said to Vincent slightly annoyed.

"Don't worry Master Splinter, no price is to tall an order for justice! That's reaganomics baby!" Because Naomis zoaform looked kind of rat like he always called her "Master Splinter" much to her annoyance, he'd sometimes forget that she was even a girl and walk in on her in the bathroom oblivious, not that a guy was even supposed to walk in on another guy but that was besides the point.

"Well I think todays been pretty radical, I saved three kitten dudes and stopped a bogus jay walker dude with turtle power!"

"This sucks....all were doing is racking up lawsuits we need to find something to do in a less populated area." Naomi opened up an email on her labtop, it was a copy of a brazilian newspaper article.

"Oh....hmmmm....maybe this'll be just the thing to keep Vincent out of trouble."

"International archeological saboteur and art theif "Scuba Steve" sighted in Brazil."

Riede was giving Phillip a tour around the office. "Okay.. that's the bitch queen's desk... whatever you do.. don't make eye contact.. she'll eat your soul and crap it out like a bad patte"

"Ex of yours?" Phillip raised a brow slowly.

"She's an Ex of half the office.. Slut was doing half of us at once and none of us caught on for close to 8 months" Reide looked pensive. "She even kept a running tally of wedding proposals"

"Ooookay" Phillip decided it was time to move the tour ahead. "Moving on.. what's that?" He said, pointing into a large gothic archway with doors made of stone the color of blood.

"That's the accounting section.. don't want to head you in there.. You read dilbert right?"

"Wait.. your not saying Dilbert's right about office work, are you?" Phill raised a brow.

"Hell no.. well.. not all the time... okay.. maybe a little.. sometimes" Reide shrugged. "Truth is.. that's a leftover from last year's halloween party that no one bothered taking down"

"Dilbert isn't true then?"

"Nope"

"Is our boss atleast a pointy haired idiot?" Phil sipped from his coffee cup.

"All bosses are like that, Phil.. All bosses are like that" Reide laughed. "Oh, hey.. We're at the employee lounge.. Come on in.. I'll show you how to work the vending machines"

"Kick them in the side till they drop what your after?" Phil said. "It was in the employee handbook"

"I was wondering when they'ld accually include that part" Reide walked up to the machine, pressed in the number of the granola bar he wanted.. then savagely started kicking at the side of tha machine intill the bar fell.
"See? Easy pickings"

"Seems a little dishonest" Phillip remarked, untill he saw the prices on the items in the machine. "Oooor not... these prices are highway robbery"

"Oh.. here's 'Twitch!'" Reide said as another employee entered the lounge with a disheveled look on his face. "S'up Twitch?'"

"The rolls.. they're taunting me"

"This'll be good" Reide smirked, turning to phillip. "Twitch here's a good guy.. but he's a little off at times"

"The toilet paper rolls.. they're always empty.. the blank carbboard tubes.. with just a scrap of the last sheet still hanging on.. taunting you.. " Twitch remarked as he took some coffee from the pot on the cooker. "If only you had gotten there sooner.. you might have saved them"

"Oooookay" Phillip decided to start backing away. "I'm sure your a very intereting person.. but I'm going to go hide under my desk now" Phillip turned to leave, but Reide caught his collar and held him tight.

"You.. your the one!" Twitch turned to Phillip. "Your the one who keeps putting the new rolls on backwards! Toilet paper is supposed to be pulled OVER the roll, not under it.. OVER I say!" Twich finally took a sip of his coffee and shook his head violently, as if clearing his head of a wicked dream. "Wow.. I was doing the toilet paper bit again? I need more material"

"Now you see why we call him twitch?" Reide laughed.

"What's his real name" Phillip whispered.

"We've all just called him twitch.. He's been here longer than most of the other employees.. and none of us bothered asking his real name"

Phillip raised a brow again. "This office is a madhouse.. remind me why I decided to work here?"

"Unemployment doesn't land you chicks?"

"Oh yeah.. that" Phillip sighed.

For one of the most powerful organizations, Reilly always wondered why he had to fly coach. I mean it's not like I demand a lot, you know maybe the occasional meal here and there on 16 hour flights but I'm pretty reasonable when it comes to well, everything else. One of his companions grunted and shifted their weight while they turned their head and tried to sleep.

Reilly merely stared blankly at the seat in front of him. He'd read all the newspapers and magazines, even the trashy tabloid ones that they had on the plane, twice. One of his sketcher comrades had brought along a suitcase full of dirty smut and Reilly was half tempted to ask him for one. The day I read one of Steve's smutty novels is the day my hockey team wins the Cup.

"You look bored bud, need something to read?" Reilly cursed whatever cosmic creator there was for reading his mind.

"No thanks." Reilly smiled. "I've got some music to listen to." With that he reached over to his chair and yanked the MP3 player from another of his troop, they'd be landing in three hours and prayed there was something on the player to keep him from evicerating the plane until then.

Douglas woke to the sound of an ear piercing beep. His alarm, set to go off at 0500, was as accurate as ever and he quickly leapt from his bunk and landed nimbly to the floor.
He peered around the dorm to see all his fellow officers slowly dragging themselves from the bunks and then looked across to his bunk mate and sniggered to himself as he watched the rather large man toss and turn with his pillow clutched desperately around his ears.

“Goddamnit Douglas where do you get so much energy from… If I had known that undergoing development was going to have me still gasping in your dust every morning I’d have joined with the rebels”.

Douglas quickly turned to the private and swiftly slapped him across his already rosy face with a swift back hand before returning to his locker to get his boots.

“You remember how quickly those fools were torn apart don’t you Mikey? I’d hate for you to have been one of those poor unfortunates”.

Mikey rubbed his cheek and promptly dropped back to his pillow before suddenly being jolted back upright by the roar of a gruff voice at the entrance to the dorm followed by a chorus of bustling feet and straightening bodies.

“ATTENTION!!! ALRIGHT YOU SCUMMY SLEAZE SACKS! LET’S HAVE YOU UP WITHIN 2 MINUTES! I DON’T WANT TO SEE ANY LATE ARRIVALS OR SHABBY UNIFORMS TODAY… ALL THIS PEACE HAS GIVEN YOU HORRIBLE LOT FLABBY BITCH GUTS AND I AM NOT A HAPPY BUNNY!”

Mikey seemed to tremble as he heard footsteps coming towards him. The ever increasing thud of the approaching Sergeant synchronized with his own heartbeat and he winced as if expecting the shit to well and truly hit the fan.

“YOU YOUNG PRIVATE ARE A DISGRACE… 0500 IS THE TIME YOU RISE FROM THAT SHIT HOLE YOU CALL A PIT NOT 505! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR ASS PUKE?”

“Err yes sir… Absolutely sir”

Mikey was almost curled up into a ball at this point and still unable to open his eyes fully from the sleep that clogged up his eyelids.
Douglas etched closer to the bunk to try and distract the Sergeant but his attention was clearly unshakable as he narrowed his eyes towards the still dosing private.

“ABSOLUTELY… ISN’T THAT A LONG WORD FOR A SCRAWNY LITTLE PRICK LIKE YOUR SELF? DO YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT THE DEGREE OF WHICH YOU AGGREE WITH ME SQUIRREL SNOT?”

“Err no sir! S-sorry sir! Just about to get ready sir”

By this point Mikey was looking quite flustered and Douglas felt too much pity for the youngster to allow this to continue. He leaned across the front of the bunk putting his face directly in between the Sergeant and Mikey and gave a big cheesy Cheshire cat smile.

“OH DON’T THINK I’VE FORGOTTEN ABOUT YOU PUSS FACE! THAT LITTLE PRANK YOU PULLED LAST NIGHT COULD HAVE GIVEN THE COMMANDER A HEART ATTACK IF HE WASN’T SUCH A STRONG WILLED AND HEALTHY MAN! ARE YOU LISTENING CORPORAL DOUGLAS”

The Corporal quickly thought back to the night before where a group of his unit had hacked past the security systems and glued the legs of the base commander’s chair to the floor of his office. It was suppose to be a simple prank however the commander became so frustrated with not being able to move the chair that he tore it apart trying to pull it up from underneath himself and almost ended up making one of the chair legs vanish.
Douglas let out a slight smirk as he imagined the face on commander Purgstall’s face as a chair leg lodged itself up his rear end and then tried to quickly regain his composure.

“DO YOU FIND THESE PRACTICES AMUSING YOU BARREL OF MAGGOT PISS?! I EXPECT MORE FROM MY OFFICERS NOW OUT THERE AND GIVE ME 50 LAPS! YOU, YOU LITTLE FAGGOT TURD, YOU CAN DO LIKEWISE BUT IN YOUR UNDIES SINCE YOU CAN’T DRAG YOURSELF OUT OF SLUMBERLAND QUICKLY ENOUGH!”

The Sergeant quickly turned 180 and marched out of the dorm as the rest of the officers returned to getting ready.
Douglas looked over to his friend with a look that could kill the weaker of heart before briskly jogging out onto the training field.

The halogen flash of a dozen cameras dazzled Jareth as he tightened his fist wraps.Just beneath the roar of the crowds,he could hear the faint whirr of the television cameras around the ring,if he really focused he could hear the drops of sweat dripping from his forehead. And then the bell rang and he unleashed his demons...

The chants from the Japanese crowd spurred him onwards as his opponent crushed his breath from his lungs with a brutal knee strike,but the beast would not be denied. Gripping tightly at the offending limb,Jareth snapped his head forward against his foe's,relishing in that sickening crunch of bone against flesh. Not giving up his grip on his opponent's leg,Jareth kicked out at the supporting leg. Within seconds his thai style kicks had taken down his much larger foe. But the beast within Jareth cried out for more,lusted for more,craved more. And in this arena,the beast called the shots...

The commentators were going on about Jareth's physical prowess,but none of that mattered now that he had his victim in his grasp.Wrenching back with all his genetically enhanced strength,Jareth applied one of his favourite submission locks,the high angle leg crab. All that torque on the knee soon proved too much as his opponent tapped out. Letting go of the hold,Jareth Xylyn posed for his fans as the referee raised his hand in victory

"Cute to damn cute, Its like the universe is going my way.” William shook his head smiling “last week I found two black pearls, my stocks are up, I just won a bet with you, and now this client. My luck is skyrocketing!”

William’s coworker Dan stared at him for a little “What you talkin about Willis?”

“The client’s name.” William slid Dan the folder. “And what have I said about doing that?”

Dan just chuckled “I’ll stop it when you lay off the matrix parodies.” Dan looked over the file but his eyes snapped back to the name. Claire Anderson. “Gah. That ones too obvious. You’ll practically have to do it.”

William laughed like a Saturday morning cartoon villain for awhile. “I’m wondering if I can slip in a Hannibal reference somehow.” this comment got Dan to give him his famous ‘What in gods name are you thinking’ stare. “Alright I’ll stay with the matrix references for now but by thunder I will get in a good Hannibal reference one of these days.”

“don’t you think it be a bit of a stretch here?”

William shrugged then tossed away his trash “Well luch is about over so I best set up for my meeting with her. Ah the joys of an Insurance agent.”

10 minutes latter

“He may be a little strange but he’s one of our best agents.” The secretary opened the door for Claire then shut it after Claire entered the office.

“Welcome Ms. Anderson. I’ve been excepting you.” Sitting at the desk was a man who looked almost exactly like agent smith, and even sounded like him.

Elsewhere

Caleb laughed inwardly at the fools. He couldn’t even pity there stupidity. Hired to track down where and how his current employer’s company money keep disappearing. Well he tracked it down to five inept criminals. Two of which stood guard over the poker game in there Ramotith forms, at the other side of the room. Hell his background check showed they were all Ramotith except for the leader, but even a Gregole would hardly stand a chance against him. Throwing caution to wind he decided to ask what he already had proof of.

“So where are you and the dimwits hiding the money you stole from your boss? come on you can tell me.”

The leader stuttered then yelled in rage “ Shut that little pricks mouth!” The two Ramotith charged Caleb as the other three changed form. Knowing what they would do he kicked the bag with his spare clothes aside the changed into his zoaform. His change to his Gustav form caused them to hesitate for a second. That was all he needed he backhanded one of the first two ramotith in the face, knocking it to the ground possibly out of the fight. He smashed his right fist into the other charging ramotith in an uppercut that had the ramotith cough blood. Then slamed his elbow into its spine as he passed it. The others were apparently smarter then they previously acted, they got out of his way and picked up ‘weapons’. one ramotith had two steel baseball bats, the other ripped out a steel pipe to use, and the gregole threw a steel crate at Caleb.

These fools fought as if were all still unaltered humans no wonder crimes down now, The crooks weren’t adapting. Caleb smile looked almost demonic on his zoanoid face, some adapted. Not even bothering to block the crate Caleb rushed the pipe welding ramotith tacking the crate to the back and barley slowing down. The idiot with the pipe tried to smash Caleb’s head in but only succeeded on shredding the pipe and lodging part of it on Caleb’s horn. He picked the ramotith up and rushed the bat wielding one, slowing a little more as three more crates crahed down on his back, but he ignored what little pain it and the ramotith punching and kicking his arms gave him. The bat wielder dropped the bats and dove out of the way as Caleb rammed the other into the wall where he just stood.

“Three down and two to go, Damn you guys suck.” That’s it play their anger make them attack you. Both zoanoids that remained standing rushed him. He even let them ram him and get in a few punches before he kneed the remaining ramotith in the crotch. Causing it to howl in pain for the last few seconds of conciseness. Then turned to the leader. “Now You’re a multiple job. Embezzlement, armed robbery, wanted for murder , wanted for shooting a cop, resisting arrest, and even wanted for rape.” He cracked his knuckles “You’re an evil bastard who’s list goes on and on. Id love to rip your guts out and watch you bleed, but your many victims deserve better so I’m just going to knock you uncurious and see that you spend the rest of your life in jail.” Caleb grabbed the gergole’s head and forced it down as he brought his knee up.

Making sure all his enemies were alive but unconscious he transformed back into human, put on his spare set of clothes, and walked outside. “The police already notified?”

A man stepped out from around the corner of the next building. “The rest of my squad should be here shortly. I just wish you would take some of use as backup.”

“Come on Sam you know these type can practically tell cops by smell. Besides I’m a Gustav, it take a lot more then these scum to handle me and your always on one of my cases as backup. Most of these fools don’t even relies and literally twice as strong as most of them, heck I’m as close to one of those supper forms as someone outside Chronos can get!”

“I still worry about you. I’ve spent 19 years with you as my best friend. I’d hate to have to break in someone new.”

Caleb patted his friend on the back “Heaven forbid you have to put someone else through that, Sam. There’s a law against you guys using cruel and unusual punishment.” They both burst out laughing and sirens lit up the distance and started heading their way. And I hope you never need to know about my ‘other’ life Sam I want to keep you out of our little three way war.

Claire almost did a double take at the person sitting at the desk, and immediatly regretted her choice of outfit.. black skintight bodysuit with a long black trenchcoat and shades.. She ussually didn't cover up this much skin.. but the forcast said it might rain today.. Still, she couldn't help but feel she was suddenly thrust into a bad fan-movie of the Matrix.

"Agent Smith, I take it?" She said with a hint of agitation in her voice.

"Yes.. Ms. Anderson" Smith said in that monotone voice of his. "I hear you have a... Problem"

"I called earlier.. and I couldn't get you guys to insure my new car over the phone"
Claire huffed.

"Ms Anderson.. We don't DO insurance over the phone."

"Why not?" She demanded.

"Company policy"

"That... the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"

"Calm down, Ms. Anderson" Smith replied. "We here at M.E insurance have had several problems with our phone providers.. We're attempted to work it out, but untill we settle the matter we simply can't work over the phone"

"Anyone ever told you that your really creepy?" Claire stared the man in the face.

"All the time, Ms. Anderson" Smith replied. "If you want to work with another agent, I can arrange that for you. The best part about working with M.E is that there are so many M.E agents to help you with your problems."

"Do you HAVE to keep twisting everything into matrix quotes?" She glared.

"One of life's little pleasures, Ms. Anderson"

Meanwhile---

Phillip was surfing the internet at his computer at work, looking at an one of those ultimate fighting championship websites to see who were the big names in the industry right now. Phillip had considered joining when he was younger.. but decided against it after breaking his nose fighting a friend in a practice match.. Well, it wasn't really a fight, since all his did was trip over an untied shoelace and faceplant on the pacement.

"Hrmmmm.. looks like some guy called Jareth is leading the charts these days.. " He mused to himself, downloading one of the clips of the guy's latest matches. Since he worked at a softwear company that went by commision, he was allowed to surf the internet when not actively assigned to a project. "Wow.. that's pretty good.. I wonder if I could do that someday" He mused to himself, knowing full and well that he'ld never be able to fight like that... atleast not in human form.. He was pretty scary in his zoaform.. He really enjoyed the Tabross type.. it was easy to hide in the sand at some of the beaches he used to hang out at before he moved to the city.

Suddenly his phone rang and he picked it up. "Programs by Demand. We code it, you just load it. What can I do for you?" He grimmaced. He thought the company motto was pretty stupid.. but it was a requirment for answering the phone. "Oh.. boss! Yeah.. Job for me then? Allright.. I'll be right there" Phillip closed down his active programs and went to his boss's office to see what was up.

Lights flashed from the police cars that were being used to block off the area to keep innocents from getting injured, because as it was anywhere, wherever there was trouble and danger, people flocked from everywhere to gawk at it like stupid tourists. The crumpled up heap of a Ford laid strewn across the pavement in front of a shop where loud, triumphant laughs could be heard. There was seven of them, members of a nortious street gang that loved to cause trouble, but one of them would have been enough under the circumstances. So far they had managed to repel every attempt at flushing them out, and had left the normal police in a state of lost.

A black helicopter buzzed over head, and lowered itself into the middle of the blocked off street and hovered a few feet off the ground. The side door slid open and a young man jumped out on to the street below. He was dressed in the very recognizable uniform of the Hands of Chronos, the blue and white body suit. His greyish silver hair blew about as the helicopter flew back into the sky and left the amber eyed Chronos operative standing there. His name was Sien...

Calmly he walked over to the police offer that had been in charge.

"Has there been any change?" he asked cooly.

"No, they're still refusing to budge... Ah, there's only one of you?" the police officer asked nervously.

Sien started walking away. "There's only seven."

Everything was silent, save for the loud laughter coming from inside the shop as the Chronos soldier stalked towards it. As he reached the crumpled Ford, the seven inside the shop finally became aware of his presence.

"Piss off you stupid pig!" screamed one of them in outrage.

Sien ignored this remark and continued past the crumpled car. A few seconds later a dual bio laser blast of a Vamore barrelled out of the shop and shot past him, lightly swearing the shoulders of his uniform, but he never flinched as the bio blasts passed on either side of him.

"You had your chance!" Sien shouted, his body suit tearing from his body as his muscles bulged and his body transformed. His hands melded together and turned into foot and a half long swords with a small thumb like blade at the base. The head fin and tendrils sprouted from his skull as it warped and completed its transformation. The whole thing finished as his body turned to its full height and mass, leaving the Thancrus in the place of the young man as he continued towards the shop.

When he was no more then five feet from the shop window, he crouched and launched forward as his legs surged and propelled him forward. If there had been a window left in the shop, he would have crashed through it, but instead he landed cleanly inside in a crouch, surrounded by the seven normal zoanoids, three Gregole types, three Broiz forms and a Vamore, all of them backing away from him in apphrension. Empowered by the determination to live, one of the gregole's charged forward without warning, but Sien was quicker, flicking his hand blade up just at the right moment and bisecting the muscle type as easily as one would slice through butter. Sien then lunged at the nearest zoaform, a Broiz and jammed his sword through its chest and with his superior strength and the momentum, he sent the weaker zoanoid crashing into the vamore that was racing for the front door.

One of the Gregoles appeared behind him and grabbed him in a crushing embrace, attempting to break his arms and ribs, but before he could get that far, Sien swung his legs up, slipped out of the muscle type's embrace and grasped his opponents head between his knee's, before twisting violently to the side and ripping the head off messily, sending blood spraying all over the shop walls.

He was faster and better equip then any of them combined. He could seemingly appear and disappear at will, appearing behind an opponent and killing them before disappearing a second later, which was why it was necessary to send only him for a task such as this, sending more then one hyper zoanoid would have just been a waste of time.

He jammed his blade through the skull of the second Broiz and turned on the last one without a second to slow down. The last Broiz attempted futly to fight back, but lost his arms in the process and died as Sien jammed his knee spike into its throat with single jump. By now he was covered in blood, and when turned to face the last of Gregole, he nearly appeared to seem like some demon from hell. The last muscle type didnt stand a chance, before Sien attacked. It stood there, blinking in mute silence, thinking that it didnt even see the hyper zoanoid move, before it slid to the ground in several pieces. Sien turned to the last remaining zoanoid, the Vamore, who had only just gotten off the ground and was running out the door when Sien turned on him. The bio blaster type didnt get far, as Sien appeared behind him, and punched his blade between the Vamore's shoulder blades and through his chest as he carried him forward with his momentum intot he crumpled car that laid outside of the shop with a vicious crash that shattered most of the normal zoanoid's bones and skull, killing it instantly.

"This is the fate of all that upset the peace Chronos has established" Sien muttered darkly.

About an hour ago he had left America for Brazil in his private aircraft the "Thunder Turtle 37". Instead of a conventional propulsion system it used an ion jet and could reach maximum speeds of mach 16, it wouldn't be long before they got there.Vincent waited impatiently in the cockpit as the Thunderturtle was set on autopilot. He cluctched a custom made Titan blade at his side. It was a unique weapon simialer to the spear like blade of the same name used by Sechs in battle angel. It was no vibro blade but weilded by him there was no normal zoanoid that could stand against it.

"Damn, Vincent sure looks serious." Ali remarked. Ali Tran was a street smart kid from India, before he joined the team he worked as both a con artist, but he was also a doctor for some of his poorer peers since his father had worked for cronos before he died, he picked up some of his medical skills. Ali was a dark skinned boy who looked to be in his late teens, his hair was pulled back in a pony tale and he wore sunglasses. He wasn't officially a doctor though, the only Phd he had was in ass kickery. Sitting next to him was Vincents pet LKiger Bandit. Normal people would not keep a Liger in the same area people sat in while in a plane, even if it was a tame hyper intelligent Liger like Bandit the smell alone would be enough to make most people reconsider but not Vincent.

Flashback:

"No! Bandits part of the team! And any dude whose on my team gets treated equally! Don't worry kitty dude, I won't let these bogus joes discriminate you!" he patted the Liger on the head.

"Mraaoow!" Bandit rubbed up against him appreciatively.

End flashback:

"Woah, Vincents looking pretty serious for once." Ali remarked.

"Well, we haven't had anything to do but various odd jobs for the past few months, it's good to have a change. Besides, Scuba Steve is an old aquantence of his from what I understand." Naomi said as she typed away on her labtop.

"How so?"

"I don't know, but sometimes when it rains he wakes up and runs out into the storm and shouts "Damn you scuba Steve!""

"Oh yeah, I heard that , it woke me up..."

Meanwhile

"Nyhahaha! If you don't mind, I will be taking the mask of Kamen X now!" A man who looked like the spitting image of Snidly whiplash said as he rubbed his shiny black mustach between his fingers. Over his left eye was a shiny monical completing the look of a cliched yet british villain. He spoke in a devious yet naisal voice which grated on the ears. Behind him stood about ten large muscular men. The mask of Kamen X was rumored to belong to Kintaro, the person who wrote the famous book of Kintaro, of course in actuality it had nothing whatsoever to do with Kintaro and was a completely unrelated artifact , but the people of this village believed it to be the real thing and so did Scuba Steve.

Back in his teens Scuba Steve had breifly been part of the Spider cult which is where he first learned of the book of Kintaro and all the other lesser known legends within it, that sort of religious stuff wasn't for him though, but it did peak his interest in rare artifacts.

"You'll never get away with this...you slick talking foreigner!" someone who looked to be the village elder said as he came up shaking his fist. He was such a grey old man it looked like he could fall apart with a simple shove.

"Yo! You better back up from the boss little man! We's taking your mask, and I will be cappin yo asses if you give us any trouble gee!" a man at Scauba Steves side said.

"Easy there Striker, there's no need for violence, now do tell me...where exactly in this village is the artifact? Each of these men here is not only a zoanoid , but each of them are trained fighters...welll except for Striker, I'm not really sure why I keep him around...."

"Aw don't be talking bogus shit yo, I may not know karate, but I know ka-razy!"

"Why yes I'm sure you do, now why don't you let the adults talk, as I was saying each a master of their element, even if by some chance you have zoanoids in this run down village, they won't stand a chance! Nyahaha!"

"Grrrraaagghh!" the old man suddenly transformed into a Gregole.

"Nyahaha! I see...." Scuba Steve said as he removed his monicle and transformed, he changed into a huge muscular beast with a goofy fish like head. His zoaform was a Nealcos, physically the strongest normal zoanoid ever created.The Gregole village elder threw a punch with Scuba Steve caught in one hand. He crushed the village elders hand before grabbing his horn and throwing him through the wall of a nearby hut. He walked over to him and stepped on his back grabbiong both his arms.

"Nyahaha....you better tell me, or I'll break both your arms, and then I'll stomp on your crotch until your retracted penis is turned into mush inside your body!"

"Y...you fiend...you won't get away with this...I'll never tell you....never tell you that it's in that blue house over there...oops..." despite being a zoanoid he'd gotten a bit senile in his old age.

"Nyahaha....thank you very much old man, I'll be taking that priceless artifact off your hands now." Scuba steve began to walk towards the house.

"No....stop!" the old man Gregole was powerless to stop him.

Before he could say anything else a sonic scream ripped through the air as the jet circled around the village coming in for a rough landing. It came crashing down right on the house Scuba Steve was about to walk into. The door opened and Vincent stepped out followed by Naomi and Ali.

"Hey dudes! Sorry about the gnarly wipe out landing, I spilled juice on the controls, but don't worry, I have money so I'll pay for any damages."

"You....you just destroyed a piceless artifact...." the old man Gregole said in dispair.

"Really? Uhhh...if it's pricelss that means it's not worth anything...that's radical dude...but have you seen this bogus dude around here?" Vincent held up a badly drawn picture of Scuba Steve.

"Awe shit! He thrashed the boss! Nail his ass!" Striker shouted. The other men transformed, the first to change was a Grimmels, Vincent aslo changed as the Grimmels fired all beams, old man Gregole was annihalated by his beams as they came down on him and Vincent.

"Heh, didn't stand a chance!" the Grimmels laughed. Suddenly something leapt from the cloud of smoke, using the explosion from his lasers as a smoke screen Vincent leapt into the air bringing his titan blade down on the Grimmels head bisecting it. The huge turtles shell was blackened by carbon but still intact!

"Kowabunga dude!" A curvil leapt as him slashing its claws, but before it even got to him Vincent kicked the bottom of the Titan blade ramming it into his crotch, the hound like zoanoid yelped and whimpered in pain before falling to the ground in Agony. Two of the other men changed into winged zoanoids, one a vikarr and the other a gernold. The Gernold swooped down on Vincent first intending to hook its claws into his eyes, his one vulnerable spot on hos armored body, but before it got close enough vincent opened his mouth and fired a white jet into the beasts path. It fell to the ground shattering into tiny bits of frozen flesh. "There's egg on your face shred head!" that bad pun made absolutely no sense in this context but that never stopped Vincent. The Vikarr flew higher and fired it's sonic attack. All the windows around Vincent shattered. He clutched his head in pain.

"Awwwwe, bogus dude!"

"Hehehe, your not to bad, but your attacks are useless against me, now fall and die!" the Vikarr shouted as it increased its sonic output careful to keep at a distance. Suddenly there was a loud bang and the Vikarrs chest exploded. It fell to the ground in Agony.

"Argghh...how who..." It looked to see a Rocies, a scouter type zoanoid camoflaged in the bushes brandishing an Antitank weapon.

"Who? How..." the Vikarr uttered out as it forced itself to stand up, it wouldn't be beaten by a mere scouter type.

"The names Ali, but you can call me Dr. Tran, I have a Phd in ass Kickery bitch!" he pointed the antitank weapon at the Vikarr and fired a second round straight into its crotch.

Vincent was fighting the remaining zoanoids three on one, two Gregoles and a Gustav. The two Gregoles tried to get the better of him by coming at him both at once. One of them took a hit from his Titan blade but held it into his side so that he couldn't use it against his comrade. The second gregole leapt onto his back and bit down on his neck breaking all its fangs on his armor.

"Turtle power!" Vincent shouted as he leapt backwards smashing the second gregole against a nearby house and impaling him ont he stipkes coming out of his shell. The only one left now was the Gustav, this type was an exceptional opponent, the Gustav type had been designed to be a prototype for a full hyper type, as such there weren't too many of them, but even if it wasn't a full hyper, he'd be no match for him in a test of streingth. He held out his titan blade in a defensive stance.

"Heh! You gonna use that metal toothpic on me kid?" The Gustav ran foreward in a full frontal charge. Vincent dodged to the side tripping him with the bottom of his titan blade sending the Gustav crashing into a brick wall.

"Gnarly wipe out dude!" Vincent said cheerily.

"Looks like I underestimated you....I won't make the same mistake twice!" He got up and began to come towards Vincent again only to slip on a sheet of ice covering the ground falling on his face. "Gahhh...your really asking for it punk!" he slipped again.

"Wow....you wiped out again dude...."

"Come over here and fight me you stinkin turtle!" He said slipping on the ice, his armored feet were having trouble getting traction on the ice.

"Yeah sure dude, but I gotta go find that mask thingy first ok, so you just sit there and chill for awhile!" Vincent shot another blast of liquid Nitrogen on the slipping Gustav freezing him in place.

Striker began to sneak away when a huge ratlike thing with spines coming out of its back leapt in his path.

"Where do you think your going?" Naomi asked.

"Uhhh...to the bathroom..." the goofy big eared zoanoid said raising its hands defensively.

"I wanna see both your hands behind your head or I'll turn you into a walking pin cusion!"

"Okay! Okay, Mc Striker don't want any trouble, it's cruisen baby...crusen!"

"Behind your head now!"

"Okay! Okay!" Striker put both hands behind his head but Naomi didn't notice Scuba steve come up behind her with a support beam. He brought it down on her head with enough force to knock her out cold.

"Nyahaha! You'll have to do better then that to get the better of Scuba Steve!"

"Yo man! This place is gettin freaky! Lets role outta here!" Striker said backing behind the stronger zoanoid.

"Scuba Steve!" The huge turtle uttered out recognizing his fishy nemises.

"Nyahaha! Well if it isn't Vincent, I haven't seen you in awhile...brings back memories....But I'm afraid those memories end here!" He reached down plucking a quill from Naomis back and hurling it like a dagger, it bounced off vincents shell and hit a random villager zoanoid who was running in to join the fight, the poor zoanoids body was melted by the corrosive poison in the quill.

"Damn you Scuba Steve!" Vincent ran foreward and swung his titatn blade, Scuba Steve caught it between his hands like a ninja and kicked Vincent sending him reeling backwards before leaping onto a nearby rooftop. Vincent followed hot on his trail. The two of them darted through the village at top speed and then into the rain forest , Vincent slashing through trees that got in his way with his titan blade. A train happened to be going through the forest, Scuba Steve leapt onto it followed by Vincent who swung the blade knocking his feet out from under him. Scuba steve kicked him sending him reeling backwards

"The mask of kamen X is mine now! All mine! Nyahaha!" the goofy looking fish man said triumphantly.

"It belongs in a museum! Hmmmm....Although technically I guess it belongs to the villagers but still, it'd doesn't belong to you you bogus bad head!" Vincent shot a jet of liquid nitrojen at Scuba steve who jumped out of the way landing on another train car.

"Yes it does belong in a museum....my private museum that is....Nyahaha...I bid you adieu, this does bring back memories my old foe!" as the train went over a bridge Scuba Steve dove off it landing in the water and swimming away with the mask. Although they were both aqua types, Scuba Steve was faster, he'd never catch him now.

"Damn you scuba Steve!"

Ard sat in the chair in the cramped space, he hated he could never get anywhere bigger to work in the field. He switched the monitor back to the reference grid and it's partner screen beside it back to a list of maintenance and any renovations to the building in the past 5 month's despite how small they were. The buldings structure on the blueprints on the same screen as the area grid beside it. Most building contracts went to a medium sized company 6 miles from here, apparantly they got a pretty good deal but he'd already checked them out and they were all clean so now he was looking for anyone apart from them who'd been contracted.

Chronos had already done a search of the building looking for the missing information, contents that held locations of certain compounds and other typical intel they'd prefer kept quiet and while they hadn't found anything, they weren't yet convinced of the computer company's innocence and thats why he was here. He had the ability to get into the places people wanted kept hidden, to the dirty little secrets they wanted kept, he was good at it and he enjoyed it.

This one had him stumped though he had to admit, he'd been here for 6 hours and still no results, while that seemed acceptable for someone else it was aggrevating to him and the boys outside were to anxious to get in, if he gave the positive he'd found anything they were to move in and secure it along with anyone else on the scene.

The door to the vans driver seat opened and someone climbed in then stepped into the back, "Why the hell do I have to come in the drivers seat and then climb in the back"

Ard continued watching the two monitors, "Because it's easiar than opening the van side or back doors, possibly allowing someone to see inside, it's also strange for someone to be seen climbing into a van using said doors and not loading or unloading anything. Now, did you get mine?"

The plain clothed Chronos trooper handed him the polystyrene cup and he took it without looking, "Thanks and on that note, drive the van away two blocks and come round on the other side of our friendly computer company here"

"I just drove the thing here twenty minutes ago" bitched the trooper.

"Thats twenty minutes a vans been parked here doing nothing since someone got out of it and went away for refreshments, you also used a disposable tray holding two cups in plain view as you came back here" Commented Ard as he sipped his tea, with lots of sugar, at least the trooper go that right.

The man was already pullign the van out of the parking space and moving grumbling under his breath, "Who's to say there wasn't someone else in the van just waiting for his drink to brought back, all innocent and like, hmm?"

"Because anyone suspisios would ask themselves whats that other person in the van been doing while this other fella went for drinks, and while there could be a possibly good explanation for that, thats still a question, and questions are problems, are risks. Now shut up, let me work" he opened another window showing a list of orders placed. The information stolen must have to be kept somewhere, it just be holed up on disks but if that was the case it would be moved out and from what they could gather when he was assigned to the problem was that information was just flowing in and staying there.

They'd need a system to hold the info, but all they're network systems were checked during the first search, a hidden one seemed the obvious choice but nothing here seemed unusual. He wondered for a moment for a moment why he was checking shipping orders in for computer parts when they themselves were a computer company, they already have everything they needed and realised it was an automatic response to check something through when he thought of it. He went back to the mantainence and renovations lists and started crawling the list of companies that did work again.
Fixed plug socket
One cause of faulty ceiling light wireing
New shelves
Wall cable replacement

The list went on till he saw one labled full central office renovation, not under the usual contracters either and pulled up the info sheet for it. The job time was spaced to two month's then he noticed something, logged hours worked was only 38. That made gears turn in his head, he dismissed where he was immediately though, 38 hours worked in two month's was too noticeable. They could have done the 38 hours in a less spread out time area drawing less attention.

He needed to narrow it down, he filtered the list of repairs to those matching what he deemed the problems areas on the area grid and building structure from the blue prints, places he concluded most likely to hold what he was looking for and the list of building contracts shortened noticeably.

Ard had searched somewhere above 40 when he clicked on wall cable replacement, two days period, 20 hours logged. That was unusual and half his face pulled into a grin, too many hours shoved into too small a time frame to just replace a cable in a wall and a quick look at personal assigned said only two electricians, so who put the wall back together after they pulled it apart and fixed the cables?

Another look also told him it was a storeroom. Now it was easy, they alwas made it the storerooms, why? he wasn't sure but everytime someone wanted to do something it was done in a storeroom. A kerosone message saying find me poured on the wall and light would have been better than a storeroom.

He'd need confirmation before he gave the positive and sent them in, he'd need to go in himself. Pulling his bag towards himself he took out a plain suit and changed into it from his civilian garb in what was surprisingly only a minute or so and already looked sharp as he finally straightened the tie and grabbed a small leather wallet sized case from the bag

"I'll be right back" he told the trooper as he got intot he front of the van and stepped out, "Drive round the block and park left round the corner from here" and shut the door. He heard the trooper swear bitching as walked away.

Few moments later

The secretery of the floor looked up as an extremely well groomed man approached, medium length brown hair combed comfortably, clean shaven no facial hair of any kind, good face and blue eyes. His suit was simple but went on him perfectly and she casually put the bottle under the table.

"Excuse me, I have an appointment with Mr Cobourn"

She returned the smile he gave her after finishing his sentence readily and naturally, he emanated the kind of certain friendless and good naturedness that was infectious to people. More often than not she dealt with the sole concerned attention obsessed office types, they got on her tits sometimes. Her job was stressful enough but they alwas pushed her further and especially now, passed over twice now, that bastard Bob from next floor up got the promotion didn't he, well she'd make sure he got what was coming to him this time, she had brought the Uzi in with her today just like she planned, they'd all get what was coming to them, she'd show the-

"Miss?"

The secretery blinked, and realised she went away for a moment later.

"You alright"

"Oh fine, sorry, went away for a second there" but before all that, she'd get this nice man the help he wanted......

He smiled again, "It's ok, take your time"

"What time is your appointment for?"

"It's an open appointment, I had to schedule it that way since todays kind of hectic for me but we spoke on the phone" At this point typically someone would need to make an excuse when they're told it couldn't be found, or talk they're way in for reasons not requiring an appointment, however-

"Found it, thats fine just head up the hall and turn left, your there"

He wasn't just someone.

Ard nodded his thanks and headed the way he was told then turned another left to backtrack to the guilty store room. He walked by a number of people and iqnored them all, unlike the secretery who he needed to get by, he was better being faceless and forgettable to this lot and he did so by acting like them, concentrating solely on himself.

Stopping at the corner for the turn into the corridor he listened and was rewarded by what he expected to hear, the slow electric sound of the camera turning as it monitored both sides of the hallway. He shook his head, storeroom and a camera, he couldn't believe he'd been stumped by this for six hours. He waited.

Eventually he got what he wanted, a group of people apeared heading down the corridor he wanted into and joined them casually at the back of the group, once he got under the made sure he was near the wall closest to it and dropped his black leather wallet like case and disppeared into it's blind spot. He made to look like he was tying his shoes up while making sure to count how long it took the camera to turn from one of the corridor to the other and checked it was empty.

The leather case slipped open and he took out a pin and hook ended little tool, the camera passed by the door and he moved to it the fast, putting the two peices of equipment inside and getting started 4.3.2.1 and stepped back close to the wall. this was the risky part where he was forced to wait 6 seconds as the camera passed the door, the pin and hook were small, also silver the same colour as the door lock so would be mised on the camera but if someone picked that time to walk down the hall, he'd be caught, it was those elements he couldn't control.

Luckily, no-one did and the camera passed adn he stepped forward fast, finished with the door lock and stepped inside.

The leather case was closed back up and it slipped away inside his pocket and he surveyed the room and walked to the wall with the supposed cable repairs and ran his finger along the inward corner fo the wall and it's adjourning partner going up to the ceiling and moving along from there then stopped halfway, no point in checking the rest, they'd got the texture match right, he didn't bother tapping it, these days it was easy enough to use materials that stopped the sound from being hollow like, instead he pushed his thumb against it and felt it give, not by a visible amount but it was just soft, pliable enough to the touch the way thin plaster might be over something without a real solid behind it.

The leather case appeared again and he took out a knife, he burrowed a hole in the wall and when he punctured through widened a bit and peered in, "There we ar, I found you"

He suddenly heard the door handle being used and his whipped round. The door opened and a man came in, he looked round then closed the door without watching. Ard stared forward as the door swung shut un-obstructing his view showing the back of the man who had just entered walk towards the wall he'd just been checking out, he moved a unit with some box's on it Ard hadn't yet checked and pressed the wall in, there was a click and a panal came open, showing a flatscreen display inside and a pair of hinges that swung down with a keyboard on it and attached cd drive like that of a laptop. Ard walked up soundlessly behind the man put him in a lock, one hand securing an arm while the other went round his neck and jerked him up off the floor and back so he lost all sort of purchase.

As slender as he was Ard was as hard as iron, while not being a fighter he'd made sure he was still quite physicly capable, catching someone with unexpected strength alwas brought a sense of satisfaction, he was also a hell of a track runner.

As the man in his grip finally went unconcious Ard dropped him to the floor, shock and surprise and then the lack oxygen to the head makes people pause, stops them thinking which is why they never change to zoaform when it happens, it simply happens too quick for them. A soldier would be a different case, someone capable, prepared, it would be stupid trying on them though.

He finally took a peak in the panal the unconcious victim on the floor had opened and grinned his half grin. The wall was originally a foot wide, they'd hollowed it out and built a system of drives stacked and packed tightly together inside then screen and keyboard with disc access. He had to admit, he was kind of impressed and quickly went through the file directory. He was right, this place was a new storage area for information being stolen out of Chronos, might have worked aswell if they hadn't got sloppy and left a trail for Chronos to get suspicious about. He took a disc from his cloths and stuck it in the system and copied what was there to it then put it back in it's cover and it dissappeared back in his clothing then erased the system records and altered the settings.

After that he took out his cell phone and made a call, 60 seconds later, he heard the boys come through the door, 15 minutes later, it was over.

Ard was at the van outside now when the trooper who was in it with him came up to him now in the form of a Valvas, "You got on my nerves a lot but you got the job done, I'd been pitched out here for four days before you came"

"Summary report" Ard asked as he watched the building.

"No casualty's on our side, a fair number of them dead"

"They put up a fight?"

"Not really, some got dis-gruntled but we put them down, no what it was, was some lady on the floor above us went crazy with an Uzi, then a lot of the people we were after ran up the stairs, she shot'em dead as they appeared screaming something about some bastard named Bob and how they were all like him, you should have seen the place, a slaughter house, I've seen a lot in my time but what she did wanted to make me sick. So anyway I'm going to get something to eat, you want anything?"

"No, one question though, this lady wearing a dress suit, red hair, smelled like sherry and have black stains on her finger nails?"

"Yeah how'd you know"

"Lucky guess"

"By the way, you happen to know if anyone made any copy's of the information in that system you found to a disc or anything, we're just trying to find out now so we can wrap up kick, I'm hungry"

"Not that I'm aware of, I only had time to checked to see if it was the info we wanted, too many people starting to come through the corridor, had to knock one out"

"Yeah we found him, good job"

"Bye" called Ard as he pulled his bag out of the van and walked to his car, put the bag in the backseat climbed in, started her up and drove away. He slipped the disc from his pocket and gave it a glance before putting it back as a half grin formed on his face, "Yip, another good job...."

ooc: i know its short but all i could do for right now.

Ra'him had ben typing away at his keyboard for the majority of the week oly occasionally stopping to use the rest room, grab a Dew, and light a cigarrette. He was close, he was sure of it. Everything leading up to his current situation had seemed like a blur. All the mattered was the specimen. Until recently the Bio-Mechanical applications of nanotechnology was rather nonplus. Until, that is... he stumbled across some shelved piece of metal in the archives room of Chronos's Science Dept. Having a Masters in Metalurgy, one of many, caused him to be interested in it even if the original reason for him coming down there was to gather some old research. The properties at first look seemed similar to Titanium but was far to pliant. Wishing to take a further look at it in much better surroundings, Ra'him took the sample out of it's containment case and went to his office of lab tables, chemicals, and electronic forges.

That was the better part of a week ago.

After mutltiple testings with a plethora of stimuli and factors. The metal reacted unexpectedly when he dropped a beaker on his hand and blood splatter fell on it, unbeknownst to him. After coming back from tending to his wound, he was confronted with a Mercury like puddle on the extra large peitri dish.

That was 48 hours ago.

He had been at his banks of computers trying to figure out what caused such a drastic charecteristical change so abruptly. Ra'him leaned back in his chair and took a long drag from his cigarrette and exhaled. Something, obvisouly, in the blood caused it. But what?

"I'll figure it out," he thought to himself as he went back to his monitors, data outputs, and results.

The music wasn’t unbearable, though Reilly did chew out his fellow comrade for a few of his more, ‘pop-ish’ choices towards the end of the play-list. The plane skidded across the gritty runway, occasionally bouncing over a stray rock, giving those who’d been airsick a second chance to fill their barf bags. Reilly’s nosed wrinkled in disgust and annoyance.

“The elite forces of Chronos, reduced to a group of vomiting school kids at their first party, what the high and mighty see in this irony is beyond me.” He snorted and impatiently clawed his way to the front of the plane.

“How much longer?” He inquired to the flight attendant.

“Two minutes sir.” Reilly grinned. She sighed with relief and smiled back.

“No need for formalities, especially with current circumstances as they are, I wouldn’t call half these passengers sir, considering the feeble state they’re in right now.”

The small talk quickly chewed through the remaining time and with little more then a moment before the door opened Reilly already had her number tucked neatly into his pants pocket, kissed her on the cheek and departed. Grumbles and groans followed him out the door, Reilly smirking at their comments of his womanizing abilities.

The greeted them in the terminal as they strode past security inspection without a second glance. One guard turned and opened his mouth to object, only to find one of the more shrewish looking Chronos Operatives wave a slew of international documents in his face.

“My apologies,” the man stuttered in broken English. “I did not know it was them.” The group continued on, the Chilean man spouting off about a variety of things. Reilly and the others politely ignored the small man’s whining until they walked out of the entrance to the airport where limousines lazily awaited them.

“You shall be briefed while on route to your accommodations.” He snapped sharply and gave a small sneer before promptly climbing into a limo and speedily left the group of twelve Chronos peacekeepers slightly rattled.

“We get accommodations?” Reilly asked, nearly beside himself.

“We’re either on a suicide mission or we’ve just been exposed to South American hospitality.” One piped up from the back of the group.

“Suicide mission.” Reilly and the others groaned. They gathered their meager luggage and were driven to their hotels. Reilly and the others ate a rather expensive meal that had been preordered for them and surely enough the weasel of a Chilean liaison strutted back into the room and began to recount the situation. The cultists were gathering in rather large numbers in a singular location, which rarely occured and which always turned violent. They learned they would be sent up into the nearby mountains in order to observe and keep the peace. Reilly and the others scoffed at the notion of keeping the peace only to receive dark glares from the weasel and his entourage.

"So we're leaving in the morning eh?" Reilly pulled the number out of his pocket. "Just in case I don't come back alive." He shrugged with a smile on his face as his fellow comrades groaned and shook their heads at him.

Later after Scuba Steve met up with Striker again

"Nyhahaha! Finnally the mask is mine....yes what indescribible delight!" Scuba steve said examining the mask.

"But man gee...all our homies got capped man! Even that guy who was a gustav...I won't miss him though...one time when I played my rap too loud he grabbed me by my underwear and hung me in a tree man...a tree!" Striker was crying but Scuba Steve did his best to ignore him.

After examining the mask Scuba Steve's happy expression turned to a frown.

"Striker my dear boy, have you ever wondered why I was so interested in this mask or how I came to hear of it?"

"Naw man, I'm just doin my job yo!"

"Indeed, well I'll tell you, in my days of youth I used to be part of a cult, the cult of the spider. In their posession was a book, "The book of Kintaro" it depicted an epic struggle the likes of which this world has never seen. But it was written in some incomprehensible language. The fools believed that it was a devine artifact , but I recognized it for what it truly was. It's a cronicle of a lost civilization. I only stayed with them as long as I did because I wanted to get that book, imagine what unimaginable secrets it must hold...."

"Uhhh..."

"Imagine striker..."

"I'm tryin yo, but it aint working!" Scuba Steve bonked him on the head.

"With the knowledge in that book, I may cover the keys to power which the world has never known! That book depicted beings of power beyond which even cronos could ever imagine! If I could obtain the secrets of their power, the world would tremble at my feet and all would know that none is greater then I Scuba Steve, lord high master of the human race Nyahahahahahahaha!"

"Oooookaaaayyy...." Stiker edged away from Scuba Steve slightly.

"Unfortunatly I could never steal the book, it was too well guarded even for a master theif like myself. So I set out to find other clues of the books origen, maybe even uncover a second copy. But this is all I could find, I had hoped there would be some clue, but there is none, this mask we worked so hard for is useless to me!" Scuba Steve flung it against the wall causing it to split in two!

"Awe man! Don't be all bogus like that! I busted my ass trying to get that thing yo!"

"I can see now that the cult of the spider alone holds the secrets I seek. I'll have to steal the book from them, but we can't do it alone, we'll need some very special help if we hope to come out alive from a confrontation with the likes of them!" Scuba Steve said as he rubbed his mustach between his fingers.

Meanwhile

"Damn you Scuba Steve!" Vincent shouted as he faced the setting sun.

"Uhhh...are you ok?" asked Ali.

"He got away again!" Vincent said dissapointed looking.

"Yeah and he got the mask." Vincent suddenly had a look of realization and ran back towards the thunderturtle.

Naomi was back in her human form and was getting dressed, her head still hurt from Scuba Steves attack. Suddenly the door burst open.

Vincent came crashing into the room shouting "Master Splinter! That mask, I think I know what..."

"Get out! Get out! How many times do I have to tell you that when the door says occupied, you don't open it!" Naomi shoved him out of the room so that she could finish getting dressed.

The soft sound of well oiled metal sliding and then clicking into place was the only noise inside the room. The barely audible noise soon died off as the project at hand finished. Four minutes flate for a complete dismantle, clean, re-oil, and visual inspection...not bad. Soft light glinted off the polished black frame of an M93R assault handgun. Modeled off a standard 9MM Beretta it fired a maximum of 3 bullets in one burst and had a modifed, elongated barrel for almost sniper like capabilities. All in all it looked like a nice trophy piece. Not a single section of the elegant weapon was marred by a scratch, smudge, or scuff. The truth of the matter was that this was the preferred sidearm of the "Sarge", an operative known by no other name in the Chronos special forces.

"Sarge" was a slender young woman at first glance. Her build was athletic as was a given when discussing any Chronos special forces operative. Ebony hair hung down to about mid back length in a loose ponytail, stray bits hanging down to slightly obscure her crimson vision. This was her most distinguishing feature, those piercing red eyes, so abnormal. Then again, her zoanoid type was irregular. Setting her favored weapon aside the "Sarge" leaned back in the large hotel chair heaving a tired sigh. She was supposed to join up with a new unit here for another scuffle with the cultists.

As if on some bizarre cosmic cue, the laptop to her left began to beep, signalling a conference call was awaiting her acceptance. Sliding her black nails across a few keys the LCD monitor flickered to life revealing a gruff looking Chronos C.O. which she promptly saluted. He was an older man, short cropped silvery grey hair giving his aged appearance that look of army-esque professionalism.

"Sarge, here is the briefing details for your next mission." He stated looking down offscreen as he fingered through some documents. "The Cultists are nearby, a number befitting sending in our special forces.You and the team you will be meeting up with will be there to observe and keep the peace if necessary."

"Use of extreme force if necessary?" Her tone was business like, red eyes never blinking as she stared at the transmitted image before her.

"Yes, use of extreme force is authorized if the Cultists on either side exhibit violent tendencies."

"Terminate with extreme prejudice?"

"If it comes down to a firefight I want it dealt with as quickly as possible, take them out and capture and high ranking cult officials if you can."

"Search and Destroy?" Her tone darkened slightly at that phrase.

"Affirmative, if all else fails wipe them all out."

"Keep the peace with use of extreme force, terminate with extreme prejudice, Search and Destroy, orders recieved and understood." She gave the C.O. another salute.

"Sarge, one last thing."

Raising her eyebrow she waited for the C.O. to continue.

"You'll be meeting your new team tonight, try and be more presentable." With that the official shut the link off.

Looking down to her 'attire' the Sarge's cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. Working alone in the room on her gear she had dressed comfortably. Comfortably was a plain black sports bra and panties. Frowning to herself she stalked over to a duffel bag of clothes. Getting caught up in her personal work on inspecting her gear had left her unaware of the state of her current attire and that had made her look less than professional to a high ranking official. This was a less than desired start to this new mission. She only hoped the new special forces team she was supposed to join up with wouldn't hold her past against her. "Sarge" was a name that alot of people knew, and alot of people hated.

OOC: Doc Arkham here, newbie from the Guyver Board. :D
Hope you don't mind me jumping in here. First time actually playing in this particular style of role playing, though not this particular character which I have slightly tweaked his beginnings slightly to try and mesh with the developing plot and bumped him back to his zoanoid beginnings. But I am sure my game-mastering skills will assist me in making my posts of a decent size and assist in my storytelling.


IC: It had been three years since my proper reprocessing. Who would have thought it would have taken Chronos so long to uncover my lost file from that rogue geneticists experimentations. I just wish it hadn't taken them so long....

Jeremiah pauses to look in the mirror, letting his eyes take in the sight of his features. At first glance, any passer-by might make the assumption that he was in his fifties, but sadly he had known that he recently had his 36th birthday. His once sandy brown hair had gone completely white; while his face became haggard by the advanced aging effects his first improper processing had wrought upon him. At the party the staff from the hospital he used to work for threw for him, they wore smiles on the outside and commented on how he has aged well under the circumstances, but inwardly he was sure they were horrified. Only Aaron, the hospital’s security chief and his good friend, seemed to really understand what had happened to him and helped him to cope and accept what he had become. Aaron my friend, who would have thought a Gregole could show so much compassion and patience, he smiled to himself.

He sighed heavily as he picks his razor up and proceeds with his morning shave. Being a secret test subject of some mad scientist has taken it’s toll on Jeremiah’s aging, but he counted himself lucky that he wasn’t among the others that ended up dying after their week lifespan had come up.

Since his reprocessing he had been offered a job within Chronos, stating that due to his particular type he would be more suited for field work instead of wasting away in some civilian hospital. Not wanting to turn back completely on his chosen vocation, he compromised and signed up as a medical officer within their military forces. He spent a gruelling year in their ‘boot camp’ and proved himself able to keep up his fellow Zoanoids, though he still doubted that he would ever be seen as truly equal to some of the hardcore soldiers that make this their careers. First and foremost I am a doctor, he said to himself, and even these muscle-bound hardasses need to be patched up every so often. I just do my best and keep them alive, as I am supposed to do.

Jeremiah finished shaving and took one last look in the mirror. “Time to face the day, I suppose.” he mutters as he turns and heads back into his room. Laid out on his simple bed was the uniform of a Chronos soldier. How odd that a simple civilian doctor could have managed to make it this far in a military environment at his age, he thought to himself as he silently donned his uniform. What other heights could I achieve if I just pushed myself a little more? He chuckles to himself and shakes his head. “Now’s not the time to be daydreaming. The team is waiting.” Grabbing his helmet and his medic satchel, he heads out the door of his quarters and heads off to meet his fellow soldiers.

OOC: Just how old IS scuba steve anyway? the cults are maybe 5 years old at the max.. And the book of kintaro was only discovered a couple months ago in game time...

Of course.. what fun is a cliche brittish supervillian transforming monster with a silly name if he's not a little delisional about details the rpg creator might or might not have made clear.

I blame the economy..
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Phillip had been assigned something to code yesterday and had gotten right to work.. Coding was second nature to him, as he'ld been doing small programs on his own time for years.. mostly just to help with his homework and stuff in collage.. So while the particular request was odd.. to design a algorythem that could be used to track anomalies in the laws of physics.. it wasn't hard to do. These privately funded research facilties would call up the company with some strange request every few months.. and the work would be assigned to someone .. they'ld slam out some random code and send it in.. The privately funded reaserch facilities never complained.

From the stories phillip heard around the office, He wondered if the reaserch facilities even used the code they bought.. or checked it to make sure it was accurate.

With a yawn, phillip kept coding. It was nearing quitting time, yet he wasn't finished.. 'Just a few more lines' he mumbled before drifting off to sleep, head resting against the computer screen as his hands continued going through the motions.
Phillip was something of a coding prodigy, almost as if he had been born for the sole purpose of writing code.. Yet any softwear programmer can tell you that coding in your sleep can be tricky.. Afterall.. that's where the microsoft talking paperclip came from. And who wants MORE of those?

After a couple more hours, he subconciously hit the button to compile the program.. then leaned back in his chair for a compleat mental shutdown, letting the program compile overnight. Unknowingly, he had accidentally created a program that could change the course of the future in dramatic and unsettling ways. This program would cause great upheaval in the future if it got into the wrong hands..
___________________________________________________________________
OOC: No worries people.. just a little post to begin the plot down it's first couple baby steps towards greatness.

What did he write? You'll see eventually. BWAHAHAHA!

OOC: Welcome Doc Arkham and enjoy your stay :war:

IC:

Reilly and the rest of his team were to meet up with another group prior to their entry into the mountains. The bus was less then accomodating and foul smelling as the engine spluttered and nearly died a few times. Upon arrival a few more soldiers entered the bus near the front but none were welcomed with such enthusiasm as the young female. Reilly himself couldn't help but whistle along with the rest, and grinned at her fierce icy stare in reprisal for the suggestive cat calls.

"Men." She snorted with contempt and sat down at the very front.

Reilly began to lift himself up to make a move on her when a hand came down on his shoulder. "You may wish to be staying here for the rest of the trip champ." One of the new Chronos soliders said.

"Why's that?" Reilly asked, slightly annoyed.

"That there is Sarge."

Reilly cocked his head to the side and thought. "I've heard that name before..."

"Yeah, no doubt you would. She's one of the few Zektole females."

"Ah." Reilly finally put the face to the name and what a name it was. "Yeah, I hear she's too uptight as it is." He sat himself back down. We must be really heading into some serious shit if she's tagging along, especially after what happened to her last crew...

OOC: Time to show a whisper point in action
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As the bus drew ever closer to it's destination.. subtle details began to register in Reiily's mind as he glanced out the window to admire the scenery. He didn't remember when he noticed this.. but there seemed to be a slow, fuzzy haze wifting through the air mixed in with the breeze. The haze seemed to settle on the native plantlife in the area.. tinging it a subtle blue that was disturbed when something moved nearby.

"That's weird" Reily thought to himself.. but didn't bring any attention to his discovery, lest it might freak out some of his teammates. LEaning back in his sleep, he decided to take a quick nap, since there was still a way between here and the destination.

As he closed his eyes, instantly he drifted into an unnaturally quick sleep. Suddenly he found himself floating in a see of hazy blue, looking around at a seemingly infinate void. He he looked around, he began to hear things... whispers in the wind.. Voices.. people talking..

Testsubject... escaped.. Danger to entire orginization....

Fly.. demon... blood everywhere..

Run! No! He got Johnson!

Comming for me! Nooo!

Masked hero.. Gaint bugs everywhere?

During that time, Reiily kept turning around.. looking for the source of the voices.. and periodically the wind would whip the mists around to form a vauge shape that seemed to reach out for him. Reiily couldn't make out what in the world was up with the strange dreamscape.. but he didn't have time to muse for very long... soon he was jolted from his sleep as the bus took a massive hit.

"What's happening?" He yelled out, some of his teammates were in mid-transformation allready.. although atleast two of them wouldn't be transforming ever again..

"Cultist ambush!" Someone yelled out in responce. "Somehow they new we'ld be coming this way"

Meanwhile.. back in north america..

Clair had finally left the insurance agency and pulled out her cellphone, dailing up a number and stepping into a dark ally for privacy. "Status report?" She asked.

"Your tip payed off" A voice responded, cold and emotionless. "Your methods are questionable.. but that chronos employee you seduced indeed had accurate information.. Our agents in south america report that they encountered the agents and are attacking them as we speak" The voice seemed smug with itself. "You delt with the chronos employee properly?"

Clair grinned into the phone with a cold laugh. "He won't be talking to anyone anymore" She hung up the phone and left the ally after making sure no one had heard her, then proceaded to walk down the sidewalk towards her place of employment.

The ambush was fast and ruthless, and much to the Sarges dislike, well choreographed. Driving her elbow into a cultists midsection she cracked several of it's ribs and finished the job by turning halfway to sieze it's neck and snap it with a sickening crunch. If they were going to survive this then they had to be smart. The cultists were rushing them, not giving anyone time to transform fully. Dropping under a swipe from another aggressor she kicked out angrily at it's knee, bending her opponents leg in a way it should never go.

Whistling to those few that had transformed Sarge started to show why she had been given her nickname. "Front line now! The rest of you fall back into two groups, one defends while the other transforms, then switch!" She ended the order by hurling her downed opponent into a group of it's friends. "NOW SOLDIERS!"

Turning her attention back to the cultists, Sarge drew her M9 and switched it to the 3-Round burst mode. Tilting the weapon on it's side she pulled the trigger, one bullet tearing out and kicking the gun aside, followed by another and another. In true gunslinger fashion she used the kick on the weapon to create an arc of death which managed to down several more opponents. A show like that wouldn't be repeated thanks to proximity. There were just to many people around.

A nearby scream and the blast of an automatic rifle stopped Sarge for a moment. It wasn't the sound of a teammate being torn apart as he tried to defend himself that stopped her. No, it was the sticky warmth that was running down her right arm after the fact. Damnit, what imbecile fires an assault rifle in close quarters combat?! Jerking around she met the oncoming sickly green fist of a Gregole, connecting with her torso and sending her flying into the nearby forest.

The rest of the Chronos team was faring better than their makeshift leader though. Using the split team tactic she had told them to the casualties were kept to a minimum thus far and nearly all of them had the chance to transform and even the playing field. That was until the field was tipped by a trio of crimson energy blasts that lanced out from the treeline and caught a certain gregole full on in the chest, vaporizing most of it's body in the process. From the forest line a pair of shimmering red insectoid eyes could be seen. Time to show these bastards why they call me Sarge!

Reilly grunted, still dazed from whatever visions he'd just had. Sarge had taken command of the group from what he saw and he didn't mind all that much. With a reputation like hers, he was glad it was someone like her and not one of the fresher members that had been added to the roster prior to the plane lifting off.

For now he was doing his best to quickly subdue as many as he could while still in his human form. He drew out the two kunai style daggers he'd brought with him for just such an occasion and began to slice through the cultists, providing further support for his fellow comrades who quickly took Reilly's sign to transform and that they did.

Soon after cutting down another half dozen cultists zealots, particle beams seared the air above him and rained down on the oncoming foes. Reilly turned to see a majority of the team had made it into their Zoaforms, only five or six of the rookies had been caught in mid transformation and killed. He hopped and skipped back, aware of the energy fire towards his group, most of whom had consolidated into a sizeable force.

He heard more screams and then saw the unmistakable form of Sarge burst into view, her insectoid body shimmering and coated in blood as she tore through legions of cultists who began to swarm her like a beehive. Reilly threw his two kunai blades into the bloodsoaked dirt and barked orders to spearhead themselves towards Sarge in a pincer style move to attack the cultists flanks while he decided to charge straight in with a few other hypers he'd worked with on a few of these kinds of missions before.

Sarge's blade on her right forearm drove deep into another Gregole's chest and quickly snapped her arm up to sever the Gregole's ribcage and skull. The sound of warcries alerted her to the swooping attacks of her fellow Chronos comrades. She lifted her head up to catch another Rammoith by the throat, with a quick squeeze it's head exploded in a shower of gore. Further past it in the distance she noticed a group of seven or so hyper zoanoids charge towards her.

"Like that'll work." She huffed and spun to backhand a Vamore and watch its shoulder explode upon impact. A group of Vamore Cultists opened fire on the charge group. Slightly interested, Sarge spun to watch their untimely fate, only to note that their energy blasts reflect off an energy sheild and then see a Powered Zerbebuth grab hold of a Thancrus in his group and fling him forward, the sleek hyper zoanoid flew through the line of Vamores and cut them down like trees.

"Not bad..." She had to admit. Reilly, a pair of Zencrebe and a trio of Derzerb quickly began to make short work of the cult Zoanoids before them. The trio of Dezerbs grabbed hold of the massive Powered Zerbebuth and flung him forward, Reilly curled into a spiked ball and mowed down six Zoanoids before bursting open and landing next to Sarge.

"So boss lady, any more orders?" His voice was wild and feral but still respectful of authority. Before Sarge could start in on him for his sly witt, Reilly's hulking body turned around and his tri claw extended forward and skewered a lunging Eltopo through the chest and flung its body into a mob of oncoming Dails, however the Chronos team's skills and expertise began to shine through as they were steadily killing more cultists with no further casualties.

Vincent examined the article that had initially sent them off on Scuba Steves trail. According to the article the village Scuba Steve had attacked was actually a smaller offshoot of something else known as the cult of the spider. The people there had only just gathered in the last few months after the discovery of a relic known as the book of Kintaro. But how had Scuba Steve known about all this? The only way to find out would be to go directly to the cult of the spider and ask.

"Vincent what exactly are you looking for?" Naomi asked as he was looking at the article.

"I made up my mind, were going to visit the cult of the spider!"

"Eh...I thought you just said something about the cult of the spider..." Naomi couldnt have heard that right.

"Yeah were going to go there. I wanna ask the dude et who runs the place some questions!"

"Vincent, are you out of your mind? The cult of the spider is dangerous! Even cronos can't seem to stop them!"

"Were not going to fight them, I just want to find out what the deal is with that book and the mask." Vincent said cheerily. The truth was that while the mask was anchient like the book it really had nothing to do with what happened. It was actually a mask that had been used in production of the ultraman tv series in japan in the old universe.

Ard had stopped the car five minutes ago in a side street, it was narrow and difficult for anyone to see into without being obvious but still gave him view of what he wanted so as to be able to see where everything was and should he need to leave quickly.

He heard tyres rolling along the slick ally's tarmac behind his own vehicle and finally stop, until less than 15 minutes ago, this other car was just driving round waiting for somewhere to be named so it could pick what he had and now it had come. A man stepped out the car and Ard dialed his number into his phone, a moment later his comrade waiting by his open drivers door stopped what he was doing and reached into his jacket to answer his phone, "Hello"

"Never mind, just hang up, it was me" the man walked over and got in the passengers seat of the vehicle slipping his phone away, "Your too cautious"

"Your not cautious enough" He reached out and shook his hand then the disc appeared from nowhere as he verified his recoqnition of the face and the man took it. His new passanger looked at him, "How useful will it be"

"Depends, there's lots of installation information and locations, those'll work, but they'll change everything else they can, probaly starting as soon as possible once they finish going through the data in a day or so. Security codes, some procedures"

The man looked at Ard, he wasn't a soldier or a killer, but he was capable of doing almost anything, too much for reason, even in this world but he had an air of certainty and being able to watch over himself despite his lack of combatative ability. He shivered at the thought of Ard hunting for him and knew he'd succeed at it, he'd track him down wherever he dissappeard on the planet, it was what he did and he did it well.

He smiled though, Ard Rhuk had saved him and others more than once with the right few words and sharp appearances in the field or even just on a phone line. He still didn't like Ard Rhuk's name though despite his capacity to accomplish things a thousand zoaforms storming a compound couldn't. He doubted he'd ever meet the information traffickers parents but he swore to himself he'd smack them if he did, who the hell names a kid Ard when they're second name is Rhuk anyway?

"Stop thinking about my name" He'd had to put up with this guys obsession on it since he meet him. His passenger grinned, "Sorry, it's just.." was all he could manage as he got from the car.

Ard looked at him, "Ever think maybe I changed it to that after I started doing what I do?"

The man snorted in amusement and shook his head before heading for his own vehicle as he watched his conspirator drive off and then did the same himself.

Ard rolled his neck and turned the car to head for his home, at least his home in this area anyway. The debreifing for the mission earliar would happen once the area was cleaned up and prelimenary checks on the computer system were made but tonight he was free to go home or was.....

The phone in his jacket rang and he answered it. "We have a task for you...."

Upon exiting the dorm complex, Jeremiah takes in a deep breath of the fresh air and pauses to survey his surroundings. The base is laid out in similar fashion to any typical military base: dorms, mess, etc, etc. Each unit had their own dormatory with enough bunks for all the soldiers in the unit, including their Sergent's own personal quarters. As Jeremiah just arrived the previous night, they quickly assigned him a temporary room until he could be properly bunked with the rest of the unit.

Jeremiah was broken from his reprieve by the rather loud shouting of a burly Sergeant, hustling his unit out into the yard for their morning exercises with the usualy over-the-top vulgar swearing. The men of the unit are obviously not pleased to be dragged from their beds, with the exception of one particular Corporal, who seems to have no problems with keeping up with the Sergeant. The sight that brought a guilty smirk to the Doc's face was the sight of one of the soldiers trying to keep up, dressed in nothing but his boxers!

"Oh, this indeed is turning out to be an interesting morning! Might as well go introduce myself to the Sergeant." as he shoulders his medic satchel and heads out towards the pack of runners.

Comming to a halt next to the Sergeant, Jeremiah briskly salutes and awaits acknowlegement of his presence from the Sergeant. "Medical Officer Jeremiah Arkham reporting for duty, sir!"

"WELL IT'S ABOUT TIME YOU SHOWED UP!! DID WE DISTURB YOUR BEAUTY SLEEP, 'DOCTOR'? I AM NOT RUNNING A DAY CAMP HERE!! YOU ARE TO RISE AT 0500 JUST LIKE THE REST OF THESE MAGGOTS!!" he snaps, before quickly turning his attention to the rest of the unit "NEVER MIND EAVESDROPPING YOU LOUTS!! FOR THAT YOU CAN DO ANOTHER 50 LAPS!! AND YOU, GET YOUR ASS OUT THERE WITH THE REST OF THESE PUKES WHERE YOU BELONG!!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Jeremiah replies crisply before dashing to catch up with the rest of the unit.

"Typical brute. Swear that he probably seen Full Metal Jacket one time too many." he mutters to himself as he swifly approaches the rear of the group of runners. He hopes to himself that the rest of the day won't be spoiled by the Sergeant's ill hospitality, but he doubted that.

The doctor takes the time during the run to make a rough assessment of the physical condition of the men, noting those who may need attention from exhaustion. He takes particular note of that Corporal who seems to keep himself in the excellent physical condition compared to some of the unit. Obviously 'peace-time' has had their effect, though by all means are they out of shape.

As the morning passed on and the run finally finished, Jeremiah followed along with the rest of the troops in the steady stream towards the Mess Hall for morning chow, making idle conversation with the other men, introducing himself and pressing them for any buzz around the base.

Douglas had been watching over the new arrival since he completed his initiation in boot camp and now he saw the medic sprinting slowly behind him to catch him up.

Douglas speeded his jog to a slow sprint but not so much so that it was obvious he wanted to get away. He didn’t really know why he wanted to keep his distance from him but something about this Jeremiah just felt off. Like he maybe had a hidden agenda or secret that hidden from the rest of the unit.

“Corporal… Excuse me CORPORAL!”

Jeremiah had also sped his step and was now gaining on Douglas quite steadily. Douglas decided to put this troop through his paces if he so requested his attention and so sped up to a swift run. Both exchanged increases in speed until they were almost flying towards the mess hall side by side.

The two men stopped instantly at the entrance to the hall and looked across to the rest of the unit, who were now specs in the distance across the dirt track, neither of them had a bead of sweat on them and both stood tall with chests pushed out. Jeremiah seemed a far older man then the Corporal but just as physically able, which was evident from the unofficial race they had just finished. It bothered Douglas that he had joined the military so late in his life and yet from the wear of his uniform it was as if he’d been there for years.

“So you wanted to speak with me private?”

Douglas had turned to the doorway of the mess hall and was only half listening for a response in between trying to smell what was on the menu for the day.

“Err yes sir I wanted to introduce myself and talk with you regarding the units overall health.”

“Hmmm You see them as flabby lay bouts like the Sergeant, yes?”

Jeremiah relaxed his stiffened official poise and gawped at the Corporal’s assumptions.

“Uhm, No sir… Its far to early for me to tell without proper assessment. I would like to schedule the men for a full medical inspection this afternoon at 0100.”

Douglas was already half way through the door, following his stomach over to the canteen styled window, leaving Jeremiah no option but to follow or end the conversation very sharply.

The Mess hall was little more then a steel bunker with rows of tables and chairs filling its wide expanse. The men bustled in behind the medic pushing and shoving him with jibes about his n00b status. The Corporal, who had wasted no time in collecting his food from the automated food outlet, was sniggering to himself on the far table over the way the troops bustled past him. A sea of blue and white jumpsuits overlapped him as he turned this way and that eventually following the crowd to the outlet.
The Corporal beckoned to him, once he had managed to get his food, to join the end of the table which was now a bustle of what Jeremiah presumed to be the Corporal’s favoured troops.
Jeremiah sat down and glanced around at the troops, who where all ravenously tucking into the grub, seemingly oblivious to there new arrival.

“So you’re a little more then a simple medic I see”

Douglas had taken an eye off the new troop since he had entered the hall and was now pushing the rest of the unit down the table so that he could sit closer to him.

“Sorry sir, I don’t understand”

“Our little race… Sorry to put you through ya paces but I like to know what my men are made of before they just turn up.”

Douglas maintained a smile on his face but the malice in his voice was clearly evident.

“Ahh I see sir. Yes I like to keep myself in shape in case of the worst.”

“Expect little but prepare for everything. The marks of a good soldier there… So what type are you then? ”

Jeremiah paused unsure how exactly to answer since zoa types where rarely questioned about since the time of peace.

“I been processed as a Eurenorm sir”

“Oh well we should be honoured!” The corporal’s voice rose to a bellow to allow the rest of the unit to hear. “We’ve never had fresh fish that actually was fresh fish before”

The hall erupted with a burst of laughter as the troops fell about there chairs and remarked in response to the prison lingo.
Calming them down with a wave of his hand Douglas grinned at the man who was still unsure how to react to his new environment.

“Sorry for the Jibe but it’s a custom to treat the new guys like this. Well you seem like a sturdy fellow I’m sure you’ll fit in just fine… Will you be joining us in the dorms anytime soon or are we too ‘low class’ for ya?”

“No, of course not sir. We are still waiting for a new bunk to arrive. It should be here by tonight I’m sure.”

Douglas got up from his seat, stepped confidently over to the medic and extended his hand. Jeremiah quickly rose and shook the extended hand firmly.

“Very well then I will alert the unit to your assessment as soon as breakfast is over. And while the sergeant isn’t around please call me Douglas”
“Yes sir… I mean Douglas. Please feel free to call me Jeremiah”

“Heh I was going to anyway fish.”

The Corporal sniggered to himself and turned to the exit of the food hall. He went to leave before pausing and turning back to Jeremiah.

“Jeremiah I don’t suppose you have seen Private Carrigon ‘Mikey’ since the morning run have you?”

“No Douglas. I last saw him just before we engaged in your little test… He was a fair way behind the main group”

Jeremiah stammered unsure of whether the statement would offend the Corporal.
Before either man had a chance to continue the doors of the mess hall flew open and a slender man bolted through. His hair was wild and uniform in tatters around him as his skin pulsated rippled with variants of colour.

“MIKEY WHATS GOING ON!”

Douglas roared the question out, instantly seeing his friend’s distress, and ran over to where knelt. The rest of the unit buistled closer to see what the commosion was about but maintained enough distance to both keep them selves out of trouble and not intrude on the Corporal’s space.

“THEY’VE D DONE IT NOWWW!!!”
Mikey’s voice was quivering and his eyes were bulging and reddened as he struggled to raise to his feet.
“THEY’VE DONE IT NOW DOUGLAS… YOU SEE THE DEMONS THEY UNLEASHED?”

Douglas gripped his dizzied comrade under his arms to get him up on his feet and starred, wide eyed, at his seemingly insane friend.

“DEMONS! Mikey what have you been taking?”

“Ehehehehe YOU’LL SEE DOUGLAS. YOU THINK THEY’VE BETTERED US BUT ITS ALL A LIE!”

Douglas took on a more professional manner to try and calm the man as he continued to pulse all over with fleshy mounds of writhing tissue.

“Private this is an order! Stand to attention and explain yourself!”

Mikey shuddered as he looked up slowly to Douglas and smirked.

“YOU! YOU’RE JUST LIKE THEM… I KNOW YOU BASTARDS. YOU ALL WANT MY POWER BUT IT IS HIDDEN… HAHAHHAHAHAHHAAHA YOU’LL NEVER GET IT HAHAHAHAHAHA YOU SEE ME HERE!!!! I’M YOU! YOU ARE ME… WE ARE ALL AND EVERYTHING AROUND YOU!!!”

Douglas stepped in closer to restrain his friend, who was now flailing around wildly, and put a firm but calm grip on his wrist.
The crowd of on looking troops flooded back as Mikey lunged at his commanding officer and previously dear friend.
The hall suddenly became a mass of activity as troops rushed to restrain the crazed attacker.

While the troops were distracted by the commotion the new recruit sat idly watching in complete calm as the Private flung troops this way and that with an immense amount of power.
Eventually a path to the Corporal was made and Mikey lunged onto his chest.
The Douglas fell back onto the table behind him and landed with a crash of china.

“MIKEY WHAT IS THIS?!”

Mikey was still attached to Douglas’ chest, his half zoa/half human formed claws digging into the hardened flesh of his friend as he leaned forwards hissing manically.

“THIS!!! HEHEHEH THIS IS YOUR DEATH CORPORAL!”

The twisted form of the attacking private flew past the troops that were still standing and collided with the food outlet.
Douglas rose upright in his battle form and stretched his claws.

“Mikey I don’t know what this is about but you will not ruin our regime here… Please don’t make me hurt you.”

Mikey’s skin was now green all over and he had taken on an almost Gregole type shape. But this was different. Douglas was no scientist but he could see the obvious differences from Mikey’s usual battle form. His skin writhed continuously as if constantly changing and his eyes bulged like a bugs.
His movements were strange to. Not the humanoid poise of the regular zoanoid but more animalistic. He tiptoed on all fours and hopped about frantically as if awaiting the right moment to lunge. It was as if he had indeed been possessed by exactly what he had previously mentioned… a demon!

Having seen enough of Private Carrigon's erratic behaviour, Jeremiah rises from his seat slowly and calmly walks over to stand next to Douglas. On the outside, his demeanour cool and collected as if he knows exactly how to handle this kind of situation. Inwardly he felt like he was reliving a nightmare…..

"I am afraid that your friend has become very much deranged." he says quietly to Douglas while drawing a rather large, yet sleek hypodermic gun from the holster on his belt and loads it with a D-Cell sized vial filled with a fluorescent green liquid. "If you could restrain him long enough, I can administer a tranquilizer. What ever happened to him, we will not be able to get any coherent answers in his current state. Agreed?”

Douglas despondently sighs and nods in agreement, saddened that he must take down his own dear friend. He turns his attention back to Mikey just in time for the monstrously writhing form to pounce with an inhuman howl. The other soldiers who had assumed their morphus already dived back at the crazed zoanoid, intending to help and protect Douglas. The monster’s strength was beyond that of any normal zoanoid, as he flung zoa-forms wildly about, making it all but impossible to maintain any kind of grip. Seeing that his human form will only be a liability in a brawl with a madness-heightened zoanoid, Jeremiah calmly assumes his own zoa-form and circles the melee, looking for an weak-spot to punch the tranquilizer through into Mikey’s system.

After what seemed like an eternity of wrestling with the crazed Mikey, Douglas finally finds his own opening, viciously kicking his friend off of him and through the mess hall wall. He then leaps back up and dashes out the hole after him, with Jeremiah quick on his heels. The monstrous form of Mikey was already back on his feet, grinning maliciously back at his once friend.

“YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!!” he screams and rushes towards Douglas like a charging bull, his massive clawed feet breaking the densely packed earth beneath him. The Corporal went into a crouched ready position, waiting as Mikey charged at him for the precise moment. Just as the massive form was about to collide with its intended target, Douglas ducked away form the charge, whirling back around with his massive talons and tears a chunk out of the back of Mikey’s knee, bringing the monstrous form down with a thundering crash.

Seeing his opening, Jeremiah leaps in with his hypo-gun ready and grabs Mikey by his left arm, raising the huge limb up and quickly administers the powerful tranquilizer into the soft fleshy armpit. Mikey groaned loudly in pain, trying to wrest his arm free from the Doc, who put his foot squarely into the zoanoid’s lower back and tightened his grip on the arm. “Hold still, god dammit! This is for your own good.” Jeremiah said sternly as the hypo-gun finished delivering its payload. Slowly, Mikey’s form stopped it’s struggling and went limp. With a sigh of relief, Jeremiah released the Private’s arm and turned towards Corporal Douglas.

“That should do it. We can now get him someplaaAAAHH!!”

The Doc’s face was in absolute shock as Mikey suddenly jerked, sending the eurenorm off balance and face first into the dirt. Mikey snarled as he rolled away from the two other zoanoids before getting back to his feet.

“HEHEHEHEH……YOU’LL SEE!! MARK MY WORDS, YOU WILL SEE!!”

Douglas, sick of Mikey’s gibberish and the disruption he has caused, charged towards the private with his claws ready, only to be knocked backwards by the flying form of the eurenorm medic Mikey viciously kicked at him.

“GET OFF OF ME DAMMIT!!” Douglas roared at Jeremiah as he threw him aside with a resounding thud. As the corporal rose to his feet, he scanned the area for his deranged friend, only to find nothing. “SHIT! He’s gone!”

Jeremiah groaned and gasped for air. “Must have *gasp* played…soccer…in school. I don’t understand it. The tranquilizer was enough to drop a Gregole. Whatever happened to him, he is definitely not a normal zoanoid anymore.” as he looks towards Douglas, gauging his reaction.

You’ve just seen your friend turn into an unstable monster before your eyes, toss you and your entire unit around like ragdolls in madness induced rage, and had him slip through your fingers because I got sloppy…..yeah, you’re pissed and it must be eating you up inside. Jeremiah stood up and looked out towards the fence line of the base. What happened to you, he thought. The way his form rippled and mutated….I have seen something like this before…..

“No! They didn’t! It just can’t be…!” he muttered under his breath as his thoughts went to the worst scenario. “Why would they try and recreate Hamidon’s experiments?”

You're keeping in step
In the line
Got your chin held high and you feel just fine

Jareth cradeled his glass,the amber liquour swirlling around it as he heard the last of his guests leave the victory celebration. He knew it was expected of him but in spite of his extravogance and flamboyance,Jareth as in truth an introvert.

Cause you do
What you're told
But inside your heart it is black and it's hollow and it's cold

His mind reeled back to when he had left the 'normal' path and gotten involved with the Harmonic Cult. It had all started when he'd bought this fucking place. Villa with a North Californian sea view they'd said. Isolated from troublesome fans and papparazzi they'd said. What they'd fucking declined to mention was that the reason was because the woods around the villa were 'haunted'

ust how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

One night he'd heard noises and had wandered out to investigate. He'd never really bought into Chronos' PR campaign,but the zoaforming was a means to an end for him. He needed the status for his combat lisence and it broadened his fanbase. Yet something in his heart hadn't quite believed that Chronos was all it seemed.

What if this whole crusade's
A charade
And behind it all there's a price to be paid
For the blood
On which we dine
Justified in the name of the holy and the divine

He'd never imagined the truth he would find in the Harmonic Cult,never imagined the inner peace it would bring. Even the faint and alien whispers he heard from time to time were part of a price he was willing to pay

So naive
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?
Will you stay down on your knees?

OOC: Nine Inch Nails-The Hand that Feeds

Douglas paced up and down the small office with his hands clentched tightly behinfd his back.

Both himself the Jeremiah had been ordered to there immediate superior as soon as the incident had been reported and Douglas liked diverting from his routine as much as he liked the incident that had caused it.

Jeremiah sat comfortably opposite the single desk across from them and remained silent, unsure of how to react to the Corporal's current manner.

"Douglas... I really think you should try an..."

The main door swung open before Jeremiah could finish and a tall stocky man switly entered. His uniform was sharply pressed to the extent that his shoulders looked as though they could take a mans eye out should he get close enough.
The man slammed the door behind him and sat as his desk, ruffling some papers as he sat.

"Corporal Elis please be seated."

The Corporal stopped momentarily and sneered at the officer before returning to his aggresive stride.

"THAT WAS NOT A REQUEST CORPORAL! I know you've been through a trial today but that is no excuse for subordinance."

Douglas turned to the man, who was now pushing out his chest slightly to show an aura of seriousness, and looked ready to attack him before feeling a calm grasp placed on his wrist.
He turned to Jeremiah and grimaced, his eyes glimmering as if he were about to transform, but then reluctantly mellowed and sat himself on the chair beside his new companion.

"Thats better. I was about to apologise to you both but I see you're in no mood for pleasantries so I will be blunt."

The man flicked through a file on his de