NationStates Jolt Archive

"I don't know what happened," Salazar said. "I heard a crash and found her like this, I felt for a pulse but there wasn't one."

"She didn't have a pulse...How long has it been since you heard the crash?"

Alex, looked back at the barcode on Makie's shoulder.

"Curious..." said Alex, as he felt his own arm.

Salazar shook his head. "I don't know," he said, his voice sounded strained. "A f... several minutes maybe."

As the PDa-thingy was thrust into jenna's hand, she abruptly came out of whatever headspace she'd been in. Makie's link was still there. She could feel it, it had stopped fading but it was... so... thin, fragile... what had done this?

She took a deep breath and whispered: "She's still alive."

Encephelon

"I see..." said Makie, as she sat on the floor. "So you really aren't dead...They put you into cryo-sleep..."

Yes, I could not be saved at the time, we did not have the advanced nano-technology that you see today.

"Mmhmm...I heard that it was only until last year when it was announced that it would be possible to revive the people who suffered from the the Virus."

And I was one of the victims...It was a highly evolved form virus, but very similar to the old AIDS virus...But it differed from the AIDS virus is that it was airborne.

"But right now the virus is almost extinct. Why haven't they treated you yet?"

"Several minutes...Ok..." said Alex, as took his hand off of his shoulder and walked towards Makie then looked up at the boy. "Uh...What's your name? My name is Alex. Can you help me bring her to my room?"

Alex turned towards Jenna and Valerie.

"You can come also, if you want to."

"Several minutes...Ok..." said Alex, as took his hand off of his shoulder and walked towards Makie then looked up at the boy. "Uh...What's your name? My name is Alex. Can you help me bring her to my room?"

Alex turned towards Jenna and Valerie.

"You can come also, if you want to."

Jenna snorted. "As if I wouldn't." She helped Alex pull makie up onto his shoulder and started walking in the direction of the dormitories. She glanced back at valerie and Salazar. "um... maybe one of you should get... someone?"

Jenna snorted. "As if I wouldn't." She helped Alex pull makie up onto his shoulder and started walking in the direction of the dormitories. She glanced back at valerie and Salazar. "um... maybe one of you should get... someone?"

"Yea...Thanks for helping, Jenna, I really appreciate it." said Alex, as he started to walk down the corridor, while the crowd of students parted and cleared a path.

"Something I just found out today really bugs me..." muttered Alex. "Hmmm..."

Jenna looked up with a fierce frown of concentration as she tried not to get queasy, having just caught the end of Alex's sentence. "Er... what?"

Jenna looked up with a fierce frown of concentration as she tried not to get queasy, having just caught the end of Alex's sentence. "Er... what?"

"Nothing...I'll show you later..." said Alex, as they turned the corner and stopped in front of a staircase. "I think it's upstairs...Room...Something. Well, the 6th door on the left, from the staircase landing."

"Several minutes...Ok..." said Alex, as took his hand off of his shoulder and walked towards Makie then looked up at the boy. "Uh...What's your name? My name is Alex. Can you help me bring her to my room?"

Alex turned towards Jenna and Valerie.

"You can come also, if you want to."

"I'm Salazar, sure," he said. He then helped Alex to take her back to his room.

"I'm Salazar, sure," he said. He then helped Alex to take her back to his room.

"Yea...Ok...Salazar, go look for a teacher or the nurse and tell them to bring a stretcher." said Alex, as he passed the 1st door on his right.

"Ok," Salazar said and headed off to find a teacher or the school nurse.

"Man...Hope he gets back here quickly...I need that stretcher." said Alex, as he arrived at the door.

"Hmmm, locked. Jenna...Do you think you can reach into my left pants pocket, here, and grab the key? It's kinda difficult with Makie on my shoulders."

Salazar eventually came across the nurse's office and he ran inside. The Nurse was fortunately in.

"Theres a girl... she needs... help... quick," he said struggling for breath.

"Man...Hope he gets back here quickly...I need that stretcher." said Alex, as he arrived at the door.

"Hmmm, locked. Jenna...Do you think you can reach into my left pants pocket, here, and grab the key? It's kinda difficult with Makie on my shoulders."

Jenna fished the key out of his pocket, muttering curses on people with tight jeans, and unlocked the door. They practically fell into the room.

Jenna fished the key out of his pocket, muttering curses on people with tight jeans, and unlocked the door. They practically fell into the room.

"Shoot! Man..." complained Alex, as he tripped over the door rug. "Annoying, who put that there?"

Alex walked over to the bed and quickly pushed off all of the clothes and empty bags that had been stacked up on Makie's bed that morning. Gently, he placed laid her down and covered her with a blanket.

"I don't have medical equipment to handle this." sighed Alex, who had pulled up one of the chairs by the desktops and pushed it towards Jenna and then pulled up a second chair and pushed it towards Valerie (if she had followed them).

"Have a seat...Thank's for your help." said Alex, turning on one of the computers. "I know they left us a number to call if something happened to either one of us...Oh, there are some drinks inside the small fridge over there. We're lucky they had this installed, along with our other furniture and appliances."

Jenna pulled out some orange juice and sat down. "What happened to her? It's like she's... almost not there." She struggled to define what she had felt.

"I... I just feel... " She sighed and gave up, moving on to the next thing which had been bothering her. "Alex - what is it I don't know about makie?"

Jenna pulled out some orange juice and sat down. "What happened to her? It's like she's... almost not there." She struggled to define what she had felt.

"I... I just feel... " She sighed and gave up, moving on to the next thing which had been bothering her. "Alex - what is it I don't know about makie?"

"Probably because Makie isn't entirely human anymore..." said Alex as he threw down a book next to Jenna and sat down next to her. Alex opened up the book, which was filled with phone numbers (the phone book), but then threw it onto the floor. "Why'd I even bother to look there."

"I've heard of a new type of nano-machine experiment on humans, where the machines would slowly consume at least 99% of one's body, replacing internal organs and limbs. The other 1% of the body that isn't consumed is the brain...The human mind is so complex that no technology of ours could replicate it." said Alex in a serious tone. "This experiment was done jointly by Vector Corp and several other medical companies and the military. Vector probably started the experiment to create a human that would be immune to everything and have the ability to significantly lengthen one's life span tremendously. But, i'm starting to believe that the military has other plans up their sleeves...The creation of an ulitimate soldier. It's kinda sad when you think about...And since you said you couldn't feel Makie's presence, probably her mind, anymore. That could mean that somehow, the military had been tampering with her mind so that they could control her. Insane isn't it?"

"And I just figured it out right now...And now this is the sad part." Alex lifted up his sleeve revealing a barcode imprinted on his shoulder, then walked over to Makie and lifted up her arm and rolled up her sleeve revealing a similar barcode. "I don't know when this happened...But..."

(OOC: subject to change later...)

Ooc: Wow!

Salazar soon returned with the school nurse.

Salazar soon returned with the school nurse.

"Oh...Hey, Salazar." said Alex, who quickly jumped up from sitting on the bed. "Where's the stretcher?"

Alex, sat back down next to Jenna. "I bet the military got to Makie first, 'cause I know Vector would never do such a thing to a girl this young...The Sasaki Zaibatsu is in fact a major leading medical equipment manufacturing firm that supplies the military, that would also be a major contributing factor to this conspiracy."

"Here," he said, showing that he had the stretcher at his side. "How is she doing?"

"Here," he said, showing that he had the stretcher at his side. "How is she doing?"

"Ah I see...Put it over there. And tell the nurse to wait outside for a second." said Alex, as he pointed to a corner of the room while holding his cell phone. "Some people might come to pick her up later. Ah got it! Didn't see that there earlier..."

Alex walked over to a little metal box that was bolted down to his desk, a similar box was on Makie's desk. He lifted up the lid of the box, revealing a red button. Reading the little warning on the button, he pressed it. Once he pressed it, the array of projectors around the room had swtiched on and started displaying a hologram image in the middle of the room, over the coffee table. The image of a girl slowly appeared.

"UMN Emergency Response, what can I do for you Mr. Akashi?"

"I need to get in contact with Vec...No, the Kukai Foundation's medical department, quickly."

"Just a moment. Please hold."

The image of the girl disappeared, then started showing a hologram 3D image of a spinning blue UMN emblem. After several more seconds, the image of a man dressed in a lab coat appeared.

"Yes, Master Alex. What is the matter?"

"Hey, Dave....Something is wrong with Makie."

"How so?"

"I think she's part of the URTV-Human Experiment...The Vector-Military one."

"I see, the military started started on her mind yet?"

"Yea...From what we can see. She has no pulse. But it is odd, you can somehow tell that she alive."

"I see. We'll send someone to pick her up. Oh, why didn't you go to Vector for this? This is THEIR project."

"Well, I felt that it'd be better if our scientists dealt with this. And I wouldn't think I'd trust any other firm to deal with this, since her own family's company probably handed her over to the military to be used for the experiment."

"I understand. I have already dispatched a mobile ICU to come pick her up."

"Good, just don't land drop ships from the colony right in the middle of the school. It might attract too much attention, then we'd have the administration on our case."

"No problem...Anything else?"

"Oh, and send someone with...Ummm...Just a sec."

"Anyone want anything?"

Jenna gulped. This was a hell of a lot to deal with in one go. She had once spent several afternoons at the library reading up on nanotech, just because she was curious, but since that library contained mainly Resquiden texts it was largely theoretical. However, even as part of her mind struggled against collapsing in shock, and another started niggling away at various theories suggested by Alex's barcode, she realised she could not pass up the chance for more information.

"Uh... is there any sort of information about all this which is available for reading to civilians - or, well, however much you can get me. Because... well, if things like this keep happening to makie..." she covered her thirst for curiosity - of course it would be good to know what was up with makie, but, well... she just needed to KNOW.

Jenna gulped. This was a hell of a lot to deal with in one go. She had once spent several afternoons at the library reading up on nanotech, just because she was curious, but since that library contained mainly Resquiden texts it was largely theoretical. However, even as part of her mind struggled against collapsing in shock, and another started niggling away at various theories suggested by Alex's barcode, she realised she could not pass up the chance for more information.

"Uh... is there any sort of information about all this which is available for reading to civilians - or, well, however much you can get me. Because... well, if things like this keep happening to makie..." she covered her thirst for curiosity - of course it would be good to know what was up with makie, but, well... she just needed to KNOW.

"Curious aren't you? You seemed liked the type." said Alex. "You can find basic stuff back in the state archives. But something in this magnitude...You would have to try getting from individual companies, and I doubt they'd hand over information to someone who asks out of curiosity."

Alex laughed silently. "Stay long enough then I'll try acquiring some good reading material for you."

Alex turned to face where Makie was lying. "Once we get Makie out of here, and some privacy, then I'll try to arrange it. The info i kept blabbering on about earlier was just some stuff I was able to retain off the top of my head. There are a plethora of volumes that'll satisfy your thirst. But...There's a catch, which I will tell you later."


OOC: sleep time...

Jenna nodded. "Fair enough. What's going to happen to makie?"

Jenna nodded. "Fair enough. What's going to happen to makie?"

"Hopefully...My friends over at the Foundation will pick her up and try to undo what the government did to her." said Alex as he inched over to Jenna's side. "We just have to wait, but it shouldn't take them long to get here. Do you guys want to do anything?"

Alex picked up the remote and turned the plasma on, revealing local news. "Hey, you guys want to watch something or play some games? Maybe go on the internet? asked Alex as he pointed towards different areas of the room. "It seems that the guys who brought us here replaced the standard, bare-bones, spartan room furniture, I saw in the regular rooms, and replaced it with some more luxurious furniture and stuff...Oh, and if you get hungry, try taking a look in the small fridge over there. Ah...Most of the amenities of home."

Jenna's eyes lit up. "Ooh, amenities..."

She wandered over to the computer, grabbing a random lump of cheese from the fridge on the way. As she walked past Salazar, who appeared to be daydreaming in a chair, it occurred to her that if he was elsewhere they may have a chance to finish what they'd started in the park...

She shrugged and sat down. "Got any good games you can teach me? Resquiden games suck."

"This school just gets wierder," Salazar said shaking his head.

"This school just gets wierder," Salazar said shaking his head.

"It does, doesn't it." replied Alex, who was searching for the video game consoles.

Alex dragged a rectangle metal container from underneath the bed, labeled "Consoles" and dragged it next to the coffee table, revealing a PS2.

"Haha...They checked my dossier...PS2...Haha...That's good." laughed Alex, as he took out the thin PS2 console, a multitap and 4 controllers, the power and AV cables, a wireless LAN adapter, and a thick metal CD case. "It's amazing how we've created holograms and such, established space colonies, and seemingly perfected nano-technology...But the good old PS2 is still alive."

As Alex began opening the CD case, the loud bell of the school started to ring, indicating that another class period had ended.

"Hmmm...Salazar, don't you have a class to go to?" inquired Alex. "I have to watch over Makie, so I can't go."

"Heh," Jenna snorted, "Well, I reckon i've got science or something, but, like, whatever. I checked the teachers notes while she was at lunch - it's all revision and stuff - checking to see what level we're all on. They won't get to the interesting stuff for weeks."

She started rifling through the ps2 games. "Hmm..." she mused, "What've you got that doesn't consist of gratuitous zombie-shooting and flash cars?"

"Heh," Jenna snorted, "Well, I reckon i've got science or something, but, like, whatever. I checked the teachers notes while she was at lunch - it's all revision and stuff - checking to see what level we're all on. They won't get to the interesting stuff for weeks."

She started rifling through the ps2 games. "Hmm..." she mused, "What've you got that doesn't consist of gratuitous zombie-shooting and flash cars?"

"It's ok if you stay here for a while." said Alex, who was tinkering with one of the computers. "I've forgotten what class I had next."

"Hmmm...RPGs? Uhh, some fighting games. Hmmm...It is a pretty BIG collection of games." said Alex scratching the back of his head. "I haven't looked at it also. Maybe some sports games that I'm not to fond of. Do you have any game or genre in particular?"

Alex moved over behind Jenna and watched over her shoulder, as she sat on the floor looking through the CD case.

"I haven't got any more lessons for today, just a couple of free periods," Salazar replied.

"I haven't got any more lessons for today, just a couple of free periods," Salazar replied.

"Oh, I see...Well." started Alex, who had his hand on Jenna's shoulder. "I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know," Salazar shrugged. "Is she going to be alright?"

"I don't know," Salazar shrugged. "Is she going to be alright?"

"Makie? Yes...Hopefully." said Alex, as he looked over to Makie who was lying on the bed. "It seems that her condition is stable."

"Thats good to hear then," Salazar said, slowly nodding his head. "I lost a friend recently, finding her like that in the corridor really upset me."

After class the teacher, Mr. Atlin, stopped Angelica before she managed to escape. Her tendency to avoid crowds unfortunately worked against her and he was able to step between her and the exit. He was unceasingly polite and very interested in where she had studied, but he didn't actually seem surprised when she told him that she had never received a formal education, and even when she told him that she didn't know much about Wordsworth.

That was extremely suspicious and she immediately went back to pondering the possibilities of a conspiracy. It seemed very likely to her that the teachers and administration were planning something very unorthodox, and quite probably dangerous for her. The strange occurrences before breakfast definitely supported something odd going on, and the conversation she'd had with Sara proved it. However, she didn't like going around suspecting that everyone was somehow related to this conspiracy. Logic dictated that the fewer people knew about a secret the more secret it would remain.

"I'd really like you to spend a few extra hours a week going over some of this literature. I'd be more than willing to discuss it with you outside of class. It's obvious you have a very strong work ethic that you'll be a very promising student..." The desire for involvement could simply be academic, or it could have sexual undertones as well, but she was still suspicious about the conspiracy. Even she thought she was being a little bit paranoid, but it was always better to mistrust than to mistakenly trust.

In order to be sure she had to take his offer, if he ever shut up she would. Besides he was recommending books and poetry, in all honesty the library was to large for even her to read from wall to wall. A place to start was greatly appreciated. "I think I will take you up on the recommendation, sir. I'll make sure to read those and get back to you next class. I really must be going now or I won't eat. Thank you." With that attempt at a polite excuse she slid out, she wondered slightly why his mouth was hanging open, but she didn't pause, she did need to get a lunch. He had kept talking so long that she only had a few minutes before her next class started and she needed a quick bite before it was too late.

Maybe that was his part in the conspiracy, he'd done his best to make sure she wouldn't have time to think or investigate the strange events and he'd given her enough material that she wouldn't be able to look into it later on. They'd probably known that she couldn't resist the bait he'd offered. She'd have to be more careful in the future about trusting anyone in this place.

Jenna grinned as she came upon an ancient Final fantasy game. - "Oooh, haven't seen this in a while. It's in our archives. Hmm... RPG's are good."

Jenna grinned as she came upon an ancient Final fantasy game. - "Oooh, haven't seen this in a while. It's in our archives. Hmm... RPG's are good."

"Cool...FF7." said Alex. "Same, I haven't seen this since I was in grade school."


OOC; yep...lifeless post...

"You know what the strangest thing about this school is?" Salazar asked. "This morning I remember leaving the cafeteria and returning to my dorm and then suddenly being back there again. In between I have the vague recollection of being in some wierd assembly."

"You know what the strangest thing about this school is?" Salazar asked. "This morning I remember leaving the cafeteria and returning to my dorm and then suddenly being back there again. In between I have the vague recollection of being in some wierd assembly."

"Hmmm...I don't know anything about an assembly this morning." replied Alex. "What are you talking about? How about you Jenna?"

Encephelon

"Why they haven't taken me out of cryo-sleep?" replied the silvery Sakura. "Why you say, don't you know? Have they not told you about me?"

"All they told me was that you had died." replied the puzzled Makie. "The only thing they told me was that you were my twin, and that you had died when I was young. Actually I have no memories about you."

Makie scratched the back of her head and looked down at the ground. "I actually determined that you were Sakura because my hair doesn't go down straight like that, and that my birthmark is on my left arm, not the right like yours. Mom actually told me about your birthmark and your type of hair."

I see. Well, the reason why I cannot be revived is that...My subconscious or my "soul"...Resides in you now. My body, which is still in the confines of the Vector Cryogenics Laboratory, is brain dead but still alive.

Makie's eyes opened wide as she touched her heart, after hearing what Sakura had asked. "How did They put you inside of me???"

You see, there was this experiment They had undertaken right after I had been put into cryo-sleep. I was chosen by Them because I had a twin, you. In fact, I was the only viable candidate, since I was the only twin they could get a hold of, they couldn't acquire another person to be experimented on.

"The Species-Protection Act..." said Makie under her breath.

Exactly. Well, you were brought over to the lab for your usual check up...

"Mom and dad were always jumpy about my head since you died. But I don't remember being experimented on."

Of course you wouldn't remember anything, they took special precautions to keep you in a deep sleep during the entire experiment, that took several days in fact.

"Several days??? How?"

They told mom and dad that you needed to stay in the hospital for some time. They had told them that They had detected something malicious and had to stay the night. Then, while you were asleep, they had somehow trapped my "soul," extracted it and sealed it from my body and had placed, or better said "downloaded," it in yours. I don't know the details of the experiment.

"I see...Wait! How do you know all of this? Especially the part about Them telling mom and dad when you were in the cryogenics lab."

My whole story I am telling you shows that "ghosts are real...My soul was able to wander about, until they sealed my body and placed me in yours.

"Oh, and why is it that I've been hearing you only just like for the past how many months?"

The unwritten rule, I guess, about "ghosts" is that they could only be sensed, heard, and seen is when a living person is at the brink of death...

"That doesn't answer why only recently I've been hearing you in the back of my head!"

"Just wait...Let me get to that." sighed Sakura. "I'll answer questions at the end."

Jenna frowned, thinking. "Yeah, you know what? I can't remember if todays breakfast was scrambled eggs or omelette. I seem to remember them both, and I normally have a pretty good memory. And... I don't know, I just get this weird feeling. Like, I didn't really know anyone that well yesterday, but suddenly, I feel like I've known you all my life." She concentrated thinking about each person, and realised something startling. "What? Angelica's feeling paranoid right now. How do I know that??"

"I seem to recall Angelica talking to me in my dorm room after leaving the cafeteria, next thing I recall is this strange assembly," Salazar said, rubbing his eyes. "This school is strange, I do remember thinking I got drugged at some point."

"Maybe you have ESP..." replied Alex.

"ESP?" Salazar asked. "What's that?"

"ESP?" Salazar asked. "What's that?"

"ESP is Extra-Sensory Perception." replied Alex dully. "It's all about the paranormal and psyhics, all those things you'd hear on TV or read about in books."


OOC: in Las Vegas right now...It's a miracle I got the internet to work.

"Oh right," Salazar said. "So we're seeing things that may or may not be there?"

Jenna blinked. "Seeing things? I haven't seen anything, it's my memory that's playing up. And... I'm, sort of *feeling* things... which is weird... but not seeing things, no."

OOC: in Las Vegas right now...It's a miracle I got the internet to work.
[OOC: Holy shit, I was in Vegas on tuesday!]

What have they done to me? What has happened to me? Why am I still alive?

These were some of many questions running through Murdock's head, he was lying on a cold rock floor, with nothing but pants on, he was freezing. He was skinny, almost just skin and bone.

Please...let me die...

No, it is not your time to pass on yet, soon enough, you will pass your test, and be free from here

He opened his eyes, and saw what he thought was a figure, with no face, but then his eyes closed, and he passed out again. Into darkness.

[OOC: Holy shit, I was in Vegas on tuesday!]

What have they done to me? What has happened to me? Why am I still alive?

These were some of many questions running through Murdock's head, he was lying on a cold rock floor, with nothing but pants on, he was freezing. He was skinny, almost just skin and bone.

Please...let me die...

No, it is not your time to pass on yet, soon enough, you will pass your test, and be free from here

He opened his eyes, and saw what he thought was a figure, with no face, but then his eyes closed, and he passed out again. Into darkness.
ooc: wtf are we supposed to do with this? Honestly, you get more and more cryptic with every post.

ic:

Jenna frowned in concentration. "I want to test this out. See what it does, and stuff..." suddenly she gasped, her fingers gripping the bed. "Umm... guys? I..." She took a deep breath. "You'd better hope makie gets picked up soon, because I think Murdock's in trouble..."

ooc: wtf are we supposed to do with this? Honestly, you get more and more cryptic with every post.

ic:

Jenna frowned in concentration. "I want to test this out. See what it does, and stuff..." suddenly she gasped, her fingers gripping the bed. "Umm... guys? I..." She took a deep breath. "You'd better hope makie gets picked up soon, because I think Murdock's in trouble..."

"They just sent me a message, the transport is about to enter the lower atmosphere....What!?!" exclaimed Alex, his eyes widening when he heard the part about Murdock. "Another person's in trouble? Wait, who's Murdock?"

Alex turned to face Salazar, who looked as puzzled as he himself did, with Jenna's predictions. "Salazar, I think you should go check Murdock, I think Jenna's premonitions are serious. I am going to go check on the status of the transport, and Jenna...Could you stay and look over Makie?"

Alex walked over to one of the computers and picked up one of the several Nokia 9500 Communicators that had been sitting on the desk charging. He quickly handed Salazar the phone as he led Salazar to the door.

"If this Murdock person is in need of some medical attention or something just plain odd is happening to him, call me. I think the numbers are in the phone book, see." Alex opened the Communicator up, revealing a full keyboard and screen. "Well...Looks like the different Communicator numbers are listed...This one is Communicator number 5, just call any other Communicators, numbered 1 to 4. Got it? I'll send over a team to come take a look at Murdock if the problem is serious."

Before Jenna could blink, both boys had left the room. "Um... fine then," she said huffily to nobody in particular. She was a tad miffed that SHE hadn't been the one to go find murdock - after all, she could probably sense where he was...

Speaking of which... She sat down with her legs crossed on the floor near makie's bed, and concentrated. She found she could feel the distance between her and all the others, and yes, it corresponded to what she knew - Alex and Salazar were moving away from her and Makie was close and still. She explored Alex and Salazar's links, trying to work out their rate of movement.

She was still sitting there, eyes closed, when Alex returned.

"I know him, kind of," Salazar said moving away. "I can't remember where is dorm is though." Another thought entered his head. "He was there too, maybe Angelica knows where to find him. Unfortunately I don't know where she is."

"Get me out of here," Murdock mumbled to himself as he stared at the floor. "I don't want to be parts of your tests anymore...."

"Chosen One, remember, you have been picked out for us to see if the tests are fit for this generation. You will pass, and soon the real tests will begin for everyone"

"I don't want to be your damned lab rat!" Murdock yelled.

"You will be out of here soon and with your friends"

Before Jenna could blink, both boys had left the room. "Um... fine then," she said huffily to nobody in particular. She was a tad miffed that SHE hadn't been the one to go find murdock - after all, she could probably sense where he was...

Speaking of which... She sat down with her legs crossed on the floor near makie's bed, and concentrated. She found she could feel the distance between her and all the others, and yes, it corresponded to what she knew - Alex and Salazar were moving away from her and Makie was close and still. She explored Alex and Salazar's links, trying to work out their rate of movement.

She was still sitting there, eyes closed, when Alex returned.

Closing the door quietly, Alex tiptoed closer and closer to where Jenna sat, almost meditating. Silently sneaking behind Jenna, Alex wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him and started to whisper in her ear.

"So...Care to continue where we left off? I doubt Makie'll wake up soon."

------

OOC: almost forgot

2,000th Post!!!!!!

This was ridiculous, finding Murdock without really knowing where to look was boarding on the impossible. Still if that girl was right then he was in trouble and Salazar felt obliged to find him. If he was in trouble of course, there was no way of finding that out.

Closing the door quietly, Alex tiptoed closer and closer to where Jenna sat, almost meditating. Silently sneaking behind Jenna, Alex wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him and started to whisper in her ear.

"So...Care to continue where we left off? I doubt Makie'll wake up soon."

Jenna smiled slowly. She had felt Alex moving closer, and was now certain she could translate what she termed "connection" speed into "real life" speed.

"That sounds good," she said, uncrossing her legs and turning around in Alex's arms.

Jenna smiled slowly. She had felt Alex moving closer, and was now certain she could translate what she termed "connection" speed into "real life" speed.

"That sounds good," she said, uncrossing her legs and turning around in Alex's arms.

Staring into Jenna's eyes, Alex's face slowly inched closer and closer. He could feel Jenna's heart racing as he held her. Alex's head was a buzz, constantly thinking "What if's" and "Why not's," while his conscience was haphazardly trying to reason why do this and why not. But it was too late, their lips mere millimeters apart, the feel and sensation of their warm breath already creeping up each other's spine. It was too late for hesitation on Alex's part.

Ok ok ok ok ok!!!!!!!!!!! Just go in for the kill!!! What!?!? Why the heck am I saying kill!?!?! Jenna's a beautiful young woman, she shouldn't be labeled as 'a kill'!?!? Eh, whatever...Just go for it, wuss!!!!!!!! Who in the world are you calling a... Thought two sides of Alex's conscience in just a split second, while trying to stall.

But before Alex could finish another thought, his lips met Jenna's and locked together in a kiss.

OOC: pretty decent for something thrown together at 2 o'clock in the morning...huzzah for the cheezy cliches!!

Jenna closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss, temporarily forgetting Makie lying inexplicably unconscious on the bed above them, and Murdock suffering god knew what, god knew where, because all that mattered right now was Alex, and this frozen moment in time.


ooc: yuck, yuck, yuck. We need danielle steel on this one.

Finding no sign of Murdock, Salazar returned to his dorm.

Encephelon

"Tell me what?"

What I was saying earlier, when a person is near death...That's the only time the living could come into contact with what you would call "ghosts"...Pretty obvious, actually...

"THEN WHY AM I SEEING...No...No...No no no no...I...I can't be..." jumped Makie, terrified at what she is hearing.

You are close to death as one can be...Much of you physically is either dead or dying, except your mind and heart. From what I can tell, the nano-machines have consumed and replaced at least 80 percent of your body. 80 percent is A LOT, I doubt you'd be showing a pulse. Ah, wait! Let me speak.

Sakura had caught and stopped Makie with her mouth open, ready to say something.

Ok...The government put the nano-machines in you. Some how at the end of the Vector experiment, when you were in Recovery; the government was able to get a hold of you for a short time and put in some type of military grade nano-machines that are programed to replace every cell in your body with nano-machines...I think it was something about making you into the perfect weapon. Those voices earlier, they were the military AIs. I managed to get them to believe that I am another AI, hence the "Type-19." I don't know what it is, but I just play along. It also seems they have been able to tap into a person's own thoughts, just like what you saw earlier. Those military guys could get kinda harsh...Ok, questions time.

The silvery Sakura put her hands on her hips and looked at the stunned Makie, whose jaw had dropped. After a few more seconds, Makie shook her head and got her questions ready.

"So, why did mom and dad let the military get a hold of me?"

They never knew...This all occured when Vector told mom and dad that you had to stay in the hospital for a few days.

"I see. Where am I now?"

You are in the Encephelon. I don't have much details about it, but it might be easier to compare it to that old movie...Uhh...I think you watched it in history class...Oh yea, The Matrix. It's like the Construct Program. But inside of someone's mind. Since the nano-machines have practically taken over your body, your body could be likened to the Matrix.

"And you and I are the humans...Right?"

Ummm, no. I could be the...Oracle, yes, or maybe Morpheus. Well anyways, you are the human that has just been freed from the Matrix and the Power Plant and now aware of the existence of the Matrix, like Neo. I am just here to guide you. I can only show you the door, you're the one that has to go through it. Or something like that. The best thing I could advise you is to find out how to get rid of the military AI, the nano-machines that are replacing what's left of your body are permanent, but the AI isn't.

"I think I'm getting you..." nodded Makie, remembering how their history class back in Mahora Academy analyized The Matrix. "Ok, now. How do I get out of here?"

We need someone with a defibrillator. Right now, much of your body is dead...Yes, the nano-machines. That rush of memories that came from you seeing that picture on Alex's PDA caused...I think either your mind or the AI to crash. Your heart is still running, but it is dependent on electrical impulses from the emergency nano-machines. You need the defibrillator to give your heart a jump start. Oh, by the way, your mind, or the "data" in your brain has been "downloaded" into millions of "memory nano-machines" so you could live on even if your brain uhh...Get destroyed.

"Destroyed? Why would it get destroyed?"

Well, this is what I've heard, from those military AIs. If your head gets shot, the nano-machines could repair your skull and etcetera, but not your brain.

"So...Wouldn't you get destroyed in the process?"

Yes...I would get destroyed...And also you, your own mind and everything would get destroyed. Like, think of your soul getting erased...The military nano-machines only "downloaded" the essential data needed for operation. But what the government didn't know that Vector put in their own nano-machines that backed up EVERYTHING, including "you" and me.

"I see..."

OOC: i'll try to be original but don't expect much, just maybe...more cliches...Resquide help me out.

IC:

Alex ran his hand through Jenna's dark hair and over her back, as he slowly streched out his legs from underneath his seated position on his knees while sitting on his shanks and heels (seiza-position) and slowly began to tilt backwards into a reclining position on the surprisingly thick rug that covered a large part of the dorm room.

OOC: edited...too much cliches...
------

Over the Arctic Circle
Upper Atmosphere

"Target lock...Coordinates set..." replied the co-pilot.

"Observation, confirm satellite visual status of LZ." asked the pilot.

"Satellite readings, LZ, all clear..."

"Good, just a few more minutes...Are the drones ready?" inquired the commander, who was seated behind the pilot.

"Yes, sir, drones are ready to be deployed." said an officer over the vehicle's radio.

"Tell all medical personnel to return to their seats." ordered the commander. "It's gonna be a bumpy landing."

The sleek Kukai Foundation medical dropship slid out of the upper atmosphere and into the cold thin air over the Arctic. Slicing through the thin air, the dropship neared its destination: Martizar International Boarding School.

OOC2: gotta throw in some serious stuff to counteract the cliches...lol

Armageddon might be approaching, but it would have to be a lot more assertive if it wanted to get through to Flick. She was in an artist's time-warp while she dealt with a sudden inspiration about the driver of her soft-sculpted car. If she made his head of resin, she'd be able to get a closer resemblance to the iconic painting and she'd be underlining his fakeness as well ...

Musing, Flick reached out to sketch the idea and knocked the last remaining egg to the floor. Bugger!

The Maritzar authorities, recognising that art students were prone to forget everything when they were busy, had thoughtfully installed a small refrigerator and a hotplate in the art room. But evidently someone had forgotten to re-stock it, and when Flick realised she was hungry there'd been only one egg. Now she'd -- hang on, even better, if she made the resin wood-grained ... while Flick pursued the thought, the egg quietly reassembled itself on the floor, yolk sinking back into white, shell rejoining seamlessly. Tiny lines of light tangled, untangled, twisted and wove. Moving automatically, her mind still on her artwork, Flick boiled the egg, made toast and was inelegantly licking her fingers clean when Llanwerin came hurriedly through the door.

"At last, Flick!" he began. Then halted, seeming to feel before him for something invisible. Flick eyed him warily.

"Did you notice, er, anything a few minutes ago?" he demanded.

"Did the bell go?" hazarded Flick. "Should I be somewhere else?"

"Er, yes, can't spend too much time up in the clouds, don't worry, I'll lock up, off you go, now," the teacher babbled.

She doesn't realise yet, Llanwerin sighed. She can do it perfectly, she just doesn't know it!

Flick was pursued down the corridor by the sound of a door being slammed in temper and a deep adult voice proclaiming, she was sure, "Bugger!"

She'd gone through all her classes with more suspicion than she'd had at the beginning of the day. It seemed to her that all her professors paid too much attention to her, and ran through their material almost by route. She was far to logical to suspect most of them of being in on any conspiracy, but they may have been asked to 'pay attention' to her for some other reason. One or two of them might be involved, considering how harmless Sara looked, it wasn't too improbable that the most harmless looking of them was involved.

Her musings were interrupted by the person she least wanted to see. Sara was a smiling congenially at the girl as Angelica called on all her abilities to hide her thoughts and smiled just as convincingly right back. "Good afternoon Dr. Wati."

"Please, call me Sara. You don't want me calling you Miss. Hemlock, do you?"

She was an unbelievable actor, normally Angelica could see through any guise, and after the conversation this morning the pleasantries must be some sort of façade. "No, I'd rather not. I will call you Sara."

Angelica was right that some of Sara's calmness was forged. 'Dr. Sara S. Wati' had spent a little over an hour trying to undo the damage that the sudden contact with a different culture alongside the stupid theatrics she'd had to erase from her knowledge. The thoughts were nearly impossible to suppress in a child that was so strong. Suppressing the truth from a mind so unbelievably brilliant was nearly impossible. The girl could remember everything that had happened to her with nearly perfect clarity every day after the death of her mother when she was five. Even Sara didn't really understand how it had happened, the radiation could account partially and the military influence over her could account for her desire to be absolutely perfect that went beyond what any other human had managed. "Good, I'm glad we can agree that our first names are better. So... what do you think of Martizar?"

She was carefully avoiding a repeat of the incident in her office. Evidently she thought she'd gone a little to far. Angelica couldn't even begin to imagine who or what this 'woman' was after that morning. She had known things no human could know and Angelica wasn't able to pass the incident off as a drug induced hallucination. Not even her Father had known how her Mother died, and only she had survived. There was no way she could have known. "Well, it's certainly more luxurious than I'm used to, the students are completely spoiled, the teachers are pompous and the administration is paranoid. On the other hand the library is nice enough."

OOC: To be continued...

Encephelon

"So, what do I do?"

Wait, just wait and see if Alex got some help. Probably some help from the Kukai Foundation or Vector.

"What? How do you know about Alex?"

Isn't it obvious? I've been living inside of your head for the past...What, 14 years. I've seen and heard everything you've done, said, and thought. I've been growing with you as you grew. My personality grew and matured as yours did. I have been picking up my own styles and characteristics as you did. Even types of clothes.

"YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THINKING!?!?!?" exclaimed Makie.

Mmmhmm...I know you've been eyeing Alex for sometime since you met him a few days ago.

"I, uhhh..."

It's pretty entertaining...But I thought you liked what's her face? I forgot...Oh, it was Jun...Eh, WHAT!?!? What's with the shoe?

Makie had taken off her shoe and thrown it at Sakura. Since Sakura was all digital, the shoe had merely gone through her.

"Why you!!!! SHUT UP!!!" said Makie, grinding her teeth, tears falling from her eyes. "She's like a sister to me! I can't help it! I've always wanted a sister! It...It...It's because YOU died!"

Oh...

Sakura looked down towards the floor, ashamed. She herself didn't know this was how Makie felt.

I...I didn't know...It seems I couldn't read every thought in your mind.

"Well now you know...Now stop evasdropping on my thoughts." said Makie as she turned her back to Sakura. "Just go figure out how to revive my body or something."

Uh...Sure...Sorry.

------

Some where in the upper atmosphere

"What the hell!?!?" yelled the commander. "You overshot the LZ!?!?"

"Uh, sorry sir, I thought I would be able to see it without the guide. Just wanted to get used to navigation free flying." said the co-pilot.

"The area's CAVOK...So, I thought it would be perfect to try some new manual navigation techniques, if the navigations systems failed." added the pilot.

"I don't care...Don't try out any more of those fancy new techniques you pilots keep learning during a mission!" answered the commander. "I hope you have enough fuel for escape velocity."

"Don't worry, we've got enought to get to Larange Point Delta-b and back 10 times."

"Ok, now just get back to the mission plan. Someone's life is depending on us."

Murdock dropped, he actually dropped from the ceiling, he didn't fall through it, he appeared out of no where, and dropped. He landed on the floor with a hard thud, he lay there motionless for quite some time. He didn't move a muscle, his body, did he even have a body anymore?

He could feel one of his arms, he moved it, and felt around him, he then felt something cold, he gripped it, it was kind of fleshy. He moved his hand down it, feeling five tips at the top, that was odd, what was it? He couldn't open his eyes to find out.

Then it hit him, it was an arm.

He nearly jumped up, but he was to tired to, so instead he rolled over. And it hit him with a pleasant realization. It was his own arm, numb, frozen. He managed to open his eyes, he saw his body. He was wearing some sort of wet suit. He dropped his head.

What had he endured those last few days? Too much obviously, how long was he gone? Days he guessed but for all he knew it could have been years. He rolled his head onto his side, and remembered...

"What are you doing!"

"This is your final test"

"What is this!"

"The mind probe, you'll go into it... its not pleasant in the least, its made many go insane, and made many die."

"And your sending me in!?"

"We have our orders"

And then he was sent in it... his mind had been stretched to limits thought to be impossible. His life flashed by his eyes, everything single thought, word, and image he had ever seen. Every single sense. Everything.

And now here he was, still alive, unfortunately. He lay there for what seemed a decade, but was in fact five more minutes, before another student stumbled around the corner, and spotted him...

He felt himself being carried off, he opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar face, someone he had never met. The person looked down into his eyes, and smiled.

"Ah, your awake, don't worry, I'm going to help you" The person said, and then Murdock blacked out again.

Sara almost chuckled at Angelica's honest reply, but she knew that the brutal honesty was just as much a disguise as the girls smile and the gentle laugh that followed it. Sara knew that Angelica lived by acting; she'd grown up knowing that the only way to survive was to be better than anyone else and not show it. Now she wasn't only far superior to her peers but she was very obviously different, she didn't understand the culture or the figures of speech, but she still struggled to blend in, to hide but she was impossible for anyone not to notice, she seemed so different than everyone else that their eyes were drawn to her. They marked her at first glance. That was why Sara had chosen a form that blended so easily, she was the ideal that Angelica aspired towards. Someone truly different that was indistinguishable from the ordinary. "Well, that's the way things are. You and I aren't quite comfortable with the culture in these parts."

The woman was still trying to play the familiarity card. She was pretending to be the sympathetic foreigner, but Angelica knew better. Sara only played the outsider; she could fit in wherever she wanted with minimal effort. “No, we truly aren’t. Is there anything important you’d like to discuss?”

The woman laughed gently at her attempt to get out of the discussion. She knew that Sara was limited in public by what she could say, so she acted like a busy student trying to get some work done. It wouldn’t take her long to fit in to this culture. “Actually I did, as you know I’m not only the choir director, I’m also the chair of the music department. I’ve come to inform you that your scholarship requires you to take private instructional lessons. Do you play any instruments?”

Angelica had never played anything; her father had too much of a temper after her mother’s death and the boys had often destroyed things purely out of spite. “No.”

“Very… concise. In that case I recommend you take piano. It’s an instrument that is beneficial to all musical pursuits.”

“I’d much rather sing, Sara, I’ve always enjoyed singing.”

Sara was very good at manipulating certain decisions, especially when her opponent was trying to avoid manipulation. “Very well, Angelica. In that case, I’ll sign you up for voice lessons. We’ll first meet tomorrow at four, in my office. I truly will enjoy having you as a student. Good luck with your classes.”

With that the older woman walked away, leaving Angelica to wonder what she’d gotten herself into, before she walked back to her dormitory room and delved into a new book at random.

Martizar Airspace
Several Miles Away From The School Building

"Ready to touch down in 3 mintutes..." replied the pilot.

"About time." impatiently grumbled the commander, as he punched the back of the pilot's seat.

"Landing gear set. Just ease her down easy on to the grass." answered the co-pilot.

"Landing in...5...4...3...2...1" The transport landed with a light 'thud' on the moist grass.

"Ok...Every get your equipment ready. You've got 5 mintutes." ordered the commander. "Group 2 stays here and gets the ICU ready."

Jenna reluctantly separated her lips from Alex's and leaned against him. "Oh, I'm sorry, Alex, I can't concentrate on this.. on, on us... I..." She sank down with her head in her hands. "Everyone... everything... it's just, all rushing into my head... ow... Flick, you stupid, how did you not notice, ah! I need to talk to An- no, what's happening..."

Alex looked worried and held her as she tensed up and started mumbling incoherently. "Jenna... Jenna, snap out of it... Jenna?"
Jenna was thrashing wildly in his arms now. At one point she looked up, seeming mostly rational, and whispered: "Don't worry... about Murdock.. Salazar found him..." before slipping back into the fit or whatever it was that had hold of her.

Jenna wasn't entirely sure who she was anymore. Feelings and locations were suddenly flashing before her eyes, as though the kiss had unleashed them... she was drowning in them, she was seeing herself through Alex's eyes, Murdock through his own and Salazars's, everything everyone was feeling and seeing and hearing until she thought she was going crazy... and suddenly... rest. calm. She felt nothing... nothing at all...

Alex didn't know what to do, he wanted to get help but was afraid to let go of her... Suddenly a brown-haired woman appeared. She looked vaguely familiar, he'd seen her somewhere... he saw a flash of auditorium and shadows and then it was gone. And so was she, and Jenna was no longer in his arms, or in fact in the room... then he heard a disembodied voice. "She is safe."

He was still sitting there in confusion when the medical team arrived.


ooc: Noir gave me permission to take over Alex for a few movements, becasue it'd be too jerky otherwise.

I dont like this spot anymore...

Murdock opened his eyes, he felt a lot better, he was able to feel his whole body once again. He shook his head and looked around, he was in a dorm.

"Where am I?" He asked the air to see if anyone was there.

"Oh! Your awake!" A voice said, and then a teen, about fifteen walked into the room. "Welcome back Murdock."

"How do you know my name? What is happening here!?" Murdock yelled.

"I've heard your name before," The boy said. "I am Bill, Bill Linner, welcome back. I don't know whats happened to you, but it must have been a lot, but your still with us aren't you."

"Where am I?" Murdock asked again.

"In my dorm, #238a750," Bill said.

"Ok," Murdock said after a pause of comfort, he was back in the school at least.

Since nobody had heard from Murdock, Salazar decided to go out and try looking for him again. So far he was finding the same thing, there appeared to be no sign of him. About an hour of looking around the school still held no answers to Murdocks whereabouts, it was as if he had disappeared off the face of the planet. Maybe those thoughts of a strange asembly were real. He leaned back against a wall and banged his head on it.

"Come on Murdock where are you?" he said out loud.

"What's that noise?" Murdock asked as he heard a thumping on the wall of the dorm.

"I dont know," Bill said, and walked to the door, opening and peering out he looked at Salazar, "Uhh can I help you?"

"Just looking for someone," Salazar said. "You haven't seen anyone by the name of Murdock have you?"

"Murdock? Yes he is right inside," Bill said.

"He is?" Salazar felt slight relief. "Is he ok?"

"He's been asleep for quite sometime now, but he is awake this morning, he seems to be much better," Bill said, and then he looked into the room. "Murdock, a friend of yours has been looking for you."

Murdock stood up, and walked to the doorway, and nearly jumped in joy as he saw Salazar, he almost charged him to hug him, but he instead nodded his head. "Salazar, its nice to see you again!"

"It's good to see you too, Jenna said she felt something happening to you," Salazar told him. "I've been trying to find you ever since."

"How long have I been gone?" Murdock asked.

"All day I think, since breakfast at least,though there is this strange period of missing time that was taken up by a strange assembly," Salazar explained.

"Just one day?" Murdock asked. "Its seemed like years to me."

Bill stood silent.

"What can you remember since breakfast?" Salazar asked, his eyes turned to Bill who was stood silently. "I hope we're not wierding you out or anything."

"Are you kidding? Seeing Murdock lying on the ground in a wetsuit was weird enough," Bill said.

Murdock looked at himself, and indeed he was still wearing it, he looked back at Salazar, slightly embarassed. "I don't remember a thing thats gone on, the first thing I remember is walking through the doors the first day of school."

Salazar shook his head. "There is something ver strange going on at this school, we're not the only ones who have noticed," he said scratching the back of his neck. "I'm beginning to remember you and Angelica being in my dorm room at some point before we ending up at this strange assembly."

It hit Murdock, he remembered. "Did I black out or something?" He asked.

Salazar tried remembering, some memories were coming back but they were all still very blurred. "I think you did, then I remember Angelica and I going after you because something was dragging you through the corridor," he said, a confused look appeared on his face. "There is something seriously fucked up about this school."

If she wasn't working on her project -- and, judging by the way Llanwerin had gone all funny for no reason, she wouldn't be doing any more today -- Flick supposed she'd better find something to occupy herself. She really should have paid more attention to timetables. Well, if they wanted her, they could come and get her. She hadn't asked to be here.

There was something she should be doing, though. Pleased with herself for remembering, Flick set off for the library. Angela might be able to recite whole encyclopaedias off the top of her head, but when it came to research, Flick was bloodhound material. This Brit Lit homework was going have more sources than a French chef.

Hmm: nothing to write on or with. Must've left the stuff in the art room. Oh, well, she had plenty of other stuff in her room.

She had plenty of other people in her room, it seemed. No, in Mackie's. Or Alex's, she'd never sorted that out. Hey, those were medics! There was a somebody lying on the bed and a -- no, I don't believe this -- cardiac response team.

"It's not working. We're losing her," somebody said.

How unprofessional. You should never say things like that. Of course you're losing her, you idiots, you're not doing it properly.

Flick pushed closer. Makie was lying on a bed and silver thready-things were wriggling around and wrapping themselves all over her. They were clustered near her heart. Any fool could see you wouldn't have much success if you left them there. What they needed to do was this . . . .

Flick somehow brushed the silver threads away from Mackie's heart, somehow teased them into order so they were running the right way. She couldn't get them exactly the way they were supposed to be, though. There were other threads too, sort of tangled in with the silver ones. Glad I'm not the one who'll have to sort that lot out.

"She's responding ... I think ... "

Jenna was floating in a roomful of white light. She thought she heard a voice calling to her, but it faded away as soon as she tried to concentrate on it. She felt for her connections, to see if it was someone she knew... and sddenly realised she couldn't feel them.

She sat up in a panic. She had not realised how used she had grown to feeling everyone at te back of her head, although that last episode... it was all coming back to her. She could remember snatches of it, sorting themselves out in her head, but the present - she had no idea what was happening. She didn't know what was happining!

She whimpered slightly and jumped off the bed, looking around the room for the first time. There was a potplant in the corner, and blue wallpaper, and sunshine coming from somewhere, even tough there was no window...

Now she thought about it, there was no door either. What there was, however, was a dark-haired woman standing with her hands clasped and smiling at her...

"Of course it's not working ensign! It's because you wanted to experiment on using this outdated thing!" yelled the commander at one of his subordinates, as he tossed away a 21st century type portable defibrillator, that was already considered ancient. "Master Alex, I can explain..."

"Let me guess...You took so long to get here because you got side-tracked at the infirmary downstairs..." grumbled Alex, with his arms crossed as he stood next to Flick. "Why don't you set up the equipment up here...I don't think there is enough time to get her to the ICU onboard the ship. Oh, is Professor David there?"

"You, guys...Go get the equipment set up. And yes, the Professor is there waiting. They were busy setting up the ICU. The nano-machine designator and the

"I see. Tell him that he needs to get over here quickly, because we can't get her over here." Alex turned to face Flick, who was bent over Makie's body doing something, as if she were brushing something away from Makie's body. "Flick, how is she? What are you brushing away? There's nothing there...Well...Uh..."

Alex had forgotten that they had began to take off Makie's shirt to try to revive her.

"Uh...Flick, do you know what you are doing? I think you should let these gentlemen see Makie."

OOC: work in progress...subject to change

Salazar tried remembering, some memories were coming back but they were all still very blurred. "I think you did, then I remember Angelica and I going after you because something was dragging you through the corridor," he said, a confused look appeared on his face. "There is something seriously fucked up about this school."
"Yes," Murdock said. "There is something wrong here."

He looked at Bill. "Listen Bill, thanks for everything you've done, but I should get back to my dorm now. I will see you later, bye."

"Bye," Bill said, as Salazar and Murdock walked down the hallway, he closed the door to his dorm.

"So you can't remember where you've been?" Salazar asked.

Murdock tried to think, but stopped quickly. "I don't want to remember, thats the problem."

Salazar shook his head. "All I can remember is little bits," he said. "None of which really make any sense at all."

"All I need right now is food," Murdock said. "I am starving."

"Yeaa me too," Salazar agreed. "I don't even know if I did eat anything, maybe remember a little more with some grub in me."

"Lets go to the cafeteria then," Murdock said turning the corner.

"Sure," Salazar replied and headed for the cafeteria. As he did so, he remembered that Alex had given him a phone and he sent a text message to him, saying that Murdock had been found and they were headed to the cafeteria.

They got to the cafeteria, and Murdock spent seven dollars total on his lunch, having to use to trays to hold all the food.

Salazar took a pot of coffee and a plate full of pancakes. "You are going to burst," he commented as they went to sit down.

"Are you kidding? I feel like I've never eaten food before!" Murdock exclaimed as he moved onto his third pancake.

Salazar gulped down a cup of coffee. "Careful you're begining to sound like a friend of mine from back home," he grinned.

"Really? What was his name?" Murdock asked taking a slight pause from his food.

"Kurt, he was heir to the throne before his father was overthrown," Salazar said before stuffing a pancake into his mouth.

"Ah, I see," Murdock said, not entirely knowing how to reply, so he stuffed a fourth pancake into his mouth.

"Officially the new dictatorship says he's dead," Salazar said, looking glumly at his pancakes. "I got that bit of news at breakfast this morning before everything went wierd, but I know he's still alive."

"I sure do hope he is," Murdock said.

"He is, I can feel it," Salazar said, taking a gulp of coffee. "I'm not really remembering anything more, what about you?"

"I'm still not trying to remember...." Murdocked paused, thinking he saw a shadow dart across the lawn. "I think I might hurt myself more if I do."

"Perhaps that is why you don't remember," Salazar said, stabbing a pancake with his fork. "The mind can forget things when it's too painful to remember."

"Yes, I forget what the term of it is, but its subconscious mind pushing away bad thoughts," Murdock said.

Salazar nodded. "They're still there, just safely locked away," he said.

"Thankfully," Murdock said.

Salazar nodded. "I'm really not looking forward to more lessons tomorrow," he admitted. "I'll be glad when I'm done with school for good."

"Same," Murdock said.

"I wish I never came to this school, it's fucking with our heads," Salazar then said, taking a gulp of coffee. "I just hope that Makie girl is Ok."

"Whats wrong with her?" Murdock questioned, he had finished all his meal.

"I found her unconscious in one of the corridors," Salazar told him. "I have no idea whats going on but I get the feeling Alex knows whats happening with her."

Valerie walked into the cafeteria and grabbed three pancakes, some bacon, and a glass of orange juice. After she had made it through the line she was presented with a new problem, where to sit. The cafeteria was packed, and there were few open seats. After wandering around for a bit, she found several open seats, that all happened to be reserved. God she hated school, this is why she wanted to join the military. After searching some more she found an open seat next to Murdock and Salazar. She asked if she could sit down next to them.

"Go right ahead," Murdock said motioning as he smiled at her.

"Always good to have a few more join in the madness," Salazar smirked.

"Always good to have a few more join in the madness," Salazar smirked.
Valerie smiled at this comment and sits down.
"Hello, my name is Valerie." she said with a slight smile

Salazar smiled. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Salazar," he said.

"Hi Valerie, I am Murdock," Murdock said.

"Hello Salazar, hello Murdock. Nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you also," Murdock said before twisting his neck, a crack was heard and he sighed in releif and continued to smile.

"I hate when people do that," Salazar said, taking a gulp of coffee.

"Sorry, but with my hardy appetite I gained after what happened today I gained aches and cramps," Murdock said.

"I hate when people do that," Salazar said, taking a gulp of coffee.
"What? pop their necks? Doesn't bother me one bit"

Salazar rubbed his eyes, "After today I'm finding anything annoying," he remarked.

OOC: Lunch? Could we please change that to dinner, for my sanity's sake?

IC:

The literature at least helped to calm her down somewhat, but it didn't settle her mind entirely. Even after she'd gone through Moby Dick, A Modest Proposal and finished the Damnation of Faust she was still somewhat unsettled, perhaps she was even confused.

She didn't know why things were so distorted but she consciously knew that something was wrong. She started to run through the evidence she'd encountered to try to work the entire problem out. The first thing she knew was that the impossible knowledge that Sara held could not easily be dismissed as an illusion, so it was likely that the encounter in room thirteen had not been illusory either. That meant that it was either a hallucination, whether drug induced or not, or it was somehow real. Neither of those options were particularly satisfactory.

If it had been a hallucination Angelica knew that she could not trust anything she saw, heard, felt or even smelt. All those sensations had been included in the illusion so all were suspect and untrustworthy. This conclusion meant that she could not actually accomplish anything and no matter what she did no answers could be logically achieved.

On the other hand she could accept the reality of different people seeing different things in the same place and that someone could know about an event that know one else lived to see. In natural order this was impossible, but since the other option was to declare herself completely insane it was obvious that she must accept that somehow the physical laws were being bent, if not broken.

That led to the matter of other witnesses, she had not been the only one to experience the event in room thirteen. It would be logical to make the assumption that they were involved somehow, whether as participants in the conspiracy or as unwitting victims.

She hadn't seen any sight of the other students involved since her Literature class. Logically her only option was to find them in order to put together as many pieces as they had, she couldn't solve a single problem with a hundred variables unsolved. She would probably be unable to get enough information through direct inquiry, the students would likely suspect her as a conspirator and become closed-mouthed. Unfortunately subtlety was not one of her greatest skills.

She was getting ahead of herself, of course, she still hadn't located the other students. In a moment she was able to deduce where they were most likely to be, at dinner obviously. It was over three hours since her last class ended and she was starting to feel the first hunger pains. They were undoubtedly also hungry and eating in the cafeteria.

She got up and walked out of her dorm room and down the hall. The crowds were just starting to get bad, but it was easily enough to irritate her. She didn't like crowds. Nonetheless she waited through the line and piled as much food as she felt like eating, she didn't have to pay so it didn't really matter what it was. Then she found a spot out of the way and looked around for the other involved students. She spotted two of them, Murdock and Salazar, with a girl she didn't recognize. She forced herself to completely relax and walked over to the table through the crowd.

"Excuse me, you don't mind if I sit here, do you?"

(OOC: Lunch? Dinner!? I thought it was breakfast! Good thing Murdock is dillusional at the moment)

"Go right ahead," Murdock said as he scooted over a bit so there was room. "Like my uncle James always said, breakfast is the time where you gather around and eat good ol' flap jacks."

He paused and tried to think. "Or wait, was it uncle Pezu?"

"Sure, if its alright with them," She sadi as she pointed to Murdock and Salazar

OOC: Meh, I've missed enough that it could be breakfast. Anyway I'm going to keep pretending I'm right anyway just because I don't want to go back to classes right afterwards. Free evening is better for role-playing.

IC:

She didn't know quite what had happened to Murdock, but he certainly didn't look quite at his best. Besides stains from too quickly devouring food he looked like he'd had an eventful day. Maybe he could be forgiven for not quite knowing the time of day.

"Thanks Murdock." She turned to the other girl. "My name's Angelica, I'm in the same suite Murdock here." She wanted to talk about the morning but she didn't know anything about this girl so she could wait. She could afford to spend some time.

"Hello Angelica, my names Valerie"

OOC: sorry for the short post I got to go to dinner soon.

"Wait...I don't have an uncle named Pezu," Murdock said, suddenly alarmed at what he had said earlier. "I don't even think Pezu is a word...what the hell?!"

She nods politely to Valerie before turning back to a raving Murdock. He was seriously confused and quite possibly delusional if his behavior was any indicator. She wouldn't be able to get much reliable information out of him. A quick glance at the other occupants showed that Salazar was slightly less confused but still bemused and Valerie probably didn't know much about his condition.

"I'm not exceptional with English, but I don't think Pezu is a word, unless you're talking about a town in Pakistan."

Murdock looked at her.

"I didn't even know there was a city named that," He looked at the others, and then stood up, and started walking towards the door...

They shall be your disciples

....the voices from the day were coming back...

Soon things will begin to come to you, they will follow you in good time, and soon enough, they will become like you

A shadow past over his face, an expression that she hadn't ever seen before. She could read faces as easily and as well as books under normal circumstances but his expression was completely new to her. If she didn't know a word and didn't know its context she couldn't understand it. Did this mean that he was involved with Sara? It made sense, that was why he'd been assigned to their suite, to carefully monitor her, and possibly Flick as well. She could be wrong, but regardless she couldn't trust him.

He quickly stood up and began to walk haltingly away, it was time for her to feign innocence. "Hey, where are you going?"

He heard a voice, it was Angelica, the only one who still managed to dislike him. He spun around but his vision was blurry, he shook his head but that made it worse. He fell onto his hands and knees, last thing he remembered before he passed out was throwing up everything he had just eaten.

Valerie watched as Murdock, started walking away. She noticed that these people might as well be considered friends. She had never felt different about anybody, and this was no exception, but these people were nice. She was about to object but Angelica beat her to the punch

Jenna slipped quietly into the cafeteria while all the fuss was goin on. She had sensed everyone here - except Alex, but she wasn't entirely ready to deal with him yet anyway. Then as she got closer she felt that mental turmoil from Murdock that she had before. What was going on? The mysterious woman had taught her to fade the emotions so she could concentrate on her own life, and she could focus on one at a time, but location and emotions will only tell you so much.

She walked up to the table just as Murdock collapsed...

Valerie watched Murdock throw up and pass out. She started to get off of the bench she was sitting on and went over to see if he was all right. but she decided instead to go get a nurse, while a ccrowd of people rushed to his side

Only a moment after she'd spoken Murdock was down on his knees and faster than she could react he'd started vacating the contents of his stomach. It was all one quick movement from his knees and than he started to fall towards the ground straight towards his own vomit. She reacted instinctively. She moved right beside him and caught his head before it landed in the pile he'd just created then she rolled him over and used the back of her hand to wipe away the vomit on his mouth.

Not surprisingly a hole had opened up in the crowded cafeteria. Just what she needed, more attention. She needed to get out, and she was sure that he wouldn't appreciate the notoriety that this incident gained him. The solution she came up with was the only one she could think of, she picked him up as slowly as she could manage and began to walk back towards their dorm. The crowd cleared for her quite easily and she didn't think about Valerie and Salazar until she'd taken Murdock back to their suite and laid him on the couch.

He faded in and away as he went down the hallway, he didn't quite know exactly what was happening, someone was carrying him.

He blinked out several times, many times when he was unconscious he mumbled gibberish that had a pattern to it.

He woke for five seconds in the suite, and saw Angelica next to him. He managed a faint smile.

He said with sincere appreciation and comfort. "Thank you..."

His eyes once again closed and he was unconscious.

It was most peculiar, that one moment of strangeness and now he was perfectly sincere. She didn't think that he could fool her that completely, but anything was possible. Could she trust him? The most logical explanation for this was that it was an attempt to gain her sympathy and not distrust him, but she felt that he was being sincere. She was left to choose between either her logical beliefs or her emotions.

When Valerie reached the Nurses office she opened the door and walked in.
"May I help you?" said a middle aged woman wearing a white coat with a stethescope around her neck.
"Yes. A friend of mine just passed out in the cafeteria."
"Well i'll be there in a second"
"I don't think he's there at the moment"
"well why not?"
"Another student started carrying him away. I think his name was Murdock, the one that passed out."
After a few minutes the nurse had it figured out and started towards his room in hopes that that was where they were

Sage woke up, he had slept for a good four hours, he saw many people in his room, Salazar, Angelica, Valerie, and a nurse.

"Hey everyone," he said weakly.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Salazar asked.

"Well I don't have the urge to spill my breakfast onto the floor anymore," Sage said with a weak laugh.

Salazar gave him a weak smile. "Suppose we'd better let the nurse check you over," he mentioned.

"Well," The nurse said after checking him. "I dont see anything wrong, no fever or anything, I think its just because of eating too much too fast."

"Most likely," Murdock lied.

"Well Murdock I did say you were going to burst," Salazar smirked.

"Heh, yeah you did," Murdock said with a smile.

"So next time maybe you'll listen to me," he said with a grin. He was waiting for the nurse to leave.

So did Murdock, soon enough she was out of the room, Murdock's smile changed to a look of confusion frustration and worry.

"Nothing to do with eating too much is it?" Salazar asked with concern.

"Not all all Salz," Murdock said standing up. "I heard voices, telling me crazy shit."

"Shit like what?" Salazar didn't like the sound of this. Perhaps it was voices from the mysterious assembly they had seemingly gone to, Salazar wasn't sure.

"They were telling me I was the 'one' and that all of you would become my disciples and eventually become like me," He said turning and looking around at all of them.

Salazar raised an eyebrow. "Now that just sounds fucking wierd," he said. "We have got to find out who these people are."

"Agreed" Murdock said.

Salazar nodded and nervously tapped his knees. "And that is where we have our problem," he said. "Where do we start?"

"I have an idea," Murdock said. "I might not like my own idea, but the first place we can start looking is in my head."

"How do we do that?" he asked. "I can only think of hypnotism and I don't know anyone who can do that."

"Well there's got to be some way," Murdock said.

Salazar nodded in agreement. "Used to know a telepath but he was killed along with my countries royal family," he said.

Once she'd decided that Murdock would be fine she'd slipped back into the room she'd been assigned. She had no desire to be in the way while he and Salazar chatted. She could get all the same information listening carefully without needing to give away anything out of politeness.

"What do you suggest?" Salazar asked.

"I can try to remember..." Murdock said after a moment.

"That could be hard to do," Salazar said, scratching the back of his neck. "Any idea how you could try to remember without being hypnotised?"

"Yeah, like I said, I haven't remembered cause I choose not to," Murdock said.

Salazar raised an eyebrow in surprise. "So you can will yourself into remembering it?"

"I can try," Murdock said with a sigh.

Salazar nodded. "Anytime you're ready," he said, looking around. "Do you suppose the one who found you knew more then he was letting on?"

Murdock turned and looked at him. "Your a genius!"

He got up and ran out of the room, down the hallway for Bill's dorm.

"Oh about time some one realised that," Salazar said and run off after Murdock. He actually wondered if Murdock should actually be running around after what he had been through.

Valerie was standing in Murdocks dorm room, while they debating what had happened she was contemplating what had been said earlier
"They were telling me I was the 'one' and that all of you would become my disciples and eventually become like me," He said turning and looking around at all of them.
She was about to ask what he meant by this whan suddenly they rushed out of the room. She decided to follow them and see what was happening.

Murdock reached the door, and knocked.

Jenna slipped out from behind a potplant near the door just as valerie was exiting the room and put a hand on her shoulder. Perfect timing, of course - this skill had its uses.

"Let them go - they won't find anything." She said to Valerie. "You seem to be the only one nothing weird has happened to directly."

Jenna slipped out from behind a potplant near the door just as valerie was exiting the room and put a hand on her shoulder. Perfect timing, of course - this skill had its uses.

"Let them go - they won't find anything." She said to Valerie. "You seem to be the only one nothing weird has happened to directly."
OOC: hmmmm, a pot plant......nice

IC: Valerie was startled when Jenna put her hand on her shoulder, and was just about to flip Jenna over her back, when she talked.
"Where did you come from?" Valerie asked

Murdock reached the door, and knocked.

Salazar caught up with Murdock and leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

Encephelon

"Whoa!?! What was that???" exclaimed Makie. "And what's with all these, EEK!!! silver things!?!?"

Makie looked around, the now bright glowing silver area she was standing in.

"Sakura, is this some kind of joke?"

There was no response. An erie silence filled the area.

"Sakura?" murmured Makie, as chills crawled up her spine. "Sakura, what's going on???"

Suddenly Makie was grabbed by one of the thin silver thread things that had spread all around her. One by one, they slowly latched onto her and started to engulf her. As every second passed, the speed at which they grabbed onto her increased.

"Kyaaa!!!!!!" screamed Makie, trying to kick and pull off the threads from her. "HELP!!!"

After a few minutes, the thin threads had reached up to her knees, trapping Makie in that one spot. Instead of continuing climbing up her body, Makie began to sink into the mess of threads. Makie struggled to prevent herself from getting sucked deeper into the webs of threads, but in the process got her arms entangled.

"SAKURA!!!! ALEX!!! HELP!!!!!!!" yelled out Makie, before her head fell beneath the waves of silvery threads.

------

The echoing words that he had been left with, "She is safe..." repeated itself over and over in his mind, as he sat on Makie's bed, downtrodden. Alex held his head in his hands as he stared at the floor. The medical team was busy moving to and fro, connecting plugs, setting up monitors, and analyzing Makie's data through various machines.

"Master Alex, are you alright?" said a familiar voice.

An elderly old man in a lab coat had walked up to Alex and put his hand on his shoulder.

"No...It...It isn't." stumbled Alex, as he slowly looked up to see who was talking to him. "Oh, Professor David...No...It's terrible..."

"How so?" replied the Professor.

"I...I...I...I just don't want to say right now..." said Alex, as he looked back at the floor.

"Are you sure? You might feel better if you tell me?"

"N...No, maybe later."

"Suit yourself...But sulking won't make this situation vanish. Tell me what happened?"

Suddenly there was a buzz from the medical personnel who were watching over Makie.

"Sir! Her heart/pulse rate is flatline!!!"

"The defibrilator-nanos we injected have completely vanished from the machines!"

"All monitors have ceased collecting data!"

"What the!?!?" exclaimed the Professor. "Run another diagnostics check, make sure there isn't any outside interference with the machines."

"We've already run the fifth check...Nothing is responding."

"Sir...She's gone..." said one of the personnel solemly.

Everyone stood at their places speechless. The humm of machinery could still be heard, and the long deathly tone of the Propaq monitor and vital signs monitor.

"Alex..." started the Professor calmly and comfortingly to Alex, but was interrupted. Several machines had begun to smoke and overheat, while the lenses of the portable hologram projectors cracked and burst, sending shards everywhere. "Shoot...What the hells is going on!!!"

*cough* *cough*

"What? Where's that coming from?"

*GASP*

Makie suddenly opened her eyes and quickly sat up on the bed, startling everyone. Her eyes were glazed in a trance like state, and her breath was weezy as she deeply inhaled exhaled. But as she sat on the bed, a strange glow seemed to eminate all around her. Currents of electricity could be felt moving towards her, as everyone's senses and hairs tingled as small waves of static electricity found their way around everyone's bodies and towards Makie. Blue bolts of electric current could be seen jumping from one machine to another towards Makie.

"Makie!"

Alex jumped from where he was sitting and stared with his jaw hanging, at Makie.

eh...bump...post will come soon. after finals probably...

OOC: hmmmm, a pot plant......nice

IC: Valerie was startled when Jenna put her hand on her shoulder, and was just about to flip Jenna over her back, when she talked.
"Where did you come from?" Valerie asked

"Over there," Jenna said calmly, pointing at the plant. "Nevermind that. Have you felt anything unusual within the past... few days?"

Valerie said UMM and paused for a minute, finally she said "Well, this is gonna sound strange, but lately it seems like I can hear and see things that I normally wouldn't. Things that are are further away, like not in any normal range. Also it little cuts seem to be healing in like a half an hour. But other than that nothing."

Valerie said UMM and paused for a minute, finally she said "Well, this is gonna sound strange, but lately it seems like I can hear and see things that I normally wouldn't. Things that are are further away, like not in any normal range. Also it little cuts seem to be healing in like a half an hour. But other than that nothing."

Jenna smirked slightly. "Other than that, of course. Well, that explains my variable worries - now on to the main hypothesis. Care to join me?" She said, gesturing at an empty classroom, "I need to bounce ideas off people."

Jenna smirked slightly. "Other than that, of course. Well, that explains my variable worries - now on to the main hypothesis. Care to join me?" She said, gesturing at an empty classroom, "I need to bounce ideas off people."
Valerie was very nonchalant, and said "What the hell, might as well"

Jenna nodded and walked into the room, knowing that valerie was right behind her.

"Right," she said, grabbing some random paper and a pen someone had left behind. "So what we've got here is this." She began to draw, sensing Val leaning forward to look at it. She wrote in the middle of the paper:

Jenna: Sense of others: feelings + locations. ONLY names which follow. Why?
Valerie: Abnormally fast healing, enhanced hearing, vision - other senses?
Angelica: Perfect memory. Have sensed paranoia.
Salazar: un-known, link needs strengthening
Murdock: uncertain, sensed disturbances of emotion, fear + confusion
Flick: Fixing things.
Alex: Un-known, nothing abnormal registered.
Makie: Nanotech, military conspiracy according to Alex.

Below it she wrote: Strange Events in Room Thirteen - What did Lady say to others? Orientation: What happened? Did it happen? All observations date from that point.

And then: makie's collapse. Apparantly not related - nanotech/paranormal working together would be unlikely. Flick + strange activity observed just prior to makie's link becoming less blurred - investigate.


ooc: er, have to go now, continue tomorrow.

The door opened up, and Bill looked out at them. He smirked, and then opened the door all the way. "I've been expecting you, come, come on in."

Murdock did so.

Salazar followed, it did seem apparent that Bill knew more then he had been letting on.

"Have a seat you two, you'll might be here for a while," Bill said as Murdock and Salazar walked into the dorm.

Salazar wondered what Bill knew as he went to sit down.

Jenna looked up from the paper. "Three cases of blatantly supernatural powers. One government conspiracy involving nanotech. Two borderline supernatural cases requiring investigation. Two un-known, but that's still a pattern. When one ses a pattern, one must look for a cause. Makie's collapse doesn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of us, although I sensed something odd from flick a while ago in that area, but! What about this orientation thingy that none of us seem to be sure about? What about that creative visualisation class, or whatever it was? We all need to pool our resources here - there's only so much information I can get through this psychic link. So - " She stared intently at Valerie. "Tell me about that first day."

Flick wandered off to the canteen, felling slightly ... what was that old-fashioned word of Mum's? Peeved. Yeah. Slightly peeved. Who did Alex think he was, telling her to leave Makie alone, when she'd been the only one doing some good? And, anyway, all she had been doing was aligning Makie's energy flows, which was scarcely rocket science, and ...

Flick's brain did a back-flip. Aligning. Makie's. Energy. Flows.

But why am I surprised about that? It's normal enough. Like with that egg when it broke, it's just a matter of ...

I put an egg back together. No, wait ... Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall ... All the King's horses and all the King's men ... People aren't supposed to be able to put eggs back together.

"Drink your coffee, Flick, it's getting cold," said Llanwerin, sliding into the seat opposite.

"What're you doing here?" she growled. Great, now I'm being rude to teachers ...

"I'm here because we sensed your flare. Just the way we did when we spotted you on Earth last year. Just the way we did this morning, with the egg."

"My ... flare? You ... spotted me?" This isn't happening. This isn't real.

Llanwerin didn't answer directly. He looked at her kindly and let his face fall off. Slowly. It slid down the front of his head and disappeared about where his beard had been.

Flick found herself staring at the silver being she thought she'd seen once in the library, when she met Alex.

"It's all real, Flick. You really are seeing ..."

"I'm seeing another life form," Flick said desperately. "It's all right, I'm not stupid, I know humans aren't the only intelligent life in the Universe. Obviously, you're from some other planet. I just haven't heard of you before. It's interesting, isn't it, how often this bi-pedal upright-locomotion form turns up? And the opposable thumb, and the concept of language, and cities -- do you have cities? -- and ... "

Llanwerin let her babble until she ran out of words.

"Flick, you're Chosen. So are your friends. We found you all. We've been helping you uncover your talents -- that's something you had to do yourselves -- and we've been teaching you how to develop them. But you weren't ready until you were aware of them. You had to know consciously what you could do. Just now, you realised. Don't try to pretend it didn't happen. We could all read it. You just sat your finals. You're ready, Flick."

"Ready?" Flick laughed madly. "This is insane. Ready to do what? Haul on our super-hero costumes and rush off to save the Universe?"

Llanwerin's face reappeared. He looked worried, but he smiled.

"You can give the costumes a miss, if you want. But otherwise -- Yes, Flick. You have to rush off and save the Universe."

Well, it was just before I came here. I was sitting on my bed, sharpening my knife and I cut myself, so I went to the bathroom to clean it up. When I got there I started getting a headache, when suddenly I heard my parents talking about sending me to a boarding school. I thought I was hearing things, because this was all the way across the house. When I went to wash the cut it was gone, so I freaked out and ran away. I remember being in the woods and passing out. The next thing I know I'm here.

Jenna nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, that sounds about right with what you've already said, but I meant... the orientation, that room thirteen business... oh my."

She suddenly sat up straight, eyes wide. "Never mind that now... we should all do that together anyway. I think... I think Flick has worked something out. We need to find her - from her emotional readings this is a damn big revelation she's having. A bit of shock too. Come on!" Without waiting to see if Valerie was following (again - this could get annoying) she ran out and towards the canteen.

Valerie decided to follow her, and ask her about the orientation thing. She had heard of it, but didn't go, so she wanted to know what Jenna meant.

"Makie?" replied Makie. "Oh! Makie...I see..."

"Makie, what are you talking about?" asked Alex, even more puzzled.

"Makie is indisposed right now..." replied Makie as she looked up and stared at Alex with metallic blue eyes.

Makie jumped off of the bed and stood in the middle of the group, who continued to stare at her, not knowing what to do.

"Ahhh! It's been too long...What was it? Ten years?"

"Wha...What are you talking about, Makie?" stammered Alex, as he stood up from the bed.

"Oh...I told you, Makie is indisposed at the moment. You can say she's taking a back seat for the time being..." replied the girl cooly.

"You're not making any sense!" replied Alex, with a louder tone. "If you're not Makie...Who are you?"

"You're right...I think it would be better if I'd introduce myself first...How rude of me." the girl replied cutely, very unlike Makie. "My name is Sakura...Sakura Sakai..."

Sakura was suddenly interrupted by the sound of equipment falling to the floor.

"No! No, you can't...You can't be Sakura!" stumbled Professor David, whose face had gone pale white with shock. "You're...You are supposed to be in cryo-stasis...Thi...This cannot be! This is not scientifically possible!"

"You are correct, I am still in cryo-stasis...Well, my body is atleast." nodded Sakura. "Now, where was I? Yes...I am Sakura Sakai, pleased to meet you."

Just outside the door to the canteen, jenna stopped short, her hand outstretched towards the door was shaking. "I... dammit!" She muttered. "Flick or Makie.. aah... she didn't tell me how to cope with this... dammit." Jenna swallowed, glanced back at val, and opened the door to the canteen.

" ... and he wouldn't tell me WHY!"

Flick glared savagely at her empty coffee-cup. She'd been talking non-stop since Jenna and Valerie sat down at the table, but she must have managed to drink the stuff. The others hadn't interrupted her, though; maybe they thought she'd gone nuts. Right, then, rave on, Flick ...

"According to him, all humans are born with psychic abilities. But they don't, I dunno, switch on until puberty. It makes for all sorts of trouble, because your body has to learn to use new kinds of energies." Flick could feel herself mucking this up: Hey, guess what, gang, I've just discovered the real cause for teenage moods!

"Anyway, he says you have to be taught how to use them properly before you're about 18 or 19. If you're not, they ... go off. Like how it's harder to learn foreign languages after you're five. But with this psychic stuff, some people manage to get their system sort of half-working, and they're the ones who get called creative. Or geniuses. Or crazy, especially the telepaths. So Maritzar's kindly been teaching us while we're young enough. That's what Llanwerin said, anyway -- you remember any Witchcraft 101 classes?"

Jenna and Valerie glanced at each other. Flick was puzzled. They both seemed to be taking this awfully well ...

"So he says the reason we're here -- I mean us, in particular, not Joe Bloggs or whoever -- is that they Chose us. That's what they call it. You can almost hear the Capital Letters, y'know? You Are The Chosen!. Just picked us up out of our lives like puppies at a pet-shop. Like they think they had a right to. But all he'll say is that they had to, because we have to save the Universe."

Flick waited for her hearers to call the men in white coats. But they just kept listening.

"You know how I'm going to save the Universe?" she confided. "I can put eggs back together. That'll show 'em, won't it? The Borg, or the Nameless Menace, or whatever it is? Leave us alone, guys, or we'll put your eggs back together! So, what're you two gonna do?"

"Not just eggs." Jenna said abruptly. "You did something to Makie, too. I felt it."

She smirked slightly at Flick's expression. "You're not the only one weird stuff's been happening to. I can feel all of... us, I guess, these 'chosen' people. Location and emotion, so far. And other people have a kind of... presence, but nothing coherent. Val here's got this whole enhanced senses thing going - that reminds me, we need to experiment with that."

She suddenly grabbed Flick's empty cofee cup, and sniffed it. Then she held it at arms length. "I can't smell the coffee at this distance. Can you?" She asked Val.

OOC: man...i lost the reply i was typing up 'cause i accidentally closed the window!?!? grrrr... :mad:

"So you're a sort of ... co-ordinator? Administrator? Executive? I know, you're like the main computer and we're sort of networked to you ... "

Flick had trouble with abstractions. She needed a picture to link ideas to.

"And Valerie's a super-sensor-bot, and I'm a repair robot ... no, actually I'm a sort of ... what's the thing that re-routes energy flows ... " She had a sudden picture of herself and Valerie as R2-D2 clones, running around and beeping; which probably made Jenna into Luke Skywalker. Rats. She tried again.

"Jenna, if you're more or less sensitive to everyone ... well, maybe if we got an idea of what each of us can do, we'd get an idea of what we're up against? Like, if together we add up to 'fire truck', then we know our job is going to be putting out fires? Or if you put all our pieces of the jigsaw together, you're left with a something-shaped hole?"

Some quality in her hearers' silence told her she was singing to the choir.

"Oooo-kay. You've already thought of that. You've already got a list. And it doesn't add up, right? Dammit, I should have watched more of Mum's old Buffy shows! It wouldn't help sort this out, but at least I'd have an idea about what to do to the next teacher I see! More data, that's what we need, more data."

And, of course, Jenna was ahead of her thought again. Because measuring the extent of Valerie's ability would give them more data. Shaddup, Flick; watch and learn, she told herself.

Angelica ruffled through her books, alone in her room with the mystery of the day scampering through her head. What did any of it matter? She hadn’t come to Martizar for some infantile adventure or mystery. She had come in order to get away, to leave home and never return. She buried her face in Shelly, then Milton and then Shakespeare and on and on. She flipped through them memorizing each page in a mere matter of seconds. She could easily duplicate any of them, just as she had the Tolstoy sitting on her shelf. Yet, they weren’t keeping her attention, her mind continued to wander uncontrollably.

The usual escape wasn’t working. She couldn’t read her way into oblivion. At least there was a second option. When she’d been back home she’d needed to literally run for everything, she hadn’t had time to plow the fields and learn enough to get out without a continuous run and the endorphins that running created were a much better high than anything else she’d experienced. By this point, it was more than thirty-six hours since she had last run; it was no wonder she couldn’t concentrate. She knew she’d solved her problem now so she stood up and walked out of her room. It wouldn’t have been polite for her to run through the building and she knew it, so she thought back on the layout of the building and walked to the nearest exit. The sun was down as she walked briskly out of the building and she was just about to start running when a hand clamped down on her shoulder and she quickly spun to face the aggressor.

“Student curfew is coming soon, you aren’t allowed to be running off.” The voice was calm and measured, it seemed that Sara always portrayed that effect. Angelica looked up at the elder woman’s face with a blank look on her face, a simple but impenetrable mass of passivity as if her earlier defensive movement was entirely forgotten. “It might be smart to get back to your dorm before they chime the bells.”

“Yes ma’am.” This ‘coincidental’ meeting proved that the woman was following her. Most likely she had access to the camera system in the building and that was how she avoided being seen or heard by Angelica.

“You’re wondering how I found you, aren’t you?” The girl was still young, she had excellent natural defenses, but that didn’t mean a damn thing when compared to training. “To be honest it would be better if you were wondering why I’m following you.”

Angelica’s face didn’t change a bit. It was a good question. Why would an authority of any kind be following her? She could make several assumptions, first would be that someone had witnessed her attack on the bully the previous day. Second would be her incredible test scores and intelligence. Yet neither of those seemed to quite fit the circumstances, for the first she’d probably be experiencing difficulty with better armed authorities and for the second a science or math teacher would probably be following her instead, not a choir director. That meant that there was probably some tertiary reason that she hadn’t discovered. The intense knowledge of her past probably had something to do with it; someone had obviously been watching her for a long time to gather such detailed information, even information that was nearly impossible to discover.

She continued silently plowing through options for another moment when she felt a slight touch and an inaudible whisper. She immediately changed the direction of her thoughts and followed the touch. It hadn’t been hers and it wasn’t physical, she worked harder to hide her thoughts and drew out toward the ‘noise.’

Can you hear me? Sara hoped that the girl would not only hear the message but be able to return it at some level. Angelica didn’t have much control but she was excellent and watching and learning, it came with the inhuman memory.

The thought was more clear the second time and Angelica had been able to find it’s source, not that there had been any doubt about it in the first place. She worked to mimic the message in order to return it. At first she could only transmit raw data but after a few moments she was able to send a more symbolized reply. I hear you.

Now do you know why I’m following you?

I can guess.

You’re more of an anomaly than even you guess. Your memory is phenomenal beyond belief, no human could ever store or organize data as you do and it isn’t even supernatural.

It may not be ‘supernatural’ but I have a feeling that this is.

No it isn’t. Sarcasm was even more apparent in non-vocal speech. Have you ever wondered why people leave you alone when they become slightly acquainted with you?

No, there is an obvious logical explanation, they realize they can’t control me or use me so they leave.

People often called Sara obstinate, but she obviously had nothing on this girl. You tell them to leave. You chat for just a moment and they get such a strong command to leave that they’ll do almost anything to avoid you.

You’re not looking at all the facts, Sara. People I hardly know have talked to me for hours and lent me books, supplies and dealt with me regularly.

Did you want them to leave you alone?

No.

There’s your answer. You want them to help you, give you books or whatever you need so they do. If you want them to leave you alone they do, if you want them to stop hitting you they do.

Then why aren’t you leaving, Sara? After the first few phrases Angelica’s speech had become perfectly clear, and now she had even managed to hide all emotions from the more expressive non-vocal speech.

The girl learned unbelievably quickly, and sometimes her questions seemed like carefully laid traps. For the same reason that I can talk to you like this.

At that point the curfew bell chimed across the campus. The sub-vocal conversation had only lasted a few seconds and the information transferred had been more than she could even delve from a book in that time. “I guess I’d best go back to my room. If you’ll excuse me?”

“Go ahead Angelica, choir starts tomorrow and I’ll make sure to discuss the proper time to schedule a lesson now that you know more of what that entails. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight Ms. Wati.” She strode decisively back into the building. Sadly she hadn’t gotten to run as she’d planned, but the information she’d procured was well worth the time it had taken. She knew she had to test more firmly the hypothesis that Sara had placed before her as soon as possible. She also knew that she needed to be careful, it was possible that she could accidentally hurt someone without extreme caution and she did not want that to happen.

She suddenly grabbed Flick's empty cofee cup, and sniffed it. Then she held it at arms length. "I can't smell the coffee at this distance. Can you?" She asked Val.
"Of course I can, I can also tell that just a couple days ago you came off your......" Val started and realized that it might embaress Jenna.

Jenna blushed, and Valerie only offered an apologetic look.

"Well moving on to the other part," Valerie pulled her slim wallet out of her back pocket and opened it. Inside their looked only to be a few bucks, and after fumbling around for a minute, she produced a scalpel blade. Valerie held the blade up to her extended arm, pressed firmly with it, and ran it down her arm for about 5 cm. Everyone there watched her eyes clench shut, and grinding sounds were heard from her teeth, as she was cutting herself. Shortly there after a line of blood formed, and dripped down her arm. She wiped away the blood to reveal that the cut was gone.

"Their, if thats normal, I don't know what is." Valerie said as everyone looked at her in amazement.

"Er... yes, that appears to be an adequate... demonstration." Jenna said, the blush having faded from her cheeks to be replaced by sweat as Val cut herself. She put down the coffee cup carefully. "Um... Try not hurting yourself when you're near me, huh? I didn't quite realise that pain goes with emotion... or... maybe it didn't, before." She said thoughtfully. "I would have felt Murdock's. Huh. This thing's growing. I'd guess you guys will also experience new aspects of your powers... that would actually be pretty useful. Look out for it, cos it'll prove that our powers progress along similar lines, so we can make predictions about other things."

She winced suddenly, fidgeting. "Dammit," she muttered, "Blocking out unnessecary noise is one thing, what am I meant to do about conflicting situations..."

The others were looking at her strangely. "Er, sorry," Jenna said, "I, something's going on with Makie AND Angelica, but I'm not advanced enough to tell what and I can't be in three places at once and it's really pissing me off." She took a deep breath. "It's... kind of like a picture hanging crooked for some people, you know? I always have to... KNOW things... and I can't know all this stuff. Because I'm here, and they're in two separate places. Argh."

"You're not making any sense..." murmured Alex. "What the heck are you saying? How can Makie be indisposed?"

"That I can't explain...Try asking your little friend Flick..." replied Sakura. "Hmmm...It's a bit crowded...Do you think you can tell your little friends if I can speak with you in private?"

"Huh? What?" started Alex.

"Sir, you should let us take some tests..." started one of the medical officers.

"No, that's fine...Leave us..." said Alex. "I've got this..."

The medical officers stood there, some looked at Professor David, who just nodded. The medical officers got the message and began to pack their equipment and file out of the room.

"Ah...Professor..."

"Yes, Master Alex?" replied the Professor, who came up at the rear of the group leaving the room.

"Never mind...I'll call you in a little while so tell the men to set up station for a few days."

"Yes, sir." replied the Professor as he turned and walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"Now what was it were you going to sa..."

Alex didn't have enough time to finish his statement when Sakura had grasped the collar of Alex's shirt and pulled him up to less than an inch from her face. She propped her free hand behind Alex's head and held her lips close to Alex's but then slightly contorted her face quickly kissed him on the cheek.

"Ahem...Annoying...That's from Makie, she misses you...Such a pest..." said Sakura who quickly let go of Alex's shirt, causing him to fall backwards and slip off the edge of the bed and onto the floor. "Ok...Let's get down to business...But first..."

Sakura stood up and walked over to the large dresser on Makie's side of the room. She opened each of the drawers one by one until she got to the third from the bottom when she reached inside and pulled out something small and metallic.

"A bug...So typical of them..." muttered Sakura

She dropped the bug on the floor where it tried to run but was quickly smashed.

"Sorry about that...Now where was I?" smiled Sakura, as he walked over to Alex. "Ah ok...Back to business..."

*tag for the giant post I am gonna write up to not only give all the secrets out about what they are, but the ending to this RP*

Sakura's smiling face quickly turned into that of frustration and seriousness. Alex jumped as Sakura stared down at him, causing him to gradually scoot backwards on the bed and eventually hit the wall.

"Listen Alex and listen good..." growled Sakura. "I want to get out of here...I want to get out of here...I want to get out of this body and return to my own..."

Sakura had again grabbed Alex by his shirt collar and had pulled him up close to her so that they were again face to face.

"For ten freaking..."

Sakura's grip tightened, almost causing Alex to choke.

"Agonizing years...I had to deal with living in Makie's head..."

Noticing Alex had begun to turn pale, Sakura quickly let go of his shirt.

"Having to go through ten years of her whining and complaining...Ten years having to deal with her dull and mind-boggling gossip...Ten years of her lousy fashion-sense, even though the skirts were nice...Ten years of having to deal with her numerous crushes, girls even...UGH!! I CAN'T EVEN STAND REMEMBERING IT RIGHT NOW!!! ARGH!?!?

Alex plainly nodded as he listened with ever growing fear as Sakura's voice grew louder and louder as she had continued on yelling.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!" screamed Sakura. "YOU AREN'T LEAVING UNTIL I'M FINISHED WITH YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Sakura had fallen on her knees as she cluched her head and yelled in pain. After a several seconds, Sakura had slowly regained her senses and stood up straight and faced Alex.

"But now...Now that I have somehow been freed of my bondage, thank god finally, I can finally pursue a plan to get my original body back." said Sakura, her calm coming back, but her face had remained staunchly serious. "I need your help to achieve my goal, then I can hand Makie back over to you..."

Alex was about to blankly nod again, his head too confused to think straight. After a few seconds he slowly regained his composure.

"Now...Now how...When did this all happen...Before I do anything, I want to be filled in on the details, everything that has been going on with you and Makie."

"Sounds reasonable enough..." nodded Sakura, as she took a seat on one of the leather desk chairs, supplied with the furniture, and moved closer to Alex. "Hmmm...I have idea...How about this..."

She placed her hand on Alex's forehead and closed her eyes.

"Just relax...

Those were the last words Alex heard as the room around him began to spin and darken.

OOC: i must continue this...yes yes...maybe later though...mmhmm

A surge ran through the school, not a surge of water, not one of electricity. A surge of energy, it ran through all those who had powers or were destined to have powers. It shook them, it made them feel like they were starving, it made them feel like they had never slept a decent night's sleep. They felt sick to their stomachs, their heads ached, their muscles cramped and ached.

Murdock took in a deep breath, finding it hard to breathe. He started gagging and neary puked. He shot back in his chair, his hands on his stomach hoping they could stop the pain somehow. His eyes were wide and no sound came from his mouth.

Bill spoke, his voice was not that of a teenager, but it sounded like an adult. A wise old man giving his thoughts on a matter, however he was not giving his thoughts. he was informing them. His voice was heard by all of them. It echoed all throughout their bodies, as if they were empty inside and the noise could just rattle their skin and bones.

"All of you have been chosen by the order. You are all the most important beings in this universe now. The order specifically chose you out to defend for good, to fight against evil. THis order I speak of you are not to know of, yet. I assume yet later in your lives you will find yourselves learning more of it. Who am I? I am just the humble messenger sent to give you the news. All of you have attained your powers, or are very close to getting them. As some of you might now, your future is already being revealed to you. You are starting to see the dangers that are happening. Others of you, are being smart about this, you are still beleiving it to be some earthly government controlling you.
"This academy is not run by any government, it is run by the order. Those of you who are trying to dig deeper into this riddle need not do it anymore. You are the elite, you are the guardians, you are the saviors. You have earned yourself specific powers. We have not given them to you, you have created them yourself. It is your personality that gave you your powers. Your inner spirit created them for you. I see into the future and I worry for some of you, I see betrayal, deceit, death, and even falling to evil. Do not let this discourage you. You've walked out the locked door, there is no turning back. Wether you like it or not, you cannot turn away from this path. Seek soliture if you wish, but somehow or another, you will be brought back into this. I do not mean to sound harsh but thats the truth.
"This war you are about to step in is going to go for most of your lives no doubt. All your nations will be brought into it, as well as many other nations. It is up to you to protect them. You are the ones who will lead the charges. Some of you might become powerful political positions, others of you might be cast out from society. But listen to me, before the end you will all play your part. For good or ill it may be you will have a part to play in this book.
"This might all seem very fantasy like to you, well your right it is. Is this some book your reading? No, this is your life. Either grow up and accept it, or let it drag you into it all unprepared. As I said there is no turning back, so there is no point in not accepting it. Do you all have a specific leader? No, you are your own leaders, no one is capable of being a leader of others. You can only guide yourself and your actions. So now, you have been told much. You have still alot to learn."

He looked at Murdock and Salazar, who were the only ones in the room, in their pain they still had managed to look at them. He met their gaze, and he smiled a warm smile.

"As for Martizar, your part here is finished..."

***

And that is when it all happened. He waved at Murdock and Salazar, and all pain went away from everyone. There was a moment of complete silence, as if no noise ever existed. Then in the next, the noise of a violent wind tore throughout the entire building. Murdock turned around and looked at the door, and put his hands up to his face as a wave of light teal energy poured in the room and swallowed him.

This energy ran throughout the entire building, and collected all the chosen. They were carried away to a place unknown to them. As they entered the energy all they saw were the heavens, infinate stars beaming down all around them. They felt perfectly at peace, almost as if they were dead. Although they were no where near death.

They were dropped, on a beach. The sand flew in a wave around them as they hit, a blue ocean sat peacefully beside them, waves sloshing up lazily and calmly on the beach not far away. They were on a small island, where at though, there was no clue. A voice then echoed through the air as if an airplane was flying over heard.

"This is where the real adventure begins, it is here you must chose your path. Around the island are certain, portals you could call them. You must find these portals and take them to the next step of your journey. Your next chapter will require solitude for a little. You will find others, but none of them will be like you. All of you must go seperate paths, but do not worry, you will all meet up once again. Now go, and beware. For evil lives on this island as well...."