[GROUP-FIC] Return Of The Shadow King (Act II : Unseen Force

[Logical2u]

Blood dripped innocently into the nearly completely gum covered metal floors and walkways of the Slums of Pioneer 2. Bars and shady love nests lined both sides, interspaced by dark alleys and the hobos that made this place infamous.

The body parts of the Deminians were cloaked in their own blood, and even now, more thne an hour after most of them died, they still twitched with electrical currents provoked by the metallic armor.

The scientists were worried that the monsters down there had been infected with a portion of Dark Falz' mutagenic DNA... and a mysterious form of Photon classified only as DARK...

Some scientists were converting the body parts into weapons, other were disecting them, and removing the mutagenic portions to determine their heritage...

So far, there were no results that were to be trusted... most of them came from the less respectable Military scientists....

The Slums contained the highest ratio of Humans to Newmans anywhere of Pioneer 2... But those Newmans only chose to live there to take advantage of the privacy...

So it was of no surprise when the #1 assassian of Pioneer 2 pulled alongside the #1 'terrorist' of Pioneer 2...

[Sagasu]

"Target in motion, target destination, ruins. Intercept disabled, rondevous at point C. Confirmation, Bumble."

"Target data confirmed. Rondevous point C. Confirmed."

"Target data confirmed. Scan target label 'Fool's Gold', intercept disabled, end scan target point A, rondevous point C. Confirmation, Bee."

"Scan target label data confirmed. Rondevous point C. Confirmed."

"You know, Wasp, you could at least install a wider speech variable so that you don't have to talk gibberish to those machines of yours."

"They're tools, not companions. Just like you, an associate, not a friend. I trust that you remember you place."

"Yes sir, I'll see you at point C."

He hated waiting, that fact alone was obvious as he checked that his equipment was all in order for the third time since he had sat down at point C ten beats ago. Wasp found it somewhat entertaining to use the thermal visor to spy on the citizens of pioneer 2, and would often pass the time devising the best strategy to slink inside the home or office and disrupt the activity inside. Despite his shrewd attitude towards the only other organic member of his team, he was quite thankful for her company in the long hours of tracking down and putting out those who would dare the challenge the authorities of such an advanced civilization. For months had he been planning this particular hunt, it had struck him as a fascination as just how this mysterious man could get away with the things he did. In conclusion, he confirmed a vital flaw after a simple session of researching the target. So obvious was the error, it was simply pure luck hat had saved this man's flaw from discovery. That or incompetence.

A slight wind broke upon the figure, parting ways and then returning to is normal current with no effort at all. He was covered from tip to toe, no inch of flesh was left uncovered by the black skintight jump suit like material that most of his hunters outfit was composed of, minus the bulky yet light sections of armor of the typical RAmar fashion. Unlike the normal RAmar helmet, though, there was no visor from which the user could peer out of. Instead there was a plate shaped to the helmet over this. Inside the plate served as a monitor, which provided the views from 10 cameras hidden in various areas of his body, allowing a range of vision beyond what a chameleon could boast. A series of probes located inside the helmet would scan the data being transferred from his eyes, so that the computer knew just what he was looking at. Thus, with his eyes alone he could strafe through the various functions of this exceptional perceptual system.

Now not everyone could afford such a complex system, yet this man was no ordinary individual. His status was enhanced by his wealth, his name reputed throughout the people by word of mouth and trophy alike. This was something Wasp was proud of, one of the few things he could derive pleasure from. He had indeed worked hard to make team Hive what is was that day, and now he planned to boost their reputation, and deepen their credit accounts ten fold. Hornet arrived shortly after his musings had ended, her feminine body hidden by the customized armor system identical to Wasp's, with the exception the word "Hornet" was stamped across her suit's back in black. The yellow / black outfit scheme blended well together with their team name, as did their identities. They kept their real names hidden so that once they retired, team Hive would be able to retreat without a trace of their werabouts.

" Are you sure we can't bring him back alive?" Hornet's voice vibrated through the speaker system in his helmet, causing Wasp to shake his head.

"Scum like this can be compared to a corrosive gas. It expands to fill any situation its placed into and harms everything in its path. It is best that we end it now before it expands any further."

"I wont argue, though your explanation sounds far too charitable for the likes of you."

"As always, this is for myself."

* * *

Sorry for the delay guys, roll on the excellent work!!

[Sayara]

Tingle sat there confused for a good few moments until she felt a piece of the salad hit her leg. She snapped out of her trance again and used the handkerchief she was given. She then looked at the fomarl who sat a few spaces away from her.

"She looks mighty angry su." She spoke to nobody in particular, "what if she like gets angry at me or something?" She let out a worried meep and wrinkled the handkerchief more and more until the fomarl put down her book and gave the child a look.

"Is...something wrong?" the fomarl's said to the child. Tingle flinched before recognizing the voice to be the Fomarl from before.

"Um um, thank you for the hanky. Eh eh here you go." she replied giving the fomarl her handkerchief back still covered in the salad gunk from before. The fomarl gave a look of disgust from the handkerchief.

"Er... don't mention it." She replied back before going back to her book. Tingle continued to stare at the fomarl. She was mesmerized by how old and mature she looked compared to herself.

[mr_rubbish]

Marla hit the battered handheld on the side and it squealed in protest. The cheap POS was acting up again, but there would not be any opportunity to request funds for equipment replacement. The department's salary budget was already being put to the test enough as it was. Funds from the HG were being appropriated for the rebuilding of the Guild's sector following the destuction wrought during the 'Robot Rebellion'. Practically every able-bodied hunter was now employed in missions in order to raise cash, be it for themselves or for more charitable concerns.

The RAmarl picked her way through the rubble, her destination the Vegan sector of the city, more colourfully refered to as 'the slums'. But given the recent events, it was difficult to know where the Guild ended and the slums began. One burned out building resembled another after awhile. The reason she was in the slums was to question the final member of Hal Barton's raiding party. The 'droid and the FOnewearl had given up statements quickly, they were in a rush to get back out into the field. The HUmar, Maleus Hawthorn, had vanished however. His Guild data listed his address as being deep in the slums and he could not be reached via BEE. It was time to meet this one face to face.

Marla shivered, she had the oddest sensation of being watched, but when she scaned the rooftops around her she saw nothing out of the ordinary. She shrugged and hurried on her way...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: mr_rubbish on 2004-12-23 12:04 ]</font>

[WraithVerge]

Zenja paused outside the doors leading into the Hunter's Guild. Even though she was registered as a hunter, she never quite felt... welcome, for lack of a better word. Her fur rippled as a tall, grayish-pink android passed through the parted doors. "Out of my way," it said, brushing Zenja's shoulder aside roughly. The cat-girl tensed and extended her claws to strike, but quickly calmed herself before she did a satisfying yet regretable action. That was another reason Zenja did not enjoy about the Hunter's Guild: the lack of comradry among some of the members. Sure, there were some that did noble deeds (and some that looked mighty handsome), but not all the hunters and their missions were charitable.

Zenja rechecked the datacube she carried in her right palm and sighed. Is this such a good idea? Who knows what sort of detestable scum... well, if I word this right, I just might get the right sort of hunters for the job. She closed her eyes and held her breath, then stepped through the doors.

The room was practically empty. A Fomarl stood at the desk chatting excessively with the receptionist, a few hunters stood in a corner, backs turned to her, and...

"Hey!"

Zenja nearly freaked once again, this time summoning both Morning Glory blades. The weapons snapped to her wrist and immediately she adopted a defensive stance. Her eyes moved to the direction of the voice... a child, scared out of her wits. "Suu?"

Zenja sighed, relaxing her arms and disengaging the blades from her wrists. She looked around to notice that everyone was staring at her. "Heh! My bad. I didn't get my coffee this morning. Kinda edgy... sorry!" she explained, rubbing the back of her head.

She turned back to the small child. "And I'm sorry I acted like that. I did not mean to frighten you."

"It's all right..."

"What's your name?"

"Tingle suu~"

"Tingle-suu? What a nice name! Mine's Zenja. Nice to meet you!" The cat-girl smiled. "Oh!" she pressed a button on her equipment container and a small, five-sided star with a crescent moon in the middle appeared in her hand. "Here," she offered, placing the trinket in Tingle's hand. "A gift. Enjoy!"

Turning, the cat-girl approached the desk. "One moment, Sollah. How may I help you, ma'am?"

Zenja placed the datacube on the counter. "I'd like to put this job up on the list. It's for a friend of mine."

"It may take a while for me to enter it into the database due to the numerous jobs that have been flooding in, what with the Ruins closing and all. Ah, I see... another Ruins quest... let's see here..."

Zenja sighed and thanked the receptionist, then turned to leave. The cat-girl cast a side glance and smile at Tingle before stepping through the doors. "Phew. That went better than I expected. Now, who to contact first. Ah!" Zenja darted across the plaza, trying to remember what the number was to BOC's residence...

[White_Knight]

Yamishi and Kori we're slowly walking side by side, and arm in arm, down the street to the Hunters Guild with Kaseifu trailing slowly along the path behind them. Given all the things that happened recently it was the least they could do to find some high paying quest and donnate some of the earnings to the rebuilding of Pioneer 2. With the Ruins being closed in a week most of the high paying jobs would be gone soon and the others would be full. But despite the rush the three were in no real hurry it would be easy enough to sell off some of the more useless things and donnate the prophets from them to help rebuild P2.

"I wonder what kinds of jobs will be available?" Yami asks to no one imparticular.

"I don't know dear but I don't mind so long as I'm with you." Kori says resting her head on his sholder.

"If we don't hurry master there will be no jobs available." Kase says with a slightly synthetic voice.

"Their are always jobs open don't worry about it."

"I just hope we get a high paying one I don't like seeing the place run down like this."

"True." Yami says as they enter the hunters guild

"Hello what can I do for you three today?" The guild worker asks cheerfully.

"Yes we'd like to see what kinds of quests are available for the ruins preferably high paying ones." Yami replies in a similar tone.

"Well we just got this new one in. Is there any reason why you want high paying jobs?"

"Yes. We're trying to help repair the damage done to Pioneer 2 during the 'Robot Rebelion'." Kori says innocently.

"I see well here's the info on the job." The women responds while handing them a small disk with the data on it.

"Thanks we'll look this over and get back to you." Yami says heading towards one of the chairs with the disk.

[Lone_Wolf_Nasca]

*SNAP* Went the arm when Nasca twisted it vigorously, shattering the bone separating it from the rest of the already heavely mutilated corpse, extending his hand out to Mome so he could retrieve the appendage for safe keeping on his pack.

"Anything else Doctor ?" Nasca asked as he stared at the scientist taking samples of the gelatinous like purple goo that continued to pour out of the fallen creature's wounds, a puzzled expression on his face as he seemed to search for something within the creature.

"...Strange..." The small man muttered to himself in a low audible voice, as if trying to hide some hidden piece of information.

"Something the matter, Doctor ?" Nasca continued to interrogate Mome, seeing that his first question was not answered at all.

"No, nothings the matter, you wouldn't understand anyway." He replied as he stood up and saved a few more vials full of the purple substance into his pack. "We best be going out of the ruins Nasca, I want to study these samples right away."

"...Yes..." The red haired Hunter replied, not very happy to be treated as an ignorant fool, but it was little what he could to find out what was Mome hiding without violating section 38 paragraph B of the Hunter's guild code; Do not diverge more that needed into the client(s) private affairs. No choice but to follow the rules at the moment he thought to himself as he extracted a Tele pipe from his pack and activated the device, a swirling multicolored vortex opening in front of him.

"Step right in Doctor, our personal carriage to the guild is open." The two men stepping in a dissapearing as the portal closed,

shit lights out !!! >.< EEdit stuff in soon enough !!

[mr_rubbish]

Amidst all the comings and goings at the Missions desk, few people would have noticed the non-descript RAmar as he sat in the furtherst corner reading a e-newspaper. Occasionally he would peer at the new entrants before going back to reading. Almost none of them would have paid any mind to the targeting scanner mounted over his left eye. Such enhancements were common amongst the organic RAngers since they needed every advantage they could get over their mechnical brethern.

But closer examination would have revealed that the targeting scanner was a specialised military version painted over to resemble a typical hunter variation. With the cover provided, the RAmar was able to take leisurely scans of everyone passing through. Occasionally he would whisper under his breath of his findings.

"Hawk reporting in. I think I've spotted several 'beacons'. Transmitting data."

After about a beat, a voice replied in through his ear piece.

"Maintain current postion and continue observation."

[-Z]

Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap...

Logical's boots clanked lightly against the streets of the Slums. It was the only sound that broke the night silence. Logical continued walking, yet he knew he was not alone.

"So... how's it going?" he asked to the man walking in the shadows in perfect unison beside him.

"Not bad. It makes me so proud of you to see you covered in blood that isn't your own. It's not the blood of the innocent, but we can work on that."

"Well pardon me for not practically asking for the Guild to put a quest on me. Do you even know how high its reward is?"

"Currently? No. A mysterious death occured inside the guild- strangely one that i'm not responsible for. Anyways, they've most likely got it under a secretive tight watch. It'll be more trouble than it's worth to sneak in there now. Not exactly a good idea to be locked in the stronghold of the enemy with no escape route."

"So that wasn't you?" Logical said curiously.

"Don't get your hopes up, I was far from idle that night. I was instructed anonymously to kill a man who had been investigating the ruins for some time. I don't know the name of the employers, but..." the assassin broke his line to examine his old wrist computer and check his accounts. "...they seem to pay well."

"So you came to ask me if anything was going on in the ruins that would be connected to the death of him and the man in the Hunter's Guild?"

"Yes."

"Well then you can go down there and check yourself... or ask some guy before you kill him maybe. I'm sure the Guild'll love to hear that you at least made a brief conversation with one of your victims first."

"Heh, you know about half my income comes from selling my fallen persuer's equipment on the black market, right? Which if I'm not mistaken is exactly what you're doing." Zi'Zuku said, shifting his eyes to a loose monster limb hanging from Logical's hunter pack.

"Heh. The more people you kill, the higher your bounty. The higher your bounty, the more persuers come after you. The more persuers come after you, the more equipment you sell. The more persuers you kill, the higher your bounty is. A vicious cycle."

"Thank you."

"Only one of these days a persuer is going to do you in." Logical said, snapping a varisita out of his holster and leveling it perfectly with Zi'Zuku's head. He had already taken the liberty to make whatever visual aid adjustments needed to dissallow any surprise movements from the assassin.

"*Sigh* You really don't like my company, do you?"

"Let's just say you can make me uncomfortable sometimes."

"You know we're not so different, me and you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the ranger spat back at the obsurdity of the statement.

"You've been branded a terrorist as I've been branded an assassin. You take a shot at any military personel-"

"While you take a slash at anyone you find fitting. I hardly find that similar. At least I have reasons for-"

"Then I see you're in the justification stage. I remember when I went through it... it was torturous. You try to justify yourself with everything you kill to ease your concience. 'It was just a monster which would have killed me first if I didn't do anything'. 'It was just a military dog'. Sooner or later you'll run out of justifications, and when you try to think up of one, you'll find nothing. It is only when you accept what you've done that you can move out of that stage. To kill something is to kill something. Once you realize that, your limitations will be endless."

"Well if it means further blemishing my name and becoming a sadistic freak who can have almost no social life outside the bar which he sleeps in- if he even sleeps at all during the night, then I'll stick to 'justifying my murders'."

"Whatever you like. But just remember who the one covered in blood here is... Zi'Zuku concluded, walking off into the darkness as he finished his line. Logical stared at him... he knew what he had been told was complete bullshit... but the way it was said made him seem so... right. Which brought him to a curious thought.

"Zi'Zuku," Logical called, "what were you're justifications?"

The shillouette of a man in the distance turned back in an unussually puzzled look. He paused a moment before answering.

"The Hunter's Guild is training killers. Do you know that children have been taught to massacre their way through the forests, while it is a crime to harm someone's dog? I felt society was crumbling, and simply felt it better to destroy the source of the problem before it infected everyone." He turned and began to walk off into the shadows again. "Guess I've failed at that... so I might as well kill the infected as well."

"Is that so?"

But by then, he was talking to himself.
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EDIT: I don't really like how this came out, but I didn't get home till the early hours last night, and I suppose this is better than nothing

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: -Z on 2004-12-24 11:34 ]</font>

[EphekZ]

Just so you all know Jenn is RAcaseal and Zero is a HUmar

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The door opened as Zero and Jenn stepped through the door into the darkness of the empty mines.

Jenn tapped Zero on the shoulder "Why..why is it so empty it doesn't seem right."

"I know...Lets just find the super computer and get out of this place."

WOOOOO The Garanz screeched as it assumed fireing position.

Zero drew his Asuka and assumed fighting position
and said softly" Jenn, go on complete the mission I'll be fine."

"uh, ok." She ran off into th other room leaving Zero to destroy the Garanz.

"Lets go you peice of shit robot."

Zero charged at the Garanz and started cutting his armour off, one by one peices fell of the massive robot. Atfer many attacks the robot finally fell.

"Hmm that was odd not one missle fired"

As he turned around and about 20 missle came charging at him "No." He turned to run but the missle were too fast. The room lit up from the expolosion of the colliding missles, Zero had fallen.

Boop beep boop beep, Jenn was rapidly typing on teh computer to find the needed information. "YAY all done, Zero will be so proud of me." She walked out the computer room smiling.

"I wonder where Zero is." She walked into the dark room and saw two photon weapons on the floor."Zero's swords." She turned her head to see the lifeless body. "ZERO!"