Samuel Had to walk back up to the highway to retrieve his bike. He picked it up and examined it carefully. He was no mechanic, but he'd learned how to recognize damage in a motorcycle. Satisfied that it was ok he put his daisho in the holders, got on the bike and sped off. He was probably only gonna beat Lilian back to base but only by a little bit. He road back to base quickly and checked himself over before he walked through the front door. His bandaged arm was the only wound he seemed to have received. He slung his daisho through his belt, walked in, saw Erica, and kept walking with a grunt of acknowledgment. He really didn't care for the scientists.

Erica frowned at them, all three of them. Well, two and then at one back. With a sigh, she pulled off her glasses, rubbing the lenses with her shirt. "Oh, you know, the same old same old," she answered breezily. "Just sitting hear, worrying to death over a bunch of genetically altered children, who despite the vast improvements to their genetic makeup, don't seem capable of mastering that elusive skill of leaving a note." She paused, slipping her glasses back on and giving them both another stony look. "And yourselves?"

There was a brief silence and just as quickly as it came, Erica's anger was gone. She stood and crossed the room, eyeing Jonah and Reno critically. "Any casualties today?"

Reno cringed at her anger, but relaxed as it went away. She was about to say something until she was asked if anyone died. "No, no one died, but me and another were injured." She turned to show her back where she was scratched. She hoped that this wouldn't make Erica angry again, or that she didn't inspect her for anything. "I mean, It's okay right, like no test or anything?"

Jonah had his head down, he was quiet during the short lecture Erica gave them. He was the only one that never spoke back to her. "I guess it never occurred to us to leave a note or anything like that, we were all basically excited, since its what we love to do" he said giving a sad puppy eyed look.

"And yourselves?"she siad to them.

"Yes, two. Reno over there and Sam. Sam got careless and one of the Crowing got to him, though I bandaged his arm and did what you told me to do incase something like that ever happened." he said as he walked over to Sam.

"Hold out your arm" he said giving a soft smile. He knew that Sam might get mad at him for this, but he cared for him and it was the right thing to do.

Samuel raised an eyebrow but did as Jonah asked. "Casualty means death, Jonah." he explained.

Rea slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head in one robotic movement. She was still shutting down her 'sleep' mode and had to wait for a few seconds for her personality to kick in. After 10 seconds her eyes lit up and she stretched her arms abover her head.
'Ahhhh that was good.'
She smiled to herself and opened the door to her cupboard. As she 'slept' standing up she didn't really need a lot of space so she'd consented to having a cupoard. There was some sort of commotion coming from down the hall and Rea could hear Erica giving one of her famous lectures. Rea pouted. That meant she'd missed something fun.
'Hey guys!'
Reno, Sam and Johah were all standing around with Erica and Sam had a bandage on his arm.
'Didn't move fast enough huh Sam?'
She smiled at him, teasing but at the same time worried. The Crowing could leave nasty marks. She'd once got a whole chunk of skin scraped off. Rea winced at the thought.
'What did I miss?'

Jonah saw Rea come down the hall. "Yeah you missed a lot. We were downtown" he said to her. All of the suffering knew very well what that meant.

"How was your sleep?" he said wondering if she ever dreamed of anything.

Rea shrugged at Jonah.
'It was black.'
Her shut down mode really did shut her down like she didn't exist but for some reason it had stopped bothering her.
'I can't believe I missed a trip downtown! Is that why Sam's all beat up?'
She looked over at Sam and raised an eyebrow.

Samuel merely nodded at Rea's questions. "Not so bad as it looks," he stated, starting to get bored of repeating himself. He noticed he was hungry from being out all day, but at the same time exhausted from the fighting. He began to weigh his options in his mind, no longer paying attention to the conversation unless directly addressed. He'd heard this lecture time after time and he felt certain that he'd be able to recite it verbatim before too long.

"Meh, same here." he responded back to Rea. It had been a long time since I have dreamed about something or someone. He noticed that Sam had stopped paying attention and directed his gaze to where the food court was. By now he would bet that he was hungry, since he didn't get to eat anything for breakfast before they left.

"C'mon, lets go to your room, you need some rest, we all do. I'll get you something to eat on the way ok" he said as he pulled Sams arm as they headed back to the rooms. "Go ahead, I'll make sure to get your favorites" he said as he stepped into the food court. He was sure that he would be able to mend the wound, atleast enough to the point where his body would do the rest.

Rea watched as Sam and Johna left in the direction of the food court. Rea didn't need to eat, she had this special fuel stuff that she drank to keep her going. She'd missed the trip out and seriously needed to test her weapons soon. Maybe someone would come back out with her as backup, she didn't really want to go alone. For a moment she stood insilence wondering who she could ask.

Once again Samuel allowed himself to be led by Jonah. This was starting to become a routine. "Not a child," he stated as he gently pulled his arm out of Jonah's grip. He knew Jonah meant well, so he didn't allow himself to get irritated. Still, he was being strangely controlling. Samuel sat at a table and let Jonah get food for him, since it seemed to be important that Jonah be as helpful as possible. Everyone was making such a big deal and it wasn't even a very deep wound. Samuel judged that at worst he'd carry a scar around for the rest of his life. Not a problem considering their line of work. Though he'd had some real bad injuries in the past, though the worst injuries had been well before Jonah's creation. Maybe Jonah was looking at his current wound, and remembering previous ones. Samuel considered this and soundly decided that it wouldn't get him anywhere to try to analyze Jonah, or anyone else. Samuel also decided the best solution was to get better at being untouchable. If he never got hit, there wouldn't be an issue.

"Not a child"said Sam as he pulled his hand off of Jonah's grip.

"I know" he said as he just turned around just in time so that Sam wouldn't see the worried expression on his face. He tried to cover it as fast as possible. He closed his eyes to take off his shades to rub his eyes. No matter how bad he wanted to open them it was impossible without getting hurt. He placed the shades back on before getting the food. He grabbed as much as he could of what Sam like and took it back to the table.

'There you go" he said as he made sure it wouldn't fall. "Im gonna go ahead and go to the room, I umm got....to sharpen my katanas. Yup got the sharpen them" he said as he walked out of the food court and into the hallway. It was a short walk to the sleeping quarters of the Suffering. It was one of the places that everyone tried to avoid. Just in case of the Suffering went out of control they wouldn't put the others in harms way.

He opened the door to his room and walked in. Everything was custom made because of his eyesight. For him everything seemed normal, but for the rest it looked like a pitch black cave with not single light of it. He walked into the restroom and took off his coat and shirt. He turned around and looked in the mirror at his back. It was a big "X" scar on his back. Just by looking at it was painful.

Samuel watched Jonah walk away with a frown but ate his food anyway. Alone. Samuel hated eating alone. Headquarters was advanced where it needed to be, but like the rest of the world it was run down everywhere else. The walls were cracked, the paint had peeled, the room was cold, the lights flickered, and everything was completely silent. The cafe felt dead with no one else around. There was a reason Samuel forced himself to sleep in just a little and that he kept his room as well maintained as possible and that was to ward off the feeling that he was simply one more part of a dying world, a feeling which came to him whenever he was alone in some nearly ruined part of head quarters but especially in the cafe. All alone, he began to wonder if they could truly take down The Crowing. Humanity was cowering while it's cities fell to pieces around it and The Crowing numbered in the thousands, millions even. Here he sat eating his meal trying to keep humanity alive against such odds. Samuel pushed the plate away. He'd lost his appetite. He left it there on the table while he walked off to the one place where he went when he lost his hope, which wasn't his room surprisingly. Samuel went to the roof, where he could look at the stars and see their life until he regained his hope and sense of purpose.

Putting his clothes back on and his shades Jonah walked out of his room. He looked both was of the hallway to see if anyone was coming but apparently no one was. It seemed that everyone really tried to avoid the hallways where the Suffering stayed at. It was rare to see anyone come by. He made his way to the roof, it was the only place where it was quiet enough for him to put his mind together.

He took his time walking up the steps, grabbing his swords so that it wouldn't make to much racket hitting against the wall. When he reached the door he opened it to see the sky, the stars shining as if it were alive and each calling to him. His troubles went away with the stars. He took a few more steps and noticed that someone was there. His instinct reached for the handle of the katana but before he pulled it out completely he noticed it was Sam.

"You startled me" he said as he sat next to him.

"I just wish I could have one in the grasp of my hands" he said as he opened his palm.

Samuel didn't respond to Jonah's words beyond a grunt. He could tell Jonah was having some problems. It was in his posture and tone of voice. Despite not liking being alone, he was already in his down mood and being more alone couldn't do anything anymore. As such, Samuel didn't really want to be around others at the moment, but couldn't bring himself to tell Jonah to leave. So he went with silence, most didn't expect much more of him.

"I just love the silent treatment." he said sarcastically to Sam. For some reason he knew sometimes what Sam wanted and he could tell he wanted to be alone. "You know maybe if said a couple of words people might know when to leave you alone" he said as he stood up. He took a few steps before using his communication device to call the people at the entrance.

"Ready my bike, I'm leaving in a few" he stood silent as the scientist spoke back.

"I really don't care if she gave me permission or not, this is why we were created is it not? Besides the night is my specialty, so have it ready in 5" he said as he pressed the button which ended the conversation. He was best during night, it was one of the upper hands he had against crowlings. He sprinted back to his room, which only took a couple of second, and grabbed his bow.

His arrows were ready to pierce some crowling and his katanas ready to slash anything that came in its path. He knew some of his kin might get mad since they were supposed to hunt in two. But tonight Jonah felt like breaking the rules. After all he was one of them. He mounted his motorcycle and drove off into the darkness. He took his shades off, it was almost as if having heat vision, but hard to explain.