Alias Hatt's Story

A patient hand tapped a simple tune upon a guilded old cane. A black suit fit his features well, clinging to his body, and keeping himself concealed in shadows. A women with a floral pattern dress tapped away furiously on her phone. A hat sitting between them.

The door to the bar opened and closed, letting in light, and carrying conversation to the man's ears.

"They're here." Said the woman beside him in a hushed tone.

"Thank you Rose. Let our guests take a seat, perhaps exchange some pleasantries."

"Shall I call it in?"

"Not quite yet."

They returned to their silence, as he listened in to their conversation, looking for a reason to intervene. He wasn't kept waiting long.

Swiping his hat from the table, he landed it upon his head and grabbed his cane in one swift motion. Sliding his chair to the side, he strode across the room and hunched down over Pandora's shoulder and addressed her 'friend', "Now, while your show outside truly was a spectacle, we must really be on our way. As Pandora here won't be discussing any secrets with you tonight."

Looking straight down at Pandora, he added, "Collect your things dear, I must speak with you around the corner. Perhaps even outside."

P A N D O R A

She laughed very unconvincingly at his first comment, waiting until the male sat down to reply, "If you didn't already know that..." She shook her head, shaking it off before she finished her comment. Then in no time at all he was back to his normal self, witty banter and all. Honestly Pandora couldn't even tell if he was doing it to frustrate her, if by some chance he was actually flirting. She never could tell with guys anymore, especially because she usually scared them away or killed them.

"Some first date if I'm the one buying... And it's not latex. Its a poly fiber of my own invention." She said it in a smug tone, "It breaths better than latex, and is much more flexible." She tugged at the fabric on her right side, showing the elasticity. She then quickly rolled her eyes at the last statement, tapping her fingers along the table, "I don't waste my time with boys... They can't handle me. I prefer men."

When the male told her his name, she chuckled, "I already knew your name... and the fact that you don't know mine." She grinned deviously, "Well, it shows me you don't know nearly as much as you think you do."

Her eyes slowly closed as she felt a hand rest upon her shoulder. She knew who it was without looking at him or before he spoke, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she stood from her seat. "Ah come on, it's not like I was going to marry the guy... yet." She grinned in a joking manner before tossing Jericho a golden coin. "I promised you a drink didn't I?" Then she walked past him slowly and in a teasing tone that almost came off as seductive, "Until next time lover boy."

She didn't fake to be ok as she limped her way out of the bar, her right hand pressed to the bullet wound. She weaved her way through a couple turns through the alleyways until she came to one that was empty. Leaning back against cool brick wall, she let out a painful sigh as she let her body slump to the ground, resting her head back against the bricks as she looked up at him. "How long have you been following me Top?"

"I barely know anything about anything. I was hoping you fill me in. Now...Why did they give me these pow- Huh?"

"Hey, do you mind? This is a private conversation."

-Jericho unslouched in his seat, staring up at the figure that stood behind Pandora. His face was was hidden slightly behind the brim of his Top-Hat, but the bit that was uncovered was aged and weathered. The rest of him seemed to have fallen out of a vaudeville act. Suit and cane, hat and tie, all around his lanky physique. It seemed so strange, so out of place that...It was almost intimidating. The confusion of today only seemed to grow for Jericho as he listened to the man speak to Pandora. A friend perhaps, he assumed. Or, something far more devious? A handler? Her boss, even? Anything was possible as they spoke on...and as Jericho listened, his thoughts began to truly churn. The clothes...the voice...that hat. It seemed so familiar, but Jericho just didn't know why. Connected to the Chaos Insurgency or not, he had never met this man, but something deep down said otherwise.

-The train of thought was derailed, however, when the clanking of the coin on the table snapped him back to reality. Looking lost, Jericho raised an eyebrow.

"I promised you a drink didn't I?"

"Oh, well yeah you- Hey! You promised me some answers too, damnit! Why-?"

"Until next time lover boy."

"No! Wait a minute..."

-He rose from his seat, which gave a violent scraping nose as he did, but all Jericho got from the demand was the woman's back. His eyes shifted to the mysterious, Top-Hatted man, who still seemed to strike a cord in Jericho's memory. Something he didn't like one bit. For once there was no banter, and no attitude as he tried to find the figure's eyes.

"...Who are you?"

Alias Hatt made his way out with Pandora, Rose trailing not too far behind. He left the Foundation member back in his seat, not minding a single word to his comments of questions. He was the enemy. Information of any sort was never to be shared with the enemy. A Foundation janitor could have asked Alias how to freeze water, or put out a fire, and Alias would've kept his thin lips sealed. Information was knowledge. Knowledge was power, and knowledge you held over your enemy was power they didn't possess.

The stink of the bar left him, and the scenery of an alleyway found him. He felt oddly out of place, standing amidst the trash and garbage he ground others into. Rose stood back from Pandora and him, tapping away feverishly at her phone, inputting long data codes and sequences. Whether she was coding a new virus, or perhaps just making a blog for her gardening hobbies was unknown, and even if he asked, Alias never expected a straight answer with Rose. She had developed an annoying sense of humor in the last year, and it had finally begun to wear down Alias' extremely long short fuse.

Pandora finally turned, still limping, but still acting coy. She was fine. She started her line of questioning. "How long have you been following me Top?"

Resting both hands on his cane to answer, he decided to try and not scold her for nearly ruining everything he had worked so hard to build. It was their style; Pandora charged in, causing havoc. While he stood in the back, playing the world like a complex chess game. And he was the shadow king. Alias took a deep breath, "About seven months now. Whenever you got involved in my business, and the shadows made it my business to get into yours."

Rose's phone chimed and pulsed in her hands.

He kept up his banter. "So, my little box of entropy, who was your date back there? And why we're you even considering sharing Insurgency secrets with him? And the answer better not be, 'Because we're in love!'"

Pandora was too dangerous to develop any emotional attachment to anyone. Love dulled her, slowed her down. She needed to be quick and sharp. Obviously quicker and sharper after today's display of power and authority.

"Hey, Mr. Hatt?" Rose chirped up from her spot in he back, "You've got mail."

The message was decrypted within the minute, and read over several times by both Alias and Rose. Whether or not Pandora read it wasn't of importance to him. She was an adversary, but an old and delightful one at that.

P A N D O R A

Pandora couldn't help but laugh at his comment, quickly following it with a painful cough, bringing her hands to her chest. "Seven months?" She shook her head, "I was expecting more like... 3 hours, not 7 months!" She looked over towards the woman in the dress... Pandora didn't particularly like this unknown woman just lingering in. She felt like she should know her but she didn't, and that bothered her that this unknown woman was just here.

Then she put up her hands in a halting manner as he continued, "Wait a minute... hold up. I got involved in someone's business? I'm just doing my job or whatever. Causing chaos and what not, that was basically all my job description entails. And as for whoever these shadows are, I have no idea what you're talking about." Pandora painfully and slowly moved to her feet, eyeing over the female before looking back at Top with a sigh and a roll of her eyes, "Oh my god... you're joking me right? I wasn't going to tell him anything. I'm not as fucking stupid or careless as you'd like me to think." She ran her hands back through her hair while taking a deep breath, "I went to get a drink with him so I would live... because even though I'm a catalyst Top, I have my limits. I needed time to relax... to heal. I was also intending on explaining how I never once was trying to kill that Horizon bastard. But he was too daft and thick skulled to realize that." She placed her hands on her hips. "Yes eventually at one point I was planning on killing him, but not today... not when I was already so severely under their radar with the trojan they placed on that information. I'm no hacker, and the insurgency knows this. I went back to destroy all of it so it didn't get into anyone's hands at all and that's when shit hit the fan. And Mr. 'Murica over there tried to kill me when I never made even the slightest attempt on him."

It was more than apparent that Pandora was angered at the fact that she was being watched like a child and being called an "entropy" didn't calm her down in the least. She has been in the Insurgency just as long if not longer than Hatt and his actions were that of a father... like No no child... we mustn't do that. Her thoughts were interrupted when the woman declared that he had mail. The both of them read it over, more than apparent that Pandora herself wasn't going to get any share in the information. Sometimes she hated the Insurgency, they were so unorganized and secretive, that at times she wondered how they had even survived this long. "You know what..." She threw up her hands in a giving up fashion, "Either take me in to bitch about my actions to the higher authorities, where I will explain the full story and how I was no where in the wrong. Or you and your..." She eyed over the woman, "Secretary can just leave me alone."

She started to walk off down the alley way, her right hand held to her shoulder as she mumbled under her breathe, "Stop babying me..." She sighed with aggravation before glancing over her shoulder at the both of them, "I'd rather you kill me before you look down at me like I'm some incompetent child..." She reached the end of the alley, pivoting on her heels to face the pair while holding out her hands as if to take a bow, "I'm not supposed to make life easy Doll. That's why they named me Pandora!" She grinned a menacing grin before slipping back into the crowd of people.

Pandora left in a huff, yelling something about children or whatnot. Alias kept his attention focused on the message. He stood back up, straight. Pulled his clothes in tight, straightened his posture, and scratched at his chin. Then uttered the words he thought he'd never have to say.

"Send the message to Pandora."

"What?" Rose asked, looking up from her phone. After spending as much time as she did with him, she had learned of his distrust of Pandora, and his reasons behind it. She had never expected him to leave anything up to Pandora's call, much less anything as important as this.

"Do you know where she is?"

"Northern America."

"Closer."

Rose looked up blank. "Nothing, yet, sir."

"Narrow your search to this city. And notify Pandora."

"How do you know she's in this city?"

"I don't. But it's a place to start. She gave us an address in the city. We have to assume either she, or her organization is centered here." A hand went up to straighten his hat, as if during his speech it had drifted askew a few inches. "Call the car. We have a meeting to schedule."

P A N D O R A

After rounding the corner and knowing she was out of sight of Hatt and his stupid little minion, Pandora let out a sigh as she body lumped over the railing of a rinky-dink staircase that lead to a town house. She definitely had had her fill of [i[entertainment[/i] for the day but she had absolutely no desire to go anywhere near the Insurgency right now. That's all she needed was another lecture about her rash actions and blah blah blah. She probably looked immature for the way she acted around him back there, but she honestly didn't care. She had no patience for his stupid antics about her getting involved in whatever the hell he was talking about and she definitely did not appreciate his shadow that followed him around constantly on her phone. She found it rude, especially when he said he wanted a word with her... she figured it'd be alone.

Pandora needed a drink... and a stiff one too. Seeing as how a decent amount of time had passed, she found her way back to the originally speak easy she was at, prior to the interruption before the much needed blur of alcoholic intoxication. She pushed her way back in through the door, making her way over to the bar. She didn't even scan the room to see if the Horizon member was still there or not, she honestly couldn't care less if he was there or not, all she cared about was making sure she never reached the bottom of her glass. She straddled the bar stool towards the far end of the counter, motioning towards the bartender, "Quinn... just give me the bottle."

Within moments the man had returned with a large bottle of a very expensive kind of liquor. If asked Pandora probably couldn't even remember what the stuff was called, all she knew was that every time she came to that bar she always asked for the strongest thing they had, and this was it. She popped the top, and just as she was about to press the cold glass to her lips she heard a BEEP BEEP. "Stupid infernal electronic devices..." Setting down the bottle, she brought her right hand up to unzip her suit about 5-6 inches. Just enough so she was able to reach her hand in to grab her cell phone from the most respectable place women carry their belongings, her bra. She didn't care to re-zip her suit, and made damn sure to take a good swig of her drink before reading whatever information that must have been so important to be sent to her instead of spoken directly to her.

She couldn't help but laugh coldly when she saw who had sent the message, taking another long drink before even attempting to read the contents of the message. Pandora couldn't help but feel slightly insulted that they didn't feel the need to send this bit of information to her until after she through her little temper-tantrum. With a sigh, she opened the message and read it over. She snorted and rolled her eyes upon reading the message. She didn't quite know how she felt about it or what she'd even do about it, if anything. But all she knew was right now she wanted to drink.

"Rose."

"Yes, Mr. Hatt?"

"Send out a team of "Investment scouts out to our location in the Ward. Give them the drive, and tell them to move on foot. The long way around the city."

"Alrighty."

Rose dropped a flower into a small clay pot with one hand as she worked through a string of commands on her laptop. Alias stood, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he gazed onto the stack of paper before him. It seemed to him that when one of his associates detonated a building, he seemed to have to take care of the paperwork and covering it up. He had already "leaked" falsified information from a subsidiary in construction and demolition, claiming it to be a mix of a freak gas leak and terrible infrastructure. He had also been sure to place a few disguised personnel among those questioned on the streets, hoping to mislead them there again. But inevitably, like the tide, the truth inevitably boiled to the surface.

Catalysts.

It seems since their inception of the gene, people have blamed just about everything on his kind. With rather good reason though, he had to admit, they had been the cause for at least half of the cities recent problems. The rise in crime. The rise in sudden "infrastructure malfunctions". The loss of the Outskirts. Fires. Disappearances. Paranormal activity. But the worst of all, the shift of public attention.

Before, hiding the company's true motives only took a hidden basement, and a few locks and keys. But now, with task forces of police men and Foundation personnel barging through, searching for an odd "rouge catalyst", it became much harder to hide. Now it was mounds upon mounds of paperwork, and covert paradigm power shifts. Thankfully, the last of which spoke to Alias. It was something he was a god at. Rather, a shadow king.

"Rose?"

"Yes?" She didn't look up from her odd display of mental efficiency, still planting and potting plants while coding and encrypting files.

"Forward all of this to Pandora. If she wants to be involved, let her."

"Yes sir."

Alias rose from his chair, striding to the window. "How's my other project going?"

"The one with the bomb?"

"No, the other one."

"The Mayor?"

"No, I-" Alias cleared his throat, calming himself. "I mean the child."

"Oh. Him. He's moving along just as expected."

"Will he be ready at the appointed time?"

"With his current rate of progression, he should be more than ready."

"Good."

Alias let the conversation drop. Scanning the horizon, his thoughts were brought back to Pandora, "Likely passed passed out in an alley somewhere..." He grumbled to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing..."

P A N D O R A

Pandora made her way through the entrance of Entropy Inc., whispers and mumbles were exchanged by just about every member as she walked passed them. She just rolled her eyes in annoyance, not even going to humor their stupidity as she worked her way through the building. It took her awhile before she found Hatt and his minion, their backs to her, they obviously had no idea that she was actually in the building as they began to discuss sending something to her and what not. She was about to step into the conversation when she was cut off hearing Hatt mumble, "Likely passed passed out in an alley somewhere..."

With that she smirked to herself, placing her hands on her hips before piping up, "I hate to disappoint but..." She then stepped up beside the male, glancing over her shoulder towards him. Before she could add another comment, she began to hear the whispering of the crowd behind her. With an aggravated sigh she pivoted to face them, "Take a picture, it lasts longer." She then once again turned towards him, "So... what am I wanting to get involved in?" She raised a slender brow out of curiosity.

"Nice for you to drop by. Next time, you could've closed the door however..." Alias motioned to the door, which promptly slammed on the faces of a few individuals, who had gathered to look at the daring intruder.

"Rose dear, have we gotten a good grip on where the suspect lives yet?"

Rose dropped a small bundle of calla lilies into the pot, quickly covering them with dirt, and brushing the offending substance from her hands and outfit. Her phone immediately found her hands, and she tapped away for only a moment before responding.

"Yes. Well, sorta." She admitted, a large screen on the far wall alighting with a picture of a map, "I've narrowed it down as best I possibly can, with the given equipment." She said the last part through gritted teeth, before returning to her cheerful demeanor. "The sender is definitely within Ascension Parish. Unfortunately," she looked a bit embarrassed, "As that is yet another residential area, it's impossible to truly narrow it down any further without technological enhancements."

"Thank you Rose," Rose nodded, before returning to her laptop. Smiling almost maniacally as her hands ran over the beautiful machine. "So, this is where you come in." Alias motioned towards Pandora, while sauntering over to the map, "The Insurgency has granted me permission to further development with the alleged contact. Though, we can't be working with a complete stranger." Turning to face Pandora now, he continued, "We're going to pay the contact an amount of money she can't refuse, while you try and discover the identity of the contact. At the very least, we want her drawn from the shadows."

The screen went blank, Alias finished his speech, and hobbled back to his desk. He was beginning to feel the accumulated years resting upon his spine, forcing him to rely on his cane more and more each day. He found himself envying Pandora, both for her quicker reflexes, and her dexterity and resilience in any situation.

"Any questions?" He hesitated, only to speak again, noting Pandora's look. "Please, take a seat, and let's talk this over some tea. If you want some privacy, then I'll ask Rose here to leave. But we must discuss this. Our positions and livelihoods depend on it. Big changes are in store."

P A N D O R A

Pandora crossed her arms over her chest, genuinely listening to what Hatt was saying. Sure she liked pushing his buttons, she liked aggravating everyone but this was work related and considering he actually felt it necessary to include her. She respected and appreciated that. When he told her to take a seat, she didn't argue, moving around the table until she took a seat. Then leaning the chair back slightly, she kicked her feet up onto the table and crossed them. Tea sounded good, probably would help her hangover as well. "I could use some tea," She rubbed her temples, chuckling as she gave Hatt the satisfaction of knowing he was right, "You were right by the way... I was passed out in an alley." She laughed.

"So..." She crossed her arms behind her head, looking over to her colleague, "How exactly am I supposed to draw this person from the shadows? I mean... I could blow up half of Emperia... Doesn't mean that it's going to attract anyone to come out of hiding." She slid her feet off the table, leaning forward so her elbows rested upon the table, "I'm good at creating chaos, but we both know that I don't attract people, I repel them. If anything I scare them away."

Alias nodded to Rose, who promptly rolled her eyes, before producing a steel teapot from some unseen location. Carrying it over, she also brought two steel, featureless cups, and set them before the two.

Pouring a cup for himself and his guest, he addressed her questions. "Good, scare them away from hiding. Get them in the eye of the public, we both know you can do that. Though, I'd recommend against obliterating the city, as the government would be upon us in moments, sniffing through everything like the dogs they are."

"Though tread lightly, a few odd incidences lately have draw eye of some of our authorities. While I'm good at hiding things from those outside these walls, the few that built them is a rather different story." He shifted in his seat, his hands coming together, "Take the cup if you need to, we both have some paperwork to deal with." He slid a large stack of forged documents to Pandora. "Though, I'd suggest a shower first."

P A N D O R A

Pandora reaches out to take the cup once it was full, blowing the steam from the liquid before taking a long drink. "Well, I never claimed I wouldn't. The thing I'm having trouble with is figuring out how I'm going to scare this mystery person out into the open. And I didn't plan on blowing up half the city unless I ran out of options but, I mean..." She leaned forward slightly, "I mean I'm not scared of being pulled out into the open, but if I was... I would just move from one place to the next in an endless chase until either the pursuer gives up or, I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders.

Pandora sighed softly, nodding her head "I'll try but I can't make any promises." Her eyes widened when he slid the large stack of paperwork before her, "You act like I actually do paperwork." She scoffed. Standing up and kicking the chair backwards out of her way, she finished off her tea. "Well that's rude." She headed towards the door, walking passed Rose. She placed her hand upon the door, glancing over her shoulder towards Alias, "Feel free to join me." She winked towards him. She tried her best not to come off sarcastic, she did it mostly just to see his reaction.

She walked through the halls of Entropy, making her way to the lower levels until she found the female locker room.