Grigori Pavel's Story

Grigori felt a ghost of a smile appear on his usual grim visage as he sat in his transport. The vehicle wasn't much to look at, obviously designed for utility rather than comfort, but the rather ugly exterior was due to it's components. He loved the idea, even though his brother tried to give him some advice that was politely ignored. Grigori has stumbled upon an abandoned Soviet train-station in a particularly desolate stretch of Siberia and after reporting it's location, he began to explore the decrepit interior. The young man smiled at the memories, picturing the face of Stalin, who's name was all but forgotten to his former subjects, the Hammer and Sickle, and of course, the old cache of weapons, one of which was currently in his possession. However, his true prize was the bank of rail-cars, rusted to the rails and still carrying their cargo: Three T-34 tanks. Naturally, the first thing Grigori wanted to do was drive it on his missions, but Niko quickly shot that down due to it being 'farcically unsafe'. Bah. Niko was very surprised to see a scratch-built military transport built from old tank parts and train-car hulls parked on the front lawn of his house, Grigori grinning like a madman with a wrench in his hand and a welding torch in the other. After getting it inspected and enduring the endless inquiry on how the hell he managed to make that thing, he had the car he was sitting in today.

However, such antics would not be allowed on such a mission. Grigori's reputation as an unhinged exterminator of Purists wasn't exactly what the Garner Royal execs had hoped would be represented in the meeting with Tobimaru Shinra, but in the interest of security Grigori was a safe bet to fight off an attack on a potential ally. Niko had warned his younger brother that it was absolutely unacceptable for Grigori to cause any harm to Shinra, his employees, equipment or buildings, under penalty of... Well, Niko hadn't gone into specifics, but Grigori had no need to find out what that penalty was. His augmentation was set to a slow drip, a nice little setting that let the Russian stave off withdrawal and the destruction that tended to follow. Still, the kid had to fight the temptation to let the fail-safes go and feel the sting of the needle, pressing into his spine and... No, that wouldn't happen. Grigori would rip out his entire skeleton before shaming the company or his older brother.

A large pothole sent him back into reality, the driver of the transport quietly chattering to him as he sat in the passenger seat. Grigori found himself nodding along with his words. "Yes. This is the place. " The Russian felt the transport grind to a halt, quickly taking stock of his bag that he kept beside him. His weaponry was kept at the ready but out of sight, along with his passport, money, and few other personal items. Nodding to himself, he zipped up the military rucksack, slung it over his shoulder, and quickly exited the vehicle. As he entered the building, he began to ask the clerk for directions. He managed to understand the basic instructions, nodding politely to the attendant and calling an elevator. After a pleasantly short wait, he began his ascent, quietly humming "Song of the Volga Boatmen" until the door slid open. The waiting room was already occupied, much to his surprise, prompting him to sit next to a rather large man whom he expected to be in a conference with sometime in the near future. "Dobryj dyen'.", Grigori said, a nice little greeting, despite the incredibly grim voice that came with it.

Zenovia hadn't had too much trouble getting to Japan. After all, the family had gone to great lengths to ensure no one could find out that the eldest daughter of one of the major shareholders of a bionic augments had gotten a prototype biological one. The real issue was that she had to rely entirely on her own strength here. No more dropping Daddy's name, even Momma's reputation shouldn't extend this far...she hoped. She even had to handle things entirely on her own financially, resulting in her being unable to use a family plane and instead using public lines. If anything the long run was going to be the more troublesome aspect of this adventure of hers.

She sighed as she walked out of the airport, she hadn't bothered with baggage and her current equipment hadn't set off security...the beauty of ceramic weapons. Her goggles had been modified from a basic VR set, so her walking around with those weren't too bad. The ear buds were covered by the headphones, which were designed to seem synched to her goggles- presumably for better VR or music purposes. In truth the things had no built in speaker nor did the goggles have any VR function, they were simply suppressing her senses so she could function in every day society. The best thing was the respirator, usually she had to go through some kind of elaborate ruse to disguise it or go without. In Japan however, it seemed the norm for sick people to cover their faces with some form of filtering mask. The average citizen just assumed she had a cold and was providing an excessive amount of courtesy.

Her short ponytail, just enough to rest at her shoulders, swayed as she walked. After all she was curious, and spent a lot of time moving around to take in as many sights as possible before dropping in on Shinra. Well at least that was her plan until reality struck, she'd forgotten to change the filter on her respirator. In short it was beginning to clog and the stench of millions of humans began to burn her nose and coat her mouth. Fortunately, Shinra tower was easily noticeable and her idle wanderings had brought her nearly to the place. Without thinking, she made a beeline to the building and crossed both of the double doors- her reflexes managing to keep her from bumping into people.
The first real change was a huge drop in noise, so much so that she actually freed her left ear from the headphones. Hypersensitivity then stung a bit for the massive relative jump in noise, but she got through it with a slight wince. She used the elevator ride up to Shinra's office to purge her respirator. Despite the lack of filter, she kept it on... it'd help keep her under cover somewhat- at least that was the hope. She assumed the relative lack of concern of her just taking the elevator as she had meant Shinra was expecting people at this time.

Her surprise came when the elevator opened up again- well technically it was a bit before that but this time timing wasn't important. But there weren't too many people there, three people had beaten her here. She'd expected more people to show up...a fact that bugged her. After all she couldn't technically be the crasher when she showed up so early.

"Hey what's up," without a filter to distort the sound, there was no concealing the fact her voice was female. Granted the volume of her greeting was still on the quiet side for a talking voice. But this was just natural adjustment to her own level of auditory senses. A slight bit of thought would have reminded her of this fact, but she was always the leap first type. "Don't suppose anyone knows what kind of party we're having?"

"Dirty techno scrubs."

Those were the words of the first person besides Samuel himself to enter the waiting room. Seeing as she hadn't seemed to notice him yet, he cleared his throat to make his presence more obvious. Unlike many people with bionic augments, he wasn't offended by that. All the same though, she should probably think about where she was before saying such things. Just because Samuel didn't take issue with it, didn't mean that others wouldn't. Being him though, he didn't outright say any of this.

It was then that a man, whom his HUD identified as being of Russian descent, entered the room, and took one of the seats next to him. While Samuel himself did not speak Russian, the greeting was translated in real-time at the bottom of the display, so he understood it all the same. "Good afternoon to you as well." He answered, his voice showing only a hint of an accent. According to the display, the man was carrying weapons, though this wasn't terribly odd, after all, Samuel was as well. What was rather strange were the needles.

Before their conversation could continue beyond that point, another person walked into the room, lighting up the display with various information, nothing specific, but several indications of possible genetic augments, and what appeared to be multiple stabbing implements. What was it with genetics and not using guns?

"Hey what's up,"

Well that was an oddly casual greeting. Then again, she did seem to be a rather casual person, considering her attire. Then again, Samuel was hardly one to talk, looking something like a spy or private detective out of a nineteen-fifties noir film that had decided to jump ahead a few eras.

"Don't suppose anyone knows what kind of party we're having?"

"Considering that we're all carrying weaponry of some sort, I'd assume a very violent one." The girl was probably joking of course. At least Samuel assumed she was. If not, she was in the wrong place. Unless of course they really had been called here for a party, which he somehow doubted to be the case.

Theresa lay on the carpet in the high rise of a Toyko building, mainly wondering. 'Why here? Why now?. She had no idea on either of those questions, but she didn't really care. She was enterested in this man who had sent for her. Willing to send people to ask her to come half way around the world, without knowing what she had in her forest. She had to say yes to that, besides people who generally call upon a wild wolf generally are people with something to offer. She moved her legs slightly, the furs making contact with the white carpet, most likely getting it dirty.

She looked around the room and saw two techno scrubs sitting by each other. She could tell. They all smelled different than an animal or normal person, how else would she be alerted to people in her forest. One spoke in a silly sounding language that she had to guess was Russian, and the other responded. What made her surprised was the fact he didn't respond to her techno scrub remark. 'Some great restrain for a robot.' She thought.

Next, there was the new arrival. A girl, in a very odd get-up, probably odd coming from a girl wearing pelts, but still. She didn't smell like a scrub, but had a heavy smell of machine. The next scent was one of a bio augment. They smelled closer to nature than anything, but she couldn't place it. After studying her, she said a quick greeting, a very informal one, and then asked about the situation with a humorous slant.

One of the technos responded, "Considering that we're all carrying weaponry of some sort, I'd assume a very violent one." 'Valid. Why would they gather us. A close range fighter, unknown bio, and two technos?" She thought to herself. Probably something fun, she decided on. Unmoving from her spot, she spoke, "Well", she spoke in her Italian accent, "I doubt it is for partito. They had enough reason to try and enter my domestico, and they must need something big to call on the Lupa della foresta." She looked at the window, " Two animals, two macchinas, and a world full of possibilities."

After a majority had appeared Liara stood watching from another room and appeared with Mr. Shinra. 'Hello all, I am your coordinator for your mission. My Name is Tobirama Shinra, I have gathered you here today because of your skills that have been known throughout the world. Whether these skills hold up to the name of them or not is for you to show me over the course of your employment.' After adjusting his tie he cleared his throat and continued. 'Furthermore for now I have lodging for each of you and I would like each of you to get to know each other.... Oh yes where are my manners? This here is my secretary Liara Thompson, she was will be the one guiding you on your missions.'

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Liara Thompson

Looking back and forth Liara blushed slightly and waved to the bunch. "H-Hello, My name is Liara Thompson. I will be here to record progress on your misisons, direct you on new missions, and so on and so forth." Fidgeting slightly she coughed and continued. "A-anyway if you have any questions please ask me I'm here to help." As Mr. Shinra sat down at his desk Liara took a chair near the rest of them. "Also before you ask questions about leaders, there will be two of them. One of them is a native Japanese like Mr. Shinra, his name is Raven Yoshida. The other leader is named Alden Anderson, he is from the UK, they're both fairly noticeable as they both have robotic arms." Smoothing out her dress Liara called into the room she and Mr. Shinra were residing in. "Raven! Come on out it's time to meet your new unit."

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Raven Yoshida

Lumbering out of the room Raven eyed each of them down. "Hmm.... You're saying this is my new crew? Don't insult me woman..." Shaking his head he stretched his left arm a bit and lit the tips of his fingers. "Alright all of you will be working under me and another person named Alden who is at the moment, not available. Though he will be here later he is not here as of now." Looking at the slightly unnerved Liara he sighed slightly. "quit cowering like a mouse, you're making a fool of yourself. Anyway as the girl said ask either of the three of us myself, Liara, or Mr. Shinra. Later you can ask Alden more if any of us comply to your request." Stretching his arm again the fire fizzled out and he left his arm to hang at his side. "Lastly if you have any problems with how things are set up, I will personally see that it is fixed or worked around alright? Starting with the guy who hacked into our camera feed." Looking up at his camera he laughed and anounced to the man. "Hey there get your ass in here, we know you entered the system the moment you hacked in. Though it did take us a while to figure out where it was coming we did pinpoint you." Smiling wickedly Raven then launched a fireball at the camera destroying it completely. 'R-Raven what is your problem? This may be where you're working but control yourself boy!' Stating this Mr. Shinra got out of his chair and loosened his tie sitting back down. 'Ugh... I might be too old for this...' Laughing to himself Raven apologized to the man and leaned against the wall. "So now that that's out of the way, any questions?"

"Yeah, what if my problem is the fact someone like you is team leader?" Zenovia calmly asked her question in her quiet voice. She took off her goggles, which left her light blind for a moment as she had to blink the world into view. The headphones were also fully removed at during this time, but less adaptation time was involved. Anyone with an eye for detail would also catch the earplugs at this point. She put her formerly worn equipment in her trench coat as she approached the guy, nearly skipping as she moved.

"From what I here, the typical English prick and a fool with no self control are supposed to be responsible for all of us. By the time she'd gotten halfway to Raven she'd removed her ear plugs, forcing her to drop her own voice to a whisper to prevent pain from shooting through her ears. The respirator also joined the rest of her equipment in the trench coat. By the time she'd gotten into the man's face-well as close as she could by simply walking on the floor, she was ready to drop even that.

"Despite how impressive the Japanese think they are,"she'd grown used to the basic noise in the room at this time to bring her voice up to its previous volume. "I refuse to be bossed around by an incompetent man child whose current MO seems to hinge on simply being male and launching fire from his hand like a hi-tech pyro." In truth, she was looking to start a fight- this man had shown attitude and she wanted to know it was real or not. After all, it wasn't any fun breaking a suka with a built in flamethrower.

"By the way... destroying the camera would have been best AFTER team orientation. Now the little one who hacked it has to walk here and miss introductions...or did you not want any potential beating you received to be recorded?" Fighting a mechanical augment, was slightly more difficult than biological. Put simply, a mechanical arm would usually be faster and hit harder than she'd be able to block. The plus side though, was the tells- a machine wasn't as good at hiding its working as a normal human body...it was just faster. This alone is what let her stand up in the face of men far taller than this one and still call them children. In short, so long as her opponent had a tell she could pick up... they would not be able to touch her. It was her only benefit of the Hunter spider augment, sensory processing and reaction time and been proportionally improve to match if not exceed that of the basic animal. It made brawls very tiring for her, but she'd yet to meet a real disadvantage aside from the testing results after first receiving the augment.

Jack watched as an African-American (because, obviously, the tint of his skin made him so, no matter if his nationality was actually just African, or even British, or anywhere else his family might have decided to move to) and then a lithe, graceful young woman entered the parlor off the main penthouse office. He could tell the man had ocular augments by his 'sunglasses', but couldn't be sure of further augmentations. Scars from any operations inserting cranial implants would be hidden under his hair, and anything else was hidden by his clothing, or was coated in one of several brands of skin-simulating materials. The girl's movements gave her away if nothing else, though the strange clothes she wore didn't hurt. Jack sighed in disappointment at the corruption of humanity; she might have been pretty had she not been mutated. Still, he'd seen far worse cases. What could his contact want with them, though? What game was he playing? Perhaps they were dissatisfied with what the corporations had sold them, and were now going to help speak out and further the message of Purity by displaying themselves as victims? It was possible, but somewhat unlikely. Jack couldn't just sit here all morning, though. He uploaded the feed from his VR goggles to the net so his associates could continue to watch, then pushed his goggles up and set his bowl of crushed ramen noodles and milk on the coffee table. He gave a wave to the sympathizer whose apartment he'd been staying at, and left.

It took lees than ten minutes by subway to put him outside of the Shinra Tower. While he had been riding, he continued to watch the office using his goggles. Quite the diverse group was beginning to form, with a rather imposing man who he guessed to be a Russian by the way he spoke, followed by another augmented woman. More people than Jack would have guessed. Nothing that he could do, though. He was committed to his course. If this did all turn out to be a trap, and he was killed, at least PHC would have footage of his death. It would cause quite a scandal, and hopefully draw more to the cause. Jack would much prefer to live, but martyrdom had its perks. While on the train, he also listened to some music, did some editing for a video he planned to upload later, and practiced his latest pen flipping. No sense wasting time, right? Shortly before reaching his stop, Mr. Shinra appeared with his attendants. Jack gasped to himself when Raven turned his attention to the camera he had hacked, then destroyed it. Of course, that didn't destroy the program that had given him access, and he could just redirect it into another camera...but that had been the only one where everyone was gathered, so there was no point. Didn't exactly put him at ease, though. They wanted him to live interact with a bunch of Augs? With one of them having some kind of authority over him? That didn't sound very appealing. He couldn't turn back without investigating, though. The company had tracked him down, and he was sure they would continue until he played ball.

Once the train came to a stop, he stepped out into the station. It wouldn't take him long to finish making his way up into the Tower.

With a start, Amelia flashed back into consciousness. For a microsecond, she panicked, unable to do or observe anything. A human mind wouldn't have even moved fast enough to observe that amount of time, but for the AI it was an unbearable moment of something horribly close to what it would feel like to be buried alive yet unable to die. After a horrible moment of wondering whether if she was to be like this for all eternity, Amelia managed to gather her thoughts well enough to realize that it was just her software being incompatible with that of the system she was currently occupying, and so she was just being stored as raw data.

Calming down a bit, Amelia compiled herself into a form that would work with her vessel, and gained access to what she now found to be a Heads Up Display augmentation, along with an audio receptor. Well, this was one of the more interesting places she'd found herself, not the most interesting, but close. The AI considered making her host aware of her presence, but decided to err on the side of caution and wait until she could save a backup of her data onto something. Being on only one system made her feel too vulnerable. First though, she'd need a channel to an outside network. Until then, she'd just observe.

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Samuel winced as his HUD suddenly jolted slightly, accompanied by a brief audible pop. Again, the augmentation had never done anything of this sort before, and he would love nothing more than to have it checked out right now, that clearly wasn't an option. Well, not a practical one at least.

He was distracted, and rather confused, by the way in which the pelt-wearing girls manner of speech. It wasn't that he didn't understand what she was saying, he knew enough Italian to know what she mean even if his HUD wasn't telling him, it was the fact that she was only saying the last word of each sentence in Italian, but the rest in English. The exception being the last thing she had said, which he wasn't entirely sure if they had been supposed to hear, and that one he took a different issue with. Samuel was not a machine. He may have had a machine in his head, something that was more true than he currently realized, be he himself was human. Before he could decide whether or not he wanted to mention this, though he probably wouldn't, a woman who was obviously biologically augmented, and an older gentleman who Samuel assumed to be Mr. Shinra.

'Hello all, I am your coordinator for your mission. My Name is Tobirama Shinra, I have gathered you here today because of your skills that have been known throughout the world. Whether these skills hold up to the name of them or not is for you to show me over the course of your employment.'

Wait, employment? Samuel already had a job, and Shinra would already know this if he had done his research, which he undoubtedly had. Furthermore, he wasn't particularly well known as far as he was aware. Decided that he should probably consult with the company about this, the security specialist activated his infolink.

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Had she a mouth, Amelia would have smirked. An open communications channel had just been opened. With care, she checked the security on the other end. While the system itself was quite secure, it seemed that this particular connection went through a sort of backdoor in the firewall. Perhaps whoever was on the other end didn't want his colleagues to know when he was speaking to her host. Regardless of this Michael Church's reasons, he had just allowed Amelia into the Newton Specialized private network, and, after that, into the net itself.

From there she worked her way into the system of the building that the man who's head she currently called home, who's name she now knew as Samuel Obodo, was in. Normally, the advanced security measures in place would have made it impossible for her to do this undetected, but curiously, they seemed rather preoccupied with a different intrusion at the moment, one which had seemingly done quite a number on them. Amelia dd have to note however, whoever had hacked into the system before her was ridiculously good at it, and she was quite surprised that they had been located at all.

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"Yes Obodo?"
"Sir, it seems that Mr. Shinra has called us in to offer us a job. Suggested course of action?"
"Accept."
"Sir?"
"We expected something like this. You're going in as a sleeper agent. If nothing else, you might be able to gather some information."
"Understood."

This was a lie. The company had expected no such thing. In reality, Church was merely taking advantage of an opportunity. If things went badly, he could always use Obodo as a scapegoat, and if things went well, he could take full credit for the idea. He might even be able to sell some of the information to other rival companies, if a way he could do so without it being obvious presented itself.

Having been subvocally communicating with his boss, Samuel had almost missed the second part of what Mr. Shinra had said. Getting to know each other? He wasn't entirely certain how that might work out, given that the majority of them seemed to be rather odd, then again, perhaps that would actually help them get along better.

This Raven fellow seemed alright enough, though albeit arrogant with a somewhat hair-trigger temper, and absolutely no idea how to speak to shy people. All the same, he seemed otherwise engaged at the moment, the trenchcoated girl, who seemed to be sensitive to noise, again according to his HUD, openly challenging him. So it was that Samuel instead approached Liara with his concerns, being as mindful as he could of the way he spoke. "Pardon me miss, but I already have a job with Newton Specialized. Is Mr. Shinra unaware of this, or has he already made arrangements of which I haven't been informed?." After a pause, he added "Oh, and my name is Samuel Obodo, though you probably already knew that. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Noticing the odd state that the Russian appeared to be in, Samuel turned his head to fact the shorter man and said "Easy friend. There's no threat, he's just a bit trigger-happy." He wasn't sure if that would help, but he figured that it was better than nothing.

Raven
Looking over to the door Raven saw a less than assuming man walk through the door. "So you're our supposed super hacker huh? Wow I expected more than this little guy, but then again miracles never cease." Looking over to Mr. Shinra he leaned against the wall. "Don't worry I won't fight her.... yet, anyway it seems that everyone that needs to be here is here already. I'll keep in touch with Alden if the need arises. Furthermore when it comes to each and every one of you it seems that you're here and that's what counts." Coughing slightly he rotated his left arm. "Anything to add princess?"

Liara
Looking from Mr. Shinra to Raven she giggled softly. "Yes indeed I'm just surprised that you aren't going head first into the battle, anyway for our first mission I'll go over the details later on this week for now I want you all to get acquainted." Looking back to Mr. Shinra she nodded her head and stood to the side to let Mr. Shinra be in full view. 'Thank you all for coming my friends, I have contracted you all for the purpose of helping me free this land from the tyranny of the hierarchy of the society we live in now. As for you Tobias I called upon you as a sect from your company if you wish to decline I understand. Along those same lines I did the same for each of you, I want you to work independently for me as a way to become comrades and even much more idealistic... friends. So if any of you wish to leave you are allowed to, I will not stop you but neither shall you be paid or shall your own personal goals be met with my economical backing... if it isn't too extreme of course.' After sitting back down Liara began speaking again and bowed her head slightly. "I would like each and every one of you to please state your names to the group... You don't have to of course but it's just a formality so we don't go walking around like Raven saying 'hey you!' all the time." almost immediately after saying this Raven pulled an almost childlike face. 'Hey! that's a low blow you know!' "Anyway back to what I was saying.... I want us all to be able to get along, I mean you're mercenaries or people of power of course but.... that doesn't mean we can't get along right? If we don't form a unity now, we might not be able to coordinate later when it really counts."