Inhuman NES

[laraqua]

Annie eyes off the taped up box for a long moment as though it were a bomb set to explode. She even fetches a chair and sits on it the wrong way around so she can rest her chin on the back rest and stare at it as though it would give up its secrets that way. She should turn it over to the police but they'd just take a look inside and pass it back. They weren't exactly the CSI types.

She leaned back in her chair, sighed, then went back to the bar to ensure that all the drunks got their next drinks before the second barmaid arrived to help her with the more consistent mix of people that came in at around lunch time. Every so often, she checked the box.

It was still there.

She wondered if it had a severed finger in it or something. Perhaps a nose. An ear. Something odd. That man had seemed pretty odd. Cute. But odd.

She smirked at herself as she poured another beer. It said something about the town she was in that the cutest guy she'd seen in years just happened to be a weirdo burglar wearing a Hazmat suit. Probably one of those ghost hunting sorts.

The doors to the pub opened and a couple youths came in with that big grin on their face that suggests they were up to no good. Judging by the heavy-duty video camera, they were uni students or ghost hunters. Probably both.

"What can I get ya?" she asked them wearily. If they were going to start interviewing folk, the least they could do was buy a drink.

The cameraman kept the camera and microphone focused right on her.

"The facts, ma'am, just the facts," said one of them, looking pleased with himself.

She responded by listing off every drink she had in the pub, including their prices. She had a memory for these things. It was how she spent her days after all and it sure beat having to look them up.

"No, no, that's not what I-" said the reporter type.

"Then what do you want?" asked Annie.

"We want to know about the ghosts that terrorise this place."

"Ghosts, huh?" She chuckled and shook her head. "Idjits." She could use some help but not from this quarter. "No such thing. Sorry. I'm an atheist."

"But this guy from the service station...."

"You mean Chuck?"

"Yeah, he said we should ask you."

Annie sighed. Well, she had told Chuck that she needed more business. "Look, why don't you just buy some drinks for a few people in the pub to get them to open up a bit? Nothing makes people friendlier and more talkative than spirits." She smirked at the double meaning.

 

[Grandkhan]

Alan looked out over the car he was hiding behind. His eyes glanced over the darkened New Orleans Opera House, and the multiple black cars parked outside of it. A man in a grey-black uniform stood outside of it, armed with a rifle and wearing some kind of helmet. It appeared someone had beaten him to the rumours. Alan wasn't sure who, but it was clear that he wouldn't be able to get in dressed as a civilian. He crept over, behind the cars, quietly sneaking up behind the soldier. Them, without warning, he swiftly stood up, grabbed the soldier's throat from behind and pinched his windpipe closed. Alan waited patiently until the soldier died, and then donned his uniform.
I'm going to find this Phantom, Alan thought to himself, and then I'll take whatever he's got and move on somewhere else. Hopefully it would be something worth taking.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Alan strode through the corridors purposefully. People in similar uniforms rushed past him, back and forth, but nobody paid him any attention. They were clearly engrossed in their own business, and the goings of an apparently lowly grunt were of no concern to them. Alan kept going through the corridors until he reached several soldiers leaning against the wall. One of them blocked him.
"Security clearance?" the soldier asked.
Alan hesitated for just a split second, which was enough for the soldiers. They grabbed their guns, and Alan threw himself out of the way as they opened fire.
"Security breach!" one of them yelled, and Alan heard the voice coming in through the helmet. He had a working radio and could hear what they were planning - that was an advantage. "Possible Keeper agent! Dressed as Protector private! Open fire if they don't say their number immediately! Neutralise on sight!"
Alan sprinted down the hallway, thanking any and every deity that it was empty of Protectors. He turned a corner, as several soldiers drew pistols and opened fire on him as he ran. A bullet grazed by his shoulder as he dodged, but otherwise they all missed him.
"He's heading for the stage!" the radio squawked. "Cut him off there!"
Alan grinned. I now know where not to go, he said to himself as he jumped down a flight of stairs. He found a single soldier there, but Alan was faster and coathangered him as he ran. The soldier doubled over, and Alan kept running. He considered ditching the uniform, but he could still hear his pursuers chasing after him and realised he wouldn't have time. He turned another corner into a side passage, and kept running down it. It was incredibly long, and he thought it was sloping downwards, but he wasn't entirely sure. Alan's footsteps echoed off the concrete - everyone would know where he went. Regardless, Alan kept running, until he saw that the corridor ended in a brick wall.
Alan swore. He couldn't turn back - he could already hear the soldier's feet hitting the concrete. Desperate, he began opening doors at random, but none of them led anywhere but small rooms - broom closets and dressing rooms. He kicked a door in despair.
"Looking for something?" a voice said behind him.
Alan swore again, and spun around to see a young man, standing behind him. He leaned against the door, smiling smugly and with his arms crossed. The man stood up, and opened a door. Alan already had tried that one, and it only led to a broom closet. "Get in there," the man said, "We don't have a lot of time."
"That's a broom closet," Alan said, as if he was talking to someone incredibly stupid.
"I know that. Just step in," the man replied.
Alan shrugged. "Worth a shot."
He took a deep breath, and stepped through the door.

oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

A few minutes later, the soldiers caught up to the corridor.
"It's a dead end," one of them said, panting breathlessly.
"Start checking the doors," another said, "We know he got here at some point, we heard him."
One of them swung open the door to the broom closet. But there were only brooms, and no sign of any people.

 

[Grandkhan]

OOC: I know I was the last person to post, but nobody's kept this running for a while and I got bored. So;

Alan stepped through the door, closely followed by the stranger. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but an airy New York apartment wasn't it. It was messy, and looked like it belonged to two young me, judging the the cloths strewn around the place. The man behind him shut the door quietly. Suspicious, Alan turned around and opened the door again. It led into a regular corridor in an apartment building. The man grinned.

"Relax. You're clear now," he said. Alan turned suspiciously.

"Maybe. Maybe not." Alan lunged at the man, intending to land a blow which would have caved his ribcage in. The man laughed, and Alan found his palm connecting with thin air. He swung his foot around, intending to bring it into the man's face, but once again he missed. It wasn't as if the man was dodging - it was just that wherever his foot went, the man simply wasn't there.

"Don't bother," he said, "you're not going to hit me. Take a seat, before I reconsider saving you." He walked to the fridge and opened it. "Pizza? Sorry, its cold."

Alan watched the man cautiously, before striding over to one of the couches and dumping himself down. He sank into the plush fabric, and let himself relax. The man brought over half a cold pizza, and let Alan pick one. He broke himself off a slice, and he took a bite out of it. Satisfied, Alan took one as well.

"I suppose you're wondering who I am," the man said, finally.

"I think thats fairly obvious," said Alan, his mouth full of pizza.

"The name's Gabe. I'm a person who… takes a keen interest in anomalies, if you will. An observer and an implementer, if necessary."

"Anomalies?"

"Right, I forgot you're a little unaware of what goes on behind the curtains. In this world, there are certain things that violate the conventional knowledge that we know of. A woman who can burn people's flesh off with only her gaze. A being who's mere presence can annihilate an entire town. A vending machine that never runs out of stock. That kind of thing. You've encountered something like that before - the gauntlet in Serbia, if I am correct." Alan nodded.

"How did you even know about that?" he asked.

"Observer. I see a lot of things. I know of even more. Anyway, the gauntlet was a certain artefact known as the Min Je Wa."

"Jade Dragon Gauntlet." Alan said, translating in his head.

"Ah, I see the Drepang Tuong taught you a little Muic. Good. Root of all Eastern languages, that. That's the kind of thing we're talking about. Now, there are several organisations that hunt that stuff. There's the ARO, which you've clashed with before. But they're tiny players. They don't know it, but they are tiny players in a very big game. For starters, there's the Keepers, who seek to catalogue the anomalies and keep them from the world finding out. They want to study and understand the anomalies perfectly."

"Then you've got the Protectors," Gabe went on, "who just want to destroy everything. You met them earlier today. They're uninterested in studying them - as far as they are concerned, the anomalies are a huge threat to humanity. Which they are, in some cases. It's a complex issue."

"Then, there are certain people like me. Individuals with… anomalous abilities, shall we say. We have our own interests in such anomalies. Which brings me to your presence here. I have a… task for you."

"What's in it for me?" Alan said, though he couldn't help but be curious with something like this going on. He knew of the anomalies, of course, though not by that name. But he was unaware of the true extent of the masquerade hiding it.

"Understand, Alan, that until now you were a big fish in a very small pond. The ARO are small fry. Your martial arts don't stand up to the powers on display now."

"Take that back. The Drepang Lo is the most powerful thing in the universe," Alan said. He was taking deeper breaths now, amping himself up for a challenge. His arms became taught and ready. Nobody would insult him like that and live.

"I'm not. You saw how easily the Protectors almost killed you. You wouldn't stand a chance against me in a fight. Fair or otherwise. However, I'm wiling to help you change that. Help me, and I will grant you unlimited power. I can give you something... that will make you utterly invincible in combat. No men or women will ever dare harm you. I can do that, you know. Help you destroy the Shang Liang Tianquo." Alan paused. The Shang Liang were far more powerful than he was. Ultimate power… it was tempting.
"Come on Alan. All you have to do is a few favours. Eh? Come on. Let's make a deal."

Alan blinked. For a moment, Gabe sounded almost exactly like the voice in the suppressed dream. If he could destroy the Shang. If he could become more powerful than anyone on Earth… that was about as good a deal as you could get.

"I'll do it. What do you want?" Alan said, finally.

"Good stuff," Gabe replied, "There's a another organisation I neglected to mention. They're called the Third Eye. They're an offshoot of the Keepers and the Protectors. They want to expose the anomalies to the world, as far as I'm aware. No secrets, no more lies. I don't like it." Alan nodded. "I don't know exactly what their plan is. I don't even know vaguely what their plan is. But all I know is, that if the release the secrets of the anomalies, then all my power and information is worthless. I need them stopped, which is why I'm sending you to do something for me. I have recently received information that a Third Eye operative has foiled a Keeper scheme to abduct a girl with some kind of magical pocket watch. I don't know why, or how important she is to their plan, but if they want that watch, then I want it more. I'm tasking you with finding this girl. Her name is Jyoungmin Kim. She lives somewhere in New York. Manhattan, I suspect." Gabe handed Alan a photo. "Find her, neutralise her, and bring me back the watch. Come back here when you find it. I might not be home. If not, a guy called Jack will be here. Tell him you're waiting for Gabe. If you fail, come back here anyway. Go. I'm counting on you."

"Why can't you do it yourself?" Alan asked, "Mr powerful omniscient information broker?"

"Because I don't want to," Gabe replied, "I have a good cover and a good system going. I don't want to ruin it. You? Well, you can do whatever you want. You're useful." Alan nodded. "Now go. I'm counting on you," Gabe said.

Alan nodded again, and left the apartment. Gabe smiled. If he succeeded, Gabe had foiled the Third Eye, and get something else to add to his knowledge. If he failed… well, Alan had advanced the plan either way. Gabe's grin got wider. Things were coming up his way. But then, things mostly did.

 

[KaiserElectric]

Nice story. Is the pocket watch girl an NPC, or do I need to ask around before I can use her?

 

[Grandkhan]

I'm pretty sure she's an NPC. Seon can correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Seon]

She's an NPC, but feel free to use her whatever way you want.

 

[Seon]

Anyways, imma gonna start on update now.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

July 18 2001 - 2201 Hrs - Facility 49

Agent Janciewicz sat down on the console and spoke through into the microphone in front of him. His voice emerged, heavily filtered, on the other side.

"I understand that you want to see your friends. Unfortunately, you cannot."

The sound of 813's crying buzzed through Earl's earphones. The Protector Agent leaned back, taking a deep breath before leaning back in towards the microphone.

"Why not?" continued the girl, "Please, let me go..."

"Because they can't know of this. The world can't know of this. You have a powerful and uncontrolled ability, and through no fault of your own, you are dangerous."

"I didn't want this! I won't hurt anyone! Please, just-"

"Apologies, but we cannot release you at this time, and further discussion on this matter will not change our stance. Know this, we are not happy with the fact that you must be contained-"

"I must?"

"Yes. You must be contained- and please, don't tell us that you'll do no harm, or that you'll never use your ability to hurt others..."

Earl's voice softened slightly as he continued, hoping that the tone would carry through.

"...because we know you wouldn't."

Earl listened carefully. A few sniffles could be heard from inside the room.

"But... there are forces out there who could find you, and would use you to do terrible things- or just destroy you. We have you here so that we can understand the anomaly that you have manifested, so that we can cure it, or at least control it. That's our only hope of protecting the world in case someone less morally-inclined than yourself gains this power... and it's also the most effective pathway towards your discharge from this facility."

"I... might be able to leave?"

"No promises. But if you cooperate, your odds are infinitely higher than if you close us off. As strange and unbelievable as it may sound to you, we're here to help."

The crying had largely stopped. Earl was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the waterworks abruptly opened up once more.

"My parents... Oh God my parents! They don't know where I am!"

"That will not be an issue. Subject 813, we have a few ways of dealing with difficulties such as this."

"No... no! Please don't kill them!"

Earl gritted his teeth... he could not lose the progress he was making.

"Our organization is opposed to the unnecessary spilling of blood of any type. We are able to modify memories-" Earl gave Doctor Wright a slight elbow to the stomach "-with great precision and accuracy. As it stands, we can give your parents information that you are suffering from a highly-contagious and heretofore unknown disease. They won't die, and they won't have to think you're dead."

"What... what about my friends then?"

Earl gritted his teeth... the deal was almost in place now...

"We can potentially allow for remote contact with the outside... if you can show us that you can be responsible and trustworthy. Perhaps... you could think of it as an exchange for your cooperation. If you cooperate with our testing as much as you can and do not exchange classified information about this facility, then we can permit intermittent remote contact to the outside world. Do you accept this?"

The line was silent for a few seconds, before 813's hesitant, stuttering response arrived.

"O-o-okay."

"I'm glad to hear it 813. We will speak again in the future."

Earl tapped the microphone and leaned back, exhaling heavily. It was a fine line he walked... and it was never pleasant to have to contain a kid, especially someone who by all means seemed to be a kind and decent person.

"You're soft, Agent Janciewicz." spoke Doctor Wright, standing behind him.

"Only when it gets us results Ron. You won't find me using a soft voice for 717."

Doctor Wright chuckled slightly, then paused.

"Uh, 717?"

"Oh, outside of your clearance?"

"Hardly. Just never heard of it."

"Ah, him. Total misanthrope. Convincing voice. Gets people to kill themselves, gets more convincing the more recently he's made a kill. Caused a huge suicide spree in [REDACTED] before we brought him in. Would probably be a more sympathetic case if he didn't get off on the idea of killing people with his voice."

"Eugh. Well, I guess that's why I've never run into him, he doesn't seem the type to leave survivors in need of memory alteration."

"Pro'ly. At any rate, contact with the outside ain't the biggest luxury to afford someone. T'ain't even much of a risk."

"Do tell." deadpanned Doctor Wright, eyebrow raised.

"Any contact with the outside'll be heavily controlled at best. If we can get a contained room for video calling in our 'medical research center', then we can lock down and mind-wipe anything that she tries to leak."

"Amnesics aren't toys, Agent Janciewicz."

"I thought you said you were the best, Doc."

The figure behind Earl paused and cleared his throat. You could practically hear the grin growing across his face.

"The very best."

 

[KaiserElectric]

I'm trying to write a story using Jyoungmin Kim, but I don't want to tread on anyone's toes. Is there anything important about her that I shouldn't miss?

 

[Seon]

Yes. She's Korean. She has a magical pocket watch.

Other than that it's free reign.

 

[KaiserElectric]

Perfect.

 

[KaiserElectric]

Jyoungmin Kim huddled in fear as the wooden door to her apartment shattered. Lights danced around behind the slots in the closet where she hid. As the footsteps drew closer, she retracted further into the darkened room, clutching her pocket watch tightly and trying not to breath.

"She has to be here," one of the voices said. "It's a ten story drop from the window, and the fire escape is blocked."

"Echo, sweep the bedroom," the leader ordered. "Bravo, you're with me. We don't know what that watch can do, so stay sharp."

"Kim, we know you're still here," a third voice said. "Just come out and surrender yourself. We don't need to hurt you, but if you make it hard on yourself..."

"Stuff it Echo, you're not helping."

Kim listened to the heavy footsteps draw closer until a circle of light illuminated the door of the closet. Kim tried not to scream in fear as the door handle began to turn.

Suddenly, the sound of shattering glass pierced the darkness, and Kim heard a loud thump some distance away. A muffled scream permeated the air as the man outside the door backed away.

"Alpha is down! Repeat, Alpha is..."

The shout was cut short by what was unmistakably a gunshot. Jyoungmin Kim whimpered softly as a gurgling shriek echoed throughout the house.

"Command, we have an Indigo Class situation here!" The final voice shouted into what Kim assumed was a radio of some kind. "Alpha and Echo are down, and I'm still under fire, requesting..."

But Kim never found out what Bravo wanted to request, as his speech was cut short by the sound of another gunshot. There was a brief scuffle, and Kim screamed when something heavy slammed into the door. Finally, after what seemed like ages, the thrashing sound outside ceased.

Trembling slightly, Kim got to her feet and made for the door. Suddenly, the door swung open and Kim gave a shriek of fear and recoiled.

"Calm down!" the man said, a trace of urgency in his voice. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

A light flickered on outside the small closet, and Kim's eyes began to adjust to the light. The stranger was wearing jeans, a bomber jacket, and a tan balaclava. Her eyes traveled quickly from the assault rifle in his hand to the red armband he wore on the same arm.

"Who are you?" Kim demanded.

"If you want to live long enough to find out, you need to come with me," the man said, extending his free hand. Kim should have known better than to trust a man who may have just killed someone, but there was something in his voice that made her trust him. Composing herself, she gripped the pocket watch tightly and made her decision.

"Okay, I'll go."

The man did not respond, but quickly ushered her out of the ruined apartment, speaking into a small radio transmitter in a language she couldn't understand. Together they traversed down the stairs, the stranger's boots making metallic echoes down the stairwell. Finally, they left the apartment complex to find a car waiting for them. Guarding it was a woman dressed similarly to the first man, wielding a large sniper rifle. The man gave her a terse order in the strange language and she quickly got into the back seat. Kim took the passenger's seat as the man swung into the driver's seat. He took off the balaclava to reveal a shock of brown hair and quickly turned the car around to melt into the Manhattan traffic.

"Sorry to scare you," the man apologized. "The Keepers respond fast, so we don't have a lot of time to waste." The woman in the back seat, a tan-skinned woman with a short black haircut, gave an understanding smile.

"We just wanted to get to you before the Keeper's did, or God forbid those sadists in the Protectors. This wasn't how it was supposed to turn out, but at least we found you in time."

Kim's head was spinning as she tried to comprehend all this information. "You never told me who you are."

"Third Eye," the woman in the back said, her voice heavily accented. Kim had no idea what the Third Eye was, let alone the Keepers and the Protectors, so this fact did little to make her head stop hurting. Her eyes were inadvertently drawn to the red armband, where she noticed for the first time the strange yellow eye embellished on them.

"So, you guys are, like, the Illuminati or something?" Kim asked.

The man gave a slight chuckle. "Not quite. We're one of the few people who know about these things called anomalies. Things that function outside the laws of reality. Like that pocket watch you have."

"My watch?" Kim said, looking at the old watch with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. "The state said it belonged to my great-grandfather, or something."

"It does," the man said. "The problem is that the Keepers and Protectors want it too."

"I don't understand," Kim said meekly, trying to wrap her head around everything she heard. Said thoughts were interrupted by a sharp ringing from the back of the car. Glancing behind her, Kim saw the woman with the rifle look at her cell phone, and nod her head knowingly at the man.

"Perfect timing," the man replied as the woman handed Kim the cell phone. "He'll be able to explain everything to you."

Kim tentatively opened the cell phone and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" she answered, unsure of herself."

"Good evening, Jyoungmin Kim. I hope that you are well."

The stranger's casual tone made Kim nervous. "Who are you?" she demanded.

The stranger, surprised by her firm tone of voice, hesitated for a fraction of a second before responding.

"My name is Erlang Shen. I'm the leader of the Third Eye."

Spoiler :

More to come. The next part will be Erlang having a conversation with Kim about his thoughts on the situation, so hopefully we'll get to see Erlang explain his motivations a bit.

Also, sorry if I got anything with the Keepers wrong. Let me know if I need to change anything, and if it isn't too drastic I'll give it a rewrite.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

July 24 2001 - 0159 Hrs - Facility 49

Indigo Indigo Indigo Indigo-

Agent Janciewicz shot upright from his bed, his eyes flying instinctively open, before they remembered their absence and closed off once again. In a practiced motion, he reached out, pulled on his clothes, grabbed his cane and set out of his dormitory immediately.

Tap tap tap. Earl barely needed to touch the floor to know where he was going. In under a minute, he was at his destination.

"Yves."

"Earl."

"What's the situation? I got an indigo warning."

"Light sleeping for you tonight, we've got a lead on Shen."

"What?"

"Crazy cayoux dropped some of 'iz Third Eye boys on a retrieval team. Clumsy, didn't even try to jam their video feeds."

"Could it be a trap then?"

"Maybe is, maybe is. Or 'e could be in a rush. Or have less resources than he did when 'e was workin' with us. Probably running out of the toys he stole..."

"Well, he's grabbing some new toys now. What was our retrieval team after?"

Earl took a seat as he listened to Yves walk off, pulling up a computer. The blind Agent went through the colour codes in his head. Red for unknown, Orange for hostile local authorities, Yellow for non-hostile anomalies, Green for fleeing anomalies... Blue for a missing target, Purple for a hostile anomaly... and Indigo for a hostile organization aware of anomalies. White for all-clear, Black for a loss of contact.

Earl sighed. It was trouble enough when it was just the Protectors that could cause a code Indigo, but now two? It only became worse when one considered that Erlang and his followers seemed to be intent on blowing the lid off of the whole world of hidden anomalies. They worked to keep this stuff away from normal human beings for a reason, damnit. Agent Shen, Agent Shen, where did you go so wrong?

"Got it ami. Anomalous object, antique pocketwatch apparently. Note refers to it as 'magic'- pretty sure that report hasn't been standardized yet. Not sure if we don't know what it does, or if it's just above clearance."

"So he's taken this thing?"

"Seems so."

Earl immediately rose to his feet, excitement creeping into his voice.

"Then he's made a mistake."

"Not in 'iz character to make a mistake."

"Well, you can bring that up at his the next fan club meeting. But as long as he's got this anomaly on him, he's vulnerable... get us a sample of 212."

Earl paused for a moment, listening to Yves' moment of realization.

"I like the way you think, pardner."

"I do too. Now, fancy some field work?"

"In these wee hours of the night? I'd love nothin' less."

 

[KaiserElectric]

Great story, but Erlang Shen wasn't his name when he was still working with the Keepers.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Why didn't you tell me that before the last two stories where I'd mentioned you as 'Agent Shen' then?

 

[KaiserElectric]

I must not have noticed it until then.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Why would he change his name? And what was the name he used as an Agent of the Keepers?

Also, and thoroughly out of character, you might have a Keeper task force with two veteran agents closing in on you soon.

 

[KaiserElectric]

I had his real name [redacted] by the Keepers, since he was deemed a security risk and was about to be neutralized following the accident that scarred him. As for why he changed his name, that's open to interpretation.

And yes, I'm fully prepared for whatever the Keepers can throw at me.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Why would his name be a security risk? He's already a fairly high-level defector, I don't see how knowing what his name is could possibly make things any worse. Besides, Agent Janciewicz has fairly high clearance, so he's more likely than most to know of your name. Until I have a name, I'll stick with 'Agent Shen'.

 

[Seon]

I would go with Agent Shen myself.

If only because it would get really confusing seeing Agent [DATA REDACTED] as a plot relevant character.