Ninth Game

[break_the_nine]

[1]

[Yeah, after that little incident out during the mission Leos is out of it in the hangar, hands pressed to his face. Sara went and betrayed the human race, more importantly her friends and the Unity Group. Leos is having trouble actually processing this just as much as the Solsavior team. It would be like if Lana went out and said that she didn't have his best interests at heart and tried to kill everyone.]

Sara... what... what happened to you...

[He's shaking his head slowly, still trying to accept that she's an enemy.]

[2]

[Well its time to open the container before the Progtech crew gets here to take it back. And the contents were... underwhelming. It looked like a data storage system.]

So... should we...?

[Leos makes a rapid finger wiggling motion to the storage unit as he glanced at the people with him.]

[3]

[Progtech finally came by to pick up their stuff. But that wasn't the only thing they hauled off. Leos was standing in an empty hangar spot with a note in his hands. Pale Rider was nowhere to be seen and the Raven was scratching the back of his head.]

Comments

1

[empress_without_a_throne]

... About that...

[Mizuki's out in the hangar too, watching as some of the Solaris mechanics work on fixing the damage to the DuskBird's combination servos. Since they're not a natural part of the machine she can't just let them naturally regenerate.]

... I think I'm starting to understand. What Sara did was wrong and stupid and she shouldn't have done it... but I think I might be understanding where she came from.

[break_the_nine]

But we're her friends! I... I thought she would've held out or fought or.. or something... I don't understand...

[empress_without_a_throne]

... Aside from her eye she didn't look injured at all though. And she lost her eye while being captured too, unless she was lying about that.

But Leos... this is someone who spent the first ten years of her life among heroes. Heroes who fought their hardest to protect the Earth, to the extent some of them actually died or suffered other ugly fates. But there were always threats that came afterwards...

... And then suddenly there were none. The Void was destroyed. The fighting was over. Solaris had lost its purpose.

[break_the_nine]

But... they're heroes right? Even if the bad guys they fought are gone there's still other bad guys they need to fight...

[He still doesn't get it... poor fool.]

1

[brought_it_back]

Do not worry. Even if you can not, we will kill her.

[break_the_nine]

[There was a sharp breath from Leos... before he just settled into a horrific, bubbling miasma of cold loathing and bitter anger, letting his nails dig into his palms. And honestly? They drew blood pretty easily with the force he put.]

You have ten seconds to leave me alone... before I try to crush your skull like a rotten melon.

[brought_it_back]

You would not succeed.

[Eva starts to back off.]

We will have to kill her, though.

[break_the_nine]

I KNOW THAT!!

[Leos snarls the words out as he gives Eva a hateful glare.]

Now if you're DONE here. You've got FIVE seconds! NOW GET LOST! GO! I don't want to have to deal with your stupid face after all of this!

1

[actuallyselfish]

"I have no idea." Dido says, slumped against a wall.

"But I..." She clears her throat. "...I'm starting to think she was hiding her true self from us for a long time."

[break_the_nine]

So she might have been like this all along?

[The thought horrified Leos to his core.]

[actuallyselfish]

"God, it's a scary thought!" Dido agrees, holding a hand up to her throat. "Cause if we misjudged a person that badly...who else are we wrong about? Who else has a rotten core behind a face that we trust? You? Me?"

She sighs. "But to be fair, these evil folks are really good at putting on a fair face. Comes hand-in-hand with the sociopathy, apparently."

She smiles slightly. "That's how I know you're a good guy, Leos."

[break_the_nine]

... You really think so? I mean... I'm... not... 'right'.

I'm trying to get better sure, but I know there's people on the base who think I'm...

[He trails off here. 'Crazy' was probably the word, that or 'insane'.]

2

[abugslife]

You can connect directly to it, can you not?

Be careful. I would imagine it is heavily protected.

[break_the_nine]

Aaah it shouldn't be too difficult! I mean I can plug into computers just fi-

[As Leos was talking he plugged into the data unit... then he looked like he bit into a lemon, stubbed his toe, got hit on the head by a frying pan and had a sudden impact to his manparts all at the same time before jerking backwards-]

KJFSKGFDKJGLFDKGFGDSFLSGA-

[-and landing on the ground with a bad twitch.]

I taaakh thaaaht baaakth...

[abugslife]

...Alright, that is enough. Disconnect and do not try that again.

At least we know this is nothing suspicious.

[break_the_nine]

Kay...

[Leos disconnects and flails his hand like it was burned.]

I just...ow... the security in that was just... .ow...

3

[herodrawing]

Ah?! Where's Leos's Armored Core?

[Izuru looks around frantically, as if it was going to hide behind a corner or something.]

[break_the_nine]

I don't know! There's just this note!

[Said note just had the words 'Returning this to you later, have a break'.]

[herodrawing]

Did someone took it on a joyride or something?

They are going to return it, right?

1

[tiger_ken]

She stared into the abyss, and she blinked. Not everyone is cut out for the work we do... but to think it'd be someone who's spent her entire life seeing the world saved time and again...

[break_the_nine]

Ken... do... do you think anyone else would... would blink like she did?

[tiger_ken]

Out of all the people in the world? Plenty.

[The answer is blunt, but Ken does briefly raise his hand.]

Of those here...? I would say there are few who could, and no-one who, with certainty, would.

3

[ben_dixon]

Hey Junior. Isn't something supposed to be here?

[break_the_nine]

Its my Armored Core! Its gone! And all that's here is this note!

[Said note just had the words 'Returning this to you later, have a break'.]

[ben_dixon]

Oh no! Is there a serial mech thief at large?