Present
Saturday, 12 September 2011, 01:03
Inside the Apartment

"Psh…" Athena muttered, pulling out a small flashlight to clarify certain dark surroundings.

The two thieves, not too far behind her, froze in their tracks when they caught her in sight, having made it through the bustling fire escape exit with ease moments ago. "Whoa, watch it!" Volte whispered as he jerked the arms of the feminine opossum before him, back into an evacuated, steamy room. The two hid behind the walls inside, and Buddy waited in the room across them, out of sight. "That cop chick is here too, it seems. No doubt she'll try to catch us if she-- ... already?"

Glace had started rummaging through some of the empty burgundy drawers still in tact within the room, tossing them out one by one on the floor. "Yeah!" she giggled. Soon enough the room was littered with lingerie and skimpy pajamas before she came across a drawer chock full of beautiful necklaces. "S-score!" After stuffing her pants pockets with the new gems, she let out a cough as she moved to a different bedroom within the home, seeking out any other treasures hidden.

Smoke began to seep into the room. Volte suppressed a cough, pulling his bandana up to cover his mouth. His eyes squinted, trying to keep focus on the other thief as the room fogged. Soon, Glace emerged from the smog, her elbow protecting her mouth. In her hands dangled gold watches now. "Let's.. move on."

"Okay Glace, are you satisfied now?" Volte said, glancing back over his shoulder - Athena was still not in sight. "Seriously, I knew you wouldn't drop it if I didn't agree to come with you here.. and I know you'd run off without me regardless. Again. But you found your share of loot now. Let's go, hun. We can come back tomorrow after--"

"Wait.. but there's more rooms!" She stumbled for the door, catching herself on the rusty doorjamb just in time. "Look... even Buddy's got something."

"Hun, wait!"

Glace made a mad dash for the room across her and fell into the doorway. Buddy jumped away in time - however, he carried nothing within his beak nor talons. He merely sat on the floor and pecked at his wings, waiting for his owner's next cue. The opossum crawled to a dining chair and hauled herself up, letting out another series of coughs as she made her way towards the apartment's master bedroom and began digging through the closets.

Volte peered out of the room - the cop seemed to be occupied in a different room with another druggie. Her room was not too far from the marsupials'. Loud noises of any sort could catch her attention. The devil gritted his teeth and glanced behind him a final time before darting out of the room; a jump seemed possible, should they need to resort to a quick escape. They were only on the third floor. And by the looks of it...

"Glace," he called in a low voice, "We're done."

"Wait, no, but there's still bunches and bunches of new rooms to be... to be... explored!" the opossum called back. She delicately laid her hands atop a plaid green dress. She then stepped forward by the dress and, now clinging onto it, slowly laid her head atop it too, face buried in the soft fabric. Her eyelids dropped, weakly. Hooh... it's gettin hot. Just a few seconds... then I'll take this one and...

Glace slumped to the floor. Volte jumped back, alarmed by the sudden thud, and dashed into the room. There the opossum laid atop the floor, almost curled into a fetal position, the dress shielding her body like a blanket. Volte twitched his mouth as he dove in after his love and gently lifted her, resting her upper spine in one palm and the undersides of her kneecaps in the other, still keeping the dress atop her. Her drooping navy-blue vest pockets, both still filled with her Uzis, dangled solemnly by Volte's knees. The golden watches she had snagged earlier had fallen from her pants pocket. Buddy immediately took notice of this and flew after them, gripping one tightly by his talons.

A sliver of Glace's hair dropped from her face. Volte smiled weakly beneath his bandana. "You're so stupid," he whispered lovingly, despite the message he conveyed. "You're stupid, I'm stupid. We're stupid. We're such a perfect fit."

Cautious of the rising flames, Volte stepped out into the heatwave halls and swiftly, but silently, dashed back towards the stairs from which the two had entered, followed by Buddy. However the two immediately skidded to a stop - a cluster of wooden crash-landed before them from above, now broken into multiple chunks of burnt wood. Buddy croaked. Volte turned a curious head skyward; the flames continued to singe holes into the poorly-crafted floors of the complex. Pretty soon, the whole building would come burning down.

OOC: Wow, you're right Wraith. Whatever would I do without you wonderful people checking up on me! =D It is indeed supposed to be am.

Wow, exciting posts by all of you =D I particularly liked O'Shea and Matt's cat and mouse chase, with Matt's role deliciously reversed. And O'Shea's concern for his shirt... xD Really tense stuff, love it.

Ianthe's storyline looks very grim and tragic indeed! Poor Cody, wonder what will happen to him... =OOO

And jbgbgabBLb @ Volte and Glace. Such a good couple!! x______x;; Quality stuff all around. Tension is at an alltime high. LET'S DO THIS.

IC:
The Present: Saturday, 3rd September 2011: 1:10am

Matt continued to look all around him, desperately trying to guage the distance as best as he could between the rooftop of the building he was currently standing on and the one nearest to him in his direction. Whilst the twilight timing and blackened skies would normally have made such a task impossible, the bright red illuminating flames from the fire below helped to light up his and O'Shea's surroundings. Even then, however, they didn't do Matt much good. He could barely remain conscious... his entire body was little more than a swimming pit of hurt and pain. He was sure he probably had a couple of broken ribs, a ruined right arm, a dull throbbing head and the gunshot wound that damn fox hybrid had offered him a scant few minutes ago.

He was used to pain. He'd been in a good few number of scraps before in his time. It came with the job, the territory. But this was a whole new world of hurt.

"I'm not gonna repeat myself again, buddy," O'Shea gritted his teeth, inching closer and closer towards Matt, his glock trained on Matt's kneecap. "You in... or out?"

"I... didn't do this..." Matt weakly muttered. O'Shea could barely hear it over the roaring sound of the flames, but he managed to work out what the cheetah had said.

"You can explain it all to us down at the station. Running like this isn't doing you any favours." O'Shea replied. Maybe talking it out would help difuse the situation. He doubted it thought. His aim remained steady as he inched closer and closer.

"I'm supposed... to be dead now." Matt nodded to himself. O'Shea couldn't help but wonder... was he hallucinating now? Going into shock? He wouldn't blame the cat, but that'd make him even more dangerous.

Matt turned around slowly. O'Shea almost fired, but restrained himself as he saw Matt do nothing to antagonise the situation. He had weakly raised his left arm as high as he could into the air, whilst at the same time taking shaky steps backwards, closer to the edge of the roof. He could barely stand, he'd probably collapse...!

"I can't afford to be caught now, officer. If he knows I'm still alive... then my family will die. If he hasn't killed them already." Matt was crying. His eyes were full of orange tears as bright as the sun from the reflecting flames. O'Shea stopped, taken aback in surprise.

"Hey buddy, if you just co-operate, we'll do what we can to help you." O'Shea nodded to himself. "I can promise you that. Resisting arrest will just help you kill yourself... and that won't help save your family."

Matt loosed a low laugh. "You don't understand, officer. He see's everything. He hears everything. He's got eyes and ears everywhere, especially in the police. I go with you, then that means I'm already a dead man."

O'Shea was confused. Who on earth was he talking about?

Matt smiled. His tears came to an end, as he wiped them from his face with his free left hand. He looked onwards towards O'Shea, determination now glistening in his pupils. "I've decided to run, officer."

As the last words left Matt's lips, he let himself go, taking but two more steps backwards and walking off the side of the building. O'Shea raced after him, shouting out towards him, crying out to the very heavens in a vain hope that it'd prevent what just happened before his eyes. The cat couldn't have been that damn stupid, could he?!

There was a loud thump.

O'Shea reached the edge of the rooftop. He cautiously peered over the side of the building, trying to at least confirm Matt's body. As he began to peer over the side, however, the building shook once more, as another window below exploded outwards, a thick dark smoke following in its wake. O'Shea steadied himself and took another look down. He couldn't see anything. That thick black smoke was now completely obscuring any view of the ground below in the tight alleyway. The cat could have been dead, splattered across the dirty, litter strewn ground below. Or he could have survived it. There was no way to tell without getting down to the ground and checking the scene from there.

"Cats and their damn nine lives. Geez!" O'Shea lamented as loudly as he possibly could, throwing his arms up in defiance.

Present

The ensuing few hours went over like a lead balloon for Luis. Having foolishly strayed into a bad part of town (but indeed, what wasn't a bad part of town with everyone throwing away any sense of propriety in anticipation of The Broadcast?), he tried to be discreet and attract as little attention to himself as possible. Unfortunately for him, he was clearly out of his element. In the same way that O'Shea had readily identified him as a "Harvard boy", the unsavory types skulking around in this part of the city eyed him like they were lions and his name was Daniel.

This isn't good.

Calmly, he rounded a corner, past a small, seedy shop with a neon sign in the window that read "SHOP4BALLERS". Where were the principles among people anymore? He could not help but wonder. A bell tinkled behind him. With a quick glance, Luis caught sight of two individuals swaggering out of the shop. They were wearing tosslecaps, hoodies, baggy jeans, and most alarmingly, red neckerchiefs. Those were the identifying emblems of a local gang that had been terrorizing this part of the city. While trying not to make it patently obvious, Luis started taking longer strides.

I'd love to have that unstable sergeant here, and that's not something I'd consider lightly.

Luis kept walking, being certain that stopping would ensure something unpleasant would happen. He dared not look back; that would only secure the gang members' attention, and Luis would have none of that. The student was now taking such long strides that he looked like he was trying to be Mister Fantastic. Eventually, he came to a darkened street. Luis glanced up; he had been losing track of time. The sky was getting dark. A nightclub of some kind, looking to be of ill repute, was pulsing music across the street.

Well, can't be any worse than being mugged.

He jogged across the street and up the stoop to the doorway of the establishment. The bouncer, a burly man with a shaved head (as if there were any other kind), gave Luis the barest bit of acknowledgment as the law student ducked into the building. Past the bouncer was a set of open doors to a bar and dance floor. That room was hosting some kind of wild rave party. Well, that was the polite way to put it. People were laughing and cavorting drunkenly within. There were scantily clad women, showing not the slightest sense of self-worth, dancing like Bacchantes. Men gyrated around them, ostensibly "dancing" as well. Colored lights and smoke made a curious haze in the room. There were also more illicit things going on in the shadows, off to the sides of the room. Luis tried not to look at what the patrons were doing back there. It was already all reprehensible.

Luis stood in the doorway, attempting not to panic. Something urged him to look behind him; the two gang members had just sauntered into the nightclub. Immediately, Luis headed to the bar. The bartender, smoking a cigar, looked at the out-of-place student and asked, "Whacha havin'?"

"Rum and Coke."

The bartender chuckled dryly but went off to make the drink. Luis sighed. He should have been back at his apartment, studying. That was when he became acutely aware of the fact that the seats on either side of him were now occupied.

By the two gang members.

Luis rose and sidled to the dance floor. Yes, it looked like the worst place to be for anyone of sophistication, but the worst place to be overall would have to be in an early grave, Luis reckoned. He began stiffly, awkwardly moving to the beat. He tried to stay on the move, circling around the floor. He began to wonder what his actual plan of escape was; he could not do this all night. At some point, he checked his wristwatch. 12:21 am.

Twelve twenty-one? Really? I need to get out of here.

Quickly, he moved to duck out of the room. As he did, he collided with another person and staggered backward. A shout went up from the person with whom he collided: a tall, thin guy wearing a lemon yellow suit. The collision had made the guy spill his drink on his suit.

"What the hell are you doing?" the absurdly-dressed individual demanded. A number of further obscenities came from his mouth even as Luis tried to apologize. A hand on Luis's shoulder made him turn. The bouncer was looming behind him like some creation of von Frankenstein.

"Is there a problem here?" grumbled the bouncer.

"Uh..."

Before Luis could go any further, the room shook. To be fair, it had been shaking all the time. And when someone yelled, "The roof is on fire!" it only prompted everyone else to yell the same. However, when the sprinkler system activated, it became clear that something was amiss. The smoke from the smoke machine in the corner was being overtaken by a more toxic cloud of dark smoke. The roof was quite literally on fire. Luis watched in momentary stupefaction.

"Fire!" yelled someone in the nightclub. Shouts and screams filled the room. Luis seized his chance and bolted, fleeing the nightclub. When he was outside, he smiled thinly.

All those contemptible dregs of society deserve to burn. It's not like the world will miss them. Probably for the best that they all perish in their little den of iniquity. Won't they...what in the world?

Luis looked up at the nearby apartment building, which was also ablaze. He retreated from the sight, bewildered by this. He was surprised, despite himself. People were now engaging in wanton arson? How horrid! He hoped that whoever was the criminal responsible for this had gone up in the blaze. That would have been just. His thoughts were interrupted by a horn blaring in his ear. Luis turned to see a taxi screeching to a halt in front of him. He realized he had backed into the middle of the road and nearly had been run over as a result. The taxi driver jumped out of his car and yelled, "Wassamatta w'chu?"

"You!" Luis shouted, pointing. The driver hesitated. This guy had wandered into the road and was now looking at him with a maniacal look in his eye; now he was approaching with a twisted grin on his face. Luis, smiling wildly, yanked open the door and said, "Take me back to the Upper East Side!"

The driver was stunned, but a fare was a fare. He climbed into the car and pulled away; as he did, he looked back at Luis. "Man, you see that fire over there?"

"Yeah..." Luis said, his hands shaking.

"Wonder what caused it."

"I really don't know. It was...there was an explosion and then there was fire everywhere. It looks like there's...well, I don't know, really."

"What do you mean?"

Luis looked down and balled his fists. "It's like everyone has lost their minds in this world. I mean, the government said The Broadcast is coming, so what has everyone done? Cast aside every sense of morality and jumped headlong into depravity of the worst sorts. It must be exhilarating for people who have lost their minds."

The taxi disappeared into a tunnel. Luis continued, "Won't it be wonderful when people have been forced to relinquish their ids? I mean, that's like, the evolution of humanity right there, isn't it? That will be remarkable."

Silence reigned in the taxi for a long time. Luis awakened some time later, wondering when he had drifted to sleep. The taxicab was coming to a halt. Luis turned and looked out the window, seeing blue and red lights flashing. As things came into focus, several police officers were standing outside, chatting with each other. One officer opened the passenger door and hauled Luis out, onto his feet.

"So, this is the guy?" asked the officer.

"That's the one," said the taxi driver. "Wandered away from where the fire was and started babbling about the evolution of humanity and The Broadcast."

Luis's mouth fell open. He looked up at the police precinct behind the officer holding him.

What is going on here? Am I being arrested? Whose bright idea was this? This is crazy! Don't the police know how to identify the clearly innocent from the blatantly guilty?

Luis had been very comfortable for most of his life dividing the world between white and black, with no gray zone between them. He would have made a very good inquisitor in a former life. At that moment, though, seeing the prospect of being arrested for arson, the possibility of never passing the character and fitness test after passing the bar exam, and everything he had worked for being destroyed because of someone's extraordinary ignorance...

"Hey!" yelled the officer as Luis pulled away and hopped onto one of the cops' standing motorcycles. Before any further thoughts could come to his mind, Luis was already speeding away, down the streets on a stolen police motorbike. If he was going to be arrested, it may as well be for something big, right?

Did I really just think that?

Shouts and distant warning shots dopplered away from his hearing. He zoomed off aimlessly, not certain of where he needed to go at a time like this, but when he saw the burning building a few blocks away, he could not help but be drawn in like a moth. Luis slowed down as he drew nearer to the large apartment building, still aflame. He wondered how long it had been on fire. He was about to look at his watch when--

POW!

Luis opened one eye. He gingerly felt his leg. Blood. His? Maybe. Something was lying on him...something that had dropped onto him from the building. He was lucky. From that height, it could have very well killed him, he realized. So, what exactly had hit him without killing him? He touched the big lump sitting on his chest. It was...furry? Luis wriggled around until he could push the burden off of him. He rubbed his eye.

A cheetah...?

OOC: Will make a post soon... Been really busy the past few days and haven't been feeling all that great either.

OOC: Oh what a state me hearteys *tsk tsk*. Let's have Mr Modest sweep up.
Gonna IC. You got 10 mins to stop me now 😉

Complex hallway

“You “$&*”*($ stupid idiots!!!” a voice hissed through Volte’s ear, its close proximity and significant harsh tone cutting through the surrounding fires.

An orange and red-lit Tasmanian devil flurried on the spot anxiously as he continued to latch onto an unconscious Glace for dear life. The marsupial’s eyes widened in surprise, tempted to take a step back but found himself halt when he heard another body of wood come crashing down a few meters behind him. Flints and embers scurried into the air in the wake of the incident.

Untamed booms and reverberations were beginning to build around the complex; its vicinity rendered a highly unstable time-bomb which was practically ticking towards its last couple of minutes.

“I thought O’shea had locked your ugly self up! How much did you pay him to let you off?!?”

“Hey! I got bailed out yeah!!” Volte cried out defiantly.
Buddy began to flap and kooh in an agitated manner, tempted to attack the approachee. As he swooped down to peck the trespasser, the bird found himself pass out abruptly and fall with a slap upon Volte’s carried dearest. A long-needle syringe injected at 90 degrees into his back and stuck out. Its fluid contents empty by now.

“…what the?!?” Volte realised, trying to grasp the abruptness of the rising chaos “…you!!! Biatch!!! And whatta you done to Buddy!!!”

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” Athena screamed, facing him at gun point “YOU’RE WASTING OXYGEN YOU CRIMINAL INTENT SCUMBAG!!!”
Volte shook visibly. The fear of his endangered significant other, his unconscious fowl pet, and the ever rising heat beginning to take a toll on his sanity.

“You best follow me. Now. Or burn in hell. I don’t care either way. You aren’t my priority on this scene…” Athena said, continuing to train the gun on his forehead “you in… or out…?” her panda-eyes narrowed with a remorseless gritting expression on her face.

Another beam crashed to the ground, around the corner as resounded by a smashing blast with a roaring fire in its aftermath.

Volte dropped his head downwards in defeat. Against his will. As it was, perhaps… It was too late either way. But the lesser of two evils in terms of which death to surrender to indicated submitting himself to the merciless femme Officer.

Athena didn’t wait for an answer. She rolled out a long fire blanket she had been carrying all along.

She draped it over herself and the Tasmanian devil, letting but a small gap for vision to peek through.

“It’s now or never. On the count of three, we are going to run straight ahead- out the first window we see and we are going to jump outside. O’shea will be serious, but landing on his car will break our fall…”

Athena took one last side-ways glance at the surroundings as she peaked her head from out of the blanket.

“…you ready?” she asked “if we get out of this in one piece I’ll take you all to A&E.”

“…before we do that, I gotta check up on something…” she snarled, whipping out her walkie-talkie.

__________________________________

Complex rooftop

O’shea’s body was momentarily locked in position. His own mind in a rabid scurry of cascading and troubling questions. Suffocating him. Flitting between assimilation, fantasy, desperation—hallways of rooms in his head to occupy. He was trying his damned hardest to swim to the surface of the thought-provoking revelations which were overwhelming him.

He could not believe what that cheetah had done. To throw himself into free fall like that. To the plummeting dark abyss below which was so consumed in fog and smoke that he could not decipher where his body had landed and whether it would still even be in one piece.

His impression of him at the start was damning to say the least. Given his persistent need to run away by first evading the earlier bar scandal and alleyway. Furthermore he even endured a gunshot and carried on running. And now he even seemed willing to do all but turn himself in. To even die? And yet he stated he had decided to run?!

What was also disturbing was the fact that he mentioned something particularly sinister:

"I can't afford to be caught now, officer. If he knows I'm still alive... then my family will die. If he hasn't killed them already."

"You don't understand, officer. He see's everything. He hears everything. He's got eyes and ears everywhere, especially in the police. I go with you, then that means I'm already a dead man."

“Oh for *&)(‘s sake…” O’shea narrowed his eyes with aggro and clutched his throbbing head with one hand. His uncovered pale grey eye narrowed with frustration as he became distant in his thoughts. A feeling as if his head was crashed right through the mirror. Crashed right through the wall. Trying to cling on to answers and reason desperately through the hurdle.

It was easy to assume that this man, Matt, was completely delirious and out of his mind. It certainly sounded like his life was illegitimate, outlawed and riddled with unresolvable issues. Or at least some ‘die hard’ motive to protect his family? From a subject known as ‘he’?

BUT who was ‘he’? And how could this subject have ‘eyes’, and ‘ears’… everywhere?? None of this was making any sense. And why would ‘he’ be amongst the police force? The police force was a well regulated body and identification was known to everyone. Any illegitimate handlings and offences would certainly be sussed and brought to hearings- resulting in suspension, erasure or even corporal punishment.

However, if any ultra-hypothetical situations would redeem themselves to be considered in O’shea’s mind, he could not help but wonder what this entity really was. A person? Single body? Living being… it couldn’t be a machine could it? A super natural being? Divine intervention of sort…? What…? He certainly didn’t know the workings behind the ‘Broadcast’. But could there be a link between this Cheetah’s cry for help and the upcoming ordeal to occur in less than a fortnight?

Before O’shea could dedicate any further thought, he suddenly heard a crackle of his walkie-talkie.

“O’shea!! Krchhhh…”

“Athena…” O’shea said sluggishly, resting his arms on either side as he straightened himself wearily. His face become soot smudged and ashen grey from the long exposure on top of the boiling cauldron building.

“What’s your position? Krcchhh…”

“Atop the complex vicinity…” O’shea sighed.

“WHAT?!? GET THE *_)”$*( out you dumbass! You are about to die… I know for a fact that this building is…”

“OH my god! I thought I told you to stay outside….!” O’shea suddenly woke up and wrenched his walkie-talkie to face it confrontationally.

“Stop wasting my time!!!!!!!! I’m going to call the ambulance. I have unconscious victims on my hand. You in the meantime…. Krcchhh…”

“Get…” O’shea smirked “over and out.”

O’shea swerved a full circle to take in the panorama of the situation. The air was intoxicatingly thick with smog, floating embers and saturated heat. The fire by now, had also managed to crawl its way towards the exit door openings. A quake or two dominated the scene, causing O’shea to grab onto a nearby flagpole to steady himself.

He scrutinized the opposite building with keen, determined eyes.

In an ideal world, he’d be an athletic looking hurdler like the Cheetah he had seen earlier. Minus the battering injuries and compromised state he was in.

O’shea was certainly fast, athletic and agile. But his long jump was not his strength. Tried as he might, he knew the leap would not carry him to the other side in one piece.

What he had noticed, however, was a curtain that blew furiously out of an open window from the opposite building a floor below his level. Its veiling material frolicking aimlessly.

O’shea didn’t need a second bidding. Taking as many steps back as he could before it became to hazardous given the ever increasing inferno- he bolted forwards into a sprint and took his last step on the edge of the building to hoist himself up as high as he could.

Uneventfully flying through the air as he projected himself forwards at the same time, he desperately calculated the direction the curtain would blow itself in. Extending an arm out, he reached for the cloth…

…grasping it as gravity dragged him down, the next few motions happened in choppy and rapid motions.
The curtain snapped from its hinged railings, and took the suspension support infrastructure with it.

As O’shea went into a freefall…

He stopped.

A chink followed by a thud.

Suspended.

The infrastructure curtain joint had got lodged between one of the brazen, metallic gaps on a balcony platform railing. As of yet, the suspension O’shea was clinging onto had been secured by this occurrence.

He exhaled in panic as he gripped onto the wrenched cloth for dear life- looking at the darkening floor below him with people scurrying like ants as flames and exploding rubble taunted them from the boiling building next door.

Without waiting any longer, he climbed up the curtain inch by inch- careful and mindful not to tear it in weak spots.
His hands finally gripped upon the bar railings of the balcony. It was then he was able to scuttle to the top and hoist himself over onto the sturdy platform.

O’shea immediately abandoned the scene as he ran to the scene below… determined not so much to save his own life. But to ensure Athena’s safety and to investigate the fate of Matt’s fallen body.

_______________________

Ground floor outside

“Hey… hey you…” O’shea called out as he approached a young man who appeared to be knelt down before something.

As the fox came into view, Luis’ eyes suddenly widened- as did the Officer’s.

“The unlawful sergeant…” Luis hissed “well this day just gets better and better, would you agree with that verdict coming from a Harvard boy?”

O’shea narrowed his eyes. Bemused at his sudden turn of bitter attitude and disrespect. Before he could retaliate, however, his eyes widened as he saw the unconscious form of the Cheetah he had tailed earlier on.

“Well Harvard boy! You may be a Harvard boy and I wouldn’t say you look like a Doctor… but have some common sense and call the Paramedics perhaps?!” O’shea yelled, picking his phone out “actually, I’ll do that… you check for signs of life and start the chest compressions at a rate of 100 compressions per minute. Buy him some time until we get the Oxygen mask…” O’shea spoke at a rapid pace as he punched in 911.

“Paramedics. Suspected cardiac arrest following approx.. 20 meter fall. Location 211A West Claremont avenue.”

After an affirmative answer had been given in response following the minimally timed phone call, O’shea spent the rest of his time scanning the surroundings anxiously. Hoping above all else in the world, that his colleague was ok.

(OOC: Imagined the Indiana Jones theme playing with that whole O'Shea jumping and grabbing the curtain scene. XD  Anyway...parents are visiting for the weakend, can't really focus on postage right now...)

OOC: Oh you DO make me laugh VW xD Quite the character he is I guess ^^;
Enjoy your parents staying 😉

Ooc: Just a heads up people, the future and past timelines don't have to match up exactly timewise, as long as people can make a note on the day and time of the scene that'd be cool to save some confusion. For instance, I'm moving events on in the future now to the next morning, but that doesn't have to be the same for the Present timeline if people still want to rp the current event and situation there with the burning apartment building and O'Shea and Athena's capture of Matt, Glace, Volte and Buddy.

...unless of course you do, in which case feel free to move on! =D

Present

I swear to God, if he gets himself killed and leaves me with the kid, I am gonna skin his furry ass! The red-furred vixen thought, an irritated frown marring her otherwise pretty features. She leaned back against the wall right outside Sasha's bedroom, arms crossed and tail swishing behind her in an almost lazy fashion. Only by looking closely could one see the agitated flick it gave off every few seconds.

"Please, Sonya, this is something I need to do," Vlad said, having called her up on a disposable cell. "I need to find out vhat happened at that apartment..."

There was a pause. "It is... long story, Ruby. I do not haff the time to tell you," Vlad finally responded. Ruby rolled her eyes. The jackal continued, "Vhat's done is done, however. I need you to vatch the pup while I investigate this; I haff a feeling that he is involved somehow..."

At that, the she-fox started. She had been Vlad's "apprentice" for long enough to know that when he had a gut feeling, he was usually right. And for him to be involved... Ruby bit her lip, eyes narrowing. Her hand tightened on the phone before she replied tersely, "Fine. Expect me in 20. Usual signal." She hung up before she could hear her old mentor's reply.

And now here she was, stuck baby-sitting. Perhaps not as bad as she had thought at first, provided the brat didn't wake up again. Ruby sighed, rubbing her temples and moving to get a better view of the window without giving herself away. She really hoped Vlad came back alright, for both their sakes. And for Sasha's.

It was going to be a long night... er, day...

Present: Matt's apartment complex

Vlad, having decided that hopping rooftops would be faster, had leaped from building to building in order to reach the burning apartment complex. The jackal had stopped at the roof directly across from it, his ears catching the sounds of a confrontation and urging him to take cover behind a tired-looking AC unit. One hand gripped a sturdy glock, while the other held onto a sniper scope. Crawling, Vlad maneuvered himself so that he was still hidden but had a good view of the two characters trading words atop the burning complex. He had positioned the scope, using it to zero in on the two, surprised to see the cheetah and fennec officer from before. The jackal had stretched and swiveled his ears in an effort to pick up on their conversation, his interest rising as his paranoia subsided. Perhaps Wiseman wasn't involved in any of this after all. But then:

"I can't afford to be caught now, officer. If he knows I'm still alive... then my family will die. If he hasn't killed them already."

"You don't understand, officer. He see's everything. He hears everything. He's got eyes and ears everywhere, especially in the police. I go with you, then that means I'm already a dead man." 

Him... Vlad paled beneath his fur. The Russian knew that tone... It was the same one Dimitri had used, before-

A shot rang out. The jackal jerked out of his thoughts to see that O'Shea had fired upon the cheetah (Matt?), who appeared hurt but still unwilling to give in. Vlad's ears flattened down against his skull at that; he knew the feeling all too well. This confrontation wasn't going to end well if that annoying officer continued to back Matt into a corner.

And he wasn't disappointed. Called it, Vlad muttered mentally as the cheetah leaped off the building. From his vantage point he could see nothing, but the jackal did hear a dull whump. No sickening crack though. Seeing O'Shea on the move to investigate, Vlad carefully got up from his crouched position and put away his scope, intending to do a little investigation himself. Curse the kid for making him soft, but the jaded canine felt the urge to try and help Matt. At least to get him away from these meddling cops... Vlad kicked open the door into the interior of the building whose roof he was on and started leaping down the flights of stairs, knowing he probably wasn't going to make it to the downed cheetah before O'Shea did. Still...

If he could find an opening that granted him minimal risk, the jackal reasoned to himself, he'd try to help Matt. If not... well, he'd return to Ruby and Sasha. His gut was screaming at him the get the hell outta dodge; Wiseman certainly wouldn't hesitate to kill the kid now if he was willing to blow up entire buildings. 

Arriving at the bottom floor in record time, Vlad crept quietly toward the emergency exit leading into the alley. He began inching the door open carefully, quietly, so as not to gain any unwanted attention. His fingers twitched around the handgun they held as he reminded himself that he had no idea what was on the other side.

Taking shelter in the deep recess of the building's doorway, the Russian peered carefully around the corner and cursed. His one good eye caught sight of the downed cheetah, who appeared unharmed except for the small puddle of blood forming beneath his prone body from the gunshot wound. The fennec officer was kneeling over Matt, talking into a cell phone and calling for the paramedics. Vlad's eyes narrowed. That would give him a limited time-frame to nab Matt, which would be hard enough given the fact that the feline was unconscious. Not to mention that kid from earlier was present, the one that had phoned the police at the bar; he was sitting dazedly off to the side, rubbing his head and looking a little miffed.

Vlad closed his eyes and leaned back into the shadows of the doorway. What was he thinking...?

Future

Almost as soon as the words "time machine" were uttered, Sasha had been off in la-la land. A chance to be able to go back ten years, to try and change the past and avoid this horrible future? It sounded too good to be true. Yet, as the jackal/husky mix listened half-heartedly to the conversations going on around him, he began to believe it was indeed possible. But oh, how many different avenues this opened up for them! The young canine began to grin excitedly, shifting a little on his feet. Then he froze.

This would give him a chance to go back in time. Ten years ago, to be exact. About the time when Vlad...

Sasha touched a shaking hand to his temple. Ten years ago... That was about the time when Vlad had disappeared from his life. One minute the older canine was there, and the next Sasha remembers waking up in the detention center he'd just been rescued from.

A chance to go back in time... A chance to find out what had happened to Vlad. Maybe even to stop it.

Without thinking, Sasha stepped forward, his ever-present grin replaced by a grim frown of determination. Suddenly he looked much older than his nineteen years when he said, "I am villing to go. I may have been young, but trust me when I say I was not helpless."

OOC: Sorry for my long absence guys! It's just been one thing after another, and there's still more to come! @o@ I won't be able to relax until next Thursday, but I thought I'd try to get this pose in before then so you all wouldn't think I was dead. Btw, Ash, I thank you for that compliment from earlier. I have this bizarre fascination with Russians, so it's awesome to think I wrote that scene so well that it actually seemed like I was apart of some Russian mob, lol. Vlad would be proud. :3

(OOC:  I just had a brainstorm.  Was trying to come up with how
present!Liayra supports herself for a while now (what with living alone at
the age of 14 and all...), and...well...this is a little far-fetched
but...)

IC:

Present:Liayra glanced at her watch with a start.  1:30 AM.  She'd completely forgotten!  Well...there was still about half an hour.  She began preparing herself.  Moving from the orange-lit scene visible from the window, she made her way into her bathroom.  The toilet ran, there were stains on the walls, and the pipes and fixtures were rusty, but...it was all she could afford.  She looked at herself in a mirror that was cracked, with a reflective surface that was starting to warp from behind the glass, scrutinizing her hair.  It was finally long enough.  Taking up the nearby pair of scisors, she did her best to cut it off cleanly, taking great care to not tangle the precious strands, which she looped once and then tied togeather with a ribbon, finally placing it within a nearby bag, which she brought with her back to her room.The silver-furred wolf then donned a long, brown, hooded cloak that reached to her sandaled feet and a pair of gloves that went up her arms far enough that the ends were lost in the sleeves of the cloak.  Grabbing her keys, she moved to the doorway, clutching the bag to her protectively.  Just before she left, she pulled up the hood, making sure it was in place and wouldn't fall down.  She couldn't afford to let her contact know where she was getting her silver strands...or her life might be in danger.  People were often greedy...especially in this part of town.  And this type of transaction...she wasn't sure it was exactly legal.  It wasn't illeagal either, but...she doubted any legitimate merchant would buy such mysteriously-obtained silver from a girl of fourteen.   She hated selling her hair like this, but...well...fortune-telling only went so far in paying the bills.  And it was FAR better than what some other girls had to do...Slipping out of the building, she made sure it was locked -- like that mattered when the lock was old and almost broken...yet another thing that her landlord hadn't bothered to get fixed -- and darted from shadow to shadow until she found a familiar-looking pawn shop, that, surprisingly, was still open at this hour.  Glancing around, she slipped inside...Future:A...Time machine?  The silver wolffess quirked an eyebrow at this.  Despite her incredulity, however, the inventor -- not to mention the eerily familiar cheetah -- seemed perfectly serious about this.  However...There was something unsettling about all of this.  Sure, the Ballance was fighting a loosing battle to restore itself, but...A time machine was a bad idea...a VERY bad idea.  Didn't they realize what could happen?!  Messing with the timestream was almost WORSE for the welfare of the Ballance than the Broadcast had been!  Giving a hushed, horrified gasp, Liayra turned on her heel and fled the room.TBC

OOC: okay I shall cater for the tidy up at that building place. Unless someone else has started it cos I ain't but I will write it so nabbing the spot now unless otherwise to be told 😉 That made SO much sense. But it's 4:30AM. *dies of fatigue*

Present

Athena gave one last peak to the surrounding fires that were manifesting rapidly throughout the vicinity in which she was standing in. With Volte, and an unconscious Buddy and Glace. She coughed violently on inhalation of the surrounding fumes, before burying herself beneath the blanket.

“You ready, slobber chops?!” Athena demanded as she cleared her throat “it’s not gonna get much worse than this whilst we’re still standing anyway. It’s do or die right now buddy.”

“I…” Volte hesitated, his strength waning as he barely managed to keep himself conscious. Let alone carry Glace and Buddy with him. This was all too intense for a novice criminal intent individual to handle.

“God, shut up! I shouldn’t have asked! You’re just a waste of time and breathe!!!” Athena shrilled, steadying her feet in preparation to sprint. There really wasn’t much more time in their hands before they’d either pass out from the intense fires, or have the building collapse on top of them. Burying them alive.

“On my count… 1… 2… threeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….”

With that, the whole group took off blindly. Fire blanket unveiled which flew disguarded and abandoned into the air.

The gloves were off. A battle against the doom trying to take them down was what they were racing with.

Their eclectic, cycling legs fought against the wavering fires, dizzy-spellbinding heat and showering shards of burning wood and embers that continued to crash down from the ceiling to the ground all around them.

A hell hailstorm.

Athena kept an angry, determined and focused expression, her right hand outstretched to guide her way and to fight anything or anyone opposing them. Her left arm behind Volte’s back. Forcing the cowardly fool to advance through the fires that could easily kill them on any chance of hesitation.

The ensemble darted diagonally and hurdled across burning woods, blazing furniture and dodged rubble that would fire from the collapsing walls.

Through the long, blazing inferno infested abyss hallways, towards the bedroom with the window, the trio had finally arrived. The window ahead of them their only escape route.

As if the scene had been retarded to intense slow motion, a jaw-dropping and eye-widened Volte gasped- with a closed eyed Glace in his arms- as he watched a heavy beam of wood begin to fall just in front of the window in which they group were supposed to jump through.

Athena turned to look at him. Her infuriated face filtered in red light given off by the surrounding fires.

The scene suddenly fast forward as she was to speak her words…

“Jump NOOOOOOOW!”

At that instant, the group sprinted forwards once again- the scene slowing down as the valley of death circled them tauntingly. Surrounding fires with jagged faces almost grinning at them and threatening to claim their lives should they falter.

Bending on their knees altogether and propelling themselves forwards, the group gritted their teeth and let out one last determined gasp of breath as they hurdled towards the window at an accelerating rate. The falling beam merely inches before their heads.

CRASH!

The beam collided and splintered as it collapsed upon the floor. Sending flares and burning flint in the wake of its demise which trailed shortly after the falling escapees who had only just managed to scrap themselves out of the window.

And now they found themselves falling.

Freefalling to the ground below.

The vertical air current flowed rapidly against the falling Athena and Volte, who tried to steady their legs against as they prepared to land upon the roof of the police car below. Their only hope to break their fall.

“Oh jesus!!!! We’re gonnaaaa dieeeeeeeeeeeeee!!” Volte winced as the wind shrieked passed him and blew his fur all directions. He thrashed his flailing head as if it was being smacked by invisible forces.

“Gaaaahd! You’re so stupid… Stupid!!!” she ranted in spite of their sinking predicament, her long hair blowing with the air current “just do what I say and you won’t die!! Steady your feet…”

__________________

O’shea continued to look on. Worry overwhelming his furred face.

By now the paramedics had arrived. Sirens resounded as 6 A&E accompanying vehicles had screeched their way onto the complex scene and parked in a cluster. As near to the fallen victims as possible. Including Matt the Cheetah and a few other semi-conscious and injured residents.

The vehicles’ blue lights flickered and fired eclectically which reflected off the surrounding urban settings and particularly off the skyscraper window panes.

Other arriving police officers had red-tapped the scene. Prohibiting gathering witnesses from crossing the line due to health and safety reasons.

Matt, by now had been gingerly lifted onto a mobile bed, an Oxygen mask instantly strapped across his face whilst other paramedics gathered to assess his vital signs. All whilst he was instantly being carted into the paramedic vehicle.

Luis in the meantime, was being interrogated by one of the other police officers who had recognised him from either, given his anti-social and erratic behaviour which even involved him stealing a police motorcycle.

O’shea had been briefed about Matt’s injuries so that the medics could ensure careful and optimum handling. Of which O’shea reported GSW (‘Gun shot wound’) to the left scapular blade (shoulder), and a 20 feet fall to which O’shea said he suspected at the very least several broken ribs. These were major injuries. Minor injuries O’shea reported to be scars on Matt’s hands and face. O’shea had no idea how he had acquired them and he would’ve asked but given the circumstances, naturally it was impossible.
Luckily for O’shea he had not been asked about from whom Matt had acquired the gunshot wound. Not that the Officer would’ve lied, but it would save a lot of paperwork and litigation time if the culprit was identified and taken to court. O’shea had his reasons, but given how revelations transpired- the case may have worked in Matt’s favour and O’shea probably would’ve lost his job. Not that it’d matter in less than two weeks time.

“Anything else you have to report… Officer…?” the head Paramedic by the name of Dale enquired. He was a lanky bobcat dressed in oversized scrubs.

“Er… what…?” O’shea asked, his eyes glazed as he turned his view from the building towards the paramedic. A bit disorientated given the expression on his face.

“Oh right,” O’shea recollected his thoughts, causing the bobcat to smile somewhat sarcastically of his achievement “yeah I want to follow this case up when he’s made a reasonable medical recovery.” The Officer stated as he straightened up.

“Reasonable?” Dale asked “well, I’m sure you don’t need to be a doctor to know this young man is in critical condition, Officer. We are talking of a ‘life or death’ situation. I can only warrant police access when he has made ‘more’ than a ‘reasonable’ recovery.”

“Hey buddy! This is important!” O’shea found himself argue “this ‘young man’ is a major suspect of a major case that myself and my colleague are trying to solve!”

“Yeah?” Dale scoffed with attitude “pardon me for defying your wishes Officer but by law, duty of care comes first. After all, a dead suspect is not of much use I gather.”

“So when can I expect to be granted a ‘follow-up’ when you have fulfilled your ‘duty of care’?!?” O’shea growled, punctuating the last words with his fingers as he added a thick tone of sarcasm.

“Indefinite Officer. I’m afraid…” Dale said, beginning to turn around with his clipboard-fastened findings clutched against his chest as if to withhold all from O’shea. He began to walk off.

“Sodding Paramedics…” O’shea sneered under his breath as he watched Dale report back to the rest of the paramedic group.

“They think they’re doctors and consultants but they’re just a cheap, triage team…” the Officer blundered off in a foul mood. His face lightly turned as if to assess the A&E arrivals, but then turned to face in front of him, deciding it wasn’t worth a 2nd thought anymore. He’d simply have to follow up the case involving Matt in a day or two. Preferably when that idiot Dale was around.

His face was suddenly overwhelmed with shock. As if he stepped within the Twilight zone.

Free-falling from the sky was a blur of two or three figures…

CRASH!

His car was suddenly dented severely as window panes shattered open with splintering glass shards that fired and scattered around the surrounding pavements. Nearby car alarms resounded and neighbourhood watch dogs began to bark ferociously from the smash-up.

“Oh Jesus!! My car!!” O’shea exclaimed, waving his arms about in an extremely exasperated manner as he stormed over “…just what the devil…?!”

Before he could elaborate, his ears suddenly raised in inquisition as he found a withered being sprawl across the roof. A beige hand dangling off with the roof with crimson that began to stream across her fingers in fine lines…

“Oh my…” O’shea instantly put two and two together and paled beneath his fur “ATHENAAAA!”

The Officer climbed on top of the roof bonnet. His gaze startled at the sight before him.

In front of him were three unconscious beings. 4 if that odd pigeon was included.

He recognised Volte which he was sure he had put away. Glace who he had meant to secure but failed to do so as she escaped. Her fowl pet Buddy. All of them were were smudged with ashen grit and soot.

But more importantly, his work colleague. Athena looked like a lifeless broken doll. Smudged and gritted with ashen grey marks, numerous minor grazes but also appeared to be bleeding from the side of her forehead.

O’shea wolf whistled to the surrounding paramedics, beckoning them to come over.

As a few marched over, O’shea promptly gave his instructions.

“1:45 AM. 4 fallen victims of car serial XLA9-ZZN. Get them into critical care immediately!!!” he commanded anxiously.

The care team needed no second bidding as they relayed the message for 4 medical carrier beds to be taken out so that the victims could be deported to hospital post-haste.

Present: Saturday, 3rd September 2011: 1:48am

Matt's burned apartment crime scene

The local enforcement began slaving away at regaining control at the rapidly deteriorating scene. Firefighting crews swept across the entire area, doing their best to douse the crumbling building of its flames, however the chances of winning the flaming battle seemed miniscule. The best they could hope for was to prevent any of the surrounding buildings from succumbing to the same fate.

Paramedic crews sweeped across the scene, doing their best to treat civilians with minor injuries and transporting those with more severe wounds to the nearest hospital; New York's Downtown Hospital.

With all due care and consideration, the paramedics lifted the trampled and unconscious forms of Matt, Athena, Volte, Glace, and the little Buddy onto a number of stretchers and into waiting ambulances, leading them to their destination and the medical care awaiting them. O'Shea was busily trying to get approval from police headquarters to leave the scene to other officers so he could go with Athena, to make sure she was alright... to a not so successful response. The surging crimewave was affecting all areas of the city, and the police were hard struggled to respond to everywhere. Whether or not that would prevent O'Shea, however, was another matter altogether.

Vlad watched the unfolding events from within the doorway of the burning building's adjacent building, keeping himself unseen as best as he could. As the speeding ambulances departed, he cursed his inability to make a move in recovering Matt. However, he was fortunate enough to know where the cheetah was being taken; which hospital. Considering the severity of the scene right now, it was probably for the better that he didn't try to intervene here. The hospital was probably a sounder course of action.

But Vlad wasn't the only one watching the developing scenes.

Within a parked, black car across the street, two of its passengers within watched as the flames danced across their windshield, listening to the nearby sirens, the rushing stream of fire engine water and the sounds and cries of the working men attending the blaze. They had been sitting their for a long time. Just watching. And waiting. And being incredibly surprised to see a falling cheetah who resembled their target drop from the rooftop to the ground below.

"Nah... that couldn't be him. Could it?" asked one of the rough looking, hoodie wearing gentlemen inside the vehicle, on the passenger side of the car. The gerbil squinted his eyes, watching as the paramedics lifted the cheetah away, nearby to the gentleman rubbing his head from where a rather large cat had landed on it.

"That's 'im, alright. Damn, 'e actually managed to get outta the room. Boss ain't gonna be too pleased about 'dat." Replied the other gentleman, sitting on driver's seat of the car. He was busily eating a chinese takeaway of noodles, and he didn't seem to look nearly as interested in the events around them as his companion. From his cool and calm collected appearance, it was obvious that the bulldog had been used to his job for a long time.

"But... there's no way he could have survived a fall like that, either? I mean, seriously?" The gerbil asked, his voice filled with incredulousity and a growing sense of fear.

"P'haps he did, p'haps he didn't. 'E managed ta survive bein' blown up, whose to say 'e couldn't survive a fall like dat? Cats landing on 'dere feet. Cats with nine lives. All that superstituous mumbo jumbo." The bulldog shrugged. "Just call it in 'ta our boys at 'da 'ospital, let 'em handle da rest of it. Make sure 'dat kitty don' go wakin' up anytime soon or nothin'."

"Right, right... should I phone the boss too?" The gerbil asked.

"Son, there ain't no way in 'ell ya be talkin' to da boss. He ain't dealin' with small time punks like us. We just do as we're told and git da job done. Boss Tyrol don' wanna speak to no foo' like you 'nyway." The bulldog carried on eating his dinner.

"Just make da call and relax a while. We 'don our job. Just eat yer takeaway or I'ma gonna eat it for ya." The bulldog ordered. He slowly reclined in his driver seat, as he continued to enjoy his meal to the scene of burning flames and chaos before him, as his more worrisome partner phoned in a certain call to 'the boys' at the hospital.

The Future: Friday, 3rd September 2012: 10:35am

Not many seemed to see Liayra's horrified expression as she quietly gasped and fled out of the room, but Matthew saw, as did Maria. Both of them looked at each other, not saying a word to one another. Matthew's approving nod was all Maria needed for her to leave the room as well and chase after the fleeing woman.

Their concern for her was overwhelming. They had to know, to make sure she was alright.

Maria darted out of the 'Timedive' room, and looked all around each corridor, searching for where Liayra might have went. The sobbing tearful sound she could hear led the mouse to the barracks room, where Liayra was hunched over one such bed. Maria slowly walked up behind Liayra, and comfortingly placed a palm over her shoulder.

"Liayra... honey... what's wrong?" Maria asked. It felt like such a stupid question. What was there that wasn't wrong in this world? So many things had gone bad, so many things could yet still go bad... yet Maria had to find out what, here and now, was the weeping girl's problem. They couldn't afford for there to be uneasy friction within the ranks of the resistance, not when each of them depended on the others as much as they had to.

Present 5.03AM
A weary and run down bus steamed to a halt upon the curb outside New York City hospital. Its exhaust fumes debriding the air with soot and black smog.

A colossal of mundane passengers stepped off. Most dressed in ragged, tramp like clothes, chewing gum and listening to iPods and Discmans as they stormed off on their own grim venture.

The last passenger was a hoodie donning tall fox, taking each step with a clang as he descended the bus steps.

“Hey buddy!” a hand fell on his shoulder firmly. The figure turned around to face an angry, obese hammer-head shark bus driver.

“Cant hitch no ride fur nuthin’!” he sneered, his grip tightening on the hooded individual’s shoulder.

The figure lifted back his hood, and stared at him with fierce grey eyes. Almost a drug-induced look despite his perfect coherency and orientation on the surroundings.

He thrust his police badge in the driver’s face.

“The only person who has a right to arm is the police, who have a right to assault. Otherwise assault is illegal and you’ve just overstepped your line…” O’shea frowned gripping the hammer-head’s fist and thrashing it off his shoulder.

“You and I can either play dead and pretend this never happened… or I can ensure you play dead… permanently!”
The hammerhead shark nodded reluctantly, with O’shea slamming a five dollar Bill across the counter.

“Have a nice day,” he said looking over his shoulder, before jumping off the bus. Casting his hood up to shadow his face, O’shea began to jog into the hospital entrances.

As he made his way across bustling hallways, passing several rooms, phone booths, chairs with sullen looking patients, family members and carers and vending machines- O’shea momentarily drifted his thoughts. Reflecting on what happened shortly after the paramedics had cleaned up the crime scene.

_____

“Report back to the Police station O’shea. We want a full account of the incident,” Chief Le-Ryan, a Griffin Officer had ordered the blue fox hybrid to do.

“Now go home, get some rest… and report back by 8AM sharp. We have a new case we want to investigate…” the Griffin said, raising an index finger as he resumed a calmer and assertive manner.

____________

“Ridiculous… they don’t care… they just don’t care…” O’shea spat under his breath with each frustrated footstep. The scene whizzed passed in eclectic motion as he walked further and further down the corridors. His hood creating tunnel vision.

He suddenly stopped, turning to a cart on his left hand side. He peered down and noticed a pile of scrubs. Presumably for all doctors, surgeons, nurses, general anaesthesia theatre manager and all other support staff. Peering from side to side first, O’shea reached in and grabbed one of the identical uniforms.

Having got dressed in one of the locker rooms, he suddenly came out again. Dressed in the blue scrubs as he casually made his way down the corridor. As other doctors and surgeons passed him, he gave them a simple nod- as opposed to looking away shy and coy. He didn’t want to give away his game after all. Confidence was the key. Even if you had to pretend to be something you knew nothing about.

What O’shea didn’t realise was that the uniform still had a badge pinned at the front.

An Echidna-bat was seen coming down the corridor. Dressed in blue scrubs. Upon seeing O’shea, she suddenly smiled and ran right up to him, causing O’shea to peer over his shoulder in case he had been mistaken for someone else.

No one behind him.

“Like… OH MY GOD!!! Dr. Martinez!!! I am SOOO glad to finally meet you!!!” she grabbed his hand and shook it frantically, causing O’shea to flail his other arm in attempt to steady his balance.

“Er… yeah… nice to meet you too…” O’shea said, peering at his own badge which caused him to tut in annoyance “hey I didn’t get your name… you are…?” he said scrutinizing the smiling, bubbly girl’s face. He then attempted to smile, which came out sheepish in attempt to disguise his flustered situation.

“Oh! It’s Fly!!! They all call me Fly. Real bizarre!!! But that’s what we ALL are here… huh? BIZARRE!” she exclaimed, exaggerating her hand motions as she spoke at a high, animated pace.

“Heh, yeah, real bizarre…” O’shea fake-smiled with hesitation, looking passed Fly in all directions as if eager to escape.

“Hey!” she exclaimed again, prodding him on the shoulder “maybe when you get a chance… you can teach me all you’ve learnt in med school. Like… your diagnostic skills… on that cheetah with the injured eye…”

“Cheetah with the injured eye?!?” O’shea’s ears perked up. However, he was keener to know where Athena was in spite of this revelation. If it was Matt. Even so, there was a potential that knowing where Matt was might give him a lead to Athena’s ward.

“Yeah… fractured Zygomatic arch. On the skull…” she articulated pressing her finger against the lower orbit of her eyelid “you called it an ‘Orbital blowout fracture’. Where Signs and symptoms can be quite varied, ranging from asymptomatic with minimal bruising and swelling to diplopia, enophthalmos, hypo-ophthalmia (ie, hypoglobus), and hypoesthesia of the cheek and upper gingivae on the affected side.” She spoke at a rapid pace, which completely lost O’shea, causing him to scratch his head.

“Oh… hey…” her she checked her mobile as she noticed it beep “oh my god… we’re in surgery… come on!!! Our team of surgeons are waiting…”

“… but I…”

Before O’shea could wriggled out of this confused predicament, he suddenly found his arm dragged through a set of twin doors, a team of surgeons sitting at the bed as they were about to operate on Matt’s eye.

“Orbital blow out fracture, Dr. Martinez,” the anaesthetist said “what took you so long? We gotta rehabilitate the floor of the maxilla, zygomatic arch and relieve the eye socket of any trapped nerves…”

“OR else what…?” O’shea asked, his voice somewhat faint as his legs trembled somewhat. The scene going too fast for him to muster.

The team of surgeons exchanged inquisitive looks with one another, before unifying a contorted gaze upon O’shea.

“Or else he could go blind, doctor?!” the anaesthetist offered sarcastically.

(OOC: XDXD Ohhh man...O'shea's in over his head here, isn't he? Made me giggle. Classic action-comedy here.

No post from me yet, I have to think what to do next...)

(OOC: Kinda waiting on Vi to update Cody before I can continue in the present timeline, but here's a future post in the meantime.)

FUTURE
Friday 3rd September 2021, 1:25am
Dockyards.

There was no way in. She had circled the old warehouse twice, flitting from shadow to deep shadow as she surveyed the broken down building for any sign of an entrance or viewing port, but everything was either blocked off with debris or too dilapidated to be safe. Aside from the entrance the mysterious travellers had used, which was guarded, there was no way for her to gain entry.

Now, she was retreating for a time. Again her mind was whispering to her somewhere deep within the depths of her thoughts that this risk, this danger wasn't worth it. She could not afford to get caught, not again...she should simply return to her hideaway and forget the whole affair. But she couldn't. She could not let this matter rest. Just who were this strange band of rennegades, and how were they immune to the Broadcast system? What was the significance of their appearance in the sewers, and their strange, secretive hideaway here on the waterfront? She could not let it pass, she needed to know. And so she was pulling back, sequestering herself into the rest of the derelict dockyards scenery and looking for a place of her own to hide where she could spy on the entrance to the group's hideout. When they came back out again, maybe she could get a few more answers then.

Her mind was so busy processing and musing on all these strange occurances that for some time she did not actually realise where she was. Pulling an old and rusted door open on a second warehouse on the opposite quay to the one she was observing, she carefully padded inside, eyes alert and darting about in all directions for any hint of danger contained within. The darkness that still enshrouded her form in an inpenetrable black veil also permiated every nook and cranny of the deserted, empty building, but darkness was now her friend, and she quickly ascertained there was nothing to be wary of within these silent, crumbling walls. In fact, the shadow seemed somehow friendly and familliar to her, like the reassuring hand of an old friend on her shoulder, and as she climbed the broken stairs up to the small enclosed shipping office at the far end of the room, she felt as if she had made the journey a thousand times before.

Perhaps because she had...

The realisation only dawned on her as she stepped into the tiny room, impacting on her like a tsunami and stopping her in her tracks with shock. Yes...yes, she recognised this place all too well - the old, heavy wooden crate sat behind the door, which could be jammed up against it to prevent it from openeing in lew of a lock, the loop of thick rope hanging from the rafters of the celing to which a lamp could be attached, the rough and ragged blankets rolled up in the corner, blackened with dirt and grime. Perhaps it was her innate familliarity with these surroundings that had led her on the path to this room in the first place, while her mind had been so busy with other things.

She almost turned to run. Panic gripped her heart like a freezing iron gauntlet, catching her breath and making her hands shake (and somewhere deep down at the back of her mind, she felt her control beginning to slip). She had checked the area for danger before making her entry, but she had not thought to check in advance for any sign of occupancy. What if he was still here? What if he had seen her, what if they were to meet again? But with great effort she grabbed hold of her bucking, raging thoughts and forceably brought them back to heel, beating her terror down until it submitted to her will and she was in total control once more. No, no he was not here, of this she was sure. The lamp which used to adorn the end of the rope was gone, it's hanging implement looking rather folorn and bare without it's decorative masthead at it's tip. The sheets in the corner were covered in cobwebs and a thick layer of dust which would have taken well over a year to accumulate. And most importantly of all, the other corner - the one directly opposite the doorway in which she stood, just to the left of the window - was completely bare too. Gone were the piles, the veritable mountain of books that had been a permanent fixture of the room all those years ago. He would not have gotten rid of those books...if they were gone, then so was he.

'Gone where?' Her mind asked the question before she could prevent it, and instantly her emotions began to stir and rise once again. No longer the abject terror and fear of a few moments ago, but a desperate, searing, unbearable sadness and loneliness which she had not felt for such an incredibly long time. Plaintive, bitter tears began to well in her eyes as memories began to flow through her head, the dark, dusty walls whispering ancient stories to her of events long past and experiences many years distant. She took a long, hoarse, ragged breath and swallowed hard, trying to fight back the aching throb of her heart as she murmured a silent prayer into the midnight sky - 'Wherever you are, dear angel, I hope you are well'.

She did not want to stay here. The small confines of the room brought back too many memories, both wonderful and agonising. And yet, as she softly paced over to the window and peered through it's broken pane, she descovered what she had first suspected as she had entered this old warehouse - it had an absolutely perfect view across the dock to the front of the rennegade's hideaway nearby. If she was indeed going to stay and watch for them, this would be the perfect...perhaps the only...place to do it.

A moment's consideration, then she turned and took hold of the heavy crate over by the door, pulling it across the room to sit just below the window. Then she sat down on it's upper surface, intense, pointed gaze staring out the window at her target. Yes, she would stay here, but she would have to work hard to keep her mind away from her memories and visions of the past. Perhaps keeping on the watch would also serve to keep her occupied and distracted. She was used to operating on little sleep, and had taken some rest earlier that evening before the rogue band had disturbed her, so she was in no danger of dropping off before they emerged...

Future, 3/9/2012, 10:47 am

"Where the hell have you been?" grumbled Joe, eying the figure tottering toward him.

"Where's Maria?" Luis asked with unusual urgency. "I need to talk to her right now."

Joe was about to say something, but Luis brushed past the mech in haste. Joe was left to puzzle over Luis's unusual antics.

Luis moved with a purpose, but that purpose suddenly took a backseat when it occurred to him that he was, in fact, famished. Halfway down a corridor, he stopped, exhaled loudly, and glanced over at the mess hall. He scratched his head and conceded that he could probably be of little use if he were about to fall over at any second. Trudging into the mess hall, Luis looked around, finding most people had already left. Behind the counter, Al was whistling, or approximating whistling insofar as an octopus could, and Maria was talking to him.

"You think them kids'll even be able to wrap their heads around what Matt is telling them?" Al asked, scrubbing several pots at once while also frying something on the back burner behind him. Maria had her fingers interlaced and she gave a less-than-hopeful shrug.

"I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing made them very confused. I still don't entirely understand how it works myself, but if it works, it's one of our best bets at making things right."

Al did something comparable to rubbing his chin. "I didn't use t' place a lot of faith in technology, but The Broadcast has made me think twice about what science can do. If this--well, look what the cat dragged in!"

The octopus had caught sight of Luis. With a remarkable agility, Al switched what he was cooking over to something he knew Luis preferred. Maria turned, looked at Luis's dirty clothes, and gave him a maternal frown.

"Where have you been? You've had people here worried about you!"

"Ugh. Yes, Mom," Luis muttered. "Listen, I haven't been gone because I was joyriding. I had an unpleasant encounter on my way back, and I think you'll want to hear about it..."
***
7 minutes later

Without fanfare or announcement, Luis entered Doctor Hoffman's laboratory at a full trot. The others turned when they heard him approach. Matt felt a wave of relief wash over him at seeing Luis, but his friend's expression indicated that he could not feel too relieved.

"Doctor, what exactly are these?" Luis asked. He held up a thin device, shaped like an electric torch, that had two miniscule jet nozzles on the sides. On one end of the device was a bit of broken glass. The owl looked at the object in curiosity and beckoned Luis to bring it to him. As he approached, Luis tipped the device so that the broken end pointed to the floor. Sand poured out of it in great volumes, seemingly much more than should reasonably have been inside the slender item. The owl took it and scrutinised it meticulously.

"On my way back, a whole swarm of these things appeared. I don't know where they came from, but they were like a bunch of hornets or something, buzzing around in the air. And where the glass is, they glowed red," Luis said.

"How'd you get away?" Matt inquired.

"Decided to take a tumble down a cliff face and into the river. One of the more adventurous ones here followed me, so I put out its lights, so to speak. After that, I washed up way out in the middle of nowhere and had to hike back here."

"A new type of security drone?" suggested someone in the group. Luis turned around, evidently noticing the group for the first time.

"I can't be certain of anything yet," Doctor Hoffman replied, "but it is something to be on the lookout for."

"These the people we sprang last night?" Luis asked. Matt nodded.

"I was just telling them about the time machine."

"Oh, great. So, who's going with me back to the past?" said Luis, hands akimbo and surveying the group. Silence reigned as the individual members began making their personal decisions.

The Future: Friday, 3rd September 2012: 11:00am

"Oh, great. So, who's going with me back to the past?" said Luis, hands akimbo and surveying the group. Silence reigned as the individual members began making their personal decisions.

Matthew smiled. "Well, we've already got a volunteer, actually. I wasn't sure whether or not you'd actually be going... took you a while to return, but I'm glad. We need someone with experience of the situation here to know what to do right back then."

"Hey, what can I say? I'm just that dependable." Luis laughed.

"Dependable. Right." Matthew joking replied.

"So who's the lucky partner?" Luis asked.

"I am, if vat is still acceptable for you?" Came a voice from behind the seasoned and experienced resistance fighter, attracting Luis' attention behind him to the nineteen year old husky/jackal mix. Needless to say, Luis' expression was of incredulous disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Luis asked, looking towards Matthew. "He's a kid, Matt."

"Sasha here's already proven himself to be more than capable of looking after himself, trust me." Matthew answered. "And I'm certain he'll lend a... certain strategic element towards the mission."

"I'm still not sure..." Luis scratched his chin.

"You remember Vlad, of course?" Matthew asked. Luis' eyes lit up with all of his memories of the russian from ten years ago.

"Oh... oh...! You're not telling me this kid is...?" Luis began to ramble to himself, before nodding in agreement. "Okay, the kid it is! To be honest I'm not sure there'd be a better partner for me!" Luis walked up towards Sasha, and outstretched a fist towards the youngster, to which Sasha, almost embarassingly at the notion of it, struck his fist out in response, both striking the others.

"Okay, so! What's the plan, Matt?" Luis asked, wanting one more brief rundown on the assignment.

"You two will be sent exactly ten years into the past, arriving at Saturday, 3rd September 2011... at about roughly 11:20am or so, give or take a couple of hours leeway." Matthew described. "You two should know the general drill, try and do whatever you can to prevent the upcoming Broadcast. By my reckoning, there should be around roughly 13 days or so before the Broadcast is activated."

"Friday, 16th September 2011 at precisely 12:00pm noon is when the Broadcast was activated." Dr. Hoffman interjected, straightening his glasses.

"Right," Matt nodded, as he pointed to the scientist who was continuing to adjust the controls for the Timedive device. "You guys will be in there for a max of 24 hours at a time. Any more than that, and your body, and the machine too, won't be able to handle things."

"Any idea what might happen if we extend past that time?" Luis asked.

"Well, it's possible your conscious here might be permanently transferred to that of your past self, and your body here would become comatose. At least, that's the hopeful outcome... more realistic is that both of your selfs will die. Time is not a trifle thing to mess with, we need to be careful here." Dr. Hoffman explained.

"Say ve guy who vants us to change the past, eh?" Sasha smiled.

"24 hours means you guys don't have a lot of time to do much in the way of derailing the Broadcast in a single day. I'd suggest recruiting allies back in that time period to help you guys out. Recruiting myself, is one thing." Matthew explained.

"I think I know you well enough by now Matt." Luis nodded to himself. "But anything in mind for what I could say that your past self could trust, and believe me? If memory serves me, we weren't exactly... the best of acquaintances then."

"A password. Tell me 13-9-2010. I'll trust you." Matthew explained to both Luis and Sasha. Sasha repeated the numbers under his breath, mentally trying to catalogue it. He didn't know what it'd mean, but it sounded like a date. Luis nodded.

"Our consciousness is going to be transported to our bodies ten years in the past, so... we should appear where we were back then?" Luis was clarifying. "Where should we meet? Where would you be?"

"New York's downtown hospital. Situation there at that moment is... well... I have faith in you guys to be able to help me out there." Matthew instructed.

"Anything else?" Sasha asked.

"Do what you can to help these other people, as well. They'll all be in the same hospital at that time. Do what you can to get them out and save their lives." Matthew instructed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a sheet of paper, handing it to both Luis and Sasha to read over. It was a list of names. Names of people, that Matt could trust to help them.

"Oh hey, look... it's my good old friend, the cop, O'Shea. Man, I loved that guy!" Luis laughed. "And his partner, O'Quinn. Ooh, and hey there, look at that. Our good friends Glace and Volte and their little pet. We really need to rescue the pet, too?" Luis looked up with a raised eyebrow towards Matthew. Matthew's expression in return said it all, primarily about how it was a stupid question. Luis rolled his eyes.

Sasha's face turned a grim shade as he looked over one of the other particular names on the sheet of paper.

"Oh hey, actually, I remember this whole situation..." Luis thought to himself. "Things didn't go particularly well, did they? Wiseman's thugs..."

"Yeah." Matthew nodded. "I'd hate to get you guys to having to clean up my mess, but..."

"Nah, this we've gotta do, right?" Luis nodded to himself. "We need to save you guys' lives or otherwise everything goes to hell. That was not a pretty event... hard to imagine that the first thing we're doing by going back in time is to make sure that things go the way they're supposed to go without being changed... without you dying."

Matthew looked grim, his eyes looking solemnly towards the floor. "Well... with minor differences of course."

"Right, right... building things up so we can prevent the Broadcast and change the whole future as a result. Right, okay then..." Luis folded his arms, and then began walking towards the Timedive device. "Well, I'm ready when you guys are. What time was it that things started to go to hell at the hospital?"

"12 o'clock." Matthew replied.

"Then, c'mon, Sasha, we haven't got a lot of time to waste around." Luis instructed the young man, who's attention snapped back to reality and who followed Luis towards the machine. "I'm counting on you, kid. Well, heck our friend here, and our friends back then are all counting on us. Big damn heroes is what we are."

Luis and Sasha both reached the machine, and with a button press from the main command console from Dr.Hoffman, the glass canopy above the bedding opened up with a vaccuum sound, rising up with a whirr. Luis jumped on the bed, and limbered himself up, making himself comfortable, whilst Sasha did the same in lying on his own bed, trying to relax as best as he could, but still not being able to keep his mind off what was expected of him, of what was going to happen. Or rather, what had already happened, ten years in the past. Once both of the time travelling volunteers had seated, the glass canopy lowered once more, securing itself with a solid lock on the rest of the machinery. Two wires opened up from the machine, and with a small pin prick jab, embedded themselves into the neck of both volunteers, the machine's system joining with the pair's central nervous system. To the scientist's credit, it didn't hurt.

"I'm going to have to ask everyone else here to please leave the room now," Dr. Hoffman instructed. Matthew nodded towards the group, reaffirming the scientist's commands.

"What are the rest of us supposed to do?" Amber asked, still intriqued by the plan but sceptical about it possibly working at all.

"Wait in the messhall. Soon, we're going to launch our own mission here in trying to destroy those towers." Matthew explained.

"Excellent! Great Olaf looks forward to the smashing!" Olaf punched his fists together, as the assembled group of resistance fighters filed out of the room. Once all but Matthew, Dr.Hoffman, Luis and Sasha had left, Dr.Hoffman activated the machine with a simple flick of a switch.

A long humming sound began to emanate from the machine, building in volume and intensity. The machines themselves began to glow a bright cascophany of blues and green, with sparks dancing across the Timedive device. Everything began to reach a fever pitch. The moment was just before them, the tension and atmosphere could be cut with a knife.

And then suddenly, it all died down. The bright glow settled down to a more manageable level, the sparks subsided completely and the loud whirring noise settled down to a comfortable hum.

"Did it work?" Matthew asked the scientist.

Dr.Hoffman nodded to himself, stroking his chin. "Yes! ...yes! Readings are nominal! All systems are working at peak performance! By jove, we did it!"

Matthew walked over towards the timedive machine, and leaned over, peering at his friends through the glass. Their bodies looked serene and calm, trapped in a deep sleep.

"Their minds are being sent straight back into the past! Lifesigns look perfect and... well, hey. That's unusual..." Dr.Hoffman muttered aloud.

"Unusual?" Matthew quoted, not liking the scientist's tone of voice.

"Nothing much, really, it was quite expected to be possible. And it works with our mission parameters. The pair of them have jumped back a bit further than calculated, by an hour. That should make things a bit easier on them, if they can realise that." Dr. Hoffman explained. "I'd say we're quite fortunate for that, but then I'd wish we didn't have to rely on blind luck for matters such as that. It's not really very befitting for a scientist, you know?"

"Yeah, let's just count our blessings that it didn't go the other way and we'd be too late. But then..." Matthew began musing.

"We already know how events are going to play out, and how Luis and young Sasha will act back then." Dr. Hoffman. "It's already happened, after all."

"I'd wish for them to begin making some headway in preventing the Broadcast, but this right now is our best course of action. And if it wasn't... or if they somehow fail then..." Matthew looked solemnly, clutching his right arm and feeling the cold metal scream through his nerves. "...then I die."

Present: Saturday, 3rd September 2011: 10:45am

Across the city, two individuals screamed. They would both collapse to their knees, clutching their heads in undue agony, but the pain would be brief and end in but a second. A moment later, the consciousness and individuality of both Luis and Sasha would be replaced with an older, more mature personality of themselves, ten years in the future.

Both of them having the memories of a world gone mad. Both of them with a mission to change the course of this Present and prevent the terrifying Future that awaited them.

A mission that began with saving the lives of everyone who would become embroiled in the chaos of New York's Downtown Hospital, a chaos that would begin at 12:00pm...

Noon.

OOC:
Well well, chums, took me a while but here we go, finally getting to the thick of things. Hopefully that wasn't too confusing but who knows when it comes down to that delightful timey wimey stuff. Any confusion, just ask, and I'll try to set things right... somehow... by travelling to the post with a delightful edit or something XD

Speaking of the past, forgive me for not answering your earlier OOC, Wraith. >> Yeah, the New York in this rp is not meant to be based 100% exactly on the real New York, I myself have no idea on what the actual city and its infrastructure is like. It's basically just a general setting that I'm sure everyone is familiar with when it comes to settings, building description etc etc and some key landmarks that may or may not play a role in things to come, so try not to let anything regarding settings to be imposing to write for.

Also wow @ Kate, I love what you did for O'Shea there. Lmao, who'd have guessed Matt would ever find himself in the hands of O'Shea as his merciful angel. XD Awesome, whilst I'm 100% sure they are because I know how amazing you are when it comes to that type of stuff, but is all the medical jargon you had Fly use accurate? God I'm so impressed. 😯

Timescale should be pretty much matched between the timelines now... sorta, ish. About 11:45am ish for the Future, 10:45am for Luis' and Sasha's arrival in the past, but of course feel free to use any time span you want really, if you want to fill in the gap between 5:00am in your post Kate to Luis' and Sasha's arrival. I'd be interested in seeing O'Shea medical hijinks but if anyone wants to skip ahead, feel free to.

Things are going to come to a head at 12:00pm for the Present Timeline... and the Future Timeline's about to head out on its first mission. Things are going to get fast paced, very hectic, and very, very awesome.

Prepare yourselves!

OOC: Whoo, sorry I've been a bit dead on this RP lately. x__x; Especially because the forum stopped sending me e-mail updates... ergh. But I am caught up. However I'm braindead for this one as of right now... though... I guess it's aight, seeing as how all of my characters are passed out in the present anyway LOL.
Keep up the amazing work, everyone. <3 Will try to stay caught up from now on.

(OOC: Whooo...boy...time travel is confusing. Ah well. I have a lot to write shortly...as I have to update for both my characters in both timelines...but I'm a little tired right now, and I might not be able to figure out what I'm doing. (This is what happens when I stay up until 4AM and then have to get up at 9 >.> I really need to STOP that. XD; )

(OOC: Okay, I was gonna wait until I'd had the chance to type a full description of Ianthe before I posted these - in other words, when someone finally gets a propper look at her [instead of her being hidden away in the shadows as she has been so far]. Buuuuuut, since that's taking a lot longer than I expected, I guess I'll put them up now.

Yep, that's right, I've been scribbling! Pheer my dodgy proportions, laughably hideous perspective and general all-round scruffy style! So when Ianthe does finally emerge from the darkness and someone gets a clear look at her, this is what she looks like:

Ianthe at 12, in her dress. Note that the dress also has a flowery pattern embroidered onto it in white thread, but I figured if I tried to draw that, with my art skill it'd just make the whole pic muddy and grey, so you'll just have to imagine that detail.

Ianthe at 12, Present timeline. This is what Cody will see if he happens to wake up while his hideaway is being invaded. There is more to this pic than meets the eye - note how some of Ianthe's hair has come loose from her hairband, and the whole body of her hair looks more ragged? Remember that for reference as the RP progresses...

Ianthe Irrin - Future timeline. Ianthe has gone through a bit of a redesign since her appearance in The Rise and Fall, primarily around her cheeks which have gained that unique triple 'up-across-down' whisker arrangement [to diffrenciate her from other fan characters], and her ears which have gained fur tufts akin to real life red squirrels. Her outfit has also changed, but that's just a temporary adjustment to make her fit into this RP better - her Rise and Fall outfit is still her usual attire.

In this outfit she's had to make do with what she can find, so her t-shirt is a few sizes too small for her. She wears black jeans and a belt, but she's cut the legs off at the knee herself for ease of movement. And her boots were referenced from my own walking boots, she needs something sturdy to stand up to street life. I also did a back view of her, but the proportions came out all wrong on this one - the body is way too tall, and the legs too short. Still, at least it gives people a rough idea of her frame, which is supposed to be quite attractivley proportioned.

And finally: Action pose! A couple of times during her time on the streets she has had to defend herself, so she has taken her ballet training and developed it into a form of self defence somewhat akin to capoeira. It's a very graceful, dancing style, that involves lots of blisteringly fast flips, handstands, spins and cartwheels - this pose above is one of her tamer moments!

So, yeah...I can't draw to save my life, but hopefully those pics at least give you all a rough idea of what Ianthe is supposed to look like. Perhaps revisiting them when I finally get to type a full description of her will help too, as I can generally paint pictures far better with words than pencils.)

OOC: I'll update soon, but it's almost 2 in the morning here and I need to head off to bed. Nighty night folks!

(OOC: That actually helps a bit, as I was confused as to whether or not she was a fox or a squirrel. Still not quite up to epic-postage right now (it's kinda late) But I will get to it. Sorry for the delay.)

OOC: Just so nobody gets confused, Sasha DOES remember Vlad and company. I was rereading some of my posts and I have no idea why I wrote that he forgot everything that happened leading up to the Broadcast; he's just forgotten what happened to Vlad. So yeah.
I'll write more soooon. =) Just wanted to make sure this RP wasn't forgotten!
Btw am I correct, Ash, in stating that Sasha and Luis arrive in the present at 10:45 am? Or is it earlier?

IC:

Present
Vlad's Apartment (10:45 am)

There was a brief moment of nothingness once the machine started up, before Sasha suddenly felt his consciousness being forcefully and almost painfully thrust back into reality. Memories of the past ten years jostled around within his brain for a few seconds, then settled. Opening his eyes, the husky mix was immediately met by the worried and scarred face of his old guardian, Vlad. The jackal was kneeling down in front of him with both hands on his shoulders, shaking him gently and speaking urgently.

"Sasha? Are you alright little vone? You screamed - are you in pain?" Vlad asked, noting with relief that the pup's eyes were no longer blank like they had been mere seconds ago.

Sasha, who realized that Dr. Hoffman's time machine must have worked, could only shake his head wordlessly. Seeing his beloved guardian again was affecting him more than he thought it would; the urge to simply launch himself into the older canine's arms was monumental and required a heroic effort on his part to resist. Vlad, seeing his response, sighed in relief, though he checked his charge over anyway.

"Are you sure you are alright, Sasha?" The jackal questioned once his assessment was complete. Sasha nodded, his mind drawing a blank and momentarily forgetting his mission.

"He was probably just trying to get your attention, Vlad," Came a new but also familiar voice. The now-nine-year-old Sasha started and looked up, only to see the exasperated face of a vixen whom he had known well. Ruby had her hands on her hips as she stood near the doorway to the shabby apartment Sasha remembered sharing with Vlad, a hint of affection shining through her expression. "Kid probably just doesn't want you to leave again, Vlad. I mean, you've barely been back a few hours since your last escapade, and now you want to go gallivanting off to the hospital? To do what? Rescue a guy who probably doesn't need, or want, your help?"

Sasha jerked out of his trance at this, ears twitching in curiosity. Was Vlad...?

"I need to go investigate this man, Ruby," His guardian retorted, standing up slowly and turning away toward the fox. Vlad's one hand remained on his shoulder as the jackal added, "You vere not there, Ruby, vhen he jumped. You did not hear him talk. He had the same look in his eyes that Dimitri did when..."

Ruby fidgeted uncertainly at this, suddenly looking very uncomfortable. "Are you absolutely sure that he is involved in all this?"

"A sure as I can be vithout proof."

The vixen sighed, pursing her lips, then said, "Fine. Say your good-byes and go investigate, you stupid fuzzball. I'll watch over the kid until you get back... again."

________________________________

Sasha waited until he was sure his current baby-sitter was dozing off in the other room before quietly slipping out of bed. Almost instinctively he avoided all of the particularly creaky floorboards as he made his way over to his bedroom window, carefully unlatching it and sliding the pane upwards. Once it was open enough, the young husky mix proceeded to wiggle his nine-year-old body through the gap and out onto the fire escape.

As he silently descended the stairs down onto the lower platform, Sasha wondered at his new course of action. Vlad had left with the intent of investigating some mystery man at New York's Downtown Hospital not half-an-hour ago, and the now-little canine had a pretty good idea as to the identity of this man. He needed to get to that hospital. So, with the express intent of sneaking off once she looked the other way, Sasha had told his baby-sitter that he was tired and wanted to take a nap. Ruby had looked at him suspiciously before going to tuck him in, closing his bedroom door so she could take a little nap herself.

Unfortunately, it had taken longer than he had expected for the vixen to fall asleep. It was now about 11:20 AM, and time was running out.

With that in mind, the nine-year-old time traveller jumped the remaining ladder-rungs to land in a crouch in the alleyway below. He had to book it if he was going to be of any help to the others!

(OOC: Terribly sorry for disappearing. I'm gonna have to do this in little pieces...as the thought of posting for both characters at once is intimidating me, and it's like...5AM, I'm PMSing a bit, and I should be sleeping. XD; Please forgive me if this post is terrible, but I can't keep Wraith waiting anymore.)

IC:

Present: Saturday 3 September 20011 12:27 AM (thereabouts):

Over the years, Codeo had learned to become a light sleeper. The slightest noise, and he was awake and reaching for something behind his ear, moving protectively in front of his stash. At the same time, he scanned the room for escape routes. He didn't want to abandon his food, but at the same time, he didn't want to get caught if it was the cops. He glanced up, somewhat shakily brandishing a small dagger made of stone.

TBC

(OOC: Aaaand I can't think of anything for him in the future right now. Also...I have a headache and need to sleep. Post is painfully small, but...*shrug*)

OOC: I owe a post or two. Bare with me. Still here. Full of ideas but out of time for now
BTW Wraith nice pictures ^^ Ianthe is an incredibly unique character with a large capacity and scope for character developement. Can't wait to read your progressing posts mate.

(OOC: That's ok Vi, I've been in similar positions myself in the past. Take all the time you need.

And you could actually tell she was a squirrel from the pics? Phew, good...with my utterly hopeless scrawlings I was worried people wouldn't even be able to tell she was a character, let alone what species she was lol XD

Thanks Bentley^^ I never really got to explore her that much in TRAF, so you and Pach probably won't have seen that much of her, but I have used her on other boards and she has become one of my favorite characters of all time. Mind you, those that were involved in TRAF may remember a few certain 'details' about her...do you (If you do don't reveal anything lol)? Hopefully it'll be interesting for everyone, wether they know much about her or not, to learn about her and see how she develops, and I certainly have some interesting ideas for her future in this plot )

PRESENT
Saturday 3 September 2011, 12:27am
Midtown Manhattan, Commercial District ~ Abandoned Buildings.

As he awoke and lept to his feet, the young coatimundi heard a sinnister, chilling hiss of irritation eminate from the shadows nearby. The sound was so venomous, so charged with freezing fury that it would have sent a shiver down the spine of even the toughest gangland thug or city police officer...so it was with some surprise, then, that as his eyes rose to the same level as his ears and he peered into the dark corners of the tiny room to see what had emitted the noise, he saw a small, slender figure only about as tall as himself staring back.

She was a squirrel - the thick, bushy tail curling up her back like a luxurious cusion attested to that. Her fur was a rich reddish brown in colour, with a patch of lighter sandy brown splashed across her face, cheeks, and down the front of her thin body. Her hair was a slightly darker, more woody brown color than the base shade of her fur, and a pastel green fabric hairband held most of it back behind her head where it trailed all the way down her back clear to the base of her tail. It appeared slightly ragged and unkept, however, and a few strands had escaped the confines of the band to drop down like thin brown snakes over her delicate, pretty face, partially obscuring it from view. The long tufts of fur gracing her pointed ears, which stuck up like satelite dishes through her hair atop her scalp, further proved her red squirrel heritage.

Her clothing and body bore the same ragged, unkempt appearance as her hair. The quaint little dress adorning her svelte form, the same pale green as her hairband and decorated with a delicate floral pattern in white thread, looked like it had once been quite beautiful. But now it was dirtied and ragged, it's lower half torn to ribbons and one of it's shoulders completely missing a short sleeve. The girl's knees, just visible through the remnants of her tattered clothing, bore a number of scars and scratches, as did the underside of her feet, which despite the hard, uneven floorboards of the room they were in, were unshod. Nevertheless, despite her obvious unkept appearance which suggested she had been living out on the streets much like Codeo himself, she did seem to hold herself with a certain style and grace, a distinct lithe and graceful quality which belied her shoddy and wretched exterior.

Among all the details of the intruder's form, however, the one thing that struck Codeo most of all about this mysterious stranger was the pair of gleaming, penetrating eyes glaring out from the shadow beneath those stray strands of hair. Eyes of an extremely pale, cold green, like the last vestages of summer on a leaf before autumn arrives to apply it's red and yellow dye, with all the hard, cold chill of a winter gale reflected in their glassy orbs. Her gaze was withering, as if piercing straight into his soul and slowly peeling him apart piece by piece, and he could not help but feel distinctly unnerved beneath it's intense, unblinking presence. As they stood for a long moment, a tense and silent standoff in the darkness of the room, the girl's thin, delicate fingers slowly balled into tightly clenched fists...fingers, Codeo only noticed now, which were stained red...

"Get out." Her voice was just as scathing as her glare, bearing a strange breathy, hissy quality in it's delivery which was hardly softened in any way by the curious celtic lilt drifting prominently in the accent. The sudden words, however, momentarily caught Codeo off guard, and for a breif moment he did not fully grasp their meaning.

"What?"

"Now get ye out, right away." The girl inclined her head towards the open, empty doorway, those penetrating pale eyes still burning into him like diamonds from beneath a heavy, scowling brow. "Get ye out and don't look back." The words were not a suggestion, nor an exclamation of surprise or shock - rather their delivery was completely calm and precise, as if their meaning was little more than a statement of fact. Codeo would comply with the instruction...the very notion that he would not was apparently not an option.

Thursday, 3 September 2011, 10:45 am
Luis's outcry came at an inopportune time - in the middle of a commercial law lecture. The lecture hall's other seventy students all turned to look at the unexpected interjection from the traditionally quiet Luis, who fell out of his seat and dropped to the floor. Immediately, a few nearby students rushed over, either to aid him or just to see what had happened.

The Downtown Hospital! I have to...hmm...

His instinct was to pop up and run off to the Downtown Hospital, but Luis had a better idea. Seeing the students crowding over him, he closed his eyes and moaned theatrically. Some people were calling his name, asking him what the matter was. In response, he writhed on the floor and begged, "Help!" An inward smile formed when he heard the telltale sounds of a phone being dialed and someone asking for paramedics to come to his aid.

"911? I need an ambulance right away! We have someone who's just collapsed!"

"Someone, go get the first aid team!" someone else shouted.

"Stand back! Give him air!"

Luis let his limbs go slack. One way or another, he was going to end up at the nearest hospital on Manhattan - the Downtown Hospital - and he hoped that he would find Sasha there. More importantly, he hoped that he would find Matt hanging in there. The ins and outs of time travel still eluded the student, but one thing was certain: if Matt died today, terrible things would come of it in the future.

Very shortly, Luis found himself being hauled onto a stretcher. He made sure to keep clearly breathing, lest his rescuers attempt something excessive like cardiopulmonary resuscitation or oxygen masks. It was not long before he was hauled off into an ambulance, in which he could hear paramedics chattering loudly. The doors shut at his feet. Sirens picked up, and soon the ambulance rattled down the streets toward his destination.

Matt, here I come.

New York's Downtown Hospital
Thursday, 3 September 2011 (11:30 am)

Vlad surveyed the hospital entrance from where he stood leaning against the nearby bus-stop shelter, face mostly obscured by an open newspaper he was pretending to read. Nothing seemed to stand out or scream danger! to the jackal, who had been standing there for the past five minutes. Nevertheless, he was being cautious. For all he knew Ruby was right, and there really was no connection between Matt the cheetah and Wiseman; he could be on a wild goose chase and have wasted all of his time and worry on nothing. However...

"...just crashed right through the window, John! Landed in a heap on some poor officer's car!" A voice nearby exclaimed. It belonged to a female cat paramedic that was passing by the bus-stop with one of her co-workers, on her way back from a coffee run. Vlad recognized her from one of the response teams that had been at the scene of Matt's accident.

John, the cat's raccoon companion, whistled. "And they survived?"

Vlad turned to the next page in his newspaper, ears pointing in the paramedics' direction, as the she-cat replied with an incredulous, "Yeah! Can you believe that? I mean, they didn't exactly get away scot-free, but still...! They were taken in with that other guy - you know, the one with the shoulder wound? - so I got to take a quick peek at them, and all I can say is they were pretty damned lucky!"

"I'll say!" The raccoon replied. "Reminds me of this call I once got where..."

Vlad let the two paramedics walk out of range as he digested the little tidbit they had unexpectedly let slip, eye scanning the articles before him but not really reading any of it. So, Matt was indeed here, along with that fennec officer's partner and the two unknown civilians (he hadn't gotten a good look at them earlier). He had the option now of dismissing the niggling feeling in his gut and going home, then taking Sasha and getting the hell out of town. Or he could stay and investigate his hunch while running the risk of catching the unwanted attention of Wiseman's underlings and, by extension, Wiseman himself. All for a guy he barely knew and really wasn't sure he could help anyway.

The jackal glanced over the top of his newspaper at the hospital entrance, debating. Unbidden, a memory flashed before his mind's eye...

The sight of the front door, opened slightly ajar, had him on high alert instantaneously. It was a small anomaly that, had he been anyone else, would probably have gone unnoticed; but he was not anyone else. He had grown up surrounded - and living - by violence, resulting in an extremely fine-tuned survival instinct that had saved his life on more than one occasion. Therefore, when he saw that the door to his friend's home was not quite closed, he payed attention. Something wasn't right...

"Shhh, Sasha, shhhhh.... I'm here. I'm here, little vone, I'm here...."

Perhaps it was the memory. The need to avenge Dimitri's death and Sasha's loss. Perhaps it was the kid's fault, turning him into some selfless hero. Perhaps he just felt vindictive and wanted to hurt Wiseman in any way and whatever way possible.

Vlad schooled his face into an expression of impatience as he checked his watch, then the empty curb before the bus-stop. Feigning an irritated sigh, the scarred jackal folded his newspaper under his arm and stalked away, heading for what one would assume was the next stop over. Which would take him near the back of the hospital.

He wasn't sure what it was, but he was sure of one thing: if Matt was involved in one of Wiseman's plots, he would do his damnedest to help the cheetah out.

Elsewhere (still 11:30 am)

"I'm sorry son, but you can't ride if you don't pay."

Sasha looked up to meet the unsympathetic face of the bus driver, a shaggy and weary-looking sheepdog with bags under his eyes. The little husky mix did his best to look distraught, wringing his hands and lowering his ears to lay flat against his skull, tail tucked between his legs. His lower lip began quivering.

"Please, sir," Sasha whimpered, adding a small tremor to his voice. "I don't haff any money, but I really need to get to the hospital! My mama... she's really sick, sir, and I need to see her! I don't haff anyvone else..."

As expected, some of the more sympathetic passengers at the front of the bus began clamoring to let him ride. Most of them were themselves going to visit sick family members and such, and even though Sasha felt terrible to deceiving them, it produced the desired results. The bus driver threw his hands up in surrender and waved the young canine in, slamming the vehicle's doors closed almost as soon as his tail cleared the entrance.

Sasha settled into an aisle seat no too far from the front of the bus, curling in on himself and adopting a miserable, forlorn look. He had to convince anyone watching that he did have a sick mother waiting for him, so as not to arouse suspicion. Had he been in his nineteen-year-old body, this would have been significantly more difficult.

Hang on Luis! Hang on Matt! I'm on my way! The time traveling canine thought anxiously. Just hope I don't run into Vlad before I can get started...!

OOC: Geez, people wow. o.o Fantastic stuff all around... seriously guys. Just jawdroppingly amazing.

Wraith, your mastery with words is beyond peer. Seriously, you are an amazing writer and Ianthe is such an intriguing character. I do have a bare memory of her from The Rise and Fall, but its a pretty minor one... so needless to say I'm very excited to see where you're going to take her character! Also, your art is fantastic and really, really helps to bring Ianthe to life! n___n Mixed with your fantastic prose I've got an excellent idea on her image. Quality stuff.

Also Rapid, man, this rp may be the first we've rped together before but dang, I wish we'd done so before. Seriously dude you're amazing and I really, REALLY loved the idea of Luis' faking an injury in order to have an ambulance take him to the hospital. That's genius stuff.

Kim, seriously, I love Vlad and Sasha like you wouldn't believe. Brilliant, brilliant characters, I am mesmerised and absorbed in their stories. And one again I have to say, your whole writing of the 'Russian mob' style and scenes is just... its fantastic. Truly, truly engrossing. Incredible, incredible stuff, so inspiring. You guys are making me start to feel a bit worried. XD There's no way I can keep up the pace of such fantastic writing, the quality is just THAT high. Well done, ladies and gents!

-----------------

IC:

New York's Downtown Hospital
The Present: Saturday, 3 September 2011: 11:49 am

A beat-up car pulled out of the passing traffic with a shot and skidded to a halt outside of the hospital, rather cumbersomely as it did. As the car parked and the engine died down, a group of four individuals exited from each of the vehicles' doors, all of them clad in long brown coats, obscuring the majority of their figure. As well as this, each of them wore some form of hat or beanie and the entire collective wore sunglasses. If one was to pay attention to the arrived group, they would have thought them to be a rather unusual and unsettling group as well, but for what it was worth, no one around really seemed to take notice of them.

The group moved towards the entrance of the Downtown Hospital, to join their colleagues already assembled in the hospital that was, for their boss, the enigmatic kingpin, Wiseman, just one more in a list of 'to-do's' to be completed.

Remove the traitor Matthew Reese from this life, and any witnesses in the process.

-----------------

Broadcast-immune Resistance Centre:
The Future: Friday, 3rd September 2012: 11:49am

"How'd it go?" Maria asked, as Matthew appeared from the locked door that led to the Timedive Operation Room, locking the door securely behind him. He looked up, saw the motherly mouse approach him, and nodded towards him.

"Well, it worked I think. ...I hope, at any rate. Their consciousness should be transferred back to their past bodies right now." Matthew explained, joining her in walking the short distance to the mess hall and the rest of the assembled resistance fighters.

"I don't understand... there's no way they can really fail their mission, is there? To save your life I mean. Because, if they did fail, then you wouldn't be alive and here right now, would you? And I don't think any of us would be here either. So... is there any real need to worry for them?" Maria asked. She was wracking her brain in trying to understand this whole time travel concept and falling short every single time.

"To be honest, I don't really understand it either, same as you. I think Hoffman said something about associated timelines or some such, but it was all just nonsense over my head." Matthew explain, his hands articulating his speech as well. "All I really understood was that the past can be changed, but the way we'd feel the effect is... a bit different. Basically, say you timedive into the past at a certain time. Let's say midnight, 00:00. If you were to change something significantly at 02:00 in the day in the past, we wouldn't feel those effects until 02:00 of our day as well."

"So... what time did they go back into the past?" Maria asked, her mind still straining to understand the concept.

"Hoffman said they'll have arrived at 10:45am... and the incident began to occur at around 12:00pm, noon. So we wouldn't begin to feel any of the effects of their changes until 1:00pm, because their conscious travel went back another hour." Matthew continued to try to explain, noticing the lack of success clear on Maria's face. "Basically, we won't begin to even know anything until another hour and 15 minutes. Or maybe the effects will be different... I'm not the scientist, Hoffman is, and I don't really think there's any clear rules governing any of it."

"I guess..." Maria replied. "I suppose I'll ask Dr. Hoffman about it later but I'm sure I'll have an even harder time trying to understand."

Matthew laughed. For their time, and the situation they found themselves in, it was an infrequent occurrence... but one he greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, it was all too brief. He had to focus his mind on the mission.

"How's Liayra?" Mathew asked.

"Still in the barracks, crying. I'm not sure what exactly is wrong with her, but I'll keep an eye. Make sure she doesn't do anything to hurt herself or anyone else at the same time." Maria replied. Both of them suddenly came to a stop, in front of the mess hall entrance.

"Alright then. Let's get this thing started then..." Matthew nodded with a new sense of confidence and purpose, as he stepped into the mess hall, and the attracted attention of a number of hopefuls, looking to him for leadership and guidance in trying to bring sanity to a world gone mad.

-----------------

New York's Downtown Hospital
The Present: Saturday, 3 September 2011: 11:52 am

The four new arrivals strolled through the hospital's entrance, and into the waiting hall. They were greeted by a sharply dress fox with long, messy hair, who desperately looked like he wanted to take a hit of his cigarette, but was having to settle for just staring at it .He was at first looking around aimlessly, but then, at once, his eyes lit up at the four's arrival. He pushed the cigarette back into its packet to join its family for a later smoke.

"You guys took your sweet time, eh?" The suavely dressed fox asked, with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Sorry... we had another job to complete before we could arrive. We've received the details from 'him'... I believe Intel has identified five targets?" asked the lead, coated gentleman, a falcon. The sharply dressed fox couldn't see the coated individual's eyes, but if he could, he was sure he would see something sinister in them.

"Yeah, yeah... that's right. Five of them, all survivors from the building fire. The main target, Reese, escaped from apparently jumping off the roof, or something... but there were three others who was caught in the blaze who also ended up escaping through a window or some such. We don't know how much about the event they know, probably nothing, but boss doesn't want to take any chances. He's pissed enough that Reese even survived in the first place." The fox explained.

"Understandable. I'm sure the new guy, the bomb explosive expert, whatever his name was will be having to do something to clean up his mess?" The coated falcon asked.

"Yeah, guess so. I think he may have been called out to here to do some work and make sure the job gets done if you guys fail... which I doubt will happen. Don't really know too much, aren't really that much in the loop like you guys probably are. I basically just got called here to keep an eye on the targets until you guys arrived to do your 'thing'." The fox sighed.

"That's probably for the best. Know too much, and make the wrong move, and you'll end up like Reese." The lead man said, his tone of voice looming with impending doom.

"What are the names of the other targets? Their locations?" Another of the coated figure's asked, this one a distinctly identifiable koala woman, despite her disguising apparel.

"A female police officer, goes by the name of Athena O'Quinn, I believe. Here, she should be about here. Got a male cop keeping an eye on her two. Think the bastard's called O'Shea, and he was involved as well." The fox gave the woman a map of the hospital, and pointed towards Athena's location. "Don't think we've managed to establish a name on the other two, but one's a female Opossum and the other a male crimson Tasmanian devil. See anyone like them together, and you know you've got your people. Those two should be together here." The fox pointed to another location on the map.

"Killing a cop, hmm...?" started a third of the assembled individuals. His features looked distinctly rattish, a male too. "Heehee, can't wait. I'll take the fuzz broad!"

"Just make sure you do your job properly..." Interjected the last of the four, who was by far the biggest of those assembled, and whose features were most shrouded in shadow and mystery. He seemed like the strong, silent type, who accepted no foolery or failure... but that was only from what the fox could guess. He couldn't be sure either way. He couldn't tell what species he might have been either, maybe a bear?

"Anyway, where's Reese at? We don't have much more time, and I'd rather we get this mission done and be rid of it." The falcon asked. The fox nodded to him, and then pointed Matt's own location on the hospital premises. The falcon murmured in response, pleased with the findings. He turned to his companions, first looking towards the large and looming coated giant in the back. "You take care of the cops, Duke."

"What?!" The smaller one shouted in protest. The same one who seemed satisfied with the prospect of killing a female cop. "How come I don't...?!"

"Because your obsession with female law officers is unhealthy, Raz. You and Chloe can take care of the other two." The falcon ordered.

"Aww, man...!" Raz cried out in disappointment.

"Very well, let's get this done with then..." Chloe, the female koala moved on, walking towards the spot where the suited fox had pointed to Glace and Volte's position. Raz reluctantly followed, and Duke went his own way towards where Athena and O'Shea were waiting. The falcon turned once more to the suited fox.

"Although you won't be required, I trust that the rest of your men are positioned as such around the hospital to take care of any trouble we might encounter?" He asked.

The fox rolled his eyes, pulling his cigarette out again and looking at it longingly. "Yeah yeah, my boys are all fine, and Mr. Kaboom's around here somewhere doing his thing in case anything goes wrong. But hell, that's why you guys are here, to make sure nothing goes wrong, right?"

"Correct. This will all be dealt with in but a few more minutes. And then we can go back to doing more important jobs." The falcon turned and walked away from the suited fox greeting man, and headed towards his own target, the unconscious and very, very badly injured Matt.

Present: 11:58am

-----------------

Broadcast-immune Resistance Centre: Mess Hall
The Future: Friday, 3rd September 2012: 12:00am

"Everybody, welcome, thank you for listening. I know it's not been easy, having to live in the world that we live in... but we can change that. We will change that." Matthew began pacing back and forth in front of the resistance fighters who had assembled in the mess hall. Those few enough who were fortunate enough to resist the mentally changing affects of the Broadcast and escaped incarceration from that which controlled the Broadcast.

"I know some you have tried to resist it yourselves for the last ten years. To try and do something, to make some sort of difference and make this world the way it was again. I don't mean to be so blunt, but it failed. Too few of us to really make a dent in something so large that its affected the entire world. But now, all of us are together, and we're all the more stronger for it. You've managed to escape those prisons. Escape the noise of the Broadcast. And together, now, we'll do something to make it all right again. It won't be easy... to even suggest otherwise would be futile and naive. This is as hard as it gets people, and whilst I don't know about you, I for one am not willing to back down and give up without a fight. We'll make this world right again."

"Aye! With our two pronged attack, yeah?!" Olaf shouted from his seated position on top of one of the messhall tables, whose width was barely long to contain all of Olaf's prescence. "We attack in the past, and we truly smash the noise here and now! Am I correct?"

"Essentially, yes." Matthew nodded. The prisoners who had been rescued the night before looked around each other, all of them with their own reservations and concerns about the nature of their mission, but none could deny the neccessity. Those whom had been with the resistance for a longer time all nodded in agreement with Matthew's words. They had all heard him many times before, and completely agreed with the Resistance's ideaology.

"Suppose you mind telling us how exactly we're gonna go about that?" Amber asked, her skepitcism pertaining. She had to be sure she knew everything that Matthew was planning. Afterall, it was her life on the line.

"Stealth mission, essentially. We sneak into the Broadcast Tower located in the center of the city, and, well... from there, we blow it up." Matthew sent bluntly.

The ex-prisoners, and Amber in particular, looked speechless. After a couple of seconds of coming to her senses from the stunning answer, she shouted back in anger. "Are you serious? Is that it?! Is that your grand, master plan? How the heck is that supposed to work?!"

Matthew smiled. "I did say it wasn't going to be easy, didn't I...?" Amber just glared at the cheetah, hoping for a quick explanation. "Basically, we'll start off using the underground subway system, grabbing a train which leads directly to a station underneath the Broadcast center. Going that way should help us avoid the majority of the civilian public on top of the streets and get us directly to the Tower. Security should normally be tight, but Hoffman's invented us some ID tags that the security system will read and register us as the everyday joes who normally go to work there."

"Wait, ID tags? Seriously?" Amber asked. "We're just gonna hop on a train and its gonna lead us straight to the Tower?"

"Well, we still have to get to the Underground station first. That'll take some stealthing. And the ID tags will only help us with the Tower's automated scanners... any of the people or security mechs that are inside the tower literally see us, and our cover will be blown." Matthew explained. "As for the ID Tags, Hoffman worked on the Broadcast initiative, remember? He helped install some of the security there as well."

"Shame for someone who invented all of this to get it so horribly, horribly wrong in the first place, hmm?" Amber rolled her eyes as she folded her arms over her chest. "For someone so clever, making it so the whole world loses their senses and become braindead zombies is hardly confidence inspiring, y'know?"

Matthew sighed. "I can understand your reservations, but I digress... I trust the doctor, and I trust in his ID Tags to work and help us get in there."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever." Amber handwaved the disagreement aside. It could always be revisited later. "I just wanna make sure everyone is already on the same page of this sounding absolutely bat %@*^ insane."

"Oh, we are!" Olaf laughed with a hearty grin. "But it's the kind of insane that Olaf loves!"

"...ugh. Okay. What's next after that?" Amber asked.

"First off, we'll rendevous with our man on the inside. Well, woman... she's been inside the tower for a time, acting as one of the worker drones and getting us intel about the place. The facility plans, the locations of important rooms such as the central command. That sort of thing." Matthew continued.

"Really? She's been pretending to be one of those freaks and they haven't noticed? She hasn't actually been caught?? I'm impressed. She sounds like my kind of gal!" Amber laughed.

"One reason why we know the ID Tag system works. Once we meet up with her and get the neccessary intel we need, we'll split into two seperate teams. One team will go around and plant explosives on the tower's supports. The other will go to the Central Computing facility of the Tower. Once there we'll shut the actual Broadcast down, and then everybody affected within the city's limit should return to normal. We'll help evacuate the civilians, download the location plans of the rest of the Towers, get out of them, destroy some more security mechs, and then blow the whole damn Tower up so it can't be used again." Matthew explained the remainder of the plan.

"Wow... not too bad, I guess. Well, if you decide to ignore the whole matter of us walking into a suicide trap and getting ourselves killed. I can see some sort of hope somewhere in there, I guess." Amber offered her thoughts. "I'm just pretty curious in meeting this inside girl you've got."

"Olaf's looking forward to the machine smashing and Tower blowing up!" Olaf laughed as he fistpumped the air. His reaction brought a smile to Matthew's face.

"I don't expect everyone to want to join, especially those of you who just got out of those damn quarantine cells. I wouldn't expect you guys to want to jump and risk your lives like that straight away again... but for those of you who are up to it, that's the plan. This is a volunteers mission only. Everyone else who don't want to go are free to stay here, help look after this place. But for those of you who do want to go, Maria can show you to the munitions room. Grab yourselves a weapon, whatever ammunition you want to take with you, and the explosives... oh, be careful with those, we don't want you guys blowing yourselves up, afterall, and Maria can also show you to where the uniforms are." Matthew continued.

"Uniforms?" Amber asked.

"Hoffman managed to help me create some uniforms that are more durable than normal clothing. They're designed to help protect us against small injuries and the affects of those security mech's stun blasts, although I'll warn you now, those things still hurt." Maria spoke up, with a smile.

"Hoffman again? What hasn't that guy helped create??" Amber shouted out.

"Good tasting food!!" Al, the octopus chef shouted out. "That's my specialty!"

"And his fashion sense was terrible, to say the least..." Maria let loose a loud sigh. "That's why I was working with him. I don't mean to flatter myself or build up my own ego, but I like to think they came out as pretty stylish. A pretty awesome black number."

"You're free to wear one if you want, or not if you don't. Whatever's easiest for you, really." said Matthew, shrugging his shoulders. "Those of you who want to come, grab your weapon and uniform, and we'll meet up at the entrance by where Joe is. Once there, I'll give you all the ID Tags and then we'll make a move."

"Wait, we're not waiting until dark?" Amber asked. "What about the people outside?"

"A lot of them should be indoors really, doing whatever work it is that they're doing..." Maria explained, rubbing her chin as she mused. "There'll still be some people out and about, but I don't think it'd be too hard avoiding them, if you guys are smart about it."

"Maria's right, and there's no reason not go to now. Why put off until tomorrow, what we can do today?" Matthew suggested.

"Or ten years yesterday! Yagyagyag!" Olaf laughed a roarish laugh. "And Olaf is ready for some payback!"

"Well then... I'll meet you all in fifteen minutes then!" Matthew commanded, turning around, his hood flapping dramatically as he did so.

The assembled freedom fighters, those who offered this world's only resistance, were about to embark on their first, major mission together. A simultaneous mission in both the Present and Future; one, a mission to protect a handful of people; those who would become important in preventing the Broadcast from ever being able to occur in the first place. The other, a mission to protect and regain the memories and sensibilities of an entire city's worth of people. Both missions utterly crucial, and fraught with danger.

Missions that would mark the neccessity in protecting the entire world.

♫ Mission theme: Kill the Sound (Celldweller)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw4cVvB8nyQ

-----------------

OOC: Well then, ladies and gents, actual mission time. About time we actually got there, I think... >>;;; Hehe. For anyone who wants to create a future character to join in on the Future stealth mission, feel free to do so! You could always use one of the ex-prisoners as an opportunity or use one of the existing resistance members as a character! (As it is, mission's looking pretty lonely. And by lonely I mean... just me >>;;) Not forcing anyone to have to create another character for that (Vi's still got Liayra and Cody, and I'm banking on Wraith's Ianthe maybe joining up plus a certain someone's female mole already inside the Tower) but y'know, the more the merrier, yeah? XD

Any questions or confusion, feel free to ask. As for the four coated individuals who've entered the Hospital to target the five people within (Matt, Athena, O'Shea, Glace, Volte) none of them really have any prediscerned abilities or anything that I've created, so feel free to go wild there. They're basically hitmen, trained men who get the job done quickly and efficiently, so feel free to expand their personalities and abilities in anyway you like. Our presents heroes including the time travelling Luis and Sasha are bound to have their hands full there XD

And with that, awaaaaay we go~!

(OOC: Ok...trying to get back in the swing of things here...bare with me, I have a little headache right now. Not too bad, but, I dunno if I can think completely straight. Oh well...here goes...and I'm getting confused with the timestamps. Time travel = headache. XD; I thought September 3 in the past was a Saturday...but you have it as Thursday? *headscratch*

Also...is that fox with the cigarette who I think he is? XP Probably not, but...)

IC:

Present:

1:35 AM Saturday, September 3, 2011:

Liayra stepped into the pawn shop's restroom to transfer the money she had received from the sale of her silver hair to the moneybelt within her robe. She was taking no chances with the current crime spree going on. She needed this money.

Several minutes later, she emerged, the money safely hidden and made her silent way back to her home.

(OOC: yes, I know she's still isolated from the rest of the characters. I'm not sure how to get her involved. *shrug*)

Present:

12:30 AM Saturday, September 3, 2011:

Codeo stared at the intruder. How dare she tell him to get out! This was HIS hiding place, and HIS stash! He stood his ground, still guarding the box. "No."

Future:

12:00 PM Friday, September 3, 2012:

Liayra had finally been coaxed out of the barracks room. Trying to stifle her tears, she listened to the debriefing of the second prong of the attack, trying not to think too much about the time travel issue. This plan...this was possibly feasible. She could get in on this...if not for one thing...she had no experience being a resistance fighter. Still...those towers needed to come down. Shakily, she raised a hand, trying to control her voice. "I...I w-will go. Th-though I don't really know much about f-fighting..."

Suddenly the door burst open and a turquoise coati darted in, closing the door behind him and nervously glancing through the window. "He'll never find me in here..." In his hand he held a pair of suspenders. He looked up. "Oh...h-hi."

There was an irate yell from down the hall. "Cody! Get back here so I can rearrange your thieving face!"

The coati glanced at his acquisition and immediately dropped it. "I volunteer!" He said quickly. "Whatever it is, I volunteer for it!" With that he darted behind a desk as the badger from before threw open the door, holding up his pants awkwardly and looking around.

"Have any of you seen that little blue squirt..." He glanced down and snatched up the perloined suspenders. "N-never mind. But when I DO find him..." the badger said with a growl as he left the room.

TBC

OOC: I'm tossing around ideas for my next post, so I probably won't start writing until tomorrow night. If anyone wants to post in the meantime feel free. 🙂 Btw Vi, Liayra seems like the good samaritan type. Perhaps she likes to volunteer at the hospital on weekends, if you catch me? Just an idea.