Chapter 1: Welcome to the New World

James stopped where he was, and said "I'm not James, Shadow." "But I know you sent a snake out for him. That was pretty stupid, and impatient. Thought I told you that I would find you."

He stopped right in his tracks and kinda felt confused. "Hey dark, I thought you said that you heard his name was James." I heard a woman say that yes. "Oh well, sorry Rev for sending him, but I didn't hear you say that plus I need to ask you a question, what year is it, because if i'm right it should only be 2021" he asked letting his arm rest a little from holding his shoulder

"2034," James said. "Sorry to tell ya, but you're dead wrong on the year."

"Oh god, um to tell you the truth I was born in 1999 and died in 2015, um did the war end, I guess it did." he said a little depressed at the thought of how long he was in that grave for.

"Yeah, the war ended," James said. "Nobody really won though, if you're curious."

"Oh, well Nice to meet you, names shadow or the darkness, You already met dark" he said walking a little closer, "We should move, because our party crashers are still looking for me."

"Seriously?" James asked. "I saw diddly when I walked in, save a few rats. Doubt they're still here, unless you passed them on the way in."

"Maybe, Hey I have a Question, did you come here to kill me because you have your blade out" he said, "you should know, where we are, in this much darkness it would be very hard too."

"Call it a cautionary approach," James said, and the blade was absorbed back into his arm. "Unless you really expected me to just walk into a dark, abandoned tunnel to have a chat with a killer who has some kind of entity in his head?" And then as if in response to his words, the lights came back on in the subway terminal.

As the lights came back on he punched the one above his hand smashing it while getting some glass in his knuckles. "Now don't go pointing names at me, I kill because if I don't then evil me comes out, and I only kill people who tried to kill me or an innocent person." he said while pulling the glass shards out of fist. "Hey could you be a nice guy and show me a place to stay, You don't have to but after destroying one of the ships of those people who attacked us, by the way how is your friend you rescued doing."

"Whatever you say," James said casually while Gestalt kept an eye out. "Sorry, no place for me to keep you and as for my friend......well she got to the hospital alright. Not my friend really, but she was injured in the fight."

"Crap she was, sorry and hey i'll see you around, just call me, wait um just look for me though the cameras um, bollocks I don't know how to contact you, Hey I know how about if you ever need me just go into this subway at 8 pm and call out." he said walking past Rev as his legs where better he started to follow his own blood trail out. "Bye have a good day mate"

"What the...?" James asked as he tracked Shadow, walking past him down the hall of the subway. Man, does he ever take a breath? he wondered, before following him. And that was when the bullets started flying. First though, came the warning.

James, get down! Gestalt screamed in his mind.

Without even thinking, James did, ducking down until he practically lay flat on the ground. Gestalt, the nanites coating his body and looking in every direction, spotted one of the soldiers in the terminal, rounding a corner and getting James in his sights. Bullets ripped into the tiled wall above, and fragments rained down as it was pulverized. It was a burst though, and it ended soon enough for James to stand and bring his left arm to bear. Nanites swarmed out into a concave plane attached to his arm, layers upon layers of them forming a thick shield. Since they were all compressed into a high density, it was heavy even for James and his enhanced strength, but it stopped the next round of bullets cold. It still left every other angle beside the front exposed.

"Arr shit" Marcus walked backwards while rising a wall of darkness to his only escape route before reaching Rev. "Hey so I got about 4 guys with those amour piecing rounds to our escape what do you have" he said as he started to rise his amour, the rocky substance covered his body and coated itself with darkness. "Human, sorry for almost reveling your identity before but now we need to work together for this, any ideas" dark said to Rev focusing on the bullets that were eating away at the shadow wall. "Well I guess negotiations are out"

"I TOLD YOU ALREADY!" James roared, dropping the shield after the next burst so he could lash out with a whip-like tendril of nanites. "I." It latched onto the gunner's helmet. "AM NOT." He yanked back, hard, and the guy went headfirst into the wall, not going through it but with enough force to give him a serious headache. "JAMES!" There was one more of the soldiers down the hall of the first one, but instead of firing they immediately went to their downed partner and dragged them back to safety.

"WELL STOP SMELLING LIKE HIM THEN" dark yelled back as he took control of Marcus's Body and threw dark fire at the 4 guards that he was blocking off before turning around and walking towards the soldiers on Revs side. "Oh please hide, it will make this game more fun" he said with a laugh before his arm started to jerk. "Marcus, stop trying to gain control, someone has to kill them," he said as he readied A dark orb smashing all the lights he came by. "Shut up darkness, hey Rev if you really don't like killing mind throwing my body with that whip of yours into a wall please" Marcus got out before being kicked out of his place.  

"You serious?" James demanded before running towards the soldiers Shadow was attacking. One fired at him, but he dodged the bullets and put a column between himself and the shooter. Then he cloaked and moved again, the shooter not seeing him right up until James slammed into him with his shoulder, sending him flying back a few feet and to the ground.

"Okay that's enough!" James said, rounding on Shadow. His right hand formed into a large sphere the size of a soccer-ball, and he swung his arm out.....even though he was ten feet from Shadow. However the nanites took the image in his mind, and had the ball lash out on a whip of themselves from his arm, and it slammed into Shadow and sent him flying to the side, right into the wall. It was very much a mirror of their first meeting. "No more killing," James said.

"But killing is, is, I'm tired" dark said slowly as Marcus gained control. "Thanks for that and I guess you know my name now," Marcus said as he got back up from the wall and made his own shadow whip to attack the guard he would have killed into the wall. "Anyhow, I think now is a good time to run." he said as got closer to another solider that was shooting him with a pistol, he knocked the solider out with a headbutt. "Thats going to hurt when he wakes up"

"At least he gets to wake up," James said coolly to Shadow. "What the hell man? You start killing these guys, and they'll never stop coming after us. And I'm not saying us like we're partners, just in general. I'm trying to protect people, earn their trust. They can't trust me, or people like me, if there's a bodycount."

"Oi talk to dark about that, he was in control just now okey, 6 years I lived with him and I learnt that you can't control the darkness, he will just get hungry and hungry until you get hungry, I died trying to stop a murder." "And thanks to me not leaving the slip between life and death, I bought back what was created before humanity." "I'll try, okey but I need help, you can't go cold turkey with this thing."

"Yeah well not sure how much help I can give, if any," James said. He looked around, and said "We should probably go before more of them show up. Otherwise they'll just radio in more back-up."

"Yea, well you back to your house or where ever, I'm going to go steal some food and find another place to sleep in." he said as he started to jog past the guards that where going to have some serious burn scars on their face. "Sorry guys" he said as he jogged past them.

That left James alone in the subway terminal, with nothing but a pair of dead men and more wounded for company. "Well......this is awkward," he said, before he started moving on out of the terminal. After getting to the roof and starting on his way, Gestalt directed a police broadcast to James, and it made him take notice. There was a bank robbery going down, armed and with hostages. "Alright, let's get moving," he said, and changed course for the bank.

Across Brooklyn, there was another attack. While not as grand as the assault on the police precinct, it was an attention grabbing spectacle for one reason. It was a bank robbery, and the robber was a small team of armed men......and a man in a hulking, armored suit. It was twelve feet tall, each footstep heavy enough to make the ground quiver, and it was armed to the teeth with various weapons. "How long until you can get the vault open?" a male voice demanded from the suit. One of his men, the one busy with the vault door, said "Another few minutes. You uh.....you sure about this, boss? I mean getting away is going to be a problem, what with that suit and all." Inside the suit, Thomas Finley, the same man Revenant put in a hospital after his last job, could only grin. "Let me worry about the get away. Just get the vault open." Because in the end, this wasn't quite about the money. No Thomas was in for a different payoff......Revenant's head.

"Hm hear that" Yes I hear those sirens. "You wanna check it out" your suppose to go steal some food now. "Yes but I changed my mind" your kidding me. "Na, it will be fun, come on" And with that he started to run where not only he saw Rev go but where the police where going "Good thing its almost dark" Human I'm quite sure that he doesn't want to talk to us again. Marcus stopped right in his tracks then, looked to an alley way where he saw the most unnerving scene of two men trying rob someone. "You know what, I'm going to take his advice and knock some people out." And now I hate you more "You know you love me" and with that Marcus sped up to about 20 mph and soccer punched one of them before hitting the next one with about 50 to 200lbs of power into his fist or while covering his face. After that he made sure that they were tied up with a little darkness and asked the victim to ring the police to pick them before speeding away to a food store close by and grabbing an apple. "Man I love this power"

The bank was across town from James, twenty blocks or so maybe. It gave him time to call Chris. "James?" she answered. "Hey there Chris," he responded. "I'm okay, but I'm gonna be late. There's a.....well, you'll see it on the news soon, but there's a bank robbery going on." It was truly, the weirdest excuse he had ever given, since neither he nor Chris had ever imagined this sort of scenario. "Oh," she said, and it was clear that this was a new one for her. "Well uh....be safe, James."

Chuckling, James said "Always am," and leapt off the current roof and used his cables to pull himself across the wide gap to the next. Most of the buildings were houses, and the occupants had run for the windows expecting to yell at intruding kids....instead they caught glimpses of the vigilante running over rooftops as he continued on his way. The phone call ended, and was now only ten blocks away.

At the bank, the police arrived, at which point Thomas Finley walked out through the large hole he made in the front wall of the bank. At first, the police were stunned by what they saw, the suit of armor walking out, into the light. It was practically a tank on legs and shaped like a human, but bulkier. Heavy legs used hydraulics to support the body, the chest composed of thick plates of metal. The whole thing in fact, was made of the same metal. It's arms bore weapons, each one carrying a machine gun that already started spewing out a stream of bullets, peppering the cop cars and keeping them back. On its shoulders were mounted a pair of launchers, one for grenades and the other for rockets. It was a war-machine without a doubt, and it's pilot showed it off upon the cops.

James stopped on the second to last rooftop, hearing the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Whatever was happening, it was big. Getting to the next roof, he saw the carnage below and realized just how big it was, the suit of armor standing in the middle of a four way intersection, a large hole in the corner of a building, and cop cars either riddled with bullets or torn apart by explosions. "Okay.....this is new," he said aloud.

"You know you're not supposed to leave your guards, Kristen." Said the man opposite me. He was in his late fifties, white hair, blue eyes and had more than a few wrinkles. My eyes were fixed to the floor as he spoke to me, "You know it's dangerous, but you still ran off. Why?"
"I could smell something." I said quietly, still not looking at him.
"Was it the boy you were talking to?" He questioned, "He wasn't close when you started telling the car where to go, was he?" -I shook my head- "This is... strange," He turned to his assistant, "Note this down and call for a meeting." The assistant nodded and left.

"Now, Kristen. If you smelled this boy, why did you run after him?" He asked me, opening a notebook.
"He didn't smell like everyone else." I answered, making eye contact for the first time today.
"And what did he smell like?" He asked.
"I don't know," I said, "It just didn't smell... It smelled strange. Different." I said, as though that cleared up every question that could be asked.
He nodded and stood up,
"Well, Kristen, thank you for being honest. You can go back to your room now." He said, smiling.

I thanked him and left without another word, heading back to my room.

How should we do this? James asked Gestalt.

One moment, scanning......staying in a fixed, ranged point will be lethal with those weapons. Advise we get in close, and attempt a rear attack. Addendum, get in close for a surprise attack, no doubt the mechanized armor will be far stronger. Direct confrontation ill advised, Gestalt said, and its voice changed to something more.....monotone, mechanical. James guessed it was because this was a pure, combat scenario, and the AI was being methodical and precise.

So James kept out of sight, crossing over to the next rooftop so he could get behind the armored....thing, and when he was ready, he leapt down from the building and landed on the back of the suit with a loud thud. "HOLA SENOR!" he hollered, and raised an arm above his head to form a blade. "I'mma stab you now!" he screamed, and thrust the blade down at the armor.....and it clanged off without doing any damage. What the...? Gestalt, I thought you said this could cut through anything!

It can.....but if the alloys are dense enough, it will take more than one strike.

James didn't get a chance to respond, as the pilot figured out where he was and reached up with a massive metal fist and grabbed James in a powerful grip, ripping him off his shoulder and holding him upside down before his.....face? James, if he wasn't too stunned, wouldn't have been sure what to call it. It had a head, but it was a featureless faceplate with only one narrow, horizontal slit for eyes. "Nice to see you again, Revenant," a voice sounded from within. And then it threw James away like a baseball, and he slammed into the side of a police car hard enough to cave in the door and the frame. This....is not good. He hurt all over, but according to Gestalt nothing was broken, his bones thankfully reinforced by the nanites.....but there was only so much they could do.

There was the sound of something spinning up, and James immediately realized what it was as he scrambled out of the wreckage and dove to one side.....right before the minigun mounted on the suits arm spat out a stream of tracer rounds that tore into the car. He came to a crouch, and stared at the suit and was thankful for the mask on his face. It hid the look of terror he had. Okay, I need options, he said to Gestalt.

Cloaking.

James went invisible, and for a moment he thought it worked as he moved to the side to try and flank....but then the gun roared, and the minigun sprayed him with round that hit his leg and stomach, and with a scream James fell to the ground, the cloak gone. "I can see you, Revenant," the same voice almost caroled. And he could, the sensors of the suit able to read thermal imaging and see his opponent. Ahhh, dammit Gestalt he can see us?

One moment, healing, Gestalt said. The damage was bad, this not being ordinary bullet or armor piercing ammunition. It was something meant to take out tanks, and it nearly tore apart James and make him explode like a water balloon. The only reason he was alive, was the nanites holding him together but even then.... We can't take another hit like that. He must have thermal sensors, but we can hide thermal emissions.

There was a heavy thudding sound, as the suit walked closer. Bullets pinged off the armor, as the cops decided that they preferred Revenant over this thing. It turned to face them, and one of the shoulder weapons fired a grenade as the voice roared "Stay out of this!" James was able to get up, but barely, his wounds healing. Then he ran forward, intending to get close. Better up close and too far inside the range of those weapons, than afar and at risk of being torn to shreds. He fired a pair of cables from both arms at the legs, and pulled himself into a slide under the titan and coming up behind it. "Come on, I'm right here!" he yelled, trying to get its attention. "That you are!" the machine hollered, and it tried turning to swipe a fist at him, but it was still a bit slow and James managed to dodge it, before leaping up and grabbing onto the chest. He started pounding away, but there wasn't much he could do and whatever the metal was, it was hard enough that his arm was already starting to ache with each impact. Can you rip it apart like that exoskeleton guy?

We need time, and that's not something we ha--JUMP NOW!

James did, right as the fist of that suit came down like a hammer and struck the chest of the suit, ringing like a gong. "Gah!" the voice yelled, his head mildly rung from the impact. But he didn't go down, simply taking a few stumbling steps back as James landed on the pavement. We need to disarm him. That armor may be impervious to us, but I wonder if the attachments for the weapons are.

Well find out fast, before he fires again.

So James ran forward again, and saw the next attack coming. The shoulder-rocket aimed and fired, the missile coming at him before he jumped up, the nanites helping him jump high enough to dodge the rocket....but not the explosion as it hit the ground, the shockwave of air slamming into him from below and sending him tumbling upward. He spun twice before he reacted and James shot a cable out that latched onto the machine from above, and he pulled himself in fast enough to slam down and make the thing stumble again. The joint for the rocket attachment wasn't the same kind of metal, and he exploited that by using a newly formed blade to hack it off. But that still didn't stop the machine from shaking him off, and right as he fell, the fist of that suit caught him in midair like a ragdoll, and then threw him once more. This time he soared through the window of an apartment building across the street, glass shattering loudly. Someone screamed from inside, and the next thing James knew he was laying in a crumpled heap, a ruined sofa beneath him. "I'd call that a soft landing," he mumbled.

"Kristen," Said one of the guards, "It's time for your medicine." I turned and faced him, looking away from the TV displaying the news. It was apparently a bank robbery, but there was something I'd noticed. There was something going on inside, barely visible on camera, probably not noticeable to most people, and I'd gotten engrossed in trying to figure it out.
"Okay," I said, standing up and walking out of the room. "Is it in the usual room?" I asked, receiving a nod and a sympathetic smile. He was one of the nicer guards, the others all tried to avoid contact with me, one had even tried to taze me. His name was Corporal Mathews.

I walked down the stairs and into a sterile, white room with a single operating table in the middle. As always, I changed into a hospital gown and lay down on the bed, at which point I was strapped to it by thick straps. I didn't think I could break them, especially since I wouldn't eat until tomorrow. I closed my eyes, ignoring the various needles being put into my body as the doctors began preparing me for my treatment, only calling out what they were doing to inform the others or telling my to life my arm or leg so that they could get the needles in better. I was told it was important to keep me healthy, so I always went through with it with as little fuss as I could, but it hurt more than anything I could imagine.

When they left into an observation room the needles began to pump whatever was inside them into me, and to me, it felt like having acid put into my veins, though it wasn't any more painful than the other hundreds of times it'd been done. Or it might have been, I just couldn't tell. There was much more pain in my lower back this time, though; it felt like the skin was being slowly torn apart. I tightened my eyes and tried not to scream, but my willpower failed me after about three minutes and I quickly started to scream every few seconds.

Hauling himself to his feet, James looked around. He had landed in a cozy looking apartment, the owner crouched on the floor. They were staring at him, stunned and James said "Uh...sorry about the couch. Stay there." And then he leaped out the window and back into the open, where the mechanized suit was. "Hey buddy!" James yelled out as he landed atop a ruined police car. "You got a name? If I'm kicking your ass I'd like to know whose ass I'm kicking." The suit had been standing back by the bank and was almost waiting for James, and the pilot said through the suits speakers "You can call me......Goliath. But we've met before, Revenant." He started walking towards James, slowly as if for dramatic effect. "You busted up my last job at the bank. And you paralyzed me, you piece of shit."

Wait, I did what? Then it hit him. There was a bank heist in his first week....and he may have hit one of the bank robbers too hard. "Wait that was you?" he said, and Goliath simply shouted as he charged James. In response James jumped up and towards Goliath, but not to attack; he rolled over his shoulder while Goliath charged into the car....and then slammed it into the apartment building. "Yes it was," Goliath yelled, turning around to fire his minigun, one arm raised as the weapon fired. James dove to one side as the rounds tore off chunks of pavement, and while he took cover Goliath, aka Thomas Finley, received a call from one of his men in the bank. "Boss, we got the vault open." In the suit, Thomas nodded and said "Then load the truck up. I'll keep our hero busy."

With that, he started up another charge and ran for James, who was forced to simply dodge and stay on the defensive.

"Did it work? Did we give her enough?" I heard one of the doctors saying in the other room, though the noise was the only thing I could sense at the moment. My eyes were open, but I couldn't register what I was seeing.
"We tripled the dosage from last time, we don't want to kill her, do we?" Another answered.
"Try to trigger the muscles."

My body tensed as a wire attached to my back sent an electic charge through me. It didn't hurt, not compared to the medicine, but it was uncomfortable to have all of my muscles lock up at once.
"It doesn't look like it's working. Are you sure that the results are repeatable?"
"I'm positive. I'm more surprised that we haven't managed to repeat it already."

I blinked, I was no longer being electrocuted, but I still couldn't bring myself to move. As usual, I was carried out on a stretcher and taken upstairs.

Chris was glued to the television, watching news broadcast of the fight between James and the big robot thing. Her chest felt tight as anxiety took hold, and she prayed he'd be alright. Dammit James.....you be careful.

With James within reach, Goliath switched from his guns to his fists, swinging mechanized arms at James who dodged and even vaulted over one or two of the attacks. James had the advantage of being small and fast while Goliath was big and bulky, but his armor rendered any attacks useless. His luck ran out though, when James stepped on a piece of debris by accident and lost his balance, giving Goliath a chance to slam his fist into him with the force of a speeding car and sent James flying through a mailbox and into the brickwork of the building behind. Then he got a call from his men that they had finished loading the truck, and that the distraction was in place. He turned to the cops and activated his speakers, addressing them in a loud voice.

"Attention officers," he said. "You are going to let me and my men drive off into the sunset with our loot, and none of you are to follow. If you do, then we will detonate the C4 explosives strapped to the six hostages we've got." And to prove they did have hostages with explosives strapped to them, one of the robbers walked out, shoving a middle aged woman forward in front of him. She had a vest strapped to her chest with blocks of plastic explosives. Tears were streaming down her face as she was forced to her knees, but still in full view. There was the sound of a loud engine, and a tow-truck emerged from an alley behind the bank, within the blockade made by the police cars.

Every officer there was getting orders from command not to follow or make any aggressive moves, as the risk was too great. Goliath climbed onto the back of the tow-truck, the vehicles bed dipping down sharply under the weight, but it was still capable of driving. "Clear the road!" Goliath roared, but before the police could even move their cars the truck smashed through them, driving away into the night. And then, to make things worse.....the lights went out. The power grid for the entire district went out, shut down by the accomplice to the bank robbers, the same hacker who had helped out Legion in their assault.

It was a few minutes later that James came to, his body simply aching all over. Gestalt read several dozen bone fractures and breaks, all already being healed but still for the moment debilitating. So......I guess that was a lose for us? James thought, and even his thoughts sounded slurry, like he was waking up or too drunk to speak right.

Yes James. We're healing you now, and we advise moving fast as the police will probably be coming for you.

Oh sure, after I fought that freaking Goliath thing, James thought as he pulled himself out of the brickwork. It hurt, but he still moved if it meant escape.

No good deed goes unpunished, as you humans say. And they'd probably be more willing to let you go if you had stopped that Goliath. But you didn't.

Don't remind me, James thought, and fired a cable up to the roof behind him and hauled himself up as the cops advanced.

It was slow, but he got back home. The moment he walked back through the door, changed back into his usual attire (though the damned bullets fired from Goliath tore new, bigger holes into his clothes) he was nearly tackled as Chris threw herself at him in a hug. "Goddammit!" she nearly sobbed. "I told you to be careful." There wasn't a lot he could say, except "Sorry," and he returned the hug. After that, the rest of the night for them was just discussing the whole 'Revenant' deal, and figuring out where they were supposed to practice.

--Timeskip, Tuesday October 10th, 11:30 AM--

The next day at school, James and Chris had tried working on a way to reveal to Amy what James was now. Their best chance came at lunch when, instead of going to grab lunch from the cafeteria they instead diverted to an empty classroom. She was at first a bit confused as to why they were in the room and not getting lunch.....and then James transformed into Revenant, and her reaction was simply the opposite of Chris': instead of fainting, she went wide-eyed and moved forward to examine James. "Holy mother.....What. The. Hell? James, what is this?"

"goddamm my muscles are still slightly sore from all that dam manual labor" I said as i woke up yawning after having fallen asleep on a couple of crates due to not having everything set up yet.

"Uh....it's a bit of a story, that's what it is," James said. Then like with Chris, he explained once more what had happened the nanites arriving, and him deciding to...well, take them out for a joyride and do some good in the process. "Okay can I just say how freaking cool this is?" Amy finally said as she began prodding James' right arm, the one that was made entirely of nanites. "I mean come on; an alien AI comprised of trillions of self-replicating nanomachines? And they can do all sorts of things? Can I talk to the AI, or is it only in your head?"

As if in response, Gestalt spoke, its voice emanating from James' suit. "Yes, you can talk to us," it said. "And we must admit, it is a pleasure to meet you in person, GirlWithSkillz," it added, and Amy blushed a little. "Oh great....so I guess you were the global hack last month?" she asked, to which Gestalt acknowledged with a "Yes, that was us. We wished to learn.....though we admit, we may have been a tad blunt." Amy snorted, and said "Still, bloody effective. You hacked the entire planet in under an hour. None of the wizards have ever been able to do that." James chuckled a little at the use of the word. It still amazed him at the kind of titles that hackers gave themselves. He reverted back to his casual form, just in case someone walked in, with the nanites resuming the form of his prosthetic arm and leg.

"So.....Amy, I hate to ask this, but would you be willing to help us out?" James asked. "Me, Chris and Gestalt I mean. Chris for the training, and I could always use your help....plus just having a friend in my corner helps." She didn't even take a moment to think about it, smiling as she said brightly "Of course James. We're the Three Brooklyneers, remember?" He blinked, but then grinned as he remembered the moniker they had given themselves. Chris thumped him on the shoulder, and said "All for one..." "Or none for all," James finished. It never really meant much but right then, it had a certain weight to it. Not the phrase just....those that said it, the timing of it and the reasons for saying it. He wasn't alone now, he had his friends backing him up. And that was something.

I climbed down from the perch on the crates and made my way to the makeshift kitchen and started making myself some sausage links and scrambled eggs for brunch."can't wait to eat this when it's done"

Stella was skipping school yet again. She was holed up in her container, working furiously. The power outage was fast. Not as good as the global hack from last month, but damn it was really good. She shifted through all the data she could, until finally coming around and tracing...and got stonewalled.

She typed out a message to James.

Hey, Revenant. I need network access to the powerplant for the sector where that bank heist you got your ass kicked in. I can't trace the blackout without network access, and I can't get it anytime soon. Message me if you can help.


Sending it...she sent another.

Amanda. Stella here...I need Chris's forgiveness...bring her to my container. Please. It's the only way I can make peace with myself.

Gestalt received the message, and responded promptly.

Code:

I'll open a door for you into the power grid's network. Wish I could do it myself but....no idea what to look for.

Amy's tablet beeped, and she took it out while James and Chris were talking, surprised to see it was from Stella.....and that she wanted to talk to Chris. That was going to be....odd, and definitely awkward.

Code:

After school, if possible. But we have some stuff to do.

It's all I need. Stella replied.

She then turned to Amy's message.

Do me one last favor.

Don't interfere...let events play out. Please.

Amy rolled her eyes and typed back.

Code:

I can't promise that.

...Fine.

Stella rubbed her eyes. This probably would hurt.

"I still can't believe Rev got beaten, Maybe I should have helped." well he still did A great job at making you go cold turkey. " Well hes right, I need to stop the killing, We need to stop the killing man," He smelled. "I know but I don't really care." Marcus and dark where having there little pillow talk while the guy they knocked down was going crazy, 

"Dude, are you insane your talking to your self, how the hell did you take out 5 people" he said, backing up to the wall, his friends were moaning and one was asleep 

"Oh, I forgot about you" he pulled out his new phone he burrowed off his new friend and called the cops. "Yea hi this is the darkness, I got about 5 guys, with guns and I think this white power stuff is drugs." "No this isn't a prank call" "Look come to, hang on, come to 22 Rhode street near that giant building with the nexus symbol." "Fine, Don't come I'll just leave these guys on A roof somewhere near a school, I'm sure they will be seen there." He hanged up on the police and looked at them. "Well I hope you gents like a tan"

The conversation in the room was cut short, since they still needed to eat. Leaving the classroom and heading for the cafeteria, they passed the school bulletin board and saw the list of events on it. There was the annual Halloween carnival coming up in two weeks, with the last day of that week ending in the school dance. That particular subject, made Chris' mouth move on reflex. "So.....who's going to the dance?" she asked, even though she knew perfectly well that she and Amy were going together. James shrugged and said "Uh....not sure, probably not me. No date."

Chris grinned a little, and said "Not like you need a date to go to a dance James. Just go and have a good time." Looking a bit uncomfortable, James said "Yeah but....I can't have a good time if you two aren't there. And besides.....I suck at dancing." Laughing at that, Amy threw her arm over James' shoulder and said "It's not that hard really. Heck, I can teach you how to dance with a girl well enough she won't get hurt."

Chuckling, James said "Yeah but that still implies I'd get a girl to dance with me. Doubt that will ever happen." As they continued down the hall, Chris asked "Why's that?" Without thinking, James said "Because I have trouble talking to pretty girls." Next thing he knew, Amy's arm wrapped around his neck in a headlock, and Chris grabbed his left arm and squeezed hard enough to make it hurt. "Say that again, but this time think very carefully about who you're talking to..." Chris whispered in an almost deadly tone. James nearly shit himself.

Stella left James to his fate. Moving to the powerplant, she began backtracking...then paled.
"Black Rose."
A wizard level hacker even she was afraid of. Cutting all contact, Stella started to breath.
Rechecking her firewall, she did everything she could to secure herself.

Icarus,
I need more server power. In my dealings with Nexus I have found myself at risk against a wizard level hacker. I need more power to ensure I am safe while I continue my assault on nexus' mainframe. I need at least two more weeks to get through their encryption and into their main files.

Sending the message, she hung her head. "This is gonna suck."

"Uh uh," James stammered, in a panic despite his powers. "I didn't mean it like that. What I meant was that I have a hard time talking to new girls. Chris, Amy I'm friends with you two, used to you. I see you as girls yes but as my friends first." Their grip loosened, and Amy said "Go on." James sighed and said "You two.....you two are my best friends. And I've never seen you as anything but. But I still see you as girls as well, and yes without getting too gushy, attractive girls. But I'm just more used to you then every other girl in he his school."

Chris grinned a little and said "Except for Lauren, right? You seem to get on well with her." James groaned and said "Stop confounding my logic. I'm better at talking to some girls than others, okay? And I'm way better at making the second move, not the first."

So, where do you think we should put them. "I think we should just drop them at the school and ask someone to call the cops because I can't climb a building like this." he had two guys on each of his arms and a third n his back strapped on with darkness while his new and old snake head where dealing with the other two. We are going to draw attention to our selves the closer we are to the school. "Oh come one I'm quite sure they will think of it as cool" As he said that Marcus dropped the unconscious bodies on top of each other before walking behide a student. "Hi could you please call the cops" If his demonic voice wasn't enough, when the student turned he screamed and ran for it after seeing the shadow mask with those grey circleish triangle eyes. really, really. look how that went. 


"Um would you mean those 5 men" A student said, A look of fear was in his face but he was still there.

"Hi could you call the cops about those 5 guys, say that the darkness dropped off the 5 guys he was talking about earlier with their guns and drugs and to also if this reaches the news, the darkness says thanks to the Revenant." And with that he started to walk away hands in the pockets of his jumper.

I'd been fixated on the TV all morning, watching the news. They were going over the recent crimes, murders and yesterday's bank robbery, for example. I was more interested in the people involved, though. The man in the mechanised suit, and whoever he'd been fighting inside of the bank, because there had definitely been some fighting. My guard for the day was Corporal Mathews, so it was under his supervision that I was allowed to go out. He did exactly what I'd asked him to, taking me to the bank. I could smell the people who'd been there, though the smells were all very faint. Most of them, I didn't recognise, but there was one that I did, and that was what made me decide where to go next.

I'd followed my nose most of the way, but this time I'd started near where I'd met him the first time. It was an accident that I'd caught the smell from so far away the first time. There was a big building, and when I asked Corporal Mathews what it was, he'd called it a "School". He said that's where people learn. He also said that you can't just walk in to most of them unless you were a "Student".

"Why did you want to come here anyway, Kristen?" He asked turning around in the driver's seat to face me.
"I want to talk to that boy I met yesterday," I answered, "I need to ask him something,"
"Why didn't you just ask me or one of the other's at the house?" He asked.
"Only he knows," I said, reaching for the door handle, "Are you going to come with me?"
"No, just promise me that nothing's gonna happen?" He said to me, giving me a friendly smile. I liked him.
"I promise." I told him, smiling back as I got out of the car.

I knew how to break in to most buildings, and I'd already broken into more secure ones than this, so it was easy climbing in through an open upstairs window. I stepped out into the hallway, glancing around at the few people there. None of them seemed to notice me, so I did my best to look like I was supposed to be there and walked to the stairs.

Neither Chris nor Amy said anything for a moment, before Chris said "Not the best answer......but it's something at least." She folded her hands behind her head, casually walking away as she said "But for not pounding you James, you owe us both a smoothie." He chuckled a bit while Amy rolled her eyes, and they continued down the hall to the cafeteria. By habit, James started looking down the halls they passed.....and nearly tripped when he saw Kristen down one of them. "Kristen?" he blurted out.

I turned when I heard my name, looking straight at James and the two girls with him. I walked over to him with a pretty blank expression.
"Hello." I said to the three of them, glancing at his friends' faces.

Chris and Amy looked to where James was looking, seeing the strange girl walk over. "James," Amy said. "Who's this?" James turned his head a bit to look back at her and say "Kristen. I was walking yesterday and met her in he he neighborhood." After she stopped to smell me...