Project Mezzanotte: Betrayal

[Zyros]

2098, the United Nations develops and passes a treaty joining all countries on Earth into one and end world conflict. With no enemies on Earth, the flaws known as nationalism, militarism, alliances, and industrialism die off. People begin to develop what seems as a utopian society and technology advances tenfold due to the combined knowledge of what used to be separate countries. With virtually unlimited materials form any area in the world, as well as the greatest minds in scientific history coming together. Their leading scientist, Dr. Echelon, proposes design plans for a human-enhanced military unit, however the idea is rejected and in turn retooled for a new goal; Project Arc. The ideas of Project Act are revelead to the general public, and applicants from all over the world are asked as volunteers. The project's purpose is to create the super-humans and colonize the moon, and by extension, other planets in the solar system capable of life.

Currently, the terraforming and colonization efforts on the moon are progressing well, and more efficiently than anticipated due to the utilization of the mechanically enhanced super-humans, officially known as the Mezzanottes, named for being a former a "black" military project repurposed for the construction tasks of the colonization effort, and now somewhat openly known, though only in the extent of the desire for applicants for the Mezzanotte Project has been made public. Little does the public know the numbers sacrificed and dangerous capabilities of the Mezzanotte Units.

---

"Dr. Echelon, can you please explain why you have made an application for the military's retired project to be reactivated?"

"..."

-Five months later, current day-

"Welcome to your morning news. Today, applicants from seemingly all over the world are pouring in a d around the city in hopes of applying for Project Arc. As a result, the main roads have been closed by authorities to allow more walking space, and Gliders are still permitted within the downtown district and hoer areas. The city already seems overpacked, so if you're one of the individuals involved, you're late! In other news..."

An announcer spoke on the broadcasting station in the city as the streets screamed with chaos and excitement as Echelon Tower opened to the public for the first time since it's creation. Standing well over double the height of other buildings in the area, the towering structure commanded even the most focused civilian to stop, if only for a moment, to glance at it. At the head of the building a helicopter-like vehicle could be seen landing. This machine's outlandishly gold color scheme only further gathered the eyes of those passing by, despite it being hundreds of feet in the air. On the roof of Echelon Tower existed dozens of security personal awaiting the vehicle's landing, and by extension the owner himself, Dr. Echelon. The good doctor commanded respect, like his structure, due to his accomplishments in the scientific and medical fields, and so with every stride that he took a new guard next to him met with a salute. Echelon soon disappeared into the building, all the while thousands upon thousands of applicants for Project Arc hurried inside the main doors, aching for a spot. This was because not only did the project offer outstanding opportunities, but the pay was also well into the millions per accepted applicant.

Matthew was among those who would be attempting to sign up. If only he had been awake at the time, instead sleeping through his alarm. When he finally did awake, an hour after he intended, he forced himself to flush down a breakfast and run out of his house. In the process, he had forgotten to lock the door, but he was never coming back anyways.

Fairly tall, toned, and always hastily dressed, Matt, age 25, raced down his front lawn as quickly as was humanly possible. The only time his stride slowed was when he had leap into the air to activate the hovering function on his shoes and to throw his baseball cap on backwards, moving his messy hair out of his eyes. It was Matt's hope that with the shoes he could glide his way downtown and make up for lost time. At the pace he glided at, it would take about fifteen minutes from his suburb to downtown Echelon Tower. Thankfully for Matt, it was a quiet trip until a few blocks away from the building.

Matt blazed by a few people as he attempted to make his way through the crows and crowds of applicants such as himself. He almost knocked over one person as he forced his way through the front door. After finally arriving however, it seemed all for nothing, as there were line ups for the line ups for a registration form, let alone the line for after the form was completed. By the time he had been given the chance to write the written test and take the physical, the project would be over!

After waiting in line for what was literally hours, Matt finally got his application form and began filling it out. There was nothing that struck him as extraordinary in terms of described requirements, almost like the form intended to let practically anyone qualify. That was, until the last question, which was a notice for applicants as to the side effects that they might suffer from. The only listed thing, oddly enough, was that bone color might possibly change to midnight black.

"What? How could I even tell if my bones became black!? Whatever, dumbass question."

Once finally complete, Matt stood in line to submit the form and actually begin the qualification tests. This system seemed more efficient however, as there was a number system with a approximate time in place. It was currently 12:01pm when Matt took his number.

"Number... !!! Number 56,011!!! What the fuck!? Approximate time is 11:30pm!?"

With that, Matt decided he would leave for the time being and go eat somewhere. Given the busy nature of the city today, he figured his best shot at food would be his old man's restaurant a few blocks down, Farfalla. Matt exited the building, intent on returning later.

OCC: Here we go, sign up day. Your character could have arrived there any time from 4am that morning to 3pm that afternoon. They can get there how they'd like, and they can have whatever number you want, as log as two people dot have the same one. Feel free to wander around the area, it would be filled with clothing stores, restaurants, etc. *That's basically it, and you can either choose to make it all one post or split it up a bit and describe what your char did for that day. Just end with them actually taking both tests and going home.

[Ryo Hazaki]

John Triton arrived at the Echelon Tower fairly early in the day, having awoken at five that morning, a holdover from his days in the Air Force. As such, there were fewer people there, but still crowded. As a result, he was forced to park his car two blocks away, and finally arrived at about seven.

Triton found little wrong with the registration form. In fact, it almost reminded him of when he enlisted with the Air Force. Because of that, he expected the written test and physical test to be similar. After handing in his form, he received his number. However due to a random glitch in the system, he received a much higher number than he expected, 56,902, and was asked to return at 11:50 PM for his tests.

Cursing his luck, Triton decided to get some food, and then head to the library. He knew he'd be in for one seriously long day.

[Jarnakel Magnus]

Eric Ross was fortunate enough to live rather close to the tower. He had moved downtown in order to be close to his place of work, and so arrived at the tower at 6 AM on the dot. Parking his car on a nearby side road, he turned on the damaged repairbot he'd brought with him, modified a few settings, and rushed into the tower. The lines were not as bad as they would be later, but they were still rather long. Eric passed the time as the line slowly inched forward by working on a small electronic device.

He ignored the odd glances he received as he switched between screwdriver, pliers, micro-welder, and tweezers, so intent was he upon his work. When he finally reached the desk with the registration forms, it took him nearly twenty seconds to realize that people behind him were becoming rather upset.

Quickly pocketing his project, he snatched a form and whirled away to a table. Ignoring the writing utensil that had been provided, he removed the pen that was perched on his ear. He preferred to use his pen, as the ink contained some of his DNA. This meant that it was difficult to falsify his signature.

As Eric filled out the form, he noticed that the questions were rather bland and ordinary, which only served to make him answer in ways that he hoped would make him stand out. When he got to the last question, however, he stopped. It wasn't really a question, more of a notice. A notice that a side effect of joining the project would be that his bones may turn black.

Odd.

While he would prefer to be on the research team, it was highly likely that he would instead become one of the Project's guinea pigs. The notice was phrased oddly. There was no real reason to let people know their bones may change color... Suspicious. Either the color change was linked to a potentially harmful side effect, which they were required to notify applicants about, or... Something else.

Hmm... Very well then. I'll just have to do some research on this later.

He noted that he was perfectly fine with his bones turning black, turned his form in, and received his number.

Number 8,202. Approximate time, 7:45 PM.

Eric pulled back a coat sleeve, and glanced at his arm implant. 7:40 PM. Wonderful. He walked swiftly out of the building in search of something to eat.

[Zyros]

OOC: Actually, 12:01pm would be right in the afternoon, and 11:30pm would be at night. Don't be confused with 12:01 AM and 11:30pm. The second test is more or less your regular physical, think for a police exam. Simple obstacle course, really.

[Jarnakel Magnus]

OOC: Oh. you didn't specify, and since your OOC said that they needed to arrive by 3 PM...

I'll edit it tomorrow then.

[☆Chrystal Chronicler☆]

An alarm went off in an apartment in the lower part of the city. Charles Jenkins, looking like he hardly had enough sleep, looked at the clock.

"2 AM already?" he yawned as he stumbled out of his bed. Jenkins sat up on his bed and stared at his apartment in a blank expression. His apartment was orderly and clean. He kept his clothes in a standard dresser and drawer. On a stand by the door was his hoodie, leather jacket, and his longcoat, along with newsboy cap and a motorbike helmet. Furthermore, on his bedside table Jenkins had his Bowie Knife that he kept sharpened, and his dark sunglasses.

After about 5 minutes Jenkins finally got conscious enough to go to the bathroom and use his shower. The steaming shower shook him to his senses, and he got out fully awake. He cleared the fog out of the mirror, and stared into his unnaturally gold eyes.

"What are you looking at?" he grumbled at his eyes that offended him so, and went on to his bedroom to get dressed. He dressed modestly, putting on his jeans and a t-shirt, and put his boots on. Jenkins then put his Bowie knife into it holster in his boot, which was hidden to the untrained and most trained eyes. Even in times of peace, Jenkins knew it was better to have some sort of weapon on him than not to have one when it was needed. He then threw on his leather jacket, put on his sunglasses to block his unusual golden eyes and grabbed his helmet; the time was around 3:25 AM when he left.

Jenkins, living on the other side of the city, kept his motorcycle in a community garage. The rider put on his helmet and started up the vehicle, and headed his way out to Echelon Tower. The vast size of the city, along with the heavy traffic going toward the event, made the drive last around four hours. Jenkins, knowing that the roads would be closed at a certain point, had already arranged for his bike to be stored at a paid garage. It only took him a half an hour walk from that point to reach Echelon Tower.

For a few moments, Jenkins marveled at the architecture. Maybe too long, as one memorable young man knocked into him and he nearly keeled over.

"Freaking kids," muttered Jenkins as he walked into the building, and waited patiently in line, waiting for a few hours for his paperwork. When he finally got to it, he felt the questions tedious and boring. It wasn't till the last question, which stated that his bones may turn midnight black, that he found it intriguing. "What? We can't make them blue?" Jenkins chuckled to himself as he finished the form, agreeing that he would be fine with that side effect.

After waiting in line for another long period of time, Jenkins submitted his form and got his number around 11:55 A.M.

"Crud, number 55,992, report for physical examinations at 11:25 P.M. Well that's just perfect." he grumbled. However, Jenkins secretly knew in the back of his head. He decided he would make the most of the time he had, and went off to a fast food joint and decided to spend the day resting, waiting for his physical exam.

[Karnstantine]

Reveille was not the most pleasant way to wake up for anybody, especially when surrounded by concrete walls and several feet underground. But, for Sgt. Maj. Grady and Pvt. 1st C. Bradbury, it was the sound of a great day beginning. For today, they had "shore leave". So to speak, since they weren't on a ship, though the confines of the Facility were so isolated from the outside world that they may as well have been in the middle of an ocean. But, today was also the day that they might have had their best chance at getting the hell out of this hole in the ground, and on to something worthwhile. They had changed into their casual clothes, in their respective barracks of course (though Grady's didn't exactly match most normal definitions of "casual"), and worked their way through the various exit-checkpoints. That they met Dr. Carmichael, not sporting her trademark labcoat this day, on the way out was of no surprise to them, the three had made an agreement shortly before to arrange this day off in order to attempt to circumvent military transfer and apply to the Mezzanotte Project. They were escorted via military transport to an armory outside of the city Echelon Tower was in, and incidentally where their civilian vehicles were stored. Grady's was an SUV, Bradbury's was a 2-door Sedan-style vehicle, and Dr. Carmichael's was a compact car which seemed barely large enough to fit two people in, let alone three. Grady's was the obvious choice. There was some time to chat during the trip, which was easier to do than in the Facility or during their transport to the base, as they were monitored more directly. (For future reference, Grady is Dark Red, Dr. Carmichael is Green, and Katrina is Royal Blue)."It's about time we got out of there for a while. I swear, the starch on those labcoats was so thick I think it was getting through the Enviro-seals on my suit. No insults intended, Leslie." "None taken, Grady." "You know, the wait for that project has to be enormous, right? I mean, from what I heard on the news, people from all over the continent have been flooding in for a chance at it..." "That's why we're coming in early and skipping breakfast, remember?" "Yeah, yeah, I know, Sarge." At this comment, Grady replied, jokingly: "If we were back at base, I could slam you with insubordination for that, Private." "Well then, it's a good thing we aren't at base then, huh?" At that, there were some mild chuckles, then Grady turned the stereo in his vehicle, which was set up with a high-strength 5G connection, and the station it was on was "classic rock". Though, "Classic" for them would have been the "Modern" of the era 88 years previous. The transit wasn't too long, though given the size of Echelon Tower and the general maze of streets around it, it was a deceptive landmark. That, and the roadblock in the area immediately surrounding the Tower forced Grady to park, and the entire party to walk the rest of their course. Well, sorta. Gliders. How'd anyone get around without them before? Well, they were presumably comparable with those pretentious "wheelies" and "segways" from decades ago, but these were rather public access.

When they entered the building, they discovered just how... Preposterously gargantuan the line was for registration. Luckily, with the three of them together, they didn't lose their place in line, for those hours-on-hours they were occupied in it. Dr. Carmichael passed the time by practically fangirling over Dr. Echelon, since she knew much about his medical projects having been originally intended to be a medical major. The others listened, because what they heard was fairly interesting, and might have been useful to know. Though, after a few hours, it became grating. Luckily, they reached the head of the line before it got TOO bad. Of course, that was just the applications phase, which the commentary on which was quite... strange.

Then it was off to the testing application-submission line. This time, the topic was video-entertainment from a little over a century ago, like movies from the year 1988. They reached the head of this line at 11:15 AM, and the numbers they received for their testing were 50783, 50784, and 50785. Nowhere near the first, but guaranteed nowhere near the last, at the time they showed up. Their testing was to begin at 11:00 PM on the dot. Well great. At least they had some time to catch up on their meals before they had to do anything. A bar & grill a few blocks away was sufficient for what they needed...

[Seth-Rah]

Cassandra's day started out like many of her others. It began with a complete absence of any grace, as the dawn was heralded by the familiar thumping sound of a young woman tripping on her way out of bed. After pushing herself off the floor for the umpteenth time, Cassandra continued with her normal morning routine. In time, she was cleaned, dressed, and had eaten. Having little else to do, she began to make her way out of her home, more than somewhat tired. Yet another night without enough sleep. It was really starting to bug her.

Time passed, and she eventually arrived at the tower. Way too many people crammed together. Cassandra wasn't opposed to crowds, but there were limits! A bit of room to move was kind of a necessity, and there were too many people for that. Then there was the waiting. Could the day possibly get any more intolerably dull?

As it turned out, it could. The wait continued. It then continued longer. It continued some more. Then, when she thought it was almost over, it continued even longer. And just a bit more.

Arc had better be worth this.

Time passed. She eventually got the written part of the test. Dull, dull, dull, usual, repetitive, dull. Unnoteworthy. Unoutstanding. Really, it made it look like she could get in. They really needed to improve their standards.

Well, maybe their screw up would help her.

More of the same, more unnoteworthy, dull questions. Blah blah, question, blah blah, boring. Blah blah, dull, blah blah, black bones. Sure, whatever.

Wait, what?

She paused at the end, rereading the notice. She reread it again, just to be sure. What kind of stupid warning was that? What did she care? It wasn't her teeth or anything. If it was her teeth turning black, she might have a problem, but who was going to see her bones? Stupid, stupid warning. What kind of stupid side effect was that?

Some more time passed. She got it in, got her number. She didn't much care about the number itself; it was just another big number, one she wished was actually money. No, more relevant was the time.

Midnight.

They could not be serious about that. A physical examination? At midnight? Really? Really? Who in their right mind took a physical at midnight? Who in their right mind gave a physical at midnight? Midnight was for sleeping! For most people. She wasn't normally sleeping at midnight, but she preferred it when others were, certainly...

But she was hungry. There was plenty of time to eat, at least. That was about the only upside. As she left the tower to seek out something to eat, she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Great, now what? It was probably the same asshole as always. Always the best timing. Yet it would be worse if she just ignored him. With that in mind, she forced herself to answer it.

A brief conversation ensued. From it, she was reminded of the unfairness of life, a constant lesson it had pounded into her skull so frequently she shouldn't have been able to forget. Tybalt had spotted her on his way out. Tybalt of all people had gotten there early, and he had already gotten his physical test out of the way. That pretentious asshole! Then there was that one line. That one line that she couldn't get out of her head.

If patience is a sin, then surely I am the most wretched man on Earth.

He just wasn't going to give up, was he? Tybalt Ventrilo, ever thick-skulled. Just thinking about the conversation again was starting to get her worked up. How did he do that to her? There were times he made her just want to give him a good punch. Right in the face. Or... snout? Snout was kind of appropriate. Yeah, punch him right in the snout. That was a hilarious image. Tybalt with a snout. How appropriate.

She needed food. With that thought in mind, Cassandra made her way away from the tower in search of somewhere actually decent to eat. Then she would need to find something to do for several hours, eat again, find somewhere quiet to rest, and then finally show up again... at midnight.

It was going to be a wonderful afternoon.

[Blackhook]

Leaving the Echelong tower was just as difficult as getting inside. No wonder that Olivier van Auger, a woman with a really short temper, seemed very irritated as she finnaly got out, hitting a few bystanders ,that were unfortunate enough to be standing in her way, with her kane. The red haired woman finnaly got to the parking lot and entered a white limousine. She took place inside the luxurious car and drank a glass of mineral water, before being greeted by the chauffeur - a young black haired woman who was wearring a blue uniform.
"Welcome back, Madame."
"Sorry it took me so long, Jean, I didn't think there would be this many space vasting simpletons out here. I hope you didn't get too much bored"
Replied Olivier. She tried to sound friendly, but the irritation in her voice was obvious.
"I thought that by getting here early I wouldn't have to wait here for hours...But I guess some of them were even sleeping infront of the tower. Atleast I was 'lucky' enough to get a four digit number = 7777 ...that is one seven too many in my opinion. For a moment I thought about to leave before a chance to get an application. Well, I'm glad I didn't. Some of the questions there were rather..interesting to say the least..."
Jean looked at her employer with a curious look on her face.
"Interesting, madame? What was inside the application that caught your attention?"
Olivier smiled at her .
"I won't go into any details, let's just say that I got more curious about what Dr. Echelon is planning. There is more to it than he lets the public believe."
"Do you think it's safe to take part of it, madame?"
Olivier didn't even think before answering.
"No, but I just can't resist..."
Olivier noticed the worried look in Jean's face. This is one of the reasons she liked her butler. Jean really cared about her.
" There is no need to continue with this conversation here. How about lunch, Jean? I sure am starving. My physical test starts at 6.45 pm so I have plenty of time!"
"Y-yes madame, I'm sure there are some restaurants around here."
"I'm sure you can find a nice place where we can eat, I should repay you somehow for your long waiting."
Jean then started the car. They've left the parking lot. Olivier looked back at the Echelon tower, thinking about project Arc. She simply joined out of curiosity, to find out the true meaning of the projects and also find out more about Dr. Echelon himself. The application really made it clear that those who will be accepted might become nothing more than Echelon's lab rats, thought that might be just the result of Olivier's paranoia...

OOC: I hope that I'm not any rules by including Jean? She isn't an important character, she will just be around till the project starts..

[Bloodbane]

After getting up at 5 in the morning, something that had pretty much become instinct after what was close to 6 years in the Marine Corps, Ryan Rayland prepared for what would more than likely be a rather long day at Echelon Tower, considering what he had heard about the estimates for the number of applicants that would arrive later that day. He had been on leave for the past few months, deciding that if he was going to serve in the military for two more years before his term was over, it might as well be something exciting like this Project Arc thing everyone was talking about, as opposed to sitting on a military base where there wouldn't be all that much to do considering the armies of the world had united long before he was born. If worst came to worst, Ryan may have had to deal with some radical group at one time or another in his service, and even then it really didn't amount to much more than work that any police officer probably could have done... but that was beside the point. By 6 AM, Ryan was standing in the immense lines brought about by the overwhelming number of applicants.

Waiting, waiting... hours of waiting. He had seen something like this happen before, and he couldn't help but laugh when he imagined how different this line would be if someone snuck a drill sergeant in to give everyone hell. If there was anything anyone could think of that would thin out these lines just a little bit, a drill sergeant from boot camp would definitely be at the top of Ryan's list. By the time he reached the head of the registration line, Ryan was already starting to get bored... and he really didn't like that. Fortunately, he had a nice long application he could fill out while standing in the next line to keep him occupied.

"Yeah, yeah... jeez, are they just gonna take any old bum off the street or what?" He said to himself as he worked through the application, which seemed generalized to an extreme. There really didn't seem to be much of any restriction on who was going to be getting into this thing, and he couldn't help but dread the thought of having to deal with what would essentially be an army likely comprised of mostly civilians for the next... well, who knew how long?

And then he hit the one about the side effects. "... Black bones...? Uhhh... kaaay..." He said, scratching his head a bit, almost perplexed at how pointless such a question seemed. How the hell was anyone gonna know if their bones were black or not? It wouldn't be black on an X-ray, and if someone broke a bone to the point where it stuck out, there would be a lot more to worry about than the bone being black, that was for sure.

Once the form was filled out, Ryan didn't have much else to do but wait... and wait... and wait... until he finally reached the head of the line at about 10:30 AM, where he got a number that, while it definitely didn't look like all that great of a number, it probably could've been much worse.

"47,693... Hoo boy." He said, nodding in acknowledgment as he stepped away from the line and read the time he would take his physical exams. On the bright side, he wouldn't have to be back here until about 10:00 PM. Of course, he expected there would be a bit of a wait then, but that wasn't such a big deal. Exiting the Tower, Ryan started looking around for a place to eat that appealed to him... just the first of what would probably be several things he would do to kill time until 10 PM.

[Teqed]

Jon's alarm started ringing at 2AM. He didn't mind it. He had already been awake. For a good twenty minutes, now. Lying in his bed.

He pulled himself out of the bed and turned off his alarm. He got dressed, brushed his teeth, ate breakfast... All mundane. All by rote. He grabbed his jacket and slung it over his shoulder on the way out, still early.

He arrived before they were even open. He sat outside on a nearby bench, where a few other early-risers were waiting, and saw others join them as time progressed. As 4AM rolled around, he was one of the first in the door. He didn't see the point in dragging along behind, other than wasting more time waiting behind others. He received his first test, and sat to fill it down.

Knowing his personal information well, he breezed through it. Simple, straight-forward, not much unusual. Basic details. Until...
"Black bones." he muttered out loud. Briefly glancing around himself, he saw a few others come along that portion of the questioning, as well. He weighed the idea. He didn't understand how it worked scientifically, but he doubted the scientists would provide such a warning if it wasn't serious. The consequences...He couldn't see his bones, but he thought their color came through his skin a bit. He wondered if his teeth would take the same color, as well. But... If the project delivered on all it promised, he was willing to go for it.

Supplying his form, fully filled out, he was assigned the number 32. His physical was minutes away, and he patiently waited for it. It was just as much of a breeze as the first test...And without a 'black bones' type warning attached.

Jon finished the application process quite early, and marveled at the mass gathering and being painfully processed as he exited. He walked out of the vicinity of it, and decided to hang around the area for a while before going home, since he had the rest of the day. Besides, it's not like he had anything at home to get back to...

[NDraxian0]

Nova got up relatively early. After barely dismissing the idea of heading out in full magician attire, she decided to go with something a less eccentric, but still quite bright and flashy. Though she couldn't resist wearing a mini cape. She ended up arriving late enough that the crowds were sizable to say the least. It absolutely delighted her to see such a crowd. And the variety... oh the variety. Honestly expecting to only see soldiers and scientists show up, she was quite surprised to see so many other walks of life here. Despite the fact that just watching people was entertaining to her, the line's wait dragged on far too long for even her tastes.
Nova brings a few decks of cards whenever she's able just for times like this. Her own crowd drawing star would be drowned out easily by Echelons sun here, but a few card tricks would definitely keep her and some of those of the crowd nearby mildly entertained until thier turns. Of course, this eventually created a small disturbance in the line, to little over all effect, given its size, and although it was not her intent at the time she ended up distracting a few in front of her enough to take their spots in line as she subtly worked her way to the registration desk with the rest of the line.

She noticed a few shocked faces in line when she picked up her form. They probably figured she was entertaining hired to keep the people in line from becoming too bored. If only the organizers had that kind of foresight.
She found the form mostly too mundane... nothing abnormal, nothing to to really fill out that would really make her, or well anyone to stand out. Nothing, except black bones. How would they know that the project might turn bones black? Actually, how is obvious, they're scientists. WHY would be the better question. But its an exciting possibility. Black bones...
She turns in the filled out form, and her number 65535 and time for the physical her exclaiming "FFFF-" much to the amusement of a few persons behind her, for a reason she didn't quite understand. But if its entertaining, she'd have to look into the matter at a later time.

She'd spend her time waiting for her physical test the same way she spent waiting to get the form, performing card tricks to the waiting crowd. It kept her busy, and as far as she's concerned someone SHOULD be trying to keep the crowd from becoming too bored. It might explode other wise.

The physical itself she spent bending the tests just enough to show her sense of flair, without being disobedient. It irked the heck out of one of the examiners, much to Nova's enjoyment. After that, entertaining random areas the crowd seemed like a nice way to spend the rest of the day, and she might just make a few good impressions on people she might just work with in the future. And that would be a nice head start.

[♠Dameon♠]

"11:00 already!? I really need to stop staying up so late."
Drabek quickly rolls out of bed and rushes to put on his clothes. It was going to be difficult to reach Echelon Tower at this time of day with so many people in the area, but having lived in the city as long as he has has it's benefits.

Before running out the door Drabek grabs an extra pair of shoes and some cologne, and heads for the nearest sewer entrance.

"Looks like no one's around... Should be able to drop in unnoticed."
The cover came off without much effort, no bolts or anything held it in place. There were only a few covers like this in the city, but Drabek knew where they all were. It would only be about a 15 minutes walk to the manhole cover nearest Echelon Tower, and another 15 to actually get to the tower should the crowds be as ridiculous as expected.

Time passes as Drabek reaches the exit he's looking for. Lifting the cover up a little bit, he scans the alley to make sure no one sees him before he climbs out.

"Heh... I think I'm starting to get used to that smell... Kinda distrubing..." he laughs to himself as he pulls out his bottle of cologne and spray's himself down with it, he also switches out his shoes with his extra pair. The walk to the tower was incredibly sluggish with so many people to work through, but Drabek eventually found his way to the first of several lines inside... Roughly three hours pass by the time he receives the application form and begins to fill it out. Simple... Almost a bit to simple really... The only thing that really stood out was warning about bones turning black as a side effect...

"Black bones... That actually sounds kind of cool in a way."
The next line went much more quickly, Drabek submitted the form and received his number. 56,218... He'd have to report back around 10:30 that night.

"Ugh... Kinda late for a physical isn't it? Eh... I guess I should just hang out here for now..." Drabek's stomach growls interrupting him... "Oh... I guess I should have eaten something before coming over here."
He puts the ticket with his number on it in his pocket before heading to the nearest restaurant...

[Karnstantine]

Having returned to Echelon tower to meet their preposterous time for physicals, the trio found themselves in some distinctly different scenarios, though all with the same result.

------------------
"Excuse me, what?" "I said that our only openings right now are for subjects for the actual Mezzanotte Project, we currently have a fully equipped research team for Project Arc's terraforming procedures." "...Then maybe-" "And no, I can't just put you through the channels for the actual Mezzanotte Project procedures, since you didn't come here and sign for that." "But I-" "You aren't a valid subject anyways, because of your arm there, and the PolyMend that makes up half of your left ribs." Ah, yes. The crash that gave her a mechanical arm shattered much of her left ribcage, so new sections had to be molded out of a flexible medical-grade polymer cement. "..." "You seem like you really want to get in on the project, but I'm sorry. I just can't do anything for you." "That's... Ok. I'll just... head back home then. Thank you for your time." Dr. Carmichael was decidedly upset by the verdict. Partly because of the lack of openings, but also because her bionics and skeletal repairs had denied her an opportunity. She slowly walked towards the lobby, not looking forward to slipping her labcoat back on in the morning and getting back to that pointless work.

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

"You can't be serious." "Unfortunately, I am." "But that was back in highschool, they didn't even turn me over in the military for it!" "But the chemicals you have had in your system could negatively effect the procedures you would be going through. That, and you don't exactly fit the body type we need." Katrina looked at the examiner oddly, since that was a rather odd comment. So what if she utilized neurological stimulants in her highschool years? It made her think faster back then... But, then, it DID almost kill her once...

Well shit. Back to the obnoxious, boring grind, then. She stood up in a huff, then turned towards the door. Walking out of it, she heaved a sigh, then headed back to the lobby...

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

Grady was gritting his teeth at his examiner. "What do you MEAN I'm in a non-transfer position? I'm only a major!" "Yes, but you also work at a... special facility." "Goddamn! Is there no possible way for me to get out?" "Not until your own superiors release you from service. But, today's the only scheduled day we are accepting applicants." "..." Grady heaved a defeated sigh. "Fine. I'd best be getting out of here, then." Grady stood up calmly, and headed out of the door. But in the empty hall, he yelled and expletive and punched the wall, likely unnerving somebody in the exam room wall he punched, then stomped towards the lobby.

[Zyros]

Dr. Echelon would sit in his office as the applicants for the day poured in. He was a man who liked to take care of his own company, and in an inexplicable fashion, was sorting through every applicant's written form and overseeing their physical test, though few would have likely recognized him the way he was dressed. Sporting a regular labcoat, his hair slicked back with gel, and the lack of his trademark glasses, few would notice him unless they purposely kept an eye out.

By midnight, Echelon decided to cut everyone who had not yet even had their physical. He ha already found his last subject. Another scientist approached Dr. Echelon, whispering some inaudible message into his ear. Echelon then spoke with confidence.

"We're done here. Evacuate the building of all non-personal."

With that command, anyone in the building, regardless of what they were doing, were evacuated and put into the streets, which were overcrowded now. Only a select few remained in the lobby, approximately twenty-five of them.*

---

Matt enjoyed the rest of his afternoon by dodging the crowds in his father's restaurant. On a normal occasion, the restaurant would have been open, but it had specifically been closed to allow Matt some breathing room from the populated downtown. There, he ate, took a nap, played cards, and eventually continued his day by wandering around downtown. When t came time for his physical, Matt returned to the Tower. There he waited a bit and then took the test.

When midnight came around Matt had been told to wait inside the building. He took this as a good sign, as literally almost everyone else was being forced out. Once that was done, Dr. Echelon appeared before the now small group in his usually clothing, blue jeans from an expensive brand, a polo, long trench coat, and his trademark custom glasses resembling Aviators. His hair was also in his normal styling, no longer slicked back with gel. He was accompanied by two other men, both unimaginably tall at 6'8''. They said nothing as Dr. Echelon spoke.*

"You've all been accepted into the project, congratulations. Try not to scream."

The doors of the tower would dim until no one could see outside or in.*

[Zyros]

OOC: you all get rejected. Have your chars go home.

[Ryo Hazaki]

Triton was confused. How could he have failed his physical? He had gone to great pains to keep himself at the same exacting physical standards the military required. As he left the building, Triton's brow furrowed in thought. It was almost as if they were looking for something else other than physical fitness.

Instead of going straight home, he decided to swing by a friend's place.

Davis Henderson was surprised to see his old Air Force buddy show up at his door, given that it was going on one in the morning.

"Hey, man, how's it been? You get approved for Project Arc?"

"No, and that's got me concerned." Triton began after being handed a glass of scotch in his buddy's basement den. "You know the shape I keep myself in, and yet I failed the physical." At these words, Davis choked on his drink, and after some coughing, managed to respond.

"What?! You? Mister-I-demand-perfection? They must be grading to a higher standard than even the Space Agency. And you've been short-listed to join them." Davis sputtered.

"Heh. How much do you want to bet that the Space Agency gets deep-sixed once Project Arc begins? If it goes off without any problems, there won't be any need for the Agency." Triton said.

The two chatted like this for another hour before Triton left. As he walked, his mind began churning over what had happened since early the previous day. The one thing that kept coming back to him was the warning that had he been approved, something would have happened that would likely blacken his bones.

Triton was confused on this point. The only thing that came immediately to mind that could do that was extreme heat. But if the heat was high enough to blacken bone, the flesh around the bone would have been burned away. Another possibility was a massive infusion of carbon.

But what would be the point of that? Triton asked himself as he walked through his front door and reset his home alarm, before taking a shower and crawling into bed.

Before he went to sleep, his mind reflected on the fact that when he woke up yesterday morning, he was sure he'd be approved for Project Arc. He told himself to forget it. He had patients to see later today, and his efforts were better spent on helping them, not wondering what might have been.

Triton rolled over, and within a minute or two, he was asleep.

OOC: Davis is simply a character from Triton's past and will most likely never be seen or heard from again.

[☆Chrystal Chronicler☆]

Jenkins returned to the Tower around 11:00 PM. At 11:25, he reported to the physical examination room, where he was examined by a doctor. And, of course, he made him take off his sunglasses.
"I have never seen or heard of an eye pigment such as this." exclaimed the doctor.
"Its nothing; please don't talk about it, thank you." replied Jenkins, who had gotten used to these conversations.
Ignoring him, the doctor took out his card, handing it to Jenkins. "Even if you don't get in to the project, I would still like to see you; this seems to be an incredibly rare mutation, and I would love to study it." Jenkins took the card, thinking that if he argued, it would lessen his chances of getting into the program.
Next came the obstacle course. Jenkins went through the obstacle course as if he had been doing it his entire life. However, as he approached the end, the test was ended. A couple of scientists came out and explained that he needed to leave the building immediately.
I guess I was not what they wanted in an applicant. He said as he exited the building. Expertly dodging the crowd, Jenkins walked to the garage where he impounded his motorcycle. Paying for the parking, Jenkins mounted it and set off home.

---

Curious, the doctor that had examined Jenkins earlier decided to look into Jenkins family records, seeing if that trait was hereditary. However, the doctor could not access the records.
"Impossible, I have one of the highest security clearances in the world. There is no way that even I can't access his records!" exclaimed the doctor. Even more curious now, he then decided to check the footage of Jenkins interrupted physical. The Doctor was amazed that someone with no training at all could go through such a course effortlessly. "Just who are you?" questioned the doctor, leaving his office to watch what Echelon would do to the new subjects.

---

Jenkins parked his motorcycle into his apartment's garage, and proceeded to his apartment. It was the middle of the night, and Jenkins entered his apartment. Immediately, he knew something was wrong, and noticed a man sitting in his armchair. The man wore military fatigues, and looked in his early 30's. He quickly snatched his knife out of his boot, and charged at the man. The man, who new so very well how Jenkins fought, easily disarmed and put him into a lock.

Now, Charles, I know I taught you better than that, son. The older Jenkins let go of his son, who rolled into a defensive position, crouched, and waited for his father's next move. Jenkins looked very much like his father. For one, they both had the same golden eyes that Jenkins hated so. For another, due to his constant military training and the marvels of modern medical sciences, he looked like he could almost be Charles's older brother. Besides, is this any way to greet your father? smirked his father.

OOC: I will post a second part soon to this. Jenkins Senior is probably important enough to warrant a colour text.

[NDraxian0]

"Not accepted huh?" Nova mutters to herself after being shooed away by the guards. Their loss. She would have liked to be involved in such a project, but its no loss for her. There are plenty of interesting people in the world, and she'd be the one to study them, even from a far. Even the reactions of the crowd leaving the complex was fascinating. The best ones were the rarer ones, like the few of relief rather than disappointment.

She'd have to try to keep some sort of tab on the project though, maybe through the news. It'd be fun trying to predict what the thoughts of those involved just through the limited information she'd have. But, she'd probably be too interested in other things though... unless something special happened.

the Trip home flowed past uneventfully, even dispite a few stares at her strange attire as she continued to ponder the events of the day. At least she had fun, which is probably more than most of the crowd will likely get to say. Correction, possibly more that most the crowd. After all she was trying to entertain them most of the day, so maybe they enjoyed their wait as well. Either way, she chalks the day as a success.

Ah well, home sweet home. She'd have to go in full magician's attire to the next big thing. That would get such the reaction. One last meal before heading to bed, and not even bothering to undress, she curls up with her two rather bizzare plushies and falls asleep.

[Seth-Rah]

She had eaten. She had occupied herself for the afternoon, gotten some things done, and eventually eaten again. Then she'd kept herself busy, before eating a snack and making her way to the tower. She had just gotten there, just before midnight, almost at the doors of the tower. Then things went wrong. People started coming out, and she had more and more trouble getting closer. Then there were the snippets she heard, something about it being over.

That wasn't possible. She hadn't even gotten her physical test yet! There was no way it could be over! She'd been out there the entire day, all for the project! Oh, sure, she didn't really think she would have been accepted, but she didn't even get a chance.

But, inevitably, she was forced to accept it. There was nothing to be done, and she had lost. Complete failure. Denied before she even really had a shot. The doors to the tower dimmed, and it became impossible to tell what was going on inside. Not that she could have anyway, with all the people in the way.

The crowd slowly dispersed, and she finally had some breathing room some time later. It was late. Very late, really, and her home was a decent distance away. She didn't really want to go that far alone at night, which didn't leave her a huge number of options. There was contacting a friend or acquaintance, or finding a hotel, and actually making it home was preferable. But most of the ones that were close enough wouldn't be terribly helpful.

But wasn't there always one person she could rely on? One person who was always there, willing to help? That was right. There was always Tybalt...

She had the brief mental image of him standing inside the tower, alongside a few lucky others.

Fat chance. There was no way that asshole had gotten accepted, and she still had more dignity than to call on him for aid. No, if Tybalt was her only option for companionship, she would travel alone for the night. She wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of having her call on him for aid. Especially at that time of night.

Idiot. Couldn't even be bothered to actually be around when he might have been useful.

Well, there was no helping it. She didn't know her way around the area well enough to find anything, which meant she needed to either get help or just get over her own concerns and head home. She really didn't want to deal with the crowd lulling around the area any more than she had to, which left going home. As if it hadn't been a long enough day already.

Eventually making her way out of the area around the tower, Cassandra began to make her way back to her home. Time passed, and she finally arrived, rather late in the night. It had fortunately been an uneventful trip. After raiding her fridge for a late night snack, she changed her clothes as appropriate and then returned to her bed with slightly more grace than she regularly displayed in the mornings.

Failure always left a bitter taste in her mouth, this time even more so. The absolute certainty that Tybalt had fared no better only made it slightly more bearable.

[Jarnakel Magnus]

Eric blinked, and took another bite of his cookie. While it hadn't been expressly stated, most of the people in the room had been rejected. Including himself.

Of course, he hadn't expected to be accepted. It was good he had not let his hope get the better of him. He had heard people bragging about how they were so sure they'd be accepted, they had quit their jobs.

As the crowd began moving out of the building, he stood and continued eating, the crowd flowing around him, as if he were a sandbar. It was only when he had finished his cookie that he left, following the second to last clump of stragglers out of the building, and tossing the wrapper into a trash bin on the way out.

When he reached his car, he leaned against it, and stared at the darkening sky. It would have been good to get into the project, yes, but he had been foolish to hope as much. Why would they accept a relatively unknown engineer such as himself? After a few more minutes watching the stars, he sighed, and entered his car. As he drove slowly home, he was far too preoccupied with his thoughts to notice the building darken behind him....

[Teqed]

Rejected. He didn't know why. Simply...Rejected. He sighed heavily as he lazily walked down a street towards him home. Maybe they already had enough applicants. Can't accept everybody that fits the bill. Of course, Jon had gotten there quite early...But he tried to ignore that fact. He tried not to speculate as to why he wasn't accepted. It wouldn't help anything. Rejected. Damn it.

Truthfully, Jon had been rather looking forward to the project. It seemed like a good opportunity to escape from everyday life. Everyday life... What he had to face tomorrow. And every other day.

As Jon came up on his home, he started to figure that maybe he should look into more projects like this. Maybe there were other opportunities like this that weren't as...publicized. If he didn't get into this huge one... Maybe he could get into another interesting project. He had never really looked around for them before, he had simply heard of this one rather recently because of how well-known it's organizers were.

And, well, of course... All that was promised and anticipated of it. It was truly an exciting project... He wasn't sure how he'd find another project like it.

Jon came up onto the dark, shadowed porch of his building and unlocked the door. He headed into his lonely room, and sighed again. Rejected.

[Blackhook]

After a nice day in the city Olivier returned to the tower to take part on the physical exam. The exam wasn't anything special, so Olivier had a good feeling when it was over.
She then spent the next hours wandering around the tower, talking with Jean. She couldn't leave the poor girl stay inside the car the whole day.
When the time came to annouce who was chosen for the project, Olivier felt really confident. She couldn't believe it when Echelon annouced that she together with the majority was rejected.
"This must be some kind of mistake"
She didn't take it well when she was pushed outside. Jean had to hold her down, so she wouldn't hit one of the workers with her cane. After she calmed down, Olivier returned to her car.
"I can't believe that this turned out to be such a waste of time! That Echelon doesn't know what is good for him. I hope that the project will fail!"
"Shall we drive home madam?"
"Yes, Jean. I had enouch of this place..."

[Karnstantine]

Having been told outright that they would not and could not be accepted into the Project, the soldiers and the scientist had left some time before everyone else got shooed out. They'd relocated the car and headed back to the facility. It was distinctly far away from the city, in a place where there remained trees and even wild animals like wolves in some places, and was deep enough to be blocked by casual ground view. The barracks where the guards stayed was, next to the entry building, the only major above-ground structure the facility had, and was where Grady and Kat had to store their off-duty clothing and armament while at their posts.

And it was there they proceeded again, as the night had grown late already, and they had to return to their postings in the morning.

[Zyros]

Time passed since the application day at Echelon Tower. Despite the great hype surrounding the entire Project Arc, not much about the more interesting aspects of the task were widely available to the public. On a few occasions, information managed to somehow leak out, and disturbing images of people suffering horrible experimentations came to light, but these were denied as being Dr. Echelon or his staff’s actions. The increased leaks of information would give tiny bits of knowledge to a much greater puzzle, until finally, roughly a year after the application day, an image surfaced in the media. While blurred, the distinct silhouette of what vaguely looked human could be made out. At the very least, it was humanoid, with multiple spikes protruding from its body, clenching another humanoid silhouette mid air with one arm. The man seemed struggling for life as his body’s oxygen supply was seemingly cut off, and in the foreground many more dressed like him were dead and mutilated. The media nicknamed the murderous figure "Viking" due to the horns protruding from its head. When enhanced, the image clearly revealed Echelon’s company logo present on the monster. The lid was blown; Project Arc was being altered from its intended path. This would interfere with Project Arc’s second application opportunity, for something called the EX-Series Project, and shut down all progress on the current portion of the project. With the halt in the development of the new super-humans, development of the moon drastically dropped, and it too came to a temporary end.

The media frenzy that followed the release of this image put heavy pressure on the company and government, especially given the fact that military experiments of any kind were illegal if not carried out by a government-controlled faction; something implemented to help keep the peace between nations. In an effort to save themselves, the government’s officials turned their backs on Dr Echelon and his organization, calling their actions inhumane and treacherous. Actions were soon taken, and by the following day the staff at Echelon Tower were arrested, and Dr Echelon personally taken to trial. The building was shutdown and put into lockdown, as it was widely believed that "Viking," along with other possible creations, were being kept somewhere there. Dr Echelon’s trial days were not released to the public, but he was convicted with the death penalty, and given a month in jail before he would be executed. The media and the people by this point were in uproar, all demanding the right to knowledge of the trail proceedings, and of information on “Viking.” Nothing was ever released. Military groups soon discovered many lower levels in Echelon Tower, and while all upper levels had been cleared, teams sent down into the lower levels never came back. The last team that had been sent in managed to send a distress call, but all that got through was the sounds of soldiers screaming. Soon after this, the world’s leaders decided to put the city lockdown, and at the same time move up Dr Echelon’s execution date, as he was unwilling to cooperate and provide information on what was living in his building.

The day of Dr Echelon’s execution, an explosion occurred at the prison. Given the lack of availability to weapons, it is still not known how an explosion of the magnitude that occurred was possible. Most of the prisoners and guards were killed, yet Dr Echelon’s cell would remain unharmed, with only the door being gently knocked off for his convenience. A news team was nearby prior to the explosion, and reported seeing a figure much like “Viking” leaving the premises, and heading back to Echelon Tower at speeds too fast for their camera to properly detect. The government, in its confusion over what was occurring, ordered the city’s inhabitants into the large shelter housed below the city, believing it would be safer for civilians to stay there in the case of some form of coup d’état by Dr Echelon. They were all quickly rushed there, not being given much option. Only military personnel remained on the surface of the city. It was unlikely that those who stayed on the surface, either by evading military or by ignoring warnings, would last long. The general theory was that Project Arc had been reverted back to its military origins, and was now being used by Dr Echelon as some form of super-human force.

OOC: So basically, you’re all in the same area now, along with thousands of other people. This is your chance at char-to-char interaction, and I’m perfectly fine with the convenient “everyone in the RP just happens to be right next to each other” thing. In fact, the shelter is divided into sections and rooms, and all your characters just happen to be in the same room that they can’t leave unless it’s for the bathroom, which is crowded. Food will be delivered, but other than that it’s a room meant to hold ten, not huge but large enough that no one’s cramped, and has a bench for sitting and sleeping bags. You also get the luxury of lights. Convenient.

[Jarnakel Magnus]

Eric Ross was upset. He had been forced to leave his home and his job, because of the madness going on now. So many years spent eking out a living, and now this. And to make matters worse, it was the very group he had once hoped to join that had caused this...

He had also been forced to leave much of his work behind, and had attempted to resist. It hadn't ended well, and he ended with a black eye and a bruised rib. Nonetheless, he had been able to smuggle in a few things in his backpack, including the controls for some of his bots, although he feared to use them here, for fear of being seen, and even if he could, it would do no good. He was not allowed out, so he would be unable to guide his bots to him, even if the compound wasn't so heavily guarded.

He sat in a corner of the room, fiddling with some half-completed thing. He had already taken it apart and put it back together too many times to count, but there wasn't anything else to do in this miserable dump, and he didn't have any idea who these people were.

(OOC: He's not very sociable, if you recall from the signup. also, finally edited my prior post to have a reaction to the rejection thing. I apologize for my extreme lateness, war broke out in one of the AE servers, and I'm coordinating battle fleets.)

[Seth-Rah]

The world had a way of working in unexpected ways. Cassandra certainly hadn't predicted what happened. It had started predictably; rejection, if not the way she had expected. Then things had changed. A complete lack of news about Arc for an entire year, only for things to get blown open with images of that... thing. Then everything around Arc had fallen apart.

Then Echelon was about to be executed, only for the city to go into lock down when he got broken out. Which meant she got yanked out of her home with barely any advance notice, and barely enough time to grab anything. A wallet, a phone, a jacket, a few odds and ends. No time to really grab anything to keep herself entertained while time slowly inched on, certainly.

Which might not have been too bad if she actually knew any of the people, but she didn't. Strangers, all of them. It figured that she'd be the one in that situation. Of course, it could have been worse. She could name multiple people she wouldn't want to be stuck with.

Still, time enough to change her clothes might have been nice. A black t-shirt and jeans were good enough for lounging around, but if she absolutely had to be stuck with complete strangers, she would have preferred something a bit more... stylish, maybe? Maybe something to give just a slightly better first impression? No, there she was, sitting on a bench in a shelter in the most casual public clothes she had, with no idea how long she was stuck there.

"This is such an enormous pain." She let out a sigh as she paused, then leaned forward slightly and rested her chin on her hand. "I wonder how long we're going to be stuck here."

[Karnstantine]

Due to the nature of the Facility, the military and scientific personnel were not evacuated, and were, in fact, kept in the dark about what was going on in the outside world. A handful of elite security personnel were informed that they were "going dark", and placed the facility on lockdown discretely. Nobody being able to enter or leave the facility was nothing new, and the scheduled leaves of those in employ were removed with the explanation of certain projects moving ahead faster than expected, and all personnel being required on base in order to ensure continued success.

The Major was at his post, pushing the blast door shut, having some difficulty. Maybe the hinges needed greased, or something...?

Dr. Carmichael was in the labs, watching her colleagues move test tubes in a vacuum case from a workstation to the cold storage chamber. What they were moving was very dangerous, though anyone observing wouldn't know, not even Dr. Carmichael, as the scientists were in their normal lab gear, not environment suits.

Katrina was being relieved from her post, and had gotten clearance to go into the inner security post in order to chat with the Major about lunch plans.

[Squee]

Zeon sat in his corner. He didn't know which would have been better, the situation now, or if he HAD been accepted into the project. He had been in life or death situations before, but nothing in his years in black ops compared to this. Although right now, he was just in a room with people. But, one thing was certain. He WAS scared. He didn't know if fighting would do any good if a creature like that attacked. Zeon looked around. This was getting old. Fast. Zeon tried to slow his thoughts. Unsuccessfully. He couldn't stop thinking about what might happen, and what had already happened. Zeon closed his eyes and tried to relax. Again, unsuccessfully. He got up and started walking around the small room. Maybe a little exercise would help him relax a bit.

[Ryo Hazaki]

Upon his arrival in lockdown, Triton first checked to see if anyone was wounded. After that was done, he then tried to lose himself in one of the two books he had the foresight to bring in addition to his clothes.

When he heard a woman speak, he raised his head.

"Dunno. It wasn't this bad even during 9-11." Triton said, when another thought hit him. "You know... Most of the city had applied for Project Arc, judging from what I could see. Maybe we're here because of it? My theories are: We're here because we all applied, and we're being detained to keep Echelon from more resources or to prevent us from going after him." Triton said, even as he finished realizing how stupid he sounded. "Sorry... That sounded stupid, even to me."

[♠Dameon♠]

Drabek had been leaning against a wall for the last half hour or so. Not knowing any of the people in the room, or having anything else with him to pass the time was starting to drive him up a wall. After a while he took to listening in on conversations, one of which managed to catch his attention enough that he decided to get involved.

"That really doesn't sound that stupid... Sure it might be more likely that we've been put here for our own protection, but there could easily be more to it than that." He paused for a moment... Staring up at the ceiling.

"Since we're all probably going to be stuck here together for a while we should probably get to know each other. My name's Drabek Onyx, but you can call me whatever you want, doesn't matter too much to me." Drabek pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger, obscuring a small portion of his scar.

[NDraxian0]

Nova had be in the middle of a show when she was "greatly encouraged" by the military to evacuate to the underground facility. Despite this, she was nearly giddy with excitement. This would be a wonderful opportunity to see just how people think. And to boot, she managed to grab her bag on the way out the stage. The only way this would be more perfect is if she had thought to stick actually useful things in the bag before hand. but instead, she mostly has spare stage props and things that would be useful for her show if she needed them.

Oh well, can't think of everything.

Honestly she thought the military would be a lot slower about this, given all the issues with emptying a city. Did the government already forsee this possibility. Oooooo, she'd just love to know what the major players in this were truly thinking.

Well it'd only be a matter of time before she would have some insight into what her current roommates were thinking at least, especially since she was still in full costume, a trim suit with the same cape she had worn to the Project Applications, top hat, tie, the works. And of course her rather plain white mask, held in place by a pair of fake specticals attached to the mask itself.

And the group appears to be a nice mix. Already a few are fearing the worst, got to love a bit of paranoia, it is so enjoyable to how one reacts to it. But others are getting bored... and she simply can't have that.

A distraction is needed and she is prepared. Too bad the situation is too tense and the location too cramped most of the contents of her bag of tricks, but she can always fall back on a trusty pack of cards, and showingly shuffling them should draw some eyes, especailly in her outfit.

[☆Chrystal Chronicler☆]

Dark. This tower is too dark. Thought Jenkins, waiting with several soldiers in the main lobby, sitting down in a corner.

Jenkins was inside Echelon Tower. It had been about a full year since his dad "volunteered" him for the United Nations's army special forces. Now, he was, just as every Jenkins before him was for the past millenia, a soldier, and a very powerful and skilled one at that. Jenkins father, who had a huge influence in the military for his illustrious career in Spec. Ops, had arranged for his son to be put into the best team on the planet. However, it soon became apparent that he was not a "team" player, and command had realized Jenkins was more suited to be a more... subtler role.

In that one year hence his rejection from the program, Jenkins now looked more toned, and had a scar under his brilliant right eye. He wore what appeared a light body armor/suit, but, of course, appearances can be deceiving. This was the latest in armor technology, and was in many ways even better than the three men around hims heavy armor. Over this he wore a tactical vest, which contained all his spare clips and knives. The most peculiar of his new regalia, was a mechanical gauntlet on his right arm. This new accessory made him the UN's greatest and most dangerous asset. It was for this that they Ordered Jenkins to Echelon tower, and gave him his mission: find out what is going on down on the basement levels.

A General motioned to Jenkins. Charles walked over to his commanding officer. Get your team ready. Your going down in five. Jenkins saluted, and got his team ready. The other four wore heavy armor, opposed to Jenkins lighter looking armor. They walked to an elevator, and walked in. Alright, lets do this. said Jenkins as he sent the elevator to the lower levels.

[Zyros]

Echelon Tower was a ruined mess of its former glory. Standing with great damage to its structural integrity, it looked as though a full-scale war had occurred within its walls. And it had. Reports of military intervention were widespread, and rumors of missing personal began to spread. In truth, more than twenty units had been confirmed as MIA, with five of those groups being highly-trained Spec Ops teams. Despite the losses, the military seemed content in stopping whatever lay in the lower levels of the tower.
One Viking was in the process of gutting an unfortunate soldier when the elevator holding a new team opened. It glanced in their direction, scanning what data it could, and made a count of five. Threat level: 4. The creature would quickly open fire on the group with a pair of machine-like guns, though it used energy- based ammunition. This attack would alert more of the Vikings, who soon came to the scene. In total, there stood fifteen of these creatures, all sporting the same Mezzanotte writing on some part of their bodies. They looked lacking in appearance, some seemingly incomplete. One Mezzanotte in particular seemed to be commanding the group. The corpse of a disfigured human lifted its arms, where upon a glow began to shine. The head of the group then seemingly vanished, announcing a command as he did so. When the Mezzanotte was gone, the corpse’s arm fell the ground, dead.

"Analysis complete. Kill everyone."

---

A Mezzanotte arrived on the surface, more or less. Re-appearing high in the air, the construct was now fully visible in design, and sported an all black color scheme. Aside from jagged points emerging from its body, the creature had a pair of Viking horns protruding from the sides of its head. Any media reporter would be capable of identifying this unit as the creature from earlier pictures.

"Calibration requires tuning. Resuming primary objective."

The Mezzanotte would fall fast, and crash hard into the ground. After taking a few moments to recover, it slowly moved out of the crater, sparks flying from its joints. The unit was clearly damaged from the fall, having not been completed prior to its activation. Staggering, it seemed to recover quickly from the fall as it reached a military facility. It wasn’t long before the unit was inside.

Running at speeds faster than a human, the Mezzanotte drove its arms into a blast door as the area was in a state of lockdown, blocking the completed closure. A blue beam would emerged from the creature’s wrist, and would surely cut anything it came in contact with. As it forced the door open, the Mezzanotte spoke.

"Extermination commencing. Targets acquired."

---

Not long after the initial group had been put in the shelter room, the door swung open violently. A team of medics, escorted by a soldier, carried a man on in a stretcher. Placing him on the ground, they exited just as quickly as they had entered. As a guard was leaving, he addressed the group.

"If he says he’s in pain, alert one of the guards. His name’s Zachery."

The door closed behind the guard and the man, now lying on the ground, remained still. He was covered in bandages from head-to-toe, for the most part. His right forearm, while not bandaged, showed markings that indicated heavy abuse to his skin, varying from cuts to bruises. His left leg was also missing from the knee-down, leaving him with a stub for his limb. The only visible part of his skin, aside from his forearm, were gaps in the bandages left open for his right eye and nose. If one looked closely, they could determine that he had no left eye by this point. His right eye remained open, though there didn’t seem to be any brain activity within.

[Karnstantine]

Around the blast door the "monster" had jammed and forced open were only two guards. The guards panicked, of course, because honestly what would YOU do if you had just seen a man-sized figure pull open a set of lead doors that weighed half a ton each? Of the two, one merely froze with the thought of "Holy shit!" repeating in his head. The other started backing up nervously and started spraying full-auto fire into the figure. His actions were responded to with resounding "pings" as his copper-jacketed bullets splattered against, and ricocheted off of, the approaching figure. Also in response, his head and torso parted ways, smoking as the Mezzanotte's energy blade cauterized the gash. The other guard, recovering after nearly getting hit with shrapnel, broke the glass over the emergency alarm just in time for his internal organs to be vaporized. Alarm klaxons throughout the facility began to ring out their obnoxious wail, but nobody was annoyed. They were frightened. They began to evacuate the facility. However, there was one minor snag: The facility wasn't meant to be able to be evacuated. Not with the projects it held. As the klaxons rang on, all the blast doors began to seal. The one the Mezzanotte forced open even began to slide back shut. It was meant to seal and suffocate the people involved to keep all of its records hidden. However, there was still air coming through due to the damage inflicted on the main blast door, though that was no help. They were all going to get slaughtered like cattle.

Meanwhile, in the wing that the Major, Dr. Carmichael, and Kat worked in, the blast door remained jammed when all the others began to seal. And then the echoes of gunfire and screaming began to rebound through the concrete hall. Major Grady and Kat did as their training and instinct said they should, and took positions inside the lab, ready to open fire on whatever came through. The scientists who were moving the vacuum case promptly set it down on a table, and ran out of the room. Grady tried to stop them, but even with his power armor, he couldn't get a hold of one in time. Dr. Carmichael, not knowing what else to do, moved over to a clean worktable, toppled it over, and pushed it into the doorway, trying to make some manner of cover for Grady and Kat.

It was too dangerous to go out, since they couldn't tell if all the gunfire was from the security personnel or from the invaders. They had no way of knowing what was actually out there.

It wasn't long before the Mezzanotte reached the room with Dr. Carmichael. On its way over, it had encountered a human trying to escape the area; little could be said of what remained of him. Launching the severed head of the scientist into the room, the machine gave a warning, "Come quietly and it will be less painful." It wasn't long before the creature forced its way into the room and set its eyes on a target.

That target was the largest threat in the room at the time: Major Grady, in his Power Armor. Grady fired several shots towards the advancing Mezzanotte, but was unable to hit it. The massive bullets left fist-sized craters in the concrete wall behind the Mezzanotte, but not even so much as a scratch on its own armor. The Mezzanotte moved to strike with its energy blade, but Grady grabbed its arm, and held it in place. (In any other circumstance, this would be impossible, but this unit isn't complete, and Grady is wearing Power Armor.). "I don't think so, spikey." Taking this opportunity, Kat attempted to strike the Mezzanotte from behind with one of her machetes, since from what she had been hearing from the outside, the bullets from the standard issue guns did nothing. She hit true, at the base of the Mezzanotte's skull, but the effect was much like hitting a concrete wall with a bat: The vibrations hurt her hands, and chipped the blade of her machete, but did not vut. The Mezzanotte was unphased by both of these events. It proceeded to slam its other fist into Grady, forcing him to let go of his blade arm and sending him sprawling onto the floor, unconscious due to the trauma. With that threat gone, for now, the Mezzanotte seamlessly transitioned into knocking out the other threat: Using the momentum of its punch, it spun itself in place and brought its leg up, slamming Kat into the wall. Her helmet cracked, and she too was rendered unconscious. However, it hesitated a moment before it moved to finish off the combatants in the room, looking towards a spot on the floor...

Dr. Carmichael had the unfortunate luck of having one of her colleagues' severed heads hurled into her arms, which sent her backpedaling. She dropped the head, but right after that she hit the table that the vacuum sealed case had been sitting on, knocking the table over and making her land on the case, smashing the glass, and the vials contained within. When she fell, she felt a lot of pain in her back, and the edges of her vision started to blur into red, before starting to fade to black. She thought she may have severed her spine on the glass shards before she blacked out completely. However, the fluids spreading on the floor behind her were not the vibrant red of fresh blood, but a dull brownish-maroon and slate gray.

The Mezzanotte quickly recieved analysis on what the materials on the floor were, and it promptly rushed into the hallway, and slammed the blast door shut, welding the edge with its energy blade. Environmentally sealed or no, better to not be in a room with a biohazard rapidly spreading through it.

The military dispatched a team later on into the facility to investigate what had occurred, and were appalled and sickened by what they saw. It was worse than anything they had seen in the documentaries of the Great Wars before the Unification. They found no survivors, but were puzzled when they reached the sealed door. They ran a laserdrill into the facility, and cut the door open, only to find nothing beyond. Literally, nothing. There was the severed head of a scientist, but no other bodies. More strangely, none of the metal tools were present inside. They couldn't know what had occurred inside, as the surveillance equipment was destroyed after it caught the atrocities "Viking" had perpetrated on its way to the control center. A more observant soldier noticed a strange thing, though: At the base of the door, there was a hole that seemed to have been burned through with a strong acid, and had some small blood splatters around it. This was puzzling, but not overtly concerning. They didn't know what this section of the facility was for, really. The team moved on to the residencies and searched for survivors there, finding one. He spoke of a horrifying, metal monstrosity covered in blood smashing through one of the barracks. The survivor fled for the dining hall, and caught the attention of the "thing". It had him cornered, but was frightened off after the survivor caused an accidental grease-fire. The description didn't match very well, and it was assumed that the survivor was too traumatized to give an accurate depiction. He was, regardless, executed. They couldn't let anyone out of the area at this point, not with public hysteria at an all-time high. They reported 100% casualties in the facility, and it was slated to be demolished covertly within the week.

Meanwhile, Dr. Carmichael woke up, laying face-down in the middle of the forest, a considerable distance away from the facility. She felt miserable, like her bones themselves were sore. She pushed herself onto her knees, and had the slightly late realization of where the hell she actually was. Or, rather, the realization that she had no goddamn idea where she was, and that she was alone. She looked around, and called out. "M-major? Kat? Is there anyone out here? HELLOOO?!" This ended somewhat hoarsely, as the doctor had not realized her calling had degraded into panicked shouting about halfway through. She took a gauge of her surroundings after she gave up on calling. She wasn't exactly a survivalist, so this provided her with little. There was a little rock alcove under a tree nearby, looked to be large enough for a mammal, but its occupant wasn't apparently around. Probably a good thing, because she didn't figure she could outrun a wolf on a good day, and this was a particularly bad one. The only other thing she saw was the profile of Echelon Tower through the tree canopy. Not knowing where else to go, she decided she would head there. She pushed herself onto her feet, but noticed an odd weight in her left pocket. She reached into it with her prosthetic hand, and pulled out... The Major's personal pistol. Why the hell do I have this? Did the Major drag me out and give me this? She didn't really remember anything after tumbling over the table. Figuring musing wouldn't help, she activated her Gliders and zipped towards the city, hoping to maybe find some answers there. After she was gone, a pack of wolves moved into the clearing hesitantly, as though they were hiding. They sniffed around the area frantically, hunting for something. Whatever it was, they apparently didn't find it, and let out a baleful howl.

OOC: May be more to come, gon' talk to Zy to see if I should start a new post about when the doctor reaches the city limits.

[Teqed]

Jon sat on the floor, leaning against a wall. He wasn't quite worried, and wasn't quite bothered by the lock-down. He had faith in his military, afterall. And it's not like it was interrupting his social life. He'd likely be watching TV or piddling around with a hobby right now if not shoved into a cramped, crowded room. Overall, he didn't mind it so much. He watched the people move about and small conversation stir, but was rather silent. He hadn't had much sleep, and was woken up from sleep by the beginning of all this. He rested his head against the wall until an injured man was brought into the room.

Jon lifted his head and looked over the man with a discerning glare. "Err..." He stretched his neck and got as well of a look at the man's body as he could from the distance. The extent of his medical training was basic first-aid and emergency care, like catheterizing limbs and bandaging and such. But the man already seemed well taken care of, so he relaxed his head back. "It seems the medics already did all that they could for him." He figured that they would leave the man alone and do just what they guard told him; Alert them if he was in pain. "Zachery. Wonder what happened to the poor guy..." he said, his voice trailing off towards the end.

[Seth-Rah]

Cassandra leaned back, thinking over what the two had said. Surely it couldn't have been because they applied. Not just that, at least. Just keeping everyone safe was a decent reason. And more probable, really, as the second man said. Drabek Onyx, he said. An unusual name...

"I'm Cassandra, then. Cassandra Ledford..." She trailed off as the guards came in, bringing in a guest. A very unusual looking guest. It wasn't like anything she had seen. She had seen some nasty work. She had seen his work, after all. But she hadn't seen people recovering from it. Not quite like that. Cassandra was rather visibly alarmed by the newcomer.

Several moments passed as she simply stared, taking in this Zachary's condition. After those moments had passed, she hesitantly spoke, though fear was not obviously present in her voice as such.

"What would do that?"

[Squee]

"What would do that?"

"Whatever it was, I don't think any of us want to meet it," Zeon said. At first, it was joke, but quickly turned into fear. He walked up to the injured man. He kneeled down and looked over him. Just as Zeon's mind was starting to calm down, it started racing at the site of the injured man. Obviously, the others that might have been with him weren't so lucky. Zeon got up and walked towards the back of the room. He proceed to sit in a corner. Definitely not so lucky.

"I assume it's safe to say we aren't getting out of here any time soon."

[Ryo Hazaki]

"My name's Dr. John Triton, former Lieutenant in the Air Force. But everyone just calls me Triton." Triton said by way of introduction.

Just then the injured man was brought in, and Triton went over to the man to see if he could render any assistance. After seeing that little more could be done by him, Triton returned to his seat and pulled out an electronic book reader from his pocket, and began reading one of the dozens of books stored on it.

[Teqed]

"What would do that?" "Whatever it was, I don't think any of us want to meet it."

Jon grumbled a moment over the suspicion the two had built up. "The most likely cause is an explosion. He was probably rather close to it when it happened. Then again, he could have a disease. Like leprosy. His skin could be degrading and has already lost health entirely in some extremities." Jon motioned to the man's missing leg as he said the last bit. "As far as we know, he might have been in a car crash weeks ago, and was sitting in a hospital when we evacuated. They're probably overcrowded everywhere, so they may have brought a patient to one of the less crowded rooms." Jon leaned his head back against the wall again, and spoke with a tone as if he was trying to be reassuring. "If he is a patient, I'm sure he's not contagious. Not very, anyway. They would keep all the infectious ones together. They wouldn't bring a diseased man into a small room with a group of healthy people."

Jon sighed and spoke again. "Whatever's going on, we shouldn't jump to a conclusion that's it's immediately the worst. There's any number of things that could have happened to this man...And they wouldn't have brought him here if they didn't think it was safe."