Infinite Project | (IC)

[Koishi]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

The little creature moved slightly back as Trace did as well, however, the kneeling position relaxed the creature a little, and the hand being raised increased their curiosity substantially. They approached silently, reaching out a little stubby arm for the Trace's arm. They first poked it experimentally, before rubbing it slightly. It was warm. Something they hadn't felt before on something. Everything was cold here, though it didn't quite realize it fully, their body unfeeling of the biting cold. It was normal for them.

Plus, it was soft. Not like the endless masks of hard, sometimes broken material, this was different. A soft, pliable material, squishy and completely foreign to the small vessel. It tilted it's head at this before looking to Trace once more, it's mask devoid of any features to show emotion. It's feelings could be a wildcard. If it even had such things, but it's curiosity was undeniable.

[Cucoo5]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

Hollow's features still perplexed Trace. Nothing she had in her vast databases could identify what it was. The developing organic thoughts prompted another peculiar response from Trace: she slowly moved a finger to the center point of Hollow's mask, near where one would guess a nose would be.
*boop*
She gently poked Hollow's mask, noting the texture and hardness. It didn't match anything she knew of. Eventually, her mechanical mind exhausted all possibilities and she defaulted to interacting to the creature in a different way. Her logic carried her to the next possibility: communicate with it.

"Hello." Trace's voice, while it sounded gentle and organic like that of a human, also carried a mechanical undertone.

[Koishi]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

Oh, words. the little creature somewhat knew those. Hundreds of memories from hundreds of brothers and sisters bounced in their head like cue balls. Hello. That was a word. What did it mean? They scanned through the memories, finding a few. A greeting of some description. Oh, they were starting conversation. The creature realized this and tilted their head to the other side.

They then rose a little arm, pointing towards Trace's mouth, and then back to their mask, where a mouth would be if they had one. Finally, they gently shook their head. They hoped this human, or human-like fellow would understand their meaning.

[S121]

Project Esper | Hallway

Jason seemed to almost flinch from the invasion of his mind. In truth, there were some secrets Jason didn't want Network to know, especially since he needed to remain anonymous for not only his sake, but possibly everyone else's as well. He was to be a ghost until he made it home. Wanting to try and find something to say, Jason brought up whatever words he could think of to move the conversation.

"Alright then. I understand.", Jason said.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Project Esper | Hallway

Raina gave Jason a small smile before turning her chair around again and starting to head towards the computer lab. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hold oyu up any longer than I had too. It's just a bit further." she assured him, seeming oddly chipper for someone in her situation. The room ahead of them was a computer lab, not a very special one, it seemed more for gaming and general fun than a work place. However Jason would have been able to see another room past the entrance on the left side wall of the lab. As he got closer, he may have even seen his rifle tilted up against the wall. In the event he did see it, he would have seen it very much the way he saw it last. Whoever this girl was, she had done an excellent job of putting it back together. In fact it was cleaner now than when Jason had it last.

Meanwhile Stalker gave Jenny's hand a small tug, letting her know he was moving forward again. The heavy steel doors would have stayed open, at least for now since Raina didn't want Jason to think he was trapped in here.

[S121]

Project Esper | Hallway

Jason couldn't really make heads or tails of this girl. First she seemed somewhat neutral, and the next she was cheery. Was it anything she saw in his head? He didn't really know, but the sooner he could get his weapons, the better. Once he caught sight of his assault rifle, he made a beeline for it. If Network read his mind, she would have known he had no ill intentions at the moment. All he wanted to do was see if they had been tampered with or not.

Meanwhile, Jennifer followed alongside Stalker as they followed Network and Jason. Once they were in the same room as those two, Jennifer looked over to where Network had laid the guns and then back to them. To her surprise though, Jason had suddenly moved after his weapons, leaving Jen tense. Not wanting to risk anything, Jennifer placed a hand on one of her pistols and was ready to place a barrier on Network. If things really did go south, she was not going to let it end in the death of her family.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Project Esper | Hallway

When Jason made it to the lab, he would have seen a rather impressive quantum computer. Although it didn't seem to be doing anything at the moment. Inside he would also find the rest of his guns. All of them were put together exactly the way he would have remembered them, even better they had been cleaned. Network actually followed him inside, but not before sending a short mental message to Jenny and Stalker. "It's okay" the message said as she tried to calm both her friends down. Network rolled up to her computer before rotating her chair to face Jason again. "There you are, everything just as you left it." she said allowed, hoping that this proved she held no ill intent.

Stalker had stopped in the same spot as Jenny. When they were there he finally let go oh Jenny's hand, knowing she would need both if she were to engage the enemy now. However so long as Jenny stayed in the same spot she would be easy to cloak.

[Cucoo5]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

The comprehension came to Trace after a moment of piecing together all possibilities and settling on the most logical of them all: the creature couldn't communicate by vocalizations. From that, she came to the conclusion that she would have to resort to asking simple yes-or-no questions or questions basic enough for the creature to communicate by indication, as it did.

"You can't speak, but you can understand." Trace said this in her monotone, matter-of-fact voice. It was the logical conclusion for her to derive from what occurred. She then chose randomly from a list of questions she generated to ask the creature to help her understand what it was. "Do you live here?"

[Koishi]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

The creature nodded to their first statement. They could understand, even if their knowledge was sub-par, to say the least. The trickling of memories and voices helped considerably. Then, they tilted their head at their next question. Where did they live? Nowhere was the closest answer they could think of, unless they considered that silo their home, which it undoubtedly wasn't.

They shook their head after a small time before looking back to the human in front of them.

[Cucoo5]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

"You don't live here." Trace blinked and, right before she continued, suddenly seemed to freeze, with her head turned slightly, listening. "Search Helicopter. The soldiers are still looking for me."

"I need to go." She started to get up, but stopped. In the distance, the sound of the helicopter approaching grew louder. Trace turned back to the creature, a foreign idea entered her mind. "Do you want to come with me?"


She didn't know why she asked that question. Trace looked into her Encephalon, tracing back the origin of the question, finding a portion that was masked in a sort of mist. She reached out to it, only to find a barrier. A part of her mind was sealed off to her.

[Koishi]

Washington | Southern Forest

---

The creature looked towards the noise and back to the human. They didn't know what a "helicopter" was, or why others were looking for this person. Had they escaped from somewhere, like themselves? A kindred spirit, perhaps? A myriad of questions began to brew within their mind, but time was short. They needed to choose now, and they knew that if these "soldiers" were searching, they might treat them with the same dispassion of their brothers and sisters.

It paused for a moment before hopping down towards them, giving a simple nod.

[S121]

Project Esper | Hallway

Jason took this opportunity to quickly look over his weapons, running scans with his armor and interfacing with the smart systems located within some of his more advanced weaponry. After a moment, he found that all was well. They were perfectly fine. After gathering up his weapons, Jason turned over to Network and seemed to pause for just a moment. It seemed that he wanted to at least thank her for NOT ripping his weapons apart and reverse-engineering them and keeping them in good condition, though he could not find the right words. Instead he just lightly rubbed the back of his neck as he stood there.

Meanwhile, Jennifer had her gun trained right on Jason's head. If he made any sudden aggressive moves, she would open fire. To her surprise though, once Jason had his weapons back, the cold hostility he showed before seemed to melt away. She did not know whether having his weapons back was that large of a calming agent for him, or if him thinking that only Network being here was enough for him to let down his guard, but she was relieved that things were resolved peacefully. Seeing this, she lowered her gun and quietly smiled to herself as she put it away.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Project Esper | Raina's Computer Room

If Jason looked closely he would notice that despite his clips and chambers being in tact, the ammo was all in a sort of clear plastic container in the room. Raina had separated them by caliber and function making ti fairly easy to pick out which bullets were for which gun. As he sort of scanned his weapons and did whatever she looked at him rather curiously. "So m. If you don't mind me asking. Where are you going to go now? Do you have anywhere to stay?" she asked with a int of concern in her voice. It seemed more like she was worried about him than she was trying to get information out of him.

Project Esper | Hallway

Meanwhiel Stalker occasionally placed his hand on Jenifer's shoulder just to make sure she hadn't moved. He didnt' know whaat was going on, focusing more on her than Jason or Nework, but he trusted Jen would do something if it needed to be done.

[SUSTIC]

Skies Of Cali | Lowering altitude towards the ocean

013 took the current time, however small it may be, to do some stretches while he waited for the aircraft to reach it's destination. All the while he turned to Sam.

"Thanks for the offer. My men and I will take the time to get some rest and go over what we had uncovered today. We learned a lot from today's events, and there is much to discuss. After all that my men and I will return back to our base and get out of your hair." He spoke in a rather stern, slightly more lax, but still tense tone. A bit like he has usually been for the longest time now. "And I suppose take the time to also... catch up." He then finished as he looked over his shoulder at Senna, with a slight look of irritation.




Sacramento | Sewers

The green man, even though he was almost running at full speed, was stopped actually quite easily when Koi put a hand on his shoulder. For a few seconds it seemed as if he was trying to still run, but stopped when he realized he wasn't going anywhere. As such he turned to Koi who was... quite serious about something. She wasn't being mean or anything, but giving him some solid advice. Even without a face he just stared at Koi... and seemed to understand a bit as he nodded his head... He gave a nod of acknowledgement with a simple response. "Understood partner, now we better get goin then." He spoke as he turned around and was about to walk off without her, but stopped as he turned to look over his shoulder at her. Facing her as if he was waiting for her to start following.

[Koishi]

Sacramento | Sewers

---

Koi proceeded to follow, giving a small smile in appreciation for their listening ears. Or whatever the glowing man used for hearing. Before they distracted themselves in thought, they shook themselves back to focus. Not now. Later.

Thus they continued, until reaching the apparent end of the path. Only one way up. Koi went first, rising the manhole slowly and peaking around. Cars of all sorts were around. Some disused, banged up, but most were simply impounded. Fleets of cars. Many to choose from. Koi carefully put the manhole to the side.

"Yep, this be the place. Just need to find a good car nows. Preferably with lots o' gas in it." Koi spoke to themselves.