Announcement

**S121** · 02-14-2015, 07:26 PM

Msrket Street - Mission District - San Francisco - California | 5:00 PM

*BANG*

Ethan opened his eyes to find himself lying on the carpet in his Aunt and Uncle's house. Everything was blurry, but from what little he could make out, there was blotches of red everywhere: on the walls, on the ceiling, and on the carpet, most noticeably the area around where he lay. Just then, Ethan felt a searing pain in his chest and abdomen as he turned his head over to the right, where the couch he was sitting on was. From there, he could see a body. At first, he couldn't tell who it was, but as his vision slowly came back to him, he could see the grisly sight. Sitting on the couch was the slumped body of his dead grandfather. A small, faint stream of crimson glistened around the back of his head; a gunshot wound from the man that had broken in. That was when Ethan remembered it. That man... the man with the pale blue eyes and brown hair, the one that shot everyone he loved and cared about. Ethan found it strange. He should have been overcome with grief and sadness right now, but for some reason he felt nothing, nothing but a sense of impending doom.

Just then, the searing pain in his chest and abdomen returned, this time more intense than the previous wave of pain, prompting Ethan to slowly roll over to his back. Ethan looked down at his torso, only to find his white, long-sleeve shirt stained in red. four holes were present on the front of his shirt, showing where Ethan had been shot. Such a sight only served to make Ethan tremble in shock and make his stomach turn.

*BANG* *BANG*

Just then, the sound of two gunshots captured Ethan's attention and turned it towards the stairs in the house's front entrance.

*THUD*

After hearing the thud, Ethan began to fully grasp what kind of situation he was in. That thud was the sound of a dead body. That thud was somebody he knew. Just then, Ethan began to breathe heavily and his heart began to pump faster and faster as panic began to set in. He needed to get to a phone. He needed to call somebody, anybody! Despite his injuries, Ethan quickly shifted his hand down to his left pocket, only to feel that his phone wasn't there. Ethan had left his phone on the table next to the couch. Unfortunately for him, the table was on the other side of the couch. Ethan silently cursed at himself for not keeping it on him at all times, especially at a time like this. There was little he could do now but try and force himself back onto his stomach. Lying on his stomach was excruciating, especially because of the wounds he had, but even then, he knew that he needed to remain focused. He needed to get to his phone.

After that, Ethan crawled across the carpet, staining it with the very thing Ethan needed if he wanted to survive, something he was running out of. The pain of his wounds rubbing against the carpet was almost unbearable, but he kept crawling, determined to get to the table.

*BANG*

Another gunshot rang out, followed by another thud. Upon hearing this sound, Ethan began to crawl faster, desperate to get to his phone. After a couple of seconds, Ethan had made it to the table. Using almost all the strength he had left, Ethan reached for the phone-

*BANG*

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!", Ethan screamed out as he felt a bullet pierce his back, causing him to fall to the floor, onto his side.

So close... Ethan was so close... If only he hadn't hesitated earlier. If only he had moved a little bit faster. It was too late now. Ethan was alone with this man, this crazed murderer, and there was noting he could do. As Ethan rolled over to his back, he looked up at the man with eyes full of dread. This was it. This was his final moment, covered in blood, staring at the killer of his family. Ethan was going to die.

Just then, the man slowly raised the gun towards Ethan, as if he was savoring Ethan's fearful anticipation before the end.

*BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP*

Ethan jolted awake as the sound of the cab car's horn pierced his eardrums. He then quickly sat up and snapped his head to each side as he breathed in a panicked rhythm, only to be greeted by a man in the seat in front of him.

"Hey man, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost.", the cabdriver said to Eathan in a concerned tone as he looked back.

The cab driver was right to feel concerned. Ethan was in a cold sweat, his breathing was erratic, and he visibly looked panicked, terrified. It took a few seconds, but after those seconds ticked by, Ethan took note of his current emotional state and quickly adjusted himself accordingly.

"Yea... I'm alright. Just a bad dream.", Ethan said to the cab driver as his breathing slowed back down to normal.

"Okay man, just don't.. freak out too much. You're scaring me.", the cab driver said to Ethan in a slightly nervous, yet still concerned tone.

"Sorry.", Ethan said.

The cab driver simply gave a light smile as he gave a chuckle.

"Hey, no problem. This is your stop anyway. That will be $30.57", the cab driver said in a friendly tone as he motioned over to the street sign above.

Ethan's gaze followed the cab driver's finger, prompting him top look up at a sign on the right corner of the street. Jason couldn't quite make out what the right-pointing part of the sign said, but he could clearly see the one pointing down the street they were on: "Mission Street". Ethan turned his head over to the man and gave the man a smile.

"Thanks.", Ethan said as he pulled out his wallet and pulled out the money for the cab driver and handed it over to him.

After that, Ethan grabbed his backpack from the seat next to him, shouldered it, exited the cab, and began to walk down the street as the cab driver drove away. Ethan watched as the cab driver left, and as soon as the driver turned the corner, Ethan stopped smiling and slightly slumped his shoulders. He no longer had to keep the facade up, at least not until he got to this "Nitro's" shop. It always seemed to be like this. Ever since the incident, Ethan had not gotten an hour of peaceful sleep. Not only that, he also felt tired almost all the time, as if the life was being drained out of him. It was a sad existence, but soon it would be over. Soon, he wouldn't have a reason to feel so tired, so sick. Soon, he would have his revenge and take his life back, but until then, he needed to get this job, preferably before he was late.

After walking down the street for about five minutes, Ethan looked over to the shop next to him and looked at the address above the door. Ethan took out a piece of folded paper from his back pocket and looked at the address scribbled on it. Sure enough, he was at the right location. All he had to do now was put on a good show and convince the person inside that he was perfect for the internship. With that in mind, Ethan resumed his facade and walked inside the store.

**WriggleRid3r** · 02-14-2015, 08:15 PM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

Nitro's shop didn't really look like a legitimate shop, evident from how... homely... it looked. As soon as one enters the shop he or she is greeted by a living room with hardwood floor, bright red linen couches, and a fireplace with a flatscreen TV hanging on it. To the left of the living room was a kitchen, with everything a kitchen should have in a neat, island-style design of red-and-black color palette. The living room and the kitchen were connected together in one large room, with electronics in need of repair strewn around the periphery of the room. To the right of the living room, next to the fireplace, was a stairway that led to the second floor. All in all, the place looked more like a household rather than a workshop.

"-just make sure you don't use too much strawberries. Those stuff are expensive, yo." A young girl sitting on one of the linen couches requested, her head jerked backwards to look at whoever was at the kitchen. The girl was extremely beautiful. She had messy, blue hair with the tip brushing her shoulders, wide eyes, and a slender jawline. She was wearing a casual, purple tank top with grey sweatpants: making the look that she just got out of bed.

As the blue-haired girl said her plea, another girl, taller and with more curvature, strutted from the kitchen to the living room with a plate of green salad on hand. The other girl was just as attractive as the previously said girl, although with a different, more mature appeal. Her blazing red hair fell down like a waterfall on her back. Her eyes were golden and slit, like a cat's. She was dressed in attires more formal than the blue-haired girl: a black satin tube dress and a pair of golden stilettos, fit for a party during a summer night.

"But the farmer's market sells like a pack of them for only 5 dollars." The redhead commented as she placed the salad plate on the coffee table in front of the couches. She sat down next to the blue-haired girl.

"5 dollars? Do you know how hard it is to earn 5 dollars?" The blue-haired girl asked in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. This however must've been a bizarre joke, as the two girls started laughing like they went out of their minds.

"You know that's a ridiculous claim for you." The redhead chuckled as the two calmed themselves down and, taking a glance at the entrance to notice Ethan standing there not knowing what to do, she added: "Oh, you have a customer."

"What?" The blue haired girl took a look at the entrance to find Ethan as well and greeted the guest. "Oh, sorry, I didn't know you were standing there. Come in."

**S121** · 02-14-2015, 10:19 PM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

To be perfectly honest, Ethan's I initial thoughts about the store was that he had gotten the address wrong and walked straight into someone's house, but was quickly proven wrong when a beautiful woman with red hair told another equally beautiful woman with blue hair and... unusual features that she had a customer. Unusual wasn't a bad thing in how she looked. It was a strange, otherworldly beauty, and in Ethan's opinion, she looked just a little bit like she was from an anime of some kind. Ethan's gaze quickly crossed over as he quickly scanned the other woman who looked oddly familiar, although Ethan couldn't quite put his finger on it. She looked as if she could have been a model, though whether or not she really was, he had no idea.

After Ethan quickly scanned the woman that acknowledged his presence, he just barely made the sound of clearing his throat before entering deeper into the shop.

**Kristia** · 02-14-2015, 10:59 PM

(Since it is basically the same, here is the introduction post)

Firefight zone

The bullets could be heard passing through the air and the voices of people were barely audible because of the continous fire of what looked like a turret machine gun

Between the explosion of bullet hitting the wall, a soldier yelled "Dammit! we are cornered thanks to that blasted turret!" he crouched as a piece of concrete flew close to him. Another soldier who looked more experienced slowly got close to a window to examine the are. Just when he got a glimpse of the surroundings, he jumped away as a rain of bullets almost got him, a bullet graced his helmet, but the experienced soldier was ok. "So far there looks like only a squad is on the other building while the turret is on a window" he spoke through the mic to his allies "We need to take care of that turret asap" he ordered

The soldier next to him looked obviously confused by the order "But sir.. how can we do that if the turret is almost nonstop? we already lost our heavy weapons guys and our ammo is low", the confusion and fear was understandable due to the situation but the experienced soldier just looked at his rifle and counted the remaining bullets of its case "Relax novice, we got someone already hunting on our side"

As if on cue, the turret guy was firing at anything that moved as he was ordered to do, not even his allies were safe from the rain of bullets that his weapon did. If someone could see his face, he or she would be horrified to see a wicked smile as he laughed when an unlucky living being appeared and was showered in metal. A ping sound was heard over his firing and in less than a second, a bullet struck between his eyes. The turret was still firing as the now dead user�s body moved it to a wall.

A cloaked figure appeared from one of the windows with a rifle strapped on her back, she ran between the buildings and jumped out of the way when someone started firing with his shotgun. The figure took her rifle and quickly aimed it to the person, the single fire got him dead and she got into the building from the window. The novice soldier noticed the movement and asked to his commander "Sir? who was that?".

The commander just grinned and prepped his rifle "That boy, is our hunting fox, now lets give her some cover" he spoke already aiming to one of the guys and started shooting

Meanwhile inside the attacker�s building, the cloaked woman took out her revolver. Moving between the shadows and using the cover fire as distraction, she got into the next room and started shooting at each of the attackers, one bullet per person until the sixth bullet got fired. The lucky seventh guy grinned, yet as he was aiming his rifle to the woman, a knife got into his forehead. The cloaked female, who had another throwing knife just in case walked to the dead man and took out the knife, cleaned it with a rag and holstered it on her belt. Breaking the revolver she started reloading the weapon and went to the last floor. Only to be greeted by a shower of bullets

Jumping to a couch as a cover, she fired the attacker�s leg from below the couch and made him fall only to have another bullet on his chest. Silence was the first thing she noticed, there was no more firing, carefully getting up, the hunting fox looked at the room checking for anyone. A small crack was heard and she quickly aimed the revolver to the source of the sound, it was a man with a rifle, but he was shivering in fear .

The cloaked woman looked at him and kept aiming the revolver just in case, yet she spoke "You haven�t fired a weapon to anyone, have you? she asked, her brown eyes piercing into his own eyes. the man shook his head still fearing this would be his last moment to live. The woman walked to him and put her hand on his rifle lowring it to the floor "Go back to your home and try not to walk this path again" her tone was neutral and piercing at the same time. The man just let the rifle fall and started running away from the room, the hunting fox could see he was already safely away from the firefight.

Putting on her communicator, the blonde woman spoke "This is the hunting fox, the building is clear"

**WriggleRid3r** · 02-14-2015, 11:31 PM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

"Don't mind Nitro, she doesn't take this job seriously." The redhead giggled as the blue haired girl quickly stuffed a few salad leaves into her mouth and stood up. She was almost a head shorter than Ethan, while the redhead was taller than him by a few inches.

"Okay, hi. Welcome to, uh, my shop, I guess. I know it looks really casual but you've definitely come to the right place." The blue-haired girl smiled as she busily looked around the shop. "How can I help ya?"

**S121** · 02-15-2015, 01:08 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

Ethan was a little confused about the fact that the blue-haired woman was the owner of this shop. She barely looked beyond his age. Not only that, she didn't seem to- as the red haired woman stated- take her job seriously. Her professionalism was lacking, making Ethan believe that it was probably not the best idea to work in this shop. Despite these faults though, he needed the money, so there was little he could do but tell her why he was here. At the very least, it would pay just enough for his plans to be funded.

"Yea, I'm the one that called about the internship.", Jason calmly said to Nitro.

**WriggleRid3r** · 02-15-2015, 02:02 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

"The internship?" The blue-haired girl tilted her head in confusion.

"You know, that post you made on craigslist about a month ago?" The redhead commented, reminding her friend.

"Oh, right right, that." The blue-haired girl nodded in apprehension. "Okay, did you bring your resume with you?"

**S121** · 02-15-2015, 02:22 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

For a moment, Ethan thought that he was out of luck when the woman questioned about an internship, but as it turned out, she was simply forgetful, as evidenced by her friend reminding her of the post she made.

"Right here.", Ethan said to the blue-haired woman as he removed his backpack, knelt on the ground, and opened it up.

After retrieving his resume from the backpack, Ethan quickly zipped it back up and placed one of the straps over his shoulder before handing the resume off to her.

**WriggleRid3r** · 02-15-2015, 02:30 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

Nitro retrieved the resume from Ethan's hands and began skimming through it.

"Ethan Ambers, is it?" Nitro regurgitated the information off of the resume. Before reading further down the document, she offered Ethan a hand. "Ameshiro Nitro."

**S121** · 02-15-2015, 02:55 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

(Nitro?), Ethan thought as Nitro reached her hand out for a shake.

Nitro was truly an unusual name, especially if it was a given name. Then again, perhaps it was simply a name she made herself. As for what Ethan could tell from Nitro's last name, she was of Asian descent. Wasting little time, Ethan reached out for Nitro's hand and spoke as he shook it.

"Nice to meet you, Nitro.", Ethan calmly said to her, faintly smiling as he did so.

**WriggleRid3r** · 02-15-2015, 03:01 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

"Aww, you found another friend, Nitro. That doesn't happen very often." The redhead chuckled teasingly. Nitro glared at her before returning to read the resume.

"I'm Alex. I'm Nitro's friend." Alex simply introduced herself. Her voice was rich and melancholic, contrasting Nitro's peppy, energetic voice. "So you're going to apply for internship in Nitro's shop, huh? Can you tell us any examples of what you've worked on? Anything's fine."

"Hey, that's a question I need to ask!" Nitro growled, her eyes not leaving the paper.

**S121** · 02-15-2015, 03:15 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

When Ethan heard Alex's voice, he could swear that he had heard her voice from somewhere, though he didn't know where. Not only that, her name was familiar too, but Ethan didn't want to ask or say anything about it until he was absolutely sure his hunch was right. For now, Ethan would talk about his involvement with various technology. Right as Ethan began to speak, he very subtly raised an eyebrow at the two's antics in slight amusement, finding the two's banter somewhat humorous.

"Yes. I made a robot that was able to search for and identify particular items, then retrieve them and bring it back to a person. I've made a couple machines that were able to wirelessly interface with various electronics, and a robot that could navigate through an obstacle course that was subject to constant changes. I have also worked on various drive systems for machinery, and have been working at the nearby college on an experimental exosuit. I'm responsible for the nanotechnology integrated into the suit, such as its reactive liquid armor and nano-weave meshing that covers it.", Ethan replied.

**WriggleRid3r** · 02-15-2015, 03:21 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

"Impressive, if not surprising." Alex raised an eyebrow, impressed at Ethan's feats. "I thought only Nitro was capable enough to handle such wide variety of engineering work."

"That's because you've been living in a well." Nitro commented, and Alex chuckled. "Right, Ethan, you're hired I guess, for now. I'm going to put you in a 3-week internship training and evaluation until you become properly hired as an assistant."

"Congratulations, Ethan." Alex smiled and, checking the time on her cell phone, added: "Nitro, it's almost time to go."

Nitro scanned the clock on a wall to find that it was nearing 5:30. "Shit! Uh, uh, Alex start up your car and go on ahead, I'll catch up later."

"But what about Ethan?" Alex asked as Nitro ran upstairs.

"TAKE HIM WITH YOU!" Nitro shouted.

**S121** · 02-15-2015, 03:38 AM

Nitro's Shop | San Francisco, CA

If Ethan was a more extroverted person, he would have had a small grin on his face as he heard the news, the only indicator of Ethan's satisfaction being the small smile that formed on his face. Finally, after all this time, his plan was beginning to come together. It wouldn't be much longer now.

Just then, Alex looked at her watch and panicked about the time being close to five thirty, and before he knew it, he was suddenly told that Alex would be taking him somewhere, catching Ethan slightly off guard and confused. Where we're they going? Ethan did not know.

"Wait, what?", Ethan asked in confusion as he looked over to Alex.

Announcement

Corrupture: Redestruction [IC]

Corrupture: Redestruction [IC]

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment