[IC] - All the World's a Game

[Koishi]

Mima's Antique Store-Somewhere in Japan

---

As Mima started up the minigun, the scenery suddenly changed. She was back in her recliner, with a book in her lap. She had fallen asleep.

"Just as it was getting good, too." Mima grumbled.

She got up, putting the bookmark in and closing the book, putting it gently in her chair. She stretched, yawning a bit, then heading out to the front room, where here was one customer.

"Oh, hello there. Welcome to my little shop." Mima greeted. "Look around if you want, just ask if you have any questions."

Mima then formed her legs and sat down in a chair next to the counter, pulling out another book and opening it.

[Kristia]

Flower shop, Tokyo downtown, Tokyo, Japan
_______________________________________________

Making sure they both were ok, Renamon tried to heighten her senses hoping to find the green-haired girl, but there was too much smoke amking both the smell and view really hard to use. "She is probably inside the building, it still looks in good state" She said as they got up.

Preparing to make a run towards the shop, the vixen noticed something "Hey, where is the man in suit you caught?" she asked still looking for a path to use.

[Kilelicus]

As the bombers began to train their guns on the newcomer, Excalibur took the moment to quickly engage them. His blade sliced cleanly through the first victim's armor, it was nowhere near as dense as the armor the Grineer marines used. As his blood soaked the already crimson blades, Excalibur turned on his heel and engaged the next target. By now the bombers began to open fire on him. His speed and mental discipline, however, allowed him to either evade or slice through the rounds. As he drew closer and closer to his next victim, and the clinking of the bullets against the swords became more frequent, Excalibur dropped into a slide and swung himself around, cleaving off the man's legs.

As he stood, he quickly returned his swords to their place on his back and instead took his bow in hand. He quickly drew an arrow back as he spun to line up his most recent victim with one of his comrades. As he released the projectile, it impaled the first target's head and continued to fly into the chest area of the consequential target, piercing his heart and pinning both bodies to a pile of rubble. He trained his bow on his fourth target, and drew back the next arrow, promptly releasing it.

[S121]

Downtown - Tokyo - Japan

John looked over to where the man was. The car was little more than a pile of rubble, with what little remained of the man.

(DAMN IT!!! FUCK!!!)
Making his true emotions, he simply said, "Damn..."

He quickly switched his attention away from the car, and to the building.

[Remilia Scarlet]

44th Street - Manhattan - United States

Snake, impressed, remained behind cover as he watched the figure neutralize the soldiers with amazing speed, precision, and discipline - albeit sometimes sloppy with the blood. With all remaining men's attention fixated on the cyborg figure, Snake stood up with his pistol raised, trotted forward, checking behind the vans for any others who might have been behind cover. Shooting two more men as he flanked them, Snake peered out behind the vans to see the cyborg fire an arrow into two men and aim towards another.


*** "Shit." Snake muttered as he heard the thud of the two bodies hit a large piece of rubble.


With the last man having been shot with the Tenno's arrow, Snake walked out from behind the black van and holstered his pistol.


*** "Impressive, sir." Snake complimented as he put his hands on his sides. "Where'd you get that nice looking gear?"

[Kristia]

Tokyo downtown, Tokyo, Japan
_________________________________

Renamon followed the soldier´s line of view and met the now charred car and what was left of the man in suit, now just rubble of him and the car were left to view. Also she noticed a rise in the armored guy who on the outside murmured a little swear but in the inside a rage was visible.

"Come on, we got to move now", the fox said taking him back to reality, the duo ran towards the now on fire building searching for the green-haired florist hoping she was safe somewhere where the fire hasn´t reached.

Looking at the place before entering the building, Renamon searched also for what caused the esplosion, but there was nothing as a detonator, it could have been the car itself since almost nothing was left behind, but ot also may have been caused on purpose. She looked back at the remains of the man in suit and thought ("Even though they were evil, they were also living beings, whoever caused all of this will have to pay")

[Kilelicus]

44th Street - Manhattan - United States

Excalibur studied the Character. He was the man that was being pursued from before. He approached the men he had killed with his bow to collect his arrows as he spoke.

"I am Tenno. All Tenno use Warframes like this. I do not remember where I obtained it. It has been centuries." He yanked the first arrow from the rubble and approached the second arrow's target, the shot firmly planted in the ground.

"I cannot give you my name. I remember nothing about myself. You may call me Excalibur. It is the model of Warframe that I wear." He grasped the second arrow tightly and pulled it from the pavement. He began to inspect the outfits of the slain men, looking for any indication as to who they might be. There was very little, and he was unfamiliar with much of the technology that was used in this era. It was clearly well before the Orokin era, though it appeared that he was, in fact, on Earth.

Early Grineer? he thought. No, not sloppy enough. Some were spared. Grineer do not spare.

He decided to check the vans instead.

[Remilia Scarlet]

44th Street - Manhattan - United Stats

---

Snake shrugged. It appeared that the Character before him, Excalibur he said, was one of the unfortunate Characters where the game "makers" chose to rob their memories. His matter-of-fact statement of being several centuries old certainly had piqued his interest, however. Regardless, seeing how Excalibur was making his way towards the back of the vans, Snake trotted ahead. Pulling out his gun incase anyone was hiding inside, he cautiously opened up the back door with his pistol pointing inwards.


*** "Well shit." Snake muttered as he lowered his pistol and opened both doors to the back.


It appeared that what explosives the men had used to blow the street to pieces had only been a fraction of their total potential. However, something caught Snake's attention. He noticed a black suitcase visible in the front passenger's seat, its handle visible from the back of the van. Turning towards Excalibur who now stood behind him, he motioned towards the front of the car. Snake went around to the passenger side and opened it, pulling out the suitcase.


*** "Might be something interesting in here." Snake thought out loud as he again motioned for Excalibur to come.


Snake opened up the suitcase to find several folders of papers in it. Taking the top folder, Snake pulled out the papers that it contained.

Snake grimaced.

On the front paper were several shots of a young man, all obviously taken from concealed locations. The information below was mostly crossed out by markers. Flipping through the rest of the pages, they all seemed to be information on the "target" with daily movement patterns, normal appearance, dozens of pages of notes, and various other pieces of information.


*** "These guys were here to assassinate..." Snake muttered under his breath.


Flipping through the other folders, they all seemed to contain the same template but with different Characters. Finally, he reached the last folder and pulled the papers out. Another grimace covered Snake's face. On the front were shots of himself walking to and back from the NYPD headquarters. His name, much like the rest of the Characters, was crossed out as well as other basic information. Flipping to the second page, he quickly scanned it to his dismay. Though the paper was by no means entirely reliable, the page seemed to suggest that "they" knew of his investigation on the murder of the Character. In an attempt to keep him off "their" trail, they had planted false information so as to throw Snake off.


*** "God dammit. Does this mean all those leads were duds?" Snake cursed.


The next page contained in bold at the top, Priority Chance for Elimination with what seemed to be an assignment to a certain team.


*** "Whatever team this was must have been the group that tried doing me in earlier." Snake remarked as he flipped to the last page.


Whoever these people were, they seemed to all be connected to the nameless organization trying to recruit or eliminate Characters. Though Snake himself had never been approached by any of these individuals, he assumed that his ties with the NYPD had automatically put him on the hitlist and so was targeted without warning. In a way, he was glad of that. At least he wouldn't have been cornered while being asked to join - a situation much harder to escape unscathed from.

Turning back towards Excalibur who had been standing beside him the whole time, Snake gave folders to him.


*** "It seems that I'm on a hitlist right now by an organization I know very little of in terms of threat level and size." Snake informed. "I didn't see you on any of these documents, but it may simply be a matter of time. Though these guys we took care of didn't stand much of a chance against us, we don't know their full power or potential."


Snake took a moment to think.


*** "I don't know much about you. I don't know what your ultimate goals are, your background, who you are, or really anything other than that you have a hell of a mean sword and bow. It was a pleasure meeting you here, albeit under rather unfortunate circumstances, but I'm afraid that I'm going to go back to operating on my own for now." Snake finished.


Snake took one last look at the suitcase and Excalibur, who stood relatively motionless, and walked off as the sirens of delayed police officers and firefighters were heard approaching the site of explosion from the other side of the street.


*** "I've got to get out of here and figure out what's next." Snake thought to himself.


Though he knew it was a great risk in doing so, he decided that he needed to head back to his apartment near Central Park to gather his items and prepare to go back into the field, granted slightly more suburban than he was used to.

[WriggleRid3r]

Kireinahana flower shop, Downtown Tokyo, Japan
Time: 1:05 PM

Are they gone? Yuuka thought. She didn't want to mingle around with the armored soldier and the vixen for long, now that the explosion gathered too many attention for her to be comfortable. She wanted to escape to somewhere, fast. Hiding in the flower shop won't last forever.

Should I break through? No, that would cause them to act hostile, and she saw the armored soldier's physical feat. He was almost as strong as some of the Youkai she knew well, like that pesky reporter Shameimaru Aya or that gatekeeper Hong Meiling. The vixen's strength was unknown, but it was clear that she was agile.

Should I try talking to them? If I ask them nicely, they would let me go. But then, seeing the situation outside, it's doubtful that they would let her.

Looks like confrontation is the only option. Yuuka thought. The thought of trying to weave out of this already gave Yuuka a headache. I'll just wing it.

[MyHatismyFriend]

Dad picked himself up off the ground and blinked at the two figures as they raced into the building. Deciding that ultimately it wasn't worth throwing a car at them, he instead turned his attention to the horde of Japanese police and paramedics charging towards the scene. Dad trotted across to a row of vending machines and began to hurl them.

[S121]

Downtown - Tokyo - Japan

John ran toward the burning building, looking for the Green haired florist.
"Hello? Are you alright?", he called out.

He looked at his HUD radar and saw that there was a person in the building.
He quickly approached, his current objective being set on the survivor.

[WriggleRid3r]

Kireinahana flower shop, Downtown Tokyo, Japan
Time: 1:07 PM

"Hello? Are you alright?" A husky voice called out the shop. Yuuka got up from her hiding spot and dusted off her skirt.
"I'm fine. You should be worried more about the fox." Yuuka said.
"I was far away from the explosion, so I didn't get affected by the explosion." The fox said. It was evident that she was keeping her distance, with her raised arms and defensive stance. "You, however, was right under the explosion."
"And so I was." Yuuka coldly replied, trying to step out of the shop. "Please do excuse me."
"Where are you going?" The armored man asked. "You think you can leave the situation like this without any explanation?"
"Some goons in suits attacked me, and I retaliated. You were the one who was making more scene than I ever was." Yuuka answered.

*Crash, screams, followed by whistles and gunshots."

"Uh, should we go look at what's going on outside?" Yuuka asked the armored soldier and the vixen. Wordlessly, they walked out of the shop to see an average-looking man with a fiery head throwing telephone booths.

[Kristia]

Flower shop, tokyo downtown, tokyo
________________________________________-

Seeing the girl safe was a relief, yet her coldness wasn´t necessary, "Look, we know those men as much as you do, right now we must leave this place before anything worse happens" Renamon said while taking off some fallen rocks to make a path. Suddenly more gunfight was heard from the outside.

("What is going on out there?") the fox thought as they got out of the shop, then she saw a caricaturistic caucasic average bald man with a creepy smile destroying everything on his path. The situation was going for the worse for every second they spent there and the man was unnaturaly going on a rampage of madness.

[Remilia Scarlet]

On a subway train heading towards Central Park - Manhattan - United States

---

Snake rode alone in the back car of the R train to Central Park. Weighing his options and possibilities, Snake knew that he had to act quickly and cautiously. Considering that he had been targeted by an organized crime syndicate, the news of the failed assassination would reach whoever planned them quickly. That being said, they were bound to have already, or were in the process or, setting up another ambush, most likely today. Snake assumed that whoever organized these assassinations weren't stupid, persay. They had done the proper intelligence gathering and planning had obviously gone into it. Perhaps they had underestimated his ability to ward off aggressors, but everything else had basically worked like clockwork on their side.

Snake checked his M1911. He had fired more shots in the past several hours than he had in the past three or four months. He had one more magazine remaining and only two rounds in his current mag. Snake switched the two out before re-holstering his gun. His knife, thankfully, had not yet left its sheath today. Hopefully it would stay that way. As the train decelerated to a halt at his stop, Snake tightened the straps holding his knife and flipped his pistol's safety off. As the doors slid open, he walked out and up the stairs. His apartment was close to the train stop as it was along 5th Avenue. Quickly scanning his surroundings for anything particularly suspicious, Snake started off at a light trot towards his complex. Seeing nothing in particular, Snake checked his watch. It read 10am. It was still early in the day so he had time to find a new place for the night.

Reaching his apartment building, he quickly swiped his key, went through the door, and up the stairs. So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. So far, so good. Reaching the fifth floor, he jogged out of the stairwell and into the hallway that was furnished with little more than a papyrus cream wallpaper and a floor covered in a cheap red Persian-styled rug. Furnishings aside, he noticed that his room at the end of the hall had something wrong with it. Even from his distance, he could clearly see the door ajar.

This was not good.

Snake pulled out his gun. Though he did not like using his gun in such close vicinity of civilians, he had no way of knowing how many men were in his apartment or what they might be armed with. Snake ran, as silent as a fox, up to his door. Flattening himself against the wall next to his door, he quickly peered in. He couldn't see anyone. What he could see however, was his small apartment room completely trashed with tables flipped and tv smashed. He could not see his kitchen or bedroom from here, but he figured they had met similar fates. Holding his weapon at the ready, he slowly crept into his own apartment. He strained his ears for the slightest movement, but could not hear anything. Just to be safe however, Snake quickly did room checks on the three rooms in his apartment.

Whoever had been in his apartment was no longer here.

Snake sighed in relief as he holstered his weapon. If his pictures on a folder of assassination targets wasn't enough proof, his completely trashed apartment was. He quickly made for a small suitcase he kept hidden between his mattress and and bed. Pulling it out and setting it on the table, Snake opened it up to reveal several items. On top were images that he had taken about two years before the Manhattan Incident. It was an image of him and Hal Emmerich together up at the Great Lakes. Snake wondered what happened to his philanthropist companion that he had come to know as Otacon. Though a year had passed since coming to the real world, Snake had not heard from or about him. Putting the photo down, he gazed at the object that was held beneath the image. His modified Beretta 92F, or the M9. The image and pistol were two important items to him that had been on his body when he was transported into this world. Otacon was like a brother to Snake. Not having heard from him since being teleported, Snake held the single tangible memory of his friend dear. His M9 had kept him alive across three different missions. It was sort of a good luck charm for him. Ever since coming to the real world, he had kept these items in a small suitcase. Putting down the M9 next to the image, Snake looked down at the suitcase again. The third and final item contained within was perhaps his greatest treasure. Taking off his business jacket, Snake looked down at the sneaking suit he used in all of his missions. Upon coming to the real world, Snake had realized that assimilating into the world while wearing a military ops sneaking suit wasn't going to work. Since then, he had saved the three items in this suitcase in case he would one day need them again.

That day seemed to have come for Snake.

Changing into his sneaking suit, Snake threw on a loose pair of jeans and a wind breaker over his top. Holstering both his M1911 and M9 at his sides, he double checked that his knife was still there. Snake went into his bedside drawer to grab several magazines and filled them with ammunition, placing what leftover ammunition he had in a small over-the-shoulder pack. He was thankful that he had bought an extra box tranquilizer rounds. As his M9 was the exact way he had it on his previous mission, the Manhattan Incident, the M9 was still equipped with a suppressor and modified to fire single-shot tranquilizer rounds.

Walking towards his front entrance, Snake knew he would likely never come back to this place. He didn't know where he was going, but he knew that he would likely have to leave New York soon. Having worked as a private detective for almost a year, Snake had made connections. Going through those connections in his head, Snake figured that he should go see one or two of those connections and see what they thought about his situation and whether they could help him out.

Snake set foot outside his door and felt renewed. Adrenaline rushing, Snake knew that though a bit different than his norm, he was back on the battlefield. This was how his life was supposed to be.

Snake was alive.

[Jaeyjay]

A dark alley in Chinatown, Manhattan

After paying off the massive debt she had in her hometown, Recette had decided to continue with her shop as she found the merchant life quite enjoyable. Nothing beats the satisfying enjoyment aquired when amassing a large wealth. She has a capitalistic mindset that rivaled those of the most successful businessmen. After the Horizon incident, Recette realized that she has come to a world that has an economy magnitudes greater than the small town she used to work in. Instead of being fazed by this situation, Recette was full of irrepressible excitement. Her eyes beamed with joy at the sight of this new world, filled with riches, ripe for the taking.

Recette had decided to open up a small shop in the dark back alleys in Chinatown, Manhattan. Despite her feeble appearance, her merchanting skills are second to none, and she was able to easily establish a foothold in the undergound society of NYC. The Horizon incident brought many other characters into the world, and it is with these characters that Recette decided to do business with. The black market has become a very lucrative marketplace as many characters were in need of resupplying and repairs.

"Time to open up the shop, today," Recette mutters to herself.

Recette's store is the perfect example of "Do not judge a book by its cover." In the dark, winding, back alleys of Chinatown, her store is the only bright, cheerful place you will see. With its polished wood walls, gleaming window showcases, and colorful flower vases, the store's appearance does not reflect the items that it contains. The appearance, however, does reflect Recette's optimistic and cheerful nature.

Although it does not seem like it, this store is one of the best places in the city to supply yourself before an assassination, mercenary contract, or anything else that requires weapons. Though still in its early stages, Recette only has the most basic items in stock (items that you would start games with). She has yet to supply specific, high-grade items, but will start to do so once regular customers are in need of them. Recette has also gone through intensive learning to gain a vast knowledge of all weapons so she could repair them if needed.

Recette goes to the front of the store and flips around the sign on the entrance from "Closed" to "Open". She returns to her seat behind the front counter and patiently waits for the customers to arrive.

"I wonder what new events will happen today," she hopefully wonders.

(Recette's Armory is now open. Capitalism, Ho!)