Description: Diamond Head (1980). K9999, a chaotic being recognized for his wild displays. Elle, a cold, calculating creature known for her methodical actions. When the two meet, it's less a class of ideologies, but more of a study as to how both of them are more similar than different. Then again, it begs the question: does humanity becomes relative when the subjects are inhuman?
Southtown Village hasn't escaped the ravages of the invasion completely, but it's still a relatively untouched area. After all, when it comes down to it there's just not as many targets out here. The most valuable things are within the downtown area, and that leaves the Village relative quiet.
It also means the place is relatively unprotected.
With all the fighting in the middle of town, all the local police and soldiers are in the thick of things, meaning that someone that's willing to settle for less because the work is relatively easy is going to have a bonanza on their hands.
Enter Elle.
The mercenary woman is slowly assembling threads. Each action has brought her closer to the goal she's focused on. What that goal is? Hard to say. She tends to keep her motivations her own. That's why she doesn't seem to act whith any particular rhyme or reason as she stands in front of a small Japanese home in the middle of the village. It's quiet and dark, the power crisis causing rolling brown and blackouts through the area.
But she'scased this area extensively, and knows that the occupants of the building are away, apparently having fled the conflict a while ago. It's crass to prey on people that aren't there, but nobody here is going to stop her, right?
The small fence is easily circumnavigated with a jump. Two boots land firm on the concrete with a solid snapping of hobnails on stone, and she approaches the door with the methodical motions of a timepeice as she draws a weapon from her hip holster.
She checks the clip expertly, holds it out, and fires. The breecher round blasts open the lock with a sharp crack, the noise echoing through the darkened alleyways of the village as she pushes open the door with her foot.
Caution for an allegedly empty and abandoned home? Maybe there's more to it than it first appears. But then again... maybe Elle's just the paranoid type.
She's not paranoid, and she's not alone, well, at least not tonight. Yes, the house was abandoned, the family long gone, but someone has either stayed behind or snuck in, because someone is sitting on the couch, watching some gorey Japanese horror movie on television. K9999 is not in his normal clothing, his hair is black and he's wearing a blue university uniform, emblem and all, and appears to be a typical member of a household, if not for his mechanical looking blue glove.
When someone comes in, he has no idea who it is, and he doesn't even seem to particularly care, he just calls out and says, "You back already?" he asks in a rather familiar tone, as if he were talking to family. He's really into his role now, playing it up for who ever it may be. "This movie's really good." he says before letting out a slightly disturbing laugh, raising his right gloved hand which starts buzzing like a large drill, at the same time someone seems to be using a drill on TV.
The mercenary stops dead in her tracks.
The home is more than what it appears: it's a safehouse. Locked away in the storage basement is the very last of the Shadaloo technology she squirreled away during Vega's last appearance. This... this is unexpected.
Elle hates surprises. As a person that works tirelessly to reduce all the variables in her life to inconsequential hiccups in progress, it's a considerable upset when something wholly unexpected occurs.
Of course, that doesn't mean she doesn't know how to deal with one.
The weapon is holstered immediately, and she takes a closer look at who's in the house. The face is unfamiliar. The features, the hair, she doesn't know this person. But she does know one thing. That glove isn't normal, and that's the focus of her thoughts, if not her attention at the moment.
Her footsteps tap down on the linoleum entryway, eyes flicking constantly as if trying to absorb all the details of her surroundings in an instant.
NESTS. Got to be NESTS. Elle used to work with a NESTS person, and the 'morphing' technology is something she's had passing understanding with. But that means that this kid is probably unstable, like most NESTS creations. Which means she's in a heap of trouble.
"Is it?" Her voice is cold, dry, raspy. Devoid of a lot of emotion. She doesn't appear to be scared, but there's definite undertones of concern. After all, this house was supposed to be empty. "So, you finding what you need here, or...?"
Hand changing back to normal, K9999 slowly stands, hair returning to blue, clothing blooming out into a cape, his tanktop, and generally just his usual outfit. He's grown bored of the role. "There's nothing I need here, I just thought it might be fun to sit around in one of these houses and see what it's like." He leaps high over the couch, landing right in front of her as he stares up into her eyes. She's taller, having a few inches on him.
"I like tall chicks, what's your name?" he asks with a grin, seeming unconcerned with the fact that she's not dressed like a typical resident.
The kid's got more than a few gears that aren't functioning. That much is obvious. Dealing with Aislinn had been easier: her mental dysfunction made her largely a hollowed out shell of a human being with out the most rudimentary emotions. This kid on the other hand...?
The woman's not psychic, but she can tell that K9999's the polar opposite. Everything's wrong with the boy. In fact, there's probably a few things broken in there that psychologists haven't been able to name yet. Her instinct tells her to bolt. No sense exposing yourself to a code red NESTS threat. But then there's the fact that the kid wants to talk. Curiousity and the need to know win out over caution.
Good thing she's not a cat, right?
"That's a good question," she replies, her lips going from 'slight frown' to 'neutral'. "Not exactly the thing I expected out of you. I was thinking more along the lines of 'mindless screaming' and 'I'm going to eat you'," she says, attempting to step around him carefully so that she can take a look at the rest of the house.
"Tell you what," she says as she tries to step by, "Let's play a game. I answer your questions, and you keep that hand of yours where I can see it."
"I don't eat people, but my arm does sometimes." K9999 says with a dangerously amused smile, slowly following her around. Well, this woman is asking him questions, making suggestions, but not making demands; maybe she's not such a bad person. "Don't worry about my hand." he suggests, holding it up as it quickly flails around in a mass of blue mechanical tentacles, then snaps back into the form of a hand. "It's right here."
He steps closer, watching, staring, appearing uninterested in why she's actually in the house, and who she is beyond her name. "Ask away."
"Well, you asked first, and you did what I asked, so it's my turn," she says. Elle breaks many rules in society, but her own rules? Never. You have to have some standards, even if you're the one making them. "My name's Elle," she replies. "Anything else you want to know? I know... a lot of things."
And she does.
Elle's been around for a while, worked with more than her fiar share of individuals. Some wonder how she manages to stay alive, playing off so many parties. Elle doesn't. never gives it a second thought.
Much like how she doesn't give it a thought as she steps by K9999 to look for the switch. "Nice tech," she says, nodding to the hand. "I have a friend that's really interested in that stuff. Well, I use the term 'friend' loosely," she admits. Ayame hasn't been seen in ages.
Her hand slides along the countertop in the kitchen, carefully rapping along its surface. Where was it? Her long-legged strides bring her to the light switches, which are a series of three flat panels on the wall, and she begins to press on them experimentally, causing the house's lights to flicker.
"Are you free, or do you take orders from someone?" K9999 asks for no apparent reason, looking up as the lights flicker on, then back down to her form. When she says 'nice tech', he looks at his hand, then laughs. "Tech? This isn't a weapon, this is my own power." he explains, quite proud of himself, closing and opening his hand as if to further make his point.
Walking closer, he starts looking over her clothing, trying to see if it's anything he's seen on someone else before, namely, if it's an enemy uniform. "This glove just helps me control my power, and it doesn't even do a very good job when I get really riled up. Without the glove, my arm would probably eat the whole town." he casually points out, not seeming to care either way, though it /would/ be a painful experience for him and everyone else.
"Kid, trust me. You're all tech. Everyone in that hokey cult you're from is tech. There's not a single chunk of you that isn't infused with enough science to make a lab-coat cream his pants," Elle responds matter of factly. "You can call it a glove, you can call it a control device, you can call it a goddamn Happy Meal Toy. It's tech. you're tech."
She waves a hand dismissively. "But that doesn't make you who you /are/. It's all about what you /do/, not what you're made out of, that matters."
And with that, she clicks on the right series of lights that causes a heavy 'thud' noise to echo below. "There's the safety lock," she says more to herself, and she turns to head towards a closet.
Elle's outfit isn't an 'enemy uniform', really. However, more than a few people would say that she's an enemy to nearly everyone and everything she comes across. nevertheless, she tries to keep an open mind, especially when dealing with the absurd, and K9999's about as strange as it gets.
Her hand turns the handle, and she turns her head to K9999 to motion him forward she she can keep an eye on him. "Don't forget our deal. I need to see you at all times, or I'm not answering anything. To answer your question? I'm free when I want to be. Sometimes I work with people and I do what they say when I'm paid to. Otherwise? I set my own rules."
"I'm better than a robot." K9999 says, a tad defensively, since he doesn't quite like the idea of being called 'tech'. He doesn't appear to be angry about it though, simply nodding when she reminds him of their deal. "I don't like it when people have to get orders and don't have a choice. I envy free people, but I don't hate them."
He stares at her, then tries to get on the tips of his toes to see over her shoulder, wondering what's behind the door. "What are you doing here anyway?" he finally asks, almost a bit accusing for whatever reason.
A fair question. "Weapon cache in the basement," she says. Japanese houses have basements? This one does. "In front of me. Watch your step." She herds the NESTS experiment forward down a short staircase into a relatively small room in the bottom.
Shadaloo uniforms, weapons, and other sundries. All perfectly pedestrian to a fighter, and almost pathetic to someone that's a living weapon like K9999. But Elle has plans. She always has plans. "You know,w hen I was a kid," she muses, grabbing one of the pistols on the table and pulling back the slide, "I didn't have a choice either. Everyone always told me what to do. Every day, I was expected to be something, be somewhere, and do something. It wasn't a bad life. Just one that was completely on rails. I was happy. But I wasn't."
The slide pops back with a click, and she lays the pistol carefully back ont it's workbench. "Then one day I destroyed everything, and ran away. I made a mistake. But I didn't. I gave up something to be something else." A hand slides over one of the uniforms as she strolls in the small room, taking inventory.
Her hand reaches up to remove the sunglasses on her face, revealing her ruined eye, the thin scars crossing her face from what looks like a claw having been drawn diagonally across it. "You've got the right idea. If I had envied instead of hated, I'd be a different person. Right now, you have a place to belong. Even if you hate that place, you belong to it. But if you leave it behind... well, kid." She jerks a thumb at herself.
"You're looking at what happens."
"All I need is Angel." K9999 confidently says, walking around the basement, touching Shadaloo uniforms, commiting every design and weapon to memory, at least the ones that aren't already there. He looks over at her eye, which for some reason causes him to rub his right glove, then he just shakes his head. "I don't know what'll happen, I'm not gonna try anything right now, but as long as Angel's there, I don't care what happens to everyone else."
Holding his right arm up, he stares at one of the guns, then changes his arm into an advanced rectangular cannon-looking gun. "What are you gonna do with all this stuff?"
"Repurpose it," is the flat reply. "You'll be surprised what you can do with a gun these days." She turns to grab a sniper rifle from the wall, hefting it and tossing it in one hand to feel the weight. "I'm trying to get a few old friends back together. Figured I may as well bring some party favors when I finally manage to do it."
This 'Angel' person seems important. Sounds like someone Elle should keep an eye out for. So far, the kid's been positively docile, but that doesn't mean she doesn't keep a wary eye on him when the gun manifests itself.
"Something to be said for having friends. But I prefer self reliance. The second you start hanging your hopes and dreams on someone else, you're going to run into trouble. In my opinion anyhow. But then again, for all you know I'm just as crazy as the next person, so what the hell do I know?" She motions for him to climb the stairs again as she gathers the first load to put into her truck parked outside. "Frankly, though, I'd say that you're just fine on your own. Probably a little twisted in the head, but who isn't nowadays?"
"I don't rely on her, I don't put all my hopes and dreams in her either, I just like how she treats me." K9999 slowly walks up the stairs, his cape seemingly moving out of the way on its own before it can get caught in a nail. His gun easily changes back to a hand, suggesting that he didn't intend to do anything with it... maybe. "She treats me like a person, like I matter, not just some object, or a test subject, or some kind of crazy freak."
His fists clinch, anger seeming to begin boiling under his words. "No one else likes me, they all just see me as a weapon or an object, because they're afraid of me, and they know that if they didn't have an army behind them, I could crush them with a thought."
An eyebrow raises. "Is that so? Everybody?" Elle seems unconvinced of the boy's claims, but then again, who is she to argue with a teenager? Or at least, he /appears/ to be a teenager. Who can tell with these NESTS kids anyway? She doesn't even bother anymore.
"Look, I don't know you from the next guy. To me? You're just another schmoe with a few tricks up his sleeves. Probably stronger than me. Maybe not. Who knows? Who cares? All I'm saying is that if you're gonna take that kind of attitude, then yeah. Probably people are going to hate you and try to either use you as a weapon or an object because... hell, why not? Not like they wanna deal with someone that keeps threatening to crush them with a thought, you know," she says offhandedly, not really thinking too hard about it as she makes her way through the house, rifles and uniforms slung over her shoulder.
She looks at him, nodding her head for him to lead the way out of the home. "I'll be honest. Can't say I 'like' you... but hell, I just met you, and you're sitting in a house laughing like a serial killer. Otherwise, I've met worse. Hell, I used to hang out with someone that thought a great day was eating the eyeballs of little kids, so really, you're not half bad." The guns are laid carefully in the bed of the truck. "So I dunno. I don't 'like' you... but I don't think you're a thing. Just a guy that got a raw deal like everyone else in this asscan of a town."
"You're not so bad either." K9999 admits as he watches her, not exactly offering to help or making any motion that suggests he intends to, he just stares. "I didn't grow up with school or playing with friends, I didn't grow up at all, I was born this way. People talk like it's my fault I don't know what they'll like." He crosses his arms and leans back against a wall, sighing softly. "If you don't give me any orders, I won't kill you. You're not... a bad person to talk to."
The mercenary shrugs. "Look. All I can do is ask you to do things. You're not on my payroll and you haven't done me any harm, so what the hell reason do I have to give you any orders?" Elle sniffs once, walking around side to the steering wheel. "But I tell you what. You ever get tired of that monster factory you call home, you come talk to me. I don't think there's room for you where I'm going... but I may know a few places you can belong where you won't have to worry about people giving you shit all about what to do with your life."
The woman puts the sunglasses back on her face and slides into the steat, turning over the engine with a motion of her hand rather than the key.
"So, it's my turn to ask you a question," she says, as she leans out the window to look dead at K9999 with a probing stare. "What's your name?"
She holds up a hand before the boy can even respond as if to stop him. "Don't answer yet. I don't want to know what /they/ call you. I want to know your /name/. You think about that. Then you tell me next time I see you. Capisch?"
The mercenary slides back into the car, disengages the parking brake, shifts into gear, and moves the car out, leaving K9999 alone with that, and any other thoughts the boy might have.
Log created on 22:26:04 05/01/2009 by Elle, and last modified on 01:39:29 05/02/2009.