The damnable machine mocked him as it bathed his face with its neon green light. Gerald had lost patience, trying simply to retrieve his drink, yet fate had seen him unfit for dark mocha, and so he was reduced to curling his lips into an ugly snarl and banging at the infernal contraption with a gauntleted fist. But, just as he was about to turn back, the can had managed to drop into receiving slot, and he retrieved it with a hand that shot out forth like a striking snake.

“A-ha!”, he cried triumphantly. “Gotcha, you son of a bitch.”

The sergeant opened the can and drank heartily. He shook his head as he sighed in contentment. “Ahh~~!”

The curve of a dumb smile was on his face, but it eased out into a straight line of indifference as he looked to the side to behold one bulkily-clad man in white who had rounded the corner and stopped in awkward astonishment at Gerald’s gross public display of his love for coffee. He was rather fat, the stranger, and his face was plump and round, much like his belly. ’Probably an engineer,’ the sergeant thought, as he gave the man a crisp salute, which was returned.

“‘Ey,” greeted the man.

“Hello,” reciprocated Gerald.

They did not maintain eye contact as they went their separate ways.

’Well, that was slightly embarrassing,’ concluded the sergeant, whilst taking a swig of fine Turkish roast. ’Note: don’t do that again.'

Tempest thought the conversation seemed to be flowing smoothly, unfortunately, the gatherings and suspicious behavior from before finally captured the guards interest. "Hey, break it up. All of you. Now." yelled one of them, the other men spacing out to form a more complete 360 degree set of security. The guard that spoke was holding his left hand over something concealed in a pouch. His concealed mouth that spoke those exact words were so fast and sudden that Tempest had no time to decipher them. "Disperse immediately." the man said again. All hope in translating the sentence dissipated at the colossal size of just two words. Ocean blue eyes stared blankly at the guard unable to react accordingly and then to Josh who seemed slightly agitated. Him and the aggressive brute exchanged words that only seemed to heighten the tension, which only aggravated the guard further. During the midst of their banter a particular word stood out; Stone. "Stone?" Her finger pointed to Josh who stood beside her and the monster threatening the prisoners. She wondered if that was his name or ability but decided to call him that from now on regardless--besides, it was rather easy to remember too.

The observation/question came at a bad time and Tempest tilted her head at the odd shaped item tossed over the side. Before it could reach the ground Stone reacted with such agility that no one seemed to expect. Mouths dropped along with gasps at his staggering kick almost passing in slow motion. A crash sounded as Tempest watched the athletic man collide onto the table top but followed his eye-line toward the humorous display above. An amused smile crossed her lips at the sight of tiny black like bullets shattering into their armored bodies. This pleased grin vanished just as fast when a small gun fired at her savior.

A hand shot upward toward the dart in order to reflect it with her power but nothing happened and as a result she looked like a bizarrely dressed traffic patrol halting an invisible car. How utterly embarrassing. Tempest had a love hate relationship with her abilities since discovering them not too long ago. They usually worked when she needed them the most but noticed since having this electronic bracelet latched onto her that not even accidental force pushes released. It was a bitter pill to swallow, being completely defenseless, and useless when someone needed her help. This would not do.

Her hands reached toward the slumber induced Stone but a multitude of guards erupted through the doors and one easily pushed Tempest’s petite body backward. Feet became tangled in the lengthy pant legs and while trying to catch herself from the force she landed on her backside instead. Worry and anger surged through every inch of the little warrior and she rose watching them carry Stone’s body away. Doors slammed closed reminding her that there was no escape and nothing she could do, and the atmosphere began to settle down. The man from before who she introduced herself to soon approached her side. It took a while for her to pry distressed hues away from the door but she managed to eventually.

"Do you understand?" he asked. Trying to see if she knew what he meant.

"Stone is end.” She replied woefully with pain stricken eyes and a heavy heart…she felt absolutely terrible. Her body went to step forward but there was no access to the other side, and she could see the man’s arms rising to stop her. His expression seemed concerned yet hopeful along with his words and she sighed in defeat. Intense cobalt eyes stared up to the new acquaintance before she spoke. "Revenge." She knew this word well and finally had a less selfish and decent enough reason to extract some.

Kage suddenly felt he should have kept his comments, although silent, safely to himself as he quickly turned his head to yet another verbal dispute between the guards and the other group, which quickly boiled down to a physical altercation between them and a man.

Even though it was over in a few moments the 'tango' that spilled forth was actually quite entertaining, despite how it ended, but it was also rather informational. It was obvious to Kage that the guards had real 'ego' problems, that and they were also mostly tense, gripping there weapons and most never relaxing there pose even after the room began to quiet again. 'They have weapons and numbers....yet they need so many to take down one man....', the thought to himself, itching at the band around his list...same to everyone elses, '....Damn...' Kage cursed silently, for even though it was a hunch he couldn't believe he had been so stupid, everyone else had of course already figured it out, that all the inmates were like him.

Hearing the girls words before the commotion reached its 'peak', Kage replied soundlessly with a nod of his head in agreement to her. and for some reason found himself following her, personally never wanting to be in the middle of anything....'physical', partly due to his handycap. 'I hate feeling helpless like this..vulnerable...without my shadow..' he said to himself as he weaved low between other inmates, stopping when the hornets nest went off, and only continuing when the once locked doors clicked shut, with the man named 'Stone' carried deep inside, '..but it looks like im gonna have to shake off this 'funk' and step up my game, less i end up like him..' Kage thought as he follows a few paces behind the woman as she disappeared from the Rec Room.

It seemed that Tempest understood a little, but not quire properly. "End? You think his dead? No. He will be back. Just wait. Everything will be fine. He will probably feel weak, but he will be fine. This happens routinely." Xerox comforted her. Then the word "Revenge" came out. He went to cover her mouth. "Shhhhh". He looked around, to see if any other guards heard that. Plotting revenge, would definitely get her thrown into the box. Such talk was something the guards did not approve of. He released her mouth.
"Sorry, but don't say words like that aloud. Stone will be back. And ..." Xerox leaned in to whisper to her, "We can get revenge later, for the things they've done to us, first we must be careful."

Xerox started to take a step away. "You want to come with me? I want to learn more about you, if that is ok." He smiled to her. He began to walk out of the Rec room. He needed to get a place to hide the keys, but he wanted to learn more about Tempest. She seemed like a good girl, but, would she comply and listen to plans? He wanted to find out what kind of person she was. There was a place he usually went to that was away from almost all of the other inmates. It's not that it was a private room, it was just that the others didn't seem to care for it. It was the infirmary. After brawls, people would be found there. But other than that, most of the inmates didn't really go there. There was no reason to. Everything was locked up, so they couldn't use anything. Only the guards would open them, take out what was necessary, throw them to an inmate, and then point a gun to them. If they did anything suspicious, they would be knocked out with a tranquilizer dart. For Xerox, when there weren't any big fights, it was a good place to be. He would still have guards on him, but that can't be helped. When he reached the infirmary door, he turned around to check for Tempest.

They tossed Josh's body into the box, a chamber only 5 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 5 feet long. The trank they shot him with was a mild one, because he was slowly starting to wake. His vision blurred but he could tell where he was immediately once the powerful lights came on at the end of box. They were painfully bright, emitting a great amount of heat and then they turned on the speaker. A nearly deafening set of tones, seemingly random. All this together was designed to break a man, especially their spirit. Josh just balled up and held his hands over his ears and kept his eyes shut. He did his best to block it out. This went on for an unknown amount of time, as the bracelet that so elegantly resembled a watch, didn't actually display time.

Tempest’s body tensed completely still like a statue in which she nearly fell backward from a sensation close to paralysis. Large almond shaped eyes shot wide feeling his hand placed over her mouth, silencing further words of avenging the fallen…well, not dead it seemed, fortunately. Not long ago she had wondered why the prisoners’ actions were not gathering suspicion but moments earlier she could have instituted a larger dilemma. The word had escaped before she had time to stop it and it could not be taken back. The rage inside slowly started to subside however, so she could think clearly again. This other man had roused the common sense back into her and she was extremely thankful. When he let go she began to open her mouth to speak but quickly stopped in shock as he began to lean in.

As he did so to whisper her upper body unintentionally leaned back slightly as she looked to him timidly unsure of his intentions. His words were like a secret and she soon understood the need to say them so quietly. “Hm…C-careful.” A hint of nervousness could be picked up within her faint voice, and she nodded in agreement after gradually piecing the rest of the words together. Interactions of this kind were not familiar and his closeness inadvertently made her nervous for some reason. Even though she always initiated communication via contact no one else had done so to her before, and this felt unusual—though slightly hypocritical on her part.

This friend of Stone’s began to walk away but smiled before doing so. He radiated an air of confidence and seemed like he could be trusted. Like a cat she curiously shifted her head to one side, a signature gesture of interest. "You want to come with me? I want to learn more about you, if that is ok." Her mind began to decode the language. Come and Learn from his sentence were embossed above the rest of the words followed by Me and then You—So, Come Me Learn You ended up being what she fully understood. He either wanted to learn about her or teach her something. Either sounded acceptable and her feet picked up speed to follow his lead like an inquisitive Bengal.

Her head turned this way and that while following the man into a separate hallway she had not visited before. As suspected guards kept ever watchful eyes on the duo but she figured the majority of them were for the mysterious man. This new world in Purgatory was almost too complex for the native to understand. Any world outside the jungle would be just as difficult to understand let alone thrive in. This bracelet she figured was the bane of the prisoners’ existence and tapped the top of the item a couple of times in ire. A small sigh escaped but when gazing back up to see the location her body nearly collided into Xerox who had been waiting for her arrival. She pulled up long sleeves that hung over her hands yet they slid right back to their original spot. One thing was certain about the blue eyed girl--she was extremely clumsy.

“In—fir…in—firm-ary?” She hesitated while sounding out the letters on the plaque posted beside the door.

Serenity was walking around trying to think of were T.K might have went to when she felt that someone was following her. She turned around seeing Patch. “Are you following me?” [i] Well I did tell him we should leave.[i] As she was waiting for his answer she spotted T.K not too far away. T.K looked toward her was. She gave him a slight nod wanting him to make his way toward her. T.K waved his hand showing he understood. Serenity turned back toward Patch. “What is your name? I am Serenity. I am not sure I gave my name earlier.” She was not one for touching so she did not hold out her hand like most would. T.K had finally made his way to Serenity and Patch. “Did you hear what happened in the Rec room?” Serenity gave a small nervous laugh. “Yeah we were there when it happened.” T.K gave Serenity a look she could not understand. “I told you to leave when to many level five get together.”

Serenity shrugged slightly there was no helping it now. “Oh I am not sure if he still wants it but before hell broke loose Xerox wanted you to get him paper and pen.” T.K arched his brows. “I am sure I can get it. It might take a day or two.” T.K walked away without saying another word.

Aeris had noticed how quickly people had left the room after the incident with the hornets nest. Now she was one of the few non-guards within the room. She glanced around one last time as if she were looking for something she missed and rose from the bench she sat on. She needed food. She hadn't eaten much at all today. From here she made her way to the cafeteria. She noticed that several of the guards followed her at a distance as she made her way to there. She hated being followed, but there wasn't much she could do about it here.

There weren't many people in here either. There was however, a small line to where people were getting food. She made her way to the line and waited. It didn't take long for her to make it to the food and she got a single plate of slop and some stale bread plopped onto her plate. Not much better than the food she had delivered to her while she was still feral. She was unhappy with the fact that she lost control of herself so badly, but what was done couldn't be changed, so she simply accepted it and moved on. She found herself a seat all alone. She noticed most of the prisoners here were sitting alone too. That was probably to prevent incidents like what happened earlier.

The food wasn't that good, but it was edible. She was fairly used to eating bad food as it was part of her training at school, although they did at least reward their students with a good meal every week. Here that wasn't the case, but here wasn't school.

As Xerox turned to check for Tempest, he took a small step back, as she was about to bump into him. Watching her slide up the sleeves before they slid back down, Maybe she is a bit clumsy he silently thought to himself. He watched her slowly say the sign on the room. "That's right this is called an infirmary. It's where people get looked after." He told her, stepping in. He sat on one of the beds and indicated to her to close the door. Of course there were guards in there as well, but they probably won't do much if they talk aloud. Should not need to keep just some personal information secret he thought.

"Well, can you tell me about yourself?" he asked her, smiling sincerely. It was only the two of them in the infirmary, if you excluded the 5 other guards. "Oh, in exchange for telling me, I can help you with English and words." Xerox continued, watching for changes in her expression. From her behavior and her limited English, it was likely she was raised in a more ... wild place. Although Xerox had the ability for tracking and hunting, she was probably better at it. At least he believed she would be. It would let them be alert on if they themselves were being followed or not.

Kage stopped as the girl turned around and looked at him, "Umm, well..I really didnt know what to do when everything started to go down." he laughed nervously.

Following her gaze Kage could see that she was meeting with someone, watching as he weaved through the room towards them, he hoped he wasnt interrupting anything. "Well my names RayVen, but everyone that knows me calls me Kage.." he said softly, "Its nice to meet ya Serenity." Kage looked up as the man finally made it to them, and found himself listening silently to the two as they talked about passed events, fidgeting with the bracelet on his arm, still not use to his new 'accessory'. "Level five? Is that how dangerous an inmate is?" he asked, wondering what level he and his new 'friends' had, even silently joked with himself about being a 1 or 2.

It was easy from there words that this man was the 'go-to guy' of this place, someone that would benefit Kage in getting on there good side.

After an hour passed, they finally turned off the lights and the noise in the box. They pulled Josh out and took him to the infirmary, checking his vitals and treating him for dehydration. A quick IV was all he got then he was brought back to the general population area. He was weak and couldn't really stand so he did his best to make it to one of the tables and benches. Josh was vulnerable like this, weak and in the open but the guards would never give him the courtesy of being put in his cell to try and rest this off. Why would they, after what he did to get into the box in the first place. His usual smart ass self couldn't find the energy to muster even a mental insult for them on the subject of being hit with their own weapon. He was exhausted physically and mentally after the box, as anyone would be. Though he couldn't see with his own eyes, he felt many eyes on him, like a wounded animal in a room full of hungry beasts. The analogy wasn't that far off from reality.

Xerox

Tempest wasn't seemed to be puzzled by Xerox's words. But before he could speak again, guards seemed to take her away. Why now? She only just got here. He thought. Seeing her disappear, he felt like he betrayed Josh. He couldn't help the girl Josh went to help. Xerox got up, and left the room. Wondering around the place, listening to any conversations. He saw Serenity, T.K. and someone with an eyepatch all together. There wasn't much, and T.K. walked away. Probably related to business. he thought. Xerox sat around, looking at the other inmates, trying to see if what kind of people they were. Before he realised that Josh was taken out of the box. As he expected from someone being in the box, he was exhausted, and was just sitting on the bench, with his body over the table. Xerox walked up to him, "Hey you alright? The box must have been harsh hey?"

---

Serenity

"I see, well Kage, when they tell you to spread and break apart, you do it. That idiot Josh, did something amazing, but I doubt anyone else normally can do that. If they throw the Hornet's nest out, you get down low and hope nothing hits you." Serenity turned to Kage after T.K. left. I have to stay away from Josh as much as possible. He attracts way too much unneeded attention. she thought. "You should stay away from that idiot Josh, you will just find lots of trouble and unneeded attention like earlier." she decided to warn Kage. When he asked about about Level Fives, she sighed. "You don't know anything do you? They are deemed the most dangerous. Either because of their history or their powers. For all you could know, you might even be a level five because they think your power has potential. Well, it depends on whether you killed anyone or not as well."