Aiden Cross

So she can sense things like that, huh. . . interesting. Aiden thought as his outward expression shifted into one of nervous embarrassment that most felt when got in a lie, as well as having their intentions exposed, or so he would have her think.

[color=Deepskyblue]"I didn't really have coffee in mind, per se, but I did kind of what to keep talking with you. I saw you head down here and used my ability to see how far down it went so we could meet up again, only to find that it went much deeper than I thought. I was curious, and determined, so I started to fiddle with one of the elevators a little to head down. Before I could, though, some other electro-kinetic hijacked the entire system, completely pushing me out of it and making everything malfunction. I'm lucky the thing didn't go sailing down the whole way here or else I'd be as thin as a pancake right now."

Chuckling again, Aiden wondered how his current ploy would fair. Unlike before, where he relied on his natural talents, he enacted his ability to regulate all of his body functions via hi nervous systems, ceasing any readable irregularities before they could even begin to form. It was something he'd done a lot, and it had an effect on his performances, making them seem much more believable and realistic though he didn't know why. As such, she shouldn't be able to detect that he was lying about the second electrokinetic, at least, not with the use of her ability. He could deal with anything if she was just a naturally suspicious person. Rubbing the back of his head, Aiden kept the act going as he explained his intentions, and his hiding of ability, further.

"I'm sorry about lying, but I can't really have the whole world knowing about my, well. . . 'talents'. WHile Pyramid city is pretty accepting of Esper's and whatnot, the rest of the world is pretty hostile, as I'm sure you know. My critics already target me for living in one of these cities, so if it came out that I was an Esper myself, it'd tank my career." Aiden gave a sigh as he sat down in a nearby chair, hands steepled infront of him. "I know that it's kind of a sucky thing to say, but that's how the world is outside of places like this. Harsh and cruel, with little care for those who reside in it. that's kind of why I wanted to talk with you more. Even though you're quite a bit younger than I am, you inspire me with how you're able to remain such a humble and kind person, despite the terrifying power you have. Out of all the lv 10's, you're the only one that still seems like a human being after you awakened your power. It's truly amazing to me, and I think that with someone like you helping out in a place like this, the world might get less harsh in the future.

Aiden lefted his head up with a smile, before turning to look in the direction the student's had gone, seeming to feel a bit sheepish in having interrupted class in such away. In reality, he was wondering whether or not Clara had seen what he'd done on the news yet.

So, uh, since you're free at the moment, and I'm really sorry about the interruption, maybe we should go and see what's going on up top? I don't think it was anything serious, but the guy I felt while mucking with the system seemed ridiculously strong, so better to be safe then sorry. Then, if things are alright, would you be up for coffee? I know a place not too far from here.

@Feisty-Pants

Prof. Namashiya Kotori -- Simurgh

As Aiden went on to explain how he had a series of misfortunate events occur to make him arrive at the Collider Tunnel, Kotori listened and watched acutely. Searching for any odd ticks or hints that he might not be telling the truth. Even when he practically showered her with compliments, she remained completely neutral.

After all, people often used such things as a diversionary tactic; and she would not fall for it.

Yet his cautionary worry about what might be going on topside did get her acknolwedgement. Nodding in agreement to such, she would speak quickly in turn.

"A strong electrokinetic overrode what you were doing, you say?" She inquired at first, motioning for him to follow her as she headed towards the spare Elevator shaft. "That's fairly odd, since Electrokinetics are rather rare, but I suppose I need to make haste. The last thing ENMA needs is another Cardiff incident right in the middle of its grounds."

Stepping right up to the Elevator shaft, with her will the door snapped open to an empty space without the Elevator actually being there. Glancing over her shoulder to the man who stood behind her, she actually looked apologetically to him.

"I know this might be a bit awkward, but if there is a state of emergency above us, I need to move quickly." Before he knew it, Mr. Cross was gently lifted into the air as she herself seemed to be. "And for security and safety reasons, I sadly can't leave you down here alone."

A split moment later, they were skyrocketing upwards towards the heavens, at speeds just a hair below the speed of sound together. Aiden would be able to watch as the air itself seemed to split and rupture around them in bursts of condensation as they teetered on the edge of sound itself. All for the sake of insuring that ENMA was still standing.

Yet there was a solid object coming right for them! The elevator was on the return path towards the bottom floor! Wordlessly, she would take action as before Aiden's eyes, the Elevator would break up into thousands upon thousands of pieces. Completely disassembling itself as they flew through where the Elevator had once been. Once theu were clear of it, the machine seemed to reassemble itself as it continued its descent.

Leaving only the ceiling of the shaft in their way. Which naturally swung wide open into the brilliance of daylight and sapphire heavens, as both Kotori and Aiden hung in the sky for a brief moment.

It seemed that there was a fair amount of disgruntlement about some sort of obscene broadcast, but ENMA was perfectly intact. Glancing back to Aiden, Kotori spoke at long last again.

"And about that cup of coffee, I'm afraid I must decline. There's much work to be done, and evident chaos to resettle." The two would gently land next to one another in front of Claire, who seemed a bit irked at her charge. Causing a lofted brow to rise from the Songbird.

"Know who caused this, Miss Claire? I would be thankful for any knowledge you can provide.

Staring blankly ahead with not a care in the world, Mika brought the complementary chocolate chip muffin up to his mouth and took another tiny bite. His teeth tore through the soft, dough with ease, leaving small crumbs along the corners of his mouth and the neck of his white uniform. It took a bit more effort to crush the harder chocolate chips, but the feeling of them shattering under tooth was rather satisfying.

’Who the f… heck even is this guy...? I haven’t even talked to him before and he’s saying all these weird things,’ he thought. By his distant expression and blase muffin eating, it was pretty plain to see that he wasn’t really focusing all that much on the the taller, dark-haired young man - Rouka - that had suddenly appeared in front of him and Aria, talking about boiling blood or some other rot. Maybe he should get that checked out with a doctor.

At any rate, Rouka had stuck his hand out for a shake. Normally Mika would have been a good little boy and reciprocated, but the rather impolite fact he had been playing with his phone the entire time he’d been talking to him - and while he had his hand out - quickly turned him off to the young magician. “Right. If you don’t do your best, you don’t pass.” Mika said flatly, lifting the muffin in his hand as a token excuse for the lack of hand-shaking, “And no one would want that, right?”

At that moment, a cold chill ran down Mika’s back. Turning his attention to the source of the sudden temperature drop, he saw two people just within the boundaries of the atrium. The first was unmistakable: it was Adam Pride, Sasaki’s boss and scientist of the millenia. The second was… some girl with a look that Mika really didn’t like the vibe of.

This hunch was validated when he watched her drop kick Adam fucking Pride.

“Christ,” Mika quietly exclaimed, expression visibly shocked before falling into a vaguely unsettled one. Did this kid have some kind of deathwish? She was probably important if she could get away with that kind of thing. He breathed a sigh of relief when she went up to Rouka.

As the two had their frivolous conversation, Mika looked over his shoulder at the long snack table and then directed it in the vague direction of Aria.. “...I’m going to get another muffin from the table, you want anything?” He didn’t wait for her to answer before turning tail. Unfortunately, before he could leave, he and Aria were approached by the strange teenager.

‘Damn, getting called short by a middle schooler. What a wonderful world,’ the speedster thought frustratedly, giving an obvious roll of his eyes in response. “She’s probably off teaching or something,” Mika explained a bit saltily. He shifted uncomfortably in place, eyes glancing around at all the people paying attention to them. “And I don’t think it’d be good to interrupt her.”

He quickly looked down at his D-Watch and checked his notifications. None of them were new. He clicked it off before anyone else could see. “...Looks like I have somewhere to be,” he lied, turning tail again. Unfortunately, just like last time, he was interrupted by another strange event.

The screens placed around the atrium flashed through frames faster than any eye but his own could see, before finally settling on what seemed to be a type of contortionist’s display? Mika recoiled when he realized what he was looking at through his slow-motion filter. “That.. is not… What…?” He lifted an eyebrow, his expression turning into some combination of uncomfortability, morbid curiosity, and disgust . “But there’s no way that the human body coul-” He paused, putting his hand to his mouth. “I stand corrected.”

“...I’m gonna get that muffin and some fresh air,” Mika announced to the group, turning away from the screen and immediately attempting to scrub his mind of the depravity through meticulous muffin examination. "Feel free to join in, I guess. _{Any distraction is useful}."


Meanwhile in the dean’s office, words like ‘PR nightmare’, ‘complete disaster’, and ‘scandal’ were being thrown around like dust in the wind. Ironically, none of these were being said by the dean himself, who instead was busy looking at funny pictures on the internet while the appropriate surveillance feed played in a small window in the corner. Notifications of new emails kept popping up and would have been making annoying noises had he not muted it.

After refreshing the page and looking over his computer screen to the ENMA PR officials that had suddenly stormed into his office, Daigo Kobayashi spoke: “If you fellows are just here to comp…come and tell me about this fiasco, I advise you to go do your job and deal with this pressing situation.”

There was silence before the room was filled with voices again. Turning his attention away from that shitshow, he realized that his own computer was now part of the other shitshow.

“...I mean, he’s not wrong,” Daigo muttered to himself with a mirthful snort, his voice drowned out by the all the business-talk, “At least he’s polite about it - even left a name and some words of wisdom.” He made an exaggerated, thoughtful expression. “Guess he could’ve done it more elegantly, maybe using some kind of deep, subjective, modern art p-” he flinched as his eyes focused back on the screen. “...Ouch… That does not look comfortable.”

WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES
PLEASE STAND BY

ENMA University personnel are moving to address this situation.


The Hand of God Private Military Company’s contact email receives a very, very lucrative offer from the organization known as Cog. Though the actual reason for hiring doesn’t seem to be included in the offer, it states that should they accept, they will send a liaison to Rutherford Plaza to meet a representative of theirs with further information the following morning.

Aiden Cross

Aiden felt a chill cut through his spine as Kotori mentioned Cardiff. The smell of ozone and burning ash filling his nose, the feel of it in his lungs, a desolate landscape as far as the eye could see. What was once a city, bustling with people, more than he could count, had been turned into nothing but a charged crater. He had caused this. He had reached the final level of power, and he was all alone on the mountain top, drenched in the blood of hundreds of thousands.

Following his fellow Lv 10, he couldn't help but notice how immaculate she was. Not in appearance, but in how she presented her self, how she behaved, how she treated others. You'd never know just by meeting her that she could kill with but a glance, so little had she been exposed to. A Natural and a Prodigy, he hadn't been lying when he said that she still seemed like a human being. He just wasn't sure if he was jealous of that quality or not.

Any more thought was interrupted by her voice, mentioning her being sorry about what she was about to do.

"Huh, what was that Miss Namashi-waaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

To Aiden's silent shame, when he suddenly found himself floating off the ground without much warning, he did flail around a bit(even though it was something he was used to doing with his own ability). Before he could stabilize himself, however, he'd suddeny be flung skyward as Kotori fly through the shaft like a rocket. This lead to the completely instinctual and not at all pretend reaction of him grabbing on to the Telekinetic as of his life dependent on it, though to his credit, he did stop screaming after a few seconds. Before long, and after some rather interesting use of power, they would be lowered down in front of a very miffed looking Claire. As Kotori touched down, Aiden would immediately fall to the ground, feeling more than a little queasy as he struggled to catch his wits.

"I think my heart is where my stomach is right now, so coffee likely wouldn't be good right now for me either. Maybe some other time." Falling back against the ground, Aiden would now spend his time catching his breath and making sure that all of his organs were in their right places. "I never have to do that again."

Oh hell, I need to find a way to do that without killing myself. Maybe that ability-enhancing suit the IG department waslooking into would be a good idea to steal.

---

"Not to be rude, Miss Namashiya, but the perpetrator seems to have already made himself known." Claire said with some irritability, glaring daggers at Aiden for a moment before pointing Kotori's attention to the black bar above the screen, playing The Hand's message once more above the debauched scene above. "You'd think a man with that much power would have better things to do then play practical jokes, especially ones that are in such bad taste.

A buzzing on her phone had Claire take a quick look, her eyes looking over the new message before typing a quick reply and pocketing it again. Helping her boss to his feet, regardless of his complaining, and basically shoved him into the limousine, giving Kotori a polite bow as she moved to get into the driver's seat.

"If you'll excuse us, Miss Namashiya, I'll be taking Mr. Cross home now. It's best he isn't around when the press get here, it'll be a Pr nightmare if he somehow gets caught up in all of this. So if there is nothing more you wish to inquire about . . .?

---

Above Rutherford square, a young man would look over the area from the top of a nearby building through a pair of high-tech binoculars, rolling a lolipop between his teeth.

Ghost, you in position?

"Yeah though I don't get why I have to be here now. The think said to wait until the following morning, yeah?" The young man would say to what appeared to be no one, laying down with his feet hanging of the edge, a yawn escaping the confines of his throat as boredom started to set in.

Exactly, and since the boss will probably want to attend to this meeting personally, your job is o be back-up as well as keeping an eye out for anything weird going on. You've done it before, you do it every time, so stop bicthin' already.

*tch*"I'll bitch if I want. This job is boring as hell." Ghost would mutter angrily before going back to watching the area. While they had accepted the job, the boss would be he most likely one to handle the transaction so that, if the terms weren't to his satisfaction, he could tell them where they could stuff it and be off. That being said, he was curious as to what the COG would want so badly that they'd be willing to pay or the Hand of God to handle it. They weren't cheap, even by the standards of the COG's anonymous backers, so what could the job possibly be.

@Feisty-Pants
@Grey

Bang Constantine

Someone had knocked on his door, but the boxer never answered.

Leaving the bathroom with an oddly gigantic towel wrapped around his waist, Bang Constantine finished his bath. He had taken a bath shortly after he arrived at his apartment, thus leading to him not responding to whoever that wanted to meet him. Oblivious, he walked over to the kitchen, which was pretty much directly connected with the living room.

Time had passed since he first arrived in Japan, and so far, he found Japan offering a lonelier lifestyle for him. It had been an odd move, but the Global Boxing Afterlight Association had shifted its gears to taking place mostly in Japan. Considering that the association hosted the most important circuits, the boxer really had no choice other than moving to Japan rather than risking his health through dozens of plane rides.

In Japan, things worked a bit differently. There was an academy full of people that could probably throw Bang into outer space. There were teachers who taught students how to... probably throw people into outer space, and going to space in itself without much of a hassle seemed very, very possible. Of course, Bang had heard of such academies even in America, but they were as concealed as they could get.

The idea of having a special ability... It sounded cool.

Cool, but perhaps unnecessary.

He did not need pyrokinesis to make a campfire. He did not need psychokinesis to press the buttons of his remote control. He did not need cryokinesis to freeze water for later use.

All of those were banned in boxing, however. So he did not need it, because boxing was what he wanted to do.

He never really considered what to do after his boxing career ended. Maybe he could move into Kansas and raise a field of rice crops. Or perhaps he could just work at McDonald's and flat-out skip job hunting. Despite his talent, he never considered coaching because of his fighting style was far from orthodox.

Living a life of recognition was great, he could admit that. But he never took the idea of a calm life out of his thoughts. His future... could be flashy, but it could also be peaceful. It would be a cliche for him to immediately pick one of the two, but it was childish to try adapting both kinds of lifestyles into his life on purpose.

So he kept boxing, remaining the same as he always had been from the past years.

Opening his fridge, Bang looked over what he could eat. He never had a set time for eating, so his lunches and dinners were practically scattered all over his life. After taking a good look at the contents of his fridge, he put up a thoughtful look.

Ten toasts, five eggs, and ketchup.

Ten toasts, five eggs, and ketchup. Aside from a motherload of water stacked in the fridge, those were all he had.

And boy, was he creative. He could easily make five toast sandwiches out of that!

Five sandwiches... Two for lunch, and three for before I sleep.

Yes, that would be enough for the day.

Shutting the fridge, he stretched his back and shoulders as a yawn left him. As he took out a plastic bottle of water from the fridge, he glanced at the television.

The season for going back to school seemed to be the center of attention for news desks. Taking note of this, Bang put down the bottle and, with only a towel wrapped around his waist, laid down at the center of the living room. There were no couches in the room, and he was too lazy to think about getting furniture in the tiny living room, so the floor had become his best friend in the apartment. If there was one cool thing about homes in Japan, it was that people actually took off their shoes and the like before strolling into their respective rooms. That meant that Bang could practically roll across his entire apartment section.

...Today is a good day, Bang thought as he channel surfed like an amateur.

And with that post-morning madness concluded, the day slowly comes to a sleepy conclusion.

---

---

ENMA University Compromised? The Hand of God’s Stunning Debut!

It is, amazingly, that time of the year again folks. ENMA University has just begun its 2038 Spring Term, kicked off by yesterday’s opening ceremony featuring a speech by our university’s local Level 10, Kotori Namashiya, and the dramatic reveal of this year’s entrance exam schedule, which were both met with thunderous applause. But while yesterday’s atmosphere was as electric as always, the welcome our old students and fresh-faced prospects had received was unlike any in ENMA history.

As many of you are likely aware, yesterday’s post-ceremony refreshments came with an unexpected, astounding and downright shocking display from the individual naming themselves “The Hand of God”, like the electrokinetic Level 10 mercenary. Unfortunately, this university-sponsored student news outlet is not allowed to personally disclose the specifics of the event; those keeping up with current events will gladly explain how the perpetrator failed to conduct themselves properly. However, we can attest that it was very poor taste and not satisfying in the least. Thankfully, it was resolved without further resistance. Nobody has been charged for this crime.

An official apology has been issued by the school, which can be found here

To get the full story, we tried to interview our benevolent, handsome, gracious dean. Although he refused to give an actual interview due to a prior commitment, he did leave student news reporters with some words of wisdom on his way out: “Tell them that we’re pretty sure we know what the other hand of god is doing.” Followed by laughter.

It can only be inferred that ENMA University IT has obtained evidence that the PMC Hand of God and the ENMA Hacker Hand of God who hijacked the school’s network and got porn banned from the wi-fi (a petition to restore pornography to the dormitories can be found here) may not be the same individual. Could this mean that there is a mysterious hacker who has stolen the mercenary’s identity to avoid scrutiny? Is this be the first in a series of unfortunate events? Only time will tell.

Really? Really? Fine, keep the puns, but at least be consistent in your italics with them. Cut out the petition and the misinterpretation of the dean's obvious joke, we need to remain credible here (and besides, that petition has way more than the necessary supporters). Keep the dean asskissing though, we'll get more funding that way.

Fix those and send me the fixed draft when you're done.

BTW were you drunk when you wrote this or something?

Did you just fucking publish it?

The edge of the rooftop was rapidly approaching with each step forward. The morning sunrays beat down on his back, just as the air flowed against his face and through his hair. There was no thought. There no problems. The world bled into a blur, and all that was left was the rush. This was ideal.

The blond-haired boy inhaled sharply and tensed his muscles. Then, just before the building beneath him disappeared, Mika kicked off the edge of the parapet and launched himself across the alleyway, landing on the opposite roof and shaving off excess momentum by flowing seamlessly into a well-executed roll.

With a wide grin, the Russian dusted off his courier uniform - basically a branded tracksuit - and stretched his arms out, getting a few kinks out in the process. He also grabbed the strap of his messenger bag and shifted it back over his shoulder. “Alright…” Mika mumbled, turning on the holoscreen of his D-Watch as he took a few more steps towards the opposite edge of the building, “I’m a bit early, but it says I’m supposed to meet this guy and drop off the package about now….” He lowered his arm and surveyed the area below - Rutherford Plaza, as it were.

“Don’t see anyone super shady looking down there. Guess he’s not here yet,” Mika commented, looking around as if there might be anyone on his little rooftop, “Still can’t believe they’re having me transport this much… Jeez. I know I’m good, but if anyone found out about this, I’d be done for.”

With a shrug, he began walking the perimeter of the building, searching for a way down. The architecture of Pyramid City was a bit of a mismatched at times - being some odd combination of traditional Japanese, art deco, and sleek futuristic architecture - but this meant that there were plenty of means for vertical navigation.

Case in point: the pathway he’d mapped out in his head that would lead him into the alleyway below. Granted, it wasn’t the most elegant of ways - it involved a lot of dropping and grabbing - but it would work. After a few minutes of the aforementioned dropping and grabbing, Mika hit the ground, his mechanical boots mitigating whatever impact that drop would’ve inflicted on himself.

Quickly exiting the alley, Mika stepped into the plaza proper. He looked around for his contact - still absent, unfortunately - and then for a suitable place to wait. His eyes fell on the stone bench in the center of the plaza, the one that formed the base of an abstract metal statue that probably had some kind of symbolic significance, and his body followed suit.

Let the waiting begin.

You have my approval to take whatever action you deem fit.

[System ERROR: Cannot reply to this message.]

Aria's apartment would be paged from the lobby about one "Kirima Sasaki", here to pick her up (probably not literally) for that thing she wanted to do.

"Have a visual on the poor fuck who gets to talk to the boss. Weird thing is,it's just some kid, a courier by the looks of it. You'd think they'd actually send one of their agents, not one of those rent-a-gophers." Ghost observed Mika from a nearby alley, his form nearly indistinguishable from the shadows that encircled him.

Well, that's his problem now. Boss is on his way over as we speak, and you've got a job to do.

"Oh goodie, what poor sap do I have to stalk now?

The Songbird, you luckily little shit. Just do your best not to get caught, ya little shit. Hate to see what she does to peeping toms like you. The man's taunt went unheard as Ghost allowed himself a moment to bask in his luck. He didn't bother responding to the man, simply turning around to walk deeper into the alley. As he walked forward, the air around him shattered into pieces, revealing a realm of pale mist hiding vague figures, stepping into it without a moment's hesitation. The hole in space would stay for a few moments longer, before the pieces of reality rapidly began to piece themselves back together til everything looked normal once more.

---

As Mika landed in the Alley way, he'd find that his exit to the plaza would be blocked. The figure, standing stock still under a heavy, hooded black cloak, had certainly not been their when he started his descent, nor had he been moving through the alley either. He was just there, as if he'd formed from nothingness itself for the sole reason of blocking the boy's path. The figure would look at Mika from behind the tinted glass of his helmet, repositioning himself a bit so that Mika could see the full get-up that they wore underneath the cloak.

"You with COG?" The question was asked through a voice distorter, making his voice come out in a variety of strange, inhuman pitches, culminated by a strange echoy quality to it that made his words somewhat difficult to understand.

"Uhh..."

As he made such an asinine noise, Mika stared at the imposing looking figure. In his mind, he began checking off descriptors. 'Expensive-looking armor? Check. Distorted voice? Check. Opaque helmet? Check. Tall and imposing? Check. Shady?' His eyes narrowed slightly, although more for dramatic effect than for a legitimate purpose. '...Check. This seems to be my guy.'

'Probably.'

The speedster exhaled, and pulled the bag a little closer to his body. "Depends on who's asking," he answered, pulling the cliche clandestine line straight from all the novels he'd read, "I'm just a transporter. Who knows who I'm working for at any one time?" He gave a casual shrug, and glanced around the alley. He pulled down the bill of his cap, hiding his face from one of the security cameras positioned to his right. Given his unsubtle urban maneuvering, it was pretty obvious he'd already been ID'd by the camera's facial recognition ages ago.

Though if this guy was who he said he was, there was a good chance that that wasn't a problem.

Of course, that left the entirely different problem that he might die here and nobody would know, but hopefully having his little tracking blip get wiped off the map would alert his boss that something was up. They probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it, but it was the thought that counted.

Hmm... Maybe it was better to get this over with as quickly as possible?

"...Well those are all hypotheticals anyway," Mika backtracked, giving a dismissive handwave, "You're the dude who hacked ENMA, right? 'Cause I've got a packa- delivery, with his name on it."


Everything was in place.

From behind his steepled fingers and the comfort of his Canadian compound, Adam Pride smiled at the holographic display of Pyramid City. A threefold series of sporadically-placed, blinking, red blips - each signifying someone of import for this operation - stood out against the cyan wireframe. The God of Science lifted his arm and drew back his sleeve, revealing the sleek apparatus wrapped around his wrist. Then, with a flourish that nobody was around to appreciate, he activated his D-Watch.

For it was time to set his plan into motion.

This is an emergency message.

Pyramid City Security has received word of a potential hostage situation occurring in Pyramid City. Metahuman abilities have been leveraged, and due to the situation, Pyramid City Security is unable to respond.

Direct interference has been determined to lead to particularly disastrous results. The most appropriate course of action has been determined to be an ambush against the target at their hideout with a powerful combatant.

The location of the hideout is...

Based on the address, it appeared that they were based in an apartment building in the middle income district of the city. That itself wasn't too strange, but there was a distinct lack of identification for the hostage taker. Even the hostage - one Fabre, Aria - was identified, and the rest of the message held a fairly usual debriefing of the situation; it even ended with the usual five conclusive words staring back at her, calling her to action.

Will you accept this mission?

Prof. Namashiya Kotori -- It's a TRAP!!

Much to her relief, and subsequent surprise, the first few days after a troublingg atart to the semester had been uneventful. Despite the inappropriate display and all that had happened, business as usual resumed at ENMA Acadamey. Classes went uninterrupted, events in general had been rather smooth. And slowly but surely, the various assortment of prospects began to receive their recommendations or were removed from the campus to try again next year.

One such student was being walked off the campus by the Songbird when there was a musical chime in her ear. A notification of an incoming message as she stood with the expelled student at the edge of the campus line.

Offering him an apologetic glance, she bid him farewell. "Per section ten-point-two of the ENMA disciplinary code, you are hereby removed from campus. I am sorry that you did not qualify for the Academy, however with a little growth you might fare better next year. Please, do try again. I'd like to see you give it another shot."

With his head hanging low, the student walked away and Kotori let a long sigh slowly escape her lips. She knew the tone that rang in her ear, she knew all too well who it was coming from; it was Adam Pride. The Mad Scientist himself, well, she could swear that he was mad. The synapses in his brain fired off far more differently than anyone else she had ever met. It meant that there was work to be done, and often it was of the hazardous sort.

Frowning, she raised the watch so that she could key up the holographic message, and found out that there was indeed a mission. Yet it was peculiar, and vague. There were only a few details that she discern from the message. Yet there was the troubling fact that it was likely that Aria was the intended victim. The girl had already earned the recommendations required from a handful of teachers to stay in ENMA, so protecting a student was certainly a priority. Though it was truly odd, she was a level seven Esper. Certainly she could hold her own so that Pyramid City's finest could help quell any sort of conflict she might be wrapped up in.

Minor things like hostages weren't normally something that level tens were dispatched for. So the situation just might be worse than she thought.

Without really examining it, Kotori keyed in the address of the potential suspect into the GPS of her watch, and promptly sent back a reply message:

--Mission Accepted. Songbird dispatched to scene. Estimated time of arrival twenty seconds. Hostages will be rescued within two minutes. Cheers.--

User/Callsign: Simurgh Time:0905

Once the message was confirmed sent, Kotori lifted herself into the air and then sharply changed direction so that she was bursting theough the heavens at a moderate rapidity compared to her maximum speed. The last thing she would want is more complaints about shattered glass from sonic booms on the school's docket. Yet she was precisely at the location in the midst of Pyramid coty at the exact time she said she would be. And the scenery of the city confused her.

When there qas a hostage situation, one could rely on at least two things: first, there would be a slew of news reporters everywhere. Second, the Police would be present in spades. Neither of these things were present in the least amount, yet as her eyes searched about from her aviary viewpoint, she did notice someone

It was him!

Kirima Sasaki himself in the flesh!

Her face blanched as she went pale for a second. She had not actually seen him face to face in years, and how in the devil's name had he gotten more handsome. Even floating in the air, she could feel her knees weaken, her heart hasten, yet as she tightly forced her eyes shut, she steeled her resolve. This was an unprecedented opportunity like one she had never seen in ages! She had to do something! At the very least he might know something about the odd message she had been sent. Adjusting her glasses and straightenimg her hair by quickly running it through her fingers, she slowly landed behind him quietly.

Thankfully unnoticed at first, she straightened herself despite how merely looking at his back threatened to steal her breath. She nervously strode closer, and once she was near to him, she cleared her throat to catch his attention.

Whatever you do. Don't stutter, don't stutter, don't stutter. For God's sake DON'T STUTTER.

"Good morning, Kirima-San. It's been awhile." She began mildly in their native tongue.

Ha! Fantastic! You didn't stutter! You go girl! Told you that you could do it!

"I got a p-peculiar message." She nervously added. "Something about a potential hostage situation involving Aria Fabre. yet I don't see any trouble anywhere. Do you know anything about this?"

Okay. You stuttered once. That's okay. Keep. Your. Cool.

With a flick of a finger, she would bring the nessage up for him to read. It didnt matter to her if it were classified in any way. After all, she trusted him with her life. Once he had a moment to read it, Kotori glanced upward, sneaking a mere chance to admire his eyes before taking another glance about. There was no sign of trouble anywhere, had this been bad intel?

Aria Fabre

"Is something mam?" Aria asked her head held tight on her sunhat due to it almost flying off. Though thinking about what was said about a hostage situation? She was sure that she was no hostage after all as long as she had a chance to make a noise she wasn't helpless in fact the exact opposite. "I am also sorry to say that I don't believe that I am a hostage. I am more than capable of protecting myself should the need arise as long as I can make a sound after all." She continued though thinking about it was odd though perhaps something was misconstrued after all technology was not infallible.

@Feisty-Pants

Rouka Shinami
"Again. Over and over again. They found me, why does it have to be this way, over and over again. They bring back a monster!"

The D-Watch Message is not from by any means a regular message that is to be convey, it belongs to a ghost. A Ghost from the past that Rouka long forgotten or better yet deny. Rouka in his dismay hour, crushes his D-Watch in anger after reading only to replace it with another one. Later, he receives another message from his colleagues:

Return of the Prick:

Long time no see dude but I hate to break it up to you. Your every move is predicted, no matter what zone you are in and no matter how you confine yourself, there is no privacy. If you want to remain in your school, do this job and don't whine like a sad face cry baby. Like it or not you have all the power among us yet you don't do what you got to do. It's like 4** and 4$$ and 4$$ and 4;;; and 4... not, did you not? Do me a favor and 4ck off and don't reply to this, go man up and do your thing. Heh, if you're even man enough to squeeze dem mountains. If you still one of us then prove it!

Annoyed from the message. Rouka sulked in one corner not knowing what to do with his life. A girl was passing by, she got blonde hair and striped outfit. What is he suppose to do? Stare up in the sky and ask favor that he might pass the entrance exams? No, he needs all the money he can get to fund stuff he has debt on! Rouka wasted no time assaulting the blonde hair girl with theft tactics.

Silver is present in the entire Pyramid City; Rouka deceives the young blonde into going in the wrong direction which leads her to the alleys and even more alleys. "I'm sorry but I really need to do this, I don't want your money but her life depends on it."

Rouka takes out a knife and multiplied it.

Girl POV

"Oh my, I'm gonna late for my archaeological meeting! I have to hurry!" She looks at the PC-Railway; frowning that the train is full for the entire day due to mass tourism. She goes ahead and take the underground system through the alleys. She wandered why she kept going in circles. "If only I can switch this thing on just as once." Suddenly raining knives killed her.

Rouka committed a sin he never wanted to do again; murder. He took the money and sat in one place. He takes out his D-Watch but decided not to reply. He shouted upwards the sky releasing all his rage.

"IS THIS ALL I AM!! IS THIS REALLY WHAT I AM! I'M STILL ONE OF YOU!!!! COME AND SHOW YOURSELF MY FRIENDS WE GOT A JOB TO DO!" @Grey @Mira Yasaka

Postponed like really?

Not really much is past but in no in the way and hell to the no that the exam is postponed and just what type of schoo is ENMA? What type of Admin would show hentai vids? This is indeed a strange school for a a University standard but it is in the norm to not be surprise at anything anymore since it is a chaotic univeristy. Things took a turn of strange when a man named Aiden meets the great Kotori, still it upsets me that everything about that incident tarnished my reputation, Kotori now thinks differently of me than what I imagined, this is all his doing, if I never meet that guy... well he's got the looks but no girl would ever want a mean person like him.

For the most part, I can see an emo shouting up in the sky and contemplating on how bad his life is

Like really? In the broad sunlight, he's got some guts and he is really screwed up in the head. The crowd just really don't care on what he is doing. Where are all the authorities at when you need them? This dude needs some judgement a literal one and another one bites the dust. Oh Pyramid City, do you even care about your people? Do you even care about security? If not for the better then it is for the bad like there's an idiot yelling upward for crying outloud and people are just passing by like it's a slideshow. I call this A Certain Chaotic Slideshow. The many emotions he is releasing upward is unfathomable like the emo songs of the old.

If I were him, he needs help.

Can I even help someone I hate?

Do I make a difference in doing so?

Perhaps maybe. Maybe is never answer, it is an answer but a one sided answer. I don't like meddling with other people's affairs but Rouka really needs help.

"YAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" I charged at him and I hope scaring him out of his wits work!

"Do I look like the type who would take place in such frivolity?" Even through the voice distortion, the frustration in his tone came out loud and clear. Wasting little times on words, the man walked up to snatch the delivery from the boy's hands. "It's just some hacker using my name to cause a stir, an annoyance, but one that is easily fixed. The rat can't hide forever."

Once he had the package, however, the man placed a firm hand on Mika's shoulder in order to keep him from leaving the area. While his grip wasn't particularly tight, the tiny arcs of electrical energy that danced about on his knuckles were more than enough warning for the boy to understand he wasn't to be excused just yet.

"Try anything and you'll fry. Unfortunately for you, delivery boy, I'm not quite certain why the COG has taken such a roundabout method of contacting me, so you'll have to stay here until I'm certain in it's validity." The hooded figure would glare down at the package, releasing Mika in order to get to opening the delivery. If the boy though about sneaking, a surge of electrical energy would burst in front of him, further discouraging the idea. Just in case the kid didn't get the first threat."Nothing personal, just that the situation is very unfavorable and having a meat shield helps.

@Grey

Mei and Rouka!
-----------------------------------> Let's go to P.C's Chinatown

"What do you want now?" Not intimidated at all at Mei's antics. Glaring at her with bore whether or not he is tired of her antics especially in a time like this, he can't take things seriously and just simply drop the subject like nothing. Rouka sighed and tried walking away as quickly as he can but the girl would follow and spout out nonsense.

Simply put it this way! Laughter is the best meds right? He's basically one of those people who can't even eat a joke and take it way to literally and snap! "I was just looking for you and how do I...."

"Forget it. Our partnership is over. Go find someone else." Rouka wipes his tears off from his face and listens to loud music on his D-Watch to shut himself off from the noise especially that is known as Mei but he could have known better.

Rouka takes off his headphones because of the excruciating pain he just got from his ears. "JUST WHAT! Don't you know what is privacy? Don't tell me you've fallen for my good looks."

"What no! I didn't say that!"
"I meant the song. I hate love songs it's so corny and kids these days is all about blind love and nonsense. Also leave me alone, I have to go somewhere." But that didn't stop her from following at all.

I insist! Okay I hate wasting my time but he better have a good explanation for breaking our truce and it's in my motto that I will see things through the end and I will make sure this dude right here gives me one!

Sigh.....

I grabbed his hand tight and forcefully drag him to one of the nearest benches to settle down for a while and talk.

Rouka's reaction is not hostile but he just let things flow as it is because he has no control over it. "STOP! STOP! STOP! Let's go to Pyramid China Town if you badly wanna talk k?" Cutting it short for the boyish girl, speaking in her own language logically would halt her and hoping that it would work.

What did I just hear? He spoke to me in Mandarin? Is the heavens opening its doors?! Finally another Chinese! "Sure then, let's talk."

For a while, Rouka is trying to get his thoughts collected for the sake of not getting caught indirectly for the murder he committed. Just for her sake, he would calm down and make up whatever excuse that doesn't concern what happened just now and whatever is going on in her head right now is really questionable. It makes him think that she's just doing this to cheer him up and many more that raises questions and so much more questions that he may want a direct answer instead of the body language she interact with him.

China Town- Long Yen's Cafe
That didn't take long. Usually stubborn boys would whine and retaliate but this was easy and now I want a real answer from this dude who is not even acting like himself or is this really his true colors? Some people do hide it after all.

"Talk and stop staring at me, have you fallen for my good looks?" The saying goes in the Chinese language in his belief that it would make it coherent enough for them to understand each other and so then the conversation would be straight up Chinese.

"I have no preferences and I'm not asexual either. Get straight to the point." I said with my arms crossed while drinking coffee shake in front of him. Asexual no? That's just sarcasm of course I like guys.

Before we even engage a straight conversation suddenly he told me to keep quiet.

"We're not in Long Yen's cafe where are we?"

Much to my surprise, we aren't either but in a whole different place. I stop for a while and look around and we're still in Pyramid City but where exactly? I feel sleepy... I just....and then I fall.

"Hey this isn't the time to....." Rouka feels a sensation to those of vertigo injection and something tells him it's a sign of reckoning. He bits his tongue and induce pain on his legs by stabbing a knife.

Part 1

There were two legends in an apartment within the Ikagi district nearby Pyramid City. Although it is not exactly located within it, it's close enough for some businessmen or people with jobs at the city to live there- as long as they had a means of transportation to get to places.

It was a fairly quiet neighborhood, and nobody really paid much attention to the backgrounds of Bang Constantine. This also applied to one another man who contested in a different kind of "ring."

Sitting on a small couch he managed to stuff into his small room, a large man surfed through a bunch of channels on the television. He wore striped boxers and a plain white t-shirt, and he did so without caring about how others would see him if they walked into his place. For someone like Hawke Grisham, his casual outfit was the last of his worries.

As he flipped through the channels, he found a documentary covering literary aspects of Greece airing in one certain channel. His eyes were glued to the screen as the name "Hercules" flew by as one of the more well-known modern heroes.

Oh, how he knew the hero by the flesh. It was just for a moment, but the man who never revealed his true name gave him the task of carrying out his legacy. The problem was, Hawke was in no position to suddenly reemerge as his successor just by lugging around the metal arm of a monster.

Before he met Hercules face-to-face, he always saw him on the ring, challenging a variety of foes in cool matches. Never did anyone expect the wrestler to show that he was something more than just a wrestler... except Hawke. He always stuck with whatever the masked wrestler said, because he believed in him.

How disappointed with the man be if he saw Hawke right now- lazing about in an apartment? To be fair, Hawke was nowhere as strong as the Greek hero who inspired an entire country to eventually eradicate all of a terrorist organization's efforts to bring ruin upon countries. The world did not need another hero, especially since there were so many Espers running around the world now- especially in Japan.

So why was he in Japan? Well, his chances of getting a steady income proved to be much better there. Hawke mostly participated in community services that paid him adequately for his bills.

"Ughhhhhhhhh," the Greek hero wannabe mumbled as he tiredly rubbed his face. "How long has it been since I heard his war cry? It's almost like yesterday..."

Blinking with half-open eyes, Hawke froze for a moment.

"...YESTERDAY? OH SHOOT, YESTERDAY WAS GARBAGE DAY! DID I THROW THE TRASH OUT?!"

Bolting up from his couch, Hawke ran over to all three of his trash cans, each of them located at the kitchen, his study room, and his bathroom. It seems he did take them all out.

He sighed in relief. Drinking soft drinks until his throat burned and knocked him out was never a good idea, especially if he partied with all of the apartment's residents. The pretty landowner, the busy male student who lived alone, a dark-skinned girl who practiced Kendo, and a boxer named Bang Constantine: he had held a party to their behalf as a celebration of his "eighth month living in the apartment."

The thought of him trying to cheer himself up so much made him sigh yet again, this time out of boredom. Deciding that he needed to lift his spirits up, Hawke walked into his study room.

While most of the study room was consisted of absolutely normal objects and dozens of wrestling wallpapers all over the place, the thing that stood out the most was the mechanical arm that Hercules gave him before his death. Clenched into a fist that refused to open, the arm of an iron monster served as some sort of trophy for both the Greek hero and Hawke himself. Hawke had it placed neatly against the wall, its massive size daunting the wrestler.

"Y'know buddy," Hawke said as he stood in front of the arm, "I hardly know ya, but you must've gone through some harsh times of your own. Getting stuck with me as a trophy, that is."

The wrestler picked up the arm off of the wall as he carried it out of the study room. So far, the arm, which he dubbed the "Power Glove," had never shown any sign of activity. Sometimes Hawke doubted that it would actually activate once more when the people needed something a little extra to help them aside from Espers, but the man of his childhood had said it himself. So every day, he made sure the Power Glove never rusted or the like. Not that it ever rusted. For some reason, it only picked up dust and usually remained cleaner than even the most stainless of steel.

Putting the huge arm down in the living room, Hawke sat down and analyzed it. Again, nothing seemed wrong with it. The usual space inside the Power Glove, which Hawke could put his own arm inside of, had not changed one bit, and it was still as clean as ever.

"If you ever start kickin' wild," Hawke said with a small grin as he smacked the arm's mainframe, "I'll have you know that I'm gonna be the one to work with you. Cause if the predecessor of my title tells me so, then I will never let his word down."

Just thinking about it hyped him up! Hawke making his grand entrance in... perhaps a troubled town nearby his neighborhood as he walked in with the arm on his back. He would lug it around, and...

...

...

...

...Wait, I don't even know how I could use this arm aside from wildly flinging it around.

Hawke smacked an open palm against his face, realizing that he was still too far from becoming an awesome wrestler.

"Ah, screw it! I'm gonna go get some groceries. Maybe I'll have Bang follow or something."

Slapping some jeans over his boxers and a thin grey jacket over his t-shirt, the Greek man snatched his wallet off the kitchen table and left his apartment. He locked the door and walked a few steps before knocking on Bang's door.

"Hey, Bang, wanna go get some groceries? I promised the landlady that I'm gonna make lunch for everyone in this apartment, so that means I'm also gonna make some for your friend as well!"

Silence greeted Hawke for a few seconds. Just when Hawke began to wonder if Bang was inside or not, the door opened, revealing Bang in a blue hoodie. The heat of someone who had just taken a shower emitted from Bang.

Wow. Did he just dress up super quickly into a hoodie when I called out to him, or does he just literally wear that everywhere?

"What're you making?" Bang asked with a curious, yet idle tone.

"Ramen! Aw, hell yeah, I love that stuff! Since it's not a sandwich, I'll have to give it some extra care as I make some for y'all!"

The boxer nodded. Indeed, ramen was good.

"Instant ramen?" Bang guessed.

"Nope, I actually know how to make Nagasaki-styled ramen a bit. Sure, the noodles are still from store brands, but it'll be different from instant ramen. So whaddya say, Bang?"

Posing as an imaginary flash of light shone behind Hawke Grisham, the Greek man asked with an immensely loud voice,

"Do you want to accompany this hunk of a Grisham in a grocery trip?!"

"Ye."

His eyes widening, a grin jumped its way into Hawke's face as he clapped his hands once. "That's right! You just can't leave your brother-from-another-mother all by himself when he goes out to buy ingredients to cook for a whole apartment!

"...Not that it matters too much since there's only five of us living in the place, but...

"You get the picture, right?! Are you ready?!?! Cause I! AM! SO READY TO GO!!!"

At Hawke's excitement, the boxer let out an incredibly rare smirk as he nodded. Although it was easy to misunderstand Hawke as some egotistical and hyperactive buffoon, he really just cared about doing casual things he could do with people he knew of well.

"AWWWW RIGHT!" The Greek wrestling fan exclaimed as he pointed at the gate of the apartment. "We're headin' out, then. Make sure lock your door, though! I'd hate to see all of your stuff get stolen if you rush out all excitedly and stuff just because I'm the one who invited you into a grocery trip!"

---

Soon, Bang and Hawke walked out of the apartment gate as the landlady waved at them.

"Take care of yourselves!" She said, her voice as gentle as her smile.

"Don't worry, miss," Hawke said as he pounded his chest with a clenched fist. "This Grisham will never get lost in the city like he had all the time before! I brought a map, you see-"

Hawke reached for the map in his pocket... only to realize that he didn't bring a map.

"-...which is probably in a cellphone-"

He also didn't have his cellphone on him. The man glanced at Bang, who blinked at him.

"-...which probably belongs to Bang-"

"I don't have a cellphone."

Clutching his hair, Hawke seethed internally as he wondered why things never went his way. "Alright, then!" He proclaimed as he dusted his hands. "I'm gonna go get my map, so wait here for five seconds!"

And he surely kept his word! It took Hawke five seconds to grab the map... plus an additional fifty five seconds to find his cellphone, which turned out to be hiding under the kitchen table. Bolting out of his apartment door, he locked it and ran next to Bang with a wide grin.

"See? Five seconds, right?... That was five seconds, right...?"

The landlady giggled as she nodded. Bang almost snorted.

As the two men walked away from the apartment to a bus station they commonly get on together, the wrestling fan stretched his arms. Bang was not too small for his age, but Hawke almost loomed over him when their heights were taken into comparison. Yet, the two seemed like they were quite close to each other- almost as if they were friends from different worlds.

"I heard the schools and universities and all that good stuff are getting back into business," Hawke began a conversation with his usual loud demeanor. "Gee, you gotta hand it to them! If you don't have magic, they always have that cool stuff to inject that gives people abilities."

"Ye," Bang nodded as he looked around the peaceful district. "It's pretty cool."

"Ha ha! Not that we could ever dream of being Espers, though. You and I have goals to acquire... none of them requiring artificial power! Together, we'll be unstoppable and achieve everything we want! From fame to wealth, and from wealth to recognition!... Actually, recognition is fame, but you get the picture, right?!"

Again, the boxer nodded. For the two of them, it was just another peaceful day as they approached the bus station near the outskirts of the Ikagi district. They would soon go to the city.

After the first question, Mika looked at him long and hard, the remainder of his statement going in one ear and out the other. For a moment, he was like a statue until he saw the man start stomping forward, sparks dancing around him. If there was any doubt about the masked man’s identity, it would be long gone. The courier took a cautious step back--No, that was wrong, it looked like a step, it sounded like a step, but the distance he’d moved was definitely not a step.

“Right, right. You want your stuff, I get’cha,” He hand his hands up as assurance that he meant no harm. His first mistake - which he would realize once the staticky feeling of the man’s gloved hand landed on his shoulder - was taking his eyes off the man to sift through his knapsack. ‘Shiiiiiet.’ In one action, even the idea of having an idea to get out of a potentially escalating situation had been erased. While he didn’t have any intent of leaving a job undone - especially not for this particular employer - the fact he didn’t have the option rubbed him the wrong way; the Russian prided himself on his uncanny ability to get the hell out of Dodge, after all.

He made a strange, guttural groan. “Yeah. Makes sense,” Mika admitted with a shrug of his free shoulder, “Not like I can disagree. Customer satisfaction guaranteed, and all.” The blond dug into his bag and, apparently unaffected by the awkward tenseness of the situation, quickly withdrew the important contents: A bulky envelope, a lead-lined briefcase, and a datapad with stylus. Apparently the COG were very thorough with their documentation for a ragtag gang of gangs.

“Right,” Mika began, handing the datapad over first, “Just gotta sign this to make sure everything got through. There’s a questionnaire you can fill out for a chance to win some prize-” He stared blankly at the Hand of God. “-But you don’t seem like you’ll need that. ‘Specially with this.” He lifted the briefcase - the one filled with the requisite forward payment. “Expensive stuff. If any of the gangs knew about it, I’d’ve gotten mugged crossing the first street.”

Before passing the briefcase off, however, he thrust the envelope into the mercenary’s free hand. “...But even with that cash, this is what they wanted me to make sure I didn’t lose,” he explained, “Told me it’s some kind of contract. Nothing more, nothing less. S’not my business anyway.”

“Don’t wanna know what it is,” Mika would comment if the Hand of God read it in its entirety in front of him, “Do you want your receipt?”

This is an emergency message.

You can thank me later.

Sasaki stared down at the message on his D-Watch, his mouth a hard line and his brow more furrowed than the Grand freakin’ Canyon. It didn’t take a genius to know something was up, especially with that terribly unsubtle message from Pride himself. For the first time in a very long time, he felt fear. Not worry, but that all consuming dread that something was about to go horrifically, unstoppably awry. Slowly, he attempted to unlatch the watch before fumbling and tearing it off out of frustration. ’Don’t worry,’ Sasaki thought, peering over his left shoulder, then his right, ’This is one of those ‘social experiments’ from Showtube that I’m always hearing about, right? Where are the cameras?’

The giant shook his head. He was being absurd. With Aria around, he was sure that Pride wouldn’t do anything too rash because doing so would be detrimental to his image. As much as he liked to tease him, Sasaki knew that Pride had exactly that: pride. Anything that would mar it was to be avoided. Which meant… Whatever was going to happen, was something that only he would know was very, very wrong.

....Which somehow more frightening than anything he’d thought of before.

’Argh. I can’t understand that man,’ he rubbed the back of his head frustratedly, ’As long as he didn’t go through all my files or something...’ There was no sense in worrying, his mind told him; and yet his heart told him there was all the sense in worrying. He began counting numbers down in his head to calm his nerves. And for a moment, all was calm.

And then someone someone said his name loudly, and with purpose.

There was a distinct choking noise as Sasaki used every screaming fibre of his being to remain still. To not lash out violently, as much as his knee-jerk reaction wanted him to throw fists. Raising a twelve year-old with superspeed for six years did wonders for his self-discipline, far more than any of Seneca’s other attempts had. But even so...

’Oh lord that was embarrassing,’ he thought with a sharp inhalation, and an inward cringe. Half of him wanted to pretend the person wasn’t there, but the other half knew better. Not just from the perspective of someone who wanted to be polite, but also from his own personal experience. This voice, soft in sound but firm in bearing, was unmistakably hers.

Immediately, he understood what Pride had meant, immediately he had agreed with him, and immediately, he had become about 10000x more suspicious of this situation. What was the twist?

“Yes… It has been a long time… yes,” Sasaki’s voice was slow and measured to catch speech errors, rather than resolute and rehearsed like Kotori’s. He still felt as if he was speaking like a goddamn nerd. When had he become so awkward? He spoken with many people in the past, so this shouldn’t be of great difficulty. His face blanched the moment she mentioned a ‘peculiar message’. ‘Oh fuck.’ Adam didn’t do something weird in his name, did he? He’d heard all the man’s shitty pick up lines from his wife. God of Science he may have been, but he was no God of Seduction, that was for sure. Sasaki narrowed his eyes slightly, still doing his best to awkwardly avoid the gaze of the woman standing beside him. He put his hands in his pockets to avoid fidgeting. “Was this message… Was it from-”

Fortunately, his question was answered before he could complete that sentence. Though it was not an answer he was pleased with, but it was an answer that brought relief to his heart. “I... “ For the first, he was at a loss for how to explain something. “Erm. Yes. In a way,” he fumbled with his words in his own stoic way before he was saved by the arrival of the blonde herself. “As you can see, that was definitely bad intel,” he nodded, still trying to avert the songbird’s gaze while casting curious glances of his own. He scratched the side of his jaw.

“She’s in your class I take it?” he asked Kotori. He was aware that the songbird was an ENMA professor, and that Aria Fabre was an ENMA prospect, but he hadn’t known if there’d been any acquaintanceship made between them. Then, a thought occurred to the iron giant. “It’s not what it looks like. I’m picking her up and escorting her around town for a coworker. We’re supposed to meet up with someone else later today, but otherwise… No hostage situations, mm...”

Yep. Best to be frank and cut off any potentially volatile, rom-com-esque situations off at the bud.

“Do you happen to be busy today, Namashiya-chan?”

Prof. Namashiya Kotori - Bad Intelligence, Bad!

First, before anything else, Aria came bounding up to both Kotori and Sasaki alike, clearly implicating that the kidnapping was a ruse. Even Aria herself had stated that she would have been more able in defending herself. To which Kotori silently nodded, and reverted her gaze back to the one man she truly cherished in secret: Kirima Sasaki.

Naturally when he spoke, she inwardly clung on to almost every variable possible. It had been so long since she had actually heard his voice. It had been years since the last, and since then she had heard his voice only through garbled communications. It was never the same, but by the Gods, she loved to hear it. The pace, the baritone essence of it, though she would never remotely chance showing it, the Songbird was temporarily in a state of complete bliss.

Showing it as a whole might put Aria, or even worse, Sasaki in danger. Especially since the latter had no powers.

Even as he fumbled a word or two, the final he poised made her quickly come to terms with how incredible this chance was! He asked if she was busy! Wait, of course she was busy; always at work on new subatomic energy theories and equations. Though she wasn't certain, she had the feeling that she was on the cusp of a major breakthrough! Shaking her head, Kotori gave Sasaki her response as she did such. She had to take advantage of this chance.

She had to. Sometimes world-changing Science could wait for a young woman's dream.

"Well, now that this little disaster is figured out, I'm afraid that my afternoon is quite open." The Songbird quipped, with a hint of humor in her voice. "So...I guess you could say I'm free." Hesitantly, she shifted just enough where she stood by his side, only to catch a glimpse of his hand.

Oh! How desperately she wished to hold it. Yet instead of just reaching out and seizing it, the telekinetic fell into an easy, graceful stride beside the Giant as they quickly left and headed in whichever direction he would lead them. As they walked however, as her hand swayed easily in a nonchalant cadence, her head bowed lightly.

Biting her lip for a split second, she decided that at long last, she was going to do something she had wished for a long, long time. Subtly as they walked, her hand gently caught up with his. Carefully, her slender pianist's fingertips intertwined betwixt his digits, and held snugly to boot. His hand was large, rough, and calloused. The hands of a man who worked and toiled endlessly, and the softness of her pale touch contrasted so starkly.

Once she held fast, she was sure Iron Giant would look in her direction once again. This time however, he'd not see what the international community had come to expect. With her head head bowed, the rosy hue that now rested on her cheekbones. In all the news, in all the propaganda, she seemed strong, resilient, and aloof. But here, as she held tightly onto his hand, the first time since she had rescued those people from the stadium as a level four.

"Where are we headed?" she inquired lightly, curious as ever to see just how this day was destined to go.

"Like I'm going to tell the messenger boy anything. Do yourself a favor, kid, and stay quiet." Aiden chastised the kid before reading through the specifics of the job. As he looked through everything, he figured that it was all pretty doable, though the no-killing restriction added an annoying level of challenge to the whole ordeal. Still, it seemed like a rather simple task for his men, and the fact that it was all localized with Pyramid City made it even better. He already had a plan in mind, though he'd have to hash it out with the division heads to see what they think. While the final word was his, they were all skilled and intelligent members of his organization, and thus, had valuable input to give.

"Yeah, this'll do fine. here's the signature kid, and sorry about the threat." Aiden tapped the datapad, the screen fuzzing out before coming back into focus with a large hand print with a lightning bolt in it's palm covering the spot where the signature was supposed to be, as well as a lot of the other legalese that such things came with. With the envelop and briefcase in hand, Aiden would give a slight wave to the kid before his form suddenly faded out of existence, as if he'd never been there in the first place. As such, Mika would be all alone in the alleyway with a somewhat busted datapad, given that no matter what anyone tried to do, the Hand's insignia reused to come off.

---

Ghost

Huh, so Price likes to play matchmaker? Interesting. Ghost watched the proceedings with a somwhat bored expression, wondering in his head how he could spice things up a bit for the two lovebirds. Nothing came at the moment, but he figured he come up with something soon enough. All it took was a little patience.