[IC] Break {Icmasticc & Ace}

[Queen of Aces]

Karen Smith was busy at her computer, sighing as she tried code after code within the simulator she created. How long had she been at this again? Days and months had faded into each other, the only breaks in between them being when she found another member of humanity that had escaped 'His' clutches. Who was 'The Man' anyways? His name was Jackson Grimm, heir to the Grimm Technology Corp. and Grimm family fortune. Honestly most people had thought that he was nothing but an idiot, a sheep who was about to run the company straight into the ground. How wrong they had all been, Jackson turning out to be some sort of a genius. He had wanted them to underestimate him, to over look every single thing he did. When news had gotten out that he was creating a mind control device people had thought that it was a joke, a publicity stunt in order to get people to invest in the company.

Humanity was doomed when they overlooked him, doomed to a life that he created for everyone. He had always said that life was too hectic and chaotic, the simplest tasks being screwed up and the easiest commands being misunderstood. Two years ago he had turned on that device, creating his ideal world and taking everyone's willpower away. The signal was transmitted to each and every continent thanks to the satellites orbiting earth from space, creating a mass state of 'World Peace' as he called it. It was true that world peace had been achieved but at what cost? Was world peace worth it if meant giving up your will, your life, the ability to control what happened to you and how people saw you? Karen had been the first of humanity to awaken from her hypnotized slumber, horrified that any of this had happened. How on earth could she let humanity stay like this though?

The answer was she couldn't, and soon enough she wasn't alone. Others were waking up albeit it being a very small number of people, Karen being elected leader as she knew the most out of anyone what on earth was going on. They were being watched though, Karen knew that, and soon they would be captured if they didn't find shelter. That's when they found the underground bunker of a very rich family, abandoned underneath a small factory. The place could be considered a mansion, perfect for their needs in every single way. So that is where they stayed, grabbing a large array of technology before heading underground. Karen had gotten to work right away creating a system to hack into Grimm's monitoring system, the system notifying her of anyone who had awoken before Jackson could find out. She knew all too well that Jackson would have a back up plan, though that plan horrified her when she figured it out.

The mind control device had a function that would cause humanity to become extinct, their brain functions being shut down like Jackson's device which would cause death within seconds. The man was sick, twisted, and the worst part was that he knew it. He loved that part about himself and now so did the rest of humanity. To everyone he was pretty much a god, a being of immense power who dictated their actions and either rewarded them or punished them if they got out of line. Earlier Karen had found yet another person though who had awoken, someone who could help her with her mission. The Revolution was at hand and failure was not an option. The Revolution's success fell upon her shoulders, something that she honestly didn't mind. Sure it was a bit too much sometimes but the payout if she got everything right would be worth it, for humanity would be freed from Jackson's reign and she would get to beat him to a pulp.

Everyone knew that Jackson was her target, capturing him was their job. But he was hers and hers alone to destroy or save, something she would enjoy teaching him since he was doing pretty much exactly the same. Karen yawned and decided to take a quick break, needing some caffeine before the new comer came. She was in charge of showing everyone around and designating them a room, but other than that her main focus was on trying to find the right virus code to shut down the machine without triggering the 'End Humanity' function. With one more sigh she got up from her plush computer chair and ran her fingers through her hair, hoping that there would be fresh coffee being brewed already by the kitchen staff.

[icmasticc]

C a l u m J a e g e r

- - - ~~ - - -

His eyes drifted back up towards the warden, hanging on that same pallid wall and looming over the entire office. It read exactly five minutes to three - just about time. Nimble fingers resumed tapping keys on the board just in front of them as the posture of the body attached straightened and pulled the rolling chair slightly closer to the desk. The glare of the brightly lit screen threatened to induce a headache, but he had barely made it to the end of his shift. He could hardly make out the litany of lines his muscle memory currently produced through the cloud of his own wandering thoughts. Sure, he was still on the job even after he would set foot out of the towering skyscraper he worked within, but taking in fresh air would do wonders for his waning disposition and slumping demeanor. He was so absorbed in the thoughts of his coming freedom that the shout of his name pierced his eardrums and caused a visible shutter before he briefly composed himself and casually whirled his chair around.

"You know where you're going, Jaeger?" A well dressed, obviously managerial man asked.

"Come on, Wallace. I told you, call me Calum. Caaalum. And you ask me this same question every time it's my turn to do a delivery and install. I know where I'm going, rest assured," Calum replied. Wallace grunted before pulling out his much-too-big-for-a-pocket smartphone. He appeared to scroll through a few pages, tapped on the screen a few times, and turned to check to the clock on the wall before facing his charge once more. His visage was steeped in stone cold business and his forehead was wrinkled underneath his professionally styled crop of brown hair, probably from all the brow furrowing he had done in his long career.

"All delivery and installation employees should clarify their understanding of the destination at the time of send off. You know how this works, Jaeger."

Calum chuckled at the blatant disregard of his previous requst as Wallace turned to march off to another area of the office. He quickly hit the power on his monitor, shutting it off, and beelined for the bathroom. His floor being higher than the others meant that the bathroom came with a lock on the door and a single occupancy design. He locked the door and heavily exhaled. Brown eyes climbed up to face the mirror as Calum pushed off the sink and took a few steps back. He had alawys hated wearing formal attire. The generic black suit, white button down, and black tie he wore made his face wrinkle in disgust. It clung to his slender, lanky body as if it were a loose second skin, the product of custom tailoring provided by the business. With his dark brown hair slicked back and runing down the back of his neck, Calum felt like regular exec number thirty four.

A few minutes later, a white panel van rolled down the city streets. The sides of the vehicle read Grimm Technologies in crimson font and an industrial ladder rested on one side of the roof, the universal look of technician vans everywhere. Calum leaned back in his bucket seat, one hand on the wheel and the other trying to tune a radio station. His business attire was nowhere to be seen and his renewed comfort level was obvious with black jeans, sneakers, a thin navy blue, unzipped hoodie, and a crimson colored beanie now adorning his figure. He gave up on the ever static radio and sighed as turned down a narrow strip of road into a residential community. The van slowed to a perfect stop in front of a modest sized house with a manicured lawn and an immaculate stone walkway arrangement. "This is the only kind of person that would pay for the most expensive internet option," Calum muttered to himself as he shook his head at the house.

He hopped out of the van and strolled to the back where a pile of various pieces of technology lay strewn about the cabin. He took a few moments sift through modems and cables and tools and old routers until he finally came to an unopened brown package about the size of an encyclopedia. A pocket knife made short work of the tape on the box and a brand new, pristine black router lay insde, a crimson G stamped into the center of the unit. Calum shook his head again and chuckled at the thought of the exorbitant price one had to pay to acquire such a thing. At that same moment however, a throbbing pain pounded into his head and the pocket knife dropped to the concrete road. Calum grabbed his head in agony and stumbled backwards, unable to scream because of the pain and unable to orient himself properly due to the immediately loss of his bearings. His teeth grit hard and heaved grunts escaped into the air in sporadic intervals. Finally, he felt a strong falling sensation and could only watch as the world around him went dark.

Beeping noises were the first sounds to reveal themselves. A spell of dizziness washed over Calum as he slowly started to return to the conscious world. The first thing he felt was the pain in his head from before, but it had been dulled by a significant degree and devloved to simply annoying from devastatingly painful. His ears were still ringing as well, but it only took a few more moments to realize that he was slumped down in a chair rather than on the ground where he could swear he remembered falling. Slowly, he pulled himself upwards against the back of the rolling office chair he found himself in and blinked furiously, trying to adjust his vision to the dark room around him. It was almost pitch black except for the blaringly bright screen invading his peripheral vision. As he turned to face what was assuredly a computer screen, an errant hand discovered something in the ear it was going to attempt to quell the ringing.

Calum quickly pulled the device out and raised an eyebrow at a solid black bluetooth earpiece in his palm. A crimson G was engraved on the outer side. It was also then that the delivery boy realized his throbbing headache had subsided almost as soon as he had removed the foriegn object. "Okay then... " He muttered to himself. Turning to finally face the computer screen, Calum squinted for a few seconds at light as blurry lines came into focus to become sentences - a message of some sort.

Has the world around you become normal, average and over all simplistic to the point it's scary? Does your mind feel unclouded for the first time in forever? Do you even know what day or year it is? Does everyone around you tell you that there is nothing wrong in a monotone voice when you question what this world has gone too? Perhaps at dinner they pray to 'The Man' now before eating, praising this person even though you have no idea who he is? Well then congratulations, you have successfully woken up from the mind control you've been under. You're not safe though above ground, you're being watched at this very moment. Someone will be to your location very soon but for now exit this browser page and delete all your history. Get on some nice clothes and wait at the door. You have about 2 minutes before your computer acquires a virus to make sure he doesn't find out what's going on. For all he knows everyone is still under his control, still complying to every rule he has given them. We will explain more later, just get ready to be extracted. Welcome to the Revolution my friend, see you soon.

Calum would have laughed had it not been for the fact that he just randomly awoken in a strange room. It was like reading the plot of some generic sci-fi movie. He leaned back in the chair causing it to roll back just a few inches. If there was an even a chance that this could be true, there were so many questions to be answered. How did this come about? Was this some kind of prank gone too far? Most importantly, how and when would it have been possible to get caught up in this mess? The last question was what worried him the most. If it was true, Calum immediately settled upon wondering how and when he could have been enslaved to mind control. It didn't take long for the light weight of the bluetooth in his hand to jolt his memory. "Is it even... A possibility... " Calum wondered aloud before reeling himself back in to the computer screen to the read the message once more. It did say that someone would be by to "extract" him soon so chances were that if this was a real situation, he wouldn't have to wait long for his answer. The knock at the door followed that thought by seconds.

Having finally regained his bearings - to the best of capability considering he still did not know where he was - Calum jumped up from the seat and slowly made his way towards the door. He noted that the room he was in was freakishly small with only the chair, desk, computer, and a blacked out window barely lit by the bright computer screen behind them. The floor was old wood judging by the creaks and the feel and the walls were barely visible due to the enveloping darkness. Following the sound of further knocks to the door, Calum felt around the wood until he felt the cold sensation of a brass knob. He took one breath and pulled the door open allowing a dimly lit hall light to cut through the darkness of the room and highlight a hooded figured standing under it.

"You got the message?" The figure asked. Its muffled voice made it hard to tell whether it male or female.

"If you mean that shit on the computer over there, yeah, I read... It... " Calum trailed as he briefly turned to see plumes of smoke rising from the old CRT monitor. He felt his body begin to enter fight or flight mode as he faced the figure again.

"We don't have much time and I don't have much patience. Are you gonna come or not?" The figure asked
harshly. Calum tried to slow his heart rate as he spoke.

"How about you tell me who you are and what the hell this is first?"

"Did you not hear what I said about time?"

"Do you see me, standing here in this room? I didn't ask to be here."

"No one asked to be here."

"Instead of being cryptic, you could just tell me exactly where I am and what's going on... "

"That would make me a liar."

"What?"

"I also said I don't have much patience."

"You don't understand-"

"And you don't listen. I'm going to turn around and get going now. We're almost out of time. Either you follow me or you stay here and die. I don't give a damn in any case," The figure immediately turned and began a fast walk down what looked to be a narrow corridor. The choice was an obvious one, but it didn't make Calum anymore comfortable. With one last look at the smoking computer, he zipped up his hoodie and briskly walked out of the door and after the figure - right into at least two more individuals who quickly threw a bag over the head of the already nervous delivery boy and plunged a needle into his neck.

For the second time, Calum opened his eyes, but this time there was no grogginess or pain. A quick inspection revealed another small box of a room, but this time Calum sat at an empty table with another dimly light hanging above it from the low ceiling. There were no windows, just four metallic walls and a hard, uncomfortable chair to sit in - that he was also handcuffed to. He sighed loudly and almost cursed before a hooded figure opened the heavy metal door. "She'll be with you soon," It said, promptly shutting the door. Calum shook his head and relaxed himself. Whatever was going on, it was too late to do anything about it now. He could only hope that whoever she was would provide some sort of explanation.

[Queen of Aces]

A short time later the door opened once again, Karen stepping inside and looking at the man in front of her. He was found with a Grimm Van, meaning he had to be a worker. He could possibly help her, that is, if he could even remember anything at all. Setting down a cup of coffee in front of him and taking a seat across from him herself she eyed him carefully, the silence almost deafening for a few moments. She was dressed in a black leather dress that clung to her curves just right with a matching studded jacket, knee high boots adorning her feet while a large sparkling ruby hung just above her collarbones upon a choker. She could definitely pass for a bad ass action hero, a few knives actually tucked into her boots just in case things went south.

"Before I answer any questions, who are you and what is the date of today? This will help me figure out how much you've missed." She said in a matter of fact tone, letting him no exactly what kind of a person she was before things continued. Karen was known for getting immediately down to business and especially for not beating around the bush, she absolutely hated when people did that. Why on earth did people do that anyways? To spare someone's feelings from a harsh truth? It honestly felt like such a waste of time, a lot of societies formalities seemed like a waste of time and energy. Time and energy that could be put into doing something productive. Karen seemed cold, almost unfeeling, but in truth she just had built up a wall around herself to make sure that she would never get hurt ever again.

She had her reasons, though she'd be damned if anyone figured out what those reasons were. She took a slow sip of her coffee, savoring the string bitter taste that she had become so accustomed to. Her eyes though never left him, watching for any signs of deception. She could never be too careful when it came to new comers as one spy could completely destroy the revolution, though this man seemed completely confused so that was a good sign. A common reaction that many people had when they first came here was confusion or disbelief, the events that had transpired after all were something you might think impossible besides in a sci-fi movie.

"If it makes you feel better my name is Karen, and I can guarantee your safety as long as you answer my simple question. I'm sure you have many questions but you need to answer mine first." She said as she set down her coffee holding her finger up to the wall beside them. It was actually a one way mirror, her team of operatives behind it waiting for her to give the single if she needed the new recruit to take a little nap. After all she had important work to do and she could always try later, but the sleep dark was necessary as they couldn't have him wandering around on his own.

[icmasticc]

C a l u m J a e g e r

- - - ~~ - - -

The interrogation room was pristine.

This was the first of many swirling thoughts that stood out to Calum as he awaited his mystery visitor. The brief rays of light that sauntered into the room when the door opened before had revealed the abnormal cleanliness of the area. It was a not a detail most would pick up on, but being forcibly isolated had the tendency to cause one to reflect on previously insignificant things. The tiled floor appeared to have been mopped just hours prior and the table was free of any sort of dust. The walls and door all shimmered when bathed in light and they appeared to be regularly cleaned as well. The heavy presence of floating dust that usually enveloped rooms like this was even absent. Whoever this people were, it was clear that organization and structure was important to them. That, or someone was just a germophobe.

A large sounding deadbolt slid across the outside of the door and the heavy metal piece opened with a small creak. Light once again filled part of the room, preceding the entry of a female stranger. Calum raised an eyebrow as she closed the door and took her chair, the smell of coffee replacing the metallic chemical aroma floating around the room. Although he should have expected it, the mere delivery boy was not ready for his captor's unique physicality. The woman was well put together and obviously knew as much based on her choice of fitting attire and the sensuous color choice of black. Of course, those feelings jumped straight out of the non-existent window when she spoke. Her words were not harsh or cruel, but they did raise some annoyance. "Who am I?!" Calum replied, his voice rising an octave. "You can't be serious. You guys kidnapped me, remember? Hell, I can't even tell you where I was before this or how long it's been since I was brought to wherever the crap this is, much less the date. But I can tell you how much I apparently missed - a freakin' shit ton."

The coffee mug rose to meet his captor's lips as Calum watched, helpless to really do anything else. Her eyes bore holes into his own even after he was done speaking, a sign that she was probably trying to discern lies from truths. None of that mattered to the man at that moment. In the end, his mysterious kidnapper had not provided any info and only seemed to demand such from him. It was not entirely unsurprising considering kidnappers generally did not cater to their victims, but it still only caused more upset. Just as his blood pressure began to go up, the woman abruptly decided to reveal her name as Karen - and raised an interesting point. "What do you mean you can ensure my safety? Aren't you kidnapping me? How could I be safe with the obviously dangerous people who kidnap others?!" Calum said before noticing a pointing finger. He followed the direction and found himself gazing at a wall. The meaning quickly came together. He slumped in his chair a bit and felt his adrenaline begin to rush. "H-hold on now... No need to be hasty... " He sheepishly stammered. "My name is Calum... I don't know what day it is or where I've been at all."

[Queen of Aces]

Karen looked at the wall and nodded just a single time, letting them know that they should be on stand by at the very least. "You don't remember anything at all? Well, at least you didn't have time to panic like any of the others I guess." She said and sighed, taking one more sip of coffee before she set it down completely. "I don't like to repeat myself so if you have to stop me before I continue in order for clarification you should do so at that time. This will be a shock to you but within time you'll come to understand that we aren't the bad guys." She could remember each and every single person she had briefed on what had happened, all of them had taken it hard. Each and every single one had some sort of family, the thought of not being able to help them killing them a bit inside. She could actually remember when she had tried to help people, it had earn her quite a few bullets though each of them hadn't gone near any vital organs or arteries. The scars she had were covered up by numerous tattoos, though they could be seen if you got close enough.

Her hand touched the tattoo that resided on her forearm, an instinctual thing she did without every recollecting that she even did it. "The world that you know is now one of the past, everyone you love that you knew so well they've changed dramatically. Their minds have been taken over by a mind control device created by your former boss Jackson, Jackson Grimm to be precise. You might know him though as the sheep who was about to take over Grimm Tech, but that was a front he put up for everyone. You though are one of a select few that for some reason has awoken from the control that he had over you." Karen looked deep into his eyes, trying to figure out what he was thinking or guess what it could possibly be. This man had no idea that he had worked for Jackson, no idea that he had helped the bastard create the device. They had informed her of his identity before she went in though she had to make sure that he even knew who he was, the mind control for some reason wiping his memory of everything.

Most of the awoken had their memories still mildly intact so why was he any different from the others? "I have personally been overseeing the rescue mission of earth since it began because, after all, I am the first person who awoke to this hellish nightmare. With that being said I gave the command to kidnap you as you call it, saving you from a very painful death by Jackson's hands. He tends to experiment on those who have awoken, those who unfortunately we could not reach fast enough." Karen could remember the sorrow she felt when they found out that three young siblings had awoken and Jackson had gotten to them first. The question that burned in her mind that day was a simple yet haunting one, one she still had yet to answer. Was this all a pointless and fruitless endeavor? Was there any hope of coming out of this alive and victorious?

She didn't know but honestly she didn't like to think about that question, it was one of the very few things that truly scared her. But she couldn't dwell on that right now, she had a job to do that could lead to that victory she so desperately wanted. "So, with that being said, you have two options. You can stay here and work with me to regain your memory in order to hopefully figure out how to disable the device for good or we can easily turn you into a vegetable. We've never done it before but you're different Mr. Calum, your predictability levels are, shall we say, very unstable. But either way we cannot risk any information getting out about this place, about how some of the awoken have escaped Jackson's grasp. So... What exactly will you do?"