MachineSoul — Roleplayer Guild

The hybrid carefully received the key chain with the two, rather bulky objects hanging from the hexagonal ring; the two pieces formed half a spiral each, completing each others shape. His mind quickly making the logical connection, he reunited the two pieces, carefully locking them together and then, twist one of the metallic object clockwise; he then marveled at the new object, something that looked similar to some biochemical structure he once studied in the past, yet, he couldn't conjure his memory to give the shape its name. He rubbed his furry chin, running every possible tridimensional shape name through his name, yet, he couldn't put a pin on the name. His blue eyes shifted from it to his friend wolf as he started to apologize for everything he had done. Wulfus tried to stop him and his excuses, but Sairasu proved to be insistent about it, enough to have the folf's snout shut and his ears perked; the last thing he wanted now was to hear anything related about the incident that had his friend nearly killed, keep his emotions out of this and try to reach the end with whatever they interrupted and find out what was the object he retrieved from the operators. As soon as Sairasu started to blame himself for everything that happened, Wulfus covered his face and sighed, he even started to rub his eyes in and out of their sockets to keep himself from lashing out at him. He himself felt guilty also, it was his own idea to dress his friend in his suit in an attempt to repair his dignity broken to pieces and scattered in the mud of his sorrows. He couldn't stand himself for being so selfish with his decision, he couldn't even remember the process of how he came to believe that it was a valid idea to test the suit's capabilities in an uncontrolled, lethal environment; maybe it wouldn't have been a half-bad experiment if it weren't for the scary chain of events that had his friend nearly shot, almost tasered and apprehended by some unknown force that, obviously, meant no good. Who runs around at night, on Chicago's rooftops to break into a bank and retrieve whatever Wulfus was holding in his large hand. Yet, the dirty pleasure he felt while watching the positive feedback on the screens couldn't be compared with any of the many other achievements he accomplished in his past: no robotic arm, no small animatronic, not even his experimental plasma engine could come as close to achieving bliss as watching his soul's creation behave well and stable in such a hazardous environment as downtown Chicago, let alone recovering the technology still intact after fending off seven trained men and evading an armed VTOL by crashing several floors into a dumpster. He didn't want to admit his euphoria through the commnet too much, otherwise he could have pushed Sairasu to do even crazier stunts, as if the ones he completed weren't completely insane; as much as he tried to punish himself for it, he couldn't stop himself from being satisfied with everything that happened. Sure, there was guilt, but it was surpassed by satisfaction, much like a child eating one too many cookies behind their mother's eyes, where the tasty satisfaction surpasses a scold. He only wished to see the judges' faces when presented with the data he collected with this run, maybe their expressions sculpted in a scornful, sarcastic smile would shatter and mutate in mild awe and disgust when the unlikely competitor came with the most compelling evidence of his design's success. His success was in his grasp, he could feel his fingers just brush against the prestigious job post at Dragon Star Echelon as Lead Technology Manager, only to be blown away and taken by some time that came with an armor-heavy design that had nothing new to bring on the market: rudimentary electronics, basic frame exoskeleton and a lot of armor plated that served no purpose other than to encumber the user. Wulfus tried to find the reason behind their decision, first thinking that the C.E.O. decided he wanted a model that was sure to work instead of taking a risky leap towards a new direction, but that couldn't be it, since the man loved innovation. Plus, the boss himself came to Wulfus and his creation when he heard that he was an independent robotics expert and worked on the experiment all by himself, the man appearing to be thoroughly impressed by the technical progress and new ideas he brought. It couldn't be some political influence, since the C.E.O. was an independent candidate for US presidency and quite a successful one, since he pretty much obliterated most of his opponents, leaving him and another candidate from a conservative political party. Wulfus himself preferred the avant-gardist candidate since his plan would suit Wulfus' field of expertise, maybe he would even get a stable job somewhere. Left with another broken dream, a pile of questions with no certain answers and the dust of his pride, he couldn't think of a better way to heal his wounds other than attempting to get drunk with a bunch of friends; friends that never show up when he needed them and he was sure that they were all in town, yet, the one person that was most unlikely to show up popped through the door. It couldn't be some sort of destiny, even if the coincidence was practically astronomical, considering that Sairasu could be the only one of the bunch that could have survived a test like this; if Tom showed up first, his recklessness would have definitely brought his end the last night. Wulfus eventually bent over to grab the prostrating man and bring him back up to his feet, sighing heavily as he watched the black wolf stand back up and look back at him. He couldn't think of a propper way to make him feel better of himself, but he could at least encourage Sairasu to help him deal with the monumental problem they had on their hands. "Get it together, now. We have to find out what that key is exactly, what it opens, where to find the thing that it opens. After that, find out who these people are, what are their intents and-" He then stopped, realizing he didn't really know what they were supposed to do. Would the police buy this crazy story? They broke qutie a few laws themselves to do what they did, they would get indicted first for that. Wulfus had to swallow his dry words and cover his eyes, coming to yet another dead end; he forced himself to sit down, rubbing his eyes in a slow, circular motion as he felt completely powerless. No matter what he could think of, the odds were completely against them. He lifted his arms and dropped them in such a way they slapped against his own thighs. "Well, we can't call the authorities." He started as he sighed under his furred palm. "Even if the law bought the story, they would obviously prefer to defend the larger, more powerful felon for a very simple reason: money. If the poeple behind the attack were organized and wealthy enough to have several trained men, advanced equipment and an armed VTOL with live rounds, they would have the funds to buy themselves out of court and cover everything up and indict us. And we can't just simply hide the damned thing, this key or what ever it may be. They are looking for it and if they were desperate enough to try to gun you down for snatching it from their hands, they will most likely trample Chicago until they could find it. Damn it." Sairasu then spoke his mind. He rarely does that, but this time, he couldn't hold the thought back. His own pride was affected too, he felt like he owed Wulfus a lifetime's debt. But given this sort of light over the dire matter, he knew exactly what had to be done and he was convinced it was te right way. Crazy, again, a crazy idea, but with the little hope they had, this was the best alternative he could concieve. Taking everything on their hands would raise the risk of getting killed sevenfold, but he already did a mistake that couldn't be repaired unless he was the one to personally take care of the issue. He didn't know how at the moment, but given enough thought, he was convinced they would come up with something good. Wulfus, though, was shocked. Somewhere, deep in his mind, he knew that this was the only way things could be done, but he tried to think of anything else that could work. His dumbfounded expression was enough to talk loudly of his concern, his eyes gaping widely at the determined Japanese man; he knew now not to underestimate his abilities, but really, this whole situation might be a bit too much for him too. He could only sit there, slouched in the comfortable chair and try to think of an alternative plan, a place from where to start an investigation, anything at all; but his whole body was paralyzed, his brain blocked by a thick, impenetrable wall of fear. He eneded up stroking his furry chin again, his eyes lost somewhere behind Sairasu, staring through the walls of his improvised lab; he couldn't believe how a comfortable life like this came to such an abrupt, inconvenient end. And just when he was complaining that his life was a boring, meaningless one. He looked up at Sairasu, hoping that somehow he would wake up and realize the guy he met in Japan wasn't really there, right in front of his eyes, it was just too improbable; but the longer he stared at him, the more he was convinced that reality had just turned into a nightmare. He hoped he somehow drugged himself with some sketchy metal fume and now entered in some state of hallucination and it was his sister he was talking to, but saw the black wolf instead. But his escapist thoughts were more outlandish than the situation he ended up with. He just managed to open his mouth before a loud bang at the door could be heard all the way from the entrance to his improvised laboratory, drawing his attention in a fraction of second, he even jumped out of his seat from the startling sound; he gulped and gritted his teeth, being too afraid to even look into the monitors to see who was at their door he glanced over to Sairasu and asked in a whisper under his breath. "Are you sure you weren't followed last night?" He didn't think too much before he blurted that out, fear took over his rationality and his mouth for a few moments, but as soon as it passed away, he thought more deeply of who could it be. If anyone followed Sairasu, they could have attacked during the night while they were asleep, it made more sense than to come knocking at their door and politely ask some questions. He took a deep breath and blinked slowly, slowly peering over his shoulder at the monitors, feeling as if he was risking his neck to even glance at the security feed. He saw a dark shape strolling up and down in front of the door while looking down at something in its hand, but as soon as he realized that there was a motorbike in the background and that the figure itself wasn't all that tall and had feline features, he exhaled, feeling all of his skeletal muscles relax and lose the tension that built up in his limbs. He took himself a few moments to properly relax and made a gesture with his hand to his wolf friend. "Be kind and open the door for him? You'll know it's safe once you see who it is. I gotta relax a little, I'm- this is too much." In a sense, he was lucky to be alive at this point, even though he was completely oblivious of the events that took place last night, but neither could he even conceive just how far the two daredevils went. The black panther was struggling with his irritated, blood injected eyes, fluttering his eyelids to properly moist his eyeballs and concentrate on the road; he felt some regret for being up so late last night, but he couldn't resist the temptations his significant other insisted on him, teasing and calling him by his sweet names before she'd take him whole, in her warm bed and hot embrace. Just a simple flashback to her made him all warm on the inside, mostly in his pants, though. But the restrictive nature of his motorcycling outfit didn't allow him to slip too far into erotic daydreaming, at this point, it was the only thing that kept his eyes and mind on the asphalt and cars ahead; the monotony of the world surrounding him, made up from average cars, street layouts he knew like the back of his palm, crowds and crowds of people moving in a Brownian motion somewhere in the background, car horns, engines, police whistles, everything became a routine, a tasteless soup made of boring ingredients with no feature to stand out and impress. In his state, he wanted to squeeze the acceleration pedal under his heel and feel the engine of his bike roar under the gas tank and rumble against his torso and calves, feel the air whistle by his closed helmet and the acceleration push him back; but he also knew that it was just the thing he wasn't supposed to do, not with his bad eyes and a bad headache. He really didn't have the time in the morning to take care of his annoying issues, since he managed to oversleep and completely ignore the otherwise efficient alarm that failed to wake him from his deep slumber next to the woman he dearly loved; he reached the HQ in time and received the last parcel he had to deliver this week, a small and rather heavy box with an address very familiar to him, where one of the most loyal and the nicest of clients lived. Maybe he would be kind enough to give him something for the headache? He played as nice as he could on the road, respecting most of the guidelines, but he had to cut some corners and workarounds to make sure he wouldn't be too late with his delivery; following the path he memorized after so many jobs for this one guy, he managed to learn stoplight schedules in the area, thus, he knew when to push his bike and zip between cars with a satisfying, deafening rumble of engine before the red light would forcefully stop him in his rush and when to take sharp turns using the brakes, or longer ones where he leaned to a side or another untill he could feel his protected knee lightly grind against the asphalt. Some called it reckless driving, but he ignored those statements, claiming that he didn't drive. He rode a bike. Sure, a lot of law representatives would be irritated by his attitude, but really, he couldn't care for another person's bad day, he has a job to do, it's the job he's really good at because he risks his life to be the best delivery guy. Or so he claimed. He reached the destination quite early in the morning, but knowing the client, he'd be up and about, always busy, always working on something. The delivery man took off the helmet, revealing a slightly sweaty panther with black fur that cherished his penetrating feline amber eyes. His visage was of a large feline, with his round and large muzzle, flat and wide nose, round eyes and high cheeks. He had a small patch of hair on the top of his head that used to be stylized straight up, but the helmet's protective padding turned it into a mess he quickly rearranged after he ungloved his hands; after he kicked the parking leg, he quickly slid off his precious baby and opened the nearly-indestructible delivery case attached on the back of the seat, from where he pulled out a small, but heavy box that had enough weird stamps and labels on it for the feline to be somewhat curious about the contents. He wasn't a very tall individual, as a matter of fact, he had quite a short stature of around 165 centimeters. For his height, though, he was harmoniously proportioned, maybe his tail was a bit too long for the body, but it never got in his way. He approached the door of the warehouse-like building, the advanced motorbike boots thumping its heels against the floor as he swaggered towards it; he pulled out a small notes tablet from inside the protective jacket and when he was but an arm's length to the entrance, he knocked at the door with the tip of his boot. Being a rather impatient little big cat, he started to whistle a tune to himself as he was scribbling some would-be important data on the shipping manifest with the help of the rather broken pen that came with the tablet, walking left and right to make an impression to himself that time was slipping faster by him; he read somewhere about a time and relativity theory that said something that being in motion would actually make time drain faster for himself, but he was convinced that it was all some sort of brain-related side effect of being concentrated on other things, rather than concentrating on being patient while waiting for someone. The door then cracked open, Tom automatically turned his body towards where he believed it laid and approached it with the same swagger. "Wulfie, my man, good morning! Hey, look dude, I am so sorry I couldn't show up last night, I was real deep in-" my girlfriend he nearly slipped, instead he erred and twitched his nose, but he kept his eyes glued to the tablet "well, my work. It can get extra hectic by the end of the week, yaknow. I was dead by the end of the shift, believe me that I would have been a drag and bore you guys up if I came up like that. And I have to deal with a hormone storm back home, so I hope you catch my-" He then raised his gaze to the door frame to offer the tablet and pen for Wulfus to sign, but he froze too in place when he saw a very different figure standing in front of him: significantly shorter than the hybrid he was used too, a very dark fur, more wolf than fox and with a pair of wolfish yellow eyes looking at him with the same surprised look. "-drift." He blinked a couple of times and pushed his eyes inside his sockets to make sure he wasn't seeing some weird distortion due to his tired eyes, but when he opened them again, nothing changed; it took him a couple of more seconds to connect a few dots in his head, but once they were tied, his surprised expression exploded into complete joy, a wide grin taking half of his face and a loud chuckle escaped from his lungs. He nearly hurled the pad away as he threw his arms to clap Sairasu's hand in a strong grip and pat his vigorously on the back. "Sy! The fuck?! Shit, dude, you scared me outta my pants! I was, like, expecting to see this tall and skinny guy try to explain thermo-dynamo or whatever, not my brother from Japan, holy- when did you get here, how long will you be around?" He completely overlooked the fact that his "brother" basically looked as if he refused to sleep a whole week, the combined effects of jet-lag and a restless night taking a heavy toll on his looks. "Yo, let's go inside, I really need to give my man this box here and sign the manifest. I think I can be ten minutes late for the report then haul back if you guys still wanna hang. Come on, come on, I gotta check on Wulflie!" Inside, the man in question just managed to start a systematic search of the object that Sairasu brought from the bank that now laid on the desk under the large console, looking for any hint of an object like this in any archive, database or articles. He prepared another mug of coffee for the guest and tried his best to wipe off the grim look the complicated situation printed on him. As soon as the duo walked in, he smiled to both of them and shook Tom's hand with a greeting nod of his head. As always, the feline gave a vigorous shake akin to an earthquake and took a quick sip from the mug of coffee Wulfus offered him before he placed it on the desk, nearly spilling some of the hot and rather disgusting contents on the key. Tom winced a bit after he settled the mug down and in his whole rushed motion, he jumped on the tool drawer to take a seat, the same bang that Sairasu encountered last night as he sat on the drawer filled the laboratory; as a reaction, Tom lifted his index finger and promptly imitated Wulfus' accent and behavior. "Now it is safe!" A chuckle followed, then he licked his canine tooth as he looked over to Sy to see a reaction from him before he handled the shipping manifest to the hybrid along with the box he had to receive. As the scientist started to read the text on the tablet, silence took over, emphasising the tense atmosphere present between the two. Thomas Renard started swinging his feet, as always, proving to be quite an energetic kind of guy, even if he had very little sleep himself; he also proved to be completely clueless. "So! Sy, how's it been for ya? All good back in Japan? I heard that the government's on the edge of being dismantled, what the heck are you guys thinking? Is it 'cause of that thing they discovered, like, a year ago? Something, like, making lightsabers?" "They did not discover anything new," the hybrid added with a slightly annoyed tone, most likely caused by the clueless panther. "But they have found a way to create a stable plasma beam that doesn't require the energy to light up the entire moon. If you ask me, that is dangerous technology. No wonder they are shutting all communications with the rest of the world when they began to harness such powers, if they officially offered to collaborate the West, I'm pretty sure PMCs will use that notion to create energy-based weapons." "And do you know what's the scariest part? They would be allowed with those things inside the cities of US, as they could not be categorized as firearms and until someone decides to modify the constitution again to ban energy-based weapons in any civilian settlement. If Japanese engineers find a useful application for their innovation, I'd might look into it too, it could help me to cut some materials with greater ease." While Wulfus kept rambling of the issue that troubled him for some particular reason, but doing so mostly to himself, Tom rolled his eyes clockwise and chuckled lightly, paying no heed to his attitude. "Don't worry, boss, if ya'll ever need that, I'll deliver it to you personally. That much I can understand." Wulfus shook his head and allowed a small smile to brighten him a little as he handled the tablet back to Tom. "So, boss, your suit didn't get approved. That's a real shame. I mean, all that time you worked on it and coming up with the sketches and the materials you needed? All of that refused, how?" Wulfus sighed heavily as he had to reopen the wound and fill Tom in about the failure; the panther found it quite shocking himself, knowing how much effort this one genius had put into it. It was all the more impressive since he worked in a lab he personally assembled and grew as years passed, becoming more and more sophisticated, filling up with robotic arms, a smelting oven, some big machines he didn't exactly knew how they worked no matter how hard Wulfus tried to simplify everything for him. Since the man had some diplomas and certificates, he was allowed to keep everything and work with them as long as he respected some additional laws and accepted to be checked by the police every three months to look for any evidence of him building illegal objects. Tom nearly spat on the ground and cursed loudly out of disgust, feeling himself the disappointment that took his friend over. "So that's why you guys are so gloomy. I thought there was still a chance for you to get your model approved, or sold, or something. Man, that sucks a big, fat one. You know what? I've gotta get this back to HQ, buy some things for the house and I'll come later today, I'll bring some bottles for y'all. It ain't a promise, but I'll try to make it up to you both, alright?" He then gave Wulfus a lazy slap on one of his right shoulder, grinning afterwards. "Did Mia show up, at least? I know she was supposed to come too." "She didn't." Replied Wulfus with a curt tone while he rubbed the now slightly sore shoulder. "She didn't even announce she wouldn't come, I tried to talk to her, but she's vanished. Again." To that Tom scoffed and rolled his eyes once more, hopped off improvised his seat, recovered his tablet and headed towards the door, with Wulfus closely following him, seeming eager to boot him out. The panther had a mixed set of feelings, mostly he felt sorry for not showing up at the specific hour the scientist settled, but the thought that he would redeem himself later that day, hopefully, made him feel a little better about himself; he wasn't sure if it were a good idea to promise anything since he knew that he rarely honored his promises at a perfect rate. He just hoped he wouldn't disappoint. Again. He walked outside, through the living quarters of the warehouse without questioning the obvious mess the house was, or questioning why Sylas was still there with him, he was now busy to get to the bike and get to HQ as quick as he could. "Alright, folks. I'm headed off, but I'll try to get some drinks and, like, have a cry-out party or something. Hey, boss, maybe you could pull your toy out for some tests, eh? Maybe, actually wear and use the thing?" He suggested with a sly smirk on his snout, unaware of Wulfus' reaction; the hybrid suddenly choked on his reply just as the panther dropped the suggestion. "Damn-" he managed to spew out after he recovered from the sudden coughing fit and blockage in his throat. "I'm-I'm not sure of that, they can be still very unstable, you know. I-uh-still have to work on them until it becomes - safe enough - to wear them." The panther chuckled as he slid the helmet on his snout and shut the visor down, then climbed on the seat of the motorcycle. " 'Ey, safe schmafe, I wanna give the suit a whirl and I know you want that too, you told me so many times that you'd like me to be your test subject; what gives, you think your suit's crap because you didn't win a stupid competition? Give me a night, the suit and I'll go to those fuckers and show 'em what a real EMCA can do. They'll come on their knees to beg you to work for their sorry asses, just you wait, boss! Ciao!" Like so, he ignited the bike's powerful engine, gave it a few revs by pressing the heel of his boot against the pedal before he took off, took a sharp U-turn and darted off in a deafening growl of the vehicle, saluting Wulfus and Sairasu as he sped past them. Wulfus stood there and gawped at Tom as he rode down the street, then disappeared around the corner of a building, his engine still rumbling in the distance, competing with several car horns; the hybrid sighed and dropped his head in his palm, rubbing his forehead as he tried to recover again from such an eventful morning. With nothing left to say, he simply headed inside, prompting his friend to follow him with a simple gesture of his hand. Inside, the hybrid crashed in his seat and took a sip from his coffee mug, slightly wincing at the biting, bitter taste spread at the back of his tongue and throat. He placed the mug down the grabbed the object Wulfus retrieved by Sairasu, carefully handling it not to unbind the combination. Somewhere at the back of his head, he was thinking of how sometimes Tom could be a very useful fellow to have around, always cheery and able to put a smile on the grumpiest face, other times he was a complete blight; he knew that if he were in a relaxed state, he would have been happier of his arrival, but he was too worried by his and his friend's safety. "If you were followed... even if the follower lost track of you somewhere close to this place, they would not have any trouble finding it. The timing is-" he sighed again, heacier this time, trying to make some form of order in his head "-very unfortunate. I just got out of a competition, lost and then I run this test with the suit; it wouldn't be that much of a problem if I didn't get some fame from the competition itself and, well, the C.E.O. of Dragon Star Echelon personally congratulating me for my work. If anyone's got photographic evidence of you on the rooftops, or on the street, we're-" he swallowed emptily, trying to hold back a knot painfully bulging into his gullet that would bring tears to his eyes "-we're finished." He tried to take his mind off the grim thought of ending up in court for a lot of reasons and no matter how impressive such a display would have been, the law was law and in these times, it was very strict; Tom sure had the courage, or rather the insanity within him to care very little about regulations, laws and other conduit codes. Even when he walked or breathe he was breaking some obscure law. Even if he managed to get some other PMC's attention with their little mishap, they still wouldn't get hired for being so reckless and disobedient towards the law. Right then, he remembered the logo of one of the smaller PMCs that some authority in Northern America, which was something resembling a DNA sequence. "Alpha-helix structure! A tri-dimensional alpha-helix double spiral!" He stated his relization loudly, unaware of the tone of his voice. This small discovery motivated the hybrid to increment the object's details on multiple powerful search engines he had on the main console, mainly used to research physical and chemical properties of materials he would use for his suit and other tools in his laboratory. While the search went on, bringing very little progress initially, the hyrbid kept silent during the whole time, the only audible sound was the console's fans cooling down the main processor. Sometime later, the hybrid decided to at least open up a news feed to entertain himself and his guest, picking up the most popular news channel, that just started airing their noon broadcast; with his heart thumping painfully right in his throat, he waited for the news to shift to the happening. But, other than some regular car crashes, reports from the conflicts taking place in the middle east and some lame videoclip that's gone viral over the last week, nothing was mentioned about a VTOL shooting live rounds on the rooftops of Chicago, nor someone spotting a possible terrorist running rampant through the slums of the city. It would seem that someone was covering everything up and was doing a pretty good job at it. By the time the news ended, Wulfus looked over to the search engines, to find a lot of junk info that proved to be of no real use; that until he found a link to a science article. He quickly skimmed through it and by the time he finished reading it, he was still staring at the monitor, refusing to believe the nature of the object that was standing on his desk. He slowly turned his gaze to Sylas and looked at him for a few good seconds before he invited him to approach the console to show him his new discovery. "So. The thing you found on those guys? It is important" He said, followed by a nervous chuckle. "Very important, as a matter of fact. Look." The article showed a perfect copy of the key on a white stand with some large lab equipment in the back, facing the object directly. The article was rather long, but Wulfus highlighted the most important points: it was an object of anomalous origins, carbon tests failed to give it a consistent age and there is no historical evidence of its existence, yet, the object in itself is made of a very complicated mix of heavy, potentially radioactive metals to form the alloy. The ultra-resistant property, along with the small protrusions and crevices of the object made for a perfect vault key, which in turn would be protected in another vault kept in a top-secret location. The issue was, the owner of the object itself kept it in his private collection and refused to handle it to the state for further investigations and instead created a vault door that could only be opened with the key in hand; what it protected was unknown, most making the logical assumption it was keeping the man's wealth safe. A very similar object was discovered in Japan, more than that, was not known; most assumed that it would be used for scientific research instead of having its properties belittled with some mundane usage. "I suppose you wouldn't know much about this, but if you DO have the slightest idea, it would help a lot. My search engines are now looking for the owner of the key itself, but thus far, no look. And no wonder, whoever has this key can't be the next door neighbor."

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