Things Done in the Dark IC; Chapter one: Signs and Symbols

Last edited by God-mod on Fri Jun 14, 2013 9:06 pm; edited 2 times in total

Exo slowly regained consciousness, its head spinning vioently from having been slammed into the metal elevator floor several times. It carefully looked around it and at the handcuffs it was now wearing, noting the specific make and model and automatically thinking of the right shaped metal bits to pick the rather crude locks. Then remembering the fact that it had 4 inch long extendable needles for claws and that it didn't need metal bits because everyone kept forgetting it had ether of them.

It heard Myre's question about the weather and looked up at him dizzily, and it couldn't resist the urge to say in a rather delirious tone of voice "Its about as dark and foreboding as the reason your wearing sunglasses where the sun don't shine."

Aldara looked at Hexen, suddenly reminded that she wasn't the only person present, and that the people around her were all geniuses, some of which could likely read posture and cues; she assumed that was what Hexen had done, at any rate. Since he was another avian species, like her, she was sure he could understand from her point of view. "Well, to be honest, that's exactly the issue. I can talk, I just don't like being cramped in small spaces with a bunch of people I hardly know. Then, it feels like the floor is dropping out from beneath your feet, which technically I guess it is, and the natural reaction is to fly off so you don't fall. Of course, If I tried that, I would smack into the ceiling, and besides, there's never been an elevator large enough for me to open my wings, to begin with. Plus, elevators are ridiculously slow, and the only reason I'm getting in this one is because there's not a flight of stairs instead. I could clear the whole mile in a fraction of the time, but nobody thought to build stairs, because obviously, everyone would want to take an elevator instead of climbing or descending the stairs." Aldara talked a bit faster than she normally did, but she could feel the stress building, and talking actually did help her calm down.

She folded her arms, closing her talons into fists so they didn't ruffle her feathers too much, "Plus, elevators, you can't deny, are mind-numbingly boring. You just stand there for two hours while it slowly descends the entire mile; well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, I actually don't know how fast it is. I'll drive everyone crazy with pacing, but I won't be able to help it, because I might just start screaming like a madwoman unless I figure out some way to ease the mounting anxiety that I feel gnawing at the edges of my sanity. I am not in the best of moods today, and I also start to babble when I'm nervous at times, which I am doing right now. Did I mention I analyze my own behavior?" Her words were sophisticated, but it was easy to tell she was a bit eccentric.

Hexen smirked at the screaming bit, Yeah, this assignment is going to be pretty interesting... probably like herding cats. Which, wasn't to hard if you spoke cat, but the metaphor still worked for most individuals.

"The ability to scrutiize and understand oneself is a ability most people lack, but sorely need. So I would consider it a positive attribute as it allows you to modify your behavior in ways that others can't. And as for beating yourself up over pacing, not liking the dullness and confined space of an elevator, I know someone who's worse than you in that regard, so I wouldn't be to concerned about it. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if when we get in the elevator we find that theres bullet holes in it that weren't there before. We are working with some rather... disturbed... people here. But hey, its better to be different than to all be the same, something our society has a hard time processing."

Aldara tightened her beak in a fashion that was her equivalent of a smile, along with a sound that suggested an intake of air that might have been a small laugh. "They might have gone crazy and shot a gun inside the elevator, is what you're saying?" She said. "Well, in that case, I'm glad they got here before us. Elevators are already bad enough, without the trigger-happy lunatic endangering everyone's lives."

She then seemed to think, "Of course, maybe they expect that sort of thing, considering that we're the only people smart enough to figure out everyone else' mess, and neurodiversity reigns supreme when it comes to the minds of geniuses. Of course, in the general public, nobody gets that, I completely agree with you there. My own childhood is a prime example of the injustices that people inflict upon those who are different. Did you know people tried to medicate me when I was five years old for ADD, without first consulting a psychiatrist? The teacher made the diagnosis, and I am positive now she was fresh out of college, and not flexible enough to deal with a student that couldn't be taught like the rest. I got in trouble literally every single day, and we kept track of behavior just like traffic lights, you'd start on green, then go to yellow, and then red, where you got sent to the principal and they called your parents. Well, you know what? I never told anyone why I actually got moved to yellow each afternoon. The truth was, during nap time, some jerk kept on kicking me on purpose, and the teacher never noticed. So I would get up and move away so I didn't have to deal with him ripping out my feathers with his foot, and then I'd get in trouble for moving, instead of sleeping. Well, to be honest, nap time was probably the school's excuse for giving the faculty a break from the students. I don't know how anyone managed to take a half-hour nap on a cold linoleum floor with a flimsy towel for a blanket. I was just never comfortable with the arrangement. Oh, but here's the worst part. The school board tried to make my parents look bad because they refused to medicate me. You know what the best part was, though? They tried to keep it a secret from me, but my parents never hid anything like that. They told me exactly what the school was trying to do, and from then on, I never had any faith in those people, because to make me take medication for my mind was just another way to cripple me, and then force me to be like everyone else."

Aldara sighed, and shook her head, "The truth is, I might be able to understand myself, but I'm afraid I have many problems I really don't want to bother to work out. I'm not nearly as adaptable as you think. People say you should have flexible social boundaries, whereas mine are extremely rigid. Namely because I spent the majority of my childhood watching my parents battle the school board, general public, and even members of my family who thought I was just a spoiled brat when I had emotional meltdowns. The thing was, I didn't cry because I didn't get what I wanted, and I still think that's a ridiculous notion. I cried because I was genuinely upset over something, and didn't know how to process my own feelings at the time. It never helped that people my own age made fun of me behind my back, or that I made terrible grades because I lost my homework in the sea of messy papers that was my notebook."

She continued to speak, "Even today, I still can't work very efficiently in most groups, because when I was in school, people let me do all the work, and sat back and did nothing. So when the time came, I stopped working, and we all got a lesser grade, because they hardly did anything at all, and I stopped trying to finish whatever project we were doing because I wasn't going to help someone who didn't pull their own weight. Once, I even had the misfortune of being in a group project with two known bullies of mine. You know what despicable, shallow thing they did to me?" Disgust was evident in her voice, "They let me write all the facts on the poster, and when I left the classroom to go to the bathroom, and then came back, they had erased my writing, and re-written it in their own, so that it would look like I hadn't done anything, when in reality, they were the people who never paid attention in class. So what I did next? I told the teacher, and they had to erase those copied words, so I could write it back, because that information was my own contribution, not theirs. They told me to write large, and I was extremely angry with them still. I wrote words that were too big, so they told me to write smaller. Just to mess with them, I wrote them so tiny, nobody could see them unless they were close up. By then, it was too late to change the writing again, and we had to present our projects. Oh, you won't be surprised to know those two were mad at me, but I didn't care. You could easily say I took perhaps a little too much pleasure in making them angry, because a month later they beat me up in the playground, and nobody ever got caught. If I had the strength I have today back then, I would have snapped their bones in my talons without any second thought. And then, when they would take me to a mental hospital or juvenile delinquency center and ask me why I did it, I would ask them why they thought there was anything wrong with me, when it was those two boys who thought it was right to hit girls, and make a fool out of me in front of the entire class."

Aldara's beak-smile tightened, and she laughed a bit more, "Yes, I do believe I have a very twisted sense of humor these days, and that's probably not a good thing. People did say I had a few aspects of psychopathy, when I was actually diagnosed. I may have developed a bit of sadism, although that's pretty minor, and I know better than to do anything like that. In a nutshell, I'm kind of asking if you'll help me in working with these people, because as you said yourself, we're working with some very disturbed people indeed. I don't know them, and you seem like a reliable individual to ask for help."

"There are several aspects of our culture than need to be remapped, the education system is one of them. It needs to be more based on a personal level, with teachers being fully educated in the subjects they teach as well as having actually taken a psychology class as well a basic one on neuroscience, so they fully understand how to spot people who actually need help, and how to properly understand a deal with the ones that are deviant from the rest. A behavioral forensics class wouldn't hurt them ether, and it would prevent situations like the ones you got into, because the teacher would be able to figure out the root cause of 'behavior problems'." Hexen paused a moment, thinking.

"Of course that would cost more to do, and the teachers would have to be paid a higher wage in order for it to be worth it for them to take all those extra classes. Although, when you look at all the main problems our civilization has; the education system, the food industry, drug abuse and food stamps, the solution to the food stamps, drug abuse and the education system funding should arise. Simply by requiring the people applying for the food stamps to be able to pass a drug test would eliminate funding going towards supporting potheads, and allow it to go towards other things, like paying teachers more. And, while I'm on the topic of food stamps, the people on them use them like an underground currency, which again means they use more of them and allow them to run their meth labs by trading food stamps. To eliminate that, and cause them to leave more of a paper trail, all you have to do is restrict the things food stamps can buy to stuff that's actually healthy for you, like Brussel sprouts and kale. Most people hate sulfur rich greens, but their very good for you, so you'd make the stamps worth almost nothing for trade and it would be beneficial to the people who need them without enabling them to just live off them indefinably."

Hexen laughed and looked Aldara over again, "See, now you've got me rambling on worse than you! So, basically, in a nutshell, yes, I'd be glad to help. Its kind of what I'm here for, I can communicate with anyone on any level from any standpoint. Just think of me as a walking translator of everything."

Aldara smiled again, "Thank you. Also, I completely agree about the food stamps. They were changed to cards you scan in order to prevent people from feeling humiliated about using them in the store, right? Well, in my opinion, if you're jobless and using food stamps, you should feel embarrassed, so you won't want to keep using them. Plain and simple, give them actual food stamps for actual foods, one bag of sugar a month, so many pounds of a certain kind of meat...really make them want to pay for things with real money. Maybe get them to set their priorities straight. My dad works in a bad area in the town where we live. Fact is, there's bars on the windows of all these houses, and you don't have that unless there's a higher risk of getting robbed than a fire. Also, these people live in poverty, but their vehicles are extremely fancy and expensive, it seems. With me, I don't even need a car, I would rather fly to my destination, but once again, not everyone can fly over traffic, or go nearly as fast."

A dark haired human with a tuxedo walked up to the door of the building and attempted to open it with no avail, he peered inside only to be met with the icy stare of a guard. the man knocked on the door and mouthed the words: I'm here for the meeting! The guard just shook his head and mouthed: You're too late. The man then frowned and a moment later melted to the floor in a green and blue puddle which proceeded to flow under the door and into the lobby. The guard jumped, and nearly lost his gun in the process, when the man melted and when the puddle slipped under the door the guard lost it and began shooting round after round at the blue and green slime. Once the guard had emptied his magazine into the puddle, a little human child holding a popsicle formed from the puddle and smiled at the guard with a missing toothed grin.

"Are you bloody kiddin' me! I shot you! I. Shot. You!"

Sal was nearly at the point of throwing the PS Vita off in the distance or perhaps the game. He had been trying to Play Uncharted while he walked to the big NER building. He had been called in because some alien drones were going crazy. He had bought a PS Vita for the down time since there was ALWAYS some downtime at the place. No matter the situation. But this one stupid person kept hiding behind a wall and popping out a moment later and turning his character into swiss cheese.

He groaned and turned off the game system, showing it back into his little backpack that he brought along. He was approaching the NER building. He fixed his glasses, which were beginning to fall off from looking down so much at his game, by pushing them up his snout closer to his eyes. He didn't question why he was here, he knew the answer. Why would anyone in the right mind not want a 4th dimensional being at the meeting? Especially since he was in the 3rd dimensional universe. He wished he had picked up a tea from a coffee shop before coming here. He looked behind him as a habit to see if he had any followers, and saw nothing. Not even his shadow. He normally would've cast a three dimensional shadow, but this world wasn't capable of that. He saw some weird kid and what looked like a very dumbstruck police officer. And a few dozen bullet holes around the room. He attempted to open the door but with no success. He looked to the officer, who mechanically pressed a button to unlock the revolving door for him. "Thank you, sir." Sal said as he entered the building, nodding to the man before continuing on his way to the elevators. He didn't know what happened before he arrived, but he wouldn't question it. "I'm with the NER. Here for the meeting with the consul." He said, taking his badge out of his pocket. The solider simply pulled out a radio and requested someone to come and escort him.

What came was a squad of men to escort him to the elevators. He, personally thought it was a bit much, but didn't say anything otherwise. They led him to the Elevators, and a few people were already waiting there. Presumably part of the NER and for the meeting. He pulled his lips up in a amphiatilian (Amphibian/reptilian) smile to them as he approached. "Hey, all, how have you been doing?"

Aldara tightened her beak into an avian smile. "We've just been talking about how we're all going to lose our minds when we step into the elevator, and food stamps." She added the food stamps bit, because it had nothing to deal with going insane in an elevator. However, it sounded pretty funny, which was her intention. She was going to have to get along with all of these people, it was best if she tried to make friends. "I personally hate elevators, I'm sorry, they're slow, it feels like the floor is dropping from beneath you." She emphasized her opinion.

Last edited by UltraCRAZY1 on Sun Jun 16, 2013 3:26 pm; edited 1 time in total

TheⓍperator wrote:: "Hey, all, how have you been doing?"

Τρελός looked up and turned to look at the new voice. "Ah, Sal, you're late again. We were about to go to the meeting, the elevator was just coming back up." Τρελός guestured with his hands at the sign next to the elevator.

ViperaUnion wrote:: "I personally hate elevators, I'm sorry, they're slow, it feels like the floor is dropping from beneath you."

"Well, I would have thought that this is a fast elevator. It does need to go down really far. High speed elevators are great fun. I enjoy closing my eyes and jumping up and down, it feels… well… I don't know how to describe it."

Τρελός thought about the last thing that Aldara said. What would he do if he felt like Aldara? "Well…" he started, "have you ever thought about standing on your head? It probably wouldn't work, but it would be funny nonetheless."

Τρελός imagined Aldara standing on her head on the elevator ride. Somehow he didn't find it as funny as he thought it would be. Or maybe… maybe he could stand on his head! He didn't find it funny, but who cares? Nobody's going to stop him! Except maybe a soldier, but hey! Τρελός stopped grinning to himself and thought. Wait… wait… just hold it. Why did I want to stand on my head again? What was… or just… wait what? Where am I? "Hmmm… I suddenly crave for bacon and eggs. Does anybody have any?" Τρελός then realised that nobody keeps bacon or eggs in the waiting room of the Desbinian Government Spire. "No, wait, nevermind, I'm just not thinking right."

Hexen looked at Τρελός with as much of a raised eye brow as a bird could possibly manage. "Τρελός, we've been standing around talking for about 20 minutes or so. We divide that time in two and we have how long it took the elevator to reach the bottom floor. That's a 10 minute elevator ride, which, by comparison to most, is rather long."

His head swiveled around in a rather owl like fashion to look at the small popsicle eating child who had just entered under the door like a matt of blue mycelium the same color as the child's popsicle on fast forward.

"So, Claymore, you disguise yourself as Neal Caffrey, walk up to the door, say your late then proceed to disguise yourself as mycelium to fit under the door after melting like wax all to terrify that poor guard then you decide to disguise yourself as a small human child with a popsicle. You never change, in your changeability."

Aldara frowned, "Shapeshifters...thank goodness for my sense of smell, or I'd be in trouble every time one came anywhere near." She muttered, before turning to Τρελός, which she imagined she would have trouble pronouncing his name. "As for what you just said, that makes no sense. How does standing on your head ease anxiety? I'll stick to driving everyone insane with pacing." She said. "I really don't see how a ten minute-long elevator ride could ever be enjoyable, and while you might find it enjoyable if it were fast, you aren't an avian creature, so how could you know what it feels like when your first instinct is to fly so you don't meet a terrible fate?"

On that note, the elevator doors opened and the soldiers began to herd the pack of nut jobs and lunatics into it so nobody had to see them. The doors closed, and everyone was crammed inside of the small secret elevator with no room to move. The elevator slowly began to descend, and began it's mile-long trip.

(Short post but it gets us moving)

Salamander shrugged at Aldara's opinion. "An interesting observation. While I would usually say I dont really care enough to bother with elevators, their music bothers me with it's consistency and boredom. Their tunes are always the same or similar. It's annoying." He stopped for a minute, smiling at the food stamps bit. "Well there's a subject I dont have any experience with. I dont really eat your 3rd dimensional food. It's like trying to eat a drawing. You get the paper with it."

He rolled his eyes at Τρελός's statement. Late, maybe, but so what? At least he showed up.

"I may be late, Tapioca Pudding, but at least I always show up."

Soon enough the elevator came and they were crammed into it. Forcing him to listen to the lame elevator music for ten whole minutes while uncomfortably rubbing up against one of the other NER members. Suddenly, a much more dreadful thought entered his head. What if somebody farted? That was by far one of the most horrid things a person could do, besides marrying a Kardashian.

He was tempted to play his PS Vita, but didn't have the elbow room.

Claymoor had no problem fitting into the elevator as he just morphed into the spaces between people and served to make everyone even more uncomfortable. Then a voice that was an exact mimic of Neal Caffrey's responded to Hexen. "What is wrong with scarring the puckey out of someone just for laughs?" "In fact when I was at a campout on Glesa I found a red glowstick on the road that was completely uncracked so I cracked it and I walked to the campsite and saw one of my friends was lying on a picnic table half asleep talking about cheese and slenderman, so I had been spinning my glowstick around in a circle, and I walked over to him and he must have heard the whirring noise from the glowstick because he opened his eyes and screamed bloody murder as soon as he saw the glowing red disk." "THEN one of my other friends who was about 20 feet away jumped and screamed as well, and after all that was over I couldn't stop laughing for about a minute, it was HILARIOUS."

Lyra was now crammed into the far right corner of the elevator, and she glad she no longer had to wait for it to arrive. She wasn't sure how much longer she could wait in that room with that avian sentient. Now she was more concerned about the ride itself. A whole bunch of psycho geniuses crowded into a small elevator, a claustrophobic nightmare. What could possibly go wrong...

Hexen looked at everyone around him, Lyra worrying; as expected. Claymoor being... promorphous boletus. Also typical. Reparosa was... cramped, lets just put it that way, Aldara was fighting flight reflex, as would be expected. Τρελός was being absurd as was his usual state, and Mr. Slime was experiencing bombulumphobia, or possibly flatuphobia, maybe even coprophobia. And Hexen was acting as the satellite dish, and in this case transmitter.

And he figured a bit of humor wouldn't hurt anything.

"You know I was right about the bullet hole, Aldara. At least were not THAT bad, eh Lyra? We're not causing Reparosa there start blasting off fire balls or, god help us, Τρελός to start standing on his head. And Clamoor here, well... everywhere... hasn't started off gassing yet so I think were all doing just fine. We'll make it to the bottom without shooting the walls like the people who went in front of us, possibly even set a good example for them."

Set a good example? What, like, behaving? Τρελός studied Hexen's expression. He couldn't believe it, Hexen was being serious. Yea, like that was ever going to happen. "So you think that we should be the responsible and mature people here? You seriously believe that we won't destroy anything and behave in an orderly manner? Well, I object!" With that, he stuck his hand onto the wall of the elevator and absorbed a large chunk, whilst using the metal to make a bunch of knifes and forks stick out of his other hand. After the transformation was complete, he detached the utensils and threw them all at the roof. Well, there's the destruction, now to set an example, he thought to himself. And with that, he stuck his head out of the large hole that he had made and stuck his tongue out like a dog. Then, just to show that he was imitating a dog and not just classic Τρελός, he literally shape-shifted his head into a dog's head. Τρελός turned back to see everyone looking at him, which wasn't surprising. "What?" he asked, dripping some dog slobber down onto his chin. Really though, Τρελός knew why.

He was a damn idiot, and it wasn't hard to see. Well, I don't care if I'm an idiot. Personally, being an idiot is great fun. And with that, he started standing on his head.

Aldara looked at Hexen, an unamused sort of expression on her face, "If we get into a dangerous situation during this investigation, at least we have a pretty good idea of whose actions are going to get themselves killed first, because there's not any room for horseplay, and if he wasn't so smart, his ridiculous actions would get him kicked out of the team faster than the one guy shooting off his gun. At least he was still serious about things, instead of acting like this whole thing was some sort of cheap entertainment. It's that kind of ignorance that gets you killed." She said. Her words were cold and scathing, when directed at Τρελός. It was clear that she had either no sense of humor, or his antics just simply didn't appeal to it. She then looked back at the shapeshifter, "That wasn't needed, and the fact is that elevator shafts aren't always so wide, did you even once consider that if you stuck your head out of the hole you created in the wall, that you might have skinned your nose and tongue? You wouldn't enjoy breathing or talking for quite some time, until the pain stopped."

She then opened her beak just slightly, which was her form of a frown, "Now that I think about that, it's actually a bit of a security flaw, in a facility like this. The elevator should fit snugly in the shaft, so that if cables are broken, we are less likely to swing back and forth in free space, and if someone crazy enough to replicate movies tried to climb into the shaft from below the elevator, they would be unable to fit through the small spaces to get to the cables, well, except for a few exceptions, but it would stop most people."

"I agree with Aldara on this, Τρελός, do you know what probably happened to the guy who fired weapons in the elevator? The guards or Myre probably handcuffed it to something to prevent it from having another psychotic episode. Now, I know you can shape shift and all, but that won't prevent you from being frozen in a solid state with liquid nitrogen if you don't stop your antics. Because at the bottom of the elevator, they have canisters of that for people like you if you start acting up. So, for your own safety, I'd advise that you stop."

Hexen paused for a moment, shooting Τρελός a disapproving look before adding to Aldara's statement about the security.

"I believe they will pump liquid hydrogen down the shaft if the cables are tampered with. From above or below. The people in the elevator are usually completely safe, unless someone happened to put a big hole in it for fun. In that case, both the perp and the people in the elevator get flash frozen."

Aldara's frown expression seemed to deepen, "Well, then, I hope nobody tries a stunt like that, because I'm not a fan of the idea of liquid hydrogen coming into the room and then liquifying the oxygen already in the air so that even the tiniest spark turns the whole shaft into an inferno. Getting frozen solid, and then dying in an explosion sounds like a terrible way to go, although I could still probably name worse ones if I had the time." She said. "I just don't like the idea of getting burned alive, let's just leave it at that. So I suppose now, the shaft being so large and the new hole is a security flaw, because to freeze us solid and risk a huge explosion probably isn't a desirable outcome. Now they couldn't take out a perpetrator without killing the people in the elevator. They will probably either have to replace the one we are in right now, or patch up the hole."

Sal opened his mouth as if to speak for a moment before closing it. What he had to say was probably going to lower Aldara's opinion of him. Considering he was going to egg on Tapoica's idiocy like it was something out of America's Funniest Home Videos.

"Hey, Τρελός, mind standing normally again, because this elevator is crowded enough as it is and having a pair of legs up in the air doesn't help. It's hard enough with a tail."

At six feet tall with a tail just longer than he was tall, He took up a whole corner of the elevator nicely. He was thankful everyone else was understanding of this otherwise he might've been in for a talk down about something he couldn't change. And just because he could alter energy transfer didn't mean he could alter space. He listened in on the conversation about the hole and freezing and then burning alive. He made no comment as hiss body could perhaps endure it. Although the sudden change would definitely cause complications. He agreed with Aldara though. If they were calling everyone together this had to be more important than what any of them thought. Screwing around is going to do nothing for the person but make them look like small human children. The fact that Aldara already knew this made Sal respect her a little more.

"I just hope the damn elevator gets there soon." he commented, trying to get the group to just wait the little while out and perhaps stop the monkey buisness. Perhaps gravity would alter itself and get them to move faster.

ten minutes of fighting on a crammed elevator later

The second elevator arrived, and the people inside were surrounded by a group of soldiers. Myre got up, tapped one on the shoulder, and said "They're with me". The soldier called his men off, and Myre clapped his hands together loudly.

"Well!" he began "Looks like we're all more or less here! Let's get a move-on!" Myre, Sakayrus, and Zero were directed towards the conference room (the soldiers gave Zero a wide berth), and the others were corralled in by the soldiers. Exo was released from its hand cuffs and placed in another, thicker set with a magnetic swipe card for a key to keep it from picking the lock. He was half-dragged in by two soldiers.

The next room was a debriefing room. It mostly consisted of a long metal table floating via a magnetic repulsion column in the middle, as well as a large flatscreen which took up the entire wall opposite the heavy steel door. The walls and floor were concrete, and on the left wall was a large black armchair, on which an older Lumien with greyish blue fur wearing black and grey fatigues sat. He was rather regal-looking, with a rather wrinkled face and bold eyes that beamed courageously. On his head was a silver beret adorned with a red and gold medal at the front. This was Armos Maleke, the Military Consul of the Lumien Consulate. Myre bowed his head slightly to the consul, who smiled and bowed back. Each member of the NER was then escorted to their seats to await the beginning of the meeting.

Exo, who was already handcuffed pretty securely was escorted to a chair then secured to it with cable ties. As if I don't have high quality Neodymium magnets on me. This is an insult to my proficiency at escapology, and my abilities as a spy. If I can't escape from cable ties and hand cuffs then I should be evicted from the field of espionage for incompetence. The guard, convinced that it was secured and not a threat to the rest of them, walked off to stand by the entrance to the conference room with 3 other soldiers.

Exo shifted in its seat as if to lean forward and look at something on the underside of the table, like a piece of desiccated gum or something. The sides of the cuffs where the magnetic sensors were located contacted something metal Exo had sewn into the big black X on its shirt, causing a slight clicking sound as the circuit broke, the memory was wiped and the latch released on both sides.

The cable ties were used to secure the metal chain connecting the two cuffs to the arms of the chairs so once it was out of the cuffs they were irrelevant. However, instead of moving and giving away the fact that it was no longer restrained it leaned back in its chair casually and asked in a disgusted tone;

"Why, is there gum stuck to the bottom of a table, in a secure government building, where hardly anyone is allowed, and is more then a mile under ground and hardly ever used? When is that from? The 18th century? We should carbon date it and see how many dinosaurs were alive when it was deposited."

Hexen looked across the table at Exo, who had this smug little look on its face like it had just served everyone a cup of diet coke with Mentos frozen into the ice cubes and was counting down till everyone's soda suddenly turned into children's baking soda volcanos and sprayed sticky mess allover the place. And that it was going to get away with it and watch everyone else clean it up.

He frowned, not responding the gum comment, whatever it was playing at, he wasn't going to get involved and get his feathers sticky from it.

Aldara's beak tightened into a frown. While his charade was quite convincing, Exo's attempted deception couldn't escape her auditory capabilities. "You and I both know that there isn't any gum under that table." She said, plainly. "Because the very notion of it is ridiculous. Clearly one of the soldiers in this room is a terrorist who is allied with the culprit who's attacking people with human drones. Obviously, highly reactive explosive that looks like chewing gum was put under the table, which means I recommend you don't touch it, because we could all die in a fiery explosion, and the elevator would offer no escape, because someone just absorbed metal to make knives and created a large hole in the wall, and there isn't a flight of stairs we could take instead." In truth, Aldara's suggested notion was even more ridiculous. Something about her face, though, suggested she knew it wasn't true. She blinked both her clear eyelids once, but then the left one blinked again, moving independently of the right. It was subtle, but if correctly read, it was a wink. She knew Exo had unlocked his handcuffs, but she wasn't giving him away. She wanted to see what he would do next, if left to his own devices.

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