Hey guys, hows it goin? So I'm back, finally! Mwahaha! This is my first ever collaboration story, so I'm thrilled that I am able to work with such an amazing author like rlb190. I wont't keep ya for long so I'll just jump right in! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, and if you somehow managed to find me before rlb190 go check her out! Alrighty then, lets get this party started!
(The lines are to show separation of point of view. Let me or rlb190 know if its confusing)
It was a windy, cold winter night. During this time of night, most people preferred to be inside their homes, cuddled up under their covers in bed, two figures were up and about, a mission on their minds.
Peering out of his hiding place in a dark alley, Evin ran his hand through his matted, brown hair and let out a low, annoyed groan. "You just had to pick the toughest target in town didn't you" he said, cocking his head to the side and sending his partner a slightly strained grin.
Alicia rolled her eyes at him, giving him her well-practiced "I don't care" look. She felt her hand go up to the moon charm on her choker. She rubbed it as she always did, but not out of nervousness. "We can take on anything." she said confidently.
"Sure" Evin said, leaning back against the alley wall, "I just hope you know how much of a risk this is. Breaking into a Star Labs should not be taken lightly." Getting nothing out of his partner except an annoyed glare and a bop upside the head, he closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Instantly images started to flash through his mind: a security guard talking into his com, then getting up and leaving his post; cameras swiveling to face different directions; six heavily armed patrols doing a security check; and brief glimpse of what appeared to be several auto-turrets. Snapping back to reality, Evin's dark gray eyes zeroed in on his watch. "In approximately thirty seconds the coast will be clear and we'll make our move. On my mark... Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two... One! Let's move!"
Alicia jumped up from her kneeling position and landed quietly on her feet. "Let's hope that your healing factor is as good as ever." She said as broke into run. "I'm phasing in ten." she muttered to him.
"Wait up!" Evin hissed. "I haven't given you the layout yet!"
Alicia snorted. "I don't need it. I'll be back in a few!" she jumped through the brick wall and disappeared.
"You got to be kidding me!" Evin grumbled, "She's gonna be the death of me, I just know it!" Turning to get a better look at his surroundings, he spotted an ajar window on the second-floor and a small smirk spread across his face. "Perfect" he said to himself, "now all I have to do is figure out how to get up there." Taking another glance around he took notice of the many shipping containers and crates that dotted the landscape. "Just what the doctor ordered" he said making his way to the nearest crate. Placing his shoulder against it, he gave a solid push and was pleasantly surprised when it moved without much difficulty.
Within a few minutes he had the crate pressed up under the window and in a split second had boosted himself up and into the building. Quietly closing the window behind him, Evin took a moment to get his bearings. From the numerous amounts of high-tech equipment and vials occupying the room he guessed that he had entered into one of Star Labs numerous, well, labs.
Pulling a crumpled building layout from the inside pocket of his maroon hoody, he gave it a once over. Frowning slightly, Evin shoved the layout into his jean's pocket and started towards the door on the other side of the room.
The file they were after was located in sub-layer nine. He had come in on the second floor. That meant he had eleven floors, each with top notch security, to go down till he reached his destination. Sighing tiredly, Evin ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breathe. Why couldn't he get the easy job for once?
Alicia suddenly phased up from the floor, her short black hair slightly damp. "There's a pool in the break room. How cool is that?!" she smiles, then frowns, remembering their mission. Her electric blue eyes look even more shocking in the florescent lighting as she thinks. "I could take us down a floor or two." she offers. "But you might lose a limb."
She tapped her foot impatiently on the floor, just for the sake of making some noise in the silent room.
Evin let out a groan of frustration and turned his annoyed glare on Alicia. "Quiet!" He snapped "you could have blown the whole operation with a stunt like that!" Taking a calming breathe he began again, "listen, there are two auto-turrets on sub level six, five on sub-level seven, ten on sub-level eight, and twelve on sub-level nine." Pointing to the turrets' locations on his layout, Evin continued, "Your job is to take them out WITHOUT being caught. I'll meet you in sub-level nine in ten minutes."
Alicia sniffed in frustration at Evin. "Meany! I'd never do something so idiotic." she retorts, but she stops tapping her foot. "Take them out, don't get caught. Got it, blah, blah, blah. What are you gonna do, Mr. Hotshot?" she asked him.
While the two of them were technically a team, Alicia normally let Evin take the lead in most cases, after all, he could come up with plans better than "get in, kick butt, get out." However, today Alicia just wasn't in the mood to be bossed around.
"Hotshot, that's a new one" Evin said, rolling up his sleeves and pulling on a pair of black tactical gloves. "I'm going to work out a way to get into the vault. If you had waited to hear what I had to say, we would already be on our way out."
Putting his ear to the door, Evin stood there for I moment, taking in the sounds, trying to get a feel for what the hall was like. "It sounds as if there are two, maybe three guards in the hallway" Evin said beginning to pace slightly "hurry up and take down the turrets, I'll handle things up here."
Alicia sighed like she was being troubled by Evin to do something. "Fine, geez" She phased though the floor, landing lightly on her feet on the floor below them
"Now, which sub levels did he say the auto-turrets were on again?" she mused.
As soon as Alicia phased through the floor, Evin turned to the task at hand; how to take out the guards. Under normal circumstances he would go with a lightning fast blitz and take them by surprise, but he couldn't afford to be caught by the security cameras he had seen earlier. That meant that he had to lure them to him and taking a glance around him, he knew he had the means. Walking over to a storage cabinet filled to the brim with test tubes, Evin selected a few empty ones, took a deep-breath, and threw them with as much force as possible at the opposite wall.
As soon as the test tubes shattered, he bolted into action, sprinting across the room and diving behind the biggest piece of equipment he could find.
Almost as soon as he made it into cover, the door swung open and three guards rushed into the room. They began to shine their lights around in a vain attempt to locate him, but Evin just slunk deeper into the shadows. Now came the hard part, taking them out.
Stealing his nerves, Evin raised his fist and delivered a solid strike to the side of the equipment piece he was hiding behind, creating a gong like noise that drew the attention of the guards.
"John" a gruff voice sounded, "go check it out, we got you covered."
A small smirk spread across Evin's face as the sound of the guard getting closer reached his ears. As soon as the guard got within two feet of where he was hiding, Evin made his move. Launching himself out from his hiding place, he took hold of the startled guard's head and slammed it into the ground knocking him out. Not breaking his stride Evin turned and launched himself at the two remaining guards; taking the first out with a flying side kick and then turning on his heel to deliver a roundhouse kick to the last remaining guard's jaw.
Standing in the middle of the three downed guards, slightly out of breath, Evin couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. He had taken down the guards without incident and as he looked down at their black armor he realized that he had found the answer for their vault problem.
Perfect, now all he could do was hope that Alicia had gotten rid of those turrets.
Alicia walked carefully near the walls, careful not to be spotted. She looked around, craning her neck to take in everything. Her hand goes up automatically to the moon charm on her choker. "I'm on sub-level six... so there must be two of them.'
She suddenly heard the patter of heavily clad feet, "Uh-oh." She took a deep breath, and phased into the wall, disappearing behind its smooth, metal surface. She heard voices talking about a recent basketball game. Her heart pounded, but they went around the corner without an issue. Alicia phased out of the wall, gasping and taking in air.
She wanted to cough, but before she could, she noticed the first turret. They were large, unmanned machine guns that shot at everything and everybody who wasn't supposed to be there. It wasn't an issue for Alicia, but for her partner... well, she liked him better without holes.
She made her way along the wall to just under the auto-turret. She phased back into the wall and pushed herself upwards, so she was even to turret. It hadn't noticed her, so she did what she had to do.
She raked her arm through it and shorted out the turret. It fizzed and crackled before pointing face down. Alicia smiled to herself, and headed over to the next turret.
Striding confidently through sub layer nine's bleach white halls, Evin passed by several scientists who barely looked up to acknowledge him when he passed by. Grinning to himself, he continued down the hall, his newly acquired security guard armor clinking with every step he took. "How long is this freakin' hallway," Evin muttered under his breathe "I've been walking down the same hallway for at least ten minutes."
Finally coming to the end of the newly dubbed "Hallway of Doom," Evin let out a groan of frustration. He had reached his destination but it seemed that (if judging by the giant steel door, numerous security cameras, scanners, and turrets) he was going to have a lot of work on his hands. Now, where was that annoying partner of his?
Alicia twisted her moon charm on her choker carefully as she inspected her work. There were dead machines all around her, sparkling with the very last hints of life. She smiled to herself while on the wall. Who said she couldn't do a good job when she wanted to?
She ran through the list in her head... what floor was she on now? 7? 8? It was probably the 8th floor. She got down on the floor. If she was right, there was a security camera directly under her. She stuck her hands in first, then dived head in to the floor. She jerked forwards slight when she stopped phasing through the floor. She was hanging by her ankles. She prayed that no one was on the floor above her as she leaned down and stretched her arm to reach the camera.
She raked her hand through it as it shorted out. She looked around the room and saw someone in guard armor. She felt fear run up and down her spine. Did she mess up?
Evin was currently feeling a little conflicted. He couldn't, for the life of him, decide whether to be amused or annoyed at his partner, who, not a second earlier, had phased right through the ceiling and was now dangling like a monkey in front of him.
After a heated internal debate, Evin decided to go with an aloof response. Cocking his head to the side and placing his hands on his hips, he stared up at Alicia.
"Would you be as so kind as to get off that blasted ceiling and help me with this door?"
Alicia snorted in disdain. "I'm trying here, while you're being a donkey. I'm coming." She concentrated and phased through the floor. For a moment, it looked like she was taking a free fall, but like a cat she somehow ended up falling one her feet.
Well, for the most part.
She actually tumbled into a somersault, failing to land on her feet in the first place. She fell forwards, managing to stop a few feet before her partner. She huffed almost with embarrassment as she pulled herself off the floor. "Well?"
Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Evin turned back to the door, took a deep breath and began to concentrate. Almost instantly images began to flash before his eyes, different choices leading to different outcomes and random flashes of things he couldn't quite make out.
Drawing from everything he'd learned, Evin quickly pieced together a plan, but before he could leave his mind to execute it, something caught his attention. The random flashes he had noticed earlier began to clear up. Using his mind's "zoom in" function, he got as close as possible and began to observe.
At first he could only make out blurred shapes, but as the image began to focus, he started to make out, what seemed to be, a monstrous castle. As the image became even clearer, he could just make out hunched, humanoid figures milling around in the castle's shadow.
Frowning thoughtfully to himself, Evin temporarily turned his attention to something that had been nagging him since the image had begun to clear.
His precognitive ability only allowed him to see, at max, fifteen minutes into the future and only happenings that are within 4 yards of his position. Yet here he was, staring up at a castle that had to be thousands of years old (judging by its slightly dilapidated appearance) and was obviously way outside of his 4 yard zone. This meant that the image was being forcefully projected into his mind by an outside source.
Focusing on the castle once again, Evin took a deep breath and unleashed a series of mental blasts at the image. Each blast struck some type of invisible barrier and dissipated before it could do any damage. Growling in annoyance, Evin focused his mental blast into a dense orb the size of a basketball and fired. The orb rocketed towards the image, colliding with the invisible wall. Unlike his last attempt, the orb didn't disperse, instead, it struggled against the invisible wall.
With a loud crack the barrier shattered and the orb blasted forward at astounding speeds, striking the image with a resounding bang. The image shook under the impact and began to crumble. Large chunks of stone tumbled to the ground, smoke and fire billowing into the sky. Soon there was only rubble.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Evin allowed himself to relax. Suddenly tendrils, of what seemed to be shadow, shot out from under the castle's remains. They wound around him, constricting his throat causing him to gasp for breathe. Mad cackling filled his ears, bringing with it unimaginable pain.
Finally, just when Evin thought he was going to snap and go insane, the laughter stopped and the tendrils receded as quickly as they had come.
Snapping back to reality, Evin was assaulted with a pain in his head comparable to what he had felt in his mind. His knees gave out from under him and with no tendrils holding him up, he crumbled to the ground gasping for breath.
Alicia had never, not once in her entire life, had seen her partner collapse like that. Sure, sometimes he tripped over his own feet and fell, but nothing like this. It was really ruining the big 'strong guy' image he had going for him.
Alicia immediately bent down beside her partner, who was struggling for air on the ground. "Hey! Hey!" she whispered to him, gently resting her hand on his shoulder. Panic settled in like a wall of fire, quickly spreading through her entire body. "Evin, Evin!" she hissed urgently. They had to get out here.
Not paying attention, Alicia hand phased through her partner's shoulder. Well, it should have. Instead, her hand phased through about an inch, before it was shocked back. "S***!" Alicia swore, grabbing onto her right hand and pulling it closer into her chest. Pain washed over her. The air smelt like smoke. "What the?" Alicia glanced down at her hand. It was blistering, red, and oozing. She took a shaky breath. "Burned?" She turned her attention to her partner. What the heck was going on in that brain of his?!
Alicia's power was phasing. She could go through objects, people, anything really. She could go through fire, as well. The only thing she had an issue with if she went through something metal and someone charged it with electricity. It would kill her, or at the very least knock her out. What the hell was going on?
"Evin, dude, I swear to god!"
"You shouldn't swear" came a voice from behind her.
Alicia gasped and whipped around to look at the person. She was so preoccupied with her partner and her hand; she hadn't kept her guard up, and thus allowing someone to sneak up behind her.
"I am so stupid." she muttered to herself.
Struggling to his feet, vision swimming, Evin leaned heavily against the wall and glared up at the imposing figure.
"Alecia, hurry and retrieve the file. It's labeled "Project: Theseus". Once you have it, run, just keep phasing till you get out. I'll hold him till you get clear, and then I'll catch up with you. Now, get moving!"
"Are you insane you crazy ass?" Alicia spat out at him, but stood up anyways. "You had better not die, or I swear I'll hunt down your ghost and throw you back into your body myself."
She bolted backwards, phasing through the vault door and leaving no trace that she had been there in the first place.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Evin turned his attention back to the threat. Pushing off the wall, he stumbled forward slightly before straightening and falling into a fighting stance, left leg stretched forward, right leg slightly bent, fists raised to protect his face. Taking deep breathes to calm his nerves; Evin steeled himself for the inevitable fight to come.
Alicia ran with wild abandon into the lab. "Project: Theseus, Project: Theseus, Project: Theseus." she repeated to herself over and over again. Her hand had gone numb, and she wasn't sure of that was a good thing or bad thing. "That monkey butt idjit!" she muttered to herself as she spotted a file cabinet in the back of the room.
She ran her good hand through the lock and it unlocked with a soft clink. She threw open the door and started to dive through the thousands of files. "Would it KILL these scientists to be a bit more organized?" she growled as she held each folder up looking for the right one.
[Fast Forward Twenty Minutes]
Evin stumbled through the ruins of what used to be Star Labs. His sight was blurred, breathing was labored (he was pretty sure he had a broken rib) and blood gushed from the many wounds littering his body. Most people would have passed out from the blood loss by now, but Evin wasn't "most people, he could already feel his wounds knitting themselves back together and his sight was beginning to return.
The fight had only lasted ten minutes but it seemed like it had gone on forever.
[Flashback]
Both opponents threw everything they had at each other in an attempt to claim victory. None of Evin's attacks had worked against his much larger opponent; everything he threw at him had either been blocked or seemed to have no effect. It was not till Star Labs' security forces showed up that the tide turned in Evin's favor. With the introduction of firearms to the fight they had begun to make some headway and finally, after much struggle, they managed to put him down.
Almost as soon as things had begun to settle down, Evin received a bone crushing punch straight to his ribcage, sending him flying. He believed that if not for his newly acquired armor his injuries would've been a lot worse. As it was, the fist had shattered the armor plating covering his chest and had broken a few ribs (he couldn't tell how many). After a few pained attempts, Evin managed to stagger to his feet. The sight he had been greeted with would haunt his dreams for a long time to come. The man he had been fighting earlier, the one that they had put down, had turned into a monster! It stood around ten feet tall (its head was almost scraping the twelve foot ceiling), grey skin with pulsing purple veins glowing though, arms looking like they had been juiced into oblivion, it had grown razor sharp claws and its face had elongated into something very reminiscent of a wolf. It had truly been something straight from a horror film.
The monster had proceeded to brutally slaughter what remained of the security force. After it was done it turned its attention back to Evin. After letting out a terrible roar it had charged, every step it took shook the very foundation of the building. It was then that he had noticed something; the once pulsing purple veins had begun to flash erratically and spread across the monsters body. Evin had stored this seemingly irrelevant piece of information and had been about turn and run in an attempt to get away from the charging monster, but before he could, two huge hands clamped around him and lifted Evin off the ground and face to face with the monster.
Time had seemed to crawl to a halt for Evin. The monster brought him closer and closer to his awaiting jaws and just when Evin thought it was all over, the monster froze, its grip slackened and Evin had tumbled to the ground. Picking himself up Evin began to slowly back away, observing the monster that just remained frozen. Suddenly it began to spasm violently. Evin's eyes widened in shock, he turned on his heel and ran. He had barely made it to the elevator when the explosion occurred. There had been a loud boom then everything had gone black. He woke up ten minutes later (according to his watch which had somehow survived) in a completely destroyed Star Labs feeling like he had been run over by a steamroller.
[Flashback End]
Bringing his focus back to the present time Evin let out a tired sigh. He had to find his partner and get out of here. Judging by the destruction around him, the explosion had been pretty big which meant that the authorities were going to be there soon. He'd rather not have to deal with them at the moment. Straightening up, he set off to find his partner.
Alicia has been waist deep in files when Star Labs exploded into a million bits. The ground shook and the walls began to crumble. It happened so fast, and the next thing Alicia knew she was standing halfway in a pile of rubble. Her instincts had taken over, and her waist was halfway in a mess of stone and wood. She coughed and opened her eyes which were closed on impact. "Are you kidding me!?" she exclaimed. "Could you at least destroy the place AFTER I leave?!" She twisted around on the flat piece of concrete.
"How the heck am I gonna- oh." She stopped mid-sentence as she noticed the file labeled "Project Theseus" She leaned over slightly and grabbed the file, then moved her shirt and tucked the files into the waist of her pants. She then pulled her shirt over it and frowned. "I really hope he doesn't find out where I put this."
"Son of a-" Evin swore.
He had hit his toe on a stray price of rubble for what had to be the one thousandth time.
He had been picking his way through the rubble for the last ten minutes, and so far hadn't seen hide nor hair of Alicia. She had been the closest to the explosion and Evin couldn't help but feel slightly worried for her. He knew his fear was irrational; they had been much tighter spots than this one and had gotten out without much trouble, but he couldn't help bit worry.
Slowing his pace slightly, he focused his attention on that nights events. The night had started off like any other. They got in, disabled security systems, and figured out how to complete their objective. Then it went wrong. Evin had never experienced anything like it. Someone or something had invaded his mind and nearly killed him. He had then almost been killed in the real world.
The monster had appeared before them in a human form and had proceeded to beat the tar out of Evin. Granted, he had not been at full strength but even if he had been, he doubted it would have made much of a difference.
Evin knew he would have to look into the unusual monster at some point but for now he had more pressing matters. Mainly, finding that aggravating partner of his...
Thump!
"God Dammit! Frickin rocks!"
Alicia gave an aggravated kick to the pile of rubble, bruising her shin. She swore and held up her leg to her chest, hugging her shin. "Stupid-!" she swore again, then picked up a piece of the rubble and chucked it as far as she could. It made a thumping noise as it cascaded down a small bit of wrecked cement.
She turned around quickly and faced Evin. Her cheeks grew deadly shade of red, almost rosy compared to her pale skin. She sped walked right up him, stared at him for a moment, and slapped him across the face. You could hear the sting of skin on skin from ten feet away. "That was for blowing up the joint while I was still in it." She pulled the file out of the waist line of her pants and threw it at him. "That's for being okay."
She took a deep breath, trying to calm down. "What happened? She asked him. He opened his mouth to reply but before he could, Alicia's eyes perked up. "Sirens. We gotta go, we don't want to be here when the cops show.
Evin nodded in response. Turning on his heal, he took off at a full on sprint. Throwing a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Alicia was still there, he noted that she was and picked up the pace.
He weaved in and out through the rubble, not even bothering to slow his pace when a collapsed column got in his way. Putting on a burst of speed, Evin charged directly at the column and at the last second he propelled himself into the air, using his hands to vault over and land steady on his feet. Not breaking his stride he continued onwards.
After what seemed to him like ages (it was really only three minutes) Evin saw the dark, deserted, alleyway that they had used as their base of operations for the heist.
His heart hammering in his ears and his breaths coming out in ragged gasps; Evin finally made it to the ally and rushed into its concealing darkness.
"You've gotta be kidding me," Evin said to himself, gasping for breath" I can't really be this out of shape, can I?"
His self-imposed question was answered when Evin's legs nearly gave out from under him. Leaning on the grungy, ally wall, he took steady, deep breaths in an attempt to steady the sporadic beating of his heart.
Sprinting like that, right after obtaining injuries of the magnitude he had, was really stupid of him; healing factor or not. Thankfully, said healing factor came in quite handy when catching one's breathe and he was almost completely recovered. Straightening up, Evin walked over to the ally's entrance and peaked out.
He spotted Alicia jogging towards him and sighed in exasperation. Why couldn't she take these missions seriously for once? Turning, and walking back into the ally, he removed his ruined hoody and tossed it carelessly into a dumpster leaving him in a plain black T. Running his hands through his matted hair he sighed tiredly. Glancing down at his watch he saw that it was three in the morning.
"Great," he muttered "another day with no sleep."
Evin glanced wearily around the ally; not spotting Alicia, he reached into his back pocket and removed a pack of cigs and a lighter. He stared at them for a few seconds, an internal battle raging within.
"Why not," Evin said, a grin growing on his face "I ain't going to live forever and besides, I've earned it!"
Alicia tied her unruly black hair up with a spare black hairband and huffed at Evin. "Seriously dude?" She gave him a narrow look before walking over to a bunch of trash bins and opened one of them. She leant down, lifting her feet in an almost childish manner. She pulled a black computer bag out of it, and sat down on the street floor, crisscross applesauce.
She gave her partner a last disapproving look before pulling the trashed laptop. She leant back as the computer loaded. Alicia waited patiently for her computer to start. Alicia had her little, but slow, laptop for almost five years, since she 'picked it up' from a Best Buy store.
She tapped the side of the computer as it flickered on. "It's okay CP, you got this." It turned onto the main screen and she typed in her 19 character password.
She logged onto the CADMUS server. The screen flickered black for a moment, then opened to the video camera footage. Alicia began the painstaking process of deleting the footage clip by clip. She gave her partner a disapproving look.
"You're still smoking after all this time?" Her partner shrugged and grinned at her and she rolled her eyes. She turned her attention to back to the screen. "Just don't come over- uh oh!"
Evin looked over at her and raised an eyebrow. "Uh oh? What do mean uh oh?" he asked her inquisitively. Alicia leant over her laptop. "No, no, no, no, nononononooooo! Stop it!"
"What's going on?"
Alicia tapped away at the worn keys to no avail. "Someone's kicking me off the server! Who on earth-! Gah!" her laptop fizzed out with an electrical spark as she accidently ran her hands through it. She tossed the laptop hard on the wall, and it broke in half. "Dang it Alicia!" she shouted at herself. She stood up on her feet quickly.
"One more second and they could have traced our location! Why am I so stupid!?" she slapped her head. There was a large CLANKING sound from the dead end of the ally, which was separated by a fifteen foot high brick wall.
She squinted in the direction of the wall.
"Actually." she said in a hushed whisper. Her hand moved up towards her moon charm on her choker. "I may have miscalculated."
"No freaking duh," Evin growled.
Tossing his cigarette carelessly to the ground, he stepped forward slightly and brought up his guard.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Evin focused in on the darkened ally that stretched out before them.
"Show yourself," Evin spat.
The silence that followed was nearly unbearable. The seconds ticked by with bated breath until finally, they got a response.
"Meow!"
Evin blinked ounce, then twice, and then three times but every time he looked, the little rascal was still sitting there, licking its fur.
"You have got to be kidding me," he moaned "it's a freakin cat!"