I would really like to give you guys chapters more often but December is always a busy month for me, soo... yeah, you will have to wait after New Year.
I thanks, Erika Rex for the wonderful comment, it really made my day reading it.
"Frank, you got a moment?"
Mr. Conagher turns away from repairs he is doing on the security turret and his blue eyes lands on a person he can go so far call a friend. They do not have many secrets between them at least. "What is it Vigil?" He asks, already taking off the work gloves since his comrade would only interrupt his work if it important.
The thin man before the Texan motion for him to follow, Frank does. Away from possible listing ears Vigil speaks; "We got reports from the facility in the Amazon. The terrorists found it."
And here he had hoped they wouldn't find that one, Frank thinks dryly and annoyed. He has put so much effort on that generator, well if those terrorists have been clever they would've left the Anbaricity alone. If not, well at least he can relish in the thought the overload would've taken the terrorists with it. "How much damage did they do this time?"
"The whole building is gone" Vigil replies.
"So they went for the generator," Frank concludes, sighting he dries off any remaining oil on his hands. "I worked so hard on it... at least it took the intruders with them" after all, not every man who knows how to use a wrench can work with an Anbaricity generator.
"Not quite." And the thin man hands him the latest report from the Amazon Facility, along with a security picture of the intruders.
Frank's brow furrow of who he sees in that picture. "Dell." Knowing his own flesh and blood destroyed one of his generators fills him with icy cold disappointment. If it was his son who sabotaged the generator then he and the others of his "friends" would've gotten away. Dell knows how to work with an Anbaricity generator and can make it blow with himself and the others out from the blast radios. Returning the papers back to Vigil. "Does anyone else know of this?" Why does Dell have to be so disobedient? He was such a dutiful child, even looked forward becoming the head engineer for the Magisterium, to then suddenly change his mind after that trip. All this is his father's fault, that man just couldn't put his silly ideals to rest and realize that what the Magisterium did for the family is for the best. Because of that old fool, Frank might have to kill his own son.
"Leonard and Paul know, neither doesn't like the situation. Paul suspects you're on their side but Leonard knows you are loyal so he doesn't blame you having such a wayward offspring. It made Paul back off." Vigil explains their team's engineer, he put the papers back into his chest pocket. "Still, he does expect you to report this, he said it would be best you report about it than someone else; so Grey would know you are loyal."
"Well, better get this over with.." Frank sighs. The two men head to the debriefing room, inside, two bulky men awaits them, the biggest and having a wolf as a daemon; the same guarding the children on the ship is standing with crossed arms and a deep scowl over his face. Besides him is the boss of this group, he is the expert in explosives but just as much as a soldier like the rest. His Rottweiler daemon shows that. Frank gives that man a small nod out of respect. "Leonard," who returns the gesture with his own nod before turning on the video link between them and their boss.
The figure of a man appears on the screen, face completely hidden in the dark room he resides in. No soldier knows the face of their boss, only those with the privileged will be allowed and that is seen as a huge honor. Frank is actually one of those few people who has seen Gray's face. The man on the screen moves slightly forward. "Report." He commands in a very direct manner, this man does not like beating around the bush; prefer merely getting onto the point.
Frank gives Grey a small bow in form of respect before saying the report. "We have gathered fourteen children from New France, all of them are children of rebellious parents but soon will see the Church's way. The men found a very special case in Boston; a young adult with a child daemon."
"Elaborate."
"This young man is nineteen years old, yet his daemon still changes shape as it would to a child. Our doctors are currently investigating the reason for such an abnormally."
Grey muses to himself for a moment, he leans back in his chair. "Good, such an abnormally is best getting fixed than left alone. Anything else Mr. Conagher?"
This time Frank hesitates, brazing himself for the possible punishment from his disobedient son. He does notices that Paul is watching him very suspiciously at this moment. "Yes sir, latest reports from the Amazon Facility reveals that the terrorists have located and disposed of the facility. No survivors."
"That is unfortunate, but at least not waste of time." Grey muses with a hint of annoyance that yet another building destroyed thanks to that blasted resistance. "The doctors from that estate did not die in vain, I have already sent their work to the doctors located at Bolvangar."
"That's good to hear sir, but..." Frank lets out a sigh before he explains. "It saddens me to say this, but I think it was best I reported it." He can literally feel Grey's eyes bore into his, he swallows but does continue. "My son, Dell was the one who caused the destruction," and with that said, his three co-workers awaits quietly for what Grey has to say about this matter.
"So, you own flesh and blood have turned against the Church?" Grey asks, his voice icy cold. The four men daemons shift uncomfortably.
"I admit I am hoping the terrorists have forced him to work for them." Frank inquire, letting himself have this spark of hope his son can be persuaded that what he is currently doing is foolish and needs to stop if he knows what's best for him. "He is one of the few people who can sabotage an Anbaricity generator without getting killed in the progress, and he has been very absent minded lately, making him a perfect target for the terrorists lies."
"And you think he can be turned around?"
"I am hopeful yes."
"And if he doesn't see reason?" Grey asks calmly, but Franks knows the man is considering something sinister towards him if he doesn't prove his loyalty. "Are you willing to do what needs to be done?"
"Yes sir," Frank replies, only slightly hesitant, this is after all his own son but... he will do anything to prove his loyalty to the Church.
"Good," Grey seems satisfied with the answer, for now at least. "Commander," turning to Leonard who salutes and awaits his orders. "I want you and your men at Durham, the last reports from our Alethiomist revealed that the terrorists are trying to gather people there. I want the rebel leader alive, but don't hesitate shooting those who resist the capture. Bring them to this base."
"Yes, sir."
"Dismissed."
Frank and Vigil salute, only lowering their hands when the screen turns black. The thin man glances to his comrade. "Well, that went better than expected."
"Agree." Frank muses and turns his eyes up to Paul from the man's words: "For your own sake, you better not hesitate with the trigger like you did with your words."
Frank sends the man a leveled stare, replying him calmly but now with a greater certainty of where his loyalty lies. "If diplomacy does not work, then you don't have to remind me of my duty." And with that, he leaves the room.
...,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,...
Being at this place is not so bad, boring as hell and a bit unnerving, though, but he could've been through worse he guesses. However, Nathan is getting tired of all the testing this particular doctor keeps putting him through. "Yo, you done already?" He asks the doctor impatience, he could do better things that sitting on his ass and letting Nalini do all the work. Her changing form every second does drain his mentality quite a bit. The doctor is very interested in that little fact.
"A few more." The doctor replies and takes up another picture, this one of a cheetah. "Make her take this form and tell me how it feels."
Rolling his eyes but complying, Nathan turns to his daemon, who like him is getting annoyed by this stupid game. The mouse turns into a cheetah and the doctor gives Nathan a curious look. The young man takes a moment to feel what this form gives him. "It feels good."
"Elaborate bitte?" The doctor asks with that strange accent of his.
The testing might be annoying but it did teach Nathan something he did not know. Every form Nalini takes affects him in some way. Example the wild rabbit form- her favorite could very well have been her settled form as that shape has most of his personality traits, but since she is unable to settle, other forms are taken when a certain emotions dominate Nathan; such as the wild cat when he's angry and ready for a fight and the swallow or mouse when he's scared and just wants to escape a situation.
Nathan shifts his position, contemplating his emotions this form brings up. "Well, it makes me angry- no feeling powerful, like I can run circles around some chucklehead and get away with it." That form reminds him of the wildcat, just bigger and faster. He thinks he will use this form the next time some moron asks for a bat to the face. He's sure the flimsy guard he landed on wouldn't mind a quick fight.
The doctor writes it down, his whole face brightens up like it's early Christmas, his excited scribbling almost makes his white dove daemon fall off his shoulders. She lets out a 'coo' and flies over to sit on a chair's backrest. "Fascinating, it seems this form suits your personality better than the mouse. What about this one?" He shows a picture of the straight opposite of the cheetah: a tortoise.
Again Nalini takes the form, but like many other forms, the doctor made her take, Nathan did not feel comfortable with this form; it's too slow. Sure he wouldn't mind if she takes this form if something takes a bite into her but that as far this form goes, only useful for a quick defense, although he and Nalini can easily pick other forms that suits that situation and be more comfortable about it, besides, a tortoise form suits Ken better. Nathan briefly explains the doctor his thoughts and asks for probably the tenth time. "Are we done? I have better things to do than this freaking boring test." And finally, the doctor lets him go.
Nathan leaves before this crazy man changes his mind and runs to one of the rooms where the children reside. The huge white painted room did not really have anything interesting, some paintings on the walls, two boxes with random toys the children could play with and a long line of tables where the doctors or teachers would make them sit under their lectures. Nathan hates those lectures, all the teachers spoke about is how awesome the Magisterium is and how they made world peace under the terrible world war that happened almost one hundred years ago. He read that in school along with anything else the teachers says. But besides from that; everything seemed right, so why does Nathan smell something fishy? Why do he keep getting the feeling that something is wrong with the picture he is staring at.
"Nate!"
Blinking, the young man turns to one of the kids, her name is Heidi, sweet girl.
"Do you want to play tag with us?" She asks him, behind her stand a small flock of children, waiting and hoping his answer will be yes. Having him in the game always makes it a bit funnier.
Nathan smiles, "sure" and ready himself as the chaser. "Ready or not, here I come!" and he begins chasing the squealing children. Playing with them always lighten up the boring atmosphere of this place, Nathan is pretty sure that's why the children keep asking him to play with them. He always got a knack for lightening up the mood.
"Nathan, come over here if you please." Mr. Conagher calls interrupt the game. Of course, someone always has to ruin the fun... Nathan reluctantly leaves the children and walks over to the man, well aware that going against Dell's old man will only mean pain to both him and Nalini.
"I would like to introduce you to Viper." The head engineer a gestures to a simple black dressed man beside him, his face has very sharp features, which makes him look quite intimidating. Even though he is older than Mr. Conagher, the way he looks at Nathan makes the young man uncomfortable as it reminds him how a hunter would look at some prized animal. His daemon did not make it any better, she's a huge black snake, looking ready to swallow the fox-shaped Nalini.
She quickly changes form and seeks protections on her human's shoulder as a swallow. Nathan glares at the man named Viper but he doesn't feel as confident as he would like around this intimidating man.
Mr. Conagher did not seem to notice the tension in the air between the two and continues somewhat cheerful. "Viper has been send by Grey himself, he would like to test and see you're worth training."
"Training in what?" Nalini asks warily on her human's shoulder. Flinching from the cold stare Viper gives her.
"Do you always let your daemon speak for you boy?" Viper asks in slow and calculated tone. His daemon turns her own piecing stare at the other daemon, making Nalini shrink in fear.
"N-No," Nathan replies, he tries to sound tough but all his confidence has left him from this man's unnerving aura.
"Good, a daemon should be seen, never heard. Now come." The calm but very intimidating man gestures for Nathan to follow. "I would like to see if you actually have skills worth my time."
Nathan hesitates but after a nudge from Mr. Conagher, he follows the other man. Too intimidated to ask why this Grey has found him enough interesting to send probably one of his best men to train him.
Viper leads him into an empty room, he walks into the middle of the room. "Attack me," he says.
"Wh-What?" Nathan blinks, not really seeing that one— before he can even finish his own thoughts, Viper slams hard him onto the floor.
"Lesson 1: never hesitate." Viper lets go of him and with Nathan back on his feet, repeat his former command, "attack me."
This time Nathan does not hesitates, he charges at the man who easily dodges his fits and a single kick to the leg sends the young man back onto the floor. "That's all you got?" the man snorts, "pathetic."
Growling Nathan gets back on his feet again, he has been taught by his mother and Dell that picking fights with people for no reason is what only a fool or a coward would do. But this man is so asking for a fight, and he has been pent up with nothing to do for too long. Nalini changes into a cheetah and he jumps on his feet, this time out to hurt for real. He charges at the man, but this time he does not merely go for the punch as that clearly does not work on this guy. Instead, he changes direction just the last second and when behind he can with satisfaction watch the other one land on the floor from a very well aimed jump-kick. The man does quickly recover though and unlike most who would be pissed getting kicked by the runt of his gang of brothers, this man is actually smiling. "Ah, that's much better, good. Thought I had to force you." And he attacks in such a graceful manner that it startles Nathan.
Nathan did try defend himself but to his frustrations Viper's old age is barely slowing him down, and his years of professional training dominates Nathan's occasional gang fights back at Boston— only his speed made him able to get a few hits in.
The young man let out a cry of pain, again on the floor, this time with a dislocated shoulder. No surprise, he gets no sympathy from Viper. The man merely knells down beside him with a almost predatory smirk. "I can make good use of you." And with those words he leaves Nathan on his own.
Nathan slowly gets on his feet, not sure what Viper meant, only that he doubt he is going to see his family for a very long time. Cradling his at the moment useless arm, Nathan limps over to the door, he does not reach far before the same doctor from earlier comes for him. The man gives him a scowl of disapproval over what he is seeing. "It seems Viper has gotten his fun." The doctor muses dryly with that strange accent of his and gestures for Nathan to follow. "Come along."
Nathan follows the doctor into an infirmary, it looks like the one the doctor with the strange rat daemon has, except this one is filled with white doves. Does explain why this one has one for a daemon.
"Take a seat junge." the doctor says.
"What did you just call me?" Nathan asks in a wonder he should be offended or not, but when he gets not response and answer on what the word meant, he merely takes a seat.
The doctor grabs the dislocated shoulder, sending a jolt of pain through his body and Nathan let out a cry.
The doctor's sharp steel blue eyes shows no sign of sympathy, in fact, he seems to enjoy watching Nathan in pain a bit too much. "Yes, diffidently dislocated. Hm, that's too bad." And with a quick move; snaps it back into place.
"Fuck that hurt!" Nathan cries, glaring at the man and actually wishes the one with the rat did this, he was annoying to listen to as he wouldn't shut up about the Church but at least that guy would be gentle. "What kind of doctor doesn't warn their patients first?"
The doctor keeps smiling but suddenly looks very intimidating. "Welcome to the Magisterium." He says coldly yet cheerful, making Nathan feels a cold shiver down his spine. The man leaves to find something in his medical closet. "Now, anything else that hurt?" Again back to his more friendlier self.
Nathan does not answer at first; he is too much taken aback by the sudden change of demeanor from this seemly cheerful doctor, he only snaps out from it when the doctor sends him a questioning look. "Oh um, my neck hurts a bit." Gesturing at a certain spot where Viper hit him.
The doctor returns, now holding a bottle with some reddish liquid inside, only taking out the substance after have checked the neck. "Your neck's going to be fine, but do tell me if you starts having trouble feeling your feet." He chuckles in such a manner that it makes his patient very nervous. "But don' you worry, I have fixed severed nerves before. Now where did... ah, here it is!" And he takes out a huge needle.
Okay, Nathan doesn't care what will happen to him if he tries to escape, he rather gets his ass kicked by Viper again than wait and see what this mad doctor is going to use that thing for! He leaps away from the doctor, but just as he reaches the door, a sharp pain in his back followed by an unnerving drowsiness, Nathan drops to the ground.
"Dummkopf," the doctor muses as he put down his personally made syringe gun and walks over to retrieve his patient, he places the half conscious young man onto the table. Why did they always have to run away? Oh right, he isn't exactly the most sane doctors. Chuckling the doctor takes out the big syringe, take out some of his own made liquid medicine and stick it into the boy's arm.
With that done he merely waits for the medicine to do its job.
'coo' the white dove on his shoulder says, he pets it with a small hush before turning his gaze out the window, allowing his mind to wander for a moment.
The world returns back into focus and after a while of recovery, Nathan sits up from the bed, blinking he realizes that his body does not hurt at all anymore, in fact he feel great. Checking his arm, he realizes that the cut he receives there is completely gone, not even a scar can be seen. Okay, how long has he been out? Nathan turns his gaze away from his completely healed body and over to the crazy doctor. He is about to speak but something stops him. The doctor is staring almost longing out at the window while petting his dove daemon. It makes Nathan wonder what the doctor is thinking about. He shift position and the sound of his move snaps the doctor back to reality.
The man smiles widely to him. "Ah, you're up. How do you feel?" In a long stride is back to his side and checking his before battered body for any wounds.
"Um, I feel great actually." Nathan muses, he glances down to the strange liquid. "What the hell is in that stuff?"
The doctor laughs, "Oh a lot of things, this is quite fascinating. First time I used it on anyone— oh don't give me that look." He brushes the horrified and quite angry looking Nathan off. "It worked as expected and if it didn't: I am sure it wouldn't have killed you."
"It could have!" Nathan shouts with Nalini growling at the man in her terrier form.
"Then I would have revived you." The doctor points out as if it's that simple. Pushing his glasses back on his nose the man adds. "I do not kill people on my operating table, I am a doctor after –" the doctor suddenly flinches, jerking his right hand over to his left. For a moment Nathan fears the doctor might have a seizure, then slowly realizes that the doctor has flinched because of another reason, but that's impossible; the doctor's daemon is perfectly fine.
"Doc? You..." Nathan hesitantly steps over to the doctor whose eyes is wide of shock and horror. "You alright?"
The doctor turns to him and smiles. "Yes, I'm fine." And suddenly is very eager getting him out. "If you'll excuse me, I have other patients I should attend to."
Nathan leaves, wondering what has made the man flinch as if something has harmed his daemon.
The Doctor locks the door and returns back to his desk, flexing his still hurting hand. He did not like this one bit, something terrible must've happen to her.
'coo'
"I know Archimedes." He muses and gives the white dove and its other friends a handful of birdseeds, watching his beloved pets eat happily. He smiles yet he still can't help but worry about what is causing him pain in his hand and feeling him with such dread, looking out the window; he just knows that something terrible has happen to her.
again, sorry I cannot do accents, but as a none-English speaker, I have enough trouble just writing proper English. so if you want accents in this story, then you have to help me with it.
anyway, any tf2 fans would know who that doctor is. and for those reading the tf2 comics, you might have an idea who Franks co-workers are. the spy Viper is, however, more an OC than the guy seen in the comic, for honestly: that guy was a joke.
if you are interested seeing drawings from this story; go and check out my DeviantART account, my username is the same as here on .
