Awesome Author's Note: Guess what... I'm an admin! For those of you that have no clue about what I'm talking about it basically means that I can now post really cool pictures and stuff on a Facebook page that is viewed by people who like the same things as me! How awesome is that? Who said flattery got you nowhere? Sadly it's not a H.I.V.E. page but it's a page! Anyways now that I've bored you who wants to meet some of Julia's and Toby's roommates growing up? This is now dedicated to the awesome AlphaFive who has reviewed! Go AlphaFive! Hope I found a correct translator for the russian though...
Julia Mercer was getting annoyed. This was the third time in the past 30 minutes she had to explain what a link was. This was getting very old very quickly. She checked Toby's link again, it was still there and still blocked.
"Wait," Otto said slowly, "So this link is like a rubber band and if it stretches to far you die?"
"No, I give up," Julia snapped, "Come with me."
"Where are we going?" Nero asked, he was determined not to let Julia out of his sight.
"An old friend of mine," was the only thing Julia said as she headed to the Shroud bay.
20 minutes later:Russia
The shroud touched down and sent a signal to the computer below it. Julia sent the right code as well, she didn't want to end up like a pancake today. Suddenly the ground dropped away beneath them and they were falling. The shrouds engine's were dead. The only person who didn't seem to be panicking was Julia, instead she grabbed hold of a metal bar and steadied herself. As quickly as they had begun falling they stopped, everyone but Julia went flying.
Somehow everyone was in one piece when they made it down the exit ramp and into the building. A woman who looked to be about 17 with long blond hair was sitting on a crate laughing at them.
"You could have warned them you know." She said pointedly at Julia, who just shrugged.
"Forgot."
The woman rolled her eyes, jumped lightly off the crate and walked towards them.
"Hi, I'm Alice," The woman said. Now she was closer Otto could see the thin scar that crossed her face, it seemed to add to her beauty. "I can thank her for this," Alice pointed at Julia.
"You startled me," Julia pointed out.
Alice rolled her eyes, "Whether I did or did not sneak up on you is neither a here nor a there. What does matter is the fact that you only told me that Toby was missing an hour ago when he has been missing for at least an hour and a half, explain?"
A man who looked about the same age appeared behind Alice and hugged her waist.
"Hey Charlie," Julia. "Can I have the keys?"
The man seemed to be confused, "For what?"
"Это имело обыкновение быть Адом."
"Все еще" Charlie muttered darkly as he threw a set of keys at her.
Alice raised an eyebrow at them, "We have a rule about that topic, you know that Julia...now, who wants tea." Without waiting for an answer she started to head down the only corridor. As they were walking Alice chatted non-stop.
"Toby jokes, Alice makes rules," Julia muttered to Raven.
"What do you do?" Raven replied.
Julia just smiled and said quite simply, "Kill people."
Eventually they entered lit a brightly lit, warm room, Alice collapsed gracefully into a chair that was bolted to the ground.
"Your turn." was all she said.
"Wha..what?" Otto stuttered, confused.
"How did you meet Jay? Why do you guys have a link? Would be a good start."
Otto began from the beginning, with everyone else contributing a detail here and there. At some point Julia disappeared, very few people noticed though as she made no noise.
By the time they finished Otto was exhausted but he still wanted to know about the link.
Alice nodded, "Fair enough. The link is basically a string attaching one person to another. Julia and Toby's is the strongest ever recorded, we don't know why. If one of them dies the other would die because of the link would be broken or if they get a serious injury, for example Julia's eye."
Everyone stared at them confused.
"I don't think we were supposed to mention that..."
Alice shrugged, "Too late now, Julia is partly blind, didn't you know that?"