There was evidence that several fights had already taken place but also that the night was still young. The two men in their corners were clearly prepping for combat. One was lanky and had dark snake eyes. The other one shocked Elliea. It was Landon. He was wrapping his hands with very used wrappers. He had a set, removed look on his face but she had no time to think about it as Damian moved up next to him and started shouting into Landon’s ear. “Hey!” Landon frowned, “What are you doing here? What do you want?” Damian grinned, “I wanna talk.” Landon glanced over his shoulder at his pacing and ready opponent. “I’m a little busy.” Damian put a hand on his shoulder, “Just a short time?” Landon stepped out from under Damian’s hand as the crowd began getting ugly and shouting for things to start. Landon spoke distantly after a moment, “Fine, a few minutes after.” Then he stepped back into the ring and there was nothing to do but watch. The snake man and Landon squared off and scanned each other. No hand shake, no referee, no talking, they knew what to do. They were well trained to the system. Both stepped back and took up boxing stances and began circling. The lanky man struck first with a flurry of kicks and punches. Landon blocked all but one shin to the ribs blow and tightened his guard. Snake was extremely fast. He circled to the right then threw four lefts and a right hook. Landon blocked them and leapt inside the other man’s reach delivering an extremely solid knee to the gut. The snake man backed off for a second and attempted to catch his breath. Landon followed him step for step and boxed the man’s ears three or four times quickly.
There was evidence that several fights had already taken place but also that the night was still young. The two men in their corners were clearly prepping for combat. One was lanky and had dark snake eyes. The other one shocked Elliea. It was Landon. He was wrapping his hands with very used wrappers. He had a set, removed look on his face but she had no time to think about it as Damian moved up next to him and started shouting into Landon’s ear. “Hey!” Landon frowned, “What are you doing here? What do you want?” Damian grinned, “I wanna talk.” Landon glanced over his shoulder at his pacing and ready opponent. “I’m a little busy.” Damian put a hand on his shoulder, “Just a short time?” Landon stepped out from under Damian’s hand as the crowd began getting ugly and shouting for things to start. Landon spoke distantly after a moment, “Fine, a few minutes after.” Then he stepped back into the ring and there was nothing to do but watch. The snake man and Landon squared off and scanned each other. No hand shake, no referee, no talking, they knew what to do. They were well trained to the system. Both stepped back and took up boxing stances and began circling. The lanky man struck first with a flurry of kicks and punches. Landon blocked all but one shin to the ribs blow and tightened his guard. Snake was extremely fast. He circled to the right then threw four lefts and a right hook. Landon blocked them and leapt inside the other man’s reach delivering an extremely solid knee to the gut. The snake man backed off for a second and attempted to catch his breath. Landon followed him step for step and boxed the man’s ears three or four times quickly.
I'm glad I decided to wait to read this nice chunk of story for a time when I could really enjoy it. Brick, Essa, you're doing an outstanding job of introducing the story. The gritty, apocalyptic setting and feeling is so vivid in the descriptions and in the spirit of the characters, and the occasional wry humor and frankness that comes with them makes it all the more lifelike. O.O
OK, on second thought, maybe I shouldn't have read this so soon after a near panic-attack IRL. Now my heart's racing for 1st place in the adrenaline marathon again.
oof, the mention of Laila and Landon's reaction hurt >.<
If I wasn't hooked already, I sure am now.
It helps for me to listen to rap, rock or dupstep while writing. XD Thank you so much, I'm grinning like an idiot right now!
Aw I'm sorry that happened. 3: But I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. :3
Ikr, my heart hurts every time I write him 3':
I'm hooked too!
Music is the key! You're welcome! Don't you love moments like that?
It's all right, it's becoming normal now. yeet :3
Why do you do this to us? What did we ever do to you, Essa?? ÒmÓ
It was a very tense, very silent ride to King’s place. Landon sat in the backseat, arms crossed staring out the window while Elliea stared at her hands in her lap and Damian gripped the steering wheel. Elliea reached up and hit the dial on the car radio hopefully. “Maybe some cool music is on?” The radio DJ energetically spoke, “ and after that we have coming up, Mine, but now let’s get these tunes rocking! I’m Zelda and this is BrB22.53” The song started. It was Stressed Out by TOP. Elliea shut it off and they all went back to silence. Damian parked in front of Kings small apartment and everyone walked up the three flights where Elliea knocked on door 103. The door opened almost immediately and King stood before them smiling and ushering them in. He eagerly offered coffee which all took and then settled in the living room. “Okay so I spent several hours last night digging and managed to get some good stuff!” Elliea peered at him, “Several hours….how long did you stay up?” King gave a short laugh while opening a box of papers, “Um….actually all night.” Elliea glanced into the kitchen to see a stack of empty coffee mugs, “That explains a few things….” King waved her comment off with a hand and handed them each papers, “Names, dates, contacts, key phrases! I managed to find Wanda and Carter. They’re in what used to be Costa Rica supposedly.” Damian glanced over the papers, “This is vague….but a good start.” Danny frowned, “Are you really going to try to dig everyone up? None of them are on the grid, half of them aren’t even in the Agency. A few of them even burned everything and ghosted on everybody. What makes you think you can get them all in?” There was an unspoken question left hanging. The one that went like, can you get them all in after the last disaster…. Damian looked at the ground. “If they can’t trust me….maybe they can trust you guys.”
Elliea shifted in her chair, agitated. “Um, if I recall correctly you told them they didn’t need or have to follow you into there. And all of them choose of free will to go in. Full well knowing the consequences. You can’t keep blaming yourself for their choices Damian.” Damian shrugged, “Grief does strange things, I led the mission I’ll take the hate. I’ll just get another tally mark on that side. Because I am responsible for all of it. Beginning to finish.” Landon looked at the ground and did his best to swallow back his painful memories. Elliea shook her head and crossed her arms. “Damian..…” She sighed, “...To be continued. Danny who’s closest?” King took another swig of coffee, “Samuel Desp aka Source is the only one we’ve got on our grid right now, even though he’s not in the Agency technically. He’s made it clear that he’s not worried enough to disappear completely. The way I see it, we find him, it gets easier to find everyone else. I’m going to try to contact Carter and Wanda, they’re still holding the reigns of the entire agency so I think we can get some people through them as well. Sound good to everyone?” No one contested him till Landon raised a hand in a stop gesture. “Not to be discouraging but how are we supposed to find one of the greatest hackers of all time? We don’t have any tech people good enough.” King held up a pointer finger, “Actually I just found a promising young slicer four days ago. Not sure about credibility or trust levels but I think it’d be worth a shot. At least we could get advice.” The three senior members exchanged glances before Elliea spoke up, “Okay. When do we meet?”
It was a very tense, very silent ride to King’s place. Landon sat in the backseat, arms crossed staring out the window while Elliea stared at her hands in her lap and Damian gripped the steering wheel. Elliea reached up and hit the dial on the car radio hopefully. “Maybe some cool music is on?” The radio DJ energetically spoke, “ and after that we have coming up, Mine, but now let’s get these tunes rocking! I’m Zelda and this is BrB22.53” The song started. It was Stressed Out by TOP. Elliea shut it off and they all went back to silence. Damian parked in front of Kings small apartment and everyone walked up the three flights where Elliea knocked on door 103. The door opened almost immediately and King stood before them smiling and ushering them in. He eagerly offered coffee which all took and then settled in the living room. “Okay so I spent several hours last night digging and managed to get some good stuff!” Elliea peered at him, “Several hours….how long did you stay up?” King gave a short laugh while opening a box of papers, “Um….actually all night.” Elliea glanced into the kitchen to see a stack of empty coffee mugs, “That explains a few things….” King waved her comment off with a hand and handed them each papers, “Names, dates, contacts, key phrases! I managed to find Wanda and Carter. They’re in what used to be Costa Rica supposedly.” Damian glanced over the papers, “This is vague….but a good start.” Danny frowned, “Are you really going to try to dig everyone up? None of them are on the grid, half of them aren’t even in the Agency. A few of them even burned everything and ghosted on everybody. What makes you think you can get them all in?” There was an unspoken question left hanging. The one that went like, can you get them all in after the last disaster…. Damian looked at the ground. “If they can’t trust me….maybe they can trust you guys.”
It was a very tense, very silent ride to King’s place. Landon sat in the backseat, arms crossed staring out the window while Elliea stared at her hands in her lap and Damian gripped the steering wheel. Elliea reached up and hit the dial on the car radio hopefully. “Maybe some cool music is on?” The radio DJ energetically spoke, “ and after that we have coming up, Mine, but now let’s get these tunes rocking! I’m Zelda and this is BrB22.53” The song started. It was Stressed Out by TOP. Elliea shut it off and they all went back to silence. Damian parked in front of Kings small apartment and everyone walked up the three flights where Elliea knocked on door 103. The door opened almost immediately and King stood before them smiling and ushering them in. He eagerly offered coffee which all took and then settled in the living room. “Okay so I spent several hours last night digging and managed to get some good stuff!” Elliea peered at him, “Several hours….how long did you stay up?” King gave a short laugh while opening a box of papers, “Um….actually all night.” Elliea glanced into the kitchen to see a stack of empty coffee mugs, “That explains a few things….” King waved her comment off with a hand and handed them each papers, “Names, dates, contacts, key phrases! I managed to find Wanda and Carter. They’re in what used to be Costa Rica supposedly.” Damian glanced over the papers, “This is vague….but a good start.” Danny frowned, “Are you really going to try to dig everyone up? None of them are on the grid, half of them aren’t even in the Agency. A few of them even burned everything and ghosted on everybody. What makes you think you can get them all in?” There was an unspoken question left hanging. The one that went like, can you get them all in after the last disaster…. Damian looked at the ground. “If they can’t trust me….maybe they can trust you guys.”
Cipher placed a fingertip on his flat silver desktop. An image of a ripple spread out from his finger and the computer slowly came to awareness. A business like feminine voice spoke as the screen showed abstract code and algorithms streaming at high speed. “Yes sir?” “Ah, M.I.N.D. how have you been?” The coding continued to speed along, “Busy with my assigned tasks. Would you care to see the alert que?” Cipher acknowledged and reclined in his wheely chair before the desk. Several boxes popped up, all filled with massive amounts of information streaming. Cipher put a finger to his cheek and settled back, his eyes flicking back and forth at from box to box. Text highlighted in red popped up and he tapped it so the screens froze and that one came to the front. He frowned. It was a relatively simple blurb at face value but something wasn’t right. He reread it. It was a routine communication between a guard at a bank and guards of intransit gold. Looking closer he realized that it had way too much protection and sophistication to actually be a low class communication. It looked the part, most hackers would have missed it. He was not most hackers. “M.I.N.D. decrypt and trace.”
![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/nPCskakrdhDERqIVGKuw.png)
You're welcome! 
Don't you love moments like that? 
![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/GQ0ABCwoNIDTSICPxsBX.png)
You're welcome! 
Don't you love moments like that? ![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/k3cXEdyNkyw6aB9dHN1d.png)
^v^ Yes. Though sometimes other people who don't know what happened look over and think it's odd. XD