P.A.R.A.

Quiet One

Quiet One

My God! It's full of Stars.
Original poster
LURKER MEMBER
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Invitation Status
Genres
Scifi, some fantasy, Mature. Anything that gets my gears going. Not opposed to Yaoi or Yuri.
Dr. Landel rushed out of the elevator to the front lobby as soon as she heard that the bus was arriving. This was all her big dream, her realization for the potential of people P.A.R.A. had given up on brought to life. And, of course, it would be her head on the line if anything went, as Director Ferrara believed it would, "horribly, horribly wrong."

She tried and failed several times to retain her professionalism, and it was good that she still had twenty minutes before the pale blue bus arrived at their square, unassuming headquarters. The worry was of course more in the two members of Landel's "fire with fire" initiative that were already here - a wandering spirit that was somehow able to leave where she was haunting, and an alien, who Landel had insisted time and again could be an assest to them. As she, Agent Crossfire, and Director Ferrara stood there waiting for the new arrivals, the two other anomalies were being led to the Philadelphia Room. The modifications to the teleporter harnesses had already been made under her close supervision.

"Estimated time of arrival, 6 minutes 34 seconds," came a voice from overhead.

Landel fought again to regain her composure. A.N.N.I. was the real hero of this little venture. The AI salvaged from alien computer technologies and reprogrammed into a data gathering positronic brain had gathered all the intelligence on the new recruits, and had even helped locating them.

She looked at Crossfire. As ever, he looked strong and impassive, a statue in a suit and sunglasses. What was it with secret agents always wearing sunglasses? It was a pointless question for Crossfire; he'd been wearing them years before P.A.R.A. had recruited him. He was strictly business at the moment, and she admitted to herself that he looked good. Her attention caught his, though, and she had to quickly turn back.

"Estimated time of arrival, 5 minutes."
 
"I'm serious, you guys are too easy" Requiem exclaimed, shoving a small wad of cash into his pocket and settling his cards together. He hadn't applied his specific skills to the game, more relying on old school skill and luck. Reading tells and playing hard. In the end he'd made quite a bit of money from the other passengers and guards. It was a strange crowd he found himself together with. Of course, he was strange himself, but he never thought too much about it. Not unless he was forced to. When that happened he would typically go into quiet contemplation, pulling up images of his life over the past couple hundred years.

It became difficult for him to remember anything before the eighteen hundreds, although he's sure he was around then. It was difficult for him to gauge how far back he came from though. He shook his head, scattering the images and facing the other passengers. "Well, it's been fun, but it appears that we're nearly there" He said, looking down the road ahead of them as he also pocketed the playing cards.
 
"Godamn." He threw his hand into the middle of them. He knew better than to trust anyone with cards. He could've sworn he was cheating. Either way, that was the last time he would play poker with anyone. He groaned as the bus approached the facility. He didn't need Requim to tell him that they were approaching, nor did he need to turn around. He had been able to feel the presence of the other anomalies in the facility from even farther back. The aura resonating from it was incredibly strong, which meant that it was either a single strong demon, or a prison full of demons; he guessed the latter.

"Well, guess you're right." He turned around to see a square building, obviously the P.A.R.A. building. This is where he'd be working for a long, long while. He knew only a little about them. ONly as far as paranormal research, though. He sighed as he thought about working for them, but he was offered protection. It was an offer he couldn't refuse.
 
Clarith watched as Requiem took the cash from the other players. She'd be playing too if Requiem had not already taken all her money earlier. She sat up a bit. "So we're finally here? Great, I was getting bored." Clarith said, pushing her glasses farther up her nose. Her skin was cold today, practically blue. She didn't mind though; it had always been this way. Some days her skin was warm, some days it was cool. She just had to live with it.

Clarith looked out the window, eying the building ahead. "So this is the place." She whispered to herself. The place she'd heard so little about but had no less been anxious to see. She looked down at her mismatched socks. She was very, very nervous.
 
At last the front door opened and in walked the anomalies. Metahumans, demigods, the magically cursed - all the members she'd had recruited were there. It was so exciting! Landel couldn't help smiling to the ones she'd met before. The others had been introduced by Crossfire, who likely hadn't been as friendly.

"Alright everyone. In the elevator!" Ferrara shouted suddenly. She glared at her boss, but they had a schedule to keep. The Philadelphia Room would only be ready for a few more minutes.

"You heard him," she said to the new recruits. "We have to get moving."

She and Crossfire led the way to the elevator, where they'd go down to the Philadelphia Room.

****

The room already had guests. The extraterrestrial they'd captured designated Midnight was held in a vast heat-sink box to keep him from producing too much heat. The cage also vibrated at varying frequencies, to keep any potential psychic powers from gaining focus. Beside him was a phantom - the ghost of a young girl suspended in an electro magnetic tube. The Philadelphia Room's technicians were busy making triple sure that teleportation harnesses would work for them.

Aside from the harnesses, which were very sophisticated if a little crude, the computer array around the glowing green platform in the center of the room was disturbingly low tech. The computers were from the 60s. Landel and others before her had tried to upgrade the software, but the technology would only work with these primitive machines.

"Why are we letting these freaks out again?" one of the technicians asked.

"Because then they can get killed instead of us every other week," another replied.

"One of them is already dead," a more politically correct one pointed out.

"Yeah, and we got to go through all this trouble to make sure she doesn't get spread over the esther," the first one said.

"Ether."

"Whatever."

****

Back in the elevator Dr. Landel looked behind her at the recruits, then nervously at Crossfire.

"Do you think this is a good idea?" she asked him. "Do you think they're ready so soon?"

Crossfire continued staring ahead. "We're about to find out."
 
He couldnt remember how long he'd been on that planet, or how long he'd been stuck in this box by the human residents. It had been long enough that he didnt bother trying to escape anymore. He didnt like it, the box, the vibrations, the constant eyes on him. The box was too small for his liking. He had no room to spread his wings much at all. It all kept his nerves on end, but he had grown to ignore them. He had little choice after all. Every escape attempt all those years ago had failed miserably. Something today changed, however. The routine was different. He kept his sharp gaze focused on the humans as they worked, trying to figure out what was going on.
 
Vixenne was behaved and quiet for the most of the trip, pretty much able to identify what type of anomaly her new companions are. She was pretty interested in them but preferred to observe them for the meantime. She went along with the instructions given, still not saying anything.
 
'She' didnt rember anything fo rher past. she was hoping to find something about it here. but it dosnt look like she would get anything out of this people. but she didnt care she was meeting new people and new things. like that person which people say he's an, Alan? Aluan? well what whatever its called. she sometimes scared people by her ablitily to move things and how she could pop infrount of pople from out of no where. she did injoy a little bit of a scream. even from the man. she looked around right now she mad sure no one could see her. so everyone see her right now.

she was flowting around the place moving things and everything to see if she could sare some one. she was bored. and she didnt know much. so sometimes people would be teaching her right now but today no one was teaching her. they said new people where coming she couldnt wait. but she was scared a little. what if they hate me. she keep on thinking. she didnt want people to hate her. she wanted friends not enimes. she was now in that room that pritty much had everyone there. so boring. she huffed and pouted with her arms crossed.
 
It was a deep elevator. The ride down would be long. Suddenly A.N.N.I.'s artificial voice sounded.

"Attention, Dr. Landel. You have a phone call from the Power Room."

Landel paused briefly to wonder why a room full of locked up D'Jinn would be calling her. She also briefly wondered how A.N.N.I. knew that, before she remembered that she listened in on every phone.

"Yes?" she said as she answered it.

"One of the D'Jinns is moving," came the report from one of the engineers.

"Moving how?"

"Um...Just looking up. It might be nothing, but I'd swear she was looking at the elevator right now. It's Leslie."

"Leslie?"

"They've named them so it feels less weird watching them," Crossfire explained to her. "I don't see how it makes it any better."

"Okay...Thank you," she said to the engineer and hung up. "So they know what's going on? What do you think that means?"

"It means they know more than us," he replied coldly.
 
"Who knows more?" Vixenne said, rudely interrupting. "I don't mean to overhear you, but it's been years and we're still going down in this thing." She did an exasperated gesture, meaning the elevator. She meant to say, I don't get why you grouped me with the anomalies. She chose not to, hoping they would better explain the situation somehow.
 
Crossfire answered quickly, decisively, and chillingly.

"If you all survive we'll tell you."

The elevator finally stopped at the first sublevel. Crossfire and Landel led them through the halls until they came to a simple steel door marked, PHILADELPHIA ROOM.

"Welcome to your first taste of weird," Landel said before showing them in.

The technicians were just finishing up with the other two arrivals. The ghost girl, her name still unknown, was already fastened into her harness. Since she was semi-transparent at the moment, it almost looked like the harness was floating. They were busy trying to talk the alien into putting on one of the other ones.

"This technology came from the Philadelphia Experiment in 1947," Landel explained. "It was meant to be a cloaking device so that an entire battleship could be rendered invisible. Instead, they accidentally stumbled onto teleportation technology. We perfected it 1972, and have safely been teleporting agents from one side of the world to another in secret."

She smiled at the anomalies. "Told you it would get weird."
 
she notice people coming in with Crossfire and Landel "OMG A HUMANS" she called out and flew over to the them and then said "wait never mind." and with that she moved away. "高等師範学校できませんここでよく聞き取れている理由(why cant we have normale people here)" she huffed and showed her goshtly figer. she poked the stupid thing they call a 'harness' and then tried to take it off. she gived up and looked at Crossfire. "あなたのすべての急な動き" (your all jerks) she said with a pout. that was one thing she loved about this place they showed her different languages.
 
Vixenne snorted in laughter rather obnoxiously. She was not at all amazed, much less amused. "This bunch with me are anomalies, I used to be a goddess, and you tell us, it would get weird? Are you normally this dense?"
She turned to the ghost, seeing her perfectly clear. "This isn't half weird. Anta kimyou no hohou de hanasu." She told the girl her speech was strange. "Death must have taken your ability to speak properly."
 
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The strange harness and the equally strange energy within it that they kept trying to put on him made his skin crawl and his feathers fluff up, making his wings seem twice their size. He didnt want it on, or anywhere near him for that matter. He didnt understand why he needed it on. When the other people entered the room, he paused and looked over at them. They seemed quite a rag-tag team of humans, except for one. He could tell the noisy one wasnt really human either. He looked between them and the people trying to get him into the harness. Would he be allowed out if he put it on? He supposed he might as well find out and finally resigned himself to putting it on.
 
Requiem rolled his eyes "Easy Godling, what you were and who you are now are two very different things. You'll find that you're on even footing with many of us, and at a disadvantage with a few of us as well." He said, smiling now. Her arrogance amused him. He'd been around for a few hundred years, and while he was missing part of it, even he had the knowledge to not be as she was. Someone who claimed to have been a god must've been around for a fair bit longer than him, and yet she seemed to lack even that small decency. "There is ALWAYS someone better." He said, turning his attention away from her, bored.

Instead he was now looking around the room. Teleportation was a field he was most interested in. The idea of it intrigued him. It wasn't weird per se, but certainly intriguing. It wasn't until he'd finished rooting around in his mind looking for any information he might have had stored in there that he realised there were other anomalies in the room with them, which is to say that he saw them, but he didn't recognise them. He turned to their guides "Well, anyone care to do the introductions?"
 
she was about to tell her that she was just speaking in a diffrent language when the vampire spock up. "your very wise but i guss thats what happens when you an old man" she said with a giggle. "oh and I would introdues -is that the word. she thinks to her self-. my self but i dont got a name" she said with a sad smile
 
Vixenne turned her head to Requiem. "Oh honey." she said with the tone of an adult explaining to a child about the truths of life after a very silly and childish statement. Even though she was considerably smaller than him, she gave him a condescending look. "I haven't even begun to do anything, not even brag about anything. Aren't you being a little too judgmental and hypocritical?"

She chuckled, it was a sassy but rather annoying sound. "There's always someone better, yes. And it doesn't mean it's you. But anyway, I am called Vixenne, my true name is not something mortal tongues can form and its mortal version isn't important."

She gazed into his eyes with a grin that was mischievously fox-like, fitting to her pseudonym. "You must be quite favored by Luck." she can't enter the mind of Anomalies anymore, but can at least tell what makes them special through...gut feelings.

To the ghost girl, she also smiled, looking rather amused. "It's alright to speak your native tongue and tell us what kind of name you want. Just use the language you're comfortable with."
 
As the elevator descended down the seemingly endless tunnel down, he took a position in the corner away from the others. The ride down was incredibly long and boring; even worse when one of the girls started to act snobby only to be put in her place the man he played poker with.

One long ride down later, they finally reached their stop. He stepped out of the elevator and took in the sight of the other anomalies. The aura coming off of them is so strong and numerous, it almost hurt his senses. It was overwhelming to say the least. Most peculiar was the harnesses that they were trying to hook up to some other anomalies. He's glad that P.A.R.A. decided on a change of heart. He'd hate to be one of their experiments.

In fact, one of their subjects came to greet the new arrivals. She introduced herself in a foreign language, one he couldn't understand. It was the ghost that was hooked up to the teleporter.

"So what did you want us to do?"
 
"You're all here because we need your help, though my superior Director Ferrara doesn't seem to think so," Landel told them as they were all getting suited up. "For years we've been all about kill and contain and quite frankly it's been getting harder every year, despite improving technology to help us. The fact is that our everyday agents are sometimes simply overwhelmed."

As she spoke, it occured to her that she was almost paraphrasing the speech she'd used on the U.N. to get them all down here in the first place.

"You all have incredible gifts," she continued. "Some call you freaks, but I don't think so. The accepted term is anomaly, but with how things are going, I'm starting to fear that your unusual talents are becoming the new norm. The world is getting more dangerous, and we need your help to keep it in check."

She went over to a computer and looked at one of the display screens. Ferrara was at another one, eyeing the proceedings with great judgement from the safety of his desk. She brought up a map on the screen.

"Today there's a crisis in Haiti that can't wait any longer," she told them. "You're all aware of the hurricane damage from the summer? Well apparently a witchdoctor has found his way there and using the dead to make a zombie horde. He's trying to take over the entire country. We've put Haiti under a media blackout so no one knows, but we have to get there and stop him before Haiti signs over their country to a madman."

"The objective is simple," Crossfire said. "Witchdoctors control their zombies by keeping their souls locked away. We have to find and release these souls. The witchdoctor will lose his power over the zombies, and he'll become an easy target."

"Now then," Dr. Landel said. She knew things had just gotten a little extra weird for most everyone involved. "Any questions before we go over?"
 
Vixenne scoffed. "Incredible gifts!" she laughed coldly. "Ah, mortals. Always saying naive things, are you?"

She stepped up a little closer. "First of all, I am not gifted, ignorant ones. I am cursed." she said bitterly, sounding venomous but also offended. "Second of all, you won't give any proper orientation, not even our objectives and you will set us off somewhere? What is this, a reality show? At least show some professionalism for being the highly advanced creatures you think you are."
 
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