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Janus Island: Cafeteria

Douglas sat up and watched as the group got their food. "Right, we appear to have a new awakened joining us." He looked down at a small list for the code name. "Jojo, is it? Well then, I'll get on with the answers for you all." He took a breath.

"You are all here because you exhibit signs that your past lives can be manifested in the form of your powers. The reason I gathered you all here to this island is to train you so that you may hone your skills to defeat a great evil that threatens the world as we know it. Sadly, I cannot tell you everything about this matter at the moment. However, just know that we have a very good reason for calling you all here to a secluded island for training. Any questions?"
Kameron never considered himself a heavy eater. Mercer's abilities, however, required a steady supply of biomass. As such, Kameron found himself eating more and more whenever he could stop to eat. On the upside, he never seemed to gain any extra weight from his excess eating. Taking a break from consuming every ounce of biomass Mercer's red-black tendrils could reach for, Kameron raised one of his mostly human hand. "Also, I think we need to get some things out of the way first. One, who are you guys? Two, how do you know about us? And three, what "great evil?" do you intend for us to defeat?"
 
Aaron got his plate of food and sat down at the table, a little ways away from everybody else. "Powers huh? Well I think that's plausible." He started slowly eating as he awaited what the old man would say in answer to the questions posed by the others.

"Haha, he intends to make me fight some great evil? What a joke!", Gilgamesh said while laughing at what seemed completely preposterous to him.

"Oh shut up, it's not like we have too much of a choice in the matter" - Ragna

"Aaron could always jump like that Beholder guy..." - Adam

Just no. Besides, this all seems quite interesting to me.
 
Janus Island: Cafeteria

Douglas smiled slightly at the questions offered.

"Well, as far as effort goes, that depends on how well you perform in the first test. That test determines what you can already do and how we can train you to become more skilled. Next question...Buying furniture? Just have it shipped to the port where you all boarded the boat and we'll have the captain make a trip to pick it up. And we do have a workshop, I'll get to that once we get to the tour. Right, next question. Who are we? People in need of help from all of you. How do we know about you? We have our ways. And what great evil? Well, unfortunately I can't tell you too much about it just yet. And now the fun part. You said you won't believe it until you see it? Well then..."

He brought up his hand and conjured a small ball of electricity. He brought up his other hand and faced the two toward each other. The electricity then flowed between his two hands. "Proof enough?"
 
Janus Island: Cafeteria

Douglas smiled slightly at the questions offered.

"Well, as far as effort goes, that depends on how well you perform in the first test. That test determines what you can already do and how we can train you to become more skilled. Next question...Buying furniture? Just have it shipped to the port where you all boarded the boat and we'll have the captain make a trip to pick it up. And we do have a workshop, I'll get to that once we get to the tour. Right, next question. Who are we? People in need of help from all of you. How do we know about you? We have our ways. And what great evil? Well, unfortunately I can't tell you too much about it just yet. And now the fun part. You said you won't believe it until you see it? Well then..."

He brought up his hand and conjured a small ball of electricity. He brought up his other hand and faced the two toward each other. The electricity then flowed between his two hands. "Proof enough?"
Evelyn chuckled. In a way, perhaps she should have been surprised by the blatant supernatural going on in front of her, yet, she simply wasn't. In a way, she had always known that the world was not what it seemed. Evelyn herself was a living proof of that. She was simply too intelligent. There were those who were gifted, those who were born prodigies, and there was Evelyn.

Leaning back, the grey-haired girl crossed her legs and put her hands behind her head.

"It's gonna be fun." She said simply. "At least this will hopefully be a good way to occupy my time."

Indeed, at least she wouldn't be bored for a while. She need to juggle the market a bit to make the money for the furniture, buy the furnitures, then she could get started on working on her more radical ideas.
 
Janus Island: Cafeteria

Douglas smiled slightly at the questions offered.

"Well, as far as effort goes, that depends on how well you perform in the first test. That test determines what you can already do and how we can train you to become more skilled. Next question...Buying furniture? Just have it shipped to the port where you all boarded the boat and we'll have the captain make a trip to pick it up. And we do have a workshop, I'll get to that once we get to the tour. Right, next question. Who are we? People in need of help from all of you. How do we know about you? We have our ways. And what great evil? Well, unfortunately I can't tell you too much about it just yet. And now the fun part. You said you won't believe it until you see it? Well then..."

He brought up his hand and conjured a small ball of electricity. He brought up his other hand and faced the two toward each other. The electricity then flowed between his two hands. "Proof enough?"
Sebastian listened to the older man talk and nodded occasionally to show that he was paying attention. The whole thing seemed ludicrous, and it was rather creepy that they wouldn't say who they were yet knew everything about them. Just...ew. They do need our help, though. I can feel it.

What makes you so sure of that, Madoka? Allen asked, I have to admit, I'm just as worried about this strange situation as Sebastian here.

Stranger danger, Lucy murmured in agreement. Before Sebastian could talk to the voices in his head, he saw the man conjure a ball of electricity and deftly manipulated it. Everything was silent in his mind as he stared in shock.

...Did he just...?

What just happened? Triss chattered in fright, This is not normal. Whatever he did...it can't happen in your world, right?

But it seemed like it did... "I..." Sebastian paused before clearing his throat. "I...believe you now..." he said hesitantly, not sure what to make of the situation.
 
After putting his stuff into the dorm room, Marcus stretched - his stomach letting out a bestial growl. He froze and looked down at his lithe figure while making his way towards the cafeteria.
"Am I going to become overweight?"
He heard Sho and Dom let out a bout of laughter while Shuto answered, You shouldn't it's just a side effect of the Append gear I think. Feeling much more assured Marcus arrived at the surprisingly large cafeteria.

After getting a sizable portion of food, he had found a table that was almost filled with people that were on the boat including Evelyn. Taking a seat he spoke, "Hello, I don't believe I've gotten your names?" he didn't want to call them with 'You' after all. He pushed up his glasses as he started to eat at a sedated pace, slowly speeding up.
 
JoJo raised a curious eyebrow.

"So you can mess with lightning! Woo," Her face was still skeptical and she finished the remainder of her food, "Anyone can do that with enough static."

She just wasn't buying any of it, "Alright, so if this is a joke I'd-"

Oi! This is no time for skepticism!

...JoJo furrowed her brows. There was that voice inside her head again. Did the do something to her while she was napping on the way here? She'd been alive long enough to know that she didn't just hear voices. That was for crazy people. She should just be suddenly hearing Tracer.

You could at least act like we exist.

What the hell? Whose voice was that? Yup she was in the nut house. She had gone completely bonkers. Off the rails because this was a whole other world of crazy.
 
JoJo raised a curious eyebrow.

"So you can mess with lightning! Woo," Her face was still skeptical and she finished the remainder of her food, "Anyone can do that with enough static."

She just wasn't buying any of it, "Alright, so if this is a joke I'd-"
Evelyn shrugged as she walked up, her golden eyes squinting as she studied the spheres of lightning.

"Speaking as the smartest human being, I am 99%, after accounting for unknown territory and inherent chaos, that static don't work like that. Well, not without highly complicated devices set before hand, running in the background. it would be more cost-effective to go for easier solutions: Hologram-audio set up, ionised sphere with vacuum sheath, or perhaps...Magic... Hah"
 
Janus Island: Cafeteria (again)

Douglas put down his hands and shook them, like you would to get something off. The electricity dispersed immediately, leaving only a spark here and there, then disappeared. "Well, a couple of you seem to understand what's going on here, to a degree anyway. And no, static does not work like that. What you've just seen is the power of Raiden. Laughable as it sounds, yes I am talking about the one from that video game 'Mortal Kombat'. Now then, should we get on to the tour?"

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((I'm late...))
 
Aaron merely watched as the man manipulated a ball of lightning and then shook it off as if it was nothing. "I, for one, think this should be quite fun. If we get to save the world while we're at it, there's a little bonus eh?"

"So we're going through with this thing?" - Ragna

"You're seriously considering this?!" - Gilgamesh

"It seems he is... this will be a massive waste of time, but I don't really have a choice." - Adam

"As long as I get some good fights, I'm fine with this whole thing." - Kuraudo

"Not sure why you three are on board with this, but what the hell. May as well, I guess..." - Krovanh

Then it's settled. We'll go along with this for the time being.
 
Kameron was in no way satisfied with the answer he was given. On the other hand, the old man had indeed displayed an interesting ability. Kameron knew that Raiden was one of the good guys from Mortal Kombat but did that mean that the man was also "good".

We still know too little about what's going on and the man doesn't seem eager to tell us

Be cautious, be smart

Are we seriously considering staying here?

I don't remember you complaining before

The man wants us to fight something he won't even tell us about! He wants to turn us into a weapon

He wants us to help

He wants to use us

Hulk doesn't like being used

Alright, I get it. How about this, we'll go on this little tour and find out whatever else we can. Mercer and Hulk will be out plan B if things go south

I like how you're plan B has to involve me getting all of us out because you want to go for a walk

Kameron was begining to lose patience. Suppose we walk away from this. Then what? I can't exactly go back to a "normal life", no thanks to all of you. Even if this is a trap and we don't get any answers, we might at least get some kind of direction of what to do next


No other argument came from Mercer after this.
 
Janus Island

Douglas stood up from his chair and walked over to the cafeteria entrance. "Well then, you all follow me."
-------------------------------------------------------------------Tour--------------------------------------------------------------------
He walked outside and pointed at a couple buildings. "As you know, those are the living quarters, and over there is the main office." As he continued with the group in tow, he pointed out any important buildings and structures they came across.

"There's the intelligence room, that's where we assess threats and plan strategies."

"That's the workshop, you can create things with the tools there. All kinds of machines and such."

"There's the arena. We use it to train the awakened. There, you will be pitted against each other and various assorted enemies to hone your skills."

"The communications beacon. That allows us to pick up and intercept encrypted signals."

"The recreation room and gym. It has all kinds of exercise equipment, as well as a pool, tennis court, and gym room. For all of you active young ones, should you wish to burn some energy."

"The tech room. For you who rather mess around with computers and other machines."

As the group circled back around to the port where they had arrived, the man stopped. "Any questions?"
 
JoJo spoke up, "Yeah, what if we aren't awakened? If you're absolutely serious about this, then that means everyone here has powers, but as far as I know... I'm just some ordinary human."

She looked around wondering what everyone could do. She was beginning to feel out of place. Sure, JoJo was hearing voices, but that didn't mean she had powers. Assuming that just made her sound even more crazy. JoJo was good with a sniper rifle, she was fast, and she could build a personal health care companion, but she could hardly call those... powers.

From the sound of it, she would be spending most of her time in the computer labs programming her healthcare companion and in the workshop building robots. If that was a super power, she knew a lot of other people who could be here other than her.
 
As the group circled back around to the port where they had arrived, the man stopped. "Any questions?"
Well, time to ask the real question.

"Yeah, what's the wifi password?"

JoJo spoke up, "Yeah, what if we aren't awakened? If you're absolutely serious about this, then that means everyone here has powers, but as far as I know... I'm just some ordinary human."

She looked around wondering what everyone could do. She was beginning to feel out of place. Sure, JoJo was hearing voices, but that didn't mean she had powers. Assuming that just made her sound even more crazy. JoJo was good with a sniper rifle, she was fast, and she could build a personal health care companion, but she could hardly call those... powers.

From the sound of it, she would be spending most of her time in the computer labs programming her healthcare companion and in the workshop building robots. If that was a super power, she knew a lot of other people who could be here other than her.

Evelyn quirked an eyebrow at the continued skepticism. It was rather unusual, to say the least. The other seem pretty open to the idea. Probably because they all got...

Oh yeah!

"Jojo, do you, by any chance, hear voices in your head?" She asked, smiling.
 
While everybody else was paying attention to the tour and asking questions, Kameron reached into his jacket and retrieved a little plastic plate about the size of the tip of his thumb. The plate unfolded in his hand to transform into a four-legged plate robot. Upon passing the building containing the "intelligence room", Kameron made a motion of wiping his nose before flicking imaginary mucus, along with the tiny plate-bot, onto the ground. Once landed, the tiny robot scuttled away into the building. The small size of the robot meant that its battery life would not last longer than several hours. It did, however, possess enough space to contain the chip Kameron used to store a bit of coding in. The code was nothing too fancy, just a simple virus that could be uploaded to an electronic device and help Kamron gauge the security level of the place.

Kameron deployed similar robots as he passed the "communication beacon" and "tech room". Once these three robots had completed their intended purpose, supposing they hadn't run out of power, been found, destroyed, or otherwise malfunctioned, Kameron would be able to estimate the physical and digital security of the buildings and soon set up a network of his own on the island.

As for questions for the old man, Kameron had one of his own, "Seeing how all the facilities on this island are already built and have been maintained, I suppose either you have known of us for some time now or we're not the first batch of "awakened" you've brought in."
 
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JoJo spoke up, "Yeah, what if we aren't awakened? If you're absolutely serious about this, then that means everyone here has powers, but as far as I know... I'm just some ordinary human."

She looked around wondering what everyone could do. She was beginning to feel out of place. Sure, JoJo was hearing voices, but that didn't mean she had powers. Assuming that just made her sound even more crazy. JoJo was good with a sniper rifle, she was fast, and she could build a personal health care companion, but she could hardly call those... powers.

From the sound of it, she would be spending most of her time in the computer labs programming her healthcare companion and in the workshop building robots. If that was a super power, she knew a lot of other people who could be here other than her.
The young man remained quiet as he listened to his protagonists chat in his head and the man show them the way around. All of it was indeed strange and he was still skeptical about the whole entire thing. It just...didn't make any sense to him. Why him? Why any of them for that matter? At least the Internet groups he was in was a little easier to swallow, but what the older man said defied all rules of reality.

Sebastian looked towards Douglas once the tour was finished. "I have to agree with her here, to be honest I thought I was only hearing voices in my head. There's a couple of online communities that have that and, as far as I know, none of them have powers. I don't have powers. So, if we do have powers, how do we activate them?
 
Janus Island

Douglas looked at Jojo. "Trust me, you are all awakened. You do all have powers, whether active or inactive. Some are even just passive skill at one particular thing. One that raises your potential to higher than that of any normal person."


Then at Evelyn. "The wifi password?" He chuckled. "Ah, I guess that makes sense for someone your age. And it's not that difficult of one. It is 'awakened'."

Next at Kameron. "No, you are not the first group. There have actually been many before you, though none have succeeded to date. Not in our goal, anyway."

And then at Sebastian. "Rest assured, none of you are crazy. Though I wouldn't count out these online communities as being exactly that. And again, you do all have powers or abilities unique to you. How you activate them is another matter entirely... It is a very difficult question because it differs between people. Some need merely think of it, others must undergo extreme stress or pain to draw them out. You will just have to find out what works for you. Sorry I could not give a more detailed explanation. As for the voices, if I am correct, you should all have them."

With that, the tour was over. "Until nightfall, you are all free to do whatever you wish. Just make sure to rest, tomorrow will be your first test as awakened."
 
Evelyn sighed and thrown herself to the bed the moment she returned to her room, cursing silently when she failed to sink into the springy, thin mattress.

Oh yeah, average quality furnitures.

Snorting to herself, Evelyn retreived her laptop and login into the wifi. It wasn't long before she blew around fifteen grands on a bed-mattress-blanket-pillow combo.

For others, it might have been a big sum. In fact, it was a big sum for Evelyn, having took of a large chunk of her saving. Unlike others, however, the grey haired girl could easily recuperate.

The global economy is a fickle thing, dominated just as much by cold mathematics as by the capricious nature of humans.

What that mean for Evelyn is that her predictive algorithm could only create an accurate simulation of the global economy within one month into the future. Which, in practice, is still enough for making money rain from the sky.

With just a couple clicks and a few messages, a few real estates changed hands, stock were bought and sold, and Evelyn made fifteen grands. Had she wanted, she could make more. Had she wanted, she could have been a much greater woman. Global hunger, overpopulation, pollution, plagues, poverty, wars, all these things, Evelyn had no doubt that she could easily solve if she wanted. However, these tasks were too tedious for her.

Instead, she rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. This... Awakened... ordeal, it was a welcome distraction from the tedium of life, of mingling with the mediocrity of humanity. She was, for the first time, amongst the truly unique, the true cream of the crop. It was...amusing.

Idly, she wondered if any of them could finally match the vast ocean of her intellect. That would be a welcome change of pace.
 
Jacob returned to the front of the facility. He entered the room he was expected to occupy. Then he looked around for anyone there. The strange man with even stranger problems thought that perhaps he was wrong.