RPG Clandestine I: Terracotta [PG-VLS]

[Mimmsicle]

[FONT=Tahoma]The four females gathered in the room must've gotten a minor shock as she appeared out of nowhere and crashed violently towards the floor. Taking a defensive stance, not knowing if they were dealing with friend or foe, they stood their ground as Adéle whimpered from the pain spreading in her body and wobbled to her feet. Completely oblivious to where she'd landed her mind threw itself into a whirlwind of thoughts, trying to make sense of everything. She felt as if the answers that had always eluded her was beginning to come together. But something was still missing. [I]What?[/I]

"[B]Identify yourself.[/B]"

Laqara's authorative voice startled her and the quick spin around caused her to lose balance, promptly falling on an already sore backside again. It was hard to believe that the young woman posed any threat but Laqara didn't back down, knowing full well what underestimating a seemingly harmless stranger could bring about. Adéle blinked while she took in where she was and who she was facing. The females were all as unknown to her as she probably was to them, though the room came off as vaguely familiar. [I]I must still be in Clandestine.[/I]

"I ... uhm.." she swallowed back most of the nervous tension and rose to her feet again. "I'm Adéle Palou and, uh, I'm a Healer?"

Immediately after finishing the sentence she mentally headbutted herself for ending it sounding like a question. The room was still silent, some of the suspicious glares gaining a tint of curiousity.

"ID! I, I have my ID in my pocket" Adéle blurted out and looked over at Laqara for permission to pull it out. She gave a barely visible nod in return, not taking her watchful eyes off Adéle for a split second. After some nervous fumbling and making sure it was the right badge, because this really wasn't the time to make a mistake, she carefully stretched out her hand towards Laqara who peered at it.

"[B]So, Adéle, you got an invitation to this mission too?[/B]" she said, with a tone that was decidedly softer and somewhat amused, cocking her head in the direction of the others. Adéle tilted her head to have a closer look at the rest of the group, the fairies' wings especially catching her attention as they glittered in the light. Sakura couldn't resist flapping them a little faster to see the fascinated sparkle in Adéle's eyes, which was a nice change from the usual bulgy stare.

Still a little confused Adéle ran a hand over her pendant, calming down enough for her focus to return.Then it hit her what the men in the interrogation quarters had been talking about while her powers got out of hand. [I]They must be involved in the same mission ...[/I]

Confident to have some sort of grasp of her situation, however vague that grasp was, Adéle nodded gravely in affirmation. The confirmation calmed down the others, giggles erupting here and there. Sensing that the hostile atmosphere was disappearing relaxed her enough to draw a deep breath of relief, coughing at the sharp pain in her bruised lungs. However, despite being thankful her life wasn't in danger, there was one thing remaining that bugged her.

"Does anyone have the time? I'm not sure if this has been a weird day or just a rough night" Adéle smiled sheepishly.[/FONT]

[Solo Tremaine]

[COLOR=#503F86]Trace wiped the sweat from his brow, having successfully parked the Heavy Loader back in its place. The dragon's body had been disposed of and last rites taken place. He guessed something that big would be incinerated and then held in the Memoriam chamber for a while. Or used for testing. Either way, it had been a while since he'd been down to Memoriam. He had some good friends down there...

A shrill beeping on his phone prompted a dull groan from his throat.

"I knew I should have put this thing on silent," he sighed. "Hello?"

"Vanguard, this is Agent Carrs."

Hearing his callsign made him tense immediately- it was urgent if they called him personally.

"Yes, sir?"

"We need you for a special mission briefing in Operations. Can you comply?"

"I'll be there as soon as I can, sir."

"Good."

* * *

It wasn't often Trace had to use the service corridors to get through to Operations, but when you were over the other side of the base and had an emergency call, you didn't dawdle your way through the busy transport systems and waltz in any time you felt like it. They could track your position from anywhere in the base and a severe reprimand was in order for anyone who was thought to be slacking at the wrong time.

He burst through a heavy security door from the dimly-lit maintainance corridors and into the plush, well-decorated section that was Operations. Ahead of him was the room the meeting had been assigned to- a subsequent message on his phone directed him to where he needed to be.

Slamming his hand onto the palm scanner and throwing himself into the room, he didn't stop to observe the rather startled faces that watched him fall inside so ungracefully. Grunting something rude under his breath, he grabbed a chair and planted himself firmly in it, doing his best to subdue his heavy, exhausted breathing.

"Ah good, everyone's here." Agent Superior Carrs said dryly, a smile gently flowing across his lips. "At last we can begin."

A jug of water and several glasses had been placed on the table, courtesy of an Operations Assistant. Trace nodded thankfully and filled his to the brim, chucking it down his throat in the blink of an eye.

"Thank God for that," he smiled, looking to Xander.

Agent Superior Carrs slid several folders into the middle of the long black table for the congregation to look through.

"Clandestine have been investigating a region of the Xi'an province in Shaanxi, China for some years now. We believe that there is an artifact of great interest located near the statues of the Terracotta Army. Until recently our searches to find anything have been in vain, but last month a team of Chinese archeologists happened upon a burial mound which is believed to be a further extension of Qin Shi Huang's tomb, but no records of its existence have ever been noted."

Trace quickly glanced at the others inside the room. This wasn't a usual task force assembly...

"We sent one of our disguise operatives to investigate the tomb and write a full report on her findings, but before the report could be sent to us her helicopter was destroyed and the wreckage taken away by the Chinese government. This is a highly sensitive operation- we need to find out what she was investigating, return her report and remove whatever artifact it is from Chinese territory and into Clandestine's hands. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what repercussions we could experience if we were discovered by such a potentially dangerous nation."

A male Field Agent, the same sort of age as Trace, raised his hand in question. "Sir, is it right to assume this is purely a search and rescue mission?" Katz asked curtly.

"There are two sections to this mission," Carrs continued. "The first is the location and infiltration of the Chinese military base where the wreckage is being kept, led by the hackers. You are to hack into their defence network and find records of any unusual activity in their military bases, and also to help the Agents, Imprint and Mirage into the base itself. Once there, you will retrieve what remains of the report, while Imprint establishes the cause of the helicopter crash. Then, you are to completely destroy whatever's left of the evidence. We expect the base ot be heavily guarded, which is why we have assembled a powerful force of Agents to bring back our information. A covert operative by themselves is only likely to be caught and tortured, and we cannot afford to lose any more Clandestine members to this."

Carrs stared intently at each of the people sat before him, and they stared back; some worried, some with a sense of determination.

"Once that part of the mission is completed, you will move onto the next section of the mission, which is to open the newly-located tomb and take control of the artifact inside."

A tense silence descended over the room while each of the operatives considered the plans laid out in front of them.

"This is a huge mission, sir. What kind of equipment will we recieve?" Laqara asked, rather militantly. This must be the young prodigy that Branit had told Trace about.

"Standard covert insertion equipment, plus a few additional materials. We have no concrete information as to where the base is, but some of the folders in front of you show satellite photographs of a large bulk being transported by train to the north of the [URL=http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/FloraData/1001/CharImages/china-map-01.jpg]Gansu[/URL] area."

"When are we due to leave, sir?" the female Gaurda asked tentatively.

"Your plane departs in two hours. If you have any questions, now is the time to ask."[/COLOR]

[GuyYouMetOnline]

OOC: It's spelled 'Laqara', not 'Laquara'.

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There didn't seem to be any questions, so the agents were dismissed with instructions to report to the launch bay in two hours. Laqara headed to her quarters, grabbing a few items which had been useful to her in the past. This included her blades staffs. She knew that the agents would be provided with low-noise-output weaponry, but she always liked to have her staffs with her. Though she was skilled with most forms of weaponry, the staffs had always felt more natural to her than anything else.

She grabbed a couple personal items, then looked around to see if there was anything else that might be useful. Her eyes fell on a perfectly round, polished sphere, blue in color and about three inches in diameter. She'd found it while serving as a guard for a research expedition. It looked like some kind of magical artifact, but was nothing more than a perfectly round, polished, blue sphere. It had no magical properties of any kind, but Laqara had used it as a deception on more than one occasion. She liked to have it along, as one never knew when such a decpetion would proove necessary.

After taking what she wanted, Laqara headed to the nearest cafeteria for a bite to eat before she and the other agents departed. After her meal, she made her way towards the launch bay. Right after she boarded the transport car, her communicator beeped, and she answered it. "Laqara here."

"Laqara, this is Treana."

"I thought it might be you," Laqara said. "How'd it go?"

"Well, I'll just say that I enjoyed myself immensly. Daego's boys tried, but Branit and I threw so much shit at them that they couldn't possibly succeed. I think it was when I attracted some attention by bring down one of the planes right in the middle of the battle between his squad and mine that his boys really started panicing. I mean, they're not supposed to be seen by anyoue from outside, so a plane crashing right in front of them while they're fighting my group, which has no such restrictions, is about the worst thing that could happen. In the resulting confusion, two of the four gryphons ecaped, though the other two were contained-though Daego's boys thought that three had escaped, of course. However, those two were enough. The plane crash attracted the attention of the other pilots doing the drill, who say the gryphons, recorded them in sensor logs, and sped off for a 'return to base'. Mission failure. Not that I was satisfied with just that, of course. After that, my squad went in the lair and took care of the rest of Daego's boys. They were all pissed, especially when they learned about the 'equipment malfunction'. Daego suspects it was your idea. Apparently, this isn't the first time you've caused him trouble durring an excersize."

"It's not," Laqara confirmed. "Well, good job. Now, I'm about to leave, so I don't know when we'll see each other again. I'll try and get in touch with you when I get back. Laqara out." With that, she deactivated her communicator. Wher the transport car reached her stop, she got off. It took her another minute or two to get to the launch bay, after which she simply waited for the other agents to arrive, including the pilot (whom she hoped was Vaxla; Vaxla was experianced at penetrating millitary security). She was already thinking about the mission, but it was really just to pass the time until the mission got underway.

[Kamuro]

[SIZE=1]Xander and Katz exited the room together and looked at each other in the crowded hallway. "I have some things to attend to, but how about we meet up at the hanger in an hour or so and take a car together? Less clutter at the scene," spoke Katz. Xander nodded "Sure, see ya there," he said, turning from the alien and making his way in the opposite direction.

Katz had a few things to do, but the most important was to retrieve his sword. His communicator had been off during the meeting so he wasn't sure if Fargoth had attempted to reach him or not. As he entered the weapon shop he saw no one, not even his lazy friend usually sleeping near the counter. However, as Katz approached he found his sword, the blade lying on an otherwise empty shelf to the side. He gripped the handle and drew the sword from it's case, his eyes sparkling at an unbelievable luster.

Fargoth was right, this new material was truly amazing. Although the sword's size had increased, it retained it's light weight. The blade was thin and razor sharp, wielded effortlessly as he took a practice swing. He owed his friend greatly for this one, Katz had never seen anything like it. Fargoth even outfitted the case for him, a perfect length and made from an even tougher material then his former one. He strapped the sword to his back, the handle shown just over his shoulder and the tip emerging at his left from behind the large coat.

- - - - - - -

As he entered the hanger he saw Xander waiting for him. He immediately noticed Katz' new weapon and asked to see it. As he drew the blade Xander's jaw dropped. "This is no ordinary steel," he spoke, running his finger up the length of the blade. Katz nodded, "It's a new material Fargoth aquired from some friends. It's sharper then even the finest crystal swords held by some superiors, yet much sturdier." Xander handed the weapon back to his friend. "I'll have to talk to this Fargoth when we get back," he laughed as they entered the vehicle.

It was somewhat of a bumpy ride. The two men joked back and forth as their distance extended farther and farther away from the compound. Xander looked out the window taking in the scenery. He turned back and jumped, unexpectedly seeing Katz in his trance form. "Geez, don't do that," he said, scratching his head nervously. "Sorry, I have to make sure the form is stable beforehand, just in case," spoke Katz, returning to his normal self.[/SIZE]

[Mimmsicle]

[FONT=Tahoma]Adéle was the last one to get out of her chair, shell shocked from the briefing in which it had been confirmed they were indeed going on a mission. She'd never been outside of Clandestine since her arrival and before that her life had consisted of a sheltered, peaceful existence in a small Canadian town. At least the part she could remember...

Since the Agent Superior seemed like the best person to get answers from she shakily walked over to him, managing to draw a breath before he snubbed her off.

"Yes, seeing as this is your first mission and your glaring incapability to control your powers might endanger your team mates, and possibly yourself, I suggest that you use the time until departure gaining as much knowledge you can about your abilities so that you may use them to secure a positive outcome in this mission. The last thing we want is for you to start off your Operations career with fatalities on your records. Don't you agree, Miss Adéle?"

He gave her an icy, indifferent smile before turning on his heels and exiting the room. The burning confidence that might've begun to spread in the pit of her stomach at the thought of finally getting somewhere, of making progress with the unknown part of herself, died out and was replaced by a sinking feeling of uselessness that was all too familiar. Adéle bit hard into her lower lip until she drew blood, her clenched fists trembling as she pushed back the tears. [I]It's not fair.[/I]

They'd left her no choice and she couldn't afford to prove to them that they were wrong about her. But how was she supposed to return the faith placed in her when she couldn't believe she was worth the leap? Adéle chuckled dejectedly.

[I]You silly goose, you can't cling to the luxury of wallowing in that pool anymore. Running backwards won't take you closer to where you're yearning to go either. Haven't you had enough already? It's time to stop hugging your knees and using them to give your fears a good blow in the groin! You keep saying you want to find the real Adéle, so then why don't you? Can't you feel it? She's waiting for you. [/I]

Loosening her cramped hands she wrapped them around the pendant, concentrating on how the smooth surface felt against her skin. The words of her departed Mentor echoed in amongst her own ruthless bashings. One final, deep breath later and Adéle felt strong enough to open her eyes.

"[I]Ready or not, here I come.[/I]" [/FONT]

[GuyYouMetOnline]

OOC: Mimminx, I don't know how to do the accent mark, so that's why I've left it out of your character's name. Oh, and I hope I got your character right. Tell me if I didn't.

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Laqara noted each person's arrival, but didn't really pay much attention to any of them. The exception was Adele. When Adele entered, it didn't take Laqara long to figure out that this was Adele's first mission, and that she was feeling very nervous about it. Laqara had seen the signs on several first-timers, including herself. And she knew from experiance that the Agent Superiors were ususally not exactly confidence-boosting. Laqara didn't know what would have happened on her first mission if her team leader hadn't taken her aside beforehand. Whenever Laqara saw the signs of an unsure first-timer, she did the same thing.

Laqara motioned to Adele to come and sit down by her. "hey there," Laqara said as Adele did so. "Um... what's your name?"

"Adele."

"Adele. I'm Laqara."

"Nice to meet you, Laqara," Adele said.

"Same here. I take it this is your first mission?"

that startled Adele. "How do you know that?"

"It's pretty obvious," Laqara told her. "Most of us agents who've been here a while know the signs. You seem extremly nervous, which is quite understandable, and I'm guessing that the Superior who briefed us, Carrs, took you aside like the Superiors usually do to first-timers."

"Yeah," Adele said. "He did."

"I take it he wasn't exactly reassuring?"

"That's for sure. He basically said that I had to learn total control of my pwers before our departure or I might end up getting someone killed."

"Don't worry about it," Laqara told Adele. "They're always like that. Fortunatly, we all remember our first missions, and tend to do our best to help first-timers out. I remember my own first mission very well. My situation was a bit different than yours, because I already had control over my powers. See, I used to be a normal human. Then I came across a dying water spirit. I don't know how or why, but it kind of fused itself with me. The resulat is that my appearance changed to what you see now, and I gained water-based elemental powers. Most of us at Clandestine can pretend to be normal, but due to my appearance, I can't. Oh, I eventually learned how to temporarily alter my appearance. I can look like my old self for a time, but it took me a long time to learn how to do it. When I first changed, I couldn't. I couldn't live with normal humans looking like this, so I had to cut myself off from society. Fortunatly, I quickly learned of my powers, which is the only reason I survived.

"I lived on my own for a few months before Clandestine found me. I agreed to go to the facility as a filed agent. They put me through the training program, then put me on a tough assignment. The job was actually similar to the one I got back from earlier today. The assignment was to eliminate a mated pair of dragons that had been hunting humans. The Superior who did the briefing, Sealk, took me aside afterwards. Basically, she made it sound like anything that went wrong would be my fault. Fortunatly, my team leader, a woman named Treana, took me aside and assured me that I didn't have anything to worry about, that she'd watch my back, and that she wouldn't let anyone blame me for a problem. It was the first time someone'd actually been kind to me at this place, instead of having an all-business attitude. We're pretty close now, her and I.

"Anyways, I know how you feel because I've been there, and I'm doing for you what Treana did for me, and what I've done for other first-timers besides yourself. Any problems are not going to be your fault. Things go wrong all the time, and no individual person is to balme. The only thing you can control is yourself. Just try your best. And if something does go wrong, you won't take the blame. I may not be your team leader for this mission-I actually don't recall Carrs picking anyone in particular-but that won't stop me. They won't blame you for things you can't control, Adele. I'll make youe of that."

"Um... thank you, Laqara."

"You're welcome. Well, not much to do now but wait."

[Mimmsicle]

[FONT=Tahoma]OOC: Takuya - close enough. And don't worry about the accenty thing ^_^

---

The 1½ hours she'd spent in the training room had given Adéle a much needed confidence boost but it rapidly faded at the sight of her team members. Thankfully Laqara took her aside before she could leg it out of there. Having an experienced Field Agents' word of reassurance was all that was needed for the nerves to settle back.

Everyone involved in this mission had been summoned because they were right for the job, so worrying over possible mishaps was a waste of energy. If things got ugly further along the line, she'd deal with it then. Once again her hand fleeted over the pendant, as if by touching it it manifested her determination to one day be as strong as the solid glass itself.

[I]Mirage... [/I]

She'd chosen her callname years ago but today was the first time anyone'd used it. It felt oddly natural, just like anything that had to do with mirrors. A smile played on her lips at the thought of how a psychiatrist would react if she were to talk about her thoughts and feelings on that particular subject. Maybe they'd label it an unusual fetish that needed further analysis, which might lead to a diagnosis saying that it was a perverted fascination or some kind of sexual deviation. Some experimentation could also play a part in establishing the truth behind mirrors pull on Adéle.

While that idea amused her somewhat, the more likely scenario of sitting across someone with a bit more professional sense caused little knots to form in her stomach. So far she'd escaped seeing Miss Neros privately but from observing the Head Psychiatrist in action she knew that the woman would look her over, as if by curtesy, and instantly form an opinion so theoretically accurate it hurt to think it was the only truth.

[I]"Do you feel lost, Adéle? Are you afraid that the sole proof of your existence is in the reflection of a mirror?" [/I]

Wondering if she'd brought any painkillers with her she absentmindedly rubbed her stomach. Laqara was checking over the equipment again and gave Adéle a smile before tossing a backpack to her. The rest of the group began to slowly assemble, itching for the mission to start. She forcefully swung the backpack around a shoulder and, in a rather comically fashion, got dragged with it as the weight ruthlessly knocked her on her backside. Sprawled out on the ground for the third time in one day would make any person want to dig themselves a few feet under it to avoid it happening again. But Adéle could only chuckle lightly, surrendering to the tranquility settling inside of her.

[i]I may be a little bit fuzzy in almost every aspect of my life, but I'm not lost.[/I] [/FONT]