Chapter 1: The beggining of a new era.

Wrath was sitting in his throne, his look one of distant longing, his arms resting upright, the cuts forever etched into them visible and bleeding, his body small in comparison to the sheer size of the cold, dark, metallic throne and the piles of bodies lying around it.
Char always hated approaching him in times like these, moments after he has sated is anger and hatred. But then again it could be worse, he could have come in when Wrath was in the middle of his frenzy, he had only done it four times, but those four times were more than enough to last a millennia. His hands fiddled with his shirt, a nervous habit he had come to use, pulling on loose strings, he had gone through several hundred shirts because of it.
He approached the throne, stepping over and around bodies of the lifeless souls who had lived their lives in hatred and anger, only to be cut down by the ultimate one, the sin of Wrath himself. But they would be reborn again the next day to suffer the same trials, an ever ongoing process.
Char never understood the purpose as he glided up the stairs before the throne, stooping to pick up a pocket watch that sat in a limp hand, cleaning the blood off of it and pocketing it. He remembered they had called the process “purging”. He had reached the foot of the throne, his hands once again fidgeting with his shirt as he cleared his throat. Wrath paid him no heed, still staring into the distance, lost in his own thoughts.
“Master Wrath…” Char called to him softly, getting no response. “Master Wrath…” He reached out and touched Wrath’s hand, bringing Wrath back from his reverie. He blinked slowly, shaking his head slightly as he looked down at Char.

“Char.”

“Sir… uh… Pride is requesting an audience.”

“Heh, is that what he calls it now? An ‘audience’.” Wrath responded spitting out the last part like it was poison.
“He…he uh… wants you to go see him. He’s meeting with all six of you at once.”

“No doubt he wants to brag… wait. Did you say he is meeting with all six of us at once?” Wrath looked sternly at Char, an eyebrow cocked.

“Yes sir.” Char replied, avoiding his stare, instead focusing on his shirt, he seemed to have managed to unravel a good portion of it. Another shirt wasted it seemed.

“Was there to be anyone else?”

“Not that he mentioned, just the sins.”

“Interesting…” Wrath turned his arms, holding onto the edge of the arms on the throne, his fingers lacing into the eye sockets of the skulls on the end and pushing himself off of it, landing with a soft thud on a body at the foot of the throne, Char stepped aside quickly as Wrath walked down the stone steps, not bothering to avoid the bodies like Char did as he followed him.
Char glanced around the room, never able to adjust himself properly to cold, bare walls, windows sitting high and narrow, filtering in barely enough light from the ruby red skies outside, the only other source being the large opened doors leading out into the ruined castle. This room was the only one intact and he hated it. He stole a quick glance to the eyes peering out from the shadows, demons, all of them, hating the light and waiting until dark to feast on the corpses. However, they, like him had learned to avoid this place whenever Wrath was on a killing spree. He despised them, they were the fallen, the vocal minority, soldiers to Lucifer, turned by their own corruption into the very things they once despised themselves.
They paused in the ruined courtyard, Wrath looking up at the sky, a distant look on his face again. Char looked around casually, pulling out the pocket watch and opening it. The clockwork was of course broken, the hands on the face of the clock forever locked into the exact moment in time when its original owner passed over. It read 5:24. Wrath looked back at him, giving Char an amused look.

“What time is it?” He joked, Char looking up at him, snapping the watch closed and shrugged.

“Hell if I know.” He pocketed the watch again. Wrath nodded sagely, as if confirming something to himself and walked up to Char, hand outstretched. “I just got this watch.” Char sighed, pulling it back out and dropping it in Wrath’s hand, the cold brass glinting slightly in the light. Wrath studied it carefully, holding onto the chain and watching it spin slowly in the air, the reflection of the light dancing across his face before his blood started to drip down onto it. He wrapped the chain around his hand, bringing the watch back up and popping it open, staring at the clock face inside.
“5:24.” He murmured listlessly, snapping it shut and handing it back to Char. “Well now,” He mused, pulling out some bandaging from one pocket and starting to wrap his wounds, “I guess I best get going huh? I hate Pride though, Greed too. You can never trust Greed.” He looked back and up at Char, studying his face. “Funny to think we’re all related…”

-From the memoirs of Cameron De Maerceiles

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A hazy sun lit the domed city with a dawn light. Even though it was still early morning, the city bustled with life, was commuters made their way to work.

Aru picked up his robot companion, staring at the small dragonlike body before shaking it.
"Wake up." He ordered blankly as he strolled down the hallway, the robot stirring to life.

"You know you could just activate me like a normal human." It murmured listlessly in a bored tone of voice.

"Ah, see I could, but I'm anything but normal." Aru responded cheerfully, "Send a message out. All new recruits are to meet in the training room. Send a message to Jaeger, tell him to meet them there. Send another to the technicians and Shai to meet me in the control room."

"....Done....done...annd done." The robot stated before stifling what one could only assume was a yawn. "Anything else?"

"Nope. You can go back to sleep now." He stated, walking by people who uttered greetings to him, nodding in response. He made his way to the cafe to get food.

"Sir? Sir! a message just arrived from your boss, it says that you shoul-hmpmh!" The rather high pitched, child-like voice of Jaeger's personal bot had been suddenly muffled by Jaeger himself, who had quickly extended a long metal tendril to shut him up, resisting the urge to fling him away and smashing the small robot to pieces. "Hrrmmm... the nerve of that guy... after beating me up like he did yesterday... I still feel tired, dammit."

Slowly transforming from the blob-like form he always adopts when he rests into something resembling his usual humanoid self, Jaeger let out what sounded like a mix between a yawn and a grunt. He then stopped muffling his little robot's mouth, remembering that the little guy had nothing to do with his annoyance, and that if he didn't listen to the message, he would only get it worse later. "Bleh, sorry Urchin, continue."

"Right sir! the message says that you are to meet with the new recruits in the training room." "That all?" "Yes sir!" "Good boy, you can go into stand-by mode now if you want." "Yes sir!" Jaeger let out a small sigh, it was nice to have at least a robot to have some respect for you, but he sometimes wondered if he overdid it with it's programing. Still, seeing as he had no time left to continue his beauty sleep, he figured he might as well head out and get into the training room before the trainees. Hopefully today he would have more fun with them than yesterday, and without all the pain that yesterday implied.

Shai had been awake for quite some time now. That is to say, rather, that she hadn't actually slept. She felt tired, though not exhausted, and her bones felt a little weak as she hoisted herself off her mattress around 5 in the morning to get something to eat. She had been staring listlessly at the ceiling, counting cracks and dots, making patterns and pictures with her pointer finger when she felt her stomach give off a loud and startling growl.

At the cafe, she nibbled on a muffin for an hour or so, just thinking. She enjoyed this time to herself, where she could just unwind and relax. And the muffin? Simply delicious. She'd never had this flavor before, either. For some reason, that simple fact excited her as she tried to guess just what she might be eating. It tasted creamy, heavily buttered, and with just a hint of tang. Banana cheese muffin was what she finally decided on.

From behind her, she heard a rather loud bang as something metallic crashed into the wall and dizzily backed into her. "Hehehehehehe...." it giggled, its voice chirpy. Shai grinned as she looked down at her robo companion. Its outer colors kept shifting, bright colors and dark colors and pastels moving like a wave across its outer shell. The result was rather psychedelic. And honestly, the poor thing didn't even look like it should be able to fly. It looked somewhat like a donut, though with random shapes coming out of it, like a spike or a spiral. Shai was under the belief that the little robot just changed its appearance at will, and she never proved herself wrong.

"Why, Stonerbot, what a pleasant surprise," she murmured, stroking the robot that was now currently situated in her lap. "News from Aru?"

It took a moment for Stonerbot to calm down from its giggle fit, but it eventually gasped out a "Control roohoohooom!" and collapsed again into laughter. Shai nodded and continued nibbling at her banana cheese muffin. Excellent, I was wondering how early we'd get to this. She tapped her foot against the floor to a beat in her mind, knowing Aru would be by the cafe soon enough.

Tomi, in its deep slumber, felt warm air blowing against its cheek. It was inviting and excited the youth while it dreamed, making its heart beat flutter lightly. The sensation tickled the smooth skin and caused the child moan softly as it turned in bed. Who was it that breathed so close and lewdly to the side of this 12 year old's neck? Tomi let out a audible sigh as it arched it's back. One eye pried itself open only to find a bright yellow duck staring back at it and soon the child was wide awake in bed. "Mornin', pii~! You have a message!"

There was slight tears in its eyes as a its face heated and turned into a blatant red color that no one could see. Tomi was embarrassed and quietly shuffled out of bed in shame. Dressing in only a white wife beater-like undershirt and the black pair of slacks they wore the day before. The child and its robot companion were too tired from collecting its belonging from its previous apartment that it didn't bother changing into more comfortable clothing when crashing into bed. Well, Tomi was tired; the unnamed robot just floated around and studied the child's previous living conditions.

The single room apartment was anything but homely; there wasn't a single window in the room and there was a sheetless mattress in the corner on the bare floor. There were two piles of clothing on the floor. One sat on top of a tan cloth bag and was neatly folded while the other was crumbled and looked discarded carelessly. It was obvious that one was clean and the other was dirty. The most alarming thing about the two piles were its contents. Each held one or two shirts and one pair of pants in each pile. There were various socks and underwear in each pile but the child didn't own very much clothing in general.

There weren't any stoves or refrigerators in this apartment; the room was too small to house large appliances. The only thing decorating the walls were various fliers and paper clippings. Most of them held pictures of grotesque looking men that seem to sneer at whomever is looking at the picture. While Tomi stuffed the few articles of clothing into the cloth bag, the companion robot piped up again. "Tomii~! The rooms you'll be living in will be much nicer than this! Aren't you glad, pii~?"

The child stopped and started to converse for the first time with its companion bot. "Don't speak unless it's somewhat important." Tomi moved towards the walls and plucked the papers off of it while the robot processed this new data. "Aren't you going to name me, pii~? All the other companions have either stated their name or has been given one by their masters."

"Don't ask questions unless you deem them necessary. Naming you is not necessary." It didn't seem to stop the bot from inquiring something else. "Tomii~, you decorated me but you won't name me?"

The child didn't say anything in response for a moment and seemed to be busying itself with cleaning up the apartment. The last thing it did before leaving the empty room was collect a crude drawing under the mattress. Tomi canceled its lease on the apartment and began to set its belonging down in the new room it'll be staying in now that it joined the tournament group.

Just before the youngster drifted off to bed, it murmured to the robot. "You're name is now William."

Now it was early in the morning and Tomi wasn't use to being awaken by someone else after living alone for so long. The child washed out the yellow paint on its white shirt before putting on a new one and wore a green vest over it. While it brushed its teeth and combed its hair loosely with its fingers, William chirped again. "You are to meet in the training room with the other recruits, pii~! I'll lead you there."

The child's stomach growled audibly after hearing the companion robot. "..Ofcourse after we visit the cafeteria."

Tomi protested as it took its spear and carried it out the door. "Training room first."

Angela had woken up early from her bed and had quickly hit the showers. She had barely slept last night, being too excited to lie still. Finally she would be trained in fighting, years she had waited for an opportunity like this. She'd show them... she'd show them all!

Returning from the bathroom, Angela found Cleo sitting on her nightstand. The robot had finally decided on a color and changed her shell in bright orange with yellow stripes on her head. 'Racing stripes' Cleo had called them, Angela didn't really want to know.
"Morning Cleo." she said in a sing song voice. The little robot was about to say something when Angela held up her hand. "If you're going to say something about me in a towel, me having to wear said towel, or me having to go to Alex WITHOUT that towel, I don't want to hear about it."
Cleo just grinned for a second. I was trying to say that you'll be expected in the training room, but I don't think it would be a bad idea if you-
"NO!" Angela interrupted while pulling her clothes on. When she was completely dressed, she picked up Cleo and put her on her shoulder. "Now behave yourself today. I don't want you flirting with anybody, or making inappropriate offers to the guys."
But I never do anything like that! Cleo responded with a very innocent voice.

Angela had quickly found her way back to the cafeteria. She and Alex had wandered around the ground the day before and she had tried to remember where everything was. Why aren't you waiting for pretty boy? Cleo asked while she was sitting on Angela's head. I thought he was supposed to follow you everywhere.
"Oh don't be ridiculous." Angela laughed. "Alex has a life of his own, he probably has better things to do then follow me around all day.
Then why is he here? Cleo watched while Angela bought some food and sat down at one of the tables in the cafeteria.
"I don't know... for fun? I think he probably wants to learn more about fighting. So when he's done here, he can find a new job or something."
Oi, you're so naive. Cleo muttered without Angela hearing it.

Alex waved his arms around his head to make the sound dissapear, " Go away " was the only thing Alex managed to say in his groggy state.
He had been surprised at first when he found out everyone had been given seperate rooms, but in recollection it was only logical. The room looked nice enough and catered for all needs.
The sound reappered round Alex' head. Alex turned over again, an annoying feeling round his neck preventing him for comfortably dozing off. The feeling returned on his cheek, a cold prod. " Go away! " Alex waved his left arm about over his head, smacking into something. He immediatly sat upright, shocked that the sound had been attached to something larger than he had expected.
Canbot flew off into another direction, " Oh, Canbot, I'm sorry. Just... don't poke me when I'm trying to sleep, what is it? " Canbot, ever merry, started whizzing round Alex' head again, There's a message from Aru! You are to meet with the other recruits in the training room! Alex sighed, " Oh well, I guess that means I'm back on the job, I spose Angela will be showeri- " he quickly focussed his attention on Canbot before forming mental images. He preffered not to think of Angela like that until he had accomplished his goal.

" Don't you have a sleep function or something? " I do Alex, but my daily requirements have been met already. " Oh.. well.. good. " Alex wasn't too experienced with robots. Being a bodyguard invloved training and following your master, Alex had never really had the oppertunity or the interest in learning how to command a robot. Canbot spoke up again, I analysed your sword last night and have added it's details into my database. " Is that good? " It is if you ever need it fixed "Right, I'm going to take a shower and pick Angela up " A shower? Alex responded quickly, " No, you don't need to analyse it, it'll kill you. Or... I think it will" Alex knew most electronics didn't work with water, but was unsure of Canbot, to be on the safe side he stuck with his decision.

Alex had finished his shower and was pulling his clothes on, a simple black stretch shirt, a pair of black trousers and a long sleeved blue shirt over the top. Alex considered if he would be returning to the room after breakfast but decided to bring everything along incase. He donned his sword in it's sheath on his back and put his black clasp cape over his shoulders, hiding most of the sword. HE glanced at his gauntlets, deciding he'd keep those off for breakfast he simply set them aside to be carried. After tying his long hair off behind his head he pulled on his boots, picked up his gauntlets and set out.

Alex knocked on Angela's door and called for her several times without hearing a response. He looked puzzeled and turned to Canbot which had whizzed off to inspect a plant in the hall, sighing, he went after Canbot and picked him out of the air, " Stop analysing everything " But the database is incomplete! Canbot whined, " We're bodyguards, we don't run off to inspect things, no matter how curious we are. " Canbot stopped whizzing round Alex' head and looked at him. A Bodyguard? " Oh not this again, look, I'll explain it later, for now, just tell me where Angela and her robot, Cleo, are " Canbot stared blankly at Alex, the lack of facial expressions helping it's blank stare greatly. They're in the cafetaria Cleo says. " Right " Alex! Another message! " What now? " Cleo says if you get chocolate sauce and whipped cream there and bring them to Angela she can explain a fun game to you two! It was Alex' turn to stare blankly at Canbot " Err, I think not " Can I do it then? What is this game? I want to play it! " Err.. no.. you don't have the right... look, just no, ok? Now let's hurry up and go see them before I neglect my duties even more. "

Arch had woken up early, mainly because he went to sleep early. Cho slowly drove up to him, "Psssssshhhh, are you awake?" Cho whispered with his buzzed robotic tone "You have a message from Aru", "Yes; I’m awake, what’s the message?" "Meet in the training room!" the robot shouted now knowing that Arch was awake. "Follow me to the training room!" Arch got out of bed and walked over to the door, he had slept in what he was wearing now so he planned on eating and going to train.

Arch walked down to the cafeteria and took a seat down by the chair closets to the door, "Fetch me some food Cho," Arch commanded as Cho gave him a dirty look, "Please," Arch said in a sarcastic tone rolling his eyes, "Yes sir!" Responded the robot flying off and coming back in merely five seconds, "Thanks Cho," Arch replied grabbing a sandwich. Arch looked at Cho, just sitting there beside Arch like he was in a parking space.

"Cho, yesterday you were saying affirmative and now your personality’s changing, what’s with that?" Arch asked Cho with his month full. Cho's head slowly turned up to look at him with the evil eye, "Don't chew with your month full," Cho said in a serious tone, "It's not polite." Arch finished chewing his food and thought about it, 'Wait, he must have scanned me and realized I missed my mother because she’s dead and took a mothers personality!' Arch thought, it was the best thing he could come with for the personality change.

His robot companion was resting on his shoulder as Aru strolled into the cafe, huming a ditty to himself.

"La da da da do da de, do da, do da. la da da da do da de, oh do da day." He sang happily as he grabbed some food and made his way over to Shai.

"I say, I said I say boy." Aru started before being cut off.

"I'm a girl Aru." Shai pointed out blandly as she continued eating her muffin.

"Boy, girl, makes no difference. It makes no difference I say! Now listen here!" He order, slamming his plate down onto the table, effectively spilling the drink he brought with him.

"Shut up Aru."

"But, but." Aru whined before trying to give her the puppy eyed look.

"What's on the agenda today?"

"Oh right that. We gotta head over to the control room." He answered cheerfully, snatching the muffin away from her and eating it, ignoring the food he brought himself. Shai looked at him blankly, all too used to her "brother", after he seemingly adopted her after the incident all those years ago.

"So you're just going to deprive everyone else of good food and then steal my muffin?"

"Well that seems to be the gist of it..." He answered nonchalantly as he got up and started to walk away. "Let's go, yes?"

"You're a slob, I hope you know that." She replied, picking up her robot and walking after him, hoping to get the muffin back.

Hmmm. I could always tackle him. No, no, he's twice my size and twice as strong as me. He'd just flick me away and cackle as he ate my precious banana cheese muffin.

Maybe I could kick him. Yeah, I could kick him! Then he'd drop the muffin as he clutched his leg in pain, I'd snatch it, and run! Eh, wait, the whole strength thing again. Right.

Oh! Oh! I could whack him over the head with my...no, he'd yell at me for using a weapon on him outside of combat. And then he'd kick my ass. Strength. Right.

I could use a wind art and blow it right out of his hand! Except he's holding onto it. So that wouldn't work.

Maybe I could light him on fire! Well, no, I don't want to hurt him. Or have to use up my own energy to heal him.

...

Eh.

Shai settled for grabbing Aru's arm and nomming it as they walked. "GIMME MY MUFFIN."

"Good morrow, Lord Clive!" Clive groaned loudly, he had barely even opened his eyes before his ears were assaulted by his messenger robot's exclamation. Turning over, Clive shoved a pillow over his head to block out the light that was streaming into the room and any other exclamations from Jeeves. Unfortunately, a pillow is no match for a determined messenger robot. "It is promptly time you arose, Lord Clive. I have analyzed your sleep and calculated this to be the precise time that you will arise to have the most energy possible." Clive gave another groan at his robot's persistence. He knew it was a battle he couldn't win, so he slowly opened his eyes and worked on waking up.

Finally, after a minute or so, Clive was sitting up in his bed... if it could be called that. If was more a mass of sheets and pillows under and atop of himself. Of course, those pillows were scattered everywhere while he moved about in his sleep, also entangling him in a web of the sheets. "I have received a message, my lord. You are to promptly report to the training room." Clive only grunted in response as he stood up, freeing himself from the entanglement.

Once standing, Clive stretched and yawned. He wasn't the easiest at waking up, but always managed to stay up once he was vertical. He walked over to the silent Tech-4 on the side of the room. He stood atop a stool he placed next to the robot last night and rapped his knuckles twice on its head. "Good morning, Tech-4." At once, the robot sprung to life, its whirring starting up as it took itself out of standby mode. Clive had already walked away from it at this point, lazily scratching his rear as he walked over to the crumpled heap of his jumpsuit on the floor. He quickly slid into the dirty jumpsuit, taking a whiff of it beforehand. 'Hmm, hardly a hint of stink, I've still got a few days before I'll have to wash this.'

Once fully in his jumpsuit, Tech-4 had finished its wake-up cycle and was back to a normal amount of whirring and clicking. Clive hopped over to the robot's back and strapped himself to it once again. "To the training room then, Tech-4." With that, the formerly idle giant robot rolled forward and out into the hall, with the not-very-sleepy mechanic attached to it and the small brick companion bot hovering directly behind them.

After somehow managing to sleep while Falken rambled about it's observations all night, Izelia slept relatively early... and would have probably overslept if it wasn't for the fact that once again... Falken started talking right next to her ear. "...esage pending. There is one message pending... analyzing... awake status confirmed, good morning Izelia""Guh... I'm still sleeping, fuck off" Izelia replied in a groggy, and obviously annoyed toned. She rolled away from Falken in a poor attempt to escape from him, which only resulted in her falling of the bed, effectively waking her up. "Agh, crap! bah, so much for resting more... *¨sighs* what do you want?" "you got a message from the Red Dawn leader, Aru. it says that you should head for the training room." Izelia just answered with an annoyed grunt, and then proceeded to take a quick shower before exiting her room.

Before heading to the training room though, she made a quick stop for the cafeteria, ordering a sandwich so she could eat it on the run, not really feeling like sitting to have a full meal yet. She had never been a breakfast person. While she ordered her sandwich, she noticed that a few of the people from yesterday where already there, including Alex and Angela. However, when she saw them, she just simply waved to them. Still a tad annoyed by the way she had woken up, she didn't feel like talking to anyone yet. Once her sandwich was ready, she began eating it while she walked out of the cafeteria to head for the training room. All while ignoring Falken's complaints about how inappropriate it was for her to eat while walking.

Ryder roamed the halls looking for the training room. Why was he always late? He wondered the halls bored out of his mind. He had already been lost several times. He eventually bumped into a man with black wings and a girl eating some muffin. Ryder then admired the robot floating by her. Ryder then tried to make small talk. “Hello,” he said jovially, extending a hand toward Shai. She didn’t do much more than look at it, and he drew it back after an awkward beat. “I’m Ryder, and I’m - ” Before he was suddenly cut off.

Vieth woke up with a start. His penguin robot, AMP, was beeping. That wasn't what woke him up though. He had been experiencing his recurring nightmare about... he wasn't even going to think about it. "AMP, stop beeping." The beeping stop and AMP waddled forward, delivering the message that Aru wanted people to report to the training room. "AMP. can you go fetch me some breakfast? Bring me fruit, an orange preferably. And some toast." AMP lept into action, not saying anything, which Vieth thought to be uncharacteristic. He didn't think too much about that. Vieth pulled the covers off himself, reached to grab his scythe, which was standing right next to his bed. He swung his feet onto the floor, and grabbing a rag from among his clothes he started polishing the blade. Yes, today will be a good day. I wonder if we get to do any actual fighting, or just sparring and training. He finished polishing the blade until it shined, and when he could see his reflection smirking back at him, Vieth stood up and took some practice twirls of the scythe. Of course, the room was ridiculously cramped, but Vieth was still managing to twirl the scythe very carefully. Spinning, twirling, snaking it around his body, Vieth was actually doing pretty well for himself. Of course, the room was too cramped for him to try anything new. After a few mintues of this, Vieth heard AMP come in and say he had the food. Vieth pulled on his pants, his undershirt, and then his shirt and then his cloak. He hooked his scythe on his back, feeling the familiar weight where it belonged. He bent over and picked up AMP, the piece of toast, and an orange. While setting AMP on his shoulder, Vieth ate the piece of toast and started walking. En route to the training room, Vieth peeled the orange and bit into it. Hmmm, different coloration... it's a blood orange. A slight twitch on the corners of his lips indicated he approved of the fruit and all the implications it meant.

"Why are you staring like that?" Angela asked Cleo, when the little robot hadn't said anything for a few moments. She poked the little robot who suddenly yelled Hey! Why did you do that? "Sorry, I thought you were short circuiting or something."
Cleo hovered down on the table and sat down. No, no, no. I received a call from Canbot, Alex was looking for you, so I told them to meet us here... among other things. "You can do that?" Angela asked amazed. Hunny I am a communications robot, you could say I'm a sort of mobile phone. You could use me to call the others, but we robots can talk to each other too.
She smiled. Now just wait here, I'm sure Alex and Canbot will be arriving soon with whipped cream and chocolate.
"Why would day do that?"
Oh, just a little game I hinted to Canbot about.

Alex set his tray with his breakfast on the table and sat down across from Angela. Canbot flew off and started whizzing round her head, " Canbot, you're not to ask her questions or analyze her, you hear?" Canbot stopped whizzing round and just looked at Alex, " Alright, you can scan my breakfast instead, happy? " Canbot let out a sound Alex could only describe as one of joy and started analysing Alex' sandwich.

Alex looked at Cleo who almost looked like she wasn't pleased with him. " Err, they were out? "

Rui was sitting on the edge of the bed reading. He had been awake for hours already but hadn't really made the effort to get up. He had however made an effort not to make a sound so he was rather suprised when Echo rocketed out from under the bed, and start bouncing up and down in front of him.

Message to new recruits It said it said, in an unfamiliar voice. It made a sound a little like a stifled yawn before it continued Meeting in the training room.

Rui tilted his head, wondering if it was imatating someone else, or if that was actually using it own voice. Mostly it was imatiting what ever sent the message. Rui set the book aside and stood up putting his gloves and coat on. "Is that all Echo?"

"That all." It said agreeably back to mimicing Rui

Rui didn't feel like he needed food, at least not yet. So he just grabbed his stuff and started making his way to the training room. Echo bounced onto his head for the ride. Rui almost told it off, but seeing as it rarely seem to listen once it was comfortable so he didn't bother.

After finishing her sandwich, Angela patiently waited till Alex was done. Cleo was hovering in front of Alex, giving him dirty glares. Once Alex was done she stood up and smiled, picking up her tray.
"Shall we go to the training room?"

Alex and Angela had set of toward the training room together, Alex making sure Canbot was within grasping distance and keeping close tabs on anything Canbot wanted to say, and it looked to him asif Angela was nervous about Cleo, most likely anything Cleo might say.

After entering the training room Angela pointed toward Izelia. Alex smirked, mornings were absolutely not her forte. Hoping this was a good morning, thusly avoiding her icy remarks he headed for their friend and sat down next to her. " Morning " Alex said simply, Canbot was already whizzing round Izelia's head before noticing something interesting. Hovering in front of her chest, Canbot simply asked, What're these for? Alex' hand enveloped round the little robot too slowly, the damage had been done. Alex hissed at his robotic companion, " Canbot, go into sleep mode or whatever it is that puts you to rest for a while. " Izelia didn't look like she was about to do anything, but appearances could be decieving, " Ize, heh.. I'm sorry.. He err.. likes to analyse everything, incomplete database and all. Err... Really sorry. "
Before waiting for her answer or anything bad, Alex turned his head to look straight forward, resuming his duties once more of a bodyguard, thinking about the training to come.

Izelia hadn't done much since he entered the training room. Despite the fact that some people had already arrived there, there was not much to do yet until the rest arrived, or so she figured as she sat down. Unfortunately for her, the first one that had been there was that unpleasant liquid metal man. Seeing him alone was bad enough, but the worst of all was that being the only woman there at the moment, the creepy dude kept staring at her, and he wasn't even bothering to be discreet. This repulsed Izelia greatly, but still, there was not much she could do but to look away and try to ignore him.

Then Alex arrived, upon greeting her, Izelia simply nodded back at him. However, she quickly took notice of the little robot whizzing around her, not something she liked a lot, but at least that robot didn't appear to be as obnoxious and irritating as Falken or Angela's cat-robot... Until he stared at her chest and asked about what was in front of him. The first reaction Izelia had was of sheer embarrassment, Having the liquid metal man stare at her was bad enough, but what that robot had done simply caught her out of guard. Her face flushing, she quickly crossed her arms in front of her chest as Alex dragged the robot away. Closing her eyes, she focused in calming her mind and drive her embarrassment away.

Eyes still closed and her arms crossed, she simply responded to Alex's apology in a calm, yet very cold tone. "You mention anything about this again, and I will kill you." In silence as Falken complained to her about threatening her friend, she wondered if somehow all the robots in this place were secretly programmed to annoy her.

Arch stood up, his rather big sandwitch was done. Arch then looked down at Cho, "Shall we go Cho?" Arch said "Yes we shall, follow me" Cho said as he started driving off, Arch walking behind him. Arch looked around to see if he knew anyone from before, it seemed not so continued following Cho. Arch then saw someone with the corner of his eye, his old cousin always had a back suit on, and he had red hair.

"Cho, please follow me," Arch said walking over to his cousin, "Ok..." Cho said giving him a werid sideway glance. "Ello! Cousin!" Arch said happiley then seeing up close that he looked nothing like his cousin and also remembering, "Wait, shit! My cousins dead!" Arch said then turning and running.

"Cho! To the training room!"

"SAY PLEASE!"

"PLEASE!" Arch said still trying not to mak a fool of himself even know it was already done.

Shai got back her muffin fairly quickly after she’d begun nomming on Aru’s arm. The two of them continued walking toward the control room, but before long, they bumped into a boy with extremely red hair that was wearing black. Shai hadn’t remembered seeing him before, though that may have been due in part to her penchant for forgetting both names and faces fairly quickly.

“Hello,” he said jovially, extending a hand toward Shai. She didn’t do much more than look at it, and he drew it back after an awkward beat. “I’m Ryder, and I’m - ”

Aru cut him off by holding up a hand to silence him. He patted himself over, looking for something in his pockets, before slipping his hand into his front pants pocket. Touching a small button on the underside of the robot, he activated it and wordlessly tossed it to Ryder. The robot chirped about the meeting the rest of the recruits int he training room; Ryder nodded to Aru and left.

“Ryder, hm?” Shai poked her own robot, which was floating in midair. It had an amusing effect on dear little Stonerbot, and made it swing through the air like a pendulum in front of her. “Where was he yesterday?” Aru didn’t respond, and both continued walking in silence until they arrived at their destination. The Control Room.

When they reached the control room Aru turned at looked at Shai expectantly, causing her to sigh and mumble about him never letting her have fun before turning to look away. Aru quickly punched a sequence into the keypad next to the large steel door, causing a light above the pad to flash green and the locks on the door unlocking themselves as the door slid into the wall, giving them entrance. Aru's eyes lit up in surprise at who was inside, causing him to finally utter something.

"Renault! Why, whatever are you doing here?" Aru asked, grinning devilishly at an elf standing over the technicians Aru had asked for, turning to look at Aru. The elf, dressed in a red overcoat, with elbow length white gloves, brown slacks and white boots, whom pushed up his glasses with his left middle finger as he regarded Aru and Shai distastefully.

"I'm here to make sure you don't blow anything up. And to study the new subjects you've brought." Renault replied dryly, his tone was cold, calculating with a hint of venom directed at Aru.

"Ah so this is how you get back at me for not letting you study me eh?" Aru replied, maintaining his grin as he took a seat to watch the screen.

"Hmph. I see you brought Shai. I assume that means your pet will be handling their first experience in my HeCTS." Renault noted, glancing back at the screen.

Upon the screen was a live feed of the HeCTS, in which Jaeger and the group was assembled in the center.

"Turn on the PA system." Renault ordered, soon the talking amongst the group could be heard in the control room. "When he gives the command, start program Alpha Centauri Gamma."

"ACG? Huh. I was considering having them start with BGD, but that works too." Aru stated as Shai took a seat next to him, he glanced quickly over at her. "Don't touch anything on the console." He commanded, before putting on a headset. "Jaeger buddy, can ya hear me? Start the briefing." He stated into the headset.

The training room in which Jaeger was waiting in was rather normal looking, there wasn't nothing particularly spectacular about it save a rather sturdy looking, metallic door with a light indicator above it. While Jaeger waited, he silently acknowledged the arrival of three rather peculiar individuals; One was a tall silver furred Lycan wearing armor and a large scimitar, the other one was a very strange looking lady that appeared to be on fire. And the last one entering was a blue-ish metallic cyborg. None of them looked like young or novice fighters however, and they just placed themselves behind Jaeger as they waited for the actual trainees to actually arrive and for Aru to give the signal.

After a few more minutes, Aru's voice finally resounded trough some speakers.Finally, staring at those two hotties's boobs without taking any further action can be fun only for so much. Jaeger though as a smirk shaped his metallic face. Seemingly nodding at no one in particular, Jaeger stood up straight and turned at all the trainees that were now in the training room. "Alright fresh meat, listen up! no more slacking around, you guys will start to get trained into something that might not be completely worthless in a battle. And these three people behind me shall help with that. First off, you will get divided into 4 different groups, and each group will have a trainer assigned. The teams have been already decided beforehand by the head honcho, so I don't want to hear any bitching about how you didn't got a babe in your team and how you got the ugly ass wolfie as an instructor instead" Jaeger ended this last part glancing at the Lycan behind him and taking out a rather long and exaggerated tongue at the werewolf-looking man, which was replied by him with a glare and a low snarl.

Walking towards the trainees a tad closer, he pointed at Tomi, Alex and Clive. "The androgynous kid, roboboy and the bouncer will be the team KN2, and it shall be lead by Cyborg dude Mikal." Jaeger then pointed at Izelia, Ryder and Lucan. "Kung fu babe and the redheaded loverboy that just arrived will team up with the odd fellow with he rat, making team KB2 and their leader will be the fiery Daeva here..." Jaeger shivered a little when he glanced at Daeva, man was she ugly... But he shrugged that off and proceeded to point at Rathe, Neil and Rui li. "Polish dude, and the two dudes with the annoying paperweight and detuned radio shall be team KR2, and grumpy wolf Raigarth shall lead you guys." He then turned to the remaining three, which were Angela, Vieth and Arch. "And well, you three shall be team K2, and your precious leader shall be none other than yours truly." Making a silly bow, Jaeger glaced creepily at Angela before turning himself to the metallic door at the other side of the room.

"Alright, the whole mumbo jumbo of how this works is way too complicated for me to explain, but what you are supposed to do is pretty simple. Once the little light on top of that door turns red, we shall be stepping inside it and all of us shall enter a training dimension that will resemble the Dinosaur area. And yes, you all shall spar and hunt with dinosaurs, and no, you shall not ask me why because again, I don't care about that technical crap, the only thing you guys have to worry about is to stick together with your team and leader and you might be able to avoid get eaten by a T-Rex. Was all that clear? No? well I don't care, let's get going." And as soon as the light above the door turned red, Jaeger waited for the instructors and trainees to walk past the door, he entering it last and closing it behind him.

Shai rolled her eyes at Aru’s “request” as she promised not to touch anything she wasn’t supposed to. I wonder when he’s going to stop treating me like I’m five years old. She actually didn’t think he ever would. According to how he’d treated her up until now, he’d never see her as her age. She’d be eternally five to him, the little sister that never grew up. Shai pursed her lips as she put on her own headset. I suppose there’s worse.

Renault leaned over her to watch as Jaeger, Mikal, Raigarth, Daeva, and all of the new recruits filed into the program. While she never tired of the programs that the man could design, Renault himself never failed to make her feel uneasy. A shudder nearly found its way up her spine at their proximity, but she managed to quell it, knowing that Aru would say something about it. Aru wasn’t exactly aware of her feelings toward the elven genius, though he knew that she didn’t much care for the man.

“Everything is progressing smoothly,” he said in a flat monotone. His breath washed over the back of her neck uncomfortably, which she masked by reaching back to scratch the base of her hairline. Aru nodded, his eyes fixed firmly on the screen in front of them.

Alpha Centauri Gamma was one of the most breathtaking settings that Shai could imagine. Everything was green, and what wasn’t green was a bright purple, or red, or blue, orange, yellow. Colors flooded the entire area, prehistoric plants flowing all across the landscape. The detail spent on even the tiniest bloom was astounding. If there was one thing she could grudgingly admire Renault for, it was his meticulous attention to detail and his aim for perfection.

The trees towered above the instructors and the recruits, tropical foliage dominating the sky, making it difficult to see much blue from beyond those leaves. The forest, Shai knew, would soon open out onto a massive stretch of grassy and blooming plain bordering a small lake filled with all sorts of life. The plants overflowed from the green ground and bled into the murky blue of the water.

One thing that was noticeably absent, as Aru had made very clear when he had commissioned ACG, was random wildlife. There were few fish to be found in the seas. There were no peaceful herbivores munching quietly and demurely on the abundant flora. There were no insects buzzing about and biting at the recruits’ necks. No, Aru had made it very clear that the only Cretaceous beasts he wanted in this program were ones that would be a true challenge.

Shai grinned, watching the beauty of the Mesozoic era unfold before her in pixels as clear as any picture. But out by the corner of the screen, currently far away from the teams, were some predators about to become prey. “Aru…” she breathed, knowing Aru had already seen.

“We have predators XD1 through 12 on the screen, Renault.”

“I see them,” the elf scoffed, moving away from Shai and closer to Aru. Shai crossed her legs, already feeling more at ease.

Aru’s grin nearly matched her own as he leaned back, his hands behind his head. “Let’s see how our teams do in the hunt.”

Angela moaned, not only wasn't she in the same team as Alex, but her instructor was the perverted metal man. Cleo on the other hand seemed very happy, wagging her tail.
Did you see that? Did you see that? she said excited. Hottie smiled at me!
It was clear to Angela that Jaeger probably hadn't even noticed the little robot, which made her even more uncomfortable, cause that would mean the smile was directed at her. "You got a crush on him or something?"
Of course not! Cleo said in a relaxed voice. I just want to get into his pants... or metal... whatever, I want him.
Angela moaned, not feeling like explaining to Cleo that even though she and metal man were made from the same material, or at least Angela thought they were, that it didn't mean they could do stuff together. On the other hand, Angela wondered if Cleo was just saying these things to creep Angela out. She had to admit that the last part was definitely working.
She looked at Alex for a second before entering the room, she felt sad. Alex was her friend, she always enjoyed his company. Now she wouldn't be able to see him fight. Not wanting to let Alex notice she was sad, he would probably start worrying, she put on a grin. "Well I hope this is going to be fun!" she winked., nudging him with her elbow. "I bet my group is gonna do better then yours."

Neil was late. Looking like he had just got a scare, he slinked through, nervous sweat beaded on his brow. He'd slunk into the crowd just in time for Jaeger to deliver the instructions. Neil was unable to decipher the metallic man's instructions, but Rzecz was only delighted to translate for a chance to talk. It seemed he was on a team with two of the people who hadn't fared so well at the entry test. Most troublesome, since, unless he had heard wrong, Jaeger had just said something about dinosaurs...

Neil followed his 'comrades' through the doors, and drew his bone saw warily. Being eaten alive was by no means part of his mission.

Arch walked over to his group, he had metal man as a instuctor, and two other people he had no idea who were as a partner, then again, he didn't know anyone. Arch walked over to the dino world door but before he entered he got a motherly messege from Cho, "Now remember, challenging a ginat reptile alone is stupid, suck with group!" all Arch did was think about how he just repeated metal man. Arch then went inside with Cho gving him a close hovering eye making sure to watch him and his surrondings at the same time.

Rui fell into step behind the Polish guy, polite saying hello.

Dinosaurs? That would be interesting. It felt a little like they were on a field trip or something similiar as opposed to . Still did they say hunting dinosaurs? If they caught one could they roast it, and have it for lunch? Not that he had much paitience for eating, and the possible of food poisiong, from eating dinosuar was vaguely horrifying. He tugged on his gloves, frowning.

While Rui was lost in thought, Echo was happily repeating Hello over and over bouncing along behind Niel, bumping into the Polish man's shoes every once in a while.

Clive studied his instructor for a minute before moving on to thinking about their situation. There wasn't much to observe about the instructor that was beneficial for Clive to see, Tech-4 was not at all designed to be an android and look humanoid, that was what he tried for Tech-2 and that didn't work out too well for anyone involved. The only thing Clive could learn from his instructor for improvements would either come from asking for advice or seeing him cracked open, neither of which were likely to happen.

Tucking that thought away, Clive turned his attention to the program they were experiencing now. He had some experience with holo-fields, Clive assumed this simulation to be using technology akin to the one he had used before, but he hadn't seen one like this. The attention to detail was nice, but nearly all the expensive ones out there looked just as great. No, what was different was that there were no safety mechanisms. Clive had been on countless adventures as a youth in a holo-deck, but those were always innocent and safe. It was weird using technology that Clive had associated with his youth and safety for training, especially since he wasn't sure if the leaders of this group would care if someone died, they were just recruits and had no real money invested into them yet, surely it wouldn't matter much if one died yet.
This in his mind, Clive pulled off his abomination of a weapon from Tech-4 and moved over to his group, their odds were better together and Clive didn't want to be the one to test the theory he just came up with.

Mikal sighed as much as any near completely mechanical cyborg could. He hated having to train newbies, but what the boss says, the boss gets. That is if Mikal ever wanted to get paid.

He studied his "group" briefly. A pint sized kid wielding a spear too large for it, some idiot who apparently still doesn't understand the concept of cybernetics or any advanced robotics and some guy with an overly large and pointless sword.

Joys... I'm stuck with a bunch of retards, and how the hell did a KID make it this far? Is the boss really THIS desperate? Damn...

"Alright you three, listen up." Mikal ordered, "Listen to me and you'll be fine. Ya might think this is just some silly simulation and everything's really just a hologram, but then I'd just be laughing my ass off when some Raptors are ripping out your throat. The good doctor spent a good 50 years making this. We're currently in a pocket dimension and everything in here is VERY much real and alive. So stick with me and do what I say, boss usually has the dino's spawned on the far side, so we'll have to make our way to 'em. We'll go left, hopefully we'll run into something simple, a pack of utahs or somethin will rip you all ta shreds."

Mikal immediately started to walk off, nodding to Jaeger as he passed him and turning on his internal headset. He didn't bother to check if they were following, he just wanted to get this over with.

"Mikal checking in." He stated to no one in particular

"We got you loud and clear, and your vitals and your groups loaded and ready."