Departure

The following signal has been relayed after a timer.

====================================

To those that this resides with -

I'm leaving, something is happening beyond my understanding and knowledge and i need to get out, i need to take care of it, by the time anyone has this transmission i'll be long gone, there will be no point in tracking me as i have no desire to be found by the likes of anyone.

To those concerned for my safety or return, i would like to promise you of such a thing, but nothing is ever guarenteed. All i can say is that i'll do my best to make it back in one piece. I wish there had been more time, but i barely managed to get this out before i needed to abandon the terminal i used to create it.

Family - take care of yourselves.

~D

=====================================

Logs of the Broken Templars main vessle the hovercraft schorched horizon have been whiped clear of the last week, and the crew members are unable to locate their captain.

Any and all knowledge of the whereabouts of Darminian are unknown at this time, but rumor has it he's somewhere in the real.

====A whisper

Back in the dark cell, nothing moves but my chest slowly upwards and downwards, it feels like someone is standing on it.

"Wraith my dear - i need your help."

The whisper creeps along the wall like an insect and pulls itself into my ear and burrows inside. It sounds high pitched and ghastly till it stops and seems soothing, calming - almost warm. Some light seems to come into the room as i look up.

It's not a cell, were infront of some building in westview, i don't know where but i recognize the sky and see the ocasional blood drinker in the distance, they look spooked. I lazily turn to my side and see the familiar nurse who has that taint of evil that seems so alluring - why now though - i seem to recall being nauseous around her before - but her scent i drift lazily as she tosses something to the ground i try to look at it - a syringe maybe? No she's far too sweet to do that - it's nothing i'm seeing things- that's it.

"mercury....."

It's all i can force out as i seem to drift in and out of sleep.

"My sweet sweet wraith, you need to go inside and make the bad men go away, they want to hurt me."

Her voice changes into that pseudo-innocent tone as she purses her lips.

"And we wouldn't want that would we my sweet?"

"No." The word slips from my lip as if it wasn't my own.

"Good boy" She says patting me on the head - i want to feel insulted but i don't this is bizzare -

She pushes me towards the door and with an exaggerated sweeping motion with the backs of her hands i head inside, i hear a twisted cackle from behind me - but it's not her - not my sweet mercury.

====The Casino

I move through the double doors and inside, a strange smoke seems to loom in the air, it's out of place but only i seem to notice it. The bar is to my left and the gaming tables to my right, some doors beyond the tables, a metal cage window to the left. A small time operation i'm not impressed i --- They want to hurt mercury - i'll teach them all.

I move to the bar - three people seated one at the juke box, and the bartender. I move behind the music appreciator and allow him to get a closer look at the selection. That familliar silence encases the area after the smash of the glass echoes. The blood covers the albums below as i grab one of the shards from the machine and move towards the ones seated. The first turns in time to have the sides of his head part ways over a simple shard of glass. I release the shard and grab the pistol at his waist. Firing through his torso blood splashes the two behind him as the bullets follow through, they fall to the floor. The first hits with a dead drop, the second squirms and opens his mouth but i hear nothing.

I put another two rounds into the one on the floor and turn my attention to the bartender- he's fumbled with a sawed off and loaded it as the next round leaves the chamber - he fies backwards into the bottles behind him, smashing most of them spillng the contents onto the floor. Seconds later several more explode behind me as i turn my attention to the gaming room - two gunmen attempt to drop me - blood splashes from my direction but i don't feel anything - strange.

I empty the pistol in their direction and move behind the bar, i can hear them reloading and see blood pooling below me, it must be the bartenders. The two of them move towards the bar, one covers his partner as he leans over the edge towards me, his final mistake as the sawed off makes short work of his head. His lifeless body falls on the counter as i get to my feet, i grip his collar and the human shield lets me line up the second shot as i paint the wall  with his compadre.

I start to feel dizzy, it's rather strange, i can't feel anything but dizzy, i look around the room and see the bottles, below the counter theres cups, glasses and bowls, some rags used for cleaning them, i contemplate trying to stop my beeding - but then - i'm not bleeding am i? No i can't be it's their blood i'm fine i have a job to do.

====Game room

The people still inside cower behind tables, some with weapons drawn, some trying to pick the chips off the table and floor since the gunshots. I can hear more gunshots from outside, i hope mercury is ok- but then i hear her laugh and i can continue. I come around the corner into the room - the roulette wheel is slowly comming to a stop and a few of them start to get to their feet - but thats a stupid mistake as i throw the bottle towards the ceiling above them.

I watch the bottle twirl through the air, the flaming rag sitting in the top of it like a beastly tail dancing in the air, it collides with the ceiling, the shards of glass go in every direction and the liquid inside does the same, the tail collides and ignites it all. Fire rains down on the gamers in every which way as i see them run and panic, the open mouthed silent faces is an awkward sight. The double doors beyond the games start to move - another group perhaps? I toss the second bottle in that direction. It explodes in a ball of flame stopping whoever was comming through the doors. To the left of them i see the man behind the gate, i smile seeing him - he's frozen in place.

I move towards him right through the flame, i don't feel warm but i seem to be smoking - strange. I get within distance of him and tilt my head slightly. I hear mercury's voice behind me -

"Get his keys sweety!"

I nod in a zombie like motion as i reach my hand through the change slot at the base of the cage and grab the guy. I wrench him towards the cage and watch his face smash into it, blood splashes towards me as i do it again and again. As the lifeless body sticks to the cage i grab the keys from his vest and walk towards her voice. As i turn i see the same group, my dear mercury, my good friend Marble, that other one - the big guy with the brades, i don't know him but im sure i do.

I approach them through the blaze and look towards them, Mercury holds a fire extinguisher and points it at me - i tilt my head in confusion and an avalanche of white blinds me - i can't see through the CO2 that covers the area, and as i try to brush it from my face it seems to slosh continually slowly changing in color - it grows darker and darker till i can't see and that same feeling of someone standing on my chest returns. The muck moves into my lungs but my hearing returns just for a bit.

"Jesus, how long were you going to leave him on fire Mercury?"

"He'll be fine, besides the flames probably closed up the bullet wounds."

"You know he's not indestructable."

"True, but he's holding up better then the rest of them."

"That's true, we'll have to........

====

Drip, drip, drip.

Darminian   

====Rise and dull

Things seem much too bright, theres a faint static in the background as i try and pull myself to my feet, all i can see is white, not my own features before my face either, just a sea of white. An appreciable difference from what i've been facing the past little while, but not any more comforting.

I blink and squint repeatedly trying to make out something and i see it - a faint black dot moving slowly closer to me, it seems to get larger as it approaches. As more and more details become visible it takes on a serpent like travel and seems to extend - a snake maybe?

It continues to writhe and move closer to me, now i can see the arms, the extended whiskers, the claws and fangs, the beady eyes - it becomes more and more menacing as it comes closer to me it's colors are of red and black, the finer details- things like outlines of it's scales and it's eyes and whiskers are outlined in the crimson while its filled in with black. It continues to wriggle and crawl towards me. I watch it stop feet from me and see it begin to quiver and shake, the colored sectors of the beast begin to crack and split, it fragments itself in two and two new entities emerge.

One of red, one of black. The two new serpents dance and glide in the same way, the crimson being seems more controlled, more tame the other seems twisted and vile, the black dragon that now sweeps in circles closing in towards it's brother.

My head throbs as i drift into some other kind of hallucination - like so many times before the lines seperating that which is real and that which isn't are far too blurred to recognize. I watch the two beings battle - teeth and claws tearing at one another. Each slash adding to the pain in my head, each of them beccoming more tattered and broken. The darker of the two rears back it's head and spits out a familar mist of darkness - it's viscous nature douses and covers it's bretherein as it struggles to break from the goo. As it struggles the dark being sweeps down and swallows it whole - it's look turns to me and it breathes out the black liquid again in my direction. Here we go again....

====Day dreams

"Wra-rm?"

"Wha?"

"Wraith- inian"

The staticy sound kicks in again followed by a high pitched sting, my eyes hurt and head pounds and like an instrument overcome with feedback it subsides to an awkward silence.

"Wraith - get up."

It's one of 'those' voices again, it seems familiar but i'm sure i've never heard it before- i think i've never heard it before, it sounds so familiar though... I open my eyes and see him, the big guy with the brades - he slaps me lightly in the face to stir me from .... whatever im in.

"What?"

"Wraith get your *poop* we have work to do."

-Why do we always have to do work> - We have a job to do - the two thoughts seem to collide in my head, and it explains the pain.

-Wraith, why do they keep calling me >- It's your name.

*CENSORED* it hurts my head, and im so very tired, not my body though, just my brain my thoughts seem slurred seem wrong and fogged. >-So let me do the thinking, just relax my sweet, i'll take care of you.

Ok my dear mercury just a bit of rest - i hear my thoughts try and rally again but can't seem to stem it, can't seem to stop it. I just pass out and never lose conciousness. I blink as everything whirls by me. The walls seem to peel and tear away along with the framework and the world around me, i blink my eyes as everything blows past me like in a gust of wind and it stops as my lids meet in the center. As i open them again i stand in the middle of a crowded subway. There are bluepills all around me and i'm holding a briefcase. Somewhere my mind is telling me to run, but my legs don't want to move.

Things don't look good right now...

Darminian 

====Falling asleep

It's fading now, i'm fading. That voice that is me that i thought was me is being drowned out, i'm losing what i am to this and i can't even fight it now. I don't know how long it's been and the journey leading to this point has become broken images that light my way in horror.

Walking for an eternity - a treacherous climb - a horrible battle - a great explosion a dead tree - a black sea.

The voices i hear now are all the same, not the voices of business, causality, desire, anger - all the same tainted dark voices like shadows that creep and crawl inside my head. And part of me is enjoying them, the freedom of destruction - mindless and rediculous - i savor the blood lust i normall control and now these ones have found it within me. I fear for myself little in light of fearing for what i may do. But then now i can't tell if i need even be afraid of that which i choose to do - choice - it's an illusion for me now more then ever.

I can't remember ... things i want to tell myself seem to spiral down some infernal drain and dissapear - lost from me as if washed away in the tides of the black goo. It seems so rediculous so... what was - where was - I can't think and my head hurts, i need to rest, i just need to sleep - the goo crawls up over my shoulders and i sink again. I can't even bring myself to struggle against it - i'm sinking so deep...

==== Clear as tar

It's nice to be awake, it's been so long since i've watched the life drain out of somenes body, since i've seen that look of terror on their face as i peel away at the seems of the comfortable world they have. I look forward to my next chance to do so, but right now i have to wait.

This bloody briefcase - filled to the brim with bluepill money - they want me to play the part - to take the train to Apollyon and make a trade....

((*CENSORED* timers.))  

====Station

I board the rust covered piece of garbage and sit down, the case on my lap. The vermin all around me are caught up with their faulty lives, the illusions of grandeur and in their own cases their very own realities. The ones not so lost in the dream move through the fibres and grains doing their best to go un-noticed, but i notice them, i'm one of them.

The continual jolting and shaking of the small car makes my desire to empty it and purge it from my pressence - the people not sitting near me should be so fortuneate that no one bumps me, lest i forget to bide my time. We stop in apollyon, no one moves which forces me to push past them to get out, people are shoved and bags and other cases get dropped and knocked out of their hands. Theres an updraft of gagglish talking and chirpping as i take my leave of the car but when i get outside of it - it's not was has my attention.

The strange kid in the hoody, spinning the butterfly knife in front of me, i see now why most people didn't get off. He motions for the breifcase in my hand and i smile. Not exile, not even a redpill - i do believe he got off on the wrong stop today. I walk towards him slowly and take no heed of the blade - stepping within inches of him i stand completely still. He spits out something about giving him the case and i laugh in his face, the poor kid doesn't know when to run - that works out for me.

I reply that he should just take it from me with the same smile on my face, he turns a bit pale. In a city as corrupt and power hungry as mega city, how does someone this pathetic gain the audacity to try and rob a suit - He tries his best to conceal a shaky hand as he lifts the small knife like a claymore and tries desperately to hold it to my throat. I close my eyes and give him a dissapointed look his parents probably gave him more than once. As i reach up i close my fingers around his wrist and bend it back till i hear the crack of the bones, then i bend it some more just for kicks.

He screams in agony as i kick him into the tiled wall behind him, i walk slowly towards him, the knife still in my hand.

"You want to see what a real killer can do sonny?"

His eyes widen and his breath seems to stop, frozen in fear of me and i've still got that grin on. I raise the knife to his jugular and suddenly im drowning.

I can feel myself fighting the ocean it's filled my lungs but im spitting it out and scrambling towards the surface, my fngertips break it and i keep fighting and struggling - keep tearing at the goo as my head emerges and i gasp for air - it comes in a breath - in a reply that i spit out as my body hits the floor of the train station - "run"- "now!" i cough and splutter as the goo pours from my mouth onto the trainstation floor, again the line between dream and reality is a mess and i feel my self slipping under another crashing wave.

====Tsunami

i stand up whiping the black goo from my lips and clenching my fists, the little bastard got away and i don't know how. Checking my watch i see i'm running out of time and make a beline for Jacobs Ladder, it's just down the street anyways, we'll see if it's not to late to have some fun today.

-?

====A vip room - jacobs ladder

I lay the briefcase down on the table and watch as their eyes widen and light up like it's christmas, thin smiles and hungry eyes look down on the loot they'll soon have, and i wait patiently. Software pirates, they code so well and always find things they deem as useless, the machine garbage file they stumbled onto was worth a lot more then blue pill money for us - but it was all good for the time being.

It's all there. - One of them says to the group as he thumbs through the money.

I kept up my side of the bargain. -I reply waiting, watching.

So you did. - One of them lifts a laptop screen upwards and shows me the contents of a disk, a bunch of random data that i don't care to analyze. As i reach towards the computer he closes it. Normally i hate stupid people, but today they were making my life a little more fun.

The way i see it is, if your willing to pay this much for one garbage file, it's got to be worth a lot more. We want more action. - Replies the one who must fancy himself the leader.

I feel inclined to comment on how they are wandering down a stupid path that will put their lives in danger, but right now i want them too. I sort of smile as i pull out my cellphone and tell them i'll see what my employer says. I don't dial, i don't pretend to answer i just hold it up to my ear and wait. The click echoes fairly loud and i hear marble over the phone.

Do it.

That's all i need - i toss the phone to the smartass with the computer as his view shifts to the phone to catch it, i catch him with a fierce kick that sends him into the wall. The mouthy friend of his tries to withdraw the pistol in his coat as i roll across the floor and grab his wrist as the weapon points outward. Another one breaks through the door and i wrench on his hand spitting the rounds from his weapon into her chest. I try and figure out what hurts him more, his wrist or his own hand killing the girl. I twist the pistol and his wrist back down towards his feet and towards his stomach and put a few rounds into him, the look on his face is priceless as the cracking of the bones is drowned out by the shots. 

I let his body slump to the floor and move back to his friend whom i kicked into the wall - this one makes me smile as he tries to thow a punch. I sidestep them all with ease as i flick out the knife from the subway and start hacking him to pieces. Every attack, every time i move and dodge i drag the blade across his skin - nothing fatal just enough to make him recoil in pain. He finally staggers back, the blood spilling out across the floor - maybe i got a little carried away - he tries to collect himself and i toss the knife into the center of his skull, it's a shame its a weak blade, it doesn't go all the way in as he falls to the floor.

As i grab the laptop off the desk and slide it into my coat i can hear the sound of more of them clammering up the metal stairs, i look around my room and marvel at the bloodshed, the three bodies on the floor. I smile like it's christmas time as i withdraw the two bedlams from my coat and *CENSORED* them. I'm ready to drop more of these software junkies back to the recycling bin, but i'm not ready for what comes next. The door flings open and a most menacing site stands before me. In the black and white suit with the system magnum drawn stands an agent.

Escape is impossible. - Says the suit.

-? 

====Faint whispers

Thoise annoying voices that i kept hearing have completely ceased now, that entity has fallen beneat the surface of my ocean of calm and i'm free to focus, though my enjoyment of this time is cut short as the bullets tear through my flesh and the room as i attempt to dodge the agents bullets. As he empties his mag i run head first at him and try and land a blow - this time it's different, noting can stop me. I throw blow after blow at him and he dodges but i know im close - every time he strikes me or sends me into the wall, everytime one of my bones breaks or i tear muscle tissue, i know im so close to hitting him - i keep trying and trying and i can feel it. Just a little more - just a little more -

I hear someone yelling in the background - and a loud beaming sound is heard, followed by what looks like the wall peeling away, the agent seems to freeze and crumple up as the suit and glasses and even skin dissintigrate into the air leaving a strange man lifeless on the floor. A strange man in a prophet duster runs in and starts babbling stupid questions about if im ok.

I pull myself to my feet, i feel a little dizzy but not as much as i am angry - i grab him by the throat and drag him to the upper level balcony over the club. He's kicking and screaming trying to spit something out - but i can't hear him anyways my thumbs in his throat - that same smile comes back to my face as i hold his body out towards the edge and watch the life slowly drain from his body.

"Da - dar- da---"

I figure he's trying to say *CENSORED* you and i chuckle, he tries desperately to kick and scream and i just smile, when theres nothing left i drop him and watch the body fall to hard floor below with a splat and grin. I try to make it down my stairs on my own and collapse falling down them. I think i'm.... hurt?

I look up to see my friends, Marble and Mercury and they are talking about something - i pass out hearing only fragments.

"Was that an agent!?!"

"--Out of here now."

"----EPN.......codebomb that saved....." 

"Wraith is ours..."

"Is the data ok?"

====

==== Weeks Ago

It had been weeks since his near lifeless body had been left in that broken pipeline feeding into zion, no doubt some of the security folk had pulled his body in. Yet again he found himself in another medical bay. Unfamilliar faces surrounding him as he tries to make sense of it all. He sees the IV sticking into his arm and panics ripping it from the vein, sending the blood out across the bed and floor. The medical attendant comes over to check on him as he stumbles to get to his feet.

"Welcome to zion stranger, i don't know if i should say welcome home or not but we'll figure it out."

"I don't think so." Darminian replied grabbing the clothing near his bed.

"Well i can't medical advise you leave or jack in if your thinking of either."

"Well i guess i need a second opinion."

As he went to move to the door, he recognized one of the familiar zionists in uniform - security. Things had been beefed up heavily what with new zion and all. He stopped and eyed the security guard before him, no weapons - no visible ones anyways. They were about the same size, but the guard didn't look worried, then again neither did Darm, but only one of them was aware of the extent of the injuries.

"Listen i just want to get the hell out of here, you can escort me to a comm. terminal, i can call my ship and i can be the hell out of here before you guys can even start the paperwork."

"I'm afraid we can't allow that, the council has requested the top most security concering all affairs around here."

Darminian sighed as he looked around the room: Syringes, scalpels, guaze - all of these things far too deadly to use on this poor guard Darminian thought to himself. 'Have to go with the bare hands approach i suppose.' He turned his back to the guard and took a step before turning back around and throwing a punch. Every inch of his body ached and the punches speed felt like an eternity to him. The guard sidestepped the blow and drove his elbow into Darminians side - he spluttered and collapsed on the floor.

"Your condition is borderline critical, i'm surprised your even concious - and your going to try and pick a fight with one of our security officers - honestly."

Darminian contemplated taking the doctor hostage, but was a little preoccupied with feeling like his insides were exploding. Picking himself off the floor he moved back to the bed and sat down wiping the blood from his mouth.

"Now, your vitals are disturbing to say the least, your entirely malnourished and your body is about to give out on you - theres also a strange substance in your body that i can't seem to recognize in the slightest."

Rubbing his head he replied. "Probably a type of neuro-toxin."

"Neuro-toin? - Where have you been?"

"Stuck in a nightmare, if this isn't a hallucination or a dream."

"Interesting." He replied taking a note down, probably something about a psychiatrist.

Darminian looked over to the security guard. "What rank are you kiddo?"

"Private". He replied trying to cover up the cockyness present since he knocked him down.

"Listen, i doubt you want to get chewed out over doing your job right, so why don't you get on the blower and contact one of yours - name's Miller - no idea the rank."

"Miller? - you mean captain miller?"

"Sounds about right."

The look on the privates face was enough to bring a smile to Darminian's, he stepped out of the medical room and returned several minutes later.

"He's on his way and he's pissed, i hope you have something relevant or i fear for what he's going to do to you."

Chuckling Darminian replied "I hope for your sake i have something relevant to say, otherwise you just made him come down here for nothing."

The kid went a little more pale then he probably should have, as the doors opened and Captain miller walked in. Darminian's usual sinsiter grin was present as he leaned back on the bed.

"Private, why the hell am i down he....." He stopped dead when he saw Darminian. A look of shock and more than anything confoundation was present on his face.

"How goes it Miller?"

"I'm doing well, and i can't believe that you are too apparently."

"Yeah well, i've never had much use for dying so..."

"All that work you do hasn't caught up i guess."

"Nope, but it seems what i've done for you, has caught up."

Miller turned a shade of white similar to the private.

"What do you want?"

Several minutes later Darminian sat at the docks watching the Scorched Horizon dock to pick him up. The same grin on his face as he watched the ship land and he boarded it.

====

The only words that stayed in his head were the last he'd heard as his body had been left in the pipeline.

"You can go back to Zion Darminian, we have Spectre when we need him."

((At this point im going to let this thread die, and leave this part of the story alone, if i find some kind of angle or interesting aspect or way to run with this i will, but in the meantime writing even this last part took too much effort, and the lack of RP i found with it demonstrates a uselessness to it. That being said i had to end it because i tend to hate plot holes more than just a poor plot to begin with.

Darminian