D.I.C.E(Game Thread/PM to Join)

[deathbydeath]

Aaron, seeing that Sophia wasn't accepting his offer of a cigarette, closed the box and returned it to it's home in his jacket pocket, lighting the one in his mouth while he did so. He inhaled deeply while Sophia made her response.

"Uh... Well, they pay me, and give me weapons, and they let me protect people... There's not much more I can ask for, so I like it okay. Why? What do you think?"

Sophia's simple and frank response caused Aaron to chuckle, but the smoke floating through his mouth transformed that laughter into a hacking cough. When Aaron calmed his lungs, he gave his response. "That has got to be one of the most surprisingly indifferent statements that I've heard recently. I'm not attempting to belittle you or anything, it's just that interacting with (probably) the most powerful organization on the planet that is both indispensable due to their monopoly, and ethically flexible at best, people's opinions tend to be closer to either end of the emotional spectrum."

His jocular demeanor faded away as he reached this point in the conversation. His face didn't become hard and harsh, but it became serious and up-front. "I'll be honest with you, Sophia Marshall. I believe that DICE has too much power, and I'm not alone. I'm sure that you already know the basics of capitalism, so I'll get to the point. Every free business works best when there is competition, and that is simply something that doesn't exist in DICE's case. Combine the near-absolute power they bring, as well as the solid grey their moral compass lies in, and you have a recipe for immanent disaster. The reason I'm approaching you now, Sophia, is because you could be a wonderful ally to me. I will be a part of the Second Coming, Ms. Marshall, and I want you by my side as it happens."

 

[Shadowstar38]

"Now that business has been dealt with, would the two of you mind explaining to us who exactly the hell you are; since no one has ever seen you around her before. Also, explain yourselves for what just happened, since the way I see it, you two were the cause of all this."

"That will be enough Miss Isabelle," A female voice said in a calm, smooth tone. "I'll take it from here"

A blond woman in a light blue dress stepped off the lift. She looked to be in her mid thirties, and was carrying and ivory staff. This was Christina Noble. Leader of Division 2

"Isaac. When I said you could come by the base, I did not say you could bring these creatures with you"

"My bad. It was totally accidental"

"Isaac. 'My bad' wouldn't have covered it if one of my people had gotten killed. You were being utterly reckless to the point of stupidity. Why no one bothered to arrest you when this all started is beyond me"

Isaac gave a dejected look and bowed his head.

"Sorry. I really didn't know it would end up like this. I'll be more careful next time I come in."

Christina sighed lightly, still not really satisfied, but moved on anyway.

"In any case, you said you found out something about this new enemy?"

"Oh. Yeah. The decay. Kouza or whatever. The biggest number of them are being spotted near London. That's probably their origin point. Also, I came across one of your people's labs in France was hacked into and given a virus. We don't know who did it, only that from descriptions, he had one of those Kouza with him. He know jack crap other than that. Oh. And this guy has fought one before apparently"

Isaac lifted up a blood stained Eligor for Noble to see.

"Same here with these two," Adriana interrupted, pointing at Isabelle and Garath.

"Huh. Really. What was that like? Oh! And more importantly, who was leading the mission? We all might be able to compare notes"

 

[Ultraman950]

"... I will be a part of the Second Coming, Ms. Marshall, and I want you by my side as it happens."

Sophia scowled and waved the smoke away from her face. "Why do you all of a sudden sound like a comic book villain? And what's this Second Coming crap? Look... DICE is hardly perfect, okay? But... well, what is? The moral grey is a necessity for us, because we have to do things nobody else would think of doing. Not the sane ones, anyway. Yesterday, I gutted three demons like pigs in a roadhouse and spent several hours drenched in their blood. Y'know how much sleep I lost over that? Not a wink. And if I had, I wouldn't be in any shape to take on the things that we have to take on. I may not be a good person, but what kind of good person would be able to do this job like we do?"

She pinched at her nose. "And would you please put that out? Those things'll kill you."

 

[deathbydeath]

"Y'know how much sleep I lost over that? Not a wink. And if I had, I wouldn't be in any shape to take on the things that we have to take on. I may not be a good person, but what kind of good person would be able to do this job like we do?"

Aaron shrugged nonchalantly at her point. "For the record, being able to act with clarity in moral grey areas is a trait that I value. If you are so capable of doing the right thing unflinchingly, then why hesitate to do the right thing in this case? DICE is too power for both its own good as well as that of the world's, no matter your stance on the moral spectrum. Also, you are entirely at your own free will here. While I implore you to join me, I will not retaliate if you refuse, and I won't stop you even if you report me to the higher-ups. If you are in need of convincing, however, I have some information you'd like to see, but it's not on my person now, for obvious reasons. I recommend you take a look at it, it's certainly worth your time."

When he was done, he obeyed Sophia's wishes and extinguished his cigarette. "Very well, but just because they can kill me doesn't mean that something else will beat it to the punch." He returned the half-finished paper cylinder to its box, just as he heard a clean-up crew approaching them down the hall.

"I do hope you honestly consider my offer, Sophia. We're not as bad as you think." The clean-up crew was clearly audible at this point, but not within eyesight. Aaron made the cigarette box disappear, and his hand vanished.

Sophie reeled back, clutching her face, feeling the warm touch of blood roll down her face. Before she could get a good look at Aaron again, she clearly heard the words exit his mouth.

"Damn half-demon"

 

[Ultraman950]

"Damn half-demon"

Sophie swung her fist blindly at Aaron, intending to at least break his nose, then opened her eyes and delivered a proper jab to his stomach, chest, and throat before finishing up with a shin to his groin before pinning him to the wall, holding him almost a foot off the ground. Her expression could best be described as a combination of "I'll kill you" and "But not before hurting you for a long time".

"I want you. To say that. Again. Bearing in mind that I have a short temper and can break cement blocks with my face."

 

[deathbydeath]

"I want you. To say that. Again. Bearing in mind that I have a short temper and can break cement blocks with my face."

No words left Aaron's lips (he could barely breathe), but his grin spoke volumes.

As the clean-up crew rounded the corner, they saw the debacle before them and rushed in to break up the fight. Both combatants were lead away, with stern words to both about how this incident would be reported. Aaron could barely stand up straight, and he was coughing so violently a slight red mist appeared every so often. If you listened, though, you might mistake it for laughter.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"That will be enough Miss Isabelle." A female voice said in a calm, smooth tone. "I'll take it from here." Isabelle turned around and saw a blond haired woman in her mid to late thirties, wearing a light blue dress, and sporting an ivory staff; there was only one person in the base that fit the description, her superior and Division Two head, Christina Noble. Both were respected members and rather high up in the echelon of command for their respective division. After taking a moment to calm down and breathe, Isabelle politely stepped back and allowed Christina to question Isaac and Adriana.

"Fair enough and if you so wish, please continue." Isabelle said politely as she sheathed her sword.

"Apologies for the way I acted just now, its just that figuring these two were inadvertantly involved for an indirect attack on our base; warranted at least a few questions to be asked."

"Huh. Really. What was that like? Oh! And more importantly, who was leading the mission? We all might be able to compare notes." Isaac asked after interupting Adriana.

"In a single word, bloody; and rather painful for the Kouza that we killed, seeing as though that one person was apparently attacking it from the inside, another was using acid shotgun shells; and that myself had used ice elemental magic as a means to slow down its attacks. The Kouza Prime came as a result of the team I was leading in Russia to search for survivors, whilst another team was sent to investigate a local facility in the area."

 

[IFS]

"Huh. Really. What was that like? Oh! And more importantly, who was leading the mission? We all might be able to compare notes"

Garath nodded, he let Isabelle explain their encounter with the prime in Russia, then spoke up, "I managed to speak with one of the Kouza that invaded the facility, and learned several things from it, they're made of a combination of demons and one human, they were sent by a specter called Zorama for the purpose of capturing mages, does that name mean anything to you?"

He looked over at Isaac, and a thought occurred to him, wasn't his last name specter? And Christina had said that he led the demons here, was he the specter the Kouza had meant? He shook his head, that was highly unlikely, and throwing baseless accusations around would do little to help matters.

He turned his attention back to Christina, waiting for her to respond to his information. He hoped she knew something about this Zorama, and that they could track him down.

 

[Terratina.]

Eligor was covered in blood and was desperate for a little cleaning. Just being held there, all bloody and with little bits of Kouza sticking to the blade wasn't the best way to look with the head of Division Two staring at him. But was somewhat reassuring to see Isabelle there again, even if they weren't the closest of friends. Nevertheless, that question remained. Who was this guy who kicked a demon with a bomb all the way to Detroit? The man seemed to be rather reckless in that respect, but then again D.I.C.E. had let some reckless people join throughout the past, just look at all the half-demons here. Blood and brimstone was a potent mix, Eligor remembered when they were used as shock troopers - but mostly cannon fodder as well - in the wars caused by the eternal power struggles within Hell. Poor mutts. Eligor opened his eye only to find that he had to blink rapidly to stop the flood of blood entering it. Isabelle was just going through the events of the previous mission in a by-the-book manner while Isaac was recovering from the harsh words of the Division Two head, but still looked like a kicked puppy. Eligor was tempted to yawn.

"Huh. Really. What was that like? Oh! And more importantly, who was leading the mission? We all might be able to compare notes."

Eligor went against yawning, as that question needed answering, "And even more importantly, who exactly are you? I believe we were cut off by the Kouza in our last conversion."

"In a single word, bloody; and rather painful for the Kouza that we killed, seeing as though that one person was apparently attacking it from the inside, another was using acid shotgun shells; and that myself had used ice elemental magic as a means to slow down its attacks. The Kouza Prime came as a result of the team I was leading in Russia to search for survivors, whilst another team was sent to investigate a local facility in the area."

Right after that little speech, he began to project the gentlemanly image of himself, as it was only the polite thing to do and swiftly replied afterwards, "Oh yes, bloody. Possibly more bloody than the blade is at this moment." He said with a chuckle. Hopefully the hint wouldn't be lost on little Isaac.

 

[Ultraman950]

On their way out of the superior's office, Sophia's glowing eyes appraised Aaron maliciously. "What the hell are you trying to do?" she whispered. "Did you get possessed while I wasn't looking? You're not doing a very good job of convincing me to do whatever, just so you know, moron."

 

[Shadowstar38]

"In a single word, bloody; and rather painful for the Kouza that we killed, seeing as though that one person was apparently attacking it from the inside, another was using acid shotgun shells; and that myself had used ice elemental magic as a means to slow down its attacks. The Kouza Prime came as a result of the team I was leading in Russia to search for survivors, whilst another team was sent to investigate a local facility in the area."


"From the inside? The thing must have been huge. I havn't seen them get bigger than a really tall human"

Just then, Eligor projected himself into the form of a man outside the sword.

"Oh yes, bloody. Possibly more bloody than the blade is at this moment."

Isaac took the hint and walked off for a moment. He enters the bathroom and sprayed some water down the Blade. He returned to the group with a towel he picked up and began giving the souldrinker a proper cleaning.

"I managed to speak with one of the Kouza that invaded the facility, and learned several things from it, they're made of a combination of demons and one human, they were sent by a specter called Zorama for the purpose of capturing mages, does that name mean anything to you?"

"Zorama? Damn...," Isaac actually seemed to look serious at the moment; a rarity for him. "He's a scientist a met years ago. I saw him die though. Maybe something, or someone revived him? I doubt he could be a specter though"

Isaac raised Eligor again. The blade and hilt were clear, but he'd need to give the sword a proper polishing later on.

"I guess I should explain some more stuff. I'm Isaac Specter. I'm an independant paranormal investigator. I usually handle ghosts. Cults. And apparently demons whenever this demon hunter group needs a favor"

"Dice Isaac," Adriana interrupted. "It's called Dice"

"Semantics. Anyway, now that I kind of have a bigger picture of all this, I can probably get to the bottom of it sooner"

"You mean, you and several Division 2 agents will get to the bottom of it," Christina spoke up. "After this little stunt, I'm not letting you do anything more without some backup"

"...you mean babysitters...don't you?"

"Precisely"

Adriana let out a cough to get both of their attention.

"Excuse me Miss magical woman. I know Isaac is kind of a fuck up"

"Bullcrap I am..."

"Shush. But we won't need new people. We can just take these guys. They're the only ones besides us who've fought this enemy before, and got more information than Isaac ever would have"

"I would have eventually..."

"Shush. Why don't we just take the people from that mission along with us for the rest of this case?"

Christina thought on it for a moment. She smiled and did a slight bow at Adriana for her show of intelligence.

"That sounds like a good idea. I can put them under Isaac's command for the time being". Christian looked around at Garath, Isabelle, and Eligor. "That is, if all of you are okay with it"

 

[DarkRawen]

"This is ridiculous. Just dump me in my room and find a wheelchair, also you might as well incinerate the legs in a furnace or something, better then D.I.C.E doing weird shit to them. Plus traveling around with Human legs in France would be a little sussed."

Richard looked at Azkar's legs. "Wait," he said. "You want me to burn them? Your legs?" It seemed Azkar would grow new ones or something like that. Still, if it had been Richard, then there would already be signs of it, but if Azkar said so... "Well, fine. There is some kind of incinerator in the labs to get rid of failed test subjects and such, I'll carry you there." He walked out of the cells, and a bit down the hallway to a big metal door. Richard managed to open it with a bit help from Azkar, and opened a small door to the incinerator, which wasn't burning anything at the moment.
"There you go. Throw them in," he told Azkar, not sure if what he was doing was helping her or not.

 

[deathbydeath]

"Did you get possessed while I wasn't looking? You're not doing a very good job of convincing me to do whatever, just so you know, moron."

Aaron feigned a hurt look. "Moron? You insult me!" As quickly as the look appears, it was already gone. "Just make no judgements, and all will be well." With that, he entered the elevator and rode to level 5.

 

[IFS]

"That sounds like a good idea. I can put them under Isaac's command for the time being". Christina looked around at Garath, Isabelle, and Eligor. "That is, if all of you are okay with it"

"Sure, but first I have a message from the kouza to Sophia, do you know where she is or could you deliver it for me?" Garath said, he thought he had seen Sophia go off somewhere with Aaron a little while ago, but he wasn't sure where they had gone.

As for Isaac he wasn't sure he could trust him, but if he knew where this Zorama was he would gladly follow him. He wondered what Isabelle would say, she clearly didn't like Isaac.

 

[Ultraman950]

"Just make no judgements, and all will be well."

Just before the door closed, Sophie replied, "Don't insult me or do anything stupid and I'll think about it."

She made a point of taking the stairs back to her bunk, where she sat down hard, causing a small white business card to fall onto the floor. She carefully picked it up, confused, and read it while using a wet cloth to clean the fresh blood from her face. On the front were the words:

'Pertition & Co. Demon Hunters.
"Who will you call?"'

Along with various phone numbers and addresses. Flipping it over, she read the back:

'D5 Rec. Room in three minutes, please.
I apologize for my actions, please let me explain.'

"Three minuets," she said under her breath. "Y'know what, you can just sit there and wait, jackass." She spent five minuets re-braiding and tying up her hair again, then another minuet checking and reloading her sidearm before standing up and taking the scenic route to the D5 rec-room. Then, shoved the door open with her foot, never uncrossing her arms.

"What?"

 

[deathbydeath]

The door to the D5 Rec Room slammed open, revealing a group of recruits, terrified at the angry red-eyed blond woman who had just kicked in their door. Also there was Aaron, who was in the middle of exploiting said recruits out of their money via bets on a game of pool billiards. Ignoring Sophia's subtle entrance so that he could concentrate, Aaron struck the cue ball. A few seconds later, four of the recruits groaned as two striped balls went into opposite pockets, and they handed over wads of cash to Aaron, who thanked them profusely.

Aaron then shoved the cash into his pocket and turned around to greet Sophia, who had her arms crossed and still looked like she wanted to kill him. Nevertheless, he greeted her as if she had been his dearest friend and he hadn't seen her in a decade.

"Sophia! I am so glad that you could make it. Please, accompany me."

He walked past her, seemingly ignorant of her demeanor, and led her to the elevator, where he sent them to level 2. Before the silence crept in, Aaron spoke. "So, before we reach the parking garage, is there anything you would like to ask?"

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

Eliezer was in the Division 5 dorm room, there was some commotion going on outside in the common room, but he was too busy deciding what to wear to care. He was having a hard time choosing. Being locked up for ten years, surrounded by a bunch of scientists who believed what one wore and looked like was superfluous, did nothing to help inform him what was fashionable - not that he was vain - for all he knew purple suits were now the best thing since sliced bread. What to chose? There were jeans, t-shirts with supposedly ironic statements on them, plain shirts, chinos. In the end he settled on a casual light grey suit, with a white shirt- leaving the top two buttons, black shoes and belt. He went over to the mirror and looked himself over he didn't took too bad, it would do. He missed his hair though, he ran his hand over his head as he wondered how long it would take for it to grow back. He grabbed a small silver briefcase as he left.

He headed towards the offices on that level, according to his I.D. Card Division 5 took care of civilian defence, where they lumped the new guys. They seriously thought he would willing participate in demon hunting, what nonsense. He planned on finding all the information he could on the scientists who had experimented on him. They knew everything about him, every little bit of information they could get, right down to his bones. It was only fair that he knew them so intimately as well. He started searching through the filing cabinets, which his wonderful new I.D. Card gave him access to. He didn't plan on killing the scientists since they had never done that to him, instead he planned on hurting them as they had hurt him, slowly ruining their lives. An eye for an eye, after all. He stuffed the papers he had found into the briefcase and briskly exited the offices.

Now to figure out how to get out of the facility, so far he had seen no signs leading to the exit. He remembered one of the scientists mentioned that it was situated deep underground as he complained about the lack of sunlight, because it ruined an experiments that they tried to do on plants. As he wondered how he might leave he bumped into one of the staff. He told her he was new here and didn't know how to leave, and since it was more then rare that a member of division 5 visited the labs, she happily obliged him. She told him that to leave you had to use a portal, and directed him to the portal room.

They staff in the portal room searched him and but the briefcase through some scanner, apparently it was procedure, so DICE didn't even trust their own, how quaint. The gave him a pager so he could return, not that he planned to. He would have to secure some funds though first, before he started his 'ruin the scientists lives' plan. But business was a tricksters game, and he was very old and a very good trickster, both attributes lending themselves to great monetary wealth. He had plenty of different bank account, most well hidden through a myriad of shell accounts and investment schemes, some not. He used the portal device to go to London, it was a boring city, but it was where most of his wealth was hidden.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

Isabelle listened to the conversation that was taking place between Christina, Isaac and Adriana. From what they had managed to gather before arriving here was certainly interesting indeed; being able to find the point in which these demons came from, meant they could contain it, preventing any more from being spawned. However, the conversation also brought to light that Isaac appeared to be incompetent. Christina even bowed at Adriana for showing some initiative and/or intelligence for suggesting to bring those who had fought these demons before along.

"That sounds like a good idea. I can put them under Isaac's command for the time being." Christian looked around at Garath, Isabelle, and Eligor. "That is, if all of you are okay with it."

"Whilst I am all for helping them nip this Kouza problem in the bud, can I suggest putting someone else other than Isaac in command; from what I can gather from this conversation here, I take it he has caused some problems before in the past?"

 

[Shadowstar38]

"Sure, but first I have a message from the kouza to Sophia, do you know where she is or could you deliver it for me?"

"I saw a chick with red eyes go down a level," Adriana responded. "I can talk to her if I see her again"

"Whilst I am all for helping them nip this Kouza problem in the bud, can I suggest putting someone else other than Isaac in command; from what I can gather from this conversation here, I take it he has caused some problems before in the past?"

"Undoubtedly," Christina said tiredly. "The man can never grasp the concept of subtlety, which is indeed an important aspect of our duties.

"I'm standing right here"

"I know sweetie. Still, he's incredible at what he does. Though if you prefer someone else leading you, you could always go with that lieutenant you stated working with in your report. What was his actual name?"

 

[IFS]

"I saw a chick with red eyes go down a level," Adriana responded. "I can talk to her if I see her again"

"I'd appreciate that," Garath said, "The kouza said that the human part of it wanted to tell Sophia that it as sorry it couldn't make it back."

He wasn't sure who the human part of the kouza had been, or what they meant to Sophia, but he hoped Adrianna would be able to use more than her usual level of tact when delivering the message, having someone die was painful enough without recieving the news badly, although he doubted there was a terribly good way to recieve the news.

"I know sweetie. Still, he's incredible at what he does. Though if you prefer someone else leading you, you could always go with that lieutenant you stated working with in your report. What was his actual name?"

Garath shrugged, he'd forgotten the lieutenants name, which was odd, he was usually ood with names. Then again it didn't really matter to him who was leading them, though he agreed that Isaac semed a bit too impulsive to be a good leader.