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

[DarkRawen]

"What are you going to do?"

Azkar had asked him, but then she let the door close and continued to leave. Well, what should he do? He wouldn't help out, obviously, he had way more to lose than to gain from doing that, and his help would be useless anyway. "She did say she might take a nap," he murmured. Richard was far too awake to do that, and he was keen on leaving, at least to get some fresh air. "With the portals, I'll be able to leave instantly, Azkar won't mind if I drop by my house for a while, will she? I have a few items I've been wanting to get from there."

When was the last time he had been home? The house was probably dusty, luckily he had been clever enough to leave out every trace of food before he left, else that would have been rotten by now. After a short visit at his closet to pick up his wallet and the keys, he went to the portals, which were the doors that would have lead out of the facility had they not been underground. If there was an emergency going on, these people didn't know about it yet. That made it easier for him to leave.

"Hello," he said, talking to one of the personnel behind a desk. He had been told they needed clearance and location, even if the portals had a tendency to not be completely accurate. The woman looked at him, and he gave her his DICE ID card. She scanned it, and he could see his information pop up on her screen. "I'd like to visit my home, I've been given a day off." She nodded and read through his information.

"You live in Minnesota, U.S. The portal will drop you off somewhere in Minneapolis, since that's the closest city." She gave him an small pager-like object. "This will go off if you're needed, and will show you the location of the closest portal. Usually we have portals available in every bigger city, Minneapolis seems to be on the list so there shouldn't be any problems. Any questions?" Richard shook his head. "Good, it's the door to the far left, 23P."

Richard nodded and left for the portal that looked like nothing else than a door. He opened it and walked through, and suddenly he was somewhere with tall buildings that was somewhat familiar. No one was around, as he had appeared in an alleyway. "That was easy," he thought. "I wonder if it'll be that easy to get a cab."

 

[Shadowstar38]

The girl was still trying to make sense of her supposed target when she was bombarded with question from the woman next to the spirit.

"What the hell are you doing? How dare you shoot at my assistant, but also my friend. Didn't your little scanner device tell you that she wasn't a demon. Explain yourself, now."

"Hmm?"

The girl returned her weapons to their holsters and took her cellphone back out, pointing it at Vayle again.

"Well, Isaac set the scanner to pick up a Kouza's soul pattern. And it lead me to this thing. Hmm...damn it. I wish he explained how these work better"

The girl shook her cellphone out of rage and confusion, but eventually settled down and put it away. She turned to Isabelle with an annoyed look on her face.

"There's a demon, maybe a couple, loose in whatever the hell this place is. I was just trying to find them is all. No need to get uptight lady"

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"Hmm?" The girl holstered her revolvers, and took her cell phone scanner out again, pointing it at Vayle once more.

"Well, Isaac set the scanner to pick up a Kouza's soul pattern. And it lead me to this thing. Hmm...damn it. I wish he explained how these work better." The girl shook her cell phone, with an abundant mixture of rage and confusion; but she eventually put it away. She turned to Isabelle with an annoyed look on her face.

"There's a demon, maybe a couple, loose in whatever the hell this place is. I was just trying to find them is all. No need to get uptight lady." Isabelle took a moment to relax and calm down after the girl's tirade, took a sip of her coffee, and then spoke politely.

"First off, Vayle here is not a 'thing', she is a spirit, and a rather friendly one at that most times. She has been a loyal associate of mine for the past couple of years; helping me with a variety of cases in defeating demons and other monsters. I apologise for my how I reacted just now, its just when some attacks her, I can get a little overprotective is all.

If you want to know why she might have lingering traces of a Kouza's spirit on her, is that Vayle, myself, Garath and other members of our team have recently come back from a mission in Russia, where we encountered a Kouza Prime. By the way, don't call me 'lady', my name is Isabelle Hearte." She then finished off her coffee, then rose from her seat.

"In any case, if there are demons lurking about the base, then we should go out and find them."

 

[Terratina.]

The grey man fiddled about with that device of his and looked at Eligor sheepishly and said, "Oh. Well, the head of Division 2 invited me over to the base to talk to him about something. But he forgot to tell me how to get in. I've never been here before you see. So I thought I'd just make my own portal here. Except...I may have let a few demons into the base on my way in. Sorry about that"

Eligor tried to contain his rage at this flop. Did he mention Division Two? Those so-called mages were obviously messing around with some arcane field or other and had called in this person to mess about even more. Even though the people in Division Two weren't the ones who had sealed him in the vessel of Souldrinker, he couldn't help but feel a bit of resentment for those who used the power of demons of their own means, regardless of the fate of their immortal souls that were sold to the demons in the process. It took a certain type of scum to do that, to use others and one thing Eligor vastly disproved of was being used. But that was part of being bound in a summoning circle or a sword, simply just part of the job.

He settled down and his eye returned to its normal, non-widened-with-rage self, and replied, "That's quite a mess you've created. Luckily, I am akin to a demon-dowsing stick. Just tell me what type they are or we'll have false positives everywhere."

 

[IFS]

"In any case, if there are demons lurking about the base, then we should go out and find them."

"Can't we let someone else handle it?" Garath said, reaching for another scone, "I've already had my break interrupted once today, and there are plenty of other DICE agents around here."

he slouched back in his chair, trying to look more exhausted than he actually was, taking another bite out of his scone.

"Besides my head still hurts from binding the Kouza," he lied.

 

[Shadowstar38]

"That's quite a mess you've created. Luckily, I am akin to a demon-dowsing stick. Just tell me what type they are or we'll have false positives everywhere."

"Really? Sweet. The one's we're looking for are Kouzas. They're a bunch oh demons melded down it single bodies"
______________________________________________________________________________________

"First off, Vayle here is not a 'thing', she is a spirit, and a rather friendly one at that most times. She has been a loyal associate of mine for the past couple of years; helping me with a variety of cases in defeating demons and other monsters. I apologise for my how I reacted just now, its just when some attacks her, I can get a little overprotective is all.

If you want to know why she might have lingering traces of a Kouza's spirit on her, is that Vayle, myself, Garath and other members of our team have recently come back from a mission in Russia, where we encountered a Kouza Prime. By the way, don't call me 'lady', my name is Isabelle Hearte."

Isabelle stood up from her seat after drinking her coffee.

"In any case, if there are demons lurking about the base, then we should go out and find them."

"Hmm. Guess we could use the help. And if you guys have actually fought one of these before, even better"

"I've already had my break interrupted once today, and there are plenty of other DICE agents around here."

"Pff. Like I need you. I've got the sexy lady with the sword with me now"

The girl walked back over to the door and called back to her new ally.

"Come on Isabelle Hearte. We got places to go. And my name is Adriana."

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

Eliezer leaned against a tree, slowly allowing himself to fall to the ground. He would rest here, just for a little bit, to find some small glimmer of warmth where the cold had yet to etch it's way into his bones, just for a little bit. The bite of the bark on his back would keep him awake, if he accidentally slipped into a slumber it would scratch him forcing him to wake. Just for a little bit, to find some warmth. The cold tried to embrace him, to seduce him into sleep, he couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't die, but it would give D.I.C.E. the time to find him. Just for a little bit....

Just for a little bit....

He woke shivering.

He had to get up, get moving.

Wait, how long had been asleep for? D.I.C.E would've found him by now if they were looking for him. Had they just let him go, knowing he was harmless, they let him go? Then why the whole charade of recapturing him? If they really just wanted him gone why send that mummy after him? He didn't know any more, it could be a trap either way the only he could find out was to go back, he wouldn't go back even if it meant his powers back, not back to that damned facility.

"Hey, isn't he pathetic"

"Yeah."

"Who was that?"

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

Azkar meandered into the Div 3 armory, flashing her ID at the armorer, she looked over the apparel and equipment with a mischievous grin, then spent quite a while getting an interesting kit together. She smirked as she zipped it all up in two large duffle bags and looped one over either shoulder. "At least it'll be a bit of a work out." She exclaimed as she slowly began walking out, carrying both bags was pretty awkward. Azkar made her way down the various corridors until she got to her room. Thank God she didn't have to put up with any room mates, if her rank from Div 2 hadn't carried over she probably would have killed someone by now.

Azkar swiped her ID through the lock, pushing the door open with a foot and dumping the bags on the floor, she then closed her door, made sure it was locked and stretched. She raised a finger to her lips and thought for a few seconds if she had anything important to do, but she figured she was pretty good. Azkar stripped her still moist clothes and underwear and threw them in the laundry hamper near her desk, she then flicked off the light and climbed in bed. It didn't take her long to fall asleep.

 

[DarkRawen]

It had been fairly easy to get a cab, but it was harder to find one that would take him out of town and into the areas around. The house, Richard's childhood house, was by a unnamed lake. It was a wooden mansion, old, but recently repaired and painted, the soft cream-white a contrast to the colorful leaves of the trees surrounding it. It was the only one nearby, and the road to it was a private one, owned by his family for several years. There were hills around it, and it was surrounded by wilderness on all sides. The cab-driver said he would be willing to wait for around half an hour, which was more than enough time for Richard to visit this house.

He couldn't keep Azkar waiting, after all. It had already taken fifteen minutes to reach get there, so he would be gone somewhere between an hour and one and a half.

The garden around the house was filled with leaves from not having been attended to in a while, which honestly made him stop and take a look, for only a short moment. Richard continued, and unlocked the house. The door creaked when he opened it, but differently, unlike it had in the past. Upon closer examination... was it the same door at all? It looked the same, but the handle lacked that certain rustiness it had before, and it was colder than he remembered. Suddenly an air of seriousness hit him, and he began using what wit and ability to think through the situation he had. There were only two things that got him in that mood, and this one wasn't connected to demons. When he entered the house, it became apparent that someone had been there.

He hadn't been in the old house since he left for DICE half a year ago, yet items were barely dusty. He went from the corridor to the living-room, and right up to the many shelves of books. Even those who hadn't been touched for years lacked dust, as if someone had throughly searched them. Had he been as naive as before, they might have contained letters or documents he didn't want anyone else to find.

Of course, Richard wasn't so dull that he wouldn't expect DICE to search his house, he just hadn't realized the effort they would make. He continued to look around, tables had been searched, even underneath the table-legs was there no trace of any dust or dirt. Azkar had made a comment that suggested she believed he suffered from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder... Then what did these people suffer from? He knew he wasn't as bad as this when it came down to it, not even close.

After wandering around, checking places where he felt DICE would have checked, he stopped in front of an old photograph of him, his sister and his mother taken when he was around five years old. He lifted it up, and checked the frame. It had, almost not visibly, been opened. "Well, I'm glad I didn't hide anything important here, just the one result from a sample," he muttered to himself. Then the thought of DICE having installed microphones or cameras hit him. "I knew there was a reason why I didn't trust DICE in the beginning." Well, apart from the fact that the first time he found out about them was after DICE personnel had hit him with a gunshot, a bullet well-aimed having pierced his forehead.

 

[IFS]

Garath picked up the last scone, and took a bite, only to recoil in surprise, "Blueberries? All these scones had cherries not blueberries,clearly there is a pastry altering demon on the loose," he said sarcastically to himself.

Sighing he stood up and followed Isabelle and Adriana, "Guess I don't have anything better to do," he muttered, chewing his scone as he followed them, hanging back enough that he hoped they wouldn't notice him. Normally he would just go take a nap, but he'd gotten a surprising amount of sleep on the plane and wasn't sure he could make himself sleep after all the coffee he'd just had.

 

[deathbydeath]

Aaron was dead tired. "More dead than tired", he'd say, if he was capable of speaking right now. In case you're wondering why he can't say that himself, it's because he's sleepwalking. Aaron trudged through the corridors of Division/Level 4 with his consciousness out like a light, and his body saying otherwise. His insensible form wandered into the curiously empty break room and poured itself a glass of milk. Grabbing a newspaper on the way out, the semi-undead form of Aaron Pertition hobbled down the hall. As it browsed the headlines, you could almost hear incoherent ramblings about political shenanigans in between sips of milk. It rounded a corner, going God knows where, and came face to face with a demon.

"Jya vy'm kdyrgyrk kd'kyj r'zor!" This caused Aaron to stir. The demon stood eight feet tall, towering over Aaron's waking form.

"Y oz dra kymmokan yv 'ynmjk! Jary'nan yv norak!" Aaron yawned, shrugging off his nap. The demon continued to flaunt its accomplishments.

"Orryrymodyn yv kmoradk! Ryrr'anan yv zyndomk!" Aaron put his newspaper under his arm and freed up his right hand, reaching under his jacket in the process.

"Ry' jya orj ca aodar zyndom, orj gry' drod Y, Jz'nak, rora gymmaj iy'!" Aaron drew.

All of the demon's accomplishments meant nothing now, with it's head spread over the hall behind it. Aaron inserted another bullet into the magazine that wasn't empty, holstered it, and went on his way. Milk and pistol in hand, he set off in search for either other demons or other DICE agents, whichever came first.

 

[Terratina.]

"Really? Sweet. The one's we're looking for are Kouzas. They're a bunch oh demons melded down it single bodies"

Eligor sighed, this was just another kiddy that had found a new toy to play with. But kids were impressionable and this person could possibly be used for Eligor's own ends. Time to play the all-knowing grandfather.

"It is indeed fortunate we have run into each other then, I have faced and slain a Kouza Prime recently." Eligor said, remembering that the golem-like thing had a rather central aura, it was curious, normally an aura was perceived as an outline. He cleared his throat, or it be precise made a sound akin to that and continued, offering the grey man the hilt, "Let us sort this mess together, but be warned, I am not some toy or gadget to play with. I am a deadly weapon and was a Great Duke of Hell. Try be respectable and responsible, yes?"

 

[MortifiedPenguin]

Eliezer got up in panic and spun around trying to find who had said that, there were two voices he was sure of that, or was he? They were too similar for him to be sure. He shot through the woods, looking for the miscreants who had spoken those cruel words, he wasn't pathetic, he was a victim of circumstance. He pressed on through the ever densening forest finding no signs of who the words belonged to.

Voices on the wind, that's all they were. DICE trying to scare him back into returning, he wouldn't be fooled by that.

When had it got so dark? He hadn't noticed it before, he hadn't had time to notice it, but now as he paused to catch his breath he did. The stars had vanished from view and he felt like he was being encircled by the forest, snared by an invisible trap. Damn it! What could he do? If he went back he was willingly reimprisoning himself. Forwards would only lead him further into the snare. And going nowhere would get him nowhere.

A red skinned demon appeared from the darkness. Long curving horns crowned his head divided by dark purple that pointed upwards. His eyes were pits of fire, Eliezer could see no true pupils, where they should have been were disk of lighter coloured lava. He wore nothing but a jewel encrusted shendyt and a mocking smile.

"How disappointing, he doesn't remember us," One voice groaned.

Another figure stepped forward, this one more elegant although dangerously arrogant. He wore armour the colour of brass, etched with the faces of hellish beasts and a face that promised nothing but lies. He was more human though, with darkly tanned skin and hair the colour of sand. The horns that adorned his head gave him away as a demon though.

"Or he chooses not to remember," The other said

Eliezer could feel the warmth of light on his back, it was blinding, he could here someone approaching from it, unfettered by it's brightness . The two figures raised there arms to shelter their eyes from it. Eliezer heard someone approaching from behind him

"Eliezer,"

He knew that voice.

"Rag-" He woke up in the whiteness of his cell, back in the labs, back in the hands of DICE, "-uel"

 

[Evrant-Knight]

"Hmm. Guess we could use the help. And if you guys have actually fought one of these before, even better." The girl remarked, sounding more optimistic than before at the thought of getting some help from people with previous experience. Isabelle meanwhile had checked on her sword, making sure it was ready for battle.

"I've already had my break interrupted once today, and there are plenty of other DICE agents around here." Garath added, sounding a little annoyed whilst he began eating another one of his scones. Vayle, at the news of seeing some action, was already getting herself prepared.

"Pff. Like I need you. I've got the sexy lady with the sword with me now." Isabelle's face almost went red at the comment, but she quickly cooled herself down. Sure, she had been called pretty, even attractive a few times by some of her fellow agents, but never before had she been called sexy. The girl walked back over to the door and called back to her new ally.

"Come on Isabelle Hearte. We got places to go. And my name is Adriana."

"Alright then Adriana, lets go catch us a Kouza. And please, call me Isabelle." She said in a somewhat high spirited tone of voice as she followed Adriana out of the common room, with Vayle soon behind her. As they followed the signal, Isabelle decided to ask a few questions.

"So, when did we start detecting signs of demons in the base? It might help us pinpoint their location of origin."

 

[Shadowstar38]

"Let us sort this mess together, but be warned, I am not some toy or gadget to play with. I am a deadly and was a Great Duke of Hell. Try be respectable and responsible, yes?"

"Oh, you don't have to worry Great Duke. I'll be as careful as humanly possible"

The young man took Eligor firmly by the hilt and held him outwards as one would a saber. The feeling he felt from handling the demon's form was unnerving, but not unfamiliar. He could feel Eligor guiding him down towards the lower floors.

"Alright. Let's get a move on"

The man closed his eyes and both swordsman and blade became intangible and sank through the solid floor and landed in the area below them. The man continued to use Eligor to tract the demon they were looking for, which Eligor could feel was getting closer with each step.
______________________________________________________________________________

"So, when did we start detecting signs of demons in the base? It might help us pinpoint their location of origin."

"Well, Isaac called me said some demons got in after he opened his personal portal into the base. So when I got here I set the radar for Kouza aura and looked around"

The girl's cellphone, no longer locking onto friendlies, lead the group down towards the 3rd Division floor. As the got further down, they saw a door that was nearly broken off its hinges. The sign on the front was clearly labeled 'armory'

"Um...demons cant use weapons, can they?", Adriana asked in a slightly scared tone.

 

[IFS]

"Um...demons cant use weapons, can they?"

"They've got hands don't they?" Garath answered, walking down the stairs to join them, "And before you say anything I wasn't following you, you just happened to be going the same way as me."

He saw the door, and the sign hanging over it, "That is not good," he muttered, then turned towards Adriana "I'll be right back, you might want to alert the rest of the base."

He concentrated, it was one thing to create an image, or to alter an existing one, but to remove an image, to render something invisible, that was something far more difficult. He cancentrated and vanished. He walked quickly through the smashed doorway, the spell would only last for about a minute or two at most, so he needed to make use of it while it lasted.

 

[DarkRawen]

Richard shook his head to clear it. It still went hazy every time he thought of that, the same way he couldn't attend for how he had managed to get home that day. "Snap out of it. I need to think of something else."
His eyes went to the picture again, for a reason he wasn't aware of. He ended up staring at it for a little while, at his mother's weary, but happy face. The reason? Richard wasn't sure. However, something was wrong with it, upon closer examination. There, in the middle of the picture, just above his mother's blue eyes, a small something was hidden, it had a slightly off color. How small could a camera get these days? "If there is a camera, I don't want to keep it around. If it's a microphone, I don't want it around either." He still had to pick "that" up, and he didn't want DICE to even know of its existence.

He took the picture with its frame and threw it in the garbage. As he did, the sound of ticking from a clock was heard. It would have been fine, had it not been for the fact that the only clock around was an old grandfather clock that hadn't been fixed since Richard inherited the house. "I don't feel too well." Richard decided to keep looking for small traces and hints of DICE presence, but was unable to find out more than he already knew. If there were any more in the lower floor, he couldn't find it. Nothing was missing from the old, but valuable items, apart from what he had sold himself. He wasn't sure how the different people actually lived, but he knew that he had grown up in an upper-class home, with nothing material missing from his and his sister's lives, their every whim easily fulfilled with money. Even if he hadn't been wearing expensive clothing in a long time, now was a better time than ever to pick them up. However, the most important stuff first.

He went up to the next floor, but instead of looking around he went directly into what had been his room as a child. Clean, with light blue color and no posters or useless decorative items, it was as he remembered it. His bed was since long moved from the room, he had sold it when he had moved into the master bedroom. When he had used it after that, it had been as a room where he would research what he could, and do the Genome Sequencing. His actually lab had been in the basement, but going down didn't have any value. He doubted DICE had left anything there, and if they had, there wasn't any use for it. The equipment had been moved to DICE when he was picked up by DICE and a car, no questions asked. Not that he had gotten this great chance to choose when asked, it was either working for DICE, imprisonment, or death, they had secrets to keep, after all.

"Anything in here?" he thought, and shook his head. If they saw this, they would just believe he took something out of sentimental value, whatever that even meant. For him, it sounded like adding value to something because it was old, but not a antique. Just a reason for people not to throw it out. Of course, they would wonder why it was where it was, but every child hid something in their room. "Okay, where was it again?" he thought as he stepped on the floorboards. The sounds were alike on everyone, except for a slight hesitation on the tenth he tried. "Perfect." Then, instead of doing whatever to the floorboard, he found a chair, and placed it so that the same floorboard was underneath it. Then he took a hard rock he had been keeping on his table, and smashed it against the roof. He had been hiding stuff up there since he was fourteen or so, but the first thing that fell in his head was a box the size of drawer. "Ow."
Yep, it still had the same weight as it had the last time he put it up, the instance before DICE confronted him in that very same house, when they finally had found out who he was.

 

[Shadowstar38]

The Lieutenant sat in a chair he took from one of the D6 officer's desks and waited by the cells. He eventually heard movement from one of the experiments. Without bothering to turn around, he called out to the demon he was waiting for.

"Elizer? Are you finally up?"

He took a swig from a bottle of water he brought with him as he waited for Elizer to regain his full alertness.

 

[Azkar Almsivi]

Azkar woke up to gunfire outside her door. She stood up and calmly opened her two duffle bags. She began dressing and equipping herself quickly, it still took a few minutes, but it sounded like the firefight outside was being drawn out. When she was done, Azkar was covered head to toe in black spec ops gear, she began pocketing the mags and grenades she'd grabbed, holstering her weapons and putting on a tactical helmet with a re-breather mask and night vision goggles. None of her skin could be seen anymore. One of the duffle bags still had some stuff in it, which she threw over her should and back. She then kicked open the door, taking position to ascertain the situation.

Her hallways was clear. Azkar took off, rifle at the ready, with a device in her left hand. It was a simple DICE device for finding portals/portal devices and rifts in reality caused by anything really. Azkar had just been to the armory, but apparently there was something of interest there, even though she had already liberated a certain artifact which was now in her bag.

The fact there wasn't any Demons here yet meant that this invasion probably wouldn't last long on it's own steam. The little demons that had bodies on Earth couldn't even possess people, sad really. Azkar stopped at a corner and looked past it carefully toward the door of the armory, there were some people there already. Azkar decided to hang back to observe the situation.

 

[Shadowstar38]

The monster Garath laid eyes on was at least twice his size. It had the exposed muscles of a Kouza but, this one seemed different. Better designed. There was quite a bit of skin on this one, making it all the more grotesque. The single fully formed breast on the left side made one deduce it was female.

The creature lifted a gun up with it's fleshed hand and looked over it. It looked as though it had held one before. Instead of equipping itself however, it threw the weapon down in a fit of rage and began to weep silently.