Roleplay:Technology these days

This roleplay is invite only!

Overview
The entire city is run on technology. Everything from traffic, to bank accounting, even to some people. So in this world run by technology, being a hacker can be a very sweet and destructive job. If you're a good enough hacker, you could even control the city. So, when the technology gets corrupted, and the entire city of Station Square falls into chaos, the group needs to find out why all of this is happening, and when it comes to solving the problem, it turns out they are going to need the help of the most skilled hacker in Station Square.

Participants
NeoExlucky

Zapor888

Saren

Kojak

Involved Characters
Neo Tranquil

Zero Evol

Fey Wayward

Kala the Genie

Trinity Moon

Echo the Cat

Apollo Athas

Celia Takashi

Zapor the Hedgehog

Zak the Kirby

Lexi the Hedgehog

Leo + Wheelie

Saren Arcturias

Clock-Watch The Clockwork Hedgehog

Ryoku The Hedgehog

Ciel Mackenzie Fay

Argent Hellsing

Rose Hellsing

Anderson Bowie

Part 1: Blackout
Just when it seemed the everyone was going to settle into their homes, all of the lights go out,all over Station Square. There is a complete blackout. Then things start to take a turn for the weird. Street lights start working, but change so much, that car accidents happen left and right. ATM's begin to spit money out of their machines, everything starts to go haywire, and right now, nothing is safe.

Neo, Zero, Fey, Trinity, Echo, Apollo and Kala all are on the streets when this happened. Looking around in awe of what's going on. "I don't know much, but this isn't normal, is it?" Kala asked.

"No, Kala, this is not normal in the slightest." Zero answered.

"The hell is going on?" Neo asked.

"It's like all the technical stuff is going nuts." Zapor checked in his pocket, and his phone was messed up. "5th phone this week..."

"You guys think someone's doing this?" Leo asked.

"Most likely kid.." Saren snarked in a very deadpan tone.

Clock-Watch and Ryoku were walking nearby.

"See, Nick? This is exactly why my power core is better than yours. Much more reliable." Ryoku told Clock-Watch.

"Will you stop calling me Nick!? It was funny when that bogus psychic said it was my name, but you know it was a lie!" Clock-Watch replied.

"I know. But 'the mystic powers from beyond' said it was so!'" Ryoku responded, waving her arms and pretending to contact 'the beyond'.

"Knowing the way things hae started going for us lately, I'd say so." Fey agreed.

As soon as she finished saying that. Zapor's phone started to frizzle and make a very high pitched sound.

Saren blinked and looked at Fey. "Well, I guess it's a good thing I don't rely on electronic devices I suppose.."

Lexi took his phone, and crushed it with her foot. "That sound was really annoying."

Zapor sighed. "This is the second time my phone broke."

Ciel darted from the corner of the sidewalk, towards the group. "Hey, what the hell's going on?! I almost got ran over!"

Suddenly every radio, phone, and TV turned on all over Station Square. With Dr. Radon appearing on the TV's. "Hello everyone. I'm in need of some...assistance. I've lost a little experiemnt of mine, in the form of a little girl. Echo Serene, being that thing I have lost. I am demanding that she be returned to me at once. If she is, I will allow everything to return to normal as it was, however if she is not..." He pauses for a moment. "More chaos will begin to insue. If she is not returned to me within the next 24 hours. Every cyborg in this town, will start to drop like flies. Let me give you an example..."

Across the street was a mobian with a cybernetic eye. At the press of a button, his eye began to short-circut, shooting electricity everywhere, and killing him in the process. Every TV in mobius changed to this scene, to show everybody the death of him. "Your 24 hours begins now." He presses another button and every screen broadcasts the time left.

"What the hell?" Kala asked. "He just killed that guy! All for Echo!"

"Whoa whoa WHAT!?" Clock-Watch exclaimed. "That doesn't sound good at all!" He continued walking and noticed Neo, Fey, and the others. "Hey, don't I know those guys?"

"This is bad." Ryoku told him. She seemed to be quite frightened by what had just happened. "If this guy messes with my nuclear power core, this entire city could be vaporized!"

Saren shrugged. "Well, I might not be affected considering if I die I'll probably come back as a ghost or something.." Saren said in a casual manner, like he really didn't understand the panic or he didn't care.

Ciel said nothing, her hands covering her mouth in shock, her tail tucked between her legs.

Zapor couldn't say anything because what just happened was at a level of hardcore death he wasn't even at yet, and he wasn't going to let Radon touch Echo.

"Zak, can't you hack him out of the whole system? Or use your sword?" Lexi asked.

Zak sighed. "Well, the Monando doesn't work like a tool you use to hack, it only short circuts robots and usually hurts other people. And I can't hack from my laptop since that's broken."

"So what do we do?" Fey asked.

"Okay..." Neo said. "I...might know a girl who can help us..."

"What?" Zero asked. "Who?"

"A while back I got involved a little...plan and I wound up working with some really weird people. I met this girl named Celia, she's a hacker." Neo explained. "She might be able to trace Radon, and possibly put a firewall up on some of us..." He said looking at Ciel.

"You act like this is something you don't want us to know." Leo said.

"On just me? What about everyone else?" Ciel questioned. "With OmegaCorp's wide distribution of cybernetics, how many other people are at risk here?"

"Y'know.. I'm very glad I never had any cybernetics implanted..." Saren said.

"Before this turns sour." Fey interrupted stepping between Ciel and Neo. "Let's focus on trying to stop the hacking altogether." She looked at Neo. "Where is Ceilia?"

"She's not far from here." Neo told them.

"Then let's head there, and get those of us who have the power to stop it situated before we do anything else." Fey announced. "Afterwards we can look into distributing it out to everyone else."

Saren nodded, staying silent out of boredom.

"To a hacker girls house!" Zapor cheered.

"Looks like our friends from Soleanna aren't around..." Ciel said, referring to Argent and co. "They won't know where to meet up at. How do we get the word out to them?"

"They might already have word now." Fey said. "If not, I'm sure the hacker has some way of getting their attention."

"Right, come on." Neo told them. He led the group around town, trying to avoid getting anywhere near the chaos, till eventually they came to a very large, but plain-looking house.

"This is it?" Fey asked.

"Yeah, Takashi residence." Neo told them.

"Nice place.." Saren muttered.

"Zak, what's hacking like?" Zapor asked.

"Well, you have a machine that connects to a largely populated.... *insert a bunch of smart words related to hacking here* ....then, you basically have the entire system at your control." Zak answered.

"....."Zapor didn't follow any of what he said, but pretended to get it.

"Hey! HEY!" Clock-Watch yelled, right behind them. "Wait up! I think I can help you!"

Ryoku was running right behind Clock-Watch.

"So you've seen her work?" Ciel asked with a nervous tone. It wasn't the threat of her body shutting down that had her jittery; it was having someone else mess with her firmware.

"She won't do anything negative." Neo told Ciel. "I trust Cielia."

"Oh, hey Clock-watch." Trinity said.

"Help us how?" Fey asked.

Neo knocked on the door. There was silence for a whiel, then a green fox girl wearing a very wornout hoodie and pants opened the door. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore a pair of thin glasses. "Neo?" She asked.

"Cielia, we need your help." Neo told her.

The girl looked over the group. Stopping to look at Ryoku, Clock-watch and Ciel. She sighed. "Alright. Get in." She offered to her very neat home, with technology litterally at every corner. There were tablets, monitors, panels, and just about anything you can think of.

"..Woah." Zak never seen this much technology altogether in a hackers home in such a neat way, which is saying something since he tries to keep all his hacker stuff neat and tidy.

Ciel went to open her mouth, but she decided to keep her stupid questions about how many digit spaces her electric bill placed at to herself. "You're really dedicated to your job..."

"Yup." She said going over to her very large computer, with monitors covering the wall. "I don't know who this guy is, but he's an idiot to think that he can hack everything within Station Square."

"So you have a cure?" Neo asked.

"More or less." Ceilia answered. "I've done some calculations, crunched some numbers, and I've determined that there is something wrong with his threat."

"What do you mean?" Kala asked.

"Why would he kill cyborgs?" Ceilia said. "One could say that it's because those are his only targets, they're people and machines, but there's a problem with that logic." She typed up something a picture of her appeared on the screens, with a small heart shaped object on her chest. "Machines are normally controlled by the person, but they are hackable, and it is easy to glitch them out and just kill the person, but it's just as easy to reverse the flow of connection and have the machine control the person." She turned her chair around. "So why would he kill cyborgs instead of controlling them?"

"You think he plans on controlling the cyborgs?" Apollo asked.

"No, I don't, and that's the problem." Ceilia told them. "There are a multitude of theories as to what he's doing. The first couple that come to mind are assassination and distraction. He wants someone dead in Station Square, someone important, or he could be distracting people with this rather than something else, but I don't know what that something is."

"Or maybe he could be trying to kill all the cyborgs and bring them back as zombies." Zapor said.

"But the point is that he's shown us what he's capable of. Every cybernetically-augmented man and woman in this city is at risk. If we try to get close to see what he's doing, he could very well just pull the plug on everyone." Ciel said. "What we're doing here is taking that bit of leverage away from him, right?"

"Mostly." Ceilia told her.

"Mostly?" Zero asked.

"A good enough hacker can break into any and every firewall or security system possible. There is nothing in this world that a hacker cannot break eventually. That being said, I have an exception to that rule." She told them. "Theta!"

A hologram of a purple lynx stood before them wearing a black suit with a black tie, and a white undershirt. "Yes, mistress Ceilia?" It asked.

"What we're going to do is going to break a lot of laws." Ceilia warned. "We're going to install Theta plug-ins into this girl." She said. "From there, I'll back hack through Omegacorp's system through that which will infect the system, all users of OmegaCorp with the anti-virus. Afterwards, I'll flip it into mutagen mode, where it will begin to infect every android so long as they are around someone with the anti-virus. It will spread through everyone in town, and eventually build a town wide firewall. From there, a firewall will be built to protect those people. Should push come to shove, I'll be able to handle the virus directly and hopefully be able to keep it at bay long enough for us to destroy the source."

"As long as he can't knock your defenses apart--which he shouldn't--we'll be able to get to work and shut him down. But uhh, will this require a wired connection? I'd like to be somewhere private if it does." Ciel said with an embarrassed blush.

"Uh, is this how most hacking works?" Leo asked.

"Mostly when your countering a hack that affected a large area." Zak said.

"Theta, activate infetion program." Ceilia told the holo-lynx.

"Activating Infect.exe." The hologram said, touching Ciel's shoulder.

"There won't be any weird connections, I don't play that way." Ceilia told her.

"Okay, so for now, we have a back-up, where is the source? Can you track it?" Neo asked.

"Well, here's the thing..." Ceilia said. "This guy is using some sort of proxy, the IP I found doesn't even exist in the first place, and back hacking any signal he's tried to use is worthless."

"Oh great." Apollo said. "Let's play a game of hide and go seek, then."

"It's nothing like that." Ceilia noted. "I might be able to find him, but I'm going to need a couple of items placed around the city."

"Anything you need, just say the word. And uhh, thanks for not having to open up my head or anything..." Ciel said.

"So what stuff do you need?" Lexi asked.

"I have a couple of beacons, that I need placed around the city. Once placed, I can triangulate the location of this guy, and find out where the hacking is coming from. Once we know that, we can take of him pretty simply.: Ceilia told them.

"..Triangulate?" Zapor said, slightly confused.

"Basically somehow pinpoint his position." Zak said.

"Will I get paid for this?" Saren asked.

"So all we have to do is put down these beacons, and then find this guy?" Clock-Watch asked.

"I hope it's that simple... I feel like a ticking time bomb." Ryoku muttered.

"No, you won't be getting paid." Ceilia said. "But, I figure living is just a tad more important than money, and if these things go off, then we're all dead."

"Although getting paid for this does sound good." Neo noted.

"Anyways." Ceilia cleared her throat. "Yes, all you have to do is put them down, and turn them on. Once taken care of, you just have to go find this guy, and probably beat him up or something, simple."

"Huh, you never really know how good a plan sounds until two hackers say a plan." Zapor muttered.

"Exactly." Ceilia told him.

Leo picked up a beacon and tied it to Wheelie so it wouldn't fall off. "So, do you have exact locations for these?"

"And what if he's expecting us there?" Ciel asked.

"I'm sure fighting is something you are all used to, it shouldn't be anything you can't handle." Ceilia told them.

Zapor, not entirely sure if he got the plan, nodded. "Ok, Zak, you stay here and...do whatever hackers do.."

"Well, he could stay here, but there wouldn't be anything to do. since no one is going to be here." Ceilia told Zak. "Obviously I'm coming with you."

"Well that simplifies things." Zapor said. And also means more hacker french..He thought in his head.

"Right, then we need to get going." Neo said.

"Then let's go." Ceilia said.

Part 2: Beacons
Ceilia stepped outside into the dim twilight of the town. She looked around, holding the four beacons in a bag on her back. She had a large technological device on her arm, from her wrist to her elbow. She also had a metal block below her backpack which didn't seem to have any purpose. She looked around the area, and sighed. "Almost everything is under his control..."

"That'll change soon enough." Neo told her.

"I have no idea what's going on..." Kala whispered.

"So we have four beacons, why don't we split up?" Apollo asked.

"We don't know what this Radon guy can do." Ceilia said. "I'd prefer if we stayed together."

"We'll stay together for now, then. But if push comes to shove and we need to cover more ground in less time, we need to have a plan to put into action." Ciel said. "I mean I'm usually not one to bother with plans, but hey. It's my brain that's going to fry if Radon wins."

Zapor nodded in agreement. Leo scratched his head. "So, where's the first beacon gonna go?"

"Sticking together is nice." Ryoku agreed.

 'Huh.'  Clock-Watch thought. '' 'She seems quite scared. I find that unusual, considering how she normally is.'''

"I suppose that works." Neo said. "So, where do we go first."

"A couple blocks ahead." Ceilia said. "We shouldn't be that far."

(If the four of you can, could you check this blog out? http://sonicfanon.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Neoexlucky/What_do_we_name_our_group -Neo)

"That should be easy enough." Leo muttered.

Saren, who had been silently following the group silently from the shadows, finally made his appearance. Planning to scare the group.

"Blargh!" He shouted as he popped out of Zapor's shadow.

Ceilia glared at him. "That isn't funny."

Saren started laughing. "Only because your the one who got scared!" Saren said hysterically.

Ryoku jumped in fright. "Hi there..."

'' 'Huh. Again.' '' Clock-Watch thought. '' 'This seems like the same group from last time. One coincidence is just a coincidence, though.'''

Saren stopped laughing after a bit, yet he was still smirking. "Well now.. What are we waiting around for?"

(well, we've waited a bit, I guess we'll move on for now.... -Neo)

Trinity took a couple of steps forward. "Let's move then."

The group moved through the city until they came to a large parking garage that did not seem to be all that much affected. "There's the first place." Ceilia said. "At the top of the building place the beacon and turn it on." She handed Neo a cylinder the size of a rice cooker.

"I don't think there's any technology in there." Leo said, looking at the building.

"That doesn't exactly mean we're safe. When you hack your way into pretty much everything, you have endless power." Zak told him, taking a step closer to the building.

"That's true." Ceilia said. "Although, that being said, it doesn't appear as though anyone is around. For now, it looks like we're still safe."

As the group went inside m, there weren't any cars in the building, though it was a garage. After a few minutes, the group got to the last flight of stairs leading to the top of the building.

"Well, here we go. This doesn't seem to har-" Clock-Watch was cut off by Ryoku.

"Shut up! Never say something like that!" Ryoku told him.

"Don't you dare jinx it.. Bad things always happen when people say the phrase.." Saren warned.

"That's all just superstition." Ceilia rolled her eyes.

Neo put the weird cylinder down and turned it on. Ceilia than began to tap some buttons on her wrist device. "One beacon active, we're already starting to distribute the anti-virus right now."

"What's next?" Neo asked.

"There's a hospital on the East side of town. We need to get to the top of it." Ceilia said. "I told you this would be a simple task."

"Next thing you know your gonna say ghosts don't exist.." Saren mumbled sarcastically.

Ciel looked into the distance, looking for anything that appeared out of the ordinary...

"Then let's head in that direction." Fey nodded.

The group traversed the city, going through dark alleys to find a large building under construction. "Huh." Ceilia noted. "This building is still under construction."

"Gimme the thing." Neo noted, taking the odd cylinder and began to scale up the building to turn it on.

"And there's two." Ceilia noted, pressing more buttons on her device. "See? Simple."

That was when a very loud boom could be heard above the building and Neo was knocked off, falling straight down towards the ground. He panicked for a moment before pulling the wind around him, encasing it  to break his fall. He landed with a thud, causing the pavement to crack, and the sound of flesh hitting something to be heard.

"Neo?" Kala asked in a distressed voice.

Neo got up, coughing. "I'm fine..." He wheezed.

Followed by Neo was a brown fox girl in black clothing. She had two longswords in each of her hands and glared at the group. "Hello, brother dear. Are these your friends?"

Saren looked at the brown fox girl with an uninterested look. "I wouldn't say friends as I barely know most of the people here... More like acquaintances. Now onto business, who are you?"

"She just called him her brother... so that must mean... Neo, is this really Era?" Ciel trailed off.

"Neo has a sister?" Leo asked.

"I'm pretty sure we covered that at least one other time." Zapor told him.

"That's her." Trinity said.

"Oh, Trinity, you're still here." Era sighed. "All this time I thought you were gone for good. I guess dreams don't come true, do they?"

Neo took this as a time to attack, quickly getting up and striking his twin sister, only for her to quickly parry with one side, and hit Neo in the stomach with the hilt of her other. She took both blades and bashed them into his head, then kicked him away, where he collapsed. "Don't mind him, my brother has always been a bit of an idiot, doesn't think things through all the way."

"He sorta reminds me of me whenever my brother beats me up....though both my arms break...and I would get mad at him first." Zapor said.

Lexi looked at Trinity. "What's her deal?" She whispered to her.

"Maybe it's her time of the month?" Saren responded.

"She's always been like this." Trinity noted. "Era is not friendly."

"Oh, Trinity, that hurts my feelings." Era mocked. "I'm here on buisness, you see, my master doesn't want these stupid beacons to be up, and really hoped you all would listen to what he said. That clearly isn't what happened, so we're supposed to deal with you now." She sighed. "Remember Moros, we are not to kill them."

"Well she's obviously not liking us for some reason." Zapor muttered.

"I can certainly understand why he wouldn't want us to put up these beacons, but I'm afraid that we're going to put them up anyways." Clock-Watch replied.

A feeling of emptiness surrounded the group as a seemingly ordinary black fox with a grey muzzle walked out of his hiding spot and nodded at Era.

The fox, or Moros as Era named him, closed his eyes for a brief moment before he summoned what looked to be six glowing blades that circled around him defensively. As if he was waiting for someone to attack him.

"So then, which of you is currently putting all the beacons up?" Era asked.

Saren had a sardonic smirk on his face. "Try and find out, unless your afraid of getting your hands soaked in blood that is.."

"Okay." Era said walking over to where Neo was, taking her sword and holding it above her brother's leg. "What do you think Moros? A missing leg would be fine, don't you think?"

"She's not really gonna cut off his leg, is she?" Leo ask nervously.

'Just make sure you cauterize the wound... But Why not take an arm also?' Moros mouthed.

"No I won't cut off his leg." Era chuckled, taking her sword and stabbing straight through Neo's left arm. "But an arm though..."

"Really hope he wasn't left handed...." Lexi thought to herself.

"Why would she stab Neo? Aren't they related?" Zapor muttered.

Moros looked at Lexi and Zapor. 'You don't mind if I break these two right Era?'

Saren looked rather bored. "Damn, looks like someone has some sibling issues.."

"You could say that yes." Era told them. She turned to Moros. "Take care of them."

"Light of dawn!" Fey called out shooting a ball of light magic at Era, causing her to to be knocked back. "Flash of Light!" She called next, healing Neo's wound. "We need out of here." She muttered.

"I'm working on it." Ceilia told her. "Keep them busy for a moment."

"I don't know who you are." Era told Fey while gettting up. "But you are nothing compared to me."

"And while you're at it, keep them busy for me!" Ciel stepped back, accessing the forbidden knowledge of the timeline. "This'll take some time, but once I get to work, I'll get things done!"

"Compare this, jerk!" Zapor did some quick ninja hand signs, though they were totally unnecessary. "Fire style: Green fireball jutsu!" He then shot a green fireball out from his mouth, that split into five when they bounced, moving towards Era.

Moros nodded and launched three of his ethereal blades at Zapor, Lexi and Fey. The blades seemed to be aimed at their midsection, yet the tactic could be considered obvious and easy to dodge.

Fey brought her blade up to parry, and right before hand, she realized what they were, quickly moving out of the way. "You're from the void?"

"You should worry more about me." Era told her, quickly sending a barrage of hits at Fey's back.

Zero's scythe was already extended, he looked to Apollo and Echo who both seemed a bit frightened by the attack, then to Trinity. "Keep the kids safe." He told her, launching himself into the fight, swinging his scythe at Era, knocking both her blades out of her hands.

The young fox just smiled, placing a hand over a small Black opal on her chest and pulled a large, very crude, black scythe with white etchings over it out and swung at Zero knocking him back. Fey recognized this as the same way that she used her summoned her scythe. Saren may remember this as well.

Ciel was still "concentrating".

(Sorry, connection problems! I need to catch up! -MHS)

Zak took out his sword and switched to Buster mode, preparing in case Era tried attacking him.

(I wanna have Leo and Wheelie use an attack, but until they meet Eclipse they're pretty much useless in a fight.)

Era and Zero clashed blades for a while, continuted to trade strikes, until Era slammed the bottom of the sythe down. "Parasitic Host..." She mumbled, and two identical copies of her, coming from a purple goo grew up, taking each of her swords. The right handed host went straight for Zak, not attacking but simply standing very close to him. The left handed host lunged towards Ciel, swinging the sword at the ground near her feet, but not her actual feet.

Moros looked at Fey wordlessly before walking towards her, grabbing one of his ethereal blades before flinging the rest at her. 'I am of the void?.. No, I am the void...' He mouthed.

Saren grabbed two of his throwing knives and threw them at Era as a diversionary tactic. "Hey B***h! You want to know the difference between the mud and you!? The mud looks and smells better than you!" Saren shouted, trying to piss her off.

"That sounds like an insult a schoolboy would use." She grabbed Zero and flung him toward the knives, having the hegdehog impaled by the metallic objects. "We could try talking, if that's what you want. We know all about you, we even know your amnesiac friend's past."

"Wait, you what?" Fey got distracted, not being able to dodge the etheral blades, that were coming straight for her.

Then came a very loud screeching sound, followed by a wall of light dividing the group from Era and Moros. "Paladin System is up an' running!" Ceilia called out. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Right!" Leo hopped on Wheelie, who then zoomed backwards.

Saren nodded, though not before flipping era the bird and running.

Fey grabbed Saren's coat sleeve before he could run off. "Saren, did you see how she brought that scythe out?" She asked, her look extremely distressing. She did not look even remotely like her normal self, Fey looked scared. "A-and that she knows who I am, she knows about my past, she more about me then I do..."

Saren looked at Fey. "Then we just capture them and force them to tell us.." He spoke rather charismatically.

"Uh, Ceilia, should we split up so we can spread the last two..whatever those are to the last location?" Lexi asked.

"They're called disruptors." Zak told Lexi.

"No, splitting up is a huge problem." Ceilia said. "We barely got out of that, we need to stay together."

"So, where to next?" Neo breathed heavily.

"We need to head farther into the city." Ceilia announced. "We should get to the Coffee Break Cafe, that's where the thrid one should be placed."

"Ok, where is that?" Zapor asked.

"Right in front of that one place we went to." Zak answered.

"I could have been swimming in money by now.." Saren mumbled, anime tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Right... in any case, the observation I made should help me predict what might happen next. The café is where we'll meet Argent and co." Ciel said, now that her creator has finally decided to jump back into this thing.

"Good, then we should begin." Ceilia said.

The trip to the coffee shop was uneventful for the most part.Nothing seemed to be doing much around the city, leaving some of the parts of town to be really empty. It took roughly 25 minutes to get to the coffee shop, which was almost a ghost town, with the exception of a human with fair skin, bright blue eyes, thick framed glasses, and wearing a grey vest, matching pants, and a white shirt. He also wore a black bow tie and stood behind a bar table of sorts, cleaning a coffee cup, and talking with Argent and Company.

"At least the owner is still here." Neo sighed.

"Plus Argent and his crew." Zapor said.

"That's a relief.."

"We'd better bring them up to speed on what's happened," Ciel said.

The coffee shop owner looks over at Neo's group. "They're here." He says,then places the coffee cup, on something under the table, and grabs a new one. As the group got closer, it was clear to see that the name tag he wore said "Hart".

"We got a problem." Neo started.

"Uh, can you put this behind your table?" Ceilia asked Hart, who looked at the beacon, and gave a puzzled look, then nodded and did as she said, putting the beacon between a set of brewers.

"Everything technical is broken." Zapor added to what Neo said.

"Well that explains why my phone decided to crap out today." Rose said. "But if that's the case, then how does 'blue' still have all her bearings?" she asked, nodding her head towards Ciel to clarify who she's referring to.

"Just a bit of a software upgrade." Ciel said, winking toward Ceilia. "Anyway, we've been placing these things around the city so we can pinpoint where Radon is hiding. There's just one more location we need to head toward before we can move on, but we have to be quick. We got ambushed at the second site... they know what we're up to."

"We only have one more we need to place before I can find out where the signal is coming from." Ceilia said.

"The people we're dealing with are getting more powerful." Neo noted.

"We probably wouldn't be here with out that wall of light." Ceilia sighed.

"The paladin system, right?" Trinity asked.

"No, my machine uses pulse resonators to push people away. I didn't make the wall..." Ceilia said.

Neo eyed the group. "Well, add a mysterious stalker to the group of problems we're having."

"So, where's the last place we need to hook the beacon?" Zapor asked.

"And how're we going to deal with miss sibling issues and her partner if and most likely when they do decide to interfere?" Saren asked.

"Hope for the best?" Neo asked. "In all honesty that's all we can really do with them."

"There's something about them..." Zero noted. "The girl in particular, when I fought with her, all I could feel was power."

"If someone else created that wall, maybe they are fighting them now." Fey suggested. "We should go while we can."

"And hope they can hold them off." Lexi said.

"So where do we place the fourth beacon?" Zapor asked.

Saren shrugged. "Beats me.. Though I am curious."

"The last one won't be hard, we just have to go to a simple house." Ceilia informed the group. "Shouldn't anything too bad."

"Any house or a certain house?" Zapor asked.

Saren looked at Celica. "Lady, can you honestly say that with any certainty considering past track records and the crap that has happened today?.." Saren asked, seemingly agitated with all that has happened recently.

"It's a specific house, but it's not something that someone will have to climb a couple stories to get to." Ceilia said. "Which is what I meant when I said it would be easy. This entire thing of getting chased by Casper the angry ghost and brother problems can only suck."

Zapor cocked his head. "We're being chased by a ghost?"

"It's an expression." Zak said.

Saren shrugged. "Let's hope your right.."

"We should probably get going." Zero insisted. "We need to try and stay ahead of them."

"Right." Neo agreed. "Hart, think you can keep the rice cooker safe?"

Hart looked back at the beacon, then to the group. He nodded and went back to cleaning the cups.

Saren nodded. "Right, the sooner we get this over with the sooner I can start drinking.. I better get paid for this.."

"Saren, if it makes you feel better, I'll give you $35." Leo said, Wheelie just shaking his head.

"To a specific house to drop off the rice cooker beacon!" Zapor said.

Saren nodded. "You have it on you right now?"

"No, but after we deliver the last beacon." Leo told him.

"Alright."

The group made their way to a building in the corner of Station Square, one that seemed really far out of the city. In fact, it stood farther away from the other buildings and stood beside a large rock wall, with an opening. Ceilia placed the last beacon, and quickly began pressing away at the device on her arm.

Zero stared at the cave opening, with a puzzling look as he shivered. "I don't like this place."

"Apparently it's haunted." Ceilia said simply. "Or so a lot of people say. The bad publicity is probably why no one has lived here for years."

Fey also looked to the cave. Her eyes narrowed at it. "That cave..." She said. "I think we should go into the cave..."

"U-um, aren't robotic bears more active in the dark?" Zapor asked. "Zak, what do you think?"

Zak was staring into the cave with a lost look a slight fear in his face. ".....Huh? Oh, uh, I don't know. What's in the cave?"

"Alright kiddies, put on your big boy trousers, shut the f**k up and lets go spelunking.. Or do I have to find ways to motivate you people.." Saren half joked half threatened Zapor and Zak.

Ceilia looked over to Fey. "A cave? Why?"

"I...just think we should..." Fey said still staring at the cave.

"We have a hacker to find and are being chased by two lunatics and you guys want to go digging through caves?" Neo asked. "Are you nuts?"

"No no, wait, I think Fey might be right." Zero said, bringing his hand up. "I just...the cave feels like we should be there..."

"This is how horror movies start..." Trinity told Neo in a concerned voice.

Kala looked from the cave, back to the group. "I don't understand..." She said. "Shouldn't we be trying to stop the bad guys?"

Neo gave a concerned look. "Fey, are you sure you want to go in there?"

Fey glanced nervously around the area. "Yes."

Neo gave a sigh. "Alright, then we'll go in there."

"I'll hang outside." Ceilia noted, still looking at the data pad. "My info's gonna get scrambled up in there, and there's still a lot to do."

"Then, let's go." Neo sighed. "What have I gotten myself into..."

The inside of the cave was dark at first, but luckily Kala and Trinity managed to create fires to light up the area. At first the cave seemed simple, although oddly smooth on the inside, as if someone had perfectly carved the area they were in. They traveled for a while until they entered a soft blue temple-looking area with an alter holding nothing in it's grip. The walls of the temple were carved with strange markings, that matched Fey's sword and odd pedestals around showcasing several different figures.

One was a Hedgehog man in plate armor holding a normal looking scythe. The second was a Koala woman in dark robes, holding a twisted and ugly looking scythe. The third figure was another koala woman who wore white robes, and held a beautiful scythe. The forth was a Lynx man with glasses, wearing robes and holding a scythe that appeared to double as a puzzle. The fifth was an echidna man in light chainmail, holding a red winged scythe. The last was a little wolf girl oddly in a very modern looking sundress. She was the only one missing a scythe.

"What's with these pedestals?" Lexi asked.

Fey brushed some dust off of the wolf girl pedestal, her jewel slightly glowing in the dark. As she did so, she uncovered more runes under the pedestal. "Draconic." She said.

"The same language used in that old castle thing, right?" Echo asked.

"Ages named it Wayward Castle." Neo agreed. " He said it was an ancient language used thousands of years ago. With Fey's amnesia, Ages said there's no one in the world that can read it anymore."

Apollo seemed to take note of the words on the wall, rubbing his hand across the runes as if he was scanning them.

Zero seemed enthralled with the room, going towards the pedestal and looking around it.

Kala turned her head and stared at the runes on the pedestal. "Spirit Tsubaki." She finally said. "It says Spirit Tsubaki, the living weapon."

"What does that mean? A weapon that like, was a person?" Zapor asked.

"i dunno, but lets explore so we can liberate the treasure inside.."

"Hold up, I want to make another Observation here. If the timeline will allow me to, anyway." Ciel said. If nothing was blocking her ability to do so, she would see some time into the future.

"Riiight... well if anyone else is up for exploring, I'll trail ya." Argent said.

There was nothing blocking the ability to see into the future. Almost any manipulator of time or seer could see the future of this group, infact it was almost too easy. Neo and Fey cornered by a group of malicious soldiers, Neo being electrocuted, a crystal statue of Fey, a small maroon rat girl breathing fire, Trinity covered in flames, and Zero, impaled on a giant sword, bleeding out. It was very clear that this place was special to any seer or manipulator, this place was built for people like this, to see the future of these people.

"There is no treasure here." Zero said. "Not anymore."

Kala looked around the walls of the building. "They say your names." She said. "Neo Tranquil, Trinity Moon, Zaporioniklathin Percival William the Hedgehog the Third, everyone." She kept looking ."But there are some other names on here I can't recall. Sedna Draco, Thomas Spirio, a couple of others too.

Saren snickered at Zapor's full name. "Wait... Why does it have our names?.. This place some sort of mystical cavern or something?"

"Maybe its a a future thing. But why is it like that?" Zapor asked.

Zak looked at some of the names. "We don't even know any of these people."

"But that doesn't make sense." Trinity noted. "The only person who can even read this stuff is Kala."

Kala continuted reading through the wall's carvings. She finished and went to the other wall, still reading everything she could.

"What do you mean there's no treasure?" Neo asked Zero. "How do you know there was any at all."

Zero looked up, then back down to the stone. "The hole here, it looks like something was pulled out of it."

Saren blinked. "I'm guessing there is a secret chamber in this cave somewhere..."

Ciel was trying to pick and choose what she could possibly say to the group. Of course, she could just warn them about the events that would take place, but even something as simple as that could alter the course of time too soon. If she took matters into her own hands, she wouldn't be able to prevent all of the foreseen events from unfolding. She needed to start building a plan -- something she wasn't particularly known for.

Lexi also looked at the sword. "What do you think was pulled? A sword maybe?" She asked Zero.

Saren yawned and looked at Lexi. "This isn't camelot you know, and i'm rather glad miss personality and her mute boy toy aren't here.."

Trinity looked over the hole. "It doesn't look like it was a weapon. The hole is too large for a pole, and too small for a sword or an axe."

"There's a weird magical energy around it. Was it a staff? Maybe a wand?" Fey suggested.

Trinity felt around it. "No, the whole is too big for that."

"Could have been a weapon from a long time ago." Neo suggested.

"Weapons have to have a certain size to them in order to make them effective. Weapons haven't exactly changed over sizes over the course of history, this hole doesn't match up with anything I've seen." Trinity told them.

Kala looked over the statues. "Alright, I think I've got everything."

"And? What did you find?" Argent asked.

"This temple belonged to a group called the Order of the Scythe." Kala began. "It's a group that existed a long time ago, and had claim over the land that is now Station Square. They ruled in the castle that appeared in the forest. The Order had grimoires written by each of the most historical leaders within the group." She motioned to the pedestals. "The girl, it looks like, didn't write one. The guy next to her was known as the New-Age king and wrote a tome on something called phantasm manipulation. The scholarly king wrote about Spiritual Manipulation. The arcanist wrote one on Dark Poison, the war queen wrote the fourth on Nether manipulation, and the first king wrote one about a demonic substance known as Black Blood."

"So what did they do?" Neo asked.

"The grimoires were sort of like storage devices, when touched by a normal person, they get a little shock, but when touched by a chosen person, they gain the information in the book, like they innately know how to do those abilities. However there are also a whole list of artifacts that were presevered in caves like this, which were crafted by the Order and have special abilities on them. Those with the grimoires lead the artifact wielders in what the walls called the Remnents of the Scythe." Kala announced. "The walls give me some inforamtion about the society and how it worked. It says that we are too remember the names of power, and then it lists our names."

"Um, so is that a good or a bad thing?" Leo asked.

"You mentioned there were some other names you weren't familiar with, or at least names of people we haven't met yet. Who are they, and what role do they play in this?" Ciel asked.

"Well here's where things get a little odd." Kala said. "There names are listed up here with us, but we aren't all together. This first couple people on the list are Neo, Sedna, Zero, Thomas, Leah Dubio, Sierra Aura, and Trinity. Normally groups would be grouped together, but our names are with theirs, like we were all listed together in one group."

"But what does that mean? How did they get our names?" Neo asked.

"Sorry Master, I couldn't figure that part out..." Kala sighed.

"Maybe some future seeing dude that we don't know yet trying to tell us that the group listed there is the group we need." Zapor said.

"....That was actually smart." Lexi chimed in.

"It could also mean that some ancient guy was putting down random stuff. Also a possibility." Zapor also said.

"And there he is again." Zak muttered.

"If I had to guess, it probably means that only those people are capable of accessing the Grimoires. For this generation, at least. Or, it could be a vague warning that they're all in danger." Ciel said.

"Mind if I take pictures?" Anderon asked.

"So.. Lost secrets and grimoires and I won't be able to access them.. Tell me, does this 'order of the scythe' use scythes as keys to unlock their treasure vaults?" Saren asked while casually twirling around his scythe.

Kala shrugged. "I guess you can. I don't see any reason for you not to."

"No, the Order of the Scythe does not use scythes as keys." Zero said. "But it looks like Neo's sister has one of the grimoires."

"Explain." Neo demanded.

"When I fought with her, she used some dark powers while she fought. Her scythe's blade was covered in a weak black goo, and her clones looked like they were made from jello or something." Zero reported. "I studied a lot of combat tactics, mechanics, techniques, powers, and magic. I can identify every single one, and give you it's complete history, but what she did there, I couldn't identify. I could only sense that it was really bad and really powerful. I'd say, she has the poison grimoire."

"So not only is Era trying to kill us, she's also been gifted with ancient magic." Trinity said. "Yay us."

"I don't see how this is something we can yay about." Zapor said, not getting her sarcasm.

"So how do we fight back against the poison grimoire?" Leo asked.

"How do you fight back against any ancient magic? You play a game of wits, draw the opponent out of their element. Show one hand, but keep the surprise in the other... If you can offset her cool than she'll more than likely toss around her magic haphazardly. She'll exhaust herself then and that'll make her easy pickings." Saren said.

"Does anyone know anything about Era's partner? Personality, powers, fighting style, anything that will help us gain a crucial advantage?" Saren asked.

"He uses etheral weapons." Fey reported. "I noticed it when I tried to fight with him. Etheral weapons can cut through a lot of things, so going up against one isn't the best idea."

"Blind him, disable his motor skills and he won't be able to use the cutting power of his weapons... Any emotional weaknesses?" Saren asked after explaining one possible route to take Moros down.

"Eh... from what I could see, he has the emotional capacity of a doorknob," Ciel said. "But he's cocky. He'll overextend if he thinks he can neutralize one of us. If he makes that mistake, then we can cut him off from Era so they can't support each other."

"Right right... Though odds are, getting him to overextend will not be an easy task.. But he may have other surprises in store for us so it's be best to keep our guard up." Saren spoke.

"I've found the position of the hacker." Ceilia called from outside the cave. "We need to get moving."

"Let's get going." Neo said. "When Ages gets back, he might be able to do a little investigating of this place." The group exited the cave, going back out into the light of sunset.

Part 3: Back-hack
Ceilia stood, typing into her device very quickly and running her finger over programs, getting them to close. She reached behind her and pulled a metallic rectangle of her back which quickly unfolded into a mechanical bow. "The hacked signal is only a couple blocks from here." She said urgently. "He more than likely knows that his signal is blocked and he might be on the run but if we hurry we can catch up to him."

"Any way to slow this guy down without letting him know we're onto him?" Saren asked.