"More than that at times." He grimaced. "I like to tell you it never gets any easier, but...." Cyrus shuffled uncomfortably for a moment, reliving past memories. "It became commonplace after a time, routine." He said the last word as if it was sour in his mouth. "You became conditioned to the violence and death, you start to take pride in it even. You stop seeing your enemies as human beings, just threats. Targets to be neutralized. We had a few ops where there were civilians we didn't know about, we...." His voice dropped an octave. "I'd rather not talk about it."
" oh, I see...sorry for bringing it up...never seen anyone die myself...only in the news...not that I trust anything the news says anymore" She sighed, still flipping through books at an unnatural pace.
"Then you're amazingly lucky." She was going through those books insanely fast, and the way her eyes scanned the page looked... systematic almost. Definitely a strange one. "So... How did you end up here? What you in for?"
" hmm?" She didn't even stop going through books " oh, turns out Lod doesn't like having his files on Latou hacked into... " She sighed and put down the book.
Draken stopped a noise trying to emerge from his throat. He was on the opposite side of the bookshelf Alaizia was looking through, half-looking for any book on physiology or Latou. The latter one would only ever happen if Lod was a complete idiot, which Draken doubted, or tactless in his attempts to place ideas in someone's mind, which Draken also doubted, considering how he wooed the world before ruling it. Draken needed information on anything and everything about this place, ranging from size to elevation (for all he knew they were deep underground), all the way to the motivations and abilities of every single person in the facility. He figured that the best place to start was with those he was closest to, physically and psychologically. To do that he decided to listen in on others' conversations, for every secret can be kept "just in case." As Cryus and Alaizia had left the mess hall, Draken had used his Latou abilities to mentally "tag" a patch of fat on one of them. He held onto the location of this bit of flesh, and followed it, from around 100 meters back, all the way to the library. From there is was simply a matter of staying out of sight, which he had, unfortunately, never been able to master. Although the crowds and walls of books made it easier, he had a sneaking suspicion that Cryus' years of experience, if true, meant that he had been spotted. Still, they couldn't prove anything. He set the book he was holding back and went to the receptionist's desk and asked for any book on Modern Physiology. Perhaps he could figure out where all of that latou he was inject with was, then he might be able to neutralize it temporarily in combat. Maybe.
Cyrus heard a faint noise from behind the bookshelf Alaizia was looking at and tensed. He felt his index finger twitch in such a way that it would have turned the safety off his gun if he was holding it. He didn't turn around or move, but was on full alert. He concentrated and zoned out all other noise but from where he had heard the sound. He could hear the sound of someone very carefully putting a book back and hastily but quietly leaving. It was too big a risk to just ignore. He turned to Alaizia. "You'll have to tell me more about that later, now if you need me I'm going to check something out." He quickly and quietly snuck around the shelf, no one was there. He hurried down to the end and looked out into the hallways, he saw a lot people he didn't recognize. Any one of them could have been the person, but as he scanned the room he saw someone he did recognize. Draken. And he was moving away from where he and Alaizia just were. His frown deepened. He didn't know where the library was either and yet here he was. He must of followed them but he constantly checked to see if they were being followed when they came here so he must have some other way of tracking them from a distance. If that was the case he'd know if he followed him. He could be looking to far into things. He'd confront him later, right now he had to keep an eye on Alaizia. He was close to figuring out her power, she was making a lot of slip-ups and wasn't too good at hiding things in the first place. He was a little tenser now then he was before. He walked back to Alaizia, trying to act like nothing had happened. Last thing she needed to hear was that Draken was stalking them. "Find anything?" He queried.
" Not really, I have to admit War and peace is a good book..just a bit over my head" She put a book back. " So, what were you checking on?" the girl's guileless expression showed utter trust.
Cyrus didn't miss a beat. "I was at the front desk, asking about any useful info. They had nothing." He shrugged. "You want to check this place out some more or head for this "gym"?"
" Th-the gym..." Alaizia gave a look of disgust for a moment "I hate exercise..but ok...as long as I dont have to lift weights or something"
"Just looking, don't worry." Cyrus smirked. They wondered the halls again, this time with Cyrus paying more attention to see if they were being followed. It was hard to tell. They eventually found the gym and the first thing his eyes focused on was non-other than Felix. Cyrus paused to think for a moment. Alaizia had some sort of tech related power and Felix was a master craftsman. They might get along if only for their common talent. He gestured toward Felix. "That guy's on our block, i want you to go meet him. Get introductions over with."
Felix saw the two enter the gym. He got up from where he was exercising and went to meet the woman by Cyrus. "I have trained enough, for now." "I assume this is a friend of yours, Cyrus?"
Cyrus saw Felix come over to greet them. "Indeed, this is Alaizia. Alaizia this is Felix." He gestured to each for emphasis. "I believe you two may have... mutually beneficial skills..."
"Mutually beneficial skills," Felix quieted to a wisper, "so her powers have to do with mechanics?" "I never told Cyrus about my powers. He must be going off of the story I told him." He looked over at Alaizia, "If you are able to help and Cyrus trusts you, then I will consider you an ally."
" oh, thank you, nice to know you probably wont try to kill me in the future" Alaizia gave a sincere smile, thought it was slightly downtrodden.
Phanaton had been following for awhile, he stood atop a book case and quietly landed behind silas, standing up to his full height and tapping silas on the shoulder "hello briar bush" phanaton cackled
