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 Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2007 1:56 pm
Cosmo Canyon - Underground Laboratory
Like the remainder of the AVALANCHE headquarters, this expansive area is far more hi-tech than one would guess for such a location. Though slightly out-dated, it is clear that all the equipment is still in working order and has been in use recently.
In addition to the main expanse of the room, there is a secondary area accessed through a door off on one side of the laboratory. This is the entrance to the Ravens' chambers, where testing, restoration, and recuperation take place. Think of it as their living quarters, however less accommodating and comfortable it may be in comparison to those of the human AVALANCHE members.
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:21 pm
His footsteps echoed as he walked down the corridor...He passed another AVALANCHE member heading in the other direction as he walked...He didn't bother to notice who it was. Cruze passed through the relatively empty corridors with little notice to what was going on as he made a direct bee-line for the Leader's personal lab...There was very little on the second's mind save for making his report. As he approached the door, it slid open before him, and he walked through into the realm of science beyond.
His eyes scanned the room, looking for some sign of the leader amidst the equipment, finally spotting the man across the room. Carefully Cruze made his way over, bowing at the waist when he was standing off to the other man's side. "Sir, I know better than to bother you her, but my Ravens have just reported in..." He straightened, and extended the folder with the information gathered slightly in front of him, "I think you might want to take a look at this." There wasn't even the remotest tone to his voice that suggested the Leader was required to do so...but there was something to it that hinted it would peak his curiosity.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:48 pm
A distraction. The scientist's eyes narrowed as he stared down at the complex calculations he was currently working on. The voice was familiar, that belonging to his 'second-in-command'. He took no notice of Cruze's bow or his deferential tone. Just another little person who could prove useful somtimes but more often proved to be an irritation.
"What is it?" Hojo didn't even look up, but merely extended one thin hand for Cruze to give him whatever the hell was so important.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:08 pm
"...This file was found in the Shin Ra database...As soon as my Ravens sent it to me, I realized this to be one of your old encryption styles..." That was just they way Cruze was; he knew most everything about everyone...That included as much about their leader as he would allow his second to know...and then a few small extra things. He was not a fool; he knew well that the most important person in their group had been well involved with such unworthy company once upon a time. Hopefully, at least that would spark his interest.
He paused, just for the shortest of moments, before adding, "It's about one of the Turks...I.D. B238." With that, he slid the thin folder into the superior's hand, and waited silently for a response.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:26 pm
Cruze was rewarded with his superior's expression turning to mildly interested.
"Oh?" He withdrew his hand, taking the file and flipping it open. Scanning the contents, Hojo adjusted his glasses. Sonething in it made the scientist smile faintl, though it was more of a knowing smirk then a genuine display of pleasure. "Good work, Cruse."
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 5:43 pm
Cruze smiled just a little, which was truly showing how dearly he loved the praise from such a source; normally held his face as impassive as stone, save for a glint in his eyes that might have suggested sarcasm. "Thank you, Leader,"said the second, bowing again, wanting the man before him to know these words were not accepted lightly, for he knew that was not the way they were given.
The Avalanche member was pleased even to be allowed into the presence of the Leader, none the less to receive a compliment...His Ravens would be rewarded...Midori, at least...As for Touscon, this work might even go so far as to negate her punishment, were it to pan out properly...As it was, the fact things had gone so well had spared the reaper's hand from her, at least.
"What action would you have me take?"he said, after allowing another few moments for more of the information in the file to be digested. Normally, he would have done what he thought the Leader himself would have done without asking, and 99.8% of the time, he would hit the mark...But this time was different; this information was different. Cruze knew better than to risk it.
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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:15 pm
"Get a team together and find the subject. I want it alive, though if you need to use force, that's fine." He snapped the file folder shut and set it down on his crowded desk. "If it's not sturdy enough to survive capture, then I don't even want to bother with it." Hojo dismissed Cruze with a careless wave and turned back to his work.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:19 am
"Yes Leader,"Said Cruze, waiting for the wave to start his departure. He knew who to send, Ulf and Deuce. The pair both possessed great strength (particularly the later, though he was a special case) which, all things considered, might come in handy for this target...Besides; for months now, the second in command had been irritated with two of their own who had been acting as though the AVALANCHE struggle meant nothing to them...Leaving Ai free from this mission left her open for another...The pair would certainly be taught a lesson by this...Yes.
There it was, laid out plain and simple...He would send Deuce with the messages, one to the pair of them, another hidden within the machine to the Raven, and then all three of them could head to the second headquarters...And of course, orders for Ulf as well...Things were moving quickly now.
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Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:43 pm
Reno  There was a sudden, harsh feeling of cold all over the body that was Reno. It was so quick and out of nowhere that instead of opening his eyes, he shut them tighter. He had no recollection as of that moment of where he was or what he was doing, or who he even was. By the time the sharp pang of chill receded into a dull throbbing annoyance, he was slowly opening his eyes to a dimly lit cell. Or at least, that's what it looked like from the floor.
The floor was, of course, concrete. As he slowly pushed himself off the ground, which he had been lying face first on, he looked around himself, still having trouble remembering what was going on. By the time he was properly sitting down, he knew that the cell he was in was completely square, with no windows, that there was one badly bedded cot, a toilet and a single door. The cot did not look comfortable in the slightest. There were no cracks in the walls or in the floor, which gave Reno the impression that this cell may have been something recent. Wherever he was.
The red head rubbed his eyes with one hand before gasping in pain. His whole body felt like it was on pins and needles. He didn't realize he was only in a shirt, which was much like a prisoner's night-gown. He couldn't tell what color it was, but it didn't really matter right now when he was feeling so physically ******** up. He held his head with both hands as pieces of memory began to flood back, reminding him who he was, where he came from and what he was doing in this cell. He did not know where he was and he could not completely remember the exact reason for the cell. All he could remember about it was that something horrible was happening to him and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"What the ********," he whispered. "What the <********>" He gritted his teeth in remembrance of quite obvious torturing somewhere outside of this cell and he held his head even tighter. He felt sick. He felt like he was going to throw up. "What the ********, what the ********..." He looked around the room again, as if there was going to be some way out of there, but there still was no window, nor were there any cracks or holes in the walls. "s**t... ********!" He ran his hands through his hair until he suddenly realized...it wasn't all there.
Reno's pony-tail was gone. Completely cut off. Was this kind of sick joke? They didn't shave his head, they just cut off his pony-tail? He tried to get up, which he accomplished slowly but surely. He moved over towards the cot, his eyes wide with horrible knowledge and anxiety. What was he supposed to do? His hair was the least of his problems but it was just ******** wrong! All of this was just so stupidly ******** up! "What am I even doing in this ******** cell?" he demanded of himself, sitting down on the very uncomfortable cot. It was better than the concrete floor, but still not so great. His muscles ached. His skin felt prickly and when he craned his neck he felt like it was going to snap in half. He was stiff and bruised. His legs had all kinds of cuts and bruises on them, as well as his arms. He didn't even dare look at his chest or anything else and he had no ability to look at his face.
The ex-Turk had no idea how long he had been there. He did not know what had become of Rude and he couldn't even bring Rufus' or Tseng's face to his memory. Everything felt so clouded and he felt so cut off. How he was able to take any of this in when he knew something horrible was soon to happen to him, he didn't know. But the last thing he was expecting was footsteps towards his cell door.I'm in the same prison as you... 
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 12:18 am
The walls were not terribly thick...Not thin enough to break through, but, certainly thin enough for the other to hear Reno's confused mutterings...Not for the first time, either. Arina listened as she heard him mumble to himself as usual...A little faster than normal, though...Today must have been pretty bad...Though by this point, every day seemed bad.
She knocked on the wall twice. "As always, you aren't doing anything. Just waiting..." sure, the words were going to be mumbled and hard to hear, especially if Reno wasn't in the mood to listen, but she still said them regardless. Lately, she had just felt numb. She fiddled with the hem of her 'uniform', the same crappy garb they had Reno in, as she thought about it...The woman hadn't really any hope left, but she didn't feel like she had lost it either...It was just on standby, until something happened that merited it waking back up...But she knew very well the sentiments the other Ex-Turk was feeling at the moment...She had shared them since their first day after they had been moved.
That first day....night...whatever time it had been, when Arina was taken out of the dark little room for the first time, had been more than enough of a shock for many...She could still remember the feeling of her heart pounding in her chest when she spotted him...It wasn't fear...it wasn't rage...it wasn't anxiety...it was as though all the frantic emotions she could have thought would overwhelm that moment by themselves had been thrown together, melted, and then shoved back inside her the instant that pasty, greasy haired git had shown back up in her life. Not for the last time, she had been strapped down while Hojo started poking and prodding her with numerous sharp metallic things, almost like some kid trying to reassemble a toaster...Why, she still couldn't quite figure out.
Arina had expected that if she ever saw the demented professor again, he would have finished her off like he planned to initially...But for some reason, that wasn't the case. Instead, he and that dark-haired assistant or whatever he was (she thought she remembered him being called something that started with a 'C'), had started running innumerable tests, over and over, day by day, never making any acknowledgment of what they were trying to find, regardless of the woman's shoutings at him...or, numerous swears.
Now, she took whatever it was Hojo planned for her on any occasion with stubborn silence. Occasionally he even spoke to her, like she was something with a pulse, but usually only to ask if she felt any different; Arina always ignored him...Once in a while, they had her fight off opponents...Hojo kept sending in more and more men and women for her to fight, until she reached her limit. Was that what he wanted? He already knew what she could do, why was he bothering to let her paint that same little room red over and over again?
The Ex-Turk never wanted to kill the ones he sent in after her...Until the limits took over, she usually tried to just incapacitate her opponents...but after that, the creatures inside her were always furious, and they wanted to vent...they even shredded those she had knocked out, seemingly just for good measure until sleeping gas rendered her docile once more...The first time Arina realized she had flesh and blood caught under her fingernails when she woke up in her cell, she shook violently, and was physically ill; Now it barely bothered her.
"You okay in there? Anything broken today?" Arina called through the wall, hoping to find Reno in at least somewhat fair health...She didn't know exactly what they'd been doing to him, since it sounded at least slightly different from what was happening to her...after all, Reno wasn't harboring monsters inside him...Of course, that didn't stop them from showing the usual lack of kindness toward either of them...For the pair of captives, broken bones where far from abnormal.
Finally she stopped playing with the seam, and tried to brush a few fingers through her hair...hers, was still as long as it had always been, but it was knotted and greasy...Mostly they just rinsed the blood off of her once in a while...Arina couldn't remember the last time she had felt the delightful embrace of a warm shower...Just the vague pins-and-needles effect of what seemed like cold hose water...In the dim light, she caught a glance at her naked arms; the ghosts of injuries had left her with scars from shoulder to wrist on both of them. some short, maybe an inch, others going all the way around her arm, but all horizontal...Apparently neither Hojo or his assistants wanted to risk killing her with a careless vertical stroke of the scalpel....
Arina had no idea what her appearance was at the moment...She knew she had nicked her neck, torso and legs more times than she could count while fighting, but the limits usually healed those up pretty well...one thing she did know however, was that she didn't have any scars on her face. Her limits seemed to want to keep that one part of her body unblemished...To keep that small piece of her intact.
The Ex-Turk didn't think of things outside the cold concrete walls anymore...At least not consciously... Once in a while, something would drift its way across her mind, something like "...It won't be long now, they'll find us..." but she could never quite remember who "they" were...Well, whoever "they" were, she was going to hang on to what little feeling that thought did give her...A sense of belonging she couldn't quite place, but wanted to grip with all her might for fear of losing...That, she didn't plan on letting go of...That, and her dream.
Once in a while, she still could still dream...A dark, damp night in the rain, running after a bit of ragged red fabric. Whatever that meant, it made her want to laugh, just for a moment...Then as usual reality hit, and that absurdly placed urge was dismissed back into the darkness it had come from.
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 9:24 am
Reno The footsteps he thought he had heard seemed to have diminished. He could only guess that they were merely passing by his cell door. At least, if he were lucky. He rubbed his forehead as he sat on his cot and shut his eyes tight, feeling incredibly stressed out and not all there. He was about to lie down when he heard a voice through the wall. He did not recognize it at first. He thought it was just some crazy person who thought they knew who he was, or maybe just wanted to be friendly for some god-forsaken reason. He had to delve hard into his memory to figure out who that voice belonged to, so he didn't respond to her after a few good minutes.
"...Arina?" He could barely get a face along with the name, but it was somewhat comforting to know he hadn't completely lost it. How she was able to remember their first day and he didn't, he wouldn't know. He didn't know what was happening to her any more than he knew what was happening to him. He put one hand down onto his bare knee.
"I don't know." It was true. He didn't know if anything was broken. "But I feel like s**t and they ******** cut my hair." His voice hitched slightly and he began to violently cough for a few seconds, until it subsided and he spit onto the floor. There wasn't any blood in it, thankfully, but he could only imagine when it would start happening. He doubted he was sick. He highly doubted anyone was having him fight people during torture sessions. They just had him strapped down and ******** with him until he passed out, probably. But he couldn't remember.
"I can barely remember anything." Arina was the last person he wanted to confide with. In fact, anyone would have to be the last person he wanted to confide with, but Arina especially. If there was one thing he remembered about her, it was how he never really liked her. There was always just something about her. He squinted his eyes together, tightly, as he once again thought about his former partner. How long had he been in this cell?I'm in the same prison as you...
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:10 pm
She sighed. "I'm pretty sure they're doing that on purpose...I think Hojo's got them giving us something...I think I heard one of them say something about a serum or..."Arina trailed off toward the end...Even the memory of that event, which she was sure couldn't have taken place more than two days ago, was slightly foggy. They didn't seem to want her to remember anything about a life with free will...
"But..."She wanted to sound encouraging, say something like 'We'll be alright!'....but the truth was she barely believed that herself. "....They can't just keep us in here forever, right?" that was the best she could come up with...Frankly, she knew Reno had never been that fond of her, right from that moment she had brought his partner to Aeriths...An event she had no recollection of anymore...However, the lingering sentiment remained, and Arina knew better than to think that now was the time to try and change his mind...
She couldn't help but wonder, however, just why it was that they would bother to cut off Reno's hair. What was the point? ...It seemed to her that they were exclusively doing this to make the pair of Turks snap and conform...At this point, it seemed like an all-too-reasonable concept...
In that moment of slight fear emanating from the thought that they both might be lost to the blackness that Hojo was trying to force on them, she could think of only one thing to say, "...I know we're not friends or anything...But we've still got each other. I'll remember what you can't...So just hang in there, okay?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:22 pm
Reno Hojo? "Hojo is dead." He said this firmly and as-a-matter-of-factly. From what he could remember, the man was dead and had been dead since well before Cloud ever stopped Sephiroth. For some reason, he could remember that far back, but nothing of recent events. Arina must have been mistaken. Reno absolutely hated Hojo; from his freaky voice to his freaky face. Maybe Arina was hallucinating, or maybe they got someone here that looked like him? Or maybe he had a brother. Reno hoped not.
Reno laughed out loud. It was a harsh laugh. If no one had come for them thus far, why would anyone come now? He didn't even know how long they had been there; they could have been there for years for all he knew. He had lost track of time long ago. He had to regain his memory every time he woke up as far as he knew, so what kind of hope did he have left? The only thing he was able to hold on to was the fact that he had no desire whatsoever to become a Raven. He had to keep his free will. And he had to piss these scientists off.
Being able to remember what they were doing with him here was a rather frightening thought. I don't want to turn into a Raven. They can't do it. I have to get out of here. But where was he going to go? He was probably underground. There were probably Ravens and guards and all kinds of things on the surface just waiting for him to try and escape and then slit his throat, or break his legs so he would conform or something.
The red head sat in silence for a moment. He began to consider that maybe it was just too much trouble to go through finding the two of them. "They've probably given up on us, Arina. They have more important things to worry about than a couple of stray dogs." But wasn't that what they wanted him to think? To lose hope and finally give in? Even if Tseng had given up on him, Rude wouldn't, would he? But what did it matter; they weren't even Turks anymore. There was no organization to keep after them any longer, as far as he knew. Which he didn't know. He had no idea.
"I'll 'hang in there', but I'll die before I turn into one of those ******** mind puppets. So don't you change, either."I'm in the same prison as you...
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 1:45 pm
....Dead. Arina wished that were true...She really, really wished that were true. But she knew better, after all, seeing someone in person could do that to you...She wouldn't deny that she had been thinking in the beginning that perhaps she had imagined the whole thing...that she had been hallucinating. That, made the most sense...But day after day, Hojo in all his greasy, spiteful, irritating actuality appeared before her for another barrage of tests...And no hallucination she'd ever heard of was quite real enough to manage that...But for now, she let it go...After all, from in here, there wasn't much she could do to prove her case.
...She hated the thought, but sooner or later she was fairly certain Reno would find out on his own that the Hojo she had seen was the real deal...Doubtless, he would be interested in why it was the Redhead had held out this long, and come poking around for answers any day now...Frankly, Arina wished there was a way he could have just stayed oblivious to the mad scientist's inexplicable survival, but she knew that rat b*****d never let anyone exceptional evade him for too long...
'They've probably given up on us, Arina.'...She didn't want to think about that. "They" would still come...She wanted to hold onto the concept, even if she couldn't quite get a grip on the truth of the idea. She couldn't think of faces, heights, hair colors, laughs, voices...Not even names. But events...For her, events were very clear. It almost seemed like there were simply blank spaces where people should be in the replay of memories of her mind...Reno was the only one who still held a space...and that weird shredded fabric.
She let out a little bit of a hollow laugh too. "Don't worry. I'm not going to give in...I'm too damn stubborn to let them change me," she said, hoping that was a promise she could actually keep.
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Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:54 pm
The interior was still, illuminated only by a single row of lights. It wasn't so much for the excuse of energy conservation, as to stimulate the mind into the false belief that the confines of the cells were by far more stifling than they were. It might not have been the best technique to put the occupants ill at ease, but it was effective enough.
The thing Hyou had learned in a very short term of service was that at some point common tactics at intimidation had long ago failed to impress most captives. That was why he preferred to use uncommon tactics. His footsteps echoed just slightly, hollow and clipped. He walked the familiar route to the small, cramped cells located in the small area of illumination just outside the doors.
There was a hollow rattle as he reached out and unlocked the cell, sliding back the door with a brisk, though unhurried air. He stepped silently over the threshold, half-turning as if he'd forgotten something, fingers flexing experimentally to loosen the stiff, leather fabric of the gloves covering his hands. He drew the door shut just as quickly and efficiently behind himself.
It was only then that he bothered to directly look at Reno, a calculated gleam to his eyes in an otherwise expressionless face. Slowly and deliberately, he brought his right gloved hand up to his face, calmly shucking the material from his hand in a careless, practiced gesture, throwing it to the ground with a muted slap.
The next one followed suit, landing next to it's match almost soundlessly.
"Your arrogance is unappreciated, and it's high time someone put you back in your place."
It was the only sentence he spoke, before crossing over to Reno just as slowly and deliberately. It was almost surprising how quickly his hand shot out then, the only quick motion the man had performed since he'd arrived.
His hand reached out, jerking Reno towards him harshly, catching hold of his right arm and twisting it behind his back as he spun him around so that the man was shoved roughly against the wall of his cell, his back to Hyou as he leaned over the man.
"Your cooperation is appreciated."
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