((Collab Post between NarcsissticPotato and Letter Bee)) [i]Ruby, run![/i] The same voice played over and over in her head until it drove her from sleep, causing her to wake up panting and sweating amongst the warm sheets of her new bed. Casting her vision over towards the scantily-clad woman beside her, Ruby climbed from her bed and quickly pulled on her comfortable night-gown. Aperture were a whole new level of bad but she had to admit something, they really treated you when you worked for them. She herself had earned some sort of suite in their deep-sea facility that looked like something from the future. It also had the added benefit of having a workshop that took up about half of the total floor-space in the apartment. Moving over towards the kitchen, she got a quick drink before returning to the computer-systems she was working on before she was so kindly interrupted the night before. "Ruby, may I come in?" Came a voice over the intercom and like it or not, Ruby had to let Taylor in - the man did pay her, after all. "Go for it." She answered in a dull tone, shifting the magnifying glass away from her face and putting her soldering iron back in its holder. Sitting up, she spun her chair around to face him and quirked a quick eyebrow at him. "So, what's up, Doc?" She seemed almost bored but truthfully, she wasn't a morning person - she much preferred to work in the mornings and not be interrupted. "It seems that our enemies have not seen the futility of their actions. As far as armed force goes, they still have one last major bastion, StuCorp - the peaceniks of Golden Gate University can be ignored for now. It seems that Gary Stuart, the so-called 'Honest Corporate Executive', genuinely thinks that he is a Gary Stu. Would you kindly disabuse him of that notion, Ruby?" he said in his smooth, silky voice. Ruby sighed, giving him a small frown before nodding slowly. "Got it. You want me to blow his face off or just go in and find some dirt on him? Either works really." She yawned, taking a small glance over towards the female that was slowly waking up. "I'll need some hair-dye and fake credentials. Unfortunately, I think I've become one of the most-wanted Metas this side of the planet." "No, killing him is [i]my[/i] honor, not yours," Director Taylor seemed to be out of character at this, a non-foolish, non-reckless person taking a foolish, reckless risk out of selfishness; while he was naturally selfish, Doc Taylor was almost always smart about it. Ruby would wonder just what Stu did to elicit this reaction in the Director. "Digging up sone dirt on him would be enough." the CEO finished. She nodded quickly, glad that Taylor didn't take note of her choice of bed-partner, more specifically, the same Doctor that had patched her up when she returned to Aperture the day before. Getting to her feet, she padded past Taylor and up to a cupboard before grabbing some black hair-dye. People were looking for Ruby Greenfoot, the confident and dastardly technopath. They weren't looking for Alanna Tate, a shy intern that seemed to have an unhealthy knowledge in programming and circuitry. "Get me credentials for a girl called Alanna Tate and I'll make sure you have your dirt." It was all everyone was looking for, these days. [b][i]Timeskip[/i][/b] Gary Stuart was having a fine morning, having finished his tour. Now, he was busy playing Warcraft III, Multiplayer, with his private Superhero Team, the Golden Trio. Said Golden Trio were Ghost, an albino Metahuman who can fly, become intangible, and fire green energy whenever he stops being intangible, Bloodrune, a Meta who, after a skirmish with a Merc Gifted, discovered that his power was to make anything splashed with his blood immune to superpowers (his weakness was that this only worked until the blood dried off or was washed, also, the fact that he was using [i]his own blood[/i] in the first place), and finally, Plantmaster, a brown-haired, brown-eyed Englishman clad in all-natural tweed clothes. "Oh, yeah!" spoke Gary, "The Horde wins again! Woo-hoo!" Ghost was playing Undead, Bloodrune was playing Alliance, and Plantmaster was playing Night Elves. It had been a hard battle, but Gary always won. "Anyway," said Bloodrune, "Mr. Stuart, are you sure you want to handle the interviews of the new interns - plural, starting with that Alanna Tate girl for alphabetical order - yourself?! Any one of them could be an Anti-Meta assasin out for your blood! Pardon the pun." "Of course I do!" replied Gary. "Why should I live in fear just because both Metahumans and Baselines decided to go whacko? Besides, Ii have you guys, right? So everything's going to be fine!" Bloodrune sighed; the other two smiled. ------ A few minutes later, Gary was talking to Alanna. "Your resume looks good, Ms.Tate!" he spoke. "You're hired, begin working now." Ruby couldn't believe how easy it was. It was too easy in fact - was he onto her? He couldn't possibly. Granted, she did have an amazing resume that had been specially forged by Aperture but that didn't matter. Just as she smiled shyly and nodded to him, a thin man, looking to be about in his forties, arrived in the room with a quick nod to Alanna before moving over to Gary. "Mr Stuart. I have an update on those signals you wanted me to follow up. Well, they were heavily encrypted and it was difficult to get into it but I used a key-forge system and that was the only thing that worked. The problem with that system, sir, was that it was Ruby Greenfoot who developed it and she's now working for Aperture. Aperture wouldn't slip up that much, I don't think." The man clearly didn't think of Alanna as a very big threat but inside, she was secretly raging - things she had created were now turning around and biting her in the ass. "Good job!" spoke Gary, standing up and offering a high-five. Ruby can tell that Gary's demeanor wasn't a mask; he really [i]was[/i] that casual and familiar - although he had an ego, he also had a sense of fun and camadrie that made people highly comfortable with him, or at least, most of them. In contrast, Director Doctor Taylor was a serious, cold, and rational man, one who stood above the hoi polloi and knew it. One can see how Gary's almost clownish behavior would set him on edge... Alanna was nearly as confused as the poor man who had decrypted the signals for him. "Um... Sir... these are the signals that were used to upload those clips of the man speaking onto the broadcast stations. The man that inspired all these riots." He spoke quickly, staring at him before fixing his glasses as he looked over at Alanna quickly before looking back up to Gary and leaning in to his ear. "Sir. It was um... it was coming from Avalon." Gary's expression turned serious and steely now; his face made much more frightening by the fact that, it seemed, it was so [i]rare[/i] for him to be like this. He then spoke: "I knew you were someone of great talent. Let's talk in private with Bloodrune and Plantmaster; Ghost can watch over Alanna here. Would you mind that, Alanna?" he questioned, returning for a brief moment back to his old humor. Then, he, Bloodrune, and Plantmaster left for another room, signalling the man to come with them. Ghost, meanwhile, voiced to Alanna: "I'm watching you," while his creepy red eyes stared at her. She raised an eyebrow at him and, true to her persona, she seemed to shrink back into her chair. "Who are you?" She questioned quickly, her voice a little shaky. Ruby wasn't afraid of this guy, Alanna was. "I didn't do anything wrong, did I? Mr Stuart said I had the job and I thought that was ok and that he was done with me an-" She quickly stopped herself and looked away. "You're right about Mr. Stuart," spoke Ghost, "but the problem with him is...he abides by the adage that 'Trust begets Trust', 'Loyalty begets Loyalty'. This is not always true, and he's lucky enough that it worked for him for a surprising amount of time. However, times are changing now, and his luck may run out. Anyway, as a courtesy, I'm going to say this: My Name Is Ghost." He somehow pronounced the allcaps. --- "Sir. The signal, I don't know how but it traces all the way back to Avalon and stops there. That is the source but I have no idea how. There's a jammer at Avalon, it should have been enough to scramble anything they were trying to send out." The man seemed nervous, scared almost - Gary Stuart was a great man to work for but he really didn't like this update in things. Plus, the Golden Trio of his personal protectors were pretty scary, even for someone who worked under them. "This is just a theory but they may have a Meta capable of getting these signals out, or at least that's what I think it is." "Possible," spoke Gary, "very possible." [i]Or it could be that Aperture decided to let the signals through.[/i] "It could also be that the scanner was broken; everything can break down at some point." He didn't really believe that; but he thought that he shouldn't discomfort the man with his suspcions about Aperture. "Also," he said as an afterthought, "can I see the decryptions and other data for myself? It might be useful." ((TL;DR - Too Long, Didn't Read - Basically, Ruby infiltrates StuCorp, while one of Gary's employees reveals that the Voice came from Avalon, Aperture's great privatized prison. Also, three new NPCs - Ghost, Bloodrune, and Plantmaster are introduced.))