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[h1]Inanna[/h1]

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[i]What a day.[/i]

The young cyborg thought to himself as he practically glided from one rooftop to another, with his robotic companion at his side. Using her jumpjets to get from one part of the map, to the other. It wasn't long before the sirens in the distance practically disappeared, and that gave him peace of mind. Though, they should probably take a low-profile, as anyone with [i]eyes[/i] can point out which direction they went in. He put a hand up with two fingers, as an obvious gesture for Seven-Seven to stop, before the two hit the ground. They landed near the beach, but sparks suddenly came out of Justin's body.

"Ugh-uuuuugh!" Justin let out the cry as he grabbed his arm, and dropped to his knees in the sand.

"Justin!" Seven-Seven said. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah..." Justin said. "I just took a bit of damage in that fight."

"Don't you have a self-repair module?" Seven-Seven asked.

"... Sadly, I'm not built as good as you." Justin snarked as he pushed himself to his feet, he grasped his shoulder. "Might have to contact my dad so he can get a doc to fix me." He groaned, as he realized that his arm was completely destroyed. 

"Let's just go."

Seven-Seven nodded, and grabbed onto Justin's arm, and helped carry him through the sand. This was one of the worst fights Justin been in so far - but, usually, against these bounty hunters, he had Seven-Seven to back him up. She wondered if that made him weaker, or stronger. She let out a sigh, as she kept moving forward... then she felt something (Which was weird since she normally can't feel). Then quickly deduced that was her ki-sensors. While she was helping Justin, she peered in that direction and... saw a kid in the ground, beaten. Her eyes went wide.

"Justin!" Seven-Seven said, and gave Justin a bit of a spook when she did. She pulled her cybernetic companion over towards the boy, and examined him. He had black hair, and looked beaten to an inch of his life as he lied on the ground unconscious. She released Justin (whom could stand on his own), and quickly walked over to the boy. Her eyes started glowing a bright blue color, as she scanned his wounds. She reached a hand out, and grasped his shoulder.

"Sir, are you okay?" Seven-Seven asked, before she shook him again. "Do you [i]need[/i] medical attention?"

Inanna looked back and forth nervously as he scanned the alleyway, his staff angled forwards as he braced himself for an attack from his four hooded assailants. Just how did he end up getting into this?
        
[color=darkred][i]Perhaps you should not drop everything to follow every charlatan who beckons you down a foreboding alleyway...[/i][/color] a voice inside him offered. He nodded shakily. They didn’t agree often, but perhaps he was right this time. One of the men stepped forwards, and Inanna found himself backing away in response.

        “Again,” the man said. “The shard. We know you have it. Give it here. Now.” Inanna began to stutter some sort of apology as the man sent him to the ground with a ki-infused punch. He rolled away, pushing himself off the ground as all four of them came towards him. The first one tried to follow up with another punch, only to find his fist sailing down above his own head. Inanna twirled gracefully behind him and poked him in the back with his staff, sending the rest of him through the portal. He hit the ground head-first, and Inanna quickly turned back to face the rest of them. Not willing to give them the chance to counterattack, he thrusted forwards with his staff three times in a row, each time creating a portal to a different enemy. He struck hard against their stomachs, sending each of them reeling.

        [color=darkred][i]Good,[/i][/color] The voice bellowed with relish. [color=darkred][i]Now finish them. Take their souls as they have tried to take ours! Let their meager strength propel us to greater heights in our quest for-[/i][/color] Inanna quickly opened a portal in the ground and warped away. An exasperated sigh echoed throughout the deepest depths of his soul.
        [i]Well, we could have at least asked them some questions…[/i] Inanna admitted as his boots found traction on the rooftop. He was about to warp to another one when he was captivated by the sight of fire trailing across the sky… were those people flying? He decided to follow them, perhaps they could help him out?

        [color=darkred][i]I suppose that would suit us better than our current aimless wandering...[/i][/color] the voice admitted as Inanna’s boots fell upon the sand. He was distraught as he got a closer look at them. One of their arms seem mangled, and they seemed to be joined by a third; a child lying hurt on the ground. [color=darkred][i]Mankind seems to have no shortage of cruelty in this era...[/i][/color]

        “Excuse me,” Inanna said. “Is there a better place for you to rest? I would like to help you, if that’s okay…”

When another person walked up, Seven-Seven didn't pay them any mind, and focused on the child. Justin on the other hand immediately turned his head to that person, and stood up. Blocking their view from Seven-Seven and facing them down. They definitely didn't look all that friendly, with that pale skin, robe, and even that spear. [i]And the freaks just keep coming.[/i] Well, they just got beaten up by a cowboy who was after their bounty, this weirdo wasn't any different.

"I think we're fine," Justin said. "Mind telling me who you are, friend?"

[i]Damn it... in this state... I'll get my ass kicked by just about anyone.[/i] He looked behind him at Seven-Seven. [i]If it comes to it... Seven-Seven will have to fight this one.[/i]

"F-friend?" Inanna repeated, stuttering on the word. He dwelled on it for a moment. "I'm Inanna... I guess you could say I'm a traveller. Who are you all?"

Inanna... that name was lost on Justin. Either way, Justin wasn't going to drop his guard for even an instant. He knew that being careless would be the death of him, especially in his injured state. For all he knew, this stranger planned on putting that spear through his eye socket. He kept his mouth relatively shut, as he answered.

"... I'm Brenton, and that's my friend, Andrea," Justin explained. "We just found this kid on the beach."

In the darkness of his conscience, Little Gideon felt a sensation on his shoulder and as his mind focused on it, he recognized it to be touch. Someone was touching him, but the contact hadn’t been warm. As the hand shook him, he felt the rough sand beneath his skin grinding against it, and causing his cuts to burn intensely. The boy’s brown brows knitted together and his face scrunched up in pain. The salt in the air and sand already made his wounds sting but the jostling was worse.
 
“Stop, please,” Little Gideon begged. His knees drew closer to his chest as he curled into a ball. He coughed blood against his jeans before he cracked open his grey eyes to weakly peer up at the three individuals surrounding him. Their forms were hazy at first, but when his vision became clear, he noticed immediately that they weren’t Brazilian.
 
[i]Tourists?[/i] Little Gideon mused to himself. He stared at the pale one with the staff suspiciously before his eyes shifted to the blonde with the sparking arm. [i]Holy crap…there’s three of them.[/i]
 
It might have been paranoid of him, but he suspected they were either Agents or Howitzer. The guy with the robotic arm he had no doubt was a Howitzer operative. Were they collaborating or maybe they hadn’t known each other? Closing his eyes again, Little Gideon mentally cursed.
 
[i]Damn; I’m stuck.[/i] Tensing nervously, he decided, [i]I’ll just have to use plan B.[/i]
 
Opening his eyes, tears gushed from them as Little Gideon’s face scrunched up. “It hurts, Mama. It hurts.”
 
The little boy started crying as he laid there pathetically in the sand, curled up and wincing from his wounds. If there had been a camera somewhere, Little Gideon was certain that he would have won an Academy Award for his performance. The old beaten and helpless child routine. It would make anyone with a caring heart a sucker. He figured he would use them at least until he managed to recover. He might even learn more about his rescuers. As soon as he learned if they were Agents or Howitzer’s goons, then he was out of there.

"Mama...?" Seven-Seven asked, with a raised eyebrow. "Where is your mother? I can go get her to help!"

Damn. She asked about the kid’s Mom. Mama from the Brazilian restaurant he had visited earlier popped into his mind, but with Papa still injured or who knows what happened to him, he didn’t want to show up there. It was still his fault that Papa had gotten caught up in business he didn’t belong in. The kid had no family…just like him. Frowning pathetically down at the sand with his bottom lip poked out, he felt that he was starting to actually cry as he thought about his father back in Switzerland. Why was life so cruel? This world was full of nothing but violence. Little Gideon just seemed to cry even more.

The child didn't answer, and Seven-Seven could only feel her mechanical heart sinking as she desperately thought of a way to help him. She merely picked up the boy - which was fairly easy given her mechanical strength, and his small, small, size. She cradled him in her arms, as he sobbed, before she turned towards Justin.

"We have to get him to a hospital!" Seven-Seven pleaded, before her eyes rested on the fellow with the spear.

"Come on, we don't have time for this-"

"I can take you to one!" Inanna offered, nodding perhaps a bit too quickly. "Can you tell me where one is?" He opened a portal away from the beach, as something of a demonstration.

Seven-Seven's eyes briefly flashed an electronic blue color as she scanned the man from head to toe.

[code]NO INFORMATION.[/code]

Well, that was unfortunate. Still, he was offering help. Seven-Seven pointed towards the city, before she said, "There's a hospital seven kilometers from here!" She told him. "Can your portals go that far?"

Inanna flinched briefly as the lady's eyes turned blue, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Only if I can find it first," he said. He altered the portal's exit to the sky above the city, letting him look down on it like a map. He wasn't perfectly fluent with the writing in this region, but he did find something that looked like a hospital.

"Is this what you were looking for?" He asked, changing the exit to outside the building in question.

The portal made Justin cross his arms as he looked into the portal with a raised eyebrow. This could be a trap, Justin was never the most trusting, but if they are going to get this boy to safety reliably, he had to take a risk. He should go in alone... if it was a trap, then at least Seven-Seven would be okay. Again, even if they were attacked, Justin was in such a shitty state that he would only slow down Seven-Seven if it came to that. He looked back at the child... as grim as it sounded, he could be used as a "meatshield" so to speak. He slowly stuck his hand through the portal as his head followed. He tried to make sure this bastard doesn't close the portal with him in it (if he loses an arm, no big deal - it's fake anyway).

Inside the portal, he took one look around, and realized that it [i]was[/i] an actual hospital (The people there looked at him awfully confused). He pulled his head back in, as he said to Seven-Seven.

"It's clear".

"Let's go, then!" Seven-Said said.

Inanna nodded before he stepped through the portal. He looked from side to side, checking to see if there was anything dangerous in this new place. It seemed like there wasn't, though those nearby seemed awfully confused about the whole thing.

 [color=darkred][i]Are you quite done here?[/i][/color] The voice inside him wondered. Inanna shook his head slightly, not comfortable with leaving a child to fend for himself. [color=darkred][i]If we were to tend to every young urchin we unearth in this city I fear we would not leave for another decade. But I suppose that time is our luxury...[/i][/color]

When Little Gideon was picked up in the woman’s arms, he was pleased how well they were eating up his ploy, then again…they could have just been kind people. The man with the spear, the strangest one in the group, demonstrated his uncanny powers. He closed the distance between time and space, creating a hole in dimensions from one area to the next. They were using the man’s powers to get him to a hospital. Little Gideon felt slightly nervous about the suggestion. He had never been in a hospital before and he didn’t know what the doctors would learn about his genetic makeup.
 
[i]I’ll only be there long enough to get stitched up[/i], he planned. [i]These people…I only hope they’re not with the bad guys. I will have to return their kindness. They’re not only saving me but the life of what could have been an innocent child.[/i]
 
His eyes welled with tears. He loved these people! He was able to put his faith back in humanity because of this moment.

Seven-Seven charged through the portal, but Justin hesitated for a moment... while he wasn't against helping this kid, he knew that if they played Mother Theresa it'd come back to bite them in the ass. Especially since they already had [i]one[/i] person come after them (in a very public display that'd probably attract more people). Neither Seven-Seven or Justin had a use for a conventional hospital, but Justin had to assume that they would at least keep an eye on the hospitals just in case. If they get caught without the fighter of the two... it was all over. Justin caught up to Seven-Seven, before he said,

"We drop the kid off, and leave Rio," Justin ordered. "We stuck around here far too long as is."

Seven-Seven nodded, as she held the little Gideon close, and said.

"We're going to get you to safety, little guy," Seven-Seven started off. "... What's your name?"

Little Gideon tensed when Seven just charged through the portal. She was so bold to take a stranger’s word. Everyone seemed to have traverse safely and he stared at the hospital in awe. It almost seemed like a dream. The portal had actually worked. Little Gideon made a mental note to be wary of the pale man if he ever crossed paths with him again.

Little Gideon looked up at Seven when she asked his name. It seemed harmless enough to share. Majority of his enemies called him “Adam,” and new him only as such.

“Gideon,” he answered. “I don’t like the doctor, but will they make me feel better?”

The girl would make a good mother one day. He thought this not knowing she was an android almost similar  to her counterpart. In that moment, he didn't even realize she had no ki. He wasn’t thinking about it.

She held him closely, before she answered with a simple.

"... Andrea." The name Justin came up for her. She popped through the portal after Justin. She looked behind herself, before she charged through the doors of the hospital while Justin hung back (Only because he didn't want to get spotted, and he had words to say to their spear wielding friend). Seven-Seven ran up to the front desk and presented the boy to them.

"Hello!" She shouted at the desk workers. "We found this child-" Unaware that Justin didn't even go in. "-in the beaches, and he needs immediate medical attention!"

The nurses and doctors took the child, and Seven-Seven smiled. Before they could ask anymore questions, she was quick to leave the area.

Justin was facing down the pale guy with the spear, he narrowed his eyes, and asked, "I guess you're here for the tournament?" He asked, it was obvious this yahoo was here for the fighting cup because only the best dressed weirdos come to get their ass kicked. "I didn't see you in the lobby... and..." He looked at his pale ass, and the spear, before he chuckled, "... I don't think I would have missed someone like you, heh."

"Oh," Inanna said happily. "Thank you!" He was initially unnerved by the way Justin stared at him, but he smiled, not registering that the comment wasn't exactly a compliment. He would have blushed, if he was able to.

"I was just looking for the tournament before I ran into you," Inanna continued, rocking back and forth on his heels as he spoke. "I don't think I would do very well if I tried to compete, though...  I've been looking for something for a long time, now; pieces of metal that give off ki. I was hoping that someone at the tournament might know something about it. Would you happen to know of anything like that, Brenton?"

He crossed his arms at both the comments, and he personally wondered how much air this dude's head was full of. Justin didn't peg him for the mercenary type, but he wasn't going to let his guard down.

"Metal that gives off ki?" Justin asked, with a raised eyebrow. "Unless you're talking about cybernetics-" He placed out his arm for a moment, "Or some weird artifact I don't know."

He shrugged. 

"Besiiiiides," Justin started off, "You're late for the tournament, the preliminaries are over, and the first round has begun." 

"Cybernet-ics?" Inanna repeated, the word sounding strange to him. "What are those?" He did not expect to learn about so many of these bizarre "nets" in his travels.

With an eyebrow raised, Justin wondered what kind of rock this kid was under. "... You know? Grafting machine onto man?" He winced for a moment as he was briefly brought back to the moment where he woke up, and realized he was a cyborg.

"Oh," Inanna said as he tried to wrap his head around the concept. "Technology is really confusing to me, but that sounds very interestin-" He stopped once he noticed Justin's discomfort, tilting his head to the side slightly. [color=darkred][i]Perhaps he shares my distaste for this mechanical drivel. It may be wise to change the subject...[/i][/color]

"That is a shame that I missed the tournament, though," He continued. "Perhaps I'm better off spectating, though. It sounds really dangerous, and I don't know what I'd do with the prize money."

"Charity." Justin chuckled, as he turned away from Inanna. He was definitely not a bounty hunter - he was probably just a contestant that was late. But, one thing was on Justin's mind. "How did you miss the tournament with those portals? Did ya' oversleep?"

"That's a great idea!" Inanna cheered, not having considered such a thing. He put a hand to his chin as he considered how to explain it. "Well, I didn't really know where this place was, exactly. We're pretty far from Iran, after all. Also-"

At this point, Seven-Seven came out of the hospital.

"I see things went well in the hospi-"

"... Thank you so much for your help!" Seven-Seven said as she walked up to the pale, robed, stranger, and started shaking his hand. "He would have died if it wasn't for you.

"You're welcome!" Inanna replied, shaking her hand somewhat lightly. "I'm just happy knowing that he'll be okay."

"Oh?" Seven-Seven looked at the pale stranger, and raised an eyebrow. She never quite caught this person's name, even though he was a great deal of help. She smiled as took a step or two back, and asked, "Stranger, what is your name?"

"My name is Inanna!" The golem repeated with a smile. "Your friend introduced you to me already, Andrea!"

"Oh, thank you, Justin!" Seven-Seven said, briefly glancing at Justin as the cyborg crossed his arms.

"Yeah, yeah..." Justin crossed his arms. "Before you start making friends, you need to remember we got a long journey ahead of us."

He threw a thumb over his shoulder, as he turned around.... that mere action caused sparks to fly off his head.

"Besides... our friend won't be able to join us."

Seven-Seven frowned for a moment, before she nodded her head.

"We have to go," She started off, "But, let us meet again. As friends. We'll have much to discuss."

Inanna nodded. He was so happy to be making friends!

"Goodbye, then!" He said with a wave. "I wish you the best of luck on your travels!" He felt bright enough to disregard the voice inside of him as it grumbled about wasted time.

The two of them ran off away from the hospital... just as police were arriving on scene to pursue them.

The two made it to the rooftops... it was fun to make friends, but it was finally time to leave Rio. Put the city, and the tournament behind them. As they didn't realize a new era was rapidly approaching.