"Ah, well I have faith that the clouds and the many other ethereal subjects will bow down to your kingly demands and the sun will shine forthright your majesty." Satoru proclamied with a courtly extravagant bow. Satoru poured himself a drink allowing the silky bitter warmth of the whiskey coat his throat, relishing in these moments of peace that seemed to have as of late have been flung few and far between. Soon enough the others filed in. 

The good thing about the nature of their line of work was that common squabble, resentment and envy that was present in a more normal work environment. When you have each other's life on the line there was no room for distrust and hate. Satoru had always thought it to be an interesting fact about how life and death situations had the ability to bring all types of people together. Satoru had know known Yasukazu for about just as long as he had Mima and Soshi. The resident ball handler was the type that was very useful to have on your side of the court: dependable, grace under pressure, and the works. Sarah on the other hand Satoru had only known for sometime now as was the case with everyone else. Though she was a nice girl, not at all portraying the standard stuck up foreigner traits that were usually displayed on the net and television. Together they mad a patchwork group of personalities that worked well enough together in and out of combat and that was all you could really ask for in their given circumstance. 

They talked idly for sometime, it was casual and relaxed as if for a moment they were truly just an odd assortment of friends rather then a collective group of Gvn spooks, that secretly help keep the weight of the world off of Atlas. In the end though the reality of it all was still present in Satoru's head as he took another swig of his drink, a smile on his face. That was the part that bothered him the most really, his ability at which he was able to brush aside the darker truths of their jobs. But in the end it was a skill that every Corrector, nay every person that performed a job where lives were on the line. It was one of his own personal little mantra's that he kept drilled in his head, for he knew the moment that he started blaming himself, putting weight to could haves and would ofs, becomes the point that you lose sight of the bigger picture. In their line of work people died all the day, it was a fact that the Gvn agents that recruited them made a big deal in emphasizing, was the high mortality rate. And yet here was a bunch of kids barely reaching the definition to be called an adult who all had the choice to walk away. And yet none of them did. 

Satoru was dragged out of this morbid train of thought by Mima and Soshi beginning to voice their concerns. Satoru listened intently to them and what they were saying was all very much true. He sure as hell knew that he had felt it, and he was pretty sure the others felt it but it felt as if they had dived too deep and too quickly into a battle that seemingly had no end. The implications and the effects of them being overstretched as a seemingly endless series of attacks and alerts went out each day. Most of them had been working on two to three hours of sleep a night, and the effects of it had begun to show. But it was what they had to do wasn't it? If they did not extend themselves as far as they could, something could slip through the net, it could be something harmless like a small virus that just siphoned funds out of one's accounts, but it could be something much worse a terrorist attack akin to the one that happened in America three years prior, fifty people died and a hundred others were put in a hospital. For if they at least had the chance to save a life, they had to take it even it wore them out in the process. The end justify the means and all that.

The fact that hit home the most though, was how he knew how much Soshi and Mima cared about the rest of them. Mima being basically a seconded overprotective mother to everyone, even Sarah by this point. It was a fact that Satoru came to understanding very quickly, wither you liked it or not if you were a part of Mima's team then she officially became protective as a mother bear of you. To be fair they all cared in their own way, they had to care. They were a family bound in the blood of battle. They had to stick together for the pebbles of human isolation get swept up in the currents of time, but the bolder of trust it would stand firm in the strongest of raging currents. They had lost a lot of people over the years, their friends, their family. And none of them wanted to go through that feeling again. 

Satoru cleared his throat and took another sip of his drink before speaking, flashing a small smile. "Mima, I have faith in our ability nay our dumb luck in the field of not getting killed. Beside we can't just sit around and hide when things get a bit hard on us. We have to take the punches and throw back some hurting bombs. It is all we can really do at this point. Because any other action would end with us on the execution block for treason. And personally I think we all look much better without nooses on our necks. Then again we could just vanish... get thwacked by Gvn spooks higher up the food chain than us...But let us not worry about that, if it comes to that. Well, we will cross that bridge when we get there." Satoru declared triumphant though on the inside, he was a lot less sure and the thought that something bigger and much more aggressive was brewing, worried him, but like everything he had to brush those thoughts aside, to be dealt on his own time as he lay awake in his bed, knowing all too well he was not going to get any sleep.

A few moments later, there phones went off and a sort of business like silence took over the air. "Speak of the devil" Satoru muttered to himself as he flipped on his phone. He looked for a place that he could crash onto into before jumping in, the others doing the same getting comfortable for they might be in there for awhile. He finally was content with a large roundish chair set by one the large glass windows. For if Satoru was going to be killed, at least the view would be nice. Ironically enough as Soshi had declared earlier seemingly ages ago, the first few specks of sun began to pierce through the afternoon grey. Satoru rested back into the chair, letting the cushion material seemingly absorb him into it, he looked around on last time and exhaled deeply before pushing a button on his phone as a low pitched humming resonated from somewhere in the back of his head.

Soon the humming was replaced with a radiating warmth and then the feeling of being thrown face first into a lake on a cold winters day. The materialization senesation being a bit different for each and every user as their brains reacted to their own Mchips. A wide endless expanse progress as far as they eye could see in every direction. A small holographic display flashed in front of his face for a moment stating in bold font; [b] Connection successfully established. Welcome Futen.[/b] He swiped his hand in front of him and the display vanished. Now standing a few feet off from the meeting point was a man dressed in curt smooth western dress, akin to that not uncommon during the Meiji Restoration, an odd mixture between traditional Japanese attire and more modern western dress. A sword hung in a scabbed at his waist, he cracked his neck in one direction and then the other before walking quickly up to the others as they started to group together. As he heard his two courageous leaders voiced their concern to one another, he stepped over and spoke as optimistic as ever.

"Oh, you always have a bad feeling about everything we do E.G. Take a deep breath and smell the pixels. Rekindle that sense of ever present adventure! Or are we going to have to promote Ice to the chipper one that enjoys prancing in fields and cuddling with animals. For I don't think that really fits his style."