[b]Ruby[/b] She regarded him in a manner that was mixed between curiosity and disbelief; why would he ever want to hire her when she had made his work that bit more difficult? Then it clicked, her mind connected points that weren't overly difficult to connect but she was being deprived as of now. He could only hold her in there for a certain amount of time while he could pay her forever. If he held her there, she would just expose Aperture's secrets upon release but if she was paid, they kept hidden forever... or at least until they stopped paying! Cocking her head to the side, she regarded him with mild interest - cards had to be played right if she wanted to accommodate her. He was trying to cover her up, after all. "Doctor. Let's get this straight. I do not care about the pay. I do not care about the benefits. I want access to her: you're AI. Let me near her and I will make sure that Aperture becomes a super-power in its own right." She spoke fluidly before promptly turning on her heels, padding back over to the bed and plopping herself down. --- [b]Arc 2:[/b] [b]Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.[/b] It was a fairly average evening - mother and father had just returned from work and their nanny had retired to her own house for the night. Homework had been completed, dinner had been cleaned, with the exception of a few greens and overall, the children were trying to sneak in some last-minute tv viewing before they were forced to go to bed. "Dad..." The young boy complained, his voice dulled in annoyance - he was trying to watch his show and he was just interrupted. "It'll only be for five minutes. Just watching the news." His dad mumbled in reply, shrugging off the boy's annoyed tone as he flicked the channels over to the six o'clock news, a minute off but it didn't matter as they had just finished rolling the title. The boy turned, not particularly bothered by this update in events as his eyes flicked up to the screen with little interest - the news wasn't the most exciting thing to a twelve-year-old. It continued like that for a minute or two, the anchors following their monotonous structure of delivering the news: introduce, expand; introduce, expand. Out of nowhere, however, the tv flicked to a black-screen and all three in the room frowned at it. "Damn tv is playin-" He was cut off as it soon snapped back to a picture, radically different to that of the buxom blonde newscaster from beforehand. This was a man, aged wearily with greying hair despite the fact that he only looked to be in his forties to fifties. His pause was long. Brutal. Efficient. Who was this mysterious man? "Ladies, Gentlemen, Americans... today at precisely 4:31 pm, we were betrayed. Upon capturing an informant, the LAPD HQ was stormed by beasts in human clothing. These following images are events which have only transpired not long ago; events that your government has prohibited all media sources from televising." He spoke quietly, his tone low and his register formal as he quieted most of the population of LA. As his face left the screen, it was replaced by a string of images, mainly concerning a particular blonde and her fire-wielding comrade. "The girl you are seeing is Ruby Greenfoot. She is a weapon that the government tried to control but erupted in their face. She is wanted for several accounts of murder, man-slaughter and cyber-crimes. She is capable of accessing and stealing any digital information known to man. The second you see is Elijah Craigh, a beast with the power to burn this city to ashes. Both are fully willing to kill, as you can see." The next few images were of them, gunning down police officers, the young woman the final police-officer to be shown dying. The living room had fallen quiet and their mother was now hovering at the door, staring at the tv in mixed horror and interest - all forgot what they were doing before-hand. "But my comrades, this is not the worst crime I will show you." The next was closer to the time, of Elijah and Nightingale standing in some sort of truce. After that was of Ruby, standing and talking to Cypress. "These new-comers are beasts you are expected to trust. Beasts that swore to protect the innocent. Yet, we can clearly see here that they are conversing with these monsters and not attempting to apprehend them, or prevent them from killing more. So, we must come to the conclusion that these... [i]heroes[/i] are working in league with the monsters from earlier." He finished his speech sounding harsher and harsher, his anger barely containable by the presence of the camera. "Do we not live in the land of the free, yet we are trapped under the boot of a government which has been infiltrated and converted! So, I hereby invite every man, woman and child to march with me. We will show them true power and we will show them that we are not the ones who are subjugated. Quite the opposite, in fact, because if not us, who? If not now, when?" His stare remained for a few seconds before blinking back to the stunned blonde. The damage had been done.