[CENTER][img]https://i.imgur.com/aCg2KZS.png[/img] [sup][b][i][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5025640][COLOR=Gray]Sheet[/COLOR][/url][/i][/b][/sup][/CENTER] [COLOR=White][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=Gray][I]Darius' Apartment[/I] - [I]Industrial District, Marlon City[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]In Search of Truth:[/b] [COLOR=Gray][I]The Message[/I][/COLOR][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][color=White][sub][B]Interaction(s):[/B] [COLOR=Gray][I]None[/I][/COLOR][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][b]Previously:[/b] [COLOR=Gray][I]N/A[/I][/COLOR][/right][/SUP][/color] [INDENT]Darius had been dozing peacefully before the loud vibrating of his cell, which had been placed at his computer desk, woke him completely. He shot bolt upright from the aged, leather couch where he had attempted to steal even a few hours of sleep and rubbed his eyes to rid himself of his sluggishness. The phone was ringing. Which was odd due to the simple fact that it [i]never[/i] rang unless something of great importance were currently happening. By the time he'd reached his desk, however, it had stopped. The call had been from a withheld number. Not that that really mattered to him too much since there were ways and means of finding out who would bother to do such a thing. Fortunately though, there wouldn't be any need for him to do that. No sooner than the caller had hung up came a text: [b]> Get online. NOW![/b] - is0 is0 was his contact for the [i]'Shadowlands BBS'[/i] site. An extremely well hidden Dark Website, operated exclusively on an Overlay Network, dedicated to the gathering and dissemination of private information pertaining to Corporations, Government Agencies and, more recently, Parahumans - illegal or otherwise. It was perfect for a man of his profession. [COLOR=Gray][i]'Former.'[/i][/COLOR] He reminded himself, although these days he found it to be exceedingly necessary for him to be able to operate against the Lorne Corporation and to generally get by. Since his departure from the company that had practically raised him, Darius had found that life on your own was actually quite difficult and the city had grown incredibly small without access to all the previous contacts and information the Corp had supplied for him. Foresight had been a rather strong-suit of his, however. Which is how he had managed to keep such a low profile in the months since the Tower incident. His membership as a part of the select and secretive group of Shadowlands users had been the result of a recent favour owed to him by an overzealous hacker, to whom he knew simply as is0. Some years prior, during an assignment to destroy data backups of a rival tech firm, Darius had come face-to-face with is0 in the server room of the aforementioned company. And although it was his duty to eliminate all witnesses during this particular phase of the assignment, Darius had decided to spare them their life due simply to the audacity - and skill - it must have taken for them to not only break into the server room before he did, but to be able to do so without him even suspecting a thing. And so, after choosing not to dispatch of is0 and allowing them to make off with the files they had worked so hard to retrieve, Darius held their marker as a backup for if shit ever hit the fan - which, of course, it eventually did. Darius had settled in at his terminal by now and had quickly booted it up. Which didn't take long at all given that it was a state-of-the-art Lorne Corporation machine that he'd manage to swipe from an inbound shipment of new devices that had been sent from one of their various factories abroad. Naturally, he had is0 take a look at it beforehand, who was able to root the device and load it with their own custom OS. One that would give him that all-needed access to the Shadowlands. He double-clicked the corresponding icon impatiently. Even despite the rapid load-times, Darius was still eager to see what is0 could possibly be so worked up about. It wasn't often that they called him, if at all. As his connection was being re-routed through various different servers and his IP address masked several times, a program opened that looked incredibly similar to the old-fashioned Command Prompt of yesteryear. The Owner and Administrator happened to be a massive nerd when it came to this sort of thing. According to some, even the theme of the board itself had been taken from an age-old video game that he just happened to be a huge fan of. Apparently even his User ID was supposed to reflect that. [code] # Welcome to... # _____ __ __ __ __ # / ___// /_ ____ _____/ /___ _ __/ /___ _____ ____/ /____ # \__ \/ __ \/ __ `/ __ / __ \ | /| / / / __ `/ __ \/ __ / ___/ # ___/ / / / / /_/ / /_/ / /_/ / |/ |/ / / /_/ / / / / /_/ (__ ) # /____/_/ /_/\__,_/\__,_/\____/|__/|__/_/\__,_/_/ /_/\__,_/____/ # Bulletin Board System Version 3.0.8 August 1. 2049 SysAdmin: J@ckPo1nt > User: RUL3R > Verifying Biometrics... > Identity Confirmed... [/code] As soon as he logged on, Darius could see the board exploding with activity. New posts every few seconds from hundreds of users based around the city and beyond. It wasn't long before his attention was brought to a small chat-icon blinking away at him from the bottom-right corner. It could only have been is0, his sole 'friend' on the site, which he preferred to keep that way. [INDENT][INDENT][i]> is0 [16:49:22]: Check this shit out: .../MPD/Admin/Live_Cams/Trans_6 > RUL3R [16:49:25]: How did you get this? > is0 [16:49:29]: Nevermind that. > is0 [16:49:31]: Just watch.[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT] When Darius clicked the link it opened another window filled with several different live camera feeds. All from an MPD Transport vehicle which seemed to be holding Parahumans. The situation looked far from ordinary, however. On closer inspection, Darius could clearly see that the truck had overturned somehow and a figure was just now killing the two guards who had occupied it. Darius recognised the figure from various images posted to the board over the recent months. It was Obsidian Edge. He continued to watch as the man opened the pods of the withheld Parahumans. Neither of these he recognised but that was a fact he was glad for as one of them began - what he could only describe as - consuming the bodies of the two guards. Darius felt his stomach churn. The second Parahuman was like nothing he'd ever seen before. A mass of constantly morphing black tendrils - or was it energy? He couldn't tell either way but it didn't seem to want to have anything to do with Obsidian Edge or the other escapee, who was now beginning to form into the shape of a woman. [COLOR=Gray][i]'Is she feeding on those guards to survive?!'[/i][/COLOR] He wondered. No sooner had the pair escaped from their confinement did another vehicle arrive on the scene followed up by the sharp [i]crack[/i] of high velocity rounds piercing through the air clearly aimed towards Obsidian Edge. The sound seemed off, however, as if the mic were situated in another part of the transport truck separate from the camera feed he was currently focused on. [INDENT][INDENT][i]> is0 [16:55:09]: Crazy, right? > RUL3R [16:55:11]: No shit, who is that? > is0 [16:55:15]: Obsidian Edge, of course! > RUL3R [16:55:20]: I'm not talking about him. > RUL3R [16:55:24]: Who's the chick with the questionable eating habits? > is0 [16:55:27]: Oh, her? That's Pest-[/i][/INDENT][/INDENT] Without warning Darius' terminal display glitched suddenly, drawing his ire momentarily before he could fully notice the large, blinking eye which now dominated his view. The image continued to glitch as a horribly distorted voiced rang out from his speakers. [b]"You are not alone… The Change comes to all things in time. Break your shackles and embrace true freedom."[/b] Then it was gone. [/INDENT] [/INDENT][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][COLOR=White][sub][COLOR=#2c2c2c]Placeholder[/color][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][b]Next Post:[/b] [COLOR=Gray][I]TBA[/I][/COLOR][/right][/SUP][/color][/INDENT]