Chapter 23: Heaven Is A Gated Community

[Rust aka "Chaos"]

He grabs the hand at the wrist and the metallic voice begins talking.

"Please do not attempt to manually restart the system it may result in a loss of data or power source faulties. If you remove the power source be prepared for system blackout wherein the only way to retrieve data would be removal of harddrive. System is in the middle of the reboot stage...reboot stage will be done in...10...9...8...4...2...1"

Just then the remaining eye opens up. The skinless mouth grins, his metallic teeth shining in the light.

"Hello sunshine want to play?"

[Anna Kraise]

Man, what did it matter anyway? She keeps one tiny little cute rebel in her chambers for the first time in weeks and everyone gets a knot in their undies! Dramatic as always, dear Anna pouted as she made a few huffy noises. She was far from her Roman home, at another type of home... her birthplace, to be exact. The Genetech labs had a strange appeal to her for all their metallic coldness. There was hardly anything better to do; she was banned from the Holy Week for her punishment.

How annoying! How unfair! She had more right than anyone else to be there! Well, not more right than the Father, of course.

Where was her 'mother', anyway? As always, her mind shifted drastically. She'd been waiting forever. (In reality, only a few minutes had paused since her arrival.) "Ugggh!" She lets her head fall onto the table she was sitting at. Only for a moment, as any longer risked causing creases on her skin or messing her hair up. At least the lack of duty allowed her to adorn other attires in her closest.
At the moment, a beautiful summer dress hugged every curve of her body. The shade was a blue matching her own baby blue irises, silver butterflies decorating the hems of the dress. A deep V-neck gave one a rather revealing glance at the mounds of her breasts. It reached just below her knees, longer than she liked her dresses. She wore silver heels to match both the dress and her hair.

"Aah, it's so good to be me." The white haired dragon youth commented to herself idly as she once again admired herself. Now, perhaps something would show up if her scientist mother wouldn't? She was just itching to do something, anything.

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"What the hell." Bonifaz says as the machine grabs his arm. He tries to pull away but the grip is too tight on his arm. He looks at Amelia and Archer for help or an answer. "Sunshine.. what are you talking about.." He says to the machine. He tugs harder, but still to no avail.

This is all pretty messed up. He should not have tampered with Amelia, although, she doesn't seem to be the main concern now.

"Do something about this Amelia."

[Amelia 20]

"I would help you, but I cannot move." Amelia states to Bonifaz. She is stuck in place, perhaps due to a malfunction, or perhaps for some other reason...
She watches Bonifaz, but is unable to help. Her mind seems clearer. She now knows that she is a Creditor. She can now recall that she was salvaged by Bonifaz and that she has been working with his group. There are some areas that are gray or confusing, but for the first time in a long while, things make sense to the machine.

She looks to Archer.

"You should run away." She suggests to Archer.

[Rust aka "Chaos"]

He looks at Bonifaz letting a chuckle emerge from his mouth.

"Theres nothing you will be able to do from now on my man. You see I have been reborn. My update is complete and boy do i feel great. Hey sweetheart get your cute can over here and secure these two gentlemen starting with this one."

He keeps a hold of Bonifaz waiting for Amelie to come and secure him...he begins to talk again.

"Basically i am going to walk out of here. You will not follow or else I will be forced to use your friend against you. She knows what I mean. Anyway I need to make like a tree and get out of here. It has been a pleasure and if you are looking for something other than a trojan horse maybe try to find me. I am going to be in business for myself now..."

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"Do as you please. It doesn't matter one way or the other." Bonifaz replies to the machine. He doesn't bother struggling against Amelia and simply eyes the machine carefully. He has no idea what went so horribly wrong. His expression is blank, but inside he is furious. He glances at Archer and wishes that he wasn't right. He dislikes being wrong about something and the satisfaction that other people might find in this. However, he keeps his mouth shut and just lets the android leave without struggling or showing much sign of concern about the situation.

[Rust aka "Chaos"]

He smiles and starts to walk out. He grabbed his shirt off the couch but sees its very dorky and throws it aside. He has the means for buying clothes...hell he has the means to steal anything he wants now. He laughs out loud as he lets his receptors explore Amelies system. He had been controlling her and it felt wonderful. He knew her inside and out now and if need be he could easily do this again. However she knew some of his secret as well...she could tell it but he didnt care...he would be unstoppable now.

In the recesses of his mind he still had rust there...he felt a twinge of guilt but knew this was for the best and nothing could be done. He began to search for a synthetics factory so he could fix his appearance. He wondered how much of himself had Amelie gleamed from their merge.

[Amelia 20]

Amelia holds onto Bonifaz for a few minutes after Rust disappears. Some time passes and she finally lets go of Bonifaz. She is experiencing something strange. Some of his experiences and history remain with her, even though he is now gone.

"He is some kind of advanced android that can control other machines. He was able to upgrade himself after I discharged energy at him. All of these years he was a model meant to someday bring chaos to the world." Amelia explains after he is gone. She shakes her head and starts cleaning up the area around the coffee table.

"I doubt he will return here, unless it is for me." She adds.

[Rust aka "Chaos"]

He finds what he is looking for and quickly changes his outer shell. His appearance changes...

He is pale with white hair now. His eyes are a blueish color and his flesh is lean and sinewy. He is vey edgy and nothing like his old covering at all.

"Rock and roll"

He decides to go back to see Bonifaz...he was muddy about who he was but not what he wants to do. He needs to know what he use to be so he can continue forward...he wonders if it would be ok to try and trick them into thinking hes someone else...

He makes his way back letting his foot falls heavy kicking gravel as he comes up to the house. He wants them to think he is as human as possible. Amelia will not say anything...of this he is sure...

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"Amelia, go to your room." Bonifaz orders. He doesn't feel in control at all. He goes to the kitchen and gets Archer some ice for his leg. He throws Archer the ice. "Well, I was wrong....and that annoys me. But, I thought that Amelia was unstable." Bonifaz explains in his own defense.

"Well, whatever, at least Amelia seems to be more sane. That other android didn't matter much anyway. Amelia can probably do his job back at the company anyway..."

[Lucio De Saldanha]

Lucio is released from the Flesh Monger and marched into the arena by a guard and a robed priest. He steps out in front of the crowd and looks at the other three fighters. There is a monk, a feminist, and Salome Weil. He looks them over and isn't sure what sort of weapon he should choose. He takes a simple sword and stands sort of in the middle in the arena.
He is limping a little because the Flesh Monger twisted his leg.

He feels pain, but, he wants to try to block it out with some sort of imagination. What could this be instead of a death match?

Maybe it is a cook off. He must defeat the other chefs with his magical fork.

"Now we're cooking!" Lucio says as he rushes towards the feminist.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Ceph kept running, his breathing becoming noticable with each step. His stamina was pretty much cut in half right now, so it was hard to keep his breathing from getting labored. He couldn't tell if Darian was behind him or not.. he couldn't even tell where he was at all. But the shooting had stop, so he figured that he was in the safe zone for now. He stopped running and pressed his back up against the wall, leaning his head back to stare up at the ceiling. He had to catch his breath.

About a minute or two passed as his heavy breaths echoed down the hall.. no one had came by.. they must've all been watching the gladiator fights. Speaking of which, he needed to get out there soon.. Now that he had the key to his shackles, he could simply warp all of the prisoners out of the arena. The thought seemed to excite him. Ceph pushed himself off the wall and began to walk, he looked at one of his hands and smirked. The key to his shackles had been in his hand the entire time.

There was a loud clacking sound. In a matter of seconds, they were off his wrists and on the floor. He left them behind..

Ceph began to approach the outside of the arena, walking to the end of the tunnel where the waiting prisoners were being kept. They picked their heads up and stared at the demon.. One of the guards approached Ceph, mistaking him for one of the prisoners. He was going to beat him for disobeying orders. But before the guard could even draw his weapon, he was floored with a stone hard back-hand to the neck.

His demonic strength was returning. The sounds of spectator cheering filled his ears. But he didn't step out into the arena just yet..

It looked like they were pitting rebels agaisnt each other.. amongst them, he spotted Salome Weil.

[Archer Aylmer]

I stay quiet for a long time and ice my leg. It stings, but really isn't too bad compared to what could have happened.

"I think we should have you fixed, Bonifaz. You cause too much trouble. More than Amelia ever did, to be sure."

I laugh... On the inside. With some effort I stand up and take a seat in the armchair. I don't really know what I think about the whole situation. I suppose I'm just happy it's all over now. Two rampaging androids in one house is two too many.

"Everything is too complicated. I'm liable to become a Luddite. But not... Because they're stupid and, really, I love machines. Nonetheless. We should try not to have similar things happen in the future."

[Calithin Crest]

"I guess..."

I am displeased that my idea for a rebel zoo was not met with excitement and the appropriate levels of appreciation. I thought it was a plenty good idea. Forget Dinari. I could start my own zoo if I felt like. Except... I think that would just take a wrong turn way too quickly. I cannot handle that much responsibility, really.

"I like the crazy little guy with the sword. I think he'll win. I want to high five him, but, he is far away and in the middle of a fight. Who do you think will win?"

[Alisa "Miia" Baykal]

Alisa had, reluctantly, left the lap of Annette during the earlier dispute. She remained at the end ring of soldiers, watching the events unfold. It appeared as if she wasn't needed. The demon was taken away and the soldiers dispersed. Growing tired of her four legs, she begun dodging people's legs once more. After only a few moments of searching, she discovered an empty seat with only a long coat. How... lucky for her.

She shifted, the people here were no one important. Pulling the coat on, she did the buttons before rolling up the sleeves. She felt eyes on her, but hardly felt like messing with their heads. What, oh what shall she do now?

Her crystal green eyes roamed over the rows of seats as she pondered. At last, she begun hopping rows much to the displeasure of the people she moved through. There were many shouts and exclamations before she reached her goal: the buisness section she had been at as a feline. She took a seat once more, but didn't speak as she merely listened to the conversation.

The feeling that she was going to have to work today just wouldn't leave her gut. Leaning forward, she cast her eyes on the fighting rebels. Was something really going to happen?