mindcracklove | Sem Equites--Chapter Four

Back to hub: http://mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/783519.html

More SE? So soon?

R7 helped a ton with this chapter. So did Clash. Yay! :D

And now: shenanigans.

Etho looked up at Shawn. "So, this Lips person... who was she?"

Shawn looked up, startled. He'd thought he'd mentioned her in his head. It was rare anyone really talked about her. The incident had been traumatic. For everyone.

He sat down on the floor and motioned for Etho to also. "Eclipse. She was... Well, she was... I guess she was kinda just everyone's friend. She was the nicest of everyone here." He stopped for a minute. "Well. Everyone I talk to often. I don't really know what to say about her. She was one of Yuna's best friends for sure. Everyone misses her, but especially Yuna."

He fell silent, reminiscing for a few moments. "She was sent here by Vechs just a few months ago. Her father died of some disease. The black plague I think it was." He looked up at Etho. "Give me a break for not knowing history. I skipped a few years. Anyways, she was young when her father died, and her mother was killed by bandits two years later. She ended up finding Vechs and he sent her here. Or, somewhere that Clash and Sev found her. I'm not overly clear on that part."

Etho nodded. He understood loss. He understood it well. "So, what happened to her? How'd she die?"

Shawn stood up. "That, my friend, is a story best left for another time." Again, he paused for a moment. He usually didn't pause this much. "But she was far too young to die. Especially like that. Poor girl." He half mumbled those last few sentences.

He walked off, leaving Etho to wonder. To think. To worry.

About Shawn.

And his state of mind.

Etho went to follow Seven. He wanted to know what happened.

When he caught up to Seven, he didn't know what to say. So, he just... followed for a few moments. Seven noticed. He was a robot, so obviously he noticed Etho. What else could a logic following robot do?

“Do you require something, Etho?” He sounded more human than one would expect, more than he normally did, as he tried to emulate human speech when conversing beyond robotic commands or requests.

"Yeah. Shawn told me about... the, um... incident…” Etho stopped mid-sentence. Shawn had said that Seven had attacked Eclipse, and she was dead… But that might mean…. Suddenly, Etho didn't really want to ask the intimidating robot about the event…. He’d ask someone else. “With the inhibitor… Are you okay?” Etho quickly said, sort of lying his way out of the predicament.

"Yes, Shawn has fully repaired that system.” Seven replied. Subconsciously, Etho glanced at the wires that Shawn had fiddled with… to find them gone. Seven noticed the direction of Etho’s eyes and said: “The access area is gone now. I normally do not have such areas, or even similar panels, and now that the damage to my inhibitor is repaired I was able to fix it.”

Etho nodded uncomfortably. "Alright. Well. Goodbye then." He quickly turned and walked away. Who else could he ask..?

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Etho walked down--well, up really, since the floor numbers got higher as you went down because they were under the bedrock--to the food court. He tended to think poorly on an empty stomach.

When he got to said food court, he had to just look around for a moment. It was HUGE. There were restaurants surrounding the entire rim. And there were well over a hundred of them. So, he had to walk around the rim to find something to eat.

After several minutes of walking, he stumbled across a Tim Horton's. While he didn't usually drink coffee, he figured it wouldn't kill him.

After he got his coffee, he moved towards the center of the room. He noticed someone getting hot pocket after hot pocket out of a machine. He grabbed a seat a decent distance from the center.

He'd been sitting there for about ten minutes, drinking his coffee when she came up to him. She had long dark curly hair, hazel eyes, was kinda short and skinny. She wore a purple shirt and black skinny jeans. "Hey. You look like you have something on your mind. What's up?"

Etho looked up at her. "How could you tell? I'm wearing a mask."

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Body posture. You were slouching." She explained, extending a hand in his direction. "The name's Moosh. So, what'cha thinking?"

Etho sighed. Was she the person to ask? She might know something. "I was um. Well. I heard about Eclipse..."

Moosh's cheerful expression immediately melted. "This isn't the place to talk about that. Follow me." With that, she turned and walked towards the door. Etho scrambled to his feet to follow. They traveled down several hallways, around corners, through lounges. They eventually came to Moosh's apartment, which she quickly opened upon arrival. "In ya go. 'Cuse the mess. I'm not used to having visitors. Not since... well… She died."

Once they were both inside, Moosh closed and locked the door. "So. Let me guess. Guessing by the fact that you're new, and you have a red eye and a mask... You must be Etho, yes?"

"Yeah. That's me."

She nodded slowly. "So. How did you hear about Lipsy, then? Was it Shawn?"

Etho nodded. "We were talking to Seven" her face contorted into a scowl. "His inhibitor was on the fritz. Whatever that means. Shawn mentioned something about 'That must be why he attacked Lips.' I asked him about her, about how she died. He wouldn't answer me."

She smiled gently. "Classic Shawn. He's been avoiding that problem since she... um. Since the incident." She sighed. "Well. I can explain it for you. I was right there when it happened. Like you probably guessed, it was indeed Seven that killed her.” As Moosh’s story continued, Etho started to both hate, and fear, the tall, night-sky colored robot more and more. He left the room with a heavy heart, and a desire for vengeance.

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As Shawn had predicted, Seven’s return went anything but smoothly. As soon as he walked in to the main room, trouble began to stir. As people caught glances of the tall creature, they began muttering to their colleagues.

“Wait, since when did Reds come around here? That monster should stay in his apartment.” One of the people whispered to the person at the next monitor over.

“Seven? Dunno, I just hope Yuna doesn't throw a fit. One death is enough.” Their friend replied.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m more worried about Yuna, though I don't think Sev would kill her.” A third person butted in.

“Nah, I think Seven’s toast. Then again, if she does lose, I’m not so sure about the whole ‘not killing’ thing, he did kill Eclipse…” The second person responded. Similar mutterings were passed around and continued for about a minute before Yuna spun her revolving chair around to determine the source of the commotion, before her eyes locked on the tall being. As she rose from her chair, spinning her signature purple pickaxe in her hand, all chatter in the room died instantly.

“Alright, Seven, this time, you’ve got it coming. Last time, the others convinced me to let you off easy, keep you bottled up in your apartment, if you can even call it that. This time, you're not even going to be able to get back there.” She finished menacingly, still spinning her pickaxe.

Seemingly without warning, she charged, laughing crazily. Seven’s head turned in her direction, and his silver eyes widened, before turning bright red. Right as she swung at him, he seemed to disappear, having moved with insane speed seven feet to the right. While Yuna stumbled, off balance, having expected resistance against her pick, Sevens raised his two arms at forty-five degree angles above his head, releasing a low, humming sound. As he did, curves of light seemed to enter his body, and the room was plunged into darkness. Nothing could be seen, except for the slight purple glow of Yuna’s pickaxe, marking her location.

“Ah! What happened?” One of the people still at their desk asked.

“Seven’s absorbed all of the light in the room. Light is energy, after all.” The person who had rooted for Seven earlier replied across the room.

“I didn't know he could do that!” A new voice called.

“Neither did I!” Yet another person agreed. Yet again, conversation was stilled by Yuna, however this time, it was her insane laughter. The pick began to sway slightly before rushing forward, followed by her voice.

“Ha! You think that little trick’ll save you? Might have worked on other people, but not me.” She said, as the pick continued to fly forward, before leaping up, showing that she was starting to jump. “I can still see your stars!” She screeched with triumph as the pick descended… before being stopped in mid-air, presumably by Seven’s camouflaged hand. As it did, Seven’s eyes opened, glowing bright red.

“Warning: Threat to existence detected. Assailant Confirmed: Willing, intelligent life form. Lethal force authorized. Begin drain.” Seven started coldly, and his hand began to light up, turning pure white.

“Why are you talking to yourself, you hunk of ju- AAAAaaaaahhh!” Yuna screamed, her body beginning to light up, before that light started to disappear into Seven’s clenched fist. The room grasped, as during her filch at the start of the drain, she dropped her pick, something she never did. She struggled, but it seemed to have no effect. She even tried a low kick, but unfortunately for her, Seven was a robot, so that had no special effect. No effect at all, due to his metal skin.

However, she did manage to click, or well, bang, her heels together, causing a spike to protrude from her left shoe, which she proceeded to kick Seven with, leaving a deep gash in his normally pure midnight-black skin, revealing bronze wiring underneath. A spark jumped between the wiring and the metal of her shoe, causing Sevens to release her. As she fell to the floor, Seven’s eyes flared, and he reached down, grabbing her pickaxe. At this point, his entire body had gone red, dimly lighting the room, and signalling his rampages or fully active combat mode, though in this case it was the latter.

“Weapon obtained. Knowledge to use: Recently obtained. Protect.” He said, flipping the pickaxe into a backhand grip and swinging at Yuna. The purple metal pierced her flesh, drawing a line as red as her hair across her arm.

“Hey!” Yuna yelled as she backhand-springed out of another swing. “That’s my move!”

“Knowledge recently obtained.” Seven repeated, continuing his assault. He only managed to land one of his many swings, but one was all he needed. The purple metal moved fluently through her clothes and flesh, opening a large gash across her back. Yuna gasped in pain and fell to her knees, blood beginning to pool around her.

“Foolish Human. So very fragile.” Seven said as he walked over to her, before picking her up by the back of her collar. He lifted his arm to the point slightly above level, before throwing her a foot in the air, spinning, with a flick of his wrist. As she passed back by his hand, he caught her firmly, without slowing her, causing a few bones in her back to pop audibally. She looked Seven in the eyes, as she was now facing toward him… Firmly held by the neck.

“Death by asphyxiation; longest opportunity for outside intervention. Confirmed.” Seven said as he continued to crush Yuna’s windpipe. As he mentioned outside intervention, the room went ballistic. Some yelled at Seven to put Yuna down, others ran off in random directions in an attempt to find Shawn, and yet another group of people began to dash to the food court and or the quarters, hoping to find Clash. There were a few who did nothing, either to mesmerised or terrified to do anything.

As Yuna flailed under Seven’s grip, her eyes lit up, showing that she would be laughing if she had air. A slight hum showed that she was spinning the pickaxe now amazingly in her hand. With a maniacal grin, she swung it as fast as she could at the side of Seven’s head. The edge to the pick pierced the side of his head, revealing more bronze wiring, as well as a multitude of sparks. The weapon seemed to get stuck in the wiring, prevent Yuna’s already failing arm from pulling it out. Seven’s eyes dulled, almost disappearing, and his head slumped slightly. He was obviously not destroyed, but he had lost power.

Yuna grinned in her victory before realising that Seven hadn't let her down. Because of his robotic nature, when he became unconscious rather than falling to the ground like humans, he stopped moving, becoming a statue. A statue that was in the process of choking her. She struggled, but she wasn’t strong enough to move whatever alien alloy Seven was made of. Soon, she stopped moving altogether.

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Shawn had slunk off to the morgue. They rarely had use for this room. Eclipse was only the third person to have died in Salad. Surprisingly, the rest had been normal Saladers, not part of the Sem Equites.

Lips' body was still here, awaiting the funeral. Shawn came down here every few days, to remind himself of what he was doing here. Everyone he'd known before Salad was either dead or missing. He was here to help people. To save them. To save people who couldn't save themselves.

People like Eclipse.

And, to save them from dying in that way. Having all the energy absorbed from your body. A terrible way to die. Not even Clash's Phoenix tears could heal that.

And Seven wasn't the only one who could cause a death like that.

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Shawn, Moosh, Clash and Eclipse were sitting in one of the many lounges in the Salad building. They were just talking. About everything from good books they'd read, to movies, to stuff happening in the Equites. It was a good day.

Then Seven came in. His entire body was glowing red. It was like he was in combat mode, but something was just... off.

He scanned the room, settling his eyes on the four friends sitting in a conversation circle. He started to move towards them.

"Hey Seven" said Eclipse. "What's up?"

Instead of replying, he just reached out and grabbed her by the neck, lifting her out of the chair. "Sev!" She cried. "What are you doing?!"

Clash stood up, prompting the others to do so as well. "Seven, put her down."

He didn't react. He seemed like he didn't even know that Clash or the others existed. That's when it started. His hand turned pure white, and soon Eclipse’s body began to glow with a similar white light, however, that light quickly began to disappear into his clenched hand. And that’s when the screams started. The screams Shawn would never be able to forget. However, after a few seconds, they stopped. Seven’s hand opened, returning to its normal color, and Eclipse's body fell to the floor, whithered and steaming slightly.

He turned to Clash, and dashed towards him, trying to grab him like he had Eclipse. He avoided his first few strikes, but the fourth landed, and the process began again. Clash didn’t scream, because he was used to this happening to him, as they did it in every battle, but nonetheless dissolved into flames, and started to re-form, but remarkably slowly. Shawn tired hitting him with his dagger, but the metal just bounced off Seven’s superior alloy, bent slightly. Seven dashed towards Moosh, and Then...

He just, stopped. No one knows why he stopped he just... did. Just completely shut down, no one had tried to hurt him in a while, he was about to get Moosh... and He just... Stopped. Turned into a metal statue.

As he did, Clash re-formed, a white hot cone of flame in his hands. He directed it at Seven, about to blast him, Before he realised that the robot was already shut down. He pulled back the flames, which had already started to melt the dark metal covering the robot.

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Shawn's tablet beeped, stirring him out of his flash back. It beeped again. And again. He reached over to turn it off, before dragging a chair over to the table Lips' body lay upon. He put his face in his hands leaning forward. He should have stayed with Vechs.

Oh, hey, also. If you are a character, I have a couple things in the hub that you might not have checked out. One is backstory info gathering, the other is a form to help us with our organization. If you could do those, that would be nice. Not required though. :)

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: The Morgue
Current Music: The screams. The never ending screams!