Thrones: Sibling Rivalry (Inkblot and Dylan)

The sun hadn't yet risen as Victoria sat in the breakfast room of the Throne's villa in Italy. It was barely a new day, but they needed an early start. They had to make their way to Germany, after all. The table itself was bare of course, Victoria had no digestive system or even a sense of taste. If it was Chelle she probably would have food prepared for her organic allies, but Victoria wagered they could take care of their own nourishment.

She sat in her usual outfit, long white coat with a teal bowtie. Her hair had grown back down to her shoulders after her incident with the fire-wielding metahuman. Her high boots covered what skin wasn't covered by her dress and coat, and matching gloves concealed her hands. Big blue eyes sat motionless at the door, waiting for her team to arrive. She seemed rather unassuming, though motionless. Her fellow Thrones members were well aware not to take her at face value however. Victoria's face seemed emotionless, but her super-computer mind whirred. A vague sense of....unease? Anxiety? It wasn't something she was familiar with. When they completed their operation, they may find that another construct like herself had been created. Until now, Victoria had always been pretty much one of a kind. Despite her appearance, she was nothing like the biological organisms that inhabited the planet. Since her creations, the technology to create human-like robots had appeared but once again the similarity seemed superficial. They were a new kind of construct entirely, closer to Victoria than humans but still decidedly different. Victoria wasn't sure what the existence of another her meant to her, exactly.

Victoria put those thoughts on a lower priority as she heard activity in the villa. As soon as both members arrived they would leave, she would brief them on the way.

"So you're going on a date with the princess eh?" a bubbly voice playfully quipped down the other end of the line, "If you're trying to make me jealous it ain't working, she doesn't have anything on me" laughed the woman through the phone. Cilian Blanc, otherwise known throughout thrones as the Prince was slowly walking down a bustling cobblestone street, his long elegant strides allowing the sharply dressed frenchman to stand out from the various sweaty tourists and street vendors that swarmed the grand city of Italy. The person on the other end o the line happened to be Sheryll Paxton, who wa now fully devoted to working for the Dominus agency, he was still unsure of what they were classified...were they a couple? friends with benefits? or simply two freaks who enjoy getting drunk on expensive wine together. Although they were both immersed with their respective organizations the two still had time to make conversation when they were relatively free.

"Don't worry..I'm sure she's not as scary as you are he chuckled, turning a corner as he flicked his hair enjoying the cool European breeze, "Oh and would you mind asking Lilia if she wants a souvenir...I'm sure I could find her something nice, maybe something from one of the local boutiques " he asked, biting the corner of his lip as he glanced around looking for anything that the small Russian girl would like. She just happened to be as stylish as him, and the Frenchman eagerly spoiled her with various clothing items, making sure that Sheryll's 'younger sister' was in possession of the best wardrobe ever.

"I'll ask her when she's finished dancing"Sheryll replied, classical music softly playing in the background, "oh well I guess I better leave you. Don't do anything stupid okay. We'll go out to dinner once you're done" Sheryll said, most likely smiling as the phonecall ended with a shrill beep. The Frenchman let out a content sigh shoving the phone in his pocket as he glanced to his left and right, hoping that a nice and suitable souvenir would catch his caramel eyes. What did catch his eye though was the villa, Thrones headquarters to be exact, I must've been speaking to Sheryll for a while he thought to himself, marvelling at how fast time seemed to fly by. It appeared the young Frenchman would have to look for the souvenir after this little mission was completed.

Walking past the well kept rose bushes, grand fountain and the ocassional pigeon Cilian strode atop the cream pavements to the seated woman at a table near the center of balcony. It was the Princess, seated rigidly with a unfazed look on her youthful face, large blue eyes staring into the distance..however he knew his presence was known, so nodded his head at her before givin her a warm smile.

"Afternoon my Princess" he grinned, the silky accent of his making the greeting all the more proper, "I trust you are enjoying the fine weather" he spoke staring at the wispy clouds with slight amusement..talking about the weather was always a good icebreaker.

Robert had woken up early this morning, it's not that he was restless, but it was a habit he developed from his odd sleeping schedule. The bed at the base was glorious, this was his first time ever being here and he sure did enjoy these benefits. He figured that he should explore Italy the short while they were there. He's been to Italy before, through similar terms, but he was always at awe at the glorious scenery. He was in his normal attire: skinny black pants, shiny black dress shoes, black long sleeved shirt with a black tie, black sports jacket, and his signature black Wayfarer Raybans. He took a deep breath in and inhaled the gentle summer breeze, it was refreshing compared to polluted slums of New York. He took out a cigarette and began smoking, still wandering. As soon as he finished the cigarette, he figured since he was already out, he should grab something to eat. They were going to be leaving early and might not have the opportunity to eat when he got back.

He went to one of the only pastry shops open at this time of the morning, which was odd, but it was more odd to eat pastries this early anyway. Robert had a sweet tooth and was going to satisfy it. He ordered two cannoli and a cup of coffee, he put 5 lumps of sugar in it. Normally, someone would be turned away by something so sweet, but Robert welcomed it. He ate the first cannolo before he even left the shop, it was delicious. "Grazie!" he said in Italian towards the owners. Though he wasn't fluent in the language, he knew enough of it to have a casual conversation. He took sips of his coffee as he made his way to the base, which was a luxurious mansion. It looked as if it belonged to royalty, which it did in a way.

He finished his coffee before he even reached the garden. This place sure was comfortable, he would have to come here more often. As he took his last bite of his cannolo, he saw the Prince and Princess on the balcony. He wiped his mouth and said with a slight bow "Hello Prince and Princess." They were considered his seniors, so he automatically had respect for them, respect that few people earned. His title in Thones was Bishop, so he was basically the bodyguard of the prince and princess, which was one of the reasons he came on this request. He wanted to show his loyalty and fulfill his duty to its fullest. They looked like they would have earned sooner or later anyway. "I believe we have some business to attend to." he said nonchalantly. Another reason he accepted this request was to observe the abilities of his superiors, he wanted to learn more about them, he only knew there names and had little information on their abilities.

"Afternoon my Princess" he grinned, the silky accent of his making the greeting all the more proper, "I trust you are enjoying the fine weather"

"Hmmm...the weather." Victoria spoke softly, seemingly to herself without looking up as the wind picked up her hair slightly. "A pleasure reserved for those with the ability to feel. Most pleasures are, I suppose." She cast her blue-eyed gaze towards the prince. "...but I suppose most pain is, as well."

She knew about Cilian as she knew about all the Thrones members, everything there was to know seemingly. She had personally put together his life story, his abilities, his weaknesses. Despite that, she had actually spent very little time with him. She was often off, gathering information, and he had his own duties. It was a shame, she was sure a conversation with him would give her at least one new thing to think about. He was a man who had walked many different paths, and always in moral ambiguity. Perhaps if those who saw the world in black and white couldn't help her understand morals, someone like him could. Such a thing would have to wait though. As Dylan reminded them upon his entrance, they had work to do.

"Quite right, Mr. Zimmerman." She said, standing up. "I'm afraid we must make haste. If you need to prepare, do it quickly and meet me at the launchpad. Armour-piercing capabilities will likely be valuable on this mission." With that, she picked up a long suitcase that lay nearby and headed up to the roof, where a black stealth aircraft lay dormant.

Once the others arrived she boarded the craft, sitting in the pilot's seat and waiting for her companions to board before sealing the doors. "Since you are aiding me, I suppose there's certain things you need to know." She spoke plainly. It wasn't as if these were secrets she was about to share, more like she just didn't divulge such things without a reason. "I am a bit older than my appearance implies. I was created during this the second world war, as many weapons were during that time. I am a golem comprised almost entirely of artificial parts. What you might call a robot, though that may be slightly inaccurate." The aircraft hummed, silent by aircraft standards, and lifted straight into the air off the pad. Soon they shot forward with a speed that was possibly uncomfortable for passengers with internal organs.

"The Indigo Torch is a secret organization whose origins can be traced back to the people who built me, and I have come into information that they are attempting to recreate this project. However, given that until now information on the Indigo Torch has been all but nonexistent it is likely that this is a trap meant for me, which is why you two are accompanying me." Victoria was being somewhat less than truthful. She hadn't "come into" information, an officer at the Torch had seen that it was personally delivered to her. However she couldn't leave this alone, if there was a possibility what the man said had truth to it, and lying is what she was built to do after all. She could freely control her tone of voice and facial reactions, there was no lie detector on earth capable of besting her. "We will arrive shortly at a small Torch base, which we will infiltrate and attempt to confirm this information. If they have made any progress we shall destroy it. For my own reasons, I do not desire that my origins be recreated, and if they are already successful I certainly don't want the results in the hands of the Torch. Any questions?" She said, looking over her seat at her companions.

Victoria was quite cut and dry, not that it was a bad thing...it was a welcome change from his own flippancy. It seemed the princess of thrones managed to balance out the Prince's many qualities, both the good and bad. Where he was quite a blasé and laid-back individual she appeared to have a fairly disciplined and stoic personality that would provide quite an amusing contrast to anyone bothered enough to notice. She was certainly a mystery though, the wide glassy blue eyes betrayed no form of distress..however when she began mentioning not knowing the sensation of the wind against skin his suspicion grew..an it was confirmed when she finally revealed that she was in fact an elderly robotic woman...something that had the wily prince raising his eyebrows in genuine, flabbergasted surprise.

"So basically, this rainbow torch might recreate more young robot women and you want to stop them in the case that they do...hmm quite a troublesome situation", he grinned with amusement, stretching theatrically before waving Balizarde swiftly in the air, cutting at an invisible opponent "Well I'm sure our bishop can babysit us if anything were to go wrong" he smiled wryly, winking at the gun toting mercenary. Before limbering up once more Cilian strapped himself to the leathery embrace of the nearest chair, and it was only mere seconds after doing so that the jet shot into the air like bullet through water. The Frenchman, a metahuman gifted with ability of flight was used to fun displays of aerodynamics when he flew around like a shadowy missile..this however was completely different and he felt his innards lurch forward with the sudden inertia.

"Now I thought a 100 year old robot would know how to fly..." he laughed in mix of nervousness and nausea, his golden eyes were closed tight as he attempted to keep the high calorie breakfast inside his stomach, "If I mess this suit up one of you two are buying me a new one " he chuckled still deciding if he was being serious or not, although he was certain that his attempts at humour were going unnoticed by the two stony faced thrones members..

The two of them were like yin and yang, they had different personalities that could possibly clash, but it didn't seem to be going that direction anytime soon. Where Victoria was... plain, Cilian was lively, it was surprisingly refreshing. Victoria then told them to get whatever equipment they needed, but do so quickly. Robert quickly ran upstairs to his "room" and got the weapons that earned him the name "Adept of Blades". He strapped the blades onto his back and placed the smaller ones in his jacket, where his two guns currently resided, where there was a silencer. He was basically hiding different types of weaponry on his body, something that made him so deadly. He was down in less than a minute and quickly got to the launchpad where Cilian made a joke about him protecting them if anything went wrong. Robert gave a slight chuckle and said "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

As soon as Robert strapped up, he took out his sketchbook and pencil, he was about to doodle his way to Germany. He put his glasses away. Suddenly, the aircraft lifted up and then shot forward with an incredible force. He almost dropped his sketchbook and pencil. He felt like he was on one of the fastest rollercoasters in the world. Cilian made a comment about getting a new suit if he threw up on his, Robert responded by saying "I was going to say the same to you." though he quickly got used to the speed and began doodling italy and werewolves. As they flew, she briefed them on their mission. It seemed that she was an eighty plus android and the organization that created her was planning on creating more androids of her caliber. Robert didn't really the problem in this, but he didn't know her's or the organization's history, so there was nothing to be said from him.

"Nope, none whatsoever." he said, completely indulged in his sketchbook. He had slacked away from his artwork recently, this was his way of getting back into it. He was drawing from his experiences, it was like a diary full of drawings. He placed it away, as he knew that they should be landing soon. In a way, he was actually excited for this request. He had to try out his new weapons on real combatants, the dummies he trained against were getting boring. Also, he loved the thrill of a good fight, let's hope they didn't disappoint.

"Now I thought a 100 year old robot would know how to fly..."

"There's no cause for alarm, that thrust shouldn't have exerted enough force to damage any of your internal organ. At least not permanently." A brief silence filled the vessel before Victoria added "That was an attempt at humor. I wouldn't cause you any bodily harm without good reason." Victoria momentarily wondered if they would mistakenly take that last bit to be an attempt at humor as well.

Neither of them had any questions, so the majority of their flight was silent. The ride was quick though, as they approached their landing site Victoria announced it. "We're about to land, keep your personal belongings and organs in check." Despite her words, the landing was much softer than the takeoff. They slowly landed in a convenient clearing and the hatch opened. Victoria opened her case, retrieving the large rifle and armour-piercing rounds from it before exiting the craft. She spoke to the others. "We'll have to travel about twenty minutes through the trees before arriving at a secret entrance."

Victoria headed off into the trees and assumed the others would follow her. She walked at a casual speed, but it was pretty quick considering the forest was quite overgrown in many parts. Victoria ignored minor annoyances like twigs or briars though, and efficiently found a walkable path through the woods. Walkable, although briars and such might make it unpleasant for those with nerve endings. Eventually the emerged on the other side, to a rocky grassland landscape.

Victoria motioned for them to be quiet, and stealthily made her way to a particular boulder formation. She quickly found a spot where the rock came out to reveal a hidden keypad, and quickly entered in a code. The leader of the base had given her the code when she was contacted, but let her comrades chock it up to her information gathering skills. The code was quietly accepted, and a portion of the boulder slid down into the ground to reveal a doorway. Through the doorway was a square room with metal walls and a single steel door with a keypad beside it. Victoria entered the same code into it, and opened it.

She emerged into a large room the size of a gymnasium, with large flags on the walls bearing the Indigo Torch standard. A large monitor at the far end of the room powered on revealing a large brown haired man's face, one of his eyes was blue while the other was glowing red...and mechanical. The right side of his face had mechanical parts grafted into it, and Victoria assumed much of his body did as well. What else might one expect from the leader of the Torch's robotics division? "Good evening Clockwork, I am General Kraemer. It is so nice of you to accept my invitation, though I don't recall telling you that you could bring friends." The man spoke with a mocking tone and a thick German accent. As he spoke, a single woman walked forward from under the monitor. Victoria felt a wave of anger as she saw what it was.

The woman was a nearly identical copy of Victoria, physically. Her arms were held rigidly by her sides, and she had a blank expression on her face. She was nude, which made apparent the only physical difference between her and Victoria. The construct before her hadn't been made with as much effort to appear human. She had the skin and she shape of a woman, but no details on the body below the neck. It looked as if she were wearing a skin-colored body suit. "This is nothing but a puppet, a mockery of life." She said, raising her rifle and firing a single shot through the "woman's" heart. The bullet went straight through, a small amount of blood following the bullet out of her back. She silently and stiffly crumpled to the floor. "The same can be said of you, dear clockwork." Anger pulsed through Victoria. She yelled up at the monitor, seemingly disregarding the secrets she had kept from her allies. "You told me you had built another, this is a mindless toy!" The general tsked tsked at her from his screen. "Now now, this was just a prototype. We have made progress, but you will unfortunately not be able to see it."

Like a punctuation to his sentence, large sliding double doors opened on the three walls to the side and front of where Victoria entered. "One advantage of the prototype, it is surprisingly cheap to produce." With that the monitor cut off, and the sound of footsteps marching in harmony could be heard as more Victoria imitations marched through the doors. They came in staggering number, there were about 40 of them, and they were identical to the one Victoria had terminated save all of these carried assault rifles. They stiffly raised them up and prepared to fire a wall of bullets at the Thrones operatives. Victoria spoke coldly to her comrades. "Their weakpoint is their heart. Leave nothing but scrap metal."

((imitation's stats: 2 STR; 4 END; 1 SPD; 0 INT; 0 EP; 2 FS;))

What the Frenchman assumed to be a cold, damp pathway into the depths of the earth below him immediately changed when the he stepped into a grand space that was covered in the mysterious 'Indigo Torch' logo. His steps reverberated throughout the large space and very fact that it was quite well hidden underneath a rock was impressive as well. At least I won't be walking through bushes anymore he mentally laughed, cocking his head to the side with a subdued grin. Victoria had managed to take one of the most anti-suit wearing treks through the forest and coming out Cilian had unfortunately gained a few small tears in his pristine black suit, not that he'd complain of course...he was much too polite for that.

This casual mulling over the grand interior and how he was going to fix his attire immediately halted when the large German android man popped up on the screen. At first it was slightly daunting, having a gigantic head act all godlike, but as the man's speech progressed Cilian became more and more amused with with the head's attempt at intimidation...that and he had always found the German accent a bit awkward, it was no where near as smooth or fluid as the French. The muffled grin however only lasted a few minutes, the arrival of the Victoria doppelgänger and the subsequent arrival of the small army after the first was shut down was not quite what he was expecting.

"Ahyes...the Germans aren't exactly famous for their warm welcomes" he muttered, stretching his back as he unsheathed balizarde, waving it around in the air a few times as if he were warming up. Staring at the eerie clones of the Princess, Cilian could not help but feel a bit nauseous from the site itself...the androids were horrid, not in a graphic way but or the very fact that they were so similiar to normal humans, aside from a few minor physical differences, but their blank expressions and dead eyes painted an ominous visage on their artificial faces. They were armed and ready to shoot, Victoria had given the order to show no mercy and although these 'things' resembled the fairer sex try were simply cheap variations of the real thing.

"This should be fun..", he spoke slowly, the honeyed accent rolling off the tip of his tongue as a familiar shuddering feeling ran down his spine. The tattoos across his bodies were reacting to the overwhelming situation, he could feel the ink swirl around his body as the vivid and ever-changing designs began to morph into a spiraling pattern that was ready to be put to use. Just before the imitations pulled the trigger the ink on his body exploded outwards into a spiraling mass of liquid that tightly wound its way around his suited form, the black liquid quivered and sputtered as spiked tendrils shot out of the rapidly churning vortex, spinning around him as his body sprung into the air darting straight towards the androids on front of him.

Gunfire echoed across the room in a loud chorus of metal against whatever the bullet landed into, the acoustics of the room making the exceedingly loud eruption of bullets even louder. The frenchman however was unffected by the shots as he ploughed his way into the Clones ahead of him. The force of his head on tackle combined with accelerating speed of the ink spiral that enabled him to fly sent the imitations sprawling backwards; the tendrils that lashed around him also injuring the clones that wished to shoot him down. He managed to send three of the copies against a wall with his head on strike, impaling them through the chest with balizarde. Like a skewer they were stuck between his blade and the wall behind them, the twitching limbs immediately froze after their internal hardware was quickly destroyed by the young Prince.

Sweeping to his left in a dazzling fashion after ripping the blade from their chests he flew low to the ground, knocking the imitations of their feet as the tendrils lashed out at anything unlucky enough not to fall victim to his startling leg sweep. The black specter darted across the floor, sending the imitations into an unbalanced frenzy, some dropping their weapons whilst others accidentally shot their robotic comrades instead. It was utter chaos and Cilian simply hoped that his two 'co-workers' were having as much fun as he was..

Robert placed his sketchbook away as the plane landed, which was a surprisingly soft landing. Robert got out of the plane and stretched up, he felt a little tight. Then she instructed them to follow her into the dense forest, luckily they walked along the most "walkable" path. This caused his jacket to get a slight tear, but this was no time to be worrying about his garments, he was just hoping that they were going in the right direction. Luckily, that question was eventually answered as they approached a rocky area. Victoria motioned them to be silent as she approached a particular boulder formation, she then put in a secret code. It was odd because it seemed that she knew the code, but how? She probably had an informant, or obtained the information by herself. But this all seemed a bit too easy, so Robert was feeling skeptical.

As the boulder moved aside, they all went down into a dark hallway that led into a huge gymnasium. The gymnasium seemed to be decorated by the organization's logo. Robert scanned the room until he saw a man appear on the huge monitor, it seemed he was mostly human with robotic features. Their was some tension between the two, as if they had unfinished business. As Victoria and the man, who introduced himself as Kraemer, spoke, a android that looked like Victoria appeared from under the screen. Robert immediately took out his two katanas, but they would be of no use as she took the android out in no time. Victoria seemed to have kept information from the rest of them, which Robert didn't like in the least bit. "I don't like secrets, Princess." Robert said in a stale tone. She had lost a little trust from him, but that wasn't the issue at the moment.

The problem soon arrived in the form of about 40 the doppelgangers, but they seemed to be mindless drones equipped with rifles. She said to take them out and not hold back, now they were getting to the fun part. These soulless creatures deserved to be put out of their misery, their only thoughts were the ones implanted by their creators. Their thought at the moment was probably to kill the intruders. "I've been waiting to try these things out on someone and it seems that you're going to be my first victims, you should feel worthy." said Robert in a mocking tone to the androids who probably didn't care for his words. He didn't consider them equals, which was going to make killing them even easier.

Robert took a huge breath and let it out, to relax his body. He then ran at the androids at full speed, they fired at him, but Robert dodged their poorly aimed shots with relative ease, using only small movements to dodge. He then performed a jumping kick at one of the androids, snapping her neck and instantly killing her. As soon as he landed, he was surrounded by two other androids. As their fingers prepared to pull the trigger, he jumped forward lunging his sword into a different android's heart. The two other androids shot each other to death, as Robert had avoided them. Robert smirked, he needed a good workout, and this would suffice.

Robert looked over and saw Cilian using his power, he was at awe and impressed. He was confusing the androids, as some of them accidentally shot each other. He chuckled. He quickly drew his attention back to the women he was fighting and said "Don't think I forgot about you." One of them tried to sneak up behind him, but they were too obvious and uncoordinated, so Robert turned around slashed off the arm that was holding the gun all in one motion, he then sliced at her jugular vein. They were literally like dummies with blood and guns, it was as if they were standing still. Robert whipped his swords, the blood being splashed from the blades to the floor. He put them away and took out two handguns.

He then ran at the androids again and fired twelve times, all headshots. He killed twelve androids in an instant, but he wasn't done yet. Robert sighed, put away his guns and then took out his katanas again. There were still a few more left, but not many, as they had taken care a great amount of them. His comrades looked to be doing well, so there wasn't anything to worry about.

"Keeping secrets is what I was designed to do. Don't be fooled because they gave me a pretty face." Victoria spoke stiffly as she methodically fired, each round piercing a doppleganger's heart, the only organic part of their body. Victoria briefly pondered where they obtained so many human hearts, but it wasn't that hard to imagine. "Feel free to return to the base if you wish. Just don't get in my way."

Victoria throw two grenades out into the crowd, the force knocking down many of the androids and liberating a few of their limbs.Of course, they were still active as long as they had their head and heart, but it helped cut down on some of the crossfire. Victoria ran here and there, taking evasive actions. Of course, even she couldn't dodge a solid wall of bullets completely. bullets pierced her heavy jacket, ringing the sound of metal striking metal out into the large chamber. Merely cosmetic damage, she ignored it and continued firing. Usually when working with others she largely played the role of the observer, letting other operatives do most of the work. Now however, she fired and reloaded with incredible speed, quickly cutting down the numbers of the enemy. Between the three of them they were dispatched fairly quickly. Victoria wasted no time, quickly picking a pair of the double doors to the right and exiting the room. There was no way to go but forward. Upon entering the hallway she came upon three men in black military uniforms. Usually the paragon of the Throne's policy of only killing when necessary, now she fired off before the men had time to register her presence. Two men dropped dead instantly, the armor piercing rounds leaving grisly holes in their heads, the last she merely crippled. She needed information. She grabbed him by his collar as his legs hung precariously from what used to be kneecaps. "Where is she?!" She yelled her command at the man, but he responded simply by rolling his head back and foaming slightly at the mouth. "Cyanide..." She said with a disdainful look on her face. "Useless!" She threw the body down on the ground in anger then began searching his uniform. She found his keycard, she doubted it would get her anywhere near their main project but at least it would open some doors.

She swiped the keycard at a nearby elevator. She knew her objective would likely be underground, in the deepest bowels of the facility. She looked back to see if her comrades were coming. "If you're accompanying me, be quick about it." She said. Her usually friendly tone was completely absent. As the elevator doors opened they revealed a single brown haired man in a lab coat accompanied by a large escort in a uniform that matched the dead men in the hallway. He reached for his sidearm without saying a word, but Victoria fired a round through his head and heart before he could unstrap it. He slid down to the floor in a bloody mess as the scientist screamed. She quickly rammed the rifle under his chin with enough force to bruise. "P-please! I'm not like the others! They're forcing me-" Victoria hammed the barrel of her firearm up into his chin to cut him off. "If you have clearance, take me to the project. If you don't then I have no use for you and you can join your friend here." She didn't have to elaborate for anyone to know what friend she was talking about. Victoria had no time to waste. The man meekly pulled out a card and swiped it, pressing an unlabeled button on the elevator. "PP-please. You don't understand. It's not s-stable. You can't-" Victoria silenced him with another push of her barrel, expanding the bruise already forming on his chin. Shortly after, the elevator closed and began moving with an ominous hum.

Wiping the strange silvery liquid off balizarde against the artificial hair of the mutilated Victoria clones the young prince could not help but gawk his head back with raised eyebrows at the Princess. This robot women had shown more emotion than anything that goes under the moniker of an artificial man-made being. The Frenchman was accustomed to frightening females, why his 'girlfriend' was capable of slicing and dicing buildings with barely any effort and yet the princess of thrones still shocked him with her ferocious display of steely coldness and what he assumed to be seething anger. He made a mental note that the bright eyed 'woman' obviously had deep ties with the Indigo Torch and that she might have possibly brought Dylan and himself along for a revenge laden ride.

"Psst...I don't know about you but I think I'm enjoying this little excursion!" , he quietly chimed in Dylan's ear as they made their way into the elevator, quickly stepping over the bodies of the men the woman so effortlessly dispatched. This casual air of flippancy was but an attempt at balancing out Victoria's somewhat frightening seriousness and ruthless displays of skill. When they arrived on the lower floor, with the burly guard instantly losing his life to a bullet straight through his head the Frenchman nodded his head, confirming his thoughts on the gun wielding woman.

Her merciless confrontation with the quivering scientist was more than enough to concern the dark haired Prince. On most occasions, he retained a calm and casual air of nonchalance but the unnecessary bullying of the stammering man had Cilian cocking his head to the side with a cocked eyebrow.

Entering the second elevator the cold silence only heightened the strained awkwardness, Thrones excursions were meant to be fun and filled with gaiety but it was clear that such joyous flippancy would have to wait. Taking in a deep breath, Cilian leaned against the cool metal interior of the slowly moving box. However this brief moment of relaxation as broken when he lazily turned his gaze towards the traumatised scientist, "Not to be nosy..but what exactly isn't stable?" he questioned, furrowing his brow as his imagination came up with a few viable things that could possibly fit the description of something 'unstable'...

Robert almost retorted, but he knew that it would just cause more tension, so he decided to ignore that impulse. As an assassin, it was customary to be supplied with all of the information for a mission. Trust was essential for partners, but now that trust was slightly broken It seems that this was more of a vendetta, she did this merely out of vengeance. Robert understood that, but she should have told them what they were really getting into. She put away the other androids with ease, an aspect of her that he admired. Robert sliced up two more of the androids to finish the job, now they had more important issues to take care of, which was probably the destruction of this base. He sighed and fling the metallic blood off of his blades before putting them away.

Robert watched her as she dispatched of the minions mercilessly. She was admittedly a frightening woman, being part android gave her a sort of dead look in her eyes. She was intimidating and seemed like a dangerous foe. Perhaps they were lucky that she was on their side. She didn't even let Robert or Cilian do anything, she had taken care of everything. Taken care of as in killed all of them. Though he was used to killing people, he only believed in necessary death, but she killed without the slightest regard for their life. The minions were obviously prepared to die though, as one of them had killed himself using a cyanide pill, which meant that they were protecting something very precious.

Robert put his hand through his unkempt hair, as she interrogated one of the scientists. As he made his way to the elevator, Cilian whispered something in his ear that would try to lighten the phlegmatic mood. Robert smirked and said "The thrill of battle does excite me, but I'd rather be enjoying a cigarette with an alcoholic beverage." He didn't want Cilian's attempt at joy to go unnoticed. Robert placed his hands in his pockets and leaned against the elevator wall as it slowly sunk down into the earth. Cilian then questioned the scientist about what was so unstable. Robert looked at the scientist with a raised eyebrow, he was also curious as to what they were truly hiding. "Inform us." Robert said to the scientist, looking directly into his eyes.

Both men in the elevator questioned the frightened scientist. He looked to Victoria, afraid of another jab into his already very bruised chin, but she only responded with a cold stare. He swallowed painfully and spoke. "We made it more powerful, and more advanced. They thought they could correct the original defect by giving it emotion from the start, and we built in all five human senses." He paused and closed his eyes, but Victoria remained motionless and listened. "There were..complications though. The projects nerves sent pain signals constantly, and we couldn't understand why. It is extremely powerful, and extremely unstable. We had to put it into stasis." His lip quivered as if he had more to say, but fear held his words. "Where?" Victoria commanded and answer with one word, dramatically tightening her trigger finger as much as she could without actually firing. The scientist quickly gave an answer. "At the bottom level, at the end of the hallway. but..." The elevator's quick descent slowed and abruptly stopped as the doors slowly began to open. Victoria turned towards the elevator doors and took her rifle from the scientist. Feeling the urgency of the situation, he blurted out "You cannot disturb the project! It could kill everyone in the base, to say the least of outside!" Victoria shot him a frighteningly cold glance. "I care nothing for you or your organization. I am going to see my sister." She ended her sentence by thrusting the butt of her gun into the man's face, knocking him unconscious to crumple in the corner of the elevator.

As Victoria walked out of the elevator she was greeted by a group of 8 men a few yards to the right, holding heavy rifles and dressed in full-combat military garb. They were obviously not merely security guards, and they were obviously placing themselves between Victoria and her goal. She found anger filled her mind so much she couldn't think. She muttered through gritted teeth. "I am too close to let anything stand in my way....I can not wait any longer." The men raised their firearms. "Make yourself useful! Deal with them!" Victoria yelled at her allies without looking back before running forward at full speed. The men fired upon her as she ran straight forward, the sound of metal hitting metal echoing through the large hallway. She fired a few rounds of her own as she forced her way past the blockade, hitting one man in the shoulder and the other bullet piercing through a man's bullet-proof vest to render a painful hole in his gut. She fired blindly, she realized as she ran past them. Why? She should always have perfect accuracy. For that matter, why hadn't she simply used a flash bomb or smoke grenade? Her emotions were controlling her, her obsession forcing her to take the path of least resistance.

As she ran past them she reached into her jacket and threw two time-activated explosives onto the door at the end of the hallway, the last obstacle. The detonated just in time and blew the door backwards, Victoria leaped through the smoke into the room beyond. there a sterile room held two things: The android general who greeted them when they arrived, Victoria saw now at least one of his arms was entirely mechanical. Most importantly it held a large tube with what appeared to be a young woman motionless within. She looked identical to Victoria, except she wore a black Indigo Torch uniform The name tag on the breast simply read "Eir". General Kraemer began to speak as she cleared the smoke. She assumed it was a threat from his body language, but she wasn't listing. As soon as she entered she threw a shrapnel grenade at his chest. It exploded and tossed him across the room to land on his side, though he seemed more or less okay. He'd given himself plenty of improvements she was sure. It was of no interest to her, she only wanted him out of his way.

She approached the console for the stasis chamber, but as expected it needed multiple keys and a password. Victoria couldn't let it stop her. She raised her rifle and began to fire at all the clasps holding the chamber shut. The armour-piercing rounds easily ripped the steel apart, and the chamber's airtight seal began to leak cold air. "You fool! You've no idea what you've done!" As Kraemer protested, the door violently opened of it's own volition and Victoria felt a powerful force push her and fling her across the room. Whatever force affected her also hit the general, and pulled her rifle out of her hands and flung it across the room. A voice identical to Victoria's range out in a horrific scream as the chamber's occupant came into the room with her eyes wide and her head in her hands. "More? More of this pain!? Enough! I'll share it with all of you now that I'm free!" The voice was Victoria's, yet distinctly different. It was not flat, not calm, not at all robotic. It was loud, and frantic. She stretched on her hands out towards the general as he tried to get up, then pulled back abruptly. Kraemer fell back to the ground as if shot, and blood began to poor from his mouth. "Stupid monkey." Eir began to speak. "Your improvements are only weaknesses to me. You are still inferior."

As she spoke, Victoria began to understand what power had been at work: Magnetokinesis. A pointless discovery, as she found herself flung again and pinned against the wall. Eir regarded Victoria coldly, perhaps with the same cold eyes she had just regarded the man in the elevator. "And what are you?" She questioned Victoria. "Another one of Kraemer's dolls?" Despite Victoria's super-fast brain, and her obsession to get here, she was unsure what to do now. "No!" She screamed out. "I am Victoria, your sister. I am here to help you." A look of surprise swept across Eir's face. "Ah, you're the original. Who would have guessed. but you're no sister of mine. just an inferior prototype. She slammed Victoria down with a motion of her hand. "And you still feel no pain, so you may as well be a doll. but maybe..." A wicked smirk stretched on Eir's face. "I know what makes you tick Herja. I wonder what will happen if I slow down all your gears to a nice stop?" She held both her hands out, concentrating her energy on Victoria. Victoria knew she had to defend herself. She reached for her revolver, but it fell out of limp fingers. She could feel her processes slow down, her mind was getting hazy. Her arms hung at her sides as if broken, and she found herself unable to stand. She fell to her knees beside her useless pistol, looking up at her "sister" as a new emotion pulsed somewhere in her hazy mind. Even here, Victoria knew what it was. "Bitte.." Victoria sluggishly pleaded, her mouth slowly forming words in German as her language skills shut off. <"Sister...I am afraid of death.">

Eir mearly looked down at Victoria with a smile. "Excellent."

Cilian strolled with a little bounce in his step as he followed the princess of thrones to her objective...not bothering to ask her who this 'sister' of hers was. Hopefully Victoria's sister is a bit more..cheery he thought to himself, stifling a cheeky grin in the process. The scientist had provided them with further information of what great evil lurked in the depths of Indigo Torch and thankfully Victoria was nice enough to knock the poor man out...wrong place, wrong time was all that he had. Whilst thinking over this new piece of information the Frenchman dragged his lanky fingers against the polished steel walls, letting the subdued coldness seep just under his skin. The tattoos that decorated his fingers slowly glided across each digits, as if they were dancing to an old French lullaby he was quietly singing to himself..trying to take his mind off the current situation which had resulted in more expenditure of energy than he wanted.

Dodo, l’enfant do,
L’enfant dormira bien vite
Dodo, l’enfant do
L’enfant dormira bientôt.

His honeyed voice hummed as he turned a corner, his content grin and melodic chimes however ended when a group of armed thugs faced them with guns raised. He assumed Victoria would have blown their heads off like she had displayed earlier, but she didn't...she was reckless, which was unusual. Giving Dylan a raised eyebrow the prince instantly pounced after the rushing girl, ducking low as a rain of bullets sprayed across the corridor. His tattoos quivered as they sensed the new threat, shuffling violently across his skin as they sensed his increased urgency. Raising his arm at the closest armed guard CIlian shot out an extremely dangerous looking barbed tendril through his gut. The black vine whipped around violently as droplets of ink sprayed across the stranger's bloody form, tearing at bone and flesh as it ripped the man inside out. Spinning on his polished heels Cilian proceeded to dash across to the next gun wielding thug, slashing at his achilles tendon before using his body as a shield from his trigger happy comrades.

"DYLAN! SORRY TO DO THIS..", he screamed over the gunfire, stifling a laugh as he did so,"BUT I MUST CHECK ON VICTORIA!", he let out a surpised grunt as he toppled backwards, the corpse of the man he clung to smacking the air out of his lungs, "I'LL BE FINE! KILL THESE MEN!", he hollered, flapping his arm in the direction of the remaining guards. Poor Dylan was now left on his lonesome to deal with the scary thugs...mainly because the Prince was too lazy to deal with them himself, not that he was going to tell his friend that.

Hearing Gunshots and the distinct sound of a sword slicing against air the wily Prince knew he had a window to follow after Victoria. Immediately after tossing the body aside with a disgusted grunt the Frenchman bolted into the room Victoria tore apart, brandishing Balizarde as he did so...hoping the princess hadn't caused too much of a mess. There was a mess indeed...but it appeared it wasn't Victoria who caused it, rather another lookalike who had a more...human aura to her. Victoria was twitching on the ground, a look of fear on her flawless complexion as her cackling doppelgänger stood over her with a devilish grin. His body reacted before his mind did and with a startling burst of adrenalin his body assumed the black spectral missile form, immediately charging towards the Victoria clone. He was charging blindly, the very thought of Victoria 'dying' would sadden Chelle greatly and the Prince couldn't have that. His churning ink form smacked into a a hard, solid obstacle, a distinctive 'THUD' resonating from his head-on attack. It hurt...he was sure he would have smacked her right off her feet.

Slumping forward he groaned in pain...he had charged head first into a hovering piece of the titanium that line the walls. It was strange...this copy could control metal and she had easily nullified his foolish attack, leaving him with a throbbing head that was much worse than his last hangover. Blinking three times the Prince looked up at the Victoria clone, cocking his head to the side as he let out a pained groan, "That was mean..."
he slurred, attempting to pick up his suited body before he realised something was missing..something very important. Balizarde, his ornate 19th century rapier was now no longer strapped to his side but was hovering just above his skull...the tip of the blade pointing directly in between his eyes..

"Victoria's Boyfriend?" She cackled, clenching her fist as the sword began to spin like a drill..slowly edging towards his head, "I think I might reconfigure that pretty face of yours.."

...

Victoria felt her faculties return to her, her gears slowly spinning back to life. Her thoughts picked back up to her full superhuman speed, and her vision corrected. She looked up to find it was Cillian who had intervened, now being threatened by his own weapon. This was no good. Victoria picked up her rifle and aimed it at Eir. Her attention was focused elsewhere, and her emotions and the constant pain she felt left her much less aware of her surroundings than cold, inhuman Victoria. Even with her power, she wouldn't be able to react in time. One bullet through the heart, and she would be down. Her comrade would be saved.

Yet...she couldn't pull the trigger. All she managed to do was let out a "Stop!" Stop what, Victoria instantly thought to herself? Stop killing the human? Stop intervening? Stop this whole twisted scenario? What did Victoria think would happen? Had she thought anything at all, or had she merely ignored all predictions and outcomes because they didn't satisfy her? Eir tossed her a glare. "Not yet Herja. I am saving you. Just watch for now." She pointed an open palm at Victoria and she felt an invisible force hit her again, knocking the gun out of her hands and sending it skidding across the floor a short distance past Cillian. As she hit the wall Cillian's sword pursued her, piercing her shoulder and pinning her metal frame to the wall.

Victoria looked up. She could probably pull the sword out, but what then? She knew she couldn't kill Eir. Even if she had the will to, her only means of finishing it in one shot had been thrown across the room. Cillian was going to die, and it was her fault. She had failed him as a comrade, blindly leading him into this, and she had failed the organization she had pledged loyalty. She looked up at Cillian and spoke quietly with a wavering voice. "I.-I'm sorry. I can't...." She trailed off without finishing her sentence, but Eir liberally added some punctuation by slamming her head against the wall with a magnetic blast scraping much of the skin off the left side of her face to reveal cold metal. Eir took a few steps towards Victoria, laughing. "Where the hell does a doll without nerves get off acting like she's in pain?" Then the smile disappeared from her face as she leaned towards Victoria with wide eyes. "What the hell do YOU think you know about Pain?" She yelled at Victoria, as if expecting a response, but Victoria merely stared back. For the first time in her life, she had no idea what to do.