Tourniquet

[Pheonix791989]

good updates sis. i cant wait to read more.... and joanna in this story seems to be... i dunno weird. but keep it up

[woodyloveslinkin]

:D

****

Time hadn’t past too much for Mel as she was walking back to her place in a dark alleyway, with mist covering her feet and with Ravyn slowly trailing beside her. She was curious about this Old Worlder, a bit too much.

“Where did you come from, before you come to this hole?” asked Mel, crossing her arms to keep herself warm. “You don’t look like you’re from here, that’s all.”

“Don’t know,” answered Ravyn, a bit shaken up by Joanna’s departure. “I don’t remember a lot of things. That’s the trouble with me. Something that I can’t recall happened and it’s like I woke up in a different place in a different universe.” Ravyn wasn’t looking to Mel when they were exchanging conversation, but she was looking at the floor. “I don’t even know where I’m going.”

“Well, I’m going home if that’s where you’re planning to follow me to,” explained Mel, still thinking there was something wrong with Ravyn and yet, she couldn’t figure it out. She tried to shake off the feeling, but it was as if Ravyn was part of the New World generation and she was trying to act the ways of an Old Worlder. Something just wasn’t sitting right with her. “You okay? You don’t seem very in it; ever since I saw you sit down.”

“Yeah, just all alone in space and time, nothing out of the ordinary,” Ravyn answered, as she realised there were pieces of shattered glasses that reflected off the street lights as a deep blue.

Someone had been in a fight previously, the only thing Spyral didn’t care to think of, violence, because they were so reliant on the power of Ivna. Ivna this, and Ivna could do that, Spyral assured the New World generation of people, but did a bad job of trying to convince the Old Worlders that it didn’t have the same effects on them as aspirin did or a good dose of therapy. Old Worlders considered Ivna as a placebo to life. It was a placebo to hide all emotions and act like a heroine addicted user. Ivna was also considered the best thing to start fights. Taken in the wrong dosage and misreading the directions of Ivna, as Joanna previously had indirectly explained, would cause psychotic fits of anger and rage. Taken the right way, and one would end up smiling like a drug addict, as demonstrated by Ravyn’s reaction to the drug.

Mel didn’t see the glass that was on the ground and nor was she paying attention to the cracking of the glass underneath her feet. A piece of glass had slowly managed to get its shiny little self into one of Mel’s shoes.

“Ah, shit that hurts,” complained Mel, as the sharpness of the glass had dug into her foot and she immediately stopped and cringed in pain. She stood on one foot, as Ravyn just noticed that Mel had stopped and turned around. Then it struck Mel, what was that on the back of Ravyn’s neck? And why did Mel recognise that silver chain around her neck so much? “Come here for a sec.” Mel hopped to the gutter where the broken glass hadn’t been shattered all over as Ravyn frowned in confusion. “Just do it, come here.” Ravyn trampled over the glass and walked over to Mel. Mel pointed to sit next to her, Ravyn didn’t bother to ask why, and she followed directions, as Mel rested her sore foot on her knee and took her shoe off.

“Nasty,” commented Ravyn, as she saw the sparkle of the tiny piece of glass through the blood that had started to pour out of Mel’s Old World veins. “Do you want me to help you with that?”

“Only if you can help me with something, afterwards,” negotiated Mel, as Ravyn lent over and pulled the piece of glass out of Mel’s foot. Mel had now learnt her lesson about not wearing socks. Ravyn looked at the blood against the glass and frowned as she looked at it as it sparkled in the light, emitting off a ruby red colour. She tossed it aside.

“Now what was it that you needed help with?” asked Ravyn.

“Turn around,” answered Mel, as Ravyn was a bit confused and figured there was something on her back and that Mel was only doing her a favour by getting rid of it. Ravyn turned around. Mel placed one hand on Ravyn’s shoulder, moved her hair, noticed a small bump under her skin, and pulled out what seemed to be an Old World orange colour. Then Ravyn just froze completely, as soon as Mel recognised it to be an old Spyral micro chip. “What…the....fuck have you been up to?” It didn’t make sense to Mel at her and all of her knowledge about the New World and Spyral’s various projects. Then it struck her. Again, what was that tattooed on the back of her neck underneath where the old Spyral micro chip had been placed? It read – NE1503 in dark red ink, as though she had been branded, like they used to do to livestock back in the Old World. She had been an experiment in one of Spyral’s projects.

Then she asked herself a simple question, what projects of Spyral’s had the initials NE? The she had answered her question almost instantly, Narcissi Extraction. The numbers must’ve been like a sort of code. Mel’s eyes lit up as she realised who Ravyn might be.

Could she be Felicity’s, the wife of the previous ruler, killer?

Then she remembered the chain around her neck. What was it about it that caught Mel’s attention so quickly? She turned the silver chain around to see that there was a small pendant on it. It was no ordinary chain or pendant. Mel thought she would never live to see the day where she would befriend someone who had been experimented on, still live to tell the tale, and had one of these on her.

An indestructible chain that its ionic structure had been specifically designed for its links not to be broken. The pendant. It was of Spyral’s logo that they had taken from the Old World and was used back in those days as the medicine symbol, the two snakes wrapped around the pole. It was hollow and it could be opened.

Mel knew that New Worlders where given a pendant at birth and they were expected to use it for only patriotic purposes only. But Mel knew that Ravyn was from the Old World, because Ravyn recognised Old World terms, despite Mel’s uncertainty about Ravyn’s origins.

When a New Worlder cannot physically prove that someone did something to break the law, like own a banned item, as guards are not programmed to respond to banned items and it is up to the individual to report it. Memories can be extracted from the brain, using what was named as an ATM. Not an Automatic Teller Machine, like in the Old World where it dispensed notes of money, but it was an Automatic Telling Machine in the New World, which extracted memories from an individual and was stored in their pendant around in their neck. Each individual was given an inanimate pendant that was hollow. These were recognised on Spyral’s system by the variables of the thickness, length, and time of making, everyone had an individual pendant. Now after the memory was extracted, it was taken to the Board of Spyralians to be shown. Memories could not be forged, as Spyral had realised.

Mel made the mistake of opening it to reveal a hologram that flew up into a couple of metres into the air. It revealed something of a green map with a blue dot that was blinking at a particular spot along the yellow marked grid. This occurred for a couple of seconds and then it faded away. She closed it back up and turned the chain back around, as she realised she was still holding the chip in her hand.

What Mel unknowingly just did by opening that pendant of Ravyn’s, she just set off infra-red beams of invisible white light back to Spyral’s headquarters over the Dark Hills and Winter Station, which was the last check point before the corporation’s building. That blue dot was Spyro’s location. And what Mel didn’t know, is that Ravyn had never opened that pendant since her memory blankness had started, nor did she feel any discomfort from the chip that had been planted in the back of her neck.

Back in the Mirror Board chambers inside the dormant walls of the Spyral building, Spyro woke up from her digital powernap without warning, as her systems had just been restored and was tired from being re-programmed. No one was in the room with her, but her maps were blinking madly with binary zeros and ones, ASCII codes on another side of her, and map co-ordinates scrolling down the side of her.

Spyro had just found Felicity’s killer after all these years and she was still living in the City of Angels like Spyro had suspected all along.

The trail was now hot and dangerous.

****

[Ravynlee]

Ohhooo awesome! I love the description you use in this, the level of detail with 'new' technology is quite extraordinary, and Spyro 'coming to life' (waking up) at the end there was a real sliff-hanger moment! Love the Chip idea and Mel's natural inhibitions a nice realistic touch.

Developing nicely. Great flow, easy to read, just awesome. :thumbsup:

[woodyloveslinkin]

****

Los Angeles had become a world of its own since Japan dropped its bomb. There were few outsiders who ventured in the City of the Fallen Angels and came out with a good story to tell about it, who weren’t of the generation of that the New World had produced and sterilised.

Rob was sitting at his red couch, looking onto the coffee table, thinking about how different the times had been back in the Old World compared to what the world had come down to in this New World that he was living in. He wasn’t only just looking onto the coffee table, but he was looking on what the New World had called a Remberant. It wasn’t on the banned list at all, in fact, hardly anyone knew about this small silver coin because his friend who was an illegally operating inventor had invented it. Rob had only accepted it out of pure kindness to his friend.

He leant forward and picked up the small double-sided object that resembled a small coin at first, but once activated it was more than just a form of currency, it was a projecting hologram. He wrapped his hand around the coin, closed his eyes and opened them again, as the coin grew hot and then eventually hotter, until it started to burn into his skin, so he dropped it to the floor.

A bright light was emitted out of it, like a spotlight in the night’s sky at a grand opening of a casino, as Rob got to his feet and moved to the other side of the room. He sat down in a chair on the opposite side of the room, looking above at the ceiling and staring at the blank light being projected onto the ceiling.

He knew it was in the process of working out what he wanted it to do and what memories that he had closed his eyes to choose. He was trying to think about something that Mike had said to him, which had gotten to him on a deeper level. The whole household had been told that there was now a virus in the infrastructure of Spyral’s hardware and programs, from other Old Worlders. Rob just needed something to tell him that what Mike was planning to do, was the right thing to do. Rob wasn’t sure if he should keep on telling Mike to back down from his plans to try and overthrow Spyral or if Rob should listen to it and he should just encourage Fox to participate in such a dangerous activity.

“Program malfunction,” said a voice within the hologram of light on the ceiling. “Please select another memory to revisit.” The light disappeared as Rob didn’t move from his spot. He had now been too distracted trying to deconstruct lost memories and make sense of this New World with Mike’s crazy ideas.

Rob jumped as Fox and a hooded Mike came through the front door, carrying takeaway Chinese food with them. Mike was the one to close the door. He turned around and took off his hood and stared at Rob was now deep back in thought.

“What’s wrong with you now?” asked Mike, crossing his arms, hoping to get a reasonable answer, as Fox unpacked the plastic containers that had various dishes in them.

“I’m thinking about what you said,” answered Rob, as Mike’s face lit up in a I-told-you-so expression. “Spyral’s hardware has been infected with a virus that is crashing their mainframes. Someone downtown dropped the G word three times and there were no guards. Someone’s done something to disrupt their system. Thankfully, that person wasn’t around any New Worlders.” Rob was still precarious not to say God, because of the fear of Spyral having their systems back up and running.

“It can’t be that bad of a virus, though,” objected Fox, as she stopped what she was doing and focused on their conversation. “We still have the basics that Spyral provides us with. We have electricity, hot water, and we have the supply of food that are still exporting and importing for us.”

“I say it is a type of virus that was specifically aimed to mutilate and bypass all their automatic responses to crimes,” guessed Mike, walking over to the Remberant and picking it up, curious to know what it was. “What’s this, genius?” He turned to Rob for his answer.

“Just something I picked up, give it to me, it’s mine,” answered Rob, pulling out his hand as he received it with Mike asking no questions about what it could’ve been. He hid it quickly in his pocket. “This plan of yours, what does it consist of?”

“So, now you’re interested?” asked Mike, sitting on the couch that Rob had been previously sitting on, as Fox continued serving up the Chinese food on three plates. “What happened? Did an angel come out of the sky and tell you that this was the right thing to do, stand up for what you believe in?”

“I know for sure an angel didn’t tell me that,” Rob retorted without a doubt of knowing what he was saying. He had years to discover this about Los Angeles and narrowly missing being exiled several times. “Ever since the New World came into play I’ve learnt that this isn’t the City of Angels, this is where the angels fell. I’ve stopped believing in fate and started to believe what was real and what was happening. It doesn’t seem right. Taking down Spyral is a risky business and you can’t go into hiding after you fail.”

“Who said we were going to fail?” asked Mike, as Fox stopped serving up the Chinese and walked over to Mike and Rob with their plates. She laid them down in front of them on the coffee table as each of the men gave thanks to her. “Do you really want to continue living in a world that there is no justice and no passion to live life anymore?” Rob shook his head, as Fox disappeared to get her food that was left back on the bench in the kitchen. “It’s a well known fact that an Old Worlder brought Dark Knight Station down to its knees. Now all we need to do is make Winter Station and then eventually, make the headquarters of Spyral beg for mercy on their knees.” Fox came back again with her plate in one hand and started to eat her food with some chopsticks.

“I don’t know about it Mike, there’s something in the back of my head that tells me trying to overthrow Spyral is not a good idea,” replied Rob, as there was a knock at the door. Mike was going to reply but he didn’t, so he quickly hid his head under his hood, as Rob got to his feet to answer the door. “Who is it?”

“Bella,” answered the lady from next door who happened to be an Old Worlder as well. Rob opened the door, as he saw Bella and smiled. “Just popping around to say that Dark Knight Station is back up and running. Some genius fuck gave the virus the biggest ass kicking ever and its systems have doubled the firewall power.”

“Where did you hear this?” asked Rob, frowning, as Bella just had good timing in ruining Mike’s plans to overthrow Spyral. “I didn’t catch the part where you told me your source.”

“Benji downstairs heard it off someone who lived near the Dark Hills area,” answered Bella, as Fox smiled at the mentioning of Benji’s name.

“Thanks for that, I’ll keep that in mind, whenever that will prove useful,” nodded Rob slowly, as Bella smiled, and disappeared out of sight. Rob closed the door, and turned around to see Mike taking off his hood. “How’s Bella’s shit timing for you doing there, Mike?”

“I’m still doing it,” answered Mike, stubbornly. “You have no idea what it feels like to be treated like, just because you’ve got some Japanese in you. It’s like you’re an alien to society. You get blamed for other people’s actions and you’re solely judged on the past and not on resolutions.”

“And you have no idea how bad it feels not knowing how to read when Spyral’s taken away schools and other forms of education that I needed in order to learn the basics to life,” added Fox, as she put her plate down on the coffee table and everyone turned to Fox to hear her hate for such a corporation. “Spyral’s taken away something that I needed. I envy everyone who can read here. I envy everyone who in the past got treated for such conditions as the ones I’m stuck with. Spyral has no idea what it feels like to be mocked and teased by other people from an older generation about how you cannot read. It hurts more than anyone can imagine.”

“I feel your pain, that’s why I had the heart to take you like I did,” replied Rob, as he started to walk over to Fox, who looked like she was going to have one of her breakdowns. Mike patted Fox on the arm, to try and calm her down.

“No one cares in this society; I wish I lived in a society where freedom was a promise not a defiance,” Fox continued, as a tear made its way down her face. The New Worlders would cure such tears with Ivna. However, since these three people were opposed to such an idea, they chose to face their emotions rather covering them up with artificial emotions. “The only people who care in this society are the people, you’re with, and even that is a challenge at times.” Rob knelt down in front of her, narrowly squeezing in between her and the coffee table and started to see her pain that he had felt too many a time. “I want to get back at them. I want to make them endure what I’ve had to put up with. Suffocation, restrictions, and autocratic rule… I’m sick of it, I’m sick of being a nobody, Rob. I want to be a somebody.”

“I know how it feels, but the only reason why I’m not agreeing to it entirely is because, it’s dangerous and we’re not equipped with the knowledge or the resources to even bring down Dark Knight Station,” Rob explained, as he held Fox’s hands and continued to watch Fox shed more tears.

“I don’t care, I’m in,” Fox retorted bringing out the stubbornness in her that didn’t show that often. “I want to make a difference.”

“I’m concerned though, what, what if something was to occur and we would have to rely on you to read something?” asked Mike, trying to put it as nice as possible. Fox hadn’t thought of that, so she didn’t say anything and shrugged. “My point precisely.” Mike looked to Rob, as Rob caught Mike’s glance and looked to him. “If we don’t have the knowledge or the resources between us three, how do we get the word across to the society of the Old Worlders that fill those streets down there, about this?”

“So what are you suggesting?” asked Rob, still trying to understand Mike and his jumbled ideas.

“We don’t work as a trio, we work together, all of the Old Worlders, because all of us know the difference between then and now,” Mike answered, trying to understand this plan himself. “If we get our generation together, and only our generation, we can overthrow Spyral. We work as a majority, not as a minority.” Fox nodded as she started to like the way that Mike was starting to think. “We hold meetings on a regular basis, because now, since the virus has been taken care of, this isn’t going to take two days to organise.”

“Because Spyral is a lot more sophisticated and complex then anyone thinks it is, there’s only one thing though,” added Rob, as he just remembered the three obstacles in their way. “The Dark Hills are a breeding ground for Spyral guards, Dark Knight Station and Winter Station are massive they are not just watch towers, and that’s just basic knowledge of the New World.”

“Yeah, we need to get the word out about this amongst the Old Worlders, but again, the question comes down to, how can we get only the Old World generation to hear it and not the New Worlders?” asked Mike, still deep in thought in answering his question.

Then it struck Rob like a baseball bat to the back of his head. Who was the number one person that loved spreading word about the misfortunes of Spyral amongst the Old Worlders?

“Bella,” answered Rob, suddenly realising the answer to his own personal question, as both Mike and Fox nodded in agreement. “We can do this now that I think of it. Yeah, we will do this now. We’re going to overthrow Spyral and show that spoilt little brat her true place in society.”

****

[Ravynlee]

Muahaha Sarah's finally going to get what's coming to her! Loving this whole vibe of rebellion setting in, not too sure I trust Bella is it? But still, I get where they're coming from, have to play it smart, but who can you trust in that situation? Foxxy showing emotion was sweet, she's not normally known for that, and Rob taking charge was good to see and stepping up to join his friend, also great. As always your use of description is quite awe-inspiring, in some ways it's like you've had a glimpse into the future! Powerful stuff

[Pheonix791989]

good update... and the drunk chaz made me laugh lol. go me rav and chaz for rebellion sorry im a bit late with the review... working hard and all lol

[woodyloveslinkin]

****

 

Joanna sat back in the yellow leather armchair, in which in all told truth to be told, it was Old World orange, with her legs crossed. She looked to the wall, as a tear fell down her face. She was busy contemplating something big, and she didn’t have her Ivna bottle on her so she couldn’t suppress them with the artificial drug. She wasn’t at home, she was still at her friends place, and she hadn’t been home since last night when she felt like she had been betrayed by her sister being near a banned substance.

Imported liquor was banned in Article SPY106 under the category of business relating to alcohol distribution and consumption.

She didn’t know what to do. Ivna couldn’t help her and her friend hadn’t bought some as she had run out of it.

Joanna had made the decision. She was going to do it. What they did was wrong and illegal and they shouldn’t have gotten away with it. Joanna was very patriotic in other words.

She fiddled with the small rose around her neck that was dangling off a silver chain. It was her pendant, her birth pendant. Joanna was only a year younger than Fox and in it that difference of a year apart, many things had happened to the world around her.

She stopped fiddling with the rose as she got to her feet, and left her friend’s house without any word being spoken or any indication that she had left. She opened the front door and soon found herself, on the street below. She stopped as soon as she got to the sidewalk and looked around, as she asked herself a simple question, now which way was the nearest ATM?

She didn’t know off by heart so she took a left as a random guess and followed that road down for a couple of minutes until she stopped and wondered where she was. She didn’t know where she was, but she was going to make herself believe that she wasn’t lost and continued her journey down the path as she recognised a group of Old Worlders. She scowled at them, but she wasn’t sure that the Old Worlders actually cared about the stability of this society.

Then she saw it. The Automatic Telling Machine on the corner of the street that she was about to cross. Old Worlders would consider the ATM the most useless and impertinent invention that Spyral had created so far in this world of corporation based tyrants.

In the Old World, the only useful thing that ATM’s were useful for was getting cash out of them to pay the bills. And if an Old Worlder was forced to described what the New World’s version of the ATM looked like, they would say it looked like a photo booth that would be planted on the side of the malls pathways, for teenagers to take stupid photos of them and their friends as they make weird faces to the camera inside. This was another thing that the New World had stolen from the Old World; Automatic Telling Machines were newer versions of Old World photo booths.

Of course, Joanna was completely unaware of such a pattern that existed in the society that she had dedicated her life to, as she walked over to the ATM and sat inside it, drawing the grey curtain shut so she could maintain her privacy as her memory was extracted from her.

“Welcome,” said the automatic detection voice inside the ATM, as the screen in front of her went from being plain blue to a nice shade of New World yellow. “Please sit still while in the process of Agama.” Agama was the codename given to the process of memory extraction and had been one of the first prototype that succeeded in its early days as just an experiment. Joanna sat still, as she looked to the screen in front of her, as it went it changed to a screensaver of an aquarium with exotic fish swimming around with oxygen bubbles rising on various parts of the screen. A red infra beam appeared at the top of the booth and a purple light appeared below it. They moved simultaneously down until they reached the bottom of Joanna’s neck. “Please sit still while in the process of Agama.” It repetitively told Joanna, as the beams moved back up to the top of her head and moved down again until they reached the bottom of her neck. The screensaver changed from its aquarium environment to a page that displayed a moving bar based on the progress of the extraction progress, Loading…it read above the purple light against the green background. The bar reached full as her memories were displayed in thumbnails in front of her and the beams of light had disappeared. “Please select desired memory to be crystallised.” She touched the one of the previous evening. “Is that all?” Joanna touched the okay button and it went to another page. “Please insert pendant in the tray.” Joanna removed her chain that had the rose hanging off it and placed it in the silver tray that had slid out. It slid back in once it received her pendant. “Attaching file to 1007868-980-888.” The number that the machine had quoted was what her birth pendant scanned and stored as. In a matter of seconds the screen went blank again and the silver tray slid back out as Joanna recollected it and put the chain back around her neck. The pendant now was glowing red as it signalled there was a memory that was classified as important now stored on it, as the tray disappeared out of sight. “Thank you for your co-operation 1007868-980-888. You have been approved access to the Leader as the committee is now on leave. Please take the hologram that will be provided to you, to travel directly to Spyral’s headquarters. Spyral thanks you for your patriotism and helping to make this world more stable and a better place to live in.” The screen went blank as a Yanac dropped out of the air and landed on Joanna’s lap.

A Yanac was a device that directly took a New Worlder to Spyral’s headquarters. The user would first appear as a hologram and then solidify twenty seconds later. Unlike the guards who used a more powerful version of a Yanac called a Sphinx that allowed them to appear solid ten seconds later. A Yanac could be used only twice, to get back and forth, while a Sphinx could be used up to twenty thousand times or until the guards were destroyed.

Joanna smiled as she got up and held the small device in her hand, like an Old World discus, and walked outside, pulling the grey curtains opened. She walked down the street to find somewhere private. It only took her a minute or two, as she found a small abandoned alleyway that was lighted up by the glowing of the neon colours of a billboard. She dropped the discus-like object to the ground and pressed the small green button with her foot.

In a matter of seconds, she saw her hand start to fade away and it crawled up both arms. The upper abdomen went first and then her legs.Then she completely disappeared, as the small green button had started to flash.

She soon found herself appearing slowly in a nice chamber room, with a young girl sitting at an antique armchair that had what appeared to be the Spyral logo of the two snakes and the pole (the Old World medicine symbol) at the top of the chair, and it was wrapped with ancient solid silver vines that wound themselves around the arms of the chair. The girl herself, she wore a black corset top with red laces down the front of her chest. Joanna noticed her boots as well. They were matching red and black boots. She tried to say something for the first couple of seconds but she could not hear herself, as she had completely forgotten about the twenty-second solidifying characteristic of a Yanac.

“So, you have information?” asked the girl, looking not surprised.

“Yeah,” answered Joanna, as she realised that the twenty seconds had past and she could now hear herself and the girl in the room.

“What’s your name?” asked the girl.

“Joanna,” answered Joanna. “Are you who I think you are?” The girl nodded. She was Sarah, Joanna realised, the ruler of the lands. “You look down on us, don’t you?”

“I look after you, there’s a fine line between looking down on you and taking care of you,” corrected Sarah. “Show me your pendant, Joanna.”

Joanna fumbled around for a second or two, and then undid the chain around her neck. She walked across the room, as Sarah held out her hand and Joanna piled the chain up in Sarah’s hands. Sarah looked down at the pendant and took the pendant by the top of it, so the chain dangled down from it.

“It’s not much, but I want to help, I want this society to be stable as much as you do,” explained Joanna, bringing out the patriotic side to her.

Sarah pressed a leaf on the vine that wrapped its way around the left arm of the ancient chair and it opened a small opening. Sarah piled the chain in it first and then dropped the glowing pendant in. She closed it but gently moving the lid of the opening over. A light appeared at the end of the arm of the chair, as Joanna realised that she had to move, so she did, to get away. The memory had been selected and now had changed from the blank snow white colour being projected on the back wall, just metres away from where Joanna had appeared, to a memory that was of that one night when she was walking home from the markets. It played out in front of Sarah like an Old World movie. It was a matter of minutes until it was over and then it went blank. Sarah opened the gap back up and handed Joanna’s pendant back to her. It had been extracted and therefore, the red glow was gone.

“Who were they?” asked Sarah. “Give me their pendants.”

“They don’t have pendants,” explained Joanna. “They are Old Worlders.”

“Who was that woman you were begging for her to stand up to them with you?” asked Sarah, as she realised that not a single name was spoken, except for the name that had disappeared out off Spyro’s map again, Ravyn. Spyro was hitting the roof that she had disappeared again and nothing and no one was found at her last location, in the alleyway with Mel the previous evening. An Old Worlder had outsmarted a program that basically controlled everything in Spyral’s systems. “Who is she?”

“She’s my sister, but I’m not here to report her,” Joanna answered, having a last change of heart. “It was that man, and that other woman. They did nothing about it.”

“Where can I find your sister?” asked Sarah, still rattled by Spyro’s news.

“I don’t know where she is to be honest, she could be anywhere,” answered Joanna, bending the truth to save her sister. Just say, a liar knows when liars lie.

“You’re a traitor to this society Joanna, your sister is a criminal and so are the rest of those people I just saw be played out,” Sarah told Joanna. “You are deliberately trying to withhold information from Spyral, by not telling me your sister’s location. She’s a traitor to this ruling as well, if you didn’t happen to know this. You’ll be seeing her soon, that I’ll be certain to guarantee you.” Solid guards appeared at the doorway, as Joanna spun around to see the guards coming towards her, in disbelief that her patriotism had just backfired on her completely. “You will be exiled in three days time precisely, that’s if you don’t choose to tell me your sister’s location.”

Joanna spun back around to face Sarah, as the guards grabbed her by the neck.

“You cannot do this to me, I didn’t do anything wrong!” Joanna tried to debate with Sarah, but she got dragged away too quickly for her to hear what Sarah had said in response to Joanna’s attempted debate, as the guards ripped her chain and pendant off her to give to Sarah.

Sarah sat back in the same chair that she had been sitting in all day hearing cases of truth and lies, since the committee were away; it was her job to do it. She was deep in thought, as she started to play with a pocket watch her father had given her a day before he got assassinated by that group of rebels. She played with it, sending it across the back of her knuckles, back and forth, contemplating what she was really going to do with Joanna’s life and eventually, what she would do with the woman’s life that killed Sarah’s mother.

Immediate death or damnation for eternity?

That was the question.

 

****

 

 

[Pheonix791989]

nice update.... haha thats what you get for being a snitch!! you rat me out.... XD.

[Jeezy]

hurry up to put up the next one...

 

I'm excited now...lol

[Ravynlee]

AWESOME! I have to say I LOVE this evil Sarah character, something about her is just... I dunno, captivating. You want to dislike her, everything's telling you she's the 'bad guy' and yet... she's just... intriguing. The chair sounds awesome, I love the tie in to the repeated symbolism, even what she was wearing (reminiscent in the colours in your sig, nice touch) and the guards grabbing Joanna at the end! I was like 'No! Not my sister!' but mind you she sort of did ask for it... wondering what that evil little wench has in store. She's great, I'll give ya that

[woodyloveslinkin]

Thanks for the comments Happy to know that everyone is enjoying it.

 

 

****

 

It was the next day for the city where the angels fell for the Old World generation and where the angels had risen for the New World generation. Different generations had the most obvious differences in opinion when it came to the topic of what was wrong with the New World and what was right. The answer to the first part of the question according to the Old World was, what isn’t wrong about living in a society where your basic human rights are ignored? The New World’s response to the first part of the original question posed was mainly what’s wrong with you? There’s nothing wrong with the New World, the New World is a living heaven! Now the Old World generation in answering the second part of the original question primarily consisted of thinking right about such horrible thoughts, as thinking the New World actually had something positive about it is tyrannous, you make me sick. The New World generation’s reaction was too long in explaining what was right about the New World (that in most surveys conducted by Spyral out of sheer boredom and then followed by the mostly uncaring thoughts about people’s opinion of their world), so they had to limit responses to a couple of paragraphs and threatened with exile if they exceeded more than those few paragraphs instructed.

Sarah walked down the hallways of the Spyral’s building, in her usual corset fitting. But unlike yesterday the combination of the colours had changed. Instead of the previous red and black combination colours, today was dark blue and with light grey laced up the chest, corset top matched nicely with her French braided back to reveal the silver snake studs that filled her ear holes, and her dark blue boots with dark grey laces that laced their way up to her knees, as her dress stopped at her knees to show off her boots.

She wasn’t alone. She had her associates behind her chatting away like Old World howler monkeys in the rainforests of the Old World Brazil. She stood her ground by her silence as she led her associates to the meeting room that wasn’t far away. She was in authoritative figure mode right now and not-to-be-stuffed-around mode. She would exile her own associates if she wanted to do and they were easy to replace, as Sarah had learnt through many years of following her father around to these types of meetings and then it had been her turn a few years ago to take to the throne and stabilise society. The only noise that Sarah made was her boots treading against the ground and her pendant swinging on its ancient chain. Her pendant unlike Joanna’s meant more to her than anything in the world, even more than her programmable best friend Spyro. Her pendant was of an Old World Celtic Cross with vines wrapped around it with a blade for the bottom section of the cross, and a flower-like pattern in the centre. This pendant proved that she was born in the times of the New World as well and made her feel comfortable that she hadn’t been born in the times of the Old World, despite the fact that she didn’t know her father had chosen an Old World symbol for his only born, but in all truth, her father loved Celtic symbols, and he loved his daughter.

She took a sharp turn around a corner on her left, as she entered the meeting room that looked like it was fit for a king, or in this case, fit for a ruler who had autocratic powers and reined her tyrannical powers to the maximum of her ability. She saw her red cedar chair at the head of the Huon pine table that once belonged to the native forests of Old World South America, Australia, and Southeast Asia. But now it was the rarest timber in the New World and if sold, it could buy a lot of McSpyral burgers and fried rice. She passed the rare table and went to her chair that was lined with red velvet and the Spyral snakes wrapped around the pole which was plated in brass. She sat down at it and crossed her legs, waiting impatiently waiting for her associates to sit done at the Huon pine chairs that were lined with green velvet cushions.

“I am not waiting another year for you to sit down and start this meeting, I have other things to attend to!” snapped Sarah, impatiently as they quickened their search for the perfect chair next to their preferred choice of people to sit down next to. In a matter of seconds, everyone just grabbed any odd chair and sat down at it. “Why am I still hearing that whatever type of virus it is, why is it still affecting the guards so much?”

“We don’t know, Spyro’s up and running and she’s working perfectly,” explained the first associate, sitting the closest to Sarah, as Sarah crossed her arms unimpressed. “This is a type of virus our analysers have not seen before. Spyro said she felt drowsy all the time when she got infected and she’s never felt that way.”

“Is that all you’ve done in the past days we’ve had this virus?” asked Sarah. “I don’t want the electricity or the hot water supply to be victimised next.”

“We are doing the best we can do,” explained the second associate sitting at the other end of the table. “It’s not like we are lazing around on our asses all day and doing nothing.”

“Do not speak that tone with me,” requested Sarah, detecting that her associate was fed up with her asking questions. “You’ve seen the consequences in other instances someone has repetitively challenged my decisions on any topic. I advise just do your job and get rid of this damn virus. There’s going to be an uprising soon if we don’t have guards to keep world order and like hell, I am going to end up with the same fate as my father.” She looked around at her associates who had their eyes fixed on her, and fixed on every word that she was speaking. “I strongly advise do not challenge my authority, my dear associates; I am not here to swallow excuses I am here to ask how and why and try to keep a civilisation from burning down and going into chaos. The last thing I want to do is end up shaming my father’s grave just because a bunch of idiots didn’t know how to control a virus outbreak.”

“We have controlled it though, but we haven’t gotten rid of it,” explained the third associate who was halfway down the table as Sarah’s glance was diverted to him. “It doesn’t seem like it wants to die. It’s as though it is dormant or hibernating for something to happen. We are sure that an Old Worlder did this, but we cannot tell exactly who did this.”

“How the hell did an Old Worlder get past the Dark Hills and into Dark Knight Station without being detected by a single thing?” asked Sarah, very curious to know answers to her questions.

“We have no clue because there’s no pendant to trace up like we could be able to do if a New Worlder had done it,” answered the same associate, the third one. “Good news though Spyro is currently hacking into the memories of spies that we have got loose on the streets and she would be able to narrow the possibilities down to who had done it.”

“Narrowing and determining are two very different things, and I would prefer determining the real criminal rather than just narrowing it down to a second guess choice,” retorted Sarah, as she got to her feet. She looked around to her associates again. “We cannot afford to waste time here people. The longer we sit here and twiddle our thumbs the longer it will take for us to maintain order. Stability is a necessity not an option here. I thought you people told me that you worked with my father?”

“You exiled half of them, there’s only a few remaining,” answered the fourth associate. “But now that you mention it, I did work with your father. He was a great man and ruler to have worked for. And I may say, I am honoured to work for the next generation of Spyral rulers like as yourself.”

“Thank you for your satisfaction,” replied Sarah, sarcastically, not in the mood to be sucked up to right now, but more so wanting answers. “This is the final thing I am going to say for today’s interrupted meeting, as I am going to have a word to Spyro about the progress that we are lacking to complete. I am not here to ask questions and contemplate decisions all day long, I have other business to attend to but, I want the virus terminated and if you cannot terminate that virus, then yourselves will be terminated in a rocket that’s headed to a planet with no oxygen supply. Do you hear what I am saying, loud and clear?” Everyone in the room agreed and nodded their heads. “Good day to you all, gentlemen.” Sarah turned to leave the room, as she strolled past her associates who were now deep in a concerned conversation about their now threatened future with the corporation. Sarah exited the room, slamming the door behind her and making her associates jump with fright.

Sarah strolled past various other chambers that were used for different reasons and she had set her destination to Spyro’s bedroom, also known to others commonly as the chambers that held the Mirror Board. It was a matter of minutes before Sarah arrived there, as she opened the door to see the Mirror Board scrolling down numeric values like x = 789-90 + latitude of 50 SE. She stopped in the doorway as she saw other mathematic equations appearing, but they were the same specific location being repeated over again as Sarah realised that Spyro was thinking aloud and was writing down her thoughts as she was hiding in her motherboard. Sarah smiled, as she looked down to the ground and looked back up again to see the blue woman’s head staring right at Sarah leaning against the doorframe.

“Came to give me flowers, dear?” asked Spyro, as Sarah shook her head. “Oh. Was getting a bit lonely here doing all of these advanced calculus equations, and was getting a bit of a headache as well, I just assumed you were going to put my mind at ease.”

“This is the precise reason why we don’t need education, we have programs like you that do everything for us, that think for us and gives us advice,” commented Sarah. “Who needs a mother when you give me advice to what to do.”

“There’s a large line between what I can do right now and what I cannot do compared to what your mother did for you when she was alive,” explained Spyro.

“I detect sarcasm isn’t on your list of verbal speech tones you can pick up, I’ll tell Brad to put that in you next time you’re serviced,” Sarah made a mental note to herself, as the mother topic was sarcasm, obviously not picked up by Spyro.

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, and wit my dear, you have too much of it,” Spyro said, as Sarah saw the chair in front of the mirror board and went over to sit down at it. “I was counting down to when you would see the chair.” Sarah sat down in the chair and crossed her legs. “I detect you are not here for personal reasons.”

“You are correct, I am here for strict business purposes only, the personal stuff can wait until later,” Sarah replied.

“Spyro is here, what can she do for you?” asked Spyro as she changed her form from a woman’s head to a small picture of various question marks.

“Just came out of a meeting and that virus is attacking us like crazy, well, not right now, but it is still affecting the guards, and I want to know what type of virus it is, I’ve never seen this virus before, it’s even in like a sleeping mode, it’s waiting for something to happen until it fully crashes the system or something like that,” Sarah answered Spyro, as she went back to her normal form on the blue touch screen in front of the ruler. “It’s unbelievable.”

“Okay, I have pinpointed what type of virus it is, but the bad news my dear, I don’t know how to override it, even though I am the most sophisticated program in the world, I cannot override the virus, I do not even know where to start looking for its inoculation,” replied the blue woman. “I have to put you through a history lesson, if you don’t mind, dear.”

“Go nuts,” Sarah gave the go-ahead for another entertaining and intelligent history lesson that Spyro was well known for giving to Sarah.

“In 2009 there was a virus that erupted from the banks of Egypt that got into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s main computer frame in a place called The Pentagon, which at that stage, that company investigated deaths and made a shit load of conspiracies by that time, and that virus my dear, was named Mississippi,” explained Spyro, as Sarah couldn’t help but to smirk at the program cussing. “Now they thought that this virus had gone for good, but by the time that World War Three had departed, Spyral had gotten an infection of its servers in Siberia and England, of the dormant virus, that was also the same one that had brought the Bureau of Investigation down to its knees. You cannot kill this virus Sarah my dear, despite how many times you give it a vaccine. It plays dead but then it reignites itself. I do not know if it is triggered by anything. So try all you want, the virus will always be there.”

“How come my father never wrote anything about this virus in his journal?” asked Sarah, remembering that she had started to read the words of her father’s early days in the Old World in a scrappy old brown book. Sarah hated the sound of the Old World where politics rolled in money like pigs did to mud, and how global corporations had no political power at all, but had political influence only to a certain extent. The technology as well, disgusted Sarah because they were so technologically disorganised.

Spyral stopped talking for a second in disbelief. She didn’t know that Sarah had been reading her father’s journal and didn’t want her to read the journal for the things that she would find out about the Old World.

“Sarah, do not continue your reading of that journal, there are many gruesome things about the Old World that would upset you a lot,” advised Spyro. “I am not saying out of narcissism, but for your own good. I am more concerned that you will emotionally lose the plot over the parts where your mother is included and you will not be able to conduct your job in a professional manner, but in a personal manner. You are a good person, dear, and you do not need to be destroyed by your father’s words.”

“But you said it yourself, he was a good man at heart and at brain, I look up to my father, he got me where I am now, and look at you, you wouldn’t be like this if it wasn’t for him,” debated Sarah, somewhat confused by the program’s reaction to her reading a scrappy old brown book that was hidden in the drawer next to Sarah’s bed. “I do not understand your reaction Spyro.”

“I am only trying to protect you from the details of the awful Old World, nothing more and nothing less, I do not wish to continue this conversation,” the program said to Sarah, as Sarah shook her head, declining termination of the conversation.

“Why? What are you afraid of?” asked Sarah, still trying to understand why Spyro was being stubborn about her reading her father’s journal. “I can only learn from the days that he was in, can’t I? So I can make a better society as my father has already set down the foundations for me?”

“He made some dangerous mistakes and I do not wish for you to know of them,” answered Spyro. “It’s for your own good. I am going to self-terminate in three seconds.”

“No, termination denied!” yelled Sarah at the blue screen, but it was already too late, as the digital blue woman’s head disappeared. “Spyro! Come back! I’ll manually override you to come back if you don’t tell me!” Sarah got to her feet, and walked over to the screen of air that emitted blue light off it, and started to move her hands side to side, up and down, following directions to override Spyro like Brad had taught her to do, as programs blinked on and off for a second, depending what Sarah was doing. Sarah started frantically push the buttons that felt like pushing air and still didn’t do anything.

She didn’t want to admit it but she knew when Spyro was stubborn and dead set on some things, and her father’s journal was one of them, as she sighed and slumped back into the chair that sat in front of the screen that was scrolling out Spyro’s mathematic thoughts and equations. She knew Spyro was in there, because she could not physically walk away but all she did was hide in her motherboard, while her thoughts poured out into scrolling columns of letters, numbers, values, and symbols that Sarah didn’t even know how it worked. That was the great thing about being a best friend to a program that was too sophisticated that it made Sarah’s head hurt and the only person that understood Spyro was herself, not even Sarah, not even the analysers or the technicians, it was a great thing to Sarah.

She was always up for a challenge, but she wasn’t sure if she was up to this personal challenge, not picking up her father’s journal and not reading it.

 

****

 

 

 

 

Enjoy.

[FireHawk]

God damn I wish I was an 8th of the writer of you. You are alike my goal when it comes to writing.

[woodyloveslinkin]

Really..?

Wow. I feel really special now.

There have been several people telling me that I should turn this into a book, and still thinking about it seriously. Well, let's see what the future brings for Tourniquet and the dreams/nightmares it gives to its readers. And I personally admit this is my best work so far.

Thanks as always.

[Ravynlee]

Fantastic as always. I love the relationship between Sarah and Spyro and the degree of humanity you've brought to the program as well. There's lots I like about this update... don't know where to start! Wondering what's in the journal of course, oh and the celtic symbolism! Awesome! (In being a fan with Celtic tattoos myself) oh and the meeting she had with her associates, THAT was commendable too. She's a real little powerhouse, isn't she? Wouldn't like to cross her path in a bad mood that's for sure! Just loving it... well done.

[woodyloveslinkin]

****

 

Mel and a hooded Viking were walking down the deserted road of Los Angeles as they were walking the back streets to avoid any unwanted attention by Spyral guards that were now walking the streets of where the angels had fell down hard. Since Spyral had apparently dealt with the virus that they announced on Spyral Ltd (in which Mel had threw comments and rolled her eyes at the television set the whole time of the airing), they had stopped using guards that were programmable and used actual human guards that looked like body builders then anything.

In all truth to be told, they weren’t actual human guards, they appeared solid, and they couldn’t appear places via Sphinxes. They were genetically modified and genetically solidified androids in the disguise of humans, as appose to the other ones they were androids, but they were much sophisticated and had a much more diverse internal hard drive compared to these backups. The real things were classified as Class WTF – Class Western Taxic Furan, while compared to these back talking androids were classified as Class STFU – Class Southern Taxic Furan that Sarah had now threatened them with planting the virus Mississippi in them if they stopped following orders. The only program that was able to recognise and counter blackmail in the world was Spyro, it was Brad’s doing. These androids had been told what the virus could do to them and Sarah had directly ordered to do their jobs or face Mississippi and try to live through it without being sent to the scrap yard.

Mel took a sharp left as Viking trailed her, trying to remember the way to Ravyn’s apartment building as Ravyn had got lost several times trying to find it, but Mel ended up asking someone on the street for directions and they found it no time. Mel found herself on a main street, looking up at a pair of old concreted stairs that had cracked in a couple of thousand places. Mel sighed as she looked up to a window on the far right to see if Ravyn was doing her day job and looking out the window. She wasn’t. Mel sighed again, as she started to walk up the pair of stairs that led up to a door, and as Viking trailed. Mel pushed the door opened and held it open for Viking to walk through.

The door closed as the pair of wanted Old Worlders started to climb the stairs to the seventh floor of the building, to the seventh corridor and then to eventually open the door which was the seventh on the right with the number seven written on it with a gold seven shining dully under the hallway’s light.

“Welcome back to the hellhole that I call society,” grumbled Ravyn, as she appeared at the kitchen, as they had walked directly to the entertaining room and past the kitchen. They turned around to see a depressed Ravyn. “Exile is just a click away while freedom has been permanently deleted from your hard drive. Please reboot and start again. All unsaved files will be lost for eternity.”

“Have you been drinking, Ravyn?” asked Mel, unsure, as Viking frowned with worry and took off his hood.

“No, I wish I were though,” answered Ravyn. “Joanna hasn’t returned. I’m getting worried about her. If she was angry at me like she was at the Chinese place, she would’ve picked up her clothes and things. She hasn’t. What’s happened to her?”

“She’s a New Worlder, she can survive,” scoffed Mel, as she turned back around and started to walk over to the window, but Viking stood his ground. “New Worlders believe they have the potential to go and survive anything. I would love to see them survive Old World Africa with its deserts.” She stopped at the window and peered outside to see Spyral guards standing still and looking around for suspicious activity taking place. “Look at those guards. They are useless and dumb prototypes Spyral has got going there. Again, what this world has come down to is pathetic.”

“They aren’t dumb prototypes,” corrected Viking, as he spun around to face Mel, still concerned about Ravyn in the back of his head. Mel detached herself from staring out the window and looked to Viking. “They are another form of guards from Spyral, as a backup to the other ones. Apparently these ones annoy the crap out of the dictatress, because they refuse to follow orders and drive her mad with rage on occasions, says the word that’s going around about these guys.” Viking decided to take a look for himself as he walked over to the window and looked through the glass down to the pavement where the guards stood. “These Spyral guards were prototyped in the war, and made a bloody mess of the Japanese and the Germans in both Saigon and Berlin.” Ho Chi Minh City had been renamed Saigon in 2009 because of political opposition to the Vietnamese suppression of the Buddhist monks that now, in the New World, finding a Buddhist monk would be finding a needle in the haystack. The Japanese had started to invade Southeast Asia, as the Chinese were struggling to defend their territory; so the Japanese spared themselves bloodshed of either side and went around China. Didn’t take them long to shift an entire army around such a large country, and then raided Vietnam and the surrounding countries. As demonstrated in the previous World War, they didn’t stand a chance against the Australians when they had reached the bordering countries of the island nation. “They caused the commanding officers and the groups of technicians, trouble on a regular basis as they thrived on rebellion. I don’t know why they are back on the production line, that virus must’ve been a big one to hurt the normal bitches badly.”

“I thought you told us that you only fought in Berlin, where you fought off the Germans?” asked Mel, recalling their first decent conversation from the other night at the noodle bar. Ravyn stopped standing up in the kitchen and came over to the window, which was her window that she stared out of all day wondering what the hell was wrong with her. She sat on the window sill in between Viking and Mel. “I knew you fought in the war though.”

“You fought in the Third Great War and survived both Berlin and Saigon?” asked Ravyn, impressed already by this stranger that she knew as Viking. Viking had been staying there for about a day or two now, and he was planning to stay longer. “That’s really something to be proud of.”

“I was originally stationed in Saigon to take down the Japanese before they reached Jakarta and Singapore, but days before the invasion of Saigon I got deployed and moved over to Berlin, to try and fight off the Germans, you know, to try and attack them at the heart, at their beloved capital city,” remembered Viking, as he felt like he was the oldest one there because he had been the only one that had fought in the war and he held many memories of both camps that he had been stationed at it. “The Germans were ruthless in their attempts to get rid us, so these guys, downstairs, had been brought in, only just created they were still prototypes, but they were annoying outside of the fighting on the killing fields. They picked on certain soldiers and provoked the rest of us to fight them. We knew we would get a dishonourable discharge for causing trouble if we fought them. Then another soldier, Jimmy, we all called him that because he loved Jim Beam, cracked one day and threw a grenade at a whole bunch of them. But behind those guards were a bunch of emergency firecrackers, so he threw the grenade at them and caused an explosion that only set off the firecrackers and didn’t harm the guards at all. He died of third degree burns and internal haemorrhaging in his brain. The war was hell; the media depicted it in the best aspects only. Damn media control.”

“I’m sorry to hear,” replied Mel, as Viking returned from his trip down memory lane. Ravyn wanted to say something, but Mel had just said it for her. “I take it, what this society has become is worse than the war to you, or is it the opposite way around?”

“This society is worse, we at least in the war had a right to express our thoughts and opinions without being shot for it, that’s why I was originally there, to protect our freedom and our rights, funny isn’t it?” scoffed Viking. “I fought for nothing in the end.”

“Our loss is their gain,” added Ravyn, as everyone looked for Ravyn’s explanation of such a statement. “You fought for a G-o-d, and a country that had freedom of choice and freedom of thought, and that only made way for a ruling to take place which in the end, you regret ever fighting for this country because of the way society is now, it’s a tyrannical son of a bitch ruling. There’s no happiness and there’s just no nothing, you have to make a world of yours to retain your sanity. Even that is questionable with me right now, sanity; it’s like a contradiction in itself.”

“And even that you get punished for, making a world of your own, well, in all truth to be told, it’s hard to do anything that’s concerning the right to be an individual,” Mel added onto Ravyn’s sentence as she looked away from looking at Ravyn to back down at the guards that had now disappeared as they were too busy pinning someone else for an unreasonable crime. “It’s unbelievable how pathetic and the sort of level this society has stooped down to. I thought I would never survive the blast, but I didn’t know I would be awake to see such a rule like the one of Hitler’s but the only difference is, that, this is much worse than what the history documentaries on the History Channel told me about Hitler’s regime.”

“I hear a group of people are planning to go against the monarchy and try to override Spyral,” Viking changed the topic, as everyone looked to Viking in curiosity. “I know stupidity in its rawest form, but still remaining such a good idea. I know I’m even tempted to dig further into such a thought.”

“Who did you hear this from?” asked Ravyn, frowning as she couldn’t remember which Old Worlder had told her today about the exact same thing down at the Chinese takeaway shop that she had started turning up to and ordering the same thing on a daily basis. “I think I heard someone talking about the same thing. I just cannot remember who though.”

“Was it Bella from the bar?” asked Viking. Ravyn didn’t know, she couldn’t remember, so she shrugged as an answer to Viking’s enquiries. “Ah, Bella, my dear friend, her, and I go long back before the war, yeah me and Bar Bella, we all called her.” Then memories of Bella and him started to come back. “We were the best of mates–”

“Okay, your war story was great, but we seriously do not need to hear you relive memories of Bella and tell us details that in the first place, we didn’t need to be given,” Mel interrupted Viking’s second trip back down memory lane, as she had just stopped him floating around in space and time, and brought him back to earth. “What is this about a rebellion against the rule you mentioned before you went into your own little world with Bella?”

“You know her?” asked Viking to Mel, as Mel nodded. Mel knew Bella well, ever since she came to the City of Angels, they had survived the blast together, and they had helped each other out on various occasions concerning various reasons. “Wow, what a small world we really live in.”

“I repeat, what is this about a rebellion against the rule you mentioned before you went into your own little world with Bella?” Mel repeated the same question, knowing that if she started to talk about her history with Bella, Viking would get sidetracked and Mel had figured by now that she shouldn’t rely on Ravyn’s memory on everything.

“Oh that, yeah, well, rumour has it, there’s a group of Old Worlders, Bella said there were three of them who are planning to take society’s matters into their own and try and overthrow the bitch that lives upstairs,” answered Viking, recalling what Bella had told him as he had run into her outside the market place that day, as Mel had told him to sit in the corner opposite the market place, he wasn’t to speak and he wasn’t to show his face or to come into the marketplace with her. “I heard the draft plan out and I reckon it is a good start to such a clever idea.”

“What’s the draft plan so far, genius?” asked Mel, not impressed by such a thought of overtaking a large regime, but at the same time, torn between by being not impressed by an idea and thinking it was the greatest thing ever. The last time that she could think that an attempt to overthrow the New World orders and the people behind them, was the time where the old ruler had been assassinated by a group of rebels, and that was years ago.

“Bella said that there was going to be a meeting held in a couple of days to start drawing up who can do what and when, because she said that there isn’t enough resources and knowledge of Spyral to overthrow it just yet,” Viking explained, as he tried to remember what Bella had said to him, because he was too busy trying to keep his head down because Spyral guards had come past to survey the environment. “She said get the Old Worlders together, because a minority could not be able to construct such a sophisticated blue print of a plan. She said a majority would work better, and I actually agree with her there. It sounds so good to be true.”

“So what was the actual draft plan, Viking?” asked Mel, still torn between the pros and cons of such a tempting plan.

“I don’t know, I was too busy trying to keep my head down because of the Spyral guards that had just walked past, I heard they have face recognition software built into them,” answered Viking. “I didn’t want to get busted and plus, Bella said there wasn’t an actual blue print to the plan just yet.”

“But you said, you heard the draft plan out,” Ravyn remembered. “So, in all truth, you didn’t hear the draft out because there was no draft plan even constructed at the time of talking.” Viking looked a bit guilty of such a crime of misinforming his friends and nodded. “So in starters, you could’ve just said that you had heard a brilliant and tempting idea off Bella, instead of saying that there was already a draft drawn up and that you had heard it. Be clear next time Viking.” There was small silence in between the trio. “Now that I think of it, I think I did hear the same thing off an Old Worlder down at the Chinese place where we met.”

“Where do you mean? Jeezy’s?” asked Mel, as Ravyn shrugged, not knowing the name of the place, but knowing that it served good fried rice. “It’s called Jeezy’s Chinese Palace, Ravyn, if you didn’t know that. I should know that, been there almost every single day ever since it opened.”

“So what do I tell Bella, folks?” asked Viking. “I mean, I really haven’t heard any objection to a tempting proposition.”

“I say it’s a death on a stick,” answered Mel, bluntly. “Unless you can get a genius who knows the system back to front like the back of their hands, there’s no point, its suicide.”

“That’s what I think they are trying to do Melissa, they are trying to get us all together so we can work as a majority,” assumed Ravyn, remembering Viking’s explanation of what Bella had proposed to him. “They want us all in because we would have different talents at different things. I don’t know what I can do for the project, but heck, I’m in if I get my freedom back.”

“Well, at least I’m glad that I know you’re not completely senile and a total nutcase,” commented Viking, as Ravyn shot him a threatening look. “Just pulling your leg. You’re cool.”

“I don’t know about it, the Spyral system is protected thoroughly and it’s more sophisticated than I can think of it as being, and look at me, I basically know everything about the people and the society that the corporation have created,” contemplated Mel, thoroughly as she was starting to look at her options with a cringed face. “I guess, until I say no, I’m in.” Viking secretly hissed the word yes in his head, as he knew Mel’s intelligence about the New World would be greatly appreciated by both him and the rest of the Old Worlders that would be joining in their mission to save the world. “I could actually put my knowledge of the New World and of Spyral to great use this way, now that I think of it. And like Ravyn said, I’m in as well, but I want my freedom assured.”

“You should know better than that Melissa,” Viking started, folding his arms and frowning. “Freedom was always assured, it was just denied to us through global corporal takeovers like Spyral’s reign and manipulating leaders who like that tyrant up there, never put a return address on the back of our freedom.”

 

****

[Ravynlee]

I liked Ravyn and Viking's interraction in this update, Mel seems like a bit of a wet rag, but I guess given what they are risking it's to be expected.

“Exile is just a click away while freedom has been permanently deleted from your hard drive. Please reboot and start again. All unsaved files will be lost for eternity.”

Cracked me up Well said. And Viking's wandering down memory lane was amusing too. Guy certainly has lived an eventful life for someone so young... but yes, deserves respect. As for the resistance... all I can say is, if they're starting off this disorganised I can't see positive results ahead :-| Best of luck there I reckon.

[Greyfoxx]

Okay, i'm not all up to date on the updates but what i've read is great. You've really described the futuristic setting very well, i can believe that it'd happen, extremely well written. Evil cooperations, rebels, civilians, plots to overthrow things, Great ingredients for an awesome story...keep it up!

[woodyloveslinkin]

****

“Um, well, welcome everyone to this first meeting, I’m Rob,” introduced Rob, as he stood in front of a fist full of people with their eyes fixed on him. He stood on a table as his apartment was stacked full of people, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to be tall enough for everyone to see him, despite how tall he was, he still had his doubts. A couple of people greeted him back, some waved and some just stood there blinking, with a cold drink in one hand a weird what-the-fuck-is-he-doing look on their faces. “I know this is a bit weird. But I’m just going to do a little exercise with you all, to try and get to know one another and try to build some confidence in which I know some people lack right now.” Rob looked to Fox who was sitting on the couch looking uncomfortable and anxious.

“This should be classed as an AA meeting,” commented Mike, who was next to the silver-haired Bella, who was wearing a pink and white Hawaiian dress that reminded Mike of his drunken days on the beaches of Hawaii.

“Why?” asked Bella, not listening to what Rob was saying in the background. “Has he been drinking?”

“No, it sure feels like one, attended them so often I’m kinda still used to them,” answered Mike, as Rob stopped talking for the sake that Mike and Bella were in an obvious conversation. Mike looked up at Rob, who had his arms crossed and looked unimpressed. “What man?”

“Having a nice conversation are we?” asked Rob, as Mike nodded and smiled. “That’s nice to hear. As I was saying before, be a friend and introduce yourself, because we’re going to see a lot of each other from now one. One rule though, that I have to mention before I start this little exercise, I am strictly forbidding any mentioning this to any New Worlders. If you have an idea what a New Worlder is like, they run up to that bitch and get rewarded for telling and then you get done for trying to do something good for this society. Who’s stupid enough not to follow this rule? Please raise your hand now and leave the premises and then prepare yourself for an Old World beating.” No one raised their hand. Fox smiled as she thought of raising her hand as a sort of joke to make a joke out of the situation, to brighten it up a bit. Then she decided not to, as she thought of Rob’s reaction. “Okay, I’ll start off. Who am I? I’m Rob, again, I’m originally from California, worked as a waiter until the blast hit us, and well, duh, I’m from the Old World. Why do I want to make a difference? I want my basic human rights back and I am sick of that little bitch and she needs to suffer at the hands of society and needs to be taught a lesson.” The room cheered except for Ravyn who sat next to Fox, thinking this guy, now known as Rob, was quite attractive but making a fool of himself deliberately. “What can I do for this project? I’m strong, I’m agile, and… I know how to make New World women cry.” Rob laughed at his own joke, but not too many laughed at it. The women in the room weren’t impressed by his version of a joke. “Nah, I’m only kidding. I take it back; I know a heap about the New World. So who’s next…?” His eyes fixed on Fox, as Fox shook her head in protest. “Fox, why don’t you go and then we could go around the room from there.”

Rob stood down from the table, as Fox sighed and got to her feet. She cleared her throat, not wanting to do this lame exercise of Rob’s but she was going to do for the sake of not going through argumentative bullshit.

“Who am I? I’m Fox from California as well,” Fox started to explain and play Rob’s lame introduction game. The same state as Rob, that’s how Rob managed to pick up from the rubble that once stood up to be Fox’s house. “Why do I want to make a difference? Because I have right to make a difference because I’m an individual and I should stand by my individualism that society has stripped me of…What can I do for this project? I’m still not sure of what I can do. I’ll get back to you on that when I’ve figured that answer to that question is.” She sat down and hid her face in embarrassment. She knew this was coming, but she didn’t know Rob had to be so embarrassing.

It was Ravyn’s turn who was sitting next to Fox on the red leather couch, that Mike had slept on since arriving at Rob’s doorstep. She took a deep breath in as she had never liked speaking in front of a large audience and she stood up as all eyes were on her now.

“Who am I? I’m Ravyn,” Ravyn started off croaky voiced, but cleared her throat again to try and make sense of herself. “Where am I from? I’m still trying to figure that part out, so I’ll update this speech when I find it out.” That part was true. She didn’t even remember where she originated from; Joanna knew the answer and had told her many a time but Ravyn just kept on forgetting. There were days that Ravyn felt like dying because of her memory. “Why do I want to make a difference? Why not? It’s the only sane and reasonable thing to do nowadays and hell, if I’m going to die, I rather die going down for something I believe in other than sitting around like a sitting duck. What can I do for this project? With much age comes much wisdom. It’s not much but at least it’s better than nothing.”

Ravyn sat down, as the person next to her stood up. She didn’t know that person with the jet black hair. Fox leant over to Ravyn to say something to her, while the black-haired girl spoke.

“You have confidence issues don’t you?” asked Fox, as Ravyn diverted her attention to Fox on her other side.

“Makes two of us, if I agree to that, Fox,” answered Ravyn.

“Indeed, Ravyn,” replied Fox, as she smiled, and Ravyn looked back to the person next to her now known as Jolene. “Do you know any of the people here?” Fox persisted to have a conversation with Ravyn, as Ravyn turned back around to look at the person speaking to her. She nodded.

“Melissa and Viking, and of course, Bella,” answered Ravyn. “What about you, are you a loner here tonight?” Fox shook her head, as both parties had stopped listening to people introducing themselves. “Oh, okay.”

“I’m friends with Mike and Rob, well, just say he’s my legal guardian right now,” answered Fox, not wanting to go into detail with a stranger that she had just randomly sat down next to and just learnt her name. “And of course, every Old Worlder knows Bella. She’s awesome.”

“I can’t say I know her that well to be honest,” replied Ravyn, as Rob had stopped noticing the introductions of people and focused his attention to Fox’s moving mouth and then realised in co-ordination the woman that she was sitting down next to, her moving mouth to. And not to mention the constant eye contact that they were engaged in. Ravyn didn’t know it, but she had just started to fiddle with the chain around her neck, and then she realised what she was doing. She frowned and looked at the pendant, keeping it out of plain view. She cannot say that she had seen this before, nor did she realise that she was wearing the chain with what she recognised as the two Spyral snakes wrapped around the pole. It looked like it had hinges on the side of it, as though it could be opened. She didn’t want to touch the pendant, because she didn’t know what it could do. She let go of the chain around her neck and placed her hands back on her lap, trying to restrain herself from fiddling with that chain. All these years and she had not seen or even felt that chain around her neck. Where had she been all the time that it been there? Was she that bad at remembering things?

It was now Mel’s turn who was leaning against Viking, who was leaning against a wall next to Bella and Mike, to introduce herself and answer those few questions.

“Who am I? I’m Melissa and I’m from Utah, but moved here with family when I was younger,” Mel introduced herself. “Why do I want to make a difference? So I can show that spoilt little brat her true place in society and make her realise what her father had done to society and what impact it has had on us. What can I do for this project? My knowledge of the New World and how Spyral operates is somewhat quite good despite I know there’s more to Spyral then what meets the eye. And back in the Old World, I used to be part of the Girl Guides, the female version of the Scouts, but we were more feministic, so I know how to survive on basic tools in the wild and yes, I know how to read a freakin’ map.” She looked to Viking as she stopped supporting her weight on his shoulder and stood up properly, who smirked and then Mel slapped him in the guts. He replied with a sound that showed that he was in pain. She lowered her voice to speak to him on a personal matter. “Your turn, Einstein.”

“Okay, who am I? People call me Viking, and I’m from New York State,” Viking started to introduce himself. “Why do I want to make a difference? I fought in the Third World War for my freedom and for my country’s freedom, and this is how I am repaid? I’m annoyed by such thoughts, I deserve better, we deserve better. What can I do for this project? I’ll make sure that bitch’s little throat will have my hands around it, strangling her to death for not giving a crap about today’s society and the people who fought to protect such things from occurring.”

Ravyn was back fiddling with her chain, as Rob’s eyes were solely fixed on that chain of hers. His suspicious levels had risen by a hundred and eighteen percent when he had seen that silver chain, much like the chains that New World pendents dangled from. He had seen plenty of pendants in his day in the New World, ranging from farmyard animals to garden plants. He knew she was hiding something, like a pendant that she was trying to keep out of plain view.

“So, who am I? I’m Bella, and I’m from Florida,” Bella introduced herself, as she stood next to Mike. “Why do I want to make a difference? Because I am so sick of the New Worlders telling me that the New World is the closest thing to heaven, when in actual fact, it’s really the closes thing to a living planet hell. No freedom anywhere, not even in the trash cans. What can I do for this project? Well, back in the Old World days of me living in Florida I was a planner for buildings, I did the blueprints to all the major buildings in Miami. With my expertise in planning, who knows, maybe it will come in handy.”

It was Mike’s turn, but Rob didn’t notice, as he noticed Ravyn was starting to feel uneasy and look nervous. Ravyn was actually quite nervous because she hadn’t realised that she had a chain on her and the pendant, if anyone saw this they would accuse her of being a traitor to the Old World when she really wasn’t.

“Are you alright?” asked Fox, noticing Ravyn’s nerves. Ravyn nodded, as she smiled. “Oh okay. You’ll tell me if there’s something wrong, won’t you?” Ravyn nodded again. “Good.”

“Well, the age old question finally comes to me, who am I? I’m Mike, and I’m the same with a couple of people here, from California, despite what some people might think, but I’m actually half Japanese blood, that’s why I hate this civilization so much,” Mike introduced himself, as Bella hung onto every word that Mike was saying. “Why do I want to make a difference? So I can live normally instead of hiding underneath this hood day in and day out. What can I do for this project you ask? I am quick and I can work in a team environment, and I know the weaknesses of Spyral.”

Ravyn felt the pendant against her skin getting warmer. She hadn’t opened it, but why was it doing it? She frowned as she got to her feet, to change rooms and see what was inside the pendant. But what Ravyn didn’t know, as she started to excuse herself as she pushed her way through the crowd until she reached the hallway of this apartment, was that Rob hadn’t taken his eye off her. Since Rob started to move, Mel thought something was up, because Rob looked a bit angry, as he left the room. Mel excused herself as she departed Viking’s side and started to slowly push her way through the crowed of Old Worlders.

Ravyn closed the door, to an empty bedroom that looked like they had just thrown various pieces of Old World junk into it and moved to the middle of the room, where she held the pendant in her hand. What would happen if she opened this? She examined the Spyral symbol under the brightness of the neon glows being emitted off neon billboards opposite the apartment building that was shining in through the window. She tried to find the hook at the back of the chain around her neck but she couldn’t find it. So she tried to rip it off it off her. That attempt got nowhere, as it only dug into her skin.

The door suddenly opened and Rob entered the room, switching on the light, to reveal his unimpressed facial expression. She spun around as she automatically dropped the pendant back behind her shirt.

“I knew it, you’re one of Spyral’s spies,” growled Rob, as Ravyn was speechless at the accusation and shook her head, denying a claim of Rob’s. “Don’t try to deny it. I saw you fiddling with your New World pendant.”

“It’s not what you think it is, I swear,” Ravyn swore, as Rob started to slowly walk towards her threateningly. “I’m not lying.”

“Of course, you’re not, you’re only trying to do the right thing and fuck the rest of us up at the same time,” Rob agreed sarcastically. “I hate sneaky New Worlders like you. What were you going to do after you left here, if I hadn’t caught you? Go and tell that little tyrant upstairs in her mansion, twiddling her thumbs all day long and contemplating which life to take next?” Ravyn shook her head again, as she started to walk backwards as Rob was approaching nearer and nearer closer to her. “Stop lying. Give it to me. Give me the pendant. You’re not getting off that easy.” She took the pendant back out and showed it to him, as she stopped walking backwards and Rob held the pendant in his palm. “So you are one of them. Give me that.” He tried to yank the chain from her neck but it only dug into her neck. He frowned and tried again.

“It doesn’t seem to want to get off me,” Ravyn said, not knowing where to start with the explanations of her innocence. “I don’t know how it got there.”

Rob laughed at the thought of the spy playing dumb.

“And you think I am going to believe that?” asked Rob, as he closed his palm again and tried to yank the chain again, but it wouldn’t budge. “You’ve done something to make this chain unbreakable. You cheating little bitch. You’re like the rest of them, you’re pathetic. You’re not getting out of this place alive.”

“Rob, get off her back,” said Mel, as she stood at the door as Rob turned away and both Ravyn and his attention was diverted to the crossed armed figure standing by the door. “Now.”

“She’s a spy, she has a New World pendant,” argued Rob, getting angry that out of all people to stand up for a New Worlder it had to be someone who had agreed to try and overtake Spyral and its New World orders, still with the pendant in his now open palm.

“No she isn’t,” replied Mel, as she walked over to the pair and looked to Rob with a serious look on her face. “Don’t tell me that she is. I out of all people can recognise and sniff a New Worlder out from a million miles away. She can recall Old World memories and terms.”

“Okay, in that case,” Rob started again, as he turned from facing Mel to looking back at Ravyn. “Where are you from?”

“Like I said before in my introduction speech, I do not know, I cannot remember where I come from,” answered Ravyn, honestly. “You cannot judge me solely by that basis.”

“I can and I will,” retorted Rob, looking back to Mel. “See, a New Worlder’s spying on us. She cannot even recall where she comes from, in fact, if I remember correctly; she was the only person that could not recall where she came from.”

“Let me point a couple of points you have failed to notice, and trust me, if you want to be this great rebellion leader that you have portrayed yourself to be, you will need to listen closely to what I will explain to you,” Mel started to explain, as she took the pendant out of Rob’s hand and gave it back to Ravyn.

“What are you doing, you lunatic?” asked Rob, as though Mel had just something bad. He looked very concerned that Mel was doing this to him and the entire project. “You’re giving it back to her. We are going to be fried chicken now because of you.”

“You haven’t let me explain myself, remember, innocent until proven guilty,” Mel pointed out to Rob, as she walked behind Ravyn; she moved Ravyn’s hair and placed a hand on her shoulder. Ravyn wasn’t sure what was happening but she followed along anyway, if Mel could prove Ravyn innocent of being accused of betraying the Old World generation. Mel saw the Old World orange chip that Mel had discovered a couple of evenings ago, and removed it. Ravyn froze still, like she had done the last time that the chip had been removed. Mel pulled it out into Rob’s plain view as Rob fixed his attention onto it as he frowned, trying to figure out what it is. “If she was a spy, she wouldn’t have this in her; she wouldn’t be wearing an Old World colour and an old Spyral chip.”

“If she was an experiment, where’s the tattoo that was given to them, where was the pendant that is said to be on an unbreakable chain?” asked Rob, as he slowly remembered that the chain around her neck wouldn’t break off. “Oh god, she has the chain on her, and the pendant. But what was the pendant again?” Mel moved the chain around her neck until the pendant was at the back, in front of Mel’s eyes.

“It’s the Spyral symbol adopted by her father,” answered Mel, trying to remember what she had been told about these pendants and what they represented in the New World society. “They were given to experiments and they were identified by the first two letters of the first two words of the experimented, followed by their experimentation line order. Imagine, an Old Worlder being used as a single experimentation and being known by the tattoo that was in red ink on the back of their neck. Have this pictured in your head and then imagine what an Old Worlder waiting room for a medical clinic and each patient takes a number and until you’re called you cannot do anything, you just sit there and read magazines. This is exactly how it worked in this project that she was in, Narcissi Extraction. The branding on the back of her neck says it all, NE-1503.”

There was a small silence, as Rob slowly started to remember what that projected consisted. After realising what the project was about, as he had fled and gone into hiding himself for a while because of the same project, he thought of what she had said her name to be, Ravyn. This couldn’t be happening. Could this daft woman be the one that killed Felicity?

“She killed Felicity,” Rob softly spoke, as Mel shrugged as she knew she had concluded the same thing but remained uncertain to avoid the thousand and one questions escaping her mouth at Ravyn. “There’s not many Ravyns in society, Melissa, especially not many who has the same identification tag as the one that was said to have killed the ruler’s mother.”

Mel didn’t say anything in response to Rob’s explanation of Ravyn’s unknown and mysterious past. She focused her attention back to the pendant that she had opened the first time that she saw it.

“There’s something not right about this pendant,” Mel changed the topic, still very curious about the Spyral symbol that was attached to a genetically modified chain made to be unbreakable. “I opened it the other night and there was a hologram of a map or something strange that popped out of it.”

Rob’s lit up as a couple of science and history lessons came back to him about what was contained in the pendants given to experiments of projects. He didn’t know how the hell he remembered this, through all the memories of learning about the New World, which in all truth, didn’t take him overnight but he learnt through mistakes and the usual learning process.

“You shouldn’t have opened that pendant,” Rob told Mel, looking a bit worried as well as Rob. “Ever since they got rid of satellite technology and Bluetooth they’ve had to rely on white light technology and infra-red beams to send invisible transmitting signals to their main computer. In back of the days of Project Narcissi Extraction such signals were being prototyped. I at starters didn’t know if the pendants of the old project could be strong enough to continue sending signals, but it seems, after what you’ve just told me, they’ve managed to update themselves over time. Just, don’t open it again. Every time you open that pendant it sends out those signals and they will know where she is, but every time you close it, you cut the signal off.”

What Rob had just said about the extinction of satellite technology and the Old World technological advancement called Bluetooth was quite correct. When the New World had begun, Sarah’s father, the first ruler of the lands, concluded that technologies such as Bluetooth and those of satellite related technology were a waste of space and posed a threat to society, as they would teach and educate the New World generation, things from the Old World, as both technological advances in the Old World were the most popular and thus, had to be ridden of.

There was a small silence, as Mel looked at the pendant, wondering if she should enquire further about Ravyn’s point. But she knew there was no point, because Mel knew it as Rob did, as both parties had deep knowledge about Spyral and the history of the New World and the Old World. They both knew that Ravyn wouldn’t be able to tell them the exact details about what happened in the times of Project Narcissi Extraction.

“So what do we do now with her?” asked Mel, realising that she had put the chip into the other hand that wasn’t busy holding the Spyral pendant. Ravyn was still frozen in front of Mel, but Mel had her eyes fixed on Rob. “We need to tell her what happened in that project of Spyral’s and we need to tell her that she was part of it. Now, that I think about it, that would explain her memory loss and the memory lapses that she goes through at times.”

“We don’t tell her right now, she wouldn’t be able to mentally and emotionally cope with it, but yet again, she wouldn’t be able to recall us ever telling her in first place,” answered Rob, contemplating ideas for the project secretly inside of his head. He needed to change the subject, because he wanted to name the new Old World operation. “What do we call this project of ours that might go down in history as the only attempt to overtake Sypral that succeeded?” He couldn’t help but to think positive.

“Dunno,” Mel shrugged, as she also started to contemplate whether she should reactivate Ravyn instead of her just standing in front of her like a statue.

Then Rob started to think about different and catchy words. He also thought of Fox’s inability to read, and all of the words he hoped that she had remembered out of the book that he had been teaching her with. Then it struck him like a lightening pole hitting a magnetic lighting rod.

“I know what we will call it,” smiled Rob, thinking of a brilliant name. He knew the group of Old Worlders behind the door that was behind him, would like the name, it was catchy and it was something different. “Welcome to Project Tourniquet.”

****

:spiteful:

[Ravynlee]

Well done! Finally we have cause for the name, now it's fallen into place. Loving the way you're starting to intertwine these individual stories/characters with their tortured pasts together and unifying it now, very strong. One thing, this experimentation chip, it seems to work on some neurological level right? I mean I get the impression that when it's tampered with the host (Ravyn) 'freezes' like a robot. Did I read right? Assuming, without getting too deep into advanced technology that is theoretically futuristic on some level, that this pendant transmits signals that spiro picks up, and if the host is mentally 'hotwired' to this frequency wouldn't her very presence, unless it's somehow malfunctioned, still be transmitting some kind of remote frequency to the motherboard back at Spyral Inc? Just wondering... reading too much into it maybe, I was just thinking aloud. Having said that, now I think of it, I guess it's possible with this constant removal of this NE chip that human contact may have displaced it... but you never know, I think Rob for all his Old World suspicions may be on to something. The mere fact it's even there would be sending off alarm bells for me. You'd be, figuratively speaking, wandering around with a living breathing ticking time bomb on your hands, and here he is with Mel's insistence, bringing what could be their greatest asset and greatest weakness into the fold. Love the way you wrote that little exchange between us too. So nice to see him taking a commanding role rather than wiltering into the background like usual :ok:

Great, as usual (if you couldn't tell by the rant). Interested to see how the evil little wench in her electronic tower will deal with these rebellious rumblings. Don't know who's side to take here to be honest - have to wait and see how things play out.

[FireHawk]

The real things were classified as Class WTF – Class Western Taxic Furan, while compared to these back talking androids were classified as Class STFU – Class Southern Taxic Furan that Sarah ...

 

Nice lmao I read that then was like...wait...and reread...I am an update behind somehow I will read your newest one tonight

[Pheonix791989]

good update. sorry i havent been reading... its been busy with work and the like. what can I say though.... you're good. keep it up.

[FireHawk]

Wow awesome once again

[woodyloveslinkin]

thank you for all the comments :D

I've actually started to name the chapters...so this one is

Chapter 15 - Spyral's Rose

 

 

****

 

The jails of Spyral’s were a hellhole and Joanna was finding this out the hard way as she sat up against the back of the prison cell in the prisoner’s uniform as prisoners weren’t of the Old World bright orange but they were of the New World maroon.

Her face was stained with tears that were filled with confusion and anger. She was outraged that Sarah done this to her and without a proper justification as well. The way that she had been grabbed by the neck, dragged and forced to change into these clothes, was appalling. She hadn’t known the New World to be so harsh. She felt the bottom of her neck area, it was bare. They had seized her beloved rose pendant that she was given at birth by her father.

It was New World tradition for the father of the girl to give her the birth pendant of an object of his choice, while if it was a son to be given a birth pendant, it was the mother’s choosing of an object to give to her son. Failing to follow such traditions was punishable.

She thought the days were she walked out into the streets below her apartment, to see people getting done for a crime, even sometimes they were from the generation of the New World, was terrifying and insulting, she had seen three people shipped off to exile in the past day or so she had been here. She knew her time was starting to run out, but she didn’t want to talk. She knew that her sister would be sitting by the window sill looking down at the people below on the street and wondering what was going to happen.

Joanna’s faith in Sarah’s rule had started to fade, unless Sarah could somehow prove to Joanna that she wouldn’t be sent into exile just because Joanna was a threat to the social stability of the New World.

Joanna hadn’t wanted her sister more than ever before right now. She was alone, she was tired, she was sore from being shoved around in red laser handcuffs by rude guards, and she just wanted to go home. She didn’t want to be at here at all.

She looked past the invisible bars to see if there was anything worth thinking about on the opposite side of the bars. There was nothing, just a guard standing by the door that lead through several highly decorated chambers with paintings of various people that held significance to Sarah’s family and out to the hallway that looked like a labyrinth at times, with its complex matrixes.

The invisible bars had been specifically designed to trick the prisoner that there was no barrier. But when the prisoner had the stupid thought of walking out of the cell, they were in for a three thousand volt shocker. They had been engineered to contain molecular electric atoms that had a positive charge of something that was not physically capable of holding such an electric charge, in the Old World.

Technology had become deadly superior to anything that the Old Worlders had ever seen, but Joanna knew nothing less to what this world had created. That was the trouble that she never really saw that separated herself from her sister. Ravyn was raised and born as a part of the Old World generation, while Joanna was born in the year that was officially noted as the starting of the New World.

She looked at her hands that were once clean but now were smothered in dirt as she had been crawling to different sides of the prison cell, as soon as she got bored of looking at a particular thing at a particular angle. She heard the door swing open but she didn’t look up. She only looked up when she heard the footprints of heavy boots that she knew didn’t belong to the guards. Sarah was looking directly at Joanna who was looking back at her.

Sarah walked up the invisibly barricaded jail cell of Joanna’s and looked to Joanna, blankly, as though she wanted to say something but it was as though she was expecting a reaction out of Joanna to come crawling to her as soon as she saw the ruler walk through the door.

Joanna didn’t do or say anything, when Sarah knelt down to look at Joanna’s sad face. Joanna couldn’t believe it, when she realised what Sarah was wearing, compared to what Joanna was forced to wear.

Today’s corset attire consisted of a yellow laces laced up at the back holding together a black dress. It was quite different to what Joanna had last seen her in. Joanna couldn’t help but like the girl’s dress sense, it was smart and it was elegant. Her hair hadn’t been overdone with it pulled back and a yellow ribbon fluttering in the air behind her wherever she went. Her boots, of course they matched, yellow laces up to the knees, holding together a black pair of sturdy boots.

“What do you want?” asked Joanna, who originally didn’t want to be the one to start the conversation with the ruler, but changed her mind in the end. “I thought you said you were over and done with me.”

“There’s plenty of where that came from,” muttered Sarah underneath her breath, as the light sparkled the golden sparkles that weaved their way out of her eyes. “I do not wish to keep you here any longer, unless you are not willing to take a proposition I have for you.”

“There’s nothing in the world, that you can say or do that will convince me to take any proposition that you have right now,” Joanna retorted, thinking about when her sister would be mentioned in this proposition that Joanna had caught ear of. “All I can do is, try your best.”

“Do not put me to my full ability Joanna, I strongly advise not to,” advised Sarah, standing up properly. “Are you going to come and listen to my proposition or do I have to send you straight to exile on a planet where you cannot breathe?”

“What do you mean, come and listen?” asked Joanna, as she got to her feet as well, wiping her dirty hands on the maroon pants that she had been given. “Where am I going if I choose to go with you to hear you out?”

“I would not want to spoil your surprise now would I?” asked Sarah, quite freakishly smooth, as she signalled the guard that was previously sitting by the door to decode the invisible bars to let Joanna free. The bars disappeared but Joanna couldn’t tell. “There’s no bars. Now, do I have to put you in handcuffs or can I trust you to be good?”

“I don’t know, really depends how much you muck me about,” answered Joanna, walking over the place where the bars had been before. The guard grabbed hold of Joanna’s hands, pulled her wrists together, and placed what was called a Pittman Freefall which was a piece of steel that emitted red lasers strong enough stop the toughest of criminals from escaping. He handed Sarah a small button that was planted on a silver remote. She smiled as she accepted it and turned around. “Where are we going?”

“Again, I do would not want to spoil your surprise,” Sarah repeated, as she signalled Joanna to follow her. “Come. I will show you some things.” Sarah continued to walk out of the room, with Joanna trailing behind her. The guard walked Joanna to the door, as Joanna was a bit nervous around guards nowadays. Joanna caught up to Sarah, still with her hands bound by powerful red lasers. Sarah stopped and opened a door, letting herself go first and then letting Joanna enter second. Joanna had only noticed that there wasn’t just a single yellow ribbon in her hair, there were several, as they had been plaited and tied into her hair, so they lead into the bun of hers. Joanna then looked around in the room that she was, there was a bunch of portraits of people that she had no idea of.

While Joanna gazed in amazement of all the nicely framed portraits of people, Sarah stood in the middle of the long hallway-like chamber, in front of the water fountain that was made entirely out of white marble and it squirted out crystal clear water.

“Wow, this is really something you’ve got going here,” Joanna gazed in amazement at all the people elegantly dressed and their portraits framed with a golden woven pattern. “I’ve never seen so much effort put into a place.”

“I take it by your amazement, you do not know who these people are?” asked Sarah, with her hands together behind her back and standing strong and proud. Joanna looked to Sarah and shook her head. “For one minute, I did not expect you to remember who these people are.” Sarah looked to the portrait of the lady that Joanna had stopped to look at. “I know who she is, she came from the times where humanity would have been eaten alive by their own kind, and where technological advancements were so poorly taken care of, a hacker could dictate the way technology thought about itself. The twentieth century was a pitiful century to live in. Princess Diana found that out the hard way.”

“How did you obtain all of these portraits?” asked Joanna, still in shock.

“They were passed down from generation to generation in my family,” answered Sarah. “You think of how my father studied the Old World to create a better world for us to live in? He studied the past to make a brighter future for tomorrow.”

“But that doesn’t make up for the fact that I’m still hell confused and curious about why you’ve chosen to take me out of my cell and take me on a tour of your heirlooms,” Joanna reminded Sarah, as Joanna realised what Sarah might be wanting out of her. “You are not getting any information out of me about my sister, if that’s what you are after.”

“I do not wish to discuss such matters, we at Spyral do not rely on people’s word around here entirely, but help is always appreciated with the greatness of our hearts,” Sarah replied, detaching her eyes from the painting of the English princess and looking at Joanna, who had by this stage walked up to be in front of the ruler of her land. “Spyral is more sophisticated and complex then one can think of. Does it look like a shopping market to you, Joanna?” Joanna shook her head, as either end of the conversation held direct eye contact with one another. “Good. At least now I know you do not underestimate the power of this corporation. I would not like to think you would underestimate this corporation because of the significant role we hold in today’s society and of course, in the New World entirely.”

“Again, I am not here to give out information about my sister, sure, she’s not of the New World generation, but that isn’t an excuse to prosecute me for her actions,” Joanna went on defending her Old World sister. “I don’t wish to be exiled for my sister’s criminal activities but nor do I wish to give her location away. She’s the only Old Worlder I will ever stand up for. Sure, she’s a bit off her head about recalling things; again, you don’t prosecute based on memory recollection abilities.”

“The Old World generation, Joanna, my dear New Worlder, is somewhat daft, because they have concluded that their old way of life was better than the society I and my father have provided,” Sarah started to explain to Joanna. Sarah turned around, as Joanna wondered what she was doing, but all Sarah was doing was sitting on the marble of the fountain, next to the crystal clear which Joanna had found out, when she sat down next to Sarah, contained rare and exotic fish. In all reality and truth of mind, they had been genetically bred to maintain the tranquil nature of the room. “Both my father and I have worked hard to get this society up to scratch with technology. Do we not maintain the electricity and hot water supply well? Do we have any high rates of crime that our guards do not lower the instant the crime happens? If you can disagree on any of the questions I have faced you with, please, fell free to challenge me, because you know and I know I am always right in the end.”

“Yes, you are right about those things and yes, your father, and yourself have worked hard to maintain this wonderful society of ours,” agreed Joanna, thinking about what she had said before about hating this society that she lived in. She had shrugged off that thought once she looked at the things that were so great about this world.

A meow was hard half way across the room, as both of the women looked to see where it was coming from. There was a black cat with a Russian Blue cat sitting on the sparkling white floor, staring at Sarah. Sarah smiled at it, and clicked her fingers.

“Come here, puss, come here girl,” Sarah summoned the cat, as the cat got off its hind legs and started to walk towards Sarah, as the genetically modified pearl bell that was attached to its velvet collar, rang as it walked over to its master. The cat arrived shortly by its master’s feet, as Sarah picked it up carefully and started to pat it. Joanna looked curious to know its name. “This is Orestes. She is a lovely and loyal companion to me when times get lonely.”

“She looks beautiful,” commented Joanna, as Orestes’ shiny midnight blue coat shined with the light’s reflection bouncing off it. “She’s a gorgeous cat you’ve got there.”

“She has also got a lovely friend somewhere, his name is Romeo,” Sarah explained. Orestes was part of what was in the breed of Old World cats called Raretica, which basically meant that Orestes was a rare breed that hadn’t been genetically tampered with. While Romeo was a New World breed, genetically tampered with and he was part of the classing of cats Tyrannicael as he was a New World breed called, Yale’s Patch. The cat meowed again, as it started kneading into Sarah’s lap, as its master started to scratch her under her chin. “Both are very loyal to me.”

“They are, they are genetically modified to be loyal to their owners,” Joanna assumed, basing her response to the knowledge of the New World version of cats and their behavioural patterns.

“Orestes is not, she is one out of the few pure breeds from the Old World still left in today’s society,” Sarah corrected Joanna, diverting her attention back to Joanna. “You seem to be very loyal to the New World and its orders, though, I have to say that. I have to have an eye for these small characteristics and traits of people, or else I wouldn’t be how I am now, one of the greatest rulers to rule a land.”

“I am loyal up to the extent of being accused of a crime I didn’t commit, and that is one of treason, then my loyalty has to be classified as a question,” replied Joanna, bitterly, but still trying to keep her bitter tone down. “My sister committed the treason not I.”

“Do you like passing challenges, Joanna?” asked Sarah, as Orestes stopped reacting to it being scratched underneath its chain and started kneading into her lap and rested its head on her lap, with its ears sticking up, showing everyone around her that she was still alert.

“Preferably yes,” answered Joanna, not knowing where that question of Sarah’s had come from. “Why do you ask?”

“You have just passed one,” Sarah answered, slowly, as she started to pat the cat in her lap instead of scratching her under her chin.

“What? Did you set that forbidden object up and that scenario up?” asked Joanna, a bit confused by what Sarah had just said. Sarah still had the remote device in her hand, and Sarah switched it to the other hand and pressed the button. The red laser beams disappeared from around Joanna’s wrist, unbinding her hands, as the piece of metal that held ignited the lasers, Pittman Freefall fell to the fall with a clank. Joanna moved her hands away from the other hand, as she felt the freedom give life back to her hands. Sarah shook her head, as she started to play with the cat’s tail. “Then what do you mean by I just passed one? Like a sort of challenge?” Sarah nodded, as the cat was getting unhappy with its master playing with its tail and started to pound its tail down on Sarah. Sarah stopped playing with its tail. “I’m lost.”

“Spyral admires courage and loyalty and looks down on people, and only New Worlders may I add, with greatness and admirably, who possess such qualities,” Sarah clarified for Joanna, as Joanna nodded aimlessly, still a bit confused. Sarah picked up on. “You have passed our test, of accusing you of treason. Welcome to Spyral Joanna.”

“You’re accepting me into the corporation?” asked Joanna, as Sarah smiled and Joanna was speechless as her mood had certainly had a couple of major mood swings in the past minutes that she had been in conversation with Sarah. “I don’t know what to say, why thank you. Thank you a lot. Can I hug you?”

“No,” answered Sarah, bluntly. “We wanted to see how long your loyalty lasted and it has been tested enough. Now, there are better clothes then those rags you are wearing. We have already assigned you a chamber.” There were a few footsteps that echoed through the room as Brad stood at the entrance of the room, as both Joanna and Sarah looked to see who it was. “Hello Brad.” She turned to Joanna to introduce her trusted associate to Joanna. “This is the person you will have the most association with within the walls of this building, as I will not be available most of the time. This is Bradley, but we all call him Brad, well, except for Spyro, that was my doing and my programming.”

“Who’s Spyro?” asked Joanna, as she looked at Sarah only to reconnect the eye contact that had been lost when Brad’s footprints were heard.

“You will see soon,” answered Sarah, as she looked back to Brad. “Have you got everything ready for our new associate?” Brad nodded. “That is nice to hear, in fact, being organised is always nice to hear of.” Brad nodded again, as Sarah looked back to Joanna. “Brad will give you directions to your new chamber. I will meet you here tomorrow at the same time as now to start you off with your new position here at Spyral.” Joanna smiled as she got to her feet, and started to walk towards Brad. “Enjoy your stay.”

Joanna stopped and turned around to face Sarah.

“Thank you so much,” Joanna thanked again, smiling like she was on heavy doses of Ivna. She turned back around and continued her walk to the door, where Brad stood with a silver pocket watch in his hand. Joanna arrived in front of Brad and looked to the pocket watch. Curious to know what it was, she continued her curiosity rampage. “What is that?”

“This will be your best friend from now on,” answered Brad. “It’s not ordinary pocket watch. It has integrated state of the art technology devices built into it. Go to the end of this corridor outside of this room, and open it. It will display a holographic map of your direction to your new chamber. It’s all self-explanatory in the end really. Like Sarah said, see you here tomorrow at the same time and place, and be careful not to be late, we do not look on lateness as a positive thing.” Joanna nodded, as she accepted the pocket watch technology in her palm and smiled. “Take care.”

“I will,” Joanna smiled as she walked off and started to follow Brad’s instructions.

Brad closed the rare Huon pine doors behind her, closing them silently, as he and Sarah and of course, Orestes were the only ones left in the long gallery of famous people from the Old World.

“You didn’t strike me as the kind to do this to New Worlders,” commented Brad, still not moving from his original position by the door, as Sarah lifted her now asleep cat up from her lap and held it in her hands, as she got up and walked towards her trusted associate. “I guess again, I have assumed wrong. Lesson learnt; never assume anything with you until the truth has been spoken.”

“You are quite correct, Brad,” replied Sarah, who was half way being in front of her associate. “I know what I am going to do with Joanna, and I know it will work. It is called playing on her dreams, Brad, and you thought I would just sleep all day. Tsk tsk, you have underestimated me.”

“Because I tend to overestimate you at times,” Brad explained, as Sarah approached him and stopped in front of him with Orestes in her arms. “Do you want me to set up the sedatives now or wait until she has her dinner?”

“Do it at dinner time, it is less obvious when she realises that the water that she’s drinking tastes like red wine,” answered Sarah, as the plans scrolled down the inside of her head like Spyro when she was thinking about mathematic equations and scientific formulas. “I am going to extract those memories of her sister and feed them to the Eye. I do not care where she is right now, I have a weapon I can use against her sister, and I am going to use it against her, to the full of my might.”

“You’re evil,” commented Brad. “I like that.”

“Why, I am already flattered by such comments,” replied Sarah, smiling. “Go on; go back to your work. You and I have better things to do than to sit around here and play puppets with Joanna. We will save that game until later on tonight when she has her dinner.”

Brad smiled as he waved goodbye to Sarah, without saying another word. He turned around, opened the Huon pine doors, and left the room without fooling around or saying anything more to Sarah’s face. Sarah knew she was going to get the bitter sweet taste of revenge in her mouth and she was eager to taste it. She hadn’t tasted revenge for quite a while. She had even thought she was that thirsty for a good game of backstabbing and revenge that she even thought of comparing a vampire to when it feeds on blood. It was exactly that. Revenge was blood to a vampire to Sarah, and Sarah was starting to feel like a kid in a candy store.

 

****

[FireHawk]

yay another update but i can't read more than one chapter a day lol

[Ravynlee]

^ Wow. Sorta pointless without reading/reviewing then wasn't it?

 

As for the update, loving it as always. Have to say the more we get to 'know' Sarah the more evil that little wench becomes. Or seems. I love this spin on futuristic technology, love the description (trully LOVE the description - those invisable bars was an awesome psychological ploy if ever I 'saw' it) and the evil little plot of vengeance set in the works now. One thing that did strike me as a tad weird was Joanna's comebacks. Repeatedly being sarcastic to Sarah, this all powerful ruler of earth so to speak, I thought was out of character, especially for a New Worlder who lived in this inherant fear under her tyrannical, albeit 'perfect' reign. I know if I were Joanna i would certainly be keeping my mouth shut, if not kissing serious booty, if I thought my life was in danger - not only that, if I thought my whole family (sister) was in danger - considering Sarah pretty much just gave her 'the world.' Anyway, all in all, it's okay.

The cats and fish was a nice touch, and omg The portraits! I could SO picture that! Seems almost everyone who's anyone has money has a corridor full of portraits. Well done. Nice tie in

Interested to see what vindictive little plan the evil dictatress has in store :spiteful: