((OOC: Hey guys, hope you don't mind the new entry!! xDD))


((IC:))

Giles stumbled into the entrance of the maze. Why he stumbled, he wasn't sure, but what he was sure of was that this was going to be crazy. First, he meets Calley in Central Park, then practically explodes, then in a matter of minutes ends up here, at Mondragon Labs, now part of some mutant resistance. Then, within minutes of arriving at the labs, he's approached by a woman who asks him to join a training exercise. It sounded intriguing, so he accepted.

The woman briefed him on what was going on, then showed him the way. Now he was at the beginning of a teamwork training 'game' alone. How ironic. He laughed inwardly. So, he'd have to catch up with the rest of his team.

'God, I hope they don't try to attack me, or something,' Giles thought to himself. Who knows what these people are capable of, though, they weren't supposed to use their powers. What a bore. A training exercise with no powers? What are these people getting at? 'Well' he thought 'Maybe I should follow the rules'.

Giles entered the maze, and looked around. 'This should be fun'. He walked for ages, reaching dead ends all the time, but finally, he reached the doors. 'Should I just...go in?....Ah, what the heck?' He pushed open the doors, and walked in. This was easy. What a challenge, eh?

Giles walked along the corridors of the bottom floor of the castle, looking for his team, not the target, the twelve-year-old girl. Katrina? What a beautiful name. Yes, it might be common, but it's still full of beauty.

Surprisingly, it didn't take the boy all that long to find the rest of the team. After about an hour of searching, he found them, standing in a hallway, contemplating their next move. 'Should I just go up and say hi?' he asked himself. He wasn't sure what to do, what to say. 'Hi, I'm Giles, please don't kill me.' heh. He laughed at that thought.

Slowly, but trying not to be too quiet, he approached. Giles then cleared his throat. "Erm. Hello. I think you're my team? I'm...er....Tempest. I'm a new addition to your team. I just arrived at the labs." He looked at all of the people standing there, all of them, presumably, much older than he, a mere 17 year old boy. 'What have a gotten myself into?' he asked himself.

Sonya/Teresa hears the new arrival’s footsteps as they approach and turns around to investigate.

> “Erm. Hello. I think you're my team? I'm...er....Tempest.
> I'm a new addition to your team. I just arrived at the labs."

The accent is British and the voice somewhat nervous; the speaker young and blond and fairly cute. Well, at least he isn’t sneaking up on us… that’s something. Sonya really has no way of knowing whether he’s really part of their team, or some kind of spy or saboteur the folks running this outfit are sending to infiltrate them.

Though ultimately she supposes that it doesn’t really matter – she also has no way of knowing whether any of the folks she started out with are really plants, after all. It would be one hell of a trick to pull during what’s supposed to be a teamwork exercise, but maybe they’re actually trying to demonstrate that really you can’t trust anyone. Teamwork exercises for psychotics, or some such thing. Maybe later we’ll do a trust fall where you let the person smack their head against the floor.

"Hi, er-Tempest. I’m uh-Teresa, this here is um-Kaz, that’s hmm-Cyra, and the guy throwing rocks is er-Hades. I’m guessing that you and he get to form the ‘don’t like to use our real names in public’ club – or are those your given names? "

Crystal huffed to herself a bit in irritation. This team had decided, wisely, not to take her bait, cutting her fun short.

<"Well, fine then. I'll just have to try something else.">

The 'stickbot', a little robot built to look like a stick figure and padded to hide the sound of metal gears, that had been posing as Katrina retreated to the corner of the room, just barely avoiding Hades' pebble barrage, though one pebble did nick it a bit. It shutdown all but the invisibility program. Then, as the group debated their next move, Crystal did likewise.

A new arrival drew her attention. She didn't recognize the boy, and had to assume that he was simply a late player, as was Fade in the Western section.

"Erm. Hello. I think you're my team? I'm...er....Tempest. I'm a new addition to your team. I just arrived at the labs."

"Hi, er-Tempest. I’m uh-Teresa, this here is um-Kaz, that’s hmm-Cyra, and the guy throwing rocks is er-Hades. I’m guessing that you and he get to form the ‘don’t like to use our real names in public’ club – or are those your given names?"

A though came to Crystal. <"No real names in public? Sounds paranoid. Hmm.... I wonder if they're all paranoid?">

She smiled to herself, and waited for them to decide where to head next, while sifting through her FX programs.

Kaz was looking around the area, making sure to note where Hades' pebbles were going. "It might be good to stick to fairly open areas for not until..." He trailed off as a new person, Tempest, entered and introduced himself. <Another new person?! What the hell is their problem up there.> Under his breath, "Some fingers are gonna roll."

Teresa introduced herself and the rest of the group as Kaz moved towards and past Tempest. "Some people used their Taken names as their actual name, forsaking their given name. But if you'll excuse me for a few minutes I have to have a talk with those morons upstairs." He pulled out his earplugs, undid the weighted cuffs on his wrists and ankles, slid the top half of his jump suit off so it hung loose at his waist. He moved quickly out the doors as he began to shift. Once he had, he took a large leap, propelling him up and over the maze in one jump.

Once he was away from the group, he pulled a phone from his pocket and dialed the front desk. As soon as it was answered, he demanded a shift change, all those who had been working when Tempest came to the labs or knew anything about him were to be put in solitary confinement with nothing to eat or drink, and no light for 24 hours, full guard outside. Their files and those of Tempest, background checks, bank records, family history, the works, were to be put on Kaz's desk within the hour. If it was not done, those responsible for the tasks would loose a digit for every half hour that went by until the task was complete. Finally if anyone new or unknown came to the labs they were to be kept in the public areas, under watch until Kaz had received all information possible about them, and given his permission for them to move around more freely.

Kaz made his way back to the group, once again leaping over the hedge maze. He walked towards another hallway before he shifted back to his normal form, replacing all of his handicaps and jumpsuit. As he replaced his earplugs, just for a moment he thought he heard the sound of gears, though he dismissed it as a fabrication of his mind.

((ooc: For a snippet of the aftermath of Kaz’ call, see “Oh no he didn’t.”. *grins* Sorry, Kaz. It was too tempting. ))

Cyra shook her head at Tempest and Teresa. Her jaw dropped slightly and she felt a shudder run down her spine. Kaz was defenitely someone to be reckoned with. ' What was that form? I only caught a glimpse of it. It's possible he's annoyed at everyone new showing up. Especially without someone letting him know. Hmm, more things to store away for further thought, later on of course.' A few minutes later Kaz returned, still in his other form. A small shiver passed through her, it looked even more formidable. And coming from her, that was bad. She shrugged her thoughts off and looked at Kaz. Cyra's mouth slightly twitched as she spoke, "That was impressive Kaz." She shrugged slightly, "So what should we do now?"

> "Some people used their Taken names as their actual name, forsaking their given name.”

Sonya/Teresa nods at that, remembering her earlier conversation with Abyss, and also realizing that she was doing exactly the same thing herself in order to protect her family. She adds to Tempest "Yeah, you’re absolutely right, Kaz… sorry, didn’t mean to be a bitch. Just teasing. Welcome to the team, Temp…" she extends a gloved hand in Tempest’s direction, but her attempt at an apology trails off into a confused little noise in her throat as Kaz strips off half his clothes and starts shape-shifting into some strange demon-looking thing before leaving altogether "…est?"

Well, I guess that tells me what his mutation is. She’s left a bit ill at ease by the way he moves, so liquid and light like he’s water flowing and floating on the ground… not to mention the whole demon-form thing. Abyss had described Hunter as “not as fast as Kaz,” but she hadn’t quite realized how much that was damning with faint praise until she saw him in action. And he may have claimed not to be super-strong, but the way he leaps over the entire hedge-maze in a single bound belies that. Even with her newly discovered (and still quite mysterious) martial-arts moves, she wouldn’t be able to stand up to that guy for a second, and the only way he’d take a bullet is if someone sniped him from a distance. If Hunter was anything like that… well, no wonder Syn wanted to know his weaknesses.

So, OK. Now I know. Strong, fast, enhanced senses, demon-form She continues talking to the new arrival while Kaz is away. "To catch you up: we’re supposed to catch an invisible little girl named Katrina. We saw her a minute ago running this way, or at least thought we did – Kaz thinks it might not have been her in the first place – but either way she’s led us into a dead end, maybe a trap. So, back the way we came to the main lobby seems our best choice, unless you know something we don’t?" She starts heading in that direction herself, and it doesn’t take long for Kaz to return from whatever his sudden urgent mission was (which, judging from the expression on his face, she would rather know nothing about).

((OOC: Sonya, you said we're looking for a girl named Teresa, you may want to change that to Katrina. Just thought I'd let you know, so no body get's confused. I'll just pretend you said Kat in my post, ok?))

((IC:))

Giles silently accepted Teresa's apology, realizing that there really was no reason to be angry. He hadn't even really picked up on the sarcasm until later; sometimes he could be a little slow at things, but no one seemed to notice, and he didn't want to make it clear that he hadn't noticed, didn't want people to look at him as inferior. Though he has issues with his family leaving him, and is afraid of that, he doesn't really care what people think of him, but he does want to have respect. And hopefully his help in this exercise will help him to earn that respect, at least from this group of five.

After listening to Teresa's explanation of what they were supposed to do, and her suggestion to move back to the main lobby, Giles agreed, and began to follow her back.

"I don't see any other choice, especially since we're not supposed to use our powers," he said, to Teresa mainly, but loud enough so that everyone could hear him. "I think if we go back, we can try another route. This time, though, let's try and not get too destracted by decoys and the like. If we see something, we should probably take caution in chasing after it, seeing as it didn't get you very far last time." Giles looked around, and noticed that Kaz had returned. I wonder what that was all about. Was it me? he thought to himself, but disregarded it. If it had been about him, there was nothing he could do about it, especially after seeing Kaz 'In Action' with his power. Though force fields were useful, they weren't that amazingly offensive, though, again, very useful in defense. He may be able to protect himself if Kaz and he got into it, but he highly doubted that he'd be able to hurt him. It's probably best to stay away from him; I'm not looking for any trouble here. I just want to help.

Hades, stood back and coolly and calmly observed all this, matching up what was on file regarding Kaz and what he saw, thinking that he could safely turnoff the speed limiting switch in Kaz’s flying surfboard.
“Hi Tempest, my name is Hades, welcome to the team. Shall we continue our search?”
He addressed the last comment to the whole group.

He returned to his place at the back of the group as rear guard as the group moved forward.

(( OOC: Fixed. Names get very confusing when posting Sonya. ))

>> “I don't see any other choice, [..] if we go back, we can try another
>> route. This time, though, let's try and not get too distracted by decoys and the like.”
> “Shall we continue our search?”

"Yeah, let’s roll. " A few minutes later they’re back at the entrance lobby.

"So, if anybody here is particularly good at spotting traps and stuff, I’d suggest they take point. Otherwise," she shrugs, "I might as well… I don’t have any special funky dungeon-traversing skills, which I guess makes me as dispensable as the next person."

She decides to wait a few moments before moving on, to see if anyone volunteers, and in the meantime changes the subject. "Meanwhile, I think Tempest is right – if we see another invisible little girl we need a better plan than just chasing after her. We need to steal the initiative."

Looking around the lobby she notices a selection of tapestries and banners hanging from the walls. "For example, we could each carry one of those with us, and try to, you know, circle her around. Least we’d know which direction she was going, that way, and maybe we get lucky and she tangles up in the cloth." She shrugs again and adds "Unless anyone’s got a better plan?"

Kaz listened to the group and nodded at Teresa's suggestion. <Good thinking.> "Good eye Teresa." Kaz unzipped his jumpsuit enough to reach inside. He grabbed a loosely wrapped whip from around his waist ((When Kaz had shifted, the whip was still covered by clothing)). After he had it in hand, he zipped his jumpsuit up again and reached under for his ankle, pulling up his pant leg a bit, from which he grabbed a small dagger from a sheath. Putting the dagger between his teeth, he snapped the whip to get the feel of it.

Moving to the closest banner pole near the wall, Kaz checked the height and moved his arm and whip slightly before he quickly snapped the whip up. A slight crack of the whip had the end twisting around the pole near the base. He hosted himself up, hand over hand, up the whip after checking how secure it was. Once up he noticed the tapestry was hanging by large loops at the top which he could slide over the end, though he wasn't going to push his luck or the weight limit of the pole. Holding onto the pole he moved himself close enough where he used one free hand to cut the loops, causing the tapestry to fall.

Replacing the dagger between his teeth, he undid his whip, letting it fall to the ground with a soft clacking noise. Kaz began to swing himself back and forth, gaining momentum. Once he had enough, he 'launched' himself at the next pole along the wall, slightly higher than the one he was on. <Uneven bars.> He chuckled to himself inwardly. He repeated this process until he had five tapestries/banners laying on the ground, after which he dropped to the ground softly. After putting the dagger back in it's sheath, he picked up his whip and replaced it around his waist. "Just my opinion, I say we go that way." He motioned towards the main hallway, which turned farther down.

Cyra watched Kaz, pull out a whip and grinned slightly. 'Maybe I can get pointers from him on how to play with whips. And perhaps find out where he got his. I like it. She moved forward after he had dropped back to the ground and rolled up the tapestries/banners. She picked one up and slung it over her shoulder. "Sounds like a plan Kaz." She looked over at Tempest, "So what brought you here Tempest?" She smirked, "Besides being hunted that is?"

Tempest watched Kaz do his thing. Interesting. Wouldn't have thought to do something like that. May I can learn something from this. He then moved over to where the tapestries were on the ground, and picked one up.

-->“Hi Tempest, my name is Hades, welcome to the team. Shall we continue our search?”

"Hey, Hades. And thanks. I'm glad I'm welcome. I wasn't sure how everyone would react to me showing up." he replied, and laughed at his comment.

-->"So what brought you here Tempest?" She smirked, "Besides being hunted that is?"

"Ah. Well, when I got to America earlier this week, I didn't have anywhere to go, so I was roaming around in the park. I was so hungry, I was beginning to be delirious, and I almost ate something that I shouldn't have, and Calley stopped me. He helped out, and brought me here. That's pretty much it." Tempest didn't want to get into too much detail, so he just left it at that. He didn't want to tell anyone why he was actually in America; that was his secret. Everyone got to have secrets, why not him?

Tempest wrapped the tapestry around his shoulders, and began to move with the rest of the group. He kept his eyes open, looking for anything that might look suspicious. Oddly, he hoped he would spot something, maybe get some extra points with the team.

> "Good eye Teresa."
Sonya/Teresa nods her thanks, and watches Kaz do a remarkably impressive Indiana Jones impression as he brings several lengths of cloth down to floor level, and privately upgrades her evaluation of the man. He can acknowledge his teammates, after all… and he doesn’t hesitate… and he doesn’t just rely on his mutation.

The more she watches him in action, the less she ever wants to come up against him. And, she reminds herself, he’s a subordinate. Somehow, Kaz doesn’t strike her as the sort of guy to accept second place unless the guy on top was something really impressive. Unless he’s just waiting for an opening, she realizes. Who knows, maybe he is Hunter’s weakness.

One thing she does know is that she doesn’t want to be the one to try to turn him.

She picks up one of the tapestries and ties it around her waist like a skirt, then looks speculatively at Kaz. "So, I know we’re not supposed to use our mutant abilities in here – not that it makes much difference in my case anyway – but is using weapons considered cheating?" She pulls her trank pistol out by way of specificity.

> “Just my opinion, I say we go that way."

"Suits me." Since nobody has volunteered any information about their dungeon-crawling skills, Sonya goes ahead and takes the lead. Privately, she suspects Kaz is better qualified, but she doesn’t comment -- this way she may get some information about how protective he is of his teammates.

Hades watched Kaz’s movements with appreciation. Catching a tapestry he takes one end and throws it upward causing it to spin and rapidly roll itself up, deftly catching and tucking it behind his belt in a blur of movement. He grins slightly at the sight of Teresa’s trank pistol. “You know, you are not the only one who is armed?” Hades says grinning. He holds out empty Hades and flicks them, suddenly sets of special rope appear in one hand (they are basically strong nylon rope with a metal ball bearing at each end), and something that look like small boomerangs appear in his other hand, then with a flick they are gone again.

“Just my opinion, I say we go that way."

Hades follows the group. They rounda corner and now they qre in a long corridor with big stone walls and no ceiling.

Hades says nothing, turns to face a wall, takes three steps backward and launches himself at the wall. Using a martial arts technique known as the way of the gecko, he rapidly scaled the apparently smooth wall, and perched on the top, perfectly balanced.
What he saw did not help much. “I see what looks to be a maze stretching out in all directions. Anyone else want to take a look?”