Teen Ink
teenink
TeenInk How would you rearrange this old cliche? "You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" http://t.co/xTNZxcKYxK
Fri May 24, 2013 10:17am Reply Retweet Favorite
TeenInk "Thinking is the best way to travel." - The Moody Blues http://t.co/5jzE5kVJyB
Thu May 23, 2013 10:55am Reply Retweet Favorite
TeenInk If this is the ending of the story, what is the beginning? http://t.co/gRzPosYXRi
Sabien, out of habit copied Jason movment, snapping to attention and saluting. THe guards of teh instituions were given military training and could be called to active duty on the front lines, so the guards' rank structure was also very simialer to the military and had alot of the same customs. Though he wans't sure of the exact customs of Jaosn's military,
"Honor's all mine. And it's sergeant." he said, as an enlisted guard he was addressed by his rank, only officers were adressed by sir or ma'am. And techniquely he was an ex-guard, but Sabien really didn't care.
Zak heard the person moving loudly in the outer room. She heard her speak again. Zak knew she'd found, it was only a matter of time, just like when she lived with her parents. THis person sounded gentle, but Zak no longer truste dhow people sounded, looked, actually she didn't trust people in general. This is just stupid, she'll find me no matter what. If I leave here I'll have more of a fighting chance. she thought.
Zak slipped to the bathroom door and opened it, stepping out into the big room. She was tense and ready to fight, sh elooked the girl in the room, the one who'd come up the stairs.
The girl was much taller than Zak, making her feel even more childishly small than she was. Zak's muscles were tense, her eyes flashed with a dangerous combination of fear, and desperation. She had that hunted looked about her. Her fingers were shaking and she was trying to still them, this new girl was adefinetly a threat, Zak tensed even more reayd to spring and satrt a fight if the new girl so much as took anotehr step.
Jason, having an odd respect for almost any soldier despite their country, relaxed fully. He always had an awareness of his surroundings, so his guard was always up in a way, but he wasn’t tensed up or on edge. He wasn’t worried. In fact, a smile had appeared on his face. “Of course, sergeant.” He ran a hand through his lengthening hair. “I can guess what’s on both our minds, so let’s get to the point and do a little Intel exchange. The REN. What do you know of it?”
Xanthe turned to see the person. It was not as she expected. She looks like a younger child. Of course, this new information did little to change Xanthe’s opinion on the situation. She did not perceive threats by appearance. She herself was incredibly weak bodied and frail, yet she could take down even the strongest of men. Looks mean nothing. She quickly observed the girl’s manner. The girl was astonishingly tense, with shaking hands and feral eyes. She seemed almost desperate in her terror. Calm her, now. Xanthe slowly moved her left foot back, easing away from the girl. She then lowered herself to a sitting position on the creaky floor, eyes calmly on the girl and hands in her lap. It was a psychological tactic. You get lower than the other to give them a sense of power. “I have no intentions of hurting you. You needn’t be afraid,” she spoke softly. “I am called Xanthe, or Xan. I was taken by the REN, just as I assume you were?”
Sabien dropped his hand reaching up tried to make his mess of curls look more military, but it never did anything he wanted. He thought about the REN for a few moments, trying tp eice toegther the information he knew, eventually he just shrugged,
"DOn't know much, a recruiter came to me and told he had a good job for someone with military training and I agreed. I needed a job so I agreed." he said, "I wa sbrought here at night, in a palne of some sort, but I blind folded so don't really know where we are." he said. It was basiclly all he knew except for a few minor details like the recruiter promising he'd never been found here and could lay low until his little incident blew over. Sabien didn't think those details nessicary and didn't want to disclose them.
Xanthe. Zak repeated in her head, trying to figure out this girl's nationality. She didn't look like she came from Chaos, though Zak couldn't be sure. The girl sat down and spoke calmly. Zak watched her still tense, her desprate and fearful. Xan said she wans't going to hurt her, how could Zak be sure though? What if she was lying? Zak backed up so she standing as far away from Xan as possible. She swallowed, last time she'd interacted with someone it had landed her here. Zak still wasn't sur eof that was a good or bad thing. She leaned against the wall and shoved her hands in her pockets, trying to relax and stop them form shaking. The girl was too close to the stairs for Zak to be able to make a run for it, she may as well cooperate a bit, hopefully the girl wouldn't get mad,
"I'm Zak." she muttered, she wasn't sure how to answer the question, she'd short of been threaned into coming willingly with the REN, which made no sense at all in her head.
Jason let out a deep sigh. He was right. “Looks like we’re both equally in the dark, then. ‘Cept I was approached a little more…hostilely. They told me about a special military unit formed by people of all three countries and asked me to join. I refused, and I’m pretty sure they ended up knocking me out cold. I woke up on a street 23 blocks over. That was two weeks ago… The memory itself is a bit sketchy,” he explained. Now that Sabien has proven himself useless as an informant, Jason had the choice to kill him. Eh…I’ll leave him be, for now. Xperime isn’t as horrendous as Chaos.
Xanthe didn’t move as the other girl backed against the wall. She put on a small, reassuring smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Zak. What country are you from? I’m Xperime. From the part that isn’t as involved in the war.” All this talking was certainly out of place for Xanthe. But she had to calm Zak down, and she didn’t want to risk the freak out that usually occurs when she enters another’s mind. So, as of now, talking it is.
Xan seemed nice, but Zak's suspicious nature and her past expeirences refused to allow her to trust the girl fully, or at all. She wondered if she shouldstated her country of origin, most people hated Chaos though becuase of their violent ruthless tendencies. Maybe it'd scare the girl away though if she said she was from Chaos, it was worth a shot,
"Chaos." she said in response, she still wans't calm or relaxed, she didn't just relax around people, it was stupid and dangerous to be relaxed.
Sabien nodded, it hadn't taken to much convincing to get him to agree to come here, they'd pretty much offered him a job and a safe haven and he'd agreed. He hadn't really thought about, but now he wans't sure if it had been teh brightest ide ato except, he'd been thrown into what looked like a ghost town and had only come across one person, and that person from a different country. This place had better not be some game or sick joke...he thought looking around,
Xanthe smiled an actual, genuine smile. The girl had plenty of scars, but she didn’t particularly look as though she came from Chaos. Xan had thought that she might’ve been a lab rat like herself, just with a less…skilled, experimentist. She laughed. “Chaos, huh? Nice. I root for ‘em against Navienda,” she said honestly. “Have you learned a fighting discipline?”
“I still have half the city to search for other people,” Jason said, as he retrieved his staff. “Better get going…” He started walking past Sabien. This is the only person you’ve seen thus far. It might be worth it to keep a general location on him at all times…so the easiest way to do that? He paused and glanced back at the man. “You’re free to join me, if you don’t have anything better to do. Unless you’re more of a lone soldier.”
Zak frowned,she'd never techniquelu been given a 'fightng dicipline'. But her best on was martial arts and then knife-manship. Zak wondered what she should tell Xan, probablt martial arts, she had no knife with her, so knife-manship wouldn't be believable.
"Martial arts." she said stiffly. and still stayed tense and backed up against the wall, her eyes still had the hunted animalistic look in them, she was just answering and hopefully would catch Xan off guard enough to be bale to make a dash for it.
Sabien shrugged, whatever, he could follow this guy around he guessed. At leats keep an eye on him so he couldn't be snuck up on and killed by this guy. The thought made him sound paranoid to himself, but he didn't care. This place gave him the creeps, REn gave him the creeps. The whole situation was just odd.
“You must be stronger than you look, then.” Xan mused. She was getting a little tired of playing the sweet, innocent, trustworthy act. She decided to gradually move out of it. Or maybe not so gradually. There was an obvious change in the room’s aura as her power traveled through it. A few strands of hair fell to cover her eyes and she involuntarily gained a darker look. “You want to catch me off guard so you can dash down the stairs and out the door,” she whispered, rising to her feet. “If I had wanted to hurt you, I would’ve already done so. But, if you want to dash out there and risk finding someone a little less friendly, be my guest. I won’t stop you.”
Jason shrugged nonchalantly back at him. Then he started running again. Not anywhere near full speed, but it was still running. He scanned the alleyways, building windows, and street corners as he passed them. He would continue this for about 7 blocks before stopping for a breath.
Zak's eyes widened, she stared at Xan, how had she done that? Was she a mind reader. She then glared angrily, this girl had no right to go into her mind! Her hands shookw ith anger, and now the feeling that she was in danger and being threatened was very prominent in her mind. On a quick, not thought through decision Zak flew at Xan, her hands clenched into fists, she kicked the girl in the knee and punched towards the girl's stomach.
Sabien sprinted to catch up with Jason and then stopped as the guy caught his breath. Well this doesn't seem very thought out, just run around until you find someone. he thought, but he didn't say anything. He just waited, his arms crossed on his chest, watching.
Suddenly attacked; Xan switched into self-defense mode. It was mostly instinctive and involuntary after years of being hurt through experimentation, but it didn’t really matter. She would’ve thought back even if she did think about it. She was weak-bodied and the strikes sent her to the ground, but she gritted her teeth and entered Zak’s mind. Strike me again, and I will kill you, little girl… Now Back off. Of course, the other girl didn’t have a choice but to back off. Xanthe was in control of her mind now.
Jason stored every detail of the last seven blocks into his memory; creating a detail map of everything. After that was done, hcouldn’t help but notice the look on Sabien’s face. “What?” he shook his head. “What’s that look for?”
"Get out!" Zak screamed, angry, frightened, and in pain, she clutched at her head, she didn't like this girl anymore, she hated her, hated her for forcing herself into her mind, hated her for coming here in the first place and interrupting Zak's already rather confusing life. Zak dropped to her knees and her hands still clutched at her head.
"You actually have a plan?" Sabien asked rather incredulous and wondering if Jason was actually sane, or was just a crazy nut running around and pretending to be a soldier. He kept his opinions to himself though, he didn't want to provoke an attack and didn't want to have an incident.
Xanthe released her hold on the girl’s mind. She looked to the side. “You should be thankful. Every person whom I used my power on either died or became mentally insane. You shouldn’t have attacked me. Whatever you might’ve thought, I hadn’t entered your mind until after you attacked. I didn’t need to. The fact you wanted to run was written all over your face.”
Jason raised his eyebrow. “Of course I have a plan. It’s my job to have a plan,” he said. He was a little surprised that Sabien would doubt that he had thought everything out…but then again, this wasn’t one of his soldiers. He wouldn’t know anything about Captain Faradei and his elaborate schemes.
Zak got to her feet and crossed her arms on her chest, her hands trembling. She hated Xan, but at the same time feared her, like she felt towards her parents, she hated her parents, but scared of them too. They were mor epowerful than she was, bigger, stronger, smarter. Zak backed up,
"What do you want?" shemutered through her teeth, after all why would this person come if she didn't want something? Why would the person try and get into her mind if she didn't wnt something?
"Yeah." Sabien said, nodding, he didn't askabout the plan, he wasn't that curious, he just waited, the guy was smart enough to know someone wasn't going to lindly follow him with out him telling Sabien something of what was going to happen.
Xanthe cringed slightly as she slowly rose to her feet, taking careful steps over to the stairs. When she reached them, with her back turned to Zak, she spoke. “From you? I want nothing. Oh, and a piece of advice. Don’t move the curtains if you don’t want anyone finding you. It’s an obvious giveaway, and who knows who else is out there. Take care of yourself, I guess. Though I could really care less,” she said, distant and mechanical in her words. It was as though she was in a different place at that point, like she had already moved on to something worth her time.
With that, she started walking down the stairs.
Jason crossed his arms and eyed the guy, top to bottom. “If you must know, I’ve already searched this part of town. A week ago. I’m just making my rounds—checking rigs and pots. Other than that, seeing as this is practically a ghost town, there’s nothing more for me to do until something happens.”
Zak watched Xanthe, if Xan didn't want anything to do with Zak? And if she didn't care? It didn't make sense, though she wasn't veyr bright. She just watched as Xan left, ehr advice made sense, she should be more careful about that curtain, now that she knew for a fact that there were other people around here. She also needed a weapon, a good one, to fend anyone who came up off, hopefully not everyone here had that power that Xan had.
Xanthe walked out of the building, wishing she would've stopped the other girl before getting hit. It was always like this. The guards had taken advantage of her weakness numerous times. Whenever she got hit, she had a terrible reaction. Ever since the third experiment caused her to become a mild hemophiliac, and the forth caused her body to mutate and develop the self destructive powers. Sure, she was strong mentally, but that was only because she made her power attack her body and not her mind... Having herself go crazy with her powers would end in disaster. She walked through to the middle of the street before collapsing, out cold from internal blood loss. Hopefully it would right itself out soon...
Sabien nodded,
"Yeah." he said, though nothing really happened around here that he'd seen, Jason was the first person he'd seen in a long time, other han that it had been pretty boringly quiet here. He turned and walke ddown the road, he hadn't really explored this section, so now he looekd around, checking down alleys and seeing if he saw anything interesting.
Jason crouched down and scanned the area from a new perspective. He was clearly checking one of his ‘pots’ as his unit codenamed them. Everyone else may know them as bombs. They were well hidden and strategically placed. Most just looked like a piece of garbage. After deducing nothing had been touched, Jason arose. “I’m curious of one thing…” he said suddenly. “If you were a sergeant in the Xperime military… Why did you need a job so badly as to come with the mysterious REN?”
Sabien gritted his teeth,
"None of your buisness." he muttered at Jason. This was a very touchy subject for him, he still believed he was fired unjustly and that he should still have a job as a gaurd. The patient had attacked him, he'd just defended himself. Sabien kept walkinga dn turned down a street, he picked the pace up so he was jogging almost running.
