User blog:Roinelll/God Eater Next - Volume 1 - Segment 07

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======== G. E. N. - 1 - 07

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Half an hour, that's all it would take and a few more minutes at most. Nothing more... The Instructor checked the time on his phone to reveal that 9:57 AM.

"Just half an hou--?" Jack wanted to reassure himself once again verbally, but then noticed that something was off. There were no residents to be seen anywhere nearby, sure there weren't much of the by this time around usually, but their absence ticked something inside. Most probably while he was with Dan who happens to own a sound proofed residence, an alarm sounded and the habitants of Fissure were safely relocated. Feeling uneasy about the situation he returned to Hole, and ventured straight to the counter seeing the operator busy.

"Kate?! What's going on?" Without a greeting he opened conversation, while at the same time Jack has gotten a 'Hi Jack' from her.

"Trouble encountered a big group of Ogretails hunting a Quadriga, as they engaged their numbers a small pack broke off from the full force and herded the large Aragami towards Hole." Katalin didn't mind this, since this is just how he is. She was still keeping contact with the team referred by them to as Trouble. They were the ones to be dispatched to handle threats to the surrounding area ot Pit. The name the Alex twins earned for either causing or finding way too much trouble for themselves or others, and with Matthias added to the mix they were sure to live up to its name.

"Just Ogretails? That's not a problem for the twins even if it were a large number gathered... Oh wait, they have Matthias with them..." Jack rubbed his chin, while he didn't actually fight one before from what he could gather from the rest of the current God Eaters the following. Their numbers are extremely large, however they are rather easy to read and are one of the simplest Aragami to hunt. For seasoned veterans like the twins this shouldn't be much of a situation, under normal conditions that is.

"Over a hundred Ogretails and variants were spotted. Lexa confirmed that they sent Matthias after the small pack to distract them with Stun Grenades until they mop the rest up." The number she revealed was substantial, and while she didn't elaborate on what kind of variants are mixed in the pack generally they weathered the presence of the similar kind of each other. What caught his attention was the fact that the duo entrusted the newbie with the important part of luring a group of Ogretails and a Quadriga...

"Where's the rest?" Headache came over the Instructor as he tried to assess the situation, that kid was asking for trouble.

"Hold is out on a mission to subdue a Vajra while Azta is just returning from a Hannibal hunt. Though those are still too far to respond in time." Hold was responsible for gathering cores from certain Aragami that the R&D had it's eyes on currently, as their members specialized in disabling their prey at the cost of damaging capability. Azta was much like the exact opposite, preferring to destroy the Aragami they have in their sight not really caring about the extracted cores in the process. Some times, when the situation required it they were able to switch some members in order to balance the efficiency of both teams, although they disliked that notion.

"Dammit... I know. I know... Not going to do anything foolish." Clenching his hand so hard that the bones creached Jack cursed out lout, then when he earned a reprimanding gaze from the operatior he conceded his frustration.

"One moment... No, Matyi didn't check in yet.... No, reinforcements are impo-- HEY?! LEXA, DON'T LET HIM DO THAT!!" Kate checked something on the monitors right before her and frowned in the process as the required status was missing.

"They split up?" Trouble... Jack sighed as the team lived up to it's name, however maybe this will be for the best.

"Alex broke into a full sprint in order to help that reckless kid. Jack's here, and he is not really impressed with your choice of action." The operator answered the second half to a question received on her earpiece as she exxaggerated the situation.

"God damn Trouble... They can't do else, but cause trouble..." Shaking his head the Instructor laughed for a short while, after all they will never change.

"No, they didn't arrive here yet. Alex, be careful. Lexa, don't just snicker in the background." It was a widespread albeit false rumour that the twin brother was chasing Kate for a while, although it was the twin sister Lexa who instigated this gossip, mostly just to annoy her sibling. Something that wasn't actually denied by them to be honest.

"Yo Trouble! If you dare not to come back, you'll be wishing just to be in another trouble!" Jack reached for the receiver and took it from the distracted girl, while reprimanding the pair lightly. He got a greeting out of the two and also a reassurance that it's going to be okay.

"Jack, how many times did I tell you already--" Although Kate did scold him playfully and extended her arm waiting for the equipment to be returned he just laughed again.

"Do not take things without warning and use them? I forgot to count after a few thousand times." Placing the requested earpiece in her palm Jack shrugged, after checking his phone he noted that there are still a bit more than a dozen minutes left. He then proceeded to lean at the wall near the counter, opting to listen in to the conversation of the operator and the God Eaters being deployed. The minutes went past in slow motion, grinding slowly by which made it almost unbearable to wait, that is until the appointed time came.

And went past without notice from C, and then some twenty minutes likevise when the man clad in black couldn't resist any more and dialed her number. The call went trought, but she didn't answer. Pacing up and down impatiently he couldn't help it, although it was only a few minutes past their appointed time the wait was grinding away at his nerves.

"Jack, are you waiting for someone?" At Kate's question he turned to her for a second thinking about continuing the path he had almost ground into the floor, but Jack did understand that he was just making trouble for the operator.

"Yeah." With a sigh he gave up, realizing that all this time his actions most probably distracted Kate from properly doing her work. With a final glance he checked the time on the phone, 11:21 AM.

"So, who is she?" With a smile the operator tried to make him open the conversation.

"Hah?!" If Jack's face would be visible then she would have laughed most probably by the expression it was harboring. As the man in black was trying to figure out how she guessed the persons gender he was waiting for a figure appeared at the entrace.

"Nice reaction." With a slight chuckle, she turned her gaze at the one to intrude. Having one of her hands on the alarm button, Kate inspected the silent figure sneaking up on the perplexed man. By the looks of it, it was a girl maybe a slightly bit shorter than her. Wearing a blue sleeveless shirt, white shorts and sandal. Not counting that her clothes had probably seen better days or the hood that hid most of her facial features, the operator would have guessed that she is normal.

"Kate... Nevermind, I'm waiting for my past to catch up." Not knowing how to respond he just waived his arms dismissively, clearly unaware of the situation that the one he had been waiting for already arrived.

"Past? Oh, you mean your daughter?" Taking a wild guess as apparently both of them shared a liking to hide their faces, Kate laughed and focused her attention even more on C.

"You know if she really were my daughter, I would have hanged myself by now a few dozen times. At least..." The head of Jack dropped slowly turned around, stopping mid track in motion and speech as he registered who is there.

"Not before arranging that I get paid." A grin formed on the visible lips as she waived hello at Kate.

"C?! What are you doing here, and... nevermind." Too surprised to respond to the jab at him, Jack just shook his head.

"It's time, so lead the way." With that the hooded girl gestured towards the elevator and waited for the Instructor to make his move.

"Lexa, Alex! Finally, Jack brought home a girl." Capitalizing on the situation the operator informed the two of them, and a whistle audible even from afar was the reward of it.

"Kate... Would you lay off? It's one thing if that Nuissance makes such bad jokes..." Without turning his back Jack walked past the shocked operator, after all she was just compared to that pervert...

"Did you really have to shake her up so much with that retort?" C asked as she entered the elevator as after him, seeing as Kate shuddered.

"I'll have to apologize later, I guess. Did you have a dance with an Ogretail or what?" The levels went past slowly as the old motors made them descent at a stable, but too long pace.

"Nah, it was just a Quadriga." Her remark at first made him chuckle but that faded fast, as what she just said came under more light.

"What were you doing with that Aragami?" Although the question wasn't clearly formed, it did came through.

"Helping out that idiot kid to finish off that armored monstrosity. I've gotten a bit dusty in the process, nothing serious." As the lift stopped at the 7th level they got off. While her remark of helping Matthias to do in a large Aragami sounded a bit farfetched, Jack didn't really questioned it since so far she didn't look like the kind to pull pranks or lie about something.

"I... see..." He was kind of happy that the Director was still asleep at this moment, result of him having forced the responsibility of reading every report one by one and completely. So with the annoying leader out of the way, they could wade trough the executive level with ease and undetected. His room was actually right across where the oval office resided, the two doors opening at each other almost.

"Now then, here are the contracts, read them if you are interested." After they arrived into the small and unfurnished room C took out a few sheets of papers and passed them to Jack. As he flipped trough the files carefully reading everything contained within them he hummed, they were all according what she earlier revealed. Nothing else hidden within, the two contract detailed information transaction regarding his past and the project they will be participating totalling  1.550.000 Fc.

"You came quite prepared. Add one more to them, your name." Jack went to one of the corners where he kept some of his personal belongings and picked up a pen, signaling the documents and handed them back to the hooded girl.

"As you wish, then why don't you start with sharing what you know." C noted the process and sat down on the ground.

"In order to cut the price of the information, I presume. Well better sit back and listen, but will try to make it short." Noticing that she took the initiative to make herself somewhat comfortable the Instructor sighed, she probably was right about it.

"Just go on ahead as you would like, I have more than enough time and who knows, maybe you already know everything there is or you had something that might come in handy later." With a small chuckle she tried to reassure him, well she was in a good mood currently due to making more money.

"Hardly... In '56 on the 23rd of September, I should have died like my unit. We were sent for a large scale sweep in an area, when a transmission came in warning us for a possible new strain of Aragami being formed." He remembered the even way too vividly, like it didn't really happen almost 15 years ago. Jack recalled everyone that was with him that day, the day when they died and he somehow lived...

"The Cluegels as they were later referred to, at least that was their very first time of sighting them actively." The Aragami named Cluegel was one that looked like a spider or mixed species, but mostly sharing the traits of the jumping and wolf species. Their body which wasn't larger than the clenched fist of an average adult was covered in a black mosslike pelt, the eyes grown together to form something similar to  compound eyes. Their 9 pair of legs giving them an almost impossible speed and stability, but this wasn't what burned into his mind about them that caused nightmares for a long time. No, it was their numbers.

"With no information about them our leader decided for a retreat, however that would have been impossible for all of us. That's why..." Jack sighed, even with the very first encounter the situation was hopeless they found their nest in an underground warehouse. And as soon as one of them stirred the nets that almost covered the entire building they descended. Literally numbering above thousands the situation looked hopeless.

"You and 29 others had to stay, for the ones with family to escape." It was something that they had agreed on before hand, shortly after they gathered. Dying came with their line of work, however that didn't mean they would want to die that badly, it's just those who had a greater goal amongst them were given another schance.

"Damn your scary connections, Chit. But yes we were willing to become scapegoats, however the buggers had a different idea. There were thousands of them and although they were crushed en masse, it was clear we are severly outnumbered with 38 members originally and the numbers were falling steadily." Jack still recalled that horrifying massacre he was part of. Their weapons might not have been so advanced at that time, but they were still pretty easily teared apart in the process. Either a stab from the Proto Dagger or a shot from the Proto Pistol made short work of the spiders.

"And I guess from your silence this is it. I have no concrete information how you three survived that horde, but a recon team managed to evacuate you to a safe place in order to receive treatment." C was thinking really hard, trying to remember all the possible details she knew about the event.

"Three!? There are others!?" Jack on the other hand raised his voice and stared at her in disbelief. He wasn't alone after all.

"There... were... Look, it's a bit of a complicated issue. The Bias factors for your Type had weren't perferted and while it could make sure you are able to connect and use your God Arcs without problems, infections were not prevented." Although C knew much, but most of her knowledge was just information and no understanding about the finer details, however that didn't make her any less willing to share it, for a proper price that is.

"Infection? You're telling me we are... I mean... I am infected?" The way she worded that sentence slowly sunk in as Jack gasped. Infection mostly occured when the Control armlet became damaged, or the God Arcs core took too much punishment and it's Oracle Cells went berserk. Infection also meant that the victim will slowly and very painfully turn into an Aragami.

"Most probably the cluegels left you three alone because due to the infection they recognized you as some kind of 'kin' to their bias." This was something that C pieced together from all the information she possessed about Jack.

"Go on, nothing is going to shock me after this... I... Hope at least... What happened with the others?" With a chuckle he steeled himself, and devided to venture into the den of the beast...

"Gregor was off the worst, he suffered the most injuries although they wouldn't be fatal they sped up the process of the infection was spreading." Having that name mentioned by the girl immediatelly the person came to the Instuctors mind.

"That kid was turning into an Aragami?!" Recalling his features, Jack shook his head in disbelief. That kid was the youngest of them all, and also the most hotblooded at the very same time. For him to go trough the process of infection and transformation... Not something that Jack would have liked to picture.

"Exactly, and it wasn't pretty at all..." Luckily C didn't even try to elaborate any further, although she did see the file of the event it also came with the understanding of revealing it to Jack wouldn't be a good idea.

"And the other one?" Rubbing his chin he asked again. His determination to endure anything crumbled already at the very first corner and things looked grim.

"Liane was also in a bad shape, somewhat worse than you. However the scientists supervising the scene figured that they can stop the Oracle and Bias supply in order to mitigate the infection process and maybe gain some time to get a cure." Another name surfaced as the girl continued her tale, this time one of the few females to manage access to the unit.

"What... went wrong?" Gulping hard, Jack was thinking that since Gregor had gotten infected, but if she took Liane under a different approach that means something far worse happened.

"With the Oracle Cell supply cut, her body was unable to endure the strain of what she went trough, and her heart gave in eventually. However, between having her body corrupted into an Aragami, or dying from system shock... She choose the latter one, She was really strong willed." C went awfully quit after saying this, so for minutes Jack wondered if this is all she knows about that incident.

"And... Me?" Trying to promt the conversation to another go, he finally caved under curiosity and insecurity.

"With the least amount of injuries, but a relatively high amount of infection... They still had no choice other than to cut your supply too. However in your case they had done it gradually, which though did mean that after it was completely sealed you entered a chomatose state for a few days. That's all." She shrugged as if trying to dismiss something.

"So... You're saying I'm what now?" Jack on the other hand didn't really understand what she meant with that. With the Oracle supply gone the infection shouldn't spread at all, however because of the infector did spread though him, it was impossible to remove its source completely.

"Whatever you want to be, duh... You've got a bit more Aragami than your generation, but still less than any of the current ones." C gave an annoyed remark, but still enlightened the Instructor.

"The way you've just said that was like you know how they make the Bias..." Saying anything less would be most probably comparable to the tip of the iceberg anyways, but Jack couldn't help and still said so.

"That would cost you to assume such things, wether alone ask for them... But this should do, I suppose you are happy with this although the price remained the same, 750.000 Fc." She pulled the small gadget from her pocket and gave it to the Instuctor waiting for the transaction to happen.

--- End of Chapter 2015,07,09

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