Just When Things Couldn't Get Any Worse... (Karn)

[Amelia Braye]

Amelia gave a sigh as she headed out of the double doors of "The Golden Chocobo". Today had been rather hectic. Children ran amok and parents just didn't seem to want to put their kids in line. When they were asked to watch their kids, they'd take offense. At least three times, Amelia had found herself getting splattered with some kind of food during that crazy time. Despite her efforts in thwarting the children invasion, it just didn't work out for the staff of the restaurant. Where the boss would usually be yelling at nearly everyone today, he didn't get a chance to since more often than not, a kid distracted him in some shape or form in a rather unfortunate way for him every time.

After having cleaned herself up, Amelia stepped out into the streets adorned in her uniform. In her bag, she carried her usual typical items like a small tool set, her gun, ID and her shrunk and unactivated body suit her late father had left behind. If anyone realized what latest technology she was carrying in her little bag, they'd probably kill for it. Thankfully, Amelia had never encountered a situation where she found herself in need of using it. It was more so like a last resort kind of thing for her. That and she'd rather not use it compared to her gun. However, it was always best to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

She had made it halfway home when things took a sudden strange turn. Out of the blue, strangely dressed men ran past in an organized line carrying weapons. The uniforms they wore were nothing like Amelia had ever seen before. Obviously, they couldn't be of Shinra, let alone this world. Were these the rumored military branch running amok all over Gaia, stirring up trouble wherever they went?

Curious, Amelia managed to forget about her problems in possibly losing her job as a waitress to focus on these strange men. Their backs had been turned to her and they didn't seem to have noticed her just yet. Before they could pause to look around, Amelia located a dumpster and hid behind it, peering out at them. After a brief glance around the area, one of them signaled to the rest in a series of odd gestures while also motioning to certain directions in which a certain number of men split off to go in. "...What are they doing?" she murmured to herself in a tone so that only she could hear.

When the soldiers left the area, Amelia came out of her hiding and glanced around. Who to follow? Well, she could follow the bigger group. Wherever they were going, eventually the others would go that way too, right? Or eventually reunite, either way they would meet up again. So, Amelia trailed after the largest group. There had to be at least twenty of them and they were all headed in a direction of the city she didn't recognize. Was it the old ruins of Midgar, perhaps?

(OOC: Feel free to control where the soldiers go if you'd like.)

[Karn Fenix]

PSICOM. Ever since those freaks had started showing up through the portals, ShinRa's life had gone from difficult to outright maddening. It was bad enough that they were trying to reestablish their power in a shattered world, and reconstruct what used to be the biggest, most powerful, most influential company on the planet. To have to deal with an army of otherworldly invaders sporting futuristic technology just added to the company's difficulties.

And as a company man through and through, ShinRa's problems were Karn's problems. He didn't have the luxury of spending all his time around corporate headquarters calling the shots from a distance; nor did he have the benefits of a lofty office like the Turks to scamper all over the world pursuing this mission and that. As a grunt in the ShinRa war machine -- a seasoned and well-respected grunt, but a grunt nonetheless -- he spent the better part of his time in the field, slugging it out with PSICOM in the trenches. Today, however, was especially intense.

A unit of PSICOM soldiers had blown its way through Edge and was on its way to the ruins of old Midgar itself. According to the intelligence briefing he'd been given, it seemed that they were headed in the direction of Sector 3 -- Karn's hometown. He'd grown up under the plate in Sector 3, living with his family until his parents died in an anti-ShinRa riot, and his brother eventually got lost in a gang sting. So not only was PSICOM attacking his company and his territory; this time they were headed straight for his old home.

Because the threat was so close to home, ShinRa had spared nothing in making sure that this incursion was eliminated. Three armored vehicles were rapidly tailing the soldiers, and the three vehicles split as the PSICOM soldiers also broke into groups, heading toward different destinations. The largest, a group of twenty -- no, maybe closer to thirty -- eventually realized that they weren't escaping, and turned to take up positions inside ruined buildings, behind any makeshift cover, preparing to fire on their ShinRa attackers.

With a screech of rubber on pavement, the armored vehicle ground to a halt. The side doors slid open and Karn, along with a team of nine other blue-suited ShinRa soldiers poured out of either side. With a variety of weapons ranging from submachineguns to long rifles, they ducked behind cover of their own and began exchanging furious gunfire with the PSICOM operatives. The firefight quickly developed into an intense stalemate, but it was clear that PSICOM's superior numbers were gradually working in their favor.

Karn looked quickly from side to side in the middle of the battlezone, bullets whizzing past him as soldiers shouted commands and threats. He turned to one side, raising his submachinegun and downing two approaching PSICOM soldiers with quick bursts of gunfire. He was searching for a place to take cover when he saw someone -- a girl, it looked like, who didn't at all belong here in the middle of a skirmish. Breaking into a run, he approached the girl and put an arm around her, half-tackling her to the ground as the two tumbled behind a garbage dumpster, bullets sparking off the metal as PSICOM troops attempted to gun them down.

"What the hell are you doing out here??" Karn barked from behind his helmet, turning his head to look at Amelia as he reloaded his gun. "PSICOM is extremely dangerous... You should be high-tailing it out of here, not trying to catch a peek!"

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Word Count: 600-ish!
Muse is Feeling: Solid! Took a little while to finally post this, though.
Wearing: ShinRa grunt gear!
Listening to: "Encounter" from Crisis Core

[Amelia Braye]

Amelia had followed them to a certain point. It looked as though a vehicle of Shinra's had arrived on the scene. Shinra infantrymen had appeared and were now launching attacks on the strange armored men. Somehow, someway she wound up in the midst of it. So much for observing and seeing if she could be of any help! Before she could whip out her father's bodysuit, someone came and tackled her practically.

"Oof! HEY!" she exclaimed, having taken a tumble to the back of a garbage dumpster. When she recovered, she heard some guy yelling at her. Eyes narrowing, she turned to find who had tackled her and forced her to end up here. Granted, it had been a lucky thing he had gotten her out of the chaos but she wasn't happy with the yelling part. "Listen here, helmet boy!" she growled in response, poking his armor in her anger. "I'm no damsel in distress! I can handle myself just fine!"

"For your information, I saw those freaks and started to follow them to see where they were going and what they were up to. I know they're dangerous, I'm not dumb!" she added. As she said this, she rummaged through her bag and took out her gun. No, she wasn't going to use it on the guy that had tackled her out of the line of fire. Instead, she went to the opposite end of the dumpster and took aim. Karn just might find her annoying because of this. Still, she opened fire on a PSICOM soldier. She didn't even know it was a PSICOM soldier, she just knew they weren't friendly armed people.

Amelia watched as the bullet hit the helmet, leaving the soldier blind for whatever came next before he was shot down by one of the Shinra infantrymen.

(OOC: Sorry if this is small, was exhausted during the time I did this. Next post will be better.)

[Karn Fenix]

Karn hadn't been entirely sure what to expect of this girl that he'd run into. Maybe she would have cowered behind the dumpster for fear of her life, or maybe she would have panicked, turned, and ran desperately in the other direction for her life. Maybe she would have clung to him for protection, making his own job more difficult.

But however he thought the girl might react, he definitely hadn't expected her to react by giving him attitude, pulling a gun, and taking shots at the PSICOM troops. He wasn't sure if he was impressed or irritated, but he didn't exactly have time to sit around thinking about it. She even proved useful -- one of his men took down a PSICOM soldier thanks to the help of her gunfire.

Karn watched as two of his own men went down to their gunfire, and turned his attention back to the armored vehicle that had brought them there.

"That's enough! Bring out the Sweeper and let's clear these assholes out for good!!"

On his command, two soldiers immediately ceased their fire and ran back to the vehicle, shoving open the heavy sliding hatch on the vehicle's rear. The sound of heavy metal hitting pavement caused several of the ShinRa grunts to look back toward the truck -- and one of them took a bullet in the head for his distraction.

From around the side of the vehicle came the heavy, lumbering steps of the Sweeper -- one of ShinRa's bipedal anti-personnel mech designs from before Meteorfall. Each of its arms sported a heavy machinegun and a grenade launcher, and the mechanical beast unleashed a fiery torrent of bullets over the PSICOM positions, flushing the troops out from their cover with fragmentation grenades and then mowing them down in a storm of lead.

After a few moments, the corpses of the PSICOM squad were scattered around the street in pools of their blood. Karn slung the submachinegun over his shoulder by its strap, and walked through the corpses to ensure their deaths.

"So what's your name?" he asked, calling back to Amelia as his men secured the street. "Or maybe I should ask who you're with? Most average Joes don't have the mental composure or the guts to pull a gun in the middle of a firefight between two professional armies... So something tells me you're not the ordinary girl-next-door."

One of the PSICOM soldiers groaned in pain as he rolled over onto his side, clutching a bleeding stomach wound. Karn reached down to his right thigh, lifting a heavy magnum pistol from its holster and planting a single shot squarely in the temple of the half-dead soldier.

As the ShinRa soldiers finished their sweep, they began gathering behind Karn. Unlike their leader, they hadn't slung or holstered their weapons -- they held them at rest, but they were clearly ready to use them again if they needed to. Amelia hadn't earned their trust, even if Karn was willing to talk to her.

"So enlighten me... Who are you?

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Word Count: Around 500 or so!
Muse is Feeling: Refreshed!
Wearing: ShinRa Grunt Armor
Listening to: Lots of Crisis Core songs!
Notes: No need to apologize! Quality over quantity, I say XD

[Amelia Braye]

Amelia didn't care about further arguing with the Shinra grunt. As far as she saw it, at least Shinra was doing something about the foreign invaders. Even still, it was never enough to keep them from coming. Almost always, there were reports of strange figures traveling the world. Portals seemed to pop up everywhere at random too. It was never easy to avoid them either since some were even said to appear quite abruptly before someone knew what was happening and sending them off to another world or Minerva knew where.

Firing at PSICOM, Amelia was definitely not just some typical girl on the street. She had her brother to thank for it. Still, she had a brother she had to scold too if he was amongst these grunts. Never messaging them after so many years! Oh, was she going to rip him a new one! Even now, she was eyeballing the grunts in wonder as if she suspected one of them was her very own brother. The mere thought, where it excited her, it angered her. Just why had he left them in the first place without a word? Was he even still alive? Wouldn't Shinra have told them if he had?

As the fight progressed, Amelia did her best to help in what way that she could here. Eventually, the grunt that had rescued her had ordered the others to bring out some kind of vehicle. As she watched, she saw the device come out. It was an old model, one that had been more common before Meteor. She had seen old models of it back when her parents were alive. Before her life had turned into one hell of a mess as she struggled to support her two younger siblings, forced to grow up before her time.

The Shinra grunts seemed to win the fight then at this very moment. That was a huge relief. As PSICOM's corpses finally littered the streets, Amelia took one last glance before standing straight up. The grunt that had tackled her earlier had then asked her who she was. Looking back over at him with a raised eyebrow, she watched as his fellow comrades soon came over as well. None of them held their weapons at the ready but she could tell they were ready for anything if she proved to be a threat.

'Great, they probably think I'm some kind of spy or something and might drag me in for questioning!' she thought, holstering her gun. In her bag, if she had to, she knew where to grab the bodysuit her father had left to her. Of course, she was hoping things wouldn't come to that. She would rather things end peacefully. After all, this was her home and the last thing she needed was Shinra keeping tabs on her. Her illegal guardianship might be found out if that was the case and then she'd lose her siblings. Something that Amelia couldn't bare to have happen.

It was then that the grunt from before asked who she was with. Amelia crossed her arms, rose a brow and tilted her head to the side as she peered back at him skeptically. Only when he explained why he came to that conclusion could she see where he was coming from. They thought she was in cahoots with some sort of organization, as she had thought. Grand, her worst fear was coming true. Life just didn't seem to want to work with Amelia lately. First her parents died, then the lack of messages from her brother who might've abandoned them, her working all her life and growing up faster than she needed to in order to support herself and her two sisters...Yeah the list went on and on.

"Relax, I'm just a civilian!" she retorted. Even now, she felt some kind of snarky attitude coming but she refrained from letting it rise. She didn't need this whole team of Shinra grunts after her because of an attitude problem on her part. "I'm Amelia. I was taught by my brother how to shoot a gun, he was one of your own." Even now, she was skimming the faces in the area, trying to search for a familiar face but spotted none. "My father also once worked for your company before he died. He helped with the scientific engineering department."

[Karn Fenix]

Karn listened with a stoic expression as Amelia attempted to explain herself. He wanted to keep the appearance, at least for now, of a stern and uncompromising soldier. If she wasn't on the up-and-up, better to keep her feeling a little intimidated and off-balance. While he stood listening to her, holstering his handgun again, the other soldiers set about loading the heavy mechanical Sweeper back into their vehicle. Only two soldiers remained near their squad leader to ensure that this girl didn't try anything dumb.

It made sense enough for her to know how to fight... Hell, hadn't he been a seasoned fighter at an even younger age than her? By the time he'd finished his teenage years he'd already killed over a dozen men and knew his way around a fight. This girl, who seemed to be about her early twenties, no doubt had plenty of good reasons to know how to fight, especially growing up in a place like Midgar that tended to force people to fight or die. Part of her explanation caught his attention, in particular, though -- that she was from a ShinRa family, or so it seemed.

"So you're from a company family, hmm?" he said, echoing her own explanation, "Father was one of the corporate eggheads, huh... ShinRa tends to take care of their brainiacs' families, so I'm curious how you ended up wandering around out here."

Keep her talking, Karn thought. If she was telling the truth, things would add up. If she was trying to hide something or just making it all up as she went along, sooner or later she might trip up. Either way, once his men were finished preparing the Sweeper and their transport, he didn't intend on lingering to interrogate her unless he saw some major red flags. But since he had a few minutes while his squad regrouped, he might as well use to figure out what he was dealing with.

She didn't seem threatening, visually... She was quite a bit shorter than Karn, and seemed to be about his age or a little younger, if his guess was right. And even with a gun on her, he didn't think that she would actually be quick or strong enough to get the drop on him. Gutsy kid or not, Karn was confident that she couldn't tackle a seasoned ShinRa veteran.

"What about your brother?" he continued, "You said he was one of us... You mean a soldier? Where was he stationed -- happen to remember what unit he was with?"

That would probably be the most telling of all -- Karn had spent his entire ShinRa career in the ranks of the general military, so chances were, if her brother was stationed anywhere legitimate around the Midgar area, he'd know about it. He glanced back as the soldiers began setting the Sweeper back up on its lift to be placed back into the truck. This girl had a little more time to prove her credibility -- maybe even her worth.

=-=-=-=[/color]

Word Count: 500-odd
Muse is Feeling: Wonderful!
Listening to: Some FF7 OC Remix tunes
Notes: First post since the hurricane spanked my neighborhood! XD