Clutches of Earth's Life [Closed, Started]

Luke - Alpha Team

I sat on the only cold bench in my cell, facing the metal bars that separated me from the rest of this cold, dirty building. There was the soft pat, pat of feet coming down the hall. Probably just the prison guard, and lord knows I've already planned how to break every bone in his body.

He stopped in front of my cell, "Prisoner 1337."

I looked down at the badge on my orange jumpsuit.

"You have a visitor."

* * *

A single lightbulb dimly lit the room. I sat across the table from a small man in uniform. He lifted his hand and set a folder onto the desk, with a blade next to it.

His hands seem to be fit. Maybe I'd snap each finger slowly... or his toes even.

"I know you're not much for words, so I'd much rather you just read through this." He slid the folder to me and I opened it.

Definitely his toes. Then cut his eyebrows off with a knife.

I scanned every word and eyed the blood stains covering the bottom of the... signatures. People had signed with blood. I looked at the man as he slid the blade over to me.

Not big enough, perhaps a butcher knife.

I picked it up made a generous gash in my thumb, leaving a nice imprint on the bottom of the paper.

"Smart man, Mr. Luke. I'll have you picked up as-"

"I have a request." I made my voice as cold as possible.

He raised an eyebrow.

"I want my gloves back."

* * *

I walked into my new room, tablet fitting nicely into my gloved fingers. There was the twitchy girl sprawled out on the bottom bunk of one bed, and the hopefully more normal one looking at me as if to say 'Hi'.

Shave the crazy one's head, then rip her bottom lip off.

I threw the tablet on the closest bed to mark my territory, and pulled my gloves down tighter.

Put a sheet over the other one and spray her face with a hose.

"Hello. I am Luke," And rip both of their nails off. "Let's be friends."

Kaius Riley - Upsillon Team
It was about that time of day again. They had taken my clock away, together with most other things, but luckily they had left my books. I knew that after breakfast I had time to read about 300 pages before it was time for lunch. I had read 260 pages now, so I'd better turn on the tears. The man who brought my food was gullible, and I had actually persuaded him to take me for a walk from time to time, something that had gotten him in trouble with his superiors at first, but when they saw my happy little smile when I was brought out to the yard they melted as well. Idiots. That guard saw me as a son, he had even said that he wanted to take me fishing someday. It wouldn't take me long before I could convince him to help me get out of here.

The door opened, but instead of the friendly 'Hello,' followed by the worried 'Oh, Kai, what's the matter?' there was a loud "Get up, you have a visitor."

I didn't recognize the guard, which meant the he was new or didn't belong to my ward. I guessed on the latter. The whole scenario struck me as weird. A guard I hadn't seen before and a visitor I knew nothing about. I didn't normally get many visitors, except for my lawyer and the occasional shrink who thought I made an interesting chase.

"Get up," the guard repeated. I did as I was told and made sure to keep the tears coming, in case it was my lawyer. He was yet another man that I had managed to wrap around my finger. Men like that were amusing. As soon as the saw a kid cry they softened and wanted nothing more than to hug me and tell me that everything would be alright. Pitiable, but very useful.

When the guard had cuffed my hands behind my back he led my out of the cell and through several corridors. Eventually we came to a room which I didn't recognize. It wasn't the usual room for visitors, but more like an interrogation room with a stainless steel table in the middle and mirrors on one wall. I was placed on one of the two chairs and my hands were freed before the guard finally left. Maybe this was some kind of psychological experiment. I had been used as a guinea-pig before.

"Hello?" I said and looked around like I didn't know they could see me through the mirror, making sure that my voice was trembling just enough. "What's going on?"

No answer, not that I was expecting one. I put my heals on the edge of the chair and wrapped my arms around my legs, a pose I knew would make me look smaller and even more afraid. A quiet sob and then I hid my face in me knees. Now then, that show would surely make any heart melt with parental empathy.

Suddenly the door swung open - I mad sure to look both surprised and afraid - and a man walked in, clapping his hands slowly with a mocking expression. "Bravo, Mr Riley, that was quite an performance. If I hadn't read your file I would've felt sorry for you."

Not my lawyer, and not a shrink, that much was clear. Then what was he doing here? Well, I could see in his eyes that he wasn't going to be swayed, so I dropped my act and wiped my tears. The sudden change seemed to almost startle him, which made me smile grimly. "Who are you?"

"You'll get to know me in time, but right now I'm more interested in you. You're smarter than even the shrinks give you credit for, so you probably know what's happening in the world, don't you?"

"I'm not really allowed to read newspapers, or watch TV, so I actually don't know that much." Well, that foolish guard would tell me stuff from time to time, but it never seemed to be anything good. Not that I expected anything else, seeing how the whole world was controlled by idiots.

He handed me a manila envelope, which I stared at for a moment before opening it. "You don't need to watch the news to know that everything is going to h***. My organization and I think it's high time that someone does something about it, and we want you to be part of it."

I looked over the contract, and the dried blood at the bottom of it. Signatures, huh? That was a bit gross. "Fun as it sounds, taking over the world and all that, but what's in it for me?"

"Freedom." I was about to answer with a snide remark, but he cut me of. "Before you mention that guard - 'cause I already know that you have reduced him to nothing but a puppet whose strings you pull at without mercy - you might want to know that he has been relocated to another prison."

I snickered, careful not to show my annoyance. The amount of time I had put into making that guard like me was ludicrous, and now this man had come in and destroyed it all in ten minutes. "So either I come with you or you make sure I can't get out. Tss, so much for freedom." I rolled my eyes. "So what am I signing up for?"

"We call ourselves Clutches of Earth's Life, or CEL for short. It's a pact, more than anything. A pact to set the world straight. You were one of the people picked from all around the world to help do that." He handed me a Swiss knife, and I got a sudden urge to stab him in the throat with it. No, if I did that I would have to go back to the cell, and with that guard gone it would take me ages to get a new guard to trust me. "Will you help us?"

I picked up the knife and stared at it for a moment. "Please tell me you clean this between every visit."

***

The meeting was boring, except for that girl who stared at me like she knew me, which was a bit creepy. Other than that I didn't notice anyone who I found particularly interesting. Even the so called leaders seemed dull. Well, at least it was more exiting than my cell, and hopefully I'd be able to use at least some of the others as puppets.

The two men in my team.. At first I hadn't known what to think, but that changed as soon as we entered our room. They were obviously idiots. Idiots with muscles though, so I would have to be careful. I took the standalone bed and sat down, watching with a wry smile as they beat each other until I could hardly recognize them.

They didn't even notice when the man who had lead the meeting, Admiral Yetonne, walked inside. He glanced at me, and I shrugged without dropping my amused smile. I didn't care if they killed each other, as long as they didn't splatter any blood on my new shirt.

"That's enough!" He shouted, but the two idiots didn't listen.

I snickered. "You'll have to do better than that." They were like two crazed dogs, and all because they both wanted the top bunk. It was beyond ridiculous. If they had been five years old, fine, but they were grown ups.

"I said, that's enough!" I rubbed my ear. The admiral sure had some lungs, but at least it worked. They stopped fighting. "Mr James, I'm not sure what you think the proper way to conduct yourself is - but I can assure you, this is not it. That goes for all of you. I will not tolerate fighting - especially not between team members." The admiral turned to look at me as well, for some reason. I hadn't even done anything.

"I suggest you all go to bed.. Immediately."

The man who had started it all climbed up on his prized top bunk, while the other man settled on the bottom one. I snickered silently. Maybe this would be fun after all. Well, if I wanted the to trust me I had to start playing my part. Innocent crybaby wouldn't work on these guys, but friendly and slightly wicked mastermind might, and it wasn't too far from the truth either.

I pulled a first aid kit up from my backpack. "You're both bleeding, so you might want to borrow this," I said and handed it to the guy on the bottom bunk. He seemed slightly less hostile. "So, now that you've decided who's the alpha dog," I decided against making a corny joke about the name of our team, "maybe we could introduce ourselves? My name's Kaius Riley, but you can just call me Riley." I looked at the other two and waited for their response.

Spoiler

Right..I do have Dee as well, but I wanted to post, so he'll get up here as I finish his post later xP

~Jack

"You have a visitor."

I looked up from the notebook, catching the guard's glare. They'd always look at me the same way - as if I were to jump from the chair I was chained to anyway. For first few days, it was amusing to see it every time the shrink would come. After that, it just got boring. Like everything else.

Moment later, a man walked in. He seemed calm, authoritative, like someone who might play a lawyer.

"Good morning, miss Smith," he said.

"Jack," I replied, "as you already know. I wasn't expecting you till evening."

His eyebrow arched a little.
"I'm expected, then?"

I shrugged.
"Someone was expected. What do you want from me?"

He took out a file, sliding it over the desk to me. I looked down at it, then opening it on the seventh page. I found a list of names - scanning over them all, I smiled a little, recognizing one from my father's papers. Then I reached over the table, keeping my hand a bit above the desk. After a moment, I felt little pocket knife in my palm, and - still not looking at the visitor - made a little cut on my finger. He seemed a bit surprised.

"No questions asked?"

I looked up at him again, at the same time colouring the voids in the letters of the only other underage person's name.
"I was wondering when you will come to me," I said. He frowned a little.

"You knew of us?"

Cocking my head to a side, I played with the knife a bit.
"There's around seven billion people in the world at this moment," I said then. "I could give you a more specific number, but it's irrelevant. It's statistically impossible for me to be the only one thinking of acting in an organized way - hence there are others, and if they're not smart enough to look for me, then I don't care to know of them."

Instead of signature, I drew a little Omega letter.
*

There was nothing in that talk that I couldn't have thought of myself already, except for the thing with us sharing rooms.
Aside from me, as I knew it will be, only one person was still legally a child. Kaius Riley, I recalled my father's papers. He liked it better to be called by the last name, and I was somewhat to surprised to realise I actually found him unreadable enough to be interesting. Then he turned and our eyes met, so I looked away again.
I payed attention to every person in the place, those at my table especially. One was a woman that spoke up right away, interrupting Admiral-- whatever his name was. The other was a man, looking like a homeless and with two guitar cases. Named after a song, I thought to myself as I observed the instruments, recalling the list. That had to be that guy. He was twenty eight, I was sure of it, and nine years older than the woman.

He looked back at me, and I smiled.
“Hello," I said, "I’m Jack.”

“And I’m Johnny," he replied, continuing on about how he got called so - like a song, in short, as I already knew. He had an interesting accent; I placed it somewhere around Ireland though he didn't seem to be from Europe. My father used to sound British, and my brother and I sometimes made jokes on that account - none of us had anything to do with England, but he had some old friend there and every time they'd talk, he'd take over the accent. I called myself back to reality just in time to hear Johnny's question.
“What made you to be part of this, young lady?”

I knew someone would ask sooner or later - I was actually rather sure he was about to ask in this very conversation - but I judged it too early to tell, so I only smiled. Describing the whole game I'd made my father play would've been too long, and just telling I killed him would be a lie. Johnny shrugged.
“Well, I tell you mine if we gotta trust one another, piss in the same bowl and all that. I rob banks. And I’m damn good at it too, in my humble opinion. Of course, that ain’t all of it-”

“Will you shut up already?” The woman, Alexandra, cut through his words. She was intriguing as well - in her high heels, pretty yet with something that made her eyes seem somewhat dead. “If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I don’t like people. And when people remind me of things, I tend to recreate the past. So please, don’t make me.”

“And what would that entail, ma’am?” Johnny asked, still with the wide grin on his face. The woman shifted her attention to me for a moment.

“Well, I’ve been known to take care of people. Even kids.” I glared back at her without a word. Talking was never my thing, and that was the time for observing. She wasn't very far from my age, but I was sure she did a lot. Taking care of kids, however, that I found hard enough to believe not to frighten me. Unintentionally, or in the heat of the moment, maybe, but not with some cold calculation that would make me worried.
“You ever killed, son?”

Johnny's smile grew wider. The two of them were indeed intriguing, but predictable enough already. Charming accent, wide smiles, look of a man from the streets yet much better manners, so many unimportant information in his answers that people would give up recalling their own question - and sharp and short sentences as a contrast, playing tough and maybe even acting so, but regretting something at the same time, not taking the position of the leader but nevertheless testing everyone else. I wondered what either of them thought of me.

I sat down on the bed with my legs crossed, and opened my notebook. I wrote down all the observations I made that day, about my team and about everyone else - as always, I didn't use a single letter, changing it all to numbers, coding it to the point which would take years to decipher.
***

Cross Yetonne

I sat down as the ex-inmates left the meeting room. In front of me were about ten people, my officers, whom I could trust with my life. My life...

I groaned inwardly and pushed my short hair back with my fingers. Today was the beginning of something new.

"I gathered you all here to discuss some very important things that cannot be pushed back any further. CEL is being pushed back. We're being infiltrated, both physically and by other not-so-physical means. It seems that the world is onto us, or at least onto something. I just got information that Phi Team was murdered, and we now have no contact in London.

"This is saddening news, for it means that we have further along the schedule at a much faster rate than before. that being said, I am making a change that will be incredibly important. I am splitting CEL up." I could see the shocked expressions ripple through the room. The tension had increased exponentionally.

"How, might I ask, are you going to be doing this?" Dr. Dee chimed in, his statement chilling the room.

"I am taking matters into my own hands. CEL is now moving its headquarters once again, splitting up onto four different parts of the world. The four generals will be in control of them until further notice. I will let you all decide where you will be stationed. Here are the four areas: We will have an underground bunker in the Mariana trench, focusing on our naval superiority, a base in the middle of Greenland, focusing on battle and nuclear tactics and strategies, preparing ourselves for war, thirteen war submarines stationed all around the gulf of Mexico, preparing intel for espionage, and this one, which will be the main control for our armies and everything else that it needed."

"What about you, Cross? Where will you be in all of this?" Lydia was leaning on one of the tables, looking at me quizzically.

"I will be travelling all across the world, Colonel Kamburg will be accompanying me, to gather any recruits, mercenaries, weaponry, anything we can get our hands on, for the final fight. It will come sooner than any of us realize."

"Basically, you are letting us take over CEL? At it's most crucial point? I don't think that is very wise, you are the leader that is needed in these final steps." Dee looked at me.

"This is what is happening!" I slammed my fist on the table, my anger reaching a boiling point. "We have to see this through to its end. I have thought this through time and time again, and it is the most plausible plan. Dismissed, see to it that you are in your corresponding bases by 0800 tomorrow."

Spoiler

Sorry if this is short. I am sick and I am really not in the mood to do much, but I had to do at least one SB post. Feel free to use Alexandra, as I will not be posting for her for awhile, because of other things taking up my time.

Janz Kamburg


“We leave in the morning.” Janz dropped the report down on Yettones desk.

Yettone looked up at him, a slightly annoyed look on his face.” Good, remember what I told you, our men in Saudi Arabia said they’d been discovered and that they had, at best, three days to get all of our supplies and men out before –“

“Don’t worry Cross, I didn’t forget anything.” Janz interrupted.

Yettone nodded and sighed, leaning back in his chair.” You’ve never failed me Janz.” He whispered.

“I don’t plan to”

Yettone glared at him.” A good soldier should always be ready for the possibility of defeat, if you’re not ready for it, then you’ll be caught unready, and the defeat will be only worse.” An uncomfortable silence stretched between them, finally broken by Yettone.” What do you think of the recruits?”

Janz shrugged.” Seriously Cross, we’re dealing with criminals, people who are, by nature, un-honorable, un-reliable, cutthroats. They may fight for you now, but you can’t rely on them.”

Yettone frowned.” I’m not talking about criminals in general; I’m talking about these particular ones. Anyway, didn’t you tell me they were the best?”

Janz bowed stiffly.” They are the best, I selected them very, very carefully, and I was just mentioning the point. These particular humans are the best of the worst, well, the best of the worst that we want. I can promise you that they’ll do their jobs, and that they’ll do it well. But remember, these people have enemies out there; their disappearance from their prisons it won’t go un-noticed, and that could be a slight problem.” He sighed.” I can promise you that they won’t get along though, tossing a dozen chunks of rotting meat in a heap won’t make the smell any better.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yettone growled irritable, flipping absentmindedly through Janz’s report.

“It means, sir.” Janz replied stiffly.” Is that you throw a dozen of the world’s most fermented men together, it won’t be pretty.”

Yettone grimaced.” I’m counting on it.”

Janz shook his head and with a final salute left the room, he admired Cross, he was an amazing tactician. He was an ideal commander. But he had forgiving’s about this whole plan, he himself was docile and gentle in compare with the other officers, and practically a peaceful citizen in compare with the convicts that he, Janz, had picked out. He could just imagine what was happening between those caged beasts.

He didn’t approve of criminals, evil was evil, and criminals where the worst of evil. If it weren’t for the fact that corruption was worse than evil, he would be out there: fighting CEL. He marched stiffly down his corridors, past saluting men, and into the Barracks. He was a Colonel, and if he’d wanted he could have had a room to himself, but he preferred to keep close to the men, it helped with relations.

“Tyler!” He called.

Almost instantly a short, muscular Captain stepped forward from among the bunks and saluted.” Yes Sir?”

Janz sighed inwardly.” I need you to do something.”

He draped an arm around the other man’s shoulders and led him over to his own bunk, well separated from the others, in the corner.” What is it Janz?” Tyler asked softly, he had been with Janz the longest, and they trusted each other to the core.

“These criminals that the Admiral recruited,” He began,” I don’t trust them, at all. See as some of our men may be required to go with them, I trust them even less. I need you to keep an eye on them for me while I’m off with the Admiral. One sign of deference from our cause, you shoot them, understand?”

Tyler nodded gravely.” I will Janz, but these people are dangerous . . .”

Janz nodded.” Exactly, if they can be convinced to defect, then they’ll be doubly so.”

Tyler nodded again.” Aye sir, I’ll see to it, you need to rest before you leave though or you’ll fall asleep in front of the men in Saudi.”

He slipped back into the fort.

Usually he would have talked with the normal’s standing about, saluting stiffly, mulling over random things, but he wasn’t in the mood. Instead he just stomped over to his bunk and threw himself down. He lay there for a few minutes, pondering what lay ahead. He needed a long, long sleep before what he had planned came to pass, as he was sure it would.


Janz nodded as he looked around the small room he, Cross, and Cross’s staff were in. Everything was in order.

They’d taken off that morning, bright and early, in the small army jet that was set aside for the Admirals personal uses, the officers and those measly recruits had lined up and saluted their admiral before he left. Most were quite inexperienced in self- discipline and it showed. It showed badly. It was probably a good thing, for them, that they hadn’t all been stationed under him.

The jet was a small one, but it had features far more advanced than those of even the most advanced fighter- jets that the world’s greatest powers had. On top of superior armament, higher speeds, mobility, better navigation, better trained pilots, and greater height capabilities, it had a special pulse generator which would make it undetectable to any radar that the world had. It was one of only 50 in existence.

Janz sat down and belted himself in next to Cross, who had lain back and was now flipping through reports, and papers. He felt a massive jolt as the jet switched speeds and slammed forward at 1500 mph. He grimaced; they needed a way to slow down the speeding up process. Otherwise he’d throw up next time he used one of these things.

Another few hours and they’d be half way around the world; he smiled to himself and leaned back in his seat to get a bit of extra sleep before they landed. . . . .

Spoiler

Enjoy!