*Knock Knock*
"..."
A sleeping Gerald lays slumpt over on the bed, his expression is serene
*BANG BANG*
"GERALD WAKE UP!!!"
Being jumpscared out of his slumber, he rubs his eyes before making his way to the door and peeking his head out to see what all that noise is about
"Oh... Lisa, what's up?"
Lisa places her hands on her hips while looking at Gerald disapprovingly
"Are you not aware what day it is?"
Gerald scratches his head while thinking
"Isn't it day six?"
"YES!"
"... So what?"
Lisa facepalms while exhaling
"Today a new department opens."
"Oh, sweet. Can I go back to sleep now?"
"..."
"How should I kill you?"
Gerald immediately steps back before dryly chuckling
"Haha... I was just joking, let me get ready"
"Good, by the way. The manager promoted you to Captain of the Control team."
"Arent I too inexperienced for that?"
Lisa shrugs while crossing her arms
"I dunno, it's the manager's decision"
"And besides, I believe that you deserve the title."
Lisa walks out from view while humming, leaving Gerald to his devices
Alright, I guess ill see who's in this new department
-
It's loud...
Gerald walks into the breakroom and there are three different guys with agent uniforms and a few clerks roaming around, one of them is being harassed by one of the agents
Gerald doesn't immediately approach them, instead he listens into their conversation for information
"Hey Gamma2, do you wanna go back to my place? We can get to know eachother better... heh.."
"Uh... no I don't really want to."
"Come on, don't be like that... I'm very fun."
So he's a scumbag... Noted
The female Clerk appears to be uncomfortable as the two other guys seem to eat their food and ignore the troublemaker
Gerald nods to himself before he walks forward to stop whatever foolish activities the yellow haired agent is up to
"Hey, I'm the captain of the control team. I've come down here to see what kind of people our department is working with"
With that the yellow haired agent stops talking to the clerk before frowning, he starts walking up to me and presses his finger to my chest
"I don't care who you are buddy, keep out of our business and we'll get along just fine."
Gerald speaks with a flat tone
"It's my job to keep things in check here, I'm a captain afterall."
"So? Can you see if I give a fuck?"
A vein begins forming on Gerald's temple
"Archer, that's enough."
The Grey haired agent sitting down eating his breakfast glares at "Archer"
"Don't you think you've caused enough trouble today?"
Archer sucks his teeth before walking away with his hands in his pockets
"We were doing just fine without control team intervention, just know this."
Archer grumbles something under his breath that Gerald can't make out
The silence fades as he walks out of the room, the Grey haired agent shakes his head
"I'm sorry you had to see that for our first impressions, I promise he's a good kid. Just a bit misguided is all"
"My name is Cooper, and this here is Hunter"
Cooper points to the black haired agent eating some form of mashed potatoes
"Greetings, I hope we can get along amicably in the future"
Hunter extends his hand which Gerald respectfully shakes
"Likewise."
Cooper clears his throat before inquiring
"We weren't informed that today was the day control team comes over here, is there any specific reasoning as to why it is now?"
Gerald begins thinking hard before answering
"I believe it's because the manager just got joint command, it was shown on all of the agent's LC-230s yesterday"
Cooper nods before smiling
"So that's how it is?"
"Alright, then we'll be in your care from now on."
(Gerald, please run attachment on O-01-92)
Looking at the message, Gerald wishes Cooper and Hunter a good day before excusing himself out of the room
As he exits the room, suddenly, a cold sensation grabs his hand and prevents him from moving any further
"Hold on just a second, Agent."
Getting a better look as to who it is, a dark purple metal box steps into view, it's purple eye appraising Gerald as it crosses its arms
"Did you get approval from the manager to enter my department..?"
"Yes I have Information Sephirot Yesod, I'm going to work on O-01-92 per his order."
Yesod glares at Gerald even more then before on hearing his claim
"I see, but did you also get permission to enter the department breakroom?"
Gerald frowns before answering
"No, I guess I didn't. But doesn't joint command entail-"
"I don't care what it entails, we handle very delicate work here, an outsider like you doesn't need to be messing this up alright?"
"...Alright."
The Information Sephirot sighs dramatically before walking off to do whatever he does
He needs to get that stick out of his ass before... wait ass? Circuits? Compartments..? whatever...
Sighing to himself, Gerald walks over to O-01-92, interestingly enough there is a mini screen that shows some form of... what the hell..?
On the camera feed, there are five faces stitched onto some sort of net, they all drip blood and are making a different expression each.
Hesitantly walking into the room, im greeted by a vile stench of rotting meat, there are legs below the angry expression and the person behind the face glares at me
"Hello..?"
"SHUT UP"
With those words, a corrosive feeling starts eating away at my mind and my flesh begins to bubble a bit
What the hell!?
"Hey, there's no need to be angry I was just trying-"
"I DONT CARE, YOU ARE ANNOYING"
Gerald feels that same corrosive feeling etching into his flesh and mind as it talks
I'm guessing this is black damage, it's not that bad I guess
Maybe it's because of my pain tolerance, which as of recently has improved.
"WHY ARE YOU HERE"
Shrugging off the bubbling of his skin he answers
"I'm forced to talk with you, that's why."
The man behind the net grows silent as he doesn't make another comment.
His eyes stop glaring at Gerald as it looks away from him
The man turns and walks over to the "Neutral" face
"I see.. so you're like me."
???
What is this guy talking about
Should I play along?
"Yeah..."
"We can't just let those people decide who we are, right? Can't we just have the freedom to express who we are?"
Gerald actually agrees with this
"Yeah, that's true."
The man walks over to the happy expression
"That's exactly why I ripped my skin off so I can show everyone exactly who I am without being shy anymore!"
This went from 0 to 100 very fucking quick
How do we go from freedom of expression to hanging up your face on a net
"... Good for you."
The man seemed very happy as he began doing a weird looking dance
"Does this mean we're friends!?"
Gerald tries his best to make a friendly expression
"Of course we are, my name is gerald."
"My name is.. sorry I'm not comfortable sharing it..."
"That's fine, I don't mind."
The man behind the net walks over to the "Smiling" face
"I like you! Do you need a way to express yourself too?"
Is he going give me an E.G.O gift?
"Sigh... yes I do it's so hard expressing myself..."
"Okay! close your eyes and no peeking!"
Gerald closes his eyes, and hears the squelching of flesh making it's way towards him, it sends shivers down his spine
A wet hand grabs his own before placing down something on it, the figure begins slinking away back to where it came from
"Okay! You can open your eyes now!"
Opening his eyes, Gerald looks to see a face mask in his hands
A skin face mask.
No offense, but I can smell the damned thing rotting
I will not be putting this on my face.
"Y'know, this has given me the motivation to express myself in a different way then this."
The man behind the faces jumps back in surprise
"Really!?"
"Yes, but it's a secret.. Im... uhh shy.. yes I'm too shy to tell you"
The man grows silent
"I see, well I can't intrude on your new findings."
Gerald nods his head slowly
"That's why I won't be needing the face mask, this is your way of expressing yourself."
The man trembled as he moved over to the neutral face
"I see, I guess friends should be happy for eachother huh? Good for you."
Gerald walks over and holds the mask over the net
"Here take it."
A red fleshy hand reaches over and grabs it back
"C-Can you take a step back now? You're getting close to my personal space."
"Sorry."
He takes a step back and smiles
"It was nice talking to you."
"Likewise, Friend."
And just like that, Gerald exits the containment chamber
...
He was nice, his overall hygiene is questionable but still
He's a nice person, just a little shy.
Gerald looks at his performance and unsurprisingly at the start there are lots of red bars, but they became infrequent as it goes on and eventually it became straight green
(25 P.E-Boxes Produced Good Work)
The chart complemented him robotically before growing quiet
Gerald's gotten used to the unusual increase of P.E Boxes and he starts walking back to the control team very casually
A perfect meal, an excellent substitute.
A strange insect like voice overwhelms his mind before he hears rumbling from below the hallway
About 5 slug like creatures with claws leap out of the ground, they all stare at me before clacking their teeth together
One of them leaps, but I grab Penitence and vertically cut it in half mid air, splashing orange fluids all over me
The other four charge straight to me as my senses slow down, I quickly change the form of Penitence
I utilized the weapon to expell white damage in a cone like radius to deal with these creatures at a range, at first glance they seem to slightly resist it, but ultimately they fall over to the floor as their tough carapace begins to convulse due to the blood like substance leaking out of them
Sheathing Penitence, Gerald runs over to the nearest elevator and presses the button which brings him to the control team
What the hell was that?
Maybe some sort of abnormality breaching effect?
Whatever it is, I need to check the control department to see if everything up there is alright.
Gerald takes a hankerchief out of his pocket before wiping the orange blood off of his armor
...
Can this elevator take any longer?
(Error! Error! Power system cut off, initiating emergency mode!)
The elevator slows down to a complete stop while everything grew silent
"What the fuck!?"
-
(Pov: Yuri)
What was that voice?
It's not one of the usual ones I hear...
It was coming from my own mind
But i don't think that's even possible.
Yuri stares blankly at the ground opening up infront of her
"Uh..."
The insect like creatures stare at her hungrily, before all of them close in on her position
Am I going to have to fight?
I don't know if I can..
The creatures not caring about such things leap at her, tearing flesh off of her body, Ripping her suit ferociously in the process
"A-Ahh... T-That hurts..."
Yuri throws the baton at the closest creature before sprinting away to the nearest storage closet
Where the hell did those things come from?
She touches the giant open wound on her arm before wincing in pain
Where is the emergency first aid medical kit? It should be right on this wall...
Yuri searches around before finding it on the floor for some reason
She opens it up before searching around for some bandages to wrap around her arm, suddenly a banging sound comes from the door she closed behind her
"S-Shit"
She quickly finishes dressing her wounds before coming up with a plan
This... this might work.
...
The doors swing open, only to reveal an empty storage closet
The strange insects entered with their mouths open, expecting an easy meal only to be met with nothing
*Thud*
The closet door closed as soon as four of them entered the closet, leaving the last one in the middle of the door frame
*CRUNCH*
The insect's lower body got separated from it's upper body as it squirmed for a few minutes before it ceaced its movement entirely
Unfortunately there was one that never entered the closet
Yuri turns her head only to be met with razor sharp fangs that reach for her face
Yuri isn't fast enough and the damned thing tackles her to the ground before ripping part of her face clean off
"AHHHHH FUCK!"
Yuri grabs it's tough shell before utilizing every fiber of her strength to throw it from off of her body
It hits the ground with a thud but quickly recovers and advances back to finish the job
Using quick thinking, Yuri grabs the lower half of its comrade who was thoroughly murdered by the door before ripping it's tough plate from off of its body
She holds it infront of herself in order to ward off any other attacks
The amber buglike creature leaps at her only to be met with the shell which blocks it's attack entirely
Yuri slams it's head with the shell which stuns it in place, it's eyes darting all over the place in disorder
Yuri kicks the thing in between a doorway before holding it there with her foot, the amber insect trying desperately to rip her limb from limb
She closes the door and watches as it's entire body caves into the sheer pressure of the door's reinforced steel
It lays on the ground, dead.
Yuri falls to the ground with a grinning expression
"Hahaha... I really pulled that shit off."
"Like one of those stunts from an action movie."
"Hahaha..."
She silently chuckles to herself before deciding to rest right there
(Pov: Gerald)
*Cough*
I don't think anyone even notices I've been trapped in here
Gerald looks at the cctv camera and the red light isn't on, signifying that it's off
Fuck, am I wrong in thinking that this kind of thing shouldn't happen?
I mean come on, it's been like 15 minutes
Gerald looks around for anything that can help his situation
He reaches around and finds that the roof of the elevator can be lifted up, he removes a few panels from the top and pulls himself onto of the roof
All around him is darkness except for the faint blinking of the red emergency light below him
I guess the only thing I can do is scale the wire to get to the control team above
I wish I had a light so I can see what the fuck I'm doing
Gerald slowly trudges up and comes to a stop, hitting the roof with his head
Ow, I guess I'm here. But how can I open the doors?
Gerald looks around himself before grabbing Penitence and lodging the sword inbetween the elevator doors, utilizing his inhuman strength to pry them open
The doors make way due to the force enacting on them, letting Gerald squeeze his way through them
He's met with the familiar control team hallway
Finally, fuck I wonder if the bugs came up here aswell
Gerald quickens his pace through the facility and he sees a few clerks with cuts on their hands
"You, what happened here?"
The Clerk cleared his throat before responding
"Those beasts dug out of the ground before they all engaged on miss Yuri, when she quickly escaped from their grasp..."
The Clerk sighed before continuing
"They then brought their attention onto us briefly, so me and 4 other clerks locked ourselves in the breakroom and we don't know what happened afterwards."
"But we found Yuri sitting down in the hallway with her face bleeding heavily."
Gerald grew impossibly silent as the Clerk retold the story
"Thanks, you are dismissed."
The Clerk nods before comforting another Clerk besides himself
Gerald stormed into the main room where he found Yuri laying down on the sofa, similar to how he was yesterday
"Haha... don't you think you're a bit late?"
Those words hit him with a deeper wound than any of those insects could manage.
"I..."
Yuri shook her head
"It was my fault, I couldn't defend myself even though I'm am an agent."
"You have no reason to blame yourself."
Gerald gripped his palms in sheer anger to the point they turned white
I'm the control team captain, this is my responsibility.
My incompetence led one of my subordinates to become injured, this is unacceptable.
Gerald long since walked out of the room to try and find some medicine that would help alleviate her pain
(Pov: Manager)
"What were those things Angela?"
"They are called The Perfect Food, an Amber Dawn Ordeal."
The manager rests his cheek on his fist as he analyzes what happened on his cameras
"Angela, can you explain to me what an ordeal is?"
"There isn't much information in our database, but they seem to be active on day six."
"I see."
The manager rewinds the footage, before he analyzes every inch of Gerald's figure
"I'm not sure if it's just me, but either these creatures aren't very strong, or Gerald is too strong."
"I mean look at this, that sword cut through it like butter"
Angela's eyes twitches slightly
"..Manager do you remember assigning Gerald a bladed E.G.O weapon?"
Wait a second, do we even have one in the first place?
"No, I don't recall..."
Angela steps forward and analyzes the weapon to its entirety
"It seems very similar to the Penitence E.G.O weapon"
"What makes you say that?"
Angela points to the hilt of the sword
"Look here, it's the same as Penitence except there is a blade in place of the cross section."
The manager reclines back on his seat as he grabs his cactus
"So what, does this mean that the weapon can change its form?"
"If so why haven't the other agents been able to do the same?"
Angela clears her throat as she glances at the yellow packet sitting on his desk
"I think we both know the reason."
The manager frowns, finally remembering what he read in that document.
"It just doesn't make sense, Gerald just doesn't seem like that kind of person."
Angela scoffs as she walks over to the coffee machine
"People can be deceiving, Manager."
"Please exercise caution."
She places down a coffee mug infront of him before stepping back
The manager looks at all of the files on his desk submitted via yesod
"This is the first day the guy's department is activated and he already submits me an entire day's worth of work"
"Looks like I have my night cut out for me."
The manager sighs before taking a sip of his coffee
"Oh yeah, I was monitoring energy logs and the power on route to information team was cut off."
"Can you see what that's all about?"
Angela nods before swiftly exiting the room
...
"So we're interfering already...?"
Her eyes grow inexplicably cold
"Benjamin."
.
.
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