[ THREAD ] 4TH WALL - DAY FIVE

[neo_mod]

Who: EVERYONE
Where: EVERYWHERE
When: DAY FIVE [December 6]
Summary: The hunt begins.
Rating: Anything.
Other: Don't forget to read this & this. You are free to create your own location threads or hop into someone else's thread. Remember to mark your thread "CLOSED" if you want a limited group. Also, there can be more than one thread per location

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STREETS || ELYSIUM

[bedninja]

Such a lively city! So many people! Pharos was delighted to be in such a place, for the first time since he could remember properly. Of course, he remembered cities, knew a decent enough amount about them, but this was his experience, something he shouldn't have even been allowed to have. Even for someone like him, the city was a very strange little miracle, and though he knew what would happen to all the 'Zeroes' he couldn't bring himself to dislike it. (It wasn't his world to interfere with, after all.)

Pharos was more than happy to walk through the crowd and apologize to whoever he happened to bump into, the grin on his face unperturbed by the cold as his sandals clopped against the ground and his pajamas and hair fluttered in the chilly wind. It hadn't really begun to register to him, because he'd never properly dealt with cold before and just knew that he felt a bit slow, though his lips had turned slightly blue.

It was the first time Pharos had gotten to 'live', and he intended to enjoy it before he had to leave. He just wished he could have shared the experience with Minato.

[npc_tackle]

Tackle looked up immediately at the sound of a familiar voice. That voice: Beta. Beta: his superior. A prompt answer: "Not yet, Miss Beta! But Tackle is heading towards where a Zero was last seen!" The crash of debris and broken concrete, he responded to only with a small blink, waiting for Beta to draw close before he started walking again. His gait was chipper and quick, but with his shorter legs, his attempts to keep up with Beta's quick walk made him look a bit like a struggling puppy. Ah, the troubles of being young.

But no matter. Because down the street, a block and a half away down the corner, Tackle could see the target he'd come searching for. A surprised noise: "Ah!" A point: "There!" An obvious statement: "That is the Zero that Tackle was looking for!" A smile: "Tackle will go eliminate that Zero, then." Everything was perfect and logical, really, and Tackle looked up at Beta, beaming, before trotting off in the Zero's direction. Already, the electricity was building up in his palm, and he approached the other child with a smile.

Calling out with a casual wave of his hand. "Hello!" Trotting right up to Pharos, he gave a cheery smile. "May Tackle have a moment, please?"

[thebet_a]

A pure ungraceful reaction to Tackle’s demeanour was given: a slight flinch, in all in all, Beta had never witnessed something so cheerful and she had to stare wide-eyed at him for a while as they walked down the street. The only thing she could say was a slow mumble of, "Over. There -- ? Well, let’s go..." Her wide-eyed expression didn’t fade and all she did was lean against the alleyway wall and peered around him - letting Tackle trot off after Pharos with herself simply watching. She liked watching, it’s all she really did in NeoGenesis really.

The kid was a total creep. Actually. He looked like a creep. And she liked Tackle. Even if he was a weirdo. And perhaps with her un-required attachment and ‘best wishes’ to her co-workers that she decided that she would hang around with Tackle a bit more. Maybe it was that - that, womanly instincts that told her to keep a eye on the oblivious Omega agent. And she quickly shook her head and mumbled to herself, "This is stupid." Letting out a flimsy sigh.

She didn’t move from her spot, but with her pink hair over his shoulders in a crouching position that peered pass the corner, it was denial to not see that Beta could be simply amiss.

[bedninja]

Pharos didn't quite catch on at first that Tackle was speaking to him, and he would've simply continued walking if he hadn't seen the boy smiling out of him out of the corner of his eye. For a moment the boy just blinked up at him, eyes staring widely and curiously up at the other boy. "Are you speaking to me?" He asked, tilting his head to the side, fingers clasped behind his back. He wasn't really used to people talking to him.

The answer was a bit obvious, though, and after a second a strange look of realization crossed the boys face. "Oh, you are!" Pharos said, suddenly grinning once more. "Hello. I was wondering when I would meet you." His entire upper half leaned to the side as he peered past Tackle, staring with two-toned blue eyes through the small crowd at Beta and waving. "I think your friend is watching us." He said, and after a moment added, "Oh, her hair is so bright! Is it supposed to be like that?"

[npc_tackle]

"Yes, Tackle is speaking to Zero." Answered promptly with zero hesitation. That cheerful, almost clueless smile sprawling across his feature remained that way -- until Pharos spoke. It was then that the smile faltered a tiny bit into one of confusion. A pause. "Does Zero know Tackle?" A slight sideways cant of the head as Tackle peered into Pharos' face -- no. No matter how much he thought about it, he wasn't familiar with anyone like this Zero. Maybe they were mistaken? It was possible. Unlikely, but possible.

Regardless, when Pharos looked towards, Beta also followed suit before giving an enthusiastic nod -- his smile bounced back to its previous brightness. "Yes! That is Miss Beta, she is very pretty. As far as Tackle knows, Miss Beta's hair has always been that shade."

The smile on his face didn't waver at all, and there was no indication that he was doing anything special at all when he reached out and placed his right hand on Pharos' shoulder. Instantly, 500 kilovolts of electricity moved from Tackle's palm straight through Pharos' clothes and into his body, flooding the nerves. It should have been immediately paralyzing.

[thebet_a]

She had to sigh, she really did. When Pharos pointed her out in the amidst of crowded people and asked Tackle who she was -- she puffed up her cheek’s childishly and scratched one with a purple-painted fingernail before releasing her breath. She stood up and started to slowly walk over to them, of course the skin of her face changed into a somewhat deeper shade of pink when Tackle called her pretty, and she was about to prop her fists on her hips and give out a lecture that co-workers shouldn’t hit on their superiors!

Or that was until she saw the faint bolts of electrons bubbling around Tackle’s fingertips and reached forward to Pharos, she scratched behind her ear sheepishly and lowered her head in total defeat, standing but a mere three away from the two children.

"...Is that it? -- Is that it?" She asked in something akin to minor disbelief, she thought that all the, the Omega agents were proficient in gross ghastly deeds, but the electricity seemed a bit unpredictable. Placing a hand on Tackle’s head and using him as a makeshift stand, Beta looked at the boy who was formerly electrocuted and spoke, "That was pretty quick."

[bedninja]

"Pharos." The boy said, as Tackle insisted on calling him Zero, his chest puffing out slightly; he was very clearly rather proud of his name, since he'd thought of it all on his own and it fit her rather well, he thought, and it was his. So he should be called that, definitely.

He stood up straight once more, grin only brightening when he looked at Tackle once more. Pharos knew that there were many awful people in the city, despite it being such a miraculous and strange place, and he was rather pleased to have gotten someone so nice. "She is very pretty," he said, head bobbing in agreement, "and so colorful! You should make a move soon if you want to."

The boys entire body twitched in a small convulsion at the electricity, surging through his little body, and he promptly fell over and landed with a muted 'thud' in a conveniently placed pile of snow-- but as Beta walked over, the boys lips curved into a strange smile, and while one second he was there the next he simply wasn't.

A hand reached out from Tackle's side to tug at his sleeve, and Pharos smiled up at him. "I do not mean to cause you an inconvenience," he said, seeming almost a little guilty, "but this will buy us both more time."

[npc_tackle]

"Pharos. Tackle is sorry about this, Pharos." The words escaped his lips the moment that the boy hit the ground, and Tackle smile was still firmly in place, even as he lowered his hand -- electricity still arcing in faint lightning-blue strands between his fingertips -- and touched the conductor-strip at his belt to dissipate the remaining sparks before reaching for his pistol.

But in the moment that he blinked, the body had vanished. "... eh?" He couldn't help vocalizing a small, confused sort of noise -- looking up when Beta's hand touched the top of his head. "Miss Beta." His smile had flickered for a moment, revealing a childish expression of confusion, and he pointed at the unoccupied ground with his free hand as he glanced up at Beta. "Pharos just --"

THe tug at his sleeve made his look over, and he merely gave Pharos a confused stare. This was highly illogical. Perhaps Pharos was a teleporter? It was possible, but unlikely. Maybe he'd missed the mark? But that was also unlikely, even more so than Pharos being a teleporter. This didn't make sense. Giving Pharos a small sideways cant of the head, Tackle instead looked up at Beta. Silently asking, 'What should Tackle do?"

[thebet_a]

Beta wasn’t the type to lose sight of anything. And the moment that the boy disappeared, she was in a frenzy of looking around for him. Her slender spidery fingers tensed on Tackle’s scalp and she glanced down at the boy who tugged at Tackle’s sleeve. In an instant, her free hand reached for the katana that hanged at her hip and released it from the sheath, not understanding the babble that came from both of the children.

"Do what you are ordered to do." Was the simple reply she gave to Tackle, and being who she was, Beta instinctively moved forward to place herself in front of Tackle, as though she was protective of her co-worker. But who could deny that his attitude was almost addicting to keep it as such?

"That is to destroy him, every inch." Her own movements were something unreal as she leaped over into a flip over Pharos and lowered herself, doing a sidewards sweep of the sword aimed at Pharos’s legs.

[bedninja]

Immediately after he spoke, Pharos pulled his hand away, glanced down at it for a moment as the two exchanged looks-- it was the first time he'd ever reached out for someone. It was strange. Was he worried? ...perhaps. He could still feel the electricity jolting through him, trying to find nerves to paralyze or veins to run through but finding none. Pharos wasn't human. He wasn't anything, not properly. So it just bounced around inside the darkness with nowhere to go. Even if he couldn't feel it properly, it was still strange, still unpleasant. He shivered.

He only looked up when he he felt Beta flipping over him, and immediately his mouth opened in a slight 'o' shape as he watched-- and when she landed, attempting to cut his legs, he was gone again, reappearing a moment later where she'd been standing previously, still at Tackle's side. "That was very impressive, 'Miss Beta'." He commented, expression similar to that of a child who has just been shown an amazing trick. "I would expect no less of someone working with Minato."

[npc_tackle]

'Do what you are ordered to do.' "Understood." Though the answer came immediately, Tackle still spent a good long moment or two staring at where Pharos was -- or rather, where Pharos had been and vanished before reappearing. It really didn't make sense, and Tackle wondered whether he should attempt to shove Pharos again. -- no, he couldn't. A quick assessment of the electricity buildup in his palm wasn't enough to have any significant effect. Which left only his gun.

So when Pharos flickered back into sight, Tackle simply wrapped an arm around the boy's shoulders, pulling him close into something resembling a loose hug. "Tackles wishes that Pharos would please stop moving." The smile was still firmly in place as his other hand -- now holding the pistol he'd pulled free of its holster -- pressed the barrel of the gun against Pharos' side and pulled the trigger. With any luck, the bullet should have bored a sizable hole through the child's midsection.

[thebet_a]

Eliminate the threat. Eliminate the treat. Eliminate the threat. It was a soft-spoken mantra that was spurring through the pink-hair’s mind as she watched the body suddenly dissolve and only to be back at Tackle’s side. Her gold hues searched every detail of the young boy, and his compliments to her went completely unheard of. Her own seriousness of the situation held her expression into something that resembled a firm demeanour. Her knee was smacked down on the cement that erupted into debris once again.

And she just simply watched Tackle remove the gun from his hoister and pointing it at Pharos’s midsection. Though, Beta questioned whether this boy was one of a physical entity. But Beta came to the decision that if Tackle was holding him in the loose embrace, then it must be. Her stance stood firm just as stiff as it was when she landed the blow with the katana laid down in front of her, fingers gripped at the handle and she was silent, watching for any after-effects of the bullet that barreled through the younger’s body.

[bedninja]

As soon as the arm was around him, Pharos froze, staring up with at the ash-blond boy, wide and two-toned blue eyes locked on brown. It was the first time he had ever received anything resembling a hug, and the first time someone had reached out for him.

The small boy did not move in time (or did not try to) and the bullet hit it's mark, tearing through his side with an odd sort of squelching sound and popping out the other side soon after with just as much speed, as if his body had given it little to no resistance. Instead of blood, inky black spilled out of the two wounds, making the white stripes on his pajamas wherever it touched fade into darkness. "Oh." He said, more to himself than anything, appearing vaguely confused for a moment, "Oh. I think... is this what is called 'pain'?"

Pharos reached up, placed a hand on the other boys cheek, fingertips trembling even though he didn't realize, the fingers of his other hand curling in Tackle's. "You hugged me. No one has ever done that." And after a moment he smiled, if a bit sadly, and a dribble of inky black spilled out from between his lips. "I have enjoyed my time in this city quite a bit. But now, I can't give you any more time. I'm very sorry. Don't worry though." He paused, briefly, and his smile brightened, if only a little. "I'll come to get you later, and perhaps we can be friends."

[npc_tackle]

Pulling away a small amount, but still keeping his arm around Pharos in order to prevent the boy from running away or moving, Tackle looked intently into Pharos' face. 'A hug?' It really hadn't been intended as such -- merely a maneuver to prevent any further escape. But in retrospect, it had been sort of like a hug, hadn't it? The smile on Tackle's face wavered for the briefest moment as he answered, "Tackle did not mean it as a hug. But it seems like a hug. So Tackle is glad if Pharos appreciated it."

A rather odd thing to say, especially as the boy's black blood splattered on the pavement around them. It stained invisible on Tackle's black suit, but he was quite aware of the streaks it left on Pharos' own clothes.

Regardless, Tackle neatly stowed his pistol away before giving a firm nod, his smile back to its usual brightness. "Tackle does not understand, but Tackle would like to be friends with Pharos. Maybe Tackle will not have to eliminate Pharos again once this job is complete!" Gripping Pharos' hand in his own, he looked to Beta with a bright smile. "Is that correct, Miss Beta?" He looked quite oblivious to how strange the sight must have seemed -- him standing there, holding the dying boy's body in his arm, black liquid splashing on the pavement in an inky mess.

[thebet_a]

She watched the whole seem with intense boredom; Pharos should have died, and just collapsed to the floor. That was the logical thought, really. And she didn’t care to see Tackle and him hug so -- so…sweetly. Either way, she gave a sigh and stood up from her crouching stance and let a hand run through her hair, saying in a firm tone with a shrug to answer Tackle, "How should I know?" Not wanting to break Tackle’s heart in saying that in order for Tackle and Pharos to be friends, they’d both have to end up dead. There was some place people liked to believe called heaven after they died, right?

And it wasn’t like Tackle was going to die anytime soon, so Beta wouldn’t have to worry about that.

As far as she was concerned, they finished their job, but she sighed heavily again at this scene. It was, to her, like one of those bad scenes out of movies where the lovers were just at a realization that they loved one another, only for them to die in one another’s arms.

What a stupid thought. None of that stuff was real. And Beta walked over to Pharos with her lips scrunching up, and she asked Tackle sternly, " -- Are you finished with him yet? We have a lot more to kill." Though, with a hard yank, she gripped her fingers around Tackle’s arm and pulled him away from the dying boy in order to let Pharos collapse on the ground, and with the heel of her foot starting to slam down on Pharos’s skull, there was no doubt going to be a cracking sound of their victory by destroying one of their targets.

[bedninja]

"I'll look forward to it." The boy said, though his voice was beginning to sound a bit weak. Despite being 'in pain' and 'dying', Pharos couldn't bring himself to regret the past few days he had spent within the city. He had gotten to see many places and talk to many people, go down into the slums and the brightest places he could find, and talked to so many different people. He had been given the chance to live as a human for a few days, even though the black 'blood' staining his clothing and skin attested to something entirely different, and he would not trade the experience for the world. Especially not when he might've made a new friend.

He frowned a little bit at Beta though, and once Tackle was pulled away from him he realized that his legs were having a bit of trouble holding him up. He wobbled slightly and then fell to the ground, landing with another little muted 'thud'. He looked to the side and saw white snow stained gray-black, looked up at saw Beta above him-- and suddenly he smiled, eyes hidden by his bangs as he said, "It was a shame I could not meet your brother. It will have to wait until your time is up as well."

And then the shoe came down on his head, and with another strange squelching noise Pharos' head--and then entire body--turned into black blood, spreading out across the ground in a large puddle.