Endgame Earth

[Ventus Fall]

"I have a propesition to make, Nova. If you even threaten me or do any harm to me or my..." It looked up and down at the Consumer next to itself. "My friend here, you will be putting yourself in even greater danger. You can reason with me, but with these creatures by their own?"

The Voice paused for a brief moment, giving a quick glance at Jave and Sarah. It whispered to them: "I'm not dumb nor deaf. I can hear you too fine. Don't you dare put yourselves in danger. Unless you want to put yourself in a situation where you'll hurt either Himawari or yourselves?"
It looked back up at Nova, the Consumer next to it was getting uneasy.


"If you don't meet my demands every one of you will die. There is a whole horde waiting out there and..." It lowered its voice, "Around the building, underneath it probably too. You are already in danger far more than you could have thought."

[Byracka]

Sarah stopped dead in her tracks, spun around and aimed her gun towards Himawari and the consumer, unsure of whom to protect herself from. A small heap of snow formed at the end of her feet, she held the gun steadily with two hands, yet the iron sight refused to stop shaking. As did her voice. “Jave” she whispered furiously. “You are still on all four!”

Jave held the other gun loosely in his palm, his mind told him to run and stay at the same time. At the end his legs had the final saying and thusly refused to budge. “I’m sorry” the gun slanted more. “I can’t” and it fell to a bed of snow.

Sarah eyes twitched from left to forth, from forth to right and around all over again. She felt her heart dropping, as if her entire being fell down into an abyss. Her senses darkened for every tear that dripped down into the Snow below Jave, darkened by every quiet whimper that was drowned out by the overwhelming silence between the negotiators. Himawari, if that still was her, she didn’t have the same spark in her eyes any longer. No matter how depressed Sarah had seen her she always had that small resemblance of hope in her eyes. It didn’t matter if it was all faked, it helped many times. It was gone now, replaced with the dried out eyes of a suffocated fish. But what made her feel even worse was the machine that spoke with Nova’s voice. How her leader was now replaced by a pile of mechanized death.

Himawari spoke about them being surrounded. The paranoia set in. Sarah swore she could hear consumers crawling just outside her view. Still aiming at Himawari and the consumer she began to imagine that she would tap her trigger just by her shaking. She loosened her grip, maybe running like nuts would only get them killed. Best hear Himawari’s demands.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova wasn't sure how much to believe, and how much was just bluffing. They couldn't possibly have gotten the area surrounded, could they? He guessed he didn't really put anything past those super consumers, especially with that internal force of Himawari's at the helm... He looked to the side of the image being shown to him on the screen, saw Jave and Sarah backed helplessly against the wall, and Jave especially was in no condition to fight. If he was quick, he could shoot down the consumer, perhaps incapacitate Himawari, and get into some kind of defensive position... maybe... But he remembered that all throughout his campaign as the leader of this resistance, one of his driving motivations had always been to never leave a fellow fur behind, to work to save as much of his own kind as he could, especially when risking their lives was for such an uncertain outcome. Frustrated, he clenched his teeth and made as tight of a fist as he could around the joysticks controlling the robot, fingers itching to pull the triggers and blow all of these problems away and start an uncontrollable maelstrom of chaos that would eventually end itself for better or for worse but at least it wouldn't be standing here negotiating! But again he saw Jave and Sarah, he saw Himawari, whom he still intended to try and save, and ultimately he knew that he had no right to inflict any more pain upon them.


    He dropped his hands and stood back from the console, took a breath, and stepped up again to speak into the mic.


    "What do you want?" he said firmly, putting immense effort into making sure his voice didn't tremble or betray weakness. "I won't put my friends in any more danger... so again, if you're going to speak, then do it! But what could I, what could we, possibly do to benefit you? Why don't you just try and slaughter us all where we stand if you're so goddamn powerful!"

   

[Ventus Fall]

The Voice was slightly irritated at how Sarah and Jave were still trying to get out of this situation in their own way,
but luckily they seemed to have partially decided to at least let it rest and submit to their current fate.
It smiled when Sarah was shaking her gun at it.


It looked up again at Nova and grinned. "Yes, well, I would prefer if I can take at least one or two of you furry creatures with me. I promise you I will do them no harm. Once I'm done with them, I will release them, meaning I will not kill them either. They can join up with your group if they want to or go their own way after that," it said in an as-neutral-as-possible voice.

[Luke White-Heart]

Luke, hearing raised voices, rushed back into the vault to find Nova arguing with a computer monitor. At first, he thought Nova had finally lost it, then he ralized Himawari was on the other end of the connection. Luke ran over to Nova, concern in his eyes. With paw-signals, he tried to communicate What do you want me to do?

[NovaAurora]

    Nova shot Luke a dead serious look and held up a finger, indicating he shouldn't try and do anything at the moment. He mouthed the word "listen" and gestured at the screen, so that Luke would know exactly what was going on. Turning back to the mic he said, "You want me to give you some of my own? How can I possibly trust-" he stopped himself, realizing that of course he could never trust the voice, and that any convincing it tried to do had to be taken with a grain of salt. But if the only way to get out of this mess was to merely risk some of their deaths instead of assuring them, then he would have to take that risk. "Fine." he said at length. "You can take them... but only if they consent! If not we will fight you to the end... Now... which ones of us do you wish to take? I should tell you I offer myself willingly if you wish to have me..."

[Luke White-Heart]

"No!" shouted Luke. He instantly regretted it when Nova shot him and silencing stare. But Nova was a leader, and, while a great fighter, that's what he needed to be. So Luke whispered, "I'll go. I can handle myself if...anything happens." He glanced around the room. "They need you, Nova. You can't negotiate with lunatics. Especially HUMAN lunatics."

[Ventus Fall]

"I suspected there would be a lot of fuss about it, even if I cannot perceive it all what's going on at your side, Nova. Which is why I'll make it easy for you. You have two choices." It looked down at Jave and Sarah, suddenly wondering that it should give itself a proper name. But what kind of name?
It shrugged it off and continued talking to Nova: "Either you let me take these two instead or you choose amongst each other which of you will go. Fight over it for all I care, though it would amuse me."
The Voice looked for a brief moment at the two furry creatures and spoke softly: "I hope you'll consent... For your sake and the others."
It stared towards the robot, waiting for a reply. "Well? What will it be?"

[Byracka]

Jave clenched his fists, half melted snow dripped between his fingers. His breath was deep and filled both lungs to their aching limit. No exhale, only inner heartbeats that echoed within the chest. For a minute all the worlds thoughts entered and leaved, told their reasoning and calculations, fears and predictions. Then two pillars of air rose from his nostrils, a dense cloud of worries that shot out in one pant. Jave looked at his fists and then closed his eyes.

“I’ll come with you”

Sarah dropped her aim and both shoulders locked themselves in a tense pose. Her eyes dried in the wind as she stared, they soon started to tear up.

“No! You can’t!”

“I can” he answered and gradually stood up, lost balance for a moment, felt nauseous, head started spinning, pain came back, he fell down again. Seconds later Jave tried to stand up another time, but this moment his legs failed him even quicker.
“I can” No one but himself heard those words, they were too quiet. Maybe they were thoughts or whispers, it didn’t matter. The fourth try he found balance and in a second he regained strength and hoisted himself up on both feet with striking ease. Then he noticed Sarah standing beside him, locking his arm around her shoulders, lifting him up.

“We consent” Sarah glared at Himawari.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova watched in breathless silence as his friends offered themselves to the faceless beast inside Himawari. He felt himself get weak and quivery as he watched Jave try to stand, as Sarah uttered those two damning words, as he stood there willingly holding his fire and letting them be taken away. It took a long time for him to compose himself enough to respond, fighting back an incomprehensible mix of anger, sadness, and guilt. Slowly he said through gritted teeth, "So there you have it you... monster. If that's what they want... take them. Take them now before I change my mind and blow you all to hell!" He was nearly sobbing now, panting heavily and gripping the controls with white knuckles. "And not that it means anything to you soulless fiends, but if you so much as inflict a scratch upon them, if they are anything but wholly intact when you return... I swear I will not rest until I have slaughtered each and every one of you or my brains lie scattered across the earth. Now GO!" He could barely stand to look at the screen any longer.

[Ventus Fall]

Himawari tried to scream at her companions, tried to stop the thing controlling her to whatever it was planning. But she realised even if she would be able to take back control of her body, they would all be in a more dangerous position.
The super Consumer next to her would most likely attack her and her anthropomorphic friends, seeing as only 'the voice' was controlling it now in some way. Take that away and they would all be doomed. Also every other Consumer under its command would also just do whatever they wanted by themselves if there would be no more higher power leading them.
She couldn't risk that. Himawari had to suffer and make her friends suffer to make the best out of the situation. Everyone here was in some way a hostage.
Another thing what was bothering Himawari was this 'plan' of this thing. She couldn't sense this plan, meaning it was keeping her in lock down from it.


Himawari decided to keep her mouth shut, literally and figuratively.
Maybe in time it will forget she is still around. When needed, she might be able to save her friends when they really need it and circumstances allow it.


"Fine!" The Voice waved its hands around, addressing every anthropomorphic creature. "Then I guess there is no point in arguing amongst yourselves any longer. To be honest, I'm glad this has been worked out so quickly."
It shifted its attention purely on Nova: "Oh they'll be intact when I'm through with them, don't you worry." An eerie smile crept over its face.
Signing the Consumer to help carefully  carry Jave, it turned around, starting to walk away. "Don't hurt him, he needs to stay alive. Make him not suffer as much as you can. Sarah, just follow me if you will." It glared while turning its head around a bit to look at her and at the fort behind her.

[Byracka]

Jave’s mouth shuddered, short uneven breaths that didn’t catch any air accompanied his blank stare at Sarah, and he looked at her as if to say, I didn’t agree on this. The consumer took a couple of long, dragging steps and picked him up, violently until it understood just how fragile these furs were.


Sarah couldn’t do anything but step out of the way and solemnly follow behind the consumer who was now carrying Jave. On one hand she felt the need to turn around, give a guilty look to Nova, and show him how they were doing this for him and the rest. But she chose not to, perhaps not looking back at all was the more cruel thing to do.


Jave’s arms swayed freely above the ground, he could turn his neck just enough to glance at Himawari. Is she still in there?

[Ventus Fall]

Himawari saw that Jave was hurt pretty badly and was even in a much worse state than when she last saw him. Glancing at Sarah, she could almost feel how pissed off the anthropomorphic creature might be.
Still though, this was better than the alternative.


In the meantime though, 'The Voice' started to come up with a name for itself, but it lacked enough imaginative ability to do so. There were too many names, but all too simple and basic. But perhaps that's just what it needed, a simple, basic name. Easy enough to understand.
It addressed Jave and Sarah while they were still walking, but not looking at them: "Hmm, if I would to have a name, what would it be? I wonder what. Honestly though, could you creatures perhaps mind helping me out here?"
It wasn't only asking because it had trouble coming up with an actual name, but it was also interested in seeing their responses.
While waiting for their response, The Voice kept on talking:
"I must say though, you two gave up pretty quickly. And so did Nova. I was expecting.... more. Somehow a bit more."
It partially glared at Jave, sensing he was looking at him. It saw a tired, but slightly worried look on the furry creature's face. A vile smile crept over its face.