Back Into Shadows

[Mogar]

Mediating at the Buddhist Temple atop Devil's Peak, Mogar looked upon the wondrous city, lightning in the distance, a storm and the rains coming once more. The City was everything he had gone beyond his dreams for Tripoli, people of every ethnicity and religion all living together, technology and the internet available for every man woman and child. The City's buildings were far superior to MoG[Tower], newly designed structures were popping up constantly, each able to survive nearly anything up to a nuclear strike. Although it wasn't his dream this City was by far the closest to his vision besides perhaps Ceylon of old, but they had left for the stars long ago. The preparations for the excursion to a MoG[Corp] base Masami Midori had set up after the corporation's fall, dozens were scattered across Africa. The research these bases delved into became progressively more extreme as they did not have to follow his morality anymore, not to mention once news of his death had been announced, some of the more fanatical had a by any means policy in order to try to recover Mogar once more.

 

Micheline Leon was across the city at her desk, finalizing a flight plan and ensuring everything needed would be on board the craft and ready to go, it was stressful doing all this without so much as an interview with the guy they would be tasked with protecting and knowing much about where they were going besides its location and that it was a research base, but she had prepared for nearly every contingency she could think up. Finally she sighed and went home for the night, a final evening before takeoff and meeting this character.

[Mogar]

Waiting at the airfield holding an umbrella, Micheline sighed, Mogar was late as she had expected, but finally her digital eyes caught view of the car a half mile away, turning into the airfield. The aircraft was already loaded, fueled, and contained the ten man squad of soldiers who were going to be doing the grunt work of the mission. the car pulled up and Micheline stood with a hand on her hip for him to get out of the car, extending it to him a few moments later when he actually got out.

"Hello, You must be Mogar, I'm Micheline and will be working with you to accomplish this mission, nice to finally meet you in person. Are you prepared to depart Sir?" Mogar looked around after stepping out of the car appearing seeming lost to Micheline, but was really enjoying the feeling of the rain on his skin for a moment before acknowledging her presence. After finally shaking her still extended hand, he said "Nice to meet you as well, I am sure we will get along wonderfully, if everyone else is ready, I don't mind starting this journey, we have a few hours of travel time to go over any questions you might have and get to know each other better!"

Micheline forced a smile and gestured towards the open door a few meters away, following him onto the aircraft and pressing the button to shut it behind her. Pressing her earbud she told the pilot to begin takeoff and sat across from Mogar, securing herself and watching him do the same. She could tell he was obviously uncomfortable with flying, probably the least of his quirks she would soon find out.
 
After about 45 minutes flight time she felt it was time to find out what she could about what their intentions even were here, since it just didn't add up to her. Mogar smiled at her intuitiveness "Well, there are many projects from MoG[Corp] I would really not want to have to put forth the effort in order to research a second time, having all that data would make recreating product lines and projects I was forced to abandon due to my arrest, imprisonment, and alleged death. This is a tough world, I'd rather not make it any harder for myself personally."
 
Micheline sighed, "That doesn't really answer my question though, you don't need a full squad of men to grab a few servers, do you?" Laughing Mogar replied "You guys are coming along because I have never been to this facility or have any real idea of what its status is, for all I know there could still be dozens of scientists working to try to bring me back from the dead, or it could just be a hole in the ground, retaken by the jungle long ago. You understand why I wanted to make sure I had backup now, right?" She nodded, content with the answer for now. Mogar knew he had satisfied her curiosity for now and leaned his head back, attempting to catch a few moments sleep through the roar of the engines outside.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Mogar

[Mogar]

The facility turned out to be much different than described since the jungle had long since reclaimed it, although it was still noticeable from the sky. They landed as close as possible and began a short trek to the facility. Micheline couldn't help but notice Mogar seemed far more relaxed than anyone else on this trek, they could be walking into a trap for all anyone else knew, but he seemed perfectly at home in the wilds. The team continued into the entrance, splitting up into fire teams on either side, a panel on one side was glowing, Mogar typed in a pass code and the door shuddered open, dust filling the air as though it had not moved in centuries.

"I thought you had never been here before Mogar? How did you know how to get in like you own the place?" Mogar shot her a grin "I DO own the place, my name's on the building after all, every facility MoG[Corp] ever had was designed to allow me access. I took a shot in the dark that they continued the practice of adding in my backdoor even without me around to tell them to, I trained good employees obviously."

Lights turned on as they began exploring the facility. The internals were far more preserved, besides a thick layer of dust it felt like there could be people still working here somewhere. The group came to a crossroads, Mogar glanced at Micheline, "Split up into three groups and look for the control room? this facility is one of the larger ones MoG[Corp] constructed, it could take us days to find what I am looking for if we stay together." She nodded in agreement, Alpha and Bravo, you know what to do, the rest of you come with us, radio in if you find anything." The teams nodded and went left and right, The third group kept going forward.

 

Alpha would find some type of botanical garden, reporting this in, Mogar merely asked them to put the thumb drive every member on the team was given into the computer and let it do its job making a perfect copy of the hard drives attached to said computer, perks of Moore's law Mogar thought to himself.

 

Bravo would find... something. They radioed back in about the massive hole, Micheline began wondering to herself what exactly went on down here and where everybody disappeared to for that matter. Mogar told them to keep searching and radio in should they find anything moving, and of course to retrieve any data from any computer terminals they might find along the way.

 

Mogar, Micheline and the two that came along with them would find the most interesting room, a cryogenics lab with stasis pods, most of them appearing to be full, Mogar spent a few moments on one of the desks "What an unexpected surprise, perhaps some of those faithful employees are still around after all these years..."

Edited March 14, 2014 by Mogar

[Mogar]

Mogar walked into the cryogenics lab with Micheline, two men following us, the lights in the room slowly turned on revealing the nature of the room, you could see a look of interest appear across his face, five units stood in the center of the room, monitors covering the walls with all sorts of statistics. he sat down on at the closest desk, quickly accessing the computer, trying to find out who was in these tubes, three were still active, two unfortunate souls would never wake up from their frosty nap "What an unexpected surprise, perhaps some of those faithful employees are still around after all these years..."

 

Micheline walks by his side, looking back at the two men and then down at Mogar. "It's amazing what technology can do, sir. I wouldn't have imagined this was possible in millions of years." She chuckled, "Well, maybe not millions." Micheline said approaching one of the tubes. Mogar looked up at her briefly "Once we get back to Cape City with the research we've gathered I'll show you even more wonders. That one you're appears to be a young blonde, late teens with an unknown blood disease... it says they found her in Romania and were going to use her for..." trailing off with a few more clicked liquids would begin pumping into the three remaining tubes, "next to her is the head researcher for this facility, not sure why she would be frozen, but nothing else has seemed right about this, the third is a male, mid thirties, same blood disease but they don't elaborate, whatever it is must have been something important anyway"

 

He leaned back in his chair before spinning around out of boredom, stopping when facing Micheline "So tell me about yourself, we have plenty of time to kill and I unfortunately didn't bring a movie for this little journey. How long have you been playing soldier?"  Micheline looked over at him and rolled her eyes with a chuckle. "I've been playing soldier as long as the economy has been tanking in the world." She walked back over to him and sat down at a nearby desk. "I started off as an International Relations major when Transvaal was still a thing, but after that went up in smoke, my brother and I joined a paramilitary service company, I had some background in training. So then after so many different stints, I'm here. Watching you. Because the profile said you'd be high risk and the pay would be good." She looked back over at the tubes. "I won't try to make end points with the blood diseases. That's not my field."  Mogar grinned at her "Me? I would never be high risk. I have probably been in more combat than those weekend cowboys," gesturing to the men standing out of earshot at the doorway "I certainly won't be cowering when bullets or explosions start happening, you are definitely a good choice for them to send along, you're more interesting than anyone else on this little adventure. What else was in that file of yours anyway? I would think they wouldn't know everything about you."

 

"Well, my brother John is dead, that wasn't in there. He died during a raid in Sierra Leone. But I mean I'm not sure, not like I get to see my own file. It's like a letter of recommendation, you know. They don't want you changing it." She leaned back, "What do you want to know?" They sat in silence for a moment before he replied, "They didnt provide me with much besides the relations degree, and you seem interesting enough that i want to get to know you better, not sure what you read in my background, but I had alot of bodyguards when I was CEO, and you certainly would be a worthy candidate if they still existed, you seem witty enough i may have to hire you when this is all over, I'm sure I can beat what you're getting paid now and provide you with a more exciting lifestyle than babysitting old men, I'd imagine the lack of grey hair came as a shock to you" he said with a laugh.

 Micheline turned away with a suddenly blush and then looked back with a smirk as she pushed a strand of blonde hair from her eyes. "That'd be nice. I like South Africa, it's where I was born and to live in the Cape would be truly amazing. Plus, you're the first person I've been on job for where I wasn't treated like either hired labor or someone who they want to sex."  Mogar twisted in his chair, "well..... I can't deny you're quite attractive, but I could understand that most wealthy people see women as toys, I prefer something a bit more unique than just a doll, if you already have such power why not seek out a girl able to weld power like you?" he looked back at the computer screen, ensuring everything was proceeding as intended, "Besides, i'm sure you get some resentment from these guys, soldiers don't usually like orders from females, I learned that in Tripoli."

 

 Micheline looked back at the two suits and then at Mogar. "It's a man's world, I'm sure you understand that. I hate it. " Laughing she looked over at the tubes. "Though if you're hinting that I have even a little bit of power like you, you're being way too kind to me." Mogar  smiled at her "it might be a man's world, but women are far more fluid to interact with, men don't have the same degree of subtlety, not to mention women are MUCH better negotiators, i could sell my soul to a girl if she makes sure to ask at the right moment, in fact that may have happened once or twice." laughing at the thoughts, "I'll definitely have to have a discussion with your bosses when we get home, and Please, you are definitely worthy of praise, I could tell you've been doing this job for far too long without receiving your due."

 

 Micheline chuckles and stands up walking over to the tubes again. "And how old were these girls who you sold your soul too, if you don't mind me asking, sir." Mogar ponders for a moment, "age is an interesting thing in this world, isnt it? if I had to guess I would say she would have been in her mid 20s, but her real age... I couldn't begin to guess. Surely you've wondered about my own birth date in your dossier on me, right?" She just shrugged, "I figured you were humble. It was just left blank. I'd say late 20s?" he chose his words carefully before replying,"physically, you're correct, in real time I would be over 100 years old, if we're counting the encounters with death, but since escaping Athens death hasn't been much of a fear anymore.." their conversation would be cut short by the beeping of one of the cryo tubes, the teenager would be awake shortly. Micheline opened her eyes wide. "Wait...what, death?" Then the tubes opened, cutting her short as she saw the teenager's eyes open.
 

Edited April 8, 2014 by Mogar

[Mogar]

Mogar rushed to the girl's side, the pillow talk would have to wait. He had been reading a few files in the computer on proper techniques on the treatment of cryonic patients and began talking slowly and clearly a few basic questions were expected to be asked to check for brain damage.  "Welcome back to the world of the living, My name's Mogar, according to the computer you have been asleep for nearly 30 years. I unfortunately didn't catch your name in the files on you, do you remember your name?"

 

Micheline sat on the other side, there was something strange about this girl but if she had been frozen for 30 years she might seem strange too she thought to herself. Mogar gestured at the soldiers "Hey, one of you grunts, bring an MRE over here, this girl is probably starving." Salih Alvey, the taller of the two begrudgingly obliged, quite impatient to finish this mission asap and get the hell away from such an arrogant employer. Abd al-Karim El-Hashem kept watch, smiling at the fact Salih was getting mad for having to actually do something.

 

The girl looked around, taking stock of her surroundings. "I am.... Antansija," shaking her head quickly "My name is Narcisa, where is Malaika? She said she would wake me up." Mogar pointed to the tube next to her, "I believe Dr. Stidolph is who you're talking about? She'll be defrosted soon enough, don't worry." he smiled and held out his hand to help her out of the tube, letting her stretch her legs and move around. Mogar walked over to Abd Al-Karim, whispering in his ear, then Abd Al-Karim left the room.

 

Micheline sat back down at the desk they were at previously, watching the girl talk with Salih while he was boiling the MRE, looking incredibly bored and constantly looking back at Micheline. Mogar sat down next to Micheline "You might want to turn around, and perhaps put in earplugs." he said quietly, keeping careful eye on Narcisa. By that point the remaining guard was in a trance, docile enough for Narcisa to tackle to the floor, the sounds of teeth tearing flesh, the feeding habits of vampires were fascinating, so long as he wasn't the one being fed upon.

 

Micheline gasped, horrified at the turn of events and turned around, shooting Mogar a glare "What is she? why did you let her do that?" Eyes never leaving Narcisa, he replied "She is a vampire, she DID technically tell you this, but in Romanian unfortunately, and as a vampire she was required to feed, my rather limited choices were myself, you, or one of the stooges, the other is currently headed over to the living area with the giant hole, and upon his return we will explain there was an accident that couldn't be helped."

Edited April 13, 2014 by Mogar