[O] 17's Battalion at Kirono Village

[Burter]

PCs: A-17, Kid Buu, Wart (NPC)


*arrives in front of village*

[Android 17]

Seventeen sighed as his men gathered around the camp fire. Aggravation was plastered across all of their faces, and the android stood perched near the epicenter of the light as the apex of their agitation. His men had been poised to annex Kirono Village to expand their living space, but just as the machine-hybrid was prepared to issue the order to invade, he received a most distressing note straight from the persons running the game.

Syntech had finally fallen before the might of the Dante Forces, and with the complete destruction of one of the principal armies, a thousand extra troops were queued up for the remaining three forces. Of course, this meant very little to the android until he realized that he needed to be at a base to summon and distribute the new soldiers into the units under his leadership.

Just around the moment he received the update from the people overseeing the contest, Seventeen received a passive aggressive message from the forces at Dante in the adjacent region. While he was prepared to call them on their threats, the resistance from Kirono and the fact that he would have at least a thousand less men than them sealed his decision to depart from the region.

Although he would have been prepared to give his all for his men, the onyx-haired commander wasn?t ready to lead them into a slaughterhouse. The odds were already against them and being down a thousand soldiers wouldn?t accomplish much in the means of garnering an advantage. Nevertheless, Seventeen understood that his troops were perturbed by the lack of activity.

The machine-hybrid didn?t blame their behavior, because he was also beginning to despise the lack of conflict. Wandering around telling stories and getting drunk was fun and all, but after two weeks the entertainment can turn sour. There were no stories exchanged around the fireplace tonight, because each and every Outcast situated around the fire wore the same angered, apathetic expression.

Seventeen could tell that the apathy was like wildfire across his ranks?each and every day that transpired seemed to leave more soldiers with that same distasteful look upon their grungy, unclean visages. The android let out a sigh as he knocked a wayward log into the inferno. A few idle beads of sweat glistened upon the young man?s forehead as he stared into the void of orange and yellow.

He would never understand what about fires had such a calming effect upon the human psyche, but for one reason or another, all Seventeen say when he looked into the fire was an amalgamation of sweltering flames dancing around as they reached toward the night sky. Why did the inferno even bother? After all, in the end it was going to collapse to the ground and be smothered by its own children?its once intense beauty asphyxiated beneath the ashes it had given birth to.

Maybe it was Seventeen?s cybernetic component that overrode his inborn, primitive instincts to be soothed by the flame. In the end, the android realized that it was fruitless of him to contemplate such philosophies about his origins. He knew better than to thing he knew a shred of information about his inorganic heritage. The machine-hybrid?s fingers moved to his neck?the clammy digits began to tremble as they glided over the steel collar.

It would have been so simple for the android to wrench the steel from his neck and escape from the contest. The only downside to escaping from the game on his terms was the fact that he?d be inadvertently liberating himself from the mortal coil as well. If anything was worse than the current situation, it would be spending a few more months with that ridiculous demi-god and his spastic animal pals.

The android lowered his hand back to his side and caught something out of the corner of his eye. Following his gaze, Seventeen noticed Kid Buu staring at him from the opposing side of the fire. The little monster stood with a characteristic scowl on his face as he stared at the cyborg through the flames. How long had the golem been observing him?

Unable to exert the energy to contemplate the puttalin?s mental process, the android opted to wave at the child-sized monster. Once he realized that the android was aware of his presence, Kid Buu walked away?it was exactly the reaction that Seventeen had hoped for. With the bubblegum-colored wraith no longer watching him through the pyre, the onyx-haired youth got off his haunches.

It?d still be a little while longer before his men arrived back at a more hospitable location, and Seventeen still had a great deal of work that needed to be finished. Since he was unable to relax at the campfire for one reason or another, the machine-hybrid deduced he?d probably be better off within the confines of his dark, evacuated tent. Inside the darkness, he would be able to find relative peace from the insanity that entailed the events unfolding on the continent.

And even if the moment of tranquility was fleeting, Seventeen wasn?t prone to let it slip through his greedy fingers. The android had done too much and come too far to breakdown for such inane reasons. Dante?s Abyss may have been an invigorating game to some, but to the android it represented a circus designed for the sole purpose of testing one?s mind. You can either fail miserably and exited the games with some type of mental stigmata, or you can rise above the challenges and emerged a better person in the end.

All the android could do at this point was hope to high heaven that someone was looking down upon him favorably for this version of Dante?s Abyss?and hope Seventeen did.

OOC: I'm not longer at Kirono =o