Treacherous
From Infictive
Chuck Crump is wanted for the Krime of pineal trafficking by unknown agencies. He began freelancing again several months ago when in a a bit of a financial rut - a desperate attempt to make ends meet in a dingy fucked up place. He had been involved in Pineal Trafficking before and hence had little to no qualms with accepting a job in this sleazy field. Unfortunately his contractor was most likely someone in The Order of Black-Φ. He was to carry some hate syrup samples with him on a standard repair assignment, his mission is to trade them off for a large pineal dust score in Tageriron. Control knows what's he doing though, the decontamination bays sensed the banned material on his person as he left Malkuth station, not wearing regulatory suits.
Somewhere in the first market place, this lack of a suit works to his disadvantage as he's infected with a Lilithian cluster that begins eating his repair code. He starts binging on strange drugs now, eyes bleeding antilux onto shadow scenes. Chuck knows he has a mission on an instinctual but is lost in a haze. He looks towards where the birds are perched on the gateline, tries to call out to their mechanical sparkling beacon of shielded sentience. They are the ones whom approved the Station upgrades preventing his exit though and all he is met with consist of the incessant mocking squak of Ravens.
He's approaching Tageriron, still carrying the samples, unaware of their purpose, hasn't made any repairs thus far. A man in top hat and gentlemanly ring master suit sits near the side of the tunnel Tzuflifu guards, he's peddling goods out of a wagon. His salesmanship show stops Chuck in his tracks. Chuck is hypnotized into the sales pitch for a low-grade panacea, goes down rough - all work, no reward. Taste beautiful he says, will make poor-Chuck forget all his woes and his mission. Chuck shells out all the change he has in his pocket for this sweet and tart peach colored elixir, then proceeds to fall into a blissful splendor. The tunnels look bright and happy, as though cast in a pink hue. He continues wandering down in the dark and sinister alleyway toward the floodgate, carelessly smiling along the way, forgetting proper Tunnels conduct in his intoxication.
Colonel Purple is sitting in Parfaxitas Lounge, waiting for the trade off with Crump. He sips a steamy hot glass of The Black Elixir and laughs deviously. 9Cubed is on their trail. Ninjas strike out of the Shadows. Sitri's footsteps are silent. Ghost hands of The Black Ones phase through all locale. Silicon micro-circuit is magnetically unfurling in the presence of such large, self-augmenting DOR clusters. Reverberation chamber of malefic tone. Slow and gooey, even when distilled with Liquid NanoLight.
Chuck is sick, deranged, lands in Parfaxitas Lounge (The Lobby of Brenico Towers) after a forced exchanged in Tageririon, Asmoedeus' auditors are after him. He's drunk, challenging people to the Axe Game, Purple sits in a corner, lost in heady trips. Crump is diluted enough to believe he should actually accept the synthesis with the Lilithian virus willingly, he's become a carrier of disease, corrupt KERNEL. In the eyes of O.C. his worth has been reduced to mere Demon-bait, he's dangling from a hook, squirming from tension. It's a question of Crime in Agape, Agape as Crime. 9cubed has become infected from trailing Chuck on the Long Way down. Inspite of the slow goo-time they face Chuck became so confused that Cubed had time to double back in the Tunnels after an initial run on Spark Fragments recovery. Raflifu was supposed to be relaying co-ordinates and altering time to aid the mission but since the Lilith infection spread to Cubed, he has lost the transmissions tuned up on his interface. Slow and mired upside down world.
A note is delivered to Chuck by a poor one-armed mutant messenger boy barring an etheric Black-Φ symbol of servitude on his forehead: "Chuck, you can use the emergency exit if you so choose, but the tunnels will only beacon you back to this locale again until the repairs are complete. You were already an initiate, it was not the purpose of this Journey Down. We all know how the shady and temporally displaced uncertain nature of these spots can cause recurrence of instances which take place on the microtissue comprising this underworld's circuit."
9Cubed, high-tech Ninja assassin and master of espionage, repairs a tear in his suit. It's almost too late though, the Lilith infection probably leaked over into his core-processor temporarily. Stalking Mr. Crump is a dangerous game. 9Cubed is aware of the ever-present board and the shifting location of the pieces as well.
