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꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


Not wanting to disturb the other occupant in the room, Hyde silently set up in his own little corner. Grabbing a knife, he spun it around a few times to test its weight and size before putting it back down. He did this a few times, going through the rack of weapons as he fiddled with the blades. Finally, he settled on a combat knife with a small hold attached to the handguard. Using that small loop, Hyde flipped the blade around and swiped at the air in front of him a few times. Satisfied how the blade felt, he took the knife's twin as well as the holsters for them and strapped them to his belt. Walking over to the physical dummies, he walked around them once, twice, thrice before he twisted the head of the dummy abruptly. Ah, so it was slightly sturdier than a normal human body, hm? Flexing his fingers slightly, he slid the knives out to prowl around the dummy before getting to work.
Letting his body move on its own, Hyde started out with a few slashes that frayed the outer layer of the dummy before the knives began to bite deeper and deeper, carving deep gouges into the inanimate object. It was relaxing and cathartic, the haze of letting his body work settling over his mind. Although he couldn't find the thrill he sought the absence of adrenaline disappointing, this was the closest he could get to it without harming others with gardening being a close second.

Easing himself out of the pleasant haze, Hyde shook out his head like a dog, looking around. Ah, he had gone overboard as the dummy lay in pieces around him. It had been shredded to the point where even Hyde had difficulty telling what it had originally been. It made him grimace. The itch under his skin still persisted, only rubbed by the demolishing of the dummy. He would have to clean up quickly and leave before he did something silly. Like actually hurt someone.

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With the final targets winding down, Sklya rested the charger against her shoulder as she looked at the total. An almost perfect score, still room for improvement

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Archie and Nevira were in the kitchen, eating breakfast. The former was having some pancakes, while the latter was having a can of tuna that Archie had with him. Archie had learned not to question why his partner liked eating fish for breakfast, of all meals, as he's pretty quickly learned that Nevira has some "cat tendencies", even in her more humanoid form.

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*After being in the shower for far longer than she expected, Ripley stepped out and began to dry herself off. She put her clothes back on before making her way to the kitchen where she grabbed an apple but avoided eye contact with anyone, but instead went to an open part of the base and jumped for a morning flight*

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Alex had noted Ripley again, skipping out on breakfast, but likewise made no verbal comment on it as of now.

Eve, not getting a response and partly believing that she was hearing things, curled back under the covers and went back to sleep, holding the tabby plush to her chest.

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꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


Breathing out a sigh through his nose, Hyde finished cleaning up and quickly escaped out of the training room. Shaking his head like a dog, his earrings and hair leaving his tanned skin stinging where they had snapped against it, Hyde began to pace around the compound in an attempt to quell the frankly very intrusive thoughts in his mind. It was going well as the desire to kill, fight, live, laugh, dimmed into a faint whisper that bubbled under his skin and he let out a breath before the telltale whiff of iron set his senses into overdrive once again. It was faint, barely perceptible in the air as if it was stale or someone had cleaned up the blood, but it was there nonetheless. His eyes scanned the area and landed on Taiko. Could it be? No, that would be so convenient and Taiko didn't seem like the type to pick fights so he ignored it and kept walking to try and see where the blood scent was coming from. Maybe he'd finally be able to get an adrenaline fix, though Hyde really doubted it.

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*Ripley loved the feeling of the wind blowing through her hair. Even before she got her wings, she always felt so confined, but in the air she felt free. She closed her wings and began to free fall until she had nearly reached the ground. At that moment, she opened her wings and soared over the trees. After a few minutes of flying however, she noticed some smoke.* That's unusual *Ripley changed course and began to head directly towards the smoke, where she saw a flipped over truck and several graves, including one covered with flowers. She landed with a thud and looked around. Bloodstained soil was everywhere, and several trees had been destroyed. Ripley looked at each grave, eachone was unique in it's own way however, all but one seemed rushed. As she inched closer to the largest and most decorated one, she saw some words, drawn into the dirt, reading "Maddy Wolf. A sister, a warrior, a friend..".*

*At that moment Ripley saw movement in the tree's and saw a wolf staring at her. She could feel its bright green eyes staring into her soul, reading her each and every emotion. After a minute of the two gazing at eachother, the wolf began to turn around, and for the briefest of moments, she saw the outline of a person. Ripley snapped out of her trance and watched the wolf vanish into the woods and ran after it* Hey, wait! *Ripley tried running through the trees to catch up to the wolf but her wings made it near impossible. She flapped her wings and began to fly over the trees to hopefully cut it off, but just as quickly as it had come, it vanished*

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Faith and the others had stopped for several moments to get some rest. Admittedly, Faith wanted to keep going, but with everyone else wanting to stop there wasn't much of a choice. Faith and Lucy were the only ones who were still restless enough to pace around the group in attempts to ward off any potential threats but also to try to rid of any excess energy. Unfortunately, it wasn't working.

Benton watched as Coraline zoomed in the Cyan ink that had been spread along the floor, walls, and ceiling. He was interrupted by one of his scientists a short distance behind him. "Sir, the Ink Zuccer 2000 is ready for the Inkling."

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There was someone else here. Taiko sharply lifted his head to try and identify the new presence that woke him up in the first place. His eyes locked onto Hyde, the supposed presence that he was so worried about. A few, brief moments passed and Hyde had walked off, but in a particular way. Was he looking for something? He shouldn’t worry... He was left alone to his own devices once again and Hyde didn’t seemed to be bothered when he looked at him. After the speculations that roamed his mind departed, he reluctantly climbed down the tree and tried to find his way back. The sun rises in the east... and sets in the west... The building was north, right? Even still, he could barely see the sun from under the blanket of these trees. Before looking up to identify the sun’s location, he happened to glance at his leg. There was still some blood he couldn’t clean up and it had seeped into the fabric of the pants, leaving a stain. His pants were a dark gray, making it a bit hard to see it but that didn’t change the fact that it was still there. Guess he just had to go to his room and change unnoticed, shouldn’t be that hard, right? He wouldn’t be able to be as quick when jumping between their line of sight due to his still healing leg. Thankfully he recovered tremendously quickly due to his ability, but it wasn’t instant. His slight limp could be an issue but it didn’t seem like it... He quickly adverted his attention to the task at hand, finding his way home. By using the little sun he was able to see, he managed to make it back. From there, he quietly entered the door and tried his best to make it back to his room.

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꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


It was no good, the trail was cold. Letting out a groan, Hyde eventually gave up. There was no helping the fact that he wouldn't be finding where the blood was but that in itself rose alarm bells. Did someone come to try and find refuge only to be turned away by something? He went to gnaw at his lip in thought but the sharpened canines dug into the soft flesh and that idea was quickly abandoned in favour of heading back to the compound. The scent was something to be wary of and Hyde figured that it was safer to tip Noel off about it just in case. While on the way there, he kept his eyes peeled for any signs of activity, doing one extra lap around the compound to check again. The faint trace of blood still lingered around the tree that Hyde had glimpsed Taiko in but the boy seemed to have already left. That too set off alarm bells within his head but Hyde shoved those suspicions away for later. He didn't want to baselessly suspect another for something he might not have done. His feet carried him towards to compound, muscles working just a bit more to carry him across the seemingly harmless terrain. Though curiously, he noticed, the smell of blood was growing stronger the closer he returned to the stronghold. That in of itself was worrisome enough that he began to pick up the pace, jogging just a little bit faster in case something had happened to the stronghold's residents. Throwing open the door, he didn't even care to glace around and kept running, only to stumble into his number one suspect with a muted omph

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At least he had made it to the hallway. The pain in his leg was somehow simultaneously fading away and coming in a sharp wave with every step. Pure agony. He walked through the hallway silently and at a steady pace, his goal being the stairs. The faint sound of a door being swung open echoed around him. He was startled by this, yes, but again he figured it was probably just something happening. But wait... Wasn’t that from outside? There were only a few people left outside, and all but one of them didn’t seem to be in a rush or anything that would cause them to do that to the poor door. Oh no. Was he onto something? Was he just running around with no rhyme or reason? No, of course he wasn’t. His first thought was to run, but Hyde catching up to him or even seeing him would make him one suspicious individual, if he wasn’t already. He just continued walking, like he was previously. That is, until he had suddenly found himself on the floor, a good amount of weight also seemed to be on top of him. “What the-“ after a cough or two and a turn of Taiko’s head, he paused. Of course it was Hyde...

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꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


The moment he felt his scrawny body come into contact with something else, sending the both of them toppling to the ground, Hyde jerked back taking stock of who it was before his eyes widened. "ohmygosh 'm so sorry." He blurted out his voice raspy from the exercise he had been doing, rolling off Taiko as soon as he heard the other cough. "You're not hurt are you? 'm so sorry I really wasn' looking where I was going an' just ran smack into ya so lemme check real quick that you're fine m'kay? 'm really sorry 'bout that." He rambled, words slipping into a slurred accent that had previously been hidden through careful enunciation and a conscientious effort to blend in with the rest. His hands, although never directly touching Taiko, did kind of just hover over his body, moving this way and that. Small scrapes from their collision were healed as quickly as they were spotted, the warm scent of petrichor mingling with the air as a byproduct of Hyde's powers. (If Hyde thought about it, his powers certainly had many odd side effects, the smell of his healing non-withstanding. The jagged teeth for example and the heightened bloodlust were just a few of those)
The moment his hand went down to Taiko's shin, it jerked back, a thin ring of red visible around his dilated pupils. "... Did I really hit ya so hard that you'r bleedn'?" He asked rhetorically, his hands coming back down to knit together the ripped flesh, smoothing it over before any scarring could set in. He was too focused on seeing if there was any more discomfort to notice the webbing of scars stretching across Taiko's legs, the ones he did see were simply marked down as old wounds from an accident of two

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Of course he was hurt. As soon as Hyde got off of him, he tried to back away, only to be met with a wall. He could barely hear distinctive words through the accent and pace of his apology. “Uhh...” how could he respond to something he couldn’t understand? The only things he could make out from that mess was “Sorry” and “hurt”. Before he knew it, Hyde’s hands were over him like some type of scanner. Small scrapes were healed, but as soon as those hands made their way to his legs, they jumped. “Did I really hit you so hard that you’re bleeding?” Was the response to the unpleasant discovery. Taiko was shocked as well, not only due to the rediscovery of Hyde’s abilities, but what he did with it. “T-thanks... Sorry about that...” he said quickly, trying to avoid any awkward questions or anything of the sort

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꧁𓊈𒆜🅷🆈🅳🅴𒆜𓊉꧂


"Nah, 'ts no problem. If anythin' I should be the one apoogiz'n for bowling right into ya. Was the least I could do." Hyde waved off the praise, scooting back to give Taiko more space. Clearing his throat, Hyde took a moment to recompose himself and loosen his jaw from where his interlocking teeth had stubbornly kept it shut together, the source of his slurred accent. A light flush danced across his cheeks at the fact that someone had heard his less than perfect speech, yet another one of his oddities laid out in the open. "Ahem, Yes... um before you go through one question, if you'd humour me. I was wondering if you saw anyone injured while outside? I caught the scent of blood and was worried that someone else was hurt." He explained, hiding his embarrassment through sheer professionalism. Not that it worked well, the flush of shame still dancing over his tanned skin.

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*As Ripley flew over the trees, she noticed a large group of people walking right towards the base. They didn't seem hostile, but she couldn't be sure without a closer look. She for several minutes, she flew overhead and watched them. But then, a loud blast hit her dead on, causing her to clutch her ears in pain and fall to the ground, hitting many trees on the way down*

*Lucy ran to Ripley, holding a gun aimed in Ripley's general direction. Ripley slowly began to stand up but the Lucy cocked her gun* Dont move!

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Faith rested a hand on Lucy's shoulder to assure her she was behind her, from behind Faith, Ripley could see the group looked like absolute hell. When Faith spoke, she sounded more concerned than angry. "Who are you?"

"Sir? Do you want the Inkling in the Ink Zuccer 2000?" The lead scientist asked Benton.

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*Benton looked at him as if the scientist had insulted him* Because, her ink is the key to the extermination of our mistakes. *Benton walked over to a table in the corner of the room and grabbed a syringe filled with the cyan substance. He held it up to the light and flicked it once before turning and looking at the scientist. Benton nodded towards the guards who left the room and closed the door behind them* Mr. Roarker, tell me, were you close to Money? *Roarker began to take a few steps backwards* Because, I recall you saying that I was nothing more than an egotistical madman. *Roarker turned around and ran towards the door. He tried to open it, but it was locked from the outside. He began to pound on the door and shout for help. Occasionally he would look back and see Benton slowly inching closer until Benton stuck the syringe in the scientists neck, who went limp and fell to the ground. Benton walked back to the table and turned on the intercom* You may enter guards

*The guards walked into the room and saw the scientists body.* What happened sir? *Benton didn't look back at them but he was instead fiddling with something* He's still alive, Grau. *Benton turned around and shot the scientists head with his gun* Dispose of him

*Ripley looked at them and put her hands up* I mean no harm. Just let me- *Lucy interrupted Ripley* Answer the god damn question! *Ripley nodded her head in agreement* My name is Ripley, I mean no harm at all, just put the gun down. *Lucy continued to hold up the gun* Why were you following us? Are you with Benton? *Ripley looked confused* Who's Benton? And I was following you because your coming close to our base- *Lucy interrupted her* What kind of base? *Ripley answered Lucy's question, but was weary of Lucy's gun* A base for people like me. For mutants

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So... he could smell it? How could he smell the blood, but not hear the scream? At least, Taiko didn’t think he had heard it... To be fair, a lot of blood was drawn so it wasn’t exactly impossible to smell it from such a distance. He swallowed the lump in his throat and did his best to hide his nervousness. “Injured? No... I don’t think so... Come to think of it, I might’ve smelled something strange but didn’t bother to try and find the source.” He began to rub the back of his neck as he spoke, unsure of whether he had said enough or too much. Right after he had finished talking, he heard a very faint thud, most likely coming from outside. He turned his head slightly to face the wall, but decided to ignore it for now.

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Coraline laid in the corner of her tank he had put her in, she wasn't yet in the Ink Succer 2000, but if he tried he'd bite him. Hidden in the ink she watched him hurt Roarker. If Benton had done that to one of his own, what would he do to her?

Faith gently patted Lucy's shoulder again, and Lucy slowly lower the gun some. "It's okay Lucy, let's let her explain before we start shooting, please. We lost enough people already." Lucy looked annoyed but nodded. "I don't think I caught your name. I'm Faith."

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*Ripley kept her hands up just in case* Ripley *Ripley looked at Lucy* Lucy, right? You aren't gonna shoot me are you? *Lucy looked at Ripley and shook her head, causing Ripley to slowly lower her hands* I saw the graves, I think I know why your here and I can take you to where you want to be

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