The Job (Patrick/Daniel)

[Sean Barker]

One of the many labs scattered about the world would be this setting. For the past couple of months someone had been undercover, well more accurately, in deep cover. Made it into the Enforcer's got some enhancements from expiraments, even given a pretty good guard position. In charge of a small team even overlooking thirty expiraments.

Today he was called the the briefing room. It would be about mid day shift, so the meeting place would of been on the way for his usual rounds. Inside the meeting room was his direct supervisor and Sean Barker himself.

[Patrick O'Connor]

Patrick cleared his throat before taking a swig from his bottle of irish whiskey. The alcohol gave the slight burn as it rolled down his throat. Warming his mouth again he took another swig in, this time swirling it around in his mouth allowing the drink to burn in his mouth. Patrick gave a slight chuckle after he swallowed the drink. The burning let him know that he was still alive, the irony of that fact was not lost on him. He had always drank to forget about being alive and his plight and now it directly allowed him to be aware of his continual state of existence. Chuckling again the irishman could not help but wonder again for the thousandth time what he had allowed himself to get into. After the prodding by Leon he had accepted the offer to go under cover with Sean Barker and his merry band of miscreants to see what he was up to. In the process of this he had undergone experiments and "upgrades" to be made into one of Sean Barker's men. And while it had worked out, Patrick having made it up to the middle of the totem pole now he wondered at what cost?

His remaining sanity?

He had taken comfort in the fact that he was soon to die from his liver's failure before this adventure. In addition to the experiments that had boosted his ability, his liver had been replaced, or fixed, or whatever the hell the madman had done with it. The fact was that his life expectancy had shot up from less then a year to whenever he killed Barker or Barker killed him. The idea that his escape from his demons had been close had given him the strength to move on before. Now that was torn from him. The idea that he was near the end of his rope had become a big part of his person, unknowingly. At the same time though his curiosity for the person of Sean Barker and his organization had been of great interest to Patrick as well. This had also grown into a desire to stop Barker as the madman's plans had been revealed to Patrick. Plans that would plunge the world into war. While this was a reason to live on and suffer further with his own demons in the hope that there would be some sort of redemption for him down the road Patrick was reluctant to say the least. He was unsure if his redemption was possible which made his desire for it, and his will for his life's end a constant battle between each other.

And those struggles, those were also coupled with the psychological effects of being deep undercover in an organization that had morals that were Darwinistic at best, and non-existent at worse. Being someone you weren't took its toll on anyone. Being forced to take part in actions that were repulsive to you without so much as a shudder but with feigned acceptance would damage anyone's psyche. This was not the problem however. Patrick was perfectly capable of killing someone without so much as a twinge of his pulse, that was the problem. The only guilt that Patrick had felt in killing people was his decision to not kill people. That was the person that he had not wanted to be anymore. He had not wanted to be the amoral soulless monster that he felt like he really was, more often then not. That was his problem with being undercover with Sean Barker.

It was too easy for him.

Not the sneaking so much, but acting like he belonged. He had zero problem with that. Intellectually he did not find much wrong with their position. Was it morally wrong? If you had morals that didn't come from philosophical debate. Those morals could be argued to be relative or nonexistent. Patrick had for a long time believed and acted in amorality. It made sense to him as the only practical way the world worked. However his redemption required that he do the right thing, the moral thing. His movement towards redemption required that he throw his amorality away. But it made so much sense and living in it was so easy, felt so right for him. Patrick feared releasing the monster he used to be again. At the same time though Patrick knew that Sean's plans would cause suffering for many more people and plunge the world into the darkness and bloodshed of war. Throw in his philosophic conflict of who he was and who he was to be with the changing of his body and physical appearance in the wake of the experiments performed on him and you had a confused individual. A psychotically disturbed individual if you added in his demons and illnesses. With all the conflicting personalities duking it out inside of him Patrick couldn't help but thing there were so many different versions of him trying to get out of the door to the real him that none of them could get out.

Funny, Patrick chuckled bitterly as he let another bit of whiskey burn his mouth and throat, letting him know that he was still alive. Hell, he figured, if he couldn't see himself bleed anymore at least the burning of the drink let him know he was still alive.

Patrick rubbed his newly golden eyes and brushed some of his naturally red hair out of his eyes. In the past month he had dropped the ruse of Daniel Heart as he had no longer been in the school that had hated him but in the presence of a man that would appreciate having a living breathing monster as a solider and so Patrick, for the time being had gone back to allowing his natural hair color, accent and cynical personality show. He wore the same attire as always, the black tanktop, with the black fingerless gloves and the khaki cargo shorts.

"The fuck do ye need?" Patrick asked finally walking into the room with Barker and the irishman's immediate supervisor. This was really nothing more then a question as the cursing was common place for him. Patrick was curious as Barker's presence was fairly rare and the appearance meant that there was an event of some significance that was about to involve Patrick. Genuinely intrigued Patrick desired to know what his role would be in the next phase of operations in the madman's insidiously calculated plans...

[Sean Barker]

"Nice to see you too Patrick."

Sean decided to throw that in there for dramatic effect, not so much for anger. He liked being a smart ass... Arse too. He nodded to Patrick's supervisor and the man stood up moving to hit a button on the wall. The table they where sitting at sent up a hologram, Pat would recognize it as the facility they where in. Sean decided to start.

"The fifty-five expiraments held here will be readied for combat, along with the enforcer's. The goal will be reached in a few days."

The Goal. Thats what everyone referred to Barker's plot to drop the world into hell.

"But."

Sean would say as he reached over and shoved the hologram of the building away, and it would cycle to Public High School 259.

"This will be the target of this building. Your job is to go back, and find Zack Asiv. Inform him we are going to attack, give him our numbers, our strengths, hell... Tell him you where an escaped expirament, with those new eyes of yours its rather believable."

That was only the beginning.

"Tellh im we will be attacking from the back from out of the woods behind the schoolgrounds. Then when the attack goes down, go to the front of the building, if there is a rear guard take em out, or open the door and help our guys get to Asiv."

[Patrick O'Connor]

"Nice to see you too Patrick."

Patrick gave no response to the line. It was just one of those things that Barker did. He fancied himself as some sort of dramatic villain, or individual as one may have it. Problem for him though was simple, everything he did in order to achieve dramatic effect was cliche. He lacked the ability it seemed to truly inspire fear. Sure people feared him because he was a madman that had a genius level knack for planning. People feared him because he did terrible things, and rightly so. But he could not create the kind of fear that filled people with absolute terror. He seemed to lack the, subtlety. He would always go for the evil act yes, but generally the most evil. He wielded the ability to inspire fear like a hammer. People feared getting hit by the hammer because it was brutal and possibly deadly. He had the inability to wield it as a scalpel though. He had trouble biding his time when it came to creating the dramatic effect needed for terror. With the scalpel you could show it to the victim and they knew it was there, fear, show them you can use it on anyone you choose, fear, threaten, fear, cut them, more fear, maim, fear. Killing with the scalpel was important for the image but so to was letting the occasional victim live, a shell of their former self to spread not the fear of being killed, but being allowed to live. It made him an enemy that was slightly less terrifying in Patrick's opinion.

"The fifty-five expiraments held here will be readied for combat, along with the enforcer's. The goal will be reached in a few days."


Anyone with a working conscience and knowledge of "the goal" would shudder at its mention. The goal being to gain control of the world. A world under Sean Barker's thumb. The manipulative bastard no doubt had plans after he took the world but that was not the present's problem. Patrick stared at the man passively as he waited for him to get to the point. When he did Patrick had to admit that he was rather surprised. He did not expect 259 to be a target worthy of Barker's ambitions. So Patrick had to ask, "Explain to me the importance of 259 in the grand scheme of yer goal? I mean aren't a bunch of kids of little importance? Sure there's Qi users there but at this point the amount of them seem rather insignificant, nor will any real immediate resistance will come from them. Unless yer trying to gain control of a qi hotspot for plans after the goal?"

Patrick admittedly didn't know much about Barker's past with 259 so now was his chance to get clear on that to get a clearer idea of his need for the school. After his first question Patrick would move into a more logistical line of questions, "And after I give Asiv the information what should I do? Simply bid my time inside the school until the appointed hour and attack from within or return here and attack with a small force before the main comes in? And when the attack comes what level of force am I to use? Ye want me to just rough em up or make sure they won't ever be a problem again?"

[Sean Barker]

"I'm allowed my own petty disputes with an old friend. Zack was School Captain back in our day, and I was a pillar. We where among the first to discover Qi, he was stronger, but I was smarter. I was only recognized as a pillar though, even now he sits there in his office. Looking down on me. This will show him once and for all. Zack also has things in his own secret locations, weapons, drugs, his herbology seems to be getting much stronger. If my scientists could analyze it, we could unlock the natural Qi of every soldier we ever make."

Not to mention 259 was the direct center of the area, it was strategically placed and if they where allowed to simply be caught in the wave of attack, the fools would flock to a safe zone like that. No, Sean would have it destroyed to take hope from the people. Hope they didn't even know they had.

Once your done talking to Zack, find out who the big threats are, who is still actively a Qi user, or combatant. Use that information when the attack comes to hit specific targets. Just make sure when Mitsoumi's team hits the front door, your there to help."

Mitsoumi, the monster of Barker's first Expiraments. His abilities ranged from anything he had ever encountered before, to any new one he gets close to. Though the guy was rather insane, never speaking, only killing. Mitsoumi didn't even seem to flinch, blink, or breath without Barker ordering it.

[Patrick O'Connor]

Petty disputes? Pathetic. The irony of the thing was that it was totally befitting of Barker. And yet, it was beneath him as well. While settling petty high school scores seemed fitting to the guy the genius of his actions and plans, well, it really was fitting of a mad man. A madman that was about to plunge the world into chaos.

Then he finished up with his reasoning for attacking 259. That was really what Patrick had been waiting for. It was logical, if you had the ability to gift all your soldiers with qi, then you had yourself a significant advantage. Also there was the hope factor. Barker knew that Asiv and Leon were against him with their own forces, Patrick was that proof. 259 was their hub. A base of sorts, taking that out would create a disadvantage for them. Also any student that would have fought against Barker, particularly those with Qi would not have a place to group up. It certainly would make mobilization difficult. In a war that would start with covert posturing at first, the initial moments were critical. Also Barker had the chance to deal with his petty little dispute,that may in fact take out a key player in the upcoming war. The rest of the conversation was bent around his role. Patrick immediately had his own ideas about how to go about this and he was usually granted his autonomy but you know? This one was important.

"Ye want me to wait until you attack and go head hunting?" Patrick asked, "Or could I do things my way? Ye know, try a "bid for pillarship or captaincy". If yer attack is in a few days those fights could be a preemptive strike. Those fights for titles are usually bloody as ye know. Could put some of yer strongest opposition away straight from the get go. Of course I can't kill them and still stay as a sheep but a ripple in the power structure would make things more difficult fer them to mobilize a student response."

"And besides," Patrick said with a dark grin, "It's been too long since I cut loose. And it would be fun to give yer little enhancements a field test."

Patrick played the part perfectly, because well it was natural. Too natural...

[Sean Barker]

Sean listened as Patrick gave his own ideas into the matter, the sound of it quite pleasing to his ears.

"Thats a very good idea, I'll give you three days to go after the objectives. In three days the assault will happen."

Sean looked to the supervisor, then to Patrick to conclude the planning. The idea's of it all where just amazing. The plan was almost full proof, these kids have never seen something of this scale, so they would be caught completely off guard by the meer idea of the whole world being hit at the exact same time.

"Oh and Patrick, if this goes through you'll see yourself a good little promotion to Captain."

That would make him on level with his current supervisor. Not to mention Captains where usually in charge of entire facilities.

[Patrick O'Connor]

"In three days the assault will happen."

Three days.

Patrick would shudder if he had the emotional capability to.

Three days.

Patrick felt the magnitude of the situation even if he couldn't fully appreciate it, or abhor it. In three days the world would be plunged into a chaos that couldn't fully be comprehended, by anyone. Sure Patrick had an appreciation for war but not on this scale. He had only fought his own personal battles, taken place in actions for the purposes of the school. He, and he didn't think anyone could actually fully comprehend the battle about to take place. This wasn't a battle between to gangs, two sides in a school war. Many students had felt that, but this was different. This was more still then a battle between countries, the upcoming event would make a squabble between super powers seem petty. This was going to be a war for the world. While it was true that leaders in the past had tried this, there was nothing to this scale. Lines were drawn, even in guerrilla warfare, in this geographic lines would mean nothing.

Patrick had gone into this thinking it was nothing bigger then a madman with facilities doing mad things. He had thought that this Sean simply needed to be stopped but they needed more intel first. He had no idea at the time that Barker's organization went this deep, that Barker's intentions were this developed, and that he had the means to carry them out and complete them. Patrick wondered if Leon had known anything when he had sent Patrick in. If he had then, well shit, that was fucked up. The only real explanation for that was damage control, unless of course they hadn't thought that Barker was this far along. But then again, how could they not? True the facilities were well hidden but still, come on.

The main problem Patrick figured, with his job, was that he figured that what he was getting involved in was A, not going to be this big and B, going to be stopped before it was carried out. There was no stopping this. At this point all of the balls were already in motion. It couldn't be stopped. Barker would set fire to the world, plunging it into chaos and all Leon and his groups could do was watch. Watch and try and control the damage.

And the thing that kept Patrick up at night? Well, besides his demons. It was the fact that he wasn't sure if Leon or Asiv could control the damage, much less if they saw this coming. Sure Patrick had been dropping hints. Sure Patrick had know that something big was going to happen. Sure Patrick could of guessed what Barker was mad enough to think he could have, but damn. Barker had played this perfectly. He had kept enough of this underwraps from enough people. Everyone had been working on different parts. Everyone know something was coming, but no one saw the whole picture. No one had had enough pieces to even try.

"Fuckin' A right," Patrick said in reply to Barker's promise of the promotion. He turned around and began to walk out, a dark expression on his face.

Zero Hour was in three days and no one could stop it. The thing that really scared Patrick though, the thing that really kept him up at night was not the bloodshed. Not the misery that he was going to play a part in.

It was that he just didn't care...