Elite

[MegaRock35]

5 out of 6 tropers agree: I write like a girl!
  No, you can't just leave them. They're defenseless. You ready your weapon, aim at his head, and let it fire. His scream rips through the air. You can't blame him; his flesh is fried. He's screaming something, but it just sounds like a guttural roar. You watch in horror as he peels off his charred face. The smell is wafting over to you. It makes your stomach churn; you want to puke. Not from it smelling bad. Oh, no, that would be preferable this. You recognize this smell. It smells like Burger King.
  As you watch Aquila writhing on the ground, wallowing in his self-pity, people are running around in a panic. Doctors wheel their patients out, parents carry their children, townsfolk drag their pets... It's utter chaos. To think, two people managed to clear out an entire town in a matter of minutes. This power. It tastes sweet, yet bitter...
  You snap to your senses and realize your job isn't finished yet. Aquila is slumped on the ground in the wrecked hospital. He must have passed out from the pain. Around him is enough metal that you could weld him a makeshift prison, keep him contained until the Center extracts him. Or you could just kill him here and now. It doesn't matter; either way, you get your reward.
Two notes: One, these choices I write up aren't the only options. You're free to get creative and come up with a third option. Two, fried flesh really does smell just like Burger King. That's why my mom never ate there while working at the hospital.

[Clockwork Pyrite]

>weld prison, then look around for painkillers because agony is not something you wish for him to cope with

[c0mp1337]

>tend his wounds, try to deactivate his super strength

[Clockwork Pyrite]

>once he seems relatively stable, ask him what he meant with his earlier statements

[MegaRock35]

Oh, hey, look, I'm not being lazy anymore!
  Lying in a desk drawer nearby, you find some painkillers and some salve. You pop a few pills into Aquila's mouth to ease the pain, and apply the burn medication to his face. There's no sense in making him suffer. From the looks of things, he never took your money in the first place. You don't know why the Center would lie about him, though. Maybe he's too strong for them to control?
  Oh, right, the super-strength. You should probably do something about that. You examine his prosthetic limbs more closely. They have no plating on them; the wires and mechanisms are all exposed. For the first time, you realize that his spine has also been augmented. Wires run from each extremity to the protruding metal cord. You're no good with machinery, so you resort to using your cannon to melt down some of the components of the devices. Hopefully, that'll take care of that.
  You're about to contact Holly when Aquila stirs. "You got a way of disappearing, runt. The Center hook ya up with a cloaking field generator or something?"
  "Not exactly."
  "'Not exactly'? It's a yes or no question! Damn replacement can't even answer a simple question right..."
  "Uh, replacement?"
  "Oh, right. Yer still outta the loop. Ya see, the Center, they like to play games. And I'm one of the players in their game. But a game gets boring once the players get predictable. The Center can't have that, now can they? So every once in a while, they bring in a new player, an unpredictable element. Like you. This new player either takes out an old player or dies by their hand. Either way, they get their jollies watching the fight.
  "So that's what they do. They lure people in by promising money, alter them, and send them out to fight. If they win, they're entered as players with the promise of power. If they lose, well, at least the Center got their fifteen minutes of mayhem to entertain them. And you, runt, just entered the game."
  "And just what game are we playing?"
  "Risk." You want to ask him more, but he tells you to call Holly now. "They'll get suspicious if we both just site here and you don't report in. 'Sides, they're probably on their way now." You don't argue; you tell the Center you've incapacitated Aquila, and before you know it, a hovercraft with their logo appears in the sky. While watching the machine take Aquila as he feigns unconsciousness, you can't help but wonder how the Center keeps their tech under wraps. After all, hovercraft, bionic implants, and superpowers aren't exactly common place.
  "I know what he told you." You turn to meet the owner of the subdued voice whispering in your ear. "I know you've been brought up to speed by Aquila." The man in the dark greatcoat drifts over to you and places his metal hand under your chin. "It makes this next part much easier for me." The wild, glowing eyes on his mask illuminate your face. "So what will it be, Alpha-001? Would you like to play a game?"

[Clockwork Pyrite]

>Say yes, seeing as how that's the best plot-advancing answer we're going to get

[MegaRock35]

>Say yes, seeing as how that's the best plot-advancing answer we're going to get

I see that you understand how this works.

***

  "So what'd ya get?" Aquila plops down beside you, resting his new-and-improved-- yet, for some reason, still disproportionate-- robotic arms on your shoulders. His face is still charred and disfigured; he refused the skin grafts because he thought the scars made him look tougher. Of course, that still doesn't stop him for laying a guilt trip on you every chance he gets.
  "What does it matter? You're still just gonna call me 'Runt.'"
  "Aw, come on! I gotta know what ya got saddled with! What you did isn't exactly the normal course of action for new recruits, ya know." He's right. You showed mercy during your test. You didn't hesitate to take Aquila down, but you didn't kill him. Hell, you even doped him up so he wouldn't suffer. Most recruits either take any excuse to kill somebody or can't control themselves enough to do otherwise.
  "'Zola.' That's the name he gave me." You make a mental note to look it up sometime.
  "Eh, not too bad. Sargon coulda picked something that sounded more degrading." You can't help but wonder why he didn't, though. This is a man who hides his face from all, tries to come off as cold and unfeeling, and is raising an army of super powered freaks. Surely he's not too happy that you opted out of murder. Then again, he did spare Aquila's life and made him your partner, so he doesn't exactly try to hide it his lack of faith in you.
  "How did he come up with the name Aquila? What did you do to earn that?"
  "Well, during my test about six years back, they sent me to a mountain. My mark, he was hidin' somewhere in the caves. He only left long enough to find food, and then he was back in his hole. Only had a small window of opportunity to catch him and an entire mountain to search. So, to make sure I didn't miss him, I used some fabric to make a sort of hang glider and took to the skies. Never saw me 'til I sunk my claws in him. Made a great road pizza, that guy did."
  He has a good laugh about this. You two may become best friends over the past two months, but he still scares you a bit. He takes this whole thing in stride, despite the fact that either one of you could be labeled "boring" at any time and promptly replaced. You're not too surprised, though. That whole game analogy he fed you that night was just how he sees it. Sargon, the one who masterminded this whole operation, sees it more as weeding out the weaklings, survival of the fittest. Generations have been spent creating The Elite, the group behind the Center, and fine-tuning their plan of creating a superior race that will one day supplant the human race.
  And you are the first. ALPHA-001. Zola. You are the proof that their serum works, that their alchemists have finally succeeded. The testing will continue, of course. You only received the Alpha strain, after all. They are working on the Beta strain, which will allow two powers per person, at this very moment. Why should they stop when the first test was such a wild success?
  "Hey." Aquila's voice pulls you from your thoughts and back to reality. "Wanna go get suited up and go screw with some natives somewhere? It's always fun to show off our powers and watch them start bowing down and crap. They think we're gods or something. Or did you wanna go watch the Beta tests or whatever?"

[Clockwork Pyrite]

>go watch beta tests

[MegaRock35]

  "I'd rather go check out the Beta. I want to see what I'm competing with here." Aquila just shrugs, probably disappointed that he doesn't get to terrorize somebody, and the two of you head to the viewing chamber. You watch on a television as Holly goes through the procedure for each of the recruits. The Beta has been nowhere near as successful as your Alpha test, as the first subject you see is designated BETA-228. He's a young kid, only about 12 or 13, with dark hair and light eyes. He chooses super strength and flight, and judging by Holly's sigh, she's seen this combination many times before. The first thing he does with his powers is try to lift a huge a generator in the testing chamber with just one hand. Sadly, he didn't have the foresight to consider his bones were not enhanced like his muscles were, so the weight of the generator crushes his spine and kills him instantly.
  Next up, a little girl asks for energy blasts and super speed. She zips around room for only a few seconds before getting a dust mote in her eye, which, at the speed, is like a bullet. She's dead before she hits the ground. This continues on for a while: the lightning boy isn't immune to electricity, the time traveler leaves before he can be reminded that the earth is in different places in space at different times of the year, the intangible girl falls right through the ground, the kid super senses also gains a crippling migraine, the cryokinetic gives himself frostbite... It's quite gruesome to watch, and not even Aquila can laugh at a bunch of kids dying horrific deaths.
  BETA-235 has a bit more luck than the other recruits. She chooses the power to teleport herself, and also has the sense to choose accelerated healing as her secondary power. Unlike the other subjects, she manages not to kill herself immediately, although she was embarrassed to learn she can teleport only herself, leaving her clothes, jewelry, and a few dental fillings behind. She also learned the about inertia the hard, smacking into the wall face first a couple of times. She broke her nose, and though it healed instantly, it's pretty crooked now since she didn't have time to set it before it healed.
  After BETA-235 passed the preliminaries and was deployed on her true test, Holly's voice comes over the intercom. "Zola and Aquila, please report to the armory to receive your new equipment. Thank you!" You are relieved that your new uniform is here, as that means you finally get your first field mission as a full-fledged member of The Elite. You've been itching to get out of the compound. Being stuck in the Center for the past two months has been dreadfully boring. Ever since you've gotten your powers, you can't stand just sitting around doing nothing.
  Sargon greets you with his usual icy tone. He explains to you how important your uniform is, that you should treat it as the "real you," how The Elite are to appear superior and intimidating, bla blah blah... You tune him out, just nodding your head occasionally or saying, "Yes,sir," so it appears as though you're listening. Finally, he gets around to presenting you with your new duds. He presents you with a dark jumpsuit that feels like sort of metal mesh, and a matching set of light metal armor to be worn over it, consisting of a helmet/mask, a breastplate, greaves, and gloves. The helmet is smooth and comes to a slight point in the middle of the face. On top, it has two large "ears" that make it somewhat reminiscent of a bat or a dragon. The greaves shaped to make your feet looked clawed, in order to match the gloves. The left glove contains the same features as your recently removed gauntlet, except that you can freely remove it without having to undergo surgery. The right glove is designed so as not to block the weapon you had implanted in your arm. It is all surprisingly light, given the amount of metal in it. After putting it on, you really look like a higher being. Like a god.
  Aquila had recently requested new armor, as he wanted a mask that showed off the scars you gave him. He has what resembles a bite-prevention mask, except that it is designed look like a part of his face. It and the new plating for his arms have the same speckled pattern as his face, making him look like some sort of hellish creature. Fully armored, he stands in front of the mirror appraising his new look. Seemingly satisfied, he turns back to Sargon. "So what's our mission?"
  "We have recently received reports of an outbreak of... superhuman feats in a small city on the east coat of the US. We have no branches of the Center in that area, and neither have we begun any widespread administration of the serum. We suspect either someone in The Elite has leaked our formula, or that we are witnessing some sort of genetic anomaly. This could be vital to our cause, so you are being deployed to find the cause, gather data on the phenomenon, and if necessary, put a stop to it. You are to leave no later than 24 hours from now. If you have anything that you must do or ask first, now is the time."

[c0mp1337]

>24:00-23:00 : give aquila his moments of fun
>23:00-20:00 : go to the center for a free upgrade to your arm cannon: stun cannon mode (as to not burn people skin when trying to disable them, like what happened to aquila)
>20:00-12:00 : rest
>12:00-11:00 : eat something
>10:55: depart

[Clockwork Pyrite]

>Before you leave, ask if you can keep the armor you bought before you retrieved Aquila