KILLJOY

Chapter 1 : Unfamiliar

The first thing that Liam had noticed when he woke up was the uniformity of the room he was now placed in, covered in grey stone tile. A single window was in the wall in front of him, with someone looking at him curiously, although he couldn't tell who it was. She seemed pretty young for gang business, only looking 16, mabye 17 years old at most. He had to admit, her blond hair, brown eyes, and soft face were all admirable qualities, but since he was a couple years older than her, he wouldn't try anything.After a couple minutes of looking around in the dim light of his prison, the young lady on the other side finally looked his way, and noticed that he was awake. "Hey, Mayeda! He's up!". Mayeda walked into view, which only annoyed Liam more since he was the reason he was brought here in the first place. Liam looked over at him as he just stared down at him through the window. "Why the hell did you take me here!?"

Mayeda still had that annoying grin on his face as he chuckled at the question. "You wanted in to Killjoy, right? We ain't just gonna test you in the streets, dumbass." Liam wasn't satisfied with that half assed answer, so he decided to keep prying for some more information. "Where the hell are we anyways!?". Mayeda looked to him with a bored expression, as if he was starting to get annoyed of his questioning of the situation. "Where d'ya think we are, newbie? We're in Killjoy's base, this is the 'testing ground', at least that's what the boss calls it. We're a good 50 feet underground right now, don't want Vanguard's nosy ass butting in while we train up you fresh newbies."

"The fuck's a Vanguard?" Mayeda looked over at him with a keen look in his eyes. "Ah, right we gotta explain those guys. Well, think of em' as some special task force that's tryin' to bust the gangs in the Strip by any means necessary. They got funding from the gov' so they have a pretty crazy budget, not to mention everyone there's strong as hell." Liam took in the information, listening keenly for any information he could get on what he would be getting in to.
"Whad'ya mean by 'strong?' Like, they skilled, or got some good gear or something?" Mayeda was finally getting in to the questions he wanted to answer, and was starting to get a bit more excited now that this recruit was asking the right questions. "Both of those, but they also got themselves a TICK." Liam seemed... confused by that language. "Like... the bug?"

Mayeda sighed as he had to go explain this whole thing to him now, he was hoping he already had one. "Susie, go bring the screen in there!" The woman that he recognized was the one watching him before quickly scrambled out of his view before a panel in the wall opened shortly after, opening to reveal her holding a large tablet, which she held in one hand as she shut the panel behind her. She wordlessly linked it up to a cord hidden in the wall behind another small panel, and hooked it up to the wall. "Watch carefully, you're gonna need it." She left the room shortly after, and as she returned back behind the glass, she pressed something on a remote as a video started to play.

An unknown man stood alone in a brightly lit room, facing the camera as he prepared to speak. "Hello recruits, we know that some of you might be unaware of the supernatural within the Strip, so watch on as I enlighten you to powers that few citizens of the Strip know exist, and even fewer outside of it. The TICK is a special ability that can either be rarely born into someone, or can be awakened in someone with potential for one. The term, TICK is simply an anagram, since we thought it would sound cool."

The man on the screen almost seemed antsy in the way he was going about things, as if he were excited— or anxious. He merely watched on as the explanation continued. "So, the 'T' stands for the Term. Think of it as like... your specialty, it's what you mostly get out of having a TICK. It's the core ability that ties the rest of it together. The C stands for the Condition. Basically, if you apply a downside to your ability, you can get an explosive boost in output in exchange. Then there's the I, the Index. To put it simply, it's a mental map of the Term and Conditions of the user, keeps things organized. Finally, there's the-"

Another press of the remote and the television shut off. Liam turned to them a bit confused as to why. "Hey, why'd you stop it? He didn't seem done explaining all that crap." Mayeda looked to him, a bit bored. "Rest of it isn't important, you got one?"
"No?"
"Damnit- guess I got another recruit to train then, if you get in."
"So, what's the test to get in?"
Mayeda chuckled a bit as he thought a second on what to say, eventually remembering the protocol.
"Pretty simple, just tell me the reason you wanna work for a gang like us. We'll let you in as a new recruit if you can pass, I doubt you'd sign up without being at least a bit skilled."

Liam looked more confused as ever from that... simple response. "That's it?" Mayeda just nodded in acknowledgment, waiting for an answer as Liam thought of what to say. Eventually, he managed to get it out, "Well... guess I just wanna make a living for me and my Ma." Mayeda seemed to think things over for a moment, having one more question.
"Tell me, how far would you go for Killjoy in order to see that happen?" Liam straightened himself as much as he could as he stood confidently, believing fully in his answer. "I'd do just about whatever I'd be told to do, as long as I don't need to harm her." Mayeda began to chuckle again, a wide smile on his from that answer as he opened a panel in the wall, a door out of his holding room.

"Well, you seem like a good character for our crew! I'll bring you over to your rooms, and you better wake up early, because you're scheduled for training with the other recruits at six! And you don't gotta call me Sir no more— you're now technically a member of killjoy, although you're still far from being sent out on any jobs." Liam managed to get a small smile on his face as he made his way to the panel, walking out and standing behind Mayeda.

"Lead the way."