L.I.A.O

Initiation

Thump thump thump

The train thrusters bellow consumed the station, slicing through the rush hour noise as its engine roared to life and lifted the large pile of junk mid air.

Go!

Every muscle in her body hissed as she forced herself to casually step out into the fluorescent lights, Her stomach doing a somersault at the very thought of moving anywhere but home.

Thump thump thump

Like a wild drum in her chest Cora's heart swelled in her ears as it's thundering song reached a crescendo. For a long moment she stared at the clock. Forcing herself to refocus her mind, forcing herself to shake the anxiety away as her feet continued at a steady pace across the linoleum platform.

"Blue eyes, brown hair." She murmured quietly to herself in an anthem, scanning the recently thinned-out crowd for the familiar face.

"Black jacket, black boots." A new detail resurfaced in the middle of her chant as she scanned the area once more.

Cora would have missed him completely If she hadn't been searching the crowd as indepthly as she was, her stomach did another flip.

He had looked exactly as she remembered in the picture, Average looking human male. The dark brown curls that cascaded around his forehead and brushed up against his cheeks gave him a youthful look.

It were times like these when Cora saw her victim and her heart sank, though only for a moment as she stepped closer.

Guilty or not, you have something that I need.

It was like a switch turned on in the back of her mind, powering parts of her body that never even existed before.

Welcome back, Cora. How may I assist you today?

Her Optic sleeve powered on, a standard micro-thin jelly contact that heightened the senses, especially sight. The voice that was originally programmed had been like a mental brick scraping across her forehead. It had given her a headache for weeks and the main reason why she had installed Lelin.

Lelin's voice was vibrant and full of life, a splash of color in her monochromatic jungle she called home. But she didn't get a wave of upbeat energy this time, Lelin's voice seemed off.

"Turn ionic nodes to stun," Cora whispered, ignoring Lelin's new oddity, though her gut told her she would regret it later.

Focus now, regret later.

Ionic nodes have been placed to stun, Cora.

The tone of Lelin's voice made her shiver. She knew. She could feel the electricity in her fingertips dance across the smooth skin of her palms.

She refocused her sights on the male, her fingers curling into tight white-knuckled fists. The moment she had the chance to analyze him for any enhancements or weapons on his person, she almost staggered mid-walk.

He was staring directly at her. Her lips parted, letting out a shaky breath. His eyes were like dark honey, his pupils orange with intricate layers of encoded grid that actually hummed, violently like an alarm.

Crap, she could have sworn his eyes were sterling-blue like the photo.

Their scrutinizing gaze between one another seemed to feel like a millennium, only to be interrupted by a loud metal clang from the ceiling across the train station.

The noise itself hadn't been loud at all. But with heightened senses Cora winced, forcing her eyes off of her target. That's when he moved from the edge of the pillar he casually leaned against. She half expected him to approach her and help her up, maybe offer her some dinner if he was generous.