Metanoia

City: Chapter 15

After talking with Kuzma and paying for the groceries, Jeno made quick work in hurrying back to the hotel room. His mind was completely buzzing with thoughts about Hydra as he started thinking up more ideas around the whole company. It was almost a challenge to maneuver around the crowds because of how distracted he was. But anyone who knew what was happening wouldn't dare blame him at all. This was the biggest piece in the puzzle. This was there best lead.
In heading back, he had also started to notice his surroundings a bit more clearly. Which was mainly the posters and ads scattered all around the city. All being occupied with the two words 'Hydra' and 'recruitment'. It appeared to be a big thing as large digital billboards hanging pretty much in front of entire crowds were flashing with pictures having to do with it. Small posters were pasted onto the windows and poles with addresses and contact information printed all along the paper. Jeno didn't hesitate in taking one for future reference.
As he continued to walk on, the raven haired boy noticed that people around him were talking about the recent events as well. From what he had heard, the search for Renjun was being put on hold for more investigation around the intention behind the chase. People were outwardly grieving for the victims affected by complaining and ranting about the social system behind the city. Others were expressing their relief around the fact that Hydra was ready to recruit. More competent agents to balance out the others poor work habits. At least that's the rumour going around.
According to the information stemming around the city, Hydra was one of the biggest organizations if not the biggest in general. Specializing with the advancement of humanity, as their slogan went. They seemed fairly ahead with technology, combatants and cultural advancement, at least more than the other companies residing in the area. Because of this, they've gained popularity amongst the citizens. And so recruiting must've been rather huge in their standards. Thinking that the new generation would help with creating a larger impact most likely. The main idea he was hearing was if someone got in they'd basically be set for life and become one of the most highly respected figures in the city.
Jeno would have to talk to Renjun about this when he came back. If he could retrace his steps.
'Seriously where's the local directory or map or something.' He scratched his head, regretting getting lost in thought before. Maybe he should've been more aware of his surroundings. But despite feeling lost in the maze of buildings, the raven haired boy didn't dare ask anybody else. The fear of being found out was still there, deep in his heart.
After a couple of tries he turned to the right and let out a sigh of relief when he saw the familiar alleyway he exited out of before. The athlete peered behind him to see if anyone was following before walking over to the broken window further down. There was the sound of a chair shifting inside and light footsteps approaching the hole. The smaller teen must have heard his arrival and Jeno started to get closer to enter.
However he saw a flash of colour. Dodging to the side he saw a plier thrust forward past the curtains almost stabbing him in the chest. Then, after a couple of seconds, a head peeked through. Renjun, with his narrowed eyes, made clear eye contact with his friend. And then let out a sigh of relief, pulling the curtain back further to let Jeno in.
"We need to create a signal or something bad will eventually happen to you." The blond clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. He still wasn't saying any sentences with the word death or kill, or anything having to do with the previous events for that matter. It must have scarred him hard if that was the case. Nevertheless he kept his annoyed expression on and snatched some of the grocery bags.
Nodding, the raven haired boy entered the hotel room casually with the bags near glued to his sides. "A signal would be a good idea...."
Despite bringing the idea up, the older teen changed the subject rather rapidly. "Also how the hell do you carry so many things at once?! You're clearly not normal." Renjun went on lifting one bag as if he was trying to carry a toddler with only one arm. "You way too strong for your own good."
"And you're way to snarky for your own good." Jeno shot back with a kind smile as he started to unpack the goods he bought from the store. He ignored the emotion of offence that his friend displayed and started to unpack the groceries, putting some in the fridge to keep fresh. There was a light amount of pressure being pressed against his back and in turning around Jeno got a small fist to the chest.
    'Is he trying to fight?' An amused glint came across his eyes and the raven haired boy took Renjun's hand. "Hey hey it was just a joke calm down."
    "Damn you for being so strong..." The other seethed under his breath and glared up. He raised his voice a bit. "Anyways." Pulling his arm back he sat back down in the chair. "You got any good information from walking around? Hear anyone talking? See any clues?"
    Jeno raised his eyebrows in surprise. The blond had thought all of that up on the fly? Like right now? When it took him literally a whole trip to a grocery store and information being slapped in his face to think about any of it? He flushed red at how air headed he was acting. Despite how the athlete said he wanted to change so badly. And here Renjun was easily adapting to what was going on, even with that horrible wound on his back- his brain was still sharp. "Uhh yeah actually." Jeno was very grateful for Kuzma. "I found out about a company named Hydra."
    He started to explain more in detail about his travel, mentioning the information he had gathered about the organization from the boys walking through the store to Kuzma to the people wandering around the streets. He tried to cover every detail he remembered whilst roaming down the streets, making it a point to bring out the poster he took from a wall he passed. Which the other had took promptly to analyze.
    "Kuzma said I was good for recruitment or something..."
    Humming, Renjun nibbled on the last cookie they'd packed when leaving the forest. "Interesting. It goes extremely well with what I found as well." He pat a medium sized computer on the desk, one that Jeno had never seen in his time being here. "While you were gone I was able to steal a computer."
    "You what?" His jaw nearly dropped and the raven haired boy couldn't believe what he just heard. "You stole something?"
    "A computer." Renjun repeated nonchalantly.
    Jeno didn't cease his shocked reaction.
    "What? Never heard of a computer?" In seeing the athletes visage not change a bit, the blond huffed He was Obviously irked by his friends response. "We need all the help we can get, whether they want to aid us or not. They don't have much of a choice." He crossed his arms. "Anyways, I did a search on Hydra and got pretty much the same answers you got. However I was able to dig deeper into the search engine and found some articles regarding previous occurrences with the company. Most of which lead me to a dead end with how they were redacted. Otherwise there was one that mentioned a death of one of the employees."
    "Oh...."
    Renjun spun to face the computer and went to work. His fingers flew across the keyboard and in no time he was able to find the exact article. The website was rather sketchy looking. There were no pictures in sight, no citations regarding any external sources and there was no sign of admins or owners at all. The only thing that was on the sight was the single article.
    "Uh it looks kind of creepy."
    "Whatever, it's the only thing I got." The blond hissed, clearly bothered by Jeno's behaviour at the moment. "It says here that after a period where they were taking in volunteers an employee of the company had broken several safety rules in their workspace. Said employee was exposed to some sort of chemical or gas that had inevitably killed them." His eyes flickered to Jeno. "Do you realize what this means?"
    "......Give me a moment." The younger teen squinted his eyes whilst reading the article. He referred back to previous statements Renjun had said before and looked back at their plan. "Oh wait....." He frowned. "Something to do with experiments right?"
    "EXACTLY." Near grinning, the other boy clenched his fists almost as if he was excited. "This means that they could have something to do with the abnormalities of Goldenleaf."
    "I mean yeah, but it's obvious they don't do experiments anymore..."
    Renjun gave him a look that nearly screamed 'Are you kidding me??'
    "......Unless they lied about stopping experiments?"
    Smiling, the blond lightly smacked Jeno's arm. "There you go. Now you're starting to think like a true conspiracy theorist."
    "Great. I think." He scratched the back of his head in confusion and decided to rest on the bed. "But what are we supposed to do now? Get recruited?"
    The older boy nodded simply and closed the computer. He raised his head up to stare into the mirror, raising a hand to play with his blond locks. "Obviously. It's the only way we'll be able to infiltrate the company for more answers." His brown eyes flickered over to Jeno. "And before you say anything yes we'll need to infiltrate the company. And no we can't do it in one night, if you forgot what happened that last time we wanted to do something all in one night."
    The raven haired boy didn't say a word. Renjun pretty much summed up all his thoughts and threw them in the trash. "So we disguise ourselves right? Cause you're blond hair paired will be easily recognized?"
    "Yes. We'll also dye your hair as well. And we'll need eye contacts to fit in more. Perhaps some piercings." Pulling a bit at his ears the other's eyes became glazed in thought. "A name change may also be a requirement. We may have to forge birth certificates and id's as well...."
    "I don't think we need to forge anything." Jeno interjected. "I heard from some people walking by that the only requirement is the person. Something about a new change?"
    "How cliche." Renjun sneered. He walked over to the raven haired boy and crawled onto the bed, going on his knees to start to play with his friends dark hair. "But I guess it works for our situation. Us wanting to change and all."
It was true that their ulterior motive was to change and cut off any relations from their old town, their old memories, their old selves. They wanted nothing to do with all the horrible memories from Goldenleaf. They wanted a fresh start. That meant changing everything, everything that reminded them of their hometown. They thought about this as the smaller teen ran his hands through the taller one's hair. The atmosphere was cooling down from the tensity it had experienced in the past few days.
"Now tell me honestly," The blond spoke up once more. "How do you feel with neon yellow hair?"
    "Ummmm???? No????" Jeno ducked under the blond's grabby hands that were pulling at his scalp. His face was clearly paling at the suggestion. He was going to change, but not that much.
    In response, Renjun laughed with wry amusement written across his face. "How about we just shave all that hair off?"
    "NO. NO. THAT IS A NO."