Episode 4.5: A Cold Day in Hell

[lazee]

Previously, on A.E.G.I.S.​

In a completely boring city plagued by superpowered convicts running amok and the looming threat of an anti-Super terrorist group, a couple of happy-go-lucky kids somehow found the time to go shopping. But lo, they happened unto an empty store! Its employees nowhere to be found, the kids were left to their own devices as hell literally raged just a few blocks away, give or take.

That is, until a well-dressed man in well-dressed manners arrived and took the reins of the store when no one else could or would. Manning the register and helping out a damsel in distress with her desperate want for brooms, he seemed like a true knight in shining armor. And like one, he could not bear to witness his store being robbed before his very eyes! The man goes in pursuit, intent on showing them that there are worse things than Hell, such as Hell frozen over.

Starring:
Cecilia Tortellini [ Necessity4Fun ]
Eden Pommel [ Swoob ]
Hannah Toboggan [ Dusky ]
Kyle Kaiser [ @St Sin ]
Mitch Pestle [ yoikes ]
Lamar 'My name is totally not Luke 'Cool Hand Luke' Pryce' Davis and,
Amy Bones and Todd Creep, 2/5ths of MAINFRAME [ DamagedGlasses ]
As well as two very special secret guest stars...

OOC: I trust y'all know where your characters left off. I'd personally suggest Damaged make the first post, detailing where they got away to so I can metagame when chasing them

 

[DamagedGlasses]

MAINFRAME​

Grocery Store Peeps: Necessity4Fun Swoob Dusky @St Sin yoikes lazee​

It wasn’t often that MAINFRAME felt a chill go down all of it’s collective spines. These instinctive reactions, founded in years upon years of evolution in the human psyche were some of the few things that MAINFRAME could not control as steadily as it would like too, but as it pushed Amy out of the grocery store and into the parking lot, Todd a few yards away with the groceries they had...well, pillaged was the coolest way to say it, it understood that this was for a good reason. Using Lewis’s access to the cameras inside the grocery store, MAINFRAME quickly noticed that it’s hasty retreat had not gone unnoticed. Even now, the man who had been helping the girl with finding brooms began making his way to the front of the store, and while MAINFRAME considered the chance that he wasn’t making his way to follow Amy and Todd, that wasn’t something it was going to bet 2/5ths of the it’s life on.

Using the tiny legs of it’s two bodies, Amy and Todd quickly made their way to the bikes they had parked just a distance away. MAINFRAME wasn’t one for theatrics or acting during such an intense moment, but even then, it had the time to experiment, the nervous look Amy sent Todd being responded with by an even nod and an increase in speed. Lewis and the rest of the bodies, all felt the command for adrenaline coming through, their typing speed increasing as they switched tasks to fit the situation. Steven and Jeremy stopped their coding, Steven slipping into local camera systems and find other vantage points while Jeremy began to map out the best way to get away from the grocery store. Lewis, of course, continued his observation of the grocery store, but it was not looking good.

MAINFRAME wondered if this situation truly was going to be as bad as it felt it was. Was there a chance that this man was one of the escaped prisoners? What if he was? What if he was just a normal man? Even a normal man could kill two kids, as many humans have proven in history. Just one man was almost an insult to the human race if some historical figures were taken into consideration. Regardless, MAINFRAME knew that the police would be of no help, so it didn’t bother. With so many tragedies going on throughout Baltimore, there would be no Officers in Blue rescuing any of it’s bodies today.

As Amy and Todd hopped on their respective bikes, rushing out into the nearby empty street, a smudge of neon pink and navy blue making their way away from the grocery store to the various low-definition cameras Steven had managed to find. They knew exactly where they were going, each and every turn with contingencies in place, but even that might not be enough if it’s fears were correct. If this was how you got field experience, then it was going to have to speak to some people afterwards.

 

[lazee]

Necessity4Fun Swoob Dusky @St Sin yoikes DamagedGlasses
​

The silence between the two young ones remained as they made their way to the front of the grocery store. Luke didn't really think any more conversation was necessary, lest the girl get too comfortable with hearing his voice. Then she could identify him. And that was terrible. He needed to stay low profile. Granted, actively being near an adolescent (who on average had better memories) was not the low profile way, but for someone who was posing as a store clerk, this was the best Luke or 'Davis' could do.

Once the two got back to the front, Luke left the girl to sweep whatever the fuck needed sweeping herself and headed back to the cashier. Pink-haired dude was still there and had the nerve to turn his words against him, but to his surprise, two people were missing.The two kids that he had served just a few moments ago before he headed to the back. As well as their plastic bags of groceries. Had they just ditched on him just like that? Had Davis Lamar been swindled? He turned to the pink-haired dude since he was the most likely the one who saw them going.

"Yo, I'm gonna check out your food, but where did those kids with the cool glasses go?" Luke inquired in a convincingly pressing tone. A real dude who worked here would be more than concerned. Concerned enough to give chase. LUke immediately went into thinking up a game plan. "Don't tell me they ditched without paying..."

​

 

[Swoob]

eden trammel​

At Grocery Store
With lazee Necessity4Fun Dusky @St Sin DamagedGlasses yoikes
OOC whoops sorry, here it is

Eden raised his eyebrows. Maybe he actually does work here. The sudden workerly concern flustered him for a bit and grappled with the suspicion in his stomach. Staring at the man, he momentarily lost himself in trying to reevaluate him before realizing that Davis Lamar had done him a favor. He smirked.

"Oh, those kids?" He looked at the blatantly empty countertop and gasped. "My god, you're right! They ran off! Shit, I definitely remember seeing them leave, but I'm not quite sure... I can't think about it straight because I can only think about whether I can pay for all this food. I sure hope it's not too expensive, or else the stress might distract me even more..." He looked at Davis Lamar and wiggled his eyebrows. You know what to do, right? However, despite the smug atmosphere he pumped out of himself, a tension began to tug at his gut. He might have started to push his luck.

 

[lazee]

Necessity4Fun Swoob Dusky @St Sin yoikes DamagedGlasses
​

The smugly high and mighty vibe this pink guy put out would've irritated him to no end normally, but Luke had to act as if he had bigger priorities, that being his store getting robbed. Scrounging his pockets, Davis tried to find loose change so Pink Guy could be compensated for the food, but finding no such luck, he put his hands on the counter, looking pretty defeated. As pretending to be nervous often ends up making him nervous in turn, he perfectly pulled off the jittering with concern this situation might make.

"L-Look, man. I know what they took wasn't much, but my boss is going to kill me if they found out that I let people steal stuff from here," Davis said to the pink guy, a subtle yet very real chill coming between the two and it wasn't from the AC. That tended to happen when his emotions were flaring up, genuinely or otherwise. "If you can help me find those fuckers, it'd be a huge help. I hate to appeal to greed, but I might even make your purchase free of charge. Do you think you can help me in this?" Miserable as it sounds, Luke has long since perfected the art of pleading. He only hoped that the girl from before would hear this conversation. Made his job easier.

 

[Necessity4Fun]

Cecilia Rizzo Pellegrini

​

Location: Grocery Store - Entrance >> Bread Aisle >> Entrance again
People Around: Pink haired boy, still can't remember his name (Eden); Mitch and the odd cashier. (Luke)
Interactions: lazee

Let me help!

Holding the cleaning apparatus close to her, attempting to not let any of the things fall from the shopping basket she was also holding, Cecilia stayed silent as the cashier guided her somewhere. Soon, both of them had returned to the entrance area. The girl sighed, it was clear the man hadn't listened to her words earlier... Now she'd have to find the way back to the bread aisle herself.

As soon as the two reached the front, the girl staying a bit behind, the pink haired boy from the snowball fight had asked if the cashier would check his items. If the Italian had been in a brighter mood, she might have questioned why make this question since it was the man's job to check everyone's items and then inform the price of them. But in the current moment, all she wanted was to be away of the strange man for a while...

Seeing as his attention wasn't on her anymore, Cecilia slowly made her way back into the store. After her earlier adventure, she had memorized where some of the aisles were, mostly the ones she kept coming back to, and the pasta and sauce place turned out to not be that far from her destination, thus, if Cecil got there again she'd have no trouble finding her way...Three wrong turns later, the girl was greeted by a wall of spaghetti boxes, meaning that if she passed one corridor and then turned right.. AHA! The bread aisle!

Beaming at having successfully arrived to the right place in record time, Cecilia carefully set her basket of groceries down and held the broom in the proper position. She gave a through look at the popcorn and fusilli mess, before realizing that she was completely alone in the aisle. Ehhh, where had the honey hair girl and Kyle gone to? She hoped they had gone home and not missing inside the store, unable to find their way back by themselves... The Italian shook her head and laughed. What a silly thing to think. People didn't normally get lost inside stores like that, it was just her! ...Yep, definitely just her and her dad.

Taking a deep breath, Cecilia stared back at the aisle, determination shining in her eyes. Ohh, this corridor wasn't staying messy for much longer! With swift, precise sweeps of the broom, the girl made a little pile of the (sadly) wasted food in the middle of the area. It was true she couldn't simply move the shelves around to sweep bellow them like she could do with her couch, so Cecil had attempted to get even those pieces of popcorn and pasta in there by fitting the broom in the little space between shelves and the floor, bending it slightly in an angle.
Another breath, this time one filled with pride on a job well done. The floor was once more clean and all of the wasted food had been collected on the dustpan. Now she had to a find a trash bin! Uhhh, better to head back to entrance instead of trying to find it herself... Every counter had a little trash bin beside it, right?


One wrong turn later -Hey, progress!-, Cecilia found her way back to the front. After taking a couple steps towards the counters, apprehension tightened around her chest. Seeing the store worker again didn't evoke a pleasant feeling... The girl simply didn't know whether the cashier was mad at her or not! Heck, she didn't even knew why he had been so weird before! Still, not bothering the man more than needed sounded like a good decision...

"Come on Cecilia, you can do this. Easy and simple. Just, throw all this trash away in one of the bins, give the man back his broom and dustpan, finally buy your stuff and catch the bus bac-"

"L-Look, man. I know what they took wasn't much, but my boss is going to kill me if they found out that I let people steal stuff from here", the cashier's voice rang in a tone of desperation causing her to come to a halt. Listening into the rest of the conversation, the Italian forgot all about her own apprehensions and instead, her heart ached with every new word of the worker. He HAD been weird earlier, but everyone had those moments, and he was sounding like he was in trouble!
Setting broom, dustpan and groceries basket down carefully, Cecilia took a step forward, her hand already drifting closer to her bag:

"H-how much did they take?! I wouldn't mind paying a little extra if it would help you out!", she offered despite not knowing who or what was exactly going on, well except for someone stealing from the store, "If I can cover both mine and their bill, then I'd gladly do so. Then you don't have to leave the store or ask that boy to track down a thief... At least, I assume that's what was going on? I actually have no idea... Anyway! Allow me to pay for it, please!"

The girl had let it out with conviction. What if the man hadn't been all that nice to her earlier? He certainly didn't deserve to suffer from the decisions of others and she wasn't the type of person to deny aid when she could help, not even if the person in question probably wouldn't do the same for her. "Always treat others the same way you would like them to treat you", that's the phrase Cecilia had heard as a child, one, that she still followed whenever possible.

"Also, would someone please tell me where to find a trash can? I cleaned that mess we made in the bread aisle...", she lowered her gaze a bit in shame, "S-sorry about that."