Raiders of the Last Potato Chip! [lion!]

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It would be difficult to get back to work, but as Dammick warned her, she had little choice.

Keep working, keep going strong. The weak spells will go away. And you'll come out stronger than ever.

That was over a year ago. Yet despite the nose bleeds, the 'attacks', the fatigue that followed, she found herself pulling out another injection and shooting herself with the 'perfect' chemical again. This was her job. She signed the papers. Her blood belonged to TRIM. And as her grand father reminded her...

There is no room to fail. Any scent of failure and TRIM will take you in, own you and either extinguish you like all of its other rejected specimen, or use you as a guinea pig. And you are better than that. You're a soldier. Not meant to be 'their's'.


It was strange. Her grandfather never talked badly of Thanatos, Inc; yet warned her not to report any problems. Was this not against protocol? She did sign the contract... Was this illegal not to say? Though there was mention the unfortunate reality of 'side effects'. So that's all she simply called them. 'Side Effects' of a drug that kept her in top shape, performed to her fullest potential and had almost no competition when it came to her military virtues. After all, the drugs easily extended those virtues into... well..

Perfection.

Honor meant she could live in peace, and live proudly; just like her parents. But she had already out lived their legacy, becoming a soldier who had acquired some possession of her own. A bigger apartment, bigger pay- all of the luxuries afforded to pilots and soldiers alike...

But on her last mission.....
She recalled the attack. It had happened so fast....
She could have died. Lost her plane, her rank... her life...


But yet her grandfather still insisted not to tell TRIM. And this time what he told her chilled her to the bone.

"If TRIM knows you're not perfect... they'll make you perfect."

But wasn't that what she wanted?


Slamming down her shot glass, she waved her wrist and paid for her bill. She never usually drank before the job, but this time her recovery had not been easy, and her sleep, despite medication, was not restful. But she had business to attend to, and this mission was too close to home not to look into. Something about illegal smuggling- and in the soldier's quarters, no less. It was unfathomable, but the rumors pointed to the lower level soldier's place, so down the steep elevator she went- all the way to the bottom.


When the doors opened and she stepped out into the hall, her boots clicked against the polished grounds and lesser soldiers noticed her rank and saluted her as she passed. It wasn't entirely strange for higher ranker military to be on any floor, but the hall she turned down....
That had enough for the others to stare.

The rumors started barely an hour ago, but already most of the floor was aware of it. Illegal food on the premise was not to be tolerated, and smuggling it in without approval- that was by far the worst offense. These 'junk foods' were hardly healthy,c logged the mind, made you sluggish and hardly your intestines churn.

It would be a simple task, just enough to get her blood pumping so the drug could ease into her system.

Knocking upon the door, she remained at attention, hands clasped and resting against her lower back.

Oh right, another thing that was bad about junk food. It rotted your teeth. Who would even want to eat something that rotted your teeth? But before someone answered the door, she heard an 'Oh Shit!' And someone scurry down the hall. Curious, she moved slowly away from the door, but halted when her boot stepped over something crinkly. And as she peered down, she picked up the broken disk she had stepped on and examined it, making a face as she observed the grease now lining her fingers. And after giving it a sniff, she turned away. She could have gagged.


Ugh, it was a potato chip!

[Lion]

Fucking-A!  Did the fuzz ever quit!?

Not since leaving Trim did Calixte Theroux feel like he was being watched on all sides.  But he supposed it was in a soldier’s nature to be watchful, especially around the soldiers’ apartments and the like.  But he was just like the rest of them, at least clothing-wise.  It wasn’t hard to get one of them out of uniform.  All you needed was a quick tongue, a gently touch, and then shock the hell out of them until they passed out.

Besides once he got the operation going, you’d think it’d get a little easier to go in and out.  Well, you’d think that.  That didn’t stop Cal’s nerves from getting the better of him.  Years being prodded like a pig made him jumpy and coming back to old stomping grounds in Aedolis had yet to set in a feeling of comfort.

This job was easy, he reminded himself, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of soldiers were starved for real food. They weren’t even allowed pizza! for crying out loud!  Cal snickered to himself, trying not to juggle the food container he had strapped to his belly underneath the clothes that were about two sizes too big on him.  They were small snack-pack chips, easy to conceal and stacked neatly in the container, and another along the strap were long tubes that contained chips.  He had an assortment of snacks, from chocolate pretzels to salted peanuts, all strapped securely to him.

Cal had set up shop from one of the recruits, using an apartment downstairs as a base of operations of a sort, giving the young man a cut of course, from his take for the day.  Nobody got hurt and business was good.  That was until there was an unusual raising of the hackles on the back of his neck that abruptly alarmed Cal, just before he turned the corner.

Someone else was here.

Cal turned to look, and that was when he saw someone else that clearly didn’t look like they were looking for snacks.  He turned tail and ran, coming back around the hall, dropping one of the chip-tubes in the process.  He scrambled to scoop them all back up, and managed to do so save for one.

Thankfully there was a handy broom closet to slink into.

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Cringing, she threw the filthy chip aside and followed it's trail. Though it appeared she was only walking, her stride carried her far and fast as her eyes cleaved the area, searching for any clues to where the criminal had run off to and had just passed the broom closet when the sound of a broom falling over clanked against the door.

Turning to glance over her shoulder, she studied it for a moment before making a silent approach.

"Criminal, if you are in there, this is your first and only warning to surrender yourself, or face greater consequences from the Aedolian  Soldier Legislate!"

[Lion]

PFFFFFFfffffT!  She couldn't be serious!
Did she honestly think he was just going to come out and surrender?  Not on his life! This was the first real job he'd had since coming back to Haviah.  Sure maybe Aedolis wasn't the same stomping ground he remembered, but an old contact had a low down on a quick score.  If there was anything he needed, it was money and fast.

She could've been the Director of TRIM herself, and he wouldn't have given two huffs and a spit goober.   Cal just barked a laugh, thinking that if she really were from TRIM she wouldn't even be alive right now.  But then he slapped a hand over his mouth and shifted from his position on the other side of the door.  He moved up through the side, crawling along a shelf and hiding behind a large industrial vacuum cleaner just as the door swung open.

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She couldn't believe what she saw was empty, but the pistol she now held wasn't. Narrowing her eyes, she quickly adjusted to the dark, and happened to see just the tiniest bit of movement to her left and noticed a large vacuum cleaner...
The perfect and ONLY place to hide.

"You can't fool me. Come out before I drag you out!" she commanded, tone still even, but firm.

[Lion]

"No way man," he called out.  Of course he knew she spotted him already but he wasn't about to let her take him, no way no how.  "You must take me for some kind of idiot.  I'm way to fabulous for that."  He barked a laugh and charged his hands, feeling the polarity just itch on his palm.  He moved swiftly darting out from behind the vacuum cleaner and launching out a wave of electric energy, intending to push her out of the way of the door.

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The unseen attack was not expected and so the woman was thrown off her feet. Landing in a painful heap upon the floor, she grit her teeth and felt something...
Was that blood? It was dribbling from her nose.

[Lion]

Calixte's boots struck the smooth tile floor like nobody's business. He leapt over her fallen body and bolted down the hallway, bashing into the wall as he made a sharp turn and pushed himself off of it, hoping to give him an extra burst of energy.  Oh the thrill of the chase!  He'd forgotten how much he loved almost getting caught.

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And she had forgotten how much she loathed it. Normally her ship would do the chasing, but now it seemed it was time for a run. Pushing herself off of the ground, she wasted no time and was quickly gaining on his heels and shouting for him to, "Halt! Or I'll shoot!"

[Lion]

Like he'll he would!  Cal reached into his coat and pulled out one of those canister chip containers and chucked it at her as he ran, chips flying everywhere on impact.

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And as the chips exploded, so did her gun.

[Lion]

"Holy shit!" He ducked when he felt the bullet explode behind his head and rounded a corner just in time.

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Erthe was not going to let the smuggler get away so easy! Continuing her pursuit, she shouted her demands again.
"HALT!" And as they both turned into the same hall, Erthe saw other lower ranking cadets and shouted, "STOP THAT MAN!"

[Lion]

Shit!  She just wouldn't quit!  Calixte skidded around two cadets, one of which looked like he wanted a few good chips.  Cal gripped a handful for chips and ground them up good, throwing them in front of both of their faces.  One man yelped, getting salt and vinegar right in the eye. The other was a little more resilient and snatched into Cal's sleeve, ripping it a little.

Cal managed to slip away and rounded another corridor, before slipping down the main corridor. He needed the stairs, asap!

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He had got to be kidding. Did he honestly just use his chips as a weapon? Scowling, she withdrew a second pistol, this one charged and ready to taze. And as she pushed past the two who failed to stop the fiend, she felt she was losing ground. A tighteness began to take hold of her chest.

'No! Not now!' she cursed inwardly, and just as the man was rounding the bend, she knew she might only have this one chance, and raised her tazer- and fired out an electric whip, hoping it'd latch to his heel- or at least any part of him!

[Lion]

Calixte wasn't about to think he was homefree just yet. He was still deep within the belly of the beast.  He'd have to make it to applace where he could take it easy, lie low for a few seconds until he could fix himself up and look dashing again.  All of that was kind've hard to do when you were running for your life!  Well hard for someone that wasn't Cal.  He was always dashing.

So when he turned his head just a second to flash a grin at his pursuers he got sight of that taser coming after him.  "WHO'S SHIT!!"

And the band wrapped itself around his leg, just as he tried to jump,  to avoid it hitting him in the nuts.

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Thank God she got his leg. ANd wasting no time, she gave the damn electric whip a yank, hoping to pull the man to his feet. Thought he could escape did he? He'd be paying severely for that!

[Lion]

Calixte yanked uselessly at the whip until the yank back had him skidding back down the hallway.  "Fucking A!" he howled and threw a chip canister at her head.

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Thankfully the chip canister simply bounced harmlessly off her shoulder, but when it made a greasy mess on the floor, the woman scowled. She gave the whip along yank, before pushing the button that would draw the man towards her while the electric whip recoild back into it's device.

[Lion]

Fucking shit!

Or those were the words he would be saying if he wasn't too busy reacting to being slammed from one wall to another.  Until he stopped right at the foot of the stupid soldier who probably could use a few bags of fried potato chips.