He drifted in his mind, he was weightless and tired. His whole front face pounded with pain. He flinched at the beat of his heart that is way too preeminent to be comfortable. But as he drifted the pain subsided.
Voices started to echo in and out of being audible. Mumbles turned into words "Carter, the- and we-. Carter!" a bright flash tore him from the comfort of the void. "Carter! Carter? We need you to listen" a familiar face remarked.
He had to think of who she was, where did he see her? When did he see her? And how does he not remember? "Are you listening? God Carter, your insufferable" she sighed. "H-how do you know my name?" he asked with a weak tone. "Oh my god! This is the person we chose to help us?" she said to another guy who was standing in the corner.
His dark brown eyes focused on her with vigilance. He chuckled "hey, Marissa, I didn't choose him, the popular vote did." he answered with an arrogant vibe. "Yeah and how the hell did you get chosen?" she asked under her breath. The guy with the dark brown eyes flinched and stared at her with anger, Though he would not act on it. Even Carter knew this.
She looks back up at Carter with a smile, of course, it was a lame, half-ass smile that carried an annoying state to it. "You are going to help us, Carter. Jester has been plaguing this land for too long. And you're going to help us expose them." she said with power and assurance. "look, miss, I honestly can't do much from this position I'm in. but if you were to release me I probably could do something about this issue." he said with a bargaining tone, he was sure of his bargain to persuade her.
She laughed at him hysterically "you honestly think we will release you? I think it's time you learned who is in control here" she said with anger. She pulled back her arm in preparation for a massive blow, Carter flinched. A few seconds pass and nothing, he opens one of his eyes, only to find her swing interrupted by the guy with the brown eyes holding her wrist and shaking his head.
"Not yet, Marisa, if you beat him senseless you honestly think he is going to willingly join us?" he said with a pure, honest, and concerned tone. She shakes her head "no, your right" she loosens her grip on the bat, then when the guy with the dark brown eyes was sure she wouldn't cause any more disturbances he releases her wrist.
She let her arm relax. From then on an hour passed and they were still in the same room, no one said a word in the sense she attempted to strike Carter. The sound of multiple locks being pulled, slid, and turned slaughtered the most awkward silence probably anyone of them has had to experience. One more set of locks later the huge marine style door that Carter seemed to not notice slowly opened.
A single person dressed in dark robes, tattered as if they had been worn for ages, the person stepped through the heavy-looking door. they strode until they met Carter, the person in the black robes knelt to him. Carter averted his attention to the heavy door that was slowly ending at an ajar position, he said nothing. Even the two goons were silent. With a rugged voice the figure spoke "where others fail, you succeed, Carter. You may not want to hear it, but you are important to us" Carter scoffs "so, the important people around here get jumped with a bat, lock them to a rusty old chair, and threaten to beat you with a bat." The person slowly adverts their gaze to the girl and the man who is staring at the ground with guilt. The man takes a breath in preparation to explain only to be interrupted by an assertive voice. " so that is how we treat our guests? We said that we would end this, so why haven't we? I know what you did Marisa, five weeks of mess hall duty, no action for the rest of the month. Learn from your mistakes and prepare yourself, it is going to be a long night of training" Marisa could only stutter, she looked vigorously at Carter, then the person, then back at Carter again. She scowled at Carter, he knew she hated him for that, but he wanted to assure his safety. The person watched Marisa slowly walk out of the room and slam the impossibly heavy door that looked as if it could shield you against an RPG shot. The person looked back at Carter, "I'm sorry about this ordeal, we will release you and let you explore, I will accompany you and assure your safety, she is a hard one to control." Carter sat there in silence, he had enough of no explanation of why he got beat and who these people were. Carter simply nodded at the person, words were not able to form. The person slid behind the chair, sounds of old chains and padlocks overtook all other white noise that echoed in the room. After a considerable amount of time, he felt the restraints loosen against his wrist and restored the full movement of his arms. The man with the dark brown eyes fled the room as soon as Carter stood up. The person nodded at Carter signifying that it was ok for Carter to move. He could hear the sound of their feet shuffling against the old industrial sheet metal floor that was hardly new or sturdy. Carter remarks with a hint of fear " you guys need some serious renovation on these floors of yours if you want to call them that" the person laughs slightly as if it were a pity laugh. "Carter, out of all the people here, I'm sure you know the answer to that." They passed other chambers like the one he was healed in, the poor lighting made the surroundings look older than they are, like an artistic tone. It was obvious but Carter had noticed that there were no windows in sight, that lead to the thought that they were underground. "This facility was used back in the 2060s as a Restoration chamber that used hydrogen as the main fuel source, clean burn, untraceable emissions, and helped the air economy." said the person with pride. Carter continued to follow the person, it was a huge cylinder type building that had spiral steps that lead to a huge excavated area at the bottom. Masses of people were mingling, dancing, drinking, eating, and lounging. Carter pointed down to the mosh pit of people. "That is one big ass party," he remarked. The person laughed "yes, but it is far from a party, Carter, that is what we call the lounge. A place where people can interact, compare stats, select hits, and eat." he explained. Carter stumbled on his words, "wait! Hits?! You mean like assassination contracts!?" Carter asked with fear and curiosity. The person stopped moving, turned towards Carter, and dramatically tore off their tattered garb. The person looked like a human, but they were anything but. Their face was a clean titanium metal painted white, orange lights were in their mouth, their eyes were a deep orange, as well as three nostril holes. The voice changed from rugged to a robotic, smooth, midrange tone. "Carter, we are the Watchers, we are not good guys. We are simply bad people who hurt even worse people. You see our targets hide in the shadows, claiming they are monsters that lurk in the night, but they haven't even seen us, we are the true monsters of the shadows, we are trained acrobats that elegantly jump through the loopholes of this tattered legal system, we are the monsters that go bump in the night." they proudly exclaimed. Carter was silent. The person signaled for Carter to follow and he did. From there on there had been few words exchanged, they ran through the training court where they saw Marisa training with a man that looked like the person who was giving him a tour. Then they moved to the splicer stations where the skin was melding into titanium, and body parts being replaced by optic systems and movement modulators. They strode past weapons training and arrived at the sleeping quarters where multiple people and machines slept. The robot averted its attention to Carter ''if you would have been normally initiated, you would have rested here, but you are important to us, so we will send you to the W-77 sleeping ward. a place with people like you. Alert, attentive, analytic, and strong" it complimented. They started for the other sleeping ward, within the time Carter spoke to the robot, he asked questions and found that the person is a she, as well as her name being the Watcher. She was a lot like Carter except she survived one of the hits placed on her from one of the big corporations, now she lives as a metal shell, null of all pain. They approached the sleeping ward, there was half the amount of people and machines here than there were at the other sleeping ward, everyone had their rooms. She showed him his room and left him, he inspected the room, it was a lot like his apartment back in the city, one bathroom, and one bed. The room was filled with guns, knives, and swords. The backboard had a black 50. Cal. that was decked with thermal sights, logistics analyzer (calculates wind speed, bullet trajectory. And all other calculations, makes the weapon a point and shoot) and has a red neon painted T interacting with a W. the paint was like a hologram, it glitched now and again. The nightstand had a black desert eagle with a holo sight and the same tag on it as the sniper. The place was an Army Man's wet dream. Carter could not sleep, especially with all of the deadly weapons that were scattered around the room.