Freeport 10's Research Deck: Commonwealth Research and Development Wing.

[Enkidu]

"...Putain de la FUC<expletive>ING merde!!!"

Several explosive crashes and Achille had bounded round the aperture, snarling like a orca. Sighting the incorrigible Susan did little to sooth his temperament.

"...You..." He raised a trembling limb in accusation, as to bore his digits through her features; "You! How, how dare you..."

Behind his back Achille Augustin Nadeau raised a mid-sized, pearl-handled clasp knife of impeccable workmanship, Robert's initials etched into it's hilt, it's essence. For a fleeting moment he toyed with the possibility of shanking the wretched witch through her eyeballs and leaving her to rot in peace, if if only for a moment.

A flutter of the eyelids and blood drained from his brain, leaving him swaying slightly in the arch.

"Ah, cheri... I mean, ahem, Doctor McCarthy..." He murmured calmly, composure returning before it's absence could become unnerving; "...What exactly can I pleasure you with, ah, that is to say, what would you want, Susan?"

The knife clattered unobtrusively out of his left palm, before being shuffled behind the porch by his left heel. "After all, no sense in violence." He winced quietly, gazing tiredly at his colleague.

"So what happens to be the problem, mon associé? Did Sean's beer cooler run out of cryocubes, or do you require extra assets from the storage department?"

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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[Remnant]

Susan holds out the vial in her hands, offering it to Achillie. "This is goodbye. There isn't much more to say. Your 'drain' in funds that you keep mumbling about will cease, as well myself."

The vial was a strange color, not quite purple, but not quite orange.

Susan seems to be ignoring his outburst with the trick Robert has played on him, not really seeming to care.

[Enkidu]

Achille's anger miraculously dispelled. "So soon? Really McCarthy you have me at a loss. Truly I had no concept that you would decide to, well, hmm..." The offering possessed him.

Gingerly, he took the bottle, holding it oddly, staring at how the light refracted through the concoction, making no effort to hide the befuddlement gently playing with his face.

"Susan." He enunciated, slowly, after a pause. "Exactly, hmm. Well I must confess I have not seen it's like... just what is this tincture you present to me now? It appears... well. Ahem."

Interest had struck him mute.

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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[Remnant]

"I have not found that this is what I needed. To reside within the Commonwealth, the temporary lapse of being around others instead of being alone helped slightly, perhaps, but there are a little more that I do not with to be bothered with."

Glancing at the bottle in his hands. "You have done research on Nox. I have done research as well. In your hands is the answer to perhaps quite a few problems your team may have on their hand, which is solved through common sense. I don't want it. I have satisfied myself, I have learned what I wanted. That was my only reason for doing such."

Sighing slightly, holding her head in a hand for a few seconds. "Within forty eight hours, i'll be vacating the premiss of Freeport 10, and I find it doubtful that you will see me again. Susan McCarthy does not exist. Its time for me to disappear for a third time I believe."

Shaking her head quickly. "Regretfully, that is all I am leaving you with. I am sure you have cameras and other devices which were in my lab, figure out how to make it yourself. its rather simple if you think about chemistry and how things like to mingle with each other I suppose. I have a virus in my databank which will force my network on a closed system, and delete everything." Not deciding to mention the data-crystal she has for her own copy.

"Any problems, concerns, questions, ask them now. I'd like to get on my way."

[Enkidu]

Achille grins again, although the exact emotion fuelling the expression remains unclear. "...Susan. That was quite the obfuscation, even for you. Not found the companionship you want, desire, from us? My dear, this is a fraternity; if you cannot feel at home with us then then exactly where are you going to feel valued... never perhaps?" He sighs slightly, leaning against the frame. "McCarthy, however you have satisfied yourself with us, or indeed, whatever you have sated in yourself, scientific interest, companionship, whatever; this very final. Think of it cheri; you merely knock on my office and tell me that you wish to part company, well, Susan...." He exhales deeply, tight in jaw, lips pursed, thoughts opaque.

"...Susan, despite the many, many rational, well-reasoned itinerary of ill-will I may hold for you - your arrogance for one, your elitism. your fallible (and indeed, obvious) tendency to manipulate others, me included - , you do realise this is a dismemberment, oui? You, Susan McCarthy, along with everyone on this bloody deck, represent more than mere subordinates, tools to be used then discarded. Non Madame. This is something much greater - a fellowship, non, a chain to utilise clichéd imagery. We're only a strong as each other; each link must tie together in full or we will all become redundant. Now that chain is going to need to be recast."

*Places the bottle on his desk, on a coaster, as though it might corrode it.*

"...I would ask you exactly what's in the mixture but I trust a detailed chemical analysis more than I actually trust you now cheri... Oh do not be offended, we all know the impression is entirely mutual. But, Susan, for what it's worth, well, thank you Mc Carthy, you've proved an admirable asset and indeed, quite the sparring partner. And this... well. Whether it proves to be ambrosia or brine purely, at least it'll keep me occupied for a while. So..."

*Shifts uncomfortably*

"...I assume this is good bye then, for it's value." Gradually, the simile faded back, a minor thing, tiny and insignificant, but none-the less based off a grudging respect. "...Since you've not... well, found, exactly what you intended from our working relationship, then, well, I've lost a nemesis, haven't I?"

He shrugs jaggedly, rolling his shoulders. "After all, there isn't much I can say to that, is there? Merde but she is final..." Achille backed through the door, and offered his hand through the aperture. After a quiet moment, his features dissolve, melting into a semblance of genuine sincerity.

"Au revoir, Susan McCarthy, and good luck in wherever life leads you...."

"...You're certainly going to need if you want to stay ahead of the dogs. So, McCarthy, let's say ten hours, and not forty-eight, oui?"

The slam of the door smothers his chuckles.

"Ah justice..., where would the world be without you?"

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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[Remnant]

Susan watches him leave, remaining silent and listening to him throughout the entire 'speech', only speaking as he shuts the door. "Nemesis, Rival, Peer, Grunt, Friend, all the titles are such a hassle. Best get away from them all, after all. Its easier than working with others."

Back at her lab-room, a progress bar scrolls across the console running the equipment, slowly deleting all the data contained, and leaving it with an empty filesystem, Susan walks through the halls, carrying a little bag as that's all she needed to leave with.

Passing through the hallways, regarding one of the men who helped her carry stuff with a cold stare, she slowly leaves the laboratory building, only to turn around, give it a look-over and give it a mock salute. "Lets see if the next place is bigger than this one hmm?"

Slowly setting a path over to the edge of the dome, she reaches into her pocket, taking out her ID card, giving it a quick look over before promptly snapping it in half, and casting it into the pond she was walking by. "And this marks the end."

--Continued in the Sylvania Dome--

[The_Normal_Anomaly]

The good Doctor is in the research area, plugging away information into one of the "supercomputers." Every once in a while he double checks his inputs with a datapad he has on a nearby table.

"Energy pets . . . really?" he says under his breath.

After some time he finishes the current round of inputs, and sets down at a table, flipping back to some designs of his humaniform automata, humming some silly tune as he goes about tinkering with the schematics, waiting to see if any addition input will be needed.

[Enkidu]

"...Ah, sournois!" Achille entered spontaneously; delivering to Devious's vertebral disks a thump of sufficient power to almost shove one out of position. Almost.

"...So friend, how goes your research? Transcended the ever insolute boundaries of the laws of physics yet, or are you still poking around with masers. Now Sir, this is an opportunity for you; one for you to expand, grow, thrive; flourish like a flower on the bloom. Take your curiosity where it leads you Man - you'll find only merriment in it's execution, that I can assure you...."

He paused for breath, staring over his stoic collegues shoulder as he fought for view of the screens.

"...Very, hmm. Very impressive Sir." Achille nodded, enrapture grappling with critique. "...however, permit me to change a few lines of code, hmm? You haven't as of yet made any direct compensation for animal's direct shape... permit me to..." He fluidly produced a disposable Hardchip, inserting it into Benny's brainchild before he could object, smiling with every flicker of the screen.

"...Ah, bien!" The chip found itself soaring into a neighbouring waste receptacle. "...Several hours of laborious number-crunching tedium spurned away from you; you see Sounois, I'm nothing if not good to my children..."


He stood up, back straightening as adjusted the wandering hair that'd strayed towards his eyeballs.

"...So all is well Sir, hmm? Notify me if you're stuck over any one point; right now, a particular sandwich has my name written all over it... or at least my tooth marks."

"...Ah Sir, am I done here?"

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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[Occam Razor]

Jennifer Perez was sitting at a table with a big screen in front of her, which constantly flashed with new streams of information. She was wearing her gray flight suit and was staring at the screen highly concentrated. The data she inputted changed from time to time randomly, creating new outputs. The whole scene looked odd, how Jennifer stared at the screen nearly not moving, lost in the simulation.

She was appareantly running simulations of power generators, trying to find the perfect one for the Energy-Pet's energy. She was testing generators ranging from fuel cells to antimatter reactors. Her face didn't show any expression while she was reading through the data appearing and disappearing at her screen.

---

"Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it."
René Descartes

[Enkidu]

Achille appeared beside Perez with the grace of a vampire. "Ceri, now I do realise you are somewhat fond of your work, but do you really need to wear such tawdry, functional clothes as a flight suit among the 'deck itself? It really doesn't mesh with the atmospherics, Jenny...."]

He peered over her shoulder, as he did with her colleague, and watched noiselessly the numbers roll.

"...Ah, so what have you found cheri? Simulative testing? Oui, very benign, yes..." He murmured unexpectedly, mostly to himself, staring at the screens as though knew exactly what he was gawping at, which he quite possibly did.

"Magnificent, magnificent..." Achille narrated quite superfluously, before halting his colleague with a press of the hand. "...Jenny, if you'd just scroll back as to, ah no, somewhat too far, up, keep going; bien, you have it! There lies the solution to our powerplant predicament..."

"Antimatter cheri. What else possesses a significantly negligible mass?"

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's Shipping Unions, retired from a life of piracy.)

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(Links pending redevelopment).