{M} People Like Us {Numbers & Natora}

[Numbers]

Ben smiled. "It is certainly a challenge at times, with so many people and such a large city, it requires constant fine tuning and lots of micromanaging by those under me to make sure all of the gears and cogs are constantly working. Add in private security by the different companies around and sometimes we run into issues." Ben was going to say more but there was a quick ding to signal for everyone's attention. "Well, we can always continue this later because it seems its time for the monthly meeting. It was nice meeting you again Kelly and I look forward to hearing what it is that you and Etmere have to say at the meeting." Ben said with a smile before walking off to go find some of his party members.

Etmere watched him leave before turning his attention to the large podium that was on one wall with a man standing behind it. "Greetings everyone and welcome to the sixty-fourth founders annual meeting. Tonight will be a more exciting than usual meeting as we have a special guest. He's from a city far to the south and he brings the gift of knowledge with him. Somehow, one of our founders managed to snag him for their company already, however, with the permission of the CEO of that company, we were given permission to ask him a couple of questions about the work he did back in his city. Before we get to that exciting event, let's go over the normal stuff and save what will certainly be the best part of the meeting for last."

[Natora]

Kelly smiled and nodded a goodbye to Ben as he left them to be. She looked up to Etmere almost as if wanting approval for how she had spoken to him, some small smile or other small sign of validation that she wasn't acting like a complete moron. His attention was elsewhere though. She could imagine why. He was used to these sorts of gatherings. He had probably helped organize a few back home. It would be different to have them in another place. When the man at the podium started speaking, Kelly quickly turned her attention that way with a neutral look on her face.

The welcome was intriguing for sure. It made even more sense why Etmere might seem distracted at the moment. He was about to get up in front of a large group of people and share secrets only known to his own society. He had been hesitant at best to share anything with her. Why would he have agreed to speak out at something so large?

The man at the front continued with reports abut different sectors of the city, calling up CEOs and other high up people to speak on behalf of what seemed like every possible department of the city: agriculture, waste treatment, military, research, and recreation were only a few. There were only a few pieces that Kelly truly cared about. Research, of course, was one of them. It was good to know from what was being shared that their company had been the only one so far to discover a child marked subject. Of course, not even her own company was willing to share that information yet.

While waste treatment was enlightening the crowd on its groundbreaking sewage treatment technique, Kelly leaned over to Etmere. "So, why did you say I would have to speak?" she asked him curiously. Her voice was quiet, low enough to not be overheard as more than a mere hum.

[Numbers]

He smiled at her question as he leaned his lips to her ears to whisper into them. "You are the women who managed to snag something incredibly rare are you not. A man with a huge amount of knowledge in his brain that could easily push any of the companies in the city forward in power. Weapons for the police, infrastructure for construction, science for research. Of course, they don't know what we both know." He said with a smile before kissing the side of her head when his name finally got called.

He went up the podium and quickly cleared his throat. "Hello everyone, it is so nice to be welcomed here and to meet all of you. I want to clear some things up first. I came to this city to scout out how the other survivors of our world are doing against the marked." He knew that Kelly would know what he was saying was a lie since he told her something different, but he knew that beside his contact, everyone here would be hearing what he had to say for the first time and would not think he was lying about anything.

"While I do plan on sharing some of my technology from my people, and the advanced knowledge that my people have of the marked I plan on only sharing it with the person who is my girlfriend in your beautiful city here. She is the reason I decided to share some of my knowledge. Mainly, she is the one who has convinced me that my time here should be best spent helping you. With that, I decided to share the fact that out of everything my people have done studies on and improved the thing we have done way better than the rest is the study of marked people. Those that are old adults, those that are young adults, and those that are children."

Out of everything he could give away, he figured the best one to give away was the fact that there were children who carried marks. He had already let it slip to Kelly and figured that the best way to give all these people information was to give the same information he had already given Kelly. Judging by the surprised looks on everyone's faces he knew that he had already stolen all of their attention.

"I see that I have all of your attention. I am glad. Let it be known who I work for since you already all know who that is. Currently, I am doing research work with them on marked subjects, something that we all know already. So if you're ever interested to know how I am doing and how my work is assisting all of you, you know where to find me. Now, I would like to invite Kelly up here. To talk about the important work she has been doing in hope that you will get a better understanding of the woman who has managed to convince me to share my cities information back with you." He said with a smile at Kelly as he invited her up to the podium now as someone handed him to glasses of champagne.

[Natora]

Kelly listened to his speech and was honestly disappointed that he hadn't been willing to give away more information than he had already told her. Maybe after tonight he would be more willing to share some things with her now that he was more in the open than he had been before. Of course, he had to have strategically planned this to try and move up without having to do the work to get there. In all fairness he was hired for a position greatly under the speciality that he was capable of. If she were willing to be honest, she would have to admit that he should probably stationed ahead of her.

That was when he said that she was going to come up and talk to them all. Even though he had warned her about the possibility of her speaking in front of the large group gathered here, she couldn't hide her initial shock at him actually calling her up to talk. Thankfully, she was composed by the time anyone that knew her looked in her direction. With a small smile on her face, one that easily showed that she thought he shouldn't have done such a silly thing, she walked up and took one of the glasses of champagne from Etmere. Time to show those gathered what she knew. Within reason of course.

Turning towards the great gathering, she smiled and nodded to them all. "Good evening," she said strongly into the microphone. The buzzing of curiosity stopped as she started speaking. She hadn't heard it while she was approaching the podium but now that she was there and talking it was clear that some sound had indeed followed his announcement. "As Etmere kindly introduced, my name is Kelly Small. I am a scientist at Hamstein Laboratories studying the marked community and trying to unravel their secrets," she began. "I wish that I could reveal secrets to you tonight that I've learned over my years there but sadly, there is a confidentiality that I am bound to keep. All the great discoveries that our company has made have been published and is always public knowledge. We are constantly finding new ways to help us understand them better and find ways to detain them before they become a danger to us or themselves. With this new found assistance," she said before turning slightly and acknowledging Etmere who had thankfully stayed on stage, "this process should become quicker for us, allowing us to find more and do greater things with this knowledge. There is not a person in this room who has not made our community stronger and better prepared to protect us from the marked. I am grateful to find myself in your presence tonight. Thank you," she finished. She raised her glass and gave them a final nod, as if she had done this a hundred times over.

If there was one thing that Kelly always prided herself on being, it was prepared. Even without being completely put together for this speech, she had easily muddled her way through. She turned back to Etmere and walked arm in arm with him back to where they had been standing before. "I didn't think you were serious when you said I would be speaking. It wasn't necessary," she said to him in a half teasing, half chastising tone.

[Numbers]

He smiled at her as his attention turned to her before he leaned down to whisper into her ear. "What better way to gain the notice of someone higher up than to have you talking in front of them. Especially when you have someone like me as a trophy. Besides, I had faith that someone as amazing and lovely as you would be able to wow the crowd and you certainly did." He started to pull her away from the crowd as the meeting kept going on to discuss some new things that different members thought of.

He pulled her over to a table filled with food and drinks as he continued to talk to her. "What can I say though, a beautiful lady such as yourself, you deserved a moment to be in the light where everyone could see what a successful person you are." He said with a smile as he continued to stand with her, watching her now and giving her his full attention. "I told you that I wanted to take you out for a night to remember, a date to make up for not being able to see you. This is the kind of life I grew up in. Large meetings, party, wine everywhere, expensive food, important people. The high life as some people would say. Yet the rich life can't always bring everything that one is looking for." He said with a smile. He was lying since he had never lived the rich life, but he had seen how it affected targets he was watching and hunting. They always seemed unhappy, like they were missing their purpose in life, something he never lacked.

[Natora]

Kelly thought on his words for a moment. Yet the rich life can't always bring everything one is looking for. With what she knew, she was assuming that he was talking about the fact that the woman who his family had wanted him to marry wasn't what he wanted in a woman. It was almost empowering to think about the fact that he had chosen her over this other woman. Of course, she was sure that there had to be some things that this life couldn't give to him. She hadn't figured out what that would be yet but she assumed there would be something.

"Well," she said to him gently, "now I know what it would be like to live in the spotlight if I wanted to." She clinked her champagne glass to his and took a small sip. "Of course, the clothing is very nice," she said with a warm smile. Then something happened. It was very subtle and entirely unnoticeable. Her hip started tingling. Her eye crinkled softly in confusion as she put a hand next to her hip. It didn't feel like anything was wrong. She shrugged it off easily. It wasn't like it was hurting and she could still put weight on it. There was no reason that it had to tingle and so she would worry about it later.

She smiled back up at Etmere. "Could we go dance?" she asked him. She had never had a chance or reason to do any sort of dancing in a fancy dress. It would be a fun first thing for her. The rest of the evening continued on easily, her enjoying the night with the higher ups quite a lot. It was almost fun to see where Etmere had come from, the life he had lived. It wasn't until almost 1am when she realised that it was getting late. "Would you mind taking me home?" she asked. "It's a lot later than I thought," she added with a small laugh.

[Numbers]

When she asked him to dance he smiled and took her to the dance floor, leading her along the dance as he took the lead since he didn't know if she knew the proper dance moves. His came off as if he had been doing it all his life, of which in a way he had. Simply in training and at the ball every near year that all the adult and children soldiers would throw to use as an excuse to dance and put the training to some kind of use.

As the night dragged on, they talked with more heads of people, answered questions, met with the CEO of the company that Kelly and he worked for so that they could have Kelly use him as a trophy husband to get in even better graces with the company. However, as the night drew on, more and more alcohol got into Kelly, which was easy for him to notice since he was usually the one getting her more drinks, giving her the chance to enjoy the high-quality alcohol. He himself made sure to only have a small amount so that someone would be able to drive them back to her place to stay.

He smiled at her and kissed her when she asked if he could take her home. "Of course my love, let's go to the man out front so that he can pull our car from the parking spot." He said with a smile, slowly leading her there. He gave the man the ticket for their car and the man left before bringing it to them. He helped Kelly into the passenger seat, leaning her chair back so that she could lay back and relax before he got in the driver's seat as he started to take her home.

When they got back to her place he went around to her side and helped her out before taking her inside. He locked the car from there and gave a sharp whistle telling Daphne to sit and wait for him to take her out. For now, he proceeded to take Kelly to the bedroom where he let her flop down onto the bed. "Let's get you ready for bed, then I'll take Daphne out and join you back in here." He said with a smile as looked at his beautiful girlfriend in her very high-class dress. "I'll have you know, you look like you would belong at such a high-class establishment, someone I would very much marry." He said with a sly smile at her.

[Natora]

She wouldn't admit it but the amounts of champagne were truly affecting her sobriety. When he offered to help her get out to the car, she hooked her arms around one of his and followed him out. All she had to do was to make sure that she didn't make a complete fool of herself before she got out of the place. There were too many higher ups and now that the CEO knew who she was by name she would have to make sure that she kept her grace around her. The best way to do that right now was to hang off of Etmere. The comfortable ride home was a welcome piece of what she needed.

The arrival home was a little more stumbling and falling towards him than she would have normally. "You were right. That was fun!" she called to him even though he was right next to her. It was late and she then followed her call by shushing herself. Going inside, she cooed over Daphne before he gave her a whistle and then helped haul her off to bed. She fell back onto the plush bed as he let go of her with a dramatic flair, one that would be there for a while. "Now now," she chastised. "Don't you go trying to get in my pants while I'm inebriated," she scolded playfully. She stood and steadied herself before nodding. "I can get ready myself. You go take Daisy out," she told him.

That was when he said that she would be marriage material. Her shoulders fell slightly from the proper-order giving person she had been a moment ago. Her eyes softened so that she was looking at him with more warmth than she had been. "Thank you," she said gently, sounding slightly more sober of all things. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "You're well known enough now that you might even get to work on the marked child with me," she said, obviously not noticing the very large secret that she had just given away. She turned and wandered over to her drawers where her pajamas were. "Now go let out the puppy. I have to change," she said to him.

Once he was gone, she did change as she had said she was going to. She noticed that on her hip it looked like a bruise might be forming where it had been tingling earlier. She must have hit it funny without noticing. By the time he got back, she would be lying in bed half asleep.

[Numbers]

For a moment it felt like time held still when she said just a few words. '...Marked Child...' His head was moving a hundred different directions as an emergency clicked into him. He was only snapped back to reality when she said that she had to change. "Yeah... Yeah... Let me go take her for a walk so that she is tired enough to sleep about. I'll be back after the walk with her." He said quickly leaving the room to find Daphne. "Come girl." Was all he said as he opened the front door to let her jump out and start running before he gave a tight whistle to bring her back to him.

Once he was outside, with the door closed he went to his bike and lifted up on the seat. It took a minute but there was a click as the cushion of the seat came off to reveal a small compartment. In it was a few things he took everywhere in case of emergency. A secondary phone, a mask, and a gun in case he couldn't use his energy due to the environment or something. He picked up the secondary phone, there was only one number in it. The emergency number. It was only to be called when your identity was blown or something of similar important emergency came up. He felt now was a good time for it.

He put the seat back on and started walking with Daphne while he dialed the phone. There was a short ring before a click. "Emergency Line. State emergency code and designation." Etmere looked around. "Omega Level emergency. Agent Designation Alpha 13." There was a brief pause as the other side of the line pulled up the information. "Do you require emergency evac from the mission? Please keep in mind that using this line incorrectly can result in severe punishment." Etmere gave another whistle to keep Daphne close as he continued to walk around the block with her. "Negative. Mission parameters changed. I was to keep eyes out for Omega level priority and to pass information to my officer. Omega target has been confirmed. A marked child is in custody of the science company. We need to proceed with an emergency attack on the city. Get in contact with the security infiltration team on the police company. Send one of their agents to my house. Inside there is a plan of attack with weak points in case an assault needed to be done per my officer's orders. Etmere out." Was the last thing he said before he snapped the phone in half and destroyed all the memory on it with his marks power.

He knew that if the police marked agents got a hold of his plan everything would be much easier. A small attack team would attack the city to cause panic and confusion. As such the marked agents would shut down all roads and travel points. This meant that when Etmere begins his attack on the company any security agents they would have sent to try and capture the marked attackers would be locked wherever they were in the city, unable to return back to the company to aid with the real threat. He would still have to deal with some security in the company but it would be a lot less. The plan called for the attack in three days.

Three days. It was all he had to find the exact location of the marked girl. Other agents inside the company would be placing new bombs, weapon caches, and other strategic items in the company, around the company, and in the city, all for him to use to recapture the marked child in order to save her. He would also need to get in contact with all the marked prisoners to let them know what was going on. In case any of them thought of turning him in, he had another plan as well. To tell them that the marked agents would be attacking a part of the city that was the farthest from the company. That way if any of them tried to give information away and they were believed, then even more security would be far away. He chose to believe that they would favor him but it was a security measure.

He came back to reality as he saw Kelly's house around the corner and he gave one final whistle to bring Daphne back to him. He stopped outside the door though and kneeled down next to Daphne. "Okay girl, in a few days your mom is going to be in danger. Remember those tricks I taught you secretly. To fight and protect mommy, make sure to use them if mommy is in danger in three days." He said with a smile as the dog barked happily before letting her back into the house.

He locked the door before following the dog and eventually changing so that he could go to sleep. He joined Kelly in bed but he got very little sleep. He just starting to enjoy his pretend life with Kelly and now it was about to end. He would have to break the news to Kelly on that third day about her father so that he could convince her to join him. Of course, he knew it might still not work but he was hoping it would...

[Natora]

Saturday. The first day of what was sure to be a promising weekend. Of course, that was if she could shake the headache of a hangover she woke up with. Thankfully it wasn't too bad. Just dehydrated from the large amount of champagne she had had. At least, that's what she hoped it was. Kelly rolled over in bed and didn't notice anything else that she thought was wrong. Her hip was still tingling but a memory of that came back to her when she felt it. Some Arnica gel and she'd be right as rain.

Getting out of bed was easy enough but she was moving and trying to be as quiet as possible with Etmere having spent the night. Part of her hoped that he hadn't taken advantage of the situation last night but a larger part of her knew that he wouldn't have done such a thing. And if he had she probably would have felt a whole different sort of sore after her months of involuntary abstinence. Going into the bathroom, she noticed she hadn't waken up Daphne yet either. It was a lucky thing. They must have gotten in at a very early hour. She honestly didn't remember when she had come home last night. It was probably for the best.

Once she was finished her morning routine, she looked into the mirror at her hip. It was the oddest bruise she had ever seen. About the size of a baseball and brighter blue than she had had on a bruise before. It was the oddest thing. You would think that if she had a bruise that size she would remember how she had gotten it. She would have to ask Etmere after waking him up. Either way, she rubbed some Arnica on it and then went back out to the bedroom.

It didn't take long after she opened the door for Daphne to be sitting right there, looking up at her with big eyes and a thrilled tail wag. Obviously she had been waiting for someone to get up. "Good morning," Kelly whispered to her and gave her a few loving pets. When she looked back at the bed she realized that Etmere was awake too. "Did I wake you?" she asked sheepishly before going back to the bed and giving him a good morning kiss. "I have to take Daphne to work for a little bit. Do you want to come?" she asked, ignoring the headache she had for the moment. A little tylenol with breakfast and she would be fine.