Trisha listened to Governor Ivan's speech with keen interest. She admired the man and found him to be an excellent speaker, he had such charisma and was an excellent leader, always looking to better the lives of the people of New Moscow. His uprising to governor-hood made life better even for the mentals, enacting laws that protected them from some of the harshness of those from the Liberty District. He even attempted to run a law enforcement program in the Odin District comprised of various Mentals.

However when he activated the lights, Trisha was simply astounded, she never imagined reliable electricity within a city during her lifetime, especially since it had been lost for so many centuries. The possibilities with electricity were endless, she wouldn't have to walk home through the seedy streets of Odin in torchlight or with a meager flashlight if she ever happened to get one later in her life. It also meant that the boy, Kain, would have so many opportunities that she never had herself as a teen.

Dr. Maksim's arrival on stage seemed to give her a bad vibe, and had she known what was going to occur then, she would have left at the mentioning of his name. In all her life she had never known someone with so much power, and he was without a doubt, an exapath. How he managed to control an entire crowd of people was beyond her knowledge, and she was frightened, standing there without control of her limbs. Finally upon releasing them she grabbed Kain's hand tightly and began dragging him away from the crowd while the psycho on stage continued to speak.

"No Kain, we have to get out of here...NOW" she hissed. She stopped hoping that Kain would follow her, she wasn't entirely sure why she was helping this boy, because she could have turned tail and fled by herself, but the sense of kinship between them seemed strong to her, she didn't want to see the boy who still had a future ahead of himself, to lose it. "We can escape through a crack in the wall near the Kremlin Ruins. I have a hunch they'll be guarding and soon closing the doors."

Pitre ignored most of what was occurring until he lost control of his body. Today was another strange day, one he wished he continued on the path instead of venturing into a city. Most people around began to act irrational when the events went haywire, but he kept himself calm. He may seem similar to an animal, but he did not overreact like a frightened mutt when he lost control of a situation. To survive, you must never sensationalize any goings on around you, lest you draw attention to yourself and end up dead.

Afterward, people seemed disoriented, and it seemed like the perfect time to steal the meat. He swiped the cuts from the man beside him and fled towards the nearest exit like a wild hog. At this point he knew he would be back on the path at around ten minutes from now and could further fulfill his aimless quest.

As Arthur seemingly wandered along the mass of a crowd, he heard the booming voice of someone on the central stage. It was the governor of New Moscow, who's name escaped Arthur's mind. Listening to his speech, Arthur stood still and actually payed attention rather than letting his mind wander.

As the speech went on, you could tell the governor was preparing for something big within the speech. The whole audience was in awe as he let out three words, "let there be light!". Strange hanging spheres suddenly started lighting up all around the square. It was a spectacle that filled the entire audience of shock and awe. Truly, truly amazing.

The governor then welcomed another bright looking man to the stage. He was introduced by the name of Dr. Maksim Von Aristo. The man announced about the re-discovery of electricity. All was sounding smooth until he said one thing, "mind control". This put the crowed into shock. What seemed to be an informative speech of accomplishment quickly turned into a hate speech against non-mentals. Being a mental himself, Arthur decided to quickly get out of there to avoid any more trouble.

It was too late for Frank. The Governor have his speech before handing it over to the esteemed Dr. Aristo, which, in Frank's book was a bit of an activist for mentals.

"Frankly, this is too much activism," he spoke to himself as he eclipsed in to the side alleys.

He could hear the faint shots from the snipers ring out. Who they were targeting, Frank wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to be caught in their scope if he could help it. The doors were rumbling close and now the only way was to go through the buildings or over the roof of the houses. Both were unappealing, since for the former he would arrive uninvited and the latter would make him an even more inviting targets for the snipers. No dice, he'd have to head to the Kremlin where anyone else would be reluctant to follow. He'd already known it was supposed to be haunted but it was nothing more but a museum to him, a place where relics of the past would be stored, especially weapons had anyone bothered to loot them.

Finding a ladder up the side of the building, he started to climb and before long he reached a relatively low terrace. He'd have to try and keep out of sight for now. The snipers no doubt had overwatch on everything around them.

Hadrian nodded to the butcher slowly pulling the meat towards himself, suddenly the area around him was visited by the swift sound of gun fire, followed by the roar of the people. With a clam motion he raised his hand from the meat, he had no intentions of keeping it for himself and knew surely that the gentleman behind him would make off with it as soon as he could. His body shifted away from the market as he made way for the ruins in the city, from there he could peacefully observe the havoc. To him it was normal, people killing people in the name of false ideals and ideologies was something he had come to expect from this frail society which was ruled over by the anemic. The idea of attempting to put an end to the madness crossed his mind as he pushed his way through the crowd but he understood that his actions would most likely be ignored, he in fact knew all to well to extinguish a fire the fire's fuel must first be cut off, this was something that he felt the people involved would have to deal with themselves for society to truly advance...

Patrick stared at the man who tore out the taser. He was about to ask why, but before that the man found a non-violent solution to the unruly (and smelly) customer. Adding to the oddity of this situation, he heard gunfire and what sounded like panicking people. Being befuddled at all of this, he calmly made his way towards a random path; As his parent would do.

Kain sheathed his sword, and turned to Trisha.

"Okay, Trisha," he replied to her in agreement. "Let's aim for that gap. You lead." His face was showing doubt for himself as he followed Trisha.

A few people managed to escape through the doors as they were closed, one of such people, the "situational" cannibal Pitre. Others were less fortunate in their attempts to escape, some were shot down by those who were on the tops of the walls. It was frightening, since most people had never seen or heard so much gunfire in all their lives. Where they had acquired such weaponry was a mystery to many who fled into the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Within New Moscow the terror escalated. Friend attacked friend, men thoughtlessly killed children and the elderly, and women also became particularly violent, clawing and biting in a feral manner in attempt to save themselves. Gunshots echoed throughout The Square as gunmen fired from the top of the wall shooting down anyone who wasn't moving, or happened to catch their eyes. To make matters worse many individuals took the chaos as an opportunity to rob those who weren't paying attention.

A burly man spotted Arthur, who had earlier attempted to escape from the disorder in a quiet fashion. "Hey boy!!" he called defensively while holding what appeared to be the wooden leg of a chair in front of himself "Are you one of us?!" He glared at the boy awaiting his answer.

"Hey there sonny!" called out an elderly woman who had blood covering her arm and her flowery skirt. Her gray hair was in a state of disarray but she still managed to keep a straw hat with a plastic pink flower on the rim. She waved her hand at Patrick while leaning her other arm on her cane for strength. "Would you care to help an old woman out of here, I have to get back to my grandchildren!"

Below Frank, the sound of running footsteps could be heard. If he peered over the low terrace wall that hid his position, he would have seen a girl with black and hair and a boy carrying a sword following close behind her. Out from one of the burning houses a group of six men wearing fine clothes stepped out in front of them cutting off the path to wherever they were headed. It was clear that they had been looting the house, each of them carried a sack over their shoulders that clanked when they moved.


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Trisha was pleased that Kain had so eagerly agreed to follow her, she would have felt terrible if she had to leave the boy behind. "Alright let's go!" she said leading him through the streets of the Liberty District. It was apparent that many of the homes had been ransacked. Windows were broken, doors smashed down, some of the homes were even beginning to burn. Even though she found the people of Liberty District, pretentious, and spoiled, she couldn't help but shed a tear at the destruction of her city of which she was so proud. She couldn't even imagine seeing herself outside of the city. Where would she go? Where would she live? How would she even survive? She shook her head, trying to shake the thoughts out of her mind. She would worry about it when the time came. Now she had to try and survive.

"Oy! If it isn't Miss Lei" spoke a man out from one of the houses. A group of six men walked out from one of the burning buildings, each carrying a pack of something discernible on their backs. She recognized the man. His name was Lucas, a young man around her age whom she passed every day in the Liberty District on her way to work in The Square. She was surprised to see him, in such a state, his fancy clothes were torn, and in some places burned, and stealing no less, as if he were a resident from the Odin District.

"Hello Lucas" she said hesitantly, she did not like the leers of Lucas and his friends. "This is my friend Kain...we were just leaving the city."

"Really?! Don't you think you're better than us Lei? Why don't you purge us like Dr Von Crazy said to" They each pulled out knives and various bludgeoning weapons in a threatening manner, and she glanced at Kain helplessly unsure of what to do next.

Hadrian was well on his way to the ruins when he quickly sought cover behind a wall, he listened closely for he heard the sharp sound of more gunfire in the square, he needed to create distance immediately between him and the gunmen.

"I suppose it's time to move." He stood up and began to make haste to the ruins of the Kremlin noting the violence around him as he took each step.

The din from the chaos almost made the walls shake as he looked about with disgust at the anarchy wrought by a single man. The esteemed doctor probably had more backers though, one mental couldn't set a stage like this without him noticing. Someone had been keeping him out of the loop. Well, one thing at a time. For now, it was survival of the fittest, and he wasn't exactly the fittest. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a mother and her child, but on closer it inspection, they seemed more like a couple as the boy was much too old to have a mother that young. Their path was blocked off by no less than six other men, all of them Liberty district inhabitants, much like how his future path as an information broker in New Moscow was blocked off by that mentally retarded doctor.

It was disgusting, six men jumping a young woman like that. They both had armaments but given his recollection of similar events, it usually ended with the ones who had a numerical advantage. Not that he would save them, that was totally out of the question. They were more useful to him as shields, something he could hide behind, and maybe keep if they were good at shielding him. At least, the woman was. Tough luck if she was a mental that couldn't read intentions, or his mind though.

He jumped down, the sound of his landing obscured by the horrid state of affairs. Taking advantage of her immediate lack of attention as he grabbed the woman from behind his knife by her throat and his arm locking in to her.

"Sorry boys, I've already had my eye on this one," he announced with as much bravado as he could muster.

His mouth and tongue dangling by her ear as he tried to whisper, "Play along and we'll get out of this together."

"Uh, okay" Patrick said, walking towards the old woman. "Do you need medical attention? I have a couple of bandages in my pack" he said, glancing at the blood.

He spotted a variety of other people escape the gates just as he did, but knew not what to do with them. Taking a bite of the meat, he watched them scramble about as if it were a zoo. They cried and whimpered like sick apes, losing their humanity in the rush and not yet grasping it again.

Out of all of the escapees, Pitre was the least human, a shell of a man in ways. He had no affection, no predisposition to care for another. He was born secluded and lived secluded. These people were simple city dwellers who knew nothing of reality as he saw it, and they were nothing but useless tools, more fit for consumption than their fruitless lives.

Choking on that thought, he took another bite of the meat and laughed at them.

Kain, noticing that the people brandishing their weapons, could attack them at any moment, put his hand on the hilt of his sword.

"We're gonna have to fight fire with fire," Kain said to Trisha." Do you have any weapons on you?" He stood ready to draw out his weapon if should they be attacked. Inside, he was thinking how anyone would attack Trisha. What had she done wrong? Why would the people that stand between the two of them and saftey threaten her in the first place? All sorts of thoughts rushed through his mind, but dismissed them, waiting at least until they were outside of the city.

With a large group rush to get away from the direction where Aaron was headed, He didn't care for the parade, after the long journey that he traveled he wanted nothing but hot meal and a bed.

Store after store, Aaron was getting sadder and sadder after passing a street of stores, a distant scream cried out the distance, with no hesitation, Aaron wall climbed on top of a small building and roof~top after roof top he found young men attacking a small group of woman, Aaron jumped down and kicked one of the men in the back of the head, breaking the skull, the eldest one called out " get him." and the young men armed them selfs with pipes and bats, the woman also armed them selfs with weapons, for it was a trap for any person willing to help anyone.

“Caramba.”

Elias’ consciousness was slowly returning, and with it came a severe headache. He moaned, trying to lift his head. His half-opened eyes fell upon the face of the woman that had tried to help him up just before everything had gone black. He noticed her checking for his pulse and a faint smile touched his lips. “Still some good in the world after all,” he thought contentedly. The voices had subsided, and were back to their regular hum. Whatever had caused the outburst was gone, at least for now.

Sounds of someone giving a speech reached his ears, and bright light flooded his vision. It took a few moments to adjust. As a bit of strength made it’s way back into his body, he opened his eyes more fully and spoke to the woman that was now standing beside him, looking at the speaker and glancing over her shoulder every once in a while at the meat vendor’s stand. “Thank you, child. May our Lord bless you for your kindness.” She was obviously distracted, because she gave no immediate reply. Elias turned around to see what she was looking at so intently. An important-looking figure was addressing the crowd. It was not an ordinary speech, however. As the old man tuned his ears to the speaker’s voice, his horror grew with each passing word. The man was a mental activist, which was good, but he was going about this in entirely the wrong way. “Stop it, you fool!”, Elias cried internally. “Peace will be achieved through understanding, not by the obliteration of those who might not yet comprehend you!” It was too late. Chaos had been unleashed, and there was no stopping it now. Elias stood up, turned to his benefactor and said in a worried voice; “Quickly, we must go, else this fool will be the death of us all!”