Trying to find a solution

[Anastasia]

Ana was in the Grande Archives researching all she could about maybe trying to rid of the creatures attacking this city. When she first entered this city. She could tell right away that there was a drop in population. The city itself was quiet. Too quiet. So here she was, sitting at one of the computers, searching every inch of data on the humanoids. For hours she had searched and found nothing. The only thing she could find was that the scientist that was working on them, was sealed away in laboratory for months working on that very project.

Ana slammed her head on the desk, Feeling a bit frustraited she was going no where. It would seem that everything on them is classified. Needing a special code to get into the database. And of course Ana was no where close to being of any part of the government OR the science division of Gradia. Finding it impossible she sat there for a moment. "Looks like the only way to get any idea of what they are, is to go to the laboratory" She said, shuddering in fear. She was no worrior, her only strength was her potions. But not knowing what they are could only lead her into more trouble. What if something were to make them stronger? Or didn't affect them at all.

Ana hated being stuck. Feeling that much more frustraited she slammed her fist onto the table.

[open]

[Leo]

Followed by the loud slam this girl just emitted, is an equally loud noise of fallen objects directly behind the blond. There stood Leo, some mechanical instruments and scraps no scattered around his two feet as he lazily scratches the nape of his neck. Turning to Ana, the inventor shot her a rather disturbed look, slightly annoyed of her sudden slamming.

Just one look at this girl and her computer, Leo could guess on what she's up to. It's a habit of his to read people, and according to her fist, those wrinkles from her eyebrows, that frown, and the eyes...it's obviously frustration. He had heard of the breaking news, and he was out at the Veyyard too at the moment, receiving the news by print and rushed towards Gradia. Since Gradia is his home, it's no wonder that he's inside the Grand Archieves now with the same reason as this girl - to try and stock up in any information he can about the synthetic men.

"...You know, if you can't find a way of something, it's better if you ask someone who knows about it better instead of taking all out on an innocent table," he stated blankly, crouching and collecting the things he dropped due to Ana's sudden table-slam that surprised him earlier.

[Anastasia]

Ana then turned around shocked to find someone else even existed in this ghost town. She shook her head and sighed, She was exhuasted now. Searching for answers on this blasted thing was no help. Hasn't anyone ever hear of notes? She looked up at the man again. He seemed pale and rather emotionless but beggers cant be choosers and a friend is always welcome in her book.

"That is true, but i have failed to run into someone that knows anything about them." she said with a small smile on her face. A hopeful smile, one that showed she wasn't ready to give up just because of a simple brick that stopped her. "From what I can tell, everyone that knows about it was killed at the birth of these monsters" She sighed rubbing her temples.

"Do you have any ideas....." She then realized that she dosnt even know this mans name "...Sir?"

[Leo]

Leo continues to collect all the metal scraps and wrenches he had dropped, lazily even, since that's his trademark. "You're very eager to help," he commented after she finished talking. Right after the last gear was collected off the ground, Leo stood up and faces her with a rather dark shadow looming over his eyes. "One of the scientist died there in the scene happens to be a frequent client of mine," he started, walking towards a free empty table next to Ana to put his gadgets down.

"He told me bits and pieces of their project, I guess. ...If I can remember what exactly did he said, will it be any help to you?" Leo tried to smile, though it came out rather weakly, and it doesn't look very honest from him. He was born with a weak tissue around his cheeks, so smiling wide is a hard gesture from him. "Though, I don't guarantee you that I can remember them all...or at all. It'll come to me randomly."

The way he said and acted doesn't seem like he's in a hurry. In fact, he moves and talks pretty slow, as if the unexpected invasion of those monsters out there isn't even a threat to him. Heck, they might even attack this building any minute and Leo's not even troubled by the thought.

Sitting on the seat beside Ana, Leo then takes his time sorting out all the tiny metal parts into order - gears on the right, wrenches on the left and so on. "I'm Leo," he introduced himself without even glancing at her, as he's busy pulling and pushing the small materials on his table, "You?"

There was a pause for him to reflect on what he just said and did, and slowly, he turns to Ana. "...I need to panic more, do I?"

[Anastasia]

Finally there was a silver lining, someone who knows a little bit about what they are against. It was like a wish come true! Ana smiled with alot of hope in her heart. "I'm eagar because i really do want to help" She said with a bright smile. Ana jumped out of her seat, She now had a ton of energy at the moment. Even if he couldn't answer them fully, Just to get an idea, would be plenty of help period.

"That's fine, Every little bit helps" She said, Ana sat back down in her seat. She had so many questions it was unreal. Then suddenly it hit her. She has yet to introduce herself. She then stuck out her hand.

"The name is Ana, and this is Arche" She said pointing to the bird sitting quietly on the table. It was odd for Arche to be quiet at all.

[Leo]

Leo paused his work for a while, only to stare at this girl strangely the moment she jumped up of her seat. Energetic people confuses him, he can't seem to put his finger on where they even attain their energy. "Yes, I can see that very well," he stated monotonously of her eagerness, nodding slightly as he did.

By the time she introduced herself, Leo had already finished sorting up his materials. He took a quick glance to her as an acknowledgment, but then found his attention stuck to Arche. "What is that?" The artist leans in a bit. In the many years he traveled, he has never came across to an animal similar to it. It looks kind of different than some normal birds...or maybe it's a new type of bird.

Leo shakes his head, dragging back his focus to his work. "Nice to meet you, Ana. You can start asking me anything, I might remember something useful," The black-haired lad pulls his soldering iron near to him and arranges the pieces of solder at his right.

"Hopefully."

[Anastasia]

Ana chuckled as Leo asked her what Arche was. She sat up proudly. "He's a homunculus" Why was she sitting so proudly? She was about to tell you. "In short, he's a successful experiment to a species that almost went extinct. With the right ingredients, I formed an embryo, which eventually evolved into this. Of the Homunculus breeds there are four different species, and this is one of them. Its called The Filiar, It has a very rare success ra- oops, Im rambling again" She stopped herself. What was suppose to be a short explanation turned into an earful. She was always called motormouth that way. Once she started talking about a project or something she experimented on, She wouldn't shut up. She was now feeling a bit embarrassed so she quickly grabbed a paper and pen as she then turned back to the artist.

"So uh... Lets get started shall we? Would possibly remember any special ingredient that makes them indestructible? Or what could have happened Like a spill? Or accident?" She asked with her pen ready to write down notes. Notes were always good to have.

[Leo]

It's kind of funny that when everyone's out busy fighting their lives out, Leo could only sat there on his seat, not making any progress with his gadget creation, and just stares at Ana on how she explains about her bird...or homunculus as she states it. Strangely enough, the topic actually peaked his interest. Not only that, it started something in his head too.

Leo's face sort of dropped when Ana stopped her rambling, and got into her formal questionnaire moment instead. "No, no," he stopped her, dropping his grip on his unplugged soldering iron and turns his whole body towards this girl instead. "Just say things about your homunculus. Arche, that's his name, right?"

The artist took a glance of that strange bird, now his eyes actually beaming slightly. "Your explanation...of how you make him...actually makes it easier for me to remember things, and might possibly figure out some things." It's true though, some of the things she just said really did resemble on what those scientists must have done.

"Okay, wait, let's see. You made an embryo and it grow into...into him," he he cocked his head a bit in the homunculus' direction. "Now that I recall...unfortunately, that scientist didn't said anything about how exactly did those synthetic men grows...or how it was formed. But he did said something about its skin or something...about it being more thicker....or was it more elastic."

The lad was caught up in his own memory pool. trying very hard to remember the details. That client of his ever talks to him about his project inside a very noisy food court, so it's terribly hard for Leo to focus onto what this man says...though, that may be the only reason why the man even choose a place such as that to talk about something so classified. Plus, it was such a long time ago too, so they might possibly even alter the idea now.

"...Agh, I can't remember... .....Seriously, we need to capture one of them to conduct a thorough experiment on it," he scratched his head, then spins his body back towards the table before pushing his chair behind and tries to find an empty jack so he could plug his soldering iron on. "Don't mind me, just keep talking."

[Anastasia]

Ana then scribbled out her notes. Well that went nowhere fast. But Leo then pointed out that Arche was man created. The Syns were man created. Ana's mind suddenly, light up like a light bulb. DING DING DING! "EMBRYOS!! Ana quickly wrote down in her note pad. Homunculas, and Synthetic men created almost the same. She jotted down a few notes. On how Arche was created. Even if it was a mishap, it was still a success. Ana was starting to become very pleaseed with the results. Even though it would still be better to go to the lab itself, but this was enough.

"Yes, Conducting expirments on them is a very good idea, but It would be better if we can find out a little more about then, before we try to capture them and get infected ourself." She said. Ana was starring at Arche intently. There was still some puzzle piece missing. The one that made Ana question it most was how did they get so strong? Even Arche himself wasn't that strong and he was a completly diffrent being.

"What did they do? pump them up with steroids?" She said sarcastically. And suddenly it hit her in the face like a brick."Steroids! Why didn't I think of that!!!!" Ana quickly jotted it down some more notes. It explained quite a bit. The aggression, supper strength. Which also meant that if they are not injecting themself with Steroids, Which Ana hardly thought they were, that they would loose their strength with a certain amout of time. The only problem?

Time was something Gradia didnt have. Which only meant they had to stop them manually.

[Leo]

"Heh!" Leo can't help but to smirk and snickered at this girl. It's always been his role to just be the background character or extra that passed by, so he's kind of used to simply just existing there and pointing out the things some people might missed. He's as insignificant as a fly, yet strangely necessary to keep the flow going. He wondered why he's supposed to be extra, but still not dead yet.

"I'm glad you figured those out, Ana," the artist finally plugged in his soldering iron and turned the switch on, getting back up to sit on his seat as he glanced at this girl. "What else do you need to know? I'm telling you, I'm useless in these sorts of predicament."

Pulling a small green board with lots of tiny holes on it, Leo hovers his eyes over the rest of his little playthings - some fuses, a couple of resistors, capacitors, wire circuits, cells and other types of small devices. "Just keep speaking out your thoughts to me. Maybe you'll discover something you missed. ...So what do you have in mind?"

[Anastasia]

Ana sat there for a moment. She then remember Arche biting her new friend/acquaintance. Her hand brought up to her chin she thought for a second. "I wonder what causes, people to turn into them" She said somewhat in thought. It was obvious it was either the blood or the saliva. But why? where the bodies used to create them dead men to begin with? Did the scientist inject them with something that revived them? Turning them into monsters like they do to everyone else.

And felt she was on to something. But again it would take experiments on a syn to find out. And if they were injected with something that can revive people what was it? Ana's mind ran around in circles for a moment. "I have more questions but i dont think they can be answered by brainstorming here. I need a syn, A clean labratory and someone else who just may know a little bit more than I do." Not that Leo wasn't of any help. He was very helpful indeed. Infact who knows, he just may be the the assistant she may need.

[Leo]

"Like I said about the abduction idea," he responded about her wish of a Syn and some other things, whatever she planned to do. There was a moment of silence between them, and Leo took the chance to solder whatever he needs onto the board. It was quick of him to move his hands and fingers, handling everything on the table with ease and expertise.

"What are you, anyway?" The artist suddenly asks out of the blue, but it took him a while to notice his question is rather odd. "I mean...what do you do, even if you know all these things you wanted to know, what can you do?" He's curious about her and the bird, but he didn't display any sign of it on his expression, since he looked focused enough to finish whatever gadget he's building at the moment.

"Are you trying to create an antiviral or some sort to stop the syn-virus from spreading...? Or to to kill the syns themselves before they even spread the virus? ...Or creating a cure to heal those who can still be saved? Answer me which aspect are you trying to help in."

He wondered if there's a possibility for him to join her to assist in her quest...if that quest is similar to his, at least. That's why that question was asked.

[Anastasia]

Ana then paused for a moment. She truly was all over the place when it came to what she was doing. Ana starred for a minute as she thought of what her answer was.

"Well to be honest..." She didnt want to answer just yet. She wasn't sure where her strong point was. If it was the cure, or the anti virus.

"I want to create a cure, or an anti bacterial. I'm sure there is plenty of people fighting." She said. She wasn't much of a fighter to begin with Ana was the brains not the brute. Looking down, she could feel her heart ache. She didn't know if the people who were turned could change back. All those people.... gone. What was supose to be a cure to help the economy killed over half the population.

"What ever my part is, I want to help, and even if it was a little, I'd be happy" She said softly

[Leo]

Leo's hands stopped moving at her answer, as he merely cornered his eyes to this girl. That slight curve on his lips is rather difficult to detect, but his eyes made it apparent that he likes the answer she chose.

"You're good with chemicals, I assume," he closed his eyes as he suddenly said that, then back into that mechanism he's building. "I can't help you in that section. But I could attain its DNA...or even snatch a syn for you to experiment with." He's similar to Ana on the brains not brawn area, but his specialty is not in potion-brewing...rather, in creating.

It's possible for him to build special suits for the warriors to wear when fighting the Syns, or a type of extraction device to get the creature's spit in order to get its DNA...or even...

"Oh!" Leo suddenly looks up, his eyes wondering everywhere, as in to search for something in his brain. "...Multiplication..." The artist said out loud, but rather in a whisper. He looked a bit dazed, as in talking to himself slowly, "I suddenly remembered what the scientist said. ...Cell invasion...that's how they multiply the Syns, since it's a bother to make one after another, they just...injected the same cell." Well, that was obvious. How else can they turn their victims into Syns...

He turned to Ana with slight questioning in his eyes after that, but with a bigger question. "Do you know anything called 'retrovirus'? ...Or possibly 'provirus'?"

[NPC: Male]

A group of Syns prowled the streets that bordered the Archives' perimeter. They have successfully plundered almost all organic specimens in the vicinity and their food source were starting to dwindle. This particular pack found itself wandering farther and farther in search of food. The remaining residents were either dead or were hiding in under-city bunkers built for calamities such as typhoons that could strike at any moment or invading armies. Dead or hiding prey weren't good news for Syns that must constantly sate their hunger in order to survive.

Though the scent of organic material was faint at best, the Syn pack decided to investigate the Grande Archives since it was the largest structure within sight. There may be people who have used the building as a sanctuary. Even though the Syn could recall that they have previously plundered the great library, the faint scent of what could be food attracted them to enter the large doors. Once inside, the group of Syns consisting of at least two dozen members scattered on patrol.