The Water-Cooler Moments - The Science-Branch Team RPG

Venice. The famous city in northern Italy has a rare title in history – the city that survives. Wars, anarchists, floods, and the plague – nothing has stopped Venice from being what it is. Its people are strong and loyal – they see reason but won’t stab you in the back (well unless you are a real ass, then they will). The City of Masks would be the new headquarters for the Science-Branch.

Miranda Frost was standing in Plazza San Marco and looked at Campanile. The hordes of tourists were huddled in groups around the Plazza waiting to start of finish their tours.

“Now we are going to enter the Doge’s Palace,” The extremely bleach-blond guide tried to get her group’s attention. “We are like super lucky, ‘cause there has been some remodeling going on for like a month and we are the first who get to see it, yey!” As her group followed, their face filled with excitement, Miranda skillfully blended into the group.

The group moved passed the large sums of people and quickly arrived at the entrance the Palace. The spike-arch portals made the tourists awww and the large inner-courtyard did the same. Small children immediately ran bronze well-heads, clueless to how much work went into just its decorations. As most of the children ran back to their parents, one stayed on. He was sure there was something in the well. He pressed his ear against the grill and listened.

“Oh my god! I can’t believe it!” It was a very bubbly voice, not unlike the guide’s.

“What?” This voice was more serious and businessier.

“A new season of Dancing with the Stars is starting today,” the bubble voice responded

“You are so dumb it hurts.”

After hearing that the boy ran to her mother to tell her with no avail about what he heard.

“Come on now, let’s go up,” the guide was more excited to see the changes. But Miranda knew she wasn’t going to see them. As all of the tourists disappeared to the next floor Miranda walked to one of the wells. She kneeled down and pressed a human on an oval shape. The top clicked – the grill retreated and revealed a platform. Miranda with ease climbed on to it and as soon as she was on, it started to descend. The grill closed as soon as she was out of the way. It didn’t take long until she reached the bottom – a large sliver and white complex hidden under the Palace.

“Good to see you, Miss Frost,” Her assistant Tatsu (technically Tatsu 2.0 since the first was destroyed with New York).

“How is it going?” Miranda looked at the busy environment, similar to the tourist on the ground.

“We have completed the requirements set for the building. Also teams are already in The Accademia, The Venetian Arsenal and The St Mark's Basilica next door. We have also added modifications to the Palace as per your requirement.”

“Great,” Miranda stood confidently and looked at her creation, “This will be fun.”

The hustle and bustle of various humans was like a thorn in Scalar's side. Sure they couldn't help themselves. They weren't trained to listen and understand every single detail about the world like him. He wish his station was still in New York. Moving from place to place so quickly without having a chance to settle down is never good for work ethic. Scalar knew this first hand. It happened before in his past and he'll be damned if it happened again. Still he wondered what happened to New York. Scalar was never one to keep up with superhero community. "Perhaps someone decided to go Super Saiyan?" His thoughts were obviously thinking about some type of Vegeta like character blowing everything up for fun. After all Scalar has been watching a marathon of a character called Goku defeating every enemy that came upon but somehow succumbs to a heart disease. "How odd, I didn't even see that coming." His head was deep in concentration over a cartoon that came out 2 decades ago. Though to anyone Scalar would correctly say anime instead of cartoon. It did pain him to say ignorant things when he knew better. It was just his temperament.
 
As usual Scalar was the first to arrive on scene. He was already inside because he couldn't wait to converse with the first person that appeared. The white floors showed his face as he looked down. Scalar was mostly looking down while he walked. He was heading back to the lobby or the entrance of it all. Sure his main job was at the Utopian labs but he just had to meet other members of the Science-Branch. His pace quicken once he heard the opening of the entrance. Scalar was curious to see who was first and now his footsteps could be heard. "This will be fun." It was obviously a voice of a woman but who? He peeked around the corner. "Indeed it will be," was his reply.  The look of the woman confused Scalar for a minute. "Wasn't her hair a different color before?" Scalar shrugged his thoughts away. It was not important to know. "Often women would dye their hair in a different color in an effort to feel prettier." His thoughts already gave himself the answer. 

The pub was bare and empty, it always is. Then again The Hangman's Noose isn't exactly a popular name for a pub. It location was in the outskirts of Dublin Ireland. Of course calling the Hangman's Noose a pup in the first place didn't really fit. It had more in common with a barn then it did a pup. At this current moment in time there was only the bartender drinking whiskey and the young man wearing a suit drinking. "It seems the Old Man is a tad late isn't he lad". Gideon ignored the barkeep as he kept fiddling with his zippo. "Then again that Old Jack A$$ is always late ain't he." chuckled the barkeep. 
 
Two hours later Gideon sat there smoking waiting on the old fart to get there, Gideon told him he would look him up whenever he was in his neck of the woods.  Gideon let out a sigh and reached into his pocket pulling out another pack of smokes. "You are aware that smoking is bad for you aren't ya you Gideon?" Gideon shrugged, " Hasn't stopped you from smoking Old man." Gideon turned around with a smirk on his face as he looked up to the closest thing he had to family. "So Venice is where your headed, what kinda job are you taking there?" The old man sat down right beside Gideon and ordered a bottle of Dewars. "I don't know the details of the job, but they are well funded and have the best lab facilities. I don't have to explain why I'm headed there do I?" The Old Man picked up the bottle took a deep drink. "No you don't, your using them to answer questions that correct me if I'm wrong you didn't want answered. So why are you curious about your past now lad?." Gideon grabbed the Old Man's Bottle and and took a deep drink and sat it down in front of him. "I don't give a damn about my past, what I want to know is if I'm human or not. Thats what I want answered." The old man shook his head as he heard Gideon's reasons for going there. "Careful lad, some questions are better off left unanswered."  The Old Man stood up and walked out the door shaking his head. Gideon finished his smoke, paid for the old man's drink and headed to catch his flight. 
 
Gideon was never the type to be the first one there, in fact he hoped he was late for the meeting. As Gideon walked inside he instantly felt out of place. Not only was everyone wearing white but the walls, desks, chairs, floors, hell everything was white. Gideon felt out of place wearing his black suit. As he looked around he saw a young woman talking to several of her assistants and a man peeking around the corner. Gideon's steps were quite as he made his way towards the center of the lobby where the lady stood surrounded by her assistants.  

 "Well Rrav first day at the new office. Time to make everyone feel inferior to us." Ruhi-Tugu was flying his space ship from France to Venice, and had one of the fastest commutes to work anyone had ever had. His ship had the potential to move at beyond Light speed, but since it crashed to earth was only able to reach Mach 10, which is still fast enough for him to get to work in a matter of minutes. "Sir I suggest you try and make nice with your co-workers. All of the earth books say that being kind and polite is the best way to a good working relationship.""Rrav you clearly know nothing about these people. If you spent 10 minutes with them then you would learn that they only react to dominance and power." Ruhi landed his ship in the hanger, "Rrav work your way into computer, alarm, and camera systems. Make any improvements to them that you can. These primitive people will need all of the help they can get to protect their work" Ruhi left his ship, and proceeded inside the building, there were a lot of young interns hanging around the door. Ruhi walked through them clearing his own path.

Ken straightened out a particularly stubborn crease in the front of his dark shirt, and placed the dark glasses over his eyes. He pulled his sleeve back a little, and saw he still had a few minutes left. Making sure his appearance was immaculate, he went through a mental checklist. Shower, check. Teeth brushed, check. Clear mind, check. Full stomach, check. A moan from across the room disturbed his concentration as Kenneth's "guest" stirred. Ken swung his arm back, and a knife zipped across the kitchen and stuck into the throat of the guy in the blood splattered pizza delivery guy uniform. The full pizza box nearly went into the trash, but he decided his new business associates might want it. Around the well-lit house were several portraits of the blonde vampire, some with captions. One adorned "Magnificent. Because I can't help it." A twin, staring across from the other side of the room claimed "Betrayal. Because I can." Empty bladder, check. Let's move. He grabbed the pizza box and tucked it under his arm, pulling on a black trenchcoat.
 
The door swung open and the vicious vampire stepped outside. The first few rays stabbed onto his face, but the small ring on his hand protected him from the light. He walked past the expensive sports car, and then moved at an impressive rate, going from a slow walk to a flat out sprint in a few short strides. Moving at full speed, he seemed to disappear altogether. A car turned onto the road, not even aware the vampire was there as he leaped, clearing the car in a single bound. He rushed, a slight whisper the only clue he was actually there. He saw the spaceship landing. I guess that's the place. A second mental voice, rasping and dry, filled with contempt sneered.
 
What was the first clue, the spaceship? The fact it's the most extravagant building in the whole damn city? Ken pointed to a sign on the building which read "Science Branch Venice Facility". He approached, slowing down to normal human speeds. The guy that came off the ship was rather anti-social in his mannerisms. He went through the door slightly after him, watching the humans scurry around like cattle. He offered the box to the other guy. "Pizza?" He asked. "I don't eat much." What you mean Ken, is that you don't eat at all. "Shut up! I eat from time to time!" It took him a second to realise he said that out loud.