Prologue - Your lucky Day in Hell

[BigRedRod]

November 4th 2002 - 6 months previously

It has been a very strange few weeks at school. Seemingly endless interviews with people you haven't seen before, asking questions about your life, your dreams, your goals, morality, world issues, monsters and a multitude of other subjects. When it wasn't being sent for to attend a meeting, it was for a test. You'd be sat alone in a small room with no supervision, just a desk and an exam paper, the tests didn't quite sit right. Along with the interviews, you couldn't understand why you were taking them, they didn't really concern your school work.

The teachers and staff at Southmead academy have all admitted they were unsure as to why the tests and interviews were needed. But the requests came from beyond them, direct from the board of governers, who you couldn't meet and no one can refuse.

An hour or so ago a knock came at the door. Each of you was told to get dressed for the culmination of the past few weeks of work. Robyn and Amicula were collected together and arrived in the conference room first, shortly after they were joined by Will and then Sean.

The room is in the bowels of the school and through several doors that students were denied entry too. One of the doors had a card-slot and led them out of the ancient levels under the school and into a series of modern grey passages populated by a suprising amount of people. The guides showed the students into the room and left.

Mere moments after Sean's arrival, the door opens once more. A tall clean-cut man in black matt leather uniform strides in to the room, walks to the front and turns to face the four students,
"Take a seat"
The man stands with his back to the four and his hands behind his back, he turns and speaks again,

"My name is General Hein. We are currently in a small outpost below Southmead academy. This outpost belongs to a group known as the foundation, the past few weeks have been your recruitment into this organisation. You now belong to me"

A familiar symbol is projected onto the board to the side of the General,

"As you all know, The Umbrella corporation is one of the largest in the world. A company of this size has to deal with problems, problems which cannot be solved through traditional channels. The purpose of the foundation. Over time we have branched out from mereing solving problems to furthering the company in general. Your recruitment is a further extension"

The background image changes again, it shows a silhouette of a person wearing a Monster Capture Glove, a silhouette os some small unidentified monster, and some information down the side under the titles MonCom and Umbrella

"For the past thirty years we have slowly realised the potential that the monster capture technology offers. Monsters have moved from a scourge that prevented civilisations expansion to being pets for children. The technology allows for so much more. Monsters have a variety of powers which could further mankind, labour and terraforming to suggest two obvious examples. Many believe that if more adults were capable of monster handling then they could become the ultimate weapon, this may be true, although a rifle has some clear advanatges over a monster which must be raised from a weak state over a long period of time. Ultimate weapon or not, they are the ultimate tool. And the foundation believes it is time that we recruited a team capable of using these monsters. You will be that team"

The images dissapear from the screen
"You will each be provided with a monster and glove, and special instruction from this day forward which will teach you how to maximize it's potential. After this training you will have become fully fledged agents of the foundation. Before I take you to the labs, does anyone have an questions?"

Hein stands looking at his four new recruits,

[SponkleofInfini]

"Why me?"

Inquires Will, shifting in his seat, quite excited about the prospects presented before him. But the question of why still plagues him.

[BigRedRod]

"The same reason you were each picked. A variety of potentially useful skills coupled with our tests indicating that you should bond easily with monsters. You four recieved the highest test scores for your capacity to bond. Or so we believe, the technique isn't quite perfected and you should all be more than capable"

[itches]

Her eyes safely hidden behind her glasses, Amicula reaches out with her mind towards Robyn.

Well this is interesting, though I don't like this 'You now belong to me' business. Still...

"I have a question," Amicula speaks up, fingers forming a pyramid as she leans forward.

"What type activities will we be required to undertake as agents?"

[BigRedRod]

"You will be furthering and protecting the interests of Umbrella and the foundation itself. It is difficult to define the exact nature of your work as it is quite variable depending on the current climate. Rather than list all the potential tasks you could be required to complete. I believe it is easier just to say that you will be required to be as flexible as possible, hence the creation of a team of agents exploiting the potential of monsters."

[BrianL03]

Neither do I, Am, neither do I...

"So you're basically saying we're like employees of this 'foundation' that's a division of Umbrella?" Robyn asks, "And I don't like to say it, but the wording 'exploiting' kinda irks me. You don't mean we'll be treating the monsters under our care badly, do you? Because most need a bit of TLC if you don't want them getting uppity on you. 'An unhappy monster is a danger to both itself and you,' my mom always said."

[tyckspoon]

Sean cuts in right behind Robyn's question. "Two questions here..first, why's a general ordering a bunch of kids? And second..why do you keep saying" Sean stops and concentrates for a second, then reproduces Hein's pronunciation as nearly as he can "the foundation that way? You say it the way a cult would say the mothership."

[BigRedRod]

Hein laughs, or at least makes a good attempt, under the barrage of questions. But he shows the first traces of an actual personality,
"Heh, it's good to see they picked kids with a sense of humour. I'm sure your mother's advice is correct, I'm not asking you to mis-treat any monsters in your care, I'm asking you to use their skills and abilities as a tool rather than aimlessly battling and looking for new cute pets. I assume you would understand why we need agents so young, the bonding process almost always fails with adults unless they spent their children closely bonded, we need agents who can actually control monsters."

He pauses and then looks at hte four,
"Anything else before we head to the labs?"

[itches]

Your mom always said? Amicula projects back towards Robyn, highly amused. I don't think your mum would approve of a lot of your activates these days.

Returning to a more serious tone of thought, the psychic continues.

What really irks me here is that he is acting like we have already accepted. I know I'm not about to turn this down, and I don't think you are about to either. I just don't like people being able to read me so well.

After a moment, Amicula speaks aloud again.

"I don't have any further questions."

[tyckspoon]

"No more here. I'm ready to see what we're going to work with." Done talking, Sean slouches down into his chair, causing him to look even smaller than normal. Shorter speech than I expected. Guess military...is he really military? Still don't know why they sent some guy with that high a title..guess they don't go in for school assemblies.

[BrianL03]

Hehe, I don't think she would approve, either... but you never know, Robyn returns a shared smile, before looking back up at Hein.

"Just one question... how will accepting this affect my position on the swim team and its scholarship? I mean, not showing up to many meets would be bad, because then I wouldn't be fulfilling the scholarship requirements."

[BigRedRod]

Hein shakes his head,
"Despite the tasks which will no doubt keep you away from the academy, you will need periods to reflect on what you have learnt and train your monsters. We will keep the position on the team held for you no matter how many of their activities you miss, and when you are able to join them you will."

After a moment of silence he continues,
"Follow me"
And strides out of the door and throw the maze of grey corridors, he swipes himself and you throw a door and steps into a gleaming white and silver room. A wide window looks out on to an artifical environment, such as you would find in a zoo, several monsters are contained within, and two men in white coats stand with clip-boards while viewing the screens above filled with data you can't interpret.
The rest of the room is filled with work-surfaces, computers, machinary and two of three other white coated-men

"Professor Wallis"
Hein booms as he enters the room, a man of around forty in a white coat approaches. He has a long scar under his left eye and is balding, he speaks like a man obssessed with his job and loving whatever it is he knows he will be asked to do,
"General Hein! Always a pleasure. I take it these are the children?"
Hein gestures to each of you,
"Sean Grotton, Robyn Mulcahy, Larissa Avinger and William Larrins."
"Excellent, Excellent. I have been waiting for this for some time now..."
Professor Wallis turns around for a moment and picks up a bulky black monster-capture glove places it on his right hand and loads in six tokens,
"I do love to see young people setting off to live the life of a trainer team. Although no doubt you'll be different to most of the teams. I was once a trainer myself, back when the technology first arrived, but some things you just get too old for"
He looks wistful anfd then snaps out of it. Arcing beams of energy fly from the glove and deposit six monsters on a long workbench,

"Going from left to right we have firstly, Doll. This species has a variety of psychic powers, including a few innate ones such as flight, telepathy, telekinesis and such."
The creature looks like exactly what it's name describes, a doll just over a foot in height, it sits on the work bench staring at the four

"Next we have Hydrotort, a water creature. Normally lives in seas and oceans but survives fine in almost any envrionment. As you can see heavily armoured but they tend to have quite friendly personalities"
The creature looks like a turtle with a light-blue, hexagonal-patterned, shell 2 feet across and it's skin a shade of aqua tinged with blue

"This is a Kihare. A fighting type creature. Good for a first time trainer due to their power and ease of training. The species has an odd unstable physiology, meaning that a lucky trainer could stumble upon it's secrets and held it achieve a further level of existence."
An anthropomorphic rabbit stands two feet tall, on the workbench, looking with curiousity at the four. It's soft fur being a pastel blue with yellow-white region around it's paws

"Next we have Trian. A creature famed for it's stealth abilities and also it's odd markings that cover the body of each one."
An angular stocky little humanoid, just a little shorter than the Kihare stands on the bench. It's mandibles constantly move and the purple runes keep shifting between just being dull purple marks and being faint light sources.

"Then we have quite a common creature, Vee. In it's current form it is easy to train but lacks power, but most manage to cause the evolution of their creature quite quickly, which leads to some truely powerful forms."
A small vaguely draconic creature stands on the bench looking curiously at the four, it stands around the height of Trian. It's front two paws are tiny and it's body os covered in adorable blue and white fuzzy skin

"Last time up is Fairy Mushroom. This odd little creature tends to hop around and act mainly as a support role, being able to heal and such, however it can learn some very powerful attacks"
The creature looks like an over-sized mushroom, being almost three-feet tall, it's cap is red with white spots

"Each of you will need to pick a creature for your up-coming tasks. I have caught each of these myself but they are still inexperienced so that are able to learn the valuable lessons from raising a monstrer from the ground up. So who wants which to be his companion? After you've chosen I'll hand out some gloves and transfer them, but choose well, you always seem to have the best relationship with your first"

Hein stands behind the four waiting

[ooc: it should be obvious which was intended for who, although you have two spares there in case yours doesn't fit. Just don't steal someone else's before they managed to post. As soon as you've picked, add a new post under your charatcer sheet and I'll add the details.]

[SponkleofInfini]

"I will take Trian."

Will smiles, lifting his head slightly. The creature reminded Will of himself in a relative way. The creature could be molded into his image, a perfect tool for the ends Will wishes to meet.

[tyckspoon]

Sean moves in front of Kihare. Although put off a little by the creature's disarming coloring, the monster sounds like the sort of partner he'd wanted. "I'll take this one."

[itches]

Walking up the the doll, AMicula slowly smiles.

"This one should suit me."

Turning around, she wates as Robyn choses hers.

[BrianL03]

"Awwwwwwwwwww... they're both so cute!" Robyn says, looking at the adorable little fuzzy dragon and the precious turtle, "It's kinda hard to decide!"

Robyn looks back and forth at both animals for near-approaching 10 seconds, before she begins to walk towards Hydrotort.

"You'll be a nice little turtle, won't you?" Robyn asks the little turtle, picking it up and softly petting its head.

"I think I'll take you... your name can be Tipper, kay?"

[itches]

Smiling slightly as Robyn choses her monster, Amiclua turns back towards the doll. Reaching out with the powers that have been cursed upon her, She attempts to speak to the creatures mind - causing her eyes to flare up behind her glasses.

Hello there ...

[BigRedRod]

"So it's settled."
The professor opens a drawer and pulls out four plain blue monster-catcher gloves,
"You can use these for now, but no doubt you'll be wanting to get some a little more individual at first chance, eh?"

The six creatures dissapear in brief bursts of energy,
"Ok then. If you would follow me, we can attempt the bonding process."
Wallis walks toward a large piece of machinary, it has numerous controls covering it's surface and two circular holes. The professor places his gloved hand in one, and motions each of you in turn to insert your new-found glove. A token is dropped into a slot between the speheres and after a brief button sequence the hole contracts and grips your hand. Various gauges start to move and lights fill or flash for just under a minute. An odd sesnation comes over you, you can feel the monster you have chosen and you know it can feel you. And suddenly your hand is released and the token rolls out and lands in a tray on the machine.
After the four of you have all successfully bonded and been presented with your tokens Wallis smiles.

Hein is quick to speak,
"So we are finished here then?"
Wallis answers and his voice is full of even more excitement than his normal self,
"Yes! It worked! Four successful bondings! I think our new agents just took their first steps on the path to success."
The general turns to his four students,
"The rest of the day is your own. Report back here tomorrow at 9:00am, and we can begin your training."
Hein hands each of you an access card, the corner says green level, and turns toward the door

Wallis blurts out before the general leaves,
"I would advise you to experiment with your creatures today. Nothing rash, I wouldn't challenge anyone to a battle, just familiarise yourselves with releasing and returning the monsters. Maybe spend some time with them. Any questions before you head back up?"

[ooc: pretty much the end. I'll leave this open for now until the monsters are all finsihed, that gives a chance for any questions or reactions or such]

[BigRedRod]

"No? Then I shall see you all soon."
The professor returns to his work as you follow the General out of the labs...