Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jason used to panic when he was kidnapped. When he was younger it was a recurring happenstance. Every week seemed to bring a new kidnapping attempt. In fact, Jason blamed his lack of a social life on this, as he spent much of his time being whisked away to various remote places. He began to expect a kidnapping of some sort on his walk home from school everyday. No matter the amount of bodygaurds his father supplied he somehow was always taken. Jason always thought of this due to their incompetancy, and therefore developed a bad impression of most in the profession. This childhood partially fueled his desire to create Leo as a companion to his kidnappings. Occasionally, when the construct was fully charged, it would actually protect Jason, but mostly it was just a useful construct to pass the time in closed buildings and whatnot.

Leo, however, was barely even charged at this point. The construct lay next to his feet, its eyes the only part of it that showed life. Jason kept his eye on the construct but couldn't stop his worry. He frowned at the amount of time the negotiator was taking. The sooner he could get Leo charged the better.

Out of the corner of his eye he could tell the other two were fairly concerned with their situation. He wanted to tell them it'd be alright, but the silence and gaurds seemed to forbid any kind of utterance. So, he waited impatiently and he stared at Leo, oblivious of the danger the Evil Incarnates presented. In fact, he could have sworn this whole situation was familiar to him, even the Evil Incarnates seemed familiar somehow. He shrugged it off, though, they had probably kidnapped him when he was younger. Since he didn't remember it well (for he only remembered the extreme rescues with lots of explosions and what-not) he assumed his father must have paid some kind of hefty sum to get him back. He was used to this, so he tried to relax a little.

Jason started to doze off when the footsteps started. As he watched the door he suddenly felt a chill run through him. Maybe... well, maybe nobody would come for him this time. Maybe this was the time he would finally get killed, or worse (he had heard various stories of the kidnapped being forced into the sex slave trade, and other trades, from his classmates, mostly the girls). He started to pale and for the first time in years he wasn't worried about Leo, but himself. He started to actually shake as the footsteps came closer, edging towards the door in a shuffle of doom.

Then, the door opened and revealed the Super Terrible Evil himself, *insert description because i'm too lazy to go back and look it up*. Jason was terrified before Tuna started laughing, and after he was mortified. He leaned as close as he could while still tied and made that shhh noise libarians made before quietly pleading Tuna to stop laughing. Surely now this man was going to kill them on spot, no matter how much money his father offered.

Jason wanted to stand beside the tank and watch Leo come back to life. He had seen these tanks before, they were a quick way to condense the power in the air of his world and focus it into a construct, but he was rather surprised to see such an expensive piece of construct equipment here. This made him begin to despise the Super Terrible Evil even more, especially after his remark that Jason didn't take good care of Leo. This guy was just as smug as his father.

With some effort he peeled himself away from the tank and followed the Super Terrible Evil's orders. He plopped into the desk chair behind the desk and acted as though he were thumbing through the papers. He glanced at Jaz and Tuna, concerned that both of them weren't doing well... esecially Tuna, who was still passed out.

He caught a glimpse of the Super Terrible Evil staring at him and jumped a little. He seriously looked at the papers, then. The overall design was typical of smaller constructs, usually meant for the more lean constructs that operated in buildings and such. The parts weren't much of an issue as he saw most of the core pieces were present in the room (im assuming they are, lol). He shifted a paper over and read over the formulas. His eyes widened as he read them. Whoever had written these up had studied Jason's work on Leo, there was no doubt. One major thing that set Leo apart from other constructs was it's ability to form thoughts and, Jason figured, some basic emotions. He saw bits and pieces of Leo's formula in this one, though in an imperfect order. The rest of the writing was typical of stealth and covert constructions, used for spying.

He slowly put down the papers but didn't look up at the Super Terrible Evil, he couldn't manage to meet the man's eyes.

"Why do you need this kind of construct? And," he faltered for a second, giving a shaking smile, "why don't you let those other two go now? They don't know anything about constructs, anyways. They're not even from my world."

They were also no use to Jason at that point, his father would have told him, they'd only be use as more leverage. In truth, though, Tuna's breakdown had struck a cord with Jason, even though he hadn't realized it. Besides, Jason was fairly confident he couldn't build another construct to Leo's caliber. His only option was to make one close to it, enough to buy him time, at least...

Meanwhile, on the train that the boys had been stolen from, Johny was slouched over a console with his fifth cup of coffee, his face sagging in his hands. His vigilant conductor was still in his bamf pose after hours of the position. They were nowhere close the space pirate's hideout, and would only show up at a convient time for both authors and the storyline.

After Michael (i am way too lazy to type out the super etc. anymore xD) gave that reply Jason resigned to work. Well, he started working after creating a paranoid fantasy centered around Micheal turning Tuna into some kind of sex slave, a popular plot one of the girls from his class would always tell with fervent details. He eventually pushed this out of his mind, however, and figured the best thing for him to do was to get the construct made as soon as possible. Michael had avoided answering exactly what the construct was for, but Jason found it hard to care. Whatever the matter was it didn't concern him, so might as well carry out the task and hopefully get out of this.

He started with the formulas on the first page, shifting towards the light to better see the writing. Each formula was made of small symbols, and each of the symbols represented different things. He ran a finger over certain ones, highlighting in his mind the different mechanics of the symbols. One would stand for energy intake, in this case it was set for the wrong level. He scratched out that part of the formula and read it over again before moving on down the page (assuming he was given paper materials and stuffs to write with!). He found this oddly entertaining after awhile. This was so like his earlier college days in which he spent correcting others' papers, he somewhat forgot about the situation as he shifted through the various problems. He'd finish a line and blow onto it, sending the symbols into a slight glow. From this glow he could figure out if the symbols worked together to form the actual formula.

At first it was easy, everything he caught was minor enough and needed only small changes. Then it changed, however. Suddenly the problems were getting worse as he went on to the bigger formulas, specifically the ones that gave the construct its purpose. He started to grind his teeth in frustration as he redid formulas over and over again, only to come out with the same result: failure. He became engrossed in these formulas and trying to figure out what he was doing wrong. Why weren't they working?!

He lost track of time as he fought against exhaustion, refusing to give up on figuring out these problems. He became obssessed as he continued to rewrite formula after formula, trying to find the one way that would make them work. As time dragged on he wasn't simply writing on the paper anymore, he was grinding his pencil into it, forcing the lead to drag along with his hand. He had even fisted his hair without realizing it, he was too entranced by the problem to notice.

After all hope seemed lost, though, something seemed to click. He grinned and erased a half a page. He brushed aside the eraser bits and started reworking the formula from scratch. The problem was a certain stroke that shouldn't have been used in the second line, but instead later down the page, he was certain that's what was wrong! He licked his lips (lol, i've never used that line before, but apparently it can be used for concentration) and trained his tired eyes on the paper. Surely this rewrite will fix the problem, all this work couldn't be for nothing!

Jason eagerly blew on the paper and waited for the formula to light up. The first part of the page glowed evenly, a good sign that the formula was coherent, but the second was broken up and choppy, a small glow here or there but nothing that suggested the formula worked. He wasn't sure if it was due to the stress of the situation, the fact that he had spent who-knows-how-long on this, or that he was just plain tired, but he was close to tears at this point. Then the snapping came.

He threw down the pencil and paper before glaring at Michael, except, it wasn't so much a glare but more of pouting sniffle kind of look.

"How can I possibly get this done?! I worked on this for I don't even know how long-- I mean, I know this, I should know this-- I studied this, made this! I should be able to see what's wrong! B-but I don't know, I can find it! A-and I'm stressed... I just can't work like this! I tried! And I'm really, really, really tired... a-and I want Leo..." He couldn't finish any more rambling because he feared tears would definitely fall. He stopped himself, took a deep, calming breath, and hunched his shoulders while staring at his lap. He was always more relaxed after a breakdown, but he felt even more stressed after this one...

(lol, had to give you a shoutout for the frustrating chemistry, so now jason feels your pain!)

Back on the train, Johny was reading over a book he had picked up from some foreign world, idly flipping through the pages. The conductor still stood in that position regardless of how many times one of the navigators told him to leave, they wouldn't make it there until many hours later. Now the control room was mostly empty. Only one navigator was the other present in the room, as it was a breaktime for the majority of the rest. The navigator seemed to occasionally glance at the screen, but otherwise seemed more invested in sleeping.

Johny was about to nod off himself, as the book he was reading took a boring turn, before an ominous shift rocked his seat. He jumped to his feet just in time to be knocked to the ground as the entire train seemed to jerk around. He vaguely registered some kind of tearing metal noise, but was more concerned with the safety of his boss. When the jerking stopped Johny glanced around for where the conductor had fallen. He saw the conductor's feet from behind one of the panels and crawled over to it.

"Sir, we've seem to hit... well, something!" The navigator called from somewhere in front of the room.

Johny ignored him, though, and rolled the conductor over, who had been faced down. Then Johny sighed and patted his conductor's shoulder. The conductor lay on his back, arms still crossed, and was apparently sleeping through this whole ordeal. Johny figured the man had fallen asleep while standing up, no one had noticed because of the ridiculous hat covering his eyes. He left the conductor on the floor and stood. If that motion hadn't woken up the conductor nothing Johny could do would wake him up, either.

"Navigator, call the others back to station, and give me a report!"

The navigator nodded and returned to his seat, clicking some keys before various images from the train popped onto the screen.

"The engine car has somehow run into... well, I don't know, sir, but its smashed up pretty bad. Looks like the crew is handling the damages, and even some of the passengers as well."

Johny waited a few minutes as the navigator talked with various men over the intercom lines.

"Only a few serious injuries, but nothing the doctors can't handle. As for the train, we'll be alright, no need to radio in help."

Johny let out a breath and studied the outside image of the train that one of the cameras from a back car had taken. "So, what exactly did we hit?"

After a few breathing excercises Jason had picked up Leo and an odd boardgame with lots of neon colors on it. He was surprised to see Micheal not as 'evil' as he would have expected a kidnapper to be. Most of his own kidnappers were quite ruthless in their treatment, so he was used to harsh demands and the such. While glancing at the now-sleeping Micheal, he took a seat next to Jaz and place Leo in his lap. He was a little weary(did i use the right one?) of the electric... thing that surronded Jaz, so he made sure Leo stayed away from it and in his lap. The small construct was fully charged and trying to scamper around, but Jason didn't want to take any risks in letting the construct free.

"So, uh, how're you holding up?" Jason half mumbled to Jaz. He was a little embarrassed over his little 'episode,' and wasn't sure if Jaz would tease him for it.

Instead of looking at Jaz, he started setting up the simplistic gameboard clearly meant for children. (lololol i was just having a discussion about candy land, so i thought i'd give a shout out xD)