<div class="floatleft">(http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc370/Sage226/10aebe49-9156-4b35-9cc5-c05a1980adf5_zps2ed16137.jpg)</div>Character: Xeo Silvers<br/>Location: ATLAS, Airport -> Western Gate<br/>Time: 9:30 AM  -> 12:54 PM<br/>Company: OPEN<br/><hr/>The tall man groaned as he stretched out, his bones cracking loudly. "<strong>Man I hate long flights...</strong>" He grumbled once more, his cold blue eyes locked in a grumpy expression of discontent. Flights from Vacuo weren't known to be very short, and Xeo barely had the time to take a breather from a tiring mission hunt Deathstalkers in the deserts before being summoned to another tough mission. "<strong>They're working me worse than androids...</strong>" he mumbled to himself as he waited in lines to get his passport checked. He may be a great hunter, but everyone was passed through a check when coming and leaving Atlas. Xeo knew that since he was a child, he had grown up in Atlas. And though he hadn't been around for a while, he still knew the down-towns and familiar areas of the city of his childhood. It only added more to his disgruntle mood, as bitter memories were also tied to the place.<br/><br/><br/>The woman in front of him passed by and Xeo came up the desk where a machine turned it robotic eye onto Xeo's dace. "<strong>Papers and ID Card please.</strong>" The robotic voice echoed annoying before a slot opened for the person to insert their open passport, face down, which Xeo did.  "<strong>Please wait... Scanning documents...</strong>" It's voice blared out of the speaker once more. "<strong>Please stand on the designated spot for facial scan recognition</strong>" Xeo lifted his right foot a foot off the ground and put it back down. With habit, he had gotten around to standing on the glowing circle in advance. It still used a step confirmation that someone stepped on, however, which Xeo always thought was stupid. The eye that had fixated him earlier projected a grid across his face and passed a scanner across it twice. "<strong>Xeo Silvers, 22, Atlas Hunter, Confirmed. Please grab your papers and ID Card. Have a nice time in Atlas, our beautiful city of technology.</strong>" The robotic voice poke out once more before opening the paper slot once more. Xeo grabbed his stuff and marched off the booth to the luggage claim desk.<br/><br/>Once more, after waiting in a line, he came up to another robotic interface. "<strong>ID Card Please.</strong>" Xeo handed his ID card to the second robot and waited as it scanned the card. "<strong>Please stand on the designated spot for facial scan recognition</strong>" it demanded as well. Xeo repeated his earlier process and had the same result. "<strong>Xeo Silvers, 22, Atlas Hunter, Confirmed. Please wait for your luggage...</strong>" The machine responded. It took a few moments before there was a sound of stuff colliding and tumbling behind the desk before 3 luggage cases came forth on a conveyor belt. Xeo quickly rushed over to check the contents.  Flipping open the first and largest one, this one was abnormally long, measuring nearly as tall as Xeo himself. Inside the well-sealed case was his rifle. Xeo's eyes rapidly covered the length of the gun and saw no damage, but as his eyes slipped down to the section where the dust was kept, his vials of dust that he used to make his ammo had broken and leaked at the bottom of their storage compartments. Not wanting to deal with that problem right now, he quickly closed the case and moved to the next one;  the second rectangular case. Though this one wasn't as large in size, it was proportionate to the other in shape. Flipping the lid of that one open, a sheathed blade was well attached to limit impact movements. This one had no damage at all to his relief. Xeo didn't bother to pop the third one open, since he cared less for whatever happened to his clothes and other daily necessary things. If anything, he could easily find what he lacked in Atlas. All he wanted now was to take an hour or 2 to rest before going back in action.<br/><br/>With luggage in hand, Xeo marched out of the airport doors and waved a taxi to stop over. After a few minutes of waiting and waving at cabs, the familiar yellow car came to a halt before him. The hunter loaded his equipment in back before hopping in the free passenger seat himself. A man in the end of his 50's was driving, and a monotonous expression revealed that he had been doing this job for a while, and never really enjoyed a single day of his employment.<br/><br/>"<strong>Where to?</strong>" the cabbie asked, his voice as monotone as his expression. Xeo took a moment to think. He hadn't quite figured where to pass his time until his meet-up at the Western Gates at 1, giving him nearly over 2 hours, and he wanted to rest and stop at a dust shop before reporting.<br/><br/>"<strong>Hmm... A hotel nearest to the Western Gates.</strong>" The hunter replied after some quick thought. The cabbie rose an eyebrow, as he inspected Xeo once more.<br/><br/>"<strong>You sure? It's pretty shady over there...</strong>" The driver asked as he began driving the car away from the airport.<br/><br/>"<strong>Fully aware of it. I grew up here. Just get me there, I'm tired.</strong>" Xeo replied coldly. He didn't like people asking questions about his decisions, and made it full clear to the driver through his tone. The drive itself resumed itself to last well over 30 minutes.<br/><br/>The city of Atlas was created around the Shee corporation's influence, and thus the city happens to resemble the shape of the Shee Corp symbol. Others see a compass rose from a view taken above the city. With 4 main Districts and a Central Plaza, each District having a distinct use. The Eastern Disctrict was reknown for it's access to the bay nearby, providing an excellent Shipyard for import/export, travelling through to the lake higher up the canal or the great seas out below the continent Atlas rested on. It was also a very popular touristic area with great restaurants, a few bars and theaters. The Southern District housed the Airport, the Academy, Hospital and most of the public services as well as many housings of Atlas. The Northern District held the political bureaus, the Shnee Corp HQ and the Military HQ. The Western District. was where the shops, markets and back alleys were found. If any city had to name it shady corner where the underground life thrived, Atlas's was the Western District. The great capital of technology had much to offer for greedy hands outside the continent who are willing to pay hefty prices for high-tech gizmos. There have been attempts to rid the Western District of it's 'foul' reputation, but no real evidence was found for any concrete actions.<br/><br/>After the long ride, which resumed itself with a lot of starring out the window to the familiar city, the cab stopped in front of cheap-looking hotel. Xeo paid his fee, with a few extra liens, grabbed his luggage and turned to enter the hotel. The cab didn't stick around very long, quickly turning around and speeding away. Whatever trouble Xeo could encounter here wasn't anything he couldn't handle, and it was probably why he didn't care where he would be able to crash for a day. Stepping into the hotel, he was greeted by an older android interface. "<strong>Welcome to Casa Atlasa. Fees are 20 Liens a day for One Person.</strong>" The robot demanded promptly as a slot began blinking to receive due amount. Xeo pulled out the amount with a shrug and awaited for a key to be dropped from the bot. He didn't stick around for additional dialogue, bringing his stuff with him up a few flights of stairs after checking the door number; 36.<br/><br/>The single room was rather simple, but slightly lacking in general maintenance, like the whole building. The was a dust-covered window on the far wall, a desk just under it. To it's right was a single bed which looked aged and had passed through many, many, many situations, and not all were very clean, if the stains meant anything. A fridge hummed behind the open door, with a small stove next to it. A small door at the foot of the bed was cracked open slightly, and one could see the bathroom inside, with a simple standing shower, sink and toilet crammed in a space barely bigger than an over-sized closet. The man shut the door behind himself and put his things down before flopping down on the bed with a groan.<br/><br/>"<strong>Just wish I could get a break... Just hope it's not more Deathstalkers.</strong>" He shivered at the name. His previous mission entailed fending off a swarm of these monsters.<em>A swarm</em>. They usually stuck by themselves in caves, mostly because they could grow obscenely large sizes and caves didn't always have space for many of them. It was known in Vacuo that the deserts inhabited these Grimm hiding under the sand, burrowing until nightfall, where the sun wouldn't be too harsh on their black exoskeletons and cook them alive. But lately, there had been reports that they had started coming across attacks of numerous Deathstalkers together, working together, and some of these attacks during the day. Xeo had been out sniping day after day in the deserts, where there is barely any cover for a sniper to hide in the first place. He had taken down dozens over the lapse of the 2 weeks he was there, but he was finally recalled to Atlas, switching out with another Hunter who happened to be nearby. These switches weren't something common in the Hunting world, officials only did it when truly necessary. There wasn't any reason for one's mission to be interrupted technically, especially when it was starting to get somewhere. Xeo set himself a timer for an hour from his present time and allowed himself to fall asleep just for a little.<br/><br/>The buzzer of his watch went off, and Xeo rose with a loud groan. "<strong>I would've slept more if I could've... But I got like... half an hour to prep up and another half hour to go out in town before showing up at the Western Gates...</strong>" He mumbled to himself as he looked around the small room. The first thing Xeo did was change clothes, from his casual gear to his hunting gear. The next thing he took care of was the next smallest luggage case after his clothes; his sword. Carefully detaching the weapon from it's transport case, it's owner smiled to himself, the first smile of the day. He adjusted the sheath's strap to his waist and nodded to himself when it was placed right. The last thing he had to check before going anywhere was his rifle. Aegis Arc was a great weapon, but required more effort and concentration than firing a gun did, even if that gun was a sniper rifle like Lightning Reaver. Opening the final case, Xeo pulled out the long rifle from it's rectangular case, and began inspecting the gun, taking a few pieces apart to clean them one last time before they would face the field once more. Sand always found it's way into everything, and it was a hassle to clean out sometimes. But once the weapon properly cleaned, Xeo stood up from the bed and swung the rifle around in circular manner. after the second spin, the gun began to shrink, metal sliding against each other as the barrel shortened down and the large weapon became small enough to be slid behind one's hips. Xeo put Lightning Reaver behind himself and grabbed his coat and the key before leaving.<br/><br/>The hunter hopped on the closest bus and headed across town. Unlike the taxis, buses had a fixed location and were cheaper for the distance one could travel in one compared to a cab. The other great thing about buses were that they had their own lanes and were never affected by traffic congestion, allowing one to arrive where they plan at the time they can expect to be there, whatever time of day it was. Xeo went to the Eastern District quickly by taking the West -> East Direct bus, going to a dust shop there. Before going to far, however, he quickly stopped at a burger parlor and grabbed something to eat on the way. The dust shop detour didn't take long, buying his usual order of dust as well as various bullets he felt he would need. Taking the bus going in the opposite direction, Xeo retraced his route to the hotel, where stopped to drop off the excess dust he had purchased to replace the ones that had broken in his transport cases. He didn't stick around the crappy room, however, quickly locking the door behind himself once more and leaving for the Western Gate.<br/><br/>A few minutes walk from the hotel brought him to the imposing walls of the city, which surrounded the whole city of Atlas in a near perfect circle. Imposing gates were carved in the wall at the 4 main cardinal points. Other than flying in and out Atlas, passing through one of the 4 gates was the only way in or out of the great city. A well-devised idea, where it permitted to lock down the whole city and protect itself from nearly any possible Grimm invasion in the past. Xeo leaned against the wall a few feet away from the booth where androids were keeping up with their jobs as inspectors at the Gates, making sure everyone is allowed in Atlas and such. Xeo didn't expect to be meeting Lond very far from his present location, and awaited anyone to present themselves.