[PRIVATE] Sacramento Streets

A small portal opened up in the wall-face of a small, abandoned apartment deep downtown Sacramento. Through it stepped a slender, feminine figure, and 'A' grumbled aggitatedly at her shadow.

"I really don't need you pestering me every five minutes, you know." She paused and let the portal disappear. removing a cigarette from her pocket and lighting it. "I enjoy the Game just as much as you do. I'll get to it when I get to it." In response, A's shadow-self tugged hard on the chains whic hbound it to her mind. A winced.

'Without the incentive, you wouldn't even need the Game···I'm here to motivate you.' A growled and ceased to communicate with the annoying shadow, then took a short puff of her cigarette. According to her senses, their target was approximately 48 meters to the left, down somewhere on the streets of Sacramento.

A fingered the gun in her coat pocket, grinning a sardonic grin.

As the bright lights of the sun shone down on her, A recalled that she had forgotten to wear contacts today, and thus, her unaturally colored eyes would be glinting as brightly as the sunlight itself right about now.

'Ha!' The shadow spoke up. 'Let them see us for what we are! You know how many people will drive themselves mad, wondering if what they saw was real···?' The thought brought an even wider smile to A's expression.

She was good at approximating 'human' through expressive features such as body language and facial expressions. It was her tone that usually screwed her over. Nonetheless, she needed to be sneaky with her target, and so she pulled out sunglasses. It was simple to slip them upon her face and scan the crowds, letting her senses guide her.

And there it was. The target they were looking for, Jimmy Fontaine, waltzing out of a Starbucks almost merrily with a bottle of water in hand. A had to draw back and admire the aura of raw insanity this man emitted. She licked her lips, for her and the shadow were hungry.

And soon, walking towards Jimmy across the street, they would be sated.

Jimmy skipped happily in a little circle. He'd managed to defy the algorithms once again, and he had water to show for it. What could be better? Unscrewing the cap, Jimmy happened to glance at the label-

-And stopped dead. The serial number was 99474679. Not a single one of those numbers was in the Fibonacci sequence. Jimmy gasped in shock. "Shit!" he yelled as he threw the bottle on the ground. It bounced on the ground, and he kicked into the door of the Starbucks. Damn. That was way too close. To think he'd almost drank the water... He shuddered. Who knows what could have happened? The algorithms were getting trickier. Luckily, Jimmy knew he was smarter. Of course, the problem was therein. They'd already put his brainwaves into any number of matrices, and had no doubt mapped out every thought he would ever have. Hmm. That meant that he had to have thoughts that he wouldn't have. But did that mean that he would have them?

Just then, Jimmy froze in horror. A huge manta ray was cresting the horizon. None of the other civilians noticed, it seemed, but Jimmy couldn't waste time warning them. The poor bastards would figure it out soon enough. Jimmy quickly darted into an alley, muttering as he did so.

"Eight, sixteen, forty- two, twenty- nine, eighty- three, root five..."

They might have their algorithms, but Jimmy had a few of his own. Smirking, Jimmy peered back out into the street. He could see nothing out of the ordinary...

Except for a mid- height, slender woman with long hair wearing sunglasses. Of course, she was quite ordinary. Which was why she wasn't. She was different. Out of the ordinary. Strange.

Jimmy's eyes narrowed. He would have to think about what to do with her. Impaling her head on a stick seemed improper. No, he'd watch her. Maybe talk to her. Which meant he wouldn't. Which meant he would. Or would he? He'd have to wing it. He was beginning to confuse himself as well as the algorithms.

Of course, none of this hypothetical talking could even happen until that damn manta ray went away.