Amber stared at Ultima for a good minute, watching his deep blue eyes. The sudden change made her uneasy, but once she checked his eyes and saw the newest, skill, he had, it only made her more confused. "Nightmares? No, none at all" she sat up and shook her head "Your, eyes, what's with them. You, you know that's happening right?" she asked.

His eyes went from blue to a bright yellow as he smiled "Yes, I know" he chuckles "I know it is, and as for what's going on with them. Me and Gareth had a nice, talk you see" he said.

"Oh yeah? That's nice Ultima" she said, looking away from him now that she had her answer, however vague it was she didn't want to maintain eye contact with him for long.

"Alexander, my name is Alexander" he said suddenly, causing her to pause and stare at him. 

"Alexander? Yeah, I, I assumed you had a name, right. I mean, I kind of guessed Ultima wasn't, it" she said, slowly looking away once he said nothing more on the matter. 

Alex turned back to watching the ocean "I don't believe you, not for a single second, you had nightmares, but you slept so soundly, anyone else would've just taken your word" he said, his eyes turned a deep blue again for a moment. She received a notification that he had detected her lie, but unlike what was supposed to happen, his favorability with her remained the same. That deep blue color was only there for a second, and it was soon back to bright yellow.

Several minutes passed before Lapis decided to finally bite it and log back on a half hour before they would reach landfall, chat was getting restless about it "Alright alright, we're in" he said, sighing as he spoke softly to them.

Amber looked over, and elbowed him while Alex was still turned away, so Lapis couldn't see his newly changed eyes "Something happened with Ultima" she whispered, glancing to him "Don't call him Ultima now, it's, um, call him Alexander" she said.

Lapis observed as chat asked questions he wanted to, so he decided to just do the most direct thing "Ultima? Why do you want to be called Alexander?" he asked.

Lapis was a little shocked when yellow eyes locked with his, staring for a moment "Am I not allowed by your words to use the name I was given at birth and have always lived by? I am and always have been Alexander, or Alex if you prefer" he said, and smiled. 

The smile was, unnatural on the normally neutral face of...Alex...but it wasn't unkind or anything. Lapis shook his head "Of course not, just was, wondering why" he said, deciding not to question it. After a moment though he decided to try something again, he hesitated to do it, because of what happened last time. Lapis activated the emotion link he had with Alexander, and he was greeted with a feeling of immense and calm happiness, tinged with feelings of sadness, but it wasn't what he felt before.

Lapis spoke to chat quietly, the waves masking most of his conversation with them.

Death Seeker was third to wake up, and it was just as Alex was shaking Gareth to wake up, as land was coming into view. He didn't see anything off at first, Amber decided not to tell him, and Lapis was busy watching chat.

When the teen stretched and hummed he yawned as well, he'd been up since they logged off, but he pretended he just took a long nap. "Ultima, did you sleep at all?" he asked.

Alexander looked at him, his bright yellow eyes staring "I didn't" he said, smiling a bit "My name is Alexander by the way, or Alex. We aren't inside of HQ now, but you can only call me it when we are out" he instructed, his yellow eyes dimmed a bit as he turned to Gareth, who was sitting up.

"What um, Alex said is true, for now. You are to call him by his, actual name as long as you three are out of HQ. Higher ups can't know he's using his name again though" he explained as he looked back at the Lightforms. "Looks like five more minutes till we reach land, everyone be on your best behavior, declare what weapons you have, Alex keep your eyes on, one color if you can. We are just travelers right now, not military from The Ark Organization, got it?" Everyone nodded.

The speed boat pulled up to the island, it was useful, situated in the middle of the ocean. It was also man made, as was felt when they all stepped out onto the metallic pier. They tied their boat to the dock before walking into a screening area, Gareth handed each of them a passport. The attendants seemed tired and about ready to leave for the day, or at least switch shifts, so they found nothing wrong with them. Despite being told to declare weapons, Gareth was the only one who had one, that being a lightweight pistol good for self defense. Alexander kept himself calm, which ended up making his eyes a deep brown, very typical. He declared that he didn't have a weapon 'on' him, and nothing was found on his person when he walked through the scanner. The five 'travelers' then asked for directions.

They all went to a small hotel, Gareth paying for separate rooms for each of them "We will leave in the morning, you're all free to walk around, but don't cause trouble" he said, and watched as Alexander nodded before going to his room. The three players of course, together, all decided to immediately leave and explore the island.

Alex sat down in the dim room, a bed, a small kitchenette, a TV, and even still a desk as was usual for him. He looked around but couldn't locate any cameras in the room. There were smoke detectors though. 

"I'm, not being watched" he sighed, slowly laying back on the bed and taking a deep breath "Gareth really does trust me huh? I know his offer extended to me as well. I don't have anything I want to do though, I think" he muttered. His eyes changed repeatedly as he went through an array of emotions at once again, processing everything as his broken mind took full force. He thought about everything he could do, ranging from leaving now and running, breaking all that trust. To, hanging out with the players, that was the most appealing to him, but it's not like he's ever demonstrated that he was a person like them.

If he were to not ask a whole bunch of questions, then that would be strange, he was sure they were looking for quests or things to do. It may be harder to do so if he stuck with them. Even so, it's not like they had to know he was there right? The idea of sneaking seemed, sort of bad to him, but he also wasn't going to let them get 'hurt' even if they couldn't be 'hurt' technically. Which is how he ended up leaving the hotel himself, leaving a doorhanger to tell that he was out.

He stepped out and took a deep breath, the island was metallic, but the smell of the ocean wasn't far off. It didn't smell all that good, but not all that bad, salty really. He looked around for a few moments but couldn't find any of the three still around. Luckily he didn't need to find them, he opened up his NPC functions and selected allies, searching for them. He quickly walked in their direction, surprised all three of them were sticking together.

"You guys find anything yet?" Lapis asked, looking at both Amber Gem and Death Seeker, who had scanned their own targets. Lapis had convinced them to stick together, at least for now.

"No, nothing worth noting, everyone here isn't even level one, they're just generic characters" Seeker said , sighing. He didn't have anything to actually do, and just deciding to log off when there was a new place to explore would be a bad idea. 

"Well, why don't we try asking around, say we need money or jobs before we leave tomorrow? The NPCs are life-like right?" Amber suggested, prompting Seeker to sigh "I hate the fact you're right" he said.

"Well alright, let's ask someone about jobs" Lapis said, looking around for someone to talk to that seemed in the know. 

The three continued to walk, and it wasn't long though before Lapis stopped "Hang on guys, something's happening in chat" he said. He narrowed his eyes to focus and read it, before blinking "That's not good" he paled, before the other two could ask what happened, there was a loud explosion on the metallic island pier. "That would be our boat, we've got stream snipers inbound guys" Lapis sighed "Turns out a group of players have been on this island for awhile, and they don't want us taking their stuff" he explained.

Amber rolled her eyes "So what, like a gang? That's actually kind of pathetic, there can't be that many right?" she said. Lapis shook his head "It's at least a dozen people, and they're all level one. Look you two don't need to be targeted, I'll shut the stream down, and we can all split up, I'll draw fire away. They probably just wanna appear on my stream for attention, so they can have it" he proposed. 

There was the sound of screaming and yelling for help "Yeah right, there's going to be some sort of generated quest for this, just watch. Besides, what are they going to do? Kill us?" Death Seeker scoffed "I'm not running away" he said, moving by Lapis.

Amber sighed "Well, you're not getting all the fun then" she said, standing by the other two as she looked in the direction people were running from. 

Lapis sighed "Okay guys, well, I'm going to hope you guys are good at PvP then" he said, looking as well. A group of people slowly walked in their direction, they were suited up in mostly leather armor, carrying bats and pistols. 

At this time, the system encouraged a conflict, issuing a mission to the three players.

They all squared up, the chances were slim, but the rewards were good, which meant they would at least try.

Alex received the same mission as the players, it was very generous, but it also meant fighting 12 players, most of them were carrying guns as well. Something he had never actually fought against, and hadn't planned to for awhile. He continued to watch for a moment, he was sure Gareth woke up or was alerted by the explosion, but probably wouldn't arrive till he controlled the situation and found out what happened. By then it would be too late.

The two groups stood across from each other, the other three got ready, Amber stood just behind Seeker, who was covering her, and they were both then covering Lapis. Lapis was still a caster. 

"This is our moment guys! Get them!" one shouted, rushing forward with his bat. They weren't going to just shoot them and be done with it, that would be too easy, for all of the players on Ironclad this was a chance to really make themselves known. Lapis was being watched by so many people now, so whatever happened to him was sure to be recorded and documented.

Seeker stood in front of both his allies, raising his fists. Slugger connected his bat, it cracked against the teen's fist, and he pushed it aside quickly to move in, gut punching him. Slugger chuckled as his other allies arrived, jumping and hitting at Seeker, quickly making him the center of a lot of attacks. Yet more pushed past towards Amber and Lapis, Amber activated her focus and moved to dodge them, while Lapis quickly fired off zero level spells, aiming for their eyes to distract them.

The three were quickly overwhelmed, and two still stood back with pistols incase something happened. They were standing there at least, until both of them felt a hand on their head "Hello and goodbye" a voice hummed before their faces met the metal floor, the sound of them hitting caused attention to be pulled off the players. Alexander grabbed both of their guns from their hands "What are these toys?" he asked throwing one up and shooting it before emptying the clip and throwing it down, stopping and shattering it underneath his boot. 

"It's Ultima! Fire at him!" Slugger ordered, a few of his allies moved back as others continued to attack the players. They drew out pistols and began to shoot at the NPC. 

Alex watched them move, and just when they fired he ran behind cover. One bullet clipped him in the foot then, making him fall down. He punched the ground and stood back up anyway. "Yep, yep pain is real, pain is very real, and I can't dodge bullets yet" he muttered, holding his damaged foot and gritting his teeth "Well, at least it went through, that's a good thing right? I forget...dammit why did I have to be cool" he asked himself "Come on you three, I don't need to save you do I?" he asked. 

The others moved away to chase after the NPC, Slugger and the rest stayed behind to focus on the players, who were quickly approaching death. Lapis was panting, informed that he was running low on energy, and continued work would make him die. Amber was still managing to dodge most of the attacks, but the focus mode wouldn't last forever. Seeker, for his part, refused to stop fighting, punching and kicking while taking punishment. Finally one of them went down, the five that went after Ultima were still gone too. Seeker hoped Alex was alright while he quickly healed himself, only causing some injuries to 'disappear' despite none of them actually appearing in the first place. He was now facing two, plus Slugger, who was the leader of them, making three. Amber was dealing with another two, but all the rest were on Lapis, who was only surviving because he kept pelting spells out like candy. Suddenly, gunshots ran out, several actually. 

The players all paled, hoping that wasn't the gang finally catching and shooting down Alexander, it would be sort of anticlimactic if he went down like that. However, moments later, another gunshot rang out as Slugger finally went down, giving Seeker breathing room as all the others quickly scattered once the leader went down. Amber collapsed, as did Lapis, and he only struggled to sit down before panting. Gareth was holding two pistols, one was his own and the other was taken from one of the Ironclad members. He walked over to them "Are you three all right? Alex came running to me, he brought five of these guys right to me, they didn't know what hit them" he said.

Seeker was the only one able to talk, the mission had completed "Where did he go then?" he asked. Gareth stood up and looked around "I don't know, he led me here" he said.

The remaining scattered players ran, and soon reached their safe house "Slugger is going to revive in an hour, we will worry about him later" one said "Get everything bundled up and let's book it. Before they come looking for us" he said. 

"Who made you leader? I say it's every man for himself" Another argued, moving to get in and grab things. 

"You're already arguing? That's really dumb, who said the fun was over yet?" a voice suddenly said, causing them all to look up. They saw the red eyed Alex standing there, glaring down at them "You attack my allies and then think you can run away?" he asked, jumping down from the roof, he landed, slowly standing up. 

"You know what's dumb, jumping in front of someone with a gun!" one yelled, taking out a pistol and shooting him, smirking at the NPC. Only to be greeted with a message that made him step back in shock.

Alexander smiled "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and it would be shame on me" he said, walking up to him and grabbing his gun between his hand while he was shocked "As I said, what is with this toy?" he asked, gripping it and cracking it before dropping it. The others watched as he smiled, his eyes becoming a vibrant rainbow.

A few minutes later, Alexander walked up to the players and Gareth who were still searching for him "I've taken care of the stragglers" he reported. He looked at the other three "I'm fine" he said before they could ask. "We should leave now Gareth, before they revive" he suggested. His commanding officer sighed "You're probably right, they destroyed our boat, but I'm sure that this place will compensate us somehow and we can leave quickly" Gareth said.

The five of them headed back to the pier, hoping that they'd get someway to get off this island quickly and continue on their way.