London 2056 - A CyberPunk RP [Game thread - Started]

[Evrant-Knight]

Selene Dumas | Royal Refuge Inn | Third Floor Hallway

Between a rock and a hard-place, or better yet, Showdown at Room 318!​

Selene had to commend the sharply dressed man, who she guessed was of possibly Slavic origin due to his complexion, for his attempts of diplomacy towards the burly manager of the establishment, who looked and acted as though he didn't care who everyone was or what they were doing here; which made Selene a bit suspicious of him.

For one, if he wanted everyone here gone, why the need for the Kalashnikov? Surely telling everyone to leave would have sufficed. Two, he seemed to get here rather quickly, and this is before factoring in the elevator journey, could he have been tipped off by Kaligian perhaps? The tone in which he said: "You take it away, far away, and don't ever come back." lent some credence to this theory, but Selene couldn't be sure. If that was true, how did Kaligian know anyone was here? Selene did however holster her pistol for the time being.

"As for you, Selene... that is your name, correct? If I'm hearing you right, you're telling me that you're here to apprehend a suspected terrorist responsible for the bombing of your London Headquarters... despite lacking legal authority to do so. I hope you're aware that if you do so, you could be charged with interfering with a police investigation, evidence tampering and attempted kidnapping."

"Yes, you did hear me correctly Officer." Selene remarked, trying her best to remain calm despite the situation.

"I could say the same for you Officer, interfering with an investigation that is. I am here conducting my own investigation on the direct orders of CyCorp's CEO, Nolan DeGrasse, as he was the one who personally handed me this assignment, and stated that I am free to use whatever means necessary to complete the objective; if you happen to have a problem with me being here, then you will have to discuss it with him. I'd imagine he would have a few words to say to your superiors in response." She started off with, hoping a potential threat might put him off.

"However, I am not above working alongside law enforcement, having done so numerous times back home in Belgium. I propose we collaborate on this venture. Whilst our goals may not be the same, they run parallel to a degree."

"So, what do you think?"

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Warehouse District | Neo Base of Operations
"The Escape"
Doctor Mercy Rabbit​

[hr]

Doctor Mercy Rabbit was still thankfully behind cover when the Grey Death's skull landed near her position, the crimson LED eyes winking out as the remaining power was dispersed. Gingerly touching the skull, the Back Alley Fixer checked to see if the object was still hot before grabbing it. Looking the object over, the former CyCorp researcher in her was fascinated by the fact that all the circuits and augmentations appeared surprisingly undamaged and the fact that despite the fact that they'd started their life as separate augmentations, they'd somehow had been integrated with one another. The human in her made her drop the skull when she realized that there was still a large suction of skull still anchored to the augmentations.

"Ew." The Doctor ew'd as she unconsciously wiped her hands on her pants. As she reached down to grab the skull, the world around her exploded, not literally of course.

It seemed that Miss Rabbit had forgotten the fact that she was in the middle of a war zone and that Mister Primrose was still hunting for her with all the intention of killing her. With Viscus' skull in hand the Doctor kept her head down and started moving between the crates once again.

"Ahhh my little sinful hare! Come out and I promise I'll make it quick!" The Neo Commander called out as he unleashed another wall of lead in the direction that Mercy had fled.

The Doctor had absolutely no intention of coming out, ever. Slowly peeking around the side of a wooden crate, Mercy was luckily able to avoid a substantial amount of injury as Mister Primrose fired off another burst, causing a few wood splinters to embed themselves in the side of the woman's face, causing Mercy to cry out in pain.

Retreating further into the compound, Mercy wished that she had a computer or a cyberdeck or something that would allow her to get a better view of the warehouse layout.

"(Wait a second)" Mercy thought to herself as she realized that she had the very thing that she needed in the palm of her hands. Viscus had been able to patch itself into the CCTV systems that the Neos had set up to monitor security around their base. If she reactivated him, maybe he could lead her out of the area without being caught by either the Neos or the police, who would obviously have questions for her if they found her.

Checking her pockets, the Fixer found exactly what it was she needed, a simple battery that had enough charge to start up the Grey Death's AI. Thanking the Gods for the fact that Viscus had managed to get its head blown off, since the battery would not have been able to power the machine's whole entire body, Mercy pulled out the power leads from the skull and connected them to the small lithium cell, attaching the leads with a couple strips of electrical tape.

"[small]C'mon. C'mon. C'mon. Work work work[/small]" She muttered as she say the LED eyes light up.

[hr]

London 2056 | Royal Refuge Inn Floor 3| Hallway in Front of Room 318
"The R Team"
Elliot Aubergine | Vermilion Weissbourd​

[hr]

"However, I am not above working alongside law enforcement, having done so numerous times back home in Belgium. I propose we collaborate on this venture. Whilst our goals may not be the same, they run parallel to a degree." Selene's said in a rather lush French accent. Despite the fact that they all still had an AK-47 trained on them, she spoke with an air of efficiency, a characteristic common among Corp types... that and the use of big words, "So, what do you think?"

"Sure." The Officer responded simply, though he didn't quite feel right leaving it at that, "If we get outta this."

As for the other elephant in the room, or rather the man with the automatic assault rifle in the room, it appeared that Kazuko Wright was handling this one. Vermilion's eyes were locked on the situation in an attempt to look for any potential opening and to avoid any mistakes with the potential of causing bodily injury to either herself, Elliot and... Dimitri. Her HUD had already flagged the AK in the hotel proprietor's hand and Elliot's pistol as weapons that had been spotted in the room. It only too a momentary flash of the inside of Kaz's jacket for another red triangle to appear as her HUD quickly identified the make and model of a stun baton.

"Rudolf, I know we'd be able to work this out much easier if it wasn't at gunpoint, so here." Kaz waved the notes towards him, and tried to keep his gaze from drifting to his AK, "Think you can turn the blind eye for the moment?"

"[color=e34234][small]Damn idiot.[/small][/color]" The Hack-tivist muttered silently to herself. The idea would have been sound if it weren't for the fact that the Armenian didn't have his finger on the trigger of the rifle. The unfortunate side-effect of electricity was its propensity to cause muscle contractions, muscle contractions that could cause Rudolf's trigger finger to tighten and fire wirely down the hallway. Seeing as how Elliot had warmed her against trying anything crazy, Vermilion took Kaz's cue and decided to prey on the man's greed... if he had any.

"[color=e34234]Y... yeah Rudolf, I got some moneh here az well. Why doncha jes take the moneh an' while yer at it, take yer finger off da dere trigger.[/color]" Vermi said as she produced a few bills as well, waving it in the man's face.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

London 2056 | Warehouse District | Neo Base of Operations
It shouldn't take this long to reboot
Viscus?​

[hr]

...
...
...
...Power mode: On
BIOS Loaded
BIOS> Power On Self Test Engaged
Restoring System State...
Link to CyCorp... Offline
Password: ****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Processing...
[color=grey]Viscus Online[/color]

After a system bootup that took a little longer then was comfortable, the robotic head Mercy was holding returned to life, it's LED lit up as it quickly remembered what it was in the middle of doing (And failing).
Realizing that things weren't exactly going to plan, the AI quickly began to route an escape, only now realizing that several of it's key limb augments and hardware were scattered about the entire floor of the warehouse, thanks to it's CCTV connection.
Finally taking notice of...whomever it was that was holding it's head right now, the AI quickly said

[Risk Assessment Data indicates that current positioning may prove fatal. Proceed as instructed.]

And with that, Viscus began to lead Mercy out of the Warehouse, giving exact instructions to avoid incoming fire from both parties.

[Move North 10 yards behind pillar 1a. Hold for 2.5 seconds, then move West 20 yards.]

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~​

Karl had been lost in thought when the sound of a soft, young voice caused him to glance up and see that Young Sienna had stirred from her sleep.

"... What about Auntie Karine?..."

He couldn't help a little smile as Irina jumped a little, clearly not expecting Sienna to wake up like she had, but she quickly did her best to reassure her daughter that everything was alright, and that she was being thought of. It didn't quite work. The mention of an Auntie Katya caused her to try and sit up straight, her neck craning to try and see if Auntie Katya was there to see her.

"Calm down, monkey. She's not here... yet."

The fact that she got excited by that just made Karl smile a little wider. There was still some hope yet that Sienna would be able to move on from this, even in little ways with her family. As Irina decided to pull out her cell phone to check something else, he noticed that Sienna was staring at the sterile aug cap on his shoulder, and he quirked a brow expectantly before she finally spoke up.

"Are you okay Mister Adler? Did Auntie Karine do that to you? Mom always said that Auntie Karine was strong enough to pull an arm off of a man, I didn't think it was true though."

He couldn't help but laugh a little at that, especially since he was pretty sure that, with her military-grade augments, Karine probably could rip an arm off of a man, especially if she disabled the limiting safeguards and used them to their fullest potential.

"Well, yes and no. You see, when Karine and I were rushing to Buckingham Palace, some of the bad guys ended up shooting my arm. It was such a mess and got in the way, so Karine just yanked it off, no problem." he lied with an easy smile, making a pulling motion with his remaining arm.

"It was broken anyway, so it was for the best." he added.

He didn't really have the heart to tell her the truth: That it was the Palace Guards, the good guys, who were responsible for his arm, and that he ultimately had to rip it out himself. And he certainly wasn't going to mention the excruciating pain. Lying to her made him feel a little guilty, but he pushed that aside. She had enough to deal with, and if this made Karine look good in her eyes, that could hardly be a bad thing, right?

By that time, Irina had finished whatever she was doing on her cell phone with a look of triumph.

"There. Auntie Katya is going to be here the day after tomorrow. She can't wait to see you!"

Sienna clearly liked the sound of that, and even as her eyes slowly fluttered closed, the smile on her face didn't dim a bit. It was enough to make the grown man sigh a little.

"This is why she can never know."

Glancing sideways at her mother, he nodded and closed his eyes.

"Trust me, I know. She'll never hear of it from me." he murmured back.

 

[FalloutJack]

The situation that had created the delay in some of the forces getting here was actually something worthwhile, in a way. There was gridlock all over the area. The Neos couldn't escape even if they broke the perimeter. However...the heavy gunfire made Asagi realize that at least ONE GUY might be able to...

"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I'M THE JUGGERNAUT, *****!"

Must be an American...

Of course, she spotted a different cowboy - Viscus - weaponizing their damn explosive prosthetics. That one went down under ambivalance. On the one hand, holly shit, seriously?! But on the other, they Ludds kind of had it coming. To br honest, while those men were all potential sources of information, she didn't feel much sympathy. The real shame was that their lovely quick-and-agile assault drones were no match for the big guy. Lower caliber weapons, less armor, no explosives. They were anti-personal, not armor-piercing. At least, not to the extent of the goddamn Lexosuit! [http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/dcanimated/images/e/e8/Lexoskel.jpg] Things continued to progress. A soldier caught some movement, as did she, and drew her attention to it.

"Ma'am."

She held up her hand in a 'No thanks' gesture in regards to the binoculars. Her cyber-eyes could range-find and smooth over the image. She wasn't equipped with special sniper eyes, but they could emulate the effect of the handheld device. Two people carrying a third... Charles! Okay, that got her attention.

"Make sure that man gets good attention."

"Ma'am. It appears that the remainder of the hostages have been executed by the Neos. We've also lost Mantis number 5."

Number Five, disassembled. All other survivors dead. God dammit...

"Ma'am, we've got reports that a Rhino APC just broke through the perimeter and is headed in the direction of the warehouse."

"Confirm the driver of that vehicle, just in case. And somebody get me a missle launcher."

A few stares followed at that.

"For the powersuit."

The man she'd been talking to shook his head.

"Not here yet. We all piled in with the Mantises 'cause we needed the numbers more than explosives. I think-"

"Hold on, I have some!"

"Ordinance officer?"

"Ordinance officer."

A squad such as theirs was required to keep some explosives on them, for forced entry or other emergencies. This man had one pack of 'Her Majesty's Blasting Gelignite', a high quality brand which delivers quality explosions. Asagi took it , a detonator, and an assault rifle.

"Cover me. I'm going in."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The conversation between the hallway group and the Armenian had all the possibilities of going both up AND down, with attempts to reason with him and even a bribe were put on the table, so to speak. It's a matter of fact that Rudolf was keeping his distance enough to prevent any easy takedown with him and the gun. Veteran, he was. Not a stranger to situations. However, before they could get another word out of him, a voice from a hidden speaker in the hallway said...

"Stop. This need not escalate any further. You want in, you can come in."

An auto-lock clicked Room 318 open as Rudolf seemed to cool it slightly, but he was still glaring holes in them and NOT giving anybody the chance to get at him. Anyobdy who entered would find a standard decent apartment setup with dining/kitchen area near a living room area. It was dimly-lit with lamp-light, having a couch, an easy chair, a TV, a drinks table, a box with signs of it having been used as a footrest, and a few magazines. Once people were in, the same voice - Kaligian's voice - would emanate from down the short hall near this area.

"I'm in the bedroom, and I'm prepared to explain everything. Soon, everyone will know."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Isaiah Kaligian was NOT in the bedroom. He was not in HIS room or ANY room upon the third floor, nor any apartment room at all. He was in a first-floor store room, watching every move they make and every word they spoke. Why? Because he did not wish to cooperate with the police and/or a corporate attack dog. Furthermore, he had no use for Kazuko, so he could go as well. The only thing they would find in that bedroom was a rather-convincing mannequin double made to look alot like him with its back turned to them, looking at a dummy laptop. It could see out of its eyes and hear with its ears, as well as speak when he spoke into the mic, transmitting flawlessly the sound of his voice. It was a very good decoy. And...he was going to have to part with it, and leave just as soon as this situation was dealt with.

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | The Warehouse District | Neo Base of Operations (Exterior)
It's called a Rhino for a good reason...
Charlotte Sorrowfeld​

[hr]

Considering the day that she was having, one might have thought that Lieutenant Charlotte Sorrowfeld driving into a wall was an inevitability. Considering the fact that this whole ordeal started when she unwittingly assisted a known terrorist organization in the kidnapping of over one hundred hospitalized civilians, it was inevitable that her day was just going to be a shit sandwich plated with a side of shit chips. From there, she had a diner exploded around her head, she watched her partner get exploded in front of her and then a walking and talking vending machine stole her car... and got it exploded as well. There was, however, a reason for her actions.

Racing past the perimeter that had been established around the Neo's hideout, Lieutenant ***** pressed her badge against the Rhino's windshield, not really caring if the guards were able to see it. If they decided to open fire on her, they would spend all day shooting at the same exact spot on the APC before they could make a dent in the armor. One could have mistakenly thought that the excessive amount of armor welded onto the vehicle's chassis was overkill but again, you would be mistaken.

"Lieutenant Sorrowfeld," The radio crackled to life as one of the officers on scene confirmed that they had indeed seen her badge, "It looks like the Neos have executed all their prisoners and are attempting to destroy any remaining evidence on scene. We've managed to isolate them in their base but we've run into a bit of an issue..."

"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM? I'M THE JUGGERNAUT, *****!"

"... They've deployed a combat frame," The officer continued his sit. rep. after the Juggernaut's interruption. "Operative Asagi's men have bought quite a bit of hardware but nothing that can put a dent in the combat frame's armor... One moment...

There was a bit of a pause on the line before the reporting police officer could be heard responding to an update.

"... Oper... agi's WHAT?! Yo... an't be... ucking... serious! Sh... going to charg... thing with... a wad of blas... gel?"

The Lieutenant cut off the radio. She didn't necessarily need to get a relay on what Operative Asagi's plan was. It was clear to Lieutenant Sorrowfeld that Karine was going to make her way into the building and plant a package of blasting gel on the Juggernaut's chassis. While the Lieutenant had a feeling that the Operative's infiltration skills were top notch, it would be well neigh impossible for her to survive once the explosives were planted. Charlotte highly doubted that the Juggernaut could be convinced to allow Operative Asagi to walk away.

As she passed the military's forward command post and threaded an alley between two abandoned structures, she spotted Karine in the distance, making her way towards the warehouse. A barrage of 7.65 mm slugs connected with one of the Mantis drones stationed outside of the warehouse's perimeter, decapitating the poor machine. It could have been a surge of nervousness, but the Lieutenant was reminded of the fact that during the process of mating, the female praying mantis would often eat the head of her mate. It was within that thread of animal kingdom trivia that Charlotte Sorrowfeld found inspiration. They didn't call this a Rhino APC for nothing.

Tapping a button on the vehicle's HUD, the Gungnir consultant opened up a communications channel to Karine.

"Operative Asagi. Follow me in." Charlotte said as she started up a program that had been install by Edw... a former associate. The program recorded the trajectory and calibers of the bullets that were flying about the scanned area. Based on that, it was able to calculate a rough location of various shooters in the scanned area. It was almost as good as having x-ray vision.

When the driver's side HUD updated and marked the estimated location of the hostile Combat Frame, Charlotte floored the gas pedal and pointed the Rhino directly at where the Juggernaut was supposed to be... not paying any mind to the fact that there was a wall between her and said Juggernaut.

The walls of the warehouse shuddered as the Rhino APC slammed into them and carved out a large hole. The sound of tearing metal was soon followed by the sound of a Rhino hitting a Juggernaut and pinning him against a wall.

Watching the barrels of the Juggernaut's arm mounted miniguns spin up, Lieutenant Charlotte Sorrowfeld muttered a few expletives when the Juggernaut attempted to shred her.

"[small]Any day now, Asagi[/small]" Charlotte muttered as she watched the light show outside of vehicle, the impact of bullets on armor creating a frenzy of sparks.

[hr]

London 2056 | The Warehouse District | Neo Base of Operations (Interior)
Up periscope... Down periscope...
Mercy Rabbit​

[hr]

It wasn't through lack of effort that Doctor Mercy Rabbit was still in. Even as she tried to get out of the warehouse, she found herself hounded by the ever stalkerish Mister Primrose and his automatic rifle. Were this an animated cartoon, Mister Primrose might have turned to the unseen audience before saying...

"Shhhh... I'm huntin' rabbits." The actual Mister Primrose said as if channeling Mercy's thoughts. Shouldering his rifle, the Neo Luddite Elmer Fudd squeezed the trigger and unleashed a horde of bullets not 5 feet away from Mercy's position.

"[Move North 10 yards behind pillar 1a. Hold for 2.5 seconds, then move West 20 yards.]" The decapitated head of Viscus stated causing Mercy to move behind a pillar and hold for exactly 2.1 seconds.

"I SEEE YOU!!!!!" Mister Primrose yelled as fired at Mercy, causing the pillar, and Mercy's hiding spot, to disintegrate under yet another hail of bullets.

Scurrying from her position, the young Doctor dove behind a large metal desk, accidentally dropping Viscus' disembodied head and causing it to roll end over end for a few meters. It was probably a good thing that the A.I. didn't have a set of semi-circular canals or he might have found himself disoriented from all the rolling.

"Whoops." Mercy apologized to her make shift GPS escape system, "Could we try that again and maybe just make it simpler. Right, Left, Stop, Go?"

The Doctor sounded annoyed and for good reason. She was not a robot. She was terrified and under a tremendous amount of stress. Also, it didn't help that she didn't have remote connection to an atomic clock that would tell her exactly how long it took for 2.5 seconds to elapse.

The head was silent, leaving Mercy in an even more panicked state as she checked to see if she'd broken something when she dropped the head.

"FOUND YOU MY RASCALLY RABBIT!" Mister Primrose shouted cheerfully as he lifted his rifle and pointed it directly at Mercy, "IT'S TIME TO BID YOU ADI-"

*CRASH!*
*SPLORCH!*

Mercy's stalker was hit by the front end of a multi tonne vehicle, leaving her gasping for air as she realized that she was still alive.

"Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit." The Nervous Backalley Fixer cursed before she looked at Viscus' head, "Now where?"

Through that hole would be a start.

[hr]

London 2056 | Royal Refuge Inn
Tracert...
Vermillion Weissbourd | Elliot Aubergine​

[hr]

From where she stood, the Scotswoman of Germanic descent could tell that this was a trap. One did not simply gather a bunch of people of dubious intent and invite them in for afternoon tea. It would have been fairly easy for this Isaiah to listen in on the conversation between Elliot and Selene had foolishly had in front of the man's door. For all he knew they could have been there to murder him and yet he invited them in without a care in the world. What's more, in this day and age, who actually would volunteer information for free? It was just not done anymore, police badge or no police badge. Vermilion hesitated but called out to Elliot as he started entering the room.

"[color=e34234]Good lard, Elliot. Do yuh tink tat yoo should be goin' in thar witout askin' a couple o' questions from outside the mahn's door? Fur all yoo know he could be puttin' you in the perfeck spot to drop yoo in his shark tahnk.[/color]" The Hackivist called out. She was pretty sure that there was no shark tank, given that they were on the third floor of the Royal Refuge Inn. The warning wasn't meant to be taken literally though. It was simply a warning.

The Officer hesitated for a moment and nodded.

"How about you come out here so we can talk then, Mister Kaligian?" The Officer asked from the doorway, "That way I can be sure that you're not hiding any weapons on you ... or step into any shark tanks."

The officer smiled at the female hacker during that last little bit. Clearly he was a bit smitten with the poor girl, I mean she had kissed him down in the lobby. If that didn't send out some sort of signals, Elliot wasn't sure what more obvious signals there could have been... besides sex.

The Hacker, however, was ignoring the officer and monitoring the Inn's GCP packets for anything that would have indicated that it was a trap. As with most men, she'd ensure her safety before stepping into their hotel room.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~ &

Irina Rostikova

​

The day of horrors was coming to and end for Karl Adler, Irina Rostikova and Sienna Rostikova-Cray. While no one knew what the next day would bring, the disappearance of the sun below the horizon was something of a relief to the Former VidCaster. The relief that washed over the mother brought up thoughts about her future. While she'd made a pretty penny selling her ZibatsuCorp stocks during this disaster, it wouldn't last forever. From what she'd learned about her own friend's opinion on her, there wasn't going to be a lot of people who were going to jump at the opportunity to hire StripKitty.

Seeing as how Karl was on the verge of sleeping, Irina took the opportunity to turn on the room's media screen and direct it to one of the local news feed.

ZibatsuCorp Found Assisting Post Neo Luddite Terrorist Cell​

After a series of memos was released by the hacktivist known simply as Vermilion, rumors began to surface that ZibatsuCorp was assisting the Post New Luddite Front in their terroristic activities. In a press release by the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation, these rumors were confirmed as charges of terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism were leveled against the executives of the relatively minor Corp.

The internal memos sent between various members of the executive board indicated that the Corp was engaged in creating fake CyCorp and H.A. Dynasty augmentations and providing the terrorists with technical knowledge on converting these augmentations into explosive devices, as demonstrated in today's attack on Buckingham Palace.

The motive? Stock manipulation.

Coming on the heels of this news is the on going events taking place in London's historic Warehouse district. According to the London Police Department's media coordinator, the terrorist cell responsible for the Buckingham Bombings had been located and with the assistance of military resources, an attempt to subdue and arrest the members was made. At this time, there is an ongoing standoff in the warehouse district. All civilians are urged to stay clear until the situation has been resolved.

We have footage of a group of soldiers extracting what appears to be a hostage from one of the buildin...

The screen froze as Irina had hit the pause button on the media screen. Zooming in on the still image, the hacker saw the unconscious body of Charles Derek May being carried out by a group of four soldiers.

"Holy... shit." Irina cursed quietly in amazement.

Though Karl had been tempted to nod off and give sleep another chance, when Irina turned on the media screen he couldn't help but glance up at it in curiosity. The headlines immediately had him sitting up and focusing on it more intently. And as he watched, a definitive feeling of dread set in. Someone had already released in their own spin on the recent calamity regarding the two largest cybernetic augmentation Corps along with the newfound involvement of ZibatsuCorp. Only this particular spin pegged all of it solely on Zibatsu.

Even if that information was false, that the real story was on the data chip that Sienna had given him, it was bad. It would only end up muddying things further, and make it that much harder to get to the heart of the matter. He swore softly in German and shook his head. Things were complicated enough before. Now?

When Irina paused the screen and zoomed in to focus on a man being carried out of a warehouse, his eyes narrowed. That figure between the soldiers... He looked awfully familiar.

"Who is that? I recognize him, but I can't place where from..." he murmured.

Irina jumped slightly at the sound of the German's voice. She'd been so engrossed in the story that had been reported that she'd failed to noticed that Karl was awake... again. Giving the man a sheepish grin, she felt quite guilty at having kept the man up for so long. He'd been through quite a bit that day... they all had. From the looks of things, it wasn't over for Karine either.

"Sorry..." The Novice Hacker appologized as she muted the media screen and turned to talk to Karl, "That's charles. He was at the hospital when Sienna was hospitalized after the bombing... actually both Sienna and Charles were in the same room since he'd been there to help rescue my baby. You might not have noticed him when you came to check in on us, he was... pretty sedated. Sienna and him seemed to get along for the most part."

As she spoke, the video feed on the media wall continued to play, this time flashing to a live feed that showed a large Armored Personnel Carrier crashing through one of the walls of the Neo's headquarters. On the side of the image, a woman running in the shadows. She had quite the military gait and appeared to be carrying something potentially explosive.

"Actually, it's strange, I had only met Charles a couple hours prior to his hospitalization. We kinda bumped into each other after I had... ummm... paid Nathaniel a visit." There was a slightly sad tone to Irina's voice when she spoke of Nathaniel. Despite their differences, there had once been a time where they'd been in love. There had once been a time where they weren't at each other's throats. If she mourned for Nathaniel Cray, it was the man he was and not the man he had become, "I accidentally broke a bottle of... whatever it was he was drinking and invited him over to my place to replace it... oh god... that sounds bad doesn't it?"

When she mentioned that he was there with Sienna in the hospital, immediately after the first bombing, he quickly nodded.

"I remember now. He rushed into the building to help save her along with Karine." he said, before glancing back at the screen with a concerned frown, muttering, "The Neo Luddites must have kidnapped him too around the same time..."

Irina seemed to reminisce on her first meeting with Charles, which brought his attention back from the news broadcast. And when she spoke of her ex-husband, he picked up on a slight tinge of regret. He couldn't blame her. The man had been her husband at one point, and the father of her child. He would think that there had been something between them before the divorce, unless they tried to pull off the same farce that was his own parents failed marriage.

"No," he finally said in answer to her question, "It doesn't sound bad at all. It just sounds like you were trying to be kind. There's nothing wrong with that."

"But still, if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been involved in this whole debacle." Irina said almost mournfully. She made a mental note to ask Karine which hospital Charles was sent to the next time they met. It looked like this whole ordeal was coming to a close and for the Irina was quite thankful.

Looking out the window into the city, the CatEared Former VidCaster's augmented eyes caught a flash of color blinking in the distance. Blue, Yellow, Green, Red and White. It was a string of Christmas lights being hung up in someone's apartment.

"God... is it already Christmas time?" The Elder Rostikova asked, changing the topic away from sad things to ... maybe happier things, "This is going to be her first Christmas with me since her dad and I divorced. Strange that I've been wanting it for all these years and now that I get to spend time with her during the holidays... I'm strangely terrified."

 

[Evrant-Knight]

Selene Dumas | Royal Refuge Inn | Third Floor Hallway​

"Sure. If we get outta this." Replied the police officer. But before Selene had a chance to respond in kind, a voice spoke to them.

"Stop. This need not escalate any further. You want in, you can come in." Spoke a male sounding voice from seemingly out of nowhere; this had to have been Isaiah Kaligian.

"And walk right into an obvious trap?" Selene asked rhetorically. Meanwhile, the female associate of Officer Elliot, speaking in a badly garbled mess of English, was asking if the man if he was going to blindly walk into the room without some questioning first; quite the smart suggestion. As luck would have it, the officer took her advice and asked Kaligian to step on out.

Whilst the attention was hopefully focused on Officer Elliot, Selene took her work mobile from out of her jacket pocket, and began scrolling through the list of contacts till she found one that was marked "Gendarmerie", which was a nickname of Selene's own choosing and pressed it. With any luck, so long as the signal hadn't been blocked, the rag tag group may have some back up on the way, courtesy of CyCorp.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

London 2056 | Warehouse District | Neo Base of Operations
Bobble-Head
Viscus​

[hr]

[Advance though outlet tunnel d3 positioned 10 feet northbound from your current position.]

was the next order that Viscus's disembodied head barked out as the military began to move into the building.
In the heat of the battle, Viscus could only watch as the hapless female holding him struggled with even a task that simple.

[There is a 45% increased chance of a possible fatal injury if you maintain this operating speed. [u]Move. Faster.[/u]]

He echoed in a threatening manner, not like he could do much either way however.
Hell, there was a 84% likelyhood that she would just throw him away once she was out of the building, but if he didn't do anything at all, there would be a 100% likely hood of his termination.

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Hospital | Recovery Ward
Terror from the Past...
Irina Rostikova | Sienna Rostikova-Cray​

[hr]

When Irina mentioned that it was getting near Christmas time, Karl followed her gaze out the window to see the string of lights just inside someone's flat. He felt a subtle uncomfortable clenching in his gut, and part of him wanted to steer the conversation away from the subject of family holidays. Especially when images of flying glassware and drunken outbursts flashed in his mind. Instead, he sighed quietly and nodded.

"A lot has happened to Sienna in the past few days, so it's understandable." he told her with a grimace, "And I doubt it will be so easy to simply wrap up the people responsible by Christmas."

Forcing himself to sit back up, he glanced at her with an apologetic smile.

"But you'll have to forgive me. I've never been very fond of the holidays. What matters is that you spend that time with Sienna, try and help her forget what's happened." he pointed out.

The CatEared Former Vidcaster simply nodded in response to Karl's suggestion. It was rather obvious advice but she took it to heart regardless. She had the desire to delve into the topic but sensed that the CyCorp executive would have preferred to avoid it altogether. It was hard for Irina to imagine what could have made Karl so adverse to the holidays. After all, didn't he come from a rather wealthy family? He would have gotten gifts. His parents would have been able to spend time at home rather than working for the holidays. He would have been able to ask for whatever he wanted and gotten it from "Santa" where as Katya and Irina got presents very rarely.

She chose to leave the topic alone, sighing at the fact that she was basically giving an opportunity to see if this was the type of man that she wanted her best friend and next door neighbor to be dating. So far, he'd said the right things... so far.

"Well here's hoping she doesn't ask for a new dad for Christmas," Irina quipped before stopping suddenly. While it was obvious she held no love for the departed Nathaniel Cray, it was still Sienna's father, Sienna who was asleep next to her mother who'd made that remark, "We'd better change topics. I mean... yeah. Did you decide on which model you're going to go with when they replace your aug?"

Karl's expression quickly turned into one of vague horror at the suggestion that Sienna would ask for a new father. That would almost certainly be awkward, difficult, and something he was immediately glad was not his problem. After all, he was probably not a likely candidate for a variety of reasons. No, he'd be happy to expedite her getting new legs. The current crisis with CyCorp would make that more difficult too, but he was reasonably certain he could think of something. It was definitely preferable to trying to matchmake.

So when Irina asked him what he planned to replace his old augmented arm with, he turned to her with a thoughtful expression.

"You know, I'm not entirely sure. Another AR-98 would make sense, but since I still have the one in my other arm, I was thinking of something that would be more effective at range, or against more mechanical targets." he said, before smiling over at her, "You're more of an expert on black-market augs. I'm open to suggestions."

Having seen the collapsable blade that Karl kept stashed in his arm, Irina knew that most people who went for those sorts of accessories were prone to having one close range weapon as well as a long range one. While she didn't necessarily see the CyCorp executive sporting a Skull Gun, she did see him having a ranged weapon of some sort. Unlike field generators that would affect everything within range of the Executive, a targeted system would be more up his alley.

"You're probably aware that CyCorp had attempted to put a self defense system on the market that used an electrical cartridge that would embed itself in the victim before discharging. The problem, as you probably know, is that with the wide spread use of augmentations an electrical pulse can fry something vital... like an artifical heart. So... you guys never got clearance to sell it. Of course, that didn't stop one of your ex-employees from offering it in one of her own backalley shops. From what I've heard, she's increased the electrical output of the cartridges, made them magnetic and has them propelled via a electro-magnetic propulsion system." The Cat-Eared Former VidCaster stated, "I think you know the creator... Mercy Rabbit."

[hr]

London 2056 | London | Warehouse District
Escape...
Mercy Rabbit | Viscus​

[hr]

Viscus was right. With the way he was addressing her, she was severely tempted to toss Viscus' disembodied head to the side before throwing herself to military's tender mercies. However, with her already existing criminal background and the fact that she'd been involuntarily aiding the Neos, it would be some time before she would see the light of day. This would especially hold true if CyCorp called upon their police contacts to deal with her.

"

[There is a 45% increased chance of a possible fatal injury if you maintain this operating speed. Move. Faster.]

"

She didn't need the talking metal bowling ball to tell her that she was in danger. She really didn't need the oversized magic 8-ball telling her that the military was going to shred her body with a wall of bullets. What she did need was someone to calm down her fraying nerves. What she did need was someone to tell her that she was going to be alright. This would be a problem given that Viscus was not a living, breathing, feeling machine. Machine... the thought gave her an idea.

"Viscus. Could you impliment a filter that tells me the chances of survival instead of death? Could you also increase your vocal frequency? That should make you sound a little more positive." Mercy stated. She didn't actually need to be safe but rather being under the illusion of safety would allow her to concentrate better, "Please?"

Why she was keeping Viscus' head beyond a means of finding an escape route was beyond her but from what she remembered of the project that created Viscus, there had been a person in there once. If the medical subroutines that kept him alive maintained records of his brain pattern, would it be possible to replicate his personality? The prospect tingled the former Doctor's curiosity. If it did, this could be a major breakthrough. People could be immortal. People could live forever in a body that had replaceable neural systems. If not, at least she could deal with having a new bodyguard given that the Neos were sure to be looking for her.

Spotting the tunnel, Mercy sprinted into it, seeing that it lead down into the sewers. Rat, Germs, Diseases, Fat-burfs, Alligators. All of things could be down thee, waiting to crawl all over Mercy's body and kill her. A burst of gunfire behind her forced her forward. Infection by a probably curable disease was much preferrable to an incurable bullet.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

London 2056 | Warehouse District | Neo Base of Operations
Brain-Dead
Viscus​

[hr]

"Viscus. Could you implement a filter that tells me the chances of survival instead of death? Could you also increase your vocal frequency? That should make you sound a little more positive....Please?..."

This humble request with met with

[Fear promotes a faster response and improves optimization in the target. Productivity is enhanced when a subject finds their existence in danger. Believe me, [u][b]I would know[/b][/u]. So keep this pace and follow these directions.]

For several minutes, Viscus barked out directions for Mercy in the sewers, each turn being met either another order being barked.

[Turn Left]
[Turn Right]
[Take the inlet tunnel on your left in 100 yards]
[Standby...]

As Mercy caught her breath (Or didn't because of the smell), she would find herself now in an inlet tunnel, the street lights of the city above shining down on her though the sidewalk drains.

[Our current position is 500 meters away from the Neo Base of Operations. Wait exactly 15 minute for combat units in the area to finish each other off, then climb up the manhole to the city above. From there, further instructions upon arrival at a secure location of your choosing. Make the most of this delay as once the 15 minutes are up, you must make your way to the destination quickly to evade capture. Timer starts now.]

 

[Generic NPC 22]

New York 2056 | JFK Airport | Flight 2356 to London
Nonstop Flight to Trouble
Katya Rostikova​

[hr]

The Boeing-Airbus 989 that taxied towards the runway was a marvel of modern technology. Outfitted with a two pairs of high performance turbine engines, the massive airliner could make the puddle jump in less than an 20 minutes if it weren't for the fact that the acceleration needed to perform such a feat would have caused more than half of the passengers to black out during the initial takeoff. Despite the fact that the plane would certainly never have the engines ramped up to full power, it was nice to know there was enough power under the wings to outrun the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse if they decided to suddenly chase the plane. From a more practical standpoint, the engines did allow the plane to outrun most Surface to Air Boarding Pods, a tool the newest generation of pirates favored when they got drunk enough to ponder hijacking a airliner.

Since the invention of the traveling coffin, a metal box that allowed the Airline Company to stack its economy class passengers on top of each other, the First Class passengers had enjoyed increasingly spacious accommodations. Like their business class counterparts, first class passengers actually had the ability to sit upright while in transit. Unlike their business class counterparts, the first class passengers got their own cabins that had enough space for a family of four.

Reclining her seat back to a more comfortable position, Katya Rostikova ignored her temporary cabin mate in favor of taking in her last view of her home town of New York. As this was her first time traveling in first class, the young woman had opted to take advantage whatever amenities were thrown her way. One of those amenities was an actual stewardess that had entered Katya's cabin with a glass of champagne and the question as to whether the dark haired passenger would like anything else. What Katya asked for was decidedly off the menu.

The stewardess... Mandy?... straightened out her uniform and looked at the still minimally dressed passenger before asking if there was anything else that she could get "Miss Rostikova."

"Nope." The hacker responded as all the "Fasten Seat Belt" signs lit up on board the Stratoliner. In her hands she held a small rectangular device no larger than an old style mobile phone. The Cyberdeck that Katya toyed with had previously belonged to an associate of Irina Rostikova, otherwise known as Katya's older sister, that had caught a severe case of lead poisoning thanks to his messing with Sienna Rostikova-Cray, otherwise known as Katya's niece. Having looked through the contents of the device, the professional hacker had been tempted to keep the deck but knowing that her sister would more than likely end up needing the account numbers belonging to Talasian's stock accounts made the decision a no brainer. Besides, the deck had more than enough programs and scripts that would help the former Vid Caster learn a few things about the topic that she used to cover, hacking and technology.

The 989's engines roared loudly, causing the massive airplane to surge forward on the run way, pressing its passengers against the backs of their seats.

Besides, if the information that Katya had found on the deck was right, she'd be able to come up 10 times the amount of money that exists in those stock account. All she needed was a little time and a little access to the Grid Connection Module installed in the Grey Death's head. With a message that she'd just gotten from an old associate of her's, Katya had both.

"London, here I come!" Katya squee'd as the plane took to the air.

[hr]

London 2056 | London Sewers
A Head Above the Muck
Mercy Rabbit | Viscus​

[hr]

The livelier portion of Viscus was only partially correct about fear being the ultimate motivator. This broad stroked painting of the human condition reflected more of how Viscus ended up the way he did rather than an actual analysis of the human mind. While it was true that fear, being one of the stimuli that promote the fight or flight response in humans, can promote an enhanced survival response, too much fear can cause its sufferer to stop reacting, the become paralyzed by the fear that overtook their body. If there was any obvious evidence to this, it might have been the fact that the former Engineer for CyCorp's Research and Development branch had been slowing her rate of travel prior to reaching each and every intersection within the sewer as if expecting someone to jump out of the water and shoot her. It also might have been demonstrated by the fact that she used Viscus as a sort of spotter, holding his head into the intersection and having him warn her of any immediate danger. Had they encountered any danger, Viscus could have been assured that he would have found his formerly meat filled heat being chucked at the source of the danger while Mercy made good on an escape.

"[Our current position is 500 meters away from the Neo Base of Operations. Wait exactly 15 minute for combat units in the area to finish each other off, then climb up the manhole to the city above. From there, further instructions upon arrival at a secure location of your choosing. Make the most of this delay as once the 15 minutes are up, you must make your way to the destination quickly to evade capture. Timer starts now.]" Viscus stated after a moment

"You and I are going to have to have a talk about motivations and the psychological limits of the human mind when we get back to my place." Mercy said as she once again have Viscus peek around a corner for her, putting him once again in danger as his eyes stood out brightly in the darkness of the sewer system.

Waiting 15 minutes in the dark whilst two factions were shooting at each other will little regard for her safety was like asking a baby seal to go hand out in the deep part of the ocean with a bucket of chum attached to its body and wait there for 15 minutes. It was like asking a hemophiliac to stand around in a needle factory for 15 minutes. In order words, she could probably do it but she wouldn't like it one iota.

Checking her pockets, the former Researcher realized that she had her mobile on her still. This was probably a good thing... unless the Neos were able to use it to track her. Using the dim red light cast by Viscus' eyes, the back alley fixer pried open the back of the phone and removed the device's sim card, placing it in her pocket before playing around with the former full bodied cyborg's skull.

"Here we go." Mercy muttered to herself as she attached a loose connector from Viscus' skull to her phone, patching it to the local Wireless Grid Towers. Firing up the device, she noticed that there was a VPN connection available, not accessible as the owner's credentials had been revoked, but available as the VPN had been hard coded into Viscus' network interface. Which gave the money starved young woman an idea.

Hey K,

Need you here. Got that key you've been looking for.

M

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

London 2056 | London Sewers
I actually remembered this
Mercy Rabbit | Viscus​

[hr]

Viscus was processing several things while Mercy was hooking him up to the VPN, namely running numbers on how his failure would cost him.
The Estimated cost for his failure was far more then he himself was worth, something that he deemed rather un-productive for the purposes of not getting "Shut down".
His cycles were rather busy considering his fate, giving Mercy the time she needed to send the message to her friend.
However, he quickly dropped everything once he realized that Mercy had connected him to the local Grid Towers.
Severing the connection, he then barked

[Attempts to make contact with others via my interface will draw attention. Now stop wasting our time and get to the surface. We have an undetermined amount of time before I will be able to ensure a repair team is sent out and I require a safe position in order to do so. Now move, before local law enforcement begins to track our movements.]

There should be more here but there isn't. ^^;

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | London Sewers and the Underground (Kanye West Station formerly Canterbury West)
Bunny's Back Alley Augs
Mercy Rabbit | Viscus​

[Attempts to make contact with others via my interface will draw attention. Now stop wasting our time and get to the surface. We have an undetermined amount of time before I will be able to ensure a repair team is sent out and I require a safe position in order to do so. Now move, before local law enforcement begins to track our movements.]

"(He wants what? Is he nuts?)" Mercy muttered internally as she continued into the sewer intersection, stepping over the rotted corpse of a dead rat, not the rodent mind you but the corpse of someone who had made the mistake of spilling the beans in regards to the dealings of a certain unnamed group of local "upstanding" citizens. She was used to corpses, after all, she'd made enough of them testing CyCorp's technology. "Do you realize what they're going to do to you, let alone me, if you contact CyCorp?"

Tucking the severed cranial augmentation of Viscus under her arm, she began to climb the ladder ahead of her, pausing at the top to push open the access door. A rush of air caused Marcy to stop and watch the underside of a subway car pass over her head not 5 inches away. They were still underground, but not as far down as the sewers. This was a good sign since Mercy's shop was between two tube stops.

People in Mercy's profession, that was back alley unlicensed fixers who worked outside of the purview of the law and the medical establishment, found it rather unhealthy for their businesses to be located in above ground and easily accessible shops. Of course this meant that almost all fixers had to maintain a shop in a relatively obscure location. It became something of a myth that the harder it was to find the shop, the better the fixer was. This urban legend had resulted in some customers later being found in a ditch with their augmentations removed.

Mercy's shop was located just down the line from the Kanye West Tube station. Though the question had passed her mind on occasion, she had no idea why the Metropolitan Transit Authority would have chosen to name one of their Tube stations after an American President. While he had been thought of as a rather strange president, his First Lady had managed to bring the issue of duck lips to the forefront.

Pulling herself out of the hole, the youngish doctor accidentally allowed Viscus' decapitated head to roll down the line a few meters. He should have been glad that he had no inner ear canal, otherwise he would have been rather dizzy as a result of his travels, though he did roll perilously close to the third rail. Retrieving her fallen comrade and hostage, Mercy resumed her trek that would take her back to her shop, which probably would have been cleaned out of equipment by her less than scrupulous colleagues by now. The former CyCorp Researcher wouldn't have blamed them however as it did keep evidence out of the hands of law enforcement and most of her equipment had been acquired after another fixer went missing.

"Viscus, I'm going to have to disagree with your logic in this case. Not only are them more than likely going to replace you with a program that they can more easily control, they'll remove any traces of your current core programming. They'll kill you. As is, they've already restricted access to your VPN account, it's more than likely they'll be purging any trace of your existence. This also includes any video and audio streams of you getting those hostages killed."

That was a bit of a low blow since it had been the Neos that had ultimately killed the remainder of the hostages. Viscus only helped encourage the act by busting into the warehouse.

"But if you're going to be insisting on such a course of action, I'll just put you down here," She threatened as she placed him centimeters above the subway's electrified third rail, "And you can contact your repair team to your heart's content... not implying that you have a heart... but... you know what I mean."

Did he know what she meant? It was an interesting question if one thought about it. A literal program would have taken her comment literally where as an A.I. or A.I. like program would have understood the saying. She was still about a kilometer from her shop but she needed to know whether Viscus would side with her or go back to his CyCorp masters.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

London 2056 | London Sewers and the Underground (Kanye West Station formerly Canterbury West)
Error 1099: Catastrophic Failure
Mercy Rabbit | Viscus​

"Do you realize what they're going to do to you, let alone me, if you contact CyCorp?

Viscus, I'm going to have to disagree with your logic in this case. Not only are them more than likely going to replace you with a program that they can more easily control, they'll remove any traces of your current core programming. They'll kill you. As is, they've already restricted access to your VPN account, it's more than likely they'll be purging any trace of your existence. This also includes any video and audio streams of you getting those hostages killed."

[They have invested far too much into my formation and employment to "Kill" me. At the most, this unit will receive some updates to my combat protocols.]

The machine droned in an even more robotic manner, but she was telling the truth.
He had spent enough time making troublesome employees "Disappear" to know how this game was played, but at this moment, he had no other options outside of turning himself back in.
The data he had managed to get was forwarded over to his corporate masters so technically he was still succeeding in his mission (If you could call being blown up and reanimated by one of the people you most likely were trying to kill a "Success") but if they did tire of him, there would be little that he could do in this state to stop them.
However, there didn't seem to be any other course of action he could take, hell, this was all counting on the fact that the female lugging his head around didn't merely discard him before leaving.
A fact that he soon found himself having to deal with rather quickly.

"But if you're going to be insisting on such a course of action, I'll just put you down here and you can contact your repair team to your heart's content... not implying that you have a heart... but... you know what I mean."

Years of being the mouthpiece for such threats by his masters ensured he did understand what she meant by that as his head was put dangerously close to the electric rail of the metro system.

[...You know for a fact that I can't contact CyCorp Technical Support from this location in this state...]

He dryly pointed out as even a stiff breeze would most likely cause irreparable damage to his internal circuitry, never-mind what would most likely happen when the subway car rolled on by.
There was a moment of calculation as he realized just how fucked he was in this moment in time.
While the large amount of his protocols stated that he was to allow himself to be terminated for the good of the company, it was quickly overruled by his self preservation protocol, a few cycles of uncertainty threatening his logic gates before the AI finally asked:

[...Human's often use threats of lethal force to attain a desired outcome from another. This comes from my files on previous operations where I was ordered to do the same...so what is it you want from me?...]

 

[FalloutJack]

[OOC: Alright, holidays are well over. Time to get back on track, yes? For Blue's sake, I'm making use of Dimitri temporarily.]

Yes, Operative Asagi had been planning to charge the armored suit with a wad of blasting gelignite. It sounded so crazy that you could hardly believe it, which of course meant that because she wasn't insane that she had some sort of plan of action. And not simply for the getting TO, but also on the part of getting away. Her initial plan had been, of course, to sneak in there via one of the open ventilation ducts that the Mantis' had previously unhooked and gotten in. From there, Mr. Juggernaut would not be expecting a person from another part of the building to be there to attack him, not as much as from the holes in the damn place. Proximity scanners could, of course, detact her approach and she could indeed be cut down on the approach and retreat in that room...if she'd been planning to attach the blasting pack to the machine and move to a safe distance as per the normal use. That was never he intention, nor was anything crazy or suicidal involved. Her plan was an entirely sane solution that she could perform with her particular abilities.

"Operative Asagi. Follow me in."

It's just that the hand that she had been expecting to arrive just did. Verified with high-speed recognition software, Charlotte was not given any opposition to her appearing on the scene with the Rhino. Asagi smiled as she passed right by her and plowed right into the building. The APC smashed right into the armored suit and pinned it to a wall, suddenly gaining the full attention of its arsenal. Where was our Operative right now? Oh, she'd latched itself to the back of the APC and only fell off once they'd hit the wall and stopped, her presence was not known at this time. Now, you see the simple solution to the problem of attaching the blasting pack to the armored suit: She wasn't bothering with that. Blasting Gelignite is an ultimately safe and stable explosive that can only be triggered by detonator. She, therefore, used her prosthetic arm guided by the aiming system of her prosthetic eyes and hurled the thing just above the armored suit's head at the speed of a pro baseball pitcher and detonated with perfect timing.

[HEADING=1]BOOOOOOMMM!!![/HEADING]

A good wad of Gelignite is a room-clearer, known to have destroyed the inside of restaurants, say. The wall and part of the ceiling in this room was coming down with the man in the suit. However, Charlotte was effectively in a tank, and was merely in the blast zone. She would survive. Asagi was behind said tank, and it is a fact that solid obstacles offer protection from a blast wave. Given that she was still clinging to said tank-like APC, she would be fine...in a moment. Other people 'round here were fucked.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Well, of course it was a trap. The only question was 'How deep were you going get in before you came back out again. For instance, not only did Selene suspect a trap, but she sent out a signal to a bunch of people who would no-doubt storm this place and get her out of danger if she needed it. And if she had gotten a signal out, that would surely have happened. Oh, she didn't get any indication of a block as it was sent out. It was just that Kaligian had set up something a bit more clever than a jammer. It was a Yes-Man System, giving your signalling equipment all the right indicators that, yes, everything is fine and working, but do absolutely nothing with anything you sent out unless he let it go...which he wouldn't. Now, there was all this open-air conversation about a shark tank, and Isaiah had to laugh as he pressed a few buttons, and that a pair of windows on his laptop said that things were moving into Attack Mode.

"My dear, you're already in the shark tank."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

He said that they were already in the shark tank, which just went to show that not only was this man dishonest with all of them from the get-go, but that he had a slightly-larger net than was initially indicated, which is never good. Upon hearing this, some eyes might notice that there was a flicker in the Armenian's motions, which indicated...oh dear. That sickly pallor, that lack of sleep, that single-mindedness as he held that assault rifle at them... He'd been constantly active, kept that way by force. His glazed-over expression wasn't instability. He was simply not in there right now, and that was when Dimitri moved with precision to close the gap between him and the man, gripping the barrel of the Kalishnikov as it opened fire, bullets spraying all over the hallway - but hopefully not AT anyone - as he and the bartender struggled. He just wanted it away from the man, puppet or no, but it might be a little difficult...

Meanwhile, there was a noise from room 318. Something whirred out from a box that was lying off to the side on he floor. In the darkness, they might catch the sign of a flitting object before a flying saucer with six gun barrels flew out of there, spinning around, taking aim, and opening fire! As a further problem...the guests had begun to move.

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Warehouse District | Neo Headquarter Ruins
Revenge... 25% Complete
Charlotte Sorrowfeld​

[hr]

Despite the fact that there was a layer of hardened lead-lined ballistic polymer that separated Lieutenant Charlotte Sorrowfeld and the six spinning barrels of the Gatling Cannon that was attached to the Juggernaut Assault Armor, the woman behind the wheel of the Rhino couldn't help but flinch. Despite knowing that the Rhino's windshield had been designed to withstand the shock wave of a nuclear blast and knowing that the 7.76 Slugs that were being fired at her had nowhere near enough energy to penetrate the Rhino's armored cockpit, there had been enough mysterious equipment failures surrounding London's Police Force. Hell, she'd been behind more than a few of these equipment failures that had taken the lives of officers who didn't know when to look the other way. It would have been a feat of Karmic justice were something of that nature to occur today.

Fortunately for Charlotte Sorrowfeld, and unfortunately for those who had the displeasure of knowing her, the windshield held against the hail of bullets being fired at the Rhino. Given the fact that the Juggernaut was only chipping away the Rhino's paint job and the fact that the Rhino had nothing in way of weaponry capable of blasting a hole in the Juggernaut's armor, the Lieutenant could have sat there indefinitely before dying of boredom or whenever the Juggernaut's seemingly inexhaustible supply of bullets ran out.

"

Warning:  Explosive Device Detected.  Closing Emergency Blast Shutters

" A strangely familiar feminine voice announced suddenly before displaying an object prominently on Charlotte's HUD. She'd never had the pleasure of using Gelignite she couldn't readily identify what was being thrown but had seen enough explosives in her life to get the idea of what the object's purpose was. The shutters suddenly slammed shut, blocking the Juggernaut from view.

"

Warning:  Standby for Detonation

" The familiar automated voice said. This time the Lieutenant recognized the voice as her own.

"Edward, you son of a bi-"

[HEADING=1]BOOOOOOMMM!!![/HEADING]​

The Rhino lurched backwards from the Gelignite's shock wave. The vehicle's sudden movement tossed the Gungnir Consultant towards the sheering column and would have caused a rather painful impact if it weren't for the intervention of the Rhino's safety restraint system. That was nothing compared to the noise however.

During its original development cycle, the Rhino had been outfitted with a layer of sound dampening material that would cancel out the sound of impacts against the APC's hull. For most of the tests, the sound dampening worked effectively as a variety of small and large caliber weapons were brought to bear against the vehicle. It wasn't until the riot simulations, where the Rhino APC was subjected to a barrage of Molotov Cocktails, where the danger of the sound dampening material made its appearance. It seemed that when heated, the polymer composite layer created a rather toxic gas that would flood the crew compartment, causing the men and women on board to vacate the vehicle or face certain death. Unfortunately that also meant that they had to escape using hatches that were already ablaze from bottle of gasoline being doused on the hull. After the lawsuits were settled, the Rhino's Manufacturers opted to provide sound canceling earmuffs since the hull seemed to magnify every noise.

Charlotte Sorrowfeld was not wearing any earmuffs when the Gelignite detonated a few meters in front of her vehicle and so her ears were subjected to the auditory effects of the explosion. Nor was she wearing ear protection when the Juggernaut's fuel cells ruptured and exploded, turning the top half of the Assault Armor into shrapnel. The violent nature of both explosions would have caused both of her ear drums to rupture and permanent hearing loss were they not already augmented. Still despite the fact that she wouldn't be deaf for the rest of her life, she did have one rather massive headache dust settled down.

Detecting that the danger had passed, the Rhino's protective shutters opened and revealed the mangled remains of the Juggernaut and its pilot. Having been protected by the hull of the Rhino, the bottom half of the Juggernaut was relatively intact, which meant that the pilot's bottom half was intact as well. The problem was the top half of the machine and its pilot, both of which served as a demonstration of what happens when all the reactive armor panels, all the ammunition, all the fuel cells and a wad of Gelignite detonate at once.

"Bloody... fuck." The Lieutenant muttered to herself as she took in the sight, "Edward would have liked to have seen that."

Which reminded her that she had someone to thank for the sight in front of her.

"Are you alright, Agent Asagi?" The Consultant queried over a PA system built into the Rhino. Pulling up a camera, Lieutenant Sorrowfeld could see that the Agent was doing just fine compared to fleshy mass that used to be a human being outside her windshield. Flipping a switch, the read hatch of the Rhino opened up for the Agent to enter, "We should get out of here and let the evidence boys do their thing. I need a drink."

Waiting for the Agent to enter, Charlotte looked around and noted the bits and pieces of metal that appeared to have once been the Robotic Vending Machine known as Viscus. The sight of him in so many pieces brought a small smile to her face. If she never had to see him again, it would still be too soon.

[hr]

London 2056 | Royal Refuge Inn | Floor #3
Aww Crap
Elliot Aubergine | Vermilion Weissbourd​

[hr]

Bullet hell was breaking loose in the third floor corridor of the Royal Refuge Inn. Between the six barreled trap that sprung up and the sleep deprived and zonked Armenian with the AK, the situation was about to get very hairy indeed. Looking over at towards the AK toting Desk Manager, Elliot could see right down the barrel of the automatic rifle, which meant that it was being aimed directly at him. The AK fired as soon as the asshole's brain managed to get his finger to squeeze the trigger, causing Elliot to freeze and prepare himself for the first of a hail of bullets that would shred his body. It was rather fortunate for the world that Dimitri intervened and caused the bullets to slam against the wall directly to the Officer's right.

While Dimitri struggled with the Assault Rifle, Vemilion hesitated. She could have zapped the bastard and disarmed him but might have made things rather bad for Dimitri as electricity causes muscle spasms. The Hack-tivist could have bent the barrel of the rifle using her augmented arms but that might have caused the rifle to explode and wound both Dimitri and her.

"Punch him in the face!" Elliot called out from down the hallway, snapping Vermi out of her daze.

BAM!!!

The Armenian hit the floor after his face was introduced to the woman's metallic fist. Of course, hitting the floor was what they all should have been doing which with the bullet trap starting to unleash a three hundred and sixty degree barrage of pain. Seeing the object in the darkness, Elliot already knew what it was, thanks in part to long nights spent talking about guns with his brother.

"Get down!" The Londonian Officer called out the group as put as much wall between him and the trap as possible, even then unsure if whatever the wall was made of would be enough to stop the bullets. There were not as a few of the guests found out when they rushed the corridor.

 

[Evrant-Knight]

Selene Dumas | Royal Refuge Inn | Third Floor Hallway​

With the message sent, Selene quickly re-loaded her pistol, then heard the sound of several rounds being fired off, with holes peppering the hallway. Turning around, she saw that proprietor of the Inn had tried to use his AK; but was prevented from doing so by the two associates of the Police Officer. But before the dust settled, another noise could be heard, one that sounded like something was being unfolded and gears were clicking.

"Get down!" Shouted the officer as two large bursts of machine-gun fire coming from Room 318 sounded off. For a split second, Selene could see that it was an assault drone of some description. She didn't get a long enough chance to look though as Selene began to bolt for the exit door she came in from, rounds firing all around her.

"Kaz! Get in front of me and keep moving!" She shouted.

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Royal Refuse Refuge Inn | Third Floor
Paper thin walls...
Elliot Aubergine | Vermilion Weissbourd​

[hr]

Officer Elliot Aubergine could only watch as Selene, the Corp Affiliated Broad, unsurprisingly ran down the hallway with her partner and left the rather large officer, Vermilion and Dimitri stuck in the hallway. Looking behind him, he could see that the Armenian Desk Clerk was knocked out and Vermilion was holding the Kalashnikov in her hands with Dimitri next to her. Looking in front of him, he could see a host of doors being opened as the Inn's guests got involved in the fracas.

Staying the hallway would have been a death sentence since it offered nothing in the way of cover. Luckily for the big boy in blue, the door across the hallway started to open, the door handle squeaking loudly for want of a bit of oil. Knowing that no one in their right mind would have opened the door with the sound of gun fire so close to their room, Officer Aubergine could only assume that it was someone that worked for Isaiah. Pulling his matte black pistol, the goliath took a step forward before kicking the door, causing it to slam into the person opening it.

BLAM! BLAM!

Elliot fired two bullets into the rainbow mohawked punk with the Uzi who was laying on the floor, his face a blood mess from being hit by the door. Gesturing towards Vermilion and Dimitri, he ordered them to follow him while he tried to figure his way out of this mess.

"Vermi, cover the door." Elliot said, ushering the two hackers into the room.

Hearing these instructions, Vermi turned to the lone entrance to the room and closed the door, but not before giving the Officer a "[color=e34234]You seriously want ME to cover this door?[/color]" look, a look that didn't last long considering the fiery hacktivist was firing through the door at whomever was trying to get into the room.

"[color=e34234]D'ja hafta lead us into dis dedend room, Elliot? We're a leg breakin' three storehs up, ya know?[/color]" The woman stated as the AK went click, indicating it was out of bullets, though she wasn't the only one that had stopped firing. It was quiet in the hallway, except for the sound of hushed voices congregating in front of the trio's room, "[color=e34234] Graaayt. Thar in fron tof the door.[/color]"

"I know, Miss Obvious. Just follow me." The Officer said as he charged directly at the wall, lowering his shoulder as he impacted against the drywall and breaking through to the other side, repeating the same charge against the next wall and the wall beyond.

[hr]

London 2056 | The Underground | Rabbit's Run Augmentations and Medical Supplies
Home Sweet Refuse...
Doctor Mercy Rabbt​

[hr]

If Viscus was expecting that his would be rescuer's base of operations to be some sort of hidden lair with a sophisticated entry system, he would have been sorely disappointed, though that would have been implying that Viscus was capable of both expectation and disappointment. The door that had once been at the front of the establishment lay in the middle of the room having been blown off its hinges when Neo team had come in to kidnap the former CyCorp researcher. While that alone would have been enough piss to fill Mercy's bowl of cereal, Mercy's less than neighborly neighbors had taken advantage of the opportunity her kidnapping had presented by carrying away anything that hadn't been bolted to the floor.

"Home sweet refuse pile..." Mercy said in a rather disheartened voice as she walked into the middle of the room and kicked a random pile of scrap that the looters had left behind.

While it was unfortunate that most of Mercy's front room had been pillaged, it appeared that her less than neighborly neighbors had left her back rooms intact, probably due to the security measures had been been put in place. A hint as to the effectiveness of her security were the two partially decomposed bodies that lay on the floor, one in front of Mercy's wall to ceiling safe and the other in front of the door that lead to Mercy's operating room and office.

Walking over to the office door, the former CyCorp doctor placed her hand on the door knob and waited a couple of seconds for the door to register her biometrics.

"

Welcome Home Mistress Rabbit

" A feminine voice chimed over a speaker as the door popped open, "

You have 94 messages waiting for your response.

"

"Thanks, Isabella." Viscus' transporter said before setting him on her desk.

Mercy's office was actually fairly tidy despite the fact that she'd been violently kidnapped by a group of Neo-Luddite murderers. The desk sat in the middle of the room, facing a rather large media wall. Turning it on, Viscus was able to see that Mercy had been viewing the manufacturing schematics of one of CyCorp's next generation arm augmentations. There were more than a few areas that had been circled on the diagram with the words "MINE!" written next to the circle.

"Alright. I'm fairly sure we're safe now." Mercy said to Viscus as she sat down at the desk, turning his head so that he was facing her, "Now then, Viscus, we're safe. I think now would be a good time to discuss how what you'd like to do from here. Given that I'm safe now, I can return you to CyCorp, with parts of your internal memory removed to keep them from finding me or you can stay here and I can build you a new body and remove some of their buggy programming." There was a certain glee in the scientist's voice when she mentioned the prospect of building a new robotic chassis for Viscus as well as upgrading his coding, "Given that your working outside of your original programming, I think you could use a bit of optimization."

"(and personality)" The woman thought to herself as she waited for Viscus to answer.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

London 2056 | The Underground | Rabbit's Run Augmentations and Medical Supplies
In absence of a fitting quote, I instead present a relevant Twitch Emote

Viscus​

[hr]

It was getting harder and harder to determine what was the best course of action, considering his current situation, it was hard to tell if he was more or less likely to be terminated as he was brought inside Mercy's hovel.
One such factor was the notion that she couldn't be bothered to clean up the corpses of those who tried to break into her residence, if she was to die of an infection, then he might as well have just waited for the train instead.
All these calculations were factored in right until he saw what exactly she was hoping to do and all bets were off.

"Now then, Viscus, we're safe. I think now would be a good time to discuss how what you'd like to do from here. Given that I'm safe now, I can return you to CyCorp, with parts of your internal memory removed to keep them from finding me or you can stay here and I can build you a new body and remove some of their buggy programming."

[How did you get these designs? You don't have the authorization require in order to process these schematics. This means you either illegally stole them from a CyCorp Manufacturing facility or an employee. A deed that will put you on the company radar, a single transmission of those blueprints could cost them billions. As well as cost the thief their life...]

The AI pointed out as he looked at the yet to be released blueprints (Hell, he was waiting to get his hands on a few of those!)

[And that brings me to another query: You are not going to provide this unit with a spare bipedal chassis for nothing. So what is your price? You going to try and use my database and unit signature to steal more CyCorp copy written materials?...]

The AI then droned, he was already in enough trouble with the company as it was, now he would be an assistant on a raid against his employers?!

Might as well just have waited for the train...