london ♔ stand across the wire

[spellfile]

Technologic [fool remix] - Daftpunk

WHO ||  Lila, Astrid, Faye, Topher, Zero, One, GLaDOS
WHAT || Lila and Zero go to confront the technomage One, with a little help from their friends...
WHERE || Downtown London, CalTech building
WHEN || Late March, 2015 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

It's been a couple of months since the hacker who goes by the moniker "One" assisted in the attack on the Knights' castle, with the inside assistance of the Artificial Intelligence-turned-human GLaDOS.  Zero has good reason to believe, however, that One hasn't left - that he's waiting for him to come face him, and that the stage he's set for the showdown is the CalTech building in the city, whose employees are off for the week.  Realizing it's likely a trap, Zero's stacked his chips on setting a counter-trap - uploading a virus designed by himself and Topher Brink into the now-cyborg Faye Chamberlain's brain, assuming that he is going to try to hack into her and turn her against them.  

They arrive at the building as the sun is going down, staring up at the building that has a light show of digital streams coursing down the front of it, drawing a snort from Zero.  

"Theatrical jackass."

Comments

[reallywicked]

[Faye's job is mostly to be bait. Also, she's not nearly as observant as Lila, so she's just gonna hang near her girl and try to act like she's not nervous about this whole thing.]

[spellfile]

[ the outside looks... relatively normal, as long as those streaks of code are just projections which they appear to be ] I doubt he'd try to kill us outside anyway. Where's the fun in that. [ he nods at the doors ] Someone wanna get those open?

[andblockbuster]

[Topher is just gonna open the doors like a pro door-opener, because why is everyone standing here staring at the doors anyway???

leave him alone. he has an 8 wis and has never been on a mission before.]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ LMAO HE MEANT THEY ARE PROBABLY LOCKED

WHICH THEY ARE ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila casts knock because fuck doors tbh. ]

[andblockbuster]

[topher's still tugging on the doors, so when they finally unlock he stumbles back a bit. ahem.

door's open??]

[spellfile]

[ zero just exchanges a look like w/e he is not my biological child i hold no responsibility here. ] Thanks. [ so dry. and in they go... into the lobby of the building which extends long ways down quite a bit, several doors off to one side here and there. all the lights are currently set to dim and there's no one in sight. ]

[andblockbuster]

[after gesturing the ladies in because of his masterful door skillz, topher follows behind them and shakes his head at the ambiance.] He really went all out to be spooky and ominous, didn't he? What's next? A jump scare?

[bittersweeter]

[ YOU BROUGHT HIM, ZERO. her hand twitches like she's gonna reach out and smack him into silence, but she miraculously refrains. (will save 32) it took a will save that high, tbh. she does, however, cast arcane sight, mismatched eyes glowing blue as she tries it find the most direct path to one or really any sign of magic. ]

[spellfile]

[ there are a number of screens down the hall, and each one of them starts lighting up as imbued with magic. hooray... ] Something like that.

[pathology]

[astrid who has definitely been here this whole time frowns like aww fuck son.] We should just smash all the screens.

[andblockbuster]

Normally I'm super not team "destroy everything," buuuuut.... I have definitely seen this movie. It had James Woods in it and everything.

[reallywicked]

I'm with Astrid. [Is anyone surprised?]

[spellfile]

If you can do it without touching 'em, I'd recommend it.

[andblockbuster]

[Topher has played enough video games to be totally 100% positive how this is supposed to go, so he takes out his gun and fires at the nearest screen.... with alarming accuracy considering he's barely fired a gun before. SOMEBODY'S BEEN PRACTICING. (atk 23, dmg 7)]

And they say video games rot your brain.

[spellfile]

[ the screen explodes, sending shards to the floor below it, and there's a strange noise of something zapping out. ] ... Not bad.

[bittersweeter]

[ lila will shoot another five out, possibly the rest of them, drawing both her guns and firing off quick shots. (rapid shot atk 24, 21, 25, off hand 29; dmg 9, 12, 7, 9) ]

[andblockbuster]

[Topher lowers his gun and looks at her like she just sucked all the joy out of his life.] Really?

[reallywicked]

Get used to her being better than you at pretty much everything involving a gun, sweetheart. There's a reason I haven't touched mine and it sure as hell had nothing to do with you.

[bittersweeter]

[ lila shrugs, as if to say "what she said", letting her arms fall once she's seen the destruction she's wrought. she doesn't waste time being smug, however, glancing at zero. ] Come on, let's go.

[spellfile]

[ he doesn't really look amused. by anything. ever again. but he takes the lead and starts down the hall, falling quiet, wrapped up in his grim thoughts as they proceed. some of the screens make shorting out noises as they're walking by them, from their shattered screens. ]

[andblockbuster]

Who woulda thought that an absence of screens would make it worse. [Topher's definitely had this nightmare before. the fact that he basically used to sleep in the control room of his division at Pegasus did not help that much.]

Should we be looking for pitfalls or spontaneous laser fields?

[reallywicked]

Do you ever shut up? [But she'll keep an eye out for various trouble (spot 22)]

[bittersweeter]

Signs point to no. [ search 21 with her trapfinding feat? and her arcane sight still active because i don't think it's been six minutes but idk. one hand lifts to curl around the resurrection diamond and the curse work stone that she made for faye that she's saving so faye can actually be bait. SHE IS STILL NOT OKAY WITH IT. ]

[spellfile]

[ there's actually nothing out of place here at all, which only seems all the creepier as they traverse the hall. there's a bank of elevators at the end of it, and zero noticeably hesitates. faye at least sees a sign for emergency stairs on the way. ] I'm not sure it's a good idea for us to take anything mechanical that traps us inside it if someone overrides it.