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

[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.

[reallywicked]

Yeah, no thanks. That sounds like a death trap. [Faye jerks her thumb in the direction the sign.]

Stairs are this way.

[andblockbuster]

Yeah, I'm all for not recreating the Tower of Terror. [heading to the stairs.]

[pathology]

This better not be Germany all over again. [that's all she can say as she huffs towards the stairs.]

[spellfile]

Not planning to be anybody's test subject today, kid, don't worry. [ the lights are very low on the stairs, and they head up multiple floors. their footsteps echo eerily through the dim stairwell as they make their way up. ] Something seems off about this though.

[bittersweeter]

Like the Eye? A diversion? [ which doesn't make nearly as much sense as it did last time but one is batcrap crazy so who knows. ]

[andblockbuster]

A diversion for what? Him setting up a surprise party? [so dry, topher.]

[pathology]

[also dry, and with pointed annoyance at topher (sorry topher)] Yeah, like the Red Wedding. Something horrible to cover up something even more horrible.

[spellfile]

We were expecting a trap. Something seems off about one not springing yet.

[bittersweeter]

Except he wants you here. And if he's going to kill us or whatever, now that we've gotten this far, he's probably going to want to make sure he can watch you watch.

In person.

Plus, didn't you say GLaDOS just loves fucking with people to study how they react? [ that's to faye and astrid, obv. ]

[reallywicked]

It's basically her one and only hobby.

[andblockbuster]

[Topher lets out a low scoff and stops moving, choosing instead to address the ceiling.]

Dude, seriously. If you can hear me, can you maybe dial the supervillain schtick down a bit? We're onto it! You've lost the element of surprise. Also if you monologue, Lila will probably shoot you in the man-parts, so consider that before you respond.

[walking into a trap that they know is a trap is not what Topher wanted to do with his day, thank you. he'd rather just bring the trap to them if at all possible. or at least cut one's sense of style and cliche off at the legs.]

[spellfile]

[ the stairs continue up, or there's an entrance here at the next landing. zero is still hesitant, but there's no response to topher's taunt ] Maybe this is his new game. But somehow--

[pathology]

Somehow what? [finish ur sentences zero.] You don't think it is? You think he just wants to talk? Pfft. Please.

[bittersweeter]

There's always the chance GLaDOS is the one pulling the strings now.

[ a beat. ]

We could always leave and blow it up. It seems fair.

[spellfile]

Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly the kind of collateral damage Wynn is hoping to see on a report.

[andblockbuster]

Yeah, I have some moral qualms with that...

[he's at least gonna keep going up the stairs now.]

[spellfile]

[ guys, topher brink is having moral qualms so that tells you something ] Guess we're gonna get our exercise in. [ for real though it's a long trek to the top. FORTITUDE SAVES ]