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

[spellfile]

[ the knock spell blows it open, and she stares into a creepy dark room where one wall has those blue streams framing a figure who seems to be strung up by cables that literally puncture through his chest, his expression twisted in agony, his eyes half-glazed over, his cheeks discolored.

the familiar shape of zero stands outlined before her, staring up at the guy, a tablet in his hands that is glowing with magical light, his fingers tracing across the screen. he doesn't seem to notice her entrance behind him. ]

[bittersweeter]

Zero! [ she strides over quickly, heels clacking in the silence, and though she's heading unerringly toward zero, her eyes are on the other man. ] Jesus.

[spellfiles]

Not quite, despite the whole crucifixion motif going on here. [ zero's voice is on edge, as he casts the tiniest look back at her, clearly biting down on his desire to tell her to go. he's learned it's pointless. ] What happened down there?

[bittersweeter]

Bitch put herself inside Faye. [ and lila is both helpless and useless and that just pisses her off even more. ] He's not...?

[spellfiles]

Not yet. [ he cuts her off quickly ] But those things are charged. One wrong move and they're going to fry him from the inside out.

[bittersweeter]

Can you turn them off? Or... like, overcharge them so they fritz out? [ #notanengineer ]

[spellfiles]

That's exactly what she expects me to do. There'll be some trick to it, some trap set in just for me, and then when he gets it--

[ his hands lower, the device drooping in his hands ] It's gonna be that did it. I let her kill him or I do it myself trying to save him. [ there's a defeated edge to his voice, a string of soft curses following beneath his breath ]

[bittersweeter]

Then find a different way or I will put him out of his misery. I can't do this tech shit, only you can. Fuck, ask him for help, but quit it with this defeatist bullshit. You invented technomagic, she's fucking computer program. If anyone can outsmart her, it's you.

[spellfiles]

[ his head turns very slowly to look at her, to weigh how much she believes that, to let the promise sink in - that if he can't do it, lila will kill him, and that that's the only other option here.

he looks back up to where irving hangs, his mouth falling open half slack as his body jerks abruptly with strange convulsions. ]

I'm not putting that on you.

If she really stuck herself inside Faye, then there might be something I can do. It might not be pretty, though.

[bittersweeter]

[ brusquely, ] I don't care if it's the scene from Alien as long as Faye is okay.

[spellfiles]

The virus should be doing that much for us. Either way, if we wanna shut her down for good, we've gotta make sure she can't reupload herself out of Faye. I can hack into the systems enough to see how she did it, even if I can't reverse it without screwing her up - dual consciousness is a bitch.

But we could occupy that advanced hardware she's left vacant. With someone skilled enough to hold the door shut from the inside.

[bittersweeter]

[ lila squints, feeling a pressure mounting in her chest. ]

What do you mean "from the inside"?

[spellfiles]

[ he drags his eyes back up grudgingly to irving ] I mean, I think it's the only way I can save him. Or at least, part of him.

[bittersweeter]

[ she immediately feels better with this plan because at least he's not sacrificing himself. ]

And if she takes control of him? We can't just let her leave this place, no matter the body she's in.

[spellfiles]

[his fingers fidget with the tablet a bit, which seems to grow heavy in his hands ] Then we burn it. Circuits melt same as anything.

We burn the whole thing down.

[bittersweeter]

[ her lips purse and she feels a pang for zero, deep in the cockles of her heart. maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub-cockle area, maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys, maybe even in the colon, we don't know. ]

Alright. What do you need me to do?

[spellfiles]

He can't be conscious, for one. I think part of him still might be. [ he nods at her ] Then we've gotta find where GLaDOS' old body is.

This whole place is some kind of VR. I think I can shut it down.

[bittersweeter]

[ she moves forward with no hesitation and reaches out to his leg probably?? just gonna curse him to sleep. nini one, it was not at all good to meet you, sorry. ]

[spellfile]

[ irving slumps slightly against the restraints that are still holding him aloft, and zero gets in the zone, fingers flying across the screen. around them, the walls themselves start zapping in and out, revealing glimpses of a room that appears to house several large humming servers, before it becomes the only reality around them. ]

[bittersweeter]

[ lila's gonna look around for a door or a body, either one (spot 18). ]

[spellfile]

[ she finds the door, that leads down into a stairwell. zero looks at her, and then back up at irving - who is still locked in place, that part clearly not an illusion, at least. ] I need to stay here, make sure nothing happens to him before it's complete. Think you can find it and do the same thing?

[bittersweeter]

Knock out a body? Yeah. [ she starts to head toward the door, but pauses, glancing at his old friend before looking at him. ] Don't do anything stupid.

[ and then she WALKS AWAY. ]

[spellfile]

Keep an eye on it! [ he shouts after her ] Your thing's not gonna work on a robot body and it should be empty anyways...

[ s... hould ]

[bittersweeter]

Technicalities!

[ she'll just search every floor one at a time until she finds a body/person/innocent bystander/vending machine to get a bottle of water. (spot/search 20 total) olly olly oxen free!! ]

[behindcloseddoors]

[ the next floor down appears to be a series of cubicles, and she finds a vending machine to fulfill her water needs there. on the far side of that room, however, is the manager's office, and the door is slightly ajar, an eerie red light spilling out from within, sort of sparking in and out. i'm sure it's fine. ]