1970/Reboot EP7: TCP IP

Reboot EP7: TCP IP
Date of Scene:	06 April 2015
Location:	The Grid <TG>
Synopsis:	The data storage unit that Kyra found some time ago proved to be very important. It was a dead drop for the criminal known as Java. Who was dealing without someone outside the Grid, his people had built a warpgate. Java had the intent to use the IP given to them by Java's contact on the outside. Things end up leading to Heartless and worse an system devoid of any signs of life.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 626, 673, 686, 707, Corona Arclite
Tinyplot:	Reboot

---

Deelel has posed:
Accessing Archived Data.

The Safe house
Turing had decrypted the message and had been quick to share it with Deelel and everyone else. Given Kyra's find might just have changed everything for the moment. It may have just changed everything.

"Look you know what the deal is, I help you get in here. You help us get out. I don't care about this little system. If I can get out into the net and make good with Clu? That's going to be perfect. It's not like User's actually exist leave Clu to his delusions on that."

Java notes the other voice however is distorted.

"You have the TCP IP protocol you just need to finish the hardware get it done. This system bores me and is of little use to me now. You get what, I get what I desire and then I can turn my attention to other plans. We both get our goals and that's what you want, Java."

"Right, I'll be done with in seven cycles. I'll ping you when the hardware is done."

Right Now The out lands

Thanks to Turing's work at salving more data from the unit they had found the location of the hardware that Java is working on but it's far out and it's been quite the trip. Turing's been pretty nervous most of the way and Alpha's been handling the driving given the others are going to be the ones likely fighting. His job's to guard the transport.

Deelel is on edge she's seems to be very uneasy really she's not been sleeping very well. Yes programs sleeps and her dreams have become more and more strange as of late, she looks back to everyone else.

"You know the drill, right? We get out find what Java's doing get what information we can. See if he's made the formal deal to Clu and then /wreck everything/ he's been working on. I almost wonder if he was the one who ratted out Turing to distract Clu, who'd normally just take what he had if it wasn't finished."

Alpha brings the transport to a halt and looks back into the passenger area.

"All right programs we're here, I'll guard the transport while the rest of you get in there. Don't get your selves cubed either. I seen enough kids derezzed before their time."

Deelel smiles faintly at Alpha, before she heads for the back of the transport, the ramp rezzes into being and she's out in short order heading for what looks like an entrance to the cave system that Java appears to be using as a base.

"Keep alert, who knows what hardware he might be packing."

Deelel notes and she's already got her light staff out and ready. Those who have magic or other ways to sense things? Might just get an feeling of uneasiness. Something here isn't right and everyone might feel they are being watched.

BGM https://youtu.be/983ntK41PV8 Access the Grid

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite huffs a little as she taps her baton against the other hand while they wait to get there. "I'd feel better if I had more of -my- stuff, but I don't wanna cause a big scene against the, y'know, coverup we're tryin' to keep."

Though afterwards she smirks a bit as she reachs over to whap Deelel's shoulder with her knuckles. "But I ain't lettin' being under-armed and havin' li'l clue about all these digital code muckarucka stop me from helpin' out a friend, either."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra never thought her find in the junkyard would have contained /that/. She had to wonder just how often that place got scavenged if Java thought he could dispose of such an important conversation in an un-thorough manner. Kyra herself would have taken a magnet to the drive-though is that even a thing here?

    She's come to this as armed as she could as to not raise suspicions with the local programs...which unfortunately means she's had to leave nearly all of her guns behind, opting for on-Grid mines, batons, or even her /ID Disc/. She's not looking forward to blundering through trying to fight with that.

    "Screenlocked and loaded." Kyra says, albiet rather nervously. "I wish you could come in with us, Alpha, but an escape route is important."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Smash and crash it is, got it," Xiaomu replies, gathering her hairtails back and rezznig up her helmet to cover her face (and ears). Given that this is a strike mission, she's actually carrying more of her arsenal than she sometimes does when visiting the Grid: she's got a couple of grenades tucked away, and if her regular handguns would stand out too much, she's been looking to get a substitute pair. (And if Grid-based firearms don't have such stringent ammo limits as normal pistol magazines do, all the better.) Plus, of course, she has her staff in its Grid appearance, and her identity disc - she never comes here without it.

As she disembarks from the transport, a certain unconscious fluidity of movement settles over her - more the carriage and pacing of a hunting animal than that of a human, whether organic or basic. If her ears *weren't* covered they would be pricking up at that uneasy air she's vaguely aware of ... she's actually keeping her eyes open for good cover, whatever direction she might expect to come under attack from.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo Kamui has been quiet for the trip, to listen to what's going on. He's been putting off actually putting on his helmet until they get to the area they're aiming for. One they DO get there, however, that helmet goes on immediately. How it hides all that mass of hair he's got is anybody's guess, and even Gakupo doesn't know how it's doing it.

    Well, all the better; he blends in now. He looks like a normal Program. Though the sword at his left side might not quite be typical of normal Programs. As he leaves the vehicle with the others, he says in response to Alpha, "We'll do our best, I'm sure. You take care as well."

    And yes, he does feel that sensation of being watched. And he doesn't like it. His left hand raises enough to rest on the sheath of the sword, thumb pressing the hilt just enough to make the sword easier to draw should he need to. He doesn't say anything yet. But his 'hackles raised' posture would probably be enough to tell that he's uncomfortable.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's looking pretty grid-like today! As usual, she's taking pretty well to the digitized body... seeing as she's already a program, anyways. "I've no desire to see anyone cubed..." She murmurs firmly. Although she has few weapons, and has instead chosen to deck herself out with most of the survival gear and healing tools available for Grid inhabitants they've been able to get their hands on. Her main weapon?

    Probably her Disk, if it gets down to that. Will she be alright?

Deelel has posed:
Kyra had found a dead drop for Java's people or someone from his org it's hard to know either way. Java may be aware it wasn't picked up. However it's too late not to poke this at all. Right? Deelel looks back to Corona for a moment and nods.

"I have long got over certain things don't worry about it."

She's got used to the mind blowing revelation that most users are lost with computers. Alpha takes a moment to look to Kyra.

"You should be all right, and thank you. You keep safe, and I'll make sure our ride's safe and sound. I'm getting too old for this but whose left to mend and defend?"

Gakupo gets a smirk from the old basic before he starts back for the transport which he's going to put into sleep mode, hopefully to reduce the odds of it being detected. Deelel meanwhile looks at Xiaomu amused with her picking up slang from around here. She also gives a look go Gakupo for a moment and notices his hand and where it is she also looks ti Xiaomu.

"So I'm not the only one feeling it am I?"

She smiles over at Rory for a moment and tilts her head. Given Rory has a lot in common with Basics Deelel's felt some sort of connection on her end. Now that they are our of ear shot of Alpha she notes.

"I know, we seemed to have picked up the best and the worst parts of the Users. I guess we really are in their image?"

The cave it self is winding, but smooth for the most part going deeper and deeper into the underground of the grid one might also pick up energy deposit sin the area not big enough for a large scale operation but enough there that this may be why Java located himself here. There's now slow signs of someone here, equipment and the like there might even be a security systems but still it's lighter than one might expect? Was Java really counting on things that much? Turing meanwhile has made a bit of a face as she's been silent, she thinks for a moment before saying.

"Aside from hiding why would he be out here? I get keeping out of Clu's or Tessler's eye. But you run out of energy out here? Your cubed."

Also the deeper everyone goes the worse the feeling /gets/.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Too old?" Kyra teases, "I dunno, Alpha, you look freshly coded to /me/." Flatterly, clearly, but it's not going to convince him to come along with them and give them all some much needed backup. Oh well.

    "I have to agree, it's so...remote. So off grid...maybe because whatever he's doing must be really serious...? I'm surprised it hasn't been noticed sooner because he must be getting energy in here somehow." Kyra makes a face, "Uh....hate to say it but...I really don't have a good feeling about this."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu is quiet for a while, continuing to skulk onwards into the cave, keeping pace with the others - if she's in the lead, she's not going to get out of sight of her allies; if someone else has point, she's going to try and keep visual contact with them.

When Deelel mentions how far they are from 'civilization,' Xiaomu is quiet for a few seconds before suggesting, "Maybe it's a quarantine thing. Out here, if something dangerous gets loose, the odds are a lot lower that innocents'll fall victim to it ..."

She seems even MORE wary after saying that, and takes a couple of seconds to check her weapons before resuming her advance. Although there are some things firepower won't be so helpful against, and she's hoping her gut is wrong about running into such a threat ...

Corona Arclite has posed:
A cave? Okay at least now Corona was feeling a bit more in her element, creepy feelings aside. Occasionally she pauses to tap at the wall, or poke at some of the discarded equipment. She didn't know much about elaborate computer systems but the way the 'code' emulated itself into resembling machinery tickled her curiousity.

"Maybe it was only meant t'be temporary," she replies thoughtfully to Turing. "There's nuff energy here to run a small operation for.. ah.. decent portion of whatev'r time unit y'all use on the Grid. Could just of been for how long he intended to work in isolation on whatever project he was doing."

She paused, then frowned a little at the possible implications of what Xiaomu says. "Or that."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Hooray caves! Rory does have a flashlight thankfully. And it's such a weird idea to be carrying LIGHT instead of just sensing using sonar or infrared or something like that. She's progressing slowly due to all the darkness. Even if it's lighter than one would expect... it's a level of dark she doesnt' know how to dea with using only two eyes! "Hopefully NOT the worst parts! ... Which parts are those, anyways? I've seen so many bad sides recently..."

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Deelel's question of the odd 'watched' feeling is the first thing Gakupo addresses. Quietly he says, "If you mean the feeling that the walls are watching us, then no." Looking to Deelel, "Be careful. Something's not right."

    He follows the others, trying to stay towards the front of the group-- he's made for tanking, after all. Turing's statement gets his attention next. "Maybe that's exactly the point. Who would come here?" Kyra's words, too, get a nod. "That too. Where's he getting it from?"

    And then Xiaomu points out the wonderful place this is for quarantine. He looks to her, face unreadable behind the helmet. "That makes a lot of sense but... I hope not."

Deelel has posed:
Alpha was certainly amused by that little joke from Kyra. However he's not in a spot to reply now, later he might just have a comeback for her. Meanwhile they are getting deep and the walls are taking a strange pale greenish blue glow to them as they descend into the depths.

"Those are good points, out of the way, he wouldn't care about innocents but a containment failure would mean the system monitors would be on to him."

She keeps pondering this now as the talk goes on and the feeling continues to get worse. Turing looks to Coropn and humms at this.

"You got a good point, actually you all do. I wonder how much of this is natural or how much my old boss has dug out."

"We're trying to make it better Rory and you been a big help. Really we should try to get you some medical permissions and training at some point."

Deelel nods at the warning from Gakupo before turning her attention about.

"Java would be getting away from the prying eyes of Clu and his followers. You need to understand Basics are given life with a job, a purpose. Java's a criminal he's ... not glitched but you get the idea he's not acting normally either."

Now there are signs of things ahead the walls there seems to be pipes going into the ground likely to pump something out, Deelel pauses and notes.

"Energy pipes? Hummm must be needing more than energy for himself and his people."

The pipes become more common now as they enter into a vast underground cave after several more moments and that feeling's worse. For those who can sense? There's something /clearly here/ something that has no place.

"Ah well if it's not my former employee. Turing, it was nothing personal but when I found out what it were the death mark I'd get for aiding you wasn't worth it no matter how good you are."

The program looks down upon the group form on top of a scaffold of some sort from where a few others are working on something that looks almost like a /warp gate./ The entire place is filled with grid machinery of one sort or another and there's basics going about working on things. The one talking to them is standing on a platform above the warp gate like thing and looking at the party as they arrive.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite stops for a moment to inspect the pipes, even going so far as to rap her knuckles against them, mostly out of habit. "Clearly they need more power for somethin' than what the natural deposits" that feels kind of weird to be saying about a digital environment "can provide. But for what.."

Well it didn't take long to get an answer to -that-, now did it? Kind of hard to miss them building a WARP GATE in the middle of a cave.

Not that they get long to mull on it before a nice voice speaks from above. Corona has to crane her head back to look up, being the short stature that she is. "Welp. Now we know why he's out in the dang blum middle o' nowhere..."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Good point, Xaiomu." Kyra agrees, "If they were working with dangerous shit out here, then if something failed them, it won't be noticed as quickly as if it would if it got out into the system and cubed a bunch of programs." This makes Kyra feel even worse between that and the unpleasant feeling of something being /off/ down here. Why was this feeling cropping up everywhere she went these days?

    They follow the pipes long enough to find: "...oh great, guess we have no room for subtlety today." Kyra mutters as she looks up at Java, then to the item they're working on. Kyra's been through enough warp gates at this point that she can recognize one, even incomplete.

    Kyra starts edging around the side, attempting to be sneaky so she can get closer to the portal.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The first time Xiaomu saw a warpgate, she thought it was a peculiar outgrowth of the Quakes which occured in Shibuya - dimensional warps that caused things not native to that world to appear where they didn't belong. She learned otherwise not long after, thanks to the Union, and she's come to accept warpgates in general since then as a normal part of life in the Multiverse.

But seeing a warpgate - or what looks a lot like the hardware which supports artificial gates, at least - in a cavern deep below the Grid's wilderness, she has that same feeling: of something out of place, something that has no business being here.

The voice from the scaffolding above just underscores how much is wrong here, and the sage fox glances up at the speaker. "You realize just how dangerous one of these things is, right?" she calls out, her tone almost conversational. "No telling what might come through from the other side ... wherever the 'other side' happens to be. There's no controlling that, either."

Which is only a slight bluff - she's not sure how much control even a good Union-built artificial warpgate has against somebody coming through from, say, Confederate territory.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Suddenly there is an unfamiliar voice, and Gakupo turns toward it, trying to get in front of the less-armored and less-armed members of the group. He doesn't draw his sword just yet, but his right hand goes to the handle in preparation to draw it. He stays quiet for the time being, letting others with more idea what's going on speak. He merely stands ready to fight, listening to the conversation on the radio for more context.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory can't really sense things spiritually, but she's sensitive enough to the Infosphere that this place is giving her the heebiejeebies. She's frowning HEAVILY both at the distant gate and the individual called Java. "One would wonder what you are up to all the way down here where nobody can see." She states unhappily... expectantly even.

    She's getting a LITTLE better at this sarcasm thing.

Deelel has posed:
The way behind the party suddenly thrums to life as a barrier of light forms blocking the exit from the cavern. The program up on the platform looks down at all of the group.

"Very good I see your still smarter than most of Tesler's lackeys it seems."

Xiaomu gets a response from Java as he looks right at her.

"Or perhaps I have information and the IP to what I'm going to connect to already. What spend the rest of my cycles choking under the likes of the old man in the worst slum on this system? No I think not, my organization has plans bigger than just here."

Java gives a hand signal and his people start to pull back, there's a good reasons something seems to be rising out of a life in the floor of the gave it's a huge hulking program.

"Sadly I'm afraid this is the big end of line for you all."

The hulking construct seems to be some sort of security system as it comes up on the life but then something else happens. There's puffs of shadow and things with glowing eyes appear there's quite a few of these things. A number of them look like cycles, some look almost like a parody of a basics and they all bear a heart with an X somewhere on their body.

"Delete them. Just so you know your too late either way."

Java notes. The hulking construct lets out a digital bellow. All of the things barrel towards the party. Java hangs back but his people seem very unnerved by the black shadowy things.

Deelel's already got her disc out and she's launching it against the smaller things several explode in a puff of shadow but there's a heck of a lot of them.

"Wait are these!?"

BGM https://youtu.be/r0fhxvtwtB8 Digital Domination

OOC The Construct and the other creatures. http://imgur.com/a/z1cKw#4

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Nobody ends MY lines except ME, buster!" Xiaomu retorts to Java - but the Heartless are her first priority. And boy, are there a LOT of them.

"Firewall in the hole!!" the sage fox calls out, pulling out one of her grenades, pulling the pin, and lobbing the grenade into the midst of the Heartless who are spawning into the area. She doesn't even wait for it to go off before her disc is off her back and flying - trying to stun some of the mooks further away from where her grenade landed, and ideally to hem them in -

    BOOM!!!

- so that when the grenade DOES detonate, the fireball should catch more of the Heartless than if the mooks had been free to scatter away from it.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Looks like they're stuck in here anyway now! Kyra will continue moving, trying to attract as little attention as possible to herself as she moves to the warp gate in progress. She still listens to Java and gets about halfway there when he summons creatures that Kyra is familiar with.

    She's seen the purebred type and emblem types before so even though these Heartless are constructed differently, she can still recognize and /feel/ them for what they are. A cold sinking feeling gathers in the pit of her stomach at this realization and she shrieks, hurling one of the remote detonators into the center of the room to vaporize the nearest knot. She continues to pull out the mines, tossing them in her wake as she makes a run for the scaffolding, giving the biggest of the Heartless wide berth.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Ain't no such thing as too late, ya staticy sum of a glitch." See Corona can make those puns too. She read a whole terminology slang manual just so she could 'fit in' as it were. "Welp," she taps her headpiece to activate the visor, since it's the closest she has right now to pulling her goggles on. "I ain't even gotta know what those are t'know this is bad news."

Time to say 'screw it' to the whole trying to look like Programs. Because by the way her teammates are acting, this is big slag hitting the distributor rotor, even if she doesn't quite know what a 'Heartless' is other than some of the other reports she's read.

"On the other hand." Which is why instead of the baton or ID disc she grabs the pole that's been slung to her back as well, pulling out what looks similar to her usual hammer, save instead of the tubes and brass fittings it has those fancy sectional lines that light up when she grips it. Basically it's using the local digital energy instead of the crystal energizer the normal Corona Breaker does. "-This- is a situation I'm all too familiar with."

As several of the heartless move ahead of the others to close in with their gun-like appendages Corona hops to the side and rebounds off the cavern wall as she winds up with her weapon, and despite the odds grins.

"TIME TA CRUNCH SOME DATA!" It just lends a bit of levity to the moment as she wall-jumps over their firing and and swings, slamming the head of the hammer into the lead and motes of energy scattering from the impact as it's sent crashing backwards into the rest of the pack, scattering the aim of those not outright deleted (or whatever 'code' Heartless do) from the collision physics.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    As the Heartless move towards the group, so too does Gakupo move forward. He's aiming to cut down the numbers of smaller creatures so the rest of the group can concentrate on the bigger one. His fighting style emphasizes counters and reaction attacks, so he will wait for the Heartless to come to him, rather than aggressively attacking them. They should be aggressive enough to suffice.
    His strong reaction strikes and his sonic attacks should clear out a fair number of them. He's trying to keep as many of the Heartless as possible from getting to Rory and Kyra specifically. Though he's only one fighter, and there's only so much he can do to protect them both from this many Heartless. Many will get past him.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory activates her Disk instantly upon sensing the threat. It hums to life with a high-pitched noise and spreads its energized blades, but instead of going on the offensive... she decides to duck BEHIND CORONA VERY QUICKLY!

    "Everywhere I go, more and more violence... please tell me you all can handle them!"

    Because she is collecting data and on the defense. Collecting data especially where it comes to the Heartless. "Those... don't look like normal locals? What ARE they?!"

Deelel has posed:
The fight begins and Java says nothing in retort to Xiaomu he feels no need to after all. The Sage fox however has some grenade and they go off in the heartless blowing them to whips of shadow, leaving some strange crystals in their wake. The creatures didn't even think of it as a threat until it was far too late for them.

Deelel is busy thinning out the ranks of the heartless with her light disc, she twists weaves and dodges the attacks. Deelel honestly looks like she's dancing at this point. Normally she's be chipper, even in a fight? Yet she knows just how serious this is, oh does she know.

Kyra meanwhile is going to down before well another group goes up to explosives. They might not be smart but the things have no fear, no sense of survival at all. The packs thanks to both Kyra and Xiaomu have been doing a good job so far thinning things out.

Wit Corona's own actions well? She's got a plan and that plan is to just start wrecking heartless and she's doing a darn good job of it, the crystals re raining too from all of her strikes.

Then comes Gakupo himself the samurai and he is showing just how lethal he is in a fight, his sonic attacks are going a good job to thin things and at this point he's acting as a very good guard for his teammates.

"Think are a viral threat to put it simply I'll explain it later. Rory the gate! see if you can do something about it! Gukupo! Protect her!"

Deelel calls out over the bedlam. Also the huge thing seems to be focusing on trying to smash her with it's fists. Java meanwhile watches almost impassively s the fight plays out the gate's starting to thrum with power, they re activating it from the sounds of the gate activation.

Should Rory go for the gate and attempt to plug in hopefully with help from Gakupo to keep the enemy off her back? She'd find that the connection is already starting up, but there might be time to mess with it, however as old as the language is? From this end it's more complex than one would expect.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu is very thankful, at this point, for the practice Deelel has given her with learning to use an identity disc properly in 'combat'; on the other hand, a combat-powered disc goes right through targets where a 'play' mode disc rebounds from the first impact, so things aren't as easy as she might have first expected.

So after the first couple of throws (and some mad scrambling to retrieve her disc when it doesn't follow the path she expects), Xiaomu locks her disc onto her back again and switches to her handguns. *These* at least work the way she's used to, and she's far more effective with light-guns than with her disc. If any of the Heartless get close ...

Well, that's when she shoots them anyway, swinging around or under (and once or twice, *over* a Heartless that comes in low) and just generally being all KINDS of a bad target. She'd be right at home on the set of a kung fu action movie. (Which is probably where she learned some of the moves she's pulling ...)

Corona Arclite has posed:
Good news: Rory is smart enough to take cover if she doesn't want to fight directly.
Bad news: it's behind her at first, so Corona can play dodge-fu like she normally would, and takes a few stray shots in the process of giving the other girl some protection. It's okay though, Corona's a bit tougher than her small spry form would initially suggest.

She rests the hammer head against the ground, keeping one hand on the handle as she glances over her shoulder at Rory. "Go on, get over there. I'll cover ya until ya get to Gakupo."

To which she uses her now free hand to pull out the Grid-style firearm she picked up beforehand, stepping into a sideways stance as she flips it in her hand as if spin-cocking it and then holding it out at arms length. At least this instance she had a line already prepared for.

"Yippy aye ki yay motherboarders!"

Followed by cracking off several shots in rapid succession, trying to thin the horde in one direction to give Gakupo and Rory more room to navigate and so she can pick off anything that tries to go after them.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I'll... I'll do what I can!" Thankfully what Rory can do while dashing through the chaos and sticking close to Kamui is BUILD AN INSTANCE OF HER PERSONALIZED KAOS AI.

    However it is that works in the Grid through her personal interface she doesn't really know - they're already in a world of programs after all, so isn't all of her programs manifesting as tools?!

    But either way, the hacking-specialized AI joins her efforts upon interfacing, offering guidance and trying a thousand different tricks whilst analyzing the protocol alongside her own attempts.

    She has two goals. 1) Download its ENTIRE data stores. 2) Delete everything off of this thing and shut it down.

    "Well if this doesn't work we can just break it, I guess!"

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo hears Deelel's direction, and nods. He disengages from his current opponent-- by sonic blasting the thing away from him-- and then looks to Rory. With Corona making a path one way, Gakupo will make a path the other. Sonic blasts are useful for saying 'get the hell away from Rory', and it's a message that he sends quite often as he tries to escort Rory to the gate.

    Once she's there, he stands with his back to Rory and the gate, attacking anything unfriendly that comes too close. Either with sword or those useful sonic blasts. They'll hopefully be useful if the big one tries to get too close...

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Thanks to Gakupo, Kyra's able to get to the back of the room and link up with Rory. She holds up a pair of remote mines. "If that doesn't work-" she refers to the hacking, "Then I vote for simply blowing up the offending problem." She sounds a little too cheerful about this. "Until then, though, I'll keep an eye on your back. Go for it!"

    She gives Rory a thumbs up before moving in behind her, throwing another one of the mines forward to eradicate any of the small ones left. She still avoids drawing the attention of the largest program, leaving its destruction to the other more combat-inclined Programs present.

Deelel has posed:
Xiaomu is now finding her self going after the Heartless again, the light-guns go to town and they are doing a good job at gunning the heartless down. However Java looks now and goes wide eyed. Wait weapons like that were rare only the military could get things like that. Who in the bloody blue COBOL are these programs. He barks some orders sending Heartless after Rory as well at this point and Corona's cover fire also helps thin out many of the ones going for Rory that the others who make it past that are like a wave against the shore that is Gakupo he just cut downs those that get too close none of them reach Rory for now.

Rory meanwhile is able to get some progress on the files, given Java's people are too busy with the gate and everything else? She's able to start to grab his files. It might take a moment however many files are encrypted, but they can be gone over later. For now Rory will start getting progress but her trying to engage a purge is a bit more dicey it's going to take some work. Also at this the Heartless are noticeably thinned out but the huge Program Construct is still alive, well and very hostile. It's massive fists swing about as it tries to get to Kyra, Xiaomu, Kyra and Deelel. Java meanwhile is wondering what the glitch is Mr. Coffee? What is /coffee/?

Deelel her self is forced to evade and can not make an attack right now.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo remains in place, essentially swatting Heartless away when they get too close to Rory or the gate. He's less concerned with actually killing them, and more concerned with knocking them back into the fray with the others. That way they're sure to get caught up in some attack or another. However that also means his allies may need to be careful of flying Heartless...

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Since the big Heartless/Program is going to make swings in her direction, Kyra moves away from Rory to give her some breathing room, barely evading the Heartless's swing by flattening herself to the ground. She does not stay down there, using the next chance she got to push herself back up and hurl a remote detonator. She remote detonator would stick to wherever it lands-in this case, she tries to get to stick to the big program/heartless.

    "Fire in the hole!" She warns everyone moments before it does detonate, hopefully not damaging anyone else with the explosive.

Corona Arclite has posed:
After firing off a few more shots Corona flips the firearm round, blows non-existant smoke from the barrel. The crowds are thinning out, which still leaves one really big problem left, and we don't want that problem to get on Rory's hardworking case. It only takes a moment for Corona to come up with a somewhat brash and cockamamy idea as to what to do, though.

"Pardon me while I walk all over y'all" Literally, as using her size and quickfootedness to her advantage Corona jumps on top of one of the remaining Heartless and proceeds to run from what passes as a head to head like stepping stones to make her way around the side of the big Construct opposite the direction of Rory trying to work.

As she does so she cocks the firearm again, and fires off a few shots at the Construct. "Hey, ya overgrown diode! Yer momma was a IIe and yer poppa wore screensavers!" Because shooting and taunting has always worked before for her.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
With her attention pulled in Rory's direction, Xiaomu starts making her way along the side of the cavern/chamber, continuing to blast Heartless back into voxels. One of Gakupo's victims actually gets sent flying towards the sage fox; she immediately drops her handguns, grabs her staff ...

"XIAOMU HOME RUN!!"

And with a jingle of the rings on the staff's headpiece, Xiaomu swings Suiren hard enough that the flying Heartless is both frozen solid *AND* sent flying towards the pack, possibly even bouncing on the big one's noggin, but is actually encased in ice from the contact with the ice-elemental canesword.

A moment's sword/staffplay later, Xiaomu has opened up enough breathing room around herself to retrieve her handguns and get back to Woo-ping it up.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "More sophisticated than I expected. The antiquated protocol isn't helping matters! Why isn't it taking this spoofed packet..." At least she does know what she's doing! But Rory is also glancing over her shoulder a bit too frequently. ALL THAT NOISE behind her, and not being able to see it? It is DRIVING HER UP A WALL into near panic mode. She loses precious seconds jittering in place as fear rises up by the truckload, thereatening to get her running away from the operation.

    What if Gakpo fails? How will she know in time?

    Having such a limited awareness is like walking around wearing BLINDERS to someone who's meant to be oversight for a large amount of operations...

    Best not to look at her expression right now.

    But she resumes quickly enough, and thankfully the Kaos AI isn't distracted at all, being utterly emotionless. PROGRESS IS BEING MADE!

Deelel has posed:
There is good news and there is bad news as the battle rages on. Gakupo is proving to be too much and Java's getting nervous but the gate is powering up now crackling to life. His people appear to be trying to make ready to bail here if they have to. Gakupo however may be a problem if they try to flee through the portal.

Kyra is playing with bombs again and well thy work right well as it sticks to the big heartless a moment later it goes off and Delel is leaping away a second before this happens. The Blast does a heck of a lot of damage to it, there's a chunk missing and jagged glowing cubes can be seen at the edges of the damage. There's no real internal mechanisms here at all.. Corona however playing homage to a certain plumber and doing quite well at it the damaged section is ravaged by Corona's fire and it just losing an arm, its not quite done yet however as Xiaomu is going to be batting for the major leagues now as Xiaomu freezes it solid.

Rory would be getting her files, she's actually got all of them and the deletion is in progress but there was a slight error, Java had perhaps suspected someone might try to purge things. Rory has done some nice system damage but some failing security system has powered up fully and rather than being a stable portal? It's starting to suck /things in. Deelel lets out a cry as she's pulled off her feet and goes flying through the air and through the gate vanishing. The construct attempts to not be pulled through but ends up getting smashed to bits and bytes. Due to equipment slams into on the way to the portal, and the last of the heartless have fallen at this point. Where are Java's people they booked it, it seems. Java him self yells a curse and is also trying to flee as well.

BGM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpknxKrcLDk Fate of the Unknown.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu lets out a yelp as the 'vacuum' effect starts from the portal; her first move is to holster her pistols and grab for Suiren again, making sure she's got everything.

Before she can do anything about securing some kind of solid foothold, though, *she's* airborne, and by the time she manages to draw her sword free from the staff that holds it, she can't stab it into the ground without a serious risk of putting the blade through somebody else instead. And since she's got allies closer to the gate than any of the Heartless are ...

Well, she can at least put her sword through a stray flying Heartless, and does exactly that, encasing the monster in a big chunk of ice - whether to make sure it doesn't hurt anyone else on the way through, or just as a prelude to finishing it off when she has the chance.

"I'll see if I can find Deelel on the other side!" she calls out to her allies as the vortex yanks her towards the uncontrolled warpgate. "Don't worry, I'm a professional!!"

... there are probably worse last words, she reflects before vanishing through the portal.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"SHIT" No time for fancy Grid euthisms at this point, as Corona scrambles to grab onto something, getting her hands on a portion of the scaffolding. "What the blue hell is that lunatic thinking?! This thing could suck up the entire area from the inside-out at this rate!"

You've got to give the Heartless credit, even with impending doom trying to inhale everything a few keep trying to grab onto her perch. Though a good stomp to the face sends them tumbling into the gateway void. They're hardly important at this point, considering they've got friends getting sucked up as well. "RORY!" she belts out as loud as she can to be heard over the gateway's suckage. "DO YA KNOW WHERE THAT THIN' IS LINKED TO?!"

She's small and not very heavy, she's clinging to that framework for dear life here.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo's expecting any kind of trouble from the direction that the Heartless are coming from. He is not, however, expecting it from the direction of the gate. In hindsight, he probably should have. But suddenly he's getting pulled back! Quickly he digs his sword into the ground as much as he can. It's not going to be enough, but it will delay his getting pulled in for a few moments.

    Ah-ha! Java's trying to escape? Hopefully that gate isn't pulling things in at the speed of sound. Because Gakupo emits a sonic blast at the fleeing Java. It won't be enough to hurt him. But he at least hopes it will be enough to knock the Program off his feet long enough to be caught.

    Mainly because about then Gakupo's sword comes loose from the ground. He'd expected it; since his sword is basically a vibrosword, it destroys the terrain around it. It's not good for keeping a good grip on the ground, unfortunately. He tries to stand against the pull, to walk forward, but there's nothing for him to hold onto where he is. Like it or not, he's being pulled back and there's not a lot he can do about it.

    He's not quite pulled completely off his feet like Deelel, since he's a little heavier, but he doesn't exactly have a lot of control over his backward momentum. He emits a yelp as the pull finally pulls him back, off his feet, and through the gate he goes, too.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "The IP was the first thing I checked for! Should we go after her?!" Rory's ALSO holding on for dear life, to the console. "I don't think sabotage will work too well unless we just break it!! But what about Deelel?!"

    Things have gone from bad to worse for Rory. Sure she just got a nice link to Kamui's optics and THAT calmed her 'nerves' significantly, letting her focus more -s trangely enough - but then she managed to hit the intrusion detection systems, oops....

    "Segmentation fault?!" She'd blurted. And then... well, then things lead to the earlier screaming. Clinging to the terminal's all she has to work with right now and unfortunately that isn't too helpful for anything else!

Corona Arclite has posed:
"IF WE CUT THE POWER WILL IT SHUT DOWN WITHOUT BECOMIN UNUSUABLE?!" Corona shouts back after a moment at Rory, trying to think of a way to end this without entirely stranding their friends.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "OH HELL NO-" Kyra does manage to grab onto some of the scaffolding so she's not sucked in to the warp gate (?) right away. But Deelel vanishes through it and Xiaomu follows shortly afterwards. At that point, she seems to have little more choice in the matter.

    Kyra lets go and follows Deelel and Xiaomu into the portal.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I just finished broadcasting everything back to the Odyssey. Don't worry about it!" Rory yells... and goes diving for the gate herself. Better than leaving her allies behind and being left in this dangerous place!

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite lets out a sigh as everyone else just goes portal diving. "Well like hell am I bein' the only one to stay here!" It wasn't that she wasn't worried about their friends, she was just worried about this thing tearing up the whole area behind them! But seeing as everyone else is biting the bullet and plunging into the unknown, she lets go and follows suit.

Deelel has posed:
Java is trying to get away at Java, he lets out a cry as he loses his footing and goes down hard, one of his men actually turns about for him tyring to get to him but there's time to make for a collar of him. The gate is still pulling hard at this moment, and thankfully Rory has the IP of where the other system is, the heartless are just about all gone, and good deal of the crystals are flying through the gate as well. Rory's got about all the data she can the gate's been damaged. All is still on the Grid portal side. On the other side?

Deelel would hit the ground hard almost the vowels and other things that have been pulled through. She's dazed for a moment as a frozen heartless is coming through as is Xia, she might land on it in a very bit pile of those crystal which she might find out later is /money/ on a few worlds. As for Kyra she may very well land smack on top of Deelel dazing the program. Once everything to do with that is settled? The trio would find themselves in a massive plaza in what appears to be another system it's very much a like the grid but seems slightly slickers perhaps a newer OS of some sort but the thing it the middle of the active cycle according to a massive display with the time. There is no one hear, not a single soul is visible but on another display , in fact every other display but the clock? Has the following flashing in bright red.

"Danger System Hazard."

over and over again. Also the gate on this end is intact and seems to be far better made too from the looks of it.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
And land the sage fox does, letting out a whoop as her frozen Heartless prey shatters underneath her; she actually twirls her sword once, as if shaking off blood, before sheathing it and checking out the crystals dropped by the slain Heartless. She's gathering a bunch of them up, too -

Although as she realizes there are warnings being displayed on a LOT of the screens around here, she stops grabbing loot and gets back to her feet, looking around for anything that isn't one of her allies. "Everyone okay? And any idea where we are ... ?"

Deelel has posed:
Back on the otherside of the gate, the gate picks up force pulling anyone else through even Java who will be koed by the impact as he ends up langing face first on the plaza ground. Rory, would get her data however but would be cut off. Turing was a bit too close and will end up crashing in with everyone else. Corona would be dragged through and so would Gakupo all would find themselves in a virutal ghost town...

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Poor Deelel, Kyra does indeed fall on top of her, though she rolls off the program shortly afterwards instead of lingering. She looks up, then around, staring at their strangely abandoned surroundings, "...it looks like another system but there doesn't appear to be anyone in here. That's...um...probably not good."

    Her view seems to afix to one of the flashing system hazard warning signs.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Also caught by the pull of the gate, Gakupo tumbles through. Thankfully he's worn that helmet, because he takes a pretty hard hit as he lands! "OUCH!" he complains, sitting up and rubbing the back of his head. Kept from injury doesn't mean kept from pain, and falling on his head still kind of hurt. He looks around, and then notices Java. "Ha. He wanted to get to another system so bad. Now what?" Not that Java can hear him.

    'System Hazard' is never a good thing. And as Gakupo stands, picking up his sword and dusting himself off, he notices that display. "...Uh-oh." He looks around, hoping nothing's about to jump on them. Kyra's observation gets a shake of his head. "Uh... no, it's usually not. Last time I had one of those I ended up down for a week."

Corona Arclite has posed:
On the bright side, Corona gets her fall relatively broken as she falls right on top of Java. Because the bad guy always has someone comically fall on top of them. Well if he wasn't down from the fall, he was probably... whatever they call unconciousness on the Grid now. "Uugh.." blinks as she realizes who she fell on. "... Well at least ya did something useful finally." Winces as she rolls over. "Not very soft though."

From on her back she just stares up at the blankness of this new system. "... Great, the idiot just logged into a system that's already nulled."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Only the IP address." Rory states after four clumsy attempts to rise to her feet that fail. The fifth succeeds. Getting up is HARD TO DO! Only haing two legs, SO WEIRD. She has to think hard about it several times. Her usual answer is to not fall down.

    But once she's up, she's looking about left and right... "Likely... a successor to the Grid you know, possibly. Or a system designed in parallel... or another world siilar to it. The IP address I have might not be everything! There isn't enough data to be sure of anything yet! ... But I'm glad everyone's alright!"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel gets back to her feet after Kyra finally gets off her and sh recovers. She looks about at this point and she looks to Gakupo for a moment. She then looks at the displays.

"I don't like the look of this this brings back some bad memories..."

She also looks over to Rory and grins a little bit.

"Still that was a heck of a ride, no not everyone could be he was talking to someone /from/ this system."

She looks to Rory.

"I think every system in my world is it's own little world so this could be anywhere...and well you have a point about it being a later OS. Still we're going to have to secure our friend here and ... find out /what is going on./ "

Elsewhere someone has been watching a camera feed of the plaza and muses.

"You actually succeed Java, you might just be worth the trouble to rescue."

The being then laughs some more and kills the feed he has no need to see more.

The gate is already calming down but things just got way more complicated and with the IP? They can access it from elsewhere and take apart java's own..."