2002/Reboot Ep8: Ram Dump

Reboot Ep8: Ram Dump
Date of Scene:	10 April 2015
Location:	The Grid <TG>
Synopsis:	The unknown system lay before the party, they uncovered the horrible truth of the place. It's been infected with Heartless. The party moves to clear out the central admin tower where more information is uncovered about what happened there. A program named Mcafee went mad and has let this nightmare lose upon the system.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, Staren, 626, 631, 673, 707, Corona Arclite, 715
Tinyplot:	Reboot

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Deelel has posed:
Accessing Archived data

Java had made some out of town friends and wanted to go visit. Deelel and her friends however took exception to this little fact and put an end to his travel plans for the foreseeable future.

Unknown System, Unknown OS

The plaza was as it had been left, thankfully the Union had set up a few scripts to keep tabs on here, sentry drones more or less to make sure the gate wasn't accessed. If contact was lost they'd know, after all something likely had used the gate. Oddly nothing had happened with those drones in the slightest their video logs showed only the changing of the time and flickering of the warnings. A small base camp had been set up by Turing, Alpha, Bios and Cache. The four of them would handle keeping this place locked down.

When the party would arrive they'd find the group setting up several light turrets which they got thanks to Anon, while not here he seemed to be honouring his part of the agreement for their aid with the ISOs.
Deelel is the first one to arrive into the plaza and she calls out.

"Greetings programs, any news?"

Alpha looks up and shakes his head.

"Bios and Cache scouted the plaza and buildings near by. Nothing, no voxels, no dropped discs, nothing. It's like everything was scraped clean can't be ... a system format it would be just an empty expanse more featureless than the outlands."

Deelel pauses to think for a moment at this before she'll turn to the rest of the party as they arrive. "Given the initial sweep of the plaza we're going to move out into the city it self, and make for that tower there. It looks like it's the administration centre even if there's no one there there may be files on just what happened here. No we're not splitting up that's just asking for trouble. We'll be going by light cycle for now. Light jets might get too much attention."

Deelel will give people a moment to get ready after all and ask any questions before she heads out.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"And if we see any more of those heartless varmints we get 'em outta the way." In all honestly Corona felt a lot more at ease now that she had her normal gear with her as well as the light suit and ID disc that were standard to their Grid appearances. She didn't feel figuratively naked any more with the shotgun at hand and Breaker within reach.

Reker (631) has posed:
"Heartless, CLU's guys. This is turning into a shit show real quick." Reker says, looking over at Corona, "Last thing we need right now is to be fighting on multiple fronts. We should be the ones making CLU do that." He shakes his head a bit, twirling his ID disk on his finger like a cowboy might do with a revolver, "I mean I know geurilla tactics well enough, I just hate feeling like we're always on the defensive."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
For all that the group CAN come and go between this unknown ghost system and the Multiverse at large, Xiaomu is still in her light-tights; the only concession she's making to the expanded options is that she *is* wearing her jacket/vest over it. Getting her disc out in a hurry is going to be tricky, but she's carrying her full accustomed arsenal as well as System gear.

"This is Kenji and Kojin," she introduces her kohai to the rest of the group before she asks anything else. "They're fairly new with Shinra, but Kenji's got a good head on his shoulders and Kojin can flame with the best of them."

Xiaomu considers Alpha's report as introductions are being made where necessary. "So there's no trace of dead basics, in essence ... is it possible everyone evacuated, or that the system got reformatted and then the 'architecture' was reinstalled without any actual programs to inhabit it?" She mulls that over briefly. "... Is that even possible? I mean, do you guys -" She indicates the 'basics,' those who are native to systems similar to this one. "- even know *anything* that might cause the whole animate population of a system to up and vanish?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    You know what Kyra is excited about? Deelel lifting the restrictions on weapons! HOORAY! Now she can actually bring the CURE-ALL along in case, Flynn forbid, she needed to group heal a bunch of people at once. She's also far more comfortable with a gun in her hand than she is withy one of those identity disks. She's actually not sure how Programs can fight with them since it was more or less like taking their entire memories into their hands and beating another person with it.

    Since they're going on light cycles...Kyra has brought the very old first edition light cycle she scavenged in the junkyard. "I second the foolishness of splitting up!" Kyra chimes in, "But, uh, if this system has nothing in it now, maybe we should just shut the portal? I mean...what if this is where those Heartless are getting in from? Just a wild-ass guess though. Haven't been able to get ahold of Aqua by the way."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "The System Warning messages, combined with the lack of apparent damage or battle suggests an orderly evacuation to me." Rory offers without hesitation as she arrives. "Where to, I can't say. But if an evacuation was ordered that could affect an entire city it would come from the city's administration. There should be some kind of logs or records there, yes? I cannot imagine any kind of leadership that doesn't keep track of such things!"

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Kenji has brought the tofu. In contrast to usual - how he's kind of a closed-off and really distant dude - today he is apparently in a /great/ mood, because he didn't say a *thing* about how weird it is that Xiaomu made him bring tofu into a computer. Not a *thing*.

     No, indeed, Kenji's practically bouncing on his heels, and it's probably not out of excitement for the mission.

     Kojin's light-tights look very much like his normal clothes. They have a weird appearance, and he's wearing a leather jacket ove them, much like Xiaomu's. There's a flame sigil in the middle of his chest.

     It matches the floating flame sigil hovering next to him.

     "Tremble, Interwebs," Kojin declares mightily, "I am upon you now! I, Sambo-Kojin, demand your respect where that one kid cannot possibly hear and thus frown disapprovingly at me!"

     The little sprite whirls around Kenji's head. Kenji hands over Xiaomu's food and then waves at everybdy. "Uh, yeah, hey! I'm Kenji. And, I'm pretty sure it's like basic knowledge that you never split up, right?"

     "THE BUDDY SYSTEM IS MIGHTY AND ORGANIZED," Kojin declares loudly, "SO DECLARETH I, THE WORLD'S FIRST DIGITAL GOD! IT'S ME, I WAS THE SINGULARITY ALL ALONG! BWA HA HA HA!"

     Kenji, /in complete contrast to normal/, does not tell Kojin to shut up. He must be in a REALLY good mood.

Staren has posed:
    Heartless and a mysterious new system. While Staren didn't know what to expect, he certainly didn't expect... this.

    As prepared for anything as he can be, he steps through the gate.

    Also, there are some people he's not sure he's ever met here! "Nice to finally meet you." A hand of greeting is extended to Kenji (and Kojin) and Reker.

    "Even if they deleted the logs after... if this is on a physical system somewhere, magnetic disks might not be completely erased. Who knows how remnants might manifest here..."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "Tell me about it Reker, and I'm not even made for this!"

She looks to a moment and nods a little bit but thinks.

"He really isn't aware of us and a virus would send him into an even harsher lock-down like he did during the Abraxas incident. Hopefully we can stop this before it compiles. I know the feeling. The last time anyone went on the offence was back during the purge."

She looks over to Xiaomu and she grins.

"I see you brought a friend well Kenji, Kojin. Ah he's a flame war expert humm?"

Okay she did just make a joke there but she's also now getting serious.

"That's I'm not sure. The only basics really there before the grid took shape where Clu, Tron and a handful of others Flynn made before starting to make the rest of the system. So I know little about such things I'm afraid. If it was heartless they wouldn't leave a trace. Yes I do, a virus or a user somehow going mad and deleting most of them."

At Rory's thoughts on the matter Deelel's inclined to agree. Alpha also interjects at this point.

"If it was a viral issue, the system monitors would try to move them somewhere safe, it's standard procedure you keep the infected area locked down and isolated. Move anyone who isn't infected out."

Deelel looks to Kyra.

"Java was talking to someone and he wasn't inclined to give many answers yet, and I don't think he'll tell us what memory index we'd need to check either The thing comes down to the signal came from here. So there's someone here. If they don't succeed with the grid they will try somewhere else and likely where we won't catch it."

She shifts on her feet a bit at the mention of Aqua and grins faintly.

"I already contacted her and two others I'm aware of with experience in dealing with the heartless."

She looks at Kojin laughing a little but however she's got a bit of a look on her face.

"I can appreciate a god with a sense of humour though. I am known as the Program elsewhere."

Those who might have been to Afterus would know the Program is considered the Goddess of telecommunications and cyberspace in general. Also the deceptions of her look a hell of a lot like Deelel too. She looks to Kenji and smiles a bit.

"Greetings, I am Deelel. Good to meet you both in the flesh at last."

She looks over to Corona for a moment nodding approvingly to her other foxy friend, about heartless situation.

"No information' lost until the space has been used again so recovery might very well be possible of they were sloppy about it, Staren."

She moves to get get light rod ready.

"Let's move out shall we?"

With that her bike takes shape about her wire frames becoming a full out light cycle. She'll take off heading north for the tower looming in the distance, the highway is vast and there's oddly some former signs of life along it, light craft of various sorts have been left on the road leaving hazards and a few seemed to have crashed some time ago too.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra gives Kenji and Kojin a side-long glance, this being the first time she's met the guy in person. Kenji looks fine enough but that noisy little flamewar of a fire god? "Oh no-" Kyra lifts up her hands at Kojin, "Watch out, we got a badass here."

    She frowns at Deelel, "But there's gotta be some way to get the data we really need to know off the disc. Like a search function or /something/, right? We have the dead drop conversation, maybe we can use it to cross-reference Java's memory and narrow down on the index where it happened, then look around in the surrounding...uh...index numbers?" Kyra actually has no idea how the memories are stored on those discs. She's not sure how solid state memory works period, in fact. "-oh, you mean Xion and that other kid?" She can never remember Roxas's name! "Good. You'll need to tell me how you reached them, I want to talk to them too about what went down on Shiva a few weeks ago."

    She swings herself onto her light cycle and follows after Deelel, manuvering around the crashed, old vehicles.

Reker (631) has posed:
As weird as it is to have a motorcycle made entirely out of digital light, riding these things is still one of Reker's favorite things to do on the grid. He breaks his out when they set out to move, and pulls it up along side Deelel's, "Hey after we off CLU, we should set up a non-lethal version of the bike racing arena that jerkoff has. You know, for entertainment."

Staren has posed:
    Staren just sort of blank stares as Kenji declares himself a digital god. It's so hammy, it amuses him, but not so much that he busts out laughing. The result is just a deadpan delivery as he offers to shake Kenji's hand.

    As Deelel mentions it could be a virus-triggered evacuation, Staren wonders: "What are viruses actually like? How do they... what kind of form and attacks do they have here?"

Corona Arclite has posed:
"We'll get to the bottom of this, one way or another." Corona grabs her baton and flips it in her hand once before grabbing it the proper way like handlebars to form the rest of the light cycle. Off we go towards the totally ominous tower in the distance.

The empty vehicles scattered about or crashed don't escape her notice, especially when she has to veer round a couple of them to get by. "Whatever happened, it musta happened right sudden. These are clear signs of a panic causin' accidents."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu smiles brightly at Kojin. "You do realize, Kojin-kun, that by claiming yourself a god of the Internet, you're also taking responsibility for every time a router glitch or server problem keeps me from logging onto GGO or The World or Hearth of the Starstorm, right?"

She powers up her lightcycle and takes off behind Deelel and the others - and yes, she does that before Kojin can actually reply adequately. She's grinning behind her helmet's visor, though.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     "I AM THE MASTER OF FLAME WARS!" Kojin is apparently delighted by the digital world, wavering around left and right as the fire sigil sparks with, well, actual fire. He's clearly not serious. Kojin bobs up and down, delighted just by being able to interact with other people. "I will take responsibility for these things and /children everywhere/ will *curse my name* with bitter, salty tears!"

     "Yeah, sorry. He comes with me everywhere. Don't mind him, he's just having fun." Kenji's grin still hasn't died down. The light cycle doesn't do much to make him stop, either. Kenji climbs aboard, and is immediately treated to the joy everybody who ever saw Tron felt when the light cycles happened.

     Kojin streaks on behind, easily keeping pace with the light cycles. He leaves a trail of fire.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "What are 'Heartless?' Why would they leave no trace of their presence?" Rory's just asking that when Kenji and his partner arrive. She whirls around - an unstable motion that leaves her adjusting one of her sleekly-clad legs. Her own Grid-style body suit is a rare white, with blue circuits brightly aglow.

    She's proven to be very bad with jokes. But this... this is one she's got enough context to grok! A rare genuine smile springs up unbidden across her face... then...

    Then comes the laughter.

    And it's not very natural laughter. The rhythm and intonation's awkward and wrong but--

    But it's definitely genuine because she goes stumbling off to the side and loses her balance. Arm-flailing and suddenly yelling a bit, she ends grabbing wildly for balance - and manages to clumsily plow one of the guardian turrets. But hooray, something for support. Suppressing the laughter (what an ODD feeling, every time it happens) she takes a moment to recalibrate, then summons her cycle to take off with the others!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks to Kyra for a moment and thinks of how best to put it.

"Your also asking to pry someone's mind apart as well. Look we'll leave him to stew in his cell. I got a few ideas but that can wait. As for them ya they are the ones, it's mostly hit and miss on it bug if I get anything back, I shall bring that up."

Is Deelel's reply over the radio.

"That's what it used to be Reker, all the Games used to be non lethal sports, but if you'd hear what Alpha said it's not the first time they'd been used for what you'd call blood sport."

Good Old Sark, was inventive all things considered then again he was a game enemy AI when you got down to it. She notes over the comm as she drives evading a light truck as she goes.

"You ever seen a zombie outbreak that's all I got experience with save the Trojan who kept me as a slave and was more interested in using system resources for his own ends. A long history of knowing Arthur has left Deelel with an appreciation for hammyness that she might not otherwise have.

"I won't and honestly he worries me far less than many gods I'm aware of."

He knows how to laugh at himself.

"Because they basically eat a person's heart, not the physical the more other side of it. It's magic and that's something I do not know the workings of but basically they eat people more or less. The victims bodies just fade out."

Deelel doesn't seem too bothered by Rory's laugh then again Rorys closer to what she herself is than many people she's known in the multiverse.

As the highway continues there's more wrecks and even some signs of light fighting, an unknown model of light tank rest there turret ruined in what seemed to have once been a blockade of some sort, there's a few other craft, but again no discs that can be spotted as they zip by and soon they arrive at the tower, and now this place looks like it had been fortified hap haphazardly data packets have been moved about like shipping crates to make wall some weapon turrets remain, but they seem damaged, their emitters fried somehow, and it's clear there was a fight here, there's a few crystals laying here and there that are tell tale signs of ... fallen heartless.

Deelel brings her bike to a halt and it vanishes after a moment into light, she takes the baton attaches it her hip again and looks around.

"I'm not liking this at all, keep alert it looks like not all of it was peaceful."

Staren has posed:
    Rory's laugh... huh. So that's what it sounds like when she laughs. He smiles, then listens to Deelel. Staren tilts his head slightly at Deelel's reply. Frowning at the mention of slavery. No good news at all there -- viruses can all be different.

    "They... /eat/ people's metaphysical hearts? Ugh... How do we defend against it? And are there any... security cameras in this city, that we could use to see what happened?"

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite dismounts and deactivates her light cycle next to Deelel, and almost immeadiately the crystals scattered about catch her attention. "Uh." She stoops down to pick one up between her fingers. "Ain't these the same things those varmints back in the cave dropped when we pummeled em? I ain't likin' the implications of that." Even if it's implications they half expected already.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Yeah, they eat your metaphysical hearts and turn you into more of them. They're like zombies, but /worse/. I got some sick footage of people being turned into them if you're curious, Staren."

    Deelel clarifies what exactly digging into Java's memories might entail and her mind wanders back to what she saw in that Shivan dome. "I know it's unethical but...you might have to resort to it if we want to prevent a full-scale Heartless infection on the Grid. Java's got no idea what he might have unleashed here."

    They continue on, Kyra taking in the sights, dismounting from her light cycle shortly after Deelel. Her insides twisting as she sees the discarded crystals. She's quick to recognize those things as one of the /few/ things that Heartless actually drop. (Damn loot-skimpy bastards). "Yeah, those are the same things. A bunch were killed here by something." she looks to Corona, worried.

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Kenji climbs off the cycle and ruminates on the information they just received. Eating people's hearts. What a wild and crazy idea. Did they just rip it out? Did they tear through the chest to get to them, and then gobble them down? No, Kyra dispels that. Metaphysical hearts. What did *that* mean?! Man...Shinra sure got him into some weird shit.

     "Should I get ready for trouble?" Kenji asks as people start getting super-wary.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Nope, Rory's not that good at laughing. But once the group discovers the remains of a fight, there goes any desire to laugh. Rory's quickly back to her calm center, if a bit nervous... this aaaaain't cool.

    "... So on the assumption that a horde of creatures that leave no corpses behind did strike, I still find it hard to believe there would be no surviving programs. Where would they have taken shelter? And how would such a horde enter a city without warning? I would expect to have seen military blockades much further out had it marched upon it."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu's lightcycle comes to a halt and derezzes, the sage fox powering up her helmet as she holsters the cycle-baton, then draws her handguns.

Not the light-guns she picked up - her REAL handguns, Silver and Platinum. The other guns might not run out of ammo as quickly (comparatively speaking), but if something jumps out at the group, Xiaomu wants real, tried-and-tested stopping power in her hands. "Any security footage is probably going to be in the tower, right?" she suggests by way of reply to Staren's last question.

She isn't sure what to say to the rest of it, but she nods to Kenji. "Yeah, you might wanna get fired up just in case ... try not to do anything permanent to anything that doesn't have a black heart sigil with a red X through it, though." She looks at Kyra and Deelel. "That's the one thing Heartless have in common, right?"

Reker (631) has posed:
If Deelel isn't feeling something right about this situation, then who is Reker to argue with her about it? He pulls his bike up not far behind hers and dismounts, putting the baton back down on his hip and then pulling two larger sticks out from behind his back, from just under his ID disk, "Looks like somebody had a party and didn't invtie us."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel's moving ahead towards the entrance while she takes note of the crystals that Corona pointed out.

"They fall to conventional weapons. They also don't like light or holy based attacks. However a keyblade's I think needed to make them not reform later."

Still at least bullets work right? She looks to Kyra and seems sad at this.

"Right, you have a point but I got a card to play, Java's own sense of survival. Yes Kenji keep alert, the heartless can go somewhat immaterial and come out of the walls as it were."

Yes she's seen a few movies after all and as she hits the entryway. She turns back to Xiaomu.

"So far as I know but the little black ones didn't have it on Afterus but they all look to be made of shadow and gold eyes. They can phase in, and out of shadows from what I seen. They just seem to come out of the terrain when they attack. Such a thing is not something a basic would expect without prior experience."

Rory would catch notice of something out of her eye what looks to be a glint of something that still has power some sort of pad and there seems to be something on it.

Keiji and his hot blooded divine comrade would take notice of what might be a weapons crate of some sort there also is what looks like a high tech security pass dropped on the ground near it.

"Ya any information we're after will be inside. They could be hold up here or somewhere else. It's hard to say we don't know the system. The tower will help us get our bearings and at the very least a map."

The contents of the crate would be a tfive weapons that look like firearms almost. One seems sort and what looks to be a sniper rifle, the others seem to be rifles of some sort. ? On the crate lid it's labled Lol Rifle X 1 and Rod Rifle X 2 Suffusion Rod X 2 . The card clearly is a security pass of some sort.

Rory's find is a datapad if she picks it up there would be a list of orders displayed. Secure the lower part of the admin tower. I need time to attempt to circumvent the lock down. Which that traitor enacted. This is why we were created the system will not fall on our watch, I will not allow it. You are the best I have left, end of line. - Kernel

Staren has posed:
    Staren looks at Kyra with a 'really?' look. "...Not right now." It may be important information for later. Visual evidence might provide hints about the nature of the process and how to stop it, but Kyra's enthusiasm seems... off somehow.

    "A keyblade. What's special about a keyblade?" Protoabstractum could be used to replicate the effect, if he could get access to it.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"That ain't reassurin'. Don't matter if they're the source of this ruin or not, that they can come back at any time could be trouble." Though normal weapons work on stopping them, at least immeadiately. That's good to know.

"Good thing we came armed." But then someone else finds local fire arms in one of the crates. "... Mind iffen I take one of these?" she asks, even as she grabs one of the shotgun looking ones. "Wouldn't mind havin' somethin' fittin' the Grid when we're back in yer own system and gotta keep our cover up."

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Kojin flits over to the weapons crate, hovering there for a moment as Kenji loots them. The weapons are pretty weird firearms, but Shinra's got good training programs. Kenji hands them off to other people as Kojin's icon hovers around him; he doesn't really need firearms, and they'd just get in his way.

     Kenji reaches out and grabs the burning icon with his bare hands. Kojin stops in mid-motion as Kenji shoves the icon into himself - or, rather, as Kojin links itself over the flame icon already present. The light-blue lines are replaced by pulsating orange, fire erupting along them as Kenji ceases to be affected by things like 'gravity'. His leather jacket and suit burn white, his hair turns red, and flames erupt from his eyes to match the flames burning along the circuit lines.

     Kenji hangs there in mid-air, on fire. "I can scout up ahead if you guys want," he offers, a slight tinge in his voice, "I think I can still pass through walls here. Rules might be different, though. I've never been in a computer before."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Well obviously not right now." Kyra says dismissively, not thinking much more about it. "Yeah, keep on guard, there might be Heartless nearby." Or there might not be Heartless nearby and the munny has been sitting there fore ages with nobody to pick it up because EVERYONE IS DEAAAAAAD!

    Meanwhile, Kyra takes out a gun-it's her normal Galiandan handgun. It fires normal bullets, which will have to do for self defense because she knows she doesn't have enough ammo for the Luna's Resolve on the case that they get caught up fighting a huge swarm of Heartless.

    She'd gladly swap that gun out for one of the ones that Kenji just took out of the crate, though. The sniper rifle, for instance, would be extremely appreciated by the white mage due to the range it offers. "You can set yourself on fire /and/ fly? That's pretty awesome, Kenji."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu can only shrug at Staren; she doesn't know much about keyblades. Yet.

The weapons cache, as useful as it is, doesn't seem to put Xiaomu's mind at particular ease; if anything, she's looking around MORE warily. "I'm not sure if going through walls is the best of ideas, Kenji - especially if these Heartless can phase through walls too," she suggests to the now-on-fire youth. She does appreciate what the merging effect does to him here, though; it should be a useful set of buffs. "Anyway ... we want to get to the *top* of the tower, I'm guessing? It's probably going to be pretty tough going - I hope we don't have to take the stairs."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Coming out of the WALLS? ... L-like ghosts?!" One day, perhaps why Rory's freaked out by ghosts might come out. Today is not that day. But she's now stepping a little more lightly towards a find on the fringe of her vision - terrible though she's call it. She really HATES binocular vision!

    Over towards the distant gleaming pad it is.... to scoop it up and examine!

Reker (631) has posed:
"Doesn't seem like any of them are around at the moment." Reker says, as he looks around the former battlefield, "Hmm.." He kneels down next to that tank turret that had been broken, "Hey Deelel, when do I get to steal one of these?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel :says "They can make heartless stay down, I almost wonder they might be some sort of anti eldrich horror weapon? I'm afraid I only know what I have seen them do in action, Staren."

Keiji's find is a good one and people are making use of them.

"They can't do the dead any good, put em to use. Make it count for whoever had been using those. Also good thinking Corona."

It might ask question where you got cutting edge military weapons but better than why do you have weapons not of this system!

Kenji's transformation gets stared at by Deelel, she's seen a lot of things before but nothing quite like that.

"That's quite the power set Kenji! Yes, Rory they ... are. Are you all right? Keep with us. Tell us if you find anything on that pad. Kenji go scout ahead but keep in contact with us."

She looks over to Reker and sighs.

"Once I get the software and permissions to train you. That's not easy to get back home, I know a few people but that will take time. Yes, Kenji if you could do scout ahead just keep in contact with us. IF you spot hostiles return."

The tower is a mess inside there's been more fighting in here it looks like there was a running battle, there's voxelated holds in the walls and even what looks like to be remains of a few bits of art. Though what little is left of those seems to be abstract art of some sort. As they make headway Deelel looks to Kenji.



Reker's earlier comment has proven to be very true it was a party and they were not invited at all.

If Kenji is ahead he'll find even more intense battle line and a lift that has another barricade there's no gear left here but a pair of ruined turrets however there's hundreds of those damn crystals the heartless drop, possibly even more there was a hell of a fight here and the lift is locked out, however he does have that key card right?

Back with the main group Deelel looks at the damage and whistles.

"The heartless must have just kept coming here. They didn't go quietly that much is clear."

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     Kenji does, once Deelel encourages it, go a bit ahead. Gravity simply doesn't seem to care about him - and, in here, where there isn't much in the way of spirituality, he seems to be just fine at passing through walls, too. The group gets a look as Kenji just kind of moves through the solid object without even glancing, a slight pixellation effect rippling around him - but not much. If it wasn't for the digital nature of this world it probably wouldn't even do that. It's kinda like noclipping.

     Kenji emerges in the battle scene. He floats over it for a moment, darting forward to look at the turrets and the ruins. When he gets to the lift, he vanishes.

     Back at the main group, Kenji reappears in a burst of flame. "Hey, the lift's locked, but the keycard should do it. I'm gonna go back in and check upstairs."

     He vanishes in another burst of flame.

     Kenji returns to the lift. Instead of actually taking it, he passes through the ceiling, peeking his head out to see if there's anything hostile on the second floor.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches with interest as Kenji transforms. Huh.
    Staren tilts his head. Anti eldritch-horror weapon? How to make those... does the Annihilator count? He looks at the box of weapons, curious... but if they run into a fight, he'll want weapons he knows. "Software? Permission to train us? From who? Isn't CLU... oh you mean like file permissions." He nods, and wonders how the hell that works.

    The sight of holes in the walls -- the first actual, clear, physical sign of violence, puts him on edge. "Is there a basement level? They're probably... if there are survivors, they're probably holed up down in the basement or... well, they're not on /this/ floor..."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Everyone! I think there's more clues here." Once she's focused again there's no more fear. Hearing these are HEARTLESS and not ghosts is actually helping a little. But she ambles over to the others. "This appears to have been a PDA for an officer here. There are orders to hold off the enemy while someone tries working around the lockdown... supposedly the fault of a traitor. Java, possibly, but this had to have happened BEFORE the gate's completion so I can't be certain. But it appears the ordinary programs were gone before this group arrived! They were investigating this place too. There's mentions of a black virus. That matches Deelel's description of a Heartless. Black bodies, gold eyes."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu is staying alert at this point, ready to move with the rest of the group, and ready to start shooting if Heartless show up. She's actually glad that Kenji's powerset is coming in so handy as an advance scout - knowing what's lying in wait for you is always a very nice advantage.

Now if the hairs on the back of her neck would just *relax* and not keep standing at attention like something horrible is breathing down her neck, she might be able to actually enjoy the peace and quiet. It feels ...

Well. It feels like that part of the movie when the audience knows the monster is somewhere out there, but the main characters haven't figured out what kind of danger they're in yet, and nobody's been horribly slaughtered *so far*.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite nods her head, that's exactly what she's thinking. It's easier to explain than, say, her funky plasma shooting shotgun. Which she still has with her right now, but she keeps the suffusion rod in hand right now. She lets out a huff at Rory's find. "It's lookin' more and more like the Heartless were assaultin' this place. Don't explain why the whole system is empty though, which is downright creepy. Did ev'ryone else evac from the 'viruses'... or somethin' worse?" That thought makes her shudder, and since she didn't bother to use a disguise program to hide her vulpine features in this dead system, it's visible in the way her tail gives a few lashes behind her.

Though once they come to the scene at the lift she takes a moment to inspect one of the turrets. "Don't think I can do much fer these. They really threw ev'rythin' they had the buggers, that's for sure..."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra moves very carefully at this point. Who knows how many Heartless were left and how much time she'd have before she got jumped and would be unable to use the LOL rifle.

    But she can't help, despite the tension, let out a low whistle as they come upon a large swath of the money crystals. "Yeah." Kyra says quietly, "They must've put up one hell of a fight." Sadly, she thinks that the Heartless probably did whoever it was here in.

    Warily, she lifts the LOL rifle into a read position.

Reker (631) has posed:
"Sounds like a good plan to me, Deelel." Reker says, "We'll get it figured out and then I'll GTA one of those bad boys and go to town on CLU and his boys." He laughs a bit at the thought, "I think we should police everything we can and get moving. This area's really exposed and we don't want to be out here any longer than we have to."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel was not expecting the teleport fully, she jumps a little bit and almost went for her disc, thankfully that doesn't seem to be something she'd need. She nods about the key, she's about to say something when Kenji just teleports away /again/. It's a neat trick to be sure, and Deelel's moving for a moment and she looks to Staren for a moment.

"Yes training sims and the permissions to use them. Without them the tank ain't going to do much. Could be, but generally that's storage areas and labs now that I think about it. Let's follow up Kenji's lead shall we?"

Rory passes down some information and it's useful.

"All right that's a good find there Rory. I wish I knew Corona, I wish I knew."

If not for her experiences in the multiverse she's be panicking right now. Reker's called it right.

"I get it, we need to find out what's here, but your right. Our poking about will get the heartless attention sooner or later. They are always ... hungry."

She notes s they make it toe the lift and watch your steps you might trip on the mummy that's all over the damn place. Deelel will use the card get into the lift and wait for everyone else to get in. She'll then punch the button for the command centre. Xiaomu might start to get an uneasy feeling as the lift rises.

Kenji would find once he reaches the command centre, it's empty for the most part but there's some active terminals, yet there's damage to the lights here, there's a good deal of shadows, and he may have found something moving within then gold eyes start to appear, one after the others and group of heartless start to take shape. While all this is going down there will be a ding as the lift arrives, the door opens and the party arrives right into the middle for the starting melee.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Might 'start' to get an uneasy feeling? Xiaomu's been feeling uneasy ever since we happened across that perfectly good crate of high-firepower weapons; if she can get away with it, she's going to move to the front of the elevator, right inside the doors, with both of her handguns up, cocked, and ready to rock. As soon as the door opens far enough to allow it ...

Xiaomu starts shooting even BEFORE she's out of the lift, throwing herself into a textbook-perfect diagonal shoulder roll without missing a shot, and going full John Woo gun-kata on the Heartless around her. She puts a few bullets past the elevator, clearing the other side of it just enough that her allies can exit the elevator without getting insta-ganked or anything.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Why do elevators always feel like they take forever even just for a few floors?

And then when they open to a horde of shadows with beady golden eyes taking form you wish that it had taken you right past.

"Looks more like they were waitin' fer us to come to them." Well lets not disappoint them shall we? As soon as she steps out of the lift Corona turns to the side, her familiarity with shotguns in general and how they tend to be short range weapons drawing her to immeadiately go for the closest group of shadows to keep them from piling on people getting out of the lift. Instinctively she ducks down when Xiaomu fires off shots both ways, and unloads a few rounds from the suffusion rod to take out the entire cluster afterwards.

Shotguns may have limited range of effectiveness but they're really good at taking out groups at that range!

Staren has posed:
    Damage to the lights? Staren reaches into his bag and throws a handful of LED 'flares' into the room -- which only illuminates the danger! "Shit! Look out!" He fires his beam cannons at one Heartless, then another, leaving him to wait for them to cool down. He raises his other hand and fires a volley of three micromissiles. He tries to lock onto the Heartless if he can, but if not, he'll accept straight shots set to airburst if they don't impact. These missiles are his weaker ones, on par with mega-damage grenades with only a small explosion -- they're meant to penetrate a target then explode for the most damage. Each missile to a seperate Heartless -- at least they go down easily! Then he charges into the fray -- he draws a beam saber, it copies into his other hand somehow, then the blade changes from purple plasma to white holy element. He slashes at nearby heartless, then activates his wings, lifting a bit up off the floor and zipping over the monsters, slashing down as he passes!

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory ends up scooping up some of the Munny for further study, but she's not terribly concerned with whatever it is! Or made of... or used for...

    Yet.

    She's FAR more concerned with sticking close to the others, and that's VERY GOOD because - "G-ghosts?!"

    ROry's NOT well armed, so she decides to take cover and ready her Disk. The normally humble piece of gear turns menacing pretty quickly, more resembling a Chakram than anything else as she readies it. A few Shadows that get too close are met with clumsy-looking swings!

    Which means Rory gets clobbered and battered by a few of the little things now and then but unless it becomes a HORDE she'll manage.

    Yeah. If it becomes a HORDE... then she'll hide behind Corona.

    She's already ambling to do just that.

    "Why were they WAITING?!"

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     That's...

     BAAAASICALLY just his luck.

     Kenji surfaces into a horde of shadows. As they turn hungry eyes upon him, Kojin makes a remark that needs to be censored, because Namco x Capcom is a family game for people who go home and be family men.

     "No shit!" Kenji shouts, forcing himself through the floor. He's at a disasdvantage fighting in between floors, but hovering above it, in the middle of a horde? YEah, that's exactly where he wants to be.

     "AAAAAAAAAH!" Kenji roars, his fists snapping outwards. Each punch is literally on fire - fire hammering into Heartless faces and Heartless eyes at rapid speed. Kenji doesn't have much in the way of technique or martial arts, but he's clearly a practiced street brawler, fighting with instinct born of being outnumbered lots of times and taking on tons of enemies at once.

     And, strangely enough, it made him kind of happy. It built on the earlier happiness, emotionally charging every strike not with magic, but with determination. He had something to go home to. He had something to fight /for/. He had reasons to stay alive. This was important - this was *really* important, not just another brawl or Shinra training or whatever.

     He could die here.

     But he wasn't going to.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra immediately crowds to the back of the elevator and lifts the LOL rifle. She's never fired it before and she would have rather have gotten a chance to test it first but in this case, she was not afforded the luxury. Not a melee fighter at all, she's not going to wade into the sea of Heartless but stay as far back as possible and kite them to death.

    Of course, there's also the healing she'll need to provide but for now, she fires away, surprised at the actual results of the Line of Light rifle and ultimately, very pleased. "...yep, this is a keeper." She picks each Heartless off one by one, cutting them down before they reach any of her colleagues. It's something at least to relieve the pressure on those that get in close enough.

Reker (631) has posed:
The long elevator ride gives them time to think about what might be up top. And what is up there? Lots and lots of really bad things! Reker thankfully already had his weapons drawn and at the ready. As soon as the Heartless come into view, he dives out of the elevator, those two staffs in his hands lighting up on the tips, as he takes the weapons and drives towards the bigger group of Heartless, swinging his weapons wildly to try to hit as many of them as he can with the swings.

Deelel has posed:
Xiaomu opens fire as she exits the lift and this catches a number of shadows of guard the lowest of the heartless are just getting blown apart by her in a hail of fire, the crystal forms and this time there seems to be a few other things dropping from them. However there's not much time to check for the moment even as she's doing some serious damage, Deelel's got her staff out and leaps out of the lift seconds after Xiaomu opens fire. Her staff is going the end powered and the heartless are exploding from the assault. Still the vast command centre is swarming.

Staren throws flares and well? Everyone can now see just how many heartless there are here, it's a sea of shadows but the heartless were not ready for this level of fire power, the blasts from the micro missiles do damage mostly to the heartless. Thankfully since Staren picked anti personnel ones the damage to the command centre isn't much to worry about the beam sabre causes a good deal of havoc as Staren takes to the skies.

Rory is scared and it's not something to be fair and as clumsy as Rory's swings are she still gets a few heartless. She also raises a very interesting question which will have to wait until things are settled here.

Then comes Kenji whose Shinra's answer to several people from worlds that Xiaomu and Reiji might have a whee bit of experience with. The fusion of god and mortal proves to be potent as he just starts punching with fire the heartless they explode, they often don't take more than a hit or two to go down again such fury. The heartless even with their numbers here can not take this massive combined assault from so many elites they are falling, rapidly.

There was and old bad movie about sharks and a tornado when Reker was a child. He becomes like a whirl wind and the heartless are flying about him like some sort of Heartlessnado. He sends them scattering they explode into spoke on contact, and damn he's doing a good job at keeping them away from Kyra. Speaking of Kyra? She seems to be having fun with the lol rifle coring a good number of them and she's doing a good job of covering her comrades. Kyra even is the one to pick off the last of the shadows and soon everything is silent once more. There is also now a mess of those crystals on the floor, seriously they might want to go grab them and spend them somewhere some places actually take these darn things as cash.

Deelel slumps against a console and looks about.

"I'm not sure anyone lived here but I think Rory was right there are likely others here still."

Deelel's hand rests on the console and without thinking about. The keyboard's enter key is struck and it causes the last thing it was doing to run. Which was play a log it had loaded up.

A hulking brute of a program appears, grey body suit, red lines and a very inhuman face, his voice is guttural and he sounds very unhappy. (OOC http://imgur.com/mww3FO0 )

"Kernel reporting. Alpha Squad has held the black virus off long enough, I managed to close the ports down to prevent any traffic from the web getting here and becoming infected or serving as a way for the black virus to spread past this system. The fire wall's holding strong for now but the survivors? I have no idea where they are. I shouldn't expect anything from the Users, they are mostly idiots anyway a cycle late and a energy unit short. Still I'm posting the alert, but that null unit Mcafee has locked things down hard otherwise. I can't stay here long, Alpha squad got cubed buying me the time I needed to shut the ports down. The spread should be stopped, but we're still glitched. Let the record note that Alpha Squad's personnel preformed beyond the call of duty to the system. I need to leave here before the black virus comes for me. I'm going to find Mcafee and put an end to this madness. End of Line."

Deelel has posed:
If our heroes take time to check the other files there may be a few more logs here and there reports which could be of use, also there's a map of the system it's a massive web server of some sort. So it's really like a sea port on a massive island with a number of other docking faculties this place is huge and also had these guys not locked things down who knows what could have happened.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...well this system is certainly /very different/ from the Grid." Kyra observes quietly once they finish watching Kernel's final (?) transmission. "This also might be the source of the Heartless on the Grid as well. I wonder how long Java's had the portal to this system open. But man, if this is a web server it'd mean bad, bad news if Clu got into it and spread himself throughout the Mo-er, Internet."

    She looks down, shouldering the LOL rifle. "It doesn't seem like anyone is alive here...but there might be somebody hiding, holding out in this system, somewhere. It's probably worth checking or somehow sending out an announcement that we're here. Can we do that? Like a system broadcast to anyone who survived the Heartless to come meet us? It might save us the need to search this entire place from top to bottom for survivors."

Staren has posed:
    The heartless horde are defeated! Staren's reminded of all the times he's fought zombie hordes, long ago.

    When it's all over, Staren looks around, collects some of the Munny in sample containers for later analysis, and then hands Rory a pistol and a couple of spare magazines -- any gun nuts in the room might recognize it as a Sig P220-series knockoff. "In case we run into more. You can return it later."

    He approaches the console to watch as the log is played back. "...Hmm. So they knew the truth about Users in this system."

    He'll set to helping search the system (a computer /within/ a computer?! How's that work???!) and copying the files for later. "...Who was this guy reporting to?"

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Well at least they did the right thing lockin' the place out," Corona murmurs after the logs play. She doesn't know computers from the inside very well but she does know ports and logistics. "But they don't know where the survivors escaped to? That's weird."

A frown creased her muzzle a moment later. "Unless there weren't any...."

She glanced back at the crystals that remained of the horde they just pixelated. "Is there a way to purge these things outta this system, or is it shot fer good? Because iffen that's the case we'd be better off scrappin' it alt'gether. Because if Java was tryin' to get access to such a fucked up place, I don't wanna think of what WORSE programs might try and do with it...."

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     "Set it on fire," comes Kojin's voice from Kenji's emblem, "Set it on fire and walk away. This is some bad stuff."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu doesn't bother gathering up any of the Munny crystals just yet - she might grab some later, but there are more important concerns, like that video log entry.

"Heartless aren't smart enough to follow a message like that, are they?" she wonders, in response to Kyra's suggestion. "But if there are survivors in hiding *from* the Heartless ..."

She pauses. "Hang on. If this is a control center, inside a computer - Deelel, is there a way to scan for general activity or anything ..."

She trails off, already shaking her head before she drops into silence. That would be FAR too convenient, for good or for ill, if it was possible at all; Clu wouldn't even need his forces to search for rebels, renegades, and other liberty-minded basics.

"Do we have options *besides* just putting out a general call for survivors to gather here? For that matter, do we have a way to guarantee we wouldn't be luring into a trap, of either our own making or the Heartless'?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's grateful for the firearm, but seems keen on dual wielding now. Well, she's odd enough that it might work. Having the Disk around just in case something gets close! "Thanks, Staren." She's calmed down quite a bit by the time the message plays... getting her shoulders saggy.

    "I now feel terrible if this is what is somehow happening out of view every time I tell an AI or other program to carry out a task... imagining a virus purge as a war with casualties isn't pleasing at all!"

Kenji Kawasaki (715) has posed:
     "Set it on fire," Kojin repeats, "This is a bad place. I don't like these guys and neither should you. We should wrap this up as fast as possible."

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite says, "Frankly with with the walkin' bonfire on this one. If there ain't anything to be done to purge the system clean it's pro'ly best to just take it all down."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "Leaving a final report I suspect. We're creatures of habit and function. He's supposed to leave a report log so he did."

She shrugs a little bit at it it's like explaining breathing as a human. Still she's trying. She looks back to Kyra and thinks for a moment

"It could be but it could get Mcafee's attention too. Fire is tempting but not quite yet, I don't think this system is loss just yet. I have no idea if this is how it works in your world. Its how it works here. We shouldn't stay here too long but we should make use of the command centre yes. If the systems are not locked out."

Deelel does get some public access maps while she talks and moves to work at getting the additional information.

"If there's nothing left and it's infected I'm going to agree but we need to confirm and I suspect the program that was talked about in the log? Is likely the one Java was talking to. He can't be allowed to escape and we need to hold the gate till then, and search for him. Still we should get to work on some searched and the like before we depart, when it's time for fire? You will be able to cut lose Kojin. For now we get what we can here then we move out."

Corona Arclite has posed:
The gate. Can't forget about the gate. Can't expect Alpha to guard that by himself.

"Hey, Dee?" Corona pipes up after considering it. "Would it be possible to get the code for those turrets like were sitting by the lift? Working versions, that is. I'd feel better about checkin' out the rest of this dead system if we have somethin' like that set up 'round that gate to make sure none of -these- things get out."

Then it turns into a bit of a lopsided smirk. "Setting up defenses is part of my job, after all."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over to Corona as she asks her question.

"Likely could but I'm not a mechanic still I think we could find something or salvage some of these. Alpha and the others should be able to get them up and running. So shall we get to that Corona?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I don't know any way to keep these things out if they can ignore walls." Rory points out. "Securing any location will have to be done through aggression... the turrets will be necessary!"