2046/Reboot Ep9: Glitch

Reboot Ep9: Glitch
Date of Scene:	17 April 2015
Location:	The Grid <TG>
Synopsis:	The team handling the grid situation heads out check out a shipyard on the heartless infested system. Not only do they find some major hardware that's almost finished? They encounter the program who caused this entire mess.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 626, 631, 673, 686, Reiji Arisu, 707, Corona Arclite
Tinyplot:	Reboot

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Deelel has posed:
Accessing Archived Data

The party had successfully cleaned out the Central Admin Tower for the unknown system and uncovered the one who'd invited the heartless to play in the world of cyberspace. An anti viral by the name of Mcafee.


Unknown System a little while ago.

Thanks to Corona's efforts at salvage the gate has had some defence turrets salvaged, and even part of an damaged light tank set up to provide support. The tank also made a good bolt hole for Alpha's band to camp out in as well. They had fended off some bands of heartless but so far the old combat programs were holding out all right and had been more than enough to keep things clear. Alpha understood the nature of a viral infestation and that the system had to be purged before it could spread to other.

Deelel had been shaken by Tony's death but she also understood they had to keep going, they had to focus on the living and that's what she intended to do. She's been here helping the squad and getting to know them better, also doing recon on the city. Thanks to the information that Rory and Staren found they had maps and had been surveying things. It was the same story until one location had pinged up on the map.

A construction yard used to make large craft from solar sailors to full out military carriers which still had power, there had been two options check out the yard of the power distribution system. Deelel had opted to check out the yard first to see what was going on there.

When people arrive they'd find Deelel and Cache playing some sort of game with a holo display unit. Deelel seems to be losing and Cashe is very amused.

"So Miss music player, you owe me the best seats in your club for two nights running."

Deelel makes a pained face and sighs in defeat.

"Right well I'll pay up when this is over."

Deelel had sent the briefing on the mission to those who'd been interested in the plan they were to meet up at the gate and make for the faculty where the power was still on. When people start arriving Deelel gets up.

"Greetings programs. Well once your here get your cycles ready and we need to get moving."

There might be some chatting or getting everyone up to speed, but soon the group would depart for the facility

Construction Yard Unknown system Some time later

It's been a mostly quite trip through the ghost system the highways were littered with light craft, and there were still signs of wrecks as they reached the massive yard one could see under construction solar sailors, large light air craft, and then something else a massive hulking form of a massive unfinished command carrier. Scaffolding covers it like vines and there's signs of recent work and also several cranes which while idle have power.

Deelel brings her light cycle to a halt at the open gates to the place and lets out a whistle.

"Would you look at that...why has this been left untouched? Be alert this place has had it's power left on and it wasn't the system monitors who did it."'

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu's lightcycle comes to a halt next to Deelel's; the sage fox MIGHT have a passenger, if Reiji didn't feel up to riding a lightcycle on his own. "Just what this system needed," she remarks, her tone relatively deadpan, "a perfect ship for a mobile final dungeon, sitting right here where anyone could commandeer it. Anyone at all."

She pauses, looking around. "Anyone want to see if we can swipe it before the big bad who commissioned it to start with swoops in, or would we probably run into the final boss while we're trying that?" Her tone is pretty deadpan, so either she's practicing her poker face or she's not even joking at all. Either way, she dismounts from her 'cycle and collapses it back into baton form, readying her staff.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
THIS GOES IN THE LAST POSE ROUND, WHOOPS
    REIJI ARISU is not used to being in a computer. He's not even really used to working with computers. This is the man who only knows how to do that stuff for business and because Xiaomu owns at least half of the living room. And yet here he is, his face hidden behind a bizarrely shiny-blue helmet.

You can still see his eyes, but there's definitely a helmet there, and strange white plates peeking out over his cheeks.

Everything else is a combination of red, white and blue. Not the American kind, but just... It's there.

He's also clinging to the lightcycle behind Xiaomu, looking distinctly uncomfortable about all these flashing lights. "This seems a little too convenient to me. Who leaves a ship out in the middle of nowhere?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    In the wake of what happened to Tony, even Kyra seems a little distracted. Nevertheless, she's continued to come and help with the mysterious system that has appeared in the Grid and seemingly been identified as the source of the Heartless that have been sneaking into the system.

    Since the weapon resitriction was lifted, Kyra has come taking full advantage of it, bringing the cure all and her multiple firearms.

    She's been watching the trip through the town with wariness, knowing the Heartless could lurk in any shadow. "...oooh, I like that idea Xiamou. The one where we steal it. But I am /totally okay/ with taking down a final boss too." She too hops off her cycle, which is still the first edition ENCOM piece she found in the junkyard, and it fades back into the baton which she straps to her thigh.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Everyone had been shaken by Tony Stark's fateful end. But if anything it was all the more reason to keep moving on. An inspiration to make sure that the sort of shit he prevented didn't happen somewhere else. Which meant keeping this system from corrupting others.

At least working on the last few turrets before they moved out had given Corona something to focus on doing. She was, much with Alpha and his crew's help, starting to get a grasp on how 'building' worked here. You got parts, you put them together, but it was all representation of code and data giving a physical form on the Grid. Programming, that was still a bit beyond her. But code her the parts?

Well, what was defending the warp gate was proof enough of what the vixen can do in a pinch.

But now they're back on with the mission. And what a mission its going to be.

"Well Ah'll be a codemonkey's ANSI, that's a bigass ship."

Reker (631) has posed:
Reker has been here, riding his own light cycle. He was a bit upset about what had happened with Stark but he was also a Marine. He'd lost people before and knew the mission wasn't over just because someone went down. You had to soldier on regardless of what happened to your team, you had to finish the mission.

And so he was here, behind Deelel and with the group as a whole, "So what's the plan?" He asks Deelel, looking her over for a moment, before taking in the scene. He has a bad feeling that he just can't put his finger on.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo was saddened by reports of Tony Stark's death as well. However had only heard his voice over the radio and he didn't really know the man that well. He didn't intend to bring it up in conversation, so there was at least that. There were things you just didn't do in polite conversation.

    He would need to know what happened with Mcafee, and with the turrents and all. But it shouldn't take him long to get brought up to speed about the important stuff. He's been here for a few of the missions anyway. He goes with the others to the construction yard, also stopping his cycle near the giant craft that looks like an aircraft carrier.

    "This just screams 'trap'," he states. "Hey, does this scream 'trap' to anyone else?" Xiaomu's words get a nod. "Either '<final boss>'," those two words are in English, "or 'trap left for people who try to stop my nefarious plot'. Either way, not good." He too collapses his lightcycle and puts the baton away. Reker's words get a nod. "Exactly," he agrees, with a nod.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory comes to a halt near Deelel, dismounting her cycle in the shadow of the massive scaffolding. "It's almost better for me, at this point, to consider the systems to be more like entire worlds that just happen to be associated with someone's computer... look at how large this is! What would it even be used for? But if things can be built... then I should be able to expand my available tools with some tinkering..." This is giving Rory ideas indeed.

    But she has her disk out, just in case... but not powered up into fight mode. Yet.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel says "At one time I'd have looked at you fun, now I totally get where you are coming from. It might not even have been Mcafee who did, this was a sever right? It might have been built for this system or another? Still if we can at least secure it we won't have to worry about it. Only one way to find out right?"

Her own cycle turns to wire frames once more, and is soon back in it's baton form. She takes a moment to look at the yard which is basically a Parkour playground more or less.

"We got two major point the offices here, might have information and that carrier. It doesn't look like it' finished yet Reker. So that's a lucky break for us."

Kyra now speaks up and she seems almost amused with her reaction to the possibility of a final 'boss' bit.

"Let's not be so eager on a big throw down if we can help it. Still I get where your coming from my friend. That's the question isn't it Reiji? It looks like it might have been underway but if it's still being worked out. It is likely Mcafee's working on it, I can't see that system monitor working on it given how things are."

Rory would be also getting notice from Deelel for the moment.

"I think that's the best way to look at it Rory. It seems like reality is like one of those user dolls that has another doll inside, and so forth. I trust you I'll be interested to hear what you have in mind when we're not up to our eyeballs in trouble."

Gakupo's presence is welcome, heck Deelel's very happy to have some support from a number of heavy hitters here.

"We're going to need to check the carrier. I'll lead that group, we'll need another to go check out the offices. Rory given your skills I want you checking the offices over, they should be at the back of the yard. Gakupo and Corona cover her, everyone else with me."

She starts bounding up the scaffolding like some kinda of monkey almost as she goes. Bouncing up and scrambling her way up she seems to have no issue in doing this.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Yeah," Xiaomu nods, "the offices ought to have some info on when they started building this thing, who it's for, and any details about how to fly the thing."

Exploring the ship seems to suit Xiaomu just fine; she heads up the scaffolding with Deelel - not parkouring as much as she might normally; she's still a little bit sore from some of the antics in that dungeon Rynn led the group into the other night. (... not to mention sore in the other sense, irritated that it was such a meager haul, but that's beside the point.)

Of course, given that she was the one who predicted 'final dungeon' or 'final boss,' she IS staying alert on the way up - actually carrying her staff in such a manner as to minimize jingling from the rings on its headpiece.

Reker (631) has posed:
"Everyone stick together. Last thing we want is for somebody to get caught out on their own." Reker says, as he moves behind Deelel. He already has his weapons drawn, but not activated, just to make sure if they do get hit by an ambush, he's able to get to work as quick as he can.

Reker considers himself to be more of the muscle of the group, he'll let the smarter folks handle the investegations

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite pulls out her usual shotgun in one hand, and the Grid style suffusion rod she picked up last time in the other. "You got it, Dee. Com'n guys, let's not dwaddle 'round." She hops from her perch and starts towards the back of the complex. "I'll take the point, Gakupo, you cover our backs. She's safer if she stays between the two of us."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Into the carrier, then~!" Kyra immediately starts looking for a convenient way inside. She doesn't not see one and instead becomes suprised when Deelel just decides to parkour her way up the scaffolding. "...uh...I can't..." Kyra looks embarassed as she stands there on the ground, awkwardly grabbing onto one of the scaffolding poles and pulling herself up. It's quite a struggle and with heach passing second she's left farther and farther behind.

    Once on the first platform, she promptly casts Float on herself and uses it to cheat her way up the side of the scaffolding, onto the carrier with the others.

    "Always stick together." Kyra agrees as she quickly catches up with Reker. "A scattered party is a dead party."

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    "Provided it's both flight-capable and not already occupied," Reiji muses. He disembarks from behind Xiaomu as they arrive on the ship. He unslings his weapon rack- still somehow looking exactly as it ought too, except with a glowing outline.

    Starting with a rather tremendous leap, Reiji begins clambering up the side of the vessel after Deelel and Xiaomu. He moves about as well as you might expect a ~magical secret agent~ to move. "You guys be careful in there," he calls after Corona and Gakupo, before vanishing over the lip of the carrier's top deck.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo listens as Deelel speaks of the carrier. True, it was unfinished, and probably not flight-worthy. But still. Why did /it/ have power when nothing else here did? It just smelled like weird! Deelel's instructions get a nod from Gakupo. "Right," he agrees, and looks to Rory. It's just as well, Gakupo might be agile, but he's not exactly experienced in parkour. And it looks like it's going to take freerunners to get up there.

    Corona's idea also gets a nod. "Good idea," he agrees, and makes to take up a position behind Rory once the three of them start off for the offices. However, before he starts away proper, he looks to the group heading for the carrier. Reiji's words are nodded to, and he returns, "You all be careful, too. Call if you need us."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    ROry executes a little bow of sorts. "Will do! That won't be too hard... I hope. Looks like we'll be working together again!" The latter is aimed at Kamui and Corona, both of whom she smiles at. She's getting a little better at this body language thing... but being HERE is also probably helping. Things feel a bit more natural! "Good luck witht he carrier."

    Rory falls into formation with the other two, but she's nevertheless looking around every which way rather frequently. TWO EYES SUCKS!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is scrambling her way up the scaffolding and she looks back to Kyra for a moment and watches her float. She pauses and looks a bit sheepish at this point. Deelel is moving again after a moment and she looks to Reiji and as he moves to follow along. It's tricky to get in but it's not set up to deny people to get in. There' clearly ways the workers could get about to do their jobs.

Reker should have no trouble getting along after Deelel.

"Right if we got to split we keep in groups, never alone. That's asking to get eaten."

Xiaomu is making good time as she gets up to the 'final dungeon' as she's named it.

"Don't worry we will be! Gakupo! You guys take care as well!"

The group heading for the ship would be able to get into the partially finished front hangers and it's cavernous this would likely hold more craft or at least equal to America's massive aircraft carriers, there's no parked craft in here however. Mostly just what's likely construction gear, right?

With Gakupo, Rory and Corona they would find little to bar their way to the office, the power is on when they arrive, the office is in a state of disarray, pads and other tools are all over the place, some on the floor but there's an powered and intact terminal that the group would find, and the being watched feeling doesn't go away.

Back on the carrier the only sounds would be from the party's foot falls until near the back they would see heartless coming out of the wood work, an lot of shadows. The unblinking yellow eyes and they swarm into the hanger now looking to attack the party. There's none of the emblem heartless in this group it's all just the black shadows which are the most commonly seen at times.

"... More?!"

There are always more, when it comes to the heartless and the swarm attacks Deelel's lobbing a light charge into the back of the pack which should disrupt them for a bit.

Meanwhile back at the office the terminal might need some work to crack but Rory should have no issues with it given what and whom she is. Also they might catch the glimpse of golden eyes about they are not being attacked yet but it's clear they are not alone! It's a good thing Corona and Gakupo is here.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Despite her tendancy to be a smart ass Corona is very tense. It shows in the erect twitching of her ears and the erratic twitch of her tail. She glances around the room a moment, then steps into the office and to the side so Rory and Gakupo can under. "Somethin' here is makin' my hair stand on end sharper than a cacticat's bristles. There's a terminal Rory, but try not to dwaddle too lo--"

She stops, snapping her head the other way. For a moment.. She growls softly. Keeps both her weapons ready.

"Definately don't dwaddle."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Hoo..." Kyra breathes hard as she catches up with the group from the small exertion of attempting and failing at parkour and climbing. It's kind of humbling, actually, when her own physical skills don't really stack up to the other Elites on the mission. Something might have to be done about that at some point.

    She's quick to regroup and stick close to Reker, knowing he's pretty tanky and can take a lot of damage in a fight. Reiji would also be a good choice, she thinks, having seen him fight large hordes of undead before.

    It's a good plan, it turns out, because they wind up finding even more Heartless in the mostly empty hangar. Kyra's quick to draw her hunting rifle rather than the CURE-ALL, not hesitating to take aim and fire amongst the oncoming black patches.

    Whatever she fires turns out explodes on impact, revealing that she does not have her usual tranquilizers loaded.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu reaches the deck with Deelel, and sighs as she spots the glowing-eyed shadows. "Well, it wouldn't be a proper final dungeon without a whole lotta mooks to grind through for item drops and the like, would it now?" She plants her staff next to her, reaches into her jacket ..

"Fire in the hole!!"

She pulls the pin on one of her Shinra-issued grenades, lets the spoon fall, and lobs her grenade into the nearer ranks of Heartless. As usual with those grenades, it's elementally boosted for extra fire damage; she's already drawing her handguns by the time the explosion has a chance to fade, and the grenade is followed by gunfire.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    The hangars are... spacious, if nothing else. One can imagine that they'd be able to fit quite a few vehicles in here. Pretty empty right now though- and eerily quiet, even with the footfalls of adventurers making their way deeper into the vessel.

Then, there's a flicker of motion in the corner of his eyes.

That there's the other shoe.

    Reiji grunts softly as the inky bodies of the Heartless begin to bleed out of the walls and ceiling and floor. Just about everywhere he looks, there's another pair of golden eyes peering hungrily back at him. Trapped inside a strange place, surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of creatures that all want to eat him.

Another normal Friday.

    Hollywood comes away from the mobile arsenal with a resounding click. It follows with a tremendous howl of gunfire. Reiji lets the arsenal drop- it lands stable on one narrow edge. With his free hand, he pulls Gold from its holster across his back. "Xiaomu," he says, filling the air- and the Heartless- with enchanted lead, "Seems like the right time for 'that,' doesn't it?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I see it!" Rory chimes happily, diving right for the terminal. This will take some time but hopefully not too long! Once she establishes an interface, Rory sets to establishing credentials and trying to rummage through the ENTIRE THING... if she can -download- it for later review, then even better!

    But a glance over her shoulder when Corona speaks up gets her to shiver once. "Tell me immediately if either of you are in trouble. No amount of data is worth endangering either of you."

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    That sensation of being watched puts Gakupo ill at ease. He may be an android, but he's also a warrior, and he knows when something's not right. And there is very much something NOT RIGHT here! As they enter the office, Gakupo has his left hand on the sheath of his weapon to steady it in case he needs to draw it. Though he DOESN'T actually draw the weapon, not yet anyway.

    He moves to take a position to guard Rory from a different angle than Corona covers, to prevent friendly fire. And then suddenly... eyes. He looks in the direction he saw them from, sliding a foot back and pressing on the hilt of the katana enough to just barely let the sword's blade peek from the sheath. Enough that when he DOES draw it-- he's convinced it's going to be 'when', not 'if'-- it will be easier to draw. However, he still doesn't draw it yet.

    He nods to Corona's statement. "That might be wise. We have company, and I don't know how long they'll hold off on their... 'welcome'." As for being in trouble? Gakupo nods. "We will. Get what you can from there in the meantime, though."

    Though Gakupo also remembers that Rory seems to be uncomfortable when she can't see all around her. So he again sends the wireless invitation to Rory to sync up with his cameras while she works with the computers.

Reker (631) has posed:
These things again. Great. Reker is quick to ignite his twin batons, the ends glowing with energy, powerful enough to derez one of CLU's blackguards, and he dives right towards the Heartless.

The first baton swings downwards to knock one of those heartless to the ground, when he sweeps his leg around to kicks a bunch of them as well. He puts the two batons together into a staff, strikes another Heartless, and then uses his left hand to grab and throw his disk into the group of Heartless.

Deelel has posed:
"Your getting a bit creepy there Xiaomu!"

Deelel calls to Xiaomu the heartless go up in the blast from her grenade. Xiaomu's already adding to the explosive rain with the grenades the heartless goo up and there's some damage to the floor at the blast point where cracking and glow lines can be seen. The two ladies tossing grenades has made quite the impact.

Reiji is just having another Friday night it seems as the heartless come for him and he just unloads, bullet do a good job. The heartless are falling from the fury of his barrage leaving brief plumes of black shadowy smoke as they go. Reker is quickly finding his one weapons are doing quite a good job and the heartless really don't seem to like the native weapon technology of the grid. Reker's attacks knock a bunch of them off their feet, he also throws his disc into the mix and is just churning through them between them all the hanger seems to be cleared out in short order. Deelel pauses as she moves to get out her light staff at this point and looks about.

"Everyone all right?"

Meanwhile in Rory is having to dig through a massive list of ship orders, craft orders, from this system and beyond, the carrier is listed their but it's encrypted unlike the civilian orders here. Even as she works both Gakupo and Corona were wise to be concerned as now the digital heartless like seen on the Grid start melting out of the shadows and seem to be moving to attack at this point they are just rushing en mass as they tend to but a few are lobbing lightning spells at both defenders. They are not screwing about while Rory can start downloading she triggers some sort of access violation alert about viral containment?!

Back in the hanger all is quiet for a moment until near the back of it one might see someone glowing in the dark the tell tale signs of a light suit, the lines are a sick yellow and the programs faceplate is up. They are also clapping their hands like someone who just watched a performance of sort.

"Ah I see the Kernel has brought some more infected here humm? You fight well almost as well as he did, but no matter I will isolate and fix you all soon. So many infected and broken programs, so little time. Still I'm afraid some like you might not be saved you have no permissions in this system and are clearly making an access violation like your friends in the office. Minions, devour them."

Light tanks have been seen before, sure and something akin to one melts out of the floor but it's clearly some heartless parody of one with a whole bunch of the grid like heartless.

"What can one do about a virus like this? I will fix this system and make it safe! However for a Virus like your self, it's the end of line for all of you. Good riddance."

He's already moving to almost seemingly melt back into the shadows also given Reker's background he might get an idea of anti tank tactics as the huge thing locks on to Deelel and opens fire with it's canon, Deelel is forced to run but is caught in the blast and sent flying by it.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Senses sharp, reflexes tense. Just like when she was on the walls, tending to the defense placements while the Depot guards dealt with would-be raiders on the ground. 'Work, but never lose awareness of your surroundings' Rusty had always told her.

That's what saves her, as reflexively she ducks and rolls out of the way of the spells before she entirely realizes they're coming. Her instincts for survival were just that toned.

She's back up on one knee by the end of the roll, both weapons out. Dual weilding wasn't one of her big things, but we've got hordes of these little bastards and only two of the three of them to fight. The reason she stays down on her knee as she opens fire is to keep herself braced for the recoil of two weapons firing at once.

At least she doesn't have to worry about specific accuracy. The Suffusion Rod works like a shotgun, and the Forge Sweeper -is- a shotgun. She just has to get the general vicinity of targets and let the scatter fire do the rest.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Access violation?!" This time she has more trust in her allies and doesn't freak out beyond the occasional glance over a shoulder. Most of Rory's attention is focused on the terminal as requested! "There's some strong encryption on the carrier... unusual! But why are the Heartless defending it?!" At least she's assuming they're defending it.

    All the more reason to hurry up and pull all of the data she can. For now she focuses on that one file. If she can't break the encryption here, then being able to at least DOWNLOAD THE FILE to work on that later is a good idea!

    ... Into a heavily secured and isolated memory sector for that matter...

    "Be ready to break! I'm not sure how much use this will be after all!"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Who're you calling infected, you buggy little memory-leaking subroutine?!" Xiaomu shouts at the yellow-lit guy down on the hangar floor as he calls the group 'infected'. Then he summons his 'minions'.

And then a whole bunch more Heartless start spawning; apparently those are his minions.

"Yeah, seriously, who *ARE* you calling 'infected'?" she repeats, holstering her handguns and pulling the baton from her thigh pouch. "We're not the ones who're running Trojans, you four-bit excuse for an underpowered abacus! REIJI!!" She 'breaks' her baton, powering up her lightcycle. "Saddle up, we're going Musou on that Heartless idiot and all of his goons!! Juu no Kata style!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Oh yeah, I'm all fine." Kyra says, quickly reloading her rifle with more explosive rounds. "That went a lot better than befo-" her words are interrupted by clapping and Kyra looks a little surprised.
    "...there is another program here!" she exclaims, watching the yellow-lined program. Yellow lines...she's not sure what those colors mean. But judging by how this guy is talking and how Kernel is namedropped, "-are you Mcaffe?" she asks, an eyebrow raised, "We're not viruses at all! Do these look like virus colors to you-oh dear his code is tweaked isn't it?" Not to mention he's summoning and controlling Heartless, which Kyra did not think was a thing.

    Hearing Reker, she reluctantly parts with her explosives, shoving them in his direction as she swaps her rifle for the CURE-ALL. Stoically, she turns the heal strength out to medium and prepares to fire.

    In the meantime, she also takes a moment to quickly cast a Protect spell on Reker.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    That one's talking. Fighting Ouma for years has taught Reiji that, whenever there's an enemy who's actually smart enough to try and taunt him, it's usually the boss! "Xiaomu, that's a little harsh," Reiji says with just a bit of a sigh. Gold snipes a couple weaker heartless as he speaks, almost like an afterthought. "The Abacus was a very valuable tool. This guy is just a plain old ordinary tool."

And then there's... A Tank.

ALSO, the magic phrase.

    Xiaomu's light cycle unfolds out of shimmering data. Reiji smirks, leaping to straddle the light cycle. His arsenal is kicked up into the air and lands flawlessly between the two exorcists. "Just what I wanted to hear," Reiji rumbles, fresh clips slamming into his two guns. "Let's get started. You wanna the honors?"

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Lightning spells?! Yeah, that's not good. Gakupo yelps at being hit with lightning, the sound mechanical and metallic. Ow! Yeah, he doesn't like that. But as soon as he can move again, he's drawing his sword and beginning to cut into the ranks of the Heartless. He's trying not to stray too far from Rory, though. Corona's main advantage seems to be her mobility, which means she's going to need to move around, away form Rory. Gakupo is more the 'tank' sort anyway.

    Though this means he takes lightning spells more often. "Augh. Going to get data scrambled at this rate..." he mutters. Rory's words get a nod. "We'll buy you what time we can!" he calls back. Sonic attacks would only keep the Heartless at a distance, encouraging them to use their magic more. So against his better judgement, he gets up close and personal, utilizing the sharp, vibrating blade to cut through as many Heartless as he can.

Reker (631) has posed:
"That's a tank." Reker says, as he stares at the newly arrived Heartless tank, "Everybody get cover, now!" Reker does exactly what he tells everybody to do, going for cover. Thankfully for him Kyra brought a bunch of explosives, and he quickly gatehers all of them up and looks over his cover at the tank.

"Everybody cover me! Take out as many of the Heartless around the tank as you can, but don't get shot!" Once he gives the orders, he tries to think. What is he going to do to take this thing out. He supposes he has an idea. A really stupid idea that he saw in a video game this one time.

    He rolls out from behind cover and takes aim, throwing one of his grenades at the barrel of the tank. This really probably won't work because he doubts light tanks have breaches with rounds inside of them. Really it's just to see if he can do it at all, because he immediately drops down onto his light cycle. He's going to need the speed to pull this off. tLight cycle mounted Reker rushes across the short distance between himself and the tank. If he doesn't get murdered in the process, that's when the really stupid part can begin.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    And as soon as Reiji is seated behind Xiaomu, she leans into the accelerator and they're off like a rocket, trailing one of those faintly glowing 'walls' behind the rear tire. Xiaomu drives like she's in a firefight, sideswiping Heartless and avoiding Reker and the others as she ploughs through the swarm. Reiji rides behind her, Gold and Hollywood, Karin and Chirai all whirling about him at once. It's very clear why they're partners: they coordinate without the need for words. Every shot is covered by a flash of steel, every blindspot is filled by a din of gunfire or a ribbon of datalight.

The mooks are nothing. Chaff to be cut down before the combine harvester that is Reiji and Xiaomu.

    The tank is a more pressing problem- but not an insurmountable one. Xiaomu weaves the bike around the large, bulky thing, boxing it in as quickly and tightly as she can with the lightcycle's jet-wall trail. Five or six times, she comes in breathtakingly close. It gives Reiji the chance to blast it with Hollywood or ram Chirai into its treads to cripple the tank's already lacklustre mobility. As they turn away one more time, Xiaomu takes her hands off the bike's controls just long enough to prime another grenade and pop it down the cannon's barrel, gunning the engine immediately to put some extra distance between them.

    She brings it around again, sending the bike in broad circles around the tank- and directly through the lesser shadow-creatures. This time, though, Reiji isn't alone when he lays into the horde. As the light cycle weaves and arcs across the ground, Xiaomu occasionally takes her hands off the controls to gun the mooks down alongside her partner.

But there's something about the way she's driving. Something... Odd.

    You can only really see it from up above. With a bird's eye view, a pattern emerges in the walls of light. A great square inscribed atop the battlefield, trapping the Heartless within. Rings and symbols are written within that, forming an array of strange and mystical significance.

    "Okay!" Xiaomu grins, 'revving' the light cycle one more time before gunning it for the tank, "Here we go! LIGHT SPEED XIAOMU!" At some invisible signal, Reiji hurls his arsenal overhead-- and then leaps. Xiaomu joins him soon after, the light cycle disintigrating once again into a burst of light. Their momentum carries the two exorcists forward, into the air over massive Heartless, now pinned within the maze of light.

    "Jyuu no Kata," the two of them yell. Reiji roars as he opens fire, Gold and Hollywood laying down a rain of gunfire on all the Heartless below. Xiaomu joins him, Silver and Platinum sending enchanted bullets into the swarm. The enchanted square ensnares them, rapidly accelerating the bolts of lead until each one blazes with barely constrained kinetic energy--!

But then... gravity takes hold. The two of them fall...

And three swords are drawn, pointed down into whatever might remain of the tank.

Each one ablaze with magical power.

The magic circle flares one last time... And then blasts skyward in a column of brilliant, almost blinding light.

Somehow the sealing circle's activation actually avoids allied units. Magic is weird like that!

Deelel has posed:
Down in the Office Corona is getting to work on on the heartless, the foxy cowgirl's pretty darn fast and the Heartless have no heads for tactics really. Which works out in her favour as she's putting the Suffusion Rod to work and it does work well. A first perhaps the shotgun and the digital counterpart work in tandem.

Rory's hard at work here it seems she's not quite got all. She manages to get the file but the data crunching will take a bit once she's done.

Also Rory might notice as she downloads there's an camera feed notice and if she opens it up she'd see a wounded program in another part of the yard, he's big he's hulking but he's got cracks over portions of his body and is trying to use a suffusion rod to fend off heartless. He doesn't seem to be in league with whatever happen here if Corona, or Rory take a moment? The program looks like the one in the report from the Admin tower. There might be time to help him he's on their side of the yard but just a bit away from the offices.

Gakupo's combat style is proving to work very well as he's able to keep the heartless at bay with his blade, they don't seem to take much to put down thankfully. Getting in their faces causes the magic attacks to drop off thankfully.

On the carrier Deelel hears Reker's p,an as she tries to get up, this takes a bit. For she's hurt, her torso is /cracked from her neck doing in a jagged line down her torso to the side. She's in pain but she's moving, as she fights her way through the heartless to reach Reker. She pulls the charges off her hip and gives them to him.

"So like Kernel, so badly infected. You are correct I am Mcafee the anti viral program for this system!"

Xiaomu has her answer in a way and he looks at them for a moment.

"Ah so you admit your Trojans."

As Xiaomu does her thing with Reiji and things are about to get into being crazy with whatever they are planning to do. Deelel meanwhile switches back to disc at this point, for she starts to follow Reker's plan and try to thin out the heartless about the tank. They are thinning out a bit and the main gun of the horror is turning it's attention to Deelel /again/ why is it targeting her like that? Thanks to the clearing out by Deelel and others Reker is able to get in to the tank to enact his plan which ends up leading off a triple combination attack as the two Shinra Operatives get in on the mix.

Things just start getting insane with the grenades, the swords, the gun play and the full out sealing circle which is just devastating it would be almost enough to drop the tank, but not quite thankfully Reker's plan takes actions and as the seal finishes? Reker's charges go off and explodes and the tank shudders exploding into a blast of black smoke and ... a shower of cubes not to mention a fireball. However when all is said and done? Mcafee is no where to be seen.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Da-da-da-da-dan! Bullets go flying!

Ba-ba-ba-ba-bam! Everything explodes!

    Reiji leaps away from the inferno! His arsenal is back in hand, all his weapons are safe in place. With a brief crackle of electricity as his boots hit the virtual ground, Reiji lands. His back is turned away from the explosion- the blast of light and heat illuminates his silhouette as it all goes sky high.

Cool guys get to look away from explosions. It says that right in the rules.

    When the dust clears, nothing... /visible/ is left alive. Reiji pauses, staring across the now apparently empty hangar. "Sound off," he calls. "And stay alert. They might come out of the walls." He pauses, looking to wherever Xiaomu's going to come down and over towards Reker. "Nice job with that, by the way."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Were Rory able to breathe she'd be heaving a sigh of relief here. DOWNLOAD COMPLETE of the most important thing! "Kamui, Corona! There's a nearby Program under attack. Out in the yard! I have the file, let's go!"

    Go help them, she PROBABLY means. Because once she has the file she just BOLTS. "Let the Heartless have the place if they want it so badly!"

Reker (631) has posed:
"Damn, looks like our guy got away." Reker says, standing in the remains of the tank, "Figures. That guy's batshit crazy. We haven't seen the last of him, I bet." He frowns a little bit and puts his staff back down across his lower back, after breaking it down, "I suppose for now we need to gather up what we can and get out of here...I knew this was a damn trap."

Corona Arclite has posed:
Fortunately for Gakupo, Corona has gotten use to dealing with people that fight mainly melee style. When he goes in with his sword she holds her fire with the plasma shotgun and just uses the suffusion rod to pick off Hearthless that manage slink out of his immeadiate reach. Then she pulls that back and stows both weapons. "Then let's clear the way!"

And pulls out her Grid Breaker version of her hammer she got made, the energy lines in it lighting up. "JUMP!" she warns Gakupo, before smacking it to the ground and sending out a low ground crawling energy wave to push the remaining heartless back so they can get clear to the doors and back outside.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Normally Kyra prefers blowing up stuff herself...but Reker is a good cause and she will always donate explosives to a good cause. She shields her eyes from the explosions that follow the set-up and the very /impressive/ bit of teamwork from Xiamou and Reiji. She knew the two were partners but that just solified the thought. It's clear they've both been working each other for a long time.

    "All in one piece here." Kyra says, putting the CURE-ALL back onto her back. She looks around carefully, trying to spot the crazy antivirus, but coming up with nothing. As usual, it doesn't seem like any meaningful loot is left behind by the 'emblem' heartless. She pouts a little at this thought.

    "Great job, guys." Kyra gives a thumbs up. "What, we're not going to be driving this huge ship out of here?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
If Xiaomu had a hand free at the time, she would facepalm oh so hard at Mcafee taking her and Reiji and the others for trojans. AGAIN.

But she recovers her lightcycle, reverted to baton form again, and then rejoins Reiji; the rest of her weaponry stayed on her person, thank you very much. (Even her staff ... somehow.)

"Gathering up what we can probably means rescuing that one Rory mentioned," she points out to Reker. "Very nice work with the grenade, too - you figured the same thing I did. And yeah, once you know something is a trap it loses most of the advantages of BEING a trap, right?" she adds with a grin.

Then the group is off to clear the Heartless away from that other program, and Xiaomu lets the Heartless have it. She's holding back a little this time, letting Reiji lead the way; maybe that stunt with the lightcycle-'drawn' sealing square drained her more than she's otherwise letting on.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Good, the last thing Gakupo needs is EMP damage. So he's glad the Heartless have stopped attacking him with lightning. Rory's proclamation, though, causes his eyes to widen in surprise though. He looks to Roryafter making sure he's not in immediate danger. "Let's go then," he agrees and pushes the Heartless back with a large sonic blast.

    Then Corona warns him to jump. He doesn't look in her direction, but trusts her words without it. He jumps over the wave of energy, and as he drops back down, slices at the hopefully-disabled Heartless. Hit or miss he is departing with the others-- that Program needs help.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is there she's hurt but there, the glowing wound and cracked portions of her body tell tale signs of her injuries. She asked her head and thinks for a moment.

"Or we crashed into his main place of operation, I don't know. Lets get out of here before hr drops something else on thing. Its not finished. It might not even be air worthy at this point. Wed have to see the data Rory's team gets."

She notes to Kyra and looks to the others. She hears about the warning from Rory about what's going on.

Thankfully the plan to get to the program fighting would be a good one. She's going to move out and try to catch up with them. Team two has thankfully got a head start on the rescue.

Rory's group would arrive on the scene just before the others who might have to use drop chutes, to leave the carrier quickly. Either way the program is fighting the heartless but clearly he's low on energy and he's hurt. To have endured how long has has should be hint to how tough a customer he is.

"So ... heh my user leaves me to decomplie like this? Feh I will not fall to low end viri like you!"

He fires one more shot, and his weapon chirps, he's out of power. There's not many heartless, it should be no trouble for the rescue teams to save him, but it's going to be damn close. He's also made quite a mess of this part of the yard as there's several ruined light craft which he used environmental weapons against the heartless.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite is quick on her feet to follow the other's out once the path is clear, running as fast as she can. "There he is!" She reachs for something else she has along with her. "Get him out of there, dunno how much more he can take." Then she skids to a brief stop, jumping up onto one of the wrecked crafts and uses her remaining momentum to throw whatever she's holding in the direction of the confrontation. "Brought a li'l present for ya varmints!"

The object briefly disappears, only to expand into a grid frame and build up from there, like it was being rendered on the spot. What hits the ground is a smaller version of the turrets Corona had built with the other programs' help around the Warp Gate. Essentially a Grid version of the portable ones she normally carries around.

As soon as it's fully rendered and latchs to the ground it humms to life and starts firing on the Heartless.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Awww." Kyra sighs, though her pouting ends quickly when Rory identifies a guy out there-a damaged Program no less-that is fighting against the Heartless. Knowing that mobilizes the white mage to leaving the carrier, going back out the same way they came.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
    There're always more things to kill. Reiji moves wordlessly, the only noise he makes is the sound of guns being reloaded. He manages to do so despite having a rack full of weapons in his off-hand. Seems like he's gotten a lot of practice with those things!

When they come upon the beleaguered program, Reiji wastes no time in shooting everything he can see to death. Deleted? How does that work in computers?

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo doesn't rely solely on melee attacks to try to help the Program. He's firing sonic blasts at the Heartless as soon as he's in range to do so. It should give him the time needed to close the distance, as he runs pretty fast. And as soon as he's able to get close enough, he starts trying to slice into the ranks of the Heartless.

    "We're here to help!" Gakupo calls to the injured Program. He'll be trying to get near, so he can serve as an effective... well, not 'meat-shield', but whatever passes for one here in the digital world. Data shield?

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Not like Xiaomu's going to let Reiji wade into the fray on his own; she's right there with him, guns a-blazing and sword a-flashing, covering Reiji's back against anything that even looks like it's going to try to blindside him.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    SOMEONE IS OUT THERE. SOMEONE IS STILL FUNCTIONING! SOMEONE MIGHT BE ABLE TO TELL THEM WHAT'S HAPPENING!

    Much as Rory would like to be the first one there she likely isn't. None too speedy, after all!

    But her arrival is predated by her disk going zooming through the area bouncing off of several heartless that happened to be arranged in a convenient geometric pattern!

    She has no trouble catching the rebound. It's much better than the clumsy melee efforts from the other day.

    Sadly, drop in the bucket compared to how many there are. But that's okay!

    She was only clearing the handful that were directly in HER path after all. But when she tries to stop she stumbles and topples over to her knees. "Oops... ack! ... I cannot speak for the users, but WE are here to help at least!" And she unslings a supply pack she brought just in case anyone on THEIR team got in trouble. It's a pack of emergency supplies and medical gear for the local equivalent of First Aid. "Once the others buy us a bit of peace... we'll have a look at that damage!"

Deelel has posed:
The red lined program collapses, he's been fighting hard but it's been a very long fight as the party arrives on site with him. He pauses for a moment looking the strangers over, as he leans against a wall. He looks them over the heartless are dispatched, he'd managed to get most of them he'd just finally been overwhelmed. His voice is gruff and harsh, but not too hostile, he saw Corona's actions of just finishing off the heartless who had remained, if they had wanted him cubed? He'd be so.

"Your not from this system are any of you. Wait he's got a port open to the net?! The lock downs been breached..."

he pauses from pain and consideration.

"Given you didn't end me I presume your here to help."

There's a pile of crystals left from the heartless and it seems there's non left for now.

"Heh, don't think much of them anyway. No insult taken, ID's Kernel, I'm going to assume your non viral. Good, we need to talk, if you survived the death trap of this system? Your combat grade and I am going to ... need your help."

He sounds pained to admit this but well cold logic shows he needs help.

Deelel nods to Kernel in agreement there was a lot to talk about.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Not the net, but another system." With the Heartless gone Corona reverts the data turret back into storage mode and picks it up. She doesn't have many of those yet to just leave them lying around. "But yeah. We're from.. a very, very different server you could say. But let's save the chatter fer now and get outta the middle of this deathtrap before more of those little sidewinders show up."

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    With the Heartless gone, Gakupo spins his sword so that the tip of the blade rests on the sheath, and then sheathes the sword. It's a practiced, programmed movement, highly ritualistic.

    More of these crystals... what are these Heartless leaving behind? If he's near enough, Gakupo will try to pick one up, just to look at it, see what it is. He'd never had the opportunity to do so before, despite having fought them several times. What importance do these things have? Are they data?

    He turns his attention to Kernel as he starts to speak. Corona's words get a nod. "That might be best, find a safe place and then talk there. You'll need an opportunity to recharge anyway."

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "That IS the net!" Rory corrects Corona offhandedly. At least she's pretty sure that would mean the net, more or less. "Though probably not through normal means... there's something strange happening here. Rory... and yes, not viral."

    She wastes little time rummaging around for some energy containers for him...

    "You need our help even if we weren't combat grade. We've been following the trail your operation's left all the way here... what happened?"

Deelel has posed:
The toe basic nods slightly at this.

"The net is vast, it is only a logical thing to assume. Agreed, if we act fast we may yet save the programs of this system and the system itself."

He'll let Rory get to work and then move out with them while noting.

"Mcafee went glitched and viral. Started flagging just about everything in the system as being infected by an unknown virus. Cubed or isolated every basic on the system but myself."

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    "Here too?" Gakupo inquires as Kernel explains the problem. He isn't surprised. The Vocaloid's world was near what the 'Users' world' was in technology level anyway. And hey, that's not the first time he's heard of antivirus software exhibiting that behavior.

    He looks to Kernel, with an almost wry look on his face, and says, "This is going to sound awfully weird, Kernel. But that doesn't surprise me at all." There's a rather morbid chuckle, as mentally Gakupo remembers to never delete a file or uninstall a program from a computer without heavy thought, if it was like this in there!

    "Oh. Yes." He bows. "My name is Gakupo. Pleased to meet you."