2144/Reboot EP12: System Crash

Reboot EP12: System Crash
Date of Scene:	01 May 2015
Location:	The Grid <TG>
Synopsis:	Mcafee is lured out to the highways of the system he has betrayed. Reker leads that team with Xiaomu, Gogo, Corona, Gakupo and Kernel against Mcaffee, while Deelel, Rory and Kyra attempt to free the programs he's locked in the Rec unit. (This is the finally of Reboot)
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 626, 631, 673, 686, 707, Corona Arclite, 736
Tinyplot:	Reboot

---

Deelel has posed:
Accessing Archived Data

The stage has been set, it's been a week since Mcafee has had the power cut off, his backups have been gone through he still has one card to play he has the city's surviving population in stasis in the REC. Now is the time that they are going to have to split up, one small team with Deelel is going to try for the REC to spring the programs while the other with Reker in the lead is going to hold off Mcafee until the prisoners in the REC can be freed.

"So that's about sums it up, Reker your group will head to the main interstate and get Mcafee's attention there and keep him busy. While I get to the REC with anyone else who is coming with me. Will be heading to the REC. Kernel will be part of the bait while Alpha's team is remaining on standby in case things get worse. He's got orders to blow the gate if it comes to it to keep Mcafee and the heartless from getting out. That's it it's time to head out."

Deelel will depart on her light cycle a moment later with anyone else whom is coming with her. The light cycle forms about her body and she's gone down the highway.

Kernel says as Deelel leaves

"You heard the music box. We're going to get Mcafee's attention he wants my bitmap so I'm going to call him out, you take to position and make ready to ambush him when he arrives."

Once anyone has said any thing they and left to say? He'll send the transmission on an open channel.

"Virus?! You want me cubed? Come to the primary Highway at the first off ramp I'll be waiting for you, glitch."

Now they had to wait.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Finally, the time he had been waiting for. Reker had spent the last few minutes of the briefing going through his kit, making sure he had everything he would need. It had been a while in the making, and they had to jump through a bunch of hoops, but the moment was here.

    "Remember folks, we need to keep him distracted, and alive, until the hostages are free. As soon as we have word that everybody's out, though, he's mine."

    He checks his staff real quick and then stores it behind his back. It also appears that he has two more weapons, pistol looking weapons in holsters on either thigh. Mixing and matching equipment from both digital worlds, it would seem.

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo Tomago grins as she suits up. Her recent stay in the hospital and lack of any real villainy to fight has left the Justice Speedster with a serious itch to scratch. "Not if I get to him first." she says. Transferring to a digital world has been... Honestly, she didn't NEED much instruction or help. The young woman's suit even fits in the the aesthetic of the world.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Right behind Deelel is Rory, also on the Light Cycle. She's far more comfortable with a vehicle than her body, as usual. Handling it is not hard at all!

    "You know... I do like this system and yours, Deelel. Despite how subjectively strange it seems, the aesthetics are very appealing. My standard Simulmorph and battle armor now uses this appearance!"

    ... probably a very strange kind of compliment, but it's from a strange kind of person.

    Either way she's quick to pull up alongside, switching to serious mode instantly. "Chances are high Mcafee left behind some kind of security force. One single program with a small horde of Heartless wouldn't be wiping out a system this large without plenty of forethought. Though he may have become careless in victory..."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Good luck, you guys. I know you're in good hands." Kyra salutes the others before she swings a leg over her Light Cycle. "Especially with Reker around. I bet he could straight up solo that McAffe twerp!" She gives the group a thumbs up and a smile before the helmet closes down over her face and she turns for the light cycle.

    A thick bag remains on Kyra's back, bulky and filled with things she hasn't revealed yet, especially not in the presence of Kernel. (It's probably explosives.)

    The lightcycle whirs to life and Kyra takes off, following after Deelel. "If there is something left behind, I bet we could handle it."

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo's only brought his one weapon, the Gakuto Miburi. It's really the only one he's very experienced in using, and a weapon he doesn't know how to use would be a liability here. Sure, he's got his Identity Disk... but from a logical standpoint, something that held all of one's life experiences and memories seemed to him to be too precious a thing to casually fling at an enemy. It's mounted on his back where it belongs, and he intends to leave it there.

    He's chosen to stay with Reker's group, mainly because there's only so much good he can do in an infiltration mission. Sure he'd be good protection, but there are several elites going with her. They can likely take care of themselves. Besides, his abilities mostly revolve around making noise. And Rory's the hacker, not him. Notonly that, but distracting Mcaffee is going to be hard enough without rising to apply the same amount of force to him that he's undoubtedly going to be applying to them.

    Deelel, Rory, and Kyra seem to be heading to free the prisoners. He nods. "Take care, and call if you have any trouble," he offers to the group. As Kernel sends the transmission, Gakupo stands near him, to stand guard. They don't know what direction Mcaffee's going to appear from... if he doesn't send in lackeys first. Who knows?

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"I make no promises, Reker," Xiaomu says to the ambush team's leader, a casual grin on her face. "You want the notch on your disc, you'd better be ready to deliver when the time comes."

Despite her casual air, though, Xiaomu is braced for a tough fight. There's no guarantee that Mcafee is going to come alone, for one thing - and the group hasn't seen what Mcafee is really capable of when he has to pull out all the stops. Just because basics LOOK human doesn't mean they're strictly limited to a human shape or size, after all ... and he WAS using Heartless the last time the group saw him.

So the sage fox is loaded for bear today, with light pistols, her regular handguns, Suiren, and her identity disc. She'd be even happier if Reiji were here, but she's reasonably confident in her skills and those of her friends.

That doesn't keep her from feeling like she's heading for a boss battle without a save point, though.

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo Tomago chuckles. "I'll try and draw his fire when we get there. I'm faster and more agile than most, and I can be a hell of a distraction. Let me see if I can scout ahead, make him turn around, then you guys sit on him from behind.

Corona Arclite has posed:
While everyone else is calling out Mcaffe and taunting him into showing, Corona has been disappearing under the various digital vehicle wrecks scattered about the highway. Why?

Because she's what she's learned about Grid 'technology' from Alpha's crew to rig it to explode. The blast of something that big cubing itself will catch Mcaffe and whatever else he sends their way by surprise.

She's also got some of those turrets to make use of. Getting a chance to lay out a few defenses and other tricks beforehand is where the fox lady really accels at her work.

Deelel has posed:
The Highway

Kernal was ready, he was armed and waiting sitting on the hood of a crashed light car. This was his system, Mcafee had been one of his /men/. This was damn personal though after the fight at the plant he started to suspect things about his saviours. He suspected some of the might somehow be users? Users being useful? Ha there's a strange turn of events.

Reker was ready and issuing orders Gogo who had been new but Deelel was very thankful for the Justice speeders aid. Everyone helped and she'd be a wild-card that Mcafee would have no information at all upon.

Gakupo was ready as ever the Samurai along with Xiaomu might find some good places to lay low while they wait, the question is where was the main attraction? He wasn't here yet it seemed.

Deelel Team

Deelel couldn't help but smile at Rorys "You did? Thats awesome I'll have to see it at some point. Your right the place is likely infested with heartless and who knows what else. Let's hope he got cocky!"

Kyra is with the rest of the group and it shouldn't take them long going at mac speed to reach the looming form of the REC once the group arrives the looming building is quiet and the door would have to be forced it would likely be up to Rory and it would not be too much trouble for her. Deelel gets off her bike and looks to the thing.

"I have no idea how many programs are in here so get ready."

The Highway

"So ... little Kernel you'll face me again? You know this is futile! Let me correct you!"

"Get Maced you glitch this ends here and now!"

But where is ... Mcafee? He appears on an overpass and heartless start rising out of the highway, he laughs.

"This ends yes, it's the end of line for you Kernel!"

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
"Alright people. This is it. The big enchilada. We're going to take this guy down, and we're going to do it fast and hard. Ignore the little guys. Stop him, and he can't summon anymore. It's time to Woman Up and save this place!" she shouts.

"YAHOO!" she screams as she kicks it into high gear, accellerating to her top speed and nearly tearing up what passes for pavement. "HEY YOU! OVER HERE!" she shouts as she speeds to the front of the pack. The slender speedster strikes swiftly, swerving side to side as she slams into a heartless, ramping off of its face and launching her discs (all of them, into the packed heartless, clearing a path for her less mobile teammates.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite just keys up her headgear when the Heartless start swarming onto the freeway as well. "Well wouldtya look at that. Guess the Web really is like it's namesake," the foxgirl remarks as she pulls one of the guns from her toolbelt and twirls it in her hand. "Full of bugs." Snapping the gun into proper grip she fires a few arcing shots into the uncoming horde, lobbing the grenade shots so the Heartless will run right into the blast radiuses with their mindless foreward charge.

"Time to give a new meanin' to 'frag' grenade."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Since Kyra is using that First Edition Encom lightcycle she found in the metal scrapyard way back then, she goes slightly slower on it than normal. It does reach pretty high speeds at the cost of handling, after all. Arriving at just when Deelel does, Kyra hops off, the bike vanishing into the baton that is snapped onto her thigh.

    The door is closed so Kyra looks to Rory expectantly, trusting her to handle the needed hacking much more readily than either her or Deelel would.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo keeps Reker's words in mind as they wait for Mcaffee to show his face. Just distract him, until the hostages are freed. It makes sense; who knows what Mcaffee'd do to the hostages to gain the upper hand if he felt he was losing against them. That bargaining chip needs to be taken out of the equation.

    They wait... and then the mad antivirus appears. With Heartless. Kazuki prepares to face them, to cut through them until he can get to Mcaffee... but then GoGo seems to have that covered. Corona as well. As she volunteers to handle the Heartless, Gakupo nods. "Call if you need help," Gakupo says. And then he heads down the path that Gogo threw her disks down, heading for Mcaffee.

    Hopefully he'll get reasonably far down that path before the Heartless close in again. He's no speed demon, but he does run faster than a normal human being. But it'll still take him a little bit to close the distance. As he does he draws his katana, the blade singing with a sound like a single note played on a flute.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Oh, that's a LOT of Heartless, isn't it? And the group is supposed to take it a little easy on Mcafee until Deelel and her team report that the 'hostages' are safe.

Not to mention that Mcafee went and showed himself too far away for Xiaomu to REALLY get the drop on him. That's the worst part at the moment. On the other hand, that's not stopping Gakupo. And Xiaomu DOES have her own light cycle, still.

She saddles up, heading for the ramp onto that overpass - with a complete disregard for which side of the road she probably should be driving on - and tries to come in from the other end, light-pistols blazing as she starts gunning down Heartless with both hands, steering with her knees more than with the grips.

If she can get a few good shots in on Mcafee himself en passant, she's totally going to, but her emphasis is on a high-speed pass at this point.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Indeed, as the group banish their lightcycles and check up on the building, Rory wastes no time settling down at the door console and beginning her efforts. She's dug up every record she has so far in the area, scouring up all of the maintenance codes and other backdoors. It's fairly easy for her to trigger the door's mechanism to switch into maintenance mode, break its connection with the authorization checing, and force the door to open...

    "Likely too many to be riding on our bikes. We might be better off securing the location and using it defensively until the others have finished, rather than exposing the group to outside where the Heartless will easily notice them. We cannot assume the Heartless will cease being a threat when they lack a leader. On the other hand the Heartless don't seem to care about walls, and in that circumstance the building's worth inverts, becoming a trap. With only us three, we will need to use strategy. It is unlikely there will be many combat experts among the hostages..."

    Just how much analyzing ahead is Rory doing?

Reker (631) has posed:
The arrival of the Heartless make Reker frown, "Stick to the plan guys. You all know what to do." Reker looks at the waves of Heartless rising up in front of them, and quickly moves to engage by tossing out his ID disk first and foremost, before rushing in after it.

    Reker is saving his pistols for later, it seems, because they're staying firmly holstered while he closes in with his electrified staff, moving to strike out at the Heartless in a flurry of moves, strikes coming from every direction to catch them off guard. Several hits land on him as well, without any chance to defend just based on sheer numbers.

Deelel has posed:
Highway

Mcafee might be about to say something else when Gogo strikes first, heck even Kernel is surprise at how fast the girl is. He's not going to complain. Gogo's actions catches Mcafee off guard. She wasn't one of the one he encountered before.

"More?! Hah it will avail you not. It does not matter how many you send against me for I am many! I AM LEGION!"

The heartless now are chasing after Gogo the shadows moving fairly quickly after him. When Corona makes her move and so does the Kernel he opens fire using his rod to blast a number of the heartless but there's a heck of them lot of them. Gakupo has a number of heartless following after him he should have enough to keep him busy. Xiaomu meanwhile cut a swath through the heartless but there's quite a few of them and they keep coming, Mcafee forms some sort of barrier to block Xiaomus shot however.

Reker meanwhile has got the attention of the big guy. He doesn't seem to be to be happy.

"Ah your here but curious some of your friends have forsaken you it seems!"

Mcafee now starts something and spikes of darkness are raining about the entire highway, people better be fast.

REC

Deelel is glad not to be alone at this point as she moves to the door and looks over at Rory.

"You really are an Admin program heh."

The door is popped and past an inactive security check point are massive rows and stacks of pods, cells full of program none of them seem to be awake it's like all of them are in stasis there are a few heartless around here but they are not ... doing anything yet.

"We need to get a map of the place, so we can figure out where to go so keep your eyes open fore a terminal."

A terminal should be easy enough to find but it might be disturbing the programs here are stacked up like cordwood with no regard for them being people at all.

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
Gogo murmurs over the radio. "We have to make it look good." she says. "Don't let him think we're buying time, make him think we're serious business. Don't give him a chance to think." she says as she revs her discs.

Carving through the Heartless is easier with every blow she lands, her discs shearing through dark flesh. "You're mine!" she shouts at McAfee, pushing a button on her suit. Then she JUMPS, spinning in a circle and launching her discs in every direction... They retract in less than a second, and she pushes on ahead, as if going straight for McAfee.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "I agree, no need to be bringing them in where everyone's fighting with McAffe. Hanging out somewhere safe while everyone else cubes that crazycakes program is a good idea." She waits for Rory to do her thing and get them inside.

    When she starts noticing the Heartless, Kyra pulls out her normal handgun. "I think maybe we ought to get rid of what Heartless we can find in here before waking people up. They don't seem to be going after the Programs in stasis." That are neatly stacked all over the place.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Minus 20 points fer the cliche 'Legion' line. Whoever programmed this bloke didn't give much drive space to witty comebacks I reckon... Uh oh." Corona bolts from her spot and dives for cover when the spikes start dropping, rolling under one of the wrecks she did -not- rig up.

A moment later she climbs up the other side, and sits on the top of it. There's still literally hundreds of Heartless swarming the highway, some starting to turn back towards her allies that have gotten past the initial rush.

"I swear, this fella is worse than the Black Hats. Hurr hurr technology is my bitch, fear me! Lemme tell ya something, maybe instead of all that goin' insane in the mainframe ya shoulda learned a thing or two." Corona pulls the detonator switch from her belt. "Like tactics."

As soon as she clicks the switch with her thumb the various wrecked vehicles she rigged detonate, releasing a considerable amount of energy as the very large constructs cube themselves into itty bitty bits that should take a good chunk of the Heartless derezzed with them!

Corona discards the used remote over her shoulder. "Like when faced with superior numbers: level the playing field!"

Reker (631) has posed:
    Getting the big guy's attention is exactly what Reker wanted, because with Macaffe's attention on him, he has no idea what their overall plan is. Reker decides to keep up with the plan and issue a few taunts to the big bad crazy program.

    "Hey Macaffe! I heard that your mom is so fat she won't even fit on a Terabyte drive!" Oooh, sick burn, right? Reker decides to punctuate it with a shot from his right hand revolver, angling the weapon up at Macaffe and firing a single shot at him with the high caliber weapon.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Hold on. Don't attack, you may be waking far more trouble than we see. If they aren't going hostile on sight, let them be. Once we have control of the building's security we can gauge how many there are... hopefully. Keep an eye on them. If they start attacking then we'll have no choice. They'll also probably react if we free the programs from stasis."

    Rory's on full tactics mode right now, glancing all about and thinking very fast.

    Efficiency is a prized trait.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo stops to deal with the Heartless following him, not wanting them to get the better of him when he's close to Mcaffee. He won't have the focus to deal with them both. But while he might easily dispatch the Heartless with his spinning, dancelike strikes... but he's NOT expecting the spikes of darkness to come falling from the sky.

    One of those spikes of darkness rips down the front of Gakupo's digital form, cubes spraying from the wound like blood, and he gives a surprised yelp. The attack puts him on a knee, and leaves behind a glowing 'scar' of missing data. He claps his free hand over it, wincing. Thankfully he's used to not bleeding.

    He stands quickly, keeping himself moving to try to avoid any more of those hitting him. In the meantime he emits a large sonic blast at Mcaffee. It's not the largest he can manage, but it's larger than his normal sonic blasts.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
"Oh come on," Xiaomu remarks when she sees Mcafee putting a barrier up to protect himself from her shots. "Personal barrier? More like a personal foul!"

She keeps going, though, weaving between the raining spikes and continuing thin the herd of Heartless out some more - possibly giving her allies a hand in passing - before she's finally out of the Heartless horde ... whereupon she turns her lightcycle around for another pass, re-holstering her light-pistols - and drawing Suiren from its staff-sheath.

Then she guns the throttle, and starts literally slicing through Heartless mooks. "You of all programs should know what happens when you start throwing spam around, Mcafee! You slow everything down, and your processes -"

She swerves abruptly, trying to slash at Mcafee with a surge of ice magic from Suiren's blade.

"- freeze up!"

Deelel has posed:
Highway

As the fight gets going? Gogo is doing a good job of making a dash for Mcafee he's not expecting someone to have a light cycle build ion more of less. She's able to get hit int, nothing direct but it did wing him another disc is deflected however, and the other two miss for Mcafee is on the move. Meanwhile Corona has had darn good idea to deal with the heartless swarms as the blast go of a number of heartless go up with them it's actually seemed to thin them out a voxels and mummy rain down in the aftermath of the digital fireball.

"Will not forgive or forget that! You can expect my vengeance will be something for the ages!"

Mcafee is very much tied up however with so many people gunning for him. Then comes the ice which works better than one might expect Mcaffe is hit bu the ice and is sent reeling.

Gakupo meanwhile is dealing with heartless on his own and has lured a number of them away which he should have no problem in dealing with now that Mcafee's darkness storm for lack of a better term has been halted by Xiaomu. Which gives him an opening to send Mcafee reeling.



REC

"I agree as well. We'd need to clear them out when we have a chance, and yes your right we need to see what we can do there."

Deelel however finds a map and pauses as she uses the codes she was given along with the others.

"So I got good news and bad news, the good news it it looks like there's several terminal to control this place, bad news is they are all stand alone ... and separate though the complex. Each of us? Is going to have to go deal with one.. There's two on this floor and one on the next, I'll take the upper floor and we need to keep in constant contact."

Highway

While the heartless are thining out Mcafee is recovering a bit.

"You think ... this is the full extent of what I can do?! The darkness between systems has more power than your minds can process!"

Kernal comments

"You really always been insane. Damn the user that compiled you to the same pit you are going to!"

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo WHOOPS with joy as she hits him. She lands, spins, and hits another button, clamping her discs together. She leans forward and hits the ground rolling. She's not great against large numbers. She's more a single target gal. "You know, one of my friends used to use McAfee as a virus protection program. I showed him why that was a bad idea by filling his computer with viruses after he dumped my best friend. You're no different. We're going to take you out!" she says as she slings herself in a lowflying trajectory, aiming to take out his legs.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "You mean we're going to have to split up." Kyra states suddenly sounding extremely unenthused. The dismay she feels at this is palpable, her world filled with many horror stories about parties that split up and were /never/ reunited. Mostly because all the members were dead. Splitting up into lone units was by far the worst possible thing that could be done.

    "...well, we've got radio, right?" Kyra says lamely. "So where are these complexes? You'll get one and I'll get one, right, Rory?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Weak against ice? Xiaomu makes a mental note of that, along with a footnote that it's not confirmed yet ... but that's still a lot of Heartless in the area.

"Time to drop a firewall on Mr. Trojan Security over there, guys!" Xiaomu calls out as she finishes her second pass, withdrawing a grenade from her vest and pulling the pin. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!" She makes sure she's got a clear target zone ...

And pitches her grenade into a pack of Heartless, buying the time to derez her lightcycle and stash its baton. If she's going to try icing Mcafee, she wants a bit clearer of a field to do it in. Of course, if he *is* all that weak against ice, she doesn't want to go too heavy on ice attacks until Deelel gives the okay.

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Then mission success!" Corona actually hoots gleefully when Mcafee says he won't forget her display of digital demolitions. "Whereas when we're done yer gonna just be an eight bit halfwit in someone's trash bin once we're done cleanin' up this grid here."

Corona moves on to the next part of her own strategy, activating the couple of digital turrets she'd set up, which render in a flurry of grid lines and polygon layering as they power up.

"Only thing programs will remember is how you went all on a power trip and crashed harder than a cheap processor fer it." As she gives the signal the turrets open fire, lobbing alternating blasts at Mcafee. His shielding won't hold forever, so best to use the automated defenses to wear it down and save the big personal stuff for once it does.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo keeps an eye on the Heartless around him, dancing between their frenzied attacks and returning with quick, fluid strikes of his own. He'll cut them down as quickly as he can, knowing that he needs to keep his eyes on the battle with Mcaffee and hoping he can also dodge any more falling spikes.

    However, he notices as he strikes the last blow at the Heartless attacking him that the spikes have stopped falling. This causes him to turn and look at Macaffee... who appears to suddenly be wigging out. While the insane antivirus is posturing, Gakupo tries to close the distance and attack with his sword. The samurai's honor won't let him strike from behind though. He goes right for the front.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Splitting up would be unwise... but we have no choice?" This leaves Rory very worried. She freezes in place briefly, and gives each of the others a scared glance. The response is just the same as Kyra's, really.

    But the expression vanishes quickly. "So long as the Heartless leave us alone we should be alright. If they attack when we're separated though... flee. Out a window if necessary. A successful regroup indoors is unlikely. Outside we can use the Light Cycles."

    With that established, she checks the map from Deelel and seemingly all she needs at it is a single glance - after all, she can copy what she sees and re-render it instantly into her own map.

    So cheatery.

    "I'll this one..." Off she goes, to the left... after nodding to Kyra.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Reker is really proud of his team, everyone's doing an awesome job of holding the focus of Macaffee without letting him get too focused on any one of them. Reker draws his second pistol in his other hand and moves, firing as he goes.

    The twin revolvers resemble the Chiappa Rhino but updated with blue lines running along the length, firing some kind of laser style shot, instead of regular bullets. Reker takes out a few more of the Heartless and then focuses his fire on Macaffee again.

Deelel has posed:
Highway

GoGo's words just confirm what Kernal had suspected no time to worry about that. If he's somehow got the only users in existence who are not glitched? He's not going to complain he may have words for them later however. For now he's attempting to follow up Gogo's attack but several heartless get in the way of the shot. Either way Mcafee is laughing now and is distracted now for the others to assault him.

Xiaomu's own actions are a successful as she blows up a good deal of the heartless and she may end up bonked with a few bits of mummy due to the explosion.

Corona meanwhile is doing quite a bit of sassing and hitting Mcafee with the brutal truth. She also making use of the turret which are now pinning Mcafeee down for the moment. With him suppressed he can't issues orders to them and this lets Gakupo again slice, dice and make late night TV gadget sellers jealous for he's just going through the heartless like a turbo powered kitchen knife. Reker meanwhile has done quite a good job of opening fire now and keeping the heartless under control.

However Gakupo may have a bad thing coming as Mcafee recovers enough to attempt to stab him with a light sword he's just rezzed from his own baton.

"Idiot!"

REC

Deelel does not like splitting up, she's hung with Arthur, she knows about Afterus after all she was there for that. Splitting up is bad but Mcafee was one clever guy, or whoever designed this place. Three stand alone terminals that needed to be hooked up.

"If we can turn the internal security systems if there are any on them that would help. I don't like it either and yes I do. Let's get moving."

As the party splits up more heartless can be seen and there seems to habve rather large ones at the two ground terminals there. Thankfully with the maps they are at least able to find a way to not get notice /right/ away but that's going to be an issue.

Meanwhile Deelel is making he way up as carefully as she can but there's this feeling of dread in the depths of her heart. Something isn't right and she knows it.

<<A choice, you will have to make a choice.>>

Deelel looks about for a moment wondering if she's hearing something and she blinks in confusing. She only feels worse now and something was drawing her there.

BGM Fate of the unknown. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNS3XM9pqbE

Corona Arclite has posed:
Oh no, Gakupo may of bitten off more than he can chew on his own! Quick, think fast... or better yet, just do it.

Corona jumps off her spot, activating one of her plasma cutters as she bounds to the side of the highway. "Hey, McTaffy."

*SZZZZNK* The cutter slices throught the base of a street post. Followed by a good kick to make it topple towards Mcafee and maybe distract him from trying to cut Gakupo up. "LIGHTS OUT!"

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo heads back around. "He's a hell of a fighter! We just need to push it a little further!" she says. "Anyone got a good throwing arm?"

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    There's actually both good and bad points about Gakupo's current position. On the bright side, if Mcaffee's going for a stab, that's a forward, straight attack. Meaning that his viable radius of defense with the blade is going to be relatively low. And if he wants to be assured of hitting Gakupo, he'll have to move his barrier at least a little. Just enough to take a hit on that side himself. And with that arm engaged, he's not going to be able to stab Gakupo AND defend from an attack on that side.

    ...Downside? Getting stabbed with a sword of light, evidenced when the blade appears at his back with a digital sound unlike the slide of a metal blade through a torso-- or even through metal. Thankfully it misses his ID disk. This is a very painful thing to happen to him, as the sound that the hit forces out proves further. But even if he could have seen it in time to dodge, he wouldn't have. Mcaffee's arm is bound now however, hopefully leaving him open to attack.

    If Corona's street post doesn't hit Mcaffee, maybe the swing Gakupo aims for the arm that the antivirus has stabbed him with will. He doesn't even bother trying to pull himself off the sword, he just takes a swing for that arm. "DIE!"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Poor Kyra. Poor /REC team/. It would just be their luck thaat while moving for these terminals that the biggest Heartless would be hanging out around them. Maybe McAffe put them here to deter would-be rescuers? Maybe the other team needed to endanger McAffe enough to convince the others to leave!

    In the meantime, Kyra is sneaky. She successfully fights back her instinct to start shooting things with her guns. In order to further fight it, she slips her previously drawn gun away, giving her both hands as she sneaks in.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
THAT was not something Xiaomu particularly wanted to see this fight - an ally taking an injury which has pretty much every right to be lethal. How Gakupo doesn't get insta-fragged by it, she has no idea, but she's just as glad - and hoping he stays not-dead.

Suiren flashes out of its staff-sheath again, and Xiaomu leaps at one of the surviving Heartless near her, channeling enough magic through the blade to freeze her victim into a solid block ... and then, with a yell of "XIAOMU SURFER!!" she sends the frozen Heartless sliding rapidly towards Mcafee. She has to adjust her approach angle a bit - possibly running down a couple extra Heartless, which is no loss - and then caroms straight at Mcafee, trying to crash the ice block into him *WITHOUT* hitting Gakupo.

It's not just a matter of 'running Mcafee over,' either; she wants him to TAKE that impact, not just get surfed over by it or anything. The idea is to try and hit him while he's 'anchored' by Gakupo, *without* doing any further damage to the virtual swordsman.

Reker (631) has posed:
    Both of Reker's guns empty and he holsters them, so they'll reload, as he breaks out the staff once more. He busts it in half and then moves, heading straight for Macaffee this time. The ends of the twin sticks spark with energy as he moves close. He knows they can't kill Macaffee yet, but that doesn't mean they can't hurt him.

    Reker swipes with one of the sticks to try to hit Macaffee in the arm, trying to cube the limb with the weapon and render the program combat ineffective.

Deelel has posed:
Kernel pauses at the strange user's request he fgrunts for a moment looking at her. "I do."

He'll move ot pick her up and launch her right at Mcafee he had to respect her courage. Yes she wasn't a typical user at all he thoguht, maybe some actually are not idiots after al

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo starts to spin as she's launched. Curling into a tight ball, she becomes a razor-edged morphball of death. "ALRIGHT MCAFEE! CONSIDER THIS YOUR UNINSTALL COMMAND!" she shouts as she triggers the overdrive. It'll leave her vulnerable for a few critical seconds after impact, but it's her most powerful attack.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    This is a serious problem, Rory decides. How exactly is she going to defeat that thing? She's frozen at the doorway and pulls back before she can be spotted. There's really only one thing to do - distract that thing and BLINDSIDE it, she decides.

    So she withdraws back the way she came to the last corner and hides around it... then HURLS her disk with all her might for the far wall past the door leading to the terminal room.

    Her intention? Make enough noise with it slamming into the wall that the Heartless might maybe head out to look.

    Thankfully the disk is quick and rebounds back to her in no time at all, so she waits on the edge to see if that lures ANYTHING out...

    Because if their back gets turned to her, she WILL take advantage of it.

Deelel has posed:
Highway

Corona has done her her work well as she continue to taunt the insane program then she gets him up close. It's enough to get him off Gakupo and keep him from attempting for a killing blow.

"Spamware wench!"

IS all Corona gets out of him, well until he attempts to lash out at her as he gets back up. Gakupo however is able to make a brutal assault upon Mcafee and it's not pretty he's got a horrible injured but some of it seems to be healing? Wait no the wound is filling with darkness. There's no other word for what's happening to Mcafee! Xiaomu makes her moves now as she freezes heartless without any real effort she does get the ice block to crash into him but it's a glancing hit it's enough though to help protect Gakupo and set up Reker.

Reker gets a good hit in he actually does manage to slice off the arm of the mad program which explodes in a shower of cubes, the weapon hits the ground. Seconds later? Gogo gets fast ball specialed by the Kernel and he watches with quite a bit of interest as Gogo goes flying right at Mcafee and slams into him knocking him off his feet but the mass of darkness attempts to coil out and /grab/ Gogo while she's vulnerable but she's done a hell of a hit as mad program tries to get up.

"Hehehhehehahahahahah I see it now! Darkness is not a means to an end IT IS THE END! THE PROPER STATE!"

His severed limb starts bleeding darkness and it forms a nightmarish claw.

"Yes I shall YES FREE THIS SYSTEM YOU! THEN THE ENTURE NET INTO DARKNESS"

REC

Kyra would find her way onwards as she moves though the heartless, the heartless does not see Kyra, will be able to make it to the console.

Rory on the other hand has her own tactics seem to be working well enough, the heartless are distract it's back is now turned upon her. She will have her chance to move. It should be no trouble at all to get past it these things are dumber than a lot of first gen self running drones on Rory's world.

Deelel now makes it along but the feeling grows stronger and stronger in the back of her mind.

<<You made the choice already don't you recall?>>

Deelel shakes her head a little bit as she watches the heartless but the ones in Deelel's floor are oddly more alert like they are hunting for something. Little does she know it's her. The heartless are aware of her some how.

Highway

Mcafee laughs loudly and then darkness stats raining from the heavens and he laugh becomes an inhuman /scream of primal enjoyment/.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite uses her baton to block the swing at her, but Mcafee hits with enough force that it still sends her tumbling backwards. Granted, that's not hard to do to the small and lighter fox girl. She's at least quickly back on her feet. "I know you are but what am I?~" she singsongs back at him.

Though he's doing the whole nasty bleeding darkness and recompiling new form thing. That's just all sorts of wrong right there.

"Boy you are an idjit ain't ya?" Corona reachs back to pull her very not-Grid looking gun from it's sling. By this point it's not going to matter if more of their 'true' nature is given away or not, this guy has gone completely ocho de loco. "Looks at ya. Yer becomin' the very thing ya was coded to -keep out-." More taunts, more mocking. Partially to keep his attention away from the wounded Gakupo, and Gogo and Xiaomu while they're vulnerable.

"Ya ain't nuttin' but a sick varmint now. And there's only one way of dealin' with sickness this far gone."

She shoves her shotgun, point blank practically, at Mcaffe "Puttin' em down." and pulls the trigger for a loud retort from the weapon as well.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu actually comes to a complete stop and *stares* at Mcafee as the darkness starts taking him over. "You have *GOT* to be kidding me," she remarks to nobody (or to everybody), glancing around briefly to see how thick the Heartless still are. Then she takes a breath, re-sheathing Suiren again and planting it next to her - actually slamming the staff's butt into the pavement hard enough that, if the energies of the Grid are amenable to her tapping into them, she might be able to do that, to draw the power in through her staff, and through her left hand which grips it tightly. Her right hand comes up, flaring with mystical power ...

"Sage Fox Sorcery: Demon Gate Seal! XIAOMU WAAAAAAAAAAVE!!!"

She thrusts her right hand out at Mcafee, invoking one of her most powerful spell techniques - and it's one which most of the gruop might recognize, since she used it against the light tank when she and Reiji immobilized and obliterated it. But Reiji isn't *here* this time; all Xiaomu can do is stand her ground ...

And try to entrap Mcafee in a sphere of sealing magics, a magic square seeming to draw itself on the ground beneath him, as the sage fox tries to lock him down completely. The downside is that Xiaomu can't go anywhere, or even protect herself, while she's doing this - she's now COMPLETELY dependent on her allies to keep her safe as well as finishing Mcafee off.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    SUCCESS! Rory cannot keep the relieved smile from her face. Once the Heartless rounds the bend she enters the chamber with the terminal and, IF POSSIBLE, closes the door.

    Based on its displayed intelligence, she's guessing that if it came wandering back and saw the door was closed, it would forget that it was even in that room. Perhaps even that there is a room that way.

    And once she's at the terminal she starts with the usual attempts to gain administrative control of everything around through every single possible backdoor method there is. Amazing what having physical access can net you!

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
Gogo gets swallowed up by the darkness, totally engulfed. The last anyone can see of her is her terrified face as the Heartless swallow her up.

Sh drifts within, terrified and twitching... No. She's GoGo Tomago! "Time to woman up, GoGo." she says as she starts spinning like a top, slashing wildly.

Reker (631) has posed:
    The inky blackness emerging from Macafee's arm makes Reker blink in surprise, "You're a peice of malware yourself, huh? Good thing I came prepared." He jumps backwards and slides the sticks away behind his back, grabbing his pistols, which have recharged.

    He basically swaps positions with Corona, who moves in with her shotgun to blast the beast. He steps back up as soon as she fires, emptying both weapons, advancing forward a step with each trigger pull, doing what he can to finish off Macafee. He knows they might not be done at the REC, but this has to end.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo would have been in a mess if Corona, Xiaomu, Gogo, and Reker hadn't taken steps to get Mcaffee's attention elsewhere. As it stands, Gakupo staggers back, dropping to a knee, his teeth clenched. That HURTS! And not like usual, either. The digital body transmits the sensation of pain fairly well, despite being digital.

    However, though he's not dead yet, the damage is visible. Where that blade struck him IS missing, in the typical way that such an injury in the digital world would... yes, it punched clean through his torso. He wants to stay there on the ground until the danger is past. Not move until he can do so without causing himself pain. that would be the logical solution, really...

        if($movement = pain) {
            $action = "don't move"

    But sapient beings aren't logical. Which is why Gakupo rises from the ground, slowly, still gripping the handle of his sword, when he heard Xiaomu requests aid. She helped him, now it's his turn to help her. As long as the rain of darkness isn't hurting him, he's not going to bother with it. In fact he won't if it IS hurting him. He has something else to concentrate on.

    Which would be applying all the energy he has left to attacking the Heartless that get too close to Xiaomu while she's engaged in her spell. He dances around the spell-struck sage, blade singing high, trilling sounds of death to the empty entities of darkness as it swings through the air.

Deelel has posed:
Highway

The thing that was Mcafee cackled like a madness things are just getting insane as Corona is attempting to keep Mcafee away from her friend and she fires off blasts. The program blocks the shot with what seems to be darkness it's enough to keep him from doing other things for the moment. The Gird allows Xiaomu access for a moment she's tapping a layer of this reality deeply. She now start he thing she's moving to tap the power though the staff and now she unleashes a deal it's enough to injure the mad program he screams and lashes out with blast of darkness and several heartless right for Xiaomu.

Gogo meanwhile is seemingly consumed even the bravest of hearts wont' last long in the darkness but she spins, she has a focus of whom she is she will last a little while longer as she slashes around like a mad woman.

Gakupo has time and time again proven himself to be a guardian of this band of heroes. HE does so once more as he keeps the heartless off Xiaomu and deflects Mcafee's attack on Xiaomu with a good deal of effort. It doesnt seem like the mad program is going to last long even a Reker makes his move he calls out.

"I do think ... I shall make the rest of this system embrace the darkness as I have! Engage bin protocol."

REC

Rory is doing he work quite well she gets in but as Deelel noted each terminal is not hooked up to each other save for a relay to accept outside commands and while she's taking control something is happening. REC BIN protocol engaged. Appears on one of the displays she can stop it here but there's two thirds programs being held here that she can't get access too. Mcafee has started a purge that is most clear.

Highway

Kernel voice is filled with fear for the first time since the party has run into him. "He's started the purge!"

Rec

Kyra is able to get through her part of the system well enough but the problem is with Deelel the heartless are actively awake and hunting her now for some reason. She sees the command issued the timer is ticking down, but she's locked out of the system. Given the protocols that have gone up.

<Now make your choice program.>

Deelel moves she needs something she needs anything to get past them, just about anything right now. She reaches out and then she's somewhere else.

There seems to be a endless field of hard packed and death earth with a massive plateau near by but that's not the attention grabber as the alien sun beats down upon her. There are weapons much like some she's seen in the multiverse. Like the one's Aqua, Roxas and Xion carried. Keyblades a graveyard of dead keyblades all laying there as monuments to their long dead rulers. One however calls her attention, she reaches out to grab hold of the blade, the rust doesn't flake off it rezzes off.

<<You shall be one of these who wield this power from now until your derezzoultion>>

She grips the blade in hand and then the graveyard is gone she's there in the room again and she acts, she pauses for a moment as the weapon appears in her hand, it was no vision the blade is clearly there and she dives at the heartless catching them off guard as she strikes them down rapidly moving to turn the keyblade on the console. Will it be enough or in time?

Highway

Gogo will likely be able to get free as Kernel impacts with Mcafee.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Not gifted with the pattern of a Thief or Ninja, Kyra's actually pretty worried that she's going to be spotted pretty quickly. Yet with all of her efforts and all of her movement, she's actually pretty relieved to see that this isn't the case. Who would have thought she'd enjoy being ignored that much? And yet when there are a bunch of Heartless hanging around, that's exactly what she wanted.

    She sneaks in to the terminal, slipping in close, and finally responding to the questions that Deelel poses over their radio frequency: "Finally in position, sorry for the delay-"

    Kyra stares at the terminal. She was locked out. She can see the timer but anything else. "...I've been locked out." she reports with a mix of fear and frustration.

Reker (631) has posed:
    No time to wait. He can't put it off any longer. Reker drops both of the pistols and grabs his disk off of his back. His movements had brought him within striking distance and now he had to strike. Another step forward and then he pushes off with his back foot.

    No hesitation, there's no time for it. Programs might die at the REC, but it's that or let him take down a whole section of the grid. The needs of the many, right? Reker pushes himself forward as his disk glows white, and he stabs it towards Macafee's chest.

    "Game over, you son of a bitch!"

    He has enough momentum that it should carry him all the way through Macafee, hopefully taking the viral program down with him as he does.

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo bursts free... She's changed though. Her skin is gray, purple streaks running down through her eyes... If someone took concentrated darkness and injected it into GoGo, this would probably be what she wound up as. Even her suit is changed, and is now all black leather and shiny chrome...

Corona Arclite has posed:
"... Then we ain't got any more time," Corona mutters grimly at Kernel's exclaimation. But a glance off to the side catchs sight of GoGo ... getting free, but all dark colored.

"Oh now you've just gone too far..."

McGafee is going down and he is -not- taking her friends with him.

Reker goes in for his move, and Corona is right with him thanks to her quick reflexes. She flips around her shotgun to grab it by the barrels, and as Reker goes for McGaffee's chest with disc she swings the stock of her weapon like a club at his head, hoping to disorient him long enough for Reker's killing blow to work. "And no cheat codes to save ya either!"

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo Tomago's discs are right on Corona's trail. She SCREAMS and throws herself at McAfee... Her discs flash towards his kneecaps and groin, trailing bits of darkness.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "BIN protocol? What kind of-- oh no, that..." Rory's quick to cancel the thing from her part, and program the terminal to not accept remote commands from anything except from her authority.

    And she quickly deduces something important. "... These aren't simply terminals, theyr'e the processing center for the orders... that means..."

    It means things that get said over the radio!

    Quick calculations reveal she has no chance of reaching the others before their countdowns complete so instead she hunts for other security settings, tries to understand what exactly the BIN protocol WOULD have done, and if possible attempts to sic any building security systems on the Heartless!

    Who knows how much or if any of that is possible though.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    With no way to break into or stop the REC BIN program like Rory or someone a little more programming savvy, she goes for the desperate option as suggested by the others. Kyra pulls the extremely heavy CURE-ALL off of her back and swings the base of it down into the terminal repeatedly. At this point she doesn't seem to care how much noise it creates, just that it caves in the terminal as well as possible. After a few moments of this, she reaches into her bag and pulls out one of those little remote mines she's taken to carrying around for missions in here.

    She leaves it sitting on the broken screen and runs back the way she came, the device beeping down for its short delay before exploding.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo's frown darkens at Kernal's statement. 'Purge'? Then that means Mcaffee... he's deleting everything?! And everyONE?! The samurai bares his teeth.

    No. It's not going to end like this, when everyone worked so hard to prevent it. Not while he still draws digital breath.

    He positions himself in front of Xiaomu, so he has a clear straight-line path to Mcaffee... and charges. He swings the blade in a figure-eight on either side of him, blade moving with a flourish, as he closes the distance. It looks like nothing but just that-- needless, showy brandishing. But it isn't.

    The more air passes over those ridges on his blade, the higher the note the blade sings. The higher the note, the more it vibrates. And the more he can get the blade to vibrate as he nears, the more likely he'll be able to do some serious damage if the blade makes contact.

    And contact he attempts to make with it! As he nears he tilts the blade to the side, a growl swelling in his throat, the lights in his headset glowing a fiery orange. Given the positioning of the blade at his side, it looks like he's aiming for a horizontal cut as he runs past, meaning it to be a clean slash across the torso. As he draws the blade horizontally, the growl welling in his throat resolves into a kiai, the lights in his headset flashing brightly once as the slash is made. It's anyone's guess if it's going to hit or miss, though...

Deelel has posed:
Highway

Ya he went there Mcafee ate the energy field as some might be fond of saying. The first thing that happens is Battle Gothic GoGo bursts free of the darkness in Mcafee and there's an epxlosion uit's pretty nasty and then comes TEker and COrona to fionish the game the attacks are brutal they are nauys and they tear into the mad program's body with brutal resutls. The darkness seems to be holding him together but not for long as more powerufl attakcs follow things up Gakupo stikes are attad to the inane amount of attakc and guess what? Gogo isn't done yet either as her own discs stiulke combine with the brutality of everyone else's attacks Mcaffee lets out a scream and explodes in a fount of darkness, sending voxels everywhere blwing a crater in the ground it self. The blast might be enough to knock everyone of their feet too.

REC

Things look bad for Kyra but she's got an attemong she clams into the the console with the Cure-all which may bring new meaning of hit any key to contiune. The constol is laid bair the charge is sec and the blast goes off iut's got some secondary explosions going off there, the Countdown stuters goes back 20 seconds and then /stops/ dead as error messages akin to a BOSD appear on the monitor.

Rory's own actions work she's able to rip though this terminal with time left on the clock. It was not made to keep something akin to the infamous MCP out of here. IT's more than enough to stop it.

Finally for Deelel the Keyblade works it's magic and there's a beam of light as it hits the terminal unlocks it's functions and then locks out the death count down terminating it.

"I think it's over."

She then pauses at what she said on the radio did she really tell them to Finish the Game? Dear User she did...

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite yelps as she's knocked on her back by the exploding darkness. Instinctively she grabs for her head to hold her hat on, even though she's not wearing one on the Grid because she's got the fancy digital headgear. It's just a really old habit. All the same she manages to prop herself up with one elbow and a wheeze.

"So how many bonus points do we get for rezzing the final boss?"

She's been listening to Xiaomu too much during this adventure.

Reker (631) has posed:
    The explosion takes Reker off of his feet and he lands with a thud on his back, disk rolling away for a moment before he snatches it up.

    He sits up and locks his disk down and then looks around. "What, no gear drops?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Emotions are strange things for a being with no physiological reaction. No adrenaline rushes, no quivering nerves, no shivering, no shudders... but still a neurological sense of worry, impending doom, and sympathy.

    Rory's visible response is quite ame on the outside, but seeing that the protocol was halted nevertheless fills her with satisfaction and relief. "Mission success. Even if unconventionally..." She's smiling, completely unaware of the crazy happening in other rooms.

Gakupo Kamui (686) has posed:
    Gakupo's burning energy at full blast. He knows this is the last-ditch effort. None of it's going to matter if it fails here. And so, when Gakupo strikes his final blow, adding to the attacks by Reker, Gogo, and Corona, he had prepared to let go of the sheer willpower that was keeping him fighting.

    He WOULD have just dropped where he stood... except for that blast as Mcaffee derezzed. Gakupo had run just past the corrupted Program, and so the blast goes off at his back, throwing him forward. Luckily he's not thrown off the overpass, but further down the highway. That would have been really bad.

    But in the end it doesn't matter. Gakupo bounces a time or two on the ground, and then comes to a stop. And he stays down. He doesn't answer Corona's statement or Reker's. It doesn't look like he can. His eyes are closed, his head turned to the side, the wound Mcaffee's sword gave him still there.

    And of course, predictably enough, in the next instant his sword comes down from the sky. The blade sticks in the roadway at his side, still singing, the note gradually fading into silence.

GoGo Tomago (736) has posed:
GoGo Tomago goes over to Gakupo's sword and tries to take it from where it sticks... If successful, the darktainted girl puts it in his hands. "Let's get you to a doctor."