Scene #5066: The Chase (Neo Detroit)

Owner	Pose
Wo	The city has long since fallen into darkness, of the literal sort. An idealized, yet vaguely dystopian 'future city', as imagined in the fiction of the late 80s and early 90s, this basically means the iris-like shutters and reinforced laser barricades have come down across store fronts and commercial buildings. There are very few people that are still out on the streets, at least any that seem of a reasonable disposition, and the reason why is immediately obvious. The utility posts at practically every street corner, intersection and cross walk have holographic projectors built in. The sort that can create a fluorescent-tubing looking wireframe, at best. All have a red counter that is blinking 00:00, as an authoritative voice proclaims, "Curfew is now in effect. Return to your homes now." Though the roads are practically clear of civilian traffic, the rumble of engines can still be heard, courtesy of a mixture of 'futuristic concept car' styled police cruisers, as well as more typical SWAT trucks. Every so often, one will stop to train a search light on something of interest. Despite the patrols, however it isn't that difficult to find shadows and alleys to lurk around in. The vagrants and rebellious youth of the city comingle relatively easily there, away from the prying eyes, and the police, though dense in number, seem to be willing to not pursue any inside. An unofficial sanctuary. Only those that are on official business are allowed free roam of the streets, otherwise. WATCH: Last time, Extinct Panda was made contact with, in the connected basements of a party club for youth and an adjacent, abandoned warehouse, where they have their equipment and the bulk of their people. There, they met a woman going by the handle Gig Mama, that had apparently organized the group to begin with, in disagreement with the way civilians were being snooped on, and the city's elite enriching themselves through oppression. But, if their long term goal of data mining dirt to get what they want is to be achieved, it means finding a way to stop or talk down her former ally, Select-Ron, that has access to the same system vulnerabilities and has far more radical designs on it. This means infiltrating the source of both their careers, the firmware firm called DataTek, and trying to find where he may be hiding. Alopex has gotten the ball rolling on this process by scouting ahead (per volunteer last scene), and it seems that its less essential functions have closed down when all the other businesses have. Still, within the skyscraper that houses its headquarters, dimmed office lights can still be seen from the windows, which makes it clear that at least some employees work long shifts. The coding life is a tough one. There seem to be several access points, beside the obvious front doors, such as several side exits and fire escapes, as well as the utility loading and unloading area. Some old key cards were given, though who knows if they still work? PALADINS: The Paladins have been called in by the local police force. Specifically, their anti-cybercrime task force, SCION. The point man is a hardened-looking, tall African-American man with a cross scar on his face, and dark sunglasses covering his eyes. Yes, even now that it's night. He wears a relatively professional business attire, beneath a coat, and he has that sense of being a 'future detective'. He has several files, as well as data store disks, tucked beneath one arm as he waits at the local Warp Gate depot, which is well-established enough to have a proper building around it. It looks almost more like an airport, complete with customs officials and the like. He's there to get whomever the Paladins send past that, as well as to catch them up on the situation. Compared to the civilians, he stands out, a stoic authority figure.
Richard Stadler	Stadler had done a bit of reading up on city they were heading into... and he wasn't exactly happy about where they were going. He had his own beleifs, of course, that the law itself should be there to protect the people above all, not to keep them under the thumb of an oppressive government... but he knew equally well that changing it wasn't going to be accomplished by ignoring them or going in guns blazing. They needed to show them other ways of doing things. Of thinking, of treating people. And the best way to do that was to help them with a proble min good faith. He's through warpgate with the rest of the Paladin team, his BDU's properly pressed and bloused, side arm at his hip. "Beifong, White. On me. We're here to do a job, make sure we keep people safe, and make nice with our counterparts here. /Best/ behavior. The last thing I want is a building coming down in the middle of this. Looking at you, Beifong." It was a quick thing to find the person that was supposed to be in charge. The African-American looked like he was waiting for someone, and didn't exactly have 'functionary' about him. It was still a bit of a guess, but Stadler did move to walk up to him after they arrive. "Good evening. Richard Stadler, Paladins, representing the Commonwealth. Might I be correct in that you're the one in charge?"
Toph Beifong	Perhaps she stands out a bit as she follows about the prim and proper Stadler, clad in her bright yellow and green clothes that she prefers being active in. At least it looks more official than jeans and hoodies. The most impressive thing about her might be the paladin badge fastened on her chest, clearly visible. This is business, and today she's not the one in charge since Stadler himself has decided to step out of his office. Perhaps that's why she's a bit more focused. Or maybe it's the oppressive atmosphere. Not like she got to read a lot up on this place beforehand, but man... curfews and whatnot? Sounds boring. So she nods when Stadler adresses her and Rory. Keep people safe, always a good thing... make nice with these guys who obviously got something shoved up where the sun doesn't shine? Ugh, if she must... it's not like she can afford to piss them off since she's here in official capacity, and she's had enough people yelling at her the last months. So when Stadler specifically tells her to watch her bending, it might not be a surprise that the blind teenager raises her eyebrows, an affronted expression on her face. "What? I'm not going to do /that/!" she protests under her breath so only the other two can hear it. What does he take her for, a rookie bender who lacks control? Please! "I only demolish buildings when I have to!" So there, no need to get your panties all tangled, Stadler! She does follow him, keeping in line behind him and to his right, keeping quiet for now and letting their superior do the talking for now.
Alopex	When Gig Mama had first mentioned a need for infiltrating an old workplace, there was that feeling for Alopex that she was going to get to prove to her new allies just what she was capable of. In the days since, she'd been observing the building from every angle she could. Street level, other rooftops, even other buildings if she had the opportunity. With so much casing done, she had decided a long time ago just where she was going to enter the DataTek building and ensure everyone had an egress point if needed for Reasons. After keycards are passed out and their plan of 'attack' had been decided, the fox had silently slipped away from the group to attempt her entry plan. Making about as much noise as a mouse, the fox-ninja leaps, lands, and starts to scale the fire-escape, not bothering to lower the ladder -just- yet. No point in making it obvious where'd they be leaving from later. After rounding a few sets of stairs, Pex pauses near the railing and takes a glance around at one of the windows. Generally the worker in this office stayed a little later than the others, but he liked to sneak smokes after hours and would leave the window open as a result. Hopefully tonight he'll do it again..
Rory White	Right behind Stadler, the Warp Gate crackles to life again. Out walks a fair-skinnned young woman with a soft-feature face, sky-blue eyes, and an outrageously vivid cascade of blue hair. She's dressed in a snazzy-tight white business suit, and is apparently unarmed. The scanners here have no trouble at all deducing that she's artificial, and the human appearance is literally skin-deep. "We'll be doing Infosec... how could a building collapse from that?" She asks, genuinely not recognizing the rhetoric at work. Tracking along with Stadler and Toph brings her to the SCION contact. "Rory White, Paladin A.G.I.. INfospec specialist!"
Kyle Katarn	Kyle is going all Hard Serpent (stop giggling) on this one tonight. Donning a black BDU and bandana, he's currently been sneaking about, breaking out of a conveniently large crate, he creeps through the containers he's currently got to thank for cover. Bryar in hand, he covers his corners and uses the Force to scan for any security presence as he makes his way toward the doors beside the service doors as well. Moving toward the doorway, he keeps his sidearm held up while he gently nudges the door open. He isn't a ninja, but his experience sneaking into (and blowing the fuck out of) Imperial compounds has helped him with sneaking into places like these.
August Kohler	August is taking the job that he is best at: being an awkward but nerdy young man. He's dressed business-casual for this world, whatever that is, as the redhead approaches the front doors of DataTek, keycard in hand. If the front doors are open, he walks in slightly-confidently: like he's supposed to be here, but has a default state of anxiety. If there's someone at the front desk, he approaches for the stairs, hoping to see how the react, otherwise he just heads for the stairs/elevator in general in order to get to the higher floors.
Wo	PALADINS: The man gives a glance over to the new arrivals. He'd been told to expect just about anything, and to keep an open mind, but the sight of Toph, as well as her protests that she 'only demolishes when she has to', apparently gives him some pause. After that, and his guests have given their introductions, he reaches up to adjust the shades. "Captain Ace Williams," he introduces himself, completely straight faced and apparently not cognizant of how it might sound. Without missing a beat, he continues, by way of confirming to Stadler, "With the Neo Detroit Police Department, section head of SCION." At least Rory seems to have a proper grasp of the situation, from the sound of things. Before he goes on, he lowers the sunglasses, exposing one normal, dark brown eye, but above the one the cheek that's scarred, an obviously cybernetic replacement can be seen. For brief moments, a beam sweeps over each Paladin's badge, perhaps confirming things with a database. Once he seems satisfied, assuming no one protests, he places his glasses back into place, and turns around, gesturing to follow along behind him, as he gives the express trip through security and customs. "I wasn't certain you would actually come. The city has no formal ties with the Commonwealth you represent, and we're not exactly popular these days." He's a cop, he's allowed to be frank about the city's troubles, as being sandwiched in the middle, he's all too aware. But he has a job to do, as these Elites do. Outside, he has his police car waiting; another of those 'cars of the future' style cruisers, which he gestures toward, causing all the doors to simultaneously swing open. "Get in. I'll explain everything as we drive." He seems very high efficiency, not wasting any time when he could be heading to...wherever it is they're headed. He also waits to give each Elite a copy of the files and data disks providing specifications and surface detail's of the city's computer network architecture, as well as a firm called 'DataTek', which makes the firmware that seems to go into a lot of the computerized gizmos that are basically everywhere. The Internet of Things was seemingly always going to happen, one way or another. Toph would likely discover that the files are also able to read themselves aloud, should she want it.
Richard Stadler	Well, it was a good group Stadler was with, regardless. They actually had a cyberwarfare specialist with them- scratch that. Cybersecurity. Sometimes it was hard to really think of the right terms for things nowadays, but that was the best way to get out of a... soldier mindset. It came in handy, sometimes, but soldiers only made good cops in very specific circumstances. But, yes. Good that they had Rory avalible. And Toph, to the lesser extent that they would need something demolished. Stadler responds to Rory in a way that also responds to Toph. "How, indeed? Let's keep to that logic going forward." He says, giving one last pointed look at Toph, before coming back to the man in front of him, Captain- It was very lucky Stadler had experierence with keeping a stone-faced mein on his features, because that was honestly the sillest name he'd heard this month. He's able to keep his face straight, preventing an incredulous look from crossing it, instead holding out his hand to Ace. "Good to meet you, and I hope you'll extend your thanks to your department for inviting us." Neo-Detriot, ehh? Well, things certainly didn't look that bad. His form stiffens as each of their badges are scanned, feeling it was a slight... affront. No reason why it would be; just authorizing their credentials, but the fact that they, cops of the highest order, needed it raised his hackles in an irrational way. Keep it smooth. Walkith with him as they go through custom. "We're here to enforce the law, and build ties that allow the law to be enforced to best protect the public good. Certainly," He says, matching frankness with the same, "We don't like everything we're seeing here, but the path forward is through cooperation, and we're hoping our good will can be the beggining of that. After a slight bit of difficulty, he managed to open the door (how the hell did you get to these handles?) and managed to sit down, before taking the copt of the giles he's given. Quickly reviewing it... with a frown. It wasn't viral DNA sequences, so it was safe to say he was a little scattered. Quietly, he moves to nudge Rory. "Anything you can make sense of?" Not that Toph, with the hearing /she/ has, couldn't chime in as well.
Toph Beifong	Rory's question elicits a somewhat undignified snort from the blind metalbender. "Ask Stadler, because I have no clue about why I would collapse a building in a populated area unless I was asked to if I had a really really /really/ good reason to do so. Like, to bury a person who was dangerous to the entire neighbourhood or something," she shrugs, keeping her voice low. Perhaps it's a good thing that Toph can't see the way the Captain looks at her. There's the faintest eyebrow raise upon hearing his name... Let's focus on what needs to get done and not give Stadler any reason to be annoyed. She follows quietly through the security checkpoints, listening to the Captain's explanation of matters. Though she does pause slightly when they are forwarded to the cars, not looking exactly enthusiastic, but she does get into the car, taking a sit by the window just in case. Once she's given the files she blinks, a bit curious, but she does pull out a mechanical glove from her bag; the braille reading glove she's gotten used to so she can actually read. It's not often she expects stuff to read itself, after all. Not that the subject is all that interesting, but... this is part of the job, so she'll do it without whining, a look of concentration on her face. As for what she can make sense of? That's for the radio band as she mutters under her breath.
Deelel	Deelel is here she's fully disgused herself as she can, and that is wearing enough grid gear to mask her idneity so one could only claim it was a basic, while few basics were in the multiverse it was best she could do. She was redy to go however and she was creeping along with the rest of the watch. The long term goal was a better one to deal with the corps hold on this world. The short term plan would cause only chaos and they would so Select-ron had ot be talked down, delayed or stopped to keep this from happening. She had beought a good dela of grid based riot gear with her for no want of killing the cogs, it was always the admin tht were the prolem as it where. She will spring into actiona nd will attemot to find a way on her own as she knows all her allies are making their own way in.
Wo	WATCH (so far): First off, the key cards are legit, and for the most part still work. Sometimes it takes a few moments for the building's security system to decide for them to, though. Alopex could have likely worked out which ones correspond to which entrance point ahead of time, so at least it doesn't take too much fiddling to get over that hurdle. She also gets first crack at actually infiltrating the place, taking the fire escape, or at least one of them. It's a fairly big building. There are no windows passed directly by on the way up, and from how much rust has replaced the original coat of paint on the metal framework on it, it doesn't seem like it's used that often, much less actively maintained. Thankfully, it's sturdily built enough to allow her to climb up. Even though it doesn't directly cross windows, it does allow one to access adjacent ones, thanks to a narrow ledge corresponding to each floor. She finds the dim office light on, at least for a few moments, the man inside staring at a text-filled screen. After a while, though, sure enough, he spins lightly around in his chair, feeling of his shirt pockets. Before leaving his desk to sneak off to the utility closet, he cracks open the window to get the air flowing. This indoor smoking ban has been the worst, but he's all alone on this shift. Meanwhile, Kyle opts for the utility area. There are plenty of places to sneak around back there, with the industrial cargo crates piled around. After the last truck pulls out, a few men in coveralls and hats finish piling some of the boxes onto a wheeled cart, and push it through the broad cargo doors. It takes a few moments for the one lagging slightly behind to actually go and push the button that actively closes the doors, and when they do, they slowly wheel down, pushed by a worm gear track. Basically, if Kyle had wanted to be more dramatic, he probably could have slid right beneath as it closed. The two workers seem like the typical manual labor sorts, and don't take notice of the door opening and closing behind them, amid the sound cover that the (rather noisy) rolling doors create. August opts for the front approach. There are no security guards posted, or at least not in plain sight. Instead, there are security cameras just outside and in the lobby that move in the slowly, sweeping and predictable arcs that are expected of their kind. It's a hazard that Kyle and Alopex don't (immediately) need to deal with. There is, indeed, someone seated at the front desk, though it takes them a few moments to notice that someone had even entered the front door, after what could be a fitful card key swiping. August is practically home free when she looks up from her holoterminal and adjusts her glasses, "Excuse me, did you leave something behind at work?" She doesn't recognize him, though, and her voice has the kind of uncertainty to it where her hand might be reaching for a button under the desk, as she speaks. Perhaps one of the side doors would make an easier, less daring entrance for Deelel. That is, if other people didn't use these same doors, speaking of those cogs. A man in his middle thirties in business casual attire emerges from the door, even before a key card can be used on it. He takes a good look at Deelel, in riot gear. Grid riot gear, but riot gear all the same. He isn't sure what to do, as he immediately starts panicking, and practically throws a stack of paper in her direction, "I...I'm not doing anything bad! Please don't shoot me!" It seems he was smuggling some trade secrets out in his spare time, if the papers actually get glanced over. No matter what, he's running.
Rory White	Rory totally approves of high efficiency and honesty! It's enough to make her actually smile, if only for a few seconds while she's getting into the car. Once she's in... "Alright, beginning wifi connection..." Being given the specifications for basic networking protocols and proper access is enough, it seems, for her AI suite to recompile her networking core with support for these protocols and link into the city's wireless Internet of Things - what her world could call the Mesh. When nudged by Stadler, she blinks at him... then quickly nods. "... Sorry. It is distressingly easy to forget that not everyone has Mesh Inserts." But this indeed why she stuffed her pockets... She rummages through them and brings out a few large screen ectos and even... what appears to be a foldable touchscreen tablet? yes, it's as pliable as cloth... freaky. They could be used by anyone who knows what they're doing, since they're currently showing the connections that Rory's beginning to map out to test her protocol adapter...
Kyle Katarn	Kyle doesn't quite go for the dramatic route, or even tries punching out the employees. Instead, he waits before the door begins to close before he makes a run for it. Using the Force to quicken his steps, Kyle runs before he stops short of colliding with the wall, covering his corners as he takes the chance to avoid being heard and seen in this area. Once he's through, he continues on, careful and quiet.
Alopex	A muffled 'Eureka' comes out of Alopex as the man slips away from his desk. Mentally she starts counting down the two minutes she figures she has. She reaches out to tip the window open just a little further, slips through, and then turns back to set the window to 'slightly open' before darting from one cubicle to another, eyes up for cameras, as she heads for what she hopes is the stairwell. Modern buildings all point you toward them, after all. Those wonderful, bright, red EXIT signs that come in two flavors. With an arrow, EXIT> or <EXIT, or without. Very handy, those. Since she couldn't actually see the stairs from the windows, if she gets close without being seen, she'd just want to see if they have that little window or not. If they do, she'd look for cameras first. If no cameras, she'd slip in and let everyone know the status of those stairs. Cameras, type of cameras, or no cameras at all.
Annie Sandberg	Annie ends up going up a different fire escape from Alopex. Her small size means she doesn't naturally make as much noise, but has to get a bit more creative in finding ways up. Eventually she gets herself to the windows, hoping to find a way in. She wonders what she might do if she were discovered- maybe pretend to be an employee's daughter who came to give her parent a surprise? Could work. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
Wo	PALADINS: Once they're in the sanctity and safety of Ace Williams' police cruiser, her reaches up, conspicuously shutting something off. Possibly the monitor. Everything has them, even police equipment. The difference is, they can actually select privacy when it's necessary. After that, the doors lock and secure -- most cars in Neo Detroit do this, in case one has to cross through any of the 'red zones' -- and the car begins to move. It's a really smooth ride, even by the relatively fresh roads' standards. "I can't change the politics of the city, Paladin Stadler. And, since I was cross-trained and promoted, I haven't been able to do much about the situation on the street, either. We see the effects. Hopefully this cooperation will go smoothly." His voice doesn't sound particularly hopeful. Maybe he's just been slowly drained of it, or perhaps it's simply his manner. Regardless, he moves back to business. As Rory and Toph go about catching up in their own, unique ways, he drives the car through the streets. It's almost eerily quiet, save some flash points where groups of youths in colorful clothing and denim jackets flee at the sight of a police cruiser. It's very subtle, but Ace's mouth wrinkles slightly into a frown at it, even if he doesn't seem to hold anything against them personally. "The case involves a network intrusion. Whomever pulled it off is good, possibly an insider. We're headed to the scene of the crime, as much of a thing exists in a cybercrime. DataTek, the firm that creates the low level operating systems for almost all embedded computers in use in the Midwest." There's a point here he exits onto one of the freeways, that are so meticulously architected that they almost seem to be suspended in the air over this section of the cityscape. If one ignored the road beneath, it'd be easy to imagine the car is flying. "They're a frequent, and understandable, target for intrusion. Usually it's competitors going after trade secrets. The government looks the other way on industrial espionage," as long as the right pockets remain filled, is unspoken. "This time...it feels, different. The patterns of access are all wrong. I don't have any concrete proof, but something about it puts me in unease. Our department is completely tapped, and I can't get approval on a hunch." Eventually, the road descends back into the city scape, in another section of town. It's not long before the car approaches the conspicuous DataTek building. "That's where you come in."
Deelel	Deelel is fine with less darring it's easier to not get noticed. The Light suit she had on was covered by a cloak that sisn't emit light and her helmet she was good. She catches the paper and she may very well be looking at the papers but first? She bolts iwth in human speed to tackle the man and put her hand over his mouth if she can. "No noise, be silent, you don't want to get caught, do you? However you have complicated what I need to do." She'll attempt secure him with Zip ties and if he makes so much as an attempt to shout, scream, yell or anything else of the like
August Kohler	As August moves through, the first barrier's passed. The second: the woman at the front desk. August's pace towards the upper areas is one of 'in a rush', as he stops, turning to the woman with an anxious tone of 'oh man I don't have time for this'. He's repressing his accent; it sounds a bit off because he doesn't usually do this, but it also may contribute to him sounding a bit panicked. "O-oh gosh, is this happening again? They never alert the front desk ahead of t-time. I'm R-roger, they told me there's a problem with the flux capacitor in the m-mainframe and they need a second hand to rejigger the c-cortical valves. I-if we don't fix this soon, w-we may be seeing a brownout in the electrical coredrive." August begins pacing, his face showing that he's really freaked out. "Oh gosh, wh-what am I going to do? I-I already came in late, this is going to be a /problem/ if I c-can't get in there ASAP."
Richard Stadler	Stadler gives a nod to the cop as he mentions his 'hopefulness'. Without sounding particularly like he beleives it. Stadler had to hope that was the man's nature. He'd only been acting as a cop for a short amount of time himself, and he was still somewhat idealistic about his chances... granted, if a decade of Multiversal War and killing zombies hadn't broken him of that, he doubted this will. Another thing to be greatful for, working for a black ops organization; he learned to watch what he says, and that flip off of the communications was a good reminder that he should. Okay, so it had been flipped off... but in places like this, who knew if that was the only one? Paranoia. Ahh, familiar emotions helped. He looked out the car window, watching the almost empty streets go by. Kids running away from a police car... could have been something bad, or just some teenaggers out after curfew. That sort of indecision was what probably led to laws like this in the first place. Better safe than sorry. "Understood. That sort of centralization does sound a bit dangerous... esspecially if there was a break in in something quite secure. Learn to hack one, learn to hack them all." He could at least guess that much. As well as getting a little uneasy with the traffic as they suddenly seem to be flying in the sky and yet not. At least you could feel helicopters moving through the air. "I'm glad to do what we can, esspecially if there might be a threat to public safety... which sounds likely. Any reason to think something is different? Or, exactly what is different?" There was the building coming up, and a good thing to utter to subordinates. "White, if there's some sort of... local network in this building you can access, try to do it. See what we might be looking at. Toph, once we're out, I want feet on the ground. Anything you feel, I want you to point out."
Toph Beifong	The smooth ride doesn't make it easier for Toph to get any idea of where they're going, though she trusts that Stadler and Rory will let her know if there's anything that requires her attention. But below her she can still sense concrete, and with the car made of metal she isn't completely helpless if something were to happen. It's hard to read /and/ listen to the Captain at the same time however, causing the blind teenager to frown slightly where she sits. This... seems like tech stuff, possibly something that Rory will have far more use for than her. It will be easier to know the layout when she gets there in person, so maybe if she just goes over the basic stuff here... If there are schematics it's not easy to interpret them either, since she's more used to three dimensions to work with. "So what has it been like since you think it's wrong now?" Toph asks the Captain, raising her head slightly where she sits. "Are we to inspect the area?" Doesn't computer espionage usually happen over the net or something? Stadler's orders, now they make sense. "I'm not going to stay in the car if that's what you were thinking," Toph affirms with a nod. It's far better to get a good look on things, that's for sure! Once the doors open, she's not slow to get out, a look of focus on her face as she reaches out with her bending as she steps firmly onto the ground before she gets down on one knee and places her hand on the concrete, letting the vibrations tell her what they can about the earthen materials and metal in this place. If the buildings are made of concrete, steel, any earth or metal, she's inspecting it, all while her sensitive ears listen. Just how big is this place?
Wo	WATCH: Annie decides to try one of the other fire escapes. There are doors on these things, too, of course, leading to the hallways inside the building, though Alopex had to take the dramatic and less noisy approach. The windows are relatively secure, but aren't so reinforced that they're immune to a good shove, especially with the force an Elite can likely exert, if they choose. There are plenty of empty offices to choose from, at least, to make up for a slightly noisier entrance. The building is almost completely empty, save those few offices where people are still burning the midnight oil, or the night janitors. Regardless, assuming she does manage to pry the window and slip inside, there's no one immediately there to face her, or coming to get her. What there is, however, facing all the intruders eventually, are more of those cameras. The cargo area that Kyle had entered through has a bit less of them than the more sensitive areas of the building, since all the more valuable import and export tend to be digital in nature, but there are still a few that can be seen, keeping an eye on things. It likely wouldn't be difficult to notice their presence, since they're quite obvious both in what they are and what they do: No black plastic domes in Neo Detroit! They even have the tell-tale blinking red light going on. As he's navigating down toward the hallway, presumably to get into the core of the building, one of the aforementioned night janitors is pushing -- no, scratch that, riding a cart of cleaning supplies, fully motorized to deal with the bulk it has to carry. Kyle would likely see him before he'd see Kyle, though, thanks to the Force, and the fact that this guy is barely paying attention to anything else besides his job. The unmistakable scent of tobacco smoke begins wafting from the closed doors to this floor's utility closet, as well as a light from inside, as Alopex cruises on by. Either Hard Serpent is waiting in there, or the guy she'd cased is engaging in his usual misbehaviors. The office opens onto one of the floors where the programmers do the bulk of their work, and those holoterminals are absolutely everywhere. That will probably be convenient for sake of fulfilling the mission. That does mean, however, it's also among the more sensitive. A man wearing a guard uniform suddenly turns the corner and begins pacing down the hallway outside, every so often shining a flashlight into one of the supposedly empty offices. He pauses for a moment outide the one Alopex had entered, his light trained on the open window, as he sniffs the air. Then, there's a long sigh, and mutters under his breath to himself, "God damn it, Harry. How long do you think I can go on not reporting this?" It could be his job! After that, assuming nothing else happens, he goes to resume his patrol. The coast clear, the stairs themselves don't seem to be patrolled, but every floor seems to have another of those cameras. They are practically everywhere and inescapable, though they still have enough blind spots for trained sneaks to avoid their gaze. Or people that don't just walk in the front lobby...so we get to:
Wo	The front desk clerk squints in that 'I don't believe you' manner. She's heard enough of how the engineers speak around here to know that he's got some bullshit going on there! After a moment of glaring him down, though, she eases back in her seat, with a sigh, noting his age. "Look, if one of the lady execs gave her boy toy a key card, it's not worth my time, or my job, to get involved. Hurry up and go, before I change my mind about this." Saved by a horrible misunderstanding of the situation...but is this really any better? Deelel has a slightly easier time, meanwhile. Taking hold of the low level employee as he tries to run, he'd be fairly easy to ziptie. "W-wait, are you arresting me!? Usually they just s-shoot people that get caught with this stuff!" He sounds, genuinely relieved, and would be relatively cooperative. He'd also have a more up to date key card on him for this door, which is probably good, because the one Gig Mama had for it had just recently expired, it seems. ... Speaking of Gig Mama, suddenly, over a secure (and encrypted) radio frequency, she sends to her allies in the field: "Are you in? I can't keep this open for long, their wideband spectrum analysis will pick up on it. You've got two options. Paul Sanders is Select-Ron's guy on the inside, and works late most nights. Or...you can try to get into his old holoterminal, maybe he left some clues there. Those'll be your best bets." With this, the communication ends abruptly, with a databurst of identifying information for Paul Sanders, as well as indicating Select-Ron's old terminal, on the same floor Alopex emerged onto.
Rory White	"'Learn to hack one, learn to hack them all' only applies if the devices were designed by morons. There are a number of schemes for ensuring a complete onion-like arrangement of encryption from the boot process onwards, with each device using different keys at the lowest levels, and a well-protected private key for the OS so that multiple developers can sign apps with the creator's permission. Very few weaknesses, apart from Quantum Computers..." She murmurs to herself. All the while though, her mind is abuzz. Radio waves reach out to the local internet, making connections and siphoning information from news. The more she understands about the local culture, economy, and technological standards the better the context she'll have to analyze whatever she finds! She's also looking for the local equivalents of the kind of hangouts that an Anonymous-esque group might use. And sniffing for evidence of darknets. The advantage of being a machine who practically eats, slepps, and breathes code - metaphorically speaking - are pretty astounding. "Understood. I'll try to sift through log files and bring them up. Your insight into human behavior might be valuable in figuring out alternative motives, if it's not stealing secrets." Of course, her maximum wireless radio range is a kilometer even in the city, so she's been 'politely' poking at DataTek's systems with her Paladin credentials as well. And failing that making any headway, looking up as much information about the company as possible. The latter is starting to pop up on the various screens she brought. All public knowledge available..
August Kohler	Welp, she's squinting. It turns out that they do /not/ talk in bad sci-fi cryptobabble here. But before August has to do anything drastic, the clerk gets the entirely wrong idea and lets him go anyways. Never look a gift horse in the mouth. "O-okay." In the future, he's just going to try /actual/ engineering terms. And then he's moving up the stairwell, aiming for the floor that Gig Mama has indicated for them (via Alopex's location ping). One hand reaches into his pocket to grab a reflective object, but he doesn't pull it out just yet. Security cameras, apparently.
Alopex	With the description of the stairwell given to the Watch members, Alopex slowly turns around to have a second go at the cubicles, keeping both ears well open for the security guard and the smoking man who... maybe... might be terminated when this is all said and done. Sigh. That's a shame. Back to the matter at hand, the fox keeps low and silently moves for the location Gig Mama had provided. So long as the guard or 'Harry' aren't near by, the fox moves for the terminal, gives the mouse a shake to see if the system is just idle or off, and then proceeds to see what she can do with it. She's not a hacker by a long shot, but she can at least poke around the office, desk, and the computer if she can, to see what she can find. Her ears would continue to swivel to any sound near by. Just a few minutes, that's all she thinks she needs..
Wo	PALADINS: If Ace Williams were to express his disdain for how the world of computerized things has turned out, he'd have to have them in this car a lot longer. It interferes with his work, and he's usually the one that has to clean up the mess in the end. He'll refrain from everything but a slight utterance, "Machines were supposed to make life better for all of us. They have...but a lot of people stopped thinking for themselves." He gives a light shake of his head, "But I've already said too much." A more welcome distraction is returning to the case, rather than the state of the world. The concrete things like this are what help him keep his direction in this world. Stadler and Toph both wonder to Ace, as they pull up at their destination, on what makes this case different. "Every attack has fingerprints," he explains, and since Rory seems to be their expert on these matters, he assumes she likely knows. "The crime scene might be virtual instead of real, but you can read it the same way. The methods, the motivation. The usual espionage is clean. They get in, try to take what they want, and leave as little evidence they were there as they can. It's also usually really easy to guess who it was, based on what they targeted and their network route. This has been completely different. It's a long series of accesses without actually taking anything." After the long explanation, he finally stops the car, glancing into the front doors into the lobby, and adjust his shades. "It feels more like they're building a profile for something bigger than an IP theft." All of the car doors unlock and swing open simultaneously, and he steps out. To Stadler and Rory's conjecture on the nature of the firmware, he notes, "They do secure it, and tampering with firmware is a serious offense." But since when has that stopped anyone from jailbreaking their phone? Besides, there's another matter, "Not everyone that works for DataTek has approved of what the regional government mandates them to place in the firmware, and there have been some high level defections. The files I provided have some dossiers on some of their engineers and programmers that have left. It's just a theory of mine, but...it's possible that one, or a group of them, are trying to disrupt DataTek using their insider knowledge." The obvious course of action would be to get into their terminals and have a look for anything suspicious. "I'll try to have the remaining security measures on the terminals opened remotely for you," perhaps directed at Rory specifically, "And I'll radio security ahead with your credentials. Good luck." ... Even though it is the near (alternate) future, the buildings are still very much made of the same materials as most modern cities. Concrete, steel, aluminum, glass. All materials that Toph would know, and be able to sense vibrations through and from. The building is a good 50 stories tall, hardly the tallest in Neo Detroit, though in this sector of town it still towers over most of the other nearby buildings. Though faint, there are the footsteps of those milling around inside, as well as the constant hum and drone of cooling fans, central heating and cooling systems, and other industrial equipment. Nothing too out of place quite yet, though. Rory might find the local network 'scene' a bit garish. This is like Internet 1.0 level stuff, with inline graphics and text. Thankfully there are no autoplaying MIDI files. There seems to be a flourishing underground counterculture though, the deeper one looks. Several hacker groups can be found referenced, though one called 'Extinct Panda' appears to be references increasingly frequently in the recent week or so. It seems that everyone takes them quite seriously, but no one has any idea of their identity.
Richard Stadler	Stadler sighs as Rory goes on his rant. "Okay, it's a bit simplified, but I have to imagine access to a company that deals with embedded operating systems in a lot of applicances could lead to something very bad. If I'm wrong, that's why I brouught the hacker along." He mentions. Toph gets a simple nod after she asks the captain. "Good. THat would have been a waster of your talents. Short of getting into the CCTV cameras... or even better than that, you're the one that can tell us if there's something untoward happening." He notes, as they leave the vehicle itself. Before they do, though, he's over to look at cop that speaks to them briefly, frowning. His mouth opens slightly, as if to respond... before keeping his mouth shut. That might be a bit much to speak on. Besides, he was less concerned with what the cop said than that it wasn't okay to say it. Sometimes this job was less than ideal... but he had to remember the long game. Instead, they step out, walking over to the street, listening to the discussion on why this is different. "All right. So they're not trying to steal anything specific... you're saying, perhaps it's more reconnitor? Testing the methods of access, instead of looking to get anything?" That was something based on Military knowledge, at least. Something he was able to understand. "And I do have to wonder what exactly they could do with that sort of profile..." Of course, that answered quickly enough, which was... less than stunning. Possible defectors.... whistle blowers, perhaps, if they had them here, and that was a the threat. Distasteful... but that was the law here. And a righteous cause did not nessecarily mean righteous actions with it. To his subordinates, he points both of them off. "Beifong, ears and feet sharp. Anything strange, let us know. Running where there shouldn't be, banging in vents that could be more than rats. White, whatever you can get from the local networks. Nothing we're not allowed in." He has to say that.
Toph Beifong	Even with her limited computer knowledge it's explained easily enough for Toph to get the gist of it, and she nods. That does make sense... Stadler has given them instructions, and there's no need to question that since it's stuff that Toph was planning on doing anyway. Man, this isn't a small building, is it? Toph narrows her eyes, then rises to her feet again. "Nothing suspicious so far," she asides to Stadler, then begins walking towards the building. It's a bit difficult to make out all the details from outside, so it's better to head inside the actual building, then she will get a clearer view of the floors up ahead. Hmmm, are there any people outside of the building that seem suspicious, perhaps? Somehow she looks a teensy bit annoyed when Stadler tells her what to look for. "I know. I need to get inside and walk around to get a better view. There's nothing suspicious outside though." With that she makes her way towards the entrance, a look of determination on her face.
Annie Sandberg	With Alopex heading for the terminal, Annie figures she should try to find out where Paul Sanders might be. Luckily, she has some information on him and some of the areas he could potentially be found, so she finds the closest unguarded way into the building to those locations. Next, she supposes, she needs to find some place where she might be able to get in touch with him unobtrusively. She starts creeping about the floor, looking for a good hiding spot.
Deelel	Deelel gets the man down and she looks at them for a moment. "I'm not with the police I have my own reasons for being here. Help me out and you can get out of here alive, do you know the name Select-ron?" She'll not bind his feet since he's coperating She'll wait before she moves on as she doesn't want to throw this guy off the bus. "You might want to find new employment off world via the gates though. Ther'es saner tech companies out there I'd hit up Stark Industries."
Wo	WATCH: Alopex does indeed have a few minutes, as the security guard's footsteps can be heard echoing further down the hall. That is, assuming he's not doing that thing where you carefully start stepping more softly to pretend to be walking away. The holoterminals are quite a bit more advanced than their mostly text-based interface would let on, and seem a good deal more colorful and fast than the old clunkers that Gig Mama's crew have to put up with. It basically looks like X-Windows booted up, but instead of colorful GUI windows, it just dropped open an xterm client session. These were the old 'chipped' terminals, so it's unknown just how much information would even be entrusted to one, but it's worth a shot while she's got the time. The good news is that the terminal doesn't seem to have been formatted, after its previous occupant vacated the office space. The bad news is that it's still protected by a password, as a prompt appears before allowing anything but the most surface access. The mediocre news is that Alopex actually gains a real name for Select-Ron, at last, courtesy the default login prompts: Jack Nazareth. It's information that Gig Mama hypothetically could have provided, if it came to it, but hackers use handles so much it can be difficult to distinguish between their real identity and the fake one. Just part of the 'scene' in Neo Detroit. After a few moments, an element that seems out of place on the interface appears. It looks like a countdown timer, rendered in ASCII art of 7-segment LED digits, starting at a full minute. There are some more patrolling guards and cameras in August's way. They aren't nearly as likely to buy his story as the woman at the front desk made up, but the mostly empty building provides lots of empty offices to duck into and hide. The cameras, similarly, can be avoided by exploiting blind spots, if he chooses. In the end, assuming he makes it to the office, he would smell that same stench of tobacco smoke on this part of the floor, and there is Alopex at the Select-Ron terminal. And he'd appear just in time to see that same, ominous-looking countdown timer pop up. One can only guess what it would actually do if it completes; hopefully the bomb is logical in nature, and not physical. The floor Annie targets is a good deal distant from the more sensitive programmer's floor, which has the tighter security necessary to protect trade secrets. It's almost boring by comparison. Security cameras aren't completely absent, but are more in the density and strain of a standard office building. That does mean that there's a good deal less pressure, as she hides and looks for an opportunity, though. A few of the mid level executives are here working late, and every so often one will go to visit the rest room, or get a refill from the coffee machine. None of them match the picture, though, until a few minutes of patience is rewarded. Mr. Sanders steps out of one of the nearby offices, letting the door close behind him as he lets out a long sigh. A middle aged man that's prematurely balding, it looks like he's one of the few that's actually closing his office for the night. "Not with the police?" But you are dressed as one! The low level employee quirks his eyebrows at Deelel confusedly for a moment. But she's right; on second glance, those police duds are quite different than the NDPD. "Ah, n-no," he stammers out, still a bit terrified, but also looking genuinely clueless? "I mean, I might have seen the name on a few of the network boards. It sounds familiar, like a hacker handle. But, it's not like I know the guy." If she's not a cop, then why is she looking for a hacker? Maybe she's a rival? "Look, I don't know what's going on, but I don't want any part of any hacker fights! I'm just a low level code monkey--ahh? Uh...thanks, for the tip...I think."
Wo	BOTH, BRIEF SETUP: Rory would have found the local computer systems of DataTek to be suitably advanced, around late 21st century level. This is one of the major tech firms of the American Midwest in this world, after all. It's a few grades above most of the consumer hardware. While the barriers to entry wouldn't be impossible for one of her nature, it would ultimately still take time, and Stadler had already forbid brute forcing, at least publically. Accordingly, she has only surface access to the same kinds of public records every other person in this world could hypothetically get to. Corporate records, finance releases, press reports, etcetra. Useful in its own way, in a meta sense, but not much for specific investigation. As Stadler and Toph begin their investigation, Ace Williams withdraws what looks to be a cellular telephone, but is actually more of a multipurpose device on second glance, out from his coat, and without even dialing, holds it up to his ear. "We're at DataTek. I need you to give us ten minutes. ...yes, I'll take responsibility for anything that happens, just make it happen." Apparently hanging up, the effects would be almost immediately noticeable to Rory White. All of the user level locks, except the very highest level corporate executives' personal systems, open, allowing full access. That's including the people in her dossier. That would also allow her to notice that one of those terminals, which should be abandoned, is apparently in active use right now, and running an unapproved user space program. ...!?
August Kohler	August is not going to attempt a bluff on security. Instead, everytime he hears a guard, he takes cover until the guard passes, before slipping by. He also watches the cameras via corners, grabbing their blindspots and crossing past carefully. Eventually, he reaches the Select-Ron terminal, spotting Alopex, and freezes when he sees that countdown timer. "Shit." As soon as he has a gist of the situation, August begins rummaging through the office, looking for any piece of intel he can find that might work as a password. Dates, names, places, anything that sticks out. "Come on, come on..."
Alopex	The timer causes the ninja to worry a little. Computers weren't her specialty, but what little she knew of this man gave her at least two ideas for passwords. First though, she actually tries to click on the strange LED numbers, to see if anything happens. If nothing, she'd move to type on the password field. Her two ideas are rather simple. First would be his hacker alias, and the second would be the group he works for, or at least, broke off from. "Here goes nothing.."
Rory White	"Thank you!" Rory's brief but polite with Ace, and gives Stadler another affirmative nod. Her focus is far too much on the digital right now. Behind those human-looking eyes is a storm of digital directives. She's not only scanning through web pages herself, she's directing a handful of AIs running in those Ectos she brought to spider through whole sites and data mine for links, memes, and even run psychological profiling on promising forum posts. It's a standardized suite of functions and a common tactic for an A.G.I. Let standard AIs do the grunt work, but supervise them for anything INTERESTING. Of course, many feeds start scrolling through the Ecto screens. Once Ace's credential authorization goes through? She makes a database request for ALL the access logs to EVERYTHING that she's allowed to get. And, of course, starts analyzing that too. She's particularly interested in the dates of the unauthorized accesses, what permissions they managed to obtain, and what OTHER events happened between each one. Especially system ones like backups. When the floodgates open and -everything- is granted... her AI spidercrawlers go to town on this feed. The CPU power available to her personally is exponentially greater than the entire building's network. Once she begins to scan through all running processes... Well, she WAS designed to oversee whole Space Stations, eventually. This kind of data access... It's no wonder that her eyes glaze over. She just stands there silent, like a pretty doll. Then her attention SNAPS to the here and now. "I believe we have a user-space Trojan active in an unused room." There's several things she COULD do here... but with ten minutes? The best approach is to attempt remote access to the terminal using top level admin access, hooking a quickly-cobbled interceptor module onto that program and trying to observe its inner workings...
Deelel	Given they seem to have no seams and such to them. "Just play straight with them. They tend to do good paying their employees well." Tony was a good boss all things considered maybe if this guy could get out. She'll double check the stuff he has to make sure he doesn't walk off with weapons grade stuff. Though. "Ya hacker stuff, someone's got a bad idea that will screw the pooch for a lot of little guys." With that she'll get moving after that point she's going to get a move on if it's not hyper dangerous. Yes it's shady but she rather not see someone end up in the ground and get the hell out of a hell hole like this.
Richard Stadler	Rick had publically disallowed it, and certainly hadn't privately approved it. There's no way he could spin it into a 'misguided Paladin' that anyone in power would actually beleive. And of course, the holy grail; it was simply illegal. Be /very/ bad not to mention that. The discussion of course, seemed to be moot, as Rory had been given access shortly there after to everything they needed. All perfectly legal! Or at least authorized. And that meant that they were able to get some very, very good information. Or, at least, Rory was. Stadler was simply looking at the physical entrances and exits, and trying to think how they were going to clear this place floor by floor. When Stadler here's Rory talk, his reaction is quick. "WIlliams, what's the fastest way around this building? White, is there a physical location on the intrusion? If someon'es at a physical terminal...
Toph Beifong	As Toph heads into the building it's easier to notice things. The guards at their stations... though Rory's comment does make Toph narrow her eyes. Indeed, there's something going on at that very spot some floors up... Even while Stadler turns to Williams, Toph is already grabbing for his wrist, seeking to drag him with her to the wall. "Follow me!" And then all it takes is a kick to the ground, and the wall of the building opens. Who needs a door? Though fret not Stadler, it will close after the two once Toph has gotten them inside into what looks like a staircase, and she's already hurrying up, her bare feet not making a lot of sound. It seems to be... a young male!
Annie Sandberg	After some discussion with her allies, Annie decides to avoid engaging with Sanders immediately, but instead keeps her distance as she follows him on his way out. It makes sense to be cautious, since Select-Ron wasn't 100% on their side, yet. Maybe Sanders will do something interesting on his own. Of course she has to make sure to watch out for others while she follows Sanders.
Wo	RORY: At least it isn't Fallout Earth, so the programming that went into this is easily understood to Rory. Once she's able to access it, she would find two main processes running at the moment. One is the login agent, that seems to be a standard component of DataTek's network operating system. She sees activity denoting two passwords being entered in short order. Both are subsequently rejected, not matching with the internal secure hash. That's worrisome enough -- it means someone is physically present and actively trying to gain entry. The unapproved process is even worse. By the time she tunes in, it's already down to 40 seconds; it seems to be a timed payload that will begin to, rather destructively, destroy the data that's been encrypted on that Holoterminal. Unless it's very swiftly disarmed, or someone enters the correct password, that is. The good news is, Rory has a processing power edge over the local tech, even with Select-Ron's devious genius. But will it be enough!? ALOPEX & AUGUST: Why do they put speakers on corporate computers, anyway? A terrible double buzzer sound emits, an almost stereotypical 'incorrect' noise, with the two passwords that Alopex tries. Well, she did say it wasn't her expertise, after all! August's frantic searching tosses and turns about fairly average pieces of office equipment. Paperclips, files, and other items go flying through the adjacent workspaces. 45... 44... That's when he might happen to see it. The old bulletin board directly across from Select-Ron's desk. Leave it to a nerd to leave behind this kind of round about reminder, but the arrangement is a bit beyond a coincidence. There's an equation written there, as well as a blank graph, which seems to correspond to labelled, single letters on the Y axis. Time to put that engineering education to the test? Harry finally finishes his smoke break, and emerges from the closet. He, at first, assumes he's alone, but pacing back toward and into the office itself, he notices a terminal on that shouldn't be. "...huh, somebody there?" Isn't that the terminal from that weird guy that quit in a fit a while back? ...shit, they're going to smell the smoke! With all the wrong priorities, Harry pulls a can of air freshener out of his business coat and begins spraying like mad.
August Kohler	August is rummaging like crazy. There's just a bunch of junk here, nothing of note. The ticking is putting him in a rush, but he takes a moment to stop, breathe, and look. And then he spots the bulletin board. Grabbing a pencil and a pad, he glances at the equation and the chart, and begins scribbling it out. Figuring out how the letters connect on the axis, what they mean, this shouldn't be hard for August to figure out, though his panic might make it take a bit longer than he'd like. "Shit, shit, it has to be..."
Alopex	When August comes into the cubicle/office space, the fox whirls around with a hand to the blade at her back. Seeing it's an ally, she releases and turns back to the ticking time bomb that is the terminal's countdown 'LED'. The buzzing from the incorrect passwords was frustrating, but again, not her field. When August starts rummaging, she joins in. When he spots the graph and starts 'mathing' she pauses, waits, then turns to the entryway behind them, moves to one side of it, back to the wall near it, and puts a hand to the blade again, "Do what you can, I'll keep an eye out... I hope you can figure that out.."
Wo	DEELEL: The guy that had been caught just kind of scratches his head in confusion, but, he's not about to second guess being let off. He even leaves the papers behind, and just runs, presumably to get back to his apartment, to lock all the deadbolts tonight. Maybe he will end up looking up this 'Stark' company that the weird stranger mentioned. Can't be any worse than working in Neo Detroit. STADLER & TOPH: Ace Williams responds simply, "There's an elevator. If it's not too loaded down, there are emergency protocols to allow it to work beyond...specifications." Which means somewhat unsafe speeds, but from what he's heard of these Elites, it wouldn't be likely to kill them, at least. It seems like it's unnecessary, though, as the girl yanks him along and bolts. These out of towners are certainly something. The guards remain mostly out of the way, since they'd already been told to expect these visitors, though there is something a bit alarming in how quickly they're moving through the building. "...is something wrong," they wonder out of curiosity!? While they can't keep up with that kind of speed, they nonetheless jog after, flashlights and stunguns at the ready.
Wo	ANNIE: Mr. Sanders takes a rather circuitous route through the building, and doesn't seem to notice he's being trailed. He does look a bit alarmed, though, at some of the sounds of running and jogging that are going on in other parts of the building, pausing momentarily to speak with one of the security guards. "A possible intruder," he asks, by way of conversation, having overheard something to that effect? "Yeah, just go home. Who knows if it's going to get messy." "R-right." Sanders gives another glance around the immediate surroundings, as the guard marches on, and then makes his way down the stairs and then out of the building. It seems like he's able to walk home, since he doesn't enter any car.
Wo	ALOPEX & AUGUST: While the clock continues to countdown, the mathlete team gets to work. It's not a terribly difficult equation, but with the time constrains, and now the sounds of footsteps rumbling through the building, it adds another bit of tension. Once the graph is worked out, it works out to a rather unflattering phrase about Gig Mama, which will not be reprinted here. If they're lucky, there may be just barely enough time to punch it in and get the briefest glimpse of data, before they have to bolt. But that depends...they're not alone in here anymore!
Rory White	"There's NO TIME... Rolan?" See, this is why she has a Muse. Although her lips don't move, a young boy's voice - although melodic, suave, and professional, announces the exact room and begins to draw a map of the building on one of the Ectos for Stadler and Toph... not that Toph can read it. But Rolan can certainly provide directions via speech. Rory, meanwhile, enters a desperate battle of figuring out very quickly what's going on. A lot of time is wasted to figure out what that thing is DOING by analyzing the memory... and even then, this wouldn't be possible without her league of AIs ripping things apart and analyzing it at hyperspeed to cobble together a simulacra. She would be seating bullets. "30 seconds left. Timer. Database actions are scripted... beginning immediate countermeasures! ... There is someone in that room... be careful." Those countermeasures? More digital commands fly across the terminal. Text entered at hyperspeed. She rapidly attempts a variety of tactics: Freezing the process, hooking into the process with a memory editor using her admin rights and overriding the relevant memory with 2 hours... failing that, she starts halting critical system low-level services to trigger a hard kernel crash and bring the machine to a screeching halt.
Alopex	PASSWORD GET! The fox types as fast as possible the moment August gives the phrase. Lunge. Type type type. Speed read, if she gets to the files fast enough, at least. She skims in a hurry, a well learned talent for an obvious reason. For when situations go BADLY. Like right now. Best to skim and find what you need instead of reading slow and missing out. "While she does this, the fox starts to speak some instructions to August, directions to where she came in, the open window, the fire escape they could rush down. "I'll be right behind you. -Go-. Now."
August Kohler	As he figures out the phrase, August stares it for only a second before shouting it out towards Alopex. "Go, get what you can!" While she does that, he moves towards the doorway, fishing out a small shard of glass as he hears the footsteps. He stares into it, and there's a surge of blue energy around him as he speaks. "PERSONA!" A robotic soldier, covered in burnscars and with a gun for a leg, manifests out of the energy, before rushing into the hallway. As soon as Alopex has the code, August simply nods, before instructing the Tin Soldier to /set the hallway on fire/ and block all paths that'll let those approaching get to them. The Paladins could make out the Tin Soldier while it's doing this. After the fire is set, it disappears. Once the Tin Soldier has disappeared, August begins moving his real body, dashing for the window. He slides through, climbing down the fire escape as if his life depended on it. It probably does!
Richard Stadler	All right, that would mean that Stadler and Toph could get up quickly. Stadler nods at Williams when he mentions there's a very quick way up. "All right. We'll head up there as fast as we can. We might be able to catch them. Beifong-" And that's as far as Stadler really gets. He might have just a moment to look at Rory's map he draws before he's literally /yanked/ by the wrist by a small girl whose rather strong for how she looks. "Wait, what a goddamn-" Stadler starts to say, before he's dragged to the wall, /through/ the wall, and then as fast as she can run up the stairs. "Beifong, I don't know how many stairs you think I can take, but I'm not a young man!" He says, looking around on the landing, before trying to pry himself away. "GO! Get up the stairs! I'll take the elevator up!" And with that, he's running in, moving to press the floor number. Hopefully those safeties have been disabled...
Wo	RORY: Having kernel level access thankfully gives a lot of options. But Select-Ron is a sneaky bastard. There's obfuscation up the wazoo, and the program indices jumps all over. It's difficult, with it jumping around between several spaces in memory, but as the clock gets down into the upper teens, and before Rory has to reserve the right to just grind the computer to a halt, she's able to get a lock on the heirarchy of pointers that are causing this madness, and finally freeze the variable in place. Cue a Vader-ish 'I have you now'. Once that is accomplished, she's able to effectively overwrite the timer arbitrarily...and thankfully that doesn't trip any further failsafes buried deeper in the binary. ALOPEX: Which also means, practically live for her, Alopex would see the timer turn from 17 seconds to...7217 seconds. It's kind of funny, since the process terminal session is only designed to show the two digits, and the rest bleads haplessly out of it. When the password is entered, the contents of which would be enough to have Gig Mama strangle Select-Ron if she got a hold of him, access to Select-Ron's files is granted, both to Alopex and Rory! JOLLY COOPERATION. Unfortunately, Alopex isn't a digital being that can instantly hoover up all the tasty bits inside, so she'd better make good use of the time she has. It's all there, places he's visited, people he's contacted, including those he didn't want the company, or even his future Extinct Panda colleagues, to know about.
Toph Beifong	Oh right, Stadler's an old fart...! Toph is used to Tony following her on missions, and he's faster than she is. Not to mention the the security guards. Elevators... urgh, why go in one of those? "Fine, you take the elevators and I take the stairs!" she says before hurrying up, even using her bending to leap quicker from landing to landing. This way it's easier to keep an eye on the building as she moves, that's for certain. And it's not like Toph isn't slow or out of shape as she rushes up the stairsways. Soon enough she's on the floor, and Toph rushes in, immediately turned towards where the people just were. But then there's that... strange thing. "HEY! Halt, you're under arrest for trespassing and attempted theft!" she calls out, only to yelp when the strange thing... sets the hallway on fire?! "And add freakin' arsony to the list too!" Toph hisses under her breath. Fuck. "I can see you moving towards the window there!" she calls after the young man... and then reaches out, focusing on the metal of the fire escape as she does her best to bend it and prevent the thieves from escaping! And if the systems in the building haven't started it, she will search for a fire alarm to pull. Damnit, what were these dunderheads thinking?!
Deelel	Deelel is curious about what the man was going to run off with. She was going to let him take the papers and she's going to mvoe on they may be of use and well it would cover for the guy, right? Someone broke in also her allies may be in dire need of help given the comm. However it seems it's time to get the heck out. Deelel seems very worried about Augusts plan and will end up pulling any firea alarms on her way out once August has done his thing she will pull a fire alarm on the way out too.
Alopex	While not a hacker, she did at least bring one thing with her. A small flash drive. Said drive is, hopefully, inserted somewhere and then it would start yanking the files she was looking at. No she didn't make it. A far more computer savy source of hers did instead. As a precaution, though, she continues to scour the files with just her eyes, locations are far more important than names, so that's what she focuses on, hoping to find that -one- spot they'd need. The sudden change in the clock doesn't worry her. The fire behind her does. With a grunt, the fox lets the USB Flash drive do it's job for -maybe- ten more seconds, she speedreads, skims, and mentally checks on all of the possible locations she can before she unceremoniously yanks the drive, takes the blade from her back, and just -jams- it into the terminal, spins around, slices any cables behind it, sheathes the weapon, and -darts- out of the cubicle and for the same exit she came in at.
Richard Stadler	Stadler finds out two things about removing the safeties on the elevator. First, it gets rather quesy going up so many floors so quickly, and Stadler had an issue with eating something quick that wasn't libel to stay down. And, second, it didn't stop you from getting to a floor that was suddenly engulfed in flames. "Jesus! BEIFONG!" He yells out, into the room, trying to spot her... doing something. Something that was in the middle of of all of that, to which he has to rush forward. "We're done here! I don't want to second guess you, but I'm guessing a blind girl with bare feet is going to be hard about getting out of a goddamn burning building! Let's get the hell out of here!" If Toph /didn't/ go, well. Stadler might still be strong enough to grab her by the waste and drag her over to the elevator. That was the quickest way down."
Toph Beifong	This isn't the first time Toph has been in the middle of fire by far. After fighting the Fire Nation it's something you get used to. Which might be why she doesn't respond to Stadler first, determined to stop the thieves whoever they are. And to stop the fire! If the water sprinklers in the ceiling haven't gone off yet, then she'll have to create sand. She's aware of Stadler rushing up to her as she focuses, though she can't help but /yelp/ when he hoists her up by her waist. "W-wait, I'm not done!" she insists, focusing on bending a bottom layer of the ceiling. "I can put the fire out! And we have to catch them!" she insists, throwing her arms forward even as a layer of sand falls down from the ceiling over the flames. "Stadler!" If she can handle firebenders than she can handle this! Luckily for him she's more focused on bending the ceiling to put out the fire than to stop him from hauling her away however.
Richard Stadler	Call it the fact that Stadler didn't know of how Toph had managed to battle fire benders before. Or that he simply saw a barefoot 17 year old that couldn't see where the fire might block her routes if she steped on the wrong piece of ground. He ca even see the sand falling on the ground next to them, smashing the fire itself. He could lug her around, but inside drags her back, places both hands on her shoulders, and speaks directly to her. "Beifong, this is an order. He's through that fire, and you're rushing through it to catch him. We have more concerns now. There are people that would be in danger of this fire. The criminal is /gone/. If you want to save this building, you can't chase after him. You need to be /focused/ on this problem! Are we /clear/?" If she stays to fight the fire, then he will too. At the very least, keeping at her back, and watching the stairs. That's the escape route.
Rory White	There's not much more for Rory to do here. She questions whether her decision was right though: she took a risk of futzing with the timer and seizing control of the program the hard way in order to capture a memory dump of it and learn more about who's behind it... than completely bringing down the terminal. And clearly, someone was there. SOMEONE accessed the machine. They did SOMETHING... and now they're running. Did she make the right choice? It's enough to paralyze her even harder where she's standing motionless and unresponsive to anything happening around her. Because her mind is on a dozen things and none of it's her body. A level of detached focus only an AGI could manage, really... Will Toph be alright?! The bluenette comes back to 'reality' after finishing her immediate concerns and is left showing a grim and firmly unhappy expression towards the world... "We were impossibly lucky today. Forty seconds. One delay driving here and terrible things would have happened."
Toph Beifong	While Toph can't see the flames, she sure as hell can feel the warmth, feel the effect they have on the floor...! It's not a fun situation, but somebody has to take care of it, right? The fire can hurt people, cause a lot of damage to the building...! When Stadler sets her down and places his hands on her shoulders she looks surprised that he actually listened to her, but her expression quickly grows determined. Stadler's right, containing the fire is more important, and hopefully the security outside can catch them if they're quick enough. Hopefully her bending of the nearby fireescape was enough... maybe not if these weren't normal people, but... So when Stadler poses his question, Toph nods. "Yes, Sir." With that she turns towards the fire again, working on bending parts of the floor as well as the ceiling into more sand to contain the fire and prevent them from spreading. "See if you can find the fire alarm while I bend!" she calls out to Stadler. With them here at least they should be able to keep the fire from destroying this place!
Richard Stadler	Stadker was close to getting Toph out of there anyway... but there was one thing being a father to Yunomi had taught him; just because he thought someone needed to run doesn't mean they had to. If Toph had the skills, it has his job to watch her back and pull her out if he thought they weren't getting the job done. And, so far, it was getting the job done. Sand running over the fire itself, containing it. Causing a lot of property damage, but give the sprinklers weren't working, he didn't think anyone was going to complain. So he moves to the wall, finds the alarm, and slams on it, as Toph manages to secure the floor. And while that's happening... what was their next move? This information was critical, but more important, whoever did this was skilled, powerful, and knew what they were doing. This wasn't a crime wave. This was... Something else.