Scene #7839: The Distressed F - An Ace's Ambition

Owner	Pose
Forte	THE CLIENT: Juno.EXE, who (after some initial conflict) came to the detective agency with a request: investigate the possible reappearance of his wayward brother Bass.EXE (who bears a striking similarity to the Watch's Forte). THE CLUE: A distress signal, cryptographically certain to be from Bass. The origin point was triangulated to be deep within SciLab, in Juno's world. THE TARGET: SciLab is, essentially, the Internet Police. They're a large umbrella that covers a lot of functions (nationalized water and power utilities, help desk, quest board, general internet maintenance, weather control, and miscellaneous research, among others). Investigating them is a daunting prospect - especially since they're a major client for Juno's father's company, and he can't risk that business relationship until he knows more of what's going on. --- The physical location of SciLab is in Spring, although the insides of its servers are in Fall (due to some weirdness happening during the unification process). Presumably the best bet for actually investigating is going to realspace Scilab - which isn't hard to get to, there's a metro line from the closest warpgate plaza and from there it's a five minute walk down a seaside boulevard and boardwalk. Immediately in front of the main entrance is a large plaza with a fountain (depicting a bird and a wolf fighting) and a small street market. There's plenty of foot traffic going into and out of the building - nearly all locals with only a few multiversals mixed in. Parts of the building are public - getting inside presents no difficulties, technically, but even if you have free access you can tell that you're being watched. The level of governmental control here is high - there's not much of the area inside or around the building that doesn't have a camera covering it, or someone watching it, or both. Which is a shame, because there's a set of stairs and an elevator that look enticing for the investigation-minded. There's a lot of on-foot traffic, as earlier mentioned - people coming and going with various bits of paperwork, a line forming at the help desk, people at terminals throughout the building accessing this or that - and a lobby with a growing gaggle of people waiting on something called "City Netbattler Tryouts". Possibly there's other entrances or avenues of access, but the main office is the most obvious one. There is, of course, the Loud Option - but how much investigating you'll be able to get done while simultaneously fighting off the Internet Police is up in the air.
Midna	Midna is dressed in heavy cloaks and robes, a tall lady. She does not like it, but it is too BRIGHT out here. She leans against the statue, waiting. The Watchmen she requested to cut the power signal her that they're ready. She'll have one minute of reserve-power-only. She dumps a bunch of flashlights for the others, and then... As soon as the lights go out, she pushes through the doors, merging into shadows. She blends deeply, blinking through the darkness as she tries to find that Main Office, but is also Easily Distracted by anything shiny.
Gareth	There's quite a bit of information to take in when it comes to figuring out the potential whereabouts of Bass.EXE, especially in the context of this Scilab place. Gareth isn't the most tech savvy of people (yet), so trying to make heads of tails of the more technical aspects of this caper isn't going to help anyone find their target anytime soon. Instead, she's going to be working the joint on foot, utilizing a few things to help her find her way through the place. Step 1: The right outfit. She's dressed in office clothes today, but not the actually fancy or expensive type. Instead, she's dressed like a vest and slacks combo that looks (and was) pretty cheap to add to her wardrobe, looking every bit the everyday back office worker that's just skating by on the bare minimum needed to be considered business casual. Step 2: The right face. With her ring, Gareth's face looks convincingly less like herself and more like a fresh-faced high school grad not quite battered down enough to hate everything while still being desperate enough to work anywhere. Between her faked age, her undeniably cheap but technically appropriate clothes, and an energy drink in hand, the appearance of an unpaid intern is complete! And so, she heads on in through the main office entrance as one Henrietta Bowman, asking probing questions for things like directions to the bathroom, where she can put her stuff safely (she's brought a backpack, too), and if interns get time to check out those tryouts. When Midna goes for the lights, meanwhile, she sees a potential opportunity. Instead of just waiting around in the lobby like an excited or scared body, she takes what might very well be a momentary distraction to slip away, mostly relying on being supernaturally fast to just get into that stairway to try and find something more worthwhile than the lobby. She'll keep the flashlight stowed away for now.
Rita Ma	Rita the perfectly ordinary girl looks about as un-suspicious as anyone could be: she wears a wide-brimmed white sun-hat and a cute yellow sundress with sandals, exactly like an onworlder tourist who wandered over from the boardwalk. Her sincere open-mouthed wonder at the high-tech structure only adds to the veracity of the disguise, though she's obviously disoriented by its layout. If I could use the Bullette's sonar scream, that'd map this place in a hurry. ... It'd also blow out all the windows and cause an alarm. Oh well.. Eyes are everywhere, which makes it easy for Rita to find a guard to use her Hapless Imouto Eyes on and pester for a map or pamphlet- anything to give a general idea of the place's layout. From there, she spends a while plausibly pretending to look around, innocently pesters the people in line- "what's a City Netbattler?"- and turns around to leave, right after a conversation on her phone that leaves her frowning thoughtfully. Once outside, she meets up with Shotaro Hidari, presenting him with a labcoat, uniform, fake ID badge, or any other identifying clothing she's noticed the SciLab staff wearing. Notably, she doesn't change her own outfit, but offers him her hand as Midna cuts the lights inside. A single cross-shaped pupil luminesces faintly in the dark as she leads him through the lobby. "Power's out for the elevator," she whispers. "Let's take the stairs, too."
Shotaro Hidari	Shotaro is always dressed in a sharp outfit, a suit with a fedora on his head over his slightly messy and bushy hair. Right now, his sharp eyes take a good eye of the comings and goings of Scilab. They have a lot of influence, and power over things. This means, there might be more going on deeper in things. Shotaro does his part to set this up...he just needs a way inside. That can be gotten through various methods, such as being able to slip through right behind someone's tail, or through a side door not properly closed. It's about looking like you belong after a point. With the called shot of the lights going out, he works a plan out with Rita ahead of time. He meets with Rita inside, taking the lab coat and ID, but also her hand so that she can guide him. "Good work," he whispers back, "The stairs are a good idea." He says, pulling a toy bat out of his pocket. It takes to the air and flies up, trying to scout ahead for both of them. Rita will be able to see it, and it will hopefully home in on the signal they had that Juno picked up on.
Forte	This is Gladys. Gladys works data entry on floor 3 of Scilab. At home, Gladys reads too many spy thrillers and dreams of tearing down The System, unaware that she ironically is part of The System. When the call goes out she just happens to know that if you run every microwave in the break room on defrost at the same time, it spikes the power draw just enough - --- The lights go out. Midna slips in, with the rest following. Nobody's caught onto the clandestine information gathering, and people can learn a few new but probably irrelevant things about the world, SciLab's operations, and the like. The lights come back on roughly a minute later, as power is rerouted. On the bright side, this far in, the cameras are fewer in number - the assumption being that if you're in this far you're supposed to be in this far, and there's no need to monitor every inch. Shotaro, following the signal, leads the group down to sub-basement level six - the way the stairs continue down suggests there's more basement levels below, and the faint sound of rushing water from somewhere below as well, but B6 is the floor the group wants. The signal points to a hallway - one guarded by another camera, and with a solid-looking door at the end of it, with a keycard slot. The door's labeled 'High Security Stasis Storage'. The maps the group picked up earlier aren't terribly helpful - there's full layouts for the publicly accessible areas above ground, but below ground there's just a side-view with a general layout for each floor - Basement 6 is 'Sensitive Research', Basement 9 is 'Hydroelectric Power Plant', Basement 4 is 'Advanced Combat Testing'... ... Though on the way to the door, if the group's looking around, there's a few individually labeled labs, not all of which are as locked down as the stasis lab. 'Weather Simulations', 'Bifurcation Testing Lab', and 'Viral Breeding Pens', among others.
Rita Ma	Rita is, in fact, looking- her eyes catch on 'Viral Breeding Pens' in particular, and for anyone paying attention, her face sets into an uneasy grimace. "That means what I think it means, doesn't it? That they're raising monsters here to experiment on. Every world, it's always the same: power-hungry humans think that 'I can control it', or 'we have a deal'. But they never do." At the high-security door, after a bit of conversation, Rita hits on a solution. A weird piece of luminescent 'tape' appears in her hand, and then she shimmers out of existence as her tentacle-wrappings' routine changes from "human disguise" to "invisibility". She climbs the wall and sticks the organic 'tape' over the camera's lens- really a piece of bioluminescent tentacle, which is a perfect image of an empty hallway from the camera's perspective- before shimmering back into view and dropping to the floor. Next, she sinks her fingers into the futuristic sliding door's seam, trying to pull it open through brute force, or simply rend the metal if she can't. Looking back over her shoulder: "A little help...?" But once the door's open, she doesn't head in with the rest of the team. "Be right back, okay? Good luck!" Instead, she's headed back towards the Viral Breeding Pens with a side-objective of her own in mind.
Shotaro Hidari	Bat leads the way and gives them the right location. When the lights pop back on, the toy-like creature is more visible. However, the detective's eyes were not idle, seeing the viral breeding cages sign, he motions for Bat to return to him. He changes the configuration, and now Bat is a camera. He takes some pictures with the toy, before letting it off again. Gareth seems to have a plan for the camera, then Shotaro has an idea for the door. There is a pause when the plan is revealed, to which Shotaro points out the flaw in it. That there is no buzz in, the camera isn't attached to an intercom system. Shotaro looks towards Rita instead. After he does this, he pulls out a stag beetle, and puts it to its ear after turning it into a phone, "Philip, is it ready? Gotcha." When Rita takes care of the Camera, Shotaro goes to the keycard and places Beetle on it. Philip, with his device given to him by Juno.EXE, presses a button. "CYC.EXE." Shotaro presses a button, "JKR.EXE." he says. There is a flash on the beetles, as CYCJKR.EXE is activated, aiming to try and hack the door open for the group, and once open, Shotaro presses on the door to open the way for them.
Midna	Midna sticks close to Shotaro once they're down, lazily levitating. Once the lights are back on, she melds out of his shadow, instead hovering around him. "Hm...what do you think we'll find in here?" She is not going to be useful right now. Instead, while Gareth goes for security and Rita goes for the Viral Pens, Midna is backing the detective up.
Gareth	"Good thinking. This should make it easier to find the rest." Gareth reassures her companions as hops down multiple steps at a time, occasionally dipping back to make sure nobody's following them before rejoining Shotaro up front. She keeps the sound of water in mind, but doesn't do anything about it just yet as they reach B6. With Rita handling the camera, Gareth waits until the opportunity presents itself to actually help out! She zips over to the door, using her own dumb knight strength to help brute force it open only to realize that CYCJKR.EXm ight actually have it handled way better and more safely. Still, it doesn't hurt to have that backup plan going just in case. Either way, though, she doesn't head in through that door just yet. "I'll keep an eye on our rear, although... That Bifurcation room has me concerned." She signals towards said room before doubling back that way, making sure to keep her (now lost) intern-y look going as she pokes her in to see if there's anyone inside at all. If there isn't, she'll start scoping out that room to see if there's anything that might be a lead.
Forte	"Battlechip Slot In - Riderkick W, execute!" It takes a little bit for the battle to play out, but then the door opens, slowly, with the sort of energy that suggests that it can close a lot faster than it opens if it needs to. There's a second chamber, just inside, in the manner of an airlock - and like an airlock, the inner door doesn't open until the outer door slowly closes and seals. Fortunately, there's no keycard needed for the inner door. And inside, there are... tubes. Rows upon rows of large tubes, each big enough around to fit a couple of people standing close together - though each of these only has one. Wide-angle pillars with mechanisms and readouts are attached to the top and bottom of each tube, anchoring them to the floor and ceiling and giving the tubes a sort of hourglass shape. The room is dark, with the only lights being a few lit-up tubes towards the back of the room, and a headlamp being worn by another scilab researcher who, until a moment ago, was busily checking something on one of the lit-up tubes. "Hey, who's there?" he calls.
Forte	The Viral Breeding Pens lab is mostly taken up by three rows of boxy rack servers - ones which, whether coincidentally or not, have been set up in the same shape and configuration one might see in a fur farm. Cages, albeit made of computer hardware instead of wire, with displays on each one showing a variety of cartoonish monsters in... less than ideal situations. Overly crowded in their digital environments, and looking more than a little bit malnourished in some cases. One of the walls is taken up with shelves labeled 'food' - on examination, the shelves contain a random assortment of USB drives, data cards, memory crystals, hard drives and optical disks, and other forms of media storage from throughout the multiverse. "Okay, Mettool Blue R - use Shockwave!" The other part of the room, aside from the cages, is a pair of labcoated researchers who are engaged in a battle to the death. The death of the monsters they're controlling, to be specific. One of them sips at her soda. "Really should have swapped in for Stampy," she says, as if this was nothing more than a game.
Midna	The room is dark. Shotaro is going to grab his attention, so Midna sets up. She disappears into the shadows, blinks silently to some space behind the researcher, and waits for Shotaro to get his attention and grab him. Once he's set up... Space begins to distort, as Midna summons her large mirror. A massive cannon appears partway through the mirror, pointing straight at the researcher. She's not going to fire it, but she's hoping he craps his pants.
Shotaro Hidari	Shotaro walks in, and Midna says she would be with him. That's fine with him, Rita wanted to stop the monsters and Gareth's instincts are taking her somewhere he'd want to investigate anyway. He walks forward, it's dark in here so that might help him. Tubes...each tube could easily fit a few people assuming they liked each other enough. Before he could look at the read-outs on one, his attention is called out. Though with the setup here...he makes an assumption that it was only one lab coat by himself. He just needs to close the distance... "Well, with that power outage, I drew the short straw to come down here to make sure everything is alright?" he asks, but the moment he gets close enough, he closes the distance. Shotaro is a very strong close-range fighter, and he aims to grab the lab coat in an arm grab and move to wrap the arm around his back. "Apologies for that earlier lie. I would like to know where Bass.EXE is. It would be helpful if you could aid me in this," he just so happens to be pointing the doctor away towards a darker area of the room. Right towards the cannon that Midna has set up. "My friend here has an itchy finger...and not a lot of self-control."
Forte	The 'Bifurcation Research' lab, unlike Rita's choice, has no people in it. And - given the thin layer of dust, may not have had anyone in for at least a few weeks. It's also not immediately apparent what is going on here. The entire laboratory - walls, floor, ceiling - has been painted blue on the left side, and white on the other. Sitting in the middle of the blue side of the room, on the floor, is a single desktop tower. It's plugged in, and chugging along. There's a conspicuous absence on the white half where the desktop would be. On one wall on the white side there's a large screen showing readouts - simple gauges and charts showing statistics that wouldn't make much sense to Gareth, probably, but have terms like 'CPU Utilization' and 'Data throughput to next layer'. On another screen there's a camera feed of another location - the coordinates list a place in Fall - of a similar room, blue on the left side and white on the right side. The feed's labeled '#47', in the corner, after a minute it changes to #48, although what's being shown looks largely the same.
Forte	"... That's a cannon," notes the researcher with some surprise. "This is... a robbery?" Shotaro clarifies. "Okay - okay, I can help you!" he says, hurriedly, looking not a little bit concerned. "Wait..." "... Bass? I... can't let you take him." The scientist's fists clench. It looks like he might be about to make an unwise decision, even in the face of certain death.
Rita Ma	Rita doesn't pay the scientists any mind at first; instead she pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and snaps a couple quick pictures of the room. The mistreated viruses, the callous scientists, the cages and the deathgame- all of it is taken in, in frames and video. She just looks like a tourist with a phone who'd have trouble buying alcohol without getting carded, so they're unlikely to take her for a dire threat at first. When they do move to intervene- or when she's done taking pictures, whichever comes first- she drops the phone, and ribbons of her human disguise turn invisible-transparent and reach out towards them. Something cold and slick wraps around limbs and covers eyes in an instant, then calcifies into durable solidity. To an outside observer, it's as if chains have just magically materialized on the scientists, rendering them helpless and blind. They get to hear light clacky footsteps, and wet slithery unraveling all around them, and a human voice coming from something definitely no longer human. "Just like always. Caged, locked tight, like they won't just break out one day. Partnering with monsters so carelessly... it's almost like betraying humanity, isn't it?" "I have a better use for them." One of Rita's tentacles stabs into an electronic cage and carves out its guts. This is rather abstract, but they are undeniably monsters- the researchers are treated to the sound of enamel crunching through copper and plastic. Having 'eaten' one, in a sort of way, she should be able to exercise her command of monsters over the others here. If she can enforce docility, she'll connect her phone to the electronic cages, one by one, to download them onto her device. Otherwise- or afterwards- her tentacles splash cyan acid on the remaining hardware, rapidly corroding it into uselessness. Someone will come for the scientists... eventually. That done, she walks back towards the rest of the group at a leisurely pace, re-wrapping her human disguise as she thumbs through her phone.
Shotaro Hidari	This man is suddenly very VERY resistant to seeing a cannon in the face when just a moment ago he was willing to give him almost anything he wanted. This causes Shotaro's eyebrows to raise a moment. "You didn't hit your head, and you are aware that's a cannon...and you're willing to face down what might be certain death or at least a large amount of pain..." he says, turning the scientist around, but pinning him to a wall. "You have some explaining to do. Time is not on either of our sides. I am aware that Bass.EXE was a Navi designed to break things, as a form of testing them, and was good at his job. I know he was blamed for something that he may not have done. I want to know why he is here, and why you are holding him here." "You have other things to explain too, but let's start with this first."
Gareth	Shotaro asked for pictures, and pictures he shall receive! Eventually. Gareth needs a moment to get the camera on her phone working, but once she figures it out (relatively quickly, even), she starts snapping pictures of the Bifurcation Research Lab. She starts with the view from the outside in, then a few going from the blue side to the right side, and then at the desktop tower from a distance before finally approaching it. She takes another picture of it, and only then does she remember that towers themselves aren't what's interesting, but the stuff they're doing! Seeing that screen, she takes some more pictures of that without quite understanding what the readouts are telling her, and then she does the same for the camera feed that's only slightly more intelligible. There's still no signs of Forte just yet, but the tower still occupies some free space in her mind as she checks it over again. "Just what kinds of plots do they have going on here? Hmm... Ah, well. No sense letting this chance go to waste." With Rita's encouragement and news that Shotaro's encountering some resistance, she gets to work getting the computer's less vital stuff disconnected first: Keyboard, mouse, speakers, and then she starts disconnecting and gathering the stuff worth actually taking back: The tower (and power cable), any drives if they're connected (floppy, hard, or otherwise), and whatever papers happen to be any lying around.
Midna	The cannon swivels if the man tries to flee or fight. "Please listen to my friend here~. I don't want to have to blow your body apart, and then we take Bass ee-ex-ee anyways." Midna lazily floats around. The cannon stays where it is, telekinetically. She starts glancing at readouts, trying to get a shape of what is actually In These Tubes.
Forte	"... You... don't know. Okay. That's not the real Bass.EXE. At least - that's not the original, that's a copy - and whatever plan you're wanting him for, even if I could let you, it won't work out." He talks quickly, eyeing the cannon. "He's sick. We're keeping him here until we can find a cure. And - he's my responsibility, I can't just let you have him." The door opens. He glances over, expecting backup or a rescue - and then sags when he sees it's not someone he recognizes (Rita). --- Gareth takes pictures. She then goes to unplug stuff. As soon as she takes the power cable out of the tower, the displays start changing. The lists of computer statuses start flickering out, one by one, starting from the top... ... and the cameras start showing... nothing. They're still online, but there's just empty spaces where the blue/white rooms used to be.
Shotaro Hidari	Shotaro tightens his hold just a bit, might be a bit mad at hearing the phrase 'we cloned a guy'. "Who thought this was a good idea? You cloned someone, he's not sick, and let me guess..." he says, the grip tightens just a little bit more, "His family doesn't know. We also noticed your 'virus breeding pens'." "You are supposed to be protecting this world's internet, the thing this world has is a very important thing to everyone in this world...and you're using it to abuse digital beings." "If we were to let him out, we would be returning him to his family, though he is unaware of my presence here, I am sure the good Doctor Cossak might have some choice words to say...so which side of history do you want to be on?"
Forte	"We weren't the ones that cloned him-" The scientist blinks. "Wait, family? Are you saying you're here to rescue him? Not to use him in some evil scheme for world domination?"
Midna	The cannon nudges the doctor. Nudge nudge. "You want to cure him. He's your responsibility. So help us. This lab isn't the place to do it, is it?" Midna's grin under her cloak goes crooked. "I wonder if the rest of the doctors here want to cure him, or use him? If you truly believe in the former..." A pause as he elaborates about family. "Man, wait, is this all just a misunderstanding? Of course we don't want to world dominate!"
Shotaro Hidari	"No, we're..." a pause, "Right, infiltration, we didn't announce ourselves," Shotaro sighs. "Yes, we are here to rescue him...who cloned him then?" Shotaro lets that question hang. The scientist has no reason to lie, they could easily verify the story. In fact, he nods to Midna to do just that. They'd have documentation here.
Rita Ma	Rita has considerably less sympathy or goodwill than her teammates. She advances on the scientist darkly, holding out her cellphone with a photo of the cruel virus breeding pens displayed on the screen. She stops just outside of arm's reach. Rita is curt and to the point. "If you're helping him, then why did he send a distress signal? And why should we believe you're treating him any better than any of the other test subjects under your care?"
Forte	"Gospel. The criminal syndicate. As far as I know they've disbanded or scattered or - are just not a factor now." "After cloning him he was... himself. For a few minutes. He didn't seem to remember the incident that we lost him in - for the record that was a tragedy and SciLab's fault entirely and he has my sympathies for facing basically mob justice as an innocent navi -" He looks at Rita's phone. "Oh, the viral breeding labs. It looks like they're making good progress," he says, and realizes literally a moment too late that he's supposed to not call that a good thing. "Look - I'll bring you to him, if you'll just - stop pointing weapons at me, and promise you'll listen to my explanations, please?"
Gareth	With the tower in tow and power cable stuffed into a pocket, she just walks right on out of that Bifurcation Lab! It still sounds like her friends are continuing with their side of the investigation when it comes to that main room, so she moves to regroup with the rest of the group in the main room and show off the fruits of her labor: A freaking computer tower. Also, making sure nobody's injured. She knows Rita went off alone, after all, but Shotaro's past injuries aren't forgotten, and Midna's aversion to light means Gareth's also keeping an eye out for any windows or particularly bright lamps. The scientist, meanwhile, gets a rather focused stare from Gareth, almost as if she was waiting in judgment of him for something without saying a word.
Shotaro Hidari	Shotaro loosens his grip, letting the scientist walk free. "Start with your name, and we're listening. I'm a man who's as much here for the truth as to help their client. Sometimes the client does not know everything either...but it is true, our client did say they caught a distress signal from Bass." "Did Bass enter willingly, or did you force him in?" There is a pause, "Do you have a list of what members of Gospel might be on the loose still?" he asks, hoping that his growing suspicion wasn't wrong.
Rita Ma	"They were making good progress," she gently corrects. Rita exhales softly in response to the scientist's promise. Her expression darkens further, but at least it doesn't seem to be directed at the sorry scientist anymore. Her flip-top phone snaps shut. She glances around at her fellow Watchmen, then motions him up from the chair, expecting to be led somewhere. "Okay. But you have a lot of explaining to do. What kind of state is he in now, if he's not 'himself'? Is he going to be able to answer our questions?"
Forte	The scientist gets put down. "Yuichiro Hikari," he says. He flinches at what Rita says about 'were' making good progress - he'll have to find out what she means later, and how big of a mess it is. "And as to how willing he is, that's... complicated." He walks over to a corner tube, and presses a button on it - lighting up the contents, revealing- ... Well, that has to be Bass.EXE, not Forte, but now viewing them not just via photographs but in real life, they look almost exactly the same. Take away Forte's poncho, and remove the scar on Forte's chest, and they're nearly identical. "A few minutes after he was copied, or cloned - I will be fully transparent we haven't figured out how - he started... getting sick. He ran a systems check on himself, started reporting that his viral infection rate was going up, and..." "... Well, he started attacking the people who had come to stop Gospel. And transforming, into some sort of a monster."
Gareth	With her allies functioning as the question-askers and primary investigators, Gareth handles the role of DOOR WATCHMAN. She keeps an eye out for anyone that might be coming by, poking her head out every now and then while signaling incoming movement with taps on the door. When the coast is clear, however, she approaches to check out that corner tube with Bass.EXE in it. "If this is his clone, then.. Where do you have the original?" She asks the scientist, visibly resisting the urge to just smash that thing open when he mentions the clone's sickness. Instead, she starts for the door again ,but places a hand on Rita's shoulder briefly as if trying to encourage her. Not to do anything in particular, but in general. "You have my support, whatever you decide to do here." Although she looks at Rita first, Shotaro and Midna both get affirming nods as well. She then makes a show of speed by going from that slow movement into immediately zipping right over to the door in seconds without so much as breaking a sweat or showing real effort. It's probably not necessary, but it might help intimidate the scientist just a little bit more into cooperating.
Forte	> List of active Gospel Members "I'm sorry - I don't know of any off the top of my head. The ones I know of were apprehended." Is that a hint of pride in his voice? > What kind of state is he in, if he's not 'himself'? "... Within seconds of leaving stasis, he starts transforming." "We can wrestle him back into the tube without hurting him too much - via no small amount of effort and injury on our part - lock him into stasis, flood him with antivirals again, run systems checks - it's all had the same result so far."
Rita Ma	Rita stares up at the tube, her mouth open and eyes wide. "Mr. Forte...!" she starts to say, reaching out with one hand, and then catches herself. She grimaces instead; her hands ball up helplessly by her sides. He's... sick? And turning into a monster? This is too familiar. I hate it. Why did it have to be complicated? Why couldn't we just smash in there and save him? "Even if this isn't our Forte," she resolves firmly, "we have to help him somehow. But..." She glances down at the floor. Gareth's hand on her shoulder rouses her a little, with a confused "mm?" turning into a slightly peppier smile as she looks back over her shoulder at her ally. "When did we get the distress signal?" she asks her allies, then on confirming the time, asks the scientist: "Does this line up with one of the times he got out of the tube? ... He must have been so scared." Her lips set into an uneasy neutrality. No matter where else she looks, her eyes keep gravitating back to that tube. It's not Forte, but something about seeing him like this still gets under her skin in ways she can't fully explain. "What is he sick with, exactly? Did that virus come from 'Gospel', too?"
Midna	Midna scans the readouts once more, less lazily, as they talk. She doesn't know Forte well, so she has no questions, thought she recognizes Bass.EXE as looking like him easily enough. Her science-fu is bad, but hopefully these readouts are TRANSLATABLE to a fantasy person who can then communicate them to the rest of the gang.
Shotaro Hidari	Shotaro listens, trying to put the pieces together. "Does Dr. Cossack know that Bass is here?" Shotaro asks, hearing the hint of pride in his voice over imprisoning members of Gospel. "Also, does the name Juno.EXE mean anything to you?" Shotaro decides to take a chance. The doctor here was trusting them to not cause a mess, a detective's instinct tells him the same. "My partner can go over data you give him if we can confirm that ourselves?" It's better to be careful. Though he's starting to have a guess about what's happening here. "Our client didn't tell us, exactly."
Forte	> Distress Signal "... Yes. That's about the right time... He must have managed to get a connection at some point during that." > Viral type and source "... We... don't know. We're trying to find out. From... firsthand experience, it doesn't seem contagious, or at least not spreadable via bite or claws or airborne." >Dr. Cossak "No. He doesn't know. I wanted to find a cure or... know for sure that Bass couldn't be saved, before I told him. And we're not out of options here." > Juno.EXE "That's Cossak's new navi, right? Does good work, if a bit aggressive." And finally... > Bass's wishes "... Before he transformed fully, he made two requests to the personnel on scene." "... The first of which was for help. The second one - for them to stop him." Dr. Hikari looks up at the tube, with the comatose Bass floating inside. "We... have yet to be able to clarify his wishes, past that. And I'm hopeful it won't come to that point."
Shotaro Hidari	Shotaro sighs, and shakes his head. "Doctor, I think we owe you an apology...though perhaps other things you are doing down here might be something to reflect on.." he says, shrugging. "Our client is Juno.EXE. I am Shotaro Hidari private detective from the Watch. Juno thought we were holding Bass.EXE hostage, and it turned out that after retracing some things, he discovered it actually came from here." "I knew something was up when you were willing to put your life on the line, something a jailor does not do, but rather a doctor. I think it would be a good idea to bring this to both Dr. Cossack and Juno's knowledge, to prevent further misunderstandings." "My partners and I agree on this. Would you be willing to aid us in this?"
Rita Ma	Was this something that our Forte had to deal with, too? How did he solve it? He hasn't been around for a while, right? So it's not like we can ask him... this really is the worst. "I can't just give up on him," she murmurs. "When I was like that... my friends didn't give up on me. And even if he's not the Forte we know, I...!" I can't look at his face and not feel that way. Her hands ball up helplessly again, teeth set in a grimace. It takes her a moment to exhale all that tension. She looks back at Dr. Hikari, desperation painted on her face. "What other options do you have? What haven't you tried yet? I want to help. Please."
Gareth	"If it's not going to spread to anyone else, then that's one less thing to worry about." Gareth comments during one of her rapid back-and-forths from the door to the tube group, watching and listening to the scientist closely when Juno is mentioned by name. Shotaro sounds like he trusts the doctor enough to reveal the details of why they're here, at least, and she follows that up with her own brief introduction. "Gareth, knight of the Round Table. You have my word that these are honorable people, and my lance only seeks out the unjust and unkind." She tries to reassure him with a broad grin and a brief flicker of her lance into existence to show off just how big and protecting it is, probably not realizing that might also come off as an indirect threat. "If you can help us rescue him, I'm sure he, his brother, and his father would appreciate it." She looks over at Rita as her frustration is let out, and then Gareth looks back over at the tube. "Could we feed him a computer? Or... Do you know if Bifurcation is something that might help with his condition?" She's still not entirely sure how that works, but it's worth asking.
Midna	"Call me Midna." Midna says as she floats around. "We'll do whatever we can to help him. After all, that's what our organization does." A pause. "I think so, anyways."
Forte	> Talking to Juno and Cossak "... I suppose so. If he's gone so far as to hire..." The word 'terrorists' fortunately doesn't make it all the way to the tip of Hikari's tongue. "... Freelancers to come investigate, then we're past the point of not burdening them with bad news." > "What haven't you tried yet?" "... Most things from outside of our world. I've been running through our options based on what we have available here - if there's something from outside our world, somewhere in the wider multiverse, I'd be willing to consider it as a treatment option." "Alternatively, there's some old Gospel and World 3 bases that haven't been picked clean yet - sorry, World 3 is the other 'bad guys' group here - if you want to go looking to see if there might be any clues left..." > Lance "That's - um, that's a very nice lance, and I'm sure it only hurts the guilty - but please don't wave it around in here." And then belatedly: > "The Forte we know" "... Is that the same one that - that was hurt by the incident? I know it's hard to tell in the multiverse, but can you bring him along next time?" "I have... my own personal reasons to want to talk to him, too." > Feed him the bifurcation computer Dr. Hikari looks at the desktop tower blankly. "... Wait, is that," he says, finally making the connection, and then he sags. "Well - so much for that department's budget for the year, I suppose. Did you happen to shut it down properly before you took it at least?"
Gareth	After putting the lance away in the magical Servant ass dimension, Gareth lets out a confident noise when Doctor Hikari asks about how she disconnected the computer. "I did! I pressed the button on the thing it was plugged into before taking it out." She answers, revealing that she in fact did not actually shut down the tower itself. She sure seems pleased about the precautions she took, though.
Shotaro Hidari	"Freelancers," Shotaro says, evenly. "Though Private Eye is something I'd prefer you use with me," he says, gesturing towards the doctor. He side-eyes Gareth, well...too late now. They likely can put some of the blame off on it being a misunderstanding... Well, except for, "Virus Breeding Program?" he asks, shifting some things back towards the doctor. He gets an arm cross, but he lets that go with a sigh. "I can't make any promises, but I will ask him for you. I will also contact Juno and explain the situation..." he says, looking at the doctor's arm, "Sorry for the rough handling."
Rita Ma	Rita's eyes keep gravitating back to the tube- it's so wrong to see him passive and subdued like this, when the Forte she's familiar with is so keen and tense- but Dr. Hikari's response tears her attention away. "Ah... I don't know for sure, Dr. Hikari. He's never really talked about it. But he's got this wound on his chest, like this." She mimes the slash, drawing her finger across her own body. "Is that part of the 'incident' you mean?" His follow-up request elicits a little frown. "I can... I'll ask him. But he's always seemed..." She pauses, struggling to find just the right words for a moment. "... Burned? I know he has problems trusting. I know he's never talked about where he's from. So... don't take it the wrong way if he doesn't want to come, alright?"
Forte	> Virus Breeding Program Dr. Hikari visibly decides to not try to justify the program to the 'freelancers'. > Power Button "... That's... exactly right." It's not. > Scar "That's - yes. That's exactly it. During the incident." > Burned "... Yeah. That... sounds about right, too." "If he's the same one - he's lived the rest of his life as a shadow, as far as we can tell. Went to the deepest, darkest part of the world, and just stayed there the rest of his life. Usually when I heard about him - it was because some aspiring netbattler wanted to make a big name for themselves by going after him." "It sounds... kinda lonely, to me."
Rita Ma	"Went to the deepest, darkest part of the world, and just stayed there the rest of his life. Usually when I heard about him - it was because some aspiring netbattler wanted to make a big name for themselves by going after him." Forte says, "That once you attain power, there will be no end to those showing up to take it - or merely to test themselves against you. Neither group will ask first." "Oh," Rita says. "Yeah. That's... he deserves something happier than that, doesn't he? I'm glad he's out doing other things now."