Serious Plots 9: Srsr and srsr

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

Codebreaker rolls his eyes and starts flicking through the computer looking for any obviously nefarious information, but his attention is quickly drawn by frantic quacking. Presumably after a few minutes of scrabbling Psymmons can find the door button hidden under the projection.

Meanwhile

Melvin screeches the car to a halt the moment the door opens, hopping out.
"This is only going to make your file longer, you know." he notes sadly, this time bearing a wooden rod in his hand.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

Terrible assumption. After feeling around for the door control, Psymmons will soon come to the realization that the door control button simply isn't there to find; the controls must be external.

The computer gives Codebreaker a warm chime when he goes to work on it, quickly redirecting him to the home screen.

WELCOME BACK!
REEVERMAN, HAZEL MAE

The icons re-load in short order, giving Codebreaker access to communiques:


>LIRA [NEW] Hello, Allen
Thurman, Martin [READ] Last chance, girls...
Thurman, Martin [READ] Formal Reprimand (Strike 3)
Quire, A. [READ] Congratulations!
Reeverman, Hana [READ] Help! Locked out!
Reeverman, Paul [READ] RSVP
[click to see 342 more]

Base controls:


>Security
Environment
Privacy
Network
Clear All Data


And of course, various files that may or may not be incriminating, but Codebreaker probably doesn't have time to sift through all of them. It'd take a bit of sleuthing to find the ones that were most relevant...

---

In the time it takes for Melvin to stop the car and get out, Hazel is able to tuck and roll put of the car, and by the time he reaches her, she'll already be on her feet in a fighting stance. Hana won't be far behind, but she hasn't managed to exit the car just yet.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

Codebreaker moves the menus onto separate monitors. He immediately flicks his controls to the left and starts trying to find commands to disable the security system and open the door.
He also takes a moment to read through that mail since it does have his name on it. Maybe the others will mention the door lock. Hopefully their chair can handle him.

Meanwhile

Melvin knows better than trying to reach them. Well he's stepping out of the front door and they're by the rear door so they're kind of close by default.
Instead he simply goes back to relying on his tricks that he knows work. His eyes flare again, this time trying to swap Hana and Hazel's sight with some birds that are sitting on the wires above them. This will likely prove disorienting when they take flight in panic.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

The communique opens, but instead of text, there's just a video attachment, which begins playing automatically. The video shows a brunette woman in a wide-brimmed scarlet hat, who smirks at the camera rather condescendingly... her arrogance is obvious even with the censor bar over her eyes.

"Hello, Allen." She croons, leaning back in her chair. "By the time you see this recording, you'll have made your way into the Reevermans' base of operations. I would congratulate you for that, but as you've no doubt gathered, they aren't exactly the brightest and best GIN has to offer."

"Nevertheless, I suggest you pay attention. This line of communication will only be open once. I also suggest you delete this video when you are finished; if you think GIN is a nuisance for you now, wait until they find out you've been talking to me."

Codebreaker will quickly find the control he's looking for, under security settings, but it requires a four-digit passcode to enable. If it's at all like the keypad outside, he's probably not going to get many tries at it before the system locks him out.

---

When Melvin goes to make his gestures, Hazel attempts to interrupt him by swinging the cuff still on her wrist toward his eyes, hoping to injure him enough to break his concentration. Her guess was that he needed to focus to pull his sight-switching trick, and she didn't want to handle that again.

If the trick goes off anyway, she'll retreat cautiously, squeezing her eyes shut to try to block out the birds' vision. She won't be going very fast, but she will be backing away; chasing her down would still require effort on Melvin's part, and take him away from the squad car.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

Codebreaker cringes at the use of his real name, but he isn't really surprised that someone could put pieces together. His and a's trick isn't that watertight; neither of them are experts at espionage.
"Hello Ms. Sandiego." he drawls as he focuses. This time he's going to do this properly. Close his eyes and look for the numbers. He was gifted prowess from a being from the quadratic plane (this is his name for it not really where a is from). He can guess people's height and weight down to the decimal place. A 4 digit code is child's play for him.

Meanwhile!

The cuff doesn't do much damage to Melvin, but it does force one of his eyes shut. One of the two girls will be spared the effect. The other will still be affected (and closing your eyes doesn't help, but it does blind the bird you're swapped with)
Of course, Melvin has a very horizontal face and is very tall. To get the cuff at his eyes Hazel will have to swing her hand all the way up at his head, meaning that her hand might get dangerously close to the snaggly teeth in Melvin's maw. He tries to keep them neat and clean but they still stick out a little like any hippo's. And you don't want to cut yourself on a werecritter's teeth.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

"Please. 'Miss Sandiego' was my mother. Call me Lira." The woman in the recording smiles. "And the number you're looking for is 0117. The Reevermans' anniversary. It's written on the back of their wedding photo, and Hazel was careless enough to let slip that they use it for everything when Hana locked herself out." She steeples her fingers and smirks. "Now, could you spare a moment to talk? The hostages aren't going anywhere."

---

Because it'd be the most inconvenient way this could play out, Hazel still finds herself with a sudden bird's-eye-view of the situation. She swears loudly as this happens and backs away, her hand having narrowly missed Melvin's teeth. Meanwhile, Hana swings out of the back of the cab and up front to the driver's seat. If Melvin was careless enough to leave the keys in, she'll start it up and begin driving off. If not, she'll take a minute to hotwire it.

[Morty]

[Frozen Angel]

Ilpholin pauses in her trek at the words, staring at the man-bird. It was... a distressing image to behold. No one should ever get that old.

"I seek to open a pathway to the heavens themselves so that the host of angels within can put an end to the growing tide of corruption that has been afflicting the Nexus," Ilpholin says, seeing no reason to hide her true intentions. Even if she has to 'deal' with the Three Blind Frost-Seers first. However that's going to go. Poorly, she imagines.

"We know not of anyone who lives in the heavens. And the word 'angel' is unknown to us," the old man-bird says. "You may enter the valley. The Seers will receive you. Or they will not. You will be tested along the way, to see if the mark upon you is what it seems." Without waiting for an answer, the fey takes flight into the valley.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

Codebreaker punches in the code.
"They might not be going anywhere, but I am. You have ten seconds."

Meanwhile,

There actually isn't any keys in the car. They might find it karmic that the truck is locked not with biometrics, but with magic- Melvin has to use a specific rune pressed against a little copper plate on the side of the dash.
"I'd really prefer if you could just relax." he motions with the rod, which emits a short range cone of sleep-inducing gas.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

"My, but you're a rude one. And here I was thinking you were the more reasonable of the two Codebreakers." The woman in red shakes her head and tsks her tongue. "Very well. Perhaps now is not the time to talk. Keep an ear out; I'll be in touch."

And with that, the video ends, just as the code takes effect, dispelling the image on the floor to reveal an iris-shaped door, which slowly spins open. A circular platform rises into place, ready to take Codebreaker and Simmons down into the tunnel below.

---

Hana groans and steps out of the car, flicking her cuff around in front of her. Plan B, then.

As Hazel is coughing on the gas, wobbling woozily but not yet losing consciousness, Hana comes up behind Melvin and hops up on his back, throwing her arms around his neck and attempting to use the handcuffs as an improvised garrote.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

Codebreaker rolls his eyes at the first sentence and true to his word he clicks the X ten seconds in on the dot. Which is likely somewhere around the word "very."
He has had a long day and he is 120% done with this spy vs. spy nonsense. He groans and pulls himself out of the chair to join Psymmons, who was simply watching the exchange with his head tilted. He actually can communicate telepathically but doesn't usually bother as it never goes well. Hopefully riding the lift down and pressing a few buttons goes better than the rest of today.
Oh right! CB also takes a minute to text Owena and tell her he got himself un-kidnapped.

Meanwhile!

There is one problem with trying to grapple with Dobbers. And that's that he's very big, very strong, and doomed to a lifetime of slapstick. Melvin's huge arms shouldn't have much trouble throwing Hana off- but he's just not very coordinated. His attempts to throw her only send him tumbling, with Hana still attached. Hopefully she doesn't get crushed, flattened, pinched or poked or any other hazard of being caught between a hippo and cement.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

"👍"

As expected, the elevator takes them down into a sealed subway tunnel, where the other six wolfen are waiting, bound and gagged. None of them seem to be seriously hurt, but they all look a little haggard... probably a result of being down here for several weeks.

---

Hana lets out a little shriek as Dobbins collapses, but doesn't let go, just rolling in the hopes that she won't be crushed.

Hazel gropes around for something heavy to use as a weapon, and once she manages it, moves toward the sound of a hippo rolling around on the ground and attempts to clock him on the head, to speed up the process of knocking him out.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

"Hello neighbors." calls Codebreaker cheerily. He plucks the gags from their mouths and starts untying them. He's pretty good with knots.
"With any luck those girls should be in custody by now. You okay?." he tries his best to be patient given the day he's had.

---

There's a loose board lying around for some reason.
Which breaks neatly over Melvin's head who gives a howl of pain. He then attempts to get an arm around both girls and pin them. They should probably avoid this. And not because he's producing that weird reddish natural sunscreen hippos make that stains clothes really easily.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

"Well, it's about damn time!"
"I'm starving!"
"Those [whoa dude you can't say that on television] should be drawn and quartered for what they did!"
"I'm calling my lawyer!"
"You rang?"
"Is Stacy alright?"

---

Fortunately, Hana can get out of the way, since she can still see what's happening and get clear of the hippo before he goes into his hug.

Hazel... can't.

It won't be long before Hazel is pinned again, squeezed between Melvin's arms.

At this point, it couldn't be more clear that they're not both escaping. But this attempt didn't need to be a total bust.

"Han... run..." Hazel manages to wheeze.

"I'm not le-"

"RUN!" Hazel gasps, this time with her wife's compliance.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

CB understands their frustrations but chooses to ignore most of them anyway.
"You must be Surfrider. Stacy has been worried sick about you. You want to borrow my phone?" he offers as he leads them out.
Detective Psymmons will let the other officers who arrive on the scene check the victims and get them home. He'll be securing this scene.

Meanwhile

Dobbers tries one more blast with his sleep-rod at the retreating Hana. There's not much else he can do, still with five half-healed bullet wounds, a squirming criminal in his arms, and possibly a concussion on his head.
He's going to have so much paperwork.

[Reinholdt]

[Frozen Angel]

Ilpholin considers for a moment before calling after the bird. "Oh it is -ahh, why'd he run off?" Was that bird-man one of the King in Rags ancient servants freed from his service? She knows he has a bird thing going on and that thing was certainly creepy enough to terrify anyone.

She frowns, curls her clothes tighter around her and heads forwards towards the crack in the stone.

[Ironsmith]

Warehouse 27

CB understands their frustrations but chooses to ignore most of them anyway.
"You must be Surfrider. Stacy has been worried sick about you. You want to borrow my phone?" he offers as he leads them out.
Detective Psymmons will let the other officers who arrive on the scene check the victims and get them home. He'll be securing this scene.

Meanwhile

Dobbers tries one more blast with his sleep-rod at the retreating Hana. There's not much else he can do, still with five half-healed bullet wounds, a squirming criminal in his arms, and possibly a concussion on his head.
He's going to have so much paperwork.

[Warehouse 27]

"Yeah, brah, that's me." The wolfen identified gives Codebreaker a smile that's entirely too relaxed for the situation he's in; the only indication that he was in any way distressed over the duration of his abduction is the fact that his eyes are all puffy and bloodshot. "And nah, brah, I've never really liked using phones. Like, why do that when we can just talk, man?"

Psymmons has his work cut out for him; the other five wolfen are completely full of themselves and seem to view him more as their communal assistant than their rescuer. This is going to be a long night.

---

Hana doesn't react to the gas any more than Hazel did, especially since she's already near the edge of its dispersal range when Dobbers deploys it. In less than a minute, she's gone from sight entirely.

Meanwhile, Hazel starts getting a little droopy, having now been hit with two blasts of the stuff. She continues to struggle in Melvin's grip; already a futile endeavor, even more so now that she could just barely muster the strength to tap at him with her fist.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse

"I offered so Stacy will know you're not dead since you might be here a bit." CB rolls his eyes but at least Surfrider isn't screaming. It figures that he'd find a set of well-kept fellows who look like they know how to enjoy themselves and they're all pompous...he's too tired to think of a good noun. But something bad. And well, he's not sure he can say that for the two in the back. After six weeks of whatever (reasonably portioned) gruel they were being fed their rotund physiques been reduced to mere beerguts. He wonders how long it'll take them to be as large as himself again. He gives it a month tops.
"The detective says he's going to get some more officers here to check you all over and drive you home." Psymmons himself will mostly be glaring at folks trying to manipulate him and playing the "can't talk" card as much as possible.

Meanwhile

Dobbers sighs and tries to get Hazel back into the car. Her struggle is only likely to hurt herself. Dobbers might be soft in the middle but he still has gear, bone, muscle, and teeth. If she manages to take a swing at his less squishy parts she's only likely to hurt her hands.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27]

It won't take long to get everyone back up the elevator; four trips at most, accounting for how close some of them come to maxing out its safe carrying weight. Any further officers that arrive aren't going to find any more trouble, but they are going to find one thing different from when CB and Psymmons arrived:

The chrome boxes are gone.

---

Hazel, thankfully, doesn't manage to put any force behind her attacks and ends up tiring herself out just drumming on Dobbers's torso for a bit. After a while, she won't be able to manage even that, and he'll be able to lay her out in the back of the car, where she'll sleep for the remainder of the trip, if a little fitfully.

[Deathkeeper]

Warehouse 27

As they get back up the lift CB can finally breathe with his nose again. The stink of all those wolfen sitting in the basement for weeks had threatened to knock him unconscious with his enhanced senses.
"Alright neighbors, best of luck to you, and enjoy your warm food and showers tonight." That is to say, you all look terrible and you stink. CB attempts to make his escape from the scene and go home.

---

Melvin slips Hana back into her cuffs and goes back to HQ. Maybe he'll finally get a few minutes' peace after all. Once he finishes getting chewed out for losing one of them.

[Ironsmith]

[Warehouse 27 => Codebreaker's Home]
(The next day)

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead." Owena greets Codebreaker, flicking open the curtains. "I hope you slept well after all of that. It must've been exhausting." She politely averts her eyes, in an attempted adaptation to her boss's sleeping habits.

"Right. Morning update. Cinnamon pancakes for breakfast. Brought in the paper and the mail. No graffiti last night. Stacy says 'thank you', and she sent in a dozen pink roses this morning. And there was a phone call for you last night. The lady had some... interesting things to say. I took the message, it's next to the paper."

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

Codebreaker sleepily comes to. Again.
"You really don't have to do that at risk to your own health. And I'm always tired." Codebreaker grumbles blearily. Personally he thinks Owena should leave earlier before there's any risk of sunburn. He makes sure he has a proper bathrobe on.
"Did arrogance drip from every corner of her being? he asks her.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

"Hey, if you aren't taking a little risk every now and then, are you really living?" Owena smirks. "Besides, I was able to get a parasol with my last paycheck. Between that and some good sunscreen, I'm not really in any danger until nine-ish."

"Anyway... yeah, she did seem habitually arrogant. Like, haughty without really meaning to be. But apologetic, almost. Or at least trying to be." She shrugs. "It's kind of hard to get a good bead over the phone, you know?"

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Yeah, that sounds about right. I'll go read it." CB forces himself out of the room despite desperately wanting to go back to bed.
Eh, maybe he will once Owena is gone.
"Oh and Owena? Thanks for keeping up my rep with the girls." he adds with a wink before heading downstairs.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Owena freezes. Was... was he being for real? She hadn't said very much about him, one way or another, but that did include his choice of sleeping attire, which was a little embarrassing. On the other hand, it also included just a pinch of gushing about how much he'd helped her family, so... that really could go either way. After a moment, she decides that if he was really mad at her, he wouldn't be shy about saying so, and was therefore being genuine. "...Thank you. Sir." She smiles, before departing for the day.

Which leaves the small matter of the message she'd taken down for him. Strangely, she'd scribbled it out over multiple pages, stacked neatly on top of each other. The top page reads thusly:

Hello again, Allen. We didn't get to talk properly before. Perhaps without the threat of hostages looming over you, we can speak a little more cerebrally.

I'm sure you're tempted to take these notes over to your fireplace and burn them; don't. Putting aside the inflammatory repercussions of not having that flue examined in five years, you deserve to know what sort of mess you've been dragged into, and this may well be my last chance to contact you for a while.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker’s Home

CB waves goodbye to Owena. He ditches the robe once she’s gone to properly relax. Well, relax by sticking his glasses on and going to read the stupid message while eating his pancakes. Pancakes which will negate all the running around he did yesterday and ensure he never breaks from looking like his neighbors. But he already knows he doesn’t have the willpower to resist Owena’s cooking.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

I take it from your silence and posture you're willing to listen this time. Very good. Begins the second page.

Well, no better place to start than the beginning. I come from one of a pair of worlds in a state of cold warfare. Over the past several decades, we have been attempting to subvert one another, and in doing so, destroy the order of our worlds, to be supplanted by the victors. Thus far, the war has been a stalemate, with neither side gaining a sizable advantage.

But recently, a routine transport has found itself blown off-course, here, into the place you call the Nexus. Once this was discovered, both governments involved saw a resource opportunity that may turn the tide of the war, and possibly escalate it into armed conflict. As both sides have developed weapons of mass destruction theoretically capable of planetary oblivion, that must not be allowed to happen.

That would be where you come in. I have spent forty years altering the course of history to ensure this stalemate continues. And now, the only way forward I see is to convince our leaders that the Nexus has no tactical value. Unfortunately, you provide a strong argument against that hypothesis. Your unique talents make you an irreplaceable asset to the joint intelligence community, as you have no doubt been made aware by the Reevermans. If no action is taken, agents from ARC and GIN alike will continue to attempt to recruit you... or, alternatively, to neutralize you.

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

CB continues to roll his eyes as he eats his pancakes. He has no abilities that people with actual training wouldn't have. There's better hackers at the big Orgs. He has a community college degree in earth science. a only makes him mildly better than people who have experience with this. Not that they could capture a if they have any funny ideas. They're not fully in this dimension anyway. He keeps going anyway.

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

..."Neutralize" here being a euphemism for "assassinate", of course. So I say, because you don't seem to be taking this seriously. Once word gets out about the wolfen who broke some of ARC's most secure encryption protocols in less than a day, you won't last a week without help from someone who knows what's going on.

And neither, for that matter, will your maid.

The writing gets a little shaky here, as Owena apparently did not take the implicit threat very well.

I want to help you. Both of you. But while my resources are extensive, they are still finite. I will need your cooperation in return.

Can I count on your help?

[Deathkeeper]

Codebreaker's Home

"Except by all accounts that never happened. Hazel got busted and Hana ran off without that laptop. No one actually knows what I did on that thing. They certainly didn't believe me when I told them. And that's making the big assumption she'll find a way to report in without all their stuff. Not to mention I saw their emails. Their boss didn't think very highly of them. Why would they believe Hana's story even if she bought it?"
I mean, he DID break that code but it's not like he's unaware of how incredulous it seems.
"And you have a big mouth to say I'm not taking this seriously with that attitude of yours."

[Ironsmith]

[Codebreaker's Home]

Which is the only reason you are momentarily safe. That information is buried, but not inaccessible. You were witnessed. The evidence is in police custody, including a system log that shows exactly what inputs you used. One of your assailants is also in their custody, and remembers the whole event. The other is loose and still free to contact GIN, especially as she managed to escape with their most vital assets. The barrier between you and GIN's awareness of you is much thinner than you realize.

More importantly, you can't be certain neither GIN nor ARC will attempt to penetrate the Nexus again. What do you suppose will happen if they send someone more competent?