Breakdown (Invite Only)

[Jilak]

Compensating for something? Jayne? No way! He was the personification of sex, violence, and amazingness! He was Jayne Cobb! And he was also currently terrified out of his mind as to what they would find waiting behind that door! Luckily, he managed to keep calm enough to hold his gun down, in a more relaxed position. Best not to go randomly shooting off Vera, after all. Didn't want to waste shots, wasn't sure if he had enough ammo for the coming days. If the Alliance, or these 'two men with blue surgical gloves' got particularly active, he'd need all of the clips he could get.

"Okay... ladies first, as they say." Jayne nodded at the door, gesturing to Zero. Not particularly a crack at him, Jayne just REFUSED to go in until he was sure whether or not he'd have to shoot someone.

[mugenginga]

Zero raised an eyebrow, following it up with a smirk, "Whatever you say, but if you start hitting on me I'll show you who the 'lady' is."

He had pulled the door open as he started talking. He slipped in as soon as he finished, not allowing Jayne a chance to respond. If Jayne was particularly observant that day, he'd notice Zero hadn't scoffed at the idea of Jayne "hitting" on him. He'd just made a point about gender identities. It had been in fact been a subtle joke towards the direction Jayne swung, but sublety wasn't Jayne's strong suit.

Zero looked at the front desk. No one there, which was expected enough. He gave a quick glance to the dual digital and analog clock on the wall. It was five in the morning, and the place didn't open for business until six. Actually, considering that it was a bit odd how very quiet the place was. It was possible the hotel had teleported the staff away, but Zero found himself not liking it giving what he'd seen happen to Mal on Susan's display.

[Jilak]

Jayne made no response to Zero's comment, and simply followed. Place was dead silent. Dead as in 'not good' dead. Dead as in 'why the hell did I have to come here if Mal was already dead' dead. But regardless of that, there was something else. Something felt... odd here. Like... something was amiss. Or odd. A premonition, if you would. And there were few times Jayne Cobb had this feeling. Very few times.

"Which o' these doors is Mal's?" Jayne whispered to Zero, crouching down, gun out again. Best to be ready for whatever was here, be it men with blue surgical gloves or gorram reavers. He was going to be ARMED, dammit. He wasn't going into a lion's den if he didn't think he could own the lion, for God's sake.

[mugenginga]

Zero held out a hand. It wasn't to block Jayne, although it sure looked like it could be that way. The place had low lighting, understandable for the time but it only made things eerier. Zero glanced to the side to get a feel for where Jayne was, and he saw the man crouch down. Like a prey animal might, wasn't that just encouraging. When he was sure Jayne was at an angle where he couldn't see his eyes, Zero closed them and focused a bit. To Jayne it would look like he was just standing there.

If Jayne was paying attention to Zero's extended right hand, he'd notice something pretty amiss. Digital distortions, or plain fucked up reality as far as Jayne would probably be able to figure, began to dance on Zero's fingertips. His expression turned to a pleased smirk and he balled his other hands up into a fist. He flexed it out again and the distortions succeeded on forming on that hand as well. Good, it looked like things would cooperate. He turned to Jayne, and the low light just made his semi-psychotic smirk all the more disturbing.

"Fourth floor, providing the hotel doesn't freak," Zero stated, giving no indication as to what that meant, "If you feel the need to shoot that damn thing, just do it. Don't bother checking that I'm clear of it."

Without any further explanation, Zero began walking forward. He kept the spiralling bits of data around his hands. The halls were better lit, so even if Jayne had missed the distortions before he probably wouldn't once they reached the hall. And not only that, Zero was allowing the distortions to grow. By the time they reached the stairs, there would be a thin layer of the stuff spiralling around his entire body.

Didn't exactly keep his identity as a virus secret, y'know? If anyone was watching and all that. Oh, and Jayne was probably freaking pretty hard by this point.

[Jilak]

So, the person that was supposed to, Jayne assumed, be on THEIR SIDE, decided to fuck up reality at his whim. And it freaked Jayne the hell out. He managed to keep it to himself, but he couldn't help but think Zero was one of the Alliance and testing some more of their new technology. Even worse, Zero'd never claimed to actually be on 'their side'. Jayne had just jumped to conclusions. He was slightly wary of the man, but pushed that to the back of his mind once the pair reached the fourth floor. Finding Mal's door without a hitch, Jayne proceeded to force his boot against it. What he found was the most disturbing thing he could have expected.

Mal was laying there, arms folded, as if nothing was wrong. In fact, if not for the shiner he was sporting, Jayne would almost say nothing had happened to him. Perhaps that was why it was so oddly quiet?

"And they will return, the following day, as if nothing had happened. But they will be... changed. They'll be ours. You'll see." And it came to Jayne, and perhaps even Zero, like a whisper. The man spun around, shooting off into a wall, as more reached him. Garbled sentences, parts of various conversations, by mysterious men who's voices he'd never heard. Flashbacks of his past accompanied this. For a moment. Jayne thought he would go insane, that he couldn't lay on the trigger of his gun hard enough. And then Mal awoke.

"Ugh, my head... Jayne? That you?" Mal asked, upon seeing multiple holes in his wall. And hey, Zero was there too.

If only Mal could remember why HE was here...

[mugenginga]

Zero kept the data around him. He kept an ear towards Jayne, and the man was't exactly an expert at staying calm, so he was aware of the reactions. They amused him, because if Jayne shot him now he was positive he could burst into data. Wouldn't that just freak out the poor man? Zero chuckled to himself, and Jayne probably didn't miss the darkness. In any case, it was over quickly and after a few more minutes they were up the stairs.

The sentient virus was reaching for Mal's door when Jayne jumped to his second conclusion of the night and kicked it open. It hadn't been locked, and now the poor thing was hanging a bit on its hinges. What the hell Jayne, this isn't the plot where doors are supposed to be abused!

Zero walked in after Jayne and actually picked up on the digital activity before the voice came up. While Jayne was staring at Mal and having his little worry fit over the man's condition, Zero held an open palm towards where the energy was. Some device on the bedstand that looked completely in place. Quite honestly, had Zero not had his abilities it wouldn't have raised any flags.

A stream of distorted space shot towards the device, sending a virus through it and into whatever system it was connected to. Granted, it probably had better virus protection than Mandark could dream of, but it was worth the try. Zero then picked it up and crushed it in his hands. The force... was a bit spooky considering his build. Zero smirked and turned towards Mal. The other issue now was whatever he'd seen dig its way into Mal's body. If it had any kind of self guarding system against viruses, the thing would be raising holy hell for poor Mal right now.

[Jilak]

Fortunately, the device wasn't made with the idea of a virus attack. It was, in fact, designed to be minimally detectable, and more or less not intrusive. Well, Mal didn't think it was, being that while unconscious he didn't feel it being forced into his GORRAM HAND. But whatever, the point was, Mal wasn't experiencing intense pain over Zero being near him, like he would have in other conditions.

"Why you shootin' in my room? And you BUSTED MY DOOR? What is WRONG with you? Man can't rest for a few minutes without some lunatic bustin' his door down? I mean, gorrammit, Zero's gonna have to pay for that." Mal responded, stretching a bit as he got up.

"And you brought VERA? Out of all the guns you could've had with you, you bring VERA?" Mal asked, sitting upright.

"Well, Mal, I... wait, hold on a damn second, you were unconscious a second ago! I thought I was savin' your life!" Jayne responded, shaking the previous situation off.

"Well, I'd be mighty grateful if I was 'bout to be shot, but the only gun-wielding lunatic I see 'round here is you. And our buddy Zero here isn't exactly okay with the guns." Mal finished, pointing at the sentient virus.

[mugenginga]

Zero was on a destructive streak tonight, wasn't he? He let the pieces of the device fall onto the bed stand. The way the device had broken meant there were at least five pieces. And those were just the ones easy to make out. He brushed off that hand with his free one and turned back towards Mal and Jayne as Mal informed Jayne of his feelings on guns. The fact Jayne hadn't realized that didn't speak well for his intelligence.

Actually, Zero still looked a bit dangerous. He glanced at Mal's hand for a moment, trying to discern if there was a point of entry. He couldn't see one, which pretty much limited the device from before to two things. An illusion, which Zero wasn't buying for a second, or some kind of nano-technology. He ignored any reactions Jayne might be having to Mal's comment and reached to grab the captain's right wrist. Course, Mal or Jayne might not take too kindly to that, given Zero's... less than friendly expression at the moment. Focused, dark, and possibly a bit threatening and all.

[Jilak]

Jayne was about to respond to Mal with something like "What kinda man doesn't like guns?" or something of the sort, before Zero took the man's wrist. He glanced between the two, basically waging an entire, unspoken conversation with Malcolm. It was this that kept him from opening fire on Zero. And really, if he had, it wouldn't have helped anything. The guy had even TOLD Jayne so before they'd made it to Mal's room.

Mal, forgoing all logic, decided that Zero was nonthreatening at the moment. He trusted the virus, and even though he looked batshit insane at the moment, he decided his intents were nothing but noble. Well, maybe not NOBLE, but at the very least he seemed to have Mal's well-being in mind.

"I use Almay, if you were wondering about my incredibly soft hands there." Mal stated with a chuckle. Honestly, though, even if Zero had his best intentions in mind, he couldn't help but wonder what was up. And what his hand had to do with everything.

[mugenginga]

Zero held his other hand just above Mal's palm. Really, if he moved his fingers forward just a slight bit more, it'd look like he was attempting to forcefully interlock them. One has to be grateful Mal isn't from an anime, although this author doubts the ho yay fangirls care. Moving on, Zero seemed to concentrate for a moment.

He was trying to see if it was even possible to remove the device. In other words, he was reading the programming of it. He'd sensed the data as soon as he grabbed Mal's wrist, and there seemed to be information from Mal's wrist all the way to his head. Zero couldn't really read the "data" of humans in that sense, but he could get a feel for where the device was. It was possible, giving the way of entry, the thing couldn't be removed.

Damn humans were annoyingly weak, sometimes. Couldn't handle a foreign body being removed without up and dying half the time. Which was a bit annoying in his own right, giving the recent possibility that mortality may be afflicting him. The data around him flickered for a moment, and he scowled and seemed to bare his teeth before it restabilized.

[Jilak]

Mal, of course, felt nothing. It's how the device was designed. Even if a direct attack was waged on it, Mal wouldn't know it was there until it was too late. Its creators were pretty sure it could shrug off any attack directly waged on it. Or... was that its purpose? Possibilities, possibilities. None of which were apparent to Mal or Jayne, because they had no idea the device was THERE.

And then Jayne noticed something. Looking up, he noticed a camera. Not at all odd, a lot of hotels had cameras, and he simply wrote it off as part of the video phone or some such. But if Zero noticed it, he'd realize something. The camera? Seemed to have been repaired. The lens was uncracked and, in fact, the red light was on.

So... had the men merely been an illusion? After all, Malcolm didn't remember anything happening, and now the camera was repaired. But Zero FELT the device, as the last post proved. Is the author of this post just mindscrewing everyone on purpose?

News at 11.

[mugenginga]

You know, for all his superiority complex issues, Zero was about to make a pretty massive mistake. In his defense, its not like he was aware Mal wasn't the only one the "hands in blue" had been after. To shatter that defense, he could have seen it if he hadn't been too busy being irked at Mandark and Uno. In any case, he didn't think to check the device for anything other than reactions it would have to Mal and general virus protection. Not anything targetted specifically at him.

Zero let the data fade a bit and looked towards Mal, making sure the man was making eye contact, "Since you're staring at me like that, you obviously don't remember what happened. I can't say I know when they knocked you out, but two men implanted a device via your hand," he gestured towards the hand whose attached wrist he was still holding, "I can force it out, but given the nature of humans I can't guarantee it'll be painless."

He saw no need to tell Mal what it was doing, which seemed to be functioning as a tracking device and using Mal's own electrical signals (which was what the messages to the brain amounted to) to power it.. To add to Zero's mistakes, he was jumping to conclusions based on the facts he was getting. Nevermind that about two and a half hours earlier, he'd had trouble maintaining his human form.

Really, you'd think it was obvious to not trust his ability to read data at the moment. Well, just over a year of gaining strength culminating in almost destroying reality endign with being sealed for ten billion years... It would be a bit like telling a person who occasionally had trouble seeing to not trust their site when it seemed clear. In any case, Zero made a lot of mistakes and leaps.

He pulled his free hand back a bit and set some of the distorting data/reality swirling around himself towards Mal. It looked like it quite simply absorbed into the man via the center of his palm. Neither Jayne nor Mal would realize this, but it was the center point the device had buried in with. It seemd simple enough, most of its base power seemed to be directed at allowing it to drill in and establish a connection with its host. He'd effect the coding to simply screw up the messages and get the thing to decide to come out. He planned on snatching it and crushing it as soon as it was out of the man's body.

Well, at the end of the day it was his own damn fault...

[Jilak]

Jayne couldn't help but do a double take at something Zero said. The nature of... humans? I mean, he thought the man's glowy reality screw trick was a bit unnatural, but... this raised more questions than answered. It did explain his screwing of reality, but didn't explain the most pressing question Jayne had. What... what exactly WAS Zero? Wasn't like any reaver Jayne had ever seen, that was for sure...

Zero made a vast miscalculation, as the previous author pointed out. He assumed the device was planted for Mal's sake, instead of it's true purpose. No, when Zero's distorted data hit the device, well... a series of corrupted data fired back up towards the man. Corrupted, for Zero, of course, means a series of 1s and 2s, swirling up Zero's own data, holding it in a deadlock. It's purpose, contrary to what this author was originally going to go for, was not to draw him in. No, instead...

It was to shut him down.

[mugenginga]

Zero was aware of the feedback the second his data interacted with the device. As such, he had released Mal's wrist before the kickback. He also had an expression Mal, and indeed, no one had ever seen on the virus' face. One of true startled surprise. Not so much from the kickback, but from the data the device was kicking off.

He'd always been odd. His original coding consisted of nothing but zeroes. In a program as complex as him, it was mathematically impossible for a mononary to function. There had to be at least a single one, and yet he'd functioned and nearly wiped out the entire reality. But 0 accompanied 1 in binary, the signs of on and off. The data the device was kicking off and drilling into him had a third component, and the best Zero could figure was it was both on and off at the same time.

The distorted reality pretty much shot out of Mal's hand as Zero threw it down and attempted to take a step back. Not only that, but it wasn't a slight distortion, and a few of the distortions somehow managed to be solid black and transparent at the same time. Zero's back leg locked up and he managed to trip over it as he tried to back up. He took a pretty spectacular fall to the ground, hitting his head on the wall behind him and hissing.

He grabbed his arms as if he were hugging himself and seemed to be trying to curl into a fetal position. His face was contorted in nothing short of unbridled pain. Something sounding like digital feedback came out of his mouth as he tried to open to say something. His form began to flicker pretty severely, and his pained face managed to look focused at the same time. The flickering seemed to lessen, but it didn't change the fact it looked like he was beginning to literally break into the type of corrupted data that had shot (and was now gone) from Mal's hand.

The man looked like he was dying, somehow being ripped apart into the very particles that made him up. He was clearly fighting it, but it didn't look to be going to well....

[Jilak]

And then all humor was gone for Mal. He was out of 'hey, this is pretty funny' mode, and entering 'one of my comrades is dying' mode. It was the same reaction he'd had when Serenity was breaking down in the episode 'Out Of Gas', if the fourth wall will excuse my naming of an episode. He didn't understand what was wrong with Zero, he didn't understand what had flown from his right hand, he just knew it wasn't good. Jayne could only stand in a shocked stupor.

"JAYNE! Stop standin' around like you've got nothing' better to do and go find some help!" Mal said, crouching down to around Zero's eye level, keeping his right hand behind him.

"Saw no one comin' in, place is dead silent, Mal!" Jayne responded, hastily.

"Well that's just glorious. Zero, can ya still hear me?" Mal asked, turning back to Zero, continuing without waiting for a response.

"When you got sealed by those gods where you come from, did you sit around and let them rule your world? No, you broke out, you found your way HERE. Gorrammit, I know you've been going through problems with your powers, but FIGHT IT. Fight it harder than you're fighting it now, you can be whatever you want to be. And unless you want to be dead, do whatever you have to do to beat it." Mal stated, eyes meeting Zero's.