Putting Trouble on the Run (ID)

[Pink Moon Wolf]

The trip to the apartment complex was simple enough. Light traffic, no interference from Mexus or any third parties, and all Lydia had to do was rattle off the directions to William, who then passed them onto Ryan, who was then able to drive them there within fifteen minutes. Aside from that, Lydia kept silent throughout the drive, lost in thought, slumped in her pilot's seat, staring forlornly at her monitor as William watched the city race by through the car windshield.

Her emotions were still largely jumbled, stewing in her chest with no idea how to show themselves. Really, how could she articulate her feelings? How could she justify the events that had led to her feeling the way she did? She genuinely didn't know. All she knew was that she had to do something about this atrocity or else she might explode...

As Ryan parked the car outside her building, as he and William stepped out of the vehicle, Lydia finally managed to put her feelings to words.

"You... YOU BASTARD!!! AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE DONE FOR YOU! AFTER ALL THE WORK I'VE PUT IN TO KEEP THIS STUPID! PROJECT! AFLOAT!" Three kicks to the pod's console. "AFTER ALL THAT, AFTER GETTING ME STUCK INSIDE SOME RANDOM KID, YOU WOULD JUST... LEAVE ME TO DIE IN HERE?!! LIKE AS LONG AS YOU GET THE CHIP BACK, YOU CAN JUST TOSS OUT THE NAMELESS MICROSCOPIC HUMAN CORPSE ATTACHED WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE?! IS THAT REALLY ALL YOU F*CKING CARE ABOUT, DAD?!!" Throw in a punch to the dashboard. "HOW COULD YOU JUST LEAVE ME LIKE THIS WHEN I'M THE ONLY F*CKING FAMILY YOU HAVE LEFT?! HOW COULD YOU SEND YOUR OWN DAUGHTER ON THESE SUICIDE MISSIONS?! HOW COULD I BE STUPID ENOUGH TO TRUST YOU AFTER ALL THESE G** DAMN YEARS?! HOW COULD I...?!! I...! I, uh... Um... Sh*t, is this thing still on?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Ow."

William rubbed his ear, wincing at Lydia's outburst. "Yes. Yes it is still on. Cripes... your dad sounds like a piece of work. Even with all the crap Percy's dad does to him, I highly doubt he'd kill his own son..." The blonde winced and walked into the building, once again unable to read the numbers. "At least you're honest. By Set's wilted testicle... something tells me it'll take one hell of a deus ex machina or a metric fuckload of family consoling to fix this one..."

Removing his glasses to wipe them on his shirt, he muttered a quick "sorry" before deeming them clean enough to put back on. "So... What's your plan from here? 'Cuz I've got nothing to help ya outta me..."

[ColArana]

The drive had been uneventful and managed to put Ryan at ease for the time being. Nobody chasing them or trying to stop them or anything? Nice, quiet and straightforward. William guiding Ryan, Ryan driving, and Lydia, presumably giving William the intel on where to go, until they finally pulled in front of the residential building. Ryan had almost forgotten that there was a girl running on a death clock in William's head right now. Almost.

Ryan climbed out of the car, glancing over when William winced. "Shouting again?" He asked. Then tsk'd slightly, annoyed that he couldn't hear her. It must be rough for both of them-- Lydia having to rely on William as an interpreter and William being forced to relay everything. That'd need a lot of cooperation for important information to get relayed over to anyone who needed to hear it. Well. Anyways. Ryan climbed out of the car and headed up toward the building along with William, before Will's illiteracy struck again.

"Oh that's right, you can't read. Alright, let's see here-- incidentally Will, you know you've got a really interesting arsenal of curses there." He noted offhandedly, as he walked through the halls. "Lydia at least tell you what her room number is? Give me the key, and I'll get us all into it." He advised the man, walking through the hallways. "As an aside.... Errr.... Everything okay in there? ....You know. Considering the circumstances at least." He inquired.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Lydia took a deep breath. "Sorry. That was a lot of buildup there. I, uh... I'll try to keep the complaints to a minimum, I promise. Better to focus on how to get outta this mess than gripe about how I got into it. I'll just get angrier at that dick otherwise..."

After thinking something over for a moment, Lydia detached Proteus II from its current resting place and piloted it towards a vein, already having a destination in mind. She cast a quick glance at her monitor to get a feel for William's location, then she continued, "Don't worry, I have a plan. I'm hoping I have some leftover files on hand that can lead us to the perps. Just head up the nearest staircase and to the last door on the right. 207."

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Oh by the overactive sex drive of Zeus... This is gonna be a long vacation that isn't really a vacation anymore..."

William glanced at Ryan, nodding with a weak grin. "She... she says it's up this staircase. Room 207. I'll, uh, trust this one to you." He handed the key over to the cyborg. "Well... I guess we just gotta have faith in Lydia now? Granted, I'd rather have her than Imago, at least she can't take over my body and... What WOULD you do if you could bodyjack people, anyway? Imago just threatens to castrate me whenever I ask."

[ColArana]

Ryan paused. "Well, I mean. If she's inside your body, she might be able to trigger certain nerves or alter electrical impulses in the brain, then maybe.... Ah, nah, nevermind. I'm sure there's some biology stuff that would prevent her doing that." He stated, after considering it for a moment. He followed William's directions up the stairs and onto the second floor. His eyes tracked each room number as he advanced, finally seeing the numerals for 207. "Here we are then. Umm... Did she say what she needed? Or are you just counting on her to describe it or call it when she sees it?" He asked briefly.

Ryan paused for a minute. "Geeze, I'm sorry. I didn't realize... so this is supposed to be a vacation for you huh? That's rough buddy." He noted, right before opening the door and stepping into Lydia's apartment.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Uhhhhh... Yeah, there's only so much I can influence your body considering my pod's the size of a single-celled organism." Just put his mind at ease. Will has enough to worry about. He doesn't need to think about all the bonkers things this pod is capable of. "I'm not even sure what I would wanna do if I was put in that position. Seems kinda awkward, as if piloting through your bloodstream isn't weird enough."

Ryan unlocked her apartment door and the two boys stepped inside. One quick glance at the various papers and knickknacks scattered about her living room later, Lydia hastily spoke up, "Pardon the mess. Housekeeper's not so hot at her job. Spends most of her time getting wasted and letting nutcase scientists shrink her and inject her into other people. Hahah... Anyway, see the desk in the corner with the big engine on top of it? Take a look inside the top right drawer. I'll let you know if any names stand out."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Eh. My room's just as bad. If not worse. ... Shut up. My brother likes making things messy just for the sheer hell of it."

Entering the apartment, William responded to the mess with little more than a blink and a shrug. "An engine, huh? ... I don't know what an engine would look like, but I'm gonna assume that's the one." Walking over to where Lydia instructed him to, the blonde began to leaf through the drawer in question. "Okay, yeah. I'm gonna need you to read this. Next time Mort sends us on a vacation, I'm gonna either bring my sister or make sure it writes in Purgatorian. ... Good thing we can at least understand each other when we're speaking, yeah? That's convenient."

[ColArana]

Well it was a bit of a mess.... a lot of a mess. Ryan's room wasn't in pristine condition back home, but it wasn't as bad as this place. But still. No judgement. And it seemed Will sympathized with the room's condition being another such person himself. Ryan himself gave a heavy sigh as William mentioned an engine? "An engine? That's what we're here for? Alright then..." He mused as he scanned the room. Then remembered Will didn't know cars so he probably-- Yep there it was.

"Will an engine is a big mechanical contraption of some kind. I'm not sure one would fit in a set of drawers--" But Will was pulling out something else. "That's not.... exactly.... Wait, do you need me to read that or Lydia?" He inquired.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Uh, maybe let him know we're not here for the engine...?" Lydia awkwardly suggested as she exited William's bloodstream upon reaching her destination. "Dammit, what I wouldn't give for some means of external broadcasting..."

She took a moment to study her screen, looking over every name printed on the tabs of various folders that William thumbed through. "Meh... I don't know if any of these guys would have a connection. I probably would've already heard the names Stone or Cora if they did. Shoot, I probably should've asked Dad what Cora's last name is..." She tapped her chin, then she turned away from the monitor so she could properly dock her ship. "Maybe give Ryan that big manila envelope in the front and have him look through those papers for either of their names. You and I can do a quick run through these case files."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Hey, Ryan, you wanna help?"

William handed the manilla folder over to Ryan. "Lydia says look for anything about a Cora or Stone. You can read this script, so I'm gonna assume you'll find it better. Just... leave it in order for her sake, I guess? We're gonna go through these case files. Thanks, man..."

Once the cyborg was occupied, he looked up, and then down at the papers. "Alright. I'll just let you do ya thing. Stop me if anything comes up."

[ColArana]

Ryan paused. So they weren't looking for an engine then? "Yeah, I'd love to help." He stated, walking back over to William and receiving a folder. He opened it carefully and started looking through it. Was this what Lydia wanted them to find? "Cora... or Stone... Okay then." He started thumbing through the pages, his eyes whirring over them. His mechanical eye made a soft, almost inaudible "click" sound as he took still images for potential later relevance. Even if he didn't need it, he could always delete the images later if they turned out to be useless. Cora.... Stone.... Cora.... Stone... The latter wasn't even that uncommon a name, yet despite that, and Ryan thoroughly searching each page, he couldn't find one single reference to either one.

"Damnit..." Ryan grumbled as he looked over the final page. "Nothing. At least not in here. Do you want to pass me any of those case files you're working on, to go through those faster?" The clock was ticking after all, and the faster they got through these the better. Thoroughly of course. Thoroughly.

"Will-- No. Lydia. If you don't mind answering me, why are we looking for those names? I know your dad mentioned that Cora and this Stone guy are almost definitely involved but..." Ryan paused. "Are we looking for clues on where to look for them?" He asked.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Lydia idly scanned the documents William picked up for her, spending barely half a minute on each before instructing him to move along. "Yeah, nothing here. Skip that one, he definitely wouldn't have any connection. Hmm... Yeah, no, somehow I doubt these people would get involved with a magic type..."

They were nearing the end of the stack when Ryan questioned if they were trying to track these two down. "Pretty much, yeah. See, here's the thing..." She added just enough pauses for William to relay her explanation cohesively. "From what I understand, miniaturization can be achieved with just one of the two chips Mexus created for this project, which these people stole...... Both of them are necessary for successful reenlargement. That's why they're after me. And by extension, us...... I'm hoping we can find them first so we can nab their chip before they nab ours."

Soon enough, William had shown Lydia the last case file she had. "Crap, I thought I held onto more papers than this. Guess I shredded a few files too many."

Groaning in frustration at their lack of progress, Lydia leaned over and picked her suitcase up off the floor of the pod. She was getting angry again. She had to settle her nerves a little if she was going to get through this insanity, and there was really only one way she knew how. "I need a drink. How about you?"

[DanteMGalileo]

"Well, shit."

Placing the documents back where he found them, William turned to Ryan. "That expression says you didn't find anything either, huh? ... Ugh..." He placed his head into his palm. Hello palm, hello face, what lovely weather we are having today. "... I was gonna go totally sober after last night, but fuck that. Let's get something to drink. ... How're you gonna even do that in there?"

[ColArana]

Ryan shook his head at William. "I didn't." He admitted, somberly, as he placed the manilla envelope, with all its contents still in place, back in the drawer. William relayed what Lydia had told him, and Ryan pondered that for a moment. An idea was forming in his mind. "Say..." He began, as he closed the drawer. "Let me clear this up. We need to get their chip to help save Lydia, right? ...And.... They need the chip Lydia has for whatever they're doing. And they're going to come after us." He clarified. "....Could we use that?" He inquired. "Make them come to us and then take theirs from them? It doesn't sound like we're going to find them just by looking randomly." He suggested. It was feeling like a confrontation between them was inevitable anyways.

At the comment of a drink, Ryan gave William a terse glare. "Will? Have you forgotten last night? And this morning?"