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Post by ColArana on Apr 4, 2019 20:39:32 GMT -5
Ryan gave a heavy sigh about the situation, but gave Max a small smile. "Thanks Max." He said appreciatively. He didn't think Max quite... got it. Hell. Why should they? To ninety percent of the populace Ryan had something most people could only dream about. It wasn't... immediately obvious, just how little humanity was left in him. Or how much he wanted that back. But that was for another time. Max was right. They had to work on saving Lydia.
Ryan walked right behind "Andrew", as Will tried to lead them through the building. He... really hoped Will knew what he was doing.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Apr 10, 2019 17:15:34 GMT -5
Max offered Ryan a tired smile and a nod, then turned and gave Percy the same. After pulling herself together as best she could, Max followed Will and replied to him with a mumbled "Yes, sir," as she was ushered into the halls LunArc's research facility. If that snafu back there was the frying pan, then whatever she was walking into may as well have been hell.
Beyond the waiting room, the team found themselves in an extensive network of hallways. The general vibe of the atmosphere was sterile, but not quite cold, with muted neutral colors and a carpet so thin it may as well have been laminate. Not exactly what one might expect from a high-end laboratory, but nothing Max wasn't accustomed to by then. Every door to their immediate left and right were closed, and a directory was clearly posted on the wall at the end of the hallway.
"Alright... Where to begin..." Max mused aloud, notebook and pencil in hand, staying in character in case there were any cameras watching them. "Uh, Andrew, you said you had some schematics laid out in your office for us? Maybe we could sit down in there and exchange information."
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Apr 14, 2019 11:31:50 GMT -5
"Because even if that dick was eager to get into Max's pants, there was no guarantee that he would go so far as to let us into absolutely any part of the building to do it," Lydia promptly answered. "At least this way we have a little more leeway to look wherever we want for clues."
Max had suggested they go to Andrew's office. Lydia smiled and nodded at this idea, even though the gesture went unseen. "Now there's an idea. Somehow I get the feeling Max already knows where his office is..." Don't think about what Andrew has done in there. Don't think about what Andrew tried to do to Max in there.
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Apr 14, 2019 12:11:17 GMT -5
"Ah, of course, Miss Niles," Will replied, trying to act natural despite looking apologetic in the eyes. "Shall I escort you and your shadows to my office? Come, follow me."
As Will walked down the hallway, he awaited instructions from Lydia on where to go. Good grief, just because it looked like the hallways of their apartment building didn't mean he was automatically familiar! Fortunately, Percy, ah, "Felix" he meant, he seemed to be willing to offer a distraction.
"So, uh, Doctor Kent?" The brunette fiddled with his hair, trying to keep it in the messy bun without exposing his ears. At least the makeup job was holding. "Are you sure about this? Wouldn't that get you in trouble?"
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Post by ColArana on Apr 14, 2019 12:29:32 GMT -5
"That would be great sir! I'm sure we'd be honored-- oh, sorry Miss Niles." Ryan said in an attempted eager tone, to play his role. This whole thing with Lydia was making him more and more comfortable with the idea of lying and acting, and it was slightly disconcerting.
Max was doing well though, and Ryan listened in, to try to follow her lead as she spoke, but really his focus was entirely on their surroundings as they followed Will. It was easy to play the curious understudy as he turned his head left and right to examine their surroundings. Checking for security cameras. Checking for doors. Checking for anything that looked important or confidential. Checking for anything that could be a clue. He trusted Will and Lydia to figure out where they were going. Or for Max to know. Any of the three could probably work something out. His job, he figured, was now to be as attentive as possible, and, worst come to worst, be the team muscle to get them out if things went south. His cyborg nature being out of the bag, he had little to lose by cutting loose now.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Apr 14, 2019 12:55:45 GMT -5
"Heheh...! You're fine, Victor," Max assured Ryan in good humor. Then she turned to Percy and continued, "It'll be alright. I've conducted one-on-one interviews with Andrew in his office before. We won't be hurting anything, right, Andy?"
Max kept herself in the lead, but close enough to William to avoid suspicion from the employees who passed them by with nary a passing glance. With a confident step, she guided the group to a collection of office doors, stopping at a closed one labelled ANDREW KENT, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF BIOROBOTICS RESEARCH. "A little peace and quiet before the fireworks, huh?"
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Apr 14, 2019 13:42:16 GMT -5
"Couldn't have said it better myself," Lydia chuckled morbidly. "Door's probably locked. Try waving your badge in front of that little black box on the wall next to it."
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Apr 14, 2019 14:07:10 GMT -5
"What a silly thing, no?" Will said, waving the ill-gotten page in front of the black box. Hey look, they're in. And now...
Okay, he could live with the sterile floor and walls. He could live with the mahogany desk, hell he actually liked it. But he would not stand for that weird picture on the wall! Looking up, he saw another black box, blinking a few times. Internally sighing, Will began looking in the filing cabinets. Anything so he wouldn't have to look at the picture.
"I do beg your pardon, Miss Niles. It seems as though my filing cabinets are all sorts of disorganized these days."
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Post by ColArana on Apr 14, 2019 14:13:40 GMT -5
Ryan walked into the room with the group, and was sure to shut the door behind them once everyone was inside. "I don't mind helping you sort through them, Doctor." He stated, walking over toward the filing cabinet. "I'm told I'm really good at filing." Ryan's left eye flickered for a moment as he approached the filing cabinets. "It's a little bit unprofessional but I'm sure I can find what you're looking for in no time flat, if you can tell me anything about it." He suggested. Or rather, if Lydia can tell you any details about it.
Ryan continued. "Maybe you forgot to print it off and it's in a file on your computer, Mr. Kent?" He suggested as well, taking a file out of the cabinet beside Will. His eye glowed, and Ryan's thumb flicked through the entire folder in the space of a single second, each file recorded in his brain as a single image. Far too fast for normal human eyes and brains to process, but Ryan's brain, although still human, was augmented by enough cybernetic sensors so-as not to make that an issue. Even as he reached for the next folder, in his mind, he could clearly see every file he had just seen, scanning them for anything relevant to Lydia's case. He repeated this process with the next folder, and the next, flicking through them as quickly as he could record the contents.
This... technically counts as corporate espionage doesn't it? Ryan thought, realizing he was inadvertently capturing far more information than just what they were looking for.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Apr 20, 2019 10:19:05 GMT -5
"It's no trouble," Max hummed, freezing up for a moment as she locked eyes with the psychedelic trip of a painting Andrew had hanging on his wall. She never liked that picture. It made her feel like she was being watched, more so than the security camera hanging from the corner of the ceiling. So many eyes... Shaking herself off, Max walked over to the desk, taking a look at the rainbow screensavers lighting up the dual monitors. "Yeah, you'll probably have those files on here somewhere, right? We can kill a few minutes while you pull that up. Hope you don't mind Victor and Felix bringing themselves up to speed on your work." Just gonna hover over your shoulder in case you don't know how a computer works, don't mind me. "So how's Dr. Michaels these days? She send you anything interesting lately?" A little nudge in the right direction...
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Apr 24, 2019 10:10:37 GMT -5
"Hm, good call. An email from HQ might have some location details."
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Apr 24, 2019 11:19:40 GMT -5
"Ah, funny you should ask, Miss Niles." Will shot Max what he hoped was a convincingly-smarmy smile, before turning to the computer contraption ohholycraponacopcakewhatthefuckwasthat?! Anyways, ignoring whatever the fuck was on the screen, Will listened to what Lydia was telling him to do, preemptively shooting down his question about maybe changing the language on this dang thing.
Moving the arrow over to an icon that resembled a letter of some sort, Will clicked on it. A smaller screen popped up, and he let Lydia translate it, directing him towards...
Jackpot?
"Uh, Doctor Kent, are you sure this is okay? A-About you showing us this, and of Victor going through your cabinets?" At least Percy was keeping up his facade as Felix, the concerned journalism student. The bun was slipping, the bottom parts of his ears sticking beneath the hair...
"Oh, don't be afraid, young man. I've showed Miss Niles documents several times..."
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Post by ColArana on Apr 24, 2019 11:48:17 GMT -5
As Ryan flipped through the documents available to him, scanning them for information, he abruptly saw something. About the third file he flipped through, several words flashed onscreen, causing him to pause for a moment with this file. Miniaturization research? He thought. This.... Sounded almost exactly like what LunArc was after. Ryan dropped his other work to flip through it. "This could be..." Then his eyes went wide. LunArc had been working on their own miniaturization research project. This was almost certainly related to Lydia's case! But how to bring this forward to Lydia and Will without blowing things open to Max? "Doctor Kent, I might have found it." He stated, beginning to walk over to Will, still reading through the file.
Ryan's eyes were adeptly scanning the page, specifically trying to track down key words and phrases. LunArc. Facilities. Any details about Lydia or rival companies involved in the matter. Technological notes.... And then Ryan's eyes flickered to something he hadn't expected. He paused in mid-step. Oh. He thought. Fuck. Ryan's hand involuntarily released the file and it fell to the floor, papers falling out and about. A handful of files had been stamped with a sending address-- that is, detailing the location they had been sent from. One line had stuck out to Ryan quite notably, and threw one hell of a wrench into their schemes.
It didn't say that for real, did it? Rather than scramble for the files, Ryan quickly accessed his own mind, pulling up the scan of the file he had subconsciously recorded while reading it. Projecting it in his mind's eye, clear as day for his own use. Nope. It said exactly what he'd thought it had said. Ryan brought his hand to his forehead in frustration. "Oh.... I think that was definitely it." The good news, is that Ryan suspected he knew where they would have to go next. The bad news was exactly where that was. This... this was going to be a bit of a problem.
LunArc Lunar Base
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Apr 25, 2019 13:12:25 GMT -5
"Eugh..." Max grimaced at Andrew's desktop, still the same as the last time she was here and no less repugnant. Didn't LunArc monitor their employees' computers? How did he not get in trouble for this? And what in the world was that cartoon husky even doing to that... what was that, a bear? The freak.
Turning away from the eyesore on the screen, she offered Percy a tired smile, grateful for a dose of caution to break up the reckless security breach taking place, even if she was still willingly going along with it. "As long as we don't leak any classified information to the public, no harm done."
In all fairness, though, that was part of Max's intent. Clearly there was some dirty work going on here that the people deserved to know about. Once Lydia was safe and they were out of any imminent danger, she figured this was the next logical step, if not through Lacuna, then on her personal, anonymous blog. Hey, it wasn't like they weren't already in serious trouble.
"Uh, is that it?" Max asked, pointing to a recent conversation in Andrew's inbox labelled "Re:PathEngine" between him and Dr. Michaels. "You did call the mech you were working on the PathEngine suit, right?"
Her attention then snapped to Ryan as he pulled out and proceeded to drop a couple papers in what could only be described as shock. Her heart was in her stomach already. "Victor...? What's wrong...?"
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Apr 25, 2019 17:21:26 GMT -5
"'PathEngine'? Wow, someone around here sure does love puns," Lydia groaned, resting her cheek against her fist as Will opened the email Max pointed him to. Once the email was on screen, she started skimming the text and reading it aloud. In the meantime, Max wandered off, distracted by whatever was bothering Ryan. Probably for the best, as Lydia slowly began to realize during the translation process...
"Okay, so Dr. Michaels sent him this just yesterday. 'Dear Mr. Kent. An update on the development of the miniaturization station prototype one. We have procured one of the photon-echo memory chips necessary to run our new program. Proceed with the finalization of the PathEngine suit. I want it prepped and shuttled to headquarters by noon tomorrow for first tests. Dr. C. Michaels.'"
Lydia narrowed her eyes and rubbed her chin. "Photon-echo memory. PEM chips. That's what they always called the chips we used in the program." She smiled and gave her seat a quick, anxious punch. "So the chip is definitely at HQ. That means we can just travel there with the shuttle hauling this shrink suit to them!"
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