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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Jul 3, 2019 20:33:36 GMT -5
Dr. Michaels sharply exhaled through her nose as she watched Max take Will hostage. "You're bluffing."
"TRY ME, B*TCH."
The gun barrel was dangerously close to Will's head, and try as she might, Dr. Michaels couldn't hold back a cringe at the sight. She wanted to hold faith that the meek little journalist wouldn't kill her own ally, but that look on Miss Niles's face could've very well been crazy enough to do it. She couldn't take that risk, not just for the sake of the chip, but for Mr. Stone as well. There was no clear way out of the corner she was being forced into, but Dr. Michaels had to begrudgingly concede that the intruders had the advantage and that they were very much aware of it.
With a cutting scowl, Dr. Michaels started inching her way towards the miniaturization chamber. The other technicians worriedly followed suit, and as told, the guards laid down their guns and joined their coworkers.
As she lowered herself into the square pit along with her scientists, arms folded and glare ever focused on Will, Max and Ryan, Dr. Michaels darkly hissed out, "You haven't heard the last of this."
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Jul 3, 2019 20:50:10 GMT -5
"Meep-!!"
Will made a funny squeaking noise when Max suddenly placed the gun to his head. Yeah, he was over a foot taller than her, but when a crazy woman places a gun of unknown make to your head, it's hard to not be scared. "M-Max, what're you d-doing?!" Play along? With what?! Her sudden onset of insanity?! "P-Please play along with her! I don't wanna have my brains blown out! I'm too young! And handsome!"
And... did the crazy doctor just surrender? They were moving into a chamber. Will let himself breathe a small sigh of relief. "... Good thinking," he admitted to Max.
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Post by ColArana on Jul 4, 2019 9:01:15 GMT -5
Ryan started at Max's reaction. "Max, what are you doing?" He asked quickly, and in a panicked voice. This was not according to plan. Not that they'd had one. But still! No! Not according to plan! She's just kidding right? Bluffing? Ryan looked between Cora and Max repeatedly. At Cora's comment, Ryan felt his heart rise up in his throat, especially at Max's comment. But at least Cora was cooperating. But damn... the group was on very, very shaky ground right now.
At Cora's threat though, Ryan recovered some of his confidence, and glared at her. It was easy when he had a target for his emotions. "You left us no choice." He answered angrily. "There must have been other ways to do this. But you went with the method that endangered lives." He snapped. Sure. Lydia probably wasn't a saint, nor was Doctor Pendleton. But that didn't matter. Ryan was focused on Cora's sins, not those of anyone else here.
While Max ran the show, Ryan did his best to keep watch on Cora's guards, making sure none of them tried anything, and that none of them took any chances to take a shot at Max, moving near the woman to keep her covered while she issued her directions.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jul 5, 2019 11:01:01 GMT -5
Max watched intently as Dr. Michaels the scientists lowered themselves into the chamber, nodding with approval, verbally egging them on. Once they were all tucked away, Max quickly whispered "I'm sorry. Good job," into Will's ear, then bent down and grabbed the two discarded guns, offering them to Will and Ryan. Might as well take advantage of what the guards in their vicinity had abdicated.
With that, Max ushered the two boys over to the control panel and began a hasty examination of every button and switch laid out before them. "Okay, now where's the chip? We gotta get outta here."
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Jul 5, 2019 17:58:10 GMT -5
The intruders were starting to mess with the control panel, irking Dr. Michaels further. None of the technicians could climb out inconspicuously, lest they be on the receiving end of a photon blaster or stun gun. Still, at least one engineer was feeling confident that the situation could swing back in their favor, offering his coworkers a smug snort. "Don't worry. They'll never figure out how to close it."
And, of course, that was when the chamber grate started sliding shut over top of them. Another technician folded his arms and scowled at the one who had jinxed them. "Frank? I hate you. So much."
Dr. Michaels said nothing. She merely glared daggers at Will, Max and Ryan until the moment the metal grate shrouded her and her crew completely, sealing them inside the chamber.
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Jul 5, 2019 18:55:23 GMT -5
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon...! It's gotta be somewhere!!"
Will kept pressing random buttons on the control panel in hopes that maybe, just maybe, one of them would give them what they were looking for. He heard something, but he dared not to look back. This was more important. Find the chip, find a way back, get to the lab, hope the eggheads there can fix it! "Aiiiieeee... focus, Will! Get a grip on yourself!" Self-inflicted slap to the face! At least he didn't knock himself over this time.
Rubbing his sore cheek, Will saw something... something red. Something that was probably important. Something about the size of a tenth-shilling coin and probably very brittle. "Hey! Max! Ryan! Look!" He pulled back a fist, and then...
"OW!!"
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Post by ColArana on Jul 13, 2019 20:15:45 GMT -5
Ryan stared at the control panel before them after ushering the group into the room. "Can we possibly turn this on and shrink all of them so that there's no risk of them doing something?" He offered. "Huh, nevermind. We'd have to know how to work this thing anyways." He noted as he looked all over the keyboard. Okay, okay. Time to put his not-quite-university graduate knowledge of engineering to work. If I was a chip, where would it make the most sense to put it.... He wondered, looking for any kind of ejection port or seams along the machinery.
He was distracted by Will, and glanced over. "Alright Will, what did you-- WILL STOP!" Ryan exclaimed trying to reach out to stop him. "Let's try not to break anything okay?!" Well, at least the technicians and the doctor were getting a comedy show out front. "Does Lydia have anything at all to add?" He asked, desperately as he scanned it. Metallic fingers tried to pry into any seam or crack in the hopes of pulling open a slot for the chip or anything like it. "Is there a bloody instruction manual for this thi-- oh hey." Ryan stepped back and looked around to see if there was. Just in case. Hey, you always wanted to have a back-up in case you needed to train someone new, or someone needed a reference point, right?
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jul 13, 2019 21:00:36 GMT -5
"Well, I hope they're not claustrophobic..."
Max said nothing of Ryan's suggestion. He'd pretty much shot it down himself, and they simply didn't have time to try it. Instead, Max took note of the chip on the other side of the glass case that Will had pointed out, hoping it was what they were looking for. She started flipping switches and pushing buttons again in a desperate search for whatever might eject the chip, briefly pausing with a tense cringe when Will gave brute force a try to no avail. "Will, not everything can be solved by punching! Did you see how they installed it? Something on here has gotta pop it out!"
In the midst of the confusion, between her frantic button-mashing and Will's spontaneous burst of violence, Max failed to notice that a digital percentage counter on the control panel had dropped from 100% to 50%.
Turning back to the panel, Max scanned the buttons again, spotting a glowing yellow one that she hadn't tried yet. "Maybe it's this one."
She pushed the button. A deep humming noise filled the room. Max warily looked around with sunken eyes that silently screamed "oh crap, what did I do?"
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Jul 14, 2019 15:53:38 GMT -5
Dr. Michaels went rigid as the humming reached her ears, glancing around inside the sealed chamber in a fit of panic. They didn't... Those numbskulls didn't... "OH MY GOD, COVER YOUR EYES."
Her hands flew to her eyes. The guards and technicians followed suit, their partially-masked expressions displaying varying degrees of dread.
White light filled the chamber with a loud roar, fading out as quickly as it had ignited. The humming steadily grew quiet again.
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Jul 14, 2019 16:40:15 GMT -5
"Y-Yeah, but I've found that to my dismay, you can solve most problems by hitting them..." Will said in response to Max and Ryan's little outbursts to his punch. Ow, ow. Yeah, let's not punch with that hand again. And then, the humming noise. He looked at Max's clearly horrified expression, not daring to look anywhere else but at the panel. "O-Okay, maybe we should... be a bit more... precise... let's just hope that didn't... turn them into giant tunas that my complex farms for eyeballs." Just... pretend that the white light didn't happen, nothing weird is going on.
"... I should have not mentioned tuna eyeballs, now I'm hungry." Cue growling sounds from around the vicinity of Will's stomach. "Okay, maybe... it's... no... no pressing... Lydia, are you... nope, dead air... This is... just... just... RRRAGGHHH!!!!"
THWACK!
There was a whirring sound, prompting Will to look up. "Huh? What... is that... is that going where I think it's going?"
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Post by ColArana on Jul 14, 2019 16:57:38 GMT -5
Ryan glared at Will. "Maybe if we were trying to destroy this!" He snapped back. "But we're trying to make it work, and hitting it could risk damaging the chip we need to save Lydia!" He replied, just as Max hit a switch, and the roar began. Ryan heard Cora make an exclamation. "Oh no... What did we just do...?" Ryan murmured, following Cora's advice and shielding his face. Ryan waited until the blinding white light and the roar had faded and then warily.... uncomfortably, looked back in the chamber to see what had just happened.
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Post by ParamountKeymaster on Jul 16, 2019 16:10:43 GMT -5
Max uttered an uncomfortable whimper, then promptly diverted her attention from the chamber, straining not to think about whatever she just did to the scientists locked inside it. Or Will's confession of his questionable taste, for that matter. Bottom line, that was the wrong button. The right one had to be on this panel somewhere.
She jumped again when Will's fist met the control panel a second time, further aggravating the already on-edge reporter. "Will you give it a rest already?! You're gonna-!"
Max stumbled back a few steps when a robotic arm, jolted by Will's punch, suddenly swung down from the wall and positioned itself half a foot away from her face. From there, she watched the arm fidget about for a moment before slowly sliding its pincers through the slit in the glass. A smile spread across Max's as the arm plucked the chip from the circuit board and slowly pulled back out with the chip in its grip. It then turned on its side in preparation to release its cargo, prompting Max to cup her hands and prepare to catch it, only for the arm to start swerving in erratic circles that she was struggling to keep up with. Her smile quickly turned into a desperate frown, then an irate scowl. "DROP IT!!!"
At her command, the arm froze, the pincers separated, and the chip dropped into her hands.
"Let's go!" Their prize in her grasp, the clock ticking on, Max turned around and rushed out of the lab, hastily spurring Will and Ryan on alongside her.
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Post by Pink Moon Wolf on Jul 16, 2019 18:04:03 GMT -5
"Gaaaaauuuggghhh...! Come on you stupid...! RGH!!!"
Lydia gave her monitor a good whack, sick to death of every attempt at correcting it failing. Somehow this was enough to get the static to clear and her visual feed to come back on in crystal clear, bifocal-enhanced quality. The fact that her impromptu kick-start worked at all shocked Lydia for a moment, but hey, she could see outside again. She wasn't about to look that gift horse where the sun didn't shine.
"Yes...! Okay, now..." With her optics back online, Lydia promptly got back to work on her radio. She could feel it. She was so close to undoing whatever that impulse did to her ship and restoring her instruments to their proper settings. The static in her headset was honestly promising, and soon enough, with the flip of the right switch, she was back on the right channel, the voices of the outside world as loud and clear as the noises right in front of her. And just in time too. Judging by the sounds and the visuals, it seemed like the gang was out of the cell and on the move.
"YES!" Lydia was nothing short of relieved as she pushed one last button to turn her mouthpiece back on. She could only hope her friends had made progress in her absence. "Will? Will, can you hear me?!"
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Post by DanteMGalileo on Jul 16, 2019 18:30:52 GMT -5
"... I can't believe that actually worked."
Will let out a sigh of relief as Max grabbed the chip. Yes! They're almost there! Finally! It'll all be over soon! Just get to Mexus and... then... oh... right...
Sparing one look back, the tall blonde winced before turning back and running as fast as his legs could carry him. As he took off, he heard a voice in his head. "L-Lydia!" For another moment, he felt relieved. "I can hear you! And for once, I have good news! ... And my usual bad, unfortunately." They ran through the faculty, the building a blur to him. "Good news, we got the other chip! Not sure what news this is, but... something happened to the crazy doctor and her team!" Maybe it's good? Maybe it's bad? "Maybe they got turned into giant tuna, like the ones we farm back at my apartment complex for their meat and eyeballs?"
Oh, right. The other piece. "And, uh, sorry to tell you this, but... you have company. The creepy guy from yesterday? Mr. Stone? Crazy doctor injected him into me, apparently!"
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Post by ColArana on Jul 19, 2019 8:36:43 GMT -5
Ryan didn't want to think about what had just happened in that chamber. They had the chip, right? But even so.... "Are they going to be alright?" He asked nervously as he easily kept pace with Max and Will. Like Will, he spared a look back at the chamber just before exiting the room. As Ryan ran down the corridor with them, he emitted sonar pulses to try to help them navigate, as well as give the group a heads up as to danger, to prevent them running headlong into trouble. "Can you fly us back Max? I'd rather not use more of Lydia's power than we have to." He admitted.
Will was saying something and Ryan looked at him. "You're back in contact with her!?" He exclaimed in relief. Then heard the next part. "Wait what!?" Ryan exclaimed in horror. "Lydia's trapped in there with.... with that guy!?" Oh frigging hell.
Why couldn't things go smoothly for once!
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