capeandcowllogs | touched by supernova

touched by supernova

WHO: Kiryu

satisfiedsigner, Alastair

hackeralastair, Bakura

shiromadoushi, and David

chronosyoudidnt
WHERE: in and around the Porter building
WHEN: very late Friday night, close to midnight
WARNINGS: ?
SUMMARY: the attempted attack on the Porter and its subsequent heroic foiling. NOTE: one hit on the Porter has been mod-approved, but don't worry, She's not going down so easily!
FORMAT: para

Days worth of planning and hard work had brought them to this point. Finally, they were going to have their revenge - they were going to make the vaunted Porter listen, they were going to demand their friends back, and show that bitch that they weren't going to be kicked around anymore. The desire-fueled ideas were borderline insanity at this point, but Alastair was still cool and collected as he went about his part in the plan. He had to be, a hacker couldn't get carried away with his emotions.

They had picked up Bakura on the way and hastily gone over their plans one more time, before consenting to let the healer come along "just in case." At the moment, Alastair sat on a bus bench less than half a block away from the Porter building, thieving someone's unshielded wifi so he could finish the hacks he had spent the better part of the week on. Never in his wildest dreams had he expected the building's remote security to yield to him like this, but it never crossed his mind that perhaps the Porter would let him in. Of course not, a hacker of his caliber could work on skill alone - he didn't even need superpowers! He made sure any cameras or sensors that would pick up suspicious activity were disabled or distracted in a perfect sequence of timing, so Kiryu could waltz into the building as if he were just another metacitizen going in for a replacement comm device and go about planting his bombs at his leisure. There was a storage closet on the same floor as the lab that would do nicely for their warning shot.

Alastair kept his eyes glued to the code streaming across his laptop screen, alert for any hint that they had been detected by the master program. The Porter couldn't be asleep - she just brought another hero in a few hours ago. He had to stay on top of it no matter what was going on around him. He and Kiryu were communicating via headset radios, a last-minute addition to the plan so they wouldn't have to risk encrypted chatter on the networks. "Just let me know when you're on your way back out," he murmured into the mic. "That floor you're on is the most sensitive. If she catches you there..."

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Bakura stood near by, dice in his hand as he watched Alastair work, trying not to be nervous. The warning had worried him. The thought that the Porter would know what they were up to, that someone else wanted to see them fail...

He didn't like it. He wanted them to succeed, for Alastair and Kiryu's sakes. He wanted his friends to be safe and happy. So he was going to do whatever he had to to help and protect them.

Kiryu hardly went straight for the main teleporter room first; it'd be too easy to get caught doing that, and then he wouldn't have accomplished anything. He took a much longer, somewhat scenic route, dropping off bombs in strategic places that would bring the whole building down if he felt like it. He didn't, of course, since without the Porter, he wouldn't see Saitou or Yuusei again until he died, but she didn't have to know that.

He pulled Yuusei's old comm out of the backpack on his back and set it down before setting off again. They were all small electronics like that: Walkmans, cheap speakers, cheap cell phones off the street. Things that wouldn't look too suspicious. All rigged to go off remotely when he chose to set them off (with his duel disk, like in the old days), all with programing that let him set off only a couple or all of them. He might not have been the programmer of the group, but he knew explosives.

"I'm almost done, don't worry," he murmured back, glancing cautiously around. "She won't catch me. I trust you. And I've gotten good at sneaking around."

Alastair chuckled softly under his breath. "Simple talents put to good use. You're all clear on this end...as soon as you're off that floor I want to monitor the camera in case she feels like porting anyone else in tonight."

He lifted his head and glanced at Bakura. "Don't worry. See? We're almost there. We're gonna do it, Bakura. Finally!"

Bakura gave a warm smile, doing his best to put his worry aside. His fingers were still tight around his dice, however, and part of him wanted to be with Kiryu, just incase...

"Un!" he nodded, moving to sit down next to his friend on the bench, glancing at the laptop. Not that he had any idea what any of it was, he still wasn't too good with computers, after all.

"Got it. I'll keep you updated."

Kiryu carefully made his way to the storage closet indicated on the floor plan, going a little slower now that he was so close to the main room. He'd planned it so he didn't actually have to pass in front of the doors to get to the closet; no point in risking being seen by a possible new imPort. And his plan had worked well; he slipped into the small space without seeing an inch of that room.

As quickly as possible, he set up the last bomb, not the biggest but certainly big enough, making sure it was the closest it could be to the main room. Then he slipped out of the closet and back down the hall the way he'd come.

It didn't take long before he activated his headset again. "All right, I'm on my way out."

"Got it." Alastair's fingers flew over the keys, bringing up windows that showed him the same views that the security cameras were seeing. There were no other figures in the building, human or otherwise, and it was up to him to make sure the security system didn't spot someone walking out. He monitored the lab, mostly, in the off chance they had to make a last-second abort. Several new people had been ported in earlier in the evening; despite his burning desires for vengeance, Alastair did not want anyone to die.

As soon as Kiryu was safe, they could make their move. Check, Porterbitch, he thought to himself.

Kiryu made sure to take a different route out, just in case, a shorter one. He didn't really want to be in that building any longer than he had to be. When he'd blown up the Security building, he'd made sure to have an office take his bombs in for he, so he didn't have to risk anything.

Once he hit an outside door, he took a few slow steps, still wary of something noticing him, but soon started jogging back over to Alastair and Bakura. He tugged his duel disk out of his backpack as he got close; he was going to need that.

"Ready for some fun~?" he said as he came up behind them.

At that instant, Alastair backtracked out of his connections with one careful command and began to shut down his computer. The faster he got out of there, the less likely his hacks would be detected. "Ready," he agreed, standing up. "After this, she's gonna know we're here. But that's what we want, right?"

He grinned broadly. "Do it."

A mere moment later, there was a flash of white light as a time tunnel opened up nearby and David deposited himself out of it, looking around for the people looking to destroy his Porter. There was absolutely no way he'd allow such a thing, not when he was this close. Oh, no...

Ah. There they were.

"There you are! Don't you — don't do anything! All you're going do is exacerbate things."

They may not even be listening. Not many people did, unfortunately.

Not listening was exactly what Kiryu was going to do. That was the beauty of his method of setting off bombs; it didn't look like anything odd to any passerby. Well, it might look odd, but not like he was setting off a bomb.

It wasn't like he understood everything Chronos was saying anyway. And of course the random English-speaking person wouldn't be yelling at them.

Kiryu calmly drew six cards out of deck box, cards he'd picked out ahead of time to do what he wanted. And then calmly set them in their places on his duel disk.

"Trap card, open!" he hissed, pressing the appropriate button. Nothing obvious happened outside; he'd bypassed the hologram circuits on this one.

But something exploded inside the building.

Edited 2009-11-07 06:54 (UTC)

Startled, Alastair put himself between the guy who suddenly appeared out of nowhere and Kiryu, to make sure he could trigger the plan. They couldn't fail now, not when they were so close!

"Stay back!" he called out, sweeping an arm to block the way. There was no satisfying sound of explosion, or sudden fire, but Alastair trusted his friend. And then the tinny sound of a fire alarm could be faintly heard from inside - proof enough. Alastair swished around to face the interloper squarely. "I don't know what you want, but we've got something to do, here. Just go along on your way, man."

His hand slid into a coat pocket to retrieve his comm. Surely by now the Grinbitch would be overriding the network and calling for help. Surely there would be a sign, right? And yet...nothing...

There was a moment of silence as Chronos listened, panic in his chest for a moment that they may have succeeded. No, impossible. He still needed it, for—

He narrowed his eyes, looking at Alastair in obvious annoyance. "I told you. Technology — sentient technology won't take kindly to this kind of obvious assault. Stealth is what you need, yes, stealth, not that it matters now." He turned his head towards the building. "You better not have destroyed her. You better not have."

"He knows what he's doing," Bakura said, moving to stand next to Alastair, almost glaring at the newcomer. He wasn't going to let anyone get in the way of what his friends wanted.... "This isn't about destruction."

He looked over at Alastair. "Anything?" he asked quietly, fidgeting a little with his dice again. This was the critical part... where the Porter would react. Only he had no idea how.

"Just give it a minute," Alastair urged his companions in Japanese. "I'm sure any second now she'll be raging over the comm. Then we can make our move."

He turned back to Chronos, switching back to English. "We're not trying to destroy the Porter. I told you!" He remembered, now, and gave a little start. "You're the one who tried to talk me out of it earlier! I already told you we're not trying to destroy it! We don't want to be stuck here either, we just want her to give us our friends back and stop fucking with us! We're not her toys!"

"She better be. She had to've noticed that," Kiryu muttered. His eyes didn't leave the Porter building. He didn't know what he'd been expected, but it hadn't be silence. And he hated when people or things ignored him.

He didn't glance back to see why the guy hadn't left yet. He could let Bakura and Alastair deal with him. They actually spoke enough English to get him to leave, after all.

Chronos crossed his arms. Well, good that they weren't destroying it. That was at least something. Although the repercussions of this were already growing high enough to set his own plans back, he calmed down. Somewhat, at least.

"Have you seen her do anything to support your theory that this will work?" He said coldly, pointedly towards the three (more towards the two who seemed to know English). "I hope you factored in the probability of all this simply making her angrier."

Bakura's fingers tensed around his dice. "I'm sure she noticed," he said quietly in Japanese to Kiryu. "Though, if she thinks that was it, she may just be ignoring it, I don't know..."

He fidgeted a little at the newcomer's comment, but said nothing. He would protect his friends, no matter what the result was.

For now, Alastair concentrated on arguing with Chronos, even though his mind was racing to try to think of alternate plans, additional moves, new strategies. Like unexpected draws of the right (or wrong) cards. "It's better than sitting back on our hands and crying about how there's nothing we can do about the crap she pulls on us!" he snarled. "Every time someone gets ported out, everybody just pisses and moans about it but nobody ever thinks of trying to get the Porter to stop. If you've got a better idea, then say something! We're trying the best thing we know how to do."

It occurred to him, about then, that even though he was standing in front, he was the least-equipped to handle this if it turned into a brawl. Kiryu had the powers, and Bakura had the shield. Alastair had only his fists, and even studded gloves weren't enough to handle an actual superpowered individual.

He glanced back at Kiryu once more, muttering in simple English - so Chronos would also know they were serious. "Maybe she needs more than one hit."

Kiryu absently listened to what Alastair was saying, mostly because it was too loud to ignore. and what he didn't understand, he could guess at; they were on the same page here, after all.

He glanced back at that last statement, taking a moment to figure it out before he smirked and nodded.

"I was thinking the same thing," he said, still in Japanese. He moved to press another button, one that would set off a couple charges, but still not enough to bring the building down.

When Alastair said those words to his companion, and the accompanied actions that followed, Chronos became all too aware that he was actually going to need to do something if he wanted to protect (and perhaps even earn the favor of) the Porter, he still needed her.

He teleported from where he was via time tunnel, pressing the button on his belt in a hurry so he could reappear by Kiryu's side. The only way he could think to disable a device he didn't know was to simply make it stop working — he turned a dial on his suit, making so that once his glove touched the detonator it would age considerably and (he hoped, not having analyzed the technology) break.

Bakura startled as the man vanished. What was--

"Kiryu-kun, beside you!" he called out, spotting the man now by his friend. With barely a thought, he rolled the dice in his mind, casting Shining Shield around his friend.

Alastair turned a second too slow, himself, yelling, "Hey!" Without thinking, he launched himself forward, either to pull Kiryu back or tackle their adversary. It looked like this was about to get ugly, after all.

Kiryu hissed and jerked away, from Chronos and his friends. If there was one thing he didn't want at the moment, it was to be touched at all. As close as this whole thing was to the night he was arrested, he wasn't sure he could keep himself from attacking anyone who touched him, friend or not.

But at least his hand wasn't over the next button anymore.

Luckily, Kiryu wasn't what Chronos was diving for. With him out of the way, Chronos's hand was able to come in contact with the detonator; he was careful not to grab for the area where the buttons lay, instead pressing his palm flat to the side to watch it deteriorate under his touch. Hopefully.

He grit his teeth, muscles clenching preemptively, expecting a tackle — or a grab, something.

With Kiryu darting out of the way, Alastair had a clear path to Chronos. He had no idea what the man's powers were, but at this moment it didn't matter. He threw himself at the guy, coat flaring like wings behind him, and collided bodily with him in the same instant that his hand touched the duel disk.

Kiryu jerked his arm--and his duel disk--away at the same time, almost hugging it to his chest. The speed of all his movements made him stagger back a bit, but he didn't care. Chronos had his full attention now; he'd almost forgotten about why they were there in the first place.

Although...he quickly checked over his duel disk, to see if the man had caused any damage. It seemed to be okay...the lights were still lit, which was good.

"What were you trying?" he hissed out in heavily-accented English, voice dangerously low.

Darn it! Chronos seethed in frustration, teeth grinding together, certain he hadn't touched it long enough to do anything. He tried to move, but he was pinned — and not very strong, either. He'd been counting, frankly, on the element of surprise.

"I — ugh — was trying to—" He propped up slightly on an elbow, "—that isn't important. You don't seem to understand that this is useless."

Alastair managed to push himself up from the awkward tangle of arms and legs and coat and grabbed for Chronos' collar. "What did you do? If you..."

He glanced over, but the duel disk seemed intact and both of the others unharmed. "Stop interfering!" he demanded. "I'll show you how useless it is - Bakura! Has she called the network yet?"

Bakura looked down at his com, shaking his head. "Nothing yet. Maybe she's calling privately? I don't think she's ever made a public call for help before." He paused, blinking a moment before looking over at Chronos. "Or did she send you?" he asked, switching to English.

The man who had sent the warning had later talked to the Porter... did that mean she had known in advance? Was she ready for this?

Did it really amount to nothing?

Kiryu opened his mouth to snipe at the man but shut it a moment later, because really, nothing had happened and it was almost looking like he was right. Almost. Kiryu hadn't admitted defeat to Security, and he wasn't going to here, either. They were just as obstinate and prone to ignore others.

"Nothing is useless," Kiryu muttered, scowling at him. He wasn't going to say anything else, though, until the man spoke up. He was curious to hear his answer, if he answered.

Chronos got up when Alastair did, though was caught by the collar of his suit as soon as he was standing again. But that bothered him less; at least standing he was able to reach his belt and could make a run for it if, indeed, he turned out to need it.

"I know tech—tech like this, and I know power. Power, not unlike hers. I'm sure she imagines herself a God compared to us. And why not? Just look, yes, look at what she's capable of."

He looked at them all seriously, blue eyes large(er) in earnest. "Gods do not listen to man. They do not even acknowledge man unless it should suit them."

Doubt began to creep into Alastair's mind - and his gray eyes, though he still held his grip firmly. He wouldn't let that surprise attack happen again. "She's no god, she's..."

Wait. If it suits them. Could she be onto them, after all? Did the public outcry from Nygma tip her off? Alastair froze in place.

"Alastair-kun...?" Bakura asked, worry growing a little as his friend froze up. They had had the same thought, hadn't they? His grip on his dice tightened again.

Frankly, that was the wrong topic to bring up in this situation, especially when Kiryu and Alastair had had much the same conversation just days before. Kiryu walked right up to Chronos, glaring down at him.

"I know Gods," he murmured. He points at his black eyes, showing off the mark on his arm at the same time. "I talked with Gods. I am loved by Gods."

Then he smirked, dropping his hand again. "I know this power. It is God's power. But...she is not. Gods listen. Gods help. You know bad Gods, like her."

Making a determined effort to stay calm (it wasn't that difficult anymore, now that the situation was a bit less dire), Chronos stood his ground as Kiryu advanced on him, looking at him with a stare that at least spoke of acknowledgment. He crossed his arms.

"I know she isn't, oh yes, I know that. Goodness, I'm not an idiot. I have yet to witness the real work of God in action." With a note of bitterness; he'd been taken just before he would have. He would have known everything. But that — that was a matter for a different day and different people.

"And that's the difference between Gods and false Gods. Gods listen. And they choose not to interfere. She listens, ignores, and interferes. And this?" He gestured around them. "Don't you think if this could work, someone would have tried it? Months ago?"

Alastair only half-listened to the debate, and then shoved Chronos back a step as he let go of him. He turned to Kiryu, instead. "It's a trap," he breathed, and then slipped into Japanese. "She's ignoring us - she knows. She knows we're out here and she chose to ignore us."

He glanced at Bakura once more. "Check the comm. Look up that post that Nygma made earlier - see if there's any more chatter about this."

Bakura gave a small nod, scrolling through the entry. he hesitated a moment. "There's just this..." he said, holding to comm out to his friend. "But it doesn't mention us."

He paused, realization sinking in. He hadn't thought about it before, because the thread had been between himself and Nygma, but the entry the porter had replied to had been private.

"She could read what we said..." he said in a small, horrified voice. "She knew."

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touched by supernova

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[assuming now's a good time? if not let me know :x]

[nah, it'll work. :)]

woo!

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[skipping Bakura this turn]

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[ne'er mind that hen :D]

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