i hope you're ready for a firefight ...

[uprisenheart]

WHO: Open to all Dualizens
WHAT: Another Heart meeting, a warehouse raiding, a Travis-bot-napping.
WHERE: A different run-down warehouse on the outskirts of town.
WHEN: Jan. 15
WARNINGS: Please use these in comment subject lines if applicable!

It's been a solid four months since the last time the Heart made contact with our intrepid band of kidnapped adventurers - plenty of time to think over what was said at the last meeting, to see for yourselves what sinister plans the Head has in store for everyone, to gather your own information. The well-meaning but shit-at-acting group of revolutionaries promised they'd be in touch, and today, they've made good on that promise.

Around mid-morning, there's another mysterious text message sent from an impossible number, and just like the last time, there are a number of hoops to jump through to get to the message and security precautions to make sure the message is erased without a trace. The message this time invites you to a different run-down warehouse in the far north end of town, tonight, when the streetlights spark to life.

Shortly before sunset, it begins to rain. It's a steady shower, not a violent storm like the night the mechanical doubles attacked, but the rain is piercing and cold, not quite freezing but not far from it. Hope you remembered your umbrella!

This empty, dusty warehouse is also dimly lit inside by a few flickering overhead lights, and once the last stragglers have entered for the meeting, the lights shut off as a burst of loud electrical humming echoes through the warehouse. All electronic devices inside the perimeter of the warehouse - yes, that includes your phones! - have been temporarily disabled, and will remain so until the overhead lights come on again.

Buckle in, everyone - it's time for the shitshow to begin!

Comments

prelude.

[uprisenheart]

[got any chatter before the main event starts? throw it in here!]

[metamorphotic]

Nick is - well, nervous is an understatement. She doesn't like the way Marie and Mello are handling this at all, but she has already made her argument against the kinds of theatrics this meeting is sure to entail, and she's been soundly overruled. She's still required to be here all the same, though she's doing so under obvious protest. She'll wear all black like the rest of them, but she's done wearing a mask. And she's decided to argue with the crowd this time, even if it costs her standing as a member of the Heart. She'll deal with the consequences later.

Right now, she's focused on the crowd gathering inside the warehouse. The rest of the group is preparing for their presentation, so Nick is alone, peeking through a side doorway, scanning the gathering for anyone she knows well enough to try to convince to leave, if she can. Maybe if fewer people are paying attention, Marie and Mello will reconsider their methods.

[exceptionalcrook]

Duke's skeptical. Nick's told him a little about what they're dealing with in the city here, and he has his doubts: Haven also had its factions fighting against a horrible force, and in his experience most of them didn't know what they were doing, his own friends include. But each had some information the others didn't, and that's why he's here: if there's a threat they're up against, he wants to learn all he can about it.

He'd been careful going into this. He's wearing a jacket with a hood that can obscure his face if he needs, he didn't bring his phone, and he's armed and ready just in case he needs it. Duke looks around the area as soon as he enters, making contingency plans, and that's when he sees Nick at the side doorway. He gives her a brusque nod and meanders around slowly around the room, speaking up when he loops nearby her.

"Fancy seeing you here," he murmurs. "Anything I should know?"

closed to harry (hobocop)

[blitzcheer]

It was for the worst case scenario that Tidus had come--that's what he'd told most of the people he'd let know he was going beforehand. And as true as it was for the most part, he was curious about the Heart, too. For all the warnings about them, he wanted to know what they were about. There had to be more to them than their apparent screw-ups, and maybe this was the chance to find out.

He's wearing a hoodie, trying to keep his head down while taking note of the people around, the exits; simultaneously aware of what a bad idea this is by the tension in his shoulders that's also kicking him into fuck it mode. No backing down now. Most people blur as faces he doesn't recognise, not intimately, except that looks like Harry other there.



--shit. Harry?

Which aptly describes the thought that comes with the double-take Tidus experiences, staring wide-eyed. He turns away, sneaks a look back, and he doesn't let the frown already set on his face find a new way to stretch out before he's striding over with his head ducked, weaving between the few bodies away until he can lift his chin and verify a certain protruding gut and softer facial hair that Tidus will never describe as such out loud.

It's the second feature that confirms everything, and also the initiated eye contact it prompts. Eye contact that flares with accusatory and worry on Tidus's side with no more room for doubt.

"Harry?!" He keeps his voice down to his best effort. Turns away from the others, while still facing the older man. "It's not safe."

Says the whippersnapper to the guy three times his age, but like that's going to stop Tidus from trying to stress it urgently.

[hobocop]

Harry's busy rubbing at skin beneath his now-loose collar when Tidus rounds in on him. His hand freezes and he stands there staring back as their eyes meet. Somewhere in that cloud of panic and recognition, he feels he needs to justify his presence here, but—

REACTION SPEED — Uh...

His mouth opens, even if words don't come out. It's next to impossible to come up with something at such short notice. Especially when the truth (that he needs to be here because he was told to be by the garish necktie now floating around in the bottle of 98.7% pure alcohol sat snug in his pocket) sounds a little like the ravings of a raging lunatic.

AUTHORITY — AND WHAT'S HE DOING HERE?

"Yeah, no shit. Why the hell are you here?" Oop, there we go. The words finally tumble out as a low (aggressive) growl, all while he straightens up, sucking his gut in and jutting that chest out like making himself bigger adds weight to his words.

act one; the meeting.

[uprisenheart]

Much like the last gathering, a number of black-clad and masked figures filter into the edges of the crowd gathered. At least this time, they’re using flashlights held underneath their faces for illumination instead of lit candles. The red-headed woman who appears to be the spokesperson for the Heart and one of its top leaders is the first to speak.

“Welcome, comrades,” she says, in that same pleasant tone, lightly French accented, with just a hint of smugness. “We’re so pleased to see so many of you have returned to speak with us. We have much to discuss.”

[be_notorious]

"Well, girl, if I'd known you were gonna make such a thing of it I'da dressed up! Haaah..."

Drifter laughs wryly because, come on, what is this even?

"So, cut to the chase. What's your plan, Sister. We ain't got all day, time's a wastin'." And he doesn't want to spend too much time in one place at once, thanks.

[uprisenheart]

Marie stares quizzically at him. "The plan has not changed since the last time we met. We need your help - we need to pool our resources, our knowledge and talents. None of you were willing to entertain the idea last time, asking for proof. So we gave it to you. Now we ask again for your help."

[notalive]

He's heard a couple times the adage, 'insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting the same results'. Maybe he can't define over and over as 'twice', but as the French-accented woman - Marie, Nick called her - speaks in the same mildly patronising way she did last time, he still thinks he's a little insane for showing up. Just a little.

"I was hoping that after last time you'd respect us enough to show your faces." He hadn't intended to be that antagonistic in the first few seconds, but it's hard not to. "Especially after you almost got us killed."

[uprisenheart]

"You are a breath away from being killed every moment you are here in this city," she replies, coolly. "Seeing our faces is irrelevant to this fact, and it has nothing to do with respect."

From the side of the group, Mello chimes in: "It's about caution - security." Unhurried, he makes his way to join Marie at the front of the crowd. "Even with the safeguards we have in place, it's not a hundred percent guaranteed that we're not being monitored. One of you could even be a machine - unlikely, but still possible."

[fuckregularpeople]

"Are you really?" Dr. Harrison says it so coolly, her tone encouraging. "What do you have to discuss with us? From what I understand, you've done sweet fuck-all since we last spoke to you. It seems you have nothing of consequence you want to share. Or am I incorrect? Please, prove me wrong."

[zwischenzugs]

"You understand nothing," Mello says, bluntly. "It wouldn't be a very clandestine operation we're running if you were able to see everything we've been up to, would it? No, there's been plenty of work we've been doing behind the scenes - just none of it we want to share until we have an agreement that you're willing to combine efforts."

intermission; the warnings.

[uprisenheart]

[danger, will robinson! things are about to go sideways in a big way … ]

Sending out an S.O.S.

[sociallychallenged]

[Last time he scoped out the place but went ahead and went in. This time? He chooses to let other people go in. He trusts Connor to catch all the questions, and he'll get a rundown later, ask around.]

[Hank's pulling off a disguise he got good at back in his red ice hunting days; the part of the sleeping drunk. He's wearing a puffy coat that's unlike him, spattered with some mud. He's holding a bottle with a bag around it, and he's got on a toque that somehow he's managed to cram all of his hair up into without it looking too puffy. It's great having the grizzled old guy look, sometimes. Because you can be every type of grizzled old guy ever.]

[Any pride in his get up is short-lived when, in feining being slumpt on the bench, he catches sight of Iterations. And they're moving towards the warehouse.]

[His gut roils, twisting up, and once they're just out of sight he shifts slightly to pick up his walky-talky.]

Connor, come in.... [Dead silence.] ...Connor!

[Come on, these things survived the power outage. Why can't this fucker work now.]

[He gets up and runs to find where he had Maggie lay down stone still in an alley. He crouches beside her.] Maggie, Maggie. We gotta help your other person, okay? I need you to bark real deep. Big bark. Three short barks, three howling barks, three short barks! Good girl. Come on. Make yourself sound a little different than usual.

[Surely Connor'll hear that if he can't hear the 2 way. He slaps his hands over his ears, too, because those barks sound like the panicked lookout dogs in those 80s cyborg movies. She does a good job.]

(directly after Hank's SOS)

[notalive]

[On edge, regretting ever having come here because what exactly did he expect to hear tonight, he's listening for anything from outside - movement, voices, anything his sharp android hearing can pick out - but what he doesn't expect is barking. He frowns at the sound of the dog somewhere outside, staring at the floor in concentration. Three harsh, booming barks.

Three more, each much longer, almost howls, one after the other.

Three more shorter barks.

He frowns all the harder...then suddenly jerks his head up, panic slackening his features.]

Hey! [He yells it at the masked figures, at the crowd at large - it doesn't matter if he's loud now--] They're coming - we gotta get outta here now!

Not through there-- [They're definitely coming from the front, where the barks came from - are iterations smart enough to surround the building? He really hopes not.] Any other exit, out the windows if you have to - go!

[And Connor, defying his own advice immediately, dashes straight towards the door closest to where he heard barking, irrationally hoping he won't be the only one holding them off.

He's fought worse. He's survived worse. He'll be fine.

He hopes.]

[metamorphotic]

[barking like that is never a good sign. even without knowing the specific code maggie's making, nick can tell it's not a good sign, and she draws the same conclusion as connor at about the same time. this is it, the possibility she's feared ever since she joined this rag-tag group of would-be revolutionaries - a raid. worse, she has friends here, people she cares about deeply, and now they're all in danger too.

she sees connor heading toward the door he's just discouraged everyone else to take as an exit, and she dashes after him, reaching for his arm once she's close enough.]

Connor, no! What are you doing?

act two; the raid.

[headandhand]

The overhead lights flicker back to life, and in the next moment, a large roll-back metal door to the side of the entrance is flung upwards, and a few dozen Iterations storm into the warehouse. At the front of the squad is a figure that looks like a human - a man with dark hair and glasses, plain clothes, and a wicked smile. As the Iterations move toward their targets, he steps to the side and lazily shoves his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“And here they are, right where I said they’d be,” he says, entirely too satisfied with what must be his handiwork in the scene of Iterations causing mass mayhem now unfolding in the warehouse. “I told you they were predictable.”

Fighting Robots

[ferrokinetically]

During the actual meeting Lorna keeps herself off to the side near the exit. The limited knowledge she's got about the Heart doesn't exactly scream 'trust this will go perfectly smoothly'. Actually, it screams stay close to the exit and be prepared for shit to go down. And wouldn't you know it? Shit going down is exactly what happens. When the lights go on she tenses and keeps watch as the Iterations start to move in. Suddenly she's exceptionally grateful she went all out with her black jacket with the metal studs, metal bracelets, and steel toed boots.

They say you're only paranoid if there aren't actually crazy robots out to get you and there are definitely crazy robots out to get them all. Who would have guessed coming to this meeting would be a terrible idea? Probably everyone. Everyone probably assumes it. But they came anyway. Which means she can't just run and leave the Iterations to run free. She was stupid enough to come here, so she owes it to others to stick it out and fight. Besides, who's better suited to fight robots than someone that can manipulate metal?

Two of the Iterations turn to face her as varying shades of green mist begin to circle around both her hands.

"Try me, please." Actually, it'll be nice to have something to take her frustrations out on finally.

[headandhand]

The man observing from the side a short distance behind the pair of Iterations makes a clicking noise with his tongue and shakes his head at Lorna. "Sweetheart, they're not here for you. But I can guarantee that if you're determined to start a fight, they're going to be the ones to finish it."

The Iterations pause then, scanning Lorna, making an assessment as they wait for her next move. "You'll get out of this in one piece a lot easier if you just step aside and let them do their job," the man adds.

Friends are the Worst

[be_notorious]

Drifter gave the Heart some weapons, which turns out to be his biggest mistake 'cause a trickster knows that if you do a trick in front of someone too many times, they figure out where the coin goes. You gotta switch it up. Now, what he's gathering is? Nobody here switched it up, the coin fell out of their pants leg, and now they just look a damn fool.

A bunch of dead damn fools.

He heard the warning and he grabs what's leftover of his weapons. Some are on Heart members, those'll go to waste 'cause they didn't train enough before today and he damn well knows it. Maybe they should have spent less time on party gear and more on their training. Now they're all up shit creek.

Well, he's getting the fuck out of here.

Drifter isn't a man that usually holds back. He runs, he leaves other people to fend for themselves. In the past he's ignored his ghost. He's hid, had his ghost hide, came out afterwards and picked up the scraps because he can't just give himself up. You could have saved them. Please? Against overwhelming odds?

He stalls before he makes for the door.

At least his damn ghost can't say it's proud of him for doing what he's about to do. He honest to god should be ashamed. He'll think of it as preserving his allies from his client's stupidity. Drifter can make a good exit. He'll grab who he can and show them a good way out. Once he's gotten a few he has a plan to block the route. It's good to know you can generate some pretty serious lingering heat when you've got to.

He'll use the frantic mess of them chasing down those masked idiots to find his people and get the hell out of here. And maybe burn up what evidence that he can.

[metamorphotic]

Drifter had the right idea the first time - get the hell out.

Nick's doing her best to herd people toward the back exit, where the tunnels are that can be used for a clean escape. She's better equipped to fight off the Iterations, so she's decided to leave last, hold off the attackers as long as she can in her giant doll form, crackling bolts of dark energy forming in the palms of her porcelain hands -

But she sees Drifter heading back into the warehouse, grabbing people and leading them away, and that's great, but for all of his armor, Nick is afraid he's going to get himself killed anyway. Again. And who knows if this will be the time he won't come back? She turns human again and races toward him, dodging people and the debris now falling from the crumbling warehouse roof as the fight inside rages on.

"You need to go - get to the tunnels, the roof, whatever - just get out, OK?"

Rescue the Tiny Woman

[imaginary_wife]

Doc Yewll had every temptation to sass during the meeting, but to be honest everyone else seemed to have that covered. Most of the time she's just rolled her eyes, sighed, tried to find a moment in which they weren't both ass-kissing and being utterly unhelpful to ask about the mysterious virus (extremely relevant to her interests).

Before she has a chance there's yelling, there are people coming. There are warnings, but she doesn't know where to go.

"Hey! You know the way out of here?!" she asks the nearest person. Not just out of here, the way out of the area. "I can't do anything against these guys. I'm dead meat, and I'd really like to not be a corpse yet if I could avoid it."

Travis extraction

[fuckregularpeople]

It's fucking chaos.

Jane has few priorities here, and multiple personalities burst forth as the Iterations attack. Her outline doesn't so much blur as remain constantly fluid as her personalities rapidly cycle through control, for once working together fluidly.

"Mᴏᴛʜᴇʀғᴜᴄᴋᴇʀ!" Silver Tongue snarls, the word springing from her mouth in floating bladed metal. With a wave of her hand she hurls it at an Iteration. Lucy Fugue throws a jolt of electricity to slow another and Flit grabs ahold of the two people nearest her, teleporting both of them away from this disaster. She arrives back within half a second, allowing Hammerhead a chance to sucker-punch one of the Iterations before Katy manifests and adds to the fire already devouring the building.

They all have only one goal: Protect the girl. And the best way to do that right now is to protect everyone else.

[blitzcheer]

It was an outcome those who’d been around longer saw coming a mile away, but Tidus still hoped it wouldn’t come.

Even if he was technically here for the figure that sparked the ensuing chaos in the warehouse.

He has his sword out and unfolded from its casing hanging off his back, speed kicked into his feet, and he goes for knocking the few Iterations in his way to their feet while closing in to his target. It doesn’t even seem like the robots are completely focused on them than members of presumably the Heart, but it doesn’t make much of a difference when one loses their head. As fine as he would be to deal with these bastards, it’s Travis he needs -- before he might slip away, though he appears just fine to bask in the mayhem caused by him. To those he once called comrades, but now, that didn’t matter.

It’s easy to catch him in a sleeping spell once he’s close enough, has him in his sights. The figure slumps to the ground, and Tidus searches the warehouse frantically for the faces that came with him, but sees instead as a woman speed into his vision not that far away. He’s seen her -- maybe her, probably her -- speeding around this entire time, and he shouts at her, hopes he can be heard over the noise of everything else.

“Hey you! I need to move this guy!”

He's got a fistful of Travis's sleeve, trying to keep his eyes on the woman so she knows he's talking to her while hoping desperately he hasn't attracted any problems in the form of Iterations.

finale; the aftermath.

[headandhand]

[the iteration squad has captured or killed everyone they’ve been programmed to bother with tonight. time to pick up the pieces of what’s left and scurry on home!]