Difference between revisions of "Data Tangent"

Latest revision as of 01:38, 25 January 2013

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF has been given a room within the Black Guard's HQ. Data Point Security something-ur-nother. He hasn't exactly gotten the name, part of, doesn't really care really. What he was thankful for was an actual bed to sleep in. He learned that while in user-space, sleep was something that his body 'far' more enjoyed. Yeah, he did sleep even in data-space, but it was something different about user space and sleep.

So there he was in the bed, in this little room. Laying on his backside, one hand under his pillow, the other on his chest. Blankets have been kicked off and he is just laying there snoozing away; or so it would seem at least.

MCP has posed:
"Youuure going to get in trouuble~"

The voice came from the black guard leaning up against the wall near the curtain of light that defined the southern entrance. "Shuddap LANCER. Go-- fix something." came from the one peering into what had been an empty room until recently when it had been cleared out and prepared. She jerks away from the doorway, hissing the words. "Alright. Don't blame me when they're picking up your voxels with a broom in the morning.""You mean YOU are." The leaning black guard makes a stiff and meaningful salute, then bangs his fist against his armor. "Sniff-- and I will do my duty with pride and surpreme grief.""Wiseass. Shoo.""As you command." They lean away, passing through the curtain back into the main hall.

Silence falls and the blackguard waits for a very long time before creeping into the room. She stands at the edge of the room and quietly makes her way to the bed.

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF could hear some ruckus somewhere, but he just grunts softly to himself and continues to snooze. Though his internal systems were now trying to tell him to 'wake up', but he was trying to ignore them as he squirmed just a bit and then clenched his jaw a little.

He rolls over once, then the other way. The military program was indeed /still/ trying to snooze, really he was. His body was sore, truth be told, he still had a 'mild' headache.

Then slowly, he gives a sigh almost giving up on this little internal exchange, before he just opens his gold eyes to see 'something' he wasn't expecting. In that moment also somewhat forgetting /where/ he was, because when you been a lone wolf long as he has been, you don't expect to see someone in the room your sleeping, more correctly someone who had the armor like this female.

The sheer realization he wasn't alone and the automatic lock-on was very quick and those gold eyes went wide, before he rolled the other way, "Ah!" Then he aimed his arm toward her as he rolled the other, before it dawned on him--

-- he didn't have his weapons on him, nor was he in the grid, so this 'trick' would not work.

Aaand right off the bed CHIEF goes flat onto the ground with an gritted 'ouf'.

MCP has posed:

ECHO was not expecting this, so for a moment her processes seize as two conflicting memory requests lock. One part of her program was accessing old data files while the gridlock continued.

Then her training kicked in it's own requests. Hostile action. Take Evasive Action and Return Fire.

The consequences of this sequence of actions is that while she wrenches herself back from the old data, she is also turning to leave the room because she really shouldn't be here and throwing herself backwards towards the nearest available cover.

Jumbled process chain.

ECHO thumps against the wall hard and the request for fleeing smashes into her training that keeps her behind cover while she assesses the situation and ends up with the black guard on the opposite side of the bed, back leaning up against it as she smacks a hand against her helmet in a gesture of 'get a grip.'

"Whoops.." she says, trying not to snicker but also completely mortified.. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you CHIEF." --or you know, even wake you for that matter. I'm going to pummel LANCER and sell him for bit cores later. "I'm-- I'm gonna go now."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF was on the other side of the bed, staring at his hands before he closed his eyes, mumbling something to himself as he just chuckled a little to himself.

That-- could have gone bad.

Then CHIEF slowly glances up over the bed, like someone raising a sonar from a submarine as he just automatically spots her with that wonderful code of his. He just squints his eyes and stares at her, but something about her 'voice'. Something about 'her', is confusing the /frag/ out of him. His mind trying to find memories, trying to unlock any available data on her, but it keeps coming up with static and errors in the requests to find anything, outside of.. something. Something that keeps flashing in his memory, but its so fast, so static-like..

Highly frustrating and it shows on his face as he just hides it in the bed for a moment with a low growl of annoyance. Though when she says 'she should go', CHIEF quickly stands up and almost reaches his hand out, "Wait!" He keeps his hand held out, his mouth is open though no words come out. His gold eyes stare at her puzzled. "..wait.." he says again softly. Then he furrows his brows. "..who.. who are you and.. why..? Just.. why?"

CHIEF was fumbling a bit on his words, he knew it. He could hear it, but it was hard to process anything straight right now. His mind still trying to shuffle through all the noise, all the static. Her voice, her voice was... someone. Someone he /knew/. But /who/? Who was /she/? Why did it even matter? Why should he even care? The thoughts echoed over and over again as he tried to make some cohesive connection to anything, but yet still nothing.

"I wont hurt you. Just.. stay.. don't go.. talk." Like that made any sense. Don't go. Talk. Yeah, he was winning intelligent points here. May as well start going, 'Me Chief. Me like explosions!'.

MCP has posed:

And the boss warned me about this.

But then.. he also didn't implicitly forbid it. Actually, him speaking about it without forbidding something could be looked at as implicit agreement couldn't it? Boss is a hell of a lot smarter than I am, he'd already probably thought this all out. Right?

Right.

ECHO slowly turns around, reaching up to disengage her helmet and tuck it under arm. Faintly glowing lines under her eyes flash as she smirks lopsidely at CHIEF. "I told them you were still there. They /owe/ me bitcoin. Or--" she looks slightly flustered. "whatever they use here? I dunno. Munny?" There is such radiant joy in her face but also a flightly sense of hesitation. Like.. all this will come crumbling down if she pokes it too hard.

ECHO kneels down and puts out a hand, very hesitantly, as if he were made of glass-- and then grips his arm and then puts her other hand on top of it, "Hey partner. I told you I wouldn't forget.. even though it looks like you have. So why don't we start this over? I'm ECHO." she shakes her head, anger shutting down her happiness for a moment. "And they.. really did a number on you, didn't they?"

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF was staring at her, the helm didn't help his mind any either. That face. Those eyes. His gold eyes were darting around quickly as he was studying each structure of her face. Zooming in, out, focusing on this that. Each time he tried to find a match, it was hit with errors. Yet, he knew, somewhere. He knew her. It was like his original user's name. It was there, somewhere, but blocked. "..yeah.. I guess.. I don't exactly do currency with users.." He said with still a highly confused look, only growing further in frustration.

He reached up his free hand into his hair line, his fingers brushing through it. The brown red with gray splaying across his fingers as his nose wrinkled up from his own growing anger, but all of it-- all of it came to a halt when she touches his arm, then her other hand on his arm as well. His gold eyes snapped too and then looked her directly in her own. They stared for a long moment at her eyes, before they drifted off to the side. "..ECHO." He simply replied back. The name meaning so little to him.

He then closed his eyes before he huffed out a bit of air, trying to calm his nerves that were getting worked up, before clenched his jaw again before he gave a soft nod, "..and yes.. you could say that. Made me one glitching piece of code." His eyes then focus on her again, his face softening for a moment. "You said..you would never forget.. how.. far back..?"

MCP has posed:
The light dims in ECHO's eyes but only a few shades, as if that joy were being reeled back and shielded to protect it from being completely drained away. She pats CHIEF's hand again but she is already rising, shrugging one shoulder with a casual flippance as she leans one hand on a hip.

"Yea.. you're as tough as a light tank. Aaand you aim like one too, you fragging mess." she smirks, taunting but at the same time shielding the hurt and the frustration. Making light of it. Staying calm. Boss said to stay calm. He'd told everyone that. It was hard.. it was so hard.

% "I dunno how long it's been for you." her nose crinkles in anger but she keeps it bottled it and forces it through her acid smirk. "But I stayed there. Asleep or offline or--" she makes a helpless gesture.

"It's different out here.. but whatever-- I was shelved until the boss broke me out. So-- it's.. its probably been a long time."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF watches her stand up and he too rises up. His gold eyes staying fixed on her, perhaps almost fixated in a very strange way. "I guess I do aim like one, but from what I can remember that has always been my charm. Locking on nearly one hundred percent accuracy." He frowns inside but smiles outside.

"I am glad then you were broken out, at least you did not go through the same fate." CHIEF remarks, before he glances off to the side. "Well, I /guess/ it is better. No one messing around with your code, right?" He gives a light hearted, meek laugh, before he reaches up with care. His hand slowly moving down on her shoulder.

"I am sorry.. that I don't remember right now. Give me time, ECHO.. I am.. sure I will." He studies her again, his gold eyes going up and down her form. "Does he take care of you?" Such a strange question, CHIEF thinks to himself. Concerning for her health. He doesn't even remember her yet...

Just that feeling he really should care. "Honestly, does he?"

MCP has posed:
ECHO jolts slightly at the touch, eyebrows raising up and up. There is a moment of hesitation as she tries to parse what she should do of numerous conflicting things when she rears back and thumps him on the chestplate.

"It's that /nearly/ that's kept you in one piece, I think. If you'd hit the boss any more than those glances I would have come down there and pried you out of that wireframe for a decently sized whalloping." she offers him a challenging smile but it softens around the edges and she grabs his hand before it falls away again.

"Look. Master Control has been straight with us. He's scary as /frag/ sometimes but he hasn't hurt us, hasn't betrayed us like others have. We stay together. We have a purpose.. we even got to see this place which is.." she shrugs a shoulder as if not knowing what to say as she squeezes his hand before letting it fall.

"It's good enough."

CHIEF has posed:

The Military Programs hand almost moves away when he gets thumped on the chest, until she retakes his hand once more. His brows furrow for a moment in some of his own conflicts that he is finding himself falling in. His gold eyes look down at her hand, his eyes soft, but there is a great deal of confusion in them, before he closes them and smirks faintly.

"Well, not like I try to give anyone dirty looks." He opens his eyes looking at her. "Just so easy to do, when you are me." There was almost a goofy grin on his face, but it fades for a moment as he almost doesn't focus enough to keep his looping problem in check and quickly glances away, before back at her. There was almost a minor nervous laugh but he shakes his head.

"I am glad then, that you have a reason..along with, I guess the rest of his group." CHIEF nods softly. "Though you look like a program who could handle herself extremely well, so I guess if he did try something, you probably get out of it in a click."

As her hand lets go of his, his fingers almost attempt to retake hers, but in some other conflict his actions completely halt. This was-- extremely confusing. Enough his breathing picks up a bit as his eyes search past her, around them really, before focusing back on her. His mind always going back to 'why' in trying to understand it all.

He then looked away, before he then looked at her again, before his eyes glanced down at her helm, then back at her. "So, what do you people do.. anyhow?" He asks as he goes to snatch the helm from her, if successful he will probably hold it out of reach for a bit using his height over her, if not, he will probably continue to in some form to get it away from her so he can further examine it.

MCP has posed:
"heeeey!" ECHO smirks a grin at him and takes several swipes at the helmet, "Give me that, you chain smoking nullwit. It has all my telemetry in it. I swear-- you do this glitching--" she thwacks him again and starts to playfully jink left and right trying to get it then all the expression goes out of her face.

Her eyes blink rapidly as something flickers past them and her shoulders sag as she takes a step back looking at the helmet then at CHIEF. She rubs a hand behind her neck, looking chagrined as she sits on the edge of the bed. "Right. Sorry-- enough of that. Be careful with that, will ya? It helps filter through this world of unlabeled information so we can focus easier." as to what they actually do, she handwobbles.

"Used to pull program control for SARK when MCP vanished but-- man. He's getting wound up by the resistance and it couldn't have happened to a nice glitch. Master Control asked for us. So we came." she slaps the patch on her shoulder.

"I guess we're security now."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF chuckles, he truly chuckles. She almost gets a few times, a real smile forming on his face. Though there is suddenly a strange feeling that hits over him. Like something clamps on his mind internally, something about these actions trying to trigger a defense mode; trigger attack..

Trigger that damn loop.

It causes CHIEF to cringe as he turns his back around to play keep away, closing his eyes for a moment, before he snaps them open once more to spin back around, to find her moving away. Though he is fighting with his own threat indicator protocols, he stares at her puzzled for that moment.

CHIEF studies her for a moment, there was an odd glow in his eyes, string of data, before he glances to the side, closing his eyes. Huffing a few breaths of air, before he inhales deeply. Then opens his eyes they are normal. "Didn't scare you, did I?" CHIEF asks, "..and I guess smoking is something I've always done. Good to know." He studies the helm, his eyes flickering a bit, as he gives it a gentle flick with his middle finger.

One could presume he was checking the density of the helm, then he looked it over, probably now looking at the full thickness, maybe even a weak point. CHIEF then walks over and hands her the helm. "Maybe.. also a good thing we stopped. I am.." CHIEF frowns, before he chuckles a little, shaking his head. "Simply, I am still broken, but.."

He then crouches down, looking up at her, a smile on his face. "Thank you. I don't know why, or.. even how come.. but.. thank you." He furrows his brows. "You.. you somehow.." he shakes his head, laughing softly, before bowing his head. "..Its a nice helm. Strong, probably can take a blast from my rifle, even more so a disc. Good survivor stuff. That armor the same as well?"

MCP has posed:
ECHO shakes her head, her smile still chagrined. "Nah." she waves it away. "You're tough, and maybe still a little borked here and there.. but you're not scary like I've seen scary." she snorts with bemused laughter although it doesn't quite match her eyes which are haunted for a moment. "Like I work for scary. Boss just kinda reminded me to take it easy. He's uh.. he's got a point. But--It's hard though. If i'm not running hot then I might as well be sitting idle."

"Hey. Echo. You progressed to the touching endearments stage or just the soulful looks." and ECHO's face goes completely still. "Lancer?" She raises one finger in a gesture of 'uno momento' as she strips one of her boots off. She looks at it with wonder for a minute and then CHUCKS the boot at the open door.

THWONK. A cry of surprised. Thump.

"This place is a marvel." ECHO tells him with a straight face. "That I can actually do that to offending idiots."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF creeps closer, his eyes narrow slightly as his voice lowers, "..so.. he is watching us right now.. through...?" Whatever his thought was going it faded as an unknown over speaks up. This causes him to stand up and those gold eyes trail directly to the voice location.

They glowed gently as his brows furrowed, there was a hint of that dangerous grin on the side of his face, though it was quickly wiped off as his logic process simply screamed 'don't you dare'.

CHIEF tilts his head, he goes to look back at ECHO, but then gets a very befogged look on his face as she actually removes her boot. Then as she throws it, his eyes, head, and body turn to keep complete track of it like a dog watching his master throw his favorite ball. Difference is, the dog doesn't chase the ball. Instead CHIEF hears the impact, raises a brow, and stares down at his own boots.

He has worn some user clothing, heck he has even worn user boots, but his own personal ones he has on right now, he wasn't even sure /how/ he could remove them. He then slowly brings his eyes to look up at her. "Yeah.. I.. suppose it is." He studies her for a long moment again. Those gold eyes flicker, but there was no malice in his eyes. Then with a fearful deep inhale of air he speaks softly, almost a hushed voice, "...What.. did he mean by endearments?" CHIEF studies her face as he stands there, even with his few blinks of his eyes. "..Just.. who..were..." He doesn't even get it out as he looks away slowly.

The military program then slowly raises up his hand to look at it, seeming almost fascinated by it. In the flash of that moment he remembers the pain, the final pain as his eyes narrow to slits. It was like a flash of memories as he tries to break all his past events, trying to debug himself, trying to break down all the way. All the way back to DB-77. Back to his original purpose. Pain was starting to write on his face, as his hand shakes, before he tightens it to a fist and then grits his teeth before he turns away with a low frustrated grunt of air through passing teeth.

He wanted to yell, scream. He wanted to...
No. No. He couldn't do that. He wouldn't do that. Focus. Focus.

His eyes slowly open, those gold eyes flickering brightly, before he says almost with a monotone voice. "I need air.."

MCP has posed:
LANCER comes in with the offending boot, the helmeted black guard shaking the offending object at ECHO as he takes a step into the room and then stops. Whatever he is about to say is sheared off. Both LANCER and ECHO pause, looking abstracted for a moment before ostensibly they look at eachother. "Oh frag.." LANCER says softly, almost apologetic but ECHO shakes her head slightly in negation. Not your fault. Not anybody's fault.

ECHO reaches out, halfway, to CHIEF before slowly curling her fingers in on themselves. She nods trying very hard to control her voice. "Yeah. Um. Okay. Well--Lancer's prying me away for practice. So.. see you later, okay. You.. you need anything, I--" ECHO slowly gets up from the bed and doesn't complete that thought. Wordlessly, Lancer hands her the boot and they both withdraw from the room.

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF doesn't even look at ECHO as she goes to reach out or even when she speaks with him. He wants too, he really wants too, but he knows better. He knows what would happen, he can feel it. He can feel it in those closed fists.

He closes his eyes and nods, fighting back that grin. Holding in that laughter. He thought.. he thought he had control on this. Yes, he does, just.. what.. unlocked it? What.. why..

"You will be there.." He finishes, still fighting. "..I... I know... and if I do.. I will call you..just go.." He says trying so hard to control himself as his hands start to shake.

Once they are gone, he opens his eyes, he slowly looks in that direction, no targets were found, and his head slowly leans to the side, as the grin tries to form. He quickly grabs at his own face, before just throwing himself onto the bed, almost curling up. His fingers dig into his face, his teeth grit tightly as his body quivers. "STOP IT!!!!" He roars out at himself, before his fingers drag as his lines glow brightly their green color, before he at last heaves a few breaths, starting to laugh softly to himself, but in his laughs was also the sound of almost tears.

Just stop. Stop now. Focus. Focus. You can control this. It wont control you. Focus.

But why? Why?
NO!
Target Search. Lock. Fi--
NO!
Target Search. Lo--
I SAID...

MCP has posed:
"Let go of it."

The extremely dry voice of the Master Control Program comes from an indeterminate place in the room. It may be wired for sound.

There is the sound of a faint sigh. "You believe you are bearing down on it, that you are crushing the flaw to yourself-- into yourself-- but you are only crushing your ability to resist."

THE MCP voice is monotonous, as if he were giving a lecture. There is a tapping of a cane from down the hall.

"If you do not let it run, not even partially, then you will destroy yourself as utterly as if you had given yourself over completely to the madness. You have survived long enough to know that. It will pass. You will come back to yourself. Let go."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF continues to huddle even as MCP talks. His right eye opens, glowing brightly to the point where the pupil is almost gone. He closes it tightly, trying to fight back to the grin, trying to fight the laughter. Trying to regain control.

Though those words do echo in his mind, 'You have survived long enough to know that. It will pass. You will come back to yourself.' He heaves a little and says through grit teeth, "..If I let go..I will attack. I will destroy. Do you WANT that?! Ha..haha.. DO you really /want/ that?!"

CHIEF rolls right off the other side of the bed like earlier, placing himself on the ground attentionally. His hands dig into the ground, the sheer force he was putting down was starting to cause his finger tips to seem like they were bruising, cracking with blue lines. "I.. am.."

'You are losing the war, that is what you are doing. You are losing a battle. You know he is right.' CHIEF tells himself in his head, before he just slams his one fist into the ground. Before he starts to just laugh, cackle. Those eyes open of his glowing brightly, the pupil of his extremely narrow pointed, as he just rises up to his feet and just lets out a howling laughter.

Once the laughter ends, he just smiles, smiles that smile people have come to fear. Those golds eyes though dimmed down, show the look of his madness; the look of destroy. Searching still for that unseen target; any target. Before he hisses softly with a mild laugh, "..You wanted this~, riiight? You wanted this~, so why don't you come on out, before I get /very/ bored."

MCP has posed:
"Your boredom threshold is of no interest to me, rogue process. If you desire a target, I am more than willing to indulge you. However, I do not believe you can hit something you cannot see. Let us find out."

The tapping of the cane retreats into another part of the building, and with the voice gone.. it leaves silence behind. There is no rush of air, no sound of movement-- just the faintest whirr of electronics and motors.

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF raises a brow before he laughs softly. "Reeeeally funny, but I do /love/ a good challenge. SO BRING IT!" He roars out before he cackles. However when nothing comes and just the sounds around him. He closes his eyes and then just listens.

He then slowly opens his eyes before he laughs lightly. "You want me to track something I can't see. Perhaps I should enlighten you to thermal technology~. Beautiful thing really.. or perhaps I should let you know, I had to track targets inside of buildings and aid those /dumb/ users to make sure their missiles went out and around several obstacles before striking dead inside.. then.. BOOM!"

CHIEF suddenly spins around, those gold eyes still searching, trying to locate anything that /looks/ like a target. However he did admit, this room had nothing that was observed by his systems as a target. Nothing was matching his parameters at the moment to attack. At least not yet...

MCP has posed:
Three spherical objects come through the open door as CHIEF spins around, bouncing, bouncing, the spheres a shiny black with two red lines horizontally across their surface.

One of them lands on the bed while the other two cascade across the floor and through the air.

The one on the bed explodes, throwing thin spidery webs of tangleline in all directions followed by a massive jolt from the internal power packs expending themselves.

CHIEF has posed:

The spheres come into the room and CHIEF eyes automatically stare directly at them. In his vision, one could probably picture that each of these sphere were ignored, but in less then a nano-click, three boxes form around them, before those boxes flicker, tracking each of the spheres movements. At first the threat level was low, as CHIEF himself was unaware of what they do.

However one lands close to him on the bed, there was some hint, some faint sound. A sound he picked up on when he operated the drone tank. His gold eyes go wide, before he rolls out of the way as it explodes. He watches the wires and he snarls softly, before he cackles. "Marvelous! Stupendous!" He cackles a bit more. Those boxes now officially locked onto those spheres and their threat level now jumped straight up to Primary Targets.

"But I wonder if you can break them.." He says with a hiss with a big, mad smile on his face and his hands flexing out before they tighten up into a fist. "..look a bit to tough on the outside to be broken with bare fists. Oh so cruel. So cruel."

His eyes dart between the two last remaining orbs, his eyes then dart over to the webs that most likely was designed to 'shock' him. "Hope these are better tricks up your bag then this Administrator~" He cackles. "You gonna need FAR more fire power when THIS night is /OVER/."

MCP has posed:
"We shall see." The other two orbs explode in similar bursts of live tanglewire which impede progress through the room as the small pointed barbs dig into the wood.

There is the sound of running feet outside the room which leads to the adjoining barracks corridor, this room being the very last and most on the periphery. There are metallic clinking noises pattering against the floor and a faint clicking from outside.

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF looks away as the orbs explode, moving quickly back just encase. He didn't like the fact that they just cut off his only way out here, before he narrows his eyes in a sneer. "Cute."

However what really gets his attention is the sound of running feet, and then the sound of clicking. His eyes dart around the room quickly. Then with a rapid movements, he goes to kick the bed over, freeing it from the wire hold that attempted to zap it.

He grabs the mattress and holds it up in front of him before he pushes his back against part of the wall that he couldn't hear, tapping it softly with his knuckles to check how hallow or solid it is. Those gold eyes peering about, trying to pin point possible location of 'maybe' targets.

Only thing protecting him is this mattress now, but with no where to escape, it was best to hunker down and wait for the 'chance' of. CHIEF after all, has been alive for some time, jumping between systems. When your a lone wolf, jumping about and even fighting Heartless at one point. You learn to evolve your survival skills.

MCP has posed:
"Just hope this works." mumbles someone from the corridor as the clicking becomes a much more prevailant sound. The sound continues moving from one wood floor onto another. Soft clickity noises come from a swarm of greenish drones the color of corroded metal sweeping across the floor.

They looked like modified grid bugs and moved as such, swarming over the wall and floor towards CHIEF whose probing reveals the wall behind him to be wooden paneling with brick on the outside surface.

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF continues to hunker down, grumbling about the wall. However the sound moving suddenly in closer was an odd sound. A sound he was not exactly familiar with, at least not at first. It takes him a bit as a program to process the sound and match it to any records he has.

Till he comes to one simple conclusion which he almost buffs out into a laugh as he says it, "Grid bugs?! Hahha!"

He almost wasn't believe his own ears, however the sound was getting closer and several of them, and then something is caught in his peripheral vision. His gaze slowly moves over to see a Grid Bug on the wall beside him. He just stares a long time with those gold eyes right at it. "Well.. frag me.."

GNOM!

For those outside the room, they would hear a THUMP onto the ground followed by another THUMP into something actually softer. If anyone peeked in there was CHIEF knocked out cold on the bed mattress he took off.

MCP has posed:
NOW --

Utter silence in the security building. A sort of collective held attention through sensors as well as senses. The clicking fades as the grid bugs quickly reach the end of their life span and dematerialize into bits and pieces on the floor. When they are gone and the last scraps are falling in themselves. A voice breaks the silence.

"...I called it." with a sound of wonder and absolute amazement.

A startled laugh is followed by a series of groans as they proclaim. "/Pay. Up./" -- and somewhere else, an administrator accumulates the data, makes the appropriate notations, and returns to other matters. CHIEF's recorded voice about the future of code rolls through the small sanctum.

Several Hours Later --

"What the frag did you even /put/ in that bugjuice?" "--What?! I Wasn't expecting him to just go down like that. I mean--" "Beat it CHALK." "I--" You want a matching Bootprint to fit Lancer? Shoo."

ECHO closes the door hard, leaning up against it as she lets out a long sigh. She crouches down and sits up against the wall, because she had to be the first. If he was still.. like that.. she'd hit the alarm and scram. But she had to be the one to do it.

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF lays there, out cold for a bit it would seem. Though his hand twitches and his brows furrow. His teeth grit, jaw tightly clenched. He looks like from appearances to be in a great deal of pain, only though in his nightmare is he.

Then he snaps his eyes open, gasping for air, his eyes flashing brightly, before he quickly raises up his hands to stare directly at them. They were shaking for a moment, before he whispers to himself softly, "..easy.. easy.. its over..."

The military program was unaware of ECHO who was in the room, instead he rests his arm over his forehead and whispers gently. "...at least for now." In that moment he didn't pay attention. He blinked his eyes noting the room and going over 'what' he did and 'what' happened.

He slowly lowers his arm and looks over to the side. His gold eyes scanning over to at last spot ECHO. He stared at her for a long time, before his brows furrowed and a great deal of his pain was in his eyes, before he shook his head slowly. His eyes returning to the ceiling, as his hand just falls to his side. "... Smart move on your colleagues part. I was not expecting it, but he may not be so lucky next time."

CHIEF then peers over in her direction, not really moving his head, before he looks back up at the ceiling with a blink. "..Here to make sure I am not going to kill someone?"

MCP has posed:
"No, smartass. I'm here because CHALK's bugjuice gives a wicked headache and I think he pumped way too much into his little toys this time." The acidic snark goes down a few notches as she picks herself up and moves closer.

"..and it looks like downcycle is pretty rough on you anyways." She moves closer again, in stages, taking her helmet off again and laying it nearby. "Boss.. well. You can pretty much figure out already he's got wheels within wheels always turning. So.. we were ready."

Echo smiles at him sadly, only a little of the happiness still there behind it leaking around the edges. "..and perhaps we were lucky. But that's ood enough for now."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF glances over to her fully. A headache? Yeah, that would explain that. Though it seems headaches were starting to come with this place. "Smartass?" CHIEF replies with a raise brow. "User term right?" He can't help but chuckle a little to that. "Such language, little lady." He retorts with a soft smile, but grimaces a little.

"..and yeah.. a headache is indeed an understatement, but I can deal." CHIEF then closes his eyes. "..and the downcycle is rough on me. It is the same dream, over and over again. It never stops." He frowns. "I wish I had something more refreshing to dream about." He then opens his eyes, "Maybe I can dream about..." he stops whatever he was going to say, and his brows furrow. He then looks away. What is with this program anyhow? Though he already knew where this could lead, but he is pretty sure that is out of his system for now.

"Well, the Administrator probably also knows that after my little glitch out, I am pretty much dormant. It builds up though over time.. until it comes out in force. Use to be /far/ worse." CHIEF sneers and shakes his head. "I don't know why I am going to say this to you, ECHO.. but.. I hope you never have to see me at my worst." He closes his eyes once more. "I never want you to see that.. and even that.. I am not sure why."

CHIEF then sighs. "So many whys and no answers," he then looks at her, "..and I wont bite.. though I wish I had a lighter, but I got this.. strange feeling.. if I lit a cigar around you, you snatch it out of my mouth faster then a Grid Bug can jump." he then pauses, " What do you dream about, ECHO?"

MCP has posed:
"Don't you know this? The first thing you learn about new worlds is all the really good swears." ECHO smirks at CHIEF but the expression fades and dies away as he continues. "It'll come back." although this has the mantra like quality of a saying she has said as often to herself as anything else. She eventually sits next to him, drawing up one leg and putting an arm on an elbow. "Yellow. Even I dream, everything is in yellow." for a long time she doesn't explain this. She turns her eyes to the floor. She hasn't really let many of these details go.. even though she could read the datafile from just a few fragments. "when boss cracked open the system I was shelved in, something had already gone wrong with it." She pauses for a time as if struggling with herself. This wasn't what she wanted to say. These weren't things he needed to hear.

ECHO finds herself continuing anyways, brushing at her air absently and frowning. "It got into the power management sector. Into the lines. It would" she swallows thickly. "--power up one storage unit at a time. Just, just enough gain for us to be barely functioning. Just enough to start struggling as it ate us. One after another.. after another. I remember. It--looking at me and considering whether I was going to be next, and I remember trying to scream.. and then the boss was behind it and." she winces.

"and the boss was a meaner predator than the virus. And that was messy. Really, seriously messy."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF listens to the information that ECHO feeds him about her dreams. In some ways, he wasn't sure what was worse now. His selfish pain, or her torment of watching those they /both/ probably knew at one time. Though he was still not sure from what Era. Was it the Star Wars.. or was it older? Did she already say? He can't remember right now, but how hard it was to remember, he was going to guess back to DB-77 and leave it that.

Which meant if he was right, she had so many things she could answer, but it also seemed, she didn't like to go back that far... perhaps for good reason.

"I am.." He starts out, before he tries to sit up. It was painful at first, head throbbing, but he managed to sit up and go to put his hand on her shoulder lightly. "I am sorry, ECHO. I think you win in the nightmare department." He tried to say with a light laugh, but it was a sad one. A very sad one. His hand went to slide off her shoulder, almost absently tracing a power line, before he pulls his hand away. He then looks away.

"I guess the Administrator really does eat other things." CHIEF says in an idle thought as his gold eyes suddenly scan around the room. "At least he was able to save you, so that is a plus." He then looks at her a half playful grin on his face. "Be a real shame if you were lost. There would be less people getting boots to the head!" Yes, the old military program was trying to cheer up the mood. Set some brighter light to the subject. "ECHO... when we.. were partners, was it common for us to work together or.. was it like.. passing partners?"

MCP has posed:
"/YOU/-- declaring defeat at anything?" ECHO nods sagely. "I am now officially horrified. I am struck dumb by terror.. but I think I will archive this moment and treasure it always." she looks around as if looking for a sufficiently good place to hide, eyes shifting back and forth.

She smiles at him, rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah. He does." she says that as if 'understatement of the cycle' were written in the air in fire. SHe takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She stared at CHIEF for a long time before looking away. "We.. worked together on the F-117. Long stint on the ground for a flight program, huh?" she smiles but it is a very bitter smile that she quickly wipes off her face.

"Tell me again that you declare defeat." she teases, prodding him in the shoulder."I need to checksum that statement because I don't think I heard right."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF nods softly, good. She confirmed it then. She was from the F-117 prototype era. That era he really was missing any data on; or at least he core couldn't access easily. Though he was amused and stayed so when she was going on about her winning and then her wanting to be sure she heard him right.

"It may been a long time on the ground, but I think," He rubs his chin, his fingers scuffing at some of his facial hair in thought. "If I could ever find away for you to get to where I was originally, I could get your wings back."

CHIEF then chuckles. "Aaand as for losing, when did /I/ say I lost again? I just said you had the better nightmare, I didn't say you won." He pokes her back gently in the side before staring at her with a playful grin. He then breaks into a laugh before he hrms. "..Here.. let me show you something. Something that if we can ever get to the OS, I'll show you how to operate.. I am not a very good flier.. but I was never meant to fly anyhow, right?"

CHIEF smirks, as he reaches behind him, but he does place up his hand. "..and trust me.. please?"

After he says that, he takes the disc off. That strange disc from so many programs, before he holds it in both hands, "Come closer and I will show you." He waits a bit, before he then runs his hand along part of the energy light. Several images come up quickly. His brows furrow for a moment, before he finds what he is looking for in his crazy memories. Then pauses it there. "This.. is called a Light Jet. How would you love to fly one of these darling?" He says with a grin, looking over to her with his gold eyes. Seeing if she approves or... if this was a bad idea.

Also in that image was several more of those light jets in the background like a hanger, building structures could be seen with their glowing lights, further back was even larger buildings, including one that had a sign that was hard to make out what the image was or what it said.

MCP has posed:
ECHO ruthlessly crushes the flicker of hope that comes and goes on her face, she smirks but it is a wounded expression. "Yeah. Checksum failed. I thought so." she slowly slides her leg down the floor, pursing her lips hard as the image of the light jet comes up.

There is such an expression of longing mixed with wonder on her face that it is nearly painful. She squints, tilting her head just slightly as she takes in a sharp, steadying breath and smile.

"Ah. Yeah.. we've proceeded to the bribes, have we?" she whistles lowly as she stands up again. "that.. looks like a blazing ride. Maybe I will take you up on that." she takes her helmet form the floor, tucking it under her arm. She looks towards the door, then back at CHIEF and sits down in a chair with her helmet in her lap. "Go on."

CHIEF has posed:

CHIEF glances over, grinning like a loon, but not in the bad way. Though he does notice her pain expression as she steps away and then moves to the chair across the way. He then frowns softly. He glances down at the image, moving his fingers across it, almost like tracing the lines of the holographic image from his memory.

"If I was trying to bribe you, I probably show you something /far/ bigger, like the Light bomber..." He says with a smirk. "Frag, we even had a Light choppers, some other things as well." He then sighs gently. "I wish.. I could take you there.. but.. I am not even sure what would happen.. or if its even still there. I ran, I ran long and hard."

He shuts down the image, before reattaching it to his back. Those gold eyes look over to her. "I ran, fought alone, jumping from system to system with all that I had in me. Being chased like a criminal.. kinda was. Stole a few light vehicles.. found out some systems couldn't even handle them. Lost my baton somewhere along the ride. The deeper I ran, the deeper I realized I had to go find a place to hide. Hide where no one would ever look.. I heard something to go too be true. I followed that rumor and how I got here."

"I left paradise to escape to hell." CHIEF remarks, "..I believe that is a user term perhaps, but it seems to fit." he shrugs. "..and as for that light jet.. well.. they are beautiful to watch in the skies. Ribbons on or off. They can perform barrel rolls.. they have.." He goes through the schematics of one. Explaining to her the instrumentation. How they operate to the best of his abilities and their firepower. Hard to say if he was doing it to impress her, or because he had someone to talk with. Talk with that felt important enough to share it all with. Including even his time of flying one-- and a crash that would probably make ECHO cringe. However it was now all in fun and watching. Reconnecting. Reconnecting with a Partner he has nearly forgotten...