RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 2] - Choke

[Moogle]

Luca took Seiren's explanation on face value. He wondered if Sourcians even had a concept of vending machines where they came from quietly, but then he started watching Rebeka and Seiren interact with the television - and then he wondered if they ever had televisions as he knew them. Holding the remote was Echelon, who was similarly listening to their conversation passively, watching the normally aloof and foreboding Sourcian push her face against the television. She can't read... because she doesn't see like us either. Hm. Luca wondered how else one could see things - all that came to mind were perhaps cybernetic implants that he'd never had the pleasure of using, various glasses and goggles that granted different sorts of sights like nightvision, infravision, motionvision, electrovision, x-ray vision.

He did not know how Rebeka saw. He could not fathom it. He had no yardstick to measure against with the timeless being - only Seiren seemed to be able to get close enough to attempt to tease the answer out of her. 'Seiren,' he talked to the inventor using Yamataian digital telepathy, 'Have you figured out how she sees yet? If not, could you?' the request was made mostly to satisfy his curiosity, but also so he could make things easier for her - make her feel more like a person rather than a strange alien. After that nightmare he had a couple of nights ago, he thought it was because he'd told her to eat the Lagrange Bagman's head - or at least, his construct's head.

Just the idea of constructs was still giving him a headache.

How she sees? Seiren thought, cocking his head. It hadn't occurred to him prior to this point that Rebeka, as a probably pretty alien species, might see things in a different spectrum than he did. Well, I didn't consider that. . . ooh, this calls for some experiments. I wonder if they sell multispectrum flashlights. . .

The inventor tapped his chin in thought for a moment, drawing a curious glance from the woman beside him, then smiled.

'Sure thing, Luca! Maybe if I'm lucky, I can assemble a TV that hits the right frequencies for her!' he responded, beaming like an idiot.

 

[Luca]

"Yeah that'd be great thanks," Allison said to Soruk, picking herself up off the ground using Yamataian anti-gravity, so she appeared to simply rise to her feet from a prone position. "It's just, our stealth experts, we've had a lot who are really good at scaring us."

Luca nodded back to Seiren and listened to the dial tone keep ringing. "Hello, you've reached the phone of that girl who lives in 7-02 at the block." Vita's voice could be heard on the other side of Luca's communicator. It was her message bank and Luca heaved a sigh. "Leave a message or don't,"

Beep. Luca had made a promise to spend more time with her, be a father, be a figure to her without a mother to support her. The rest of the universe didn't listen, and Luca's lust for conflict eventually got the better of him. He breathed into the receiver for a moment before finally talking. "V., it's dad," he said quietly, looking at the others around him - trying to ensure that nobody was paying attention to him in this moment of perceived vulnerability. "Just calling to see how things are going up there. I'm about to get things underway down here so," he looked around again before back at the communicator, back at the photo he'd taken of her face, trying her best to smile.

Back in the days before the Phoenix came back to life, they didn't have much to smile about. He was a bloodthirsty deadbeat, with more emphasis on dead - now he was trying to temper that out, make it right. "If I don't see you again after this, I want to let you know that I love you." He seemed to sniff and choke on something in his throat, swallowing it down before clapping the communicator shut. "Be good now." Luca mumbled quietly to himself as he pocketed the device.

He cleared his throat again and dabbed his face, his eyes had watered. He could simply pass it off as something getting caught in his eye to his peers - though in such a sterile place as Yamatai, that was probably a lie. He shivered in the room temperature suite before calling things to order. "Hi Reeves, Mako, glad you're here. I think that's all of us," He couldn't see Makari, but he figured he was just taking a loo break. The Gartagen father and child were also surprisingly quiet, perhaps not used to the sterility and abundance of Yamatai either.

"I'll begin. I'm -- we're here on Yamatai for two reasons." His word swap was a noticeable fluster, him pausing for thought as he chose his next words. "Our first one is the mission. Most of you were there at Handler's Reach, we saw what'd happened. The other night, the bloodcurling scream you all may hve heard from the hangar was interrogation of the bagman Enzo found," he pulled his communicator out of his pocket and set it on the desk, then tapped a button on it to bring out the holographic view, collating all of the evidence in a web.

The information included diagrams of a chemical of some sort, multiplying in space, "This is the chemical we took on, D-Motiva, we're calling it for now. According to my third party from Lazarus, it's a knockoff of Motiva, a learning drug made by the Lazarus consortium," he then raised up an image of of the skull of the Bagman's construct. "Apparently, this is a Lagrange serial number, and the Bagman Enzo shot was a ROM-Construct. So that means that whoever's going against us is using Lagrange's assets," he leaned forward.

"I doubt the company itself is the main perpetrator of this, because turning people into zombies in all but name isn't exactly a good business strategy." His weary deadpan delivery coupled with a groaning sigh and resting his head in his hand told everyone that he was searching for some simplicity in this, and perhaps wondering why questionable companies keep getting caught up in affairs like this. "So, we need to follow a paper trail and find out who's financing or approving this - and why. We're in Lagrange's back yard, so we can start shaking trees."

"Y34H B0SS 1'LL ST4RT- er," Echelon started talking in her native accent, then coughed before continuing. "I'll start looking for expenditures by Lagrange, prodding their network," Echelon said. "That'll be easy, though some social engineering or subterfuge might get there quicker. If anyone's willing..." she looked to the others before sitting back. "We could start with shops, warehouses, maybe look for where they've been getting kickbacks too."
"I'll hold fort with Ech and work from here," Allison said, nodding as she looked over to the footlocker. "I think I saw my rifle and a few grenades in there."

"Second," he looked to Zeta and clasped his hands. "My body is currently dying, and it's been doing so since Delsauria a few months ago - and I don't think I've got much left in me were it not for the meds I've been getting from Lazarus." He was frank about both of those facts, "Tomorrow morning I'm going to get a body transfer somewhere I trust - from a former Phoenix crewman who was there at the start, Jimothi Trakk." He smiled, and remembered the simpler times they had together, especially the motorcycle chase on Nepleslia. "He runs a clinic not far from here - if any of us get injured, just say I sent you and he can do the rest."

He then sat back to see if anyone had further questions or comments.

 

[Gallant]

Yamataian Space, Crimson Kestrel

John, Melissa and the original iteration of Echelon were up there, simply keeping an eye on things, acting as ground control to the Major Toms below - though inverted. They didn't have much to do but to sit in their tin can. Vitalia Pavone was there too, tumultuous as her father, but with no outlet up above. It'd been at least three hours since he and the rest of the crew left to go planetside.

The voicemail had played on the table, but the young, dark-haired girl hadn't picked it up. True to Nepleslian tradition, the youngest Pavone had been given a phone when she 'grew up' so that Luca could keep track of her - or was it the other way around? But, Vitalia hadn't put her handheld game down, she'd only looked up from it to listen. The father-daughter checkups didn't seem to be working as intended.

Melissa was sitting in the lounge with Vita, rifle resting beside her like a second companion as she drummed her hands along her knee quietly. She didn't want to intervene on Vita's phone either - another Nepleslian tradition was not to screw with someone's phone if you wanted all of your fingers. She decided not to invervene on the father and daughter business, she didn't want to guess who the mother was.

When she met Luca again with John, Echelon and Allison, she was just there. And Luca had treated her like she was always there. And so did the others. She had nothing to say. For a while, it looked like they would continue passing the time in silence with Vita on her game, and Melissa with her rifle.

But Vita offered an unasked-for explination. "It could be tapped."

Melissa nodded back solemnly. "With all the talk of Lazarus and Lagrange, 's a good pre-caution." She adjusted her cap and cricked her neck with a frown. All the talk of conspiracy and who-did-what before - and that bloodcurling scream the other evening back at Sargasso from the cargo hold, it still rung in her ears, her face screwing up in disgust visibly.

Vitalia looked at the phone for a while longer, then returned to her game with an expression slightly skewed. Maybe she was worried.

Melissa couldn't help wondering what she was thinking about, but couldn't possibly guess.

 

[Phe0n1x]

Makari, having missed the first few words of the speech, was attempting to block access to the restroom. Long story short, he had obliterated it. Yamataian toilets simply can't take a Nepleslian payload it seemed. Not even the exhaust fan caught up. He shook a piece of toilet paper from his boot and tossed it in the nearby waste receptacle and adjusted his duster before he piped up.

He looked solely at Luca and stated plainly, "I've got a couple questions, boss. First off, how long will your body swap take? I'm not too knowledgeable on these sort of things. Second, will we need to provide...erm..."security" during the swap? Despite the slightly adjusted posters of you plastered on select locations, I'd imagine there'd be some people who are going to try to stop this." He took a breath and continued and addressed the entire team this time, "I'm more of an act now, ask questions later kinda guy. As such, I'd like to be in the party who goes to rough up some scumbags for information. Who's with me?" He glanced towards the Gartagens at the end of his question.

 

[Yoshi]

"Tani rose her hand up and waited until Makari to finish speaking. "Sir? I would like to accompany you on this side operation, for two reasons, The time it takes for it shouldn't be long but it's nice to have someone there to help talk you through it, I know. Second..." She paused for a moment embarrassed over what she was about to say, "Well I would like to get a back up here... I haven't in quite a while, before I met you guys..."

She lowered her hand and looked around, hoping no one was going to give her shit for being who she was. From "birth" she was taught to use her safety net. She didn't know anything else, and if she died she would like to be able to remember these folks on the other side. 'Well at least most of them that is.' she laughed quietly at herself as she sat there.

 

[Sham]

Soruk watched with some interest as Allison seemingly floated back to her feet. Interesting, I'll have to remember that. "Usually, my target has more pressing matters than to be 'scared'." he replied to her.

As Luca carried out the meeting, Soruk kept his position, looking out onto the city. He would have preferred his own planet, but he couldn't complain. It wasn't that bad, just too 'perfect' and 'safe'. He stood out here, it was harder to blend in with the crowds. To be fair however, his clan was almost always easily spotted in a group. Their cloaks were unique.

When the infiltration job was mentioned, Soruk merely raised a hand half-way, "I will provide assistance, should you require it." If he helped them, they could help him. Might as well fulfill his side of the unsaid deal as fast as he could.

 

[Lamb]

In the spirit of Soruk, Enzo raised his hand as well.

"I'm always ups fer a lil' Social Engineerin'!" He started, then cleverly caught himself by running the held up hand smoothly over the length of his gelled and dyed hair. He chuckled, took a pull from his e-cigarette, and stood in a puff of steam so he could deliver the next line as 'Glenn Stapleton'.

"After all, when you're already dressed to impress; it's a shame to waste it on friends and influences alone." A flawlessly smooth imitation of the typical corporate tone, if not for the mischievous chuckling cracked out afterwards.

 

[Luca]

Luca nodded to Soruk and Enzo as he looked to that strange mask. Off of the face, it looked strange and uncanny, deflated of a human host to play the imitation. "The question is though, who do we target? If we need to social engineer we gotta find a weak point..." he looked to Echelon and she got the hint, searching for employee records. Lagrange was a name you could wear on your sleeve around on Yamatai - it didn't carry as much negative connotation as its cousin, Lazarus. "Or we can just waltz in and keep some of them distracted while we plumb them for information. I'm not expecting them to be a pushover though," he said.

After all, with such a shady cousin, it made sense that the local authorities would keep a close eye on the immediate family - who knows? Maybe their bad habits ran in the blood. "If we screw this up we'd have the police to deal with too."

He mulled over the consequences of that, the destruction of his and his comrade's careers, possible mandatory death without hearing or parole... but it didn't have to be directed at him. "Hmm..." a sly grin came across his face as he looked at the evidence floating in front of him, but it soon faded. "Direct approach could work, but there's only our story to corroborate it, and if they hear any whiff of Lazarus, they'd turn on us and have the police on their side even if we have the best evidence." He wasn't below believing that Yamataians and Nekovalkyrja could be bribed too - the ways to bribe someone in a plentiful utopia were never in cash but in kind.

"Nah. Direct won't work," Luca found himself mumbling aloud and shaking his head. "We need to figure out where it came from."

He looked over to Tani for the second operation. "Yeah, I'll need security when I make the transfer. Apparently the body transfer can take about half an hour to an hour. Since Jim's probably generating the body now." The amount of time needed for a soul transfer was fluid - maybe it depended on how much they'd experienced. Bringing every ache, every pain, every memory over to a completely new computer. It was much like a file transfer in the petabytes. The actual technology itself, the understanding of which was still held by the Elysians was what gave the Yamataians their edge - it made each and every one of them truly expendable. If you could come back tomorrow after being killed, where was the risk?

For all of his career, Luca had gone without changing - choosing to tough it all out. This was a viable strategy until something broke inside of him, and the very hardware keeping him alive was killing him. "So it'll be there once I arrive and the transfer can happen immediately in the morning. I hope he still has that flechette rifle." Luca smiled as he remembered the sound that thing made for the first time, back in the Blue-Jacket days.

Echelon then produced a 'ding' by opening her mouth - it sounded exactly like a bell. "Find something?" Luca asked.

"Yeah - their security network is staffed by a handful of FR33SP4C3RS." The native accent slipped in again, "I can smell it. They're the biggest obstacle to us unless I can bribe them or talk to them. Since they forgot to be Deoradh, they have to take lunch breaks. We just have to see where they go and we might be able to talk 'em down if we present the evidence - or a shitload of money, or just say you're you," Echelon said as she looked to Luca and tilted her head with a smile.

"Yeah we still keep getting emails about what happened on Drift Station all those years ago." Allison pointed out. She kept on getting fan mail from the Freespacers. "You made some great friends with that. Lorath too." To read them you had to decrypt and inoculate an evolving worm to get it otherwise you weren't worthy. It was the Freespacer's way of testing whether the rumours were true - whether the Ultimate Badass and their crew were capable.
"So that's where the tanks came from..." Luca admitted as he tilted his head. He was still wondering what to do with those.

 

[Moogle]

"I think I'm gonna hang back and make our little distraction-grenades. 'Cuz, yanno, I haven't actually assembled them yet," Seiren informed Luca, pulling out his backpack and digging out a few pieces of what could only be assumed to be scrap, then fitting them together in a manner like a baby trying to show a large square peg through a small round hole. His eyes flickered back up to Luca. Gave a shrug. Returned attention back to assembly. After a few minutes of this, he decided it would be better to work on this at a table, so the inventor drifted over to the low-laying piece of furniture and sat down.

 

[Lamb]

"Spacers, eh?"

Enzo took another puff of delicious nicotine steam from the e-cigarette. Actually, it tasted like a pool liner-- but a Nepleslian's got to smoke on Yamatai somehow, right? A forefinger and thumb ran along the length of his jaw, tracing the smooth latex which seamlessly covered his patchwork of scars. Finally, he concluded, "I'll needs a techie wit' me."

The lie was falling together in his head now. The perfect tale of intrigue: A Nepleslian company setting up an office on Yamatai, wanting protection from big, bad Yamataian super-hackers. Certainly the Freespacers could understand a fear of Yamataians? Enzo surveyed the assembled crew and snapped his fingers at the quiet and almost quivering Reeves.

"Yo, brat!" He called, "Yous Nepleslians, and yous tech-savvy, see? I seen yous lookin' at machines an' whatnots."

In a whirl of energy, the conman kicked the lid off one of the many footlockers full of gear he'd smuggled onto the planet. A beefy pistol was tossed one way, a box of tobacco the other, the odd grenade rolled onto the coffee table. Finally, he tossed the object of his search onto the lap of technician.

"Yer wit me, kid. Put this on and look natural." The item in question was a business suit much like the one Enzo had donned already for his disguise. As for Enzo, he didn't seem to care that the room was filled with people-- he sat impatiently with crossed arms and a tapping foot whilst he waited for Reeves to hurry up and get dressed, damn it.

 

[miss_story]

The technician slouched lower in his seat as the meeting began. From the looks of it the whole crew would have their hands full when they were in Yamatai. He wasn't there for Handler's Reach, so he had no idea what Luca was referring to. He stared at the hologram curiously as the captain spoke. While he was musing over where he might be most useful in their current investigation, he could not help but feel uncomfortable with how open Luca was about his body replacement, especially with people he scarcely knew in the room with him. He offered the man a brief but concerned smile.

Reeves checked over his shoulder, freezing in place when Vincienzo snapped his fingers in his direction. He was hoping that he was not the one that Enzo was focused on. Of course there was no one behind him, and what Enzo said next narrowed down the possibility that he was referring to someone else considerably. "I... yes, I wouldn't say that I'm not those things." He had to admit he appreciated that the other had actually noticed and remembered something that he was interested in the short amount of time they had interacted.
Phoenix sat up straighter watching the animated man begin to dig through his smuggled goods. Puzzled he watched the man dig through the dangerous things in the footlocker. He nearly jumped out of his skin when something from inside it landed in his lap. As one of the prior objects had been a grenade he had expected the suit to be something more dangerous.

Smoothing his hands over the fabric he nodded slowly. He could only hope that he would be useful for the operation. "In that case I'll be right back." Standing up he tip toed around the stray bits of gear before making it to the wash room where he could shut himself inside and change in privacy. He washed his hands and face habitually before getting changed as quickly as he could manage. The suit was probably the most expensive and nicest thing he had ever worn. It was a shame it was a little too big, A belt helped the situation a bit. He stared at himself in the mirror, straightening his posture, trying to emulate confidence.

He took one more deep breath before turning away from his reflection and exiting the bathroom. ... "What exactly do you have planned?" He asked before straightening his tie for what felt like the tenth time since he had attempted to tie it.

 

[Lamb]

"What does I gots planned!?" Enzo asked excitedly as he took in the lanky young man now dressed to the nines. A terrifying smile creaked over his jaw, the e-cigarette twisting upwards and around in a little circle. "I was thinkin' yous, me, an' Melissa all locked in a bed room with nothin' but a Hand Cannon and a bottle of Lorath brandy. Got kindsa-a boid theme goin' on..."

Instead of explaining exactly what the gun and aphrodesiac/hallucinogenic booze were for, Enzo shook his head a little and cackled, waving a dismissive hand. "Nah, later. I think yous an' me oughta go pretends to be interested in that sweet security set-ups dey gots with all dem Spacers. I'll play the fancy executive, yous plays the bumblin' adorable assistant-- an' while we's doin' it, yous case the joint and spec out that set-up wif dem techie eyes, see? We relay the important details to Ech and Ally then cheese it, unless I get a sudden case o' the greedyguyitis."

The miscreant turned to address the others, mainly focusing on Luca as he straightened his tie. "I'll takes some muscle, too, o' course. Just in case. Whataya think, Cap'n Pavone?"

 

[Luca]

So Reeves was playing bait, Enzo was pulling double duty as pointman and mastermind, Echelon was going to keep an eye on things. And Luca, well, Luca was there for damage control and a backup face. Anyone else who wanted to be another minder of things, supervisor or muscle in case things went wrong. "Alrighty!" He clapped his hands together and rubbed them, grinning with Enzo, not nearly as wide but with some definite confidence in his eyes at last. "call the shots, Bortelli. We need to make these people talk. We'll make machines feel."

The Phoenix Team was known primarily for getting blood from flesh and sending it into the air, but now it was time to see if they could get tears from a metal hull. Impossible to them was simply a word for 'hadn't had the stones to try and succeed'. "Sure. Let's go stake it out." Echelon said. "Maybe get lunch while we're at it. Two things at once I reckon. I have their last known locations."

"Great. Pass them to Enzo," Allison said, smiling. "And I thought you didn't eat?"

"I don't. TH1S B0DY does though," Echelon's hull nodded, slipping back into her native accent for another moment.
Allison nodded back knowingly. These robots, were they supposed to help or augment humans. The line was continually getting blurrier and blurrier on Yamatai. Were humans becoming robots, were robots becoming human? Who was imitating who now?

Enzo's and Luca's communicators chirped with new messages, leading them to two different cafes on two different sides of towns. Other pieces of footage and photography saw them walking back to Lagrange's PR office somewhere in the middle of Kyoto. Their true head office was probably billions of miles away. It was a habit they inherited from their sister organisation, Lazarus. Be in both places at once, maybe.

Luca inspected the coordinates and evidence given and nodded at Echelon's skill. Still sharp. "Let's go," Luca said, standing up, turning around and heading towards the door. "It's showtime."

"Don't forget to take an earpiece," Echelon said as she pulled a myriad of earpieces out of a ruffle in her skirt and laid them on the table to be taken. "Communications matter."

Meanwhile, very high above...

Crimson Kestrel, Lounge
"He hasn't tried contacting us otherwise. I have no clue what's going on down there." John said warily as he was watching something in the lounge. Melissa nodded towards him, she had a hunch as to why.

"0H H3'S F1N3." Echelon said. She was in two places at once, the Mimicom back at Yamatai merely a pawn while the real her was still up here, linked by a secure connection, running on something in the trinary computing - operating on a system of True, False and Mu. Answering the questions and unasking them too. "1 41N'T T3LL1N' N0TH1N' TH0UGH. 1'D L1K3 T0, BUT."

"Bugs, yeah." Melissa finished her sentence.
"BUGG13R TH4N FR0GSH1T," Echelon replied. If she could shake her head in shame she would. Tilting image on the view screen left and right for a moment seemed to suffice. "Y4M4T41 H4S L0TS 0F SURV31L4NCE, P3N3TR4T1NG 3V3RY L4Y3R 0F WH4T TH3Y L00K 4T. BUT TH3R3 4R3 H0L3S. N0 SYST3M 1S P3RF3CT." She appeared to be afternoon news bulletin and Luca had showed up on the news already as a footnote in the ticker that he'd arrived - purpose unspecified nor was he available for comment. "S0M3T1M3S F0R D1PL0M4CY 0R C0NV3N13NCE 0R BEC4US3 0F PL41N 0L' HUM4N N4TUR3."

John coughed, "bribery," he coughed again before focussing on what was on screen again. The screen tilted up and down a couple of times in agreement. "Hey that was the good bit," he complained futilely to Echelon - who was pulling double duty as the ship's Augmented Artificial Intelligence. Sure, the one that was already there could fly a ship and guess a few things when it hits the fan, but with Echelon at the wheel of it - patching, hotfixing, bit shifting and stacking like a champ, she was able to make it roar.

Ishimura Heights Hotel, Outside
The had headed to the first location on foot. It was only a few minutes away and it gave the team an opportunity to split up and make their separate preparations. They all had the coordinates to a large cafe, popular with salarymen, food critics and average joes. Their menu was fairly diverse, but still catered to all the sensibilities and refinements of a 'proper' Yamataian.

Luca had decided to walk directly towards it, going southwest from the Ishimura Heights Hotel and walking as directly as he could towards the outlined cafe, about a couple of kilometres away. Echelon and Allison were together, having left the hotel a minute after Luca and doglegging, going further south than west to reach the cafe. They were splitting so they didn't arouse suspicion - Luca figured that travelling as a large group attracted attention.

As the duo were walking together, passing by a gaggle of shoppers at a sale, Echelon was getting another secure network - known only by the pawn down on the ground set up to do communications with the group.

"Luca, test. Can you hear me?" Echelon's voice sounded in his earpiece.
Luca touched his ear and replied. "I hear you. Sound off, people."
"I'm here. Allison replied."

In one way, shape or form, everyone had a means of connecting to this network. Echelon had hundreds of these little earpiece things flowing out her ears after a botched delivery left a shipment of them on Allison's doorstep one day. Might as well use them for disposable communication networking for things like this. Once compromised or completed, toss away, get another. Simple.

 

[Reynolds]

Yamataian Imperial Gardens

Shayla nodded as the crew departed, opening up the bag of chips as they left. The giant Neko had finished chomping them down by the time she'd made it to the door, disposing of the empty bag before heading outside. She looked down at the card she'd been handed again, idly looking up more information about the strange man. Maybe she'd be able to assign names to the other faces she'd seen in the hotel lobby. It didn't take her long to arrive at her earlier destination. The impeccably tended gardens were too pristine for her tastes, after all those years in the wild, but it was still better than a stuffy hotel room.

She wasn't incredibly interested in looking at the flowers and plants, or any of the other scenery. Shayla was enjoying the atmosphere, the scents. She continued to read up on public records of the team's exploits as she wandered. It was something new, out of the ordinary. A distraction. Eventually she'd begin to head back out again. The tiny bag of chips had been little more than an appetizer. Even though McBelle was proud of her new body's digestive abilities, since Ronnie would have probably died without them, she still liked a hearty meal. Now that she had access to proper Yamataian food again, she wasn't going to miss a meal if she could help it.

By now, the people she'd met so briefly were likely on their way to their appointments. Clueless, the giantess simply strolled along casually, dismissing the information she'd been examining to instead try to select a good place to eat.

 

[miss_story]

Both brows lifted upward, eyes going wide as Enzo proceeded to describe just what he had planned for him, and apparently Melissa as well. The smile on the other man's face was enough to make him cower. "I don't hold my Liquor well." Stated finally once it was clear that it was a joke... At least he hoped that it was a joke and not actual plans for later. He didn't want to have to put himself in any more awkward situations than necessary. He relaxed some and listened to the real plan. This one he didn't mind so much, It was mostly legal, and it didn't seem too dangerous. On top of that he was pretty sure he could at least get a sense of the technology they were using to protect themselves. If he could get himself interfaced with it, it would be even better. The amount of information they received depended on how convincing they managed to be.

"That works for me." He offered a nervous smile and finally finished fidgeting with his tie. He listened to the rest of the plans and took one of the earpieces for himself.

 

[Sham]

Soruk listened to their conversation with mild interest, not offering anything to it. He grew bored with the view of the city, turning his attention to idly releasing and sheathing his hidden wristblades. When it came time to leave, he finally stood up to take one of the aforementioned earpieces, looking it at with slight annoyance. With this, they could find him a lot easier, and even worse, their voices would probably breach the quiet... often. Nevertheless, he took one, and nodded to Luca, "I will be... around."

He left the room in the same manner he had entered it, vaulting the balcony and disappearing from their sight. Before heading to the location that he had given, Soruk stopped at his room to pick up some things from his bags. After fully equipping himself, he took to the rooftops, "I am going." He made his way towards the designated location at a 'leisurely' pace, as leisurely as one traveling along rooftops could.

 

[Lamb]

"So, be honest with me..." Enzo instructed Reeves as they cleared the staircase, a bit of a hop in his step. "You've seen Melissa, right? The large woman with the revolving-gauss rifle? Do you think we'd make a good couple?"

He wasn't speaking in his normal tone any more. Now, outside the room, Enzo was using the voice and the stride of a confident businessman. Of course, being completely in character he played the part of the ignorant Nepleslian to a 'T' when he shoved a few DA into the valet's pocket in exchange for picking up his rental car from the parking garage. The rental vehicle was a sleek, black hover-sedan. And it set Enzo back by 60 KS a day. Still, it was smaller and more discreet than flying around everywhere in The Lady of The Night. Besides-- what kind of businessman flies around in overly-modified junk freighter with naked women painted on the side?

Enzo fished a pair of sunglasses out of his breast pocket and pressed them to his face while he reported in to Luca with a finger on his provided ear-piece.

"Bortelli here," He reported, then switched the angle of his head for better reception, "I'll be calling myself Stapleton in public from this point forward, but I'll still answer to Bortelli, of course. We're picking up a rental vehicle and heading for you now."

 

[miss_story]

"Well Mister Stapleton...." He started to speak trying to get used to the new name... so it would roll of his tongue and not seem unnatural. "Mostly everyone except for a few are larger than me... but but I think I know who you mean. She's got dark hair right?" He paused for a a moment trying to decide what he thought of the situation. "Honestly I know nothing about relationships. I was lucky if someone spoke five words to me a day. I'm not really the most experienced person in that regard. That said, I think its at least worth giving it a chance. After all both of you are c commensurately good looking.... and you both like guns and such. You could make a good couple." Reeves rolled his shoulders trying to shake that feeling of discomfort he was accumulating.

The technician raised a brow as the valet brought round a very expensive looking rental car. Wearing a suit, sitting in a sleek black car, it almost felt like he was in someone elses's dream.

 

[Lamb]

Whoever's dream Reeves was inhabiting, it wasn't Enzo's. The conman slid into the driver's seat with no awe for the fine features or the premium Delsaurian leather or the ultra-XD-HD sound system or the canopy which could be turned from glossy black to transparent with the push of a button. To him, it was just another tool, another machine to abuse and tear apart with excessive wear or flashy chase scenes.

"Commensurately? Heh, I like that. You're cute, guy. We're going to have to speak more than five words a day, you know. As soon as I get rid of this accent." He chuckled. Enzo adjusted himself in the seat and set the vehicle to an automatic drive before flicking out his toothpick-switchblade and going about prying the navigation console off. While the sleek black beast hovered into the streets, its pilot was tugging at wires and poking at modules marked only with numbers.

"Where's the Road Safety Control Module? Did Origin move it in this year's model? The cheek!"

 

[miss_story]

"I would not mind that. I would rather not repeat that terribly lonely experience ever again." Reeves relaxed in his seat. He sat quietly as the car pulled itself out into Yamataian streets. He also watched with a wary eye as Enzo flicked his switchblade open so he could pry the top of the interior consul off. After watching the man root around in the wiring system for a short few moments, a small smile cracked across his face. He actually had an answer to this man's problem. he did take things apart and fix them for a living... and he did spend the remainder of his time doing research on such things so he wouldn't be yelled at for not knowing some obscure fact.

"Yes... but the newer models have a protective sheathing installed around the module to protect and ammend an oversensitivity to unexpected pulses of electromagnetic energy. ... You know lawsuits." He leaned forward in his seat reaching down to his boots. He hiked up one of the suit's pant legs to pull out his multi-tool. "So... according to my observations and research.... It should be this one here." He unscrewed the protective case that was tucked in the far back part of the bundle of wires and unplugged the leads to the module shorting the circuit. There you go Mister Stapleton no more silly safety rules. Just don't get us killed okay?" He leaned back into his seat and calmly buckled himself in place.