Ex Machina; Infiltration

[animusmods]

Characters: Riki and the infiltration team
Setting: administrative levels
Format: any
Summary: Riki's efforts must be sabotaged. Stealth is the name of the game and time is of the essence.
Warnings: psychological horror

Though the chipped unit does not follow, he sees to it that the team advances the rest of the way. At the end of the lit corridor is a set of double doors, heavy-duty polished metal with small windows set into each one.

Through the windows, a massive machine is visible, connected to thousands of holographic screens that are hard to make out at the speed at which they're being manipulated. The machine sits in the center of the room and is networked to four elaborate terminals stationed along the walls via a complex tangle of panels, wires, and towers. Each of these terminals controls its own set of floating screens; the sheer amount of holographic monitors in the room is disorienting, and really, it's hard to tell what's connected to what.

In the chair in the middle of the enormous set-up is Riki, maneuvering all of the screens with the same ease with which most people breathe. His back is to the doors that lead into the room, and for the moment, he is utterly engrossed in his work.

Comments

[animusnpcs]

Xion's spell succeeds in layering the bolts lightly with frost. However, blocks begin to stick out of the wall, twisting out of place and moving to ram Xion, Riku and David away.

[midgarhorizon]

Seeing the wall move, Reno went into action, jumping at Xion from where he stood by the panels to grab her and pull her out of the way. Thank his lucky stars she isn't too heavy.

For the others, all he can do is yell out a warning. "Riku! David! Move!"

[keybearer]

Riku's eyes pop wide open the second the wall bulges. Clenching his teeth, he lunges out of the block's path and throws up his Keyblade in a defensive stance. If there's an opportunity to strike back, he'll fire off a Blizzaga spell at the plate from a distance.

[megazero_to_superhero]

"Whoa—!"

It's a good thing David was already in motion when the wall started to fight back. Wheeling over to face away from the wall, David's flight systems punch into overdrive as he rockets away—preferably in a direction away from the rest of the infiltration team, as (should the blocks be capable of doing so) he doesn't want the wall smashing into other people in its attempt to swat him down.

[attheclocktower]

Xion yelped in surprise, falling against Reno as he pulled her away. Still, it saved her from being hit, and she looked up at him gratefully, blinking still in the bright light.

She looks back at the panel now, and over at Riku. He'd heated it, and was firing what looked like a Blizzard now. So if she'd frozen it... maybe try to-

She turned, mustering a small Fire spell, which she sends at the panel from a distance.

"Someone try to pull them off now!" she yells.

[morphballin]

"On it!"

There's a (possibly over-dramatic) drawing back of her blaster arm before thrusting it forward, launching a blue beam of energy at one of the temperature-altered plates. If it manages to latch on, Samus is going to yank back with all the force she can muster.

[animusnpcs]

The force of the grappling beam is enough to rip the panel off with the weakened bolts, revealing a series of wires and plugs in the wall underneath.

The blocks that protruded from the wall became more fluid, and began whipping around the room wildly to try and hit anyone in the room.

[keybearer]

Geez. Of course it'd get worse. Of course. Well, it's too late to turn back now. With the first set of plugs exposed, it seems like as good a time as any to try and pluck them out. Of curse, in order to do that, he'll need to stay unharmed, thus he continues zipping around the room, shooting glances at the wall all the while.

Provided nobody else gets to them first and provided the blocks don't mow him down, he'll point his Keyblade at the wall and try to use a Graviga spell to force the plugs from their sockets. It worked in Hollow Bastion to bring down floating chests. He can only pray it'll work here.

[ninjainviolet]

The second the idea of using magic had been brought up, Sheena had hurried to get out of the way. The young ninja can't perform any, and while her cards can deal some elemental damage, they need to touch in order to be truly effective.

So, she had distanced herself in order to stand watch for anything strange; still, she had been caught off-guard by the blocks coming out of the walls, and had barely managed to duck out of their way.

Now, she's doing the same thing, only now it looks more like a frenetic dance as she bobs and weaves and leaps and jumps over, around, and under the blocks, pulling whoever she can out of the way.

"Look out!"

[puppy_lancer]

After hearing people stay that the panel had to be removed without touching it, Lancer stays back, shaking his hands and arms, which were sore from the electric shock. Now that the panel has been loosened and the blocks are whipping around, he ducks away from the blocks, watching for others so he can pull them away or shout a warning to them.

[slightlyoblivious]

Of course there wasn't anything helpful, and the 'brute-force' approach to things hadn't worked. Yukiko can't do a whole lot to take out the plugs and things, but she can help with the aftereffects of the shock. She ducks a few incoming blocks, then quickly fires off a Mediarahan. Once that's done, she'll carefully run across to the other side of the room and cast another one.

[sageprincess]

That worked. The situation is quickly deteriorating, but that worked. They can bring this back.

Though she's hated feeling useless to this point regarding the task at hand, it has allowed her to recover somewhat. She tosses up another barrier around herself and the retrieval unit when the walls grow whips, hopefully protecting them both from harm.

"Xion, Samus, quickly! The sooner we cut the power, the sooner this will end!"

And the less chance they have of someone getting seriously injured or killed. There's still three more plates they need to remove, but they have a plan now...!

[keybearer]

Whether or not the Graviga spell has an effect, Riku knows better than to sit still. Between dodging attempts, he fires off more ice from his Keyblade, aiming to hit at least one of the untouched panels. Sure, Zelda asked for Xion and Samus first and foremost, but the more people they've got taking aim, the better their odds.

"Xion, think you can hit that other plate? If not, I'll see if I can nail it."

rng says she has just enough magic left

[attheclocktower]

"I think so," she calls back, gathering her magic together again.

In the end, she manages to gather together just enough magic to cast a Blizzard at the last panel.

Now she's tapped, and this time, she's pretty sure it's for good. By the time she recovers and gets enough magic together again to cast another spell, this will likely be over, for better or worse.

[morphballin]

Once she'd yanked the first one free, Samus disengaged her beam, letting the thing clatter to the floor behind her.

The warning puts her to moving, however, jumping around in a grand display of acrobatics - at least until Zelda gives the command, and Xion and Riku follow up. A few flips, and Samus lands in a clear spot, and without missing a beat, shoots to grapple one more plate - but stopping was a bad idea, as one of the protrusions catches her. She's electrocuted and knocked to the side with a pained yelp, but if her connection was successful, she'll do her damndest to hold it.

[warriorscribe]

When the walls form whips, Enoch does his best to dodge, stepping and rolling and jumping aside, using his ability to jump midair to avoid them, suddenly changing direction or flipping midair to escape one at his feet.

"Riki, you're a fool!" He runs for the exposed plate, but leaps into a sideways roll to avoid a whip that strikes the ground before him, and a spell whizzes by him. "Clearly you had something to fear! Do you not believe some of us would want this tower? Or did you have some other plan!?"

But he maintains his distance from the panel, waiting for the spell and leading the whips as far away from the panel as he can in his dodging. Maybe he can make a path for someone else if it fails.

[animusnpcs]

The force of increased gravity succeeds in ripping the plugs out of their positions-- the terminal above goes completely blank as the lights in the room begin to flicker. The whipping wall segments stop in place and fall to the ground with concentrated force, and the sound of the electricity winds down.

The grapple beam's path and the Blizzard spell are deflected a few inches away from the next panel without making contact.

[evokingfool]

While Minato's been dodging the wall segments, he saw his chance after they fell to the ground and immediately recalled Cu Chulainn back. Griping his evoker tightly, Minato ran over towards the panel and raised the gun towards his head. The segments might be down, but who knows if they'll be back up again?

The speed buff just wear off once he's close enough to the panel, and he pulled the trigger.

Bang.

A pink goddess manifested from the familiar blue glow and raise a hand, casting a boosted Bufula at the panel. If he's this close, they probably wouldn't deflect it in time, right?

And he's banking on Parvati's ice immunity for the backlash.

[imperialsun]

It was an idea worth perusing, and it was better than not trying. Naoya ran behind Minato, calling forth his own persona to see if they could somehow overwhelm it.

"Vishnu!"

Energy flowed underneath him as the figure rose above him, a sword of ice materializing into its hands. The Persona swung it in the middle of the Bufula spell, his own Icy Fury spell attempting to hit with physical and ice damage.

[keybearer]

Darn it! Riku glowers at the wall the moment the spell bounces back. Gritting his teeth, he stomps closer, Keyblade shaking in his grip. Breathing in, he pulls back his weapon, ice crystals circling around the tip. They've still got one panel frozen. Maybe if he just gets close enough, they can deal with the others.

While Minato and Naoya overwhelm one of the panels, Riku slams his Keyblade against the other, hoping that a point blank strike will even the odds.

[animusnpcs]

The Bufula spell is immediately reflected away from the panel. The ice from Vishnu's attack is peeled away and deflected as it gets near the panel as well, but the sword is able to connect and leave a dent on the metal without resistance.

Likewise, the ice crystals are bounced away from Riku's attack, but the keyblade is able to make contact and damage the other panel.

[ninjainviolet]

Now that the wall-whips have stopped, Sheena can focus on the other panel as well, and her jaw drops. "Magic isn't working! You have to hit this one!" Coming up beside Riku, she cracks her knuckles and pulls out a kunai.

"Want some help?"

[keybearer]

"Hey, knock yourself out. The more people we got brute forcing this, the quicker we'll get done." So he'll step aside, giving Sheena some space, while he attempts to jam his Keyblade into the corner of the panel. He'll be leaning his weight into the weapon and trying to pry it off.

[attheclocktower]

Xion watches them go after the panels nervously. As soon as she sees that physical attacks are working, there's a bit of relief there. At the same time though, the approach that some of them are taking.

"Be careful, okay?" she calls worriedly, "We don't want to break anything."

If they did, why didn't they just cut the cords, or something. But the unit had just said unplug, which means they want them intact.

[megazero_to_superhero]

Since pulling away from the other panel, David had been spending his time weaving in and around the block-whips snaking out of the walls trying to hit anyone they could. A glancing blow that almost dropped him out of the air prompted him to switch his flight system to a slower, more defensive mode to give him more control. He managed to ride it out until that particular panel was dealt with.

He'd taken some more time to gather himself, hanging back from the action—at least until he saw the results of Riku's blow on the other panel and Sheena's observation that this one was susceptible to physical strikes.

Well, then. Looks like this is a job for brute force!

Switching back to full flight mode, David charges at the second panel just has he had the first. He's performing a similar tactic to the one he tried on the first panel—wedging the Orcish sword in between a seam and attempting to pry the panel off with leverage from his flight system.