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

[no_longer_a_king]

Arturia, for her part, has been staying put beside the retrieval unit to ensure he didn't get hurt in the chaos. They need him, after all, and she trusts the group to figure things out.

It doesn't mean she hadn't been forced to restrain herself from time to time and when things go quiet and the screens appear throughout the room, she finds herself startled. It's almost more ominous than the glittering monsters from earlier.

Just like before, she knows she doesn't need to tell them to be careful. Being careful is out of the question at this point.

[ninjainviolet]

If it's not one thing, it's another, and Sheena has had about enough of this. Literally growling as she gets to her feet, she pulls out a Pyre Seal and makes her way to the the front of the floating screens--dead center.

"Everyone stay back," she tells the others. "And shield the ones who are hurt. I really don't know what will happen." And no one ask her not to do this because the answer will be "no".

"Please work," she says softly.

Immediately, she tosses the Pyre Seal up, and as a glow surrounds her, it multiplies rapidly, encircling all the floating screens completely before setting off a powerful explosion--which usually manages to knock down or incapacitate an enemy for a time.

[animusnpcs]

The seals multiply around the screens but slide off them like water - physically, they don't seem to stick. But while they are still being deflected (and thus are in range of about half the screens), they explode; the screens caught in the explosion are overcome with a sharp static and vanish abruptly.

They do not reappear, though the half that still remains continues to repair any damage done to the panel and float among the characters.

[midgarhorizon]

This is what he had been waiting for. Lifting his EMR, Reno took a few steps to build up speed and tried a swipe at a screen floating nearby using his momentum and agility to hopefully catch it by surprise.

[attheclocktower]

Seeing Reno spring into action. Xion follows suit. She's no good for physically prying a panel off, and she's all out of magic. But this? This she can do.

She runs forward with a fierce cry, swinging her Keyblade at as many screens as she can reach, jumping from one to the other, making her way towards the screens that seem to be fixing the panel. At the very least, she hopes the distraction will help buy some people time.

[animusnpcs]

Reno's EMR slides off the screen like water, never really seeming to connect - but when it comes away, it has melted down.

Xion's Keyblade, while real enough, never seems to connect with any of the screens, as if there is some force subtly deflecting it from connecting. Some of the screens float in her path as if to impede her progress.

[warriorscribe]

Enoch crashes into the wall as his punch fails; luckily for him, the spikes were no longer there to harm him. He pushes himself away and takes a quick stock of the situation in the room. Whatever the screens are up to, he doesn't know, but it can't be good. He takes a swing at one of his own screens before running back towards the retrieval unit, trying to get the screens off his defenders.

He hasn't yet seen the effects of the others' attacks.

[imperialsun]

Well if that seems to be the strategy everyone is adopting, he'll try and help them out as much as he can. The figure behind him vanishes before another one appears to take it's place.

"Here goes! Amon-ra!"

The Persona raises its staff, as it uses Hieroglyphen at everything in its path, in hopes that it will at least distract or do some damage.

[attheclocktower]

There's more screens in her way then there was before. If Riki's trying to stop her... maybe she's doing something right? It's hard to tell, and she's moving too fast to really stop and think that hard about it.

She continues to try to deal glancing blows to the screens she passes, but now she's putting all of her focus in trying to move around and dodge the screens getting in her way, making a beeline for the screens repairing the panel, and attacking them if she can, as soon as she's within range.

[animusnpcs]

Enoch's punch slides off the screen without really seeming to connect; Xion's Keyblade does the same thing. When Naoya's Persona casts Hieroglyphen at the same time, the magic deflects back at him from all of the screens but two: Enoch's screen, and the one screen Xion's keyblade was being deflected from at that exact moment.

Those two screens are overcome by a sharp static before vanishing. The other screens remain, those closest to the panel continuing to fix the damage while the others float among the people, occasionally floating directly into their paths.

There is an ominous crackle of electricity and the sound of spikes scraping out of the wall; the electric whips and the spikes have reactivated, and now the residents have them to contend with, as well.

[midgarhorizon]

Cussing up a storm, Reno tossed the now useless EMR away after unhooking the Shiva materia from the handle and watched Xion move into the field of screens. When Enoch goes by, it's enough to catch his attention.

"Enoch, stop! Follow Xion! I can't touch 'em!" He's yelling just before the whips and spikes start up again, running toward the retrieval unit and the defenders.

[megazero_to_superhero]

David has been hanging back again since the last remaining panels had been removed—he had to duck out of the way when Tobias bum-rushed the panel he was trying to remove, taking the sword with him. Seeing the that the screens are seemingly impervious to physical blows, much like the first panel, he's tried to keep out of this current phase of the battle. Especially after seeing Reno's EMR melt like that. Ouch.

—but when the room comes alive again with electric whips and spikes, David moves into action. He can't do anything about the spikes, and does his best to keep from getting impaled by them, but maybe ... maybe he can protect people from the whips.

So for now, he's going to try and intercept any whips heading for other members of the Infiltration Team, especially anyone attempting to use their powers on the screens—swooping in, hacking and slashing at the whips while trying not to get stung or pierced himself.

[notachickenhawk]

Tobias is getting hit, something he can't avoid while in this massive morph. He makes noises of pain but does his best to shield others.

<Can someone try and get the electricity to hit the screens?>

He has no hope of even making an attempt, but he'll play meatshield as long as they need.

[warriorscribe]

At Reno's warning, Enoch skids to a stop and turns to the repair attempts. He did notice his hand just seemed to glance off that one, but then that spell(?) had destroyed it...

Right. He'd go after the repairing ones then, turning and attempting to shove another screen out of his way on his way there. If it didn't work, he'd heed Tobias's advice and try to lead it to one of the whips, ducking out of its way and hoping it hit the screen instead.

[morphballin]

Samus isn't sure how she feels better, but she's not gonna look a gift pursehorse in the mouth. The situation changes and escalates pretty quickly, however. She charges up a sphere of energy, and lets it fly toward the screens - if her grapple beam got deflected before, it'll likely be so again, so back to basics.

[sageprincess]

Well, it's as good a plan as any, with Zelda's magic drained as it is. She begins dodging towards the screens, attempting to use them as floating cover as she ducks and weaves (and occasionally yelps - with the electricity, even a grazing hit burns) around the whips.

[attheclocktower]

Xion hears Tobias' suggestion. Electricity...

She's getting closer to the screens near the panel, which also is bringing her within range of the whips and spikes. That gives her the same idea, the others have, at least. She races close to the screens nearest her, then at the last second, uses dodge roll to try to get out of the way.

Thankfully she has the foresight to try to dodge roll away or parallel to the walls, at least, rather than towards them.

[animusnpcs]

David's attempts at shielding some of the others from the whips are half-successful. While he slashes at some of the whips, those whips focus their attention on him and leave the others unmolested. The other whips, however, are out in full force.

Zelda and Xion's dodging results in some of the whips coming into contact - of a sort - with the screens. They slide off without doing much damage, and Enoch's shove does the same thing. However, as their attempts are deflected, Samus's sphere of energy catches all three screens in its path, and they all go staticky before vanishing.

The screens are beginning to thin out; only a few more remain, and the screens nearest the panel swap places with the screens among the chaos of the people, whips, and spikes.

[keybearer]

So the whips do nothing either, huh? There goes that idea. Still, they've made at least some progress. Sheena's attacks blew up at least a few of the screens. The screens Enoch and Xion struck exploded from Naoya's magic...

A lightbulb goes off in his head, and he whips towards the others.

"Okay, I think I got this. If we can nail these things with offensive power and magic at the same time, we might be able to clean up shop here."

Provided the others start attacking the screens, Riku will hoist his Keyblade over his head and shoot down surges of electricity around the room. In the mean time, he opts to dodge and swerve, moving closer to the repair screens.

[midgarhorizon]

"Not at the same time! You got to hit them first!" Reno yells back at Riku, seeing Xion and Zelda's success. The energy happened after they got the whips to hit the screens- they can't afford a mistiming here. He catches his breath and heads back into the fray, trying to grab one of the whips' attention. Hell, he's built for this, dodging and even rolling, heading for the screens closest to the panels.

[attheclocktower]

Hearing Riku's call, and Reno's. Xion turns in the former's direction, nodding.

"Got it!" she calls. And indeed, wherever she sees one of his spells about to hit a screen, she runs forward with her Keyblade to strike them first.

Unfortunately, even as she strikes at one of the screens, a spike - unnoticed, slices hard across her side, right around her ribcage and - to a lesser extent - some of her inner arm.

She stumbles, nearly falls with a yell. But then-

"I won't give in!"

She pushes herself upright, her Keyblade cloaked in Light. She moves, sharply, erratically, still trying (though it's much harder now) to focus on the screens Riku is targeting, and moving towards the ones that are repairing the panel. She's not as good about timing in this state, however.

[megazero_to_superhero]

Seeing that he's been successful in, at least, thinning down the sheer amount of the electrical whips posing a danger to the team, David doesn't let up—but now that he's got a number of them focused on attacking him, he's having to put more effort into trying to keep from getting stung. Drawing so much attention to himself, however, is making it hard for him to be such an artful dodger. Several of the whips find their mark, giving David a rather unpleasant jolt.

David's also being more choosy about which whips to intercept, after seeing that some of the other infiltration members are trying to bait the whips into attacking the screens for them. Anyone that looks vulnerable to getting whipped, though, is David's top priority in protecting. All the while, he continues trying to hack away at the whips targeting him or targeting others.

[animusnpcs]

More and more of the screens flicker out of existence, until the last few cluster defensively around the final sealed panel. The wall spikes up around the panel as well, trying to provide its own defense.

[ninjainviolet]

After her success with her Pyre Seal, Sheena had attempted another one, but just when she had started to pull one out, things really started getting out of hand, and she had found herself once again dodging those whips, cursing loudly when one or more made contact.

Hopefully, she'll be able to find a spot without the whips so she can use that seal, but when she does get a respite, she discovers it's because Tobias is taking on a lot of them at once.

"Hold on!" she tells him, pulling out another seal. "I can't heal you, but maybe this will help." Activating the Guardian Seal, its effects surrounds both of them in a green glow, and if it had worked, Tobias should feel a lessening of his injuries, giving him a chance to get away from those whips.

"I don't know how long it'll last for you--it's only a few minutes for me, but sometimes a few minutes is all you need to do something, right?"

[warriorscribe]

With the screens mostly down, Enoch hurries to take out the others. But he's so focused on them he fails to pay as much attention to the whips and spikes. A whip catches him from behind and causes him to stumble as he nears the wall...and one of the spikes is exactly eye level. It stops short of impaling him, his armor protecting him from harm but not from the pain it would have otherwise caused. He cries out as his armor is shattered in its entirety to save his life, and he falls to the floor, surrounded by the gleaming white pieces of his armor. In desperation, he grabs a shard and throws it at a screen as he scrambles to his feet, trying to get away from the wall and its danger. The armor pieces will fade away in a few second, but for now, perhaps if anyone wants a short-lived improvised dagger...?