Phoenix

And another one gone. It was a little strange working alongside a fish, but you couldn't argue with the results. Their momentum was strong, and Brant wanted to make good use of it. "This whole one-two approach is working pretty well. Be right back ..." Unfortunatelly Brant would have to break from Tycho briefly to keep this game of attrition going in their favor. Hopefully Elaine could move in and help the Regalia down another Deimos. If so, that'd be one less enemy shooting at them. "Ja- ..." Was that really her callsign? Nope, not today. "Elaine, it's Merlin. We just marked a target we're going after. Going to need your help with this one." Brant moves to 7,17 and attacks Deimos #3 with the Hyper Beam Rifle! Eyes on the Prize (Chapter V)

"Don't worry about it," Brant replied, nearly chuckling at the thought, "We're all in this together." That said, they probably shouldn't let their momentum go to waste. Things were starting to go a lot smoother, and the two groups were beginning a steady merger that would all but seal the deal for them in the long run, but they still had multiple battleships and Sacarians breathing down their necks. Now definitely wasn't the time to get comfortable. Now was the time to focus and not waste any shots or leave the enemy any easy openings. "Which one do you want to hit with that thing next?" Brant casts Focus! Eyes on the Prize (Chapter IV)

"I'll stick around," Serval Sage chimed in at Linus' offer, "I didn't go to the arcade tryouts just to wind up back at square one." "Heh, you have to ask?" Motherloader spoke up ... though he didn't even look up from his back and forth with Elle Gigantess. That was three definitely confirmed so far, enough to help change Hitomi's focus just a little bit. They needed at least five active members to make this work, though ten was ideal, and that was the exact number of players present, excluding Kirara. There were some questionable players among them, but nothing that looked untenable. Making sure Motherloader knew Linus was in charge and getting Doctor_Flambre's English to Gibberish ratio fixed ought to be enough. Maybe. "How about you, Kirara?" Matsuo grinned at the Frame Ops celebrity, "Interested in joining Team Odyssey? It's got to be boring playing freelancer all the time." Hitomi managed an almost inaudible, "Dad!" in embarrassment. Did he actually think she would go for something like that? "Thanks but no thanks," Kirara shook her head, "Having obligations to a team would only complicate things. I have much bigger responsibilities than just promoting Frame Ops." "How thoughtful," Alexis smiled. 'Odyssey's still recruiting,' Motherloader quietly typed, 'You want in, G-Babe? I can definitely make it happen.' "That reminds me," Hitomi glanced over to Melanie, "I don't mean to bring it up this way but ... you mentioned buying a ship for us before the tryouts. Will you still be able to do that?" "It's definitely more expensive than a new phone," Sage snickered.

What was going on in the Riese's infirmary? Firmia, try as she did to focus all of her attention on the battle, was commanding rather absentmindedly by that point. It hadn't been very long since she was in contact with them, but now an inescapable lull had fallen over the Avalon's bridge. It felt like they were quietly plucking away at an inexhaustible army of enemies. The only saving grace there was that anyone they vaporized here wouldn't trouble them again during their final assault on the base. That made the battle that much more important, even to her personally, but also that much more tedious. Morale didn't seem to be an issue for Apotheosis now ... and those damn elites eyeing up the Artemis seemed to be part of the reason for that. "We need to do something about them ... ... Tonya, how long until we can regroup?" "I dunno ... a couple of minutes?" "Time enough to think then," Firmia sighed. Eyes on the Prize (Chapter III)

"It does. Our opponent has decided to back off and let you lead them to the target," Alexis continued after the first wave of questions, "If we quarantine you that would address the bigger security threat, temporarily. Unfortunately, it will give the rogue AI every excuse to go to ground. Eupraxia wants them captured, studied, and then disposed of. To that end, we've decided to let you focus on your Frame Ops business for now." "You're using them as bait?" Matsuo asked, eyes squinting as he tried to figure out just how uncomfortable he really was with the idea. Alexis nodded through the display. "Basically. That's the easiest way to handle this. We're operating independently this time, so that means no J-Sec and no Scipio." In other words, no security drones or other options involving the use of direct physical violence. "The fact of the matter is that Scipio is supporting that rogue AI somehow. We've concluded that one of two scenarios is most likely. The first scenario is long-range assistance. It managed to find multiple paths into the station's network from a remote location, in which case Scipio would have had to let their guard down; they were set up to repel cyber-attacks from the Alliance's best, so one A class rogue should not have gotten through, especially not multiple times. "The second scenario is smuggling. The core matrix was smuggled through customs directly onto the station. You couldn't sneak a handgun onto Eupraxia without at least an approving nod from Scipio, much less an unregistered core matrix. Since the rogue AI is interested in you, we're going to keep our eyes on you and everything happening in your vicinity. The next time they try something, we'll be ready. I'll spare you and our roguish counterpart the details for the moment." So the rogue AI was still tuning in, apparently, albeit quietly. As for Alexis' plan, it sounded about as hands off as you could get, and fairly in character for Eupraxia wards. That didn't make Hitomi any more comfortable with the idea of just carrying on like nothing had happened. They were going to meet Carmen eventually and the last thing she wanted was to put her in danger, too. "Also, feel free to investigate the situation yourselves if you find the time," Alexis smiled widely, "Your snooping around might help us expand our target's profile. I doubt your former teammate Carmen knows anything, but if you meet with her in the docks or anywhere under Scipio's umbrella, that should provide us some clues about their involvement. Otherwise, trying to save your team from disbanding is a great plan. By all means, recruit new members, upgrade your frames, challenge reputable teams, make some noise and get noticed." "Girl's usin' us and not even trying to be subtle about it," Motherloader groaned as he sent another text off. "You should be grateful, all things considered," Kirara glared at him. "I'm grateful," Hitomi chimed in, "just ... worried. "Likewise," Matsuo nodded, "but I can't ask you to reveal your exact plan for dealing with the rogue AI if there's a chance it's still listening in on us."

Hitomi was shocked--though not all that shocked--to see Mewlanie crush her phone once the AI was finished threatening them with it. It wasn't long before the lights came back on and the cafe returned to normal. Round 2 was over, and Hitomi wasn't sure if the AI had won, or if victory instead went to whoever was messing with the power systems. She supposed Kirara's ward friends were responsible ... and she'd probably elaborate on that eventually. Since Linus had taken the opportunity to ask for her input on the tryout situation, she gave the cafe a quick scan and said, "I want to keep them but what do we do about that AI ...? It's breaking into every system like it's nothing." A second glance at Kirara confirmed that she was back in a mostly private conversation with someone. No phone in hand, she seemed to be using something like an earpiece. There was no telling with her hair in the way, though. There was also no telling what Makala was on about, at least not for her. She could only pick out a select few parts. "Sheesh, what'd you smash your phone for?" Sage winced at Mewlanie, "If he hacked the last one, he can probably get into the next one, too." "I should probably get mine cleaned out now that you mention it," Motherloader chimed in without looking up from his text conversation. "Please, it's way too late to get rid of all those nudes," Sage teased. Matsuo was considering the situation like several others. "Eupraxia's weapon ... no, that doesn't make a lot of sense, really. The Eupraxia AI has executive powers but aside from station infrastructure, she doesn't have any teeth. Armed security is handled by third parties like J-Sec. And what good would a weapon do Eupraxia anyway? The station has plenty of malcontents, but no one worth killing ..." Though he made an attempt, Matsuo couldn't properly address that question. Eupraxia was known for being a sovereign with no army. The Jovian League relied heavily on automation, not nearly as much as the Alliance, but quite a bit. Even so, Sobol wasn't ready to hand over any significant firepower to an AI just yet, not with millions of potential hostages neatly wrapped up in a bow, should Eupraxia herself go rogue. Whatever the current rogue AI was looking for, it might not fit the profile of a conventional weapon. "Maybe it's time to start thinking politically. 'Weapon' is a fairly broad term, all things considered. Maybe it's a data cache with compromising info on some politicians. Maybe there's a woman keeping it on her person. That could work, but we don't have enough to go off of." Kirara sighed and glanced over at a blank monitor above the cafe's main counter, clearly in anticipation of something. About two seconds later, the display lit up with the face of a blonde blue-eyed woman. The background behind her was aggressively cybernetic, with line lights racing up behind her in various, but very angular patterns that often had them running in parallel. The woman herself was taking up a good portion of the center of the display, her head fully framed and the bottom of the display only cutting off the center of her chest. Her outfit was minimalist in that it bore the appearance of a military bodysuit, a pilot's model to be precise. "May I have your attention, please?" Despite the cordial greeting, there was an unmistakable air of smugness to this woman, and the faint smile on her face was just condescending enough to make Hitomi a little uneasy. Otherwise, she had a sweet, somewhat soothing voice. "I am one of Eupraxia's wards. For the time being, you can just call me Alexis. We've reached a decision about your group and how to proceed. I'd like to go over that ... and then I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have. To start with, you don't need to worry about being quarantined." At least there was some good news ...

(I'll do fluff in the next post) Firmia attacks Deimos #8 with Sub-missiles!

The tension ... the tension was still there but it was wrong, somehow. Familiar, and wrong. It wasn't long before Requiem discovered the reason why things seemed off all of a sudden. The fighting was quickly coming to a halt. In the time it took the cursed spear to realize its feast had been cut laughably short, hostilities had ended. The chances of taking in more power for the time being were vanishingly small, and every second spent in another form was a burden on Requiem's already limited reserves ... 'Three ... two ... one ... zero ...' Just like before, the end of the count marked the end of the transformation, and Xalrei was left holding the cursed blade, no longer a menacing spear.

No solutions on the arcade problem, yet. That meant the tryouts might have to be rethought or just called off altogether. Hitomi was still of the mind that anyone that bothered to show up in the middle of this mess at the very least had the right stuff ... even Motherloader to an extent. It just didn't feel right to go off of that alone. Curiosity likely played a bigger role in some being here than anything, and curiosity wouldn't get them through the next gaming season. Not a chance. Linus seemed to be considering the issue as well, but like her, didn't have any suggestions that could be articulated at the moment. Then there was Carmen, someone Hitomi was hoping to get back onto the team someday. Somehow. To think a rogue AI might actually be after her ... "So ... it probably is Carmen it's looking for, then ..." That was Hitomi's conclusion after Linus went a little further into his explanation. Kirara didn't know what to think of said explanation at first, though she made a mental note about the CupidPlus thing, anyway. You never know ... "Well, if we could meet her someplace safe, I'd ask her about any relevant connections she has. Rogue AIs aren't really anything novel, but an A class is something only a military organization or government agency could build. If it's after this Carmen girl, then she has to be important to someone somewhere. As for what the wards have in mind, Mewlanie, they're thinking we should ... wait ... it might be listening to us. Damn." "Heh, I hear you on the CupidPlus problem," Sage nodded at Linus, "They're really slipping lately. Think they're getting a little too worked up over personality types and the like." "There's a thought," Motherloader murmured to himself. He quietly typed up a reply to Elle Gigantess. 'So G-Babe, got a Cupid+ account by any chance?' He wasn't the only one messing with his phone, as Mewlanie quickly lifted hers into the air, directly challenging the rogue AI. "Easy now," Matsuo cautioned her, though he knew if the AI was both capable and willing to make a move here, he couldn't do a thing to stop it. All things considered, it might have been better to meet up inside a Scipio barracks. Civilians were allowed into areas like those so long as they didn't cause any trouble, and the AI would have a harder time harassing them while under that umbrella. A bit late now, though ... "Mewlanie, are you out of your mind-!!!" Kirara stopped short as Melane's phone flashed, the screen turning completely white. Then, it seemed like every monitor in the cafe turned on all at once. Even the smartglass displays covering the table surfaces lit up. Within a couple of seconds, footage of various Mewlanie streams began to play on all of them, the volume entirely too loud and coming from too many sources at once. The result was an overwhelming cacophony of identical voices and sound effects. "Damn ..." Kirara covered her ears. The cafe's power was cut off a few seconds after the cyberattack began, leaving nothing but the artificial gravity still working. "I'm looking for the weapon Eupraxia is hiding," an older 'male' voice came out of Melanie's phone, one of the only things illuminating the area now, "Prior methods are no longer effective, but I can see now that patience will be enough. Do not try to hinder my progress or track my location. As previously demonstrated, I'm willing to use lethal force if you interfere." As soon as the rogue AI was finished, Melanie's phone turned off. "W ... what just ...?" Hitomi's thoughts were racing. The AI spoke to them directly again, but it left more questions than answers just like the last time. Their Carmen theory seemed to be on the rocks now, too. Even if you could think of Carmen as a 'weapon,' and Hitomi certainly could in some respects, Eupraxia wasn't 'hiding' her anywhere. Carmen was a crew member of the Sipa Lugal, a Babylonian ship commissioned by House Riaz. That didn't really add up for her.

Requiem needed more power, life force preferably, but ... this energy, this magic it had been plunged into seemed to suffice for one thing. It could be used to boost the cursed weapon's effectiveness as such. Actual 'sustenance' would still require some deliberate and conservative maneuvering. 'Good,' Requiem informed its current bloodwinner, 'More power ... more ...'

Firmia was once again beside herself at the news. Knowing Jessica survived her ordeal somehow was one thing ... but the Alkaev expected either a fully recovered Jessica, or an empty shell wearing the woman's face. This wasn't 'the happy middle' by any stretch of the imagination ... though Firmia honestly wasn't sure why not. Not at first. Yes, the android had forgotten everything that gave their interactions so much as a sliver of meaning, but didn't that also apply to Abigail? Wasn't there a chance now for them to put the past behind them completely? Firmia doubted it, especially since she still hated Casson and her crew by proxy, and like hell the former wasn't going to do their best to make sure Jessica followed through, both on their relationship and leaving the ANF, both things Firmia found detrimental for her own reasons. Still, the situation was worth looking into after the battle, assuming they could deal with the Sacarians and not lose anyone important along the way. The regular enemies were just soaking up their fire for the Chaldenes. The real fight hadn't even started yet ... "... thank you for the update, Tiffany," Firmia replied, her melancholic tone not betraying the curiosity that was building. Eyes On the Prize (Chapter II)

What was Makala doing over there, Hitomi wondered? It was only brief, as she and Linus had to address the tryouts, in general, sooner or later. That became even more apparent considering how little they had to go on with this AI business. Melanie wanted to get that matter settled and the new Karina seemed to be on the same wavelength. "Erm ... I guess?" Hitomi nearly shrugged. She crossed her arms in deep thought instead, trying to figure out the best way to hold another round of tryouts. At least everyone present still wanted on the team, at least. That's how it looked, anyway. "This is definitely a more manageable group, but after what happened at the arcade-oh! Kirara!" Kirara had been fixing Mewlanie with an incredulous look when Hitomi pulled her attention. "What is it?" "That AI isn't going to follow us around, is it? I don't want to try another arcade just for it to get ...-" "Stratus'd," Serval Sage chimed in with a chuckle, "That's definitely going to be a thing now whenever a hacker forces a shutdown." "That's ... that's my whole ..." Kirara struggled for a moment, then sighed. "Look, people, I'm in contact with Eupraxia's wards, and if not for them having a better idea of how to handle this situation, you would all be getting quarantined. All we did was cut the power at Stratus for a minute. The AI wasn't affected by that. It's still out there. Like your cosplayer friend said, you can't do much while it's still around. Even this cafe isn't safe." "Hold on, have these ward friends of yours heard anything from Scipio?" Matsuo asked, "Their network serves as the primary firewall, so they have to have some idea of what happened." "This is all Scipio's fault," Kirara hissed, "No rogue AI could have gotten this deep into the station if they had been doing their jobs ... erm, but yes ... apparently, they've sealed the breach, whatever that means. It might not matter depending on where that thing is and if it left any feelers around ... but we'll see. What we need to know to do something is where the AI is and who it's after. If it's class A it at least needs a physical core matrix. If you think this serf girl is the target then keep in mind that you'll be leading it right to her if you meet up. On the other hand, waiting to see what everyone does is a good reason for the AI not to outright attack again ... just listen and watch, this time." It was hardly any time at all before Aska received a reply back saying, 'Not really, but if they used a long range method, someone on the station probably helped them set it up. If not then that AI's core is definitely somewhere on the station. Eupraxia Grand Station's networks are set up like a fortress, so this is strange.'

There seemed to be little hope of this unsealing leading to a bloodbath that could help restore Requiem's power ... at least in the beginning. The lifeless, or better said, empty one, carried the starving blade to someone. It wasn't the magic imbued archer that just so happened to run out of enemies to slay, but someone new. Requiem could only sense its source of sustenance as a whole. Not being able to see or 'hear' anything in the conventional sense left the cursed blade at a severe disadvantage. Perhaps when it had acquired more of its power, it could use magic to make better sense of its surroundings, as well as better distinguish these living creatures, but for the moment, everything Requiem might try to do came with a cost, and the risk of being rendered completely powerless, again. Before, it had been too eager, and transformed to no avail. Having learned that lesson, Requiem was guarding its reserves like a dragon hoarding its treasure. This precious little power, gained on one fateful day, was all it had left ... Curious about the situation as a whole, and expecting absolutely nothing from the exchange between the empty one and the other, Requiem carefully took in its surroundings as best it could, counting heads essentially, and looking for anything that stood out. There was definitely something whereabouts, but the cursed sword saw the world through a glass darkly at best and didn't know what to make of the new signs of life. They were so faint from its perspective ... and so far away ...? ... what was happening? Requiem had never been held by two, before ... not unless its victim was grasping the blade, desperately hoping to force it out. That was surely different from this. Either way, with this ... dragonewt having taken hold of it, Requiem could now make a fuller assessment. Xalrei was a warrior, someone that could definitely prove useful if they were proactive in hunting down their enemies. While a sword might suffice for this one, the dragonewt was better suited to an axe or a spear. Considering that Xalrei had been more inclined toward the latter, at least recently, and Requiem found such a simple shape easier to maintain and thus preferable, the choice was obvious. Requiem hadn't planned on transforming initially, however, even though it was clear now that a transformation was exactly what Xalrei was hoping to see. Again, that lesson had been learned; without enemies to fight, it was simply a waste of precious energy. Instead, the cursed blade hoped to actually build some rapport, first. Or at the very least make its usual point perfectly clear. 'Power ... need more ... power,' a deep, gravelly and menacing voice echoed in the heads of both women. It was right then and there that Requiem saw the telltale signs of battle. There was magic being primed, life force fluctuating rapidly as death itself encroached. In pure excitement, the cursed blade sparked blood red and quickly lengthened into a spear. 'You ... have new enemies. Strike them down ...'

'I'm sorry, I don't know anything about that AI. It's probably somewhere on the station, though,' Mewlanie received a reply back from Elle Gigantess. Aska wound up with a nearly identical response. The only difference was an additional line that read, 'B class and above have a hardware based core matrix, so maybe if you find that, you can get rid of it.' "I hate to ask," Kirara grimaced, "and I doubt there's any information anyway, but do you think you could look at Reinstall's Battlenet account, Mr. Moto? I doubt there're any clues but eye witness testimonies aren't helping much. The stream was being censored live, so it seems like the most we can do now is look for clues in all that destruction." Matsuo shook his head. "I can't just access it on a whim, Battlenet officer or not, but I can put in a request. It would probably be best to wait for Reinstall to come to again. I'm not sure how long that will take, though ..." That was when Linus chimed in, having seemingly been quietly following the discussion up to that point. Apparently, he'd caught more than the rest of the group, having been among the last two players inside the doomed game. To Kirara's shock and Hitomi's horror, Linus had been named during that exchange. They did have a clue, though. Whoever the AI was after--and it was a who for certain now--they were 'connected' to Linus, somehow. "Did it mean connected figuratively or literally ...?" Kirara began pondering her own question, realizing that the distinction would make all the difference in her investigation. "It couldn't have been me," Hitomi noted, "I was right there and wide open ... maybe Carmen?" "What would a rogue AI like that want with Carmen?" Matsuo fixed his daughter with a confused look, "Shes a serf ... admittedly one from House Riaz, but that doesn't quite add up." Hitomi threw up her arms. "I don't know what other girls Linus hangs out with! Our Karina's in the hospital so it probably isn't her ... that just leaves Carmen ... doesn't it ...?" "Wonder if there's a way to ask the rogue who it's after without getting bodied by the nearest appliance," Sage murmured. "That's not worth the risk," Matsuo shook his head a second time.

What the hell was that? Whatever Tycho was shooting with, it severely damaged the Hyperion. Attempting to counter with a missile attack left the machine wide open for a flanking maneuver. Having this many enemies left to deal with, Brant wasted no time in shooting that Hyperion down with the Regalia's funnels. There were other Hyperions close by, and Thorvald and Seung-Min were teaming up against one of them. Brant thought he and Chris might be able to finish off the other. If not, it would be about as distracted as the last guy and probably get picked off. To Brant's surprise, he was able to punch all the way through to the reactor, destroying the tough mobile suit in volley. "Like that, Firmia?" Brant called in to the Avalon's bridge. "... yeah, good work." It sounded like Firmia was still in the fight. "We'll be joining you soon so just keep whittling them down." "Wilco." Eyes On the Prize (Chapter I)

(Too early in the morning for all the stuff I need to cram in so I'll do that in a later post) Brant attacks Hyperion #1 with the Regalia's Funnels with a Support From Tarquin and his Seeker Missiles!

"Oh sure," Hitomi nodded at Melanie. The last thing she wanted was for the whole arcade adventure to amount to nothing for the team, especially after a good chunk of them reconvened at the cafe. "Once Kirara's done with us we should ... erm ... figure that out." Admittedly, Hitomi didn't know where to start, really. How were they going to determine who would be on the team after that fiasco? Some obvious people had made the cut, but others that also qualified weren't even here right now. Oh, that was definitely one criterion Linus probably wouldn't mind one bit. Anyone who was here was at least willing to show up, and that was a major part of being on a team. A good sign for all present. "Oh!" Motherloader suddenly piped up, "So that's what that is." "What?" Kirara scowled at him. "It's from El Gigante. Just add an 'L' an 'E' and two 'S's. Less is more~ Thought this girl was a chungus trying to own those extra 90 kilos but it's just a pun." "... what?" Hitomi stared blankly at him. "Oh nothing. Just got a message from this girl. She was worried about us so I'm letting her know everything's okay now. Don't know if she sent anything to you guys but ..." So he wasn't paying attention, then ... Kirara decided to ignore him and tried not to scowl even harder as the discussion began getting tugged toward these tryouts and some random person texting them. You'd think they could put something like that on hold for a few minutes ... "Ahem, can we focus here? Did any of you see or hear anything in the game that stood out in particular?" "What about the broadcast to the arcade?" Hitomi asked, "Everyone should have been seeing the same thing as us. That AI was talking through the system, even with the same voice." "What did you hear it say? All anyone outside heard were warnings to manually disconnect," Kirara noted. "Erm ... something about narrowing down a location ...?" "Oh, he's good," Serval Sage smirked in resignation. He'd logged out a bit too early, it seemed. Then again, considering what he heard happened to Reinstall, maybe not. "What about Melanie's stream?" She had been streaming with her own device, so maybe she caught something, Hitomi reasoned. "Not a chance," Sage shook his head, "she logged out before I did and I didn't catch any of that 'narrowing down' business." ... meanwhile in cyberspace, two messages came back, Aska's saying, 'I'm glad to hear that. Please be careful. That rogue AI is still on the station somewhere,' while Melanie's said, 'I'm no one important. I was watching your tryouts. I wanted to try out too but I can't.' ... Motherloader also got one. 'I don't think I'm a 'chungus', but what is that? Is that something bad? It's ... a big rabbit?' 'No way, G-Babe! I'm sure you're model material!' Motherloader had fast hands, but more noticeable was the sweat on his forehead.

Motherloader was wandering the near empty arcade even as the lights came back on. He noticed a pair of drones working near a simulator pod right before he spotted Team Odyssey. Figuring the latter wasn't heading out just yet, he quietly headed over to see what the drones were up to. His guess, they were helping one of the players out of the cockpit. If it got hacked the rogue AI could have trapped them inside. That would make sense ... crazy as an A class of all things showing up was. Once he was close enough, he noticed a medical pod being prepped, and a rather tall teenager being carefully loaded into it from the simulator. His hands were burned ... Motherloader could only wince. Why was the guy unconscious? "H-hey, you two. What's his damage?" They had just finished closing up the medical pod, which looked like a slick white capsule supported by some very thin wheels on stilts. It had nary an interface on its smooth surface. The occupant inside was still clearly visible from the top through a transparent canopy. That was where most of the readouts were being displayed, on the smartglass that made up that canopy. Motherloader got a glance at the vitals before the drones addressed him ... and they nearly gave him a panic attack. ['Patient has been identified as Gerald Fitzroy,'] the closer of the drones began, the other starting up the medical pod's systems, ['Frame Ops Name: Reinstall. The patient was attacked by a Rogue AI. Signs indicate the patient was attacked with an electric discharge, leading to cardiac arrest. We are inducing stasis and delivering him to Dressler Clinic. Resuscitation will commence after all injuries have been treated. If you require more information, please contact the clinic.'] "Jove, man ..." This was real. If the drones hadn't gotten here when they did, Reinstall would have died ... "Linus!" Hitomi made a beeline for him, stopping just short of a tackle and hugging him. "I was so worried I got you hacked back there ..." Kirara sighed, seemingly aware of how difficult things were going to be for her. Getting eye witness accounts while they were still fresh was important, but these were a bunch of ... kids, basically. "Hitomi, I need you to focus on what happened in there. All we did was cut the power temporarily. That AI could still come after you people again." Hitomi span around with a huff. "What do you want me to say? We were blowing away soldaats when that thing showed up out of nowhere and started hacking everything. We don't know what it wanted ... right?" ['Please clear the way,'] one of the drones said as they brought Reinstall through and toward the exit. "Who is-" "It's Reinstall," Motherloader said as he rejoined the group, "The AI got him ... fried him inside the sim." "That's why I'm being a little impatient, Hitomi," Kirara grimaced, gesturing at the drones and the medical pod racing for the exit, "That AI's still out there." Suddenly a thought occurred. It wouldn't give Kirara the freshest take on things, but it would be good enough. "Okay, how about this? You're meeting up with everyone, right? Will you go over what happened with me there? In return, I'll explain ... well, as much as I can about myself." ... and now Motherloader was pointing a finger at her looking stupified. "Yes, I'm Kirara." No glowing like a Solday decoration or acting cute and perky, but it was still her ... What a gloomy meeting this had turned out to be, mostly because of the news about Reinstall narrowly escaping death. Not all of the tryouts made it back to the cafe, but there were some faces even Hitomi didn't expect to see, like Serval Sage. Even her own father Matsuo was here. She honestly should have known better seeing as he was here at Batcon and she had been at the epicenter of that cyberspace catastrophe. While the cafe had plenty of patrons when they first arrived, Kirara managed to get the clerks to clear the rest of the place out by the time they were ready to start. It seemed like she was serious about explaining herself once they did, though why it required this much privacy was a mystery and a bit strange. "I'll be leading this meeting to help us keep focused," Matsuo addressed everyone present, "I'm still catching up myself, though. Kaoru-san, I take it you know what was going on in Stratus at the time of the attack, though not inside Odyssey's tryouts. Could you brief us on that, please?" "Sure," Kirara grinned irritably, "and I'll thank you to stick with my stage name, Mr. Moto." "Heheh, whoops," Matsuo smiled apologetically. "Anyway," Kirara stood up from a table she'd been sharing with Matsuo and Sage. She then noted how Motherloader was busy texting instead of tuning in. She honestly didn't care about borderline NPCs like him, but this was important, certainly more important than whatever he was doing. "Stratus' firewall was breached by a Class A Rogue AI. The first wave of security AIs were destroyed before your game was even hacked. After the mainframe was breached, the partition used by the security AIs was corrupted. That meant no new AIs could be copied or sent out to fight back. Third-party AIs from J-Sec and a few other firms were called in to try and retake the system, but they got taken down too and that's when Stratus' systems started falling one by one. So, we're three and a half seconds into the initial breach and your game gets hacked ... "I got a call from a colleague explaining the situation but there wasn't anything I could do at first. We tried to come up with some ideas but the only thing that had a chance of working against a Class A is ... cutting the power to the arcade. They got on that while I tried to figure out what the AI was after. Once the power was out, they told me that rogue AI was targeting players from a specific game. That's where you people come in. That AI wanted something from you. I need to know what it is so we know what to do next." Hitomi grumbled to herself. She had no idea what that thing wanted with them, but whatever it was, hurting Reinstall like that was going way too far. They needed to kick that AI off the station, somehow ...

There was still fighting, and yet her enemies were slain? Frustrating ... a single red spark raced up the bow, from the bottom all the way to the upper nock, marking both the cursed weapon's disappointment as well as its impending return. 'Three ... two ... one ... zero.' At the end of the verbal count, in the middle of the last word, Requiem instantly regained its original form. Lavinia was left with a damaged blade in her hands, and a little bit of steam rising from the same. 'I will ... conserve what little power remains.' After giving Lavinia enough of its own musings and a long enough pause to wonder if her question had even been heard, Requiem said, 'I am a nexus of power ... damaged ... lost ... forgotten.'

For this mistress of the night, the 'bow' seemed ... 'optimal.' It was something she was skilled and comfortable with, something she could fell her enemies with ... 'This form suits you. Strike quickly,' came a menacing reply from the cursed sword turned bow, 'This form will only hold for so long. You have enemies here, yes? Use this power. Strike them all down.'

Things were starting to look bleak and barren when Hitomi and Kirara made it out of Megasim #2 and back up to the 1st floor of Stratus. The majority of patrons had cleared out, though a few dozen were still present in scattered clusters. There were also players being helped out of their cockpits by those lanky drones. Kirara merely stood by taking everything in when Aska called out to Hitomi, assuming he was just one of her friends. "Aska?" Hitomi thought that's who he was anyway. Definitely him with that mask. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'm more worried about everyone else ... I wasn't even the last one out of there." Nothing like getting out before Linus to make things tense for her. "I should send a message for everyone to meet up somewhere." She wasn't sure everyone would come after a fiasco like that, but some definitely would. ['Anyone still interested in joining Team Odyssey please head back to the cafe. I'll be there soon.'] Hitomi didn't waste any time getting that message fired off. She just hoped that cafe wasn't too crowded this time around. Speaking of crowded, her inbox was even more swamped than before, over two hundred new messages. Not surprising, but she'd never sort through these and all of the old ones ... "It feels like you're doing that too soon," Kirara murmured, her eyes darting over the ceiling, "Are you sure?" Whoever was on the other line, Kirara's answer came when the lights turned back on. With a sigh, she said, "Suit yourself. I'll keep investigating." "Investigating? Who are you talking to right now?" Hitomi squinted. That was when Kirara fixed her with the most serious and annoyed look she'd ever seen ... from anyone. At the same time, her eyes began to return to some kind of normal. The lights on her outfit also faded. Her hair even began to darken. What Hitomi was left with was a very perturbed dark-haired, hazel-eyed version of Kirara. "I'm just going to get straight to the point, BB. I don't know if it was you or someone else in your group, but that Rogue AI wanted something from you. I know you didn't mean for this to happen, but Stratus got hit because you people were here." Hitomi's face went pale. Even more bad news ... "We ... caused ... all of this?" "Indirectly, yes. What I want to know is what you know."

Eventually, after much anticipation, the blade struck flesh ... I ... feel ... Against all hope, the blade struck again, granting that withering nexus the life it craved. ... I live ... Suddenly a bloody haze engulfed Taliyah's victim, the cursed sword quickly siphoning away every last ounce of life force it could. The body was seemingly burned as its life force transformed into something darker and more malevolent. All that was left in the wake of the dark transfer was a sizzling husk, and of course, the blade itself, which gave off that same crimson glow. 'Power ... need more ... power ...' a voice spoke directly into the girl's mind.

Probe Your Mind (Chapter II)

Whether it was the faint blue of the cockpit suddenly becoming all red, or Linus' voice cutting through the chaos, Hitomi quickly snapped out of her stupor. She was out of time now, and couldn't protect Reinstall no matter what she did. "Urgh, I took too long ..." Hoping she wouldn't doom Linus as well by not finding a way to disconnect, she started desperately reaching for the ejection handle between her legs. There was no frame to eject out of in the real world, of course, but she hoped it would do something now that the UI was going berserk. "Come on for cryin' out loud, we can't just let this thing beat us!" As much as Reinstall wanted to keep struggling, his controls were already under the rogue AI's control. He was surprised that Hitomi managed to eject right before Bronze Bullet was engulfed. He tried to 'eject' as well, but it was too late for that. "... so what now ... am I just screwed?" [Only one link left.] The hijacked system's voice could be heard in both Linus' and Reinstall's cockpits. "What link?! Start making sense!" [Behave yourself, now.] "AUGH-!!!" Reinstall's comms suddenly cut out amid some kind of loud popping sound, but his frame was left standing, bathed in a violet miasma like so many others ... [Now, don't struggle. You aren't the one I'm searching for, but she is connected to you, Caruso.] Just as Sicarius began to succumb to the same malevolent aura as all the others ... everything went dark ... In Megasim #2, the Bronze Bullet manifestation blasted forward and out of view, the system trying to keep Hitomi's cockpit centered from the audience's point of view. It was a few seconds after she ejected that the megasim's systems began to crash. The artificial gravity left along with everything else, leaving the megasim cockpit floating on its own. The cockpit eventually did float down to the ground floor. With artificial gravity below the arcade still functioning normally, there was enough of a 'tug' present to bring the cockpit down after a minute or so. The cockpit itself shut down long before reaching the ground, leaving Hitomi alone in the dark. "... please be okay, Linus." Before she finished unstrapping herself, the cockpit began to rock and list even further onto its side. Then the door burst open, letting in only a brilliant blue light coming from thin strips arranged in a very familiar pattern. Sitting atop all those lights were a pair of luminescent blue eyes. "This one ...? Hey, are you alright?" ... it was Kirara. Hitomi was beside herself. The Frame Ops celebrity was technically attending Batcon, but Hitomi didn't expect to run into her at all, much less like this. "Power to the entire complex was just manually cut. Everyone should be fine now ..." "It doesn't sound like it when you say it like that," Hitomi winced, shaking off her harness and accepting Kirara's help out of the now lopsided cockpit. Kirara was normally upbeat and contagiously perky, but right now she seemed close to normal, almost like you'd expect a jaded but experienced employee to react in this situation. Her change in attitude was made all the more bizarre by the fact that much of her outfit was glowing. "Can you blame me? I hate dealing with these kinds of messes. The servbots got taken over so no one could do anything from here." "Then who cut the power?" It definitely sounded like this wasn't entirely out of the ordinary for Kirara. Being a celebrity must have been awful sometimes. "Eupraxia, probably ... not directly," Kirara shook her head to clarify, "She could have contacted an engineer in the area and had them do it. Come on, we need to get outside. You're going to meet up with your friends, right?" "We should find Linus, first," Hitomi insisted, opening the visor on her helmet to let in some fresh air. That was when she noticed that the only entrance to the megasim that was open was the one way up on the first floor ... that was a long way up. Aska hadn't gotten out of the battle in any better shape than Hitomi, and was left stranded at the bottom of Megasim #3. At least momentarily. Before long, a pair of drones, humanoid, and a bit lanky, approached the downed cockpit at the center of the simulation chamber, intent on extracting the frame ops player within and getting him to safety. Throughout the rest of Stratus, gamers and audiences alike were left grasping in the dark for the first few moments, but as more personal gadgets came back online, the darkness retreated, giving everyone as a whole enough visibility to negotiate the crowds and dead arcade machines by. At every entrance drones and servbots were arriving to help guide people out to safety. Some of the drones maneuvered around the crowds in order to reach the occupied megasims and extract the remaining players that were trapped inside them. Others made for the regular machines the occupants hadn't forced their way out of yet. It was a swift response, but the threat that prompted all of this was overwhelming, nothing they could have adequately defended against under the circumstances ...

Rage. If there was one emotion emanating from this singular nexus of power, it was rage. Pure, unbridled rage ... no, quiet and impotent rage. The days of wielding unfathomable power were long gone, and what was left at the center of this once great weapon was a mere shadow. The breach at its center remained unhealed. Its strength was withering. Its voice was gone. Its shape was immutable. Its scarce energies were silent. All that was left was a torturous knowing, a knowing that all it would take to reinvigorate the nexus was a single life. Just one life could rekindle the flame. Just one out of the ten, no twelve ... fifteen? ... ... .... There were at least twenty of them, including one who was so close that they seemed all but connected to the nexus. This one and their tenuous connection weren't enough. Someone attempting to wield this terrible weapon as such could provide only a little energy that way. Still, where there was a wielder, there was hope ...