Aeon - The Odyssey

[Nanami Touko]

"Donc, er... I know zat you are scared what wis ze 'ole AI sing going on, ben... Oof! De, quoi?" With half a mind to shove the girl off of her, Melanie stopped as she started to cry... This was really getting to her, huh? The AI, that big crowd, having to try and push through so many people...

"Toi lâ... I know z-zat zis ees frightening, mais... You... You cannot juste, cry like zis." Figuring it couldn't hurt to pet her hair, Melanie bit her lip. "I am scared too, you know? I 'ave never, come to an event like zis... Donc... Juste... Pl-Please, stop crying... I'm going to..." A small hiccup, tears hit her eyes, Melanie shaking her head and hiding her face against Monika's hair.

"I'm scared too, so please..." I juste want to go 'ome! I want to 'ide under my covers and forget about zis stupide event, all zose... People... I wish I could disappear, right now...!

[Ether]

After a few moments of crying, Monika had at least managed to stop bawling uncontrollably. She was still sniffling and red-eyed, but she had at least managed to gather herself somewhat, with a moment away from the crowd, and Melanie not immediately pushing her away. It seemed her own crying was beginning to break a dam for the streamer as well... oops.

"I'm sorry Melanie, I didn't mean to, I just..." Sniffling again, she buried herself further against Melanie. Seemed they both needed the support.

"I just needed to get away from all that... sorry to drag you here with me."

[Nanami Touko]

"Hic... Whatever... I juste, want to go 'ome... We 'ave to go see, hic... 'Itomiiii..." She felt pretty foolish, crying in a batcon bathroom... But she'd gone through too much in one day to hold it all in. I should 'ave emailed zem a form for joining or somesing...

Slowly fixing her hoodie to hide her ears, Melanie gently pushed Monika off of her, holding a hand out. "T-Take me to ze café... Let's... Get, hic... Get zis over wis..."

Edited July 30, 2019 by SnakeMomMelissa

[Afterglimmer]

“Blast it all!” Aska had just gotten his harness off before the power to the Megasim was cut; locking him inside as the cockpit sank to the ground floor.  He briefly considered jumpstarting the door before it opened.  Two pale lights entered the cockpit, inspecting the accidental captive.  “I’m alright, I’m alright,” he grumbled as he practically crawled out of Megasim #3 as the drones blankly looked on, almost as if they were confused.  Navigating the darkened arcade would be a cinch thanks to the night vision modification on his mask; although it did nothing to brighten his fouled mood.  As drones and other personnel scrambled to assist the others trapped in the other Megasims, he noticed only one exit was open; greeting the masked player with a long, grueling set of stairs up to the first floor.  Fantastic, he sighed as he exited the cockpit.  He had not taken three steps before he noticed a familiar face.  “Hey, Hitomi!” he called out to the Bronze Bullet’s pilot.  “You OK?”

[Phoenix]

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."

[Ether]

"R-right... let's go and get this done." Monika replied after a moment, taking hold of Melanie's hand and exiting the washroom. If nothing else, the gravity of the situation had finally set in, as the crowds of Batcon goers had thinned significantly compared to before. That was good... it'd help both of their hearts to have less people around.

"It was this way, right?" Monika confirmed, as she began to walk in the direction she was... pretty sure lead to the cafe they had been at prior.

[Xinnidy]

It took a bit to get to the first floor, but thankfully not much... Karina still had her breath fine --she dealt with worse workouts--. The emergency doors were still open manually, thankfully... and the first floor was almost as dark as the stairs. It felt deserted... almost like right out of a horror game. "BB?" Karina spoke up, using her device to light up the way in front of her, she could see shadows of people...

And as she jogged towards the figures, it was proven that her hunch was right. Hitomi was standing there, with some masked weirdo Karina believed to have seen in the auditions, and a fancy... wait, that was Kirara, wasn't it? Well damn... "...Is everything okay? Since I realized the doors down there were all automatic, I got worried you'd be stuck in the sim." Karina didn't let the fact that pretty much a celeb was standing by her stagger her for too long, turning her attention to Hitomi rather quickly. It may not have been the most appropriate timing, but considering what had just happened...

[Afterglimmer]

“That’s some good news at least.  What was that AI’s deal?  Class As usually don’t turn up just to wreck a tryout ses-“  Aska was interrupted by Kirara’s accusation towards Hitomi.  It was targeting Hitomi?  Why would it do that?  A familiar vibration nudged him from his left pocket.  It was probably Nicholas panicking about the recent attack.  Can’t say I don’t blame him.  I’ll call him back once we head to the café. 

He turned to address the somewhat familiar newcomer while Hitomi was being pressed.  Wasn’t she among the other applicants?  “Most of us were already logged out before I got away.  Thankfully, that….thing didn’t get into anything of mine.”  Can’t say the same for that idiot who charged that monster though.  “How’s everyone else?  They didn’t get hit too badly, did they?”  Aska asked while keeping an ear focused towards the two celebrities’ conversation.  The masked player definitely intrigued by the AI’s fixation on Team Odyssey and he did not want to miss out on something like this.

[Sarki Soliloquy]

Café patronage had whimpered down to such a halt, that whichever congoers seeking refuge within almost felt like intruders to one another - their words echoing with the drifting quiet.

He preemptively stationed Odyssey's pending 'wellness check' at the same chromatic table Hitomi & Linus set signups from. His eyes darted from each errant corner of the court to another, twiddling his thumbs as he scrunched down around the legs of his chair.

Vrrrmph-vrrrmph. Makala smacked his palms against his phone vibrating against his pockets, as if he caught his skin exposed in the open. Fishing it out, he unlocked his screen. He sucked his cheeks in as he began to scroll past.

There was 1 new notification on Mi7ts vLeague.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Sarki Soliloquy

[Balcerzak]

Thank Jove, Hitomi listened. Linus was relieved to see she'd managed to leave the simulation before things went completely pear-shaped, as it sounds like they might have for Reinstall. There was nothing to be done though, the anomaly was already knocking at his gate, he had to punch out of here. He'd already given enough warnings that had gone ignored, hopefully...

[Only one link left.]

That voice again, the rogue AI's. On the heels of Hitomi's departure its meaning was unmistakable. A cold sweat broke out over his whole body it felt like, and Linus forgot almost to breathe, let alone to move. Two more ominous statements followed, but the mention of his name--they knew his name!--snapped him back long enough to finish the manual logout.

At least, hopefully? Everything went black as soon as he'd gone through with it... but that aura had been swarming Sicarius. Had he been too late? All he could hear was the sound of his own breathing, at least for what seemed like dreadfully long moments. Long enough to fret over the meaning behind this entirely bizarre, and apparently not random occurrence.

They had been deliberately targeted, sought out. Well, not him nor Hitomi for their own sake, but rather for someone who they knew... It wasn't Hitomi, he had to reassure himself, she was just another link. That had been clear enough from what he'd heard. But then who? Felix and Matsuo were ruled out as the connection, due to gender, this was a 'she' they were looking for...?

There had only been two other women a part of Odyssey, the most obvious and important common ground here. Karina? No, Linus quickly shook his head, dismissing that choice. Nobody would need to go to such extreme lengths to track down someone in a coma. It had to be Carmen. He had to warn her.

Fumbling in the dark, now at least having been long enough he was convinced he'd managed to leave the game after all, and not been caught up in whatever the rogue AI's plans for him had been--it wouldn't have stayed quiet this long if it had trapped him--Linus grabbed his phone, pulling it out, and the soft glow as the screen woke up barely illuminated the arcade pod he'd occupied.

Pulling up their message history, sparser than he'd have liked it as of recently, he began typing out something. He paused shortly, unsure whether her handler was screening things now, after having begun to assert a level of control over the serf that Linus found infuriating, but there wasn't anything in this he'd change if Ninos were to read it anyway.

Stay safe. Rogue AIs on the rampage today? I'm worried for you.

Hopefully she'd message back, and he could figure out some way to convey the reason for concern in a much less vague manner, but then again, he had very little concrete to go on. This may just be a paranoid leap, wholly unjustified.

But it might not be.

Sighing to himself, he hit send on the message, then pushed his way out of the pod into the now-dark arcade. Stratus had been hit hard, it seems. Incoming message, that was fast!? Oh, from Hitomi. His heart was moving in fits and starts, with the sudden stimuli hitting before he had time to absorb them. Not that things hadn't been rocky before this latest mess had piled on.  Hell, he'd been on the verge of just... Well, life goes on. Hitomi was right, they still needed to be professional about this. Wrap things up, one way or another. Probably all their tryouts would bail now, after a freak incident like that, but whatever. They could always try again, if that's what she wanted, hopefully after whatever weirdness they'd somehow gotten wrapped up in was resolved.

Ah, there were the lights! And there was Hitomi, and somebody he didn't recognize from behind. No matter. With almost all the customers having thinned out, he didn't even need to push his way through any crowds to catch up to them.

Reaching out a hand to Hitomi's shoulder, he spoke a little before making contact, hopefully not spooking her too bad. "That was..." no, he decided not to blame her for any foolishness on her part, not the right play. "I'm glad you're all right, and good call on giving people a place to gather up again."

Finally catching a good look at the other party, Linus had a weird sense that she looked familiar, but something was off. Wait...

[Phoenix]

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 ...

[Nanami Touko]

"Oui... Zat way." Hopefully people were fleeing in terror, and maybe, the cafe would be more empty than full.

---

More empty than full, for sure, but it seemed they'd all been stuck in some serious trouble. That was definitely Kirara, even without the glamor, anyone who cared about Batcon should've been able to tell... Now, she was telling them the rogue AI wanted something from them? "So stupide..." Melanie had turned her phone back on, checking messages, trying to get her mind back into a comfortable place. It was difficult, but she was trying, and managing enough to hang around. That mob hadn't followed her at least, so she was fine to hang out with her ears and tail out, the people they'd done tryouts with knew who she was, anyway.

"Ben lâ, 'ow are we supposed to know what some sort of super AI wants from us, eh?" 'Ow annoying, really... "Unless someone wants to admit to somesing they know, we are juste regular players. I do not sink I am popular enough to 'ave someone send somesing like zis after me, so I 'ave no clue..." She hammered a message into her phone, leaving it for her fans, telling them she was okay. They could do that, right? Surely someone had already told the media about this mess. "'Karina? Monika? Any ideas?" Maybe Karina had pissed someone off... Or miss top ranker had a proper idea.

Ding, new notification... Probably people responding to her posting, and-- what? There was a message underneath them all... Quoi? "Lâ lâ... 'Oo ze fuck ees 'Elle Gigantess'? I do not know anyone called zis..."

Edited August 5, 2019 by SnakeMomMelissa

[Ether]

"What would a Class A want with any of us?" Monika asked, sitting to Melanie's right as they were briefed... well, half-briefed, half-interrogated by Kirara, when they had made it to the cafe... it wasn't as bad as what had gone down at the arcade proper, but cut and run felt more and more like the choice she should have made, straight after logging out of that sim... too late now. As for what Kirara was talking to them about... it all seemed unreal. Odyssey wasn't a high profile team, Melanie was relatively well known but she didn't seem to think it involved her, and while Monika had to remind herself that, according to Melanie and Karina at least, Keizerin was a well known name in the frame ops scene... that thing couldn't have been targeting her, could it? She would remember if anyone had that sort of grudge against her... well, if anyone had a relevant one, anyway. 

When Melanie asked about a strange message on her phone, it reminded Monika that hers was still off from the arcade. Turning it on, she noticed an unfamiliar notification, from-

"Did you just say... Elle Gigantess? I have a message from that name, here..." The redhead noted, turning her screen towards Melanie and the others. All it asked was 'Is everyone alright?'... how strange.

"S-should I reply to it?"

[Afterglimmer]

Kirara definitely wasn’t pulling any punches with her investigation.  Can’t blame her considering what happened to that poor kid, I’d be on edge too.  Aska grimly recalled the aftermath of their confrontation with the AI.  “I don’t have that big of a following despite my rather...flashy play style.  Unless that thing has a grudge against fresh Aether promotes, I can’t think of any reason why they’d go after me.”  Even if it was able to access his data, the phone he used while in costume contained nothing that could trace back to him; the only contact was Nicholas, who also used a different phone.  Besides, the address book had them listed under a pseudonym, so chances they could find out his true identity were minimal. 

His pocket began buzzing again.  Nicholas can be such a worrywart, I swear…. He pulled out his phone and began scanning messages only to find it wasn’t from “Birdie”.  “Elle Gigantess…yeah, I got a message as well,” Aska answered as he tapped out a simple “Yes” to the unknown sender.  “It’s probably best if only one of us answered.”  The masked player hesitated for a brief second, before hitting SEND.

[Xinnidy]

"Wha-- Oh, no. I think everybody down there was safe. No accidents I know of..." The masked man's question promped some worry in her... did she know him? Probably one of the other competitors. "Probably rounding up and leaving now that the power is ou--" Karina cut herself as her attention had been wrestled by the drones carrying one injured person. Something *had* happened, someone *was* injured. "Oh, crap..." With the gravity increased this manner, Karina quickly forgot what she was talking prior. If it got this bad, she needed to at least get a better grasp of what happened.

...It'd have been nice if Hitomi had acknowledged her, but with the situation as it were, Karina could understand the girl had too much on her mind.

... She started to wonder if she was really chopped liver by now (or a ghost).

---

The café reminded her of the competition that made a better first impression than herself... Karina wasn't counting on her chances, which was a bummer.

Anyways, this whole AI thing, yes.

"Maybe someone here is linked to the military? I don't know, getting a class-A AI after us because we're playing a game seems... drastic." It was ridiculous. Teams didn't resort to this, did they? They'd get in far too much trouble, and it's not like Odyssey was some top tier team anymore...

Could it have been herself? Karina did have a brother in service, but of all people... surely the hacker could find an easier target among several military relatives in there, with no need for a class A. It was too farfetched.

...So what spurred it then?

"Can only make wild guesses here. Is there a lead at all?" It wasn't the most helpful commentary, Karina knew... what could she do, though. 

Whether some random stranger was messaging people for their well-being, it didn't concern her. There was a time and a place, unless they suspected it was connected.

[Nanami Touko]

"Oi, what ze 'eck, why are we all..." Things were getting weirder... And birdman was rushing to take all the credit for it! Only one of us, feh. Melanie stuck her tongue out at him and replied with a simple, 'oui, mais, 'oo are you?', sending that off, and hoping it would give them something to work with. Clearly, unless Hitomi or Linus were going to reveal secrets, no one here really knew what was going on with this AI nonsense. Even Motherloader was being quiet, thankfully... Actually, he was pretty glued to his phone. Had he gotten the same text? "Too late for juste one of us..."

Melanie curled her tail up and brought it around her waist, giving herself a little hug. "Eh, 'itomi, by ze way, er... We are still going to talk about ze, team tryout sings, oui?" Maybe not the best time, but important enough to ask... Batcon had been an awful experience, but every game played with them couldn't be the same way...

Edited August 6, 2019 by SnakeMomMelissa

[Rothene]

Helena shrinks away a little at being acknowledged by Melanie, but her chest swelled with some pride.

 

Deciding she was not in the mood to head to the toilet...and thankful she had not wet herself in the commotion, Helena tailed Karina instead, eager to head to the cafe, but too lazy to navigate herself.

[Phoenix]

"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.

[Nanami Touko]

'Eef you are no one important, why are you contacting us? Do you know somesing about what ees 'appening? Can you tell us? We are in some pretty awful trouble ici...' Melanie was still confused as to who this person was supposed to be, but no point in hard fussing if they weren't going to identify themselves. "Oui... I got, scared, and... Well, seeing what 'as 'appened to Reinstall, I do not feel so bad about logging out early. I am juste glad 'e ees alive." Melanie sighed, bringing a leg up to hug, resting her chin against her knee... Oh.

"Wait, 'ow about we wait for 'im to wake up and ask 'im what 'e 'eard?" It felt so simple. "'E was zere ze longest, donc... 'E should be able to tell you." As long as he was willing to talk. GEtting hurt like that... Might've been too traumatic.

[Ether]

"I don't know what it said... I was one of the first to log out, i think..." Monika replied, shrinking in her seat a bit. It seemed that a few of the others were handling the whole 'reply to the mystery messenger' business, so there was no real need to chime in on that. With little on the end of Kirara's investigation either, and less stake in the whole Odyssey thing than the others, Monika felt... out of sorts. All of this could have been avoided had she just not come to batcon, but that would mean... well, she wouldn't have met the rest of the Odyssey tryouts. Most of them were still relative nobodies in her mind, having had little interaction with them, but... well, Melanie and Karina had been fun to be around, before this whole fiasco. Why must things be so complicated?

[Afterglimmer]

Aska simply shrugged as Melanie replied despite his warning.  So much for being careful…  His attempts proved futile anyways as Motherloader had already been talking to El Gigantess beforehand.  The masked player shot him an annoyed look, though it was mostly hidden from view.  While the idiot was preoccupied with trying to save face, Aska answered Hitomi.  “I didn’t hear anything besides the initial warnings.  Then again, I also had my hands full just trying to get away from those infected Soldaats.” Stupid logout timer. 

‘That thing's still here?  Can you give me more details?  Do you know why it came after us?  Anything you can gave us will help.’ Aska replied to the strange messenger before glancing around the mall, trying to find anyone suspicious watching the meeting.  As much as he would like to give that thing some payback for ruining his show, something was definitely off here.  If what El Gigantess said was true about the AI still being around, that meant that they aren't entirely safe just yet.  Not to mention their anonymous tipster was also suspicious, what with her the timing of her messages.  Is she watching us from somewhere?  This whole situation is just too weird.

[Xinnidy]

The sinking feeling that she was speaking with no one remained, but nevertheless Karina kept listening. They had little to go on, like expected. The shroud of mystery just added to the absurdity of the situation. "I logged out shortly after Melanie... it was still taking over the simulation at that point, then reinstall charged in." It seemed whoever that was obviously used Reinstall as the means to an end.

"It sounds like they're after something... or someone." That was about as much as she could conclude. Unfortunate.

Melanie's following comments spurred a turned head from Karina. "Maybe we can get something from Reinstall's account if we can recover it? Maybe something was tampered with there." Karina did not know how safe this was at that moment, however, it kept her tone hesitant.

 

[Balcerzak]

It was sobering, seeing Reinstall carted away on a high-tech gurney. For all Linus's bluster about leaving the man to his fate and getting his friend out safely, seeing the actual impacts his decisions ended up having wasn't comforting in the slightest. Kirara's attitude, slightly short tempered and with good reason, was an unwelcome weight of judgement on top of that. He couldn't even really feel good about Hitomi's hug, but... at least she was safe, right?

Thankfully further interrogation was postponed until the whole group had reassembled at the cafe, the interlude giving Linus enough time to start to get his bearings back, plant his emotional feet on firmer ground. Carmen's reply message helped on that front considerably, though she certainly was more than a little within rights to turn his concern for her back upon him. It was looking like anyone with any connections was already getting at least a trickle of info on the incident, so there wasn't any chance of pulling the wool over her as far details went. She was hoping to meet up and talk, which Linus was all down for, but that would have to wait until he and Hitomi were freed up, and it was hard to guess when that might be. He'd told her he'd keep her posted.

Which left just, the current mess. Hitomi's father had taken charge, and Kirara provided a glimpse into some of the details that Team Odyssey had been ignorant on, though the flip side of that was she was in the dark on some of what only they had been made privy to as well. Worry and indecision had Linus froze for a bit, would revealing his suspicions hurt or help, was he even anywhere close to on base, what if, or maybe, but... He remained silent while the others filled in what they could, but none of them, not even Hitomi, had heard what he'd heard. Well, except Reinstall, and that had worked out so well for him.

The catgirl's curiosity about this 'Elle Gigantess' figure thankfully bought some time, as the conversation turned to the latest puzzle, but it wouldn't stay there for long he was sure. And of course, nobody else owned up to being the reason behind the attack because--ding ding--they weren't. And then yes, the matter of 'who passed' was floated, clearly a concern for the people in question, honestly even something Linus himself should be concerned over. But he honestly couldn't even really register it right now. Hitomi did a decent minor deflection, but it wouldn't hold for long. He had to hope that airing this, maybe getting some answers back, would help somehow. Kirara's patience was clearly being tested.

"I don't think we'll necessarily have to wait for Reinstall, though his perspective would certainly be an interesting one," Linus reluctantly got his start by answering one of the floated ideas flying about. "I don't remember the exact wording, which is a shame, it might've been helpful to have a recording to go over for better clues, but... its messages were vague at first, only really noting looking for something or someone, like Hitomi said, then working on finding a location. After most everyone had logged out, it was... a little more explicit." Linus frowned. He didn't like this, not one bit.

"Sorry for not speaking up right away, it's just... been a bit hard to believe. Right after Hitomi punched out--when it was just me, Reinstall, and the rogue--it said 'Only one link remaining.' Then some threatening banter, as it was working on taking over our suits' controls--ultimately shutting up the other guy pretty harsh. Right before I cut free of the game though, it specifically addressed me by name. 'You're not who I'm seeking, Caruso, but she is connected to you.' Something like that."

Let's, let Kirara and Matsuo draw their own conclusions on that for now. If they matched and reinforced his own, without his input... that would be telling.

 

[Phoenix]

'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.

[Nanami Touko]

Melanie groaned. They were getting nowhere fast, and this secret texter had no answers either. She tossed them a 'sank you', and put her phone in her hoodie's pocket, hugging her leg and lazily resting her chin onto her knee. "Where does zis all leave us, zen? We do not 'ave ze answers you want... I know zat, zis ees probably really bad, and traumatic for a lot of us... Myself included, ben lâ, I juste came 'ere to see Batcon, and ended up trying out for a team." Time for the extra selfish part.

"I do not sink I can 'elp you wis what you are looking for, donc... Can we juste, get to ze team sings, and zen I can go 'ome? I miss my room, after zis mess..."