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It was Ethos that contacted Klaire first, discreet, simple. Some people he knows reported some odd events and now, he passed the first look into it to Klaire.
The information given contains an address and some annotations written on a card. "An apartment building keeps losing power. No one managed to fix it. The problem seems to have spread to a neighboring cornerstore. Please verify if supernatural in nature and stay safe.
The building itself is a 3 story affair made out of cracked bricks, it neighbors another building, which contains the cornerstore, a laundromat and a restaurant that appears to be closed for business. Not a single car is parked there.
Psyche had of course accepted, the Free Council had been nice to her since she joined, and so it was time to pay it back a tad. She of course had no clue how power and things work...but she had recently met someone who did! She put in the call to Phyx to invite him along with her and Rook, who was wearing his service vest, to check out the weird stuff.
She had already linked their minds to make it easier to communicate, and she started to approach the outside of the building.
< "So Phyx, have you ever dealt with something like this before?" >
Phyx had arrived at the appropriate time and meeting place before had to prepare with Klaire and get ready. Or at least… someone she was assured was Phyx had. Certainly their minds were not dissimilar.
But the cheery, upbeat mechanic and sugar enthusiast had not actually appeared before Psyche and Rook. Out of the gloom and odd darkness had stepped a figure, one dressed head to toe in black, largely covered by a large, heavy looking long coat. It looked like clothing certainly but given the rest of it, who could know?
On his head there was a broad brimmed hat, attached to a wrap around mask that fully covered the individual’s face, with two crimson eyes glowing amongst all the darkness. They had introduced themselves as ‘Whisper” and given proof they’d been connected by Augur.
And this person was literally just… there, having stepped out of apparent nothing to appear in front of the two. There was a synthesized chuckle. <“This is generally more my style than the hunting for clues part. I’m not completely dense, but my role is more back up in this one chief.” There was a lazy salute. “For now, just act like I’m not here. Literally. No one else should notice me, and if they do, that’s actually a pretty good sign of something fishy.”
A gloved, gauntleted hand gestures to the building. “Lay on MacDuff.”
She nods to Phyx...Whisper's choice of outfit. <"Fair enough, I appreciate the assistance. Lets go Rook.>
Rook gives a happy bark, and responds. <Yay! Adventure!>" Psyche leads the trio to the front door.
TheUserWin - She/They — Yesterday at 7:48 PM
The front door is made out of glass and a metal frame, it has a notice taped on from within. Due to power issues, the intercom and lock system is disabled. We are working to solve the issue.
The first door is not locked and the other one, that usually requires to be unlocked is held open by a small block of wood. The lights constantly flicker, the smell in the air suggest ventilation isn't working well either.
No one is outside of the apartments, no one comes out to meet them. There are clear indication on the walls and hallways of where things are, including the breaker system and other necessities.
<Convenient. And a little worrying. What else can or has gotten in?>
Whisper put a hand to the side of the building and gave it a light donk with a knuckle, head and hat tilted to listen to the sound. “I’ll try to get a read on how many people might be in the building. Or otherwise.” (If the echo works, am wondering if I can see if there’s anything living or moving in the building)
Lav (She/Faer) -Klaire/Avery — Yesterday at 7:59 PM
Psyche also puts her hand on the wall, listening.
<"Do you hear that?"> She starts tapping the wall rhythmically. <"There's a pattern to the power here. Something not mundane was here...I'm just not sure what.">
Rook meanwhile was sniffing the floor for anyone else that had entered recently.
The echolocation tap reveals that indeed, upward of the third floor from the entrance, no one is outside their apartment. However, the echolocation also reveals a strange interaction from the basement, bringing back some odd noises for what one would expect from such an area.
And indeed, having it brought to his attention, Phyx definitely picks up on the repeated rhythm.
The dog seems to be confused at first, lots of 'tracks' and people in the lobby after all, but eventually, the stronger, more recent smell overcome the habituals and it seems the dog is drawn to the path that seems to lead downstairs, his nose brushing mostly against the right hand side of the wall.
<Yeah you’re right. Somethings wrong with the power drain. Definitely downstairs. No one seems to be in the building at least, though I dunno if that accounts for any magical weirdness.>
Whisper knocked again, and as Rook started nosing around nodded to the way to the basement. He also drew a large, odd looking revolver with his left hand, his right remaining open.
<Down we go like Virgil. I can take point. If anything comes at us I’d rather I be in front of the two of you.>
Rook snuffles the corner and adds to the telepathy. <"Smells!!! I found smells of people!">
Klaire nods. <"I am not a combatant, and Rook will protect me if needed. I can help support you if needed, but it may require me to drop the mind link. That, or I was instructed not to put myself in danger. I can teleport us...3ish miles away one at a time if it gets dicey. Ill do Rook, you, then myself. Sound good?">
Whisper paused and turned to look back at Psyche. <Really? Coooool. And appreciated. But if it comes to that, it may be best if you do the dog and then yourself. If it’s the kind of thing like that, it’ll be easier for me if I don’t have to worry about uh… stuff like building demolition or what have you, you know?>
Psyche shakes her head. <"It gets substantially harder if I can't see you. I can run for a few seconds and then teleport myself, but there's no guarantee I can pull you out if I go first.">
Again, a pause, and then Whisper moved for the stairs. There was a mental chuckle. He tapped his temple and went on downstairs.
Psyche and Rook follow behind Whisper, she is as quiet as she can be, and helps Rook down the stairs as he needs.
Three steps down, another three steps down, but this time to the right and they're in a short hallway to the basement. There's some doors noted with numbers, likely additional apartment. On one of them, an eviction notice for non payment of rent and a retort of you'll get your money when I get power back, asshole.
The door at the end of that hallway is half-opened and the room beyond seems dark with some flicker of lights. A voice can be heard, but it's a little indistinct from our investigators' end of the hallway.
Rook sniffs at the door with the notice and loses interest quickly in it.
Whisper paused as they came to the bottom of the building, noting the notice and response with a shake of his head. <If possible, I would prefer to refrain from bringing this place down. If we can deal with the power, it’d take like a day to bring this place up to spec. Maybe I’ll have a chat with the landlord after this…>
The telepathic musings were interrupted by the sound of a voice in the hall, head tilted to try and catch it. He gave the wall another flick with his finger.
The voice is feminine in nature and with with sonar abilities, Whisper can make an expression made in frustration. "Why isn't this working?!" then a loud flash of light is heard.
The tap on the wall confirms there's no one in the hallways beside those he can see, but beyond the half-opened door, it seems more limited in scope.
The door in and of itself seems of a different make than the others and has a small panel on it with a lightning bolt and some warnings about generators and power. Pretty standard notices.
Psyche reaches out and holds the eviction notice for a second, eyes closing as they focus on the minute emotions left of the object. A frown as they glance farther down the hallway to Phyx.
<"Landlord isn't behind this at least, but the eviction notice is the reason behind whatever is happening. Someone is angry here, let's be careful.">
<Glad to hear. And I can imagine. Winter. Power’s out. Probably people aren’t able to light a cozy fire. But cold means death with no power. A lot of people would do anything to stave that off. And human emotion can corrupt and alter a place.>
Whisper thumbed to the open door. <Someone might be trying to fix it. Or trying something else. They shouldn’t be able to perceive me, I’ll go in first and try to see what’s what. Darkness isn’t an issue for me either.> He gestured with two fingers at Psyche and Rook. <If you can ride along through my senses do it. I’ll relay to you what’s going on as well via the link.>
The silent, masked figure moved towards the door with no sound, the suit he wore seeming to dampen any noise further. With the door half open he tried to ease past it without stirring it further, and started looking into the room.
Klaire and Rook stay back. <"I can't, so I would appreciate updates.">
<Roger Ramjet>
The inside of the electric room smells like dust and humidity, a single lightbulb dangle on a string while it flickers a lot, casting shadows on the wall in rhythmic intervals. The windows are boarded up.
The breaker's door is open and several wires are unplugged completely, others have been set back in. Someone is apparently attempting to fix it.
One step to the side and amidst the flashing light, one of the Mark II is there, one knee on the floor attempting the repairs. "I don't get it." the feminine voice emanate from it, as natural as it would be if there was a feminine person right there. "Why can't I fix this? There's no reason why it doesn't work."
It appears as if Whispers is not perceived by the entity.
And so Whisper watched, head tilted to the side in a quizzical fashion. He made no further move toward it yet, but started relaying back.
<There’s a Mark II. It’s trying to fix the wiring by the look of it. The why remaining unclear just yet. But it doesn’t know I’m here.>
There was a pause and then <I’m not sure how I expected these things to look, but some part of me was kind of hoping for a box on treads… seems like they’re to a fair degree sapient, and can experience frustration at least. Brings up some worrying implications. The Mark 1 was a cyborg right? Some human, some machine? I’ve got a worrying suspicion that if I were to look inside it’s noggin I might find a human brain. Any idea on that stuff? Human brain might also explain why it can’t see me…>
Whisper then turned his attention to the room itself and the fuse box, trying to determine if he can spot what the actual problem is. He does get closer in this, but staying enough away so as not to bother the Mark2 in its work.
Klaire gives a worried look and gently pets Rook. <"I think they are living to some degree but I'm not the expert. Please be careful, they can mess with your mind...and they are terrifying.">
Craft roll The floor is littered with materials that suggest almost every piece of the electric panel has been replaced, updated, verified. It is very thorough, whatever is not working, it isn't in this room.
<Well first of all, whatever’s wrong isn’t in this room, so that’s the reason why it’s not working. Which I can honestly relate to pretty hard.>
Whisper looked around a bit more, trying to figure out what the actual issue might be before shaking his head to himself. <What’s the plan then? We were asked to figure out the power issue right? Not specifically about ROTOR over here?> There was a self amused snicker at that. <Do we want to simply try and take it out of commission? Do we know where to bring one?>
Psyche is still in the hallway, and shifts nervously. <"Our job was to find out what was going wrong and report back...but I know you would love pieces of this thing. Plus they're connected to some degree, and I don't have the skillset to stop that sort of thing. If it is somewhat human under there...I could maybe make it white out but there's no guarantee. I brought you because you're the tech expert, do you think you can fix whatever it is if we leave?">
<It’s some sort of fluctuation in the power flow right? The rhythm is off. If we can get a clear run at the place with robocop out of the way, maybe? If it’s supernatural in origin then it’s not gonna be a matter of tools. But depending on what flavor of supernatural, I might be able to do something about it. Boot to the head if we’re lucky.>
There was a roll of his shoulders as Whisper set himself, looking back briefly to Psyche. <But yeah. I’ll take a crack at it. In the meantime, let’s get this out of the way quick, fast and dirty. Frankly I feel like the best plan is to just try and pop it’s head clean off, but if that doesn’t work and I need help, try that plan. Worst comes to worst it’s a slug fest, but I bet my gun is a lot bigger.>
Psyche shakes her head even though Phyx can't see her. <"I have a better idea to help you out. I am dropping the mind link...this should make your attempt much easier."> The connection fades, and Psyche approaches the door, she peeks barely in, listening for the sounds of the Mark II so she knows where it was. She focuses, reaching out with her mind to the bit of consciousness that inhabits the robot.
As she exhales, she forces herself into its head, reaching around for any loose thoughts to jumble its thoughts. Much like you might see someone pulling at wires to disable a vehicle, the thoughts rip out into its brain, overwhelming it and causing it to temporarily white out...that won't last long though.
Klaire reaches out with her mind and hits the creature hard in what mind she finds first. The thought the being is thinking is along the line of. "I've worked on things that made space shit work, why doesn't it....OOOW." then it changes to an unfocused image of something in Space, like a base in a planet's crater, something out of Sci-fi.
And at that moment Whisper struck. To the dulled senses of the Mark 2 it might have been as though he appeared out of the very darkness, melting out of it to wrap his left arm around its neck. A heavy gauntlet came to rest next to its head, it’s fingers talons that dig into its skull.
For the first time that night Whisper spoke aloud, the voice synthesized. “I’m sorry. I know you’re a human in there somewhere sort of. But you’re existence is predicated on reality being ruled by lunatics.”
And then he shoved hard, trying to drive its head clean off its shoulders
"Ow, No! Return to Hermes Base." Is what the feminine voice says as the attack lands. Whisper's attack is masterful, the strength behind it is perfectly applied and with a final swing of his arm, he attempt to rip the head of.
Because he understand craftsmanship, he understand this in the moment. This thing is not built by mundane means. The metal, plastics and glass doesn't bend, nor break the way he expects it too. It is mindbending how sturdy this machine is, he almost hurts himself with how strong the attack was.
The damage left on the chassis is visible and that alone, is impressive on many side. But it is far from fatal.
A voice emanate from the robot, this time, fully robotic. "Re-initializing. Citizen presence detected." a bit of silence follows. "Control node corrupted by [Null Entity]..."
"This unit requires maintenance. Reloc...." a loud buzzing, sparking noise comes from the throat. "Reloc...assssiooonn needed."
Psyche steps forward a tiny bit more, getting a glimpse of its remaining eye. Its a struggle with so many things going on in the room, and she tries to yank the eye with her mind...but it stays in place. A silent curse before she yells to Whisper. "It's pilot is gone! It's just a robot now!"
"Oh my stars and garters that is lovely news. Suddenly I feel way better about this. Remote drones huh? Hermes Base eh? Ok let's... get you headless friend." And the squeeze and force on the head just kept on, the armored fingers digging in further.
As it struggled in his grip Whisper just held tight, the sound of metal and plastic straining and snapping as the pressure continued, the Mark 2's efforts to escape futile, and less reactive without a human pilot. "I'm gonna get all up in your brain meats and figure out how you work, and then I'm gonna use your head for a planter..."
Once again, the damage inflicted upon the robot is surprising in both ways. It is surprising that there is damage at all, from the point of view of the Mark II and the creator and how little there is from a brawler-craftsman perspective. The body is definitely getting worse and the neck is obviously going to be having some serious issues turning a certain way.
"Relocation attempt failed, Controle Node corrupted by [Null Entity]" The Mark II unit starts smoking a black, thick, smoke begin to arise from its joint, mouth and broken eye. "Unable to obtain maintenance under acceptable terms. Self-desctruction in 10..." and thus starts the countdown.
But the count, between 9 and 8 switches voice, it no longer uses the mechanized voice of the Mark II but a cavernous, reverberous noise that grates the ear. "7..."
“Oh well that’s just horseshit…” Still struggling with it he gave it a look over. “Ok no way to shut this thing down easy. I can try and contain the blast but we’d better hurry!”
Klaire looks slightly panicked, shoving Rook behind her. "I'm going to try to move it, fuck, fuck." She starts gathering energy, envisioning her home...the tub...she wanted a new tub anyway...lets send it there....but it isnt enough, she fizzes out in exhaustion from trying to move it so far so quickly.
With no way to shut it off and the teleport attempted failed, Whisper just rolled his shoulders and nodded. “Right. Hopes and Dreams.”
He stepped back, letting the ravaged robot go as he held his hands up toward it. As music seemed to flow from nowhere the room seemed to coalesce in rings of light and sound, a barrier forming around the robot as he tried to hold it back. “RUN! NOW!”
Several things happens in a relatively short amount of time. Rook's ears bend down and as the count down goes lower and some sound are making it scary and plus the command to run, however from a stranger it is, is enough to get the dog bolting away.
Then there are the soundwaves that gathers around the Mark II robot as it counts down, projecting the noise very much away from Phyx, which makes it sound like the countdown is coming from much deeper into the room.
"3...2...." A brief pause as the body disappear behind the thick black smoke, the smoke itself takes a weirdly humanoid shape and it seems to be that thing that says the last number. "1..."
It is spectacular to see the explosion wrecks the body shattering body in under a second blasting fire, light and debris everywhere. Not just in front of them, but around them, through them, above and below.
Phyx's effort manage to cast some of that unreal energy away, causing a massive hole in the building and shattering the windows in the lobby first, before everything else in the building either breaks or catch fire.
The hallway collapse behind Rook as he bolts out, the roof caves in, trapping Phyx and Klaire in different pockets of the crumbled lower floors.
Klaire coughs as she's trapped, feeling entirely like shit. She is halfway to death but still here...and Phyx is trapped too...she could only hope Rook got out alright.
She sits there for a moment, focusing on where Phyx last was...she couldn't make it far...but she could get him to safety...then hopefully herself. The psychic energy builds around her as she SHOVES, getting him to safety. A few seconds later she focused inward, repeating the process to get them both to a nearby alleyway, out of the collapsed building.
"I'm sorry...I'm so so sorry."
The blast destroys the suit and helmet Whisper was wearing, exposing indeed a Phyx, and one looking exceptionally pissed. There was a roar of anger from the man, though not the one expected. "THOSE SONS OF BITCHES!" He looks like he's about to shout the whole building apart when Klaire whacks him on the back with her psionic powers, sending him outside to safety.
The lost boy was definitely in extremely bad shape, the armor having done what it could but not nearly enough. The underclothing he wore was singed and damaged as well, and a nasty wound was in his side from where a piece of debris had slammed into him. Still, that was apparently not what he was upset about.
"Dammit... they stole my design. I have no idea how. Ok... next time... next time we just shoot the damn things." With a wince he looked over to Klaire, trying to see if she was ok. "You're fine. Not you're fault. Could have done it a different way But now we know... and we need to get you to a... I'm calling Soteria. And dropping a line to a friend I made..." He leaned against a wall, still conscious but bleeding badly. "Sent. Where's your dog?"
Psyche is in slightly better shape than Phyx, and she leans over. She connects to his mind and some of the lighter burns fade, smaller ones appearing on herself. "I need you in at least some shape...I'll be ok....fuck, Rook."
She gets up, hobbling to the entrance of the alleyway. "Rook? Rook!?" The panic on her face is real.
The dog comes running, excited and maybe a little confused, as to how they both got out. Rook is not entirely tender in his affection and a panicked, excited german shep definitely hurts when it bangs against the grievous wounds they've suffered.
In the distance the voice of an angry local is heard. "Yeah shit blew up... fuck shit damn it." a deep breathing sound and then a yell "KLAIRE DO YOU HEAR ME!? YOUR BOSS SENT ME!"
And then the sound of sirens are heard and more cursing occurs.
Phyx coughed and spat blood. “Some shape? I’m in great shape. Seriously, I’m like an anime character. Put some gauze around my torso and I’ll be right as rain.”
He spat again and slid down the wall to take a seat. “Remind me to buy this building and refurbish it, could you? Hey look. Dog.” He pointed to Rook, a little bleary eyed
The sound of a thud hits the ground next to Klaire and Phyx and shortly after, Jane decloaks in the spot, carrying a medic's bag over her shoulder. "Hello," she greets them simply before looking to assess which one is in the most critical danger. The assessment is rather quick and she moves to assist Psyche. "Let me guess, robocops?" Her calm tone of voice betrays little shock at Klaire's rather serious wounds as she opens her bag and gets bandages out to apply pressure and stop bleeding.
Klaire doesn't care about the pain. She's trained herself to be able to stay standing through pain...even if it FUCKING HURT. She holds Rook close, eyeing his own damage. "Oh hun...I'm sorry."
At her name being called, HER name, not her Shadow name, she freezes. "Whisper...I don't know who that is but they know my name." She looks a bit surprised to see the other woman. "Soteria..." as she gets closer, Klaire nods, and sits to be able to be treated. "Rook too...he's hurt..."
Phyx looked over from where he sat against the wall and offered a wave. “Lifeline! Great to see you. How ya doin, you look good.”
Eventually the trail of curse comes closer to the alley and a skinny person with tattooed arms, wild short black hair, torned and patched jeans and a tanktop with a 'fuck the pigs' marking on it.
"Ah fuck me, kids, you almost had me look through the rubble." They stand a certain distance from the alley. "So, your boss called me in to check in when he heard the explosion. I'm Patchie. I got a van to evacuate you before the pigs are here. If you want to come with me."
"Thank you, I'm doing well," she answers a bit stiffly as she gets Psyche bandaged enough for transport and looks to Rook as well, "I would tend towards taking this evacuation opportunity." She advises the others.
Klaire gets the feeling on the back of her neck when Patchie approaches, and theres a pause.
"Are you with the Freehold?" She grimaces as Jane helps her. "Thank you Soteria...ow..."
Rook licks the cyborg. He is in pain, but not life threatening. Klaire is just worried
Phyx turned his head with a slightly delirious swing. “Hi Patchip! I’m Whsiper. Shhhhh…” He started to struggle to his feet, using the wall for leverage. “Let’s 23 skidoo like the nice lady says. Nice tattoos, those are cool.” The lost boy tottered off towards the van, getting in and leaning back. “Ow. Augur’s gonna be pissed.”
"Yeah, I am, but I'm also kind of the diplomat between that and your boss's people. That's how I know him. Now, do you shits want to come with..." and when Phyx acquiesce. "Alright, go for a ride in the sketchy white van."
They points toward said vehicle. "We got a minute top to be out of sight, come on!".
Klaire nods to Phyx and Jane. "The Freehold can be trusted..lets go?" She uses the wall to stand back up.
With Psyche and Rook tended to, she moved to help Phyx and get them all into the van. "Moving." Once everyone is in the van, she'd keep trying to help the three of them as best she could.
Phyx was just resting, eyes half closed, muttering something about apes. His body steamed slightly as minor damage began to slowly heal, but much of it was too much for his system to handle. He did manage to sit upright with a wince. "They're remotely controlled for the most part. Someone up in some place called Hermes Base. There's a real link there, they can be confused and messed with mentally. They also have a self destruct." He coughed again and looked much aggrieved. "And apparently they can steal technology or designs they see. On the plus side... they can be mentally messed with, and any of them that seem to have personality or agency are being controlled by someone. If you could do enough damage all at once, could kill the operator."
Klaire sat in the van, petting Rook. For someone literally blown up, they look calm. Granted...Klaire usually looked calm. "I saw a...base on some planet. Like in a crater. The operator was talking about fixing things in space...but once we hit them once, they left the Mark II and I couldn't feel them there anymore with telepathy."
Jane listened to the two of them as she continued treating them. Phyx's mention of Hermes Base and Klaire's description of things in space, and she's off to the races. "If those were brownish-red craters, it could've been Marsbase Hermes?"
Klaire nods. "I think they were red, the mental image was fleeting and kind of...fuzzy?"
“That sounds right. Probably one and the same.”
Jane nods back to the two of them, "Then that adds a bit more gravity to our missions to Hermes."
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