Jamie and X coming to Eureka.

[smart_house]

It may be awkward for X-23 and Jamie, transitioning from Milliways to Eureka. SARAH herself does not notice much of anything when she moves back and forth, but she advised her two guests to sit down on the living room couch before they left the bar.

"Exterior sensors have resumed function," SARAH announces. "Welcome to Eureka."

Comments

[cutting_edgex23]

X knows what Jamie is trying to do. Mostly.

It does not make sense to her, but maybe it will be useful.

And eventually, at the end of a long, cold, industrial hallway, they reach their destination.

X's focus shifts abruptly, though her expression hardly changes at all.

She has worked with computers before.

Her fingers slip across the buttons and keys, eyes searching out the most likely--

There.

[eureka_npcs]

The louder intruder appears to be of no consequence.

EG focuses on the female as she approaches the larger of the two server control panels in the room, no doubt intent on espionage and stealing his landlord's work secrets.

"You will not be permitted to remove anything. I will allow you to leave."

[walksthebounds]

"That's big of you," Jamie calls out, picking his way towards the other control panel and remembering hard what SARAH told him about how to work them.

"We really don't want to get in trouble - are you going to report this on our school records or anything?"

[cutting_edgex23]

"I will leave later."

X's voice is short and sharp.

She frowns a little, concentrating on her work.

Half of her attention is waiting for some kind of defensive measures.

She will deal with those as they come up.

There is no other choice.

[eureka_npcs]

And they do come up.

Not physically, though, so much as electronically.

"I will not allow you to steal." The two panels, readouts displaying a red label of TRANSFER IN PROGRESS, are blinking mundanely at X and Jamie, a status bar crawling from left to right. "I am backing up my systems."

[cutting_edgex23]

X tries a key command, but her attention is already flicking around the room.

If the storage space isn't here, it's somewhere else, and she'll have to find--

Oh.

She lifts one hand to hit Jamie's arm. She tries to make it light.

"Behind you. On the right. Unplug them."

Beat.

"You can break them, too."

If he can. Server stacks are not always that fragile.

[walksthebounds]

Jamie nods and grabs for the plugs, tugging as hard as he can to get them out of their sockets and prattling all the while:

"Really sorry about this, but it would be really bad if there was a record of us being here. See, our parents would kill us, so we're going to have to make sure that -"

With a final tug, the plugs come out. Jamie falls backwards on his rear, but holds them up triumphantly.

[eureka_npcs]

Even with the power from the rest of the building -- from AC electricity to solar panels in the roof -- EG cannot support himself for more than a few seconds.

There's no last words or final message.

Unless you count that TRANSFER IN PROGRESS, and the weak status bar that is frozen on two percent.



It's a quiet two or three seconds until a mumbled whirr and the sounds of a seal being formed in the door to the room. By the echo, the same seal is probably being formed in the other matching fire doors in the hallway.

Redundant systems; Richard must have been expecting an intrusion eventually.

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not seem startled in the least.

She just finishes up her work, looking fiercely satisfied.

snikt

Now to destroy EG's hardware, and the data contained therein. You can't strip data from drives that are just tiny scraps of metal and plastic.

Hopefully Jamie does not mind the carnage.

[walksthebounds]

As long as the carnage is not living, Jamie is mostly okay with it - or at least, okay with ignoring it.

He occupies himself, instead, in writing a note on a small Post-It, as he told SARAH he would: Try stealing someone else's data again, and you'll wake up without windows too. Love and kisses, Your Conscience

The note gets stuck to the biggest monitor with a flourish.

[cutting_edgex23]

X does not put her claws away, just shakes them free of debris.

Then she looks over at Jamie.

"We can go now."

Beat.

"Hurry."

And then, when simply opening the door doesn't work, she breaks it down.

Well--cuts through it.

It's almost the same thing.

"SARAH is waiting."

Then she's slipping through the hallway, 'unlocking' the doors as they reach them.

There is no time to waste.

[eureka_npcs]

No, there really isn't.

EG had locked the fire doors in the subbasement as Richard Nickerson had tried to come through to find out about the intruders -- the marines find him, for all his computer savvy, kicking at the lead doorway, swearing up and down about dismantling circuit boards.

He dropped himself to his knees before anyone had even drawn a firearm.

"Get a blowtorch!" one of the lead officers called to an underling. "We need to get down there, find out what's going on!"

[cutting_edgex23]

X freezes, one hand reaching out to snag Jamie and keep him still.

"There are people upstairs. Many."

Her gaze flicks down to him, then away, assessing their position against the map of Eureka (and EG) in her head.

"Follow me."

She tugs him after her for a moment, then lets go.

Here's hoping he can keep up.

She does not want to kill people today.

[walksthebounds]

Jamie is small and fast, and also very much down with the 'no death today' plan.

Keeping up isn't a problem.

For once, he doesn't talk, concentrating instead on following her - and on listening to what's behind them.

[eureka_npcs]

In Eureka, there is no shortage of available tools. Especially tools that involve a lot of power, and fire. The first door is dispatched quickly.

And the second.

It's the third -- the first the marine unit comes to in a long line of door that look like they've been attacked -- the unit commander spins on his heel, pointing at a subordinate.

"Go up top and tell Stark," the man in the black riot gear barks. "We may have something...loose down here."

[cutting_edgex23]

X and Jamie are too far away to hear them.

It's kind of a pity.

But eventually (less than a minute and a half later, if anyone's counting--she is--) they reach another stairwell.

She pauses in front of it again, listening, scenting the air.

Then she nods, just once, and slides it open very carefully. She'll hold it open for Jamie, then slip past him and continue upward until they find a door to the outside.

It shouldn't take long.

(And if worst comes to worse, they can go through the wall. It'll just be--loud.)

[walksthebounds]

Jamie glances at her and then slides on through the door, light-footing his way up the staircase.

Once they reach the top, the door that leads to the outside is only a few feet away. Jamie lets X go forward to listen. Her hearing, he knows, is a lot better than his.

[eureka_npcs]

Nathan Stark can practically hear his teeth grinding.

He's standing on the sidewalk outside Eureka Gardens, watching the chaos. No one seems to know exactly who called for the soldiers in the first place, but just as they're determined to carry out their orders, he's determined to see to it that nothing else goes wrong.

(He'll deal with Nickerson later.)

Carter's nowhere to be found, which leaves him free to deal with this situation without the other man's questions or interference. It's a small thing, but at least it's something.

When the lance corporal hurries up to report, Stark anticipates him.

"Well?"

[eureka_npcs]

I really would not have a problem with being back at the base in the Aleutian Islands right about now...

"Dr. Stark," the underling reports, sounding as official as humanly possible. "We've gotten through to the subbasement hallways, but the doors have almost been...ripped apart. There is something on the loose."

A moment later, adding, "We are still proceeding down toward the central relay station for the building."

[eureka_npcs]

"Ripped apart."

It's amazing how absolutely level two words can be.

"I expect you to keep me informed of every detail as you proceed, Corporal."

[cutting_edgex23]

X has gone very still beside Jamie, body crouched low to the ground.

Her attention appears fixed on Stark and his hapless underling.

She is probably waiting for them to move away.

If they don't, well--

She'll handle them.

[walksthebounds]

Jamie looks at X, remembering their various conversations, and places a light hand on her arm.


They did what they came to do. They can wait.

(Besides, it's good to hear what's being said about them.)

[eureka_npcs]

"Of course, Doctor Stark."

It's easy to hide an exhalation of 'Whew, at least that is over' under a helmet, especially when being dismissed.

[eureka_npcs]

Dismissed, and to all appearances forgotten.

Stark's already turning away as he snaps open his cell phone and activates autodial.

"Fargo."

[cutting_edgex23]

They have been using Fargo as a cover story.

This could get messy very quickly.

X casts a quick sideways look at Jamie, then sqaures her shoulders and steps away from the shadow of the building.

"Jamie. Hurry up! I think it's gone."