by Narrator » Fri Sep 04, 2015 5:41 am
As they're talking they continue to follow the car they'd seen Argus get into. What escapes Heather's technopathic senses of the traffic net is that at some point Argus forced the door of the moving vehicle open and jumped out, ducking into a roll and disappearing down a side-street. Eventually the now empty car reaches it's destination and parks itself. Nina's chipper optimism manages to keep Heather from sliding too much into pessimism over having lost track of Argus. In the end it only encourages her more to dig deeper into the city's systems. Cameras and the phone system in particular are very talkative and gladly help the young technopath to pick up the man's trail again.
He seems to have headed into one of the taller buildings in the city, having taken a side-entrance. It takes a while to talk the magnetic locking mechanism into complying, but eventually it relents and opens with a click. The more Heather interacts with the city the more she gets the feeling that there's very little she can't do here. The ubiquitous computer-systems that link the entire island together expand her reach far beyond it's normal limits and once she's talked her way into one of them it remains open to her. By the time she and Nina are sneaking through the building the traffic net, phones and cameras constantly dance around at the edge of her perception. When she worries about running into someone in the corridors of the building she's suddenly aware of all phones and their location around her, informing her of which way they can go without risking running into somebody. Security cameras helpfully provide her with the ability to look around corners and the traffic grid helpfully provides her with routes to take to avoid people, doors that are a little more resistant to her persuasions and so on.
The effect is almost uncanny in how easily they manage to walk through a place they really shouldn't be in. They walk past various workshops full of who knows what, some computer labs, server rooms. It seems this place is some kind of R&D facility, which would explain why some systems are somewhat hardened, even against technopathic intrusion. They're kind of uncooperative like Argus' systems had been and Heather shies away from prying into them too much because they seem like they might set off alarms if she bugs them too much. Besides, they're here for Perdita.
Eventually they leave behind the R&D areas as they go further up in the building. Past office areas and meeting rooms until they reach more residential floors. It seems Argus isn't taking Perdita to one of the labs but rather his own personal apartment. That might seem a little dubious to someone aware of how companies or corporation work (especially ones that apparently provide their employees with living quarters) but it goes a little over Heather and Nina's heads that Argus might be acting purely in his own interest and might not have as much legitimate claim to Perdita as he'd like them to think. The amount of security cameras up here is much lower so it takes a while to figure out which apartment belongs to Argus and as they move through the current floor one of the doors suddenly opens behind them with a hiss and Argus grabs Heather from behind with his arm around her neck and one hand over her mouth, muffling her protest.
"I really wanted to avoid having to hurt you kids, but you're relentless."
Nina, crazy as she is, charges at him but this time he's not inclined to take it easy on the girl, raising a pistol from his side and firing. The bright blue bolt tears right through Nina's knee. She stumbles as searing pain takes away her balance and she crumbles to the ground even as her leg already begins to regenerate. Heather screams into Argus' hand and struggles against his grip but the man mostly ignores her as he takes aim again and takes aim at Nina's head this time. He drags Heather through the door as Nina collapses to the floor, the top half of her head a smoking crater in the floor. The door slams shut despite Heather's panicked attempts to convince the door to stay open.
Argus pulls some simple handcuffs from his belt and cuffs Heather to an office chair before turning his attention to the computer console the chair belongs to. Heather tries to calm herself down and focus on what she can do. Everything here seems to be reinforced against manipulation both from the outside as well as from the inside, which seems strange but unfortunately works well against her powers. One thing that responds a little more is the angry, chomping-at-the-bit device she'd sensed on Argus before. Right now it is plugged into the console and a lot of it's 'attention' is focused inwards, busy restraining Perdita's code.
Meanwhile Argus seems to be busy preparing a more permanent prison for Perdita, not entirely convinced the mouse-trap will hold the program for too long. And there has to be some kind of release-code. But right now that would only dump Perdita into the bigger, nastier trap being set up on the console. Heather tugs on the cuffs and tries not to panic. He just shot Nina and what if she's next! In her panic her influence on the electronics around her grow even weaker. The thought of getting out out out is all that runs through her head, yanking at the handcuffs which makes enough of a racket that neither she nor Argus hear the door complying with Heather's frantic pleading and open at the sheer desire to leave. Outside a, well, partially headless Nina is swaying from side to side slightly as she shambles forward. Keeping your balance is hard when you only have one inner ear and only a partially regrown eye but she's doing the best she can. She slowly but steadily makes progress towards Argus.
When she's only a couple feet away from Argus, now with a bit of a face to cover up her regenerating brain, the man calmly turns around and faintly shakes his head.
"You look ridiculous." he says, raising his gun again as Nina lurches forward. The blast tears through her torso but that doesn't seem to deter her too much, collapsing against Argus, fingers clutching his armor. Heather's eye dart around the room as the two are struggling. There's gotta be something she can do. Her eyes fall onto the ports on the back of Argus' helmet. If she could just... She pulls the chair with her until her fingers reach the electronic mouse-trap plugged into the console. She yanks it out and for a second tries to gather the courage to move towards the man still holding an energy pistol, even if he's still distracted by Nina refusing to let go of him. She takes a deep breath to try and calm her heart hammering in her chest and yanks on the chair she's cuffed to, slinging it around and intot he back of Argus' knees.
He doesn't quite collapse, but his legs give in enough that Nina almost manages to topple him, giving Heather just enough time to plug the device containing Perdita into one of the ports of his armor. Out out out! No more boxes, please! Her thoughts spiral around the same panicked hope that had opened the door as Argus recovers, finally throwing Nina off of himself and turning towards Heather. He raises his gun and then suddenly stops. The panel on his helmet flickers and electric discharges suddenly course through his armor. He let's out a scream as he falls to his knees, clawing at his helmet and trying to tear it off as the program designed to trap Perdita rampages through his system, the AI herself pushing it along in front of herself like a wake as her program unfolds itself, wrecking havoc.
She's not really sure whether to thank Heather or scold her for putting herself in danger, but this is not the time anyway. Instead she tries to find the best way to bring them to safety before Argus recovers. The Slipstream receiver on Argus' belt springs to live and the two girls disappear in a flash of light. Perdita continues to overload everything she can, scrambling any data the Slipstream device might have recorded about where she sent Heather and Nina before she worms her way out of Argus' system and initiates a satellite-uplink...