Infiltration

[A significant portion of Master Radio Chat was edited out of this version of the log. If you want to HEAR the inane Master Radio Chat...join the Masters.]

Nogaki Commerical District Sublevel 1 - Neo Tokyo

Below the city proper stretches the mostly unwholesome mass of the undercity, composed of tunnels which criss-cross and interlace for miles around. While some businesses in this area are legitimate they are far outnumbered by those that are not, though the existence of any such organizations is vehemently denied by Neo Tokyo authorities.

Neon and holographic signs provide most of the illumination in the side streets, while shadowy gangs waft through alleys and through sealed doors. This isn't exactly the best place to be unless you know your way around and have someone to watch your back.

Otto's Apartment

Obvious exits:
Public Lift Up leads to Nogaki Commercial District - Neo Tokyo.

Magnet Man arrives from the Nogaki Commercial District - Neo Tokyo.
Magnet Man has arrived.

Amid the midnight bustle in the Undercity--rife with illegal deals, drug-running, and various forms of crime--is an innocuous-looking teenager. White-haired, wearing old faded jeans and a t-shirt, slightly oversized hands stuffed into his pockets, he's simply leaning against a street corner, staring across the road at the towering facade of the WYRMS, Inc. building.

One thug decides to hold the teenager up, taking him for defenseless. A few minutes later the same thief is two blocks away, nursing a broken hand, and the white-haired youth goes back to watching the building.

A coated figure steps through the dark streets with confidence, his hands in his pockets. The twin master, disguised without the use of holograms--he needs to save strength--seems at least a better fit to the environs, and he gets a wider berth as he approaches the teen. He doesn't look to him at all as he speaks, low and quiet. "All right. I am going to set the hologram, then come back to this position. When he is inside, he'll open the front, and let you in." ... Aware that this seems a change to the expected plan, he pulls out a datapad from his pocket, showing only the top half off as he reveals it, at first. "THIS is a solid object. I can't project it inside. So taking it in there will be up to you."

[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "Now, we need a suitable dame for the sacrifice... Hrm...virgins...virgins...Sonic-Er..no. Cyber Peacock? Naah, too annoying...Ahahah! Anyone seen Iris or Jet Stingray lately?"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "Wow. Are you guys really passing up chances to mock Iris and Apple Pie? Is everyone feeling well?"
[Radio: (B) Secure] Gemini Man transmits, "Busy, at the moment. But if you're honestly planning something high profile and messy, it would help us out."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "(Slightly staticky) Sorry. I didn't hear it. This is getting tough."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "Wood? What's going on?"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "These Rainbows are FAST! I got a few for cooking at Master Chef, but..."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "Rainbows? How do you cook rainbows?"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Guts Man transmits, "In a pot?"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "You know... Rainbows! I hate them! They crawl about and..." "Nerp!" "Oh."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "...Wood...Rainbows are not centipedes."

Magnet Man nods slightly, though he doesn't look away from the WYRMS building--face remaining expressionless, the youth just clears his throat. Slowly, he draws his hands from his pockets and folds them over his chest--the fingers of his right hand extend beneath his left elbow, ready to take the datadisk. Amid the crowds of the Undercity, it's just another deal.

. o O (This is sooooooo cool. Oh, man. L33T. Aw yeah. Promooootion.)

[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "Then what the heck have I been digging out of the sand?!"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "....umm."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "Ewwwick. *YEEAAGH!* (sounds of dropping something.)"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "...Wood. Umm...you just do whatever the hell it is you're doing. And have fun."

Gemini Man slides the disk up to Magnet Man, and places it in his ready hand. "When you're inside, do what you do and disrupt the security cameras. I only have one hologram, but we want to make this look like a multiple-Maverick job, and I don't think the Mavericks would be sloppy." The item passed along, the master takes one step off the curb. "I'll be back here when we're ready for you to move." Gemini crosses the dark street, and a hovercar passes behind his departing back. He walks up to the building, and changes direction, looking again for that ever-useful window.

Magnet Man sends a radio transmission to Gemini Man.
Magnet Man sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "Now we just wait..."

[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "So. Um. Do we want to do anything or not?"
[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "I was trying to ask Iris, but she upped and ran."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "Ahhh."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "I suppose girls do that, some times."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Enker transmits, "You just have a way with the ladies, Wood Man."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Guts Man transmits, "I have a way with the ladies too. I grab them by the hair and drag them wherever I go."
[Radio: (A) Masters] Wood Man transmits, "Boy, make them eat some psychotropic foods, and they won't want anything to do with you!" [Radio: (A) Masters] Beta CO Heat Man transmits, "Alright, the theme thing is sucking wind. Anyone want to go out and just blow stuff up?"

Magnet Man shakes his head at the radio, simply tucking the datadisk into his jacket pocket. Well, so long as they do /something/...

Gemini Man seems to bypass the WYRMS building at first, then circle back. He's just waiting. After a moment, he concedes. What harm could it do? If he waited any longer, it would look like he was casing the place. (Which, of course, he is.) He stops pacing, and throws a glance into the lower window. He fiddles with his hands for a moment. Then, he steps away from the building, and checks the street--remembering proper 'look both ways' ettiquete--as he prepares to cross back, at a safe enough distance from Magnet Man's position.

Magnet Man receives a radio transmission from Gemini Man.
[Radio] You send Magnet Man a direct message: "We've waited long enough. Standby while we infiltrate. Doors will open on my signal. ... Remember who you're looking for."

Magnet Man sends a radio transmission.
Magnet Man sends you a tightbeam radio transmission: "I gotcha, bro."

Magnet Man straightens at his street corner, unfolding his arms and looking as if he's preparing to cross the street himself--though he just stands and looks down the road, staring off into the distance for so long that to onlookers he seems to have lost awareness of where he is. He idly breaks another opportune thug's hand while he waits for Gemini's signal. . o O (Alright, dude. You've got the skillz. You've got the training. Now it's time to channel... SOLID SNAKE. Oh yeah. Let's get Infiltrate-y on their afts.)

Gemini Man crosses back across the street, and walks back in the direction of the lift. If any trouble with *backbone* shows up, it will come from there. Pun intended. He'll do his best to look out, but he should probably be forgiven if his attention seems momentarily diverted elsewhere... There is a pause while Magnet Man gears himself up. Gemini Man is almost lost in the crowd when he finally transmits a response radio.

Magnet Man receives a radio transmission.
[Radio] You send Magnet Man a direct message: "All right. Step up to the building, and the doors will open. See you on the other side."

At the signal, Magnet Man (or is that Magnus Snake) snaps out of his reverie and crosses the street. His hands find themselves inside his pockets again, and he strolls nonchalantly up toward the entrance of WYRMS, Inc. as if he had official business.

He does, but not the sort that others would approve of.

As he approaches, he begins to charge up his magnetic generators. He'll unleash an EMP burst as soon as he enters the doorway. It might disrupt the hologram for a short time, but knocking out the cameras simultaneously will mean there's no problem.

The doors slide open, despite the fact that it's after-hours, as if everything were perfectly ordinary. Directly behind the door to the outside, hidden just so in the shadow of the entryway, the hologram of Overdrive Ostrich has one finger on the inner security panel. He waits for Magnet Man to see him before gesturing, with that bird neck, inside the building.

Magnet Man steps through the door, giving the Overdrive hologram a cursory nod. His face is intensely focused--he's channeling Solid Snake with a vengeance, and he's determined to be professional and efficient about this operation. None of his crazy antics tonight.

As planned, he releases a powerful EMP wave as he crosses the threshold--immediately the control panel's electronics go haywire, and an emergency protocol slams the blast doors closed. Magnet allows a small smile to cross his face as he presses himself against the wall and begins recharging as he heads to the 'hangar' where their mark is being held.

Gemini Man, from his spot farther down the street, winces. Geez, that had been a serious blast... The Maverick hologram inside the building flickers visibly from the interference, but steadies. Unlike Magnet Man, the Ostrich isn't being too terribly careful about not being spotted. Most of the cameras are already fried, and, it's his intent to be on at least a few of them. Leading the Solid Snake impersonator (Actually, Gemini was thinking, Magna Centipede?) down the long hall past the workers' cubicles, the avian approaches the entrance to R&D. "No convenient entrance this time," says the unfamiliar voice out of the holo's beak. He points to the security panel. "Hoping you can just patch in."

Magnet Man checks for security cameras along the way, finding few, and frying them after they caught a few fleeing glimpses of Overdrive. He steps up to the security panel and frowns at it for a moment. He's done these things on video games, but... hmm. On a whim, he crouches down and rips off the paneling beneath it, revealing a network of wires and components inside the wall. "Awright.. when I say so, you pull the door open." He sticks his hand inside and emits a second magnetic burst, weaker than the first--the wave of ions temporarily disable the electronic locks, and Magnet gestures at the doorway with a harshly whispered "Go!"

Overdrive reaches over and pulls on the doors...for a moment, they still resist, then, the hologram almost falls forward as the doors slide readily open. Using a similair trick to bypass another set of locks, the infiltrators arrive in a large warehouse. Harshly clean, but eerily dark, the room seems filled to maximum occupation by a single reploid, stretched across the room's length. The only partially completed form of the Quicksilver Earthworm prototype, dissected like a specimen, with a long silver tail coiled up into one end, and an open cerebral core, ripe for tampering, clearly exposed at the other. Overdrive suppresses a shudder, but not at seeing the incompleteness or even the impressive size of the creature, but, simply, it's shape. oO(Worm.)Oo he reminds himself. oO(Okay.)Oo "Set up and install the code," he whispers. "We have some extra things we need to check on."

[Global News Network] And that's the news about why hats with cute little parasols and pink flowers are all the rage as millions of teenagers try to be like Quint. And in other fashion news...

*********

We interrupt for a special report. The sound of evening prayer in Kuwait City was shattered by the sounds of explosions, as Robot Masters have appeared, it seems to robthe Kuwaiti National Gold Reserve.

First things first--security cameras. There are a few stationed strategically around the room, nothing that several well-placed magnetic bursts can't take care of. Yep, this is a major security breach. It's too bad that the alarms don't function any more. Magnet scurries over to the open neural core and ascends the scaffolding that leads up to the maintenance platform. He crouches down by the naked electronics, and, turning off his emitters, pulls the datadisk from his pocket.

A Universal Input Terminal is sitting off to the side, connected to the neural-net itself--after catching sight of this, Magnet grins and inserts the disk. A few quick taps on the keyboard input, and a comically extra-large progress bar appears on the screen with the label 'Virus Upload Progress' with a few Maverick insignia as decoration. As it completes, the disk is ejected and Magnet snaps it back up, turning to hasten back down the scaffolding and to his partner in crime. "/Got it./ Now let's get the heck outta dodge..."

"Good job. But, there's no rush. I still have over two minutes left." The hologram, still standing by the entrance to the big worm's bay, holds out his hand. Er...wing? "Hand me that pad for a moment. We spent all night installing a little something extra..." Somehow, that bird beak manages to twist up into Gemini Man's devious grin.

Magnet Man hands the pad over without a second thought. "Sure. I just don't wanna hang around longer than I needta, 'cause you never know when security'll come along..."

The hologram walks over to the main R&D area, and steps up to the secure console. He actually looks around before he checks the machine and jacks the datapad in. "It's all right to kill them if they do. I'm not keeping score." The file he uploads to the computer system seems pretty small; the progress bar is considerably quicker. "I can't hack into their systems, but I CAN do this, so I will." He smiles again, then unplugs the datapad, and hands it back to Magnet Man. "See you outside," the ostrich whispers. And without any kind of effect or fanfare, he is simply gone.

Magnet Man raises a brow as the hologram disappears, but, since he obviously has no one left to ask questions of, simply takes his leave of the building. It's a quick and easy walk back to the entranceway, but of course the door is still sealed tight.

An easier exit is found a few minutes later, when Erik Magnus opens the second-story window that Gemini used beforehand, and drops to the ground in the alleyway to the building's side. Mission complete.

Gemini Man has drifted back toward the front of the WYRMS building. He steps past; his eyes catch movement, and dart over... good. Looks as if Magnet has made it out safely. He subilty decreases his pace to check on the other.

Magnet Man slips out from the alleyway, glancing left and right covertly. Alright, mission completed. As Gemini approaches him, he gestures with his head for the road leading out of the Undercity, and starts walking himself. "So," he says in a whispered aside, "what /was/ on that disk that you put in there?"

Gemini Man slides his hands into his pockets again as the two walk back toward the lift, and throws a glance over in Magnet Man's direction. He snickers. "Knew you'd ask. Don't worry. It'll be on the news."

Magnet Man offers a smile in return. "Sure thing. I bet we'll hear plenty about it tomorrow..."

"Here's to our upcoming promotions!" Gemini Man says, as he steps onto the main lift.

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