Child's Play

[Besyanteo]

Enzo was relieved to hear only a small amount of grumbling here and there, followed by everyone moving where he had suggested. He wasn't comfortable with being the de facto leader at the moment, but until someone else took the job from him, this at least kept them on task. Or, he thought it did. He started heading 'north' with his team, intent on checking out the somewhat dilapidated building Alexis had told them about. At the same time, he continually monitored everyone's progress via the group's uplink to him.

[ChristianC]

Alexis remained... quiet while Max carried her up towards the building, her lips a thin line as she tried rather adamantly not to look down, her fingers almost digging into Max's arms.

I... think I should be able to travel from building to building if you... set me down...

Even her broad casted voice seemed a bit shaken with the whole flying part.

[Idran1701]

Sam follows along with Enzo's group, dropping behind every so often to check out something before running back to catch up with the rest. After about a minute of this, he decides it's best for him to focus on the building; he moves up near Enzo, gazing up and down at it, watching for any signs of movement or activity in its darkened windows. "Is there anything special we should look for inside, Enzo? Something like when you wanted us to get a piece of the building before or anything like that?"

[Animala]

Lauren stood up a little shakily, with the help of a nudge from Ambassador Leafshade. "I'm fine. But, uh...I don't think I was supposed to be able to do that."

[BrainWalker]

It was a bit more of a struggle than Max had anticipated, but he was determined to get Alexis... somewhere. He was actually pretty glad to hear her suggest setting her down on top of a building, which he did. Perhaps a little unceremoniously, but unharmed.

Max rubbed his left arm. "Okay, so... if I do any more manual ally-hauling, I think I'm going to have Emmy help me out. That was a little rough."

He walks out to the edge of the roof, and takes a look north, and then south. "So, you think you can get us some more info from up here?"

[ChristianC]

Alexis had noticed the series of errors during Lauren's experimentations with Ambassador Leafshade, but she wasn't a tech-wiz, and the recent flight had kept her rather... occupied. Like Max, she was rubbing her arms, and hands, as they seemed to have almost cramped during the short, but intense, lift.

It's not polite to comment on a lady's weight.

She smiled a little as the old remark welled up like a pleasant memory. It'd been years since she'd last said it, but after her mother had used it once, it'd gotten stuck in the young girl, and Alexis had made it her catch-phrase... which had been completely stupid, since it wasn't of much use generally. She wiped the smile from her face and joined Max on the edge, staring out across it and folding her arms, her long hair sweeping rather cool in the wind this high up, making for a cool dramatic effect.

I think so. I'm not designed for long-distance reconnaissance, but I'm able to magnify my vision somewhat. I'll make sure anything I notice get sent directly to Enzo... I should be able to jump between buildings up here, if I'm careful...

[Shinigori V2]

From her vantage point on the roof, Alexis can see far enough to tell that both the large building to the south, along with the one to the north, are entirely untouched from the hack; either the contents were of no interest or missed completely.

She can also see, however, that the route to the southern building, even traveling 'atop the rooftops' is inaccessible without making it through the rubble one way or another, due to a downed 'building'. The way to the north is completely clear, however, and should only take that group a matter of minutes to get to.

[ChristianC]

Alexis looked out across the streets and frowned, looking back at Max.

Huh... well, we're going to have to fly past the rubble in the south if we want to go there... Path North is clear.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo reached the northern building and looked it over. It wasn't exactly in pristine condition, but looking at it close up he didn't feel like this has been done by the hack. It looked more like the building wasn't maintained properly. So... what, some large file that had long gone unaccessed? Or maybe it would be a large series of files or something... hard to say without interfacing directly. He entered the building with some trepidation, hoping to learn more without putting himself at risk; if there was a virus here, inside the building, he didn't want to just invite it into himself, after all.

North group has reached the building; Entering now.

While he entered and looked around, he worked on analyzing the data Alexis was sending him. If there was anything she'd seen worth noting, he wanted to send both groups a cliff-notes version of it. So, any unusual movement, structures that looked unsound, or any other unexpected kind of aberration in the environment.

He sounded a bit distracted as he answered Sam, finally:

"I'm not really sure... I'm kinda playing this by ear right now."

[Shinigori V2]

As Enzo and his team enters the building, Sam and Emily- And Enzo himself- Notice a flashing panel right inside the door, with flashing green text blinking slowly on it.

Virus database updated. All files safe.

Looking further in, Kid takes a few steps into the entry hall. It's a long, off-white hallway with seemingly no doors for a distance, but perfectly clean. They feel safe here.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo looked closely at the panel extolling the place's clean state. How convenient! He looked to the others:

"Does anyone else feel oddly, sort of... well, safe suddenly?"

[Shinigori V2]

Kid turns around, tucking her hands behind her back. "..yeah. Incredibly safe."

[Spleen]

"I...don't like bein' told how to feel," Darren said, shaking his head. "That's makin' me feel not safe. Hear me? So it's kinda balancing out." He checked on his shield and silently cursed the vote going against weapons...he was perfectly okay seeing himself as a walking weapons platform; that had been his dream since he heard he could even be considered for the Wunderkind program. He was never even for the whole "walking" part anyway...when he imagined himself in his new body, tank treads were always involved.

[Kelne]

Emily followed the others into the building, eyes roving around taking things in. "Yeah, a bit," she said, "But outside seems that much more dangerous, you know?" Since she was inside the building, she decided to see if she could access any of the files it contained. Searching through the place physically would take a while, after all.

[Shinigori V2]

Emmy tries to access the files, and finds...There's a lot. All intact, too.

It's a list of names. A huge list of names. ..And news articles....and a few audio clips...And some voice clips.

She has no idea what any of this is.

[Kelne]

Emily frowned and opened up one of the voice clips more or less at random, to see if they might help her get a handle on what all this was all about. There were certainly a lot of names, but without some kind of idea what sort of list was based on, she wasn't going to get very far deciphering them. Of course, enlightenment might have been considerably easier if the rest of the city (and hence the rest of the files) weren't in ruins.

After a few moments of listening, her eyes looked rather wider as realisation set in, "I think the building files are a list of other wunderkind," she said soflty.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo looked over. He meant to scold Emily for interfacing with the system, but... well, nothing bad had happened, and honestly he was feeling better about this by the minute. He started to open his mouth, and stopped short. Thirteen had said that the hacker hadn't found what they were looking for. This building was untouched. This building had information on other wunderkind.

"... Someone outside D-52 knows about Project Bluesky, and they want to know who we are. It can't just be a coincidence. That's why we were sent in here. If this file was compromised, D-52 needed to know immediately, and they couldn't wait for it to be fixed in a mundane fashion."

Enzo rushed back to the outside door, but stays inside for the moment. He doesn't bother to restrict his next broadcast:

I know why the network was attacked. Or I'm fairly certain I do. There's information on us here... And on other Wunderkind. D-52 has extensive files on many more, it seems. I think it might be better to speed things up. Janet, I want to interface with the system Kernel, get access to everything. In case something happens... I think we need to reconsider unlocking weapons. I don't think we can risk these files, and I don't think that we can risk the group by making a weapon unlock impossible if I become unresponsive. What do you say?

[Shinigori V2]

Back with her group, Janet seems thoughtful for a minute, then nods to herself. I'll unlock my groups. You get yours. Do you want support while interfacing?

[Besyanteo]

Enzo initiated weapon unlock on his end while he replied.

It would be very much appreciated, yes.

[Shinigori V2]

I'm initiating a link. Let me know when you're ready to deep dive and I'll be right there with you.

As she replies, she waves her hand, and one by one the other children in her group feel their weapons coming online.

(IF YOU WANT YOUR WEAPONS, YOU MUST, MUST, MUST, MUST TELL ME WHAT WEAPONS YOU FUCKING WANT.)

[ChristianC]

Alexis looked down on her hands for a few very brief moments there was dull flash of metal in her hands, but they disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

My weapons are working. If the database containing the Wunderkind information is safe, we should try to find out what's been stored in the damaged buildings.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo looked over the door threshold. He was sure this needed to be done, and sooner was better. However, his outward fervor to begin wasn't mirrored inside. At least he would be assisted in the deep dive. He tried to comfort himself with that knowledge, and he stepped back out of the building. The link was fully established now. He sincerely hoped the melodrama would turn out to be for nothing...

Everyone should continue manual recon. I think Emily and Max should take charge for now. Stay safe. Janet, I'm ready to begin.

[Shinigori V2]

Enzo and Janet both sit, preparing for their deep dive. Janet sits crosslegged, and lowers her head, before appearing to lock up.

To everyone else, that appears to be the end of it. But for Enzo and Janet, their perceptions shift to that of falling.

A moment later, both appear in what seems to be a massive library, with the stacks being as far and wide as the eye can see. Janet shifts a bit, trying to get used to the feeling of being even smaller than normal data; more that their perceptions have changed into being electrical signals.

"This is so weird." Janet says. "I Never got to deep dive during my training. What are we looking for?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo looked around carefully, moving around, but never straying far from Janet.

"I'm not sure. Something that doesn't fit, I suppose. ... We're perceiving the data as books, it seems like. So, we're looking for damaged books, pages on the floor, knocked over stacks... fire, or anything else actively causing damage right now."

He was already taking his own advice, looking for obvious signs of trouble in the immediate area.

[Shinigori V2]

Enzo, with Janet in tow, finds that as an electronic signal, he can move, think, and search in a fraction of the time he normally could.

After exactly two seconds, he can see that the immediate area is the only part of the server that's completely intact. Everything else is heavily damaged, or destroyed.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo stood in awe of the scale of the damage to the system. This was madness. It was nothing short of a miracle that the files on the Project hadn't been destroyed along with the rest of it. This could hardly be called a computer. He was amazed the flaredrive had recognized it was plugged into something and data transfer had been possible. There wasn't even a Kernel left. He held his hand to his head, and took stock.

They were in the ravaged data drive of a hacked computer, which for all intents and purposes only had it's basic hardware and firmware left in it. The hard drive itself could more or less be considered unpartitioned, it just happened to have a whole lot of data fragments left to it that only they, as wunderkind, could begin to interpret. But, BIOS was obviously still in place, or else they would have never gotten in to begin with. Which meant they were already, unconciously, talking with the system boards. Her could try to act as a Kernel, but that sounded about as enticing as working in a salt mine for a few decades, like a character in an old adventure novel. And it would probably feel like it, too. The alternative was to either leave and tell the adults that they needed to take the drivers, hook them into working machines and salvage what they could, or he and Janet could try to cobble together a primitive kernel, and go from there, giving it commands and hoping the hardware responded the way it ought to. With any luck, the network had enough partially working systems in it to cobble together a whole operating system, and he could just transfer the parts around as needed.

"Janet, I have an idea. It'll be hard, though. Wanna help me do a little programming?"

He explained his plan to her, and they set to work together. From Enzo and Janet's point of view, a few hours passed as they coded together...

[Shinigori V2]

...What appeared to be an official Deck City public post box.

Janet frowns, not entirely understanding what they just programmed. "We spent...Four hours...ON that? I mean, I know it only FELT like hours, but still."

----

Meanwhile, Kid looks at Enzo, then back at Emily. "Was there...Uh, any names you recognized?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo actually looked somewhat pleased.

"Well yeah, it's small and it will be slow as anything, but it worked. The system is useable now. I mean, not just by us. The adults can start trying to do things, if they've noticed this yet. ... Not much, but it's better than having absolutely nothing. We've got options now, and so do they."

He stood, looking at it while contemplating. He held out his hand, and with a little bit of concentration, made some paper appear in it. In the other, he made a mechanical pencil. So now what to tell it to do? They'd made it, so the list of possible commands was fairly instinctive at least. ... The simplest and easier thing he could think of to do was to send a message to the adults over this system's monitor. A progress report, if you will. He wrote the program in classic basic.

Code: Select all

10:PRINT:ENZO AND JANET REPORTING FROM DEEP DIVE. INSERTION INTO DAMAGED SYSTEM SUCCESSFUL.
20:PRINT:DATA DRIVE IS HEAVILY CORRUPTED. MAJORITY OF DATA LOST. HAVE CODED RUDIMENTARY REPLACEMENT KERNEL.
30:PRINT:CANNOT CURRENTLY ACCESS ANY OTHER NETWORKED SYSTEMS. CAN ATTEMPT TO WRITE NETWORK CODE,
40:PRINT:AND RETRIEVE ELEMENTS OF A MORE COMPLETE OPERATING SYSTEM. PLEASE ADVISE.
50:PROMPT

If he and Janet had done their job right, the computer's monitor should turn black, display anything after the numbers and "print" on screen, and then show the adults a blinking text prompt underscore that they could type into... With any luck, he and Janet should perceive the reply as it was being typed. He fed the message into the mail slot.

[Kelne]

"None," Emily responded, "None of our names were on there at least." Maybe if they went through the list with a fine-toothed comb, they'd find somebody that someone knew through sheer coincidence, but that'd be about it.

[Idran1701]

Sam falls silent at Emily's conclusion, looking around the building as he compares the long hallway inside with the destruction outside. "...So this place is full of stuff about future Wunderkind? But it's not hacked at all or anything, so it's not what the hackers must of wanted, right? Is it only not blown up an' stuff because it was so secret an' so protected? Or maybe it was hidden real well, but after the hackers left all the stuff that was hiding it was broke and they didn't even know?"

Staring down the hallway, he brushes his hands along the wall, heading down about 40 feet before coming back. "An' how come it looks like this? Stuff looks like stuff for a reason, right? So how come this place looks like a real long hallway with no doors if it's full of information an' stuff? What is this hallway part?"

[NebulaQueen]

Silvie stepped into the street with Lauren, and bit her lip as she looked over the rubble. While the others explored up north, they should get work done here - but how were they supposed to get to the building?

"Wait," she said. "Weapons are unlocked now, right? I...I think I have an idea."

[OOC: Shini gave his go ahead for this.]

[ChristianC]

Alexis looked around, frowning. Obviously they weren't going to be meeting any viruses around here... or something else. Sure, Enzo'd unlocked their weapons, but right now her scouting didn't indicate any kind of threat...

Max, should we try to get into one of these other buildings...? I'm not much of a debris-clearer, but I could try to get inside the ruins if you guys clear things up.

[Shinigori V2]

Janet and Enzo wait for what feels like an hour, before a reply comes through:

Observe and report. Maintain and back up any data available.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo looked at the reply with some disappointment. The directions weren't terribly helpful. They might as well have told him to sit on his hands for a while. He had a job, mind, but it just wasn't one that was going to give them much to do. Back up Data... Well, that might present a challenge. He looked at Janet.

"Well... I guess let's toss ideas back and forth. I don't think we can get all of it back in our personal storage. Even if we compress the rest, I don't know that it would fit onto the Flaredrive with us... Or even by itself. Is taking it back out with us even an option? OR should we think about getting network access back?"

[Shinigori V2]

"The problem I'm seeing," Janet says, crossing her arms, "Is that the data is appearing to us as buildings. Buildings that Wunderkind can fit easily inside, without compression. There's a ton of data still here, and...Well, I don't know if we can realistically do much about it."

[Animala]

Lauren stood (with Ambassador Leafshade dutifully at hand to provide support as needed) and dusted herself off. "Thank goodness. What's your plan?"

[Besyanteo]

Enzo continued to think. What options did that leave, really? Backing up the data meant copying it. Well, he could do that, probably. He might even be able to do it manually. He looked at the data again. The others were around him and Janet. They had the use of their weapons... it should be safe to keep taking their time. So, he might as well go ahead and do it... and do it right.

"Ok, let's do it their way then. We'll copy the data, and attach a program to it. If something happens to the data our brothers and sisters are in right now, the copy will use itself as a base to restore the original. Then we'll put a wall around all of that, so nothing can get in and hurt it. Only we'll be able to access it. It will take us a little while, but it should pretty much take care of everything, and we can explore the rest of the drive without worrying about the files anymore. Shall we?"

[Shinigori V2]

Janet sighed, and nodded. "Yeah. I don't know about you, but I'm going to need a nap after this. ...Or something. Whatever Wunderkind do."

[Besyanteo]

45 seconds after Enzo initiated Deep Dive, his body jerked, and he half stood up! ... and then fell down again. He looked around the street wearily, and then into the doorway of the project file database. Oh good, everyone was still there. He stood up, and walked back inside. There were now dark circles under his eyes, and his gait was uneven. He looked pretty terrible.

[Shinigori V2]

Kid turns, and takes a few careful steps towards Enzo, before stopping, and just looking concerned. "Woah, dude." She starts, making a face, "You look like crap."

----

Janet snaps back to reality in the alleyway, falling sideways with a gasp. She sits, trying to catch her breath, before wearily standing and leaning heavily on the wall, headed for her sisters.