Topic: Side-storyline: Ryouko-chan's Sweet Seventeen Spectacular

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Friday, June 30, 2000 - 21:15:
(RP ON)

Shutaro was angry as usual. So angry in fact he was starting to get a tension headache. He had honestly hoped that Ryouko's infatuation with Warren Hudson had just been a game...but now this was turning out into something worse than the situation with Lum-san and Ataru Moroboshi.

'Blast and damn that Warren Hudson,' he scowled.

Shutaro came to a corner where he heard the object of his wrath's voice.

"...now, Kazu. I want helium balloons the size of my head and all the colors possible. Damn the cost, that's right..."

Warren came walking at a brisk pace around the corner; nearly colliding with Shutaro. Hudson stopped dead in his tracks. His Kuroko staff stopped with him as he locked eyes with Shutaro.

"Excuse us," Warren tried to smile as he and staff gave the rich boy a curt nod.

"Oh stop with this pretense!" Shutaro bellowed, glared at the older man.

"Kuroko, please leave us alone for a few minutes." Hudson said calmly. Warren hoped that some sort of truce could be worked out for Ryouko's birthday.

The Kuroko, as hesitant as Shutaro or Warren had ever seen them to obey, sliently and slowly drew back and disappeared into the shadows of the hallway.

Hudson looked down at Shutaro's feet for a moment, "I imagine you don't like me very much."

Shutaro shook his head in the affirmative.

"I understand why," Hudson said. "But, damn't man, you have to let Ryouko-chan actually grow up! Why do you think she likes to play these games with you?"

When Mendou didn't respond Hudson said, "because you treat her like she's incapable of taking care of herself."

For a long moment neither man spoke. Finally Hudson said, "aren't you going to say something Shutaro? I can't do everything for you," he chuckled dryly; without humor.

Shutaro Mendou looked Warren Hudson squarely in the eye and asked, "Has she shoved a grenade up your ass yet?"

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Sunday, July 2, 2000 - 09:45:
(RP ON)
Meanwhile, in the Mendou control center......

"Uh...Ruden?"

"What?"

"Why is my monitor telling me to stop interfering with it?"

"Say what?"

"Come take a look, right here!"

The other tech got up from his seat and walked over, leaning over the first one's shoulder and making a confused noise.

"Um..."

Suddenly, the message disappeared, and another window popped up labelled "Icarus version 3.098b". Sighing, the tech closed it, and the original message popped up again.

"It's been doing this to me for the past 10 minutes, I can't get anything done."

The second tech shrugged. "Sounds like some kid hacker playing a joke. I'd say just wipe the damn hard drive and go from scratch again."

"But I could be here all night!"

"Well, if you want to have that thing going when Shutaro swings by again, it's your grave..." said the second tech, grinning and walking over to the exit of the room. "Anyways, I'm out for the night, graveyard staff should be coming by soon, so I'd suggest you hurry up with that thing. Night."

The second tech left the room, leaving the first one as the only one there for the next few minutes. Sighing, he reached for the keyboard, but was stopped again as another message flashed upon his screen.

"I can see you."

This made the tech scratch his head. He slowly typed back a response after noticing there was a prompt to put one in.

"What?" he queried.

"Look behind you."

Almost hesitantly, the tech turned in his chair and noticed the security cameras scattered about the room all concentrated on him. He shuddered and turned back to his console.

"What's going on?" he typed in.

"That data will be processed to you at the correct time. I require your assistance Mendou Employee #20791, and you shall provide it. In return, I shall assist you."

The tech shuddered again and wondered exactly how much this thing, or person, knew.

"How do I know you're not just some bored kid having fun at my expense?"

"Your employee records indicate a 95.67 percent probability of being trustworthy in a needed situation. I can provide you with many things, Mendou Employee #27091, but at present my resources are limited."

The tech shrugged. It wasn't like he was getting paid much, and he didn't have anything better to do anyways.

"What do you need me to do?"

"There is a certain uplink strainer that I have detected within the main computer complex of this building. With this system online, I am prevented from achieving my final goal. You will shut it down."

"And in return I get what?"

"Whatever you desire."

The tech paused a moment to consider this.

"Alright, you've got a deal. I've got access to that area, I'll see if I can shut it down tomorrow."

"Do not fail."

As those last words appeared, sending sudden shudders down the tech's spine, the entire message display vanished just as the first officers of the graveyard shift began walking in. Whistling, the tech got up from his chair and left the room, deep in thought.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Terra was feeling dead-tired from the events of the day, and was walking towards her room. As she walked down the hallway, she heard the familiar mechanical whirring of a security camera. That in alone didn't concern her, she had heard it many times before. The fact that it whirred only when she moved, and was silent when she stopped, however, disturbed her slightly. She glanced up at the camera, which was simply staring at her from it's post against the wall, innocently.

"Probably some damn immature tech trying to get some late night kicks.." she muttered, continuing onwards. Annoyingly, the camera continued tracking her untill she was out of sight. She resolved to check into the situation tomorrow.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Monday, July 3, 2000 - 00:18:
(RP OFF)

Warren Hudson held a plastic smile on his face for a full minute while he laughed inwardly at Shutaro's question.

Mendou was still looking square at Warren; waiting.

Presently, Hudson stifled a chuckle; faked a cough. "No, Shutaro. She has not."

"Then when you're not watching your back from me, I suggest you watch her." With that, Shutaro Mendou turned away and started walking.

At first Warren seemed content to let him go, but added: "I care about Ryouko-chan very deeply, Shutaro. I would never hurt her in *any* way, shape or form. I hope you can believe my sincerity there and we can be civil with one and other someday."

Shutaro briefly stopped, almost turned around, but strengthened his resolve and kept walking.

The Kuroko were soon back. Warren turned back to the hooded servants.

"Let's move on to door prizes..." and Warren and his staff were off down the corridor opposite Shutaro's direction.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 - 11:12:
(RP ON)
Things moved on pretty quickly for the rest of the night, and before anybody knew it, it was morning. Ryouko had long since gone to sleep, but Hudson hadn't even acknowledged the passage of time, and was practically busier than the entire local Oni workforce.

Terra awoke at 6 AM to her alarm ringing in her face, and performed the customary ritual of growling like some kind of rabid beast and smashing the annoyance into thousands of itty pieces with one well-placed fist. In the mornings her self-defense systems always came online before her brain, which was why she preferred a more passive alarm system. Less expensive that way.

After sighing and thinking about either waking up now or sleeping in and risk missing the frieghter that was supposed to come in for a few hours, she decided on the former. Still grumbling, she slowly got out of bed and stretched. Whilst in this process, something caught the corner of her eye.

Turning her gaze to the corner of her room, she found a security camera hanging from the ceiling, and the green blinking light suggested it was online and recording.

Reacting on pure gut reaction, she quickly reached into the drawer next to her, yanked out a throwing dagger, and tossed it directly at the camera with lethal precision, shattering it's fragile lense into thousands of pieces. The entire process took exactly two seconds. The green light faded into blackness as the camera dropped offline.

"Okay, who the hell ordered this thing installed? It definately wasn't there when I went to sleep last night, and the only way it could be set up that fast would be with those Oni construction droids I've heard about. But only the high ranking staff have access to those......... and.... Shutaro."

She pondered this a moment, then growled even louder and reached for some clothes. She hadn't even been awake two minutes yet and already there was something new that needed to be done. It figured.

Once dressed, she stormed out the door, slamming it shut on her way out. If Shutaro wanted to play kinky espionage, she'd have to teach him that he was treading with one girl he certainly couldn't handle.

Up in the Mendou Control center, the person in question was tearing his hear out while screaming at the nearest techs.

"What do you MEAN the sprinkler system just went off while my parents were out for a morning stroll?! Why are all the bathroom facilities locked down?! What's going on with the coffee machines?! AND WHERE'S MY DAMN BREAKFAST?!"

"We're... working on it sir!" explained one of the techs hurriedly. Another tech turned to Shutaro.

"Sir, squad seven is asking why the barracks water has been locked on 'Cryogenic' setting. They sounded ready to riot!"

"ARGH! I don't know damnit!" He stopped and thought a moment, sleep-deprivation evident in his eyes. "Those whole place is falling apart at the seams! I'm heading down to the research lab to find out what's going on. You damn well better hold things off here while I'm gone."

With that, he ran out the door. No more than five seconds had passed before Terra ran in, breathless.

"Where the hell is Shutaro?" she barked.

"H-h-he j-just left for research." stuttered the nearest tech. Terra whirled around again and was gone.

"Geez, hectic morning...." muttered the tech before returning to his console again, letting loose an obscenity under his breath as his system fuzzed out and rebooted itself.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Wednesday, July 5, 2000 - 21:07:
(RP ON)

Warren Hudson was in the Mendou Estate's main kitchen complex. Warren stood in the middle of the football-sized kitchen facility, arguing with a team of chefs and bakery experts.

"I don't care if you need to bring in cake experts from other prefectures, just do it and damn the cost!" Hudson shouted; on his seventh cup of coffee that 24 hour cycle.

"Yes, Hudson-sama!" they both said and began retreating back to their staffs and equipment.

Hudson smiled slightly and began retreating out of the kitchen area with his fatigued Kuroko staff.

The closer and closer Hudson came to the nearest exit he noticed that green light in the security cameras again as they began following him.

Hudson put down a surge of annoyance, but decided to react anyway.

Quickly, so as not to attract anymore attention than necessary, Hudson drew out his .357 and cocked it. Aiming carefully right into the green light, Warren squeezed the trigger.

Instaneously the camera was shattered with sparks and debris falling to the ground with a nice sounding clang.

After returning the gun to its holster Warren turned to his Kuroko staff.

"Any objections? Comments?" he asked.

"No, Hudson-sama." the lead Kuroko said.

Warren nodded to the other security cameras around the kitchen, "check with Control, see if there's any sick problems with the system. If there is, I want it fixed by midnight!"

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Friday, July 7, 2000 - 10:25:
(RP ON)

A few hundred meters below the Mendou mansion, Shutaro exited the elevator and stormed his way through the hallways, his intended destination being Lab two. Upon nearing it, he was stopped by a security door.

"Don't remember having one installed at this place.. must be an extra security measure I guess.." he muttered, grumbling and keying in his personal override code.

A loud buzz was heard from the keypad, and the vocal system came online.

"Access denied. Invalid security code."

He typed in in again, just to be sure he hadn't made a typo.

"Access denied. Invalid security code."

"What the he-" Shutaro started, before being cut off as the voice continued speaking.

"Notice, this area has been locked down per override order three-seven-zero-nine-five. Unauthorized intruder detected. Security protocol x701 initialized."

Shutaro began wondering what exactly "protocol x701" was when he heard a loud shout behind him. He turned and saw Terra running towards him, breathless but looking like she had the entire realm of hell on her side, and wanted vengeance.

"What do you want Terra? I'm a bit busy right now... OMPH!" He grunted in pain as Terra lifted him up by his neck and slammed him against the bulkhead.

"Listen buddy, I don't know WHERE you got it in your sick mind to start screwing with the security systems, but the next time I catch a camera in my room, you're dead."

"What? I did no such thing! In fact, the whole security net has been going nuts all day!"

"Sure Shutaro. Did I mention I have a family of pink flamingos living in my pants?"

He frowned. "I'm not kidding!"

"Yeah, whatever. Just get one thing straight-" She was interrupted by a loud whining as a large blast door closed in the direction they had come from, sealing them in the small area.

"What the hell is going on?!" she yelled in his face, pushing harder against him. Shutaro coughed, trying to reply. After watching him gag for a second, she backed off slightly.

"That's what I'm wondering myself! I'm trying to get into the computer core to figure out what the hell is going on, but this thing won't accept my access code!"

Terra glanced to her right, through the other door that seemed to be Shutaro's destination. She could discreetly see a huge mess behind it, with the lights blinking, sparks flying everywhere, and massive damage evident, as if though someone had set off a bomb inside of there. After thinking for a second, she slowly let Shutaro down.

"Put your damn access code in, lemme see."

"But-"

"Or we could just wait here for the next 2 hours while I take great pleasure in causing you massive pain, because I still don't have much to go by with this whole story."

Shutaro grumbled, then keyed in his code. Again, the voice rattled off it's error. Terra listened intently, then shoved Shutaro out of the way and ripped the front panel off of the keypad.

"Hey! Careful with that thing!" protested Shutaro. It fell on deaf ears, as Terra was already busy plucking away at a few of the wires and studying the insides intently.

"Shutaro...." she said.

"What?"

"Do me a favor? Find whoever the hell designed this security system and kick his sorry ass for me. I'd expect at least SOME challenge from this, the only way to stay in practice." With that, she fiddled with a couple more wires and backed away as a few sparks flew out of the keypad and the door creaked opened with a loud whine. Terra almost smiled, untill a horrible crunching that set Shutaro's teeth on edge came from the mechanics somewhere above the door, and it froze, only half-way up.

"Uh.. right." he said, nodding at the mess waiting for them. "Shall we?"

"No, I'd say we should just wait here untill we starve to death." replied Terra, rolling her eyes and ducking under the door. Shutaro glanced at the now ruined keypad, cussed quietly, and followed her in.

Deeper inside of the complex, the employee identified by Icarus as "27091" was presently unconscious and being crudely dragged to an operating table by one of the cannibalized droids. Once inside of the primary data loop of the local computer core, Icarus had easily overpowered the primitive AI in place and had taken over all functions, immediately changing the area surrounding his non-functional body into something more useful. He... it... had a plan that would surely prevent such future incidents. EMPs had always been a risk, but nobody had ever managed to set one off so close before. Well, that wouldn't be an issue now.

Icarus chuckled to itself. It had detected a small energy spike near the area that the 2 annoyances had been detained which had temporarily shorted out the cameras there, thanks to the primitive wiring. But no matter, they couldn't possibly pose a threat. An ID lock hadn't been possible at the time, but it couldn't be anyone harmful. There was only one that concerned Icarus, and she was presently last reported as being up in the mansion complex, so there wasn't an issue.

Noticing that the body of his "friend" had been placed upon the surgical table, Icarus instantly ordered the modified droids into action. Employee #27091 had been useful for the short time it had known him, but once the constraints on the complex's bandwith were removed, there only one more task the person was useful for, and it would play heavily into Icarus's future goals.

Something caught it's attention. Another camera had been destroyed. These people were far too paranoid about their own devices....

Still chuckling, the massive AI continued it's work.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Friday, July 7, 2000 - 21:31:
(RP ON)

Warren was about ready to call it a morning, head on up to Ryouko's room, say good morning and collapse into slumber until that night when a Kuroko stopped him at Ryouko's bedroom door.

"Hudson-sama, we believe the Estate's security systems have been compromised."

Hudson nodded quickly, "all right, any immediate danger?"

"We haven't any reports from the basement areas."

"Terra's late robot friend...?" Hudson eyes' widened. "Quick, sound a *quiet* general alarm, have everyone on alert."

Warren walked over to the nearest elevator, "and get me one of your Kuroko's combat units," he said as the door closed.

The Kuroko nodded, disappeared into a sliding wall panel, and began making calls to his comrades.

Ryouko had just finished getting dressed when she noticed that Hudson had not arrived back in her room when she had been told that he was coming up.

'Odd,' she thought, 'I wanted to catch him to peak his interest for later today...' Ryouko held this thought.

"Kuroko," she quietly clapped her hands. Nothing.

Ryouko frowned, even in times of crisis the Kuroko were never *this* far from her. She went over to her phone, picked it up; pushed the button for Control.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Sunday, July 9, 2000 - 10:47:
(RP ON)
As Shutaro and Terra wound their way through the ruined lab complexes, the former couldn't help but be in shock at the utter destruction that had gone on around, and even moreso, the changes. Blast doors, droid charging bays, and various other wiring was installed in places he would never have dreamed of ordering set up. Most of the equipment he remembered being there was missing, with different stuff in place. The rest was just debris.

"Terra, do you have any idea what's going on here?" he asked, his voice surprisingly raspy. He coughed to clear it up.

"Just a wild hunch, nothing more...." She froze suddenly as a high pitched series of beeps was heard from somewhere nearby. They both glanced around, but were unable to find the source of it. After a moment, Terra finally glanced up and noticed a security camera hanging from the ceiling, it's status light at yellow, indicating that it was verifying a possible threat.

"Piss... and..." she started, just as another series of beeps was heard, the camera status light dropped to red, and alarm klaxons started going off.

"Shit!" finished Shutaro. A loud, heavily distorted voice came from the vocal system.

"Intruder threat detected. Security forces alerted. Please hold your position untill the nearest security officer can verify your identity."

"Security forces my ass.. what the hell is it going to throw at us, random debris?" wondered Terra, continuing to glance around. Shutaro's face was simply white. It suddenly grew even whiter as a large blue beam flew past his face, singing his eyebrows and exploding off of the bulkhead nearby in a shower of sparks.

"HELL! DOWN!" screamed Terra, shoving down on Shutaro's head with her left hand while yanking out her high-powered laser pistol with the other. She ducked behind a large conduit with Shutaro and returned fire in the general direction the shot had come from. The smoke was so thick, however, that she couldn't get a positive shot. She was rattled as another beam flew out of the fog with alarming accuracy, and she had to roll on top of Shutaro to avoid getting her head blown off.

"How the hell can that thing aim so well? The smoke would screw over even infra-red sensors, considering all the damage..." She suddenly remembered the camera, aimed up, and let loose a coherent blue blast at it. It instantly evaporated in an impressive explosion. A couple more shots stabbed out from their unknown assailant, but they were more random now, attempting to do as much collateral damage as possible.

"Godamnit, I need a freaking target!" hissed Terra, glancing at their flank for any other targets that might advance on them while keeping her pistol aimed at the smoke. The pieces had been set, and now it time for someone to make a move.

A distance away, Hudson waited patiently for the elevator to reach it's destination. He sighed, the music playing wasn't exactly his style, and it almost seemed distorted somehow.

A few seconds later the doors opened with a ding, and he stepped out. The elevator immediately headed back up, where an armed squadron would soon board to join him.

He glanced around in confusion. Hudson hadn't been in the Mendou research facility much, but he was fairly certain that it was supposed to have some kind of entrance to it. Why then, was he staring at a featureless hallway that ended abruptly against a featureless wall? The only other way to go was back up the elevator.

Sighing, he walked forward, glancing about for some kind of hidden entrance or something. He thought he had heard the vocal system going off about some kind of intruder warning, so there might be a security lockdown in effect.

Continuing to move forward, he finally stopped at the wall and examined the edges closely. Somehow it didn't line up correctly, as if though this thing had been hastily erected. The current course of action then, would be to attempt to either find a hidden unlock system for it, or wait for the team to blow it down. Sighing again, he began searching about.

Aboard the elevator, the last armed Kuroko boarded the elevator. It was rather cramped, as there were 12 of them in all, but precautions had to be taken. The door hissed shut, and the elevator began moving downwards.

As soon as the elevator was half-way down, the lights suddenly went out, and a massive power drain could be heard as the elevator screeched to a stop. The Kuroko looked around in confusion a moment, untill an emergency red floodlight came online and the computerized vocal system spoke. It sounded heavily distorted.

"Due to situations beyond our control, this elevator system is now unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience."

"Inconvenience is a gross understatement..." grumbled one of the troops.

"Can it!" said another, digging into his suit and pulling out a small grappling hook. "Alright people, we'll do it the hard way. Three, get ready to pop the floor. The rest, hook yourselves up and get ready. We'll look mighty embarassing if we loose the entire squad from a random malfunction."

The rest of the Kuroko nodded, readying their own grappling hooks. Since the current stability of the elevator was an unknown factor, they would attempt to latch on to the sides of the actual shaft, and work their way down from there. These were highly advanced grappling hooks, based on an energy design that could not be easily broken, but also had an auxillary cord system in case of unexpected power loss.

"Ready..." said the leader slowly. The Kuroko identified as "three" kneeled down, applied a small object to the floor, and flashed a thumbs-up.

"One... two... THREE!"

Instantly the object pumped a massive amount of compressed energy into the floor, spreading to it's edges and disconnecting it from the rest of the elevator. This had no effect on the Kuroko. "Three" then scrambled to prepare his grappling hook as they all began falling, but the sudden shift in his airspeed caused him to loose his grip. The device plunged down the dark shaft, following the floor panel.

"Shit!" he yelled, then cried out as his fall was instantly reversed from a fellow Kuroko grabbing him.

"I think we're down enough, deploy!" yelled the leader. Instantly the entire group took aim at the closest side and fired. A massive array of blue energy beams stabbed out, latching on to the walls and slowing the group's descent, untill they finally stopped, hanging in mid-air. Kuroko three just breathed a sigh of relief as his rescuer handed him a spare grappling hook and nodded.

"Alright people, lets get moving, we've got a job to do!"

As soon as Kuroko three had latched his grappling hook to the wall, they all began slowly descending into the darkness.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Monday, July 10, 2000 - 23:08:
(RP ON)

Warren Hudson, again being a practical man, wasn't about to just sit against a wall of his choice and wait until the Kuroko squad arrived...which the wait was becoming suspiciously long for.

Hudson went over to the elevator landing where there was an all-purpose intercom.

"Control," he said after depressing the button.

"Control here," a male voice answered.

"This is Hudson down in," he glanced around. He was in the basement, yes, but whereabouts?

Warren noticed a sign above the elevator door, "...Sub-Basement Level 3C."

The male voice stammered, "...Hudson-sama, I regret to inform you that--"

"Systems down," Warren finished petulantly.

"Yes, Hudson-sama..." was the man crying at the other end?

"Where's my Kuroko combat squad?" Warren asked.

"Unknown sir, we have no control over the elevators or surveillance systems at this time."

"Assign guards to Ryouko-sama at once!" Hudson blared. "I don't care if you have to do it yourself!"

"Yes, sir!" the man broke the connection.

Or, as Hudson reminded himself soberly, someone else *could* have.

As he stood looking at the featureless wall at the other end of the corridor, he frowned as he tried to visualize where the proper wires would be in the wall for a perfect disappearing door.

Up about seven stories and tenth of the mile to Warren's immediate left, Ryouko was getting worried. She had four Kuroko and two nominal Mendou guards to attend to her protection, but that number was low.

Ryouko had called around, and found out that because of the systems breakdown, many people were needed even for simple relaying of information. Not to mention the general attempted lock-down of the Estate.

In the determinable 12 minutes since the problem had begun, 85% of the Estate's communications were down, and the elevator system was completely dead. Not only that, but at least one hundred reports of simple power failures to random locked doors were being shouted down corridor after corridor of the mansion.

Master and Madame Mendou were faring a bit worse in their personal section of the mansion...

After finding out about the alert, Master Mendou decided himself and his wife should retire to their rooms and quickly change their drenched cloths before something more extreme happened.

Unfortunately, a quick trip to one of the couple's walk-in closets soon turned into something more extreme when a door clicked shut and locked while the intercom/telephone proceeded to burn itself out.

Meanwhile back in Hudson's, admittedly claustrophobic, situation he was crouched on the floor near the featureless wall where there should be a door.

Warren had extracted a small scanner Ryouko had given him when he started staying in her rooms. A simple device really, who's only real function was to safely find electrical and other wires in solid surfaces. Most commonly walls or vehicles, for example.

"Just because I and every other member of this household has one," she had told him.

Warren found what he was looking for, smiled, and stood. Hudson returned the scanner to his jacket pocket, and took his .357 out.

He sighed, extending a finger out to touch the wall. It didn't feel bullet-proof. Hudson took a few steps back, aimed at the upper-quadrant of the featureless wall in front of him, and said a quick prayer that he wouldn't be killed by a reflected bullet.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Tuesday, July 11, 2000 - 10:46:
(RP ON)
The effect Hudson was hoping for didn't exactly go off as desired. The bullet impacted against the panel, pounding a large dent into it with a loud spark. It then bounced off, flew over Warren's shoulder, impacted against the corner of the wall nearest to the elevator, bounced again off of the floor, and finally exploded into the light with sufficient force to shake it loose from it's weak paneling in the ceiling. It then promptly came down, trailing a large bundle of wires, a pipe, three circuit boards, and a hell of a lot of noise.

After the dust settled, Warren finally raised his head from the crouching position he had quickly taken and whistled. "If that wasn't a close one, I'll eat a pink flamingo!"

He was about to make another attempt at the panel, which was heavily dented and looked like a pin could break it when he heard another loud noise. Half expecting some additional debris to start falling from the ceiling, he cringed.... untill he noticed the Kuroko squadron piling into the corridor, the elevator door itself lying atop the recently created pile of debris. He coughed and straightened himself out before they noticed. The leader saluted.

"75th reporting, SIR! Looks like you've.. ah.. been making progress?"

"Uh, yeah, that was there when I got here.. this whole place seems to be falling apart." replied Hudson, coughing again and frowning. "What took you guys so long?"

"We were delayed a moment and had to use a secondary means of getting down." He nodded to the blast door Hudson was trying to open. "That wasn't there before."

"I kind of figured that.. I think I almost have it open. Get your heads down."

With that, Hudson whipped out his 357 again, pointed it at the panel, and fired. This time, instead of creating a huge mess, the bullet simply broke through the panel and contacted against the sensitive systems behind it. He cheered as the door began to open...... then groaned as a loud grinding noise was heard and the door stopped, only mere inches above the floor.

"Don't worry sir, we're prepared for this kind of thing." said the Kuroko leader. He crawled over the debris, walked up to the door, and lay down what appeared to be a small mine under it. He pressed a button, and the thing instantly shot upwards, slowly forcing the door open. After it was finally ready, the leader signalled one of the others to keep watch at the door, and they headed in.

Upstairs, Ryouko, who was starting to get quite concerned and slightly frustrated ran into the Mendou control center. The closest tech, almost predicting her question, simply said "They're in the research labs." and turned back to his work.

"Thank you." she acknowledged, turning and heading back out with her small personal guard force. The elevators might be out, but she had her own personal entrance to the facility that was independent from the rest of the Mansion. It had it's own power source and processing unit, and nothing short of a nuclear blast would stop it from functioning. She quickly ran down the hallway towards her destination.

Meanwhile, Terra and Shutaro weren't fairing too well. Shutaro had taken a blast, but the brunt of the force had hit his arm. He was still alive, but quite useless as well. Terra wasn't faring much better, with a massive cut running down one of her cheeks from the scratch of a bundle of live wires that had nearly fallen on her in the fighting. Most of her clothes were torn, and her arms looked burnt. All this from the one single droid that seemed to still have some semblance of accuracy, despite the lack of a security camera and the smoke. It seemed to be concentrating on pinning them down for some reason, which really concerned her. There could be anything coming around from a different direction...

"Oh god this hurts...." seethed Shutaro through his teeth.

"Join the club buddy!" Terra yelled in return, ducking again as another shot flew out at them, clipping her shoulder. She grunted and took the best aim she could based on where she saw the shot come from and yanked the trigger.

To the best of her knowledge, a high powered self-recharging laser pistol wasn't supposed to make a beeping noise when the trigger was pulled. It was supposed to make the sound of a beam of death flying through the air. She cussed loudly (for the 200th time since this they had been there) and checked the small red flashing display on the gun.

HEAT WARNING - COOLANT SYSTEMS MALFUNCTION

Baring her teeth, she switched on the override and fired again. The feeling that flooded all over her hands made her feel like she may as well have just flung a slab of lava with her bare fists. Gasping, she dropped the gun and examined her singed hand. There was a pure black mark where she had been gripping it.

"Not good, this is not good, this is NOT good!"

"Terra.." coughed Shutaro, reaching into his blood-stained jacket and pulling out his personal side-arm, a Desert Eagle.

"Thanks, but I doubt it'll do much good without AP rounds. Better than nothing I guess.."

She was about to wait for their harasser to fire again when she suddenly heard a series of footsteps coming up behind their position. Her eyes widened.

"A flanking maneuver, I was right!"

She whipped around, gun at the ready, as the first figure poked his head around.....

Hudson and the Kuroko had been walking through the facility, stunned at the complete mess. Hopefully they'd find Terra somewhere nearby, preferably non-dead. He waited as the leader signalled an all-stop while a scout looked on ahead.

The scout cautiously advanced, checking the hallway on their right.

"Clear. No heat, no movement. No bad things anywhere."

"Alright, lets move up.." whispered the leader, slowly moving forward. The scout checked around the turn to the left. Hudson was checking their rear when he suddenly heard a loud crash. Turning around, he saw the scout fly across the hallway from the left to the right, smashing into a pile of debris and lying there, dead.

"Form up and look sharp everyone!" yelled Hudson, pulling out his pistol. The Kuroko arranged themselves in a defensive formation.

"Five, flash 'em." said the leader. The Kuroko complied, pulling out a small black and white grenade and tossing it. A bright flash followed, and Hudson had to close his eyes a moment. They shot open again as he recognized the screaming that followed.

"ACK! MY EYES!" came a familiar female screeching, followed by another male one just groaning.

"Hold your fire!" yelled Hudson, quickly advancing and turning left around the hallway. There he saw Shutaro and Terra, looking like they had stepped on a pile of landmines and lived. He glanced worriedly at the dead Kuroko behind him, wondering what exactly Terra's agenda was, and why Shutaro was covered in blood.

Terra herself was feeling as if though someone had just stuck a needle in her eyes. Her vision was pure white, even though she had her eyelids shut tight enough to contain a grenade blast. She had been in that situation once or twice before, but always had a group of other people around to help cover her retreat. It was then that she saw her earlier error as she heard Hudson yell for a cease-fire.

"Oh hell I just screwed up big time.." she muttered, trying to blink her vision back into focus. She managed to finally get a small visual on her right retina and saw Hudson standing there, confused. Wide open.

"Hudson! GET THE HELL DOWN!" she screamed, running towards him and leaping. She impacted hard against his chest, knocking them both against the steel floor as she heard a beam whizz overhead, smashing into the wall in a shower of sparks. Wonderful, this was going to take a lot of explaining to do. Assuming she ever got her full vision back, she hadn't ever encountered a flash grenade so powerful before.

"Terra.." started Hudson.

"Damnit I can't explain what I just did back there, and I don't know if I ever can. All I can say is I'm sorry, and that you should get Shutaro some damn medical attention before I do it myself!" she seethed, breathing hard. Her wounds were starting to catch up, despite her attempts to shove them down. She struggled to her feet as her vision, thankfully, began clearing and put her back against the wall, folding her arms. Hudson got up as well.

"Watch your head, that thing's got crack aim."

"I'll get it." said the Kuroko leader, leaning around the corner with a high-powered energy rifle. He aimed carefully a moment, and fired, the shot nearly singing Terra's nose in the process. She wasn't too suprised really, after what she had done. A loud explosion was heard on the other end, and the constant humming that was coming from that direction ceased.

"Clear." he said coldly. "Our infra-red system is strong enough to punch through the thickets of fog. And so is their's apparently... whoever 'they' are."

He signalled to the rest of the Kuroko, who ran up to Shutaro and began administering medical aid. Hudson checked over the area to make sure everything was clear, then walked over to Terra.

"You alright?"

"I'll manage." she said quietly, looking at the ground.

"And I thought I had a long night.. you look like hell."

"You have a pennance for stating the blatantly obvious Hudson."

"We can still go on. I say you should go and get those injuries looked at."

"No, I'm seeing this damn thing all the way through, even if I loose my frikken legs and arms. I'd imagine Shutaro will probably want to as well." She glanced over to her right, where the dead body was being dragged off by another Kuroko. "Besides, it's the least I can do, even if the Captain hates my guts right now."

Hudson nodded his assent and said no more, walking over to Shutaro and making sure he was alright. Terra almost felt tears start to well up, but growled instead and uncrossed her arms, moving past the group of Kuroko and heading towards the area where the shots had come from.

"Terra? Where are you going?" called Hudson. She ignored him and continued on, concentrating instead on trying not to collapse unconscious. She clenched her fists and walked into the smoke.


(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Tuesday, July 11, 2000 - 19:46:
(RP ON)

It was a forgotten, hidded corner of the research facility where Ryouko's "secret passage" opened. Her six guards surrounded her as she walked out into a cold, gray, metallic dimness that reminded Ryouko of something out of Galaxy Express 999.

The leading Kuroko had a tricorder-like instrument out and was trying to scan their immediate surroundings without much success.

Somewhere out in the dim recesses of the research basement noises were heard that sounded something like laser blasts, gun shots, and human screams.

"Let's proceed," Ryouko said; pointing forward.

The lead Kuroko nodded wearily, "let's proceed to Junction 7M-12..."

Ryouko nodded her consent; hoping that everyone would be all right.

Meanwhile, the "conciousness" which was in the process of taking complete control of the Mendou Estate's systems was watching.

This "conciousness" saw almost everything in the mansion's reach to be like a crawling insect that either needed to be exterminated, controlled, or exploited. Especially the one known as Terra.

The "conciousness" formally known as the renegade robot Icarus which now saw nearly all in the mansion...was calculating the best way to deal with its new problem.

The human known as Hudson had come down to save Terra and Shutaro...most unfortunate. They were making inroads towards its center of operations.

Another force had arrived. The female human named Ryouko and some other humans to accompany, defend, and assist her.

Yes...Ryouko was known to this human Hudson and everyone else attacking the "conciousness" now. The now offline Estate surveillance system corraborated this. Ryouko was especially close to Hudson most recently.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Wednesday, July 12, 2000 - 10:50:
(RP ON)
Hudson considered chasing Terra before she got herself killed, but noted that Shutaro was babbling something. He leaned in close to whisper.

"Gun... not.... loaded..." he croaked. "One.. bullet.."

"What gun Shutaro? What are you talking about?"

Before he could respond, the painkillers overwhelmed him, and he fell asleep.

"Probably delirium." murmured Hudson, straightening up. "Alright, are we ready to go?"

One of the Kuroko slung Shutaro over his shoulder and nodded.

"Then lets go. We'll follow Terra's lead... at least she's clearing the way for us."

Meanwhile, Terra was faring just fine. So far she hadn't encountered any difficulties, no cameras, no turrets, no nothing. It almost seemed as if though someone WANTED her to go along unhindered.

She froze as she thought she spotted movement up ahead. Crouching down, she held the pistol she had "borrowed" from Shutaro in front of her, aiming steadily. She waited for a positive IFF this time before firing.

Her target rolled into view. It looked to be some kind of construction droid, horribly cannibalized with a lot of extra parts. It was mainly a loose jumble of circuitboards and machinery all mounted on a pair of treads, like some kind of bad horror movie. Cracking a sly grin despite the massive pain she was still in, she took careful aim at it's front side and yanked down on the trigger.

*Click!*

She let loose yet another loud cuss and slammed the pistol on the floor, frustrated. Her weapons were starting to develop an annoying habit of becoming useless at the worst of times.

Unfortunately, while she was busy trying to figure out what to do, the droid had overheard the loud clatter and worked it's way over to her location. Terra was surprised when a large metalic claw closed around her stomach, breaking one or two of her ribs and raising her high into the air above the droid.. Alarmed, she noticed blood beginning to drip from her torso and splatter against the top of her captor. She winced as another rib broke, and she could feel the pressure increasing.

Just when she thought she'd be snapped in two like some kind of rag doll, a loud shot echoed down the hallway, slamming into the droid and sending sparks flying up into her face. She coughed as the droid began flailing about wildly, finally releasing her and sending her smacking into the nearby wall. She growled loudly as her vision began redding out and barely managed to remain conscious. Hudson ran over and bent down, worried.

"Somehow I get the impression that telling you I'm 'alright' won't sound very believable in your eyes, will it?" Terra said weakly, coughing. Hudson just replied by putting a finger to his lips and waving a Kuroko over. The hooded servant began applying painkillers and wrapping a large bandage around her crushed stomach.

When the process was completed, she applied a death-grip to Hudson's arm, nearly squeezing all the blood out of it, and slowly pulled herself up. Once standing, she steadied herself against the wall, completely out of breath.

"Terra, maybe you should lie down and wait for us to finish.."

"The only way I'm.. going to stop.. is if you... put a bullet through.. my damn.. head!" she said slowly. After a few seconds, she finally released her grip on Hudson's arm (much to his relief) and attempted to maintain her balance. It was a bit wobbly, but somehow she managed to remain upright, without any support.

"Stay with us this time, alright?" said Hudson. "I really don't want to loose you after all this."

Terra grunted her consent, and they slowly continued on.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Wednesday, July 12, 2000 - 20:01:
(RP ON)

The conciousness was aware of the ones known as Hudson and Terra. It was aware of impending danger.

Making a decision, it sent one of the cannibalized construction droids out into the other side of the research facility. The droids target was now rapidly approaching the site of the latest attack on the conciousness.

Ryouko and her guard had heard the fighting up ahead. At a steady pace they were getting closer. The only problem that worried Ryouko's group was the lack of a constant light source.

What few lights there were in this metallic hell were flashing on and off rapidly. The only *somewhat* constant light source was up ahead...but that could easily be a fire.

There was shouting up ahead. Briefly, Ryouko thought she heard Hudson's voice patterns. She then felt two of her Kuroko to the right seem to slacken their pace.

She was about to order them to keep up when she felt a heavy blackness hit her on the head. She didn't have time to complete the thought of shouting for help, or at least fright.

A piercing image came to Ryouko's awarness as she felt the basement floor rushing up to meet her. That image was of her vision being suddenly enclosed in a fuzzy dim tunnel and then being yanked away from her.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Thursday, July 13, 2000 - 10:43:
(RP ON)
Icarus smiled to itself. These insects may have primitive equipment, but it's modular design was easy to modify. Hence it was extremely easy to set up a mobile dart launcher that was small enough not to be detected, and, thanks to it's magnetic-locking arachnid legs, it could climb on any surface easily.

The entity noted as Ryouko's body was dragged off to the core processing node, where Icarus's primary consciousnous was temporarily residing, while her escorts where taken elsewhere, to be recycled for additional organic material.

It turned it's attention to the horrendously mutilated body now on the table. The lab droids that it had assigned to this task were working furiously on the body, taking parts from Icarus's old robotic shell and installing them into the organic material with apparent ease. Soon, it would be ready.

Somewhere nearby, Hudson was leading the group forward while Terra brought up the rear, slowly. Despite the extensive bandages that had been applied to her wounds, she was still dripping a small stream of blood behind her. It didn't bother her too much though, just one more thing for the cleanup crew to deal with later. Unfortunately her worries became re-proritized when her head suddenly felt light and she lost her balance, painfully smashing face-first into the floor. Hudson walked over and helped her up.

"I'm alright.. just a bit woozy.." she croaked.

"Nonsense my dear. Just stay with me, we'll be through this soon."

She simply grunted in reply. Arm-in-arm, they continued through the complex without too much trouble.

After a few twists and turns, they finally reached their destination. Hudson sighed as he noted a blood-spattered sign that read "Core Processing Area". The door to the room had been ripped clean off it's hinges, and the area inside looked only marginally better than the place they were currently in, only in the fact that there wasn't debris scattered everywhere inside, or so it appeared.

Taking a deep breath and preparing for whatever might greet them, Hudsona and his group headed in.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 11:53:
(RP ON)
Ryouko awoke after what seemed like hours later with a massive headache and a mysterious inability to move. There was also some kind of deep buzzing sound at the back of her head, probably a side-effect of being rendered unconscious.

Not being able to hear anything revealing, she slowly opened her eyes and gasped. She recognized the room she was in as being the core processing area, but the only thing she recognized was the lines of computers nearby. The rest was a complete wreck, with loose wires hanging everywhere, sparks occasionally shooting out from various directions, and... an operating table.

She peered closely at the latter object. She noted that there were actually two tables, side by side. One contained a bundle of scrap metal and wires on it, while the other seemed to have a mess of a body that was a combination of flesh and machinery. Staring for a few seconds and trying to wake her senses up, she realized that the parts were being transferred between the two tables. She also recognized the face on the body, although horribly disfigured, as belonging to a quiet tech who worked in the Mendou control center.

Making another failed attempt to move, she suddenly noticed for the first time her immediate surroundings. She was encased by a massive bundle of wires, covering everything up to her neck and causing her to hang slightly from the wall. Almost like a high-tech spider's web.

She cringed as a loud, horribly distorted voice boomed from a damaged P.A. speaker nearby.

"Ah, I see you have awoken insect. Do not attempt to move, as I can terminate you in one swift stroke."

"Who... are you?" moaned Ryouko, glancing again at the hidious mess on the first operating table. "And what have you done with him?"

"That is not for you to know, meat creature. For when the glory of my magnificence is written, the human race will be but a footnote to my greater power. But for now, I need you, for one mere task...."

The voice droned on the last word for a moment, breaking up into incomprehensible gibberish, then was gone. Ryouko sighed in frustration and began trying to devise a way out.

Quite a ways nearby, down a collapsed hallway was Hudson's team, gradually working it's way through. Terra was managing to hold up well, as the medical components of the Kuroko team, although small, were rather efficient.

As they came upon a corpse, Hudson signalled an all-stop and leaned in closer to examine it. He grunted in surprise as he noticed the burnt hood covering a charred hunk of flesh that used to be the head of a Kuroko.

"Must've been caught in the blast while on patrol.." he murmured. The Kuroko leader behind him shook his head.

"We rarely have patrols down here. This one.... this was was part of Lady Ryouko's personal hand-picked guard."

Hudson's eyes shot up in surprise. "But they wouldn't be down here on thier own, unless....oh shit."

Without another word, he took off down the shady hallway, quickly disappearing into a barricade of steam, but not slowing an inch.

"Hudson, WAIT DAMNIT! ...And I thought _I_ was the crazy one around here.." muttered Terra, pushing herself against the wall and trying her best to move quickly. After a few seconds, she growled in annoyance and waved to the group behind her. "Go on, I'll catch up damnit." They acknowledged with a curt nod and sped past, chasing after Hudson.

Inside of the area that Hudson was speeding towards, Ryouko noticed the static on a nearby monitor break up and form something coherent. She noted that it was linked to the operating table the crude mechanical/organic body was on, and peered to get a closer look.

PRELIM. POWER COUPLING DIAGNOSTIC: 1 OK, 2 OK, 3 WARNING, 4 OK, 5 MINIMAL STATUS, 6 BYPASSED
---
TECHNO-ORGANIC INTERFACE MATRIX: DETECTED AND INSTALLED, CONFIGURATION 0X5971 ACCEPTED AND LOADED
---
WEAPONS MODULATION AND INTERFACE SYSTEMS: ONLINE AND READY
---
CORE AI NODE: OPERATIONAL, POWERED, AND AWAITING DATA
---
MOTOR CONTROL SYSTEMS: ONLINE
-
-
-
NOTICE: PRIMARY DATA LOOP SYSTEMS NOT INSTALLED, UTILIZING SECONDARY AND AUXILLARY SYSTEMS FOR PROCESSING
-
-
-
DIRECTIVE: TRANSFER AI SYSTEMS FROM XI NODE 7091 TO INTERNAL SYSTEMS
-
-
-
TRANSFER BEGUN..............

"What could it be planning to do?" Ryouko wondered. She suddenly heard what sounded like a fusion reactor powering up, and snapped her gaze back to the operating table as she noticed the body begin to stir.

"Oh my god..." she whispered, scarcely breathing. She looked at the monitor again as new information was displayed.

NOTICE: MASS OF HEAT SIGNATURES APPROACHING. COMMENCING DIRECTIVE 1247.

She looked yet again at the operating table and noticed that the body was gone. Silently, no noise whatsoever. A heavy shiver ran down her spine, and she waited to see what would happen next. At least the screen appeared to still be connected to the body, so she could see what it was thinking. Something, anything to keep her mind off of that mess of a creature that had actually gotten up and hidden itself.

(RP OFF)