mothspit
ɖɛʍօռ ȶօ ֆօʍɛ, ǟռɢɛʟ ȶօ օȶɦɛʀֆ
"You know, this contact of yours couldn't have picked a more crowded meetup."
Ursula's stoic, emotionless gaze curiously examined the thumping dance floor of Bubble Rush-- The Crown's most prestigious nightclub. With her hands shoved into a baggy, oversized jacket, she tilted her head down, the tops of her eyes looking into a sea of dancing bodies over a pair of reflective sunglasses. She blew a large, hot-pink bubble from her lips, popping it shortly thereafter with a sharp inhale. As she subconsciously bobbed her head to the beat of an obscure (but catchy) techno song, the man of the hour-- Reggie, her loving brother-- stood with his back firmly pressed against one wall. Nearby, a string of dancers on a tiny stage beckoned his gaze with suggestive gestures. He shuddered, flipping up the hood of his jacket to avoid their tantalizing looks. Any other night, and maybe.. No, stop it Reggie. This is serious. Serious serious serious. Eyes on the prize, buddy.
"I know. It smells like E-Corp in here," He quipped with a scoff, jerking his thumb at a small group of suits huddled around the table of a tall dancer at one end of the room. Her unenthusiastic look, coupled with the rigidness of her movements made it clear she didn't want to be here anymore than the siblings did. Looking around further, and he noticed a myriad of peculiar characters. One man, disheveled in a stained and ruffled uniform, sat slumped over a table, snoring away without a care in the world. A group of women all wearing the same pencil skirt and up-do had just ordered their third round of drinks-- Reggie was keeping count-- Since they arrived. He assumed that even pencil-pushing cigar-smoking money-grubbing corporate slaves had their fun, but seeing them out in the wild, without that professional burden.. was totally surreal. ..They were still jerks, though.
This small search for an unknown figure did little to quell his anxiety, and he began to frantically tap his right foot; The metal of his artificial leg tapping against the tile flooring with a series of tings.
"..You're tapping," Ursula said with another pop of a bubble.
"I'm not," Reggie shot back.
"You are. It's annoying."
"You're annoying."
Ursula grinned, masking half of her face with an impressively large bubble, before Reggie popped it by playfully poking it with one finger. He'd normally never bring her on missions likes this-- Any other time, in anywhere but The Crown, and her expertise wasn't necessary. Reggie was capable enough on his own, but given the circumstances.. it didn't help having someone he trusted in a place like this. Not to mention if things got crazy, those metal hands did a lot more than look pretty..
Suddenly, there came the sound of a crackling in both their ears, and the familiar voice of Jean Koi piped up for the first time all evening, "You're both annoying! What's the hold up, huh?! I'm hungry!"
The siblings chuckled, and Reggie reached up to press the small button of the earpiece behind his shaggy hair, "You're as lovely as ever, Jean. Having some trouble finding our guy. Just try to be patient."
"Uh huh! You better bring me something to eat on your way back!"
"Are you sure this isn't a setup?" Ursula said with a small frown, "Think about it. Stolen technology, an E-Corp lackey, meeting us in their home territory.."
Reggie's heart rate suddenly spiked with a newfound sense of worry. But, she did have a point. Like pretty much everyone from The Cavity, the only way you were getting an upgraded Augment was by either A.) Getting lucky and finding a new piece every time you went scavenging, or B.) By stealing it. Not only that, but the two of them combined had enough years dealing with Emperion Corporation and it's minions to know that nobody just.. gives away their over-priced tech. Everyone always wanted something. But people talk, and if you have the right connections and the right people, anything was possible. For the past several months, Reggie had been in contact with a mysterious trader-- Someone who claimed they worked for E-Corp, and had a stash of unreleased technology they were looking to get rid of. After weeks of trying to verify their identity from his usual trader-buddies, one thing did become clear; They weren't from The Cavity. Beyond that, though, nobody knew anything, and they certainly didn't dare meet this person on the off chance it was, well.. a setup. Was it possible that an E-Corp lapdog had empathy after all? Who knows; But setup or not, this was an opportunity Reggie couldn't afford to pass up. It was an itch that needed to be scratched, and one thing anyone can about Reggie? He had a hard time saying no. Especially if it meant fucking up someone on Miles' payroll.
"The way I see it is this," He explained calmly, "If it's a setup, Jean hacks into the cameras, finds out who this guy is, and we threaten to expose him if we don't get the tech. If it's not, we reverse engineer it and flip it for a profit. It's a win-win."
"Roger, roger!" Jean crackled.
Ursula merely shrugged, comically rolling her head to look across the other side of the room. After brief pause, she raises a metal hand from the pocket of her jacket. On the back of her palm, a soft purple light softly blinks as she points across the room, and when Reggie followed her finger, there sitting across the dance floor was.. a figure, their head low and shrouded by a dark hood. A single light from the ceiling illuminated the top of their head, but nothing else. Ursula raised a brow and clapped her hand down on Reggie's shoulder, "Good luck, winner."
Reggie swallowed hard. That was him, it had to be. This mysterious contact he'd been corresponding with for months, all the while never knowing their face. The nervous leader made his way over, weaving in and out of the colliding bodies of the booming dance floor. He slid into the booth across from the figure, folding both hands neatly on top of it's table. When Reggie opened his mouth to speak, he found himself struggling to pull the words from the back of his throat. Thankfully, though, he didn't need to, as the person seated across from him got straight to the point.
"CottonMouth3056?" They asked, raising their head up from the table-- Reggie's online alias. The stranger in question was in fact a man; Salt and pepper stubble accompanying the expression of man who hadn't slept properly in several days. Dark rings circled his eyes, a paranoid sweat littered his brow, and he had the look of someone who was definitely suspicious, but trying to appear otherwise. He didn't look that old-- Early 40's, maybe-- But whatever was depriving him of his sleep had managed to put an additional 30 years on his appearance..
"..That's right," Reggie confirmed with a cautious nod, "User58145?"
The man exhaled in relief, "Yeah. Let's get to it, then."
The man lifted a hand from under the table. In it, he held a thin, clear piece of glass, pushing it across the table to Reggie. As soon as he touched it, the surface of the glass lit up like a screen, revealing a type of blueprint. From what it looked like, it was just a concept sketch.. Was this the supposed technology promised to him? When he looked closer, the design of the invention depicted looked something similar to Ursula's hands; A type of artificial gauntlet, equipped with an array of impressive features locked behind a string of garbled letters and numbers-- A safeguard code. But Reggie was pretty familiar with the latest E-Corp tech, and this didn't look like anything currently on the market. When he realized what this meant, Reggie's eyes widened in awe. Information like this was way more valuable than any physical tech.
"This is.."
"..A new prototype from E-Corp, yes." User said frantically, "They're calling it the 'Hand of God.' Development wont begin for another three or four years, let alone it's release."
"..How did you get this?" Reggie murmured, zooming in on the image by pinching the screen, "And why the hell are you giving it to me? This kind of tech.. It could--"
"Set me up for life, I know. I thought I could do this, but.." The man trails off, shaking his head, "Miles is ridiculously paranoid about his technology, so much so that he only makes one blueprint for every model. ONE. All of those blueprints are stored on these keys, I just transferred the print to a spare. They're all plugged into a digital library with round-the-clock security; I found this one in the depths of the archive. One of those security features is a honeypot that I was in charge of monitoring."
A honeypot. Something huge corporations like E-Corp used to lure hackers into a digital trap, tracing their IP's and having them arrested. They'd think they'd just hit the virtual motherload, only to have marked androids bursting through the windows minutes later. Reggie was familiar with the trap; Every rookie digi-delinquent came across them at least once, but once you learned what they looked like and how to spot them, they were easy to bypass. Reggie was thoroughly interested now-- An archive of one-of-a-kind technology just itching to be cracked open, telling untold riches to the first person brave enough to make the damn thing. No wonder nobody had met with this guy yet. It was way too good to be true.
"..So what are you saying, man?"
"I'm saying," User groaned, "The second they find out it's gone, I'm gone. But if a scummy hacker steals the blueprint remotely? Something I would have had no control over?"
"I take offense to that!" Jean said with a hmph.
"..Chances are they'll chalk it up to a breach in security. You snuck into the archive using a backdoor in the honeypot, snagged the blueprint, and buried your tracks under mountains of junk code. E-Corp noticed something had been moved, but they haven't figured out what or how just yet because it's not scheduled for development until years later. You realized how badly you fucked up, and now want to pass the blueprint off to a 'scummy hacker' like me. By the time they do figure out what was stolen, It won't matter."
"Hallelujah, he's fast." The man said with a sarcastic scoff.
Ursula's stoic, emotionless gaze curiously examined the thumping dance floor of Bubble Rush-- The Crown's most prestigious nightclub. With her hands shoved into a baggy, oversized jacket, she tilted her head down, the tops of her eyes looking into a sea of dancing bodies over a pair of reflective sunglasses. She blew a large, hot-pink bubble from her lips, popping it shortly thereafter with a sharp inhale. As she subconsciously bobbed her head to the beat of an obscure (but catchy) techno song, the man of the hour-- Reggie, her loving brother-- stood with his back firmly pressed against one wall. Nearby, a string of dancers on a tiny stage beckoned his gaze with suggestive gestures. He shuddered, flipping up the hood of his jacket to avoid their tantalizing looks. Any other night, and maybe.. No, stop it Reggie. This is serious. Serious serious serious. Eyes on the prize, buddy.
"I know. It smells like E-Corp in here," He quipped with a scoff, jerking his thumb at a small group of suits huddled around the table of a tall dancer at one end of the room. Her unenthusiastic look, coupled with the rigidness of her movements made it clear she didn't want to be here anymore than the siblings did. Looking around further, and he noticed a myriad of peculiar characters. One man, disheveled in a stained and ruffled uniform, sat slumped over a table, snoring away without a care in the world. A group of women all wearing the same pencil skirt and up-do had just ordered their third round of drinks-- Reggie was keeping count-- Since they arrived. He assumed that even pencil-pushing cigar-smoking money-grubbing corporate slaves had their fun, but seeing them out in the wild, without that professional burden.. was totally surreal. ..They were still jerks, though.
This small search for an unknown figure did little to quell his anxiety, and he began to frantically tap his right foot; The metal of his artificial leg tapping against the tile flooring with a series of tings.
"..You're tapping," Ursula said with another pop of a bubble.
"I'm not," Reggie shot back.
"You are. It's annoying."
"You're annoying."
Ursula grinned, masking half of her face with an impressively large bubble, before Reggie popped it by playfully poking it with one finger. He'd normally never bring her on missions likes this-- Any other time, in anywhere but The Crown, and her expertise wasn't necessary. Reggie was capable enough on his own, but given the circumstances.. it didn't help having someone he trusted in a place like this. Not to mention if things got crazy, those metal hands did a lot more than look pretty..
Suddenly, there came the sound of a crackling in both their ears, and the familiar voice of Jean Koi piped up for the first time all evening, "You're both annoying! What's the hold up, huh?! I'm hungry!"
The siblings chuckled, and Reggie reached up to press the small button of the earpiece behind his shaggy hair, "You're as lovely as ever, Jean. Having some trouble finding our guy. Just try to be patient."
"Uh huh! You better bring me something to eat on your way back!"
"Are you sure this isn't a setup?" Ursula said with a small frown, "Think about it. Stolen technology, an E-Corp lackey, meeting us in their home territory.."
Reggie's heart rate suddenly spiked with a newfound sense of worry. But, she did have a point. Like pretty much everyone from The Cavity, the only way you were getting an upgraded Augment was by either A.) Getting lucky and finding a new piece every time you went scavenging, or B.) By stealing it. Not only that, but the two of them combined had enough years dealing with Emperion Corporation and it's minions to know that nobody just.. gives away their over-priced tech. Everyone always wanted something. But people talk, and if you have the right connections and the right people, anything was possible. For the past several months, Reggie had been in contact with a mysterious trader-- Someone who claimed they worked for E-Corp, and had a stash of unreleased technology they were looking to get rid of. After weeks of trying to verify their identity from his usual trader-buddies, one thing did become clear; They weren't from The Cavity. Beyond that, though, nobody knew anything, and they certainly didn't dare meet this person on the off chance it was, well.. a setup. Was it possible that an E-Corp lapdog had empathy after all? Who knows; But setup or not, this was an opportunity Reggie couldn't afford to pass up. It was an itch that needed to be scratched, and one thing anyone can about Reggie? He had a hard time saying no. Especially if it meant fucking up someone on Miles' payroll.
"The way I see it is this," He explained calmly, "If it's a setup, Jean hacks into the cameras, finds out who this guy is, and we threaten to expose him if we don't get the tech. If it's not, we reverse engineer it and flip it for a profit. It's a win-win."
"Roger, roger!" Jean crackled.
Ursula merely shrugged, comically rolling her head to look across the other side of the room. After brief pause, she raises a metal hand from the pocket of her jacket. On the back of her palm, a soft purple light softly blinks as she points across the room, and when Reggie followed her finger, there sitting across the dance floor was.. a figure, their head low and shrouded by a dark hood. A single light from the ceiling illuminated the top of their head, but nothing else. Ursula raised a brow and clapped her hand down on Reggie's shoulder, "Good luck, winner."
Reggie swallowed hard. That was him, it had to be. This mysterious contact he'd been corresponding with for months, all the while never knowing their face. The nervous leader made his way over, weaving in and out of the colliding bodies of the booming dance floor. He slid into the booth across from the figure, folding both hands neatly on top of it's table. When Reggie opened his mouth to speak, he found himself struggling to pull the words from the back of his throat. Thankfully, though, he didn't need to, as the person seated across from him got straight to the point.
"CottonMouth3056?" They asked, raising their head up from the table-- Reggie's online alias. The stranger in question was in fact a man; Salt and pepper stubble accompanying the expression of man who hadn't slept properly in several days. Dark rings circled his eyes, a paranoid sweat littered his brow, and he had the look of someone who was definitely suspicious, but trying to appear otherwise. He didn't look that old-- Early 40's, maybe-- But whatever was depriving him of his sleep had managed to put an additional 30 years on his appearance..
"..That's right," Reggie confirmed with a cautious nod, "User58145?"
The man exhaled in relief, "Yeah. Let's get to it, then."
The man lifted a hand from under the table. In it, he held a thin, clear piece of glass, pushing it across the table to Reggie. As soon as he touched it, the surface of the glass lit up like a screen, revealing a type of blueprint. From what it looked like, it was just a concept sketch.. Was this the supposed technology promised to him? When he looked closer, the design of the invention depicted looked something similar to Ursula's hands; A type of artificial gauntlet, equipped with an array of impressive features locked behind a string of garbled letters and numbers-- A safeguard code. But Reggie was pretty familiar with the latest E-Corp tech, and this didn't look like anything currently on the market. When he realized what this meant, Reggie's eyes widened in awe. Information like this was way more valuable than any physical tech.
"This is.."
"..A new prototype from E-Corp, yes." User said frantically, "They're calling it the 'Hand of God.' Development wont begin for another three or four years, let alone it's release."
"..How did you get this?" Reggie murmured, zooming in on the image by pinching the screen, "And why the hell are you giving it to me? This kind of tech.. It could--"
"Set me up for life, I know. I thought I could do this, but.." The man trails off, shaking his head, "Miles is ridiculously paranoid about his technology, so much so that he only makes one blueprint for every model. ONE. All of those blueprints are stored on these keys, I just transferred the print to a spare. They're all plugged into a digital library with round-the-clock security; I found this one in the depths of the archive. One of those security features is a honeypot that I was in charge of monitoring."
A honeypot. Something huge corporations like E-Corp used to lure hackers into a digital trap, tracing their IP's and having them arrested. They'd think they'd just hit the virtual motherload, only to have marked androids bursting through the windows minutes later. Reggie was familiar with the trap; Every rookie digi-delinquent came across them at least once, but once you learned what they looked like and how to spot them, they were easy to bypass. Reggie was thoroughly interested now-- An archive of one-of-a-kind technology just itching to be cracked open, telling untold riches to the first person brave enough to make the damn thing. No wonder nobody had met with this guy yet. It was way too good to be true.
"..So what are you saying, man?"
"I'm saying," User groaned, "The second they find out it's gone, I'm gone. But if a scummy hacker steals the blueprint remotely? Something I would have had no control over?"
"I take offense to that!" Jean said with a hmph.
"..Chances are they'll chalk it up to a breach in security. You snuck into the archive using a backdoor in the honeypot, snagged the blueprint, and buried your tracks under mountains of junk code. E-Corp noticed something had been moved, but they haven't figured out what or how just yet because it's not scheduled for development until years later. You realized how badly you fucked up, and now want to pass the blueprint off to a 'scummy hacker' like me. By the time they do figure out what was stolen, It won't matter."
"Hallelujah, he's fast." The man said with a sarcastic scoff.
In the background, Jean began furiously typing away on a keyboard, "It looks like he's telling the truth. His name is Evan Moralas. Vice President of the Cyber-Security Division of Emperion Corporation. It looks like.. He was overseeing something called 'The Hanging Garden Project,' and not only is it uber-safeguarded, but this guy actually succeeded where someone else failed. There's a data report detailing the tracks someone else took to attempt to sneak past the honeypot, I'm guessing that's where he got the idea. Me likey! Other than that, his record is clean. Poor guy just bit off more than he could chew."
Reggie couldn't believe what he was hearing, and let his back hit the cushion of the booth with a disgusted sneer. With that new information, it now made sense why the guy was just trying to get rid of it rather than sell it-- And it pissed him off. To think for a split second that this guy actually had empathy for those effected by E-Corps greed, but no. He just wanted a scapegoat. Typical-- E-Corp employees could never be satisfied with what they already had, which was already so much more when compared to him and his sister. An eternity of full wallets, mimosas, and unenthusiastic lapdances.. People like Evan had anything and everything they could ever want, but even that wasn't enough. Meanwhile they were digging through the garbage trying to find their next meal. And when wannabe thieves with pocket protectors proved incapable, it would be the fault of the poor.
"The junk code will be enough to throw them off for awhile, but look at me, man. I thought it'd be worth the money, but fuck, I haven't slept right in days. Yesterday, I could have sworn someone was outside watching my apartment. I'm getting the hell out of New Rosehalt while I still can. If they didn't look the other way rather than go through the trouble of decoding it, I will have already been long gone."
Reggie was speechless. This wasn't too good to be true, it was real, and (almost) untraceable. Fair enough, the guy was a moron, but Reggie wasn't about to leave a piece of gold like this behind. He turned off the glass device by swiping away the image and pocketing it with a quickness. No sooner than he had done so had the man across from him made his leave, disappearing into the crowd of patrons like a phantom. Once he was gone, Ursula emerged from the dark of the room where she had been watching. She casually threw herself into the mans old seat, flagged down a scantily-clad waitress, and soon had a tall glass in hand to sip from.
"So," She mused blankly, "Are we happy?"
Reggie blinked to himself, a knowing grin spreading from ear to ear.
"You're not gonna fucking believe this."
Reggie had been anxiously pacing the floor of his makeshift home for the past hour, each time the resounding thump of his metal leg echoing across the room. The plan was to originally sell the blueprint off to the highest bidder and pull everyone out of the shithole that was The Cavity, but now, dangerous thoughts had crossed his mind. Exciting thoughts. Why stop with one blueprint? Why not get more? Why not them all? There was that itch again-- He couldn't get the idea of the secret library out of his head, and now he had roped the others into his crazy scheme.. after some heated debate followed by an intense period of shameless begging, of course. He could only hope the newcomers would be up for some itsy-bitsy-criminal-activity. Today was the day they were supposed to arrive, after all. Oh god, I'm gonna freak them out aren't I? Shit. Are they gonna turn me in? Chill out Reggie, this is The Cavity. Nobody likes E-Corp here.
He looked over to Jean-- The plucky teenager was happily typing away on a computer terminal, walls of code filling most of the screen. On another screen just to her right, the small glass device given to him several days prior was plugged into some kind of port embedded in the screen. The Hand of God blueprint was pulled up in all it's glory. Jean had been given the task of analyzing the blueprints code, which was unsurprisingly triple-quadruple-super-safeguarded, as she so eloquently put it. It's been three days, and she still hadn't analyzed it's contents entirely. So far, all she was able to recover were minor specs-- Nothing about it's intended purpose, save for regular what-you-usually-use-an-arm-for tasks. But anything more useful than that-- What it was made out of, how to put the pieces together, and what it could do-- Was behind a series of firewalls the young girl was having trouble cracking. At her side stood Philip, staring at the blueprint with starstruck awe.
"Oh man. Waterproof, insane durability, fifty times stronger than the average android, all powered entirely by Ashfort Diamonds.." He murmured, subconsciously running his hand over his own augmented forearm. That gauntlet was every cyborgs dream wrapped into one.
Reggie's head swept over to Ursula, who was comfortably seated on an old, tattered couch, her ears covered with a pair of headphones. The funky techno music she was blaring through them was loud enough for others to hear, but she didn't seemed bothered by the volume. In her hands was a wrinkled magazine, large metal fingers occasionally turning it's pages. Everyone managed to be so calm. Everyone except for him. He suddenly felt sympathy for the man Evan, fully understanding what it was like to carry around this kind of secret.
Suddenly, there came a knock at the heavy metal door. Jean and Philip raised their heads, and Reggie signaled Ursula to take off her headphones. He approached the door and turned to address them, "Everyone be nice, okay? Newbies comin' through."
"We're always nice." Philip joked with a smirk.
"We're nice. You're a pushy megalomaniac." Ursula shot across the room, her face rigid with a stone expression, "For the love of all that is holy, do not be yourself. Literally anyone but yourself. Be like Jean."
"Love you too, babe."
"Don't call me that."
"What did I literally just say?"
With a defeated sigh, Reggie opened the door. There you stood, freshly dropped off from a dodgy bus station, surrounded by others like you. It was sometime in the dead of night, and at this hour, the only people on the streets were those who didn't have a roof to go back too.. or they got kicked out of the local sketchy club. Somewhere in the distance, there was the robotic voices of police androids making their usual nightly rounds. The alleyway where you all now stood was thankfully tucked out of the way from any major paths or roads, and was littered with various kinds of trash and scraps of destroyed technology. The minor teasing that had just taken place was definitely audible through the door, if only slightly, and Reggie had that "I'm smiling on the off chance you didn't hear that because that would be kind of awkward" look on his face. After he motioned for you all to step inside, he had once last glance at the alleyway. With the coast clear, he shuts the door behind them; A string of automatic locks click into place somewhere embedded in the walls.
The room itself was carved into the side of an alleyway, with a staircase that led further underground, presumably to where everyone slept. There's some trash cluttered about a cracked glass table-- A string of empty energy drink cans, a bubbly mascot of a smiling raspberry on their surfaces, some old gum wrappers-- along with a stack of old magazines, similar to the one Ursula held in her metal hands. Jean's workspace was a small desk low to the ground, with a set of screens crudely attached to the concrete wall behind them towards the right of the room. For the most part, it looked like a decent place; Certainly a lot nicer than most places in The Cavity, but it still had that homey touch of 'we pack light in case someone decides to rob us' emptiness.
"Home sweet home. These are who I was telling you about. This is--"
"Ursula." The young woman said with a small nod.
"Yay! New friends!" Jean cheered, tossing her hands into the air, "I'm Jean!"
"Philip, but the ladies can call me whatever they like," Philip grinned, leaning his elbow against one wall.
"--Yeah." Reggie said with a roll of his eyes, "You know who I am. Make yourself comfy, we uh.. have a lot to talk about."
Reggie couldn't believe what he was hearing, and let his back hit the cushion of the booth with a disgusted sneer. With that new information, it now made sense why the guy was just trying to get rid of it rather than sell it-- And it pissed him off. To think for a split second that this guy actually had empathy for those effected by E-Corps greed, but no. He just wanted a scapegoat. Typical-- E-Corp employees could never be satisfied with what they already had, which was already so much more when compared to him and his sister. An eternity of full wallets, mimosas, and unenthusiastic lapdances.. People like Evan had anything and everything they could ever want, but even that wasn't enough. Meanwhile they were digging through the garbage trying to find their next meal. And when wannabe thieves with pocket protectors proved incapable, it would be the fault of the poor.
"The junk code will be enough to throw them off for awhile, but look at me, man. I thought it'd be worth the money, but fuck, I haven't slept right in days. Yesterday, I could have sworn someone was outside watching my apartment. I'm getting the hell out of New Rosehalt while I still can. If they didn't look the other way rather than go through the trouble of decoding it, I will have already been long gone."
Reggie was speechless. This wasn't too good to be true, it was real, and (almost) untraceable. Fair enough, the guy was a moron, but Reggie wasn't about to leave a piece of gold like this behind. He turned off the glass device by swiping away the image and pocketing it with a quickness. No sooner than he had done so had the man across from him made his leave, disappearing into the crowd of patrons like a phantom. Once he was gone, Ursula emerged from the dark of the room where she had been watching. She casually threw herself into the mans old seat, flagged down a scantily-clad waitress, and soon had a tall glass in hand to sip from.
"So," She mused blankly, "Are we happy?"
Reggie blinked to himself, a knowing grin spreading from ear to ear.
"You're not gonna fucking believe this."
Reggie had been anxiously pacing the floor of his makeshift home for the past hour, each time the resounding thump of his metal leg echoing across the room. The plan was to originally sell the blueprint off to the highest bidder and pull everyone out of the shithole that was The Cavity, but now, dangerous thoughts had crossed his mind. Exciting thoughts. Why stop with one blueprint? Why not get more? Why not them all? There was that itch again-- He couldn't get the idea of the secret library out of his head, and now he had roped the others into his crazy scheme.. after some heated debate followed by an intense period of shameless begging, of course. He could only hope the newcomers would be up for some itsy-bitsy-criminal-activity. Today was the day they were supposed to arrive, after all. Oh god, I'm gonna freak them out aren't I? Shit. Are they gonna turn me in? Chill out Reggie, this is The Cavity. Nobody likes E-Corp here.
He looked over to Jean-- The plucky teenager was happily typing away on a computer terminal, walls of code filling most of the screen. On another screen just to her right, the small glass device given to him several days prior was plugged into some kind of port embedded in the screen. The Hand of God blueprint was pulled up in all it's glory. Jean had been given the task of analyzing the blueprints code, which was unsurprisingly triple-quadruple-super-safeguarded, as she so eloquently put it. It's been three days, and she still hadn't analyzed it's contents entirely. So far, all she was able to recover were minor specs-- Nothing about it's intended purpose, save for regular what-you-usually-use-an-arm-for tasks. But anything more useful than that-- What it was made out of, how to put the pieces together, and what it could do-- Was behind a series of firewalls the young girl was having trouble cracking. At her side stood Philip, staring at the blueprint with starstruck awe.
"Oh man. Waterproof, insane durability, fifty times stronger than the average android, all powered entirely by Ashfort Diamonds.." He murmured, subconsciously running his hand over his own augmented forearm. That gauntlet was every cyborgs dream wrapped into one.
Reggie's head swept over to Ursula, who was comfortably seated on an old, tattered couch, her ears covered with a pair of headphones. The funky techno music she was blaring through them was loud enough for others to hear, but she didn't seemed bothered by the volume. In her hands was a wrinkled magazine, large metal fingers occasionally turning it's pages. Everyone managed to be so calm. Everyone except for him. He suddenly felt sympathy for the man Evan, fully understanding what it was like to carry around this kind of secret.
Suddenly, there came a knock at the heavy metal door. Jean and Philip raised their heads, and Reggie signaled Ursula to take off her headphones. He approached the door and turned to address them, "Everyone be nice, okay? Newbies comin' through."
"We're always nice." Philip joked with a smirk.
"We're nice. You're a pushy megalomaniac." Ursula shot across the room, her face rigid with a stone expression, "For the love of all that is holy, do not be yourself. Literally anyone but yourself. Be like Jean."
"Love you too, babe."
"Don't call me that."
"What did I literally just say?"
With a defeated sigh, Reggie opened the door. There you stood, freshly dropped off from a dodgy bus station, surrounded by others like you. It was sometime in the dead of night, and at this hour, the only people on the streets were those who didn't have a roof to go back too.. or they got kicked out of the local sketchy club. Somewhere in the distance, there was the robotic voices of police androids making their usual nightly rounds. The alleyway where you all now stood was thankfully tucked out of the way from any major paths or roads, and was littered with various kinds of trash and scraps of destroyed technology. The minor teasing that had just taken place was definitely audible through the door, if only slightly, and Reggie had that "I'm smiling on the off chance you didn't hear that because that would be kind of awkward" look on his face. After he motioned for you all to step inside, he had once last glance at the alleyway. With the coast clear, he shuts the door behind them; A string of automatic locks click into place somewhere embedded in the walls.
The room itself was carved into the side of an alleyway, with a staircase that led further underground, presumably to where everyone slept. There's some trash cluttered about a cracked glass table-- A string of empty energy drink cans, a bubbly mascot of a smiling raspberry on their surfaces, some old gum wrappers-- along with a stack of old magazines, similar to the one Ursula held in her metal hands. Jean's workspace was a small desk low to the ground, with a set of screens crudely attached to the concrete wall behind them towards the right of the room. For the most part, it looked like a decent place; Certainly a lot nicer than most places in The Cavity, but it still had that homey touch of 'we pack light in case someone decides to rob us' emptiness.
"Home sweet home. These are who I was telling you about. This is--"
"Ursula." The young woman said with a small nod.
"Yay! New friends!" Jean cheered, tossing her hands into the air, "I'm Jean!"
"Philip, but the ladies can call me whatever they like," Philip grinned, leaning his elbow against one wall.
"--Yeah." Reggie said with a roll of his eyes, "You know who I am. Make yourself comfy, we uh.. have a lot to talk about."
((introduce yo self! for more context: everyone has had minor correspondence with reggie. nothing about the blueprint or his plans, just how to get to the bunker, and he has mentioned the other three youth, just as he has told them about you. anything else you two have spoken about is up to you.))
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