Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:06pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val steps across into the loading dock... and finds no one in the area. He sees a door to the left and one straight ahead. There is a click from the door to the left.
<<@Team [Athena] Take the door to the left. Down the hall->>
She appears to stop talking in mid sentence.

Arkansas is beside Val, seemingly from nowhere. "There are three people in the building. No spirits. A small ward around the whole building."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:06pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val notices the Nurse and promptly starts to follow Athenas directions towards thier destination with a bag with every one of the team members <@Team[Val]"Lets make this quick and painless the less talking the better and no blood shed unless absolutely neccesarry.">

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:09pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Moving to the door and opening it, Val sees a janitor mopping the floors. The janitor is about 5 meters down the hall with his back to door moving like he has music playing in AR.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:09pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val looks at the janitor and while his back is to them he motions for the others to move past him and further down the hall along Athenas projected route to the medical room.
val holds his breath if the janitor notices them they would either have to shut him up or come up with a great excuse. <@team[Va]"move"> waving his hand for the other to move along the route.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:12pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

The team slips past Val... like a herd of bulls in Spain. He stands, nothing but amazed that the janitor did not hear the team.
He does notice that Athena, who had cut off in mid-sentence, still has not returned to TeamNet. Her last instructions provide no additional insight as to where to go next. Looking down the hall, he sees two doors to the left, two doors to the right, a door at the end of the hall and a turn to the right, at the end of the hall as well.

Now in the hall, not quite to the janitor, the team looks back to Val befuddled as to the next step.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:12pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val

Val looks at the doors to see if any of them would be the medical storage room, val rushes to the group past them to quickly looking for the quickest exit from the hallway.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:15pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val begins to move down the hall, looking in rooms. The first door is unlocked. It is an observation room.

As he begins to move down the hall, the white elephant in the hall (aka the janitor) turns while mopping and become suddenly aware that he is not alone...

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:15pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val

val calmly walks up to the elephant"hoi chummer where do i pick up my pill?" val hoped that being only a janitor, he wouldnt want to lose his life just so he could keep mopping floors. Val kept his movements slow and calm, standing just out of reach of the hulking white mass in case it became violent. <@athena[Val]"you ok?">

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:21pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

There is no reply from Athena.
The janitor, a scrawny guy in his mid-20's stops mopping and goes slack jawed at seeing 4 people in the hall with him. An odor hits Val's nostrils and, looking down, he sees that the janitor has pissed his pants. He stutters, "S-s-s-sec-ec-ond d-d-d-door on th-the l-l-l-left, r-r-round th-the c-c-c-corner."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:21pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val

Val moves past the janitor so that his back is to the left wall and tries to sneak a peek around the corner as val passes the janitor he says to him" go into that observation room and be very quiet, arkansas make sure he takes a quick nap until were done here."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:24pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Mostly paralyzed with fear, the janitor doesn't move until Umbra gives him a push. Toad moves up behind Val as the Russian steals a glance around the corner, finding the hallway empty except for the 6 doors down the hall and the right turn at the end of the hallway.

Looking back to see why he hasn't heard Arkansas deal with the janitor yet, he sees both Umbra and Arkansas behind Toad waiting to proceed. The observation room door is closed and janitor no where in sight.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:24pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val

val looks at Arkansas "wheres the janitor?"Val looks around the cornor in the opposite direction to make sure no one was coming.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:25pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

The ork shaman looks to Val, puzzled and whispers. "In the room, do you want him back?"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 6:42:25pm; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val just turns back towards the hallways "no lets get our swag and get out of here" he continues to lead the others to towards the Door the janitor mentioned, carwfully trying to listen for approaching trouble and or if anyone was on the other side of the door.

Hardwire - Friday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:27; Hardwire's Doss

Sliding through the neon jungle that is the matrix, Hardwire makes connection first to the TeamNet. The code key provided moves the control element of the TeamNet to his bionode. Doing so causes his own sculpting to take over washing away the roman columns, marble colorization and Athena's personal touch to the various windows. Connected to the TeamNet, he finds labeled connections for Val, Toad and Slick. He also finds labeled markers for Umbra and Arkansas.

A map overlay in TeamNet shows everyone but Slick at 11201 NE 100the St, Kirkland, Bellevue District; the Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic. Slick is sitting several blocks away at Juan's Taco Hut: 11290 NE 87th St, Bellevue District drinking a soda. There is also a subscription to a panel van parked at the clinic's loading bay.

Val - Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:27; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

In the meat world, the team moves down the hall to stand in front of the designated door. The sculpting of TeamNet then begins to change from the roman columns, marble colorization and Athena's personal touch to the various windows to another theme...

Val - Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:27; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val sees he HUD change and the alarms start going off in his head immediately. "let's quicken the pace were about to be blown." Val pulls out his Ingram and readies it for immediate action and makes his way to the pharmacy room. <@athena[val]"what's going on are you fried!" >

Hardwire - Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:27; Hardwire's Doss


<<Accessing "ARO: TeamNet control code"...routing established...verifying access keys...success>>
The route given by the ARO turned out to be just a few hops through the Seattle Grid, into a node with antique-ish sculpting. Yet as soon as he entered the node, the sculpting began to change melt away as he felt something probe his Bionode. Hardwire prepared to fight his way out of whatever trap had been concealed by the now warped and pixelated imagery, but as he reached out into the Deep Resonance to prepare his Complex Forms, he realized the only thing he'd fallen for was his nervousness.
The node once again was a testament to Athena's skills in manipulating the Deep Resonance, all by itself the node changed to become part of his bionode, changing the sculpting in the process. The opulent backdrop of marble and pillars faded away and were replaced by the simple dark backdrop he preferred, while the stone tablets representing various icons turned into semi-transparent AR windows and 3D trees representing data hierarchies.

A quick scan around showed little more than the five info panels that had been prominently displayed when he first entered this node -- one of which now flashed with a worrisome message from a certain Val..
<@val[Hardwire]"She called me, what is this drek?!" >

Val - Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:47; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val was concerned that the whole run was a bust and Athena had been burned. Safety was out the window and staying concealed was obviously void, "let's move it and fast" Val takes the lead gel rounds loaded he prepares for a firefight <@team[val]"I think we have been compromised I haven't heard from Athena. Let's get the swag and get out of here pronto, to who ever is in our team net if you are a friend then keep the monkeys off our backs until we are clear of the facility">

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:30; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

At the door, with no physical opposition in site, Val pulls the handle... to find the door locked. A small, glass window with embedded security mesh allows Val to peer into the room. It is indeed the storeroom. Val then notices everything his hands appear hazy. Turning to the team, there is a haze that has enveloped them all. Arkansas has moved against the wall near to Val and whispers in a way that seems to bypass Val's ears and go straight to his mind, "Rat hides us, but we must go soon. Eyes and ears are upon us."

In the matrix, an entity of deep black with neon green lines criss-crossing its form in a circuitry-like fashion appears. It exclaims in a quick voice of bells, whistles, shrieks, colors and raw data that sings to Hardwire as the language of Resonance. The sprite has announced its birth and is eager to serve.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:43:00; Hardwire's Doss/TeamNet node

The seconds slowly ticked as Hardwire watched the team icons move through the facility, waiting for somebody to tell him what in the name of all possible underworlds was going on. The Black Hat did not come to heel and wait for somebody to tell him what to do -- and he reasoned the team would be more talkative once they were out of whatever they were doing right now...

Let's see what this fuss is all about. If nothing else, rooting DocWagon is going to be a nice trophy

I just hope I'm not helping some mad gunbunnies...

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:30; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val

Val looks around <@haywire[val]"if you are a friend how about you unlock this door in front of me, Athena was supposed to be helping us did she send you?">Val looks at Arkansas "how long can Rat keep this up?" val looks to Rat and wonders if he was a mojo slinger besides having a abnormal looking arm he also had some tricks up his normal sleeve.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:31; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

As Hardwire evaluates the vulnerability report, Arkansas replies to Val. "Till morning... or until we are discovered."

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:31; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Using the exploit from Athena, Hardwire accesses the Doc Wagon clinic's node. Stepping into the node, the sculpting is rather bland. It appears as a room; a command center. A bank of displays fill the wall around a large central display. A hallway video displays the team entering the hall, then fading from view and is looping. Snap shots of each team member are being isolated to one of the side displays. While a pair of what appears to be persona are studying the central display a spot light circles the room, passing over Hardwire, slowing, but not stopping.

Hardwire - Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:31; Hardwire's Doss
The searchlight touched his persona and Hardwire cringed. He could feel the cold tingle as the diagnostic subroutines found a weak spot in his stealth code, pushing through all but a scant few layers of obfuscating code. Extra processing cycles were allocated to parsing this anomalous information and the searchlight slowed. But just as Hardwire was preparing for a quick lunge before all surprise was lost, we felt the tingling probes stop and the searchlight resumed its normal motion.
A close one, but it would make the job all the more rewarding. <@val[hardwire]"On it">

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:32; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Another second ticks by for the team in the hallway that seems like weeks. Hardwire interfaces with the node and locates the control interface to the door lock that Val and his team desperately need to open...

Hardwire - Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:32; Hardwire's Doss/Doc Wagon Node
One of the consoles in the command room showed what Hardwire was looking for, a floor plan with all doors controllable from this room. A quick cross-reference with the TeamNode map placed the team right in front of door 0x08-0E. Looking at the two personas still busy looking at the wall displays, Hardwire felt an inner disappointment at not being able to elaborately trick them, but the team he'd just come to take care of would probably not appreciate any further delays. He reached out at his Fault Sprite <@sprite[Hardwire]"I require your presence. Keep camouflaged until somebody else tries to operate this console, then stop him...and anyone coming to his aid" >. As he felt the sprite materialize in the node from the Resonance Realms, he operated the door switch.

<@val[Hardwire]"Home free, make it quick">...sadly, the meatworld had other definitions of "quick"...

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:33; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

The door opens with a click.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:33; Doc Wagon Node

The sprite fades into existence and begins to move as ordered.

The icons working reviewing the displays, immediately react by pulling down the current video into the center display of the door opening. Though Hardwire knows the team is there, whatever countermeasures are deployed, they do not appear on the display.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:33; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
Val
val hears the aubible click of the door unlocking and whispers for the others to follow him in "lets go" Val slips into the room looking for anyone inside that they would have to silence.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:34; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

Val and team begin to fill bags and grabbing cases.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:34; Doc Wagon Node

The security monitor changes to display the room and the drugs disappearing off the shelves. The icons move quickly, interfacing with the system, the data flowing between them and the system increasing.

Val grabs the meds most valuable on the list first making sure to get exactly what the doc asked for. If there was room left he started to grab the medicines that looked like they would be the most difficult foe the doctor to get on his own, antibiotics and vaccines he thought would be more valuable for the common public while strong pain killers and stimulates would benefit him during surgery's. val looked to fill the bags with as much as he could wanting to only spend minutes in the room before heading out.

[moved down]

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:34; Doc Wagon Node

For Hardwire, his complex forms interpreting various aspects of the icons and their actions, he realizes the jig is up as the user icon issues an active alert to the node. The sculpting of the node immediately changes from that of a well lit room to one with emergency lights providing reduced illumination, red flashing lights and an annoying klaxon signalling an alert over audio channels.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:34; Doc Wagon Node
In the node, the team breaks to the various storage shelves, opening their bags to begin collecting the loot.

(moving the original post down to keep the order intact)
Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:35; Doc Wagon Node
Hardwire cursed himself and felt like a fragging script kiddie. "Just two agents, sure. I'll just manipulate those stupid mooks when necessary..." Now he watched the result of his leniency, as the very much sapient user was getting to work at raining on his parade. This was getting out of hand fast, unless he manged to stop that other guy ASAP. He stretched out the hand of his persona, and the icon of an arrow pistol materialized in it.

Weighting the cold and heavy weapon (not that any such properties mattered, or were even recognizable by anyone but him) in his right, he mentally commanded the Sprite at his side to barrage the opponent and then mental-typed a short message to the team: <@all[Hardwire]"I stirred the spider's net, be prepared for an alarm">

The Sprite faded into view as an irregular spherical shape, featureless and matte black save for the glowing crosshair icons swirling over its surface, as it made for the spider.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:35; Doc Wagon Node

In the blink of an eye, the node becomes a flurry of activity. The sprite dissolves into a sparking cloud attempting to engulf the security spider's icon, but is unable to wrap up the icon as he begins to move around the node. The agent opens a hand and currents of electricity ripple forth towards the sparkling cloud, but dissolve around a bubble shaped force field that winks into existence, protecting the sprite. The user, now draped in a hooded, brown flowing robe steps towards Hardwire, a green light saber lashing out at the hacker... all as Hardwire feels the pull of an incredibly powerful vacuum as an airlock opens behind him and threatens to pull him into space...

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:35; Doc Wagon Node

Hardwire grits his teeth, digging in as matrix fluff in his feet spread out, cementing him to the floor of the node momentarily, holding him against the pull behind him. Then the airlock is gone.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:36; Doc Wagon Node
Again the sprite lashes out with its incorporeal self towards the jedi and again he moves out of the way of the sparkling, crackling cloud. The agent again extends his hand toward the sprite, releasing arcs of electricity resembling force power that again is deflected by the sprite's force field. Hardwire swings his weapon at the jedi, finding as the sprite did, that the jedi is moving fast around the node. The jedi then stabs his light saber at the sprite who simply dissipates itself away from the attack.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:37; Doc Wagon Node

The sprite, sensing an opening wraps around the jedi, clinging to bits of the brown cloak, tearing away bits of the fabric as the jedi is unable to escape. The agent reaches both hands towards the sprite, releasing an intense arc of force power, only to have the fragmented bits of the jedi's cloak used to reinforce the force field, negating the attack...

Val sees that the supplies are acquired that we're needed. And motions for the others to slinging the bag across his back Val moves to the door with his rifle ready and motions for the team to move back the way they came" let's go"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:37; Doc Wagon Node

Hardwire swings his massive electron weapon at the engulfed Spider. Unable to dodge the attack, it smashes against his robes illuminating the jedi knight in blue before mostly dissipating. The jedi knight then reaches his hands through the electron storm and vaults free, though still tethered by the thinnest strand of blue light to Hardwire.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:38

In the store room, the team scrambles to collect the precious medical supplies, filling their bags.

In the matrix, the battle continues: The sprite and agent continue their attacks single mindedly. The jedi, despite his wound, moves deftly around the node, avoiding further entanglement by the sprite, while the I.C.'s nuke is easily resisted by the sprite's force field...

Val hears about a alarm and immediately stops in his tracks, "we need to go now!" Val brings him self to face the door and make the way back to the van.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:38

As Val calls for the team's exit in the meat world, Hardwire launches an offensive against the now free security spider. Stepping in, the technimancer wields a laser thin scalpel and cleanly misses. The spider, seeing an opening, executes a series of dazzling maneuvers ending with his light saber penetrating through Hardwire in what, in the meat, would have been a killing shot.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:39

Val and the team run down the hallway towards the van, the adrenaline pumping at its highest level with the prospect of failure and capture now a real possibility.

In the matrix, Hardwire staggers back from the devastating attack, off balance and dazed while the sprite continues its relentless assault. The Spider, focused on Hardwire, finds himself enveloped by the sprite's electron storm which rips at his jedi robes and cuts at his skin. The agent continues its attacks on the sprite without effect...

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:39; DocWagon Node
The Spider's odd glowstick weapon bore down on him again, only this time Hardwire's dodge lead him straight into the path of the attack and the weapon sunk into his chest nearly to the hilt. Hostile code started injecting catastrophic errors in the Persona code, which at the same time overloaded the neural pathways making up the Technomancer's innate representation in the matrix. One fragment of the attack code penetrated even deeper than the rest, scrambling the connection between body and Persona and making Hardwire act even more sluggish.

"I'm not dumped yet" Hardwire though with equal parts fatalism and wounded pride...and at least he kept the spider busy for the time being. He concentrated on the code beneath this virtual world, hoping to spot the indications of another attack in time to evade.
Still, his battered persona icon started manifesting a datajack at the temple, the ethereal fiber cable ready to lead him out of the node or to be unplugged in an instant.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:39; DocWagon Node

Hardwire doubles down, expected the engulfed spider to press the attack. Instead, the spider's icon fades out of the existence, leaving the sprite and Hardwire alone with IC.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:40

Val and the team make it to the loading docks, while in the matrix, the sprite awaits a new command, its last successfully executed. The IC however presses its attack and for the first time, its 'force power' penetrates the sprite's force field.

Val loads the goods into the van and jumps into the driver seat. Once the team is safely in the van he heads out.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:40; DocWagon Node
As Spider blurred out of view, for a split second Hardwire feared he had sustained even even worse damage than thought. But his perception of reality was not failing, the Spider had indeed gone (to raise hell in the real world, he reasoned). Hardwire shouted a message to the team, not bothering with any mental vocalization this time: "Are you okay? Where are you?!.

Trained reflexes began to take over again as Hardwire ordered his Sprite (which so far had not done as much as acknowledge the mook's attacks, despite gettting hit at least once) to attack any remaining hostiles in the node...he'd need to find the log, and if there still were parts of the team who could use his help, he would have to find a way to have thse monitors display anything besides red exclamation marks

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:40

Hardwire finds that the access log is in fact encrypted on the fly by the system, probably on a delay of a second or so. The Sprite, with new orders springs back into action, releasing a stream of electrons at the remaining guardian of node. The IC, stumbles, knocked off balance by the fierce attack, but does not fall.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:41

Val and team run into the open doors of the van and Val dives for the driver's seat while Toad slams the back door shut.

In the matrix, The Sprite continues its assault on the IC as a second IC, this one appearing as a knight in gleaming white armor with a sword that glows with light like the sun...

Val starts up the ride and heads out with the loot and crew packed up and amped up. "drop the invisible stuff"

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:42; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex

With hushed words from Arkansas, the spirit fades away as does the concealment he was providing. Toad slides into the passenger seat while Umbra sites down in the back. Val reaches for the controls... and realizes that Athena was driving the van.

On TeamNet, Hardwire breaths a sigh of relief to be out the ever crowded DocWagon node. He finds the team loaded into the van, except for Slick whose location places him at Juan's Taco Hut, 11290 NE 87th St.

<<@Team [Slick] Police cruisers are coming this way; I can hear them.>>

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:42; 11201 NE 100the St, Highlands Park Doc Wagon Clinic, Kirkland, Bellevue District, Seattle Metroplex
val

val whispers to curses in russian and rolls the van into motion knowing he isnt the best driver they didnt have time to do a chinese fire drill to see who would drive and decided to try his luck and get them the hell out of there. val take slicks advice and tries to get them the hell out of dodge.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:43; TeamNet Node

Whatever the reason for the lack of comm responses, the team obviously had gotten out in one piece and were making their getaway. Still, Hardwire could not get his hopes too high..."maybe they only got away like you did" he thought, as he again tried to raise the team on the comm <<@Team [Hardwire]Hello hello, anyone listening?>>

While waiting for a response, Hardwire once more mentally reached out to the Sprite. He had been a loyal help, and Hardwire released him back into the Resonance.

Saturday, March 28th, 2071; 18:42:43; TeamNet Node
Val

<@team[val]"well we are on our way, we have the loot but I'm not a very good driver. Slick is down the street with our bikes. We need to get to him then we can all split and meet up at the docs place.

<<@Team[Hardwire] I might be able to see to that, let me check if I can access the node on your van...By the way, what kind of run am I helping here?>>