Summary:A new consultant is sent to meet Roy, Jemma and Kelly Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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'We are sending you London.'
That's all the message to Jemma, Kelly and Roy had said. Some of them might have reasonably wondered if that was a typo. If it wasn't supposed to read 'We are sending you TO London.' Either way it seems like an odd kind of response to SHIELD's evaluation of the cases that the trio are working and whether or not they need any support. After all going to London wouldn't really help them though it'd be a nice vacation for Jemma. And how on earth is SHIELD supposed to send London to them?
Well, whatever is supposed to happen it's supposed to be in the Lab Spaces at 1400. And at 1358 a 'click-click-click-click-click' can be heard coming down the hall. It sounds like someone has their dog in here.
Which is partly true. A large, robotic, four and a half foot tall canine rounds the door and comes into the space with a rolled up piece of paper in its steel jaws. It tilts its head, looking around for someone to give it to.
"What, someone want some bangers and mash, wut wut." Roy is staring at the message oddly as he walks with Kelly, his expression thoughtful. "The only Queen I'm going to listen to is going to be fronted by Freddie Mercury." comes the flat response as he arrives in the lab with her a little early - that's more Kelly's doing than Roy's, he'd had them show up five minutes late.
Because the elevators are nice.
But he was reminded there are /cameras/ in there.
Feh. Then there's the arrival of the dog, and he lifts his brows in confusion. "Did we draft Blue Falcon and Dynomutt's here early? Please tell me that Blue Falcon is real."
"I'm pretty sure they won't be getting us *anywhere* near the queen." Kelly notes dryly to Roy. Because they're relatively low on the SHIELD totem pole. Also? Roy. That's an international incident waiting to happen.
The robotic dog gets a look of surprise from Kelly, and she steps towards it. "Huh. I haven't seen any specs on something like this…" It's admittedly out of her area of expertise. She does brain computer interface, not weapons platforms, but she tends to keep an ear to the ground on Interesting Stuff.
'London'. That's a name that Jemma recognises but why it would be him, she's no idea - so she discounts it. There's also no reason to send them to London. So she's confused.
"Please don't." She says to Roy when he effects that 'accent'. "And it's not likely you'd get an interview with the Queen anyway." She's working on a model of that virus again, among other things, when the pair walk in.
'click-click-click-click-click'. That draws her attention and her eye, her good eye, narrows a bit. "It can't be …" Then the Dog appears. "… it is. You can come in, Mister London. I don't bite." She holds her hand out to the dog. "I'll take that."
Is she thinking about the attempt that was made to her implants when she was onsite last? No. Jemma is not.
The plain white sheet of paper has a hand written note that says 'Just got in, stopped at the vending machine, be right there.'
Jemma, and possibly Kelly, may have to double check to make sure that's not Roy's writing.
In any case at 1401 as Jemma is saying 'Mister London' a man appears in the door in dusty multicam pants and a weapon hanging off a sling. He's got a half of a cold coke in one hand.
"Sorry. I haven't had a coke in almost nine mo- you."
That's to Jemma. His eyes narrow for a moment and then he shakes himself and comes in as the dog comes back his way.
"So, no, I'm not Blue Falcon and that means something different in my world than I think it does in yours. Names Jeriah London. SHIELD asked me to report in, said they had a team that needed some extra assets." He holds a hand out to Kelly and Roy to shake though he keeps a wary eye on Jemma.
"I'm guessing that one of you is Harper and the other is DeHaven. But since they didn't give me first names I wouldn't go any further than that. I already know which one of you is Simmons…"
There's a glance towards the dog, and then to Jeriah, and then Jemma.
And through the link that he shares with Kelly.
« Awkward. »
But hey, he used his inside voice this time. "Man. So clearly not Dynomutt." he lets out a sigh, "Someday." comes the lamentation on the subject before he accepts the hand. "I'd try to break her brain by saying we're both Harper, but then I'd never hear the end of it. I'm Roy, that's DeHaven."
Kelly Dehaven gives Jeriah a short smile, his interaction with Jemma not a great First Impression with the redhead. She does accept the offered handshake with her own gloved hand, her silvered arms hidden under the long sleeves of her labcoat and blouse beneath. "Doctor DeHaven, but Kelly is fine." The whole last-name thing has always been a bit weird to the perma-civie.
On just a 'channel' with Roy, Kelly wonders, "« Old boyfriend, you think? »"
"That's not your writing, right, Roy?" Jemma shows him the piece of paper. She's pretty sure it's not.
"Yes me. How many Simmones did you think SHIELD had? I guess you're not a detective, along with not being a chemist." She says dryly. The can of coke get eyed, as the biochem makes her way to the small kitchenette. "Tea, coffee, Roy and Kelly?" The electric jug is put on and cups set out, regardless.
"Why is the Foreign Legion sending us a … mercernary?" Foreign Legion? Maybe he works for someone else but that's where she met him. "What is it we can do for you?"
"I don't know. Simmons isn't that uncommon a name. And no I'm not a detective unless I'm detecting things that need taken care of." Jeriah says, taking another sip of his drink. "And I don't work for the Foreign Legion. I was only working with them. I work for myself mostly, but I've done SHIELD contracting a few times." A mercenary?
Well, by strict technicality isn't that what Roy is? Just a very exclusive one?
"Anyway. Roy. Kelly. Nice to meet you. You can call me Jeriah, or London. I respond to either. And according to what I was told you guys are working on some projects that could use someone with extra firepower and the ability to not die when shot?" He's oblivious to the internal conversation going on with Roy and Kelly.
Then his eyes narrow. "You've got a hostile intrusion in here."
The big dog crouches and and it's steel jaws curl into a snarl. And then his eyes go orange as a weapon turret unfolds from the back of the dog. "I've got it."
Jemma probably won't know what hit her. He had time to analyze the encryption on her implants last time and he hits it full force. Kelly will know when he does. Roy… well Kelly's firewalls might protect him from the sensation of someone violently kicking a door open in Jemma's head.
But, you know, the sound of the sonic blaster on the dog's back arming should be alarming enough. That's actually kind of curious. Is he directing it? Or is it autonomous?
« Five bucks on one-night stand gone bad. » comes Roy's response to Kelly.
"Do you have a beer?" is the question asked of Jemma, already know it's a no. "In the field, it's Arsenal. Calling me Speedy may get you punched. With the wrong arm." he grunts, then London mentions he's immortal. "Man, did I end up on the wrong side of the genetic lottery, or what?" he comments as he glances at the paper. "Nope, I didn't write that…" and then all hell breaks loose. He grits his teeth as he gets the mental equivelant of a brainfreeze as firewalls slam into place and he grimaces. "Ow! What the hell.."
The the dog is firing at Jemma - no, that's no good. He grabs the nearest lab tool he can find, a spanner, and he flings it at the robotic dog's turret. "HEY! Cut that shit out!" he yells, as he's already starting to grab for his bow, the marksman's lips pulling into a frown. "I don't know what Jemma did to piss you off, but you're on the wrong side of the bed, buster!"
Kelly Dehaven jerks like she's just been poked, hard, as Jemma's own internal network that her cybernetics are linked together on is breached. Roy will feel her alarm, since the connection between the two redheads is much more lightly guarded than between Roy and Jemma.
The silver striations in Jemma's eyes bloom as she turns her own attention to her connection with Jemma's cybernetics and her mind and tries to shut down the external connections. The only thing hardwired into Jemma are the cybernetics themselves and Kelly, so if the telepath can close down any other network access Jemma's got going on that should solve the intrusion problem, right?
"If you say so." Jemma isn't going to argue with the merc. "If not the Foreign Legion, who sent you?" No, not an ex-boyfriend. Does Jemma even has those? If she does, she's kept them very quiet. "I suppose we could always use the extra hands." It's said dryly. "Particularly from a not chemist." beat "Mister London 'introduced' himself at a si——"
Jemma stumbles backwards as Jeriah hits her implants. He'd failed the first time but clearly he'd got enough to brute force the first layer of protection. She winces as pain slices through her mind when the neural implants fire hard.
"What the hell… " Her cybernetic hand grips the sideboard, bending the edge of the metal as she does.
The turret is knocked off course and then reorients on Roy.
"Hey!" Jeriah snaps at the robotic canine which folds away the turret without firing again but does begin to advance on Roy. Big. Big robot dog. Which is… eyeing Roy's metal arm somewhat suspiciously. It's not wanting to play fetch, is it?
London isn't immortal. Just armored though he doesn't know what Roy is thinking so he can't clarify. And anyway he's busy. When Kelly starts interfering he smirks, not really knowing who or what is going on. After all. Kelly hasn't said anything and he hasn't quite realized what specifically is wrong with Jemma.
"Simmons I think you brought a passenger back with you. It's gonna take me a second to purge it, just hold on. Sorry, this might hurt." Beat. "Oh. It's on like Donkey Kong."
The power behind the attack is pretty incredible. It's clearly harnessing some kind of botnet and when Kelly tries to start shutting it down he switches tactics and tries to worm into the root code before she can manage that. The female redhead - well actually all three people in Kelly's network - may get the text taunt that comes through. 'learn2code, aim nerd.'
He's going for Jemma's communications protocols and trying to lock Kelly out of them. He CAN'T but he doesn't know that. Jemma is going to have such a headache. And Roy… well, that dog is circling toward his metal arm. Was it told to do that? Or does it just like the fact that someone else in here has robot parts?
"Sit, Ubu." Roy rumbles. Oh shit, he's not sitting, is he? Well, this another fine mess that Jemma's gotten us into.
Becuase it's always Jemma's fault.
The bow telescopes and snaps to life as the first arrow is popped from the quiver and primed as he draws it back. "You don't want to use me as a chew toy…" he states as he's backing up, the soft whine of the arrow giving everyone a warning.
"It's an EMP. I know that Jemma and Kelly can reboot. Can you?" Is he bluffing? It's a hell of a poker face if it is.
While Kelly does have that hardwired connection to Jemma's cybernetics, it's backed up by the telepathic one to Jemma's brain. Either way, no. Jeriah's not going to be able to cut her out without shutting down pieces of Jemma's tech.
"What the hell is going—is that you?" Kelly demands, because she multitasks really well and she's still paying attention to the meat-world in addition to the sudden hack-a-thon in Jemma's systems.
As London goes for the Root code though, alarm spikes through her network and she pulls the 'kill' switch to try to shut Jemma the hell down. She'll apologize to the biochem later, she doesn't want anyone compromising Jemma.
"What?!" Jemma's eye tears as the pain continues. Her implants are too new and she can't compensate. Particularly not when she's become a hacker chew toy. "I did not.bring.anything.back.with.me." She grits out.
Is this Jemma's fault? It … might … be. The biochem is somewhat of a magnet for trouble after all. Not that she knows what Roy is thinking.
"Roy. Don't. Don't know what will happen with the connections in place." Is she right? She might be. But right now, she can't spare anymore processing cycles because Kelly and Jeriah are fighting over them. She really, really, really doesn't like this feeling of being helpless.
The biochem feels Kelly pull that switch. It's the last thought that passes through her mind 'thank god' as things go black. She'll be pissed - later - right now, she sort of crumples to the floor.
The system goes into shutdown mode but not before Kelly senses some code start to upload. It cuts off most of the way through. It's possible that didn't get implemented. What was it?
Has Kelly ever seen a computer virus before?
"Is wha- is that YOU?!" Jeriah has to split his attention and he's not quite as good at it as Kelly but when he sees the big dog going for Roy and Roy arming himself… and pulling out what he says in an EMP device…
"Psssst!" He hisses at the dog and waves a 'cut it out' signal. The creatures eye color changes to match the orange of Jeriah's and it backs off from the archer.
And then Jemma passes out.
Leaving a very confused… everyone probably.
"Uh." Is she dead? No. Probably not. He does kneel down though next to Jemma to check her pulse unless pushed away.
"Wait. Why were you counter hacking me for control of an AIM node? Why did it collapse Doctor Simmons and why do you have a bow and arrow?"
That last is to Roy because… bow and arrow.
"Anyone know where her reboot switch is?"
"Because guns aren't as cool." Roy twists around the arrow, and disarms the flashbang. Bluffing? Totally bluffing. Twirling the arrow to reholster it, there's a frown from where he glances from Jemma to Kelly, and then to Jeriah. "Wait /what/ AIM node?" he asks, lifting both of his brows now.
Kelly Dehaven stomps her way over towards Jemma as the biochem goes down, and while she doesn't push Jeriah out of the way (because he's like twice her size), she does give him the best glare she can. "AIM node…? What are you *talking* about? That's part of her integral code!" She brandishes a finger in front of his nose. "Stay out unless you're invited or we'll see who is going to get into who!"
That… could have been phrased better.
The redhead waits, still glaring, for Jeriah to acknowledge before she's going to restart the Jemma.
Jemma has a pulse and she's breathing. That's something. Her eye still shows some silver striation from Kelly's … control.
There's nothing for either of the hackers to connect to, it's completely shutdown. Though … she might restart herself given enough time. The coders had to have thought of that, right?
Then again, why had London been able to hack her to start with?
London actually blinks at the finger in front of his nose. And the first thought across his mind is 'that's kind of rude…' as though he hadn't just tried to break into someone's brain.
When he stands he is indeed like twice her size. Not twice her height though… he's still taller than her by a decent bit. He's got about a foot on her. "I encountered that signature when I found the good doctor clearing an AIM facility a little while back. That's where we met. When I attacked it, she didn't give any indication that it was hers and it made sense to me that she might have brought something back with her - since she was trying to hack and she's not really that good at it."
Probably good that she's not awake at the moment.
That should partly answer Roy's question too. "Well yes guns aren't as cool, I suppose I see your point…" Particularly when one has a cybernetic arm to draw with. THAT might make a bow a serious issue for someone fighting him.
"How on earth are you connected to her anyway, Doctor DeHaven. Are all three of you connected or something?"
That question is said looking at Roy, and no he actually has no reason to suspect that. It just seems as outlandish as Kelly counterhacking him or Roy using a bow against a robot dog. A dog which has since retreated to sit down next to Jeriah.
Clickclickclickclick. A second dog peers in the door behind him though the mercenary doesn't actually seem to know it's there.
With the others tending to Jemma, Roy scratches at his scalp with his arrow before he puts it away. When London is questioning him on his connection to Kelly, he snorts, "This ain't Bama and I ain't her brother, if that's what you mean." he offers in a drawl as he glances sidelong towards Kelly.
"So, are we going to upgrade her to Win XP this time?" he asks, a lift of his brow, because he's still not entirely sure what Kelly plans to do to fix the situation, though his eyes fall towards the second dog. "Dude. This is some Strider level stuff you got going on here."
"Well it's not!" Kelly snaps over at Jeriah. "So keep your virtual fingers to yourself" She glances over at the dogs. "Or maybe that's 'paws'."
Kelly is still hardwired to Jemma's cybernetics, unlike Mr. Wifi, so she can attempt to send out a restart command to Jemma's systems. Since she's got the telepathic connection as well, Kelly can try to poke her awake to see if Jemma can self-start as well.
Jeriah's question of how Kelly's connected gets him another glance as she tries to bring the biochem back among the conscious. "My specialty is in Brain-Computer Interface, and Dr Simmons has needed some assistance in that area since the whole Dethlok-ing. An apparent side effect of using it on someone still y'know, *alive*." Which doesn't quite answer his question, does it?
Looking at the second 'dog', Kelly glances over to Roy. "Oh look, you have a front line to let you fire from behind. I'm a fan."
Kelly feels Jemma's systems respond. It's unlikely that Roy will with the walls that Kelly put up. They're a little sluggish, much like someone waking.
"Nnnggghhh…" The british born biochem groans as processes start firing again. "You shut me down and you …" her one good eye glares at London. "… tried to hack me. AGAIN. It was you the first time." The anger is there, so much more than Jemma had ever displayed before the surgery.
And it's directed to Jeriah with a passion.
"My head hurts. And no Roy, there's no XP to be won this time." beat back to London. "What the hell do you think you were doing?"
London glances back to see the second dog and sighs. "Sorry. They wander a bit when I'm not paying attention to them." The dog walks over to him and takes a seat flanking him. It is just as large as the other.
"But no I didn't mean that kind of connection. Doctor DeHaven is in Doctor Simmons head, which is… curious. I was jokingly wondering if she was also in yours, Harper."
Cough. That's not awkward. And it's also not awkward at all when one of them produces a sealed baggie of some substance and walks up to Roy to offer it to him.
"Found that in the sandbox. The SHIELD folks said something about a variant of thunderbolt and Roy Harper being the guy to talk to about that. Which I must confess was kind of news to me. Mostly the drugs out there are the standard opiates. That IS a drug, right? It was caught in a shipment that looked like it was going to be distributed in country. From the packaging, targeting Brit forces." And indeed, there's a cute little unionjack on the wrapper.
"Brain computer interface?" Jeriah's not heard of that and his attention is drawn down to Jemma as she starts growling at him. Her and Kelly both. That's enough though for the dog at his right to wander over to Kelly and nose at her hand.
"I was taking out a hostile network node which I thought had been brought back into a secured environment. I assumed that if it were a SHIELD system it would present like one. But apparently deathlok doesn't? The hell is deathlok anyway? Sounds like a metal band."
There's a pause and then the soldier's eyes narrow.
"Wait. Wait…" The eyes gleam for a moment, backlit.
"ARE you three all linked?"
When Kelly mentions firing from behind, Roy hmms? And he glances towards Kelly's.. well, back on task. "No, Windows XP." he corrects Jemma as she starts to come back around. "So, do you still have your last save point or do we need to redo that whole last quest for the crispy onion ring all over again?" he asks her, trying to keep things light, though his lips pull in a thin line at the conversation between the three.
"It's uh. Complicated? Like - you know, how Progressive has that plug in for safe driving? Kelly here makes sure we aren't like…" he pauses. "…kinda like a Flo for human brains?"
Kelly Dehaven will let Jemma explain Dethlok, as the redhead figures the biochem went into Research Overdrive mode on it once it was.. uh, 'installed'.
Of course, Kelly has sort of a front-row seat to Roy's attention diverting and gives him the mental equivalent of a pinch. "« Eyes up! »" The chastising is amused, but still. Poke! "« The doggie has a bone for you. »"
And then Roy's making her out like a perky insurance saleswoman and she just stares at her boyfriend. "I will admit. Of all the ways that one might use to try to explain… That *never* occurred to me."
Jemma reaches out to take the bag from the dog if Roy doesn't. "That, I believe is for you. Do you want to look at it. Or do I just catalogue it with the rest of stuff I've got pending. At least you said XP, I suppose and not ME."
Her head is pounding with sharp shooting pains that arc over her brain. Kelly can feel those, or at least the effect of it.
"Death Lok. Uh. It's… a ressurection protocol I suppose you could say. Some serum to bring the dead back to life. Of course, the dead are usually in need of major body part replacement, so implants are tied with that." beat "Not a heavy metal band, which is good I suppose, since I don't like heavy metal."
Focus is hard. So hard at the moment.
"I *didn't* die, so they had to adjust it. I still needed the implants given the effects of cellular necrosis I was experiencing and they threw some extras. Congratulations Mister London. You found the extra's."
Neither Kelly or Roy, or many people for that fact, have heard Jemma ever sound so bitter.
Both Roy and Kelly get a dubious look at the explanation. "Soooo… Doctor DeHaven makes sure you drive safely and then pays you money if you don't? Or is it makes sure you brain safely?" The explanation clearly has the hacker-soldier dubious. The dog next to Kelly noses at her hand again. Pet me, damn it!
"So you're all three, deathlok'd? You know, it's okay, nevermind. I've worked with stranger things before." There's a pause. "No, okay, no that's a lie. But I can deal with some weird shield hive mind or whatever this is."
Suuuuure he can. He just has to not hack Jemma again, right?
"You should totally upgrade to NT4, Doctor Simmons. More stable. And then you're not running FAT32. Or FAT64. And it handles… extras, better." Well, they started with the OS jokes.
"Anyway, seriously what's up with the drugs and why was finding them enough to get me put on a 12 hour quinjet flight straight from the sandbox?"
"If it's brain safely, I'm screwed." Roy responds, and then there's a bag. And the archer is arching a brow - get it? Reaching down to take the bag from the metallic dog, he frowns at it for a moment. "If this is.. well, nevermind, I won't uh." He opens the bag to give a peek inside as he listens to the others talk. Part of him is kinda drifting back - this isn't one of his talks.
Though his glance towards Jemma is one of concern. « Definite ex. » is sent towards Kelly with a shake of his head.
Kelly Dehaven gives an internal snort of amusement as Roy puts his money down on the other pair being in a past relationship, though it's tainted a bit by the insta-headache that Jemma's broadcasting.
"If it's Thunderbolt, it's a drug that gives people a version of superpowers. Strength, endurance, stuff like that. Or, it outright kills them." Kelly says, filling the very basic information as she glances down at the dog that's begging for pets. With an arched brow she pats it very carefully. Good Fido.
"Enough of the OS jokes." Jemma sighs as she slowly regains her feet. It's demeaning enough to be hacked in *her own lab* without ending up on the floor. "Why do I get the feeling you're a shoot from the hip and ask questions later, type of guy?"
The biochem makes her way to her desk, gingerly, and rummages in her draw. She's got some painkillers there that might make some of the pain disappear. It's going to mess with her afternoon though, something else she'll blame London for, no doubt.
It's probably good that she can't hear Roys thoughts. She might shoot him as well.
"The drugs? It is drug. Something that Consultant Harper is investigating. A rather nasty one. Roy, pay attention to the 'nice' operative and answer his questions. He's been sent to 'help' us, after all."
"Madam I am a US Army trained operator. I shoot from the high ready, the prone supported or the kneeling supported only." Jeriah snorts. "Hips are for the dance floor, not shooting."
"But okay then. Drugs bad. Well, I'm assigned to you folks thanks to the powers that be and a retention clause in my contract so…" He places his phone number on the table near Roy since this is the person who is supposed to be in charge of this op.
"You can give me a call if I can be of service."
And with that he turns to head out and motions to the dog-bots. Only one follows him out the door. The other stays getting petted by Kelly for a solid thirty seconds before London pokes his head back in.
"Hey!" With a scrabbling of limbs the dogbot bolts from Kelly's side and follows the hacker-soldier properly this time. And then, with the sound of clicking receding down the hallway, he's gone.
Oh! Shit, he was being asked - and Roy totally blanked. "…uh, where's the zombie monkey?" he asks curiously. "You see, we think the drug is made from monkey brains.." he starts to explain, but then Jeriah is making his way out. "I. Uh." he sighs. "Sorry. I screwed that pooch. Not like that." There's a sigh as he pushes a hand into his hair. "Remind me to apologize later. I suck."
Kelly Dehaven gives Jemma a sympathetic look at the headache she's rocking, because the redhead really *does* know how she's suffering.
The robo-dog with a mind of its own gets an amused shake of Kelly's head and then she's turning Roy around and, with hands on his shoulders starts to push him towards the door. "I think someone needs defragged. He's got a memory leak." She asides to Jemma with a great deal of sarcasm. "C'mon." That's to Roy. "I think you're overdue for some sleep, Consultant Harper."
"It's Jemma. Not madam." The biochem snaps. London might be hilarious at another time but not right now. "But if you dance, you might be able to make all this up to me." Cause this is all his fault, of course.
"Just remember to keep your digital paws to yourself unless invited." She grumbles as London leaves. The Dogs might be funny at another time, but not right now. Kelly's look gets a grateful one - there's nothing for this, it just has to work itself through.
"I'm going to the medbay, Kelly." At the least, they might give her a bed in a darkened room. "So much for my work this afternoon."
"And yes, Roy, get some sleep. You can catch up with Mister London after that." Defragging. She's not commenting on that. It's like board game day.