Summary:Caden goes looking for records in the old Registration Office. What he finds is not good. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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The old Registration offices are on just off the river on 29th St, just north of Pier 66 which is as close to 'out of the way' as it gets in Manhattan. Which is a good thing because out of the way means that when it gets dark there's less traffic. It helps that the building isn't being used. There's a fence around the parking lot and the building itself is boarded up and locked. It's patrolled by what certainly appear to be regular civilian security guards. The kind who are at best armed with pepper spray. This should be fairly low risk, but the records being kept here - well slowly being disposed of here - are very valuable to certain interests which means SHOULD BE low risk may not necessarily equal IS low risk.
At the moment though, all is well. It's quiet. The guards are patrolling - there's only four on the outside - and the locked two story building is, at least for the moment, quiescent.
The schematics were taken into consideration, and Isis as well as Nick were likely briefed. Assuredly they weren't complete or weren't entirely up to date, but they'd give at least some hint of the lay of the land and what it would take to make a successful breach.
During the meeting he'd likely asked them, "Above ground or below ground?" The two ways to approach, at least the two easily available for them without going into possibly dropping in on parachutes. But he pointed out the advantages of a below ground approach, gesturing at the projected image display back during their discussion.
"We can move here, to here, to here. Phasing for each of these jaunts, then we just need to make a quiet dash here, from cover to cover. Guards aren't disciplined enough to really have that regular of a schedule beyond the fifteen minute stroll. So… we just need to be sneaky." He looked at the others, and yup, they could handle it.
Once that had been decided on he waited til Isis was ready, and then he nodded to her from their place roughly a block away from the target. At her sign that she was ready he'd take her hand… and they'd walk towards the wall.
"I can fight and I know how to be quiet." Isis assures Caden as she readies herself for what's to come. Her manner of dress has changed in the recent past, no more oversized t-shirts and baggy pants - crop tops and snug jeans for the feline-like mutant. "And I can put people to sleep sometimes. Not by talking to them…"
When she's ready with her pack on her back, she nods to Caden and takes the mans hand.
Walking through the wall is weird, but then so is stepping into the dream realm … she just needs to keep her mind focussed.
"I'm not sensing anyone near …"
Nick indeed has been briefed but is not here. Being a six foot plus fuzzy wolfman he's not exactly suited for stealth missions. Isis at least can pass for human if she puts on a hoodie.
The fence isn't hard to deal with. The first real test is getting inside without being spotted. The actual walls and doors aren't really an issue thanks to Caden's abilities. The issue is that there's no word on whether or not the cameras inside are still active. If they are, then all of the long hallways are covered by at least one, sometimes two angles. Getting into one of the smaller offices or interview rooms is the best way to avoid that up front and there's on right ahead. The problem is once inside they'll have to hop from room to room with precise timing.
Isis is correct that there is no one near. Further out she can detect twelve minds in total. Four outside, eight inside. That's… two more than there SHOULD be inside.
"I got a bad feeling about this," Caden says to Isis as they keep moving. He'll try and set them up in the line needed to slip through the wall, trying to stick to the blindspots they know about, but also keeping an eye open for possible changes or countermeasures that have been added since.
When they're hunkered down in one of the offices, slipping through the wall and pausing behind a desk. He gives a nod to her and says quietly, "Wait her a sec. Going to stick my head out and see what I can see in the next hall, not sure what's in there." And when he says stick his head out… he means it literally.
That having been said he moves silently, clinging to the shadows to the far wall. He leans through enough to get a quick gander at the situation, peers one way… then the other…
And depending on what he sees he'll either gesture for Isis to come to him for them to move forward, or he'll need to find a way to try and disable the security there, or move just in time once the timing is established.
With the hoodie pulled over her head, Isis passes as human. A human with a slightly preternatural grace but human. As long as no one looks in her eyes.
"We have a problem …" Her head cants as she lets her mental shields down. "Four outside, eight inside… that's more than we expecting. Do we know about the camera's, are th—- OK." She's unaware of Cadens power's affect on electronics, if she was she might be slightly less on edge than she is.
"Someones drawing nearer… not close, but coming this way."
Indeed footsteps approach and then fade away. Hard to tell if that was a guard or someone else.
The cameras could be disabled but someone might notice that. They're easy enough to time. The records are being kept on the second floor and it's not too hard to get to a stairwell. However that's where the first unexpected thing of the night happens.
There's a device at the stairwell that looks like an airport metal detector. Except metal detectors don't usually have odd purple energy pulsing between them. Um…
Slipping back into the room as she mentions the other person coming he'll nod to her and fall back towards the cover behind the desk. "We'll hunker down here until they pass." And true to his word he drops into a crouch and then sits down behind that desk, holding position for now.
Voice quiet he tilts his head to the side as he listens and then murmurs low, "Give me the word when we're clear." And once she does then they'll make their decision on approach and movement.
The cameras are timed, the dash across the way is made. It's enough to get them past and out of sight rather quickly. Into the next room across the way. They make for the stairwell, slipping out of the wall and into the shadowy corner. A glance is cast upwards and they likely espy the weird metal detectors.
"You ever see anything like that before, Isis?" Caden murmurs. He'll edge closer, a little closer… perhaps testing his phasing briefly as he draws nearer as if making sure that that purple energy isn't anything that might interfere.
Isis hasn't worked with anyone but Nick before, this is new to her and she's trying hard to prove she can do this. Still, she misses the big brown werewolf and the touch of his mind. It helps settle her when she's trying to do these things.
"They're moving away. There are others coming closer, but not as close as these…" She answers, back pressed against the leg of the desk as they wait. When they dash, she's nearly silent even with the boots she wears - might have something to do with her feline nature.
"Um…." she frowns and cants her head. "I can hear it pulsing. It … sounds familiar but I've not seen anything like it before."
When Caden sticks his arm toward it a little bar starts to light up on the top of the frame. It's like a metal detector as well. It goes from green to yellow and edges toward red. Don't these things usually make a noise when they get to red?
What is it reacting to, though? Caden is phased so it's not likely to be anything physical. That means it has to be energy. Is Caden emitting some kind of energy? Or… is it just detecting him? Somehow. And if so… wait. Someone's coming down!
There IS enough time to hide and when the person comes down - a box of what sounds like paper. Interestingly when HE comes through, the field between the detector doesn't react at ALL.
So… what is Caden that that guy isn't?
Isis can detect more people moving. Still the usual patterns. They've got about two minutes before they have to hide or move again.
Holding silent, Caden keeps his position out of view and away from that sensor as he grimaces to himself. Once the man man with the box of paper moves on by and is far enough away, the young X-Man turns to her and says, "That… is not something I want to mess with." He sighs and frowns, bringing the schematics back to mind as he ponders their options.
They'll need a circuitous route to take on this floor and around. If they go through the wall and further on almost to the edge of the building then take a left and rush from that point… maybe it'll get them far enough away from the sensor that they can ascend from there. Still, it takes time, longer exposure. More risk. But better than just crossing one's fingers and hoping.
Sidelong to Isis he says gently, "Take a deep breath, ok?" And once she does so he does as well… then they phase.
Isis concentrates on the mind of the man with the paper, frowning slightly in the shadow of her hood. "He's … his mind feels a little like Nicks." That doesn't mean anything though. It might be a feral nature she's feeling or it could just be a strong, dominant, mind. That's the problem with emotions - you can feel them but they rarely *say* anything
When the man goes, before Caden speaks, Isis puts her arm out as well, and watches. Both of them are mutants but Isis is also a 'feral' - maybe it's that. Or maybe she's clutching at straws.
"Ready …" breath held, she grasps Cadens hand. Phasing through walls is *not fun*.
It's a good thing Nick isn't here or he'd be making Heinlein references that Isis likely wouldn't understand.
Once on the second floor things get… more interesting. This part of the building was offices and document storage and a lot of the cubicle walls are still here. The document storage - where Caden needs to be - is on the far end of the room and between here and there there are a number of what can only be described as 'flying roombas' flitting around with little 'scan fields' underneath them. Same color as the last scanner on the stairs.
"How are you doing on the digitization?" Someone asks.
"We're about a third of the way through. I had to go into the special archives and unseal a bunch of court sealed records. We'd hate to miss anyone special just because they happened to turn eighteen after all."
Wait. They're digitizing records? They're supposed to be destroying them.
Holding on tight, Caden keeps Isis with him as he phases. The sensation is so strange and eerie. A blur of solid material in front of them, the tingling of the transition, the held breath. It's like a rush of movement popping through the solid material and bubbling forth into reality with each step.
Once they make it to their destination, the young X-er stops them behind cover in that part of the building, letting Isis' hand go then as he leans out past a filing cabinet to peer.
"Looks like we either chose a good day to do this, or a bad day." Depending on how one looks at it. Usually Caden is a glass is half-full type of guy. But right now… it's hard to maintain.
To Isis he murmurs, "How many are around us? Just these drones?"
There's a low feline growl from Isis when she hears those words. She might not have understood Nicks Heinleins references but she'd understood that. "They're hunting for mutants. This isn't a dead operation at all." She says to Caden.
"Two to our right. Two on the left. Four more in the building but elsewhere. I can put these four to sleep." she pauses before adding "… and mess with their dreams."
That would please her, it really would. Give them dreams of mutants they'd harmed with their actions.
The drones sadly can't be put to sleep. But they are electronic. What isn't known is whether or not their scanners are linked up to some kind of network. If so even taking them out might cause an alarm.
There is a gap in the pattern. It isn't perfect. But there's a route through that opens up approximately every four and a half minutes and stays open for forty five seconds. That's a long time in a room like this. But clearly the people working here aren't concerned about being interrupted. Why would they be?
The question is do they go with knocking people out? Or just sneak through to the records room. The door is closed, at the moment. But someone might go in there behind them if they slip in.
A tilted look is given to Isis as Caden nods, listening to her words. "Hold off for now." He motions in the direction opposite them toward the far end of the room and the records terminal that he'll likely need to get to. "I'm going to try and get there and get on their system, do what I can about the records, maybe something about these drones, then try and destroy their data as best I can."
He eases forward a little out of cover to peer, then cants a look back toward her, "Keep an eye on those people. Cover me. If they seem to be onto me or are about to discover me then… yeah, do what you can."
He rests a hand on her shoulder and asks, "You set?"
And if she gives an affirmative then he'll turn and start to traverse across the way toward that terminal as soon as he gets an opening.
Sitting still is not something Isis does particularly well. Nick had mentioned that to Caden before they'd left. "I can help. I can read some, you know." She says a little petulantly and follows Caden till she can follow no further.
She can do more than too.
As people start drawing near to that room once Cadens in, Isis uses her power to send waves of unease. It's subtle, she's had years of training to do this, just enough to have someone pause and turn aside.
Of course, that only works if someones not mentally trained. Then … well, things get interesting.
Inside the room the biggest problem is not security. It's the fact that this was a government agency and the computers are slow and comparatively ancient. He can get one turned on but… er… well. It's going to take a minute to get anywhere.
As for Isis this is the part where things get tricky. There isn't any one safe spot in the room so she has to constantly keep moving to avoid being found by the drones and while doing that she has to avoid being seen or heard by the PEOPLE. Who are ALSO all moving.
In fact here comes one of them right now. Right toward the cubicle she's in.
Mouthing something to himself, Caden scowls and gets the systems up and running, withdrawing one of the small thumbdrives with the contrived executables designed to do a brute rush of the systems and defenses of whatever machine its inserted to. Usually it's enough to knock the door down and push it open, but if nothing else it might give a beginning that'll let him start in on working the security.
With time on his hands as it boots he'll step back to the door and peek through, frowning to himself as he espies Isis dealing with the possible incoming. He'll push the door open enough to at least let her catch his eye if she's looking.
With those bad guys starting to encroach he'll try and give her the signal to put them to sleeps. Which really is just him closing his eyes and tilting his head to the side, both hands held underneath his ear like he's snoozing.
It's time like this that Isis is very glad that she doesn't have a tail. The irritated flicking would be sure to knock something over. It's difficult to slip smoothly between desks and cabinets, sending feelings of 'avoid this area'.
With the person coming towards the cubicle she's in, they seem to be ignoring her signals. Her blue eyes cast around looking for something but not finding anything … then Caden gives the signal.
It takes a moment for Isis to slip into the mental state she needs and then …. SLEEP
Hopefully she misses Caden when she does that.
Four people who are NOT Caden just sort of yawn and fall over. That leaves two remaining people - a very confused looking office worker and an older man in a suit still up. The office worker just stares. But the man in the suit. He pulls a gun and starts moving very quickly towards a desk that Isis can see has a radio on it.
It is PROBABLY not a good idea to let him get to that.
Meanhile Caden's finally got the system up and running. It's secured but not heavily. It's Unix based. He can hack that. It shouldn't take him tooooo long to find the files that were being compiled. There's another file too of lower res scans of the entire database. Getting both of those should get them what they want. So that's… mission accomplished yes?
Except, well… it doesn't seem like a great idea to let these guys keep doing their work does it?
Oh also that office worker will probably scream at some point.
The four hit the ground and to be fair… Caden takes a big loooong yawn as he shakes his head and forces himself to focus on the task at hand. Four down, but then there's still the pat-pat-pat of footsteps as two others are up and active.
The young X-Men gestures with a nod towards Isis, the closer one to her is hers, Caden steps through that door moving low and silently as he slips through a cubicle wall into cover and then once the one going for the radio slips past he'll reach up and try to phase through that particular worker's mind to cause that abrupt electrical disruption to the mind to short and knock them out.
If that works then he'll check over in Isis' direction to see if she's got hers, before he heads to the console again to work the hack. Once that's secured then it'll be time to see what can be done with the drones.
Isis has only ever been able to affect four people at once, so it's good that Caden wasn't one of them.
Sticking her head around the corner of the cubicle, she frowns and leaps. Onto the desk near her and then the one the guy with gun is heading to - sharp claws extending from her fingernails and swiping at the radio.
At the same time, her blue/grey eyes catch the mans gaze and she concentrates … sending waves of joy at the man.
The man stares at Isis when he sees her. And then stares at the radio. And then at the man. And then the man lunges at Isis, wraps his arms around her and kisses her soundly.
Well what on earth did she expect sending joy at him of all things?! At least he didn't yell. Caden seems to have managed to knock out his from what she can tell but she might be just a tad busy. She's going to have to find a way to deal with this one before the drones run her over.
Fortunately those drones seem pretty dumb. They don't even have cameras, just bottom mounted scanners and they're flying a preset pattern based on the room layout. They ARE hooked up to a wireless system which the terminal has access to. They'll probably go into standby mode if disconnected from it. Lots of network dependent hardware does.
There's a quick whirr and plastic crackle as Caden makes sure to secure his opponent with a quickly ripped zip tie from one of his pockets, the rapid binding won't secure a prisoner for an extended period of time, but hopefully will make sure they get enough time to do what tehy need. Then he's up and espies the suddenly… joyful fellow rushing into Isis' arms and trying to lay one on her.
Eyebrows rising, perhaps surprised at that situation, the young X-Ninja breaks from cover and from where he had taken down his man, then moves to try and get into position to pull the other guard off of Isis to try and plant him on the ground, a gloved hand lifting.
Sidelong he'll say, "Get into the office with the terminal, think we'll be set." And if he has the chance he'll zot that guy too.
The guys isn't *trying* to do anything. He's taken Isis completely by surprise and enfolded her, dipping her backwards and kissing her passionately. The slight feline-like mutant goes very still, eyes wide.
By the time Caden gets his hands on the guard, Isis decides to respond.
Like a cat.
Vicious claws swipe at the guards back to begin with, then his face. If Caden's not careful he might get got as well. Isis is operating on feral instinct - an emotion that she manages to broadcast to the area.
Hissing and yowling, she drags the back of her hand across her mouth, glaring at Caden like he's a threat. Only for a moment - the phaser can see reason return just before Isis scratches the guards face again and turns to that room. "Can I break it?"
Caden zots the guy while Isis is scratching him which does prevent him from yelling though not Isis from yowling. It might be best to finish up now, really. That might have been heard and there ARE still guards. And no one wants an entanglement with the police right now.
So, files secured, the big question is what to do with the remaining records and the follow on to that is… what do they have time for.
"How's it going in there, Miles?" The radio chirps.
Um………
"Not… yet." Caden answers Isis as he makes a quick grab to the radio, keying the receiver, a slightly more gruff tone of voice is affected as Pryde replies to the radio chirp, "Hey. s'good. More'n halfway."
Hopefully that'll hold for a few seconds.
Moving back into the terminal room, Caden slips into place there in front of the keyboard and starts to flit through the directory, checking data integrity and then verifying connections possibly to the drones and the like, looking for remote server backup in case they put the files to the cloud. Quick traces need to be made to check where this data might have gotten to, and then another thumbdrive is swapped into the port, this one set to throw out a series of nasty viruses to try and clean up behind them, make it so the data is ideally just in their possession.
Isis growls giving the evil eye to the guard who is now profusely bleeding. She doesn't try to damage anything yet but gives Caden a look. "You're supposed to say Everything's perfectly all right now. We're fine. We're all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?"
Nick *has* to stop her watching so much TV.
Her head goes up though and the growl gets louder. "Hurry up, they're coming this way."
"Oh hey. James. Where'd Miles go?" At least Caden sounds like someone on the team but now the guy on the other end of the radio is getting chatty. That means this charade can only last for so long.
Isis isn't wrong though. Someone is coming up. The files are… going to be done in ten seconds. But the people who are coming up will be here in thirty. That is probably NOT enough time to dash past them without trouble.
Time to get creative. Isis can feel a certain amount of smug confidence. Maaaaybe there's something she can do with that.
"Think he went to the john," Caden's voice is a little gruff, a little distant and rumbly, allowing for perhaps some distance from the receiver to lend to the idea of a weak signal. Then he adds, "You see those headlights at the South fence? They just clicked off."
He drops the radio and pulls back.
Sighing softly, Caden leans out of the terminal room to get a look in the direction that he thinks the guards might be coming from he says sidelong, "Boring conversation anyway," At that he steps back and once the viruses are uploaded he grabs that thumb-drive again and rips it out of the USB port without /even/ clicking the little USB icon on the desktop.
DANGEROUS!
That done, however, he shifts his gaze over to Isis, "You think you can stop them?"
"Can't put them to sleep… too many down already." Isis growls. She's taken a three point crouch just inside the door of the room, ready to pounce on whoever comes through it.
"Maybe. Don't want to get kissed again…" without thinking about it, she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand again. She's unhappy and unhappy Isis is normally not a good thing.
"When you're ready… I can try and turn them." Not joy, this time. Fear might work on that sense of satisfaction. In the end she chooses something she's already feeling - uncertainty.
She wants them question whether coming this is the right thing and second guess themselves. While they're distracted, they can sneak past.
That… works. The sudden surge of doubt. It manifests in varying ways. An attack of conscious. A sudden worry about how the boss might react. A terrible gnawing sense that something is about to go wrong. It freezes the people approaching in their tracks, causing them to turn inward and question themselves. They have a few precious minutes to do something with that doubt before SOMEONE resolves into action.
It's now or never.
"C'mon." Caden extends his hand toward Isis and once she takes it he'll hold his breath, focus, and then start them forward to break cover by moving through the cover, and dropping down if needs be to get clear of those that had been coming to investigate. Hopefully it'll be enough of a leeway and a gap for them to get clear and on their departure vector.
They'll stop at side rooms as needs be to take a breath and recover, then once they're resituated it's back to the evacuation from the site. Hopefully they'll have what they need.
"They're stopping, not getting closer at least." Isis' voice is a low feline growl. Her posture is aggressive and Caden should get the feeling that she's dangerous - despite how slim she is. "Go … now."
Taking the mutants hand, she lets him lead her away. "Tell me this is going to be destroyed now. They can't keep this information. I want to burn it down around them." No wonder Nick was scared of Registration.
Down the stairs, through walls, out in a blur and past the patrols onto the street where they can finally breathe easy. Nothing to see here. Just a couple of people out for a walk. One of them has cats ears but that's not unusual is it? I mean people are drawn like that in Manga all the time.
Anyway, the two mutants are in the clear.
"We got what we needed, Isis." Caden's voice is calm, controlled, as they reach that edge of the secure facility's perimeter. He smiles a little as he walks and says, "Reasonably certain their security measures couldn't handle some of the things I threw at them."
And with that said they'll start the trek back to find Nick and home, ideally to go over their recently acquired informational loot.