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Here beginneth the lesson; tag: alex
Topic Started: Aug 12 2014, 04:34 AM (252 Views)
Regan Wyngarde
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Illusions
July 20th

"As we discussed, now," Regan instructed Alex, cloaking their departure from the delivery vehicle from prying eyes. "Quickly... this is not a drill."


She watched approvingly as the truck smoothly drove off, an illusory driver at its wheel, to park itself in the loading dock. That started the clock for their operation: it would take the crew approximately half an hour to finish unloading their cargo, and the driver's disappearance would not be noted while the unloading was going on. Alex and Regan would have to finish their operation before then and return to the truck in time to drive it out again. In between, they needed to make their way through three security checkpoints to get to the assembly yard, but if everything worked the way Regan had planned it they would do so with relatively little trouble. And if not, well, they would have to shoot their way out... but she was hoping it wouldn't come to that.

The first checkpoint was simple enough, three human guards with handheld identification scanners. Though Regan's power could do nothing to fool the scanners themselves, she didn't need to: just as the guards saw two of their own rather than the two mutant intruders who were really there, they similarly saw the scanners display a successful ID check rather than the blank screens they were really displaying. There were cameras, of course, but Regan was confident that whoever was reviewing the feed -- if, indeed, anyone was -- was well within the range of her psychic influence as well.

That got them into the facility's general areas, including the cafeteria. Under cover of illusion, Regan lifted two badges from two employees just sitting down for lunch; by the time they noticed the loss it would be too late. She handed one of them to Alex. "Remember, if things go south, discard it immediately... they can use it to track you."

Of course, none of these precautions would prevent the video recordings from being available after she'd left. She could access the central recording station as well and corrupt the recordings, but that would take a lot longer, and there was no reason to... they weren't doing a clean infiltration; as long as they got out OK it was fine for the facility to know they'd been hit. That's why she and Alex were wearing masks.

"Ready?"
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Alexander
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Behind the mask, Alex's facial expression was anything but confident. In his opinion he hadn't had nearly enough time to go over the sparse amount of specs that had been made available to him. And he still wasn't comfortable with doing this in the first place. Sentinels were dangerous and if he'd had his way, he would've stayed as far away from these robots as his car could take him. Damn Max and his persuasive voice, and Stacy's sad eyes still haunted him. Sometimes he wished himself back to when he hadn't been involved with this lot at all, The Skulls were assholes and they had been black-mailing him, but at least they didn't have an emotional hold on him. Alex was on a slide, and he knew it. Pretty soon he wouldn't be able to say no to these people, and it worried him.

But this really wasn't the time to consider whether or not the Court were manipulating him. Being distracted would get him shot or jailed, and he was interested in neither. Regan would get them past the scanners and keep the people viewing the feed on the video cameras thinking nothing was amiss. Tentatively, Alex reached out with the tendrils of his consciousness and wrapped one around a camera, he'd been practicing with cameras for a while now but he still couldn't slip completely into one. It felt like trying to get into a pair of too small pants. But he caught a glimpse of what the cameras saw. "Path ahead clear, so far," he said off-handedly, as he took the employee-badge Regan offered and stuffed it in his pocket, nodding yes to that he would throw the card away if things went sour.

"Yes." Not at all. Not at all ready. Swiping the badge through the door-opener and stepping inside when the doors slid apart, Alex surveyed the room. It looked like a cross between a mechanic shop and a lab, and if they hadn't been currently trespassing, Alex would've probably been excited about that. He stepped up to the machines, which looked like they had the last time he had seen them. Still just as scary. A deep breath went into his lungs as Alex found his center, calmed himself, and reached with his mind. These were nothing like cars though, more like computers and they were semi-sentient as the name suggested, which made the whole ordeal even harder. But on some basic level, they were still just mechanical beings. Machines. A wet spot started forming in the mask he was wearing, beneath his nose and his mouth filled with the taste of copper as the blood leaked down the back of his nasal track. His head was aching, but he kept pushing.

And suddenly he was through. But when he opened his eyes, he didn't see the robot. He saw himself, lying on the floor and Regan standing at the door. Uh-oh. Without wanting to, he had achieved complete possession of the sentinel. Lifting his new hands, Alex stared at the mechanical fingers and then wiggled them. Fuck.
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Regan Wyngarde
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Illusions
"Path ahead clear, so far,"

Regan gave Alex a sunny smile at that report. "You've accessed their security systems, then? Excellent." Not that it really mattered, as nobody in the corridor would be able to see or hear them even if they were there, but the fact that the cyberpath was extending the range of his powers to interface with surveillance equipment was itself good news, and if it would encourage him to keep pushing his powers she was happy to keep reinforcing such efforts with praise. Why not? It cost her nothing.

Soon enough, they were within range of the Sentinel being constructed, and Regan placed an encouraging hand on the young cyberpath's arm. "All right... like we discussed. Remember, this is just a test; we just want to see if you can take control of the machine. Don't worry about anything else," she assured him, "I'll make sure we aren't seen."

Nothing happened for a very long time, which wasn't unexpected, and then a bloody mess started seeping through Alex' mask, which also wasn't unexpected. Regan considered concealing the symptoms of power-overuse from Alex's awareness so he would keep pushing further, but decided not to; given that his power was essentially an extention of his own sensorium, there was no way to know whether Regan manipulating his senses would interfere with the experiment. And besides, he seemed willing to push himself pretty hard without external influence... Regan suspected Max's work there, judging from how much time the two had been spending together of late. Well, whatever it takes. One advantage of the Red Court moving its base of operations away from the Pleasure Palace was that she was no longer obligated to participate in the kinds of transactions the Hellfire Club was most infamous for... or at least, not nearly as often. What the rest of the Court got up to was entirely up to them.

And then Alex collapsed, and the Sentinel began moving its arms and fingers. Regan didn't connect the two at first, assuming the scientists were doing some testing of the device, but as they began freaking out over the robot's movements it became clear what was going on. Well, I guess it's a successful experiment, she decided, before turning her attention to the here and now. It was too late by then to conceal it, though, so she concentrated on the technopath's fallen body. "Alex," she insisted, slapping him across the face, "you need to wake up now."
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