Heroes: Endings and Beginnings

[LadyTevar]

"Oh gee.. we can be prosecuted for going inside," Heidi said with a thick layer of sarcasm.
The power's off, key reader is probably dead too...
"Hell, it might even be unocked, Jerri," Heidi snorted, but tried the door for the hell of it.

[Charon]

Inferno was not far behind Gemini.

"If it doesn't open, just tear it off." Inferno wasn't in the mood for stupid delays.

[B4UTRUST]

The door was indeed unlocked, a safety override in place in the event of a power failure or fire alarm activation. After all, it wouldn't be good for anyone if someone was to be trapped down here in this place.

The handle turned easily and the door opened silently on well oiled hinges. Inside was a cave of darkness and silence.

[LadyTevar]

"Darn... I don't get to be violent," Heidi quipped. "Got a light?"
Do we have something NexT can piggy-back to get inside with us?

[Charon]

Inferno smiled as he stepped forward. "I think I can handle a light." The meta focused some as he lifted his hand a little higher into the air. It glowed for a brief second and then a small burst of flame appeared and sat inches above Inferno's hand.

"Alright, let's check this place out."

[LadyTevar]

"NeXT? Power's out in here... you might not be able to do anything, even if we knew how to get you in here," Heidi said, relaying Jerri's thoughts.

[B4UTRUST]

The inside of the room was filled with server racks and tape backup systems, what seemed to be thousands of cables and wires snaked every which way imaginable, plugging into every bit of electronics visible and disappearing into the walls and ceilings at various places to be routed to other parts of the building. A pair of rolling office chairs and two actual computers were present as well.

None of the systems or equipment appeared to have power applied to them. Even the UPS backups were silent.

[Charon]

"Well. That's either very good or very bad." Inferno looked around to see if there was any kind of power switch.

[LadyTevar]

"No Power, no way NeXT can get in and download the files," Heidi snorted, searching the other side of the room for a breaker box or power switch. "At least we can carry out the tapes."
Confiscate the computer servers, we can have our techs break into them as well.
"Jerri just suggested taking everything back to base for our tech-heads to crack."

[SirNitram]

"Don't need the computers. The backups. Look around for the physical storage media.." NeXT pointed out. "They can be dropped into secure systems homeside." He talked them through what modern tape storage looked like, trying to guide them.

[B4UTRUST]

There were no switches visible save the normal light switches and the various buttons on the equipment.

The light switches yielded no results when it was thrown in either direction. It was evident that a breaker somewhere had been tripped. Inferno recalled though that he had seen a room marked electrical somewhere in the basement hallway.

[Dark Silver]

After a careful checking of the floor, Legion shook his head, heading back towards the elevator, "Come on Alpha, let's check the next floor down."

Legion pressed the button calling for the lift.

[Charon]

Inferno looked over at Gemini.

You know, in that light she-

"Gemini. Stay here for a second, I think I saw a breaker down the hall a ways. I'll be right back."

Inferno headed out of the room and back towards the room he had seen before, opening the door to the electrical room and taking a look around.

[LadyTevar]

"You could have left the light!" Heidi hollered after him as it got very dark in the computer room. "Just like a guy, leave a woman in the dark," she muttered.
There was no answer from Jerri for a long moment, just a hazy almost-thought about low lights outlining men in tight uniforms.

"Why Jerri, what -would- he think of you?" Heidi grinned, reaching out to lean on the chair she'd seen beside her before the light went out.
What? What are you talking..

The rest was covered by the sound of Gemini cursing as the chair spun and sent them off balance to land heavily against one of the walls. "Gods-dammed-stupid-fuckin--- INFERNO! TURN THE LIGHTS" the lights wink on. ".....on..."

[B4UTRUST]

As soon as Inferno hit the breaker, unbroken lights came on, giving luminence to the formerly darkened labs. The quiet hum of equipment coming to life seemed excessively loud after the deafening silence that had permeated the facility.

Down below, the quiet beeping of UPS backup batteries began, indicating that they were low on power and recharging. A moment later some of the systems began to power up again. Green lights on the server racks began to flash, though some were indicating red. What that meant was not immediately obvious to anyone without experiance dealing with computers.

-----------

On the 3rd floor, Alpha and Legion disembarked from the elevator. The overhead lights, now on, gave them an idea that the lab was set up nearly identically to the one they had just left.

Many of the lights were out, broken and shattered. The presence of death was just as thick in the air as it had been above. Pools of blood and chunks of body were abundent, like whatever had been here had literally torn them everyone in its path to pieces, destroying whatever had made these people people, robbing them not only of their life but their presence, their dignity as individuals. They were no just so much meat and gore.

Alphas audio sensors could detect a noise back in one of the labs. It was faint and even amplified was barely discernable to the AI. It sounded like someone crying.

Someone, somewhere on this floor, was alive.

[LadyTevar]

Gemini straightened up from the wall she'd been leaning against in a flash, catching the still-moving chair and kicking over in front of one of the tables. "NeXT, we've got computers up and running. What do you want done from here?"

Those red lights on the servers might mean trouble. Make sure you warn him about them.
"We've got a lot of green lights, but some are flashing red. Jerri wanted me to warn you."

[SirNitram]

"Plug a phone or something into one of the green-light servers. I'll leap into the system. Yea, red lights mean error. I'll see if I can find the exacts once I'm in."

[LadyTevar]

Heidi rummaged through her belt pouches, Jerri coaching her from inside their mind.
I told you the next pouch over. Yes. That's what we're wanting, the USB plug.
"USB, UBS, Whatever," Heidi muttered, plugging one end of the double cord into her cellphone and the other into a similar port on a server that had if not all green then nearly all green lights. "There. You're plugged in, NeXT."

Inferno should be returning now

[SirNitram]

"I apologize for any confusion that caused, Miss Hyde." NeXT teased as he dove into the system, off-siting data as quickly as he could with the anticipation something would happen. "Hopefully we'll be able to get a little further with this stuff. Hey, Alpha, Legion, how's things topside? Any way I can render assistance?"

[Charon]

Inferno made his way back to the room, smiling just a little. "Oh Inferno, save me. The dark is all scary for big bad Heidi." The smile turned into a grin before the meta looked over at the servers. "What'd we got?"

[Dark Silver]

Stepping off the elevator, Legion was reminded of the floor above. Until he heard the sounds of crying.

This was new. Instantly his forcefield was at it's strongest possible. It only extended a foot infront of him, but it would be enough.

"Alpha," he said quietly, "can you detect that?". He was near certain if he could hear the sound, the killbot could. "Record, analyze, enhance and extrapolate most likely location upon known layout of that crying."

When NeXT broke on the comms, Legion went teamwide with the reply, "We've moved from the fourth to the third floor. Fourth floor was clean of life, found some pills which we placed in a evidence bag. We've picked up the signs of *something* alive on the third floor. Proceeding with investigation. Suggest keeping with Inferno and Gemeni for now NeXT, there's not much you could piggyback on up here."

With that, Legion began to move cautiously into the third floor.

[General Havoc]

Alpha could, as it turned out, detect the sound, and was tracking it on his auditory processors, trying to ascertain its location.

"Analysis underway," it said into the radios as it trained its sensors back and forth. "Be advised, unit secondary priority protocols impels action to preserve civilian life. Unit is now proceeding under secondary priority protocol authority."

And with that, Alpha slowly began to walk down the hallway towards the source of the crying, his weapon ports slowly scanning back and forth across the hall.

[LadyTevar]

Inferno made his way back to the room, smiling just a little. "Oh Inferno, save me. The dark is all scary for big bad Heidi." The smile turned into a grin before the meta looked over at the servers. "What'd we got?"

Heidi's response was to reach over and (gently) smack his arm with the back of her hand, hard enough to sting.
... Ok, yeah, he deserved it for that crack ...

"NeXT says the red blinkies mean corrupted areas, so I've loaded him into the one with the most green lights," Heidi answered calmly. "I'm assuming he's grabbing what information he can. And if the arm stings, Jerri will kiss it and make it better."
?!??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY THAT?!?!
"You'll have to wait until the Serum wears off, tho."

[Charon]

Inferno pulled his arm away once it was smacked and rubbed it some. He seemed to completely ignore Heidi's second statement when Inferno responded.

"Alright. We'll wait here while NExT finishes up, then we'll head back upstairs."

[LadyTevar]

"What do you think Legion and Alpha's found up there?" Heidi asked, sitting back in a chair to wait for NeXT to finish. She was a little annoyed that her comment didn't get a rise out of Inferno, but Jerri's freakout made up for it.