Science Fiction in all my dreams i DROWN

IC: Mary Formal, Officer Delicious / Charles, Main Auditorium Building, Second Floor

Mary had overheard Joe griping that searching up here was a waste of time, and she had leaned up against the wall across from Roy, to let Joe's team file back through to the stairs, and return to the ground floor, leaving her alone with Delicious.

After a few moments, she bounced herself off the wall and shot him a startled expression:
"Dammit Del', I forgot to tell you all that Sidney is wearing body armour, and not to stand in the open when tackling him."

"Just joking, call me Charles."

She frowned at her temporary partner. "That's what you got out of that? Sidney is bulletproof. He cannot be shot."

The officer's chest mike crackled with an incoming transmission, prompting him to plug in his earpiece. "Repeat please? Alright, great job. Okay, sounds like we got lucky. Annie arrested and tah-dah ... Sidney down."

Agent Formal almost asked who Annie was, then remembered Cardigan saying he had tried to shoot her leg off with a shotgun.

What she and Nikki had feared whilst cowering inside the Preston hovel, he definitely had it in him.

"Sidney down? What'd they do, hit him with a chair?"

Officer Wilty gave her a broad smile. "But we got bomb squad inbound, so maybe you help your partner with that arrest and I see how evacuation is going?"

"Bomb squad?" On reflection though, she had authorised, although only Detective Cardigan had been listening, excessive force in the apprehension of the Blues Brothers. Maybe he had relayed that to his boys. What was that term for a man taking credit for a woman's ideas? She asked Delicious. "Is it 'mansplaining'?"

He nodded.

She felt dubious about that, frowning at him whilst he stood over the body, the LAPD officer's unwavering attention on her. "Are you sure? The word sounds like it should have some element of 'explaining to it."

"And look for our amateur filmers on your way out."

The blonde woman blinked in surprise.
"Oh, you were serious! Wait, why are you trying to get rid of me? Are you meeting someone here for some on-duty rumpy-pumpy?"

"Actually an offence in CA."

"I imagine it's illegal in a lotta places." Her voice trailed off and her breathing increased as four-syllable warnings started going off in her head. One word.

Fa-mil-li-ar. Familiar.

Dammit, she had gotten caught up with playing policewoman. She had stopped checking the backs of necks for tattooed hieroglyphs. Her focus on her companion, narrowed, drinking in the tiniest detail.

He was relaxed, a little too relaxed. "And we get CSI in here." His finger was still on his trigger. Minor detail. The gun was switched to burst and not safety. Another minor detail.

Burst? Unusual setting for a pistol. That was more in keeping with a Judge Dredd Lawgiver, blow a perp's hand off if they have the temerity to pick up a Judge's weapon. She didn't want to hang around to see if it had a 'Hi-Ex' setting as well.

Her own gun hand was hanging down by her right hip, still gripping her Bren Ten. Despite telling Nikki that she did not sweat, the grip felt moist in her fist. She had a strong feeling that if they drew down on each other, that she wouldn't prevail. Besides, despite her putting on a brave face, she had understandable aches and pains from going toe-to-toe with Sidney.

"Is...is this about the warehouse?" Where the LAPD had picked her up. Alone, apart from piles of fine grey ash, a good quality DJ setup, blaring the New Order' techno track "Confusion" on repeat. Deacon Frost's revellers never seemed to tire of it.

Charles or Delicious looked at her and nodded. "Good job, really. Now better clear the scene."

"You, you're letting go? Okay then!" Mary slid her back along the wall towards the corner that lead to the fire door, keeping her eyes on Charles all the way, then as soon as she was there, the UNCLE agent bolted for the stairs, shoving the fire door open with a leading palm, holstering her gun and running ungainly down the stairs two steps at a time, her long white sleeves flashing in front of her as she grabbed the bannister to keep herself from tripping and coming a cropper (injuring herself) on the stairs.

As soon as she swung round the halfway point between the first floor and the bottom, she was already calling out about the threatening officer that she had left upstairs, then upon seeing that there were a lot of dark uniformed people down there, she slowed her descent, eventually spying a rough semi-circle of short-sleeved cops, apparent SWAT officers in black BDUs (battle dress uniform?), and Joe Cardigan, in shooting stances.

Hands automatically pulling the hem of the badly placed Marc Olivier skirt back down over her hips and smoothing the material down her smooth nylons, she followed the directions on everyone's attention, and spied an utterly beautiful Chinese-looking girl with a shock of pink hair.

She seemed to have knocked over a bin, and was holding a trash bag.

Mary checked up the stairs to make sure that Deacon Frost's man had not followed her down, then returned her attention to the tense stand-off below and ahead of her.

"Umm. Am I interrupting something?"

Tag: @SirakRomar @Lawbreaker

 

Enigma
Andy's Penthouse

She sneaked into the room and saw him sitting at the desk with his pad. Aiming at him she tried to get as close without giving away her presence. Then he looked out of the window. The reflection! He jumped up and started begging ...

Elina did not hesitate. She aimed at Andy's chest and pulled the trigger. Then she fired a second time. She had no idea how many shots she had, but Andy would not get away.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @Lawbreaker (Input)



Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie had recognized the cop too late. A sloppy mistake, but she was a slacker in the L.A. art-scene no God-damned commando soldier. How could she among all those soldiers spot the one who knew her!

She raised her hands and closed her eyes in frustration. Time. She was loosing time.

"Sidney is on his way to his next victim and I do not have time for this. You know you cannot shoot me. Let me go. I know how he can be stopped now." She looked at the SWAT which looked exactly like the guys she had just shot. She knew how to kill Sidney, but she knew probably how she could be killed, too. Not with guns though.

"Let me go. We do not need to do this." She counted the cops and gave everybody a few more seconds to get out of the way. She was not such a good shot and wanted no civilians in the way.

Tag: @Sith-I-5, @Lawbreaker

 

IC: Agent Mary Formal, lobby stairwell, Main Auditorium Building, UCLA

Part of the woman's speech, caught Formal's attention.
"You know how he can be stopped?" She echoed into the silence.

She took a deep inhalation through her nose. Unable to name-drop her two real agencies, there might not be a more important time for her faux one to carry some weight.

She staggered carefully down the final steps, hands on the railings to steady herself, her knees and hips feeling the ache of the recent escapades.

"For goodness' sake, Cardigan. If there is a chance that she knows how to stop Sidney." She moved into the firing line of the first of the weapons, still some metres from Annie. "Annie, I'm Agent Mary Formal. As a duly appointed official of the U.N.C.L.E., I hereby deputise you long enough to get us close to Sidney. This is dependent on you also explaining, directly and without reservation, what the **** is going on, and what TRITEC is. Everybody, stand down but stay close." Feeling that she had earned the cliche, she gulped, audibly.

Tag: @Lawbreaker @SirakRomar

 

IC: Nicole Gravely, Die Doom Bar

Fearing for her life now, the detective endured the threatening postures from both women without moving or saying anything, and maintained that as Rita slid uncomfortably close to her.

Her bladder put up metaphorical hands in surrender, dipped it's metaphorical head in a very Andrew Shulz-type way, and said, "I'm out. I'm out."

Then when, miracle of miracles, Rita returned to her computer and her bouffant-haired Twin got on her phone and started talking about lawyers, she saw her chance, grabbing up her phone and bolting past her doppelganger into the sunlight, narrowly hopscotching around Karen, and drawing her Glock as she slowed, pirouetted and faced the dark doorway.

She aimed the gun towards the shadowed rectangle.

"Stay there! If either of you come out into the open, I will blow you the **** away! "She could hear the pent-up hysteria in her own voice. She was losing it.

She needed to get to UCLA, but how to do it; in the dented Taurus? Commandeer one of those red ambulances for the lights and sirens?

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie looked at this obviously delusional woman and was confused for a moment. Why did nobody realize but her?

Annie reminded herself this was not real. It was a simulation. Probably she was not as affected as everyone else, but it was still a simulation. Regrettably the others seemed not to listen to her. All guns kept being pointed at her. Whoever was running this, he was not letting her save Christian.

The woman was not helping. But she gave her an opening.

"Ma'am I don't think made up agencies can deputize me." Incredible who they let have a gun these days. "But TRITEC is a simulation of life. So realistic you could hardly say if you were just part of it!"

Again she reminded herself this was not reality as she expected it to be. That was why the woman was here. She had been put here. If they had programmed it ... any second a two-headed dragon might appear for all she knew. Anyway she gave the woman a stressed thin-lipped smile and looked around. She hoped this would at least lighten the mood and not lead to any more tension. Maybe it got them thinking. Maybe they all realized they were in a damned game and ended up on Sidney's list. She did not care. If she did not help Christian soon this was all over.

Nevertheless she turned to the male cop again. "But she is right, if you do not know how to stop him ... what choice do you have but give me a try?"

Tag: @Sith-I-5, @Lawbreaker (input)

 

Amy Cross
New Rose Hotel

She jumped up and ran to the door. Christian was about to die and if he died who would stop the madness? She ran down the corridor and Adrian and Xi were standing there, obviously having a heated discussion.

"My friends, I need to help them! Send me back! Send someone back! Anything! I need to help them!" She yelled at the two. "And don't bs me by saying it is impossible! Everything that happened here is!"

Tag: @Lawbreaker (combined with)

 

Combined post with Lawbreaker

IC: Agent Mary Formal, Main Auditorium Building lobby, UCLA

The gathered cops did not react well to the British agent's suggestion, one announcing, "We cannot stand down, Agent. We are here to hunt that cop-killing sonnuva *****, Sidney."

Murmurings of agreement rippled through the ranks.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Was that the wrong term?" Mary was genuinely confused; she just wanted them to stop aiming their weapons at Little Orphan Annie, and allow her to lead them all to the man they all wanted to stop, Sidney; yet they were acting like she had told them that Mummy and Daddy needed some alone time!

Then the suspect chimed in. "Ma'am I don't think made up agencies can deputize me."

Mary stared at her. She had been running with the LAPD all day without question, yet this civilian was the one to rumble her?

Oh wait, I'm LAPD as well! She remembered, reminded that as well as the POLICE-emblazoned bulletproof vest which seemed to have had no effect on the woman's perception of her, she had one of their badges on a lanyard. Perhaps I should have gone with that. She hadn't, of course, because practically every regular officer, out-ranked her and could void her deputisation. Not that this had been a fantastically different outcome.

The Chinese chick continued, "But TRITEC is a simulation of life. So realistic you could hardly say if you were just part of it!"

Mary had of course, heard some of this already, and it was slightly easier to process when not freaking out in a life or death situation.

She nodded, more to herself than anyone else. "That makes a bit more sense. But how could a game company generate all this around us?"

Annie flashed her a thin-lipped smile, and looked around before focussing on the Vice detective. "But she is right, if you do not know how to stop him ... what choice do you have but give me a try?"

Cardigan hissed out air. "SHUT UP! Both of you! I need cuffs!" He yelled and kept his rifle pointed at Annie. Everybody else followed his example.

Cowed into silence, Agent Formal looked from him, to his team, then back to Annie.
This made no sense to her, why people so intent on getting the cop-killer, were bothering with Annie. Did she have some involvement of which she was unaware?

Tag: @Lawbreaker @SirakRomar

 

2019​

UCLA, Westwood

Corridor 1st floor

Mary had just left when Charles put his hands into his pocket and got a second headset out. "We got another special on site. Everybody proceed to omega protocol." He then turned around and began to make his way to the stairs.

Cellar it was.

Corridor Ground floor

Cardigan bit his lip and stared at Annie. Then he looked back at Mary. Made-up agency. He was a little surprised he had never reflected on this point. A desperate laughter burst out of him. What the hell was going on?

"Okay, gimme a second." Cardigan calmly said and turned his attention to Annie again. A part of him wished she did something stupid so the tension would release in bloodshed.

"Everybody keep eyes on the suspect." Cardigan said firmly and gave Mary one last look. What was she thinking? No, no Sidney and Annie were on the beach together and had killed two of his men ... apparently together. Sidney had saved her as she was fighting with them after all. She even possessed the same impossible-to-explain ability to not be killed by bullets shot at her. There was a chance she was in league with Sidney and neither Mary nor Annie were gonna change that. Sidney was pinned down. Building was closed and isolated in an airtight stranglehold. They might not save every last one of the potential victims, but letting Annie go would mean they probably had two of them. Or maybe Annie was Sidney? Who else had he to tell otherwise. A woman claiming to work for a sixties TV show organization? He had not even talked to her partner. The other woman was conveniently locked away when he arrived on scene. People had died. They had been called to UCLA and look who was here? Annie! Again.

There was just the one thing ... the one thing that did not fit. Why on earth would she leave him alive? On the boulevard she had him. One shot and he would have been gone. Yet, she did not even injure him. Nothing. Took his gun (which was the one she was just holding) and left.

"Where is he?" Cardigan finally asked and carefully lowered his rifle. He ordered the uniformed cops and SWAT to do the same with a gesture. His men followed the order. SWAT? They did not follow his command. "Stand down dammit!" He said and looked at the officer closest to him. He was wearing no name tag. A detail he realized in his mind.

Then SWAT got rid of all details. They turned the attention of everyone to the macro level again.

They opened fire.

Seven assault rifles fired at Annie. Of course they would have no effect, but they seemed still be unaware of it. Cardigan turned to the SWAT next to him and the man turned his rifle on him. He was about to shoot him and all Cardigan would do in his last second was wondering what the hell was going on here. The screams of several of his uniformed colleagues registered in his mind as one SWAT began to kill them with quick bursts from his M5.

Mary saw the cop to her left drop, obviously shot from behind. The SWAT who had been behind her opened fire and killed another before turning his gun towards Mary. She had probably half a second to keep him from shooting.

SWAT had betrayed them.

Cellar

For Andy Chang this was an endgame and he had come badly prepared. He was absolutely aware he was a chess player now put into a poker game. So all he could do was play his hand. The wrist computer was the key. It contained valuable code, consisted of valuable hardware. Saving the world? He had done all he could to achieve that. If he managed to do so it would be a different world though.

What would happen? Well, two super-powers able to wipe out the other but not without wiping our your own reality. There were historical examples of such situations. It usually lead to an arms race and that meant he would have a distinctive disadvantage again future tech and AI driven development. This wrist thing gave him a fighting chance.

Christian did not wanted to give it to him? What was one life compared to what he was about to achieve and avoid?

Andy sighed and was about to pull the trigger as a loud shot rang through the cellar and Christian was covered in blood that sprayed into his face. It was Andy's blood as a shot hit his head. The eyes went hollow in the absence of any working brain and Andy Chang collapsed.

Sidney stood right behind him, just having emerged from the seemingly endless lines of large server towers. Christian knew the man as Jack Burns actually. Younger. Feverish eyes glaring at Christian as he turned the gun to give his next victim a headshot.

She had promised him he would be the last. Kill Christian Borg and you will be released from this nightmare, she had said. Not the first time she had said that, but this felt different. This here kinda felt like an endgame. So all he had to do was kill one more person. One single person to die and he was probably free?

Following his instructions he did not pull the trigger right away. The message. He had to give him the message first.

"With the best wishes from Cheryl." He delivered the words and fired.

Tag: @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins, @Sith-I-5




Inside and Outside Doom Bar, Culver City

The Twin looked at her hand as she passed her and quickly her own features vanished into the dark of the building.

Ms. Sturm patiently typed Nicole's name into the computer. Her finger remained over the delete button.

But as Nicole looked around outside, she realized something was not okay. Something was absolutely not okay. The world was frozen. No remaining cops guarding the scene, no body of Karen, no people at all. The strangest thing took a while to register though. Dust, birds, they did not move.

Suddenly the world around her broke apart and ... reality showed itself. The parking lot was there and the doom bar, but everything else was now turning into ... light and darkness and strange shapes.



"I know it is a lot to ask, but please stay calm." This was an Asian girl speaking with Ms. Sturms voice. Not her voice, but her intonation. Somehow it was clear this was Ms. Sturm also it was hard to say why. She had appeared in front of her from nowhere.

"They are deleting you. Very Andy. Taking the pawns out of the game. Guess they no longer want to get Sidney. They have shifting alliances."



The girl shrugged. "So I got a very simple question for you Nicole Gravely. Do you want to exist?"

Tag: @Sith-I-5

 

2029​

Penthouse of Andy Chang

He was hit in the chest and thrown right back as he stumbled over his chair and gasped.

He stared at Elina as a second bullet hit his shoulder. He managed to say one word.

"Hubun." He gasped and it took no second and alarm sounded through the penthouse. Armored plates slided down from the top and sealed the windows. Red light went on and gave the whole situation a spooky look. Elina heard a sound to her left and heard the sound of metal moving against metal. The sevant robot revealed a two barelled gun sliding from his chassis and a red laser lighter scanning the surrounding. The gun turned to Elina immediately as she was in the center of the red light stream locating the target.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @SirakRomar

 

2032​

New Rose Hotel

Xi gave her a sad smile. "None of this is impossible. The rules are just different ones than you imagined Amy." She calmly replied.

"Also some can be bend. Some can ever be broken. It won't help your friends. We would need to long to get you back even if we managed to do so. By then the simulations might be gone and your code would be lost." Adrian explained. "I have seen many simulations end, Amy. But Christian, Annie, Andy ... they do not exist only this once. We have encountered them in various roles through many simulations."

Xi nodded. "We believe they are echoes of the original creators. Their way to become immortal. They are reborn into many simulations and always they are involved into TRITEC." Adrian and Xi looked at her and both expected her not to accept 'no' for an answer.

Tag: @RachelTyrell

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie saw the muzzle flare of several dozen guns all firing at her the same time. She would usually been ripped to pieces probably, but of course nothing happened to her. The number of shots obviously did not affect her immunity.

Then she saw the first SWAT turn and fire at a colleague. They started killing the cops! One of them aimed at the cop from the Boulevard and Annie reacted instinctively and aimed at the attacker and fired.

Then she stepped forward and leaped in front of the cop, her gun up now and aiming and firing at one SWAT member after another. She had to kill them this time, before they had the idea to attack physically. She would easily be overwhelmed and kept from moving to the cellar.

The cellar, she had not even figured out where it was or how long it would take her to get there. Sidney probably knew exactly where it was. He seemed to have a victim navigation system of sorts. Now they had thrown SWAT at her to slow her down. It was working so damned fine.

Just to make sure she did not run out of ammo she quickly ducked and picked up a second gun. Once the first was empty she would just toss it aside, aim and shoot and aim and shoot until she was free.

She hoped Christian was fine. She just hoped he was not gonna die before she got there. Every second counted now.

Tag: @Sith-I-5, @Lawbreaker (input)

 

IC: Agent Mary Formal, lobby of the Main Auditorium Building, UCLA

"Yes, there was a Sixties television show about UNCLE, but we were thanked for our cooperation in the credits of every episode! Just as the LAPD are in every authorised tv series where they feature; does that mean that they are fictional?"

This pink-haired ***** was not impugning the good name of the United Network Command' on her watch.

"Everybody keep eyes on the suspect."

Glancing over at Cardigan, Mary could see the doubt in the glare he flashed her way.
"Oh what, do you want to see a payslip?"

"Where is he?" Cardigan ignored her to finally ask, carefully lowering his rifle. He ordered the uniformed cops and SWAT to do the same with a gesture. His men followed the order. But SWAT seemed less keen, their assault rifles still aimed at Annie.

"Stand down dammit!" Joe repeated and looked at the officer closest to him, looking down at his chest for a little too long.

As one, SWAT opened fire on Annie.

Hugging the wall to Annie's left, and still flinching from the intensity of it, Formal had a unique view of the intense firepower seeming to hit an invisible wall some inches in front of the younger woman, and disappearing.

The suddenness of the assault had startled the British woman, but not as much as when she spotted a SWAT officer turn his weapon on Cardigan, only to have his brains blown out by Annie.

It was all happening so fast, another SWAT officer opening fire point blank on their screaming uniformed colleagues!

Mary saw the cop to her left drop, obviously shot from behind. The SWAT who had been behind her opened fire and killed another before turning his gun towards Mary. She had probably half a second to keep him from shooting.

She dropped to one knee, ducking low as she brought up her pistol, spun round to face him and blasted the SWAT in the crotch, then put a second bullet into his jaw from below.

She leaned into the hopefully dead man, embraced him about the knees and ignored the pain spike in her knees to rise back up, lifting him off the floor and bodily tossing him at another of the Special Weapons' killers - only to see the body disappear in mid-air!

Well, thanks a lot! She thought, pulling a cop out of the way with one hand whilst face-shotting a SWAT guy with the other, soon finding herself metres apart from Annie, but facing the same way and carrying out the same task.

Tag: @Lawbreaker @SirakRomar

 

Christian Borg
UCLA Cellar

Christian did not hesitate and jumped behind the desk his laptop was on before Sidney could shot him. Cheryl had given him his name at this last exchange with the system before she had been taken out.

"Listen Jack, it is over. They are shutting this simulation down. There is no need to kill anyone!" He said and hoped to distract him at least for a second as he jumped forward to take cover between the servers lining up around him.

He had no gun, but Sidney was immune to tose anyway Annie had said.

35%

There was only one chance. He had to avoid being killed until he was uploaded into the other reality. Which would easily be another ten minutes. Wondering if there was a second exit and if they were also locked from the inside he made his way from one server tower to the next, trying to spot or hear where Sidney was.

37%

"Jack Burns, I know who you are. You are used by someone! Used by a little girl who you did some terrible stuff to years from now. She was a girl working on the simulation." He changed position immediately again so he could not be located by his voice.

Tag: @Lawbreaker (combined)

 

IC: Detective Sergeant Nicole Gravely, outside the Doom Bar

Trusting that the sight of her gun pointing at them, would keep the two women at bay for the moment she needed to glance towards the Fire Department ambos with their roof flashers, then back towards the doorway.

Then she did a double-take, one that developed into a more complete sweep of her surroundings.

Something was absolutely not okay. The world was frozen.

And not as in taking a lightsabre to a knackered Tauntaun's belly, lots of packed snow around, Echo Station 3-T-A, frozen.
No, this was some crap right out of The Butterfly Effect.

She momentarily paused, distracted by a visual memory of 'Butterfly star Ashton Kutcher with his top off.

The utter silence drew her out of the reverie, back to a street with no people, not cops, medics or civilians. Not even those that she had seen shot down. The strangest thing took a while to register though. Dust, birds, a colourful butterfly (no relation...probably), they did not move.

Suddenly the world around her broke apart, the sidewalk, road, ambos, every building apart from the internet cafe and parking lot; separated into flat two-dimensional squares with widening black lines between and around them, spiralling away into oblivion before her eyes.

And...and ... something showed itself. The parking lot was there and the Doom Bar, but everything else was now turning into ... light and darkness and strange geometric shapes.

Gravely leapt for what looked like the largest, most stable land mass, like a polar bear seeking to stay on an ice floe as the warmer weather fractured its terrain.

She landed on her knees, the rough tarmacadam scrapping the skin, and she fell forwards onto her hands, then moved to sit back on her haunches, thankfully distracted from whatever was happening behind her, by a pair of polished black t-barred Mary Jane shoes, white crumpled ankle socks, and bare shins less than a metre in front of her.

Nicole panned up past bare knees to a smiling Asian schoolgirl in a very dark blue skater-style miniskirt, unbuttoned sky-blue long-sleeved blouse being worn off-the-shoulder, and a clean white singlet underneath.

Mary would have approved. She suspected Mary would also have tried arrange a play date between them.

Nicole was about to ask if she needed help finding her mummy, when the little girl's chest swelled to give her the breath to speak, and she got in first. "I know it is a lot to ask, but please stay calm."

Nicole's eyes widened as she heard Mrs Sturm's voice coming from her mouth... No, not her voice exactly, but her intonation. Despite the massive personality switch from that openly hostile, conniving and lying ***** inside, she felt that this little girl was Mrs Sturm on some level.

"An-anyone t-tell you, you have the body of a 12-year-old? G-give i-it back." Gravely was amazed that she was able to compose sentences. Even shaky ones. What is going on? She thought.

"They are deleting you."

"Oh, well, that explains a lot. Actually, no it doesn't! What?!" The Portland detective's voice caught.

"Very Andy. Taking the pawns out of the game."

Nicole looked down into the black lines criss-crossing the dark green fabric laying across her lap, mentally anchoring onto that name.

That was something that she knew, a name mentioned by Rita, what seemed like a lifetime ago, when things had been at least semi-normal.
Andy Chang. This was still Rita's voice though, trying to lay the blame on Andy's doorstep.

"Guess they no longer want to get Sidney. They have shifting alliances." The girl shrugged. "So I got a very simple question for you Nicole Gravely. Do you want to exist?"

"Exi-? Oh, live! Yes, of course I want to live!"

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

Enigma
Andy's Penthouse

She had not thought of security. Of course he security systems. The robot was pretty cutting edge though, probably custom made. The laser identified the target and the gun would eliminate her. Knowing she had only seconds to life before the robot executed her she threw herself behind the nearby couch just as a shotgun bullet ripped a hole into it. Sliding over the ground she tried to get an aim on the robot and shoot what remained in the magazine into it. She destroyed it or Andy would survive. Wounded but probably not lethal enough to not being able to execute his deletion program, he was now her main target.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @Lawbreaker (Input)

 

2019​

UCLA, Westwood
Corridor Ground floor

Cardigan stumbled back as Annie saved his life and it took him a second to grasp the situation. Then he raised the assault rifle and opened fire on the final SWAT.

The firefight had lasted only a few seconds, but it had cost them almost all there uniformed policemen. What was more disturbing than that was the fact that every SWAT they killed was vanishing right after he fell.

"What the hell just happened?" Cardigan asked and looked at Annie. Before she could answer there were shots from the outside where several colleagues had build up a perimeter and tried to secure the fleeing civilians.

"How many of them are there?" Cardigan asked desperately and checked his magazine. He had only fired one burst, but ammo was a real concern.


Cellar

Sidney fired as an answer two shots at Christian as he dodged behind the first server.

He had been used? Really? He had been nothing but used! But Christian would say anything now to save his life.

Surprised he had missed the man Sidney fired at the server tower Christian was hiding behind the moment he began to speak again. Sparks came from it as it catched fire. But his final target dodged deeper into the seemingly endless lines of humming black towers.

Four shots. He had only one left.

"It is inevitable Borg! Nobody survived and neither will you. I don't care if we do this fast or slow. This is a simulation and it is programmed so I win!" Sidney yelled and slowly entered the space between the two lines he had seen Christian at last. He quickly turned a corner his gun first, but Christian was not there.

"Maybe we can make a deal? If you can proof what you say I will leave you alive! Can you proof it Sebastian?"

Come out you bastard!

He considered reloading, but remembered how the two girls had fought him. No, he would have to make the next shot count.

"C'mon Christian. Come out and explain!"

Tag: @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins, @Sith-I-5




Outside Doom Bar in a world vanishing slowly

"You never were alive honey, neither was she. A simulation of a person believing to be the actress playing the character from a TV show you have been modeled after. That is what we all are. Puppets on strings of a mighty computer." The Asian girl was speaking again with the voice of Ms. Sturm and then changed to her own intonation, having a Chinese accent.

"Or does this look like life? You are in the buffer now. They delete you. The strings of the puppet get cut. But I might be able to do something about it. If I help you, you must help me though. Would you do that? Would you help me to avoid this being the rather unglorious end of your story?"

Tag: @Sith-I-5

 

2029​

Penthouse of Andy Chang

The robot made a last humming sound and then froze, as small flashes of fire burst from it's chassis. Meant as a surprise last-resort weapon it had not been upgraded when it came to armor.

Andy had indeed been wounded and potentially mortally wounded, but d wasn't out yet. As Elina came up with her empty gun now he was already there, throwing himself at her and closing one hand around her throat. "I kill you again, but you little hoe won't stop me. Understand me? You won't stop me ..." He pressed the words through his teeth as his hand closed around her throat like a hydraulic machine.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @SirakRomar

 

IC: Detective Sergeant Nicole Gravely, a collapsing world

Crazy crazy crazy crazy- The word ran through Gravely's head as she held it in her hands, looking through her fingers at her pale knees contrasting with the green fabric.

"You never were alive honey, neither was she. A simulation of a person believing to be the actress playing the character from a TV show you have been modeled after. That is what we all are. Puppets on strings of a mighty computer." The Asian girl was speaking again with the voice of Ms. Sturm and then changed to her own intonation, having a Chinese accent.

-crazy crazy crazy crazy-

"Or does this look like life? You are in the buffer now. They delete you. The strings of the puppet get cut. But I might be able to do something about it. If I help you, you must help me though. Would you do that?"

-craz...

She was being asked for help.

Cops had precious few true representations in the media, and when one occurred, it was remembered.

An exchange between an Internal Affairs investigator and a Homicide detective on Homicide: Life on the Streets, had resonated with her:

Gravely was a cop. The motto of the Portland Police ran through her mind: Sworn to protect. Dedicated to serve.

"Would you help me to avoid this being the rather unglorious end of your story?"

Nicole had already unfolded, taken a fresh grip of her gun, and raised up onto one knee in preparation to stand.

"Yes. Yes I will help you. What do you need?"

Tag: @Lawbreaker

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Annie took the two extra magazine es from the dead body of another policeman and heard the shots from outside.

"How many? I guess seven. Again and again." She got up and reloaded her borrowed gun then handed it straight to Mary as a second gun.

"Listen, you got no reason to believe or trust me and I am fully aware what I ask of you, but that is the situation. This is not real, it is a simulation. That is why bodies vanish like this and these SWAT will keep on coming. A man from outside the simulation is about to shut down this simulation which is analogue to 'word ends'. It might be fake, but this is all I got. So I would love to try to keep it from happening. The only guy who can save the damned world is Christian and Sidney is right now hunting him down. I am the only one who can kill Sidney, so I need to go. I won't get far with these guys in my back. So ..." Annie gave them an almost shy smile. "Can you buy me a few minutes?"

It was simple as that. She needed someone to fight against the probably never ending stream of SWAT as long as possible or she would never make it.

Looking at Cardigan and the woman she shrugged. "Can you do that?"

Tag: @Sith-I-5, @Lawbreaker

 

Enigma
Andy's Penthouse

She felt his weight and his hand around her throat as she was pinned to the floor below him. Her vision already began to become blurry. She had never trained fighting. Her weapon had always been her body, but violence she had always despised. But ...

Not again!

The thought of Andy killing her again was intolerable. Christian relied on her. She would not fail. The world needed her not to fail.

It took all her will to let go of his arm as he strangled her. Her hand turned into a fist and with all her strength left she hammered it into his wound in his torso. Again. Again. And again. She would not stop until he let go or she was dead.

This now was life or death! Life or death of two worlds.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @Lawbreaker

 

IC: Agent Mary Formal, lobby of UCLA's Main Auditorium Building

To Mary's right, and on Annie's other side, Joe got with the programme and iced the last SWAT guy, his body disappearing before it even hit the floor.

Mary took the moment to catch her breath, switching out her gun's almost exhausted clip for her second and last one.

As she slipped the first clip into the ammo pouch on her drop holster, Cardigan asked the girl who had saved him, "What the hell just happened?"

Before she could answer there were shots from the outside where several colleagues had build up a perimeter and tried to secure the fleeing civilians.

Oh great, now what? Mary thought, already slowing her descent into a kneeling position beside the nearest cop to see if his vest had saved him.

"How many of them are there?" Cardigan asked desperately and checked his magazine. He had only fired one burst, but clearly figured ammo to be an issue now.

Now that the self-proclaimed UNCLE agent thought about it, she hadn't discharged her Bren that often, and between Sidney outside the Doom Bar, and here, her first clip ought to only be half-used, giving her 9 slugs remaining from a 15-shot clip.

Annie salvaged two extra magazines from the dead body of another policeman and heard the shots from outside.

"How many? I guess seven. Again and again."

"Eight." Mary corrected. "Officer Charles, or Delicious, or whatever the drokk his name is, that you left me with upstairs. He's one of them. I thought he was working for Deacon Frost, but perhaps he reports to two masters." She bobbed her gun into view of the others. "I've got about 24 shots left, and then I'm out."

Annie got up and reloaded her borrowed gun then handed it straight to a surprised Mary as a second weapon.

"Listen, you got no reason to believe or trust me," Annie explained, "and I am fully aware what I ask of you, but that is the situation. This is not real, it is a simulation. That is why bodies vanish like this and these SWAT will keep on coming."

"That explains a lot." Mary admitted. It was all she could say without breaching the Official Secrets Act. This felt real, but that her long life was a nine-point-oh on the wierd ****-o-meter, was handily explained by the kid's statement.

Annie continued. "A man from outside the simulation is about to shut down this simulation which is analogue to 'word ends'."

Whether she meant 'word's end' or 'world's end', both ways involved a Full Stop.

"It might be fake, but this is all I got."

All we've got.

"So I would love to try to keep it from happening. The only guy who can save the damned world is Christian and Sidney is right now hunting him down. I am the only one who can kill Sidney, so I need to go. I won't get far with these guys in my back. So ..." Annie gave them an almost shy smile. "Can you buy me a few minutes?"

"Sure, UNCLE is about saving the world, so this is right in our bailiwick." Keeping her expression serene with some difficulty, Mary warned, "Though if you badmouth my organisation again, you'll be eating this."

Looking at her and Cardigan, Annie shrugged. "Can you do that?"

Formal raised eyebrows in reaction to the apparent challenge. "Pistol whip you? **** yes! Oh, you mean cover you while you help save the world?" She dismissed the girl with a wave of her pistol. "Go on, drokk off. And don't forget your bin bag. Good luck."

Tag: @SirakRomar @Lawbreaker

 

Christian Borg
UCLA Cellar

Christian did not answer. The shots and the offer did not exactly work well together. He wondered how many shots this ancient gun had. Five? Six? If he counted right Sidney still was not out of ammo.

Quickly he changed sides between the black server towers.

40%

He catched a short glimpse of Sidney who was closer then expected. Christian looked around for a weapon, but could find none. He decided against attacking the serial killer with bare hands and instead retreated into the shadows and slipped out of his shoes to be less noisy. He quickly hurried away from Sidney using the servers as cover.

42%

"Christian." Sidney said and he pressed against a server. That was close. Christian put his hands against the server he was hiding behind and prepared to bring it down on Sidney if he had to. But the man passed him and took another corner. Quickly Christian put another server between them. He felt his sweat run down his face and his heart pounding. It felt so loud he was almost afraid Sidney could hear it through the endless humming of a thousand servers.

45%

Tag: @Lawbreaker (combined)

 

2019​

UCLA, Westwood
Corridor Ground floor

Cardigan stared at Annie and then at the door and finally at Mary. Was this real? Was he surrounded by crazy people?

Well, if you had to trust someone ... trust the one who saved your damned life.

"Go." He said and loaded his assault rifle through. "I take the first who come to the door and you take over when I need to reload." He said to Mary and took cover behind a pillar, aiming at the door.

Corridor

Annie made it down the now empty corridor and at least this time she was lucky. She found the door labeled cellar and a 'staff only' sign on it. That was as far as her luck went. The massive metal door had a card reader next to it and the red light indicated it was locked.

Cellar

Sidney took another corner and another. This was a maze. One server looked like the other. He began to speed up and took turns around the servers, making his search random and unpredictable.

When he turned his six corner he suddenly stood right opposite of Christian, barely a meter away. He raised the gun to aim for the palm of his head.

Tag: @SirakRomar, @DarkLordoftheFins (combo), @Sith-I-5




Outside Doom Bar in a world vanishing slowly

The girl smiled.

"I won't let them use my Sidney." She said and handed Nicole something that looked like a keycard.

"There is a girl called Annie who needs our help. She needs this, more than anything."

With a smile what remained of the world vanished. Finally even the girl dissolved. With her torso and left arm remaining she handed her a blank white keycard.

"Good luck!"

Tag: @Sith-I-5

 

2029​

Penthouse of Andy Chang

Andy gasped in pain, but in his blind rage he managed to hold on to her theist when she hit him for the first time. The second was too Michael he let go to protect his wound. The third strike hit him anyway and he slided of her as the fourth hit his hand with enough impact to send shivers of pain through her. He slided of her in pure agony, his heart pounding so loud Elina could hear it. His breath was hissing out of his lungs in rapid succession.

"Elina ..." His voice was begging.

Tag: @DarkLordoftheFins, @SirakRomar

 

Annie
UCLA Corridor

Armed with the plastic bag she gave the two cops a grateful look. She was aware she had send them on a suicide mission.

Running down the corridor she got lucky for once. There was the door! But it was locked! Locked!

Annie gave the steel door an angry kick and then another. It did not move a bit.

"Damned! Damneddamneddamned!" Helplessly she hammered against the door and then leaned her head against it. She had come so close. Down there Sidney was probably killing Christian at that very moment.

Tag: @Sith-I-5, @Lawbreaker