2020-06-10: Voyeur Camera

Players:

TheoF_icon.jpg PallatonF_icon.jpg AnnalisaF_icon.jpg

Summary: One of Theo's scouting probes finds its way into the living quarters of the underground. It isn't well received.

Date: June 10, 2020.

Log Title: Voyeur Camera

Rating: R (VNL)


The Underground - Living Area

Army barracks would seem like a five star hotel compared to this place, but cots and hammocks seem to fill the area. There are some side rooms where mutants tend to fit four to six to a room and there are even some holes in the wall a mutant or two seems to have made home. Like the rest of the tunnels, its damp and musty in here and not much light save the same electric and gas powered lamps found in the rest of the tunnels. Everything from small children to older mutants sleep in here and it can be seen from the people who cant get out of bed. In this room there is a small corner thats been sectioned off with old sheets and blankets to form a medical area with what stolen medical supplies the mutants have managed to gather.


It's only noon, but the living area could almost be midnight if it wasn't for the flickering lamps lighting the dim tunnels. Not far from the entrance to this part of the tunnels is a hammock, currently holding a specific mutant, namely Pallaton, his oversized robot prosthetic dangling over the edge as he stares up at the ceiling in silence, swinging slightly. Not many other mutants are here, presumably on patrol or looking for gear. Not that the lupine mutant's skipping work, he's just off-duty for now, idly passing the time in his own thoughts.

Sewers are filled with pipes. They are everywhere. The probes have been in the tunnels for weeks without any success at finding mutants, not to mention above ground, where they met their first success today. However, another lucky little AI probe is about to make its first live discovery. Through a small pipe overhead, there is a slight electronic hum.
It's a few moments later that the probe comes through. It's small, only about six inches wide, and it floats into the room, hovering harmlessly. A camera lens can be seen attached to the front. It drifts to the end of the room with the medical supplies, not making much noise, but not attempting to conceal itself. There's a sudden click which comes from within the device as it examines a bloodstain. It turns around, and begins heading toward the bunks.

Annalisa is curled up on one of the bunks, sleeping lazily. She has a sheet wrapped about her, but its done rather poorly, as if shes been rolling around in her sleep. Enough of it hangs off of her to notice that she has -very- little clothing on, the tattered remains of a green and white suit, her Alpha Squadron uniform, just enough to cover her important bits, but the majority of her skin is showing. Her back is marred and covered in burn scars, from top to bottom, all over. She mumbles a little, sleeping quite deeply. "mmmnhmm…don't turn into a ball….you'll break the vase…July…"

Pallaton, or 'Junkyard' as people have started calling him, isn't sleeping, and his sensitive ears pick up on that humming in the room. With a loud thunk, Pallaton swings out of the hammock, his arm hitting the ground heavily, before he starts looking for the source of that noise, each step causing another thunk from his arm, though not as loud as the landing. The canine mutant's really curious. Maybe it can be salvaged? Maybe not?

The probe hangs in the air, and having first heard Annalisa, it floats to the bunk where she lays. It weaves between the bunk bars, and lands on the mattress next to her. Pallaton will have to move across Annalisa to get the device. Small spidery legs pop out as it touches down, and the camera snakes out of the unit, looking at her face. There is an affirmative beep given off. "Identity verified." comes the robotic voice suddenly, the speaker going off next to Annalisa's ear. "Access Granted."

Annalisa immediately opens her eyes, her arm flips around and grasps at the device. "Voyeur camera!" She shouts, and the entire length of her arm bursts into a bright blue fire. It should be noted that when her powers activate, her green eyes turn blue, and her blonde hair shines an eerie blue color.

Hearing both the voice and shouts, Pallaton needs no telling twice. With a loud ka-chunk and then the sound of a running motor, he rushes towards Annalisa's bunk, the chainsaw in his arm now protruding like a blade, and more importantly, running. Pausing upon nearing her bunk, he stares for a few seconds at the thing in her hand. "The hell is that thing?" he asks, still keeping that chainsaw running, just in case there's more of them.

A loud warning beep goes off as Annalisa's arm lights up. "This device is friendly! Do no terminate this device!" comes the warning. The legs flail helplessly for a moment, trying to free itself from her grip. The fire sears the casing, but the little probe attempts to carry out its mission. The two small doors on top of the probe open, and a holographic image sputters to life. It looks like a man, but the image flickers from the damage. It's a life sized image, and the image is sideways, given the angle the probe is being held at.

Annalisa's fire disappears, and her eyes and hair return to normal. She drops the probe and it plops to the bedside. She scoots back on the bunk a little, and lifts the sheets to cover her dignity, even though it didn't matter, since she walked around like this all the time, it was just a reflex. "What is that…?"

"Dead meat" is Pallaton's response, the chainsaw sputtering out before he slides it back into that robotic arm, stomping over to, well… stomp the bot into the ground. He looks a bit angry, but more at that something could've slipped past their defences undetected. Either way, something's probably going to get pounded into the dirt pretty soon, if this continues.

The image flickers again as it lands on the bed, and the legs dance the device off of the mattress and to the ground. It flees from Pallaton quickly to the other end of the room, but the camera snakes its view behind. The image of the man flickers, as if the reception is poor. After all, they are underground. "Wait!" comes the voice over the speaker. The image of the man waves his arms. "Don't attack!" He turns to look at something at the side briefly. "Annalisa! It's Theo, wait!" The image flickers heavily again, but the two might recognize Theo's voice, especially his former roommate.
Of course, there's also the matter that Theo abandoned the school and joined Magneto, and then abandoned Magneto as well about a year before the sentinel attack. No one has seen him since that time until today.

Annalisa leans back against the end of the bunk, keeping the sheets up against herself like she is some sort of damsel in distress. "Err…uhmm…" She seems to struggle at remembering who Theo is.

"You?!" With an angry expression on his face, Pallaton snatches up the droid with his robotic arm, almost growling at the camera. "You better have a damned good explanation for this before I decide to break this thing into pieces even you won't be able to put back together. I don't take kindly to uninvited guests," he threatens. "Start talking before I lose interest." It seems Pallaton's definitely become more violent… not to mention said robotic arm.

"Pallaton?" Theo says with a puzzled look. The image doesn't line up looking at them anymore. "Hey, I'm a mutant remember, one of the good guys," relatively speaking, since he wasn't really one of the good guys last anyone saw him. "Where did you…" the camera snakes back to Annalisa, covered in a sheet. "Oh shit, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt," he says apologetically.
"Look. I'm alive, and I'm trying to find more that are alive. You don't know how good it is to see a friendly face." The camera shifts back to Pallaton's not-so-friendly face. "Well, you know what I mean. I have a safe place for mutants," he throws out. "And I have a way to stop the sentinels. But I can't easily do it by myself." Theo, now commonly known as Hardline, never had much of a habit of asking for help, especially after turning on two groups of allies. Still, these are extreme times, and everyone is being forced to change their tunes. "Please, just put the probe down."

Annalisa's hair almost stands up at the reference to an "interuption". She shakes her head, and stares down at the robot. "Whoa whoa whoa, that is -not- how it is, I have a lover, and she can do more then he ever can!" She seems more distracted in defending her lover's abilities, then the comment about ending the sentinels.

Pallaton growls, quite viciously at that, at the mention about interrupting. "Go to hell! You know that's not the case, dammit!" he shouts, his robotic hand-claw applying more and more pressure to the drone's casing and, subsequently, internals. "And you're not one to be giving demands, either! You want to talk big about destroying the sentinels, you get your ass down here and do it in person! You got anything else to add, smartass? I'm losing patience!" Yup. Not very friendly at all, anymore…

The image of Theo flickers out as the claw cracks the projection crystal. "Whatever," he says, "Forget about that. I don't even know where you are. And there's no time to squabble. The sentinels are crushing every mutant in sight! I HAVE been fighting the sentinels. But I need help. I have food, electricity, and running water. From the feed I just received, you two are pushing it for any of that. I'm not your enemy. I'm sorry for how things went in the past, but we need to work together." Theo can survive for a long time the way he is right now, but he doesn't expect that the others can. He doesn't know anything about Addison and the tunnels.

Annalisa stares at the image for a bit, then at the robot, as it continues to speak. She glances at Pallaton and shrugs her shoulders. "I wonder how he can help. Hm…"

Pallaton growls, before throwing the drone on the ground and climbing into a nearby hammock, lying in it and staring at the ceiling, just as he was before. "Five minutes. Get talking before I change my mind." He doesn't seem all that interested in talking to Theo. Then again, he doesn't seem interested in talking to anyone since coming here, but that's something Theo might not know.

The small drone clatters to the ground, and the damaged feet clamber pathetically to turn it upright, and limp forward. The camera snakes to face the two. He wants to ask what's wrong with his former roommate, but he decides it's a conversation for another time. "The Sentinels-kshhhht-are machines. I know machines like few people do. They adapt to kshhht-wers. But they don't ad-fzzzzt to other technology. I'm working on a vi-fzzzzt that can disable them, and if I -kshhht- right we can take down all of them. We've all been through hell, it's time to give some back instead of hiding, don't you think?" The question is directed to both of them, perhaps indicated by the camera's adjustment between the two people on different bunks.

Pallaton continues to stare at the wall, before finally his right arm moves, the claws forming into a sign… namely, flipping Theo the bird. "Sounds like a great way for us all to get killed while you sit and play hacker. This isn't a game. And if you don't have the balls to turn up here and pitch this in person, then why should we even bother. Yeah, we've been through hell, but what would you know. You're not down here, living it. You've not lost things you can't replace. We have."

Theo's tone turns angry. "You know what? Fuck you. I've lost everything. My whole family was burned to death in my own home. You don't even know what you're talking about. I'm not saying you haven't lived in it, but don't think because I'm not in the same place as you, I somehow have had it easy. Who are you, Pallaton? You sure as hell aren't my old roommate. My old roommate would jump at the chance to save people. Anna, you gotta knock some sense into this guy, or muzzle him before he gets more people hurt."

Annalisa perks a brow at the recording. "Its not my responsibility to keep him on a leash, besides, he isn't hurting anyone. I do think if you wanna team up, you should've come here, but perhaps you should send one of your robots to talk to Rashmi. She seems to be in charge for the most part."

Pallaton jumps up at this point, grabbing the drone. "Yeah, well he died long ago, with everything else! This isn't the time for capes and cowls and everything that was back then. It's not a battle anymore. It's a mother-fucking war! You see this?!" he shouts, holding up his robotic arm to the camera. "This is how I fucked it all up! I have to live with this every fucking day! You have all your talk about saving people and hide wherever it is you are! We eke out a living here and fight, dammit! If all you did was come here to talk shit about me, then you can fuck off and die for all I care!" Notably, at that last part, there's a quiver in his voice, as though he really doesn't mean it at all. Regardless, he's still holding that drone rather than throwing it, despite all that rage of his.

Theo doesn't back down. "Then shut up and fight already! I couldn't come to you before, I didn't know where you were. These drones wander the city, looking for mutant survivors. When they find one, they contact me, which means this probe just stumbled across you during its search. What do you expect me to do? Just wander around the streets and call out people's names?" He pauses a moment.
"Rashmi? Rashmi is in charge? Hell really has frozen over. Rashmi is more like a special ed teacher than a…" he stops. "Is she the General?" he asks, remembering a conversation with a few other rebellion members earlier.

Annalisa shrugs her shoulders. "Honestly, I don't know. I just know she barks orders and people listen." She keeps the sheets up against her, oddly. Shes not self concious of people seeing her, but it was oddly more dirty when a camera was involved.

"Fight? I've been fighting, in the field! I've seen those damned sentinels first-hand! I had to get people past rubble and debris with one fucking arm!" He then sighs, tossing the drone to Annalisa before slumping back into the hammock. "Fuck this. You're not serious about this, or you'd be here. That's the bottom line. Everything back then is irrelavant, it's getting through the here and now is what's most important. If you've got hard proof of this, bring it down here. If not, don't get in our way."

"Fine, I will," Theo answers boldly. "If Rashmi is really in charge, take me to her. I'll come down there myself happily now that I know that you're down there," the voice answers through the badly damaged device.

Annalisa catches the machine, dropping the sheets. She tosses it to the end of the bunk, and covers herself again. "You might want to send a drone to talk to her, people who come to the door without the passwords tend to get killed."

Pallaton lazily waves his hand at Annalisa, obviously dismissing it to her. "I'm on duty soon, you do it," he says. "Can't spend all my time talking to robots." Again, there's a little quivering of his voice as he speaks, Pallaton himself obviously trying to hide it by not looking at the hologram. "It's not my problem if you come… or not." Maybe he does still have some good in him? Regardless, he just lies in that hammock for a moment longer before swinging out of it, heading off further into the tunnel network without a word.

Theo's voice continues to be heard. "Fine. There is a small panel on the back of the probe. If you open it, there is a small green button. Press it and the probe will call me like a radio. I can't come meet you until I know where you are. And Anna, I really do want to help. This isn't the time for us to be bickering. Please don't just toss this offer aside. We have a chance to really do something here."
Back in his bunker, Theo runs his hand through his hair. He knew it'd be hard to get trust, but the level of intensity he didn't expect. Not from Pallaton. He plops into his seat, and stares at the screen next to him, giving the location of the probe. Yes, he knows where they are, but he wants them to invite him before he shows up, so he doesn't say anything to Annalisa about that fact.

Annalisa scoots over to pick the probe up, covering the camera with a finger. She opens the little hatch and presses the green button, then tosses the probe over to another bunk. She rolls over, covering up with the sheets, and goes back to napping.

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