savetheearth | Closed Action

Entry tags:

Closed Action

Who: Skyler and Raiden
When: Backdated to (to be determined)
Where: Near a Blood Keys meeting place
What: An actual cyborg and a not-yet-cyborg might have different motives, but they're interested in some of the same things.

A figure moved in the second-story window. It wasn't anything more than a dark shadow illuminated only by the dim blue-ish light of a screen, but it was definitely there.

Jack... no, Raiden, now... tapped a button on his phone, turning the display off and stuffing it back in his pocket. Even if he wasn't responding to the Network, and hadn't for months now, that didn't mean he wasn't going to watch. Read. He'd tried actively taking on their enemies, and where had that gotten him? Captured, tortured, turned into a fugitive. Massive personal fallout, and caught in the middle of a full-on bombing of the Dead District. In other words, nothing.

But he still had to go on, didn't he? And if he got caught, well, he was a dead man anyway. And as long as everyone thought that, nobody'd come to try to save him, risking their own neck. It was better that way.

The few months since pulling himself out of the rubble hadn't been kind to him, and between his unusually haggard look, hoodie pulled well over his head, and a oversized trenchcoat over that obscured his appearance enough to get around. Made a few friends among the city's homeless population. And generally kept out of the way. If the slummier regions of and around the Dead District had to be home for now, he was going to at least keep an eye on that part -- and as for his suspicions about the Thunder Corporation and the Blood Keys' gear, well, the more he could find out about what was going on, the better.

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Alone again for another patrol. Skyler resists the urge to drag his pipe against the wall to break up the monotony. He knows Hellbird trusts him on his own specifically because of their pact, and he appreciates it! It's given him plenty of opportunity to cut through patrol paths on his own, stalking Network vigilantes and making sure they stay out of trouble... And sometimes making sure they run into some. Hey, his plan is to survive, not side with one faction or another. He considers it a win either way.

He knows the territory almost as well as the back of his hand, now, so when he sees a blue light in the second story of what he had assumed was an abandoned building, it gives him pause, especially when it deliberately turns off and doesn't appear again. Who has business up there, especially with a light? This was Key turf. You came here if you had shit else to call home, or you were a Key. No exceptions... unless you're up to something funny. Skyler is pretty sure that whatever that blue light was up to, it was bound to be hilarious.

He pauses, then launches himself high into the air. It's actually the first time he's used his cybernetics like this; he's never had to jump or climb to reach his goals, and when he did, he usually did it the pedestrian way to avoid getting used to using it. Convenient, yes; telling of his cybernetic enhancements, probably a lot. But it's very satisfying to be on solid ground in one moment and hanging off a windowsill a flight off the ground the next, his feet making purchase against the slick wall as he hauls himself onto the sill. The window where he saw the light was a couple windows over, so he decides to make his way over to the next window, hoping to catch whoever it was leaving. At this point, he's motivated by simple curiosity. If it's a Key, fine, they had a right to be there. If not... Maybe there was something up that he should see. Either way, he felt as though he was thoroughly justified in checking the situation out.

This deep into Key territory, even the faintest noise is enough to put Raiden on edge. Probably a routine patrol... but who knows what they're hiding in here, he thinks. Gotta keep moving. Still, the pause is enough to catch a good look at his back as he slips out of the room and into the hallway.

He follows an indirect route, clearly meaning to stay out of sight as much as possible by taking routes nobody would ever suspect. First, silently up the stairs to the roof. Jack has some idea what he's doing, and even if he might be hindered with his prosthetic arm, the acrobatic ability he gained several months ago at least makes up for some of it, allowing him to make a death-defying leap from the rooftop and swing one-handed off some remaining scaffolding to slip in through another half-finished window opening. There's more Key activity on the street ahead; which means more danger, but also that something important must be going on up ahead.

The next few buildings are mostly complete, but there's still enough exposed scaffolding, metal beams, and unfinished areas to allow for access, as long as you were willing to make some risky moves and not mind the idea of falling several stories. But being directly at street-level where most of the gang security is, and Jack doesn't particularly relish the thought of running into any of them. Or rather, a part of him does. But he shoves that back down inside, along with everything that caused him so much trouble those months ago.

The security is heaviest outside one particular building and once inside, Jack can hear guards talking in the hall, too close by for comfort. Not good. But at the same time, there has to be something important going on here, and that was what he'd decided to look for, wasn't it? A quick look around seemed to indicate ductwork would provide the best solution to get further into the building, if not the most comfortable. Jack hunkers down and quietly works away at unscrewing the panel covering with the point of his knife. It should be good enough to figure out what was so special that was going on here, tonight.

Skyler gets to the once-lit window, but doesn't see anyone in there, the room fully empty even when he turns on his night vision. Just as he wonders if he had just been seeing things, he hears a faraway, almost imaginary thump that galvanizes him into action. He scales the wall in - whoa! He means to make another jump like the first, which would have just barely gotten him within grabbing distance of the roof, but he instead catapults high up into the air, landing on the roof in an ungraceful tumble. He groans, rolling back onto his feet. So that's what that echo was. Man, he has got to stop getting blindsided by those.

He turns on night vision as he pushes off in the direction he heard the noise and is rewarded by a flicker of movement another two buildings ahead. He jogs over to the edge of the roof, his eyes switching between night vision and infrared to keep track of the movement. Whoever this guy is, he is hella parkour. Skyler still isn't sure if this guy is Key or Network (he's assuming one of the two by now; what little he can catch of his acrobatics looks pretty pro), but he does want to see what's taking one lone guy this far into Key turf this high up. He's just a little curious. (He definitely doesn't mind a game of tag.)

Skyler looks down, trying to suss out the path this guy used, and spots a window space with the glass missing, some scaffolding making the jump a possibility. Right. Skyler doesn't need it, but he does slap a hand against it as he makes a mighty leap into the window, his next landing a little more graceful now that he's aware of his newfound power.

He picks his way after the guy, his nightvision making his steps sure, stopping every once in a while to make sure he's outside of earshot of both the guy and the Keys patrolling the streets below. Hey, he's just following the guy; he doesn't necessarily want to give him a reason to stop. Besides, if the Keys catch him following some guy around, he could very well get pulled into a patrol just for going somewhere he wasn't necessarily supposed to be. Fuck that. The longer he spent around his fellow Keys, the more he felt like one of them, and that just reminded him of--

-- What's he doing now? Skyler slows and crouches down on the far side of a tented rooftop as he spots his target dropping onto a certain building. He's pretty sure that some of the squads were supposed to be guarding this particular warehouse earlier today, but Hellbird's squad wasn't one of the ones assigned and the assumption was that it was really none of their business. But what could possibly be going on in there that none of them were supposed to know?

He sees the guy fiddling with a rectangular panel on the wall in the black and green of his nightvision - right, of course, ventilation, because we're all international spies and this is the stealth part of the movie. He's pretty sure he can clear the distance within them within seconds, so he doesn't bother with getting any closer. That, of course, means he's also not lifting a finger to stop the guy either. By now, he's pretty sure that this is a Network vigilante, because nothing quite says echo-riddled like a guy who moves and operates like a spy who is literally sneaking into enemy territory. If he wants information, hey, let him have it. As far as Skyler's concerned, this guy deserves it. He narrows his eyes, allowing his eyes to tap into the lock-on function built into them. If he's going to keep tabs on this guy, and if Skyler wants in on any info he picks up... He'd better to do it right.

At least he's not stealthing his way around in a cardboard box... yet....

Jack carefully puts away the knife and pries the cover off before squeezing in. The metal of the ductwork is good shielding from prying eyes, augmented or not, and Jack slowly makes his way through, pausing to listen in here and there when he can hear the guys on watch talking. Something about a 'rep' meeting, and if that's what he's been suspecting... he keeps moving forward, ends up taking a few turns, and sliding down a couple stories... there's a voice, adult, educated-sounding. Not a Key. But most of the conversation seems to be coming from a louder, rather less pleasant voice.

He still can't quite make out the words though, and rather than risk circling around in the vents for another fifteen minutes trying to find a good listening spot, Jack finds the nearest vent opening in the next room over, and slips out as quietly as he possibly can. The amount of light coming in the window is just barely enough to illuminate the small room, although what the plans were for it in the future, he couldn't say. A side-office? Mail room? Without any furniture, it wasn't clear yet.

Crouched, Jack moved slowly towards the door leading into the hallway, but stopped dead in his tracks at a loud yawn. Another couple Blood Keys were posted in the hall outside the next door down, and apparently taking their duty halfway seriously from the lack of talking. Regrettably, Jack eased back into the darkened room and pressed his ear up against the wall, straining to pick out the details of the conversation.

As the guy slips into the duct, losing his lock-on in the depths of the shaft, Skyler leaps from the building he's hiding on, landing with a louder noise than he would have liked next to the open shaft. He has to trust that whatever the guy is doing inside there, it's much louder and important than paying attention to a possible stalker.

... God, this really is like that one British spy movie. Skyler hunkers down and enters the shaft himself after he double checks that the coast is clear of both the guy and Keys. The paths inside the vent split into several paths, but Skyler switches on his night vision once more, peering down the vents and checking for anything this guy might be interested in, backtracking a lot as he doesn't have the foresight to actually listen to what the Keys below might be saying until about halfway through. For all of his cybernetics and by now sick criminal rep, Skyler Veracruz is still a dumb teenager.

He eventually gets his shit together and starts following the sounds of distant conversation until he feels as though he's almost in the right vent... huh. Where did the guy go? He noses around until he spots an open vent... that's gotta be it. He makes his way over there as quietly as he can, peering out of the opening and letting his enhancements do all the locating for him. Both infrared and nightvision pick up the guy's back as he puts his ear on the wall. Gotcha.

... So, now what? Skyler realized that he's been tailing this guy all night without any intention of actually, uh, confronting him. He just wanted to see what was going down. But looking the way he did, and considering what he did to get here... Uh. This may be a little difficult to explain, especially if this guy could very easily attack him on sight.

Or maybe he can't? Skyler hears the mutter of a short conversation outside the door. If he came down this quietly, and had to sneak in instead of just barging in with guns blazing, maybe it was in his best interest to keep quiet at a high cost. Skyler doesn't exactly know what reason that would be, besides the obvious stealthy info gathering angle, but it's a good enough cover as any for him to try entering the situation. If all else fails, he can cause a ruckus and set this guy up to get taken in by the Keys. Hey, at least it'd be way less awkward to explain than the truth.

So he does roll out of there as quietly as he can, although again, he doesn't have this guy's finesse, so he does land a little more loudly than he would have wanted. When Skyler lands, though, he remains deathly still, gauging the guy's reaction to his sudden visitor. Your move, super-spy.

Thankfully Jack has enough presence of mind to not make a surprised outburst, but as soon as Skyler drops to the floor he whirls around, pulling a handgun from under his coat and aiming directly at the sudden company.

He doesn't move any further though, warily eyeing what he can make out of Skyler in the darkness. It's possible to hear the voices next door still, enough to just barely make out occasional word. More than close enough for anyone to hear a gunshot.

So Jack waits, tense, for Skyler's next move in a silent stand-off.

Well, great, at least this guy has a gun. Skyler feels oddly relieved at that. Too many network vigilantes come into the district with their fists and spells, but packing that sort of ammunition seems to get the point across to his fellow keys more efficiently than waving around their hands and saying some mystical words. Guns are straightforward, and mean that one should back off. It's courteous.

Right. Skyler technically has the advantage here (he thinks - this isn't the gun skills guy), so he slowly raises both hands where Jack can see them (he hopes - it IS kind of dark in here) and then, also very slowly, moves a hand to put a finger to his mouth. He then uses the same finger to point at the wall Jack was listening at. Well... it's a LITTLE vague, but he hopes he's making his point? Truce, truce. He wants the same thing. Skyler will slowly start moving, but always in what light they have, always with his hands in view, making his way towards the wall.

There's a lot of good reasons to not shoot, not the least of which being he's down to his last couple bullets, but it's sure a good way to get a point across. Jack's suspicious, and the barrel doesn't waver, but what else is he supposed to do? Shoot this kid and bring every goon in the building down on him?

So he doesn't let Skyler leave his sights, but does silently nod, shifting back towards the wall. There might not be a second chance to catch what's going on here, and after all the trouble of getting in, well, he doesn't want to waste it.

Good. Skyler makes his way to the wall as well, putting his ear up against it. The voices are a little muffled, but fortunately the two conversationalists are standing close enough to make things clear.

'... wanna piss your people off, but goddamn, you don't know what it's like havin' all this sick shit and watching your people getting capped anyway. We need something better, man.'

... It sounds like someone's trying to make a deal with the Keys' suppliers. Looks like this network guy had just stumbled onto something important. Skyler keeps a careful watch on him, but continues listening quietly, trying to keep an ear on the guards out in the hall at the same time. He can't possibly pay attention to EVERYTHING, though.

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SORRY SORRY lost the tag