5/16 Instance: Pretty Deadly

[Starfish]

Timeline: Current.

Cessily: "Fresh coffee is a go!" Cessily announced as she flipped the switch on the coffee machine occupying the counter in the corner of her office. "I still have some apple pie left from my lunch break, if you like." The silver-skinned redhead looked back over her shoulder to offer her visitor a smile.

Carol: Carol shook her head, "If I eat anything I'll be reminded how hungry I am and then no work'll happen." She frowned at one of the building schematics, holding it up and twisting it this way and that. "Is this upside down? I can't tell... where did I put the other pages?"

Cessily: "I'm not entire sure," Cessily said, looking over the patchwork of paper that threatened to spread across her entire desk. "I feel like you need a different system to organise your stuff. Have you ever thought about folders?"

Carol: "I tried that but then I forgot what folder I put everything in so it all ended up on the floor anyway." She glanced over at Cessily, "Gonna spread this out a little more, see if I can't find the other pages."

Cessily: "Maybe we should have used the meeting room for this," Cessily commented as she watched her office being claimed by Carol's creeping paperwork. "Is that a Chinese menu?"

Carol: "Oh hey, I was looking for that yesterday." Carol followed Cessily's gaze then snatched up the menu and stuffed it in her pocket, "It'll be fine... there's not that much stuff..."

Cessily: "Hey, that looks like it belongs to the map you've just been looking at," the young counsellor said, pulling another sheet covered in schematics from the pile as she sat down in her chair. "I think this is the parking garage. Or a swimming pool. It's hard to tell."

Carol: "Noooo that's a hangar! Look!" She pulled another page out that displayed some of the roofspace and a section that moved, "This goes over here." She lined the pages up. "I don't want to imagine what they've got in the hangar, though..."

Cessily: "Even though Oscorp's stock is skyrocketing after the Sentinel deal, I doubt that personal parking space for your own private jet is part of the regular employee deal." Cessily stretched her arms to hold out the schematics until the rough outline of the building became apparent. "A helicopter landing pad I could get behind, but a whole hangar..."

Carol: "The Sentinels at the park had gliders... but they wouldn't need this much space... well not unless there was a whole lot of them ready to go at once. I hope it's not that..."

Cessily: "You don't think they could have built that many of those things already." Cessily gave the SHIELD officer a worried look. "Could they?"

Carol: "They've had almost a year... I'd say so." Carol sat down on the corner of the desk, "Okay so let's say they do have all those Sentinels... do we have a viable way to shut them down yet? You know, before they use their power cancelling crap."

Cessily: "So in the worst case scenario, that would make for one nasty surprise to run into." Cessily tapped her fingers on the desk as she studied the schematics of the hangar some more, her mind conjuring frightening images of an entire army of mutant-hunting machines.

Cessily: "Instead of shutting them down, perhaps there's a way to prevent them from being activated in the first place," she thought aloud. "They have to be controlled in some way, right?"

Carol: "Yeah but they probably have some protection for that.... we need to bring someone that can hack their systems, someone who's really awesome at hacking things because we'll only have one chance. Do we know anyone that can do that that isn't the bug kid because that's a last resort. He needs to be here fixing the Danger Room."

Cessily: "And I don't know if I'd feel comfortable putting Broo in danger." Sitting back in her chair, Cessily raised a shiny finger to tap it against her equally shiny chin. "However, unless SHIELD lets us borrow Warlock, he might be our best chance to deal with their security, as I doubt Oscorp's firewall is freeware like mine."

Cessily: The young teacher paused, a frown furrowing her brow as her gaze focused on something in the distance. "Unless..."

Carol: "Unless what?" She looked over at the other woman, "Spit it out."

Cessily: Cessily looked at Carol with and put on a wry smile. "Well, it's probably a stupid idea and wouldn't work anyway, but there's still Danger's backup system we found in the ruins of the mansion." She ran a hand through her hair as she sat up. "The problem is... it's not exactly in a very useful condition."

Carol: "... Back up system for what exactly?" She raised an eyebrow, "You guys weren't exactly forthcoming with information about it when we found all that stuff and since then things have been a little busy."

Cessily: "Herself, basically," Cessily replied with an awkward smile. "The way I understood it, she kept constant backups of her neural network and memories, in case her mainframe ever got damaged beyond repair - or is stolen. You know, like an image of your system drive."

Cessily: She tilted her head. "The problem is, it's mostly just a storage device."

Carol: "What like a flashdrive?" She frowned, "... Do you think she'd self-install if we brought her with us and plugged her into something?"

Cessily: "More like an upgraded gaming console with legs." Cessily chuckled, knowing that the thing looked even more ridiculous than it sounded. "Apparently it's able to perform basic tasks, but I'm not sure if that's any guarantee it'll be able to do anything useful. Still, I figured it might be worth considering, especially as we don't know in what state Danger will be in when we find her."

Carol: "Well... I guess we can bring it and see? But we should probably bring a back up plan anyway... I can call Fury and ask him if he'll loan us Warlock but I doubt it - SHIELD are not officially aware of our plans to steal from OsCorp."

Cessily: "And I think it might be for the best of everyone involved if we kept it that way." Cessily gave a slight nod and shot Carol another smile. "Your boss has done so much for us, I'd rather spare him the trouble of having to explain why his agents were involved in what technically is one hundred percent illegal."

Cessily: "Not that I hope any of get caught or spotted, but I'm used to things going wrong, and I've learnt that it's best to always expect the worst."

Carol: "It does mean, if I go with you, I need to be unrecognisable as a SHIELD agent and be unreadable to facial recognistion software... and I'm going with you."

Cessily: "No worries, I'm not stupid enough to try to talk you out of this." Cessily grinned and leaned forward in her chair. "Does that mean we get to put a disguise on you?"

Carol: "I guess so... but it better look good." She shifted in her perch to face Cessily, "But we have other things to worry about right now, more important things than my wardrobe."

Cessily: Her grin became even brighter as she leaned over to Carol. "But I thinking about your wardrobe," she said with a snicker. "Mostly how it looks on you."

Carol: "Noooo you like how it looks on the floor." Carol corrected with a grin.

Cessily: "Believe me, once it hits the floor, there'd be no place left in my mind for any of your clothing," Cessily replied, her hushed voice sounding somewhere between shy and suggestive. "Uhm, so, what's up next again?"

Carol: Carol shook herself, "Right. Yes... uh..." she turned back to the paperwork and tried to figure out where she'd gotten to. "Okay... assuming we can stop them activating the Sentinels, our job should be pretty easy because I can punch through anything they put in the way. The main problem is getting into somewhere we can work from. I guess anywhere with a computer would work?"

Cessily: "That might get us inside, anyway." Cessily leaned over the table to take a closer look at the schematics. "It's unlikely they'd have hooked up any of their sensitive systems to an external line, so we probably have to find an access within their secured workspace."

Carol: "Well, assuming we make it across the boundaries without being spotted, we can go straight to wherever that is on the express train. If we're spotted, we're screwed.... This is kind of an all or nothing mission, huh?"

Cessily: "Aren't they all lately?" Cessily looked up to give Carol a strained smile. "No matter what happens, I won't give up until we've got Danger back. She may be machine, but she's one of us." She paused, taking a breath. "Not long ago I was in the same spot, and the only reason I'm here today is because my friends wouldn't give me up."

Carol: "Oh hey, no one said anything about giving up." She reached out a hand to gently stroke Cessily's cheek with the backs of her fingers, "I'm stubborn, I never give up, even when I should."

Cessily: The smile found its way back to Cessily's face. "Have I ever told you how grateful I am that you're here to help us?" she asked, leaning her head towards Carol's hand.

Carol: "Quite a few times, actually," Carol nodded with a returned smile, "Buuuut, as you're the only one that says thank you, I don't mind hearing it so often. It's nice to feel appreciated."

Cessily: "Well, if there's any way I could show my appreciation, feel free to let me know." A smirk played across Cessily's silver lips, before her gaze returned to the project laid out in front of them. "Maybe we can get in through the cargo centre."

Carol: "... That could work. You know we could maybe convince them we're supposed to be there for long enough... hang on..." she rummaged around for a few pieces of paper, allowing another to slide off the desk and sprawl across the floor in the process. She leaned over the desk and frowned at it for a moment before going back to her search. "Here. Requisition orders."

Cessily: After leaning over to look at the papers in Carol's hands, the smirk returned to Cessily's face. "Are we talking about sending them a very special delivery?"

Carol: "The best kind of delivery," She grinned, "All pretty and deadly."

[steyn]

Not to worry, Broo's brewing up a new project for Backup Danger.