Week 8: Coming Home

The Air Tight operative waved his meat cleaver around as he spoke in a self-assured, yet patient voice.

"Time is of the essence ladies. Trust me, this is all part of the process! This high-alloy cleaver is the most effective way to simulate the type of damage that is caused by an ADN Laceron combat-grade circular saw with the kinds of heavy modification that you would see on an illegal, low condition surgical graft."

He pointed the cleaver at the table and said "Please, Miss Terrehaute. I'll need you to lay flat on the table for this next part. Is this everyone who I will be servicing today, or should I wait for a larger audience?" It was hard to tell if it was real or not, but the man's voice really did seem to make it sound like he was either enjoying himself or a perfect salesman.

Darya's face showed a sign of sudden realization. "So...like something the cult of machina would use?" She asked, looking at the cleaver. She activated her smeaker one more time and frowned. "No response from Ida. She's contacting you as well, so she may have her own thing scheduled...do you want to start without her?" she asked the representative.

Sosie's eyes widened. "Our alibi is going to be dealing with the Cult?" She gave a little deep laugh, and looked down at her clothes. Eh, she had more, though the shirt was irreplaceable. Sosie flung the tank top off with an easy and practised motion in a pile on the floor, revealing a battered black bra. She hopped onto the table.

"I dunno if Ida's coming down. She'll show up if she shows up. Probably not with plasma." She laughed again. Nothing like getting hacked up with a cleaver to make you forget the uncomfortable moral thoughts. She was even.. giddy. She looked at Darya and gave a fast wink. "She can catch up."

"Wonderful!" said the rain-coat wearing man with a meat cleaver. "While out looking for clues relating to the recent Tracer Li raid by the Cult of Machina you stumbled into a small group of cultists picking over an agent they had just brought down. Please hold still for this next part Miss Terrehaute, I need to be very precise. And I apologise for the damages, unavoidable I'm afraid. AAAHHH!"

With a loud scream the Air Tight rep grabbed Sosie's right leg, wrapping his hand around her shin. He brought the cleaver down over and over and over again in a frenzied series of violent strikes. He screamed in almost animal rage with each one, but then suddenly stopped once Sosie's foot was removed just above the ankle.

"... The cultists attacked you and unfortunately for Miss Terrehaute they removed her right foot, which is, in fact, still at the scene of the battle should anyone care to look for it."

The alibi technician reached down into his mule-tech and pulled out an organ bag, which he deposited Sosie's cybernetic foot into before sealing it up. He then carefully put the bag back into the mule-tech and looked to see if it was all right for him to continue speaking or if there were any questions so far.

Darya shook her head, and motioned for him to continue, before stopping. "Wait...there was an attack on a Tracer Li lab?"

Sosie shuddered at the first blow, but curiosity overtook her and she watched the AirTight rep with the cleaver. She gritted her teeth a little, and braced against the table.. but all and all, seemed more or less fine with it... Maybe because after the first strike, it became obvious her legs were completely cybernetic, though there was some blood. Her brows went up. "This is a very disconcerting feeling. Why--ah--would they leave my foot behind? It's state of the--oo--art! Also, should I ask you what you're going to chop off next, or--or!--would that ruin the fun for you, Mr...? Er, Mr. Technician."

She looked over at Darya, realizing this might be a bit.. you know.. not great for her, and tryed to convey a sense of everything being fine while her leg was wrenched off. "Want the boot, too? It's useless. Damn heel keeps peeling."

"Don't worry Miss Terrehaute, I can assure you that you were victorious in your quest! You only left your foot behind in your hurry to continue tracking down the cultists that escaped the combat. Lucky for you, Miss Demeter and Miss Salcedo were around to deal with the chimeras."

The seemly ordinary, business-like man removed his rain coat, which had a few spots of blood and hydraulic fluid on it, rolled it up and put it inside the mule-tech bag.

"And yes indeed, Miss Demeter, there was an attack on the Tracer Li labs by a group of heavily armed cultists. Despite being ambushed and losing your friend's foot it wasn't a total loss though. Miss Demeter was able to find some useful intelligence from the dead cultists which may yet lead her to the perpetrators of the Tracer Li attack."

At this point he pulled something out of his pocket and threw it to Darya. Before it even landed he was already explaining what was on the chip he had thrown.

"The cultists were holding onto a shopping list of sorts. Parts they were looking for in the fallen agent and possibly inside the factory. You may find that quite useful to your future enquiries Miss Demeter."

Sosie bounced along the table, dangling her feet foot. She watched Darya get the information with a little smile, and tilted her head. "What no one else gets the cleaver? Come on!"

She laughed a little, before her face suddenly went serious. "Oh no! ..I can't feel my toes!" And then Sosie, the nearly septuagenarian, rolled backwards on the table giggling madly with uncontrolled amusement.

Darya's eyes widened as she caught the chip in her hand. "That...is immensely helpful, thank you." she said, slipping it into her pocket, already planning to look over it the moment the representative had left.

Her face darkened as the implications of the cult's actions came to her. "Immensely helpful indeed..."

OOC: Welp, I guess Ida was sorting hers out alone, at least partially. Damn you personal schedules and need to sleep!
Ida leapt down the stairs and entered the room. "Oh, you were doing it down here? Guess I should have turned off the music, it would have been so much easier than coordinating through long-range communications that loop back here anyway... So we were handling a cult attack on a Tracer Li lab, right?" She glanced down at Sosie's foot, or rather where it would have been. "Nice stump."

(( You're just in time I've got to go now though, so I'll type up the next bit when I get chance ))

*Pinkie was halfway through strapping fully loaded stealth bags to her back, plan half formed in her head and all unnesscary equipment shed when she realised. They had vowed to make a small start, but so far it had been more of a shuddering limp. There was potenial for a pack there but she could only rely on them, implicitly and effectively if they grew into a pack. There was a way to make their convictions realised but not unless someone galvanised them into a force to be reckoned with. She was already Alpha of one pack and no-one else, not even effervescently present Ida who made everone stop to pay attention simply by being there, had stepped up to fill that role. Humans are pack animals. Pinkie opened her PDA, started typing and let the words flow from her.

If there is a not a place for you where you go, then make one.*

"Ah! Miss Salcedo, it is good you could join us. If you will wait a moment I will be right with you."

The representative put one hand on the back of his head and reached with his other hand to his neck. Sosie and Darya could easily tell that he was pulling a chip out of a chip socket hidden on the back of his neck.

"Just a little... Aah... A little something I put together on the waaaaaaaay here." he said, wincing for a second as he pulled a chip free. It wasn't a process or task chip, but some other design that was unfamiliar to the cyberneticists. Ida could tell what it was though; it was the data recording device used on her weapon-cams.

"Sorry... that still tangles a bit. Ooh. Where was I? Oh yes! Here you are Miss Salcedo." said the Air Tight rep. He threw the small object over to Ida and continued to speak. "Footage of you shooting the cult. It will stand up to close scrutiny, but not the UIG forensic techs back in Antarctica. Don't let them take it away from you."

The well dressed man took a deep breath and looked around the room. "Will there be anything else ladies?"

Sosie reached down off the table and picked up her familiar navy blue Mule-Tech. She was still giggling, and fumbled around and pulled out some textape and a few prongs. She looked up at the rep. "Really? No one else gets cleavered? Not even some plasma burns? Tsk." She shook her head, and immediately began rigging up a peg leg. "I really did like the nail polish on that. Ran out, too. Hm."

She ripped a few pieces of tape with her teeth, and began hastily doing something complicated with her stump. "Really, he's quite masterful with the cleaver, hee hee." Awkwardness of feelings dissolved, immediate threat of depersonalization gone, and seeing a little insane mad violence, and Sosie was already falling giggling into pink cloudville.

Darya tossed the chip in her hand up and down, before looking up. "Sorry, just to clarify, but is this data real?"

Ida pulled the recording chip out of her gun's camera and passed it to Sylviane, who crushed it into a fine powder, and then inserted the new one. "Thank you very much," she said politely with a smile covering the disappointment of losing such good footage. "This should be all that I need."

The man ignored Sosie's questions, which seemed to him to be more like complaints about injury inequality. Instead he turned to Darya and replied:

"Very real, Miss Demeter. Someone even lost a foot to bring you this information."

He gave a wink and knelt down. With another long 'ziiiip' he closed the mule-tech bag and then stood up with it in his grip. "If you will all excuse me, I must be going. Someone needs assistance to prove they were at their daughter's cello recital last week. Thank you for choosing Air Tight to service your alibi needs."

And with that, the man walked out of Seoul Waste Away, climbed into his expensive car and drove away. It was as if he was never there.