2014.10.26 - Hostile Takeover

The trip from New York to Tokyo was uneventful and boring. 14 hours in a plane, and Nate was about to jump out the window. But the DI and Halo corporate jets are likely to be watched, and Illyana is nowhere to be found. But thanks to some telepathic trickery at the airport, the chances of Cyberdata knowing they are coming are pretty much nil. He misses his telekinetic flight ability more than ever, though.

He offered to arrange for flights for the others, but if they have a better way to reach Tokyo, all the better. The important thing is that they are ready for a midnight raid to a certain skyscraper that is owned by one of Cyberata subsidiaries. Their target is there.

Croyd had suggested to a local filmmaker that he is the perfect star for some local fairy special films. They know the window is limited but everyone stands to make huge amounts of money. Croyd is ready, willing and able to go.

Lunair is pretty good at sitting quietly still. She might feel sorry for Nate if she knew what he was going through. But she is a college student and can likely claim to be scoping out some study abroad stuff. People love that. Or she can pass herself off as another tourist(TM). So she can go in those ways! And she will turn up with her armor beneath some cute fall clothes. That's a perk of being able to layer clothes and still look innocuous, if a bit chubby.

Nate barely got through explaining where he was going and why before Rachel agreed to accompany him, which is perhaps not surprising. What might be more surprising is that, despite having her own means of getting to Tokyo that are a lot faster and more comfortable than a plane ride, Rachel elected to fly with him. It's possible she still feels that Nate needs someone to keep an eye on him due to his power troubles - but if that's the case, she did a pretty poor job of it on the flight, since she spent most of the fourteen hours crashed out asleep in the seat next to him, quietly snoring.

The upside to this? Nate's raid might have been planned for a pretty unsociable time, but Rachel's fresh and rested for it.

Why shouldn't they be rested. Their bodies say it is about noon, while in Tokyo is just past midnight. Jet lag is going to be a bitch, but the plan is that they are not to be around enough to feel the full weight of wildly different time zones.

Nate invited Rachel to come somewhat by surprise, but they had 14 hours to chat telepathically about all the many reasons Cyberdata needs to die. So she was brought up to date. The others already know about the cyborg exec Kimata Saburo, and why they need to find him. Void is still missing, and Cyberdata needs to be dissembled for a broad variety of reasons, among them the kidnapping of mutants to turn them into brain-washed killer cyborgs.

Which brings them to the Tokyo streets, a few city blocks from the Cyberdata building. "Alright, do we take the main door or go through the roof? I mean, this guy is supposedly hiding in the 50th floor, almost the top, but we don't know for sure." Nate tries a telepathic scan. But there are still like 50 people inside the building, and Kimata might have telepathic defenses among his cybernetics.

Croyd says, "I can do the roof, climbing is easy for me. I can also try scanning up on the roof." He has a paper platemask and robe like nameless from Spirited Away, but bits of tentacles can still be seen pointing out everywhere."

Lunair looks up to the building. "I... can't fly. I'd have to rapell or use a portal gun," She admits. Sadly, her powers are a bit limited in terms of scouting sometimes. This is one of those times. She smiles to the others in flight, but she isn't too fussy. "The main door has its own problems, though." Like... running head long in.

Rachel's prepared to take a fair bit on faith where Nate's concerned, but the telepathic briefing put to rest any doubts she might have had about what they're doing. Kidnapping and brainwashing mutants isn't something she's going to sit still for. Despite the briefing, however, she's still the outsider here, so she's prepared to take her cue from Nate.

Although she'd really expected him to have more of a plan by this point than he apparently does. They'll just have to improvise. Rachel nods in agreement with Croyd - his appearance being something /else/ she's had to be quickly brought up to speed with, since last time they met he looked just as unusual in a completely different way - then puts in, "I can carry us all to the roof, but that gives your guy the chance to run from the ground floor. If we go in on the ground floor and they make us, then the roof's open." She shrugs, and looks at Nate. "Do you want to split up and meet in the middle?"

Nate is not really up to be a team leader of any kind. Well, without Spartan around none of the members of Stormwatch is very good at this planning and leading. Improvisation will be done! "Good points," admits Nate. "Er... no. No splitting, there might be S.H.O.C.K. troops. If he runs, we'll have to run faster. Could you just lift all of us up to floor 50, Ray?"

Croyd nods at this point and briefly looks around for the mist making them stupid. He saw that movie and isn't going to be a blood sacrifice or anything. He waits to be lifted.

Lunair looks a bit concerned. But she will follow Nate as best as she can. She is glad to have her armor on underneath her clothing. But she seems to trust Rachel. She's just concerned about the 'just in case she gets unlucky or meets a telekinetic on the roof' kinda thing.

Good points? Rachel smirks a bit at Nate, raising her eyebrows slightly. Either one of them could talk to the other silently, but she lets her expression speak for her. And it says 'are you SURE you want to do this?'. Apparently he does, and Rachel doesn't argue the point. At least if they're all together she has a shot at getting them all out of there at once if things go bad.

And she suddenly has the feeling that things might go bad.

All she says, however, is, "No problem." And then stretches her arms out a bit theatrically to the side, and they all lift off the ground - even if Rachel's brows draw together a bit and she shoots a curious look at Croyd, given how much he weighs. It's not a problem, merely a surprise, and she compensates easily. << I'm making sure no-one bothers to look up. >> She says into their minds, reaching out telepathically to blunt any curiosity that's directed their way as they swiftly ascend to the 50th floor.

Nate nods when Rachel cloaks them. << Telepathic stealth is great, but electronic stealth is pretty much impossible for this group, >> he sends telepathically. "So lets go in quickly and leave before they can call reinforcements or the police gets involved," he adds out loud. "Crash through the window, Ray."

Croyd takes a while to coil back up as they lift and a huge seemingly impossible mass of coiled tentacles follows behind...where is the body? But eventually they pull up and float up to the roof, landing there back in the body.

Lunair is just boggled by the tentacles. She's been on the internet. She's seen the spaghetti monster. Is he a holy noodle? Maybe. Either way, she lets herself get cloaked and lifted, somehow, again, glad for her armor

<< And here I was worried you were going to want to take the subtle approach. >> Rachel's teasing voice is sent just to Nate's brain, she's a bit more composed and professional on the outside. "Break and enter. Got it." She says briskly. Looking at the window, Rachel narrows her eyes - and the pane of glass shatters into thousands of pieces, all of which part obligingly for them so that as Rachel's telekinesis pushes them all into the building, at least they don't need to worry about flying glass. Dropping to her feet as soon as she's inside, Rachel's already hunting telepathically, trying to pick up on any alerts that have been triggered, or any security heading their way.

<< This is the subtle approach >> shoots back Nate with a smirk. Surprisingly alarms are not blaring yet. They are in an office floor, glass walls dividing work areas for groups of people. Most are dark, but some are not. About half a dozen people were working in one of the areas, and when the window panel explodes, they move quickly. Instead of running away like normal Japanese white-collar workers should do, they pull guns and short swords from their desks and fan out to attack the team.

Rachel can feel similar groups in the upper and lower floor, they are moving too. Their minds are human, but single-minded, focused and fanatical. There is another group of minds in the central office, which has opaque walls, but those are shielded.

Croyd springs into action, literally, a cloud of criscrossing tentacles filling most of the floor, several violet "fooooops" emit from the ends collapsing any telepathically vulnerable members, the slithering is maddening to hear with a faint dripping of a liquid something oozing along the floor, darkening the room by blocking out the lights with its mass.

Lunair is listening for her part, watching and alert. She's weak to bullets, after all. She peers at the not-off lights with concern. "... really? Well, at least they don't have katanas." Way to make the best of a situation, Lunair. And then, they're attacking. She pulls a 50 calibre out of freaking nowhere. Uh oh.

Rachel's eyebrows go up when the four of them (particularly Croyd, if she's honest) bursting through a 50th floor window isn't enough to send the night shift into a panicked stampede for the exits. Rachel's first instinct is to throw up a telekinetic shield - but Croyd is already in action. It's impressive - and more than vaguely disturbing. Holding herself ready to throw a TK-bolt at anyone that might get past Croyd, Rachel busies herself with passing on everything she's learned from her quick psi-scan of the building. << We've got bad guys closing in from above and below. >> Rachel's sends, right into the others' thoughts. She feeds them the locations of the minds she can scan, too, then grimaces as she comes up against shielded minds. << Nate? Think that's our target? Say the word. >>

Becoming a monster with tentacles is pretty disturbing, indeed. That is why half the 'office workers' go for Croyd, one of them jumps back and begins firing an automatic pistol at the mass of tentacles, other two attack with blades, trying to cut the tentacles. The telepathic blasts make them falter, but they are not exactly normal humans, they keep going despite the pain.

They are not as resistant to telekinesis, and the first swordsman gets blasted through several glass walls when Rachel hits him. The others get out of the way when she looks at them, shooting their guns at the redhead.

<< Yeah, I think you are right >> he replies to Rachel. But firs the grabs her and drags her to cover. "Shield first, sis, unless you have become bulletproof in space. Lun, some cover fire, would you?" He tries to grab the mind of one of the attackers and shut it down. His eyes widen at how single-minded and resilient is his mind. But Nate is a ridiculously powerful telepath and the man goes down after a few seconds.

Croyd shieks in pain and uncoils more of the super strong tentacles, seeking to push them out through the widow, wrap around throats and choke or go....other...places...and do the things that tentacles do.

Oh geez. A tentacle guy in Japan. Why did Lunair not think - that someone might be offended over such an outrageous stereotype!? For shame! This is so going on someone's Tumblr somewhere. "Okay!" Lunair decides she is REALLY happy she brought her armor, and gets to use her 50 calibre, which will clear out anyone who doesn't move out of the way. It's a crude way to cut a path through.

Rachel grins as the first swordsman to get past Croyd takes her TK bolt full on and goes flying /most/ satisfyingly. "Who's next?" She says under her breath, and then - WHOMP! She's tackled into cover by Nate. As bullets blast past them, Rachel's tone is testy. "I'd have gotten to them!" She tells Nate, already scrambling back up again, although she pauses to fix him with an odd look. "/Sis?/" She says, though she doesn't sound like she really minds the appellation. Shaking her head with a bit of a grin, she scrambles the rest of the way back to her feet, a TK shield firmly in pace between her (and Nate) and the gunmen. She'd offer the same to Lunair, but she doesn't want to get in the way of the other woman's big gun. For all intents and purposes immune to small arms fire for the time being, Rachel stalks forward, heading for the central office, throwing TK bolts at anyone who doesn't get out of the way quickly enough.

One of the swordsmen gets grabbed by Croyd and tossed off the window; the other is more prudent, still trying to cut tentacles that come close. Unfortunately, he gets in the way of Lunair machine gun, and ends up full of holes and quite dead. Two survivors that dive for cover, but that is not enough to protect them from telepathy.

It is all over in fifteen seconds, with the 'aggressive executives' all dead or sleeping. Silence returns. Rachel can feel the minds in the other floors are suddenly still, waiting for orders. And the glass of the central office becomes transparent, revealing a handsome middle-age Japanese man sitting behind a broad desk. At his side there are two armored figures. "You could have just asked for an appointment," he says in slightly accented English. "Please, come in, and lets talk like... civilized businessmen."

Croyd slides along, blood and fury oozing across the floor, wanting to attack on sigjt but barely restraining in case others want to try reason. He wont be able to hold back for long.

Angry tentacles are angry. Lunair is just glad not to be on the receiving end of that. Fortunately, she stops firing to let people talk. She blinks, noticing the man. She looks to Nate.

Rachel's steps slow as she feels the hostile minds that were heading toward them suddenly stop in place. She glances quickly between the others. << Something tells me this isn't over. >> She tells the others, holding back from any overtly aggressive moves - but not dropping the telekinetic shield she's erected between them and the occupant of the center office. She doesn't take her eyes off him, either, but her mind? That's looking toward Nate as well, waiting for his lead.

<< Over? Hell, no. I am going to tear off the head of that sonofabitch >>. Nate glares at Kimata and tries to reach to fry his mind. But there is a strong psy-field protecting the people in the central office. "Yeah, keep talking," states the young telepath, increasing the psychic pressure.

Kimata keeps his cool, leaning back on his expensive office chair. "Cyberdata is a corporation. We do business and we don't engage in pointless vendettas with other high tech companies. I assure you the attacks on Halo were not a decision from the executive direction, we were overruled by our founder. Let me show you.

The screen behind him flares to live, showing the image of a man that is more machine than flesh. "Emil Zadrok. He found an alien spaceship in Greenland in 1910, from the technology he recovered, he founded a technological company that eventually evolved into Cyberdata. His behavior in the past few years has become very... erratic. He retired to the research facility we built around the spaceship and his instructions became strange. We now believe he has become a pawn of an alien agency, perhaps the creators of the spaceship, or perhaps your Daemonite rivals."

Lunair looks dubious, watching the man and his office chair. She frowns faintly. "Uhm." What's a Daemonite? Nevermind, she'll have to ask later. She looks uncertain on if she should unload on the man or not.

Rachel's no more familiar with Daemonites than Lunair is - the other woman didn't need to speak her question aloud for Rachel to pick up on it. After Nate snarled in her mind, Rachel's curiosity is taking a back seat, however. << Try to get everything you want from him first, OK? >> Rachel doesn't seem to have a problem with the whole tearing the head off thing, but she /is/ trying to keep Nate's temper from taking control of him. Outwardly, Rachel crosses her arms and tilts her head to one side as she looks at Kimata. "Just so I know..." Rachel says conversationally, "...are we letting this guy pass the buck?"

Croyd isnt sure what the hell to make of all this bit doesnt talk a lot in his current form and is getting antsy. Some office furniture in the rear of the room is crushed to dust.

Nate glances at Rachel. Stop making sense because I want to kill this guy... no, he doesn't say that. << Yeah. Okay. But he might be trying to make us waste time. >> Looking back at Kimata, he grunts. "So, let me guess. We should team up and take out this Zadrok guy it is the first time I hear about. And that means, assuming he really had control of Cyberdata, then you would be in total control, right?"

The Japanese man makes a palms-up gesture towards the group. "I have to answer to the shareholders, I won't conduct Cyberdata in the insane, self-destructive path it is now. I can offer you reparations, and we can free Void. Yes, your alien teammate is being kept in the spaceship."

Nate folds his arms. << Okay. I don't trust him at all. We can find out what he knows using telepathy once his defenses are down. I do want Void back and alive, though. >>

Lunair is a bit antsy. She'd quite like to unload some sort of weapon or another into the fellow. But she isn't going to ruin Nate's plans. she simply is quiet, looking between the him and the man and the group. Hmm.

Rachel glances back at Nate and offers him a slight shrug. Someone has to keep a clear head, and as unlikely as it may seem, today it's her job. << That's the chance we take. Unless you want to grab him and blast out of here? >> She seems confident that they could do it, but what then? Their plan didn't go as far as this, let alone what to do after an unplanned abduction.

Rachel stays outwardly quiet during the first part of Nate's 'negotiation', but she snickers quietly when 'reparations' are offered. "Do we get stock options too?" She asks, facetiously, but clearly doesn't expect an answer.

Kimata chuckles, "we could certainly give Halo stocks and a position in the board of directors. That is not a bad idea; would Mr. Marlowe be willing to send someone? But I think we should work in stopping Zadrok first."

<< Yeah, no. I am almost through the screens, lets get that slime out of his fishbowl >> states Nate. Kimata is frowning, looking at something in the desk. "Mr. Grey you should stop. You are going to force us to take drastic measures."

Lunair blinks. He can tell Nate is using his brain power? Huh. Well, stock options are nice. But she lacks brain powers, and cannot really comment.

Croyd doesnt have to be told twice and immediately begins a kamakazi assault on all but Kimata, dozens of tentacles pushing and throwing cibe walls and desks at folks, going where tentacles go, doing what tentacles do.

Rachel hadn't actually expected to get a reply, and snorts at the idea that Kimata is actually considering her request. She's still waiting for Nate to give the word, and when he does, she reacts almost as quickly as Croyd. Her telekinesis snaps out, pinning Kimata in his chair, and at the same time placing a telekinetic shield over the surface of Kimata's desk. Just in case there was anything he wanted to press, he'll find that rather difficult now. "Take all the drastic measures you like." Rachel tells him. "It's not going to help."

The Cyberdata CEO dives behind the desk when his machines tell him Nate has overloaded the psionic screens. He doesn’t need to touch anything; his cybernetic implants let him control the building systems. First thing he does is activate several brain mines, devices that fill the psychic plane with painful white noise. Nate recoils, clenching his jaw, blood flowing from his nose and ears.

Croyd is throwing desks to the glass protecting his office, but it is hard as steel, it shudders and develop cracks, but doesn’t shatter outright. Then both armored bodyguards move, machine guns popping from their wrists. When they begging firing, the glass shatters, and armor-piercing bullets fly towards the heroes.

Meanwhile, the people in the upper and lower floor start running. They had time to change, so they come with black and red ninja robes, and not office outfits.

Croyd has tentacles with super stremgth but the bullets hurt a lot. He grabs into the walls and tears apart the pipes, water and gas leaking into the floor, the pipes passed to the front to begin beating on peopplex barricades and the weapons, attemptinf to wrap around them and knock them into ea ch other, purple blood flowing and glowing all around the ninjas

Lunair blinks as the CEO dives. She looks worried at the blood flowing out of nate. And hey, actual ninja who changed into their outfits. It feels sort of comical somehow. But for her part, it's firearms time! She's going to carefully take potshots, slipping into cover herself. She's not invincible, and her huge gun can only carry the day so far.

Rachel doesn't fare any better than Nate, hit just as hard and sent reeling as her mind fills with agony. She retaliates on instinct, sending a telekinetic blast in the general direction of Kimata. It's unfocused, but it's powerful - and anything that gets in its way is going to know about it. Then her balance gives out completely and she bounces off a desk on her way to the ground. Her eyes are bright with pain as she looks for Nate. "Are we pulling out or do I wreck this floor?" She asks, her voice strained. It's all she can think of to get rid of whatever's doing this to them.

Pandemonium explodes as Croyd tears from the walls as the ninjas arrive, sending furniture flying, hitting a few of the incoming warriors. They retaliate with poisoned shurikens, trying to kill the flying tentacle thing.

Rachel's telekinetic wave staggers the cyborgs and probably saves their lives, as the machine guns go wild for a few seconds, until the recover balance. Kimata's desk also goes flying, falling on top of the man.

Before the cyborgs recover, Lunair is firing her high-caliber gun to one of them. The armor protects the cyborg to a point, but it shatters and breaks, and he falls injured. The second cyborg freezes, and then, shaking, turns his guns on the ninjas, taking them by surprise and cutting them to bloody ribbons. "Got. Him." Growls Nate.

Croyd finds he has a power accidentally left over from his last incarnation and begins to slap them at hyperspeed, the poison making him ill but it will not kill the insane metahuman, strange orange vomit leaving from the tentacles covering them in glowing purple blood right before he tries to beat them with metal and ceramic pipe until natek says all is ok lighting the gas, get out he says before ripping at the electrical cords ..

Lunair frowns, as the thing blocks her shots. Then her eyes widen as Nate growls. Nevertheless, she is just going to try to keep the cyborgs down so Nate and the others can do their things. She blinks, though at the second cyborg. She frowns. "Where's-" Oh, he got hit y his desk. Lunair watches for him, squinting.

Rachel doesn't get a direct answer from Nate, but that's all right because she can see that Kimata's now pinned beneath his own desk. Despite the pain, her lips draw back from her teeth in a truly nasty grin. It's made even worse when the blood from her nose ends up all over her teeth. She pushes herself back up to her feet on sheer bloody-minded stubbornness alone and staggers over to where Kimata lies, furious now. She steps on top of the desk pinning him to the floor and looks down at him, eyes narrowed to slits against the pain. She's on the edge of screaming, but instead she tells him. "Turn. It. Off." Suddenly, the weight on Kimata increases, as Rachel pushes down with her telekinesis. "Or they're gonna have a HELL of a job getting what's left of you out of the carpet."

Kimata gives up. The mines shut down, and then Nate grabs his mind. It is over.

A couple hours later the group is resting in a rented apartment in the outskirts of the city. With coffee, painkillers and... can Croyd be patched up? Well, they are trying! At least he is invulnerable to poison. "Looks like Kimata wasn't lying about everything,” explains Nate. “Void is in the crashed spaceship in Greenland. And he was scared and worried about the stuff going on there. That is why we didn't see powerful mutant cyborgs here and instead there were those 'Hand' ninjas. There is internal fighting within the corporation." He pauses, "we go Greenland next, get Void out and short this out."