2014.07.17 - Daybreak Break-In

Roberto da Costa walks off the elevator onto Project Daybreak's conference and office floor, already showing off points of interest to his guest, Sam Guthrie. "The open layout is supposed to encourage collaboration," he says enthusiastically, at the risk of boring his friend. "Over there, you can see our bio team -- I think they're actually picking apart my genome at the moment. Trying to see if maybe my X-gene is similar to anything in a known plant or animal that we can study. So cool!" He claps his hands together and walks quickly across the slickly polished floor toward his own office, stopping every know and then to greet or introduce one of the lab's researchers. The whole building seems to purr with focused, thoughtful activity and discussion.

Sam Guthrie is wearing cowboy boots, jeans and a snug underarmor shirt in blue. He has a pair of sunglasses pinning down his straw hair and he's following Roberto around dutifully acting interested, even at the times when he's distracted. "How much do they cost?" Sam wonders aloud at the team of scientists analyzing Berto's genes. "You did background checks, right?"

Scrawny little 157 has somehow gotten himself a spot on the project as a school assignment. Most likely, the folks at the Academy who are aware of his habits considered Project Daybreak more harmless for him to take a look at than, say, portal-based observation of military bases or the like. He started out just helping with basic observation, but people very quickly realized just how quickly the little guy tended to catch on to things and what an eye for detail he had...and thus, he's been helping out with nearly every area of the project, handed off from team to team (sometimes literally--157 walks slowly, so the crew /has/ sometimes found it helpful to just pick him up and carry him) day by day so everyone can benefit from his keen observational talents. Presently, he's been checking over a database application used in measuring energy output in some of their tests. It had some funny readings the other day.

As he spots Roberto entering the room, he climbs down from the chair and slowly walks over. He's dressed in his usual outfit, albeit with a labcoat over it. The coat's rather too large for him, enough that he has to have the sleeves rolled up. Someone gave it to him as a joke on the first day, intending to have a good laugh and give him one in about his size when he complained. He never did, so now it's become something of a battle of wills. The team doesn't intend to crack before he does.

"Roberto," the boy says, utterly ignoring Sam. "Yewie has completed review of database design. Yewie has discovered query error resulting in inversion of operations in calculation. High probability this explains unlikely results from previous day's test."

"They're pretty well paid," Berto answers with a smirk. "But they've also got a stake in the results of the project, so that kinda defrays some of the upfront investment." He can't help but roll his dark eyes at Sam's concern. "Well, I didn't follow them around or hack their emails or anything. If you remember, I've had a bit of a brush with the law myself. Heck, some of them have histories just as 'interesting' as ours." He's hinting broadly, and figures Sam will pick up on what he's saying easily enough. "But they're scientists, Sam. Civilians. You shouldn't worry so much, even if it is your job."

At that point in the coversation, Yewie approaches, and Roberto decides to make one of his probably-doomed gestures toward attempting to socialize the boy. "That's great, Yewie, good work," he says, having not the slightest idea what any of it meant, then turns to Sam and introduces the two to each other. "This is Sam Guthrie -- he's touring the labs today. Sam, this is Yewie. He's here as a sort of research assistant; Xavier's isn't the only school we've tried to bring in students from."

Sam Guthrie turns his gaze on the kid in the oversized lab coat. He's part of a big family, and if Yewie is ignoring him because he assumes he'll be treated poorly, its definitely not the case. "Hey! You've even got yerself a kid prodigy! Are ya like Doogey?" And then he sticks out his hand and squints his eyes in a cheek-dimpling grin. "Errr...unless you need to keep that hand sterile, of course."

157 turns his head to look as Sam, regarding him expressionlessly. "Understood." He reaches out and takes Sam's hand, shaking it with precise rhythm. "Yewie believes Sam Guthrie refers to television show 'Doogie Howser, M.D.' Moderate applicability of reference. Yewie is young and operating at higher level of knowledge and skill than anticipated by adults. However, Yewie is not a doctor of any kind." The boy's expression never changes, and he speaks pretty much in monotone. And quite slowly. "Yewie is a student at the Academy of Tomorrow."

"Yewie is also very fond of the third person," Roberto interjects with a slight smile. He's about to say more, but the conversation is interrupted by Project Daybreak's receptionist, a smartly dressed young man with an efficient demeanor, who rushes over.

"Roberto, there's been a problem," he says gravely.

The Brazilian's head bobs back in surprise. "A problem? Is something broken, Simon?"

"I'm not sure," the receptionist answers. "It's Karen, one of the industrial engineers. She called me from the fabrication lab -- asking about someone who had been using the prototyping equipment and left a mess. Then there was a strange noise, and she was gone. I tried to call her back, but she wouldn't answer. I tried to check on her myself, but the security system wouldn't let me onto that floor." Simon pauses, looking torn, then leans closer and whispers, "I -- I don't want to alarm you, but I think I might have heard her scream."

Roberto looks over at Sam and Yewie. "Um. We seem to be having a problem," he says redundantly. "Could you excuse me for a second?" He starts off toward the elevator.

Sam Guthrie is surprised when Roberto suddenly excuses himself, cornflower blue eyes radiating protective concern, but if its a science matter...he sure as hell can't help. He does take his phone out of his pocket and waves it at the departing Roberto, calling, "If you need me, just call." Then after a lingering look, he turns back tot he odd Yewie and his 3rd person. "Having a little trouble with 'me' and 'I', huh? You should watch Star Trek...Next Generation. You'd like that, I think. I've got some brothers and sisters around your age, you know, kid? Can't keep them out of trouble for more than a week."

157 watches Roberto go, quietly. Security matters aren't his concern. However, he hasn't been allowed near the fabrication equipment, and this might be a good opportunity to have a look. "Yewie is not permitted to utilize 'me' and 'I' to refer to Yewie. Yewie is aware this deviates from expected communication style." He looks up at Sam. "Yewie is not knowledgeable in field of child discipline." And with that, he starts to walk quietly after Roberto.

The elevator doors are just opening when there's the unmistakable sound of an explosion from upstairs -- well, unmistakable to Roberto and Sam, at least, who are pretty experienced with that sort of thing. For their part, most of the researchers seem perplexed, pausing in their work to look up at the ceiling with curiosity or annoyance. Roberto himself pauses on the threshold of the elevator, turning back to look at Sam. "Um, on second thought... maybe having some backup is a good idea," he says, holding the elevator doors open and beckoning to Sam.

Simon, clearly flustered, is already in the elevator with 157, wringing his hands. "Oh, god, I hope Karen's okay..." he says anxiously.

Sam Guthrie jogs after Yewie and Roberto. "Hey...its either let me take the elevator up with you, or I'll make my own hole." He grins crookedly and then puts his glasses down on his nose. "That sounded like an expensive explosion to me." No further remark to Yewie about the failure to use pronouns.

157 is...rather familiar with explosions too, not that anyone would know that. "Notification: Yewie has studied facility layout and is capable of providing alternative means of transportation through facility if desired," he says, looking at Roberto. "Yewie will accompany Roberto to provide alternative transportation for tactical advantage or in case of failure of transportation technologies."

Roberto taps a button and the elevator rises a couple of floors quickly. When it reaches the fabrication lab, however, the doors blat at him harshly and refuse to open. Lip twisting, he taps an override into the controls, with no effect. "Puta merda," he hisses. There's some sort of commotion from the other side of the door. "Appreciate it, Yewie, but there's no time for alternative routes," Berto answers him. "Let's find out just how expensive that explosion was." His skin fades to absolute black, ringed by a golden glow, and ambient bubbles of dark energy start flowing off of him: a balrog in a business suit. He shoves his fingers into the crack between the elevator doors and drags them open to the screech of metal against metal, finally revealing the threat.

The Fab Lab has been invaded by a swarm of vicious robots. Each is basically a yellow cylinder about a foot and a half long and half a foot in diameter, with hatches all over it to extend various attachments. That seems to be the only unifying element in the design of the swarm. Some buzz through the air on rotors or rockets or jets; some roll around on treads or wheels, or leap about on cricketlike metal legs; some simply swivel in place like a turret; and one seems to get around exclusively by firing grapnel cables in the direction it wants to go. All, however, are weaponized in some way: cutting lasers, plasma emitters, nail guns, saw blades, and blow torches are just a few of the armaments on display.

Karen is crouched behind an overturned metal table, swatting at anything that gets too close with a length of pipe. It looks like she can only hold out against the onrushing legion for so long.

Sam Guthrie takes a look at the threat and the surrounding equipment, then glances at Roberto. "Sorry in advance, Berto." Its not exactly 'flame on', but he does become embroiled in orange and yellow around his legs and blasts into the room, headed for the girl, to take the heat off her by smashing into a few robots in proximity. He may also smash some scientific stuff along the way, but that can be replaced...Karen presumably cannot.

"Analysis: Facility under attack. Facility staff member 'Karen' endangered. Facility equipment damaged. Recommendation: Retrieve endangered personnel and remove from area. Eliminate attackers without complete destruction to allow study of design and attempt identification of source." 157 looks from point to point around the room, eyes scanning around rather like a security camera. When Sam blasts through some of the robots near her, the boy suddenly starts speaking incredibly rapidly--strange alien words, numbers, mathematics--and there's a flash and a sucking sound as a portal opens right next to Karen, the exit leading into the elevator next to Yewie. "Recommendation: Staff member 'Karen' should retreat at this time," he says, audible through the portal.

Simon collapses onto the floor of the elevator with a yelp. Berto can't help but wince at some of the stuff getting wrecked as Sam blasts into the room, but he can't argue with the logic: keeping his people safe is priority number one. To that end, his utter astonishment at Yewie's portal is cut with a healthy dose of relief. Getting her out of there was going to be dangerous as hell otherwise. "Good work, Yewie," he says over his shoulder, standing defensively in the doorway and blasting aside a scorpion-like bot that seemed to be looking in their direction. "Can you get them out of danger? I have some unwanted guests I need to kick out of my lab."

Karen, stunned, dives through the portal and lands practically on top of Simon. The bots careen away from her hiding place, their target lost, and fixate on Cannonball. Clearly, contact with him is deadly, so they start to play keep away, maximizing their range while blasting at him with any distance weapons they have. The short-range bots, equipped with saws and torches, turn to rush the open elevator.

Sam Guthrie has his hands full in the destruction of robots. From the spot where Karen was, he starts trying to pick them off one at a time, be it with a forcefield suddenly placed in front of one, or simply using kinetic force to smash one into a wall. Across from the others like he is, he can easily keep an eye on them if they are overwhelmed, but he's pretty confident in Berto...and the newly met Yewie appears to have a nice bag of tricks. No longer in constant motion, thre are times when the enemy weapons can get through to him, and he takes some damage, bleeding at his cheek and left side.

"Understood." A word from 157 once Karen is through, and the portal vanishes. Another quick bit of speech, and a larger portal opens in the path of the approaching saw-and-torch bots, occupying about half the hallway with an exit just behind itself, so that any that go through the portal would end up back where they came from. It's not so much a defense in and of itself as a way of narrowing their available path through the hall to give Roberto a "killzone" to use.

A moment later, the boy is speaking rapidly again. It takes a little longer this time, since he's going for more distance and doesn't have the exit area in sight, but it's still only a matter of seconds before another portal flashes into existence in the elevator. Through it, the floor they were on before is visible. "Staff members 'Karen' and 'Simon' may retreat further at this time."

Simon and Karen are shellshocked, but New Yorkers, and New Yorkers are as accustomed to dodging the fallout of superhero fights as anyone in the world. They don't argue or doubt, they just take advantage of the openings 157 makes for them to escape.

Some of the bots come at Sunspot with flamethrowers, just about the least effective weapon they could choose. They explode when dispatched, too, thanks to their onboard fuel reserves. He quickly uses this fact to his advantage, catching them, flinging them at the much more dangerous bladed bots, and blasting them with coronal force to destroy a large swath in the kill zone Yewie has established

Sam is going to find his targets scattering and dodging, using distraction and hit-and-run tactics to try to keep ahead of him. The bots fight with a hive mentality: those with needlers and nailguns that are totally ineffective against his shields rush at his face, sacrificing themselves as a distraction, while those with more effective armaments hang back or take cover, popping up for surprise attacks.

More worryingly, their numbers seem to be limitless. That is, until Roberto realizes something, and shouts it across the room to Sam: "The fabrication equipment! They're being mass produced right here, in the lab!" Indeed, more little yellow cylinders are rolling off of Roberto's own assembly line, coming to life, and joining the assault.

"Apologies to your equipment, Berto! And your pocketbook!" Cannonball lives up to his name, then, suddenly leaving off the fight against the individuals and then blasting forward to plow himself through the assembly line equipment. Little parts go flying everywhere. There goes a $400 valve. Oh look...$1000 worth of springs! AI computer chips skitter without robot bodies so that they can't live their little robot ai lives...like killing a nest full of eggs, really, except that the eggs grow up in about 30 seconds to become death-dealing yellow cylinders. He also takes out a Starbucks cup, a couple chairs and the only labcoat that would actually fit Yewie.

The noncombatants successfully evacuated, Yewie closes that portal and joins the battle such as he can. He's far less capable of destruction than the others...but he's great at redirection and confusion. He keeps up speaking at a rapid pace, and every few moments, portals open for seconds at varied points in the hall. One swallows a robot that was moving at high speed, and spits it back out right into another one, so that it cuts through with the sawblades. Another portal consumes a flamethrower burst, and spews it out at some of the attacker's allies to burn through their casings. He even catches a chunk of one of the chairs that Cannonball threw around, which falls out an exit portal into a new entrance portal and ends up looping, accelerating to terminal velocity before being sent out of a new portal to spike through a robot that's headed for 157 and Roberto.

Roberto actually has to squint his eyes shut, it so pains him to watch his beautiful fab lab smashed to pieces. But at least his frustration has an immediate and accessible outlet: the dozens of vicious yellow robots still tearing up the project he worked so hard to build. His aura goes scorching hot and blinding yellow as he starts blasting apart robots left and right, not even paying attention to how much he's draining his solar battery. Robots go soft-edged and melty, get blasted to pieces, or explode before the assault. He takes plenty of hits from the few functioning needlers smart enough to keep their distance, but barely even feels them. Thanks to the confusion sown by Yewie and Sam cutting them off at the source, their numbers reduce drastically before Berto finally runs out of juice. The remaining few rush Sam and the pair at the elevator in equal numbers: half a dozen each. Sam will be facing the latest models -- fliers armed with blade launchers and lasers -- and Yewie will have to deal with a few stragglers from the first wave -- jumpers armed with buzzsaws.

Evolution sucks when you are the victim of it. Sam is a little disoriented and totally surrounded in machine pieces, stopped so that he's more vulnerable. He lets out a cry when a few blades imbed in his leg, and he holds his hands out firing off blasts from them since the bots are too far off to smash. He also teaches Yewie a cool word, if he doesn't know it already. "Fuck!"

The great thing about robots that jump rather than fly is that it's really tough for them to change direction once they're in midair. Yewie keeps up his carefully-timed portal redirects, taking advantage of his opponents' movement style. A couple of the buzzsaw bots end up sawing eachother...a third is sent into some exposed wiring and overloads. A fourth gets looped, building up momentum towards terminal velocity. The fifth and sixth are getting close, though...without Roberto's blasts to help, they're approaching fast. And unfortunately the area outside the elevator has too many lasers and such going off for him to consider portaling out there. Using the lasers, though? Good idea. Number five gets a hole blasted in it when a portal redirects a laser attack headed for Sam...but number six gets too close. Speaking quickly, Yewie suddenly jumps, avoiding most of the attack but getting a light cut on his leg as the buzzsaw nicks him. He jumps so high he ends up at the elevator's roof, and is taking a while to come down. He doesn't have anything to use to stop the thing...but maybe Roberto can. Quickly, 157 opens a portal next to Roberto...through which is visible a nice-sized steel pipe that came apart in the melee. Just the right size for a little baseball or robot smashing.

Teetering on the edge of blacking out, Roberto jerks awake when he sees a portal open less that a foot away. He spies the pipe, grabs it, and smashes the aggressive little gadget with all the strength he has left.

Finally, but not without blood and pain, that's it for the bots. Utterly drained, Roberto is down on one knee and propped up on the pipe, staring at the last smashed bot. His suit is in tatters, both from enemy attacks and his own overenthusiastic heat wave. He's panting and bleeding, and he looks up at each of the others. "We have... a couple... of biologists," he says haltingly. "I think... it's time... they put that knowledge... to practical use."

Sam Guthrie actually has to wade out of the detritus and he sits down on a desk to eye the blade in his leg. "How about medical doctors." Sam forms one of those weird adrenaline-soaked laughs and then eyes Yewie and Roberto for their injuries. "You...both...all right?"

"Yewie has sustained minor damage," 157 replies as he finally lands, favoring his injured leg. "This will not impact Yewie's continued function." He looks about, carefully searching for any further threats. "Situation resolved," he finally announces. "Providing transportation for assistance." More of that rapid speech, and a portal opens near Roberto, leading back to the floor he sent Karen and Simon to and likely to a heck of a lot of shocked researchers. Limping through the portal himself, he announces, "Alert: Medical attention required for personnel injured during attack."

"Some of them are kinda medical. It'll do," Roberto answers Sam as they go through the portal. The conquering heroes return just next to Karen and Simon, at the center of a knot of perplexed scientists who immediately start peppering them with questions. "First aid!" Roberto barks over the hubbub.

The snapped order is such a contrast to his usual relaxed management style that the group immediately goes silent. After a moment of stunned stillness, one runs to the common area for first aid supplies. A couple of others lead the injured parties to the bio labs, which have beds for scanning and testing that will also do for this unexpected medical intervention.

Yewie's cut is cleaned and dressed in seconds. Sam is administered a gentle local anesthetic so that the blades can be extracted painlessly. His laser burns are salved, his other cuts patched up, and his bruises are ice-packed. Berto gets a very similar treatment, although he's also brought a change of clothes from his office: a pair of shorts he keeps on hand for sunbathing on his lunch break.

The entire process involves a lot more discussion and debate than a typical ER visit, as one might expect from theorists rather than practitioners, but the equipment and expertise on display is top notch. Once it's finally over, and Roberto has flopped in a sunny spot by the window, he turns to the others. "So...any idea what the hell that was?"

Sam Guthrie doesn't have a change of clothes. Once he's all bandaged up, he can walk around, though its tender to do it. "I'm no scientist but I'd bet that your employees went a little too far in making thinking robots. Its so crazy that I was just talking about watching star trek...and now I feel like I've been in an episode." he teases Berto with, "/Great tour/..."

157 allows the treatment, sitting quietly except when they start to retrieve some antibiotic ointment for his cut, at which point he notes that will not be necessary. He doesn't explain further. They likely put it on anyway, which he allows. Once the treatment is done, and Roberto asks his question, he looks over. "Analysis: Moderate to high probability event resulted from intentional sabotage of equipment with intent to disrupt project. Additional possibilities include targeting of specific personnel or distraction while accomplishing alternative goal, such as retrieval of data. Yewie is not familiar with design of robots encountered. However, design appeared advanced as compared to other technology of Earth origin."

Berto laughs at Sam's joke, going for a facepalm worthy of the Star Trek comparison. "Tell me about it. I'm a hell of a guide." But then he sits forward, elbows on his knees, and shakes his head. "I don't believe it was one of our people, though. We don't have a reason to build robots. Hell, we don't even have robotics engineers here -- it doesn't really fit with the kind of research we're doing." Yewie's clinical speculation seems to worry him, and he glances over at the young lab assistant. "Sabotage?" he asks, eyes wide with alarm. "You said something about a computer bug in the database earlier, didn't you? Could that have been evidence of tampering or hacking or something?"

"Who would want to hack all this? Its not as if you are building a weapon that someone could use. But...maybe you should see if any information about YOU was stolen. If your DNA is all over the place in the computer banks, someone might be able to use it to access your money." Sam points out, aware of people's greed, if not the scientific angle. He sits down near Berto and leans back against the wall. "I can report it to SHIELD."

"Moderate probability," 157 answers Roberto. "Low probability that database was target of hacking. However, database may have been inadvertently affected by hacking targeted at other parts of system if files were damaged or altered in process. Project systems are extremely complex, and unintended consequences can result during unauthorized access." A pause, and he turns to Sam. "Notification: While weapons development is not the purpose of Project Daybreak, high probability that, with alterations, research for Project Daybreak could be converted into weapons technology."

"Porra." Despite his exhaustion, Berto practically leaps out of his seat and runs to an intercom, leaning against the wall it's set into and punching in a number. "IT? This is Roberto. I need a network lockdown, now. No questions, just kill it. Then I need you to check the logs. See if anything unusual has been leaving the building."

The woman on the other end sounds startled, but doesn't question him, and in less than a minute, she's giving him the dreaded news: "I interrupted a massive encrypted datastream -- outbound. Looks like... well, everything. Anything we had on file, from newest to oldest. They got back a week or so before I cut it off."

Berto thanks her quietly, then leans forward to rest his forehead against the wall.

Sam Guthrie wets his lips and rubs his wounded cheek. "I really /should/ tell SHIELD about the breech...let them know what sort of tech upgrade they can expect from anyone we encounter." He pauses after saying that, looking at Yewie and then back to Roberto. "unless there's some reason not to." A comment to the robotic-speaking kid, "When you start a statement with 'notification', it makes you sound like an ass."

157 sits quietly during the conversation with IT, his input on that topic evidently complete. He looks to Sam as SHIELD is mentioned again, but remains silent until addressed. "Yewie is attempting to adapt to normal conversation style. However, Yewie sometimes returns to former conversation style when addressing tactical situations or providing analysis. Yewie apologizes if this causes disturbance."

"That ass just saved our asses," Roberto reminds Sam, still leaning against the wall. "You should cut him some slack." He pauses and stands up straight again. "Yeah, let SHIELD know. It's mostly theoretical at this point, fortunately, but they'll probably have data on everything about my powers, and a lot of our long-term plans. But also..." He trails off, then calls up IT again. "You said that data stream was encrypted, right?" he asks. "If that's a dual-key encryption, can we use the info we have about their key to maybe track them? Learn about where that data went?"

The network admin seems cautious, and a bit perplexed. "It's theoretically possible, but you'd need some kind of geniuses with insane monitoring coverage to pull it off."

Berto turns and grins at Sam. "Actually, I might know just the guys..."

Sam Guthrie arches his blond brows. "Hey," he holds up both hands, "I wasn't bring critical or calling him anything. I was telling him how that comes off." He stands up. "If you mean you want SHIELD to track this data, you probably ought to come in with your team. I know I'll get it wrong if I try to relay technological information. Its not why they hired me." They hired him to destroy stuff...which is what he's good at. "I'm not even sure I'm allowed in the computer bank room. There's a couple of places that are off-limits to me...for...reasons." He rubs the back of his neck.

157 raises a hand, as though he were in school. "Yewie requests that Yewie not be included in reports to SHIELD. Yewie does not wish to be interrogated or held as witness. Yewie has no further useful information regarding events which could not be provided by Roberto or by Information Technology staff." Aaaaand at least one SHIELD agent kind of might be investigating him as a potential alien threat or something like that, but he doesn't mention that part.

Berto has moved back over into the sunlight, leaning back against the window frame. "Sorry, Sam," Berto says, sincerely. "I'm on edge. I didn't mean to snap at ya." He stretches his shoulders, basking in the restorative rays, then gives Yewie an inquisitive look. "Seriously? Because when I get an invitation to the helicarrier, I know what MY answer is." He grins, battered and exhausted, over at Sam. "Name the time, name the place. I'll bring the data, you bring the transportation. Pai may own some private jets, but he doesn't own any private jet fighters."

He smiles and sits back, then turns to raise his eyebrows at Yewie. "I'm not gonna sell you out, menino, believe me -- I know what it's like to keep secrets -- but remind me sometime when I'm not just this side of unconsciousness to ask you about those portals of yours. But for now, I'm gonna go up on the roof and pass out in the sun until I feel like I'm alive again."