[IC] The Call to Infinity

Switchblade looks around the locker room with an evaluating expression. "Quite a mess," he remarks as he steps over a small heap of discarded papers flowing out of one of the abandoned lockers above. "Wonder if this is all that remains from the times this plant was in operation, or if it changed hands recently. Maybe both?" The cyborg sighs and nods to Ulysses: "You take the right, I take the left, let's search for any names of note?"

"Damn-it!" Ava hisses. "We better get the others and get out of here with that shrieking lunatic warning everyone within twenty miles. Might as well let the other one go."

"Oh hell. They're onto us," Ava says when she spots the security guards. "Three of them. What do we do, Dell? We can't leave the others and we can't stay here. I don't think killing is the answer either."

"Ok, but not go far. We are already thin.", Ulysses says and goes to check his side.

"Ah, good, security." calls out Dell, rising and pulling the other kid up by the arm. "These individuals have vandalized our vehicle. They should be reported to the proper authorities."

With his other hand, he triggers the Speed E.'s automatic starter.

More quietly, just above the roar of the engine, he tells Ava. "If we want to make a break and circle back later, we probably have to do it before they get any closer."

Ava plays along with Dell's quick thinking. "This is why I am a research scientist and not a .... Quickly easing into the ruse, Ava plays her part.

"Yes, officers, these rapscallions need to be arrested right away!"

Switchblade looks up at the duo of newcomers and offers them an easy smile: "Something like that. We were looking around, judging the abundance of curious debris, and I got derailed a little by a familiar name," he nods towards the potential locker of their target. "I used to work with the guy of the same surname a few years back, wondered if it's the same one. Do you know him by chance? DeVie?"

He steps closer to Tucker and his ISOmorph companion. "The one I knew owes me a few hundred reál for some tech repairs - would be quite ironic if that's how I catch up with him." Switchblade clicks his tongue and rakes a hand through his hair. "You help the guy to fix his car, and he bails on you without paying., can you believe it? Some people have no class whatsoever. Although admittedly, at least he had a sense of style." He pauses, then demonstratively looks over Tucker. "..As do you! Hazard suits are hardly the height of fashion, but you two pull them off well. Love the visor, by the way - is it infrared?"

Ava knows that they are likely to be ID'd now and is happy for the temporary distraction of the whining kid. While Ava slowly makes the motion of withdrawing her ID, she glances at Dell as if to say, we've got make our move now whether it's a bribe or violence!

She wasn't thrilled with the odds especially since these sec guys had weapons drawn already but what resources did they have to pay off these goons?

"Let's just cool it for now, put down your weapons and we can talk," Ava says nicely as she tries to buy them time.

"Hansy? As in Hans? I'll be damned, it is him then." Switchblade chuckles and shakes his head. "World is smaller than one would think. Is he around? Might as well reminisce about old days over a cup of probably dust-contaminated tea, or whatever is the local drink of choice. I'd appreciate it you point me in the direction where I can find him after work. I'll even promise not to mention you, if you'd like!"

He watches with genuine curiosity when Calli flexes their arms, his interest in engineering briefly eclipsing the nature of their mission as Switchblade lets the conversation derail. With enthusiasm, too. "Impressive partnership you have here! And as for my augments, these accumulated over the years; used to be a cybernetics engineer back in the day, and old habits are hard to break. Especially when they are literally your limbs now!" He grins and wiggles his mechanical fingers. "Nowadays I just work whatever jobs are available, really - being mostly metal gives a lot of advantages in searching for contracts. Building, engineering... even bounty hunting and scavenging, sometimes."

Ulysses is staying silent. His patience is running thin but he knows that there is nothing he can do, especially with that large ISO. "Damn I wish I had my mech!" he thinks. He goes next to Switchblade and tries to show relaxed.

Having removed his bulk from the child, Dell releases his hold on the kid's arm and steps back, palms raised toward the weapon trained on him.

He regrets not following his instinct and driving away immediately, but he hadn't wanted to abandon the others inside the complex.

"The registration is in the glove box if you wish me to retrieve it. I've unlocked the vehicle if you wish to do so yourselves. Careful of the fallen glass caused by their breaking and entering. "

"Control, you say? Much appreciated!" Switchblade grins and makes finger guns at Tesker. "We should grab a coffee later, talk an engineer to an engineer, commiserate about overqualification and component shortage. Been a while since anyone's been willing to listen to me blather on about cybernetics!" He lightly slaps Ulysses's shoulder, projecting "we're work buddies and I love annoying him" energy. "But for now, don't let me interrupt your break, gotta go find the boss before we earn ourselves a lecture. And grab some stuff from the outside... See you two later!" He cheerfully waves at Tesker, nods at Calli and turns to leave.

Provided no one interrupts their retreat, once Ulysses and Switchblade are out of the earshot and the field of view, the cyborg leans to whisper to his companion: "Should we risk it and try to find him? We have the confirmation that Hans is here, meeting him right now might be stretching our luck. We can probably just retreat. Although... can't say I'm completely against hitting the metal while it's hot."

"I agree, we should search for him. This is probably the best lead we have.", Ulysses says and starts walking at a quick pace.

Switchblade nods and follows along, keeping an eye on the corridors they pass, to hopefully avoid running into any more employees. "We should be careful not to spook him," he notes while they make their way back to the crossroads. "Make it clear that we aren't the Leviath enforcers trying to track him down. Any ideas on how to do that?" Switchblade's eyes blink. "I can pretend to be a worker, but I doubt I can convince someone cautious that I am a revolutionary."

"Ah well, it's ... uh ... in the van." Ava was going to put off showing any ID for as long as possible. She was also surreptitiously keeping an eye on Dell to see what was happening there.

Ugh, this just keeps going from bad to worse. The vagrants seem to be working for the guards, who may be on the lookout for the doctor if they're somehow associated with the Legion, and there are now too many guns trained on them for him to just grab her and escape safely.

Dell's ISO unit was not really designed with deception in mind regardless of his work for the rebellion, and he did not see a clear route to defusing this situation that will not put the doctor in further danger. He feels quite certain he is about to make matters worse regardless of what he says; but he decides to start spewing some type of nonsense in an attempt to at least keep a conversation going while he watches for a moment when the guards' weapons are lowered or not trained on the two of them.

"At the beginning? Of what precisely? I delivered the engineer to this facility per my instructions," he motions towards Ava. "But she seemed uncertain where to report. I was also unaware as I thought this plant was no longer in service and this information had not been detailed in my work order."

The ISO pauses and some portion of his hardware emits a hiss of steam; often times normal humans do not fully understand the way ISO's think or operate and perhaps he can lean into his 'programming' as an excuse for his ignorance or lack of quick submission. He figures casting doubt as to Ava's identity is better than admitting her name if it has already been flagged by the Legion's system. Probably an error, but too late to go back now.

"I offered to drive her around to locate the proper entrance, but I gather she did not want to make a bad first impression by appearing lost--so I pulled over and we stepped from the vehicle to survey which buildings were in use. Fortunately, I followed standard procedure and applied a full lock down when exiting."

He stabs an accusing finger at the two ruffians, watching to see if this shifts the guards' attention.

"We had walked perhaps a few dozen steps when those two began attempting to smash their way into my vehicle. I protected it as required by my programming. I will be happy to make a statement to this effect to the proper authorities."

Ava tries to catch Dell's eye as if to say it's now or never. The now or never meaning what, she wasn't sure. She'd follow Dell's lead whether it was to rush the van or run away, using the distraction to buy a small amount of time, for she had no weapons.