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→ 003 | action | OTA

WHO: Sameen Shaw and OPEN
WHERE: Around Temba
WHAT: Memoriiiiiiiiiies
WHEN: Throughout the energy storm
WARNINGS: Imagery of death, gunshots

Shaw is incredibly prone to stir-craziness and quite sensitive to feeling like she's spinning her wheels, so hunkering down for the duration of the storms was never going to be an option for her - especially not when they're intermittent, random, unpredictable. What is she supposed to do, just stay inside for days or even weeks on end? No thanks.

But this is her first energy storm, and even as a big believer in forewarned being forearmed, it's still a lot. The first time she sees a vision of someone from home, she does a double-take, and nearly calls out to them. She wants to call out to them, desperately, but the reminder that this might not really be them is a powerful one, and it holds her back - but just barely, and only to a point.

A: the time a teammate sacrificed himself for Shaw

The man she's trailing stops suddenly, and bends over a table with an open laptop that's materialized right there on the street. The imagery of it pings something deep in her hindbrain, and she quickens her pace.

"Cole--"

"Shaw!" he shouts, urgent and frightened, as he leaps for her and tackles her to the ground amid a hail of invisible gunfire that comes from nowhere.

B: the time Shaw sacrificed herself for her teammates

The group of four rushes down the hallway together, two of the men carrying the third in between them, propelling him along as best they can despite the fact that he's badly injured and dead weight. Without the rest of the setting around them, the freight elevator they're headed for looks like a freestanding box in the middle of the street - a metal cage that they're about to trap themselves in.

"Will they get out?" she asks urgently, talking to herself as much as whoever is standing nearby. "I don't know if they can get out without me. I need to help them again, right?"

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"Are...?" Donnie prompts, already not liking that something else has happened and it's enough to railroad Shaw off her thoughts.

It doesn't take him long to look for himself and see what she sees, and while he doesn't know what it stands for or what will happen, he knows that it's still something connected to her some way, it has to be.

"Oh no. Uh... uh, we...don't have to go that way, right? We can just- Shaw?" It'll be fine, she walked away from the last one, she can still walk away from this.

"Yeah. But--"

This isn't real, this definitely isn't real, there's no way that whatever happens here will have any affect on things that have already long since happened, and yet--

"What'll happen if we don't go that way? Will it still happen?"

"I...don't know," Donnie admits, as much as he hates giving that response. "But even if it happens, it's not like it'll make a difference, right? Ultimately it's just trying to get under your skin and it can't do that if you aren't there to let it. Maybe it just...stops?"

"When Cole died, I couldn't save him," she says - not heading for the elevator, but not walking away from it, either. "But this time, when this happened-- I think I need to go to this one."

Just to make sure.

Edited 2024-06-13 01:53 (UTC)

Donnie looks at her, concerned. He swallows, but nods and takes a step beside her.

"Well, if you're that set on it..." He's not letting her go alone.

"There's gonna be more guns," she warns him, as she starts forward at a half-jog. From the opposite side of the street, four people materialize, also heading for the elevator at a quicker, more frantic pace. The tallest of the three men, clearly injured, is being half-carried by the other two.

Edited 2024-06-13 02:22 (UTC)

"Is it bad that I kind of figured that possibility?"

Nevertheless, Donnie is right behind her once Shaw begins to head forward. The situation doesn't look promising once the figures begin to appear.

"I'm out of ammo, Shaw," says the woman, and this time, in this memory, she looks directly at Shaw. Even though Shaw is rushing over to-- do something, either intervene or witness, she isn't sure yet - this is still a surprise, and she freezes for a moment.

"Root," she says, urgently. "Harold. You're not going to be able to start the elevator from the inside, so you need to--"

"We need to go!" warns the man in glasses, still helping to drag along the injured man. "We might not get another chance."

This is so freaky. Donnie wishes that his goggles would work, because then he'd be able tell so much easier the things that aren't really there. Even knowing what he was walking into a moment ago, this is all so very real and he'd be hard-pressed to say they weren't actually here.

The rain seems to have faded again, the city itself seeming to have melted into this bubble of a memory. Donnie stills, looking at the other humans, looking to his friend.

"Shaw...?"

"Gunshots are going to come from that way," Shaw says distractedly to Donnie, pointing down the city street to the left of the freight elevator. "Take cover."

And even though she isn't fully playing along - she's not saying all the right lines, or doing everything in the exact same way she'd done in real life - she's apparently doing it well enough for the memory to flow properly, because no other Shaw appears out of the ether. She's reaching for the grated door, ready to pull it down with the four other people inside, when the woman suddenly shoots a hand out and grabs onto her wrist.

"Sameen, if you even think I'm going to let you--"

Shaw tries to tug herself free, but the woman only tightens her grip, and they're locked in a little stalemate that's somehow even more annoying now than it had been in real life, because goddammit, why can't Root just let her do her job--

Shaw is a stellar compartmentalizer. The vast majority of her attention truly is focused on nothing but the mission right now. But there's still a small, out-of-the-way part of her brain that's immeasurably relieved for the chance to see Root again -to see them all again, even if it is in a vision. And that part of her isn't sorry at all when the rest of her decides to just do the same damn thing now that she'd done back then.

She grabs the other woman roughly by the shoulders, yanking her down into a fast, desperate kiss. Then, when she feels the grip on her wrist loosen, she shoves the woman backwards into the elevator, slams the door grate down, and spins back across the street, where the override button she's looking for is set into the wall of a crumbling building. "Stay down!" she shouts at Donnie as she smashes her palm into the button, freeing up the elevator controls and allowing her team to rise up to safety. "They're about to show up and start shooting, so stay behind me!"

But they're not real, Donnie wants to say, even as he looks warily in the direction that Shaw had indicated, because he isn't sure that imaginary bullets won't hurt. That flashbang had been bad enough, after all...

For all that Shaw tells Donnie to take cover, he isn't quite sure where. As much as he wants to pull his tech-bō out he doubts it'll do anything, well, except for maybe make him feel a little better just to be armed.

He looks back towards the main part of the scene instead, to Shaw and her associates, the desperation of the situation not lost on him. He can tell what Shaw means to do and memory or not, it makes him anxious for whatever may come next. The kiss isn't what he expects however, making him flush slightly as he turns away, something else he maybe wasn't supposed to witness But then technically that would be all of this, wouldn't it?

Shaw's shout yanks him to attention again, and he scrambles behind her, looking as the elevator moves into some impossible space that doesn't exist.

"Who's supposed to be coming?" And how is Shaw intending to fight back without a weapon? It's not real, it's just...it's a scene, the players are in motion...

Edited 2024-06-13 05:05 (UTC)

Based on their experience with the last living memory, Shaw is roughly ninety-eight percent sure that the bullets aren't going to hurt them, but she's taking no chances. She's been shot countless times before, including at this very moment, and she knows she can take it; Donnie, though, she's not so sure of, so she's careful to keep him behind her as well as she can. It's not easy, with her small size and his bulky shell, but goddamn if she's not going to try.

The woman in the elevator grips the metal chains of the grate, watching in horror as a blond woman materializes about fifty feet away from Shaw and Donnie, lifting her gun to fire. Sure enough, the bullets come for them, but they don't hit: Shaw just watches impassively as the woman stalks towards them, shooting all the way. She hears Root scream and wail for her from the elevator, clawing at the grating as it rises - and this time, unlike in reality, Shaw actually turns to look. In real life, she'd been so focused on fighting for her life and protecting them that she'd blocked everything else out, narrowing her own world to nothing but her own body and the oncoming threat in front of her - but now she sees the way Finch and Fusco grab Root's hands and gently pry her away from the door, leaving the wounded Reese alone for a moment so that they can support Root as she sinks to the elevator floor in grief, collapsing into sobs as they rise out of sight.

They're all acting like she'd taken the bullets, the way she had in real life. But she stands untouched and unharmed, guarding Donnie from an imaginary threat, until the gunwoman coming for them blips out of existence and both the override button and the now-empty elevator shaft turn back into blank walls of abandoned buildings.

I'm sorry, she says in her head. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

Out loud, she says, "We should go find your brother."

It's not real... But it's based off of something real, this is something that's happened, and it's terrifying enough seeing someone come at you with such intent.

As the shots fire, Donnie can't help but flinch in preparation. For all the threats he and his brothers have experienced, guns had never been one of them. If this was real, how would he be able to protect anyone?

He looks back at the elevator, at Shaw's comrades who can do nothing but watch and do their best for each other. He doesn't know these people, but it prompts an unsettling feeling in his gut again as he watches their reactions, the desperation, the helplessness...

The slight coolness of the rain returns, reminding them of where they've been the whole time, even though Donnie had known it at the back of his mind. He can't help but look shaken, still staring at a wall where an elevator had been.

"...yeah," he says quietly, prying his eyes away to look back towards the roads.

Watching Cole die had sucked, but had been manageable. Even being tossed back into the memory of finding out about Root's death, nearly a year after that day at the elevator, would have been manageable. They're events that she remembers clearly and in full, and no part of them would have been a surprise. But now she's seen the pain and terror and helplessness on Root's face as the elevator took her to safety and forced her to leave Shaw behind, and that had been new, and she isn't sure what to do with that.

She walks hunched over, withdrawn and coiled into herself, scanning the street ahead with dead eyes. Sorry, Donnie - she's going to be an even worse conversationalist than usual right now.

Normally Donnie's better at dealing with silence than Leo is, but in such an instance he can understand what he's inadvertently put his twin through during the times he's been so unsettled or distracted by something. That just makes him feel worse, knowing how much Leo loves to talk. Donnie can be pretty chatty himself, but he appreciates quiet.

Now... Now isn't quite one of those times, the quiet a tense one, and he doesn't feel any better when he looks at Shaw. Her posture is a familiar one, and he only feels worse for not knowing how to make it better. He's not good at this, but he knows even the smallest of gestures sometimes helps, or at least it has with his little brother.

The hand he rests lightly on Shaw's shoulder is a simple thing, hesitant at first, but if she doesn't jump, he sets it there for a moment, offering a little squeeze. Donnie has no words but at least he can remind her that he's still there, whatever that counts for.

"Being alone is weird now," Shaw says, her shoulder still under Donnie's hand. It's the best explanation she can think of to give. "I'm still really good at it - better than I am at being with people. But now I like it less."

And she'd cut open her own skin for a chance to feel the warmth of Root's arm next to hers as they sat on a couch together, or hear Reese and Finch talking in another room, or have Cole's voice waiting for her on the other end of a radio.

"Anyway. Sorry about all the guns."

"Definitely less entertaining," he says with a nod. He can't do alone, being alone was always weird, like he had missing limbs or something, not having his brothers somewhere nearby. If he wanted to be alone back home then all he had to do was lock himself in his lab, but the people he cared about were never far. Being here was certainly an experience, and at least now he has one brother around.

"It's... Don't worry about it. The guns weren't necessarily the bad part anyway." Well, bad to be on the other end of but he hadn't been the one they were intending to target. There are questions there, but for once Donnie doesn't ask.

The rain becomes a steady drizzle although the low rumble of thunder above doesn't sound promising. The brief flash from above gleams off of something purple hovering around the road ahead of them and Donnie's steps slow once he notices it. "What's ...SHELLDON?"

The little flying...well, it looks like a head of sorts, given it just has a stationary set of eyes and a face, ceases its zipping around to turn towards them, expectantly. "...but...that's his initial model, back when I designed him to be our Smart Lair AI..."

"Looks like I'm not the only one this is happening to," she says, pulled immediately out of her haze by something to focus on. "Okay, think; would a memory related to this AI be a good thing or a bad thing?"

Donnie grimaces, the answer already slightly evident for that response alone.

"Not...great?" he admits. "I mean...I can't be sure. He worked completely fine before my brothers tampered with his programming!"

The little drone circled in place, its default expression making it seem particularly taunting. Were memories always going to be awful? Donnie doesn't have a good baseline from the ones he'd seen, and the ones from Calibrations hadn't been any better. He has mixed feelings seeing this version of SHELLDON, both an accomplishment and...well, okay, yes, a learning experience.

He starts to step towards the little thing.

"Is it going to try to attack us? Can I destroy it?"

She makes sure that her posture stays purely defensive rather than immediately offensive, but she still steps forward with Donnie, ready to jump to his defense if necessary.

"Considering what happened the last time he was like this? The likelihood of hostility is high," Donnie says, his face grim.

The surroundings suddenly shift as they get closer to the little drone, the area suddenly enclosed, a large, circular space that stretches high above, showing at least two levels of tunnel openings to what appear to be rooms. Grating lines the sides of the room, water flowing beneath it. Well, Donnie had mentioned they lived in the sewers, hadn't he? One wouldn't guess it at a first glance, homey as it's been made.

SHELLDON looms above them suddenly, a ragged purple bandanna tied around his head, and Shaw will find she's not in the presence of simply one or even two turtles, but four.

"You can't be our fourth brother!" the smallest, orange-coded turtle shouts as he glares at the drone.

"Beg to differ with you bros! Like it or not, I'm in, Donnie's out!"

Donnie seems to have forgotten Shaw's presence, taking a defensive stance alongside his brothers.

It's a bigger environmental change than anything Shaw's memories had given them, and she looks around with suspicion - noting that he hadn't told her she couldn't destroy the flying robot, but also (somewhat regretfully) telling herself that that's something she should probably wait for a definitive yes on.

Unless it attacks first, of course. Then, all bets are off, and that's looking more and more likely by the second.

"Are we going to fight it now?" she asks, taking up position with the turtle kids. "Donnie?"

At the moment Donnie seems too engaged in the scene as he glares back at their biggest brother, a six-foot tall turtle with a spiky shell and a build that just screams brawler.

"Just admit it Donnie, you made him favor you over us!"

"You made him try to vaporize me!" Donnie retorts, but their bickering's abruptly interrupted by SHELLDON. "Enough whining, Donnie!" he sighs, rolling his robo-eyes as he starts extending a myriad of robotic appendages and tools at them, going on the offensive.

It's a lot different than bullets, and there's an impossible amount that pops out the walls. Just how many things did Donnie connect this AI to?

At least the boys are clearly well-versed in punching as they jump right into it, easily shattering metal arms and implements into pieces.

As strong as she is, Shaw knows that snapping metal in half is far outside of her skillset, so she's just going to have to settle for for dodging - and, luckily, she's very good at that. She's definitely going to try to wrench one of the arms out of the wall once she gets close enough to its socket, though.

"Donnie!" she calls out over the chaos, wanting to try to keep him at least somewhat grounded in reality rather than letting him fully lose himself to the memory. "Doing okay?"

Edited 2024-06-14 20:58 (UTC)

"Awesome! This is like a fun game of tag except with punches!" SHELLDON says all too cheerfully for the situation.

Technically it shouldn't have been possible, but with Shaw letting herself get into the memory it seems to allow for some tangibility. One less metal appendage to worry about. Maybe.

Donnie jolts at the sound of his name, the script not following with what he remembers, and he looks over at her, confused for a moment as his brain tries to reconnect.

"Shaw..?"

He yelps as more mechanical limbs pop out of the floor, grabbing a hold of him to pull him back against a metal slab. His brothers meanwhile are all likewise restrained against the walls while a disconcertingly huge saw bears down upon Donnie.

"Time to snip a branch off the family tree!" the AI says menacingly.

→ 003 | action | OTA

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