RATtrap

[in_extremis]

WHO: Tony and Cal
WHERE: The Agrii ship and the Mainframe
WHAT: ReBoot. You guys know ReBoot? 🍁
WHEN: March, after the AI message
WARNINGS: Extra fake violence?


Returning to the ship had not been part of the plan. The plan, however, had not factored in the sheer amount of activity back in the city, so keeping his distance had become more relative. It still made Tony anxious to pass by the Glitter Food, then disembark on the Agrii ship in a slow saunter that might have come across as a swagger as he took his time assessing who was in the hangar and how to best get by without being engaged. Compared to the hangar back in Temba, it was downright peaceful, without so many little bots learning their basic programming and plants chattering anxiously. Tony could push his sunglasses back up his nose and heft D.A.T.A. against his chest, patting the side of his shell restlessly. Maybe it wasn't so bad. The trip had given him a few more hours before he had to say goodbye to the little nuisance.

It was only when he was close to the engineering bay that he sent Cal the text, brief and to the point. I'm here. Going to try the astromech. The timing was meant to reduce how likely he was to be seen around anyone else, but it didn't account for the cluster of Agrii around Enide's casing, slowing Tony's approach cautiously. They did seem excited to see him when they noticed, but it was Enide who greeted him, causing the Agrii to scatter and leave Tony considering the tools left for him. While Enide explained that she intended to go into stasis and these gloves and helmets were to interface with her in that state, Tony set D.A.T.A. down on the console to extend his spidery legs and wander a familiar ginger, tapping rhythm along the metal, leaving Tony's hands free to examine the new interface curiously.

"I kind of brought what I hoped was a workaround..." he ultimately said to the AI, thought he hadn't put the strange headgear down yet. A workaround wasn't actually as effective as eliminating the problem. Even if it meant putting his trust in untested devices and dampening his senses. And connecting to her network via Extremis only had him bouncing off of those same bugs. D.A.T.A. came tip-tapping back toward him, peering up at him with that big, guileless camera eye that said the bot knew exactly who Tony was. He didn't need Tony to mutter, "See if you can find a place to plug in," to keep him busy while Tony brought the helmet up.

Comments

[in_extremis]

"Somewhere else," Tony echoed, and had to ignore the siege of bugs scrambling wherever they could get purchase to quickly look around, trying to spot the most viable route for else between the glow of their eyes and the darting lights under the floor. He wasn't given much of a chance, several scorching bodies pressing up his hips and his back in the second he took to make his assessment, making his armor feel like a furnace until he could twist around and wrench them from his spine.

[out_of_order]

Suddenly Cal was there, wading through the things, hand swiping at the remaining ones that had attached themselves to Tony. He hurled them at the wall, drawing in a sharp breath at the heat.

"I can't use the Force in here- but... if this is a program then can't we... code something to help us?" He wasn't sure how that would work when they were plugged though, but then Tony did things without physical interfaces, didn't he?

[in_extremis]

"Is that not what we're doing right now?" Tony had to ask as his shoulders sagged with relief, head bowed slightly in thanks for freeing him from that torture. The furrows where claws had dragged across his armor were already smoothing over, back to perfect polish, but the heat was harder to recover from, lingering where all of his skin felt like it was sticking to the metal, swollen and sweating. "If I could handle this with a keyboard and a hot cup of coffee, trust me, I know which one I'd pick now, the one that doesn't involve murder cockroaches." He was looking around again, though, considering the proposal despite the arguing. If he was trying to hack is way to the problem, he'd have a code scanning the whole structure, looking for where it was hiding. "We could use a map," he mumbled.

[out_of_order]

"Not...really? Well I guess, we kind of are, but does that make us part of the code, or able to manipulate code? We were given this specific gear and weapons and were dumped in some very specific rendition of the program itself, but are we limited to that?"

Cal stayed near Tony, trying to keep the crawly critters off of them.

"Do we have access to a command menu or something? Or some other inventory other than a couple of weapons?" Or maybe asked the constantly swooning guy who was somewhere upstairs.

[in_extremis]

By the eighteenth question, Tony appeared to have forgotten about the bugs, or at least trusted Cal with them so he could watch Cal curiously, jaw tight. He had been so ready to trust that Cal could take care of himself, after his stories of adventuring on his own--happy to let him risk his neck in the woods. He was half way through composing a text to the Soldier, then to Gladio, before giving up on them both, sure there had to be a better way to ask them to keep a closer eye on the kid without them taking it personally, but it wasn't coming to him under these circumstances. Jon would have understood what he meant. Out loud, he was muttering, "Yeah, sure, let me--I'll figure that out," and casting around, finally remembering the bugs enough to kick some of them aside and reveal more of the floor for assessment. Maybe the gun worked both ways. He aimed down at the darting lights, and fired his mystery shot.

[out_of_order]

Cal could take care of himself very well in the real world, but this wasn't. It was something created and most of the threats were only visibly and audibly present, the scenery but programmed barriers. They lacked substance other than the slight stimulation of touch whenever he grabbed something or struck it with a blade that he could feel no weight of. It wasn't just feeling like he was Force-blind, it was like only half of his senses were operational. He wasn't used to purely operating by sight in such instances, not when he'd been taught to rely on so much more.

This seemed more like Tony's domain. He was the one who knew machines and computers inside and out. Cal thought he'd know what they were doing, how they were dealing with this bug problem. That it looked like they were expected to physically deal with them was a bit baffling to him, and while they were in a virtual realm, he was still thinking very much in terms of real world properties and the limitations of a metal blade as opposed to a lightsaber.

At least it was somewhat effective in that it could cleave through bugs, but it was hardly efficient when there were literal hordes of them. Cal kept swinging, trying to keep their space clear. Tony's words weren't exactly reassuring, but if nothing else, the Jedi knew him to be a man of his word. Which was why he didn't question him when he saw the flash of the gun as he fired again.

[in_extremis]

A moment later, despite the bugs, Tony was dropping to his knees, letting them heave up around his face as he plunged an arm into the ground. When he jerked himself back, there were perfect, angular strips torn from his cheeks, red and glowing, clean without blood sheeting down his chin like they had been cauterized. He drew his fist out of the opened floor, raised like he might bring it down on the bug that had scarred him, only for it to suddenly disappear. All of them did, along with their glow, and the darts of light running through the floor. Everything turned off, leaving Tony in the dark again to sigh, a sound followed by a clatter as he dropped the plug back down where he found it, slithering loose across the wiring that kept the fort running. "Done, easy," he declared.

[out_of_order]

There were simply far too many to push away, and it was difficult enough trying to keep from attempting to use the Force to do so, not when the damage he might cause would be to the computer systems they were actually sitting at.

Cal blinked as suddenly, the bugs all vanished. He looked around and back at Tony, wincing at the damage that had been left in their wake.

"You good?" he asked as he stooped beside him, carefully cupping a hand around the side of his face.

[in_extremis]

It was difficult to tell what was real, which feelings were actually in his body and which he had been hypnotized into, and still Tony readily replied, "Always," in a breath. It was just as automatic for him to lean into Cal's gesture before he was taking Cal's wrist to hold instead as he relaxed back on his heels and considered the quiet of the room, accepting that they weren't in the middle of an infestation anymore. A tentative, cool glow started to swim up the distant wall.

[out_of_order]

Cal smiled crookedly at that. It was as much of a reassurance as any. He gave Tony a light pat, not bothering to pull away in case the other still needed the support.

He lifted his head, glancing over his shoulder at the light he caught out of the corner of his eye.

"I think that's a good sign..."

[in_extremis]

Tony considered the light for a beat, then let the gun clatter to the floor so he could reach up, running both hands over his hair, where he abruptly froze in place.

It took him a few blinks, and a fumbling swiping with the clumsy gloves to fix his matted down hair, to adjust to the normal, low lighting of the belly under the engineering bay, quiet yet without the whir of the AI's processors. D.A.T.A. was still where Tony had last seen him, wiggling slightly to show off his upgrades, and he only paused his display to stare owlishly back at Tony. "Have you been doing that this whole time?" Tony demanded.

[out_of_order]

"...Tony?"

Ah. Cal retracted his hand after he'd waved it around in front of the man's face, slowly standing to have one more look around before he followed his example, sheathing the ridiculous sword before raising his own hands to his head...

BD-1 perked as Tony removed the helmet, looking away from D.A.T.A. to borble something of a 'welcome back?' before he glanced expectantly towards Cal.

The Jedi looked around blearily once he'd pulled his own headgear off, pausing before he could rub at his eyes with awkward gloves to tug them off, one after the other.

"Good to see you again, buddy. -yeah, I know we were right here. ...no, I don't need you to tell us how strange we were acting."