Machina

Participants:

skyler_icon.gif warren_icon.gif

Scene Title Machina
Synopsis Warren intercepts Skyler to bring her back to Shalegate and away from the violence of November 8th, officially initiating his plans to repair a city that needs it more than ever.
Date November 8 2010

Roosevelt


Skyler isn't panicing. She's surprisingly calm. Of course, she's giving full rein to her paranoia. It really is that bad, and it's getting worse. She's packed her stuff, zipped everything including her new clothes into a tattered gym bag, along with her web gear, and she's ready to move out. She pauses at the desk, where nobody is presently standing. The eyes flicker behind the sunglasses, and she reaches into the digital guts of the phone. Leaves a message. Tells the phone to call every phone number it knows, deliver the message, then hang up. The message: "This is the White Rabbit. If you are Evolved, you are in danger. Flee to safety while you can." The voice: synthesized. The phone gets to work, and it's time to go. Sky looks around, scanning out into the street.

The sound of a rumbling muscle car is heard outside of the Suresh Center, Warren's red 1969 Cobra Jet Mach 1 screeching to a halt, and he quickly steps out to rush for the doors of the facility. He's in a black suit, jacket open, tie blowing around in the breeze as god knows what's about to go down. He knows they won't be able to stop it everywhere, but he has no idea just how bad it's going to get.

"Skyler Martin." he says in a somewhat official tone, taking out his registration card instead of an ID. Warren Ray, Tier-0, Mechanical Intuition. "My name is Warren Ray. I intended to recruit and hire you to a cause that would involve repairing the city. I think the city will need you more than ever, but for today, I want to take you somewhere safe and secure. My factory."

Skyler was in the process of pulling out something else. A rather battered .357 magnum snubnosed revolver. It's in her hand, but she stuffs it back into her pocket when Action Hero Guy identifies himself with his registration card, of all things. "Oookay, did I get famous while I was here, or what? You're the second guy who's made me an offer like that. We'll talk in the car. Saying the wrong thing might get you shot." she says simply, and follows Warren to his classic, classic muscle car, which has no brains at all. Kind of refreshing, in a way.

Warren indeed does not use anything digital in his inventions, unless he just happens to be working with someone who does. The car is slipped into his jacket, and out comes a black remote with dozens of vague black buttons. He presses one with his thumb, and both doors swing open just like that. Once he's behind the wheel, he motions her in after a slam of his door. "I planned to approach you before, but I've been busy trying to stop this from happening to the city."

Skyler slams the door, buckles her seatbelt. "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago. We've got half a tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's nighttime…" clearly she's quoting something here, since it's just afternoon…" "and we're wearing sunglasses. Your line is hit it. So hit it already. And trying to stop what's happening? All I heard about it was a bunch of people having visions. And then an old boyfriend looked me up last night and clarified. A little. What's going on? How did you know this was going to happen?"

"Long story. But if you hear about things being jammed all over the city? That was how I tried to stop it." Warren does indeed, hit it, and they peel out down the street. He drives like an expert, his eyes suddenly taking on a completely reflective mercurial color, the whites and all. "I don't have all of the information, I tried to stop it at the request of people 'in the know'."

Skyler nods. She's pinned back to the seat. "I take it your registration also understates things a bit?" she says, mildly. "And I was aware of the jamming. There I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on before I set out this morning, and all of a sudden, nothing worked. My phones stopped working, building wireless, everything. What people?"

"It blocked wireless too? That's unexpected, but good, I'll write that down somewhere. I have no idea how registration tiers work, so your guess is as good, maybe better than mine. And I can't tell you what people yet, but I'm only affiliated with them, I don't work for them. What I do is entirely unrelated to what they do." Warren looks over at her, nodding before focusing on the street again. "I want you to help me. I build machines, but I can't program, I can't deal with computers. I need a yin to my yang, so to speak. Someone who can fill my void and help me really repair this city."

Skyler looks at Warren. "Sounds dangerous. Frankly. And I'm not strictly a white-hat kind of girl. Aside from altruism, what's in it for you? Can we make money in the process? Because we're damn sure going to need lots of it to keep out of harm's way. The city is a wreck still because it serves someone for it to be a wreck. I don't know who. PRobably politicians." Skyler sighs. "I want to help. I want to do something. But paranoia's my natural state."

"I have money, I plan to pay you pretty well, and I won't hold you to an exclusive contract, as long as you run anything suspicious by me, so I know you're not being used for anything malicious. We're going to Brooklyn, by the way, but with this car, we'll be fine. Just get comfortable, we won't need to worry about gas." Warren sits back, his steering wheel looking like something out of speed racer, considering all of the buttons and switches. "The man who did this is crazy, and probably dead by now, but what we have to worry about is tomorrow. Do you want to help me make a better tomorrow?"

Skyler looks down. She thinks about it. "That's a hell of a question. I just went into Suresh last week to try and make a better tomorrow for me. I've been homeless since the bomb. Now you want me to go all… what? guerilla fixer? Underworld Utopian? Crap ina hat, I don't even know what you'd call doing something like that." She chews her lip. "Now on the face of it… it sounds like it could be a lot of fun. Um. Would there be any room in that organization for a math wiz? Probably Evolved? I don't really know him that well anymore, but he seems like a decent guy, and he was a sweet kid when he was sixteen."

"Deus ex machina, god from the machine. We're solving unsolvable problems, with machines, and with Evolved. Underworld Utopian would be a good word for what we're going to be yeah." Warren speeds up a bit, but slows down whenever something comes up on his radar, which seems to turn out to be a cop car every time. He intends to get to the factory before the riots kick into high gear. "Math wiz, sounds smart. We need smart people, because they're teachable. If you think he's trustworthy, bring him in, but I want to meet him before he sees the factory."

Skyler nods. "Even if he's just a human? I don't actually know. He didn't say. Most folks aren't as quick to flash their registration cards as, say, you." she smiles a little. "So convince me this isn't a con. I mean, if I were with… whoever and wanted to round up Evolved who aren't afraid of working sub-rosa to lock them all in whatever's replacing Moab, what you're suggesting would be a pretty good way. Convince me." She leaves the "Or else" unsaid, but yeah, that hand is sneaking toward the pocket.

"You're in my car, I'm armed with god knows how many gadgets, such as this one I could have easily slipped on you at any time," Warren lets one hand leave the wheel, reaching into his jacket to pull out a metallic ring with little grooves into it. "And then had you trapped with a shock collar. Or when I walked in, I could have tear gassed you, then knocked you unconscious. I've had hundreds of ways I could have captured you by now, capture does not require cooperation. I don't know why people always forget that." He shakes his head a bit dismissively, sliding his ring back into his jacket. "Being Evolved isn't important, being useful is."

Skyler says, "'I haven't hurt you yet' isn't very reassuring." Sky grumps. "And it's easier to sucker someone into going with you than to carry them kicking and screaming." She watches the riots going by through the windows. "Not that anyone would notice in this." Sky looks down. "Okay. I take the red pill. Let's see how deep the rabbit hole goes.""


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