ic Burning at Both Ends (IC)

[Poncho]

Mid September, 2024

 

Kessler Industrial Technology Building

 

The Air Conditioner had broken.

 

An entire 20 story skyscraper without heating in the middle of Emerald City, where several floors were taken up with servers. The heat was unbearable, and had led to an immediate call out to Peri Pyeng, Air Conditioner Repairwoman, to get the building fixed as soon as possible- not even a single second would be allowed to be lost for Kessler's profits, that simply was not going to fly.

 

The front of the building was a big, wide screen of what would originally seem to be glass, if not for the fact that the entire thing was constantly offering add-space for new products from Kesskorp. As always, there was a variety of protestors outside- every day there was an protest of Kessler Industrial Technology, after all-. This one was about a series of recent layoffs after a steep cut to KIT's stock prices, requiring the lay-off of several research divisions. It was a bad look, but it wasn't necessarily their fault, directly.

 

Several of their engineers and researchers had abandoned the building, sweaty and overworked, seeking freedom from the heat in the building. It wasn't that hot outside, but it seemed like the air conditioner wasn't just working, but instead stuck on hot. While that would seem to just be a minor problem, servers getting overheated could be a legitimate issue, so they were promising to pay out the nose to get these air conditioners back up and running as soon as possible.

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

Even though things had cooled a little from high summer things were still hot and business was booming, people always needed their air conditioning servicing or repairing. So much so that it was all hands to the pump and Peri had drawn the short straw of KessKorp. They paid well but they were a pain in the ass to deal with, throwing their (quite impressive) weight around to get just what they wanted from even a tiny company as hers. Still, a job was a job so she changed from her suit to a much more comfortable set of denim overalls, with her more important costume hidden in the bottom of her work bag just in case.

 

Deftly working her way through the protestors and workers to make her way to the front doors.

 

 

"Hi, I'm here to fix your air conditioning!" Peri flashes her badge at the security guard

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The guard had a sheen of sweat under his security uniform. He wasn't having a good time in the heat, and he gave a long, hard stare at that badge. For a little bit he looked like the tough, no-nonsense security guard prepared to keep all these protestors in line.

 

"...Okay, you can go in. Please get this fixed, I'm begging you." He broke under the heat coming from the inside, looking as miserable as everyone else now. "I can't get yelled at by these college kids all day and also have to deal with it being 120 in this stupid office." He said, waving her through.

 

Peri immediately realized he hadn't been kidding as she stepped into the lobby. The ACs weren't just blowing nothing, they were blowing hot air, sizzling up the big glass building.

 

It was an open floor plan for most of the 20 floors; crisscrossing stairways across a huge, gaping chasm in the center of the building, surrounded by walkways in a square. In the center of the 20 floors was a box of glass, where three floors worth of servers were held essentially suspended for maximum air flow. That place would have probably been freezing to have been in if the AC was working, but who knew how hot it could be right now, with the AC completely busted.

It took only a few seconds for a secretary to run up, her smart business attire a mess, her hair a frizzy pile. Peri was barely getting a chance to take in the inside of this gigantic building before she was being hustled away

 

"Peri? Great. Please, follow me. We're heading down into the basement, please come quickly." And then she was off at full speed

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

Peri made a note of cameras and dead zones as she followed various, being a hero was similar to being a thief in some ways. Made harder by having to pay some attention to the person(s) in front of her. She was just glad that she'd dressed comfortably, as in not wearing her costume under her clothes. She was sure you could do it in chilly Freedom but it was not an option EC during the summer!

 

"When did the system start to go wrong?" she picked up the pace so as not to be left behind

 

"I know that kind of why I'm here..." she smiled knowing it was a common retort to such questions "But it might help me to get things running as quickly as possible, which I'm sure would be a relief to everyone!"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Definitely cameras around. There, there, and there. Dead Zone there.

 

That might be important later. Hopefully not today though. This was just a regular job. Probably.

 

"It was around 9:30 this morning. We had a bit of an electrical blip for just a second, everything went down in a flash, then came right back up, but it seems to have fried the AC. We haven't been able to get it back since then." She explained. They went down an elevator a few extra stories, and eventually stepped out onto a concrete slab of a basement level with a trio of massive air-conditioners taking up the majority of the floor; a series of wires, tubes, and panels running with a thunderous rumble as they produced the wrong kind of air for the heat and machinery in the building proper.

 

This was going to be a big job to fix these giant behemoths of machinery.

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

It didn't take long to check the entire system over, Peri had done this thousands of times before after all. She even took a few seconds extra before going to find Mz Frazzled the Secretary, just long enough that non-experts to figured you'd done the job just thoroughly enough. She remembered some show or something talking about multiplying times by a factor of three or something to help them look good.

 

"The good news is there's no damage so I can have the system running in a matter in a matter of minutes..." she told her chaperone "... the bad news is that it will keep shutting down unless we reset the computer environmental control. So that's the next place we go!"

 

That was the problem with tech boys (and girls) they were so enamoured with all their fancy toys they never thought of a simple manual bypass so the air would keep flowing. She'd add it to the report (with a small fee) that they'd most likely never read.

 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"The environmental control? Uh...hold on." She said, pulling out her phone. She flicked down the screen to a number and hit it. "Hi Henry. How are you doing? Yeah, it is very hot. Yeah the air conditioner repairman is here, they're working on it." She nodded. "She needs to nnow where the environmental control is. Oh. Okay. Sure. No, I know where it is. I've got a keycard. Thank you." She was about to hang up then pausee. "Yes? Er...tonight? N..no, I'm sirry, I've got plans. Yeah. Another time. Thanks Henry. See you later." Then she hung up and smiled at Peri.

 

"Miss Pyeng, will you follow me? I'll take you to the control computer for the system." She said, gesturing to the elevator.

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

Peri resisted the urge to make a quip about Henry or engage in gossip. Thanks to her quipping alter ego she was much more comfortable with such things, there were some things you didn't do to maintain some sense of professional decorum.

 

"Well now that Mr Walking HR discussion has given us his permission..." well okay maybe a little bit of snark as a treat "... shall we go take a look at sorting all this out?"

 

Relatively speaking this was going pretty well, and in her (other) line of work that made her slightly nervous...

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"Eh...You know how it is in these tech companies. A bunch of guys who've never really put any thought into interacting with women, then they see a woman doing a job and it's like a kid's crush. at least for the good ones. I try not to worry about it too much." she shook her head as they went into the elevator again. She hit a button on it and the Elevator beeped a negative response, so she swiped her ID card in the reader and a voice crackled on the Elevator speaker.

 

"What's up Jessica?"

 

"Air Conditioner Repairwoman heading up to the control room."  The elevator dinged.

 

"Finally. Sending you up." 

 

The elevator slowly started ascending, and as it got past the first floor, the glass back was revealed, showing a long, arching view of the entire building as the central elevator ascended. Up past the cooking server room, into the top floors that weren't open for looksies. As it did, the secretary- Jessica- explained.

 

"A year or so back the bosses decided there were too many people with access to the AC- costing profits, people should learn to adapt, do your part to save the environment, all that stuff-, so all the actual control stuff of the AC, the software instead of the hardware basically, was moved up to the 17th floor, and you can only access the top 3 floors via keycard; and verbal confirmation if you're not a boss or working on one of their special projects. It's a whole mess." she said with a sigh as the elevator let them off.

 

"I need to stay here next to the elevator for 'security reasons'." She made airquotes and pointed at the camera looking at the elevator landing and waved. "If you head down the hall and take the third door on your right, you'll be in the computer control center for the AC. The other doors are all locked but don't go snooping around in them, company secrets and all that. The cameras are watching."

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

"It's similar in my business, though mostly from customers my guys are pretty chill!"

 

Maybe it was because she'd fallen for working for a supervillaious organization but all this centralisation screamed megalomaniacal control freak, though to be fair that was a lot of upper management MO as well! For now, she decided not to load all this on Friz... Jennifer, a couple of simple breakers to share the load and they'd never have a problem like this again, which was what she'd put in her report.

 

"Won't be long and this will all be sorted out good and proper!" with a final wave to Jen she made her way to this vaulted server room.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Third door on the right.

It opened to a relatively simple computer set up connected directly to the air conditioning program. It was a relatively new computer, but the only active program on it was the control for the air conditioner, sealed and locked behind all this security. The computer flashed as she entered the room. A quick check of the breakers and connections seemed all good, though the program on the computer itself was listing the result; the heat turned up to a scorching 106. Then 107.

A simple fix to turn it back down, right?

 

But as she neared the screen, or as she changed the temperature, the screen shifted in static, before presenting an image of a masculine face made out of green and black lines like that old Captain Planet cartoon.

 

"...Who are you? I would request you stay away from this computer while I'm working." the voice said with a static-y timber coming from the inbuilt speakers on the monitor.

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

She'd felt something was off since entering the building but had just figured that it was dealing with normal bureaucratic corporate shenanigans. Now it seemed that it was something super related after all, and she was in the one location where she couldn't easily change into her Emerald Spider persona. So trying her best to hide her features from the screen, she answered the request while acting somewhat naturally.

 

"I'm... I'm just here to repair the air conditioning!" at least a little of the shock wasn't completely an act "Who would you be?"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The man(?) in the computer huffed a little, looking left and right. Which was weird, because it was on a flat computer monitor. Was it mimicking a person's head as it moved and looked around.

 

"My name is Francis K. Celius. I am currently in the process of preparing to steal the servers containing the military projects of this company from this building." the man said monotonously. It's usually a bad thing when the villain straight up tells you what they're intending to do, right?

 

"Increasing the heat is a required part of this plan, so I can not allow you to modify or change the thermostat. If you wish to avoid a cruel fate, as I have nothing against you, I would request you return to the elevator, say you could not fix the Air Conditioning, and need more parts for repairs. Then I would use that chance to escape this building before the temperature reaches one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit." He paused again, looking off to the side. What was he checking, exactly?

 

"Do you need me to repeat any part of that?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

Straight to a monologue that was good going! However, it didn't take a genius to suggest that something wasn't quite right. She did a quick scan of the room looking for anything that might be amiss, or potentially stop his access to the system. Unless they were planning to physically take the servers (which was an option) it was probably some kind of data link to the outside world.

 

"Leave the room and say I saw nothing or you'll increase the temperature to 44°C. Got it!"

 

Being an Engineer, plus just dealing with her family back in South Korea meant she was used to converting between the two. And she was wondering why someone would consider what was an average summer day in Emerald City (if like her you were dressed for the weather) a serious threat to evacuate a building!

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

"Exactly. Thank you for being so understanding. Now, I will hopefully not see you again. Or at the very least, I will only see you on the cameras as you leave." he said before the image started to disappear from the screen.

 

But Peri's quick-wittedness and computer skills were not to be deterred! She could tell from here that he wasn't remotely accessing the network; he was plugged in directly. That meant that Francis K. Celius was in the building. Maybe not in the room specifically, but somewhere within this 20 floor building was the person who was causing this. He did just imply he could see things on the cameras too.

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

So he was, possibly with some help, somewhere in the building! She didn't know the building well enough to track them down, but Peri did know someone, and all she needed to do was slow them down a little! Shouldering her work bag she felt the belt of her SPDR Rig, it was a little risky but it might just buy her a few minutes.

 

"Well then Mr Celius I'll just be on my way then!" she backed away from the digital face with what she hoped was just the right amount of respect.

 

Then a few steps down the corridor, when the cameras didn't have a good few she discharged one of the powerful electromagnets that allowed her setup to manipulate the quantum range. The resulting EMP wouldn't be that powerful, enough to shut down the server temporally and maybe, she thought a little guilty, fry Jennifer's cell phone (hers was cheap enough not to matter).

 

Talking of she jogged toward the elevator to see if the secretary could help her find these crooks before they recovered!

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

There was a loud, long beep as the EMP hit the servers, and the lights slowly blinked off. Of course they were on timers, this was a ridiculous Emerald City Tech Firm. Everything was 'Smart'. Which is why they were in this situation in the first place. For a moment there was darkness, then about half the lights kicked on in a dull color, clearly drawing off a very small secondary generator. Emergency lights began to flash on the floor, directing Peri back towards the elevator. For now, she was the only person moving until she got back to the Elevator, where Jessica was waiting and hitting the call button on the elevator.

 

"Miss Pyeng, I'm sorry. We appear to be having a bit of a blackout...maybe due to the heat? I'm sure someone is working on getting it back on...I know this isn't exactly the best sort of presentation for a repairman, we must look like a real fly by night operation...but I promise Kesscorp is a hard working industry leader, despite all of..." she gestures a bit wildly. "This." she really was living up to being frazzled now, this was adding on to it.

 

"I was trying to get a status update but my phone's overheated and the elevator doesn't work off the backup generator."

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

With a slight smile at her work she remembered the wise word of a famous engineer, the more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain. With the dimmed light she took the opportunity to click on the belt and glove of her costume, it wasn't perfect but it'd do for she was planning next.

 

"I'm afraid I haven't been completely honest with you Jennifer!" with little time to act she clambered (normally) the side of the elevator cabin

 

"I'm actually part of a Multi Corporate team looking at a string of heists using the same MO as here..." she lied smoothly "... I know they're in the building right now causing all this!" she waved her hand around for emphasis before trying the elevators escape hatch

 

"I just need to know where they could be in the building to gain access to the servers up here. Time is of the essence Jennifer!"

 

 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

Jessica looked at her momentarily, then she nodded, absolutely believing her.

"Of course, if we're having all these problems it makes sense it's more then the AC, it's some sort of industrial sabotage. I feel much better now that you're here to take care of this." she said with the air of someone whose realized this is all above her paygrade.

 

"Well, if they're in the servers...They might be down at the bottom of the building? The security office are located down at the sub-basement, the level above where the AC was. But you could also get access to most of the building from the CEO's offices, which are up 3 more floors from here. You'd need to manage to get through the bulkhead going up though; if the elevators are down they're not going to open easily..." she explained.

 

"....Does any of that help? I really don't know what to say to help a corporate black bag! I'd hate to not be useful!" Meanwhile, the emergency elevator exit did open, to reveal a ladder going up and down the length of the shaft

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

Peri quickly considered her options, up was less than a minute with her climbing abilities and she could see just how secure this bulkhead was. if not it was a rapid journey to the bottom and the server room.

 

"Thank you for your help I will be sure to include you in my report!" she hauled herself onto the top of the elevator car and made one final check as to the situation.

 

"When I close this hatch I'm going to release the emergency break, don't worry it'll deposit you gently to the lower floors"

 

A few seconds later she popped her head back into the car "Oh and the company and this disguise I took are an actual company, so please make sure they receive their correct fee! I'll make sure your company gets a receipt and report so it all looks on the level."

 

On closing the hatch she attacked herself to the wall with the SPDR Rig, before securing the elevator car with several strong quantum fillaments. Once she was happy that it was secured she released the emergency brake and gently lowered the car to the ground floor. It might have cost her a few minutes but she'd rather that Jen was safe in case trouble kicked off!

 

That task done she made her way upwards to check out that bulkhead that protected the upper floors.

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The car slowly sunk to the floor as Peri lowered it. With the distraction, however, there was a groaning sound and then the sound of machines heating back up. In the time it had taken Peri to lower the elevator down to the ground floor, the power had turned back on. She could see natural light streaming through the glass sections of the shaft below her for a little bit before it darkened to purely artificial light, and then she made her way up to the bulkhead.

 

It was a strong door; designed to be nigh impenetrable. It almost certainly seemed like this would be an unacceptable safety hazard for executives. So there was probably a second elevator somewhere, specifically for the Executives to escape during dangerous times; how brave of them.

 

But the door itself. Now that was sealed tight. The only options were to slowly blast through it- or execute a truly fantastical feat of strength to pull the doors apart-, or, perhaps, to go up a little higher and break into the sealed floor from the air vents.

 

Which had gone back to blasting hot air at full power now that the power had returned.

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

A check of the bulkhead revealed what she feared, she might be able to force the hatch or hack the electronic to open but it would take time and potentially raise the alarm. She didn't want to dodge what security they saved for the top floors, along with whoever was with Cellius for his heist. That meant that it was the air vent, like that old Christmas movie with the man in the vest!

 

Not knowing what she was facing she quickly slipped into his costume, ironically with the inbuilt cooling vest (the belt could kick out some heat when working heavy) it was cooler than what she'd been wearing all day. Stashing it away in a nearby nook of the elevator shaft, good chance it wouldn't be inspected today, she was ready to go!

 

"Yippee Ki Yay!" she whispered quietly to herself before plunging into the air vents. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The heat inside the vent was quite severe; it'd have burned unprotected flesh to touch the edges of the metal. It really was burning the absolute highest that it could be forced to do. Was Francis trying to melt every single person in this building? Hard to tell. But he was definitely doing something as the Emerald Spider made her way through the air vents, chugging along. Below her, as she made her way towards the security stations, she passed over several offices and labs; the windows sealed with metal shutters- that was new-, the people inside them often missing or away, as if they'd left somewhere. But eventually she was able to find the security station, which she could easily identify because there were three men furiously typing away at the stations and yelling at each other while heavily armed guards watched.

 

"I don't understand how he's doing this!" one of them yelled.

 

"He's locking us out, turning the firewall against us, we need to puncture our own firewalls."

 

"You made the Firewall, Charles, surely you can penetrate it."

 

"He's rewriting them as fast as I'm getting into them; and he's doing them better. He's going to lock me out of the system in a few minutes if we can't figure out a workaround, and then we're trapped." the third man said, hunched over a keyboard with sweat- not just from the heat in the building- pouring from him as he tapped away furiously at a keyboard. "Francis always was smarter than he acted, but I didn't realize he was this good."

[Tiffany Korta]

Emerald Spider

 

Peri's readouts told her that temperatures in the vent were getting warmer, to the point that she was glad she'd decided to wear her full costume. You got used to some heat living in Emerald City, but this was just the wrong kind of heat to keep going. Luckily there was a handy exit that would let her leave the vents, the bad news was that it was full of nervous people some of them with guns! But as she listened in it was obvious that they knew the bits of the puzzle that she was missing, and if she didn't help this whole blackmail stunt could cause them real harm.

 

It would have been pretty easy to make a quick quip and drop in, but with all their nerves on edge someone might get hurt. So with a distinct lack of any stealth she opened the vert and lowered herself on a quantum filament, hand held up to show she wasn't the enemy here!

 

"Hi there maybe I can help?"

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

The guns turned at her voice, focusing on her immediately. Including little targeting reticles. That wasn't good, not at all! But one of the men hunched over the computers spoke up.

 

"Stop! Stop you louts! If she was working with Francis she wouldn't be in here. She's clearly, if not on our side, at least against Francis!" He was as frazzled as Jessica had been, his hair slicked back with sweat, his tie loosened and his shirt partially unbuttoned as he turned around. "You're...Emerald Spider right? Heroine. I'm not quite sure what you're doing here, but if you can help us, I'd really appreciate it. Because it's not just us who are about to get cooked to a crisp." he explained.

 

"Francis got fired a month or so ago; he was stealing from our competitors and passing it off as his own designs, then getting us to patent troll our competitors. We're not exactly opposed to enforcing our patents, but that's a bit far even for us." he rubbed his face. "We escorted him off the premises, but now he's back. I don't know what he's doing with the heat, but I don't like it; especially now that he's closed to blast doors; we're trapped in a giant microwave right now." and he looked it.

 

"If you can at least help us get the blast doors open, we might not be able to get control of the AC, but we can get everyone else out and maybe get the time to find Francis...wherever he is."