The Heist

[Heridfel]

Heavy does his best to lurk in the park. "With my luck, the cops'll get called - not because they think I'm a super-villain, but because they think I'm a peeping tom," he sighs to himself. At the same time, he's keeping an eye out for Nanowire. Granted, the mecha wasn't too stealthy at their last fight, but the guy didn't seem stupid, either. He could probably get to the park without a problem.

[Veiled Malice]

Grumbling mentally as he made his way through the undergrowth, Nanowire stalked as clandestinely as a high-tech combat frame could through Liberty Park. It wasn't good enough for them to meet someplace sensible, like a rooftop that has no access to it, no, Heavy had to go for the most conspicuous place for a couple of armor-wearing individuals like them. He thought about going without, picking up his outerware later, after the meet. That was an impossibility, though. No way some guy he hardly knew was going to find out what he really looked like. One thing was for certain, though - Heavy was going to get an earful about this when the job was over.

With leaves still underneath the segmented plates of his exterior facing, Nanowire finally came to the place they were to meet. Fortunately, Heavy was already there. "I'm here," he whispered simply as he scanned the area with his nightfilter, making the even the darkest areas bright as day. "Are you going to tell me what the plan is now?"

[Heridfel]

"Yeah, sorry. I got a thing about not trusting a guy I only met last week too much. Like I said, I can get us inside the museum. I spent the week casing the museum, and there's a few places inside that don't have any cameras trained on 'em.

Don't know if you could tell what exactly was hitting you, but I can control gravity a bit. I found that if I put enough of it in a tight enough package, I can bend space around. It only works with places I've mapped out pretty good, which is why I came here. It's sort of a weak spot - and it's within the range I can move. I can bring a bit of weight with me, which is why I was asking how much you weigh," Heavy says.

"So," he asks with a grin that can only be imagined inside his helm, "you ready to go in?"

[Veiled Malice]

"Let me get this straight," Nanowire said incredulously after Heavy had filled him in on the plan. "You can control gravimetric energy to the point that you can bend space and transmit solid matter, with, I can only assume from hearing your plan, such accuracy that you can effect a pont insertion to within an unobserved area, a feat so non-trival I have trouble conceiving it even after all I've seen."

"My question is thus: if all of the aforementioned things are true, why do you need me?"

[Heridfel]

Heavy nods his helmeted head slowly, and a little wearily. "Well, I've worked on it for a really long time, but I can't move anything I'm not touching, and I can't do little movements, only big ones. Otherwise, I'd just go in there myself, bring the book to me, and get out," he says.

"And I could probably go in there and do a smash-and-grab, and maybe get away with the grimoire for a couple days, but my face'd be all over the security cameras, and I'd get supers on my trail. I'd either have to get rid of the thing fast - which means I can't get as much for it - or risk somebody catching me, throwing me in jail, and being even worse off than when I started," he continues. "With you, I figure you can erase any record of us, and all the curator sees when he comes in is an empty display case. They'll probably just try to keep on the down-low, so people don't find out that they were robbed. I brought one of these to seal the deal."

He reaches down to where his pockets would be, if he weren't wearing a suit of armor, and presses a button. A small compartment opens, and Heavy pulls out a business card. He holds it up to show it to Nanowire. It looks like some sort of black bird, silhouetted by a red circle.

[Veiled Malice]

"Interesting," Nanowire said once Heavy wrapped up his explaination. A little more information on his would-be ally was filed away for a later date. It seemed Heavy was far more than he appeared to be, and a dullard he was not. The card, on the other hand, meant nothing to Nanowire; a membership to a criminal organization, perhaps? A trifle theatrical, but who was he to talk? He made a mental note to use his datamining program to find a match.

"It'll take me a couple mintues to access the security system. Once I'm in, I can keep the cameras on a continuous loop which will edit us from the picture. All I need is the hub address I'm hacking, so I'll need a visual on the building. The rest I can do from orbit, if neccessary." Nanowire warmed up his Linksys processors, which wold help him in the connection to the opposing computer.

"I'm ready. Oh - and I'm currently 114 kilos, if that helps."

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 7:37am

Rose got a slight shock when she heard her name called. She turned on her seat to see her sister, Cadence, standing robed in the doorway holding a coffee. Cadence yawned, "You been sitting there the whole night?" Rose looked at the window, seeing the morning light for the first time, "I guess so." Cadence sighed and shuffled over to her big sister, putting her arms around her shoulders, "You can't just sit here staring at your own body day and night - it's morbid, for starters. And secondly, you're supposed to be doing something, right? Isn't that what this whole thing is supposed to mean?" Rose turned back to look at her physical self, lying comatose connected to various machines in bed. "Yeah Cade, I hope so."

[Thevshi]

Nearby in one of the FCU dorm buildings.

 

Megan opened her eyes as she felt Randy's lips leave hers for a moment. Tonight had been their first date after meeting during a party at the Midnight Society's mansion. They had gone out to eat nearby and then caught a movie down in the theater district.

 

She looked into his eyes and smiled before glancing over to the side. From where they were seated on his bed in his dorm room, she was able to see the clock on his desk, telling her what she wished was not the case.  "It's getting late. I have school tomorrow morning."

[Heridfel]

"All right. Here, you take the card. I have an idea if we run into any supers that don't know me," Heavy says. "I don't think any of 'em know you. Nice thing about being new to town, eh?"

He reaches out and puts his hand on Nanowire's shoulder. Inside his suit, he closes his eyes, the better to block out any distractions from his HUD. He knows where he's going, and he knows where he is - now, the challenge is to make them the same. He takes a deep breath and lets it out.

---

When he next opens his eyes, he's standing in a display room near the archeology wing. It's notable only for not having a security camera pointed anywhere near where he and Nanowire have reappeared. He glances over to the man in the mecha.

"Well, glad to see that worked. Oh, sorry about not giving you a warning. I hope it wasn't too weird - I've never seen what it looks like while I'm traveling," he says. It's clear that he's winded from his effort. He's speaking more slowly and his shoulders sag a little. "Let me know when you've connected with their mainframe, or whatever it's called."

In the meantime, Heavy leans against the nearby wall to catch his breath.

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 7:37pm

Rose walked into the loungeroom where Cadence was watching television. "Alright Cade, I'm heading out." Cadence didn't look up, she just shouted from her seat "Have fun!" Rose walked up to her. "I'm not going on a date, Cadence, I'm going out to fight crime. At least show some interest." Cadence takes the effort to look back at her older sister, "C'mon, you a super-hero now! What's the worse that could happen?". Rose looked dumbfounded, "Duh, Centurion!" "Oh yeah. Don't worry, you'll be fine - what could happen?" Rose mumbled something in reply before taking off at full speed, permeating through the roof of the house. She floated a few hundred feet above the small redbrick home she shared with her sister and looked out toward the tall buildings of Freedom City. Ok, if I were crime, where would I be hiding? With that, she sailed gently towards the centre of town, not certain of what she was looking for.

[Barnum]

Thevshi said:

"It's getting late. I have school tomorrow morning."

"Awww. That's too bad," Randy said, his smile as charming as ever. "I was planning on skipping class tomorrow. You should join me. We could make a whole day of it." He leaned back on the bed and put his arms behind his head. "I know this great little pizza place. We could get it to go and have lunch in the park."

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 10:05pm

It was getting late and Rose still hadn't done anything heroic yet. She heart sirens at one point down by the Theatre District, but by the time she got there, whatever happened seemed to be over. She hadn't even seen any other supers yet. She was a little worried about meeting others, to be completely honest. She worried they may find her a fraud. What if her powers weren't enough? What if she didn't act heroic enough? After a life time spent reading and illustrating their exploits, Rose thought she had a grasp on what is was to be a superhero, but now that she was cruising over the city looking for trouble, she wasn't so sure.

She sighed internally and absently turned toward the North End of Freedom City, hoping she'd get a kick out of flying over her old university - something she'd imagined doing back when she didn't have powers.

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 10:05pm

It was getting late and Rose still hadn't done anything heroic yet. She heart sirens at one point down by the Theatre District, but by the time she got there, whatever happened seemed to be over. She hadn't even seen any other supers yet. She was a little worried about meeting others, to be completely honest. She worried they may find her a fraud. What if her powers weren't enough? What if she didn't act heroic enough? After a life time spent reading and illustrating their exploits, Rose thought she had a grasp on what is was to be a superhero, but now that she was cruising over the city looking for trouble, she wasn't so sure.

She sighed internally and absently turned toward the North End of Freedom City, hoping she'd get a kick out of flying over her old university - something she'd imagined doing back when she didn't have powers.

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 10:05pm

It was getting late and Rose still hadn't done anything heroic yet. She heart sirens at one point down by the Theatre District, but by the time she got there, whatever happened seemed to be over. She hadn't even seen any other supers yet. She was a little worried about meeting others, to be completely honest. She worried they may find her a fraud. What if her powers weren't enough? What if she didn't act heroic enough? After a life time spent reading and illustrating their exploits, Rose thought she had a grasp on what is was to be a superhero, but now that she was cruising over the city looking for trouble, she wasn't so sure.

She sighed internally and absently turned toward the North End of Freedom City, hoping she'd get a kick out of flying over her old university - something she'd imagined doing back when she didn't have powers.

[Veiled Malice]

Nanowire

Nanowire blinked inside his armor. The scene change was jarring - one moment outside amongst the foliage, the next inside amongst various historical artifacts - but besides that, there was no sensation. He didn't have a lot of preconceived notions about teleportation, not even having considered it as a viable form of travel and all, but he figured there should have been something - a tugging sensation, an aural Doppler effect, something. But no, nothing. Maybe it was naive of him. After all, there were some things people simply didn't have the ability to sense; the higher levels of the electromagnetic spectrum, for example. Maybe lateral transcription was the equivalent of UV light for tactile senses.

There would be time to think of that later, though. Nanowire dropped into his Tempest Detection mode - searching out hardware to link to. These days, it was easier than ever to do so. Wireless hot spots were everywhere, and firewalls weren't worth the time spent coding them versus his abilities. All it would take was... "There," Nanowire said suddenly, finding the sysHub linkup he was looking for. Millions of lines of code condensed into an easily manipulated user interface. "This will take less time than I thought. Hang on..."

Nanowire's mind flitted about the system, shutting down cameras and disabling defenses as it went. Just a few more seconds and he'd have it all...

[Veiled Malice]

Nanowire

Nanowire blinked inside his armor. The scene change was jarring - one moment outside amongst the foliage, the next inside amongst various historical artifacts - but besides that, there was no sensation. He didn't have a lot of preconceived notions about teleportation, not even having considered it as a viable form of travel and all, but he figured there should have been something - a tugging sensation, an aural Doppler effect, something. But no, nothing. Maybe it was naive of him. After all, there were some things people simply didn't have the ability to sense; the higher levels of the electromagnetic spectrum, for example. Maybe lateral transcription was the equivalent of UV light for tactile senses.

There would be time to think of that later, though. Nanowire dropped into his Tempest Detection mode - searching out hardware to link to. These days, it was easier than ever to do so. Wireless hot spots were everywhere, and firewalls weren't worth the time spent coding them versus his abilities. All it would take was... "There," Nanowire said suddenly, finding the sysHub linkup he was looking for. Millions of lines of code condensed into an easily manipulated user interface. "This will take less time than I thought. Hang on..."

Nanowire's mind flitted about the system, shutting down cameras and disabling defenses as it went. Just a few more seconds and he'd have it all...

[Veiled Malice]

Nanowire

Nanowire blinked inside his armor. The scene change was jarring - one moment outside amongst the foliage, the next inside amongst various historical artifacts - but besides that, there was no sensation. He didn't have a lot of preconceived notions about teleportation, not even having considered it as a viable form of travel and all, but he figured there should have been something - a tugging sensation, an aural Doppler effect, something. But no, nothing. Maybe it was naive of him. After all, there were some things people simply didn't have the ability to sense; the higher levels of the electromagnetic spectrum, for example. Maybe lateral transcription was the equivalent of UV light for tactile senses.

There would be time to think of that later, though. Nanowire dropped into his Tempest Detection mode - searching out hardware to link to. These days, it was easier than ever to do so. Wireless hot spots were everywhere, and firewalls weren't worth the time spent coding them versus his abilities. All it would take was... "There," Nanowire said suddenly, finding the sysHub linkup he was looking for. Millions of lines of code condensed into an easily manipulated user interface. "This will take less time than I thought. Hang on..."

Nanowire's mind flitted about the system, shutting down cameras and disabling defenses as it went. Just a few more seconds and he'd have it all...

[Thevshi]

"Awww. That's too bad," Randy said, his smile as charming as ever. "I was planning on skipping class tomorrow. You should join me. We could make a whole day of it." He leaned back on the bed and put his arms behind his head. "I know this great little pizza place. We could get it to go and have lunch in the park."

Megan leaned back slightly, putting one arm down on the bed as she looked over at Randy. “That would be nice, but skipping out at my school isn’t quite so easy. The classes are pretty small, so I would be missed. Sides, I am pretty sure my civics class is having a quiz tomorrow.†She said with a sigh.

“Must be nice to have a lot more freedom in college.â€Â

[Thevshi]

"Awww. That's too bad," Randy said, his smile as charming as ever. "I was planning on skipping class tomorrow. You should join me. We could make a whole day of it." He leaned back on the bed and put his arms behind his head. "I know this great little pizza place. We could get it to go and have lunch in the park."

Megan leaned back slightly, putting one arm down on the bed as she looked over at Randy. “That would be nice, but skipping out at my school isn’t quite so easy. The classes are pretty small, so I would be missed. Sides, I am pretty sure my civics class is having a quiz tomorrow.†She said with a sigh.

“Must be nice to have a lot more freedom in college.â€Â

[Thevshi]

"Awww. That's too bad," Randy said, his smile as charming as ever. "I was planning on skipping class tomorrow. You should join me. We could make a whole day of it." He leaned back on the bed and put his arms behind his head. "I know this great little pizza place. We could get it to go and have lunch in the park."

Megan leaned back slightly, putting one arm down on the bed as she looked over at Randy. “That would be nice, but skipping out at my school isn’t quite so easy. The classes are pretty small, so I would be missed. Sides, I am pretty sure my civics class is having a quiz tomorrow.†She said with a sigh.

“Must be nice to have a lot more freedom in college.â€Â

[Barnum]

“Must be nice to have a lot more freedom in college.â€Â

"Well, I skipped a lot of classes in high school too. That's why I'm going to a local school, even though my dad is both important and loaded. But yeah, it's nice." Randy raised himself on one arm too, so that he as closer to Megan and also face to face. He leaned in and kissed her gently. "Better get going," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "I'll walk you out."

[Barnum]

“Must be nice to have a lot more freedom in college.â€Â

"Well, I skipped a lot of classes in high school too. That's why I'm going to a local school, even though my dad is both important and loaded. But yeah, it's nice." Randy raised himself on one arm too, so that he as closer to Megan and also face to face. He leaned in and kissed her gently. "Better get going," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "I'll walk you out."

[Barnum]

“Must be nice to have a lot more freedom in college.â€Â

"Well, I skipped a lot of classes in high school too. That's why I'm going to a local school, even though my dad is both important and loaded. But yeah, it's nice." Randy raised himself on one arm too, so that he as closer to Megan and also face to face. He leaned in and kissed her gently. "Better get going," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "I'll walk you out."

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 10:07pm

Rose looked down at the university below. Passing over the buildings gave her butterflies, and the memories seemed to brush past her on the wind. She flew down toward the courtyard in which she most often had lunch, and glided past the Arts buildings where she spent a majority of her time. She practically saw herself walking the grounds once again, comics and text books in hand. Looking back like this put a lot in perspective, and not just because she was floating twenty feet above the ground. Like most university students, Rose had a lot of fight when she was younger. She had a lot of views on a great many things, but the pressures of time seemed to turn her diamond hope into a coal-like persistance. She learnt that, no matter how much she wanted to make the world a better place back then, her voice was lost amongst the crowd. She glanced at her feet dangling in the air - suddenly she didn't feel like just another voice.

She decided it was time to head back toward the city - it was going to be a long night after all. She'd find someone or something to save tonight if it killed her! As she began to fly away she heard voices, and glancing back she saw a young fair haired woman walking with a young man. Young love. Rose acted without really thinking, flying down to meet them. "Hello. Citizens. Er, how's your night? Anything amiss?"

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie - 10:07pm

Rose looked down at the university below. Passing over the buildings gave her butterflies, and the memories seemed to brush past her on the wind. She flew down toward the courtyard in which she most often had lunch, and glided past the Arts buildings where she spent a majority of her time. She practically saw herself walking the grounds once again, comics and text books in hand. Looking back like this put a lot in perspective, and not just because she was floating twenty feet above the ground. Like most university students, Rose had a lot of fight when she was younger. She had a lot of views on a great many things, but the pressures of time seemed to turn her diamond hope into a coal-like persistance. She learnt that, no matter how much she wanted to make the world a better place back then, her voice was lost amongst the crowd. She glanced at her feet dangling in the air - suddenly she didn't feel like just another voice.

She decided it was time to head back toward the city - it was going to be a long night after all. She'd find someone or something to save tonight if it killed her! As she began to fly away she heard voices, and glancing back she saw a young fair haired woman walking with a young man. Young love. Rose acted without really thinking, flying down to meet them. "Hello. Citizens. Er, how's your night? Anything amiss?"