2013.09.16 - Following the Wire

Tunnels. Under Metropolis. And Manhattan. And Gotham. They're everywhere. Some of them go more than a hundred feet straight down. Some even further. It's a dark, disgusting, hazard-filled labyrinth that provides shelter only for the most exiled of outcasts. And giant, mutated creatures. And the desperate.
And those that have work to do.
"I really hate this place," Domino mutters while crouching through a narrow gap in a metal pipeline that's way older than she is and held together with nothing but its own rust. She's got herself as kitted out as she can manage, including the wrist-mounted tracker to map her progress, the battery-sized camera hooked over one of her ears, a high power LED light directly above that, and a thin headset complete with a short, back-swept antenna to boost the signal enough to be heard to the world above her. Or just be heard by one other person, as the case may be.
'Shodan.' Oracle. Gotham's digital guardian.
Pale eyes narrow as the complicated path before her is further illuminated by the gunlight bolted onto the side of a compact shotgun, she never sets foot in these tunnels without it after her last encounter with dinnerplate-sized beetles.
I hate this place, and yet I always seem to wind up back here. It's a lot like Jersey. I know it's a bad idea but it can't be helped."
Not that long ago she was down here to cut a handful of fiber-optic cables. Now she's in pursuit of another live wire, but not to cut it so much as to figure out where it leads.
The lab is back up and running. It's lightly lit, as opposed to 'dim'. It's not 'dreary', nor can it be described as anything but .. utilitarian in that homey sense. Or is it 'homey' in a 'utilitarian' sense? It's clean. It's workable space, and his systems are running, locked in on some of the satellites- but moreso into Graymalkin.
Cable is now in constant contact with that which he refers to as 'ship', and from the labs, he's got connections to 'Providence', that small safehouse that will one day be so very much more. Something, perhaps, in direct competition to Genosha as a haven for mutants. Like minded mutants.
Seated at a desk, Cable is working on the information gained from Camden, and upon the screen, multiple red dots strike the maps, blinking, all looking to gain the mutant's attention. With each scan in, satellite feeds home in, and real-time information is gained.
"Yeah, I've never been a big fan of tunnel-crawling, either," Oracle admits to the merc she's sent down to find out just why she's got a blind spot in her previously all-seeing net. "But the last thing we need is some supervillain setting up shop right under our noses." Particularly if it's one that can circumvent Oracle's impressive intel system.
"According to the trace I've got, you should be coming up to the edge of the deadzone within the next 15 meters, so stay alert and keep transmitting. I suggest you unbox the first of the enhancers I sent you, just in case. If you lose contact beyond the perimeter, deploy the second. It's pretty formidable StarkTECH. So, with any luck, it will cut through whatever's causing the blackout enough to maintain contact."
Dom stops and settles onto an armored knee, glancing about the tunnel with the HUD mounted light as she retrieves the first of the boosters. "I've got the camera going, should keep the connection chugging away," she coms back while finding a good spot to stick the magnetic strip to. One tiny red light lets her know that it's working without drawing undo attention to itself.
"Can never be clear on what's setting up shop down here. Seems like every other week there's a different horror story."
The shotgun is retrieved from its place of rest, then the merc is pressing forward in a low crouch.
(Something feels oddly familiar about this...)
She glances down to the screen strapped to her wrist, moving her eyes rather than her entire head so the camera doesn't send the image back to Oracle. The view gets zoomed out slightly, then she realizes why. About twenty meters away. She had been here before, from another direction. Maybe from the other day when she had cut those wires?
With an opening in the pipe she grabs the edge and quietly hops down, broken shards of cement sounding like gravel underneath her boots. Bigger room, every bit as dark as the rest. An old maintenance tunnel, looks like. One that's actually meant to be accessed by people.
Motion sensors. In the dim light, easier to access, easier to maintain. IR can be funny, and Cable is deep enough in the tunnels that satellite can't get a proper heat reading for forms. But those motion sensors are triggered to flip those IR visuals in areas where there are no sodium lights.
There's a program running to discern what sort of movement as well.. routines on top of subroutines. Wheeling his chair around the room, Nate grabs a sandwich from the table, as well as a bottle of water. "What?" There's a flicker on the screen, and taking a bite, he sets it back where it was, not to be touched perhaps for several more hours.
"Ship.. secondary scan of possible data incursions. Give me time and location."
Certainly, Oracle's hoping the boost won't be necessary, but she's always been one to hedge her bets, just in case. "I hear you," she says to Dom regarding the 'horror stories'. If someone were to tell her they found a path down to Hell through the tunnels beneath Gotham, it wouldn't really surprise her.
Other than, perhaps, discovering Hell actually is real. Barbara Gordon, after all, isn't the most religious or superstitious of souls. She's agnostic at best, when it comes to those things science hasn't quite explained.
But, she's also been trained to keep an open mind.
"So far so good..."
There's one person keeping a close eye on Domino. She's aware of this. What she isn't aware of is that someone else is attempting to get eyes on her, as well. While the gear she's using, from camera to coms, is secured and of high grade material, it's also only modern tech. Secure only goes so far against hardware that's decades more evolved.
It doesn't take her long to find the bundle of dust-caked wires hanging overhead, spotting the newest wires nearby to the 'nest.' Someone had been down here and set these. A quick check for dust with the tip of her finger also confirms that it had been placed there recently. A few weeks out at longest, perhaps.
"Something is definitely down here," she mutters into the mic, frowning slightly as she sweeps the gunlight around the area. She's not an expert but that kind of wire looks to be high grade material. Which means that there might be something else down here that she's missing.
Like motion sensors, perhaps.
(Got that feeling again... Crosshairs on the back of my shoulders.)
Rather than follow those wires directly Dom makes a snap decision and banks left, crawling away from the lines at an angle. It stands to reason that if there's anything watching her down here that it would be more focused on the critical locations, such as those wires, than the surrounding territory.
"Ship, scan the frequencies too." Cable's attention is on the monitors now, the motion sensors giving something of an ocilliscope pattern in the window. Vibration, motion.. each creature has its own pattern. It's only humans have -no- pattern. Stop. Start. Shuffle. Stroll. Stop. Run. Animals are predictable where humans aren't.
It would be an easy thing for Cable to run a telepathic scan-
'Something is definitely down here--' comes over the link between mutant and AI. Immediately, the mutant's head lifts, and he turns instinctively around to the door.. the single physical entrance into his lab proper. That voice is so very familiar to him, he hears it in his sleep. Both good and bad dreams have been filled with those tones.
"Okay.."
Oracle tracks Domino's progress. And she zooms her feed in on those new wires when they're revealed. "Definitely," she echoes the merc. "That's a serious snake." Sure, the technology they're facing is decades ahead of her own, but she's accustomed to dealing with the cutting edge of technology, prototypes that are years away from widespread commercial or even military use. Many of which are her very own patents, in addition to anything Ted or Tony might provide.
As Domino leaves the snake behind, rather than following it, Barbara sits up in her chair. "What are you thinking?" she asks. It's not a challenge. It's a genuine question. She knows the merc has ricocheted off for a reason. And, believe it or not, she's willing to trust that reason. She just wants to keep pace.
"I'm thinking if I take the direct route then I may as well sound the welcome alarm," Dom mutters back into the mic while sweeping below a low-hanging beam. "Whoever set up shop down here has resources, which means they've probably already tagged me. Still not about to make it too easy for 'em."
Not while she's got that shotgun in her hands. Not while she's still mobile.
Cable's got a game-changing upper hand on the albino. He's spent so much time in her company, in her very mind, that he always knows when she's near. It makes it very difficult to sneak up on the guy, and she doesn't have any similar assists for catching him ahead of the game. At least she's good at listening to her own instinct.
Right now instinct is saying to go low and left. Through the narrow passage that she can barely squeeze her own gun through with the bulkier drum magazine. Closer to what also happens to be the lab's only entrance. She's about to be in for a big surprise.
As is Oracle.
Possibly even Nathan.
'What are you thinking?'..' sounds through Domino's headset, and not tracked back. Not yet. The timbre of the voice causes Cable's eye(s) to narrow, and he cants his head. Too many brains in the city that there wouldn't be a hope in hell of finding the one. The trackback of radio waves is child's play for Graymalkin, but he's also running the satellite feeds across the globe, watching the data feeds from a couple of the cells that he's designated 'to be watched'.. and more than a few other routines.
Who Domino is talking to isn't necessarily the most important thing on his 'to-do' list, but it is high on his curousity list in that the pair of them have been making contacts. Working relationships, potentially.
'... welcome alarm..'
Domino's move to the smaller tunnels where it's difficult to maneuver for him brings a smile to his face as he watches now. He'd not fit well there, in the least, which makes him curious in regards to whether or not she actually is -consciously aware- of him, or if it's a gut on her part.
Rising from his seat now, Nate takes a couple of steps towards the door, grabbing the water at the least before,
~ What are you up to, Dom? ~ comes as a gentle touch, undoubtedly familiar as the tendrils of .. thought wrap around the albino merc's mind.
"Can't argue that," Oracle says to Dom, as she describes attempting to not be a walking target. Can't blame the woman at all, really.
When the albino steps through the unexpected entryway into the subterranean lab, however, Barbara blinks, too. "What the hell?"
"Who is that guy?"
Always be prepared for anything. Always plan for the worst. And never..ever..lose your cool.
~ What are you up to, Dom? ~
That narrow passage is suddenly filled with a dull, hollow thunggg! as the albino jumps and smacks the back of her head against one of the pipes. Oracle is spared the curse that follows, strung out as nothing more than a silent, but very expressful, whisper.
"Good news is I know who set up camp down here," she mutters with a scowl, gently rubbing the back of her head.
~ About five-eight, thanks for asking. ~ (Sonuva--)
Always be prepared for anything, including psychic boyfriends from the twenty fourth and a half century.
~ Hope you've got some pants on, you're about to have a boost to your reputation. ~
Inching her way out of that narrow passage comes first. Then, Dom radios back "I suppose it's time for some introductions." Still transmitting but now speaking with a normal voice as Arctic blue eyes fall upon the man in question, she asks "Condo taxes too much for your budget these days?"
Sure enough, this has to be one of his workstations. As soon as she turns the corner and sees the lab she quickly turns herself away from it, before Oracle has a chance to see everything that's awaiting them on the inside.
Somehow she feels like she owes Nate as much.
"Shodan..meet Cable."
She'll quietly forget to mention the whole 'boyfriend' thing for now.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. What? There's no 'the best' here?
~ Yeah, and those pipes are about 5'9", so watch-- ~
-wince-
~ -- your head. ~
Now, Cable walks back to his table, draining the contents of the water bottle before tossing it into the garbage. ~ Dressed and ready for company. Though, I think the suit and tie are still at the drycleaners. I have another thousand years to pick it up. ~
Cable hits a button on his console, dropping heavily into his chair in order to 'tap' into the frequency. "Hello, Shodan." Nate sounds a touch amused; he knows the reference, actually.
Spinning in his seat to look back at the door, waiting for Domino's full arrival, he offers an ~ All clear. ~ to her. He's got a scatter pattern going in terms of EM buffers. It's a hole, but the hole is filled with static and back-chatter. Nothing that will *squeal* Oracle with feedback, but she's not going to get a good look of the layout. "I thought the tunnels would be fun for the time being. If I want my South Pacific getaway, I'd just go. But.. I do have a place in a complex. I just haven't had the opportunity to hire a maid so it looks good when you come by." -When.-
Shodan. HAL. Wait'll she starts issuing little hologram versions of her avatar to her operatives. Then, it'll be Cortana.
Why does everyone always assume she's a megalomaniacal AI run amok? Really!
Oracle can tell by the sudden judder in the camfeed when Dom knocks her head. The mercenary's restraint, however, impresses her.
The glimpse of the lab, however, means she has to run back the recording to try to get a handle on her new locale. But, of course, as with everything, she's feeding pretty much everything she can get her pixellated digital paws on into her sim program to call up a holo-set of the place.
There's not quite enough information for an accurate rendering, mind. Just enough for the highlights.
Until that EM interference comes up, anyway. Then, it's Oracle that's mouthing four-letter words and tapping into the booster to try and clean up the signal.
"I take it you know this guy?"
The two lights on Dom's person get turned off, they won't be needed for a while. This part of Subterranea always was well lit. She had been here before, retrieving the notes and genetic host for all of those giant bugs that had been roaming free down here (and probably still are in some areas.) In that, it's a good thing that Oracle can't see the merc's expression as she stares at Nate.
"So instead you take up life as a Mole Man." ~ Here? You had to dig in here? How did you even find this place, were you digging through my head again? ~
There's luck, and there's coincidence.
"Like the gun in my hands," she replies to Oracle's inquiry. Then, perhaps for Nate's benefit as well as her own, "He's not a threat. You kids should try online poker sometime."
Slinging the bulkier gun across her back, Dom comes to stand there with arms folded beneath her chest. Still staring at Cable. "Playing operator's going to get old real quick. You got a micro T-41C input handy or do I need to try and get this thing on speaker?"
Some of Cable's detractors would certainly call him a megalomaniacal AI. And more often than not, the man wouldn't try to disabuse that idea. That means that motives and motivations could be overlooked, which means an open playing field for him.
Holding out his hand for Domino, Nate points to a chair in front of another keyboard, while at the same time, the connector blinks in a .. telepathic light. He's got it forming behind Dom's eyes rather than actually lighting the hardware. Shielding only goes so far, after all. "Yup."
The speakers pick up the conversation, and when it's patched through, Nate can pull back on Graymalkin and go all domestic, as it were.
~ It's a pretty neat spot. And considering what it had been used for? ~ There's a certain poetry about it. Built to hold mutants, huh? Well, guess what! It'll hold 'em, dammit!
Nate doesn't announce his and Domino's relationship yet, however. To a bodiless voice? "Okay, Shodan," Nate begins again. "Mind if I ask what your operating perameters are? Curiousity's got hold so you pick a damned good infiltration and boomy op?"
Of course, to be fair, 'Cortana' would be a step up from either Shodan or HAL, since, technically, she was only insane towards the end of her story. But, even so. Crazy computer headcases! It's a sad trend.
"The name's Oracle," Barbra says into her mic, now, letting the digiscrambler do its work, transforming her warm, feminine tones into cool, digitally androgynous synthesis. "And I only like to work with the best. Domino is certainly among the best."
Take the praise, Patch. She doesn't give it out lightly or often.
As for 'operating parameters'? She snirks silently to herself, Whatever I damned well please...
Fortunately, that isn't actually said. Instead, she says evenly, "My format: Guardian." To mend and defend... No. Wait.
"Let's just say, I'm trying to keep the world from blowing itself to hell. And your setup here took a portion of my grid offline. I don't really appreciate that, Mr. Cable. However, as long as you're on the up-and-up, I expect it's something we can solve together."
It's as close to a negotiation as she's willing to get with an unknown. Sure, she's beginning to like Dom. And she absolutely respects the merc's ability. But the merc is a merc. Which means there's no guarantee any of her friends are as 'honourable', so to speak, as she is.
Oh. And you can be sure she's running as much information as she's got through her various search engines and databases to get a hit on anything that might have to do with either or both of them. You never know what might be buried out there, after all.
What other erasure programs might have missed.
(Time travel is a little out of her milieu.)
Well, there's the port that Domino needs, right there. Even if Cable had to step into her brain again just to point it out. She walks on over, flops down sideways into the available chair, then plugs a wireless receiver into the port. Now all three of them can be a part of the conversation.
Lucky her.
~ Fine, but I don't ever want to hear you complaining about the bedbugs around here. ~
She'll take the compliment, alright. Of a fashion. "News to no one."
My format? Alright, she's still not entirely clear on what an Oracle is but this is the first time that Dom's heard it speak like a machine. Digitally masked voice aside it's always had a more human element to it which most AI's seemed to lack. How curious.
"Oracle is the Big Brother of Gotham, but not in that 'spying on you in the bathroom' sort of way. More like--"
Took a portion of my grid offline.
Dom's gaze drifts floor-wards, gently clearing her throat once. There's a meek sounding "Whoops" which soon follows. Yeah, about that whole being honorable thing... Turns out someone paid her to cut those wires for a completely different purpose, which interrupted Oracle's operations. What are the odds?
(Don't answer that.)
Look deep enough and there will be information out there on a 'Domino.' Between the name itself and the mugshot that would never be mistaken by anyone there's a whole galaxy of cross-reference material scattered about and waiting to be found. She's a terrorist in some countries. She's brushed shoulders in some fashion or another with many of the larger global operations, including AIM, HYDRA, Cobra, SHIELD, and The Hand. As much as she likes her privacy she can't hide everything from everyone, least of all the other two involved in this conversation.
~ Those bedbugs- I wonder if they could have been wired up and used as drones... ~ As Cable -feels- Domino 'going down' in terms of her headspace, there's a gentle but insistant touch as the -being- of Nate Summers wraps around her. ~ You didn't take part of her grid offline. I did. ~ And there is no part of -that- that feels even vaguely apologetic.
"Well," the large man begins again. "Last time I was around, I don't recall the Oracle of Delphi coming out of the woodwork.." Cable looks to Domino again in question, 'Is that the right idiom?' before he continues. (Not a bit of wood around here!) It wouldn't take much of anything for Graymalkin to swing back around, follow the leads and give the AI a little shock, but.. he won't.
"Guardian is your designation?" That sounds a little better. "Guardian of what? The physical city of Gotham? The non-mutants? Mutants? From what are you protecting?" Now, Cable is intrigued. "Keeping the world from blowing itself to hell. That is a tall order.. and one where you would definitely need help. And as far as I'm concerned, you are right. Dom is the best of the best."
Wheeling the chair backwards, Cable grabs the half of a sandwich with a bite out of it and hands it to Dom in offrance, all while continuing to talk to Oracle. "You're going to have to put up with a hole in your network, though. You'd have a hard time interfacing anyway. No offense, by the way."
"You might be surprised," Oracle replies, unaware, of course, of just who or what Greymalkin is and can do. How could she have even an inkling? Even so, she does have some remarkable resources at her disposal -- including her own mind.
Finding nothing on Cable, however, the info on Dom old news, as far as she's concerned, she's not quite sure how to take this fellow at all.
"But, think of me less as of Greek myth and more of a cyber-reality."
Apparently, neither of these two ever watched ReBoot. Just as well. 'Bob' isn't a whole lot better than 'Cortana'. Though, with her luck, she'd get saddled with 'Daemon' or 'Hex', instead. More crazy AI types.
"Like Domino was saying, thinking of me kind of like 'Big Brother', but more Person of Interest, less 1984." Of course, with her luck they don't watch CBS television crime dramas, either. "My job is to keep innocent people from being hurt and to make sure the people that do want to hurt them get brought to justice. I don't much care if the people I'm helping are mutant, human, metas, or otherwise. Just as long as they're not the bad guys."
A beat. "And, I need that part of the grid back online. If you're on the up-and-up, I don't care about your op. It won't be the first place in the world I've learned to 'overlook', as a professional courtesy. But, the external resources? There's a huge part of the tunnels affected by your deadzone. That's bad."
Blink. Nate was responsible for that, after all? You know what, if he's wanting to take the fall for this then Domino won't get in his way. Nope! Not even a little. She can't confirm nor deny it was his doing, nor is she about to try and find out. Not unless she's paid to.
With the look that follows she screws up her own face and looks right back to him. 'How the hell would I know?'
When Nate happens to compliment her she rolls her eyes and looks away. She's hating the praise, really she is.
"It's true," Dom confirms Oracle's job description. "I've been called in to assist a few times already. Saving missing children can be such shady work."
(He's probably going to drill me about this later.)
"So, awkward conversation short, we're all interested in the same goals. Now do a wireless handshake or whatever it is you cyber-creeps do and let's take over the internet."
"Well," and Cable tosses the untaken half a sandwich towards Domino's lap. "Protecting the weak, the innocent and such is pretty noble. But, best I can offer is that I'll put in your search protocols and route what I find out to you. How's that?"
At the same time, Nate calls up to 'Ship', and echoes those direct orders. "Ship," he begins again, "secondary reception for 'Guardian' protocols. Trace route and send to IP, encrypt to level Gamma." Just to allow for the fact that it IS only 2013.
Returning his attention to the conversation at hand, Nate offers a, "Better?" That's about as far as he's willing to go, however. He'll share resources, after a fashion.
"The tunnels are a spot I'm taking over. I'm pretty sure there won't be anyone down here that I don't know about." Nate glances towards Dom, and there's a touch of a smirk on his face before he takes a deep breath.
"Want to take over the Internet, Oracle? I'm willing to share. I do like the cat jokes."
"They get old fast," Oracle notes dryly. "So, you can keep 'em." Actually, she's spent the occasional second or two of downtime glancing at LOLCats. But, really, they're not high on her priority. 'xkcd', however, kills her.
Barbara leans back, considering the offer. She's actually not really sold on this. She can't find ANYTHING on this Cable. And that bothers her a lot. Very, very few are that good.
She, of all people, ought to know.
As the first of the ship's pings reach her servers, however, she arches a brow -- partly at the encryption. Actually, she raises both brows.
Note to self: Speak with Domino about Just Who The High Holy Hell Is This Guy?!??
"Alright," she says presently. "I'd say we have an understanding."
For now, anyway.
She makes a further mental note: Speak with Supes about getting a fly over. EM shielding doesn't affect his vision.
Category:Log