"Last Man Standing" - Reboot.exe - S1 Chapter 20.

## Last Man Standing

Jenn

"Last Man Standing" is the final chapter of season 1 of Reboot.exe. It was released on 23 May 2021 and it concludes the first season.

## Synopsis

Noticing that there will still be another hour or so until the club begins to liven up, Seb opens up his communications, stating that he's seen both Canaan and Bagrov. Eve asks him to find an emergency exit system or sign, but no safety precautions are in place whatso ever. Not even a fire extinguisher.

Pr0 flings his jacket over the wire connecting him to the Desires Dalliance roof and begins sliding and making his way across, but not without alerting a few people with the juttering sounds of the taunt wire. On the roof of Desires, there is an uncomfortable, but accessible, broken air conditioning unit. There are also other units on the roof that could lead the way to the roof of The Glass Slipper, albeit, a difficult climb.

Eve walks in to touch base with Xiang, who is playing cards at a table with a man. Eve then walks out, and begins making her way to the clinic, noting an Eve unit in the window. Before entering, there is a loud scuffle between a few people in a shoddily repaired building with a sign labeled "Beer." There is a man who is bodily thrown out of the entrance, holding a large stein that smashes on the ground as he hits it. Eve makes a medical check from a distance, sees that nothing is broken, and continues walking forward.

The clinic she was heading into was a once a veterinarian's office that has turned into a doctors office and a surgical ward with a "no questions asked" policy. There is a competing, UK based drone standing behind the counter as well as another receptionist who is dozing off. Eve requests some medical supplies for someone who in injured, but the robot refuses, stating this is not a pharmacy. Eve leaves shortly after.

Pr0 clambers his way up onto the roof of The Glass Slipper and tried to look around - but is too exhausted to notice anything of value.

Inside the bar, Seb can see that the early drinkers are starting to arrive and populate the dance floor. There is roughly one robot to one person. Seb guesses that in 20 minuets the upstairs will open up. Seb begins to scope out the place in his efforts to make a scene of a bespoke having fun, and looking for someone who is willing to get drunk and be loud with him. Pr0 doesn't see an entrance to the building from the roof. Eve walks up to the bouncer, saying that she is protection for Seb, the bouncer doesn't recognize the name, and refuses her entry.

Shortly after, the same man that was thrown out of Beer sloshes down the stairs, and allows Eve to slip past the bouncer, and then quickly the door lady as well. She tries walking up the stairs that are roped off with velvet ropes.

On the roof, Pr0 spots an old skylight that has been previously covered and sealed shut from the inside, but the bolts have all been rusted over and show signs of weakness against blunt force. As Pr0 is looking around the roof, he spots a van pull up behind The Glass Slipper with three members of the Busy Gang clearly making some type of illegal deal, involving something being unloaded. Pr0 continues live streaming to the rest of the party, asking for a distraction from the loud noise he is about to make from kicking in the skylight.

Eve asks for Seb's card, goes up to the bartender, and states that it's Seb's 21st birthday, and is asking him to cause a scene with the finest Champaign, and a track played as loud as possible. They comply, play a happy birthday song, and pop off the cork of the bottle, starting the chaos downstairs. Pr0 succeeds in kicking down the sky light, and not causing a scene in the process. Spotting nothing of interest in the room, Pr0 turns to leave, and picks the lock to an empty hallway. There are obvious signs that this is a common hangout area for The Busy Gang.

Seb invites a few people around the club who has taken interest in him after the show, to sit down with him, as he begins buying more rounds. Making their ways upstairs, they spot Canaan and Bagrov sitting in a much larger and grander VIP area, while intentionally being obnoxious.

Pr0 continues to sneak around the upstairs area, and spots an open computer used for everyday Busy Gang activities. Pr0 slides his first access point inside of it, and Xiang quickly gets to work trying to hack it, but is unable due to the incredibly strong firewall against it. Xiang enters the bar and grabs a drink. There are two mechanically locked in the hallway, and one door that is unlocked, but clearly has people inside of it. Pr0 walks past all of these and walks into an unlocked door where there are two gangers weighing out drugs, with heavy automatic weapons at their sides. Pr0 slips back out of the door, and then makes it impossible to re-open that door without significant violence or significant repair, and setting some D&D dice outside the door to further prevent their attack. Pr0 sneaks down to the same floor as Seb and Eve successfully.

Walking into one of the two doors out of this area, Pr0 finds a very large robot with two small arms on top, and two forklift arms that is busy stacking crates, packing crates, and general busy work that Pr0 is able to mark with the access point, that Xiang is able to jack. Pr0 continues on, and finds an empty break room that contains a waiter's uniform, which he grabs and disguises himself into. Eve suggests now that Pr0 has a suitable disguise, that they go forward with his plan, which is put the heroin in the drinks, and give them to Canaan and Bagrov.

While Seb is looking around, he spots that Canaan has made direct contact with Pr0, and is watching him intently. Seb tells Pr0 that he's been made. Pr0 hands the drinks off to another waiter while he tries to sneak his way back to the way he came. Eve stops the waiter carrying the spiked drinks. The robot eventually complies, and hands Seb's party the drinks, Seb taking two of them, and two other girls taking and downing the others.

Pr0 sneaks back to the room with the forklift robot which is holding a large, empty box. Xiang lowers it for Pr0, scoops him up, and tucks him away on the highest shelf, behind other crates.

Eve and Seb both notice that a few people out of Canaan and Bagrov's group get up, go to the bar or bathroom, but don't return - and instead are loitering around in places that aren't natural. Taking notice, Seb starts making more of a show of himself. As he stands, he sees Canaan for the first time, who has strange face tattoos that scramble his face through Seb's glasses. Canaan walks up to him, greets him, and buys him a drink.

Eve walks into both the male and female bathrooms, spotting a lady bespoke out at the bathroom. Eve attempts to make some small talk with her, but she quickly shuts her down, stating that she needs to steer clear of Seb for the night. She is heard leaving the bathroom making a phone call to Raggs.

Both Pr0's and Seb's live feeds turn to static. After receiving a message from Xiang, she's informed them that the gang has employed scramblers, and that they're locking the place down. Eve and Xiang are still able to see through the live streams. Pr0 asks if Xiang can see him, which she can. Canaan and Bagrov stand up, congratulate Seb on his "big night" and then begin to walk out.

Pr0 gets up to the robot, and says "Get ready to grab the targets, and I think I need your help to turn this building upside down." also mentioning that the targets have left, with their back towards him. The robot signs something back to him in Auslan with great frustration, but Pr0 doesn't understand.

Xiang prods Eve to "think about Johnny" after she's relayed the information Pr0 gave them to her. Seb takes the party of the three girls and begins following after Canaan and Bagrov, asking one of the gangers for a private room. The man implies that he knows of one, but only if he's allowed to "join in on the fun."

Bagrov enters the store room, where Pr0 is able to quickly duck behind the robot. He whispers to Xiang through the robot "is that cargo?" gesturing towards Bagrov. As the robot lumbers toward him, Pr0 ducks away behind another crate. Bagrov notices that the robot is coming towards him, and quickly hacks into it, making so one of its legs seizes and stop functioning. Bagrov whispers something into his lapel before ducking out of the room.

Seb and Eve make it upstairs, seeing that the door Pr0 previously shut is still closed with the dice in place outside of it. Canaan laughs at Seb being up there, but makes no moves against him.

Pr0 bolts back into the bar as fast as possible after assuring Bagrov is gone. He begins smashing bottle of high concentrate alcohol on the floor, and begins looking for something to light it with. Bartenders start screaming for help. A few bouncers begin to approach. Pro grabs a bottle of high concentrate alcohol and attempts to throw it at something to spark a fuse, but his shot goes wide. He instead, turns to the bartender robot who seems unfazed by the chaos, and slams another access point into it, which Xiang is able to get into.

Upstairs, seeing that Canaan has locked himself in his room, they see Bagrov coming up the stairs. Seb pretends to trip and fall into him, knocking him all the way down the stairs, which he succeeds in, but then enters combat.

Pr0 taps the bar, taps the bartender robot, and instructs it to "burn this fucker down" while bolting towards the two guards blocking the entrance he came from, successfully weaving through their legs.

Seb attempts to play dumb, not meaning to cause any damage, but no amount of sweet talk is going to change his mind. Eve readies up to inject the man with the needle of heroin she has. Bagrov shoots up from the ground, revealing two large metal blades coming from each of his arms. Eve is unsuccessful in her attempt to stab him, and in return gains a medium injury, by immediately having her glass leg shattered by the large blade.

Pr0 begins to run away back into the garage door, hearing the bartender robot announce "Drinks for everyone!" then smashing its two hands together, breaking one arm back, creating a cascade of sparks, and igniting the bar, engulfing a ganger that didn't make it out in time.

Bagrov staggers Seb, while Eve, once again, fails to attack. Bagrov rushes her, slamming her against a wall, and shoving his large blade through her chest, causing a medium injury. Injuries stacked, Eve's eyes flicker out, and she slumps against the wall, unconscious.

Seb hears the sounds of large stomping coming towards them. Bagrov staggers him, and stands over him, saying how bad of a mistake he has just made. The large robot is still approaching rapidly behind him.

Bagrov pushes his blade up, and slices through the side of Seb's abdomen, causing a medium injury. The large forklift robot enters, and effectively pins Bagrov against the wall, and then turns to run, while holding him, clearly having crushed some of his abdomen.

Seb attempts to pick up Eve, but instead has to drag her through the hall, making a lot of noise.

Pr0 runs out to the garage again, but it is still locked. The forklift robot comes stomping through, and barrels through the door, smashing an opening. In an attempt to avoid the thugs that are now coming after him, Pr0 runs for the ganger's van. As he opens the door, Xiang greets him in the driver's seat, having already previously incapacitating the men outside, and destroyed the cameras. The forklift robot spear throws Bagrov into the back of the van with a sickening crunch. Before they are able to move on, there is a barrage of gunshots pointed at the van. There is a wet thunk of a bullet hitting human. A guttural groan is heard from the driver's seat, and the van violently careens backwards. The large robot begins flailing in a desperate attempt to thwart off any attackers.

Seb continues pulling Eve downstairs. Seeing that the bar is engulfed in flames, he attempts to drag her through the gangers fighting the forklift robot that has gone mad, attempting to conceal himself within them to get past them. He succeeds. Seb continues dragging Eve down the strip and sees the back entrance to Desires Dalliance. Upon opening the door, he spots three people playing cards. They look up to Seb. There are obvious signs around that these people are involved in human trafficking. Having seen Seb and Eve, knowing what they are, they smile and say "Our lucky day!"

Back in the van that is driving wildly, Bagrov pulls a gun out of his hip. Pr0 fails to disarm him, but then sees that the gun isn't pointed at him, but instead, at Bagrov's own head. The van screeches to a hard halt, and Xiang stumbles out from the front seat, hand cupped against her waist, with blood spilling between her fingertips. Pr0 screams "He's trying to kill himself!" Xiang leans forward, stabs her clawed thumb into his eyeball, and tears the heavy cybernetics directly out of his head. There is a scrambled connection from Xiang to Pr0, saying "Don't let him!" She then shoves a connection back, deep within his eye, and there is a feed showing Pr0 the depths of his head. She's starting to struggle, and demands he to ask the right question.

Pr0 demands "Where is Riley?!"

There is a fight to keep this off, but as he is dying, there still is information being granted through Xiang's incredibly violent, brute force hacking. Pr0 screams again for Riley. Pr0 can hear Bagrov's voice emanating from within him, but not physically coming out of him:

"She's here! She's fucking here, you bastard! And she's coming for you!"

Seconds before Bagrov manages to pull the trigger on himself, an image of Riley standing next to Canaan on the docs in Australia appears in his mind.

-YHTris

## TL;DR

* Seb opens up communications between himself, Eve, Pr0 and Xiang. He notices Canaan and Bagrov sitting at the very top VIP section, but also noting that there are no safety precautions in this place whatsoever.
* Pr0 makes his way over to the roof of Desires Dalliance via the cable connecting his current roof to the other.
* Eve is unable to obtain any medical supplies from the clinic
* Pr0 makes his way to the Glass slipper's roof, and spots an entry point that will need a distraction to cover the sound of him kicking it in.
* Eve goes up to the bar, says that its Seb's 21st birthday, and asks the bartenders to pump up the volume, and throw around the most expensive bottle of Champaign they have to his table. The distraction is successful, as Pr0 enters, unnoticed.
* Pr0 sneaks around on the second floor, attempting to put a little access port into one of the ganger's computers for Xiang to hack, but she is unsuccessful. He also notices several un-enterable doors either them being locked, or having gangers behind them. He does manage to lock a door with two gangers currently weighing and packing drugs
* Pr0 walks into a backroom and finds a large forklift robot that has two sets of hands. He successfully puts in an access port and Xiang is now in control of it.
* Pr0 walks into more backrooms, and finds a waiter’s outfit, and puts it on. Prompting Eve, through their shared live feeds, to go ahead with his plan, and spike the drinks with heroin and serve them to Canaan and Bagrov.
* Seb notices that Canaan has made direct contact with Pr0, and has found him out. Pr0 passes along the drinks to a different waiter, who eventually brings the drinks to Seb’s table.
* Pr0 sneaks back to the room with the forklift robot which is holding a large, empty box. Xiang lowers it for Pr0, scoops him up, and tucks him away on the highest shelf, behind other crates.
* Eve and Seb notice a few members of Canaan and Bagrov’s group get up and leave to start guarding other places around the club with a relaxed demeanor. Canaan approaches Seb, obscured through Seb’s glasses due to his face tattoos, and buys him a drink.
* Eve walks into the ladies bathroom, and speaks to a bespoke, who says she wants to stay as far away from Seb as possible for the night. She exits the bathroom by making a call to Raggs. Seb recognizes her as the lady who gave him the listening devices.
* Pr0 and Seb’s live feeds turn to static. Xiang messages Eve, who is still online, that the gangers have employed scrambles, and that they’re starting to lock the place down. Canaan and Bagrov get up to leave.
* Pr0 speaks to Xiang through the robot, telling her to “Get ready to grab the targets”
* Seb takes up his small party, and begins following Canaan upstairs.
* Pr0 attempts to attack Bagrov as he enters the storage room by using Xiang through the forklift robot, is unsuccessful, but still unnoticed.
* Pr0 rushes into the bar, and starts smashing bottles of incredibly high concentrate alcohol against the floor, and the walls. As the other bartenders start screaming for help, he is able to slide an access point into the robot bartender, which is then under Xiang’s control.
* Upstairs, seeing that Canaan has locked himself in his room, Seb and Eve see Bagrov coming up the stairs. Seb pretends to trip and fall into him, knocking him all the way down the stairs, which he succeeds in, but then enters combat.
* Pr0 taps the bartender robot, and instructs it to "burn this fucker down" while bolting towards the two guards blocking the entrance he came from, successfully weaving through their legs.
* Eve readies up to inject the man with the needle of heroin she has. Bagrov shoots up from the ground, revealing two large metal blades coming from each of his arms. Eve is unsuccessful in her attempt to stab him, and in return, gains a medium injury, by immediately having her glass leg shattered by the large blade.
* Pr0 begins to run away back into the garage door, hearing the bartender robot announce "Drinks for everyone!" then smashing its two hands together, breaking one arm back, creating a cascade of sparks, and igniting the bar, engulfing a ganger that didn't make it out in time.
* Eve, once again, fails to attack. Bagrov rushes her, slamming her against a wall, and shoving his large blade through her chest, causing a medium injury. Injuries stacked, Eve's eyes flicker out, and she slumps against the wall, unconscious. Seb hears the sounds of large metallic stomping coming towards them.
* Bagrov pushes his blade up, and slices through the side of Seb's abdomen, causing a medium injury. The large forklift robot enters, and effectively pins Bagrov against the wall, and then turns to run, while holding him, clearly crushing some of his abdomen. Seb begins to drag Eve out.
* In an attempt to avoid the thugs that are now coming after him, Pr0 runs for the van. As he opens the door, Xiang is greeting him in the driver's seat. The forklift robot spear throws Bagrov into the back of the van with a sickening crunch.
* Before they are able to move on, there is a barrage of gunshots pointed at the van. A guttural groan is heard from the driver's seat, and the van violently careens backwards. The large robot begins flailing in a desperate attempt to thwart off any attackers.
* Seb continues dragging Eve out of The Glass Slipper, and sees a back entrance to Desires Dalliance. He spots three people inside. They look up to Seb. There are obvious signs around that these people are involved in human trafficking. Having seen Seb and Eve, knowing what they are, they smile and say, "Our lucky day!"
* Back in the van that is driving wildly, Bagrov pulls a gun out of his hip. Pr0 fails to disarm him, but the gun isn't pointed at him, but instead, at Bagrov's own head. The van screeches to a hard halt, and Xiang stumbles out from the front seat, hand cupped against her waist, with blood spilling between her fingertips.
* Pr0 screams "He's trying to kill himself!" Xiang leans forward, stabs her thumb into his eyeball, and tears the heavy cybernetics directly out of his head. There is a scrambled connection from Xiang to Pr0, saying "Don't let him!"
* She then shoves a connection back, deep within his eye, and there is a feed to Pr0 in the depths of his head. She's starting to struggle and demands Pr0 to ask the right question.
* Pr0 asks "Where is Riley?!"
* There is a fight to keep this off, but as he is dying, there still is information being granted through Xiang's incredibly violent, brute force hacking. Pr0 screams again for Riley. Pr0 can hear Bagrov's voice emanating from within him, but not physically coming out of him:
* "She's here! She's fucking here, you bastard! And she's coming for you!"
* Seconds before Bagrov manages to pull the trigger on himself, and image of Riley standing next to Canaan on the docs in Australia appears in his mind.

-YHT