4.0 Dedicated to its Members and Fans of Pokemon A Pokemon Sandbox RP
Pokémon Dubstep (ft. Lindsey Stirling)
W
elcome Adventurer to EPOCH! A Pokemon Sandbox Rp set in the original region of Nue. Everything you need to know will be in the Guidebook and PokeDex 101!
EPOCH uses the Manga and is built on the Original ideas suggested by our members.
We are more than just a Pokemon RP, we're a friendly community with a goal on being a memorable experience for those that look in.
Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated. If you find yourself content with being an asshole EPOCH and its members will not tolerate you.
RULES
Understand We're All Human. Respect the staffers as well as your fellow members and guests. We all have flaws, tempers and quirks. Be patient with one another, but if issues involving other members come up please don’t just grin and bear it. Contact a staff member, informing them of what's going on so they can address and resolve the situation. The staff won't know what's bothering you unless you tell them.
EPOCH is PG-13. Proboards’ Terms of Service:
Sex; When you get under the clothes, fade to black.
Violence; Do not go into extreme nauseating detail.
Cursing; This is so fucking allowed, but don't go overboard.
Suggestive Content; In avatars, signatures and templates can attract the wrong kind of attention. So be careful.
Post by Jason Tham on Dec 13, 2014 21:28:08 GMT -5
NO LONGER WILL I HAVE TO REWIND THE PAST
So far, so good, and it was only with a last second jolt that Jason realized that he had been lucky that muscle memory hadn't kicked in - in the past he wouldn't had even thought about forcing in his target's knee from behind to remove all leverage. Evidently he was getting rusty, and oddly enough Jason didn't find himself bothered by that nearly as much as he might've thought. It was a strange thought that he might actually be becoming acclimated to the life of a regular person, but not an unwelcome one - it was far better than the alternative, and as the brief struggles from the Luxury Grunt quickly weakened and ceased Jason would very slowly and carefully loosen his hold to allow air and blood to flow again, on alert for any sign of consciousness. The last thing they needed was noise, but after a few moments of certainty that the man in his hold was truly unconscious Jason would slowly and smoothly begin to lower the body to the floor, both to prevent injury from the short fall as well as the sound that would come with it. Target down and out, Jason would only throw a quick glance over to Engel to see the other man doing the same before signalling to head to where he was due next.
Jason, however, had other ideas in mind, at least before that. Werner was going to take a few moments at the least, especially with that injured hand and wrist, and there was always one thing you did when you had nothing - you took what you needed from the environment around you. Starting with a quick pat down of the unconscious Grunt's pockets, Jason would quickly remove the gas mask from his person before donning it himself and setting to the task of emptying the man's pockets of anything even remotely useful. Anything to even the odds - Jason already didn't like those to begin with, and even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant thing might prove to be critical later down the line. It hadn't happened often before due to his own paranoia and almost obsessive compulsive need to make sure everything in the past went according to plan, but those very few occasions where he had overlooked a detail here or there had almost cost him each and every time. While Jason had no need or use for the Grunt's Pokeballs, though, his old habit would pay off rather quickly as the pockets began to empty.
A swiss army knife much like the one Werner had pulled off his victim, several zip ties much like the ones they'd been bound with earlier, a key card that matched the ones for the hotel's doors and that most definitely wasn't produced by the establishment itself, along with a small cache of other odds and ends that would likely prove very useful. Jason, admittedly, was rather impressed - this group was packing kit less like what you'd expect on thieves but rather Interpol itself or even privatized security corporations. Where exactly they'd gotten it all, though, was a question for another time - for now, speed was more important, and as it all went into Jason's own pockets the man would drag the body and place it between two of the larger crates, out of sight and hopefully out of mind.
All of the new gear now secure in his own various pockets, Jason would slowly creep along the edge of the shipping containers, Engel by that point out of sight and likely attending to his own errand. Hopefully done quickly and quietly - metal wasn't the quietest of substances, and Jason could only sincerely hope that the man would take advantage of his new found tools rather than attempt to pull the thin, grated sheet metal off the opening by force. Settling into place around the corner of one crate and just out of sight of the table down the short, makeshift hallway, Jason would stay in a low crouch to keep out of sight, although on his feet and more than ready to dash the moment his opportunity came.
[attr="class","letitscroll2"]Dismantling duct and sleeping powder storm complete - waiting at the hall entrance for Jason to regroup and take cover in the closet around the corner before they're noticed, feel free to have them head right in there because Engel will go for it the moment Jason catches up to him and the hall is clear.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]Staying low and making his way over to the closest air duct he could get to, Engel whipped out the army knife and flicking through the tools, he’d switch out the screw driver with a smirk. Thankfully, summers ago, he’d spent a lengthy period of time with a mom and pop repair company, often handling little maintenance jobs and inspecting houses. Made him rather handy and therefore, handling this rather subpar tool a fair bit easier. Pulling on his gas mask, he moved to press against the air duct and start quickly unscrewing metal screws that held the plate in place. Metal was by no means quiet, but he held himself as still as possibly to make sure the metal didn’t budge under his support – not yet. One, two, three…
Popping off the final screw and allowing just a little shift of the metal, Engel was pleased to see a wave of the powder immediately leak out. It was still going strong, giving how big this place was, they needed to keep the powder flowing for a while to cover every nook and cranny. The poor Pokémon that must have to meticulously produce this crap, though… He didn’t waste time really considering the extent the Pokémon were being pushed to, there was nothing he could do about it. He needed to outright remove this section of the duct in one go. Moving to unscrew the screws that held it together on the other end, Engel found himself being the only active means to holding this piece of duct now properly in place. You’d be surprised how fast the winds in air vents really blew and with all the screwed removed, it was almost impossible to keep the duct from rattling and staying put as he got to the last of the screws. He didn't even bother pulling them all out all the way, the duct was ready to go flying all on it's own at this point. With a final breath, Engel prepared himself...
And then yanked the section of the duct off fast enough he was nearly knocked over by his own momentum and the gust of hot air that quickly followed. A cloud of sleeping powder suddenly swept over the room and Engel chucked the metal duct towards the other side of the room to cause the grunts to quickly whip around towards it and shift their attention from the incoming spores.
“The fuck was that?!” one of them called out as the woman doing guard duty would start to move to investigate before realizing the numbers of her co-workers was off. Turning around, she’d see too late the incoming sleeping powder.
Engel could hardly see from his place by the source of the powder’s entry, but he didn’t waste any time crawling away from it. Though, he stopped to grab himself a crowbar in the process because he wasn’t running the risk of being too empty handed should Jason have not been able to grab the gear. Racing back for where the entrance was, he nearly smashed into a few crates, before managing to get his footing and continuing to make his way for the hall that led towards the offices and security room in the back of the hotel. However, he stopped just outside the entrance to the hall and turned to look around quickly for wherever Jason was, idly gripping and re-gripping the crowbar. “C’mon, c’mon…” he whispered, waiting anxiously for Jason to break from the powder. It was only a matter of seconds before those in the security room would realize what had happened just down the hall if anyone was paying attention to the cameras. They needed to get into the janitor’s closet just around the corner.
Post by Jason Tham on Dec 13, 2014 23:02:24 GMT -5
NO LONGER WILL I HAVE TO REWIND THE PAST
Contrary to popular belief, patience was not one of Jason's strong points. Patience, by definition, was the ability to wait for time to pass, and Jason honestly didn't really see the point to it. If anything, it didn't make sense to him at all - why use that time being patient when it could be used doing something productive? It was a mindset that was a double edged blade, though. On the one hand, it kept Jason very, very productive when there was any time to be spent waiting for something to come or for something to happen, and that tended to feed into itself as a cycle because it meant things that he would've had to do later were already done, thus giving him even more time to work with. On the other hand, though, it was a significant problem when there was nothing to do but sit and wait, and while Jason intellectually knew it would take a minute or two for Werner to get that vent open and do its job that didn't stop him from wanting to fidget, to move, to do something with that time instead of sitting and waiting to be found and hoping that it didn't happen before he could act.
With one minute gone by, though, and the vent not yet open, Jason would risk peering out around the corner if only to get a good look at what he needed to do, and it was in that instant that Jason was immediately glad he had. While the other man's vest was definitely there on the table, from what little could be seen from that particular line of sight the thing had been gutted much as Jason had the Grunt's pockets earlier. Everything that wasn't nailed down had to go, apparently, and it created a slight problem. How was Jason supposed to differentiate Werner's Pokeballs from any of the others there? From what he could see they'd all been collected into a single bucket by the side of the crates, and there was no way Jason was going to be able to sort through those. There wasn't enough time, plain and simple, and finding those nevermind the individual Treecko in question was going to be a problem. Along with the fact that Jason, at that particular moment, realized that he wasn't even sure what a Treecko was. He thought he could remember Ricki mentioning someone she knew having one, but beyond that he had no idea what he was looking for, but it was likewise at that moment that he realized there wasn't really any point to fishing around for six specific Pokemon. Not yet, anyways.
Pretty much every one of those Pokemon were already stolen by Luxury, at least judging from how the items on the table were laid out and where they'd originally come from, and assuming he hypothetically had the time to sort through each and every Pokeball in that bucket... any he left behind were going to likely end up on that truck anyways rather than with their original owners, partners, it seemed to vary from trainer to trainer. In either case, not a good place for them to be, and pretty much all of that would be solved if he just took the entire bucket instead of select individuals. As for the cage... none of the people out on the loading dock had their Pokemon out, so that only left the tiny one up on the table with the valuables.
And with that, waiting over. With Werner evidently successful and the powder from the vents that was once flowing to the rest of the hotel suddenly flooding the room following a loud crash drawing the Team members' attention to the far corner, Jason bolted. With one of the Grunts down towards the far end of the room investigating and the rest suddenly panicking to get out of the way, only one man stood between Jason and his goal, removed with a quick, open handed blow to the throat as Jason passed him by, the Grunt gagging and stumbling forward a few steps. Scooping what he could see that seemed to come from the Interpol vests Engel had wanted into the bucket along with the headsets, Jason would pause only for a second before grabbing the Joltik's cage to snatch up his own coat from the table before finally taking hold of the bucket and running for the exit, everything craddled in his arms. Running out of the green cloud billowing from the storage room's entrance, Jason would nearly brake to a sudden stop before darting over towards Engel to the side.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]Anxiously shifting from foot to foot, finally he saw Jason burst from the green cloud and it almost took all his will power to not start running then and there. Whipping around, he forced himself to wait to see if the hall was clear before doing a glance back to make sure Jason was still coming his way. At that moment, he caught a glimpse of the mountain of items in Jason’s arms, but he didn’t stare long enough to realize just what exactly was all in Jason’s arms. He just saw he had gear and that was good enough for him. Taking off down the hall and sliding around the corner haphazardly, he’d try the door for the closet he’d passed many a time and much to his relief it flew wide open. Turning to nearly shove Jason into the dark room, Engel glanced down for his Treecko that was supposed to be following with his Joltik, but upon a quick look over the hall, Engel would be met with the revelation that she was definitely not coming. Cursing under his breath and quickly retreating into the closet to hide away from the reinforcements he heard coming from down the hall, Engel was really not pleased with what this implied.
“You said you could grab the gear” he softly growled, patting carefully around the shelves in the dark closet before managing to get his hands on a powerful flashlight, flicking it on, and turning it to Jason, though careful to not direct it towards his face. He ripped off his gas mask, showing a rather irritated expression. “Where the hell is the Tre…” the angry beginning of a question trailed off to the – if it were any other situation hilarious – sight of Jason Tham desperately clutching to pretty much a mountain of everything that was on the table. Tik’s cage, the bucket of pokéballs, the gadgets and gear, vests and belts, even several of the com devices, a few of which he could see were damaged. Suddenly, Engel was at a loss for words at the sight of his temporary partner just holding pretty much every bit of gear and tech he could have gotten his hands on. Part of him was admittedly a bit impressed, however…
“Why?” he nearly breathed, before turning the flashlight to reveal a small work bench within the closet. He didn’t want to touch the light switch and simply turned the flash light to act as their light source before getting to the task of helping put everything down. He set Tik’s cage aside and grabbed the bin of pokéballs to begin going through them, trying to find his own batch with a mildly irritated face. Although, at this point he could understand grabbing the whole bin and carrying Tik’s cage but Engel glanced towards all the gadgets and gizmos Jason had also grabbed and noted a fair number of watches were in the mix. If he didn’t look too much into it, it may have been a smart move, but there was a lot of unneeded gear here that was clearly just part of his quick grab and go.
Beggars can’t be choosers, he assured himself as he finally found his six Pokémon. Grabbing his belt and fastening it back into place, pokéballs clicked into place, he only let out the Treecko, finally, to get to work on breaking Tik out of his prison. As Ann got to work there, Engel shifted his focus to the com devices, testing the switches of them and the various phones, trying to get at least one to turn one but it seemed some were damaged, some were just dead or drained, and a few were missing their batteries altogether. Scoffing lightly, once Tik’s cage was cracked open, he’d return the Treecko and pull Tik out from his tiny cell, before getting to look over the shelves for something – anything to wake the Pokémon up so it could charge back up the gear. Digging, digging, precious minutes ticked by before finally the Joltik seemed to come around himself much to Engel’s relief.
A set of little blue eyes blinked open, nervous for a moment, before calming down at the sight of Engel. He happily scurried up to him before Engel offered two of the non damaged phones and coms to the Joltik. “Sorry, I know you just woke up, but we’re in emergency mode, Tik. I need a quick charge on both of these, got it?” he questioned, before the Joltik eagerly nodded and radiated enough electricity to begin booting up the requested devices. Once the batteries were full, Engel handed one off to Jason before looping the other back around his ear.
“Engel Werner is Online. Temporarily bringing on board Jason…” he trailed off to glance towards Jason for him to fill him in on his last name “…Tham. Jason Tham will be listening and participating in this feed for the sake of convenience. I need a status update, now. Whose on the line, locations, and what’s happening?”
NOTHING I'VE EVER DONE RIGHT HAPPENED ON THE SAFE SIDE
She was going to eat somebody. Yep. That's what it was going to come down to. When this was all over and righteous fury had scorched the earth and the day had been saved, she was going to march right down to holding and go cell by cell until she found whose idea this was and then she was going to eat them. She liked a little challenge now and then to stretch her horizons or whatever challenges were supposed to do, but this wasn't even hard it was just dumb. False difficulty. Haha we hid the door behind this wanna-be tumblr gif have fun. So she was going to eat them and the Pixel Ducks could have whatever parts they wanted.
"You didn't like them either, no you didn't. That's why you came over here with Mama, yes. Because Mama has skittles and will make you pixel ducky palaces and not exploit you into infiltrating hotel security systems because she's not a sticky little ball of slime, no," she cooed under her breath, still hard at work combating the takeover, the Porygon flicking from one screen to the next in tandem. The computer buzzed in agreement, or rather her Rotom did. Which was a very nice gesture, but the only thing that was really going to make her feel better was-
“Engel Werner is Online . . ."
Herbae. He was safe and not dead and he didn't sound like he had lost any teeth.
Faster than she could disappear a bag of Twizzlers she clicked her end of the comm feed on, already feeling like all the stars were back in the sky and everything was going to be fine. She barely even paused in her computer assault as she spoke. "Engel! Uhhhm, OK- Rhafa and Ace are back on and they're OK, with a lot of hostages working on getting past the bad guys and they're the only ones I've heard from besides you and I'm locked out of the security system but I'm going to get back in even though Rhafa's stupid tag-along said it was impossible. I hope your tag-along isn't stupid - hi Jason I hope you're not stupid. And Engel - I'm really really glad you're OK and you're not allowed to disappear again please. I'm sorry I don't know anything else about what's happening but I will find out." Engel was back, Engel was back . . . wait. Engel was back and Engel had The Thing and if Engel had The Thing- "Engelmyflashdrive. I'magenius."
She was getting a second wind before the first had really gotten a chance to die down. She hated being asked for an update and having to say she had next to nothing - it was the worst thing in the world, professionally, for her. She was supposed to be the best for them, and the best got results. Whoever had orchestrated this digital takeover was definitely going to remember her when she was through with them. She had people she had to deliver for and she was going to get things done no matter how many people she had to eat to do it.
Though hopefully with the USB she would have to eat less people.
CODED BY SYLVIE
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Post by Jason Tham on Dec 14, 2014 16:20:45 GMT -5
NO LONGER WILL I HAVE TO REWIND THE PAST
So, maybe not the best idea to grab everything - even with Jason's experience and natural affinity for moment he could feel the shifting weight in his arms slightly throwing his balance off, and by extension forcing him to slow his run just enough to stay upright and ensure that the payload didn't either end up toppling across the floor or pulling him down in the process. Thankfully, at least, it wasn't enough to stop Jason from being able to see ahead, nor spot Engel outside of the room and move to follow him as soon as the Interpol agent started to move, although the near slip on Werner's part around the corner down the hall at least gave Jason enough warning to slow down before reaching it.
On rounding said corner, however, the dock worker would suddenly find him grabbed by the Interpol agent and forcibly shoved into what he could only assume was the janitor or maintenance crew's workspace - given his day job at the hotel Jason had never actually been quite so far inside of the building, at least not with the time to freely roam about and explore. That being said, though, the room was dark and only slightly warmer than the storage area had been, with a workbench barely visible towards the far end. With Engel shutting the door behind them Jason didn't quite lower his guard, but at the very least he allowed - or rather, forced - his muscles to stop tensing. At the very least, however, the hasty decision making before helped to avoid conflict, even if it took a moment for Engel to realize why his Pokemon hadn't been following Jason as planned.
"You said to either free your Pokemon and have her break the lock or grab the cage myself. The Grunts had already gone through all the vests and collected all the Pokeballs into one place, and I didn't have enough time to sort through them all. That, and had we left the bucket behind there's no guarantee it wouldn't be on the truck and gone in a worst case scenario, and I thought it safe to assume all the Pokemon in it were stolen." Jason replied after a moment, waiting for Engel's words to finished with a strained 'why' before setting the bucket down and beginning to take the rest of the collected gear off of it, spreading it across what little floor was available to take proper inventory. At the very least he'd thankfully managed to grab everything they needed, plus some. A lot of this likely wouldn't do them any good - some of the more miscellaneous items like the wrist watches in particular - but there were a few useful things here.
With Engel taking the bucket and finally beginning to sort his Pokeballs from the collection, though, Jason merely took what time he had to separate his small handful of personal belonging from the line up. There wasn't much - he didn't tend to travel heavy, and after pocketing a relatively cheap cell phone and a few other odds and ends Jason would completely ignore the Interpol vests available to him in favor of his old coat. Maybe not the best option, logically speaking, as those vests were likely resistant to a number of different attacks, but more important than that, or at least Jason had always felt so, was the feeling of comfort and familiarity. He didn't know what he'd be able to do with the new gear, and either trying to press new limits without thinking about it or accidentally hitting them would be just as bad as open hesitation here. The vests were far heavier, for instance, and Jason knew for a fact that he was going to be a lot more mobile with just the light coat weighing him down as opposed to the heavy defensive vest on top of everything held in those pockets. It was extra weight that he didn't need, and Jason knew exactly what he would and wouldn't be able to do with what he had at that very moment.
Buttoning the front of the coat in place and shifting slightly to ensure that it was fitting properly, Jason would pause for only a moment to remind Engel of his last name as the Interpol agent glanced over after saying the first, having evidently reestablished contact with his coworkers. With another moment taken to look over their small cache of reclaimed goods, however, Jason would finally get up and begin to back away to keep a watch on the door instead on the off chance anyone came looked for them.
[attr="class","letitscroll2"]Flashdrive found, waiting for the map from Eileen and information regarding what to do with the flashdrive before we get moving.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]Not bothering to argue Jason’s point, Engel just focused on getting all his gear placed back in proper pockets. He merely uttered a brief “Got it, thanks” before resuming refastening the vest. While waiting for the Joltik to wake back up, Engel shot a brief glance over to see Jason had once more opted for his trench coat rather than the defensive gear presented to him. He almost wanted to insist that the other at least grab one of the vests for the sake of protecting himself, but seeing what few things Jason grabbed, he could see he didn’t plan to weigh himself down. In comparison, Jason was running far lighter than Detective Gadget Engel Werner.
Not bothering to insist otherwise, Engel simply took to focusing on the com once it was back online. Requesting a status update from his team, he was swiftly relieved to hear three familiar voices, starting right off the bat with Rhafiel Diederich, no surprise there.
"Commander." He sounded relieved, but his tone was hushed. Clearly, not in the best place to be chatting right now but the update would be rather appreciated. "Currently in the process of taking down a few of these Team Luxury grunts. Eileen's trying to break back into the security system to get us out of here. We'll update you more in a momen- now!" An order being given it seemed, he sounded like he as too caught up in other matters right now that it’d be a bother to force him to talk further. So the next to speak was a bit of a surprise, but a pleasant one at the least.
"Engel, glad to hear you're alright." The voice of Ace Venchurro was a welcomed one on the feed. There was a pause as he heard a quiet thud and huff in the background, before Ace would speak again. "We're currently in the convention floor wrapping up a few grunts to buy Eileen some time." Honestly, they were going to need it, Engel wasn’t very much in touch with technology beyond necessary needs but he imagined the task of taking back over this system was going to need the Hulk of hackers. It was convenient they had a pretty pink one on standby right now.
"Engel!” Speaking of the pretty pink Hulk of Hackers… “Uhhhm, OK- Rhafa and Ace are back on and they're OK, with a lot of hostages working on getting past the bad guys and they're the only ones I've heard from besides you and I'm locked out of the security system but I'm going to get back in even though Rhafa's stupid tag-along said it was impossible. I hope your tag-along isn't stupid - hi Jason I hope you're not stupid.” No he was just a bit grabbier with gear than Engel was used to, but he’d get over it. “And Engel - I'm really really glad you're OK and you're not allowed to disappear again please. I'm sorry I don't know anything else about what's happening but I will find out."
Sighing and giving a nod, Engel was ready to give his retort to the updates when once more the pretty pink hacker would speak up once more.
"Engelmyflashdrive. I'magenius."
Flashdrive? Flashdrive… Flashdrive! Engel’s head jerked up as he recalled what Eileen had handed to him prior to leaving the HQ the prior day to come here for surveillance duty. Not uttering a word yet as he thought, he began to go through some of the more mundane items on the table, setting aside the watches and jewelry before plucking up the USB drive with a massive sigh of relief. She would have had killed him if he’d gone and forgotten that. Popping off the cap to make sure the connection was good and it hadn’t been damaged, Engel was satisfied to see the piece was still intact. He popped the cap back on and swiftly shoved the flashdrive in his pocket and returned his attention to the feed.
“You never disappoint, sweetheart. Where do I need to plug this in at? Jason and I are in one of the janitor’s closets in the back of the building by the storage area. Can you send me a copy of the map of the first floor?” he requested, looking over at Jason to see him staring down the door like a silent guard. It was still a bit odd to have luckily managed to grab the one guy managing to keep his cool in this situation out of all the civilians there, but Engel wasn’t really going to question that right now. He brought up his foot to lightly nudge Jason actually to get his attention before asking “You ready to get mo—”
“...Hello? Hello?” That was a voice he hadn’t heard on the feed before, but it didn’t take him long to realize who it was. One of the greenhorns he’d set up upstairs, Elizabeth Maxwell. If she was online, he was sure he’d be hearing from Vesta soon enough. “Please tell me you guys are alright! Elizabeth Maxwell online! Please tell me you're alright, goodness, I don't know what I'll do if something happened to my child- to you guys.” That… Children comment was a bit odd, earning a slight look from Engel to Jason who had likely heard the same thing, before he shook his head and turned to Jason Tham to get things moving.
Opening his mouth to start responding, he’d be unknowingly cut off by Rhafiel speaking up, again. "Good to hear your voice Maxwell. Agent Diederich and Agent Venchurro are going dark until further notice. We've been compromised."
Damn it. He scoffed lightly at the information, his brain suddenly going mad with worry about Ace. He knew he should’ve made the kid work with him again, letting him go off on his ow—No. No, he was with Rhafiel, they’d be fine. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Engel sucked in a calming breath and started back up. “Understood” he stated, but the com line with them was already dead. “Maxwell, so far everyone reporting back online has come up as alright except for Diederich and Venchurro as of now. You need to calm down and give me an update on your location and status. Where’s Dressler?” he inquired, pulling back out his phone to wait for the map from Eileen and further instructions on what to do with the flashdrive.
He glanced over at Jason again and debated for a moment before asking “You willing to keep going? I wouldn’t recommend trying to make an escape right now out of the Loading Dock, by the sounds from out there, it’s bustling with Luxury grunts. Honestly, there’s plenty of nook and crannies in here to hide out in if you want to wait this out, Jason. Though, I’d appreciate the continued back up and second set of eyes if you can continue to help out. But, this is about to get far more difficult if we have to go where I think we’re going.”
NOTHING I'VE EVER DONE RIGHT HAPPENED ON THE SAFE SIDE
Eileen bounced up and down in the swivel chair, waiting for confirmation from Engel that he still had the drive. Oh, she was too good. Or, you know, the Whoever It Was's that were behind this were just awful at their jobs. Maybe both. She liked to think both, always better to be optimistic. And with that flashdrive she could be very, very optimistic.
"A map I can very much send you," she chirped, getting her phone out and rooting around her files briefly for it before sending it along to Engel's phone. Not just a regular map like they could get at the front desk, but a copy of the blueprints, because Eileen had resources and lovely habit for hoarding lots and lots of vital information. Nooks and crannies indeed, if they needed them. "What you need to do for me to be able to goddess may way back in iiiiiis . . . Get back to security area where the computers are. And theeeen, you need to go into the admin's office and stick the thing in the slot and wait for the ding - or like, the little loadbar thing to go OHHEY DONE - and poof, I'm in. I can give you a more detailed description when you get there and tell me what it looks like. And I can send you a diagram if you need it, Holy Warrior of the Sleep Mode." No, she was never ever letting that go. She found it endearing.
She clicked her tongue a little listening to the update that Rhafa and Ace were possibly in trouble. She had to believe they were going to be just fine, though. And oooh, and Mama Liz was back! That was good news at least. Eileen did a little ducky roll-call and then picked her phone back up, starting to compose an update to send up the the director and the response teams. The Commander was back, hostages here, bad guys there and there, salvation imminent-kind, etc. In much more formal words, of course, since under the correct circumstances Eileen could still professional with the best of them, and her recipient list consisted of primarily a lot of important-sounding people she didn't know.
The only thing bad about the flash drive plan was that it still left her waiting. There wasn't much she could do but monitor the comm feeds and keep poking at the security system looking for clues until Engel One Man Armied- or Two Man, she guessed - his way back to the admin office and found the destined slot.
CODED BY SYLVIE
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Jason had to admit, it was an interesting experience to be able to listen in on a group acting as a cohesive unit, even if they were rather lax about who they were letting in on things - that might've just been his own personal paranoia speaking up, but had they let him in on the conversation a few years back he could only imagine how that might've backfired, not to mention anyone who might be listening in on things now. Regardless, though, it seemed like he and Engel weren't the only ones able to orchestrate a jailbreak of sorts as no fewer than four separate voices, all who Engel was familiar with, began to speak up. Jason, for his part, would merely elect to stay silent for the time being - from what he was hearing there wasn't much to add to the conversation as it was, and the last thing they needed was a new voice trying to interject ideas and opinions that were likely already there. In any case, he wasn't exactly qualified to begin with as his own personal skills had been honed for an entirely different purpose. From the sound of it, though, the convention floor itself was already slowly coming back under Interpol control. That just left them, the dining hall and the lobby, although the sound of fighting from the latter of the three left little doubt that Luxury's control was likewise contested there was well.
With the mention of some flashdrive, however, Jason couldn't help but glance back as Engel likewise took a moment to inspect the device, something that Jason hadn't noticed in his mad rush to clean Luxury of everything that they had stolen earlier. Exactly what it did, though, was never elaborated on, and that admittedly made Jason more than a little nervous. Typically speaking he much preferred simple plans and methodologies over more complicated ones, and in his experience there was nothing more prone to Murphy's Law than electronics. Machines? Machines were easy to break, surprisingly so, but people were a different matter entirely, and Jason would much rather take a person over a machine designed to supposedly do a job ten times better any day of the week. More than that, people tended to get to the point where they relied on them far too much - it was an easy trap to fall into when the machines themselves made life that much easier. Jason knew for a fact that he could work just as well with only the clothes on his back as he could with technological aide, and while it may have been a very impolite and unprofessional thought, he couldn't say the same for Engel after having only met him a few moments ago. Most of the man's focus had been on getting his gear and Pokemon back rather than escaping unnoticed, and Jason could only imagine what he would've done if he'd been forced to abandon everything Luxury had taken and continue on anyways.
And then almost as quickly as things had started, Engel finished his makeshift conference call with his coworkers as two of them fell silent and the third went to carry out the Interpol commander's orders. With Werner turning to speak to Jason, though, the man found that most of his earlier rationale hadn't changed. Jason probably could've gotten out unhindered, but it wasn't something he was willing to bet on. There were too many Luxury operatives back the way they came, and trying to escape from the loading dock would more than likely be met either with failure or Jason being forced to drop one or two of them if they crossed his path. Getting to the roof and escaping from another part of the building certainly would've been an option had this been after sunset, but in broad daylight? Wasn't going to happen. Whatever chance Jason might've had unfortunately fell with Interpol, and whatever that flash drive in Engel's possession was supposed to do.
"Where would that be? Given my options helping seems like the best choice, but what does that do? We're not getting into the hotel's security center if that's what you're thinking." Jason asked. Well, maybe - Jason didn't know how capable of a fighter Engel was or how strong his Pokemon were, but if the Treecko and Joltik were any sign her seriously doubted the man would be able to singlehandedly defeat every Luxury agent that was likely covering hotel security. In a raid like this that would've been the first place Jason would've gone for, if only to neutralize the hotel's ability to effectively coordinate a defense and counterattack. Beyond that, though, Jason wasn't entirely sure what else there was to do. His skill set wasn't going to do Engel any good in an open fight where Pokemon were involved, and without knowing exactly what that flash drive did the only alternative Jason could see was linking up with the other Interpol officers scattered around the hotel and taking it back piece by piece until Luxury was driven back into storage or the loading docks.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]Thankfully, while quirky, Eileen still had a niche for explaining things in a perfect way that even tech-dumb Engel understood what she was saying. If she had gone into the whole coding process, the Hex, the BBC, the HTML, the 0’s, and 1’s, and his head would have fried – he was very sure of that. Ensuring the pocket containing the flash drive was secure, Engel’s gaze fell back to his phone as it gave a slight vibration to signal the map had arrived. He was about to alert Eileen that the file had arrived when she dared to call him the Holy Warrior of the Sleep Mode. It ignited a flat look at his phone and a rather disgruntled “Yeah, thanks” being grumbled out before turning his focus back to the task at hand. It wasn’t hard to decipher where they were in the blueprints that’d been provided given their previous path and after some scanning, he could already pick out a few routes to get to the room he had in mind.
Taking another brief pause to speak to the agents on the com and ensure Dressler was prepared to carry on, his focus once more returned to what needed to be done next. With a final check to make sure Jason was in this for the long haul, Engel was satisfied to find the other wasn’t going to stick with him for this. Again part of him would question his luck in regards of finding and using probably one of the most capable non-Interpol affiliated persons out of all the people in that room, but there wasn’t enough to really provide a reason to be against working with Jason. The logical young man inquired about the plan and Engel simply tilted the screen of his phone to show the blueprints to Jason.
“I’m aware of that, that’s why we’re not going into the security center, there’s another way we can get in” he assured, sliding the prints to show where they were before hovering his finger over the screen to indicate the path he was considering to the offices nearby. “We just need to access a computer that can connect to the hotel’s security network for Eileen’s override to work. Since the security center is clearly not an option, we’ll have to get on one of the other computers. It’ll probably take longer for whatever Eileen’s got in mind to work if we go about it like this, but it’s better than doing sweet FA. The owner showed me back in this room there’s a computer that is hooked up to the same networks and bullshit that the security system is connected to. He explained the whole thing, but details not important. What’s important is that we can bypass the hive and get straight to the honey this way” explained the Interpol Commander as he looked back up to Jason to see his response to the proposal.
“The only issue is the fact that no matter what we do, we’re charging into the unknown on the other side of the door. Tik can make sure we can get out of this room without being spotted, but once we’re in the halls he can only help so much. If we just flat out go for it, I can give us the speed we need to blast past the grunts in the halls if you can ride a Zebstrika—” he pulled the Zebstrika’s pokéball from his belt to show the electric zebra to Jason “—but it’s still extremely risky. Plus, the latter leaves us obviously more likely to get all sorts of attention before we can get to the room with the computer. If anything…” he trailed off in thought, eyeing his Zebstrika’s pokéball. They’ve held off Hell before, could he and Xun hold off this swarm of pests? “… If they keep up with us all the way to the office area, I could buy us time while you get the drive plugged into the computer. It’ll be the one in the far back of that room, on the owner’s desk – he’s got a plaque and everything, so you shouldn’t miss it.” He tossed up the pokéball in thought, biting his lip as he weighed the options he’d been presenting, before looking over at Jason and waiting for the other man’s opinion since this was something he’d have to go through with as well.
Post by Jason Tham on Jan 22, 2015 16:23:25 GMT -5
NO LONGER WILL I HAVE TO REWIND THE PAST
It was funny how differently people thought when given the exact same problem, set of conditions and tools to work with. Jason's first reaction when Engel had started to speak had been that of relief, an almost visible release of physical tension on finding out that the man wasn't intending to try and charge the security center like many others might of - a heavily defended spot likely anticipating exactly that kind of response. What relief Jason had felt, however, was only momentary, as much of the previous apprehension from before slowly began to creep back as the Interpol officer continued to speak. While Jason honestly did somewhat feel the need to ask why a supposedly secure network had access points scattered throughout the building, supposedly defeating the purpose of it being centralized into a security station in the first place, that worked for him - the very mistake that had probably landed the hotel in this mess would ironically be the one to bail them out of it.
Where Jason found himself pausing, though, was Engel's plan to reach said computer in the room down the hall - as the officer tilted his phone's screen to show Jason a map of the building's layout, it didn't look too far away. Certainly not far enough to warrant drawing more attention to themselves than they had to, and part of the man wondered if that was standard Interpol operating procedure. Personally speaking, it wasn't a plan that made Jason himself feel even remotely at ease. Everything he knew and had learned had taught the man to stay in the shadows, out of sight and out of mind, to avoid conflict at all possible costs - every time you started a fight you invited the possibility that you'd lose, and it was only by avoiding those conflicts that you denied someone a chance to actually beat you. Simply being spotted in the halls would be enough to have any Luxury operatives in that area of the building start converging to swarm their position, and while Jason was no trainer he was fairly certain there was probably a move or ability out there that'd negate any advantage Engel's Pokemon might've granted in terms of speed. There were far too many things that could go wrong, and as Engel continued to elaborate on something about buying time, Jason's mind began to wander elsewhere as the dark haired man's eyes tracked upwards, head tilting back slightly as he looked at the ceiling.
"... is that really necessary, though?" Jason finally asked, mentally noting the tiled surface above him as he asked the question. One of the many things about building blueprints was that they more often than not only detailed intended passageways, things deliberately built to allow people and objects ways through the buildings - halls, doors, air vents, etc. A lot of the time what they didn't cover was the more detailed stuff, like where the power lines got through walls, or more importantly, how high those walls went into the ceilings themselves. Much of the time, they didn't - it cut back on construction costs without taking away from building stability as long as the load bearing columns were in place, and in turn that allowed for what many maintenance crews used for access crawl ways. Assuming, that was, the ceilings themselves could support the weight. What it would do, though, is offer a likely overlooked means of reaching the goal Engel had spoken about, using a passage that was out of sight. As long as they didn't make much noise, anyways.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]Noticing Jason seeming to tune out as he spoke, Engel gave a flat look to the other man and was about to make a remark on the matter. Before he did, he’d notice where Jason had begun to look and curiosity called for him to follow the other man’s gaze. Tiles covered the ceiling, not matching the well-crafted ceilings out front. Given the fact this was more or less an employee only zone, he figured they thought they’d probably save some money by going for a cheaper material back here. With the prompting question, Engel could already feel a wave from what that implied.
This guy wanted to go up into the ceiling and crawl to the office space. He slowly opened his mouth, before shutting it and brought his gaze back down to look over at Jason with a questioning glance. “You’re not just proposing that because you saw it in some movie one time, are you?” inquired the commander, though he didn’t wait for an answer. Reaching to the side to grab a random broom from the supplies around them, he rose it up with one hand to test the ceiling tile above him. It easily dislodged and already started to slide out of place with a gentle nudge, so Engel already got to pushing the tile up and out of the way.
Carefully raising the broom up to get a rough idea of how much space there was to work with above them, Engel waved it around for a moment. Didn’t look too cramped at least, and with that, he set the broom back aside and looked back to the blue prints. Flicking through them and eyeing the construction, Engel did take a moment to note that there was little to block them from their current location to the office space he’d pointed out. Leaning the broom back aside, he gave his wrist a brief glance before bringing his hands together in front of himself. Interlocking his fingers and shifting his stance, he looked over at Jason. “It’d be a discreet way to go, but the tight spaces aren’t exactly for everyone. I’ll hoist you up so you can get a look at it, and if you’re up for going that route, slide up there. Don’t put weight on the center of the tiles and try to stay as close to the frames as you can. The tiles are menat for holding weight, but the frame should do the trick” he explained, before nodding his head slightly towards the gas masks on the table.
“I’d recommend probably slapping on one of those too, air quality’s not the best and I don’t want to run the risk of sleeping powder to the face up there from shitty vents” he tacked on. Giving Jason his final moments to prep himself, the darker gentleman would step into the prepared foothold Engel offered. With combined effort, he was hoisted up to the ceiling and Engel let out a grunt of effort that was quickly followed by a sharp intake of breath. Something in his wrist did not appreciate that, sharp pain shooting up his arm, but Engel kept his head down and held still for the moment to give Jason the opportunity to look around. “How’s it look up there? You think you’d prefer that route?” he questioned, though he didn’t bring his head up as he kept his whole body braced to hold up the weight of the full grown adult.
[attr="class","letitscroll2"]Skipping Jason Tham to proceed with just Engel and Eileen
Flashdrive has been plugged in, Eileen rehacking into the system will cover next time skip necessary to get thread in sync and set up for the upcoming final hooray for CoR.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]Set and go, Engel propelled Jason properly into the ceiling but just as his wrist was forced to bend further, a shock of pain through his arm ignited a sharp gasp of pain. His arms falling as Jason slithered out of sight, Engel turned a strained glare to his stinging arm. The pain started in his wrist, shooting through his hand and up his forearm, making it hard to bare for a moment. While the other man had turned around to look down at him, Engel continued to refuse to meet his gaze as he held his stinging wrist for a moment. Ignoring the question of concern about if he was okay, the Commander merely stepped to the side and moved the gear from the table to an empty bucket nearby and hid it away under the table.
Even if something happened, he hoped that this would at least spare the Pokémon within the bucket from being taken by the Luxury Grunts roaming the building. Grabbing the gas mask and pulling it on, Engel ensured it was firmly in place before he’d carefully scale a nearby shelf and reach out with his good hand to be hoisted up into the ceiling with Jason. The two men spread out, carefully navigating their way through the cramped crawl space. The com feed began to go silent, and Engel could only pray that meant his people were handling themselves. Even with the pain surging through his arm, his mind went out to his agents. Were they handling themselves alright? Were they getting back control? Without him there beside them, could they handle something this massive of a scale?
He had faith they could, but even a man of faith could worry at times. Having to move forward in a rather awkward, yet careful, army crawl through the ceiling, Engel referenced the blue prints frequently to ensure he was making his way through the ceiling and heading towards the right direction. With the occasional creak and groan, dust shifting and settling, he’d freeze and listen. When no alarm was raised, he would steadily proceed forward until passing the joists and wall that would mean they’ve reached their goal. However, rather than just dropping in right there, Engel continued onwards for a few feet until he was a notable amount away from the door before looking back to make sure Jason was still right behind him.
Good. He was. With a few gestures between them, Engel slowly sat up and turned his focus back down to the ceiling tile he was next to. Tik carefully crawled out from under Engel’s sleeve as he whispered his orders to him, and with a gentle lift of the ceiling tile, the Joltik ducked through the small gap it was offered. Into the office area the Pokémon went, quickly crawling around to study the area and ensure that the room was clear before he came crawling back to the tile Engel had sent him through. His little feet rapidly tapped on the tile as a signal for Engel to lift it back up with a little less caution than last time. “Thanks” he sighed to the Joltik and watched as the small electric bug took cover back under his sleeve. Glancing back at Jason, Engel slowly looked down into the office space below and the first thing he noticed was the fact the room was a disaster. Papers strewn about, furniture moved, items spilled across the floor, and the obvious signs of struggle registered firstly in the Commander’s mind before he noted the distance to the floor. His heavier set of clothes could result in a louder landing than he’d like if he just dropped in, but Jason had come in a bit lighter. So moving out of the way, he let the older of the two drop in first.
As if he’d done it a hundred times, Engel watched Jason skillfully land and roll slightly before he’s right himself. A small stumble there, but he seemed to carry himself as if this wasn’t his first tragedy. As the civilian prepped to help Engel down, the Commander would study him carefully for a long moment. He almost wanted to ask about these convenient skills Jason presented, but after a moment, he realized now wasn’t the time for twenty questions. Sliding from the ceiling and landing softly with Jason’s help, the two would take a moment to study the door before splitting. Jason moving to watch the door as Engel made his way through the room to the computer of the hotel owner.
Having to watch where he stepped, Engel could only hope that as he stepped around to see the computer on the desk that he’d step around to see it was turned on. The screen was black though, and his heart swiftly sank. Dropping into the chair at the desk with a briefly distraught expression, he slowly looked over at the glowing power button of the CPU tower, before looking back at the shut off monitor. Did he need to log in for Eileen to get access? He didn’t know the hotel owner’s log in information, the hell was he supposed to do? This was it, wasn’t i—? Wait. Engel’s eyes flicked back over to the glowing button of the tower, before gazing back at the monitor’s power button. Leaning forward to click it and hesitantly moving the mouse with his good hand, just as the monitor awoke and lit up, Engel’s expression brightened at the sight of the desktop.
It was logged in.
Immediately he dug into his pocket and slid the flash drive into one of the USB ports, and brought his hand to his ear. “I got the flashdrive plugged in” he softly stated with a clear tone of relief. “Do your magic, sweetheart.”
[attr="class","runawayinfo"]Insert the info dump of info dumps at the end.
NOTHING I'VE EVER DONE RIGHT HAPPENED ON THE SAFE SIDE
She was anxious, spinning in her seat and checking the agents' status updates like another woman her age might have been checking facebook. Did she even have a facebook? She had to think about it for a second or two. Wait. Wait. Yes she did, she played that one game with the cute fluffy things for like three months that one time. She would have to check on them someday and hope that little digital pretties hadn't starved. You would think that virtual pets would be easier to take care of than the real deal, but that was simply not the case now, was it?
She spun to check how her attempts at a digital assault were going, but the program she had been trying to run was getting absolutely nothing of value, and Eileen kicked her feet a little, with a growl and a pout looking back to her cell phone. Sometimes she wished she was a field agent so she could go rain down holy terror on things in person. It was very hard to smite evil when evil invested in good virtual padlocks.
What was Engel doing? Was he in the security hub yet? Oh no what if the computer was turned off or something he would know how to turn it back on if its a different model from the ones the offices use which obviously it would be. Engel you can do this. You are a Badass Interpol Special Agent Commander person. you can conquer those computers. I believe in you.
"I got the flash drive plugged in. Do your magic, sweetheart."
Eileen pumped both fists in the air and spun once more in her chair before rolling swiftly back up to the desk. Yes, her computer was already starting to connect up. "You are perfect. I should take you on as my protégé. With a little work we could rule over the tech cosmos together," she hummed. Engel was handling flash drives now, times were a changin'. "Duckies! Battle stations!"
She cracked her knuckles, took a swig from her spill-proof travel cup of an energy drink that no one would be letting her have if they were here, and watched the little swirling connecting symbol do its swirly thing. Once it connected there was probably going to be one more dying burst of a counterattack from the malware, but whoever was hacking for the team didn't have the element of surprise this time. Her duckies were legit all in a row and all she needed was the starting shot.
Time to totally destroy a thing.
For justice.
Sometimes she still wished she could track Walt down, though she had a feeling that he was one of those people who couldn't be found unless he wanted to be. But she liked to think he would be proud of what she had moved up to from when she was ten and blindly tapping at his computers. For being an ex-con she was relatively certain he would greatly approve of her law enforcement endeavors. More than Joss did, definitely.
Once Eileen had a line back in, there was really zero chance of kicking her out again. The next few moments were a full-on virtual assault, coding circles through the software, shutting it down piece by piece as the pixel ducks helped to purge the affected areas. Headphones on, the only sound came from the furious rapid-fire keystrokes, the screen a blur of command prompt boxes and status messages, and the in-again-out-again maneuvers of the Porygons. There was nothing quite like eating terrorists' plans alive.
One at a time the key systems were lighting back up for her, and as the flash drive program and the duckies continued to tear through the remains of the hack, she switched over to start reasserting control of the security mainframe. The cameras flicked back on like turning on a light.
"I'm omniscient! I'm back I can see everything! Everybody can send me skittle offerings now~!" Oh boy . . . she could see everything . . . Her eyes darted over the various scenes before flipping back to the happy sight of Engel in one piece in the security hub. ". . . I can give you a overall status update my darling but it is not going to be pretty."
Once he was ready she would begin going down the list of what she was seeing where to finally get the commander on the same page as the rest of the fiasco.
CODED BY SYLVIE
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[attr="class","letitscroll2"]I apologize for the wait and how much of a shitty post this is, but hey it's posted and I hope some people get some amusement out of it
Engel's wrist is now pretty much broken by this point. Ann and Yui take down two Luxury Agents and their Oddish, before Engel finally can respond on the com.
This is the final post for this thread, PMs will be set up and issued today for everyone's final prompt to wrap up this event over the course of the next week.
[attr="class","letitscroll"]With the praise from his favorite Technician, Engel rolled his eyes and reached forward to shut the monitor back off. Become her protégé? He wasn’t sure if she was teasing him, or if she was really honestly considering trying to teach him her ways. Either way, he’d save her the burden and just stick to the field work he did now, thanks. With a soft chuckle at the call for battle, he slowly dug into the drawers of the desk before pulling out a pack of sticky notes. Grabbing a pen and clicking it, he took to writing down the words ‘OUT OF ORDER’ on the top note. Layering it up so the notes were thick enough to block the light from the computer tower’s power button, he stuck the note over the button in hopes of keeping anyone from noticing it.
After doing so, he tossed the pen back into the drawer and pushed it shut before dropping back into the seat behind him. Jason was taking to exploring the room while Engel just sat and waited for Eileen to give him an update. His eyes trailed down to his wrist, bruising and slight swelling making it clear – if the pain hadn’t already done that – that he was not going to be using it for a while. He probably needed a cast or brace of sorts, but now wasn’t the time. He was in the middle of the Luxury hive’s territory over the hotel, cut off from his agents, and forced to play a waiting game.
However, as he waited, his gaze would travel over to the side to see a box sitting precariously on the edge of one of the nearby tables. With little much to do with his current free time, Engel stood up from his seat and made his way over to the box, slipping it from the edge and into his arms. Peering inside, he’d see that a couple of eggs were inside. It wasn’t too surprising, given what this convention was, but to have them just left here like this… He lightly touched the shells and paused at how cold they felt. Scoffing to himself, part of him made a mental note that Elizabeth would maim him if he just left the eggs to die due to the coldness.
Part of him didn’t feel like leaving them to freeze, either, so with a look around the office space, he looked for the best and most quiet means to warm them up. While the space heater he saw under one of the desks would’ve been ideal, it’d also be far louder than he would have liked, and when he was getting ready to consider setting something on fire, Engel finally spotted a jacket that had been abandoned by one of the toppled over chairs. Heading over to it, Engel slowly picked the jacket up from the ground and carefully took to wrapping the eggs back up. An inspection of the markings gave him a general idea of what was inside the eggs but again, they’d have to be hidden away for him to return to. Finding a lid that nearly fit the box, he placed it on top and slid the eggs over by one of the vents. While busted, he could still feel some heat coming out of it at the least so it was better than nothing.
Once setting the Elgyem and Eevee eggs down, that would later be given to him as thanks from the owner of the hotel as a reward for his efforts, he would be startled by the sound of one of the shelves being knocked over. “Jason” he hissed like a curse word, only to turn to see the young man – no longer wearing his gas mask – was next to him and nowhere near the toppled shelf. He looked just as startled as Engel was, both of them turning towards the door as activity outside of the room would pick up in response to the loud noise that’d been made. “We’re leaving” the Commander stated, starting away from the box and moving back over to the center of the room quickly. The door rattled slightly with shouting from the hall and quickly Engel turned over to Jason, moving into position to prepare to throw his temp-partner back up into the ceiling. Without a word uttered between them, Tham understood the gesture and raced across the room, stepping smoothly into Engel’s hands without stopping, and was immediately hoisted into the ceiling. As Jason turned to reach down for Engel, though, he’d turn to see Engel was in the process of reeling back in pain from his wrist giving finally under lifting Jason’s weight again.
The door was cracked open and Jason vanished into the ceiling as Engel swiftly retreated back behind a shelf. Immediately stepping as quietly as he could manage away from the center of the room, he paused his movements to glance up to Jason who was furiously trying to sign something to him, but it was too dark for him to properly see what the other man was trying to say to him. Engel just quickly motioned for him to scram before he saw the cloud of sleeping powder sweeping across the room. “Come out now, or we’ll drag you out!” a young woman shouted, making Engel tense up. With a final warning to the civilian, Engel was at least relieved when he final saw Jason move back and cover his face back up. The ceiling tile slid back into place as the Pokémon causing the current wave of Sleeping Powder to sweep through the office would start to enter.
Ducking down and maneuvering to the end of the shelf, he’d lean slightly to peer over towards the door and see at least three grunts had gathered around the door, wearing their own gas masks and keeping an eye out for any movement. His escapes were all blocked, but they hadn’t spotted him yet. There was still an advantage to be had here. Hopefully even if he did get caught in here, Eileen would be able to finish without him having to touch anything. Thankfully, Jason hid himself in time that he could step up to bat should that be necessary, Engel would just have to resort to operation Buy Them Time. Pressing his back against the shelf gently, he sank slowly down to get out of the line of sight and vanish into the cloud of sleeping powder, feeling the weight of his Joltik suddenly increase as it fell asleep. He was on his own.
Peering back around the corner of the shelf, it seemed the lack of the sound of a body hitting the floor left the Luxury agents confused. Two of them slowly filed into the room, making their way over to the toppled over shelf as the other stood by the door to continue blocking the exit. They’d move along carefully, making idle chatter in the mean time about the current shit storms being unleashed throughout the hotel. End of the world happening in the Lobby, Darth Vader in the Cafeteria, drama drama drama, they’d chat as the two got to work pulling the fallen over shelf back up to see if the culprit had gotten smashed by it somehow. The man by the door prevented any progress that way and with the other two distracted by the shelf, Engel turned around to instead slowly make his way to a nearby desk to take cover under. Using the cloud of sleeping powder still being created as a cover, he easily slid under the desk and briefly glanced to his swollen wrist and limp hand. Yep, that fucking hurt. Paying it no mind though, he slowly turned to pull out two pokéballs and pointed them towards himself, using the desk to shield the flash of him unleashing the Treecko and Tangela from view.
For a moment, Ann the Treecko was immediately concerned with the pained look on her trainer’s face that was clear even despite the gas mask, but he quickly shook his head and held up his hand to alert her to be silent. Yui had no issue, being unable to speak and having also been a part of Engel’s team far longer than the Treecko, and simply waited for him to explain. Explaining what he wanted the two to do the best he could with one hand, there was a briefly baffled look on his Treecko’s face and the passive look on Yui’s didn’t give him much to work with either. Did she understand? It’d be so much easier if he could use both of his hands, or talk, or at least write it down, but that wasn’t an option right now. Clinching his jaw at her confusion, he looked around before grabbing a piece of paper, only to freeze as the Oddish causing the non-stopping Sleep Powder would wander into view. Ann turned to see the Pokémon and almost immediately moved to launch into action, only for Engel and Yui to grab her tail and hold her still as the Oddish happily wandered pass, not seeming to notice them hunched under one of the desks.
“I don’t fucking see anyone in here, man!”
“Well the shelf didn’t just fall over by itself, dumbass.”
“Are you sure that’s what we heard? Some guy demolished the air vent earlier, maybe that’s what we heard?”
“Agent… Diderich, I’m down.”
Engel’s heart stopped for a moment in shock.
“I… Commander, tell Ace to run.”
No, that voice, that was not the Luxury Grunts in the room, that was coming out of his God damn com. That voice didn’t sound right either, it was hurt… There was fucking pain in that voice, and Engel’s eyes slowly widened in alarm.
“Just check the God damn room you two.”
“Shut up, will ya, pushy polly.”
“That has to be the worst nickname ever, of all time. Just check for fuck’s sake, this room's creepin’ me out.”
Shut up, Engel mentally demanded, trying to focus on the voice in his ear. Ann turned to him with a panicked look as she felt his grip on her tail start to tighten.
“We’re checking, we’re checking, ya pansy!”
“Please just tell him to run. Make him run…”
Engel’s breath started to come in short waves as he processed that request. Something happened, something just happened to Rhafiel and here he was, hiding like a coward. “Please, Engel, order him to run away.” Engel could hear the footsteps of the Luxury agents coming closer and he slowly forced himself to let go of Ann’s tail, trembling suddenly. “Give him the fucking order and get him out of here…” He shrank back under the desk, reaching up to his com as the Luxury Agents came to a stop on the other side of the desk he hid beneath.
“You hear that?”
“Hear what?”
Slowly his finger brought down the volume as he bit his lip to hold back the urge to shout.
“Engel, don’t listen to him!”
“It’s like a buzzing noise, like someone’s voice coming from a far off phone or somethin’.”
Taking a slow deep breath, Engel turned his gaze to Ann, who immediately shoved aside her panic as cold teal eyes met her reptilian gaze. He nodded back towards the incoming Luxury Agents, before bringing his finger up to tap on the gas mask and pretend to fall asleep. However, he held up a hand to signal for her to wait, and then held up two fingers and silently knocked his hand against his knee. The Treecko got the point with that one and with a glance over at the Tangela and a point at the Oddish, the other Pokémon gave a nod of understanding.
“I’m not leaving Rhafiel, whether you give me a order or not!”
Good boy.
Suddenly, without warning, the Treecko would leap up into Luxury view and take stance on the desk with a cool look on her face. “He needs medical attention right now.” Engel swallowed hard and simply bowed his head as he remained silent. The pained look on his face only grew, but he held his tongue. With Ann stepping onto the desk, the two Luxury Agents jerked to a stop before one of them sighed.
“See, I told you Sleep Powder didn’t work for everything, dumbass!” Ann gave off a pink glow of Agility as she amped up her speed for her plan of action, which quickly had both the Luxury Agents step back and one of them reach for their pokéballs on their belt.
“Send the medical team, an ambulance, something! We’re by the front doors.”
They were by the front doors, Engel reminded himself. Someone had to see what had happened, the two had somehow got the doors open, there had to be someone…
“I never said it did” the other grumbled before the Oddish would turn around. Just before it could alert Luxury of Engel’s hiding spot, the Commander kicked out the chair that would be caught by the Tangela’s Power Whip, brought up in the air, and slammed down on the poor unsuspecting Oddish. The Luxury Agents jerked their heads from the lone Treecko to the sudden attack, one of them fumbling with their pokéballs, only to be caught off guard by Ann using Quick Attack to kick their hand away and grab the balls in the process. Swinging around to do the same to the other agent, she raced off faster than they could keep up to throw the pokéballs into a nearby trash can, pick that up and begin to race around the room in a game of Keep Away.
“Engel, someone, please, just do it. I know I’m a kid and I’m a dumbass but please just listen to me.”
I hear you loud and clear, Engel thought, before making a note of what to say when he could speak. If he opened his mouth, it was game over. As much as his heart shattered, as much as the rage boiled and the desire to act pulsed through him, Engel stayed still, stayed silent, and waiting for his chance. If he stepped out and showed himself now, he’d be taken down by the hive faster than he could say a damn thing to anyone.
The superior Luxury grunt at the door could only watch in dumbstruck awe at the scene unfolding before him, before letting out a heavy frustrated sigh. Just a couple of grass types raising some Hell because their trainers were gone, fantastic. Stepping around to flick on the lights to make it easier for the lesser grunts running around, the man at the door would shut it to prevent the Treecko from escaping. Things were starting to round up out here, so helping a couple of morons wasn’t his priority right now.
“Listen closely. Ace was it?”
That wasn’t one of his agents’ voice, nor did it sound like a voice he’d ever want to hear on his feed.
“You and whoever is on the other end of your little communicator will find it within your best interests to listen to me. I have brought two of Interpol’s agents to their knees. With only words, I had one of your agents trembling in fear, crying, apologizing to me in fact.”
A deep breath was required as a wave of heated rage flushed through him, and Engel just listened. This was the bastard that dared to fuck with Dressler, to bring a steel wall to her knees. This was the bastard that made Rhafiel’s voice tremble, that made Ace cry out, and Engel listened, he did as requested of him.
“By the time the day is done, you will have arrested countless members of this team Luxury that orchestrated these events, but know that I am not among their number. I am a third… far more impressive party.”
Engel had to suppress a laugh at that. My, someone was really riding their little victory high right now. Maybe the amusement and laughter was just a means of coping with the anger he was unable to vent right now, but dear Arceus did he have to bite his tongue pretty hard to not start laughing.
“Let Interpol know my name, I am End—” A smirk slid across the Commander’s face under the gas mask he wore “—and will continue to best yu. Till we meet again… Mister “Engel”.”
Oh how nice, a message just for him? Engel was really rearing to get a move on now. Despite the rage now prepared to fuel his next adrenaline rush, he forced himself to stay still in his hiding spot, even as the lights flicked on, and watched with soulless eyes as his Tangela dealt with the misfortunate Oddish that was just there to put people to sleep. Judging by the battle he was watching, the Oddish didn’t have much training aside from being able to maintain Sleep Powder for lengthy periods of time.
“Don’t worry, Ace” the voice of an angel broke through the once tense silence in Engel’s ears and he seemed to calm for a moment. “I’m on my way. Back-up arrived, Mr. Enge – our room is clear and secured. I’m going ot lend assistance to Ace and Rhafiel immediately.” Engel’s eyes got a flicker of life back to them at that, part of his rage calmed by the news that his agents were not all down for the count; that things were changing in their favor.
The Sleep Powder had stopped though and as the Oddish was chucked aside like trash, the Tangela would start to unleash her own clouds of Sleep Powder. Now Engel had control of the knock out gas, and with that, he reached up to knock on the desk twice. Immediately following that cue, his Treecko would stop her game of keep away with the pokéballs and simply toss the trash can aside. Redirecting her route, she went for the grunts’ gas masks and yoinked them off as she leapt from one to the other’s shoulder. Skipping across the floor to hop back up onto the desk Engel was hiding under, she dropped the masks down and turned to look back at them with a smug look.
“Oddish, stop the powd—!” the words caught in the grunt’s throat as the Tangela stepped more clearly into view, with the Sleep Powder being directed towards the grunts. Covering their mouths and holding their breaths, they quickly tried to retreat, but the Tangela whipped out another set of Power Whips to grab them and yank them harshly to the ground. Tugging and struggling, the grunts were unable to reach the trashcan holding their pokéballs before the Tangela pulled them away. Once they ran out of breath, they gasped sharply, taking a nice deep breath of Sleep Powder. Shortly after the audible gasps, Engel slowly emerged from his hiding spot and scooped up the two gas masks to hook to his belt for just in case.
“Good job, Ann, Yui” Engel finally spoke, his voice quiet but tone firm. Slowly moving around the desk, and making his way over to the Luxury grunts now fast asleep on the floor, he leaned down to pick up one of their coms from their ears and set it to his ear. It was busy with all sorts of chatter and alerts about incoming Interpol taking back the Hotel and Engel simply pocketed it for a moment. His focus shifted back to the computer the flashdrive was plugged into and he slowly made his way over to check on the progress. Flicking the monitor back on to see the flashdrive was still plugged in and doing its job, Engel flicked it back off before looking up to the ceiling.
“Mr. Engel, are you alright?” Elizabeth spoke to once more bring Engel back down to earth without even trying. “Mr. Engel, we got Rhafiel out, Ace and I are at the doors. Where are you, sir, we’ll go help.” He took a slow deep breath and started to reach up to his ear to touch the Interpol com and finally speak after being silent for so long.
“I’m omniscient!” The shout nearly made Engel jump out of his skin and he clutched his chest to hold his racing heart. Sweetheart, now was not the ti—Wait. “I’m back I can see everything!” Now was definitely the time, oh electronic goddess. “Everybody can send me Skittle offerings now~!” Engel brought his hand up to his face at the words and slowly shook his head before adjusting the com in his ear. He brought his gaze up to the security camera in the room and offered a slight wave with his good hand, avoiding moving his fucked up wrist entirely. The previous joy and excitement in Eileen’s voice seemed to sink away as she alerted him that she can give him a status update, but it wasn’t going to be pretty. He knew.
He sank back into the chair behind him, again, and gave a soft “Go for it” before Eileen laid the news on him.
As it sank in, Engel gathered his thoughts and watched the door idly from his seat before reaching up to finally pull off the gas mask. Yui’s Sleep Powder had settled long ago, letting him breathe without fear. He reached up and pressed his finger to the Interpol com and finally after a lengthy period of silence, Engel spoke.
“Engel Werner checking back in after unexpected radio silence. I am currently in the back of the Hotel, Luxury agents have surrounded my position and I am unable to move from my position. However, radio chatter from the Luxury feed has declared that they are beginning to evacuate and pull out of the hotel as we speak with their loot. Stop any and all trucks attempting to leave the Loading Dock area. That is your main priority.”
He paused to pull the Luxury com from his pocket and set it in his other ear. Listening for a moment, he’d pull it back so to speak. “The Leader is the Kalosian woman heard from the speakers earlier, track her down by any means necessary. She goes by the title Queen Bee.” Engel’s voice was calm the whole time, his expression passive for the moment, before his mind slowly trailed back to the previous incident and suddenly he’d speak up one final time.
“And if End is listening to this feed still, you listen closely to me” he nearly snarled, slowly rising from his chair as the rage pumped another wave of energy through him. “If you are so vain as to call yourself End and brag to me about your wretched acts against my agents, then you better damn well have the balls to come and face me yourself. I’ll show you a true ending that’s only suitable for such a cowardly piece of trash such as yourself, so come now, don’t be afraid. Let’s give this bullshit the kind of END game it deserves!”
He paused to wait for a response, before making a mental note that the rest of Interpol could indeed hear his rant. When nothing was said back, he clicked the button again and barked out his orders with sudden liveliness. “I don’t hear asses being kicked out there, did I stutter with my orders earlier?! Move it!”
