Hunter V3ct0r and Sharkey enter into the virtual and find a hyper real simulation inside. Instead of avatars, they arrive into the simulation exactly as they appear in the real world. V3ct0r sees Sharkey fully for the first time. Before the netrunner and hacktivist can work out a plan to find Aiko, however, the door they came through is shut closed behind them. To make matters worse, the limited broadcast that was allowing for Sharkey to travel into the virtual with V3ct0r was beginning to suffer from a staggering amount of lag time. Realizing the danger ahead, Sharkey provided V3ct0r's sim avatar the use of a few one-use-only programs from her cyberdeck. Worried about getting back out, Sharkey began working on the door while V3ct0r pushed ahead to the tower that lay in the distance. Meanwhile, Killeroo and Swede soon noticed that a red light now lit up the hallway outside the server room. A corpsec team was likely seconds to minutes away from arriving. Watching V3ct0r's progress in the virtual through a view screen attached to the cyber terminal, Swede and V3ct0r began communicating about working out an exit strategy now that security had been alerted to their presence. Growing exasperated with the circumstances, Swede drew his pistol and began thinking about shooting the servers--thinking this would be a viable option for the netrunner and hacktivist to exit out of the virtual safely. V3ct0r reminded him that such an action might prove potentially lethal--at least for her. It was not long before the first wave of the Yokono corporate security team emerged from the elevator armed with automatic weapons, concussion grenades, gas bombs and headless four legged drones. Killeroo wasted no time in dismembering three security guards with Lil' Betty. Suddenly, Swede became aware of the other cyberterminals becoming active by an unknown remote user called "Hunter". The doctor first attempted to shut down the terminal by smashing the cyberdeck with his pistol, which proved ineffective. Next he fired several shots from his pistol into the terminal--shutting it down completely. His success was short lived, however, when the other cyber terminals began activating remotely as well. Looking at the terminal's view screens, he saw a new avatar making its way into the lobby and then into the virtual itself. Shortly after this time, Swede heard Sharkey screaming into his comm before the line went completely dead. Making it safely to the tower, V3ct0r used the invisibility program Sharkey gave her to slip past the first red armored samurai guarding the entrance. Inside the tower, she came upon a mural depicting two red clad samurai fighting Asian style dragons, a high flying falcon and a kimono wearing woman alone in a distant tower. Heading up a stone stairway she witnessed the "holes to nowhere" that the team had recently discovered when they raided the development files on Project Aiko, moments before she had jacked into the virtual. The textures and the geometry it was attached to flickered and died, leaving an oblong black space along the stairwell's wall. Reaching the top floor of the tower, V3ct0r witnessed the other red clad samurai shutting a pair of paper doors to the chamber beyond. Flattening herself against the wall and crouching, she successfully hid herself from the guard's view as he began his robotic like descent to the bottom floor. Things began to heat up outside the server room as the security team brought out a pair of drones to incapacitate the intruders. Though he was able to move fast enough to keep out of the drone's reach, Killeroo took some fire in his shoulder from some of the remaining security guards that were still behind cover. Moving back into the server room, Swede managed to confuse the drone with his uniform long enough for 'Roo to baseball bat the drone with Betty, smashing it against one of the servers and denting its metal plated case. Both runners froze as the lights on all the slave servers flared up momentarily. Soon, both runners began to hear a hissing sound coming from the hallway in addition to the ding of an elevator, heralding the arrival of even more security personnel. Killeroo braved the crossfire hallway again and successfully fired through the walls and cover that the cubicle farm provided some of the guards--killing them instantly and damaging the elevator in the process. Despite not getting shot in the process, however, he had exposed himself to some type of gas the new team was employing. As the mist began to expand and permeate the hallway, 'Roo's eyesight began to swim and his grip on Betty began to loosen. Aiko Entering the last floor of the tower, V3ct0r saw a young Asian girl dressed in a traditional kimono, in chains at the center of the room. Facing away from the stairway, she appeared to languish in her imprisonment. "Aiko?" the hactivist called out. Looking over her shoulder, Aiko asked if V3ct0r was with Hunter or if the Shogun had sent her. "No, I'm a warrior from a far off land and I'm here to save you," V3ct0r said. Aiko's eyes lit up with hope, perhaps for the first time. Wasting no more time, V3ct0r manifested one of Sharkey's attack programs and sliced through the chains. When she asked Aiko if there was another way out, she pointed to a part of the chamber that contained scrolls saying that Hunter sometimes utilized a secret passage through there. Easily finding the secret passage, V3ct0r climbed another set of stairs that led to the roof of the tower. Emerging outside again, both young women were greeted by a third samurai not depicted in any of the murals below. This warrior looked very different from the others and had a falcon perched on his arm. Unlike the other warriors, this samurai was not a program. "YOU are the one poking around my virtual?!" he asked incredulously as he saw V3ct0r for the young hacker that she was. "You and your friends are going to regret having come here. V3ct0r, realizing she had just come across Yokono's in-house netrunner, proceeded to taunt the samurai by insisting that Yokono was throwing away tens of millions of credits just so some acne faced wannabe netrunner could have a cyber relationship with his "computer girlfriend". Enraged, the warrior drew the blade he had previously used to dispatch Sharkey and charged at her. Catching him off balance, V3ct0r kicked the back of his knees--sending the netrunner rolling and tripping down the stairway. A surprised Aiko shrieked at the sight of him and moved away. "It's him! Its Hunter!" Looking for a weapon, V3ct0r spotted a long bow and quiver at the top of the tower floor. Unfortunately, the shot she took at Hunter glanced harmlessly off of his armor. The netrunner proceeded to slice through the bow, narrowly missing her with his katana. V3ct0r now lay prone on the stone floor at edge of Hunter's blade. Exit Strategies Swede blasted one more cyber terminal and injected the hybrid with some
concoction he had taped to his chest underneath his security guard
disguise. While it did alleviate some of 'Roo's pain, it also had the side
effect of placing the hybrid in an enraged state. "I told you I don't do well with drugs!" 'Roo growled through his teeth. "Trust
me, I know what I'm doing," replied the doctor as he began guzzling
some strange mix of drugs. The mixture acted as both a
stimulant and pain killer for the doctor, heightening his awareness and
coordination to boot. With renewed vigor, the doctor stepped out into the hallway with his hands in the air. * Inside the virtual, V3ct0r blinked as Hunter's avatar froze, flickered and disappeared from sight. * As the second security team yelled at Swede to drop to the floor in Japanese, the good doctor fooled some of them into thinking that he had the situation under control. He then approached one of the tactical team's members who unsuccessfully took a swipe at his head. Taking the opportunity, Swede pulled the pin on one of the guard's concussion grenades and proceeded to run like hell. The resulting explosion not only incapacitated the tactical team, however, it also knocked the doctor to the floor. * Fleeing down the stairway with Aiko, V3ct0r heard the heavy footsteps of the samurai ascending the tower once again. Utilizing one of Sharkey's defensive programs, she summoned a shield that she used to knock the warrior down the stairs. As a stroke of luck, the samurai fell into the black hole to nowhere she had noticed earlier, never to be seen again. As the pair made their way out through the main hallway of the tower, the paper doors along the side were sliced open by the lone remaining samurai, now sporting red glowing eyes and breathing fire out of his nostrils. It seemed as if the laws of reality within the virtual were now being warped by these programs. V3ct0r used one of the last of Sharkey's programs, represented in the virtual as a smoke bomb, to cover their escape. Though they managed to escape the tower and keep the last remaining samurai program confused, V3ct0r's arm was sliced open by the warrior's blade. This caused V3ct0r to suffer some dump shock feedback, though it was nothing she couldn't handle. Making it to the doorway she came in through, they both heard Hunter's voice reverberate throughout the virtual. Clearly, he was somehow manipulating the code in the virtual, making him nearly impossible to defeat within the simulation. Taking Aiko's hand and placing it on the door, V3ct0r watched the AI program disappear through the threshold. With the last of the samurai approaching fast on horseback, V3ct0r used the last attack program she had left and sliced open the door. As she stepped through it again she felt the exertion Hunter was placing on her from inside the virtual. Arriving in the lobby, V3ct0r found a file of files splayed all over the floor. Picking them up, she began the slow process of logging back out and transferring the files to a chip. Project Aiko was now in her possession. * After gaining their faculties, the team began firing on the remaining servers--destroying them and the window facing outside. V3ct0r defaced the offices with a black marker, writing slurs on the wall and making it appear that all this destruction was an attempt by a radical hate group. They began placing multiple calls to emergency services, claiming that these "terrorists" had donned the appearance of Yokono security guards to gain entry. Locating a window washing scaffold, Killeroo began working the pulley system and brought the platform to them. As they began to lower themselves to the bottom floor, however, security forces began to converge on the streets below. Security forces that were now in a tense stand off with another third party security service and the district police. A shoot out quickly ensued between the three factions with the team caught in the middle of the crossfire. Killeroo's hind leg withstood a blast of buckshot and Swede was hit in the head with a baton before both runners were able to escape via manhole cover. V3ct0r managed to slip past the barricades, rolled into a gutter and slipped into the sewers below. The team then proceeded with the long slog through the underground sewer system and emerged outside of Sharkey's. Moral Quandaries and Aftermath s Shortly after arriving, the team was met with surprise and anger by Sharkey, who thought everyone had died on the run. Jazz came with the rest of the credits she had promised the team for successfully retrieving Project Aiko. While the team healed up, V3ct0r showed Jazz what Aiko really was through a chat program. Jazz began to speak to this artificial intelligence that clearly didn't know another world existed beyond the one she was created in. V3ct0r, Jazz and Sharkey began to weigh the options and possibilities of having an AI. Jazz appeared to be vehemently against selling what she referred to as a "living, thinking being". V3ct0r felt that Aiko should be given up for adoption by a university under a promise clause to not abuse or manipulate the AI. Jazz and Sharkey felt that was comparing Aiko to a pet dog or a slaved automaton. This confused the doctor and 'Roo to some extent, prompting Jazz to explain to them the difference between an automaton and an artificial intelligence. Despite the explanation, the pair was not convinced that this was a conversation they should be having. With that, Killeroo and Swede left for 'Roo's home where the doctor would attempt to treat the hybrid's extensive wounds. Being a fifteen year old teenager and an orphan, V3ct0r was not pleased at the way she was being ordered to leave Aiko to whatever fate Jazz wanted. So she created a copy of the AI and handed that to Sharkey and Jazz to play with while she secretly kept the original and left the safehouse in a huff. * V3ct0r then called Swede and Killeroo, telling them that Jazz was keeping Aiko to herself (and presumably all the money she stands to make from selling her), leaving the rest of the team "with their dicks in the wind". Arriving at home to deliriously worried parents, V3ct0r played the "you don't love me because I'm adopted" card and caused the couple to argue about her well being. Her mother took to her side and assured her that they were just worried about her while her father complained about having just spent five hours on the phone with the local police trying to figure out where she had gone. * Killeroo found his front door open and Spade missing from where he had restrained him last. The handcuffs 'Roo had used to secure the teenager in place looked to have been sawed through. He proceeded to check the boy's room and found the contents to have been tossed. Spade didn't run away, he was taken.
