3764/Tidepool: After the Hack

Tidepool: After the Hack
Date of Scene:	30 January 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye meets with Genus and ends up shooting /another/ SHIELD agent.
Cast of Characters:	Arnim Zola, Quake
Tinyplot:	Rising Tide

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Arnim Zola has posed:
Genus was nothing if but careful. He knew the AI had traced him, so hed ditched his rig, didnt go back to his bounce and stayed in the wind until he could get new equipment and reach out through that old channel to Skye. His message was another picture, just random people on a New York Street, and like the last time the metadata had another diner and another time for the meet. This time one in Mutant Town at 7pm.

When Skye arrives, Genus is sitting at a booth in the back and lifts his hand in greeting when she enters. Much like Clint had been there are circles under his eyes, eyes that look around furtively while he waits for her to join him.
.

Quake has posed:
Mutant town. Not a place Skye has really been to before, but then again, of late she's been seeing a lot of places she'd never been before. Something about being on the run and the darker underbelly of humanity going hand in hand. She'd thought that being a hacktivist had meant a lot of hiding and hanging out in places where you were less likely to be found. As it turned out, there were plenty of other places people went to hide or disappear.

Not that the denizens of Mutant town would appreciate being considered a place folks went to disappear - they lived there after all - but one really couldn't argue that the bulk of 'normals' avoided the place like the plague. And like many places of its ilk, it ran by a lot of its own rules.

Rig in tow, she manages to find the meetup. He gets a small nod, and a press of lips that's almost, but not quite, a smile as she slips into a seat at the table across from him. "Hey."

Arnim Zola has posed:
Genus looks, up his lips likewise press into an almost smile as he clings to his coffee like a life preserver. "Hey," he answers back as he cranes his neck to look for people looking at them. No one appears to be so takes a long sip of the bitter smelling coffee in his cup and makes a face, reaching for the cream and sugar. "So, you guys, H, Mo, get out okay?" he asks.

Quake has posed:
Skye Johnson says, "Hey. How's the coffee?" She nods with her chin towards the cup he holds, as though she actually drinks the stuff for its flavour. Though now that she's been drinking actual brewed coffee instead of the instant stuff, she's beginning to understand the attraction of the stuff. However, when he asks about the others, Skye's features crinkle into a frown.

"We hit a few snags. H fell first. Mo nearly made contact. I had to burn my trail and run. You?"

Skye can't help allow a small hint of smirk at Miles fate. "Hey, I told him too." She gestures for a cup of coffee, and turns back to Genus. "Mo's clean. Think H is. He ended up the sacrficial lamb in the end. Not like we planned it." She shrugs. "Just how it went."

Listening, she watches him stir in his cream, reaching for a third one, and opening it for him, handing it over. "Heh. You got hit with the AI, huh? damn, I wish you'd have been able to keep it busy longer." It, not them. She knows there were two, but she's not sure how far that information went given how the operation went down.

She shakes her head, though. over Saf. "No. She's awol. So are a bunch of the west coasters. And a number across the pond. East fared decently, but they were mostly mid level. Lost a whole swath of the noobs." Which had been totally expected, and served as something of a weeding out process as it happened. Still, there were any number of low level dabblers who had just gotten themselves onto a few prominent lists, if not a knock on the door by authorities."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Crappy," Genus says of the coffee as he pulls the little tray of cream over and begins to open one. "Cream and sugar are our friends tonight," he says. Genus, "Hehs," softly when he's told H went down first. Though he does ask. "I warned them this wasn't going to be easy. Did Mo and H get clean too?" he says as one cream is put in his coffee and he starts opening a second.

"As for me, Saf and I got through the puzzle box at the front door and were infiltrating the voice command system to see if it would get us where we needed to go when this AI came screaming down on us," he says shaking his head as tosses the little creamer cup aside. Spotting the table with the dregs. "If I hadn't been shitting myself, I am sure 12 year old me would have been thrilled. Anyhow, it tagged me and Saf. I bounced and have been in the wind. I haven't been able to reach out to many people, but so far, the word is Saf hasn't checked in yet, is that true?" he asks.

It was. Momento had been worried about that, Miles too, though with Miles there was a bit of annoyance mixed in with his worry. He had /plans/ not that he was telling people about them. Not yet.

Quake has posed:
Skye's coffee arrives, and she waits till the waiter is out of earshot before talking again, but not without a quick sweep of the joint. It's a habit she's picked up from SHIELD. Always be aware of your surroundings...

"Hey, I could have told you all that Stark wasn't the kiddie pool. I mean, the operation was pretty fucking A, but odds were it wasn't going to work." She nods thoughtfull, reaching for a cream. "Yeah. It's all voice on Tony's end. I've seen it."

Her cream is stirred in and found wanting, much as Genus had warned. Skye makes an educated guess, based on his, that she's going to need 3 or 4 more and grabs them up opening each in turn and stirring until she reaches a colour she deems drinkable.

"Fuck. Sorry about that G. Not sure if there's anything I can do, but Saf's not dumb. She's likely holed up." Though she has to shake her head as she tells him, "Not much. Most of the operation was spent on avoiding his security. I didn't even get a latch on anything. Some random file that was worth shit. H wasn't too upset, though." Which was her way of gauging just what Genus had surmised about the whole deal: that it was a trial run for something else.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Genus does smile a little at the details of H's fate. "I know, he's on our side and all, but good," he says. He puts the sugar in next, moving the little aluminum and glass holder, and pouring a liberal dose into his coffee, setting it down on the table between them.

His smile vanishes when he lowers his cup and it's not because of the taste of the coffee. "Fuck, we barely slowed the thing down at all and we'd already done all our little tricks to stay hidden. We didn't mention it to the rest, but I had this idea after watching a documentary on Stark Tower. They said the whole thing is wired for voice commands, meaning that system had to go everywhere, figured it was our best route out of the lower level stuff without getting caught. Guess the AI saw that one coming," he sakes his head.

His mood grows darker still when it's clear Saf hadn't checked in. "Damn. She was with me the whole way there, I mean we live half the world away, but damn. I hope she was smart and just dropped her rig and holed up somewhere." The other losses, they're noted before he asks the question, "So what'd we get out of all of this?" he asks.

Quake has posed:
Yeah. That look didn't sit right. It was the kind of look people gave you when they were trying to place where they'd seen you before, and there were only a couple of reasons that could be true. Sure, it might just be a 'hey did I see you at the bar last Saturday' kinda look, but Skye's gut told her this was more a 'all points bulletin' kind of look.

"Uh, G? We're gonna bounce. You're gonna head back to the men's and walk straight out without looking back. Understand? If you don't hear from me in 12, contact H and tell him I'm lost."

She picks up her coffee and forces herself to look relaxed, all the while calculating how long G would need to slip out the back before she could toss a bill on the table and slip out the front.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Genus' posture stiffens when Skye tells them they have to bounce. Though to his credit he doesn't look around, but slams back the rest of his coffee, giving Skye a low thumbs up to let her know he'd heard and understood. When he sets down his coffee, he says, "Gotta take a piss," then gets up and makes his way towards the bathroom at a casual pace, not looking around, and trying not to draw attention to himself.

Genus passes through the bathroom doors without incident. Best guess he'd probably be gone in a minute or two after that. Depending on if there was a backdoor that was unlocked or if he had squeeze through a window.

The guy at the counter though, definitely turns and watches Skye when Genus gets up and leaves. He stands up, and begins to head over, the way his jacket bunches as he stands up between a couple of other patrons, shows a gun in a holster at his hip under his suit jacket: An ICER. He pulls the coat down over his weapon and keeps moving towards Skye's table.

Quake has posed:
Okay, then. Not exactly a surprise, but definitely the worst case scenario for being spotted. And that ICER.. yeah. She's seen what those can do, and Skye's not wanting to stick around to be on the receiving end of that. Even if inwardly she knew Clint might be amuse in an apologetic way.

Casually, she frowns at her phone, pulls a random bill from her pocket and throws it on the table, even as she grabs for her laptop bag and stands.

Given that she's been made, Skye doesn't make any other pretenses for her actions, merely moving towards the door at a determined pace. At this point, Genus is on his own. Or, as she figures it will be, the Agent will be too busy with her to bother with G, or with calling for immediate backup. Hopefully with that extra time, G will get away.

It's not ideal, but even she can appreciate the irony of how Rising Tide it is to look like she's cutting him loose to fend for himself in order to save her own skin.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Definitely the Rising Tide move for everyone to fend for themselves. After all Genus hadn't turned around to offer aid. Like as not he was gone.

The SHIELD agent though picks up the pace as he cuts towards Skye. He doesn't make a move for his gun, too many people in here, even if its just an ICER. As he closes he reaches out a hand to put on Skye's arm. "Excuse me, think we could have a word outside," he says trying to get Skye clear without a scene. This was Mutant Town after all and SHIELD didn't exactly have a lot of cred here right now.

Quake has posed:
The Agent reaches for her, but Skye shakes her head. "Not in here."

In the diner she's a lot more limited. Sure, she could call upon the other diners to help, but that would also involve them. It's the sort of mess she'd prefer to avoid. Instead, she waits until she's outside, several paces from the diner door, in the parking lot, slowing down to let him catch up to her and reach for her again.

Of course Skye has no intentions of going gently into that good night, and, well, she's been trained by SHIELD. She knows what to do with someone grabbing your arm. She reaches for his hand, and pulls him towards her as she twists her body away from him, and as he's dragged up into behind her, reaches behind with her right hand, and grabs for the ICER on his right hip.

"How about we don't, huh? I. Don't. Have. Time. For this. Right. Now."

The ICER, once retrieved, (providing she's able to retrieve it), is turned upon the agent.

Arnim Zola has posed:
The agent grips her arm even as Skye tries to flinch away. He puts on a smile for the patrons and then says, "C'mon, babe let's blow this pop stand," he says, again for the patrons and heads out the door with Skye.

Outside, on the sidewalk, the agent releases his grp on her arm saying, "Hands on the car traitor," he says nodding to a sedan in parking lot and reaching for the cuffs under his jacket.

Then his arm is grabbed and twisted, and Skye's back is to his front. "Bad move," he says dropping his cuffs and taking a swing at her close range with his free hand hoping to stun her enough to free his second.

Quake has posed:
"Nice move," Skye grunts. "But you forget who trained me."

She'd expected some resistence, though perhaps not that. Still, she figured out what he was about to do in time enough duck his weak off-hand blow such that it only grazed her left arm. Moving past him as she does so to grab his ICER and spin away, turning to face him, gun pointed in his direction.

"I'm not going back. You're not taking me in. You can back the fuck up and go on inside the diner, and count to sixty, or I'm going to shoot you. Your choice."

Arnim Zola has posed:
The agent curses almost silently as his gun is gone and pointed at him. He can just imagine the dressing down he's going to get about /this/. Fighting failed, he tries words instead. "You're not going to get away, you know that right? They've got the Cavalry hunting you, the smart move would be to put down the gun and come with me. I'll tell them you came quietly, and if you spill on your hacker friends you can probably get off easy. So, how about it? Wanna do something smart for yourself?"

Inside the diner a couple of patrons have seen the fight and are reaching for their phones, either to call the cops or record the fight.

Quake has posed:
"Heh," Skye tilts her head, then shakes it. "The Cavalry, huh? Not bad for an IT girl. Not so worried. I broke OUT of SHIELD, remember? And the Cavaltry was my SO."

She pauses, as it becomes clear he's not going to back off.

"Really sorry about this, but you had your chance. Give Agent May my regards."

And calmly, and with precision lent by proximity, she shoots the man with his own ICER, all the while cursing inside, because now she's not only shot someone, but she now has a stupid ICER in her possession. And all of this is likely being uploaded to Youtube and Facebook even as she thinks it, only serving to up the ante on her being on the run.

She doesn't wait for a crowd to form or the police to arrive. ICER shoved into her laptop bag, Skye boots it away from the diner.

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Yeah, got to figure that's why you broke out when she was gone, you know she can take you. C'mon be smart, here Johnson, May's going to find you."

"Damn it," the agent curses even as he turns and makes a grab for the gun. He doesn't turn all the way around before he's dropped to the sidewalk by the ICER round. Inside the patrons of the diner gasp, a few of them already recording with their phones.

As Skye bolts, sirens can be heard from the nearby 11th Precinct heading for the diner.

Quake has posed:
"Yeah, well.."

Skye doesn't argue. She shoots.

Then makes her break for it, cursing all the while. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck"

Well, there's an agent who might not understand later when he finds out she was undercover..

Arnim Zola has posed:
Sirens sound and blue and red lights flash while the video hits the internet. Squad cars roll down streets shining lights down alleys and helos hover above Mutant Town.

In the end though, they find nothing.

A while later, Skye's phone buzzes with a message. It's not from Genus but Miles.

Hound >> Meeting tomorrow. IMPORTANT.

The details of the time and place follow.

Quake has posed:
When the call comes, Skye is far away from Mutant Town.

A quick check of her phone shows the message, but she waits until she's locked herself into her garage loft safehouse bbefore answering.

DarkSky >> I'll be there.

With a sigh, she turns her phone off and sits on the couch, head in hands, finally shaking it off to check the net. She needs to know what got through from the altercation she'd had, and to contact May, and Clint... and report in to Fury.