Search and Rescue

[Saber]

Saber leapt up and stabbed his claws into the roof when Justicar launched his grenade at the bulky avatars, two of them vaporized by the blast while the remaining few held their ground, aiming their hands at the group as their fingertips began glowing like blaster cannons. Saber dove down and stabbed one of the arms with his claws, swinging and forcing one of the avatars to aim the hand at the others, blasting the legs out from under one before going to town on another, leaving one left to be dealt with by Claymore, who was still grappling with it away from the others.

Dagger was scanning through multiple camera video feeds, trying to get a familiar layout of the server as he tried to find the experimentation wing and their holding cells. "Wait! There's Domain!" Dagger stopped as Katana spoke up, keeping track of the location on the security layout. "He isn't our priority, the others are..." Dagger continued scanning through the other camera feeds, each one a different holding cell, until Katana tapped on his shoulder "That's her! There she is!" Dagger kept note of that camera feed label, noting how distant the cell numbers were "They're keeping him distant from her..." <Saber, this is Dagger. We have an idea of where the AUGMENTs are being holdo..But unless we have a description of the third by Noxus, we can't go further...>

"Got it!" Saber was still slashing at the large avatar's legs, whittling down their stability while dodging their pitiful defensive swipes until he made a wall jump and pounced the avatar to the ground, running on all fours until doing a spinning leap to skid to a halt beside Noxus "They found where they're being held, but they can't go further until you give them detail about what Amp looks like. And since you're the last one to see her, aside from kill-crazy over there, you're the guy for the job."

[Mani4c]

Noxus nodded and sent an image file of Amp in and out of her armor. <This is her in her combat form, and this is her normal appearance.> Claymore smashed the last avatar in the face and lifted him slamming him into the ground before grabbing it's head and wrenching it sharply to the side, snapping it's neck and deleting it instantly. "Game, set, and match..." Viral finished cutting the outgoing communications and stood up. "Aww, we didn't get to use our combo move." A beeping sound grabbed Viral's attention, he activated his communicator. "Viral here, what's going on?"

Lilith's voice came out the other end, the sounds of explosions and guns going off could be heard in the background. "We could use some help here! They just sent in a fucking tsunami of goons and me and Onimaru are having a bit of trouble! Ah shit!" Lilith's communication was cut off by the sound of an explosion. "Lilith, LILITH! Fuck!" Viral started to charge back towards the entrance, but Noxus grabbed his shoulder. "No, brother, I will go. It is the least I can do to atone for all the trouble I've caused you." Viral shrugged off Noxus' hand, "This isn't about your stupid honor! My girlfriend's back there damn it!" Noxus nodded, "I know, but you're packing some much needed firepower, I on the other hand am better suited to mop up work. I shall keep them safe, you have my word." Viral was silent for a moment, he suddenly grabbed Noxus' hand and gripped it tight. "Don't you fucking die on me...I still owe you an ass kicking for being an idiot." Noxus smiled under his helmet. "Please brother...I wouldn't dream of depriving you or your friends of that pleasure, also, tell Mani4c...tell him I'm sorry, for everything." Viral snickered, "You dipshit, he already has. Now go get 'em little bro." Noxus nodded and charged towards the entrance. Viral turned back to his allies, "Alright, let's get our friends back...On me folks, I can tank the hits!" 

Chakram noticed a very detailed scan of the Server, "There! Isolate that server map! Send it to Byte, it'll help us pinpoint our comrades, it just needs some work...Katana, see if you can't overlay the cameras ID signatures onto this map. It should tell us exactly where we need to go."

[Saber]

Dagger isolated the map and sent it out, marking the three locations on the map that held their comrades. With that, Dagger continued to search through the security node for anything that could help. "Looks like this server's almost out of useful information for us...Hold on..." He came across a video feed of what seemed to be the human world, and a girl in medical clothing was strapped to a table with a helmet on her head. It looked like something from a science fiction movie.

<Saber, I'm sending you something we came across during the search, it looks like they're experimenting on people with some type of helmet.>

Saber stopped when Dagger mentioned a helmet, automatically deactivating the armor and looking over at Viral while there were no avatars close enough to deal a lot of damage "Tell Baretta that they've rebuilt the helmet, she'll know what it means!" Saber rushed forward, past the battle zone, "I'm on my way, give me your location." <Sending server location now.>

[Mani4c]

Viral's eyes widened when Saber mentioned a helmet. while he couldn't remember exactly what Saber meant, Mani4c understood almost instantly. 'Oh you've gotta be fucking...they rebuilt it!?' Viral ran over to Baretta, "What are you talking about?" 'That virtualization helmet that Jeff's egghead parents made! It can convert human brainpower into code!' Viral wanted to punch a hole in a wall. "Oh things just keep getting better! Baretta, the PariahTech's rebuilt that fucking helmet! Let's move and fry this fucking server before they can get it working!"

Claymore retrieved his Glaive, "We'd have better luck splitting up, but who would go where?" Justicar interrupted, "I can handle these fools on my own, get your friends back, I'll retrieve Amp." Claymore looked at Justicar, his voice was tinged with concern. "Are you sure? You're not exactly...stable at the moment." Justicar nodded, his eyes were filled with regret. "It was my failure to protect her that led to this...it's my duty, you have your own friends to tend to." Claymore nodded, "Very well, good hunting my friend." Justicar nodded. "To you as well, knight." Justicar scanned the map and found a quick route to Amp's location. He cracked his neck and sprinted down a side passage, leaving his allies to tend to their own.

Chakram sighed, they had to move on before any security forces became wise to their intrusion. "We need to move before we're detected, let's liberate Mirror first, she's closest to us. I'll send domain a text message telling him that we're about to get Mirror out." Chakram then opened a text window and quickly sent Domain his message. <Other AUGMENT's located, heading to Mirror first, leave now before security tightens further- Chakram>

[Prythian]

For when they reached her, Mirror was simply sitting down, slumped against the wall of her cell. A headband had been placed around her, flashing lights on her, and she appeared to be in sleep mode. Other than that, the cell was primarily empty, with a single metal door leading in and an observational camera on top with a feed to a screen on the outside.

Domain nodded to himself as he received the message. "If they've located her... there's very little that can be done to prevent her rescue." He murmured to himself, lips spreading wide in a broad grin. "Excellent." <Message received, Chakram.> And with that, he activated his strength program, bashing through the wall of his cell by simply shattering the metal that made it up, strolling out into the hallway. As he turned into a room that served primarily as an intersection between several different paths, he noticed a dark figure waiting for him.

"I thought you were on our side now." The Hunter said, bitterness in his voice. "Why are you breaking out now? Did you know this would happen?"

Domain merely smiled softly as his other terrain spike extended. "No, Zip. But you really could have guessed that our friends wouldn't give us up so easily."

The Hunter took a menacing step forward. "What about your sister? We promised to keep her safe from everything, and you agreed to join us because of that. Can your friends do that?"

Domain shook his head. "No, they can't. But then, no one can without simply putting her into stasis for all time. And my friends can do one thing you can't... protect her from all of you."

Long spines began growing from the Hunter's armor. "You... you were going to be one of us! One of my comrades! Why would you throw that away?!"

Domain shook his head again. "Zip... you and I both know that gold can't rust."

With an inarticulate scream of rage, the Hunter ran forward, spines already firing through the air towards Domain. But Domain had moved first. With both of his arms pointed at the ground, his spikes shot away from his arms, flares of energy propelling them forward to land them in the ground point first, one a few feet ahead of the other. As pulses of energy shot through them into the ground, they pulled themselves back and reattached to Domain's arms. Before the spines could reach him, the floor began turning to metal in a 5-foot area in front of Domain, a large thick wall raising itself up as the spines tinked harmless against it. The Hunter had already begun trying to stop his run, but then the floor began to disappear under him a large rectangle-shaped hole opening up in it in front of the wall.

As the Hunter's momentum carried him to the floor below, into an unoccupied-but-locked cell, Domain struck the wall with his fists, hard, breaking it at the floor and letting it fall over to cover the hole completely, locking the Hunter inside of the cell. "Goodbye, Zip." And with that, he continued walking forward towards where he knew the exit was.

Inside of the hole, the Hunter cursed. "There's no chance they won't break out Amplify as well... And with this security breach, there's no going to be enough guards to spare one to go delete her so we can compress her core programming and send one of ours with it out of here. Unless..." Slowly, he began to laugh. "...unless one of them deletes her or they break in by force and activate the security measures on that room. And I know just how to provoke that..." As he continued laughing, he began writing a message, knowing where to send it exactly...

[Saber]

Baretta cursed when Viral said the scientists has created a new virtualization helmet, realizing that they were further behind than they thought on that case "We can't do anything further to the server until we're sure every is out of harms way. If we all don't have a way to reboot somewhere safe, destroying the server and everything in it will mean we came here for nothing!" Baretta rushed towards the hallways leading deeper into the server "Claymore, stay here and assist Noxus and Lilith if they need the help, and have everyone convene on our location once the other guards have been disposed of! Everyone else, let's bring the fight deeper into the server!"

Saber had managed to find his way to the infiltration team, Dagger, Katana, alpha, and Chakram all there, looking at him as he came closer "I figured you could use an extra hand with freeing our friends. Alright, let's get-" Suddenly, the server shook violently, stopping mere seconds after it had started "...Looks like Domain has made his move, let's make ours!" "You don't have to tell me twice! Let's get moving!" Katana leading the pack, Saber and Dagger stuck close the the back, keeping watch over their tail until they were almost at Mirror's location.

When they finally got there, the sight was almost too painful to watch. Mirror was in some sort of stasis, they had a device on her forcing her into sleep mode. The only one who was able to feel human emotions at the time, was more shocked than anyone else in the group. Gritting his teeth, he continued staring at the wall as he muttered out "...Activate...the beacon..." Katana looked over, opening her mouth to say something, before Saber whipped his head in her direction and snapped at her "Activate the damn beacon and get the doctor here right now!"

Not wanting to pres Saber's anger further, Katana stabbed the beacon into the wall beside Mirror's door, activating it and giving the signal for everyone to clear out before the TARDIS arrived.

Bit noticed the beacon's activation and looked over at the doctor "You're up, doctor. Remember, isolate their core programming, and send them to the IP addresses I gave you. The proxies will do the rest with securing a safe passage, but time is of the essence!"

[Mani4c]

Viral ran into the cell and knelt down next to Mirror, he activated his code scanner and began to examine her, unfortunately he wasn't able to do a complete scan of her code. "She's functional, thank the maker, she's just in stasis." Viral stood up and was about to speak, but suddenly his body seemed to "Stutter" his armor wavered in and out of existence for a moment and he dropped to one knee. "Ooof, that's not good..." Viral looked at Baretta, knowing that she'd want to know what just happened. Mani4c is...well, he's fucking pissed, more than I've ever seen him. His emotions are interfering with my ability to maintain control, I'm fine, just get the Doctor." Viral sucked in a breath, he wasn't exactly pleased with the feeling of being overwhelmed like that.

The sound of a portal opening, followed by a grinding thud heralded the entrance of the Doctor, he also had Bit and another scientist with him. "I brought Bit here as well, we work faster with a spare set of hands." Viral gestured at the new arrival, "Who's the third egghead?" "That would be Byte, he wanted to help with the transfer, I felt that the extra help would be useful." "Just keep those assholes off of us and we'll be done in a jiffy, also, are any of you good at hacking?" Viral raised his hand. "I can break down most security programs in under a minute, what do you need?" Byte handed him a set of data cards. "Those cards are heavily encrypted storage units, I need you to siphon off everything in this server's research node. I'll mark it on your map." A small red Dot appeared on the Map in Viral's HUD. "Alright, I'll be back in a second, can you guys handle this without me?"

Chakram was on the warpath, he flung his weapons at a horde of retreating avatars, cutting them to ribbons. "Not so fun when you're the one's being dissected is it?" Chakram's normally emotionless voice was ice cold. "In the name of my friends, I will litter this server with your corpses."

Meanwhile, Noxus, Lilith and Onimaru had just finished up with the security programs, and were heading to Mirror's cell. "How's Viral?" Noxus smiled, "He's fine my dear. he was blowing security avatars to pieces when I left." Lilith chuckled, "That's him alright..." Noxus was silent for a moment, before finally speaking in a cautious tone. "So...what exactly do you see in him?" Lilith looked at Noxus. "In who?" "Viral, granted he is far better than he used to be, but he doesn't seem like much of a romantic." Lilith scoffed. "Really? You choose now to inquire about my love life?" Noxus just looked away. "I just don't know anything about him, so I'm asking you." The vampiric avatar let out a sigh. "Fine...well, he's funny, in his own twisted way. He cares about me, though he can be possessive at times...I guess it's just...he loves me, he's able to show me a side to him that he keeps hidden from everyone else, and I can show him the real me. For all of his anger and sarcasm, he's just someone who wants to fit in, but he doesn't want to change either. He's not used to feeling anything remotely positive, and he's afraid that if he slips back to his old habits that I'll hate him. He's so vulnerable in a way, and I'm like that too at times, We keep each other whole."

Noxus nodded, "That sounds a lot like Justicar and Amp. They both...completed each other, the stalwart swordsman and the wisecracking woman that hunted for excitement and adventure. I pray for their safety like you pray for Viral's." Lilith smiled under her helmet. "Well, you're part of the family as far as I'm concerned, so I'll look out for your friends and you can look out for mine." Noxus looked at Lilith, "Now I know what Viral sees in you, your beauty is dwarfed by your loving heart...thank you." Onimaru chose this moment to cut in. "I hate to break up the love-fest, but Mirror-chan needs our help, let's step it up eh?" Noxus nodded, "You're right, let's move!" the trio picked up the pace sprinting towards their friend.

[Prythian]

Alpha looked at Dagger and Katana. <We have our places, and at least a couple of our targets are getting freed. I have another job I need to do here, so this is where we part ways. Be careful.> And with that, she ran out of the security room, knowing exactly where she was going from having seen the map. <Alpha? What are we doing now?> <Going to get whatever files we can from here before it's destroyed, Aqua. Masamune asked it of me. It'll keep PariahTech off of our backs later. Of all the people to go up against, they're the ones I'm afraid could find out my real identity, and yours.> <Got it. Their records room seems to be two lefts, three straights, a right, a left, and then two more straights.>

Just that moment, multiple images appeared on the tops of the hallways, a server-wide message. "Alert." The voice was calm and emotionless, almost robotic. "This is a message addressed to moderate-priority target Justicar. 'Before you save your friend, you should know what type of person she really is. See what we found in her memory files.' Proceeding to loop video..." And with that, the screen began to display a single video file, showing exactly what had happened between Amplify, Justicar, and Kaiser. From the arrival, to the betrayal, to the deal with Kaiser... and then it began repeating.

Amplify, in her cell, strapped tightly to an apparatus, felt despair. It didn't show on her face, and in fact her body didn't, couldn't move... but they'd deliberately left her aware of her surroundings while taking away any control over her own body with this program she was currently attached to. She'd already thought there was little chance of her getting out of this alive... and now, she understood that there was no hope left. She wouldn't even be able to try and make it up to Justicar... to fix her mistake.

[Saber]

Katana looked up at the video feed when it started looping, not sure what to feel at the sight of someone whom Justicar wished so badly to save, betray him so coldly, and make deals behind his back. Saber was gritting his teeth at the sight, his newfound emotions overwhelming him again, but Baretta placed a hand on his shoulder "We won't be able to do anything, not if he saw that video...Let's just focus on making sure Mirror is safe and leave. Viral, hurry. If you can get Amplify's data, try and save it before Justicar reaches her. you have a very short time limit, so move quickly. But above all else, Mirror and Domain come first."

Bit walked over to the security door and started inspecting the protocols on it "Pretty straightforward locking system, should be pretty easy to crack. But this is Pariahtech we're dealing with, so there's no telling how long it'll take. Doctor, Byte, let's begin."

[Mani4c]

Viral was currently in the middle of downloading the research data into the cards, Viral somehow managed to bury his anger as images of avatars and Humans alike were tortured for the sake of the Mega-corporations' "Progress". " Viral could also feel Mani4c's temper becoming nearly uncontrollable, if the download didn't finish soon, he wasn't sure if he could keep Mani4c contained for much longer. "I'll try Baretta, but the security here is tight, it keeps coming back online and I can't put it down permanently!"

Luckily, Viral was nearing the end of the download. But just when he thought that he could get through the download without incident, four files appeared, they were the files for the AUGMENT's, and something called "Project Jäger". The Files included reports, documentation...and video files. The videos showed the AUGMENT's testing after being captured, the video of Mirror being deleted in the tests and Amplify being forced to go into an emotional loop was nearly enough to send Mani4c over the edge...and Viral wished that it had.

The footage for Project Jäger showed a surgical suite, and a little girl, no more than ten years old, strapped to a medical slab and crying, trying to pry her way out of the bonds. "Oh my god..." Viral felt another surge of pain, Mani4c was done, he had gone berserk and was seizing control. "Shit! gotta warn 'em!" Viral hit the broadcast button on his helmet, sending a visual feed as well as an audio link to the defense team, they would see everything, including the video. "Baretta! Mani4c's going ballistic, do not, I repeat, do not get in his way!" The video then skipped forward, a doctor was looming over the girl with a gleaming scalpel, the girl was crying even harder, screaming in fear and begging him to stop. Viral lost consciousness when the scalpel sliced her flesh...

"GRAAAAAGH!!!" Mani4c's scream of rage tore down the halls and easily reached the defenders, The Doctor and Byte were focused on Mirror, both for her sake and their own. They masterfully blocked out the sounds of a young girl being forcibly operated on, being turned into a cyborg while still awake. Chakram had reached the cell, and was clenching his fists in a blind fury. "Those...those animals!" The Doctor had managed to open the casing on the stasis device that was on Mirror's head. "Bit, I need you to focus on the readout that Byte is holding, if there is the slightest fluctuation, let me know. A change in the device's operation is likely a sign of a security protocol activating." The footage continued to play, showing the aftermath of the surgery before moving onto the next, and the next. The footage played for 10 minutes, a highlight reel of a child being turned into a killing machine. the final image in the download was a list of targets, many of them were crossed out, except for the final few. [Kathryn Bale, Erika Matsumoto, Alexi Petrovik, Mary Richards, Frank Jameson] Frank's name had a large X over it, the girl that they just saw was the one who murdered Frank.

Justicar was roaring in a rage ripping the server and anyone who got in his path to pieces bare handed. "I TRUSTED HER!" Justicar fired a blast that wiped out 20 avatars at once. "I CONFIDED IN HER!!!" He ripped a panel out of the wall and tore apart several terminals. "I BECAME...THIS IN HER NAME!" Justicar was at the entrance to Amp's cell. "AND YOU...YOU USED ME! JUST LIKE HIM!!!" Justicar smashed the door in and stormed into the room, gazing at Amp's frozen form with hatred and pain in his eyes. "AAAAAAAMMMMMMPPPPP!!!!!!" Justicar grabbed Amp and ripped the binds off of her, he then proceeded to hurl her from the room, screaming in a blind fury. He advanced on Amplify and grabbed her by the neck, he slammed her into the wall and slowly, almost leisurely, tighten his grip on her neck. He was careful to keep her windpipe clear, he wanted answers, then he would kill her. "I CARED ABOUT YOU! I LOVED YOU LIKE A SIBLING! WHY? WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME!?" Meanwhile, inside of Justicar's mind, the other souls had ganged up on Kaizer and were beating him to a pulp. "We'll handle you later motherfucker!" "I will make you suffer for using him!" "Pathetic worm! I hope you enjoyed the free ride, because you're about to fucking pay for what you've done!" 

[Prythian]

Tears were running down Amplify's face from the moment Justicar ripped her free. "Justicar... run!" She said in a tearful but urgent voice. Too late, a massive energy spike appeared in front of the broken down door, forming into a massively thick wall in two parts, which then slammed together, blocking the way out. A video appeared on the side of it, showing Zip. "Either you tried to break out, or someone else tried to break you out, Amplify." He said calmly, lines of static showing that this was clearly a recording. "Either way, you are too much of an escape risk for us to let this slide. Activation key: From Destruction, Creation." The floor began glowing, pulsing very slowly with energy. "This reformatter was built into your cell specifically in this case. After it's charged up fully? It'll rip you apart into your component pieces of data. After that? We'll smash you back together, just like what happened when you born. Of course, any memory data will have to be discarded... I hope the new you is so much more cooperative. Terminate playback." The video vanished.

Amplify sobbed against the wall, as four orbs materialized around her. "I'll tell you everything... I swear. But we don't have time now. We have to get you out of here!"

[Saber]

Baretta got Viral's message just before he lost control of the body, realizing that the mission might just be in jeopardy. She had to make sure that things went back on track, because as it stood, ifMani4c is in a rampage, she needed to know if everyone's data is safe and securely removed from the server. "Dagger! Chakram! Go to the storage node and make sure that the download was complete. If Mani4c left the cards behind, we have to secure them!"

"...Understood...I'll handle retrieving everything Chakram, cover my back..." Dagger rushed over to the storage node, cloak active and running above Mani4c as he rampaged. He landed silently in the console where Viral was before, seeing that he did indeed leave the data cards behind. Thankfully, no one had touched them, but he noticed one slight hiccup. An error occurred during one of the file transfers. "Amplify's data is undergoing changes, the file download was interrupted...I'll stay behind and complete Amplify's data download, take everything else to the others for transfer then report back here..." Dagger handed Chakram all of the research data, as well as Mirror and Domain's core data, then returned to trying to download Amplify's core data, errors occurring each time he made an attempt. Positives, the card for the storage of her data wasn't being stuffed with broken files, as it wiped everything when it failed. Negatives, he had no idea what the changes were to Amplify, or if it was going to be for better or for worse.

Bit was monitoring the status of the device, so far no spikes were occurring in the stasis module, which Bit gave the thumbs up for "Still in the clear, no warning signs yet...Something tells me they weren't expecting a full frontal assault, not one this soon anyway."

[Mani4c]

Justicar roared in anger and slammed his sword against the barrier that kept him locked in the reformatting room with Amp, but instead of smashing through the door, the blade of his sword snapped like rotten driftwood. the blade skidded across the floor and stopped at Amp's feet. Justicar continued to pound on the door, cursing and roaring, after five solid minutes of pounding on the door, Justicar finally relented. He sank to his knees and panted, his energy was spent, and the damage that the emotional feedback loop had done to his body was taking it's toll. He could feel his framework breaking apart, at this point the only thing keeping him completely intact was sheer willpower, and even that had finally reached it's limit.

Justicar turned to face Amp, slumping against the barrier and glaring at her, his anger was still simmering, but his aching body and lack of energy had sapped his desire to see her die. Justicar let out a disgusted chuckle, his voice was returning to it's normal tone, though it was still rather harsh. "Heh, you still glad that I'm "Bound" to you?" The way Justicar said the word "bound" made it sound like a foul curse word. "But I can't say that you weren't successful, at least for a while. You wanted a loyal toy to play with, and that's what you got, and now I'm falling to bloody pieces because I gave two shits about your safety." Justicar tired to force a laugh, but began to let out a hacking cough, droplets of his black "Blood" sprayed out of his mouth. Justicar wiped his mouth off before continuing. "Seeing as we're both fucked, level with me...why? I was already loyal to you, I helped you become stronger, treated you like family...was that not enough!?" Justicar tried to lunge for Amp, but he simply toppled over onto his face. He looked up at Amp, his eyes simmered with anger, and something else...sadness, even after all that Amp had done, he still wanted her to be happy, and in his mind her betrayal meant that he had once again failed someone that he cared about. "I hope you're happy, because you wanted us to be together for all time, and now we're going to die...I hope you're pleased."

Chakram cloaked to avoid a raging Mani4c, ducking to the side and returning to Mirror's cell. "Amplify's data is fluctuating, Dagger's trying to get a handle on it so he can back up her data. Domain and Mirror's data is already backed up, along with all of the files that Viral downloaded." Chakram handed the cards to Byte and then cloaked again, running past Mani4c to return to Dagger. The Doctor let out a grunt of frustration, he was trying to be delicate with the stasis band, but it was proving quite troublesome. "Come on! Damn it!" Byte patched into the Server's security feed, "Oh damn! Doc, we've got an army bearing down on us!" The Doctor let out an irritated groan, time for the direct approach. "OH SOD IT!" The Doctor took the band and yanked it off of Mirror's head, throwing the device into the air and blasting it with an electrical charge.

Mani4c stormed past Mirror's cell, his body was glitching heavily. "I will kill them, turn them to dust!" Mani4c came to a stop near the entrance to the research department, a veritable army of Security avatars had amassed in front of the cells. Mani4c growled angrily and closed his eyes, he began to access his code, trying to remove all of the limiters that he put into place to keep him stable. "Activating emergency safeguard removal. Codeword: Plague." Mani4c's body suddenly flashed a bright electric blue, arcs of energy shot off of his body, damaging anything that they touched. Mani4c crossed his arms in front of him and screamed in a mixture of pain and rage, and his body exploded. His normal armor and framework fused together with Viral's and his normal code became heavily corrupted with viral energy. His armor could be seen shifting from within the epicenter of the viral surge, and when it collapsed, a massive corona of viral code and energy shot out of Mani4c in a ring. When the dust had cleared, Mani4c stood in his own version of Viral's original armor.(link)

Mani4c was silent for a moment, and then he spoke, his voice was harsh and metallic, like a damaged speech unit on an old drone. He spoke in a deceptively calm tone, this volume level and methodical. "Targets recognized, Recommended course of action: Complete, and total annihilation of target base and forces. Friendly units are advised to evacuate as soon as physically possible." Mani4c then lifted his arm cannon, it's tip glowed a bright blue. He then began to butcher the army in front of him without taking a single step.

In the real world, Jäger's reformatting was about to start, the electrodes in the helmet were securely linked into her skull, and small electrical impulses were being sent into her brain to scan her neural pathways. "Subject's brain patterns are normal Doctor, we can begin when ready." Dr. Harris snapped angrily at the technician he wasn't pleased about the delay. "Then start it already! We're far behind schedule!" The Technician nodded and activated the machine, prepping the program the would digitize Jäger's brain patterns.

It was at that moment that Mani4c's viral energy wave struck and devastated the section of the server dedicated to the site's power regulation. The servers themselves were "Off the grid" being tethered to a generator in the event of a power outage, but the Virtualization equipment, including the helmet, were not so lucky. A powerful surge of electricity shot through the probes inserted into Jäger's brain implants. The surge overloaded the implants, and then surged throughout her body.

While a normal human body would have been reduced to charcoal, Jäger's cyborg frame proved to be a blessing in disguise, her synthetic organs were designed to resist large electrical voltages, and her brain was "Grounded" to her cybernetic skull casing, this kept her brain from being scorched by the electricity. The various tracers and kill switches were not so fortunate, their delicate circuitry was utterly destroyed by the intense electrical surge. Jäger's body spasmed and eventually slumped to the slab as the power inside of the lab was cut. "What the hell is happening!?" "I don't know sir, the entire onsite grid is fried!" "Well get us back online damn it!"

[Prythian]

Amplify sighed, dropping to her knees. "This... isn't over yet. I refuse to let it end like this." As she spoke, four more of her spheres of energy coalesced around her. "If I risk my life... with your strength... we can get those doors open by forcing them back apart. All I have to do is..." She threw her arms apart, the orbs breaking apart, energy streaming into her hair. As spikes of it shot across her body, burns blasting into her skin and data almost oozing outwards as it broke apart, she screamed in true agony, falling on her face. Slowly, after a brief moment, she pushed herself up, forcing herself to move in response to the flashing of the floor, which had grown faster. The reformatting was almost upon them. Multiple orbs appeared out of her, drifting out of her wounds... sixteen in total. Six of them immediately flew to Justicar, boosting his strength, defense, and speed.

The other ten hovered around here. "Once those doors are opened... I'll tell you exactly why I did what I did... and why I realize how much of a mistake I've made. All I need you to do... is get up... and push those doors apart. This... this is all I can do to help that." And she crawled over to him on her knees, leaning down and lifting up his head... as the ten orbs flew into her body, causing her to pulse with massive amounts of energy, though pain crossed her face holding it in. She went further down... and kissed him, energy flowing through her lips into her body as she overloaded him on energy, pushing him past his limits and doubling every aspect of his strength, speed, and defense. Afterwards, she could barely keep herself from collapsing onto the floor... but Justicar practically glowed with power. Surely he could grab the seam in the middle of the doors and pull them apart, holding them open for at least a brief time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alpha, inside of another data storage location, was downloading as many files as she could. <Masamune, I've got multiple files from here, and not all of them seem to be PariahTech's. They're all heavily encrypted, though. I've got all I can safely get, I'm leaving the building now.>

[Saber]

Saber overheard that there was an army coming for them, his anger starting to rise "...Doctor...Transfer those core data files to the terminals immediately...then get Dagger to safety when he finishes the download. If he can't finish by then, then we'll have no choice but to get him out before the server is wiped...I'll get Mirror out and make my way back to a populated area of cyber city." "Hang on there!" Bit walked over and gave Saber a stern look "Just what exactly are you thinking? We need all hands on deck here to fight off the army." Saber walked past Bit and picked Mirror up, carrying her in his arms "...I'm not in the right mindset to fight, Bit, my emotional programming isn't what it was. And it looks like Mirror still needs time to boot back up, which will make things difficult for people to fight without worrying about her. Contact Domain, he'll be more than enough of a stand in for me. And tell her I'm getting her sister to safety while you all are securing their data."

Bit was going to say something to argue, but Saber gave her the most menacing glare he ever gave anyone before, something that caught her off guard. Katana stepped forward and grinned vindictively "Don't worry about us Brother, I've already sent Domain the message and our location in the server. We'll handle things from here and make sure the mission gets completed." Baretta nodded in agreement, cocking the barrel of her blaster and checking the hallway "We'll send you an update on our status. In the meantime, keep her out of their hands."

Saber nodded and automatically triggered CAS sky strike, but his armor was also affected by his rogue camo skin. Ignoring this, he took to the air and flew his way towards the ext of the server "Jake, I need a stable link to the city, as soon as possible!" <Had a feeling you were going to say that, I have David working up a makeshift tunnel back to the city's network grid. You shouldn't have to worry about connection issues, but the pathway won't stay open for long once you're on it. So you'll have to move fast.> Saber's eyes narrowed when Jake mentioned the short time frame once he makes his way back to the city, his thrusters working overtime as he finally burst through the server entrance.

Dagger was constantly trying to copy the data, each time resulting in a failure, which was starting to wear on his last nerve "...Did Viral not make it in time to stop whatever process that hunter had planned?"

[Mani4c]

Masamune was helping David keep the portal open for as long as he could, adding in stabilization code when the pathway started to falter. When Alpha messaged him telling him that she had gotten all of the files that she could, some of which weren't PariahTech's he nodded. <Alright, evac immediately, I'll meet you in Cyber Tokyo when this is over.> Masamune deactivated the chat program and added in another stabilizer. "Saber had better hurry up, if this thing collapses on him both he and Mirror will be turned into digital pancakes!"

Justicar's vision was blurry when Amp began to channel energy through herself, but he was coherent enough to recognize her screaming in pain. Then he felt the orbs strike him, and his vision cleared somewhat. What happened next surprised him, he saw Amp walk up to him, her body was ravaged by the amount of energy that she had pumped through her body, she knelt down...and kissed him. Justicar's eyes widened as he felt a massive surge in power, his framework seemed to knit itself back together, and his mind was no longer fogged by the effects of the feedback loop. His body was still stuck in it's monstrous shape, but Justicar was, for the most part, back to his old self. He stood up and looked at Amp, he picked her up and set her next to the door. "Amp, when I pry these doors open, run. Noxus and the NPD are evacuating your family. find them, and do not fear, I won't let them lay a finger on you."

Justicar snaked his fingers into the thin gap in the barrier, he sucked in a breath and began to force the door open. he managed to open it enough that Amp could run through. "Amp, go! Before I lose my grip, Drag yourself if you have to, just get clear!" Justicar could feel the energy in the room picking up, that reformatting device was almost warmed up.

Mani4c continued to open fire, blowing smoking holes in any avatar stupid or unlucky enough to cross his path. "Die, DIE, DIE!!!!" Mani4c's body was beginning to deteriorate somewhat, his internal framework was being eaten away by the caustic data that mad up Viral's code. Lilith, Onimaru and Noxus had just reached the cell block, somehow managing to avoid the massive crossfire that Mani4c was creating. "We're back, what in the seven shades of hell happened to Mani4c!?" "I'm sensing a massive surge in viral power coming from him, what triggered it?" Lilith was more focused on Mirror, knowing that Mani4c could fend for himself. "And what about Mirror? Is she okay?"

Meanwhile, Jäger began to stir, her eyelids fluttered inside of the helmet. 'Wha-? What's going on?' Jäger's memories were fuzzy, she remembered most of what had happened before, the botched hit on Kathryn Bale...and her being ordered to submit herself to virtualization. But something in the back of her mind was nagging at her, old memories of a past life, and the boiling anger that was starting to flicker in the depths or her mind. But with those memories came a voice, the voice of a girl long forgotten, buried by her own mind in an attempt to protect it from the agony of what had happened to her... 'Jäger, we need to get out of here...please, remember.'

[Prythian]

Amplify looked at Justicar, knowing that while she had been entirely sincere, in one way, she had also manipulated him again. And she knew... her personality matrix was damaged beyond repair at this point. They'd given her the numbers. Over 64% of it had been corrupted to the point of being impossible to recover. But Justicar... oh, Justicar, he was the one that deserved to live, not her. She'd been the one that had harmed him. Redemption is at hand... I understand now. "Oh, Justicar... I said we had to get you out of here." And with those last words, she tackled him in the back, knocking him through the barrier as it slammed shut once more, leaving him outside in the hall. Amplify simply stared at the wall, smiling through her tears.

Knowing, somehow, that he would be able to understand her, she spoke softly and simply. "I love you, Justicar. Please... take care of the new me." For love... is selfless. That's what I didn't understand before. I had to care about someone... more than myself. "Goodbye..." And with those last words, the reformatter stopped flashing, glowing steadily, and her data slowly disintegrated into pieces, flowing around the room in strange streams and swirls. The bits and pieces of her memory data flashed, slowly vanishing, purged by the light.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mirror shook her head and groaned, opening her eyes. "Sa... ber..." She murmured, closing her eyes again. "Then... everything should be fine. It always is... when you're here." With a loud rumble, a circle of the wall near the server entrance turned into sand in a 10-foot radius, Domain walking out calmly. Alpha herself ran through the entrance soon, energy blade extended on her tail.

[Saber]

Baretta shook her head in response to Mani4c, not quite sure herself "My only guess is that he saw something that pushed him too far...Mirror's fine for now, Saber has her and he's keeping her in a populated area until we can secure hers and Domain's data in the terminals. We still need to wait for Dagger to back up Amplify's data...But at the rate Mani4c is going, we may not be able to finish in time, and Viral's instructions were clear. We can't get in his way when he's like this...But if he pushes himself too far..." She looked away from Lilith when she stopped talking, not wanting to even think of what could happen if something bad were to happen to Mani4c.

"...There may be a way to prolong the the damage to his framework...But it will also potentially shorten our time gap immensely if we try this." Bit pushed her glasses up and looked at Lilith "If you can bond with him, and regulate his data while he's in this state, the viral code may not tear him apart by the time everything is finished...But if he stays in the server when it gets wiped...Well, unless you've been registered to a physical storage server...I'm sure you know the risks..."

Saber looked down at Mirror when she started coming to, his hands gripping her arm and near her knee firmly as he pulled her a bit closer, protectively "I've got you, Mirror, just rest for now. I won't let them do anything else to you." Pushing his code past its limits, he put all of his processing power into his physical stability, and his thrusters, shooting through the makeshift network tunnel like a bullet. Just as the tunnel was accessed, it began to crumble from the edge, following Saber inward. Thankfully, the stabilizers that were added prior to his access has made it a bit more durable than it was, so he was focusing solely on following the tunnel back to civilization. Once he finally made his way back to cyber city, he let his rogue camo skin deactivate, revealing his angelic-like armor again "And if they try again, I'll rip anyone who tries to pieces..." He was going to make sure her current load out was safe, even if it meant bringing her to his terminal and leaving her safety in Jake's hands.

[Mani4c]

Justicar ran up to the barrier after Amp shoved him, Slamming on it will all of his might. "AMP, NO! GOD DAMN IT!" When Amp told Justicar that she loved him, his armor began to dissolve, the bone like armor that covered his body fell away, revealing his face. Amp was able to see Justicar as he really was before the end. "Amp..." When the reformatter activated Justicar screamed, "NOOOOO!" Justicar fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, he had failed again. He had let himself be manipulated, and it had once again cost him someone that he loved. Justicar pounded his fists on the ground,  "No...no, why? God Damn it!" Justicar's souls appeared behind him, with the exception of Kaizer. "Justicar...I'm sorry." "For all of her faults, she finally became whole in the end." Lupo knelt down next to Justicar, he put his hand on this shoulder. "Kid...come on, let's get out of here." "No...she won't come back alone, I'll be there for her...I..." Lupo sighed, "Kid...it's not the same Amp, she's go-"

Justicar rounded on Lupo and slammed him into the barrier, his eyes were filled with anger. "All of this happened when I went looking for you bastards, if you continue to push me I'll show you just how to kill a fucking ghost! For all of that hype that your fucking wolf spirit got, it did jack shit! I couldn't see something coming until it smacked me in the fucking head, now shut the fuck up and leave. me. ALONE!" Justicar threw Lupo to the ground and stared at the data that made up Amp. His face was set in a determined expression, he wouldn't let this Amp suffer like the old one, and anyone that got in his way would suffer.

The Doctor had just finished downloading the core data files to the offsite terminals. "It's done, let's get out of here while the getting's good." Lilith shook her head, "Not without Mani4c, we need to bring this place down." The Doctor shook his head, "Out of the question, the server is walking on eggshells as it is, any more strain and we'll have the whole thing coming down on our heads." Lilith ignored the Doctor, "I have an idea alright? Bit, if Mirror's up to it, have her contact Mani4c. She can calm him faster than anyone." Onimaru nodded, "I get it! if Mani4c sees that Mirror is alright, he'll calm down." The sound of static coming in over the communications line. <This is an emergency broadcast across all infiltrator channels! Henry just ran the numbers, this server is collapsing at an alarming rate, everyone reconvene at the Doctor's TARDIS IMMEDIATELY!> Lilith grit her teeth, "Guys, get out of here now! I'll get to Mani4c and keep him stable for as long as I can!" Noxus cut in, "What about Justicar!?" The Doctor responded, "I can locate him by locking onto his data signature from my TARDIS, it'll be faster than running after him, now everyone get in the bloody police box before we get deleted!"

Jäger was coming out of the limbo that lies between unconsciousness and the waking world, her memories were becoming clear. What the Mega-corporations did to her, what she had become...and how much blood had stained her hands. Now only one thing mattered, revenge. The mega-corporations had stolen her family, her humanity, and now she was going to take the only thing that they cared about, their lives. The voice in her head told her to just run, that revenge wouldn't solve anything, but it was naive, the mind of the child that she used to be. 

Jäger's eyes snapped open and she tore her right hand free from the slab, the powered clamps having been disabled due to the power supply being overloaded. "Oh shit!" "IT'S LOOSE!" "GET THE FUCK OUT!" The sounds of men and women scrambling to escape was music to Jäger's ears, she felt the thuds of the guards' bullets, the fools weren't even packing anti-syth ammo. Jäger tore the helmet off of her head, throwing it to the ground and stomping on it, the device exploded into shards of circuitry and sparking metal. "I think it's time I performed my own medical experiment. Experiment number 1: How much force will it take for me to cave in a human skull with my bare hands?" Jäger smiled menacingly, her teeth were an unnaturally bright white and her pupils flashed blood red. "Let's find out!"

[Prythian]

As the data swirled together, it began coalescing into... something. There was a figure there, but it was entirely unclear in the details, the only thing clear being that a rogue was indeed forming. As the data gathered into one spot, at the center of the figure, it flashed, and any chance to see exactly what was going on was lost. After the painfully bright light faded, there was someone laying on the ground on their back, eyes closed.

Compared to the original Amplify, there were more differences than similarities. The only things that stayed the same were that her armor was still black-and-gold, and her hair was still light purple. Other than that, the visible differences were all that were left. This Amplify appeared older than the Amplify that had looked like a teen, more like a young woman... and as opposed to looking like a normal human, she wore her armor constantly. In fact, its contours and closeness to her made it seem almost like a second skin, something not ever meant to be taken off... something built in. Her hair, which had been in braids in her previous incarnation, now splayed out from her head on the ground, fanning out. It was clear that if and when she was upright, it would fall straight down her back, stopping only at her hips.

Most notable, though, was that she didn't seem to possess any arms. Not even stumps were where they should be; it simply seemed as if she was born without them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alpha glanced back at the collapsing server. She hoped everyone got out in time... it had been worth doing this, though Justicar's whereabouts and Amplify's condition were both unknown. But she couldn't afford to go back in; she could see more than anyone the damage that the server had taken. Its entire file structure was close to collapse. Instead, she couldn't let go of this perfect opportunity to leave before anyone else questioned here, leaving her with no clear connection to anyone. <Dagger. Masamune. I'm heading for the Asian Network. This way, no one involved here will find any clue to my identity, and have no method of getting even close to knowing about Aqua and Fyra. I'll speak with you two later, and share the files I downloaded. Get out of there, now! There's no time left!>

Domain, meanwhile, glanced back at the server entrance, and turning around. "I wonder..." He said out loud, presumably to whoever nearby might be listening. ((OOC: I don't know who's outside near the server entrance, I lost track of that a while ago.)) "Once we've gotten everyone out of there... is it alright if I dealt the final blow to this place?" He pointed his arms (and spikes) back towards the entrance. "I need to 'thank' them for the hospitality they showed my sister and I... and they gave me just the upgrades to do it."