xp_logs | AK/DM - Forge, Doug, Crystal, Kyle, Laurie: Mystery unraveled

Apparently locked inside a hotel complex that has become decidedly hostile, our vacationing heroes deduce the identities of their opponents and formulate a plan.

Laurie didn't bother to explain straight away, just moved past Crystal and settled Kyle on one of the hotel room sofa's. Her stomach rolled, and she realised she was about to have something very embarrassing happen if she didn't make it to the bathroom directly.

"Crystal, he needs stitches, and you'll need to look him over for any other injuries. I'd do it, but I have to go throw up in the bathroom now," Laurie noted, and then took off at a run.

Crystal moved to Kyle, giving him a quick look over. She was not pleased to see how he was torn and cut and bleeding and broken, but the sight did not disturb her. This was not the first time she'd seen serious injuries, and this was not the most horrific sight she had ever seen. Kyle would heal, she knew, but not instantaneously. Crystal walked into the suite's kitchenette, quickly pulling out the first-aid kit supplied by the hotel. She'd already seen the one in her own suite, and knew it contained what she needed. Crystal walked back to Kyle and set the kit down nearby. "I suppose I do not need to warn you that this will hurt, but I will. Kyle this is going to hurt."

Doug took in the bleeding Kyle and the sounds of Laurie's retching, then turned to Forge, heedless of the fact that he was still only wearing a towel around his waist. "Still think it's just a glitch?" he asked the other man pointedly.

Forge managed to look sheepish, then held up a finger in a "one moment" gesture, darting out into the hall and returning a minute later with his PDA and a small multitool. "Talk to me about Ignatova," he said as he examined one of the cracked holes Doug had managed to smash in the wall. "Was she able to remotely interface with systems or did she need direct access?"

As he spoke, he reached into the wall and began yanking out wires and cables, inspecting them and stripping insulation, crimping and twisting. "If we're dealing with a technopath that's causing problems and chaos..." Trailing off, Forge suddenly glanced around, then looked over at Doug. "Wait, why haven't we heard any alarms or anyone else having trouble?"

"There were alarms on the other floors." Kyle mumbled. "Heard 'em while we were climbing up." He was still groggy and, frankly, exhausted, from the climb and the effects of Laurie's powers on his system, but he had no intention of passing out. "The bweep bweep bweep kind, like a fire alarm. Why? 'sup?"

"Hold still, please," Crystal warned Kyle, not wanting him to get too interested in whatever was going on or around the hotel at the moment. She continued to work on Kyle, his blood staining her thin silk robe.

Glancing out the window, Forge swore under his breath. A crowd of people was assembled outside, many of them obviously hotel guests. A fire engine and assorted emergency vehicles seemed to be sitting on the street outside, with uniformed personnel arguing with a man Forge assumed was a hotel employee.

"A fire alarm that none of us heard? Suspicious," he said as he glanced over to Doug and gave a shrug of apology. "Okay, so it's not paranoia if you're right. I'm going to try and see if I can get a direct hack into the network here..."

"I hate to say 'atojiso', but I fuckin' atojiso," Doug quoted under his breath as he went in search of some clothes. He was still running on a serious surge of adrenaline, but the fact that he was starting to crack wise was a good indicator that his brain was at least engaging. His body modesty was still nonexistent, but if they were going to be in action, clothes might be necessary. He was starting to wish he'd been able to sneak a gun through airport screening.

Crimping a plug onto a set of wires and turning his PDA on, Forge handed it over to Doug. "See if you can get through their systems. I, uh, don't speak Arabic."

It was then that he noticed the sounds from the bathroom had turned from ones of nauseous retching to more annoyed sounds. Glancing to where Crystal was finishing stitching up Kyle, Forge leaned towards the suite's large bathroom. "Uh, Laurie?" he called. "You didn't hurl up anything vital, did you?"

"No, just can't get the damn hot water to work. What the hell is with this hotel?" Laurie called from the bathroom, finally giving up and heading toward the kitchen. The least she could do was make sure she and Kyle got some food.

She looked over at where he lay as she went past and noted that Crystal had him well in hand. Nothing she needed to do there.

"I want an orange!" Kyle called towards Laurie's back. She was going to feed him, he knew it. Not that he minded. Laurie was predictable like that. "Seriously, guys. I mean, we had crazy loling elevator, like it was laughing at us while it was trying to make us dead." Talking was a good way to ignore the stitching and the sting of disinfectant, and he was starting to feel less wobbly. "Crazy elevator, crazy plumbing, crazy alarms, maybe it's got ghosts. Ghosts would be uncool though."

"Crazy ghosts?" Crystal suggested, then moved back slightly to survey her handiwork. "You will live, of course. If not for your healing factor I would be more concerned and suggest that we get you to a hospital right away. Unfortunately, we do not currently have the option of sending you to school infirmary, either. I still suggest rest, though."

"Wait, back up." Something Kyle had said registered with Doug, a niggling sense that something wasn't matching up. To his pattern-related power, it was like a pair of puzzle pieces that just ever so slightly did not fit correctly together, and he cocked his head. "You said the elevator was laughing at you?" That didn't seem quite like Ignatova. She was the consummate machine, without much of a sense of humor anymore.

"Yeah, it was laughing at us. Right across the floor thing, it kept saying lol. Ell Oh Ell, you know?" Kyle answered with his head turned around to look at the stitches on his shoulder. "Wow, I'm not even gonna have a temporary scar. This is gonna itch like crazy in about an hour though." Resting was not in Kyle's agenda, but he wasn't going to tell Crystal that necessarily. Eating was in his agenda, and finding the nearest source of clean water and washing all the damn blood off.

"I just really don't understand why whoever this is decided to get everyone else out of the hotel without hurting them and yet they've decided to play with us. Isn't that a little weird?" Laurie asked, taking a bite out of an apple and heading toward Kyle with the fruit basket she'd liberated from one of the cupboards.

It had been complimentary and she'd almost forgotten about it till Kyle had mentioned oranges. She was still a deep violet colour, but that was something she couldn't help. It would take a few days to wash off.

Forge stopped dead in his tracks, noting that Doug had done the same, holding the PDA loosely as realization hit in.

"Technopath."

"Screwing with us."

"Screwing with us, specifically."

"Ah, balls."

Both men nodded at each other and said in unison, "Milan."

"I can hear you talking about me." The voice that came out of the speakers was still electronically modified, but no longer female, and no longer accompanied by the persistent insectoid buzzing. "It is not polite to talk about someone behind their back where you think they cannot hear you." On the various screens in the room, the words scrolled by, matching the voice from the speakers. "I will give you an hour to apologize before you will suffer the consequences."

Then the screens and speakers cut off. As did the lights and the air conditioning.

"Apologize?" Crystal asked the darkness. "Apologize for what?" Before she had the chance to use her own method of providing light, the air conditioning unit sprung back to life and the lights in the room illuminated their surroundings once more. "Well then. As dramatic threats go, that one was rather unimpressive."

"Right then," Forge said, walking over to Crystal and frowning at the streaks of Kyle's blood that stained her robe. "Doug, you said he taunted you in Russian? And with bees? How would Milan know that? He hack your email or something?"

"No way," Doug said with a shake of his head. "I mean, what reason would he have to screw with me like that? It doesn't make sense. I'd think he'd have more of a grudge against..." He stopped and frowned. He remembered having nightmares about Ignatova and bees the other evening. "I have a very very bad feeling," he murmured as a leap of logic flashed in his head. "I can think of someone who IS here that would have that kind of grudge against me. And he's a telepath. But he has to have physical contact, and I was careful never to touch him..."

Kyle's mouthful of fruit prevented anything him saying anything intelligent that didn't sound like "mrph mrgle mrph mrgle" until he finished the third of an orange he'd eaten all at once. "So, whatshisface with the computer power is here, and some guy who hates you is here, and ... I mean, Jesus, maybe dinosaur guy will show up and it'll just be a big 'everyone who hates us' party. Or Sabretooth! that would make this whole fucked up vacation even better." Not that what he was saying was necessarily helpful.

"I, ah," Laurie began, a quiver of unease settling in her belly at the mention of telepathy. Someone out to hurt them who had the ability to just pick thoughts out of their head? That was scary. "I had some bad dreams last night too. I was, um...Well, in a court room and there was a jury, only they were everyone I knew."

"Still doesn't add up, though. If it _is_ Quentin, how did he overcome the whole touch limitation?" Doug asked, partly rhetorically, since he didn't really expect anyone to have an answer for him.

"For that matter," Forge added, "how did Milan become powerful enough to take over a system this complex? Believe me, I know firsthand his trouble with overly complex systems." He rubbed at his left arm, feeling the memory of pain from over a year before when the Italian technopath had turned Forge's own body against him. It wasn't an event he wanted to repeat.

Laurie had read almost all of the X-men files, including pouring over the various mutants they'd encountered in their time. There were records of people who could increase a mutants power, although why someone like that would be helping Quentin and Milan she didn't know.

"A third person, maybe?" Laurie asked, handing Kyle another orange and biting into a protein bar she'd been holding in her other hand.

She needed a shower, and a change of clothing. Much as she hadn't minded the necessity that had caused Kyle to bleed all over her, the feel of drying blood was both disgusting and smelly.

"A third...?" Crystal spoke the words out loud, but they came out in almost a whisper. "How did he overcome the whole touch limitation?" Doug had asked. "How did Milan become powerful enough to take over a system this complex?" Forge had wondered. "How do I ensure that Little Crystal is able to drop a plane from the sky?" Maximus had wondered. "And then you must boost her, as well--as powerful as you can," he had instructed the man Crystal had never seen before. "The king and queen, the prime minister, and especially my brother have to die. There can be no possibility of their survival."

"Fabian Cortez." The name was spoken out loud, clearly, coldly, and with hate. The temperature in the room grew hotter.

Forge noticed the effects of Crystal's anger almost instantly, turning to grab his girlfriend by the shoulders. "Crystal, honey, listen to me," he said calmly. "It's not likely to be Cortez. He's not this subtle, and trust me, he's more the 'kill everyone' type than the prankster. We're going to need to come up with a plan. I think I have an idea."

He glanced around the room, wondering how many of the hotel's computers could be used as listening devices by Milan. "Not here, though. Crystal, take Laurie back to our suite and get changed. We've got to get this stopped before our two pranksters decide to get lethal."

Doug looked around the suite with the same thoughts in his head. An automated hotel was like a spying playground for a powered up technopath. Grabbing the group's attention by eyecontact and a sharp snap, he did his best to communicate by gesture that everyone should gather in the bathroom once they were dressed. He strode straight in and used the manual taps to turn every faucet on high and then turned to Forge, who had followed him in. "Keep your voice down, but running water's the best way to foil anyone listening in. The noise is too random."

Forge nodded, rummaging around the sink and coming up with a tube of Laurie's (he hoped) lip gloss. He walked over to one of the walls and began sketching a diagram of the hotel. "Okay, assuming he hasn't gone totally remote, Milan's going to probably need direct contact with the servers to get this kind of access. Quentin... I have no idea where he could be. And I don't trust any computer here that Milan could have access to. I know my laptop is secure, I haven't used the hotel's wifi yet."

Doug looked at the mirror and frowned. "I'm guessing they'll be somewhere close to each other, given that this whole thing feels a little too collaborative for them to be working separately." As if the pair hadn't been enough of a nuisance separately, now they'd somehow teamed up to be an even bigger pain in the ass. He fished his phone out of his pocket and tossed it to Forge. "My laptop's been connected, but I've only used the hotel's phone to call home so far."

Making connections, Forge smiled as his screen popped up with his custom browser connection. "Success!" he exclaimed, "Scrambled a signal through the cell phone and I've got 'net access through a nearby cell tower. As long as I can keep the connection open, Milan shouldn't pick up on it. Okay, news says... news is all in Arabic, dammit, where's the... aha, BBC correspondent. Reported fire at the Malik Dubai, security systems have sealed off the building while... it says the automated fire control systems are controlling it. He's hacked the entire goddamn building just to lock us inside!"

This had officially moved from 'nuisance' to 'someone's getting punched in the face' territory, and it looked like they were fast heading for 'I really wish I'd brought some kind of weapon' land. "Okay. Lack of innocent bystanders is a plus. Next question. Can you locate them?" They'd have to take the stairs, given what Kyle and Laurie had told them about the elevators.

"Without using the hotel's systems?" Forge asked, then turned to his impromptu graffiti/blueprint. "Hmm. It would be a lot simpler if we could just see which rooms had computers or TVs active, or where the room keys were used..."

He snapped his fingers and pulled his phone out, prying the back of the case open. "Doug, give me your room key. These things have little radio transmitters in them, it's how the hotel knows how to set the A/C for you, where to deliver room service, stuff like that. The computer systems in the hotel track them, but if I can figure out the frequencies it uses..."

RFID in the keys. Of course. For that matter, it had probably been how Milan had tracked him and Forge down to set the systems in their room haywire. Doug immediately handed Forge the key and sat quietly aside to let the inventor do his thing.

Extending a soldering probe from one fingertip, Forge disconnected a few leads from the phone's circuit board, touching them to the keycard in various places before smiling and rubber-banding the entire contraption together. "Okay, now just reconfigure the GPS to pinpoint three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate substitution based on current location and..."

He stood up, holding the phone in one hand and the tube of lip gloss in the other as he marked the wall. "We have a grouping right here, that's us five. Only two other cards active, one about right... here. And the other... of course. Up in the penthouse suite."

"Huh." Doug frowned at the screen. "I wouldn't have figured they'd split up. We're going to need a plan."