Gigabyte 035 - Aces Wild
Fred, I can't try your stirfry tonight. I've got to meet someone else. Sorry about that.
[Locked to Kusanagi // Unhackable]
We have to track him down, Major.
[Locked to Kusanagi // Unhackable]
We have to track him down, Major.
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Batou's already reported to the Major where he was heading, so he doesn't bother waiting for her. It's more important, Batou decides, to try and pacify Ace before the whole ceiling comes down on the man's emotional stability.
It's simple to follow the trail of destruction.]
Ace!
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[Batou tries to walk closer to Ace in any case, circling around him at the ten-yeard barrier as the biological man approaches a strange, caged flower.
Batou's brows furrow as he thinks, a low noise in his chest.]
Ace, talk to me. You lack information--for all you know, he's just back on his homeworld. Or in storage. There's no need for these theatrics.
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[Batou walks along behind Ace. He can see through the illusion, see to the wreckage of a man inside, and when Batou speaks he makes sure to speak loud enough so Ace will hear.]
So are you. Having this undisciplined kind of outburst won't bring him back, and will only make things harder on you. His work is done now--you get the fun job of picking up the pieces.
I know.
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Nothing Ace said is untrue. It's not the whole truth, it's complete, but there's a germ if fact in there and it's enough to make Batou's focus change for a moment from the other man to his own insides.
But he has a mission. Batou is a professional. He presses forward, shoving his own emotions aside.]
You're making trouble for the Major. You're making trouble for the rest of us.
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She can hear Ace's laughter from the hallway. It's not a kindly sound. She turns the corner to the Rotisserie entrance, and there's Batou, with Ace's back disappearing into buffet.]
// Well? //
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[Batou's tone over the wireless is tense, terse, and Batou follows him into the buffet. What is he planning? It's doubtful that Batou can even do anything to stop Ace from self-destructing.
The idea that he can really 'talk' the other man down is laughable. Batou is good for punching things, shooting things and being backup. Togusa is the skillfull negotiator of the group. ]
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// He has no intention of being talked down. //
[There are a handful of people in the universe her rusty empathy lets her read without trying. Batou is one of them, and he is unhappy.]
// What did he say? //
[She enters the buffet just behind Batou.]
Ace.
Which of them did you kill?
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[Batou shuffles the memory of Ace's words off his conscious awareness and into the 'free space' area of his memory buffer. If he needs to use any great deal of processing power, the memory will be written over and to a cyborg it's the same as forgetting.
He wants to forget.
Batou continues to steadily kill each emotional process as it comes up, and it lends his already-machinelike consciousness an even colder edge. He no longer watches Ace, Batou merely monitors him impassively.
Batou stands in front of the Major, moving with her to keep himself between her and Ace.]
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[It's a transparent lie, but it's not important right at the moment.
She shifts her attention to Ace, switching to gunfight mode and triggering overdrive. Time stretches, and the count-up timer marking how long she has until her shell shuts down begins to tick off the milliseconds with deceptive slowness.]
They avoid me. I can't imagine why.
[She approaches, her motions seeming agonizingly slow to her, Ace appearing all but frozen as her mind races ahead on computer time.]
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