[SEMI-OPEN] HERE IN ROBOT HELL

[machine_god]

Who: SHODAN, corrupted PCs, rescue team, and a WHOLE SHITTON OF ZOMBIES.
What: PCs COMIN IN TO RESCUE FOLKS. ZOMBIES. OH SHI -
Where: Residential Zone 7
When: Thursday through the next week
Notes: Teleporters are now open to allow people in, but not out. YOU CAN STILL LEAVE THE ZONE EASILY BY WALKING OUT OF IT TO THE ADJACENT GARDEN ZONES AND

Comments

THE VENTS/BUNNY SPY will delete if not okay :x

[usagipino]

Pino wasn't sure how long she had been hiding and traveling through the dark places, vents and ducts and maintenance tunnels, keeping to the shadows and staying silent. Her sense of time, just like her sense of everything else, had been warped and changed, not just by the Bad Pulse coming from Zone 8, but also by SHODAN's takeover. Every time Pino tried to connect to the network, through her wearable or instinctively through her own adapters, she got back strange codes and signals, foreign to Pino, foreign to Sacrosanct. All of it had pretty soundly torn Pino's already faulty understanding of reality.

And she was running out of power.

She had maybe a day left. She was hoping Vince would find her before then. He always did.

But Sollux had told her things would be okay. He wasn't a card soldier anymore. And Convoy and Michael had said they would help her. So things would work out. Maybe even before Vince would come to rescue her.

Sollux had asked Pino to watch, so that's what she did. Pino liked to be helpful. The virus hadn't erased that part of her coding yet. She watched the movements of drones and shamblers and monsters from the safety of the dark, hidden places, waiting for important things to happen and waiting for rescue to come.

[ooc: anyone can tag i guess, orz, Pino will feed info to anyone who asks her to.]

[theniputitback]

Parker hadn't hesitated when Hardison had asked her to help out with the rescue efforts in Zone 7. Sure, it was dangerous, but lots of things were dangerous. There were people trapped in there. People who needed help.

This was what she did.

...well, sort of.

She made her way unerringly through the vents, heading for the center of the zone, where the largest concentration of prisoners was being held. She was nearly there when she came across an unexpected obstacle.

There was someone else in the vents. Parker slowed, peering ahead of her cautiously in the dim light.

"-Hello?"

[usagipino]

By then Pino had slumped against the wall of the vent, carefully positioned in a hotspot where she'd been able to get sporadic network access. She no longer had the energy to move about; she distantly hoped that no service Autoraves would find her.

But now someone was coming.

"Vince...Vince...Vince help..."

Vince would save her, right? He'd show up just in time and save her from whatever was coming. He'd come. He had to.

Her eyes had long since adjusted to the dim light, however, and she stared as the new figure came into view. It wasn't an Autorave, or any of the strange machines here that Pino had to classify as Autoraves. It wasn't a monster, either. It was a person.

And it was speaking to her.

"Heellllloooo?" Pino's voice was quiet and slow. She was almost out of power now and it was affecting her voice.

[theniputitback]

The other person was a little girl. Parker frowned. She sounded scared, and...weak. Like she was very tired, or hurt.

Parker stopped a few yards away, not wanting to scare her off.

"Hello," she said again, softly. "Do you need help?"

[usagipino]

Pino tilts her head at the newcomer in her usual way, but her head lolls, and it's too much effort to correct. She process what the woman said for a minute.

"All units activated and moving to defend the zone. The green lady keeps yelling. Pino has seen: 38 small unclassified Autoraves; 68 small monsters; 16 big monsters; 13 small monsters, temporary classification=parasites; approximately 30 worm monsters; 21 horn monsters; and 6 brain monsters. Pino has seen all units moving n...that way." She points off to an angle. "Insurgents are advised to avoid worm monsters and small monsters, temporary classification=parasites."

Pino takes a long pause, still staring at the woman without blinking. "Mr. Yellow Text...said to help..."

[theniputitback]

Parker just stares back at Pino for a moment. She isn't sure what she'd been expecting, but it hadn't been that.

"Okay," she says finally, and thinks for a moment.

"Do you want to help me?"

[usagipino]

Pino lifts her head again and nods once. "Yes. Pino wants to help. Pino will help. What can Pino do?"

[theniputitback]

Parker bites her lip, thinking. Mostly she's planning on helping Pino, keeping her safe until they get out of there and she can find...a real adult to take care of her.

But well...if she knows so much about the monsters...

"Pino," Parker asks, seriously, "have you seen anyone here besides the monsters?"

[usagipino]

Pino turns to look out through one of the grates and seems to be thinking in silence for awhile.

"Pino has seen lots of gray people. Gray people with the horns from the horned monsters. And some people in armor. The gray people were mostly moving toward that building." Pino paused to point off into the distance. "Armored people were moving toward that place." She points to another vague area.