[PRP] THEY SEE ME ROLLIN'

[Andraia]

THEY SEE ME ROLLIN'
Zone (Rika) and Daphne (Andraia)

 

[Andraia]

DAPHNE RAY
civilian reporter

It was a bright and cheerful Wednesday afternoon; the birds were calling happily to each other from the rooftops and the cars in the street were bumbling along in a peaceful rhythm. In Daphne’s head, however, it was a dark and stormy night. The ambiance, she thought, would be more suitable to what she was doing.

What she was doing, at that specific moment, was skulking behind one of the trees the city had planted as part of its ‘green initiative’, pretending to be engrossed in the pamphlet she was holding, while she waited by the bus stop. Since she had arrived there, some fifteen minute ago, three busses had arrived and left without her getting on board. This was because she was not, in fact, waiting for a bus. She had been waiting for the sleek black Bentley that had just pulled up on the opposite street, in front of Sykes International Holdings office tower.

The door of the old fashioned black automobile was opened by the building’s doorman, allowing a well-dressed middle aged man, who had followed him out, to enter the vehicle.

In reality, the midday sun glinted smartly off the door’s frame as the man stepped in. In Daphne’s head, a crack of thunder split the sky.

To the world at large the man looked to be an average, high end, businessman. He wore a tidy black suit with polished shoes, and was holding a meticulously well cared for briefcase. His short black hair was brushed back from his temples in a crisp and effortless way that suited his relatively handsome features quite well. This man was Harvard Sykes, CEO and founder of Sykes International Holdings Incorporated. Harvard Sykes was touted by his PR staff as a friendly, generous man, who loved puppies, and children, and the planet, and all that other stuff that important, powerful people were supposed to like if they expected to get any kind of public support. Daphne, however, suspected that this was a sham (more of a sham than you would normally already expect that kind of publicity to be, anyway).

For some time now she had been doing some research into the super villain called High Stakes. He was a mysterious figure who had only actually been seen on one or two occasions, and even then, only as a shadow or a blur. High Stakes was a calculating master of manipulation who had most of his dirty work done by other people. He attacked all the usual things – banks, and research facilities, and public events – but mostly he favoured cooperate and industrial targets. She noticed, after a while, that if you looked at the information very carefully you would see that the company that had gained the most from the attacks was Sykes International Holdings. True, they had been attacked as well from time to time, but the benefits of the damage to their competitors far outweighed the losses they took at home.

It was for this reason that Daphne suspected High Stakes to be someone involved in that company. After a little more digging (the kind that would probably get her arrested if anyone could prove she did it) she had narrowed her list of suspects to one individual; Harvard Sykes.

As of yet she had no concrete proof, but that was why she was here after all.

Daphne took a few steps back from the bus stop and pulled her baseball cap down tighter over her head. Now that her target had left the building, it was time for her to make her entrance. She turned around and walked into the little café behind her to find a washroom and change.
 

[Rika Mayumi]

"...sorry."
--THUD!

Zipped all the way through and was fortunate that the coverall was a perfect fit. Next, he grabbed the rubber boots, feeling slightly grossed out when he wore it. Elastic gloves, that he stretched to fit his fingers better. A baseball cap that he pulled down more to hide his eyes, with his hair falling down to the sides. And lastly a dust mask that covered his nose and mouth. Zone's disguise is perfect, at least he thinks so. "Should have brought a pair of shades." he thought, as he pinned the janitor's ID neatly at the side chest pocket. And he almost forgot to wear his weird looking utility belt, or he would fight barehanded, again.

Our disguised hero glanced over again to the janitor he knocked out and was laying on the floor only wearing briefs, gagged and blindfolded. His legs were strapped tight with ropes that extends at the back, strapped to his arms pulling them down that makes him bend backwards and would extinguish any future attempts to stand up. Zone was thinking of hanging the guy up towards the ceiling so no one could notice him. "I think that's too much, sorry again, I'll get back to you..." he said to the janitor sound asleep, hopefully Zone will remember to free the guy.

Making sure that the door to the store room outside the building was locked, Zone proceeded inside the back door of the tower and pushed the cart full of cleaning materials and his gear. While doing so, he contacted someone through his radio transmitter pinned to his collar. "This is Black Blood, I'm inside the building" whispering as soft as he could. The person on the other side of the line though was surprised, and was now shouting and scolding him. Quite pissed he turned the radio off.

A covert mission isn't likely to be his game, he preferred getting in front, fighting all out, sweating in the line of battle. This time, no one but him was available to take on this mission. A simple stakeout mission though, and Zone thinks they are belittling him. "...that's funny, 'little' huh..." So he break-in the building to investigate deeper into The Sykes International Holdings office tower.

An informant of the academy, stationed near this office tower said that there's something big going to happen soon. That informant went missing after that and no contact since the last message, his last message was "Pro--ly--High Stakes, Sykes---". It wasn't clear, the signal was jammed, but 'High Stakes' and the word 'Sykes' went through. Days later, the body were found at the street side close to his apartment. Apparently, police reports said that the person was mugged and stroked to death with a metal rod and there were no witnesses around. This incident alarmed the academy, and all their available heroes was ordered to keep an eye in every establishment Harvard Sykes owned.

Luckily for Zone, he got stationed here, closest to where the informant was last seen alive. Waiting at a distance in a cafe casually drinking coffee and covertly watching the surroundings is not going to work for him. So in the spur of the moment, he walked at the back of the building, saw a janitor came out, pulled him in a camera blind spot, knocked his lights out and disguised as the janitor.  

[Andraia]

DAPHNE RAY
civilian reporter

Daphne reappeared from the café a few minutes later looking like a completely different person. She changed from her beat up street clothes to a clean, pressed, two piece skirt-and-blazer suit. She looked exactly like all of the other young, twenty-something, business majors that had been cycling in and out of the building all morning. With a determined aura Daphne switched her briefcase (which now housed the small backpack that used to house it) to her other hand and strode confidently across the street. When she reached the Sykes International Holdings building she smiled at the doorman (“Hi Bill.”) and let walked straight up to the front desk.

The woman who worked reception had been there for nearly thirty years – since back before the building was Sykes International Holders and it was still Johnson & Johnson, Law; and before it was Johnson & Johnson, Law, when it had been Groveshire Accounting – and she could not be expected to remember the face of every deluded, fresh-faced interns that had come and gone in that time, so when the young blond approached and addressed her by name (“Good morning, Mrs Farris.”) she assumed that she was merely one of the faces that she had seen and then promptly forgotten. (“I forgot my card in the office, could you buzz me through? Thanks! I won’t do it again, I promise.”)

That was how Daphne got into the building; now came the hard part.

Now Daph was not an idiot, she did not expect Harvard Sykes to have simply left proof of his alter ego lying around his office somewhere, but there was something she knew would be there. Mr Sykes was always at the forefront of computer security technology, which meant that he did not merely use passwords to protect his files and account information. He used a frequency key. The only way to access his files was by inserting a special flash drive into the computer you wanted to use, conventional hacking methods were ineffective because the codes updated themselves every few minutes and could only be unlocked by the key.

After getting one of his personal assistants very (very) drunk a few days ago she had learned that Mr Sykes had, not one, but two of those keys made. One, she knew, he wore around his neck. No real hope of getting that one without anyone noticing. But the other, the PA had told her, was kept locked up in Sykes’ high security vault in the wall behind his office. It was too great of an opportunity to pass up. She had started staking out the Sykes building immediately and made her move as soon as possible.

Daphne thumbed the small device in pocket as the elevator creeped its way up the building. It had not been easy to come by, and she had had to pull a lot of favours in order to get it. It was a particular kind of copying device that, once the key was plugged into it, would be able to download the code onto the special flash drive that she had also brought. Of course she couldn’t actually take the key, but if she could copy it and get out without anyone knowing she had been there… well, stealth was going to be the key to this missions overall success.
 

[Rika Mayumi]

Zone greeted office workers with a nod as he passed by the corridors with the cart. He doesn't have any clue on where to go. And he remembered the informant. "It's best that I retrace his steps. Hack would be handy at this time..." he thought and wished he was a technopath too for a while.

Zone asked the receptionist on where their informant, this particular deceased office worker was stationed and told her that he was asked to clean up his desk. "Oh you're new and aren't you early? I thought they were going to do that this evening after the little memorial program for him?" the older woman asked, she was obviously depressed about the news, perhaps he knew the guy.

"It was an order from the higher ups. Can't have a dead person burden his co-workers and kept them from their work, it's best to move on, they said." Zone talked as he signed the log book with the janitor's name and fake signature. He was cautious with the signature though, and thought that the receptionist might look. She told him the needed info and a little bit about the guy. Betting that the person weren't familiar with faces especially new janitors but he still made a follow-up. As he finished writing, the receptionist pulled the clipboard and Zone placed his hand on hers, "He probably wished that everybody he knew here will be happy and move on without him. Can you be strong for his sake?" bulls eye, the receptionist knew him and cried. She pulled a lot of napkins from the tissue box and blew her nose while she ran towards the comfort room. "What the, did they more than knew each other?" and Zone went on towards the elevator.

The elevator door almost closed and he stopped it by his hand. He pulled his cart in and greeted the blond lady who got in first. "Good Morning Miss." and pressed the close button, he saw that this lady will be getting off at the same floor though. His destination floor button was already pressed. He pulled his cap down.  

[Andraia]

DAPHNE RAY
civilian reporter

Daphne smiled at the janitor as he got into the elevator. Damn it, she thought, he’s going to the same floor. She would have preferred a solitary ride. It seemed a bit odd to her that a jan—pardon her—a sanitation officer would be taking the main elevator in the middle of the day in such a swanky (we-like-to-keep-up-appearances) kind of place, but it wasn’t exactly enough to arouse too much suspicion. The ride to the second-to-the-top-floor was stopped, multiple times, as people got on and off the lift. Finally the bell chimed that they had arrived at the correct floor.

Mr Sykes’ office was located on the same floor as a few of the other higher-ups and a series of board rooms where meetings were held every day. As a result there was a lot of traffic through the area, and no one would may any attention to ‘just another new face’. As soon as the elevator doors opened she strolled out and made her way down the hallway that lead in the general direction of where she was going. She shot a little glance at the first security camera she passed and was pleased to see that the little red light on the side was conspicuously off. The cameras, she knew (thanks to certain light-weight personal assistants), were off today while the system underwent routine maintenance.

As she rounded the last corner before arriving at Sykes’ office she paused and stepped aside for a well-dressed man to move past her down the hallway. She smiled at him as he passed by her and ignored the blatant look he cast at her legs. Daphne knew his type; over paid and over confident. He would have noticed her more if she didn’t pay him attention than if she did. Besides, she thought with a self-satisfied little smile, these heels to amazing things to her legs. As soon as the coast was clear she took the last few quick steps down the hall and tried the door. It was locked, obviously, but she was prepared for that. She pulled a couple of thin silver tools from the waist of her skirt and picked the lock. It gave far easier than she had expected but, with one last look down both ends of the hallway, slipped inside and close the door quietly behind her.

The inside of the room was extravagantly decorated with ornate wooden furniture and expensive looking paintings. His desk faced the door and was framed by a floor-to-ceiling window that made up the wall behind it. “Huh. Well… I guess it isn’t behind the desk.” She mumbled quietly to herself. She looked around the room for a likely hiding place.
 

[Rika Mayumi]

Black Blood may have chosen a wrong elevator to take, especially with his preferred disguise. He noticed the awkward smile of the lady who got in first, and the annoyed look of the people who got in and out of the elevator. “Tsk.” He kept a straight face and thought, “Deal with it.” He didn’t have time to look for the staff elevator, or more precisely, he didn’t know where it is and did not bother to look, a grave habit of his because he always prefers direct assault.

Finally arriving to their destination, and coincidentally the blond woman got off the same floor. Was it really a coincidence? Maybe it is, in a different way.

While he pushed the cart out, the busy employees parting on his way, he went and asked the receptionist on the floor about the informant’s office desk. On his way, Zone noticed the blond woman again, walking down the hall. “Something’s off about her…or maybe I could--” he was thinking maybe he could get some info from her, or use her to get around the place more easily, meaning threaten her a bit. But that thought changed.

Zone left his cart at the empty hallway, and pursued blonde covertly. He hid at a corner and saw her tinkering on a locked door. “She’s not an ordinary employee.” He glanced at the cameras and was surprised they were turned off. She was successful at opening the locked door and slipped inside. “Who the hell is she?” he pondered and decided to follow.

The door was already unlocked. Black Blood quietly opened it and found blonde inside, with her back faced towards him.

“Huh. Well… I guess it isn’t behind the desk.”

“Ma’am, put your hands over your head and step away from where you are, slowly.” He said calmly, as he pushed the door behind him and cautiously walked towards her. “Don’t move.”  

[Andraia]

DAPHNE RAY
civilian reporter

Okay, she thought, if I was a safe, where would I be? She turned to the left wall first. It was covered in a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. Most of the shelves were covered in books – ranging in everything from old collectors volumes to the latest books on financial predictions – but a few held photographs, trophies, or art pieces. Some of the shelves were so full that you couldn’t see any part of the wall behind it; a safe could be hidden behind any of those. Maybe behind the—

“Ma’am, put your hands over your head and step away from where you are, slowly.”

What?

Daphne’s heart jumped up into her throat. She had been so sure that no one had seen her come into this office! Ugh, she was getting too confident and it was making her sloppy. She should have been more careful. Well, those problems could be corrected next time, but only if she got out of this time. Now, what were her options? He – she was fairly certain that that voice belonged to a guy – hadn’t mentioned a weapon, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have one. Most likely he was one of the building’s security officers, and they only carried tasers, but if Harvard Sykes was High Stakes (or connected to High stakes), then there was good chance that they would be carrying something a little more… flashy.

She brought her hands up slowly and laced her fingers behind her head. She heard the door close again with a quiet click, and footsteps coming towards her. The hairs on the back of her neck seemed to stand on edge with the anticipation as she waited for the cold feel of a gun pressed against her head or back. “Don’t move.”

“You know, that is a contradiction.” She told her ‘captor’ as in as light hearted a tone as she could muster. Daphne plastered a smile on her face and tried to keep her posture as relaxed as possible. “You can’t tell me to turn around and not to move. I can only do one or the other.”
 

[Rika Mayumi]

“I did not told you to turn around blondie,” Zone can’t afford to get recognized, not now nor in the future. Although he hated wearing masks, saying that he can’t breathe through them, he regrets not having one in situations like this. Still, he kept his cool, sort of.

“Just walk back slowly from where you are, lady” The blond woman was feisty enough to talkback, Zone needs to taunt her a little. He didn’t have any gun, nor any gear that could stand for one. So instead, while the suspicious office lady got her back turned towards him, he tossed a small acid vial to the shelf in front of her. The thin glass immediately shattered, and at once the unfortunate looking trophy including some books beside it melted, disintegrated or just like the reaction when acid got poured over them, but faster and more potent.

“Toss away every weapon and equipment you got away from you. In this distance I can easily bore a hole to your back or your skull if you don’t cooperate. And we don’t want acid burned skin after right?” hopefully she’ll play nice. He doesn’t want to hurt a pretty lady.

“Good, I just need some information about High Stakes and Sykes. And anything about the incident involving the death of one of the workers here.” Anything he said, he’s sounding desperate. Interrogating someone wasn’t included in his set of skills. But little does he know they were aiming for the same thing. Or the core of things which every misfortune events that happened revolved around and connected them.

(I’m sorry for the super late reply...orz)  

[Andraia]

DAPHNE RAY
civilian reporter

“Well I’m so-” The rest of her mocking reply was cut short when something small whizzed past her head and cracked into the bookshelf. She took an involuntary step back when part of the bookshelf where the capsule had hit began to melt. Oh my gods, she thought, they’re giving thugs acid now? Oh, he’s talking again. Do what the madman says Daph. Don’t be an idiot.

Slowly and deliberately, Daphne put her briefcase on the floor and pushed it away with her foot. She reached down to the waistline of her skirt to remove her lock picking tools – she figured he must have seen her break in, and if she didn’t pull them out me might assume she was hiding more – , all the while making sure her posture was as cooperative as possible. The last thing she needed was for him to get trigger happy with those acid pellets.

“Good, I just need some information about High Stakes and Sykes. And anything about the incident involving the death of one of the workers here.”

“… Wait, what?” Daphne had to actively try not to turn around and look at the person holding her at acid-point. If he was asking about Sykes, in connection to what she assumed was a murder, then he obviously (okay, probably) didn’t work for him. And wait a minute, did he mention High Stakes? He did! But how could he possibly—… well, there was only one way to sort this out.

“Er… you don’t work for Sykes?” She asked as delicately as she could.  

[Rika Mayumi]

It was reassuring that blondie was cooperating. Zone was running out of ideas if she continues to fight back. He absolutely don’t want to hurt a civilian or any woman if possible. ‘She really came prepared hm,’ compared his gear to hers, it makes him look like an amateur. Well he’s no spy, just an average hero trying to do his job. Whatever that is.

“And what if I don’t? I saw you snooping around, now tell me what you know and who you are,” he knew that she was no ordinary employee. But still, he got other things on his mind, “Or are you just an ordinary professional crook trying to steal something? Huh! Can’t trust women these days,” if that was the case then, he’ll have to take her to the police. A hassle because he’ll have to leave his post. Not knowing that the person in front of him was a freelance reporter, much more troublesome than an average crook, for his field.

“What’s inside that briefcase?” and as soon as he asked his question, loud chaotic noise was heard outside.  

[Andraia]

“I am not a crook!” Daphne said indignantly. Honestly, the nerve! First he threatens me with acid and then he has the audacity to insult me. Well, it was hard to argue with “the guy with the gun”, but that wasn’t the point. Before her thoughts could get any more traitorous she noticed something behind the bookshelf his earlier attack had begun to eat away. It was the safe! There was the safe! If only she could convince this guy to let her open it.

“My name is Daphne Ray. I’m a reporter. Re-port-er. Since you just asked about High Stakes I am going to assume that means that you believe the same thing I do: Harvard Sykes is High Stakes. And I can prove it too, that’s why I’m here, in that brief—” there was a loud noise outside the door. Daphne spun around, momentarily forgetting about the acid-threat. She could hear yelling outside now, and screaming. Was that a gunshot? What the hell was going on?
 

[Rika Mayumi]

Media was the annoying swarm of bugs that you can not kill. Irritatingly buzzed around in places they don’t have the right to put their noses into. Continuously jeopardize the heroes missions, their lives and the lives of civilians around just to get their stories. Zone hates reporters. But he knows he must protect her and as much as possible the people outside too. Everyone’s a priority in his messed up head.

‘Reporter? Crud! Of all the people I could bump into, why does it has to be a reporter?!’ Zone practically screamed inside his head. He was thinking of ways to avoid any more associations with this lady until she said something about Sykes. He was itching to ditch Ms. Ray, but she holds the information he needs. ‘Drat.’

“I guess the only way to protect everyone was to defeat these guys, whoever’s causing the trouble. You blondie stay close!” he grabbed her arm as he said it and when she turned around. Not caring anymore if she got a good look on his face.

One of the thugs kicked open the door and went inside pointing a gun towards them.  

[Andraia]

After the initial shock off the outside commotion wore off, Daphne remembered she wasn’t supposed to turn around. Startled – again – she turned around and saw her attacker. The guy with the acid was a janitor? What was the world coming to? Her reporter instincts – and common sense – were suggesting to her that he was not a mere custodial worker; the disguise was probably his way to get into the building. Amateur, she thought in a smug tone.

“I guess the only way to protect everyone was to defeat these guys, whoever’s causing the trouble. You blondie stay close!” The man said and grabbed her arm.

Before she could object to the manhandling (and being referred to as blondie) a Kevlar armoured, gun wielding thug burst through the door. Daphne yanked her arm out of her muscle-bound captor/rescuer’s grip “You handle the mook! I need to get into that safe.”

Daphne grabbed her briefcase on route to the acid-scarred bookshelf and ducked behind the relative cover of the mahogany desk. She was pretty sure Tall, Dark, and Grumpy had the mercenary’s (because that had to be what he was, he certainly looked the part; faceless, nameless, well-armed, and mean) full attention, but with high-powered semi-automatics in the mix, it was better to be safe than sorry. She looked up at the shelf behind which the wall safe was concealed. It was half melted away. Sykes was going to know someone had been here and seen the safe. He might think it was the James Bond extras that found it, but as soon as he thought his security might have been compromised, he would have the whole system reformatted and all her work would be for nothing!

This was it. It was all or nothing. Screw copying the key. She was going to have to get into that safe and hack the computer here in his office. Admittedly the Ski Masks crawling around might be a bit of a problem, but she was out of options. If Daphne was one thing, it was dedicated.

When she thought the cost might be clear, Daphne stood up from behind her makeshift bunker and pulled the rest of the books blocking the safe off the shelf. She pointed to the locking mechanism and turned to the man in the janitor’s uniform. “Hey Muscles! Think we can get a little more of that acid over here?”