Log:ACRO - Jacobs, Scene 5

ACRO - Jacobs 2017/07/14 	 Night Marshal|Detective Carpenter Chen Armament|Dr. Jacobs Tap Mechanica Griffin Jeff Smith - Former ACRO Agent

5

Long, largely straight roads, often in poor condition, stretch across the low-lying farmland, interrupted by lines of tree delimiting fields and acting as windbreakers. Traffic is thin, most long-distance traffic preferring the major highways to the south and east. Small villages and isolated farmhouses hold the human population, while fields and hedgerows have the animals.

Dr. Derrick Jacobs has gone missing, after getting nearly accosted at the mall during a book signing. Detective Jack Carpenter has been on the trail of the missing scientist, starting first with the man Jacobs was seen with last: Dr. Roland Hammer. Hammer referred him to Jacobs' second home in Green Acres, where the heroes found a workshop in the basement containing both a sophisticated alarm system and a suit of power armor.

No sign of forced entry was found, but Jacobs' car was missing. The car had been registered under another person's name, and after a quick hack of traffic records, it was last spotted by traffic cameras on the way into the western suburbs of the city.

Carpenter has managed to track down where the car went, ending up at a white farmhouse northwest of the city. The yard is huge, as you might expect, with a dirt driveway leading to a barn-like garage attached to the house. The car is barely visible inside the partially closed garage. There's a pickup truck outside of the garage proper.

The detective calls the heroes again after finding the place, figuring there might be a need for some backup.

Chen arrives earlier than the arranged time. And circles to farmyard at a distance, in the form of a feral cat, sniffing out who's come and gone other than by are during the last few days.

Tap has tagged along with Carpenter. Weird, riding *with* a cop. But it's probably not a bad idea to try to get in with them and the heroes. It's not like she's invisible any more.

Tap(#2850PenACcF?)

Tap stands barely five foot tall, and looks like she must be thin as a rake under her clothes. She is typically dressed scruffily in well-worn jeans and a dark grey hoody, too large for her: its hood is easily big enough to hide her face in its shadows. Of her self, normally only her small and slender hands show.

She generally seems quiet, alert and skittish, as if always ready to run. But when she does stand her ground she betrays no hint of fear.

Griffin Freeman zeroes in on the location with Mechanica in tow. She's not to happy about being carted around like luggage, but a 'fireman carry' is one of the safest ways to be carted about at these speeds when you can't confer the speed to others like Griff's buddy Lightning seems capable of doing.

They arrive as suddenly as a lightning strike- coming to a halt at the base of the dirt driveway. He crouches to let Mechanica off his shoulder and remains there, scouting for the others.

Carpenter smiles and looks back to Tap, "We need to be cautious. It's a safe bet than whomever is inside knows we're here."

Chen sneaks up on the unsuspecting prey. And reaching out with a front paw... taps the complacent rabbit on the back. The poor creature bounds a foot into the air in shock and hits the ground running. Chen smirks. She still has the touch. Now in a good mood she heads to the arranged meeting point to see what Detective Carpenter has planned.

Carpenter winces as Griffin lands. "Well...that clinches it. They'll know we're here, for sure."

Mechanica's feet pedal a little as he crouches, trying to find the ground uncertainly as she recovers from the speed. If anyone could see through her holographic projectors and sound dampeners, she'd look rather graceless, like a dog trying to paddle and swim when only being held above the water.

Finally, her feet make contact and she stands up, tugging her jacket down to smooth out the way it falls on her form, and straightens out her bandolier. Her projector's noise cancellation and holographic projectors bend light and muffle sound to hide their approach. Once she touches down, she activates her own personal cloaking matrix to hide her radio signals.

Tap nods to the detective. "I can do sneaky."

Tap says, "So we sneaking in? Or have you got to announce yourself all legal-like?"

Chen arrives at the meeting place, initially as a scruffy looking feral cat. She morphs back into Chen and waves, "Hi. Not late am I?" she looks at the Mechanica images, and then sniffs, and grins. "Neat trick." she comments looking in Mechanica's true direction. "I've taken a quick scout around. Nobody has entered or left on foot for at least several days."

[To Chen] Tap says, "Hey. Good disguise!"

Carpenter doesn't even acknowledge the arrival of Griffin and Mechanica, except to glance int he direction that Chen speaks in briefly. He shrugs, figuring that it's just something weird about Chen more than anything. He looks over to Tap, "I'd prefer to just knock. Though I think we do have probable cause, given that hte car is here."

Tap says, "'Kay, let's knock then. I've got your back."

Chen asks, "Are you wearing body armor, Detective Carpenter?"

Carpenter shakes his head, "Not really, no. I only do that in...say...obviously dangerous situations."

Chen nods, "You mean, like walking up to a farmhouse that is a location of interest in the possible kidnapping of a ex-ARCO guy?"

Carpenter smiles and corrects Chen, "ACRO. And...we don't know it's dangerous. Yet."

Tap says, "Let's go in now? I mean, it's only going to get more dangerous if we wait till they know we're here."

Chen nods, "Okay. Let's remember to ask the bad guys to hold off shooting at you until you get grab some body armor and put it on." she says. .oO(Which will take about a second.) she thinks, remembering the Paragon defense.

Carpenter sighs and chuckles as he heads toward the door, "You remind me of a more protective version of my mom."

Chen laughs. "I'm not Jewish though."

Mechanica does a double take at the cat as he talks and spies her. At first she looks surprised, but afterwards, a little disappointed that she forgot some feature in her gear. She might already be pondering a workaround when the cat turns into Chen. Well, at least now she doesn't feel as bad that she was spotted. She follows behind as silent backup. It always pays to have an ace in the hole.

Tap stays close to Carpenter, looking about for dangers.

Carpenter knocks on the door. There's no doorbell. Just an old school metal knocker. And...no one comes to the door.

Griffin looks to Mechanica with surprise written all over his face. He isnt sure if he can speak and be heard by others yet so he waits for her nod. He waves to Chen anyway.

All of the heroes actually hear someone inside moving around. The knock got some kind of response, but whoever it is avoids coming to the door.

Mechanica steps near Griffin and holds a hand up to cup against his ear. Her holoprojectors shift her voice so it sounds like she's whispering in his ear. "You can step outside of the cloaking field at any time. One of the heroes knows we're here at least. Espero que los hombres malos can't do what she can do."

Chen says, "Like me to take a look around inside, Detective?"

Tap says, "Someone's moving about in there....."

Tap tries the door.

Carpenter raises a brow, "How would you manage to do that?"

Tap finds that the door is locked.

Tap raps on the door by the lock.

Chen says, "I can enter through the keyhole, or under the door, inside a drainpipe, etc. Prefer not to do the latter. It's pretty mucky inside drainpipes."

The door makes a clicking noise as the bolt slides open.

Tap pushes the door open after a slight mechanical noise and peers inside.

Chen grins, "Or just open the door as they left it unlocked." she says not realizing what Tap did.

Griffin nods and then steps forward a few meters, appearing on the other side of her cloaking field. He figures she'll remain cloaked and be his invisible back-up. He likes that.

He listens closely to the sound of movement inside, raising an eyebrow. He looks to Carpenter and points to himself, and makes walking motions with his fingers then moves them around something. He's trying to tell the Detective Carpenter (and Mechanica) that he's going to go around back as the door's bolt lock slides open. He shrugs and decides to follow along with the others. He doubts both doors will be unlocked.

Carpenter draws his weapon as Tap steps inside, "I'm...not sure it was unlocked." The entry room is a small foyer-like location with old hardwood floors that are showing their age. There are several sets of shoes and boots stacked by the door. To the left is the garage, and to the right is the rest of the house. Directly to the right is the kitchen, which is also showing its age. Beyond that is a darkened living room, but only a portion of htat can be seen.

Tap moves toward the living room. Keeping in front of the detective.

Chen listens and sniffs, staying close to the detective.

Carpenter moves into the kitchen, and a male voice calls out from inside the living room, "Don't come any closer! I WILL shoot you!" There's a distinctive sound of a plasma weapon charging up.

Griffin speaks up at that. "I think that's my cue, Detective." He says, shifting his energies into his bio-electric field, making him self orders of magnitude more durable. He steps from behind the Detective and puts his hands up. "Don't shoot- I'm not armed." He responds, his tone is unconcerned about the plasma weapon.

Chen steps in front of the detective, widening and growing taller, and thinner to compensate.

Tap strikes the wall between herself and the speaker. Figuring bits of wall flying in his general direction will distract him from shooting.

Carpenter blinks as he sees not one but two heroes jump in the way. He sighs quietly, but lets Griffin deal with the talking. For the moment.

The person in the other room says, "Why did you break in here? Who are you?" Then some debris comes off the wall as the exterior wall is hit. "And why are you damaging my house!?"

Tap thinks. o O (Oops. Goes round a corner. SO much for that plan.)

"Because you're threatening us with a plasma weapon, maybe? Okay, I'm Chen, a meta. Detective Carpenter is here. If you have nothing to fear from the police put down your weapon and come talk. If you do have cause to fear the police, well that's where I come in."

Griffin continues making his way towards the voice, even as Tap blows the wall out towards the mysterious speaker. "That was an accident- I think my... partner forgot we're just here to talk."

Griffin makes his way through the doorway, hands still held high, but his movements are very casual otherwise. He's almost non-chalant about the weapon pointed at him- he barely even glances at it. "I apologize about the damages, sir. We'll make sure that's made right. As for breaking in- all I saw was my partner do is open the door. She didn't unlock it by any method I'm aware- now would you mind if we had a quiet and calm conversation?"

Griffin shrugs as Chen announces the rest of the party.

Carpenter calls out, "CBPD! We're following up on a missing person!" He mutters to himself, "...should have announced myself. Damn it."

The homeowner swears. There's a long tense moment...and then he says, "Looking for Dr. Jacobs?"

Tap looks in dismay at the wall. She was thinking about protecting the detective from a plasma weapon. How's she going to pay for the damage?

Mechanica slips in behind Griffin. He makes a good meat shield for someone as squishy as her. She frowns at the situation, then smiles at the plasma weapon. She starts to formulate a plan and taps something on her wrist. Her holoprojects are still active, warping light around her and simulating empty space where she is, while her matrix cloak goes offline. She's still concealed except to those with a keen eye, whilst rerouting power to another system...just in case.

Griffin nods as he looks to the Detective. Now that he's announced himself, he's the mouth and officially the one in charge here. Might as well come from him.

Carpenter says, "That's correct. We want to make sure he's okay."

The homeowner swears again, but shuts down his weapon, "A fight won't help anyone." He turns up the lights in the living room, "We asked him to come here. To help us." As the lights come up, it's pretty clear that the person with the gun is a cyborg. Half of his face and one arm are metal.

Tap says, "Um, hey. Sorry about the wall. Get twitchy when people start with the plasma weapons."

The man slings the weapon over his shoulder, "I get twitchy when people break into my house unannounced. I'm sure you would too?"

Tap says, "Hey - we knocked."

Carpenter holsters his weapon.

The owner says, "And? That's when most people dropping off religious literature leave it and walk away. Please don't try to tell me you wouldn't get defensive."

Carpenter steps into the living room, "Well, I'm sorry it came to this. But if we can see what's going on, that would be helpful, Mister...."

Tap says, "Hey, doze. I understand. Was just explaining."

The other man says, "...Smith. Jeff Smith." He nods slowly. "Follow me." He leads the group back through another room, and up a narrow set up steep stairs to the second floor. Everything about hte house feels old. Like...it's probably at least a hundred years old.

Griffin keep shis transphasic energies attuned to his bio-electric field to make sure he's at least one of the toughest here. With no room to manuever it's also how he plans to minimize damage done to the cyborg's home.

He follows Jeff Smith, knowing Mechanica is running a background on the man already.

Tap follows in silence.

On the upper floor, there are two bedrooms. There's another cyborg in the left one, with a pistol out. When he sees everyone coming upstairs, he holsters it. In the other room is a makeshift operating table. Jacobs is working on an open panel in the head of a third cyborg. Jacobs glances over, "No shooting, so that must be good?"

Jeff nods to Derrick, "A cop and some heroes looking for you, since you disappeared."

Carpenter nods as he looks around, "What exactly is going on here? You don't look like you're here against your will, Dr. Jacobs."

Jacobs finishes up what he's doing and closes the panel. "These men are part of an ACRO strike team. Or they were. All five of them wanted to make a break from the organization. Do any of you know what happens to those who try to leave the organization?"

Chen asks, "Spare parts?"

Mechanica finally drops her holographic projections all together, fading into view. "I don't suppose they get a nice retirement watch. No? Que lastima," she says from Griffin's side, and a little behind.

The SuperSoldier listens intently as Doctor Jacobs explains things.

He looks around the room to the others when asked if they knew what awaits ACRO deserters.

He seems to find nothing terrible going on here, in fact it would seem -so far, that Jacobs is doing something noble.

He smirks as Mechanica says what they're all thinking only with more sass than anyone he's ever met before.

Tap just stays quiet. Having done enough damage.

Jacobs smiles slightly, "There's a switch in every agent. That can be shut off. It terminates the agent." His smile disappears, "I'm not proud to say...that I helped design it. So, when Mr. Smith and his team came looking for me, I was willing to help them bypass it." He furrows his brow, "But...this brings up something I hadn't thought of previously. Deus Ex has access to all of its agents' feeds at the same time. It should have known what was going on, or at least that something might be up in the near future. We were able to block transmissions, but we can't have blocked everything. Thoughts. Discussions."

Chen says, "Who's Deus EX?"

Jeff speaks up, "The AI leader of ACRO. Deus Ex Machina. It...is pretty omnipresent. It can jump from device to device without a normal connection. Scared the hell out of most agents, once they realized what the situation was."

Chen says, "An AI? Huh. That makes it kind of hard to punch, right?""

Tap says, "Without a connection? How?"

Jacobs says, "No one is sure how that works. But it does make it nearly impossible to punch, yes. At least with any lasting effect."

"So like a cyber-ghost? Creepy." Griffin says, shaking his head. Part of him feels for these guys. He could have very easily ended up in a similar situation when he unknowingly signed up to be a SuperSoldier.

He looks to the Detective, "I'm not sure anything illegal is going on here- and if you agree, I'd like to stay here and help keep these men safe until their ... operations are done. I'm not the technical sort- but it sounds like this thing has a lot of bodies to throw at 'em." He points over his shoulder to Jacobs and the former ACRO cyborg agents.

Carpenter nods. "I agree. I kind of want to see if there are warrants out on any of you guys, but I'll bother checking...later."

Chen looks over at Griffin. "If you're going to hang around, want some extra company?"

"Absolutely." Griffin says as he removes his glasses and puts them in his coat pocket. When he looks back up his entire eye is aglow with energy. He offers Chen his fist to bump.

Chen bumps fists with Griffin. "Cool. My aunts speak quite highly of you, you know."

Griffin smiles at that. "You know, I'm pretty partial to those ladies myself."