Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-5543592-20170504012353/@comment-5543592-20170520014514

Lazarus Grimm wrote: Ward grumbled something inaudible and pinched his sellion, reminding himself as to where mankind had begun to fail as a race when they put far too much trust and responsibility in the hands of machines. (Lol)

Deborah could not answer, given her connection was severed. The jet did indeed have parachutes. One that would automatically deploy when Ward pulled the ejection lever next to his seat, and a second in the backpack he had brought up with him.

"Right." Tanner replied. "You good to keep moving?"

Kheiro, standing on a rise in the hill, watched through a pair of binoculars as some of the jets dropped from the sky, near the Space Needle. Two of them, however, were remaining in the air.

“How peculiar.”   He noted only to himself. He glanced down at the device he held in his hands, the high-frequency jammer fitting into a laptop’s casing, the screen alight with all sorts of different information. It’s casing was a gun-metal titanium with glowing orange highlights where exposed wiring ran, created from the same manufacturer as his mask. He closed it shut and tossed it carelessly aside, then turned around, facing Fort Lawton.

 The suit of armor perked up as the lone figure approached the gate. Several more individuals similarly dressed stood in the background, but they did not come forward.

 “Hello! Can I help you?”   It called to him in a friendly, welcoming voice.

 “Allow me inside.”   He told it, brown hood shielding his face as the wind tore at his cloak. From behind his mask, he smiled back at the grinning skull.

 “Of course!”   The armor’s voice agreed happily, the gate behind the trauma harness sliding open. Kheiro walked past it, into the base, hands clasped behind his back.

 “You know, you’re my tenth visitor today.”   The suit of armor said as it followed him.

 “Am I?”   He replied.

 “Yep. More than I’ve had here in centuries. It was so much fun, I had a real blast. I hope they come back to visit.”

 “Can you lead me to where they went?”   Kheiro’s metal voice was a synthetic purr, almost musical in its timbre. Even while standing next to a walking, talking skeleton it made him seem the inhuman one.

 “Of course!”

 Into the base they went, to the elevator. The voice came from a speaker in the ceiling, and made noise as they went up. Kheiro stood quietly in the elevator’s center, facing the door, head bowed just slightly.

 The elevator dinged, revealing the third floor, and Kheiro approached the sealed heavy door there.

“Scanning.”   The blue light traveled up and down Kheiro as he paced down the hall, his stride so confident there might as well not even have been a door in his way.

<span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">“One unrecognized individual of undocumented status.

<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; line-height:normal"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin">Floor off limits to civilians. Vacate the premise immediately.”

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Activate voice recognition.”   Kheiro instructed, stopping in front of the door, never lifting his head to look up.

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Voice recognition online. Please provide command phrase.”

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Open.”

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Command phrase accepted.”   The door began to lift.

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Whoa, that was cool.”   The voice said as Kheiro entered the Operations Center. “No one’s ever just told it to open before. I wonder why they all don’t try that.”

<p class="MsoNormal"> Kheiro stood quietly in the Operation Center’s entrance for a moment, before slowly getting the layout of the room.

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Tell me, what did they come for?”

<p class="MsoNormal"> “They really wanted to blow this flying balloon up. They tried to use missiles, but that didn’t work, so I helped them use planes instead.”

<p class="MsoNormal"> Kheiro climbed the dais to the missile control area. He reached out, grazing the tips of his fingers across the buttons and dials of the console.

<p class="MsoNormal"> “They were here.”   He murmured, satisfied, then tilted his chin towards the ceiling. “Machine, can you find these visitors?”

<p class="MsoNormal"> “Of course.”   The voice sounded eager to do so. The large monitor on the wall came to life. Tanner, Tyrus, and William were viewed from a bird’s eye view. The Outsiders who had evacuated their jets, hung in the air from parachute, shown in high-definition from a street camera that had power. The tracking of Tim’s and Famian’s jets was on the screen as well. They would be landing soon. “Is this satisfactory?”

<p class="MsoNormal"> “More than.”   Kheiro assured the A.I, low laughter rising in his throat, his eyes wrinkling as he smiled behind his mask.

<p class="MsoNormal"> He leaned over the console, setting his gloved hands on its cool metal surface. “Where do you run, little mice?”   The Masked Man whispered to the monitor. “You’re in my maze and there’s but one way to go.”