[United] Rising Tide - The Escape

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Rising Tide: The Escape
Date of Scene: 11 January 2018
Location: Triskelion, New York City
Synopsis: Skye makes her escape from SHIELD and re-joins the Rising Tide with a little help from outside and above.
Cast of Characters: Quake, Nick Fury, Hawkeye (Barton), Phil Coulson, Black Widow, Iron Man, Oracle, Frankenstein

Quake has posed:
It had taken her the day to set up. Luckily, Skye's job was doing almost exactly what she was doing today: puttering at the computeres. If anyone noticed that today she was hooked into the mainframe of the system a lot more than usual, nobody commented. She'd been starting to transfer bits from the stolen Hydra data. For all anyone knew, that's what she was doing.

Instead, she was setting up her defection. Letting Oracle know her role in the matter. Hunting up passwords and security roundabouts. Plotting her path. Finding the files she was going to steal. Putting the computer virus she was going to use to keep folks out of her hair into place. She had the go ahead. All that remained was to make it happen.

Skye had chosen a shift-change for mission go. Everyone was just a little lazier then. Coming and going, screens weren't as closely monitored. People were shutting things down, packing shit up, settling into their work spaces and catching up on the day's rundown. Even with staggered rotations, the casual chaos of shift change made the most sense.

So, suppertime, Skye starts to casually shut down many of the essential systems between herself and the door. Her program was in place; she'd set it to go as soon as she'd done her download. And the download was the last thing she needed. All she had to do was make it look convincing. Files chosen, Skye begins her download. The countdown begins..

Nick Fury has posed:
    It was a normal night like any other in SHIELD HQ. Nick Fury was in Operations, monitoring the World situation. Something was bothering him though. Something was up, he could sense it. Tapping the nearest console in the Control Room, Fury accesses the operation sit rep, and so far, the night was going as per the norm.

    Crossing his arms across his chest, Fury stares down the strange expressions from several Agents, wondering why the Director would be in Ops, at this time of night, during supper? Without a word, he just continues to do his thing. As several Agents begin to leave, Fury waits.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint was back on the active roster again which meant a lot of training and occasionally some reports. As it was about quitting time for the 9-5 Adminions, Clint takes one of those reports upstairs, and heads into Operations. He's in Agent Barton mode today, a SHIELD jacket thrown over his tactical kit, badge worn on chain around his neck, ICER resting in the holster on his hip.

Seeing the man himself, in Ops, Clint winds his way through the consoles to get there, "Down from the Odyssey boss? Figured they'd have to pry you out of the thing. And seen Coulson around? I've got that report he was looking for."

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil is on duty, today, though just arriving for his shift. The senior agent enters the room, wearing his usual suit and tie and begins to approach Fury, though Clint gets a nod, "Director. Surprised you are in here." He nods to Clint again, "Agent Bartlett." Phil takes a look around the room and tries to glance at the various monitors to get the idea of what is going on.

Black Widow has posed:
In her office, Natasha is just coming in. She had been out on an assignment for the last week. Her reports were already filed but she opted to come into the office to make sure everything went through properly and to check with Fury personally to discuss what happened that wasn't on the report. There are always things that weren't on the report. First, she needed to take care of a few things on the computer.

The big wooden desk seems so out of place in the building of metal and glass fixtures but it was something Natasha had insisted upon. It had been modified, allowing for the computer screen and keyboard to disappear within when not in use. Right now, the screen is up and she is clicking through emails that have piled up while she was gone.

Iron Man has posed:
Tony Stark has some of his attention on a holographic tech pad he set is carrying, flipping through the mid-air items low to the tech pad with right hand at high speed. He's located behind some of the bright monitors in Ops, currently. There are two little mechanical drones in the air together near his left shoulder, one of them with a lead down to the tech pad, making it appear to float like a confused little low-air mechanical balloon. They are about soccer ball size, and emit a low fan-style whirring, but are otherwise reasonably quiet. Both drones are identical, other than one having a lead and the other not, and are both clearly doing some sort of slow scanning diagnostic procedure.

The remainder of Tony's attention is on the last part of a sandwich he is trying to finish, but his hands are full... He sets down the tablet on a table to attend to the sandwich, also half-sitting on the edge of it. Priorities.

Tony is in his usual sleek business wear, aside from a visitor badge clipped to his suit jacket. And totally not the reason why anybody would be keeping an eye on things in Ops. Not at all. The sounds of greetings makes him lean out around the monitor, hardly subtle. He answers when Barton questions Fury's location: "That's my fault! I needed the grand tour," Tony supplies loudly, a smile in tone as well as on his face.

Quake has posed:
Waiting for a download is kind of like watching paint dry at times. Or water boiling. And about as painful if you misjudge the timing. Still, this wasn't Skye's first time at this rodeo - before SHIELD there'd been Rising Tide, and before them, there had been other escapades. All that required exactly this sort of wait. The only difference was what she was really waiting for was all the other bits and pieces to fall into place. Once that data stick was removed from the computer and shoved into a pocket, things were going to get hairy.

Still, Skye felt good about the rest of it. She'd done all she could at this point to make her flight possible. She had to trust everything fell into place the way it was supposed to. Though she appreciated the irony of breaking out of the place. Of coures, they wouldn't have her behind the systems stopping her. Still, Nat was more than a fair hand at that. Which was why Skye had left the other in place and contacted Oracle.

Oracle had been a gamble, but there were reasons - not the least of which was she couldn't be touched by SHIELD systems, and Skye had to get out with the information she had at all costs. Nat could counter what Skye left behind. In fact, Nat was precisely why Skye had left that behind. It solved two problems with one stone: how not to get shot by Nat, and how to keep Nat from merely rerouting things and ending this before it began.

Oracle was interference along the way and backup for when Nat eventually shut down Skye's virus.

She just needed her download to complete and.. ah. There it was. The green lighted flash of success as everything finished.

Skye casually begins hitting her presets, clearing the path between herself and the doors, as well as other random systems and areas, things both innocuous and vital. She's committed now.

Welcome to the big leagues Ms. Johnson.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury accesses the operation sit rep, keeping up to speed. So far, everything was going according to plan. Everything was calm and quiet, but shift change brought about a weakness in the system. It was a good time...and that was when Barton arrives. "Agent Barton. Nice to see you. Yeah, just had a meeting with Stark, so I thought I'd stick around."

    Stark adds to that excuse as well, with the "grand tour" comment. Fury nods to Stark, and then notes a new arrival. "Haven't seen...well, speak of the devil himself. Agent Coulson. Evenin'."

    Next, all hell broke lose. Fury noticed that several systems were...not working as they should. That was when the Ops Manager's console started to show an intrusion alarm as Skye removed the data stick.

    "Report!" Fury barks at the nearest Agent, and moves swiftly to their location. Reading what was happening, and looking at the video uplink, Fury curses, and says, "I want everyone on board with this. They are to detain Agent Johnson immediately. And I emphasize DETAIN." That last was to junior Agents, moreso than the senior ones.

    Fury then looks at Barton and Coulson. "We have a situation. Get it done." They knew what to do. After all, this clandestine mission had to look good, and sending the best to get her, and/or coordinate her "capture"...well, that was as real as it got. And Fury had a few surprises if things got...too close.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint looks up at the sound of Tony's voice and grins, "Jeez, who let this guy in here again?" Clint quips. "Whatever happened to security around this place?" though for all the grousing that was just Clint's way of saying, 'hey Tony'.

Phil gets a little of the classic Barton snark as well, "Bartlett? What am I a TV president?" Clint asks Phil with a grin, assuming his former Supervisory Officer was just messing with him. He hands over the report. "Here you go, looked over the mission plan and left my notes. Sounds like a fun time, let me know if you need a hand."

Then all the alerts go off and Clint remarks, "I was kidding about the security thing," he says, but despite the joke his game face is on, and he's ready and alert.

Until he isn't.

"What? Agent Johnson? You mean the guy in payroll right?" he asks before he catches sight of the vid and blinks. "Shit," he says and looks to Fury even as the man is barking orders. "C'mon boss let me talk to her, I am sure there's a good explanation." For the moment at least, Barton isn't budging.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Been watching too much West Wing", Phil notes to Clint and nods to Tony, but there is much more to pay attention to. He blinks for a moment when the room goes full pandemonium. As Furybarks out orders, Phil draws his sidearm and says to Clint, "Hence the detain. If we don't take care of her, some hotshot wanna-be hero is going to and probably do something stupid. If you want to talk with her, we need to go, now."

Black Widow has posed:
If she got one more email about attending a baby shower, Natasha was going to shoot someone. She deleted the third email on that particular subject. Each had been for a different person. That's what happened when one was in the Senior Agent group listing. Maybe she needed to send out a video surveillance from her last mission so they knew that shooting was a very real danger. Probably would be considered a threat. Which it would be. But still.

The computer suddenly flared with a warning across the screen. Frowning, her fingers began to fly over the keys. She sees the systems beginning to fail. Some were nothing important but a few of those were critical. She slipped into the system and began working behind the scenes to try and counter. Only...that programming looked awfully familiar. Her expression darkened as she murmured softly to her self. "What have you done?" Then she pushes her comm unit and her voice comes across the channel. "Agent Johnson has compromised the systems. I am trying to keep things up. She has taken secure data and needs to be detained before she leaves the building." She's not aware this is old news to those in Ops.

Iron Man has posed:
"Hey Barton; aren't YOU the security, though? There's your answer. Also, I was dismayed by the lack of red carpet; get on that, huh?" Tony answers with amusement in response to Clint's greeting. Tony was mostly involved in his sandwich when suddenly a lot of things seem to turn inside out with seriousness. Tony ... keeps eating his sandwich, observing, without particularly reacting much at all at first. However, the statement about Ms. Johnson gets a very large eyebrow raise, and a particularly curious look is cast to Clint.

"Your girl gone wild?" Tony questions Clint idly. He has mustard on his fingers, and looks for something to wipe it on, settling for the sandwich wrapper. The little drones ignore all the activity and keep doing their current task, for the moment, as they have not been directed otherwise. Tony does, however, pull a different handheld from a pocket and do a few things that SHIELD probably wouldn't prefer he do, just to, you know, peek.

Quake has posed:
Skye does a slight head tilt of appreciation as Nat's voice comes over the comms system. "Nice reaction time there, Nat," she murmurs to herself, noting it was several full seconds earlier than she'd expected. Getting out was going to be a bit tougher than she thought, and Skye already knew it was going to be tough.

Thank goodness for alternative routes, and backup plans. Of course at this point she had to count on things running as she'd set them out.

Out was her goal, preferably the foyer, but with the route she'd planned, Skye didn't have to commit to that until the last minute. She had several hallways and a whole other floor (at least!) to get through before that. The beauty of access to almost all of SHIELD's systems was.. you saw almost all of SHEILD's systems, and Skye had memorized the rats nest warren of other ways to get around this place. It had started after Hydra, and something of a joke after she and Clint had gotten lost trying to find their way out after a missturn. Today had been brushing up on that knowledge and planning. She had a preferred route, but she wasn't stupid enough to not have backups. She was running up against the best SHIELD had after all.

Flashdrive safely in her pocktet, ICER at her side, Skye takes a left out of R&D and heads down the nearest hallway.

First order of business: some of the lesser used back ends.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"Shut up, Tony," Clint says about that Skye gone wild comment. Though it did sink in some. What the hell was Skye doing? Hopefully some little experiment or moment of curiosity gone wrong. Though as the status boards lit up and more systems went on the fritz he was becoming less and less sure of that.

Phil's words jar him out of his torpor and he gives the older agent a nod, "Yeah. You're right," he says drawing his ICER. "Let's go. And hey, can someone up here feed us location data on Skye, this place is a maze."

Clint heads for the stairs and the hunt was on.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil checks his ICER and talks as he walks, "You know her best, so you take lead on this at first. If things get hairy I reserve the right to take action, but we both want this to be some big mistake or misunderstanding." His tone is flat and serious. "Any ideas on what the heck is going on?"

Black Widow has posed:
"She left R&D and is headed down corrider 27." Yes, Natasha actually knows the corridor numbers. Not that anyone else probably does so she adds. "Left out of R&D, right at next juncture. Someone else will need to do the play by play though. She's done a number and I'm trying to keep us from losing some critical systems so I need to keep my attention on that." With that, she goes back to focusing as she pulls up multiple windows of data. She starts picking out bits, recognizing the style from her time working with (and against) Skye on their mission against Hydra. It's a version of what Skye had used before but not exact. It's going to take time and that she doesn't really have as she works.

Iron Man has posed:
"So, an overwhelming yes. I'll get right on that," Tony replies when told to shut up by Clint, unperturbed. "I would like to state for the record that I didn't leap uninvited into any 'hot-shot heroing' today. Not my circus, not my monkeys," Tony comments (even if he's just talking to himself, or his little robot drone audience), and then subtly turns his back towards the agents leaving behind him, raises the device, and takes a good selfie: himself in the front with a 'disappointed' face, and the other agents looking so serious and upset as they rush out of Ops in the background. He then sends that selfie to Skye. And goes back to his snooping.

"Buuuuut, hypothetically, say you had some gopher holes. Would you want some water flooded down them?" Tony directs more quietly towards Fury.

Quake has posed:
Of course Nat would know the corridor numbers. Nat, and now Skye. No matter, Clint wasn't as savvy on that front. Nor was most anyone else. But Nat's directions are decent enough - if Nat has time to offer them. As expected, that job is shunted off to someone else. That should buy Skye back those seconds, but after that, she's back on her original clock give or take.

It was the give or take that worried her. No matter, though, she didn't have time to worry about it. She had those aces in her back pocket and needed to trust they'd work.

So far, some hallways are situation normal - which was planned to add to the confusion. Hydra had failed there, taking out everything. It was much worse if you left things up in the air as to whether or not they were going to be workign as expected. Skye'd taken things off normal system control, but some bright light would have them back before she made exit - or should have them back. Skye would be disappointed if they couldn't manage that much. Things like elevators and fire supression. Neat thing about that: you trigger a silent fire suppression protocol, and all the elevators go to the next floor, open, and stop working.

Nat was right. The program was familiar. It was meant to be. It wasn't just that it was a damn fine piece of code and terribly efficient at killing systems, Skye really didn't want to fry the entirety of SHIELD either. She needed Nat to stop what she'd left in place. It's sole purpose was to keep Nat busy and not thinking about what was going on. The varients weren't impossible to figure out. It would be a challenge to the other, but Skye had faith.

Tony, though - he was a wildcard Skye couldn't have predicted entering the picture. And Tony was no slouch in all sorts of troublesome areas.

Oracle, on standby, is Skye's ace in the hole. Dynamic system interference at real time speed.

Skye makes it to the first stairwell and heads, not down, but up. For those familiar with the place, she's going to take an opposite route down. Trouble is? This one you can only get to the way she's coming at it from this floor, and there is no guarantee the paths along the way from any other egress are clear... May the odds ever be in your famour?

Nick Fury has posed:
    Watching the displays, the video feeds, and with his own personal resources, Fury makes note of the situation and his frown deepens. This was all a myriad game of cat and mouse, and so far, it was going better than he thought it would. Nat was doing what was expected. Clint was rushing headlong into it, of course. Phil was there to keep things...calm. He could always count on the Senior Agent to do the right thing. And Stark. That was a chess move that Fury had counted on when he agreed to the meeting today.

    "Mr. Stark." Fury didn't use Tony out here in public. It was all about decorum. "I appreciate the offer, but my team has things well in hand. Feel free to observe, and if you have any security recommendations, I'll be all ears." A pause, as he hands Stark the data pad he had picked up from one of the Ops Agents. "Feel free to watch things from this." Fury nods, sending a signal of understanding towards Stark. He was there as backup, just in case.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint is walking at a fast clip as he leaves ops, slipping in his ear comms as he does. "Thanks," Clint says to Phil letting him take the lead. "And I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding."

It had to be.

When Nat comes through with the directions, he says, << 27 which one is- >> Then Nat fills them in with directions that made sense to people who hadn't memorized the schematics of the place as thoroughly as his partner had. << On it. Fury, any of your minions want to take over with the directions? >> he asks as he pushes through the door to the stairs and looks to Phil. "Try to keep up," he says then breaks into a sprint to try and reach Skye as fast as he can. The problem is, with the elevators down, everyone is on the stairs, and Clint's shouts of "Make a hole," only get people out of the way so fast.

<< Got a lot of people on the stairs slowing us down. Unless Skye's crawling out of here, we're going to need an update. Anyone got eyes on her? >>

Phil Coulson has posed:
As Nat calls out 27, Phil points it out to Clint as they sprint. While Phil may not be the young spry lad he used to be, he can keep up in a pinch. "Hopefully you packed a dust mask," He remarks as they get going. Trying to keep the comm channel clear for a moment, he lowers a shoulder to help clear a path through some stunned agents. "Everybody back to your stations, now!"

Iron Man has posed:
"I get that. Just another day at the office for your guys," Tony says generously, shrugging. Meaning, he'll not interfere in a direct way. Tony smiles his usual charismatic smile at Fury, an indication that he probably understands Fury's subtext just fine. He accepts the data-pad, and whistles a bit at one of the little drones, pointing at it with a few crooked fingers. The drone is attracted, floats to Tony and beeps. "MK, drop your pants for me, girl," he says to the drone. Yeah, decorum, right. The drone opens its bottom, releasing a few cords and mixed interfaces, and Tony attaches a lead to the datapad he was given. "Panty raid," he tells the drone, who immediately stops doing the other function it was doing and emits several confirmation tones and notes, as if that command had some specific meaning to it. Tony sits back down on the table, and resumes what he was doing on his smaller handheld device, nonchalant. It's a bit easier when it isn't YOUR house on fire, after all.

Quake has posed:
Skye's as blind as everyone at this point. Other than she knows what she shut down and what she didn't. Even Oracle was blind to her - a case of total trust there. it was part of the good faith deal she'd negotiated. Nothing that would compromise Oracle. In return, Skye'd elicited a promise from Fury that if it came to using that contingency, things would happen to the records. It was the best Skye could do. In the end she'd run with it.

The doors Skye is heading towards are clear across the floor from where she exited the stairwell. This was one of the trickiest portions of her flight, but it was the one that opened up all the other possibilities with the least amount of interference. The foyer would be a whole other matter - it she took that path in the end. But first Skye had to get to the other doors. Doors Skye counted on leading to clear sailing down thanks to the "Fire Doors. Do Not Open: Alarm Will Sound". Again trusting in humanity to follow protocoal and warning signs - another reason for the quiet fire supression: no alarm had sounded as yet; nobody would want to take those hallways to sound off an alarm they didn't know had already been shut off.

So far, so good. No actual pursuit. She expected that once she reached the lower floors. Thank god for admin levels like the one she was on now. If nobody questioned her being here..

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury hears Clint's voice over the comm, right after Nat's directions. Moving to the other side of where Stark was standing which happened to be in front of the panel with comms, Fury taps a button. "Agent Barton. That's one of the reasons why Agent Coulson is there. He can point you in the right direction. Now cut the chatter."

    Fury looks at the Level 5 at the Ops Console, who shakes his head negative at Clint's question. Tapping the button again, hard, Fury says, "No. Looks like she has set up a cascade failure of surveillance systems up here." A short pause. "Agent Romanova is your eyes, gentlemen. I suggest you pick up the pace. Agent Romanova, you are the quarterback." Turning off the comms again, Fury taps his near invisible ear piece, putting it on monitor.

    Watching as Stark gets to work on his "panty raid", Fury places his hands on his hips, and shakes his head. "I see you left your manners at the door, Stark. It's a wonder most of your employees aren't retired on al the money from all those harrassment claims I expect they file against you every day."

Black Widow has posed:
There is a moment of silence then a "Copy that." Natasha isn't pleased. If he wants the systems online, she needs to be condentrating on them. Instead she has to split her attention. She works through the failing systems and manages to curtail a few only to have more tumbling, like dominoes in a series. Skye did her homework. She's put them in a bad situation. She manages to get two systems online though. One of which is the intercoms in the building.

"Agents on the stairwell, get out of the way of Agents Coulson and Barton. If you don't know who they are, hit the wall and stay there until you are told otherwise. All agents, Agent Skye Johnson is to be detained. If you see her in your area, please stop her. Do not harm her in any way. Only force necessary to detain her until Agents Coulson and Barton arrive. If you see her, call out." But she's not done with that as she continues to fight the code while speaking. "If you don't know who Agent Johnson is, it's simple. If there is someone in your area who does not belong, stop them."

Oracle has posed:
It's perhaps worse than Nat realizes. The ghost in the system in this instance isn't Skye herself... and she's made arrangements with the actual ghost to help her. Oracle's left no fingerprints in SHIELD's systems, her ephemeral presence literally nothing more than a blip that few would ever notice. The intercoms go live and Agent Romanov's voice blares through the complex, the message working to the invisible digital presence's advantage -- her job here is to sow confusion and disarray. To get Agent Johnson out.

To that end, Oracle slips through the systems, continuing to toss random bits of code into Nat's way. A bit of code here to disable an alarm on a door is buried within a worm that blazes through the complex's interconnected camera arrays where the Hamster Dance starts playing, covering Skye's egress through that portal into another section. And while no one is looking, she also tweaks the cascading failure a bit just to make sure that nothing catastrophic will happen as Skye makes her way through the building.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Coulson's command gets people moving out of the way and the two of them make it down to the R&D level, Clint practically rips open the door then sprints into the hallway. Of course Skye was long gone. He pulls up short, looking this way and that, as if that was going to help. "Fury. Coulson's down here with me, how the hell is he going to find Skye," he says before the comms to Fury go dead.

Nat's voice takes its place. Giving orders and putting out the call to all the agents in the building to keep an eye out for Skye.

"Let's hope they listen," Clint says about the use of force. Though with ICERs being standard issue. He was probably worrying over nothing.

<< Nat. Get them to close the bridge, and put people at the hanger, the roof and residence A4. >> With those obvious ways out of the Trisk shut down it just left the other sort. "Coulson, you're all up in Fury's secrets, want to show me how you'd get off this island if you had to?"

The Admin level Skye was on was quiet. Then there was a buzz of radio static, and a pair of security men round the corner. Spotting Skye, they don't recognize her at first, hey the benefits of being looked at as the IT girl, though as they approach one of them says, "Agent, we're going to need to see your ID."

Phil Coulson has posed:
"I know of a route or two, but you aren't going to like them," Phil remarks, "One of them requires us to use a laundry chute, the other simply requires access." He is able to make good time as they hurry through the individuals.

Quake has posed:
Thing about looking like the IT girl.. yeah. Skye got away with a lot. And today, her usual gear was missing. No satchel. No handheld. Nothing that screamed the usual about Skye. In fact, she was actually carrying an ICER. Total non-Skye going on here.

Not that Skye knows it, but Oracle has stepped in. That's okay, that's not her department anymore. Skye just has to get from point A to point B.

Or course Nat has now become a bigger problem, putting the intercoms back on line. All causing Skye to wince. "Fuck. That wasn't supposed to happen yet. And not her. She's supposed to be making sure that fucking killswitch isn't thrown."

All of which Oracle can hear. Along with the request for Skye's ID as not ten feet from the very door she needs, Skye's accosted by some paper pushing neophyte who actually listens to directives. Who listens to directives?

There's a reason Skye had packed the ICER, but honestly, that would open up a whole other can of worms she didn't want to embrace at this moment in time.

"Could use a little..."

And the floor she's on goes black. That gives Skye what she needs to hit that door, and then the stairwell. Then it's two floors down and next decisions. With Nat's little trick, the Foyer and merely waltzing out was looking less and less likely.. She might have to go for the real nitty and gritty of exits: service entries and the like.

Coulson and Clint's path is made a lot easier by Nat's orders. Of course now they have Oracle's twitchy little fingers to deal with too.

Iron Man has posed:
"Any decorum I had, I replaced a long, long time ago with far more compelling attributes," Tony Stark replies, upbeat, to the /totally undeserved/ comments from Director Fury. "It's been working out, we have a good time at the Tower. Say, I haven't seen you at any of my parties. Invitations still stand, though," Tony continues, in his usual way of talking a little bit more than necessary. He's not terribly busy, as he's just sort of snooping around, and can chatter freely and obnoxiously while working on something like this, since he isn't really devoting even ten percent of his attention to it, not really. More good reasons to keep Tony occupied. The 'panty raid' drone, MK, beeps and Tony turns to the datapad Fury had given him to see what the drone was notifying him about.

Tony is further than he would have been without the access from Fury, plus his little drone is helping out. But he hasn't shown any presence himself yet: though Oracle may or may not be aware that some access holes are being looked at, though the window of notice is very small indeed; the little drone is quick and cursory, nothing special here, /really/...! But hey, lights off in a weird area, gotta look at where that order came from... which could lead to an interesting little chase.

Nick Fury has posed:
    Fury notes that Ops was pretty much out of the picture. Except for his direct feed that was, strangely enough, bug free. Fury is also listening...ah, the Ghost in the Shell was here. She could help if necessary. With a quick nod, he went back to monitoring things close up.

    Ignoring Clint's barb, and focusing on how close they were. Fury smiles. "That's it Phil. Use the "shortcut". If I know you, you'll pick that one..." Fury nods.

    Now, who else might be close...Skye handles the personnel checking IDs the easy way. What else?

    Ah, the 5 man elite Spec Ops Team that was just coming back from a training exercise...early. "Well, that is a curve..." Fury says, under his breath as they came in through the Underground Access Level. "Something to avoid..."

    That was when Fury notices Stark was talking to him. Turning to look down at Stark, Fury shakes his head, and regards the man with a thoughtful expression on his face. "I appreciate that Mr. Stark. Maybe I 'll take in the next party. I hear they are explosive." Fury notices Stark gets quiet, and nods. Stark was working through the problem. Of course he was.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
"I can live with the laundry chute for a moment there I thought you were going to tell me we had to go through a trash compactor or something," Clint says as he follows along with Phil. Turns out the laundry chute is closest. "So, what we go down and it takes out of the building or is that just stage one?" regardless it does put them close to those service entrances Skye had been heading for.

On the admin floor, the lights go out, the guards shout in surprise and the door Skye flees through, gets painted with blue splotches as ICER rounds impact it a moment after she's gone. While they miss, they do radio in before following into the stairwell. << Possible contact on Admin 4. Subject is in stairwell 12. >>

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein was here, of all things, to put in an order for some night vision goggles that would actually fit him. That whole business in the safe house with the mutant convinced him he had to get at least a FEW upgrades. Unfortunately, he was not at the human end of his spectrum and lumbered in through the sub basement door, large and scary looking with the occasional flash of green emergency light. And then the lights went out.

Frankenstein looked around and grunted. "Really?" Except it came out more like "rrrrrrrly?" He moved towards sounds and then spots Agent Coulson and Agent Barton. They've likely been briefed about his status but that doesn't make him look less ominous in the light.

Black Widow has posed:
<Hanger and garage are locked down. No vehicles leaving. Apartment also. Rooftop doors secure. Bridge to the Triskelion is being retra...correction, it won't retract. The lobby doors will not lock down.> Natasha reports over the comms. She continues to work the systems but as fast as she gets one up, another goes down.

She's losing. And she knows it.

A round of Russian cursing comes over the comms. "I had security cameras online but they crashed again." She continues to piece together the code from Skye then fires off counters in the lines of programming. Until another system comes up...then goes down. "Get additional units to the lobby. It may be a false lead but no chances."

Oracle has posed:
//Could use a little...// Bah. Skye must really think this is Oracle's first rodeo? The lights go down in Skye's hallway and 14 other ones as well. The fire alarms blare on three floors suddenly for no apparent reason. And the sprinklers on the executive levels are now spraying their payload all over people's desk. The Hamster Dance continues on its merry way across all security monitors... and the ghost in the machine flashes from point to point on a rapid, random series of digital hops.

It's by accident that she almost does something really nasty to Tony's drone. Ooooooh. That could be trouble. She fires off a couple of decoy programs to tease the drone -- almost like funhouse mirrors within the system, distorted reflections of itself scuttling through the data.

Oracle's tap into the internal security lets her monitor Coulson and Barton's locations on her end while not allowing Agent Romanov's console to see that information. HAMSTER DANCE! The cool digital voice that comes through the SpecOps team's radios is gender-neutral as it reports, "Agent Johnson is believed to have obtained an image inducer. Last known image utilized: Agent Phil Coulson on the Admin 4. Capture and detain."

Then she removes the code that runs the intercom systems completely so that even radios don't work and makes it look like the virus ate it. One eye is warily keeping track of Tony Stark's drone, another is watching the virus's progress itself, and yet another -- because she's Oracle, she has eyes all over her head!! -- is keeping track of moving people.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Understood," Phil notes and begins making his way towards the secret way until the lights go out. "Outstanding," He grumbles, and flips on a flashlight. "Follow me," Phil gets towards the secret entrance and opens a storage closet and moves a few shelves out of the way to get to the secret entrance, "This should be what we are looking for, better than dealing with dirty laundry."

Iron Man has posed:
Incidentally, Tony doesn't agree with the choice of hamster dance alone or the volume (or lack thereof). He switches it. And it goes up to 11. "WHOOOOOAAAA, WE'RE HALFWAY THERE..." Screams Bon Jovi instead of just dancing hamsters. Who the hell the audio is encouraging to Live on the Prayer may be unclear. Might be aimed at the ghostly Oracle, might be Nat: Well, Tony's pretty sure whoever that is will have ALL the comm units open, and that might be loud. Both sides might think the song's message is aimed at them. So uplifting.

No, Tony really isn't doing anything useful to either 'side.' He's playing by Fury's rules: in a sense, not directly invading anything, just throwing out a 'ping' to see what the other players do. The drone falls down the funhouse of mirrors, baffled for now, (Oracle succeeds!) while Tony is elsewhere, his drone his own personal cover. No, hacking isn't his main thing, by any means, but unpredictable? Tony is that. But the drone's mirror-maze does, unfortunately, cause a blind-side for Tony as well.

Quake has posed:
Skye's on the run, down the stairs. Heading down further than she'd initially planned. Then again, thinking on the fly was kind of what she did around here. She didn't have a box. It was one of the things Fury liked about her. Well, for some value of liked.

The only exit off this stairwell opened onto Housekeeping... which connected up to hallways that led to the garage levels.

Meanwhile, Nat's got a problem. While she's been tending to other things, Skye's program is ticking merrily away. It's tweaked from its former iteration (Skye wasn't going to be that nice to Nat!) but it's recognizable. It's just going to take attention, and some hands on here and there to keep it in line until she can get it shut down.

Nick Fury has posed:
    They almost got her. Amazing. Coulson and Barton were good. Very good. And if Skye hadn't brought in outside help in the form of Oracle, Nat would have had her already. This was cutting in close...and now, another random curve to the whole thing - Frankenstein! "Never a dull moment. Good thing we expunged all those Hydra Agents a few months ago...this would not have been a good time for them to pull their shi*."

    That last was mostly to himself, but sideways at Stark as well as the volume goes up to 11! Now what was he up to...Fury was sure Stark knew something was going on, a game within a game. Plus, it was always hard having to keep one on on the game, one eye on Stark, and one eye on Ops. Man, he needed three eyes! One wasn't cutting it! Maybe he could borrow some of Oracle's eyes.

   

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint is being pulled every which way at once. The bridge won't retracted, the lobby is vulnerable, they've got this passage here and one other Skye could be at. Plus his mind was hammering away at a million questions, most of those questions coming down to simply why? Why was Skye doing this? By now the computer chaos confirmed this was more than a misunderstanding.

Maybe Rising Tide?

Didn't matter, he had to find her and that meant the passage. He takes the shelves as Phil passes them too him and the looks down the tunnel. "Alright, so this takes us where?" he asks before something big with glowing 'eyes' lurches from the darkness.

Clint raises his weapon, "Stop right there!" he shouts. Even in the faint light of the goggles, he's able to draw a bead on Franks' head. Anywhere but here, he'd have fired first, but he knew SHIELD kept some of its weirder agents in the lower levels.

There's the sound of a door opening in the darkness behind then. "Coulson, six o'clock," he says. It'll be hard to see much in the darkness of the laundry area without night vision like Frank has, but Clint's voice is unmistakable.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil looks toward Frank and aims his ICER, "Stop there, hands in the air where we can see them." Phil's voice has gone full official. "Who are you and what is your business?"

Black Widow has posed:
Everything she brings up goes back down. Now there is no intercom or communications units. Which is a bad thing for coordination. She is no longer able to try to help those on the ground. The good news, she can focus on the code itself. It's the Hydra attack code that Skye had developed. Natasha has been on both sides of that code. She knows it is beyond her levels. Throw in that Skye modified some of it. Yet she continues to work, scanning through lines of code at blazing speed as she picks up bits and pieces then throws them into her own lines of programming. She just has to build a counter or...

She blinks rapidly at the lines she just isolated. That's bad. That is very bad. Her fingers never slow as she takes that bit, sets it aside and begins to work on taking it apart piece by piece. If she can get her lines built properly, she'll be able to fire them into the system. It's just taking too long and more systems are failing. She refuses to look at those, concentrating on the main problem.

Oracle has posed:
Oracle is about the only one who hears "Living on a Prayer" blast through -- she's cut the code that feeds the comms. But it makes Barbara Gordon laugh out loud in her Clocktower, for certain. And then, just because she knows the code in that drone pretty well -- some of her own bits are StarkTech, after all -- she tweaks what //he// did and turns it into "Carry On Wayward Son." Much better music. She lets that blast through on Volume 11 back into the command center.

Meanwhile, with so many people on the move and Nat's attention clearly now on the virus that Oracle was half-watching, it opens the way for Barbara to do her dirty work. Opening doors, feeding Skye her exit route, and getting the other woman out of the Triskelion //with// her precious cargo. Only when she's sure the other agent is in the clear will she begin to take some of the pressure off Nat by helping backstop the failing systems so that the Agent can deal intently with whatever the code that Skye threw in there is -- it's not something Oracle's seen before, and based on what she's seeing Nat do, the other woman has experience with unraveling it.

She's impressed as hell at the agents in the building, though. And with a better understanding of some of their capabilities, she makes a few personal notes on who //not// to cross anytime in the future. And what with Melinda May making overtures in Gotham, she's going to be keeping a pretty close eye on her back doors. The ones Stark noted and the ones that no one can see.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein hadn't been ignoring the gibbering in his ear, but...well he had enough voices inside of his head to drive anyone crazy so he was used to it. He just chalked it up to more noise but then he was hearing something about an escaped agent and part of him wondered if he recognized the two guys pointing guns at him. Great. Didn't they have like a Shieldbook site or something. Maybe he could start a news letter of "new people not to shoot this month." Oh.

And he didn't speak english real good right now. He could probably take enough shots to take them out but the SHADE database plus the memories told himat least one if not both these guys were Level Stratophhere so he raised his hands, "rrrr r r rr r r r r r r r raaaaaand raaaagent rrrrrrrrrrrrrlp rin" this would take hours at this rate. So he just rolled his eyes and said "rrrrrrield"....he also kept an eye out for Skye.

Iron Man has posed:
"If she takes my helicopter, I'll be unhappy. ...But so would she, really," Tony observes aloud, weighing Fury a little bit, attention going to the Director. Tony is fishing, and what he pulls from Fury's face is enough. Tony is indeed aware he has not been given any real go-ahead here, just to LOOK. So, he has access. Why give access and then nothing else? To be on deck but not 'utilized', odd. So things are going the way Fury wants them to. Which is interesting. But a fun game still, even with this added layer. Tony yawns a little, hunting through his pockets, finding some ... bleh, trail mix. It'll have to do.

"More than one critter in this maze," Tony says aloud idly. And then smiles to himself, and addresses the drone's issues, untangling it. And as the music changes, Oracle will pick up that his snooping saw that much... and has simply hung back, on purpose. Not prying anymore. She's got no interference from the Stark side, going forward.

Quake has posed:
The hunt for Phil Coulson is on. Especially on Admin 4 where nobody is quite certain just who it was that got away, or who they were supposed to be looking for. Was it Phil disguised as Skye? Or Skye disguised as Phil? Some of them just went back to their desks and pretended none of this had happened. What they didn't know they wouldn't have to worry about, right?

Meanwhile, Nat should be noticing something about the code she's facing. Sure, it's been tweaked since she last saw it, but there's a certain symmetry to what Skye did. And eventually, it should become plain that Nat's seem the bits, only in different form. Again, with a nod to Hammerfall, and their prep work, the attack has bits of Nat's own code thrown in. Once Nat recognizes that, it should be simpler sailing to shut it down.

Which should untimately help Oracle out. With Nat's attenion focused and productive, Oracle can deal with just making sure Skye gets out. There's a certain little van that should be waiting now that things have gone to this contingency.

As for the boys, well, Phil is going to have to explain himself at some point, until someone clears up that little misconception that oracle spread. Ooops, right? Plus there's Frankie in front of them.

The way they're all situated, they're on opposite sides of the same room. And it's not all that hard for the foursome to see one another, only Skye hasn't time for dillydallying. She's got to make it to that last doorway and then the short jaunt to the garage. Driving out might be a challenge, but given how things have gone so far, she's pretty certain her back has been had and Oracle will make that happen too. No hope for Gretel, though. She'll have to be ditched. Such a shame, Skye loves that van.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint blinks at Frank. "Whoa, what are you trying to say?" he asks the guy, but seeing as he hasn't attacked yet, Clint lowers his gun and glances behind him. That's when he sees her.

"Skye!" he says, and turns his back towards Frank. A bad move, one someone is probably going to take him to task for. "Stop!" he shouts at her, but his gun stays by his side. He begins to follow chase her as she moves towards the door to the garage. Only to have another door open and men in tac gear sweep in, from the opposite side of the room, having come down from Admin 4. "There she is," they say and point their weapons at Phil. "Everyone stay where you are!" they storm towards Frank, Clint and Phil, weapons raised ready to shoot.

Clint makes a dash for Skye, one of the other agents fires a warning shot. He freezes, not able do more than watch as Skye makes a run for the door.

Frankenstein has posed:
Frankenstein doesn't get a lot of what is going on, but recognizes Skye especially when Clint flat out says its her. He knows there must be some kind of mistake and doesn't trust computers that much, so these guys have probably been tricked. No problem.

He makes a mad dash at Skye, likely drawing fire and doing the exact opposite of being frozen, rounds slamming into him as he leaps into the air right after her, but the drugs are potent, and while his system can reject them, the surge of electricaly induced adrenalin sends him through the wall and into the next, where he falls, stunned.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Phil keeps his ICER aimed at Frankenstein to provide cover for Clint, but that is cut short when the others arrive and aim at Phil, "Uh, great." He elects to be smart and sets his ICER on the ground and backs up three feet, his back against the wall.

Quake has posed:
Clint was not what Skye wanted to deal with. It was the worst outcome of this whole thing. Him chasing her down with that confusion in his face. He didn't even draw a weapon.

The look Skye gives him is apologetic. "I wish you didn't make me do this," she tells him, shaking her head. Really, she'll kick herself for this one later, but it is the only way to solve all sorts of issues, and, as she'd told Fury, make it all believable.

While Clint doesn't draw his weapon, Skye does, and as she's proven before, she's not a bad hand with it. Clint is hit straight on with the ICER, leaving her only enough time to turn tail and flee before tactics nabs her.

she makes it to the door to the garage just in time. The door opening with a *click* before her, and then, immediately after her, locks, keeping security from following. Gretel at the wait.

It's tight, but Skye manages, fleeing SHIELD with maybe not her dignity intact, but with the goods, ditching the van somewhere along the way and taking other modes of transport to one of the safehouses she knows she can stop and leave a message for Miles at Rising Tide. Phase One, Tidepool: Complete.

Hawkeye (Barton) has posed:
Clint's eyes round when the shot lands when she says those words. He didn't expect it. He reaches for his gun, but she has a head start and he's hit before his gun clears the holster. There is a moment before ICER round takes effect and Clint uses that moment to try and fire back finally believing that Skye had some how, inexplicably turned.

If she was ever on their side to begin with.

The gun doesn't raise, his arm feels numb and heavy, then his body then his face and then darkness and he hits the floor unconscious.

The tac team fires off a burst at the door, two of them chasing Skye while the others take charge of Clint and Coulson. The door Skye went through? Suddenly locked. The tac team guys kick it down but too late to stop Skye. r
Later, when things are sorted out, they have a lot of crow to eat when it turns out they arrested the real agent Coulson and let Skye escape.