Zero Divide - Episode #1 - "Looking Glass"

[Victim]

Ashley takes a deep breath before trying to head into the garage, pushing the ball of water in front of her to hopefully dampen the heat before she and Facade move through the area.

 

[James Heard]

Dee speaks, “I can hold her Alan get yourself to safety…”

Krishna barks his approval and then heads down the stairs. The rest of the home comes apart around the group. Flames, heat, and smoke fill their senses, and although there is a relative area of safety it won’t last forever…

"I've got her. You'll need to get downstairs and stay with her though, while I go back up here and help the others."

Alan takes the limp figure of Vanessa down into the basement, looking for some ready place to place her before he goes back upstairs.

Gotta get back up there and open things back up, maybe see if I can't do something about the house, Alan thinks, steadying himself through the pain.

 

[Vanifae]

Just waiting on Avalon, I will press forward by this afternoon.

 

[Avalon®]

Surge will spend a hero point on his toughness save.

 

[Vanifae]

Surge will spend a hero point on his toughness save.

Surge uses an HP, he rolls a 19 Toughness save and is unscathed.

Surge shields himself with some cover and avoids the worst of the damage, receiving only superficial scrapes and injuries. Nothing that would impede him as everyone makes a run for the basement…

The Basement

The stairs leading down are crafted in the Victorian style, the exterior of the door is solid wood, but it slides away to reveal a white clean room with stark white walls and a large monitor with various views of the Estate, though most of the images alternate between static and stable images.

Inside standing before the monitor is a woman in a black dress suit, with thin black rimmed glasses and pigtails. Her blond hair is neatly arrayed and she turns as the group enters, haggard, injured, and smelling of smoke and fire. Those that can remember, instantly recognize the face of that of Mira, the wayward girl from the day before.

The door closes behind the last of you, sealing the basement. Arjuna and Krishna pace back and forth but stay quiet in this strangely white room. Mira speaks, “Good morning, obviously you must have questions; I can answer the more obvious ones for you though you may not fully understand them. Though I will caution you that our time here is short as some of you have hypothesized the Mental Construct reacts to certain actions with safety protocols, but this current state of instability is from an external security breach.”

“External?” Dee questions while helping Alan with Vanessa.

“Yes in the event of an external security breach the Mental Construct purges the system of all information. Although you didn’t realize it your brains were being deprived of oxygen, a security protocol to prevent an information breach. This room is separate to the Estate, as you may have surmised this is not the actual basement of the Estate. Given that, by retreating here you will survive the purge and auxiliary systems should be kicking in to prevent you suffocating, which would mean brain death. I have not isolated the source,” she turns back to a holographic keyboard looking object floating in front of the monitor, “which means that they must have control of the security network. I would not worry about Vanessa, she is just a facilitator program designed to keep you at ease and under control.”

 

[Velmont]

Ian put his tollbox on the ground. "You are Mira, the one speaking with me through the radio? Thanks for the warning." He looks around and the level of technology of this place. "So, you are telling this is just a virtual world, a large system which our brain inteface directly to it. What we have been living, seeing today is just a kind of dream for us?" He takes a quick moment to think about the situation. "So, the amnesia we have actually, is it just some kind of refresh of memory, a kind of formatting of an hardrive, an hardrive which is our brain? And the power we have, are they simply functions that we have within this world? This sytem we are part of, what is it actually? What it does and who possess it? And above all that, how can we disconnect ourselves from it and return to the real world? How can we get back our memory, our identity, our lives?"

 

[James Heard]

Alan's eyes narrow dangerously.

This lady is off her rocker, he thought.

"Golly. That's swell. Uh huh," Alan nods his head as if the crazy lady admitting to torturing everyone were sane. At least he tries, not very successfully.

"Mental constructs, yep. External threats? You don't say?"

Alan drops bowling balls on crazy lady's head.

OOC: Hey, it's the attack listed in the book. Don't blame me.

 

[Victim]

Ashley struggles with the door sealing them inside. As expected.

"Your security system is supposed to kill us or inflict brain damage in event of a break in? Telling," she remarks, whirling towards the girl. That, at least, would be a dumb thing to lie about it.

 

[Vanifae]

"Mental constructs, yep. External threats? You don't say?"

Alan drops bowling balls on crazy lady's head.

The bowling ball falls right through the woman’s image, revealing it to be a sophisticated hologram. She glances over her shoulder, “Anger is an understandable if futile emotion, as you can tell I am operating this construct remotely, and thankfully so; without me you would most likely be dead.”

Mira responds to Ian, “Yes, I am Mira. This is not a dream this is a controlled environment adapted from a system used to rehabilitate mentally unstable patients. Your memories will return perhaps in time, we are not responsible for the loss of your memories; but I also cannot divulge the full particulars of our research, classified of course. I am sure that is an answer you will not agree with but it will have to suffice.”

Mira turns back to working, “You are already disconnecting from the system; I am just trying to salvage what I can.”

Dee echoes Michael, “So this brain thing was going to kill us? Who do you think you are?”

“Yes,” Mira shrugs, “I didn’t design the system, but in the event of corporate espionage or sabotage we have to protect our investment. But as you can see I have erred on the side of humanity, perhaps I assumed that you would be somewhat grateful, but I understand if you have some outrage at what you are hearing.”

 

[Hammerhead]

"What!" Michael explains, turning towards Alan. "You hit her! Why did you hit her?" An external intruder? Maybe someone we knew, trying to find out about us or get us back? Someone who did their research, and is trying to silence us? Or maybe something unconnected to us, or at least with no real personal stake in our survival?