6078/The Framework: Hacking the Matrix II

The Framework: Hacking the Matrix II
Date of Scene:	13 May 2021
Location:	The Sphere (Bunker BT-0), Deep Beneath Manhattan
Synopsis:	Hunter, Bucky, and a secondary team of agents arrive at the Sphere in the midst of a pitched battle. Together, they concoct a plan to put an end to the battle. It's either the stupidest thing they've ever done... or the most brilliant. And, on a team that includes Hunter and Bucky... that's saying something.
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Lance Hunter, Peggy Carter, James Barnes, Bobbi Morse, Dottie Underwood
Tinyplot:	The Framework

---

Melinda May has posed:
The last message received at the Playground by the team monitoring May's STRIKE team deployment to The Sphere, an abandoned AIM base so deep beneath Manhattan that the lowest of the city's oldest infrastructure is *above* it, was garbled and staticky. "<<Mul..ple Agents Down. Lost...ack of Morse. Cart... May.>> Carol Danvers' voice. <<Going... try to short... whole place... find them. ...Careful, lots of autom...d defenses and...chines.>> No further messages were received. No one came out -- including the formidable Captain Marvel.

It was a team of four of SHIELD's most experienced, capable agents... and no one came back out. To say that the team back at the Playground is concerned, is something of an understatement. So, they've put together a new team -- a stronger team, they hope. More firepower. More expertise. And a whole lot more backup.

The first half of that team arrived approximately an hour ago, the second half delayed by the need to collect and transport heavy duty equipment for an extended stay and security detail. They're dragging that equipment on Stark repulsor sleds and on their backs, which was fine, until they got updated messages from the first rescue team that went in.

The good news? May and the others have been located. The bad news? They're attached to some sort of machine and can't be moved. The worse news? When the team tried to interfere with the machine's connection to the agents, the whole facility erupted with strange metallic pods that sprouted animated cables -- tentacles, after a fashion -- now trying to ensnare and capture the agents battling within. Thus, as the second team arrives, they are greeted by the sound of weapons fire within the subterranean AIM base.

A heavily reinforced door to the leads into the facility. It's more of a hatch, a pressurized seal like one might find on a submarine and when opened allows the team to enter a cavernous chamber that is almost sphere-like, though cut off at both top and bottom leaving both bottom floor and high roof flat. Various levels run in rings about the room, rising upward towards that roof -- perhaps a dozen in all -- open at the center and blocked off only by railings. Walkways criss-cross that vast gulf. A thick spire rises up in the very center of the chamber -- what looks to be an elevator perhaps.

The hatchway opens up close to the middle level of the sphere. The walls appear to be lined with a variety of dated computer equipment. At various points on the different levels, corridors are cut into the rock, passages disappearing into shadowed darkness leading away from this central hub.

All of that pales, however, beside the battle raging within. A dozen SHIELD agents -- all of them in power armour, breathing masks, and weidling plasma weapons and disruptor grenades -- are fighting off mechanical vines intent on? well, who knows?

There are portable lights setup on the main level, courtesy of the first team. They illuminate the corpses of giant mechanical centipedes and spider-like robots, some of them charred wrecks courtesy of Captain Marvel's earlier depredations. They also show the energy shield defenses, not to mention the two heavy defense turrets that have been setup, powered by a genny sat near the hatch. The turrets are autofiring steadily. The agents are using a combination of their plasma rifles and disruptor grenades to keep the things at bay.

As the second team enters, one of the agents, Cooper, looks back over his shoulder. "Get down!" he calls. "Get down and grab some disruptors! Johnson and Sousa's teams are trapped on the lower level. We can't get to them while these things are out here."

Welcome to the Sphere.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter is wary, as he move through the complex, plasma rifle hugged close, and doesn't grow less so when he sees the downed robots. "Good thing Mack's not on this one, or we'd never hear the end of it," he remarks to himself as much as anyone.

The sights and sounds of battle aren't missed, and at Cooper's warning Hunter gets down detaching his repulsor sled as a cables snakes overhead. "Bloody hell!" he curses. "Guess Mack was right about robots after all." He rolls across the ground to help himself to a supply of disruptor grenades and following the cable back to its source, he primes and hurls before he undslings his rife.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Jessi Taylor is a quiet agent, but an effective one. She's the sort of unremarkable that lets her get in and out of places without turning a single head, but isn't black ops because it's simply not her personality. She's the one you want at your back in a fire fight or a messy post-action clean up. That means she hugs the wall at Hunter's side, her own rifle hugged in against her chest, a quiet curse beneath her breath as she stares across the scene. "...Do we know if we blow the power on this place... do our agents come back out? Or do we need this still lit up to keep them going?" She looks like she is very tempted to EMP nuke the place here and now. Unnerved might be the word. This is worse action than she's seen in a while.

James Barnes has posed:
One of the nicer aspects of the shinier, less-corrupt version of SHIELD is the reigns on him aren't quite as tight. Oh, there's still the chaperoning and the mandatory psychiatrist sessions but for the most part it feels like Barnes is making his own choices as opposed to just being made to think he is. The other agents in the team are those he's unfamiliar with, but then he's unfamiliar with almost anyone under the age of ninety. He's clad in black BDUs, long sleeves and gloves enough to conceal his bionic arm. He's had a haircut recently, and he appears neat for a change. A black mask covers the lower half of his face, leaving only stern blue eyes to scan the scene before him warily.

The muzzle of the M249 SAW he carries is pointed towards the floor. He sat through the briefing but the science of the whole thing eludes him, and rather than speak and let that be known he instead maintains a watchful vigilance.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Agent Roxy Glass's eyes stare in a mixture of horror and wonder as she enters the sphere. The sudden warning from Cooper snaps her out of it and she rushes forward to the supply crate and grabs a pair of disruptor grenades, "Agent Glass, reporting!" She is wearing tactical black with the STRIKE logo on her shoulder. Same as the SHIELD logo but in black instead of dark blue.

    "This place is a miniature warzone!," she says and powers up her plasma rifle, then carefully peeks around the corner in the direction one of the automated turrets is firing. There's enough chaos already that she asks, "Whose in charge?"

    Her third year in SHIELD and it's been a wild ride already. She stumbled upon the opportunity to join and something about helping save the world appealed to her. The people, it turned out, were the real treasure. "Mack really hates robots doesn't he," she asks but also confirming the rumour about the more senior agent from Hunter.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Agent Finley Ellison doesn't get out into the field much. It's not her *first* mission, but she still jumps at the sound of automated gunfire. But the first team's message mentioned weird machines. So they pulled her out of the lab and handed her a gun and...here she was.

She keeps to the middle. Where her nerves won't cost anyone.

Melinda May has posed:
"I am!" Cooper calls in answer to Glass' question about who's in charge. He tosses another disruptor grenade. It hits a pod, which sparks briefly and plummets to the basalt floor far below, tentacles trailing after. "Collingwood and McLaren are down below with Johnson and Sousa." Which means, topside, they're fighting a holding action. "They found May and the others. We were setting up camp when all those... things came alive." He gestures to the pods descending from the ceiling, darting in with their cable like tentacles, trying to grab whomever they can get their animated, blue glowing tips wrapped around.

Carefully pulling back to join the incoming team, his retreat covered by his team, Cooper crouches amidst them. "When we arrived, the place was energy dead. The only place that still had power was way down at the bottom, off a side corridor. That's where they found May and the others, hooked up to some sort of weird machine. They can't unhook them without killing them, they say. We don't know what triggered this attack, but McLaren radioed and said it could be the fact Johnson is trying to hack the machine. If we nuke this place, we risk the agents down there, unless we can find some way to localize it to areas outside of where they're at." His eyes sweep the group. "We know disruptors kill them. Plasma slows them down. Enough of it kills them. That's all we know, right now."

He points up higher. "There's damage at the top of the central collumn there. Jackson was speculating Captain Marvel might have done that. Hell, she might have been the one to nuke whatever those bug things were the first time. But, she's trapped down there with the rest of them, now, so..." He lets them draw their own conclusions from that.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter nods to Glass. "Yep, but definitely ask him about them sometime, the rant is worth a listen," he says befor listening to Cooper's report, his face falls at there being no safe way to get their people out yet. "Well then, guess we just have to hold these things off until the big brains figure out how to free them or shut this place down without hurting our people," he declares to the fighting types. Then to Cooper. "What's the plan then back our people up downstairs or we try to find something up here to shut things down?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
"Shit." Jessi breathes into her comm unit again, trying not to breathe too fast and fog up the mask she's wearing, but this whole situation is a little overwhelming. She jerks her plasma rifle around again, firing off two shots at one over Cooper's shoulder and trying to get a little closer to the action. She gives Ellison a brief look, worry in her eyes, "Just stay towards the center and keep your head down. We'll hopefully clear this out." She reassures the young scientist. Then she's shooting again at tentacles coming in Bucky's direction, "God don't these things EVER stop coming? How much metal do they HAVE in there?"

James Barnes has posed:
The briefing from Cooper prompts a frown behind Barnes' mask as he looks at the weapon he's wielding. Nobody would deny the SAW's stopping power; but against robots it was lacking something. His hand goes to his thigh and the holstered plasma pistol that he hasn't used anywhere save for on the range. The SAW is slung onto his back and the pistol is brought to bear, primed and ready.

" ... damn ray guns ... " His old man gripe done for the time being, his voice hisses through the vocalizer of the mask he's wearing: "So, what are we doing here? Buying time? Looking for an alternate solution?"

When his question is answered, the former Hydra asset cannot help but visibly bristle. Though he says nothing, instead couching the pistol in his free hand and pointing it 'down range'.

He opens fire at the tentacles as well, glancing sidelong at Jessi in silence for a moment. The acrid smoke curling from the barrel of the pistol makes his nose furrow even through the composite polymer mask he wears.

Strange robots? Dark bunkers? A seemingly endless supply of enemies?

"Ah ... memories ... "

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    There's a curt nod to Cooper as he tells her he's in charge. The situation report sounds.. dire. "I agree with Agent Hunter. What can we do to help. Are they safe down there?" She pauses a moment and lifts a finger, "Exactly Agent Taylor. What if we find the resources cache these machines are using? we might not know how to shut them off and if Captain Marvel can't stop them.. then shrinking their rate of reproduction ...?"

    Her eyes widen a moment and she swings her rifle around to take shots at the pods, then tosses a disruptor grenade their way. She frowns, "Whichever direction they keep reinforcing from, that must point us toward where they're being made and where they're being made must be close to where the resources are..."

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Finely gives Agent Taylor a quick nod, her eyes wide but her expression determined. Then she takes a deep breath through her mask's filtration system and tries to *think*. She raises her gun, but uses it to focus her observations rather than reactionary firing at the mechanical defenses. There has to be a terminal. There has to be a point to access the system. She only hopes there's one on this level.

Melinda May has posed:
"McLaren says they're secure down there for now. They used the DWARFs to rig up some sort of disruptor shield around them and the pods our agents are in. We're in more danger than they are right now." As if to punctuate that, one of the agents out closer to the safezone they've created on this entry level lets out a shout of alarm as he's wrenched off his feet by one of the pods and pulled up toward the ceiling six levels above almost too fast for anyone to catch. "Shit," Cooper swears, spinning and raising his weapon too late to help the man, though three of the others are doing their damnedest to stop the pod before it gets too far out of reach.

"What did you guys bring with you?" Cooper asks. "Anything we can use to rig a limited range EMP or disruptor field? We think these things are coming from somewhere up there." He points in the direction the other agent was yanked.

Peggy Carter has posed:
Jessi knows damn well there are better shots than she is in this SHIELD team, so instead of trying to make the desperate pot shot to save the poor agent that just got drug up, she keeps her gun levelled and trying to keep tentacles off of anyone else. "These things move DAMN fast. Eyes OUT folks." She hisses across her comm unit, pulling her shoulders out from against the wall that she's suddenly very worried will open up and eat her at any moment.

James Barnes has posed:
"Wait," Barnes announces, looking from face to face for a moment as though weighing something up in his mind. Finally, he holsters his weapon and shrugs out of the BDU jacket he is wearing. Underneath is a similarly black t-shirt, and a visibly metallic left arm emblazoned with a red star at the shoulder. He holds it out, frowning behind the mask before offering.

"This has partial shielding against EMPs," he offers, emphasis on the 'partial', "I ... think you can reverse it. Maybe. If nothing else, it's an independent power source."

That said he reaches up with his other hand and disengages the mechanical lock, removing the whole thing as though it were nothing.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Roxy paces a bit as she places a hand on her chin. The only class she truly excelled at the academy was tactics. "So.. somewhere up there is where they're being made," she reasons and then points to the star Bucky has produced, "And if we can reverse the polarity on that we can EMP nuke it." Her eyes look to Dottie and she asks, "Agent Finely, do you think can you modify it? ..."

    She smiles, "Because if I'm understanding this place right, they seem attracted to electronics. If we add some shielding to a standard tac suit and remove all electronics.. one person could sneak past the machines and detonate the device. But we'd need to create a big bunch of electronic noise here to keep their attention away from our stealth delivery agent.. SDA, I just came up with that."

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Finley's eyes go even wider. "With all these tentacle-y arms we could possibly create a really BIG electromagnet," she says almost to herself, just loud enough to be heard. "*If* we can convince them to form a coil. And then we just have to make it pulse. As long as the disruptor shield holds, everyone below us should be fine. I'm more worried about creating some protection for us. I'd still like all of our electronics to work after."

Melinda May has posed:
Cooper stares a little as Bucky casual unhooks his arm and offers it to the group. The look on his face clearly reads, 'you gotta be kidding me...' Still, he's a weapons guy, but not an engineering guy. And most of their engineers are trapped on the lower level.

Since Glass and Ellison are starting to breakdown the problem, however, he's willing to listen. "I don't think they're attracted to electronics," he tells them. "We set up our gennies and lights and even had pingers and DWARFs going all through this place for a good hour or more before those things moved in. They started when Johnson hacked the matrix down below. And they're only going after people, not other machines."

Still, not his area of expertise, so he shrugs. "Look, whatever you're gonna do... do it quick. We're running low on ammo and energy, here."

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter frowns as Cooper advises the tentacles may not be attracted to technology. "Any idea what they are attracted to? Because I'm not seeing a lot of ways out of here if with out people if we can't stop these things," he says keeping an eye on their surroundings ready to fire if another tentacle comes their way. "So whatever the plan is, I'm in." Though the ideas will have to be on more technical members of the team.

Peggy Carter has posed:
"...So... we gotta coil them? I was almost on the Olympic sprinting team four years ago. I guess I'll... see how much speed I still got in me. Keep'em off my back, will ya?" Agent Taylor asks, her voice mostly hiding the fear behind it but there is a little bit of a tremble at the end before she crouches, takes one last shot, and then lets her rifle sling across her shoulder as she begins a foolishly fast sprint in circles around the room, starting by going purposefully near a tentacle that's JUST sprouted out of the wall and trying to get it to follow her.

"If someone else runs opposite, maybe we can get them into a ring. But Ellison, you better move FAST on this! Hunter, if you got... it in you... RUN!" He asked for ideas to help, and she's provided them. She's already getting out of breath enough it's clear on comms. But run she still does, shockingly fast for someone who isn't training to be an Olympian. She must keep up some training in between.

James Barnes has posed:
"Whatever you're gonna do," Bucky replies, brows furrowed, "Do it. If you've got other ideas, I'll happily keep the thing. Not like they grow on trees."

He doesn't return the arm to its place, letting it hit the floor with a heavy and metallic thud. He doesn't need both arms to shoot straight. He draws the plasma pistol up with one hand, tilting his head and squinting one eye to calibrate himself for the sudden weight differential and change in his balance.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Ahh heck. So we're doing this then..," Glass says as Taylor gets swift. She aims down the sights of her plasma rifle and tracks along with her, taking a shot at a tentacle arm that tries to get in her way. "Bucky, can you cover Agent Hunter? Ellison you got the EMP right? right??," she really hopes this crazy plan doesn't get Taylor and Hunter killed or captured too.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
"Yes! Get it to spiral!" Finley shouts after the sprinting Agent Taylor. Then she's picking up Bucky's arm, already fiddling with the internal mechanics. She nods curtly to Glass and the rest. "Once I'm ready, we need to cluster together. I *think* I can boost the EMP shield to cover us, and send a pulse to the coil at the same time."

Melinda May has posed:
"People," Cooper shrugs to Hunter. "They go after people -- hey!" As Taylor gets up and starts sprinting, she rather proves his point. The tentacle that lashes out at her is definitely after her. Others join it, and the agents out near the perimeter fall back towards the newcomers.

"What the hell is she doing?" one of Cooper's teammates says as she skids behind a crate for more cover.

"Pretending she's the Flash," Cooper replies.

As the others seem on board with this plan, and he doesn't have anything better to offer... well, the best he can do is hope they're not as crazy as they seem. Then again, this is SHIELD. Crazy helps.

Lance Hunter has posed:
"Bloody hell," Hunter curses as the plan is laid out. "Bobs better appreciate all this when we get her out of here," he mutters before slinging his weapon and sprinting after Taylor, acting as bait for the tentacles. Looking back over his shoulder to the others, "Don't let them get me," he calls before adding to Finley "And science fast!" then it's time to keep running and play decoy!

Peggy Carter has posed:
As Hunter starts joining in the sprint, there is a little bit of competitive nature from Taylor that makes her push just a little faster. Granted, she was running before he was so she's going to hit tired fast, but she's currently trying to push him and herself fast enough they can get out with their lives in tact and not ACTUALLY grabbed by one of those things.

Shockingly, it seems to be working, the tentacles reaching for the human they smell the closest and following them both around the room instead of lashing out cross wise. The sensor systems in the things seem to be working against them for the moment. Jessi is now panting for breath, sweat running down her face in her mask, the whole thing steamed up. "DO IT NOW..." She practically begs over the comms.

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky keeps the plasma pistol leveled with one arm, though there's a definite furrow of his brow when he hears the nickname spoken allowed. Nevertheless, he refuses to let it distract from what he's doing. He tracks the tentacles with the gun, firing blast after blast of plasma with the intention of amputating them or unloading into their source.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    It's no miracle that the tentacles aren't crossing the way to get them, because those are the ones that agents like Glass are shooting at, leaving those big coils wrapping around the room creating a glorious component to a massive electromagnet.

    The plasma battery in her rifle hits empty and she pulls the eject. The smouldering canister falls to the ground with a clunk, its exterior red hot. She pulls out the next and pushes it in and continues firing as fast as she can keep up. This is exactly the kind of thing that isn't in any of the training manuals.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Finley works as fast as she can, praying she'll be done in time. As the mechanical tentacles curl around the room, all of her focus is honed and her fingers are flying as she rewires the arm. Then --

"Ready!" she calls out. "Back to me."

It's tricky to judge the exact moment that Taylor and Hunter will be within the theoretical protected zone and the tentacles will keep their coil shape. Well, now or never...

She triggers the mechanism.

Melinda May has posed:
______ __      _____________                        ______
___  //_/_____ ___  __/__  /____________________ ______  /
__  ,<  _  __ `/_  /  __  __ \  __ \  __ \_  __ `__ \_  /
_  /| | / /_/ /_  /   _  / / / /_/ / /_/ /  / / / / //_/  
/_/ |_| \__,_/ /_/    /_/ /_/\____/\____//_/ /_/ /_/(_)  

The EMP pulse sweeps out with a strobbing flash of white-blue light. The tentacles and cables jerk and spark before falling limp. Pods crash from where they hover to the ground far below or dangle from the dead tethers that keep them anchored to walls and ceiling. All the power sources within the Sphere itself go dead -- save for the EMP hardened SHIELD generators.

But the portable lights go out and so does most of the other peices of electronics they brought with them -- those peices that aren't also hardened. The comms repeaters are fried, but not the basic comm system that the agents have been using. So, that's something.

Still, in the near pitch black aftermath, all that can be heard is the ticking of heated metal cooling in the darkness and the crash of machines falling to earth.

Lance Hunter has posed:
Hunter's visor polarizes against the flash and when it goes transparent again the view hasn't much changed as the lights go out. He stops running breath coming heavy inside his mask. "Good work Finlay, definitely owe you a pint or three when we get back to the base."

He tries to get his barings calling out, "Taylor you still alive? How about the rest of you?"

Peggy Carter has posed:
It's been ages since she ran like this. Everything on her is burning. Her suit is a sauna. All she knows is running in circles and just barely staying out of grasp of those tentacles. In the very last second, she feels the cold clutch of it's edge just against the back of her ankle and then everything goes dark. She collapses forward, hitting the ground with a loud thud that might not totally be hidden in the collapse of metal around them. There is nothing but ragged panting coming across the comms from her.

Slowly, she rolls over onto her back, ribs expanding and contracting almost violently against her suit. The sound of HUnter's voice over the comms is enough to keep her mostly aware. "...F*ck. Yeah. I think. Heart attack... get me... later. Or leg cramps. Damn..." But her grumbling is good natured exhaustion, no actual pain. "...ya'll owe me... a swedish... Massage."

James Barnes has posed:
Bucky keeps shooting all the way up until the blast tears through the complex, a few items of equipment on his person hissing and fizzling as they break. But for the most part he's flesh and blood, the only susceptible part of him currently being wielded by someone else. He tucks the pistol away into the holster at his thigh, stepping to stand over Taylor and peer down at her impassively for a moment. Then, wordlessly, he crouches to heft her up by the belt with one hand to carry her like a duffel bag.

"I got her," he grunts into the comms, moving to follow the rest of the team.

Dottie Underwood has posed:
Letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, Finley says, "Well that *mostly* worked." She takes another breath to steady the trembling she hopes no one can sense in the dark.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "So.. convince Agent Lars to give you a massage?," Glass asks playfully over comms but she is also physically relaxing in relief that neither of them got taken. She props her plasma rifle up against a cement pillar. The barrel is glowing red from the wild shooting she was just doing.

    "Mostly? it was amazing!," Roxy says and offers Finley a high five.

Melinda May has posed:
Cooper pulls out some old fashioned chem sticks and cracks them, starting to toss them around the platform. "Everyone okay?" His teams check in, answering both him and Hunter. He looks at the crazy people around him. "Jesus. If the Swordfish ever opens again, I'm totally buying you guys a round."

Meanwhile down in the matrix chamber below, Daisy lets out a whoop of triumph as the firewall goes down. They may not be able to move the four agents in their mechanical coffins down there, but at least they can access the program that holds them hostage. She hopes.