6254/The Framework: Down the Rabbit Hole (I)

The Framework: Down the Rabbit Hole (I)
Date of Scene:	14 May 2021
Location:	The Sphere (Bunker BT-0), Deep Beneath Manhattan
Synopsis:	Daisy, Sharon, and a team of agents discover a way into the Matrix. Now, they just have to build it.
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Daisy Johnson, Sharon Carter, Bobbi Morse
Tinyplot:	The Framework

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Melinda May has posed:
Previously, on Agents of SHIELD:

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Following up on intel gleaned from an ex-HYDRA operative stationed at the ass end of Russia, Commander May led a small STRIKE team into the heart of the Sphere, an abandoned AIM facility SHIELD stumbled upon some months earlier. Defense protocols in the facility engaged, ultimately capturing the entire team. When they didn't check in, SHIELD sent in a pair of follow-up teams. Together, they managed to shut down the defense protocols and find the missing agents...
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It's been hours since the secondary team put down the electrotentacles the Sphere was using to capture agents. A half dozen or so of the defending agents fell prey to the damned things. Their pods eventually passed through the Sphere superstructure to emerge in the same chamber where Agent May and her team lay entombed. Blue circuitry patterns have suffused their skin, microwires piercing their skin in clusters at major nerve points and muscle groups. Hell, there's evidence the pods have effectively put the lot of them into suspended animation, even clearing out toxins and supplying regular nutrition. It's an amazing feat of biotechnology.

It's also proven impossible to disengage.

There's a quiet tension in the facility, now. Agents have finished setting up the base camp, and have surrounded it in a disruptor field, in case more of those things decide to wake up and attack. Diagonistic equipment has been brought in. Monitors and servers, drones and scanners. Given who was first trapped here -- Carter, Danvers, Morse, and May... it's no wonder all the stops have been pulled out, now. Hell, chances are it's Fury himself that's authorized all the extra equipment.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
The fight to secure the Sphere hadn't gone without casualties. Casualties that were now in pods in some kind of suspended sleep. The same as her friends and family were, taken by some type of technology she was still working to understand. But she couldn't lose her focus so ...

Coffee. Lots of coffee.

As camp was being settled Daisy was doing her own set up near the terminal area, mapping it up, looking for connection ports, hardware and other connections. It was indeed a work of art what she was witnessing, and that was only the outside for when she ventured into the core code itself it was the kind of advanced algorithms that almost flowed with poetry. At least to a nerdy brain like hers. So armed with her fingers, trusty coffee (and hopefully a machine set up somewhere nearby as they wouldn't be leaving without an answer) she was down to working, the sound of her clackclacking on the keyboard heard..

"I feel I am just brushing the tip of the iceberg..." she is saying to noone in particular, ".. this seems like a simulation of some kind, but the kind of computing power it's almost as if it's distributed throughout more than just ..., this." a frown. More working on her keyboard. This demanded investigation.

Sharon Carter has posed:
"I don't know how much help I can offer. I just know the basics." Sharon offers up to Daisy.

She had been called in within the first hour of the first team arriving. All based on contingency. Sharon could have likened coming back to this country to a famous novel within a novel, 'There and Back Again'. While she did carry the nice and near gentle demeanor of Bilbo, ones resolve straightens the back like a touch of onset PTSD.

And it sets her to pacing.

Arm wrapped around her middle, fingers pressing against her chin which soon sets her to scratching. The flight was long, circulation needed to be had. At least that was her excuse. "Isn't there something in our investigational history that's even remotely close, or even a smidge close to what's happening here?" Sharon has been out of touch. Very out of touch. But not anymore, not with May being down.

"It's okay to take a break." Sharon finally says. "Walk a bit. Move around. Then sit and try again."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Special Agent Anderson aka Nuevo, had double timed it to join the second team when he heard what had happened. An Agent of SWORD specialising in hacking alien computers, and this was the first thing he had to say while offering a hand to Daisy, "Hi there. I'm Nuevo. This is incredible, I've never seen anything like this before. I can't believe someone made this in the 80s..."

    He is only half looking at Daisy while mostly eyeing off the screen of data flow analysis. His other hand is holding a cup of coffee which he too is sipping. The SWORD uniform is similar but different to SHIELD. A different subtle blue, a different logo on the arm (though SHIELD has had to stop wearing theirs).

    "Agent... Carter right?," he asks trying to confirm as he doesn't know the SHIELD agents that well. "There are computer-person interfaces out there, er.. in space, but we've never gotten close enough to one to study it like this before. Heck right now this might as well be alien," he says in that not at all reassuring way techs have.

    The agent has short blonde hair and guessing from the name and height he's clearly of viking descent. The accent suggests he's Scandinavian, "It looks like there's compression in here - but most compression algorithms hadn't been invented yet.. and it's distributed computing which had barely been researched.. whoever made this was a one person maverick."

Melinda May has posed:
Mark McLaren is more a hardware engineer than a code monkey. He's moved in carts of equipment and helped set it up. He's currently crouched by one of the pods, examining the interface. "Geez," he says. "We seriously need a bio guy in here." Pushing up to his feet, he crosses over to look over Daisy's shoulder at the work she's doing. He can almost follow it. Enjoy to get the gist of what she's looking at -- which is a whole lotta WOAH.

"Do you need us to trace lines for you?" he asks her. He glances over to wards Nuevo. "The Swordsman and I can probably handle that."

The code Daisy looks at seems nearly to cascade and dance, fragmented points of light that doesn't quite translate into a proper computing language. It's a mix of machine code, cobol, fortran, C... all the way through the languages that have been developed over the decades to the latest releases of Python and even some cutting edge, experimental stuff. But there's also stuff in there that... could be wholly original. That it's less of a kludge and more of a sprawling garden, filled with different plants and organisms.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Daisy." Daisy says in ways of introduction to Nuevo, then pointing with her thumb to Sharon, "Sharon." just before adding. "Skip the Agent part and all that. We are going to be here for -hours- if not even days. So you may want to start losing that habit now." no formality could hold for long with Daisy on the premises! Known fact.

"Do you think it may be alien?" This to Nuevo, thoughtful. "The programming is very much in english and there is a certain.., logic behind it that tells of a human behind it. A very, very intelligent one but ..." at least from what she was getting right now. But who knows what the future will hold!

"The 80s just didn't have this kind of tech to spare. I mean, those tentacles were never-ending, and the pods..." she makes a face but then decides to take Sharon's advice, sliding up from her chair and letting out a sigh, hands on her hips and taking a brief walk around, looking about. McLaren's comment has her nod. "Yea, Simmons is .., recovering. But hoping she can get into this soon." she comments, apprehension visible on her expression. "But yea, go ahead. Trace it, McLaren. There's something here that just doesn't compute. This infrastruture just isn't enough to house all this. Unless we'd have tunnels and tunnels of servers underground."

The suggestion to take a break and walk around does seem to work because she soon lifts a finger, "You know what Nuevo, you are right. There are algorithms here that hadn't even been thought of at the time this tech has been going. But the languages themselves are a mix of many, some recent, others old. Which suggests this hasn't been dormant. It's been getting better. Someone has been working on this for a long time." a moment to consider, "Almost as if it was grabbing the best out of every language and condensing into it's own thing. And we aren't talking about just a programming genius, but also a genius bioengineer. Some of the stuff here is way ahead of what I have seen before ..."

"What do you think, Sharon?" She asks the other Agent.

Sharon Carter has posed:
There wasn't any need for introduction. Sharon wasn't ignoring the agents, she was off in her little worl.. okay, she was ignoring them. But it wasn't because they were who they were. Her mind was running through gamuts of ways that she could at least be of some help with her limited skills. At best, she could remember a few lines of code on the spot then discard it into her mind palace for later use.

And what she has in there is not good right now.

"Huh?" She asks, hearing her name. Introductions, right. "Yup. Last names or first. Pick a poison."

Back to pacing again, now she was tuned in to the conversation. Thankfully, she was able to piece a little bit of info here and there, her head nodding as fingers snap. Just in time for her phone to ring. "Goddamn it." She retrieves her cell from her pocket, standard issue of course to answer. "Carter." A pause. "The other one." Pause. "Got it."

She looks towards Daisy, pressing the phone against her chest as if she were to hide the number. "I'm thinking that.. whatever limits you have now or think you have? Surpass them. Think outside the box. Think like Jemma and Fitz. Take all the programming languages you know and medical terminology and create a language of your own. Probably compare it to what's there already to find a similarity. Use it as a cipher." She frowns, muttering to herself. "I feel like I went to far with that.. what am I even talking about.."

She jutts a thumb towards the door, then finally shoves her phone into her pockets. "More equipment has arrived. I've been called to oversee and sign off. Back in thirty."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Okay ...Sharon." Then about whether it's alien or not, "No.. but," he pauses as a section of data he was watching suddenly changes completely rather than flowing, "it's polymorphic. It's adapting and changing. And like you say there's modern stuff in it." He looks around, "Well it stands to reason then. There was no internet when this place was made, only ARPANet run by DARPA in the 70s and 80s. It has been 'online' since the start, observing the digital world.. there must be an internet connection somewhere down here now."

    There's a small smirk of amusement as he's referred to as The Swordsman. But also an agreeing nod, "We might never understand this code if we don't understand the hardware." He takes out his fancy pants SWORD tablet and syncs it to the workstation then peers around the room, "There."

    Pointing to a port in the wall where several cables are leading that don't seem to be carrying power, "Let's cut through that wall and see where it goes. If we can blind it from the internet that might give us an advantage, yah?"

    He looks for the plasma torches - it's surprising how often he's needed those in SWORD - and motions for McLaren to help, "Can you believe that's Skye? legendary hacker. Broke in to SHIELD." Though, Nuevo was no slouch there. An avid believer in aliens and conspiracy theories, he broke in to SWORD, was promptly found and offered a job when he recognised an alien message was based on the EM spectrum.

    Speaking back to Daisy as he fires up the plasma torch, "Hey.. Daisy. If you ever want to go to space, you should give me a call." Welding helmet on, he starts to cut next to the cables to peek behind the wizards curtain.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren moves to gives Neuvo a hand, grabbing a second torch and a welding mask. Between the two of them, it doesn't take long to cut through into the wall. Not through the constructed parts, anyway. Ain't nobody getting through the basalt without heavier tools than what the brought. And chances are there's nothing in the basalt, anyway.

Regardless, when the wall is opened up, it's quite suddenly like a small spider's nest has been revealed. There are cables running through much like webs. More, however, there are small robots in there. They range in size from the size of a gerbil to the size of a chihuahua. They are multilegged and have various ports and pincers. They cling to wires and they cling to the walls on magnetic treads.

Of course, that might explain just how the pods from elsewhere in the facility managed to migrate down here.

"Holy crap," McLaren says, staring in at the mechanical critters that appear to stare back with baleful red eyes. "That's... So, you deal with this sorta thing often, Neuvo?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Hey! We don't mention the Skye times around here." Daisy murmurs over to Nuevo with a bit of a huff. Hopefully not the part of the black bag on head. That one was degrading. But hey, now here she is! As they go about working and reveal the inner-tunnels with all the robots it makes Daisy squint her eyes at what they find. "So, that's how they are doing this... 80s tech my ass." she curses, "This thing is automated. And they are evolving. It correlates directly to the various languages found." Daisy is getting more excited now. They are getting somewhere! It may also be the coffee... Which she quickly makes sure to refill..

Sitting down on her chair she then listens to Sharon and her advice, pondering. Indeed what would FitzSimmons do..? A gadget of some sorts that broke reality as they know it? Or......

Cracking knuckles she gets to work, which means understanding the language, creating her own pieces of language to introduce. Hopefully it would be seamless enough that she'd be able to inject it into the code that's running without being 'perceived' as a foreign piece. The difference of course is that they would start getting a picture of what it's doing. "If we are considering it's connected out there and it's evolving and adapting, it may mean there's a lot more to this simulation than meets the eye... I am injecting some code to see if we get a diagnosis of the systems, and what the purpose here may be."

"And yes, I *totally* want to go to space. Is that even a question?" a brief grin over to where McLaren and Nuevo are working.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Nueva is ataken back when they cut through the wall to reveal a whole ecosystem of robots hidden back there. He actually takes a step back and stares in wonder. ".. uh. No McLaren. No one deals with this sort of thing. This sort of thing hasn't existed before."

    He turns off his torch and walks over to the biological section and grabs a glass container and pinches on a stick, as well as some wire cutters. Returning he takes in a deep breath, then reaches in and cuts a wire to watch the little machines go to work repairing it. It's fascinating the way they quickly isolate the broken wire, then use their tiny tools to rebind the wires together.

    Nuevo uses the pinches on a stick to reach in and grab one of the smaller machines, pull it out, and place it in the biocontainment glass box. "We can learn a lot about this thing when it is removed from its operational environment. How it communicates, what its directives are.. then we dissect it, figure out what makes it tick and how it relates to the code. If we can understand the digital world it lives in...." he dares to hope just a little.

    He takes the container back over to a workstation and sits down to put some tools in the box with it so he can start working on it. "The cool thing about space is all the data," he says, "And sorry, I thought you'd be proud of your time before SHIELD...."

    He smiles and says, "No waiting for satellites to transmit gigabyte images to a workstation. You can see it all immediately. The Peak is totally amazing." The Peak being the name of the space station that SWORD uses to watch the universe.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren can't help it. He flashes Nueva a grin. "Welcome to SHIELD, man." Weird crap no one's seen before is kinda what they do. He holds containment uint while the SWORD agent sticks the little, spindly insectobot into it. He then turns to go root through his equipment, coming back with a scanner. "C'mon," he tells the other man. "Suit up. Let's see where some of these lines are going."

When he says 'suit up', he moves to add a bit of combat armour and a helmet to his tacsuit. Just in case. He puts a plasma pistol on his leg, but otherwise grabs his diagnotic equipment and the scanner he pulled. Lifting it, he grins. "This thing has backscatter technology and a whole bunch of other stuff. So, maybe we don't have to break out the torches again..." And risk disturbing the natives.

There are definitely broad networking protocols embedded as fragments in the dancing code Daisy examines. Her injection begins to send back some info, however. The matrix sprawls throughout the system. But it seems that the pieces held here are only a part of the whole. Which suggests, of course, that the whole may be a lot bigger than they first anticipated.

And how that might affect the agents in the pods is anyone's guess.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Put me in for a visit up there sometime soon." This Daisy says about the Peak even as her eyes remain glued on the monitor, brows furrowed in concentration and her fingers moving like fire as she sends in her little 'presents' throughout the network to seek and discover more info about all this.

As the two Agents are getting ready to go explore the tunnels she finally detaches her eyes from the screen to look at the two agents. "Be careful in there, guys." she calls out. "No heroics." yes, it's SHIELD. Heroics is their bread and butter! But details...

"And as I suspected. This is just a small piece of the whole. This is big, as in off-the-charts big. But no code is impossible to crack." such is the hacker's motto!

Reaching to her own coffee mug she holds it in both hands, taking a brief drink and now taking a moment to continue watching the results coming from the 'probes' she sent while at the same time keeping an eye on the Agents going in. Both with her eyes but also with her vibrational senses. No need to risk it.

Sharon Carter has posed:
All the while; agents filtered in and out of the sphere to drop off more equipment that could possibly overcompensate from what they've currently had. More is the better, naturally, but it'll be hell for those who had to lug everything back from whence it came.

Sharon remained outside all the while, inventory checking, directing. Assault rifles and icers on deck, extra tacsuits and gear that tells a war is coming. Better to be prepared.

Once the last of the inventory was carted in, Sharon follows behind. Clipboard passed off, box taken off the top and taken to the middle of the floor. M.R.E was written sloppily on the side; folks gotta eat if they're going to be working around the clock. All the while, Sharon did not notice the -big- hole there, but once she does, hands go upon her hip, her head tilts...

..and she shrugs.

"Sounds like it's going well." Sharon comments, even though she was a little worried about the two who went spelunking. That was one thing they didn't need right now, two more agents down. "At this point, I'm silently wishing we had a HYDRA mole."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "You mean in one of your fancy power suits?," he says and tilts his head. "You had me at power suit," he says. Space suits, sure, he's used to those now. He wasn't at first but log enough hours and they start to feel normal. Power suits and the weird of SHIELD - this is all new for him.

    Slipping in to the power armor he gets the helmet in place and then grabs a plasma pistol too. But he also grabs the plasma cutter and says, "You're optimistic, I like that. I'm laughing on the inside." He also picks up his norse hammer necklace and puts it in to his pocket.. seems he's a believer. Old norse religion has made quite the comeback since Thor.... came back.

    "You can call me Lars if you want. Nuevo is my hacker name," he explains to McLaren as they head off to explore. "This is like an American movie. Walking down dark underground tunnels. Something jumps out at us, jumpscares yah," he says cheerily trying to unnerve his colleague playfully. "Though there was this space craft we found in the Saraha, it was more Hollywood than Hollywood could ever imagine," he says with a shudders and turns on the shoulder mounted lights.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren holds the scanner out in front of him. The tunnel maps out ahead of them. But more, the tunnel walls become translucent enough in the scanner that the movement of other bots in parallel tunnels. Indeed, the scanner seems to show that this level is a veritable warren of tunnels and hidden chambers.

Thus, McLaren lets out a low whistle. "Man, this is... It'll take us *months* to map all this."

No code is impossible to crack. But the deeper Daisy gets into the guts of this, the more it becomes evident there is a broad spectrum of data embedded here. Visual, auditory, and quite possibly a whole haptic feedback system, including smell, taste, and touch. As far as sims go? This thing isn't just testing scenarios and processes. It's building something. Something huge.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Well, Lars..." Daisy comments when the man speaks of jump-scares and movies. "... hope you left your red shirt at home..." then she looking up to greet the arriving Sharon. "Hey. And yea, they are exploring the insides of this thing. We are apparently talking of some major simulation. Their brains are dormant, but something is going on with them.." the victims.

Her attention is back on the screen, narrowing her eyes. Feedback system? She points. "Look at this here." she points at the screen. "They have a whole range of sensory input here, as if they were taking readings from all their senses." a moment of pause to consider and then, "This isn't just a run of the mill scenario creator. This is wide, and reaching. Almost as if it was a world inside the world."

"The thing about these systems is they often go both ways so ..., with a little of ..." and she starts typing on the keyboard, creating a reverse function to call on what is happening on the other side, " ... magic, maybe we can get to have a look on what's going on the other side. Or rather, what's doing the stimulation to their brains." she connects it to one of the feeds coming in about sensory input on the victims, trying to backtrace and check on what may be seen on the other side!

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon chuckles. She understood that one at least. Though it was hard to watch Discovery where she was stationed. So much work and too little time. Mental note when she gets home. As Daisy calls her over, Sharon approaches and leans in, one hand upon the console not too far away from Daisy, yet giving the woman enough breathing room to move around and work comfortably.

Listening to her explain, brings her back to movies and television yet again. Her head tilted, her eyes nearly glaze over, free hand gesturing at the screen. "This.. reminds me of Total Recall." She nods her head. "Or the simulations in Altered Carbon. In the book and the show, it's said that you can beat the simulation if you know or realize it's a simulation." Sharon stands up straight, taking a step back to view the feed.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "So A.I.M. build this place yeah? but HYDRA hired AIM to make them a computer to predict the future?," he says looking a bit skeptical as they wander down the seemingly endless corridors. "Why plug people in to it?," he asks casually chatting with McLaren.

    "It can't be like The Matrix, not enough power - unless they're using the people as computing power. Or the people as a way to ground the thing in reality, combined with the internet. Still.. seems far fetched," he admits. "Or.. worse, are straight up stealing their memories to improve their future predictions," he says as he watches the monitor from the backscatter scanner. "This way McLaren," he says pointing left down another corridor.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren frowns a little, moving with Lars. "You wouldn't think so," he says with regard to the power. "Especially given we've dropped something like 3 mega EMP charges. But that pod chamber is seriously shielded. I took a look at it earlier. Short of setting off an EMP right beside those pods, I don't think we're going to shut off that power." He looks at the SWORDsman. "So, where is it coming from?"

That means there's got to be a generator somewhere. Or some power taps. This far down in the earth? Could be anything -- a shielded reactor or even a geothermal tap. He starts looking for the signs of those sorts of power sources.

"Hey, Daisy," he says over comms, "you think it's possible they're pumping the commanders and the chief for intel?" 'Cause that's troubling.

There are, however, visual monitors as well as bio monitors that could be hooked into the system, possibly capable of interpretting some of the signals coming from the matrix, with a little jury rigging and code siphoning. Which means it's entirely possible Daisy could manage to see what's really going on in there.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Possible, yes." Daisy confirms to McLaren with a small frown. "But we'll need to have a look at what's going on inside to actually know. It just feels ..., too complex to be an interrogation simulation. Maybe it's one of the side-effects but .., there's something more at play here."

As her little probes starting doing some job she mmms at the screen, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Yea, or even Matrix if we are going into that realm..." she murmurs as they begin going about some sci-fi movies related to these kind of thematics.

She stops tapping her chin and instead lifts it. "Eureka!" a smile up to Sharon. "I can't break in with just code sooo...." she points to a few monitors that were brought in on that last batch, "... we can connect these to the system, the code will run through it unimpeded but with a little bit of tweaking we can interpret it and maybe get a visual." she moves over to start fetching a few of the monitors and gets on working. "Help me here?" she points to where they need to work and what they need to hook in, she taking out another panel near the terminal she was working at and starting the process.

Once they are done it will be time to see if it works!

Sharon Carter has posed:
McLaren's question has Sharon glancing back to where her grandmother lay. A frown deepens across Sharon's face, would she be so cold to murder the agents as they lay sleeping to not allow the secrets to get to Hydra? Yes. But would she rip SHIELD apart if they asked her to do so? Damn right.

"Guys." Sharon says into the comms. "Movie night when this is over. I'll host." Because it will be over, and they will be victorious.

Daisy's 'eureka' causes Sharon to jump a little, taking a little step back to allow the agent room. "Ooh, I see what you're getting at.." Damn skippy. Sharon was already moving, assembling parts where told, tossing others aside to quite possibly repurpose it into something or other that'll keep Sharon busy while the others worked. She seemed the muscle sort, after all.

Once all was assembled, Sharon jumps back on comms yet again. "McLaren, number Nine. We're about to try to see inside, let us know if you see any signs of a power surge on your ends?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    The monitor takes a moment to fill in with detail as the scene becomes clear. The cockpit of a quinjet overlooking a forested area which opens up on to one of the great lakes. Below a landing pad and a house with large glass windows. It looks expensive and really nice.

    The quinjet comes in for a landing, the vision being shown has hands and long sleeves wearing black. As the silent movie continues, the quinjet sets down and the occupant wanders out through the hanger door. Turning back a lock of blonde hair obscures the right eye momentarily to reveal the wings of the quinjet rising up to form an A-shape, rather than folding down as the quinjets in the real world do.

    Approaching the house, the glass windows reveal the reflection of Bobbi Morse wearing a black tacsuit, similar in design to SHIELD's. The suit is half off by the time she gets close enough to the window to see the reflection, pooling around her hips and hiding any insignia on it. Her right eye looks messed up though and there's a large scar from above the eyebrow down through the eye and over her cheek. She otherwise looks like her, perhaps a little grumpy looking.

    When she opens the door with a swipe of her wrist a dog comes running to greet her. She kneels down and pets the dog and for the briefest moment there's a dog tag visible that, partially obscured, says, UNTER. It's an easy guess to imagine the dog's name is Hunter.

    Bobbi heads to the kitchen and reaches out to turn on the coffee machine, her right hand starts to shake for a moment and she turns away from it and puts on the kettle for tea instead.

    The perspective changes as if she heard something and then she heads to the front door and opens it to see Melinda May standing there.

Melinda May has posed:
On the monitor, May doesn't look greatly changed to what most people would know her as. Black leather jacket, a dark top, dark jeans and boots. There's the silhouette of a bike in the distance. Of anyone watching, it's Daisy who might notice that May's features are harder -- more like they were when they first met than how they are now. Closed off and shut down.

Still she does give Bobbi a small, tight smile. It's a sharp thing, but she says something briefly before moving into the house. In her hand is a brown bag with the logo of a popular liquor store in the DC area. She extends it to Bobbi.

Down the hidden corridor, McLaren acknowledges Carter's order. "Copy that," he says. He glances to Anderson and then widens the scan frequencies.

Ultimately, he calls back. "No specific peak. Sorry, Carter. But I think we're getting closer to the power hub -- wherever it is."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Here we go..." Daisy settles down on her chair to take a look at the monitor, the first moments coming with a 'fuzz' as she adjusts the reading algorithm and then finally they start getting a clear image. Or at least as good as they can get for now, still some chops on the image.

"Still need to do some adjustments aaaanndddd..." whatever she was going to say next doesn't come. She stares at the screen. First at the 'alien' look that is Bobbi and her star destroyer, the hardened look, the .., weight. She frowns deeply. That is not the Bobbi she knows...

And that May. Something is off. As if she was back in the past. There is more of her there than what she can see in Bobbi but .., she is also closed up.

"I need to adjust the sensory feeds for us to catch what they are saying." she starts doing just that on her terminal.

"This looks ..., a lot more evolved than what I thought at first. As if they were living a fantasy. The way they are connected, the feedback system. Their bodies, and minds, most likely believe this to be fully real." her troubled eyes going up to Sharon. "What do you think?"

Sharon Carter has posed:
All of the debris from their little engineering project was kicked to the side. A hand wave towards one of the agents behind the scenes and they immediately move to organize it into a space out of the way. A chair is pulled up close, and soon Sharon settles into the seat, the back of the chair at her front so that she could lean upon it and have something to hold.

Hearing McLaren on the comms, she tunes in. "Copy that. Was worth a shot." But at least they were getting closer to the hub without too much fuss.

As Bobbi comes onto the screen, Sharon sits back and watches. Most of her time at SHIELD she was out in the fields, there was really no hint of what was different now. Save for the obvious, normal observations. The shaking hand. The broken collar.

May arriving looking.. upset? Was that her angry face?

Daisy snaps her out of her observation, then shakes her head. "Best I can do is more movie references. But when I -was- stationed here, most used to joke that there were other.. us's. Mnozhestvennyye zemli. Multiple earths. One guy teases his children with that and threatened to set them outside to fend in the snow until the other of the child came around." She waves her hand a little. "This can't be that though. That's.. well.." She shakes her head. "..I got nothing."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    Anderson says, "We have been assuming this place is isolated. If they've tapped in to the internet... what if they're pulling from the New York grid? they wouldn't even need a direct connection, just some coils.. big big coils."

    He pauses and takes a knee to tap on his tablet. It's more awkward to type on keyboards when you're wearing power armor but he brings up a map of New York's utilities and their current position underground."

    He points down the corridor, "May be this way. We're getting close to the superconducting power lines that feed most of Manhattan. New York City uses so much energy that they have massive super cooled vacuum sealed power cables that run underground from seven different power stations in the surrounding land. A massive feat of engineering. The first one was installed in the 80s though..."

    ---

    Bobbi's vision moves out of the way as May walks in. Hunter, the dog, seems to be familiar enough with May that he isn't in a defensive posture. Bobbi shuts the door behind her and motions over to the kettle even as she accepts the alcohol.

    A tablet is on the table and by the time Bobbi comes back over to it with two cups of tea it's unlocked, hiding any lock screen insignia, but it does indicate a warehouse on the edge of the water in Washington D.C... there's a nod and Bobbi holds up three fingers, then slides the cup over to May.

    The audio cuts in and they catch Bobbi saying "Kendrin (talk)ay.. ~~u ~an have the three quinjets ready to go and the containment modules for the bioweapons. Don't let the terrorists scratch my jets," she says but it doesn't sound like she's joking.

    The sound of air as she blows across the tea and the bounding of dog feet on wooden floors as Hunter runs around the table and then starts whacking his tail against May's leg. He puts his front paws up on the edge of the table to look at what's going on.

    "Fallen!," she says sharply to Hunter in German who pushes away from the table and starts to run around the room again. "How many are there this time?," she asks and wanders away back to her smartly designed modern kitchen to get two tumblers out for the alcohol. Tea and alcohol. She pours some of what May brought over in to the tumblers.

Melinda May has posed:
McLaren frowns again when Anderson suggests the coils. "This whole damned place could be a coil," he says. "I mean, it's a bloody sphere. It could be completely surrounded in coils." Ultimately, however, they find themselves at a dead end, the cables continuing through the wall, into the basalt. The engineer passes the scanner over to Anderson and pulls out another piece of equipment. He puts it onto the cables, and starts a second scan that starts to map the powerlines as they continue into the rock.

On the screen, May takes a moment to greet the dog. It soften her features just a little. She's still guarded, but the animal still gets a proper greeting.

"Three's plenty," she says about the jets as she rises to join Bobbi at the table. "More than enough to level the place. Intel suggests there won't be more than four, but one of them has the potential to create another Cambridge Incident." Which means May will put it that target down with extreme prejudice. "Regardless, we've confirmed it's a waystation. That means it's a whole terrorist cell there."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"They are not themselves." Daisy points to the screen, "It's as if May had went back to before, when I met her." she says, rubbing at the back of her neck, "As for Bobbi.., I don't even know, they are talking as if they are living alternate lives." and Cambridge Incident? That has her quirk a brow. No idea what -that- is.

"And well, we do have other realities. Have you read the reports on ZZGU and the doppelgangers..?" she asks, "They are a menace... but I agree, this is not it."

She gets up to her feet, again following that initial suggestion from Sharon. Walk it off! It helps her thinking.

"Okay, so we know they are inside. A simulation." walk walk walk. "And as you said before, maybe what we need to do is make them believe they are in a simulation so we can bring them back. Eject their consciousness so to speak.."

"So ..., we create an emergency hatch. But we might need some bio expertise here to bring them back safely and make sure the transition goes smoothly. Though with some work, and time." specially time, "I might be able to emulate and send us in there. Need to get a back door into this mainframe though."

She sits back down on the chair. "With the back door we may be able to go in and out. Theoretically. And then see up close on *what* is going on."

Sharon Carter has posed:
This was just bizaare. It was like watching your co-workers on television, live and in color. Sharon has to check herself, glancing back towards the pods and then towards the screen, fingers now clutching the edge of the chair while she leans back. "Shit."

She shakes her head, then grins. "In between finding out my grandparents alive and me coming back to being disavowed, I think I'm on page two of that incident." Truthfully, she was just damn lazy. One paragraph in, she was already snoozing.

"Hey, I'll be your willing volunteer. If we go together just tell me what to do if we need to leave." She stands from her chair now, then gestures. "You ever thinking about doing the childish thing? Screaming and banging on Melinda's pod?" If there was a time to make a joke, it was not now. "I'm sure that'll piss her right off."

It looks as if Sharon was about to do it, especially as she crosses the way. "I think there's some more equipment in the boxes that were just brought in if you need anything else." She points out to Daisy, then jumps on comms. "Sitrep guys. You two alright?"

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Yah, I had been thinking that too. If that's the case, the only way we stop this place is to obliterate it. But if that's how they're doing it they're a bit too far away to get enough power for all these robots and things," Anderson says and takes the backscatter scanner. Crowding in her looks at the display mapping out the power lines. "This place is a maze. There must be a path way to get to the other side of this wall," he says and pats the basalt. "Yah Sharon. We've found another dead end. This place is a warren of tunnels," he replies over comms.

    ---

    Bobbi lets out a small sigh, "A way station is better than nothing. I would be happier if we could find their base of operations. At least we've narrowed it down to the DC and surrounds."

    The mention of Cambridge makes her narrow her eyes which is an interesting visual on the monitors from Bobbi's perspective. She places the tumbler of alcohol down in front of May, "It would help if we could tell which weapons are WMDs and which are just nuisance. The Doctor said that would be an inefficient use of time. Right now we have to treat every cell like it could destroy a city."

    Bobbi's reflection is caught on the large flat screen television which is currently off betraying a small smirk. "Did you really drive all the way out here just to talk about a terrorist cell? you've never lacked for enthusiasm taking those weapons off the board..."

Melinda May has posed:
"C'mon," McLaren says to Anderson. "Let's head back. I've got an idea about how we can better map the place using the actual conduit lines. It'll be safer than wandering around blind." He gestures back the way they came. This is more than a two man team can handle -- unless McLaren's idea pans out.

---

May barks a quick laugh. "No," she says, shaking her head briefly. "I have no problem taking those bastards out. They're monsters, every last one of them." Whatever she's been through in this dark fantasy world, it's obviously not been fun. Nevertheless, she takes a sip of the alcohol and gives Bobbi a tight smile. "But, actually, I thought you might want to join me on a more personal hunt. I got a lead on the Russian."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Daisy's eyes squint as she listens to the talk between them, but other than that she makes no further comment. A lot of info they weren't aware of yet. And right now the priority is to get in there, create that back door and go in, along with the emergency 'exit' for the rest of the 'gang'.

When Sharon goes with that suggestion Daisy lets out a chuckle that at least breaks some of her tension. Jokes at inappropriate times are the best! She would know. "I think she'd wake up just to zap you with her killer stare before going back to sleep.." she comments.

"And yea, I am going to need a few more monitors on so we can get the full range of their signals in view. Including those bio monitors there." she pointing. "I need to start on programming this.."

A sigh. "I hope they have enough coffee on site for us. Also, I will shoot anyone that suggests decaf." and she gets to work!

Sharon Carter has posed:
Sharon folds her arms about her chest as she slowly rocks back and forth. Heel now thumping against the ground to create a bounce as if she were going to kick someone right then and there. The thought was tempting. Bang, create havok. Make some noise, scream. One would wake up angry, the other would be cross. The rest? Yep, angry.

Sharon doesn't bother tapping into the comms, but hearing what Daisy needs has her moving and getting to work. As one of the agents move to help, she waves them off. "I got it. Maybe get Daisy some coffee?" Hell, she needed to do something instead of sit there.

"Tell me where you want it and I'll set it all up."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
    "Vasily!," she says with hate in her voice. She takes a sip of the whisky and says, "Where has that cowardly bear run to this time? He owes me an eye. That man makes me sick with rage."

    She takes a seat at the kitchen bench and says, "I am interested, of course. Portland is still rioting and I am being asked to take two of the zeppelins west just for that." There's a roll of her eyes and says, "They made their cesspool they can live in it.. but it's not my call. The council and the white house are playing strange games ... nothing you need to worry about. At least I'll be in the air... so, where does this lead take us?"

    ---

    Anderson nods his head, "I see where you're thinking. It's smart. It won't take me too long to translate the resistance data to our maps. I'll write a script for you when we get back. That way Daisy can remain focused on the pods." He turns and starts heading back with McLaren the way they came. Field programming is a new art form that agents of SHIELD, SWORD, and now ARMOR have been mastering. Because software engineering can be just as powerful a weapon as an ICER sometimes.

Melinda May has posed:
May gives Bobbi a wry smile. "Portland," she says. "I didn't say it wasn't a *challenging* lead. But if you and I can't handle it, who can?" Seems the pair have a mission ahead of them at some point.

The men retreat from the corridor and enter back into the pod chamber. Back within the disruptor field, they get to work.

There's enough work, now, for a whole team of technicians -- bio technicians to figure out if the agents can be disconnected safely or if Daisy's idea to jack in to the sim directly is the best option. But they're SHIELD. Work doesn't scare them. So, they put more coffee on, open a box of MREs... And settle in for the night.