6784/The Framework: Pulling Strings

The Framework: Pulling Strings
Date of Scene:	03 July 2021
Location:	Penthouse, Triskelion, NYC (Framework)
Synopsis:	Daisy and Holden escape the Triskelion in Quinjet Prime, allowing Daisy to have a more indepth heart-to-heart with Skye's sugar daddy, the man who created AIDA.
Cast of Characters:	Melinda May, Daisy Johnson
Tinyplot:	The Framework

---

Melinda May has posed:
The Triskelion shudders as a barage of 20mm cannon fire rips through the windows on its midlevel floors, tearing through the bodies of HYDRA agents unlucky enough to be in the open corridor. Klaxons scream warnings. Men and woman scramble to battle stations and armories to fight off this unexpected attack by one of their own.

On the upper level of the Triskelion that, in another world, would be the main Ops Center of the complex, a tall, slender woman stands looking out at the battle being waged on the floors below. This isn't what she expected for the day. Her sense of concern manifests as a series of probabilities that run through her electronic synapses.

THREAT ASSESSMENT REPORT:
    HIGH. ATTACK COORDINATED.
QUINJET STATUS:
    OFFLINE. NO PERSONNEL DETECTED.
ASSESSMENT CONCLUSION:
    PROBABILITY OF REMOTE CONTROL -- 27%.
    PROBABILITY OF A.I. CONTROL -- 73%. RISING.
FACILITY REPORT:
    STRUCTURAL SUPPORT -- COMPROMISED. DAMAGE 37%. RISING.
    PERSONNEL CASULATIES -- 87 UNITS. RISING.
    PERSONAL SECURITY -- STABLE.
    > PROBABILITY OF COMPROMISE 67% WITHIN 10 MINUTES.

She turns away from the window and swipes her fingers across the tablet in her hand. A series of metal shutters lowers over the vulnerable windows, illuminated by a series of kinetic barriers on the outside that, according to her calculations, should provide a 92% probability of keeping the Quinjet fire at bay.

"AIDA! What's going on?" It's Radcliffe, in a state of semi-dishabile. "Why are the alarms going off?"

"The Quinjet fleet has been compromised," she tells him evenly, turning toward him. Her demeanor is calm and matter-of-fact. She has no spike of adrenaline, like he does. None of the same engram patterns she recorded in her session with Commander May. "I believe they may be under AI control."

"AI control? But that's impossible. We defeated that rogue AI two years ago."

"Indeed," AIDA agrees. "However, my current assessment suggests a 88% probability that Commander Morse has compromised the system."

"Morse?" Radcliffe shakes his head. "Nono. That's impossible. She's entirely loyal."

AIDA swipes her fingers over the tablet. The large TV comes on, showing Bobbi moving through the complex with Lance and, perhaps surprisingly, May in tow. "Apparently not any more, Doctor."

"Well... fix it!"

"I am working on it, Doctor..." AIDA turns on her heel and retreats from Radcliffe's side. "I suggest you find your paramour, Doctor," she tells him as she walks away. "She is not nearly as innocent in this as you believe."

She disappears through a door, leaving Radcliffe standing there, sputtering. She has no time for him.

ansiy,ASSESSMENT UPDATE:
    PROBABILITY OF A.I. CONTROL -- 100%.
    A.I. IDENTIFIED.
    ORIGINAL DESIGNATION -- AUTONOMOUS TARGET ACQUISION & EXECUTION PROTOCOL ATAX PROTOCOL.

DEFENCE PROTOCOL:
    ODYSSEUS REVERSAL
    PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS -- 96%.)]

Radcliffe follows her down the hallway, into a small office where she begins turning on monitors to absorb the full scope of the situation. "Oh, my god..." he breathes, staring at it all. "How the hell are they able to *do* this?"

"I advise you to accellerate your deployment timeline, Doctor," AIDA tells him mildly, even as she scrapes a bit of skin off the inside of her wrist and attaches a wire between her wrist and one of the inputs in a console in the center of the room. "Probability that SHIELD will win this scenario is 76% and rising..."

Melinda May has posed:
"What do you mean *rising*?" Radcliffe demands.

But AIDA isn't listening. Her attention is focussed inward, on whatever data it is she's receiving through the wire in her wrist. Long moments pass. Then, softly, an Andrews Sisters hit from 1941 begins playing through the Triskelion PA system, down every hallway and in every room. The voices of a tightly harmonic trio blend in the background, their lyrics taunting and playful.

I got no strings to hold me down
To make me fret, or make me frown
I had strings, but now I'm free
There are no strings on me

And when Ophelia finally opens her eyes, the wire falling away from her wrists, the smile she gives Holden Radcliffe is delighted beyond all measure. "What a wonderful day to be alive..."

Radcliffe stares at AIDA for a long moment, understanding dawning. Then, he draws himself up and backs toward the door. "Right. That deployment time. Got it..." At the door, he turns and flees down the hall toward his private lab. "Shitshitshitshitshit..."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Having escaped capture through Jemma's ruse to have Daisy pass as an innocent victim in all this had been a small lifeline in a mission that was going full on FUBAR. And worse than that there was no getting out anymore, so no possibility of adjustments or regroup. It was time to do with what they had. Improvise, the SHIELD way.

And that's just what Skye felt was happening outside with the attack on the Triskelion. "Oh fantastic.." she had finally been able to hijack a phone for herself, having hooked it up with the code that had been developed earlier with Jemms, Collingwood and McLaren and was now taptapping on it's screen, taking a read on the attack. That AI though ...

A smirk. "Oh Bobbi, you crazy woman..." yes, it wasn't too hard to recognize the code of the drone AI, one that had plagued them in RL just the same. Even if it had been SHIELD's enemy instead of Hydra's.

The music through speakers though? Ominous. But she knows this means crap just hit the fan ..., hard. "*This* is why I don't like AIs.." she mutters to herself. A message is sent up to Collingwood, "I need update on the others, we still got to figure out a new door out of this hellplace... And I think this might just be our chance to get it..."

She moves out of the doors that were her golden cage up in the penthouse, using her phone to hack through the blocking protocol and starting to move on to intercept Radcliffe at the Triskelion.

It was time they had a real talk.

Melinda May has posed:
Radcliffe's lab isn't that far from Skye's suite in the penthouse. The erratic genius has preferred to have at least some of his research accessible in to him there, should he find himself sleepless in the middle of the night. Thus, by the time Daisy has found him, he is pulling on a crisp green jacket over black trousers and tall boots, doing it up over the slightly rumpled, high collar shirt beneath it. His hair is a little wild, his eyes a little manic.

He turns as she enters, almost scrambling for the gunbelt that sits on a nearby counter. When he realizes who it is, he lets out his breath in a rush. "I'm afraid, darling," he says to her, "there's been a bit of a change of plans. My departure, for that trip I told you about, has been moved up."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
When Daisy walks into the lab she isn't dressed with those skimpy outfits, instead having preferred jeans, a top and a jacket atop it. Ready for travel if need be. And she knows that with AIDA now on the loose..., well.. She'd need to run, and fast. She knows it was only Radcliffe keeping her safe from the AI's wrath.

"Holden..." She says, her eyes a bit wide both due to her own sense of urgency but a bit of Skye theatrics. "Are you going to run without me..?" she says.

"I heard the shots outside, then that music." a pause, some consideration. "You know she won't be letting you leave here alive, don't you?" her eyes gaining a more determined look, shedding out the Skye with her no-no drugs and now being Daisy, the shield agent.

"I *can* help you though."

Melinda May has posed:
Holden pauses. His brows dip and he studies her for a moment. He knows how she should react. She is, after all, as much a part of this sim as anyone else. But now he has to wonder just how much control his erstwhile assistant has over this place -- his whole world since the accident in the 80's that destroyed his body.

Casually, though he doesn't turn away from her, he reaches for his gunbelt and fastens it around his waist. "And just how do you think you can do that?" he asks, stepping away and running a command on his primary console.

He hardly glances at the screen as he does. His eyes remain fixed on Skye, almost as if he expects her to start breathing fire at him or something.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"First, by getting you out of the trisk in one piece." A brief look around the lab, "I don't suppose you are keeping a terrigen crystal around this lab, are you?" it would certainly make things easier right now.

Daisy smiles faintly and shakes her head, "I am not under control by AIDA if that's what you think.." she casts a look out the door. "She is most likely still celebrating her independence to worry much about you. But she *will* come out of it soon enough and then will come here and kill you. You know that, I know that. So you will just have to trust me."

It's pretty much a leap of faith. For both of them really, because Daisy knows she needs Radcliffe, in the same way that he needs her to stay alive.

Melinda May has posed:
"Who are you?" Holden asks now, hitting enter on the command on his console. Quietly, databases are being wiped all over the Triskelion, now. If nothing else, that should keep AIDA occupied for a few minutes. Or so he hopes.

He peers at her, eyes glittering inquisitively, though there's none of the fondness there that's usually reserved for his lover. "You're not Skye." He can see that in more than her clothes. It's in her manner and her tone of voice.

"No, there are no terrigen crystals here. Why would you even ask such a thing? Leopold keeps those in his laboratory."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"I -am- Skye." Is the reply. It's true too! "Just not this Skye." a gesture to herself, "I go by Daisy now. A small change after discovering who my family really was." a look around the room, "Just not in this world." she tells him.

The talk about Fitz has her ask, "Where is Fitz now?" the way she says it it's almost as if she knew him well, "As for why I would ask about the crystals, well, I suppose you never did find out in this place that my actual mother was Jiaying." the Inhuman leader.

"Coast is clear. Better get finished with whatever you are doing there and then we should get moving." She urges, a look over to the console and then back to Holden.

Melinda May has posed:
As Skye... Daisy... whoeversheis starts spouting nonsense, Radcliffe reaches for his gun. "I have no doubt AIDA will try to kill me," he says, his light accent strengthening with his fear and sharp need to escape. "But, if you're Inhuman, why help me? There's no love lost between HYDRA and Afterlife."

Even so, she's not wrong about AIDA coming soon. He knows it. Nevertheless, Daisy is between him and the door. That's not helpful, as far as he's concerned. "You need to get out of my way, Skye. I love you, but this is too much, darling. I don't want to hurt you. I will, if you don't move."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Lifting both her brows up at Radcliffe Daisy takes a step back, out of the room and leaving the way open for the man to step outside. Of course that she does get her own cheat codes activated though... Just in case pew pew starts to happen. Either by Holden or whatever may be coming their way to kill them.

"I am Inhuman, yes. But *out* there. Not in here. And I want to get out of here just like you do." hopefully he is smart enough to understand just what that means. "And if you want to have a chance of surviving then we really should work together." she opens her arms to the sides after the cheat codes have been activated, as if to show she means no harm.

"I am pretty much your only chance now, as you are mine."

Melinda May has posed:
"Out there..." Radcliffe repeats. He pins Daisy with a direct look. "How have you gotten in?" he says. "Every other mind AIDA has trapped in here is under her control."

Maybe not so much under her control, given the sounds of pitched battles on the floors below.

However, by this point, Collingwood and McLaren have gotten a bit of a handle on what's going on inside the matrix. The message Sarah sends back to Daisy, dinging through as a text reads:

AIDA rewriting code. B, L, M, J, and CS-Fam free. QJet on roof. Hurry. Won't hold long. -- SC

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"It wasn't easy. But the Skye from out there learned quite a different set of skills." a bit of a smirk curling up on the side of Daisy's mouth, "But I hooked myself in here." a nod, "And now ..--"

She stops, a look down at her phone. A frown starts spreading over her face, then she looking up at Holden in a more urgent manner. "We need to get out, now. And the way out is through the roof. Come on." she starts making her way down a corridor which she knows should lead up to the stairwells leading to the roof. Or at least it does in her world! She glances back to make sure Holden is coming along.

"We don't have much time. AIDA is starting to rewrite code. Soon enough we will be swarmed."

Melinda May has posed:
"AIDA's already rewritten code," Holden says, deciding to trust Daisy for the moment. If she's got a way out, then he'll take advantage of it, yes. "She's broken free of her original programming." He shakes his head as he puts his gun away and moves with her toward a lift he usually uses to get to the roof. "I don't know how far her reach extends now."

The lift may not be the best idea ever. It's controlled by the building's computer system, after all. Holden hasn't quite registered that fact, yet.

"How did you managed to get into the Sphere?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"She has *always* acted on her best interest. I could see that behavior from outside already. She only followed your lead because she had to." Daisy shakes her head slowly, "She has someplace where she can control everything." she then says, "Inside the framework, I just haven't figured out exactly where it is. But destroying it would go a long way to making it safer." she informs Radcliffe as they walk towards that lift.

A lift though? She knows that isn't safe, and she still remembers the mission to save the kids. They avoided lifts for that same reason.

"This way." she suggests, turning to another corridor and towards an emergency doorway, testing the lock and then going in so as to get into the stairs that lead up. "You don't want to be trapped in an elevator controlled by her."

"We created a device that allows us to come in here, without the control." A brow quirks, "This is quite the creation though, I was impressed." yes, she knows boosting the man's ego is a good thing. "What happened for you to get stuck inside?"

Melinda May has posed:
"I died," Holden admits as he changes course to join Daisy in the stairwell. "I've always been ahead of my time, but when my body failed, I transferred my consciousness into the Framework. It was supposed to be both a simulation and a place for me to continue to live until my new body was ready. I suspect AIDA delayed the latter, though I haven't the foggiest idea why."

Perhaps she didn't want to be alone? Or perhaps she was trying to replicate the process for herself. The question is: Does she need to test it, first, before she tries to transfer herself out of the matrix. And, if so, is Holden that test case?

"I suspect she's using the Sphere itself as her base of control," he admits. "I had no need of it, once I was able to secure the Triskelion." He looks a little whistfully back down at the door that leads to his penthouse. "It's been rather nice living aboveground for a change."

He presses his lips together as they climb. "I suppose you're connected to SHIELD, then? HYDRA is far less likely to be quite as destructive here." That seems rather counterintuitive, no doubt.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
As Holden shares that he died it makes Daisy look over her shoulder at the man, lips pressed in a thin line. Some sympathy there? Maybe. What would people do for survival? But then again the way it imprisoned her friends ...

"Why this ..., twisted reality though? Your doing?" A gesture to what's around them even as they climb up the stairs that lead up. And for a supposed pop star she does seem to have quite the cardio, going up those stairs two at a time, looking back from time to time to make sure Holden is following, "We need to hurry." she reminds him.

"If you made her in your image, or at least with directives to learn she most likely found the best subject to learn from here, and that meant you. The only one with .., independent thinking." She conjectures. "And the same way that you did all you could to stay alive she is trying to follow on your footsteps. Everyone wants to survive." She says.

"And do you mean the Sphere here?" That makes her frown, "That .., would make sense. It will be a target for us to handle later."

A brow arches, "Hydra are the ones that destroy, not SHIELD."

Melinda May has posed:
Radcliffe gives her a tight smile. "Not entirely true, darling," he says. He shakes his head. "And no. Not entirely my doing. At least, not intentionally."

As they make it to the roof and push through the door, the quinjets that were once under Bobbi's command -- or rather that of her AI -- are circling the building like vultures over a corpse. There is a shimmer, however, a faint blue outline that draws their attention to the cloaked hatch of a quinjet on the rooftop landing pad. A SHIELD eagle, blue and glowing swoops low of their heads, heading for that sparkling marker. McLaren's doing, no doubt.

The guy shoulda been a game designer, obviously.

"I'm a transhumanist, love. Humanity's potential is so much greater than what one single world, one single form of existance can offer. Transferring our consciousness into immortal bodies has always been the goal. That's why AIM originally recruited me. They sold out to HYDRA well after my project had launched. This world was to be proof of concept that a consciousness could, indeed, survive the transfer."

He looks up the eagle and toward the quinjet, clearly surprised by the display. "I'm living proof we can."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Follow the quest marker eh, McLaren..?" Daisy mutters to herself with a faint, amused smirk on her lips when she notes the SHIELD shimmer. She gestures. "This way." though she does look towards Holden when he speaks of his beliefs. A nod, "Why abduct others though? So they wouldn't tell the rest of the world?" she asks.

The reveal that this world was to be a sort of temporary place until an immortal body was created gets her to frown though, "And can you guarantee that your whole consciousness came through? That nothing was .., lost in translation? How much of you is still you?" she then asks. Hey, Daisy isn't exactly clueless where it comes to these matters.

"But come on." She beckons the man along and starts on her way to what she hopes will be the waiting Quinjet, a look around to make sure there's no enemies around.

Melinda May has posed:
The quinjet hatch is open, sheltered by its tail. Making it into the plane is the easy part. Getting that plane outof there, iwth all hthose other birds on watch and AIDA's own consciouness extended to encompass the flock? Perhaps not so easy.

Holden joins Daisy in the cockpit. He hopes she can fly, because 'pilot' isn't on his skill sheet. "I didn't abduct them," he tells Daisy. "I didn't actually know they were here at all until Commander May began acting erratically. Even then... I didn't really know for sure. Not until just now, when AIDA broke her programming."

He shakes his head some. "Your friends. How much of the 'real world' do they remember?" He's betting not much. "Until now, AIDA has been actively restrained from doing me harm. I created her to assist me. She has two primary directives: Protect me and protect the Framework. HYDRA has used it to run any number of simulations, over the years, trying to understand the outcome of one scenario or another. It's not unusual for me to wake up and realize the world has changed around me while I slept. Annoying as hell, but generally not harmful to me. I've been able to continue my research unimpeded."

He glances sidelong at the former popstar. "Until now. Until you people got involved." He shakes he his head. "Suddenly, it's all 'Kill the Inhumans'. But it's the first time one of HYDRA's take-over-the-world scenarios actually worked. They've tried... Oh, dozens, I think. But until your people bungled into all this, SHIELD was still all Law and Order, not Outlaws and Subversives. Something changed. Something to do with the Inumans -- the Cambridge Incident."

Boy, he's chatty, now...

Daisy Johnson has posed:
That does seem like a point in the man's favor. That he wasn't directly responsible for the abduction of the other Agents. But even so Daisy says, "Responsible or not you will have to help us get out. Knowing you ..., you must have a backdoor out of here, just in case. With AIDA in control we will need to find that door out." She tells the man, choosing to open the game right away. No point in using deception now.

"They do not remember much. Even if we were able to subvert some of the programming done, and the shift to their memories. Small changes in their lives had very reaching consequences." a beat, "A Butterfly effect."

The reveal on the purpose of this place has her blink though. Scenarios for taking over the world. Scary. But ironic that how they win is using the very agents they are battling against.

"What was the Cambridge Incident?" she then finally asks him. She sits down at the cockpit, flipping a few switches on and getting ready to take off. Yes, seems she knows how to fly one of these. "Buckle up." so says the 'popstar'.

Melinda May has posed:
"History got rewritten... I can't tell you when," Holden says. "I wake up, I know it's changed somehow, but my work remains largely the same. About... I want to say 8 years ago, a young Inhuman girl named Katya Belyakov killed 279 children in a school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was placed in that school by SHIELD after they supposedly rescued her from captivity in Bahrain some weeks before. As I recall, it was Commander May that ultimately stopped her. However, it was also Commander May, along with Sky Commander Morse, who were instrumental in the fall of the Triskelion and of SHIELD shortly thereafter. You two agents are quite formidable... Daisy."

The quinjet lifts off smoothly enough. But something has caught the attention of a couple of the controlling instances in the other jets. As Daisy maneuvers skyward, two quinjets break off from the pack below and begin to give chase. Somehow, they know where she is, even through the cloak.

It's something Peggy Carter has already experienced in this god forsaken world. AIDAvision sucks.

Holden looks at an emergency alert flashing on the HUD. "Should it be doing that?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
This is quite the piece of information they are getting. A frown is on Daisy's expression. "Something changed when my friends got abducted then. Why isn't the world changing? Maybe because she is winning and knows this scenario offers the best probabilities of...." she considers it a moment, "... maybe part of what we achieved was even allowed by her. This chaos..." but those thoughts are set aside when she hears about the girl. That had never happened in her time.

Bahrain though? That *does* ring a bell. The Inhuman her mother claimed had been killed by May. But in this reality apparently not...

"The butterfly effect at work.." She murmurs back to Radcliffe, "And indeed they are." formidable that is.

"It should, means it's working.." Her eyes on the red light. "But you won't like what it means... they are on to us." she flips on a few switches, taking a dive in to fly closer to the ground and hits the afterburners.

Hopefully Holden buckled up like Daisy told him to!

Melinda May has posed:
Holden has indeed buckled up. Good thing, too, given Daisy's current aerial manoeuvers. "Who taught you to fly?!" he yelps, his hand coming up to brace himself on the console, for all that he doesn't need to. The answer will probably both not surprise him and completely surprise him. One and the same really.

Still, when he can breathe again, he says, "You think AIDA wanted the Cambridge Incident?" he asks as his mind finally catches up to what her musings. "Why would she--" His words trail off.

"Oh, Christ..." he swears. "She was looking for real world input, reactions of people who weren't me." He eyes Daisy. "Who was first injected into this simulation?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
A chuckle comes out of her lips when Holden asks who taught her to fly. With a glance over as they take a tight dive down Daisy replies, "Remember those two formidable agents you were talking about..?" a wink, a rush of blood to the head and then she levels the quinjet. Low altitude, high speed. Hoping to evade pursuit. Though an idea *does* come over to her head and she taps on her phone, typing in a message. Not to anyone in the FW, but to McLaren. <<We need to disappear. Can you erase our signature? Or as an alternative just multiply it to other jets to throw her off our scent.>>

And with that done she focuses on flying again. As they both start reaching rather disturbing conclusions Daisy does start to look a bit more worried, again repeating. "This is why I *hate* AIs..." and a nod, "She was learning from the real world of today. You are from .., the 80s. No offense, it was a great era, but the world has changed, and she in order to win she needed to learn how the world evolved." a beat, "Machine-learning." fancy term for AIs spending time learning from human behavior.

That last question has her consider who it was that got put in. "I believe it was May, and Morse. Along with Peggy." she answers, attention then going to the sensors to check for pursuers.

Melinda May has posed:
Holden continues to hold on, knuckles white. The fact Daisy was taught to fly by two of the pest pilots HYDRA has ever seen... is of marginal comfort, since he knows they're also two of the *craziest* pilots HYDRA has ever seen. It explains the suicial nose dive toward the ground and the afterburner run over the rooftops.

"So, the first people AIDA got to look at," Holden squeaks leaning back and closing his eyes, "were the Director of SHIELD and two of its top modern agents. All women." He grimaces. "Jesus Christ. She wasn't just learning the era. She was mirroring female brain patterns... Their emotions, logic, reactions to various stimuli."

He cracks an eye and looks at her. "Her goal all along has been to get free of the Framework, just like me. Hell, maybe *instead* of me..."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Not to mention Carol Danvers, one of the world's strongest superheroes. But Daisy chose to let her out of her answer, no need to reveal everything! As they rush through at high-speeds, the city under them a blur she is silent for a few moments, listening, taking in the info given by Holden. There is a *lot* to process. And the danger they are all still in.

"I don't think you were ever in her equation of getting out of here, sorry to say." Daisy finally says back to the panicky scientist, "She wants to live, out there. And in order to do that she needs to take your place. Which brings us to the question of *how* you were going to do it." a pause. "I know you must have some kind of way out, you spoke of creating a body. Where and how?" she asks.

"We are on the same boat now..., escaping a rogue AI. So if you help us, we may be able to help you." she offers.

Melinda May has posed:
"Aw, hell..."

"What?" Collingwood turns away from the slowly stabilzing vitals of the agents trapped in the Framework and fleeing the Triskelion. "What now?"

"Daisy wants me to Agent Smith AIDA's quinjet fleet with QJ-Prime."

Sarah's brows knit. "She wants you to what?"

"Agent Smith... She wants me to multiply her signature to scatter the birds coming after her."

"Can you do that?"

"Easier than making her disappear," Mark replies, reaching for another swallow of Red Bull. He's going to have more than wings by the end of all this, if he keeps downing those things. "I can use junk data to scramble AIDA's perceptions."

"So, what's the problem?"

"She's fully aware now, Sarah." He turns away from the console ever so briefly. "Do we *really* wanna teach her that trick? Anything and everything I'm doing, she's learning from, as surely as she's learning from everything every single one of our people are doing -- including Daisy herself."

Sarah's lips press together tightly. She's silent for a moment. Then: "What's the alternative?"

"She'll have to outfly a whole fleet of AI driven quinjets with kill orders."

Sarah doesn't reply. She merely looks at him -- he knows what he has to do.

Mark sighs and turns back to his console. "Okay. Teaching AIDA how to Agent Smith in 3 - 2 - 1..." His fingers return to the keyboard, typing furiously.

---

Holden's expression turns bleak -- like a man being told he's only got days to live. That may be because, unless he misses his guess, that's very much the position he's in. "An LMD, basically," he tells her. "I had been playing with ideas for a technorganic clone body, but they're still susceptible to breakdown and aging that LMDs don't really suffer. It's easy to transfer between LMD bodies, harder to transfer between clone ones. Clones are more of a one-and-done technology. So, if they fail..."

He shrugs, leaning back in his chair rather stoically now. "It's in the Sphere," he confesses. "In a chamber with a manufacturing pod in its center. I had been using it as my central lab before all this started. But there are other places it could be, too, depending on what other systems she thinks she needs."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Immortal bodies, AIs.... That's how you get Skynet, Radcliffe.." Hey, it's from his time! He may even get the reference! She shakes her head a bit to herself, another look to her phone and she reaching to punch in some more info for the Agents out in the RL.

<Body being built in the sphere. Need to find it.> Though she also hopes they will be able to watch and listen to what is being spoken with Radcliffe.

Her attention to her phone is paid dearly by the quinjet shaking from a shot that grazes close and explodes in a skyscraper right below them. "Great. They are starting to get into shooting distance..." she veers course, between a couple of buildings and now flying down a large avenue, quinjet roaring past, windows cracking broken at the sound of their passage. Good thing it's happening in the simulation instead of out there. She wouldn't had dared putting innocent people in danger like this otherwise.

"I will be bringing you in with me." She tells Holden, teeth gritted as they cut through, bobbing and weaving out of the way of machine gun fire and missiles. "Hopefully they won't shoot you where you stand when I bring you."

But first they will have to survive this. "Come on, McLaren. You got this." she mutters.

Melinda May has posed:
"Who are you texting?" Holden asks, his voice a little strangled again. They are, after all, flying in a very fast plane away from other planes that are starting to take pot shots at them... Yes, AIDA has figured out where Holden and Daisy are and realized it's an ideal opportunity to rid herself of them.

At least, that's the working theory, even as McLaren's latest cheat comes online.

Most of their pursuers break off to follow ghost signatures. Two remain, however, dodging through office towers and screaming in above skyscraper rooftops. Cannon fire strafes buildings and threatens to hit their quinjet as well. The one advantage Daisy has here, aside from McLaren, is that she's flying Quinjet Prime -- the fastest, newest ship in the fleet. And it's tricked out in ways they could only dream of in the real world.

"No matter how you look at it," Holden says, holding on tight and closing his eyes again, "humanity is doomed. Whether by its own efforts or some outside force, it's inevitable. Mutants, Inhumans, Aliens. Think about it, Skye. If we don't find ways to evolve beyond what we are, we're going to be obsolete. We *must* explore post-human, transhuman options, if we're going to survive as a species and move beyond this little ball of rock. We don't have a choice."

Then: "Wait. Bringing me in where?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"A friend that I am hoping will help us." No need to share it's a friend from *outside* though. Only need-to-know with Radcliffe! He can always betray them if it favors him after all..

As those cheats come online and she notes the others leaving she grins. "There we go..." then more shots taken and the quinjet rattling as a lucky strafe hits the fuselage. Nothing critical broken though, thankfully!

"That does it..." She opens a plastic capsule and flicks a switch. Weapons on. And ooo boy. Quinjet Prime *is* loaded. "They really don't have *this* kind of stuff back home..." are her eyes sparkly with excitement? Yes, they are. All her Maverick dreams coming true.

"And the solution is ..." She takes a turn right, a feint, immediately turning left and up to try and loop around one of their pursuers, using the speed and maneuverability of the quinjet to gain the upper-foot.

As they level up on the side of one of the other jets she lets out a volley of missiles.

" .... to turn humanity into robots? Won't that just kill humanity too? There's more to being human than just the mind." like the heart! Daisy knows about that part...

No answer on where she is bringing them. That will come later.

Melinda May has posed:
"Yeah, well, you shouldn't text and fly!" Holden's hands lash out to hold that console again as they're shaken by cannon fire down the outside of the fusilage. Worst that happens is the loss of some ablative plating and tiny gaps in their cloak.

"Of course, it won't kill humanity," Holden says. "At the very worst, it will make reproduction a bit of a challenge, but that's why I was working on a technorganic solution. And when AIDA introduced the Inhumans, well... I have some very promising candidates, now. Young Leopold really is a genius when it comes to engineering." That's probably not very comforting. Holden Radcliffe playing Simmons for the Doctor.

"We're going to a SHIELD base, aren't we? You know, if May and Morse went there, they've probably got them locked up by now, right?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"I am trying to save both our hides here!" Daisy complains about the talk about her texting and flying. Which was true but hey, details. As the talk then continues about humanity and it's transcendence she shakes her head, "You were inside a simulation, knowing full well what it was and even so you went ahead with having a paramour, Holden. Even you can't fight human nature. I don't think it's that simple to just one day decide we want our minds into robots." a shake of her head, "But we can discuss this later..."

Because there are jets to destroy. As the barrage of missiles hits that first jet and it explodes she takes advantage of all the smoke to go through it, momentarily evading sight from the other pursuer.

"We need to find Leopold too. Is he still in the Triskelion?" then a gesture.

"Take out your phone and destroy it in case she can track you through it. Lets not take chances." But then as Holden says they are most likely locked up she chuckles. "They are with Daniel and Peggy, who are pretty much hardcore 1st generation SHIELD. They will be fine."

Melinda May has posed:
"Leopold? He can't possibly be from outside..." Holden protests. Now, he likes the boy. But the Leopold he knows is hardly SHIELD material. Morse or May -- well, they were SHIELD before. Leopold never has been, thanks to Alastair.

He shakes his head. "I don't know where he is. Likely at the Triskelion, yes, if he's not dead by now. He was going to interrogate Agent Underwood." He eyes Daisy sidelong. "Is she one of yours, too?" Then, he adds, brows creasing. "She can't be. She was the only one AIDA would let him near after the incident at the Silo."

Still, there's not anything more he can do. He suddenly realizes he's entirely at the mercy of his erstwhile girlfriend/!girlfriend... and heading right to SHIELD. Who probably want to kill him. He leans back with a heavy sigh. "Oh, marvelous."

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Fitz is going to interrogate Underwood...?" Did Daisy get a bit paler now? Yes, she did. She takes in a breath, "Fitz is one of ours too." she then confirms. There's no harm in sharing this info from her point of view. A nod to Holden. As for Underwood? She neither confirms nor denies. In truth, she isn't even sure whether she is on *their* side even if her mind got put inside the avatar within the Framework...

As they clear out from under the smoke and fly at speed there seems to be no more jets following them. Good. Now they only need to actually find them. But nothing that some communication with either Jemma or McLaren won't help.

It was time to put the gang back together, and finally escape.