ArchivedLogs:Processing

Processing
Dramatis Personae Anette, B
In Absentia	Monday, December 16, 2019 Part of Future Past TP.
Location <NYC> Brooklyn
The most populous of the boroughs, Brooklyn has nothing if not character. With a thriving music and arts scene, and a distinctive New York slant to its stereotypical gritty accents, Brooklyn ranges from the high-cultured to the very much working class. From botanical gardens to beachfronts, Manhattanites might like to think their borough is the only one that matters, but Brooklyn has a lot to offer of its own. During the daytime life still goes /on/ around New York. For the humans, anyway, families to care for and jobs to work and things to do. At night, though, once curfew hits its quiet. Quiet, quiet, quiet, and this section of Brooklyn is quiet too. Not a lot of houses, just shops boarded up for the night. The city, all parts of it, are no doubt teeming with Sentinels -- and right now it looks pretty much the same here. A few of them clanging their way down the street, thump, thump, thump. Though maybe these ones are a little /off/ -- not /patrolling/ in routine sweeps, not hunting, not scanning, they're heading for an electronics shop, doors and windows grated over with metal, to stop and work the shuttering off. And they don't seem very /bothered/ by the fact that one tiny blue shark creature is perched on one of their shoulders. B is dressed dark, and dressed warm, hat and scarf and jacket -- there's heavy boots on hir feet and heavy oddly metal gauntlets on hir arms and a pair of dark glasses over hir eyes. Around the Sentinels a trio of tiny dragonfly-like drones hum and hover. For some, life has taken a different role. Some have turned nocturnal, only appearing under the cover of the night. One of those, cloaked (literally) and carefully keeping to the shadows, slinks through the alleyway. The figure moves quietly, hooded and stepping carefully, pausing briefly to assess their surroundings every few yards before moving forward. The figure finally reaches their destination: a dumpster behind a small grocery store. With one quick glance about, the figure quickly jumps in, ducking down low as they begin digging through, searching for expired but still edible food. Suddenly, they peek their head up, hearing the noise of the sentinels in the background. Fearing the worst, they duck back down into the dumpster though they peek out over the top, watching as the sentinels come into view. B's head swivels sharply, flattened nostrils flaring at some scent in the air. A low growl rumbles in hir throat, and ze hops down from the shoulder of the sentinel ze is seated on -- not actually hitting the ground; hir boots and gauntlets both light, keeping hir hovering off the ground as ze powers through the air to land much more lightly near the entrance to the alleyway. Sniff, /sniff/. The Sentinels continue their work, tearing into the shop and continuing inside. The tiny dragonflies stay hovering around B, though. Sharp teeth bare in the darkness. "... long time," hir soft voice sounds in the quiet of the alley. "Thought you died. Most people have." Dead silence fills the alley as B approaches, the figure remaining still as a statue. Once B speaks, the figure relaxes, letting out a quiet sigh of relief. She stands and remove her lowers her hood, revealing herself as Anette. "Still alive, last I checked. Not that I mind people thinking I'm dead. Pretty damn convenient." She tosses a couple boxes and cans of food and then hops over herself, only using one taloned hand to propel herself over. When she lands on the other side, her cloak shifts just enough to reveal a bundle held by her other hand, pressed close to her body. "What about you? How are you doing?" sbe asks, glancing suspiciously at the Sentinels. Whatever might be happening with the Sentinels that B is hanging out with, there are still more Sentinels. Two of them begin clanging down the street toward the electronics shop, working in tandem to scan down the alleys that they pass. Recognition software classifies the machines tearing apart the stores as such and continue on their way. Closer. "Can see how that'd be useful," B agrees, smile faintly crooked. Hir nose twitches, sniffing again towards Anette and that bundle. Brows shifting higher from behind hir glasses. "-- Is that --" But this question is cut off by the clanging in the distance. A low growl rumbles up in hir throat. Hir head swivels sharply, posture dropping into a lower crouch. The dragonflies shoot up high into the air. One of hir gauntlets lifts. Two of the Sentinels from the electronics store emerge, taking up positions at the mouth of the alley. "... been busy." The sounds of the approaching sentinels send Anette into hyperfocus, quickly twisting her neck to face the apparent direction. "Sentinels...two, maybe three...they're scanning." Her arms immediately holding the carefully wrapped bundle in her arms tighter...which then proceeds to squirm. "Please don't wake up..." she whispers under her breath. She quickly flips her hood back over her head. "We need to run." The Sentinel pair continues forward. The location of the other machines changed. Processing. Processing. They continue forward, scanning left and right down each alley. Processing. One continues walking along, but the other stops at the mouth of the alley, glowing red eyes turned into the darkness. Scanning. Processing. Alert. Alert. Mutants detected. Engaging identification programs. Processing. Engage apprehension initiative. Processing. The second Sentinel stops as well, stepping back a pace to turn toward the alley in question while the first raises an arm and approaches. "They run faster. They /fly/ faster." B is so encouraging, really, grim-faced and grimac/ing/, teeth clamped down together as ze lifts up to land lightly atop the dumpsters. "Can get underground, maybe, if you're fast enough. -- How fast /are/ you, anyway." /Ze/ isn't running, though. At the moment it doesn't look like ze's doing much but watching. Gauntleted fingers twitching slightly in the air. The Sentinels at the mouth of the alley are watching, too. Stepping inward, when the other bots approach, heavy arms coming upward to form a sudden barrier to entry. Their other arms lift outward, bright twinned beams of light shooting out at the approaching not!rogue machine. B's lips curl up. /Just/ a tiny bit. Almost a smile. "Processing." Anette elects to dump her cloak on the ground, revealing ratty clothes draped over a thiner than it should be frame and large owl-like wings. She gives two large bats before shooting up to the sky. She skillfully darts in the air scanning for the nearest manhole cover while trying to avoid attacks from the enemy sentinels. At this point, the bundle in her arms has woken up and is now crying. Loudly. The Sentinels lock in, relaying signals between their counterpart machines, attempting to spread their capture initiative to the others, trying to turn them to their sole purpose and programming. The one with the extended arm bends its legs and jumps into the air, thrusters kicking in to keep the figure in the air. It surges toward Anette, both arms extended toward her. The other turns toward B, raising one arm, still trying to process the sharkperson's identity, but not letting it hinder its pursuit. The rogue!Sentinels lock on to the figure approaching B, aiming their palms at it. This time the light comes in the form of bursters, searing hard blasts that shoot out from towards the raised arm of the approaching bot. B has taken off, shooting straight up into the air -- but only to come back down behind the Sentinel, one metal-reinforced fist snapping out to thud hard up towards the base of its skull. The sound of the crying infant just puts a deeper growl in hir throat. Anette begins flying erratically, hoping to confuse the sentinel or send it into a wall. She's already found a manhole cover and is just trying to buy herself some distance so she can safely open it and get down. After several stunts and gaining a little distance, she makes a break for it, diving for the cover and attempting to lift the cover with one arm before the sentinel catches up to her. "Shh...shh...it'll be alright..." she whispers to the baby in her arms. The Sentinel chasing Anette is not that easily thrown off. It hovers and pursues, but it does not fly into a wall or flail and swat at her until her trajectory is focused. It lands heavily behind her and grabs her shoulder firmly, gripping tight. "Halt your departure. You have been apprehended. You will now be taken to a facility for processing. Cease your struggling." The Sentinel squaring off against two of its kind begins reporting back central of the difficulties - as best as it can given the pounding it is receiving. It raises its arms defensively and then attempts to aim them at its attackers, stumbling back a step as it keeps losing focus. When B attacks, it spins around, looking for her. The Sentinel arresting Anette signals for help. B's gauntlet glows. Bright and brighter, another searing pulse shooting from hir palm up towards the head of the bot ze is confronting. The leap ze makes into the air carries much higher than an ordinary jump /should/, repulsors in hir boots pushing hir high to land back on the shoulders of one of hir commandeered Sentinels. "... shit." Perhaps they're telling hir what signals the /other/ Sentinels are giving, because ze is tensing, growl deepening. /Hir/ Sentinels shoot up into the air, the smallshark perched on one of the bots, still. For a moment, ze hovers overhead, looking down at Anette and the baby. Another growl rumbles in hir chest. Ze twitches, thin arms tensing beneath the dark jacket. "... should've flown faster," ze mutters, nudging at hir bot to send it shooting off over the buildings and leaving Anette to her captor. A high-pitched owl screech filled with grief and panic fills the air as Anette is grabbed. She glances around frantically, desperately searchin for an out. When B approaches, she looks hopeful and holds her baby out. When ze flies off instead, Anette is terrified and begins strugglin against the hold, twisting and pulling and beating her wings frantically. "NO! LET ME GO!" she screams, the blankets around her child falling to reveal another piece of the puzzle. A small pair of wings, black and raven-like, stretch out as the child continues to scream. The remaining Sentinel is heavy and attached to Anette firmly. It raises its other hand, a needle extending from its finger. It jams that needle into Anette's arm, pumping her full of a very strong sedative. It keeps a hold on her while it waits for reinforcements to arrive or Anette to pass out. "No, please...don't. My...my," she begs, her voice dropping as the sedative kicks. She drops to her knees, giving in to the drugs rather than risk falling and hurting the child. Collapsing on the ground, she quickly becomes unconcious, her arms loosely wrapped around the child laying beside her.