Precursor: Race for Space [Quest]

[Squall Leonhart]

"Hopefully nothing," Leon answered with a very serious inflection. Actually needing the hard drive for what Tron said he could use it for would not inspire a lot of hope for their situation. "But Tron has taken some... volunteers into his world to help him stop a rogue program. If they get killed in there a spare hard drive could be used to save their lives as data."

Now he was at an impasse of sorts. Cid couldn't monitor the system or the town if he came to deliver the item, but it would take half as long as Leon making the round trip himself.

"Is Yuffie there?" he asked. That girl had a way of getting from point A to point B in, for lack of a less-appropriate phrase, a puff of smoke.

[Rocket!]

[Bilby, do you want me to die of exaustion? Can we not bring Yuffie in? Please, High?]

Back in the computer room, Tron suddenly frowned. "Whuh oh."

Looks like Joshua and Fidelis, off in the City, are fighting someone very... capable.

"Users! Erm... Leon, Raphael, Ellie! What other CDs did you get? I think the group in the city might need one right away!"

[Shinn]

Raphael looked back at Tron, "Umm well one of the disks was blank and the one I found on the shelf said "ED_ver1". I do not know what the disk Ellie has in her possession reads. But the disks I had are with Leon now.

Raphael looked back in the direction Leon went. Tron needed those disks now so he could help Joshua and Fidelis. Raphael quickly ran to the exit so he could catch up with Leon before he was gone.

"Do not worry I will get them for you." he said as he exited the room.

He ran into Ansems Study room where he instantly spotted Leon. He let out a sigh of relief. "Mr. Leon, can I get those disks that I gave you a second ago back? Tron needs them to help the others out."

[Squall Leonhart]

Leon handed the discs over to Raphael with his free hand as he talked with Cid. Seemed there was new trouble brewing back in the computer world. He couldn't risk leaving the secret lab right now.

"Listen Cid, I'll call the others and tell them to be on high alert in town. Hurry over here to Ansem's Study with the hard drive if you can."

Fortunately Merlin's place was close to the Castle Postern. Unfortunately, Cid wasn't exactly known for being fleet-footed.

[High's .Valentine.]

“What? But ain’t I watchin’ fer trouble?” Cid glanced at the computer, not at all pleased. Ansem’s lab? That was a bit too far for Cid to ‘hurry’ to. Like he said, unfortunately for Leon, Cid was a bit on the slow side. He was built too stocky for speed. Fortunately though, Cid has his ways to compensate. “Fine, ye own me.” It had sounded like a great emergency anyway. But what the heck was a blank drive going to do for Leon? Cid had been pretty oblivious to what was going on in the castle, but it was Leon. Everything was a serious life or death situation with him. Cid might as well play along, grumbling all the way.

Grabbing Venus Gospel from her familiar corner of Merlin’s house, Cid opened the door and spotted one of the techies he had been mentoring. Someone needed to man the computer while he was away.

“Oy, Damian!” Cid barked at the young man, beckoning him over. Cid had made sure to pass his skills onto someone capable, just in case something happened to the blond man and his much more proficient companions. Radiant Garden would be able to stand on its own without them. “Sit there, and dun move until I get back. Dun touch anything unless ye need to. Remember what I taught ye. If anything goes wrong, I’ll hang ye by yer thumbs when I see you.” Giving the poor young man a string of instructions and a rather convincing threat, Cid left the house.

Soon he was upon the wall leading to the bailey, overlooking Merlin’s house. In the distance, the castle and Cid’s destination. Squinting, Cid spotted the postern. There would be enough space for him to land. Taking a few steps back, Cid pulled down his goggles, gripped his spear, then ran towards the edge of the wall. Right before the dip, he jumped.

Several seconds later, Cid landed in the postern, Hyper Jump coming to an end by creating a small crater in the walkway toward the hallways leading to Ansem’s Lab. He would have to not make this sort of transportation into a habit…there would have to be a lot more repairing to do if that was the case.

Taking a much needed breath, Cid pushed his goggles out of the way, and headed into the hallways, Venus Gospel in hand, and the spare drive tucked away safely. Hopefully, he wouldn’t meet any sort of resistance along the way…

[Cid express...choo chooo!]

[/blockquote]

[Rocket!]

"Hold on just a minute," Tron assured the Users in the machine. "We're working on getting something that'll help. In the mean time, I'll try and look into the Antivirus situation some more.... before, they were just ignoring the problem! Why help? Why now?" he thought out loud.

But he decided that was a question for another time. "ED? That's Enhanced Defense! And the Blank CD would help us make a data copy, a lifeline, for one of the Users.

"But..." Tron asked, "...who do we give the Blank CD to?"

Looks like you can only save one person with the Blank CD. ED will help everyone, but... yeah.

Tough call.

[Shinn]

Raphael gave a big smile as he grabbed the two disks from Leon. He seemed busy talking on a cellular phone with someone so he wouldn't take up anymore of his time.
"Thank you very much." Raphael said as he made a quick bow before running back to the computer room.

When he got to the room he held the disks out to show Tron. "I got the disks Tron. What do you want me to do with them?"

[♥ kats KAT kats ♥]

Ellie monitored the screens in the room while Raphael went to get the disks from Leon. She then remembered she had tucked away the disk in her pocket, she pulled it out. Remembering it read ED_Ver.2 or something like that. She took it out while still watching the screens. She read the side of the disk, yes ED ver2. "Tron, I have a disk that reads ED ver2. I think it goes with ED ver1." She said to Tron, just as Raphael got back.

"Tron..are there any more CDs, maybe blanks around here?" Ellie asked. Maybe..three more would help so they could make a backup data of each of their people in there. She hoped that there might be more blank disks lying around here, if there wasn't..then they would have to make due with what they have.

[Rocket!]

[PAUSE.

What the fudge happened to Shinn? It's showing him as a guest!]

[Squall Leonhart]

[ Well... let's hope it's just some kind of weird proboards error? ]

Leon did as he said and gave Yuffie and Aerith each a call. He instructed both of them to be on high alert in town in case the security system became compromised. By the time he was done and hung up Cid probably had time to move through the Postern corridors and reach the study.

[Rocket!]

[Well, alright... Let's continue, then.]

"Well, I'm sure there were definitely more CDs. That Heartless must've gotten them, if there's so few left. Maybe it took them somewhere, or there's more in the book?

"The second version too?" Tron's eyes lit up. "Now that'll be a big help... the second version is better than the first, by far. We can't have more than one version running per team, though."

__CDs_Not_in_Use__

Enhanced Defense
Enhanced Defense v2
Blank CD

__CD Drives Remaining__
Team 1 in the City; Joshua and Fidelis[/b]
[EMPTY]
[EMPTY]
Team 2 in the Game Grid; Shinji and Emma
[CURRENTLY RUNNING: Gravity_ver1]
[EMPTY]
[/center]

_CID____

Without warning, two Neoshadows sprung from, uh, the shadows, closely followed by a Bookmaster. The Bookmaster didn't notice Cid right off.

The Neoshadows, on the other hand, charged right for the man right away. Noticing a severe lack of comrades, the Bookmaster then noticed Cid.

Surprisingly, the Bookmaster fled off into another hallway, post haste!

__Heartless_Remaining__
2 Neoshadows

[♥ kats KAT kats ♥]

"Perhaps we could use ED Ver2 with the team who needs it the most?" Ellie suggested. (I'd suggest which team, but I haven't really been following their threads.) She set the CD that read ED Vr2 on it on the table in front of the screen. Too much time would be wasted in looking for Blank Cds. They would have to make due with what they have.

(Also I believe Shinn won't be continuing with us.)

[High's .Valentine.]

It was no surprise for Cid that he suddenly found himself flanked by two heartless. Clenching the spear, Cid waited for a response from the system, which should have worked perfectly well inside the castle. Months of irritated growling and bitching and packs of cigarettes that should have been smoked if not for the fact that he had been trying to rid himself the cancerous habit, Cid and Merlin finally got the system to work within the castle walls, which seemed to have some kind of barrier against the program at first. Spiritual, supernatural, those kind of hocus pocus crap that Cid excuses as a technical glitch. The system wasn’t quite strong enough to completely obliterate fiends of this level, but it should do well to distract them.

Nothing happened.

Frowning, Cid gritted his teeth and started charging for the lab. Most of the heartless that spawn here are far stronger than he can handle by himself. It wasn’t as if Cid had a giant legendary key with him. It was also bothersome to fight in such a confined space. Glancing behind him, Cid spotted the Bookmaster that went the other way. Strange…

Stopping, the pilot raised his spear, preparing to bash away the neoshadows.

[Squall Leonhart]

The calls finished Leon pocketed his little device again. He didn't know about Cid's shortcut and wasn't expecting him to arrive too soon. But then there was a small sound of movement from the passageways as he leaned next to the open doorway.

Curious and cautious, Leon gripped his gunblade and started to move toward the sound... but what would he encounter?

[Rocket!]

_LEON____

Whoosh.

A Bookmaster Heartless flew by Leon, though not into the room where he'd been making the call, heading for a different route. Hastily, it quickly swung around a corner and headed for parts unknown.


_CID____

The two Neoshadows opted for a full on tackle. In unison, the two Heartless charged at the pilot with their arms open wide for the assault.

_ELLIE____

"Both teams are facing very capable opponents right now, Emma. The city team is handling an antivirus program that looks to have some kind of defense of it's own... and the arena team is dealing with a pretty big Heartless." explained Tron.

"Both teams could use it, and benefit a lot from it. But we need to choose quickly! The blank CD, in particular.

"The CD takes a while to copy someone's data. [Read as: 3 rounds] We should pick who we need to copy first, I think, given how long the process takes. Wait, hold on just a--" Tron stopped abruptly, diverting his attention to a monitor of his own. His eyes promptly widened. Tron's hand jammed down on a button.

"Fidelis, Joshua, the antivirus program you're facing has special protection on him! You can't harm him from the back!" he shouted for the first team's benefit.

[Note: Team 1, in the city, hasn't posted since May 12th. They've got a week to post before they are kicked out, I'm afraid.]