NIGHT: Master Thieves

'Download Complete.'

"Excellent. Now maybe I can go meet up with the others? We're almost twenty minutes late."

'Not my fault that my processor can only handle 20mb/second. If you would go ahead and get me that upgrade…'

"After tonight. I've been working nonstop trying to get us into here. If they hadn't put one hundred layers of encryption on the stupid system, with a revolving codebase, I might have gotten it sooner. But no, the Rune has to be in one of the most secure buildings in the world. Maybe Ash can upgrade your hardware while I do the software…"

'Maybe you're getting rusty. After all, it took you three hours to get in. Aren't you supposed to be the "three-minute hacker"?'

"I hacked each layer of encryption in less than three minutes, AFTER I wrote new programs to interpret the encryption data. I've been out of mainstream hacking for a while, so I haven't had time to write a billion different programs that I can use, and not even you can hack data you don't know how to."

'You've been back with NIGHT for over a year. So you haven't…'

"I haven't hacked anything since I came back; as you KNOW, I've been upgrading their computer security. This is my first mission since I got back, so can it."

'How?'

Ienzo Karanitev didn't bother answering that particular question. Firstly, because the AI onboard his personal computer, Kronos, was being annoying (and Ienzo was thinking how hard it would be to write a personality disabling program for it), and secondly, because he had just walked onto one of Paris's busy streets from a cheap motel he had been hiding in to hack (as it was across the street from the Museum) and he didn't want his conversation to be overheard. He would have never gone there in the first place, but he knew that the Museum had some serious security on their side, and he had realized a preemptive strike might help. "It sure did." he thought. The entire system was open to him now, and they would never have gotten in if he hadn't.

As he walked down the street, he looked around suspiciously. He had full control of the cameras and computer systems of the museum, and had even installed a wireless connection so that he could access it remotely. All completely undetectable, all completely useful. Still, paranoia paid off, as, while he usually went unnoticed, not many people went around these days in knee high, black leather boots, a black trench coat with a technological miracle in one pocket, and a collared shirt and jeans. Meaning, he could stick out.

"NIGHT-branded system detected within sensor range."

Kronos's announcement knocked Ienzo out of his reverie.

"Is system broadcasting a network signature?" The microphone he used, attached to an earpiece concealed by his extremely messy hair, was whisper sensitive, and the side street he had turned onto was devoid of life, making it safe to talk.

"Signature detected under USK-0032 encryption algorithm. SSID is given as…"

"USK-0032 is the new algorithm I just finished developing for the NIGHT system." Ienzo cut in. "The only system that has that on it right now is Moonlight; Ash volunteered to try it out for me. Distance?"

"Five meters and closing."

"It seems my feet carried me to my destination. Transfer the maps, guard routes, and personnel records to Moonlight; I know Ash will want to see them personally, and I'm sure that he'll want to run the personnel records thru the NIGHT database, in case we have a Crucifold on staff. Attach the final release of the algorithm as well; it should fix any problems that the encryption has."

"Transferring. Now communicating with receiving system."

As Ienzo turned the corner, out of the small side street, he saw, to his right, a small café. Sitting under an umbrella outside of it were a group of five people. He recognized each of them; he had only met Gale, and of course Ash, before; the rest he knew from their NIGHT personnel files that he had read when he had been upgrading.

As he got closer, he grabbed a chair from another table, plopping it in an empty space the table with his back to the road, sitting down as he said. "Sorry I'm late; had some "work" to do and lost track of time."

"Now," he said to Ash in an undertone. "Shall ve get this party started?" As he said this, he allowed some of his native Russian accent to fill his voice, as Kronos said into his ear 'Transfer complete.'

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OOC: I apologise for the lateness of my post; my family is in the process of moving and I have spent every waking hour helping. I only just got our laptop tonight, meaning I could finish the post.

Also, SSID is an actual computer term. It stands for "Service Set Identifier", also known as a network name, or the name a wireless network calls itself.

"It's best not to stress over them so early in the morning," Tyler piped in, as she turned to face them. "especially since we'll have to deal with them tonight most probably."

"Bleh... don't remind me. I really hope this mission can just go with as little minor hitches as possible. I expect Ienzo will have enough information on that to make sure it doesn't happen..." Ash finished, responding to Tyler as Orion was seen sitting down next to the 3 of them to join the group. He leaned back in his chair after some idle conversation with Tyler before shifting his sights to Ash.

"You never could go anywhere without your gadgets, could you, Ash?" He said with a small grin spread across his face. "So was it you or your little friend there who recognized me?"

"Hah... you under estimate me, Orion. Although admittedly it was about half and half. You were fooling Moonlight but you can't get passed these eyes. You're getting pretty good with that rune of yours. But then again it always was your specialty. I'll force your real face out of you one of these days..." Ash said to Orion, in a mocking serious tone. He smiled to the boy, giving a chuckle to himself.

He leaned back to take a look at the assembled group with approval. Despite their personality quirks, these were the best in the business and they made sure of it. His eyes shifted to Connis behind the cover of Moonlight's sunglasses form. She began talking about a tv show she was missing as Ash completely tuned out her voice and stared longingly at the animated girl. His mind began to wander back a few years ago... a smaller Ash in school uniform and large silver wristband on his left arm, talking to a cute little girl. The image of the young boy getting shut down by her rang through his mind but the sound of Moonlight's voice quickly snapped him back to attention.

"Ashton, someone has entered the proximity and is scanning my signature. Should I go into safe mode?" The small gadget asked cautiously.

Ashton perked up instantly at the possibility of a hack but we quickly put at ease when he looked down the road.

"No need, Moonlight." He replied calmly with an obviously joyful tone. "Its just an old friend and what we could call your little brother" He said smiling as the boy could be seen coming down the street.

"Ashton, I'm receiving a large amount of data via private link. Accept?" Moonlight asked as the data information was displayed over Ash's eyes.

"Of course."

The boy came closer and closer, finally taking his seat with the team and finally completing the team. As he sat, Moonlight gave him a friendly update. "Ash, download complete."

Ienzo got settled as he said his greetings and apologized for beating late. Connis also seemed equally ready to get the planning under way, referring to the two of them as 'Ashy-poo and electronic thing'.

"Now listen you, I am a complete interactive interface programmed to perform any and every task Mr. Ash requests of me. I am not an 'Electronic Thing' My name is Moonlight. And you will refer to my creator as Ashton, not 'Ashy-poo' you don't deserve it after what you did to him." Moonlight interrupted before Ash could start.

"Moonlight. Enough." Ash commanded

"....sir." the small machine responded solemnly.

"So, Ienzo. Its been a while. And how have you been, Kronos? I suspect that you'd like this time to update your processors and touch screen interface while i'm here. I've designed some new operating parts i'd like you to test as well, Ienzo. Moonlight is already using one of them and allows for approximately a 43.7% increase in processing speed. It should have their performance at the optimum speed possible for the time. It comes in green red or blue." Ash finished, smiling at the arrival of his old friend.

"Sir, if you'll pardon me. We're already behind schedule." Moonlight chimed in.

"Ah, right right. Well lets get this out of the way then. Everyone. You should be at least familiar with each other. This... is NIGHT. You all know why we're here and what we have to do. The runes are in danger and we need to get them in safe hands. Of course we will have opposition but this is as always, expected. The target tonight is the Rune of Flash. Moonlight, please switch into projection mode." Ash said in a finally serious tone.

"Sir." The small machine complied as Ash removed the sunglasses for the first time, revealing his calm narrow eyes. Moonlight instantly projected a small hologram in the center of the table of a tall square building with a sleek modern appearance to it. The building zoomed in and out with detailed 3-D blueprints of the museum as Ash explained the various parts of the mission.

"Okay team. THIS is the Paris Museum of Ancient History, the joint construction efforts of France and Russia as a sign of peace and good will after the 3rd World War. Its a modern architectural masterpiece. It has been open for 3 years now and has one of the most advanced security systems possible. The window surfaces are completely flat with no signs of seams. The ceiling itself is pressure sensitive so we can't just stroll onto the rooftops and walk in. Theres also 24 hour surveillance on the ground level. Though there is a way in. This is basically impenetrable to a normal human but there is a small doorway with stairs that lead down in the center of the rooftop. They were quite confident that nothing short of a helicopter could get a person on that staircase without touching the actual roof. The infiltrators will need to swing into the door upside down, making sure to land on the stairs INSIDE the building. Once inside, We'll be hacking the security camera system to play footage of exactly 1 week ago. At this time, the rest of the team will move in and enter the building. Of course the insides of the building are secured to holy hell as well. But their arrogance is their downfall. Once inside, the staircase team will move to a small ventilation system which will be on the high end of a wall on the west side of the staircase. From there you will climb in and make your way to the entrance where a rope will be dropped to get one more of us into the vent system. The others will covertly follow the security guard routes which can't be pressure sensitive since they must walk there. Follow the guard roots to the rune room. After that, its a problem. The vent does go directly over the Rune but the room itself is covered with intersecting trip lasers and floor pressure sensors once more. Not to mention the pressure sensor inside the case the rune is held in. And of course, the Rune of Flash's natural defense mechanism which releases a powerful and blinding blast of sunlight when it is touched by anyone with Rune powers. Ienzo, i'll be leaving the lazers up to you. I need a program written by tonight which can hack into the Europiece 2980 laser tripwire security system to make it think its lasers still firing. I tried to shut down the pressure sensors already... but whoever made those were good, gotta hand it to the ingenuity of French and Russian engineers, aye? All in all we'll need to find a way to combine the efforts of the ground and vent team to get the rune out of that room without triggering any alarms and pressure sensors. Easier said than done, aye?" Ash said finishing the exhausting museum explanation.

"So... basically we get 2 people in the staircase, shut down the museum from the inside, don't be caught by security, get to the rune room, and grab the rune without touching it and hopefully avoid all possible fights with any Crucifolds that may also be onto this plan. Everyone understand?" Ash said as he looked over the group who he hoped had been listening well. It was too risky to repeat himself in public like this.

"Moonlight, end projection mode." Ash said calmly as the small machine retracted the image and Ash replaced the glasses over his eyes. "Welcome to NIGHT everyone. Things like this will be your life until the world is safe...Its good to see you all"

To Orion, the arrival of Connis felt comparable to being run over by a train in which each car was an increasingly bewildering statement. He had met other girls with similar personalities, but even with his experience, Connis was one of the more extreme cases. By the time this energetic individual had begun to talk about the television show she wanted to see, Orion realized that he had nearly been struck dumb for the past few seconds. Shortly afterward, he realized that if he had wanted to say anything, he could not have said it anyway. Although he stifled a sigh, Orion found himself throwing a smile to Connis before looking over at Ienzo who was now arriving. With the team now complete, Ashton explained the mission.

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"Good seein' you again, too, though I hope you haven't gone soft," Orion laughed after Ashton had finished speaking, though the former's red-brown eyes rested on the now-empty area at the table's center. Shortly afterward, however, whatever held Orion's gaze seemed to become inconsequential--at least for the moment--and the blond boy turned his face toward Ashton, his previous laugh reshaped into an almost impudent smile. "Discussing our plans in public like this? But I suspect you've found a way to make even that work. Otherwise I'll have to find myself another new identity, and I'll never get around to using my real form."

Here Orion's expression grew serious; and for a moment he was silent, apparently withdrawing into his own thoughts and calculations. Finally he leaned forward and, tapping the place on the table where Moonlight had been, spoke. "If that image you showed us was to scale, I shouldn't have much trouble getting myself and another person to the staircase with a portal. Theoretically my method's safer and stealthier than swinging into the stairs, but whoever comes with me will have to trust my abilities." Even if I don't. "The portals I use are dark, and you won't be able to see where you're going until you're through." Orion straightened a little, allowing the others to consider his proposition while he recomposed his own mind. Glancing from Ashton to Ienzo, he paused, then asked in carefully controlled voice masked by casual irony, "I don't suppose there's a way to know which members of our friendly family rivals we'll be facing?"

"Well..." Gale's voice trailed off as Ash finished outlining the plan of attack. He scanned the projection of the museum carefully, before returning his attentions to the group. "... You know, I was kind of hoping I'd actually be needed for some reason other than being the pick-up guy," he muttered. "I mean, who else here can pick up a rune without touching it?" As Gale said this, an untouched cup of coffee at a diner's table suddenly sprouted a pair of brown, mottled wings, reminescent of a sparrow's. The cup, unnoticed by the diner, leaped into the air and fluttered to Gale's fingers, where the wings abruptly vanished. The diner reached for his cup, only to see empty space. He glanced at Gale, who simply shrugged and took a sip of coffee.

Orion was the first to make an observation on the mission. Gale rolled his eyes. It was about time that he contributed. This job, though, just didn't feel right to him. They were after a rune, yes, but... the Rune of Flash? It sounded like they were going after some ancient king's pornography stash, as opposed to an ancient mystical design inlaid in stone with the power to blast people with sunlight. Gale yawned, indecisive. Perhaps he should make an excuse to back out of this mission? After all, it wasn't like this rune would really do much if it fell into evil hands. The worst that could happen was that one of the Crucifolds could turn themselves into a living flashbomb, and you were usually prepared for a Crucifold to be carrying a non-living bomb anyway. It wasn't as if this particular rune was exceptionally powerful, was it? Of course, Gale realized, he could make that argument with just about every rune that NIGHT would target. Really, he couldn't afford to be picky about the runes he helped with- goodness knew that considering this rune had an internal defense system that relied on touch, it would probably be up to him to get it out of the building. He groaned. He hoped the stone wasn't particularly heavy- carrying around three hundred or so pounds through a laser tripwire system, even with the use of magic wings, would be difficult. If only there was some way to knock out the security system... well, there was a thought.

"Ash, why don't we just try to knock out the power in the rune chamber? It would be a helluva lot easier to deal with a tripwire system if there were no tripwires. And we could always fix the video loop so that that particular camera was disabled before the job. You know, Orion could always do the whole 'disguise himself as an inspector and plant something on the rune room camera', right?" Gale suggested. "And..." he paused a moment, before grinning sheepishly, "Can we rename this rune or something? The Rune of Flash... well, it just doesn't sound very exciting if we steal something that sounds like an ancient Celtic drawing of a nudist. Think of the stories we're gonna tell our grandkids years from now."

Connis smiled like a child at Gale, but her words were sharp and blunt as she giggled, "You are so silly! If we knock out the power, what kind of retard wouldn't notice the shut down? Oh, unless I'm being un-technologically savvy and forgetting that maybe someone can make it so that they can't tell the power is out, but if we power out anyway, then any lights that they have on there will go off, right? Anyone with eyes," Connis pointed at her own unnaturally lime green orbs, "Would be able to tell something was up, right? And museums usually have their lights on after dark anyway, right? At least on the exhibits themselves...? Or-" Connis' face got comically serious, "Does that only happen in movies?"

She sat back and shrugged, a cheerful look re-plastered onto her face, "I volunteer to go with the cutie." She pointed at Orion, grinning at Ash, "Pleeeease?? My Rune of Flight will make going through the portal no sweat, and even though I've never tried maybe I can move fast enough to walk on air! How cool would that be?! Oh but is that physically impossible? I didn't do very well in physics..." Connis mumbled to herself for a moment before snapping her fingers, "Maybe we should check to make sure that the Rune in the exhibit room isn't a replica? Or have you already had your-" Connis cleared her throat pointedly, a mischevious, cutesy grin lacing her glossed lips as she turned to Ashton, "Computer-thing do that, Ashy-poo?"

Ahh, she really didn't want to do this mission tonight. The runes her parents had given her were essentially useless in anything but battle, and in that case they were better at running away then actually fighting. "But otherwise I don't know what I can do. I'm not good with technology, soooo.... well whatever you think is best Ashy-poo, since you're like our leader." Connis giggled again, wondering to herself how many times she'd have to be recording her television shows now. What a sad state of affairs.

ooc: Umm, I trust generally everyone in this roleplay, since I've roleplayed with... -almost- everyone here, so yeah, you can kind of god-mod Connis while I'm gone or something. <_<