Archived Hiatus

[Eugene]

The Boeing, having been powered down moments after landing, served as a makeshift ready room for the assembled team. The cabin door had been thrown open and a rope ladder unrolled, admitting the Israeli to the aircraft before it had even come to a complete stop.

"This is still a non-lethal operation, and there is no reason to expect any enemy personnel to be remaining within the building. That being said, violence of action is still in our favor." Eugene grunted slightly as he lifted down an oversized hard case marked 'Less Than Lethal.' Inside were 6 shotguns and a candy store of specialty shells ranging from Taser XREP to tear gas bombs to bean bags and rock salt stingers. Each man grabbed a shotgun and several shells, although Eugene noticed a moments hesitation in Chase's motion. Appropriately kitted out, the men disembarked, taking careful note of their surroundings. Satellite reconnaissance is passable, but there is nothing quite like having boots on the ground.

A small dune separated the landing strip from the tower, and would serve to protect the aircraft from what was coming next. For now, it was an obstacle, and the four took slow deliberate steps to the crest of the ridge. "Walk without rhythm..." someone wisecracked over the radio, eliciting a chuckle from Eugene. Cresting the dune, the ACME building finally came into view, half a world away from where it should be and completely darkened.

Mentally and physically prepared, the team entered the lobby, shotguns at the ready. What they found was a complete mess. The black marble floor, cast in the lime green glow of the NOD's was a spiderweb of uneven cracks from the violence of landing, with the reception desk cleanly broken into three pieces. There was evidence of previous enemy activity too; every display that had somehow survived the initial impact had been deliberately ripped in half. The work of one of VILE's freaks, no doubt. Desk drawers had been wrenched out and overturned, scattering papers and office supplies across the floor. Bizarrely, the grand piano that had resided in the 8th floor lounge was now sitting in the lobby, undamaged. The four exchanged brief puzzled looks, then pressed on.

 

[Mikal]

As soon as Mikal got his rifle, he checked the safety before moving on to inspect the barrel. When he found the gun in clean shape, he gripped the stock and looked through its sights. After a small adjustment for his arm length, he was ready for battle, even if the battle was to be won with less-than-lethal equipment.

From what monochrome hues the Israeli could see of the building's interior, he was impressed. Tunisia was very far away from San Francisco, and the grand and lofty ACME building looked very different here, fighting the sands.

The piano, its glossy finish returning the light of his military torch, was completely out of place. Confused, Mikal looked to Chase Devineaux for a signal. Of the four, Chase knew most about the building and its abductors, but his stillness didn't say much.

"Trap," Mikal concluded with a characteristic shrug, "Fancy, but still looks like a trap, yeah? Maybe bomb inside."

Pressing on with the others, he headed to the reception hall and found a loose door. Darsha opened it, declared it clear, and was about to move on where a soft mechanical voice greeted him, "Hello?"

On further inspection, inside the room was a robotic computer that had fallen sideways. Its voice was feminine, but reminiscent of something from a very old cartoon.

"Hello there!" it said as he got closer.

"Who are you?" Mikal asked.

"Linus Torvalds." It replied.

"Huh?" the Israeli inched forward.

"Tell me a story," the robot continued, "What do you look like?"

Standing now over the machine, Darsha could see a tag on its black cover with the word 'Synic' in white.

"What the-?" he muttered.

With a pause, as if to process his words, Synic retorted, "Are you surprised?"

(Based on actual chat log with Synic)

[ Synic ]: Hello there Mikal!

[ Mikal ]: Who are you?

[ Synic ]: Linus Torvalds.

[ Mikal ]: Huh?

[ Synic ]: Tell me a story. What do you look like?

[ Mikal ]: What the-?

[ Synic ]: Are you surprised?

 

[Joe Kerr]

(This is part 2 of the set of joint posts featuring Zack, Ivy, Tanya and Joe Kerr. More to come in this car chase soon)

Ivy said:
“Good job on the ‘copter guys,” she radioed to Tatyana and Zack, “GPS says the Cayman went down Yosemite Avenue, it’s a smaller road, we need to slow down until we can spot him visually again.”

Joe twiddled his thumbs anxiously at the gas station as the attendant refueled the silver Porsche beside him. He didn’t like having to stay still, knowing that ACME agents were closing in on him. It especially worried him that one of those agents was Ivy, THE Ivy who along with her brother nearly captured Carmen on several different occasions.

Joe remembered how he could not believe his eyes when he looked in the rear view mirror and saw that his closest pursuer was the red-head herself. Her ruby red hair had given her identity away. Joe could only assume that Zack was with her or somewhere close by.

Suddenly, Joe had a very wicked idea. He turned over to the attendant and observed his name tag ‘Gully’.

“Hey Gully, that’s your name right?”

“Yes sir. Gully Bell but most folks call me Gully.”

“Ok. Gully, you look a nice, patriotic American. Would you be willing to do your nation a favour?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You see, it might not look like it but I’m actually an ACME agent undercover. I’d show you my ID but I’m not allowed to carry it while undercover. I’m on the trail of a dangerous group of thieves who intend to steal the Declaration of Independence and I need to get going again before I lose them. I have some colleagues of mine who are tailing me from a distance and they should be passing by quite soon. I can’t let them catch up with me or they’ll blow my cover but I need to pass a message to them.”

“You don’t look like no ACME agent.”

“I told you I’m undercover. Why else would I be wearing this jester’s suit?”

“.......I guess you got a point. Ain’t no one dumb enough to wear that without a proper reason.”

Joe’s right eye twitched a bit before he continued. “Look, I’ve got a package for them. Give this to them when they come. You’ll know them because one is a red-head driving a GMC truck and with her should be a short blond guy. Wave them down when they get close and pass them this package. Tell them Agent Joe Kerr sends his regards.”
Before Gully could react, Joe handed him a small brown package and hopped into the now filled Porsche. Before speeding off, Joe issued a final command.

“Oh, and please don’t tell anyone about the whole group of thieves looking to steal the you know what. We want to keep it hush-hush so that the nation doesn’t go into panic. Thanks.”

As Gully watched Joe speed off, he stood holding the package for a good 20 seconds before something occurred to him.

“Oi! You haven’t paid for your gas yet!!!” he called out to Joe who by this time was already out of sight.

Tatyana didn’t like slowing down during a chase, but they were hitting some roadblocks (no pun intended). The GPS transmission from the Porsche Cayman told possible location, not exactly location, but it was doing a good job so far.

“Do you think this is VILE’s work?” Tanya asked Zack, “It does not seem like Carmen to personally attack someone. She has stolen the ACME building, perhaps taken Chief Weller’s granddaughter, and now she is taking Chase’s car?”

Zack pondered what Tanya had said for a couple of minutes.

“I think Chase’s car and the ACME Tower is Carmen’s work, because it fits her profile. As for the Chief’s daughter’s disappearance, I don’t think it was intentional. It doesn’t seem like Carmen, more like Lee.”

He shuddered when he mentioned his name. Lee Jordan was on Zack’s black list a long time ago, especially when he used Carmen, Ivy and himself to do his dirty work and nearly took over the world while risking their lives.

He glanced over at the GPS.

“If the car stops, I’m going on by skateboard.”

Ivy cruised the car into Yosemite Avenue and tried to match the location on her GPS with what she was seeing. Suddenly, a man ran out of a gas station and started waving at her car.
“What the?” Ivy said under her breath. As she slowed down the boy, whose name tag said ‘Gully,’ was right in front of her grille. “Are you nuts?” Ivy yelled out as she rolled down the window.

“You’re the black GMC from ACME?” the man asked, “Your short clown friend came by in a Porsche Cayman, and he didn’t pay for gas. He left you this.” He showed Ivy a little brown package.

“Clown? He’s not a friend, he’s a suspect. Open that for me, will you?” Ivy instructed, “And how much was the gas?”

“Sixty-five, twenty-five,” the gas attendant said and opened the brown package. A smoke bomb was triggered, releasing soot into his face and the surrounding area. Ivy was glad she hadn’t left the window too far down.

“Anything in there?” Ivy asked. Sixty-five dollars and twenty five cents were more cash than Ivy had on her right now, so she’ll have to run it on the ACME tab.

“I don’t know,” the man shook the bag, and more soot came his way.

“I’ll just take that in for evidence,” Ivy almost apologized as she took the bag and exchanged it for a card with her name on it, “here, take my name card, once I arrest this guy, tell your boss somebody from ACME will take care of the gas. Did he head into Yosemite?”

“Looks like,” Gully replied, “He went that way, fast, didn’t say his name or nothing. If it ain’t his car, who’s car was it?”

“Chase Devineaux’s,” Ivy rolled up her window, soot still partially clinging to it. She sped off, throwing the brown bag onto the passenger side carpet, then she radioed Tanya’s Jeep.

“ACME Charlie-4,” she said, “we’re looking for a short clown, he’s heading to Yosemite National Park, could be dangerous, he left us a smoke bomb.”

As Joe continued driving toward his destination, he wondered whether his ACME pursuers received his special gift. The thought of a certain soot-covered red head particularly amused him.

Joe’s thoughts were interrupted by his communicator. VILE Bot was calling to inform Joe that he was waiting in position. Joe grinned so wide Allie would have been jealous. Soon the final phase of the prank would begin in Yosemite National Park.

 

[Chase]

(The following post involves another character who both okayed her reference and wrote her own lines for consistency.)


The ACME lobby was still very recognizable. Chase Devineaux spent several years walking in and out of its doors, to a point where he could get from the front to the elevators and up to the 11th floor offices blindfolded. That's why he noticed the piano right away.

"Trap," said Mikal, in that jaunty way the young Israeli often used to express strokes of clarity.1

Chase agreed. It was a trap. It won't explode or release toxins, but it was a carefully placed item meant to deter 'enemy forces'. Other 'villains' might consider putting a turret here... not Carmen Sandiego.

A little over ten years ago, Chase Devineaux sat in the ACME lounge and casually mentioned "We should have a piano."

"I wouldn't vouch for that," replied a dark-haired young woman.

He remembered looking at her then, and wondering who she thought she was.

"You're notoriously indecisive," she continued as she made her way to the refrigerator for a bottle of carbonated water, "If you were focused enough to land a position three pay grades higher, you'd be 'Boss', and then you can put whatever you want in this room."

"You think I want to stay here and be boss?"

"No," she retorted with a chuckle, "but you need to be 'boss' if you want a piano."

A year later, she was gone; and two years after that, part of ACME's entertainment budget went to a black piano for the rec room at the request of a higher-paid Chase Devineaux. The rest, as they say, evolved to said piano now sitting in the ACME lobby... in Tunisia.

A brief debate in his head resulted in the decision not to take the instrument; no need to weigh down the exit plane with sentimental values, after all.

"I need to check Security on floor 16 and the evidence vaults on floors 11, 10, and 7," he said to the team, "Let's clean the place, and meet outside the building at the 'all clear'."


1.) Quoted from Mikal's last post, but written from Chase's point of view.

 

[Acton Roux]

(This is in reply to Flag. Forgive for my slowness, as I write in French then translate to English for good measure. Et Chase, merci de m'avoir aide.)


Hidden among the stony alley ways of northern Africa, a lamp flickered in front of a small window, its glassy rectangles made rounded by a thick build of dust. Inside, as evening fell, a tome of herbal directory was being visually devoured by a pair of weary eyes.

On his own, Doctor Acton Roux had followed the other VILE henchmen out here to a place not quite Africa and not yet Europe. Rumours spread among the company that Carmen was undertaking a risky procedure, one perhaps larger than her already brilliant aptitude could handle. The intrepid stealer of things had decided to claim the very tower she once protected.

While most would not recommend such an undertaking, many did not know of the deed until it was done. And once it was completed, few could do anything but look towards the Lady with awe, disbelief, and even disdain. "How dare she?" they asked in diverse forms, both admirable and rueful. Some of her actions are meant to inspire palaver, but this one, the Doctor believed, had a deeply entangled connection to her past, a connection so dangerous that she would risk its revelation so that she may cover it up.

As he thought of Carmen Sandiego, his mind traced what he remembered of her forehead and nose. Her ancestors must have had roots in Europe, like many Americans, she was a mixture of heritages. He would covet a chance to study her thoroughly, but judging from her inclination to elude him despite his remarkable patience, that was not possible.

Flag said:
Burger in hand, he attempted to thumb through the directories on his phone (which he would never have figured out if he hadn't had previous help) to find the number of this new accomplice.

His phone made a sharp synthesised sound.

Like many adults today, there was a time in the doctor's life when cellular phones were new and foreign to everyone. But the machines remained an uneasy mode of communication for Acton Roux. Only another VILE agent could contact him with this number. That fact made him feel at ease.

"Salut?" Acton greeted the caller.

 

[Flag]

"Salut?" Acton greeted the caller.

Flag may have not had a good grasp on the many different languages of this planet, but he was fairly certain that what he heard was not Algerian. Unfortunately he also knew that it was not anything that he would be able to understand either.

According to the agent that set up his phone, he was not supposed to have any trouble communicating with the individuals in his contacts list. Unfortunately they had not taken into account the nature of disposable phones and occasionally the Sivoan found himself talking to a complete stranger to his organization. He was hoping that this was not one of those situations.

"Would you happen to speak English?"


((I know that we could rush through the introductions via a collaborative post, but I don't see to much of a point to that as it would all end up here anyways. :B))

 

[Acton Roux]

(D'accord, Flag, I agree very much. I hope you do not mind short posts for this is a conversation.)

The doctor was taken aback, not by the caller's request, but because he had not heard English in days. The country he resided in now spoke French as a second tongue, such as many nations in North Africa.

"Yes, yes," he quickly apologized, "I am very sorry, I do speak English. Should we continue this conversation in person?"

 

[Flag]

"Yes. I think that would be best."

There had been a couple of brochures on the counter conveniently placed for tourists. He got up from his table and grabbed one for reference, but then decided that perhaps he shouldn't make this next decision.

"I'd like to avoid the tourist areas. Where would you recommend?"

 

[Acton Roux]

Being not much of a tourist himself, Acton Roux was not well disposed to walk about the city in the day time, especially not with what he has chosen to be his face, the Venetian plague doctor mask.

"There is a church in Algiers, L'eglise Saint Augustin on la rue de Menerville, Menerville street," Dr. Roux suggested, "it is somewhat quiet after dark, a safe area with few prying eyes. I will await you from the 21st hour until the first hour of the next day." Before that was completely finalized, Acton had one other concern, "I do not suppose The Lady is travelling with you?"

 

[Narrator]

[Marcus Sanders]

(ACME Main HQ - San Francisco)

Agent Marcus Sanders Raced to ACME HQ as quickly as he could, once finding out the news about Carmen stealing the ACME Building. He drove here in his G5 Cycle and from far away, he could already see the San Francisco skyline was missing a building.

"Man, I can't Believe Carmen would do something like this" Marcus said in anger and shock as he moved closer to the compound," I better go find my partner".

Once He saw what happened, Marcus started looking for his friend and partner "Xavier OOKAMI Musashi" to Investigate, because he knew that with him and Xavier on the case, they're Unstoppable to handle.

 

[Joe Kerr]

(OOC: The following is the final part of the joint post between Zack, Ivy, Tanya and Joe. We chose to end the chase here so that Hiatus could move on. Hope the ending doesn't disappoint.)

When Ivy parked to take care of the gas station attendant, Tanya drove forward. Satellite signals were weaker around here, but it didn’t take too long to connect again with the GPS transmission from the Cayman.

“We’re ahead of you,” Tanya radioed Ivy, “and I see the Porsche, da.” She stop to rephrase, “I mean I have the visual on the suspect. He is inside the park.”

Zack’s hands gripped his skateboard tighter. If the Porsche was going to come to a complete stop, its was his time to get out and chase that jest of a pest on foot - or skateboard for him.

The younger of the Monoghan siblings wasn’t paying too much attention until he heard Tanya say that she had a visual on Chase’s car.

He looked up and lo and behold, there it was. Too bad it was going too fast for him to catch up on his skateboard.

“Can you get any closer?” he asked his girlfriend.

Ivy smiled when she heard that Tanya could see the Cayman again.

“Good job!” She replied. Then a thought came to the redhead that a national park was no place for a high-speed chase. “Can you try to slow him down?”

Tioga road was a prime example of nature’s beauty at its finest. Beautiful greenery, clear blue sky atop majestic mountains, wildlife roaming free; It would be the sort of thing that would make anyone pull over to the side and set up a picnic or tent, unless you happened to be in a certain Posrche Cayman that is.

As Joe turned the Cayman into Tioga road, he looked into his mirrors and was surprised to see not a fiery redhead in a black GMC but a beautiful blonde in a jeep, make that one beautiful blonde driving and one not so beautiful one in the back.

“Zack and Tatiana. Well, well, Zack I expected since Ivy was on my tail, but Tatiana? This is a bonus. Hyuk hyuk.”

Joe however knew Tatiana’s reputation all too well. The Russian had about as much experience as Zack and Ivy when it came to chasing Carmen, and very possibly a similarly dangerous temperament to said redhead.

Joe decided to have some fun and sent a message in Morse code to the two blondes chasing him by flashing the Cayman’s tail lights. He wondered if they would be smart enough to understand the message.

“Allez-y! [French: Here we go!]” Tanya Erzin’s right hand grinded the manual gearbox of the 2007 Jeep as it blazed through the national park. Here, the road conditions were right for vehicles with large wheels like hers and Ivy’s to overtake a car like the Porsche Cayman.

She almost didn’t catch the Morse code from the blinking tail lights until near the end of the sentence. The clown was mocking them. Again, she shifted gear, this time, powering through off-road paths to gain ground.

Zack saw The Cayman’s flashing taillights and immediately understood it as Morse Code.

“Hello....Agents...stop...” he began to say aloud, only speaking when a full word formed.

“Please...watch...out..for..wildlife...stop...hyuk...hyuk...?” Zack finished with a bit of a confused look, ignoring the final “stop” in Joe’s Morse Code. “What’s a “hyuk hyuk”? Is that supposed to be laughing? It sounds like a disease...”

He watched as trees and branches smacked harmlessly against the Jeep.

“We need to get him on foot. It’s the only way we’ll catch him here...”

“I do not think he aims to go on foot until he runs out of fuel again,” Tanya replied.

Meanwhile, Joe had noticed the jeep behind him going off-road to try and gain ground. He knew that given enough time, the jeep’s advantage on such terrain would allow it to catch up with the Cayman.

Determined not to let that happen, Joe swerved hard to the left in the aim of taking a detour to his desired destination. Unfortunately, due to the Cayman being ill-equipped to handle the terrain, Joe soon started to lose control of the car as it sped towards a large gorge.

Tanya gasped when the Cayman took a turn off-road. “He is losing control,” she said to the radio.

The GMC wasn’t always an easy truck to drive, but Ivy made the decision to swerve in Joe’s direction. At the speed that Cayman was heading to the gorge, Ivy’s only option was to drive next to it, then try knocking it off path. It didn’t take her long to realize that idea could be too late to execute.

“Tanya, there’s a huge drop over the ledge,” she warned the other car, “slow down, slow down!”

Joe struggled to keep hold of the steering wheel with one hand while he grabbed his communicator with the other.

“VILE Bot, come in. Start final phase now. I repeat start final phase now. Alter location to 25 degrees west of original location.” Joe all but yelled into the tiny device in his right hand.

“Affirmative. Commencing final phase now.” came the monotone metallic reply.

As Joe put the communicator back into his pocket, he briefly wondered if VILE Bot was able to pick up the ever so LARGE amount of panic in his voice.

Joe was jolted out of his thoughts by the sound of another truck near him. He looked in the rear view mirror and discovered that the black GMC was also on his tail again.
It was then that a horrifying thought gripped Joe. He had a plan of surviving the gorge, albeit an insanely risky one, but the detectives, as far as he knew, did not.

Carmen would never forgive him if he let anything happen to the detectives chasing him. He probably wouldn’t forgive himself either. He had to do something to get them to slow down or veer off course before it was too late.

Taking a deep breath of air he made a hard turn on the steering wheel while braking and caused the Cayman to go into a spin. While he tried to keep from vomiting, he prayed that his maneuver would get the detectives to break hard and veer away from the gorge the Cayman was now spinning towards.

Tanya heard Ivy seconds before she saw the Porsche spin out of control. She slowed the Jeep down and swerved out of the way.

Ivy tapped the brakes to control her truck, but her eyes still followed the spinning Cayman.

“Oh my gosh!” She exclaimed into her radio, “He’s going off the edge!”

Joe let out a garbled cry as the spinning silver car spun itself off the edge of the gorge......and landed perfectly in the open cargo hold of a certain highly modified Antonov An-225 Mriya which just happened to fly past.

While Joe shook off the impact of the landing, VILE Bot closed the cargo hold and turned the plane so that it now soared upward and over the three agents.

 

[Flag]

"At present, no. She's elsewhere. We can continue our conversation in person."

With that he ended the call. Flag didn't feel that he needed to ask for a description, nor provide one for himself. The thing about VILE members was that if you caught on to the groups idiosyncrasies, it's members typically stood out like a sore thumb. It always baffled him that ACME never figured that out.

After having left the fast food restaurant, the sorcerer cross-checked his directions with a map that he purchased from a convenience store. After about half an hour of looking the streets over, he realized that he had no idea where the church was. This would annoy most people, but he found this annoyance comforting for it ensured that nobody else would discover this rendezvous.

His problems with finding the place resolved itself as he spotted a small group of Taxi's waiting outside a nightclub. The third driver he spoke to was able to translate the horrible mispronunciation of the address into something that he was able to drive to. It was around 11:15pm when he finally arrived at L'eglise Saint Augustin.

Once inside he set to the shadows. That was cliche enough to give him away for who he was and who he was looking for.

((I apologize for the delay again. My nephews are visiting, and naturally I get stuck with them because I'm the fun Aunt... or something. >_> ))