Archived Hiatus

Pete

ACME
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0
Known Aliases
Pete
Color #
006699
Pete Moss adjusted his cap while he walked around the compound. The lead detectives left him in charge of one aspect of the operation, and that was to help other agents get back to work. Sure, the big hole in the ground didn't help much, but contractors would come to clean up soon, and Pete's among a handful of ACME agents here to keep the peace.

When he saw Xavier and Marcus talking to each other, he walked up to them and overheard:

Xavier said:
Then Xavier turned to his partner and said let's go to the briefing and find out what we're going to do about recovering the ACME building I'm sure the Chief has a plan of action for this.
It sounded like these two were lost.

"You're late for any briefing, mates," Pete said in his Aussie accent, "Two teams already went out, one to recover the tower, and the other to Brazil to get Hailey Weller back. Chief's in Brazil now."

"You got two choices," Pete continued, "If you just arrived, then get settled in your rooms, mates, or I can assign you something to do around here, it won't be much, not until Chase or Chief gets back, at least."


(Out Of Character (OOC): Mates, when you enter an RP, don't forget to read it through first. A lot happened already in this one, you won't get much action, but you can learn as you go.)
 

Narrator

Fledgling
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0
Pete Moss Wrote:
"You're late for any briefing, mates," Pete said in his Aussie accent, "Two teams already went out, one to recover the tower, and the other to Brazil to get Hailey Weller back. Chief's in Brazil now."
"You got two choices," Pete continued, "If you just arrived, then get settled in your rooms, mates, or I can assign you something to do around here, it won't be much, not until Chase or Chief gets back, at least."

Marcus saw that Pete wanted to help them along and Marcus Agreed for his help "That's a Bummer, but thanks for the help, We're still new here to Main HQ and could use the help." "We could do something here, being coop up in those dorm, while everyone comes back, is Totally NOT an Option. Lead the Way Boss!
 

Deric Storm

Consul
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2
AMA
findcarmen.com
Known Aliases
Farmboy, Calamity, Stormblood
Color #
006600
(This post brought to you by Scarlet, Chief, Calico, Nevon, VictheSlick, & DericStorm)

The lights that lined the runway of the Base Aérea de Santos sparkled in the early-morning darkness as the inbound Gulfstream G550 aligned itself to land; the aircraft steadily losing altitude until its wheels hit the asphalt with a slight thud. The sound of air rushing through the jet’s spoilers filled the cabin.

In the distance, the headlights of an Antonov An-124 and two AMX-A1s grew starkly visible, the distinct roar of the strike fighters' engines a prelude to their approach.

The Gulfstream taxied towards a nearby hanger and halted just outside the structure. From within it, a dozen military-clad personnel rushed out and towards the pale-silvery craft as its clam-shell door yawned opened to reveal the silhouetted figure of Chief Everard Weller. The ACME team had arrived... but only just in time.

Deric fastened the last strap on his bulletproof vest while the rest of the plane was abuzz with activity. As the plane was taxiing to the hangar the Brazilians had indicated, he grabbed an extra vest that he had packed and handed it to Chief Weller.

“Chief, I’m gonna need you to put this on, sir.”

Chief Weller was the first at the door of the plane. Outside was damp, and precipitation from the clouds that the plane had passed clung to the skin of the Gulfstream as if it had been through heavy rain.

An attendant handed each of the ACME team with their own night vision goggles and ear protection. When the Antonov landed, it would thunder.

Deric yelled to make himself heard over the Gulfstream’s engines “Alright team, listen up. You all know what to do.” Meeting the gaze of each agent and doctor, “Hailey is our top priority; arresting the crew of that plane is secondary. Trust your training and we will get through this.” Breaking into a toothy grin, he also said, “Okay, let’s go.”

Nevon half grimaced in reply, he gets to stand as lookout, so he was scanning the airfield for a good place to be. It looked like the best place was at the top of the plane’s movable stairway.

“This is the highest spot around,” Nevon spoke up, “I’ll keep a post here, with my binoculars.”

“There is a ladder for going on top of the plane,” Cali tapped Nevon on the back and pushed on him a bag of equipment, “this has a radio and a electric head gear, you better learn how to use light filtering now, if you don’t know.”

Feeling a little confused, but also a little guilty from not knowing what a light filter was, Nevon took Cali’s advice and headed for a higher spot without another word.

Deric watched the younger agent scurry away and chuckled. Looking at Cali, he asked jokingly, “Why did we bring him again?”

Cali winked back and smiled. “I will talk to the Brazilian pilots, first” she said to Deric. Grabbing hold of a pair of ear protection, Cali climbed down from the plane but stood close to it for the Antonov and the Guide planes first to land. A coordinating agent was near by, also commissioned by the government, and Cali signaled to him what her brother told her to do, he replied back with a number of the radio station for communication with the pilots.

The Russian transport plane had only light cargo, and needed much less than its recommended 2.5 kilometers of landing space. As it descended, the noise was almost unbearable without dampeners. Inside the plane, Vic the Slick was still not sure of what to do.

“My ears hurt,” Hailey Weller complained.

“Just sit tight, girly,” Vic told her, “You’ll be seeing your grand daddy soon.”

“Yay!” the little girl looked excited, “Will Carmen be there too?”

Vic shook his head, “Not if things go right.”

The Russian plane and the Brazilian attackers landed with loudly in the field. After everything came to a complete stop, the sound was echoing still. In the silence, Cali asked for confirmation from the pilots sent to them from the Brazilian Air Force. After they talked a while, the translator turned to her partner, Deric, and to Chief also.

“They are standing by,” she said, “waiting for order.”

“Move in on the plane,” Deric ordered, “Make sure they do NOT take off. Otherwise, everyone on the plane is to be taken unharmed.” He stressed the last word to make sure no unnecessary violence ensued. Anything could go wrong and lead to Hailey being injured. “Getting the kid back safe is the primary objective.”

“Okay,” Cali replied to Deric and began to speak to the pilots in Brazilian.

The last passenger out of the Gulfstream, Sophie Conrad had taken up a position between Chief Weller and a Brazilian military personnel. With the administered ear protection firmly over her head, she had peered through her NVD, adjusting its scope as she took in the darkened landscape and accounted for all the ACME team members, even as the VILE craft and its escorting jets landed.

It had been more than a decade since she had last been in Brazil and she had entertained a tingle of excitement, stepping out of the dry, cold cabin air of the aeroplane and into the warm humidity that hung over the city and its surroundings. The smell of jet fuel and smog-laden precipitation conspired to tease her senses.

While Cali was talking to the military, Deric checked the magazines in his pistols for a fourth time to alleviate some of his anxiety. As it was the previous three times, the guns were loaded with non-lethal rounds. Once that was done, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Ilya, his Academy instructor, always used to joke and say he was finding his “eye of the storm.” Taking his place alongside the Brazilian military, they made their way towards the plane.

It was the pilot who got the call first, and he forwarded it to Vincent Fumigalli. While Vic was clearly the brains of the present operation, he was definitely having a headache.

Half of him expected Hailey Weller to start crying, but she didn't. The little girl just played with the wristwatch Carmen gave her like the ticking it made calmed her down.

"ACME Agents," the pilot said, "they want us to open the door."

"Then open the door!" Vic said. Outside, he could see a team with a ladder, a few agents ready to barge.

In a few seconds, the navigator went up to the door, gave the thumbs up to the captain, the hydraulics hissed, and they simultaneously released the locks.

Vic stood up, figuring he’d be the first one they’d cuff. Hailey sat to his right hand side, still completely ignoring the situation. It looked like she was just waiting for someone to call her name and tell her what to do.

It took less than a minute for the team to storm the plane. One group of soldiers went to secure the cockpit while the rest, including Deric, went to the passenger cabin. ‘Storming’ wasn’t the best work to use as the plane was almost empty. Hearing the aggressive tone coming from the Brazilians, Deric knew he had to keep things from getting out of hand.

“Não atire” Deric barked to the soldiers to make sure no one did anything extreme. Making his way to the front of the group, Deric could see that besides the flight crew there were only two passengers.

“So Devineaux went the other way, ah?” Vic said as soon as he saw Deric, “sent his other dog here instead. Nice t’know Ima all important.”

“You don’t need the lead wolf to bag the sacrificial lamb, Vic.” Deric pulled out a set of handcuffs and tossed them to the other man. “You know the drill.”

Letting the cuffs fall to the ground, Vic shrugged, “Ain’t cuffin’ myself, kiddo.”

“You wanna add ‘resisting arrest’ to the charges, slick?”

Cali first made sure the Brazilians on their team understood to stand down, then she headed into the plane and went to the VILE pilot since Deric was talking to Vic.

“Hands up and turn around,” she said, “if you run, the men outside will make this more difficult.”

Being the people they were, both the pilot and the navigator followed the Brazilian girl’s instructions. There wasn’t much use resisting, and that wasn’t the plan anyway.

Cali cuffed the men under arrest, and a Brazilian officer helped her get both out off the plane. She wondered a little what Deric was doing making Vic put on his own cuffs. In Brazil, that was dangerous, maybe in the United States, it was common place.

She gave her attention to the hostage in this situation, now that the heroes are here and the baddies are arrested. Like ACME’s anticipation, Hailey was happy and unharmed.

“Hello, your grandfather is outside,” she said in her Brazilian accent, “come with me?”

Seeing Cali talk with the little girl, Deric knew it was all clear. Grabbing his radio, he signalled the Chief. “This is Storm,” he spoke into the radio, “we have the girl. I repeat, we have Hailey.”

“Awesome,” Nevon said to himself, then pushed a button on the radio to transmit back, “I’m coming down, over.”

He checked the gears Cali gave him to see if everything was all there before moving from his position. The rookie was a little embarrassed that he hadn’t learned to use any of the gadgets right. When he got back to San Francisco, he’ll have to start figuring them out.

Chief Weller took a position outside of the plane. He anticipated little retaliation from VILE, his only reassurance resting on the fact that its leader often kept promises.

As Hailey exited the plane with Cali Corranos, Dr. Weller could hardly contain his own relief. She looked well, running straight to her grandfather. After a long-awaited hug, Chief heard a light ticking and quickly surveyed his granddaughter. A cumbersome watch hung loosely on Hailey’s wrist.

“It’s for Piano Man,” were her first words to her ‘Kuppa’, “from the Thanksgiving party, remember?”

She was talking about Chase Devineaux, Dr. Weller understood, but what this meant was a mystery for another day; perhaps also, to be solved by another man.

Removing her ear protection soon after the landing of the Antonov and the two AMX aircrafts, Sophie focused on the dark outline of the cargo jet and listened in to the transmissions exchanged across the radio channels. The VILE crew on the Russian transport seemed acquiescent and the ACME-led raid passed with speed and without trouble.

She continued to watch, her position unchanged in its stillness and her features unmoved from their gravity, as the six-year-old child the team had come to retrieve leapt into the arms of her grandfather. She considered the innocent and oblivious joy on the face of the child and the affectionate relief on that of the older man. Hailey Weller, as far as the doctor could tell from her polite distance, looked to be as healthy and contented as a six-year-old could be expected to, seemingly unfazed by the events that had passed in the twenty-four hours prior, or the past fifteen minutes.

Wrapped around one of her arms were a bright-pink coloured watch and another bearing the likeness of Mickey Mouse. What then, was an odd third timepiece strapped onto the child, was the watch of a man – one she recognised as no less than an antiquated model from Patek Philippe. She did not hear what Hailey told Dr. Everard Weller about the watch and its owner and could only wonder, without satisfaction, how such an item came to complete the collection.

Then, as though perceiving her curiosity, Hailey lifted her head, peering at Sophie with warm, precocious eyes that were filled with an equal measure of interest. Sophie held the child’s gaze for a moment, and then smiled.

Deric watched the scene between Chief and his granddaughter unfold from the plane with a slight tear in his eye. Wiping it away with one hand, he reached for his ACME communicator in the other. Pulling up his saved contacts, Deric connected to the one listed under ‘C. Devineaux‘ and sent a quick message:

Hailey is safe with the Chief and we have Vic the Slick in custody along with the flight crew. Sending the girl back with Chief, Blair and Dr. Conrad. Will handle extradition for flight crew and Vic.
 

Acton Roux

V.I.L.E.
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0
Color #
351c75
Flag wrote:
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.
The doctor recognised Flag not from the few medical profiles he had in hand at the headquarters of V.I.L.E., but from his demeanour. The way he blended with his surrounding without appearing conspicuous was a characteristic trait of 'friends'.

"Bonjour," the doctor greeted quietly from underneath his mask. "You will forgive the mask I wear," he explained, "I am not much a front man for this organisation."

Looking up at one of the stairways leading to a church spire, Acton Roux gestured to it for his friend to see. "That is an even safer place to speak, if we are to be absolutely void of prying ears."

The masked doctor led the way.
 

Flag

V.I.L.E.
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0
AMA
findcarmen.com
Color #
808080
"That's fine." Flag said in response to the apology. Masks and disguises were normal for his organization.

He followed the doctor up the spiral staircase in silence, taking in the architecture of the church as he did so. If asked, he would have to admit that the shrines built to the gods of Earth fascinated him as he never saw the same type of dedication to any such entity on Sivoa. Sure, there were shrines, but all of the ones that he had come across were monuments toward wealth or wisdom and they were vastly different than these houses of prayer.

Once they reached the top of the stairs the sorcerer returned his attention to his comrade and spoke.

"Thank you for meeting with me. I'll keep this simple. I'm attempting to travel to Casablanca in the next Country over. Travel has been... difficult to say the least."

He paused for a moment to reflect over his adventures of the past couple of days.
"I need a place to lay low for a couple of days so that I can acquire a more reliable means of getting there."
 

Acton Roux

V.I.L.E.
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0
Color #
351c75
"Je com---I understand," Acton Roux corrected himself.
He knew for nearly as long as he had been employed that Carmen has confidants, a selected few within VILE that she would meet before and after heists. Vincent Fumigalli was one of them, and Sarah Nade; yet another, Acton believed, was Flag.

He wanted to ask if Flag would be meeting their esteemed "Boss", but such was not how this organisation survived. It survived on the frugality of information and a vast quantity of trust.

Acton looked far into the distance where the silvery Mediterranean waters were being disturbed by silhouettes of party yachts. A time, long ago, ships were kinder to the sea, now they are mostly the subject of wealth.

"I have a boat," Acton spoke quickly, "I had procured it... for her... but I feel she wished it to be yours. If she wanted it herself, she would be the one to contact me."

He handed Flag an envelope.

"Give this to the hired hand at the docks, he will take you to the boat. Then tell the captain where you wish to go, he's a retired fisherman, and has been compensated well enough to follow instructions without question," the masked doctor continued, "I shall stay in case I hear more, but in a week's time, I should be relocated. I will see you on the occasion."
 

Lee

ACME
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2
AMA
findcarmen.com
Color #
006699
(A lit' something from me, mates, in hopes to wrap this up soon. Edited: Forgot to mention that Carmen approved all mentions down below.)

With some cash in hand and the video from E. Mayhem sent to a news agency, Jordan was on his way to benefiting from the chaos that came from the disappearance of ACME's tower.

His first thoughts were to take some time going back to his consuming hobby, finding Carmen Sandiego.

If Lee Jordan was to trail someone else, anybody else, he'd know exactly what to do. People in general stuck to habits, doing things over and over again, even without realising it. If Carmen had a pattern, something that lent itself to reveal more of her personal traits than the fact that she doesn't support violence, Lee trusted that he'd be the first to find it. But in the years between getting booted off VILE and landing again in the midst of ACME, his pride and rank lowered to class C informant status (C for 'civilian'), Lee Jordan hasn't found the pattern he's been looking for.

While he's pursued her, even learned from her, he still didn't know the answer to his most fundamental question: Who is Carmen Sandiego?

Her files at ACME didn't say much. It was huge though. Lines and lines of text, hundreds of thousands of words from ACME's own observations to third party analyses. A lot of those texts came after she left the company. Of the 18,723 documents Lee found about her, only 54 were legitimately from her ACME days. Eliminating case files and corporate nonsense left him with 3 tiny papers. One was a personnel file, the other was a letter typed by Carmen requesting security clearance for files on a case, and the last was a mandatory psyche evaluation that proved nothing but the fact that she was normal. Quiet, but normal.

The first time Lee uncovered these files was about 8 months before he "resigned" from ACME. He knew the amount of files she had was unusually small, though he didn't suspect anything but ACME's own system of confidentiality. Still, when Lee rejoined ACME as an informant under Chase Devineaux, his views of these files began to shift.

An informant's job was to scour targets and provide intelligence. Lee's first assignment was in Argentina, where he was given a cover story and some personal files to back it up. If ACME could create these fake files so easily, Lee wondered how often and how much of the files in ACME's archives were real.

To test his theory, Lee would need clearance to all the files in ACME's archives, and for that, he'd have to be much higher than a Class-C informant. He'd have to be Chase Devineaux.

That thought agitated Jordan, and he dropped the idea of trying to find Carmen for now. The biggest drama in ACME's history was unfolding, and he wanted to be in San Francisco for it.
 

Chase

Director
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5
AMA
findcarmen.com
Known Aliases
Boss (situational)
Color #
536373
After a brief encounter with the piano, and having vanquished any more thoughts on its purpose, Chase Devineaux headed straight for the 16th floor. Unlike the ACME servers, which were located underground, the compound's security control was at the top of the tower.

The doors to the security room were unlocked. A quick survey of the facility revealed that nearly everything was in order--everything but the C-5 mainframe. The transporter's aluminum housing showed fire damage, but all other equipment remained intact. It would not occur to the Field Director until tomorrow afternoon that the burn might have come from one of Carmen's more violent henchmen, Flag.

To the left of the surveillance center was the power indicator, blinking a low red. ACME Tower's reserved resources, cells that would have lasted five days at full capacity, were dwindled to only two hours. To an observer, this could mean many things, but to Chase Devineaux, it resolved to one conclusion: VILE depleted the backup generator to open vault doors.

When the tower was ripped from San Francisco's power grid, ACME's security systems activated an emergency lock-down to protect is valuable information. Half a century of documents resided in there, and while most of the files have been digitally converted, a precious few remained pending review.

Why old files? Devineaux asked in his head, to no one in particular, you had the entire tower, the C-5, everything else...

Enough electricity remained available in UPS batteries to power certain nodes, but not the entire system. Inserting his card into the machine, the Field Director wasted no time gathering necessities. All surveillance footage, system log, and activity were downloaded into a series of high-density solid state drives provided by Masters, the company tech.

As the computers performed their last instructions, Chase took the stairs to the 11th floor -- ACME's International Crimes Divison.

The level that housed ACME's ICD was a mess. In the dimness, blue light reflecting from broken windows gave illumination to puddles resting on linoleum floor tiles. The sprinkler system had been activated, a cheap but effective way of overriding the vault's security. Inhaling a whiff of sharp moisture in the air, Devineaux scoffed, partly at her genius and partly at the fact that this 'override' was only weeks away from removal.

Among the rubble of office furniture, sandy footprints indicated splatters of activity. A set of smaller shoes suggested this as the location Hailey Weller revealed herself. Other impressions gave a margin of reassurance that Carmen, and not one of her thugs, found Hailey.

Following footprints led him to the vault's door. As anticipated, it was open.

Records of discovered artifacts, some names of people and places, as well as old geographic data that were considered redundant or inaccurate piled high over his head. An entire section of the vault was removed, flawlessly. Whatever Carmen wanted, she took, along with collateral that would make it impossible to trace. From here on, what she left behind was vital. Retrieving his phone, he took pictures of the room and the IDs of containers before and after those that were missing.

Wet dirt squeaked under friction from his boots. Chase exhaled, accepting the temporary halt in his investigation and the fate of ACME's once iconic building.

He returned to floor 16 and retrieved the digital logs, then travelled back to the lobby through the fire escape. Midway, his phone beeped with a message from Deric, reporting that Hailey was safe; followed by one from Tanya, about his car taking a trip on a V.I.L.E. plane.

As he reached the lobby, he took one last look: once familiar ceiling and walls already seem foreign in the dawning light. He began to see corners and structures that he could no longer recognize—more and more of them—until the entire building was a world apart from what he remembered of his ACME home.

Everything but the piano.

"Okay," said the Field Director into his communication unit to the men in his 'recovery team', "I'm done, let's finish this. I'm leaving the building, meet at rendezvous."
 

Mikal

ACME
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AMA
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Known Aliases
Mike, Khalid Rifai
(Small co-post Mikal & Chase. Happy New Year!)


Mikal Darsha had fun at ACME Tower, not in the way that should be considered fun, but he performed all that was needed of him, plus he somehow made a new friend. The Israeli pushed Synic the computer into the plane. He then checked his equipment and counted his rounds then recounted his magazines. Everything in order.

This was a good day to make things go boom. He bore no identification with or against ACME Tower, and because of this; he knew that he was in the most objective position to help clear the location. Even as an outsider, he would have kept the piano, since it didn't turn out to be a trap. But such things were the norm, not all team members agree on everything. Agreeing on only the big things was enough.

"I open this now," Mikal brought up the bottle of the local herbal liqueur, Thibarine. Even if it tasted like medicine, this was better in the desert than an ice-cold vat of beer.

As he twisted the bottle's cap, something in the distance glinted inside is peripheral vision. Instinctively, the Israeli thought of snipers, but the range was too far.

"We are being watched," Darsha flicked his head towards the horizon at the faint structure of a round tower, "We warn them, maybe?"

Chase Devineaux stood squarely facing the direction Mikal pointed and saw a single reflecting flash. V.I.L.E. was watching, he had no doubt, but he wasn't in the mood to warn anyone.

"I don't see anything," he falsely dismissed. The watchtower was far beyond the plane, and beyond the danger zone.

Let them watch.
 

Chase

Director
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5
AMA
findcarmen.com
Known Aliases
Boss (situational)
Color #
536373
"Okay," said the Field Director into his communication unit to the men in his 'recovery team', "I'm done, let's finish this. I'm leaving the building, meet at rendezvous."

"Copy that." Eugene let off the mic and started back down to the lobby. Odds of Carmen leaving anything that could be used against her behind were astronomical, but Euge was contractually obligated to do a cursory search of the building. Besides, it gave him the opportunity to liberate expensive liquors from various offices. With Chase having finished his part of the prep work, it was time for the four stagehands to make their exit. By Eugene's watch, the weapons platform wouldn't be in position for at least 30 mikes, and so the quartet was able to take their sweet time hauling their salvage back to the 777.

Once aboard, everything was hastily stowed and lashed down or otherwise thrown wherever it fit. Eugene thought he heard a crunch from one backpack and hoped there was nothing liquid or valuable in there.

Satisfied everything was secured, Eugene joined the rest of the team on the dune crest, where the other three were already in position. Chase had his eye up to the monocular of a range finder, while Mikal had forfeited his binoculars in favor of opening a bottle of... something. Ding was keying up some sort of point to point optical SATCOM Eugene had never seen before when Mikal suddenly tensed. "We are being watched," he announced, and inclined his head towards the horizon, where Eugene noticed a flash off of some kind of optic. It didn't matter though; they were out of range of even the most skilled sniper, and no other force could stop what was coming.

"Stainless, this is Oxide, authentication key cupcake, Fire for effect, over." Ding had established comms with the FDC.
"Oxide, this is Stainless, authentication confirmed. Fire for effect, send target coordinates, out." FDC's somehow get their hands on the most professional RTO's anywhere. Talk to a hundred different services across a thousand different channels and you are guaranteed to never find a more authoritative baritone than a company of artillery.
"Grid 32 Romeo November Victor 7100848081" Less than a mile from their current position.
"Platform moving into position, stand by." Two mikes away from being directly over them.
"16 story building, helipad on roof marked ACME, hardened target, KEP, one round, danger close, over." Somewhere stateside, an air force officer was looking through a camera 300 miles up and seeing the exact building Ding had described, while running through checklists and releasing safeties.
"Positive ID on target. KEP in effect, one round, out." The FDC was confident they had the right target and all the elements were in position to release a telephone pole sized rod of tungsten cobalt hate.
"Shot, over." Half a world away, the officer had pressed a button that opened clamps suspending the fury above them, and a rocket motor had ignited, pushing it earthwards. There was no turning back now.
"Shot, out." We had front row seats to a spectacular show, and the four turned their gaze skyward, where they found a new star in the sky, one that grew brighter until it outshone even the full moon, only instead of a serene silver, this one blazed with a hellish blue-orange. The heat of atmospheric entry had destroyed both the seeker head and the rocket booster, but they weren't necessary anymore; the rod was already on target.
"Message to observer, splash in five seconds." 4... 3... 2... 1...

The quartet saw the rod scythe directly through the helipad and disappear cleanly inside, while the tower seemed to at first implode upon itself, seemingly trying to seal the sudden new elevator shaft. Its fight against physics was futile though, as concrete, steel, and glass suddenly remembered it should be fracturing, shearing, and liquefying at these temperatures and pressures. The building exploded outwards, and desert all around jumped forth, ready to conceal what had been done here beneath the ever shifting sands. The assault was over in less than a second, and another second later the shriek of the sound barrier being horribly violated, along with concussion and dust was upon the men.

Soon enough, debris stopped pelting them, and it was safe to raise their heads and marvel at the destruction they had wrought. The old ACME was gone, pounded flat and swallowed by the desert.

"Stainless, this is Oxide, end of mission; good effect on target, over."
Make way for the new.
"Oxide, this is Stainless, end of mission, out."
 

Carmen

Queen of Crime
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0
AMA
findcarmen.com
Color #
850000
Minutes prior, and a distance away from the eerily creaking ACME Building stood an old watchtower. Ages ago near a thriving oasis, dwellers constructed a stone column to secure their livelihood. An entire city existed here, with men, women, children and livestock residing under the shaded contours of the structure's shadow. The water eventually depleted and life moved on, leaving an aging monolith slowly dissolving into sand.

Dawn rose in front of her, the sky brightened as rays of warmth pecked her cheeks and forehead. From binoculars, she espied a familiar figure in a purposeful stride from the base of the tower towards the plane. ACME seemed to have completed their mission.

Was that it?

The observing thief expected her opposition to bring dozens of men for the search and recovery of ACME's 16-storey tower. So far, she saw only four.

A series of communicating gestures transpired between the men, and at the end of it, they remained unusually still.

"A falling star?" Saleh, the French-Moroccan henchman next to her exclaimed as if something had taken all the breath out of his lungs.

Carmen removed her long-range visor but had to shield her eyes immediately from an intense descending light. While she did not directly observe the impact, she felt it. The ground rumbled, at first lightly. Then, like any other form of earthly destruction, energy released must go somewhere. Unable to withstand the blow, ACME tower submitted hopelessly to its fate.

"We need to leave," not knowing exactly what they faced, she instructed her men, "gather your equipment, split up, and let's meet at the coast."

"We will not make the last boat on our jeep," said Ahbej, who hardly spoke but was rarely wrong, "but Carmen, you can if you ride all day to reach it by evening."

"Then I need to hurry."

As she readied herself to strategically drop from the tower and on to her desert vehicle, Ahbej's voice rang, "Wait!" and the agile thief was bluntly pulled back into the watchtower.

Ahbej's trembling hands locked her arms while down below, a wave from the explosion created a small but effective crack that overturned and swallowed her getaway ride. Then another convulsion ran through the underground crevices that once carried water and, from where her desert motorcycle sank, unleashed a pillar of dust high above. VILE's leader had little time to conceal her head in a scarf prior to ducking for cover against ancient walls.

When the dust subsided, a statue of sandstone rose from the floor, dispersing fine particles that clung to her skin and clothes. In the day's harsh light, the skyscraper she had worked so meticulously to procure in one piece was gone, disintegrated into the landscape.

She'll have time to contemplate all this later.

"What just happened?" asked Saleh, kicking dirt from his shoes.

"There isn't room in the jeep for three people plus equipment," Carmen observed, presently ignoring the question.

"I can walk," the Moroccan replied, "It's three kilometers to nearest town, I have cousin with family there, I can stay over then go to Tunis tomorrow."

"Only three kilometers?" That was interesting, if she took the trip on foot, she would make it out of Tunisia without arousing suspicion.

In the course of the heist, her tactics have altered drastically. Carmen left ACME tower yesterday evening with plans to see her caravan to Egypt then meet with Flag in Morocco before obviating the risk of meeting anyone for the next 4 weeks. This would change again.

"Saleh," the leader made her decision, "you and Ahbej take the equipment. We'll stick to the plan and have you hide at the safe house in Morocco."

"Et toi?" Saleh inquired.

"I'm not going to Morocco," given the outcome of the hour, she must garner precious time and make slow but certain moves. No one from V.I.L.E. or ACME would hear from her until she was fully prepared, "Does your cousin have a telephone?"
 

Chase

Director
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5
AMA
findcarmen.com
Known Aliases
Boss (situational)
Color #
536373
(This post marks the end of Hiatus)


Eulogies weren't needed for ACME Tower I. The death of anything was usually poetic, but this... this only warranted silence. Within hours the sands would dance a funerary number and render this area a part of the desert. As if nothing happened.

"Cheers to that," Chavez, officially the only person not to have worked inside that building, appropriately spoke first. In his gloved hand, he lifted a plastic cup containing the liquor Mikal bought from a street vendor last night.

Chase Devineaux nodded in agreement. He raised his own plastic cup and finished the dark liquid. When the bitterness peeled down his throat and the alcohol heated the roof of his mouth almost unbearably, he exhaled.

In his head, a more obliging version of himself was reading down the list of actions to remedy as soon as he arrived Stateside. First on that list was the board's request for his resignation and, as he was about to find out, also the video someone made on his behalf. Second was cataloging the files that V.I.L.E. took; and third was the whereabouts of his Porsche Cayman.

Right now, he wasn't ready to do any of that.

"You know," Devineaux said, studying the rising smoke from where window glass turned to sand by explosion and back into glass by heat, "with the free time we have while the tower rebuilds, we should start marking their headquarters."
 

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  • I (Guest) invaderhorizongreen:
    I even have the site white listed, for a wild shot can any of you post a new question in the guessing game I had set up
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    I would like to see if that will get my email to ping
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    I know that might just be a shot in the dark but why not try
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    Smack O’ jellies is now a term
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  • Jon Eckart Jon Eckart:
    ((OOC: So, I am still here (at least, while ACP is still a thing, then I have to tether my phone to my laptop, send it's internet to Ethernet to my router and setup my other laptop to access that... I managed it once totally by accident)... updating stuff I'm working on is not a fun process (if anyone checks my stories folder on my Google Drive) anymore... the laptop at my desk is old (Core 2 Duo, 2Ghz, 4 gigs RAM, Win7 Ultimate)... Chrome won't update, Drive won't work... I'm stuck using FreeFileSync to keep stuff up to datep things synced. I have plans of getting a job and having money to have something better (a doorstop is better)
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  • Jon Eckart Jon Eckart:
    [continuing] I'm sorry if any of my posts are/could be inflammatory or anything... some of them are stuff I've had in the pipeline for a while, and I messed with it enough to get it postable... that's why there are dates showing when I started working on stuff... I'm not, and never have been, trying to step on anyone's toes or say "this is how it should be"... I have no say here, not sure who does these days (like I posted... maybe this is a test to see if we devolve into chaos). Posts like Hierarchy were started long ago, and meant as a guideline and not because I'm the voice of Sauron.
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  • Jon Eckart Jon Eckart:
    [continuing] I don't have the time to be here a whole lot, I don't have much beyond mom to help with my rent (and once I have a job, that'll take up more time, though I will keep working on stuff (both for here and not) as often as possible, and post when possible on here. I have a question that needs some clarification... being that we are supposed to get permission from the person if we use their character in an addition/story/post, how would that apply if the character is core to the universe (like Carmen... I can replace @Chase, maybe cobble someone into @Ivy's place... but, like @Carmen, being that she's a major character, as long as I don't have her acting or write a major part for her, would that circumvent the rule at all?
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  • Jon Eckart Jon Eckart:
    [continuing] I'm just curious... the absence of the major's leaves a gap that I'm not sure what to do with anything... we (the Left Behind) could do a story together (or some stories separate), and that'd be cool, but without being able to use any major's, I'm not sure where to take anything. And, yeah... you can probably guess what my typing is like here (or anyplace else)... I type here or in Word, I type something (or notepad), and 15-20+ seconds later it shows up, so I have to stay on top of my grammar and spelling. I have to keep on top of all that, because I'm working on the big Carmen story at the same time, so I can't slip off my game.))
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  • Julie Justice Julie Justice:
    @Jon Eckart Not exactly sure if I understand all your computer probs. I hope you get those resolved soon. Yes, I have many probs with my basic Google Chrome, too. I think it's fair to say we all have a love/hate relationship with technology. 😆 As far as your stories are concerned, you can use any cannon character you like, whether there is a person playing that role on here or not. Say the story is a fanfiction; and that the version of Chase, or Carmen (or whoever) from the computer games, gameshow (or whatever). We don't do Netflix Carmen, mostly because of the violence. And because it is fanfiction, you can also create other characters and situations to suit your story. Now, Chase, Carme, Ivy (or whoever) were here, of course, you would ask their permission; tell them your idea; and if they like it they might write it with you. 🙂
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    @Jon Eckart Now, if you for a friendship with someone on--and off-site, you might form a partnership with them, and write stories together (like Chase and Carmen; or Chase and Ivy; or Lucy and I) and then you will just put a statement saying that this story is a co-write with whoever. In fact, if you collaborate with this person a lot, people will just assume they have your permission; although you should always say it anyway, just as a common courtesy. In fact, ironically, the only people whose permission you must always ask to use their characters are "original" characters, who are creations of their individual writers (which most of us on here, are) specifically because we are not cannon. I hope that makes sense. 🙂
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    @Jon Eckart Now, if you want to write something, but don't have a lot of time, I would suggest posting a status; or replying to someone else's status. Or you could start a guessing game. Look under Forums/Guessing Games, and look at some things other people have done, to give you ideas. I hope that helps. 🙂
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