The City Of Love

"I'm not good with flirting with women. You saw that first hand Kel- I mean... let Edge do it" Alto aside glances.

Axl facepalms in his PET.

<"Smooth">

CrashMan: <Alright ninja, let me show you how it's done!>

*CrashMan starts to run in a circle around the new enemy, firing a Crash Bomber towards the enemy's knees*

Edge: <(I can't seem to find any ports...)>

Spider: <(Yeah... can't do anything like this. Let's just go back.)>

*Edge walks back to where Kelphy and Alto are.*

Zeno: <I was just, uh... kneeling down to get a better grip?>

*He begins rubbing the teddy bear's feet.*

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

Kelphy: <I-I'll do it.>

Iceman: <Okay, so Edge or Alto need to get to the computer while Kelphy's distracting the lady and check what room her dad's staying in.>

=====
~Zeno~

Ella: <Good boy, Bejaminio.>

*The bear still looks like he's giving Zeno the evil eye. He hears muffled voices coming from down the hall in the direction Olympe went.*

=====
~Jack~

*The knight swings the spear into the projectily, batting it back towards CrashMan. Shadowman leaps high into the air and holds his hands down towards the knight, shooting fire knives which it proceeds to block by spinning its spear above its head.*

*Edge raises his hand.*

Edge: <I can do that.>

"I got this Kelphy"

CrashMan: <Heh. Nice try metalhead, but that's not going to work!>

*CrashMan jumps into a backflip and fires two Crash Bombers simultaneously, one aiming for the knees, and one aiming for the head.*

*Zeno shudders, but keeps rubbing the bear's feet.*

Zeno: <So... Mommy. What can you tell me about where we are?>

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

Iceman: <Edge called it.>

*Kelphy walks up to the receptionist and starts talking to her. She eventually mentions having hurt her anckle because of a hole on the floor near a plant a few feet away from the counter. The receptionist follows her, leaving the computer alone.*

=====
~Zeno~

Ella: <We're in Paris, silly. Pretty cool, huh?>

=====
~Jack~

*The knight turns to face CrashMan, the drills bouncing off of its armor without leaving so much as a scratch. It holds its spear out towards CrashMan, purple lightning bolts firing off towards the Navi. ShadowMan appears behind the knight and jabs at its back with his sword, but that works as well as the drills did. The knight turns around and backhands the second Navi away.*

*Zeno blinks, then passes out. He's in a completely different country and isn't taking it too well.*

Jack: <CrashMan, stop aiming towards him! Your Crash Bombers won't stick to this guy!>

CrashMan: <Thank you, Captain Obvious! What the hell do you suppose I should do, then?>

Jack: <Don't you think you've got other problems to attend to first?>

CrashMan: <Oh...shit. I can't dodge this crap while I'm still fucking airborne!>

Jack: <Try shooting it! Your Crash Bomber should at least act as a lightningrod or deflect it with its spin...I guess!>

CrashMan: <You guess?! Well it's at least worth a damn try. Here goes!>

*CrashMan takes careful aim and fires a Crash Bomber directly towards the lightning attacks.*

*Edge sees this as his chance, and runs over to the computer.*

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

*The screen is showing a list of the guests. The computer also has two jack in ports. A second hotel staff member walks past Alto towards the counter. She doesn't seem to have noticed Edge yet.*

=====
~Zeno~

*He wakes up a few minutes later with Ella pouring a glass of water on his face. She waves his PET in front of his face and runs over to the desk, jacking into the computer on it.*

Ella: <Can I play with your buddy?! How does this work?>

=====
~Jack~

*The lightning flies right through the drills, desintegrating them and striking CrashMan. A large glowing red brain appears floating in front of the knight. It starts floating down and into the floor.*

Edge: <[Oh crap, someone's coming!]>

*Edge quickly jumps underneath the counter.*

Shit. I don't trust Edge at all but I can't let him get caught.

Alto thinks fast, "Hey I think I just saw this suspicious looking guy go down that hall way. He looked like he was on drugs."

CrashMan: <GAH! Shoot at the lightning you say...It'll act as a lightningrod, you say! Can't you come up with a plan that doesn't suck?!>

Jack: <Hey, that should have worked! Well...if this guy wasn't so damn tough... It seems that if we want to get out of this mess, we're going to have to cooperate with Razz and his Navi. Maybe you could try distracting the knight while ninja guy goes after that brain!>

@Jack -> @Razz: <Go after the brain. I'll send CrashMan to distract the knight.>

CrashMan: <I don't like being the decoy, but it looks like you're already dead-set on this plan. Alright, back to the action!>

*CrashMan circles the knight away from the brain, shooting Crash Bombers towards the floor closest to it as he goes.*

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

*By some miracle it works. The lady nods and heads down the hallway to check on the suspicious guy. Kelphy continues talking to the receptionist. She seems to be trying to change subject now that the hole on the floor story has obviously been proved fake.*

=====
~Jack~

*ShadowMan dashes forward and leaps over to the brain. The knight starts spinning its spear around deflecting the drills. ShadowMan lands and stabs into the brain, but his sword goes through it like it isn't here. It keeps floating down and disappears into the floor. Red letters appear over the spot the brain sank into, saying "Installation Complete".*

*Edge quickly hops back up and sits back in the chair.*

Edge: <[Do I hack into this place and drive things crazy or help Kelphy find her dad...]>

*Edge looks from the port back to the guest list.*

Edge: <[Agh, screw this. I'm not helping that bitch with anything now. This whole thing has kind of sparked my interest now, too.]>

*Edge starts to scan his eyes down the list.*

Spider: <(I'm shocked that you'd go against what she said.)>

Edge: <(Ah, shut up.)>

"What are you whispering about?" Alto looks over Edge's shoulder and whispers to him having obviously been there long enough to catch something incriminating

Jack: <Oh....>

CrashMan: <Crap....>

Jack: <Dammit...DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT! Alright....alright....everything's fine. I backed up everything on my laptop earlier... I just...I just........DAMMIT NOT MY BABYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!>

CrashMan: <Oh man...here we go...>

@Jack -> @Razz: <Jack out, back up whatever you can, and run. This is an impossible battle. I'm going to manually disconnect before they can cause more damage. I'm going to leave town. You should probably do the same. Don't try to be bold.>

*CrashMan returns to his PET and Jack prepares to shut off the power once ShadowMan leaves.*

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

*Edge spots "Aera Turmill", mentioned the day before on television as being the lead researcher, who is staying in rooms 83, 84 and 85.*

=====
~Jack~

*The knight walks off until it fades out. ShadowMan shakes his head and disappears, having been jacked out.*

=====
~Razz~

*Razz jacks ShadowMan out and sighs. He's standing in the kitchen, his black laptop sitting on the counter.*

Razz: <Harbor?>

ShadowMan: <I don't get it either, they both seemed pretty odd.>

Razz: <That thing is coming to our network next.>

ShadowMan: <Not much we can do about it. What now?>

Razz: <Now... Harbor.>

*He walks out, holding his keys out towards the living room as he walks by to let his sister know he's leaving.*

Edge: <Eh? Oh, no, no, nothing. Forget about it.>

*Edge turns back to the computer and sees Aera Turmill.*

Edge: <[3 rooms, eh? That seems suspicious...]>

"Research equipment takes up a lot of space. It makes sense."

*Jack immediately shuts off the power, removes the hard drive from his main network desktop, and loads it into his backpack along with his backup laptop and a few other minor essentials. He then turns the power back on.*

CrashMan: <Think you were being a little hasty? We still might have been able to beat that guy.>

Jack: <Were you watching the battle at all?! Your Crash Bombers couldn't even stick to the guy, ninja dude's sword didn't work worth a shit, and his attacks were fucking OP! There's no way we can beat that guy!...At least, not without some direct face-to-face planning and cooperation.>

CrashMan: <And all this fuss over some dumb forced install...>

Jack: <Why would they send in this fucking God Knight if this "dumb install" wasn't important? For all we know, they might have been trying to access some of my files, or delete or corrupt something. Their stupid mistake, however, was making the install so public. Now we have their weapon... whatever it is...>

CrashMan: <So you pulled out the hard drive not just to prevent direct access to your network, but also so you could analyze whatever the hell they put on it? Not bad. And I'm guessing that message you sent was designed to throw off the mayor?>

Jack: <Bingo. If that program has some sort of message interception function, chances are it ignores format.>

CrashMan: <So I guess we're off to the harbor, then? It's about time we fucking left.>

*Jack goes through the emergency staircase out the back window, heading towards the harbor.*