The Tako Secret Sushi Store

"As your new friend, it hurts me to say this, but once you see the kinds of means and methods I have access to, you'll realize that ignoring me isn't a viable long term option, Skyyyye!" Locksmith giggled from all around Mei and the other operators. "Don't worry! Even if there's a falling out now, it seems like we'll have a lot of time to make up and become besties again!" Skye's exit did not seem to have improved the navi's mental state.

The sense of urgency with which Mei pulled was not lost on Heidi, who was gunning it toward the back room with all her might as well. "I hope we can stop it from back there! Those navis in Locksmith's console may have been our only shot at full deactivation, and I doubt getting back in will be as easy as it was the first time," she huffed as they bolted through the door into the dimly lit room behind it. Behind them, there was the sound of something dragging across the floor with a scratchy noise, then colliding metal upon metal as it plunged forward, not toward them, but presumably toward the one girl that had remained behind.

For a moment, the sight that greeted them inside the room would probably make it seem as though the girls had reached a "game over" point already. What looked to be a pinkish-purple, octopus-headed man was standing right next to the door, dressed in a butler's tailed coat and top-hat. However, its range or motion seemed to be limited to swerving its torso left and right, so it didnt appear to have the capacity to harm or capture unless they got close. On one of its hands was a serving tray, currently empty. Upon closure inspection, the robot seemed as though it had been beaten and torn at, at some point.

The rest or the room was just as freaky as that first aspect. The room had no furniture save a small, silver stool, bolted to the floor, and a foul smelling bathroom stall in the back. At one time, this may have actually been a bathroom. Discarded toilet paper rolls and tins of dog-food were scattered all around. The lighting was scant, but what could be seen revealed that there were equations and notes scratched into many surfaces, as well as many folded into makeshift pens for the room's captive. Finally, most notably, a ragged-looking, dark-skinned man emerged from the back of the room, still carrying one such folded dog-food lid as though he could use it as a weapon. The guy had a pretty large frame, but that said, his square jaw and large hands seemed to be hanging from uncomfortably thin wrists and neck respectively, indicating beyond the dog-food that he had been malnourished during his stay.

"Don't look at the butler!" he warned them. "I've figured it out! The butler he... cannot be trusted!" the man spoke in a troubled voice. As he approached, the two could make out the shabby black business suit he wore, the tie long-since discarded. His hair was worn in thick, uncut tails that had perhaps once been dreadlocks, though he lacked the mirror or the means to get them styled as such now. A thick beard covered his face, with a few strands of gray evident. His eyes looked like two white marbles bulging out from his gaunt face. "The door... it's... open! Has it ever been open before?! One of the other times...?" he asked no one in particular. "You two... you're dressed as Jacques' henchmen! What are you here to do?! Has that bastard finally come to finish the job?!" he asked, beginning to approach with menace clear in his expression.

"No, nothing like that. We're only in disguise," Heidi reassured him, although she had adopted some obscure martial arts stance to prepare to defend herself. By the awkwardness of her position, it was clear she had only recently begun to practice it.

The man regarded the two suspiciously. "I don't trust anyone who looks like they work for that man... What do you two want? You here to bust me out?" he asked, skeptical, but perhaps hopeful.

"We are actually here to deactivate the robots and we need your help," Heidi added. "Right now!" she punctuated that thought, as another metallic crash came from the room behind them.

"What, what can I do?" he asked, seeming to shrink back slightly. "I'm so weak I feel like I'm gonna fall over... If you two are being attacked by robots I'm not gonna be any help at all..." he muttered nervously. Mei might be able to think of a way he could help, regardless.

"Don't worry about that for now. Maybe I can juryrig something if it comes to that!" For now, Mei was mostly interested in saving as many as possible...though once the door was closed, it really hit her that ended up not being everyone. "Damn! This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't opened my big mouth..."

"No, you did it to save me. It's my fault for letting myself end up in that situation to begin with..."

"Skye..." She would've done a sappy 'you don't need to blame yourself' speech, but looking to the side completely stopped that. "Oh cripes!...Huh?" ...It...was a robot, but it wasn't the kind that could move around and do...things. "Phew...it's not a threat. I wouldn't get too close to it, though."

"That's a relief...it seems rather scuffed up, though. I wonder why?"

"Don't know, don't really care." Not wanting to spend the rest of her life staring at an octopus man robot, Mei turned to get a good look at the room. And...wow. "This place would make a prison cell look comfy...wait, is that dog food? I don't think Jacques is much for dogs, so..." Before reaching her conclusion, the presence of a man confirmed it. "Holy-have you been stuck in here this whole time?!"

"No way...he even resorted to imprisoning someone? I suppose I'm not terrible surprised, but still...does Jacques's cruelty know no bounds?"

"Apparently not." The budding engineer had no idea who this person was, but one thing was clear: he was missing a screw or five. Couldn't blame him, if he'd been stuck in here for who knew how long. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure that door was locked tight until we came down here." He proceeded to note how they were dressed, which made her flinch a bit. "Yeah...trust me, if I had anything else to wear, I'd be wearing it right now. And honestly, being naked doesn't sound THAT bad compared to this..."

"Well, since we know you're here, busting out would be nice. Problem is, we've also got robots after us. There was one more of us earlier, but she stayed behind to slow them down..."

"..."

"I guess there's not a lot we can do. Though..." Mei headed over to a wall, and ran her fingertips over the various scratch marks. "What are these notes? I can't tell what these equations are."

"......" In her PET, Skye closed her eyes, something popping into her head. Apparently, Locksmith was being borrowed by Jacques. One without any sort of outside contact. But, that arrangement was strange from the beginning. An operated Navi would have to have some sort of link with their operator, to ensure that they had full battle capabilities. And yet, Locksmith didn't have one. That made no sense, especially for a security Navi. It seemed unlikely that her operator would go an entire year without a Navi for a single job, that would be too inconvenient. And yet, he had. How? Nowadays, without a Navi, you might as well be living under a rock, or be stuck in ja...no...it couldn't be...but the timing seemed to line up about right...could it really be possible...? "No way!"

"Hmm? Do they make any sense to you, Skye?"

"No, not that, I just...I have to ask." The virus rider appeared (sans virus) on Mei's shoulder via hologram. She seemed oddly nervous, almost like she was afraid to actually ask. "Excuse me, sir...I...is your name, by any chance, Daedric Locke...?"

The man looked further dejected as Mei revealed she didn't have an escape plan, but he responded with the wide-eyed fervor that only one who sees their first opportunity to escape a dungeon can muster. "It's a long story and they aren't really important right now... I was trapped in here and... somebody left these for me. Whoever was trapped here before me, I guess. But it's my handwriting... But that doesn't make sense..." he mused, joining Mei in closely reading the scribbles. "Did I write these? But I don't have any memory of doing so."

He raised his eyebrows as Skye appeared, then furrowed his brow. "I am... I am Daedric Locke," he answered, sounding oddly uncertain of myself. "I was hired to work on a security system for some scientist, Wilhelm Jacques... did a real good job too... I'm the finest security expert in the world, some say. Anywho... he must've done something, cause next thing I know, I wake up and I'm here. He had me drugged or something... I figure it's gotta be that robot here. I suppose I've probably been here a few months eating this dog food to stay alive."

His time table was weirdly off compared to his navi's; judging by his appearance, he was probably the one mistaken, because even 3 months wouldn't be enough to grow out his hair that long. "Dammit, I'm a security mastermind! That's no bragging; I'm on INNETVATE magazine with that little title written under me. How the heck did I get trapped in here?" he grumbled, clutching his head.

An interesting question, but very much secondary to the point for now. Skye may have an idea of what they needed to do now that they'd gotten to the root of the man's identity. The noises outside had shifted to some other part of the laboratory being bashed to the door they'd shut behind them being bashed... that meant they were just about out of time.

Heidi was thinking similarly and voiced their next course of action. "Mr. Locke, you've got to get out there and tell Locksmith the contract is off! She's... gone crazy or something, and she won't stop attacking even though she knows Jacques double-crossed her!" she pleaded.

"Oh, that's not crazy. That's just how I programmed her. The ultimate security-" he began, before Heidi shot one finger towards the door, which was shaking on it's very sturdy door-frame. "Yes, yes! I want to stop her too! But how can I do that?! It sounds like I'm going to be dog kibble myself as soon as I open that door, and it doesn't seem like there's any way to contact Locksmith from in here!"

The ball was back in Mei and Skye's court; they would need to find a way to open the door long enough for the frail operator to terminate his navi's contract.

"Yeah...you definitely wrote this, if it's your handwriting. But it doesn't sound like this writing's very useful info..." Hmm? That was odd, why did Skye hologram on her...oh. OH. "Wait, you think this guy is...I mean, that would make some sense, but..." .But sure enough, that's who it was. "Wow. And I thought that guy was cartoon levels of evil before."

Skye seemed to be more relieved than anything, her earlier stress probably stemming from the fact she was worried about if it wasn't the man in question. "I knew it...but now we know what we have to do!"

"Which is honestly great, but, you know, giant robot out there, smashing stuff!" As if to spite Mei, it soon became clear that said robot had moved onto the door. "...Make that smashing the door...wait, if the robot comes in and sees him, won't Locksmith-"

"I can't say for sure. The OS for those robots might or might not provide enough visual feedback...it'd be too risky."

"Damn...then we'll need to jack back in and show her ourselves! Which I realize is easier said than done..."

"But how? I don't know how those robots work..."

...Wait. Of course! "No, you don't. But you're also not experienced with this nutjob's tricks." The student looked over at Heidi, looking oddly like her Navi when asking Daedric her question. "Heidi! You know this guy better than anyone. Could Locksmith see us through the robot? Is there any way we could distract it for a moment so someone could get through the door? Anything you can think of might help, even if it's just a little bit!" She might have to make do with a little bit, too, based on how that robot was sounding...

"She should be able to see through to the outside! The robots each have an optic array, cameras in their eyes, which-" the man called Locke began, but Heidi cut him off for the sake of time.

"That won't work! Almost every robot and machine we've seen in here has had some issue with its optics, preventing Locksmith from clearly seeing who is on the other side," the Jacques-expert of the group pointed out. "And if she's as much of a stickler as you say she is, she isn't going to stop just at the sight of you. For starters, you don't even look like... you anymore," she added, trying to think of the nicest way to say he looked like crap. Mei echoed thoughts along the same lines.

Heidi's knowledge was called upon next, to provide an answer where seemingly there was none. "Well... despite what apparently happened to Tammy, we haven't heard a scream or anything worse. Even with how hard that robot is going at it, I think it just wants that door out of the way. Make no mistake: Wilhelm Jacques M.O. is never to kill, always to control. I'd bet my bottom dollar that thing is going to try to hypnotize it once it gets through. If we were to let it get a hold of me... you could break through and jack in Skye. No telling if more or waiting out there, though."

"If you can jack in Skye and then turn a viewscreen on so Locksmith can see my face, it will definitely work!" the former captive agreed. "I support this plan!" Heidi didn't object, but one might imagine she'd resent his eagerness to sacrifice her for this.

"Looks like we're out of time!" Heidi announced, backing up from the door as a hungry tentacle shot through the dented, bowed side. The appendage wrapped the frame, then crumpled it further, before yanking it off its hinge and allowing the whole robot inside.

At this point, Mei's only option was either to jump in the way and stop it from tackling Heidi, or else, to run for the console herself. Locke was already beginning a dash for the door, to circle around whichever unfortunate lady was caught. On the other side, a robot was writhing slowly in the corner, but it was hard to tell where Tammy had gone. The path to the console was clear for jack-in.

"I can't say I love the plan involving more sacrificing, but I don't think we have a lot of options at this point." It was a good thing Mei wasn't especially against the plan formulated, as a giant robot burst through to let them know their time was up, and regrettably had no apparent function to provide them with liquid refreshment. "Ugh, I'm sorry, Heidi! I'll do this as quick as I can!" Luckily, the way to the console was robot-free, so she started racing towards it. "Skye, get ready!"

"I'm on it!" Inside the PET, the Navi hopped up on her virus friend, looking determined as she grabbed the reins. "Speed's the key here, so I'll need your help, Ray. Consider it a final test before we can truly take flight!" There was no obvious reaction, but she could feel it in her heart...the Fishy was ready, willing, and able. "Jack in at will, Mei!"

"Almost...there...!" As she neared the console, however, a problem was arising. Due to the slippery material of her outfit, combined with parts of her bouncing as she ran as fast as she was able, Mei was hit with a fashion disaster, as her breasts popped out from underneath the straps of her Wilheim-approved apparel. She didn't seem to notice, however, as she simply pointed her PET at the console's port once again. "Jack in! Skye, Execute!"

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