Still with us, bud? I keep trying to look at the "To the Utopians here" thread and I'm blocked. You alright? Censorship gets me spooked.

Nah, think nothing of it. Always happy to help out the Directive anyway I can. So is this trained pup you're pet or you trying to train to get a rookie trained up? Ya I love you too kid. So ya see officer, I waiting around for this dame I was hired to guard...

Huh?

Nah, nothing like that! Do you you wanna hear the story or not?

Okay.

I was waiting there smoking a butt and letting my dogs cool when outta the corner of my eye when I catch this skirt come into the shop. A real class act. The kind of dame that lights up the room, slows time and turns heads; and she knows it but doesn't care either.

She goes straight to the booth with the little guy, orders something tall and cool to drink, then she spends a few minutes in what sounds like polite conversation. Nah, couldn't catch more than a word or two here and there. The little guy was trying to make some point to the skirt but she wasn't having any of it, you know?

The first couple of minutes seemed okay but you could tell they weren't happy being there with each other. Polite but just a little too polite if you take my meaning.

What?

Maybe five six, middle age, receeding hairline and New England accent. Family money kind of guy, well heeled but really crappy choice of colors. Mauve and burnt orange. Yeah, unfortunate. Tell me about it. Definitely an out of towner.

Like I was saying before your boy scout partner interrupted, she was talking to the little guy kind of quiet but you could see the little guy getting squirrely. The dame finishes then the little guy draws himself up straight, yeah he was sitting stooped shouldered and starts getting agitated. Talked with his hands a lot.

When the skirt narrowed her eyes I thought it might be a good idea to see a man about dog... in another coffee shop across town... and started to hustle my bundle out the back door. Why? What do I look like, some kind sad sack? These two were high rollers and it looked to me like they were getting ready to have a permanent discussion. That don't involve the likes of me and my bundle so we hit the backdoor because it was closer.

Huh?

Yeah, I looked back once. Stupid but you never know what turn out to be handy in my line of work. I was kind of curious too.

The angle had me looking at the skirt from behind but I had a clear view of the little guy. He had one of those nasty smiles on his face, like lawyer that thinks he caught you in a lie he can prove, and he extended his right hand with his finger pointing into her face.

I grabbed my package's hand and hightailed it out of there and down the alley as fast as I could half dragging the girl I was escorting.

We actually made it out of the alley and halfway down the street before the coffee shop blew up behind us...

"So what's the plan," asked the tall agent unconsciously smoothing a non-existent wrinkle from his flat black suit.

For a long moment the older man he spoke to simply stared intently at the seeth wall of opaque red energy swirling around the former coffee shop. As if by sheer force of will he could pierce the wall and see within. Finally he shrugged and snapped his dark glasses in place.

"With Terats in town? We watch the morgue. Looks like the 'philosophic discussions' are over now."

"How bad is this? Really?" asked the younger man.

"On a scale of one to ten. Around twenty-five."

"Do we have any hard information on the event," asked the director quietly to the lead technicians.

"Not what you would call hard," replied an overworked asian woman drinking what appeared to be her tenth cup of coffee.

"If that no one has successfully breached the containment field surrounding the site of the event. And that profile 087 no longer exists thus denying access to the area."

"How is that possible."

"Theoretically it isn't. But the fact remains; it's gone and the containment field has proven impervious to our best efforts to penetrate."

"Do we know anything about this profile 087?"

"Only that it is believed to have been assigned to James Meehan III, aka Prodigy. No one's been able to contact him since the event start time so..."

"Hmmm. Keep working on the problem. Round the clock shifts are authorized until we've found a way to breech that field."

"Yes, director."

The louder;

"You heard the man! Time is money! Get me Pasedena online and get us dedicated Cray access time from now until this is over. YOU! Get on the phone to MIT and get their listing for a particle physics dream team then get everyone on that list online with a live field! I want sattellite coverage reserved for the next three days."

"Let's move people!"

It's just not that thread, Endeavor. Several others are locked out as well. I don't think Prodigy has anything to do with it.

Don't worry Endeavor, the big ugly Terat is still here, and no, V is correct, I had nothing to do with the shennanigens that occured here as of late.

Should I be touched or annoyed? It is readily assumed I have the power and skill necessary to simply reach out and wreck havoc with a fairly well protected OpSite. But also, it is suggested that perhaps I am mean spirited to that degree. Pondering pondering.

Hey, I was just checking if you were alright. We genius types gotta look out for eachother. Even if you'd outclass me.
And I didn't say you hacked this site. Although with your sills you'd probably could.

I must say I'm quite amused by the little display of fiction upon this thread.

Very funny.

Of course, if any of you had bothered to do your research, you'd have known that profile 87 is mine.

What might that entertaining piece of fiction have been like, I wonder, if it was believed that I had been up to something.

So, do we have all the information on the new girl?

Yes, we do. All we need now is to figure out her plans for next week, then we'll find out just where this upstart's loyalties lie.

Just don't bust her up too badly, Darkhold. I know you got a beef with her. Killing a young one never brings good press.

Understood.

Hey? Are you getting a trace feed signal on your end? 'cause I'm getting one.

Yeah... but who the... what?... Debugger? That damn Nova is hacking us again. Darkhold, eliminate her when you get to San Fransisco. And find out who's recieving this transmission and terminate the feed.

Yes sir.

<SIGNAL OUT>

Hehe. Little do they know... :P I'm not the best for nuthin. I bet Pax'll love this. He's been trying to find this boy for weeks...

Just don't get sloppy. You should have sent that transmission to a post that your little schoolgirl friend posts on. I'll notify those who'd be interested on catching our little boy lost.
And how does someone get a codename like "Darkhold"? Assassins don't get out much I guess. I'll post a security guard at your house to be on the safe side.

Darkhold? The computer that assigns such things was having a really bad day? Maybe he tried to become an Elite and he really pissed Bruce off?