2008-04-30: Hiro's Quest - The Beginning

Starring:

Ando_icon.gif Hiro_icon.gif Rochelle_icon.gif Shannon_icon.gif

Summary: Three heroes break into Pinehearst with the intent to destroy something that has already been moved. A great quest begins!

Date It Happened: April 30, 2008

Hiro's Quest - The Beginning


Pinehearst Lab - Storage

The labs of Pinehearst. It's late in the evening. The buildings are mostly empty. There is one lone labcoat, working diligently into the night, moving stock used during the day into storage containers. Gloves on, a projective eye gear, the woman has her hair pulled back. Vials are placed into containers and shoved back inside.

"This is never going to work," she mutters under her breath, before she begins to punch in the code to lock up the storage. Many doors require codes stand between her and the main entrance, but not everyone actually uses doors.

Hiro appears with Rochelle and Ando in tow, beaming in behind a set of shelves which allow for some spying without immediately announcing their presence. That is lucky … there was no mention of a hiding place on the blueprints and he was just hoping to appear when nobody was around. All the same, he wastes no time in trying to give them the advantage - squeezing his eyes shut and concentrating on freezing time.

At least they didn't end up /in/ the shelf. Ando glances around at his surroundings, prepared for anything, waiting for the time-freeze to go into effect. He's silent, for now, as the situation calls for stealth.

Being teleported around is something that Rochelle is still not used to. Popping into a random place on a blueprint? Even worse. She wasn't too keen on the idea, but seeing as Hiro and Ando needed her help, that sealed the deal completely. She appears with the two, her back to part of the wall beside the shelves; her field is tucked away, and one hand is strung out palm-down on Hiro's shoulder, with at least a firm grip. She does not want left behind, god forbid.

As time stops, the woman's finger is pointed at the number pad, sitting right on the number 4.

A bunch of file cabinets sit near by. Clipboards on desks. No one else is around, frozen in time, but the buzz of machines are stuck at one single sound, drawn out. A light in the ceiling is stuck mid-flicker. Security cameras are no longer recording outside of time, frames stuck. Cold air that blew out of vents in the wall has stopped.

Easy pickings, in this place outside of time, one would think.

Hiro begins to look around, letting his companions keep a grip on him so they don't pop out of his timeless little sphere that he's created around himself. He cranes his neck, looking about for any sign of a big beaker or test tube labeled 'Healing Blood For Evil Use' but seeing nothing of the sort. He bites his bottom lip, moving towards the woman at the keypad and staring at the keys.

"One number is four," he hazards in his most Batmanesque manner, "Hmmm."

While Hiro goes over to the doors, Ando heads for the desks and clipboards, looking without trying to actually move anything too much. This includes flipping up pages, thumbing through drawers, so forth. He's looking for clues as well. What would they have named the blood?

Rochelle examines the storage containers as she shifts to follow Hiro, eyeballing the woman stuck between her own 'frames'. Brown eyes go to the keypad, and up to the woman frozen. "…One of how many? Was she shutting em or unlocking em?" As a tentative test, Rochelle lifts a hand to tug on the handle to the storage that the woman had been putting away just a time-freeze ago. While Ando and Hiro are careful about touching things, Rochelle- not so much.

"I could try and beam inside?" Hiro contemplates, looking at the door and pressing his ear against it. Trying to determine if there would be enough space inside for him to do that. Frowning, he reaches into his pocket and produces the creased blueprints that were given to him and he looks over them - trying to discern exaclty where they are and what lies beyond the door.

No beakers with big labels out in the open, but the clipboards prove slightly more informative… Even as Rochelle tries, unsucessfully, to open the door in the middle of being locked, Ando flips through a clipboard. A shipping order. For blood. A subject number stands out next to the transfer order. There's a memo beside the desk as well. The words blood seem to stand out right now, considering the situation. 'Blood from the storage keeps disappearing. All samples are being moved to the West Hanahai facility. Any access to it must be approved by Mr. Petrelli.'

"Hiro!" Ando motions his friend over, still holding up the papers to reveal the shipping order. When his eyes go back down, they catch on the memo and he skims it quickly. "Look. They are moving all the blood to West Hanahai facility."

"Wheressat? Not around here…" Rochelle knits her eyebrows together, stepping away from the frozen woman and towards everything else to examine a circle through her surroundings. "Should we wait until they move it?"

"I do not know where where West Hanahai is," Hiro says with a frown, moving over to look at the clipboard that Ando holds curiously and furrowing his brow, "I think we should get it before it is moved … if it is still here. I do not think we should risk it going somewhere we do not have the blueprints for."

Before they move it might be preferable, but there's a date on the memory, and the shipping order indicates the items would be transported by 'special carrier'… yesterday.

Ando notes this and the number, frowning. "It is already gone," he tells Hiro and Rochelle, pointing to the paper. "It went out yesterday. Special carrier." He reads the last aloud to them, his finger moving over the words. He looks at Hiro expectantly. Can they make the jump?

Rochelle moves over to read the paper next, able to look down over Hiro's shoulder without so much as turning her face south. She shifts over to go over anything else from where Ando apparently found the lucky clipboard. "Yesterday?" She glances up at them for a moment, looking for any hints that they might just be thinking about popping back. "If I know what yer thinkin', is goin back a good idea? It's already en-route, so if it disappears, who knows what'll happen…"

"<Ummm … >" Hiro murmurs thoughtfully, brow furrowing even more. He reaches up to adjust his glasses, pushing them back up the bridge of his nose, " … We can't risk losing it, though. The blood is very special."

"What if we track down the courier and just take it from them before they can ship it?" asks Ando, glancing between the two. Because mugging special carriers? Is totally okay. It is to save the world.

"Maybe. But it almost seems like trying to get it back from wherever the new place is might be… safer. Wherever it is, it ain't here, where the people we don't wanna get caught by are." And just now, Rochelle seems to realize that they are trespassing in a Secret Lab, and that moment of absurdity makes her frown and double check the room just in case something might actually jump out from behind a wall- time frozen or not.

Hiro nods his head when Ando speaks, glancing back towards Rochelle - he's not use to having somebody suggesting the sensible solution. Ando is sensible at times, yes, but he also has the ability to get carried away just as much as Hiro does. Rochelle is definitely a strange (but welcome) addition to their Super Hero Squad.

"But we don't know where it is going … or where it will be once it gets there … "

And Ando wants to mug a courier, damn it. It's actiony. He frowns, but going with Rochelle's idea, he adds, "Maybe we can track it with the number, or maybe there is a map somewhere." Or maybe they should just go back in time and beat up a courier.

Sensibility! Of the looking in phone books kind. Rochelle tilts her head just enough to seem amiable to other ideas, but clearly she does like her own. "I'm sure if that place exists, it is on a map someplace. We could always try the natural way first. It's not like if that doesn't work, y'can't try again. You. uh-" She can't help but laugh. "-have all the time in the world."
Nothing comes jumping out of nowhere. The sound still hangs on the same note. No maps hang on the walls in the labs, or even among the clipboards, but there is a computer, cursor frozen. It'd be impossible to use outside of time, but it sits there. No obvious tracking number for the package, but further looking turns up a couple more memos.

MI62892's contract has been canceled. CC27192 and RM17425 would be more acceptable for the transfer opperation.

The transfer order itself has the code RM17425 on it.

Good point.

Hiro nods his head and dusts his hands a little, pulling out the little notepad he carries and swiftly writing down some excerpts from the clipboard. When his eyes finally land on the computer he moves forward, biting his lower lip nervously and looks around. How to check a computer without getting caught …

Ando shoots a curious glance at the computer as well, after checking everything else. Hmm.

"Make sure you get all that, but don't take the board, they'll notice." Taking notes is a good idea, evidently. The computer is frozen. Hiro technically can't start time again, or else they will be seen, even if they made it quick. But wait- there is one way to try this and maybe not get caught. Rochelle approaches the computer, lifting a hand towards it and looking over at Hiro. "I could try putting my field back up- unless y'think it might not work? Or do you think we've got enough…?"

"Try," Hiro says, attempting to sound encouraging as he takes a step back to look at Ando. There is a big risk here but they have to try - it is their mission!

Doyle nods at that, stepping back to give Rochelle any room she may need. He glances to Hiro as well and waits.

Ando nods at that, stepping back to give Rochelle any room she may need. He glances to Hiro as well and waits.

"Right." Rochelle turns her head back to the computer, finding the tower with the palm of her hand and pausing to concentrate. On just making the circle around the machine nullify, hand waving Ando closer. "Ando'd best do it to see if it works. Don't get to close, Hiro. But don't stay away- cause if I mess this up- well." Rochelle spares a chuckle, eyes going back to the computer screen.

The negation field expands around the computer. The cursors start to blink again. The clock in the corner begins to tick… And then the noise stops hanging on one note. At first it's the buzz of the computer fan, then the cooling systems in the room. Wind starts to blow out of the vents. The camera light begins to flash. Red. Recording. A beep sounds as the doctor finally pushes in 4.

"<No!>"

Hiro hears the noise and spots the blinking light, grabbing Ando by the wrista nd attempting to pull him as far away from Rochelle as possible - concentrating all the while and attempting to bring time to a stop once again. Must escape the field of powerless!

Ando has faith in them. They can do this! They have the power!

Except now they don't because time is starting again. His eyes widen in alarm and he's yanked back easily by Hiro. His gaze snaps to the doctor. He's ready to … to … well, he doesn't know what he's ready to do if that doctor turns around and spots them, but he's sure ready to do whatever-it-is. Like club the doctor or run away. Heart, meet throat.

"Oh fu-" Whatever comes after that is cut off by the noise continuing in a wash of sound, and the doctor will hear her grunt of surprise. Almost Immediately, the field shrinks down again, invisible, yet hovering just around her so that Hiro and Ando will get out of it faster.
The doctor turns around at the words, looking over to the noise. "HE— "

That's as far as she gets. The timestop expands again. A few seconds of video have them plain as day. The doctor saw them. The computer, the vents, everything is stopped again. Everything except for them. A few seconds can seem like an eternity. And for someone like Hiro, they actually are.

"Try again!" Hiro insists from across the other side of the room, gripping onto Ando to make sure that his friend does not get left behind should he need to run over to Rochelle and beam them all out of there, "We need to get all that information!"

Ando's eyes snap up to the camera, then to the doctor, frozen in mid-note. "Wait!" he says. "Hiro, we have to go back. The camera … the doctor!" If they let it stay like this, they'll have been recorded and they'll be seen. He can get into the computer. As soon as Hiro lets go of him, that is.

Hiro gestures across the room, attempting to prompt Ando to go and help Rochelle with the computer. Meanwhile, he stays over by the wall as he unfurls the blueprints once again and attempts to find a security word, "I can fix it … "

"Ohfrak." Rochelle says something much clearer this time, eyeballing the shocked look on the doctor's face. She does, however, straighten up and turn right back to the computer, putting her palms to it for a second time and having no trouble in opening a bubble for them to stand in. "I'm sorry! It hiccuped…" Comes the feeble apology next, to both of them.

Ando stares at Hiro. Stares. But with some hesitation, he leaves his friend to the blueprints and heads to the computer. He takes a seat in the chair and sets to work.

The security room is located on the blueprints. Two floors up, in the near center of the building. Makes sense for the main security terminal, probably.

The computer gives a few errors. Can not access the secure network. Network down. But the files contained within the computer still work fine. There's a folder for research. Lucky for them, the doctor had still been logged into her account on the server.

Inside said folder are files upon files of research data. Percentages. Origin Project. Lots of talk about how the mixtures fail. Subject numbers have many Xs beside them. A note about including a certain amount of regenerative blood in the project. Some level of success.

Another file gives something different. Attempts to replicate the regenerative properties in the blood. A table of attempts show that each one failed.

Notes comment on blood missing in incriments. Almost unnoticable. A scan of the memo that they found on the table, followed by a second one.

Someone within the lab is destroying the samples. Advice they all be moved as soon as possible via teleporter. An investigation into who is destroying the samples should start immediately.

The memo is signed Dr. Shannon Goode.

The doctor standing staring at them, with her mouth open, has a card on her coat. Dr. Shannon Goode.

"Get all the information you can," Hiro says tossing his notebook carefully into the field - the bizarre look of the object slowing to an almost-stop in the air before picking up momentum once it enters Rochelle's field would probably be amusing in another situation.

"Then we will escape and I will come back and get the tapes from the security room."

Yes, because despite working in the technology business he still thinks they use tapes.

The security room doesn't seem to have 24 hour awake rule, cause, like they often are in movies and television, the guy sitting on the chair by the monitors is leaning back, with a book in his lap and his eyes closed. There are many monitors, each with numbers. And one has a freeze frame of them in the lab, the second that he managed to stop time again. Only it doesn't actually show them. The camera wasn't pointed in the right direction that second. It shows the doctor and the storage lock.

Rochelle does squint a little bit at the notebook's pause, just before catching it in her hand and unhinging the pen from between the rings. She writes rather fast, for having such an otherwise bad time with sheer dexterity. "Looks like they have a bit of a rat in here already, don't it?" She is only sorry that the person got caught, technically.

Ando skims over the files, frowning as it takes it in. His eyes catch on the memo and he glances at the name. Looks vaguely familiar. He glances over at the doctor by the door, reads the name tag. Uh-oh. "Hiro, I think they are onto us." And by 'us', he doesn't mean him, Rochelle, and Hiro. "The blood has been moved by a teleporter. The network is time-frozen." He can't find the location of the other facility that way, so he starts looking through the files on the computer itself, hoping for an address or something of that nature.

"We have to hurry," Hiro insists, keeping his distance so they don't fall back into real time again, "Get what you can we'll go … first things first - we have to find the healing blood."

The good thing about timestop— they have extra time to skim and skim. They do find a few things after number of minutes, the clock on the computer ticking away. There are some cities listed under a supply and storage note. Redwood, California. Cuiaba, Brazil. West Hanahai, Botswana.

Rochelle is still scribbling when the locations pop up. "Wait-" She even points it right out, having been looking for it specifically while Ando clicked around. "…West Hana- they sent it to Africa?" Her tone suggests W.T.F., but at least now everyone knows. "Botswana. That's south Africa." See, she knows her geography too. Like teaching a bear to ride a ball- enough times and it'll learn. God Bless rural high school.

South Africa? Ando makes note of the other cities, too. Finally, Ando gives up on the notebook and starts looking around for a disk that he can download all the information on. Notes won't do, they'll need everything. "<Just a second,>" he tells Hiro.

"<Africa … >" Hiro repeats, looking slightly agape at the thought. All the same, when he's told to wait he remains still and keeps an eye out.

There are no discs handy, but there is a flashdrive, on a keychain. The keychain also has keys on it, as well as a few other little danglies. One of a koala bear, of all things.

Flashdrive works. Ando sticks it in and pulls it up to see if there are already any files on it, pauses, blinks, then works the keys off of the flashdrive and tosses them to Hiro. Or tries to. He might not be lobbing them hard enough to get them through the bubble and past the time-warp. "See if one of those fits the storage locker." If there are no files on the flashdrive already, he'll be starting to copy everything he's found to it.

Hiro reaches out to pluck the keys out of thin air once they pass the bubble, rushing over towards the locker and beginning to test all the keys on it …

The main storage locker uses a pad, with numbers and no keys required, and a of the lockers that do requires keys, including file cabinets, all fail. There is a locker near the door that uses keys, a couple of them. After a few tries there, one of the keys will fit, and open into a locker with personal effects, folders, a coat, make up, hair brush and other things. Nothing that seems relevent to the work place.

The flashdrive does already contain files. Two folders. Trying to access the Backup folder asks for a password, but the second folder Personal contains a mysterious thing, a folder titled: SimpleMU

Ando blinks at the mysterious folder, but it's personal, so he doesn't mess with it. Instead, he attempts to update the backup folder with yet /another/ backup of the computer and its files using the computer's backup system. If that fails to get past the password protection, he'll just attempt to copy the files onto the flashdrive manually using a different folder. It could be a completely different backup for all they know, and, well, it could take them a while to crack the password once they get out. "Maybe she has the passcodes on her," he mentions, pointing to the doctor.

Hiro pulls the coat from the locker, feeling around in the pockets in case he discovers a notepad with passwords or the keys to a Death Star or something. As he does so, he glances over towards Ando and nods his head - turning his attention back towards frozen-in-time doctor.

The folder copies over into another folder easily enough. It isn't password locked against copying. The computer ticks on as the files load. There's nothing in the coat pockets except a pair of black gloves, like ones people would wear while they drive to keep their hands warm, and an iPod. iPod of doom? Probably not. Likely just an iPod. A wallet with an ID, driver's liscence and address (she lives in New York City, Staten Island).

The doctor doesn't seem to have anything on her either, except her id necklace, which does appear to swipe, but no codes.

While the files copy, Ando turns around to look at Hiro, pauses, glances at the computer clock, and then widens his eyes. Oh shit. He looks around for something, anything, to use as a reference for the time when things froze and, spotting the frozen doctor's watch, heads over to check it. Okay, phew. Back to the computer he goes. Once the files have finished copying, he pulls out the flashdrive, closes everything down and then sets the computer clock back. "Get ready," he tells Rochelle. Once he's set the time back to the proper point, he nods to her. He's done with the computer. "What are we going to do with her?" He nods to the doctor. She did see them. And she could prove useful!

Hiro blinks at the doctor, glancing from Rochelle to Ando and then back to the doctor. This is part he didn't really think about and they're still going to need somebody with knowledge of Pinehearst … somebody who is likely higher up than Niki or Gene. Maybe the doctor could help? Hiro just blinks a few more times before he plants a hand on her shoulder and gestures for the others to come over, "Come on!"

Rochelle finally makes a face, reacting to Hiro's apparent desire to take the doctor with them. The field dies down around her, just enough to stay up, and she makes her way over to the trio with a very apprehensive look on her. "Breaking and entering, kidnapping- you're turning me into a felon." And that's all she has to say about that, as she puts her own hand on Hiro's shoulder and basically clicks the off button inside her brain. The field is gone now, but now she has a hold on Hiro. All is well, save for the 'hostage'.

Once everybody sufficiently connected, Hiro murmurs a Japanese apology to the soon-to-be-kidnapped Doctor Goode and squeezes his eyes shut.

Concentraaaaaaaaaaaate.

And then they're all gone.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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