ASSAULTING SUNRISE
Job 4: Pump In Circles
Bentley wheels his way out of the safehouse with a grunt. It's actually easier for him to get on the roofs and jump from rooftop to rooftop than to keep his chair on the paths, given the way the paths are circular with raised edges and, well, not flat. Bentley grumbles about the stupid paths and the stupid designs and how unsanitary and dirty everything is and how this is all wreaking havoc on his allergies and...
Ya know, I don't think I need to chronicle every grumpy thing Bentley mumbles. In any case, soon enough Bentley is on a rooftop just outside of the carousel, and pulls out his binoc-u-com. He zooms in on the carousel, and the small door in the center of it. "That's my entry point."
"Looks good to me," says Carmelita. She glances down at something, then back up. "Unless I'm mistaken, there's a computer by the door; want me to keep an eye out while you hack?"
"Please," Bentley says. "And check up on me every now and then when I'm inside. A door sealed by a hackable lock likely opens an area full of hackable things."
"Sounds like your area, for sure," Carmelita agrees.
"It'll be like Christmas," Bentley agrees, a huge grin on his face, and puts his binoc-u-com away.
Now that Carmelita's destroyed all the cameras, the carousel seems to be doing... well, it's spinning. Over the course of ten or twenty seconds it goes from stopped to full speed, then slows back down again. At full speed, anyone on it who isn't sitting on one of the animals (and wearing a seatbelt!) is likely to be thrown off, it goes so fast, so Bentley has to time when he goes in.
He almost doesn't make it—his wheels slip as he gets near the unmoving center, and he has to use his jetpacks for an extra boost—but then he's there, typing away. "Let's go for a ride," he whispers to it as he gets started. "One far more fun than any found here."
The hacking job is carousel-themed. Bentley enters a long circular hallway spinning clockwise, with short lasers along it; he has to dodge back and forth as the lasers come towards him until he gets to a spot where he can swap to a second hallway, which spins in the other direction. At the end of the third such hallway is a switch he can push.
The door pops open. Bentley pats the computer's monitor affectionately and wheels himself in.
A long, tightly spiraled staircase leads down. Bentley is impatient enough that he just jumps over the railing and falls, using his hover-boosters to slow near the end so he lands with scarcely a bump. There's a door at the bottom, with a single red emergency light over it; Bentley opens it.
Steam billows out. Bentley coughs, then wipes his glasses and wheels himself in. Gigantic tubs of brine, each easily large enough to fit the van four or five times over, boil incessantly. Pipes lead from them, full of liquid that shimmers with silvery-white light. Bentley's eyes bulge. He pulls out his binoc-u-com. "Gadzooks. They're boiling the brine to extract lithium!"
"That's a controlled substance," growls Carmelita over the binoc-u-com.
"Worse. It's usually extracted through solar evaporation." Bentley wheels forward, towards the end of one pot, as a massive bubble pops and emits a gust of steam. "Boiling it could cause a ton of health problems for people around it. Not to mention the good chance of explosions."
Almost as if Bentley caused it, there's a distant boom from somewhere further away.
"I'll get started on the arrest paperwork," Carmelita says. "Be careful. Can you stop this?"
"If I can locate the pumps they're using to extract the brine, I should be able to disable them. It may not stop things entirely, but it'll slow them down."
"Get to it, then."
Bentley pockets his binoc-u-com and looks around. A rickety catwalk goes over the room's three large pots; there's a computer up there, and another door past the containers. Bentley, being Bentley, is at that computer faster than you can say 'Einstein's theory of relativity.'
I probably should've chosen a shorter phrase, but in any case, Bentley hacks. The basic layout of the hacking job is the same as before, with moving circular hallways and lasers, only now there are enemies-fast, nonshooting, moving ones-trying to reach him as well. They're quick enough not to hit themselves on the lasers, but not much of a challenge for Bentley's hacker code... but just enough of a distraction that moving through the halls is more difficult. By the time he reaches the switch, his avatar is at half health.
Bentley finishes typing with a sigh and watches as the door further in opens. "Nice job, shell boy," Carmelita comments as he makes his way over.
"I agree, that was a particularly nice bit of hacking," Bently says, only to stop in his tracks. Another long room with a door and at the far side, but this time, there's no catwalk, and only very narrow spots to land between the boiling pots; in some cases, there's not even ground between them, just rather unstable looking piles of debris floating on the water. Bentley will need to be very careful with his jetpack and hover boost if he wants to get across this, especially since he has to time himself so he doesn't get burned by the exploding steam bubbles.
"Yeah, that was nice hacking, but be sure you don't get turned into turtle soup," Carmelita comments.
Bentley groans. "Don't remind me."
It gets better, Bentley quickly discovers: the unstable piles of debris WILL, in fact, crumble beneath his feet in moments. He can land on them to refresh his jump and jetpack, sure, but not for an actual breather. And it's a rather long room. If the computers didn't need hacking, Bentley would almost rather have Sly do this.
Almost. He hasn't had a chance for some good parkour in a while, and though he'd deny it, he's grinning as he reaches that computer and starts to hack.
Same three spinning hallways to navigate; same lasers. Now, the many moving enemies are fewer, but leaving bombs behind them. And come from both directions, so he can't just fire his hacker code one way. Doing all that while navigating the spinning hallways with lasers is... well, it's not the easiest thing in the world, let's be honest. But Bentley gets it done, and the door to the next area opens.
Good news: the pumps Bentley wants to destroy are on the far side of the room. Bad news: there is absolutely no way Bentley can get over there. There's nothing to land on, not even a temporary platform, between the bubbling pots of brine. Not even a large enough track for his RC car, or a spot for the grapple-cam to grip, and the steam makes the air currents too unsteady for his RC Chopper to make it across.
"Drat," Bentley mutters. "And curses!"
"Can't get across?" Carmelita asks.
Bentley nods, scowling at the thing. "I don't think any of us can get across," he says, shoulders drooping. "We may just have to put up with the huge amounts of brine in the area."
"Dang," Carmelita says, as Bentley wheels his way to the edge of the nearest pool. "And after all that work you spent getting down there."
"There's something in there," Bentley says, staring down at the brine. Where a dark shape is. Getting closer.
Bentley backs up as something breaches the surface with a small splash and a sputter. "Oy, Bentley! It's 'bout time you got your briney-barnacled behind down here! How's life been treatin' ya?"
Bentley stares at Henriette, who swims to the edge of the basin and rests her arms on the side, her chin resting on her one hand. Finally he sputters out, "How are you swimming in that?"
"Eh, my suit's designed for all sorts'o ocean flotsam," she says, hoisting herself out; brine streams down her wetsuit. "Me mask works as goggles, too, and ye wouldn't believe the treatments I give my fur. Ye look a might bit peaked; are ya sure ya have your sea legs?"
Bentley's mouth opens and closes and opens and closes and opens and closes again. Over the binoc-u-com, Carmelita's laughing. Finally, Bentley says, "I'd ask what you're doing here, but I'm almost afraid of the answer. But, uh, since you can swim in this stuff, could you do me a favor?"
"It'll cost ya."
"It will?"
Henriette laughs and slaps him on the back, so hard he'd fall out of his chair if not for the seatbelt. "I'm just jokin! What do ya need me ta do?"
"My remote trigger bombs will be able to take care of those pumps. Can you swim a few of them over there?"
"Can I swim—that's like askin' if I can make tea!" Henriette swipes the trigger bombs from Bentley's hands. "Can I swim, of all the urchin-headed questions!"
As Henriette jumps in the water, Bentley gives her a crash course in swimming controls: "When you're above water, you can jump out and choose your direction as simple as walking, but you may need to press R1 to submerge. When underwater, use the left joystick to aim, and tap the X button to swim. You can swing your cane to attack with the square button. Going underwater might be safer, for getting past those steam bubbles."
That it is. Henriette swims underwater through the middle of each tank, reaches the surface on the other side, and jumps out. A few larger bubbles down there replenish her air—not that she needs it—if she hits them. It takes only a few seconds for her to reach the pumps and affix the bombs, and then she swims back before Bentley blows them up.
Almost instantly, the brine levels in the giant pots begin to lower. "Right, time to go back to the safe-house."
"I'm surprised you haven't asked what I'm doing here," Henriette comments, sticking her hands in her pockets.
"You can tell me back at the safe-house.
JOB COMPLETE
Bentley makes his slow, careful, jumping way back as Henriette swims ahead.
A/N:
In response to the many, many reviews commenting about pokemon... the only snake pokemon I know are Ekans and Arbok. I misspelled the word 'superior' at one point, when I was trying to come up with Bad Guy Names, and it struck me as the perfect name for the snake. So it's just a glorious coincidence.