trans_9 | This is a Whisper Into Your Satellite Dish [Closed]

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This is a Whisper Into Your Satellite Dish [Closed]

[OOC: Bendytimed to shortly after this thread.]

Punchy's certain that given five days, he can figure out the little device he and Tim picked up in the Tavern. Given five days, an encyclopedic knowledge of alien technology, an instruction manual and a research team, that is. And a new bag of gummi worms.

In a way, it's both a disappointment and an encouragement that he and Tim only found a booster for the signal they picked up, rather than the source itself. A disappointment because some mofo's still getting tortured out there (bummer, dawg), and encouragement because that means there's still a crime to solve. Unfortunately, he and Tim have decided that they might need help on this.

Punchy hates asking for help on this stuff. He should be cool enough to do this on his own. His requests should be limited to 'can you tell me again how totally boss I am?' and 'can you pass the Red Bull?'. Unfortunately, sans Red Bull and any knowledge of whatever this thingy (now nicknamed The Shiznit) they picked up, he's going to have to bust out of his wheelhouse a little.

He and Tim walk into Engineering, looking for a certain Mr. Cranston.

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After that bout of relaxation, Billy was finding it far easier to focus. He was pushing past another round of completed repair paperwork when the two engineers arrived. Like any other day, he lifted his head to greet them.

"Hey, what do you need?" He always had time for his crew. It could be important.

Tim, for his own part, was okay with asking for help. While maybe he had a bit of ego to him, he was used to dealing with things out of his league, as well, and sometimes that meant backup. Of course, he gave it a shot anyway-- he and Punchy both working on it to see what they could find. (He also was, incidentally, opposed to the nickname.)

He nodded his greeting to Billy as they entered, a face he was more than familiar with after having worked with him for months. "We've found something we think you should look at," he explained, business as usual.

"This is The Shiznit," Punchy explains before Tim gets a chance to call it something boring and reasonable. He holds it up but doesn't quite give it to Billy yet - he has to pose dramatically first, as if he's the first person to discover fire or invent the electric toothbrush.

"You know that mofo busting out an SOS over the comms all the time? I tried tracing the sources and came up with two zones, but only could zero in on the one. It was at that tavern joint, you know? Glued up under the table and all like some chewed gum or something. We were wondering if you could peep at it and tell us what it is, besides shiznit."

"I know, I've been following the messages and trying to save them on a disconnected device. I have a strong hypothesis about who it is. He used to work here," Billy answered, glancing at a corner that Brainy had liked to frequent while he worked. Though he was a little surprised to admit it to himself, he missed him---and now he was in danger. If Billy could do anything to help. Cassie had suffered for months, and now Brainy too? Too many people were being tortured right under his nose.

Ready for business, he pushed back in his chair and cleaned his glasses. Once that was done, he started stacking magnifying tools and scanners on the desk. "I'll have a look, sure. Can you place it here?"

Tim rose an eyebrow at Punchy, underneath his cowl. His incredulity would be obvious if you could actually see most of his face. At least the name wasn't overly important, so he wasn't going to argue with Punchy about that now. Professionalism and all.

He watched Billy closely for a moment, while Punchy explained. "And what's your theory?" he asked. He'd seen the comms, of course, but he wanted to know Billy's thoughts on the matter. He wasn't going to push Punchy into giving up his 'prize' any sooner, in the meantime.

"One of your homies? That just means we got to work faster." Punchy placed the Shiznit on the desk with near reverential gentleness. Out of habit more than anything, he flicks his goggles back down - goggles instantly add an extra 50% seriousness factor to any of his facial expressions.

"Gotta admit, I ain't seen no shizz like this before."

Billy spared a glance up at them as he prepared to examine the thing, recounting his worried thoughts of the past while. "I believe it's a former crewmate of ours, Brainiac 5. The references to levels of intelligence, the way he spoke, the green...it fits. There are other potential explanations, of course, but it seems the most likely."

"That would be because it's a very specific make," Billy realized instantly. The premeditation from his hypothesis brought the pieces together easily---just a bit too easily. With careful tweezers in hand, he rotated the object in front of his eyes until he was absolutely certain of it.

"It bears the marks of Coluan technology---Brainy's people. As you said, it does seem to be a signal booster. We'll just need to reverse it to find the location."

That, unfortunately, was easier said than done.

"Right," Tim agreed, nodding to Billy. He didn't have a lot of personal experience, though. "I'm somewhat familiar with him," he commented. It had been a long time, but it was still something from his world. Still, given the time on the ship Billy was much more the expert in this regard than Tim was now.

"So it seems you were right." He frowned. "We should be able to track it with that, plus the information we already have from the messages themselves, but it'll doubtlessly be trouble to find the source." Well, at least it was clear what they had to work on now. "We should get started right away." Tim, for his own part, probably wouldn't be sleeping much-- regardless of who it was, someone was in trouble. They needed to get to him as soon as possible, while they sussed out the trap at the same time.

((ooc: sorry for the fail tag dfgdfg))

"Brainiac, huh? Sounds...cerebral," Punchy says, and yes, that is the very limit of his academic vocabulary. He'll go back to the 'dawg's and 'shizzie's any minute now, if you don't mind.

Punchy's going to need to take a major dirt nap soon - he's been working on this project almost nonstop. But they need a plan first, at least, and pained as he is to admit it, Billy should be the one to decide how it goes. Given that he's the one who has an idea of what they need to do.

"Show the way, homeboy. You know I got your back if you need some heavy-lifting. Codewise of course."

"It's a likely hypothesis, not a certainty," Billy cautioned, still staring at the device. "He's not the only Coluan in existence, and it could well be someone impersonating him to set a trap, as you said. But it's too likely to ignore. We could never ignore someone in danger."

Well, he couldn't. It was a damn hero complex striking again.

"But we'll have to find the source, yes. Did either of you record any extra data from the transmissions? I've done as much as I could after the fact, but I never seem to be checking my omnicom at the right time."

For a moment, Tim gave Punchy a side-glance, before he said, "of course," agreeing with Billy. "But considering my own knowledge, I'd say it's as good a guess as any." It did seem likely. "But it is a matter of risk versus reward. We're going into this knowing the dangers, so we can prepare ourselves."

"Some, yes," Tim said, nodding. He was perfectly fine with following Billy in this situation-- he already was head, after all, and he had the skills to back that up. "And Punchy has done some good work with what he has." In other words, the other hero had made good progress, and he had a lot that could help.

"Never," Punchy agrees with Billy, uncharacteristically solemn. "Trap or not, we need to get up in that hizzy."

In his pocket, he clutches Puppet a little closer, to remind himself why he's here.

"Thanks for the props, dawg," Punchy says, holding out a fist for Tim to bro-pound (apparently he didn't learn his lesson from his last disappointing attempt to get a high five from him). "I can get you my skivs, Blue, so you can see what I did that worked and what tanked."

Billy straps on his work goggles, preparing to zoom in on the device. This is going to be a rough night, or perhaps more.

"That'd be perfect, Punchy, go ahead. We'll need to compare everything we have as we work. I'm running preliminary scans now, but that data will really help us."

They were going to need coffee, he thought.

Tim nodded. For his own part, he had already given his own data to Punchy to work through, since he seemed to have taken a special dedication to this project, and the more he had to work with the better. And the more they learnt the more Tim was determined to make this a top priority.

"Right. We can't afford to miss anything, after all. Even the smallest amount of time saved is crucial," he said, though it was obvious, pointedly ignoring Punchy's hand. "We'll start preparing to compare all of the data we can get, then." Tim would also prepare for some more long nights, coffee or no. At least he was used to that much.

((ooc: I'll stop nicknaming the FTBs one day.))

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This is a Whisper Into Your Satellite Dish [Closed]

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MY TYPOS WILL BLOT OUT THE SUN

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One more tag each, then fade?

Sure!

FTB: plot edition...