“I handle stressful situations just fine, thank you very much!” Reiko whispered harshly, doing little to support her point as she very much lost her cool. Despite current appearances however, under normal circumstances she wouldn’t have been wrong; Reiko was quite good at handling a variety of difficult and stressful situations. Balancing exams in a number of advanced placement classes with a social life was stressful, trying to break through a firewall without alerting the security Digimon just around the corner was stressful, trying to maintain the carefully constructed and delicate balance of lies that had become your existence was stressful. And yet she managed to navigate all of it well enough.

Manaka was just managing to fray even Reiko’s nerves.

“Maybe if you had given us an objective for this test we’d be doing a little better at it. All you did was drop us in here and tell us to get around the threat, so I’m going around the threat by leaving as soon as I can.” And as soon as she was done with that she would be leaving Jormungundr and its annoying leader behind as well. The one condition she had had was that she would leave as soon as things got too dangerous and the very first thing Manaka did was throw them to the wolves. Surprisingly, Reiko didn’t appreciate that. “And what list are you talking about? If you forgot to tell us what we were supposed to do before sending us in here I am going to lose it!”

@Rune_Alchemist

"Other people missing you? Huh. Well, sorry. Not my problem. Really. I mean, I have to stay here and watch you now still but it's whatever. It's nice to be away from that music." The Aruekenimon walked over to a nearby cabinet and pulled out what looked to be a thing of meat and then back to in front of Ruruka's cell.

Ruruka's cell was pretty cramped at the moment. It looks like they were using it as a storage room of sorts. There were a number of chests and boxes sitting on one side of the room. There was a bed on the other side and something like a sword with the blade end sticking up. As Ruruka looked over at her Digimon Warden, she'd notice that she was busy eating, not too worried about Ruruka doing anything.

The Digimon perked up though. "Oh! Do you watch 'Systematic Justice' at all?" Ruruka might have heard of that. It was a somewhat popular TV show about court-room trials. "It's on right now I think." The giant digimon turned around and tapped on the wall which produced a TV. After tapping on it a couple of times it turned on and started playing the show.

"This is the man we brought in for the murder. His name is Jimi Uwasaki."

The Digimon seemed a bit focused on the show for now and Manaka's voice appeared in Ruruka's head. "Well then, this could be a chance for you to get out. Unless you want to meet that Siren again I guess." Ruruka could tell there was a curiosity in Manaka's voice as to what she'd do.

---

@PsyBlade@King Cosmos

Manaka giggled at Reiko. "You're funny. If it was too dangerous that I didn't think you could handle it I wouldn't have sent you. Besides, Ruruka only got caught because she was being silly. Still though, she's going to serve a purpose for you guys anyhow. I suggest you start searching before the other team makes things a little difficult for you." The woman continued.

She seemed to think about what they had said earlier as it had just dawned on her. "Wait, I never told you what you were looking for? I swear I wrote it in the the to-do list.... Ah... Guess I did. Sorry about that. Well, I suppose I should tell you now. It's a list as I mentioned. It has the names of every group that's been subdued by Thor in their conquest of hackers up until about two months ago. It also supposedly has an encryption of their over all plans. Supposedly." Manaka seemed dead serious about this. "Now, it should be hidden somewhere. I'm supposing it has something to do with that Mega I told you about so be careful."

The hallway ahead of them seemed about as promising as anywhere else. If the group looked, there was a small sign on the wall that pointed that way said "Recording Room" and another one saying "Siren's Room". As good as any to start right? Of course, to their right was a sign that said "Digimon Mess Hall."

---

@Hammerman@Duthguy@The World

"Jormungandr? Damn it all, more of you!?" The Elecmon sighed. He switched over to another button and hit that instead. No loud alarms were sounding. Instead, a hole in the ceiling opened and a rope fell down, allowing the Digimon to climb up rapidly. He taunted them as he quickly ascended. "Digimon are on their way! Don't think you're getting out of this, Jormungandr posers!" The digimon added as he crawled through the hole and escaped elsewhere. The hole did stay open though and it seemed big enough for a person to crawl into. Supposing he didn't trigger a silent alarm, he was probably running off to get some help.

"Well, we have to act now. You should search out and find that list. Oh, it's also come to my attention that I didn't tell you what you're here for so let me just..." She quickly informed them of what they were suppose to search for in much a way as she did for Reiko and Hifumi. "Now then you should probably head out and look for it."

To their front was a door that led to what was probably a hallway. To their right, another door that the Elecmon had come from. Or if someone was being brave, they might even consider following Elecmon but was that a wise choice?

Shion smacked Kotoki on the back of the head. "Great job, doofus. Chase after him. You're the one who threatened him, go make good on it. Telling him who sent us, sheesh it's like I'm the only one taking this seriously." She walked over to the computer and quickly pressed every button other than the one that opened the hatch. "You." Shion pointed at Issei. "Climb up there and hide after she goes up. I'm going to cause some chaos and it would be best to have you out of the way."

"Did you seriously think the bathroom thing would work?" Ludo asked Zuba.

"No, I totally blanked on what to do. I'm not as good at spontaneous stuff as you are."

With that, Ludo stood close to Shion and Zuba stood watching the door.

@Pyromania99@Hammerman@Duthguy

As Shion clicked every key on the station, everyone in the server would hear a blaring alarm as the monitors on the wall move in and out of the wall. The station was probably on full alert according to that sound. Everyone in the server would have heard it including Ruruka in the jail.

Manaka came over the comms to Shion's group. "What was that. What just happened...."

@The World@Pyromania99


The moment Shion laid her hand on Kotoki's head, the girl retaliated by slapping said hand away. Hard. Enough that the sound could be heard by the others.

"Don't you dare ever touch me again like that."

She was utterly and absolutely furious, judging by her expression. It was obvious that she did not appreciate the physical contact, plus the belittlement she had just received.

"Honestly, are you all just simple cowards? Why bother negotiating when we can just beat the answer out of it? Come out, you two!"

With a flash of light as data converged and manifested, at last her Digimon made their entrance. An Ogremon and a Clockmon.

"Ay, boss, who's in need of a clobberin'?" The Ogremon spoke, swinging his bone club around.

"GIVE ME YOUR ORDER, MASTER," the Clockmon said with a robotic-sounding voice.

"Be ready. The enemy is coming," she told them sternly.

"De enemy? Where 'em at? Let me at 'em!" The Ogremon replied, smashing his bone to the floor, leaving a tiny crater on it.

"I told you, they're coming! They're not here yet, you idiot!" she snapped back. "Honestly, if it weren't for your brute strength, I would've dumped your brainless idiotic self a long time ago."

She then turned to Issei, arms crossed in a commanding voice. "Go. Chase after that Elecmon. You're the only guy here so climb up that rope and bring it back. We'll guard the fort here.

"Fort? What fort, boss? Eye don't see any-"

"Just shut your mouth and smash any Digimon coming here," she quickly interrupted with a snarl.

Now they waited. If that Elecmon didn't lie, hostiles should pop out anytime soon.

The girls were right, going after that Elecmon was probably smart. Still Issei wasn't sure why he had to go, but now wasn't the time to argue about that. As he made his way to the rope black panties girl summoned her Digimon to help deal with what ever opposition was coming and he briefly wondered if he should leave behind one of his Garurumon just in case. He quickly decided against it as he didn't know what to expect himself. "Okay Reg, Shadow I might run into some trouble myself. Be ready to materialize when I say the word Thor" "All right, I'm in the mood for a good fight boss". " Just be careful."

With his preparations done Issei began climbing the rope, in pursuit of Elecmon. Despite the risk he took of enemies coming after him he didn't pull the rope up in case the girls needed a quick getaway. "I'm leaving the rope down just in case, good luck!"

Shion turned to Kotoki. "Alright, listen. Defending this place is a lost cause. I may not be a fancy hacker like you guys, but I play a lot of strategy games and a lot of stealth games and believe me, it's easier to get lost in a riot than it is to talk your way out of getting caught where you're not supposed to be. Now that we know what we're after, we can start searching for it. You really need to get lost, go blend in with the crowd and look around because if there's security on this list you're the only one who'll know how to get it. The only people coming here are going to be the ones who know what's going on in terms of security enough that they know this is the command center." Shion paused and sat cross-legged on the ground.

"Now, boy-wonder has a decent shot at stopping the Elecmon and interrogating him without getting caught, because now everyone will be confused. I'm going to either confuse or defeat everyone who comes in here, and honestly you'll just be in my way if you stay. I suggest leaving through the same hatch as Elecmon and then pulling up the rope so it's not obvious that you left that way." She glared at the hatch. "Similarly, if the others are smart, they'll use this opportunity to blend in with the crowd and search for the documents without being noticed."

Shion stopped for a moment then stood back up and walked over to Kotoki, poking her on the cheek in an attempt to provoke her. "Let's not forget that this is your fault for giving us away when I was trying to do damage control. If you hadn't scared off Elecmon we wouldn't need to reset our stealth levels." Shion sighed. "But that's not important. What's important is getting out of here without our digimon getting hurt."

"Please, leave this area to us. I know she can seem strange, but she's usually got a method to her madness."

"Besides, we're sharp enough to handle anyone who comes here on our own." Zuba added.

@Hammerman@Duthguy

---

Harumi felt like reaching through the Digivice and smacking Manaka.

Repeatedly.

With a brick.

She'd be getting paid, but the woman's forgetfulness grated on her. She let out an irritation-laced sigh. "So let's assume we find the information we're looking for. It's being guarded by a Digimon too strong for any of us to take on. I suppose that means splitting up and searching for clues is out of the question?"

@Pyromania99@King Cosmos

Kotoki raised her eyebrows. "Are you really saying you can handle this place on your own? I expect multiple Digimon to swarm this place at any second. We wouldn't be able to help you if you are overwhelmed, you know."

She shrugged. "Well, whatever. Not my problem if your account gets deleted."

When Shion poked her cheeks, she once again slapped her hand away. "You. Are you an idiot or something? Or are you just trying to rile me up? I told you not to touch me." She glared at her.

"If you want a fight that badly, then Ogremon here will be perfectly happy to comply." She glanced at her Digimon.

"Woz the matter, Boss? She's bothering you, ain't it? I'll be happy to pummel her if you want."

The Digimon walked forward, his size looming over the smaller girl.

A jail cell, oh noooo!?
@Pyromania99

---

"Bad for me? Wouldn't it be bad for you too?" Ruruka mused. "Would be a shame for the wrong sort of people to come snooping around your lovely little hideout here." Ruruka didn't seem too bothered by her predicament, and it was difficult to tell if it was confidence, or she was simply putting on a front to make it seem like she had an upper hand. Manaka was right though, this would be a pretty decent chance to escape...but then, to what end would that be?

"Can't say I've watched it. I don't have much time for TV these days, if I'm not working or spending time with my digimon." Ruruka tilted her head to the side, but before she could consider conversing further, a loud, blaring alarm echoed in the hallways...oh for the love of - those idiots, did they do something? She shouldn't have left them alone, she supposed, but still.

"...shouldn't you check that?"

“Oh, what now?” Before Reiko could think of a suitably scathing response to the fact Manaka had forgotten to give them their objective, alarms starting blaring out across the server for all to hear. Her head snapped up and began to turn to look every which way in the empty corridor they stood in as she looked for some indication of what was going on; she didn’t think that she and Harumi were to blame, so the alarm was probably due to something the other group had done, but just because they weren’t the cause didn’t mean they didn’t need to be concerned.

If people were looking for intruders then their flimsy cover, which so far consisted of the fact that Reiko was wearing a hoodie that she had found back stage, would be blown as soon as someone questioned who they were. And if the audience began to spill out of the auditorium into this corridor and saw them out here alone they may not even bother to ask questions. “We need to get out of the open like this. We’ll look too suspicious for being the only people not listening to the concert when the alarm went off.”

Reiko’s gaze fell on the sign leading to Siren’s room and had an idea. If Siren was the person on stage then her room was probably empty right now and if she was the leader of this group, or at least someone important, then this list Manaka wanted might be there as well. It was also most likely guarded and the first place Siren would check after an alarm, but they were critically short of options right now. “Damn it. Let’s go this way.” Reiko grabbed Harumi by the sleeve and began tugging her in that direction.

"DAMN IT ALL!" Siren screamed into the mic. The warning alarm was blaring and Siren was pretty sure she told that damned Elecmon to only activate the alarm if it was an attack from that one defunct group Thor had taken care of back then. "ALRIGHT! FIND THAT ELECMON! FIND WHOEVER HE SET THE ALARM OFF FOR!" Everyone in the room looked at her for a bit, worried about leaving the room. "GO!" She yelled. All the Muse Hackers in the room dispersed and started to leave. The majority of them went towards the entrance area, where the most enemies would be expected. Others headed toward the where the Elecmon had set up his little monitering station.

Hackers from other groups opted to help Muse hackers with the intruders, if nothing else than to get the show on the roll again. There were a few others that stayed around to watch the area. With most of them gone, Siren dropped to her knees. "Damn it all. First that thing from earlier, the girl interrupting me and now this." She complained to herself as Etemon walked over to her.

"Now, now, Darlin'. At least it ain't Thor coming back here." The Etemon said as he kneeled next to the musician. "They've not asked much of us yet. Just watching over that list."

Siren looked up to Etemon with a couple of tears in her eyes. "Don't remind me of that. That's whole reason for... THIS!" She added, opening her arms up to direct attention to the whole room and stage.

Etemon just went silent and patted the girl on the head.......

---

@Duthguy

As Issei crawled into the ducts he'd notice that they were definitely not intended to be crawled in, at least by someone or something his size. Manaka was silent in his ear so he had to make the choices by himself. Ahead was an open panel that lead out to a room along with the continuation of the vent. As he peeked by he'd see the room was a sort of... Locker room. Not something like a girl's or boy's locker room but one you'd be more likely to see at a workplace so employees could keep their things. That said, he'd hear the sounds of scampering further down the vent and see a figure ram through another vent and fall into a room. As he turned back to the locker room however, he spotted something... Interesting? Among the lockers was a table, perhaps a break room table if the assumption could be made that this was one. On that table was a couple of pieces of paper that looked like documents of sorts and a small laptop or terminal of sorts right next to it.

He could investigate this room and see if that was something of import or continue chasing the Elecmon.

---

@The World@Hammerman

"Stop it you two!" Manaka ordered. She seemed used to this kind of thing at least. She mumbled on her side of the voice chat as her fingers rapidly typed. "The typical Hacker in Muse has at least a Champion type with them. A few oddballs among them have an Ultimate though most of them are fairly new and shouldn't be too much stronger than a Champion... You just need to be worried about meeting up with Siren. She's obviously the biggest danger in this band of misfits."

The woman went silent. She finally spoke up again. "You'll lose if you stay here. Following Issei is a good choice, so is just making yourself scarce. You might be able to find Muse hoodies about. Lose yourself into the crowd, though the preferable option was looking around while 95% of the place was watching her concert. Too late for that now." The option was up to Shion and Kotoki.

They still had time however. They haven't reached this place yet, but there were sure to be people coming here.

---

@King Cosmos@PsyBlade

"To be honest? I'm not sure at the moment whether you should split up or not." Manaka said, sounding rather irritated. "I had many suggestions and plans for you all if you asked... But none of them really were covering ONE OF YOU causing the alarm to go off." They heard typing coming from Manaka's side. Rapid typing. "Let me know if you need anything." Manaka's line went silent

As the two got close to Siren's room, they'd notice the door was wide open and it was a heck of a lot more girly than whatever it was she was doing on stage on the inside. There were stuffed animals lining the wall on shelves and one part of it was a recording booth one might see at studio. Still, they might be able to get away with looking around with those hoodies on.

There were plenty of places to look in here. Dressers, cabinets, a chest like from a video game and a safe on the wall. It would take them a bit but there was definitely some stuff to do.

They could sneak in here or they could check the other place.

---

@Rune_Alchemist

the Arukenimon jumped as she heard the alarm go off. She certainly wasn't expecting it. She scratched her head as she thought about her next move. "Hmm... No, I think I'll stay here for now. Those idiots will run me over in the hall if I step out now." The spider said aloud. Without turning her head, she asked Ruruka a question. "Is this suppose to be your friends here to rescue you?" It was more a joke than anything else.

Issei honestly didn't know what to do, the papers on the breakroom could be important but losing Elecmon could make things even worse. If at least one of the girls was behind him things would be a lot easier as they could split up. His two Digimon wouldn't be much help here either, there was no way they could fit in the vents and sending them to collect the papers would likely ruin them since the canine Digimon would no doubt have to try and pick the documents with their mouths.

He quickly decided to keep going after Elecmon and hope at least one of the girls would come up after him or he got a chance to come back. Before continuing he tried writing a message in any present dust and grime. "Check out room, could be important." That done he moved forward as fast as he could while still hopefully quiet enough not to reveal his presence to his prey.

Shion sighed. Apparently she'd need to actually explain her plan, since her teammates seemed incapable of noticing where she was headed. "You've got three choices. You can follow the vent, you can go blend in like I suggested, or we can set you up as a member of this place and have a fight. I didn't want to risk being overheard but somebody doesn't watch enough movies to have figured out why I was provoking you. Whatever you do, hurry up."

With that, Shion went back to sitting cross-legged on the floor.

@Hammerman@Pyromania99

As usual, I'm surrounded by idiots.
@Pyromania99

---

"My friends wouldn't have gotten noticed so easily." Ruruka replied with a shrug. "No, it's probably the incompetent lackeys of some would-be hacker group. That said..." Well, she supposed now was time to get serious. This was becoming quite the hassle, wasn't it? Whoever set off the alarm, if they worked for her, they would have gotten shunted to some dark realm in the digital world. Permanently. She certainly hoped Manaka wasn't going to let whoever this was off easily. Thankfully, her binds were incredibly easily dealt with. This spider digimon could really use a class in prisoner watching.

While the digimon was distracted, Ruruka quietly made her way over to the blade that was left laying around. It was definitely time for her to stop lazing around. Really, what were these idiots thinking? She might have messed around a bit, certainly, but she didn't jeopardize the entire mission. When you wanted something done well, she supposed...she reached the blade easily, quickly backing up against it and severing the bonds holding her.

She pulled out her digivice, quickly calling her digimon to her. Immediately upon fully materializing, they both opened with a surprise attack upon Arukenimon.

"Lightspeed jabbing." Togemon was first, immediately closing in close to the enemy digimon. A flurry of punches delivered right to the spiders humanoid torso.

"Sunshine Bazooka!~" Sunflowmon was quick to follow up, a giant seed slamming into the spider. Hopefully they could catch her by surprise, incapacitating her before she had much room to react.

Manaka sounded quite annoyed at the moment, but Reiko couldn’t find it within herself to care; if she hadn’t make it plainly obvious already she was as fed up with the current situation as their so called leader was, even more so since she was the one who was going to have to face the consequences if they were caught. Manaka would just wash her hands of them and find some other saps to take their place.

With the motivation to not let that happen in mind, Reiko pushed forward and dragged Harumi behind her until they reached Siren’s room; the door was open, which seemed foolish even if this was her own server, and the hacker walked in without hesitation before closing the door behind them. The décor was a lot more feminine than she had expected from seeing the girl on stage, with a lot more pink and frills and stuffed animals and a lot less black, spikes and pentagrams; it was even worse than her own room, more fit for a preteen than someone their own age.

Aside from the recording booth, which was kind of cool but irrelevant right now, the only furnishings of note were the chest and the safe with the latter being the most likely hiding spot for this list they were supposed to find. Even if it didn’t have what they were looking for it might still hold something of interest. “Can you get into that?” Reiko gestured towards the safe with one hand. “I don’t think I can open it without causing too much noise. I’m not great at the more delicate stuff.” Leaving Harumi to deal with that, or not as the case may be, Reiko walked over to the chest and gingerly tried to open the lid.

@Pyromania99@PsyBlade