System Shutdown? [Y/N]

[King]

January 3rd - 4:30AM
Liverpool, England.

Some days Jolt really wished him and his team didn't have day jobs. Since they all worked to keep their profiles low, they had to meet at ungodly hours in the morning and late at night. If anybody saw them repeatedly go into the warehouse, it would get suspicious. Jolt walked down the dark street, sipping his coffee. He did have work to get to at 8, so he was in his usual grey suit.

"Mornin' guys..." Jolt walked down the stairs as he got into the warehouse, going down to see everybody was there. "Starbucks wasn't open so... Enjoy your regular coffee..." Jolt placed down the tray of drinks on the food desk and sat down. He watched his team, they were like his family now, since he lived alone. Personally Jolt considered himself more of a fatherly figure than a boss. He was a leader, but not so much a CEO.

His team consisted of a mix, but he trusted them all with different things. Sixsmith was somebody Jolt always respected, but never seemed to get. He was mysteriously masked - Jolt had a suspicion that there was more to him than his cheeky personality. Luce was somebody else he respected, if worst came to worst and they were found, Luce was the person he wanted to be by his side when he went to kick some ass. Then there was Nico, a bright kid who was surprisingly good in many areas, Jolt hoped he chose the right career path. Paradox was another surprising character. She didn't look like your typical hacker, but she proved it was possible to be fashionable and good with money. Lastly was Pharaoh, somebody Jolt needed. Without her, he would be without many contraptions. All together, they were Team Chaos.

"Guys. Gather around." Jolt said, getting a pen out of his pocket and chucking it to hit Luce's head - She probably couldn't hear him if she was listening to loud music. They had been together as Team Chaos as a hacker family for about five months. But so far they had only really done small things, playing with the local area. But now, he had his original plan in mind. He liked to call it B.B.G.B. 'Bye Bye great Britain!' He had been planning it for a long time, ever sine he was a boy and dreaming of running riot. Today, was the day when Jolt finally explained it to his group. He was sure they had heard of BBGB a lot, since Jolt talked about it, but he never explained himself. Now, he decided now was plan time.

@ToyMaker @Vansalon @Lepixi @Brøken_Serenity @Whale Wings

​

 

[Lepixi]

Karen put down the wireless headset she was tinkering with, working on improving the signal strength at longer distances, when Jolt came in with the coffee. She'd already eaten and had coffee, as she'd been up since 2 AM, but the extra caffeine was welcome. Karen mumbled a thanks and downed half the cup in one long sip, ignoring the fact that she was probably burning her tongue drinking hot coffee that fast. She was anxious to finish work on the headset. There were other electronics she was supposed to have fixed by noon for some college kids, and more scouting for work wherever there were broken things to fix. She could do more than electronics, but she preferred to stick with the small things; plumbing was hardly work for a member of the team of hacker elites.

Karen was a bit slow to join the huddle when Jolt called a meeting; though Jolt had made it clear she was a team member from day one, their work rarely had anything to do with her, and she barely understood half the things they were talking about. Most of her interactions with the team were awkward waves and short chats when someone asked her to fix something, or for a new gadget.

I need friends, Karen thought, and though the idea of socializing in a town that was still new to her added another layer of heaviness to her sleep-deprived brain, she kept a smile on her face as she joined the rest of the team.

 

[Brøken_Serenity]

Paradox

She had feelings about everyone she worked with, and felt comfortable with all of them. If she had to pick the person she respected the most it would be Nico. The guy was a genius and Sayuri was honestly rooting for him internally to figure out what he needed to do with his life. She liked Luce, or atleast the more sadistic side of her did. She saw Jolt as the dad of the group easily. He wasn't impending and didn't act like boss. Just a affectionate overseer. A dad. Karen, or Pharoah, was fine, Sayuri liked her well enough. But then again she didn't really know her out of work. Sixsmith was interesting, someone Sayuri would of loved to toy with if he was a stranger on the internet.

Sayuri actually was just walking in after Jolt, her head down and paying attention to her phone. But of course nothing was happening. Every social media other than tumblr was pretty much dead this early in the morning. She'd gotten to the warehouse at four a.m but ten minutes ago she'd left to go get a snack and was returning again.

She stuck her phone in her left boot at the sound of the man's words. She followed him to where he was going, taking her burrito out of her bag and beginning to eat it. She stayed silent, after some of the magical and wonderful liquid Jolt possesed with him she'd be more herself. She grabbed a cup from the tray of it he was holding and gave him an So-Sleepy-Please-Accept-My-Smile-As-A-Thanks smile before beginning to sip at it, making sure it wouldn't burn her tongue. She'd known which was hers because it had the letter P on it which meant it possessed more creamer than everyone else's. That was another thing that made Jolt sort of a Dad figure. She couldn't exactly remember when he'd started doing that but she was happy about it. She used to just bring creamer from home.

It was hot so Sayuri took off the lid to help it cool faster.​

 

[lostfaith]

Sadie, or Luce, was sitting cross-legged on the floor near her desk, tapping away at her laptop as her mind went on autopilot, retrieving every detail of the code she was writing from the infinite recesses of her memory and setting it to digital "paper" as the program slowly took shape. She had been working on this particular program for almost two years. Of course, she had finished a draft in just a few months, but a draft was never enough. Now, her job was fine-tuning it, making it actually work. That frequently meant deleting and rewriting everything over again as even minor details changed affected every other single line, and if she made a mistake anywhere, the program was liable to simply crash as soon as she tried to load it to a system, and then it wouldn't do anything. Spotting a mistyped integer, she frowned and tapped the up arrow key to reach it again, backspacing it out of existence and then retyping it. Finishing the section she was rewriting, she clicked "Save" and deftly retrieved the USB drive everything was written to, planning to insert it into a test computer that was written to emulate the target the virus would eventually be used on. As she stood up to do so, however, a pen hit her in the back of the head. Almost regretfully setting the drive on the desk, she slid her headphones down to her neck, blaring the punk rock for all to hear. Realizing the rest of the group was gathering around Jolt, she shrugged and closed her laptop, quick-stepping up to stand by Paradox.

Sadie was closer to the financial manager than the rest of the group, possibly because of a shared interest in what was ultimately important: Cash. Money makes the world go 'round, after all. She thought to herself. By observing Sayuri over the past few months, Luce had learned a lot about handling finance, laundering money, and so on. Business techniques. She never forgot what she learned, so the skills were already being put to use in her more regular dealings with the two-bit criminals who hired the eideticker out for her uncanny hacking ability. She idly surveyed the faces of her other companions as they gathered around, her gaze resting first on Jolt's handsome face. She rather liked the older man, although he was a little blunt at times. Sadie preferred to be a little more...diplomatic. Early on, she had been interested in him in...other ways, but had been rebuffed. Can't catch them all, I suppose. Next, her eyes found their way to Nico, who was older than he looked. Luce would have pegged him for seventeen or eighteen when she'd first seen him, but his young face concealed a sharp intellect and a creative mind. She didn't know him that well because of their shared trait of ignoring others while they were working, but they got along well enough when they did interact. Pharaoh was something of an enigma to Sadie; the technician didn't take that well to her teasing, so she had never been quite sure how to approach her. She was attractive enough, but she was so...severe. The hacker preferred people who were a little smoother around the edges. She found her glance drawn to Pierce, or Sixsmith as he preferred to be called. Her gaze was always drawn him to him, she had noticed. His sassy personality and expert social manuevering had caught her attention almost immediately, but her pursuit of the well-dressed man ended in as dismal a failure as her interest in Jolt. My luck has been horrible lately.

 

[Endless Cosmos]

​

Mornings were always a hassle for Pierce—Jonny shared that sentiment, if his dead weight was any kind of evidence—especially when forced into overtime by a pair of, for lack of a better term, asshole frat boys from the college nearby. Their dogs were conveniently sick for a party—oh, he'd heard about it, almost anyone who wasn't a manager heard about it—so he and the feisty redhead he'd befriended worked their late night shifts for them. He'd specifically gotten something relatively early for the precise reason that he'd be waking up at 4 in the morning for, but that didn't quite work out for him. So, essentially, Pierce was rolling on with two hours of sleep and multiple shots of Redbull and various other energy drinks.

In other words, the coffee was a welcome sight.

There was no bothering thanking Jolt, the fact that he'd trudged up to the other man, bloodshot eyes and a look that could very well murder if he willed it. The moment he'd arrived, unlike Luce, Pierce had made it quite obvious what he'd be doing until their fearless leader waltzed in: sleep. They were all kind enough to get the hint when he'd marched in and draped himself across his keyboard with a thud and an even louder groan. Pierce had remembered mumbling something along the lines of, "Sod it all," before succumbing to the thirty minutes of rest he'd gotten. It wasn't like he was shirking his duties or anything, since Jolt had yet to arrive, but that didn't stop him from thinking a few rather self-deprecating thoughts of himself.

Of course, due to his already wanky schedule, he'd have to come in at work at around noon. In reality, that meant eleven o'clock since shifts like that usually landed him in the middle of a lunch rush and he wasn't quite ready to get up after two more hours of sleep just to walk into a minefield. Karma didn't think too highly of him lately. That could only be remedied by the people that currently surrounded him, gave him a reason to keep going with his terribly dead end life. Where else would he go with no collegiate degree to prove he had as much, maybe more intelligence than most college students, minus Nico. That boy was a brain on two legs and it amazed him just how much he knew.

Over the course of these few months Pierce had been here, he'd grown rather close to everyone. There was no way he was dropping any of his barriers just yet (five months wasn't enough time to bond that well), but that didn't mean the relationships Pierce forged with everyone meant no more than the ones he made with random strangers. They were strangers, at first, but with so much in common with each other, it was sooner, rather than later, that they all became friends. However close each was with another was highly dependent on personality, but as a group they were more than mere acquaintances and that fact brought Pierce more comfort than he'd like to admit.

The closest he was with any of them was probably Jolt, for the mere fact that he was the one who recognized his talent and one of the only people who even respected him beyond the mere fact that his presence brought a modicum of enjoyment. Around Jolt, it was easy to let a few more barriers down because it was all about what he brought to the team, or at least that's what he'd thought. He hadn't known Jolt thought of their ragtag team as more of a family than a couple of friends. Regardless, Pierce had a lot to offer and he was glad his talents were appreciated. Praise never passed him by and he soaked it up for all it was worth; Jolt happened to be the few to ever give him that satisfaction, which was a whole lot rarer than people usually thought.

The rest were too near in their relationship to Pierce for any undue rankings and he certainly didn't feel comfortable judging others based on how good friends they were with him. Of course, even if he respected Jolt the most for his sheer determination and this entire endeavor, everyone in the warehouse with him at this moment had more than earned his respect one way or another.

Of all the people, Sayuri, or Paradox, was his go to person to discuss various internet things and what MMO was all the rage that year. That and they both had a knack for trolling internet forums and social media, which meant they both had a similar sense of humor. Though, she didn't shy away from making fun of him for writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction, especially the ones as lewd and crass as his. She was the first he'd waved to when making his way toward Jolt for their meeting. He'd brought leather office chair from home, or rather, Pierce literally glided his away across the floor while still on it.

As for someone to joke around with, someone as crude as he was, Luce made for a perfect accomplice in those endeavors, not to mention comments on how well Jolt's jeans hugged his 'frame', just to be polite. That girl had a mind on her, though that sometimes took a macabre turn, and Pierce enjoyed their small talks monumentally, even if he had to tell her multiple times that he was, 'strictly dickly.' Of course, he was always wary of her, just for the mere fact that the girl rarely ever forgets.

Pharaoh was more of an enigma to him as she didn't quite talk to him much, more for the fact that she pretty much outright told him he'd most likely mess something up rather than fix it and he told her that that was his specialty. That was actually the extent of their conversations, but there was no animosity between them and Pierce liked her regardless and he was certain she felt the same, so long as he staid away from any of her projects.

The only person he rarely ever talked to, aside from business—Pierce had a feeling that was the opposite for him, though; he quite enjoyed talk of coding and programs—was Nico, but that was merely because he was either too focused on what he was currently doing or simply didn't want to talk. Nico was quiet and, though Pierce wasn't, it was a pretty constant trait for the young boy and Pierce appreciated that. There was a lot of respect he had for the boy, merely because he was as reliable as he looked. Also, he always enjoyed passing him notes in binary. If Nico weren't a technically genius, he'd be better off using smoke signals, but he was certain the boy enjoyed the challenge of decoding said messages.

Regardless, it was certainly better to pay attention than doddle off in his own thoughts. If anything, it'd probably earn him a hard smack to the back of the head and an eye roll, which wouldn't have been bad if not for the fact that Pierce was almost certain that any contact with his head that went beyond a certain threshold would give him the worse migraine he'd ever had. So, Pierce sat back and his eyes fell on Jolt while he sipped at his hot coffee.

Vanilla decaf with two and a half spoons of sugar, just how he liked.​

 

[UnsightlyTEAstain]

Hundreds of stifled yawns and sleepless hours later Nico had finished reviewing several sixty page essays and was, if not already in the process of passing out. He wasn't exactly sure when he became a Postdoctoral Advisor of sorts but perhaps it must have been his inability to refuse someone who required help that he could offer. At first it had only been a small group of mutual colleagues in the University of Liverpool but when news spread of his apparent availability in the tutoring field he was suddenly bombarded by more than interested students. He was well aware of his inadequate sleeping patterns but his overall health was stable enough. Though his professors begged to differ and were truly exasperated at how ignorant he could be towards his own well being despite his usually practical actions. But despite his seemingly irregular and overstuffed schedule he never once lost track of his work and responsibilities. Sleep deprivation simply didn't affect his mind as it does others but there was no denying the considerable deterioration of his ability to perform physically. A fancy way of saying he becomes increasingly clumsy to the point where he himself reluctantly submits to sleep in order for it to not affect his duties.

This was one such day as he painfully banged his ankle against his desk and nearly knocked over the very pile of papers he had finished examining. Only a small grimace seemed to register on his usually stoic face as he pushed in his rolling chair, misjudging his strength, and sent it colliding against the table instead which resulted in a cup of push pins spilling onto the floor. Thankfully he managed to avoid pricking his fingers as he carefully cleaned up the mess he had caused. There was however one he had missed and inevitably stepped on, sending the most uncomfortable prickle of pain up his leg. Head bowed and expression unreadable Nico slowly bent forward and removed said pin from the soles of his shoes before promptly dropping it into the appropriate cup. To strangers it would seem that he was as calm as he ever was but the slow and contained storm of irritation could be visible to those that knew him well.

Limping towards where the rest of the group was, he grabbed a cup of coffee and quietly took a seat on the couch. He had gone without sleep for the past day or two now which was ridiculous, even to Nico, which was finally starting to get the better of him as he had completely disregarded the steam rising from the plain cup indicating of its warm temperatures. The hot liquid burst like peppers in his mouth and he had all but barely contained the cough that threatened to escape, only shaking slightly as he forcefully swallowed the rest of the coffee. Setting the cup aside, he leaned back onto the soft cushions and proceeded to cross his arms as if nothing had happened.

 

[King]

The group gathered, Jolt had a second to check his phone, he really didn't want to go into the office today. Usually he could find out how to work at home, but apparently today was important and he just had to go in. "Hey, watch it." Jolt shook his head as Nico came crashing into his table. The boy had a face on him like a zombie, in fact, they all did. Not only did he and Paradox have 9-5 jobs, Sixsmith had the joy of working shifts and Nico had college to focus on. Luce and Pharaoh had it a little easier as they were for hire. But nevertheless, they all didn't get the sleep they needed.

"I see we are all on the same page then." Jolt gruffed, pointing out the common look of eye bags and bloodshot looks. It was important they got up this early, people would see them coming down here. "After work, and school-" Jolt nodded at Nico, "Meet again at ten? I've got something planned." Jolt grinned. "B.B.G.B." Jolt nodded, knowing they had some idea what he was in about. Now came his long talk. He knew they would listen, because this was the fun bit of being a hacker - The riot causing.

"If I had something to play N Sync on I would but no time." He hoped everybody was familiar with why that was funny. "Anyway.. It's time to shut down the government. So far we've done what? Played around with Liverpool a bit? Not much for the best like us. We're taking it up a notch. Let's cause some chaos." Jolt practically lived on chaos. He was pretty conservative in daily life, but online he liked to be a maniac, even talking about it made him get excited. He knew people like Paradox enjoyed trolling too, hopefully this was going to be the ultimate. "It's only fair. I've even got roles for you all." He grinned, "Okay, let's begin, shall we?"

Jolt leaned on the table looking around for the first face he needed, "Luce. To do this I'm gonna need somebody who knows the government better than they know themselves. Do the research. Get to know them better. Hide us from them - I know you can practically make us invisible, got it?" Jolt pointed at her, grinning as he did so. He knew that the government stood no chance finding them if Luce was the one hiding them. Jolt trusted her with that. He trusted her with a lot. Even if he kept having to point out his homosexuality, or 'Strictly dickly' as Pierce might say.

"Pharaoh." Jolt quickly turned to her. He knew she had a slight problem bonding with the group. They were hackers and she was an engineer. But still, she had an important role. "I need you to stick with Luce. I need every computer upgraded to the Max. I need to make sure no officials get down here. Lock them out and make is invisible. I need better generators, fast connections." He gave her the warmest smile. Sure, Luce wasn't the first person you'd want to be stuck with if you couldn't handle her humour, but he wanted Karen to bond.

He spun in his chair around to look for Nico. Jolt had such a problem with remembering Nico was 24 and doing a degree, not 17 and still in high school. Of course, it came back to him when the boy opened his mouth. "Alright Nico - No more late nights for you. Leave the helping out for another time. You're my online lead. I was thinking we give google the boot." He chuckled, the idea of everybody trying to find google, then having to post on all social medias crying out for an explanation. "I need viruses, anything you can create to throw the country off it's tracks."

His eyes then ran to Paradox. For the sake of her sanity and his enjoyment, he wanted to keep social medias alive til the last second. The posts would be hilarious when the country was getting attacked. "My money gal. I need more info on the financial world. Figure out each banks internal structure and how to take one down. If we decide to mess with America, I want Wall Street to have things turned upside down. Got it?"

Lastly, he looked to Sixsmith, somebody who he bonded well with. It didn't escape his attention that Pierce had several layers with him, but Jolt was happy to see an intelligent man like Pierce getting to recognition he needed. If he had to choose who he was closest with, he'd probably say Sixsmith - Even though everybody was the same. "My main man." He smiled, "You know the veins of this county? It's transport. Do your research on train lines, airports, what cars the prime minister rides in. I need as much info as you have on them."

"Okay? Research time - Go!" Jolt shooed them away from the desk as he pulled out papers. As old school as he was, he wanted to plan how to do this on paper. This was going to be great. The number one priority was to confuse the world. And have fun. But they had been having fun from day one, that really wasn't an issue.​

 

[Lepixi]

N Sync? What? The reference didn't mean anything to Karen, but she snapped out of trying to think about it when she heard her name. She could handle working with Luce. She hadn't handled their first interaction particularly well- she'd let Luce's teasing bother her, partially because she'd still been getting through her grief over her father, and partially because she hadn't realized the punk girl teased everyone that way. She let Jolt finish talking before she asked the question that'd been on the edge of her tongue since she was given her assignment.

"I can do the upgrades and stuff, but I'm fresh out of cash and I don't have any of the stuff I need at home. Do we have a group fund, or am I goin' for budget work here?"

 

[Brøken_Serenity]

Paradox

She waved back at Sixsmith easily as he glided over towards the group huddle. She would normally say hi, bring up something about her current favorite MMO or make a Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fanfic crack but she hadn't touched her coffee. So she gave him a little smile, she did the best she could anyways. I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die I wanna die. Coffee, cool down faster. So tired. Why isn't Starbucks 24 hours? Why am I awake? I think Nico is probably gonna die. Oh never mind. How weird would it be to ask what shampoo he uses. His hair is amazing. Like amazing. He could be on Seventeen or Vogue.

Keiko's extremely random thoughts came to a close soon enough when boss began talking. She cracked a grin and let out a small laugh at the mans all to familiar joke. She sipped her coffee, it was fine enough. She then began to chug the thing without her usual worry of 'does it make me look stupid?'. She stopped about halfway through the cup and blinked. The placebo affect was already booting up, making her feel more energized just by drinking the delicious substance. She gave a little smirk at the SadiexKaren workforce that would begin. She didn't think Karen liked Sadie all that much out of everyone on the team.

"Heads will fall babe." Paradox smiled in response to her assignment. It was a bit hefty but nothing she couldn't handle. On the topic of adding the word babe, things like hon' or babe were things she casually slung onto sentences. Everyone knew it was platonic. Paradox wasn't at all hitting on anyone. Not that she wouldn't date anyone on the team, she just wasn't hitting on anyone. Though she may of weirded the team out a little when they first talked to her. Especially because she carried a heavy Cockney British Accent yet her verbiage was american. She went to an American college (Harvard) so picked up on their language but kept her accent. Not that it was an accent to her, she thought she sounded perfectly normal.

When Jolt said go Keiko went to her computer, sadly far from Sadie who shared her views on finances and Sixsmith who shared her views on fun. But it was time to work anyways, she sat down in her swivel chair at her desk which was well decorated with magazine clippings. Immediately she got on her computer, absently typing and planning out her actions.​

 

[lostfaith]

Sadie grinned. "I know their systems like the back of my hand." She said. "I've been keeping them off my trail for a few years now, so that shouldn't be difficult." She strolled back to her desk, opening her laptop and plugging in her headphones again, although she left them on her neck so she could hear if Karen needed something. The hacker picked up the usb drive she had set down a moment ago, slipping it into the port on one of the several towers standing around her working space. She booted the computer up, watching as the system sluggishly responded, the screen flickering to life. She turned away, returning to her laptop, letting it idle. The program wouldn't take affect for a couple hours or so, assuming it worked, so there wasn't anything else to do on that project for now. She booted up another computer, beginning the more currently relevant project. The first step was convincing the government's database not to keep any records on her and her friends. It would look suspicious if the files on legal citizens just vanished, of course--so she'd do something else. It was something Luce had done for herself a long time ago. She'd rig the files so that they'd revert to their previous forms if they were edited, so that if any of them were caught doing something suspicious, on a camera or the like, then the government's computers would refuse the evidence. Of course, the people might still know something, but she'd deal with that later.

Sadie finally realized that Pharaoh had said something. When she was working on something, she tended not to process other things around her. "Oh," She started. "If the group can't cover it, I can provide. I have caches all over the city, not to mention quite a bit of out of pocket funds." The hacker grinned. "Being the best hacker for hire in the underworld has its perks, after all."

 

[Lepixi]

Karen turned at the sound of Sadie's voice behind her, and gave the best smile her tired face could manage.

Maybe working with Sadie could be fun after all.

The thought took more of her sleepy brain's processing power than she meant for it to, and she shook her head to clear her mind when she realized she was staring.

I'm taking a nap once everyone clears out of here.

"Sweet," Karen finally said, and turned away from the table, standing a couple steps to the side of the typing hacker. She'd spent quite a few of her first few days in the warehouse admiring Luce's setup- it was more than she'd ever had the resources to build, and while it wouldn't stand up to any respectable botnet in pure processing or offensive capabilities, Karen figured it had to be pretty efficient to handle Luce's work. "I guess checking through what you already have first is a good idea, before we start spending any more than we need to." Karen figured Luce was probably loaded, but some sensible part of her brain realized it wouldn't be a good idea to start flinging money around on a ton of computer parts if they planned to stay below the radar.

 

[UnsightlyTEAstain]

A vague nod and a second attempt at drinking his coffee was all the response that Nico could muster. A small smile still managed to form however at the attempt of a joke Jolt had passed, carefully hidden behind a sip of the bittersweet liquid. He supposed he had a good two to three hours before even he would not be able to resist the need to rest. But he was at least confident in the fact that the cup of caffeine would be able to keep his eyes open until that time came.

His thoughts wandered to possible software codes he could break, delete and replace as well as security walls he would need to by pass. Google would be an easy enough task as most of their servers and browsers were already festering grounds for viruses. They usually targeted users private hard drives and never directly harmed the host system as to avoid corrupting its own codes in the process. He had once, out of pure curiosity, tested their network firewalls and hadn't been surprised how simple it was to access. It would only require a few other experienced hackers to duplicate what he had done but Nico surmised that it wouldn't have been worth getting caught infiltrating a billion dollar company that could easily sue you for all you were worth. That, however, was a risk that did not intimidate him in the least. After all, they could only sue what they could catch.

Several sips later and Nico was ready to start his project. He extended his hand slightly in front of him, expecting the familiar feeling of the keyboard when the realization dawned on him. He was still sitting on the couch. Perhaps he only had an hour or two less than he had originally thought.

 

[King]

"Alright, babe." Jolt mocked Paradox with a little grin, knowing she said that a lot. Everybody began on their work, making Jolt relax. As Karen brought up a budget, Jolt looked up from the paper. In fact, he did begin 'saving' money for this project as back up funds, like emergency money. But Luce seemed like she already had a plan for money. "Hey, I'll help fund Karen's toolbox money also." He gave her a cheeky smirk, poking a bit of fun. If he got some money for her today for after-work, she could work with that, and then Luce could get any additions needed.

"Nico? Nico!" Jolt turned to raise an eyebrow at the young boy who seemed to be in a trance. He frowned at his friend, "I told you for serious, more sleep!" Jolt clicked his fingers at the dazed boy. Everybody else had swung to their seats and began their work, but Nico was completely out of it, "I can't have a zombie as my online lead." Jolt chuckled.

As they all worked, Jolt put his head back down to the sheet of paper. All of his ideas spilled out onto the paper, he made rough diagrams and mindmaps. This was going to take a lot of focus. More than he had right now. "Hey, one of you put some music on quietly? Preferably Chopin, but no requests." Jolt shrugged. He enjoyed piano classics for concentrating. But, surely somebody knew he had a terrible thing for 90's boybands. Hence his N sync reference.​

 

[Lepixi]

Karen gave Jolt a nod and a genuine smile; she could already think of a few of the more obscure gadgets she'd love to get her hands on but couldn't afford. The thought gave her a little boost of energy, and she turned to Luce, eager to get at least start some of her work on upgrading the team's tech complete before the day was done. There was a lot to do, and she still had work that she had to get finished from the day before- even if all the tech stuff for the team was getting paid for, she had a reason or two to keep up with her private work; she didn't really want to use the group funds to pay for her apartment, even if they were practically unlimited, and she'd already promised to have things fixed by noon.

"So, Sadie, where are these caches you mentioned? If you can spare the time to go with me I can get started faster, but if you're busy I should be fine with just directions."