Chapter 530 - Jerry Ricked

Veronica shakes her head, "But Christine clearly doesn't want to go inside, are you going to force her down there?" she asks, emotions peaking.

...​​

"Why doesn't she want to go down there in the first place?" Afton locks eyes with her, "Do you have claustrophobia or something?... Are you afraid because of its similarities with the Auto-Doc?"

Christine looks away at his words, confirming that she was indeed afraid, and feeling shameful about it as well. Clearly, she wasn't taking her own current fragile state well, doing her best to present a strong front while avoiding the things that truly scare her.

Afton releases another sigh and begins ruminating about what to do, he takes another glance around the room and focuses on the terminal, eventually getting an idea. "Er, give me a moment," he mutters before going down the elevator again.

Another ten minutes and Afton returns, a bead of sweat on his forehead and he points at the terminal across the room, "Christine, try that. It should be linked with the maintenance terminal."

Christine does just that, the terminal's monitor flickers slightly as if it was about to blue screen, but soon enough the maintenance terminal screen opens up in a subwindow. A small grateful smile appears on her face as she turns and gives a thumbs up at Afton.

Veronica looks relieved, and Afton mirrors her, "Can you look after Anja while we attend to the other systems?" Afton asks and Christine nods in response.

"Alright, I'll leave this stuff here in case it takes us a while..." he says, tossing a couple bottles of purified water and power bars. It wouldn't do to have them starve to death while waiting for the event, would it?

Afton bids farewell to Christine and Anja before stepping out with Dean, letting Veronica have a private word with Christine.

An hour later they left the Switching Station and head south, towards where the cable break supposedly exists. Strangely, the Cloud was thick in some areas but not others, meaning some kind of ventilation system was still activate.

Afton notices many Hologram emitters around, but none were activated. Obviously, someone had turned them off, but for what purpose he didn't know.

The trio followed along the rooftops until they drop onto a balcony overlooking a large plaza... There were a few inactive hologram emitters on the walls along with some sirens, but all were deactivated...

Dean walks over to a wall and gestures at the two cut sparking wires. "This is our destination..." he sighs, "Last time I was here I almost died after getting swarmed by Ghosts... Once the Gala Event starts, music starts blaring over those speakers, attracting every Ghost in the Puesta del Sol."

Afton rubs his chin, "Huh, sounds rough... Mind if I take a look at those cables?"

Dean shrugs, "Help yourself, plant-boy."

Afton shakes his head at his newly acquired nickname and couches over the wires... They had been cleanly cut and no one had stripped the rubber from the metal internals yet, meaning that would need to be done.

Though unlike other wires he'd seen, they aren't made of copper, but something else... He gives the wires a tug but finds that both sides are too short to be connected, which is likely what forced Dean to connect the circuit with his own body.

This would be difficult to fix, fortunately, Afton's Power armour was pretty well insulated at this point, allowing him to hold the wires without issue. He produces a wooden wire stripper from his plant arm and attaches a razer to it to act as a blade. Afterward, Afton begins to strip the wires... Once done he walks through some nearby rooms and eventually finds a boiler room...

Dean chuckles as he spots Afton walking towards them with a pile of copper pipes in his arms, pipes he'd obviously just torn out of the walls. "I don't think that'll work." he muses.

Afton shrugs and tosses the pile on the ground while keeping one on hand. He begins using his Superhuman and Power armour enhanced strength to easily twist the copper pipe.

Obviously, unheated metal is difficult to alter, but copper wasn't Saturenite or steel so it was easier than most think. The copper pipe crumples and twists under the force of his hand and slowly begins thinning into mangled, splintered, and slightly thread-like material... He strips off all the thread-like metal that'd splintered away from the metal and begins twisting it all together, forming a makeshift wire.

He's about to use the new wire to connect the circuit when Dean quickly stops him, "Wait a minute! Did you forget what I said?"

...

Afton pulls back and rubs the back of his helmet, "Er, yeah... My bad." he admits, having forgotten that the circuit may activate the music. The speakers weren't only used for the Gala Event, so they might just pick up a radio signal and start blasting out songs. "Alright, you two get to the roof and wait for me to connect the circuit... I have a feeling this is gonna be loud."

Dean doesn't need any other confirming and quickly begins climbing back up. Veronica gives him an unsure look, "You sure? We could try and find the Hologram control terminal before then."

Afton nods, "One hundred percent... I'll come straight up once it's activated, don't worry about it. It isn't like the Ghosts will sabotage the wire, at most they'll destroy the speakers, which isn't a problem."

Veronica nods and climbs back up, once she'd gone Afton ties the sparking wires together, completing the circuit and allowing the speakers to start playing an old pre-war song... One that almost makes Afton have a seizure...

"We're no strangers to love, You know the rules and so do I!"

He's so stunned by the song that he almost forgets to retreat and only remembers as Ghosts starts literally crawling out of the vents to get to the sound... Perhaps they're as shocked by the music as he is...