“Oh…” he said softly. “I’m sorry. She sounds like she was a talented ISO and a really good friend.” Cor complimented gently, as he knew a similar pain. Though he was sure almost everyone in the Grid could relate to losing someone. He hesitated for a moment before cautiously reaching over and gently taking her hand in his.
Nora's light lines flashed pink for the briefest of moments. Bit, in her other hand, let out a muted Yes, but she didn't notice.
"Thanks," she said, blinking back tears. "She was."
Cor thought he heard Bit say something but he wasn't paying enough attention to really notice. Right now all his focus was on Nora. He didn't mean to upset her by bringing up the past but… “You know, I don't really have any urgent searches yet. We can stay a little longer if you want to.” he offered, not thinking about his actions as he gently reached up and brushed away a single tear that had managed to escape her pretty eyes.
Nora looked up at him, at his bright blue eyes. They were gentle, kind.
"I can stay a little longer," she said faintly, more focused on the texture of his skin, the warmth of his hand.
“Alright.” he smiled softly, letting the door close. Cor was sure his lights were pink again as he didn't take his hands away, more than a little distracted by the softness of Nora’s skin. He couldn't help but wonder if her lips were just as soft… The very impulsive thought was quickly pushed to the back of his mind. They were barely friends and she was still upset about Kaira. No. Now was definitely not the right time to be thinking about kissing her. Besides, she probably wouldn't appreciate it.
"Thank you for letting me stay over," Nora murmured. She was barely aware of what she was doing - barely aware that she had released Bit, who began bobbing happily in the air. She noted that his lights were pink, and hers were as well. But she found she didn't mind.
“Of… Of course.” he found himself almost whispering. “I wasn't going to… You were asleep when I finished working on your disc, I wasn't going to wake you up and make you leave.” he assured her. Honestly, he didn't know what he was really doing either but he couldn't completely ignore that voice in his head that was telling him how bad of an idea this was.
"Thank you," she said again, subconsciously swaying into his touch, his arms. He was so close. So warm. Her hand had somehow found its way around his back, the other clasped in his.
She found that some inner force was pulling her head towards his. She could almost count his eyelashes, she was so close. Those electric eyes were burned into her mind as she closed her own, tilting her head to his…
A sudden bing cut through the silence, and Nora froze, her eyes snapping open. It was coming from her disc. It was the sound Black Light had installed to notify her when the shipment was moving.
“Any time.” he nodded, gently drawing her closer. It felt so good to hold her like this. His heart was racing as he brushed a few small strands of her hair back, cupping her cheek… He wasn't aware of when his eyes started to close but he could still just barely see her as he angled his head closer…
Flynn damn it! Right now! he hissed softly as he heard the alarm from his disc and pulled away from her. He regretted letting her go but, hearing his disc going off… He had a job to do. “I… I'm sorry, Nora.” he apologized sincerely, his voice not quite as soft as it was a nanosecond ago but still gentle enough. “I just got a search. And this one is urgent, I'm afraid.” he said as he felt he owed her some kind of explaination.
"I have to go too," she said awkwardly, removing her hand from his back, trying to ignore the disappointment pulsing through her heart. She didn't even notice that Bit had wilted almost to the floor with disappointment as well. "I'll… see you tonight?"
“I hope so.” he nodded. Cor knew how important this was and he had no idea how long it would take. At the moment, all he really knew was that he had to meet Aroura at the dock soon. “I can still walk you out if you’d like.” he offered, wanting to spend a little more time with Nora before he most likely got into a fight.
"I'd like to," Nora said, and she meant it in full, "but I can't. It's - urgent."
“Alright.” he nodded, understanding the situation. “I should get going anyway.” he agreed as his gaze drifted to the floor. Cor couldn't help but chuckle at seeing Bit down there. “Geez, you look like I feel, little buddy.”
Yes, Bit said, not even bobbing in place.
"Bit, come here," Nora said, shaking off unpleasant memories of Bit tripping programs. Bit reluctantly floated off the floor and went next to her shoulder.
"I'll… see you tonight," she said, with an awkward little smile, then turned around without another word and headed for the door.
Cor chuckled a little a ruefully at Bit‘s sad sounding response before he looked back at Nora. “Yeah. I… I’ll see you tonight.” he nodded, really hoping that he could.
A few minutes later, Nora was at the docks; de-rezzing her lightcycle, she snapped the baton to her hip and peeked around a shipping container. Sure enough, the container was gone.
Nora slipped into a space between two containers and pulled out her disc, figuring it was best to be ready when Black Light arrived. She began to navigate to the tracking screen.
Cor had managed to scout out the docks once or twice beforehand but he still wasn't very familiar with the docks themselves. So it took him a few more minutes to find the rendezvous for him and Aroura to meet.
He sighed as he derezzed his bike and sprinted silently over to the building. “You know I was almost beginning to think they forgot about these containers.” he whispered once he was close enough to the orange caped heroine.
"Well, they didn't," Nora murmured, then froze. It seemed the damage to her helmet was not only limited to the long, spindly crack running down the side: it had disabled her voice modifier, too. She sounded like herself. Not good. Her only hope was that the helmet itself would distort her voice enough until she could get it fixed.
She pressed the final button and the map of the Grid spread out before her, but the shipping container was nowhere to be found on it. Frowning, she zoomed out. Maybe it was in one of the outer cities.
It wasn't in one of the outer cities.
It was…
"Across the Sea of Simulation?" Nora muttered, almost to herself. "That can't be right…"
Cor raised a brow, noting the difference in Aroura's voice but didn't say anything. Now wasn't the time to worry about something that was only mildly interesting when they had a much bigger problem to deal with.
“It might be… They probably had orders from Clu: After a certain amount of time, if he succeeded, he would open the portal again and let them through to join him in Flynn's world.” he suggested, frowning slightly.
"That could be it…" Nora mused. "But didn't the throne ship, and the portal, get derezzed? There would be nothing to build on, unless…"
It came to her in one glorious, terrifying stroke.
"They're building something out there," she whispered. "Something they don't want us to know about."
Building something. Only the most advanced programs could repurpose or find lost code. Were they rebuilding the portal? Or just a base? Why out there? Then again, why not out there? It was simple, it was out of the way, the code to ship containers there already existed.
"Cyrus," she said aloud. It fit: from what she'd heard, he could repurpose code. Fear numbed her fingers for a brief second.
“The throne ship, yes… but I don't see how you can derezz energy. The platform maybe but not the portal. Plus, those orders would have been given before Clu tried to leave.” he murmured, though he saw her point.
The idea of these kinds of programs building something did make sense but… What would they be building? A new platform would make sense… “C-Cyrus? You think he's working with them?” he asked in shock as a cold lump of code formed in his gut.
"He can repurpose code, from what I've heard," Nora said. This was not good.
Cor's eyes widened at the information. It wasn't exactly new, he just hadn't really thought about the possibilities before. “Oh… I see the problem. And of course the guy is a psycho.” he groaned.
Nora nodded and looked around, wondering how many containers were full of things for Cyrus' scheme. Suddenly, it all seemed overwhelming. Should they track all of them? They were two programs against the biggest psycho on the Grid, who no doubt had a repurposed army by now.
Cor sighed a little and slumped against a wall. This was much more than he was expecting. It was bad enough when they found out what was in these containers and now… In all of his jobs, he always felt like a glorified delivery boy. Yes, he could fight well enough to stay out of trouble but Cyrus… “We might be in way over our heads here.” he admitted softly.