Nora looked around. "Markus can go with you. I'll find tonight's bouncers and we'll watch the programs." She walked over to the bar. "Markus, can you go down to the storage room with Cor?"
Markus nodded, giving Cor an easy smile. "Yeah, sure."
“Alright.” Cor nodded, turning towards Markus. “Lead the way.” he smiled back a little awkwardly. Markus seemed like a nice enough program but Cor just didn't know him well enough yet. Though it was a bit of a relief that Nora wasn't coming with them. It would make it easier for him to do closer to his best with someone who didn't know him.
Markus slipped out from behind the bar. "We'll use the service elevator." He walked to the back of the club, under the DJ booth, and pressed his code key against the wall; a hidden door slid sideways, revealing a very spacious elevator. Markus stepped in.
Cor followed, a little impressed about seeing these employee-only areas, though he didn't say anything even as the elevator doors closed them in. I still don't understand… Why drug End of Line? What's your game, Cyrus? he sighed, leaning against one of the walls, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Are you all right?" Markus asked, his eyebrows contracting. He didn't like to see programs be down or sad.
“Hmm?” Cor hummed, looking up at Markus. “Oh, yeah, I'm alright. Just thinking about… the whole situation.” he admitted.
"It's alright." Markus' face widened into a smile, a true, genuine one. "I hope it'll be okay. Nora is very capable. How do you know each other?"
“I know she is.” Cor chuckled. “Umm… We ran into each other at the lower bar before End of Line reopened and spent the night talking and even danced a little.” he said as his lines briefly flickered pink.
Markus smiled understandingly. He knew a lot of programs had a crush on Nora. "You're very lucky. Nora doesn't usually let programs be friends with her." He didn't even know if he was Nora's friend.
The elevator pinged softly and slowed to a stop, the doors whooshing open. Markus stepped out. Stretching ahead of them was a dimly lit, round corridor, a service tunnel.
"The vault's just down here," Markus said. "We usually bring it up through this elevator anyway."
“I noticed. She's… She's a very private program.” Cor nodded as he thought about Nora and how she wasn't exactly a social butterfly like Skye or even Astra. Though he honestly preferred that fact about her.
He looked up as the elevator ride ended and followed Markus into the tunnel. “And there’s no other way down here?” he asked seriously, almost sounding analytical as he looked around. He was very on guard, practically acting as he normally did when he was Black Light, though he doubted there was a reason to be.
"Just the main elevator, but you have to have a code key to access it," Markus reassured Cor. He continued walking down the tunnel, footsteps echoing softly.
"The room is this one," Markus said, stopping in front of a plain-looking door; there was a small access screen next to it. He pulled out his code key and unlocked it. "Do… uh… whatever it is you have to do. I don't really understand code," he said with a small smile.
“Good. Good to know.” he nodded, walking into the room, still on full alert. “Then, can I count on you to stand guard and watch my back?” Cor asked as he slipped on his code protective gloves. He wasn't going to take any chances if Cyrus really was involved.
Markus nodded. "The console is just inside the door."
Cor gave a small, grateful, smirk before he turned to access the code. His eyes went hard as he focused on every piece of data, analyzing whatever he could to get answers.
Markus stood there, silent, a watchful guard.
Meanwhile, Nora was noticing something odd. The drunk programs, the ones with wide eyes, were slowing down their frenzied dancing, becoming limp, silent. Even Skye seemed oddly tired.
Cor was thankful that Markus was there but he didn't drop his guard as he worked. It wasn't that he didn't trust Markus, Nora obviously trusted both of them and that was enough for him, but there was something about this whole thing that made him uneasy. “Hey, Markus. Do you know when this door was opened last? When the energy was brought up for the night?” he asked, brows furrowed as he reread the data.
"When I started my shift," Markus answered. "Just a few microcycles ago."
“That’s what I thought.” Cor nodded, copying the data to a spare cube. “We need to show this to Nora. Someone else has a code key to this. But it's not in the system.” he said, frowning deeply.
"What?" Markus asked, turning around, his eyebrows furrowing. "But I thought… you're sure it's not in the system?"
Meanwhile, Nora, having spotted Skye's mane of white-blonde hair in the listless crowd, made her way through the programs to the usually excitable program. Skye was blinking confusedly, a half-smile on her face. "Hi, Nora," she slurred.
This was drunk, but not a drunk Nora had seen before. Was it an effect of the energy, she wondered.
Cor nodded, looking at the cube thoughtfully. “I’m sure. Every other code key has an ID tag telling which program it belongs to. This one doesn't.” he explained as he started walking back to the elevator. “But that’s not the only thing that worries me about it.”
"What other things worry you?" Markus asked, closing the door and trotting after Cor like a curious puppy.
Nora looked around, panic stirring its red wings in her chest. Listless programs everywhere, confused smiles on their faces, heads lolling. They looked like… she didn't know what they looked like. Uncontrolled, but in a sleepy, odd way.
Cor opened his mouth to tell him… But quickly closed it. “Maybe we should wait until Nora is with us. She is in charge here and I think she should know too.” he finally answered. “But I don't mind if you stick around and hear it.”
Markus nodded, unlocking the elevator and stepping in. Many floors above them, Nora was hearing the first stirrings of confusion from the sober programs. Shifting through the crowd, she started making their way to them; some were grouped by the main elevator.
Cor sighed leaned against the wall of the elevator again. This was making less sense than it should. Hopefully, Nora would have some ideas… Or, if necessary, he could try to track down Aroura and ask for her opinion.
The elevator made its way in smooth, almost eerie silence up to the club, the doors whooshing open softly. Nora was still by the doors, helping the bouncers with trying to explain the situation to the programs. Her bright pink hair, with Bit bobbing above her bun, was a veritable beacon in the crowd, visible even from the back.
Cor put away the data cube and somehow managed not to bolt straight out of the service elevator when it finally stopped. Seeing the crowd gathered around Nora made something in him lurch until he noticed that they didn't seem to be causing any harm to anyone. “Come on, Markus. Try to keep up.” he warned before carefully pushing past the throng of programs and worked his way over towards Nora.
Markus rode Cor's wake through the dopey programs, who all looked even more zoned out now. Nora was talking to a program with long purple hair and bangs that covered her eyes.
"I don't know what's going on," Nora was saying. "If you could stay for just a few millicycles, everything should be fine."
Once he was finally close enough, Cor gently reached for Nora’s arm and stood by her side. “You need to see this.” he whispered, not wanting to cause a scene and/or risk upsetting the drugged programs.
Nora twitched when he touched her, her hand going instinctively to her baton; when she saw it was just Cor, she relaxed. "What did you find? Here, let's go into my office." She began slipping back through the crowd.
Cor didn't blame her for her reaction. After what happened when he picked her up in her apartment, it just made sense. He nodded a little at her suggestion, glad she said it before he did, but didn't say anything until all three of them were inside her office. “Ok. Honestly, I didn't find much.” he admitted as he pulled out and activated the data cube. “But this shows that someone else has access to the club's energy storage room. No id tag. And this part is what bothers me, whoever this was… This just shows that the door unlocked, not that anyone got in or touched anything.” he explained, pointing out parts of the code as he did.