Theory put into practice

Life for Lani and Azari had been pretty smooth. The only bump in the road was when Azari turned James down for assistance. That was not a fun social interaction for Azari. He did not trust James to not 'do something' to the guy if he were to find him. And from how James was looking the guy had ill intentions and Azari wanted nothing to do with it.

Azari had interviewed with a few corporations for R&D which had a lot of promise in solving their future money obstacle. That particular day on his way home from an interview Azari came home to find a rather large package waiting for him. Hauling it inside he had a few other projects to work on. Namely his own suit that he had been working on. He hadn't expected a package and figured he'd open it up before he got distracted. He carried the box into his lab after greeting Leilani. He started up his computer and opened up the box finding a laptop and a suit that mirrored the ones he was working.

"what...?" Azari blinked pulling it old. The suit looked very worn and battle tested. "leilani? Did i make another suit and forget?" Azari asked.

OOC: So i got to thinking that Old Andrew's suit was still out there, and i'd imagine Azari and Leilani would have thought of contingency plans if something went wrong with the plan.

OOC-Yeah, I can definitely see that. So, how did they send it to him exactly?

IC-Lani knew that James had come to Azari for assistance in finding the guy who almost killed Mariah and that Azari had turned him down. Things between James and Azari had been tense ever since then. She understood why Azari hadn't helped James, but she also understood why James wanted to find this guy. Mariah would likely never be able to become pregnant again and Lani's heart was broken for the couple. At least before when they thought they didn't want to have children it was their choice. Now, the choice had been taken from them.

Lani was in her office working on some calculations. Her office mostly consisted of a high tech computer and walls that were covered in dry erase material. She had been taking a break whenever Azari got back from his interview. When he came in to greet her she noticed he was carrying a box, but paid it no real attention. Azari liked ordering new toys and she never questioned him.

She had just picked back up her marker when suddenly she heard Azari's voice. She put the marker down, her brow furrowing at his question. "No...what are you talking about?" She walked over to his lab and blinked in shock when she saw the suit. "What the hell?" she said as she walked over to look at it more closely. "Did someone get a hold of your plans?"

OOC: I figured they would put some failsafe into the suits at some point. if something were to happen to the wearer some identification info would appear on the collar with instructions.?
IC:

Azari laid the suit out, the frame was larger than most of the suits they had built and the material seemed different. It seemed similar to the suit James wore but the material seemed sturdier, more advanced than what they currently had. "I dont see how..." He stopped thinking of the only two suits out there. Unless Mariah had hers taken that left only one person.

"james.." He said moving to the computer ignoring the laptop in the box. He broad up the tracking logs of the suits use. It seemed as if James hadn't been using the suit much to his surprise but Azari activated the GPS for the past week and what he saw was surprising. IT seemed James had been pretty damn active! "He's using the suit..but its not sending a signal how did he bypass the signal?" He asked trying to think of ways that James intelligence would have thought of. The suits themselves did provide vital statistics whenever they were in use but the suit itself was self contained. With the helmet activated it tracked everything the body was doing and would transmit this information back to base. Without the helmet nothing was recorded therefore nothing to report..

OOC-I keep having this thought in my head that when they open up the laptop there is a video message from their future selves lol

IC-While Azari began to bring up logs of James' suit, Lani began to look at the new suit more closely. She examined the material and the technology in use. It was unlike anything she had ever seen. She became so absorbed that she ignored what Azari was saying about James.

Finally, she looked up and looked at her husband. "Azari, there is no way that anyone got a hold of our technology and replicated it because...half of the technology in this suit doesn't exist."

OOC: ah you read my mind! i was totally going to do that. But i figure the laptop would be heavily encrypted so i guess how mean would Future Lani be to her younger self? i can see themselves leaving a message in case soemthing horrible goes wrong

IC:

Azari was furiously typing into his computer to figure out how James did this when his eyes gazed at the helmet. He struck the table with his robotic hand thinking of dumb he was for such an oversight. He closed his eyes actually feeling a temper coming on, hanging his head he listened to Leilani point out the technoligy in the suit doesn't exist.

"That's not.." Azari said. He undid his tie and walked over to rejoin Lani in looking over the suit. There were designs in there that matched their own but she was right. There was much much more to this suit.

"Alright, lets get this hooked up and start poking around then." He said. He knew to quarantine anything electrical from the rest of the network. "Sure theres a rational explanation somewhere..stranger things have happened." Azari said as he began to prep the lab. "Hope you didnt have any projects you wanted to work on." He said looking to Lani with his white eyes

OOC-lol I can see her being mean, but not making it impossible either. Maybe she even drops subtle clues into the encryption that only Azari and Lani would know...like inside jokes or things they had talked about only with each other.

IC-"Well, I was working on a few equations for some of the X-Men suits, but that just got put onto the back burner. Let me go make some tea."

Azari and Lani had a very detailed routine for working on projects together and it always started with a pot of tea. Lani pulled her hair up into a messy bun while waiting for the kettle to boil. Once the water was ready she prepared two different cups. She knew exactly how Azari took his tea and always took care when preparing it. She brought the tray in to the work space and found that Azari had already cleared a space on the table. As she set the tray down she looked back in the box at the laptop.

"I wonder why this was included."

OOC: yup yup, i figure it would take them some time to unlock the laptop

IC:

Azari finished prepping the lab while Lani fetched the tea. He set the suit up in an analyzer figuring they would try and identify the materials used down to the base level and work backwards from there. He wasn't sure if they would find their answers but they certainly were going to try.

When Lani came back and pointed out the laptop Azari set the machine on to work. "I'm not sure..definitely not hooking it up to the network though." Azari said. He reached over and opened the laptop and turned it on. He was confident in the firewalls and passwords in the Nest but he still wasn't going to hook it up to anything.

"No harm in opening it up and taking a look." Azari said booting it up. The system began to spin up and immediately searching out a signal. The alarms immediately began to go off indicating a hacking attempt that was actually overrunning the defenses. "And i hate today.." Azari said hurrying to his computer.

Every attempt to stop the hack failed, "It's on autopilot, automated program thats just accessing everything." Azari said doing his best to stop it. It was if the program knew exactly what Azari would do. the alarms were shut off and the program stopped all of a sudden. The display above the table revealed an image of a silver orb. a greeting of hello splayed across the orb challenging them to reveal its secrets.

"I dont think it's accessed anything important weirdly enough. Just...the alarms and the display."

OOC-You know, I keep toying around with the idea of actually doing a game based on what would happen if Matt and the children actually did die and Jasmine did turn evil.

IC-Lani handed Azari his cup and took a sip from her own as Azari opened up the laptop and booted it up. The laptop itself looked fairly standard...although this one seemed beat up and dirty...like it had been through some kind of war zone. Their process for any new piece of electronics was fairly standard. It never touched their network until it had been deemed clean of viruses and malware. This was a protocol designed to keep the Nest safe from hackers. Their security was extremely tight, but they didn't take any chances. And so Lani was extremely surprised when the alarms inside the Nest began to go off. This was not typical and caused her to become worried. Her instinct was to shut it down, but by now it was too late. What the hell was going on?

Lani was looking at the laptop when suddenly a 3d display appeared and hoovered over the worktable. It was a silver orb and then a message of "hello" was displayed. Lani just stared at it for a moment before looking at Azari.

"I think there might be a message on this laptop."

OOC: Ohhh that could be interesting, bit depressing Jasmine would just steamroll everyone haha

IC:

Azari stared at the message and double checked the the network. The Nest was not compromised, Azari coudln't see any open backdoors or other ways for a hacker could use to get into the system. WHoever did this only wanted to control the display as far as he could figure. he agreed with Lani thinking there could be be a message on the laptop.

He reached over and typed out hello on the keypad. The message faded and a new one appeared that read "Open us up if you can".

"So a challenge?" Azari asked. he reached over and press enter and the orb revealed a heavily complex encryption. "holy hell..we're going to need more tea." Azari said getting up

OOC-Well, we could change things since that board wouldn't be connected to this one. We wouldn't have to have everyone die. It's just a thought I've had for a while.

IC-Over the next 7 hours Lani and Azari tried everything they could think of to breakthrough the encryption. The hours were long and exhausting, but the pair didn't like to just give up on something that challenged them. They ignored the time and worked through the night. By 5 am there were dirty tea mugs, an empty pizza box, and several soda cans around the lab. There was a small couch in the lab and Azari was laying on it with his eyes closed. Lani however continued to work at cracking the encryption. There was no key and there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the encryption.

OOC-So, how are they going to crack the encryption? My head isn't thinking clearly since I am still sick so I am going to let you lead this one.

OOC: true true, well we can certainly toy around with that. I figure the encryption would have clues about the two of them. first part could be like a musical line that Azari would ahve made for Lani near the beginning of their relationship, particular dates in time, when they first met, concerts they attended that sort of thing. Also are you feeling any better?

IC:

Azari had to step away from the laptop for a while. His head aching trying to unravel the encryption. Whenever they thought they had a lead on something it turned into a dead end. The math was beyond Azari so he left it to Lani and decided to take a nap to rest. 7 hours was long enough for him. The first part of the encryption was more of a hypothetical query with various answers.

OOC-No, I'm still pretty sick unfortunately but hopefully tomorrow will be better

IC-Lani sighed and sat back and looked at the encryption. Her eyes were feeling strained and her head ached, but she was a stubborn and willful woman when it came to these kinds of things. She didn't like to feel like she had been beaten. There was an answer somewhere. Suddenly, as she began to look at the beginning of the encryption again something struck her as odd. She had to look at it three times just to be sure...but it was there. Back when she and Azari first met he had written a song for her and the first line was right in the encryption! But how did it get there? How could the person who created this have know that line? Sure, it could have been a coincidence, but deep in her gut Lani didn't think so. There was something odd, but familiar here.

She continued to work for the next hour and as she did she uncovered specific dates related to Azari and herself...the date they broke up, the date they got back together at the party, the date Azari graduated from MIT, the date she graduated from MIT, the date they got married...

"Azari! Wake up and look at this!"

OOC: Is it like the flu??

IC:

Azari had his good arm over his eyes as he slept. His mind drifting off t oa peaceful sleep until Lani called over in excitement. He straightened up thinking ther was an emergency but settled soon after once he regained his wits. "what? what is it?" He asked walking over to Lani. He rubbed his eyes and looked over her work. Following her line of thinking specific dates to their lives led them through the answers they were seeking.

"This..isn't right some of these dates no one else knows about but us." Azari said. He sat down and together pieced together the rest of the dates until they broke the encryption. The silver orb reappeard and another message appeared that read "You better sit down".

The screen went black for a moment and then a video began to play. It showed a pair of chairs in a dimly light room. It faced a simple bare wall and their seemed to be voices in the background. "The ramifications could be disastrous yes but..we have to send a warning." one of the voices said with a familiar voice. In the background unkown to Azari and Lani their older counterparts discussed briefly making a message to their younger selves. After some more exchanged words an Older Azari sat down in view.

"Hello. I'd imagine you'd have some questions." He said. Azari just sat there dumbstruck and in shock

OOC-No, just a head and chest cold

IC-By the time they broke the encryption Lani was feeling wide awake, despite not having slept for over 24 hours. She was still trying to work out what was happening and her excitement was growing. As the video began to play Lani felt like her heart was slowing in her chest. Something in the back of her mind told her that she knew what was about to happen, but she couldn't let herself fully believe it. She had tried doing the calculations many times, but the math never seemed to work.

Unconsciously, she reached over and took a hold of Azari's hand. She heard the voices, but she couldn't believe it...she wouldn't believe it until...when she saw an older Azari finally sit down in front of the camera she thought her heart actually stopped in her chest. It was unmistakably him. Just then, a second figure walked into frame and sat down next to the older Azari...it was her! Her hair was shorter, and she could see a few lines around her eyes, but it was her! Her eyes scanned over her older form and was surprised to see a large scar on her neck. Younger Lani would never know how close she had come to dying one day in Azari's arms. A piece of shrapnel had struck her in the neck during one of Jasmine's attacks. It had just missed her jugular and she had been left with the scar as a reminder of how close she had been to death.

"Of course they have questions Azari," the older Lani said with the same kind of sass her youngerself possessed. "They are watching a video of older versions of themselves."

OOC: oh im sorry. Hope youre taking it easy

IC:

Old Azari had fewer battle scars than Lani but his arm looked far more advanced. He smiled hearing Lani point out how unneeded his question was. "Just felt like a good opener." He said moving over so his wife could take a seat. Azari watched their older selves.

"This isn't possible.." He muttered his mind trying to piece together how this could be. At first he tried to rationalize it was a hoax but the information wasn't known to others. "How.."

"First, try not to question how this is possible you'll just hurt your..our head." Old Azari corrected himself. "secondly if you're seeing this then some plans may have gone awry." He said. The video was meant in case their original soldier failed to stop Jasmine, the laptop contained what little info they could gather together. "alternatively, with some hope things are fine at least in regards to the larger obstacle." However the sentinels being released was still an ever present danger for mutantkind and the pair weren't about to ignore that. In their timeline Jasmine was by far the largest threat but the sentinels became a close second until she had enough of them.

"You might want to put on more tea. There's quite a number of things to go over" Old Azari said

OOC-Trying to. Had to go to work today, but will rest tomorrow.

IC-Lani's shock was quickly giving way to pure excitement. This was huge! So many questions began to flood her mind, but she knew she needed to remain calm. However, her excitement gave way to worry when the Azari on the video began to explain that if they were viewing this then something had gone wrong. What was he talking about? She glanced at Azari and could see he was just as confused as she was.

Older Lani then smiled at the camera and addressed her youngerself directly. "Lani...you do it...you figure it out. Don't give up. The math to make it work is out there."

Lani couldn't believe what she was hearing. There was only one thing she could be talking about...time travel. It was something she had been working on for some time. Azari knew about it, but she never told anyone else.

OOC: Hope you're feeling better today

IC:

Azari hadn't considered time travel as a viable thing, just the physics didnt support such a thing. But here was proof positive that it was such a thing. He never dissuaded Lani from her theories on it but didnt contribute to her formulas. Math was her wheelhouse after all. Older Azari straightened up and began to explain the situation that they faced. He gave an approximated date on an event that cause Jasmine to loss her family. The trauma caused her mind to snap and the carnage she brought was incredible.

"We have set plans into motion to help combat this event from occuring. If you're seeing this it could mean one of several things." Old Azari said. He wanted to provide some happy news for younger versions of themselves. Something to encourage them but the matter at hand was rather dire

"The date referenced happened about a year ago." Azari said a bit confused why they were sent this message. "Jasmine's family survived, there was a terror attack you remember?" Azari asked looking to Lani.

"Either the event occured in which case within the laptop is a map of supplies that the agent should have stashed. Or the plan was a success but there is still a threat to our kind." Old Azari warned thinking of the sentinels. "When Jasmine attacked the human population rose up naturally, in addition to the expected response robots called Sentinels were released. Machinery specifically built to hunt mutants." Old Azari said.

OOC-A little bit. Thank you!

IC-Lani listened carefully as older Azari began to explain what had happened in their world. She couldn't believe that they had come so close to it occurring to them. From what it sounded like things had been horrific. It pained her to think that Jasmine would actually hurt innocent people, but they all knew how fragile her mind really was due to the severity of her powers.

"Yeah, I remember. I remember witnesses saying that some guy actually pushed Matt and the children out of the way of the falling building. I wonder if that was their agent."

Older Lani shifted slightly next to her husband before adding on to what he had said about the Sentinels. "The Sentinels were released and were mostly targeting Jasmine, but unfortunately we had to deal with them as well in addition to trying to protect civilians from her. However, when Jasmine got fed up with them she simply snapped her fingers and destroyed them all," she said, snapping her own fingers at the right moment. "In our world Jasmine is now dead, but we are dealing with the aftermath, both physically and emotionally. Our hope is that our agent took care of the situation with Jasmine and that you yourselves are not facing our future."

OOC: glad to hear

IC:

Old Azari rubbed his arm as Lani went to explain that Jasmine had finally fallen in their world. "We've lost quite a bit and we debated a logn time of the ethical choice that was made in this. We trust you two will safeguard the path to a better future and not abuse this knowledge." Old Azari said.

Azari looked to the arm and felt some sadness well up inside of him. He recognized components of the arm belonging to his fathers. Old Azari spoke up, "Within the laptop is information we stockpiled, we can't guarantee the accuracy of dates or locations. Time travel is a bit unpredictable and chaotic." Old Azari pointed out. "If Jasmine has been dealt with the Sentinels must be in production in your time, the numbers that showed up after the attacks support this theory. A few of our people were able to bring some down and we dismantled them best we could." old Azari said.

"Sentinels will be our problem then, but there hasn't been any animosity between humans and mutants for some time." Azari said looking to Lani. Someone must be holding a vendetta against their kind then. it was the only thing htat mde sense.

The day that Kai finally brought Jasmine down brought mixed feelings to Lani. Her destruction and killing had ended, but she never fully viewed Jasmine as a monster either. Kai had told her after Jasmine's death that she had actually spoken to him in his mind and had told him she wanted to die. She had confessed to trying to kill herself, but that her powers wouldn't allow her to do it. Upon hearing that Lani had wept not only for Jasmine, but for all those that they had lost. Jasmine was buried in an unmarked grave on the property of the X Mansion, which had long since been destroyed. She was buried next to Matt and their children.

Lani looked over at Azari and nodded a little at his comment. "At least we don't have to deal with Jasmine. We'll have to be on the look out for these Sentinels."

Older Lani looked back at the screen. "We have uploaded what information we have about the Sentinels onto this laptop as well. I am sorry we couldn't give you any more information than what we have provided, but our world has been rather turned upside down and we don't have a good working space at this point."

The civilians took the news of Jasmine's death as one would expect, with joy and celebration but the very few number of the mutants that grew up around her all had mixed feelings. Kai had expended all of his strength in his fight with Jasmine gaining the upper hand by sure chance by breaking through to her mind into the storm itself. Unfortunately this had taken on a toll on him later on as his body would not recover. His last moments he thought on Jasmine and how truly sorry he felt for her.

A prisoner of her own power...

Old Azari was hopeful for their future but the plan they had put in place was just for a way for them to avoid this path. "What info we found believe us when we say it was by sure luck. finding any decent working tech is a rarity here. But at least we hope what we provided will be a good starting point." Old Azari said. He looked to Lani for a moment thinking of a few things. "And that..is probably where we should end things. Telling you both too much about what happens to us could cause difficulties." He said not wanting to give them their own future.

Azari let his arm drop onto the table in some frustration, "I'm really going to do this to myself. no advise on what awaits on a personal level?" He asked. did they have kids?! That would ahve solved a question that Lani posed to him earlier.

Older Lani glanced at her husband and gave a little nod. Then, as if sensing their counterparts' frustration she addressed them again. "We know you both must have a million personal questions at this point and we understand that, but we've taken a huge risk just in sending you what information you have. The future is not set in stone and you two deserve to live your lives...not ours. We wish you both the best of luck in your future."

As the screen went black Lani sat back in stunned silence for a while before reaching out and taking Azari's hand and giving it a squeeze. "Well, I think if we can live through an apocalypse and still be together in that means something about us. Don't you think?"

Azari rubbed his eyes processing all of this information and the ramifications of it all. "Part of my arm..had parts from my dads." He said not wanting to think of what it meant. He looked to Lani as she pointed out they were still together in the future despite it all. "Suppose that's comforting, dont think i'd do well in the dating pool." He said for a light joke.

The laptops screen blinked and brought up a normal menu like any other. There were folders clearly marked with information on the sentinels. "Well, looks like we have schematic work and this explains about the suit." Azari said. As if on cue the analyzer finished its work making a beep.

Azari leaned over and had the information brought up onto the main screen. Like Lani said a great deal of the tech didnt exist yet but something stood out. "Theres a framework here that suggest more of a support role. Like whoever wore it needed assistance with motor functions, muscle support that sort of thing."

"Well i guess i can start reverse engineering this if you want to study on the sentinels?" Azari asked. He yawned and thought more of it, "When did you last sleep?" He asked.

Lani gave Azari's hand another squeeze when he pointed out that part of his older Azari's arm had had parts from his dad's. She had seen that, but hadn't wanted to say anything in the moment. She knew that it must mean that he had died, but she also knew that his father would die at some point no matter what, the same with her parents. He was still around now though and she hoped that this would cause him to want to spend more time with his father while he had it.

Lani was starting to feel the effects of not having slept for a while as her adrenaline faded and wasn't sure how well her brain was going to process the Sentinel information at that moment. She tried to remember when she last slept. "A day or two ago..."

Azari watched Lani carefully as she gave her answer. Glad that she was truthful he reached to the laptop and began to shut it down for now. "Okay, lets get you to bed. We're not going to solve everything overnight." he said getting up to lead Lani to their bed. He had half a mind to go back to tracking James down and confront him but would make sure Lani was comfortable first