Lockdown with chloeas

[have_no_mercy]

Tess is tired of running. She's tired of hiding, tired of acting like the scared little girl she shouldn't be anymore. But most of all, Tess is bored.

Luckily, all that hiding and boredom has led to a plan: If she can take out the Castle's systems, then maybe she can get its residents out in the open long enough to take them out. At this point, it's worth the risk, because Tess will no longer allow herself to be hunted down and exterminated like a pest. If she's going out, she's going out fighting.

Of course, in order to put her brilliant plan into action, she needs a database. A very powerful database with very sophisticated computer equipment. Any of her Luthorcorp labs are out of the question; no doubt Checkmate is watching them and she'd never make it inside alive. But there is one place Tess can think of that no one would ever expect her to be at. So that's precisely where she goes.

Getting inside Watchtower is easy. As soon as she'd figured out Chloe was behind it, setting up a DNA cloak was child's play and it's one of the gadgets Tess actually took with her. Accessing the system puts her meager hacking skills to good use, but something catches her eye before she really starts to put her plan into action. A file on the Kandorians.

"Not on my watch," Tess mutters and then sets about purging that particular file from the system.

Comments

[have_no_mercy]

Tess should really be happier about having an excuse to do this, but for some reason, she's not.

She steps closer to Chloe and cocks the gun, leveling the barrel at the blond's head. "You're going to want to reverse that. Now."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

It takes her a less than a second to recognize the voice and she turns quickly, her heart beating fast against her chest as she realizes she's facing the barrel of her own gun.

"Do you really think it matters, Tess? I already know everything about the Kandorians I could possibly want to."

[have_no_mercy]

"Then I guess the file isn't the only thing I need to eliminate." Tess nods toward the terminal, not taking her eyes off her target. "No doubt you've re-encrypted an already compromised file, so you're going to have to get rid of it first. Now do it."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"Why would I?" Chloe smirks, looking at the gun, "did you even bother checking to see if it was loaded before you decided to point it at me?"

[have_no_mercy]

Tess... hadn't. In fact, it never occurred to her that the gun wouldn't be loaded. It's enough to make her hesitate, for just a brief moment, her aim wavering as she glances down at the weapon in her hand.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

That second's distraction is long enough for Chloe to step away from the front of the gun and to Tess' side, quickly grabbing her arm and pointing the gun down as she tries to take it from Tess.

[have_no_mercy]

Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid for falling for that and Tess is going to make Chloe pay for it. She struggles back, trying to wrench her arm free and push Chloe to the side so Tess can regain control. And she ends up squeezing the trigger in the process, a bullet planting itself into the floor.

Tess would be preparing to gloat if Watchtower hadn't taken that exact minute to throw a fit.

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

Her eyes widen as the alarm goes off, all the screens flashing with the message 'security breached', the windows start shutting one by one, and then the door, Chloe tries to run for it, all too aware of what happens next, but it shuts before she can.

[have_no_mercy]

Tess can guess just as well what's happening and she isn't going to stand for it. Fine, her plan had failed, but at least she could still get out of this and back underground to rethink and regroup.

And she's still got the gun. "Open the doors."

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"What do you think I'm trying to do?" Chloe snaps, back at her station and typing furiously, getting the same message over and over, both on the screen and through the speakers, 'access denied'.

"Watchtower is on lockdown mode," she says finally, "there's no way out."

[have_no_mercy]

"You must have a fail safe," Tess snaps back, not entirely certain what she's more angry about: Being locked in or being locked in with Chloe. "Or are you not that smart after all?"

[chloeas.livejournal.com]

"The point is to trap intruders like you on the inside," Chloe tells her, narrowing her eyes, "with no way out and clearly it works."

[have_no_mercy]

"Well, I suppose it makes sense that no one would bother intruding if you were here. You're not worth anything." And in case it wasn't obvious just how pissed off Tess is? She's going to take her anger out on trying to shoot the main door open.