525/Cave Story 2: Seeking Sue

Cave Story 2: Seeking Sue
Date of Scene:	01 September 2014
Location:	Flying Island
Synopsis:	Quote puts out a call for people to help find a little lost girl named Sue. Lots of people show up to help.
Cast of Characters:	3, Deelel, Staren, 151, 234, 279, 304, 403, 437, 512, Inga, 541
Tinyplot:	Cave Story

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Quote (403) has posed:
"Welcome, friends." the robot says, smiling. Again, the smile seems genuine but it's not clear whether that's because he's cleverly programmed to appear genuine or whether he's actually showing emotion. "I know you've been... sent to find that girl, Sue Sakamoto. I checked with all the Mimiga and she hasn't been seen in days. Not since before the Doctor and his minions attacked." he explains. "She was staying with Toroko and Arthur, and with Toroko ... gone, no one could get inside the house. Well, I found a key up by Arthur's grave. Maybe Toroko dropped it at some point. Well, I came in, found some messages on the computer, and decided to follow the teleporter to see if Sue was on the other side."

    He leads people into Arthur's house, then to the transporter. "Follow me." he encourages, before hopping up onto the pad and shimmering into nonexistence.

    The teleport pad shimmers, taking everyone in turn into the Egg Corridor. As the portal distortion fades, a new set of caverns can be seen. Unlike Mimiga Village, this chamber seems quite artificial. Where Mimiga Village was hewn from what appears to be a natural cave, this cavern appears to be deliberately and mechanically constructed.

    Behind and below the portal pad, an opening leads downward into a close, confining dark tunnel. There is a hint of movement below, a certain rush of feet moving quite a bit faster than any normal person or creature is likely to run. Ominous, but then there seems to be plenty of life within this cavern. In the distance, hoppers twitch and bounce along the rooftop runway down the cavern. Huge creatures, looking like boar the size of elephants, placidly wallow and graze. They will, however, charge anyone who comes near their grazing areas. Hoppers will attack by bouncing whenever anyone comes close to them, aiming to bounce into targets or smash someone flat. Occasional giant beetles fly, particularly in the narrower well-protected sections of the cavern, angrily defending their nesting grounds. Even above the teleport pad there's movement, a vague flash of green that might resemble a human.

    Quote gestures around. "As you can see, it looks a little dangerous. Something seems to have enraged the creatures here. I can't imagine a human child going through this place alone with all this..." he waves a hand vaguely, gesturing at the creatures about. "Not unless she was quite capable at least. And if she is, there's probably no rush. But if we can find her, you can offer her a way out. I thought you'd be interested in joining me, exploring." he suggests.

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    Of course the Union would be present, coming to the aid of others for their altruistic reasons, but not everyone here is so giving in nature. A reward was promised, and frankly as is ever the case with giant floating islands, they're probably rife with who knows what kinds of grand magic and technology to acquire and... Re-allocate.
    Thusly, the current and only Confederate envoy to the floating island arrives, sidling right in through the teleporter and sauntering along like she owns the place, Lu-Mey suddenly just drapes herself over Quote's shoulders like she owns him, too, a complete and blatant disregard for anything even CLOSE to personal space.
    "Ooooh you found the key~? Well isn't that proactive of you~."

Marrik (541) has posed:
The details of events leading up to this were fuzzy to Marrik. For him all that mattered was there was a missing child and at the mention of caves he packed what he thought was appropriate for the situation. Instead he found himself confronted not with a natural cave harness and line was intended for, but instead artificial and� Apparently populated.

"So something has the critters stirred up," He didn't know what 'normal' was for here so shots in the dark. "Human girl?" A frown formed on his face as he reached out with his senses to see if any human spirits were in the cavern. Unlike when he called the dead in the two battles he had to in Invalice this was a whisper rather than command. Him seeing if anyone was home. Also unlike those times before he was hoping to not hear anything. A 'nobody was home' would tell him the girl was still alive.

Metaphorical crickets chirped at his call and Marrik smiled as he pulled his hand back. "I do not know where she is, but if she's here she's alive." This to nobody in particular and seemingly intended for anyone else that had joined in the search.

Staren has posed:
    This time, Staren is armored up. Some people are probably used to seeing that by now... Just how long is he going to stay a mighty robot? Well, noone's asked.

    Staren leads Inga through the warpgate, looking around briefly to see that nothing much has changed. He nods and listens to Quote's retelling, and then... Um, okay, he's a bit lost as to why Sue would go to this place, but okay...

    The artificiality strikes him. This doesn't look like the work of the Mimigas, nor the mysterious mage. "Who /built/ this?" Then he remembers that the Doctor's other minion appeared mechanical. "The 'Doctor'?"

    Staren looks down the corridor, taking it all in and scratching his head. 'Well,' he says softly, 'I don't see a body...'

    Staren thinks for a moment. "She can't have made it by those monsters. We should check for hiding places nearby." First, he makes his way up to the mysterious green figure. "Hey! I mean, um... Hello! Did you see someone come through here before us? ...And who are you?"

Inga has posed:
Inga would rather forget the way she clung to Staren's arm as they went through the teleporter, her eyes wide with terror, her mouth set in a thin line as she struggled to cling to her dignity. She does manage not to scream, though she does grumble about the whole business once they are through. "Almost makes me prefer those cars...why does all transportation have to be so terrifying?" she sighs, smoothing the fabric of her embroidered wool dress. The long sleeves of her underdress have been cut short out of necessity--they'd been to bloodstained to save.

A missing girl. Even in a strange land, a missing little girl is something she will help with. Her skills might actually prove usefull.

Inga eyes the beasts, nodding at the warning. She clutches her wooden staff in hand, leaning on it slightly, eyes narrowing slightly toward the way ahead.

Inga looks toward the one who seems to be leading this mission. Inga clears her throat; "Is there any object that was the girl's perhaps? I could possibly use it to help find her," she asks.

A women appears then, and throws herself at the Quote. Inga merely raises an eyebrow.

She then looks toward Marrik, lips pursing thoughtfully, wondering just how he knew the girl was alive. Obviously, Inga hopes as much.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Interesting little info dump, thinks Black Arachnia as she listens to the more human-looking robot summarizing the situation. If only more briefings were that short, sweet, and to the point.

Admittedly, there's also a lot of information that Quote *didn't* cover with that brief precis, but you can't have everything. "I don't suppose you kept copies of those files for other cybernetics to review?" she asks Quote once we're in the Egg Corridor ... and as she takes in the surroundings, she makes a decision.

"Beast mode."

And with that, the initially(?)-humanoid robot reconfigures herself into the form of a very large cybernetic-looking spider. She may not be able to get all of her traversing done this way, but being a giant spider might be more conducive to sneaking along without picking fights than staying in humanoid configuration.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    This particular crisis is something Ainsley is new to. The robot's welcome gets a look of mild surprise from her, and more when he explains what they're all here for. She nods at him once as everyone heads inside of the house... briefly she contemplates what magic affinity she should focus on, frowning. A frown that grows in size when Lu-Mey's presence is recognized, and she starts acting creepy toward Quote.
    She stares at Lu-Mey for a while but she's not quite sure why. Instinct just makes her feel oddly hostile toward the oni woman. She brushes that off as a simple dislike of people being clingy with people they don't know very well.

    "I will check up ahead," she tells the others, once everyone has arrived. She spares a glance at Lu-Mey and then Black Arachnia, as if distracted. She nods at Quote once, and then begins marching forward at something of a careful pace. She's got a reasonable handle on the path ahead, thanks to her visual abilities, so it's unlikely she'll get caught by surprise. She just tries to hop over any gaps and obstacles along the way, climbing and bouncing. If no one goes with her, she might just disappear into the tunnel ahead.

    She's avoiding using her flight in here because it might cause arcing and that would zap any nearby electronics, of which she is certain are present in a place that looks so artificially built.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Roll's used to teleporting, but not quite like this. Following along, and finding herself in a vast artificial cavern, the Robot Master blinks a few times. She's not yet armed herself, though, being fairly unwilling to bring violence around towards anything without a really good reason. And since all the things out there are living creatures right now? She's pretty hesitant to bring out any weapons!

    So instead, she's sticking near Quote. "Me neither. It's like a zoo without cages! All these beasts...? But if she didn't get past them, we'd... we'd find evidence, right? Blood? Clothes? ... Something...?" She's squicked and a little horrified at the thought, but proof that NOTHING got her means that she made it through. Probably.

    She's sticking close to Quote at the moment, standing behind him and looking around. "Have you remembered anything yet? Your name, maybe?"

Kanade Tachibana (512) has posed:
    Kanade is here, despite being completely absent from the preceding radio conversation. It's not that she doesn't see the value in communicating, she just... rarely has much to say, and showing up is probably the most clear way of saying 'I'm here to help' anyway. The other members of the group might magically start to notice her shortly before they are met by the robot, but she promptly fades back out of existence to listen to some exposition. There's no real need for greetings here -- she doesn't know anybody. And it's probably best kept that way.

    But still, she's here for those 'altruistic reasons', and she wants to help people, so she is judiciously attentive to all of the information delivered by the mechanical envoy. Dangerous creatures, they say? She mumbles the call words for the summoning of her blade as, in a soft but bright glint of shimmering magic not unlike that of the teleporter, a blade comes to rest on the back of her hand. She's ready for these 'dangerous creatures'.

    ... and she has no intention of letting any cute bunny people get abducted today. The last visit already had enough heartbreak for her. And on that note, she sees fit to waste no more time while someone is lost. She heads out from the group and walks along the lifeless, metallic pathway, doing her best to avoid the 'nesting places' of the various organisms about. She might come dangerously close to them a few times, but fortunately, she notices this proximity and draws out her wings so that she may get more distance from them in the sky. Whether or not she had already riled them beforehand remains to be seen, though.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has returned once more looking more or less the same as she did before. She's following after Arthur light staff in hand as she goes. She's not talking much and more taking in the other people whom arrived as they head down below her staff's kept unpowerd for the moment however she's getting the idea this is going to be quite the run.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     It seemed like a girl was missing. And there were some cute bunny creatures involved. And robots. And her mother wanted to come. So, Annie decided it would be a good idea to join the others on this expedition. From the looks of things, the only things currently in their way are mindless-looking creatures. If she had to get in a fight, then, this would be the kind of place where she might not mind so much.

She's sticking close to Maxine, however, hoping they can keep each other safe and out of trouble.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine's not bothered about going through the the teleporter. Still, she might not be the best person for this she isn't exactly the athletic type. She wants to help regardless though and is curious about the technology of this place. It would likely be best for her to keep close to everyone else. Especially Annie. Thought her daughter was likely better suited for this place.

Quote (403) has posed:
    Quote flinches away from Lu-Mey, looking quite uncomfortable indeed. Who'd have thought a robot would have a sense of personal space? Still, he doesn't know the first thing about the Multiversal War. Lu-Mey is as much his friend as Staren, Roll and the others. He assumes, with good reason, that she's here for the same reasons as the rest. Of course, that's mostly because he's only a few days old. It's pretty easy to be gullible when you have absolutely no perspective.

    Instead of responding to the too-forward actions of the oni, he tries to focus on Black Arachnia. Her transformation is a bit disturbing, but not enough to make him upset. "Ah... I really don't know?" he shrugs, possibly trying to use the motion to get clear of Lu-Mey. "I don't remember anything past a few days ago. My memory appears to be corrupted, so I wouldn't suggest trying to interface. The records are on the computer though, in the house we passed through?" Arachnia can download files if she wants. As for actual video of the scenes... perhaps Staren has them. "I still don't really know what my name is." he says to Roll. "Quote or Curly Brace, I suppose." he shrugs.

    Above the party, Staren confronts a greenish goblinoid. The creature blinks huge white eyes at him. "Looking for someone? There's things passing by all the time. Such as the Basil below. Don't go near it, if you know what's good for you. It's quite deadly." the oddly-misnamed Cthulhu says in a squeaky voice. It's entirely friendly, if a bit weird. "No one's been through here today that I know of, sorry."

    Those who go off into the cavern, things get a bit hairy quickly. Flying giant beetles are a menace, and are quite aggressive to anything that isn't part of their natural ecosystem. Closer to the ground, the hoppers are just plain aggressive to anything not the size of an elephant. And as for the elephant-like things, they're prone to aggressively charge anything that gets near them as a matter of course. This is NOT a friendly place!

Staren has posed:
    Staren listens to this. Cthulhu seems a tad cryptic. There are plenty of questions, but Staren focuses on the most urgent one: "Well has anyone come through in the last week? Human or Mimiga?"

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Giant cybernetic spiders tend not to be part of any 'natural' ecosystem ... unless it's Cybertron or a similarly 'natural machine life-forms' world. On the plus side, Black Arachnia isn't really in the beetles' airspace - but those who look like they have hostile designs on the Maximal will find out that she has a simple, three-point plan for dealing with them:

1) Launch her mandible grapnel at the attacker
2) Whip the attacker into the nearest halfway convenient rock face, reeling them in to help with the whipping
3) Leech some nutrients from the body and let it fall. (Preferably right on Lu-Mey's head, but she won't go out of her way for it.)

Sure, she has lasers, but they're not really positioned for convenient use in her spider mode ... and she doesn't feel like switching back to robot mode just to shoot it out with the local fauna. On the other hand, if enough beetles start homing in on her simultaneously that her mandible-whip trick isn't going to keep up, she may not have a choice.

Quote (403) has posed:
    The Cthulhu responds to Staren. "Well, yes. A Mimiga came through, a short time before everything got exciting. Oh my... you don't suppose she DID something, do you?"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley quickly encounters a problem. She is being attacked by pretty much everything in the tunnel at once, which would be a great deal more hazardous if she did not have the level of visibility that she does. She casts little crackling bolts of lightning at the beetles that fly at her, zapping them out of the air with a loud POP of their chitin and a cloud of dust. The hoppers get a similar treatment, with various zaps and at least one just gets punched in the face as it hops at her, sending it slamming into the floor.
    However, she is largely avoiding trying to take all of them. There's no reason to fight all of the wildlife in this place, so she ducks under any hoppers that she doesn't have to hurt in order to advance. It's only the stray beetle here and there that really interrupts her.
    The elephant things she avoids by hopping over them with a burst of her flight aura, keenly avoiding any direct conflict they might represent.

Inga has posed:
Inga is about to say something to Ainsley, but then the woman starts moving forward on her own. Inga lets out a sigh. This is apparently something she does. Inga will attempt to catch up to her if she can, after Quote answers her question anyway. If she had something that belonged to the girl, she could perhaps gain insight. A vision might be had. If not, she can still cast the runes and see what they tell her.

Suddenly, one of the peoeple is no longer a person--but a giant spider creature. Inga practically trips over herself trying to get back, eyes widening as she curses under her breath. She reaches for the knife at her belt. It would seem however, that the creature is with them, as no one is attacking. Alright, well. There are all manner of things in the world...suppose this isn't any worse than anything else she's seen.

Inga spots a coupld of familiar figues and waves to Maxine and Annie, smiling slightly as she moves toward the two. "Good to see you both again...perhaps we should stick together?" she asks. Staren has gone...somewhere, and Ainsley took off without even waiting for her to cast a ward. Though she supposes Ains is capable of making her own.

"I can help to protect you from the things in here. Don't be alarmed," she says, pulling her knife from her belt. Without a moment's hesitation she takes the knife to her opposite arm and slices deep. Blood wells immediately, then is flicked from the blade toward Maxine and Annie, forming into a fine crimson mist that surrounds them both, envigorating and protecting them from at least some of the potential damage from incoming attacks.

As no one seems to have anything from the missing girl, Inga sheaths her knife then reaches for one of the pouches at her waist. She reaches in and pulls out several bone-white object carved with futhark runes. She opens her palm to see if the runes have any insight into the situation.

Marrik (541) has posed:
Oh hey GIANT SPIDER WITH BIG GIANT FANGS!

Marrik shrugged at the big spider before looking around. Occupational hazard when living in a troll market full of creepy things and living near the largest deepest hole in the multiverse. "OK, I came in expecting a more natural cave." His attention was drawn to Igna and he nodded once. "Still, anyone need anything before we-" Frown as Ainsley disappeared up ahead.

He said nothing because he's seen just how well she could take care of herself and instead shrugged before focusing on the radio chatter via his pixie casting appropriate magics to keep him patched in. Sure something like the Union's common channels needed more complex magics, but here seemed just fine to patch into. It� Also proved educational on the mindsets of his fellow searchers.

When he saw Black Arachnia climbing up the walls he grinned, "Good thinking! Just� Uh I don't think giant spiders are kid friendly."

He grunted and started forward, just as the local critters got stirred up. His staff was pulled from apparently up his sleeve and green runes glowed along its length just in time to smack a beetle that tried divebombing him.

As soon as the beetle touched the staff it withered and decayed enough that its momentum caused the now dessicated corpse to crumble to dust against the wood. He spun to do the same to a hopper and saw Inga slice her arm open.

Blood magic? Not a route he considered, but noteworthy. Trouble is the bugs kept his attention too much to be bothered with more than a vague sense he'd want to talk to this woman later

Staren has posed:
    Staren was expecting the guy to say no, noone had come through. A human-turned-mimiga kid /can't/ have made it through all this... right? Unless she's an elite... but then, perhaps the animals were peaceful before. "And how long ago did things get 'exciting'?"

    Whatever the goblin's reply, Staren's wings are out and he drops by anyone still on the starting platform only long enough to say, "A mimiga came through here!" before he's off like a shot, flying down the corridor. He draws a federation phaser from his bag, and a little silvery wire snakes out of his wrist and plugs into it to provide power.

    Staren speeds after Ainsley. He can fly over the elephant things and the hoppers, so any beetles that get past Ainsley get faces full of stun shots.

    Could Sue still be here? If so, he hopes they can find her before some particularly inquisitive animal does... somehow, he wouldn't be surprised if there's just another teleporter at the end of all this, though :