525/Cave Story 2: Seeking Sue

Cave Story 2: Seeking Sue
Date of Scene:	01 September 2014
Location:	Flying Island
Synopsis:	Our adventurers learn where Sue Sakamoto might have gone, and advance into the unknown in search of her.
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

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    "AaaaaaaaaaMoreBeer (talk)<3"
    That sudden, shrill, excited, and delighted squeal comes from Lu-Mey. She seems to entirely forget Quote when Black Arachnia takes on her mechanical arachnid form. Machine or not, the design seems to be one that sets the Oni off. And not in the way most people normally are when they see that mode.
    Ah, but she only vaguely pays attention to Cthulhu. No one's been this way lately is still no means to not meander along, and she follows with the others, up until she suddenly... Sidesteps the corpse dropped on her. It's the NEXT beetle that she leaps up with a giggle and GRABS at it, hugging it to her chest and just blatantly ignoring the fact that it bites her throat clean open. Despite the horrible red mist of arterial spray, she squeezes it to her chest. "Oh gods they're so cute though. I'll name this one Ranchiki!" She squeals while slinging it under her arm and just holding it despite all the fight it puts up and how badly it starts mauling her. Most people would be dead by now.
    "Ranchiki, you stop that!" She chides, stabbing the insect with a paralytic toxin and just... Not minding the fact that she is now bathed in her own blood, wounds slowly re-knitting themselves with the wiggle of white worms squirming inside the grievous lacerations and chomp-marks until she is back to being entirely, and perfectly fine.
    And then she looks RIGHT AT AINSLEY. Two fingers point to her eyes. Then one to Ainsley.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Fighting their way through likely wouldn't be the best idea if they can avoid. Maxine always prefer a non-violent solution but trying to reason with the animals and insects was likely impossible. She's not going to argue with Inga's offer of protection but she looks a bit concerned when the woman cuts herself.

She takes advantage of the mist and starts running passing the odd creatures doing her best to try and not draw too much attention to herself. She shields herself as she does so, researching some kind of forcefield technology might not be a bad idea in the future.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "Well... I'll call you Quote then! Curly anything doesn't sound too guy-like!" Roll has clearly never seen the Three Stooges, but oh well. She beams up at Quote... only to ALSO flinch away upon realizing Lu-Mey's just RIGHT UP THERE with them both. She skitters away, without quite being sure why the Oni makes her so nervous.

    Even more nervous with all these creatures around now than before, Roll just... sticks close to quote, while looking around for anything out of place. She's MUCH, much happier when Lu-Mey goes skittering off. It's like a pressure valve just got released! Her shoulders slump. "Whew... what's her problem...?"

Kanade Tachibana (512) has posed:
    Once she's airborne, Kanade stares back down at the ground to make sure one of those fury elephants isn't following her. But of course, one of them is... at least with its eyes. the hoppers can jump, but not exactly fly, and where she is right now she's probably at a safe range. So with little more than a short staring contest between the two, the hopper leaves Kanade be, likely focusing instead on one of the immediate threats to its life. The girl emits a small breath. She's just glad that she didn't have to kill it, really.

    But unfortunately, those turquoise cows aren't the only trouble she has to contend with. No, no -- as soon as she turns around, she's assailed by a swarm of three beetles. Much to her surprise, they just come careening at her! She has to strafe out of the way, narrowly avoiding being hit by the one leading the charge. By the time they swoop in for another attempt, though, Kanade is ready for them. She has summoned another hand sonic blade on to her other arm, and is holding them both in front of herself now, making a sort of X-shaped shield. When they come close, Kanade uses the blunt sides to whack two of the insipid insectoids as they collide with the third and fall collectively as a heap to the ground. But even then, they don't die; they're just incapacitated.

    Kanade Tachibana: Wouldn't even hurt a fly. Well, wouldn't -kill- a fly, anyway.

    And the coast is clear afterwards, for a spell, so she alights on a steel outcropping looking over another artificial valley. She gives Lu-Mey a passing glance... before herself letting her eyes wander back to the small bug-heap that she left in her wake. 'Cute?'. She tilts her head. Maybe a little.

    ... she meanders over to pet one. You know, because she can.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is looking to Quote and then to Lu-Mey she not sure she should sterp in there. However she does wonder about it either way she listen to Quote and drowns a bit.

"I agree it would be bad to go about your head without your spechs it could be fatal to be honest."

She looks bck to see the monsters ahead she looks at it for a moment as the thing warnds them.

"Thanks for the heads up."

She heads intro the cavern and is putting her staff to use to gun down the hostile creatures.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Annie continues to stay close to Maxine, also looking fairly unnerved by the ward. But it doesn't seem to be causing any problems for her systems, and it does make it easier to keep the creatures from pursuing too closely as she runs. She does occasionally have to veer out of the way of a beetle, and occasionally even swats one forcefully away like, well, a bug.

Quote (403) has posed:
    Quote advances into the cave, following Ainsley, Staren, Arachnia and Kanade. His little beam-gun is drawn, and he's quick enough to deal with the few threats that make it past them without getting stunned or fried. Except for the boar-elephants that is. Those he just jumps over. They're absolutely no threat to anyone who can jump or fly, and he sees no reason to pew pew something just because it's defending its nest, or lair, or whatever. And no, he's surely not advancing just to get away from Lu-Mey now that she's distracted! Surely not! He's a brave scout robot, and charging into danger is entirely his thing. Perhaps even charging into battle on the back of a giant boar-elephant. If, that is, he could figure out a way to make it turn. Sigh, badass as that'd be, it's probably impractical. He continues on, shaking his head at some of the things he's picking up. He's glad he invited these people along... this would be a lot harder alone. But it might also be kind of less troubling.

    The Cthulhu shrugs. "We don't get many visitors here. I'd say it's been... a day? Two? Hard to tell the passing of time. I slept through most of it." it says apologetically. "Er... good luck?" it offers, as Staren flies off.

    The cave is long and fairly simple to navigate, at least at the start. From the building marked with a 16, the group advances fairly easily. 15, 14, 13, 12...

    Ahead, out of sight behind some pipes, a voice cries out. A young piping voice "There you are, you monster! You don't scare me!" There's a hint of motion, but nothing really can be seen of the 'monster' or the one who's shouting. A voice calls out though, deeper, powerful... LOUD. "GRAAAWR!" the voice bellows, a sound that seems to shake the entire cavern.

Staren has posed:
    "A day or two? How can she only be this far?" Staren wonders. In response to the voice... he makes a beeline for it! He needs to see this situation and sort out what's going on. Maybe Sue is an elite capable of taking care of herself, who knows? Maybe this isn't even Sue...

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The squabbling between Sue and whatever she is confronting reaches Ainsley's ears, and the lizard girl immediately understands that there isn't much time to sit and think about what to do next. She begins hopping with a certain urgency from spot to spot, blithely overlooking most threats in her way at the time. It's only the ones that are, again, right up in her grill that she bothers dealing with.
    At this point she is just using her bare hands to zap anything in her way. Zzzzap!

    She tries to reach Sue with all the speed she can muster. She forgets about whatever reasoning she had for not flying, and uses her flight to advance. She does not want the girl to get eaten or killed, if she can do anything to stop it!

Marrik (541) has posed:
Marrik gave an exasperated sigh at Lu-May's antics between bouts of going forward and sucking the life out of anything that came within staff range. Sure these didn't have a lot of life, but every little bit added to his power. Plus all they had to do was die for him to get to use it. Never mind everyone else did more killing, he still benefited. Anyone sensitive to the flow of life would be able to feel the flow from everything that died go towards the thin red headed staff wielder.

The squeaky voice and cave shaking that followed prompted Marrik to start running. things that tried attacking him died. No staff or hand slapping away. They just died. He was mentally readying a web of forces as his right hand made a series of gestures. The girl was close and she was being attacked. He wasn't able to attack whatever it was because he couldn't see it, but he had power enough now to cast a spell ahead and at the roof of the cavern. It was no attack, and it was made to help his gardening. Sunlight started to impossibly shine down from on high seemingly with no source. It was as if someone managed to cut the roof of the cave off, dump daylight in, and close the cave without making the sunshine go away.

It wasn't much, but it might be a distraction to whatever's up ahead. Combine that with a low rumble preceding his now amplified voice, "YOU WILL LEAVE THIS PLACE IMMEDIATELY. I GIVE THIS ONE CHANCE. WALK AWAY. NOW."

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
That's not a terribly good set of sounds to hear when you're on a rescue mission, is it?

Black Arachnia launches her mandible grapnel again, trying to latch onto a stalactite or other outcropping from the ceiling, and swings down, along, and back up - and twists around to repeat the process as well as she can.

She may not be the first person in the group to reach the confrontation in progress, but she sure doesn't plan to be the *last* one ... and once she's got a sense of the situation, she can intervene better than she'd be able to out of ignorance.

Kanade Tachibana (512) has posed:
    Lu-Mey is pretty loud, so it shouldn't come as any surprise that her voice is what gets Kanade to look away from the buggy that she's petting, and to glance at her. But for once? She doesn't give a headtilt. This lady is obviously calling attention to something only true appreciators of the adorable can understand. And so, the infinite combustion engines of time and space churn to signify the creation of an invisible and abundantly significant social link. Because this is totally not superficial, and totally not something both of them will forget ever happened within minutes. To express this kinship, Kanade responds with the most deep and heartfelt gesture that her stoic demeanor can allow for:

A thumbsup.
Bugsbugsbugs.

    Her affection for the almost complete stranger duly communicated, Kanade continues on, deftly avoiding any other threats along her path. The numbers on the buildings descend almost as swiftly -- actually, exactly as swiftly -- as she travels before finally, she hears a not-quite-distant cry. Words! Though she can't see whatever is happening, Kanade quickens her pace yet more, attempting to come to the aid of the one fighting off the 'monster'. If she is able to arrive in time, she would place herself in-between the attacked and the attacker, brandishing her blades in warning. If she doesn't... well. In that contingency, she'll figure things out depending on what said evil creature does next.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine's concerned as she hears that but she's not the type to rush blindly into danger. She lets the others stay ahead of her figuring they can handle this better than she can. Plus everyone charging in at once could lead to trouble. She stops a moment to catch her breath before continuing on. Going into combat while winded wasn't the best idea either.

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    There is no joke in saying that Lu-Mey has the attention span of a concussed gnat. The truth is she doesn't even seem to notice that Quote is trying to get away from her as fast as sanely possible- which is a perfectly normal reaction when in her presence.

    And then she flashes thumb up and a -huge- toothy grin at Kanade.

    Unfortunately she hugs Ranchiki a little too hard and cracks its carapice causing it to go SQUISH in a very nasty manner. "A-AH! RANCHIKI! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Roll (3) has posed:
    Roll's been following Quote, but upon hearing all that noise... "That sounds like..." A person?! Is it Sue?! ... has she been in here for maybe a day? Who knows anymore... Roll's not gonna worry about it. Breaking away from Quote, she goes into a mad dash forwards! "You're not alone down here!" She calls out at top volume!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is also in the cave here keeping with Quote and evceryone else. She's making fast work of the monsters. She's can jmp pretty darn well too from the looks of things as she goes. She sees a sshe gets past the monster and soon she hears something ahead. Oh this does not sound good /at/ all here. She moirphs her staff into gun mode and gets ready to fight.

"...here we go..."

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
"Sounds like... something big," Annie comments at the sound of the roar. She pauses beside Maxine, taking her hand to comfort her mother. "It looks like the others are going in to fight. We should get that person who's in trouble to safety!" With that, she lets go and rushes in to see what she might be able to do to help.

Inga has posed:
Inga moves forward as quickly as she can, but running is just not something that is possible for the woman. Her uneven gait quickens some, but she's still likely to be one of the last to arrive on scene. The girl's scream sets a fire in her though. Everyone who has rushed ahead is ready and able to take out the threat and protect the girl she is sure, but can any of them treat injuries? This she doesn't know, but she hopes she gets there in time if those particular skills are needed. "If anyone is injured, I can help!" she calls, just to establish this.

Quote (403) has posed:
    No one is immediately within sight of what happens next, as it follows immediately after the bellow. Still, a description of the events because some things need to be seen, even if only cutscened...

    The monster in question looks sort of like a Mimiga with vivid red eyes and pointy fangs. Also it's huge, its head about the size of the adolescent Mimiga. Incongruously it wears green pants with the legs torn and tattered, and a green tie though it lacks a shirt. Were one particularly genre-savvy, one might imagine it looks a lot like the Hulk after sudden massive enlargement. The little Mimiga looks... well, it's a Mimiga. A small bunny-like creature wearing a blue pull-over. The difference in size would almost be comic if it weren't ominous.

    Following the monster's bellow, the frail-seeming Mimiga roars right back. "WHAT! You want some of this?!?" she says, raising fists and smirking cockily. "Take your best shot! Even my big brother has never beaten me!"

    The monster seems to understand, and advances on the Mimiga, lashing out with one immense paw. The Mimiga staggers with a squeak. "Ouch! Y-you got me!" The monster isn't finished however, punching again. By this point the little Mimiga is sobbing in pain. "Sorry! I'M SORRY!" No reply though, except another punch that knocks the little one sprawling. She IS tough however, surprisingly so. Despite devastating hits from a creature that could probably knock down a building, the Mimiga is merely moaning and cowering.

Quote (403) has posed:
    Igor doesn't respond to what's happened so far, not to the light, not to the shouts, not to the charging people. He has eyes only for the little helpless mimiga who apparently thought she could take him.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
The Maximal spider doesn't shed any more speed than she absolutely has to - particularly when the situation goes from 'one girl against one monster' to 'one monster beating up a helpless body'. Black Arachnia may not consider herself particularly heroic, but she's not really a huge fan of letting the weak be trampled by the strong.

She takes advantage of her momentum from swinging her way here, calculates the arc coming out of her last swing and flip, and twists around on the way down to try and land hard on Igor's back -

And immediately attempts to sink her palps into the giant's neck or upper back, and inject a broad-spectrum tranquilizer version of her cybervenom.

.... which is when she realizes the flaw in her cunning plan: *getting off of the thing's back*. Oops.

Well, she has the 'stupid' part of 'heroic' down, she thinks sardonically as she clings to her unintended mount and hopes not to get in the way of her allies' attacks. This monster's pretty big, there should be plenty for them to shoot that she won't block. Right?

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    The sound of squeaking impacts is something Ainsley immediately understands. Someone is getting their butt kicked by a great big beast. She flies as fast as she can, and only gets there after Igor has struck Sue several times. She spares a glance at the sprawled Mimiga, and then at Igor, and then Sue again--

    She doesn't even think. She swoops in and tries to land, staggering. She runs to try to get to the tiny rabbit girl, hoping that she can provide a bit of healing magic to her in case she got anything broken from the beatdown she just received. The swap in mana affinity makes it impossible for Ainsley to fly anymore, though, dispersing some static electricity into the ground harmlessly.

Staren has posed:
    Staren flies down towards the two of them. "Sue! Sue, is that you?" Once he comes in view of Igor's face, he says, "Alright, you, prepare to--" He stops and stares. "...A Mimiga? What... who are you? What are you doing?" Briefly, he's surprised into not dashing immediately for Sue.

Marrik (541) has posed:
When Marrik managed to get in sight of Sue, a giant red eyed mimigas stood a ways off and Sue was down. The whole sunshine thing had been an attempt at getting it's attention and failed. So what? He couldn't get between girl and monster in time so he instead focused his power into a single projected instance of kenetic force aimed at the creature's chest. it would feel something like a ham sized fist hitting if Marrik's aim was true.

Trouble is he's rarely done this at range, instead usually preferring to use his fist or staff as focus. Projecting the magic itself without a physical focus was hard, and anyone looking at Marrik would see him making a single forward punch with one foot sliding at the same time as his fist. If it killed the beast so be it, but he hoped to simply knock it out. Why not aim at it's head? It's surprisingly easy to break someone's neck if they get hi the wrong way.

except Black Arachnia had gotten on the creature's back. Maybe he should have aimed for it's legs? Too late now!

Roll (3) has posed:
    Roll can only wince. Horribly. At what she sees. The Mimiga seem tougher than most humans, and deserve some credit for that. But against THAT thing? "No, no chance...!" But Sue charges in anyways, and takes a whalloping.

    Roll acts immediately. Without summoning up her armor, she extends a hand... and it transforms quickly into the Mega Buster - but colored grey?

    *GWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOPP!!* Huge glops of concrete launch from it after a preliminary spin-up. Super quick-drying concrete suitable for the heaviest-duty industrial construction Dr. Light could ever imagine - and that is quite industrial, knowing him.

    Most of it's aimed at Igor's legs. Hopefully, he'll get stuck in place. Or maybe trip. Roll's just trying to foul up his movement, not eviscerate him!

Kanade Tachibana (512) has posed:
    Despite her best efforts, Kanade still arrives a bit later than some, and much later than Black Arachnia who is already on Igor's back by the time she gets there. So instead of charging as she did the last time something like this happened, she trusts in the strength of the others, and goes instead to Sue and Ainsley. She glances back at the lizard girl -- a nod and a look that says 'I'll be here', nothing more. And there she stays, keeping her hand-blades crossed over her chest as she had with the bugs before. Just in case Igor is able to break through the group and get to Sue, she'll be right in his way.

    ... but something does catch her eye. Like the others have said, it looks a lot like a mimiga itself. Just... bigger.

    And sort of unhealthy.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
The rabbit girl certainly is cute, but it looks like she could use some help. "Stay away from her!" Maxine's motherly instincts kick in as she gets closer to the fight. Still, it would be better to restrain the attacking monster then hurt it. She's well equipped for such matters as she removes a bomb from her lab coat and arms it. She then promptly tosses it at Igor and a few seconds later it explodes in a mess of sticky goo.

Inga has posed:
Inga arrives behind the others, trying to quickly take in the scene. Her eyes widen at the giant creature, the small...girl...? Rabbit girl. Still, a child. Can she reach her?

Inga begins to move forward, a plan quickly forming in her mind. She reaches into one of the pouches at her waist and pulls out what appears to be finger bones. Leaning her staff in the crook of her arm, Inga then pulls out her knife and slices a new wound in her arm. She touches the finger bones to her blood one by one, her lips moving as she casts her spell.

She throws one then, toward the giant mimiga, but not quite AT it. More between it and the girl.

The bones have been charged with warding magic, as Inga tries to set up a barrier between the giant thing and the little girl it is trying to harm.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
As the others attempt to restrain the monster, Annie tries to get to Sue. She might be putting herself directly in harm's way, but... better her than a cute fluffy thing! In any case, Inga's ward should help protect her from whatever beating the creature might attempt on her. But, will she even be able to get there? Will the restraints even work? That remains to be seen.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is uncertain as she sees the monger, she looks at the huge thing she brings up the staff which is in combat mode. She readies her stff and has tbe business end pointd at the monster. She now gets redy to move as she does so music starts up, due to this being a legacy of the session she was inolved in. It fires shots in time to the music before she breaks into run and calls out.

"Hey ugly get GLTICHED!"

Quote (403) has posed:
    The Mimiga looks up, seeing people rushing in. "Who are you?" she asks, struggling to get to her feet. The answer will have to wait as Igor smashes Inga's bone ward and slams the Mimiga one last time. This hit seems too much, finally, and the monster scoops up its helpless 'opponent' with one massive arm. It turns to lumber away, only to be assaulted by a series of attacks. This is where a lack of coordination might end up causing some trouble.

    Black Arachnia, ahead by the simple virtue of being out of the way and able to move cleanly around obstacles and critters, leaps on Igor and sinks her fangs into him. The giant Mimiga-like form howls and thrashes, trying to flee with its prize. It's too big to be stopped entirely by her paralysis attack. Its thrashing does, however, put Arachnia in the path of Marrik's kinetic bolt, effectively shielding it and quite probably knocking her sprawling. Deleel's blaster shots singe it (possibly further threatening Black Arachnia as well), but the creature doesn't even notice the damage.

    But wait, there's more! Insta-dry cement and a glue bomb! Igor howls once, yanking a foot free and leaving fur behind. It does the same again with its other foot. The thing is BRUTALLY strong and tough, and has little difficulty pulling free.

    Roaring, and appearing to laugh at the attempts to stop it, the creature turns and runs, ducking into a somewhat-narrow passage leading deeper into the chamber. This part of the cave, it seems, is much tighter and twisty, with obstacles in the way. But first things first... people are going to have to figure out a way to get past a figurative ton of glue and cement before they can begin pursuit.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Black Arachnia, upon realizing that (1) she's no longer on Igor's back, and (2) she's no longer spinning around because she's no longer on the monster that WAS spinning around, starts trying to get her feet back under her. This may take a while, she's got eight of the things in this form and they don't all seem to be responding quite according to protocol.

But she's intact. Pretty much. "So. Did we win?" she asks dryly, trying to turn to face the group - but she keeps overcompensating, moving rather like she's drunk enough to get pulled over on any public road.

Marrik (541) has posed:
Well that sucked. Black Arachnia took the brunt of Marrik's hit, monster had the girl, and there was this figurative hardened goop in the way. He sighed and walked up to it and took a slow breath before reaching out and spreading his fingers. The cement and glue creaked and cracked. Slowly his hand lowered and the cracks multiplied until chunks started breaking off. The rubble was subjected to millinia of aging in the span of moments and what was once an obstruction was rendered little more than a thick layer of dust on the floor.

Staren has posed:
    Staren is getting ready to blast the debris pile when he's asked to check on the Cybertronian, so he lands by Arachnia. "Hey... you okay?" He looks up and down. "Centipede's dilemma? Maybe you should switch forms?" Then... Marrik ages the debris away. "/That's/ a neat trick!" He dashes up to the tunnel. Huh, narrower space. No problem! He can just turn into a cat!

    ...Nothing happens. Oh right, he's still a robot. He sighs and gives chase, making his way through but no longer able to just fly full speed.

Inga has posed:
Inga looks over toward Black Arachnia, frowning slightly. There isn't much she can do to go after the beast, apparently her ward was not enough. Cursing, she moves closer to the giant spider. With a few flicks of her knife it is bloodied again, the blood misting outward toward the spider, attempting to cast a spell that both will heal her over time and help protect her from incoming damage--the same spell she'd given Annie and Maxine. "I hope this helps," she says, then stands back, waiting until she's usefull.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is keeoing moving but she's not so lucky with how things are going down. She stops shooting as the guy takes a hostage, she flips the staff up and it compacts and she keeps running in, she pulls the disc off her back and it's edge lights up humming with power. She moves to strike at Igor that goes no where given what's happen. he pauses figurting out how to get past this wall.

"I should have brought light charges with me..."

Kanade Tachibana (512) has posed:
    But try as she might, Kanade can't get to Sue in time to help her. And for the second time, someone is abducted right in front of her before she has any chance to help. She continues after Igor as he's pelted on all sides by the nearby elites, probably taking some friendly fire damage herself before she finally stops, watching helplessly as he shambles away. Her eyelids shut tightly, and she's still for several moments.

    And then Marrik clears the way. Her eyes open back up, and she wastes absolutely no time talking, or healing, or anything; she's determined to catch up to Igor now, and that's the only thing on her mind. She starts through the narrow passage, retracting her wings for now to provide her with more mobility.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
"No..." Annie says, looking on in shock as the monster defeats all the restraints that had been placed on it. "NO!" she cries again as it runs off. As she rushes forward, her appearance suddenly changes- her hair, eyes, and clothes. She wields what looks like a toy scythe, and rushes at the obstacle formed by the concrete and glue, charging up what looks like a small black hole. She aims it straight for the obstacle... only for Marrik to make it disappear before her eyes. Disappointedly, she re-aims the black hole and sucks up the dust from the ground. "...I guess that works too," she says. "Let's keep chasing that thing!"

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley staggers to a stop, and gapes as the mutant mimiga just... completely disregards the power of cement and glue and kidnaps Sue right off the floor. She huffs and looks at the mess before her when Igor is finally gone, and the party goes about fixing the mess they cause. Once the path is clear, she begins running forward again, jogging ahead and preparing to pursue Igor through the rest of the Egg Corridor. She looks very unhappy, and all the more determined.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Off the Igor goes, with Sue in tow. Roll makes a face. "...He just... plowed through it all without even blinking!" What a monster! She's gawking! ".... Does he work for the doctor too or...?"

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Once the debris, Maxine continues onwards. Of course she's not quite sure how to stop Igor yet. She doesn't want to put Sue any more in any more danger, and she's sure he can put up quite a few. Though maybe they could wear him down as a group. Still catching him up to him might be difficult.

Quote (403) has posed:
    Quote joins in, having been a bit slower than the front liners. His little gun's still out, and he looks in confusion at the mass of goop blocking the way. His eyes dart about. Fortunately before he can suggest shooting the mass free, others have better ideas.

    Marrik and Annie do their thing, getting rid of the mass of goop. Igor and Sue are long gone however. Igor, as tough as he is, doesn't even bother worrying about the critters and can jump over pretty much any obstacles. He'll be hard to catch, but the monster could've finished the Mimiga off and didn't. Its own purposes might be opposed to the heroes', but if her actual life were in danger she'd already be dead.

    Beyond what was once an obstacle and is now residing somewhere in a black hole, the cave continues. The buildings are much the same as before, but the cave itself is rougher. There's signs of damage beyond. Old damage, not fresh. Some of the incubation buildings seem damaged, but mostly it's tunnels and pipes that suffer. There's going to be more giant beetles now, including a few really huge ones that spit acid rather than buzz intruders. Nothing terribly more troubling than before though... except the obstacles. Tumbled-down crates, rock, broken pipes. Nothing that can't be climbed or jumped, but the going isn't nearly so smooth as before.

    Of note, there's a building up ahead that's not one of the incubation chambers, situated between the fourth and third. It has a visible entrance, even. Past the building though, the terrain gets even more wrecked. At this point, climbing and jumping might not be enough. People will have to be more reliant on supernormal abilities and gear when they proceed. Still, it seems like Igor went this way. There's signs of his passage... namely a couple of crushed beetles and one flattened hopper. Ew.

Marrik (541) has posed:
Anna's enthusiasm was catching. Sparks wriggled out of Martin's coat pocket and shot forward into the cave tunnels. She was small, maybe as big as a shinki or a barbie doll with dragonfly wings. As Marrik showed indescission she showed decisiveness.

"Come in! What're you hits waiting on? It's getting away!" Her dragonfly wings buzzed as she darted forward, exploring in quick flitting motions, trying to use her small size to slip where people couldn't and maybe find a shortcut to find where the monstrous mimigas was headed.

For his part Marrik slogged after more cautiously, not wanting to exasperate the problem of lots of people in a narrow space. Still, sparks could only really find the beast, and lead everyone else to it. Marrik frowned as he progressed, not liking what he's seeing. Still not much he can do other than keep going. Yet come time for entering the oddball structure he didn't seem bothered by it being out of human reach. He had rope, a grapple, and magic to guide the hook to a secure spot to hold his weight. Bugs? Hoppers? As before, if any approached him a flick of his fingers or twitch of his wrist and they died, and their deaths gave him power.

Inga has posed:
Inga follows behind Marrik as it would happen, keeping to the back, cautious, considering the girl and her guessed at transformation and what she would do about it. "Troubling..." she comments.

Marrik (541) has posed:
Marrik nodded to Inga before offering her his rope. "Nice bon ward, well made... would've stopped something smaller." Hey it was a bad time for talk but seeing your best get completely no sold sucks, especially when it really was good work.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Annie continues alongside the others. In this form, however, she seems to be more inclined to be towards the front of the group, and fires her miniature black holes at some of the beetles that get in her way, rather than taking too much time trying to avoid confrontations; on the other hand, she also doesn't spend too much time seeking them out either. Speed seems to be of the essence here.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Rather than taking to the walls or ceiling again just yet, Black Arachnia is trotting along at 'ground' level, abetted by grapnel usage when there's a gap that needs to be jumped over or otherwise traversed. She's still not above using her grapnel-slam-and-suck technique on any of the bettles that get too close to her, though ...

And she may be making some use of any nutrients she can derive from the bugs she's killing as she goes. It's hard to say from just watching her.

What *is* clear is that thanks to Inga's spell, her internal gyroscopes have sorted themselves back out and she can navigate in straight lines more or less reliably. She may still be recovering, though - which could explain her sticking to the same surface(s) as her allies.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel thinks for a moment trying to get how to dela with it however Annie and Marrik got the problem well in hand. She moves to follow the other through the hole they just made. IT's time to get going the enmies are a biot harder here. She opens fire when needed and is trying to keep out of harms way. She doe stake note of all the damage to the places here and tries to figure out what might have caused it. She does not the enemies re getting a bit harder.

Staren has posed:
    Once through the tunnel, Staren sees... more difficult cave. Great. He continues abusing flight to bypass the elephant-boars, but now he has to fly lower and has less opportunity to avoid beetles and hoppers. He's pretty quick with the phaser, but his aim's not perfect and sometimes he gets buffeted now. That doesn't really damage his armor, though, and monsters that get /that/ close are sent flying with a punch or kick.

    Acid-spitting beetles are a concern. He tries a quick stun shot, but it isn't enough -- he flies around it, dodging acid and firing several stun shots to bring it down.

    The next big beetle he encounters, he just flies towards it as fast as he can, jet-boots assisting his wings, and dodges around acid to just punch it in the face, HARD, hopefully stunning it. Or maybe taking its head off. Kinda hard to gauge it right.

    The building, he stops by only briefly to peer inside. "Sue? Monster rabbit thing?" When there's no reply, he races on!

Inga has posed:
Inga smiles slightly, nodding. "Thank you. Tch, if I'd have a bit more time to construct something better...it would have," she comments. "You're a..." she struggles with the word here, as she's fairly sure he's not godi and certainly not spakona, "A wizard?" she asks.

Inga looks to the rope, then begins to laugh. "Oh no, that is certainly not happening," she informs him, looking forward. She motions to her staff. Its not just for show. She needs the darn thing to walk. "...a rope bridge? Honestly? Oh gods watch me..." she says, and despite her complaints begins to move foward. Very cautiously, and grumbling; "I cannot believe I am doing this..."

Kanade Tachibana (512) has posed:
    Kanade continues on at a brisk pace, taking out her wings again to support her leaps across platforms as the tunnel's spacing permits. This time, she moves on largely without regard to the beetles, where she can. When she can't, she mumbles another word: 'Distortion'. This invocation causes a small ripple around her being, giving the air a more lasting sheen. But more importantly, it causes any approaching acid wads to go -right through her-, rather than colliding with her. Otherwise, she bashes away the bugs as needed, but for the most part just sprints onward as fast as is feasible.

    As the terrain becomes more and more choppy, she begins to rely on her wings for locomotion more completely. She catches sight of an unusual looking building out of the corner of her eye, and makes a beeline for it. With Igor so far ahead of them, that's really her only visible clue.

Roll (3) has posed:
    "ewww... I don't like this place. Not one bit!" Roll exclaims. "Who went and left a mess THIS BIG?!" She's making one of those dangerous Berserker Cleanathon Angry faces that send the Light family into their bunkers at all the ruins, big beetles and the like be damned!

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine's having trouble getting through the rough terrain. Physically, she's not much more capable than a normal human. The beetles aren't help any either. Maybe she haven't come, she's not really suited for this sort of thing. "Ugh..." She's getting a bit frustrated.

Quote (403) has posed:
    Quote follows along with the others, moving as quickly as he can. He doesn't bother stopping for monsters or minor obstacles, having no difficulty leaping ten or even fifteen feet in the air in an arc that almost completely ignores such niceties as gravity and momentum. When a beetle gets particularly close he shoots it without even breaking stride, but for the most part he doesn't even have to worry about hostile critters. Others are much more efficient, have greater range, and are quite probably faster than him too. He's got good mobility, but his weapon of choice is decidedly weaker than the sorts of things the others have here.

    Still, when the Basu gives Staren trouble, Quote fires a quick barrage of shots at it. His fire is remarkably precise and doesn't threaten his fellow robot, but it does a pretty good job of pulverising the creature he was trying to stun. He has no qualms about killing beasts, even if he has certain feelings about murdering mimigas or other nice creatures.

    As the group advances past a particularly impressive tumble of metal crates, they can see a passage ahead. The last egg chamber, chamber 01, lies below. Past a rather wide gap, they can see a flat plane of smooth stone. There's no rubble or anything beyond the gap. A stark wall separates the smooth unblemished section from the area of damage, and there's a doorway through the wall. From the doorway, which seems to have no physical door, a few wisps of smoke and a few sparks arise. Nothing threatening, but it looks like something electronic met a very sudden, very recent demise.

    The gap will have to be navigated, but this is likely to be of little difficulty to this group. Just one more obstacle, no more and no less difficult than those already overcome. Below the gap, that little speedy white flash tears back and forth. Falling in at this point would be pretty bad, but it's unlikely anyone's going to do that, right?

    Beyond the gap, our giant friend Igor awaits! "GRAWR." says the rather expressive monster that resembles a hulked-out Mimiga. "Doctor's very important test eggs... Very important!"

    It can TALK? That's almost creepy.

    It doesn't really have an interest in banter however. Holding up fists the size of warhammers, Igor advances. It's slow, ponderously so. It charges forward in a lumbering rush, which isn't that threatening except for how wide the creature is. Its stubby arms are battering rams though, and the group's already had a good sense of how hard it can hit. Poor Sue. Speaking of whom, Sue's not in sight. There's a pair of buildings behind Igor however...

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Black Arachnia leaves another pair of nice sturdy Energon lines to help her allies across the last gap, and after securing the second one, climbs fully up to the platform where the lumbering bulk of a minion awaits ... and she seems manifestly unimpressed by Igor's mastery of verbal communication. She really has only three words, and they're hardly for *him*.

"Black Arachnia, maximize!"

With the verbal command, the spider's body rearranges itself back into robot mode, configuring herself for actual combat; her combat claws snap out into place, a pair branching from the back of each hand - and her spider legs remain fanned out from her back, the tips opening to reveal laser emitters. It's the lasers that she leads off with, 'sniping' at Igor with thin, burning beams, trying to slow the behemoth down as she otherwise focuses on staying out of his way.

Marrik (541) has posed:
All things considered Marrik was late to the party, at least he had to have been if he missed the banter, threats, and things had gotten to the smashing things stage. Yet he remembered last time and hung back to see who was doing what. Plus the time spent watching was time he could use to work a spell. He looked to Inga. "Can you try making a bone ward? I'll try strengthening it. Try walling that thing in, or at least make it have to waste time smashing it down."

Deelel has posed:
They make good time she keep sn eye on Quote and everyone else. Inga and Marrik do get some notice from the living program. She now has her staff back in melee mode as she moves in at the huge thing. Igor mad and big this is a bad idea. She looks at the creature for a moment. She's not very happy, no she's not happy at all about this.

She mocing in afgter him as everyone gets ready to fight she seems intent to dart aroun and try to get him with power staff strikes and she's very much planning to not sit still.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
As Annie notices Maxine having some trouble, she approaches her mother with a smile. She returns to her normal form and takes Maxine's hand once again. "I think we're almost there," she says. "We need to keep going!" She follows Black Arachnia's lines toward the site of the battle, but hangs back for a bit, alongside Marrik, trying to find an opening to get past Igor to the doors behind him.

Staren has posed:
    Staren quirks a brow at Quote's quick and decisive beetle-killing, but doesn't comment.

    Flying across the gap is easy. And then... Igor. Staren's /slightly/ surprised he can tlak, but... that does seem to confirm he might be a mimiga of some sort. "...That sounds like reason enough to smash them." He flies away from the rush. "Are you a mimiga? The Doctor is hunting your kind! Why do you help him?" And then, Staren gets an idea, as he glances at the egg chambers. "If you've got any brain cells in that big head of yours... LISTEN. Look at all the people we have here. While some of us fight you, the rest of us can easily destroy the eggs!" He points at Igor. "If you want to keep the eggs safe... then TALK!"

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
She should have sent Maxi down here, but she's not sure if she would bave been able to have kept linked with her. Still, she's not going to give up especially when a child is in trouble. She takes Annie's hand but stays back a bit as well as Staren tries to reason with Igor.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Remembering how little consideration Igor shows for talk, Roll glowers at the monstrosity. Her armor appears in a flash - light just streams across her body, and dissipates to reveal the armor instead of her dress. But she's still frowning heavily!

    "I don't want to fight, but you're not gonna listen if I just ask you to calm down, are you?" The prospect of fighting a living thing, no matter how enraged or brutal, is not sitting well with her. Especially if it can talk. Even if it has few qualms attacking all the others gathered.

    But she'll have to, and she can, because it's so likely to hurt everyone else. So Roll steps forward. "Looks like I don't have a choice!"

    Still, she doesn't want to kill him, heck no. So, for the moment, she changes gear. Or rather, weapons. Super Arm activates, shifting her color scheme to brown and white, and she hurries along to try and get into the front lines!

Quote (403) has posed:
    Igor seems not at all interested in talking. It's not clear whether the monster Mimiga lacks the wit to converse, or whether it has enough free will to respond with anything other than punches. Either way it completely ignores Staren's attempts at diplomacy. And for that matter, the rest of him too. Like Maxine and Marrik, Staren is making no obvious attempt to attack, so avoids the beast's wrath as others draw the aggro.

    Black Arachnia should have little trouble staying out of Igor's reach. He appears slow, but his lumbering charge is faster than a normal person could run thanks to massive Mimiga legs. Fortunately for her, she's not a normal person and he's not really able to jump as high as she is. Her lasers burn into it, doing damage, and enraging the beast but doing little to slow it down.

    Quote adds his own laser fire to Black Arachnia's. His weapon may be a different colour, but the effects are much the same. That is to say they do damage, but not a whole lot. He finds himself having to stay close though, since his weapon has such a short-range focus. When it swipes at him, he leaps up. That leap clears the rabbit-monster's height easily, and Igor leaps up and tries to swat Quote out of the air, barely missing. Okay, he's behind Igor. Now what? He takes aim but holds his fire, not certain his little pew pewing can do much, and not sure if others have something else in mind for him to do now that he's past the thing's bulk.
%tDeleel, if she intends to fight in melee, will have to be equally quick and agile. It's going to be flailing those massive fists at her even as she smashes it with her power staff. She's doing a great job tanking its attention however, assuming she can handle the results of the aggro. Roll, charging in with her Super Arm, will likewise have to share the aggro and the punches.

    Frustrated at being unable to catch the fast-moving and annoying heroes, Igor bellows in pain and rage. The roar is, quite literally, earth-shaking. It's a sonic attack in its own right, shredding the air before it into tatters as bolts of not-quite-tangible energy shoot out. A chi-type attack more than science-based energy would account for, but no less painful to anyone hit by the cone of sound. The tanky ones should have no trouble getting out of the way, given they're right by the narrowest part of the cone. Everyone else though is going to have to deal with a shotgun-blast of sound.

Inga has posed:
Inga nods, reaching into her pouch. "Someone will have to cover me, I will not take a hit from that thing," she says. She would not be getting up from that. Not here anyway, or perhaps it would just take a long time? Inga isn't sure, she hasn't actually DIED yet!

"I don't have too many bones on me, I will use what I can..." she says, then kneels down, using the floor to sort through her things and begin to draw runes and staves upon the bones she keeps in her pouch. She has quite a few, far more bones than an average person would carry around (so, none?) but it will hardly be a fence. The ward should hold however, if she can manage to get it up.

Marrik (541) has posed:
Marrik held himself upright, but only just in the face of the earth shaking. Kinetic force straight on would just hit allies. So he was more subtle and stepped away from Inga. His held power traced out in arching threads as he moved in sweeping motions. Anyone looking might mistaken his movements for stretches, or a kata, or possibly bending as a darkened haze formed around him and the lines of magic he sent out. Each was aimed at sapping life away from Igor, to take that life amd then feed it into Inga's ward to keep it strong. In effect his goal was to weaken their opponent while further strengthening its prison. Of course it's a chaotic battlefield. sadly not everything cooperates in a nice and neat manner.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     Annie makes a run for the buildings, hoping to find the Mimiga inside- but she finds herself knocked to the ground by the enemy's roar. She does her best to try to get back up and to one of the buildings without being noticed- unfortunately, Quote is close by as well, actually fighting the thing. So it might be tough to avoid Igor's notice.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Tanky? Black Arachnia? You must be thinking of another Maximal; the sheer sonic force of Igor's roar practically bowls her off her feet - and if it weren't for the wards, she probably WOULD be knocked down by it. Painfully.

As it is, most of what the thunderous bellowing does is tick her off, and she tries to take advantage of her allies' drawing Igor's direct aggro to get around to one side and ... *IF* she can get a clear shot, which is the tricky part ... use her lasers to attempt to give Igor a long-range tracheotomy.

If she CAN'T get that shot, she'll go for the hamstrings instead - just cripple the giant white rage monster rather than removing his ability to keep making sounds.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Roll takes a few blows to the everything, because she's so tiny compared to Igor. Sparks fly from her joints and her servos whine in protest, but she eventually manages to grab Igor's offending fists with her own and then... WHAAAAMPF! Forces him back. or tries to, anyways. The prodigious strength of GUTS MAN flows through her frame and servos! Though the ground she's standing on might crack before her target's own strength does...

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is being able to not die but she's not making much progress in the way of damage here she is however keeping his attention and that's the imporant thing. It's like being back in the pit fighting she was forced into so long ago. Dodge or die, and that's what she's seeming to do right now a she keeps moing keeps tyring to keep Igor busy on her.

Oh thats not goo she moves rapidly to avoid the attack and her staff stsarts playing some rapid speed techno as she keeps tyring to get Igor's attention.

"Hey Ugly! I hear the Doctor's considering you a failed experiment and is going to dispose of you!!"

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
Maxine figures her firepower won't do much and tries to get close to the building where Sue is being held as well. She's knocked over by the roar as well. She pulls herself onto her feet as well, but it looks they're going to need a distraction if they're going to pass Igor.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    As opposed to getting into the fray and having all of her bones broken for her trouble, Ainsley is at the back, watching the fight as it happens. Her face scrunches at the awful roar that the giant beast thing makes, momentarily pained by that. But she's out of the way of the fight enough that she's unlikely to get hit in the crossfire.
    Seems she's lost a lot of her appetite for direct combat in recent months, as if she would prefer to focus on her healing abilities and not any other.

    She tries emitting a wave of red light upon anyone who is getting harmed by Igor's retaliations, but she's not particularly good at aiming.

    Figuring the party is going to be keeping Igor occupied, she tries to get around Igor and to the buildings at the end of the tunnel, so she can get to Sue and give her the healing she intended to give before Igor ran off with her.

Staren has posed:
    Staren frowns. He hoped that would work... Oh, well. Time to put his armory to use! He prepares to attack -- only to be blasted by sound! A forcefield appears around him, cracking slightly, and he tumbles through the air before righting himself. "Alright... you asked for it!" He pulls the laser sniper rifle off his back, switches it to burst mode, and starts spamming attacks at Igor every few seconds, as fast as it can cool down. Lasers have no recoil! There's no sound, and no visible beam -- just an immense amount of light concentrated on a tiny, tiny point, aiming to superheat it into plasma and make it explode for massive damage, with three pulses per burst. /This/ robotic soldier from the surface is armed with one of the most powerful handheld energy weapons of the 24th century -- two of bursts could easily blow a hole in the side of a tank! He's not messing around anymore. Igor wants a fight, he's got one.

    Staren's so gonna bring the corpse to Dr. Vahlen and ask if she can figure out what was done to it, though.

    If this results in monster soldier bunnies fighting aliens later, would anyone really argue that that /wouldn't/ be awesome?

Quote (403) has posed:
    Quote continues to hold his fire, assessing probabilities and making strategies. His beam does little against the thing's thick hide, but a precision shot might still make a difference. Being called upon to run though, to save Sue so they can all get clear, makes a lot of sense. It appeals on an emotional level too, though he doesn't recognize the emotions. That's the thing though. You don't need to analyze an emotion, it just happens.

    Black Arachnia's beams narrow in, and the focussed weapons seem to be more effective than just plastering Igor with bolts. The bellows of rage falter and die as the massive creature is effectively silenced. The lasers do some damage too. When Staren joins in, adding his laser rifle to her damage output, the result is impressive. Smoke begins to rise. No doubt blood would spurt if the weapons weren't self-cauterizing. The damage to Igor is starting to mount up, but at this point it seems that on the flight or fight scale, Igor's still well locked into fight mode.

    The killer bunny turns as Annie makes her move, preparing to turn her into a robotic splat mark. At that instant Quote makes his move. Firing off a stream of energy bolts, he aims for Igor's face as the giant beast turns. It's not enough to blind the creature entirely or even to hurt him compared to what Staren and Arachnia are doing, but the flare and burn should be enough to let Annie get past it and into the building beyond. It should also give Maxine a chance to make her own move. Quote waits just a moment, then follows whoever enters. He's as much there to guard them as he is looking to recover Sue.

    Igor, meanwhile, is about to turn on Quote and Annie when Roll grabs him. That arm is strong! It might even be a match for Igor's massive bulk. Certainly it's enough to turn the monster's attention back to her. Deelel taunts away, and while Igor wants to respond it's kind of got to deal with Roll first. Well, it has more than strength alone at least. The giant bunny picks Roll up entirely off the ground by her Super Arm, simply lifting its own arms up until she's dangling, intending to use her as a battering ram or a flail against Dee.

    The bone ward is more than powerful enough, at this point, to protect anyone staying behind it. It might even be strong enough to stop a few of Igor's blows directly, but that's something fortunately not yet put to the test. It should provide quite effective shelter, and should also help secure the retreat should people feel the need to leave once Sue's recovered.

    And speaking of Sue, yes. She's right there, unconscious within the building directly behind Igor. There's also a few other things. There's a computer, lit up and displaying something no one's likely to bother reading at this point. Oh yes, and there's also a monstrously huge egg, illuminated by floodlights that radiate enough heat to be felt from the doorway. It's REALLY big. Like, probably 10 feet high on its side and 20 feet long at the longest axis. It's also labeled, quite clearly with foot-high lettering apparently painted on, 'No00'.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley sees the room, and turns her attention to-- the giant egg. She stares at it for a second, baffled by the size of it. What comes to mind is 'dragon' but she's not sure how accurate that would be. And then she begins advancing toward Sue. She stops near the unconscious Mimiga, and kneels nearby. Both hands reach out, one on Sue's back, the other atop her head.
    She tries to use healing magic to repair any damage in the human-turned-Mimiga. "Sue...?" she wonders at the Mimiga, in a gentle voice.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
Annie nods her thanks to Quote for saving her from the monster.as she enters the building where Sue is lying. She joins Ainsley at Sue's side, but can't help looking up at the egg more than down at Sue. "If that's the egg... how big's the full-grown thing that comes from it?" she wonders.

Inga has posed:
Inga continues to power the bone fence with anima, adding more of her blood to keep the wards fresh. She didn't have time to make them more permanent, so she'd need to keep feeding them. Luckily, she has help.

"I don't believe I got your name," she calls to Marrik.

"Goodness BE QUIET!" she yells toward Igor. So /noisy!/

Marrik (541) has posed:
Igor's rage and attacks put Marrik in a far less forgiving mind than he might have been. So he pressed his attack, directly sucking Igor's life away to strengthen its prison. He could do nothing else without risking taking a fist to the everything which would nicely end his ability to make magic. Still, if Igor couldn't shake the tendrils of magic sucking his life away eventually the monstrous mimigas would fall, and the voice telling him that he shouldn't murder was getting harder to pay attention to.

Meanwhile Sparks darted into the chamber and frowned at this 00 what's it, and more so at the computer terminal thing alongside it. "Sue?" The pixie called out as she darted this way and that. Not like an unconscious girl could answer, but who knew? The little pixie might spot something.

"Marrik," His voice was soft and there was a tension as he continued to use his body to direct the flows of magic to both siphon from Igor and strengthen the bone ward. Fall you ruddy stupid thing. FALL!

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
The computer does get Maxine's attention a bit, but getting Sue out of here is more important. She watches Ainsley attends to her. "That's a good question." Maxine agrees with Annie, what could lay an egg so large. They would have to look into it later.

Staren has posed:
    They've got Sue, Staren hears! But they still have to get Sue /past/ this thing. And so far, noone's figured out any way to pacify or subdue it. Staren cocks his head at the reply, then shakes his head as he watches Igor turn from one for to another. If it were smart enough co concentrate all those attacks on one person... Well, it's not.

    Time to finish this.

    Staren just keeps firing lasers. They seem to be pretty effective, after all!

Roll (3) has posed:
    "Aaaaaaahhhhh!!" The situation sure turned around. Roll's grip is tight, but her body is light compared to Igor's. He easily manages to hoist her up and swing her right at Deelel. "W-watch out!" Is all she can do. because if she lets go, she might go flying into someone ELSE!

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Black Arachnia nods approvingly at the silencing of Igor ... and as much as she's inclined to just trot over and join the others in the building, she has one more thing she wants to attend to.

Specifically, getting around behind Igor and severing his hamstrings with her lasers. Immobilize him in addition to silencing - and this has the side benefit of not putting her aim points anywhere near Roll the Impromptu Bludgeon. In fact, if she severs Igor's hamstrings as planned, it should put a very satisfactory (if somewhat jarring) halt to his flailing about with the robot girl.

Quote (403) has posed:
    Ainsley's magic touches Sue, and the Mimiga girl rouses somewhat. "Uuggh." she moans, not fully recovered. Then she opens her eyes. "Oouuuuch." she complains. Then she immediately bounds to her feet, bouncing about like a not-entirely plausible pantomime of a pro boxer. "Whoa there, I haven't lost yet! I'm gonna take this fight seriously this time!" she cries. Then she blinks, stopping her float-like-a-butterfly imitation. "Huh? That monster beat ME? Did... did you save me?" she asks, looking between the lizard woman, Annie and her mother, and Quote. Obviously they're not from around here. But Sue doesn't have a clue what's going on.

    Outside, Staren continues firing his laser. Black Arachnia neatly hamstrings the monster. Between that and the bone ward, the creature's going to become fairly immobile. It's really only a threat now to those in arms' reach like Deelel. Or those still clinging to it, like Roll. It's also fairly nearly dead, both from laser bolts and from the draining of Marrik. Still strong though. Whatever fuels this thing's rage, it's not life energy or mere muscle.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
     "You're awake!" Annie says happily. "I'm so happy! ...But we need to get out of here, since that thing is after you," she says. "A lot of people are fighting to keep it away, so you can escape." She looks back outside. "Let's get going!"

Marrik (541) has posed:
Marrik slid from his kata-esque motions to stand in front of the bone ward. A hand was pressed against it as he focused his magic into a single pulse. If friends were not there he would try commanding the bone ward to collapse inward and impale Igor in the everywhere. As it stood though he focused his magic from the ward into Igor's body, seeking to wrap his magic around it's heart and lungs and squeeze til it stopped moving. He hated killing, but in a contest between this thing and the people it was hurting there was no contest. He was no innocent to killing, and not just commanding the dead. He has killed before with his bare hands.

Maxine Sandberg (279) has posed:
"Yes, this would be a good time to leave." Maxine nods in agreement. There's no telling what else might show up if they stick around. That and Sue might need further medical attention.

Inga has posed:
There's been no real direct answer on if the thing is to remain alive or not. Marrik has decided it needs to die, but should she help put it down?

Yes, this seems wise. Inga sighs, putting her knife to her skin again, drawing a long, deep line along the vein that gushes with blood--blood that is floating upward to solidify into spears of sharp crimson. She can still hold the ward and perform this, and if it does go down she will not have to hold the ward any longer. She'd been afraid she was going to have to stay here holding it while the others fled--find out what death was like for one of the chosen of the Buzzing first hand.

But really, this works too.

Inga motions forward and the spears of blood go hurling toward Igor.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley looks at Sue with some measure of surprise. She's not intimidated, just baffled at how quickly the mimiga girl recovered from the injuries inflicted... unless Igor really wasn't trying to hurt her. The lizard woman looks at her with a gentle uncertainty, considering how to respond to that. "Yes," she replies, gently, "We were here looking for you. Our allies are outside fighting the creature that assaulted you, and it'll be defeated soon."

    She stands up slowly, regarding the rabbit person with a gentle gaze. She looks up at the egg, after a second, "Are you here for this?" She gestures at it with one hand.

Staren has posed:
    Well. The monster is no longer a threat... /for now/. Still, if they can't capture it, leaving it alive will only mean having to fight it later.

    Staren lands a short ways out of the thing's reach, shouldering his rifle. Then he lifts his empty hands in front of him, crossing his arms and turning his hands back to face him. There's the whine of charging electricity, and then his arms are covered in arcing electricity and begin to glow. "Time to finish this!" He dashes forward with a sudden burst of speed, perhaps having supercharged the robot body somehow -- his left arm goes for quick jab, making sure the fist can connect and then there's the buzz of a downed power line and the light of a lightning bolt, making it hard to see what's going on as he follows up with a spinning power PUNCH from the other arm, again delivering all that focused electricity into the thing as well as just hitting as hard as he can... and then when the light fades, he's lept back, standing with his arms down. Steam, or perhaps smoke, rising off his body, and panting for a moment before he remembers he doesn't have to breathe and stops.

    That should do it. Plus, there might be some chance that the shock attack stuns it instead of killing it. Then the next problem will be figuring out how to transport and restrain the thing, but that bridge can be crossed when they come to it.

Roll (3) has posed:
    Once again, Roll's getting furious. This time for different reasons. Furious, and worried. Igor looks like he's about to DIE if this keeps up! "Ooooh... alright, it's time out for you!!"

    She doesn't want anyone here getting hurt... and doesn't want to see even this brute die meaninglessly! So she calls upon her stored Weapon Data, and switches to Arc Thrower. Roll's somewhat damaged armor turns twin shades of grey, and.... she plants the buster right against Igor's arm.

    *ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRCH!!*

    The charge is tuned for human-like nervous systems, no telling what it will mean to him, but it probably won't kill him. The Arc Thrower is meant to incapacitate through electrocution!

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is playing a dangeorus game of keep awauy still and Deelel tuants him. She hopefully is doing enougt to keep them off balance she's not getitng too many good hits in as honestly she's more a distract any anything ans she knows it.

Annie Sandberg (437) has posed:
"Wait..." Annie says, putting up a hand at Ainsley's words. "...I thought I heard we were looking for a human, named Sue." she says, looking confused. "But you don't look like a human..." she notes, peering at Sue curiously.