2289/Old World Blues

Old World Blues
Date of Scene:	21 May 2015
Location:	Land of Steel
Synopsis:	A simple-sounding job leads to a visit to a dead world.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 347, 385, Reina Kinney, 687, 768, 774, 776

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Ark Line (687) has posed:
A message went out not too long ago. A few people were looking for potential adventurer-types from the Multiverse to recover some artifacts from a particular world: the Land of Steel. Supposedly, there's a ruined city near the warpgate, and an old lab near the center that they want searched for some old electronic archive. They'd provide transportation and negotiable payment, but it's up to the interested parties to do the heavy lifting. Rebreathers will even be part of the deal before you even get there.

And so, here you are.

The Land of Steel is a terrible place to basically anyone from outside it who sees it. Covered in lifeless grey sand from which its name comes and with a sky that reflects the uniformly empty wastes, it is difficult to imagine that anyone could eke out an existence here... and yet human civilization finds a way.

The warpgate is a free-standing structure, possibly dragged out of a hole in the ground by whoever lives here. A uniform ring, it stands in the middle of a wide open expanse, with mountains rising to the south and dry, steel-colored wastes visible in every other direction. It is silent when you arrive. There is no wind, and no signs of life. It is as if the whole world stands still.

What looks like a hover-truck rests next to the warpgate. Painted the same uniform grey as the surrounding world, it doesn't stand out save for a slash of blue paint across either side. Nobody gets out of the closed cab because nobody's sitting in it, but it starts up with a low hum as soon as anyone steps foot on this side. According to the instructions, that's your way to the city and back again.

It takes off as soon as it's full. It moves quickly, a smooth ride across the desolate countryside. You see more of the same on your approach to the city. It must have once been a near-future metropolis, with tall glass and steel buildings rising amidst the grey skies. Now, it's just as silent as the rest of the world.

The truck stops in front of a square building with a formerly-glass front, replaced by security grates that have been battered but not broken. The sign is long-since fallen to illegibility, but a decaying sculpture of an atom says it's the right place.

The job is to go in, get to the bottom, grab a drive and get back out. It should be a quick run by all accounts... but if that was the case, why hire outsiders?

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
While Yuna would be happy to hitch a ride with somebody if there's a ship with room for her and the Matrix of Light, she's also capable of getting to the Land of Steel on her own. Elner pops through the warpgate ahead of her to check things out; Yuna and her partners follow a moment later.

And yes, Yuna brought the full Matrix of Light this time, not really knowing what kind of conditions to expect apart from the fact that it's on the poisonous side. So Yuna is already in her Light Suit, its defensive aura humming faintly about her form; Erina of the Sky and Marina of the Sea take to the air, scouting the area visually to supplement Elner's sensors. Jiina of the Earth, on the other hand, fades into a half-translucent state and 'phases' until her body overlaps Yuna's form ...

And the two of them undergo an additional transformation: a large wireframe surrounds Yuna and her Light Suit while Jiina disappears completely, followed by large pieces of a powered exo-frame manifesting and attaching to the Light Suit, 'filling in' the wireframe as it goes. Once Yuna's transformation to Powered Form is complete, she should be able to keep up with the truck without needing to take up a seat, and the rest of the Matrix of Light can keep up well enough by flying.

Unless there's a reason for them NOT to fly ... in which case, hopefully there's room in the truck.

Tommy Oliver (776) has posed:
Maybe the Green Ranger is just too cool for school because he's sitting in the back of the truck, leaned back against the solid surface and arms crossed over his spandex clad body. Which is pretty much all muscle, by the way. The dragonesque green helmet keeps his identity secret but also provides him with whatever HUD information can be gleamed from natural technological scanning apparatus. He doesn't actually know or even understand what is going on but he does know that he's a member of the Union and that means he's going to do whatever he can to help those in need.

Even if those are not living in the least. There are really no signs of life around this place. Thsi probably isn't good.

"So. Anybody else got a bad feelin' about this?" The Green Ranger makes it a point to drop some Han Solo knowledge as he looks around at the others that have gathered for this particular assignment. This is one of those times that his sense of adventure is probably getting him into hotter water than he's prepared for. Then again, he fights giant monsters on a weekly basis back home. This should be a piece of cake.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    Reina Kinney arrives in her shuttle. She hasn't beamed down just yet, instead remaining up where it's safe, although she's already donned a special issue mask over her nose and mouth. GUARDIANS knew what was going on down here, and they didn't want her to go in unprepared. She kept a close eye on things, just in case...

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Rebreathers? That takes a bit of explaining-- Dorian is from a technologically-backwards world compared to this one, of course. A thing to keep the poisonous air from getting in and dissolving his lungs from the inside? Yes please, Dorian will take one, thank you very much.

A flying carriage? he's seen the ones without horses pulling them, that make loud noises and leave a pungent and rather unpleasant smell similar to that of egg farts. But this one is new. Nonetheless he's not apprehensive. If those were the instructions -- to get in and wait to be taken to the place -- then that's what he'll do.

The ride is smooth, and Dorian remains quiet for most of it, strangely enough. He's suitably impressed into silent at the state of the world -- impressed ... and more than a little sad. It's not until the truck stops and he gets out that he speaks finally. His voice is muffled by the rebreather, but still understandable. "...Looks like we missed the party," Dorian observes of the dead, gray, lifeless ground. "Just as well perhaps... 'genocide' isn't really on my list of 'fun things to do with my down-time'."

A nod to the Green Ranger's observation. "Oh most definitely. I can smell the acid traps from here, can't you?" He draws the staff from his back, readying for something to leap out an attack them. "Not to worry, all ... I'm sure the place is completely deserted." Such sarcasm!

Cory (768) has posed:
    "You again!" Cory's wearing the given rebreather instead of toughing it out. even if she miiiight be able to tank whatever gunk's in the air here, risking it just seems stupid.

    As for who she's talking to, well, that's directed at the Green Ranger. Today Cory's chosen to wear a fresh suit of Capsule Corporation Battle Armor, composed of a skintight blue suit and a form-fitting white rubbery torso-piece worn over it. It protects the vitals quite well, everything else less well, and is fully flexible.

    Coincidentally this also means she's not wearing her TONS of extra weight today.

    She's scrunched up in the truck with hands around her knees and an eager look all over her face. The girl's tail extends out to her side, twitching in the air idly.

    "Hope you're ready for a rough time. This is gonna be all kinds of fun! ... Long as nobody dies."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa had arrived by gate she's got the gear she neede and was vlad in a form figting body suit which had armour plating in various areas. She also had the mask over her face but looked very conserned she saw nothing. No life nothing. She booted up an internal playlist so she had somthing other than the deadness to get her wandering mind's attention.

"Ya, but I can't argue with the cash that's being offered for this either. Just keep on your toes and get ready there may be something we were not told about."

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Attempts to fly are met with a point-to-point transmission coming from the driverless truck of all places. It's of a pleasant, slightly mechanical voice. "Please restrict flight to the designated route and altitudes to prevent detection by hostile forces. This is for your own safety. Thank you." A local map accompanies it, with the route and maximum altitudes clearly labeled.

The truck doesn't stop until it's deep in the city. The buildings rise up like the corpses of titans, the skeletons of a civilization at its height brought low. When the hovercraft powers down, the hum vanishes, and the only sound is the footsteps and voices of the party. The utter lack of wind to whistle through the ruins makes it feel more surreal than especially ominous. It's empty. Nothing has come to fill it. Nothing wants to.

The security gate that blocks the entryway into the building is a simple affair of interlocking horizontal bars. It looks like someone tried to pry it open in one spot, but gave up before they actually breached the building. The laboratory is set back about twenty feet from the street, with alleyways to either side of the building clogged with junk. One of the buildings nearby looks like it might have been a parking garage once upon a time, but it's long-since closed up.

The front door, such as it is, is locked tight. How do you plan to get in?

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Duly noted," Elner acknowledges when the warning is sent from the truck. It'll be easy enough for Erina and Marina to adhere to the designated route and altitude range .. although Marina, at least, will take a seat in the truck if there's room to spare.

By the time the truck gets to the lab, Yuna is visibly on edge; that still doesn't stop her from taking point, going up to the front door; Elner flits over to join her, the little robo-faerie's sensors already working as it scans the area, and particularly, focuses on the door and what can be scanned of the building.

For her part, Yuna is looking for locks (physical and/or electronic) on the door ... but the party who offered the job didn't happen to provide any details like access codes for getting inside, did they?

Tommy Oliver (776) has posed:
"Yeah, yeah. You keep that tail where I can see it." Green Ranger sounds like he's teasing as he responds to Cory. In the next moment, though, he's leaping up and somersaulting out of the truck because that's what Power Rangers do. They can't really walk anywhere. It goes against their footage to actually walk. Unless it is an epic walk in slow motion or something.

"Well, whatever it is, we'll be ready. Right, guys?!" Green Ranger raises a gloved fist up and nods his helmeted head because he has to be extra with the body language to make sure that everyone knows he's the one that's talking at this moment.

"Maybe we should try, y'know, knocking?" The Green Ranger figures that maybe even if there's some evil inside they might be willing to answer the door?

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Yuna's scans find that the door is... well, it's steel. It looks like it's hooked up to a motor that's electronically-controlled from somewhere on the interior, primarily; likely a security panel of some sort. She eventually finds a control panel on the exterior wall next to the door, though it didn't stand out. She'll have to pry the cover off to get to it, and provide some kind of power to access it. Then, it's a touchscreen that shows a typical keypad and the logo of a long-gone security firm.

Bypassing it with less-than-legal methods would work. Brute forcing the gate might, too, if you happen to be super strong and don't care about collateral damage.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    "Got it," Reina says when the warning is sent out. Sometimes she'll be a bit sarcastic when she responds or says something, but this isn't one of those times. Her response is clear and acknowledging of the statement that is made. Once she's gotten her shields up and her autopilot on, Reina steps into the teleporter and is immediately beamed to the surface below. Once there, the mask shows its efficiency as it keeps her from suffocating or worse down there. It looks bad enough as it is, so she can't imagine what could be like to breathe that stuff.

    At the same time, Reina is taking out her binoculars and looking through them as best as she can. "Wow, this is worse than any of my training spots," She comments.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Dorian just takes in the sight of the place they're supposed to be going into. Picking locks is one thing, but this is something else entirely! These kinds of locks he's not familiar with. Magic probably isn't going to help much here unless there's something that jumps out at them. for the time being he stays back, watching and taking in the sight of the place. Hopefully nothing here is immune to magic. Which would about be his luck, wouldn't it?

Cory (768) has posed:
    Cory DOES fly, but she keeps it fairly low. She's just hovering a human's height off the ground and somewhat upside-down to have a look at the door herself.

    "I'll put it where I please!" Is her teasy answer to the Green Ranger, but for now... for now she (while still upside-down) folds her arms 'under' her chest.

    "Could just, y'know, bust it down. Ripping it straight out would be a cinch!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets the warning from the truck and seems to be well a bit put off by the state of the palce as they arrive. She takes a moment as they get out of the truck. She looks at the gate and she ponders for a moment. She'll make sure her barriers are up before she attemps to wirelessly poke the region for any active electonic systems he might be able to get access too. She's also looking for a place she might be able to jack in.

"Keep alert I'm going to see if there's any hardware still active I can get access to here given the nature of the place. Damn though there's nothing here not even bacteria left here. What the /did/ this to this planet?"

all the while she's also focusing on trying to gain entry digitally.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Kotone finds that there's no wireless connections whatsoever, but she does find a universal dataport affixed to the box, probably for maintenance purposes. She can provide a minute amount of power to it and crack it without much issue.

The door groans, and then rises, lifting up off the ground. It makes a god-awful racket, a clattering, clanking sound that spreads through the ruins. It echoes for a long ways. Equally distressingly, it gets about four feet up before it seizes up and the engine dies. Well... at least you can duck, right?

The interior is an abandoned lobby for the lab, with white floors, walls and ceilings with inset video monitors in place of tasteful paintings. There is a door next to an abandoned reception desk that leads to a hallway lined with offices. An elevator, open, is at the far end of the hallway.

There are two things of note in the interior: first, a delicate-looking computer monitor, like a pane of glass suspended on a wire stand, at the receptionist's desk; and second, a tiny potted plant, still green and fern-y sitting next to it. A little light on the monitor flickers on and off irregularly, indicating some sort of emergency power. Closer examination of the plant reveals that it's very definitely plastic.

Dorian, being sharp-eyed and justifiably paranoid, spots something moving outside: a shape three floors up in the parking garage nearby. He can see what might be the head of something peeking out from beyond the concrete wall of that level. Its eyes gleam an odd yellow for a brief second before it ducks out of sight.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"Good enough," Yuna observes ... although she has to revert to her basic Light Suit to duck under the door. Jiina follows suit; Erina and Marina will stay outside with the truck. (Elner just descends a bit and flies through, being a few inches in height.)

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa pulls a cable out of the back of her neck, plugs in. She takes a moment to power it back up, then crack the codes. IT doesn't take too long she does however get put off by the noise she pulls the jack out and now goes to duck inside.

"Right I'll cloak and scout ahead."

Kotone's form ripples as she starts to merge into the background visually and she moves on head she is going to keep in contact though. Hopefully she can find out if there's any nasty things waiting for them. She'll keep an eye out for traps, old secritty systems, signs of life and anything like that as she goes.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    Snapping her fingers, Reina's rifle forms in her hands. "Let's get going," She comments as she stays back a little, letting the others go ahead so she can cover the rear flank. "I dunno what's in there, and I don't think I'm gonna like it either."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Oh dear. Dorian squints as he sees the thing watching them. The thing disappears before he can call out to the others, though. "Ah-ha. I thought as much," he mutters. To the group at large, he offers, "Be careful. We are not alone." He looks back up to the third floor of the parking garage. "There was something with yellow eyes up there."

The door makes that awful racket and Dorian winces. "Maker, what an unpleasant noise," he observes. But the door does seem to have been opened. A little anyway. So there's that. He enters with the rest, and then warns again, "Keep careful watch. I don't know what that was outside, or how many there were. If there IS anything here, like as not, it probably knows we're here."

Kotone's disappearing act gets pause and a blink. " ... That must be a handy trick," he observes. "But take care."

Tommy Oliver (776) has posed:
The Green Ranger keeps close to the group as the gate is opened. He keeps his gaze on anything and everything that may be moving just to be on the safe side. He looks like he's ready to spring into action at the drop of a dime. Must be those martial arts talents of his that has him ready to do something combative. He doesn't have any weapons out. He's just got his fists. Which is all someone like the Green Ranger needs. "Don't worry. As long as we stick together, we can't lose." Oh the optimism of a Power Ranger.

Cory (768) has posed:
    Instead of bother to duck, Cory takes what might be the harder solution of, upon nearing the door, jsut SHOVING IT THE REST OF THE WAY. The ancient, worn-down machinery can only groan in protest.

    Had she wanted to, she might've been able to just rip the door out of its hinges.

    It might have even been quieter... maaaaaybe.

    "That works! What're we even looking for down here anyways?"

    Once again flying, she loops around the room and takes a good look at the computer. Presses some buttons. Tries to turn it on if it's anything straightforward enough. (She does know the basics!)

    Given how old it is, and the lights, that probably won't happen, but...

    How much attention she's paying to such details is questionable indeed.

    But perhaps more importantly, she's stretching out with her senses for anything alive and significant that isn't them...

Ark Line (687) has posed:
KOTONE proceeds into the lab, doing advanced recon with some handy stealth systems. She doesn't see anything of interest in the offices; none of them are locked, and it looks like they were vacated in a hurry a long time ago. There's a couple restrooms up here, and a meeting room devoid of anything but a busted coffee maker and a dilapidated projector that was probably old when they got it. She checks the elevator...

...and will have to work to get out of it before the whole thing plummets down the shaft, something triggering the moment she poked her head in. It hits the bottom with a crash. Whether or not she's still in it at the time is left as an exercise for her potential super-speed.

CORY finds that the receptionist's computer doesn't actually work. The monitor is going in and out of standby, and she can turn it on briefly, which makes a 'SYSTEM OFFLINE' message appear on it during the moments it stays on. She can also sense the presence of the team, and... something else. A few somethings. She's having a hard time telling what they are, but there are living things on the outside... somewhere. They're close.

REINA doesn't see anything sneaking up on them. Things are still outside. All she feels is the brief tickle of a sudden breeze and little else.

Huh. That's the first sign of wind they've seen since they got here.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    As soon as the first breeze hits Reina, she spins around with her rifle drawn, eyes darting from side to side. It may just be a slight breeze, but in a place like this, her nerves are on overdrive and her senses are on high alert. "Is someone there?" She calls out, her rebreather masking her voice just a little bit. (No pun intended, sorry!)

Cory (768) has posed:
    "Huh. No good. Useless thing..." Well, Cory doesn't just lightly complain! She also rises up again over the counter. For some reason she just doesn't feel like WALKING. So she meanders through the air, following her senses. If this takes her peeking back outside so be it! Or if it just leads her back around a corner.

    "We're not the only ones around here!" She blurts to the rest of the group rather cheerily, mid-search.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna perks up (or is startled) by Cory's announcement. "We're not - but you were all scanning for other life signs, right?"

Jiina looks at Yuna, then makes a sound remarkably akin to an organic person clearing her throat.

Yuna wilts visibly at the reminder. "Eheheheh ... riiiiiiight .... Elner, start scanning for self-contained automata - robots, androids, powered suits that might be shielding their users' life signs?"

Elner hms faintly, "So any object that's moving around and isn't part of the building? That's going to take some work - it might be better to just do localized scans as we try to find the lab. Speaking of which, is there a directory or a map that doesn't depend on the computers?"

Elner's starting to scan, though - close by the group first, and expanding the scan radius both horizontally and vertically. If Kotone and Tommy (and/or anyone else who's got an HUD) can bring map displays up for themselves, Elner's going to offer both its current map data, and any blips from movement corresponding to Yuna's guess over an encrypted datafeed. Yuna, for her part, is going to head towards where she heard the elevator going crash, to make sure Kotone's okay.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
The sound of the elevator crashing to the bottom of the elevator shaft gets Dorian's attention first. He hadn't seen where Kotone went to, and the sound of a crash is worrying. "Are you all right?" he called quietly over the radio. Because it would be stupid to just call out when no one knows what might be waiting to ambush them...

Which is of course exactly what someone else does. In this case, Reina. With a wince, he turns, and points out to Reina, "Careful. If /you/ don't know where /they/ are, calling out might tell /them/ exactly where /you/ are."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has had the bad luck as she gets into the lift, is it age? Is it because she weighs more than some guys in Sports Entainment with her shell? She has no idea what she doe sknow is she's going to have to act and act fast. Kotone leaps up moving ot punch her way threouh the service hatch that the life hopefully does. IF she's able to go tha the next thing she's going to do is leap up into the air as hard are she can kicking off the falling elevator and then use the tech she was given some time ago to double jump even higher and hopefully grab hold of something. EIther the cable or the wall.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
CORY's senses draw her to a window. She knows they're out there. The closest is near the front of the building, where they came in. The others are fanned out, moving around nearby, but the nucleus of their motions is the laboratory.

YUNA and Elner pick up a number of individuals outside. At best guess, there's somewhere between three and six, but there's something in the lab that's interfering with traditional sensory equipment. It can't penetrate the floor, but it can go down the shaft, and there are stronger energy signatures down there. There's probably some active things in there.

REINA spots the person Cory sensed nearby. They move out of the parking garage on the ground level, hopping up onto the barrier and then over it with casual ease. They're human-sized but kind of bulkier, hunched over and enwrapped with what first appears to be a cloak and, on second glance, is dark, leathery wings. The figure wears a mask like an elongated bird's beak, more recognizable by some as a plague doctor's.

"Scavengers," he says, "you must be; Liners you are not. Lost Seeds, Last Seeds, where the Nightmare and the Disaster lurk?" He cants his head to the side, standing in the shadow of the parking garage. He doesn't approach. "You have entry into the laboratory. I seek secrets. If the Seeds do not shoot, I will speak, and speak of trade."

KOTONE manages to break free and grab at a service ladder against the wall. It doesn't look like there's much cable to grab. She's dangling over the open shaft, with the elevator far below. She can see straight down to the bottom, and, well... at least there probably aren't any traps down there anymore?

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
It sounds like Kotone is all right, despite the massive crash which seems to have cleared the way to that power source - or whatever is down there; Yuna has her suspicions that it's the lab we're here for. But with Reina encountering somebody, Yuna is a bit torn where to direct her attention; she settles for getting Jiina to go to the elevator shaft and help Kotone, or head down with her to investigate. It helps that Jiina is the 'heavy' member of the Matrix of Light - Powered Form is Yuna's bulkiest form, strongest in defense and firepower, and while Jiina's individual form isn't quite that tanky, she can still take (or give) a hit pretty well when needed.

Yuna and Elner, in the meantime, go to Reina's location; Elner is curious about just what this new individual is (not to mention who), where Yuna is just curious about what he or she wants. She'll keep a polite distance from the new arrival when she gets there, though.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa hangs on hard to the latter maybe even crushing on to it. She hang on for all she's worth as she hears the thing fall and eventally looks down to see where it impacted. Okay that was a heck of a thing. She's now starting to climb down, going at a much more sanre rate. Given what Elner told she's heading for the lab, she's also keeping an eye out for anything down at the bottom of the lift. She will however to shock anything down there? Once she reaches a certain hight she'll let go and leap down landing with eouch force to crucnh metal under foot.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    Thinking quickly, Reina lowers her rifle, but does not get rid of it entirely. Instead she speaks through her Rebreather as clearly as she can. "We're not going to attack you... at least I'm not..." She replies. "I'm just accompanying them on their assignment here, I have no hostile intent towards you."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Dorian turns when he hears the voice, looking at the odd person ... creature ... thing that speaks. It's an odd creature, and Dorian tilts his head to the side as if that would give him more information. It doesn't. 'Liners'? 'Last Seeds' and 'Lost Seeds'? "What does all that mean?" he inquires. He's smart enough to know that he probably shouldn't just blurt out 'hey, we're actually not from this world'. "What sort of secrets are you seeking?" he inquires.

Cory (768) has posed:
    It might be rather odd for Plague Doctor Dude to see a young woman with a monkey tail hovering entirely off the ground, looking down at him with eyes full of fairly naive curiosity and hands idly folded behind her back. "What's with /that/ getup?"

    Seems Chikorri's in a somewhat lighthearted mood, despite the surroundings. And the weirdos. And the dreary world.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
KOTONE descends. She drops through the maintenance hatch into the still-open elevator, making an impressive entrance. When she looks forward, she can see another corridor, complete with a security checkpoint and some kind of body scanners set against the walls. There's an airlock at the far end with glass walls; the near door is closed, and it looks like the far one has been damaged and can't close anymore. The whole area is tinted red from emergency lighting.

Getting past that is trivial. The near door is unlocked and can be pushed open. Beyond, the corridor stretches onward, with doors to darkened laboratories behind thick glass walls numbered in sequence to either side of the hall. The floor is labeled in English and German, with arrows pointing to 'SECURITY' to the left, 'MATERIAL STORAGE' straight ahead and 'SYSTEMS' to the right.

The new arrival looks between YUNA, REINA and DORIAN with a bob of his head. The voice sounds masculine, anyway; it's a little rough-sounding, and there's a slight accent you can't quite place. "'Assignment' implies you to be in the employ of another. The Liners? The Hundred would not see you beyond your skins, oh no; it must be they. And yet... your /equipment/..." He tilts his head further, and takes a cautious step forward, into the street.

The masked figure suddenly turns to face Dorian. He strides forward, shoulders rising and falling with each step. His feet appear to be nearly birdlike, with clear talons on the ends. His legs are wrapped in some kind of dirty cloth. "You are, of course, Last Seeds. Liners need not the apparatus," he extends a similarly-clawed hand beyond the wing-cloak, with long and narrow digits, gesturing over his face, "to breathe the Grain-filled air. Is it air, I wonder," he muses, "or is it only Grain we breathe? The dust of the dead, full of terrible power..."

"I speak of much and little, and I digress." His shoulders heave; he bends in a bow, wings spreading to his sides. "I am Akkinas. I wish to know of the old world. The world that was, before this Land of Steel came to be. The world that lived, not the corpse on which we walk."

CORY probably notices by this point that the only part of his 'outfit' that isn't attached is the mask and the rags. Akkinas turns his head to her. He spots the tail, and he bows lower. "In the presence of one of the highest of the A-RAYS, I must offer my respect. A humble digger of graves, old and new; that is all I am. I find the mask a pleasant antique, miss. Please take no offense to my coverings." His attitude as turned a bit more grovelly where Cory is concerned.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
"We were asked to find something here," Yuna admits before bowing politely to Akkinas. "My name's Yuna ... Are you here looking for something specific as well, beyond seeking knowledge of what this world used to be like? It doesn't seem like the computers are working, if you were hoping to go through their records - but if they kept anything written down, we haven't had time to look for it yet."

She's trying to be polite and to at least *sound* helpful, but she doesn't want to open up too much until she has a better idea of what Akkinas wants ... or for that matter, what he is. Elner is trying to scan Akkinas without being detectably invasive about it - taking the measure of the figure's technology for a start, just a rough estimate of how advanced (or not) he might be.

Meanwhile, Jiina is still keeping up with Kotone. "Nice work with that drop for the last leg," she comments to the cyborg, audibly somewhat impressed. (It'd have to be audible, since Jiina's face literally isn't built to display expressions.)

Reina Kinney has posed:
    By now, Reina has ditched her rifle completely. "I'm Reina Kinney, and I'm here with Yuna." She folds her arms a little as well but says little else, since it seems that Yuna has said all that has to be said. Perhaps that's why Reina's looking a little annoyed, even if her nose and mouth are covered by the Rebreathing device...

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Dorian nods to the question of being in the employ of another. But he's not going to say much more than that. Because he's not sure what kind of reaction this one would have if it knew they weren't from this world. "Last Seeds ... do you mean those left behind after whatever happened to this place?" he inquires.

It would make sense -- people that were here before whatever cataclysm obviously destroyed the place would probably need equipment much like the rebreather he's currently wearing to breathe the new air. Those who came after, by whatever means 'new' people come about, would probably mean they could adapt to it.

And now Dorian's in investigation mode! "How long has this world been like this?" he asks. "Long enough for some to forget what it was like before, I take it? And this 'Grain' ... what is it?" The introductions remind him tha the hasn't introduced himself! He nods politely to Akkinas and offers, "My name is Dorian." He too doesn't want to give too much information until he's sure what's going on.

Cory (768) has posed:
    Upon hearing the word A-Ray Cory aims a rather perplexed face down at the gravedigger. "Chikorri, or Cory for short. Why'd I be offended? Just think it's uh... different!" She finally lands, dusting herself off.

    She's now hurriedly peering at the others, desperation in her eyes. They're saying 'what the heck do we do now?'

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has made her way into the depths of this dead place and has found what might be just about where she need sto go. She is able to get the near door opene easily enough and pushes past it. She got lucky it seemed to be ready to go. She's going to do a full sweep of things down here but first she's got to go get the drives right? SO she's going to hear to Systems to look there for what she seeks. She's almost there right?

Ark Line (687) has posed:
There is a pause before the odd man speaks again.

"Yuna. Yuuu-naaa." Akkinas tilts his head one way. "Your name is strange, but pleasant. Reina. Reinalda?" He cants his head the other way. "An old name. Hrrnnn. Dorian! I knew a man named Dorian. Pleasant fellow; worked the lines in the nutrition plants, said one such as I, as Akkinas, would do better outside that place. Smart, Dorian was. Is." He makes a clicking sound. "Chikorri is unknown to me. Cory is not. But please, please, do not concern yourself, Chikorri, with the concerns of one such as I." He bows again.

He goes back to his hunched state, head swiveling between each of them. "I seek all knowledge of the Old World, and of the people who lived therein. They were not Last Seeds then; ahhh, no, they were all there was. Records tell of many things across this world. Of life that was /born/, not /created/. Ahhh, to have /seen/ it...!" He raises his clawed hands and makes grasping gestures, then sighs.

"Your questions. Yes, yes, your questions. You would test Akkinas, yes? Then Akkinas shall pass." He straightens, drawing himself up. He's tall; probably six and a half feet, when he isn't hunched over. "The Last Seeds are the remnants of humanity. Homo sapiens. They cannot live in a dead world normally, but oh, they were clever, Dorian the Asker, they were /clever/." He raises a finger, waving it at him. His voice gives the impression of an impish grin. "They developed medicine and technology to survive... in /this/."

Akkinas bends down, taking a handful of the steel-grey sand off the ground. He holds it in his hands, cupping both together. They're humanoid, but not wholly human; his palms are rougher and more narrow. "The body of a dead world. The corpse of the Earth. Of Gaia. She is dead, Dorian the Asker, and has been some thousand years. It is After Count Nineteen-Ninety-Nine, and all that still lives on this doomed world are the children of the near-dead humankind."

He lets the sand slide through his fingers. "Grain... a strange thing. It is poisonous to you humans, yes? Very poisonous, very deadly. It is very powerful, though. It is what gives life to we A-RAYS," he seems to twitch his head towards Cory while gesturing at himself, "and to the Liners, who look like you, speak like you, but do not die as you would in this the very air. It is the corpse-dust of Gaia, super-saturating what we eat and what we breathe. Should you imbibe it, your veins would bulge and explode as they failed to hold all that it was, and is."

The strange Akkinas turns his head, tilting it, and looking at Dorian with a glinting yellow eye through a hole in the mask. "But there are some who turn this poison into power, are there not? Eh?" He scoots a step forward, leaning over him, and then abruptly turns back to Cory, speaking hurriedly. "Of course there are. Speaking too much. I speak too much. I am sorry, Chikorri, I am sorry." He bows his head.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
KOTONE and JIINA head through the darkened labs. Emergency lighting doesn't provide enough illumination to look into the windows very far, but it /does/ provide enough to show something a little disturbing down there: dark stains on the interior glass. They pass growing streaks and splashes of it, painting the interior of the labs to either side of them on the way to the Systems room. The doors to these labs remain closed for the most part, though one is open, broken off its hinges.

There is a light inside the room. It is red and blinking slowly and steadily, fading out and then brightening to its fullest, over and over again. The Systems room is closed up on the wall beyond that door and that room, lacking the glass that the rest of the labs feature. It's a bit more secure that way, and it's digitally locked like the others. It'll take Kotone some work to get that one open.

A few moments after they first spot the pulsing light, it stops pulsing as it brightens. It rises with a hiss of hydraulics, and there's a sound of metallic shifting and thumping. Emergency lights catch the edge of some kind of vaguely humanoid shape inside, gleaming with metal and covered in the same dark stuff, the moment before it reaches the door.

"THIS SECTOR IS SCHEDULED FOR CLEANSING. IDENTIFY YOURSELVES," the security drone commands. "OR BE REMOVED."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is still cloaked for all the good it will do for now she doens't know what's down here she pauses at teh spalshes and streaks. She's got a very darn good idea, what that is. Long dried blood is the most likely thing that pops into her head. What happened here so long ago, she wonders? Shje doesn't want to know but she's now pishing ahead finding there's now another way to bar her way. She's going to work to get it open abut soin it is ipening then she sees something looking at them it's a drone, one that wait covered in blood. Kotone is now oving to attempt to hack the drone in some fashion whatever's easier be it hack it so it can't see them, shut it down or size control. Well if it's got wireless functions if not she's kinda in for a fight.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    That drone doesn't sound friendly. Sure, it may not have any emotion in its voice, but the fact remains that it's threatening to 'remove' everyone unless they identify themselves makes Reina uneasy. She doesn't attempt to gun it down though, as one of the biggest things Laia taught her during GUARDIANS training was how to be more disciplined. Reina looks to the others and says, "Uh, that didn't sound too good. Does someone wanna do something?" She is noticing Kotone but isn't aware of what she's doing.

Cory (768) has posed:
    'A-ray' or not (she isn't), Cory doesn't seem too keen on geting near the weird sand, the Grain. She's frowning, but behind the rebreather it's kinda hard to tell. "eheheheheh.."

    There's no hiding how nervous the idea of a dead world makes her. "That all happened long before I was around!"

    ... Which isn't exactly a lie... "What you can't find on this poor world though, there's an abundance of in others! ... No need to keep apologizing." She's still frowning at Akkinas, but behind the rebreather... yeah, hard to notice.

    "We've got catching up to do, too!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Jiina is hanging back for now, and will most likely follow Kotone's lead. If Kotone goes into combat, Jiina will provide some additional firepower.

At the moment, though, Yuna isn't really thinking about the situation in the sub-basement; she's more focused on Akkinas, and what Elner's sensors are gleaning as the little robo-faerie continues scanning. "This 'Grain' of which you speak," Elner says, "*does* seem to carry a substantial amount of energy, although I can't quantify it precisely. Which probably means 'magic' of some sort - and in that case, the A-Rays are presumably magical organisms who are able to process mana from it, whereas ordinary humans would be poisoned by mana overload."

As Elner makes that observation, a more noticeable shimmer surrounds Yuna, the Light Suit's defensive aura being 'tweaked' to help keep the Grain out more efficiently. The shimmer subsides again after several seconds, although it's still noticeable if you really look for it.

Yuna looks uncertain. "So ... does that mean this was a magical research lab, not mundane science or technology?" she asks.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Heh, 'Dorian the Asker'. That gets a smirk from Dorian. But he does get his questions answered. It's odd, though. When the sand is picked up, Dorian takes a step back. He places a hand to his rebreather-covered mouth, as if he's just smelled something disgusting, and mutters, "Vishante kaffas ... what /is/ that?" Predictably, putting his hand over his mouth doesn't help. Which makes sense, because if it actually /was/ a smell, the rebreather would probably have filtered it out. Whatever it is, that's just how Dorian is perceiving it, as a smell.

And yes. The translation effect is probably going to catch Dorian's nice little tribute to being disgusted in the Tevene language. However his player does not wish to go into detail about what this phrase actually means. Suffice to say that it is an expression that denotes that he is suitably disgusted by something.

Yuna's words get a nod from Dorian. "That's what it feels like -- magical rot," he confirms, looking to Elner with a nod. "Like ... I don't know, spoiled mana? I've only just noticed it ... this whole place feels like it's charged with the same spoiled mana. Like a magical bomb ready to explode." Pause, and he puts a hand to his chin. " ... Or the remnants of such a bomb's already having exploded ... ?" he observes.

Looking back to Akkinas he asks, "Is that what caused this world's current state? A magical 'bomb'? Or simply too much magic?"

He is unaware of the situation in the sub-basement for the time being. His hearing is only human-level, so he's not likely to have heard much. But he does bring something up! "If it's information you want, you'll likely find it down there." He points in the direction of the elevator shaft with his staff.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
KOTONE does not detect any wireless signals coming from it. Thinking about it, it would be a little silly to put your big security bot's vulnerabilities out in the open like that, wouldn't it? The machine starts forward, a narrow, bipedal droid with a mono-eyed visor. One arm has some kind of prod on the end, and the other has a large, solid-looking pincer-hand.

"IDENTIFY YOURSELVES OR BE REMOVED. YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO COMPLY." It does not helpfully start counting, but it is mostly in the hall now. It is definitely covered in dried blood and viscera. It looks banged-up, too. It must've been in a fight. Its left leg is a little sluggish... and it's raising its prod, electricity arcing from one point to the other. Uh oh.

Fight, or make a break for data or freedom. Time to make a choice!


Akkinas nods his head towards Cory again, two, three times. "Yes. Yes it did. It did." He tilts his head again. "The Liners have not yet reached the stars. Oh, they try. But so far as we know, we are very... very alone."

He looks between Yuna and Dorian. His body language seems a little stiffer at the mention of magic. He's more tense. "It was a bio-technological research facility. I had hoped it possessed data on organisms that still lived before the appearance of Grain. It is very rare to have such data in a form that is not on old, crumbling pages. Ahhh, but what a form it is," he says, momentarily wistful.

"Magic is... a thing of stories," Akkinas says, perhaps oddly careful about it. "This world's downfall was wrought by a creature taking the shape of a man. He is no Liner or A-RAY; if he were a Last Seed, ah, perhaps... perhaps he could /die/. Perhaps we could /stop him/." He shakes his head, a shudder running through him.

"He is called Kojirou Sasaki. He is called Avenger by some. He is the Ultimate Disaster, and All The World's Evil, walking on two legs." His voice drops to a fearful hiss. "This sector is where he keeps his home. This is the closest I will go. The mountains are not safe. Stay away if you value your lives."

Isn't the warpgate near those mountains...?

Cory (768) has posed:
    "All evil ever, on just two legs?" Something about this statement leaves Cory hovering in the air with both arms dangling down, disbelief all over her face. The dramatics of these people they've encountered.

    "Just what kinda place did we come to out here? Hey..."

    By now, she very well might've forgotten quite why she's here.

    At least for a few minutes.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
And then suddenly the story gets darker. Which Dorian was waiting for -- a world doesn't turn to ash unless something /really big/ caused it. Or, in this case, really big and bad, from the sounds of it. Dorian's no hero; that title almost always gets bestowed posthumously. He's not going to be going after any Ultimate Evil On Two Legs. So he nods to the cautionary note from Akkinas. "I'll keep that in mind," he agrees. Yeah that's a whole lotta NOPE right there.

He does pick up on the careful nature of Akkinas's statement of magic. "A forbidden subject to discuss?" he inquires. He's not about to display that yes, he very much does have magical abilities. If it's forbidden to even /speak/ of, to perform it would probably get him killed.

Cory's question gets a rhetorical answer from Dorian, in a wry tone of voice. "Obviously one that's rather screwed, from the looks of it." Yeah, he's picked that one up in his time in the Multiverse.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
A faint shiver runs through Yuna at Akkinas's description of Sasaki Kojirou, a.k.a. 'Avenger'. "That sounds pretty dangerous," she agrees. "We haven't seen any sign of him yet, though ..."

She shuts her mouth at about that point, not wanting to say anything that might just possibly get the forces of fate to look up and accept an unwittingly-dropped challenge to them. Instead, she materializes her pistol - a somewhat-sleek-looking weapon - and checks it over, as if reassuring herself that it'll work when she needs it to.

... If. *IF*, not 'when'. ... Hopefully it's an 'if' situation and not a 'when'.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is not about to stand around at this point the bot is not going to be suverted it might not have spotted her she wager so she's going to go for broke and make a dash to get past it and hopefully get to the drives. She knows whatr she's looking for and she's going to attempt to recove the drives physically if she can if not she's oging to just download it into her cyberbrain and hand it over.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
"If you have seen his terrible visage and his horrible blade, it is said you are already lost," Akkinas says, a touch sadly. "I would not wish this upon you, kind ones. You have shared with me precious breath and may yet share precious knowledge."

Then, he turns. He looks straight at Dorian, bending down to be eye level with him. He stares for a long, long moment. When he speaks again, it is quiet and deliberate. "There are things some would call 'magic' in this dead world. The Six Sisters, the rulers of the A-RAYS, are said to be witches of truly frightening power. The Knight Arms possessed by the few Ether Liners that have yet emerged hold power over life, death, and all manner of things between, yet it does not stop them from utilizing high technology as well. True magecraft, though, the stuff of old stories..."

He bows his head for a moment, as if in remembrance. Then, he turns it, one eye flicking upwards to watch the mage again. "...you would be surprised what you find in long-forgotten graves, Dorian the Asker."

Akkinas straightens slowly. "Perhaps I would speak more on this subject if you were to give me cause to speak, and to trust. Akkinas knows many things, but even Akkinas does not know all." He looks towards the lab again.


Below, Kotone makes a run for the paydata. She rushes past the security bot and runs right into the door. It takes her precious moments to crack the more-potent security on the room -- and by then, it's turned towards her, raising the electrical prod. With a whine, it projects little tines of electricity, a momentary shock that's enough to render a normal human insensate.

It doesn't know she's /not/ one, but it definitely knows she's /there/.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    Reina listens to what's being explained, but says nothing for the time being. She still hasn't gotten rid of her rifle just yet, as she may be disciplined, but she also has the common sense to know to never let your guard down in territory that's unsecured.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
That would seem to be Jiina's cue. She's not a great fighter on her own - the Savior of Light is needed to lead the Matrix of Light for a *reason*, after all - but Jiina does have a beam cannon that she can use independently, and she materializes it, raising and firing at the drone while it's turning to track Kotone. She's not waiting until the drone's back is to her, partly because she doesn't want to risk hurting Kotone if she misses - or if the beam-cannon blast goes THROUGH the drone.

Actually, there's a significant risk of collateral damage, but Jiina is trying really hard to minimize it, restraining her fire to just what it takes to either disable the drone, or draw its attention away from Kotone.

Meanwhile, Yuna is trying very hard not to do something as unladylike as chewing on her lip. Her lips are pursed, though, and after a long moment - and some consultation on the radio - she takes a breath. "If I were to come out and tell you that we're not actually from this world, would that help convince you that we can be trusted?" she asks. "It's not that I'm immune to the Grain, but it's not actually entering my lungs because of this armor." She raps her gloved knuckles lightly on her breastplate. "We may be similar to these A-RAYS you mention, but we aren't connected with them ..."

She folds her arms in front of her legs, bowing deeply to Akkinas - actually taking her eyes off of him, although Elner's gaze doesn't waver in the slightest. "It wasn't my intention to deceive you about anything, Akkinas, and I'm truly sorry for misleading you, even by omission."

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Dorian turns his head a little as Akkinas seems to regard him quite squarely. He's actually about to ask if he has something on his face (aside from the rebreather) when Akkinas finally speaks again. He isn't sure why the deliberate tone. But the info is given, so there's that. He blinks when /that/ is mentioned, though. " ... Graves?" Well, it makes sense ... this whole world is basically one big grave, right? But Dorian has a feeling it's offers as slightly more literally than that.

The look towards the lab gets a nod, and he notes, "We seem to have let one of our entourage go on ahead anyway..." A pause, to check in over the radio. And it seems she's run into trouble. Dorian looks to Akkinas again, pausing as Yuna spills the metaphorical beans about their origins. He nods, deciding to confirm her words so she doesn't look like an upstart -- or worse, a liar. "She speaks the truth," he seconds.

Another look to the direction of the lab. Kotone's in trouble. He's not the type to leave someone in possible danger if he can help it. Of course he's not going to admit this. Instead? "If there's any information down there, we'll bring it up." Hopefully they'll be able to. A smile to Yuna. "I'd rather not have one of us take /all/ the credit. My pay could be docked. Can't have that." With that said, he heads for the elevator shaft as well. Was there a service ladder? He's going to need it, since he probably can't survive a fall that far without breaking something that needs to remain unbroken.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
IF Kotone only knew Avanger's reputation, the reaction she's surived him somehow might turn heads. She's go to worery about the Paydata which is a big thing. It means /everyone/ gets paid right? Which is formost on her mind after the boit which is now coming for her. Her cloak now is clearly not working so she doesn't even bother to waste the power to keep it up. She gets zapped it should be enough to drop her right? Well she's counting on Jiina at this point to get it off her she's still toasted it's bnot fun but she's still in the gme.

When she makes note of Jiina's actions. That's when she moves in her attempt to finish getting the pay data and get out of here. There's also more help inbound it seems she's not wanting for help at the very least.

Cory (768) has posed:
    "That great and terrible, huh?" Instead of being frightened, this story just has gotten Cory excited. Fists pumping out and glee showing on her face. "No matter where I go there's something amazing out there to run into.. Oh, uh..."

    She turns quickly to her radio, having utterly forgotten what she's here for now.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Grave-dropping forgotten, Akkinas watches them carefully as the 'we're not from around here' news comes out. He looks between them, perhaps searching their faces for some sign of deception. He's quiet again for a moment or two.

"I had wondered," Akkinas says, "what the significance of the ring was. I have heard of something uncovered near the mountains, out in the wastelands, where the Ultimate Disaster roams. Rumors carried by my fellows say men have emerged from it and that Liners have passed through, but to where..." He starts to pace, gesticulating with his clawed hands. "...I suspected the Western Continent, perhaps the secret entrance to the interior of the Crystal Web, but..."

He suddenly looks back to them. Dorian is heading inside -- there is a service ladder in the elevator shaft -- but he doesn't seem bothered by his leaving. "Prove what you say."


As it turns out, energy weapons work really well. The energy cannon punches through the claw-arm's elbow and burns its way partway into the interior. The arm dangles from a hot metal thread. It turns away from the no-longer-cloaked Kotone, the lightning gun charging up again and firing another stunning blast. It's been juiced up some, but it doesn't compare to a real bolt from on high. Kotone is, for the moment, left alone.

There's a tone from the corridor leading into the lab-space. The wall next to the security station opens up, and another, fresher drone starts to power up. It is directly between Dorian and the others, but when he gets to the bottom, he might be able to catch it in its power-up stages...

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Jiina just throws herself to the floor as the lightning blast is directed her way ... but she's also made of, if not actually metal, then composites which are close enough to it to ACT like metal. So dodging just means the bolt has to reach out further, and some of it misses. Some of it doesn't.

And while Yuna is trying to figure out what to offer by way of 'proof' to Akkinas, the awareness that Jiina's just been hurt pretty badly sinks in like she'd just been stabbed, or shot, or both: her eyes go wide, her face growing pale, and then she turns and bolts for the elevator shaft. "Elner, with me!" she calls out; the robo-faerie bobs apologetically to Akkinas, then zips away after Yuna.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    When Yuna heads off, Reina realizes that something must have happened. Given how they don't know what's happened with Jiina yet, Reina doesn't want to take any chances with Yuna going alone. Especially in a place like this. "Excuse me, please," Reina says, and while there might be a hint of sarcasm, it's definitely not intentional. "Something's wrong and I need to check it out." She gives a shrug as if to apologize for this before running after Yuna. "I'll go with you!"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
It seems that Yuna will have to prove they're not lying, since Dorian's heading down the ladder as fast as he can. He'll probably just drop the last five or so feet, possibly farther if he can ride the sides of the ladder down. It won't take him long to take in the situation. Kotone has some issues with a golem of some kind. Jiina seems hurt, but Yuna's on the way.

Things are going to get worse, Dorian realizes, when the wall reveals a second drone. Maybe he can take it out if he hits it before it starts acting. He raises his hands, holding the staff in one hand, and lightning begins to arc between the serpent heads of the staff. He aims the area of the spell's effect over the powering up drone and unleashes a lightning bolt! He's seen his lightning spells have devastating consequences to electronics -- hopefully this will work!

Cory (768) has posed:
    Hearing that someone's hurt, Cory decides it's time to ditch all the talking. Instead of that, she goes zipping through the installation, following the trail of the others who've gone deeper in.

    If the action's elsewhere, she sure shouldn't be doinking around over here talking!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone is having one of those days but thankfully she's got osme help as she's about to get blasted again. She's able to just avoid it's attention as her allies are working to keep the drone busy. She meanwhile is working to get the data so she can get the heck out of here. She may need some more tiume she's not sure here.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Akkinas looks a little surprised, but not altogether bothered when the group dashes off to face down danger instead of proving their claim. He enwraps himself in his cloaklike wings again and watches, pacing outside rather than moving towards the interior. If there's danger, it's a pretty safe bet he doesn't want to be in it.


Kotone's got the door open. She can see inside the room now: a bank of monitors rests along the far side, with a wall of server racks covering the left wall and what appears to be emergency generators on the right behind a shattered wall of fogged glass. Two of the generators looks like they've melted down, though a third is functioning. The racks, on the other hand, look like they've been largely burnt out. Kotone can physically remove what are probably drives from the slots if she can figure out which ones are still intact.

The damaged security bot builds up another charge as Jiina goes down. It takes a step towards her, and then seems to shudder in place. The light in its optical sensors flickers. It pauses, then resumes the motion, building the charge once again, presumably to finish the job. It isn't terribly quiet about it, and it's visible through the thick glass walls that make up the interior laboratories. All you have to do is get past the new one!

Which Dorian, after a dashing entrance, straight-up shoots lightning at.

The drone itself doesn't seem terribly damaged at first -- the exterior is covered with crawling arcs of electricity, and its arms flail from the sudden charge, but it doesn't instantly destroy it. The cradle it's still partially attached to reacts more poorly, blowing out with a bright flash and a plume of smoke. The drone doesn't get completely out of it, a leg still attached and certainly now fried, and as a result all it can do is hang out of the cradle and turn in jerky, uneven motions.

When it does, it fires a canister towards the elevator with a 'FWOOMP,' trailing sickly green gas that starts to expand into a cloud in the corridor. Of course, wearing those rebreathers will protect the group from the worst of it, but getting it in your eyes is going to make it hard to do anything but squint and cry!

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna is in too much of a hurry to take her chances with the elevator ... and in point of fact, so is Elner. So rather than going down behind Dorian, the little robo-faerie simply blinks out of view, reappearing in the corridor next to Jiina.

A split-second later, Yuna disappears with a somewhat more noticeable flash of light - and also reappears next to the fallen Jiina. Unlike either Jiina or Elner, though, Yuna's face is completely capable of displaying emotion ...

And while she isn't in the kind of utter fury that would accompany one of her friends getting killed outright when she was able to react to it, she's still VERY OBVIOUSLY ticked off - and since it's just a drone that did the damage, she doesn't have any reason to hold back.

So she doesn't: the Matrix Divider appears in her hands, not the pistol from before but a weapon that could be the futuristic crossbreed of a sword and a rifle; energy flares and crackles around the portion of the weapon which is both barrel and blade, and she swings hard at the drone - trying to simply cleave right through the thing.

That still leaves the drone closer to the elevator un-tended to at the moment ... she'll probably get there shortly.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    While Yuna attends to one drone, Reina decides to take on the other one. Realizing that it's definitely hostile, she levels her rifle at it and fires a single energy shot at the drone. "I knew this place was bad!" She comments just as she fires that shot.

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
Whatever it is, that cloud of junk is probably not a good thing. Of course, Dorian's idea for getting rid of it might be just as bad. Making sure not to aim at any of the arriving allies, he winds up, pulling the staff back as if to use it to throw something. The serpent heads now seem to have fire between them. And as he points the staff forward again, a fireball erupts from where the serpent heads are on the staff.

Hopefully that'll burn off some of the gas. It probably won't get it all. Dorian will have to try to wave the stuff away from his face -- he does have a rebreather, but damn that stuff hurts in his eyes!

Also hopefully the stuff isn't /explosively/ flammable ...

Cory (768) has posed:
    Down the elevator shaft Cory goes! Via flight, of course. She doesn't have any trouble finding which floor to emerge from because, well, chunks of a drone go skittering through the opened doors and down the shaft.

    Yuna might find herself peering at the wide and curious eyes of Cory, her head peeking into view upside-down from the elevator's doorframe.

    "Just don't bring the whole place down!"

    Using her tail as a grip, she swings down and into the corridor and skids to a halt next to Yuna!

    "Why so pissed-looking? Did it chop hair off or something?!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets to her target and the place is a mess, it's like someone fried half this place and shw ownders what data might even be intact here. IF she had time she's go through eveyrthing one by one. She doesn't have the time there's possible more drones on the way too and the sounds of battle contiune to echo. She then wonders how she's going to get through this. As she's physically looking over the drives, she gets an idea.

"Overclock, wake up I need something to scan these drives to see which ones are intact enough to be worth taking and fast. The security systems here are not entirely dead."

Abstractum.Net (347) has posed:
    "Alright, I got this!" Kotone's... Arm speaks up, running odd blue fire up and down her arm. Without even one moment of delay, the entire arm itself actually unfolds, purging several 'organic'-looking bits, making synthetic nature very plainly clear. Shifting her bodysuit up her arm, the arm seems to unfold some sort of hardware diagnosis array! With a hefty spherical crystal, bearing an eye, at the elbow end, and a heaping helping of scanning devices where a hand should be, this will let Kotone scan various factors of their current composition to find their integrity! It can't pull the data off the drives, but this elaborate arm contraption ought to be able to figure out which are worth snagging!

    Unfortunately, when she's done, Kotone's arm will have lost most of its human facade. When it refolds, it'll be a rather skeletal-looking blatantly-robotic arm. Kind of creepy. Designed for improved lifting though, to let her take an armful of the drives more easily.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
The Matrix Divider does the job, and does it well. The drone proves an insufficiently powerful foe to seriously contend with an angry magical girl with a gunblade and a will to use it. Yuna hits it in the already-damaged side, taking off the remnants of the arm and biting into the central portion of it. The Matrix Divider goes straight through it, rending metal and electronics with just enough resistance to make it satisfying.

The drone falls into two seperate pieces, and then the legs collapse. It leaves a sparking, fluid-leaking mess in the hallway... and, perhaps as a sort of wake-up call or pre-vengeance, it reaches out and releases the electrical charge it had built up. Cory happens to be the nearer of the two to the electro-arm, so she gets to deal with it. Or suffer. Maybe both!

The other one jerks back when Reina plugs it with her energy rifle. It doesn't look like it has any special resistance to directed energy weapons, save the electrical kind; it melts a hole in the thing's armor plating and fries something beneath it. One of the arms seizes up, and it loses pressure on the grenade launcher. Another canister falls out of the end of it, but it doesn't go far enough to arm, leaving a capsule of something on the floor of the corridor.

Dorian proves that the solution to most problems is gratuitous firepower. The fireball burns away the gas.... which /is/ unfortunately flammable. It catches and explodes, filling the corridor between the elevator and the lab sector with flame for a frightening moment. Reina and Dorian, fortunately, have a convenient (partial) barrier to duck behind: the walls and partially-opened doors of the busted, fallen elevator. It might even keep them from being totally cooked!

Kotone's Abstractum-boosted arm finds the working drives in all of these. She finds a half-dozen that could still be accessible, and another four or five that might be able to be partially recovered, if they're properly repaired. That's paydata, all right!

There is a moment where all is quiet. That moment is quickly passed when the whole complex starts filling with pale gas. It puts out the fire very quickly, but you probably don't want to stand in it very long, rebreathers or no.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa was not expecin something this nuts, then agian she asked overclock for help and he is hel;ping with what she needs. She feels her arm morph altering itself. It's a strange feeling but ther's no reall pain. Overlock is thankfully thoughtful enough to not destroy her body suit. Which is ironiclaly more costly than patching up her synth skin. She takes a moment to scan the drives t see which one she can figure out which ones to actually take. She's not going tothink about her amr but it's changed a bit more it seems she's got a bonus upgrade and it's able to carry a heck of a lot more. She goes not to remove the drive and start packing them up as quickly as is safe. Her friends are going perhaps be wonderiung what's up with her arm when she gets out of here. %
<<I got the objective I'm coming out shortly and we can get the heck out of here!>>

She keeps this to cybercomm over the radio to prevent it tipping off any other security systems that may be lurking.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
The sound of another explosion prompts Yuna to turn and look back towards the 'entrance' to the floor - and she winces at the state of things back there. Drone #2 seems reasonably incapable of hurting anyone else, though, so Yuna turns her attention to Jiina. "Elner, is she - ?"

"Just a temporary overload of her circuits," the robo-faerie states. "She did what she felt was needed, and she should be all right momentarily ..."

Almost on cue, Jiina shudders, a crackling noise coming from her vocalizer before her voice settles back into an audible and comprehensible manner of speech. "--trfaln--ow. Kotone?" The green-and-white armored android starts to get up; Yuna moves to help her, clearly relieved by Kotone's voice on the radio. "Jiina, you up to ascending the shaft again We might need to do it together ..."

And come to think of it, Powered Form might be something like the proof Akkinas wanted.

Reina Kinney has posed:
    Reina looks around and scowls. "I dunno if that was hostile or not, but honestly..." She frowns as the gas starts coming down. "Uh, I think we'd best get the hell outta here! My device is telling me there's something within it that it can't protect me against!"

Dorian Pavus (774) has posed:
The rebreather muffles the sound of a curse as Dorian sees the fire catch in the gas. He's not about to leave Reina in the path of the blast, though. He makes sure she can get to safety before he doing so himself, spending the last heartbeat before the fire reaches them casting a Barrier. If Reina's near enough, she should be able to benefit from it too. Hopefully this will help with at least some of the heat and pressure from the fire.

Once it's clear, Dorian peeks out from behind the broken elevator doors. Good, no more fire. And a slagged drone, too! "Ha! Just as planned." It wasn't, really. But far be it from Dorian to admit he screwed up. Though this other gaseous stuff? Probably not good to hang around in. Besides that, Kotone seems to have what they came here for. Looking to Reina he indicates the elevator shaft back up, as if to say she should proecede him up. "Shall we? Whatever this is," he waves a hand, indicating the gas that's starting to fill the hall, "It's doubtless not good for the complexion." With a morbid cheerfulness that's most certainly sarcasm he adds, "By that I mean it's likely to strip off skin with prolonged exposure."

Cory (768) has posed:
    ZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!

    no sooner has Cory taken a stance than she's confronted with a robot that she simply didn't notice because... she didn't sense it and hadn't considered robotic defenses. It's right there, a bit too quickly. She blinks once at it, uncertain - and is promptly ZAPPED THOROUGHLY!

    "GYYYAAAAAAZZAARARARGHHZL--"

    Limbs twitch and her tail springs straight out behind her. Once the shock's finished she wobbles around and regains her bearings by slamming a hand against a wall for support. "Whew... grrrr. Did you think you'd get away with blindsiding me, you hunk of junk?!"

    In no time at all she brings both hands to one side, palms facing one another and slightly cupped. "Kame... hame..."

    The young woman smoothly thrusts her hands forth in unison just as a base-ball shaped sphere of light's filled them... and once this arrangement's pointed at the drone?

    "HAAA!" FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! A beam twice the thickness of her arm's hurled straight at the mechanical assailant.

    It's hardly what it COULD be if she was fully serious, but well...

    Bringing the place down on their heads just ain't smart.

Ark Line (687) has posed:
Cory vents at the remnants of the drone, and ensures it will never bother anyone ever again. Nor will the floor directly beneath it. She punctures some kind of underground ductwork or something like it, and leaves a big ol' hole in the middle of the hallway. The bottoms of the thick glass walls nearby are cracked from where the floor has buckled.

Getting out is a matter of climbing up the service ladder, teleporting, or hitching a ride with one of the people who can fly. The fire-fighting gas doesn't spread to the upper floors, and doesn't eat your flesh (or, at least, doesn't do it fast enough that you notice it does that), though it's an irritant to be sure.

Outside, Akkinas is examining the hovertruck, and turns to regard the group once they've all cleared out of the building. He's holding a small electronic device, probably part communicator and part data storage unit.

"Strangers from outside," the bird-masked man says, "if you would allow me a copy of what you have found, I would be in your debt. It is sometimes said Akkinas knows many things, though not all things, and it would be well to add to this and share what is known." He bows again, extending the object with one hand. It has a contact surface that matches a metallic disc on each of the drives. "Knowledge lost is a terrible thing."

Whether you trade what you've found for something later or not, the hovertruck has started up and is ready to ferry you away. It's a short jaunt back to the warpgate, and out of this place -- and, hopefully, away from wherever the walking disaster calling itself 'Avenger' may roam.