4837/Final Destination

Final Destination
Date of Scene:	03 December 2016
Location:	Scorched Earth
Synopsis:	Eryl's final stop on his century-long journey, a mysterious bunker on Yunaska. Another peek into the final days of the Before Times is found.
Cast of Characters:	Eryl Fairfax, 1076, 673, 20, Lyria Mason

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Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    It's a freezing, misty morning out on the Gulf of Alaska. Breath rises in mist for most of the assembled the moment they arrive. The ground underfoot is damp and firm, a stark contrast to the loose soil of the mainland continent that Eryl has now searched completely. This tiny frigid island is the last lingering mystery, and he's leaving nothing to chance. That bunker spooked him deeply, being so desolate and seemingly seperate from all records he recovered.

    He stands upon the shore, a rowboat nearby identifying how he arrived. Not one to brave the warpgates to find the correct exit, it looks like he cobbled it together from rotting boats. It's franky a miracle he made it this far. He looks out at the grey sea contemplatively, a frigid wind tossling his near-white hair. He turns arond as everyone arrives. The smile on his face is a grateful one, but somewhat tight, grim. "Thank you for coming," he says, his silence just long enough to be awkward.

    "It's been 110 years or so... and this is my last stop." He lets out a blithe laugh. "I might have had it done in 109 years if not for the Multiverse... well, little point in counting the seconds now." He shakes his head and composes himself. "I've little clue as to what we might find here, if anything. I have no frame of reference, so take extra care in all you do." He begins to stride inland, stamping through the frosty underfoot. Every step is measures, skimming along the ground to carefully to check for traps.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka wasn't even cold! In fact, he was practically in summer wear. Darn that whole southern water tribeness. He hopped out of that floating death trap and shook his head. "Shoulda just let me build a boat. Would have been way faster." And way slower. He held his hand out for Toph to help her out, since he knew she had trouble sensing through wood. "Careful, don't hit your foot. Boat's wall is about a foot up," he told her.

Once he was sure she was safe and secure on dry land, he started ahead, still holding her hand if she didn't have him let go.

He hadn't come for Eryl, he'd come because Toph was coming and... he just wanted to keep an eye out for her. He supposed. "So, nice place you got here. Add a bit of a beach front house, maybe a few cabana girls, nice resort spot," he jokes.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Rory emerges from the waters like... well, like a robot covered in seaweed. Up onto the share she hauls herself, the shimmering, highly articulated texture of her feline-shaped Flexbot unmistakable as her. A pair of propellers extend from the robo-kitty's sides, but they swivel against its metal flesh and begin to slowly vanish as the microbots composing them migrate back into the main mass.

    "It is no trouble, Eryl! Though... I must wonder... if you do not know what you might find, what draws your attention here?" That is, after all, contradictory... the way she sees things.

    Nevertheless, a disk-shaped object unclamps from the Morph's back. Rory's Saucer takes flight on a wobbly ionic drive... looking much like a miniature UFO.

    Much as Eryl's taking precautions, Rory's scanning the ground with lidar and thermal imaging to sniff out possible mines or other anomalies...

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Cold is still something Toph hasn't gotten used to. After growing up in the southern Earth Kingdom and spending most of her time the several years in Malibu, the blind teen seems to disagree a bit with the weather. Sokka's hand is clutched as she makes her way out of the boat, and there's a clear look of relief as she feels solid ground underneath her feet once more. Though she does arch an eyebrow as Sokka continues following Eryl. No words are said however.

    Eryl is somebody Toph hasn't spoken too much with compared to her friends in the Union, but when your allies need help, you're there. So when he had asked for assistance, Toph had given her students the day off. "110 years, huh...? You've looked all over the mainland, was that it?" she asks. If he doesn't know what they will find, then she will focus on what she can. It's not like the others can see underground, after all. Rory does make sense with her question and Toph nods in agreement. It's something that would give them a hint to what to look for. "Just keep your eyes up, Sokka. Plan your vacation here another time!"

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria had been busy graduating from school and looking for something post secondary, heck she'd been thinking of going somewhere off world but for now she was on down time and was good to help. The Levitani woman is here and is not too bothered by the cold. She aloso had not helped out Eryl in a very long time and would like to lend the man another hand. She laughs at Rory's stsate and she seems very amused.

"You seem to be having too much fun, did you see Davy Jones while you were down there?

shge looks to Sokka and Toph as they lso arrive.

"Eh this is too much like Shiva to have me want to be here for long. Eryl? I'm ready to go."

She whistles and a coiling mechanical serpant follows after her coiling along. She looks over at Sokka whom she's not met before "Ahoy Lyria Mason's the name and good to see the ret of you again!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Eryl is trying to have a moment right now, so Sokka's jokes are not entirely appreciated by the cyborg. But he knows how it feels to be young, and not everyone is so serious about all this. "There are much more temperate places to set up a holiday home. I suppose that is something I should put more thought into now."

    Looking to Rory, he says, "That bunker was a treasure trove. For this island to be associated with it suggests it could be much the same. That alone is enough." It's not entirely base greed and desire for resources, but he's not in much of a mood to explain more on the importance of knowing one's history.

    He starts to nod to Toph, but stops when he remembers she can't fully appreciate it. "Yes. Every mountain, cave and ruined city. It's the complete sum of my purpose." No wonder he seems so gloomy. Now what is there to do with his life?

    "Thank you for coming Miss Mason. Now, does anyone see anything?" As everyone begins their search, Rory's scans identify no traps per se, but there is a sudden pulse on some wavelength that bounces off the party. It doesn't seem to do anything harmful, but it did bounce off of them like a radar.

    Furthermore, Toph's Earthbending senses pick up something immensely strange beneath their feet. It comes across like a massive, perfectly proportioned cavern. Nothing like that occurs in nature, it must be manmade... but there's seemingly no way to access it.

    But, whatever was sending out that pulse is not happy about everyone being here. A klaxon rings out, as the water on the shore suddenly bursts upwards, some concealed chamber rising from below. The boat is tossed aside, crashing onto rocks on the shore. The rising structure massive, almost the size of that underground chamber, with a giant shutter door facing the island.

    Said door slowly slides upwards, lights coming on inside to reveal robots. Rows and rows of those little ones, balances on a single spherical wheel, packing small railguns and pile bunkers for arms, as opposed to the less-lethal versions that usually come with stun guns and beanbag bazookas.

    But the main problem is their big brother. An absolutely massive robot, standing just under three stories tall. He stands on four spherical wheels, interconnected by an axel that connects to its thickly armoured main body. It boasts four gigantic railguns, two on each side, and what appears to be a missile pod on its back. One by one, their 360 degree optical receptors atop their torsos flicker to life, and they all roll out onto the shore, bearing down on the party!

    "That machine is... unrecognized." Eryl says, sounding totally stunned. "This is a custom model, not on any databases. What is on this island that needs to be so heavily protected?!"

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinked and stared up at the... oh. Crab puffs. "Hey, Toph. Cover!" he said, ducking down and fully expecting Toph to make some kind of earth cover cause, well, THAT did not look good. Of course, it was giant robot with guns and made of metal he didn't recognize, so he does the most logical thing.

He throws a boomerang at it. Angling it towards one of the lil sparkly glowing optical receptor things on top. "Why didn't we have one of those during the war? That'd have made it a lot easier!"

Rory White (673) has posed:
Optics aren't always obvious. The moment the water shifts and begins disgorging shapes robo-kitty Rory bounds into action and pounces behind the largest boulder in sight. It's her eyes in the sky that get a good view of what emerges...

    "I see. They must have expected a return ping of some kind. And we did not provide the code in time. The security system is either malfunctioning or guarding a dreadful secret."

    TRailgun fire slams into her boulder and tears away chunks, but the robo-feline BOLTS before it's completely blasted to gravel. She tears across the ground at cheetah-like speeds and moves to SWERVE around the big guy. Her aim?

    Leap up the thing's back and rip into a joint. Then 'exhale' a cloud of Dissassembler Nanites into whatever kind of breach she can wrangle.

    Nanotech is relatively slow-acting. It's easy to defend against IF you're expecting it. But without those defenses, the swarm will inexorably make its way for whatever passes for this machine's control system and begin tearing it apart into dust!

    .. Rory White hopes, anyways.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Lyria earns a nod in greeting by Toph, and well, considering the others haven't met Sokka yet... "Sokka, meet Lyria and Rory. Rory, Lyria, this is Sokka. You've probably heard him on the radio."

    Well, Eryl seems down about this whole deal... not that they can blame him, Toph supposes. It must be hard. Over a century is a long time, and well... Surely there must be more he can do? When Eryl asks whether they've seen something or not, Toph isn't slow to respond as she points her free hand down towards the ground. "Well, that strange cavern down there doesn't seem natural for one..." she begins, only to halt when she hears the bursting of water, and within moments she's let go of Sokka's hand in favour of entering a defensive stance that the watertribe warrior should be familiar with. All it takes is one kick into the ground, and Sokka will be granted a thick earthen wall to hide behind.

    It's not Toph's first time encountering robots, and with more people who are familiar with how they work here it shouldn't be too hard to deal with them. Which is why Toph turns her initial focus to the towering robot in front of them. Extending her arms, Toph has a determined look on her face as she yanks her hands apart, doing her best to bend open the armour of the robot. Let's hope the metal is something that isn't too pure!

    "Sokka, focus on the smaller robots!" she yells. Certainly he can come up with a quick strategy for them, right?

Lyria Mason has posed:
Just what did they have coming for them. "IT's not a problem don't worry about it mate."

She looks ahead as she goes with her serpent like drone following after her. She then takes sight of the massive robot and stares for a moment "I just want to get one for myself!" She looks to Eryl for a moment

"Look like some sort of old black project or the records have been lost. Either way it's going to ... be quite the time."

she's already pulling out one pistol, while shift her foot she tries to get a feel for the elements of this place, she's not a bender like Toph? Yet? She does have a connection to the elements of her own.

"Well Sokka it seems out first meeting will force friendship in battle lets get to it. SWIMMER! GO!"

the snake like thing springs into action, it's jaws snap oppen as a beam canon folds out of it's depths. Lyria's still getting a feel for the elements when the beam canon opens fire with a powerful magitech beam wepaon!

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Eryl is on the move immediately as the attack begins, his finger pointed and firing slugs at the smaller robots. He has to take a delay between each shot so he can charge it enough to pierce their armour. These things are a far cry from the flimsy mass-produced drones previously encountered!

    Meanwhile, the big one is charging all four of its own railguns, the barrels humming ominously, aiming at four separate spots... until Sokka's boomerang collides with its optics, somehow causing them all to stop. Given the extreme ranges possible on a railgun of that size, is this a safety precaution to prevent a stray shot from hitting the mainlands of America and Asia, possibly alerting people to what is on this island? Who knows, but it's a very exploitable weakness!

    Meanwhile, Rory climbs onto it and rips into it, taking advantage of a crack in the armour Toph manages to open. It's high-quality plating, so there's not a lot of impurity to bend, but there's enough! She barfs up some nanomachines... only for them to begin battling with ANOTHER swarm produced from the robot. Whoever designed it was prepared for all kinds of threats! But, the AGI also gets a look at its inner workings. It runs on several KOAN Cores, same as the ones in that bunker... didn't Eryl say that breeching them might be dangerous?

    Meawhile. Lyria fires a beam at the smaller ones! Cutting a swathe through them... but they begin to network with the bigger, smarter one. And so, they split up into small groups, rolling around to flank and surround the party, staying apart to prevent mass losses!

    And the big one is charging again, even as it fires a missile from that pod! It embeds itself into the ground, a gray cloud slowly rising from it. A dud? Or... is it merely delivering an more unusual payload?

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka jumps up and catches boomerang as it comes right back. "Toph, if you can get me close?" he called before he started running towards the bots. The gunfire was, well... He knew it'd tear him to shreds. But hey, they had a toph. all he'd need is her to make cover and he'd be fine as he made his way towards the bots. He jumped up, just a moment, to throw the boomerang back at the sensors. He honestly didn't know what he was doing, but it stalled it a little and hopefully that was enough.

He finally made it out of cover and near the little robots, sword out. He cleaved once, the star blade attempting to cleave through the much smaller robots as he'd try to dive away, attempting to use it as cover from its buddies fire. Assuming it worked he'd then try to jump up and over it, leaping towards the next one, blade swinging twice, once going for the gun, a second slash going for the torso.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    There, Rory is inside and can begin her attack... Toph does frown as it's clear the smaller ones won't be handled so easily. They're quick and agile, and... oh shit, here comes the big one! As she's unable to see the missile being fired, Toph jumps a bit when it embeds itself into the ground. Wait, it didn't blow up? Toph takes a few steps backwards. This is certainly not good! Which means she will have to multitask.

    On one hand she has to keep Sokka safe, and so she alternates her motions. One second she's bending cover for Sokka as he runs, giving him ledges to jump off of, and then for a few seconds she turns her focus back on the big robot, doing her best to crush its legs underneath it with her metalbending. It's not all that effective when she has to protect Sokka, but...

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria's done does a good job at delaing with the suppoirt units and the big one is comming oh hell there are missiles. Wait a grey cloud? She does not like the look of the cloud. She also hears the warning about the cores. So she's not going to shoot for the enter of mass hell she's going to turn the ice here against them.

"Watch this!"

She shifts her body posture and focues sending out mana and cuaisng a field of jagged ice spikes to form between them and the charging enemy units. While her drone fades back from the attack.

"I don't like the look of that cloud! Rory? Any ideas on how to deal with it and Sokka! Don't charge into the cloud, fight from range if you can."

Rory White (673) has posed:
"GUARDIAN SWARMS?!" Of course, the best way to stop a nanite assault is... with more nanites. When her swarm detects opposition, Rory White has to recoil. Eryl's world has technology far beyond what she was expecting to encounter. And there's no way her swarm can overcome the number that likely exist inside these robots, especially in any reasonable timeframe.

    At this point, all she can do is vault away and hit the ground running. Panels open on the flexbot as she flips around with a leap... and micromissiles are let fly for the smaller robots!

    .... At the same time, Rory White instructs her saucers to begin viciously jamming the frequencies used by the robots. This will probably result in a mutually frustrating infowar, but she's hoping the initial surprise will leave them sitting ducks for the plan given to Toph...

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Sokka leaps into the fray like a brave warrior! At first, the machines do not even try to move as he swings at them. It's just a plain sword, what could it do? But then as it cleaves through a robot's optics and wrecks its inner workings, the information is passed around. The sword is o ordinary one, and they should beware of it. As such, as he continues to fight, they begin to pull away from each strike. One of them engages its pile bunker, attempting to pierce through Sokka's chest! Meanwhile, the big one simply rolls aside to avoid the boomerang... but all its processing power is on calculating trajectories, so it gets clonked by it on the way back! Again the shots are cancelled!

    Meanwhile, Toph bends a path for Sokka and tries to stop the machine from moving. And here, another weakness is uncovered. This machine is smart, there's no doubt about that. But that means it's smart enough to know when it doesn't know something. The strain on its wheels and axel from nothing and the ground being thrown up for no reason has utterly bamboozled it. Like Eryl's implants, it can't understand things that work on physics from other worlds, and so it devotes more resources to understand. As such, there is a long moment in which is stands there, doing nothing. But then it starts charging up once more...

    And then Lyria makes a path of ice to obstruct the smaller drones, some of them impaled! The shots stop charging as it tries to comprehend this violation of thermodynamics. The drones also stop, also confused by this. The infowar initiated by Rory to stop the networking also contributes to this.

    And then, Eryl fires a grenade from his heel, aiming at the missile. The explosion wipes out the cloud, but his face is grim. "It was nanites. This machine is dangerous! I authorize the destruction of its power cores to kill it right away. Concentrate all fire on its centre!" He leads the charge, firing the grenade in his other leg at the confused mech. The fast impact, followed by an explosion, both of which open up a crack. "Get it open and finish it!"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "Okay people, watch your step!" Toph calls out. Hopefully Sokka can keep himself safe as she does this... The blind teenager throws her arms out, and in response the ground in the area begins to shake. Raising her left foot, Toph quickly slams her foot down into the ground. The results are immediate; the ground underneath the big robot opens up, threatening to swallow its legs. Immediately she continues with her movements, aiming to bend the earth into the robot as much as possible, packing the earth tight around it.

    Then Eryl barks out the orders. Risky or not, the machine /is/ dangerous. And so Toph nods, throwing her hands out quickly in succession to build up power, doing her best to tear open the armour from above so the others can hopefully get to the core.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka grinned. Yes, he could cut through these things and--

Hey, why was it lifting its arm out like-- He barely moved in time to avoid being skewered through the chest. It still managed to slash through he left arm slightly, the confusion and lack of knowledge of the weapon costing him already. He had to let the sword go with his left hand, already the wound making the arm hard to grip, his right hand stabbing into the robot before he pulled it up and out, trying to cut through the robot's body before pulling back.

He switched the sword in his left hand, his right hand moving out to hold the wound as he pulled back, quickly taking cover behind all that toph had so thoughtfully made for him. He reached into his bag, pulling out some bandages as he tried to stem the bleeding.

Rory White (673) has posed:
Well, change of plans it is! When Eryl makes the call and Toph puts her efforts towards ripping open the thing's armor towards the vulnerable cores... Rory White flinches and hesitates for a second.

    But only a second.

    Then she engages her full arsenal, tapping into the Matter manipulator's ammo reserves. A second set of mini-missile launchers pop open as the robo-feline takes backwards leaps. Missiles hiss and flare free of the barrels in rapid succession, five per second or so. Individually they have little more power than a small grenade, but in NUMBERS... and the fact that they seem to twist and turn on micro-vector-jets to home in on the same position...

    That's a nasty assault, it is. It might not have been enough to penetrate heavy armor, but when the armor's already penetrated...

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason is going to keep turning all the magic she can upon the drones one way or another, but with a barrier in place? She's going to draw both magitech pistols and open fire with the non elemental shots for the moment, the pistols blaze and Lyria seems to be tkaing this very seriously.

"Like fighting fire with fire to use the Earth expression."

She is thankful for TOph's warning so she doesn't end up on her own ass. She knows Sokka's hurt but she's not a healer of any sort. Damn it where was Kyra? That was a good questions he's not heard a thing from her friend in a very long time and was getting worried.

"Let's hope there are no more after this thing!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    With a groan, the big robot is sunk into the earth, its railguns adjusting frantically to cope. The poor thing is so confused! However, it does manage to slip one command through Rory's info-assault. These foes are clearly beyond it, but it must defend this island! One by one, the drones come to a standstill.

    And begin to self-destruct.

    Shrapnel and flames burst out, attempting to take everyone with them. Eryl snags at Sokka's collar to pull him back and cover him as the explosions occur, the diplomat taking twisted hot metal to his side. But it comes too late, as Toph peels open the crack, Rory's missile barrage opens it up, and Lyria's shots find home.

    A KOAN Core cracks, and shatters.

    There is no explosion like what Rory expected. What happens instead is a massive implosion. A gravity well is opened for a brief moment, pulling everyone towards the mech irresistibly. Explosions are halted right in the middle, flames and chasses flying towards the source, the giant robot collapsing onto a single point.

    And then it stops. What remains of their foe is a twisted hunk of scrap, with much less volume than the complete product.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka blinked a few times. What? ACK! Fire everywhere! Fire and metal! And then he... was being protected? Why was he-- panic began to rise in him. "TOPH!" he yelled. What? She was blind, she needed it more than him, probably. However, as explosions rained down around him, he had no choice but to close his eyes and wait it out.

But the moment it's over, he pulls himself free and runs to check on Toph, mentally screaming. She was okay though. She had to be. She was a tough kid. Way tougher than he was. And there was PLENTY of earth and... and she had to be okay he was worrying about nothing. They weren't hundreds of feet in the air this time or anything. So no need to panic.

Right?

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The sound of Sokka getting injured seems to distract Toph for a moment, her eyes wide as she turns her head slightly. But she returns her focus to the big robot even as Rory attacks, getting ready to destroy the thing. Even as the drones begin to self-destruct Toph is focused, kicking the earth to provide a wall each for her allies, and then she quickly coats herself in earth as well from the shrapnel. Then she raises her arms. It takes longer to move lots of earth, but they will need it for the explosion that's sure to come!

    The effects aren't exactly as expected.

    The sudden force that seems to drag /everything/ towards it catches Toph by surprise, and she lets out a loud yelp as even she loses her footing. The earthbender and earth alike is grabbed by the massive force, whirling up dust from the ground.

    When the dust and debris settles, the girl is lying on the ground, with parts of her earthen armour ripped off. Though luckily, she /is/ tough. Which is evident as she lets out a groan and rolls over onto her side. "Ugh... wasn't it supposed to explode...?" she asks tiredly, uncertain whether Eryl is able to hear her or not. But the girl manages to sit up, saved by the makeshift armour she was wearing.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria keeps back from the thing as it goes up she stares in abject horror and how it's explained to her ove the comm? Only gets an even starker look of fear on her face. Extraversl things could damn well be terrfying to the levitani and she just was caught off guard. "A dead star for a power plant?! What kinda of insanity is this?!" She then pauses looking over to Sokka who has been hurt and she goes to check on both him and Toph. "We need a healer!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Eryl gets back to his feet slowly, bleeding from his side. Thanks to Toph's wall, he was saved from being dragged into the micro-singularity. With a wince, he pulls out some shrapnel and says, "Everyone okay? That was... unexpected."

    Reaching into his jacket pocket, he produces a ReGenesis-brand false skin bandage and slaps it onto Sokka's wound. It immediately assumes his skin tone and keeps his blood inside him. It also applies some minor anaesthetic to numb the pain. "Hold together just a little while please. We're using this to go down." He gestures at the bunker in which the robots came from. Looking to Lyria, he grimly says, "Do not jump to conclusions. If it were merely a star, how does it account for the recycling of post-entropic energies back into usable power?"

    Guiding everyone inside, he finds a panel that controls the bunker and plugs in to it with a cord attached to the side of his head, behind the ear. Given a few moments, he cracks into its workings and closes the doors before making the bunker submerge. "Hmm... ah, there's a retractable tunnel to connect in spite of... the vacuum? This bunker is suspended in a hard vacuum? That's..."

    He goes quiet again and just opens the tunnel. They now stand before the cavern under the island. It's vast, but mostly empty. Tiled floors, walls and what looks like a retractable roof. Desks with more of those ancient computers inside plexiglass cubes, sealed with a keypad and a package of explosive on the computers themselves. Whiteboards, bookcases, and a messed bed, quietly rotting. But what's most apparent is the giant device in the centre. It extends even further below and points vertically at the roof. It's function is not apparent, but it looks like some kind of ray gun. Sitting next to the safety railing that keeps people from falling into the pit it's situated in is an ancient corpse in a chair. The massive wound in its skull and the discarded pistol makes the cause of death apparent.

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka moves overs to Toph once his arm was... mostly better. He sheathed his sword on the way and held out a hand. "How you doing, Toph? You feeling okay? Any cuts, bruises?" Oh gosh he was going into mother mode, even hefting her up and dusting her off. Then sighing as he realized what he was doing and pulling back.

"Nevermind, of course you're okay. You're Toph," he said with a soft sigh. "So... let's go." He didn't take her hand this time. He just followed the others, feeling his sword and boomerang to make sure he didn't leave anything behind.

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason calls her drone back to her and she looks to see ZOkka's wounds are tended to but now they have to deal with what's below. She pauses for a moment look at the ray gun? What the heck is this? The person took their own life, but Lyria paues for a moment "Eryl? How do your people inter the dead we shouldn't leave them there like this."

Rory White (673) has posed:
Rory was already taking shelter with Toph when the implosion occured! It's viewed through the saucer... and the airborne drone is shaken up considerably by first the implosion of air and then the REBOUND caused by air filling the void and blasting back out afterwards.

    "........"

    But the Flexbot is utterly silent for a good five seconds.

    "... if I had not seen it, believing what just happened would be VERY hard..."

    That was CLOSE. TOO CLOSE.

    Her own form proved capable of clinging to the ground and flattening aerodynamically to resist the wind very well, and now she rises and reforms. Not budging.

    After a good fifteen seconds of recalibrating and, most likely trying to FOCUS despite the horror of this crazytech, she recovers enough to follow along with Eryl.

    "The second power source that could explain this behavior is... ludicrous as this sounds... tapping into an alternate dimension through some kind of wormhole. Which would make the implosion the result of the wormhole destabilizing and collapsing in on itself."

    A theory that's so ridiculous it just might be plausible in the Multiverse, to be sure. It's hard to tell if Rory's JOKING or not now...

    Which leaves her free to examine the facility that everyone now wanders into. "... For once... I have no idea what this is meant to accomplish..."

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    "I'm fine," Toph responds to Lyria, though she does shake her head and look worried when Sokka asks her if she's okay. "What about you? You got injured there!" Then again, he doesn't sound like he's in pain. Heck, he's hefting her up and he doesn't seem like he's badly injured... whew! The blind girl does blink a bit when he's dusting her off, and when he moves to follow the others Toph is delayed by just a few seconds as she clears her throat and turns her face slightly away, following them. Let the brainiacs discuss what happened and how, it's not something she can offer much advice on.

    The cavern itself is a curiousity, and the metalbender looks rather pensive as she walks a bit forward. "Is that a... huge weapon?" The ancient corpse is unsettling. Why did this person kill themselves? This entire place, suspended in hard vacuum and guarded in such a manner... "Is this what you were looking for, Eryl...?" she asks, resting her hands on her hips as she chews on her bottom lip. "And if so, why?"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Everyone has questions, that's to be expected. But Eryl does not yet have answers, not until he checks the sealed computer next to the strange machine. He can't access it, but the screen is still on. It shows machine diagnostics, and the date of its previous activation.

    He looks to everyone. His face is dark. "I believe this to be the weapon that killed my world." He looks to the corpse, and his eyes bore into Lydia as she asks about interring his body appropriately. For a second, it's like he might say something actually venomous. But he restrains himself and says, "I shall bury him."

    Looking to Toph, he shakes his head. "I was not looking for this specifically, I was merely following an usual lead. But it is good I found it. Now ReGenesis can secure it, assess what happened, hopefully dismantle it." His eyes remain on the corpse though, his mind whirling. "This... is not what I was expecting," he says finally, sighing softly. "Far from the triumphant end I had expected. I suppose I should have though."

    Looking to everyone, he nods. "Thank you for being here. I'll be holding this place down until ReGenesis can secure it. And then... I don't know. We shall see."

Sokka (1076) has posed:
Sokka shook his head. "It's fine. I'm fine. Don't worry," he lied as he kept walking. He finally took notice of the giant corpse and then... "Wow. I guess he really lost his head there, didn't he?" A bit slow on the ball today, huh? He glanced to toph before reaching up and rubbing her arm, clenching his fist as best he could.

One little fight and he's the first, only one wounded. Maybe if he'd been more careful, hadn't... he shook his head. "Place looks like a giant headache if you ask me." Best time to make these kinds of jokes, really. Just completely mess with the mood.

"So, we done here, then? Big, giant guy in a chair with a... gun, right?" He really didn't know what he was seeing. But... it seemed important to the guy so it must have been important. "Sorry for uhhh... your loss." He wasn't sure if that was right, but he was trying.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Mental note: punch Sokka for lying later.

    This weapon... killed Eryl's world? It's a grim realization, and Toph blinks where she stands, her expression one of confusion and worry. "Was... that the person responsible?" When Sokka jokes about it though Toph does reach out to jab her elbow into his side. This isn't the time for jokes!

    It's a loss for Eryl, all right. But now he also knows and he found what he looked for. Even if he might not be happy about what he found...

    So Toph nods when he thanks them for their assistance. "... is there anything else you need us for? I could help with my bending, or...?"

Lyria Mason has posed:
Lyria Mason backs off from Eryl a little as he mentions he will handle it?he will handle it right? The not that they found the weapon that killed Eryl's world sobers her she steps back for a moment. "Such a thing should perhaps sleep deep with in the earth for ever...yet?It is your call I will wait with you untol your people arrive if you want it and I'm glad to have helped."

She looks to Sokka and Toph for a moment.

"You guys need anything?"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    They are trying to be nice, offering to stick around. But Eryl really really does not want company right now. His face becomes a little drawn as he regards everyone and says, "Really, I will be fine. I've been alone for over a century, I can tolerate a couple of hours."

    He ushers everyone back into the bunker and offers them a wan smile as he sends them back up. "See you all soon." It vanishes once the doors close.