Scene #4177: Welcome to SERAPH

Owner	Pose
Dr. Vahzilok	SERAPH a division of the Paragon City government that researches and investigates scientific issues. Rebecca Brinell, a research scientist stationed in Galaxy City (one of the zones of the larger area of Paragon City) has sent out a call for Science Origin heroes and others with scientific inclinations to come investigate reports of 'zombies' pulling people off the streets. While the undead are not necessarily new to Paragon City, they aren't what one would call common. Further, these ones seem to be different. With magical heroes not having much luck tracking the zombies down, Rebecca is trying the scientific approach to identifying what the real situation is. To those who come to City Hall for the briefing, they are told, "It's come to my attention recently that individuals are being pulled off the streets by some strange zombie-like creatures. Dreadful, yes? There's a sanitation worker named Clarence Jackson who witnessed one of the assaults. I'd like you to talk to Clarence about the zombie attacks. Oh, and welcome to SERAPH: Scientific Experimentation, Research and Application to Paranormal Humans." She adjusts her glasses as she indicates where Clarence will be waiting to meet with everyone... Not too far from City Hall, just up the street infact. Hopefully he'll have a lead on the culprits...
Medusa Gorgon	Science is of course a topic of interest to a certain Confederate nurse, and well... things have been changing in Paragon City. Which is worth checking out. So Medusa Gorgon headed that way, walking up the front steps to city hall with a broom over her shoulder. Which might make her stand out as she arrives, clad in her usual black dress and with a snakeskin coat over. With Soul Protect in place it's impossible to tell her apart from a human being, and she looks rather curious as she looks at the other volunteer 'heroes', as well as Miss Brinell herself. Zombies... now that's interesting. Perhaps she can manage to take some samples too. There are some questions she has, but perhaps this isn't the right time to ask. So let's go meet this... sanitation worker.
Captain Viridian	Captain Viridian had jumped at the chance to attend as soon as he saw the words "those with scientific inclinations" on the invitation. Being a new arrival to the Multiverse in general, the Captain needed any info he could get to establish his bearings. He of course didn't recognize any faces or names, and everyone towered over his pudgy three-foot-nothing frame, but that wasn't going to keep him from science! He sat rapt with attention through the entire briefing, taking extensive notes especially on what, exactly, a zombie is, and noting that these "new" zombies were somehow "different" from ordinary ones, whatever that meant. He suspected that a sample of normal zombie might be useful... but didn't exactly think to ask for one at the briefing. Oh well. Nothing to do but follow the other heroes of science and ask this Clarence what he saw.
Tesla Armadia	Today the heroes are joined by a new face, the woman briefly introducing herself as 'Stormchaser'. She wore a jumpsuit with stripes down the side done in a zigzag pattern to look like lightning bolts, with a belt of various scientific instruments around her waist. The belt was connected to a harness, as on her back instead of a cape she had a small set of air-tube jets angling to the sides like faux mechanical wings. These along with the air-pressure jets on the back of her boots allow Stormchaser to hover in the air, but not actually fly to a full capacity. A few other devices are strapped to her arms and gloves. Presumably all the technology is what allows her to manipulate temperature, ionization and air pressure on a minaturized scale; extrapulating from the actual science behind meteorology and weather phenomenon. Behind the saftey helmet and visor that also concealed her real identity, Stratos smirked to herself. This wasn't the first time she had temporarily masqueraded as a Cape as part of her schemes. Just this time it was less about plotting and more collecting information for her boss. As usual Tesla was curious about how such 'superpower' worlds handle science and technology, but after the -last- time she had quite a reputation, and decided it was better to send someone a little more familiar with the nature of capes and crooks undercover this time.
Black Arachnia	Hunting zombies, huh. Black Arachnia probably runs the risk of being mistaken for one of the monsters by scurrying around in her spider form, but this is faster than walking around in robot mode. She can also climb up walls or use her mandible grapnel for better speed if necessary. Seriously, you'd be astonished how often people - mundane or Elite - just don't think to look up at the walls or ceiling when they're going down a corridor, even in the sewer, unless something specifically gets their attention. At any rate, she's taking in the sights of Paragon City, such as they are, en route to join the others in getting the introduction from Dr. Brinell and then heading on to hear what Mr. Jackson has to say. Maybe she'll even learn something that's worth the trouble for her own purposes out of all this ...
Dr. Vahzilok	There are enough strange people in strange outfits that barely a second glance is spared for any of the heroes. Black Arachnia maybe, but not for the reasons she might think. There's a rather powerful tyrannical government over in the Rogue Isles with a heavy spider motif, and even robotic spiders... However, given that she's together with other heroes, it's not much of an issue. Once they reach Clarence, possible having encounters with bandanna-masked thugs known as Hellions trying to steal purses or deface public property along the way, the beared, hat-wearing man reports what he knows. "I was just doing my daily route, when out from the sewer pops this... thing! It was gray and rotted, and there were stitches all over its body. It just grabs Michael Thompson, the other santiation engineer who was with me, and yanks him down into the sewer! Please try to get him back! I don't want to tell his wife what happened to him." In the same general area, there's a large sewer entrance with a grate that can be lifted, allowing the assembled heroes (and villains acting as heroes) to go inside. Whenever they wind up there, they'd find themselves in dimly-lit tunnels that have gross water running through them, and there's a foul odor that could not possibly be from sewage alone. An archway leads into a larger room beyond the entrance tunnel, with water filtration pumps and walkways... And shambling figures patrolling the area, with a lone figure shivering in fear on the opposite side of the large area, surrounded by what appear to be humanoid shapes... But a closer look at any of these patrollers or guards reveals them for what they are. Walking cadavers with flesh rotting, buzzing with flies, their exteriors raw and skinned in places, and misshapen forms that look cobbled together from multiple bodies.
Tesla Armadia	Corpses stitched together, rotting and moving about? Ayep, definately zombies. Snatched bodies bodysnatching. Stormchaser opts to not mention what that probably entails. Either these zombies want to munch brains, or they're collecting new body parts, if the sewn together look of the sighting is anything to make theories on. Ugh, they just HAD to go back into the sewer though. Gross. She stares at the manhole for a moment. "Great, just great. I hate sewers. They smell like poo cass down there!" Alas, it looks like they don't have a choice. In we go.... And immeadiately Stormchaser engages her air tubes to hover over the sewer water instead of walking in it. Waves a hand in front of her face. "I take that back, it smells like poo gas -and- rotten flesh down here." Might have something to do with those shamblers over there.
Medusa Gorgon	Perhaps she doesn't stand out so much as she thought she would. Because Medusa is perhaps a bit more human than two of the people. A glance is given to the little person in the lab coat, and well... he certainly looks like he's taking it seriously. It would have been more curious if his appearance had matched his actions. Stormchaser is new to Medusa as well, considering Medusa was never one to join Tesla much for her adventures in Brockton Bay. The spider though... hmmm. Curious. Let's see what kind of a team they will make for now. The witch offers them all a polite nod before they head out to meet Clarence. And once they meet him and he begins explaining matters, the blonde woman pays full attention, listening to him. And getting into the sewer is easily enough. Sure, it's smelly and rather disgusting, but Medusa doesn't show much concern as she steps through the filthy water, heading off towards the archway. Carefully the snake witch leans forward, narrowing her eyes as she peers at the shambling figures there. Oh dear. It appears that the person on the other side is in quite a situation. Though she narrows her eyes slightly. If this man was kidnapped, then why is he left alone for now and sitting all alone...? "Do you have any suggestions...?" she asks of the others, looking quite pensive.
Black Arachnia	"When you say 'stitches all over,'" Black Arachnia inquires, "do you mean they looked like they were assembled from separate parts, or just like somebody at been poking around inside the body and sewed the incisions closed?" If Mr. Jackson remembers clearly enough to answer that question, it'd give her a little something to work with ... but if he doesn't, well, with a little luck the group will see for themselves. In any case, there's a civilian who needs rescuing, so she can't exactly ignore that in favor of the investigation. She'll help with raising the grate to enter the sewer if necessary; along with a comment of, "Sewers usually smell like that," to Stormchaser, and then she'll be making her way along the tunnel ceiling - which should also benefit from being in the shadows, depending on just how the tunnels are lit in the first place. She'll definitely be trying to get a good look at those walking cadavers along the way, though ... Not that a simple look at the outside will reveal THAT much, but she can at least monitor for discernible electronic transmissions, and scan the cadavers for distinct technological signatures from inside their bodies. stuff like that. She's also trying to figure out if she can just cross the ceiling of the larger room and get to the lone figure's rescue without having to ... y'know, actually fight her way through the shambling cadavers. But that'll depend partly on whether the rest of the group needs her support in fighting the way across.
Captain Viridian	The two humans were nothing of note to the Captain, aside from being really tall compared to him, but the mechanical spider gave him pause. That's exactly the sort of thing that tends to cause him problems of the injurious sort back home. Said spider seemed not to be targeting him, though, so he sucked it up and pushed on. Upon arriving at the sewer, Viridian recoiled at once from the horrendous stench coming, then took a moment outside to regain his composure - and stop his breathing so he wouldn't take in that horrifying odor anymore. He then followed the others into the sewer, walking the ceiling to avoid having to trudge through the sludge. This wasn't so hard! Straight shot to where the decomposing ex-humans are. And... yep, exactly as kludged together as that Clarence guy said they'd be. Extra-glad now to be on the ceiling rather than the ground, Viridian takes note of the lone healthy human cowering in the center of the room. Must be that Michael guy that needs rescuing. He also takes note of the flies and definitely-not-healthy humans surrounding Michael. Viridian was out of reach on the ceiling, soooo... he contrived a plan. Responding to Medusa, he said, "Hey, about how much does a human weigh? Un-decayed, I mean. I could just drop down and pick him up maybe?"
Dr. Vahzilok	Clarence would have told Black Arachnia that he didn't get a chance to look too closely. It happens very quickly. Just that they looked like stitched-together corpses. Of course, once she sees them for herself, Black Arachnia could make her own judgment... They do look a lot more like flesh golems than 'some corpse that rose from its grave'. That indicates intelligence went into their construction. Further, sensors indicate the presence of metal inside of them, as well as what appears to be electronics. They're distinctly made of dead flesh, but there's more to them on the inside than one would imagine. Perhaps something to facilitate their movements, if they were built? If magic wasn't involved, then there has to be SOME way they're getting around. There's another odor beyond sewage and rotting flesh that might be picked up as well as the creatures gradually approach the heroes (or at least the ones on the ground), despite seemingly being unaware of them. There's a distinct chemical odor as well. Possibly whatever has been used to try to preserve them. There may be a variety of samples to be had from these things if they're made up of not only dead tissue but electronics and identifiable chemical traces. No hostile action has been taken against the rescuers so far, but eventually there's going to be a run-in with those things. Especially if dropping on the ones surrounding the kidnap victim is attempted.
Captain Viridian	Knowing full well what comes next, the half-pint of the group flipped down from the ceiling screaming. "COME GET SOME, SHAMBLING FREAKS!" He made a point of darting between zombies, getting the attention of as many as possible, before flipping right back up to the ceiling. He tried to slip between zombies on his way up, but took a clawing to the top of his head before escaping their grasp. He froze on the ceiling for a moment, seemingly expecting something, then looked around bewildered when that something didn't happen. And of course there were the zombies, still focused on him. Hoo boy.
Tesla Armadia	Okay, hapless civilian over there. Scientific zombies all over the place. They don't seem to have noticed the heroes yet, but they're moving around in ways that might cause them trouble anyways. This is what you do with minions, you put them in the most obnoxious places or walkpaths possible to get the hero's way. Especially if they're disposable ones, like zombies probably would be. If she can keep some of them moving away from the prisoner, or from moving at all, it'll make it easier for the ceiling-walkers to drop in. Being an experienced villain actually pays off a little, because Stratos knows how these things go, and Stormchaser can benefit from that thinking from the other side. Sewers may be smelly and disgusting, but at least there's a lot of moisture to work with. Ionize the air slightly to encourage droplet formation, suck out most of the thermal energy to make it cold, add a little air pressure for oomph.. and badabing! In the HUD of her visor a glowing ring is projected on the ground, which she fiddles with positioning to catch as many zombies as possible. Once Viridian makes his move to grab zombie attention, Stormchaser makes a dramatic thrust of one hand forward. "I think it's time to rain on this undead parade!" And rain it does. A bitter Freezing Rain, digging into undead flesh like dozens of icy needles. Zombies are already pretty slow, and being dead might not mind the immeadiate cold, but the freezing of rotted flesh should also make it more brittle and easier to damage through. Hopefully it'll give Medusa a good opening.
Medusa Gorgon	"I'm not sure how much you can carry, and weight is dependent on many things... I would say that many weighs about 80 kgs or so," the with murmurs to Captain Viridian. With a plan formulated, Medusa gets ready to move in. And well, she can't help but look amused at Captain Viridian's brave attention hogging as he runs into the very heart of danger. How amusing... and then Stormchaser adds to the situation as she assaults and likewise freezes the zombies in place. How kind. "Soul Protect... release!" Immediately the magic spell is lifted, the energy causing Medusa's coat to flutter about her as she throws her arms aside. "Nake Snake Cobra Cobubura...! Vector Plate!" As the last words are said, the floor seems to glow in places... until the glow is replaced by large black arrows. And at that very moment Medusa kicks off, running over one as it throws her forward with great speed. "Vector Arrow!" A myriad of black, wriggling lines seem to pour of from the sleeves of her coat, and she slashes at some of the zombies as she rushes past them, landing on another black arrow that points in another direction before she is thrown in said direction and towards some more zombies that she will seek to slash as many zombies as she can in her vector-based dance.
Black Arachnia	The readings Black Arachnia's olfactory sensors are piping to her analytical subprocessors make it a distinct relief that she doesn't have to deal as directly with the smell as her organic 'teammates' do. She's increasingly curious about what a dissection of one of those shambling cadavers will turn up as to how somebody made dead bodies get up and move around again - particularly when they seem to have some semblance of a purpose - but that's beside the point. There are bigger fish to fry, though, as the saying goes. The Maximal spider continues picking her way across the ceiling, doing her best to avoid casting shadows that would draw anything's attention to her presence, and making as certain as she can not to dislodge any loose chunks of architecture or decoration It potentially helps that Captain Viridian is being a very lively distraction - although she does have to keep an optic turned that way. She wouldn't want one of her allies to get killed, after all, particularly if she can do something to save him if needed. For now, she just makes her way to a spot above the prisoner ... Then lowers her mandible grapnel. Slowly. The dude's probably going to let out a yell of surprise or something when he's being lifted, so she wants to get a secure grip first, THEN reel him in. And she has to do that without hurting him, too. If he happens to be unconscious, he might be better off for it - but Black Arachnia can't spare the engineering to give him a knockout dose of cybervenom; she's already trying to concoct something internally that'll be effective against the cyborg zombies.
Dr. Vahzilok	It takes time for the dead things to actually react to Captain Viridian. But while one may lash out at him, the true danger comes when he returns to the ceiling, and discovers... These things aren't limited to melee attacks. While slow to move, they draw back their heads like they are about to sneeze, only to barf globs of some sizzling substance up towards the ceiling at the hero with a BOOORF noise. The smell from them before is about a hundred times worse as acid vomit starts splattering on the ceiling... And on Viridian if he doesn't run for it. The good news is if he runs, they chase after him, at a rather sluggish pace. The bad news is they can continue to vomit acid at him the entire time. More good news though, the freezing rain pelting them and slowing their movements keeps them from catching up to Viridian if he does try to lead them away, reducing the amount of acid he has to deal with, while at the same time damaging their bodies. And even more good news, is that Medusa begins darting around using her arrows, carving into the flesh golems with her powers, not only drawing their attention but taking down some of them as well. She too gets acid globs chasing after her, but hopefully with her speed they'll miss. As long as she keeps on the move anyway... And while all this is going on, Black Arachnia successfully draws Michael Thompson up. He sees there's heroes in the area, so while initially startled by the giant robo-spider, he adjusts quickly, suppressing the urge to yell and instead allowing himself to be brought to safety. Hopefully they can get out of here now! Though with all these zombies down here, is it really safe to just leave them? It's good that several have already been taken down and the rest weakened, but a concentrated effort by those assembled could dispose of the rest. Hopefully before Viridian gets any more scrapes or acid burns. While Michael is being carted away, he does take the time to say, "I don't know what they wanted; they never said anything to me. They were very careful not to hurt me though. I'm so glad you came after me! What was your name?" Seems being rescued from a potentially grisly fate causes concerns about robo-spiders to fall by the wayside.
Tesla Armadia	Hey, that worked. For the most part. The zombies are slowed and damaged, Medusa is making mincemeat out of some of them, and Arachnia got the guy. Now just as long as Viridian can keep ahead of the pack, so to speak. Switching tactics a bit, Stormchaser starts to live up more to her codename with her next trick. The air around her crackles with a staticy charge, much like you would feel before a thunderstorm rolls in. "Now for some shock and awe!" She pulls the building current from the ionized air together, and lobs a large crackling sphere towards the cluster of zombies still trying to chase/puke at Viridian. When it detonates maybe the Ball Lightning's blast will also screw with some of those electronics inside the zombies too.
Black Arachnia	"I'm Black Arachnia," the Maximal spider introduces herself quietly as she retraces her steps back to the entry corridor. Once she had Michael hauled up to where she was clinging, she took hold of him (possibly in an inverted bridal carry, who knows, it takes both arms in any case) to free up her mandibles in case she needs to grapnel something else with them. Like, say, one of those cyborg zombies. Of course, the angles are still going to be terribly awkward if she DOES have to do that in a hurry; better to get Michael to the relative safety of the corridor, then give her allies some support (and collect a sample of her own). It'd be a shame to spend so much time trying to formulate a good anti-cyborg-zombie cybervenom and not test it out, after all. In any case, the quicker she can get her passenger back to the exit point and safely away from any more of those mobile cadavers, the happier she'll be whether she gets a 'sample' out of this or not.
Captain Viridian	"Riiiiight. No Checkpoints in this dimension." Viridian comes to his senses just barely in time to start dodging acid bloorfs heading his way. He bops a few frozen zombies on the head on his way out, flipping back and forth between head and ceiling, and upon seeing Arachnia securing Michael and carrying him to safety, began working his way toward the exit. He frantically zigzagged back and forth along the ceiling, evading the bloorfs, expecting to see one of the others grab a zombie intact. When that didn't happen, and Arachnia was - to Viridian's knowledge - already out of the fray, he significantly slowed his exit path and focused on keeping the zombie horde in place. He wasn't leaving without one of those things. The mission called for a full analysis of an intact zombie. He was going to HAVE a full analysis of an intact zombie. Although, the longer his allies took, the less wiggle room he had to dance around the acid...
Medusa Gorgon	For now Medusa isn't about to stop her darting back and forth, though she does have to summon another arrow midflight as she sees the incoming danger of zombie puke. While she isn't worried about getting dirty, she would prefer to stay away from dangerous fluids. It's only once most of the zombies has been dealt with that Medusa slows down, kicking into the ground and skidding along as she looks at the situation, trying to determine how the rest of the team are doing. Seems like there's good control for now. But let's wait with extracting samples from the various zombies until after everybody is safe.
Dr. Vahzilok	"I'll be sure to remember that name!" Michael declares once he is finally set down and able to make his way towards the exit. The electrical discharge from Tesla into the crowd of slow-moving monsters takes out several more already-damaged Cadavers, sending them jolting and spasming into the sewer water. Hopefully nobody else was standing in the water when it went off. With Medusa's arrows slashing into the remainder, impaling them, and toppling them, and the possibility of a spider bite from Black Arachnia if she reallllly wants to put decaying flesh in her mandibles causing havoc on another one with her cyber venom, it shouldn't be hard for Viridian to grab one of the bodies and drag it with him or for samples to be taken from the other fallen Cadavers by those who may want such. Michael Thompson is safe, they have information that the zombies were handling him with care, and the zombies in the sewers have been disposed of. The Cadavers keeping the kidnap victim safe despite their barely-aware mental state could mean a lot of things, and most of them aren't good. This bears further investigation. But that will have to wait for future missions. Mission Complete!
Black Arachnia	Once Black Arachnia has Michael back to the relative safety of the ladder, she sets him down - gently, right-side up and on his feet - and then backtracks down the tunnel one more time. She 'jumps' away from the tunnel wall with the words, "Black Arachnia, maximize!" ... and transforms, switching into her humanoid robot mode before her feet splash down. Her grapnel is now held in one hand, and she takes a split second to sight in on a relatively-undamaged 'zombie' before firing the grapnel at her target, the mandibles spread wide - And when they close around the cadaver she chose, the cybervenom is injected from what would normally be her 'fangs' in spider mode. She decided on what amounts to a lethal paralytic, coupled with something that would force any circuits or program chips into a 'freeze' state; there'll likely be some damage to any code or data on the cadaver's hardware (wetware?), but there might still be something that can be analyzed. Then she just yanks her target towards her, reeling the grapnel back in ... and if the cadaver is still potentially moving when it reaches her, a couple of solid roundhouse kicks to the head should put an end to that (as well as damaging whatever implants were helping the thing move around and obey someone's instructions, but them's the breaks .... quite literally, too.)
Tesla Armadia	Okay, good no one else was touching the water. Stormchaser kind of forgot about that since she's still hovering, and isn't entirely use to thinking about others. Then again, with all the crawling around on the ceiling and how fast Medusa was moving, it didn't really matter. She drifs over to one of the fallen re-dead corpses, hoists it up. Ick. Ugh, how do people put up with this gross side of science? Good thing the helmet keeps anyone from seeing her hold back a gag. But she knows her own 'boss' is going to want to poke and prod, so best she grab a cadaver for her. Civilian rescued, check. Samples, gross but check. "Let's make like the wind and blow this joint."
Medusa Gorgon	Once they are done dealing with the nuisances Medusa comes to a halt, throwing her arms aside as the black wriggling snakes disappear like smoke on the wind. "These things are worth a closer study indeed," she muses to herself. If everybody else is taking a whole zombie for themselves, then she will do the same. Reaching out her right hand, there's sudden movement from the sleeve of her coat... and a snake familiar grows as it slithers out. It grows in size, making large enough that it could swallow a person whole... which it does. If you consider a zombie a person that is. The large magical beast carries the zombie inside its mouth, and Medusa pats it affectionally on the snout. "Thank you all for your contributions~" she says to the others, then calmly turns to leave the way they entered.
Captain Viridian	Phew. The acid's stopped spewing, the zombies have stopped moving, and the hostage is safe. Time to grab a body and get outta here! Viridian drops back into the water -- good thing he wasn't in it when that electric shock went off -- and starts dragging the smallest-looking Cadaver toward the exit. It's not far to open air, but for the diminutive Captain, it's a bit of a struggle. It's worth it though. He's just got to figure out a place to conduct the autopsy. Perhaps he can use one of the hospitals in the area? After all, Rebecca did mention the autopsy would be of benefit to the city. Viridian decides to make arrangements for such.