Multiverse Crisis MUSH - User contributions [en]

Wrath, in Metric (Tanya Degurechaff)

2018-06-10T16:56:27Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Cutscene Header |Date of Scene=2017/10/24 |Location=The Paris Garrison |Synopsis=Being X has bone to pick with his favorite chewtoy over recent, ungulate developments. }}..."

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2017/10/24
|Location=The Paris Garrison
|Synopsis=Being X has bone to pick with his favorite chewtoy over recent, ungulate developments.
}}
The Paris Garrison, late evening. Many of the soldiers have retired to their barracks, with only a handful milling about the canteen. Guards patrol their normal routes, on the watch for any uppity citizenry. In the distance, the siren winds up to sound curfew, and a squadron of men march out through the gate into the city streets to enforce it.

"I need your connections in Berun," Tanya Degurechaff comments, walking alongside a taller, brown-haired woman, "Specifically, your tailor friend on the east side."

"Ah? Trude?" Viktoria Serebryakov tips her head back, eyes on the sky, "I haven't spoken with her in a while! But I'm sure she'd listen to a request from you, Major."

"Good," Tanya holds up an envelope, thick with papers, "I require four uniforms to be sewn to these measurements. Precisely these measurements."

There's no response. Tanya glances aside, and discovers Viktoria isn't there. She turns further, spotting the woman a few paces back, frozen mid-step. Blue eyes wander the courtyard, observing the other soldiers, similarly locked in place. Her head dips, eyes narrowing.

"Being X."

"Some day," Viktoria's mouth moves, but the words are not hers, "You will speak to me with the reverence I ask of you."

"What do you want now?" Tanya's eyes remain narrow, darting aside when one of the nearby soldiers starts acting as the Being's mouthpiece.

"What have you done?" "To bring something like that into the equation." "A creature not of this world." "Magic not of this world."

"Oh?" Tanya straightens her posture, eyes turning back to the frozen Serebyrakov, "Are you upset about him? You're here to accuse /me/ of cheating?" Turning, she squares off to the woman, "Because that's the last thing I want to hear from /you/, Being X."

The voice goes silent.

"You claim non-interference, but you've interfered countless times, haven't you?" Tanya lifts a hand, "Don't think I didn't notice that Entente mage's eyes at Normandy. You're so frustrated that I'm winning your wager that you've resorted to cheating. And now you're here to call me out on an entirely benign recruitment of allies when you've told me to my face how you've manipulated this entire world into wanting my head?"

"Well?" Tanya leans forward, her face splitting into a nasty grin, "Have I suitably illuminated your hypocrisy, or should I continue?"

"The creature will remain." A voice responds to the right. "As my challenge remains. Do everything you can to live a long life. Or this will be your final reincarnation."

Time resumes.

Viktoria Serebryakov lets out a shout of surprise, throwing up her hands upon discovering Tanya so close to her. She recovers, letting out a nervous laugh, "W-wow, that shocked me..!"

With an incredulous look, Tanya shoves the envelope into her subordinate's hands, "I need four uniforms sewn to these measurements. Please deliver this request to your friend in Berun, the tailor. Tell her money will not be an issue." Without waiting for a response, the small officer turns on her heel and steps off, tension filling her every movement.

"Ah..." Serebryakov hesitates, then opens the envelope and pulls out one of the pages. Her eyes widen, glancing up after the Major, "...Th-/these/ measurements..?"

5000/The Other Battle On Big Bridge

2017-01-09T06:03:03Z

Stormgear:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/01/08
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=An attempt at pilfering experimental weapons from a convoy in Iskandria does not go as planned. A giant robot is involved, Mel is called an old hag, and Vatol is the only one to survive completely unscathed. Also, Scene 5000 GET.
|Cast of Characters=934, 941, 961, 1051, 1081, 604, 7, 894, 215, 994, 1096, 1003, 1094, 1088
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' LAST WEEK, the League brokered an alliance with the Empire of Iskandria, offering their support in a war gripping the backwater world of Tellus in exchange for material support, access to the world's many ruins and a number of other juicy concessions. To this end, a shipment of the League's weapons is now making its way along one of the Expanse's major aqueduct-roads. The swamps that blanket the region are far below, and a mis-step or unexpected tumble could lead to a perilous fall. But the sheer size of the bridge-- approximately the width of a modern six-lane highway-- is a reassuring safety feature in and of itself.     The convoy is a dozen carts long, each driven by what is basically an armored, battle-ready semi, and is accompanied by a number of Iskandrian infantrymen-- and of course, by members of the League who have an interest in seeing the very first shipment of the war go through successfully. Everything seems quiet so far.     BUT ALSO LAST WEEK, the Watch made contact with a mysterious man with a bevy of ancient relics and a grudge against the empire and its expansionistic ways. In exchange for one of the relics, he has requested that a certain shipment find itself derailed, and a number of officers wind up falling into his hands.     The convoy putters along, spewing clouds of smoke as powerful engines carry their cargo along to its destination. Up ahead is what looks to be something of a checkpoint: a concrete structure not unlike a rest stop or service-station on a modern highway, where an elevator leads down to the swamps below to allow easy access to low-lying roads-- Or in this case, easy access to the highway above. Normally there'd be guards posted along this route, but... Something seems off.     Will is pressed against the back side of the elevator chamber, his hand hovering precariously over his weapon. He tugs a little communicator bead down towards his face- "Y'all in position? I can see somethin' coming down our way." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     There is at least one person fighting on the side of the Watch who has never actually heard the term 'Watch'. To the best of her knowledge, it's just a ragtag group of Will's friends and acquaintances here to help him get a piece of his gun.     Technically, that includes her too.     But more strictly speaking, Mel Brock has other reasons for being here. She is, strictly speaking, here as a Paladin, chiefly to investigate exactly what types of weapons are being shipped, to confiscate whatever she can, and to make sure this doesn't turn into some kind of horrible war crime.     Which explains why she's nestled in under the bridge, where she doesn't have to constantly hold herself up telekinetically. This way she can quite literally lie in wait until the convoy is in place. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor Xix is here because it was requested of him - not by the Empire, whose opinion he couldn't possibly care less about, but by the Pope of the Iron Church, whose opinion he at least occasionally listens to for his own reasons. This is one of those occasions. The weapons are not the only thing being carried with the convoy.      The Steel Messiah stands atop the semi at the front of the convoy. He's as much a symbol as he is a guard - a warning to the bandits, thieves, and ragamuffins that usually dot the landscape of the Expanse, a ten-foot-tall warning clad in a red tattered flag. No sane individuals in the Expanse would challenge the Original Greaver, but then, there are plenty of crazy people - and plenty of people off-world who can challenge him, too.      The Greaver's eyes are shut, but that means very little. Eyes are easy to deceive. Any fool can throw sand in someone's eyes to blind them. The Creators were prescient enough to establish some...*other* precautions in their highest Greavers.      His nostrils flare.      His foot slams down on the semi. One of the guards in the cockpit fell asleep; that guard is now jolted awake by the ringing sound of the Greaver's massive foot.      "Pay attention," Victor growls, "This is where they will attack."      "H-how do you know, Lord Messiah?" The guard asks out the window.      "Because a bridge is an artery. If you wish to kill your opponent quickly..." Victor's clawed fingers flex, "You stab them in the artery." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium is really not here to fight. As least much as she can humanly manage. Fighting's a thing she can do, yeah. Helps against monsters and killer robots. But against people? ........... Well. Anyway. She's just gonna focus on derailing the convoy and not actually harming anyone if she can help it.      To that end, she's hidden under the bridge, SERAPH currently powered off. Hey, that thing eats up energy quickly. Sure, it can recharge but that takes time! She remembers what happened the last time she had to let her Code recharge in the middle of a fight. ....Yeaaaaaaaah.      Claire is nowhere to be seen. Which makes perfect sense. She's not going to fight your battles. Idiots. But she does have a direct line to communications in a remote location. ...That remote location being the bar they stopped in last time. What? It makes sense.      Now.... what are they gonna do about that big lion of a man standing so obviously atop the semi in plain sight? Like an invitation. A dare to do something.      Crap. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     "Yes," Celes answers Will over radio, as she... more or less stands by the road, awaiting the convoy's arrival. She's invisible! As can be anyone else who wants to be and is on her side. Truth is, she is not a stealth specialist, but she's fairly certain if someone can see through the invisibility spell then there wasn't going to be any hiding from them to begin with. Also, the League was basically warned a group (and a Paladin) was investigating the delivery of the weapon. There wasn't much reason to think this would be decided by one's ability to sneak and ambush.     The convoy comes into view. Armored trucks, several of them. Celes reaches for Save the Queen, which cracks with lightning. Her shape is barely visible as magic makes her invisibility spell half-falter, sword pointed towards the convoy's leading truck.     Lightning bolts lance out, bright yellow and purple, streaking forward with all of Celes' firepower. If they can stop the first of the transports the others are going to have to stop too. Remains to have people go the long way around and catch the convoy from behind too, but that'll be in someone else's hands. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      Raine is here simply as an extra hand. League people were handling some business on this 'Tellus' and so he figured why the hell not? He sits inside one of those carts lazily. A wicked looking black blade resting against a shoulder and one eye closed. The red one is open and gazing out at the landscape vaguely. "Heh... Here, huh?" There's a glance about. And then a chuckle.      "Well, it's a prime strategic location. No doubt they'll try and bring this whole thing down if they can't stop us." He smirks then and opens his other eye. "We'll just have to see how determined they actually are." A shake of the head follows, and then a glance aside himself at the empty air. "Keep ready. We're probably gonna be doing some high flying shit if my hunch is right."      There's a flicker of movement in that space, the figure of a white clad entity shimmering for a moment, before it fades again. A voice responds. "Of course. Just try not to get yourself killed so easily, hm? I still need your body." Raine rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever." He looks on ahead and smirks again, watching as bolts of lighting streak across the sky.      He stands up then, watching as the first semi. "Time to work." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' After the foul taste in her mouth after the starting of the Foodbringer case, Kotone was quite happy to help out MEl with this. She knows not about the Watch yet herself and she's more just heere to help and also aid Mel Brock nthe objectives they have along side helping out Will with this. Kotone has several small flying drones in the air for recon and to see just what she can gather on the convoy before they move to hit it. She's full up cloaked at the moment keeping a low profile and is up with MEl holding herself in place using her own cyborg strength to do so. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' At the elevator, August is doing something weird with the clothing they stole off some soldiers. Specifically, he's tying all of it together in a long line, and then pouring gasoline onto it carefully. The Tin Soldier hovers over him as he finishes up his sort of insane plan. As the convoy approaches, August spots Victor. He frowns tightly, and then tosses the clothing line into the Tin Soldier's arms. After a moment of checking over the radio, he moves forward, while the Tin Soldier diverts towards Mel's position, still carrying the gasoline soaked clothing line. August is going to try and get as close as possible to be in range of the Tin Soldier for this crazy plan, as the Tin Soldier moves to climb onto Mel's coat. This won't go wrong at all. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' She's a bounty hunter, she's beautiful, and she fights for what she believes in. Her name is Iria. And she's here with other members of the Watch to find that convoy and stop it so that the Watch can get what they need. Specifically, hidden in a vantage spot on top of the structure waiting for the convoy to show up so that they can get things. At first, there's nothing, meaning Iria's starting to get a bit annoyed. "What, did they run out of fuel already or something?" Iria mutters with a scowl. But then she hears something, and she looks into the distance to see the convoy approaching, and she smirks a little. "Looks like they're on time after all! They better be ready, though..." 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Coming in from the low access point had been perfect for Athela Valemore, she was well accustomed to wet and swampy environments. From there, once the guards were disabled, she had done much the same as others and made her way up into the structure of the aquaduct bridge itself. It wasn't that much different from climbing the masts and rigging of a ship, just less rocking back and forth. With darker cloak wrapped around her and hood pulled up to conceal her otherwise rather blantant red hair, the young knight waits on her perch. War was a way of life in many worlds. Empires tried to expand, swaying people beneath their rule, or forcing them under with their military. Such was how things go. That was not why Athela was here as part of this mission. It was the fact that outside forces were trying to tip the local balance through illicit advancement of one side that she was taking offense with. It was an unfair and dishonorable tactic, artificially inflating one side's strength over the other rather than armies fighting on their own merits. And there's the sound of the trucks passing over the bridge. Ugh, those things are somehow louder than AND more smelly that using a herd of Tauros to pull wagons. A hand grips the hilt of her sword, ready to drop in and strike as soon as the convoy is slowed by the others... 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     So they have a plan. It's batshit insane. But it's a plan. And it's something Mel can help with easily.     By now August must be used to seeing Mel ride her longcoat like a platform. She's doing that now, picking up the Tin Soldier to give it a steady ride below the bridge, until they can get /behind/ the convoy. She's careful not to outpace August, though. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta is here because, honestly, everyone else is. Especially Victor. Since leaving her world for the first time, she has spent the past few days with the hospitality of the Iron Church, not quite certain why she has it, but all too glad to enjoy hot baths every day and meals without going looking for them. If the Church wants these weapons delivered, and the League does, then both of her new groups, as her only current friends and allies in this new and confusing environment, would appreciate her help. Giving something back for hospitality is how it works.     So the white-haired girl dressed in odd reds and blacks sits on top of one of the trundling armoured trucks, kicking her feet absently against the side as she watches the swamp go by, intermittently looking up the sky for some reason. She remains only a short distance from Victor, despite the amount of fuel smog coming her way, which doesn't seem to particularly bother her. She looks totally out of place with the assortment of League bouncers, like she'd wandered in by accident and they'd stopped for a minute to give her a ride.     Then someone fires lightning at the lead truck, pretty dangerously close to where she is. Having been staring distractedly up at the sky, the girl shrieks at the clap of thunder, going tumbling off the side from the truck's inevitable sudden motion. Thankfully, the bridge is pretty wide, so she only faceplants on the hard road rather than falling into the swamp. After a second where it looks like she might have knocked herself out, she rolls over and climbs up to her feet, turning away from the truck, standing on her toes and waving her arms up at the air, yelling at the top of her lungs.     Said yelling sounds like some ethnic mishmash of greek, latin, indonesian, sino-english nonsense that the player still hasn't gotten tired of reading through the dictionary, sounding like "Ecce! Acell! Ecsia festina deeah!" which is then understood as "Hey! Help! Come quickly!" Why she is yelling up at what looks pretty much like empty air is a mystery, but she proceeds to cast a fearful glance over her shoulder and then hide behind the next truck. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth is here to ensure the convoy makes it. He cares not for the Empire or their wants. The Company does. What the Company wants, the Great Sephiroth makes happen. It's his job. It's what he knows. Like Victor, Sephiroth stands atop one of the vehicles. He, however, is bringing up the middle. This ensures he can get to either end of the convoy that needs his presence fairly quickly. He is a sight to see, black coat and silver hair billowing majesticly behind him, the gleaming length of the Masamune held before him. Green glowing eyes are watchful for shenanigans. Shenanigans which have now begun. Lightning roars at the front of the convoy, chaos erupts, and the SOLDIER doesn't even wait for the trucks to stop. He races /away/ from the lightning. There are two reasons for this. One: Victor's up there. He can handle that area. Two: Clearly others will be coming from the rear to mess things up. Not on Sephiroth's watch. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Agent Parsons is interested and curious about what's happening here. The young Psychonaut follows along with the convoy in his own car, a black van with a windowless rear section and hevily tinted windows at the front and a conspicuous scanning apparatus on the top. It pretty much looks exactly like something that should park outside someone's house and figure out what television shows they like, unmarked and all.     He drives alongside the convoy, a small dot against the heavy machines. Soon, though, comes a forewarning over radio. He shifts back in the convoy, letting some others take point here, into rear areas. Thank god, that lightning might have blown his van out. When it comes, whatever happens next, he can deal with it the right way for a secret agent: Jumping his car through the explosion. Specifically, his levitation and psychokinetic abilities go off, and whatever happens to the forward truck, Agent Parsons goes pedal to the metal and charges his now-floating van up and over the explosive results of the spell, slamming to the ground ahead and charging towards the checkpoint, intent on closing the distance FAST and getting into an engagement immediately. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Any chance for subterfuge at all virtually bottomed out the moment Victor 'I can smell your blood' Xix turned his nose into the wind. But if there was still any opportunity, still any infinitesimal chance at all that an ambush would work out, they quickly vanished when Celes Chere turned her considerable magical might into a bolt straight out of the blue. Or maybe she just /seized/ on what little sliver of a window the Watch may have still had.     The Thundaga spell smashes into the lead truck like the fist of an angry god. Iskandria builds its vehicles to take a lot of punishment; any electronics they may use are rugged and rudimentary, secondary to mechanical controls. But that doesn't mean that what's under the hood isn't still a mess of power cords, and it certainly doesn't stop a veritable column of lightning from blasting straight through /all/ of it.     The driver yelps and then chokes as the accompanying blast of thunder hammers his eardrums and turns his world into a spinning, dizzy mess. Something under the hood sparks, flashes, and then catches fire, billowing very unhealthy smoke into the air. The engine whines and wheezes like an asthmatic lung before sputtering out. It may not be going anywhere anytime soon.     "Well damn, that worked," Will says with a grin. "Alright y'all! Let's get this thing going! You know the plan!" 'Plan' here being a loose set of ideas that will hopefully result in the retrieval of several trucks and their contents. He dives out of cover, the Solano's blue-white light surging to life in his hands. "Let's go!" Will yells, depressing the trigger and unleashing a burst of plasma fire /right/ for the Original Greaver on the top of the first transport. The boy knows how to pick a fight. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Lightning flashes at the front of the convoy, and Athela is quite glad she's not up there. Electricity is not a fondness of hers, even if she is not as super-effectively weak to it as her Water pokemon are. The powerful bolt is a good signal to move all the same though. Time to make this ambush happen. With a grunt she leaps to the edge of the bridge, drawing her gleaming blade as she does. At this point there are no extravegant dramatic speeches, not when timing is so crucial. Just a sound not unlike the rising current of a river as elemental energy churns around the magic blade, and the sound of armored boots on pavement as Athela rushes one of the middle semis. The magic blade arcs out, if only to slice the door off the cab. "Now!" The little pink blob of her Goomy pokes out of her cloak, spewing adhesive slime into the cab to disable the drivers without actually harming them. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Lightning crackles in front of the truck. Somebody goes over the truck - the boy with the strange burning thing who hated Lezard Valeth, and the woman with the strange flying machine who saved them at the fortress. Then, the boy emerges, the Solano's blue light blasting right for the Greaver's face.      There is no hesitation. The Greaver rips open the top of the truck; the plasma fire burns through it, smashing against his chest, but at that point it's already had to eat through the metal, so it's at best 'weak', a small little sizzle against his bared skin. With his feet, he hurls the two men in the truck backwards onto the truck behind him, and roars instructions to the driver.      "DON'T STOP! THEY WOULD PLUNDER YOUR HOME AND KILL YOUR FAMILIES! THEY WOULD SMASH YOUR COUNTRY TO RUIN FOR THE SIN OF DESIRING GREATNESS! STOP - AND YOU WILL ASSUREDLY BE KILLED!"      Victor flips over the makeshift bulwark, landing in front of the truck. His horrible eyes lock onto Will. The best way to deal with the Terminal was simple.      Don't give him a chance to attack from range.      With all the delicacy due a ten-foot tall murder engine, Victor turns. His claws dig into the truck. The machine groans as physics struggles against strength, as it rises off the ground into Victor's hands, then rises above Victor's head. Pieces of the back end are already crumbling.      The Greaver roars, a deep, bellowing, animalistic roar that echoes across the canyon, as he swings the truck around for William like a baseball bat - with frightening precision and speed for something so heavy. As usual, it's as Victor has trained his entire life in 'swinging a truck' as a weapon style.      Unfortunately for Will, 'a truck' is much, much bigger than he is. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Everything's already going insane. But August has his heart set on this plan. He moves to the side, trying to avoid sight of the enemy, while Mel carries the Tin Soldier over to the rear line. August has his laser pistol in hand, exhaling heavily. He changes focus, from his own perceptions to the Soldier's. When Mel gets close to the last truck, the Tin Soldier begins moving, signalling that it's about to jump. It turns its body towards the truck below them, and then proceeds to toss the line of clothing down. As soon as the line of clothing is away from Mel, the Tin Soldier leaps off of her, pointing its gun leg straight down and shooting out a massive jet of fire, aiming to ignite the clothing as well as the truck if it doesn't pull forward fast enough. The fire jet is also pointed slightly back to discourage a rear escape. The clothing will ignite rapidly, creating a painful, flaming obstacle falling directly on and below the convoy. The Tin Soldier, meanwhile, falls onto the wagon itself, slamming onto the roof. Sephiroth could easily notice it, the silent robot soldier with the flaming gun-leg grappling tightly onto the roof, waiting to see what happens. It's showtime. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Uh.      Okay.      So they need to divert all of these vehicles away, /and/ capture the officers. All with Mr. Imma Claw Your Stomach out, along with a bonus addition of Dude In Black With A Huge Sword, and Dude In Black With A Less Huge Sword. Plus Mysterious White Haired Chick and Psychic Sekrit Agent.      "...Maaaaaybe we should just- Oh. Oh okay, he fired his gun." Well, a bit late, considering the LIGHTNING that was already fired off. Crap. What should she do here? The plan sounded nuts! That dude just picked up a truck! That other dude has a huge sword! Did she mention how that dude just picked up a truck? Ugh. Why did she always feel so out of her league recently?      Millium finished grumbling internally to herself and powered on SERAPH, taking flight as the orbitals came to life. "Ooooookaaaaaay, what to do, what to do..." She mumbles, rising further up into the air. "Alright, okay. I think I'll just..." Yeah, not fight. The blonde girl spreads her arms, the blue orbitals around her wrists breaking up and forming into several floating funnels.      There's a thrum and glow of energy, and then with a flash of light, several rays of hot plasma are fired, arcing through the air and hurtling down towards one of the middle trucks, aiming too the strike the compartments that likely hold the cargo. Try to scatter all that good stuff. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' While the others are going ahead, Iria hasn't moved just yet. Instead, she's got her rifle loaded and aimed. "So you finally decided to show yourselves, did you?" That evil smirk turns into a grin. "Too bad I have to stop you!" She taps at the laser sighting on her rifle and aims for the engine of the truck. "And it looks like this is the end of the line for you!" Iria adds as she fires off a three-round burst of gunfire at the engine. Her grin turns into a frown however, as she realizes that might not be enough. "Better not take chances," Iria comments again as she opens fire on the tires of the truck, hoping to at least slow it down by shooting out the rubber. "If the engine won't be shut down so easily, I'll slow them down the old-fashioned way!" 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     One truck stopped. Chaos deployed.     Celes then watches a very large man scream, pick up a truck, and swing it towards William with very obvious intent to kill. There is also a floating van.     This got crazy unusually fast, even by her standards.     Still flickering in and out, her invisibility quickly fading, Celes decides to make the best of it by going straight for Victor, even as he swings that truck around like a very dangerous blunt weapon. But she pulls out. At the last second, it's not him she's going for. He has no trouble seeing this, what with his unusual sight.     In an absurdly well timed jump, Celes tries to intercept the rear of the truck and slice the cargo doors wide open with Save the Queen, so that the contents of that particular piece of the convoy goes flying all over the highway as Victor keeps trying to crush William.     Here's hoping William can last long enough for her to have that opening, though. She'll lend him a hand once they've figured out what's inside that truck. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And there's Kohler's... rather fiery solution. "Cripes, Kohler. I mean, it works, but..."     Back down and around goes Mel, riding atop her coat until she can come back up around the middle of the convoy. First order of business - she hardens the air around herself with a telekinetic barrier, with /almost/ all the strength she can muster. It should cover her from small arms fire, at the very least. Second order is to get closer to one of the cargo trucks - and to reach out with her mind to tear off the side, and see what's inside. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      Raine just stands there, sword hefted onto a shoulder as he watches this fresh hell take place all around him. "Wow. They did /not/ disappoint." He mumbles, tapping his blade against his shoulder once again as he takes casual steps forward. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. ...His steps get faster and faster, and then he's running. He's already got his eyes on someone.      He grins and with the last step onto the edge, a green magic glyph forms, then sends him bursting into the air. He soars, adopting a freefall position as he begins to descend... right for August, or more specifically, right for that tin man doing dangerous things to the last truck. He doesn't say anything, he just flips in the air, blade gripped back and ready to swing.      ...And then he strikes. With a fierce downward slash aimed right at that Persona with nothing but sheer falling momentum. No elemental energy. Nothing. Just a plain ol slash. Sometimes simple is best. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Parsons slips out of the van he's driving into a sustained, skidding hover, before planting two fingers on each side of his head. The van he's in is immediately launched up into the air by no visible force at all, in a high arc, meant to interpose itself between Millium's plasma strikes and the middle truck. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a one-use trick, since that means his van is blown to pieces, utterly annihilated by the bolts. The shockwaves of its explosive loss can be felt everywhere, and its parts rain down violently.     The man himself, floating in all his telekinetic glory, presses along on the path here, keeping pace, he hopes, with the trucks that Victor has ideally gotten to stay working. Closing the distance isn't drawing their fire, that's okay. He keeps those fingers planted on his head, and without even a moment of charging, fires off a massive psychic beam at the elevated Watch position on the checkpoint. He's avoiding hitting the elevators, but a searingly precise laserbeam-like effect with all the power of an artillery cannon begins to lance its way all around the checkpoint's ambush points and airspace. He's trying to prevent sniping and artillery-style fire from being a viable tactic here. The wide stream of brilliant orange energy makes a distinctly human-like noise of strained aggression whenever it meets and melts through terrain. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth eyeballs the Tin Soldier. The Masamune flashes so quicly it doesn't even appear that Sephiroth's arm has moved. Even so, the curtain of fire parts into quarters from what can only be compressed air slung from the cutting edge of the blade. The SOLDIER regards the Persona...but Raine has it covered. Instead, Sephiroth retreats back towards the middle of the convoywhere Mel and others have decided to try and cut things open. The SOLDIER's voice carries somehow, but he doesn't appear to be yelling. His tone is calm and almost conversational. "Cease this foolishness. I'm giving you this chance to flee, or I will b forced to cut you down. Decide." 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Ambushing caravans is a very Skaven tactic. Vatol only knows about this one because he was seriously considering robbing it himself, and then blaming it on the dissidents and getting to double-dip in the profits. Something about this rubbed him the wrong way, though... ...so he sent someone to check it out. Mel rips open a cargo truck. It's dark inside. Very dark. Dark enough that the glittering little malevolent eyes inside the truck stand out in terrible, terrifying fashion. Rat-men pour out with an awful scrabbling. It's like a clown car full of carnage, each one armed with short swords, a spear, some kind of primitive firearm of a combination of the same. Some wear leather armor; some wear scraps of plate and chain; others, pushed out in front, barely wear scraps to cover themselves. The cry goes up, taken by the spreading swarm of Skaven. "KILL-KILL!" "KILL-KILL MAN-THINGS!" Amidst the swarm, moving fluidly through the press of bodies, a black-cloaked figure slinks out into the darkness... 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Then people start attacking. Someone shoots Victor, who is giving Orta a place to stay. Someone else captures the crew of the truck she had just been on. Someone throws a flaming clothesline nearly on top of her. Not one, but two people are shooting at the trucks she'd just hidden behind! Victor starts yelling something about how these highway robbers are going to kill people's families and burn their homes. She is inclined to believe him at the moment, caught up in the crossfire.     Orta makes a break for it. She runs out from behind the mid truck once Mel rips the lid off with her mind like a tin can, fleeing the woman and bolting for the edge of the bridge, and leaping straight off. She barely gets her hang time before echoing wingbeats pound down on the aqueduct, and a spear of white shell and yellow wings drops from the sky at high velocity, swooping directly under her and catching her on top of it, before swerving back up into the air.     She winds up riding the shoulders of some kind of armoured, white and red wyvern . . . creature. It looks something like a bipedal dragon, but also like one of those toothy, bone-plated, primeval murder fish that were around before legs were a thing. It's not very big though, not especially taller at the shoulder than a large horse, but when it opens its mouth, what comes out is a piercing, electric-sounding screech that sings like a blown microphone.     The two of them don't come near the ground again. The girl atop the Dragon has had all the fear leave her eyes the moment she made contact with it, having only something hard and calm remaining in them. Her mount swerves to the forefront of the convoy without any visible prompting, where Victor is assaulted by two enemies at once. The girl reaches to the small of her back, and draws out something like a disproportionately oversized handgun, built of fused plates of white carapace.     She points it directly at Will, like she's done it a million times before. The thing has no trigger, no sights, no magazine, --no instrumentation at all-- but she holds it like it's dangerous. "It's you! Just like he said!" she yells from the back of the Dragon, stopping on a dime with a blast of air and taking a near-perfect hover. "Thieves aren't welcome here! Go away! Leave him alone!" The gun-looking thing in her hand goes off. The report is surprisingly quiet, sounding like someone pulsing a laser through a waterfall. It is not, however, subtle, because a quintuple burst of blinding green energy bolts flash out of it and zip straight at William with unerring accuracy. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' There things go from tense to very bad. With Victor the blood hound on the job they are not hiding but they might be able to salvage things until Celes let lose with the magic but really there wasn't any really left she'll do her best to follow MEl's lead on thing but there is some good news the truck is stopped na dhonestly she was wrong it seems Celes plan worked the turck is stopped and now it's time to deal with this as the clash begins. she'llmove to drop down and do what she can to help Meln as she moves while cloaked, still there are ripples in the air as she moves keeping pace the cams only give her an idea of how much heat they are facing this is going toi be nuts. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Well, they succeeded in disabling a few of the trucks... or blowing them up. These more modern warriors seem to have a perchant for doing that sort of thing. That was part of the plan, right? Honestly by this point she is not certain. The cloaked knight turns her attention for a moment when Sephiroth makes his demands to stop and flee. "I think you know as well as I that is not likely to happe--" Mel ripping open a truck only for OHMYGODRATMEN to poor out of it briefly vies for her attention as well, and Athela holds a gauntlet up towards Sephiroth. "Hold that thought a moment..." Turns to her pokemon. "Slurry, if you would please." The blob of pink bobs as if nodding, they slorps off her shoulder to the bridge below. Fortunately he absorbed a lot of moisture while they were below the bridge. The Goomy swells briefly as it churns it up from within, then expels it out like squeezing a sponge. This causes a good sized wave of Muddy Water to surge away from the pokemon, aimed at sweeping up several of the rats and washing them off the side of the bridge. With the rat pack being dealt with Athela turns and jumps atop the same truck as Sephiroth is calling from. As she lands she crouchs forward a bit, Resolute Blade gripped tightly in both hands as she braces herself. "If one wishes to try and stop us, do so!" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Suddenly something interposes itself between Millium's beamfire and her target. ... floating van. "Seriously!?" She whines, immediately shielding herself when the thing naturally blows the heck up from those laser bursts likely striking something important. That tends to be a thing. Maybe not tends to, but whatever. The important things to take away from all of this is that A) Her shots were intercepted. And B) She's gonna have a much harder time getting off a second barrage.      Chiefly because- "-ACK!" Yes, there's that whole searing wave of laserbeam-like energy cutting through the air and cutting off aerial tactics. Mostly because Millium has to cancel funnel mode and turn her orbital armlets into a barrier to protect her precious body from getting shorn in half. Getting cleaved in half is pretty bad news, according to six out of ten doctors! The force is enough to blow her back, spinning through the air a bit before she rights herself. "-Ergh..."      Okay... what now? Ranged options are limited. She reaaaaaaaaally doesn't want to fight. But that person is blocking the way to the goods! Hmmhmmhmmmm.... Millium wracks her brain a bit, staring severely at Flamel for a few moments. Then she cancels her barrier and reforms it into two glow, blue, ornate twin blades. But she doesn't attack just yet. She smiles sweetly, and asks.      "Saaaaaaay, if I asked nicely, would you move out of the way and let me stop that truck? Pleaaaaaaase?"      Because that always works. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' One thing about being a good sniper is that you have to know how to keep yourself concealed, but another means knowing how to move when things are getting dangerous. And with Flamel Parsons trying to take out any potential snipers in the area, Iria knows it's time to move fast. She drops from her vantage spot, rolling quickly and switching her rifle from semi-automatic to full automatic mode. She spins her rifle towards Flamel Parsons and scowls. "You made a foolish mistake targeting me!" She yells. Flamel probably doesn't realize this, but Iria's not afraid of someone who uses powers like his. In fact, the bounty hunter views it as a challenge to herself. "Let me show you a thing or two!" She yells while opening fire. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Suddenly, rats. Rats everywhere. "What the f-!" Mel stumbles back several paces, startled - and incredibly glad that she had the forethought to wrap herself in a telekinetic barrier. It stops her from being swarmed by the mean rodent bastards, from being shot or stabbed and generally regretting every decision. And that's good. It buys her the moment she needs to compose herself... and to push her barrier further outward, effectively 'parting the rat sea' to give herself some breathing room.     She spots one in particular bearing a weapon that catches her eye; this rat is immediately subject to a telekinetic punch that probably carries about as much force as the ratman has mass. In the next instant, there's a less-potent pull on the weapon itself, the Marshal intending to yank it to her hand so that she can examine it more carefully. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth tilts his head slightly, silver hair sliding to the side in a rippling wave. He smirks. It's not an arrogant expression. It's not bombastic o belittling. It's absolute confidence. "As you wish, ma'am." The Masamune is lifted in a salute before he lowers it again. He pauses a beat, taking measure of the woman before him before he bursts into motion without warning. His coat billows behind him as he streaks across the top of the vehicle, swinging the nearly seven foot blade in an overhead arc. One handed. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier is about to try and pry into the back of the truck, when Raine appears, freefalling sword first. The Tin Soldier glances up, threat coming straight at it, and moves to deflect most of the damage. It roars silently, body miming, as an arm flies up to deflect that sword away, gashing into the metal of the Persona. The Persona proceeds to try and push Raine back with its bodyweight, before aiming its gun leg up, shooting a stream of bullets straight for the swordsman, rapidly attempting to pin him down. Meanwhile, August clutches his arm as the pain from the blade transfers over. He's about to move to take cover, when he spots /rats/. Oh no. Laser pistol drawn up, he begins firing at them repeatedly, aiming for center of mass. He's a pretty accurate shot, especially when he's not moving. The problem is, now he's an obvious target... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     A lot of things happen in very short order. Victor's yell reverberates out over the caravan of trucks. The soldiers within seem to stiffen and go pale. "I-is he serious?" One of them asks, looking like the bottom's dropped out from under him. "Does it matter?" another answers, "These bastards are serious one way or another. But we can't let them take this stuff-- the guys out in front are waiting for this shipment!" Similar conversations play out through the other trucks, and as a unit they begin plowing foward around the Original Greaver.     But that doesn't mean they're out of the woods. A great big pink *SPLORT* of goo fills one of the truck cabs, causing the vehicle to swerve and screech to a stop. The vehicles behind it struggle to get by, which isn't at all helped by the fact that they're being /set on fire/ too. This just helps to send the drivers into a frenzy of furious driving. "Go, go, go!" One of them yells, flooring his accelerator!     Will's not doing to well either, though, because that Greaver we mentioned, the one swinging that truck-- is swinging it at HIM. Will yelps as he ducks back, narrowly limboing right underneath a wide swing before a driving thrust hurls him back, tumbling across the ground. "H-how am I supposed to keep him SWINGING?" Will groans, spitting out a splattering of blood from where his teeth cut his lip. A thick welt is beginning to bloom on his brow. "I want him to STOP swinging--"     Victor swings again, and Will does his best to twist out of the way. But that's just enough of an opening for Celes to get atop the truck and slice down into the locking mechanisms at its back end. Victor's swing reaches its zenith, and... A fist pops out? A /FIST/ pops out!?     "N-no way," Will gawps as a LITERAL GIANT ROBOT PUNCH hurtles right at him, along with a whole host of black cases filled with all manner of weapons. "WAUGH!" He drops to the ground! The fist sails right overhead and smashes, knuckle-first, into the highway behind him. "That's... That's from the Sepulchre--" He'd recognize it anywhere, that /machine!/     But he has other things to worry about. Other, dragon-shaped things. Or rather, the girl riding the dragon-shaped thing. "Wh--" Will chokes as bolts of green energy sail right at him! He screams, rolling away from the first through the fourth, but the fifth smashes into his chest and... Hits a distinctly black breastplate. One that immediately begins to sizzle. "Ow, ow, ow!" Will hisses, pushing to his feet and bringing up his OWN hand-cannon. "What're you talking about?! You saw him /swing a truck/ at me, right!? I wouldn't shoot that guy if I didn't know he'd be able to walk it off!" And THIS is just in self-defense. Will grits his teeth as he opens fire, bolts of blue-white plasma sailing up at... the dragon? He's pointedly NOT targeting Orta for... some reason. "Besides, I ain't a thief! I'm a /TREASURE HUNTER!/" Kotone and Mel would find more of those weapon cases in some of the other trucks... along with other, very /large/ pieces of robot. The weapons are definitely of League-make, but... What the heck is THIS thing? 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Orta takes William's attention, which frees up Victor to deal with Celes. The knight's blade carves through the truck's back end, and...      ...and /that/ falls out of the truck.      Victor lunges to grab the huge robot arm in one meaty claw. He hefts the fist like a club, bringing the thing up against his shoulder as he shouts orders over Tactical.      He knows what this is.      Now the parameters have changed. Now the mission objective has changed. The soldiers, they are no longer important. The convoy, it is no longer important.      Victor does not bare his teeth in a smile. He does, however, now hold the weapon - nearly as long as the actual truck - like a greatsword. With speed that really shouldn't be possible holding something that heavy, the Original Greaver lunges towards Celes's landing place, bringing the massive arm down to smash her.      The truck has been utterly discarded. Celes's plan is going to need some modification. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Holy Xerneas is he swinging that sword with -one hand-? It's a good thing her cloak hood is still up, so the brief moment of surprise on Athela's face can't be clearly seen. However she quickly shoves the astonishment back down to focus on the fact that he's doing so rushing towards her like a Golbat out of hell. Athela braces herself and brings up her own sword, holding it crosswise to intercept the downward slash. A deafening ring rattles out as the much large Masamune collides with Resolute Blade. It saves her from being bisected in two but the force of the impact is enough to force Athela down as he grunts and struggles to keep from buckling to her knees entirely. After some struggling she manages to push back and angle her divine blade to briefly push the much larger sword aside. Then lets go of her sword with one hand to thrust it in Sephiroth's direction, a surge of water erupting from her outstretched hand. The bolt of elemental force aimed at the swordman's midsection carries the same concussive force as a small cannonball. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      Raine impacts with the Tin Soldier, blade striking against arm, and ten he's deflected sailing away a short distance before righting himself and skidding across the ground. But he's not got time to dawdle. That thing is firing /bullets for it's leg/. Okay. The swordsman raises the flat of his blade, guarding himself from the brunt of it as several others graze dangerously close past his sides and legs.      "Tch-!"      It tears through his outfit, but he's not worried too much about that. He retreats around the other side of the truck and waits for a moment. In that moment, there's a change of orders across the tactical band. "...Huh. CODE, he says..." Welp. Job's a job. ...But something's odd. That thing's been firing at irregular intervals. Something up out there? The black haired man peers out to look, spying as the Tin Man seems to pause periodically. ".......Heeeeeeh....." Grinning as his mind works, Raine grips his sword and steps out.      He breaks off into a run, sword glowing with shimmering red energy. It's nothing elemental. Just pure magic power. It roils across the blade as he steels himself in his run... Then he leaps to the side a bit, and upon landing, a green glyph forms at the ground. A burst of wind launches him forward. "Isn't it a little too dicey to be getting distracted now!?" He roars aiming to cleave into the seemingly distracted Persona with a non-elemental slash. And if not that, at least bat it away to create distance.      Apparently Victor needs whatever the hell's in these trucks. Fun. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Agent Parsons isn't actually that focused on violence. Psychonauts use violence pretty suddenly and ruthlessly, but not exactly without respect for principles of pacifism. So when the foe backs down, he does as well. He puts a finger up to his ear. "Unknown opposition. Some sort of magical girl. Currently possessing deadly cufflings, I repeat, extremely deadly cufflinks." What.     "Official Psychonauts business, miss." He flashes his badge, speaking like his man-in-black aesthetic suggests, but in a surprisingly friendly sort of vaguely menacing government monotone. "Agent Parsons, Psychonauts Multiversal Operations Bureau. This is a restricted area and you are firing on League property. Please immediately--"     Several bullets strike him, provoking powerful sparks of bright orange light spraying from his body as lower-level mental shields are pierced and damaged, stunning and bruising him. "Hhhhhh! Yes, show me many things, please. Who do you work for? What are your intentions with the convoy? How did you find our route? Are you aware of the restricted nature of this supply and the right of this nation to take aid? What are your political affiliations?" If Millium isn't going to attack him, he's... Not going to get out of her way, but he's not going to attack HER now. Instead, he takes that psychic position again, and fires a single, massive, explosive shot back at Iria, something that should at least catch her in the shockwave, meant to destabilize and deny her a ranged position if it doesn't blast her head-on. He's got enough PSI blast specialization to mix things up that way quite effectively, even if he seems unsteady and a little more exhausted after taking those shots.     Then he's back to Millium, and putting a finger to his ear. "Actually, never mind. I just got new orders. Please feel free to do as you like to the convoy. Don't interfere in the other things we're doing now." And now he's blasting off on levitation-skating, heading for the other trucks, trying to focus on where Victor's advising... 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' The telekinetic wave pushes the Skaven apart, much to the surprise of basically all of them. They struggle against the force, flinging knives and lunging with spears. The unfortunate who grabbed one of the League-delivered weapons gets knocked clear out of the air, flung back against the other side of the truck, bounced off the now-open roof, and catapulted into a ditch. The weapon doesn't. Mel ends up holding what looks like a metal rod topped with a green crystal cut into a point. It's set between four prongs, arranged to be held like a rifle with a lever on the top instead of a trigger. Looking directly at the crystal makes the eye itch and skin crawl. The rats cause constant pressure, but Mel isn't the only one having rat problems. The swarm starts to spread up and down the baggage train, stabbing and cutting and screeching like madmen. Some get swept aside by the Pokemon-intervention, but -- fun fact -- these rats are the sort with the kind of oily fur that makes them excellent swimmers. The ones that are dry fire warplock pistols somewhat wildly, warpstone-laced bullets detonating on impact with the ground and puncturing armor going sailing this way and that while still more get fried by laser blasts from the outfield. Some turn towards August... There's a sound near him, whisper-quiet. It's hard to pick out, especially over all the violence. Something moves with a rustle of cloth. Hairs stand up on the back of the neck. Survival instincts, should he possess them, warn of a stalker. Another rat-man lunges at him out of the darkness, a figure clad and cloaked in black with wickedly sharp fighting claws attached to its forearms and blackened with some kind of dust. He doesn't say a word -- he just goes from hidden to mid-lunge in the time it takes to draw breath to scream. This can only mean one thing: a /named character/?!      \____/       \  /    OBSKEEK THE GHOST        \/      GUTTER RUNNER        /\ 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth's expression goes serious as the blades ring together like great bells. He lets the Masamune get pushed aside so she can retreat. His eyebrows flicker slightly as she launches a blast of high pressure water at him. The good news is that it striked him in the midsection like a small canonball. The /bad/ news is that he barely seems to notice. He barely gets a hitch in his step on impact. "Interesting." The SOLDIER raises his free hand, a bangle becoming visible on his wrist, dotted with glittering green, yello and violet orbs. He exerts his will on one of them. The scent of ozone rapidly rises before a massive lightning bolt rains down from above at Athela. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Would it be terribly wrong to take just a bit to appreciate the silver-lining of Victor wielding a giant robot fist? That he isn't wielding the truck anymore?     Because as silver linings go it's a great one.     Celes, at least, is satisfied this ended up revealing something about the convoy. Namely, what the most valuable prize is, and what they should prioritize. Whether they manage it or not is another matter entirely, and it's a bit out of her hands. Right now, she's dealing with a ten foot tall lion-man.     She doesn't try to stop the incoming fist. She's not that strong. Victor would squash her like a pancake. She dives to the right instead, coming into full view as her invisibility spell falls off completely. Her white cape trails behind her, caught under the fist and shredded by the impact. She tumbles onto the ground as a result, a hard impact on the concrete of the highway, but it's much better than being crushed by Victor.     In Victor swinging a piece of the weapon she sees just a bit of a silver lining, too. Her sword flares up, a brilliant, deep red and black. She darts back up, foolishly staying in the Greaver's melee range. She swings-- not for him. For the giant robot fist. Her blade erupts, concentrating the entire blast of a normally destructive spell in its impact instead. Explosive force, almost like fire, but definitely non-elemental.     That might leave her open, but she hopes it's worth it. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' Iria is agile, but not always fully agile enough to avoid an incoming attack. She gets caught by Parsons's special maneuver (whatever he wants to call it, Iria's not keen on things like that,) and she gets knocked backwards, dropping onto one knee and clutching her head. "Ugh... what the hell..." Iria mutters as she shakes her head, trying to get her mind to focus again. She slaps her face a few times then stands up and scowls at Parsons. "Who I am and what I'm doing here is no concern to you!" Iria snaps. "I'm just doing what I have to do! Now I'll give you one chance to stand down, or I'm gonna have to really turn on the pain!" She's bruised and battered, but she's also mighty pissed. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta looks actually kind of surprised that Will is still in one piece. That might be a little dark from someone who may or may not be younger than him. The gun is trained back on him instantly as he rolls to his feet, its line of sight following him unnaturally smoothly. "You came out and shot him! You-"     Orta has to hold the rest as the Dragon throws itself back out of the line of the other special handgun's fire, twisting with a kind of sinuous agility that belongs underwater instead of in the air. Despite being the size of a horse, it ducks the first and second bolts, taking the third on its spinal armour, which splashes the plasma like the organic shell is supposed to do exactly that, boiling away a scorched layer with a static hiss from the beast.     It circles to a higher vantage point, not hovering in place for Will to keep shooting at, then turns into a steep dive for the errant fist that had flown past him, either heeding Victor's orders of its own accord, or somehow having them communicated to it by its rider without words. Orta keeps the gun aimed at him, acting as a natural turret to hose him down with return fire. Unlike the Solano, her weapon doesn't seem to need to stop shooting at any point, though it seems to lack punch by comparison.     Hoping to keep him suppressed, Orta allows the Dragon to swoop over the mangled trucks, searching for other signs of the giant robot supposedly broken up between them. When nothing becomes apparent, the Dragon actually begins pinging active scans of the convoy, adding the energy signatures of their cargo contents to the enemy contacts shared between the spatial awareness of itself and its rider.     The creature's jaws open wide, and blue-white light builds up between them; a sphere that pulses one, two, three, four times, growing in size and radiance each time. With a nearly subsonic *thoom*, the ball of light bursts apart into four beams of energy, which instantly swerve around the Dragon's head and curve in on Will in bizarrely graceful arcs. Dodging to either side has them curve to follow him, even anticipating his lead rather than chasing behind him. Unlike the handgun, these lasers hurt quite a lot. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel takes one look at the crystal, and her telekinetic barrier flags for just a moment. A rat knife gets through, flying right in to hit her in the midsection. It doesn't go through the two layers of bullet-resistant material... but it doesn't have to do that to hit her hard, painfully so. Mel hisses, redoubles her concentration, and focuses on the weapon. This is definitely offworld tech.     For the time being, she shifts it to her left hand; the bubble of force is doing a good job keeping the assault of the ratmen out when she can actually concentrate, but she can't keep it that large against that many hostiles (or rather, that many hostile minds) for long. So she returns it to a much closer configuration... and starts to metaphorically shoulder her way through the crowd, trying to move on to another truck. She's got to see if there's more of these, or what else she can find of the GIANT GODDAMN ROBOT they just uncovered. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      That is troublesome.      The explosive weapon (Magic?) goes off violently against the falling arm. It detonates through the armor, smashing plating to pieces, and sends Victor's aim off just enough to hit the bridge instead of Celes - a blow that may actually shake a large chunk of the bridge. This is good - Celes is not going to be crushed to death by an arm being used like a claymore.      What is not good is that Victor is still using the momentum.      It's not just raw force behind his blows. No, it's quite the opposite - as Victor goes slinging himself forward like a javelineer it becomes blatantly apparent that his movements are jam-packed with as much skill as the Ancient Precursor Locals were capable of jamming into his brain.      A massive, meaty claw-hand goes right for Celes's face, backed by the centrifugal force of the falling arm.      Victor goes to literally slam her face into the bridge as hard as he is physically able.      On the upside, Victor doesn't lecture her, or banter, or talk much at all! He doesn't have a mocking glare or a sneer or anything like that - just a stone-faced stare as he attempts to deal with Celes in the most efficient way possible. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa gets a good look at the hardware and dman that's some crazy hardware here the League isn't holding back on the weapon and worse? There seem to be parts for a mech or some kind of combat robot. She's not sure about the robot? It does't look like anything Kotone has quite seen before. She listens to the comm chatter now, wiat that robot? Oh god is it the one she thinks it is? William confirms it on the radio. She gets to looking but soon she's going to end up having some serious problems here as there are rats, bigger than alley cats now showing up. She's yet to know the horror of fighting or dealing with the Skaven but she's about to learn today only if she sees it, Flamel shows up and just out of reflex for al the good it will do? She sets her cyberbrain to Austic mode, she's not sure if she's about to run into him but as Mel and she are looking for one of the key items in the convoy and she's trying to find it but but soon she's going to have issues with Flamel and possibly RATS? She's moving to the point now she could very well be noticed now at this point. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Even with the rain of bullets at Raine, the Tin Soldier tends to stop every few seconds. This is because August has to divert his attention to act at the same time as his Persona, and cannot fight in two places simultaneously. This is a problem because it's super noticeable, and Raine moves to act on it. His blade slams across the Tin Soldier's torso, chopping straight into it and knocking it back, another silent roar of pain. Meanwhile, August takes the feedback, staggering almost to the ground. He steadies himself, and is about to /finally/ move for cover when he senses something coming at him. He begins to turn...and it's too late. Obskeek comes flying, fighting claws thrusting straight into August's stomach. Raine Arland would notice something's up immediately, as the Tin Soldier staggers backwards, clutching at its stomach. But it doesn't vanish, and August doesn't fall. No, he attempts to take a shot at Obskeek with his gun to get him off, before riskily diverting his attention for just one second. He can't fight both at once, but he also can't leave Raine to continue his mission freely. So, the Tin Soldier steps forward towards the center of the truck, points that gun up... And spits fire. Everywhere. It's moving to engulf the entire truck, to engulf Raine, to engulf the Tin Soldier itself. The Tin Soldier is quickly caught in the flames, and it begins writhing in horrible pain, pratically dancing along the truck as the fire sears its scarred metal. August, meanwhile, falls to his knees, pain coursing through his body from knife, sword, and self-immolation. He tries to move his laser pistol up to shoot at Obkseek, but his shots are unsteady, and he's probably easily disarmed. Welp. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' There's still rats all over the place, even with the attempted washout. There is gunfire and stabbing and chaos everywhere. One of the ratmen manage to stomp on the small slug-like pokemon.... Though the Goomy oozes out from under his foot a moment after, leaving a trail of surprisingly sticky gunk in its wake as it oozes under one of the trucks. Water didn't work, so the first rat that tries to get down after the slug is going to get a faceful of indigo Dragonbreath flames instead. Meanwhile, atop the truck, this would be that moment where Athela really gets the feeling that she's biting off more than she can chew. Sure, that wasn't her strongest Tide Caller technique, but still, Sephiroth pretty much tanks it like a big bad boss and shrugs it off as nothing. Then brings the electrified pain of his own down upon the fight. The Thundaga slams down atop the truck, the resulting electrified shockwave forcefully hurtling Athela away with the blast. She hits the top of the semi loudly, sparks crackling as armor skids against the metal surface, then over the end to crash back downward on the windshield of the cab. The young woman exhales sharply, and reminds herself that she doesn't have to necessarily win a fight. Just get her allies the time they need to find what they want. That is enough to steel her will again, despite the sting of pushing herself back into her feet. Duty first, she can worry about how badly she gets beaten up doing so afterwards. In a surge of motion the knight leaps back into action, the cloak burned and tattered from the materia lighting flaring behind her. The hood was knocked off in the fall over the edge and she didn't bother pulling it back up, so Athela's expression gritted and grimaced in determination is plain to see. She doesn't just jump up and towards Sephiroth though. The leaping charge brings her blade heaving down with all the crashing force of a waterfall's descent behind it. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     She damaged the fist! That's good. Victor is still swinging, and he's more than brute strength. That's bad. But she can use the fact he's still swinging to keep damaging that piece of CODE! That's good. She just needs not to get mauled by the surprisingly as-fast-as-he's-strong Greaver.     That's very bad.     At least he isn't very chatty.     Keeps things straightforward.     Victor's non-giant-robot hand grabs Celes' face. He smashes her into the highway. Luckily, she's a lot sturdier than she looks, which means there isn't a big red stain where she gets crushed. Not so luckily, this is a very poor position for her to be in, and the impact's left her dizzy, if not bleeding too. Her hold on Save the Queen tightens. The wind picks up, colored a dull pale green.     She swings, as wide as Victor's hold will let her.     A blast of wind like a tornado gushes out of her sword, trying to knock the Greaver off his feat and away. Really, just 'away'. Into a wall or truck would be a nice bonus, but Celes just wants him not to be holding her skull anymore, and aeroga was the best way she could think of after getting smashed into the bridge. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium just floats there, watching as Flamel shoves off to go do something apparently more important than stalling her. "Huh..." Well, that's a thing. Wonder what the big issue is? ...It proooooooobably has something to do with that whole giant robot thing happening at the moment. ...Wow. They had a /giant robot/. ...That's kinda bad, isn't it? Millium sighs and disperses her blades, now that she doesn't need to engage in melee combat. ...Instead, she's flying off.      Not to attack the convot or destroy anything. No, she's flying off to help August. Because apparently that guy is in some major trouble! Whoever else is running ranged support can deal with Flamel. She bursts off through the sky and down towards August's position. "Get away from him!" She roars, thrusting out an arm as several funnels form.      They charge up, gathering energy before several laser blasts burst through the sky, veering down towards that assassin. What was his name again? Obskeek the Ghost? 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' As Athela recovers from the crushing might of magic, Sephiroth's expression slides towards approval. He can appreciate and admire tenacity of those who are out of their league and know it and still continue on. As the last crackles of electricity zot away from the top of the truck, the SOLDIER turns to regard the knight's return. "Impressive," is all he says. As she races his direction and he faces her head on, she may get the first good look at his face. He's good looking, sure, but the standout feature is his eyes. Inhumanly green, they're slitted like a cat's, which is weird. They also glow faintly. As Athela descends in her leaping charge, the Masamune interposes itself between Sephiroth and the woman's blade. The impact is horrific, the clash of metal on metal almost deafening. The power of her blow buckles the top of the truck, cratering it. Sephiroth's arm doesn't waver. In that instant before gravity takes hold of Athela, Sephiroth moves his arm. He swings the Masamune,, pushing the woman and her blade away with titanic strength. Somebody better go long. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor gets hit right in the chest by elemental wind damage. It tears at his skin and sends him up, up, up, higher than he would like (but not high enough to be a threat to his life). He hangs in the air for a moment, floating at the apex of his arc not by will but by physics.      It is at that point that he makes up his mind.      His opponents cannot, in fact, sustain this attack. They are aware of it. He is aware of it. This is not a siege, and they did not know what they were getting into - this is a raid, and they have discovered that their objective is as different as his has become. More than one of them can fly - but can more than one of them carry the heavy CODE pieces? Can more than one of them fly /and/ carry the heavy CODE pieces? And...with enough space between them and their escape route...would they simply abandon the mission?      After all...not all of them could fly.      So as he begins to fall, Victor's rapid-fire tactical mind has already made a decision.      He drops like a rock, right for Celes. His hands snap backwards like fists. To Celes, it might look like he's about to smash her with weight and force combined, with gravity and raw, overwhelming strength, for a lethal blow.      If she doesn't move, she probably will be.      But Victor isn't aiming for her.      Victor is aiming to destroy the bridge, and send the whole convoy tumbling into the ravine below. Because Victor will survive. Orta can survive. Sephiroth can survive. Flamel can hitch a ride with Orta. The rats...      ...well, he was pretty sure they were expendable even to each other, but maybe they had some flying magic.      But what about the enemy? How many fliers did *they* have? 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      The slash strikes true and sends the Tin Soldier skidded away some distance. Good. Raine smirks and regrips his sword, watching as... it seems to go through some odd movements. Falling to a knee, clutching it's stomach... Oh. Oh wait. Shit. Watching as the Persona goes up in flames, Raine's eyes widen a bit.      ...And then he smirks. "Heeeeh. Cute." The red aura roiling off of his blade disperses, and dashes forward, blade held in reverse. Once those flames start getting spit everywhere in sight, the swordsman shields himself with the flat of the blade, allowing the flames to wash over it...and a good amount get sucked into the weapon itself. Like some kind of elemental vacuum.      But he doesn't use this to attack. He runs /past/ the Persona and aims to get into the nearest entry point of the truck. The CODE part comes first. Gotta grab it, if he can, and vacate the premises!      But that's BEFORE Victor suddenly destroys the god damn bridge! "WHOA-" He teeters on his feet, sinking into a crouch as the truck falls, along with everything else. "Son of a-!" Well, he DID give a warning. "Fragarach! Do the thing!" He calls to the empty air.      A much bigger wind glyph forms beneath him, and he begins to float. Not in suspension, but descending downward as a decelerated rate. At least he won't go splat. 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' The crowd around Mel seems to lessen slightly in the face of the telekinetic field, but only because the Skaven are spreading out. They're grabbing new weapons, an eclectic mix of high tech energy weapons and enchanting melee weapons, and laying into anyone or anything they can get in their sights or arm's reach. The press of bodies surges back towards her, glaive-like weapons crackling with energy swinging down into the telekinetic bubble again and again while the Skaven at the lower parts of the pile claw and scrabble at hard air. Nearby, one of the others tries to deal with something slug-like and ends up screaming bloody murder, clawing at its own face and pitching off the road, thrashing from the dragon-breath until it can't anymore. Its friends decide to go with spear-stabbing instead. That seems slightly safer. OBSKEEK THE GHOST moves like his namesake. August recoils and fires at him, and he darts side to side, moving with the sort of agility that a combination of already-inhuman reflexes and intense training provides. He moves to the side, spins, circling his prey, claws low, watching that pistol -- Millium moves in, manifesting funnels that fire down at the assassin-rat. Obskeek leaps backwards, cloak ignited by the searing energy that barely grazes him. He hisses, planting his feet and catapulting himself into August, charging right into his laser fire with some kind of reckless courage. Or maybe...     ELSEWHERE     A SUBTERRANEAN LABORATORY Vatol Halftail sits at a workbench, examining a weapon. It's sufficient as a sidearm, they said. An officer's weapon. Not enough to be worth keeping; there is better. Foolish. Vatol runs his fingers over the gilded adornments, carefully lifting it. He points it across the chamber, at a scorched wall with a plate of polished, rune-etched metal hanging on it. He fires. The Engineer smiles.     HERE AND NOW ...something else. August's laser hits the rat in the side of his stomach, burning through the cloth covering. The beam strikes the mirror-bright metal scales beneath, breaking up and refracting the beam into the dirt near his feet. It fuses the scales, leaving them shimmering with heat, but it doesn't penetrate. Obskeek hits him fast, sweeping his legs and striking at his gun-hand with a fighting claw, stabbing for arm and wrist with quick, rapid motions, and then throwing himself into a roll. The fire mostly smothers in the dirt. His tail flicks, suddenly visible, and black metal shuriken seem to materialize in the air where it passes. They fly high, a flurry of poisoned weapons aimed to debilitate Millium before his position can get locked down for a second volley. He might not be so lucky this time. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "He can PICK UP TRUCKS," Will yells in that horribly exasperated sort of way that only someone who doesn't believe what is going wrong in his life can manage. "I've shot him before! AFTER he used me as a club! He'll be fine!" Will's mind boggles at the situation he finds himself in. This is the SECOND time he's run into this particular giant, and the possibility of its power being turned against his home is frankly terrifying-- if anything, bantering with the dragon-rider is helping him keep himself from /completely/ losing his shit.     Not that it helps much, because that girl's got a gun almost as crazy as his! Will grits his teeth as tight as he can manage as the world seems to fall apart around him. Celes is punched into the highway. August is /shanked/ and he... He has a dragon-girl shooting at him. Bolts of blinding green energy pour down around him. Another smashes into his chest, vanishing again into that breastplate. The scent of burnt flesh wafts into the air.     More and more shots pour down. Will's cloak is potholed by green blasts, his voice cracks as the pain works its way out of his throat in a terrible scream. "Damnit," he yells, "We can't let them get this thing-- this monster!" More pieces reveal themselves. Mel finds herself staring at what looks like shoulder and upper arm. Kotone finds a leg, and Orta finds... A pelvis? No chest yet, though. No head, either.     But the situation's deteriorating regardless-- and Orta's pet dragon just breathed a quartet of homing lasers right at him.     Victor... Victor crushes the bridge. The force of his blow shatters the concrete construction. A blast of hydraulic force follows as the aqueduct below is ruptured into the swamp. Water floods the already drenched landscape.     Will's eyes go wide and quiver for a moment... Before suddenly sharpening, dagger-like. He drops low, braces himself, and then suddenly /surges/ forward, faster than anyone on two legs has any right to be. A high pitched whirring noise screams out from under him. "Hrrrrrrrraaaaaah!" He rushes forward, /through/ the gap between the dragon's breath. "I can't let this happen! There're too many lives!" Will yells, reaching forward with one arm...     A crackle of electricity. A whirr of an unspooling cable. Orta would feel something catch on her dragon's leg-- and would see a desperate Chaser surging up along a grappling hook straight for her. His weapon is aglow.     At this range, the difference in firing rate doesn't matter. Will aims, and fires... Downward? A blast of plasma launches him up at tremendous speeds, until he sweeps back up and overtop of the dragon-rider. "Sorry, but I can't! I can't let you use that weapon! There're people--" He aims, again, at that same section of armor he'd managed to connect with earlier. Bolts of plasma arc out as fast as he can pull the trigger. Solano's barrel begins to glow white-hot! "There're people I need to protect!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is doing the best she can to push her way through the crowd, but they're not making it easy; ironically, there'd be less difficulty if she could make her telekinetic bubble even tighter around her, but that would start risking some of that crackling energy actually reaching her. So she's got to push at more than arm's length, shoving and trying to get by them to reach the next truck, which... also isn't the piece they're after. "Dammit, where is-"     The entire bridge lurches and shudders.     Mel happens to be looking towards Will's fight when Xix takes the tableflip solution. Her eyes go wide, for a moment forgetting about the ratmen around her. "Oh, you have got to be /KIDDING ME/-!" There is already a deep, frustrated fury in her voice, because her choice is already made, without even an instant's hesitation or care.     She has decided to hate herself for the next few days in favor of not letting her allies die.     The Marshal's hand comes up to her cheek. She yanks off the small device clinging there. She whips her arms to either side. And an absolute torrent of telekinetic power erupts from her in all directions, blasting back the Skaven. "GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH-!"     Shimmering, gleaming flickers of purple light ripple around the bridge, from end to end. Like watching purple sunlight reflect off a turbulent lake, they seem to envelop every cracked piece of bridge, every large chunk of concrete, even the water shifts as if it's hitting something solid - though she can only /sort of/ keep it properly flowing. Plenty is leaking out already. The area around Mel herself has become a storm of kinetic force, the Marshal lifting up off the ground, longcoat billowing, her ponytail snapping free of its tie to let her hair flow loosely in the psionic wind.     Most importantly, her eyes are aglow with purple light. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     "Who you are and what you're doing is our concern." Parsons responds curtly. "We have warrants for investigation into many things. Who do you work for? Who is making you do this? What further intentions do you have with these supples? Who do you work for?" He's really focused on that last one. "We will not stand down. You can do what you like with the trucks now, but do not interfere in the more important matters the League is engaging in. This is a restricted area."     He's stopped long enough to not set off Iria again. This just so happens to be long enough for Victor to snap the bridge like it's made of gingerbread. "Like that." He says, firmly, as the League promptly attempts to drop its own suppy convoy into a ditch. Honestly, Agent Parsons doesn't entirely understand what's going on, but he knows he's learning a lot of it.     He's ready to glide, ready to take a leap and hold it, but it doesn't stick. The ground under him cracks and lurches, but a sudden rush of telekinetic energy hoists everything back up, letting him slam back onto the ground. "You know," He says. "It sounds like you should leave. Unless you can fly, your friend's impressive psychokinetic abilities probably can't hold up long. I can break my fall, but you can't." He gives Iria the staredown. Mel's drawn his attention to the shoulder she'd just about found. He can't get near, not with psychic power that intense on display. He's a Psychonaut, and he knows the superior psychokinetics when he sees it. But...     What Mel Brock is doing must take tremendous focus. While she's stopping that, if he can just... Reach his own little telekinetic hand through the storm and pluck the shoulder up... And that's white literal. A translucent black hand of telekinetic force is trying to sneak through the storm and poach the mecha part while Mel is, to say the least, /very/ distracted. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Victor comes down like a hammer. Celes, still more or less in her own crater, panics and rolls to the side, hoping that's enough. It mostly is, as she gets flung off the ground by the impact and crashes into Victor's discarded truck, and then hits the highway again. To say she groans is an understatement, as she manages to rise to her feet and lets out what could probably pass off as a groan but is more like the insane mutterings of someone who just had the daylight knocked out of her.     Then the ground shakes, and she realizes what Victor has done. "Are you... are you willing to kill all of your men just to spite us?!" No, maybe he won't kill his 'important' men. But all the officers and soldiers of the convoy, the drivers? Can THEY survive the crash?     She could attack Victor. But that's a losing battle. So instead she's going to make him have to split his attention. Her sword flashes, bright white. Celes speeds up, the flow of her time accelerated for a moment. Hasted, she rushes for the damaged giant robot fist Victor had to discard. She's going to grab it, awkward as it'll be to hold on to, cast float on herself, and leap off the bridge.     In her mind this is a good plan. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' The rat-men hunch down and resort to stabbing under the truck with their spears. A few of the jabs would feel resistance as they connect, but the dragon-slug is using Protect to shield himself while slithering out from under the truck on the other side. It was much a diversion as his trainer had intended, keeping their attention for an amount of time. But the Goomy didn't really want to deal with dozens of pointy-sticks on its own and was slicking a slimy retreat in the opposite direction. It really says something when a man can take a blow with such immovable stance that the damage just crumples the area around him instead. It's only an instant that the two weapons collide with resounding force, but that moment seems to linger forever due to the intensity. Whoever or whatever this cat-eyed man is, it is definately not of the standard humanity. Not by a long shot. It really says something when a man can take the power of a strike with such unmoving, unflinching position that it's the -vicintiy- that soaks the damage instead. Well, that's damage to another truck, at least? Yeah, Athela doesn't have much else at the moment. Nor does she even get a chance to put her feet back on the ground. Sephiroth swings before she can, and one arm is all he needs to slam Masamune into her gut and heave the young woman hurtling into the air! On the bright side, she doesn't have to worry about evacuating the bridge collapsing after the massive man smashes into it like a meteor. There is still the matter with being forcefully put airborne, though. This would have a much worse outcome if it wasn't for being near water. As is, being battered and winded doesn't do her any favors, but as she reachs apex and starts to drop back down Athela clenches her eyes shut in concentration, reaching out. The Tide Caller is answered though, and a spout of water spirals up from the aquaducts below. Landing in that is hardly comfortable either, but at least inside the watery surge she can use her abilities to bleed the momentum off her fall and just hit the swampy waters below in a splash instead of a crushing impact. The bridge is a bad place to be. Goomy appropriately bails out, also riding the waterspout like a slide to get away from the possible collapse. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier does not react to Raine. It cannot, as it is too busy burning to death. It also cannot escape the bridge, because August is currently not controlling it and it is taking too much damage to simply disappear. August doesn't react to Milly coming in with the assist. He doesn't react very much at all, because his gut is stabbed and he's bleeding pretty heavily. Obskeek easily disarms him, claws striking into August and cutting him up even worse. He should fall, by now. He should collapse to the ground and blackout. But he doesn't. While Obskeek is distracted with Milly... August takes his last chance. He dives at the rat assassin, moving to tackle him to the ground. His fists ball up, adrenaline roaring through the teenager as he just strikes at Obskeek, over and over, attempting to beat him to death with his fists. This is a horrible, terrible idea. But August isn't in a place for good ones. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' No, Iria can't fly or anything like that. And while Mel isn't exactly a friend, she doesn't want to be caught by the falling bridge either. "Dammit, gotta run!" She yells out as she runs as far away from the area that the bridge could crush her in. "I hope she'll be OK..." 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth watches Athela go sailing with a mostly disinterested expression. It's about then that the bridge starts to crumble. Then it doesn't crumble because Psychic Power. He frowns a little, regarding the floating woman before he hops down from the wrecked truck. He looks at his sword hand with a frown. Is that a cramp? Interesting. He looks forward again, and starts walking calmly towards the end of the bridge that Victor and Celes are fighting at. He's not going to intervene, he's just trying to get off of the bridge. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Well.      That rat was faster than Millium expected it to be.      August was also DUMBER THAN SHE EXPECTED HIM TO BE!      "Damn it, Augustus Caesar!" She grinds watching as he dives for OBSKEEK THE TERRIBLE... or was that Ghost? Whatever! But unfortunately, she's kind of tied up now! Specifically poisoned shuriken veering upward for her! "Ack-!" She panics and quickly floats aside. ...But not in time to clear the area. One shuriken strikes her in the arm and she hisses in pain, yanking the thing free and tossing it aside. "Ow ow ow..."      If it was just a shuriken, Millium would have been fine, but... Suddenly she pales and a she brings a hand up to her mouth, covering it. With herculean effort, she keeps her lunch down, but teeters in the air. "Ugh... Poison...?" She shakes her head rapidly and steels herself, taking a deep breath. With August all over the assassin-rat, she can't just unload a full volley on them. PLUS THE BRIDGE. AND MEL. DAMN IT. CHANGE OF PLANS.      Ignoring her sickness for as long as possible, Millium bursts downward, soaring through the sky and aiming to grab August and drag him away in flight to clear the bridge. No point in continuing to fight! 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      The bridge lurches, and doesn't fall.      Interesting.      Victor doesn't have to look up to see the source; his magnetic sense is already telling him exactly what the source of the strange effect is.      The longer that effect is sustained, the less effective his tactic becomes.      Victor moves to grab the arm - but Celes already has it, and is over the bridge. Victor can do a lot of things, but he can't *fly*, and that means Celes (and the arm) is effectively out of his reach. That's...frustrating, but he'll make do. The arm wasn't.../the most/ important piece. He wasn't sure if the CODE would work without it, but he knew the head and chest were probably more important, simply by process of elimination.      Victor swings his eyes towards Mel.      "Let us see how much strain you can take," He declares as soldiers scramble away, running for the hills.      He hoists the fallen truck, the one he had swung at Will at the battle's start.      Then he slams it down like a jackhammer into the bridge. It rises again. BOOM. It falls again. It rises again. BOOM. It falls again.      Victor is going to keep hammering away until the pieces of the convoy fall to the ground below, and he and the others can pick through the pieces at their leisure. The soldiers, though on their own, will probably survive - Victor, or Orta, or one of the others, probably has some trick to rescue them.      For now he has a tactic to execute. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta keeps her aim trained on Will with all the human error of an industrial laser cutter, focusing him under a withering hail of fire that just never, ever, seems to stop. For how big and bright they are, the energy bullets aren't quite as deadly as they seem like they should be, but she must have fired well over a hundred rounds without pausing, or even feeling the recoil. The Dragon banks and glides to follow him, effortlessly angling its body and turning its wings so that she has an unrestricted line of fire on him at all times, as if it were looking straight through her eyes.     "You can't have it! It doesn't belong to you! You'll do terrible things with it!" Orta sounds almost aggrieved at the idea of Will getting ahold of the giant robot that she just now knows exist, as if the matter were personal. The bridge is of little consequence to her, high up in the air on top of her trusty, winged friend. She seems content to watch Will drop as the volley of lasers accelerates towards him, closing in on four sides, perfectly spaced.     She feels the yank on the Dragon's leg at the same time it does, holding on to keep her balance as his weight destabilizes the two, and leaves her sharply leaning over the side with a wild flutter of her scarf. She has to switch her gun to the opposite hand, aiming down at Will as fast as she can, but before she can even pull the trigger that doesn't seem to exist, he goes vaulting right over her.     There is a brief moment where she is looking up at him, and he is looking down at her, both over the sight lines of their respective weapons. Orta looks straight into his eyes without any hint of the lackadaisical girl who had fallen face first off a truck a minute ago, but further without any hint of understanding of what he's talking about. Her grey gaze is so calm as to be machine-like, glinting with the reflection of Solano's white hot glow. A flicker of comprehension, and then emotional concern soon goes through her, but it isn't at the mention of people who need protecting. Those words fall completely flat in the face of her realizing he's aiming for the Dragon's existing injury.     She fires simultaneous with him. Both guns go off at the same time, and of all the things, her bullet intercepts his, too perfectly to be an accident. As is predictable for hitting a charged plasma shot, it explodes in the air, and pretty violently, consuming her own shot without effect. The force is enough to throw both her and the Dragon into a downward tumble.     The mount lets out a crackling shriek of thoroughly distorted pain, before righting itself catlike quite a ways down, skin scorched and armour flaking all along its back, except a clear space around Orta herself, weirdly. It pounds its wings to regain level flight, where she leans heavily against its neck, steadying her aim again. "Please. Just hold on for a little longer. We've almost got them. Just a little more."     The two of them accelerate, gaining distance from Will. Orta bites her lip, fixating on the shimmering shape of Mel in the middle of the storm, holding up the collapsing bridge. "If we get her, everyone can go home safely." she says aloud, 'everyone' apparently only including the League. In response, light shines between the Dragon's jaws. It pulses and grows brighter multiple times. Its Rider watches Mel, hearing the little bleeps in her head. On the fourth pulse, the gathered energy bursts into another volley of electronically booming lasers, this time going for a stationary target, who /looks/ like the vulnerable lynchpin.     Focusing all her attention on the lady not actively fighting is probably a hugely bad idea. Orta doesn't seem to realize that. She goes for the robot pelvis she found earlier instead, leaving the lasers for their mark. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa dinds the leg gets a good look at it but there isn't no way she's going to be able to make off with the leg. Heck even if she had her matter maniplator with her the thing looks like it would be too much for it to take in in one go and they'd need it intact if they ran off with it right? She also listening on the comm as she hears MEl's warning. She's not even goign to think twice she's going to /trust/ Mel's warning trust in her fellow Paladin and get the heck off the bridge. She's thankfully got he mens to do this and she really waits she looks to Ira for a moment then to Flammel and calls out. "I'd not stay here if I were you!" With that Kotone is going to drop cloak and start to haul tail with inhuman speed as she's going to get off the bridge by any she can but she ould fall prety to the rats or something else. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      ".....Well."      Raine eyes the tin soldier for one moment. And then Mel, keeping the bridge up with all the force in the multiverse, then, he just shrugs and moves to get into the truck and retrieve the CODE part.      That other stuff'll sort itself out.      Probably. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is in no place to stop Flamel. The telekinetic torrent pouring out of her might make it difficult to actually get ahold of the arm, but if he can navigate that, it's his. Her entire focus, her entire power is turned to the bridge right now, coat and hair both flowing outward as she exerts the full, unfettered reaches of his power. Now, Xix, on the other hand. Xix is very much forcing her to pay attention to him, because he is directly interacting with her power. The assault doesn't hurt her... directly. Bue he's forcing her to push back against that strength while she's already at her upper limits, and that strains her body even further. Her glowing purple eyes turn in his direction-     Those lasers don't manage to get through the storm cleanly. But enough energy gets in that the searing blasts earn a yell of pain from the Marshal. Her eyes dart up to Orta, hanging in the air, presenting a clear and direct threat. Then to the Tin Man, completely aflame. And then finally, back around, to settle on Victor Xix.     And through all the sound of a psychic unleashing incredible power, her voice manages to ring out clearly just once. "Hey! Hey, fuzzbutt!"     The road drops out from under Victor entirely.     "Fuck you."     She lets go entirely of the section of road that the Greaver stands on. Lets it drop away, lets the water flow down after it. She also lets go of the section the Tin Man is on... briefly. Long enough to let the Tin Man itself drop into the water. Then that section lights up with purple energy again, and finally there are glowing violet eyes pointed Orta's way. "And you! I am in the middle of saving goddamn lives here! Piss off and let me do my job!"     That section of road is suddenly flung up into the air, straight at Orta and her mount. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Mel removes her power.      This is a critical mistake. Had she /dragged him down/, it would've been a different story. But her power, her power shows up in his magnetic vision. It tingles and distorts and bubbles and buzzes. It is a distorting rainbow in his senses, a humming and thrumming that demands part of his attention be associated with that.      Then she removes it, and that immediately informs him of a fact: gravity is about to take hold.      So the instant she removes her concentration, Victor *leaps*. The ground below him goes flying downwards. His foot plants against the falling truck, now deprived of the highway. Another *leap*. He cannot fly, but anyone watching right now would think that, perhaps, that isn't /that/ huge an impediment.      The Greaver does not stop. The instant he touches down in a spot, he's moving again. He dances next to his own fleeing soldiers, banking on Mel's kindness and desire to 'protect lives'. He darts between these people, never stopping for long enough to /come to a rest/, as he goes right for the part Orta dropped.      The Greaver lets out a thunderous, ear-splitting roar.      "I WILL NOT PERMIT IT!" 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' August does something reckless and stupid and, actually, no, that's a pretty solid idea. Obskeek gets tackled to the ground and beaten like a bully who just discovered the meaning of 'nerd rage.' He fights back, biting and scratching and stabbing at August while his face gets beaten in, but August can /feel/ the progress. There's a definite, satisfying feeling of tenderizing something that will soon just be meat on the ground, a sort of catharsis that might just be the blood leaving his body. Just when he might be about to finish the job, though, Millium swoops in and the assassin takes advantage of the brief opening. Obskeek fumbles with a hidden pouch, managing to draw a bone effigy out of it in one hand and spilling the rest of the contents onto the ground. He snaps it with his fingers, and explodes into a cloud of sulphuric smoke with a very distinct 'BAMF' echoing from where he lay. He's gone. The rest of the Skaven start to scatter. August gets... a couple flat disks of some kind of greenish rock and a few stab wounds. Victory...?! 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier's in no place to argue about falling into the water below. It submerges as the bridge falls, the fire quickly being doused. It disappears shortly afterwards. August wants to keep beating the Skaven to death. He's being fueled by pure survival instinct, 'kill to live'. However, he's in a pretty sorry state, so Millium is easily able to drag him off, despite physical protests. August is carried off, leaving him with only some weird fragments of some rock, blood on his knuckles, oh, and all of his blood pouring out of him. Woops. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "I'm telling you," Will yells through the roaring wind, "All I'm going to do with that thing is to make sure nobody finds it or uses it ever again!" His body is blackened and burnt. For all that his suit of Ancient armor protects him from blasts of energy almost exactly like the ones Orta is throwing around, the sheer /number/ of shots has still taxed it to its limit. All that excess heat has to go somewhere-- and the only place for it to go is right into Will's body.     And then Orta goes and blows up one of his own plasma shots. The blast ripples, the containment field collapses, a cloud of superheated gas consumes them both-- but apparently, Will knew not to breathe. He still screams. It STILL burns. The dragon twists and turns, his arm is turned into a fulcrum around which his body is tossed like a ragdoll. But he doesn't let go. He hangs on! He can't-- he can't just let them get away with enough to put this thing back together--! Then he sees it. He /hears/ it. Victor, going for the pelvis.     "Dangit--" Will growls. His arm spasms and the hook comes away from the dragon's leg moments before Mel's boulder impacts. It falls limp, the muscles strained and screaming against any attempt of movement-- so he forces it with his other arm. The grapnel launches again with an electronic crack and snags the pelvis. It reels in. Will surges up at it, the wind whipping in his face. "I won't--" He turns, finding himself trapped between Victor and his prize. In a split second, he'll be a fine, red mist. Except for the gun aimed right at the Greaver's face. "I won't let you put this thing back together!" Will roars. He depresses the trigger, the Solano's barrel glows WHITE as a catastrophic blast of plasma erupts from its very heart, "I AIN'T GONNA HAVE IT!" If this doesn't stop Victor, he's a dead man. Even if it does, he and that part are going tumbling into the swamp. Let's hope Will's tougher than he looks. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     The hand has a bit of a tough time getting ahold of things in the midst of that psychic storm. But once it has a grip, Agent Parsons is going to /keep/ it. The good thing about Psychonaut telekinesis being grip-based is that once they have a hold on something, it's much easier to keep that hold on something. Flamel slips it closer to him, and then, while people are busy with other topics, activates his invisibility, rubbing himself out of perception for the enemy.     Another of those big black hands rises quickly, shooting up into the air. It's ready to grab onto whatever passes by to airlift extract him, hopefully letting him escape quickly with his piece of the machine. "Operation compromised, I need extraction." He says, in that same faux-MIB friendly tone. "As soon as possible, please." These collapsing bridge fragments are worrying him. Mel might give up any any time. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, after peeling through a PILE OF BURNING WRECKAGE, Raine Arland finds... A glassy eye peering up at him. There's no light in it, nothing to indicate that it'll activate any time soon, but it's staring up at him regardless. It looks like he found the head! 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      The Terminal shoots him in the face.      Victor lets out another thunderous roar as his vision is consumed with pain, though he closed his eyes fast enough not to be blinded. His magnetic senses go mad. Plasma burns into flesh thick and durable as concrete, sizzling and melting through Victor's eye. His eyebrows burn off instantly. Part of his hair catches fire, for the second time in the last two months. The plasma bolt blows out the back of his head. Were it not for the instantaneous cauterization, there would be blood everywhere.      Will and Mel are both treated to the sight of the Greaver's head blown open, a full quarter simply /obliterated/. The Greaver stutters only briefly, the massive war-weapon's motion a stammer, like a frame-by-frame play of claymation.      As Will, and the pelvis, go tumbling into the swamp below, the Greaver's lips twist into a snarl.      They had the torso, they had the head. They could retrieve the rest from the swamp. But...      But the CODE couldn't be assembled. Not without the pelvis and the arm.      He had had enough of mercy.      The semi-headless Greaver turns away. He would recover from the fall before the boy did.      Now, he simply /waits/ for Mel to give up. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      "....Huh."      The truck is kind of still on fire. Mel is still holding up the bridge. And he can't fly. If she lets go, He's gonna take a nice fall. ...Actually that's not a problem. He grins at the sight of the eye and sweeps away enough of the other burned wreckage to reveal a portion of the head. "Jackpot."      He looks aside. "Fragarach. Do the thing." He says, causing the air to shimmer as a white figure materializes. She gestures to the head, causing it to become surrounded in a glow and start to levitate. And then she dematerializes. "Alright. Objective complete. Let's get the hell out of here!"      And he vaults out of the burning truck, head floating off after his movements. He hightails it without aiming to engage anyone else. As per the changed objectives. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium flies far the heck away, getting out of the area of the bridge, before she lays August down onto his back and immediately starts to apply first aid. She's no staff chick, no mage, or anything like that. But she's got some medical supplies! It'll have to do for now. Anti-bacterial solution is applied and bandages are wrapped around the most important wounds generously. Best she can do for now! 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     The Dragon's lasers don't kill Mel where she stands. That's actually a problem. Orta has just fully turned away from the woman when she hears the mature language being hurled her way, looking back just in time to see the other thing being hurled her way: a sizable chunk of the aqueduct.     The two of them don't have time to maneuver. The Base Wing isn't fast enough. It crashes into them head on, shattering into blocky pieces, and eliciting the mixed shriek of a young girl and the synthesized eagle cry of an artificial beast, separated by the impact and left to fall a considerable distance to ground.     Orta is not built like a Greaver, but the Dragon more or less is, despite its rather scrawny state, and so it manages to right itself first, trailing drops of blood in its wake as it swoops back under its rider and diligently catches her. Orta keeps her gun in a death grip as she whumps back into her seat, this time actually cut and bruised from the debris that she wasn't mysteriously shielded from. She struggles to draw air back into her, pushing her hair from her vision, and finally catching sight (and ear) of Parsons succeeding in doing the thing everyone was supposed to be doing.     Casting a wounded look at Mel, the two of them fly off again, moving remarkably fast, despite being in no shape to continue fighting the de-limited psychokinetic. Upon reaching him, the Dragon demonstrates the third instance of telekinesis present, though by far the most time. A gleaming bubble of fragile energy encases him and the CODE part in mid-fall when it and Orta draw close, slowing his fall over several seconds until he can more or less hover.     There is space for Parsons to hop on, but he'll have to keep carrying his prize with his mind. The Dragon looks pretty beaten up, and Orta is breathing pretty heavily on its back, with a number of darkening splotches standing out on her pale skin. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And Xix demonstrates a much faster reaction time than she'd given him credit for. "Dammit-!"     Right now, there isn't much more the Marshal can do. Every second she spends holding this bridge up is another second of agony, and if she takes the hand, either she'll have to let go of the bridge to defend herself, or he'll cream her. Pauwel will have to entirely decide the clash with Xix himself - something he does in a way that has her quietly swearing under her breath at him. And Xix... Xix has been shot through the head. And still stands there, turning to look at here. There's a moment where she meets his eyes... eye? He's only got the one right this moment.     And Mel realizes something about his reaction times. And the fact they're basically the only two people left on the bridge.     So she lets go. Of every piece of the bridge, EXCEPT the part under her, and the part under Victor. This frees up a considerable amount of telekinetic force... and she puts every bit of it she can spare into flinging the piece Victor stands on up into the air.     "I hate... repeating... myself," the Marshal hisses, her voice hoarse.     She then does her very best to reach out and try to grab the CODE's pelvis, and hopefully give Will something to cling to safely. At this point, though, he might be out of range, and her flagging concentration might not be able to snare it in time. It's dicey. But it's the best she can do. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa makes note one to never question the powers of Mel's mind and two she owes Mel majorly for saving their asses in this situation she is mauling she is moving as fast as she can do. She will do wht she can to help August later, right now she has to get clear s and she looks back and then oh dear god Victor isn't going to have non o that. He's not going to have any of that, she turns about to look back but then she moves trying to catch up with everyone /else/. This has got crazy but damn the league really is meddling here she catches sight of Parsons but she's busy aiming to help anyyone who needs help to get away. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor goes up.      His reaction time is staggered, but only just. There's some clear impairment for having *a hunk of his skull disintegrated by plasma,* and it's costing him. Mel flings him upwards, and it takes him a moment to process what's going on, because he's missing a large chunk of his considerably powerful brain.      Finally, however, he reacts enough to throw himself backwards and fall. He falls feet-first towards the swamp below, towards the trucks and their contents.      This won't be a casual landing - in fact it is going to hurt a /lot/, and probably shatter both his legs for a while - but it's the only option he foresaw remaining to secure as many pieces as possible.      He'll rendezvous with the others as soon as he can. It might take him a little while. He'll have to regrow a /lot/. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Ah. He stopped.     Will allows himself a slight smile as he falls back against the giant mechanical pelvis. This, he thinks, is a really weird position to be in. But it's still better than the alternative. He sighs, then, as he sees the clouds and the sky shrink away above him. In a few seconds, he'll hit the swamp, and then... And then what? He can barely move, the skin on his chest is burnt to a crisp. Everything and everywhere hurts so, SO much. He closes his eyes just a moment before he hits the ground. ...And slows to a stop as Mel's power seizes around him. Well. Looks like William Pauwel lives to chase another day. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Slowly, carefully, the pelvic piece lifts up into the air. It floats over, along with Mel's own debris platform, until both of them set down very gingerly and carefully on the far side of the ravine - the direction the Iskandrian forces were heading, rather than the direction they came from.     As it sets down, Mel herself finally ceases to float, boots touching back down on what remains of the road. She takes a second or two to see that Will is still alive.     And then she collapses to the ground, rapidly losing consciousness. 
}}

5000/The Other Battle On Big Bridge

2017-01-09T06:02:47Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/01/08 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=An attempt at pilfering experimental weapons from a convoy in Iskandria does not go as planned. A g..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/01/08
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=An attempt at pilfering experimental weapons from a convoy in Iskandria does not go as planned. A giant robot is involved, Mel is called an old hag, and Vatol is the only one to survive completely unscathed. Also, scene 5000 GET.
|Cast of Characters=934, 941, 961, 1051, 1081, 604, 7, 894, 215, 994, 1096, 1003, 1094, 1088
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' LAST WEEK, the League brokered an alliance with the Empire of Iskandria, offering their support in a war gripping the backwater world of Tellus in exchange for material support, access to the world's many ruins and a number of other juicy concessions. To this end, a shipment of the League's weapons is now making its way along one of the Expanse's major aqueduct-roads. The swamps that blanket the region are far below, and a mis-step or unexpected tumble could lead to a perilous fall. But the sheer size of the bridge-- approximately the width of a modern six-lane highway-- is a reassuring safety feature in and of itself.     The convoy is a dozen carts long, each driven by what is basically an armored, battle-ready semi, and is accompanied by a number of Iskandrian infantrymen-- and of course, by members of the League who have an interest in seeing the very first shipment of the war go through successfully. Everything seems quiet so far.     BUT ALSO LAST WEEK, the Watch made contact with a mysterious man with a bevy of ancient relics and a grudge against the empire and its expansionistic ways. In exchange for one of the relics, he has requested that a certain shipment find itself derailed, and a number of officers wind up falling into his hands.     The convoy putters along, spewing clouds of smoke as powerful engines carry their cargo along to its destination. Up ahead is what looks to be something of a checkpoint: a concrete structure not unlike a rest stop or service-station on a modern highway, where an elevator leads down to the swamps below to allow easy access to low-lying roads-- Or in this case, easy access to the highway above. Normally there'd be guards posted along this route, but... Something seems off.     Will is pressed against the back side of the elevator chamber, his hand hovering precariously over his weapon. He tugs a little communicator bead down towards his face- "Y'all in position? I can see somethin' coming down our way." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     There is at least one person fighting on the side of the Watch who has never actually heard the term 'Watch'. To the best of her knowledge, it's just a ragtag group of Will's friends and acquaintances here to help him get a piece of his gun.     Technically, that includes her too.     But more strictly speaking, Mel Brock has other reasons for being here. She is, strictly speaking, here as a Paladin, chiefly to investigate exactly what types of weapons are being shipped, to confiscate whatever she can, and to make sure this doesn't turn into some kind of horrible war crime.     Which explains why she's nestled in under the bridge, where she doesn't have to constantly hold herself up telekinetically. This way she can quite literally lie in wait until the convoy is in place. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor Xix is here because it was requested of him - not by the Empire, whose opinion he couldn't possibly care less about, but by the Pope of the Iron Church, whose opinion he at least occasionally listens to for his own reasons. This is one of those occasions. The weapons are not the only thing being carried with the convoy.      The Steel Messiah stands atop the semi at the front of the convoy. He's as much a symbol as he is a guard - a warning to the bandits, thieves, and ragamuffins that usually dot the landscape of the Expanse, a ten-foot-tall warning clad in a red tattered flag. No sane individuals in the Expanse would challenge the Original Greaver, but then, there are plenty of crazy people - and plenty of people off-world who can challenge him, too.      The Greaver's eyes are shut, but that means very little. Eyes are easy to deceive. Any fool can throw sand in someone's eyes to blind them. The Creators were prescient enough to establish some...*other* precautions in their highest Greavers.      His nostrils flare.      His foot slams down on the semi. One of the guards in the cockpit fell asleep; that guard is now jolted awake by the ringing sound of the Greaver's massive foot.      "Pay attention," Victor growls, "This is where they will attack."      "H-how do you know, Lord Messiah?" The guard asks out the window.      "Because a bridge is an artery. If you wish to kill your opponent quickly..." Victor's clawed fingers flex, "You stab them in the artery." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium is really not here to fight. As least much as she can humanly manage. Fighting's a thing she can do, yeah. Helps against monsters and killer robots. But against people? ........... Well. Anyway. She's just gonna focus on derailing the convoy and not actually harming anyone if she can help it.      To that end, she's hidden under the bridge, SERAPH currently powered off. Hey, that thing eats up energy quickly. Sure, it can recharge but that takes time! She remembers what happened the last time she had to let her Code recharge in the middle of a fight. ....Yeaaaaaaaah.      Claire is nowhere to be seen. Which makes perfect sense. She's not going to fight your battles. Idiots. But she does have a direct line to communications in a remote location. ...That remote location being the bar they stopped in last time. What? It makes sense.      Now.... what are they gonna do about that big lion of a man standing so obviously atop the semi in plain sight? Like an invitation. A dare to do something.      Crap. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     "Yes," Celes answers Will over radio, as she... more or less stands by the road, awaiting the convoy's arrival. She's invisible! As can be anyone else who wants to be and is on her side. Truth is, she is not a stealth specialist, but she's fairly certain if someone can see through the invisibility spell then there wasn't going to be any hiding from them to begin with. Also, the League was basically warned a group (and a Paladin) was investigating the delivery of the weapon. There wasn't much reason to think this would be decided by one's ability to sneak and ambush.     The convoy comes into view. Armored trucks, several of them. Celes reaches for Save the Queen, which cracks with lightning. Her shape is barely visible as magic makes her invisibility spell half-falter, sword pointed towards the convoy's leading truck.     Lightning bolts lance out, bright yellow and purple, streaking forward with all of Celes' firepower. If they can stop the first of the transports the others are going to have to stop too. Remains to have people go the long way around and catch the convoy from behind too, but that'll be in someone else's hands. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      Raine is here simply as an extra hand. League people were handling some business on this 'Tellus' and so he figured why the hell not? He sits inside one of those carts lazily. A wicked looking black blade resting against a shoulder and one eye closed. The red one is open and gazing out at the landscape vaguely. "Heh... Here, huh?" There's a glance about. And then a chuckle.      "Well, it's a prime strategic location. No doubt they'll try and bring this whole thing down if they can't stop us." He smirks then and opens his other eye. "We'll just have to see how determined they actually are." A shake of the head follows, and then a glance aside himself at the empty air. "Keep ready. We're probably gonna be doing some high flying shit if my hunch is right."      There's a flicker of movement in that space, the figure of a white clad entity shimmering for a moment, before it fades again. A voice responds. "Of course. Just try not to get yourself killed so easily, hm? I still need your body." Raine rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Sure. Whatever." He looks on ahead and smirks again, watching as bolts of lighting streak across the sky.      He stands up then, watching as the first semi. "Time to work." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' After the foul taste in her mouth after the starting of the Foodbringer case, Kotone was quite happy to help out MEl with this. She knows not about the Watch yet herself and she's more just heere to help and also aid Mel Brock nthe objectives they have along side helping out Will with this. Kotone has several small flying drones in the air for recon and to see just what she can gather on the convoy before they move to hit it. She's full up cloaked at the moment keeping a low profile and is up with MEl holding herself in place using her own cyborg strength to do so. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' At the elevator, August is doing something weird with the clothing they stole off some soldiers. Specifically, he's tying all of it together in a long line, and then pouring gasoline onto it carefully. The Tin Soldier hovers over him as he finishes up his sort of insane plan. As the convoy approaches, August spots Victor. He frowns tightly, and then tosses the clothing line into the Tin Soldier's arms. After a moment of checking over the radio, he moves forward, while the Tin Soldier diverts towards Mel's position, still carrying the gasoline soaked clothing line. August is going to try and get as close as possible to be in range of the Tin Soldier for this crazy plan, as the Tin Soldier moves to climb onto Mel's coat. This won't go wrong at all. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' She's a bounty hunter, she's beautiful, and she fights for what she believes in. Her name is Iria. And she's here with other members of the Watch to find that convoy and stop it so that the Watch can get what they need. Specifically, hidden in a vantage spot on top of the structure waiting for the convoy to show up so that they can get things. At first, there's nothing, meaning Iria's starting to get a bit annoyed. "What, did they run out of fuel already or something?" Iria mutters with a scowl. But then she hears something, and she looks into the distance to see the convoy approaching, and she smirks a little. "Looks like they're on time after all! They better be ready, though..." 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Coming in from the low access point had been perfect for Athela Valemore, she was well accustomed to wet and swampy environments. From there, once the guards were disabled, she had done much the same as others and made her way up into the structure of the aquaduct bridge itself. It wasn't that much different from climbing the masts and rigging of a ship, just less rocking back and forth. With darker cloak wrapped around her and hood pulled up to conceal her otherwise rather blantant red hair, the young knight waits on her perch. War was a way of life in many worlds. Empires tried to expand, swaying people beneath their rule, or forcing them under with their military. Such was how things go. That was not why Athela was here as part of this mission. It was the fact that outside forces were trying to tip the local balance through illicit advancement of one side that she was taking offense with. It was an unfair and dishonorable tactic, artificially inflating one side's strength over the other rather than armies fighting on their own merits. And there's the sound of the trucks passing over the bridge. Ugh, those things are somehow louder than AND more smelly that using a herd of Tauros to pull wagons. A hand grips the hilt of her sword, ready to drop in and strike as soon as the convoy is slowed by the others... 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     So they have a plan. It's batshit insane. But it's a plan. And it's something Mel can help with easily.     By now August must be used to seeing Mel ride her longcoat like a platform. She's doing that now, picking up the Tin Soldier to give it a steady ride below the bridge, until they can get /behind/ the convoy. She's careful not to outpace August, though. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta is here because, honestly, everyone else is. Especially Victor. Since leaving her world for the first time, she has spent the past few days with the hospitality of the Iron Church, not quite certain why she has it, but all too glad to enjoy hot baths every day and meals without going looking for them. If the Church wants these weapons delivered, and the League does, then both of her new groups, as her only current friends and allies in this new and confusing environment, would appreciate her help. Giving something back for hospitality is how it works.     So the white-haired girl dressed in odd reds and blacks sits on top of one of the trundling armoured trucks, kicking her feet absently against the side as she watches the swamp go by, intermittently looking up the sky for some reason. She remains only a short distance from Victor, despite the amount of fuel smog coming her way, which doesn't seem to particularly bother her. She looks totally out of place with the assortment of League bouncers, like she'd wandered in by accident and they'd stopped for a minute to give her a ride.     Then someone fires lightning at the lead truck, pretty dangerously close to where she is. Having been staring distractedly up at the sky, the girl shrieks at the clap of thunder, going tumbling off the side from the truck's inevitable sudden motion. Thankfully, the bridge is pretty wide, so she only faceplants on the hard road rather than falling into the swamp. After a second where it looks like she might have knocked herself out, she rolls over and climbs up to her feet, turning away from the truck, standing on her toes and waving her arms up at the air, yelling at the top of her lungs.     Said yelling sounds like some ethnic mishmash of greek, latin, indonesian, sino-english nonsense that the player still hasn't gotten tired of reading through the dictionary, sounding like "Ecce! Acell! Ecsia festina deeah!" which is then understood as "Hey! Help! Come quickly!" Why she is yelling up at what looks pretty much like empty air is a mystery, but she proceeds to cast a fearful glance over her shoulder and then hide behind the next truck. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth is here to ensure the convoy makes it. He cares not for the Empire or their wants. The Company does. What the Company wants, the Great Sephiroth makes happen. It's his job. It's what he knows. Like Victor, Sephiroth stands atop one of the vehicles. He, however, is bringing up the middle. This ensures he can get to either end of the convoy that needs his presence fairly quickly. He is a sight to see, black coat and silver hair billowing majesticly behind him, the gleaming length of the Masamune held before him. Green glowing eyes are watchful for shenanigans. Shenanigans which have now begun. Lightning roars at the front of the convoy, chaos erupts, and the SOLDIER doesn't even wait for the trucks to stop. He races /away/ from the lightning. There are two reasons for this. One: Victor's up there. He can handle that area. Two: Clearly others will be coming from the rear to mess things up. Not on Sephiroth's watch. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Agent Parsons is interested and curious about what's happening here. The young Psychonaut follows along with the convoy in his own car, a black van with a windowless rear section and hevily tinted windows at the front and a conspicuous scanning apparatus on the top. It pretty much looks exactly like something that should park outside someone's house and figure out what television shows they like, unmarked and all.     He drives alongside the convoy, a small dot against the heavy machines. Soon, though, comes a forewarning over radio. He shifts back in the convoy, letting some others take point here, into rear areas. Thank god, that lightning might have blown his van out. When it comes, whatever happens next, he can deal with it the right way for a secret agent: Jumping his car through the explosion. Specifically, his levitation and psychokinetic abilities go off, and whatever happens to the forward truck, Agent Parsons goes pedal to the metal and charges his now-floating van up and over the explosive results of the spell, slamming to the ground ahead and charging towards the checkpoint, intent on closing the distance FAST and getting into an engagement immediately. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Any chance for subterfuge at all virtually bottomed out the moment Victor 'I can smell your blood' Xix turned his nose into the wind. But if there was still any opportunity, still any infinitesimal chance at all that an ambush would work out, they quickly vanished when Celes Chere turned her considerable magical might into a bolt straight out of the blue. Or maybe she just /seized/ on what little sliver of a window the Watch may have still had.     The Thundaga spell smashes into the lead truck like the fist of an angry god. Iskandria builds its vehicles to take a lot of punishment; any electronics they may use are rugged and rudimentary, secondary to mechanical controls. But that doesn't mean that what's under the hood isn't still a mess of power cords, and it certainly doesn't stop a veritable column of lightning from blasting straight through /all/ of it.     The driver yelps and then chokes as the accompanying blast of thunder hammers his eardrums and turns his world into a spinning, dizzy mess. Something under the hood sparks, flashes, and then catches fire, billowing very unhealthy smoke into the air. The engine whines and wheezes like an asthmatic lung before sputtering out. It may not be going anywhere anytime soon.     "Well damn, that worked," Will says with a grin. "Alright y'all! Let's get this thing going! You know the plan!" 'Plan' here being a loose set of ideas that will hopefully result in the retrieval of several trucks and their contents. He dives out of cover, the Solano's blue-white light surging to life in his hands. "Let's go!" Will yells, depressing the trigger and unleashing a burst of plasma fire /right/ for the Original Greaver on the top of the first transport. The boy knows how to pick a fight. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Lightning flashes at the front of the convoy, and Athela is quite glad she's not up there. Electricity is not a fondness of hers, even if she is not as super-effectively weak to it as her Water pokemon are. The powerful bolt is a good signal to move all the same though. Time to make this ambush happen. With a grunt she leaps to the edge of the bridge, drawing her gleaming blade as she does. At this point there are no extravegant dramatic speeches, not when timing is so crucial. Just a sound not unlike the rising current of a river as elemental energy churns around the magic blade, and the sound of armored boots on pavement as Athela rushes one of the middle semis. The magic blade arcs out, if only to slice the door off the cab. "Now!" The little pink blob of her Goomy pokes out of her cloak, spewing adhesive slime into the cab to disable the drivers without actually harming them. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Lightning crackles in front of the truck. Somebody goes over the truck - the boy with the strange burning thing who hated Lezard Valeth, and the woman with the strange flying machine who saved them at the fortress. Then, the boy emerges, the Solano's blue light blasting right for the Greaver's face.      There is no hesitation. The Greaver rips open the top of the truck; the plasma fire burns through it, smashing against his chest, but at that point it's already had to eat through the metal, so it's at best 'weak', a small little sizzle against his bared skin. With his feet, he hurls the two men in the truck backwards onto the truck behind him, and roars instructions to the driver.      "DON'T STOP! THEY WOULD PLUNDER YOUR HOME AND KILL YOUR FAMILIES! THEY WOULD SMASH YOUR COUNTRY TO RUIN FOR THE SIN OF DESIRING GREATNESS! STOP - AND YOU WILL ASSUREDLY BE KILLED!"      Victor flips over the makeshift bulwark, landing in front of the truck. His horrible eyes lock onto Will. The best way to deal with the Terminal was simple.      Don't give him a chance to attack from range.      With all the delicacy due a ten-foot tall murder engine, Victor turns. His claws dig into the truck. The machine groans as physics struggles against strength, as it rises off the ground into Victor's hands, then rises above Victor's head. Pieces of the back end are already crumbling.      The Greaver roars, a deep, bellowing, animalistic roar that echoes across the canyon, as he swings the truck around for William like a baseball bat - with frightening precision and speed for something so heavy. As usual, it's as Victor has trained his entire life in 'swinging a truck' as a weapon style.      Unfortunately for Will, 'a truck' is much, much bigger than he is. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Everything's already going insane. But August has his heart set on this plan. He moves to the side, trying to avoid sight of the enemy, while Mel carries the Tin Soldier over to the rear line. August has his laser pistol in hand, exhaling heavily. He changes focus, from his own perceptions to the Soldier's. When Mel gets close to the last truck, the Tin Soldier begins moving, signalling that it's about to jump. It turns its body towards the truck below them, and then proceeds to toss the line of clothing down. As soon as the line of clothing is away from Mel, the Tin Soldier leaps off of her, pointing its gun leg straight down and shooting out a massive jet of fire, aiming to ignite the clothing as well as the truck if it doesn't pull forward fast enough. The fire jet is also pointed slightly back to discourage a rear escape. The clothing will ignite rapidly, creating a painful, flaming obstacle falling directly on and below the convoy. The Tin Soldier, meanwhile, falls onto the wagon itself, slamming onto the roof. Sephiroth could easily notice it, the silent robot soldier with the flaming gun-leg grappling tightly onto the roof, waiting to see what happens. It's showtime. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Uh.      Okay.      So they need to divert all of these vehicles away, /and/ capture the officers. All with Mr. Imma Claw Your Stomach out, along with a bonus addition of Dude In Black With A Huge Sword, and Dude In Black With A Less Huge Sword. Plus Mysterious White Haired Chick and Psychic Sekrit Agent.      "...Maaaaaybe we should just- Oh. Oh okay, he fired his gun." Well, a bit late, considering the LIGHTNING that was already fired off. Crap. What should she do here? The plan sounded nuts! That dude just picked up a truck! That other dude has a huge sword! Did she mention how that dude just picked up a truck? Ugh. Why did she always feel so out of her league recently?      Millium finished grumbling internally to herself and powered on SERAPH, taking flight as the orbitals came to life. "Ooooookaaaaaay, what to do, what to do..." She mumbles, rising further up into the air. "Alright, okay. I think I'll just..." Yeah, not fight. The blonde girl spreads her arms, the blue orbitals around her wrists breaking up and forming into several floating funnels.      There's a thrum and glow of energy, and then with a flash of light, several rays of hot plasma are fired, arcing through the air and hurtling down towards one of the middle trucks, aiming too the strike the compartments that likely hold the cargo. Try to scatter all that good stuff. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' While the others are going ahead, Iria hasn't moved just yet. Instead, she's got her rifle loaded and aimed. "So you finally decided to show yourselves, did you?" That evil smirk turns into a grin. "Too bad I have to stop you!" She taps at the laser sighting on her rifle and aims for the engine of the truck. "And it looks like this is the end of the line for you!" Iria adds as she fires off a three-round burst of gunfire at the engine. Her grin turns into a frown however, as she realizes that might not be enough. "Better not take chances," Iria comments again as she opens fire on the tires of the truck, hoping to at least slow it down by shooting out the rubber. "If the engine won't be shut down so easily, I'll slow them down the old-fashioned way!" 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     One truck stopped. Chaos deployed.     Celes then watches a very large man scream, pick up a truck, and swing it towards William with very obvious intent to kill. There is also a floating van.     This got crazy unusually fast, even by her standards.     Still flickering in and out, her invisibility quickly fading, Celes decides to make the best of it by going straight for Victor, even as he swings that truck around like a very dangerous blunt weapon. But she pulls out. At the last second, it's not him she's going for. He has no trouble seeing this, what with his unusual sight.     In an absurdly well timed jump, Celes tries to intercept the rear of the truck and slice the cargo doors wide open with Save the Queen, so that the contents of that particular piece of the convoy goes flying all over the highway as Victor keeps trying to crush William.     Here's hoping William can last long enough for her to have that opening, though. She'll lend him a hand once they've figured out what's inside that truck. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And there's Kohler's... rather fiery solution. "Cripes, Kohler. I mean, it works, but..."     Back down and around goes Mel, riding atop her coat until she can come back up around the middle of the convoy. First order of business - she hardens the air around herself with a telekinetic barrier, with /almost/ all the strength she can muster. It should cover her from small arms fire, at the very least. Second order is to get closer to one of the cargo trucks - and to reach out with her mind to tear off the side, and see what's inside. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      Raine just stands there, sword hefted onto a shoulder as he watches this fresh hell take place all around him. "Wow. They did /not/ disappoint." He mumbles, tapping his blade against his shoulder once again as he takes casual steps forward. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. ...His steps get faster and faster, and then he's running. He's already got his eyes on someone.      He grins and with the last step onto the edge, a green magic glyph forms, then sends him bursting into the air. He soars, adopting a freefall position as he begins to descend... right for August, or more specifically, right for that tin man doing dangerous things to the last truck. He doesn't say anything, he just flips in the air, blade gripped back and ready to swing.      ...And then he strikes. With a fierce downward slash aimed right at that Persona with nothing but sheer falling momentum. No elemental energy. Nothing. Just a plain ol slash. Sometimes simple is best. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Parsons slips out of the van he's driving into a sustained, skidding hover, before planting two fingers on each side of his head. The van he's in is immediately launched up into the air by no visible force at all, in a high arc, meant to interpose itself between Millium's plasma strikes and the middle truck. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a one-use trick, since that means his van is blown to pieces, utterly annihilated by the bolts. The shockwaves of its explosive loss can be felt everywhere, and its parts rain down violently.     The man himself, floating in all his telekinetic glory, presses along on the path here, keeping pace, he hopes, with the trucks that Victor has ideally gotten to stay working. Closing the distance isn't drawing their fire, that's okay. He keeps those fingers planted on his head, and without even a moment of charging, fires off a massive psychic beam at the elevated Watch position on the checkpoint. He's avoiding hitting the elevators, but a searingly precise laserbeam-like effect with all the power of an artillery cannon begins to lance its way all around the checkpoint's ambush points and airspace. He's trying to prevent sniping and artillery-style fire from being a viable tactic here. The wide stream of brilliant orange energy makes a distinctly human-like noise of strained aggression whenever it meets and melts through terrain. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth eyeballs the Tin Soldier. The Masamune flashes so quicly it doesn't even appear that Sephiroth's arm has moved. Even so, the curtain of fire parts into quarters from what can only be compressed air slung from the cutting edge of the blade. The SOLDIER regards the Persona...but Raine has it covered. Instead, Sephiroth retreats back towards the middle of the convoywhere Mel and others have decided to try and cut things open. The SOLDIER's voice carries somehow, but he doesn't appear to be yelling. His tone is calm and almost conversational. "Cease this foolishness. I'm giving you this chance to flee, or I will b forced to cut you down. Decide." 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Ambushing caravans is a very Skaven tactic. Vatol only knows about this one because he was seriously considering robbing it himself, and then blaming it on the dissidents and getting to double-dip in the profits. Something about this rubbed him the wrong way, though... ...so he sent someone to check it out. Mel rips open a cargo truck. It's dark inside. Very dark. Dark enough that the glittering little malevolent eyes inside the truck stand out in terrible, terrifying fashion. Rat-men pour out with an awful scrabbling. It's like a clown car full of carnage, each one armed with short swords, a spear, some kind of primitive firearm of a combination of the same. Some wear leather armor; some wear scraps of plate and chain; others, pushed out in front, barely wear scraps to cover themselves. The cry goes up, taken by the spreading swarm of Skaven. "KILL-KILL!" "KILL-KILL MAN-THINGS!" Amidst the swarm, moving fluidly through the press of bodies, a black-cloaked figure slinks out into the darkness... 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Then people start attacking. Someone shoots Victor, who is giving Orta a place to stay. Someone else captures the crew of the truck she had just been on. Someone throws a flaming clothesline nearly on top of her. Not one, but two people are shooting at the trucks she'd just hidden behind! Victor starts yelling something about how these highway robbers are going to kill people's families and burn their homes. She is inclined to believe him at the moment, caught up in the crossfire.     Orta makes a break for it. She runs out from behind the mid truck once Mel rips the lid off with her mind like a tin can, fleeing the woman and bolting for the edge of the bridge, and leaping straight off. She barely gets her hang time before echoing wingbeats pound down on the aqueduct, and a spear of white shell and yellow wings drops from the sky at high velocity, swooping directly under her and catching her on top of it, before swerving back up into the air.     She winds up riding the shoulders of some kind of armoured, white and red wyvern . . . creature. It looks something like a bipedal dragon, but also like one of those toothy, bone-plated, primeval murder fish that were around before legs were a thing. It's not very big though, not especially taller at the shoulder than a large horse, but when it opens its mouth, what comes out is a piercing, electric-sounding screech that sings like a blown microphone.     The two of them don't come near the ground again. The girl atop the Dragon has had all the fear leave her eyes the moment she made contact with it, having only something hard and calm remaining in them. Her mount swerves to the forefront of the convoy without any visible prompting, where Victor is assaulted by two enemies at once. The girl reaches to the small of her back, and draws out something like a disproportionately oversized handgun, built of fused plates of white carapace.     She points it directly at Will, like she's done it a million times before. The thing has no trigger, no sights, no magazine, --no instrumentation at all-- but she holds it like it's dangerous. "It's you! Just like he said!" she yells from the back of the Dragon, stopping on a dime with a blast of air and taking a near-perfect hover. "Thieves aren't welcome here! Go away! Leave him alone!" The gun-looking thing in her hand goes off. The report is surprisingly quiet, sounding like someone pulsing a laser through a waterfall. It is not, however, subtle, because a quintuple burst of blinding green energy bolts flash out of it and zip straight at William with unerring accuracy. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' There things go from tense to very bad. With Victor the blood hound on the job they are not hiding but they might be able to salvage things until Celes let lose with the magic but really there wasn't any really left she'll do her best to follow MEl's lead on thing but there is some good news the truck is stopped na dhonestly she was wrong it seems Celes plan worked the turck is stopped and now it's time to deal with this as the clash begins. she'llmove to drop down and do what she can to help Meln as she moves while cloaked, still there are ripples in the air as she moves keeping pace the cams only give her an idea of how much heat they are facing this is going toi be nuts. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Well, they succeeded in disabling a few of the trucks... or blowing them up. These more modern warriors seem to have a perchant for doing that sort of thing. That was part of the plan, right? Honestly by this point she is not certain. The cloaked knight turns her attention for a moment when Sephiroth makes his demands to stop and flee. "I think you know as well as I that is not likely to happe--" Mel ripping open a truck only for OHMYGODRATMEN to poor out of it briefly vies for her attention as well, and Athela holds a gauntlet up towards Sephiroth. "Hold that thought a moment..." Turns to her pokemon. "Slurry, if you would please." The blob of pink bobs as if nodding, they slorps off her shoulder to the bridge below. Fortunately he absorbed a lot of moisture while they were below the bridge. The Goomy swells briefly as it churns it up from within, then expels it out like squeezing a sponge. This causes a good sized wave of Muddy Water to surge away from the pokemon, aimed at sweeping up several of the rats and washing them off the side of the bridge. With the rat pack being dealt with Athela turns and jumps atop the same truck as Sephiroth is calling from. As she lands she crouchs forward a bit, Resolute Blade gripped tightly in both hands as she braces herself. "If one wishes to try and stop us, do so!" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Suddenly something interposes itself between Millium's beamfire and her target. ... floating van. "Seriously!?" She whines, immediately shielding herself when the thing naturally blows the heck up from those laser bursts likely striking something important. That tends to be a thing. Maybe not tends to, but whatever. The important things to take away from all of this is that A) Her shots were intercepted. And B) She's gonna have a much harder time getting off a second barrage.      Chiefly because- "-ACK!" Yes, there's that whole searing wave of laserbeam-like energy cutting through the air and cutting off aerial tactics. Mostly because Millium has to cancel funnel mode and turn her orbital armlets into a barrier to protect her precious body from getting shorn in half. Getting cleaved in half is pretty bad news, according to six out of ten doctors! The force is enough to blow her back, spinning through the air a bit before she rights herself. "-Ergh..."      Okay... what now? Ranged options are limited. She reaaaaaaaaally doesn't want to fight. But that person is blocking the way to the goods! Hmmhmmhmmmm.... Millium wracks her brain a bit, staring severely at Flamel for a few moments. Then she cancels her barrier and reforms it into two glow, blue, ornate twin blades. But she doesn't attack just yet. She smiles sweetly, and asks.      "Saaaaaaay, if I asked nicely, would you move out of the way and let me stop that truck? Pleaaaaaaase?"      Because that always works. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' One thing about being a good sniper is that you have to know how to keep yourself concealed, but another means knowing how to move when things are getting dangerous. And with Flamel Parsons trying to take out any potential snipers in the area, Iria knows it's time to move fast. She drops from her vantage spot, rolling quickly and switching her rifle from semi-automatic to full automatic mode. She spins her rifle towards Flamel Parsons and scowls. "You made a foolish mistake targeting me!" She yells. Flamel probably doesn't realize this, but Iria's not afraid of someone who uses powers like his. In fact, the bounty hunter views it as a challenge to herself. "Let me show you a thing or two!" She yells while opening fire. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Suddenly, rats. Rats everywhere. "What the f-!" Mel stumbles back several paces, startled - and incredibly glad that she had the forethought to wrap herself in a telekinetic barrier. It stops her from being swarmed by the mean rodent bastards, from being shot or stabbed and generally regretting every decision. And that's good. It buys her the moment she needs to compose herself... and to push her barrier further outward, effectively 'parting the rat sea' to give herself some breathing room.     She spots one in particular bearing a weapon that catches her eye; this rat is immediately subject to a telekinetic punch that probably carries about as much force as the ratman has mass. In the next instant, there's a less-potent pull on the weapon itself, the Marshal intending to yank it to her hand so that she can examine it more carefully. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth tilts his head slightly, silver hair sliding to the side in a rippling wave. He smirks. It's not an arrogant expression. It's not bombastic o belittling. It's absolute confidence. "As you wish, ma'am." The Masamune is lifted in a salute before he lowers it again. He pauses a beat, taking measure of the woman before him before he bursts into motion without warning. His coat billows behind him as he streaks across the top of the vehicle, swinging the nearly seven foot blade in an overhead arc. One handed. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier is about to try and pry into the back of the truck, when Raine appears, freefalling sword first. The Tin Soldier glances up, threat coming straight at it, and moves to deflect most of the damage. It roars silently, body miming, as an arm flies up to deflect that sword away, gashing into the metal of the Persona. The Persona proceeds to try and push Raine back with its bodyweight, before aiming its gun leg up, shooting a stream of bullets straight for the swordsman, rapidly attempting to pin him down. Meanwhile, August clutches his arm as the pain from the blade transfers over. He's about to move to take cover, when he spots /rats/. Oh no. Laser pistol drawn up, he begins firing at them repeatedly, aiming for center of mass. He's a pretty accurate shot, especially when he's not moving. The problem is, now he's an obvious target... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     A lot of things happen in very short order. Victor's yell reverberates out over the caravan of trucks. The soldiers within seem to stiffen and go pale. "I-is he serious?" One of them asks, looking like the bottom's dropped out from under him. "Does it matter?" another answers, "These bastards are serious one way or another. But we can't let them take this stuff-- the guys out in front are waiting for this shipment!" Similar conversations play out through the other trucks, and as a unit they begin plowing foward around the Original Greaver.     But that doesn't mean they're out of the woods. A great big pink *SPLORT* of goo fills one of the truck cabs, causing the vehicle to swerve and screech to a stop. The vehicles behind it struggle to get by, which isn't at all helped by the fact that they're being /set on fire/ too. This just helps to send the drivers into a frenzy of furious driving. "Go, go, go!" One of them yells, flooring his accelerator!     Will's not doing to well either, though, because that Greaver we mentioned, the one swinging that truck-- is swinging it at HIM. Will yelps as he ducks back, narrowly limboing right underneath a wide swing before a driving thrust hurls him back, tumbling across the ground. "H-how am I supposed to keep him SWINGING?" Will groans, spitting out a splattering of blood from where his teeth cut his lip. A thick welt is beginning to bloom on his brow. "I want him to STOP swinging--"     Victor swings again, and Will does his best to twist out of the way. But that's just enough of an opening for Celes to get atop the truck and slice down into the locking mechanisms at its back end. Victor's swing reaches its zenith, and... A fist pops out? A /FIST/ pops out!?     "N-no way," Will gawps as a LITERAL GIANT ROBOT PUNCH hurtles right at him, along with a whole host of black cases filled with all manner of weapons. "WAUGH!" He drops to the ground! The fist sails right overhead and smashes, knuckle-first, into the highway behind him. "That's... That's from the Sepulchre--" He'd recognize it anywhere, that /machine!/     But he has other things to worry about. Other, dragon-shaped things. Or rather, the girl riding the dragon-shaped thing. "Wh--" Will chokes as bolts of green energy sail right at him! He screams, rolling away from the first through the fourth, but the fifth smashes into his chest and... Hits a distinctly black breastplate. One that immediately begins to sizzle. "Ow, ow, ow!" Will hisses, pushing to his feet and bringing up his OWN hand-cannon. "What're you talking about?! You saw him /swing a truck/ at me, right!? I wouldn't shoot that guy if I didn't know he'd be able to walk it off!" And THIS is just in self-defense. Will grits his teeth as he opens fire, bolts of blue-white plasma sailing up at... the dragon? He's pointedly NOT targeting Orta for... some reason. "Besides, I ain't a thief! I'm a /TREASURE HUNTER!/" Kotone and Mel would find more of those weapon cases in some of the other trucks... along with other, very /large/ pieces of robot. The weapons are definitely of League-make, but... What the heck is THIS thing? 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Orta takes William's attention, which frees up Victor to deal with Celes. The knight's blade carves through the truck's back end, and...      ...and /that/ falls out of the truck.      Victor lunges to grab the huge robot arm in one meaty claw. He hefts the fist like a club, bringing the thing up against his shoulder as he shouts orders over Tactical.      He knows what this is.      Now the parameters have changed. Now the mission objective has changed. The soldiers, they are no longer important. The convoy, it is no longer important.      Victor does not bare his teeth in a smile. He does, however, now hold the weapon - nearly as long as the actual truck - like a greatsword. With speed that really shouldn't be possible holding something that heavy, the Original Greaver lunges towards Celes's landing place, bringing the massive arm down to smash her.      The truck has been utterly discarded. Celes's plan is going to need some modification. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Holy Xerneas is he swinging that sword with -one hand-? It's a good thing her cloak hood is still up, so the brief moment of surprise on Athela's face can't be clearly seen. However she quickly shoves the astonishment back down to focus on the fact that he's doing so rushing towards her like a Golbat out of hell. Athela braces herself and brings up her own sword, holding it crosswise to intercept the downward slash. A deafening ring rattles out as the much large Masamune collides with Resolute Blade. It saves her from being bisected in two but the force of the impact is enough to force Athela down as he grunts and struggles to keep from buckling to her knees entirely. After some struggling she manages to push back and angle her divine blade to briefly push the much larger sword aside. Then lets go of her sword with one hand to thrust it in Sephiroth's direction, a surge of water erupting from her outstretched hand. The bolt of elemental force aimed at the swordman's midsection carries the same concussive force as a small cannonball. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      Raine impacts with the Tin Soldier, blade striking against arm, and ten he's deflected sailing away a short distance before righting himself and skidding across the ground. But he's not got time to dawdle. That thing is firing /bullets for it's leg/. Okay. The swordsman raises the flat of his blade, guarding himself from the brunt of it as several others graze dangerously close past his sides and legs.      "Tch-!"      It tears through his outfit, but he's not worried too much about that. He retreats around the other side of the truck and waits for a moment. In that moment, there's a change of orders across the tactical band. "...Huh. CODE, he says..." Welp. Job's a job. ...But something's odd. That thing's been firing at irregular intervals. Something up out there? The black haired man peers out to look, spying as the Tin Man seems to pause periodically. ".......Heeeeeeh....." Grinning as his mind works, Raine grips his sword and steps out.      He breaks off into a run, sword glowing with shimmering red energy. It's nothing elemental. Just pure magic power. It roils across the blade as he steels himself in his run... Then he leaps to the side a bit, and upon landing, a green glyph forms at the ground. A burst of wind launches him forward. "Isn't it a little too dicey to be getting distracted now!?" He roars aiming to cleave into the seemingly distracted Persona with a non-elemental slash. And if not that, at least bat it away to create distance.      Apparently Victor needs whatever the hell's in these trucks. Fun. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     Agent Parsons isn't actually that focused on violence. Psychonauts use violence pretty suddenly and ruthlessly, but not exactly without respect for principles of pacifism. So when the foe backs down, he does as well. He puts a finger up to his ear. "Unknown opposition. Some sort of magical girl. Currently possessing deadly cufflings, I repeat, extremely deadly cufflinks." What.     "Official Psychonauts business, miss." He flashes his badge, speaking like his man-in-black aesthetic suggests, but in a surprisingly friendly sort of vaguely menacing government monotone. "Agent Parsons, Psychonauts Multiversal Operations Bureau. This is a restricted area and you are firing on League property. Please immediately--"     Several bullets strike him, provoking powerful sparks of bright orange light spraying from his body as lower-level mental shields are pierced and damaged, stunning and bruising him. "Hhhhhh! Yes, show me many things, please. Who do you work for? What are your intentions with the convoy? How did you find our route? Are you aware of the restricted nature of this supply and the right of this nation to take aid? What are your political affiliations?" If Millium isn't going to attack him, he's... Not going to get out of her way, but he's not going to attack HER now. Instead, he takes that psychic position again, and fires a single, massive, explosive shot back at Iria, something that should at least catch her in the shockwave, meant to destabilize and deny her a ranged position if it doesn't blast her head-on. He's got enough PSI blast specialization to mix things up that way quite effectively, even if he seems unsteady and a little more exhausted after taking those shots.     Then he's back to Millium, and putting a finger to his ear. "Actually, never mind. I just got new orders. Please feel free to do as you like to the convoy. Don't interfere in the other things we're doing now." And now he's blasting off on levitation-skating, heading for the other trucks, trying to focus on where Victor's advising... 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' The telekinetic wave pushes the Skaven apart, much to the surprise of basically all of them. They struggle against the force, flinging knives and lunging with spears. The unfortunate who grabbed one of the League-delivered weapons gets knocked clear out of the air, flung back against the other side of the truck, bounced off the now-open roof, and catapulted into a ditch. The weapon doesn't. Mel ends up holding what looks like a metal rod topped with a green crystal cut into a point. It's set between four prongs, arranged to be held like a rifle with a lever on the top instead of a trigger. Looking directly at the crystal makes the eye itch and skin crawl. The rats cause constant pressure, but Mel isn't the only one having rat problems. The swarm starts to spread up and down the baggage train, stabbing and cutting and screeching like madmen. Some get swept aside by the Pokemon-intervention, but -- fun fact -- these rats are the sort with the kind of oily fur that makes them excellent swimmers. The ones that are dry fire warplock pistols somewhat wildly, warpstone-laced bullets detonating on impact with the ground and puncturing armor going sailing this way and that while still more get fried by laser blasts from the outfield. Some turn towards August... There's a sound near him, whisper-quiet. It's hard to pick out, especially over all the violence. Something moves with a rustle of cloth. Hairs stand up on the back of the neck. Survival instincts, should he possess them, warn of a stalker. Another rat-man lunges at him out of the darkness, a figure clad and cloaked in black with wickedly sharp fighting claws attached to its forearms and blackened with some kind of dust. He doesn't say a word -- he just goes from hidden to mid-lunge in the time it takes to draw breath to scream. This can only mean one thing: a /named character/?!      \____/       \  /    OBSKEEK THE GHOST        \/      GUTTER RUNNER        /\ 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth's expression goes serious as the blades ring together like great bells. He lets the Masamune get pushed aside so she can retreat. His eyebrows flicker slightly as she launches a blast of high pressure water at him. The good news is that it striked him in the midsection like a small canonball. The /bad/ news is that he barely seems to notice. He barely gets a hitch in his step on impact. "Interesting." The SOLDIER raises his free hand, a bangle becoming visible on his wrist, dotted with glittering green, yello and violet orbs. He exerts his will on one of them. The scent of ozone rapidly rises before a massive lightning bolt rains down from above at Athela. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Would it be terribly wrong to take just a bit to appreciate the silver-lining of Victor wielding a giant robot fist? That he isn't wielding the truck anymore?     Because as silver linings go it's a great one.     Celes, at least, is satisfied this ended up revealing something about the convoy. Namely, what the most valuable prize is, and what they should prioritize. Whether they manage it or not is another matter entirely, and it's a bit out of her hands. Right now, she's dealing with a ten foot tall lion-man.     She doesn't try to stop the incoming fist. She's not that strong. Victor would squash her like a pancake. She dives to the right instead, coming into full view as her invisibility spell falls off completely. Her white cape trails behind her, caught under the fist and shredded by the impact. She tumbles onto the ground as a result, a hard impact on the concrete of the highway, but it's much better than being crushed by Victor.     In Victor swinging a piece of the weapon she sees just a bit of a silver lining, too. Her sword flares up, a brilliant, deep red and black. She darts back up, foolishly staying in the Greaver's melee range. She swings-- not for him. For the giant robot fist. Her blade erupts, concentrating the entire blast of a normally destructive spell in its impact instead. Explosive force, almost like fire, but definitely non-elemental.     That might leave her open, but she hopes it's worth it. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' Iria is agile, but not always fully agile enough to avoid an incoming attack. She gets caught by Parsons's special maneuver (whatever he wants to call it, Iria's not keen on things like that,) and she gets knocked backwards, dropping onto one knee and clutching her head. "Ugh... what the hell..." Iria mutters as she shakes her head, trying to get her mind to focus again. She slaps her face a few times then stands up and scowls at Parsons. "Who I am and what I'm doing here is no concern to you!" Iria snaps. "I'm just doing what I have to do! Now I'll give you one chance to stand down, or I'm gonna have to really turn on the pain!" She's bruised and battered, but she's also mighty pissed. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta looks actually kind of surprised that Will is still in one piece. That might be a little dark from someone who may or may not be younger than him. The gun is trained back on him instantly as he rolls to his feet, its line of sight following him unnaturally smoothly. "You came out and shot him! You-"     Orta has to hold the rest as the Dragon throws itself back out of the line of the other special handgun's fire, twisting with a kind of sinuous agility that belongs underwater instead of in the air. Despite being the size of a horse, it ducks the first and second bolts, taking the third on its spinal armour, which splashes the plasma like the organic shell is supposed to do exactly that, boiling away a scorched layer with a static hiss from the beast.     It circles to a higher vantage point, not hovering in place for Will to keep shooting at, then turns into a steep dive for the errant fist that had flown past him, either heeding Victor's orders of its own accord, or somehow having them communicated to it by its rider without words. Orta keeps the gun aimed at him, acting as a natural turret to hose him down with return fire. Unlike the Solano, her weapon doesn't seem to need to stop shooting at any point, though it seems to lack punch by comparison.     Hoping to keep him suppressed, Orta allows the Dragon to swoop over the mangled trucks, searching for other signs of the giant robot supposedly broken up between them. When nothing becomes apparent, the Dragon actually begins pinging active scans of the convoy, adding the energy signatures of their cargo contents to the enemy contacts shared between the spatial awareness of itself and its rider.     The creature's jaws open wide, and blue-white light builds up between them; a sphere that pulses one, two, three, four times, growing in size and radiance each time. With a nearly subsonic *thoom*, the ball of light bursts apart into four beams of energy, which instantly swerve around the Dragon's head and curve in on Will in bizarrely graceful arcs. Dodging to either side has them curve to follow him, even anticipating his lead rather than chasing behind him. Unlike the handgun, these lasers hurt quite a lot. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel takes one look at the crystal, and her telekinetic barrier flags for just a moment. A rat knife gets through, flying right in to hit her in the midsection. It doesn't go through the two layers of bullet-resistant material... but it doesn't have to do that to hit her hard, painfully so. Mel hisses, redoubles her concentration, and focuses on the weapon. This is definitely offworld tech.     For the time being, she shifts it to her left hand; the bubble of force is doing a good job keeping the assault of the ratmen out when she can actually concentrate, but she can't keep it that large against that many hostiles (or rather, that many hostile minds) for long. So she returns it to a much closer configuration... and starts to metaphorically shoulder her way through the crowd, trying to move on to another truck. She's got to see if there's more of these, or what else she can find of the GIANT GODDAMN ROBOT they just uncovered. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      That is troublesome.      The explosive weapon (Magic?) goes off violently against the falling arm. It detonates through the armor, smashing plating to pieces, and sends Victor's aim off just enough to hit the bridge instead of Celes - a blow that may actually shake a large chunk of the bridge. This is good - Celes is not going to be crushed to death by an arm being used like a claymore.      What is not good is that Victor is still using the momentum.      It's not just raw force behind his blows. No, it's quite the opposite - as Victor goes slinging himself forward like a javelineer it becomes blatantly apparent that his movements are jam-packed with as much skill as the Ancient Precursor Locals were capable of jamming into his brain.      A massive, meaty claw-hand goes right for Celes's face, backed by the centrifugal force of the falling arm.      Victor goes to literally slam her face into the bridge as hard as he is physically able.      On the upside, Victor doesn't lecture her, or banter, or talk much at all! He doesn't have a mocking glare or a sneer or anything like that - just a stone-faced stare as he attempts to deal with Celes in the most efficient way possible. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa gets a good look at the hardware and dman that's some crazy hardware here the League isn't holding back on the weapon and worse? There seem to be parts for a mech or some kind of combat robot. She's not sure about the robot? It does't look like anything Kotone has quite seen before. She listens to the comm chatter now, wiat that robot? Oh god is it the one she thinks it is? William confirms it on the radio. She gets to looking but soon she's going to end up having some serious problems here as there are rats, bigger than alley cats now showing up. She's yet to know the horror of fighting or dealing with the Skaven but she's about to learn today only if she sees it, Flamel shows up and just out of reflex for al the good it will do? She sets her cyberbrain to Austic mode, she's not sure if she's about to run into him but as Mel and she are looking for one of the key items in the convoy and she's trying to find it but but soon she's going to have issues with Flamel and possibly RATS? She's moving to the point now she could very well be noticed now at this point. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Even with the rain of bullets at Raine, the Tin Soldier tends to stop every few seconds. This is because August has to divert his attention to act at the same time as his Persona, and cannot fight in two places simultaneously. This is a problem because it's super noticeable, and Raine moves to act on it. His blade slams across the Tin Soldier's torso, chopping straight into it and knocking it back, another silent roar of pain. Meanwhile, August takes the feedback, staggering almost to the ground. He steadies himself, and is about to /finally/ move for cover when he senses something coming at him. He begins to turn...and it's too late. Obskeek comes flying, fighting claws thrusting straight into August's stomach. Raine Arland would notice something's up immediately, as the Tin Soldier staggers backwards, clutching at its stomach. But it doesn't vanish, and August doesn't fall. No, he attempts to take a shot at Obskeek with his gun to get him off, before riskily diverting his attention for just one second. He can't fight both at once, but he also can't leave Raine to continue his mission freely. So, the Tin Soldier steps forward towards the center of the truck, points that gun up... And spits fire. Everywhere. It's moving to engulf the entire truck, to engulf Raine, to engulf the Tin Soldier itself. The Tin Soldier is quickly caught in the flames, and it begins writhing in horrible pain, pratically dancing along the truck as the fire sears its scarred metal. August, meanwhile, falls to his knees, pain coursing through his body from knife, sword, and self-immolation. He tries to move his laser pistol up to shoot at Obkseek, but his shots are unsteady, and he's probably easily disarmed. Welp. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' There's still rats all over the place, even with the attempted washout. There is gunfire and stabbing and chaos everywhere. One of the ratmen manage to stomp on the small slug-like pokemon.... Though the Goomy oozes out from under his foot a moment after, leaving a trail of surprisingly sticky gunk in its wake as it oozes under one of the trucks. Water didn't work, so the first rat that tries to get down after the slug is going to get a faceful of indigo Dragonbreath flames instead. Meanwhile, atop the truck, this would be that moment where Athela really gets the feeling that she's biting off more than she can chew. Sure, that wasn't her strongest Tide Caller technique, but still, Sephiroth pretty much tanks it like a big bad boss and shrugs it off as nothing. Then brings the electrified pain of his own down upon the fight. The Thundaga slams down atop the truck, the resulting electrified shockwave forcefully hurtling Athela away with the blast. She hits the top of the semi loudly, sparks crackling as armor skids against the metal surface, then over the end to crash back downward on the windshield of the cab. The young woman exhales sharply, and reminds herself that she doesn't have to necessarily win a fight. Just get her allies the time they need to find what they want. That is enough to steel her will again, despite the sting of pushing herself back into her feet. Duty first, she can worry about how badly she gets beaten up doing so afterwards. In a surge of motion the knight leaps back into action, the cloak burned and tattered from the materia lighting flaring behind her. The hood was knocked off in the fall over the edge and she didn't bother pulling it back up, so Athela's expression gritted and grimaced in determination is plain to see. She doesn't just jump up and towards Sephiroth though. The leaping charge brings her blade heaving down with all the crashing force of a waterfall's descent behind it. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     She damaged the fist! That's good. Victor is still swinging, and he's more than brute strength. That's bad. But she can use the fact he's still swinging to keep damaging that piece of CODE! That's good. She just needs not to get mauled by the surprisingly as-fast-as-he's-strong Greaver.     That's very bad.     At least he isn't very chatty.     Keeps things straightforward.     Victor's non-giant-robot hand grabs Celes' face. He smashes her into the highway. Luckily, she's a lot sturdier than she looks, which means there isn't a big red stain where she gets crushed. Not so luckily, this is a very poor position for her to be in, and the impact's left her dizzy, if not bleeding too. Her hold on Save the Queen tightens. The wind picks up, colored a dull pale green.     She swings, as wide as Victor's hold will let her.     A blast of wind like a tornado gushes out of her sword, trying to knock the Greaver off his feat and away. Really, just 'away'. Into a wall or truck would be a nice bonus, but Celes just wants him not to be holding her skull anymore, and aeroga was the best way she could think of after getting smashed into the bridge. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium just floats there, watching as Flamel shoves off to go do something apparently more important than stalling her. "Huh..." Well, that's a thing. Wonder what the big issue is? ...It proooooooobably has something to do with that whole giant robot thing happening at the moment. ...Wow. They had a /giant robot/. ...That's kinda bad, isn't it? Millium sighs and disperses her blades, now that she doesn't need to engage in melee combat. ...Instead, she's flying off.      Not to attack the convot or destroy anything. No, she's flying off to help August. Because apparently that guy is in some major trouble! Whoever else is running ranged support can deal with Flamel. She bursts off through the sky and down towards August's position. "Get away from him!" She roars, thrusting out an arm as several funnels form.      They charge up, gathering energy before several laser blasts burst through the sky, veering down towards that assassin. What was his name again? Obskeek the Ghost? 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' As Athela recovers from the crushing might of magic, Sephiroth's expression slides towards approval. He can appreciate and admire tenacity of those who are out of their league and know it and still continue on. As the last crackles of electricity zot away from the top of the truck, the SOLDIER turns to regard the knight's return. "Impressive," is all he says. As she races his direction and he faces her head on, she may get the first good look at his face. He's good looking, sure, but the standout feature is his eyes. Inhumanly green, they're slitted like a cat's, which is weird. They also glow faintly. As Athela descends in her leaping charge, the Masamune interposes itself between Sephiroth and the woman's blade. The impact is horrific, the clash of metal on metal almost deafening. The power of her blow buckles the top of the truck, cratering it. Sephiroth's arm doesn't waver. In that instant before gravity takes hold of Athela, Sephiroth moves his arm. He swings the Masamune,, pushing the woman and her blade away with titanic strength. Somebody better go long. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor gets hit right in the chest by elemental wind damage. It tears at his skin and sends him up, up, up, higher than he would like (but not high enough to be a threat to his life). He hangs in the air for a moment, floating at the apex of his arc not by will but by physics.      It is at that point that he makes up his mind.      His opponents cannot, in fact, sustain this attack. They are aware of it. He is aware of it. This is not a siege, and they did not know what they were getting into - this is a raid, and they have discovered that their objective is as different as his has become. More than one of them can fly - but can more than one of them carry the heavy CODE pieces? Can more than one of them fly /and/ carry the heavy CODE pieces? And...with enough space between them and their escape route...would they simply abandon the mission?      After all...not all of them could fly.      So as he begins to fall, Victor's rapid-fire tactical mind has already made a decision.      He drops like a rock, right for Celes. His hands snap backwards like fists. To Celes, it might look like he's about to smash her with weight and force combined, with gravity and raw, overwhelming strength, for a lethal blow.      If she doesn't move, she probably will be.      But Victor isn't aiming for her.      Victor is aiming to destroy the bridge, and send the whole convoy tumbling into the ravine below. Because Victor will survive. Orta can survive. Sephiroth can survive. Flamel can hitch a ride with Orta. The rats...      ...well, he was pretty sure they were expendable even to each other, but maybe they had some flying magic.      But what about the enemy? How many fliers did *they* have? 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      The slash strikes true and sends the Tin Soldier skidded away some distance. Good. Raine smirks and regrips his sword, watching as... it seems to go through some odd movements. Falling to a knee, clutching it's stomach... Oh. Oh wait. Shit. Watching as the Persona goes up in flames, Raine's eyes widen a bit.      ...And then he smirks. "Heeeeh. Cute." The red aura roiling off of his blade disperses, and dashes forward, blade held in reverse. Once those flames start getting spit everywhere in sight, the swordsman shields himself with the flat of the blade, allowing the flames to wash over it...and a good amount get sucked into the weapon itself. Like some kind of elemental vacuum.      But he doesn't use this to attack. He runs /past/ the Persona and aims to get into the nearest entry point of the truck. The CODE part comes first. Gotta grab it, if he can, and vacate the premises!      But that's BEFORE Victor suddenly destroys the god damn bridge! "WHOA-" He teeters on his feet, sinking into a crouch as the truck falls, along with everything else. "Son of a-!" Well, he DID give a warning. "Fragarach! Do the thing!" He calls to the empty air.      A much bigger wind glyph forms beneath him, and he begins to float. Not in suspension, but descending downward as a decelerated rate. At least he won't go splat. 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' The crowd around Mel seems to lessen slightly in the face of the telekinetic field, but only because the Skaven are spreading out. They're grabbing new weapons, an eclectic mix of high tech energy weapons and enchanting melee weapons, and laying into anyone or anything they can get in their sights or arm's reach. The press of bodies surges back towards her, glaive-like weapons crackling with energy swinging down into the telekinetic bubble again and again while the Skaven at the lower parts of the pile claw and scrabble at hard air. Nearby, one of the others tries to deal with something slug-like and ends up screaming bloody murder, clawing at its own face and pitching off the road, thrashing from the dragon-breath until it can't anymore. Its friends decide to go with spear-stabbing instead. That seems slightly safer. OBSKEEK THE GHOST moves like his namesake. August recoils and fires at him, and he darts side to side, moving with the sort of agility that a combination of already-inhuman reflexes and intense training provides. He moves to the side, spins, circling his prey, claws low, watching that pistol -- Millium moves in, manifesting funnels that fire down at the assassin-rat. Obskeek leaps backwards, cloak ignited by the searing energy that barely grazes him. He hisses, planting his feet and catapulting himself into August, charging right into his laser fire with some kind of reckless courage. Or maybe...     ELSEWHERE     A SUBTERRANEAN LABORATORY Vatol Halftail sits at a workbench, examining a weapon. It's sufficient as a sidearm, they said. An officer's weapon. Not enough to be worth keeping; there is better. Foolish. Vatol runs his fingers over the gilded adornments, carefully lifting it. He points it across the chamber, at a scorched wall with a plate of polished, rune-etched metal hanging on it. He fires. The Engineer smiles.     HERE AND NOW ...something else. August's laser hits the rat in the side of his stomach, burning through the cloth covering. The beam strikes the mirror-bright metal scales beneath, breaking up and refracting the beam into the dirt near his feet. It fuses the scales, leaving them shimmering with heat, but it doesn't penetrate. Obskeek hits him fast, sweeping his legs and striking at his gun-hand with a fighting claw, stabbing for arm and wrist with quick, rapid motions, and then throwing himself into a roll. The fire mostly smothers in the dirt. His tail flicks, suddenly visible, and black metal shuriken seem to materialize in the air where it passes. They fly high, a flurry of poisoned weapons aimed to debilitate Millium before his position can get locked down for a second volley. He might not be so lucky this time. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "He can PICK UP TRUCKS," Will yells in that horribly exasperated sort of way that only someone who doesn't believe what is going wrong in his life can manage. "I've shot him before! AFTER he used me as a club! He'll be fine!" Will's mind boggles at the situation he finds himself in. This is the SECOND time he's run into this particular giant, and the possibility of its power being turned against his home is frankly terrifying-- if anything, bantering with the dragon-rider is helping him keep himself from /completely/ losing his shit.     Not that it helps much, because that girl's got a gun almost as crazy as his! Will grits his teeth as tight as he can manage as the world seems to fall apart around him. Celes is punched into the highway. August is /shanked/ and he... He has a dragon-girl shooting at him. Bolts of blinding green energy pour down around him. Another smashes into his chest, vanishing again into that breastplate. The scent of burnt flesh wafts into the air.     More and more shots pour down. Will's cloak is potholed by green blasts, his voice cracks as the pain works its way out of his throat in a terrible scream. "Damnit," he yells, "We can't let them get this thing-- this monster!" More pieces reveal themselves. Mel finds herself staring at what looks like shoulder and upper arm. Kotone finds a leg, and Orta finds... A pelvis? No chest yet, though. No head, either.     But the situation's deteriorating regardless-- and Orta's pet dragon just breathed a quartet of homing lasers right at him.     Victor... Victor crushes the bridge. The force of his blow shatters the concrete construction. A blast of hydraulic force follows as the aqueduct below is ruptured into the swamp. Water floods the already drenched landscape.     Will's eyes go wide and quiver for a moment... Before suddenly sharpening, dagger-like. He drops low, braces himself, and then suddenly /surges/ forward, faster than anyone on two legs has any right to be. A high pitched whirring noise screams out from under him. "Hrrrrrrrraaaaaah!" He rushes forward, /through/ the gap between the dragon's breath. "I can't let this happen! There're too many lives!" Will yells, reaching forward with one arm...     A crackle of electricity. A whirr of an unspooling cable. Orta would feel something catch on her dragon's leg-- and would see a desperate Chaser surging up along a grappling hook straight for her. His weapon is aglow.     At this range, the difference in firing rate doesn't matter. Will aims, and fires... Downward? A blast of plasma launches him up at tremendous speeds, until he sweeps back up and overtop of the dragon-rider. "Sorry, but I can't! I can't let you use that weapon! There're people--" He aims, again, at that same section of armor he'd managed to connect with earlier. Bolts of plasma arc out as fast as he can pull the trigger. Solano's barrel begins to glow white-hot! "There're people I need to protect!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is doing the best she can to push her way through the crowd, but they're not making it easy; ironically, there'd be less difficulty if she could make her telekinetic bubble even tighter around her, but that would start risking some of that crackling energy actually reaching her. So she's got to push at more than arm's length, shoving and trying to get by them to reach the next truck, which... also isn't the piece they're after. "Dammit, where is-"     The entire bridge lurches and shudders.     Mel happens to be looking towards Will's fight when Xix takes the tableflip solution. Her eyes go wide, for a moment forgetting about the ratmen around her. "Oh, you have got to be /KIDDING ME/-!" There is already a deep, frustrated fury in her voice, because her choice is already made, without even an instant's hesitation or care.     She has decided to hate herself for the next few days in favor of not letting her allies die.     The Marshal's hand comes up to her cheek. She yanks off the small device clinging there. She whips her arms to either side. And an absolute torrent of telekinetic power erupts from her in all directions, blasting back the Skaven. "GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH-!"     Shimmering, gleaming flickers of purple light ripple around the bridge, from end to end. Like watching purple sunlight reflect off a turbulent lake, they seem to envelop every cracked piece of bridge, every large chunk of concrete, even the water shifts as if it's hitting something solid - though she can only /sort of/ keep it properly flowing. Plenty is leaking out already. The area around Mel herself has become a storm of kinetic force, the Marshal lifting up off the ground, longcoat billowing, her ponytail snapping free of its tie to let her hair flow loosely in the psionic wind.     Most importantly, her eyes are aglow with purple light. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     "Who you are and what you're doing is our concern." Parsons responds curtly. "We have warrants for investigation into many things. Who do you work for? Who is making you do this? What further intentions do you have with these supples? Who do you work for?" He's really focused on that last one. "We will not stand down. You can do what you like with the trucks now, but do not interfere in the more important matters the League is engaging in. This is a restricted area."     He's stopped long enough to not set off Iria again. This just so happens to be long enough for Victor to snap the bridge like it's made of gingerbread. "Like that." He says, firmly, as the League promptly attempts to drop its own suppy convoy into a ditch. Honestly, Agent Parsons doesn't entirely understand what's going on, but he knows he's learning a lot of it.     He's ready to glide, ready to take a leap and hold it, but it doesn't stick. The ground under him cracks and lurches, but a sudden rush of telekinetic energy hoists everything back up, letting him slam back onto the ground. "You know," He says. "It sounds like you should leave. Unless you can fly, your friend's impressive psychokinetic abilities probably can't hold up long. I can break my fall, but you can't." He gives Iria the staredown. Mel's drawn his attention to the shoulder she'd just about found. He can't get near, not with psychic power that intense on display. He's a Psychonaut, and he knows the superior psychokinetics when he sees it. But...     What Mel Brock is doing must take tremendous focus. While she's stopping that, if he can just... Reach his own little telekinetic hand through the storm and pluck the shoulder up... And that's white literal. A translucent black hand of telekinetic force is trying to sneak through the storm and poach the mecha part while Mel is, to say the least, /very/ distracted. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Victor comes down like a hammer. Celes, still more or less in her own crater, panics and rolls to the side, hoping that's enough. It mostly is, as she gets flung off the ground by the impact and crashes into Victor's discarded truck, and then hits the highway again. To say she groans is an understatement, as she manages to rise to her feet and lets out what could probably pass off as a groan but is more like the insane mutterings of someone who just had the daylight knocked out of her.     Then the ground shakes, and she realizes what Victor has done. "Are you... are you willing to kill all of your men just to spite us?!" No, maybe he won't kill his 'important' men. But all the officers and soldiers of the convoy, the drivers? Can THEY survive the crash?     She could attack Victor. But that's a losing battle. So instead she's going to make him have to split his attention. Her sword flashes, bright white. Celes speeds up, the flow of her time accelerated for a moment. Hasted, she rushes for the damaged giant robot fist Victor had to discard. She's going to grab it, awkward as it'll be to hold on to, cast float on herself, and leap off the bridge.     In her mind this is a good plan. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' The rat-men hunch down and resort to stabbing under the truck with their spears. A few of the jabs would feel resistance as they connect, but the dragon-slug is using Protect to shield himself while slithering out from under the truck on the other side. It was much a diversion as his trainer had intended, keeping their attention for an amount of time. But the Goomy didn't really want to deal with dozens of pointy-sticks on its own and was slicking a slimy retreat in the opposite direction. It really says something when a man can take a blow with such immovable stance that the damage just crumples the area around him instead. It's only an instant that the two weapons collide with resounding force, but that moment seems to linger forever due to the intensity. Whoever or whatever this cat-eyed man is, it is definately not of the standard humanity. Not by a long shot. It really says something when a man can take the power of a strike with such unmoving, unflinching position that it's the -vicintiy- that soaks the damage instead. Well, that's damage to another truck, at least? Yeah, Athela doesn't have much else at the moment. Nor does she even get a chance to put her feet back on the ground. Sephiroth swings before she can, and one arm is all he needs to slam Masamune into her gut and heave the young woman hurtling into the air! On the bright side, she doesn't have to worry about evacuating the bridge collapsing after the massive man smashes into it like a meteor. There is still the matter with being forcefully put airborne, though. This would have a much worse outcome if it wasn't for being near water. As is, being battered and winded doesn't do her any favors, but as she reachs apex and starts to drop back down Athela clenches her eyes shut in concentration, reaching out. The Tide Caller is answered though, and a spout of water spirals up from the aquaducts below. Landing in that is hardly comfortable either, but at least inside the watery surge she can use her abilities to bleed the momentum off her fall and just hit the swampy waters below in a splash instead of a crushing impact. The bridge is a bad place to be. Goomy appropriately bails out, also riding the waterspout like a slide to get away from the possible collapse. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier does not react to Raine. It cannot, as it is too busy burning to death. It also cannot escape the bridge, because August is currently not controlling it and it is taking too much damage to simply disappear. August doesn't react to Milly coming in with the assist. He doesn't react very much at all, because his gut is stabbed and he's bleeding pretty heavily. Obskeek easily disarms him, claws striking into August and cutting him up even worse. He should fall, by now. He should collapse to the ground and blackout. But he doesn't. While Obskeek is distracted with Milly... August takes his last chance. He dives at the rat assassin, moving to tackle him to the ground. His fists ball up, adrenaline roaring through the teenager as he just strikes at Obskeek, over and over, attempting to beat him to death with his fists. This is a horrible, terrible idea. But August isn't in a place for good ones. 

:'''{{#var:215|Iria (215)}} has posed:''' No, Iria can't fly or anything like that. And while Mel isn't exactly a friend, she doesn't want to be caught by the falling bridge either. "Dammit, gotta run!" She yells out as she runs as far away from the area that the bridge could crush her in. "I hope she'll be OK..." 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth watches Athela go sailing with a mostly disinterested expression. It's about then that the bridge starts to crumble. Then it doesn't crumble because Psychic Power. He frowns a little, regarding the floating woman before he hops down from the wrecked truck. He looks at his sword hand with a frown. Is that a cramp? Interesting. He looks forward again, and starts walking calmly towards the end of the bridge that Victor and Celes are fighting at. He's not going to intervene, he's just trying to get off of the bridge. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Well.      That rat was faster than Millium expected it to be.      August was also DUMBER THAN SHE EXPECTED HIM TO BE!      "Damn it, Augustus Caesar!" She grinds watching as he dives for OBSKEEK THE TERRIBLE... or was that Ghost? Whatever! But unfortunately, she's kind of tied up now! Specifically poisoned shuriken veering upward for her! "Ack-!" She panics and quickly floats aside. ...But not in time to clear the area. One shuriken strikes her in the arm and she hisses in pain, yanking the thing free and tossing it aside. "Ow ow ow..."      If it was just a shuriken, Millium would have been fine, but... Suddenly she pales and a she brings a hand up to her mouth, covering it. With herculean effort, she keeps her lunch down, but teeters in the air. "Ugh... Poison...?" She shakes her head rapidly and steels herself, taking a deep breath. With August all over the assassin-rat, she can't just unload a full volley on them. PLUS THE BRIDGE. AND MEL. DAMN IT. CHANGE OF PLANS.      Ignoring her sickness for as long as possible, Millium bursts downward, soaring through the sky and aiming to grab August and drag him away in flight to clear the bridge. No point in continuing to fight! 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      The bridge lurches, and doesn't fall.      Interesting.      Victor doesn't have to look up to see the source; his magnetic sense is already telling him exactly what the source of the strange effect is.      The longer that effect is sustained, the less effective his tactic becomes.      Victor moves to grab the arm - but Celes already has it, and is over the bridge. Victor can do a lot of things, but he can't *fly*, and that means Celes (and the arm) is effectively out of his reach. That's...frustrating, but he'll make do. The arm wasn't.../the most/ important piece. He wasn't sure if the CODE would work without it, but he knew the head and chest were probably more important, simply by process of elimination.      Victor swings his eyes towards Mel.      "Let us see how much strain you can take," He declares as soldiers scramble away, running for the hills.      He hoists the fallen truck, the one he had swung at Will at the battle's start.      Then he slams it down like a jackhammer into the bridge. It rises again. BOOM. It falls again. It rises again. BOOM. It falls again.      Victor is going to keep hammering away until the pieces of the convoy fall to the ground below, and he and the others can pick through the pieces at their leisure. The soldiers, though on their own, will probably survive - Victor, or Orta, or one of the others, probably has some trick to rescue them.      For now he has a tactic to execute. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta keeps her aim trained on Will with all the human error of an industrial laser cutter, focusing him under a withering hail of fire that just never, ever, seems to stop. For how big and bright they are, the energy bullets aren't quite as deadly as they seem like they should be, but she must have fired well over a hundred rounds without pausing, or even feeling the recoil. The Dragon banks and glides to follow him, effortlessly angling its body and turning its wings so that she has an unrestricted line of fire on him at all times, as if it were looking straight through her eyes.     "You can't have it! It doesn't belong to you! You'll do terrible things with it!" Orta sounds almost aggrieved at the idea of Will getting ahold of the giant robot that she just now knows exist, as if the matter were personal. The bridge is of little consequence to her, high up in the air on top of her trusty, winged friend. She seems content to watch Will drop as the volley of lasers accelerates towards him, closing in on four sides, perfectly spaced.     She feels the yank on the Dragon's leg at the same time it does, holding on to keep her balance as his weight destabilizes the two, and leaves her sharply leaning over the side with a wild flutter of her scarf. She has to switch her gun to the opposite hand, aiming down at Will as fast as she can, but before she can even pull the trigger that doesn't seem to exist, he goes vaulting right over her.     There is a brief moment where she is looking up at him, and he is looking down at her, both over the sight lines of their respective weapons. Orta looks straight into his eyes without any hint of the lackadaisical girl who had fallen face first off a truck a minute ago, but further without any hint of understanding of what he's talking about. Her grey gaze is so calm as to be machine-like, glinting with the reflection of Solano's white hot glow. A flicker of comprehension, and then emotional concern soon goes through her, but it isn't at the mention of people who need protecting. Those words fall completely flat in the face of her realizing he's aiming for the Dragon's existing injury.     She fires simultaneous with him. Both guns go off at the same time, and of all the things, her bullet intercepts his, too perfectly to be an accident. As is predictable for hitting a charged plasma shot, it explodes in the air, and pretty violently, consuming her own shot without effect. The force is enough to throw both her and the Dragon into a downward tumble.     The mount lets out a crackling shriek of thoroughly distorted pain, before righting itself catlike quite a ways down, skin scorched and armour flaking all along its back, except a clear space around Orta herself, weirdly. It pounds its wings to regain level flight, where she leans heavily against its neck, steadying her aim again. "Please. Just hold on for a little longer. We've almost got them. Just a little more."     The two of them accelerate, gaining distance from Will. Orta bites her lip, fixating on the shimmering shape of Mel in the middle of the storm, holding up the collapsing bridge. "If we get her, everyone can go home safely." she says aloud, 'everyone' apparently only including the League. In response, light shines between the Dragon's jaws. It pulses and grows brighter multiple times. Its Rider watches Mel, hearing the little bleeps in her head. On the fourth pulse, the gathered energy bursts into another volley of electronically booming lasers, this time going for a stationary target, who /looks/ like the vulnerable lynchpin.     Focusing all her attention on the lady not actively fighting is probably a hugely bad idea. Orta doesn't seem to realize that. She goes for the robot pelvis she found earlier instead, leaving the lasers for their mark. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa dinds the leg gets a good look at it but there isn't no way she's going to be able to make off with the leg. Heck even if she had her matter maniplator with her the thing looks like it would be too much for it to take in in one go and they'd need it intact if they ran off with it right? She also listening on the comm as she hears MEl's warning. She's not even goign to think twice she's going to /trust/ Mel's warning trust in her fellow Paladin and get the heck off the bridge. She's thankfully got he mens to do this and she really waits she looks to Ira for a moment then to Flammel and calls out. "I'd not stay here if I were you!" With that Kotone is going to drop cloak and start to haul tail with inhuman speed as she's going to get off the bridge by any she can but she ould fall prety to the rats or something else. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      ".....Well."      Raine eyes the tin soldier for one moment. And then Mel, keeping the bridge up with all the force in the multiverse, then, he just shrugs and moves to get into the truck and retrieve the CODE part.      That other stuff'll sort itself out.      Probably. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is in no place to stop Flamel. The telekinetic torrent pouring out of her might make it difficult to actually get ahold of the arm, but if he can navigate that, it's his. Her entire focus, her entire power is turned to the bridge right now, coat and hair both flowing outward as she exerts the full, unfettered reaches of his power. Now, Xix, on the other hand. Xix is very much forcing her to pay attention to him, because he is directly interacting with her power. The assault doesn't hurt her... directly. Bue he's forcing her to push back against that strength while she's already at her upper limits, and that strains her body even further. Her glowing purple eyes turn in his direction-     Those lasers don't manage to get through the storm cleanly. But enough energy gets in that the searing blasts earn a yell of pain from the Marshal. Her eyes dart up to Orta, hanging in the air, presenting a clear and direct threat. Then to the Tin Man, completely aflame. And then finally, back around, to settle on Victor Xix.     And through all the sound of a psychic unleashing incredible power, her voice manages to ring out clearly just once. "Hey! Hey, fuzzbutt!"     The road drops out from under Victor entirely.     "Fuck you."     She lets go entirely of the section of road that the Greaver stands on. Lets it drop away, lets the water flow down after it. She also lets go of the section the Tin Man is on... briefly. Long enough to let the Tin Man itself drop into the water. Then that section lights up with purple energy again, and finally there are glowing violet eyes pointed Orta's way. "And you! I am in the middle of saving goddamn lives here! Piss off and let me do my job!"     That section of road is suddenly flung up into the air, straight at Orta and her mount. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Mel removes her power.      This is a critical mistake. Had she /dragged him down/, it would've been a different story. But her power, her power shows up in his magnetic vision. It tingles and distorts and bubbles and buzzes. It is a distorting rainbow in his senses, a humming and thrumming that demands part of his attention be associated with that.      Then she removes it, and that immediately informs him of a fact: gravity is about to take hold.      So the instant she removes her concentration, Victor *leaps*. The ground below him goes flying downwards. His foot plants against the falling truck, now deprived of the highway. Another *leap*. He cannot fly, but anyone watching right now would think that, perhaps, that isn't /that/ huge an impediment.      The Greaver does not stop. The instant he touches down in a spot, he's moving again. He dances next to his own fleeing soldiers, banking on Mel's kindness and desire to 'protect lives'. He darts between these people, never stopping for long enough to /come to a rest/, as he goes right for the part Orta dropped.      The Greaver lets out a thunderous, ear-splitting roar.      "I WILL NOT PERMIT IT!" 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' August does something reckless and stupid and, actually, no, that's a pretty solid idea. Obskeek gets tackled to the ground and beaten like a bully who just discovered the meaning of 'nerd rage.' He fights back, biting and scratching and stabbing at August while his face gets beaten in, but August can /feel/ the progress. There's a definite, satisfying feeling of tenderizing something that will soon just be meat on the ground, a sort of catharsis that might just be the blood leaving his body. Just when he might be about to finish the job, though, Millium swoops in and the assassin takes advantage of the brief opening. Obskeek fumbles with a hidden pouch, managing to draw a bone effigy out of it in one hand and spilling the rest of the contents onto the ground. He snaps it with his fingers, and explodes into a cloud of sulphuric smoke with a very distinct 'BAMF' echoing from where he lay. He's gone. The rest of the Skaven start to scatter. August gets... a couple flat disks of some kind of greenish rock and a few stab wounds. Victory...?! 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier's in no place to argue about falling into the water below. It submerges as the bridge falls, the fire quickly being doused. It disappears shortly afterwards. August wants to keep beating the Skaven to death. He's being fueled by pure survival instinct, 'kill to live'. However, he's in a pretty sorry state, so Millium is easily able to drag him off, despite physical protests. August is carried off, leaving him with only some weird fragments of some rock, blood on his knuckles, oh, and all of his blood pouring out of him. Woops. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "I'm telling you," Will yells through the roaring wind, "All I'm going to do with that thing is to make sure nobody finds it or uses it ever again!" His body is blackened and burnt. For all that his suit of Ancient armor protects him from blasts of energy almost exactly like the ones Orta is throwing around, the sheer /number/ of shots has still taxed it to its limit. All that excess heat has to go somewhere-- and the only place for it to go is right into Will's body.     And then Orta goes and blows up one of his own plasma shots. The blast ripples, the containment field collapses, a cloud of superheated gas consumes them both-- but apparently, Will knew not to breathe. He still screams. It STILL burns. The dragon twists and turns, his arm is turned into a fulcrum around which his body is tossed like a ragdoll. But he doesn't let go. He hangs on! He can't-- he can't just let them get away with enough to put this thing back together--! Then he sees it. He /hears/ it. Victor, going for the pelvis.     "Dangit--" Will growls. His arm spasms and the hook comes away from the dragon's leg moments before Mel's boulder impacts. It falls limp, the muscles strained and screaming against any attempt of movement-- so he forces it with his other arm. The grapnel launches again with an electronic crack and snags the pelvis. It reels in. Will surges up at it, the wind whipping in his face. "I won't--" He turns, finding himself trapped between Victor and his prize. In a split second, he'll be a fine, red mist. Except for the gun aimed right at the Greaver's face. "I won't let you put this thing back together!" Will roars. He depresses the trigger, the Solano's barrel glows WHITE as a catastrophic blast of plasma erupts from its very heart, "I AIN'T GONNA HAVE IT!" If this doesn't stop Victor, he's a dead man. Even if it does, he and that part are going tumbling into the swamp. Let's hope Will's tougher than he looks. 

:'''{{#var:1094|Flamel Parsons (1094)}} has posed:'''     The hand has a bit of a tough time getting ahold of things in the midst of that psychic storm. But once it has a grip, Agent Parsons is going to /keep/ it. The good thing about Psychonaut telekinesis being grip-based is that once they have a hold on something, it's much easier to keep that hold on something. Flamel slips it closer to him, and then, while people are busy with other topics, activates his invisibility, rubbing himself out of perception for the enemy.     Another of those big black hands rises quickly, shooting up into the air. It's ready to grab onto whatever passes by to airlift extract him, hopefully letting him escape quickly with his piece of the machine. "Operation compromised, I need extraction." He says, in that same faux-MIB friendly tone. "As soon as possible, please." These collapsing bridge fragments are worrying him. Mel might give up any any time. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, after peeling through a PILE OF BURNING WRECKAGE, Raine Arland finds... A glassy eye peering up at him. There's no light in it, nothing to indicate that it'll activate any time soon, but it's staring up at him regardless. It looks like he found the head! 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      The Terminal shoots him in the face.      Victor lets out another thunderous roar as his vision is consumed with pain, though he closed his eyes fast enough not to be blinded. His magnetic senses go mad. Plasma burns into flesh thick and durable as concrete, sizzling and melting through Victor's eye. His eyebrows burn off instantly. Part of his hair catches fire, for the second time in the last two months. The plasma bolt blows out the back of his head. Were it not for the instantaneous cauterization, there would be blood everywhere.      Will and Mel are both treated to the sight of the Greaver's head blown open, a full quarter simply /obliterated/. The Greaver stutters only briefly, the massive war-weapon's motion a stammer, like a frame-by-frame play of claymation.      As Will, and the pelvis, go tumbling into the swamp below, the Greaver's lips twist into a snarl.      They had the torso, they had the head. They could retrieve the rest from the swamp. But...      But the CODE couldn't be assembled. Not without the pelvis and the arm.      He had had enough of mercy.      The semi-headless Greaver turns away. He would recover from the fall before the boy did.      Now, he simply /waits/ for Mel to give up. 

:'''{{#var:604|Raine Arland (604)}} has posed:'''      "....Huh."      The truck is kind of still on fire. Mel is still holding up the bridge. And he can't fly. If she lets go, He's gonna take a nice fall. ...Actually that's not a problem. He grins at the sight of the eye and sweeps away enough of the other burned wreckage to reveal a portion of the head. "Jackpot."      He looks aside. "Fragarach. Do the thing." He says, causing the air to shimmer as a white figure materializes. She gestures to the head, causing it to become surrounded in a glow and start to levitate. And then she dematerializes. "Alright. Objective complete. Let's get the hell out of here!"      And he vaults out of the burning truck, head floating off after his movements. He hightails it without aiming to engage anyone else. As per the changed objectives. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium flies far the heck away, getting out of the area of the bridge, before she lays August down onto his back and immediately starts to apply first aid. She's no staff chick, no mage, or anything like that. But she's got some medical supplies! It'll have to do for now. Anti-bacterial solution is applied and bandages are wrapped around the most important wounds generously. Best she can do for now! 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     The Dragon's lasers don't kill Mel where she stands. That's actually a problem. Orta has just fully turned away from the woman when she hears the mature language being hurled her way, looking back just in time to see the other thing being hurled her way: a sizable chunk of the aqueduct.     The two of them don't have time to maneuver. The Base Wing isn't fast enough. It crashes into them head on, shattering into blocky pieces, and eliciting the mixed shriek of a young girl and the synthesized eagle cry of an artificial beast, separated by the impact and left to fall a considerable distance to ground.     Orta is not built like a Greaver, but the Dragon more or less is, despite its rather scrawny state, and so it manages to right itself first, trailing drops of blood in its wake as it swoops back under its rider and diligently catches her. Orta keeps her gun in a death grip as she whumps back into her seat, this time actually cut and bruised from the debris that she wasn't mysteriously shielded from. She struggles to draw air back into her, pushing her hair from her vision, and finally catching sight (and ear) of Parsons succeeding in doing the thing everyone was supposed to be doing.     Casting a wounded look at Mel, the two of them fly off again, moving remarkably fast, despite being in no shape to continue fighting the de-limited psychokinetic. Upon reaching him, the Dragon demonstrates the third instance of telekinesis present, though by far the most time. A gleaming bubble of fragile energy encases him and the CODE part in mid-fall when it and Orta draw close, slowing his fall over several seconds until he can more or less hover.     There is space for Parsons to hop on, but he'll have to keep carrying his prize with his mind. The Dragon looks pretty beaten up, and Orta is breathing pretty heavily on its back, with a number of darkening splotches standing out on her pale skin. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And Xix demonstrates a much faster reaction time than she'd given him credit for. "Dammit-!"     Right now, there isn't much more the Marshal can do. Every second she spends holding this bridge up is another second of agony, and if she takes the hand, either she'll have to let go of the bridge to defend herself, or he'll cream her. Pauwel will have to entirely decide the clash with Xix himself - something he does in a way that has her quietly swearing under her breath at him. And Xix... Xix has been shot through the head. And still stands there, turning to look at here. There's a moment where she meets his eyes... eye? He's only got the one right this moment.     And Mel realizes something about his reaction times. And the fact they're basically the only two people left on the bridge.     So she lets go. Of every piece of the bridge, EXCEPT the part under her, and the part under Victor. This frees up a considerable amount of telekinetic force... and she puts every bit of it she can spare into flinging the piece Victor stands on up into the air.     "I hate... repeating... myself," the Marshal hisses, her voice hoarse.     She then does her very best to reach out and try to grab the CODE's pelvis, and hopefully give Will something to cling to safely. At this point, though, he might be out of range, and her flagging concentration might not be able to snare it in time. It's dicey. But it's the best she can do. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa makes note one to never question the powers of Mel's mind and two she owes Mel majorly for saving their asses in this situation she is mauling she is moving as fast as she can do. She will do wht she can to help August later, right now she has to get clear s and she looks back and then oh dear god Victor isn't going to have non o that. He's not going to have any of that, she turns about to look back but then she moves trying to catch up with everyone /else/. This has got crazy but damn the league really is meddling here she catches sight of Parsons but she's busy aiming to help anyyone who needs help to get away. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor goes up.      His reaction time is staggered, but only just. There's some clear impairment for having *a hunk of his skull disintegrated by plasma,* and it's costing him. Mel flings him upwards, and it takes him a moment to process what's going on, because he's missing a large chunk of his considerably powerful brain.      Finally, however, he reacts enough to throw himself backwards and fall. He falls feet-first towards the swamp below, towards the trucks and their contents.      This won't be a casual landing - in fact it is going to hurt a /lot/, and probably shatter both his legs for a while - but it's the only option he foresaw remaining to secure as many pieces as possible.      He'll rendezvous with the others as soon as he can. It might take him a little while. He'll have to regrow a /lot/. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Ah. He stopped.     Will allows himself a slight smile as he falls back against the giant mechanical pelvis. This, he thinks, is a really weird position to be in. But it's still better than the alternative. He sighs, then, as he sees the clouds and the sky shrink away above him. In a few seconds, he'll hit the swamp, and then... And then what? He can barely move, the skin on his chest is burnt to a crisp. Everything and everywhere hurts so, SO much. He closes his eyes just a moment before he hits the ground. ...And slows to a stop as Mel's power seizes around him. Well. Looks like William Pauwel lives to chase another day. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Slowly, carefully, the pelvic piece lifts up into the air. It floats over, along with Mel's own debris platform, until both of them set down very gingerly and carefully on the far side of the ravine - the direction the Iskandrian forces were heading, rather than the direction they came from.     As it sets down, Mel herself finally ceases to float, boots touching back down on what remains of the road. She takes a second or two to see that Will is still alive.     And then she collapses to the ground, rapidly losing consciousness. 
}}

4986/Rosin Up Your Bow

2017-01-09T06:02:12Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/01/05 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=The Requisite Seedy Bar Episode. The Fiddler makes a deal. It's probably not going to cost anyone t..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/01/05
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=The Requisite Seedy Bar Episode. The Fiddler makes a deal. It's probably not going to cost anyone their souls.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1051, 941, 1081, 385, 894
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     A little over a week ago, Will made the dubious decision of trekking through a monster-infested marsh all on his own. He compounded this mistake by not stopping to ask why the little navigational waypoint he had been following was actively moving away from him. And then he got attacked by basically the entire swamp, then exploded. This has not been the best month to be William Pauwel.     On the bright side, Milly managed to negotiate a ceasefire AND arrange a meeting between the Watch and the mysterious, mythical Fiddler in Green. He had ostensibly requested a meeting on neutral territory, which apparently means 'a swampy tavern in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.' There's no pomp or circumstance here; just a message that somehow found its way to Milly's front door and a location.     'Bumfuck nowhere' is maybe a bit of a harsh term, but this inn has definitely seen better days. One of Iskandria's elevated highways soars immediately overhead, neatly bisecting the small, rural road to nowhere in particular that feeds a trickle of traffic into the establishment. Not that this is the only building in the area but the wooden, ramshackle thing IS the only one still illuminated. Everything else seems abandoned. This was likely a failed frontier settlement, and now only serves the occasional overnight traveller and the somewhat more frequent bands of brigands and ruffians that lurk in the swamp.     Will is here, of course, and has already made his way into the dingy, dimly lit building. He looks... not /profoundly/ uncomfortable- he's been in worse, apparently- but he certainly seems a little on edge. It's understandable, given the looks pretty much everyone at the bar tosses the outsiders. There is a non-zero chance that one of these guys might try to mug them later.     Their host is apparently already at a table-- a large, round one in a secluded corner of the building behind a sliding door. He seems to be unarmed. "The old man's ready for ya," says the distinctly one-eyed barkeep, "Play nice now. You break it, you buy it." Well. That's how these things are. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Ah, joy.      A message that somehow got to her residence, marking the location of this meeting. ....WAIT, HOW DID THEY GET HER ADDRESS?      Nevermind that.      Millium relayed the message to Will, and surely he did the same to the others, and after many minor and inconsequential happenings, Millium and Claire are at this shady bar with Will. The blonde girl is smiling nervously at all of these stares they're getting. Claire is about as stonefaced as usual. Whatever. Another happening in the days of her life. Can we get to the important part?      Yeah.      Millium has SERAPH turned off, naturally. No weapons right? It's technically true! ...Technically! She looks totally unarmed and she plans to not start a fight anyway! Claire never seems to be armed anyway, unless you count that laptop. Information is power? ... Maybe. Whatever. They're here! It's Millium that speaks up.      "W-We won't break anything!" Pause. "...I think." She adds in a low mumble. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     To be fair, even 'bumfuck nowhere' is not difficult for Mel Brock to pull off, thanks to her ability to fly a spacecar. She at least has the grace to not show up wearing her Marshal jumpsuit and longcoat, but the color scheme is similar, at least, in that she has on a dark blue sleeveless T-shirt and a pair of slightly baggy jeans, and of course her limiter as well. She does have one special thing in her pocket, but it's for the next few minutes, not now. She gives the bartender a small nod, and heads on back.     THOSE WHO GOT A RIDE WITH MEL (assumption: Yuna, Celes, August): The Firestarter-C is essentially a large, comfy flying car. Relatively spacious cabin, bucket seats with proper harnesses, full environmental control. Going from the comfortable cool of the Chaser to the muggy heat of the swamp is probably unpleasant. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     This time, Celes intends not to set anything on fire and, therefore, not cause incidents related to fire. It'll be great, and make up for said incidents relating to fire.     Glad to see they've been called to an inn, not back to the swamp, the former general, obviously pinning to make it up to William for the now twice mentioned fire-related incidents, had agreed to meet the Fiddler in Green and lend her modest diplomatic skills to the task. She'd not had time to ask every question she wanted about Will's world, sadly, but she'll do her best to pick up and learn quickly.     She steps off the ship Mel had so graciously brought along for all of them, wearing the usual. Save the Queen, not Excalibur, is sheathed to her side, but the blonde woman hopes not to need it. She's never without a sword, though. Part of how she grew up. Can't help it.     Before they all go in, being told the Fiddler is already inside, she turns to the others to ask the obvious. "Anything we should know before we meet him that hasn't been mentioned so far?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Being able to hitch a ride was a huge benefit for Yuna; Elner is tagging along anyway, just in case things hit the proverbial fan (and Yuna is hoping the tavern will have a not-so-proverbial fan, as well as hoping that nothing hits it). She also seemed suitably appreciative of Mel's sweet ride, even if she didn't describe it in exactly those terms. In response to Celes's question, though, Yuna just shrugs and says, "I may not be local enough to know, but I'm guessing 'don't start any violence' is good advice generally. This Fiddler is the guy who was turning the swamp hostile against perceived intruders, right ... ?" She looks questioningly at Millium, who was the one to actually TALK to the Fiddler. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As usual, August is here, riding aboard the Chaser. Due to the rule of 'no weapons', he has a small mirrored bracelet on, bought from a dollar store. It's crap and flimsy, but the mirror works for his purposes. He's entirely silent during the ride, and once they park, he quietly gets out and begins surveying the area. Checking out the inn, how many people are outside it, and if they're armed. Once he's done so, he turns towards the others. "I do think our priority is that gun piece over all, though. We should avoid violence /if possible/, but if we can't come to an agreement, we need to get it one way or another." August's voice is almost whispers, hoping that no one can overhera him. "Well, Will. Do we have any other plan?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Well Milly, that will tend to happen when you're a famous celebrity who has a permanent address. You will have groupies, and those groupies may or may not be creepers who know where you live, and those creepers may or may not be shaken down on occasion by scary swamp bandits to figure out where to leave their letters. Or maybe the bandits are fans. One of the two.     "Uhhh, after a fashion," Will asides to August. "Iff'n we can't make an agreement, uh. Well, I still know where they're keeping it, so... I guess worst case we steal it?" He says this very, very quietly, because who even knows who's listening at this point. Celes' question is also quite valid and deserves a bit of thought. "I think we should be careful, he probably ain't alone. Feller like this probably has people throughout the entire bar." Even if he was nice enough to stop shooting once Milly explained that they weren't actually here for the bounty on his head. Can't be too careful with these things.     Once the pre-meeting huddle finishes, Will makes his way into the round-tabled room and politely plucks the hat from his head. "Uh, Mister Fiddler?" Will asks, "We haven't met yet. I'm Will Pauwel. You know, the one who--" YOU TRIED TO HAVE EATEN BY HORRIBLE SWAMP SNAKES, "--was after that part you had?"     The Fiddler peers at the boy in the doorframe over a fancy old mahogany pipe. The room smells of marsh reed and tobacco. "Yes, I was expecting you and your posse here. You're all punctual, good. Come in, sit down, have a glass-- I brought liquor." It's... brandy? The bottle looks new. There's a strong likelihood that he liberated it from someone passing through the marsh recently.     "Now that we've a chance to meet like civilized folk, allow me to introduce myself. Folks around here call me the Fiddler, on account of the tool of my trade," he doesn't seem to have brought it along with him today, though. "But you all can call me Anders."     "You'll understand that that business in the swamp weren't exactly the kind of thing I do lightly, but when I've got someone chasing after me, sometimes I need to make tough calls." he says, then. "But far as I care, that's water under the bridge. What I hear is that you're in the market for something of mine. Now, I figure I have an idea--" he drawls and fishes a big old lockbox out from near his feet and sets it, clattering, onto the table. "--Of what it is you're looking for." "T'won't come cheap, though." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Once the pre-game huddle finishes, everyone files in and Millium and Claire have theirselves seats at the table. Millium waves cheerfully after setting a small box onto the table, "Hiiii Mr Fiddler!" She greets, and then pushes it forward. "I brought you those cookies!"      Claire rolls her eyes, but keeps silent about her charge's banter. ...She may or may not have made them. Really. Regardless of that, she's already got her computer set into the table, typing in information. Such as the fact that this Fiddler actually has a name. Anders, huh? Interesting. Once she finishes typing in everything pertinent, she glances off at the man and his lockbox.      "I'm certain Pauwel was well aware that this wouldn't be free or cheap." The guild operator tucks a bang behind her ear and speaks on. "So then the question is; what exactly is your price?" Paue. "Assuming that it is indeed the thing that he's is looking for in the first place." She crosses her arms. "So surely, you wouldn't mind opening it up for us to verify, would you?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     There's a moment where August suggests potentially getting physical, and Will says the words 'steal it'.     Oh boy, does Mel give them a Look.     But there will be time for chastizing later. For now, it's time for the meeting. "If there's trouble, stay close," the officer says softly. "I don't need guns to be the most dangerous person in here." That's all they're getting from her. She walks with her hands pointedly /not/ in her pockets.     "It's perfectly understandable around here," she replies to Anders, nodding her head faintly. "I'm not even /from/ Tellus and I've had more things try to kill and-or eat me here than I can count." Mel shakes her head, with a little chuckle. "But yeah, that's not important now. Alright, so let's get one thing on the table." She reaches down into her pocket, making it a slow and deliberate motion so that no one thinks she's pulling a weapon. It's her Paladins badge; she sets it down and activates the built-in hologram. "Marshal Mel Brock, Commonwealth Paladins. Yes, I am law enforcement. No, I am /not/ here to arrest or even investigate anyone." She reaches out and drags up a seat by hand, sliding into it.     "If you're willing to accept my good faith, I'd like to act as a mediator here. Make sure both sides come away from this satisfied, or at least equally dissatisfied." 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     "Let's hope it doesn't get to that," Celes answers William, at the idea they might just need to steal the part. She came to, hopefully, help make that not happen!     She seats herself, so as to not make the Fiddler uncomfortable his offer is being declined, and she even gives the bottle a look, out of curiosity. She's no heavy drinker (or light, even) but now and again has had the the opportunity to. Mostly banquets. Held over dead bodies. In retrospect, not the best of occasions. Plus she was always sitting across a clown at the table. Just her luck.     All that talk about coming unarmed and she awkwardly looks down at the sword she hauled along. Everything screamed not to listen, so she can't blame August. Come unarmed is never good news. It's one-sided trust. 'I don't trust you so show me you trust me first by not bringing a way to defend yourself.'     "Celes Chere. No station or title, sorry. I wanted to apologize for killing so many of your... pets? Were they pets, or just wildlife you control? Either way, it was probably avoidable." She has nothing else to say! Because everyone else is so damn on point.     She wonders what makes this gun part so important. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna can't help wrinkling her nose when she steps into the tavern and the smell of tobacco assaults her olfactory nerves. Also marsh reed, which isn't exactly pleasant but is - in Yuna's wholly-biased opinion - preferable to tobacco smoke, at the very least. And Anders is offering what looks like brandy. Yuna lingers next to the door, trying to suppress the impulse to simply facepalm at August's remarks on the Chaser frequency; as much as she appreciates the gesture of hospitality by Anders, Yuna knows her limits, and they're embarassingly short. (As August could attest ... if there hadn't been a tacit vow of silence about that party.) "Yuna Kagurazaka," she introduces herself briefly, offering a little wave to Anders. She's still next to the door, and doesn't look like she's getting any closer to the table if she has a choice in the matter. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Mel gives Will and August a look. August notices the look and just pokerfaces, continuing onwards into the bar. Once they're inside, he stands next to Will, keeping the hand with the bracelet under his chin. He does not look like an imposing bodyguard, because he's not tall nor bulky, but that's sort of the facial expression he's giving off. Once the Fiddler asks them to sit, August waits to see if Will sits, if he does, he joins him, otherwise August keeps standing. "August Kohler. Do you want money, or a favor?" Or maybe there's some sort of third choice, but August can't think of it. He also rejects the alcohol, because he'd rather keep his wits about him right now. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "Little lady," he glances over at Yuna, "Iff'n a gentleman offers his hospitality, it ain't polite to turn it down. Please, have a seat." A command? An offer? Or... Well, it seemed genial enough.     August you are kind of the opposite of intimidating, being both a teenager and also a ginger. But at least you're trying. You're TRYING and that's better than a lot of the bodyguards that Will could afford would do. Anders, at least, looks more wary for his appearance. Or... or maybe it's that Celes has a sword. Or that Mel is a /space cop./     "Much as the authorities would have you believe, I have plenty of respect for law enforcement. Long as everything's on the up and up, you and I will have no trouble, Marshal. 'Course, I haven't heard much of yer Paladins. You all some kind of... international police? Have gun, will travel?" He takes a swig of amber booze. If it burns, he doesn't show it. "Either way, I won't protest."     His gaze drifts over toward Milly, then. Milly and her... Her box of cookies? The Fiddler seems to actually be caught off guard a little bit. "Huh. Would you look at that," he mumbles, reaching over to fish out a cookie. Even HARDENED BANDITOS like free cookies, apparently. "Thanks plenty, little lady. I'm sure the boys'll appreciate it." He seems almost... Grandfatherly for a second there? Weird. It passes quickly. People have questions! Celes has hers answered first. "After a fashion, I suppose. You could say I've an affinity for this here swamp-- a dialogue. Iff'n I ask it nice, sometimes it answers nice," he shrugs slightly, then. "Don't worry about them none. By next summer, there'll be new serpents in these waters. No harm, no foul."     Claire and August both get to the heart of matters. Business. The old man bobs his head slightly and slides his box across the table, "Certainly. Have a look inside, I've a feeling it's what you're looking for." The box is simple in design, and made of a heavy, dark-grey metal. Probably lead. Opening the clasp is trivial. What's inside, wrapped in a package of parchment seems to be... It looks like a power cell or capacitor of some kind, Claire could tell that much. Every so often it pulses with a familiar light.     "Me and some old friends of mine picked that one up a while back," he explains. "Figured someone'd show up looking for it, someday." He reaches over once she's done inspecting the goods and snaps it shut. "Now, 'fore I give you my price, why don't y'all explain just what's so important about an old little hunk of junk like this?"     Will squirms slightly in his seat. "Ah, well, y'see sir," he says, hesitating between pauses. "It's... got sentimental value, I s'pose? I've been looking everywhere for parts to my granddad's gun. Y'see, it's all I've got of my pa, so one way or another I want to put it back together. So--" "All this for 'sentimental value?'" Anders cuts in, his gaze hot, but inquisitive, "You go all the way into the middle of a war zone, into these marshes, just for 'sentimental value?'" Will pales slightly and seems to shrink a bit in his chair.     "It's-- I'm kind've hoping to find clues as to where he went too?" The old man keeps staring. "And I've got reason to believe that it's somethin' special and look one way or another y'all got what I want so can't we just talk about that instead of this?"     Anders heaves a heavy sigh, then. "Alright, well. Sentiment and business are different things. But at least I can respect family. So let me explain this straight-like," he says to the group. "I can't spend money and goods go bad faster than anything out here. What I want is simple." He gestures vaguely upward, "I want you all to help me make life a little more difficult for the ones who put this price on my head. There'll be a supply convoy moving past this here stretch of highway for the front lines in about a week's time, and I'd like some insurance that it never gets there." "Do that, and I'll give you what you want." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna inclines her head briefly, and walks over to have a seat at the table. No, she is not breathing more shallowly than usual. It's your imagination, you're projecting your own paranoia about this guy and the whole situation. "I'd just as soon not drink," she says apologetically, inclining her head to Anders. "I don't do well with alcohol." She listens quietly as Anders lays out what he wants the group to do. Just stop a supply convoy ... ? It sounds simple enough. (Which probably means it WON'T be, but she can hope.) "I can think of a few ways we could do that," Yuna muses. And if it means inconvincing the Iskandrian army? Well, Yuna has no problems at all with *that* part of the proposition. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Not quite 'international'," Mel replies. "Little more broad-spectrum than even that." She turns to Will, eyebrow arched slightly. Knowledge of the Multiverse seems sparse around here. She even said 'not from Tellus'.     But for the time being, the Marshal sits back and listens, arms folded. "For what it's worth." she offers, "You'll probably be better off without that thing anyway. The number of creatures, people and ancient weapons that have tried to kill us while we looked for parts and clues, the only thing keeping me around at this point is I've kinda taken a shine to the kid. But," she adds, stopping to look Will's way for a moment, "That seems like about as fair an offer as we could hope for, assuming one thing."     She lifts a finger. "For clarification. Who owns the convoy? Is it Iskandrian, or...?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August takes a look at the object in the box from afar, glancing at the pulsing light. Yeah, that's definitely a Solano part, or a /very/ convincing replica. The redhead then sits back in his chair, listening to what they have to do to get the part. It's a favor, basically. Steal from the military, a military atleast. August thinks on it. It shouldn't be too hard, he tells the others on the radio. Mel speaks up, though, and August gives her a quizzical stare. "While I'm curious who it is as well, I'm not sure if that changes the offer much. Just how we prep for it, seeing as it seems everyone has a different style to war. Specify for me, Anders. Do we have to /kill/ the soldiers, or just stop their supplies from making it? I assume the latter, but clarification is good." 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Celes nods at the explanations given. So a monster controller. Weird, but at least those weren't someone's pets. Much less heavy on the conscience. Monsters, she can handle killing by the dozen without worrying about. And now she knows why Will wants the parts of a gun so badly, too!     She's about to ask who the convoy is for, when the question is already on the table. What she recalls of Will's explanations, what few she overheard, Iskandria reminds her a bit too much about an empire back home, and she'd have no qualms putting a stick in their bike's wheel.     "What sorts of supplies are on that convoy? And are you looking for the contents of the convoy, or just that it doesn't make it to its intended destination?" If it's food and medical supplies, she's sure they can find a good use for them if the Fiddler doesn't want them. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium smiles sweetly at the acceptance of Claire's cookies. The operator in question really doesn't seem to care. She keeps her mouth shut, and instead, inspects the power cell when the box is slid over. ...Yep, that looks like it. She nods in satisfaction at her inspection and lets Anders take it back, settling back down to listen and watch once again. This time as Will explains. ...Or fails to explain, really.      Neither girls say anything though. Millium is too busy teetering in her seat, looking this way and that curiously. Claire's red eyes are squarely on the exchange. Something about stopping a convoy from reaching its destination? Suddenly Millium is paying attention. "...We just have to stop it from reaching it's destination right? We can just take the goods or something, right? Or re-direct the convoy elsewhere?" She really hopes it's not 'kill people'. Really really.      Claire remains quiet, as the others are asking the pertinent questions. She just records all of this, typing into her laptop quickly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "It is indeed Iskandrian," the old bandit answers. "Who else could it belong to? This is Iskandria, after all." It does seem like a silly question, but then, it's definitely one that deserved to be asked. "Specifically, it belongs to the Engineering Corps. I'm told that it's carrying some strange new weapon to be tested on the front lines, but I've heard tale of that for months, now." He puffs a couple more times on his pipe, obscuring the ceiling behind yet more smoke.     "If it IS a new weapon, we'll probably need to figure out what to do with it once we see it, but if this convoy is heading to the front, it's probably going to be carrying something useful regardless. All I need is a twenty percent cut of whatever sundries and supplies you find, and the rest is yours to do with what you will." He glances up at the questions about 'killing everyone,' and he shrugs. "Most of those boys and girls, I don't have no quarrel with. They mostly don't know any better. Keep them alive if you can. Any officers, though, you bring to me. Preferably alive."     "Ordinarily," he says, then, "I'd stick to causing trouble on the low roads, but I've heard some rumors about some... fancy new alliance the Empire's found itself in. This is somethin' miss Paladin over there would probably be interested in, in fact." "Y'all heard of something called the League of Progress?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel goes stiff for a moment. Then lets out a soft breath. "Yeah. Yeah, I have," Mel replies. She uncrosses her arms, sitting forward just a little, and holds up a pair of fingers. "So two things. One," she switches to holding up a single finger, "That is some important info I'm going to have to take to my superiors, so thank you. I'll take it as good faith on your part. And two," she holds up the second finger again, "Either you're just smart enough to know trouble when you smell it, or you're a little more aware of the Multiverse than you were letting on. If this weapon involves any tech from outside Tellus, my office as a Paladin means I can't let it stay here. I'd have to confiscate it. Or theoretically destroy it, I guess, but the former's preferable."     She turns to Will and Kohler, and adds, "Plus side, it's a solid hook for me to join this little guerilla action. I have to investigate that. Duty as an officer of the law, all that good stuff." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna relaxes a little as Anders confirm it's an Iskandrian bounty - and an Iskandrian military supply convoy that they're being asked to throw the brakes on. Whatever this 'new weapon' is, it's cause for worry all by itself. Whether or not this 'League of Progress' is part of it. The name is enough to make Yuna raise her eyebrows, though, and she leans forward a little, looking far more attentive. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      "................"      Millium tilts her head.      "The Leek of Potluck?" Are they like... an army of super talented chefs traveling the world, spreading their insidious deliciousness across the country, making everyone addicted one spoonful at a ti-" THWAP! "-OW!"      "Shut up, Argent." Claire speaks evenly, going back to her typing. "Hmn. So they're gathering allies from off-world as well. Interesting." She mumbles, adding this in to the report. The guild is going to love hearing about this one. That's for sure. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August listens to the new information. He scrunches his face. He's heard a bit about the League, seen the ad. If they're working with Iskandria, Iskandria probably has some dangerous people on their side now. "So, capture officers, otherwise spare everyone else? Seems reasonable. I can agree to that, if," August turns to Will, gesturing a hand. "If he can. What do you think, Will?" 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     So it's a jerk military convoy AND is probably some new weapon that'll be used to do very nasty things. There is no longer any reason to be concerned, unless they're being lied to.     A side-glance towards Mel, though.     "I should think the locals would have the right to inspect the weapon before you take it anywhere. They'll need to know what they're about to be dealing with. How to prepare against it. It's doubtful this weapon is unique. A small no-name convoy carrying a high-value, unique weapon? Unlikely. That means they're already confident enough to send them to their fronts without fanfare. It warrants more investigation than dropping in and taking it away."     Celes hopes she is wrong, but they should be ready for the worst. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Or they're trying to sneak it out there without calling attention to it," Mel replies to Celes evenly... then sighs. "But yeah, you're probably right. I can allow for that much, at least. And that's assuming there /is/ any offworld tech in there, which is still a great big question mark for now." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "I'm just an old man with a grudge," Anders answers Mel with a soft chuckle and a gentle scrubbing of his beard. "I'm a little too old to be travelling too far anymore. These joints aren't what they used to be, you see-- but that doesn't means I don't keep my ear to the ground." He reaches over a pours another glass of amber ambrosia over a trio of shrinking icecubes. "Of course, if you asked me what to do with it, I'd like the opportunity to commandeer whatever they've brought with them, but I'll leave that to your discretion." "Now, if you're looking for a band of mysterious gourmets," Anders smirks over at Milly, Bringer of Cookies. "Well, I'd have to charge you extra."     Will looks more than a little bit lost in thought for a moment there. He seems... concerned about something. Probably about 'what happens if this whole thing falls through.' But August's question and Mel's aside snap him out of it. "Yeah, that... sounds fine to me. Nobody needs to get hurt, and we all get what we need, right?" "...And if the Marshal finds somethin' she takes issue with, then we'd have all done our good deed for the day, right?" He adds, a little bit sheepishly. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      ".............."      Millium stops rubbing her head and leans over the table, staring at Anders, "There's actually a troupe of mysterious gourmets!? Name your price, I'm on it!" THWAP! "-OW!"      Claire's hand is smoking now from the speed at which she struck the idiot right upside her stupid head. "Business now. Other things later." She growls under her breath. "You're ruining the flow of information."      "But Claaaaaaire! Band of Mysterious Gourmets! C'mon! You're curious too! I know it!"      "/No./" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel reaches out and claps Will reassuringly on the shoulder. "Enjoy the warm fuzzies over doing your civic duty, I guess."     She gives Anders an appraising look, then says, "Much as I'd like to see the Iskandrians taken down a peg, I gotta do my job. But at the very least, I can tell you if they've got off-world tech, that very much gets my interest, and if nothing else, the Paladins will even things out by taking it away from them, if we can. Meantime, I'll at least make sure you folks know how to handle it, if it comes to that." A little shrung. "And if there's no Multiversal materiel involved, then I don't care what happens to it. Sail it down a river, if you want." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "Mel, if you want?" Yuna asks. "Elner can document whatever the convoy's transporting, and if Will or Milly confirm that any of it is stuff that simply Does Not Belong on Tellus, we can send you the data for the Paladins to launch an official investigation. Would that be workable?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' "If Will's fine with it, so am I." August says clearly, having no qualms about this job. He just glances at Mel, briefly, before silently turning towards Will. For now, he's not going to speak, and just appraise the situation. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "They say that they travel from town to town, hiding in plain sight and trading in recipes to someday assemble a codex of the finest foods in all of Tellus," Anders drawls at the pair of Guild girls. "But it's just a rumor. A legend--" he waves a hand through the contrails of smoke, "A ~mystery.~" He's probably just talking the shit. Probably.     "Well anyway, it seems like we've come to terms," he says, then, fishing around in his vest for something or other. Once he finds it, he slides a thin card over to... Will. "We'll be watching, but if you have any questions or you need to contact me later, that's how you can find me." The Chaser picks up the card and squints at its contents. "But this just says to leave a message in a bottle--"     "Yes. We'll find it one way or another. Probably. Sorry, radio silence keeps the boys and I safe down here, so it's going to have to be snail mail." He looks to the others, then. "Now that that's done. How many of you have ever had barbecued Bog Dragon?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' A question is cleared up, and Yuna looks mildly sheepish. And - "I can't say that I have," Yuna admits to Anders, "but it sounds like it could be tasty ..." 'Could be' is likely the most relevant operative part of her assessment, but she's willing to at least *try* it. 
}}

4981/The Seat of Empire

2017-01-09T06:00:09Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/01/04 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=In Which Everything Goes According to Plan |Cast of Characters=934, 961, 278, 1003, 598, 1088, 1096..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/01/04
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=In Which Everything Goes According to Plan
|Cast of Characters=934, 961, 278, 1003, 598, 1088, 1096
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     About a week ago, the fortress of Eastgate was home to what was ostensibly to be a diplomatic summit between representatives of Evance and Iskandria, two powers presently engaged in what may in fact be one of the first armed international conflicts to have been waged on Tellus in centuries. This summit was to be mediated by the Iron Church, a faith that has taken root in the region of Tellus known as The Frontier, which also happens to serve as home to the primary battle-lines in this particular war. That was what was supposed to happen. And then Evance sailed a fleet of airships over and blasted the fortress to kingdom come.     One of the only reasons that particular fleet didn't make it any further than Eastgate was the timely intervention of League members Victor Xix, Lezard Valeth and Vatol Halftail, who managed to crash an airship into the fortress, but also prevented the remainder's continuing advance into the Expanse.     Having won political clout enough to secure an audience with Iskandria's heads of state, the League has been extended an invitation to the High Seat of the Expanse itself. Upon arrival in the city, they are quickly ushered off to the finest accomodations the capital has to offer. Baths, theaters, tailors, whatever the heart might desire.     Within a few days, they are escorted to the city's administrative heart: the Senate. The building itself is stately and majestic, and its interior matches soundly. Presently, the League finds itself in the lobby just outside the senate itself. A diplomat that Victor, Lezard and Vatol would find familiar nervously wipes his brow near the oak double doors that lead further inside. "It shouldn't be much longer now," he reassures, checking a little brass pocketwatch. "Two minutes or so, I would wager. They're usually quite punctual." It is indeed two minutes before the appointed meeting time. There are refreshments and snacks available, and guards flanking the oak doors. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor does not like this city.      It isn't even the fault of the city itself, though, admittedly, very little that Victor Xix dislikes *is* the fault of someone specific. Usually it's the fault of time and tide more than any action by any mortal will or hand. No, Victor dislikes this place because he knows what it once was - /remembers/ what it once was. Seeing what it is now - a clinking, clanking collection of incompetents barely capable of stringing together a battle without his, Vatol's, and Lezard's presence - irritates him in that small, subtle way.      The ridiculously massive Greaver has not bothered to dress for diplomacy, because he doesn't seem to dress for dick-all anyway. He remains in what he always wears - his distinctive tattered red cloak, his torn pants, and that's it. It's both a distinctive style and a statement - an apathy for the world around him, the world he has found himself in, the world of wrack and ruin sinking slowly into sands of its own making. Victor does not care for social mores, nor politeness, nor manners, nor anything of that sort.      The only reason he hasn't walked through the doors irregardless of the sweating little diplomat's wishes is that the Pope specifically asked him not to kill anyone if he could avoid it. Since walking through those doors would likely require him to kill someone, he doesn't do it - because it's avoidable that way.      He does, however, grunt an acknowledgement at the little man.      Otherwise, he bears no outward sign of his irritation at this 'great city', nor any outward sign of being annoyed at being kept waiting. Staunch, huge, implacable, and more than a little inhuman, the ancient Original Greaver simply stands in the room, making probably every guard who knows anything about the Frontier unpleasantly and unhappily nervous. 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' They were here for diplomacy. But diplomacy always had a chance of going bad, and guards trying to throw you in a dungeon. Or banish you. Or throw you in a dungeon in the land you're banished to. Or sometimes just a show of superiority was needed to back up diplomatic efforts. All of those are why Bramble Patch is tagging along. As well as her own curiosity about the things Victor was talking about being here for. 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' if Victor is making peopl uncomfortable by presence alone, Sephiroth is not helping. He is nowhere near as massive, or really even as threatening looking. Exotic and a little alien, sure. Most human beings don't have faintly glowing, cat-like green eyes. Most humans don't have waist-length silver hair, either. The SOLDIER is lacking the Masamune on this trip. It's a little unwieldy for interiors that he's not planning to cut through. He /does/ have a bangle on his wrist with a couple green, a yellow, and a red glasslike orbs in it. Maybe he's not so unarmed. His expression is neutral, a cultivated boredom. None of this is impressive. None of it is exotic or exciting. Though Bramble Patch gets a bit of a look. The pony thing is still weird. 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' Lezard has little need for excessive luxury. He does not dote in the baths, nor does he have a need of tailoring. His own clothing is quite fancy enough. He does, however, quite enjoy the theater. He spends a great deal of time between there and examining the local universities and magical groups, before time inevitably marches on towards the meeting. Lezard arrives with the others. A larger League group enters than did enter the fortress, but surely the diplomat can handle it. He seems fairly self-absorbed at the moment,mulling over some things as they await the opening of the doors. "Is there anything you wish to say before we enter?" Lezard prompts the diplomat. "I would not wish to cause any... undue grievances from a lack of foreknowledge." 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Vatol is fully armed and armored again. Like last time, he is also wearing the provided toga like a cape. Actually, judging by the grime, it's probably the same one from last time. Did he bother to take it off? It looks kind of chewed, and... in need of laundering, or a good, thorough burning. The terrible rat-man brought a proper honor guard this time. It cost him some warpstone tokens and some healthy slaves, but he's secured himself a dozen strong Stormvermin: large, strong, black-furred Skaven, armed with well-made glaive-like spears and outfitted with a segmented plate cuirass each. It's a huge upgrade from the patchwork armor found on most of his minions. There's even a banner: a cloth thing with an image of a black equilateral triangle formed from overlapping bones on the forehead of a horned rat's-head silhouette. It's accompanied by a couple large characters of Skaven script and, beneath it, a smaller image of a white rat with a truncated tail. Vatol was very particular about having it around for /diplomacy/. Vatol is presently examining his unfamiliar ally-things with the wariness of practiced paranoia. He's particularly irritable, too, but that's probably because he's taken his mask and helmet off to reveal his short horns and, as a result, has been muttering about destroying the sun for the last thirty minutes. "...burrowed-dug their city like /sensible/ things, wouldn't be a worry-problem..." 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Sadly, Orta had not even heard of the Multiverse until last night. In all probability, she didn't exist in it until then. She missed out on the diplomatic buttering up. She is wearing the same odd clothes as yesterday, her entertainment has been catching up to Victor on his promise to eventually take her to the Church, and her last bath was probably a couple of days ago (it could be worse).     The last thing she'd eaten had been taken from a destroyed market stall with a dead merchant, and so after following the greaver in on the trail of his cloak, her attention is all on the refreshments, and absolutely not at all on the diplomat. This was probably a terrible first choice to meet the League, but then the fact the League is here is a coincidence anyways.     When the man Orta had flagged down is literally twice her height, it's pretty easy to stay behind him at least, to the point where it seems like she's actively dodging the attention of anyone else in the room, keeping one hand in a rough travelling bag crossed over one slight shoulder. When she thinks nobody is looking, she goes straight for the table, and starts packing as much as she can into it, chugging the remains of a waterskin and then filling it back up with whatever appears to be drinkable. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It could definitely be worse. Orta could be a rat who is wearing something that is literally a week old and probably soaked in things that nobody should ever be made to know. Apparently air fresheners are a thing on Tellus, though, because the Diplomat seems to be judiciously spraying the air and hoping that it doesn't offend the rats that can literally summon thunderstorms. As it stands, the refreshments are open to her. It seems to be a smattering of miscellaneous finger sandwiches, various fruits and a platter of unidentifiable but not unpleasantly flavored meats and cheeses. When all your animals are horrible abominations against nature, you learn to make do.     "A-ah, yes, Lord Valeth," the Diplomat perks at the magus' questions. It helps that he seems to be one of the only members of this delegation who's actually taken a decent tour of the city. At the very least, he's a relatively familiar face. "There is only one thing. I have taken the liberty of informing the senate of some of your companions'--" he glances askance at the rats and the actual tiny horse, "--natures, but these people are not particularly acquainted with the... far outside-- 'multiverse,' you called it. So some may be just a bit uncomfortable." Something rings. The diplomat scrambles and fishes his watch from his pocket, and then glances to the double doors which, as if on cue, swing open. "Ah, it seems it's time! I will introduce you to the senate. Please, follow me."     The diplomat scurries through the doorway, down a red carpet embroidered with gold filigree, to a central dais. Surrounding him from all sides, seated on cocentric benches beneath cocentric tables, are a wide variety of men and women who can only be Iskandrian's high senate. A majority are as human as any other, but several are not. Some stand at well around eight feet, others are marked with distinctly inhuman, vaguely bestial traits. Directly opposite from the door is a raised podium, at which a man in regal robes stands and waits. There's a golden laurel around his brow-- a prime minister, presumably.     "Prime Minister Octavius, senators of Iskandria, I present the representatives of the League and the Iron Church," the Diplomat roars in a voice much larger than his fragile frame belies. "Lord-Messiah Victor Xix, Archmagus Valeth and Warlock Engineer Vatol Halftail of Clan Skryre, whose brave defense of Eastgate repelled an underhanded aerial assault by Evance's Fifteenth Sky Battalion. They are accompanied by sir Sephiroth and ladies Bramble Patch and Orta."     Apparently these sorts of things have... quite a bit of pomp and circumstance to them. The senate rises to greet their guests, but seem more than a little put off by literally bipedal rats and an actual pony.     At least the Prime Minister seems to take it all in stride. The aged statesman grins and throws opens his arms, "Welcome, to all our honored guests, though I wish it were a happier meeting. We have convened here to discuss our great war with distant Evance, and to hear the words of the Iron Church." Then, with much less ceremony, he lowers his arms and leans forward slightly on the podium, "And, indeed, to listen to the words of the even-more-distant League. Ladies, gentlemen, the floor is yours. You requested an audience, and so we have gathered." 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Orta's presence pleases, or at least, /eases/ Victor. The fact that there are other creatures like him in the Multiverse is a pleasant surprise. She isn't a *Greaver*, she isn't of his line, she isn't anything like that, but she's close enough to his own existence that he considers her...kin. He imagines - with the limited capacity assigned for imagination - that the vague affection he has for her is not unlike what a father might feel for its child: something that resembles the father, is distinctly different enough to not *be* the father, but still evokes a desire to protect not unlike the desire to survive. He pays far more attention to her than to the antics of the diplomat and the suffering, sweating people around him.      Then the mission begins.      Victor walks forward, his cloak billowing around him.      "You are weak," Victor declares loudly, his voice thunderous like the roar of a great beast, like he's giving a speech to a group of soldiers rather than diplomats. In fact, framing the entire thing as a lecture to soldiers, Victor's sudden burst of loquaciousness makes a great deal more sense.      "I remember. I remember when the Grancity of Argus stood wrapped around these mountains. I remember when I stood in this spot, here," Victor points directly at the floor, "And what stood here was a tower whose might could silence the sun itself, not a pile of stones erected by children playing with blocks."      "I have bled in this place, in what this place once was. I know what it was capable of. I know what you are capable of. And you are weak."      "These people," Victor waves a mighty hand at the assembled League members, "Are mighty. Lezard Valeth and Vatol Halftail wield unbelievable powers unknown even to the Creators. Ask your lieutenant," he points at the diplomat, "To confirm this. The strange four-legged creature, the 'Pony'," Victor doesn't appear to mean this in an insulting way, "Wields the might of plants. The man, Sephiroth, is an expert with a blade so ingrained even his stance makes it clear that without it he still knows its motions as if they were second nature. Orta is like me."      "The Iron Church is not weak. It has me. The League is not weak. It has them."      "You have *nothing*. You are weak."      Victor stamps his foot on the floor. It cracks under the strain. "Join us. You will have us, and be strong." 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Bramble Patch shoots a look briefly at the Diplomat. But as no one has decided to mistake her for a pack animal (again!) she lets the subtle hints at certain members of the group being weird. She grabs one of the fruit with a forehoof, probably getting a few odd looks for doing that too. This tiny horse moves and acts very little like a tiny horse should by normal standards. Not that she cares. Bramble eyes the fruit a moment, then shrugs, takes a bite out of it with thoughtful chewing following. "Eh, not bad." Tosses the rest in her mouth and follows through the opening doors. Pfff, fancy carpet. Show offs. Though that is probably to be expected. Bramble turns her head to look around, taking note that there's at least a few not-entirely-humans in the senate. Yay for diversity. This is mainly Victor's show for now, so instead she sits down and rummages a vial out of her vest. Spits a bit of the fruit pulp into it before swallowing the rest, sticking a stopper on it, and Bramble tucks it back away in her vest pockets for later examination. Always good to collect potential samples of foreign plant matter. Oh wait, he's talking about her. The mare snorts softly, but doesn't take offense, it is a fairly apt description. Technically she is kind of strange, even by Equestrian standards. "Strengths your enemies can't even dream of grasping." Try to put a good spin on things, right? 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth is a little better than Victor at diplomacy, but only a little. He listens to the speech, a little harsher, a little more disdainful than he would have used, but true and acceptable. He reaches up to push a lock of silver hair back from his face, the expression still bored neutrality. His eyes are searching though, pinpointing potential combatants, nearby weapons he could take and a proper tactical order for ending any potential conflict in this room with the minimum amount of danger to himself and his allies and the minimum casualties of 'innocents'. Though, he has a feeling that Victor may just slaughter everyone if he deems it necessary. The Greaver is added to the list of things he's watching. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Unidentifiable origins to obvious food are of absolutely no bother to Orta. To say that she isn't used to cooking up bizarre beasts would be a bold-faced lie. To say that of a goodly portion of her world would be as well. The fruits aren't going to keep, so she ploughs through those right away, and keeps only a couple for later. Meats can be preserved, as well as cheese, and so she wraps those up in some kind of wax paper lightning fast. Sandwiches vary by type. One canteen is now straight water. Another may be accidentally filled with wine. Pretty soon, her bag is fuller than the table.     Only then does she finally turn her head to the diplomat, grey eyes sharp and attentive as she feels out the unfamiliar but general references to honourable titles and nobility. 'Lord-Messiah' sounds particularly important, being a double honourific, but Archmagus and Warlock are strange as well, though she understands Engineer well enough.     These people are soldiers, or at least pilots or captains. That much is obvious; except whatever Bramble Patch is. Orta jogs after Victor as the procession goes down the red carpet, keeping up as closely as possible, and staying opposite to the pony as if she's never seen a horse before, though there is no shortage of mistrustful looks towards the others.     To say that she thinks of the greaver of a father in return wouldn't be accurate, but having touched his mind, the engineered mental map of his warlike senses and psyche are comforting nonetheless, reminding her of her extant guardian, whom she couldn't bring inside, and thus feels nervous without.     Only once he begins intimidating the senate though, does she fully understand that he is incredibly old as well. She munches on a slice of fruit in quiet fascination at hearing accounts of an ancient age from someone who can speak verbally. She looks like she's trying to absorb everything happening as thoroughly as possible, to the point she doesn't react when the floor cracks underneath her. Special interest goes to Sephiroth playing with his hair. It's the only colour she's ever seen close to her own. It helps her stand out less. Slightly.     She speaks up after a few moments of silence, following him. Her voice sounds young, but serious and sincere. It is also heavily accented, and sounds like a mix of five dead languages. What she has to say sounds like: "Suos Victor valde posteri. Mi suos potentia pertina tu. Prena aude narrel." What it actually comes across as after a brief nonsense second is "Victor is very old. He is a respectable friend, and strong enough that it concerns you. Please listen to what he has to say." 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Vatol's Stormvermin march in with him. He stands at their back, between two ranks of six each. There are thirteen total Skaven here, then. An auspicious number. Not enough, though. Not enough by half! Fifty-three man-things to their less than twenty?! Vatol does not like these odds. Nevermind that he wields terrible sorcerous might, or that Lezard and Victor have proven they're more than capable of fighting ten times their number by themselves, to say nothing of their /other/ allies, but still, his rat-brain is telling him 'flee, and return with a /proper/ warband' and in a loud kind of way. Victor does the thing where he's bad at diplomacy. Vatol steps forward, swallowing his nervousness and hiding most of it by sheer virtue of the lack of other (enemy) Skaven around to detect the more subtle smells he's giving off. "Clan Skryre brings to you a token-gift, Prime Minister," Vatol says. He opens a pouch at his side and draws something out of it. He lets it fall from his hands, draped around and dangling from his fingers. It's an amulet, a silver chain with a green, polished gemstone that catches the light and seems to drink it in and turn it to its own subtle glow. There are tiny runes etched onto the facets. It's a pretty thing, and, to the magically-inclined, /reeks/ of sorcery. "A charm to ward off injury, created by the mighty-great warlocks of Clan Skryre. Very useful in the face of assassins. Very useful for leaders." This and more could be yours, he doesn't quite say. Not precisely. 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' Once Victor has finished his speech, Lezard steps forward. "Assembled of the Senate. It is good to see that you have gathered. The land speaks of your wisdom." He is all smiles, of course... And he doesn't specify /what/ is being said of their wisdom. "The Iron Church can recognize this fact, which is why we have come on the eve of a great storm for he land." He closes a fist. "The land of Evance is devious, and treacherous. We have witnessed that at Eastgate, where what was to be a diplomatic conference became open warfare." He spreads his hands, then, and steps forward. "This is a land rich in culture, in tradition, in learning. I have seen your theaters, spoken with your scholars. There is no doubt that you may possess much of what it takes to be truly great. But Time... Time is the great eradicator, is it not? As the Lord-Messiah has spoken, this land has fallen from the pinnacles it once held, where power and wisdom held sway, and none could deny it." He turns, gesturing with a flair for the dramatic with his cloak. "But that need not be the case forever. The Iron Church seeks the strong. If you are willing to reach out and grasp that greatness once more, if you are capable of weathering the storms to come, they will help you. Similarly, we possess great knowledge of our own, our organization working alongside the Iron Church in order to help reclaim the glories of the past. We of the League seek progress. Advancement for ourselves, our countries, our worlds, our fellow men. We are merely a fraction of the assembled knowledge of dozens of worlds, and that knowledge can also be used to assist you in claiming what you deserve... Should you be but willing to reach out for it." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Victor Xix was not created for diplomacy.     That much is patently obvious from the fact that their diplomatic escort appears to have gone white as a sheet and may in fact be suffering from heart palpatations right now. Not only is one of the visiting delegation /yelling at the senate/ and /calling Iskandria weak/, another just spat a wad of fruit into a bottle and a third appears to be wondering if he needs to try out a new line of hair product.     The response from the senate seems somewhat negative as well. Several seem like they're about ready to jump out of their seats and start a proper congressional bar fight. Others begin murmuring something about 'the Ancients' and 'that can't possibly be right.' The eight-foot-tall giant looks distinctly uncomfortable. The Prime Minister... Is smiling?     Or rather, his expression simply hasn't changed at all since Victor began his Drill Sergent subroutine. Instead, he simply waits patiently for the Greaver to finish, and then simply nods his head. "Yes, Lord-Messiah, I am certain that, to you, our people seem quite diminished in comparison to that which was. Indeed, we are not our ancestors, but to come into our halls and decry our culture and our strength is, perhaps, somewhat counter to your objectives?" After all, humans are nothing if not proud creatures.     He looks to Orta, then, "Please do not take my hesitance as a sign of disrespect, Lady Orta; I am merely voicing the feelings of some of my fellow statesmen. All who build something for themselves are worthy of their own pride, no?" He smiles and glances at her... bulging packs? "Ah, I see you've taken a liking to our hospitality. I will have to ask our chefs to prepare more before you depart."     Vatol offers a present from his clan! The Prime Minister nods his head like he understands (he does not understand), and then gestures with one hand. A guard approaches the Skaven to receive the gift, because the Prime Minister doesn't need to do such things on his own (also it'd be a bit troublesome to come down, then back up again). "Your generosity is quite welcome, Warlock Engineer of Clan Skryre." He gestures again, and a different guard approaches with what looks to be an... ornate machine-pistol? "I was informed that your people had some interest in our weaponry. Please, take this as a reciprocal gift- although I'm sure that it's paltry compared to the arms our Lord-Messiah can produce?" Maybe. But most guns aren't gold-filigree'd. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     But even the most even-tempered and jovial of statesmen can't keep a room full of offended patriots quiet for very long. The low, ambient murmur of discontent has begun to build. Senators are red in the face. That one over there has just sprouted claws from his fingertips! It's a good thing Lezard Valeth has picked up Spell Focus: Diplomancy, or this might have gone violent.     The council chamber goes quiet again as he speaks. Octavius leans back from his podium ever so slightly as he waits for the Archmage to finish. "Ah. I was beginning to wonder when we would hear why you all have come all this way. I knew it could not simply be to break our floors and startle our less reserved officials." The Prime Minister clasps his hands atop his podium, "Indeed, it is as you say. All those who live on Tellus understand the cruel, crushing weight of time. We see fallen wonders all around us. We live every day on the shoulders of fallen giants, hoping to someday reach some semblance of our world's past glories."     "On the one hand, there is the Guild, which has taken unto itself the task of gathering and studying the works of our ancestors-- relics which, by right, belong to all Tellurians," he thunders, spreading one arm, then the other, "On the other, our neighbours push back against our borders, against the progress of our great nation and the slow march of a civilization that is not content to allow so many beyond our walls to suffer the barbarism of the wasteland."     It looks like he's got a bit of a theatric streak in him, too. But he quiets down, somewhat, collapsing again into a business-like, but jovial tone, "Ah, but regrettably, I am an old man. Too old to think that such an offer would come with no strings. Iskandria wishes for peace and for unity, for a future where our destiny is truly manifest. But what is it that the League-- and the Iron Church desire?" He cants his head, fixes his gaze on the Archmage and finishes, "We have heard what you claim to offer. Now, what are your terms?" 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor is not good at this, and he's /aware/ of it. He did what fits into his paradigm. The senators start getting angry, and Victor does absolutely nothing, because as far as he's concerned every single life in this room that isn't in the League is already expendable. It may go further. It's hard to tell with Victor. He's sort of impassive to a fault.      When Lezard Valeth salvages the situation, Victor nods, then delivers the terms in his usual blunt manner.      "The Iron Church wishes to build a cathedral in your city. Pope Pius I has expressed to me a fervent desire to make your city the beating heart of the Iron Church. He gave me a list of reasons that it would benefit your city and the Church."      Victor literally unfolds something from a very small pack and hands it to the diplomat.      It is literally a list of reasons, signed by the Pope, stamped and sealed in wax, because the Pope knew better than to assume Victor would deliver anything like this with any sort of competence.      Victor instead falls back and gives Lezard and the others the floor. He does, however, whisper to Orta, "I appreciate your support." 

:'''{{#var:1003|Sephiroth (1003)}} has posed:''' Sephiroth shifts his weight ever so slightly as some of the senators get rowdy. The combat trained in the group, and the crowd, can probably tell that this is a sign that things may suddenly be very bad for someone. His right foot slides a fraction of an inch... Lezard speaks, then The Prime Minister speaks, soothing the crowd. The General holds his position, just in case. He watches. He waits. He speaks, his voice carrying without him seeming to even raise it. "I have been authorized to negotiate terms on behalf of the ShinRa Electric Company for assistance in construction and excavation, with further assistance available should the relationship flourish, with prosperity for all involved parties." 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Note to self, don't let Victor do all the talking. Good thing Lezard is here to pick up the slack in diplomacy skills. Not that negotiation of the not-by-force kind is a particular strength for Bramble Patch either. But you don't aspire to villainhood without learning to play with words to some degree either. "There you go. You have your Guild. You're at least -trying-. Better than some people out there." She gives a snort off to one side, then turns her attention back to the room full of snooty political people. Ugh. The guy in charge seems to be the only one without a rod rammed up his... ah, anyways, she's getting off her train of thought. "We're not here to try and upsurp that." Well, they kind of are, but not in the way some people might be implying. Fiddle faddle terminology differences. "We're here to offer access to versatility and new views into things." The equine paces a little back and forth at the side of the group. Fortunately her hooves don't cause unintnetional floor damage like the stomping did. "You see, that's the problem with history. You ever hear of the saying 'think outside the box'?" Some vage gesturing in a box shape that doesn't really translate entirely with hooves, but points for effort. "History has a tendancy to be seen only in the way those putting it down want it to be seen, only what they want known is in the box, as it were. If you -really- want to grasp it," she even rises on her back legs and curls her hooves as if grasping something for dramatic effect, "you need an outside perspective. A different view that isn't limited by just how you have been taught to look at your history. Prehaps the different outlook the League can offer is capable of finding those outside connections your men and their existing hard work cannot." 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' Lezard bows his head, accepting of this theatric streak. The man seems to be mostly on board. It's not like they aren't offering the country everything it wants on a silver platter. "Nothing comes without a price, indeed. For the part of the League, we wish to establish a facility within your city, and will require... diplomatic immunity from local entanglements. We can provide your country with a great deal of assistance, helping to recover the lost glories of the Creators. Many of us specialize in such work. However, we will need to be able to operate without restriction. Surely a small price to pay for the chance to scour your foes from the land and claim the verdant realm that you so desire, no?" 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     The person who takes the offered pistol is, in fact, Orta. Right away, actually. She seldom turns down gifts. She turns the incredibly detailed firearm over in her hands, looking at as if she were reading text engraved off the side, before flipping it around with her finger in the trigger guard and palming the grip like a gunslinger, aiming down the sights as if she's used it for a while, but seeming disappointed.     "It's a laser weapon. The very old type of laser. The ones that fire fast and straight, with a lens inside. It doesn't tell you where to shoot though. You have to line up these things." Orta ejects the magazine halfway out. "You recharge this. It's like a stolarium battery. I don't know what from. I'd have to see it. It should do plenty of damage, but it could run out." She turns around and holds it out to the group. "Someone else can have it. I like mine better. This one doesn't speak to me the same way, and it wouldn't be useful against anti-laser carapace. It's strong though. Maybe five miliavis at a hundred leens. It could be useful."     Holding out the lavishly engraved, normal-looking pistol is essentially done in lieu of explaining her interest in the Tellurian Guild. 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Vatol inclines his head in lieu of some kind of smile. It might look terrible if he smiled. He hands over the amulet somewhat carefully, remarking, "Yes-yes, we are quite interested in your weapons. Clan Skryre is well-known for its own war machines; seeing-learning of others will make our weapons more appealing for trade. You are to be thanked for your, ah, generosity." That's about as close as he comes to being polite and well-mannered. It's not bad for a Skaven. He /does/ glare some at Orta, though, until she says she doesn't want it, and then snatches the weapon out of her hands. He turns it over in his own, and hooks it onto a catch on his equipment harness without another word on the subject. More diplomacy is someone else's job. Vatol takes up position between the masses of Stormvermin again. Being exposed like this is incredibly unsettling. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Somewhere, an old man in elaborate robes quietly prays that his Messiah didn't decide to literally decapitate an entire branch of government.     THERE IS APPARENTLY A GOD because Victor has been in a room full of politicians for longer than five minutes and nobody's been killed yet. Prime Minister Octavius nods at the Diplomat, who quickly scurries the package up to his podium (after opening it to make sure it doesn't explode). He perches a pair of tiny spectacles on the bridge of his nose and unfolds the letter. A few moments later, and he's folded it back up and neatly set it atop his podium. "I'm sure you understand that we cannot make a decision either way until we have deliberated and reached a resolution that can be presented to the Imperatrix. However, as this is an official missive, I do believe that we must take it in good faith for the benefit of the Empire."     "The same can be said for all of these proposals, I believe," Octavius orates, straightening somewhat. "These seven districts were built by the blood, sweat and tears of generations of stalwart pioneers, and it is as the young equine says--" APPARENTLY he's completely okay with both a talking bipedal rat and a pony. Or maybe he just looks that way? "--There is no harm to our pride, to our integrity, for giving a fair hearing to their words and their proposals. We have, after all, already shown the world that we have prospered where none otherwise could. It is, perhaps, time to open ourselves to the truth that we are not alone in this world. That we can benefit without losing who we are as an Empire."     "While all this does hinge on proper dicussion, debate and due process," he says with a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye, "I do believe that it is worth the effort. After all, we here all work for the benefit of the Empire and the glory of the Imperatrix. Ah, though Lord Valeth, I do not wish to make a promise I cannot keep. I am familiar with the... experiments which some more enterprising members of the guild sometimes conduct."     "While I do not have any objections to their work-- I am a politician, not a scientist and so I cannot speak on such things-- I believe there will, for the reassurance of our citizens, need to be a measure put in place such that certain more... volatile work is done a certain distance away from our homes." That's not exactly hard to do, given that most of the Expanse is basically huge and also mostly useless swamp. "I believe we can come to a compromise on such matters once we draft the appropriate treaties." 

:'''{{#var:278|Bramble Patch (278)}} has posed:''' Bramble Patch gives a twirling gesture with one hoof. "Yeah, keeping the more volatile work away from civilian populations is a good measure on all sides. Who knows, maybe we can make that swamp a lot less useless in the end." They're on a roll here, so she doesn't bother pointing out her size is due to species rather than age. Besides, most any woman likes being mistaken as young. Even the ones that walk on four hooves. Though dealing with an entire senate is making her kind of glade Equestria is a less complicated diarchy, even if she doesn't particularly like the ones in charge of it. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor aggressively does not care about this. He seems pleased at Lezard's success, but he considers his role in this mission over. Once everybody is agreeing and making nice, Victor simply nods.      "I will report this information to Pope Pius I."      And that's it, because they did what they needed to do. 

:'''{{#var:1096|Orta (1096)}} has posed:'''     Orta hands the pistol over without a fuss, though a mild furrowing of the brow at Vatol's rudeness in taking it. She isn't about to pick a fight with him and his guard though. She turns back to the proceedings instead, focusing on the words being said, and the letter being delivered, piecing together the context with a studious gaze. These are things, she thinks, that she could stand to memorize, even if only to repeat them word for word to certain people back home; for whatever definition that word is worth.     "The study of Ancient <<technology>> should always be done far away from people who could get hurt. The Imperial Academy should know that." Orta speaks plainly, rather than critically, in a blank tone of agreement. "I'm happy that you are providing for your people, and that they are safe. It's a good thing that you want to understand your relics. I can help, if you need it. I can also help with your enemy empire. Wars like this shouldn't happen. Bombing a meeting isn't acceptable." Still, she looks antsy to go, having spent enough time around more than a handful of people at once. 
}}

4976/The Vertical Metropolis

2017-01-09T05:58:13Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2017/01/03 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=A picnic in Evance. Much is philosophized about. Milly is overrun by pidgeons. |Cast of Characters=..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/01/03
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=A picnic in Evance. Much is philosophized about. Milly is overrun by pidgeons.
|Cast of Characters=934, 385, 1051, 894
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Not everywhere on Tellus is a horrible, monster-infested hell-holes. That's just most of the planet. But humanity would not have survived on this world if it didn't have its safe havens. One such place exists just northeast of Will's hometown of Gale.     The Vertical City of Evance dominates the sky of the eastern half of the only continent on Tellus. It certainly lives up to its name; Evance stands as an enormous testament to the ingenuity of the Ancients, a tower as wide around its base as many cities native to Earth, but that's about all that it has in common with places like Beijing or Tokyo. Evance rises miles into the stratosphere, tapering somewhat as it does so.     The interior of the tower is a bustling center of industry. Beneath it, in the undercity, is a culture all of its own. But the most iconic of the city's aspects, aside from its staggering height, are the network of scaffolds and airship docks built up around the tower's exterior shell. Windmills churn in the strong winds that give the Tornado Prairie its name, bringing water and power to the incredible number of people who call Evance home. There are a lot of people here. Hundreds of thousands, all living in one enormous city.     It's to one of the scaffolds, towards the middle of the tower, that Will has decided to invite some of his multiversal friends. He's only been to Evance a handful of times, but he knows his way around the city well enough-- better than the others, certainly. This particular place is... a park! A park with a picnic tarp unrolled. Will's sitting against a nearby tree, because apparently this scaffold is deep enough and strong enough to let those grow all the way up here. Not far away, a few older citizens feed the birds. The seeds are the size of baseballs. The birds are the size of some dogs. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' When William asked Yuna to swing by Tellus for something, Yuna didn't see any reason to object ... but she made sure to come in her Light Suit, even though they were just going to be doing something in a city. Given the size of those birds, she's not sure it was a bad idea. And just because she's dressed to defend herself doesn't mean she has to be carrying a weapon openly; the Light Suit may be a little on the showy side, but it's comfortable enough over long periods of time. She actually takes the time to explore some of the shops, and apart from a few souvenirs (and possible late Christmas presents? ... she's not going to tell), she picks up some sandwiches before heading for the park. If it turns out they're actually having a picnic, great; if not, they'll keep well enough while they stay wrapped. Of course, Elner's floating along next to Yuna as she (and therefore, they) approach Will and that tarp he's got spread out. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Naturally, Millium is here!      ...And also naturally, she is being chased by a distressingly large pigeon through the park. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I already fed you! C'mooooon! Bother someone else! JDnhdsfasbhjfh!" She gets tackled and bowled over, and then the bird starts pecking down at her, trying to get at her bag of 'birdseed'. ...Baseball sized birdseed.      "Claire! Claaaaaaire! Send help! Send heeeeeelp!"      The aforementioned girl is seated nearby, typing on a laptop.      She ignores Millium's plight. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, atleast Tellus has some slightly less harmful places. Dog-sized birds are strange and freaky but are, oddly, reassuring to August Kohler, who has joined Will for the visit to the city after asking about Tellurian cities the night before. He's dressed in his Tellus clothes, which make him look like a cowboy, and has brought food. Specifically, a grocery store cake. And then, as he's approaching the picnic and rummaging through his bag, he stops to watch Millie suffer. "Toss your bag, carefully, and escape. Abandon all hope, Millium Argent, for it now belongs to the birds." He is oddly taking this as a nonthreat because it's just a dog-sized pigeon, no big deal. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Hey now, there's no reason to be so paranoid! Evance is pretty safe! Sure the undercity can be, at times, rife with criminal activity, but that's normal for anywhere with a place called 'an undercity!' The pigeons are a... bit of a threat, sort of, kind of, if your name is Millium Argent and you have a whole sack full of baseball-sized nuts. Of course, when one pigeon starts pecking, the others will start wondering what's going on too. Milly once had just a single fluffy, hungry, too-fat bird bugging her for nuts. Now she has two. Three through twelve are on their way.     Will stares as Milly is bowled over and accosted by... birds. "Why don't y'all just... Just give them the bag?" Will asks, peering from underneath his hat. It's a reasonable question! He starts getting up once he notices More Birds starting to move in. One pigeon is adorable, twelve can get kind of dangerous, if not just because they might start suffocating you with their fluffy, wintery plumage. But the others are showing up, now! Will waves Yuna and August over with a grin, "Howdy y'all! Glad y'all could make it. Welcome to Evance! I ain't exactly a native, but it's bascally somethin' of a capital for all us out on the Prairie." He hoists a picnic basket over towards the blanket. It looks like it's full of all kinds of things. Sausage, bread, cheese. Picnic food.     There's a sound overhead, then. A big, chopping, CHUFF CHUFF CHUFF sound as an enormous airship launches from a mooring about fifty stories further up the tower. Will frowns as it sets off, practically bristling with guns. But that's war, he guesses. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna looks up worriedly at the noise from the airship taking off; maybe it needs to crank its engines like that because of the wind, but it's still discomforting to hear. And to see, when she gets a good enough look at it to see all of the guns. One more reason why she doesn't really like visiting Tellus. But it should be safe enough here, inside the tower, and Elner is paying enough attention to the surroundings that if a battle breaks out outside Evance's walls, she'll have some warning of it. "A 'capital' for everyone on the Prairie, huh?" Yuna asks as she sits down on the blanket, placing the bag of pre-packaged sandwiches next to the picnic basket. Odds are Will's offerings are better for this gathering than what Yuna picked up, but she's not going to withhold them if somebody wants a slightly less carnivore-oriented meal. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Throw away the bag? "B-But...! I paid a ton for this! I wanted to distribute it evenly!" She didn't pay a ton for it. And she writhes and kicks as the pigeon pokes at her bag of nuts. ...And then another arrives...and two more...three...four...five... "Ahhhhhh! They're multiplying!" Millium flails as she teamed up on by a flock of giant birds. "I....I can feel it, pigeons...! I... I can feel your dream! Therefore....therefore.....take this!"      The bag is tossed out of the clusterfuck, and the pigeons all chase it down, leaving Millium to lay there, gasping and covered in feathers. "....I told you....pigeons were the worst!" Pause. "Correction! Der wurst!"      Claire ceases her typing. "Argent. Shut up. Get up. Stop whining."      "Fiiiiiiiine." She stands and brushes herself off, looking wistfully off as the flock of huge ass birds tear the bag of nuts apart like ferocious raptors. SKREEEEEE. And then she approaches the group and plops down next to Claire. "So! What's- eh?" A glance upward is had at the sound of airship engines, and then the sight of the craft leaving... "......" Whatever she was going to say is replaced with silence. And a sigh. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, Milly's not going to die, but she is incredibly overdramatic. August just sighs, moving only slightly away as the pigeon hoard increases, and joins Will. "I brought cake. Chocolate, any of you allergic?" He's hoping they say yes. Either way, he brings out the cake, placing it down. And then the airship flies overhead. August watches it briefly, before turning back to the cake. "So, what's Evance's deal? Trying to conquer territory as well, or just hate the Iskandrians?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' THE PIGEONS ARE NOT DER WURST, ARGENT. IT'S YOU. AND THAT PUN. REEEEEEEEEEEE--     Will glances down from the airship as it races off towards the horizon. Hopefully that thing's just off doing patrol-y things and ISN'T going off to shoot at an Iskandrian incursion. Because that would imply there is one, and that means there's another town at risk. Will mutters something under his breath and plops down on the blanket. He fishes out a sausage and starts cutting off slices. For sharing. Not just for himself. He'll claim a sandwich too, because he hasn't actually made any of those! Instant gratification.     "Yeah. It's 'cause of Evance's airship fleet that the Prairie ain't overrun by some of the nastier critters. And it's the easiest way for us to conduct trade, you know? We sell shipments of food and stuff to the city, they bring us other stuff." Pretty standard urban/rural trade, then. And military support, apparently. That's BASICALLY a capital city.     "As for what's going on," Will sighs again, now cutting a brick of cheese into chunks. "Well. From what I hear, the problem is that Iskandria's been tryin' to push their borders out into the Frontier. That means ruins, land and resources, all under their control. The way it normally works is that those things are first-come-first-serve, you know? Equal opportunity."     He shakes his head, then. "Evance used to maintain the peace with its airships. Ain't nothing much a legion can do when they're being pounded from above. Now, though, they've got enough infantry to just power through. From what I hear, their real goal is to come here for Evance's air superiority. Ain't not much'll be out of their reach then. 'Course, folk 'round here ain't the most eager to be part of any empire, so..."     "Well, I guess part of it really is that the whole first-come-first-serve thing works better for Evance, on account of the air fleets. More mobile than dang near everything else overland, you know? It's all about power, I think." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna accepts some slices of sausage, layering them and some cheese between a couple of slices of bread. Hopefully the sausage isn't too spicy for her. "Iskandria ... they were the ones trying to annex that village a little while back, right? The one that we rallied to protect, and then -" She grimaces. What was that guy's name again? "- the guy with the robotic dragon came and put an end to the fighting through what insurance agents call 'force majeure' ..." She takes a bite of her impromptu sandwich - And whatever else she WAS going to say is forestalled by scrounging for a bottle of water or something. Tactical note: Yuna is weak to spicy foods, and apparently this sausage is spicy enough to count. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      POLITICS.      Millium sighs again, taking bits of sausage and cheese and munching wistfully. "I try to go around, using my concerts to promote harmony, goodwill, and peace, but..." She shakes her head, blonde locks swaying from the movement. "...Well, there's also this. And what Iskandria is doing." Her eyes close and another sigh follows. "Everyone always wants what someone else has, huh?"      Claire doesn't comment. She just keeps typing and typing... Really, she's just here because she's Millium's obligatory babysitter. She's not here to be friendly. She used up her friendly quota speaking to Mel about that space ride a while back.      Yep. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Wow, everyone has horrible taste: there's a cake in front of them and they don't eat it, how terrible. August grabs some sausage himself, making himself his own sandwich. He takes a bite of it, pondering over Will's long political explanation. "So it's defensive. Iskandria's trying to punch them, so they're punching back." He doesn't know if he has much else to say. "Either way, however this war ends, it's not going to be pretty." And then Yuna brings up the dragon guy. "Marchosiel. I wonder what his deal is. If he /is/ an android, it's probably going to be difficult to convince him to let us do what we need to do. We don't even know what /he/ wants to do, or who his Enemy actually is, besides 'human hubris'." August takes another bite of sandwich, frowning at Milly. "Human nature's a bitch, we've all been in the Forest. War's pretty much a constant everywhere you go, it seems. Not sure what just a few people can do about it." Munch munch, cheerful lunchside conversation! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Oh no! Yuna's mouth is ON FIRE because of a relatively mild spiced sausage! She... has a pretty awful spice tolerance, apparently. Will scrambles into his picnic basket and fishes out a big old canteen of SWEET TEA. That's even better than water! There are a few glasses, too. This is apparently one of the upsides to growing sugar cane. Also August brought cake, but everyone knows cake is for AFTER sandwiches. Gosh, Kohler.     But the conversation dwells on politics and danger from on high. Will shrugs and makes himself a sandwich, stacking bread and sausage and cheese. "Yeah, that was them. I guess the Angels've been interfering lately, but... Well, apparently it ain't enough?" He looks to Millium, then, "I wish it weren't a problem, but I guess there're enough geedy people out there to cause a ruckus." 'Cause a ruckus' is a bit of an understatement.     "'Course," Will sighs, "I can't exactly blame them for wanting more land, after seein' the Expanse first hand. That swamp's kind of awful." But the topic drifts Iron Angel-ish wise. "Marchosiel's... Yeah. Well, I think we /kind of/ know what he's fighting. There was that... black... stuff. And the thing that came out of that obelisk. We just don't know enough about him and what he's doing, though." Beat. "I... Really don't want to hav to fight him," the Chaser says, after a second. "You saw what his weapons did. That was crazy. Maybe we should... track him down? Figure out what he's all about?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' A couple of gulps of sweet tea soothe Yuna's mouth, and the idol takes a moment to top her glass off before trying some more of her 'sandwich'. She'll get to the cake later. "Marchosiel, right," she nods to August once her mouth has settled down and she's adjusted to the sausage. It's not inedibly hot for her - and, well, she's already started eating this assembly of sausage, cheese, and bread - so it'd be REALLY rude to toss it aside or anything. "He might not be an 'android' but he's definitely some kind of construct ... maybe technological, maybe magical. - He still wants your gun, doesn't he, William?" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium grumbles and August and Will, but... Well, they're not wrong. She sighs and reaches over, taking a sandwich half. "So, we don't know anything about this Marco Polo, huh? He just showed up and did Things The Were Awesome, and now we hope he doesn't use those Awesome Things on us?"      That's one way to put it.      Claire sighs faintly from where she sits, not even partaking in any food. She just keeps on working.      "And then there's Xixtor Vic!" Millium starts, but is immediately cut off by Claire. "That's Victor Xix, you incompetent." Millium snaps her fingers. "- Right, Vicxix Tor!" She incorrectly corrects herself. Claire facepalms and gives up. "He wanted your gun too, Will!" Pause. "....Wow, it seems like everyone wants Will's gun, huh?" The blonde girl tilts her head a bit, and then smiles.      "Well, whoever you choose, make sure they buy you dinner first!"      What? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Cake is totally a main course, August eats it for dinner whenever he can. Luckily, he's poor, so the low frequency has led to him not getting fat. "Well, there's a high chance we probably will. We need to be prepared for the possibility of using lethal force against him. Alternatively, we could see about reprogramming him, but he seems to be sapient, so." August does seem sort of conflicted on that point; it's not really a casual idea to him but 'if we don't have any other options', and even then something he doesn't really want to do. And so, August then changes the subject after speaking his thoughts out loud. "You said Victor Xix tried to beat you to death with a wall, right? Anything else we can know about him? Dude was massive and hit like a train." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will scrubs at the back of his head at this Iron Angel Talk. "Yeah, he's said as much. I think Mel managed to convince him to... wait until we've finished putting it together, at least, but I dunno. He might get impatien--" Milly. Milly what. Will just gives her a stare. A long, utterly befuddled stare. What in the world is going through this girl's head? Will doesn't know, nope. He's a good boy.     The Chaser shakes his head, because NOT ENTERTAINING THAT LINE OF THOUGHT. "Y-yeah, that's about it. I kind of want to at least... You know, figure out what he's really after. He wants my gun, but it's for some war that's... apparently still going? That Victor guy wants it, too. He called it a... a CODE. I don't know how he knows what he knows, but he definitely knows stuff about the Ancients." "Maybe... We could just ask him what he wants them for? Next time we see him?" That couldn't possibly go wrong, right!?     "The only thing I really know about him is that he's apparently some kind of living god to the Iron Church." He pauses around a mouthful of sandwich. "Uh. That is, the Church of the Iron Angels. They're guys who... worship things like Marchosiel, I guess. Anyway, they view him as a savior-figure, maybe 'cause of those rumors of him going around and punching nasty critters out of settlements out on the Frontier." There's a beat. "We... Should really know more about these guys, is what I think we're gettin' down to, huh?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' There's an actual church for Marchosiel and his kin? (Maybe "his ilk" would be a more accurate term, but Yuna words things more nicely than that, even in absentia - or even just in her head.) "Does that Church have a church here?" she wonders, finishing off her 'sandwich' and washing it down with another gulp of tea. "That might be a good place to stop by ... although," she admits, "we're likely to get a ... *somewhat* biased description of what they are and what they do. I don't think a church named after these 'Iron Angels' is necessarily going to portray them as anything other than a force of ultimate good." There is, admittedly, a flip side: the Church of the Iron Angels *COULD* have named itself after the ultimate evil that they oppose - but that wouldn't tally with what William just said. "At any rate, it would be information we don't have already, and we could probably comb out the truth from the propaganda. Right?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "Mmmn, I think maybe we'd need to do more digging than just asking a priest," Will answers, rubbing at his chin. "I mean, we could, but... There really ain't many official houses of worship in Evance. If we want to go get some information out of them, maaaaybe it'd be better to hunt down a... Bishop, or something. One of the leadership?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' "I guess you're right. Let's see if we can get some info on him before we talk about /how/ to deal with him. We can always improvise if it comes to it," August decides, listening to Will and Yuna talk. "That's what we always do, anyways. Push comes to shove, we shoot lasers at things until they stop moving." Munchmunch. Sandwich finished. And with sandwich finished, August moves for the cake. "Alright, who wants cake?" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium is quiet for once in her life.      But it doesn't last long.      "...Say, can't we just talk to Torxix on the global band? Why not just ask him about stuff there? I mean, if it's like that, then he can't murder us!" Pause. "...Also, I guess you could ask your cat friend to talk to him, since they're in the same group, apparently." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "Cake would be good," Yuna says. She's eating one of the prepackaged sandwiches she got before the cake, though. Maybe the taste of the sausage is still lingering in her mouth a little too much for comfort. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Uuuugh, we improvise so much though," Will groans around his last mouthful of sammich. "Just once I'd like to be in a position where we actually know something about something we're trying to shoot-- cake me, please." IF AUGUST IS WILLING TO SHARE AT ALL. Such greed. Then Milly is silent. This is clearly wrong and the world corrects for it immediately. "Uh." Global band? Well... That's not a thing, but 'cat friend' is probably 'Staren' and that's pretty true. "...I guess we could just... Ask him that way, sure. Hm." 
}}

4945/The Best That's Ever Been

2017-01-09T05:57:36Z

Stormgear:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/28
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=The Watch Gets Swamped but At Least the Music Ain't Bad.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1051, 385, 1081, 941, 894
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     About a week ago, William Pauwel made a series of terrible life choices that had he and some of his friends catapulted into a swamp. This is bad enough, considering that three of them-- Will included-- had open wounds, and as any outdoorsman knows, a wound in a swamp quickly turns into something that will kill you. But two were able to get out before infection sat in, and Will is just ornery and foolish enough to carry on regardless.     No, the threat of Death By Bacteria is but one that faces anyone who dares to tempt the wetlands of the Expanse. There are horrible things that lurk within the waters: beasts that could eat a man whole, machines and traps left behind by a long forgotten war, and the dreaded PUNJI STAKE. All of these things could have killed Will several times over, and indeed, his relative silence this past week seemed to suggest that he may have succumbed to the wilderness. But then, out of the blue, a distress beacon, clear as day, pointing to the middle of the vast swamp.     Of course, getting there could prove troublesome. Breaching the border would require subterfuge, flight, or some other similar form of transit. Then there's the swamp itself... Though curiously, the wetlands are... unseasonably calm today. That would change soon upon the final approach to the signal's source. The waters roil and burst with swamp gas. Horrible things stir in the murk. But Will's signal is coming from just over the next hill. And, distantly, there's a strange, sharp note in the air. Perhaps just the whistling of swamp gas from some bloated corpse? 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      About a week ago MILLIUM ARGENT GOT MESSED UP.      Thankfully medical tech was far enough along to help clear all that nastiness up in enough time to allow her to get back into action sooner, rather than later. She's alone today too! Soaring through the skies high above, deciding to avoid the Iskandrian border entirely. Claire was nowhere to be found today. And for good reason. Flying and carrying her was kind of hell!      The operator is sitting comfy in some far off location with her laptop, earpiece in as she spoke to Millium. "You're over the border now. Stay skyward and don't drop altitude until you're a mile in. Two if you want to be safe." Taktaktaktak, she types on the keyboard, the screen having a digital map brought up with a blipping blue beacon on it. That was Millium's signal.      "Gotcha!" Millium replies as she soars through the sky, peering down and back at the ruined Iskandrian checkpoint. Looks like they were rebuilding. Oh well! She turns her attention over to the swamp in the distance, punching her speed up several notches and bursting along. "A distress beacon though... I wonder what's going on now...?" Luckily the guild idol had nothing scheduled today and was cleared of the hospital a day or two ago, so why not go help?      Claire's voice rings out in her ear in reply. "Considering it's him, he's probably getting tossed around by Dire Alligators."      How nice.      "Orrrrrrrr whatever THAT is!" The blonde chaser supplements, staring down at the building swamp gas and...well, whatever that corpse is supposed to be.      Ew. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna wasn't around to stop William from making any of those terrible life choices, but the distress beacon brings her running. .... well, no, technically not 'running'. Flying, though, which is just as good - she'd sooner not test her Light Suit's ability to endure any degree of immersion in the swamp, so staying high and dry sounds REALLY good to her. The fact that flying is the least complicated way to cross the border is just a side benefit; she's more worried about whether whoever might have seen her flying across is taking offense at her casual violation of national boundaries. Then again, when has a little thing like international relations ever stopped Yuna from trying to help a friend who needs it? "Elner, keep zeroing in on that signal," Yuna calls out to the robo-faerie as the two of them skim above the swamp - staying above whatever canopy the plants of the swamp may be forming, for both speed and safety. When they've homed in on the X and Y coordinates of Will's beacon, *then* she'll worry about the Z. Jiina and Marina are also present, following Yuna and Elner at a slightly more leisurely rate. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Celes cannot fly, and so we are going to assume she had a ride here. Perhaps it's someone else's ship, or a very shady half-broken shuttle from one of the Watch's very rare hangars, but whatever the case she's here, and we're not going to think about it more than that.     And while she can't fly, she CAN cast float, and that's good enough to avoid sinking into the swamp, or for that matter getting her cape and boots dirty. Not that she's one to mind a bit of dirt, but swamp water is just really nasty and smells for days.     So we find her now atop the hill overlooking the bloated corpse and the source of the signal, presumably having coordinates with others she's aware of in the area. Excalibur remains sheathed, the curvy golden blade showing none of its shine just yet.     "I can tell the signal isn't far, but all I see is a large corpse. He might be inside of it." Wouldn't be her first time encountering that. Looking at you, Zone Eater. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is able to get there, of course, because Mel is a damn dirty cheater. Being able to cross borders by being in low orbit is just not fair.     And damn straight she's coming at full speed with Will lighting up a distress beacon. She's gotten kinda fond of the plucky guy. So the Chaser screams down into the atmosphere at the highest speeds she can safely pull; below a certain altitude, she drops under the speed of sound entirely, but still keeps cranking it as fast as she can without hitting trans-sonic speeds. "Alright, this is where the ride gets a little more rough, make sure your straps are good." She reaches out and kills the G-dampening inside the craft; instantly, the various shifts and shakes of the ride are far more noticeable, and about three seconds later she takes the Chaser into a shallow dive that puts them much closer to the ground.     Thankfully, she also slows down, so that getting a good look at the ground will be easier. "Should be around here somewhere, this is the place..." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Inside the Chaser, Mel has a tagalong. August Kohler cannot fly and is not trekking over the border through swampland for days to get to Will, so instead he's just coming from above. He's silent during the ride, but doublechecks his straps when Mel informs him it's going to get rough. Once they actually get to swampland, the boy unbuckles, and adjusts his outfit. He's wearing his Tellus outfit, aka basically a western outfit, and has a shard of mirror on him, as well as his laser pistol. As the Sheriff speaks, August is glancing out at the surrounding terrain. "Let's hope he's not dead. You think he found it?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     There is a giant, bloated corpse rising from the swamp. It looks like it could be some kind of horrifyingly large hippopotamus positively stuffed to the gills with some sickly, green /awful/ that suffuses its skin with a palor that goes far beyond cadaverous. The thing sinks slightly into the swamp as if noticing the eyes staring into its bulk. Its mouth is just slightly, invitingly open in the way that only Dungeon Entrances can possibly be. Is Will really inside that thing!? Wait. No.     Beyond it. Lancing up into the sky from behind the enormous, gigapotamus is a bolt of white-hot energy, accompanied by a quite frankly terrified cry. Something is at the other end of the blast- a great, scaly thing with far too many teeth and a snake-like body that extends deep into the swamp. It twists as it falls, mouth snapping open with three rows of shark teeth. It's about then that a dozen more rise from the murk, beyond the hippo, each dripping with malicious intent.     "Dangit," a familiar voice shouts as YET MORE PLASMA BOLTS lance up at the emerging serpents, "Why're there so many of them!?" It's... It's Will! And he's in pretty god-awful shape. His clothes are in tatters, and several patches of red blossom on what little white cloth he's still wearing. He's standing atop one of the rare outcroppings of solid ground in this horrible, swampy mess. Strewn around him is a smoldering swarm of what looks like might have been crocodiles, but with tiny bodies and oversized heads. They're not that anymore, though. They're just on fire, now. But that doesn't change the fact that he's ALSO surrounded by those strange, serpentine heads, and what look like more of those hippo-like creatures just barely off in the distance.     The water around him is roiling-- boiling, even. Steam and swamp gas alike rise from the earth. Two streams of gas mix and immediately ignite, blasting the beleaguered Chaser back several feet- and straight into the path of one of those terrible serpents! And all the while, there's a sound in the air. That strange noise-- No. Not a noise. It's a melody. A frantic, hectic song playing through the air from somewhere nearby. A fiddle-player, all the way out here!? 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Aaaand that's a huge swamp serpent. No, check that, that's several.     Mel briefly turns to August, and says simply, "Kohler, if you want off Mel Brock's Wild Ride, now's the time. Otherwise, tighten your straps and hang on." It's a last 'out' for the Persona-user, a chance to hop out and fight on the ground if he wants to. And after a moment with the door open to let Kohler leap out into the swamp, she locks the cabin in, and kicks the Firestarter-C up into the air. There's a quick flare from the engines as the vehicle accelerates and banks around, and Mel comes in on a strafing run - low enough that her shots will go horizontally if she aims for the serpents, posing no danger to those on the ground.     The shots are bog-standard sci-fi particle blasts, of course, glowing a bright blue-white as the vehicle opens up. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh dear lord. Look at this mess.      "Uhhhhh Claire? You see all this?"      "I see it. He's done it again." A sigh is emitted from Millium's earpiece, and then she grumbles. "Do what you can to help, but don't land on the ground. For the love of all that's good, don't land."      "Got it!" Millium replies, keeping airborne while she eyes the gaggle of creatures keeping Will quite busy. What to do...what to do.... Wait....WAIT. That music. THAT MUSIC! ...Why was it familiar? Not in a direct way, but...swamp...music...fiddler...      "OH! I got it! The Fiddler in Green!" The blonde exclaims, slapping a fist into her hand. "....Mmmmmn, okay I'm gonna try something! You guys keep.. uh, doing the thing." She takes a deep breath, and then flies off, towards the sound of music. While she soars through the air, she cups her hands around her mouth and calls.      "Heeeeeeey! Mr. Fiddler! Can you hear me? We don't want to cause any harm to the swamp! We're just looking for something real quick! Can you help us out? Please?" 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     William appears, and much to Celes' relief, is not inside the massive corpse. Really, once was enough for her. Sadly, he's also surrounded by monsters who have turned rather aggressive, so that relief is short-lived. Then things get uglier, the giant serpents moving to eat the Chaser.     Celes leaps from her position atop the hill, towards Will's position. The float spell carries her gracefully, the long jump bringing her into Will's trajectory. She catches him with an oopmh, but given the young man's frail build, she has no difficulty not flinching and keeping a firm hold on him with just the one arm.     Her other hand unsheathes Excalibur, as the two fall back down towards the ground and swamp. Luckily, float, so they won't be splashing down into disgusting water.     The golden blade erupts in flames, but she doesn't attack with them. She's trying to shoo the serpents away, giving them a chance to back off before 'waving firaga on a stick threateningly' turns into 'waving firaga at their faces'.     "Are you fine to keep defending yourself, William?"     She only then realizes they've never MET before, but is too busy to consider it awkward. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Will is alive. This is good. What's not good is the massive hippo carcass, the reptile swarm, the music (which immediately reminds August of the Pied Piper), the exploding gas, and all the other terrible things. As Mel makes the offer, August takes a minute to ponder, and then leaps out of the Chaser. As he does so, he takes a glance at his mirror. "Tin Soldier, to me!" Within seconds, the Tin Soldier is at his side, as August lands in a crouch. And the Tin Soldier silently roars, dancing around as it spins that gun... And attempts to create a massive wall of fire in the path of the reptiles. If they keep going forward, they'll get burned. "This should hold them off for a few moments! Let's see if this Fiddler responds." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The giant dead-looking hippopotamus is enough to bring Yuna up short, raising her left forearm as though to shield her nose and mouth from the stench. She's not actively COVERING them - but she's being very, very judicious about how deeply she breathes in while she's 'downwind' and/or above the gigapotamus. Not to mention the serpents rearing up all around, and the self-igniting jets of swamp gas. If it were anything BUT rescuing a friend in danger, any one of the above three would probably have sent Yuna fleeing again on the premise that there are easier places to look for artifact weapon upgrades. But ... well, Will's still at the center of the mess, and he needs help. Or at least, he WAS at the center of it; Celes seems to have caught him after the explosion launched him. Yuna stifles a sigh of relief, calls out ,"Shugoseiheki!!" and flies in to try and cover Will and Celes, the Wall of the Guardian Star manifesting on her left forearm as she invokes the kite shield by name. She can only protect them from one side at a time, but she can at least make sure they don't get blindsided. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will sure is alive. The Chaser is beaten and bloody. There's a good chance that many of his wounds will need the application of some serious disinfectant, because there's no way that all this swamp water is anyway good for those. He yelps as he's knocked back-- at least his lungs are working fine-- and lands... In Celes Chere's heroic grasp!? Will blinks up at his savior, wide-eyed and maybe just a little bit pink in the face. There's a strange fluttery feeling in his belly. Wh-what is this? This bizarre, tickling sensation-- and why are there sparkles!? Wait.     No. There are sparkles because Yuna's shield just blocked an enormous snake face. The thing hisses around its snaggletoothed maw-- they look so much like shark teeth, in fact. "I-I'm fine!" Will coughs, wiggling out of his presently far-too-sparkly rescuer's arms. "I've been through way worse than this," he says, his gun glowing with rippling, pearlescent energies. "We just need to beat them back!"     A task which Mel's aerial superiority gives her a distinct advantage in. The Firestarter's particle blasts explode against one of the serpent's necks. Scaly skin and cold blood erupt from the wound, and the creature seems distinctly distressed by the attack. Several others are struck as well, and their blood sprays in great gouts-- though if Mel gets any on her ship, she'd find that those droplets would quickly begin to work through her outer hull. Apparently these creatures get to ignore the local microbes largely because their blood is literally a highly corrosive acid.     Meanwhile, Millium is out searching for the source of the music. It's a little difficult, considering the swamp's terrible acoustics. But she's an idol, after all-- if she couldn't pinpoint a source of music, she'd be a pretty terrible one! And that certainly can't be! It's coming from a few hills away, amidst what looks like a pretty sizable plateau... Covered in some somewhat unusual vegetation. Vegetation that starts firing /arrows/ up at her. There's... Quite a few people down there, isn't there? And there, in the middle of them, a large man with a great big beard tucked against a squealing fiddle. At least she found them! Now just to get them to LISTEN TO HER (SONG).     MEANWHILE AGAIN, back at the snake pit, the serpents hiss and sweep down at the rest of the party, gnashing at them with their rows of teeth and their acid blood. The swamp itself appears to answer their rage with even more swamp gas and steam. August and Celes take offense, and unleash their unique brands of FIREPOWER on the beasts! Which... Which might be a mistake. Fire meets swamp gas. Swamp gas catches fire. Fire meets MORE swamp gas. More swamp gas catches fire. Firaga and Maragi are, together, enough to light so much swamp gas on fire. This causes a chain reaction that makes all that gas EXPLODE. The flame reaches the Gigapotamus carcass, and then even THAT goes BOOM. The boom is just big enough for Millium to see it from way across the swamp. W-whoops.     At least the snakes are gone. Even if Will is presently face-down in the dirt, covered in scorch marks and Gigapotamus bits and maybe suffering from a couple burst eardrums. Wait. No. Not gone. A couple slither up from the murk, hissing with menace and wracked by terrible burns. Hopefully the party fared better than they and Will did. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     The good news is, even the (relatively) tiny little Firestarter-C is equipped with defensive shielding. The bad news is, it's (relatively) light, and the acid is strong enough when it splashes across the energy field that her equipment actually starts blaring warnings. Mel frowns. "Jesus, what the hell is in those things?" But she'll just have to keep the Firestarter a little further away when she-     Oh my god they're using fire in all this.     Mel floors the accelerator. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit-!" The ship rocks as the shockwave hits it, going completely ass-over-teakettle. Its shields are (barely) holding, but the concussive force alone has caused a bit of damage, and more importantly, it's in a complete tumble. So the Marshal immediately starts correcting this - by switching off the engines entirely. And grabbing the ship with her mind to stop it.     She's able to right the Chaser, but it takes her a moment or so. She won't be able to junp right back in until she starts the ship's engines back up. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     In Celes' defense, she's never had to deal with swamp conditions this severe. In her trained mind, 'swamp' just means monsters more likely to be vulnerable to fire and lightning. That coinflip didn't end in her favor.     On the bright side, when she's blown back by the explosion and finally splashes into mud not far from Will, she avoids ending up scorched too badly thanks to her 'armor' having some level of elemental protection. This still gave her a headache.     She crawls up, still holding onto her sword, grunting. "I'm rustier than I thought I was. At least that seems to have handled most of the snakes." Most of them. She sees a few slithering back up, badly burned and more than likely angered by the fact. No fire, this time. Best not try to find out if swamp gas can explode twice.     Excalibur lights up a bright white, and with a swing Celes hurls a blast of holy light towards a few of the snakes. She could try going into melee, but that'd require taking her eyes off Will, who's still kissing the ground. And it's kind of her fault. She's not feeling too great about that one. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August has no excuse for using fire except 'it's his major damage source'. The swamp gas explodes in his face, tossing him backwards as his skin burns and is scorched. His clothes are singed, his arms are torched, and he emits a shriek of pain. The Tin Soldier is also blown backwards, flying away as it mimes blasting off (again). It fades away shortly after. However, despite his horrible burns, August gets back on his feet. "Fuck, my bad. Everyone alright?!" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      ".....Whooooooaaaaaa....."      That was a pretty huge conflagration. She could see it all the way from over here. "...But why did they set the swamp on fire? That's kinda dumb, isn't it?"      There's a bleep in her earpiece and Claire responds, "Yes. Yes it is." A pause follows, and then she speaks again, "Eyes forward and down, you've got company."      "Huh- WHA!" SUDDENLY ARROWS. ARROWS EVERYWHERE. Millium squals and immediately starts veering and weaving through the air frantically. Don't get hit, don't get hit! She'd turn on her barrier, but she doesn't want to drain SERAPH's energy too fast! Just gotta not die! Easy, right?      Right.      NOT.      But he's there! He's right there! THE FIDDLER ON THE ROO- I mean, in the swamp! "Hey! Hi!... Ack! Hello! Mr...WHOA- Fiddler!" Millium greets between dodging barrages of arrows. "I.... I'm actually like...WHA- Like, a REALLY BIG FAN... of YOUR-AHHH!" That one arrow came way too close!      "I think it's...ACK! N-Noble what you do here! And I...WHOA! I just wanna help a friend find the thing they need! I'm...SORRY- if they cause harm, but...they just...JUST DEFENDING THEMSELVES!" Forced to erect a small barrier this time, she blocks an arrow aimed right for her heart. "So can you please...TOO CLOSE-- please help us? We'll get out quickly I PROMISE-!" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' If Yuna had anticipated massive explosions overlapping her location, she would have thought twice about Flight Form - her most agile armor by far, but one of the least damage-tolerant. She *did* have Shugoseiheki equipped, which helped in one direction, and having her back to Will and Celes possibly did some good as well ... but if it weren't for the Light Suit's protective aura to start with, she'd probably be a lump of charcoal. Maybe one of the cutest lumps of charcoal ever seen, but still, charcoal. Luckily, Yuna DID have that combination of protections in play, and even more fortunately, she managed not to fall into the swamp from the conflagratory detonation. She reaches up briefly, checking to make sure her hair isn't on fire (either the top of it or anywhere along her ponytail), then brushes soot and ash off of herself where she can conveniently reach it. *Then* she looks around to check the state of everyone else. August said he was dead but he's looking highly animate and not much like a zombie; William, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be moving - so she zips over to try and scoop him up, using quick barrages from her right arm's pulse blasters to try and dissuade the serpents from trying to take any bites out of him. Or out of her, for that matter. She really doesn't care if she HITS the serpents, she's seriously just trying to discourage them from coming any closer - and at the moment, she can't even muster a semblance of lethal intent, so the focused energy bolts won't do more than sting a bit. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     In the team's defense in general, Tellus is notoriously hostile to human life, and it's not like Celes has even been here before. But that doesn't change the fact that /a giant explosion/ just levelled most of the battlefield and knocked at least one of the team straight out. Fortunately, the others are apparently considerably more durable (and way less worn-out) than Will is.     A wave of holy light hews into one of the serpents and a curious thing seems to happen. The wave seems to pass through the creature without leaving any wound at all! But just as the surprised serpent moves to counterattack, it pauses. The region of its neck that the mage-knight struck seems to... boil? No. It's growing. Growing madly out of control. The snake hisses frantically as the rampant growth spreads, bulges, and finally bursts, causing the thing to topple over in a mess of strange organic matter-- plant, animal, bits of molten stone and earth. ...Weird. Got the job done, though.     The exhausted, unconscious Chaser dangles like a hoisted cat from Yuna's arms as the beleaguered Galaxy Fraulein struggles to dissuade the serpents from continuing their assault. Fortunately, this does keep them from going after she and Will! Unfortunately, this doesn't do anything to keep it from attacking August. The snake swoops down with its jaw unhinged and its teeth... buzzing like a set of some kind of terrible vibro-blades!? MEANWHILE, TWO HILLSIDES AWAY.     Millium is dodging like some kind of AMAZING AERIAL ACE. She whizzes, she whips, she's dances through the air! But she certainly can't just keep it up forever, can she? One of the archers down below steps out from his camoflage, wrapped in heavy, scaly leathers and wielding a powerful compound bow. He draws back another missile-- this one, apparently, tipped in some green, ichorous ooze... But stops. The Fiddler's tune comes to a halt, and the archer cranes his head back toward the bearded man.     "Stand down, Argus," the fiddler grunts. "All of you, hold your fire." He turns his head up at the woman in the sky, squinting through his fingers and around the bow in his hand. "Girl, you have around sixty seconds to explain why your friend has spent the past week chasing me and my band. Use them wisely." Welp, there's that at least. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     This is about the moment a full-on burst of blue-white energy shots rains down on the serpent attacking August.     Mel is coming in fast now that the Chaser is righted; moreover, she's got a solid lock on the creature that hasn't even noticed her, and she's raining down a full-on spray of automatic fire at the beast. August, as it happens, is in no real danger. The shots are as precise as future targeting tech can make them. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' To be fair, William is less 'dangling from Yuna's arms' and more 'draped over the inside of her kite shield' ... and Yuna is not particularly happy with the situation, but she's not about to simply let him fall, either. She's kind of tilting to one side as she fights to keep Will balanced and supported - at least, up until she just pivots herself upright, latches both arms around Will as best she can, and flies up further. Honestly, she barely *cares* about his gun right now, the guy almost got killed. A lot of good it's going to do Judgment if the Solano's 'acceptable wielder' and current master gets eaten, burned to a crisp, or roasted and THEN eaten while looking for the missing components ... but with that said, Yuna takes a moment (and/or asks Elner to take a look) and make sure Will actually still *HAS* the Solano on his person or in his hand. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      They stopped firing!      THEY STOPPED FIRING!      Yes!      Noww she had sixty seconds to explain why Will's been stalking his guy something fierce.      Shit.      And the idiot's gone and gotten himself all exploded, so this was entirely on her! Success or failure! Laid bare in her hands! No pressure, right?      WRONG.      Millium takes a deep breath and begins to descend from the sky, lowering to a more conversational level. Her feet touch the ground as she lands, and she holds her hands up, SERAPH fading out of side, along with it's light. A show of non-aggression.      "Well, uh... My friend has an old relic. A gun! ...He calls it Solano, but ...there's an AI inside! It's called Judgment, I think?" Millium crosses her arms, body tilting a little bit. "You see, the relic's been pointing him all over the world, showing him where to find the parts to complete it! And the latest point that it's led him to was here!" She spreads her arms, gesturing to the entire swamp. "So if he's chasing you around, then..."      Millium peers at the bearded man, smiling sheepishly, "...Then that must mean that you're carrying the part, I think." Pause. And then she frantically holds her arms up in front of her. "I think that's about all I know! Please don't shoot me!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August, still recovering from his wounds and getting a picture of the situation, does not notice the murder snake coming for him until it's too late, and is about to strike at him. He turns to see it, and is about to try and grab his gun (which he doesn't have enough reaction time for) when Mel comes in for the save, firing energy shots at the snake until it is dead. August just backs away from the snake, giving Mel a thumbsup, before moving to try and find something reflective. He doesn't have his Persona, so he's in trouble. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Holy damage seems to work. It works odd, but it works. Celes won't look the gift horse in the mouth. Snake. Gift snake. Doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. There's a minor break in the waves of serpents, at least. August and Yuna seem to have a few of them busy. Celes decides to undo her horrible mistake while she has breathing room.     That is to say, she edges towards William and casts cure on him. A few times if she has to, and she'll give him a hand standing up too. Esuna might not be a bad idea either, who knows what's in all this mud and water. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     August is seconds from becoming giant swamp sharksnake food before he proves that he has FINALLY BECOME A TRUE TELLURIAN. He stands boldly in the face of a rain of deadly energy weapons while a horrible abomination against all sensible nature is viciously exploded to death. Will would be so proud, if he were actually conscious. (Apparently being a Tellurian is contagious. Who... knew?)     Regardless, Mel's final airstrike, coupled with the damage the snake thing had already taken, manages to put an end to the threat the serpents pose... For now. Who's to say what might still lurk in the swamp, though? Definitely not the Solano! Will's firearm is safe and secure in his hand. It's curled around that thing pretty tight, in fact. He seems to have gotten pretty good about keeping a hold of it in a tight spot.     Celes' cure spells wash over the young Chaser, then. His wounds begin to visibly mend, red splotches and bruises giving way to healthy skin. A quick esuna is enough to make sure that his blood ISN'T infested by horrible swamp parasites or the dread weresnake virus. He shudders a bit as he comes to, but seems... More than a little dazed. Being knocked out by an /explosion/ would do that to a guy. "Ngh..." He says, blinking up at his... Twice-over saviors. "...M-my heroes," Will coughs through a dizzy grin. "Heh, never thought I'd be playin' the part of the damsel." At least he's not in a dress. That'd just be /weird./     Meanwhile, Millium has her hands full trying to convince a whole bunch of swamp thugs to NOT fill her full of so many arrows now that she's conveniently down on the ground close enough for them to... do that. The old man taps the hard end of his bow against his shoulder as Millium fills a fully sixty seconds with a mixture of DESPERATE BRAIN-SEARCHING, COMMUNICATOR CONVERSATIONS and TALKING. He pauses for a moment after she finishes, stroking thoughtfully at his beard. The old man is... pretty big from down here, actually. It's hard to tell if he'd be more or less intimidating if his leathers weren't also covered in horrible swamp stuff.     "You mean to say that this whole thing has been a misunderstanding, then." The Fiddler says, after a moment. "...Solano, huh? Interesting. And he wants something of mine, too." His eyes sparkle with a glimmer of insight, "If he really isn't after my head, then perhaps we can come to an... agreement." "Of course, I'll need to be properly assured that this isn't some kind of trap, you understand." The Fiddler continues. "A meeting on neutral ground. No weapons, no tricks." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh wow, that worked.      THAT WORKED. MILLIUM ARGENT IS NOT DEAD. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.      The girl breathes out a sigh of relief, hand pressed against her chest. "Yeah, it's just a biiiig misunderstanding!" Thank the lord that Mr. Fiddler wasn't super trigger happy. He lays out the terms of a meeting, and the blonde girl nods.      "Yeah, that's fine with me! No tricks, no weapons, a nice neutral place!" She smiles sweetly after, "I'll bring snacks! Do you like cookies? Claire can bake a mean batch of chocolate chip ones!"      There's a blip in her earpiece then. "Say another word and I will end you, Argent." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Oh good, Will's awake and no longer dying. Yuna lets out a sigh of relief, nods thanks to Celes, and flits back down to something generally resembling solid ground to set the Chaser down. Yuna herself still looks a little the worse for wear - mostly scorch marks and soot on parts of her armor that she didn't do anything about yet. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     "It's fine. But, as your friends pointed out, next time, call us, we'll be happy to help you before you actually need the help," Celes answers, looking around to make sure the silence isn't the precursor to worse. It really does seem like the last of the snakes have been put down for now, at least.     "I'm sorry, I didn't get to introduce myself before. Celes Chere. Sorry about the fire." She's only half to blame, but she'll own up. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Heh, well, last time I did, we nearly got mauled! And... You know, I didn't want to... bog anyone down out here." Swamps are kind of awful places to do any travelling, after all. It seems pretty quiet right now, though. Without that fiddle to direct the swamp, it seems to have returned to its natural state. Also they probably wiped out all the snakes for at least a few miles.     "Don't worry about the explosion. I get blown up pretty often! More often than I should, maybe," Will answers with a grin. "Name's Will. Will Pauwel." He extends a hand to shake. It's only polite! "Sorry 'bout the rough meeting. I don't usually intend for this kind of thing to happen." It just... sort of does. 
}}

4945/The Best That's Ever Been

2017-01-09T05:56:57Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/12/28 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=The Watch Gets Swamped |Cast of Characters=934, 1051, 385, 1081, 941, 894 |Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Sh..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/28
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=The Watch Gets Swamped
|Cast of Characters=934, 1051, 385, 1081, 941, 894
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     About a week ago, William Pauwel made a series of terrible life choices that had he and some of his friends catapulted into a swamp. This is bad enough, considering that three of them-- Will included-- had open wounds, and as any outdoorsman knows, a wound in a swamp quickly turns into something that will kill you. But two were able to get out before infection sat in, and Will is just ornery and foolish enough to carry on regardless.     No, the threat of Death By Bacteria is but one that faces anyone who dares to tempt the wetlands of the Expanse. There are horrible things that lurk within the waters: beasts that could eat a man whole, machines and traps left behind by a long forgotten war, and the dreaded PUNJI STAKE. All of these things could have killed Will several times over, and indeed, his relative silence this past week seemed to suggest that he may have succumbed to the wilderness. But then, out of the blue, a distress beacon, clear as day, pointing to the middle of the vast swamp.     Of course, getting there could prove troublesome. Breaching the border would require subterfuge, flight, or some other similar form of transit. Then there's the swamp itself... Though curiously, the wetlands are... unseasonably calm today. That would change soon upon the final approach to the signal's source. The waters roil and burst with swamp gas. Horrible things stir in the murk. But Will's signal is coming from just over the next hill. And, distantly, there's a strange, sharp note in the air. Perhaps just the whistling of swamp gas from some bloated corpse? 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      About a week ago MILLIUM ARGENT GOT MESSED UP.      Thankfully medical tech was far enough along to help clear all that nastiness up in enough time to allow her to get back into action sooner, rather than later. She's alone today too! Soaring through the skies high above, deciding to avoid the Iskandrian border entirely. Claire was nowhere to be found today. And for good reason. Flying and carrying her was kind of hell!      The operator is sitting comfy in some far off location with her laptop, earpiece in as she spoke to Millium. "You're over the border now. Stay skyward and don't drop altitude until you're a mile in. Two if you want to be safe." Taktaktaktak, she types on the keyboard, the screen having a digital map brought up with a blipping blue beacon on it. That was Millium's signal.      "Gotcha!" Millium replies as she soars through the sky, peering down and back at the ruined Iskandrian checkpoint. Looks like they were rebuilding. Oh well! She turns her attention over to the swamp in the distance, punching her speed up several notches and bursting along. "A distress beacon though... I wonder what's going on now...?" Luckily the guild idol had nothing scheduled today and was cleared of the hospital a day or two ago, so why not go help?      Claire's voice rings out in her ear in reply. "Considering it's him, he's probably getting tossed around by Dire Alligators."      How nice.      "Orrrrrrrr whatever THAT is!" The blonde chaser supplements, staring down at the building swamp gas and...well, whatever that corpse is supposed to be.      Ew. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna wasn't around to stop William from making any of those terrible life choices, but the distress beacon brings her running. .... well, no, technically not 'running'. Flying, though, which is just as good - she'd sooner not test her Light Suit's ability to endure any degree of immersion in the swamp, so staying high and dry sounds REALLY good to her. The fact that flying is the least complicated way to cross the border is just a side benefit; she's more worried about whether whoever might have seen her flying across is taking offense at her casual violation of national boundaries. Then again, when has a little thing like international relations ever stopped Yuna from trying to help a friend who needs it? "Elner, keep zeroing in on that signal," Yuna calls out to the robo-faerie as the two of them skim above the swamp - staying above whatever canopy the plants of the swamp may be forming, for both speed and safety. When they've homed in on the X and Y coordinates of Will's beacon, *then* she'll worry about the Z. Jiina and Marina are also present, following Yuna and Elner at a slightly more leisurely rate. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Celes cannot fly, and so we are going to assume she had a ride here. Perhaps it's someone else's ship, or a very shady half-broken shuttle from one of the Watch's very rare hangars, but whatever the case she's here, and we're not going to think about it more than that.     And while she can't fly, she CAN cast float, and that's good enough to avoid sinking into the swamp, or for that matter getting her cape and boots dirty. Not that she's one to mind a bit of dirt, but swamp water is just really nasty and smells for days.     So we find her now atop the hill overlooking the bloated corpse and the source of the signal, presumably having coordinates with others she's aware of in the area. Excalibur remains sheathed, the curvy golden blade showing none of its shine just yet.     "I can tell the signal isn't far, but all I see is a large corpse. He might be inside of it." Wouldn't be her first time encountering that. Looking at you, Zone Eater. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is able to get there, of course, because Mel is a damn dirty cheater. Being able to cross borders by being in low orbit is just not fair.     And damn straight she's coming at full speed with Will lighting up a distress beacon. She's gotten kinda fond of the plucky guy. So the Chaser screams down into the atmosphere at the highest speeds she can safely pull; below a certain altitude, she drops under the speed of sound entirely, but still keeps cranking it as fast as she can without hitting trans-sonic speeds. "Alright, this is where the ride gets a little more rough, make sure your straps are good." She reaches out and kills the G-dampening inside the craft; instantly, the various shifts and shakes of the ride are far more noticeable, and about three seconds later she takes the Chaser into a shallow dive that puts them much closer to the ground.     Thankfully, she also slows down, so that getting a good look at the ground will be easier. "Should be around here somewhere, this is the place..." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Inside the Chaser, Mel has a tagalong. August Kohler cannot fly and is not trekking over the border through swampland for days to get to Will, so instead he's just coming from above. He's silent during the ride, but doublechecks his straps when Mel informs him it's going to get rough. Once they actually get to swampland, the boy unbuckles, and adjusts his outfit. He's wearing his Tellus outfit, aka basically a western outfit, and has a shard of mirror on him, as well as his laser pistol. As the Sheriff speaks, August is glancing out at the surrounding terrain. "Let's hope he's not dead. You think he found it?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     There is a giant, bloated corpse rising from the swamp. It looks like it could be some kind of horrifyingly large hippopotamus positively stuffed to the gills with some sickly, green /awful/ that suffuses its skin with a palor that goes far beyond cadaverous. The thing sinks slightly into the swamp as if noticing the eyes staring into its bulk. Its mouth is just slightly, invitingly open in the way that only Dungeon Entrances can possibly be. Is Will really inside that thing!? Wait. No.     Beyond it. Lancing up into the sky from behind the enormous, gigapotamus is a bolt of white-hot energy, accompanied by a quite frankly terrified cry. Something is at the other end of the blast- a great, scaly thing with far too many teeth and a snake-like body that extends deep into the swamp. It twists as it falls, mouth snapping open with three rows of shark teeth. It's about then that a dozen more rise from the murk, beyond the hippo, each dripping with malicious intent.     "Dangit," a familiar voice shouts as YET MORE PLASMA BOLTS lance up at the emerging serpents, "Why're there so many of them!?" It's... It's Will! And he's in pretty god-awful shape. His clothes are in tatters, and several patches of red blossom on what little white cloth he's still wearing. He's standing atop one of the rare outcroppings of solid ground in this horrible, swampy mess. Strewn around him is a smoldering swarm of what looks like might have been crocodiles, but with tiny bodies and oversized heads. They're not that anymore, though. They're just on fire, now. But that doesn't change the fact that he's ALSO surrounded by those strange, serpentine heads, and what look like more of those hippo-like creatures just barely off in the distance.     The water around him is roiling-- boiling, even. Steam and swamp gas alike rise from the earth. Two streams of gas mix and immediately ignite, blasting the beleaguered Chaser back several feet- and straight into the path of one of those terrible serpents! And all the while, there's a sound in the air. That strange noise-- No. Not a noise. It's a melody. A frantic, hectic song playing through the air from somewhere nearby. A fiddle-player, all the way out here!? 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Aaaand that's a huge swamp serpent. No, check that, that's several.     Mel briefly turns to August, and says simply, "Kohler, if you want off Mel Brock's Wild Ride, now's the time. Otherwise, tighten your straps and hang on." It's a last 'out' for the Persona-user, a chance to hop out and fight on the ground if he wants to. And after a moment with the door open to let Kohler leap out into the swamp, she locks the cabin in, and kicks the Firestarter-C up into the air. There's a quick flare from the engines as the vehicle accelerates and banks around, and Mel comes in on a strafing run - low enough that her shots will go horizontally if she aims for the serpents, posing no danger to those on the ground.     The shots are bog-standard sci-fi particle blasts, of course, glowing a bright blue-white as the vehicle opens up. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh dear lord. Look at this mess.      "Uhhhhh Claire? You see all this?"      "I see it. He's done it again." A sigh is emitted from Millium's earpiece, and then she grumbles. "Do what you can to help, but don't land on the ground. For the love of all that's good, don't land."      "Got it!" Millium replies, keeping airborne while she eyes the gaggle of creatures keeping Will quite busy. What to do...what to do.... Wait....WAIT. That music. THAT MUSIC! ...Why was it familiar? Not in a direct way, but...swamp...music...fiddler...      "OH! I got it! The Fiddler in Green!" The blonde exclaims, slapping a fist into her hand. "....Mmmmmn, okay I'm gonna try something! You guys keep.. uh, doing the thing." She takes a deep breath, and then flies off, towards the sound of music. While she soars through the air, she cups her hands around her mouth and calls.      "Heeeeeeey! Mr. Fiddler! Can you hear me? We don't want to cause any harm to the swamp! We're just looking for something real quick! Can you help us out? Please?" 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     William appears, and much to Celes' relief, is not inside the massive corpse. Really, once was enough for her. Sadly, he's also surrounded by monsters who have turned rather aggressive, so that relief is short-lived. Then things get uglier, the giant serpents moving to eat the Chaser.     Celes leaps from her position atop the hill, towards Will's position. The float spell carries her gracefully, the long jump bringing her into Will's trajectory. She catches him with an oopmh, but given the young man's frail build, she has no difficulty not flinching and keeping a firm hold on him with just the one arm.     Her other hand unsheathes Excalibur, as the two fall back down towards the ground and swamp. Luckily, float, so they won't be splashing down into disgusting water.     The golden blade erupts in flames, but she doesn't attack with them. She's trying to shoo the serpents away, giving them a chance to back off before 'waving firaga on a stick threateningly' turns into 'waving firaga at their faces'.     "Are you fine to keep defending yourself, William?"     She only then realizes they've never MET before, but is too busy to consider it awkward. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Will is alive. This is good. What's not good is the massive hippo carcass, the reptile swarm, the music (which immediately reminds August of the Pied Piper), the exploding gas, and all the other terrible things. As Mel makes the offer, August takes a minute to ponder, and then leaps out of the Chaser. As he does so, he takes a glance at his mirror. "Tin Soldier, to me!" Within seconds, the Tin Soldier is at his side, as August lands in a crouch. And the Tin Soldier silently roars, dancing around as it spins that gun... And attempts to create a massive wall of fire in the path of the reptiles. If they keep going forward, they'll get burned. "This should hold them off for a few moments! Let's see if this Fiddler responds." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The giant dead-looking hippopotamus is enough to bring Yuna up short, raising her left forearm as though to shield her nose and mouth from the stench. She's not actively COVERING them - but she's being very, very judicious about how deeply she breathes in while she's 'downwind' and/or above the gigapotamus. Not to mention the serpents rearing up all around, and the self-igniting jets of swamp gas. If it were anything BUT rescuing a friend in danger, any one of the above three would probably have sent Yuna fleeing again on the premise that there are easier places to look for artifact weapon upgrades. But ... well, Will's still at the center of the mess, and he needs help. Or at least, he WAS at the center of it; Celes seems to have caught him after the explosion launched him. Yuna stifles a sigh of relief, calls out ,"Shugoseiheki!!" and flies in to try and cover Will and Celes, the Wall of the Guardian Star manifesting on her left forearm as she invokes the kite shield by name. She can only protect them from one side at a time, but she can at least make sure they don't get blindsided. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will sure is alive. The Chaser is beaten and bloody. There's a good chance that many of his wounds will need the application of some serious disinfectant, because there's no way that all this swamp water is anyway good for those. He yelps as he's knocked back-- at least his lungs are working fine-- and lands... In Celes Chere's heroic grasp!? Will blinks up at his savior, wide-eyed and maybe just a little bit pink in the face. There's a strange fluttery feeling in his belly. Wh-what is this? This bizarre, tickling sensation-- and why are there sparkles!? Wait.     No. There are sparkles because Yuna's shield just blocked an enormous snake face. The thing hisses around its snaggletoothed maw-- they look so much like shark teeth, in fact. "I-I'm fine!" Will coughs, wiggling out of his presently far-too-sparkly rescuer's arms. "I've been through way worse than this," he says, his gun glowing with rippling, pearlescent energies. "We just need to beat them back!"     A task which Mel's aerial superiority gives her a distinct advantage in. The Firestarter's particle blasts explode against one of the serpent's necks. Scaly skin and cold blood erupt from the wound, and the creature seems distinctly distressed by the attack. Several others are struck as well, and their blood sprays in great gouts-- though if Mel gets any on her ship, she'd find that those droplets would quickly begin to work through her outer hull. Apparently these creatures get to ignore the local microbes largely because their blood is literally a highly corrosive acid.     Meanwhile, Millium is out searching for the source of the music. It's a little difficult, considering the swamp's terrible acoustics. But she's an idol, after all-- if she couldn't pinpoint a source of music, she'd be a pretty terrible one! And that certainly can't be! It's coming from a few hills away, amidst what looks like a pretty sizable plateau... Covered in some somewhat unusual vegetation. Vegetation that starts firing /arrows/ up at her. There's... Quite a few people down there, isn't there? And there, in the middle of them, a large man with a great big beard tucked against a squealing fiddle. At least she found them! Now just to get them to LISTEN TO HER (SONG).     MEANWHILE AGAIN, back at the snake pit, the serpents hiss and sweep down at the rest of the party, gnashing at them with their rows of teeth and their acid blood. The swamp itself appears to answer their rage with even more swamp gas and steam. August and Celes take offense, and unleash their unique brands of FIREPOWER on the beasts! Which... Which might be a mistake. Fire meets swamp gas. Swamp gas catches fire. Fire meets MORE swamp gas. More swamp gas catches fire. Firaga and Maragi are, together, enough to light so much swamp gas on fire. This causes a chain reaction that makes all that gas EXPLODE. The flame reaches the Gigapotamus carcass, and then even THAT goes BOOM. The boom is just big enough for Millium to see it from way across the swamp. W-whoops.     At least the snakes are gone. Even if Will is presently face-down in the dirt, covered in scorch marks and Gigapotamus bits and maybe suffering from a couple burst eardrums. Wait. No. Not gone. A couple slither up from the murk, hissing with menace and wracked by terrible burns. Hopefully the party fared better than they and Will did. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     The good news is, even the (relatively) tiny little Firestarter-C is equipped with defensive shielding. The bad news is, it's (relatively) light, and the acid is strong enough when it splashes across the energy field that her equipment actually starts blaring warnings. Mel frowns. "Jesus, what the hell is in those things?" But she'll just have to keep the Firestarter a little further away when she-     Oh my god they're using fire in all this.     Mel floors the accelerator. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit-!" The ship rocks as the shockwave hits it, going completely ass-over-teakettle. Its shields are (barely) holding, but the concussive force alone has caused a bit of damage, and more importantly, it's in a complete tumble. So the Marshal immediately starts correcting this - by switching off the engines entirely. And grabbing the ship with her mind to stop it.     She's able to right the Chaser, but it takes her a moment or so. She won't be able to junp right back in until she starts the ship's engines back up. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     In Celes' defense, she's never had to deal with swamp conditions this severe. In her trained mind, 'swamp' just means monsters more likely to be vulnerable to fire and lightning. That coinflip didn't end in her favor.     On the bright side, when she's blown back by the explosion and finally splashes into mud not far from Will, she avoids ending up scorched too badly thanks to her 'armor' having some level of elemental protection. This still gave her a headache.     She crawls up, still holding onto her sword, grunting. "I'm rustier than I thought I was. At least that seems to have handled most of the snakes." Most of them. She sees a few slithering back up, badly burned and more than likely angered by the fact. No fire, this time. Best not try to find out if swamp gas can explode twice.     Excalibur lights up a bright white, and with a swing Celes hurls a blast of holy light towards a few of the snakes. She could try going into melee, but that'd require taking her eyes off Will, who's still kissing the ground. And it's kind of her fault. She's not feeling too great about that one. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August has no excuse for using fire except 'it's his major damage source'. The swamp gas explodes in his face, tossing him backwards as his skin burns and is scorched. His clothes are singed, his arms are torched, and he emits a shriek of pain. The Tin Soldier is also blown backwards, flying away as it mimes blasting off (again). It fades away shortly after. However, despite his horrible burns, August gets back on his feet. "Fuck, my bad. Everyone alright?!" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      ".....Whooooooaaaaaa....."      That was a pretty huge conflagration. She could see it all the way from over here. "...But why did they set the swamp on fire? That's kinda dumb, isn't it?"      There's a bleep in her earpiece and Claire responds, "Yes. Yes it is." A pause follows, and then she speaks again, "Eyes forward and down, you've got company."      "Huh- WHA!" SUDDENLY ARROWS. ARROWS EVERYWHERE. Millium squals and immediately starts veering and weaving through the air frantically. Don't get hit, don't get hit! She'd turn on her barrier, but she doesn't want to drain SERAPH's energy too fast! Just gotta not die! Easy, right?      Right.      NOT.      But he's there! He's right there! THE FIDDLER ON THE ROO- I mean, in the swamp! "Hey! Hi!... Ack! Hello! Mr...WHOA- Fiddler!" Millium greets between dodging barrages of arrows. "I.... I'm actually like...WHA- Like, a REALLY BIG FAN... of YOUR-AHHH!" That one arrow came way too close!      "I think it's...ACK! N-Noble what you do here! And I...WHOA! I just wanna help a friend find the thing they need! I'm...SORRY- if they cause harm, but...they just...JUST DEFENDING THEMSELVES!" Forced to erect a small barrier this time, she blocks an arrow aimed right for her heart. "So can you please...TOO CLOSE-- please help us? We'll get out quickly I PROMISE-!" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' If Yuna had anticipated massive explosions overlapping her location, she would have thought twice about Flight Form - her most agile armor by far, but one of the least damage-tolerant. She *did* have Shugoseiheki equipped, which helped in one direction, and having her back to Will and Celes possibly did some good as well ... but if it weren't for the Light Suit's protective aura to start with, she'd probably be a lump of charcoal. Maybe one of the cutest lumps of charcoal ever seen, but still, charcoal. Luckily, Yuna DID have that combination of protections in play, and even more fortunately, she managed not to fall into the swamp from the conflagratory detonation. She reaches up briefly, checking to make sure her hair isn't on fire (either the top of it or anywhere along her ponytail), then brushes soot and ash off of herself where she can conveniently reach it. *Then* she looks around to check the state of everyone else. August said he was dead but he's looking highly animate and not much like a zombie; William, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be moving - so she zips over to try and scoop him up, using quick barrages from her right arm's pulse blasters to try and dissuade the serpents from trying to take any bites out of him. Or out of her, for that matter. She really doesn't care if she HITS the serpents, she's seriously just trying to discourage them from coming any closer - and at the moment, she can't even muster a semblance of lethal intent, so the focused energy bolts won't do more than sting a bit. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     In the team's defense in general, Tellus is notoriously hostile to human life, and it's not like Celes has even been here before. But that doesn't change the fact that /a giant explosion/ just levelled most of the battlefield and knocked at least one of the team straight out. Fortunately, the others are apparently considerably more durable (and way less worn-out) than Will is.     A wave of holy light hews into one of the serpents and a curious thing seems to happen. The wave seems to pass through the creature without leaving any wound at all! But just as the surprised serpent moves to counterattack, it pauses. The region of its neck that the mage-knight struck seems to... boil? No. It's growing. Growing madly out of control. The snake hisses frantically as the rampant growth spreads, bulges, and finally bursts, causing the thing to topple over in a mess of strange organic matter-- plant, animal, bits of molten stone and earth. ...Weird. Got the job done, though.     The exhausted, unconscious Chaser dangles like a hoisted cat from Yuna's arms as the beleaguered Galaxy Fraulein struggles to dissuade the serpents from continuing their assault. Fortunately, this does keep them from going after she and Will! Unfortunately, this doesn't do anything to keep it from attacking August. The snake swoops down with its jaw unhinged and its teeth... buzzing like a set of some kind of terrible vibro-blades!? MEANWHILE, TWO HILLSIDES AWAY.     Millium is dodging like some kind of AMAZING AERIAL ACE. She whizzes, she whips, she's dances through the air! But she certainly can't just keep it up forever, can she? One of the archers down below steps out from his camoflage, wrapped in heavy, scaly leathers and wielding a powerful compound bow. He draws back another missile-- this one, apparently, tipped in some green, ichorous ooze... But stops. The Fiddler's tune comes to a halt, and the archer cranes his head back toward the bearded man.     "Stand down, Argus," the fiddler grunts. "All of you, hold your fire." He turns his head up at the woman in the sky, squinting through his fingers and around the bow in his hand. "Girl, you have around sixty seconds to explain why your friend has spent the past week chasing me and my band. Use them wisely." Welp, there's that at least. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     This is about the moment a full-on burst of blue-white energy shots rains down on the serpent attacking August.     Mel is coming in fast now that the Chaser is righted; moreover, she's got a solid lock on the creature that hasn't even noticed her, and she's raining down a full-on spray of automatic fire at the beast. August, as it happens, is in no real danger. The shots are as precise as future targeting tech can make them. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' To be fair, William is less 'dangling from Yuna's arms' and more 'draped over the inside of her kite shield' ... and Yuna is not particularly happy with the situation, but she's not about to simply let him fall, either. She's kind of tilting to one side as she fights to keep Will balanced and supported - at least, up until she just pivots herself upright, latches both arms around Will as best she can, and flies up further. Honestly, she barely *cares* about his gun right now, the guy almost got killed. A lot of good it's going to do Judgment if the Solano's 'acceptable wielder' and current master gets eaten, burned to a crisp, or roasted and THEN eaten while looking for the missing components ... but with that said, Yuna takes a moment (and/or asks Elner to take a look) and make sure Will actually still *HAS* the Solano on his person or in his hand. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      They stopped firing!      THEY STOPPED FIRING!      Yes!      Noww she had sixty seconds to explain why Will's been stalking his guy something fierce.      Shit.      And the idiot's gone and gotten himself all exploded, so this was entirely on her! Success or failure! Laid bare in her hands! No pressure, right?      WRONG.      Millium takes a deep breath and begins to descend from the sky, lowering to a more conversational level. Her feet touch the ground as she lands, and she holds her hands up, SERAPH fading out of side, along with it's light. A show of non-aggression.      "Well, uh... My friend has an old relic. A gun! ...He calls it Solano, but ...there's an AI inside! It's called Judgment, I think?" Millium crosses her arms, body tilting a little bit. "You see, the relic's been pointing him all over the world, showing him where to find the parts to complete it! And the latest point that it's led him to was here!" She spreads her arms, gesturing to the entire swamp. "So if he's chasing you around, then..."      Millium peers at the bearded man, smiling sheepishly, "...Then that must mean that you're carrying the part, I think." Pause. And then she frantically holds her arms up in front of her. "I think that's about all I know! Please don't shoot me!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August, still recovering from his wounds and getting a picture of the situation, does not notice the murder snake coming for him until it's too late, and is about to strike at him. He turns to see it, and is about to try and grab his gun (which he doesn't have enough reaction time for) when Mel comes in for the save, firing energy shots at the snake until it is dead. August just backs away from the snake, giving Mel a thumbsup, before moving to try and find something reflective. He doesn't have his Persona, so he's in trouble. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     Holy damage seems to work. It works odd, but it works. Celes won't look the gift horse in the mouth. Snake. Gift snake. Doesn't roll off the tongue quite as well. There's a minor break in the waves of serpents, at least. August and Yuna seem to have a few of them busy. Celes decides to undo her horrible mistake while she has breathing room.     That is to say, she edges towards William and casts cure on him. A few times if she has to, and she'll give him a hand standing up too. Esuna might not be a bad idea either, who knows what's in all this mud and water. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     August is seconds from becoming giant swamp sharksnake food before he proves that he has FINALLY BECOME A TRUE TELLURIAN. He stands boldly in the face of a rain of deadly energy weapons while a horrible abomination against all sensible nature is viciously exploded to death. Will would be so proud, if he were actually conscious. (Apparently being a Tellurian is contagious. Who... knew?)     Regardless, Mel's final airstrike, coupled with the damage the snake thing had already taken, manages to put an end to the threat the serpents pose... For now. Who's to say what might still lurk in the swamp, though? Definitely not the Solano! Will's firearm is safe and secure in his hand. It's curled around that thing pretty tight, in fact. He seems to have gotten pretty good about keeping a hold of it in a tight spot.     Celes' cure spells wash over the young Chaser, then. His wounds begin to visibly mend, red splotches and bruises giving way to healthy skin. A quick esuna is enough to make sure that his blood ISN'T infested by horrible swamp parasites or the dread weresnake virus. He shudders a bit as he comes to, but seems... More than a little dazed. Being knocked out by an /explosion/ would do that to a guy. "Ngh..." He says, blinking up at his... Twice-over saviors. "...M-my heroes," Will coughs through a dizzy grin. "Heh, never thought I'd be playin' the part of the damsel." At least he's not in a dress. That'd just be /weird./     Meanwhile, Millium has her hands full trying to convince a whole bunch of swamp thugs to NOT fill her full of so many arrows now that she's conveniently down on the ground close enough for them to... do that. The old man taps the hard end of his bow against his shoulder as Millium fills a fully sixty seconds with a mixture of DESPERATE BRAIN-SEARCHING, COMMUNICATOR CONVERSATIONS and TALKING. He pauses for a moment after she finishes, stroking thoughtfully at his beard. The old man is... pretty big from down here, actually. It's hard to tell if he'd be more or less intimidating if his leathers weren't also covered in horrible swamp stuff.     "You mean to say that this whole thing has been a misunderstanding, then." The Fiddler says, after a moment. "...Solano, huh? Interesting. And he wants something of mine, too." His eyes sparkle with a glimmer of insight, "If he really isn't after my head, then perhaps we can come to an... agreement." "Of course, I'll need to be properly assured that this isn't some kind of trap, you understand." The Fiddler continues. "A meeting on neutral ground. No weapons, no tricks." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh wow, that worked.      THAT WORKED. MILLIUM ARGENT IS NOT DEAD. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED.      The girl breathes out a sigh of relief, hand pressed against her chest. "Yeah, it's just a biiiig misunderstanding!" Thank the lord that Mr. Fiddler wasn't super trigger happy. He lays out the terms of a meeting, and the blonde girl nods.      "Yeah, that's fine with me! No tricks, no weapons, a nice neutral place!" She smiles sweetly after, "I'll bring snacks! Do you like cookies? Claire can bake a mean batch of chocolate chip ones!"      There's a blip in her earpiece then. "Say another word and I will end you, Argent." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Oh good, Will's awake and no longer dying. Yuna lets out a sigh of relief, nods thanks to Celes, and flits back down to something generally resembling solid ground to set the Chaser down. Yuna herself still looks a little the worse for wear - mostly scorch marks and soot on parts of her armor that she didn't do anything about yet. 

:'''{{#var:1081|Celes Chere (1081)}} has posed:'''     "It's fine. But, as your friends pointed out, next time, call us, we'll be happy to help you before you actually need the help," Celes answers, looking around to make sure the silence isn't the precursor to worse. It really does seem like the last of the snakes have been put down for now, at least.     "I'm sorry, I didn't get to introduce myself before. Celes Chere. Sorry about the fire." She's only half to blame, but she'll own up. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Heh, well, last time I did, we nearly got mauled! And... You know, I didn't want to... bog anyone down out here." Swamps are kind of awful places to do any travelling, after all. It seems pretty quiet right now, though. Without that fiddle to direct the swamp, it seems to have returned to its natural state. Also they probably wiped out all the snakes for at least a few miles.     "Don't worry about the explosion. I get blown up pretty often! More often than I should, maybe," Will answers with a grin. "Name's Will. Will Pauwel." He extends a hand to shake. It's only polite! "Sorry 'bout the rough meeting. I don't usually intend for this kind of thing to happen." It just... sort of does. 
}}

4915/Border Crossing

2017-01-09T05:56:01Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/12/21 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=Will and friends try to cross into Iskandria. The Iron Church attempts to hold a peace conference,..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/21
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will and friends try to cross into Iskandria. The Iron Church attempts to hold a peace conference, but someone thinks it's wise to drive an airship into the fortress instead. Victor Xix gets political cred, Mel Brock hurls a bunch of ragtag adventurers into a monster-infested swamp.
|Cast of Characters=934, 571, 1051, 434, 670, 961, 941, 894, 42, 1088, 598, 513
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     One does not merely walk into the Expanse. Even before moving onto full war footing, Iskandria kept a close watch on the few roads that pass into its territory. They notably /don't/ keep a close eye on the marshes, because the wildlife do a decent enough job of that on their own. If there is a man willing to brave the river-dragons and emperor hippos just to sneak into Iskandria, Will doesn't know him. So he's trying to get through the easy way. It just so happens that the easy way is also the hard way.     The target is the fortress of Eastgate. While one could ostensibly bypass the fortress and, say, rappel up an aqueduct onto Iskandria's elevated highway network, but Will would really rather not be eaten today. Instead, he's squatting beneath a load of wheat and grain, alongside EVERYONE ELSE HE'S DRAGGED INTO THIS MESS. It rolls inexorably up towards a checkpoint at the foot of Eastgate's fortifications-- and the garrison of soldiers posted in and aroun the walls. Many of whom appear to be... Robots. Apparently Iskandria is filling the holes in its personnel with mechanical replacements.     "Okay," Will whispers to his co-conspirators, "So once we get close, everyone needs to be as quiet as possible, y'hear? We don't need anyone askin' questions, and iff'n they do, uh." "Well. Run for the swamp, I guess?" Will is good at plans.     Something seems amiss amidst the fortifications, however. The guard is agitated. Strange shadows hang over the eastern horizon. Shadows that grow larger with each passing moment. Now what could that possibly be? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Illegal border hopping?!     Sign Maaka up! She's here, cloaked like some kind of interstellar alien big game hunter. She may not be a charity case when it comes to getting jobs done, BUT William is a friend. She makes exceptions for that stuff. At the moment, she's listening to WIll's briefing as she gets her sneak on, already having bypassed the fortress and using her grappling gun to reach the aqueduct. Comms make it easy for her to not miss anything William's saying as she goes all sneaky sneak.         <<I'm on the highway. They haven't spotted me yet. Where am I headed?>> she asks via comm, making sure to be as low as possible. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium is here.      Why? Who the hell knows. Probably because Will asked real nice as a fellow Chaser and she couldn't look away. But hey, that's done now! And here they are...planning to waltz right up to Eastgate like they weren't trying to illegally enter Iskandria. But hey, all in a day's work, right? The blonde girl is squatted down, nodding along to explanations to THE PLAN.      "Okay, so... we're just going to stay here and ride through? That's it?" She squints and then peers aside out at the path ahead. Discreetly! Robots. ...Plenty of robots. Hope they don't have something cheap like HEAT SIGNATURE SENSORS. "...Is this reaaaaaally going to work?"      Taktaktaktaktak.      That's the sound of fingers dancing across a keyboard. Next to Millium, her babysitte- I mean, associate quietly comments. "No. This isn't going to work. Nevermind how wildly stupid this is to begin with." She ceases her typing, adjusting the receiver on her ear and closing her laptop. "But it's not my job to stop you morons. I'm just here to observe." She waves a hand dismissively. "Just don't get yourselves killed. That's just more paperwork for me."      Cold. 

:'''{{#var:434|A-ko Magami (434)}} has posed:''' A-ko's normally not the type to do something like this, but in this case she's found herself going along for some reason. Call it a gut instinct or something, but she's here, and she's ditched her school uniform for a more casual attire. This makes it easier for her to sneak in during a situation like this, although she's starting to regret coming here. Nevertheless, she's not about to back out that easily. Instead, she decides to stick with it in hopes that this turns out OK. "Honestly, as long as B-ko doesn't show up," A-ko mutters to herself, "Then I suppose things will be OK." She sighs and runs a hand through her hair, listening to what William has to say. The thing about running for the swamp as a last resort seems more like a clear giveaway they're up to no good, but A-ko isn't about to call him out on this. He's the one leading the operation after all. "Let's just hope they don't try to question us, then?" 

:'''{{#var:670|Lyria Mason (670)}} has posed:''' So far as most of the world Knows Lyria is just an Adventuring sort from Galendia, and honestly? Something like border hopping is small on her family list of things that have been done. It's bes to not get caught, right? So that's what she intends to do in the guise of Serpent. Glad in a dark green body suit, with a full on helmet iwth voice warper she should be good. She has left her signature drones at hom and tails after William and the rest. <<Serpent here, roger and slipping by a border this is going to be fun. I haven't been spotted yet either.>> HEr bike's nothing speical it's the cheapest hting Serpent could get her hands on after all. Given the nature of this mission. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      WITHIN EASTGATE      Victor Xix is not particularly interested in the man talking right now. Sure, the Iskandrian diplomat is saying all the right things that Victor imagines a church official should want to hear, bowing and scraping to Victor and his companions like a good prole. Sure, the fortress is a well-crafted bulwark of war, as expected of the Iskandrian elite. But the man isn't actually talking about war, and that's where he loses Victor completely. The massive Original Greaver is sort of staring distantly at the wall, letting his companions Lezard Valeth and Vatol Halftail take the lead, because frankly, Victor assumes they know how to do this 'diplomacy' thing better than he does.      The Iskandrian Official himself is dressed in a typical Iskandrian toga, with a typical Iskandrian badge of office and a short gladius for protection. He is a brown-haired, dark-eyed Greaver with a lizard tongue, strange furred hands, pointy ears, and a nervous smile. It is hard to imagine why he is nervous - it is probably the fact that he's trying to speak of political dealings to a terrifying wizard, a rat-man, and a shirtless giant lion-shark in a cape on behalf of the Iron Church.      "So, as you can see, my lords, our nation's conflict with Evance is a righteous one, though...troubling long. As you can imagine it has led to some very uncomfortable conflicts in recent years. We are happy to have such, erm, honored representatives of the Church to help us when the delegates from Evance arrive. Surely, the fact that you are at our back will lend us substantial weight in the coming days - the Iron Church's power is well-known and well-respected, and anyone who travels with its Savior must indeed be at least as great as he."      Victor visibly Looks Bored at this, instead stopping to inspect a vase. The diplomat tugs on his toga. "Well, then. Would you care for a tour of the fortress, my lords? Of course, we've locked down visitors for the time being...wouldn't want anyone sneaking in to assassinate any of the delegates, of course! Ha, ha..."      "Ha ha," Victor says, "That is, indeed, humorous."      The diplomat looks wildly at Lezard and Vatol for help. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel Brock is not hiding with the group.     Mel Brock is hiding waaaay, way up that-a-way. Miles and miles in the sky, high enough to be out of sight of the ground without special equipment and well above the altitude airships around here are generally capable of reaching. Sitting in the Chaser, hovering silently, arms folded over her chest and eyes closed.     There were probably vehement objections. Strictly speaking, neither the Iskandrians nor those they're at war with have ties to the Commonwealth, and thus she doesn't technically have a horse in this race. But that's all the more reason for her not to do the sneaky, lawbreaking thing, and instead go up-and-over in a way only a space cop can.     This, of course, also puts her in a much better position to see what the shadows on the horizon actually are. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August Kohler is here, and like usual, the redheaded German is by Will's side ocmplaining, though whispering. "This is the faux Roman robot army people, isn't it. God damn it. Ugh, if we need to lead them off, I'll use my Persona to lead them in one direction and then retrieve it. Let's get this going." And his complaints are way less than previously (he's not even complaining about the wheat thing!). He's acclimating to Will's dumbass plans. So, August sneaks along with Will, glancing at the others. Claire is there. He can tell just from her talking who she is, and he makes sure not to say anything to her just yet, because he likes living. He glances at the strange shadows. "The hell?", but waits to see how the others react. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     It's time for a...                                STEALTH MISSION!                                     So Staren has taken a page out of Finna's book, and is riding in the wagon as a Perfectly Ordinary Cat. A shorthaired black cat with a little sea green bandanna around his neck, but still, that probably just means it's someone's pet, right?     He's still hidden though. But if anyone makes a bit of movement, or a noise, and an inspector gets suspicious, he can emerge from the hay so they see that it's not people hiding, just a Perfectly Ordinary Cat.     This is a good plan. 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Vatol's suggestion was to kill everyone and take their things. They haven't done anything of the sort, however, and they've been here for a number of minutes greater than five. This is displeasing. Vatol came himself. He almost sent a lieutenant, but he decided at the last moment he'd check it out personally. The rat-man is following the diplomat in his brass armor and carrying something glaive-like, the suit bearing an oxygen tank-like Warp energy condenser and sealed up to his nose. His helmet-mask is up, though; it's apparently a concession to diplomacy. Under it, he's got a narrow muzzle and a white-furred snout, with clever little eyes and -- weirdly -- short, curving horns coming off his head. He's also got a cape. The cape was probably a toga presented for officiality. It's the cleanest thing on him. "Yes... yeeees... tell me," Vatol pauses, trying to figure out what the diplomat is and settles on, "mutant-thing, have you heard-heard the word of the Horned Rat? Very important in Church politics, he is, yes-yes." ELSEWHERE IN THE FORTRESS A group of Skaven gutter runners skulk around with enormous loot-sacks and take everything shiny they can get their hands on. So far, they're pretty sneaky about it. 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' Lezard also looks slightly bored, but it's the carefully manufactured, somewhat dismissive assumed boredom of someone who /knows/ he's better than the person he's speaking to and doesn't really care to hide it. "Righteousness is the term people use when you're telling people that all the lives you're using is worth it. The people believe anything they hear because they /want/ to believe that those lives were lost for a reason." Lezard simply says, walking along. The Necromancer of Midgard stands out amongst the assembled like Tim Curry amidst a bunch of Girl Scouts doing a Christmas pageant. Which means Vatol might or might not be the Grinch. "Your embattled situation is well known. While this fortress might look imposing, how secure is it really against a serious attack? Are you truly prepared for everything your foes could possibly hurl against your walls? And of course, should the Church choose to side with you and then you fail anyway, it would cost us dearly..." He sighs, shaking his head. "I would like to hear some form of assurance that you are serious about this 'war' you have undertaken." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Look, the other plan involved crawling through swampwater," Will hisses under the cover of so much grain. "And I'd rather take chances with the fortress than anything that might be waiting down below." Because at least the Iskandrians MIGHT not kill them if they get caught. Gigators definitely will. He looks at August, then, and... squints? It's hard to tell. He has a visor on and there's a few inches of grain between them. "You- you do know we've got a couple days of hiking 'fore we get to where the thing's pointing us to, right?" August, did you remember to pack your galoshes? No? WELL IT'S THE LEECHES FOR YOU THEN.     But then there's news of some kind of... shadow on the horizon. Several shadows. Will furrows his brow, then goes about as white as a sheet. "Uh-- Just a heads up, but this might be bad." Bad how?     Well, from the vantage of literally everyone who isn't surrounded by fortress walls OR a whole bunch of grain, one might take notice of the distinctly airship-shaped things that are now only a few minutes out from the East.                           MEANWHILE - IN EASTGATE                               "Ah, apologies, lord..." The diplomat gives Vatol a look like he's HONESTLY NOT SURE WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THIS GUY, "Horned... Horned rat? I'm not sure I understand-- Oh!" Lezard! He asks a very important question. "Yes, of course. You see there on our walls, those marvels of Iskandrian ingenuity and exploration. We call them the Steel Legion, as they are both... Well. Both a legion and made largely of something very much like steel. I am told that it's actually quite advanced stuff. Very impressive stuff. We have thousands of them, and more are being constructed by the moment! Indeed, Iskandria is unmatched on land." But... What about the air? "Oh, hold a moment, lords," the diplomat smiles at the vessels rolling out of the horizon. "I believe our other guests have arrived."                                 BACK OUTSIDE                                     Will's cart creaks towards the checkpoint. He quietly shushes at his companions as the cart is surrounded by a hubbub of activity. Muffled by the grain, they can hear something about 'shipment manifest' and 'just grain from the east' and 'mandatory inspection.' A minute passes. And then something yanks a great pile of grain right out from on top of them. Will looks up. An Iskandrian soldier looks down. "No wait I can explain--" And then there's an explosion. The cart is blasted into the air, flipping end over end before landing in a broken heap just inside of Eastgate's main passage. The wagon stirs. Will's head pops out of the heap amidst a band of stunned Iskandrian legionnaires. He blinks into the air, cusses, and leaps out of the wheat. "IT'S GONE BAD, Y'ALL! RUN FOR IT!"                           MEANWHILE - IN EASTGATE                           Everything is going to hell.     Not exactly, of course. Hell is full only of sinners. War doesn't give a damn, and neither do the cannon shells raining down from the sky. Instead of a delegation, the airships have brought death. Enormous shells bombard the fortress. One explodes in an airburst just over the walls, scattering man and machine alike. A warcry goes up to defend the fortress-- or die trying. Looks like someone doesn't like the idea of 'peaceful negotiation.' 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Aaaaand they're under attack. Mel begins swearing profusely in the Chaser's cockpit.     She also begins slinging her hands over the controls with practiced ease, switching on target-tracking programs and starting to get a basic sweep of the battlefield. She'll have to descend further in the atmosphere to get higher-quality sensor feeds, but so long as she doesn't go down into visual range, they shouldn't see her as a threat, right?     Well, okay, so she's also powering up shields and weapons. Just in case. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren-kitty is exposed along with everyone else! This wasn't part of the clever plan at all! He yowls as the cart goes flying, hanging on for dear life... When it lands, he stops digging claws into the wood and returns to normal form, manifesting wings and flying 'that way' low along the ground alongside the others running. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Welp, so much for stealth! Maaka was going so unnoticed too, using her cloaking device to keep her undetected while she tries to get a good look at the situation from afar, just in time to avoid getting shelled from above by the airships. "Shit. Here I was hoping to go in without shooting for a change." She grumbles, then produces a sniper rifle.     She takes cover behind something while she takes note of the Iskandrian soldiers closest to William's position. Sighting them down, she counts on her thermal optics and suppressor to help guide her shots and hide them as well as she opens fire, shooting with pin-point accuracy that's almost scary in this kind of weather. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Everything is quiet.      Is this stupid plan actually working? Is Claire actually wrong? Can it be!? But hey, Millium would take it! For once everything is going to go without a hitc-      The wheat is YANKED UP. A soldier stares in. Millium smiles sheepishly and stares up, waving cutely. And then EVERYTHING GOES TO HELL. Kablam! Up goes the cart! And into the air goes Millium!      "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screams comically, sailing along with Claire flying through the air looking stonefaced all the while. Because she knew. /She knew./ But did anyone listen? Noooooo. Gotta do the stupid thing because that's what Chasers do, right? With her laptop hugged to her chest, the guild operator doesn't even bother flailing.      And that's because Millium's got her! She manifests Code SERAPH, bracelets and anklets flaring to life and orbiting with a harsh blue glow of energy. And immediately, she loops an arm around her babysitte- partner's waist, and takes controlled flight, floating up higher to get away from the blast radius of the bombarments.      "GOTTAGOFASTGOTTAGOFASTGOTTAGOFAST!" The blonde girl rapidfire speaks speeding to attempt to get the hell out of dodge. Claire just dangles under her arms, expression dour as she opens up her laptop and types one handed like this isn't a horrible act of war. 

:'''{{#var:434|A-ko Magami (434)}} has posed:''' A-ko thinks for a moment this might actually work. That is, until someone tugs up the wheat, and going with instinct, she grins nervously while sweatdropping. (Or at least she would if she could.) Then things really get crazy. They're under attack? Well, so much for being stealthy about this. Regardless, no point in waiting around here. As the cart becomes upended, A-ko quickly jumps out of it and lands on both feet, skidding to a halt. "Oh no, this is bad!" She says. Fortunately, being a superpowered schoolgirl means she has extremely fast feet. Meaning that she's quick to dash out of range of the bombardments while trying to find a place to take cover at the same time. "What do we do now?" She calls out to the others, hoping someone has a good idea, other than just running away. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      War. War never changes. Even diplomacy is merely a social means of conducting war, after all. Evance (at least, Victor presumes it is Evance) has decided that it is an unacceptable one. That is fine. Unfortunately for Evance, the Warmaster is present, along with two people he is quite sure are extremely competent warriors.      The massive Greaver turns, his tattered-and-burned red cape swirling behind him as he faces away from the diplomat. "Stay here. Lock down your soldiers. Do not permit them to leave the fortress. We will handle this. In exchange,"      Victor considers this. What to ask for? What would the Pope want? What would the Iron Church desire? He tries very hard to think outside the box. Then, finally, he settles on a demand.      "You will permit the Iron Church to construct its churchs and cathedrals within your walls." Yes, that seemed appropriate.      The ancient Warmaster Greaver starts walking up the stairs with a pace born of rapidity and discipline. He is perfectly, absolutely disciplined - Lezard and Vatol would immediately recognize that there is nothing /about/ this creature that *isn't* disciplined, right down to his breathing as his huge feet climb the tower.      When they reach the top, the massive Greaver immediately does what he does best. With a casual, unhurried, unworried maneuver, he proceeds to pick up the cannons on the tower and move them around to face the ten airships that have engaged.      "This," Victor considers, "Should be sufficient."      Like a line commander on a ship, Victor walks down the line of cannons, lighting each one with a strike of one of his iron-hard claws against smooth stone. Each blow digs a great gaping gash in the rock in the process, but hey - he's holding back.      "I will draw their fire. I trust your magics will end it."      Victor draws his tattered cloak around himself as the cannon bombardment goes off. He scans the ground for ground troops-      -aha. How interesting.      "Resolve it quickly," Victor adds, "That task I requested of you may come to fruition sooner than imagined." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' "I meant retrieving the Persona, not the piece. ...Do we even have /supplies/ for days of hiking?" August rubs the bridge of his nose, until he overhears the sounds of soldiers coming. He reaches into his pocket, pulls out a tiny piece of mirror, and waits. And then, they get spotted. August stares at the mirror, waiting for the cue to summon his Persona... And everything explodes! As the cart flies into the air, August secures himself, gripping tightly onto the cart, until it lands and crashes. There's a groan, some German cursing, and a rise from the wheat. "GOD DAMN IT. Run for it!" After clarification on radio, he turns to A-ko to make sure she gets it. "Run northwest, specifically!" And then August is making a beeline in the same direction as Will, running as fast as his legs will take him. Mirror shard clutched tightly, but not tightly enough to shatter. He'll need it. 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' "The Steel Legion may be quite impressive to grunts, but the people who will actually cause you problems will not be so intimidated." Lezard replies. As if right on cue, Lezard then proceeds to comment, "Besides, not all of your foes will assault you on the land." He turns to peer at the horizon... And a moment later, the Manus Catalyst erupts from Darkness near his hand, flicking through the air. A cannon shell that would be a direct hit upon Lezard's position smashes into a mystic barrier, radiating crackling energy from the point of impact. "Well." He says offhandedly. "It seems the other delegation has chosen to make my point for me." Valeth turns to join Victor and Vatol (TEAM V, ASSEMBLE), heading up the tower. He takes position some distance behind Victor, allowing him to do his job of tanking the shots. Lezard has no arguments with these tactics. "Let me know if there is anything I can do to assist. I have not witness your magic." He says to Vatol, before he raises the Catalyst. "LIGHTNING BOLT! LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNIIIIING BOLT!" He cries, hurling powerful strikes of lightning, gleaming blue-white and deadly, from the tower towards the airships. Every strike seems to recirculate into Lezard's growing circle of sorcerous power. 

:'''{{#var:670|Lyria Mason (670)}} has posed:''' The idea of leeches is not a happy one, seriously however she's quite happy she's in a full body suit over whateverr other clothing she has under it. Yes she was ready to go through muck Bismark knows what else. nothing ventered nothign gained as she kpe going but she was not going at too high speed she knows she needs to not get them alert. Then as she nears the border and everything goes to hell in a handbasket? She floors it on her bike and is going to try to press through she sighs for a moment now as any chance of talking is dead and there's now a full on battle going on now! <<This isn't boring!? Why is it interesting why did this have to be interesting!>> 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' Vatol was getting less and less interested right up until a particular item of note. "Steel Legion?" He follows the gesture, looking towards the walls. He squints, scratching at his jaw with one hand absently. "Rrrr... interesting... very-very interesting." He's already planning to make off with some of their interesting toys. There's a whistling, and then an explosion. The blast makes Vatol drop to a low crouch, hand tight on his glaive. He looks around in sudden alarm, practically sent into a panic from the first volley. The presence of his seemingly-unmoved compatriots is all that keeps him from bailing out the first chance he gets. Vatol makes an irritated sound and grabs his mask, fitting it and the helm over his face and sealing it to the rest of the armor. It gives his voice a slightly tinny quality. The Skaven follows the weirdly-disciplined Victor towards the stairs. Another rat-man appears, practically melding out of the shadows, garbed in all black with a deep hood. Vatol exchanges whispers with him, a hasty, "Find their weapons and take-take what you can under cover of the attack," sending the rat-sneak on his way. He disappears by the time they get to the stairs, moving to rejoin the squad of skulks and tunnelers below them. Vatol isn't breathing hard at all when they reach the top of the tower. He looks up at the airships, gaping behind the lenses of his facemask. His attention is drawn away shortly after; he eschanges glances with Lezard, making a gesture with his free hand and then reaching for his pouch. "Tcheh. I will show you what I am capable of!" He doesn't need the help of some /man-thing/. This is his chance! The armored rat-man gestures twitchingly at the sky. He raises his eyes, speaking in hissing, chittering words. He sways in place, making jolting motions with his hand -- which isn't at all free. He holds a disk-shaped sliver of something, a green stone that seems to drink in light. It's thin, like a coin or a wafer, a token of some sort of malevolent material. The chaotic power held within it is palpable and volatile. Vatol opens a catch on his mask and promptly eats it. There is a screech. He thrusts his hand into the sky, fingers trembling. There's a flicker of green light and a swirl of the same, rising in a spiral from his hand. Clouds begin to boil out of a spot directly above him and high above, black and rumbling. They churn and swirl, and wind comes with them, building from a strong breeze to hurricane force in a matter of moments. The unnatural storm spreads through the skies. The hurricane brings with it horrible winds, tipping carts and toppling trees. Flickers of the same green light appear in the dark clouds, with thunder like the rumbling of a dark god heralding a strike of sickly green Warp lightning that rakes anything high enough to get it's attention -- like, say, airships, or other unfortunates that might have taken to the air... 

:'''{{#var:513|Finna (513)}} has posed:''' There is VERY LITTLE Finna-Bird can really DO in this scenario. She's lucky enough to not be getting ZAPPED by Lezard's Captain Obvious spells and the other things flying towards the airships. The poor bird's in danger of getting caught in the crossfire and because of that she DUCKS AND DIVES as though going after prey, transitioning into a speedy soearing to the northwest along with the group... although with some zigging and zagging to avoid being TOO obvious! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Sudden Airship Strikes aren't entirely unheard of, but firing on what SHOULD have been a diplomatic summit is... Well, it can only really mean one thing, can't it? The diplomat stammers from the floor, "C-cathedrals and churches? W-wait, lord! I can't make that--" "--decision..."     Welp. Victor's already off doing his thing. Nothing really much that can be done now-- if Victor's upholding his end of the bargain, then either this diplomat go beg and crawl to the senate, ooooor he gets his head ripped off, his face lightning bolted, or something even worse. Probably something worse. That rat man is doing something that is quite frankly terrifying, after all.     Many things happen in short order. Even as Victor alignes the artillery and Lezard sets up his shield, more shells continue to slam into the fortress' walls. Men and machines are sent flying in plumes of flame and blasts of shattered stone. The world is full of the scent of blood and brimstone! But then it... Stops.     It's a bizarre sight, what happens in the sky between the fortress and the airships. Plumes of flame and black smoke burst in a blue sky as artillery shells somehow smash dead-center with the incoming bombardment. Of course, there are many airships, and so many, many bullets in the air. But even those that do make it past Victor's inexplicable artillery wall are screened further by Lezard's shield, blasting into the barrier with incredible kinetic force. Only a handful break through. One smashes again into a wall, sending it crumpling inward. Another crashes into the courtyard-- but we'll get to that in a second. Because the sky is suddenly a very hostile place to be.                          MEANWHILE - ON AN AIRSHIP                           Captain Ohm of the fine vessel 'Cloud Emperor' also known as the R101 stands atop the deck, and quite honestly has a hard time believeing what he's seeing. Bolts of lightning blast into enormous airship hulls, creeping across the steelshod exteriors. Flame catches in one place, then leaps to another, but Evance builds its airships well. Of course, that doesn't help much when a perfectly clear sky suddenly turns into a raging, whipping hurricane. "Damn it all," the captain cusses, "What manner of weapons have these bastard unearthed this time?"     Something explodes a hundred feet to the south. Ohm glares as he catches sight of a bolt of lightning creep into an adjacent ship's starboard cannonline, blasting the whole thing out of the wood. But that's only the start of their troubles.     The storm builds. An arc of green lightning slams into that listing vessel. Something else explodes, and the vessel begins to list... Towards the fortress in the distance. "Damn and blast," Ohm hisses, "All hands, prepare to drop altitude! We need to get under this blasted hurricane, else we'll have worse than lightning to deal with!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                            BACK IN THE COURTYARD                                 "Hold it right there!" One of the Iskandrians cries, before he's abruptly silenced by a sudden slug of sniper rifle to his throat. The rest of his command is nothing but a helpless gurgle, but someone else quickly follows up. The Iskandrians are nothing if not plentiful. "Hold it right there! Send the alarm! Evancian spies!" Jumping to conclusions? Though it's pretty reasonable under these circumstances.     Soldiers muster in the courtyard after the retreating Chasers. Will cusses up a powerful storm as beams streak by all around him. One slams into his back, burning a hole through his cloak and vanishing into the black plate surrounding his chest. "Go go go go go!" Will yells at the others, "We can deal with supplies on the road! Worst case, we hunt! JUST RUN!" And then a shell explodes overhead.     Will screams as he goes flying, rolling, then finally stopping against another toppled cart. The Chaser groans as he rises, fire scattered in the courtyard all around them. But the beams don't stop. Not from just from the Iskandrians, but... From the twelve-foot-tall machines that move in to fill their fallen numbers. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      Victor observes the mages doing their work with satisfaction. Another round of cannonfire to knock any other shells out of the sky with startling precision, and Victor has concluded that he's more or less done with his aspect of his promise. He claps his hands together in the driving rain, as if dusting them off, and looks to Vatol and Lezard.      "Let us leave these secondary objectives behind and pursue the real objective."      With that, Victor hefts the Skaven up in one meaty arm and *bounds* off the tower.      The massive Greaver falls, falls, falls, falls, falls. He falls like a rock, like a cannonball, like a bomb. There's a whistling noise as he falls, a shrill, shrieking whistling as the wind whips past.      And then he hits the ground in the middle of the courtyard.      There is a spectacular explosion of dirt, dust, stone, grass, and probably an ornamental statue. Fragments and clumps of filth rain down, along with the driving hurricane.      As it clears, the massive silhouette of the original Greaver, nearly ten feet tall and half that across, his tattered red cloak billowing around him in the storm, rises from the crater. He sets the Skaven down next to him and climbs forth, walking forward towards the party.      "Hello," he says politely, "I am Victor. It is my name, my title, and my profession. My colleagues and I have a request."      "Please surrender your CODEs to us immediately and you will be permitted to continue existing." Victor cracks his meaty neck. His lips split, revealing the massive *weapons* that are his teeth.      "Or do not. That is also acceptable. I do not believe it matters to us." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Somehow, things are exploding worse. Horrible sky storm. Even more explosions. Airships crashing down. And the Iskandrians now think that the party are spies and is attacking them. They need to get out of there, fast. So, August stares into his mirror shard. His reflection stares back. And blue energy surrounds him as he calls into it. "PERSONA!" In that spark of blue energy, something manifests. A large robotic soldier in military dress, with a gun for a leg and covered in burn scars. Immediately, that gun is pointed towards the assaulting soldiers, and with a silent click, begins spraying horrible fire, moving to create a massive wall to block the Iskandrians off. "EVERYONE, RUN!" And then, once the fire wall is up, bullets begin firing out of the gunleg, flying through the flames and wildly into everything past them. August then moves to run forward and escape, the Tin Soldier breaking off to follow him. And then there's a massive man of muscle and lion-ness carrying a man of rat-ness. August pauses, stepping back as the man demands them of something. "Now, hold on...explain exactly what the fuck you're talking about here. We have no idea what a CODE is." He's hoping to stall, while the Tin Soldier points his gun at the party and fires. Buffs slam out, as everyone's endurance increases. If shit goes bad...you'll be a bit less damaged. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Good news!      They're still alive. % Bad news!      The Iskandrian defense force is onto them, and they are very very not happy!      "CRAP." Millium curses as energy beams fleet through the air, multiple impacting against the spherical blue barrier that she's erected around her flying form, sending ripples running through it with each strike. One would notice that it was getting more and more transparent with every connecting shot though. It's not going to last long!      "We need to get out of here and- WAUGH!"      WHAM! Here comes Victor! That big lion shark man from out of nowhere! The resulting blast of debris and rush of wind are forceful enough to get through the barrier, sending Millium veering off course before she slams into the ground onto her back, arms wrapped around Claire's waist and keeping her from harm. She's been typing this entire time. Crazy woman.      "....Ow." The blonde girl groans wearily, before letting go of her partner operator, who smoothly stands up and brushes herself off before retreating to the side, pointedly avoiding combat despite being capable!      Lazy.      As Victor introduces himself, Millium sits up, and then stands. "....CODE?" She asks, blinking a few times, and then looking down at the glowing orbital fragments around her wrists and ankles. "......." She folds her arms behind her back and hides one foot behind the other. It's a useless endeavor because the radiant blue light completely gives her away.      "....What CODE? THere's no CODE here."      A+ Deception Skills. 

:'''{{#var:434|A-ko Magami (434)}} has posed:''' Twelve foot machines? They might be a problem to the ordinary person, but not to someone like A-ko. Sure she looks small, but she packs an insane punch! She cracks her knuckles and says, "You want some of this? Come on!" That is, while she's dodging the various laser beams coming at her with immense precision. "I'm not the girl you might think I am, you know!" She continues to dodge the laser beams in an attempt to try to draw them away from her allies for the time being. After doing a bit of dodging and dashing, A-ko attempts to leap into the air and strike the nearest one with a leaping side kick. Hopefully it's not harder than it looks, and A-ko should leave a bit of damage on it as she comes down. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Twelve foot machines are no issue to Maaka, as she takes a few shots at the robots. Of course, they're not the big threat after a few moments, when what feels like a thunderclap goes off amid the area. "Shit!" Maaka exclaims, in the middle of chambering a round in her rifle.     She stops shooting, and looks from her hiding place in confusion as she watches the scene, and sighs. "Fuck it." She leaps over her cover, and lands with a muted impact thanks to her booster jets, slowing her fall as she approaches the others.     "...uh." the armored cyborg looks awkward, unsure what to say other than nothing at all because that would make the situation worse.     Millium and William kind of need their CODEs, after all. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren flies low to the ground. Beams hit his forcefield, thank goodness, but it can only tank so many shots...     And then the League shows up out of the freakin' sky. Staren's NOT ready for a fight today, and a flurry of radio conversation sorts things out. He doesn't know what a CODE is, but then the CODE freaking tells him. For the moment, he runs -- well, flies, after William. If he can get behind cover for even a moment, he uses the opportunity to shift to cat form out of sight. Maybe then they'll stop shooting at him! 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' Lezard looks quite satisfied as he sees the chaos wrought in the skies. Especially as the airship begins to list. Lezard doesn't seem concerned at all about this as Victor turns his attention to the next, true objective: Relieving these visitors of their CODEs. Whatever they are. They sound interesting. Lezard laughs, sketching runes in the air and fading out as Victor makes his entrance... And that laugh resounds through the courtyard as Lezard Valeth, Sorceror of Midgard, fade in beside Vatol and Victor, dramatically whipping his Catalyst to one side. "One would advise capitulation. No one needs to die here." He pauses. "Well, besides the ones who already have, of course. Can't break a war without cracking a few airships, hmm?" Purple flame alights in his hand, seething there. "Or refuse. I have no cares either way." He chuckles, the flames giving him a decidedly mad appearance as he dances it through his fingers deftly. 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' The Warp Hurricane keeps spinning, howling high above. Vatol laughs, the sound metallic and somewhat... unhinged. "I feel it! I /feel/ it in my /bones/!" The rush from that token amount of Warpstone is intense. Vatol doesn't often indulge -- it's unnecessary, wasteful in most circumstances, more valuable to him for other applications beyond spellcraft. This time, though -- Vatol suddenly feels a jolt. Victor grabs him. Vatol looks at Victor, laughter abruptly cut short -- and then they're airborne. Vatol screams for a few seconds and then laughs again, too absorbed in the rush of energy to heed the danger. They hit the ground. Vatol gets released, landing on his feet with a clank of metal and a hiss from his equipment. He flicks a switch while he's in the dust cloud, and there's a thrumming from the tank on his back. The runes on the black blade of his glaive flicker and glow the same green as that lightning high above. The Skaven steps up next to Victor, half his size, heavily armored and bristling with danger. His tail curls behind him, a glint of light as the sky flashes with Warp lightning shining off the metallic tip. He makes a fist with his free hand, the gauntlet on it crackling with energy. "Give-give the CODEs to us and live, man-things!" He sweeps his gauntleted hand through the air. "Weave another spell and we will not be so /merciful/!" What? Vatol knows what mercy is. People beg for it all the time! 

:'''{{#var:670|Lyria Mason (670)}} has posed:''' Lasers? Oh dear Raiden! THERE ARE SO MANY LASERs and Serpent can not dodge them all. She's caught by several blast the smell of burning suit and flesh is quickly known to Serpent she does not like the smell of either. She stagger bck now and is moving to get her pistols out. She's trying to keep moving even as the fire keeps coming her way. This is too interesting this is very much too interesting times today! Then come a imposingman she doesn't know and something that isn't quite a mand glad in heavey armour and a sense of something that unettles Serpent she keeps her puistols ready but speaks. "CODE?! I haveno idea on what your speaking of." No lies here Serpent has no idea about the codes and it may very likely get her killed. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Things just went from bad to worse.     Will groans, staggering to his feet. There's blood dripping from his forehead, trickling down the bridge of his nose. He cracked his forehead. But he's... Not concussed, thank heavens. Just staggered. He can get back on his feet, and that means he can run. Well. It would have meant he could run. Except... Not. There's something in his way. Three somethings. Will glares at the three figures ahead of him. Okay, maybe not all three of them. Just the one right in the middle. He knows that face. He knows that man. "You... You're the one from Caelondia. The one... The one that put me through that wall." The one who's... After something that Will can't possibly give away.     "Victor, huh?" Will drawls. His blood throbs against the inside of his ears. There's a look in his eyes. Victor would know it-- the desperation of a cornered rat. He looks beat to shit; fighting here and now would be suicide. "Sorry. Y'all're going to have to look somewhere else. This one here and I have a deal, and I don't mean to go back on it." Which means... A battle to the death? Will's arms fly into a flurry of motion. A gun comes away from its holster. A canister is ripped out of a knapsack. The world suddenly burns with brilliant, white light and incredible, blasting heat. "If y'all want it--" Will yells over the din as the caloric content of a fully charged fusion core is vented into the Solano's heart. Its barrel glows with incredible light, like a flashbang gone mad-- but it's the roiling sphere of supercharged plasma that blasts like a miniature sun out of its barrel that's really what's going to put out some eyes. It rises, dissipating only slightly as it surges into the roiling, chaotic storm. An arc of green lightning slams into the sphere. It explodes. Clouds burn red and green, white and blue. A hole is torn in the sky. And... That's all he's got? Nope. "RUN!" There it is. 

:'''{{#var:961|Victor Xix (961)}} has posed:'''      As Millium makes her declaration and a bunch of other people also pull the 'WHAT CODE' thing, Victor's (still slightly burned) eyebrows rise slightly. "I am not easily insulted. I congratulate you on being the first in my memory to attempt it with any degree of quality." Unfortunately, he sounds more *entertained* than insulted.      Victor's eyes slam shut the minute he sees what Will is about to do. He instructs the other members of the V-Team to do the same. He's seen this before - in fact, the last time he saw it, William *shot him in the eyes*.      "EYES SHUT," he roars over the storm, not because he needs to but so that *the other side knows that he is well aware of what William is doing*. The roar is a primal, primordial thing, bestial in a way that most Greavers simply are *not*, simply aren't *capable* of.      Victor lunges forward. He is not letting Will and the others get away without a parting strike. No, he may not be able to get the CODEs in one blow but he is going to make damn sure they aren't going to run the hell away so easily.      Those massive claws flash in the lightning as he goes for William's face. Those same claws, just minutes earlier, cleaved through hunks of stone like it was water. What will they do to the flesh and blood they were made to rend?      The answer may surprise you.      Or not. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August Kohler knows he can't fight these guys. They'd kill him. But he hears the name of one of them, and it instills something in him. He's heard far too much of this man. So, he decides to bide time, facing Lezard. "Lezard Valeth, right? I have a question for you. Do you enjoy setting girls' houses on fire because they hurt your precious feelings? Do you get some sort of sick joy from it? Because you're a sick freak, and someday, I hope you die horribly painfully." He knows the risk of saying this, as he shuts his eyes close when Will fires the beam. Victor's coming at them, too. But August finishes it off. "Right now, you'd kill me, pretty easily. But you're not going to get your chance, so I'll say this." And then, he waits until he feels things shifting, and everything about to go down. He feels a gash of claws strike against his chest, knocking him back, but the endurance buff keeps him on his feet even as he begins bleeding. "Fuck you, Lezard Valeth. See you in hell." 

:'''{{#var:434|A-ko Magami (434)}} has posed:''' A-ko knows when to fight and when not to. She pulls back and starts to retreat a little when she is signalled that Will is about to fire his beam. Thinking quickly, A-ko shields her eyes with her arm and closes them at the same time to ensure she's not blinded. She gulps a little, wondering what she's gotten herself into here this whole time. Ever since the beginning of the night, she wondered what she was doing, and now she's having doubts... 

:'''{{#var:1088|Vatol Halftail (1088)}} has posed:''' The hurricane starts to calm, very slowly, as Vatol stops concentrating on it. It's still hellish, but it's winding down faster than any normal storm would. Small favors. Vatol nearly gets blinded by the defiance of the one with the CODE. Fortunately, his ally-thing warns him ahead of time: 'eyes shut.' He turns his head, squeezing his eyes shut. Skaven live their lives underground; being in the vicinity of that would have been bad. The tinted lenses of the full face mask lessen the effect, but don't blunt it all. Shutting his eyes still sting, the reddish glow through shut lids making his eyes itch. Vatol raises his gauntleted hand, still closed, and shields it with an overhand haul like he was going to throw something right after. It fades. His eyes open, and he opens his gauntleted hand at the same time, flinging it forward. Something glittering leaves it. "DIE-DIE, MAN-THINGS!" There's a crack of glass against stone. A plume of dark green fog explodes in the midst of the courtyard, a rolling bank of mist blossoming from the point of impact. It's hard to see in from the density alone; harder still since it burns eyes and lungs, blinding and strangling those caught in it like it was a mass of invisible hands. Poison gas?! There's a flash of un-light from the gauntlet not seconds after. A green gemstone that seems to suck in the plasma-light is set into the palm, and the energy that's been crackling through it is focused there. It rips out of it in the form of green lightning, stitching across paving stones and rippling towards Vatol's newest targets. Dodging lightning might be tricky if you can't see it. With that gas tossed in the mix... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     William does A THING!     It's a bright and flashy thing too! Alexis' eyes adjust immediately for the makeshift flash bang, and once she hears Victor's voice echo 'EYES SHUT' as well, she realizes he's about to do something too. This is not going to end well.     The cyborg has speed on her side, give her credit, and her boosters carry her to move towards Victor, her shoulder dropping to smash right into him like a football player, but sadly this turns out to be a very bad idea.     She can feel razor sharp claws scraping into her chest, raking skin directly as Victor's talons penetrates her body armor. Needless to say they draw blood, and Maaka screams in pain as she tries to keep conscious. Already her armor's medical suite is trying to mend the damage to her flesh, but the armor itself might need some work done to fix the visible gaps made. Ow. OW.     Gonna be a bitch to repair this. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     The clouds open up.     And a tiny point of red comes falling down through.     Inside the cockpit of the Firestarter-C, Mel Brock is devoting a very small amount of brainpower to wondering what the hell she is doing. Most of it is turned toward the task of piloting her ship in a powerdive, keeping the nose straight down and flooring the metaphorical gas pedal. The instant she drops below the bottom edge of the Warp Storm, however, she kills all engine power, devoting everything to thrusters. Still falling downward, she turns the relatively small red vessel so that it's pointing away, southeast - and then switches everything back on. It's like a kick in the pants, and the Chaser takes off into the southeastern distance.     A good ways out, it suddenly stops, and takes a sharp, banking turn, to come back around. Heading in a northwesterly direction.     And then it accelerates.     And accelerates.     A white, hazy ring forms around its midsection, slightly tapered back.     A crimson streak shoots through the skies over the fortress. As it passes overhead, the ground underneath Will's group suddenly tears itself up with a sudden lurch and intense G-force, /flinging/ itself and them up into the air in the wake of the red blur's passing. At this point, Mel is moving so fast that she very quickly out-accelerates the chunk of ground, and her grip on it dissipates in just moments. So now they're all freefalling, instead of being dragged up to supersonic speeds. That's... a plus?     Of course, there is one other thing the speedy red craft leaves in its wake after it's gone. A very, very loud noise, from relatively close by. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      "Eheheheheeeeee....." Millium laughs sheepishly, scratching her cheek with a finger. "I guess that was pretty bad, huh?" She didn't even bother trying. Her CODE is glowing even more brightly as the seconds pass. But that's an open secret now anyway!      Will does the thing!      Millium closes her eyes while bright light flares out and lights up the sky. And once she hears that flash, she's got her eyes opened and ready to go! ... Only to spy Mr. Giant Lion Man going right for Will's. ...Or more like attempting to sweep everyone in the front line. Crap! "I'm sorry, Mr. Victor, but we've still got living to do!" She yells, stepping forward and slamming her fists together as azure energy builds up, forming into a spherical barrier.      She reaaaaaaaally wanted to save her energy capacity for later, but it looks like there's no choice! Not that it does a fat lot of good. A single sweep of his claw impacts the barrier, stopped for a fraction of a second, in which Millium smirks. ...And then it cleaves through like butter. "What- AGH!" It's only by virtue of August's empowering spell that the blonde Chaser isn't cleaved in twain. Instead, it just cleaves across her torso, immediately straining white with a rapid flood of red.      She flies back and hits the ground, SERAPH powering off immediately. "Ow.....oww......ooooowwww....!" She groans, rolling over and gripping her stomach as she feels blood dripping to the ground below. Thank her lucky stars she's alive at all.      Claire, who seems like she knew this was going to happen, just curses under her breath and closes her laptop, tucking it aside as she kneels down to assist Millium. "Can you still use your CODE?" She asks, looking over that stomach wound. Millium hisses and nods, though she's already wavering. "Y-Yeah...I....I can! Just.....leave it to me...hheheh....ow....it hurts..."      AND THEN HERE COMES MEL. Supersonic speeding through the skies above, and then veering northwest. They are all uprooted, and FLUNG RIGHT INTO THE SKY. Even Claire's eyes widen at this development, and she knew it was coming. One arm holds tight to her equipment, the other loops around Millium's shoulder.      Okay, 45 Percent power. She's not got a LOT, but it's enough. Gritting her teeth from the pain, she spreads her arms, powering SERAPH back on. And the radiant blue light spreads, forming a protective barrier around the entire party against the wind force, as well as to serve as a cushion for their landing.      They'll still tumble a bit, but they're not going to go splat!      Small miracles. 

:'''{{#var:598|Lezard Valeth (598)}} has posed:''' Today is a day of storms. Whoever read today's weather patterns undoubtedly are regretting their life choices at the moment. Lezard, however, takes one glance at the sphere William produces. "You think you're going to-" Victor interrupts Lezard's rant, and he blinks as if slapped before suddenly throwing up his cloak, Dracula-style against the colossal plasma flash. Were it not for Victor, that might just have caught him right in the face. He gets into grooves, you know? A boy he does not know rants at him about a girl's house. As the cloak comes down, he smiles. "You're going to need to be more specific, boy. I've burned down a lot of houses." He replies. "You would not /believe/ how many people object to you when you are doing simple scientific research. Oh, and trying to kill a pantheon." He shrugs. "The sacrifices we make, hmm? But I will say this..." Lezard's eyes narrow. "Hate me if you will. Despise my actions. Loathe me for what and who I am. My body is singed and blackened. My soul is stained. I have sacrificed things you can never comprehend in my pursuit of my goals. My corporeal form has been destroyed more times than I can conveniently count. Believe me, /it hurts/. But you /will/ respect me, or I will sever your body and soul and send you shrieking into Niflheim, to become a plaything of Hel." The Manus Catalyst rises, and Lezard sneers. "As far as your closing argument is concerned? When you see me there... It will be when I am carving my name into your very soul and leaving you broken on the bow of the Naglfar. Now /run/, pathetic scamp!" Blackness rupts around Lezard, and a host of black spheres, each with tiny starlike eyes, begin surging after August at high speed. The touch of each one erodes physical form like acid, slamming into anything they strike with colossal kinetic force... Even as they depart loudly and quick. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     Staren runs. First of all, he has no idea what's going on and doesn't want to fight his new allies when for all he knows, there's a way to solve /everyone's/ problems. Second... He did not come prepared for a fight. Sure, he does have /some/ protection in the form of his armored labcoat and personal forcefield, and a bag full of guns, but the protection is far less than his armor, and under all those defenses, Staren is just a squishy human (half.) Sure, there's his infamous immortality, but his body is a pain to replace and, most importantly, he knows nothing about the abilities these three have to deal with that sort of thing. Their magic might just kill his soul or something, he doesn't know!     He's been promised /not/ to be killed as long as he doesn't fight. That sounds good.     Staren-kitty closes his eyes when Will says to, and once he can see again, keeps scampering away.     He /really/ needs to have someone explain to him what is going on, after all this.     AND THEN HE GETS FLUNG INTO THE SKY     Is it true that cats always land on their feet? You won't find out today, because Staren changes form again and manifests his wings (best magic item) to keep flying away! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The storm is split. Mel is on her way. They can do this, Will thinks. They can /do this./ And then something goes 'splort' in front of him. Something that sounds like Maaka. Will opens his mouth to scream and snaps his face to look. That reflex, and Maaka slowing the blow, is about the only reason that Will's face isn't a fine mist in the air. Victor's claw cleaves a deep gash from the edge of the Chaser's jaw, just under one ear, up and across his cheekbone. He screams just in time to get hit by a blast of sickly green electricity that seems to... Sink into the strange black armor on his chest? It still gets him convulsing-- But fortunately, that's all it gets him doing.     The poison gas is left far behind in the wake of Mel's whiplash flyby. Will screams as he tumbles through the air, gripping at the bloody gash across his face as the party is turned into a whole bunch of projectiles. Fortunately, Milly catches them! Unfortunately, she has a MASSIVE, SUCKING CHEST WOUND. Will hits the ground, bounces once, twice, and then ends up back-first in an enormous nest of marshweeds. "D-damnit," Will curses. "Milly--- Milly are you okay?" (The answer is probably no) (Damnit Kohler why don't you know any healing magic)     Even with the Chaser's departure-- the sonic boom scattered the soldiers and steel legionnaires just as badly as our plucky adventuring band-- things at the fortress are... still chaotic. Why? Well. You remember that airship? It's right there, coming at the walls. It collides, sinking into the fortress. And then someone inside hits the self destruct switch, and the whole thing goes up in a mighty and terrible explosion. ...The fortress, quite understandably, looks like it's seen better days. 

:'''{{#var:670|Lyria Mason (670)}} has posed:''' Lyria Mason is going to have to trust in her former Union Comrade, that Mel has a plan to bail them all the hell out. At least that's what she thinks that Mel is doing on the other hand she's coming in on and she can hear the sonic boom as Mel is doing he thing. She finds Victors claws, which might has well being blades coming for, she rpaidly draws her own blade and barely parries it the force of the stries are enough to push her back as she's trying to end up keepiong with the others for they can not say much longer, they have lost and she damn well knows it. The only way for things to get worse is for them to die. Thids may very well happen with them getting killed this night. That is very muchs till on the docket given the sort of people they are facing here. Then they all go flying. Serpent does not care how this is working she will flap her darn arms to get tout of here she does keep track of everyone she can see. Staren, Mel, William, Alexis and Millium. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      They soar through the sky! They hit the ground! Millium's barrier goes pop! But she spares juuuuuust enough energy left to float herself just enough to not go rolling. Claire takes care of the rest, digging her feet into the ground and skidding forward till they come to a relatively rough stop.      ".....Hu...h?" The blonde girl mumbles woozily at Will, blinking a few times to try and clear the haze. "Oh...yeah. Yeah I'm fine... toooootally fi-"      Flump.      Millium flops over facefirst into the ground. Oops. Claire narrows her eyes at this, looking off into the distance briefly at the sound of an explosion. ...Better add that to the report too. But for now, she turns Millium over and begins digging through her stuff for a first aid kit.      If anything, she looks kind of miffed about having to deal with this nonsense, than the fact that Millium is UNCONSCIOUS AND BLEEDING OUT. But hey, life of a Chaser, right? Sigh. Get the anti-bacterial agent... and the bandages... Damn it. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     First, Maaka gets clawed. THis was a bad idea, and the fact Xix is utterly nonchalant about friendly fire just confuses her. Being flung across the air, at a 25 degree angle. She soars and lands like a sack of rocks, grunting in pain as she clutches her wounded chest. "...I'm gonna regret this, a lot." She grumbles, fumbling for the anti-bacterial equipment, as well as means to fix her wounds. Repair nanites gotta be somewhere...     Shame about the armor. Like said before, she can't exactly fix that in the field. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' It was never going to be that easy. The claws strike and blood gushes from August's chest. And then Lezard responds. August wishes he had time to respond back, but he doesn't, and is instead catapulted flying. He thought that being sent flying would prevent Lezard from counter-attacking. Nope, homing attack! The black orbs of energy slam into August's back and torso, causing him immense pain as his clothes burn away and his skin melts. Additionally, this isn't counting the fact that he inhaled Vatol's poison gas, burning his lungs away. Warp lightning joins in, striking his body as he goes flying and coursing through him. "RRRRRGH!" When he finally crashes, he's barely conscious, and only because of a mixture of his endurance buff (which kept him alive) and the sheer will to not let himself get knocked out from this. He doesn't move or speak. He's alive, barely, but he looks terrible, is going to need medical attention, and should probably be dead. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     The Chaser is going so fast that by the time it decelerates and banks around, it's almost completely out of sight. And she's not cranking it up past mach 1 again; so it's gonna take a little bit longer for her to bring the vehicle back around to where August and Millium are. But she does so as quickly as is safe, and brings the craft down as close as she can. "Back seat. Reach under the middle, pull the bar you feel there. Should slide forward and fold out into an emergency bed big enough for both of them. There's room for you up front," she'll add for Claire's sake. 

:'''{{#var:42|Staren (42)}} has posed:'''     So yeah, WARP HURRICANE. Staren just uses his wings in a quick burst when he reaches the ground for a relatively gentle landing. Others land around him -- Some people need medical attention.     Hey, THAT he's prepared for!     Staren pulls rolls of nanobandage out of his bag -- self-adhering bandages laced with antibiotics and medical nanomachines that speed healing -- and starts applying them to the wounded. They're no magic healing spells, but they'll hopefully stop things from getting /worse/ and keep them in good condition for proper medical care!     How are they going to get medical care out here is perhaps the next question... 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Claire answers that question for Staren.      Once August and Millium are loaded in the back, she plops down in the front seat available, taking out her laptop and resuming her typing from where she left off. "We're going. Try not to get killed now." She deadpans as her fingers race across the keyboard, not even looking at the others anymore. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will hauls himself out of the brush, his cheek dripping fresh blood. "Damnit-- that wasn't supposed to be so..." So much of a disaster? Basically a shitshow? GUARANTEED TO GET WILL ON EVERY WANTED POSTER FOR MILES? Yes to all of these. He growls, pushing him up to meet the others. What he sees has him falling against the Chaser's flank. "...I didn't mean for... All this to happen. Nnngh," he touches at the fringes of his gaping face-wound. "...I'll... I'll be okay. I can go the rest of the way. It'll be alright. Mel, y'all take these guys and make sure they're okay, alright?" Will is feeling the guilt. This is... unusual. 
}}

4885/Meet the Boss

2017-01-09T05:54:20Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/12/15 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=Claire meets the boss and receives a very special mission. |Cast of Characters=934, 1051 |Tinyplot=..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/15
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Claire meets the boss and receives a very special mission.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1051
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Typically, when a new relic is retrieved from out in the wilderness, the Prospector Guild will see it handed off to one of their district offices for safe-keeping. Then, once enough of a stock is accumulated (or once a month, whichever comes first), a shipment is arranged from these distributed hubs back to Vaygara for safe-keeping, analysis and reproduction. This time, circumstances were just a little bit different. This time, the Guild requested for the particular find- and the agent who found it- to make their way to Vaygara immediately.     This is strange enough, but remarkable discoveries are typically given special treatment. What happens here is a bit beyond even that. The meeting was arranged for the dead of night-- well into early morning, and well before anyone at all would be awake to take notice. There is no pomp, there is no circumstance, but there are a pair of people in protective equipment at the docks waiting to take the package, and specific orders to not speak a word to anyone and to report directly to the central office. Specifically, the one that is home to the mysterious chairman of the Prospector's Guild. The one who wears a mask to conceal his identity, and whose seat is either upheld or replaced by secret council vote every decade or so. The one whose oak doors are really quite intimidating, if you look at them the right way. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      ".........."      It's not every day that you get called out from your local district and made to come all the way to Vaygara for a routine relic find. ...WHich meant that either Claire has done something terribly wrong without realizing it, or she's made an incredible find. Silently, and perhaps with a fair bit of trepidation, she stares up at the oak doors, a bead of sweat running down her cheek. She's not technically alone. Millium is here. ...Waiting out in the lobby, of course. Something about this being a personal meeting. Not like that stupid girl'd help anyhow. She'd just say something dumb like 'Millium of the stars is here!' and make everything worse.      Ugh.      Okay.      The guild operator takes a deeeeeeep breath, and then knocks on the doors. Once. Twice. Three times. Then she turns the handle and makes her way inside. "Hello, Sir." She greets slightly rigidly, and almost having stuttered. "I was called to be here at this time today..." Red eyes stare at the mask, and she has to try really hard to not avert her gaze. "... If I'm remembering my schedule correctly." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Chairman's office is... Well, it's pretty fancy. Everything is in some kind of dark hardwood. There's a grandfather clock in the corner, opposite to a roaring, brick fireplace. There are many, many, many books stacked from end to end in cases along the walls. The Chairman looks up from a single (1) piece of paperwork as Claire makes her entrance.     "Ah, yes. Agent Claire Reynard, I was expecting you. Please," he gestures at a chair across from his desk, "Sit down. We have something important to discuss." The director leans back into his chair, idly steepling his fingers together against his masked face. "I read your report; it was quite intriguing." "But first let me ask you," he says, inclining his head, "Are you aware of what it is that you returned with? Do you have any idea, really, of what this is about?" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      ...Wow. This place is fancy. Crap, that just made it even more intimidating. Damn it, no. Stay calm. You got this! You didn't do anything wrong! ...Probably.      "Yes, sir." She says, forcibly retaking her calm and approaching. She has a seat in the indicated chair across from The Chairman's desk and places her hands in her lap, waiting. Her report? Oh, it must have been about the... Was it the wrecked ship and the black powder? ...That apparently nanozombi virus black powder.      That immediately fills her with renewed trepidation. Should she have left that stuff alone? Did the higher ups already know about it? Shit. It seemed like a good idea at the time! Find a cure! Why not? While Claire's mind is a vortex of changing emotions, she manages to keep her face steady and shake her head at the question posed. "I... was told that it was some kind of dormant nanomachine colony. That when active, turns people into something that the agents at the site called 'zombies', for lack of a better term..."      The agent's eyes avert for a moment, and then she looks back at that mask and finishes. "I don't know any more than what I've written in the report, sir. But I make the call to take a sample because I thought that maybe it could be studied, and the active effects circumvented if we could understand it..." She'd go on to ask 'Why do you ask?', but that seemed like a terrible idea at the moment. Let's wait and see. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Chairman is still and quiet as Claire explains. He's calm. Completely calm. Not a single terrified or nervous bone in his body- or maybe that's why the Chairmen always wear masks? So that nobody can tell exactly how they're feeling.     "Very good," the Chairman says, nodding as she finishes. "As you say, the black powder is a highly advanced variety of nanomachine. When it makes its way into the body, it acts to overwhelm the immune system and then transform the victim into a host and a biochemical factory for the production of further nanomachines. Very insidious. I daresay it's about one of the most dangerous things one can find in the ruins."     The Chairman rises and makes his way over to one of the bookcases. He runs his fingers along the many spines and eventually settles on a rather unassuming book. He opens it up and makes his way back to the desk. "Fifteen years ago, a man arrived in Vaygara with a... sample of this substance. We've been studying it ever since, though there are issues, you understand, with trying to perform experiments on a 'live' colony."     He sighs, passing the book across the table. "A compilation of the work we performed on the colony, if you're interested in taking a look." It's... A confusing mess of scientific terms and jargon that basically sums of to 'THIS IS SOME BAD SHIT.' "It is my hope that we are able to use this dormant sample to develop a countermeasure for the infection. Though it is also my hope that we would not have to."     "You mentioned in your report a young man with a very interesting weapon," he says, then. "One which I do not believe we have had the good fortune to study. However, some of the Ancient texts that we have retrieved from the ruins over the years speak of a tool with similar properties which was once used to cleanse some remarkably familiar infestations."     "I would like to have you retrieve the weapon, and the boy as well. Please do attempt to convince him to come along peacefully, but if he resists, you are authorized to use whatever means necessary to bring them here." The Chairman moves ever so slightly, just enough for a discerning eye to catch sight of that sheet of paper. It appears to be a... recommendation for promotion. "You will of course be compensated for your work." "I will direct our security forces to assist you, if it does in fact come to the use of force. You need only send word to me, and I will do what I can to help you." "So, Agent Claire Reynard. What do you say? Will you help us find a cure for this... atrocity?" 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh....      Oh. So they did know about it. Wait, that stuff makes people into biochemical factories to make more of itself!? ...Clare isn't sure how to respond to that, other than to inadvertently widen her eyes just a tad. "I see..." And she watches as he rises and walks over to one of the many bookcases lining the room, browsing the spines in a seemingly unassuming manner. Picking out a book to read later? ...Nah.      "So this isn't the first time." She mumbles to herself more than to The Chairman. She looks down at the offered book, arching a brow. A record? ...Well, she was curious. "If it's okay." She responds, reaching out to take the book and put it into her lap, flipping through a few pages to skim briefly. ....What in the world? Claire considered herself to be a fairly studious person. She studied hard and did her best, so she could grasp most of what she glanced through. But... What the hell is this? "...Who in the world made these nanomachines in the first place?" The guild agent grumbles out loud, shaking her head in the process.      Oh well.      Mention of Will's Solano gets Claire's attention, and she looks up from the book, right into that mask. "You mean Will Pauwel?" The crazy man who drags in weirdo alien people to run his dungeons with him. "And you think his weapon is the same one from the texts?" Surely that had to be a dumb coincidence. Or maybe not. "........" Retrieve him and the weapon? Ha ha ha ha, yeah good luck with that. The guy barely wanted anything to do with the guild. It didn't take rocket science to figure that one out.      Which is why the mention of using any means necessary gives her pause. "........" Red eyes glance down at the sheet of paper momentarily, then continue down to the book. She doesn't read. Just think. "My assigned partner seems to be fairly close with him. I'll...see what I can do. And if it becomes necessary... I'll contact you."      It's for the good of the people, right? Surely Will would understand. And if he doesn't, then... well, it was one person and his gun weighed against a cure for a dangerous nanovirus. Claire knew which choice she'd make. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Presumably the Ancients made them. Which is probably also why the document about them is sort of... Labrynthine. Bits of it are legible, however. Something about 'very rapid adaptation' and 'evolutionary pseudo-biological processes' and very confused passages that basically read 'why does this stuff not attack plants???'     "Very good," the Chairman says at Claire's assent. "Please do understand that we don't want to harm the Pauwel boy. Far from it, it would be ideal if he were to cooperate with us. But the ability to purge this infection is essential, especially if it means we can save innocent lives as a result."     The Chairman looks... almost wistful, for a moment. "Ah, this takes me back. It's been a while since-- ah, but it's not important. Just old memories." He nods, then. "Well. That would be all then. Please keep up the good work, Agent Reynard. Let your partner know that we are, as ever, appreciative of her efforts. You both do this organization proud." AT LEAST SOMEONE APPRECIATES YOU, MILLIUM ARGENT. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Claire inwardly sighs as her eyes glance over the documents again. Sweet lord this thing was extensive. And half the time it seemed like the person or people who wrote this didn't know what the heck was going on with it either. Eventually, she gives up, after cleaning about as much information as she figured she was going to get without more time to study it. And she closes the book, putting it onto the desk.      "Of course, sir. I don't want to harm him either." He might be crazy fool, but she wasn't a murderer now. She typed stuff on computers and handled paperwork. Leave the murdering to the soldiers and mercs, please. "I hope he'll understand..." She closes her eyes momentarily, and then nods, opening them back up.      "Finding a cure is the most important thing. I'm sure a guy who runs around with his heart on his sleeve like him will help out." She does blink and tilt her head slightly at the half mentioned thoughts of old memories, but... well, she can't really pry. Curious as she is. "...Okay." And with that, Claire stands up, and bows. "Thank you. And I'll be sure to let her know. Have a nice day, Sir."      She turns around and heads for the door, opening it and stepping out. "........." Her legs wobble and she almost sinks to the ground. But she manages to hold herself up, a hand to her heart as she exhales deeply. Sweet lord of fire that was scary as hell. What in the world did she get wrapped up in? Damn it! This is Millium's fault, isn't it?      God damn it Argent!      Claire seems to regain her usual amount of anger and briskly walks off at that, no longer wanting to be anywhere near this area. No thanks. Goodbye. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The Chairman sits in silence as Claire slips out of his office. And then for a few minutes longer after that. He looks to be deep in thought, as if casting his mind back upon his age old memories. And then he reaches up to his cheek and pushes a button. And bright and bubbly and *~sparkly~* pop music begins to play in the earbuds hidden inside his mask. Ah, yes. The perfect way to start a day. 
}}

4865/Paladin

2017-01-09T05:53:39Z

Stormgear:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/11
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=A trip to the forest does not go as planned. The legacy of an ancient catastrophe is brought to life- Cabrashel the Herald of Fertile Earth. Marchosiel states his intent.
|Cast of Characters=934, 894, 941, 7, 151, 385, 1039
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Tellus isn't all wasteland and ocean. Even the great Frontier isn't completely blasted. Indeed, much of the recovering world is covered by thick, nearly impenetrable forest. And in fact, much of it is virgin, having not been visited by humans of any stripe for hundreds of years. Chasers give the woods of the Frontier a wide berth for a reason; not only are they difficult to navigate, but they're also home to some of the planet's most terrifying wildlife. Nobody wants to run into a hungry Archtiger. Nobody.     But this is exactly where Will's GPS system is pointing. Not just in an ordinary stretch of woods, but one located far off into the Frontier, where civilization has largely given way to wilderness, and the only thing for miles and miles is nature run rampant. To this end, he has... Prepared.     There's something that looks not quite unlike an ambulatory pine tree creeping through the forest. Every so often, its legs skitter forward and then duck back down when something- anything- makes a sound overhead. Once the noise passes, it rises and skitters forward ahead. Progress is slow-going, especially considering the tightening grasp of winter, but it's the best way to get from place to place without being eaten.     "Ain't far now," Will whispers into his communicator, because there's no way in any multiversal hell that he's going into a forest without a BUNCH of support. "Just over this next ridge, then half a mile, I reckon. Everyone still doing alright?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' After about a week at his parents, having been arrested and released into custody, August has convinced them to let him go out again, even though they're super worried about him. The reason? Because Will has crazy adventures in a world that Darwin would find most impressive, that's why. And for some reason, August keeps getting drawn to them. Is it...is it possible he's having /fun/? Not that he'd ever admit it, that is. The redhead is dressed in ACTUAL CLOTHES, not one of Will's weird suits, though he does have forest camo on to let him try and stealth. The Tin Soldier is pre-emptively out, because while it's bright, it is /entirely/ silent when not killing things, and can make a good eye in the sky. Or, well, eye in the trees, because it can't fly, but it can jump! "Will," August says, noticably not calling him Pauwel, "The fact that a /forest/ requires elaborate stealth manuevers in your world justifies every complaint I've ever made." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Pauwel, I ever mentioned your world is a little insane?"     Mel is taking the lazy approach. Mel is floating along riding a felled tree - a NATURALLY felled tree, this time, no telekinetic destructiveness - at somewhere in the neighborhood of the treeline. High enough she won't have to worry about ground predators, low enough that air predators and other airborne threats won't have an easy bead on her, and she can push aside the leaves and branches in her way with a simple, V-shaped telekinetic shield. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone was running herself hard as of late, but that was all right for her she was living an life she'd thought would be fiction only. This is not the case of it in the multiverse, So here they were somewhere no living human had been for a while and then they run into something or at last she thinks she does. "Right so why do you avoid the woods anyway William?" She's sadly not heard about the Archtiger given the amount of firepower they were bringing in? She had to wonder just /what/ might try to jump them. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August just looks at Kotone, smirking as he replies. "Probably because his world's a hellscape? I'm suspecting murderbears and man-eating trees. Also those archtiger things, whatever they are." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "What? No, my world's not a hellscape! It's not insane, either! The bears hibernate in the winter, too! That's why right now is the best time!" After all, needing to dodge both bear AND tiger is a very good way to get yourself killed in a superpredator tug-of-war. And then also eaten. Will harrumphs quietly at everyone's (completely reasonable) protests and their relative laissez faire approach to snaking it through the bush and crests the next ridge.     Stretching out in front of him is... Something that could possibly count as heartbreaking. It's... a neighbourhood. An array of houses completely overrun with vines, trees and rampant growth. A road network snakes neatly through the homes, broken only by the occasional tree whose growth has shattered the asphalt. Half a mile down that way is their destination, a home apparently a good deal larger than those around it... And next to it, having apparently smashed straight into the center of town, something that can only be described as a monolith. A huge, black /thing/ like an obelisk that juts irregularly out of the ground and rivals the trees for height. Here, the forest is... still. Quiet. Serene, even. Will frowns, stripping away his ghillie suit once he skids down to the far foot of the ridge. "...It's... Why would that part be in a place like this?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "...cripes."     There's nothing else Mel can think to say. This used to be someone's homes. With her hands in her pockets, the Marshal quietly frowns. "...don't know. Maybe someone took it for safekeeping. Maybe it's random chance. Hard to say. Bet that big thing over there is involved, though." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley is also here. She's here because a handful of allies are out and about doing something dangerous and she has the ability to focus on defensive purposes. She floats along near Mel, hovering as if gravity simply did not apply to her unless she wanted it to, making it easy to avoid notice by any of the local wildlife. She keeps her eyes peeled for threats to her fellow heroes and adventurers so that she can cover them long enough to preserve the advantage should violence start happening.     "Mmh." That is all the insight she has toward the solemn sight of former civilization. She doesn't seem overly disturbed by the sight. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' When William asked Yuna if she could help with another investigation on his world of Tellus, she agreed to help almost by reflex. Then he told her what they needed to do. She almost asked if she could back out ... but she doesn't like going back on her promises - and William *is* a friend, after all. It wasn't even the fact that they'd be in the territory of various dangerous, excessively predatory monsters that made her wish she could say 'no'; it's more the fact that it involves SNEAKING through the forest full of dangerous, excessively predatory monsters, and Yuna's Light Suit is about as far from 'sneaking around' equipment as you can get without putting spinny lights and noisemakers on it. She's trying to make do, though - having gotten a length of camouflage-pattern cloth, like they use to *make* ghillie suits, and fashioning it into a crude cloak with a hood. It's going to stop being useful as soon as they have to start fighting, but for now, it covers her blonde hair and the white-and-blue (and occasional gold) of her Light Suit *fairly* serviceably. Still, she's keeping her pistol ready in her right hand, her left hand free to catch herself should she fall, or to assist in climbing over things that need to be climbed over, and the name of her kite shield is ready upon her lips in case something charges at her with enough warning time to bring the kite shield to bear in her defense - or in anyone ELSE'S defense, for that matter. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Hikaru's particular skillset isn't very good at 'wilderness survival', but this seems important to Will, and Will's been nothing but helpful (if sometimes /unhelpfully/ helpful), so Hikky wants to help him out. He's taken advantage of William's offer of suitable clothing, which means that, today, he looks the part of a PARTICULARLY STEALTHY COWBOY. It's classic. Ainsley and August will surely rib him about it later. He doesn't care, he's rocking it regardless.     While others make their own safe way around the forest, Hikaru's following Will's lead, with tactical bush action. "Sorry, Will, but your world /is/ a little, er... how do I put this..." Hikaru pauses, before saying, quietly but with emphasis: "/Everything is trying to kill us./" It's a problem! Hikky almost brushed against a deadly tree earlier! He clearly can't trust /anything/ on this world.     Once they come to the abandoned village, Hikaru follows William's lead, shrugging off his camoflague and looking around. "What... what happened here?" He asks, looking from the vines to the obelisk. It's like the entire town just... died. He's never seen anything like it before. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' If Yuna had heard the bit about the bears - or rather, if she had known that bears would be competing with tigers for prey in the woods they've had to traverse to get here - then either she would have turned on her heel and left anyway, or (more likely) refused to go anywhere until she had, say, Jiina of the Earth with her, to offer the option of Powered Form. Or maybe the whole Matrix of Light, so she could whistle up El-Line in a pinch. As it is, Elner is, as usual, hovering roughly near Yuna's shoulder; the rest of the Matrix isn't anywhere near Tellus at this point. The sight of that obelisk is enough to make Yuna sort of wish she had El-Line with her anyway, though. "It looks like something burrowed under the town and stuck that up through it," she suggests, folding up her ghillie cloak and letting it vanish into storage. "I wonder ... was this town supposed to be in the middle of the forest like this?" Yuna continues. "This kind of overgrowth had to have taken some time, trees don't grow this abruptly overnight." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, nothing kills them! August is pretty happy about that, even as he snarks again at Will, "Will, have you actually been to another, more civilized world?" He stops snarking once they notice the houses. Well, this is eerie. "I assume archtigers don't have communities. How old could this be-" And then there's that monolith. "Will, I have a /terrible/ feeling about this." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "No it's not a Hellscape it's just a post nanotech apoch juding from what we have dug up so far. Your lot more lucky than Rory's home world is William." She's mostly just teasing but then something else is coming upon an old neighbourhood. She sees what used to be oeople's home overcome by the cold and endless grinding of nature. "No idea here Will, we'll have to find, out right? Just we should keep on our toes with this." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "It looks like a settlement," Will says, observing the obvious, considering the network of streets running through it. Not just little rural things, but a full on traffic system; one that would be part of a much, MUCH larger metropolis. "Roads, but not the ones like the Iskandrians build. These are-- were Ancients. But... But a forest? A forest around a town like this? This... This ain't right." His eyes move towards the enormous monolith as Mel makes mention of it and the explorer hesitates briefly. "...Maybe. Let's see if we can't get a closer look."     Will starts down the main thoroughfare, hopping over a few winding roots to close the distance with the huge /thing/ and his actual destination just next to it. The serenity of the wood seems to hold as he approaches the aged home. It's... held up well, by all accounts. Though that could also be due to the enormous tree trunk that seems to have grown into its second floor, spreading a nest of branches that hold the house upright. Will's lips draw into a thin line as he then steps /past/ it towards the enormous black thing rising from the ground next to it.     The monolith is... perfect. Geometrically perfect. Like someone had somehow produced the ultimate metaphysical representation of 'an obelisk' and stuck it, crooked, into the ground, in the middle of an ostensibly populated town. The vegetation has wrapped tightly around it, with ancient vines coiling up the walls of the structure before blossoming into a veritable cornucopia of life.     Will stares up at the thing, his brow furrowing tightly. He reaches up and flips a visor down over his eyes, then moves forward as if he were going to go... Is he going to touch it!? "What in the world /is/ this?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna doesn't even *say* anything, just bolts forward and grabs Will's wrist, trying to pull his hand *away* from actually trying to touch the obelisk. "Elner," she calls out, "do a full scan of the obelisk - physical construction, materials, power signatures of any sort, how far below the ground's surface it goes and what directions it goes in once it's down there." She gives Will a sheepish grin, "Let's ... seriously, let's not touch it until we know for sure that it's totally inert, okay ... ?" If Will's going to refrain from touching the unknown obelisk now, she lets go of his hand and takes a step away. Yuna's keeping her pistol ready, too. She's STILL on edge, and maybe moreso now than in the forest. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     "Hold on, Will--" Hikaru calls out, but luckily, Yuna's on top of it. Hikaru shakes his head, coming up to stand beside them. "If you have troubles with scanning it, let me know. The Fox Sister might be able to give us some insight, too." He's... never /tried/ using her outside the Forest, but the Tin Soldier works just fine, so surely she wouldn't have too much trouble.     Hikaru adjusts his neckerchief as he looks over the obelisk, and a hand goes down to his belt. He's taken a gun from the collection Will brought them, and he's got his bo staff compressed at his belt, but he still feels remarkably unprepared for what this world has to offer. Hopefully, Archtigers don't /really/ live here. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley follows the others to the mysterious obelisk, still unaffected by the ruins around them. The reason for this becomes clear when she says, "Forests grow where men cease to be, reclaiming the land. It's not the first city like this that I've seen. I first saw a city like this when I was eleven years old, as a sort of... field trip." She frowns, finally, remembering that unpleasant note in her past.     Ainsley is also about to warn William not to touch the Obelisk when they reach it, the lizard woman breathing a shaky sigh as she anticipated something bad happening. She then decides to activate her Sight to scan the Obelisk for any information built into it. If it's computerized in any way, she may be able to read the components, or if it contains messages or warnings or ... anything meant to communicate what this thing is supposed to be. Her eyes glow with the magical circles and her hands gently wave through the air as she weaves spells to help her focus on different types of information it may contain. "I'm giving it a look," she adds, helpfully, to the others. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     As always, Mel walks with a steady gait and her hands in her pockets. She's a little behind Will, at least at first, but he's taking the lead, and after a moment, she even calls out, "Hey, Will, slow down a little. No telling what's-" Oh god he's gonna touch it.     The looks Mel gives Yuna is grateful, even a bit relieved. "Yeah, let's... let's be a little cautious here." She comes to a stop next to Hikaru, waiting quietly for the better-suited people to do their investigating here. "Let us know," she replies to Ainsley. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "It does look like it was one but it looks like Nature had it way. Or knowing this world there's some cousin of the damn coral here in plant form." She really, /hates/ the coral oh god does she hate that stuff. She's also understandin the level of tech on Will's world at one point was at the point of might as well be magic. Kotone keep smoving and she pauses for a moment as the reach the strange monlith. "Will wait, what are you doing! Don't just out and touch it!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will is an inquisitive little bugger, but even he should know better than to touch mysterious things- especially in his own world. Fortunately Yuna is around to save him from himself, tugging him back in time to keep the obelisk... /relatively/ undisturbed. "Y-yeah, sorry," he shakes his head. "Don't know exactly what I was thinking, there."     Far safer methods of Examining A Thing are, however, underway. Elner would find the obelisk to be difficult to penetrate. Its very structure seems to repel conventional scans, though it is able to determine that this is just the tip of the structure. It extends down. Down, down, down, before finally disappearing from scanning range. It may even go down into the planet's mantle, vanishing into the magma layer there. Ainsley's magical probes have some more luck, however. She is able to read its structure. Or rather-- Their structure.     The obelisk is not a single object. That's why Elner couldn't penetrate its interior structure. It's an uncountable, unfathomable myriad of tiny, almost vanishingly small objects. And as she probes them, she feels them, direct their attention at her. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Elner reports quickly on its inability to scan the object. Yuna's not TOTALLY surprised by this; Elner's sensors are impressive, but among other things, she and Elner both know that the robo-faerie has trouble with magical phenomena. And she had a feeling that this might be magical in some sense. But what Elner *can* report makes the blood drain from her face. "Bigger than you can scan?" she echoes, looking at Elner. "I didn't think your sensors had that kind of a range limit ... you've pulled off interstellar teleports before, haven't you?" The robo-faerie doesn't reply, and Yuna's attention shifts to Will. "Maybe it's magical enough that it entranced you somehow ... but if it's got enough magic to do that -" She abruptly stops talking, taking an extra step or two back from the obelisk, her gaze sweeping slowly over the unusual object. There's a little corner of her mind that wonders if it counts as an OOPART, an 'Out Of Place Artifact,' but ... this is the Multiverse, and more specifically, this is Tellus. She's not sure what even *counts* as 'out of place' ... 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August spends a good solid few minutes staring in terror at the monolith. He's seen movies. He knows what this means. Eventually, though, he snaps out of it, and backs away. "Uh, Will, where is this thing you need? Please tell me it's not inside there." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Will looks to August, then shakes his head and points vaguely at the house, "I'm... I'm pretty sure it's in there." Beat. "You thinking we should maybe... go find it? Before something terrible happens?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "William, get away from it /right now/, everyone be on your guards, it's looking at me now or however it detects things," Ainsley says, as she quickly waves her hands and dispels her Sight. It saw her and it is looking at her and so she is going to make sure that it is absolutely clear she isn't a threat to it or, well, its target.     "Hello?" Ainsley tries, reaching out with all methods of communication she knows of to see if the Obelisk is intelligent and responds. "Can you hear me? Please tell me you can hear me." She has tried this before on other adventures and 9 times out of 10 it turns out to be a homicidal monster of some kind that immediately tries to murder her for being the friendly one. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley warns them to get back, and Hikaru puts some space between himself and the obelisk, holding up his empty hands just in case it's aware of the rest of them too. He glances over to the house William indicates, but he doesn't make any sudden movements yet, because he doesn't want to hurt Ainsley's chances. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel listens quietly to Ainsley and Elner's information, considers things briefly, and then takes a few steps forward so she's right behind and to Ainsley's left.     And then she calmly reaches up and tugs her limiter off. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Someone is attempting to make contact.     Ainsley does what Ainsley does. She communicates. She reaches a hand out to the enormous monolith in a gesture of friendship. Unlike the vast majority of horrible monsters that she tied to talk to before everything descends into chaos and explosions, this one actually... reaches back. But its voice is madness.     The first impression is like a slick black oil seeping into her ears, an awful, greasy sensation on the inside of her head. And then it /screams./ A trillion voices or more, shrieking in a wild, cacophonous union before coming together into a singular, high-pitched voice. It sounds like a child's cry. And then even that gives way. To silence. Then. To a voice, and an image. An aged, grinning face in the darkness, so wrinkled that it looks more like ancient, gnarled bark than the flesh of man. His mouth opens, his words tear up the connection she establishes and threaten to burn themselves into her brain.                           Ah. Finally. An excuse.                               Then, the connection falls apart. The obelisk soon follows, but not simply coming to pieces as much as it begins whorling upwards and outwards, the incredibly dense mass unfolding a torso, limbs, an enormous, serpentine lower half. Heat signatures suddenly SURGE. Yuna would be able to sense it coming up from below, an incredible spike of thermal energy. Magma jets up into the cloud and is then torn apart, shredded by an internal tornado of tiny machines that build a skeleton of volcanic stone from the blood of the earth. Until, finally, the thing solidifies. And as it roars, lava drips from its maw.                         --Herald of Fertile Earth--                                                        --Cabrashel--                                 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Will as Yuna pulls him back and she pauses looking the monolith over with a good deal of fear. Well it's an obelisk to be eact and she's also scanning it with what she's able to do with her body but it's not much. She's not sure how massive this thing is but given the people who made most of this old tech? The Hubris levels were as insane as what they knew was scary. She takes a step back from it. "Great we're going to have to go into it?!" Then it gives an answer, no they will not have to go into it, it's gong to be worse, it's trying to kill them and has formed itself out of the living materials of this very world. She goes for her weapon but what good are bullets' going to do here? She opens fire anway and starts to move about, like hell she's staying still. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley gets a reply. It is a shriek like that of pain. And then something unreal, and terrible, stabs into her mind. A psychic connection. Ainsley undergoes what is quite possibly the most painful experience in her life, if you discount the half-dozen other times she tried to do something like this and it blew up in her face. She howls in pain on reflex, the sound drowned out of her own ears by the psychic ringing.     She collapses to her knees and clutches her head. She is helpless as the creature comes to life because it utterly shattered her ability to function for long enough to be in danger. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' FUCK THIS WORLD. August has officially rated it worse than the Mirror Forest, as he stares in horror. He stammers over the radio, and is /really upset/ because this is the one sort of thing he can't deal with. It's a giant murder /fire monolith/, he has no ability to combat it effectively. It takes Hikaru Kurosawa to bark at him over the radio for him to snap into reality. It turns out that despite seeing the Forest, August totally hasn't seen everything, as he runs over to Ainsley, moving to pick her up, letting Hikaru help him if she's too heavy (he has no idea how much scales weigh). "Alright, Ainsley, we're getting the fuck out of here! Go go go go go!" And then he runs to...well, whatever is safer than here. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley tries. Hikaru's glad that she tries, because he always did believe in /trying/ to reach out to people. Even if... sometimes people are obelisks.     But it just doesn't turn out, at all. Ainsley crumples, and the obelisk pours out of itself, spiralling up and carving magma from the earth to form its blood and its bones. The radio blasts with activity for a moment, Hikaru faltering at first before barking out some instructions, and he runs over to Ainsley's side. The Fox Sister is a psychic warrior, who can make her illusions into very real fire - and neither of those things are helpful at /all/ here. So instead, he helps August pick Ainsley up, and works with him to get her /away/. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna has no way of knowing what Ainsley hears back from the obelisk. but when the obelisk starts to disintegrate, she can tell that SOMEthing is happening. Almost as quickly, with the obelisk's mass swirling about and rearranging itself - *building up* instead of falling apart, yet - Yuna comes to the conclusion that this 'something' is terribly, terribly *BAD*. "Shugoseiheki!!!" Yuna shouts, conjuring her kite shield with a flash of light, and then trying to interpose herself between the 'obelisk' and Ainsley, staying protectively in front of her even as the 'obelisk' gets bigger and ... Turns into a giant freaking monster. It's not quite clear at whom Yuna's grousing as she complains, "You just *HAD* to wake up something like this when the Matrix of Light is all doing stuff for me elsewhere, didn't you?!" Elner is already sending an emergency call out to Jiina, Marina, and Erina, but each of the three is literally on a different world and it's going to take *time* for them to get to Tellus ... time which is going to be in horribly short supply, if Cabrashel is as violent as it looks and sounds. Without the Matrix Figure, there are only a couple of things Yuna can even try to do, and the only one that's certain is that she's likely to die trying to fight. Even with the Light Suit and the Wall of the Guardian Star, she's not likely to accomplish much more than postpone the inevitable. The one thing she can try that MIGHT not result in an excruciatingly hot demise? o/~    You may dream, follow them, these honest feelings     If you can tell them, dreams come true     You may dream, a pure white love turns into wings     To fulfill an angel's pinky-promise ... yeah, she's singing. Maybe just as a distraction, maybe to try and get the magma elemental to calm down ... maybe to buy time to figure out how to fight a monster big enough to slaughter her without even realizing it. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none of it. At least it lets her focus on something besides the absolute terror of the situation, that's got to count for SOMEthing. And she is, in fact, backing up step by step. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     The instant Ainsley lets out a scream, Mel is in front of her. The instant the beast rises up, her hands flex.     A split-second after it begins roaring, three thousand tons of telekinetic force hits it.     This is nothing like the power anyone here has seen her unleash before. The flickers of light are not sparse. They are not short-lived. It's a torrent of shimmering, gleaming streamers of purple light, dancing and rushing through the air - and the air itself /ripples/ with the sheer force. The ground tears apart. Any buildings behind Cabrashel come apart. With a mighty, furious roar of pain, Mel Brock unloads everything she is capable of, with no restraint. The tie holding her hair in a ponytail snaps. Her coat billows out behind her along with her hair. Her eyes light up a glowing purple, and the ground /under/ her starts to ripple and depress.     She's going to regret this for days. But for once, the Marshal is sick and tired of waking up monsters and running in terror. So with her limiter off, she fully intends to tear the thing apart before it can even begin to properly threaten them. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' So many things go wrong so quickly.     Cabrashel unfolds from its resting place in the earth. Ainsley drops to her knees, at the tectonic colossus' mercy. As it rises to its full size, the heat rising from its shoulders begins creeping up into the canopy above. Leaves and branches begin to dry up and burn, falling to the ground as cinders. The behemoth of flame lifts its hands, heat gathering there even as more molten stone begins filling in the gaps within its enormous body. It seems to stare at Yuna- and her song. Is it incensed? Or is she just providing a decent target? Brilliant, orange fire begins gathering in its palms-- And then Mel Brock proves that you don't need a goddamn Lens to wield inhuman telekinetic force.     The sound Cabrashel makes is almost comical. A dull note of surprise, followed by the sound of a construct of magma and nanotechnology being walloped by someone throwing the equivalent of a naval destroyer straight into its face. It sounds vaguely like a billion bugs hitting a windshield all at once.     The town behind Cabrashel is levelled. Hot magma blasts backwards, spewing in a tremendous spray of molten fury that sets the broken buildings on fire. The giant of flame has its upper torso virtually evaporated, though it's questionable whether spreading that many nanites over such a large area is a good idea in the long run. Will stands on the stoop of the manor, his mouth hanging ever so slightly agape at the scale of the destrction. The door is open, at least. So there weren't any traps there.     But if it were that easy, these things wouldn't have been a threat. The black mass that had remained buried in the earth begin bubbling upwards, stacking back on top of itself. It seems to be trying to... regenerate, forming into a vague, worm-like shape. The thing folds in on itself, and a terrible blast of heat pours out from its glowing maw, directed firmly on the woman who just utterly humiliated it. It has about two seconds of uptime before second blast of kinetic force splatters the thing, again, from somewhere high above. An armored figure drops to the ground opposite to where Mel is standing, carrying an immense lance and a similarly massive shield. August would probably recognize it. So would Yuna. Marchosiel. "..." he says, staring at the thing already beginning to draw itself back up from even that assault. "I detected an ominous signal and came to investigate, but... It seems like you have it handled? Remarkable." He shakes his head, "Don't let your guard down. We must deplete its supply of cells to stop its regeneration." Sure enough, the beast is drawing back up from the earth, but it seems... Shakier than before. Definitely less intimidating now that Mel Brock has fully stopped tolerating any of this bulshit. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     When the first blast of force ends, Mel lets out a shaking breath that turns into a quiet hiss of pain, her hair and coat both settling back down. The psychic doesn't lower her guard yet, though; of course it's not gonna be that easy, she knows better. Already, the earth around her shifts and rumbles, lunging up into a thick barrier of dirt and stone at just about the time the blast of heat begins-     And then someone else smashes it down.     The Marshal looks upward, briefly on her guard - but whoever that is, they're an ally. "I got tired of this world's shit. Now help me tear this thing apart or get out of the way, I don't care which!" This time, when she draws her right arm back, she holds it high and behind herself, almost as if preparing to throw a spear - except with her palm open, rather than curled. A second later, she swings it forward, /slamming/ it down as if to smash the earth beneath her feet apart-     -and another torrent of incredible, impossible force rains /down/ on the regenerating beast. The ground absolutely craters. And then she does it again. And again. And again. And /again/. Each time punctuated with a swear word, a growl of pain, and eventually just a strained string of words. "STAY. THE. HELL. DOWN. YOU. STUPID. PIECE. OF." You get the idea. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna's song is cut short by a couple of things happening in rapid succession. Mel is one of them; the sudden eruption of raw telekinetic force unleashed by the sheriff catches the idol singer by surprise, but it's the impact her efforts carry - the fact that Cabrashel is actually knocked for a loop - which makes Yuna fail to start into the next verse of the song she'd begun. And then, Marchosiel drops in and clobbers the magma elemental even harder, just before Yuna can find out whether the Mizzium lining of her kite shield is as proof against magma as it is against most everything else she's run into. "Marchosiel, glad to see you," she calls out in a shaky but relieved voice. Taking a deep breath, Yuna then takes several more steps backwards, attempting to gently draw Mel back with her so they aren't in immediate 'step on you for instant death' range from the magma elemental. She drives the bottom point of her kite shield into the ground, pulling with her left arm (still in the straps, for the moment) and using her right hand to help push it in; she's not trying to bury it, just wedge it into the ground so it'll stay upright. Then she pulls her left arm free of the shield's straps and replaces her pistol (dismissed moments earlier) with the full-sized Matrix Divider, hunkering down behind her shield while she builds up as strong a charge as she can focus into her weapon. "We can hurt it, you guys!" she calls out to her allies. "That ought to mean we can beat it!" Then she pulls the Divider's trigger, and a crackling, flaring bolt of concussive radiant force - weapons-grade hard light, really - erupts towards Cabrashel's head, in between Mel's hammerblows of psionic force. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As they escape, August stops. He sees Mel be, well, terrifying. And he sees them all fighting. And Marchiosal arrives. And he looks into himself. He's being a coward. Yeah, he's weak to it. Yeah, his primary attack source won't touch it. But there's things he can do. "Tin Soldier, to me!" Leaving Ainsley with Hikaru, August rejoins the fight, but maintains a distance. He closes his eyes...he only needs one pair right now. The Tin Soldier starts by charging towards Mel, before shooting at her with his gun. Instead of bullets, she gets a DEFENSE BOOST, a healthy amount of endurance which may be able to help her with the burning and the pain! Then, August just flicks his fingers towards Will and Yuna, the Tin Soldier following, firing off both attack and defense boosts at them. It then retreats, ready to keep up a buff cycle if needed. August isn't the fighter here...he's support. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Kotone gets a defense and attack boost too! Yaaaay, lucky cyborg. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Everyone is laying into this horror, seriously why does this keep happening? She sighs inwardly and keeps moving as she watches Insley, Yuna and MEl opens up. her bullets don't seem to do much if anything to the beast. She's going to have to turn up the heat and so she's gong to do so. Kotone springs and he's going to try to get close as the thing seems to be tyring to regenerate and rthat's when theplasma grenades comes out she's arming a plasma grenade and then stops as something takes the thing out and she pulls back for a moment shifts and thanks to August helping with his magic? She runs in agin with the grenade and moves slam the grneade into the thing. Thanks to Mel? She has an opening. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" She then leaps the hell away and most of this is thanks to the extra boost tht August gave her. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     It turns out that one of their number is crushingly, /terrifyingly/ strong. As Hikaru and August take Ainsley, the woman beside her unleashes the sort of power Hikaru never even knew was possible. He only stares for a moment, before he focuses on getting Ainsley up and away - taking her from August after the teenager decides to get into the fight. He's not the strongest guy, but being a Persona-User puts him above the average, and Ainsley's pretty light, so he's able to support her weight and get her clear of ground zero without any problems.     He can hear - and feel, the earth beneath him trembling - the fighting behind him. He glances over his shoulder briefly when a new voice enters the fray, who Yuna identifies as Marchosiel, and he just hopes that he's a friend rather than a foe. Any help against the magma beast seems welcome right now. As Ainsley comes around, Hikaru supports her, with an arm looped around her shoulders. "Hey, there you go," he encourages her, his voice quiet. "You okay, Ainsley..? That seemed pretty rough." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley felt her senses come back as if she had woken up from a coma. Light and sound came back into focus slowly but surely. The reptilian woman had her senses back and she hated every second of it. She was just bricked in the head AGAIN by something terrible and incomprehensible and it reveled in the excuse to attack anything that it came across. She was not pleased by that. She dimly heard the sound of someone explaining that its cells need to be depleted to be destroyed...     She stands, shakily. She glances at Hikaru, frowning her answer at him. Her eyes are bloodshot.     Then they glow.     And she reaches out at the nanite colony, coated with magma and already smushed by Mel and the newcomer, and mumbles, hoarsely, "Fuck. You."     And she tries to actively disrupt its ability to remain cohesive by just blasting it with white noise, because she saw how the pieces communicated. She forces so much magic out at it that she is hoping to corrupt its code and make it unable to put itself back together even if it had any fuel left to do so. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel nods in response to Mel's demand. It's not like he can exactly contribute more strategic insight to a battle that roughly amounts to 'smash this thing harder.' The ancient cyborg raises its lance, the whole thing bisecting down the middle. White-blue light begins flooding from the weapon, wrapping it in a halo of coruscating electricity. The air begins to smell of ozone. A plasma weapon? If it's anything like Will's--     "Die monster," the cyborg growls, lunging forward to drive the tip of his weapon into the point where Cabrashel meets the earth. A gout of raw plasma thunders into beast's roots, blasting up through cracks that spiderweb across the ground. A point blank discharge of enough plasma to vaporize a small hill pours into the earth.     At the same time, Mel's assault strikes the nanotechnological horror from above. Hammers of telekinetic force pound the monster downwards, forcing it back into the crevasse from which it spawned. More and more nanomaterial pours away in sheets, even as the monster struggles to reform its body, only for its head to be shorn off by a tremendous bolt of golden energy.     And then, there's something from the house. Or rather, from right in front of the house. "Electromagnetic energy should dissociate the--" Will hisses, "Shush, you! Last time you talked around that guy, he dang near shot six of us!" August's blessing fills Will with power! More importantly, it fills his gun with power. His gun that is now humming with nearly-invisible ripples of electromagnetic force.     He pulls the trigger. The air seems to ripple. Ainsley's spell follows and joins with it. Two immense waves of pure white noise sweep across the colony. As they do, its regeneration seems to screech to a sudden halt, black material falling away like loose volcanic sand. Mel keeps pounding into it. Marchosiel's plasma finally burns its way up from below. Cabrashel tries one last time to reform, only for its form to rise, shudder, and then... Ash. The whole thing falls to inert, grey ash. Volcanic stone, crushed to pieces, falls to the ground amidst the dust and detritus.     Marchosiel aims at the ground and fires again for good measure. It turns to glass as he does. The cyborg stands still and ready for a moment more, before seeming to visibly relax. Will falls back onto his butt.                               --HERALD SLAIN--                                   "...Well." Marchosiel huffs, stepping over the ruined mound. "I did not expect to encounter you all here," He seems to be looking over towards Will, August and Yuna. "No. That's not right. I expected to see the one with the gun," he gestures at Will. "But we will get to that later." "I would assume that you want answers as to what... That, was." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "Please," Ainsley replies, in the wake of all the dust and debris and chaos, "Explain what that was and why it was so eager to kill us all with the thinnest of excuses." She sounds hoarse, pained, but she seems to be calming down very quickly. She pats Hikaru once as she walks by to get a look at the deceased creature from a relatively safe distance. Nothing but a pile of volcanic stone and dust now. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Eventually, Mel's attack stops. It's right around the time Ainsley and Will unload. The psychic holds herself still, breathing heavily, as her hair settles down around her head again. Half-hunched from the followthrough of one of her downward punches, she slowly, carefully straightens herself up.     And then utters a quiet, strained noise of pain, like someone who's just bumped a still-healing wound. She stumbles back a few steps before managing to catch her balance, but by the bloodshot color in her eyes and the flush of effort on her face, she's not having a good time. And this is with August's defensive boost bolstering her. How bad might it have been otherwise?     "Hnnnh... yeah, that's... that'd be nice to know," she grunts, reaching up to slap her limiter back on her right cheek. "Anyone... anyone got a spare hair tie...?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     A clothen sound from Ainsley's direction, and she has pulled the red ribbon out of the feathers on top of her head and handed it over to Mel, without looking away from Marchosiel. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "I wouldn't mind knowing," Yuna admits, now that the battle is over. August's power-up boosts came at an excellent time, letting her put even more punch behind her blasts ... but she still has the feeling that it was mostly Mel and Marchosiel who did far more than she could ever have done. Plus, she came through that WITHOUT El-Line, which is a boost of sorts in its own right. "I mean ... when we got here, that ... being, I guess ... it looked inanimate. Just an obelisk poking out of the ground, with the rest of it burrowed in further than Elner could map out with her sensors. Was it magical? Was it natural? Was it a thing that somebody made deliberately, and why did somebody make a weapon like that?" She dismisses the Matrix Divider, picks up Shugoseiheki to dismiss the shield ... Then goes over to help Mel tie her hair back again. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley gets a grateful look, as does Yuna; but crouching down to have her hair tied back again is off the table right now, so instead the Marshal steps over beside a lump of fallen dirt. That should give Yuna enough of a boost. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Hikaru supports Ainsley as much as she needs, nodding to her as she frowns. She swears at the magma creature, her eyes glowing, and Hikaru turns his head to look at it as the end comes. The combatants make /horrifyingly/ short work of it. Hikaru feels some regret for not helping them fight, but Ainsley is safe - and he's not sure she would have remained that way if she'd been disabled in the middle of all that. He smiles to her, briefly, as she pats him on her way closer - and he, too, steps forward in response to Marchosiel's offer of an explanation. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Elites have questions. Marchosiel, it seems, has at least a few answers to give. "When the war began, the Enemy's heralds emerged from the earth in vessels much like that one." Marchosiel gestures at the glassed remains of the obelisk. "These heralds have a... direct connection to the Enemy. They acted as commanders. Control hubs for its war machine."     The question then is why it got up to attack only once someone tried to poke it with a stick. Marchosiel continues. "The Enemy's goal is the eradication of all human life. I presume that it deactivated once this region was... depopulated. It would likely have reactivated eventually, regardless, but if you did anything to disturb it, it likely responded to what it interpreted as a threat."     "...I do not know what you mean by 'magical.' But it was definitely not 'natural,'" Marchosiel shakes his head. "I suspect, given the activation of Judgment, that this is not the first time you all have encountered the Enemy's agents. It is a danger to the continued existence of humanity on this world. It is my Emperor's eternal foe." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' She watches the plasma do it's bit and she holds back now as everyone else tears into it. Will, Mel, August, Hikky. Eveyrone is tearing into it and she takes a dep breth as she sees the thing is finally down and their mysterious helper comes in and she looks at Marchosiel for a moment. "Didn't expect anyone else here either. Wait you know about Will's gun?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "The heralds emerged in vessels like that one," Ainsley repeats aloud, commiting it to memory. If they're all weapons meant to kill people... then she understands what its message was about. She woke it up and it had a reason to be ambulatory again. She frowns at the remains of the Herald, grimacing at the mental noise that still rings through her head.     "I'm going to think of a better way to deal with one of these if we run into it again. That thing was pure bad juju." She closes her eyes and rubs her face with both hands, her brain trying to escape her skull through her forehead, so to speak. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Hikaru scratches at the back of his head, olive green hair falling over his hand in the process. A war? It would explain the state of William's world. "Control hubs, huh..?" Kotone mentioned nanomachines earlier, so it made sense. They were more like machines than people, probably. Machines designed to kill people. Which... probably means they shouldn't try reasoning with them.     It's pretty weird, but the Multiverse is proving to be pretty weird in general. After murmuring something into the radio, Hikaru shrugs, gesturing to Marchosiel. "Sorry, I'm kinda new to all this - but what's the deal with your Emperor?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The hump of earth isn't the best footing Yuna would have hoped for, but it's enough for her to reach up and tie Mel's ponytail back again. It may not be as tidy as it was before, but ... well, Yuna's dealt with her own ponytail often enough to know how to do it, even for somebody else. And she listens while she's doing it, her lips tightening a little at Marchosiel's explanation. "A synthetic commander for ... war machines." She falls silent, thinking about some of the other things she's seen on Tellus. Lots of giant robots, the Iskandrian robosoldiers ... Marchosiel's draconic ally. No, magic doesn't really seem to be a thing here, even if the magma monster was decidedly elemental in appearance. "So, the town here must have been built after it went onto standby or something ... ? Didn't they know what the obelisk was, what its presence here meant?" She looks at Elner, "Scan underground again, is there anything *left* of that thing?" Elner does indeed start scanning again - actually floating over to whatever's left of Cabrashel, or where it emerged if there *is* nothing left, and begins scanning, Yuna's hope, and Elner's tentative expectation, is that all of its underground mass was drawn up to the surface when it went into combat mode. Gods help them if there's anything left underground. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August helped save the day! Buffs work! Yay. Now he looks for loot, anything valuable they can use or may need in the future. But he also turns up to Marchiosel, finally. "Oh, you. Hey." But as he's searching, Judgment mentions some things. And August clicks some things in his head. They're very loose hunchs, but he's going to need to try and dig and see if he can't suss out what the truth is. So as he speaks over the radio, he talks to Marchiosel. "I want to know about the Enemy, and about you. What are you doing up in space...how long have you been there?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "No. This herald emerged in this community just prior to the end of the war," Marchosiel answered. "The ensuing calamity caused it to deactivate, I believe. However I would need to check the records." He shakes his head. "The calamity signalled the end of the originators' civilization." Underground, there's... Nothing of the obelisk, at least. Elner's scans detect no trace of it left. Perhaps they really did succeed in destroying it? "The Emperor," he answers, "Has watched over the world for hundreds of years. He is the protector of mankind. The final guardian, and the architect of our victory." There's a... reverant tone to his voice. Perhaps the Emperor is regarded as something of a god-king? "As far as the Enemy--" Marchosiel's voice darkens. "It was hubris. Man overstepped his bounds, and created something he could not destroy without also destroying himself. Technology gone mad." He shakes his head, "They turned their weapons upon it, knowing that it would mean their own end. For this, we must be grateful. However, the Enemy remains. It stirs, and someday it will return." "To that end," Marchosiel turns towards Will, and steps forward, a hand extended. "Please. Return Judgment to me. It will be... necessary for what will come."     Will, for his part, stares at the Cyborg like he'd grown a second head. "Wh- my gun? I can't just... Just hand it over! It's the only thing I've got--" He clutches the weapon to his chest, "My dad left it for me. I ain't just going to give it up!" Marchosiel stands and stares at the boy. His expression is unreadable behind the mask. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel takes some steps forward now that her hair is tied back. They're a little stiff, but she manages to stand tall and square her shoulders. "Alright, so to head off the inevitable yes-no here- nnnh..." Okay, so maybe she's still a bit achey. "We're not gonna hand it over. But we understand you need it. So... look at it this way. /Until/ you need it, if Will holds onto it, it's being held by someone relatively unknown, mobile, and capable of getting it offworld in an emergency. And depending on what you need it for, if you're willing to share information, maybe we can work with you, so he doesn't have to hand it over." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna is outwardly fairly quiet for a moment, focusing on the radio. When the moment passes, she looks at Marchosiel, with a look on her face that's mostly gentle and friendly ... but does reveal a hint of determination, ready to be brought to the surface as steel. "I'm with William on this one, Marchosiel ... but so far? We've been in the same places at the same times with a fairly good track record; you may need William's weapon in the future, but so long as our paths keep intersecting, you don't need to take it from him yet, certainly not here or now." Her lips quirk in a faint smile. "Besides, William's on a quest that you might not have the time or attention for. Isn't it better to let him, and his friends - that is, *us* - pursue that quest while you're responding to other situations that need your attention?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel stares for a moment longer. He reaches forward and Will shrinks back. He's seen what this thing can do. He knows... He knows it could probably crush his head like a grape-- but there are things he just can't give up. The others speak. Marchosiel is still, his eyes shining beneath his visor. Then he... Draws his hand back, and-- hesitates, briefly, as it nears the crest of his own head. Then he sighs, and palms his face. "...I will give you time to come to terms with... Your situation." "However, I will come back for Terminal Judgment," he says, then. "When its power is necessary, please, return it to me." The cyborg turns and begins moving away, apparently... Okay with this agreement? Or at least, okay with letting Will off easy for the day. "If there are no other questions, I will be returning to orbit." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is starting to understand what's going on a bit better as Marchosiel explains a few more things to them. "More information on what happens is good and really? Cause it looks like there's world ending nanotech laying around here. Hubris? that sadly makes sense a lot of sense but now ther's talk of a God king? That worries her. "Wait you want to take Will's Gun?" She narrows her eyes a little bit She also tenses the hell up at this point but it seems a fight isn't going to happen just yet. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' As Marchosiel departs and the shattered, ashen remnants of Cabrashel slowly wafts away in the breeze, the group is finally given the room and the peace to actually do what they came here for. What they find is... A home. An old, broken home. Three bedrooms. A kitchen. A fridge full of decaying food. They find a set of notes written in words thousands of years old, and they find a workshop hidden in the basement with the device they were searching for. ...And a photograph of a proud man and woman, white labcoats over each of their shoulders-- and two armfuls of family, perched on the desk. But at least they in the present are all safe. And they've got what they came for. And if anyone cares to root around in the ash of the monster outside, they might just find a strange, orange-yellow sphere. HOW MYSTERIOUS. 
}}

4831/Angel of Victory

2017-01-09T05:53:35Z

Stormgear:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/01
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Genji and a certain angel have a heart-to-heart.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1007
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Frontier is tremendous in size. The rest of the planet can be demarcated into separate and distinct regions simply by dint of which city-state has decided to enforce the peace. In contrast, the Frontier consists of all the wild places. All those regions that are untamed, unbound and largely unsettled.     Not all of the Frontier is crag and scrubland, however. Large stretches are beautiful, green plains, rich forests and verdant mountains. In one such forest, where a great river has etched a broad clearing, the Frontier seems so much smaller than it truly is. Strange, cold-loving lilies gather at the banks of the floodwaters, fed by a glacial mountain whose pinnacle is just barely visible between the clouds and horizon. Evergreen trees shiver in the breeze, but their strength is as great as their trunks are wide; they will endure through the cold. A deer sips from the far side of the river.     But something does not quite fit in with the natural beauty of this tranquil place. A shadow dances overhead, flitting beneath the clouds. A rider stares down from his great steed, searching for the one who had called his name. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     It's not hard to find him.     Near the river, there is a boulder, left over from a landslide decades past. Atop the boulder sits a lone figure, legs crossed, one hand in front of his face with a pair of fingers extended. He is utterly serene, and almost manages to look as if he belongs here, amidst the tranquility and calm of nature, despite his utterly artificial appearance.     Genji has long since learned to appreciate the beauty of the natural world; something he missed out on in his youth. He's not gonna miss a chance to enjoy a short while of peaceful meditation in a place like this. It will be up to Marchosiel to land and offer the first greeting. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     There. The wind stirs, tickling the treetops with verdant murmurs. The shadow descends, almost silent except for the sound of rushing air. The dragon's wings glow with soft, blue light as it alights on the near end of the shore, carefully adjusting its landing to avoid an unwanted dip into the river.     The rider dismounts and turns towards the one who called for him. They are similar, yet different. Both are hewn in the image of man; two arms, two legs, standing upright with a head and two eyes. Both have dragons. But whereas Genji quite obviously maintains something resembling a 'natural' human physique, Marchosiel has been built to... more unnatural specifications, at least superficially. It's the difference, indeed, between a knight in full regalia and a ninja.     "You called and I have answered," Marchosiel says in that distinctly modulated voice. He approaches, coming to a stop within civil talking distance from the boulder. "I seem to recall that you wished to ask questions of me." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "I did," the shinobi replies, his head tilting slightly - the first real sign of movement. "I have several of them. Some practical, some philosophical. But I consider them all of importance, if you are willing to entertain them."     It looks as if he's going to conduct this interview from his current seated position, at least for the time being, as other than the slight tilt of his head, there's no movement at all. "I am Genji, of the Shimada clan of ninja. I am a member of Overwatch, a group dedicated to protecting the innocent and keeping the peace even when our own world would call us outlaw. And I am a member of the Union, a military force that spans countless worlds to defend against those who would do them harm. I would know, first and foremost, who you are, and what you stand for." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Marchosiel rides around on a giant flying dragon. He's got legs. He can stand and answer if he needs to.     "Very well," the Iron Angel answers, crossing his arms across his well-armored chest. "Though I cannot guarantee I can answer all of your questions. There are things that I must keep secret." And all men, cyborg, robot or not, have their secrets. "Though this question I can answer easily."     "I am Marchosiel," he answers, explaining, "An agent of the protector of this world. The preservation of humanity and the defeat of the enemy are my ultimate goals. Just as you protect the innocent and keep the peace, so to do we work to disarm unnecessary conflict and prevent unnecessary loss of life." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "And we have arrived at the first of my questions," Genji replies. He does finally perform some actual movement, but it's only to rest his palms on his knees. "First, I would like to know who this 'protector' is. Or what you're able to tell me of them, at least." Once again, the shinobi's head tilts with curiosity, regarding Marchosiel with an appraising manner. "The second, is whether you have given deep thought to your mission." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' 'Well,' a voice at the back of Marchosiel's head says, 'Technically these are his second and third questions.' Marchosiel doesn't say that, because he is not a smart ass.     The Iron Angel seems to go still as he considers the questions, servos in his arms and legs locking to allow him to rest in place without needless movement. Almost like a statue, in fact. "The Protector," he says, "Has watched this world for hundreds of years. The Protector orchestrated the defense of humanity in its darkest hour, and has remained vigilant ever since. When the people call for salvation, the Protector sends its agents to their aid. Sometimes it sees fit to take those who ask to be taken." The angel shrugs, "It has continued to cultivate his armies, of which I am of course a member, in preparation for the war which will someday come." "Other than that," Marchosiel says, "I cannot tell you more of its nature and its mission."     "As to your second question," he inclines his head. "I have had thoughts. There is little else I would rather do than to protect this world. Is there a nobler calling in life?" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "I cannot disagree with that," Genji says, inclining his head slightly. "However... have you considered whether your method, whether your Protector's method, is the correct one? There are many ways to save the world. It is possible for more than one to be right, and more than one to be wrong." A hand comes up, palm open, gesturing as he speaks. "For example. The military force that you drove off the other day, the one we were fighting. They genuinely believe that they are doing the same thing you are - protecting the world and the people in it. They wish to unify all people in this world under their banner, so that there is no infighting, and so that all can share in resources and manpower. I disagree with their method and stance, but I can see the merit in it. Your Protector could do much the same. Possibly with greater success." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Mmn," Marchosiel rumbles. The air seems to grow just a little bit heavier. Not with menace, but with... concern? "There are things that The Protector knows that others do not. Facts that have remained unchanged that, on the surface, seem to have been lost to time. In other words, there are only two entities on this world who truly have the knowledge necessary to protect it. Of these, one is the Protector. The other, an old ally." "If both did not agree," he says with quiet conviction, "Then I would not be walking this path."     Marchosiel unfolds his arm to open one hand. "The people you spoke of yesterday. The ones whose Legion I destroyed. They are the people we protect, but their dreams of unity, of empire are limited only to the present. Their culture, should it triumph, will survive. But will their species?" Marchosiel closes his hand into a fist and crosses his arms again. "...I am not certain." There's a beat. "Are you suggesting that the Protector should take upon itself the same role? To unite the world beneath its singular banner?" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "I have no suggestions to give, other than the suggestion to see with eyes unclouded," comes the serene reply. "Theirs is simply one possible path. I, myself, have chosen a different one. One which I feel more correct, and also more within the scope of my only capabilities. My chief purpose here is to ensure that you are walking a path you choose freely, knowing what you have chosen. You bear a heavy burden - when you take the battlefield, your technology enables you to sweep aside lives like the seeds on a dandelion." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Mmmn," the Angel answers, his shoulders heaving slightly. "The power I wield is the power of humanity at its zenith. While I slept I saw... many battlefields. Many conflicts. Through the wisdom of The Protector, I was created to protect this world, but in the process, I was witness to... unspeakable things. Cosmic fire cast from the hands of mortal men to kill a foe that would not die. Atrocities. Landscapes, cities set ablaze because to burn was a less cruel fate that what would otherwise await. In the past, that power scarred the very earth. What I wield is a mere fraction of the full might once was leveraged against humanity's enemy."     "I cannot imagine the weight on those men and women's souls," Marchosiel's fists tremble beyond the restraint of his own mechanical limbs. "Were it that I were permitted to show. To tell. But those records are sealed, until the time comes that man can witness his full glory and the darkest depths of his own power without breaking before them both."     "...But I can tell you this," he says, "I seek now one of the greatest fragments of that power. It cannot be allowed to remain outside The Protector's control. It is a necessary component in what will soon come." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "Then I ask only that you remember, all of that... it is technology. It is knowledge. It is what humanity created, but it isn't humanity. Those men that you stood opposite on the battlefield... those are humanity. The town they were attempting to bring under their heel... that, too, is humanity. The ancients did as they believed was best, and so do those who live today. The only difference is in the scope of their knowledge." Finally, at long last, Genji Shimada stands. "You will stand beside them, in your task, and you will stand against them. In the course of your job, lives will be lost. Do everything that you can to make sure the only lives lost are necessary to achieve your goal, but at the same time, be prepared to act without hesitating."     And then he's down off the rock, landing easily and quietly. "Is there anything else that you can tell me? About this 'fragment', or any other subject pertaining to the Protector and his forces?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Judgement," Marchosiel turns his eyes briefly towards the sky, "Also known as The Purification Unit, is what I seek." He shakes his head. "It was used only once, but there is reason to believe it will be needed again. There are other fragments that will need to be gathered, but as for now, that is the one I seek to reclaim."     "As to the others serving the Protector, know only that there are men and women of this world among them. Just as the people in that field were humanity, so too are they humanity. Moreover, know that regardless of what we must do, it is in defense of this world."     "Do not worry," he says, then, "I will take your words into consideration. This conversation has been..." A slight cant of the head, "Interesting. But I must ask you your opinion, then: When man creates that which is not-quite-man, what is the nature of his creation? Is it worth protecting, or merely another aspect of humanity's grasp of technology?" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     Genji's answer comes without hesitation. "If it can think, if it can choose, then it is worth protecting as well. Whether organic or synthetic, all are one within the Iris." Pressing fist into palm, the shinobi bows his head, a gesture of respect. "Whatever lies beneath that armor, I consider it worthwhile. It has been enlightening to speak with you, Marchosiel. Whatever comes, I hope that you are able to enjoy the fruits of your labor." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Mmn, indeed. I believe you to be correct," he says with a nod. "Someday, we will speak again," Marchosiel answers, inclining his own head in thanks- and farewell. "I hope it is as friends, but we are both men of conviction. Even if we meet on opposite sides of the battlefield, I will be glad to have spoken with you." There's a brief rush of wind as the beast at his back stirs into motion. Blue light floods the clearing, and Marchosiel leaps to his place upon the great, bionic wyrm. "Until our next meeting. Farewell, Genji Shimada." Another howling gale. The wyrm twists into the sky with its partner, heavy with thought, on its back. 
}}

4865/Paladin

2017-01-09T05:52:50Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/12/11 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=A trip to the forest does not go as planned. The legacy of an ancient catastrophe is brought to lif..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/11
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=A trip to the forest does not go as planned. The legacy of an ancient catastrophe is brought to life- Cabrashel the Herald of Fertile Earth. Marchosiel states his intent.
|Cast of Characters=934, 894, 941, 7, 151, 385, 1039
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Tellus isn't all wasteland and ocean. Even the great Frontier isn't completely blasted. Indeed, much of the recovering world is covered by thick, nearly impenetrable forest. And in fact, much of it is virgin, having not been visited by humans of any stripe for hundreds of years. Chasers give the woods of the Frontier a wide berth for a reason; not only are they difficult to navigate, but they're also home to some of the planet's most terrifying wildlife. Nobody wants to run into a hungry Archtiger. Nobody.     But this is exactly where Will's GPS system is pointing. Not just in an ordinary stretch of woods, but one located far off into the Frontier, where civilization has largely given way to wilderness, and the only thing for miles and miles is nature run rampant. To this end, he has... Prepared.     There's something that looks not quite unlike an ambulatory pine tree creeping through the forest. Every so often, its legs skitter forward and then duck back down when something- anything- makes a sound overhead. Once the noise passes, it rises and skitters forward ahead. Progress is slow-going, especially considering the tightening grasp of winter, but it's the best way to get from place to place without being eaten.     "Ain't far now," Will whispers into his communicator, because there's no way in any multiversal hell that he's going into a forest without a BUNCH of support. "Just over this next ridge, then half a mile, I reckon. Everyone still doing alright?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' After about a week at his parents, having been arrested and released into custody, August has convinced them to let him go out again, even though they're super worried about him. The reason? Because Will has crazy adventures in a world that Darwin would find most impressive, that's why. And for some reason, August keeps getting drawn to them. Is it...is it possible he's having /fun/? Not that he'd ever admit it, that is. The redhead is dressed in ACTUAL CLOTHES, not one of Will's weird suits, though he does have forest camo on to let him try and stealth. The Tin Soldier is pre-emptively out, because while it's bright, it is /entirely/ silent when not killing things, and can make a good eye in the sky. Or, well, eye in the trees, because it can't fly, but it can jump! "Will," August says, noticably not calling him Pauwel, "The fact that a /forest/ requires elaborate stealth manuevers in your world justifies every complaint I've ever made." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Pauwel, I ever mentioned your world is a little insane?"     Mel is taking the lazy approach. Mel is floating along riding a felled tree - a NATURALLY felled tree, this time, no telekinetic destructiveness - at somewhere in the neighborhood of the treeline. High enough she won't have to worry about ground predators, low enough that air predators and other airborne threats won't have an easy bead on her, and she can push aside the leaves and branches in her way with a simple, V-shaped telekinetic shield. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone was running herself hard as of late, but that was all right for her she was living an life she'd thought would be fiction only. This is not the case of it in the multiverse, So here they were somewhere no living human had been for a while and then they run into something or at last she thinks she does. "Right so why do you avoid the woods anyway William?" She's sadly not heard about the Archtiger given the amount of firepower they were bringing in? She had to wonder just /what/ might try to jump them. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August just looks at Kotone, smirking as he replies. "Probably because his world's a hellscape? I'm suspecting murderbears and man-eating trees. Also those archtiger things, whatever they are." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "What? No, my world's not a hellscape! It's not insane, either! The bears hibernate in the winter, too! That's why right now is the best time!" After all, needing to dodge both bear AND tiger is a very good way to get yourself killed in a superpredator tug-of-war. And then also eaten. Will harrumphs quietly at everyone's (completely reasonable) protests and their relative laissez faire approach to snaking it through the bush and crests the next ridge.     Stretching out in front of him is... Something that could possibly count as heartbreaking. It's... a neighbourhood. An array of houses completely overrun with vines, trees and rampant growth. A road network snakes neatly through the homes, broken only by the occasional tree whose growth has shattered the asphalt. Half a mile down that way is their destination, a home apparently a good deal larger than those around it... And next to it, having apparently smashed straight into the center of town, something that can only be described as a monolith. A huge, black /thing/ like an obelisk that juts irregularly out of the ground and rivals the trees for height. Here, the forest is... still. Quiet. Serene, even. Will frowns, stripping away his ghillie suit once he skids down to the far foot of the ridge. "...It's... Why would that part be in a place like this?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "...cripes."     There's nothing else Mel can think to say. This used to be someone's homes. With her hands in her pockets, the Marshal quietly frowns. "...don't know. Maybe someone took it for safekeeping. Maybe it's random chance. Hard to say. Bet that big thing over there is involved, though." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley is also here. She's here because a handful of allies are out and about doing something dangerous and she has the ability to focus on defensive purposes. She floats along near Mel, hovering as if gravity simply did not apply to her unless she wanted it to, making it easy to avoid notice by any of the local wildlife. She keeps her eyes peeled for threats to her fellow heroes and adventurers so that she can cover them long enough to preserve the advantage should violence start happening.     "Mmh." That is all the insight she has toward the solemn sight of former civilization. She doesn't seem overly disturbed by the sight. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' When William asked Yuna if she could help with another investigation on his world of Tellus, she agreed to help almost by reflex. Then he told her what they needed to do. She almost asked if she could back out ... but she doesn't like going back on her promises - and William *is* a friend, after all. It wasn't even the fact that they'd be in the territory of various dangerous, excessively predatory monsters that made her wish she could say 'no'; it's more the fact that it involves SNEAKING through the forest full of dangerous, excessively predatory monsters, and Yuna's Light Suit is about as far from 'sneaking around' equipment as you can get without putting spinny lights and noisemakers on it. She's trying to make do, though - having gotten a length of camouflage-pattern cloth, like they use to *make* ghillie suits, and fashioning it into a crude cloak with a hood. It's going to stop being useful as soon as they have to start fighting, but for now, it covers her blonde hair and the white-and-blue (and occasional gold) of her Light Suit *fairly* serviceably. Still, she's keeping her pistol ready in her right hand, her left hand free to catch herself should she fall, or to assist in climbing over things that need to be climbed over, and the name of her kite shield is ready upon her lips in case something charges at her with enough warning time to bring the kite shield to bear in her defense - or in anyone ELSE'S defense, for that matter. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Hikaru's particular skillset isn't very good at 'wilderness survival', but this seems important to Will, and Will's been nothing but helpful (if sometimes /unhelpfully/ helpful), so Hikky wants to help him out. He's taken advantage of William's offer of suitable clothing, which means that, today, he looks the part of a PARTICULARLY STEALTHY COWBOY. It's classic. Ainsley and August will surely rib him about it later. He doesn't care, he's rocking it regardless.     While others make their own safe way around the forest, Hikaru's following Will's lead, with tactical bush action. "Sorry, Will, but your world /is/ a little, er... how do I put this..." Hikaru pauses, before saying, quietly but with emphasis: "/Everything is trying to kill us./" It's a problem! Hikky almost brushed against a deadly tree earlier! He clearly can't trust /anything/ on this world.     Once they come to the abandoned village, Hikaru follows William's lead, shrugging off his camoflague and looking around. "What... what happened here?" He asks, looking from the vines to the obelisk. It's like the entire town just... died. He's never seen anything like it before. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' If Yuna had heard the bit about the bears - or rather, if she had known that bears would be competing with tigers for prey in the woods they've had to traverse to get here - then either she would have turned on her heel and left anyway, or (more likely) refused to go anywhere until she had, say, Jiina of the Earth with her, to offer the option of Powered Form. Or maybe the whole Matrix of Light, so she could whistle up El-Line in a pinch. As it is, Elner is, as usual, hovering roughly near Yuna's shoulder; the rest of the Matrix isn't anywhere near Tellus at this point. The sight of that obelisk is enough to make Yuna sort of wish she had El-Line with her anyway, though. "It looks like something burrowed under the town and stuck that up through it," she suggests, folding up her ghillie cloak and letting it vanish into storage. "I wonder ... was this town supposed to be in the middle of the forest like this?" Yuna continues. "This kind of overgrowth had to have taken some time, trees don't grow this abruptly overnight." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, nothing kills them! August is pretty happy about that, even as he snarks again at Will, "Will, have you actually been to another, more civilized world?" He stops snarking once they notice the houses. Well, this is eerie. "I assume archtigers don't have communities. How old could this be-" And then there's that monolith. "Will, I have a /terrible/ feeling about this." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "No it's not a Hellscape it's just a post nanotech apoch juding from what we have dug up so far. Your lot more lucky than Rory's home world is William." She's mostly just teasing but then something else is coming upon an old neighbourhood. She sees what used to be oeople's home overcome by the cold and endless grinding of nature. "No idea here Will, we'll have to find, out right? Just we should keep on our toes with this." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "It looks like a settlement," Will says, observing the obvious, considering the network of streets running through it. Not just little rural things, but a full on traffic system; one that would be part of a much, MUCH larger metropolis. "Roads, but not the ones like the Iskandrians build. These are-- were Ancients. But... But a forest? A forest around a town like this? This... This ain't right." His eyes move towards the enormous monolith as Mel makes mention of it and the explorer hesitates briefly. "...Maybe. Let's see if we can't get a closer look."     Will starts down the main thoroughfare, hopping over a few winding roots to close the distance with the huge /thing/ and his actual destination just next to it. The serenity of the wood seems to hold as he approaches the aged home. It's... held up well, by all accounts. Though that could also be due to the enormous tree trunk that seems to have grown into its second floor, spreading a nest of branches that hold the house upright. Will's lips draw into a thin line as he then steps /past/ it towards the enormous black thing rising from the ground next to it.     The monolith is... perfect. Geometrically perfect. Like someone had somehow produced the ultimate metaphysical representation of 'an obelisk' and stuck it, crooked, into the ground, in the middle of an ostensibly populated town. The vegetation has wrapped tightly around it, with ancient vines coiling up the walls of the structure before blossoming into a veritable cornucopia of life.     Will stares up at the thing, his brow furrowing tightly. He reaches up and flips a visor down over his eyes, then moves forward as if he were going to go... Is he going to touch it!? "What in the world /is/ this?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna doesn't even *say* anything, just bolts forward and grabs Will's wrist, trying to pull his hand *away* from actually trying to touch the obelisk. "Elner," she calls out, "do a full scan of the obelisk - physical construction, materials, power signatures of any sort, how far below the ground's surface it goes and what directions it goes in once it's down there." She gives Will a sheepish grin, "Let's ... seriously, let's not touch it until we know for sure that it's totally inert, okay ... ?" If Will's going to refrain from touching the unknown obelisk now, she lets go of his hand and takes a step away. Yuna's keeping her pistol ready, too. She's STILL on edge, and maybe moreso now than in the forest. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     "Hold on, Will--" Hikaru calls out, but luckily, Yuna's on top of it. Hikaru shakes his head, coming up to stand beside them. "If you have troubles with scanning it, let me know. The Fox Sister might be able to give us some insight, too." He's... never /tried/ using her outside the Forest, but the Tin Soldier works just fine, so surely she wouldn't have too much trouble.     Hikaru adjusts his neckerchief as he looks over the obelisk, and a hand goes down to his belt. He's taken a gun from the collection Will brought them, and he's got his bo staff compressed at his belt, but he still feels remarkably unprepared for what this world has to offer. Hopefully, Archtigers don't /really/ live here. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley follows the others to the mysterious obelisk, still unaffected by the ruins around them. The reason for this becomes clear when she says, "Forests grow where men cease to be, reclaiming the land. It's not the first city like this that I've seen. I first saw a city like this when I was eleven years old, as a sort of... field trip." She frowns, finally, remembering that unpleasant note in her past.     Ainsley is also about to warn William not to touch the Obelisk when they reach it, the lizard woman breathing a shaky sigh as she anticipated something bad happening. She then decides to activate her Sight to scan the Obelisk for any information built into it. If it's computerized in any way, she may be able to read the components, or if it contains messages or warnings or ... anything meant to communicate what this thing is supposed to be. Her eyes glow with the magical circles and her hands gently wave through the air as she weaves spells to help her focus on different types of information it may contain. "I'm giving it a look," she adds, helpfully, to the others. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     As always, Mel walks with a steady gait and her hands in her pockets. She's a little behind Will, at least at first, but he's taking the lead, and after a moment, she even calls out, "Hey, Will, slow down a little. No telling what's-" Oh god he's gonna touch it.     The looks Mel gives Yuna is grateful, even a bit relieved. "Yeah, let's... let's be a little cautious here." She comes to a stop next to Hikaru, waiting quietly for the better-suited people to do their investigating here. "Let us know," she replies to Ainsley. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "It does look like it was one but it looks like Nature had it way. Or knowing this world there's some cousin of the damn coral here in plant form." She really, /hates/ the coral oh god does she hate that stuff. She's also understandin the level of tech on Will's world at one point was at the point of might as well be magic. Kotone keep smoving and she pauses for a moment as the reach the strange monlith. "Will wait, what are you doing! Don't just out and touch it!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will is an inquisitive little bugger, but even he should know better than to touch mysterious things- especially in his own world. Fortunately Yuna is around to save him from himself, tugging him back in time to keep the obelisk... /relatively/ undisturbed. "Y-yeah, sorry," he shakes his head. "Don't know exactly what I was thinking, there."     Far safer methods of Examining A Thing are, however, underway. Elner would find the obelisk to be difficult to penetrate. Its very structure seems to repel conventional scans, though it is able to determine that this is just the tip of the structure. It extends down. Down, down, down, before finally disappearing from scanning range. It may even go down into the planet's mantle, vanishing into the magma layer there. Ainsley's magical probes have some more luck, however. She is able to read its structure. Or rather-- Their structure.     The obelisk is not a single object. That's why Elner couldn't penetrate its interior structure. It's an uncountable, unfathomable myriad of tiny, almost vanishingly small objects. And as she probes them, she feels them, direct their attention at her. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Elner reports quickly on its inability to scan the object. Yuna's not TOTALLY surprised by this; Elner's sensors are impressive, but among other things, she and Elner both know that the robo-faerie has trouble with magical phenomena. And she had a feeling that this might be magical in some sense. But what Elner *can* report makes the blood drain from her face. "Bigger than you can scan?" she echoes, looking at Elner. "I didn't think your sensors had that kind of a range limit ... you've pulled off interstellar teleports before, haven't you?" The robo-faerie doesn't reply, and Yuna's attention shifts to Will. "Maybe it's magical enough that it entranced you somehow ... but if it's got enough magic to do that -" She abruptly stops talking, taking an extra step or two back from the obelisk, her gaze sweeping slowly over the unusual object. There's a little corner of her mind that wonders if it counts as an OOPART, an 'Out Of Place Artifact,' but ... this is the Multiverse, and more specifically, this is Tellus. She's not sure what even *counts* as 'out of place' ... 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August spends a good solid few minutes staring in terror at the monolith. He's seen movies. He knows what this means. Eventually, though, he snaps out of it, and backs away. "Uh, Will, where is this thing you need? Please tell me it's not inside there." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Will looks to August, then shakes his head and points vaguely at the house, "I'm... I'm pretty sure it's in there." Beat. "You thinking we should maybe... go find it? Before something terrible happens?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "William, get away from it /right now/, everyone be on your guards, it's looking at me now or however it detects things," Ainsley says, as she quickly waves her hands and dispels her Sight. It saw her and it is looking at her and so she is going to make sure that it is absolutely clear she isn't a threat to it or, well, its target.     "Hello?" Ainsley tries, reaching out with all methods of communication she knows of to see if the Obelisk is intelligent and responds. "Can you hear me? Please tell me you can hear me." She has tried this before on other adventures and 9 times out of 10 it turns out to be a homicidal monster of some kind that immediately tries to murder her for being the friendly one. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley warns them to get back, and Hikaru puts some space between himself and the obelisk, holding up his empty hands just in case it's aware of the rest of them too. He glances over to the house William indicates, but he doesn't make any sudden movements yet, because he doesn't want to hurt Ainsley's chances. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel listens quietly to Ainsley and Elner's information, considers things briefly, and then takes a few steps forward so she's right behind and to Ainsley's left.     And then she calmly reaches up and tugs her limiter off. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Someone is attempting to make contact.     Ainsley does what Ainsley does. She communicates. She reaches a hand out to the enormous monolith in a gesture of friendship. Unlike the vast majority of horrible monsters that she tied to talk to before everything descends into chaos and explosions, this one actually... reaches back. But its voice is madness.     The first impression is like a slick black oil seeping into her ears, an awful, greasy sensation on the inside of her head. And then it /screams./ A trillion voices or more, shrieking in a wild, cacophonous union before coming together into a singular, high-pitched voice. It sounds like a child's cry. And then even that gives way. To silence. Then. To a voice, and an image. An aged, grinning face in the darkness, so wrinkled that it looks more like ancient, gnarled bark than the flesh of man. His mouth opens, his words tear up the connection she establishes and threaten to burn themselves into her brain.                           Ah. Finally. An excuse.                               Then, the connection falls apart. The obelisk soon follows, but not simply coming to pieces as much as it begins whorling upwards and outwards, the incredibly dense mass unfolding a torso, limbs, an enormous, serpentine lower half. Heat signatures suddenly SURGE. Yuna would be able to sense it coming up from below, an incredible spike of thermal energy. Magma jets up into the cloud and is then torn apart, shredded by an internal tornado of tiny machines that build a skeleton of volcanic stone from the blood of the earth. Until, finally, the thing solidifies. And as it roars, lava drips from its maw.                         --Herald of Fertile Earth--                                                        --Cabrashel--                                 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Will as Yuna pulls him back and she pauses looking the monolith over with a good deal of fear. Well it's an obelisk to be eact and she's also scanning it with what she's able to do with her body but it's not much. She's not sure how massive this thing is but given the people who made most of this old tech? The Hubris levels were as insane as what they knew was scary. She takes a step back from it. "Great we're going to have to go into it?!" Then it gives an answer, no they will not have to go into it, it's gong to be worse, it's trying to kill them and has formed itself out of the living materials of this very world. She goes for her weapon but what good are bullets' going to do here? She opens fire anway and starts to move about, like hell she's staying still. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley gets a reply. It is a shriek like that of pain. And then something unreal, and terrible, stabs into her mind. A psychic connection. Ainsley undergoes what is quite possibly the most painful experience in her life, if you discount the half-dozen other times she tried to do something like this and it blew up in her face. She howls in pain on reflex, the sound drowned out of her own ears by the psychic ringing.     She collapses to her knees and clutches her head. She is helpless as the creature comes to life because it utterly shattered her ability to function for long enough to be in danger. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' FUCK THIS WORLD. August has officially rated it worse than the Mirror Forest, as he stares in horror. He stammers over the radio, and is /really upset/ because this is the one sort of thing he can't deal with. It's a giant murder /fire monolith/, he has no ability to combat it effectively. It takes Hikaru Kurosawa to bark at him over the radio for him to snap into reality. It turns out that despite seeing the Forest, August totally hasn't seen everything, as he runs over to Ainsley, moving to pick her up, letting Hikaru help him if she's too heavy (he has no idea how much scales weigh). "Alright, Ainsley, we're getting the fuck out of here! Go go go go go!" And then he runs to...well, whatever is safer than here. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley tries. Hikaru's glad that she tries, because he always did believe in /trying/ to reach out to people. Even if... sometimes people are obelisks.     But it just doesn't turn out, at all. Ainsley crumples, and the obelisk pours out of itself, spiralling up and carving magma from the earth to form its blood and its bones. The radio blasts with activity for a moment, Hikaru faltering at first before barking out some instructions, and he runs over to Ainsley's side. The Fox Sister is a psychic warrior, who can make her illusions into very real fire - and neither of those things are helpful at /all/ here. So instead, he helps August pick Ainsley up, and works with him to get her /away/. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna has no way of knowing what Ainsley hears back from the obelisk. but when the obelisk starts to disintegrate, she can tell that SOMEthing is happening. Almost as quickly, with the obelisk's mass swirling about and rearranging itself - *building up* instead of falling apart, yet - Yuna comes to the conclusion that this 'something' is terribly, terribly *BAD*. "Shugoseiheki!!!" Yuna shouts, conjuring her kite shield with a flash of light, and then trying to interpose herself between the 'obelisk' and Ainsley, staying protectively in front of her even as the 'obelisk' gets bigger and ... Turns into a giant freaking monster. It's not quite clear at whom Yuna's grousing as she complains, "You just *HAD* to wake up something like this when the Matrix of Light is all doing stuff for me elsewhere, didn't you?!" Elner is already sending an emergency call out to Jiina, Marina, and Erina, but each of the three is literally on a different world and it's going to take *time* for them to get to Tellus ... time which is going to be in horribly short supply, if Cabrashel is as violent as it looks and sounds. Without the Matrix Figure, there are only a couple of things Yuna can even try to do, and the only one that's certain is that she's likely to die trying to fight. Even with the Light Suit and the Wall of the Guardian Star, she's not likely to accomplish much more than postpone the inevitable. The one thing she can try that MIGHT not result in an excruciatingly hot demise? o/~    You may dream, follow them, these honest feelings     If you can tell them, dreams come true     You may dream, a pure white love turns into wings     To fulfill an angel's pinky-promise ... yeah, she's singing. Maybe just as a distraction, maybe to try and get the magma elemental to calm down ... maybe to buy time to figure out how to fight a monster big enough to slaughter her without even realizing it. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none of it. At least it lets her focus on something besides the absolute terror of the situation, that's got to count for SOMEthing. And she is, in fact, backing up step by step. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     The instant Ainsley lets out a scream, Mel is in front of her. The instant the beast rises up, her hands flex.     A split-second after it begins roaring, three thousand tons of telekinetic force hits it.     This is nothing like the power anyone here has seen her unleash before. The flickers of light are not sparse. They are not short-lived. It's a torrent of shimmering, gleaming streamers of purple light, dancing and rushing through the air - and the air itself /ripples/ with the sheer force. The ground tears apart. Any buildings behind Cabrashel come apart. With a mighty, furious roar of pain, Mel Brock unloads everything she is capable of, with no restraint. The tie holding her hair in a ponytail snaps. Her coat billows out behind her along with her hair. Her eyes light up a glowing purple, and the ground /under/ her starts to ripple and depress.     She's going to regret this for days. But for once, the Marshal is sick and tired of waking up monsters and running in terror. So with her limiter off, she fully intends to tear the thing apart before it can even begin to properly threaten them. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' So many things go wrong so quickly.     Cabrashel unfolds from its resting place in the earth. Ainsley drops to her knees, at the tectonic colossus' mercy. As it rises to its full size, the heat rising from its shoulders begins creeping up into the canopy above. Leaves and branches begin to dry up and burn, falling to the ground as cinders. The behemoth of flame lifts its hands, heat gathering there even as more molten stone begins filling in the gaps within its enormous body. It seems to stare at Yuna- and her song. Is it incensed? Or is she just providing a decent target? Brilliant, orange fire begins gathering in its palms-- And then Mel Brock proves that you don't need a goddamn Lens to wield inhuman telekinetic force.     The sound Cabrashel makes is almost comical. A dull note of surprise, followed by the sound of a construct of magma and nanotechnology being walloped by someone throwing the equivalent of a naval destroyer straight into its face. It sounds vaguely like a billion bugs hitting a windshield all at once.     The town behind Cabrashel is levelled. Hot magma blasts backwards, spewing in a tremendous spray of molten fury that sets the broken buildings on fire. The giant of flame has its upper torso virtually evaporated, though it's questionable whether spreading that many nanites over such a large area is a good idea in the long run. Will stands on the stoop of the manor, his mouth hanging ever so slightly agape at the scale of the destrction. The door is open, at least. So there weren't any traps there.     But if it were that easy, these things wouldn't have been a threat. The black mass that had remained buried in the earth begin bubbling upwards, stacking back on top of itself. It seems to be trying to... regenerate, forming into a vague, worm-like shape. The thing folds in on itself, and a terrible blast of heat pours out from its glowing maw, directed firmly on the woman who just utterly humiliated it. It has about two seconds of uptime before second blast of kinetic force splatters the thing, again, from somewhere high above. An armored figure drops to the ground opposite to where Mel is standing, carrying an immense lance and a similarly massive shield. August would probably recognize it. So would Yuna. Marchosiel. "..." he says, staring at the thing already beginning to draw itself back up from even that assault. "I detected an ominous signal and came to investigate, but... It seems like you have it handled? Remarkable." He shakes his head, "Don't let your guard down. We must deplete its supply of cells to stop its regeneration." Sure enough, the beast is drawing back up from the earth, but it seems... Shakier than before. Definitely less intimidating now that Mel Brock has fully stopped tolerating any of this bulshit. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     When the first blast of force ends, Mel lets out a shaking breath that turns into a quiet hiss of pain, her hair and coat both settling back down. The psychic doesn't lower her guard yet, though; of course it's not gonna be that easy, she knows better. Already, the earth around her shifts and rumbles, lunging up into a thick barrier of dirt and stone at just about the time the blast of heat begins-     And then someone else smashes it down.     The Marshal looks upward, briefly on her guard - but whoever that is, they're an ally. "I got tired of this world's shit. Now help me tear this thing apart or get out of the way, I don't care which!" This time, when she draws her right arm back, she holds it high and behind herself, almost as if preparing to throw a spear - except with her palm open, rather than curled. A second later, she swings it forward, /slamming/ it down as if to smash the earth beneath her feet apart-     -and another torrent of incredible, impossible force rains /down/ on the regenerating beast. The ground absolutely craters. And then she does it again. And again. And again. And /again/. Each time punctuated with a swear word, a growl of pain, and eventually just a strained string of words. "STAY. THE. HELL. DOWN. YOU. STUPID. PIECE. OF." You get the idea. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna's song is cut short by a couple of things happening in rapid succession. Mel is one of them; the sudden eruption of raw telekinetic force unleashed by the sheriff catches the idol singer by surprise, but it's the impact her efforts carry - the fact that Cabrashel is actually knocked for a loop - which makes Yuna fail to start into the next verse of the song she'd begun. And then, Marchosiel drops in and clobbers the magma elemental even harder, just before Yuna can find out whether the Mizzium lining of her kite shield is as proof against magma as it is against most everything else she's run into. "Marchosiel, glad to see you," she calls out in a shaky but relieved voice. Taking a deep breath, Yuna then takes several more steps backwards, attempting to gently draw Mel back with her so they aren't in immediate 'step on you for instant death' range from the magma elemental. She drives the bottom point of her kite shield into the ground, pulling with her left arm (still in the straps, for the moment) and using her right hand to help push it in; she's not trying to bury it, just wedge it into the ground so it'll stay upright. Then she pulls her left arm free of the shield's straps and replaces her pistol (dismissed moments earlier) with the full-sized Matrix Divider, hunkering down behind her shield while she builds up as strong a charge as she can focus into her weapon. "We can hurt it, you guys!" she calls out to her allies. "That ought to mean we can beat it!" Then she pulls the Divider's trigger, and a crackling, flaring bolt of concussive radiant force - weapons-grade hard light, really - erupts towards Cabrashel's head, in between Mel's hammerblows of psionic force. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As they escape, August stops. He sees Mel be, well, terrifying. And he sees them all fighting. And Marchiosal arrives. And he looks into himself. He's being a coward. Yeah, he's weak to it. Yeah, his primary attack source won't touch it. But there's things he can do. "Tin Soldier, to me!" Leaving Ainsley with Hikaru, August rejoins the fight, but maintains a distance. He closes his eyes...he only needs one pair right now. The Tin Soldier starts by charging towards Mel, before shooting at her with his gun. Instead of bullets, she gets a DEFENSE BOOST, a healthy amount of endurance which may be able to help her with the burning and the pain! Then, August just flicks his fingers towards Will and Yuna, the Tin Soldier following, firing off both attack and defense boosts at them. It then retreats, ready to keep up a buff cycle if needed. August isn't the fighter here...he's support. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Kotone gets a defense and attack boost too! Yaaaay, lucky cyborg. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Everyone is laying into this horror, seriously why does this keep happening? She sighs inwardly and keeps moving as she watches Insley, Yuna and MEl opens up. her bullets don't seem to do much if anything to the beast. She's going to have to turn up the heat and so she's gong to do so. Kotone springs and he's going to try to get close as the thing seems to be tyring to regenerate and rthat's when theplasma grenades comes out she's arming a plasma grenade and then stops as something takes the thing out and she pulls back for a moment shifts and thanks to August helping with his magic? She runs in agin with the grenade and moves slam the grneade into the thing. Thanks to Mel? She has an opening. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" She then leaps the hell away and most of this is thanks to the extra boost tht August gave her. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     It turns out that one of their number is crushingly, /terrifyingly/ strong. As Hikaru and August take Ainsley, the woman beside her unleashes the sort of power Hikaru never even knew was possible. He only stares for a moment, before he focuses on getting Ainsley up and away - taking her from August after the teenager decides to get into the fight. He's not the strongest guy, but being a Persona-User puts him above the average, and Ainsley's pretty light, so he's able to support her weight and get her clear of ground zero without any problems.     He can hear - and feel, the earth beneath him trembling - the fighting behind him. He glances over his shoulder briefly when a new voice enters the fray, who Yuna identifies as Marchosiel, and he just hopes that he's a friend rather than a foe. Any help against the magma beast seems welcome right now. As Ainsley comes around, Hikaru supports her, with an arm looped around her shoulders. "Hey, there you go," he encourages her, his voice quiet. "You okay, Ainsley..? That seemed pretty rough." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley felt her senses come back as if she had woken up from a coma. Light and sound came back into focus slowly but surely. The reptilian woman had her senses back and she hated every second of it. She was just bricked in the head AGAIN by something terrible and incomprehensible and it reveled in the excuse to attack anything that it came across. She was not pleased by that. She dimly heard the sound of someone explaining that its cells need to be depleted to be destroyed...     She stands, shakily. She glances at Hikaru, frowning her answer at him. Her eyes are bloodshot.     Then they glow.     And she reaches out at the nanite colony, coated with magma and already smushed by Mel and the newcomer, and mumbles, hoarsely, "Fuck. You."     And she tries to actively disrupt its ability to remain cohesive by just blasting it with white noise, because she saw how the pieces communicated. She forces so much magic out at it that she is hoping to corrupt its code and make it unable to put itself back together even if it had any fuel left to do so. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel nods in response to Mel's demand. It's not like he can exactly contribute more strategic insight to a battle that roughly amounts to 'smash this thing harder.' The ancient cyborg raises its lance, the whole thing bisecting down the middle. White-blue light begins flooding from the weapon, wrapping it in a halo of coruscating electricity. The air begins to smell of ozone. A plasma weapon? If it's anything like Will's--     "Die monster," the cyborg growls, lunging forward to drive the tip of his weapon into the point where Cabrashel meets the earth. A gout of raw plasma thunders into beast's roots, blasting up through cracks that spiderweb across the ground. A point blank discharge of enough plasma to vaporize a small hill pours into the earth.     At the same time, Mel's assault strikes the nanotechnological horror from above. Hammers of telekinetic force pound the monster downwards, forcing it back into the crevasse from which it spawned. More and more nanomaterial pours away in sheets, even as the monster struggles to reform its body, only for its head to be shorn off by a tremendous bolt of golden energy.     And then, there's something from the house. Or rather, from right in front of the house. "Electromagnetic energy should dissociate the--" Will hisses, "Shush, you! Last time you talked around that guy, he dang near shot six of us!" August's blessing fills Will with power! More importantly, it fills his gun with power. His gun that is now humming with nearly-invisible ripples of electromagnetic force.     He pulls the trigger. The air seems to ripple. Ainsley's spell follows and joins with it. Two immense waves of pure white noise sweep across the colony. As they do, its regeneration seems to screech to a sudden halt, black material falling away like loose volcanic sand. Mel keeps pounding into it. Marchosiel's plasma finally burns its way up from below. Cabrashel tries one last time to reform, only for its form to rise, shudder, and then... Ash. The whole thing falls to inert, grey ash. Volcanic stone, crushed to pieces, falls to the ground amidst the dust and detritus.     Marchosiel aims at the ground and fires again for good measure. It turns to glass as he does. The cyborg stands still and ready for a moment more, before seeming to visibly relax. Will falls back onto his butt.                               --HERALD SLAIN--                                   "...Well." Marchosiel huffs, stepping over the ruined mound. "I did not expect to encounter you all here," He seems to be looking over towards Will, August and Yuna. "No. That's not right. I expected to see the one with the gun," he gestures at Will. "But we will get to that later." "I would assume that you want answers as to what... That, was." 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "Please," Ainsley replies, in the wake of all the dust and debris and chaos, "Explain what that was and why it was so eager to kill us all with the thinnest of excuses." She sounds hoarse, pained, but she seems to be calming down very quickly. She pats Hikaru once as she walks by to get a look at the deceased creature from a relatively safe distance. Nothing but a pile of volcanic stone and dust now. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Eventually, Mel's attack stops. It's right around the time Ainsley and Will unload. The psychic holds herself still, breathing heavily, as her hair settles down around her head again. Half-hunched from the followthrough of one of her downward punches, she slowly, carefully straightens herself up.     And then utters a quiet, strained noise of pain, like someone who's just bumped a still-healing wound. She stumbles back a few steps before managing to catch her balance, but by the bloodshot color in her eyes and the flush of effort on her face, she's not having a good time. And this is with August's defensive boost bolstering her. How bad might it have been otherwise?     "Hnnnh... yeah, that's... that'd be nice to know," she grunts, reaching up to slap her limiter back on her right cheek. "Anyone... anyone got a spare hair tie...?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     A clothen sound from Ainsley's direction, and she has pulled the red ribbon out of the feathers on top of her head and handed it over to Mel, without looking away from Marchosiel. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "I wouldn't mind knowing," Yuna admits, now that the battle is over. August's power-up boosts came at an excellent time, letting her put even more punch behind her blasts ... but she still has the feeling that it was mostly Mel and Marchosiel who did far more than she could ever have done. Plus, she came through that WITHOUT El-Line, which is a boost of sorts in its own right. "I mean ... when we got here, that ... being, I guess ... it looked inanimate. Just an obelisk poking out of the ground, with the rest of it burrowed in further than Elner could map out with her sensors. Was it magical? Was it natural? Was it a thing that somebody made deliberately, and why did somebody make a weapon like that?" She dismisses the Matrix Divider, picks up Shugoseiheki to dismiss the shield ... Then goes over to help Mel tie her hair back again. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley gets a grateful look, as does Yuna; but crouching down to have her hair tied back again is off the table right now, so instead the Marshal steps over beside a lump of fallen dirt. That should give Yuna enough of a boost. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Hikaru supports Ainsley as much as she needs, nodding to her as she frowns. She swears at the magma creature, her eyes glowing, and Hikaru turns his head to look at it as the end comes. The combatants make /horrifyingly/ short work of it. Hikaru feels some regret for not helping them fight, but Ainsley is safe - and he's not sure she would have remained that way if she'd been disabled in the middle of all that. He smiles to her, briefly, as she pats him on her way closer - and he, too, steps forward in response to Marchosiel's offer of an explanation. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Elites have questions. Marchosiel, it seems, has at least a few answers to give. "When the war began, the Enemy's heralds emerged from the earth in vessels much like that one." Marchosiel gestures at the glassed remains of the obelisk. "These heralds have a... direct connection to the Enemy. They acted as commanders. Control hubs for its war machine."     The question then is why it got up to attack only once someone tried to poke it with a stick. Marchosiel continues. "The Enemy's goal is the eradication of all human life. I presume that it deactivated once this region was... depopulated. It would likely have reactivated eventually, regardless, but if you did anything to disturb it, it likely responded to what it interpreted as a threat."     "...I do not know what you mean by 'magical.' But it was definitely not 'natural,'" Marchosiel shakes his head. "I suspect, given the activation of Judgment, that this is not the first time you all have encountered the Enemy's agents. It is a danger to the continued existence of humanity on this world. It is my Emperor's eternal foe." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' She watches the plasma do it's bit and she holds back now as everyone else tears into it. Will, Mel, August, Hikky. Eveyrone is tearing into it and she takes a dep breth as she sees the thing is finally down and their mysterious helper comes in and she looks at Marchosiel for a moment. "Didn't expect anyone else here either. Wait you know about Will's gun?" 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     "The heralds emerged in vessels like that one," Ainsley repeats aloud, commiting it to memory. If they're all weapons meant to kill people... then she understands what its message was about. She woke it up and it had a reason to be ambulatory again. She frowns at the remains of the Herald, grimacing at the mental noise that still rings through her head.     "I'm going to think of a better way to deal with one of these if we run into it again. That thing was pure bad juju." She closes her eyes and rubs her face with both hands, her brain trying to escape her skull through her forehead, so to speak. 

:'''{{#var:1039|Hikaru Kurosawa (1039)}} has posed:'''     Hikaru scratches at the back of his head, olive green hair falling over his hand in the process. A war? It would explain the state of William's world. "Control hubs, huh..?" Kotone mentioned nanomachines earlier, so it made sense. They were more like machines than people, probably. Machines designed to kill people. Which... probably means they shouldn't try reasoning with them.     It's pretty weird, but the Multiverse is proving to be pretty weird in general. After murmuring something into the radio, Hikaru shrugs, gesturing to Marchosiel. "Sorry, I'm kinda new to all this - but what's the deal with your Emperor?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The hump of earth isn't the best footing Yuna would have hoped for, but it's enough for her to reach up and tie Mel's ponytail back again. It may not be as tidy as it was before, but ... well, Yuna's dealt with her own ponytail often enough to know how to do it, even for somebody else. And she listens while she's doing it, her lips tightening a little at Marchosiel's explanation. "A synthetic commander for ... war machines." She falls silent, thinking about some of the other things she's seen on Tellus. Lots of giant robots, the Iskandrian robosoldiers ... Marchosiel's draconic ally. No, magic doesn't really seem to be a thing here, even if the magma monster was decidedly elemental in appearance. "So, the town here must have been built after it went onto standby or something ... ? Didn't they know what the obelisk was, what its presence here meant?" She looks at Elner, "Scan underground again, is there anything *left* of that thing?" Elner does indeed start scanning again - actually floating over to whatever's left of Cabrashel, or where it emerged if there *is* nothing left, and begins scanning, Yuna's hope, and Elner's tentative expectation, is that all of its underground mass was drawn up to the surface when it went into combat mode. Gods help them if there's anything left underground. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August helped save the day! Buffs work! Yay. Now he looks for loot, anything valuable they can use or may need in the future. But he also turns up to Marchiosel, finally. "Oh, you. Hey." But as he's searching, Judgment mentions some things. And August clicks some things in his head. They're very loose hunchs, but he's going to need to try and dig and see if he can't suss out what the truth is. So as he speaks over the radio, he talks to Marchiosel. "I want to know about the Enemy, and about you. What are you doing up in space...how long have you been there?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "No. This herald emerged in this community just prior to the end of the war," Marchosiel answered. "The ensuing calamity caused it to deactivate, I believe. However I would need to check the records." He shakes his head. "The calamity signalled the end of the originators' civilization." Underground, there's... Nothing of the obelisk, at least. Elner's scans detect no trace of it left. Perhaps they really did succeed in destroying it? "The Emperor," he answers, "Has watched over the world for hundreds of years. He is the protector of mankind. The final guardian, and the architect of our victory." There's a... reverant tone to his voice. Perhaps the Emperor is regarded as something of a god-king? "As far as the Enemy--" Marchosiel's voice darkens. "It was hubris. Man overstepped his bounds, and created something he could not destroy without also destroying himself. Technology gone mad." He shakes his head, "They turned their weapons upon it, knowing that it would mean their own end. For this, we must be grateful. However, the Enemy remains. It stirs, and someday it will return." "To that end," Marchosiel turns towards Will, and steps forward, a hand extended. "Please. Return Judgment to me. It will be... necessary for what will come."     Will, for his part, stares at the Cyborg like he'd grown a second head. "Wh- my gun? I can't just... Just hand it over! It's the only thing I've got--" He clutches the weapon to his chest, "My dad left it for me. I ain't just going to give it up!" Marchosiel stands and stares at the boy. His expression is unreadable behind the mask. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel takes some steps forward now that her hair is tied back. They're a little stiff, but she manages to stand tall and square her shoulders. "Alright, so to head off the inevitable yes-no here- nnnh..." Okay, so maybe she's still a bit achey. "We're not gonna hand it over. But we understand you need it. So... look at it this way. /Until/ you need it, if Will holds onto it, it's being held by someone relatively unknown, mobile, and capable of getting it offworld in an emergency. And depending on what you need it for, if you're willing to share information, maybe we can work with you, so he doesn't have to hand it over." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna is outwardly fairly quiet for a moment, focusing on the radio. When the moment passes, she looks at Marchosiel, with a look on her face that's mostly gentle and friendly ... but does reveal a hint of determination, ready to be brought to the surface as steel. "I'm with William on this one, Marchosiel ... but so far? We've been in the same places at the same times with a fairly good track record; you may need William's weapon in the future, but so long as our paths keep intersecting, you don't need to take it from him yet, certainly not here or now." Her lips quirk in a faint smile. "Besides, William's on a quest that you might not have the time or attention for. Isn't it better to let him, and his friends - that is, *us* - pursue that quest while you're responding to other situations that need your attention?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel stares for a moment longer. He reaches forward and Will shrinks back. He's seen what this thing can do. He knows... He knows it could probably crush his head like a grape-- but there are things he just can't give up. The others speak. Marchosiel is still, his eyes shining beneath his visor. Then he... Draws his hand back, and-- hesitates, briefly, as it nears the crest of his own head. Then he sighs, and palms his face. "...I will give you time to come to terms with... Your situation." "However, I will come back for Terminal Judgment," he says, then. "When its power is necessary, please, return it to me." The cyborg turns and begins moving away, apparently... Okay with this agreement? Or at least, okay with letting Will off easy for the day. "If there are no other questions, I will be returning to orbit." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is starting to understand what's going on a bit better as Marchosiel explains a few more things to them. "More information on what happens is good and really? Cause it looks like there's world ending nanotech laying around here. Hubris? that sadly makes sense a lot of sense but now ther's talk of a God king? That worries her. "Wait you want to take Will's Gun?" She narrows her eyes a little bit She also tenses the hell up at this point but it seems a fight isn't going to happen just yet. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' As Marchosiel departs and the shattered, ashen remnants of Cabrashel slowly wafts away in the breeze, the group is finally given the room and the peace to actually do what they came here for. What they find is... A home. An old, broken home. Three bedrooms. A kitchen. A fridge full of decaying food. They find a set of notes written in words thousands of years old, and they find a workshop hidden in the basement with the device they were searching for. ...And a photograph of a proud man and woman, white labcoats over each of their shoulders-- and two armfuls of family, perched on the desk. But at least they in the present are all safe. And they've got what they came for. And if anyone cares to root around in the ash of the monster outside, they might just find a strange, orange-yellow sphere. HOW MYSTERIOUS. 
}}

4831/Angel of Victory

2017-01-09T05:51:32Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/12/01 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=Genji and a certain angel have a heart-to-heart. |Cast of Characters=934, 1007 |pretty=yes }} {{Pos..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/01
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Genji and a certain angel have a heart-to-heart.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1007
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Frontier is tremendous in size. The rest of the planet can be demarcated into separate and distinct regions simply by dint of which city-state has decided to enforce the peace. In contrast, the Frontier consists of all the wild places. All those regions that are untamed, unbound and largely unsettled.     Not all of the Frontier is crag and scrubland, however. Large stretches are beautiful, green plains, rich forests and verdant mountains. In one such forest, where a great river has etched a broad clearing, the Frontier seems so much smaller than it truly is. Strange, cold-loving lilies gather at the banks of the floodwaters, fed by a glacial mountain whose pinnacle is just barely visible between the clouds and horizon. Evergreen trees shiver in the breeze, but their strength is as great as their trunks are wide; they will endure through the cold. A deer sips from the far side of the river.     But something does not quite fit in with the natural beauty of this tranquil place. A shadow dances overhead, flitting beneath the clouds. A rider stares down from his great steed, searching for the one who had called his name. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     It's not hard to find him.     Near the river, there is a boulder, left over from a landslide decades past. Atop the boulder sits a lone figure, legs crossed, one hand in front of his face with a pair of fingers extended. He is utterly serene, and almost manages to look as if he belongs here, amidst the tranquility and calm of nature, despite his utterly artificial appearance.     Genji has long since learned to appreciate the beauty of the natural world; something he missed out on in his youth. He's not gonna miss a chance to enjoy a short while of peaceful meditation in a place like this. It will be up to Marchosiel to land and offer the first greeting. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     There. The wind stirs, tickling the treetops with verdant murmurs. The shadow descends, almost silent except for the sound of rushing air. The dragon's wings glow with soft, blue light as it alights on the near end of the shore, carefully adjusting its landing to avoid an unwanted dip into the river.     The rider dismounts and turns towards the one who called for him. They are similar, yet different. Both are hewn in the image of man; two arms, two legs, standing upright with a head and two eyes. Both have dragons. But whereas Genji quite obviously maintains something resembling a 'natural' human physique, Marchosiel has been built to... more unnatural specifications, at least superficially. It's the difference, indeed, between a knight in full regalia and a ninja.     "You called and I have answered," Marchosiel says in that distinctly modulated voice. He approaches, coming to a stop within civil talking distance from the boulder. "I seem to recall that you wished to ask questions of me." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "I did," the shinobi replies, his head tilting slightly - the first real sign of movement. "I have several of them. Some practical, some philosophical. But I consider them all of importance, if you are willing to entertain them."     It looks as if he's going to conduct this interview from his current seated position, at least for the time being, as other than the slight tilt of his head, there's no movement at all. "I am Genji, of the Shimada clan of ninja. I am a member of Overwatch, a group dedicated to protecting the innocent and keeping the peace even when our own world would call us outlaw. And I am a member of the Union, a military force that spans countless worlds to defend against those who would do them harm. I would know, first and foremost, who you are, and what you stand for." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Marchosiel rides around on a giant flying dragon. He's got legs. He can stand and answer if he needs to.     "Very well," the Iron Angel answers, crossing his arms across his well-armored chest. "Though I cannot guarantee I can answer all of your questions. There are things that I must keep secret." And all men, cyborg, robot or not, have their secrets. "Though this question I can answer easily."     "I am Marchosiel," he answers, explaining, "An agent of the protector of this world. The preservation of humanity and the defeat of the enemy are my ultimate goals. Just as you protect the innocent and keep the peace, so to do we work to disarm unnecessary conflict and prevent unnecessary loss of life." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "And we have arrived at the first of my questions," Genji replies. He does finally perform some actual movement, but it's only to rest his palms on his knees. "First, I would like to know who this 'protector' is. Or what you're able to tell me of them, at least." Once again, the shinobi's head tilts with curiosity, regarding Marchosiel with an appraising manner. "The second, is whether you have given deep thought to your mission." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' 'Well,' a voice at the back of Marchosiel's head says, 'Technically these are his second and third questions.' Marchosiel doesn't say that, because he is not a smart ass.     The Iron Angel seems to go still as he considers the questions, servos in his arms and legs locking to allow him to rest in place without needless movement. Almost like a statue, in fact. "The Protector," he says, "Has watched this world for hundreds of years. The Protector orchestrated the defense of humanity in its darkest hour, and has remained vigilant ever since. When the people call for salvation, the Protector sends its agents to their aid. Sometimes it sees fit to take those who ask to be taken." The angel shrugs, "It has continued to cultivate his armies, of which I am of course a member, in preparation for the war which will someday come." "Other than that," Marchosiel says, "I cannot tell you more of its nature and its mission."     "As to your second question," he inclines his head. "I have had thoughts. There is little else I would rather do than to protect this world. Is there a nobler calling in life?" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "I cannot disagree with that," Genji says, inclining his head slightly. "However... have you considered whether your method, whether your Protector's method, is the correct one? There are many ways to save the world. It is possible for more than one to be right, and more than one to be wrong." A hand comes up, palm open, gesturing as he speaks. "For example. The military force that you drove off the other day, the one we were fighting. They genuinely believe that they are doing the same thing you are - protecting the world and the people in it. They wish to unify all people in this world under their banner, so that there is no infighting, and so that all can share in resources and manpower. I disagree with their method and stance, but I can see the merit in it. Your Protector could do much the same. Possibly with greater success." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Mmn," Marchosiel rumbles. The air seems to grow just a little bit heavier. Not with menace, but with... concern? "There are things that The Protector knows that others do not. Facts that have remained unchanged that, on the surface, seem to have been lost to time. In other words, there are only two entities on this world who truly have the knowledge necessary to protect it. Of these, one is the Protector. The other, an old ally." "If both did not agree," he says with quiet conviction, "Then I would not be walking this path."     Marchosiel unfolds his arm to open one hand. "The people you spoke of yesterday. The ones whose Legion I destroyed. They are the people we protect, but their dreams of unity, of empire are limited only to the present. Their culture, should it triumph, will survive. But will their species?" Marchosiel closes his hand into a fist and crosses his arms again. "...I am not certain." There's a beat. "Are you suggesting that the Protector should take upon itself the same role? To unite the world beneath its singular banner?" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "I have no suggestions to give, other than the suggestion to see with eyes unclouded," comes the serene reply. "Theirs is simply one possible path. I, myself, have chosen a different one. One which I feel more correct, and also more within the scope of my only capabilities. My chief purpose here is to ensure that you are walking a path you choose freely, knowing what you have chosen. You bear a heavy burden - when you take the battlefield, your technology enables you to sweep aside lives like the seeds on a dandelion." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Mmmn," the Angel answers, his shoulders heaving slightly. "The power I wield is the power of humanity at its zenith. While I slept I saw... many battlefields. Many conflicts. Through the wisdom of The Protector, I was created to protect this world, but in the process, I was witness to... unspeakable things. Cosmic fire cast from the hands of mortal men to kill a foe that would not die. Atrocities. Landscapes, cities set ablaze because to burn was a less cruel fate that what would otherwise await. In the past, that power scarred the very earth. What I wield is a mere fraction of the full might once was leveraged against humanity's enemy."     "I cannot imagine the weight on those men and women's souls," Marchosiel's fists tremble beyond the restraint of his own mechanical limbs. "Were it that I were permitted to show. To tell. But those records are sealed, until the time comes that man can witness his full glory and the darkest depths of his own power without breaking before them both."     "...But I can tell you this," he says, "I seek now one of the greatest fragments of that power. It cannot be allowed to remain outside The Protector's control. It is a necessary component in what will soon come." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "Then I ask only that you remember, all of that... it is technology. It is knowledge. It is what humanity created, but it isn't humanity. Those men that you stood opposite on the battlefield... those are humanity. The town they were attempting to bring under their heel... that, too, is humanity. The ancients did as they believed was best, and so do those who live today. The only difference is in the scope of their knowledge." Finally, at long last, Genji Shimada stands. "You will stand beside them, in your task, and you will stand against them. In the course of your job, lives will be lost. Do everything that you can to make sure the only lives lost are necessary to achieve your goal, but at the same time, be prepared to act without hesitating."     And then he's down off the rock, landing easily and quietly. "Is there anything else that you can tell me? About this 'fragment', or any other subject pertaining to the Protector and his forces?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Judgement," Marchosiel turns his eyes briefly towards the sky, "Also known as The Purification Unit, is what I seek." He shakes his head. "It was used only once, but there is reason to believe it will be needed again. There are other fragments that will need to be gathered, but as for now, that is the one I seek to reclaim."     "As to the others serving the Protector, know only that there are men and women of this world among them. Just as the people in that field were humanity, so too are they humanity. Moreover, know that regardless of what we must do, it is in defense of this world."     "Do not worry," he says, then, "I will take your words into consideration. This conversation has been..." A slight cant of the head, "Interesting. But I must ask you your opinion, then: When man creates that which is not-quite-man, what is the nature of his creation? Is it worth protecting, or merely another aspect of humanity's grasp of technology?" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     Genji's answer comes without hesitation. "If it can think, if it can choose, then it is worth protecting as well. Whether organic or synthetic, all are one within the Iris." Pressing fist into palm, the shinobi bows his head, a gesture of respect. "Whatever lies beneath that armor, I consider it worthwhile. It has been enlightening to speak with you, Marchosiel. Whatever comes, I hope that you are able to enjoy the fruits of your labor." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Mmn, indeed. I believe you to be correct," he says with a nod. "Someday, we will speak again," Marchosiel answers, inclining his own head in thanks- and farewell. "I hope it is as friends, but we are both men of conviction. Even if we meet on opposite sides of the battlefield, I will be glad to have spoken with you." There's a brief rush of wind as the beast at his back stirs into motion. Blue light floods the clearing, and Marchosiel leaps to his place upon the great, bionic wyrm. "Until our next meeting. Farewell, Genji Shimada." Another howling gale. The wyrm twists into the sky with its partner, heavy with thought, on its back. 
}}

William Pauwel

2016-12-04T06:41:31Z

Stormgear:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=William Pauwel
|Color=#0099FF
|Char_id=934
|FullName=William James Pauwel Junior
|Gender=Male
|Species=Human
|Theme=CODE: Chaser
|Chartype=OC
|Active=Active
|Function=Experienced Chaser
|Faction=Syndicate
|Rank=6-Recruit
|Ranktype=Enlisted
|Groups=[Daedalus Initiative] [Die Reisende]
|Quote="Chasers make their own luck!"
|Profile=A young Chaser with everything to prove, Will Pauwel delves into the remnants of the ancient world to uncover the secrets of this one. An avid explorer from a long lineage of Chasers, Will's chosen profession has him diving head-first into long-buried ruins to retrieve the fragmentary knowledge of the ancients. Having lost his parents at an early age Will is pressured by his past as he searches for hints as to their ultimate fate, even as he is drawn towards the future. He carries with him his family's precious gun, a boundless sense of adventure, an undeniable eagerness, and a measure of new confidence that comes with surviving in a dangerous line of work. Will's skills have grown since he began his adventures in the multiverse, seeing him grow from a greenhorn and liability into an effective adventurer and explorer in his own right.
|Powers=N/A
|Skills=TINKERER: Will possesses a natural knack for taking machines apart and putting them back together again better than before. His experience has broadened and deepened his skill at the applied sciences, making him a formidable field engineer. Given enough time and enough resources, he can fix- or at least jury rig- all but the most esoteric and exotic pieces of technology. He typically uses this skill to dismantle the traps and other security measures that he might find while exploring a new ruin, though it also enables him to reassemble damaged artifacts and repair vehicles and robots. Will is also prone to inventing gadgets of his own, but these tend to be personal scale. He has, however, been working on the blueprints for much larger designs in his spare time.

CRACK SHOT: Even before inheriting the Solano, William Sr. took great pains to teach his grandson how to use a gun. Being able to defend yourself is vital when you live in the Frontier, even if you mostly stick to your home settlement. Years of practice have made him a stunningly effective pistolero. His hip-fire and quickdraw skills are top notch, which plays well with his favorite handcannon.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: Will comes from a long line of Chasers, with each new generation leaving their knowledge behind for the next. Will often makes use of a number of family axioms and proprietary know-how that gives him a leg up on even some veteran dungeoneers. These can range from a set of stratagems on how best to engage hostile targets, to heuristics and rules-of-thumb as to how to tell if a wall is actually hiding a secret door. Will's experience as an explorer has led him to truly understand when he should apply these technique and when to rely on his own intuition instead.

QUICK THINKER: Will has learned that thinking on his feet is key to surviving in his line of work. He can formulate plans rapidly and improvises easily. Will has become accustomed to using his environment to his advantage by making effective use of whatever might be lying around. His instincts have been thoroughly honed, allowing him to react quickly to rapidly evolving battlefields and to quickly dissect even relatively complex mechanisms, puzzles and labyrinths.

IRON HORSEMAN: Will's interest in technology has led him to develop a talent for operating and riding machinery as well. While almost completely useless on horseback, Will is adept at controlling machines designed to be driven, once he figures out the controls. He makes a halfway decent pilot of almost anything he tries his hand at, and can quickly become proficient in the operation of all but the most complicated vehicles, controlling them with the skill of a talented, if unpolished, operator. Advanced maneuvers would be outside his ability to perform while he's learning how to control a new vehicle, but his skill in their use tends to develop rapidly if he spends more time behind the wheel. Machines that are far outside his realm of expertise such as starships and giant robots aren't so easy for him to pick up on-the-fly, and while he may be able to manage rough operation or basic movement, anything beyond that would pose a significant challenge. This talent does help Will learn the requisite skills involved in operating such complex machines relatively quickly though, provided that appropriate instruction is available.
|Assets=SOLANO: An Ancient relic that somehow still manages to function heads and shoulders above most other firearms of its class. The Solano is a prized treasure of the Pauwel family, handed down to Will from his grandfather. It possesses stunningly low recoil for how powerful of a gun it is, which may be tied to the fact that it doesn't shoot real bullets at all. The Solano instead fires slugs of concentrated plasma, pulling from some constantly regenerating energy supply. While it doesn't need to reload, the Solano can only fire, at max, three bullets in quick succession before needing a short time to recharge.

GADGETS AND VEHICLES: Will has accumulated- whether by discovery, salvage or invention- a number of useful devices and vehicles. All of these are strictly technological in nature, and if they werent of his own creation to begin with, have typically been heavily modified to better suit Wills needs. These assets include anything from motorcycles to power armor. A full list can be found in the Gadgets and Vehicles sections of his +info documents.

ALWAYS A TOOL FOR THE JOB: A good Chaser always comes prepared. Will has a number of tools and devices that he tends to keep on hand just in case. A pair of screwdrivers and a solid wrench are mainstays, but he also tends to keep a grappling hook, weighted knives and a number of other useful devices on hand just in case he needs to scale a wall, repair something on the fly, or hit a conveniently placed switch across an inconvenient gap.

PERSONAL PROTECTION EQUIPMENT: Commissioned from Tomoyo's Boutique, Will has acquired a set of functional (yet stylish), personal protection. These clothes contain several plates of Ancient metamaterial, allowing them to absorb and deflect a significant amount of energy and heat, while also providing Will with some degree of protection from other threats. They also hide a number of pockets and compartments for Will's weapons, tools and various other trinkets, allowing him to conceal small objects from light to moderate scrutiny.
|NPCs='CHIEF': Created by the Ancients thousands of years ago and preserved in a stasis tube, CHIEF is a Homunculus-type combat cyborg and security chief for a naval facility far off the Meridian Coast. A team of investigators purged Chief's home of the creature that threatened to destroy it, earning them his friendship. Chief largely keeps to himself, patrolling the deep waters and protecting vulnerable trade ships using his (vastly diminished) naval assets. Still, he occasionally lends his fleet's aid when Will requires assistance on the high seas. (PL 31)

ALIA ESTRELLA: A young, adolescent girl and resident of Chief's facility, and the sole surviving member of its research staff. The Estrella clone line were genetically engineered to be highly intelligent and capable scientists, and as a result, were frequently targeted by viral weapons by hostile laboratories. Alia's vulnerable immune system prevents her from leaving sterile environments, but Chief has recently fully restored the facility's communications system, allowing her to speak to Will and others over the radio. Her specialty is in cybernetic systems, though her intellect makes her an effective spotter and researcher regardless. Kind of arrogant, and her knowledge of the Ancient world was limited by her captivity and youth, but her mind is still an invaluable resource in many situations. (PL 6)

GALE: Will's hometown, an agricultural community in the shadow of Evance. Gale is home to a community of retired Chasers and frontiersmen, including Will's grandparents, the (in)famous Typhoon Bill and Hurricane Jane, who are currently enjoying their old age. Gale generally supports Will in small ways, providing him with infrastructure and connections all across Tellus. It's also home to a wayward RobCo Protectron, currently acting as one of the town's deputies. (Collectively PL 28)
|Disadvantages=SOFT-HEARTED: Will has never killed a man. He has never even thought about killing a man. Machines are fine, horrible mutant monsters are fine. But people? He tends to fret about the well-being of those around him, and this extends to the people he might someday find in his sights. Even in situations where conflict is unavoidable, Will often hesitates to deliver a finishing blow. Even with more experience under his belt, Will's soft heart keeps him from taking lethal action against sapient creatures.

INQUISITIVE: If there's something to learn, Will is probably going to at least try. He tends to stick his nose into places that interest him, and there is much that does, though his primary interests are machines and history. Whenever something catches his eye, he has a hard time trying to stay away. If it's a machine, he'll probably try to take it apart, or at least take the time to try and figure out how it works. When he starts getting into it, he often loses focus on the world around him, making it easy for monsters, killer robots or even other Chasers to get the drop on him.

A NICE GUY: In spite of his greater worldliness, Will still tends to think the best of people around him. While not guileless, he's always willing to give people a shot if they seem sincere. He helps first and thinks second, often leading him into trouble. Whether it's repairing and reactivating a killer shipgirl or trusting a bandit to keep to their word, Will's positive attitude has gotten him into a lot of trouble, and will probably keep doing so for years to come. This doesn't stop him from keeping backup plans in case things DO go wrong, though.

INCOMPLETE WEAPON: Whatever Solano is, the weapon isn't in its original state. Parts of it have been reconstructed based on other salvaged equipment, detrimentally affecting its performance. Its output should in fact be much higher than it is presently capable of, but with neither the schematics, nor a way of finding the rest of its parts, Will presently has no means of restoring the weapon to its full functionality. This mostly manifests in occasional fluctuations in its power output and the weapons limited burst fire capabilities.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Many of Will's home-brewed devices can be somewhat temperamental. While he's continuously repairing and improving them, many of his more complex tools still have a number of bugs that he's trying to work out. Sometimes, they may just malfunction, and savvy opponents can often either induce such a failure, or take advantage of when they do go on the fritz. As his gadgeteering skills have improved, these glitches pop up less frequently, though they can still pose a problem if someone knows how to exploit them.

GADGETEER: Will relies heavily on his gadgets and tools. While he now has the skill and experience to get by without them, his abilities are considerably diminished when he's without them. If somehow stripped of all of his gear, Will operates two PLs lower until he can reclaim them, or until he can scrounge up replacements to get by.
}}

'''GADGETS'''

SIROCCO: One of Will's own personal projects. Effectively a pair of mechanized roller skates, Sirocco is a pair of boots equipped with miniature servo motors that allow Will greater mobility and a stable mobile firing position as long as he has both feet on the ground. They're capable of transitioning between high traction wheels and a steel sole. Will has nearly perfected their design, his personal experience in their success and failure leading him to reinforce the servo motors and refine the armor shape for greater comfort, control and stability. The inclusion of a pair of combat-grade Ancient shock absorbers also allows him some degree of protection from falls as long as he lands on his feet.

ZEPHYR: A mixture of arm-brace and grappling hook, this device was developed after Will decided that he'd had enough falling from way too high and nearly dying because of it. The Zephyr's grapnel consists of a high-strength, electromagnetically-launched grappling hook tethered by high-tension ceramic cable to a bracer. Will is able to launch and retract the grapnel with specific hand-gestures, allowing for easy use, and the high-velocity launch mechanism allows the hook to dig into most construction material, up to and including concrete. For safety reasons, the bracer is supported by a larger brace that covers much of Will's arm, and the grapnel component can detach if it becomes a liability. The bracer itself serves as additional arm protection in emergencies.

MAESTRO: A set of goggles and headset repurposed from the targeting system and visor of an Ancient combat cyborg's armor. The Maestro's sensors allow Will to take aim even in darkened corridors and provides a heads-up display to assist in gauging distance and pitch. It also carries a microphone, communicator, thermal imaging sensor, and blindspot warning indicators, giving Will a small window of opportunity to avoid attacks that might come either from behind or his flanks.

MYSTERIOUS GPS: Recovered from deep within a desert ruin, this device appears to be pointing to a number of different locations on Tellus, perhaps directing Will to yet-undiscovered ruins, or maybe just into the jaws of peril. Unbeknownst to him, the GPS is actually reacting with the Solano's built-in computer system, and is presently directing him to ruins that contain the means to repair the ancient weapon. It's also being tracked by powers unknown..

VIBROBLADE - An Ancient dagger with a vibrating blade, Will salvaged one of these from a desert ruin and has spent a good deal of time repairing it. While still not quite the weapon it used to be, this vibroblade still serves as a useful sidearm and field tool, allowing Will to cut through a good number of things, provided he presses the blade long enough. While he uses this short blade as a tool more than a weapon, it can still be used for self-defense in a pinch, and can fold up into an easily concealable mode.

T-45 POWER ARMOR: Obtained from the Commonwealth (Fallout 4 - 1), this suit of power armor is well-worn and battle-beaten. As one of the first power armor models developed by the United States, the T-45 has a number of faults that make it inferior to all of its successors. For example, many of its hydraulic and electronic components are exposed on the outside of the armor, creating a number of weak points across its entire frame. Still, the T-45 is a powerful addition to Will's arsenal, allowing him to operate in toxic, radioactive or otherwise hazardous environments, while providing him significant protection against small arms fire and a sizable safety net against other, more imposing foes. It does, however, have a time-limit associated with its use: once the fusion core is depleted, Will either needs to replace it or go without his armor. It's also rather bulky, limiting Will's mobility somewhat. As such, Will prefers to use it only when he knows he'll be charging into significant danger head-on.

Will has done his best to mitigate the T-45's most glaring vulnerabilities, and has supplemented its relatively thin armor with shaped plates of Ancient metamaterial, making it capable of absorbing and dissipating greater-than-normal energy damage. He has also incorporated a charge cable for the Solano into the armor, though its use can rapidly drain the fusion core. Will has also added a number of other useful features, such as an improved targeting system, improved motion-assist servos, tool harness, high-impact shock absorbers and a version of the Sirocco boots built specifically for integration into the T-45's legs.

'''VEHICLES'''

MISTRAL: A robust, armored motorcycle that serves as Will's transportation around the frontier. The Mistral is a finely tuned machine, and has been engineered with a number of additional compartments to store anything from Will's tools to loot that he picks up along the road. This motorcycle has been a work in progress since the day his father took it home, busted and half rusted over, from the machine shop.

The Mistral includes a number of hidden features, such as a built-in energy jack jury-rigged to connect to the Solano to boost its output. Will has modified the motorcycle further, adding a thruster system for a small amount of vertical mobility (and for greater jump-distance). He has also upgraded its armor with Ancient metamaterial, allowing it to more easily absorb energy damage.

CHORUS: An old PT Boat that Will found around Hikari Seaport. He's since repaired and refurbished the old girl, adding Ancient metamaterial plating, a number of weapons and a set of small naval motors acquired from a certain cyborg living far the Meridian coast on Tellus.

The Chorus also mounts an energy jack for the Solano, and can attain top speeds much greater than what its original form was capable of. This is largely due to its new propulsion system, but also because the plates that Will has covered the hull with appear to have some degree of drag reduction capability, letting the Chorus cut quickly and quietly through water. Its armor also affords it a degree of concealment against conventional radar, with signals often vanishing completely into the material.

William Pauwel

2016-12-04T06:40:04Z

Stormgear:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=William Pauwel
|Color=#0099FF
|Char_id=934
|FullName=William James Pauwel Junior
|Gender=Male
|Species=Human
|Theme=CODE: Chaser
|Chartype=OC
|Active=Active
|Function=Experienced Chaser
|Faction=Syndicate
|Rank=6-Recruit
|Ranktype=Enlisted
|Groups=[Daedalus Initiative] [Die Reisende]
|Quote="Chasers make their own luck!"
|Profile=A young Chaser with everything to prove, Will Pauwel delves into the remnants of the ancient world to uncover the secrets of this one. An avid explorer from a long lineage of Chasers, Will's chosen profession has him diving head-first into long-buried ruins to retrieve the fragmentary knowledge of the ancients. Having lost his parents at an early age Will is pressured by his past as he searches for hints as to their ultimate fate, even as he is drawn towards the future. He carries with him his family's precious gun, a boundless sense of adventure, an undeniable eagerness, and a measure of new confidence that comes with surviving in a dangerous line of work. Will's skills have grown since he began his adventures in the multiverse, seeing him grow from a greenhorn and liability into an effective adventurer and explorer in his own right.
|Powers=N/A
|Skills=TINKERER: Will possesses a natural knack for taking machines apart and putting them back together again better than before. His experience has broadened and deepened his skill at the applied sciences, making him a formidable field engineer. Given enough time and enough resources, he can fix- or at least jury rig- all but the most esoteric and exotic pieces of technology. He typically uses this skill to dismantle the traps and other security measures that he might find while exploring a new ruin, though it also enables him to reassemble damaged artifacts and repair vehicles and robots. Will is also prone to inventing gadgets of his own, but these tend to be personal scale. He has, however, been working on the blueprints for much larger designs in his spare time.

CRACK SHOT: Even before inheriting the Solano, William Sr. took great pains to teach his grandson how to use a gun. Being able to defend yourself is vital when you live in the Frontier, even if you mostly stick to your home settlement. Years of practice have made him a stunningly effective pistolero. His hip-fire and quickdraw skills are top notch, which plays well with his favorite handcannon.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: Will comes from a long line of Chasers, with each new generation leaving their knowledge behind for the next. Will often makes use of a number of family axioms and proprietary know-how that gives him a leg up on even some veteran dungeoneers. These can range from a set of stratagems on how best to engage hostile targets, to heuristics and rules-of-thumb as to how to tell if a wall is actually hiding a secret door. Will's experience as an explorer has led him to truly understand when he should apply these technique and when to rely on his own intuition instead.

QUICK THINKER: Will has learned that thinking on his feet is key to surviving in his line of work. He can formulate plans rapidly and improvises easily. Will has become accustomed to using his environment to his advantage by making effective use of whatever might be lying around. His instincts have been thoroughly honed, allowing him to react quickly to rapidly evolving battlefields and to quickly dissect even relatively complex mechanisms, puzzles and labyrinths.

IRON HORSEMAN: Will's interest in technology has led him to develop a talent for operating and riding machinery as well. While almost completely useless on horseback, Will is adept at controlling machines designed to be driven, once he figures out the controls. He makes a halfway decent pilot of almost anything he tries his hand at, and can quickly become proficient in the operation of all but the most complicated vehicles, controlling them with the skill of a talented, if unpolished, operator. Advanced maneuvers would be outside his ability to perform while he's learning how to control a new vehicle, but his skill in their use tends to develop rapidly if he spends more time behind the wheel. Machines that are far outside his realm of expertise such as starships and giant robots aren't so easy for him to pick up on-the-fly, and while he may be able to manage rough operation or basic movement, anything beyond that would pose a significant challenge. This talent does help Will learn the requisite skills involved in operating such complex machines relatively quickly though, provided that appropriate instruction is available.
|Assets=SOLANO: An Ancient relic that somehow still manages to function heads and shoulders above most other firearms of its class. The Solano is a prized treasure of the Pauwel family, handed down to Will from his grandfather. It possesses stunningly low recoil for how powerful of a gun it is, which may be tied to the fact that it doesn't shoot real bullets at all. The Solano instead fires slugs of concentrated plasma, pulling from some constantly regenerating energy supply. While it doesn't need to reload, the Solano can only fire, at max, three bullets in quick succession before needing a short time to recharge.

GADGETS AND VEHICLES: Will has accumulated- whether by discovery, salvage or invention- a number of useful devices and vehicles. All of these are strictly technological in nature, and if they werent of his own creation to begin with, have typically been heavily modified to better suit Wills needs. These assets include anything from motorcycles to power armor. A full list can be found in the Gadgets and Vehicles sections of his +info documents.

ALWAYS A TOOL FOR THE JOB: A good Chaser always comes prepared. Will has a number of tools and devices that he tends to keep on hand just in case. A pair of screwdrivers and a solid wrench are mainstays, but he also tends to keep a grappling hook, weighted knives and a number of other useful devices on hand just in case he needs to scale a wall, repair something on the fly, or hit a conveniently placed switch across an inconvenient gap.

PERSONAL PROTECTION EQUIPMENT: Commissioned from Tomoyo's Boutique, Will has acquired a set of functional (yet stylish), personal protection. These clothes contain several plates of Ancient metamaterial, allowing them to absorb and deflect a significant amount of energy and heat, while also providing Will with some degree of protection from other threats. They also hide a number of pockets and compartments for Will's weapons, tools and various other trinkets, allowing him to conceal small objects from light to moderate scrutiny.
|NPCs='CHIEF': Created by the Ancients thousands of years ago and preserved in a stasis tube, CHIEF is a Homunculus-type combat cyborg and security chief for a naval facility far off the Meridian Coast. A team of investigators purged Chief's home of the creature that threatened to destroy it, earning them his friendship. Chief largely keeps to himself, patrolling the deep waters and protecting vulnerable trade ships using his (vastly diminished) naval assets. Still, he occasionally lends his fleet's aid when Will requires assistance on the high seas. (PL 31)

ALIA ESTRELLA: A young, adolescent girl and resident of Chief's facility, and the sole surviving member of its research staff. The Estrella clone line were genetically engineered to be highly intelligent and capable scientists, and as a result, were frequently targeted by viral weapons by hostile laboratories. Alia's vulnerable immune system prevents her from leaving sterile environments, but Chief has recently fully restored the facility's communications system, allowing her to speak to Will and others over the radio. Her specialty is in cybernetic systems, though her intellect makes her an effective spotter and researcher regardless. Kind of arrogant, and her knowledge of the Ancient world was limited by her captivity and youth, but her mind is still an invaluable resource in many situations. (PL 6)

GALE: Will's hometown, an agricultural community in the shadow of Evance. Gale is home to a community of retired Chasers and frontiersmen, including Will's grandparents, the (in)famous Typhoon Bill and Hurricane Jane, who are currently enjoying their old age. Gale generally supports Will in small ways, providing him with infrastructure and connections all across Tellus. It's also home to a wayward RobCo Protectron, currently acting as one of the town's deputies. (Collectively PL 28)
|Disadvantages=SOFT-HEARTED: Will has never killed a man. He has never even thought about killing a man. Machines are fine, horrible mutant monsters are fine. But people? He tends to fret about the well-being of those around him, and this extends to the people he might someday find in his sights. Even in situations where conflict is unavoidable, Will often hesitates to deliver a finishing blow. Even with more experience under his belt, Will's soft heart keeps him from taking lethal action against sapient creatures.

INQUISITIVE: If there's something to learn, Will is probably going to at least try. He tends to stick his nose into places that interest him, and there is much that does, though his primary interests are machines and history. Whenever something catches his eye, he has a hard time trying to stay away. If it's a machine, he'll probably try to take it apart, or at least take the time to try and figure out how it works. When he starts getting into it, he often loses focus on the world around him, making it easy for monsters, killer robots or even other Chasers to get the drop on him.

A NICE GUY: In spite of his greater worldliness, Will still tends to think the best of people around him. While not guileless, he's always willing to give people a shot if they seem sincere. He helps first and thinks second, often leading him into trouble. Whether it's repairing and reactivating a killer shipgirl or trusting a bandit to keep to their word, Will's positive attitude has gotten him into a lot of trouble, and will probably keep doing so for years to come. This doesn't stop him from keeping backup plans in case things DO go wrong, though.

INCOMPLETE WEAPON: Whatever Solano is, the weapon isn't in its original state. Parts of it have been reconstructed based on other salvaged equipment, detrimentally affecting its performance. Its output should in fact be much higher than it is presently capable of, but with neither the schematics, nor a way of finding the rest of its parts, Will presently has no means of restoring the weapon to its full functionality. This mostly manifests in occasional fluctuations in its power output and the weapons limited burst fire capabilities.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Many of Will's home-brewed devices can be somewhat temperamental. While he's continuously repairing and improving them, many of his more complex tools still have a number of bugs that he's trying to work out. Sometimes, they may just malfunction, and savvy opponents can often either induce such a failure, or take advantage of when they do go on the fritz. As his gadgeteering skills have improved, these glitches pop up less frequently, though they can still pose a problem if someone knows how to exploit them.

GADGETEER: Will relies heavily on his gadgets and tools. While he now has the skill and experience to get by without them, his abilities are considerably diminished when he's without them. If somehow stripped of all of his gear, Will operates two PLs lower until he can reclaim them, or until he can scrounge up replacements to get by.

|GADGETS=SIROCCO: One of Will's own personal projects. Effectively a pair of mechanized roller skates, Sirocco is a pair of boots equipped with miniature servo motors that allow Will greater mobility and a stable mobile firing position as long as he has both feet on the ground. They're capable of transitioning between high traction wheels and a steel sole. Will has nearly perfected their design, his personal experience in their success and failure leading him to reinforce the servo motors and refine the armor shape for greater comfort, control and stability. The inclusion of a pair of combat-grade Ancient shock absorbers also allows him some degree of protection from falls as long as he lands on his feet.

ZEPHYR: A mixture of arm-brace and grappling hook, this device was developed after Will decided that he'd had enough falling from way too high and nearly dying because of it. The Zephyr's grapnel consists of a high-strength, electromagnetically-launched grappling hook tethered by high-tension ceramic cable to a bracer. Will is able to launch and retract the grapnel with specific hand-gestures, allowing for easy use, and the high-velocity launch mechanism allows the hook to dig into most construction material, up to and including concrete. For safety reasons, the bracer is supported by a larger brace that covers much of Will's arm, and the grapnel component can detach if it becomes a liability. The bracer itself serves as additional arm protection in emergencies.

MAESTRO: A set of goggles and headset repurposed from the targeting system and visor of an Ancient combat cyborg's armor. The Maestro's sensors allow Will to take aim even in darkened corridors and provides a heads-up display to assist in gauging distance and pitch. It also carries a microphone, communicator, thermal imaging sensor, and blindspot warning indicators, giving Will a small window of opportunity to avoid attacks that might come either from behind or his flanks.

MYSTERIOUS GPS: Recovered from deep within a desert ruin, this device appears to be pointing to a number of different locations on Tellus, perhaps directing Will to yet-undiscovered ruins, or maybe just into the jaws of peril. Unbeknownst to him, the GPS is actually reacting with the Solano's built-in computer system, and is presently directing him to ruins that contain the means to repair the ancient weapon. It's also being tracked by powers unknown..

VIBROBLADE - An Ancient dagger with a vibrating blade, Will salvaged one of these from a desert ruin and has spent a good deal of time repairing it. While still not quite the weapon it used to be, this vibroblade still serves as a useful sidearm and field tool, allowing Will to cut through a good number of things, provided he presses the blade long enough. While he uses this short blade as a tool more than a weapon, it can still be used for self-defense in a pinch, and can fold up into an easily concealable mode.

T-45 POWER ARMOR: Obtained from the Commonwealth (Fallout 4 - 1), this suit of power armor is well-worn and battle-beaten. As one of the first power armor models developed by the United States, the T-45 has a number of faults that make it inferior to all of its successors. For example, many of its hydraulic and electronic components are exposed on the outside of the armor, creating a number of weak points across its entire frame. Still, the T-45 is a powerful addition to Will's arsenal, allowing him to operate in toxic, radioactive or otherwise hazardous environments, while providing him significant protection against small arms fire and a sizable safety net against other, more imposing foes. It does, however, have a time-limit associated with its use: once the fusion core is depleted, Will either needs to replace it or go without his armor. It's also rather bulky, limiting Will's mobility somewhat. As such, Will prefers to use it only when he knows he'll be charging into significant danger head-on.

Will has done his best to mitigate the T-45's most glaring vulnerabilities, and has supplemented its relatively thin armor with shaped plates of Ancient metamaterial, making it capable of absorbing and dissipating greater-than-normal energy damage. He has also incorporated a charge cable for the Solano into the armor, though its use can rapidly drain the fusion core. Will has also added a number of other useful features, such as an improved targeting system, improved motion-assist servos, tool harness, high-impact shock absorbers and a version of the Sirocco boots built specifically for integration into the T-45's legs.

|VEHICLES=MISTRAL: A robust, armored motorcycle that serves as Will's transportation around the frontier. The Mistral is a finely tuned machine, and has been engineered with a number of additional compartments to store anything from Will's tools to loot that he picks up along the road. This motorcycle has been a work in progress since the day his father took it home, busted and half rusted over, from the machine shop.

The Mistral includes a number of hidden features, such as a built-in energy jack jury-rigged to connect to the Solano to boost its output. Will has modified the motorcycle further, adding a thruster system for a small amount of vertical mobility (and for greater jump-distance). He has also upgraded its armor with Ancient metamaterial, allowing it to more easily absorb energy damage.

CHORUS: An old PT Boat that Will found around Hikari Seaport. He's since repaired and refurbished the old girl, adding Ancient metamaterial plating, a number of weapons and a set of small naval motors acquired from a certain cyborg living far the Meridian coast on Tellus.

The Chorus also mounts an energy jack for the Solano, and can attain top speeds much greater than what its original form was capable of. This is largely due to its new propulsion system, but also because the plates that Will has covered the hull with appear to have some degree of drag reduction capability, letting the Chorus cut quickly and quietly through water. Its armor also affords it a degree of concealment against conventional radar, with signals often vanishing completely into the material.
}}

William Pauwel

2016-12-04T06:38:29Z

Stormgear:

{{CharacterNew
|NameOnMUSH=William Pauwel
|Color=#0099FF
|Char_id=934
|FullName=William James Pauwel Junior
|Gender=Male
|Species=Human
|Theme=CODE: Chaser
|Chartype=OC
|Active=Active
|Function=Experienced Chaser
|Faction=Syndicate
|Rank=6-Recruit
|Ranktype=Enlisted
|Groups=[Daedalus Initiative] [Die Reisende]
|Quote="Chasers make their own luck!"
|Profile=A young Chaser with everything to prove, Will Pauwel delves into the remnants of the ancient world to uncover the secrets of this one. An avid explorer from a long lineage of Chasers, Will's chosen profession has him diving head-first into long-buried ruins to retrieve the fragmentary knowledge of the ancients. Having lost his parents at an early age Will is pressured by his past as he searches for hints as to their ultimate fate, even as he is drawn towards the future. He carries with him his family's precious gun, a boundless sense of adventure, an undeniable eagerness, and a measure of new confidence that comes with surviving in a dangerous line of work. Will's skills have grown since he began his adventures in the multiverse, seeing him grow from a greenhorn and liability into an effective adventurer and explorer in his own right.
|Powers=N/A
|Skills=TINKERER: Will possesses a natural knack for taking machines apart and putting them back together again better than before. His experience has broadened and deepened his skill at the applied sciences, making him a formidable field engineer. Given enough time and enough resources, he can fix- or at least jury rig- all but the most esoteric and exotic pieces of technology. He typically uses this skill to dismantle the traps and other security measures that he might find while exploring a new ruin, though it also enables him to reassemble damaged artifacts and repair vehicles and robots. Will is also prone to inventing gadgets of his own, but these tend to be personal scale. He has, however, been working on the blueprints for much larger designs in his spare time.

CRACK SHOT: Even before inheriting the Solano, William Sr. took great pains to teach his grandson how to use a gun. Being able to defend yourself is vital when you live in the Frontier, even if you mostly stick to your home settlement. Years of practice have made him a stunningly effective pistolero. His hip-fire and quickdraw skills are top notch, which plays well with his favorite handcannon.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: Will comes from a long line of Chasers, with each new generation leaving their knowledge behind for the next. Will often makes use of a number of family axioms and proprietary know-how that gives him a leg up on even some veteran dungeoneers. These can range from a set of stratagems on how best to engage hostile targets, to heuristics and rules-of-thumb as to how to tell if a wall is actually hiding a secret door. Will's experience as an explorer has led him to truly understand when he should apply these technique and when to rely on his own intuition instead.

QUICK THINKER: Will has learned that thinking on his feet is key to surviving in his line of work. He can formulate plans rapidly and improvises easily. Will has become accustomed to using his environment to his advantage by making effective use of whatever might be lying around. His instincts have been thoroughly honed, allowing him to react quickly to rapidly evolving battlefields and to quickly dissect even relatively complex mechanisms, puzzles and labyrinths.

IRON HORSEMAN: Will's interest in technology has led him to develop a talent for operating and riding machinery as well. While almost completely useless on horseback, Will is adept at controlling machines designed to be driven, once he figures out the controls. He makes a halfway decent pilot of almost anything he tries his hand at, and can quickly become proficient in the operation of all but the most complicated vehicles, controlling them with the skill of a talented, if unpolished, operator. Advanced maneuvers would be outside his ability to perform while he's learning how to control a new vehicle, but his skill in their use tends to develop rapidly if he spends more time behind the wheel. Machines that are far outside his realm of expertise such as starships and giant robots aren't so easy for him to pick up on-the-fly, and while he may be able to manage rough operation or basic movement, anything beyond that would pose a significant challenge. This talent does help Will learn the requisite skills involved in operating such complex machines relatively quickly though, provided that appropriate instruction is available.
|Assets=SOLANO: An Ancient relic that somehow still manages to function heads and shoulders above most other firearms of its class. The Solano is a prized treasure of the Pauwel family, handed down to Will from his grandfather. It possesses stunningly low recoil for how powerful of a gun it is, which may be tied to the fact that it doesn't shoot real bullets at all. The Solano instead fires slugs of concentrated plasma, pulling from some constantly regenerating energy supply. While it doesn't need to reload, the Solano can only fire, at max, three bullets in quick succession before needing a short time to recharge.

GADGETS AND VEHICLES: Will has accumulated- whether by discovery, salvage or invention- a number of useful devices and vehicles. All of these are strictly technological in nature, and if they werent of his own creation to begin with, have typically been heavily modified to better suit Wills needs. These assets include anything from motorcycles to power armor. A full list can be found in the Gadgets and Vehicles sections of his +info documents.

ALWAYS A TOOL FOR THE JOB: A good Chaser always comes prepared. Will has a number of tools and devices that he tends to keep on hand just in case. A pair of screwdrivers and a solid wrench are mainstays, but he also tends to keep a grappling hook, weighted knives and a number of other useful devices on hand just in case he needs to scale a wall, repair something on the fly, or hit a conveniently placed switch across an inconvenient gap.

PERSONAL PROTECTION EQUIPMENT: Commissioned from Tomoyo's Boutique, Will has acquired a set of functional (yet stylish), personal protection. These clothes contain several plates of Ancient metamaterial, allowing them to absorb and deflect a significant amount of energy and heat, while also providing Will with some degree of protection from other threats. They also hide a number of pockets and compartments for Will's weapons, tools and various other trinkets, allowing him to conceal small objects from light to moderate scrutiny.
|NPCs='CHIEF': Created by the Ancients thousands of years ago and preserved in a stasis tube, CHIEF is a Homunculus-type combat cyborg and security chief for a naval facility far off the Meridian Coast. A team of investigators purged Chief's home of the creature that threatened to destroy it, earning them his friendship. Chief largely keeps to himself, patrolling the deep waters and protecting vulnerable trade ships using his (vastly diminished) naval assets. Still, he occasionally lends his fleet's aid when Will requires assistance on the high seas. (PL 31)

ALIA ESTRELLA: A young, adolescent girl and resident of Chief's facility, and the sole surviving member of its research staff. The Estrella clone line were genetically engineered to be highly intelligent and capable scientists, and as a result, were frequently targeted by viral weapons by hostile laboratories. Alia's vulnerable immune system prevents her from leaving sterile environments, but Chief has recently fully restored the facility's communications system, allowing her to speak to Will and others over the radio. Her specialty is in cybernetic systems, though her intellect makes her an effective spotter and researcher regardless. Kind of arrogant, and her knowledge of the Ancient world was limited by her captivity and youth, but her mind is still an invaluable resource in many situations. (PL 6)

GALE: Will's hometown, an agricultural community in the shadow of Evance. Gale is home to a community of retired Chasers and frontiersmen, including Will's grandparents, the (in)famous Typhoon Bill and Hurricane Jane, who are currently enjoying their old age. Gale generally supports Will in small ways, providing him with infrastructure and connections all across Tellus. It's also home to a wayward RobCo Protectron, currently acting as one of the town's deputies. (Collectively PL 28)
|Disadvantages=SOFT-HEARTED: Will has never killed a man. He has never even thought about killing a man. Machines are fine, horrible mutant monsters are fine. But people? He tends to fret about the well-being of those around him, and this extends to the people he might someday find in his sights. Even in situations where conflict is unavoidable, Will often hesitates to deliver a finishing blow. Even with more experience under his belt, Will's soft heart keeps him from taking lethal action against sapient creatures.

INQUISITIVE: If there's something to learn, Will is probably going to at least try. He tends to stick his nose into places that interest him, and there is much that does, though his primary interests are machines and history. Whenever something catches his eye, he has a hard time trying to stay away. If it's a machine, he'll probably try to take it apart, or at least take the time to try and figure out how it works. When he starts getting into it, he often loses focus on the world around him, making it easy for monsters, killer robots or even other Chasers to get the drop on him.

A NICE GUY: In spite of his greater worldliness, Will still tends to think the best of people around him. While not guileless, he's always willing to give people a shot if they seem sincere. He helps first and thinks second, often leading him into trouble. Whether it's repairing and reactivating a killer shipgirl or trusting a bandit to keep to their word, Will's positive attitude has gotten him into a lot of trouble, and will probably keep doing so for years to come. This doesn't stop him from keeping backup plans in case things DO go wrong, though.

INCOMPLETE WEAPON: Whatever Solano is, the weapon isn't in its original state. Parts of it have been reconstructed based on other salvaged equipment, detrimentally affecting its performance. Its output should in fact be much higher than it is presently capable of, but with neither the schematics, nor a way of finding the rest of its parts, Will presently has no means of restoring the weapon to its full functionality. This mostly manifests in occasional fluctuations in its power output and the weapons limited burst fire capabilities.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Many of Will's home-brewed devices can be somewhat temperamental. While he's continuously repairing and improving them, many of his more complex tools still have a number of bugs that he's trying to work out. Sometimes, they may just malfunction, and savvy opponents can often either induce such a failure, or take advantage of when they do go on the fritz. As his gadgeteering skills have improved, these glitches pop up less frequently, though they can still pose a problem if someone knows how to exploit them.

GADGETEER: Will relies heavily on his gadgets and tools. While he now has the skill and experience to get by without them, his abilities are considerably diminished when he's without them. If somehow stripped of all of his gear, Will operates two PLs lower until he can reclaim them, or until he can scrounge up replacements to get by.
}}
GADGETS:

SIROCCO: One of Will's own personal projects. Effectively a pair of mechanized roller skates, Sirocco is a pair of boots equipped with miniature servo motors that allow Will greater mobility and a stable mobile firing position as long as he has both feet on the ground. They're capable of transitioning between high traction wheels and a steel sole. Will has nearly perfected their design, his personal experience in their success and failure leading him to reinforce the servo motors and refine the armor shape for greater comfort, control and stability. The inclusion of a pair of combat-grade Ancient shock absorbers also allows him some degree of protection from falls as long as he lands on his feet.

ZEPHYR: A mixture of arm-brace and grappling hook, this device was developed after Will decided that he'd had enough falling from way too high and nearly dying because of it. The Zephyr's grapnel consists of a high-strength, electromagnetically-launched grappling hook tethered by high-tension ceramic cable to a bracer. Will is able to launch and retract the grapnel with specific hand-gestures, allowing for easy use, and the high-velocity launch mechanism allows the hook to dig into most construction material, up to and including concrete. For safety reasons, the bracer is supported by a larger brace that covers much of Will's arm, and the grapnel component can detach if it becomes a liability. The bracer itself serves as additional arm protection in emergencies.

MAESTRO: A set of goggles and headset repurposed from the targeting system and visor of an Ancient combat cyborg's armor. The Maestro's sensors allow Will to take aim even in darkened corridors and provides a heads-up display to assist in gauging distance and pitch. It also carries a microphone, communicator, thermal imaging sensor, and blindspot warning indicators, giving Will a small window of opportunity to avoid attacks that might come either from behind or his flanks.

MYSTERIOUS GPS: Recovered from deep within a desert ruin, this device appears to be pointing to a number of different locations on Tellus, perhaps directing Will to yet-undiscovered ruins, or maybe just into the jaws of peril. Unbeknownst to him, the GPS is actually reacting with the Solano's built-in computer system, and is presently directing him to ruins that contain the means to repair the ancient weapon. It's also being tracked by powers unknown..

VIBROBLADE - An Ancient dagger with a vibrating blade, Will salvaged one of these from a desert ruin and has spent a good deal of time repairing it. While still not quite the weapon it used to be, this vibroblade still serves as a useful sidearm and field tool, allowing Will to cut through a good number of things, provided he presses the blade long enough. While he uses this short blade as a tool more than a weapon, it can still be used for self-defense in a pinch, and can fold up into an easily concealable mode.

T-45 POWER ARMOR: Obtained from the Commonwealth (Fallout 4 - 1), this suit of power armor is well-worn and battle-beaten. As one of the first power armor models developed by the United States, the T-45 has a number of faults that make it inferior to all of its successors. For example, many of its hydraulic and electronic components are exposed on the outside of the armor, creating a number of weak points across its entire frame. Still, the T-45 is a powerful addition to Will's arsenal, allowing him to operate in toxic, radioactive or otherwise hazardous environments, while providing him significant protection against small arms fire and a sizable safety net against other, more imposing foes. It does, however, have a time-limit associated with its use: once the fusion core is depleted, Will either needs to replace it or go without his armor. It's also rather bulky, limiting Will's mobility somewhat. As such, Will prefers to use it only when he knows he'll be charging into significant danger head-on.

Will has done his best to mitigate the T-45's most glaring vulnerabilities, and has supplemented its relatively thin armor with shaped plates of Ancient metamaterial, making it capable of absorbing and dissipating greater-than-normal energy damage. He has also incorporated a charge cable for the Solano into the armor, though its use can rapidly drain the fusion core. Will has also added a number of other useful features, such as an improved targeting system, improved motion-assist servos, tool harness, high-impact shock absorbers and a version of the Sirocco boots built specifically for integration into the T-45's legs.

VEHICLES:

MISTRAL: A robust, armored motorcycle that serves as Will's transportation around the frontier. The Mistral is a finely tuned machine, and has been engineered with a number of additional compartments to store anything from Will's tools to loot that he picks up along the road. This motorcycle has been a work in progress since the day his father took it home, busted and half rusted over, from the machine shop.

The Mistral includes a number of hidden features, such as a built-in energy jack jury-rigged to connect to the Solano to boost its output. Will has modified the motorcycle further, adding a thruster system for a small amount of vertical mobility (and for greater jump-distance). He has also upgraded its armor with Ancient metamaterial, allowing it to more easily absorb energy damage.

CHORUS: An old PT Boat that Will found around Hikari Seaport. He's since repaired and refurbished the old girl, adding Ancient metamaterial plating, a number of weapons and a set of small naval motors acquired from a certain cyborg living far the Meridian coast on Tellus.

The Chorus also mounts an energy jack for the Solano, and can attain top speeds much greater than what its original form was capable of. This is largely due to its new propulsion system, but also because the plates that Will has covered the hull with appear to have some degree of drag reduction capability, letting the Chorus cut quickly and quietly through water. Its armor also affords it a degree of concealment against conventional radar, with signals often vanishing completely into the material.

William Pauwel

2016-12-04T06:36:19Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{CharacterNew |NameOnMUSH=William Pauwel |Color=#0099FF |Char_id=934 |FullName=William James Pauwel Junior |Gender=Male |Species=Human |Theme=CODE: Chaser |Chartype=OC |Activ..."

4838/MANDATORY BEACH EPISODE

2016-12-04T06:28:54Z

Stormgear: Moved radio conversation to the appropriate location in the log.

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/03
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will invites some friends to a tropical island! Unfortunately they don't get much beach time.
|Cast of Characters=934, 571, 941, 942, 385, 7, 1051, 894, 774, 673
|Tinyplot=Code Chaser
|Tinyplot2=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It's a fine day to be exploring the open seas! The sun is shining, the extra-large seagulls are making their southwestern migration, and the ocean is approximately as smooth as glass. Not that tumultuous seas would pose a particularly large problem given your form of transit.     It's not Will's little PT Boat, though that is definitely how you got from Meridian's shipyards to here. It's actually sitting at the far back of your current ride, dangling from a pair of cranes. No. He sailed that (relatively cramped, given all the people) ship far enough out to sea that the merchant shipping lanes were left far behind. Waiting for him was something that would probably conjure terrible memories in at least a couple of the present crew. It was an enormous, black battleship. Shrouded in fog. Yeah.     The captain of said warship would also have been somewhat familiar: an eight-foot-tall giant covered in jet black armor, though he appears to have recently added an admiral's cap and jacket to his uniform. A couple other crewmen, similar in design to the captain, are all that there is to this particular vessel's accompaniment. Not that there's much place to berth them; the ship is almost entirely automated. Humming machines take up much of the interior, hidden away behind sealed bulkheads and secret compartments. Yes, it's THAT GUY. On one of THOSE SHIPS. Some might wonder how the blazes Will knows a guy who operates an Ancient naval battlecruiser. CORAL. CORAL IS HOW.     And the less that's said of that, the better. Regardless! The warship sails far out to sea. Further than the most distant shipping route, deep into the unexplored waters over the distant horizon. But it isn't long (Ancient Battleships move pretty fast) before the destination is in sight.     The island is vaguely circular in shape, with a vast cove on one end that resembles a crescent moon. Beyond that is a lush jungle entwining around a set of jagged, rocky hills. The green creeps up and over the huge, old mounds, tangling up around something vaguely... out of place. It's a boxy, regularly-shaped hulk of /something/ swallowed up by the trees. From the beach, it looks like it could be a decent hike in to reach it, but definitely not something out of the question for veteran adventurers! But first. The beach.     Reaching it from battleship is kind of difficult for reasons like 'minimum sailing depth' and 'not wanting to run aground.' But that is precisely why Will brought his boat! The Chorus humms happily through the crystal-blue water, weaving past an old rock formation before coming to a stop a few feet from the beach. Will rises from the wheel in one of those AWFUL OLD-TIMEY SWIMSUITS with a triumphant grin on his face, "Alright, this is the place! Looks like we made it in one piece, huh?"     With that, he hurls an anchor overboard and disembarks, wading his way to shore. There's a huge backpack on his shoulders, and a beeping disk in his hand, and a CONSPICUOUSLY HUGE GUN dangling from a holster at his hip. They're far enough in shore that it doesn't get wet. This is probably for the best.     "Alright, so!" Will says to ALL YOU GATHERED HERE TODAY. "This here radar doohicky is telling me that the thing we're looking for is somewhere around these parts. So who wants to head into the jungle and take a look around?!" Because the first thing anyone does at the beach is immediately jump into a bunch of trees that are almost certainly FILLED WITH BUGS. Will might have a single-track mind. After all, there's all this beach all around, right? There are even some coconut trees! Or, what definitely look like coconut trees, at least. Maybe he intends to enjoy it all AFTER he finds what he's looking for? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka is here, with Kotone. They are wearing swimsuits, as revealed as the taller, buffer cyborg peels off her shirt and shorts to reveal a red bikini and a military belt. As she uses her matter manipulator to ditch her clothes, she also produces a harness with holster for a pistol and mag pouches, and an AK for this ADVENTURE!     She disembarks the ship, mentally grumbling about the lack of surfing. <Really wish he'd tell us what we're looking for, here.> She says over private cyber-comms to Kotone.     Oh well, she advances with William, AK in hands. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Just so it's out there, Chief," Mel says as they sail, "You look a little ridiculous with that hat and jacket over the armor." This, from the woman wearing a smoke-grey longcoat with armored shoulder pauldrons over a blue-grey skintight space suit.     The Firechaser (or Chaser, or Firestarter-C, whichever you prefer), is probably parked somewhere on the warship as well. Mel Brock is nothing if not practical. But she's quite happy to ride the ship in relative relaxation, all the way out to the stopping point where they transition to Will's boat, and from there right to the shoreline. "I think if we didn't want to go take a look, we're a little past the point of no return," she says simply. "So what /is/ this component we're looking for, anyway, Judgment?" 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Kazuko's here, too! After hearing about more potential exploration being done near some beach out in the middle of nowhere, the martial artist wasted little time in finding her way on board William's boat. Now that they've reached their destination, though, she's looking both excited and disappointed.      "Are we leaving the beach already? Aw... Well, it should be okay as long as we come back!" Not letting that detour dampen her spirits, Kazuko hurries along with her naginata in hand and... Wait. She's still dressed in her track jacket. That's not beach-appropriate clothing at all!      It's easier to move through the forest without worrying about minor scrapes that way, at least. "So what's this Solano thing, anyway?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Fortunately, Yuna isn't particularly susceptible to getting seasick; however, she's not exactly dressed for the beach. What she *is* wearing is her Hikari SDP uniform, which is sufficiently lightweight that the heat and humidity don't get to her too much, while being sufficiently water-resistant that she can handle a bit of wading without having to let her shoes and socks (or rather, tights) dry out before she goes anywhere else. She *does* have a swimsuit with her, but no way she was going to actually put on a swimsuit while they were sailing on what might as well be a ghostly pirate ship from the way it looked at a distance. If there's time for swimming later, along with the desire to do so, she can find a private spot and change clothes later. It's far more likely she'll need to be in her Light Suit before that, though - which is why Elner is flitting along next to her. The rest of the Matrix of Light are staying on the ship for now; they can fly across if Yuna needs any of them for her alternate armors ... or all of them, to summon El-Line, but that seems unlikely. Yuna's hardly going to rule it out, though. "Elner, what's moving around that isn't us?" Yuna inquires, looking over the jungle. She can practically hear the insects lying in wait to snack on her warm, tender, maidenly blood ... "... and do we REALLY have to go traipsing through that jungle to find the component we're after?" Yuna adds, edging back towards the water as her entomophobic imagination does rather too good a job of conjuring up a variety of insectoid horrors. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa didn't care for the imposing look for herself it was too far away from who she was honestly. Kotone likewise uses her maniplator to store her clothing as well. She's wearing a one piece swisuit with a zipped window up front which is currently open at the moment. Still all things considered it's fairly modest compared to many other swimsuits out there in the multiverse. She looks to Maaka for a moment. "Alexis we're going to swim and the like, we're not here to hunt fish with guns?" The Blue haired woman seems very amused. % R<<Oh Surfing? That sounds fun!>> Now Kotone isn't unarmed but her weapons are stored in the maniplaotr for the moment also in an odd way Kotone's not alone either..even more so than Maaka. Someone else is with her, as one mighgt see it a voice in her head. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "I could level us a path through the jungle." Mel offers Yuna, in a tone that suggests she knows exactly what the answer will be." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      It's VACATION TIME, and that means, Millium is ONE THE CASE! It's been concert after concert, album signings, meet and greets, speeches, alongside minor dungeon crawls. And lordy, the girl was due for a nice break! ...Because this is totally a break, right? I mean, she's totally dressed for it! A white bikini, tied together at the front, with gold lining both pieces. She's got a blue towel tied around her waist and flowing down to one side to the thigh to make up her VACATION WEAR. And no, her glowing blue orbitals are nowhere to be seen. But they might just be turned off.      Yes, she can turn them off. Unlike a certain SOMEONE and his gun. Poor guy really should see a doctor for that.      But then WILL is telling them about a jungle thing! Millium arches a brow. "...Haaaa? Jungle?" Her head tilts, sending blonde locks fluttering aside a bit. "Will, Will, Will, Will, Will, Will..." She steps forward and puts her hands on his shoulders. "....I THOUGHT THIS WAS A VACATION!?" She yells at him, shaking the damn guy by his shoulders. "What part of vacation means dive into the forest!? I don't even have any equipment!"      She points aside to Claire, who of course is here. "Claire didn't bring any equipment!" The girl in question arches a brow and glares. "Excuse you, you airhead. I /do/ have my equipment." There's a laptop in her lap. Even when she's on vacation in a one piece swimsuit. GUILD GONNA GUILD. Millium hangs her head. "I-I'm not an airhead!"      Beat.      "...Also what're you looking for again?"      SHE WASN'T THERE FOR ALL THAT STUFF OKAY? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "It ain't the fish, more like the wildlife on the ground that I'm worried about." Maaka asides. She is fully aware of how dumb she looks, wearing tactical gear over a swimsuit like some mute sniper with breathing skin or something stupid like that.      

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August is also here, because he's roadtripping lately with Will. He is also in a swimsuit, but his is not in a one piece. It /does/ have horrible stripes. He does not look pleased. He has brought absolutely no gear except the swimsuit. "So, we're going into a jungle in swimwear. I have an important question, before we do: do you have your will and testaments anywhere that a survivor could get them?" He looks serious, but his humor is usually deadpan anyways. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Reasons like this are why Dorian trusts NO ONE!     More seriously, it's a good thing Dorian has brought his staff with him, despite the bathing suit. Balance is definitely a thing he's going to need to secure, because ugh, boats. Dorian has a problem with seasickness, particularly when ghost ships are concerned. He can't get onto the beach and off of all sea-going transports fast enough.     He pauses, though, as William notes there is a thingie he's looking for here. Dorian raises an eyebrow at his words. "I wish you'd told me we were supposed to go traipsing through a jungle. I would have brought more appropriate gear." Because a blue and green swimsuit, retro stylings or not -- note, stylings only; it doesn't look particularly old, and the pair of sunglasses he's got are clearly a pair of modern sunglasses -- just isn't appropriate adventuring gear. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White is not here. But that fact isn't so obvious to anyone here but the one in the know: Kotone.     Rory White is not here. Rory White is actually in Eryl Fairfax's Alaska, fighting an awful super robot from bloody nowhere. Rory White Beta-1 is here, and her presence is largely confined to something that looks... well, the robot looks kind of like a person-sized beetle, but with eight legs. The legs are also capable of flipping out for wheel-components. And the Arachnoid has proven extra-flexible. Though it doesn't move with Rory White's typical fluidity. It's trawled around the deck like a robot largely depending on AI pathfinding.     Rory White isn't in it. She's hidden in a ghostrider module in Kotone's shell!     <<Hunting fish with guns? Is that a thing?>>     Her voice comes across to Kotone and anyone with local radios like Maaka.     But it's distracted. Because...     The Arachnoid has hit the beach and is scuttling along with William. "This plan of action surprises me, Mr. Pauwel. My experience tells me males your age would rather observe the females in swimsuits given the opportunity." This is not an appropriate comment, and she totally does not understand how or why, to be sure. But it doesn't slow her progress off to the side, the arachnoid's many optics sweeping across the jungle and a few Saucers flying overhead to provide birds-eye-views and radio relays.     The Arachnoid is operating under some lag, but Rory hopes that won't prove too troublesome. They're just here to get a part, right?     Sadly, every time she's told herself she's 'just' here to do something simple, the multiverse has proven her wrong.     THAT MIGHT EXPLAIN WHY THE ARACHNOID IS BRISTLING WITH WEAPON BARRELS. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Okay, look, just because there are a bunch of ladies here wearing very little other than bikinis, doesn't instantaneously mean that Will's going to drop everything he's doing to stare! No sir. That is precisely why he's walking at the front of the group, with eyes ALL THE WAY IN FRONT. "What're you talking about," he says to Rory, COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS. TOTALLY. "I've got explorin' to do! I'll... I'll think about swimsuits later!" When it's safe to do that. And not end up being eaten alive by some kind of bugs.     "Yeah, sorry, this is a bit of a surprise for me, too," he admits to all these people bothered about ADVERTISED JUNGLE ADVENTURES. "I didn't really have the chance to take a look to see where we were going, on account of, you know... The trip." In other words, he got excited in that vaguely puppy-like way that he gets, and immediately made plans without scouting ahead first. GOOD JOB WILL.     "A-anyway! We're here lookin' for a piece to my gun," he says, turning, though his eyes are conspicuously fixed on the horizon WAY OVER THERE. "I dunno exactly what kind of piece it'll be, or what it'll do, but according to a TRUSTED SOURCE, it's probably in here somewhere." He thumbs vaguely in the direction of the woods. "So let's get this started, hu-waugh!?" MILLY. MILLY STOP SHAKING HIM. HE'S TRYING SO HARD NOT TO LOOK ANYWHERE HE SHOULDN'T, MILLY. AAAAH.     "Waaaugh!" Will flails, cartwheeling his arms so fast that they almost look like they've multiplied. Somewhere in there, he bats Milly's arms away and falls flat on his back end. On a twig. A twig that goes /SNAP/ very, very loudly. Loud enough to startle a bunch of birds, apparently. They flit up from the canopy and immediately sweep to a totally different part of the island. Huh. His eyes, notably, are staring STRAIGHT UP.     "T-that wasn't very nice, Milly! Y'all could have broken my neck, or something!" Will harrumphs in protest, pushing himself back up and around so that he doesn't have to strain his neck to avert his eyes anymore. "A-anyway, forward march, y'all!" He points boldly into the woods. The woods that smell vaguely of rain, decaying ground-cover, and which buzz with a symphony of all kinds of insects. Also there's some weird, bassy buzzing coming from somewhere in there. But that's probably nothing, right? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Will has an idea. He unholsters his gun and points it vaguely into the air. It starts glowing all blue and white. A bug buzzes out from nearby, meanders vaguely in its general direction, and then immediately disintegrates as it flutters into the plasma cloud. "Ha-ha! It works!" There's a vague sense of displeasure from the gun. Almost like it just had a speech-bubble pop up, and it was full of dots. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "Do we have to ..." begins Yuna. "Yes," Elner replies, without letting Yuna finish what she was going to ask. And then Elner takes further initiative, triggering Yuna's transformation. When it ends, she at least looks a LITTLE better-suited for the beach - inasmuch as she's now wearing a snug-fitting armored bodysuit that could be a one-piece swimsuit (albeit with more of a back than most swimsuits not issued by schools), plus boots and gloves. Yuna just sighs, wills the Matrix Divider to materialize, and takes a step forward - although the vote being called about whether Mel should clear a road for them is a good reason to halt. So is the reason that William Pauwel, who's ostensibly in charge of this expedition AND has the gadget that's tracking the component they're looking for, ISN'T advancing into the woods yet. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka just frowns SO HARD at Rory. "Not the time."          She doesn't even try to pull Millium off of WIlliam, instead hiding a smirk as she keeps going into the jungle. She doesn't need to worry about bugs biting her, she tastes HORRIBLE to insects, so she just jogs through the pathway William points out. The cyborg only stops when WIll fires a plasma ball to use as a makeshift bug zapper, and she tilts her head. "Well, that's effective." She says, stopping in her tracks. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     By now Dorian has about gotten used to the weirdness of the Multiverse. So when a large beetle bristling with weapons speaks with Rory's voice? He's not surprised. He does however, stifle a snicker at Rory-bug's response. "Not all males his age," he responds. "But I live in a glass house... far be it from me to judge~." This is also not an appropriate comment, but Dorian stopped being 'appropriate' when he was about nine years old.     He laughs at the display between Millium and William. Ah, so he's not the only one a little worried about not bringing proper battle gear? "Fortunately I'm a self-contained weapon of mass destruction." Beat. "At least that's the way the southerners treat me back home." There's a bitter edge to his smirk. But yes. He's brought the triple-headed dragon staff that he usually carries, so that's about all he needs in the way of weaponry.     There will be roasting of bugs that try to bite him. And he is totally not ignoring that much, much, MUCH deeper buzzing coming from Maker knows where. Genre savviness has made him paranoid. But remember, it's not paranoia if something really IS out to get you. And in Dorian's experience, there usually is! But yes. He's also not going to advance into the jungle before their 'leader' does. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     ...Mel's joking suggestion has, apparently, been taken seriously. To an extent, anyway. A brief group powwow results in a compromise that still allows her to just take the convenience approach for once - pulling out trees that are directly in their way. Alright, she can do that. She can even set them aside relatively gently, to avoid smashing or disturbing anything else. So the psychic steps up to the head of the group, hands in her pockets, and starts to walk.     The first time they run into a tree or trees that are more trouble to navigate around than they're worth, the psychic just sort of... tilts her head. And with a great shifting of earth and ripping noise, the offending plantlife rips itself out of the ground, floats over to one side, and then is allowed to drop (relatively) lightly to the ground. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' "That just means it can be a bigger surprise for everyone!" Kazuko offers helpfully, hurrying over to give Will a light pat on the back after that clumsy branch-breaking fall. Getting cut up by the brush isn't comfortable, though, and she's got the perfect tool for making sure that doesn't happen too much! "We can go swimming and eating and looking at... Swimsuits? Or whatever stuff after we're done."      Kazuko doesn't seem to really get what the appeal of swimsuits on their own is, does she? Swimming's the more fun part, anyway. That, and carving a path through the jungle. Thankfully, Mel is on the case, and she lets out an impressed "oooh" at the lifting and shunting of trees away.      The stench from up ahead hits her rather quickly, though, and the brunette wrinkles her nose before gesturing in the direction of the odd buzzing. "Eugh... Hey, does anyone hear that? I think it's coming from over... There?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <<Giventhe multiverse it might not be over kill needing to do such Rory.>> So She has a voice in her head and it's clearly talking back also the drone's here too still she's ready for trouble and seems to overall be in a very chipper mood. The Holidays were comming and next year looked like it was going to be amazing. She was in very good spirits and her Grandmother had actually noted she wanted to meet some of her multiveral friends as well. So who was she to argue, she had no idea just what her grand mother was planning however. "Come on Will let's have some fun darn it!. <<Hey don't leave me behind!>> Kotone jog right after Maaka bouncing along as she goes. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium sighs and lets Will go. They've got JUNGLING to do apparently. And so, with nothing but a bikini and a towel at her waist, the blonde huffs and crosses her arms, striding on with the group. ...Well, that's a lie. She doesn't have nothing. There's a wave of her wrists, and then suddenly, blue light flashes, revealing orbital bits revolving around her wrists and ankles.      Millium frowns at the vote of whether or not to destroy wildlife, and scoffs. "Are we really voting about this? C'mon!" She then STRIDES RIGHT TO THE FRONT OF THE GROUP, and takes point! And she starts walking right in the direction of the buzzing. "You guys are wimps! How bad could it possibly be! Come on!"      ...But then Mel makes a path. "...Oh. ...Ohhhhhh.... Huh. ..." Beat. "...I still don't think that was necessary, you guys!" No use crying over spilt milk though. She's made her opinion known. NOW FOR THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August just glances at Will and Millie killing each other and waits for them to finish so that they can keep going. He looks pretty disinterested in jungle adventures. He also doesn't have his Persona because he didn't bring a mirror because it wouldn't fit in his swimsuit. So, he just follows the rest, smiling briefly to himself at Dorian's comments. "Guys, it's a jungle, I'm pretty sure we can just tear through it. This part we want can't be that fragile." For now, he keeps going...and keeps an ear and an eye out. Be perceptive, don't get ambushed. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' ONWARD, INTO THE GREAT UNKNOWN.     Fortunately, the unknown is not so great when you have someone like Mel Brock just straight up pulling in-the-way trees out of the ground and tossing them aside. But that's the thing about the rainforest; there are so many trees that losing a couple here and there won't hurt it too much. In fact, it'll just give more room for new trees to grow! So don't feel too bad.     Will walks roughly side-by-side to Mel, stepping back whenever she feels the need to uproot decades-old timber. He does, after all, need to serve as their guide to where it is they're going. Fortunately, it seems to be a relatively straight shot. Or at least, that's what the thing Will's carrying around is telling him. Meanwhile, his improvised bug-zapper is working like a charm! The bright blue light is drawing in all manner of insects to *pop* and carbonize in the cloud of plasma contained within. Unfortunately, he's not the only one here carrying around blue light.     Milly's arms and legs are both radiating the stuff, too! And even more of it than Will's putting out! She becomes something of a magnet for insects: mosquitos the size of human heads and HORRIBLE CRAWLING CENTIPEDES and all kinds of flies. But those are just plain old bugs, right? Nothing to be worried about. ...There's a /whud/ from somewhere nearby. Followed by approximately twelve other /WHUDS/ from all around.     Will swallows hard as he looks up along the tree-line, only to see something around fifteen ENORMOUS BEETLES chittering curiously down at them. They're approximately the size of a human torso, and menace with enormous horns and razor-sharp pincers. But for now, they're docile. False alarm, right? "Uhhh," Will hisses, "Okay guys, easy. We don't mean no--" Mel uproots a particularly large tree and tosses it aside. ...The thing falls apart mid-toss as its rotted interior gives way. Suddenly the air comes alive with the sound of terrible buzzing. A black-and-yellow flying bug around the size of a fist bursts from the rotted wood that actually seems to resemble greying old paper, now that they look at it. Another joins it. Then another. THEN DOZENS, THEN DOZENS MORE.     They swarm up out of the tree in a great cloud of stinging bug. This somehow agitates the beetles, who start sweeping down with wings that sound like helicopters, and horns that apparently crackle with some kind of bioelectric field! ENCOUNTER: --STORM BEETLES X15 --WOODROT BEE SWARM     "AAAAH, BEES!" Will shrieks like some kind of twelve year old girl. His improvised bug-zapper turns right back into the plasma shooter in was meant to be! HE STARTS SHOOTING THE SWARM. THE TERRIBLE BEE-FILLED SWARM. They lose several of their number, but THERE ARE STILL SO MANY BEES. And then a beetle sideswipes his ankle and sends him face-first into the jungle floor. WHAT DO. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel Brock is quite happy to just walk along, stepping around trees and, occasionally, yanking them out of the ground to toss aside. The huge beetles are... slightly concerning, but not a terrible issue. No, the issue comes when she uproots what happens to be a hive filled with /fucking huge bees/.     "Oh, the /hell/ with this. EVERYONE GET CLOSE!"     The moment the bees start coming around, to attack, Mel pushes her hands out to either side. Around the entire group, there's a sudden flicker-shimmer, streamers of shimmering purple light like reflections off a nonexistent lake. They're only occasional, and very short lived, but they show up in the rough shape of a dome; when the bees come their way, it'll be like slamming into a solid wall. "Open fire! The bubble's one-way!" 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' At the sight of the massive swarm of GODDAMN BEES, Kazuko springs into action near where William's gone face-down with her naginata at the ready. Finally, she can show off the skills she's honed over years and years of constant training b fighting overgrown bees. At least she might look cool doing it! Channeling her ki into her weapon and her arms, Kazuko swings her weapon up with a broad flourish and a trail of yellow energy trailing behind it before...      ...A giant reflective barrier appears around the exploring group. She's not deterred too much, though, since she can't know for sure how far it's going to reach until the bees approach and trigger said reflective barrier, and Will's on the ground anyway. Thus, Kazuko keeps spinning her weapon not unlike a one-girl helicopter blade, threatening to batter or slash apart anything that gets too close! 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     BEEEEEEEEES     Alexis doesn't waste time opening up with her assault rifle. Shouldering it, she ignores the mosquitos and centipedes she'd otherwise be stomping with her boots, opening fire upon the hostile bees as if that'll do anything.     Mel might have the right idea, and Alexis drags Kotone to go get close to the Psi-Marshal, "Make it fast, Brock!" She calls out, before firing another burst at the bees when the bubble comes up. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     "...Wonderful," Dorian notes as they're suddenly set upon by giant bugs. "This is a sort of 'birds and bees' talk that I did not need." Though it's not like his armor would have been much protection anyway. Leather doesn't do much against stingers the length of a finger. Or electric beetles. William's suddenly assaulted and Dorian moves to act.     It's not fire, though. No, the more important thing here is to keep the swarms contained as much as possible. That way the others can pick them off without having to get into the main thick of them. He raises his hand up into the air, where it too crackles with electricity. It emits an orb that flies over the warm, still connected to his hand by a thin electric line. Once it's where he wants it, he pulls his hand down quickly, breaking the connecting electricity.     As he does this, a clear line of a boundary, a large circle, appears on the ground, outlined in electricity. It does nothing to the bugs initially. So long as they stay INSIDE the perimeter. If they try to leave the marked area? Shocks. So many shocks. And the farther away from the border they go, the stronger those shocks will be.     This may not actually work on the beetles; they're using electricity as-is. But the bees, hopefully, will be corralled. With any luck, one less bit of trouble.     As soon as he's done this, he will get nearer to Mel for bubbling. "Thank you," he says to Mel. He's got further assists in mind, but he wants to see how this turns out first. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' She knew there were going to be bugs. She didn't know they were going to be *THIS BIG* let alone quite this numerous. Needless to say, Yuna needs no encouragement at all to get in close to Mel so that she can benefit from the telekinetic sheriff's shield; the fact that William seems just as terrified of the bugs as Yuna herself is comes as a small note of relief in the midst of the entomological chaos. Also, Yuna is putting out a surprisingly intense volume of fire from the Matrix Divider, given that she has to consciously focus her energy into it for bigger blasts and she's packing roughly a shotgun shell's worth of destructive force into each shot - and she's actually squeezing off a couple of shots per second. Her *accuracy* is nothing to write home about, but hey - with that many bugs, she has to hit something more often than she doesn't, right? 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa came for a party and now there's a freaking random group of very large beetles coming for them.. THen there are bees and not the sort of bees that give cryptic bits of lore. the swimsuit clad Kotone zips up her suit for the little protection it will give her and the bees are more of a concerne now. she's not made of flesh and right now she's very happy about this. She's dragged without any complaint as she gets close to Mel Brock thanks to Maaka. "Bees did it seriously have to be bees?!" <<Maaka? Rory this isn't GOING WELL AT ALL!>> 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White would frown if she could. The Arachnoid Morph is incapable of this though, and her Beta isn't quite as good at managing expressions and inflection anyways!     But.     Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.     And ELECTRIC BEETLES.     Fascinating. Rory White's momentarily frozen with interest, sensors on overdrive recording every detail of the things' movements. She's gained a recent fascination with Biomimicry, so... "Samples of these creatures would be appreciated!" The Arachnoid chimes simply...     ... Then all of those weapon systems it sports engage. The weapon barrels swivel and track, and the air's suddenly full of railgun fire! Howling projectiles, just shards of metal. Nothing lasery, because Rory White does NOT wish to start a forest fire on top of what's ALREADY going on...     "Adding 'bee swarms' to reasons against uprooting wildlife unnecessarily in the future!" She adds a moment later amidst the gunfire.     The singsong, dismissive tone... might be her way of saying 'told you so...' 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"      How bad could it be huh?      Millium screams like a little girl and immediately dives aside as a vicious beetle horn bursts through the space in air that her head was occupying only moments previously. She hits the ground, and THEN had to roll aside to avoid the BEE SWARM. "This is not cool! I knew we shouldn't have messed with the jungle! I knew it! And I said so! My CHASER'S INSTINCTS were telling me! But noooo-ACK!" And then Millium dives aside again to avoid another oversized beetle horn. "Damn it!" The Chaser rolls to her feet and spreads her arms out. The blue glow around her wrists radiates even more, which probably draws attention even more to her person. But then her wrist orbitals merge together, forming into a... tachi? Yes, that's a sheathed katana of some sort. "SERAPH Blade Mode: Browsing technique archives...searching...searching...technique found." She mutters almost robotically before she grabs the weapon and holds it to one side, while spreading her feet to take a stance. Her hand hovers over the handle of the glowing blue blade of hardlight, and she closes her eyes.      "......."      And she does nothing else. She just stands there, hand hovering over the handle of a sheathed tachi, waiting for the perfect moment as her enemies draw nearer and nearer. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Bugs. Many bugs. Bees. They're coming. There is a solution to insects, though. Fire. But Augut doesn't have a reflective surface. And he can't actually use eyes yet, or hasn't tried. So, there's a solution: use Rory. He glances into her chassis, looking until he sees 'himself'. The self he'll bring out. "PERSONA!" The Tin Soldier rises, miming a roar as August ducks under the shield. And it moves forward, towards the swarm and the beetles, rushing at them. It's pretty tanky! And then, it begins spraying fire out of its gun leg, trying to engulf the insects. It might grab the trees, too, but that's fine, right? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' BEEEEES And beetles.     Fortunately for EVERYONE INVOLVED, Mel Brock is some kind of walking psychic miracle woman. The swarm of bees, not knowing any better, flies right into the psychic shell like birds might fly into the windows of a house. They don't splatter there, but only because they've got some kind of amazing exoskeleton and also they're small enough and moving slowly enough that their own momentum doesn instantly kill them, but Mel achieves the desired effect. She effectively insulates the crew from being stung to death. Unfortunately, the beetles are both substantially larger and significantly faster. She feels the impact when they plough their horns into her barrier. It's approximately enough to skewer right through something the size of an average oxen. Worryingly, the beetles themselves don't seem to bothered by it. Apparently their shells are made out of something pretty powerful.     That doesn't save one from being straight up skewered by Kazuko's naginata. It catches one in its relatively more fragile underbelly, cleaving it into a messy husk of bisected bug. Another few go down when Rory, Maaka and Yuna all open fire. Their shells are tough, but apparently not tough enough to stop /bullets./ After all, electrically charged and bizarrely fast though they may be, they are still just beetles.     That same charge protects them from Dorian's spell, however. The things' shells crackle and pop as the current sweeps harmlessly around them, and STRAIGHT INTO THE BEE SWARM. Those poor suckers are then set on fire by August's terrible fire-starting ways. Between the lightning and the fire, the bees are all but decimated. No longer a swarm, the survivors start buzzing off into the woods, presumably in the hopes of finding another hive somewhere.     There are still beetles, however! One sweeps by just in front of Milly's guard. ITS FATE IS ALMOST CERTAINLY SEALED. But the others seems to be drawing away, and falling into... some kind of formation. A hexagonal pattern. One that somehow starts CRACKLING WITH ELECTRICITY. Electricity that coalesces into an arc, that leaps down and SLAMS into Mel's shield! CAN IT BLOCK LIGHTNING!? If it can't, then the people inside had BETTER LOOK OUT.     Meanwhile, Will groans from his place on the forest floor. He makes his wobbly legs stand up, suddenly glad that his FULL BODY SWIMSUIT provided ADEQUATE PROTECTION against the creepy-crawlies down there. He's about to aim when ~something~ beeps nearby. Will blinks. It beeps again. He stares down at his little radar device, and cocks his head when he realizes the dot they're chasing has begun... shaking. And so is the ground. There's the sound of bird-wings flapping away all around as the earth starts trembling even more. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Somewhere in the middle of the island, that vaguely regularly-shaped structure appears to be... moving. Vines snap and split as the thing lifts up off the ground. Far below, an enormous, pale-pink appendage snakes out from a crevasse in the hull. Another moves out to join it, then another, then another, until eight in all squirm through the jungle and force the structure /UP./ A couple eyestalks poke out from two more cracks. Beady black eyes blink at the forest fire just starting to rage in front of it. Huge claws snap frantically at the air. Massive tentacle-y legs scramble forward, stirring up dust and shattering trees and doing ALL KINDS OF TERRIBLE THINGS as what looks like an ENORMOUS HERMIT CRAB-SLASH-OCTOPUS starts beelining down the shortest path towards the sea. The shortest path, incidentally, is 'where everyone else is at.' 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                             --==ENEMY ADDED==--                                                      COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABPTOPUS                                           STRIKE ITS WEAKPOINT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE                                 BUT FIRST YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GET OUT OF ITS WAY               

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     A COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABTOPUS     Fuck the bonus. Maaka wordlessly pulls out her Matter Manipulator the second she hears that thing come, and begins to frantically equip and unequip things. In the blink of an eye, she has her armor equip and form onto her body, like some sort of magical girl transformation with cyborgs. Her helmet isn't even on when she has to fucking BAIL before the hermit crab thing hits her, and she grabs Kotone by the waist.     She fires her grapple gun, and aims for the branches to get them out of the line of fire. Sorry everyone else, Kotone's her highest priority!     As she and Kotone grapple onto the branches, Maaka pulls her rifle and opens fire upon it, mostly a token effort to see if bullets even affect this thing. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Dorian isn't going to chance that Mel's shield can't block the electricity of the beetles' team-up attack. No, he's taking some proactive measures! He casts a Barrier over as many people as he can. It's not just a quick casting, either. He's sustaining the Barrier as long as the electricity continues. Or until he runs out of immediate mana and has to draw more, whichever comes first.     Unfortunately it leaves him little ability to do much else except feed that Barrier. Even when the giant hermit crabtopus comes their way. Oh, he notices it. But he's feeding mana into a Barrier, he can't really stop to look at the moment. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      One poor beetle dives right into Millium's zone of control...      SCHWING      It flies by either side of her, sliced into two with surgical precision. Once it hit the ground, deader than dead could be, the blonde girl opens her blue eyes and sighs. "...Sorry." And then her weapon is sheathed and dispersed. ...JUST IN TIME FOR SOMETHING ELSE TO HAPPEN.      "............"      "........"      "...."      Tick...tock....tick....tock.      "THIS IS THE WORST VACATION EVEEEEEEEER!" Millium cries dramatically, her orbital bracelets flaring to life once again as she took straight to the air in flight. "I JUST WANTED TO LOUNGE ON THE BEACH AND BE FED MANGO SLICES BY HOT GUYS IN SPEEDOS!" She's got her priorities straight, okay?      Well. She can't cut that. Not efficiently. SO THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR LASERS! Millium sighs and flies up...up...uppppp. And then thrusts an arm downward. Her two wrist orbitals break off and then reconfigure into a number of bits. All of them glow brightly before letting loose swarms of curving, weaving, azure laser beams onto the thing.      "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GIANT ENEMY CRAB! MY VACATION'S IN JEOPARDY!" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa has some gear in her maniplator but she didn't come with a full combat load she came expecting a beach party and a bit of a silly treasure hunt. She forgot this is this multiverse and there tends to be actual treasure nad monsters involved. She's grabbed by maaka with a cry of suprise as she's pulled away from Mel anf the other. "Maaka what are you doing!?" IT will take the cyborg a moment to get her maniplator out and summon her SMG from it, she's had what would be a funn day ruined by monsters. She is not a happy camper at all and she too opens fire on the grab thing. "THIS WAS SUPOSED TO BE A FUN DAY OFF YOU RENAGADE SEA FOOD BUFFET!" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Wait, the swarm of bugs is organizing into -- "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!!" Yuna yells at the top of her lungs, and probably at a higher pitch than she really needs to. The Matrix Divider vanishes - she needs both hands for it - and a large kite shield materializes on her left arm; she quickly does the best she can to drive the point of her shield into the ground, so that when the lightning presumably hits the Wall of the Guardian Star (instead of, say, herself or Mel), it'll be conducted into the ground instead of going through either of them. Meanwhile, COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABTOPUS has come out of hiding and is closing in rapidly on the group. Apart from whatever bombardment the ship is about to deliver upon it, Jiina, Marina, and Erina take to the air, letting the cannonfire outrun them - but not by much. If that thing is as big as sensors and other evidence say, then it's going to take something bigger than human-size to stop it - or at least to hold it still long enough for surgical assaults on the monster's weak points (assuming of course that it has those). And once the bugs' lightning attack has subsided, Yuna dismisses her shield and bolts in the vague direction of the shore, only so that she and Elner can rendezvous with the rest of the Matrix of Light that much sooner. "This should do," Elner states at a certain point. Yuna just nods, tries to take a deep breath, and yells,             "LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT *UP*!!! EL-LINE!!" Cue a massive pillar of light engulfing Yuna, Elner, and the three flying androids; their silhouettes are visible only briefly before the light intensifies to the point that even their shadows are obscured. Then the light starts to subside again, and the Matrix Figure, El-Line is revealed, not standing but hovering over the forest. Give Yuna a moment before she opens fire, though. The bombardment *she* was dishing out to the swarming bugs, combined with a desperation-rush invocation of her kite shield, punctuated by summoning the Matrix Figure, has left her energies at pretty low ebb. She's not out of the fight, just needs a few moments to get herself back together. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Oh shit, the beetles are coming through. ...wait, but now the bees are dead, that's goo- oh shit, lightning.     OH SHIT, THE GROUND IS SHAKING AND THERE'S A MASSIVE CRAB COMING.     Mel could conceivably deal with it... if she pulled off her limiter and went to town. Or maybe if this entire group were to focus exclusively on it. But the former is a last resort, and the latter is just not possible at the moment. All the PsiMarshal can really do is maintain the bubble in case anything ELSE comes after them... as they get the hell out of the way of a crab that's about to become the target of future artillery. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' One down, too many more to go! At least, that's what Kazuko thinks until she notices there's a lot of hole-filled and charred husks surrounding that protective bubble. Before she can celebrate, though, there's a new problem rearing its ugly head!      Or many heads, in the case of the electricity-shooting beetles. Or a figurative head, in the form of the ground suddenly shaking like crazy. She can't really do much about either without some sort of crazy training or superweapons, though.      What she can, do, however, is get August out of the way through the tried and true technique of LIFT WITH THE LEGS, NOT THE BACK. "Hold on tight!" She warns, and then Kazuko books it! She darts around the forest expertly as if she was a natural, using both the cleared path and weaving between still-standing trees. Just in time, too, as that bigass crabtopus pops out of the ground, threatening to tear everyone a new everything in its path!      "Gyah! How are we supposed to even fight that thing?!" Kazuko's brave, sure, but even she's not so stupid as to try hitting something /that/ size with her bladed spear. She continue runing, trying to tail it and look for weak points along its flanks as she runs alongside the beast in case August can spot a weak point to direct them towards. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' THOSE BEETLES ARE TAKING FORMATION TO CONJURE HUGE ARCS?! Rory White's stunned. Not from the electricity, because her systems are all optical. The insanely ionized air poses no threat to the Arachnoid, but it DOES interfere with her radio link. Signal quality drops and the Arachnoid briefly falls into autonomous mode...     Which means that it continues shooting while circle-strifing, and ends up taking a BOLT TO THE FACE! ... Well..... thorax? Whatever, the center of mass is struck and sizzles. The Arachnoid staggers and stumbles. But in about five seconds the connection's re-established!     The machine wobbles to its feet on straining servos, self-repair nanites already hard at work to diagnose and repair damage to the higher-priority systems.     The machine's smoking weirdly and throwing off sparks, but Rory's jammed robot continues shooting the beetles with abandon! 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Luckily, the bugs all die pretty easily. Unluckily, the ground is shaking. August immediately moves to stable his feet...and then moves to stare at the giant enemy crabtopus. And then, he glances at Will. There is /hate/ in his eyes. "Fuck you, Will." And then he's absconded with by Kazuko! This causes him to go 'wait what' for a moment before he focuses everything on the Tin Soldier...which rushes forward to set the Crabtopus on fire. Over. And over. And over. And over. Just burn it to death. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABTOPUS is on the run! It skitters across the ground like... Well, like some kind of enormous betentacled crab-octopus-thing that's wearing half of what looks to be a cargo ship for a shell. It has good reason to be on the run, though, because there are THINGS SHOOTING AT IT. Many, many things. The thing lets out a tremendous shriek as bullets smash into its fleshy, tendrilly mass. Blue, coppery blood drips from the thing's flesh. Apparently it's cold-blooded! AND, mercifully, that blood isn't also acid, judging by how nothing seems to be burning in its wake.     But it is a very large crabtopus, after all, and a few bullets aren't going to do much to dissuade it from GETTING THE HECK BACK TO SEA. What might, however, are the scything blue beams raking across its path from above. One slices clean through a tentacle-tip, sending the severed, sucker-puckered thing writhing and flopping around somewhere deep in the woods. The thing writhes briefly, as if terribly confused and not at all willing to brave that network of lasers again. This leaves August and Kazuko plenty of time to go for its flanks. The tentacles are enormous in size, as is normal for a creature that wears a boat for a mobile-home. But that also means there's plenty of room to stab. Kazuko's glaive rams hard into its tendrils, severing one almost right at its midpoint. August sets the rest on fire, which... Has predictable effects. The world suddenly smells delicious to him. He is, after all, basically cooking an octopus alive. Which is approximately when -something- makes a tremendous THOOM-like noise from offshore.     Yuna would get a close-up look as they race by. Four enormous, vermilion bolts sail through the air, followed closely by dozens of thin, /bending/ laser-beam arcs. The crabtopus shrieks again, lifting its shell-armored claws to protect its delicate underbody. Briefly immobilized by Millium's display, the bombardment strikes it dead-on. The beast screams as its flesh is flash-cooked, turning a bright, delectable orange-pink.     It flails around, evidently in TREMENDOUS pain from being shot and burnt and stabbed at by all these awful people. Between a wayward tentacle (that slaps right into Mel's shield!) and Rory's continued gunfire, however, the beetles are again halfed in number, leaving just three left to try and continue the fight. They're a little more intelligent than that, though, and quickly vanish into the woods after their apoid fellows. At least that's one threat dealt with!     A curious thing seems to happen, then. The enormous crabtopus looks up and sees Yuna's tremendous, glowing form and somehow interprets this... strangely. Very strangely. The crabtopus squirms and skitters, pressing its tentacles up against its own shell before suddenly SHUCKING itself free. It... It looks like a crab up top, but then entirely tentacular at the bottom. The massive half-ship it was carrying sloughs off and smashes into the forest below as the crabtopus skitters behind it and sort of... nudges it forward. ... It might think Yuna is some kind of bigger crab. Because it's apparently cowering behind its shell-slash-peace-offering. ...Huh. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     A tentacle slams into Mel's barrier.     That was way, way more than she was braced for.     The barrier almost instantly winks out of existence, as most of the force in it somehow transfers over directly to Mel herself. The blow knocks her flying off to one side, going a good long way before slamming right into a tree. WHAM. A second later, she slides down to land on the ground, uttering a groan of pain... that soon transforms into quiet, muttered profanity.     She does manage to look up just in time to see the peace offering, though. A few seconds of uncomprehending silence are followed by a short, sharp snort of amusement - that turns almost immediately into another groan of pain. "Ohhh, fuck I'm gonna be feeling that in the morning." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, the thing retreats, and the Tin Soldier stops firing, for two reasons. One, it's a retreating beast. The other, both it AND August are being flailed at. August is whumped and bruised around and possibly knocked out of Kazuko's grasp if she's not strong or fast enough, and the Tin Soldier mimes (completely silently) a wumph backwards into a tree, pretending to be beaten and bruised and unconscious. And then it fades away. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Alexis watches the CRABTOPUS run...toward the sea.     "...huh." She leaps down from the branches, before she goes off to help Mel up. "You okay, Marshal?" She offers a hand, before she tries to check over Mel while dusting the cop off.     As she sees the peace offering, she tilts her head, looking confused before she realizes it's afraid. "...huh, I actually feel bad for that thing now." she says, frowning. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     "''Kaffas''," Dorian finally swears, once he can concentrate on more than keeping up a Barrier. When the remainder of the beetles skitter away, finally he turns to face this new threat. His tone full of false lightness, he notes, "Well, ''I'' won't be eating seafood for a while after this..." He seems to share Kotone's opinion about this situation, from the sound of it.     However, he is smart enough not to attack it himself when... it cowers? He blinks. "...Well, that's the last thing I expected," he admits. Mind, he's not depending solely on this sudden show of altruism by an animal that apparently wanted to EAT THEM just a moment ago. So he casts his Barrier again, trying to encompass as many of them in it as possible. This isn't a sustained Barrier, but it should keep whoever managed to get the benefit of it reasonably safe long enough to figure out what in Andraste's name is going on.     He winces in Mel's direction as she's slapped aside, and nods as Maaka moves to go and try to tend to her. A second too late with the Barrier, it seems. Unfortunately there's little Dorian himself can actually do, because he's not exactly a spirit mage. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh.      Ohhhhh.      ...Oops.      Millium suddenly feels awfully bad now.      After surveying the battlefield, she starts descending down to land atop the peace offering, peering down at the cowering crab thing. "Um....Excuse me? Hello!" She smiles sweetly and waves down at it. "We're...We're really sorry for messing up your home and everything! We just kinda wanted to have a simple vacation and there was this thing one of us-"      Will is glanced at pointedly.      "-wanted to find in the jungle... We didn't mean to cause all this trouble!" And she holds out a hand, not expecting it to be taken, because GIANT ENEMY CRAB, but it's a gesture of trust nonetheless. "So you don't have to leave or run away. We'll just look for what we need, and leave you alone...okay?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' And just as suddenly as the Colossal Crabtopus emerged, it ... surrenders. Apparently. At least, that's the only explanation Yuna can come up with for what just happened. She carefully maneuvers El-Line back down to the ground - not standing, but on one knee, as if to accept the peace offering. "We don't need to take all of your shell-home," Yuna comments as gently as she can. "We need one thing from inside it, and then you can have it back; we just didn't want to get eaten or trampled or anything when you came out of hiding like that." She has a distinct doubt that the crabtopus can understand what she's saying, but sometimes it's the thought that counts. For now, she's hoping somebody who didn't summon a giant robot can get into the ship, find the thing they're looking for, and get out so that they can all return to the ship and then go home. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa will darn well be having sea food after this, she's not going to let this thing ruin one of her loves after all. Kotone however does stop shooting as she looks at the thing as it's trying to make a peace offering to Yuna? Okay this thing is smarter than she though and now she's feeling some level of remorse for opening fire she lowers her weapon and banishes it into the manilator and now she looks a bit concerned about tthe whole thing. She really went off and It seems she intend sto spare the thing as well. The thing's lost a tentacle maybe they should help heal the thing. "Err what are we going to do now?" 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Success! Sort of. At first, anyway, as Kazuko's delicate balancing act keeps August and herself mostly safe while she still somehow finds opportunities to lash out at the tendrils. After nearly taking out one of the tendrils, though, her confidence gets the better of her, and some of those remaining tendrils catch both her and her passenger in its wild swings!      The best Kazuko can do at that point is try to minimize the damage to the Persona-user, at least, twisting and turning to keep him from getting too banged up even as she gets sent skidding out from under him herself in a rather undignified position.      Luckily, the giant beast doesn't seem too willing to continue the fight by the time she actually snaps out of her daze, and the martial artist squints slightly at what appears to be the ship-shell the craptopus had been using. "Ergh... D-did we get it? Is that the Solano... Thingy we're looking for then?" She asks with a pained wince while rubbing the bruises on her arms and sides. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Colossal Crabtopi are apparently either smarter than they look, or have some very... interesting survival instincts. The thing stares in parallel at both Yuna and Millium- an eyestalk each- as they try to communicate with it. Communicate. With a giant crab octopus thing. ...     Right, well. The Crabtopus seems to at least understand that it's not being shot at anymore and produces massive, gurgling noise. It sort of squats in place and begins sweeping its tentacles against the forest floor. Maybe it's trying to soothe its burns with the local mud?     Will stares long and hard at the enormous thing as it wriggles something fierce. Already its wounds seem to be closing, if the lack of blood is any indication. He glances back at Mel and winces-- but her shield managed to protect him, at least, so that's good, right? RIGHT!? ... ...She and August will probably be fine.     The Chaser heaves his backpack over his shoulder and removes what looks like a grappling hook from inside. He points it at the top-end of the boat-home and rappels up towards its top-end "Uh, well," he coughs into his radio, "I'll start from the top if you guys want to look down below. This thing's pretty big though, so... Be careful, I guess? Heaven only knows what else is in here." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel takes a step or two forward with a quiet grunt of pain, then gives herself a little shake - and grunts again. "Nnh. Okay. Okay, I'm. I should be fine. As long as I don't have to do anything too strenuous. Get back to the ship, hop in the Chaser, take a ride out to Njorun. I'll be fine." Is she trying to convince everyone else, or just herself?     Either way, the Marshal takes her longcoat off and tosses it towards the ground; it stops just above, fluttering and flattening out, and then she... /almost/ steps onto it.     That stops when she realizes how muddy her boots are. "...damn."     So instead, she takes a look around, spots a felled tree from all that octoflailing, and uses that instead. Right up into the ship, to somewhere she can just step off casually and get walking. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Fair enough." Alexis says, before she slips Mel some sort of nanomed capsule. "Pop that, should help speed up the healing process a bit while you're on the way home." She says, throwing a thumbs up before she heads closer to the beach. She'll pass on going inside the big shell house thing, instead opting to matter manipulate herself a beach towel, a cooler with drinks (and lunch), a beach umbrella, and some sunglasses, going back to her swimsuit finally as she lays down her rifle.     Then...she flops unceremoniously onto the towel. By god has she needed a chance to kick back, and she's taking it. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' El-Line just stays 'parked' right where it is. Yuna's not sure if she'll need to be ready to react to anything else, and she'd rather keep the Matrix Figure on standby for now, just in case. Plus, once the others are done looking around inside the 'ship,' she kind of wants to give it back to the Crabtopus. Ships this size are probably hard to come by - and she'd rather let the beast keep using this same shipwreck for a shell, rather than wrecking an entirely DIFFERENT ship to use as its new 'mobile home'. She's also still kind of rattled about the giant insects that attacked them. They won't be getting at her inside El-Line's cockpit, though. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It is indeed pretty big in here! Mel (and anyone else who'd care to go up and look) would find that the Crabtopus had actually done quite a bit of damage to the thing's interior in the years since it's moved in and migrated to this particular island. Where the crab's own softer shell had squeezed in, the metal has curled and twisted in such a way that would make just climbing in just a bit hazardous. Fortunately, Mel avoids this by dint of 'flying.'     She lands in what appears to be an enormous cargo hold. Containers are strewn about and torn open, their contents all but spilling out all over the deck. Several are held quite firmly in place, however, by enormous latches. Much of what litters the floor is trash, by this point. Broken glass and broken machines that, in their present state, are completely unidentifiable. The contents of the upright and not-wrecked containers may, however, be salvagable if an enterprising explorer wants to give that a pry. But there's something at the far back of the vessel that might catch someone's eye. A jet black case outright bolted to the ship's superstructure. Something that someone definitely didn't want moved. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium does not enter the ship.      She stays outside to keep GIANT ENEMY CRAB company.      She may or may not be trying to get it to wiggle it's tentacles to some kind of dance routine.      Maybe. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' After a few more moments of resting and getting the stars out of her vision, Kazuko's back on her feet and moving along with the grounded group to explore the interior of the boat-shell. She still has her naginata on her, but she's a little more wary of poking anything with it while her head still feels like it's half-swimming.      Well, unless she needs to push stuff aside with it to get through without risking tetanus or some other horrible metal-cut-based disease. Sadly, she doesn't get to fly like her more lucky companions, but that just means she can focus on poking around from below! She's just probably not going to get to that case before anyone else does. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' MEANWHILE, MILLY IS TRYING TO MAKE A CRABTOPUS DANCE. It sort of stares at her with an eyestalk, though the other is quite firmly fixed on the El Line. Its tentacles wiggle. Whether that's at all rhythmic is completely up to Milly's tremendous imagination. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Not being able to fly either, Dorian figures it's wiser to stay outside the ship. Besides that, he's got fire and electricity, two of the things that water-based creatures should REALLY BLOODY HATE, in great supply in case the thing decides to get salty at them again for whatever reason.     He can't help but snort a long, ridiculous laugh at Millium's attempt to get the octopus to do a little dance. "I don't think it's classically trained in the arts, my dear," he cautions. He may or may not be serious. Knowing Dorian, probably not. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      OKAY.      That's a start!      Millium brings up a blue HUD from one of her wrist orbitals and then hits a few buttons... What follows is some kind of happy, upbeat music track that starts playing. And she floats in the air and spins and swerves, wiggling her arms and legs as if trying to show the thing what to do.      ...Welp. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel Brock is presented with a solidly bolted-on (or possibly even welded on, she's not sure) case that she wants to take with her.     So Mel Brock employs the solution she always uses in times like these.     She reaches out with her mind and rips away with the kind of telekinetic force that even something like this is probably not designed to deal with. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Kazuko risks the deadly tetanus fields down below. This far down, amongst all the shattered and broken bits of Ancient technology, she gets an up-close and personal look at just what this ship was carrying. Machines, yes, but also what look like scientific samples, each one marked with a different label. It looks like this vessel might have been transporting /something/ under study from labs in this neck of the woods to... somewhere else? Most of the intact vials are filled with what is now almost assuredly dead sea-life. The rest contain some kind of strange, quiescent black dust and are contained in /especially/ sealed cases. Still transparent. Someone wanted to keep an eye on the contents, apparently.     Near the back of the vessel, Mel does exactly what Mel does. She reaches her mind around the secured container and gives it a tug strong enough to displace a pickup truck. The metal screams, buckles and comes away, leaving her with a levitating, but still very much sealed black case... Though it's not like she can't get /that/ off either. MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE. Milly is... Playing an upbeat, pop-y dance number at a colossal crabtopus. It continues to stare at her with that big, black eye. Nothing seems to happen. ...At first.     And then its skin starts to change color. But not in a particularly threatening manner. No, it's darkened its undamaged sections of skin to a near-black hue, and sends streaks and patterns of color dancing across its body. Apparently to the rhythm of the music.     It's not /DANCE/ per se, but music does have a way of soothing the savage beast! Or at least teaching it interesting new camoflage patterns. It's as if Milly has her very own audio visualizer, in COLOSSAL CRABTOPUS FORM. Will rappels down the side of the ship just in time to see it. He stares long and hard and then shakes his head at the wonder of it all. "Golly. Only you'd be able to pull something like that off, huh?" (Yes, Will says golly. He's old fashioned like that.) MEANWHILE^2, out at the beach, Maaka is enjoying some well-deserved time off.     It's nice out here. The waves provide soothing background noise to the stirring wind and warm, late-afternoon sunlight. Will wasn't lying, at the very least. This is the kind of island that you could happily spend your summers on. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August has been, for the past few minutes, sitting somewhere nearby. Suffering. He's not climbing up a ship right now. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel steps out to the edge of the half-ship, the box floating with her... then realizes that she's let the tree she used to get here, drop all the way to the ground. Crap.     Approximately five seconds later, Mel is riding the black box down like an elevator. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Damn tetanus fields and their bountiful harvests. Kazuko wades through them bravely, cursing her decision to wear shorts almost all the goddamn time and relieved at her decision to wear higher socks most of the time in turn. Spotting those machines and oddly-labeled samples, the martial artist pores through these things without touching them directly, although she does give one of the machines a light nudge with her weapon's flat end. She doesn't leave the relative safety of the immediate area, though, opting to stay there instead of wading through the tetanus fields once more. Not until she knows what to do with these things first! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Hey, guild lady. Bunch of broken stuff in here that's probably ancient super-tech. Figure you'd want this. Also think I found what we're looking for." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "I found uh... A thing too." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent has music filtering in from her radio... -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "There's a bunch of old print-out maps in here-- Milly what're you doing" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Teaching Mr. Crab how to dance!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "...Uh. Huh." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "W-well, uh. Do you know any dances that involve eight... TEN limbs?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "I can improvise!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "I can't believe I'm hearing this conversation." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "What? Giant Enemy Crabs can dance too!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "...Is this really happening right now?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Ma'am, you have no idea how often I ask myself that question." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Will. Got something for you." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Huh? Oh, right! I'm outside." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Sorry, the Crabtopus is doing... things." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Whoa... There's some weird stuff down here. Hmm." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Lots of tiny glass bottles, too... Should I bring any of this stuff out?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Uh." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "What... Kind of stuff?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Hey Guild Girl, y'all want any glass vials full of... stuff?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "The name's Claire, asshole. And yes, hand them over." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Heeeeey, don't be rude!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Mm... There's some machines, some labeled things, some... Other closed up things with black stuff in them." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock suddenly very tense. "What kind of black stuff." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Dunno! I can try to open one up, but... That's not a good idea, is it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Is it powder." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Think it might be gunpowder or something?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Because if it is powder." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "We are taking this black box, we are getting off this island, we are reporting our findings to the Chief and we are asking him if he has any way to /erase it from the map/." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "We are not, under any circumstances, at any time, giving any of the powder to anyone. Ever." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka suddenly upright, "Is this what I think it is?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "So /is it powder/?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "What the fuck is powder?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami confused noise "I don't get it. Um..." Clink "It's powdery." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Kohler." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "The mountain." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "What are you people so on edge about?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Powder... That black stuff. The stuff in the mountain, with the zombies." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Oh /fuck/." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "...Nanozombie powder?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Mel is asking about the contents of the vials Kazuko found. I'm ..." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Jesus christ." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Yeah, we're leaving." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "..... Do you need me to blow things up with El-Line?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "No. I want to see if Chief knows a way to sterilize this shit." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "So, what are we doing with the crab? Is Argent adopting it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "...Nanozombies?" Taktaktaktaktak. "...Hm. I see." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Blowing it up might just scatter it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Good point" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Bury it at sea?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Though the crab isn't a nano-zombie." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "...Nanomachines? I see." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "The crab also isn't human." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Can I keep it? Can I? Can I? It's so cute!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "...what the hell am I even- CHIEF. Chief, do you know how we safely dispose of this stuff?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Argent, do you even know how to fucking take care of a crabtopus?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Uhhhhhhhh...." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, ".....No?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "But still!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "...Mmn. It's possible, but as you've all said, just blowing it up would scatter it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "I'll just put it in a pool!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "Is it active?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "No, otherwise there would be a LOT of screaming." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "i'm outside, and I'm packing my stuff up as we speak." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Negative. From what Kawakami said, it's sealed." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Yeah, it's super closed up. I think. Er... I shouldn't test it, should I?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "No. No no no no /no/." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Kazuko, /get out of there./" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "...Can Rory examine it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "Alright, good. If it's not active, we can move it onto shore and glass it with the plasma artillery. -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "As you'd expect, I'm not letting that stuff get anywhere near my ship." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "I want a sample." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Okay, I'm coming out! Just give me a sec... There's a lot of these machines and glass th-eh? Oh, a sample..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "What will you do with it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Refused." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Vetoed." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Hold on. What will you do with it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "The guild will analyze it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "For?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "What are you going to do after you analyze it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "For? I don't know what the R&D Division does with all of our finds. Most of the time they reverse engineer discovered tech." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Not this tech. We can't let anybody touch this shit." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "No, hold up." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Could they discover a cure?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "I'm sorry, but I don't know you or your guild. I'm sure you're a nice person yourself, I'm sure there are people in your guild that are perfectly good and trustworthy. But if there's even one person in there who might think 'Hmm, I can make a weapon out of this', that's one too many." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "It's possible." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Well, we can't just glass it, if there's someone who can discover a cure. If all we do is reactionary destroy it, we don't fucking stop it from killing people." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Claire, this is kind of... This stuff isn't good. It gets into people." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White speaks up. "The safe way to dispose of inactive nanite swarms is... to use a disassembler swarm. Assuming that it remains inactive the entire time." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "But without a sample, whatever this nanozombie thing is; is going to remain a total mystery. Is that okay with you people?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "......Nn." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "We saw this shit bring dead bodies back to life to attack us. We have strong indications that it can infect living people." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "...I feel we might want to see what this is." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "And see if we can cure it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock growls. "You- I-" Deep breath. -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Otherwise no one's going to get saved!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Mel-- if there's a chance for a cure..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami sitting noise -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Claire. I don't know your last name but pretend I said your last name too, because this is serious." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Claire." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Can you give me your word. You, personally, as a person. That you will do WHATEVER YOU CAN to make sure this doesn't turn into a horrifying tragedy six months from now?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "Nanites can also be held at bay with magnetic containments used for antimatter. It would be an endeavor, but not infeasible. However I am EXTREMELY wary of this. If it is the 'zombie' swarm, then it is self-replicating and adaptive. That makes it BEYOND dangerous." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "I'll do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "...one sample. One, /very small/, sample." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "And if six months from now, we have to blast apart reanimated corpses? I'm making you tell their families what happened." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "And twenty times an amount of a guardian swarm to stop it in an emergency." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Claire, I trust you, but... Look. This stuff-- it... it got my mom." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "That's good enough." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "So please, be careful with it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Okay?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "Pauwel. It's not in my job description to mishandle these things." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "As for you, Brock, was your name? If, and I say /if/ that happens? I'll personally inform all of those families. But that's not going to happen." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Marshal Mel Brock. Officer of the law. Protect and serve, all that shit. I'm sorry if I ruffled any feathers, but I take that pretty seriously." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "I shall provide the resources to avert and contain it. As is i said before, the best defense against a nanite outbreak is a much larger swarm of guardian nanites. Though another layer of defense would be needed. Studies must take place in a chamber that can be magnetically sealed and... preferably have nowhere to spread to." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "Except maybe the sun." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "Your seriousness is noted. I'm not taking this lightly either. I still want a sample." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kotone Yamakawa says, "If I get one hint of it being weaponized I'm coming for the guild." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Makes two of us." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kotone Yamakawa says, "I seen what out of control nanotech can do to a world. Ask rory about her earth." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "And this is the part where I hope to god that my usual luck doesn't strike." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "I once had a routine bust at a spaceport. Routine bust. Perfectly normal. Guy smuggling drugs across sector borders." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "End of the day, half the spaceport was leveled." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White very simply, "Nanite swarms are designed with severe limitations for a very good reason." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Please don't let this turn out like that." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "That smuggler was a fool then. Proper procedure and quarantine will be followed. The Chaser Guild takes things like this very seriously." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "It wasn't the smuggler being a fool, it- well alright, that's what /started/ it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "But then it turned into this great big cascading storm of bad going to worse with the most ridiculous strokes of bad luck possible." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "That's my luck." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Nanotech isn't inherently bad, but nanomachines designed to turn people into zombies ...." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "... Is." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "Transhuman nanotechnology... cannot self-replicate, cannot be organized beyond certain quantities thresholds and are incapable of autonomous behavior of any sort. The first of these limitations we have NO desire to overcome, after what the TITANS did with them..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire scoffs, "Your luck is a fascinating thing then." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Yeah, and I have to live with it." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, Yuna is kind of bobbing her head along with Millium's song ... up until Kazuko mentions finding some vials of 'black stuff' which is later described, under Mel's careful questioning, as 'powdery'. The word 'zombies' comes up later. Yuna stops bobbing her head, or in fact doing much of anything, when the connection is made. Zombies of any kind are terrifyingly bad news, and if she could be sure of El-Line's firepower obliterating the nanomachines (if that's what they are) without scattering the stuff instead, she'd definitely be happy to do that once everyone else is out of harm's way. Other than that, though, this suddenly seems like a really bad place to relax, swim, and soak up some sun. She'd rather get off the island (or whatever it is) again, as soon as possible, and make sure that the threats they've uncovered stay a long, long distance away from anything remotely this creepy. 0/10, would not return if there's any choice about it. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Kazuko's eventually seating herself by the vials of black dust, sweating nervously at the notion of being so close to something that may or may not be responsible for creating... What was it her companions called it? Nanozombies? It's hard enough knowing not to even attempt to open the things with whatever that risk is, but to have to keep waiting on whether or not she should actually bring one of those back...      At least the floor's easy enough to sit on. A little wet and uncomfortable, but at least she's not feeling sick yet. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa was having fun time now with Maaka on the beach but the radio converstion leaves her very troubled, oh god does it leave her trouble. Finding a cure could be godo but she also knows how this could be amused and weaponized. God help the Guild if they do try to weaponize it, she tries to relax and clam downa bit they made ther choice. Yet memories of Rory's earth comes to mind notably the poor bastard with the cancer tree...growing out of his chest. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' All that talk about black dust... Well. To say that it's got Will looking a little downcast is a bit of an understatement. It makes the memories flood back in. Unpleasant memories. When Will makes his way over to Mel, he looks... Anxious. Downcast. "Hey. Sorry if I'm a little... You know." He shakes his head. "A-anyway, the box, right? Let me--" "Plasma Confinement Disk Recognized" The thing in his hand is glowing again. Judgment is speaking, and its light pours across the box. "Releasing security locks. Clearance: J-002. Engage."     The box slides open. It's... literally just a solid brick of black metamaterial, solid enough to survive an apocalypse. But at its center is a curious looking apparatus. It's something that looks like a stitched-together fusion of solid-light and stark white circuitry, arranged in a vaguely octagonal pattern. Will frowns and reaches for the small, apparently insignificant component. The Solano hinges open, popping a copper disk out of place. Will removes it, and slides the replacement part inside.     Suddenly the weapon seems to sputter. Its flame winks out, and then suddenly reignites more vigorously before. Electricity no longer arcs across its barrel when it does so. The whole thing seems to have become... more stable. Like it's NOT about to spontaneously explode just 'cause. "...Huh." "Offensive versitility restored to 40%," Judgment says. "Variable energy-forms available: Plasma, Photonic, Impact, EMP, Thermal.." ...Well. That was a thing, at least. MEANWHILE     Inside the ship, Kazuko is faced with a choice. A terrible, awful choice. The choice to take those samples with her, or to leave them be. Fortunately, the vials and their contents don't seem to move or respond at all when she picks them up. So they're.. Probably quiescent.     "You'll need to bring those to shore," a voice calls in her ear. The captain of that ship in the harbor, apparently. "I don't want to fire from this far away, or with all that vessel in the way. It may mean we might miss the vials. Or damage containment enough for the stuff to get loose."     "Of course," the captain- Chief- sighs, "If that girl wants a sample... We might need to wait and get the case open first. In either case, you need to get that thing out of there. Just... Whatever you do, do NOT drop it. Do you understand? Breaking containment might doom us all." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, Milly is presumably still dancing at the crabtopus. The crabtopus is responding with ever more extravagant displays of color. THINGS ARE GOING JUST FINE IN MILLYWORLD. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Milly does a dumb thing.      She claps her hands and then makes 'come here' motions to the GIANT ENEMY CRAB while she drifts backwards.      Because why the hell not!? 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' The good news: Kazuko's received directions on how to proceed! The bad news: It involves not only bringing Claire a sample, but taking ALL OF THE VIALS.      No pressure, Kazuko. The Chief just warned her that everyone might die if she makes a single mistake. No pressure at all. <<"R-really? Uh... Okay! I.. I can do this. Just wait for me, alright everyone? I've got this!">>      She sounds a lot more confident than she actually is, but... Well, no time like the present than to start gathering everything up. The martial artist can't quite trust the various chunks of ship and garbage lying around to safely transfer everything out safely. At the same time, she can't just stuff them all in her pockets and hope they don't fall out.      It's a good thing she kept the jacket on this whole time, then. Taking off her track jacket (and still wearing a swimsuit underneath), she sets it down before gathering up all the vials and sealed containers into it, then ties the whole thing up into a makeshift bindle. She makes sure the whole thing is snug without making it so tight as to break anything, and then it's time to come on back out through the tetanus fields!      And desperately hoping her sneakers don't catch onto something on the way out. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Kazuko, to the great fortune of EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THIS ADVENTURE, does not trip. Because tripping would be awful. Tripping would mean that everything in the surrounding area would suddenly be horribly overcome by angry black dust. The containment seems to hold, the vials don't suddenly explode and swallow her up to turn her into Zombie Wanko. NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. yet So she can make her way outside, with her makeshift rucksack full of horribly dangerous ~STUFF.~ Meanwhile, outside, Milly dares to... TO SEDUCE AN CRABTOPUS. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't actually particularly dangerous in this situation. The naked crabtopus considers the girl dancing in front of it and... Slithers vaguely forward? But then as Kazuko leaves the ship, it pauses to reclaim its shell, sliding its massive form back into the place that was home for so many dozens of years. It considers Milly for a moment, then, and slowly wanders towards her again. HAS MILLIUM SUCCESSFULLY BEFRIENDED A CRABTOPUS!? 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      HAS SHE!?      Millium seems to think so, because she flies onto it's shell and then points into the distance.      "Onward!"      ...All while sickeningly upbeat idol music blares from her terminal.      Onwards.      To adventure.      This is a terrible idea. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' And she's out! Kazuko breathes a heavy sigh of relief while cradling that jacket-bundle, barely managing a response through the radio. <<"I'm out of the ship now! It-gyah!">> She has to jump forward some just to avoid getting caught up in the ship's movement as the crabtopus reclaims it, nearly having a heart attack just from that before settling down onto her butt and knees with the bundle still cradled. <<"N-nah, I still.. It's still here! Uh. Can we just.. Take care of this and do the beach thing now?">>      It's just about time for a vacation, anyway. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' ONWARD, TO ADVENTURE! Miraculously, the Crabtopus appears to... understand? Or maybe it's just following the vague direction that the music is coming from. In any case, it seems to be following Milly's orders. Maybe. ...How is she getting it /home/ though? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile. Somewhere deep beneath the sea. Somewhere, derelict in a place long abandoned by the currents of the world, one half of a ship lies silent and still. In its hold, two vials. Black and Coral Pink. }}

4838/MANDATORY BEACH EPISODE

2016-12-04T06:25:20Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/12/03 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=Will invites some friends to a tropical island! Unfortunately they don't get much beach time. |Cast..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/12/03
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will invites some friends to a tropical island! Unfortunately they don't get much beach time.
|Cast of Characters=934, 571, 941, 942, 385, 7, 1051, 894, 774, 673
|Tinyplot=Code Chaser
|Tinyplot2=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It's a fine day to be exploring the open seas! The sun is shining, the extra-large seagulls are making their southwestern migration, and the ocean is approximately as smooth as glass. Not that tumultuous seas would pose a particularly large problem given your form of transit.     It's not Will's little PT Boat, though that is definitely how you got from Meridian's shipyards to here. It's actually sitting at the far back of your current ride, dangling from a pair of cranes. No. He sailed that (relatively cramped, given all the people) ship far enough out to sea that the merchant shipping lanes were left far behind. Waiting for him was something that would probably conjure terrible memories in at least a couple of the present crew. It was an enormous, black battleship. Shrouded in fog. Yeah.     The captain of said warship would also have been somewhat familiar: an eight-foot-tall giant covered in jet black armor, though he appears to have recently added an admiral's cap and jacket to his uniform. A couple other crewmen, similar in design to the captain, are all that there is to this particular vessel's accompaniment. Not that there's much place to berth them; the ship is almost entirely automated. Humming machines take up much of the interior, hidden away behind sealed bulkheads and secret compartments. Yes, it's THAT GUY. On one of THOSE SHIPS. Some might wonder how the blazes Will knows a guy who operates an Ancient naval battlecruiser. CORAL. CORAL IS HOW.     And the less that's said of that, the better. Regardless! The warship sails far out to sea. Further than the most distant shipping route, deep into the unexplored waters over the distant horizon. But it isn't long (Ancient Battleships move pretty fast) before the destination is in sight.     The island is vaguely circular in shape, with a vast cove on one end that resembles a crescent moon. Beyond that is a lush jungle entwining around a set of jagged, rocky hills. The green creeps up and over the huge, old mounds, tangling up around something vaguely... out of place. It's a boxy, regularly-shaped hulk of /something/ swallowed up by the trees. From the beach, it looks like it could be a decent hike in to reach it, but definitely not something out of the question for veteran adventurers! But first. The beach.     Reaching it from battleship is kind of difficult for reasons like 'minimum sailing depth' and 'not wanting to run aground.' But that is precisely why Will brought his boat! The Chorus humms happily through the crystal-blue water, weaving past an old rock formation before coming to a stop a few feet from the beach. Will rises from the wheel in one of those AWFUL OLD-TIMEY SWIMSUITS with a triumphant grin on his face, "Alright, this is the place! Looks like we made it in one piece, huh?"     With that, he hurls an anchor overboard and disembarks, wading his way to shore. There's a huge backpack on his shoulders, and a beeping disk in his hand, and a CONSPICUOUSLY HUGE GUN dangling from a holster at his hip. They're far enough in shore that it doesn't get wet. This is probably for the best.     "Alright, so!" Will says to ALL YOU GATHERED HERE TODAY. "This here radar doohicky is telling me that the thing we're looking for is somewhere around these parts. So who wants to head into the jungle and take a look around?!" Because the first thing anyone does at the beach is immediately jump into a bunch of trees that are almost certainly FILLED WITH BUGS. Will might have a single-track mind. After all, there's all this beach all around, right? There are even some coconut trees! Or, what definitely look like coconut trees, at least. Maybe he intends to enjoy it all AFTER he finds what he's looking for? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka is here, with Kotone. They are wearing swimsuits, as revealed as the taller, buffer cyborg peels off her shirt and shorts to reveal a red bikini and a military belt. As she uses her matter manipulator to ditch her clothes, she also produces a harness with holster for a pistol and mag pouches, and an AK for this ADVENTURE!     She disembarks the ship, mentally grumbling about the lack of surfing. <Really wish he'd tell us what we're looking for, here.> She says over private cyber-comms to Kotone.     Oh well, she advances with William, AK in hands. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Just so it's out there, Chief," Mel says as they sail, "You look a little ridiculous with that hat and jacket over the armor." This, from the woman wearing a smoke-grey longcoat with armored shoulder pauldrons over a blue-grey skintight space suit.     The Firechaser (or Chaser, or Firestarter-C, whichever you prefer), is probably parked somewhere on the warship as well. Mel Brock is nothing if not practical. But she's quite happy to ride the ship in relative relaxation, all the way out to the stopping point where they transition to Will's boat, and from there right to the shoreline. "I think if we didn't want to go take a look, we're a little past the point of no return," she says simply. "So what /is/ this component we're looking for, anyway, Judgment?" 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Kazuko's here, too! After hearing about more potential exploration being done near some beach out in the middle of nowhere, the martial artist wasted little time in finding her way on board William's boat. Now that they've reached their destination, though, she's looking both excited and disappointed.      "Are we leaving the beach already? Aw... Well, it should be okay as long as we come back!" Not letting that detour dampen her spirits, Kazuko hurries along with her naginata in hand and... Wait. She's still dressed in her track jacket. That's not beach-appropriate clothing at all!      It's easier to move through the forest without worrying about minor scrapes that way, at least. "So what's this Solano thing, anyway?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Fortunately, Yuna isn't particularly susceptible to getting seasick; however, she's not exactly dressed for the beach. What she *is* wearing is her Hikari SDP uniform, which is sufficiently lightweight that the heat and humidity don't get to her too much, while being sufficiently water-resistant that she can handle a bit of wading without having to let her shoes and socks (or rather, tights) dry out before she goes anywhere else. She *does* have a swimsuit with her, but no way she was going to actually put on a swimsuit while they were sailing on what might as well be a ghostly pirate ship from the way it looked at a distance. If there's time for swimming later, along with the desire to do so, she can find a private spot and change clothes later. It's far more likely she'll need to be in her Light Suit before that, though - which is why Elner is flitting along next to her. The rest of the Matrix of Light are staying on the ship for now; they can fly across if Yuna needs any of them for her alternate armors ... or all of them, to summon El-Line, but that seems unlikely. Yuna's hardly going to rule it out, though. "Elner, what's moving around that isn't us?" Yuna inquires, looking over the jungle. She can practically hear the insects lying in wait to snack on her warm, tender, maidenly blood ... "... and do we REALLY have to go traipsing through that jungle to find the component we're after?" Yuna adds, edging back towards the water as her entomophobic imagination does rather too good a job of conjuring up a variety of insectoid horrors. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa didn't care for the imposing look for herself it was too far away from who she was honestly. Kotone likewise uses her maniplator to store her clothing as well. She's wearing a one piece swisuit with a zipped window up front which is currently open at the moment. Still all things considered it's fairly modest compared to many other swimsuits out there in the multiverse. She looks to Maaka for a moment. "Alexis we're going to swim and the like, we're not here to hunt fish with guns?" The Blue haired woman seems very amused. % R<<Oh Surfing? That sounds fun!>> Now Kotone isn't unarmed but her weapons are stored in the maniplaotr for the moment also in an odd way Kotone's not alone either..even more so than Maaka. Someone else is with her, as one mighgt see it a voice in her head. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "I could level us a path through the jungle." Mel offers Yuna, in a tone that suggests she knows exactly what the answer will be." 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      It's VACATION TIME, and that means, Millium is ONE THE CASE! It's been concert after concert, album signings, meet and greets, speeches, alongside minor dungeon crawls. And lordy, the girl was due for a nice break! ...Because this is totally a break, right? I mean, she's totally dressed for it! A white bikini, tied together at the front, with gold lining both pieces. She's got a blue towel tied around her waist and flowing down to one side to the thigh to make up her VACATION WEAR. And no, her glowing blue orbitals are nowhere to be seen. But they might just be turned off.      Yes, she can turn them off. Unlike a certain SOMEONE and his gun. Poor guy really should see a doctor for that.      But then WILL is telling them about a jungle thing! Millium arches a brow. "...Haaaa? Jungle?" Her head tilts, sending blonde locks fluttering aside a bit. "Will, Will, Will, Will, Will, Will..." She steps forward and puts her hands on his shoulders. "....I THOUGHT THIS WAS A VACATION!?" She yells at him, shaking the damn guy by his shoulders. "What part of vacation means dive into the forest!? I don't even have any equipment!"      She points aside to Claire, who of course is here. "Claire didn't bring any equipment!" The girl in question arches a brow and glares. "Excuse you, you airhead. I /do/ have my equipment." There's a laptop in her lap. Even when she's on vacation in a one piece swimsuit. GUILD GONNA GUILD. Millium hangs her head. "I-I'm not an airhead!"      Beat.      "...Also what're you looking for again?"      SHE WASN'T THERE FOR ALL THAT STUFF OKAY? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "It ain't the fish, more like the wildlife on the ground that I'm worried about." Maaka asides. She is fully aware of how dumb she looks, wearing tactical gear over a swimsuit like some mute sniper with breathing skin or something stupid like that.      

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August is also here, because he's roadtripping lately with Will. He is also in a swimsuit, but his is not in a one piece. It /does/ have horrible stripes. He does not look pleased. He has brought absolutely no gear except the swimsuit. "So, we're going into a jungle in swimwear. I have an important question, before we do: do you have your will and testaments anywhere that a survivor could get them?" He looks serious, but his humor is usually deadpan anyways. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Reasons like this are why Dorian trusts NO ONE!     More seriously, it's a good thing Dorian has brought his staff with him, despite the bathing suit. Balance is definitely a thing he's going to need to secure, because ugh, boats. Dorian has a problem with seasickness, particularly when ghost ships are concerned. He can't get onto the beach and off of all sea-going transports fast enough.     He pauses, though, as William notes there is a thingie he's looking for here. Dorian raises an eyebrow at his words. "I wish you'd told me we were supposed to go traipsing through a jungle. I would have brought more appropriate gear." Because a blue and green swimsuit, retro stylings or not -- note, stylings only; it doesn't look particularly old, and the pair of sunglasses he's got are clearly a pair of modern sunglasses -- just isn't appropriate adventuring gear. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White is not here. But that fact isn't so obvious to anyone here but the one in the know: Kotone.     Rory White is not here. Rory White is actually in Eryl Fairfax's Alaska, fighting an awful super robot from bloody nowhere. Rory White Beta-1 is here, and her presence is largely confined to something that looks... well, the robot looks kind of like a person-sized beetle, but with eight legs. The legs are also capable of flipping out for wheel-components. And the Arachnoid has proven extra-flexible. Though it doesn't move with Rory White's typical fluidity. It's trawled around the deck like a robot largely depending on AI pathfinding.     Rory White isn't in it. She's hidden in a ghostrider module in Kotone's shell!     <<Hunting fish with guns? Is that a thing?>>     Her voice comes across to Kotone and anyone with local radios like Maaka.     But it's distracted. Because...     The Arachnoid has hit the beach and is scuttling along with William. "This plan of action surprises me, Mr. Pauwel. My experience tells me males your age would rather observe the females in swimsuits given the opportunity." This is not an appropriate comment, and she totally does not understand how or why, to be sure. But it doesn't slow her progress off to the side, the arachnoid's many optics sweeping across the jungle and a few Saucers flying overhead to provide birds-eye-views and radio relays.     The Arachnoid is operating under some lag, but Rory hopes that won't prove too troublesome. They're just here to get a part, right?     Sadly, every time she's told herself she's 'just' here to do something simple, the multiverse has proven her wrong.     THAT MIGHT EXPLAIN WHY THE ARACHNOID IS BRISTLING WITH WEAPON BARRELS. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Okay, look, just because there are a bunch of ladies here wearing very little other than bikinis, doesn't instantaneously mean that Will's going to drop everything he's doing to stare! No sir. That is precisely why he's walking at the front of the group, with eyes ALL THE WAY IN FRONT. "What're you talking about," he says to Rory, COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS. TOTALLY. "I've got explorin' to do! I'll... I'll think about swimsuits later!" When it's safe to do that. And not end up being eaten alive by some kind of bugs.     "Yeah, sorry, this is a bit of a surprise for me, too," he admits to all these people bothered about ADVERTISED JUNGLE ADVENTURES. "I didn't really have the chance to take a look to see where we were going, on account of, you know... The trip." In other words, he got excited in that vaguely puppy-like way that he gets, and immediately made plans without scouting ahead first. GOOD JOB WILL.     "A-anyway! We're here lookin' for a piece to my gun," he says, turning, though his eyes are conspicuously fixed on the horizon WAY OVER THERE. "I dunno exactly what kind of piece it'll be, or what it'll do, but according to a TRUSTED SOURCE, it's probably in here somewhere." He thumbs vaguely in the direction of the woods. "So let's get this started, hu-waugh!?" MILLY. MILLY STOP SHAKING HIM. HE'S TRYING SO HARD NOT TO LOOK ANYWHERE HE SHOULDN'T, MILLY. AAAAH.     "Waaaugh!" Will flails, cartwheeling his arms so fast that they almost look like they've multiplied. Somewhere in there, he bats Milly's arms away and falls flat on his back end. On a twig. A twig that goes /SNAP/ very, very loudly. Loud enough to startle a bunch of birds, apparently. They flit up from the canopy and immediately sweep to a totally different part of the island. Huh. His eyes, notably, are staring STRAIGHT UP.     "T-that wasn't very nice, Milly! Y'all could have broken my neck, or something!" Will harrumphs in protest, pushing himself back up and around so that he doesn't have to strain his neck to avert his eyes anymore. "A-anyway, forward march, y'all!" He points boldly into the woods. The woods that smell vaguely of rain, decaying ground-cover, and which buzz with a symphony of all kinds of insects. Also there's some weird, bassy buzzing coming from somewhere in there. But that's probably nothing, right? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Will has an idea. He unholsters his gun and points it vaguely into the air. It starts glowing all blue and white. A bug buzzes out from nearby, meanders vaguely in its general direction, and then immediately disintegrates as it flutters into the plasma cloud. "Ha-ha! It works!" There's a vague sense of displeasure from the gun. Almost like it just had a speech-bubble pop up, and it was full of dots. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "Do we have to ..." begins Yuna. "Yes," Elner replies, without letting Yuna finish what she was going to ask. And then Elner takes further initiative, triggering Yuna's transformation. When it ends, she at least looks a LITTLE better-suited for the beach - inasmuch as she's now wearing a snug-fitting armored bodysuit that could be a one-piece swimsuit (albeit with more of a back than most swimsuits not issued by schools), plus boots and gloves. Yuna just sighs, wills the Matrix Divider to materialize, and takes a step forward - although the vote being called about whether Mel should clear a road for them is a good reason to halt. So is the reason that William Pauwel, who's ostensibly in charge of this expedition AND has the gadget that's tracking the component they're looking for, ISN'T advancing into the woods yet. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka just frowns SO HARD at Rory. "Not the time."          She doesn't even try to pull Millium off of WIlliam, instead hiding a smirk as she keeps going into the jungle. She doesn't need to worry about bugs biting her, she tastes HORRIBLE to insects, so she just jogs through the pathway William points out. The cyborg only stops when WIll fires a plasma ball to use as a makeshift bug zapper, and she tilts her head. "Well, that's effective." She says, stopping in her tracks. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     By now Dorian has about gotten used to the weirdness of the Multiverse. So when a large beetle bristling with weapons speaks with Rory's voice? He's not surprised. He does however, stifle a snicker at Rory-bug's response. "Not all males his age," he responds. "But I live in a glass house... far be it from me to judge~." This is also not an appropriate comment, but Dorian stopped being 'appropriate' when he was about nine years old.     He laughs at the display between Millium and William. Ah, so he's not the only one a little worried about not bringing proper battle gear? "Fortunately I'm a self-contained weapon of mass destruction." Beat. "At least that's the way the southerners treat me back home." There's a bitter edge to his smirk. But yes. He's brought the triple-headed dragon staff that he usually carries, so that's about all he needs in the way of weaponry.     There will be roasting of bugs that try to bite him. And he is totally not ignoring that much, much, MUCH deeper buzzing coming from Maker knows where. Genre savviness has made him paranoid. But remember, it's not paranoia if something really IS out to get you. And in Dorian's experience, there usually is! But yes. He's also not going to advance into the jungle before their 'leader' does. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     ...Mel's joking suggestion has, apparently, been taken seriously. To an extent, anyway. A brief group powwow results in a compromise that still allows her to just take the convenience approach for once - pulling out trees that are directly in their way. Alright, she can do that. She can even set them aside relatively gently, to avoid smashing or disturbing anything else. So the psychic steps up to the head of the group, hands in her pockets, and starts to walk.     The first time they run into a tree or trees that are more trouble to navigate around than they're worth, the psychic just sort of... tilts her head. And with a great shifting of earth and ripping noise, the offending plantlife rips itself out of the ground, floats over to one side, and then is allowed to drop (relatively) lightly to the ground. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' "That just means it can be a bigger surprise for everyone!" Kazuko offers helpfully, hurrying over to give Will a light pat on the back after that clumsy branch-breaking fall. Getting cut up by the brush isn't comfortable, though, and she's got the perfect tool for making sure that doesn't happen too much! "We can go swimming and eating and looking at... Swimsuits? Or whatever stuff after we're done."      Kazuko doesn't seem to really get what the appeal of swimsuits on their own is, does she? Swimming's the more fun part, anyway. That, and carving a path through the jungle. Thankfully, Mel is on the case, and she lets out an impressed "oooh" at the lifting and shunting of trees away.      The stench from up ahead hits her rather quickly, though, and the brunette wrinkles her nose before gesturing in the direction of the odd buzzing. "Eugh... Hey, does anyone hear that? I think it's coming from over... There?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <<Giventhe multiverse it might not be over kill needing to do such Rory.>> So She has a voice in her head and it's clearly talking back also the drone's here too still she's ready for trouble and seems to overall be in a very chipper mood. The Holidays were comming and next year looked like it was going to be amazing. She was in very good spirits and her Grandmother had actually noted she wanted to meet some of her multiveral friends as well. So who was she to argue, she had no idea just what her grand mother was planning however. "Come on Will let's have some fun darn it!. <<Hey don't leave me behind!>> Kotone jog right after Maaka bouncing along as she goes. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium sighs and lets Will go. They've got JUNGLING to do apparently. And so, with nothing but a bikini and a towel at her waist, the blonde huffs and crosses her arms, striding on with the group. ...Well, that's a lie. She doesn't have nothing. There's a wave of her wrists, and then suddenly, blue light flashes, revealing orbital bits revolving around her wrists and ankles.      Millium frowns at the vote of whether or not to destroy wildlife, and scoffs. "Are we really voting about this? C'mon!" She then STRIDES RIGHT TO THE FRONT OF THE GROUP, and takes point! And she starts walking right in the direction of the buzzing. "You guys are wimps! How bad could it possibly be! Come on!"      ...But then Mel makes a path. "...Oh. ...Ohhhhhh.... Huh. ..." Beat. "...I still don't think that was necessary, you guys!" No use crying over spilt milk though. She's made her opinion known. NOW FOR THE GREAT UNKNOWN. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August just glances at Will and Millie killing each other and waits for them to finish so that they can keep going. He looks pretty disinterested in jungle adventures. He also doesn't have his Persona because he didn't bring a mirror because it wouldn't fit in his swimsuit. So, he just follows the rest, smiling briefly to himself at Dorian's comments. "Guys, it's a jungle, I'm pretty sure we can just tear through it. This part we want can't be that fragile." For now, he keeps going...and keeps an ear and an eye out. Be perceptive, don't get ambushed. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' ONWARD, INTO THE GREAT UNKNOWN.     Fortunately, the unknown is not so great when you have someone like Mel Brock just straight up pulling in-the-way trees out of the ground and tossing them aside. But that's the thing about the rainforest; there are so many trees that losing a couple here and there won't hurt it too much. In fact, it'll just give more room for new trees to grow! So don't feel too bad.     Will walks roughly side-by-side to Mel, stepping back whenever she feels the need to uproot decades-old timber. He does, after all, need to serve as their guide to where it is they're going. Fortunately, it seems to be a relatively straight shot. Or at least, that's what the thing Will's carrying around is telling him. Meanwhile, his improvised bug-zapper is working like a charm! The bright blue light is drawing in all manner of insects to *pop* and carbonize in the cloud of plasma contained within. Unfortunately, he's not the only one here carrying around blue light.     Milly's arms and legs are both radiating the stuff, too! And even more of it than Will's putting out! She becomes something of a magnet for insects: mosquitos the size of human heads and HORRIBLE CRAWLING CENTIPEDES and all kinds of flies. But those are just plain old bugs, right? Nothing to be worried about. ...There's a /whud/ from somewhere nearby. Followed by approximately twelve other /WHUDS/ from all around.     Will swallows hard as he looks up along the tree-line, only to see something around fifteen ENORMOUS BEETLES chittering curiously down at them. They're approximately the size of a human torso, and menace with enormous horns and razor-sharp pincers. But for now, they're docile. False alarm, right? "Uhhh," Will hisses, "Okay guys, easy. We don't mean no--" Mel uproots a particularly large tree and tosses it aside. ...The thing falls apart mid-toss as its rotted interior gives way. Suddenly the air comes alive with the sound of terrible buzzing. A black-and-yellow flying bug around the size of a fist bursts from the rotted wood that actually seems to resemble greying old paper, now that they look at it. Another joins it. Then another. THEN DOZENS, THEN DOZENS MORE.     They swarm up out of the tree in a great cloud of stinging bug. This somehow agitates the beetles, who start sweeping down with wings that sound like helicopters, and horns that apparently crackle with some kind of bioelectric field! ENCOUNTER: --STORM BEETLES X15 --WOODROT BEE SWARM     "AAAAH, BEES!" Will shrieks like some kind of twelve year old girl. His improvised bug-zapper turns right back into the plasma shooter in was meant to be! HE STARTS SHOOTING THE SWARM. THE TERRIBLE BEE-FILLED SWARM. They lose several of their number, but THERE ARE STILL SO MANY BEES. And then a beetle sideswipes his ankle and sends him face-first into the jungle floor. WHAT DO. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel Brock is quite happy to just walk along, stepping around trees and, occasionally, yanking them out of the ground to toss aside. The huge beetles are... slightly concerning, but not a terrible issue. No, the issue comes when she uproots what happens to be a hive filled with /fucking huge bees/.     "Oh, the /hell/ with this. EVERYONE GET CLOSE!"     The moment the bees start coming around, to attack, Mel pushes her hands out to either side. Around the entire group, there's a sudden flicker-shimmer, streamers of shimmering purple light like reflections off a nonexistent lake. They're only occasional, and very short lived, but they show up in the rough shape of a dome; when the bees come their way, it'll be like slamming into a solid wall. "Open fire! The bubble's one-way!" 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' At the sight of the massive swarm of GODDAMN BEES, Kazuko springs into action near where William's gone face-down with her naginata at the ready. Finally, she can show off the skills she's honed over years and years of constant training b fighting overgrown bees. At least she might look cool doing it! Channeling her ki into her weapon and her arms, Kazuko swings her weapon up with a broad flourish and a trail of yellow energy trailing behind it before...      ...A giant reflective barrier appears around the exploring group. She's not deterred too much, though, since she can't know for sure how far it's going to reach until the bees approach and trigger said reflective barrier, and Will's on the ground anyway. Thus, Kazuko keeps spinning her weapon not unlike a one-girl helicopter blade, threatening to batter or slash apart anything that gets too close! 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     BEEEEEEEEES     Alexis doesn't waste time opening up with her assault rifle. Shouldering it, she ignores the mosquitos and centipedes she'd otherwise be stomping with her boots, opening fire upon the hostile bees as if that'll do anything.     Mel might have the right idea, and Alexis drags Kotone to go get close to the Psi-Marshal, "Make it fast, Brock!" She calls out, before firing another burst at the bees when the bubble comes up. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     "...Wonderful," Dorian notes as they're suddenly set upon by giant bugs. "This is a sort of 'birds and bees' talk that I did not need." Though it's not like his armor would have been much protection anyway. Leather doesn't do much against stingers the length of a finger. Or electric beetles. William's suddenly assaulted and Dorian moves to act.     It's not fire, though. No, the more important thing here is to keep the swarms contained as much as possible. That way the others can pick them off without having to get into the main thick of them. He raises his hand up into the air, where it too crackles with electricity. It emits an orb that flies over the warm, still connected to his hand by a thin electric line. Once it's where he wants it, he pulls his hand down quickly, breaking the connecting electricity.     As he does this, a clear line of a boundary, a large circle, appears on the ground, outlined in electricity. It does nothing to the bugs initially. So long as they stay INSIDE the perimeter. If they try to leave the marked area? Shocks. So many shocks. And the farther away from the border they go, the stronger those shocks will be.     This may not actually work on the beetles; they're using electricity as-is. But the bees, hopefully, will be corralled. With any luck, one less bit of trouble.     As soon as he's done this, he will get nearer to Mel for bubbling. "Thank you," he says to Mel. He's got further assists in mind, but he wants to see how this turns out first. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' She knew there were going to be bugs. She didn't know they were going to be *THIS BIG* let alone quite this numerous. Needless to say, Yuna needs no encouragement at all to get in close to Mel so that she can benefit from the telekinetic sheriff's shield; the fact that William seems just as terrified of the bugs as Yuna herself is comes as a small note of relief in the midst of the entomological chaos. Also, Yuna is putting out a surprisingly intense volume of fire from the Matrix Divider, given that she has to consciously focus her energy into it for bigger blasts and she's packing roughly a shotgun shell's worth of destructive force into each shot - and she's actually squeezing off a couple of shots per second. Her *accuracy* is nothing to write home about, but hey - with that many bugs, she has to hit something more often than she doesn't, right? 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa came for a party and now there's a freaking random group of very large beetles coming for them.. THen there are bees and not the sort of bees that give cryptic bits of lore. the swimsuit clad Kotone zips up her suit for the little protection it will give her and the bees are more of a concerne now. she's not made of flesh and right now she's very happy about this. She's dragged without any complaint as she gets close to Mel Brock thanks to Maaka. "Bees did it seriously have to be bees?!" <<Maaka? Rory this isn't GOING WELL AT ALL!>> 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White would frown if she could. The Arachnoid Morph is incapable of this though, and her Beta isn't quite as good at managing expressions and inflection anyways!     But.     Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.     And ELECTRIC BEETLES.     Fascinating. Rory White's momentarily frozen with interest, sensors on overdrive recording every detail of the things' movements. She's gained a recent fascination with Biomimicry, so... "Samples of these creatures would be appreciated!" The Arachnoid chimes simply...     ... Then all of those weapon systems it sports engage. The weapon barrels swivel and track, and the air's suddenly full of railgun fire! Howling projectiles, just shards of metal. Nothing lasery, because Rory White does NOT wish to start a forest fire on top of what's ALREADY going on...     "Adding 'bee swarms' to reasons against uprooting wildlife unnecessarily in the future!" She adds a moment later amidst the gunfire.     The singsong, dismissive tone... might be her way of saying 'told you so...' 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"      How bad could it be huh?      Millium screams like a little girl and immediately dives aside as a vicious beetle horn bursts through the space in air that her head was occupying only moments previously. She hits the ground, and THEN had to roll aside to avoid the BEE SWARM. "This is not cool! I knew we shouldn't have messed with the jungle! I knew it! And I said so! My CHASER'S INSTINCTS were telling me! But noooo-ACK!" And then Millium dives aside again to avoid another oversized beetle horn. "Damn it!" The Chaser rolls to her feet and spreads her arms out. The blue glow around her wrists radiates even more, which probably draws attention even more to her person. But then her wrist orbitals merge together, forming into a... tachi? Yes, that's a sheathed katana of some sort. "SERAPH Blade Mode: Browsing technique archives...searching...searching...technique found." She mutters almost robotically before she grabs the weapon and holds it to one side, while spreading her feet to take a stance. Her hand hovers over the handle of the glowing blue blade of hardlight, and she closes her eyes.      "......."      And she does nothing else. She just stands there, hand hovering over the handle of a sheathed tachi, waiting for the perfect moment as her enemies draw nearer and nearer. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Bugs. Many bugs. Bees. They're coming. There is a solution to insects, though. Fire. But Augut doesn't have a reflective surface. And he can't actually use eyes yet, or hasn't tried. So, there's a solution: use Rory. He glances into her chassis, looking until he sees 'himself'. The self he'll bring out. "PERSONA!" The Tin Soldier rises, miming a roar as August ducks under the shield. And it moves forward, towards the swarm and the beetles, rushing at them. It's pretty tanky! And then, it begins spraying fire out of its gun leg, trying to engulf the insects. It might grab the trees, too, but that's fine, right? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' BEEEEES And beetles.     Fortunately for EVERYONE INVOLVED, Mel Brock is some kind of walking psychic miracle woman. The swarm of bees, not knowing any better, flies right into the psychic shell like birds might fly into the windows of a house. They don't splatter there, but only because they've got some kind of amazing exoskeleton and also they're small enough and moving slowly enough that their own momentum doesn instantly kill them, but Mel achieves the desired effect. She effectively insulates the crew from being stung to death. Unfortunately, the beetles are both substantially larger and significantly faster. She feels the impact when they plough their horns into her barrier. It's approximately enough to skewer right through something the size of an average oxen. Worryingly, the beetles themselves don't seem to bothered by it. Apparently their shells are made out of something pretty powerful.     That doesn't save one from being straight up skewered by Kazuko's naginata. It catches one in its relatively more fragile underbelly, cleaving it into a messy husk of bisected bug. Another few go down when Rory, Maaka and Yuna all open fire. Their shells are tough, but apparently not tough enough to stop /bullets./ After all, electrically charged and bizarrely fast though they may be, they are still just beetles.     That same charge protects them from Dorian's spell, however. The things' shells crackle and pop as the current sweeps harmlessly around them, and STRAIGHT INTO THE BEE SWARM. Those poor suckers are then set on fire by August's terrible fire-starting ways. Between the lightning and the fire, the bees are all but decimated. No longer a swarm, the survivors start buzzing off into the woods, presumably in the hopes of finding another hive somewhere.     There are still beetles, however! One sweeps by just in front of Milly's guard. ITS FATE IS ALMOST CERTAINLY SEALED. But the others seems to be drawing away, and falling into... some kind of formation. A hexagonal pattern. One that somehow starts CRACKLING WITH ELECTRICITY. Electricity that coalesces into an arc, that leaps down and SLAMS into Mel's shield! CAN IT BLOCK LIGHTNING!? If it can't, then the people inside had BETTER LOOK OUT.     Meanwhile, Will groans from his place on the forest floor. He makes his wobbly legs stand up, suddenly glad that his FULL BODY SWIMSUIT provided ADEQUATE PROTECTION against the creepy-crawlies down there. He's about to aim when ~something~ beeps nearby. Will blinks. It beeps again. He stares down at his little radar device, and cocks his head when he realizes the dot they're chasing has begun... shaking. And so is the ground. There's the sound of bird-wings flapping away all around as the earth starts trembling even more. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Somewhere in the middle of the island, that vaguely regularly-shaped structure appears to be... moving. Vines snap and split as the thing lifts up off the ground. Far below, an enormous, pale-pink appendage snakes out from a crevasse in the hull. Another moves out to join it, then another, then another, until eight in all squirm through the jungle and force the structure /UP./ A couple eyestalks poke out from two more cracks. Beady black eyes blink at the forest fire just starting to rage in front of it. Huge claws snap frantically at the air. Massive tentacle-y legs scramble forward, stirring up dust and shattering trees and doing ALL KINDS OF TERRIBLE THINGS as what looks like an ENORMOUS HERMIT CRAB-SLASH-OCTOPUS starts beelining down the shortest path towards the sea. The shortest path, incidentally, is 'where everyone else is at.' 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                             --==ENEMY ADDED==--                                                      COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABPTOPUS                                           STRIKE ITS WEAKPOINT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE                                 BUT FIRST YOU SHOULD PROBABLY GET OUT OF ITS WAY               

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     A COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABTOPUS     Fuck the bonus. Maaka wordlessly pulls out her Matter Manipulator the second she hears that thing come, and begins to frantically equip and unequip things. In the blink of an eye, she has her armor equip and form onto her body, like some sort of magical girl transformation with cyborgs. Her helmet isn't even on when she has to fucking BAIL before the hermit crab thing hits her, and she grabs Kotone by the waist.     She fires her grapple gun, and aims for the branches to get them out of the line of fire. Sorry everyone else, Kotone's her highest priority!     As she and Kotone grapple onto the branches, Maaka pulls her rifle and opens fire upon it, mostly a token effort to see if bullets even affect this thing. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Dorian isn't going to chance that Mel's shield can't block the electricity of the beetles' team-up attack. No, he's taking some proactive measures! He casts a Barrier over as many people as he can. It's not just a quick casting, either. He's sustaining the Barrier as long as the electricity continues. Or until he runs out of immediate mana and has to draw more, whichever comes first.     Unfortunately it leaves him little ability to do much else except feed that Barrier. Even when the giant hermit crabtopus comes their way. Oh, he notices it. But he's feeding mana into a Barrier, he can't really stop to look at the moment. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      One poor beetle dives right into Millium's zone of control...      SCHWING      It flies by either side of her, sliced into two with surgical precision. Once it hit the ground, deader than dead could be, the blonde girl opens her blue eyes and sighs. "...Sorry." And then her weapon is sheathed and dispersed. ...JUST IN TIME FOR SOMETHING ELSE TO HAPPEN.      "............"      "........"      "...."      Tick...tock....tick....tock.      "THIS IS THE WORST VACATION EVEEEEEEEER!" Millium cries dramatically, her orbital bracelets flaring to life once again as she took straight to the air in flight. "I JUST WANTED TO LOUNGE ON THE BEACH AND BE FED MANGO SLICES BY HOT GUYS IN SPEEDOS!" She's got her priorities straight, okay?      Well. She can't cut that. Not efficiently. SO THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR LASERS! Millium sighs and flies up...up...uppppp. And then thrusts an arm downward. Her two wrist orbitals break off and then reconfigure into a number of bits. All of them glow brightly before letting loose swarms of curving, weaving, azure laser beams onto the thing.      "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS GIANT ENEMY CRAB! MY VACATION'S IN JEOPARDY!" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa has some gear in her maniplator but she didn't come with a full combat load she came expecting a beach party and a bit of a silly treasure hunt. She forgot this is this multiverse and there tends to be actual treasure nad monsters involved. She's grabbed by maaka with a cry of suprise as she's pulled away from Mel anf the other. "Maaka what are you doing!?" IT will take the cyborg a moment to get her maniplator out and summon her SMG from it, she's had what would be a funn day ruined by monsters. She is not a happy camper at all and she too opens fire on the grab thing. "THIS WAS SUPOSED TO BE A FUN DAY OFF YOU RENAGADE SEA FOOD BUFFET!" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Wait, the swarm of bugs is organizing into -- "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!!" Yuna yells at the top of her lungs, and probably at a higher pitch than she really needs to. The Matrix Divider vanishes - she needs both hands for it - and a large kite shield materializes on her left arm; she quickly does the best she can to drive the point of her shield into the ground, so that when the lightning presumably hits the Wall of the Guardian Star (instead of, say, herself or Mel), it'll be conducted into the ground instead of going through either of them. Meanwhile, COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABTOPUS has come out of hiding and is closing in rapidly on the group. Apart from whatever bombardment the ship is about to deliver upon it, Jiina, Marina, and Erina take to the air, letting the cannonfire outrun them - but not by much. If that thing is as big as sensors and other evidence say, then it's going to take something bigger than human-size to stop it - or at least to hold it still long enough for surgical assaults on the monster's weak points (assuming of course that it has those). And once the bugs' lightning attack has subsided, Yuna dismisses her shield and bolts in the vague direction of the shore, only so that she and Elner can rendezvous with the rest of the Matrix of Light that much sooner. "This should do," Elner states at a certain point. Yuna just nods, tries to take a deep breath, and yells,             "LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT *UP*!!! EL-LINE!!" Cue a massive pillar of light engulfing Yuna, Elner, and the three flying androids; their silhouettes are visible only briefly before the light intensifies to the point that even their shadows are obscured. Then the light starts to subside again, and the Matrix Figure, El-Line is revealed, not standing but hovering over the forest. Give Yuna a moment before she opens fire, though. The bombardment *she* was dishing out to the swarming bugs, combined with a desperation-rush invocation of her kite shield, punctuated by summoning the Matrix Figure, has left her energies at pretty low ebb. She's not out of the fight, just needs a few moments to get herself back together. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Oh shit, the beetles are coming through. ...wait, but now the bees are dead, that's goo- oh shit, lightning.     OH SHIT, THE GROUND IS SHAKING AND THERE'S A MASSIVE CRAB COMING.     Mel could conceivably deal with it... if she pulled off her limiter and went to town. Or maybe if this entire group were to focus exclusively on it. But the former is a last resort, and the latter is just not possible at the moment. All the PsiMarshal can really do is maintain the bubble in case anything ELSE comes after them... as they get the hell out of the way of a crab that's about to become the target of future artillery. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' One down, too many more to go! At least, that's what Kazuko thinks until she notices there's a lot of hole-filled and charred husks surrounding that protective bubble. Before she can celebrate, though, there's a new problem rearing its ugly head!      Or many heads, in the case of the electricity-shooting beetles. Or a figurative head, in the form of the ground suddenly shaking like crazy. She can't really do much about either without some sort of crazy training or superweapons, though.      What she can, do, however, is get August out of the way through the tried and true technique of LIFT WITH THE LEGS, NOT THE BACK. "Hold on tight!" She warns, and then Kazuko books it! She darts around the forest expertly as if she was a natural, using both the cleared path and weaving between still-standing trees. Just in time, too, as that bigass crabtopus pops out of the ground, threatening to tear everyone a new everything in its path!      "Gyah! How are we supposed to even fight that thing?!" Kazuko's brave, sure, but even she's not so stupid as to try hitting something /that/ size with her bladed spear. She continue runing, trying to tail it and look for weak points along its flanks as she runs alongside the beast in case August can spot a weak point to direct them towards. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' THOSE BEETLES ARE TAKING FORMATION TO CONJURE HUGE ARCS?! Rory White's stunned. Not from the electricity, because her systems are all optical. The insanely ionized air poses no threat to the Arachnoid, but it DOES interfere with her radio link. Signal quality drops and the Arachnoid briefly falls into autonomous mode...     Which means that it continues shooting while circle-strifing, and ends up taking a BOLT TO THE FACE! ... Well..... thorax? Whatever, the center of mass is struck and sizzles. The Arachnoid staggers and stumbles. But in about five seconds the connection's re-established!     The machine wobbles to its feet on straining servos, self-repair nanites already hard at work to diagnose and repair damage to the higher-priority systems.     The machine's smoking weirdly and throwing off sparks, but Rory's jammed robot continues shooting the beetles with abandon! 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Luckily, the bugs all die pretty easily. Unluckily, the ground is shaking. August immediately moves to stable his feet...and then moves to stare at the giant enemy crabtopus. And then, he glances at Will. There is /hate/ in his eyes. "Fuck you, Will." And then he's absconded with by Kazuko! This causes him to go 'wait what' for a moment before he focuses everything on the Tin Soldier...which rushes forward to set the Crabtopus on fire. Over. And over. And over. And over. Just burn it to death. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The COLOSSAL HERMIT CRABTOPUS is on the run! It skitters across the ground like... Well, like some kind of enormous betentacled crab-octopus-thing that's wearing half of what looks to be a cargo ship for a shell. It has good reason to be on the run, though, because there are THINGS SHOOTING AT IT. Many, many things. The thing lets out a tremendous shriek as bullets smash into its fleshy, tendrilly mass. Blue, coppery blood drips from the thing's flesh. Apparently it's cold-blooded! AND, mercifully, that blood isn't also acid, judging by how nothing seems to be burning in its wake.     But it is a very large crabtopus, after all, and a few bullets aren't going to do much to dissuade it from GETTING THE HECK BACK TO SEA. What might, however, are the scything blue beams raking across its path from above. One slices clean through a tentacle-tip, sending the severed, sucker-puckered thing writhing and flopping around somewhere deep in the woods. The thing writhes briefly, as if terribly confused and not at all willing to brave that network of lasers again. This leaves August and Kazuko plenty of time to go for its flanks. The tentacles are enormous in size, as is normal for a creature that wears a boat for a mobile-home. But that also means there's plenty of room to stab. Kazuko's glaive rams hard into its tendrils, severing one almost right at its midpoint. August sets the rest on fire, which... Has predictable effects. The world suddenly smells delicious to him. He is, after all, basically cooking an octopus alive. Which is approximately when -something- makes a tremendous THOOM-like noise from offshore.     Yuna would get a close-up look as they race by. Four enormous, vermilion bolts sail through the air, followed closely by dozens of thin, /bending/ laser-beam arcs. The crabtopus shrieks again, lifting its shell-armored claws to protect its delicate underbody. Briefly immobilized by Millium's display, the bombardment strikes it dead-on. The beast screams as its flesh is flash-cooked, turning a bright, delectable orange-pink.     It flails around, evidently in TREMENDOUS pain from being shot and burnt and stabbed at by all these awful people. Between a wayward tentacle (that slaps right into Mel's shield!) and Rory's continued gunfire, however, the beetles are again halfed in number, leaving just three left to try and continue the fight. They're a little more intelligent than that, though, and quickly vanish into the woods after their apoid fellows. At least that's one threat dealt with!     A curious thing seems to happen, then. The enormous crabtopus looks up and sees Yuna's tremendous, glowing form and somehow interprets this... strangely. Very strangely. The crabtopus squirms and skitters, pressing its tentacles up against its own shell before suddenly SHUCKING itself free. It... It looks like a crab up top, but then entirely tentacular at the bottom. The massive half-ship it was carrying sloughs off and smashes into the forest below as the crabtopus skitters behind it and sort of... nudges it forward. ... It might think Yuna is some kind of bigger crab. Because it's apparently cowering behind its shell-slash-peace-offering. ...Huh. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     A tentacle slams into Mel's barrier.     That was way, way more than she was braced for.     The barrier almost instantly winks out of existence, as most of the force in it somehow transfers over directly to Mel herself. The blow knocks her flying off to one side, going a good long way before slamming right into a tree. WHAM. A second later, she slides down to land on the ground, uttering a groan of pain... that soon transforms into quiet, muttered profanity.     She does manage to look up just in time to see the peace offering, though. A few seconds of uncomprehending silence are followed by a short, sharp snort of amusement - that turns almost immediately into another groan of pain. "Ohhh, fuck I'm gonna be feeling that in the morning." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, the thing retreats, and the Tin Soldier stops firing, for two reasons. One, it's a retreating beast. The other, both it AND August are being flailed at. August is whumped and bruised around and possibly knocked out of Kazuko's grasp if she's not strong or fast enough, and the Tin Soldier mimes (completely silently) a wumph backwards into a tree, pretending to be beaten and bruised and unconscious. And then it fades away. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Alexis watches the CRABTOPUS run...toward the sea.     "...huh." She leaps down from the branches, before she goes off to help Mel up. "You okay, Marshal?" She offers a hand, before she tries to check over Mel while dusting the cop off.     As she sees the peace offering, she tilts her head, looking confused before she realizes it's afraid. "...huh, I actually feel bad for that thing now." she says, frowning. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     "''Kaffas''," Dorian finally swears, once he can concentrate on more than keeping up a Barrier. When the remainder of the beetles skitter away, finally he turns to face this new threat. His tone full of false lightness, he notes, "Well, ''I'' won't be eating seafood for a while after this..." He seems to share Kotone's opinion about this situation, from the sound of it.     However, he is smart enough not to attack it himself when... it cowers? He blinks. "...Well, that's the last thing I expected," he admits. Mind, he's not depending solely on this sudden show of altruism by an animal that apparently wanted to EAT THEM just a moment ago. So he casts his Barrier again, trying to encompass as many of them in it as possible. This isn't a sustained Barrier, but it should keep whoever managed to get the benefit of it reasonably safe long enough to figure out what in Andraste's name is going on.     He winces in Mel's direction as she's slapped aside, and nods as Maaka moves to go and try to tend to her. A second too late with the Barrier, it seems. Unfortunately there's little Dorian himself can actually do, because he's not exactly a spirit mage. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Oh.      Ohhhhh.      ...Oops.      Millium suddenly feels awfully bad now.      After surveying the battlefield, she starts descending down to land atop the peace offering, peering down at the cowering crab thing. "Um....Excuse me? Hello!" She smiles sweetly and waves down at it. "We're...We're really sorry for messing up your home and everything! We just kinda wanted to have a simple vacation and there was this thing one of us-"      Will is glanced at pointedly.      "-wanted to find in the jungle... We didn't mean to cause all this trouble!" And she holds out a hand, not expecting it to be taken, because GIANT ENEMY CRAB, but it's a gesture of trust nonetheless. "So you don't have to leave or run away. We'll just look for what we need, and leave you alone...okay?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' And just as suddenly as the Colossal Crabtopus emerged, it ... surrenders. Apparently. At least, that's the only explanation Yuna can come up with for what just happened. She carefully maneuvers El-Line back down to the ground - not standing, but on one knee, as if to accept the peace offering. "We don't need to take all of your shell-home," Yuna comments as gently as she can. "We need one thing from inside it, and then you can have it back; we just didn't want to get eaten or trampled or anything when you came out of hiding like that." She has a distinct doubt that the crabtopus can understand what she's saying, but sometimes it's the thought that counts. For now, she's hoping somebody who didn't summon a giant robot can get into the ship, find the thing they're looking for, and get out so that they can all return to the ship and then go home. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa will darn well be having sea food after this, she's not going to let this thing ruin one of her loves after all. Kotone however does stop shooting as she looks at the thing as it's trying to make a peace offering to Yuna? Okay this thing is smarter than she though and now she's feeling some level of remorse for opening fire she lowers her weapon and banishes it into the manilator and now she looks a bit concerned about tthe whole thing. She really went off and It seems she intend sto spare the thing as well. The thing's lost a tentacle maybe they should help heal the thing. "Err what are we going to do now?" 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Success! Sort of. At first, anyway, as Kazuko's delicate balancing act keeps August and herself mostly safe while she still somehow finds opportunities to lash out at the tendrils. After nearly taking out one of the tendrils, though, her confidence gets the better of her, and some of those remaining tendrils catch both her and her passenger in its wild swings!      The best Kazuko can do at that point is try to minimize the damage to the Persona-user, at least, twisting and turning to keep him from getting too banged up even as she gets sent skidding out from under him herself in a rather undignified position.      Luckily, the giant beast doesn't seem too willing to continue the fight by the time she actually snaps out of her daze, and the martial artist squints slightly at what appears to be the ship-shell the craptopus had been using. "Ergh... D-did we get it? Is that the Solano... Thingy we're looking for then?" She asks with a pained wince while rubbing the bruises on her arms and sides. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Colossal Crabtopi are apparently either smarter than they look, or have some very... interesting survival instincts. The thing stares in parallel at both Yuna and Millium- an eyestalk each- as they try to communicate with it. Communicate. With a giant crab octopus thing. ...     Right, well. The Crabtopus seems to at least understand that it's not being shot at anymore and produces massive, gurgling noise. It sort of squats in place and begins sweeping its tentacles against the forest floor. Maybe it's trying to soothe its burns with the local mud?     Will stares long and hard at the enormous thing as it wriggles something fierce. Already its wounds seem to be closing, if the lack of blood is any indication. He glances back at Mel and winces-- but her shield managed to protect him, at least, so that's good, right? RIGHT!? ... ...She and August will probably be fine.     The Chaser heaves his backpack over his shoulder and removes what looks like a grappling hook from inside. He points it at the top-end of the boat-home and rappels up towards its top-end "Uh, well," he coughs into his radio, "I'll start from the top if you guys want to look down below. This thing's pretty big though, so... Be careful, I guess? Heaven only knows what else is in here." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel takes a step or two forward with a quiet grunt of pain, then gives herself a little shake - and grunts again. "Nnh. Okay. Okay, I'm. I should be fine. As long as I don't have to do anything too strenuous. Get back to the ship, hop in the Chaser, take a ride out to Njorun. I'll be fine." Is she trying to convince everyone else, or just herself?     Either way, the Marshal takes her longcoat off and tosses it towards the ground; it stops just above, fluttering and flattening out, and then she... /almost/ steps onto it.     That stops when she realizes how muddy her boots are. "...damn."     So instead, she takes a look around, spots a felled tree from all that octoflailing, and uses that instead. Right up into the ship, to somewhere she can just step off casually and get walking. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Fair enough." Alexis says, before she slips Mel some sort of nanomed capsule. "Pop that, should help speed up the healing process a bit while you're on the way home." She says, throwing a thumbs up before she heads closer to the beach. She'll pass on going inside the big shell house thing, instead opting to matter manipulate herself a beach towel, a cooler with drinks (and lunch), a beach umbrella, and some sunglasses, going back to her swimsuit finally as she lays down her rifle.     Then...she flops unceremoniously onto the towel. By god has she needed a chance to kick back, and she's taking it. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' El-Line just stays 'parked' right where it is. Yuna's not sure if she'll need to be ready to react to anything else, and she'd rather keep the Matrix Figure on standby for now, just in case. Plus, once the others are done looking around inside the 'ship,' she kind of wants to give it back to the Crabtopus. Ships this size are probably hard to come by - and she'd rather let the beast keep using this same shipwreck for a shell, rather than wrecking an entirely DIFFERENT ship to use as its new 'mobile home'. She's also still kind of rattled about the giant insects that attacked them. They won't be getting at her inside El-Line's cockpit, though. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It is indeed pretty big in here! Mel (and anyone else who'd care to go up and look) would find that the Crabtopus had actually done quite a bit of damage to the thing's interior in the years since it's moved in and migrated to this particular island. Where the crab's own softer shell had squeezed in, the metal has curled and twisted in such a way that would make just climbing in just a bit hazardous. Fortunately, Mel avoids this by dint of 'flying.'     She lands in what appears to be an enormous cargo hold. Containers are strewn about and torn open, their contents all but spilling out all over the deck. Several are held quite firmly in place, however, by enormous latches. Much of what litters the floor is trash, by this point. Broken glass and broken machines that, in their present state, are completely unidentifiable. The contents of the upright and not-wrecked containers may, however, be salvagable if an enterprising explorer wants to give that a pry. But there's something at the far back of the vessel that might catch someone's eye. A jet black case outright bolted to the ship's superstructure. Something that someone definitely didn't want moved. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Millium does not enter the ship.      She stays outside to keep GIANT ENEMY CRAB company.      She may or may not be trying to get it to wiggle it's tentacles to some kind of dance routine.      Maybe. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' After a few more moments of resting and getting the stars out of her vision, Kazuko's back on her feet and moving along with the grounded group to explore the interior of the boat-shell. She still has her naginata on her, but she's a little more wary of poking anything with it while her head still feels like it's half-swimming.      Well, unless she needs to push stuff aside with it to get through without risking tetanus or some other horrible metal-cut-based disease. Sadly, she doesn't get to fly like her more lucky companions, but that just means she can focus on poking around from below! She's just probably not going to get to that case before anyone else does. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' MEANWHILE, MILLY IS TRYING TO MAKE A CRABTOPUS DANCE. It sort of stares at her with an eyestalk, though the other is quite firmly fixed on the El Line. Its tentacles wiggle. Whether that's at all rhythmic is completely up to Milly's tremendous imagination. 

:'''{{#var:774|Dorian Pavus (774)}} has posed:'''     Not being able to fly either, Dorian figures it's wiser to stay outside the ship. Besides that, he's got fire and electricity, two of the things that water-based creatures should REALLY BLOODY HATE, in great supply in case the thing decides to get salty at them again for whatever reason.     He can't help but snort a long, ridiculous laugh at Millium's attempt to get the octopus to do a little dance. "I don't think it's classically trained in the arts, my dear," he cautions. He may or may not be serious. Knowing Dorian, probably not. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      OKAY.      That's a start!      Millium brings up a blue HUD from one of her wrist orbitals and then hits a few buttons... What follows is some kind of happy, upbeat music track that starts playing. And she floats in the air and spins and swerves, wiggling her arms and legs as if trying to show the thing what to do.      ...Welp. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel Brock is presented with a solidly bolted-on (or possibly even welded on, she's not sure) case that she wants to take with her.     So Mel Brock employs the solution she always uses in times like these.     She reaches out with her mind and rips away with the kind of telekinetic force that even something like this is probably not designed to deal with. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Kazuko risks the deadly tetanus fields down below. This far down, amongst all the shattered and broken bits of Ancient technology, she gets an up-close and personal look at just what this ship was carrying. Machines, yes, but also what look like scientific samples, each one marked with a different label. It looks like this vessel might have been transporting /something/ under study from labs in this neck of the woods to... somewhere else? Most of the intact vials are filled with what is now almost assuredly dead sea-life. The rest contain some kind of strange, quiescent black dust and are contained in /especially/ sealed cases. Still transparent. Someone wanted to keep an eye on the contents, apparently.     Near the back of the vessel, Mel does exactly what Mel does. She reaches her mind around the secured container and gives it a tug strong enough to displace a pickup truck. The metal screams, buckles and comes away, leaving her with a levitating, but still very much sealed black case... Though it's not like she can't get /that/ off either. MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE. Milly is... Playing an upbeat, pop-y dance number at a colossal crabtopus. It continues to stare at her with that big, black eye. Nothing seems to happen. ...At first.     And then its skin starts to change color. But not in a particularly threatening manner. No, it's darkened its undamaged sections of skin to a near-black hue, and sends streaks and patterns of color dancing across its body. Apparently to the rhythm of the music.     It's not /DANCE/ per se, but music does have a way of soothing the savage beast! Or at least teaching it interesting new camoflage patterns. It's as if Milly has her very own audio visualizer, in COLOSSAL CRABTOPUS FORM. Will rappels down the side of the ship just in time to see it. He stares long and hard and then shakes his head at the wonder of it all. "Golly. Only you'd be able to pull something like that off, huh?" (Yes, Will says golly. He's old fashioned like that.) MEANWHILE^2, out at the beach, Maaka is enjoying some well-deserved time off.     It's nice out here. The waves provide soothing background noise to the stirring wind and warm, late-afternoon sunlight. Will wasn't lying, at the very least. This is the kind of island that you could happily spend your summers on. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August has been, for the past few minutes, sitting somewhere nearby. Suffering. He's not climbing up a ship right now. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel steps out to the edge of the half-ship, the box floating with her... then realizes that she's let the tree she used to get here, drop all the way to the ground. Crap.     Approximately five seconds later, Mel is riding the black box down like an elevator. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Damn tetanus fields and their bountiful harvests. Kazuko wades through them bravely, cursing her decision to wear shorts almost all the goddamn time and relieved at her decision to wear higher socks most of the time in turn. Spotting those machines and oddly-labeled samples, the martial artist pores through these things without touching them directly, although she does give one of the machines a light nudge with her weapon's flat end. She doesn't leave the relative safety of the immediate area, though, opting to stay there instead of wading through the tetanus fields once more. Not until she knows what to do with these things first! 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, Yuna is kind of bobbing her head along with Millium's song ... up until Kazuko mentions finding some vials of 'black stuff' which is later described, under Mel's careful questioning, as 'powdery'. The word 'zombies' comes up later. Yuna stops bobbing her head, or in fact doing much of anything, when the connection is made. Zombies of any kind are terrifyingly bad news, and if she could be sure of El-Line's firepower obliterating the nanomachines (if that's what they are) without scattering the stuff instead, she'd definitely be happy to do that once everyone else is out of harm's way. Other than that, though, this suddenly seems like a really bad place to relax, swim, and soak up some sun. She'd rather get off the island (or whatever it is) again, as soon as possible, and make sure that the threats they've uncovered stay a long, long distance away from anything remotely this creepy. 0/10, would not return if there's any choice about it. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' Kazuko's eventually seating herself by the vials of black dust, sweating nervously at the notion of being so close to something that may or may not be responsible for creating... What was it her companions called it? Nanozombies? It's hard enough knowing not to even attempt to open the things with whatever that risk is, but to have to keep waiting on whether or not she should actually bring one of those back...      At least the floor's easy enough to sit on. A little wet and uncomfortable, but at least she's not feeling sick yet. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa was having fun time now with Maaka on the beach but the radio converstion leaves her very troubled, oh god does it leave her trouble. Finding a cure could be godo but she also knows how this could be amused and weaponized. God help the Guild if they do try to weaponize it, she tries to relax and clam downa bit they made ther choice. Yet memories of Rory's earth comes to mind notably the poor bastard with the cancer tree...growing out of his chest. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' All that talk about black dust... Well. To say that it's got Will looking a little downcast is a bit of an understatement. It makes the memories flood back in. Unpleasant memories. When Will makes his way over to Mel, he looks... Anxious. Downcast. "Hey. Sorry if I'm a little... You know." He shakes his head. "A-anyway, the box, right? Let me--" "Plasma Confinement Disk Recognized" The thing in his hand is glowing again. Judgment is speaking, and its light pours across the box. "Releasing security locks. Clearance: J-002. Engage."     The box slides open. It's... literally just a solid brick of black metamaterial, solid enough to survive an apocalypse. But at its center is a curious looking apparatus. It's something that looks like a stitched-together fusion of solid-light and stark white circuitry, arranged in a vaguely octagonal pattern. Will frowns and reaches for the small, apparently insignificant component. The Solano hinges open, popping a copper disk out of place. Will removes it, and slides the replacement part inside.     Suddenly the weapon seems to sputter. Its flame winks out, and then suddenly reignites more vigorously before. Electricity no longer arcs across its barrel when it does so. The whole thing seems to have become... more stable. Like it's NOT about to spontaneously explode just 'cause. "...Huh." "Offensive versitility restored to 40%," Judgment says. "Variable energy-forms available: Plasma, Photonic, Impact, EMP, Thermal.." ...Well. That was a thing, at least. MEANWHILE     Inside the ship, Kazuko is faced with a choice. A terrible, awful choice. The choice to take those samples with her, or to leave them be. Fortunately, the vials and their contents don't seem to move or respond at all when she picks them up. So they're.. Probably quiescent.     "You'll need to bring those to shore," a voice calls in her ear. The captain of that ship in the harbor, apparently. "I don't want to fire from this far away, or with all that vessel in the way. It may mean we might miss the vials. Or damage containment enough for the stuff to get loose."     "Of course," the captain- Chief- sighs, "If that girl wants a sample... We might need to wait and get the case open first. In either case, you need to get that thing out of there. Just... Whatever you do, do NOT drop it. Do you understand? Breaking containment might doom us all." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, Milly is presumably still dancing at the crabtopus. The crabtopus is responding with ever more extravagant displays of color. THINGS ARE GOING JUST FINE IN MILLYWORLD. 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      Milly does a dumb thing.      She claps her hands and then makes 'come here' motions to the GIANT ENEMY CRAB while she drifts backwards.      Because why the hell not!? 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' The good news: Kazuko's received directions on how to proceed! The bad news: It involves not only bringing Claire a sample, but taking ALL OF THE VIALS.      No pressure, Kazuko. The Chief just warned her that everyone might die if she makes a single mistake. No pressure at all. <<"R-really? Uh... Okay! I.. I can do this. Just wait for me, alright everyone? I've got this!">>      She sounds a lot more confident than she actually is, but... Well, no time like the present than to start gathering everything up. The martial artist can't quite trust the various chunks of ship and garbage lying around to safely transfer everything out safely. At the same time, she can't just stuff them all in her pockets and hope they don't fall out.      It's a good thing she kept the jacket on this whole time, then. Taking off her track jacket (and still wearing a swimsuit underneath), she sets it down before gathering up all the vials and sealed containers into it, then ties the whole thing up into a makeshift bindle. She makes sure the whole thing is snug without making it so tight as to break anything, and then it's time to come on back out through the tetanus fields!      And desperately hoping her sneakers don't catch onto something on the way out. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Kazuko, to the great fortune of EVERYONE INVOLVED IN THIS ADVENTURE, does not trip. Because tripping would be awful. Tripping would mean that everything in the surrounding area would suddenly be horribly overcome by angry black dust. The containment seems to hold, the vials don't suddenly explode and swallow her up to turn her into Zombie Wanko. NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. yet So she can make her way outside, with her makeshift rucksack full of horribly dangerous ~STUFF.~ Meanwhile, outside, Milly dares to... TO SEDUCE AN CRABTOPUS. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't actually particularly dangerous in this situation. The naked crabtopus considers the girl dancing in front of it and... Slithers vaguely forward? But then as Kazuko leaves the ship, it pauses to reclaim its shell, sliding its massive form back into the place that was home for so many dozens of years. It considers Milly for a moment, then, and slowly wanders towards her again. HAS MILLIUM SUCCESSFULLY BEFRIENDED A CRABTOPUS!? 

:'''{{#var:1051|Millium Argent (1051)}} has posed:'''      HAS SHE!?      Millium seems to think so, because she flies onto it's shell and then points into the distance.      "Onward!"      ...All while sickeningly upbeat idol music blares from her terminal.      Onwards.      To adventure.      This is a terrible idea. 

:'''{{#var:942|Kazuko Kawakami (942)}} has posed:''' And she's out! Kazuko breathes a heavy sigh of relief while cradling that jacket-bundle, barely managing a response through the radio. <<"I'm out of the ship now! It-gyah!">> She has to jump forward some just to avoid getting caught up in the ship's movement as the crabtopus reclaims it, nearly having a heart attack just from that before settling down onto her butt and knees with the bundle still cradled. <<"N-nah, I still.. It's still here! Uh. Can we just.. Take care of this and do the beach thing now?">>      It's just about time for a vacation, anyway. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' ONWARD, TO ADVENTURE! Miraculously, the Crabtopus appears to... understand? Or maybe it's just following the vague direction that the music is coming from. In any case, it seems to be following Milly's orders. Maybe. ...How is she getting it /home/ though? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile. Somewhere deep beneath the sea. Somewhere, derelict in a place long abandoned by the currents of the world, one half of a ship lies silent and still. In its hold, two vials. Black and Coral Pink. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Hey, guild lady. Bunch of broken stuff in here that's probably ancient super-tech. Figure you'd want this. Also think I found what we're looking for." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "I found uh... A thing too." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent has music filtering in from her radio... -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "There's a bunch of old print-out maps in here-- Milly what're you doing" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Teaching Mr. Crab how to dance!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "...Uh. Huh." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "W-well, uh. Do you know any dances that involve eight... TEN limbs?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "I can improvise!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "I can't believe I'm hearing this conversation." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "What? Giant Enemy Crabs can dance too!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "...Is this really happening right now?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Ma'am, you have no idea how often I ask myself that question." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Will. Got something for you." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Huh? Oh, right! I'm outside." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Sorry, the Crabtopus is doing... things." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Whoa... There's some weird stuff down here. Hmm." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Lots of tiny glass bottles, too... Should I bring any of this stuff out?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Uh." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "What... Kind of stuff?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Hey Guild Girl, y'all want any glass vials full of... stuff?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "The name's Claire, asshole. And yes, hand them over." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Heeeeey, don't be rude!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Mm... There's some machines, some labeled things, some... Other closed up things with black stuff in them." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock suddenly very tense. "What kind of black stuff." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Dunno! I can try to open one up, but... That's not a good idea, is it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Is it powder." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Think it might be gunpowder or something?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Because if it is powder." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "We are taking this black box, we are getting off this island, we are reporting our findings to the Chief and we are asking him if he has any way to /erase it from the map/." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "We are not, under any circumstances, at any time, giving any of the powder to anyone. Ever." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka suddenly upright, "Is this what I think it is?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "So /is it powder/?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "What the fuck is powder?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami confused noise "I don't get it. Um..." Clink "It's powdery." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Kohler." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "The mountain." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "What are you people so on edge about?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Powder... That black stuff. The stuff in the mountain, with the zombies." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Oh /fuck/." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "...Nanozombie powder?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Mel is asking about the contents of the vials Kazuko found. I'm ..." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Jesus christ." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Yeah, we're leaving." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "..... Do you need me to blow things up with El-Line?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "No. I want to see if Chief knows a way to sterilize this shit." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "So, what are we doing with the crab? Is Argent adopting it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "...Nanozombies?" Taktaktaktaktak. "...Hm. I see." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Blowing it up might just scatter it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Good point" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Bury it at sea?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Though the crab isn't a nano-zombie." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "...Nanomachines? I see." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "The crab also isn't human." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Can I keep it? Can I? Can I? It's so cute!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "...what the hell am I even- CHIEF. Chief, do you know how we safely dispose of this stuff?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Argent, do you even know how to fucking take care of a crabtopus?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "Uhhhhhhhh...." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, ".....No?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "But still!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "...Mmn. It's possible, but as you've all said, just blowing it up would scatter it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent says, "I'll just put it in a pool!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "Is it active?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "No, otherwise there would be a LOT of screaming." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "i'm outside, and I'm packing my stuff up as we speak." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Negative. From what Kawakami said, it's sealed." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Yeah, it's super closed up. I think. Er... I shouldn't test it, should I?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "No. No no no no /no/." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Kazuko, /get out of there./" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "...Can Rory examine it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "Alright, good. If it's not active, we can move it onto shore and glass it with the plasma artillery. -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel |Chief transmits, "As you'd expect, I'm not letting that stuff get anywhere near my ship." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "I want a sample." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami says, "Okay, I'm coming out! Just give me a sec... There's a lot of these machines and glass th-eh? Oh, a sample..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "What will you do with it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Refused." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Vetoed." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Hold on. What will you do with it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "The guild will analyze it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "For?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "What are you going to do after you analyze it?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "For? I don't know what the R&D Division does with all of our finds. Most of the time they reverse engineer discovered tech." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Not this tech. We can't let anybody touch this shit." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "No, hold up." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Could they discover a cure?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "I'm sorry, but I don't know you or your guild. I'm sure you're a nice person yourself, I'm sure there are people in your guild that are perfectly good and trustworthy. But if there's even one person in there who might think 'Hmm, I can make a weapon out of this', that's one too many." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "It's possible." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Well, we can't just glass it, if there's someone who can discover a cure. If all we do is reactionary destroy it, we don't fucking stop it from killing people." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Claire, this is kind of... This stuff isn't good. It gets into people." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White speaks up. "The safe way to dispose of inactive nanite swarms is... to use a disassembler swarm. Assuming that it remains inactive the entire time." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "But without a sample, whatever this nanozombie thing is; is going to remain a total mystery. Is that okay with you people?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "......Nn." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "We saw this shit bring dead bodies back to life to attack us. We have strong indications that it can infect living people." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "...I feel we might want to see what this is." -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "And see if we can cure it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock growls. "You- I-" Deep breath. -<RADIO: Chasers>- August Kohler says, "Otherwise no one's going to get saved!" -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Mel-- if there's a chance for a cure..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kazuko Kawakami sitting noise -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Claire. I don't know your last name but pretend I said your last name too, because this is serious." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Claire." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Can you give me your word. You, personally, as a person. That you will do WHATEVER YOU CAN to make sure this doesn't turn into a horrifying tragedy six months from now?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "Nanites can also be held at bay with magnetic containments used for antimatter. It would be an endeavor, but not infeasible. However I am EXTREMELY wary of this. If it is the 'zombie' swarm, then it is self-replicating and adaptive. That makes it BEYOND dangerous." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "I'll do everything in my power to make sure that doesn't happen." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "...one sample. One, /very small/, sample." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "And if six months from now, we have to blast apart reanimated corpses? I'm making you tell their families what happened." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "And twenty times an amount of a guardian swarm to stop it in an emergency." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Claire, I trust you, but... Look. This stuff-- it... it got my mom." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "That's good enough." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "So please, be careful with it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- William Pauwel says, "Okay?" -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "Pauwel. It's not in my job description to mishandle these things." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "As for you, Brock, was your name? If, and I say /if/ that happens? I'll personally inform all of those families. But that's not going to happen." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Marshal Mel Brock. Officer of the law. Protect and serve, all that shit. I'm sorry if I ruffled any feathers, but I take that pretty seriously." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "I shall provide the resources to avert and contain it. As is i said before, the best defense against a nanite outbreak is a much larger swarm of guardian nanites. Though another layer of defense would be needed. Studies must take place in a chamber that can be magnetically sealed and... preferably have nowhere to spread to." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "Except maybe the sun." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "Your seriousness is noted. I'm not taking this lightly either. I still want a sample." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kotone Yamakawa says, "If I get one hint of it being weaponized I'm coming for the guild." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Alexis Maaka says, "Makes two of us." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Kotone Yamakawa says, "I seen what out of control nanotech can do to a world. Ask rory about her earth." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "And this is the part where I hope to god that my usual luck doesn't strike." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "I once had a routine bust at a spaceport. Routine bust. Perfectly normal. Guy smuggling drugs across sector borders." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "End of the day, half the spaceport was leveled." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White very simply, "Nanite swarms are designed with severe limitations for a very good reason." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Please don't let this turn out like that." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire says, "That smuggler was a fool then. Proper procedure and quarantine will be followed. The Chaser Guild takes things like this very seriously." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "It wasn't the smuggler being a fool, it- well alright, that's what /started/ it." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "But then it turned into this great big cascading storm of bad going to worse with the most ridiculous strokes of bad luck possible." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "That's my luck." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "Nanotech isn't inherently bad, but nanomachines designed to turn people into zombies ...." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Yuna Kagurazaka says, "... Is." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Rory White says, "Transhuman nanotechnology... cannot self-replicate, cannot be organized beyond certain quantities thresholds and are incapable of autonomous behavior of any sort. The first of these limitations we have NO desire to overcome, after what the TITANS did with them..." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Millium Argent | Claire scoffs, "Your luck is a fascinating thing then." -<RADIO: Chasers>- Mel Brock says, "Yeah, and I have to live with it." 
}}

4815/Imperial March

2016-11-27T06:01:17Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/11/26 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=Iskandria marches on the Frontier. In one such battlefield, someone has sent up a call for help! El..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/26
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Iskandria marches on the Frontier. In one such battlefield, someone has sent up a call for help! Elites arrive to fight back the horde, but battle is also joined by a messenger from the heavens. Enter the Hero.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1077, 1010, 385, 1065, 894, 1007
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     This part of the multiverse is typically pretty quiet. The people of The Frontier are a hardy, robust lot, and while they tend to complain (loudly, to whoever might be around to listen), they rarely need any help to solve their problems. That's not the case today, and it's easy to see why.     The signal leads to a town along the northern edge of the great western desert, far enough from its arid center for the landscape to be occupied more by steppe, mesa and scrubland than sand dunes. There's a town here, set up underneath what appears to be a huge stone henge-- or possibly part of what was once an immense highway. But right now, it looks more like a ramshackle fortress than a village. Makeshift wooden walls reinforced with plates of exotic materials have been set up around the periphery of the settlement. Gunnery emplacements squat atop the bit of barely intact highway, which has been buttressed by elbow grease and scavenged steel. They needed to prepare.     A formation of armored infantry marches on the settlement from the west. But they're not the bit that should worry anyone. The chances that they'd break into even a fortress- even a ramshackle one- against a force of Frontiersmen all the way out here is vanishingly slim. No, it's the fact that that little squad is surrounded by a veritable battalion of what look like minotaurs with beam weaponry mounted to their arms is what should worry. It looks, for a moment, as though they're about to start firing. And then one of the soldiers steps out of the horde.     "Ahem. Ahem! If I could have your attention!" The armored man yells, "People of the frontier town of..." He squints, "...Barter...town. Bartertown. Attention people of the frontier town of Bartertown. We come as agents of the Iskandrian Senate and the Imperatrix to extend our invitation into the empire. Your town has been selected above your peers to serve as seat for the empire's new province. Lay down your arms and surrender peacefully, and we shall extend our protection to your settlement. Resist, and we will have no choice but to take your land by--" Something goes splat. It's... It's a rotten tomato.     "We don't want your damn protection!" Someone yells from atop the highway. "We've been handling things just fine out here without you namby-pamby westerners." The soldier's brow twitches. He wipes his helmet clean. "I come in the name of the Imperatrix! Have some respect--" "Imperatrix?" "What's that?" "We didn't vote for no namby-pamby imperatrix!" The soldier sighs, stepping back into formation, "Very well, if that's the way you want it." He raises a hand, then gestures ahead, "Forces, march!" ...It looks like things are about to get pretty bloody. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     "Esp inum lemure cara san."     As a hidden voice calls out, whisps of orange light begin to flit in the area from all around. They float through their air effortlessly, some passing through rock and people alike until they settle in a wide group in front of the approaching army.     "Rek."     The floating lights all dive into the ground and suddenly a wall of fire erupts. The barrier of flames burns between the army and the makeshift town behind for several moments before the center parts. Through the opening walks a young man wearing fairly casual clothes, his long muffler blowing in the wind. His head is bowed, silver-grey hair covering his eyes as he reaches up to grip the hilt of the large sword on his back. As the flames close up behind him, he calls out to the man who appears to be the leader of this formation, "These people have declined your offer of protection. I suggest you leave now in peace, there are surely more important targets you could direct your army towards. It would be a waste to lose them here." 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     ROBOTS     Reinhardt is getting some slight flashbacks to the Omnic war back in the day, when he was young and Overwatch was still around. It isn't, but that doesn't mean the old man can't do some good regardless. When he hears the pleas for help, the aging knight is quick to join the fray.     A conspicuous pile of scrap rumbles besides the advancing forces, and suddenly an explosion of sheer German machismo is upon them.     "ACHJAAAAAAAA!!" He bellows, his hammer swinging wide to send as many of the invaders flying as possible. "YOUR PRESENCE IS UNNEEDED HERE, LEAVE NOW!" His voice echoes through his armor's speakers. It's a rather stern warning. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' When Yuna initially heard the distress signal, she wasn't entirely sure that she'd heard it correctly - but she had Elner plot a course for the signal's source nonetheless, and reviewed the signal along the way, as well as conferring with Elner about how best to deal with it. She doesn't really want to fight an army, robot or otherwise, but she can't ignore the people who are about to be swarmed over, whether they get slaughtered in the process or simply annexed by a government they don't want to be any part of. So when Yuna finally draws attention to her approach, she does so in a relatively simple manner: a big, bright bolt from the Matrix Divider, blasting a hole in the roadway ahead of the imperial army's vanguard. "COMPANY, HALT!!" Yuna calls out in as authoritative a voice as she can manage, soaring in to hover in the army's path, her weapon at the ready just in case she needs to do more than fire a warning shot. At least she's not the only person coming to the town's defense; Gabriel's wall of fire forces Yuna to remain higher in the air than she'd planned to, but she's grateful for the support nonetheless. And as if to underscore that thought, Yuna doesn't remain alone in the air for long: Jiina and Marina descend to flank her, holding their respective weapons but aiming away from the Iskandrian forces, while Elner hovers next to Yuna's shoulder and just a bit behind her. "I don't know who in your government decided it was all right to swoop in and annex Bartertown without any forewarning," Yuna calls out, "but this town doesn't want to be annexed, or conquered, or any subjugated in any manner. I strongly suggest that you all head back into your own nation's territory, before --" Before Reinhardt, apparently; the power-armored knight doesn't give Yuna time to finish whatever she was going to say. But the blonde girl doesn't seem too upset about the interruption .... maybe she recognizes that it's robots that are getting beaten up? 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     Let it never be said the life of a Guardian is ever boring. One moment, Devon-7 was cruising through space, slurping on something fizzy and watching the latest Crucible plays.     "Ah damn, I'm down fifty Glimmer." He grumps glumly watching one Guardian put another down with a well placed headshot. Sigh. That's when the distress signal comes in.     "Devon? Hey Devon, y'better take a look at this." Oakley chimes, the floating little construct bobbing in the air for his attention, turning his head from the carnage. "We're close by, wanna take a look?     "Huh... Yeah let's mosey." He decides before pausing, the ship's systems relaying data and info from the site below. Something about an Imperatrix. "Huh... Bartertown? So who runs it?" He muses. "NOT some Imperawhatsis that's for sure." Oakley replies.     All it takes is a moment for his jumpship to reach prime orbital position for a Transmat drop. There's a shimmer... And the ship is empty. Another shimmer on the ground and he lands atop the wrecked segment of highway, duster coat fluttering in the wind only for a moment before he vanishes. Lucky few may catch glimpse of what looks like a space-armored cowboy. Before he just vanishes from sight, the light rippling around where he used to be almost imperceptibly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     A lot of things happen in a very short period of time. Things that make even the great mechanical legion pause. A wall of fire erupts in the space between the advancing forces and the ramshackle walls of bartertown. Shortly thereafter, a bolt of golden light lances down in front of /that./ Heroes appear as if out of the aether, dropping in from high orbit or screaming through the air. But perhaps most pressingly for the robotic armies, there is a very angry German man taking a hammer to some very unfortunate robots.     "Look at those walls! Those buildings! We bring the promise of safety to these people- we could bring medicine and food, and all we need is their allegiance. The Imperatrix has made her decree-" That same soldier- likely an officer- yells. Though whether that's in response to Yuna or to Reinhardt or to rally his troops or for some other reason isn't quite clear. "Advance," he yells, "-All weapons hot!" The sound of energy weapons charging is unmistakable and universal across all worlds. And just like that, the world is suddenly a terrible storm of red energy. Each of those robots is equipped with not one, but two autocannons, and each one is spitting blood-red bolts at the defenders.     The ones engaged with Reinhardt are... Well, he's been fighting robots for a while, and his hammer is VERY large. Many crumble and shatter, but the ones behind charge forward with heavy, black axes, trying to lock shafts with the ancient German, and then SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE. Robots are cheaters.     Curiously, the people in the town seem to have... Gone quiet? Or rather, their guns are quiet. "Who the heck called in the cavalry?" One of them mutters. "I'unno," another replies, "No skin off our back." It looks like they're... saving ammo? Well, it's not like they have too many supplies out here.                                  MEANWHILE                                       Somewhere in Bartertown, a head pokes out from behind what looks like a hay bale. "Psst, August," someone in a hat whispers. "Do... Do you think they got the message?" Oh. It's Will! "Signal was successfully broadcasted" Another, hollower voice calls, "Also the front of town appears to be on fire." "Shush, you," Will mutters. "Why d'we always run into crap like this when we're in the middle of a trip?" 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     Reinhardt may be ancient, but he's a monster in close-combat, like right now. He's not so sloppy as to let the robots get too close, his hammer swinging once more to take out as many of the advancing robots down as possible.     Assuming he doesn't get a full swing, he uses his boosters to crash right into the horde of 'bots, bringing his helmet down on the unfortunate robot closest to him in a headbutt. "RRRRRRR!!!"     He may not be too nimble in the armor, but he still attempts a kick to give himself some space and catch his breath. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" Yuna shouts (well, practically yelps) as soon as she hears the Iskandrian 'weapons hot' order; her kite shield, the 'Wall of the Guardian Star' as she named it, flares into existence on her left arm JUST in the nick of time, and Yuna pulls most of her petite body behind the shield's cover just before the energy bolts start flying. But even WITH her shield taking most of the punishment, she can't just hove there and tank it. Even if she were in Powered Form, the heaviest mode available to Yuna normally, she wouldn't be able to just hunker down and wait it out; the Light Suit's defensive reserves have limits, and she's in *Flight* Form - arguably her *least* durable mode, which puts a premium on dodging. And the robotic soldiers aren't going to give her time to switch out. There's sort of another option, though, and it's Elner who executes it first: the little robo-faerie simply flies over the wall and down into the relative safety of Bartertown, with Jiina and Marina following suit in a hurry. Yuna glances over her shoulder briefly, then flits back and down to rejoin her allies, the protective aura of her battlesuit crackling a little longer before stabilizing back to its normal, virtually-invisible glow. "They really aren't going to give us a peaceful option, are they ..." sighs Yuna, hoping her heartbeat settles back down to a normal speed quickly enough to let her think, and rejoin the fray while there's still a good chance to protect Barterdown from Iskandrian conquest. *Maybe* she could outfly the massed firepower out there, but her confidence in that is .... really, really low. That only leaves one or two other options, and she needs the cover she's currently got if she's going to enact either of those. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Travelling with William Pauwel: a terrible mistake, one redheaded German has learned. Every single time it ends in chaos. August Kohler glances over the haybale, his nine-gallon hat poking upwards before he dives back down. "I'm pretty sure you're some kind of bad luck magnet. One of these days, you're going to get us killed, Pauwel." And then, Judgment makes a report. August just sighs, gets up, and looks for the closest roof to climb up to. "I'll be right back! Somebody stole my schtick." Once on the roof, August taps into local radio. "<< Hey, who here isn't a terrible dictator? You get a buff. >>" A glance down at one of his buttons, as he tears it off and tosses it into the air, staring straight into the reflective surface. "PERSONA!" Suddenly, the burn-scarred robot soldier with a gun for a leg rises in a crackle of blue energy, before aiming its gun at all friendlys. And it fires, but nothing comes out except a wave of energy. Reinhardt, Yuna, Gabriel, and Devon feel stronger; their attacks will do far more damage than they did before! 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     If Gabriel is grateful for the assistance of those others coming to the town's aid, he doesn't show it. Now's not the time, after all. Instead he lifts his head, his golden eyes staring down the officer, "You've made your choice then. Live with it."     As the army is instructed to prepare their weapons, Gabriel draws his sword and says, "San lista traven una." Gabriel begins to walk forward, additional wisps of light flocking to him from out of nowhere. They group up around Gabriel, merging together into a set of phantasmal armor that covers most of his body.     Gabriel's pace goes from a walk to a run as the army opens fire with its energy weapons. It's the first time he's ever faced such weapons, but he likens them to some spells he's encoutered so doesn't back down. Instead he charges the firing army rather recklessly, many of the shots going wide as he runs. Those better aimed splash against the armor of light.     As Gabriel quickly reaches the front line of the formation he feels the power of August's buff rush over him. He unleashes a battle cry and begins to lash out with his blade, darting quickly from one robot to the next. He uses the close quarters to make aiming their weapons more difficult while he quickly brings his sword down on limbs and slicing towards torsos. 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     Dropping in from orbit? Who? Where? Who could have done that?     Certainly not Deovn-7. He's not even here. The Guardian is nowhere in sight.     But the ripple of motion of something deadly and predatory up above is there. Light bending all around it, little more than a flutter of motion, readying something long-barrelled and deadly.     "Well ain't this a right party." Devon chuckles to himself, Oakley twittering affirmatively where she takes her place hiding in the recesses of his coat as the guardian sights through the scope of his sniper rifle. For a moment he just surveys. The town below, the invading legion of machines, the soldiers, Reinhardt plowing through them and mauling everything in sight. The Hunter whistles under his breath, the clawed fingertips of his gauntlets drumming impatiently on the grip of the gun. He hangs back. He does not join the fray. He lines up a shot.     . o O (There. ... Oh bearer mine. That one. He is the head, is he not?)     The Hunter tenses, gauntlet-clad hand going stiff as he hears the murky whispering giggle at the back of his mind, hands seemingly guiding themselves to sight the rifle on the soldier that had made the initial offer to the town. The man who gave the order to advance. He feels the sudden flow of empowering energy and influx of unbridled strength.     . o O (Do it. ... Oh bearer mine.)     He considers only a beat longer.     "Aydios compadre."     Devon-7 squeezes the trigger.     The report of his rifle is a loud and murderous crack, causing his camouflage to ripple dangerously. It's why he's already moving to another position while he's much more visible in the instant it goes off. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     As the planet of Tellus has proven time and time again, just because something's old doesn't mean it's not going to kick your ass. Though, paradoxically, Reinhardt is actually much, MUCH younger than the robots he's presently smashing into so many tiny bits. But it's more than just the fact that he's pulverizing machines that might conjure memories. It's their sheer /numbers./ He smashes one, only for another to take its place. There are hundreds here. Hundreds, for one small town.     Somewhere else on the battlefield, a sorcerer tries his luck. Bolts of energy smash into the robotic legion and... seem to disperse, draining away into the jet black plate of their armor. That doesn't necessarily help them once he gets into melee, but Gabriel might find that these machines aren't nearly as fragile as he might assume. Fortunately, August's buff seems to pay dividends. His sword cleaves through one, then another, but a third responds with a massive axe-- but there are so many of these things.     "Forward, forward!" The officer roars, "There are only two of them out here! Press foward, they can't stop us all!" And indeed, the robotic legion IS advancing, taking advantage of the wide open space around Bartertown to just sort of flood over the defenders. Energy bolts smash into wooden walls and explode into cinder and fire. "Go, go, G--"                                     BANG                                                                       -splut-                                       The officer collapses, his brain leaking out of a hole in his skull. Behind him, another man grimaces, wiping the gore off his chest, before promptly... Reaching down and seizing the fallen man's helmet. "Keep going!" He roars, "These bastards killed the commander. Lieutenant Secundus, taking command. Now keep going!" Well. They've certainly got discipline, if nothing else.                                  MEANWHILE                                       "Damnit Kohler, it's not that bad here!" Will yells after his BEST BUDDY and travelling partner. "We just keep running into AWFUL THINGS!" And it's true! Usually the threats are pretty tame. Like cave snakes and prairie sharks. But that's not exactly what's at play here. He sighs, rubbing at his face as he goes after August, only to find... A Yuna.     "M-miss Kagurazaka?" Will grins, rushing over to the glowing girl. "I'm glad y'all got my message! We're in a bit of a pickle here, as y'all can see. Uh... Are y'all okay?"                             Somewhere High Above                                 Devon's spacecraft hovers peacefully in high orbit, delicately dodging the passing ruins of some satellite or a wayward space-pen. It's trainquil up here. Nothing but void, and a big, glowing blue marble. ...And then /something/ swerves nearby. An enormous shadow sweeps across the jumpship's starboard side. A set of bright, white eyes stare at the vessel... Before the shadow, set against the glow of the distant sun, turns away and dips into atmosphere-- towards the Frontier far blow. Incoming. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' So, it looks like these guys are more focused on the settlers than the guys they're fighting. And therefore, the Fauxmans are trying to march into the settlement! So, there's only one solution. Set everything on fire. Specifically, August leaps forward, making a very clumsy jump from his rooftop to a ladder leading to the upper frontier walls. Once he's at the top, the Tin Soldier looms in the air over him, as he shouts to the enemy. "Hey, you bastards, I'd make some sort of cheesy punchline, but just burn in hell." And then, the Tin Soldier mimes a roar, as that leggun is pointed forward, fire blasting all in front of the settlement entrance. A massive wall of fire is conjured. If they want to get through it...they'll have to burn. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel finishes slicing through one of the robots, turning to his next target... Only to see it swinging a massive axe towards him. Gabriel quickly brings his own blade up to block, but it's only a small help. The Spirit Knight is smashed through the air by the heavy swing, bouncing across the ground a couple of times before coming to a stop.     Gabriel groans quietly as he gets up to one knee. He looks around at the large force of robots... They're only putting a dent in the numbers. He needs something a bit more intimidating. Gabriel plunges his sword into the ground and chants:     "Kell seni taram est forun pess gaim."     The hard desert ground in front of Gabriel begins to crack and rise up as large boulders, connected by swirling patterns of light. As more of the various sized chunks rise the thing begins to take shape. A torso, arms, legs, head. The Earth Spirit finishes climbing out of the hole created by its awakening and stands tall above the robots around it.     As the large spirit reaches back with one of the large boulders making up its fist, Gabriel jumps up onto it from behind. He uses it as a launching platform to send himself spinning towards the robots with a cry, his blade once more slashing out at them. Meanwhile the Earth Spirit finishes its swing towards a group of them, its boulder fist shaking the ground around it when it hits. 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     The commander falls. Devon watches for a long, silent, moment as the leader is reduced to a bloodied corpse, collapses, and is then replaced by his second. It shows that taking off the head does not always work. Another simply regrows. Or in this case, it shows a force that is not faltered by the loss of a commanding officer, when another man with the right initiative takes his place. The Hunter makes a sound like clicking teeth, from within his helment. That is some good discipline, though, he has to give credit where it's due.     He takes up a new position now, dropping to a knee and sighting through his sniper rifle again, cloaking systems stabilizing and rendering him a glassy shadow once again. But.     "... What the hay... Devon. Devon you oughta take a look at these readings from the ship." Oakley says, muffled by the Guardian's coat, and feeds him the data. That stays his hand.     "What the hell... Oakley open a comm to everyone friendly-like."     "Done."     Bwip.     <<Hey so somethin's inbound from orbit. Thought y'all oughta know.>>     Let it not be said a Hunter never keeps his allies appraised. He's lining up another shot, beginning to open fire, precision shots at joints and vital looking parts on a robot here or there. 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     SMASH! Reinhardt knows how to deal with numbers, and he attempts to scatter the enemy forces. His hammer's thrusters blast as he strikes with added force and speed. "RRRRAGH!"     The attack buffs from August are a welcome boon, and he presses the assault before hearing the mention of something in orbit, and it's not Devon's ship either. What the hell could -that- mean? 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The power-up from August's Persona suffuses Yuna's armored figure, and she gives the German student a quick thumbs-up in thanks while trying to figure out what her best options are. They really boil down to two possibilities. Option 1: Switch to Powered Form, leap over the bulwarks and take the fight back to the army. Pros: Relatively proportional response, and she'd have the firepower and armor to deal with the soldierbots. Cons: It would still be a slugging match and, more likely than not, a battle of attrition. Option 2: Summon El-Line and try to intimidate the army into backing off. Pros: El-Line *is* kind of a siegebreaker-class machine, and the sheer display of it MIGHT be enough to make the Iskandrians back off ... Cons: .... assuming they didn't just decide 'nice robot you've got there, think we'll take it' and start trying to capture it for themselves. Not that they'd really be *able* to capture El-Line intact; Yuna could dismiss the Matrix Figure again just as quickly in a pinch, and it's not like the Iskandrians are going to be able to find their own Savior of Light to summon or pilot El-Line for them - or so Yuna hopes. For now, the report of something coming in from orbit is enough to push her to make a decision, and hope it's the right one. For now, Yuna switches from Flight Form to Powered Form; Erina joins Marina in trying to assist the Bartertown citizens within their walls - providing cover fire over the wall, that kind of thing - while Yuna executes a hoverthruster-boosted leap over the wall and dives back into the fray. Shugoseiheki has been relocated to the left exo-arm, leaving the right arm and its manipulator free while Yuna's own hands hold the Matrix Divider ready. What follows is a lot of blunt-force melee - punching, shield-bashing, and melee attacks with the Matrix Divider; she's not so much trying to 'kill' the robotic soldiers as just try to disable as many of them as she can, as quickly as possible. There are familiar details starting to nag at her memory, too ... she's been on this world before. Maybe not in this part of it ... but not sufficiently far away for comfort. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     Near the back of the Imperial forces, there is an explosion. Followed by another, in a different location. A few more follow - each in a different spot. A man suddenly keels over, a shuriken sticking out of just the tiniest exposed vital point, thrown with pinpoint accuracy.     With all the heavy firepower from the front, the enemy forces have not had any reason to watch their backs. And so the fox is among the chickens.     Swiftly and silently, a cybernetic shadow moves among the mechanized and human strike force. From one to the next, striking wherever he can find a vital spot that his throwing weapons or shortblade can reach. But he's not without aim; no, there are two purposes to the shinobi's seemingly chaotic assault. One is exactly that, though - chaos. To have them alarmed, unsure of their own surroundings, uncertain where the next attack will come from. To throw them into disarray. The other, is to slowly work his way inward. Dropping low, darting between and under and around enemy forces to slowly make his way towards the newly 'promoted' enemy commander.     And to THAT end, he transmits locally; not speaking aloud, but rather, over open radio, so that his voice doesn't come from any one location.     "Having weapons does not make one right. It only forces others to act as if you are. How would you feel, Secundus, if /you/ were the one being told to obey or die? Shall I come for you right now?"     Genji is here. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     There are many, many machines on the battlefield. But they aren't exactly elites, not on their own. Even so, as long as they can just overwhelm the defensive line, they can seize the town. Seize the objective. But it's not a job that's being made easy for them.     Reinhardt, one of the great Crusaders of the Omnic Crisis, smashes into the robotic line with his tremendous, rocket-powered hammer. Metal and metamaterial shatters and splinters before his wrath. Apparently, while they are quite effective at absorbing thermal energy, plain old kinetic force still does wonders for dismembering these things. He carves out a killing field, building a veritable hill of broken machines that their compatriots are forced to climb over to progress.     He's not alone. Gabriel reaches into the earth itself and calls its spirit to action. Now, Tellus doesn't really /have/ that sort of thing, necessarily. But something... Something DOES respond. An ancient intelligence answers his call and stirs into motion. The golem draws itself out of the ground and lays into the robotic army. Behind it, a second wall of fire rises to join the first. A formidable defense- a giant of earth and stone and a wall of flame.     Of course, the machines don't seem TOO perturbed by fire, except that it seems to throw off their aim somewhat. Instead, they focus on the big target, firing their red bolts enmasse into the construct. They don't seem to notice (or mind) too much as they start being picked off by the addition of a sniper and the return of a Savior of Light.     Devon and Yuna tear into the legion, completing the defensive bulwark set up in front of Bartertown. Cover-fire from Erina and Marina join in as Yuna starts smashing machines alongside the golem and the crusader. At first, it seems that the action is all directed to the front, but that's... Not at all the case.     "Advance! Keep pressing forward!" Secundus bellows, though even he has to admit that this is... kind of ridiculous. Who the blazes brought /these/ monsters here? He grunts, levelling something between a lance and a beam rifle to fire off a few shots of his own-- before something explodes BEHIND him. And someone collapses, with a blade in his throat. "Damnit," Secundus growls, "PHALANX!" His troops, the meaty, fleshy ones, fold back into a tight formation of man and steel. Enormous shields are leveraged outwards, forming a bristling shell of wall and gun-spear. "I don't know who you people are, but obeying is what I do. The only safety in this place is in unity. None will stand in the way of that dream!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a sound.     It's a low rippling through the air, like the roar of distant thunder. A sudden rush of force that pummels the ground. Something streaks across the sky-- a shooting star, but... But it's not falling apart. Energy ripples beneath the halo of flame, diverting air away as the figure descends.     Elner would likely detect it first, but only because he's staring into the sky. It looks as though there's just a single power source up there-- at first. But as it descends, it's obvious that there are two.     One is attached to an enormous signature, a thing larger than even a Guardian's dropship. At first glance, it strikes a vaguely draconic shape, with enormous wings and a long, serpentine neck. But then it draws closer, and it's obvious that its body is covered in stark, white armor. Its wings and joints are layered in blue, and its head is encased in a metallic mask, with massive, regularly shaped 'teeth' for a mouth.     The other figure is... Smaller. As white as the thing it's riding, the second figure is perched atop the first. It grips an enormous lance in one hand and a shield in the other. Paradoxically, the latter is... emitting more power than the former. Its shield seems to lens close, the field of energy disperses in a flash of light and heat.     It leverages its weapon at the battlefield. The second figure's lance splits open down the center, and erupts with a blinding ray of blue-white energy. The beam lances across the formation of machines, filling the air with the scent of ozone as what must be a plasma beam cleaves cleanly through a number of the robots.     "You've all made a terrible mistake," a voice bellows from the pair. "This conflict," the thing in the sky yells. "Does nothing but shed needless blood, waste valuable resources." The second figure hoists its weapon again, unleashing a second raking beam, "We do NOT approve!" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Oh, so those are what was coming in from orbit, thinks Yuna as she sees the robotic(?) dragon and its ... rider? Yuna does her best to steer away from where the new arrivals seem to be aiming - But more than the firepower they're suddenly displaying, it's the words which simultaneously chill Yuna's heart and give her some semblance of hope. She immediately calls out on the radio for her allies to break out of combat - and she's suiting actions to words, dismissing her weapons and trying to simply barrel *out* of the battlefield post-haste, hoverthrusters boosting her into another jump. She's not even trying to get back into the Bartertown borders; she's just trying to get *OUT* of the fighting, and hope that the new arrivals - possibly the Iron Angels which Will mentioned local rumors about - will take her termination of combat operations as a good sign. Of course, if the newest arrivals who are plainly about to curbstomp the Iskandrians *don't* realize that she heard, and understood, their ultimatum ... well. She'd probably need to be in El-Line to withstand whatever they can do to her. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, that's not good. As soon as the giant robot space dragon, its rider, and the lasers all come down at once, August blinks. And then, he hunkers down on the wall, the Tin Soldier floating upwards, as he shouts to the sky as loud as he can. "What is your intention here? Are you really fighting violence with violence?!" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "You are mistaken. They are not standing in your way. They simply want no part of it. There are many who would willingly assent, and yet you force your dream on those who would not. You have chosen your battles poorly. Now I will choose your-"     Aaaaw shit.     From where he stands amongst the army, Genji looks skyward. He sees the oncoming storm, so to speak. And he decides to get out of the rain.     All the green lights on Genji's armor switch on as one. And then light is all that's easy to track. Because he's darting /out/ of the Imperial formation, a streak of green weaving its way to safety amongst enemies and wreckage. And while he goes, Genji switches his transmitter up to higher power. "This is Genji Shimada contacting the unknown person riding a dragon. This Imperial force began an unprovoked assault on this town, for the purpose of conquest. If my people and the people of the town agree to withdraw from the fight, will you repel the Imperial invaders in our stead? They are the ones perpetrating a waste of life and resources." 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     "FOOLS!" Reinhardt sends robot after robot hurdling away, "We will not falter in the name of those who otherwise have no defense, not today! WE-"     Suddenly a fucking dragon. Reinhardt GLARES at the giant robot dragon and whoever is riding it, and he levels his hammer at the creature. "We were here defending this village from invaders, those who would force their control over unaffiliated parties. Either leave us be, or help us, I don't care!" He grips his hammer tightly, his shield forming as he braces for the oncoming storm. 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     Devon is in the zone.     No, he's more than in the zone. The longer he remains firing, it becomes a horrifying display. Crouched on knee, sniper rifle in hand, for every shot he takes, the Guardian only grows faster on the trigger, more accurate with scope, lining up followups and capping off a different robot faster and faster, only growing in murderous efficiency. Every time he needs to reload, his hands are lightning, replacing magazine and repeating the motion with automatic and mechanical precision.     The Gunslinger's Trance, at its peak, is a terror to behold on a battlefield, as one sniper from the back ranks can score precise kill after kill after kill. His sniper fussilade only stops when the being from orbit finally descends.     It's a gatdamn dragon.     "That is a gatdamn dragon." Devon says.     "Yep... A gatdamn dragon." Oakley echoes, as they both peer up, watching the descent and subsequent decimation of the approaching mechanical forces. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel is far too focused on staying alive amidst the army of robots to notice the robot space dragon coming down from above... That is until its plasma beam sweeps through said army.     As the spirt he summoned continues to rage around him, Gabriel stops and stands, turning his gaze upward towards the source of the beam. He's aware of the existance of dragons... Though he's yet to see a robot version of one. But as impressive as it might be, Gabriel is instead most drawn by its call. He chuckles darkly to himself, saying to no one in particular, "Yes... I've made a terrible mistake... But fighting these soulless constructs pales compared to it."     "Cala seran toremiro set lien esteraph yaro."     A wisp of light similar to those Gabriel summoned before, but blue this time, flits up towards him. It circles him for a moment, before flying towards and sinking into his sword. The sword begins to glow a matching colour, lightning starting to arc across its surface.     Turning towards the nearest robot, Gabriel charges and with a quick swing slashes the lightning enchanted sword at the machine, a trail of light following behind it. He returns to fighting the robot horde. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "What are you--" Secundus asks Genji, moments before he's instead asking empty air, and even more moments before the air TURNS INTO FIRE. Not at him, fortunately. Devon's sniping almost manages to keep pace, impossibly, with the beam raking in from the sky, but the former is far more flashy. Secundus turns and pales at the sight.     Possibly to everyone's mutual horror, the figure on the dragon actually... Responds to hails. The voice, once it's no longer yelling at the top of its lungs like some kind of ridiculous messenger of plasmaic doom, is actually... Rather noble, in many ways, imperious and certain in its course. Hollow, certainly, like it's being spoken through some kind of vocal distorter. "If violence is levereged, then violence is the judgment wrought," it answers the boy on the wall, apparently regarding him as one of the inhabitants of the settlement. "Moreover, these are mere machines. They can be replaced."     "I understand. You are not the instigators of this conflict. Worry not," the voice in the sky says, "You will not be harmed unless you interfere in my task." The Dragon descends, landing just in front of the two walls of fire. Its rider gives them a glance and then dismounts, levering its shield at the mindless mass of machines. The thing lenses open again, revealing an array of crackling emitters. "Instigators of conflict, soldiers and legionnaires, I am the Hand of the Protector," he says, plainly, "The Warrior, Marchosiel." "Stand down," he says, as the weapon begins to glow, "Or I will be forced to fire--"     "What the blazes," Will breathes, staring at the carnage from atop the wall, near August. "A /robot dragon!?/" Something at his side crackles, "LEGION units. Fascinating. But where is their Terminal?"     Marchosiel's head snaps up at the voices. His eyes go wide as he turns-- inducing just enough motion to pull the trigger. Six rays of light spear through the massed army. Somehow, they don't seem to burn, rather... They /shatter/ what they collide with. Raw kinetic energy smashes dozens of machines to bits, and anyone still in the line of fire would find themselves probably wanting to dodge both the beams AND the shrapnel.     The Angel turns its head back as it recognizes its mistake. "...Surrender immediately," it says quietly, though through the magic of radio, his voice still makes its way to almost everyone present. "Or I will fire again." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' From his wall, August considers. This Marchiosel is trying to do good things. But he's not only capable of mass power, he's an idiot who doesn't even know gun safety! The Tin Soldier rises, and fires buffs...on all surviving allies and /live enemies/ in the battlefield, as he maintains his bunker. "What about the soldiers? What about that guy Secundus? Should he die? What gives you the right to kill him, when you so casually misfire? Who made you judge, jury, and executioner?" It is actually somewhat hypocritical, because August believes in vigilantism, he's just sort of peeved that they were doing it first and then this guy came in and started making things worse. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Also, while this is happening, August is giving William Pauwel a death glare. Pauwel, you fucked up. 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     Reinhardt realizes he's in the line of fire. He drops his shield.     THEN he proceeds to run as fast as his feet can carry, running like hell before he boosts well clear of the death lasers Marchosiel's dishing out at the Imps. "Almost thought you were going to aim at us, too!" he comments, after skidding to a stop with enough force to kick up a crapton of dirt as he looks up at the wall. "Run now, argue later!" he calls out at the boys, before he takes his own advice and RUNS like hell. Thankfully the buffs to defense may mitigate any damage he sustains. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel is suddenly caught by surprise as one of the blasts of light streaks right past him. He stabs his sword into the ground and ducks down to take cover as things near him begin to explode into shrapnel. This includes the spirit he had summoned, which explodes into bits of rock.     Gabriel's phastasmal armor is buffeted by bits of robot and rock, beginning to show visible cracks. But finally the attack passes and Gabriel is left crouching amidst a battlefield covered in robot parts. He takes a moment to recover, slowly standing and turning to look in the direction of the being that had just fired that blast. He takes a deep breath...     ... Then shouts, over the radio to, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' At the moment Marchosiel pulls the trigger (accidentally or not), Yuna is - thankfully - out of the fray and has the opportunity to just observe what's going on. Rather than dispensing a death-glare or anything (she's in a *bit* too much shock for that right now), she just chides William a little over the Chaser radio band, asking to make sure Judgment doesn't interrupt again. Other than that? She's watching and worrying from to one side of the road which became a battleground. She's also hoping that what's left of the Iskandrian army will do the *SMART* thing and retreat. Even if machines can be rebuilt or replaced from scratch, a reasonable CO would probably want to conserve resources ... and she's caught on (thanks to Elner) that the army's commanders are, in fact, living flesh-and-blood humans. So she's hoping they'll retreat for the sake of their own lives. She may even be praying that they do so, but she doesn't have her hands folded or anything. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     Genji has just reached the perephiry of the fight when-     "What-?!"     It's unexpected. It shreds through the enemy just behind him. Genji whips around in surprise, only just drawing his shortblade in time. Shrapnel pelts the cyborg - or would, if it could get past that lightning-fast blade of his. He parries it neatly, sending it all back into the crowd, then skids to a stop outside it, landing in a cautious crouch.     "...are you young, or just inexperienced in battle? I do not fault what you're trying to do, but lives are in your hand. Lives that have now been lost. Choosing to take them is one thing. But doing so by accident? To someone on your path, that should be unacceptable." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Gun safety doesn't exist in Tellus. August should know that by now. Sure, some Ancient firearms have it, but why would you put a /safety/ on your /giant mechadragon rider?/ It looks like the tremendous display of force has finally tipped the last domino. After losing a majority of their robotic forces to the assembled elites, being faced with (accidental) obliteration by an agent of the heavens is... Too much to handle.     "Damnit," Secundus grunts, "RETREAT! All hands, fall back to the rendezvous point!" At his command, the mechanical legions-- or rather, what's left of them-- turn tail and flee, following after the group of human soldiers leading the way. At least he can legitimately blame this one on Act of God. Also on Primus. Primus was obviously at fault for all of this. Being dead, he also can't defend himself. PERFECT PLAN.     Marchosiel lowers his weapon at the sight of the imperials beating feet. And at the sound of a handful of elites chastizing his lack of trigger discipline. "My apologies," he says with... genuine regret. "I did not mean to endanger you all. I have only reawakened recently, and have not had time to properly acclimate to my protocols. I was also... surprised."     He stares after Reinhardt and- presumably- Will, as they go bobbing off into the sunset. Will kind of has very little way of resisting short of shooting the big guy in the foot, and that would be MEAN AND WRONG, so he's kind of just... Carried along for the ride, leaving Marchosiel and the others behind. "Regardless, it was a mistake on my part. I do not intend to repeat my error." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The giant dragon next to Marchosiel emits a strange, regretful churl. It'd almost be adorable, if it were not coming from an enormous mechadragon bristling with weaponry that includes at least one smoking gunport. Did it fire when it was startled, or was it when it was up in the sky? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August is probably abducted with Will. He'll struggle but he's a scrawny teenager and Reinhardt isn't. "Aaagh, wait, I'm not done here! Marchiosel, next time we meet, I have questions for youuuuuuuuuuu" And then, August disappears with Reinhardt and Will. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "Though they were the aggressors," Genji replies, now approaching at a calm and steady pace, "Most of them were simply following orders. All of them are men with someone waiting for them at home. A sibling, a lover. Many of them likely working as soldiers to ensure those people a happy, safe home." His voice isn't harsh or chastizing - there is calm to it, a tone that almost implores Marchosiel to self-reflection. "That is the weight of a life. Whatever issue I might take with your philosophy aside, please remember that. Never allow yourself to end a life by accident. That, is the truest tragedy of battle." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna lets out a *deep* sigh of relief, and re-activates her hover-thrusters to skim over to Marchosiel and the others. (She would revert to the basic Light Suit and just walk, but her legs would probably give out underneath her ...) She may want to make sure Bartertown isn't too badly damaged, and possibly even offer to help with some repairs ... but once the adrenaline wears off, she's probably going to just collapse and let Elner worry about getting her back to somewhere resembling 'home'. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel briefly considers giving chase... But after a tough battle and surviving that last assault from the robot dragon and its rider... He doesn't see much point to the risk. Besides, the anger he'd been feeling about the obviously superior force picking on the inferior townspeople was pretty much gone now. Instead he's more focused on the sudden arrival and near friendly-fire incident.     Still, Gabriel just shrugs it off. He sighs as he moves to sheathe his sword on his back. The lightning spirit that had been inhabiting it floats off and disappears. Likewise those making up his armor and the firewall disperse as things calm down.     Gabriel puts his hands in his pockets and turns, walking back towards the small town that had been saved, eyeing the one called Marchiosel. Over the radio he asks, "Please be more careful, next time." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel regards Genji with a long look as the cyborg speaks. "Do not worry," he says, then. "I am not interested in promoting the unnecessary loss of life. What happened was a mistake. The Protocols are being patched as we speak." By who, though? Maybe Marchosiel can just... do that. The Ancients were kind of weird in that respect. "The Protector is responsible for protecting human life on this world. Accidental death- death that could have otherwise been prevented- is regrettable indeed." That appears to be his answer to Gabriel as well. Marchosiel glances off towards the horizon briefly, and then moves the slide back onto his mount. It looks like he's making to leave. "If that is all, I do have other business to attend to." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "That is all, for now," Genji replies, turning to leave - but stopping, to look over his shoulder. "But if you are available some time soon, I would like to speak on philosophical matters more... complex. I have questions to put to you." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel stares at the cyborg for a moment longer, his eyes glowing thoughtfully beneath his visor. "Very well. I cannot compromise internal security by providing my contact. However, I will be listening. Call for me and I will come." With that, the Iron Angel's mount stirs. Light blazes beneath its wings and the enormous creature lifts off and races into the sky. All is quiet. "Holy crap! THAT WAS AWESOME." "Someone break out the moonshine!" "WE'VE TAPPED THE KEG. LET'S GET DRUNK." Well, that didn't last long. At least these Frontiersmen are having a good day, right? 
}}

4780/Bunker Hill

2016-11-27T06:00:10Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/11/13 |Location=Core Tellus <CT> |Synopsis=Will invites some friends on an adventure. They find the remains of a long-dead civilization, terri..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/13
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will invites some friends on an adventure. They find the remains of a long-dead civilization, terrible revelations, and a new light in the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=934, 941, 7, 571, 943, 151, 673, 894
|Tinyplot=CODE Chaser: Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                              --A FEW DAYS AGO--                                 When Will said that Tellus was about as wide and open as places come, he wasn't exactly kidding. A few days ago, he would have met with whoever might've been interested in this little expedition outside the idyllic town of Gale, home to farms and fields as far as the eye can see. Or at least, as far out as is reasonable for most farmers to farm.     Though things seem to be a bit more tense than usual. Or at least, there's an unusual number of aircraft in the sky; fleets of tremendous airships, each one sailing westward through the clouds to some unknown destination. Or maybe they're just on patrol? Curious. Regardless, Will would have emphasized that flying at the moment is definitely a no-no. Apparently things may not be as peaceful as they seem.     Not that those particular ships are particularly important for THIS expedition, though! After all, once everyone had gathered up, Will would have set them off, travelling due south from Gale, towards a veritable wall of mountains that loom on the horizon even from the plains of Will's home. Fortunately, none of the Tornado Prairie's namesake Awful Weather gets in the way, and the journey to the mountains takes only a couple of days.     Will calls them the Barrier Mountains. They live up to their name; an enormous wall of stone and soil separated from the rolling plains by a series of foothills, rivers and forests. The trek through the mountains is nothing to laugh at either: days of transit from the fringes of the mountain range, beneath the windswept peaks, towards their mysterious destination.                                   --NOW--                                       The fringe of a wide-brimmed hat peeks out from around a sheer cliff face. Somehow, it just barely avoids getting caught by the TORRENT OF WATER pouring down from somewhere high above. Apparently, the entrance to this particular ruin was BEHIND A WATERFALL. Of course it was. Where else would you hide an immense treasure trove!?     Will peeks around the corner and shuffles another few feet off the narrow ledge and onto a much wider cave mouth. The whole place smells faintly of fresh spring water and the depths of the earth. "Alright, I think this is the place!" Will calls back over his shoulder, hefting a great backpack full of Stuff (tm). "If I were to hide a ruin, it would DEFINITELY be back in here. Probably further into the cave," he thumbs towards the tunnel behind him. "Keep an eye out though. If there're traps, they'd probably put 'em out in the tunnel too." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     'Flying is a no-no'? Well that just leaves Mel in a weird spot, that's how she gets most places. She doesn't have any sort of ground vehicle; she's used to at least being able to set down NEAR her destination and walk in, or preferably just land where she needs to be. So in this particular case, she'll have to improvise.     By flying low and slow enough that the Firestarter-C appears to be a hover vehicle.     So that at least gets her to Gale, to meet up with everyone. After that, she'll probably be hitching a ride with someone or other. And/or walking.     "...This is it. Really."     Sigh.     "Pauwel, you sure do pick the places." Calmly, Mel lifts up her hands, holding them at a diagonal with her right lower than her left. The waters of the waterfall suddenly begin falling at an /angle/, away from the mouth of the cave, as if hitting an invisible surface. Mel has made it easier to get in without getting washed away - or even wet. "Alright, folks, let's get inside, can't keep this up forever." She sounds pretty casual about it. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Once again Kotone was on another adventure on a world that wasn't her own world she had kitted herself out for trouble and had a few new things along with her including a spider like drone of some sort which had not proven to be too much of a problem though she did stick out in her stealth armour and well the spider like drone relaly did stick out. Kotone also is deploying a few of the cheap flying scout drones she's taken to using as of late and they get moving hopeflly scouting ahead for everyone else she'll also open up a tac net to anyone who can connect in some fashion to her's own. "This is a new one you got a way with picking locations and right Mel, shall we get to it? Rory are you ready to go?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The Crimson Spectre will remain in orbit as Maaka teleports to the surface. She'll be driving the rest of the way, tearing across the landscape with a sizable buggy-APC hybrid, a particularly menacing railgun mounted on top via turret as its engine roars.     She matches speed with the Firestarter en-route, rolling her window down and throwing Brock a salute casually when she recognizes the Psi-Marshal.     Once she gets there, the cyborg hops out with her EM CASH rifle slung, going William a cheery wave, even if her face is masked. "I got dibs on taking point, let's get going!" She says, approaching the waterfall and the cave behind it. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The Bandits are here! They've been quiet recently, owing to a series of jumps with Terminal Getaway taking them to the edges of the Multiverse, to places where news travels slow, if at all. But they're back in 'civilised' lands now, and are eager to get busy with standard Chaser duties!     So along they tag with Will! Irvine fills the trip with song, strumming away on a guitar and singing such Chaser classics as 'Hiss Hiss BOOM,' 'Grandma Got Crushed By A War Machine' and 'The Stars Are Brightest When You're At The Bottom Of A Pit.' His voice is good, but he always half-remembers the lyrics and improvises the other half.     When they finally arrive, and Mel splits the waterfall, Molly gasps! "That's amazing! Irvine, how is she doing that?!" Irvine calmly restrings his guitar as he answers. "It's quite simple Molly. Through the power of positive upward thinking, she is able to counteract the downward motion of the water." Molly gasps, and looks at Mel with wide eyes. "You're incredible Miss! Such powerful optimism~!"     As Alexis moves in to take point, the two take out their own gear. Irvine pulls a mean-looking machete with a short-barrel pistol built into the hilt, while Molly affixes a hatchet to the butt of a large revolver, the head serving as a stock to steady her aim. They too go through the waterfall! 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley has come to attend the expedition, though she keeps herself well out of the way of the others in the adventuring party because she is not here in a combative capacity and she wants to record the expedition for the sake of having something written down for later reference. Which is why she spent pretty much the entire trek to the actual location scribbling down a map of the path to where they're going.     Once they get to the entrance, she's all smiles and a wiggling tail. "At least it's just deadly traps," she remarks, happy that this has nothing to do with despair-inducing encounters with the concepts of sadism or other such messed up problems. It's just a treasure hunt.     Ainsley spends a moment drawing little doodles of Irvine singing in the shower, a cartoonish picture she is unlikely to show to anyone, with a little note: 'Chaser folk songs???' She circles it once in her book.     She closes her book only when the prospect of getting drenched by a waterfall occurs to her. Even with it diverted, she doesn't want to get the pages damp. Not a disaster but not fun either. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory's in a good mood today! Good enough that she could burst out singing if she was confident enough to do with other people listening.     Good enough to do so if they weren't about to dive into a place that's as dangerous as they come. She's come wearing a traveler's cloak, the better to hide the fact that she's currently sleeved into a form that's far from human. Now that the group's finally reached their destination she neatly removes it. It FOLDS ITSELF UP afterwards, and the body she has to show to the group...     Well. No clothes. No need for clothing. Shiny metal in roughly humanoid shape, no head to speak of. Instead a round mound with several glowing optics and sensors in varying directions. The hands, which WERE human, begin to... melt? They slowly change shape along with the rest of the thing, metallic flesh flowing and rippling jaggedly as millions of microbots change configurations. The robot topples forward onto arms that become forelegs.     The Flexbot's gait is distinctly feline, a clear demonstration of Bio-mimicry at work. Rory White's shape vaguely resembles a tiger, except for the hardpoint-mounted weapon barrels sprouting from her back and sides.     It doesn't MOVE like a robot should. Her stride's too fluid, too impossible. Even a real tiger couldn't bend and shift down the ledge the way she does, and certainly couldn't scale it nearly vertically...     "I for one can't wait to see what we find in there!" At least the AGI's kind and clear female voice remains the same... 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August Kohler is here! Wait, that's August Kohler? He's certainly more sullen than usual. And hasn't talked unless someone talked to him, or introducing himself. But, physically, he's the same! Except for his weird 'local' clothing and nine-gallon hat (too cheap for all ten gallons). It just turns out that there's no visible scars from the Huntsman encounter! And so, when the group arrives at the Waterfall, August looks up at the water, and into his reflection. He feels into his soul..."Persona!" And out of his soul comes a robot in military dress, covered in burn scars and with a gun for a leg. The Tin Soldier floats in front of him, as the redhead entirely ignores Maaka, and replies. "I'll take point." And then the Tin Soldier will fly forward, attempting to spring traps with its body. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will is maybe a little enthusiastic about getting to go off on another far-flung adventure. He even sings along with Molly and Irvine! It's... Kind of awful. He's not very good at this. In fact, he's kind of awful at it, but THAT'S OKAY. Even if he doesn't know the words, he can still kind of join in on the bits he DOES know.     The addition of various vehicles makes the trip a little less tedious overall. For example, Maaka's ATV probably ended up being used to haul around a good deal of the cargo, because backpacking enough supplies to survive in the mountain is a REAL pain.     "Yeah, yeah. Y'all say that now," he sniffs at all of his detractors and doubters, even as Mel's INCREDIBLE PSYCHIC POWER parts an actual waterfall. "But you'll be singin' a different tune once we get inside and this place turns out to be some kind've MOTHERLODE!" Clearly, Will's feeling the Positive Thinking.     "Anyway," Will beams, whipping his TRUSTY SIDEARM from its holster. Its familiar, blue-white light illuminates the cave. "Let's get going!" It looks like Maaka and August are going to be knife-fighting for the position at the front of their column, so Will'll leave them to it. He stays towards the middle of the procession, shedding light and keeping an eye out for danger. ...Danger is apparently taking a sick-day.     As they make their way deeper into the earth, things DO respond, sort of. What used to be turret emplacements spark and twitch as the group proceeds, and the otherwise pristine stone grows to become scorched with old, blackened carbon. But other than that, there's nothing in their way. It's almost eerie, the state of things. "...Don't tell me someone beat us to it," Will mutters under his breath. "This deep in the mountains, can't be."     Ahead, there's a door. One of those big, mechanical gates that the Ancients sometimes put up in front of Important Places. It's... Slightly ajar. "Damnit," Will mutters, "Let's head inside. Maybe it's somethin' else." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "FOr Christ's sake." Maaka deadpans as August just goes right up front. "Don't cut through the queue, junior." She says bluntly, before she picks up the pace and ventures into the cave itself. She switches to night-vision once it gets dark inside.     She cocks an eyebrow behind her mask at the open gate, tilting her head. "I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts they didn't get too lucky inside there. Everyone stay frosty." She says, cautiously approaching the gate and nudging it open with her rifle's muzzle and heading further inside. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley spares a look of concern to August. Not while he's looking, but when he's trying to move ahead past the others and take point. The lizard woman has good reasons to be concerned, but once she's resigned herself to not being the one equipped for addressing them, she refocuses on the task ahead. Past the waterfall, she opens her book again and begins sketching. This time, it's not a map but a collection of drawings.     She draws scribbles of destroyed turrets, of signs of battle. She gets closer to one of the turrets, careful not to get in front of it or too close to it while she records its design for the book. Once they get to the door, she draws that, too. A lot of pen-on-paper sounds from her direction, just constantly scribbling.     "Now if that's not ominous..."     She closes her book and places it in its leather case at her hip. The case is left open in case she has to summon her own Persona on short notice. She then rests her left hand on the handle to the longsword on her hip. Her nerves buzz with unease, worried about those going inside first, even if they're better equipped to do so than she is. Look at that frown! So frowny. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "That's... that's not how I'm doing it at all." Mel says, giving Irvine a slightly incredulous look. "I'm a psychic. I can move things with my mind. It's what I do." She falls in behind Maaka, but not far; she can easily put up a protective shield from here, and also shoot past the merc with her sidearm. The first broken-down turret probably eats a shot from her pistol, before she realizes what's going on and frowns. "The alternative choice," she replies to Maaka, "Is that they /did/, and they're gonna shoot the next heavily-armed party to stride through that door. Be careful." She's got her pistol at the ready, and of course her psionics can go any time. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The pair... don't seem to pay much heed to the real explanation of Mel's power. Either they've both accepted Irvine's explanation... or they already forgot about it. They do seem stupid enough.     And then, as perfect evidence of that, as they stride through the blackened caves, Molly runs a finger down a rock (taking care not to chip her nail) and then... licks it. "Yup, that's soot all right~!" she says, as if there were any doubt.     And then they stand before the ajar doors. "Fret not everyone!" Irvine declares. "If this place was properly plundered, the doors would be wider open to facilitate the movement of loot out of there!"     That... makes a weird amount of sense. Are they really stupid? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' After shouting at each other over the radio for a minute, August falls back into second position! The Tin Soldier does not, and instead just floats over and next to Maaka where applicable. Cheating! "What /were/ you expecting, Pauwel?" The Tin Soldier mimes at Maaka as they approach the door, some sort of 'work together', before moving to help push the door open. Once they succeed, the Tin Soldier thumbs-ups, before moving to spring traps with face (it really, really wants to do that, apparently). 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is excitd she's in a very good mood too she's ready for an adventure ans she's moving ahead seeing that Rory was in good spirits tht August was here and moviing again. She looks at August persona as he takes point and she nods. She'll take a moment to cloak and strt pressing ahead her spider like drone also moves along as she keeps her SMG ready as everyone is now heading out and they look at the door ahead and she tilts her head before shge moves to get inside. <<Easy Alexis easy>> 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This door looks like it wasn't fully closed. It's very possible they went ahead of us, but never returned." Notes the Rory-bot who's padding along with the others. She slinks up next to the door... and extends a paw. One claw elongates with a camera appearing at the end to try and peek around inside... before she goes on in any further. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     That is definitely soot. While the turrets are largely trashed, Ainsely might be able to get at least a decent sketch of them. It's pretty dark in here, even with the light that Will and the others are supplying, so she won't be able to get TOO many details, unfortunately.     "Right!" Will says at Irvine's sage advice. Maybe optimism is just something that Chasers do? "If they left the door like this, then they'd need to be carrying loot out one man at a time. There's gotta still be all kinds of stuff in there. Come on!"     "I was expectin' to have to fight THROUGH those turrets out there," Will answers August as he hinges the front door open and the group makes its way through. "'Course, now we get to think about how that stuff even got busted up in the first place. Careful, there's all kinds've things that'd love to have a place like this for a den."     As the group presses on with Maaka and the Tin Soldier at the helm, they pass from the very obviously natural cavern into somewhere that is very obviously not. The doors lead past something that was very obviously once a security checkpoint, if the ruined body collapsed over the front desk is any indication. It's dessicated and decayed, obviously having been left here thousands of years ago. Beyond that and around a corner is a great hall of monolithic concrete and winding steel. Everything is a stately grey, punctuated by painted signs written in Ancient script, pointing this way and that. Th whole place is clinically illuminated by some unseen source of light. Maybe by the walls and floors and ceilings themselves?     The place they come into is divided into two floors, each linked to the other by staircases at the far end of the room. Rooms wind around both levels, with glass windows allowing for easy identification of their contents. One appears to be a medical pavilion. Another an old hydroponics facility, though now thoroughly overgrown. The water, lighting and fertilization system were still functioning, apparently. One on the far side of the room is an armory, another nearby is festooned with capsule-like berths set into the wall-- sleeping quarters, apparently.     The middle of the room seems to be a common area, with a few tables set up here and there-- though majority are set up as a sort of barricade facing the main entranceway. There are more scorch marks here, and several more bodies, each one covered in armor made of that familiar (to anyone who's been in this world before) black material.     "...Alright," Will murmurs, switching his sidearm from a torch to an actual gun. "Looks like whoever was in here, there was a fight. And now... Well. Split up, take a look around. We might find something." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka covers her corners, rifle sweeping and clearing in a very operator fashion. She notes signs of a struggle, as well as the intense age. If Chief and that undersea lab was any indication, this isn't the first time she's seen someplace this ancient in nature.     She brushes dust off of a wall, before she follows it towards a staircase. "HYroponics, medical pavilion...this was some sort of lab, or possibly a compound for other purposes." She muses aloud, going towards a door on the far side leading to an armory.     She'll investigate this room, not caring who accompanies her in.     Kotone gets a simple, short message over internal, private comms. [I know, I know...just worried. About Samira.] SHe never uses the Commander's first name like that usually, this says everything. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This... hm." Rory White paces on into the main chamber, looking around very carefully. The Flexbot-Tiger paws around, taking in the sights of everything and looking around at the signs of battle, the corpse...     "The dessicated corpse leads me to think that they were killed a long time ago. Likely by an invader or uprising of some kind. After all they would have no reason to leave here since the systems are still working. Thus, someone killed them. A long time ago. This place could've been left to rot since then and so perhaps we aren't late. Further logic, there was nobody to remove and process the corpse according to whatever customs are in place. High likelihood this is a result of chaos following the great catastrophe that ended the Ancient civilization... but I am getting ahead of myself."     Rory is recording EVERYTHING, especially the ancient writing. As they are HUMAN, she is quite sure that enough Argonaut endeavor - there's bound to be a linguist who loves a challenge - could crack the code. Failing that, enough pattern matching by AIs and filling in the blanks might lead to something...     "Why is it in such better shape than the other ruins?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In they go! The pair seem unperturbed by the signs of violence. Indeed, they immediately make a move for the bodies, rolling them over and checking any pockets for anything useful. Clearly these two have no respect for the dead, something Irvine only clarifies as he picks up a loose skull.     "Gee whiz fellas, this place is spooking me out of my mind! Oh wait, I don't got one no more! HAHAHAH!" he says in a falsetto while making the jaw move. Molly giggles and applauds the macabre display before going to investigate the medical pavilion... before letting out a delighted squeal. "Irvine, I found the greatest treasure ever!"     Soon she comes out... sitting in an office chair and using her feet to pull herself along. Irvine has a positively giddy look on his face as he rushes over to examine it. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Once it's clear they're not gonna be attacked, Mel decides to go have a look around.     By telekinetically grabbing a table, stripping the legs off of it, and stepping onto it to use as a floating platform.     She's getting a general look at all the various rooms, for the sake of seeing what's there; but she's also specifically looking for anything that looks like some kind of important office. Somewhere that'll have information access. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Rory IS an amazing research-y robot type, so of course she'd be totally into a lot of this kind of stuff. The writing is easily copied into memory- no memetic virus or anything like that. Will is silent for a moment at her stream-of-consciousness logic, though shakes his head as if to clear it once she finishes. "That's... A good point," he murmurs, brow furrowing thoughtfully. "Maybe it's just because of how deep underground this place is? I mean, we're pretty much under a mountain right now."     And then Irvine DOES TERRIBLE THINGS TO A CORPSE, OH MY GOD. "W-wh--" Will gawps. He's. He's not sure whether to laugh or to cringe or to just kind of stare for a little while, but fortunately Molly emerges with the BEST INVENTION EVER in time to distract him from the skull-chattering. Of course, Irvine does find all kinds of things on the bodies; a few ID cards, at least one of which looks PARTICULARLY important, a pocketful of loose change-- apparently the Ancients had coins? Or maybe those are something else. No weapons though.     Meanwhile, Maaka peeks around inside the armory and finds... Well, for a marine like herself, it's a veritable treasure trove. The guns in here look /intact/ what few are actually still on the shelves. Most are covered in a thick layer of dust that must have accumulated over hundreds of years. But still, there are plenty of what must be grenades or similar devices stacked up on shelves, a few spare sets of armor, and a couple of decayed but intact assault weapons. Curiously though, some of the dust looks... thinner than the rest. Did someone come through here recently? If they did, it was still years ago.     Mel finds what she's looking for up on the second floor. She ALSO finds another corridor leading deeper into the ruin, but she probably wants to find what she's after first. It looks like some kind of overseer's office-- no. She'd probably know military when she sees it. The way the desks are arranged overlooking the room below, the framed medal on the desk screams 'I am an officer and I want everyone who walks through these doors to know it.' There's a terminal built into the table that looks like it still has power and a chair for swiveling on behind it. Underneath the desk is where a hidden side-arm /should/ have been, but it's missing now. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka takes a look at the old-ass guns she finds, and thinks for a second. Does she have space for this much firepower in her inventory?     Fuck yeah she does, so she goes to hoover up guns and ammo like crazy, stuffing weapons into her inventory left and right. THis'll make either good additions to her formidable arsenal, or just stuff she can sell later at a good price once she gets them back into working condition. "Damn, if this ain't some nice scratch." She mutters to herself giddily, scooping up weapon after weapon, and ammo following that. She'll have to think about snagging armor, but she does so in the end, stuffing it all in her manipulator before she dusts her hands off. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Well that's interesting.     Mel steps off of her platform and onto the walkway proper, setting the legless table against a nearby wall. She's /very cautious/ when she steps into the office; in fact, she releases the tiniest little 'pulse' of telekinesis, like a gentle wind, to set off any traps that might be there preemptively. Only once she's sure it's safe, does she sit down in front of the console and start trying to dig around. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As the group begins to split up, August /ignores/ Irvine's macabre, instead moving with his robot self towards the hydroponics room. He first checks the door handle. If that fails, he Tin Soldiers the door. Once inside, August does a cursory inspection of the room, and then begins checking the machinery and plants to see exactly what they are. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <> Kotone keeps moving and checking out the chamber for a moment she pauses looking at the corpses. "It makes sense when your in surival mode you won't generally risk your life to burry the dead unless it's to contain a virus or something akin to tht." Kotone records everything she sees as normal, right? Sh tilts for a moment. "No one found it till now? Some sort of maintance system?" She ask as she keeps on moving and looking about to see just what they got there to look at. "Will? Rory? This place could have been sealed until we got here too preventing anything else from getting in right?" She starts to look about Irvine is doning she backs off a bit and starts to look about for any techinal things she might be of use for but it might be best for her to beak off and search her self. <<Maaka you find anything of interest?>> With August heading out to the Hydroponics? She's going to check out the living quarters and her spider drone skitters after her. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "The door was ajar, nothing barred entry. The evidence is inconclusive regarding when someone last visited. However..." Irvine and Molly's shenanigans earn nothing more than a pause from Rory. She might have frowned in Synth mode, but that's an impossibility as a Flexbot-Tiger...     "However, anyone who might've come before did not do so with the intent of scavenging. If they had, the dead would not have to wait until now to be searched. More things would be in disarray, and the machinery might not be functioning so well. Alternatively, they would have set up security of their own... ... or they might still be here, still exploring in other levels. Ah! Don't wander off alone!"     The Tiger-bot dashes after August Kohler, deciding to follow him to the Hydroponics. Because nobody should go off solo in a place like this... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     MAAKA GETS EQUIPPED WITH: FIREPOWER. The weapons appear to be energy weapons of some kind. Just looking at them, the assualt weapons' output seems impressive, but somehow less so than Will's Solano? Weird.     Meanwhile, Mel encounters a man who is very obviously bad at actually Being An Officer. He's very obviously probably some kind of desk jocky, judging by the lack of traps and the fact that apparently he decided that he didn't need a log-off timer on his computer. Of course, much of what's actually ON the computer is kind of... Hard to read. The whole thing is full of jargon and unusable, Ancient language. Though somehow, a few words do stand out as readable- or at least, close enough to modern writing to be legible. "Command Center." "VICTORY." The guy also seemed to have on his equivalent of Alt-Tab a browser filled with several dozen pictures of a specific, adorable cat. It's white and fluffy.     There's also a facility map. It's... Big. Many of the rooms appear to have been blacked out, with corridors leading there indicating that they may have been cut off. Sealed off, maybe? Several other rooms are flashing red. One, at the very center of the facility- but not far from this room- is glowing blue, and has that same word on it. 'VICTORY.' But... this place is way too large to just be a laboratory. And this was an officer's room, so... ...Military?     Meanwhile, Will has just gotten news of a mysterious ash-pile in the medical pavilion, and slips inside (with Molly and Irvine!?) to check it out. But while he does that, August finds his way into the hydroponics lab. The whole place seems to be... overgrown. Massively overgrown. The plants sprouting from their pots are festooned with a veritable cornucopia of different vegetables and fruits and... And they're all growing from the same stem. Each one completely healthy.     And yet each pot has its own, individual label and associated picture. Tomatos here. Potatos there. But each tomato plant is growing potatos, and each potato is also growing tomatos, and all so much more.     The residential room is a mess. Moreso than any of the others. There are bodies strewn around all over the place, people who seemed to have been struggling to get to their beds. Curiously, some of the bed-pods are missing. As if they were disappeared into the holes in the wall. There are buttons on the sides of each of the pods- keypads, apparently, with a single red panel. One is still flashing.     The medical pavilion is much in the same way as the armory. The supplies are all still HERE, though vastly diminished. Stacks of medkits are depleted, and the fridge is bare of all but the last dregs of liquid medicines. And yet... Some of this stuff seems freshly claimed. The dust is disturbed. There's ash on the floor-- wood ash. From... "...A campfire?" Will breathes. "There WAS someone else here," he says. "Someone was here before us. But why'd they leave without taking all this gear?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August harvests a sample of each different vegetable, and also some seeds, looking for something to store them in. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     At the very least, Irvine put the skull back where he found it! As for the ID cards, he has a very skewed idea of what is and is not important. At the very least, he announces "Hey everyone, I found some of those magic cards with people's faces on them!" The coins are pocketed, he's sure he'll find a use for them elsewhere.     Meanwhile, Molly does indeed show Will the ash pile in the medical pavilion. No she's not getting out of the chair. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     [Found a shitload of energy weapons. Probably military issue if I were to guess.] Maaka messages back, exiting the armory once she has her spoils. SHe'll be quick to study those guns when she has the chance, mostly to figure out their capabilities and such, before selling most of them. She'll be Going to the living quarters, to track down Kotone, maybe get a look around while she still can. "Find anything, kid?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Tappity-tap. Huh. Okay. Hmm. -oh my god, are you shitting me, cats. Ancient lost technology of an advanced precusor socity, and even here, /internet cats/.     Mel quietly shakes her head. "We never change, do we?"     But more importantly, a map. A map, with a place indicated that looks very, very interesting. Mel takes out her pocket smartcomm and snaps an image, shifts the map, snaps another. She's taking all this down before she steps out of the office, up onto the second-floor walkway.     "HEY PEOPLE, I GOT US A MAP! THINK THERE'S A ROOM ON HERE WE SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT!"     Having declared this in her 'getting the crowd's attention' voice, Mel then lifts her 'platform' up and floats herself back down to the ground floor. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     August finds a handy dandy NANOWEAVE BAG. It recieves the vegetables and seeds handily. Apparently they just had these things lying around... Or maybe they were meant for exactly what he's doing now-- harvesting vegetables. August's harvest looks delicious and tasty, as it should.     Will emerges from medical with a complex look upon his face. This place doesn't make sense; if someone did come here, why didn't they leave with all this loot? Maaka found a bunch of guns-- those go for TONS of money. There's medical equipment all over. The facility itself is massive, too. Maybe they found something more valuable and got the fuck out? Too many questions. Too little in the way of answers.     But Mel seems to have found a way forward! And Irvine's got stuff that will PROBABLY HELP in that regard. "Alright, let's get a move on iff'n we're done. We can take another look on our way out, but I'm in the mood to get to the bottom of this mess." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Fascinating! These plants... the labels are wrong. I wonder, could they have somehow cross-pollinated and mutated in the millenia? But who or what is doing the pollinating? Or perhaps it was a bioengineering experiment that went wrong..." Rory, too, decides to gather a few samples. Her Flexbot body is sufficient to store a few tissue samples - a few leaves, a few seeds where manageable...     "These plants could be extremely useful if they can survive the Weston plant's soil. I will definitely try cultivating them there if they're safe. But an actual functional hydroponics facility? This is a treasure trove for William's people. A reliable food supply even in winter." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once he's out of the garden with his food, August approaches Maaka. "Got a pistol you can spare? I'm otherwise unarmed, outside of the flying tin man." He stares with a blank face. He's actually serious! Meanwhile, the Tin Soldier goes and pokes at Irvine and Molly. They're interesting. Let's see how they react to a miming robot ghost. Also, August follows around when the majority of the group finally goes forward. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka thinks about it. She REEEEEEAAAAAAALLY thinks about it. THen she eyes August, before producing a laser pistol pilfered from the armory. "Here, don't point it anywhere you don't wanna shoot though." She says, offering the laser gun grip-first to the kid. "And don't say I had anything to do with this." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <<Oh man I'll have to get a look at some later if you'll let me have one??>> Kotone meanwhile is now on her way to check out the living areas and to see what she can find there. She moves past the bodies trying figure out why they were trying to get to their beds and she halts for a moment. <<Found ... what the hell? They were trying to get to the bed pods and some were missing here...>> She goes to chck the key pannel to see just what's going on with it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Kotone investigates the keypad and the shiny, candy red button. The pretty, glowing button. But she somehow resists the siren call to press it, and so she is SPARED WHATEVER FATE MAY HAVE AWAITED HER. But people are moving, mostly because Will is getting tired of cryptic clues and seems keen on discovering what the blazes is even up with this place. And that's why he's hovering over Mel's shoulder.     'Looks real interesting indeed.' "VICTORY?" Will whispers at the map on Mel's screen. "What's so important that they'd call it something like that?" Maybe it's what they used to win the war? "If... If it's what I think it is, then--" He twitches a bit. Or rather, his lips twitch a bit, widening into a downright manic grin, "Mel. Mel do you know what it might mean iff'n it's what I think it is? It means we're all going to be legends!"     Will is... Giddy. So giddy he doesn't even notice when they make their way down the corridor. So giddy he doesn't even realize it when he steps on what looks to be another scorch mark on the floor, only for it to crunch with a sound like sand or ash. He's not giddy enough to fail to notice the terrible sound that follows, though.     It's like a high, keening wail. Like a note played at the very top end of the human audible range. Will winces as it screeches out a stacatto noise. Rory would identify it as... some kind of short-range auditory handshake protocol. "The blazes--" The layer of ash vanishes in a whirl of black smoke.     Movement from behind. From ahead. From the vents in the ceiling. Smoke begins leaking from the dessicated bodies strewn across the floor. Dessicated. They still had flesh. They /still had flesh/ but no weapons and with the smoke billowing, they begin /rising./ Each one rattles as they lift, like marionettes on invisible strings. The black smoke coalesces over their hands and out of their sunken eyesockets and hollow jaws, hardening into jet black spikes.     As they rise, they begin to move. Faster than they should, their legs sweep forward amidst currents of swirling smoke. Others begin literally crawling out of the walls, throwing open ventilation ducts and scrambling into the corridor. There was a trap-- but it wasn't the kind of trap laid to protect something. The kind of trap it is is far, far worse. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Per her own advice, Mel is still being cautious. But with the map to show everyone, she's not going down the corridor gun-first. She does, however, reach out and give Will a brief, light two-fingered 'fwap' on the back of the head. "Hey. Focus, Pauwel, focus. You never know what the hell might hit us, we're not safe until we-"     NOISE, oh god. Mel is immediately covering her ears, grimacing. "Owowowow shit-" For a short while, she dares to be optimistic enough to assume that will be all they have to deal with. Needless to say, she's not so lucky.     "...Pauwel, what the /hell/ is with your world and freaky spiked undead things?!"     Immediately, the PsiMarshal lifts her hand and sends a wave of force down the corridor. She's being careful not to hit any of her allies, but anything /else/ in the blast is gonna have to deal with a couple dozen tons of force. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa knows in the multiverse the shiny red button may well be her doom so she's going to break off from pushing it, it's time to get moving. <<Looks like people died trying to get to the beds and the pods are going I'm thinking something contaminated the complex and the few lucky ones managed to use the escape system here to get our or I think it's one>> E Damn it that Red Button is tempting as she moves to catch up with everyone else she also cringes at the sound from whatever Will has triggered and now she starts to go for her weapon when warnings go off on her HUD.               W A R N I N G NANOMACHINES DETECTED! W A R N I N G               Kotone goes cold she's been to Rorys earth and she knows what hell nanotechnology weapons can do. "NANOMACHINE CONTAIMATION!" She calls out in warning and opens fire on the risen dead as they come for them. She was right people were trying to get out before something horrible killed them. This has gone from creepy to nightmare fuel. She now rebound off a wall trying to keep away form the undead as she opens fire. With Mel giving her a good set up she'll start firing more bursts down at the horror things. "No idea if they are infectious! I'm going to err on the side of YES!" It's not coral thank God, it's not Coral. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August gets ONE LASER PISTOL, which he safely stores on his person. Hopefully he won't get framed for attempted murder again! As the group proceeds, the Tin Soldier sweeps for traps. But then, they find the worst trap of all. Nanozombies! August steps backwards towards the exist, while the Tin Soldier mimes a roar (it does not actually roar). And then it sweeps forward, aiming that gun wildly in every direction containing the nanoswarms. And it fires. Literally! A sweeping wave of fire roars forward, attempting to burn through the swarm. If any try to duck or jump or anything, the fire is pointed to hit them. "GO! EVERYONE GO!" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly were hanging out on the first floor with their precious bounty. And by that, I mean that Molly was sitting in the chair as Irvine spun it, turning her into a whirring top of blue and black. That is, until the dead start rising and the nanomachines start to filter in.     Looking down at one of the corpses, Irvine raises a foot and stamps down HARD. "Your time is past, chum! Best lay there and be properly dead!" As everyone starts to evacuate, he stops Molly's spinning and pushes her along with them! 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory comes barreling out of the hydroponics section at full charge, all four legs pumping and clanging against the ground. Her sensors aren't fine enough resolution to detect Nanoswarms except where they're most concentrated, and that worries her. Her Flexbot's own defenses won't hold against a Nanite-based deconstructive assault. In a panic she directs most of those internal defenses to guard her Cyberbrain with everything they've got.     What she doesn't understand is... why are these Nanoswarms ANIMATING THE DEAD?!     "Revision to previous hypothesis, dessication and decay could be caused by Nanoswarms. So much for that theory! We must retreat! Now!"     The Tiger does have fangs though. Rory's multiple weapons barrels aren't just for show. They're actually railguns. Internal mechanism shift Ammo types after a moment, loading her limited supply of Jammer rounds.     She pelts everything that moves liberally with them!     These rounds don't penetrate or explode or cause much damage. They STICK and emanate electromagnetic scrambling signals. With any luck it'll destroy the nanites' ability to coordinate with each other and get these corpses dropping like flies...     ... But it's not much use against the mobile swarms themselves... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Ah FUCK!" NANOMACHINES seem like a good enough reason for even Maaka to make a run for it. She lets August handle the swarm of microbots, and she bails, grabbing Kotone by the arm as she runs. "C'mon, ain't worth letting these things get into us!" She hollers, before she runs like hell is at at her heels.     To be fair, it is on some level. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Spiked undead indeed. Mel's telekinetic shockwave SLAMS into the undead down the corridor. Their flesh seems to unravel like tattered papyrus, disintegrating into a grotesque mist of corpsedust and nanotechnology. But they don't stop. The whorl of material sweeps back around and swaddles their staggering bodies as shattered bone and torn flesh are harpooned by black spikes and knit back together. It stuns them for a moment- long enough to break past, but...     "I don't know, damnit! This is only the second time!" Will complains back at Mel. "Why is it that every time you come along, it's always zombies!?" The Solano barks a reply at the rising tide of blackening corpses. Blue-white plasma catches one of the host tattered host bodies as it starts to repair itself. The thing catches fire, reeling back as if to scream-- but it continues to regenerate even as the black tendrils are begin to burn. Kotone's shots find purchase as well. One bolt catches the black-matter within one of the shamblers, shattering its cohesion and causing the host to reel back, as if its strings were cut.     Fire seems to be a reasonable answer to these beasts. August's MARAGI- variant blasts into the swarm, which seems to briefly lose coherence. Long enough to cause a corpse to stagger and briefly fall to the ground, but perhaps not long enough to stop their crushing advance. More begin to crawl out of the side-rooms, several bodies rise from the tube-room and shamble into the main chamber. Irvine's foot comes down HARD on one of the corpse's heads as it begins to rise, but more of those tendrils seize the broken shards and begin tugging them back together     The tide seems to stem, however, at Rory's prompt use of electromagnetic rounds. The bolts smash into their intended targets without issue, and a cacophony of electronic noise fills the chamber. The swarm reacts poorly, losing cohesion in its entirety...     Before each corpse begins emitting that same handshake protocol and the swarm immediately comes back together. It's using auditory signals as a backup for its electronmagnetic communication!?     "Damnit, we can't turn back now!" Will yells over the din. "The room's too dang big, too many of them. We'd get buried alive!" Indeed, the swarm seizes upon its opportunity to attack, lunging at the most obvious targets-- August, Kotone, Mel-- and attacking with razor-sharp claws! "We need to get somewhere safe, regroup, plan! Come on!"     Will... Perhaps unwisely charges down the corridor, pelting regenerating corpses with plasma as he moves. "If there's something important in here, it's probably in a sealed room!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Look, just because I have the world's worst luck doesn't mean this is /my/ fault!" Mel has already dialed her pistol's yield up to max and is taking shots wherever she can, but frankly, even that's peanuts compared to the kind of force she can output just by smashing them with her mind. And just now, she used enough force to splatter a normal person, but all it did was force these things to pull themselves back together. So the answer is obvious.     More force.     Around four times as much, to be a little more exact. The lunging nanozombies get within about ten feet before slamming into the wall of telekinetic force that Mel unleashes. This time, it's her full strength. A hundred tons, enough to pitch a battletank through the air a couple times over, and spread out enough to blow back the entire wave of them. "Everyone start falling back! I can keep them from getting too close while we move, but we're not gonna be able to hold out here forever!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Oh shit, fire's not working well enough! There's only one solution...more fire! August WAS going to ignite the Tin Soldier and pull off a kamikaze, but Will requested something different that would probably work better. Therefore, that rifle begins spraying flames in a horizontal line, forming a massive wall of FIRE. And also draining poor August's SP. The human side of the equation, meanwhile, moves to escape with the others, the Tin Soldier miming with a hand 'wait for me!'. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Things are bad, even the Bandits can tell.     "Molly."     "Yes Irvine?"     "We'll have to say goodbye."     "I know..."     And with that, Molly hops off the chair, and the two get to work. Grabbing fire extinguishers from the walls and producing myriad explosives from their bags, they got to work with rolls of duct tape. In moments, the chair is wrapped up with enough explosives and contents under pressure to make a fireworks factory blush.     In synchrony, they give it mighty KICK, sending it rolling towards the shambling hordes and nanoclouds. "Burn it NOW!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now it's time for the ultimate sacrifice. A true friend, one who is willing to give up their life for others. They will be recognized along with Shadow Klaus and Panzercat as 'cool people'. August ignites the chair on fire as it becomes wheeling towards the swarm. Rest in peace, rollychair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' ".... Distressing. That's far beyond what my nanites can do! Who DESIGNED these?!" It reminds her of... things. Things she'd rather not remember. The Tiger starts padding backwards. An A.G.I. Rory might be, but she's capable of the full range of human emotion. And right now...     Primal fear and old traumas are at the forefront of it. She briefly ponders turning tail and just bailing wholesale... but no, she regains control of her instincts.     The life of an A.G.I. like her begins with training after all. Solid training to recognize and control her emotions and not make decisions based on them. Devoting all the processing power she can to thinking through this one, she remembers something important.     "... This Morph is equipped with a disassembler nanoswarm hive!" A disassembler swarm. It's not typically very effective as an offense. It might not help at all - she has no way to tell just how the opposing nanoswarm will react. She'd have to imagine competently.... anyone smart enough to design these must have accounted for an opposing nanoswarm, right?!     Well, only one way to find out.     Rory goes dashing along with Will but her steps are measured.     The moment she has an opportunity she stops near one of the corpses he blasted. A panel opens on the Flexbot's shoulder and a blue mist pours forth. A tiny amount of her Disassembler Nanoswarm. It descends upon the infested remains with directives to rip apart foreign nanites.     It's not self-replicating, but it may be just the weapon she needs if this enemy swarm didn't account for opposition! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Things are getting hot Kotone shockingly has experiance weith nanotech weapons and she's opening fire when she can but she looks to WIll. "WE'll get over run here I'm agreeing not to give up but we need to pull out for now!" She opens fire on them more. "We are dealing with some possible Titan level bullshit here!" In someways this was still better than her Halloween, at least she came here expecting trouble. She's dealing with Zombies agian it's bad but it's just bad news here she is moving to pull back now but she's intending to maybe be the last one out... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' More force.     Mel's casual tremendous telekinetic might is enough to flay flesh from bone, but for these things, it's a mere inconvenience at best. But when she adds more power on top of that, when she turns air solid and blasts bodies across the room with force enough to /liquefy/ ordinary human beings, that's something else entirely. Her power flings the corpses to the far end of the chamber, pinning their slurried bodies against the wall. And then August sets them all on fire.     The swarm gurgles and struggles to escape the flame, but it, too, can do little against that kind of telekinesis. Mel can't keep it up forever, maybe, but she may not need to. She just needs to keep it up for long enough. At least it cleared a path, even though more corpses, unbound by Mel's telekinesis, begin to fill the gap. AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE     THE ANCIENT ROLLY-CHAIR, with its maximized comfort and efficient, ergonomic design, and full range of rotation and reclinement, is sent sailing into the room and the crush of shambling corpses, piled high with enough explosives blast a hole in a mountain. Then August sets it on fire. The explosion is... spectacular.     Fire-extinguishing foam is released by the primary detonation, which rapidly and explosively expands, volatilizes and contributes to the secondary burn. The first boom stirs up thousands of years of dust into the air, which is all set alight by the second. The ante-room explodes.     Like, just actually, truly explodes. The ceiling cracks, crumbles, and begins collapsing. Dozens of corpses are buried under tons of smothering earth in an instant. ...Well. That was a thing.     Meanwhile, Rory unleashes a nanoswarm of her own upon the shamblers still lying in wait ahead. One swarm meets another, and Rory's begins picking its target apart... Before the black smoke adapts and begins a counter-attack, dissassembling its attacker in turn, and repurposing their parts for replacement units...     And then Will starts shooting at them. At the points where they mingle. Blue-white plasma sweeps through the swarms and sets them ablaze. The black smoke takes especially poorly to it, giving Rory's swarm the opportunity to finish off the dregs.     More clawing in the walls. Faint, but growing louder. There are still more out there... But then they reach a door. A great, sealed bulkhead with a card-reader at one side. "...Here. Mel, is this the right place?" Indeed, it is. VICTORY lies beyond, just waiting to be revealed. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "You're telling' me!" Maaka says, drawing a 9mm with her offhand as she fires upon the horde of nannies. She's not stupid enough to think that'll stop them, but maybe they might slow down a bit from pistol rounds as she and Kotone escape.     "Fuck, this is why we don't use nanobots lightly in my world!" SHe says, dragging Kotone to safety as they run the hell out of here. Thankfully, Rory, WIll, and August manage to save the day in time, at least for now anyways.     Vayo con dies, Rolly-Chair. We did not deserve your majesty. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Looks like it," Mel replies. "I'd rip the door out but we wanna be able to close it afterward, get it open fast!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "Key-card reader," Will mutters, as he moves towards the console. "Mister Irvine! Y'all still have that one you found!?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly don't look away as the chair explodes. It deserves to be watched remembered. The man half-hears Will's words and produces the stack of cards, handing them to the boy.     Then the two square up, weapons drawn and pointed. There's no way they went down just to that. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Indeed, there's no way that's all that there is. Even as Will starts swiping cards, the noise of /things/ scraping against the walls grows louder and louder. It's made worse with every 'bee-beep' and every rejected security clearance the card reader makes. Another denial tone. A nearby vent bursts open and a corpse crawls its way out. Another, and the soil begins to shift as black-clawed hands scrape their way out. Another, and a half-dozen fall out of a panel in the ceiling. Then. Finally.                                     BEEP                                         The gate slides open with the churning of millenia-old gears. "Go," Will shouts, "In! Everyone in!" He's the first across the breach, himself, and swings over to one side where another console waits. Once everyone's in, he swipes the card again. A zombie reaches in just as the door slides shut-- and severs the limb at the elbow. ...Safety. But... Where are they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The chamber is... Even larger than the room they'd first found themselves in. The domed ceiling is vaulted high enough to contain a four-storey building at its uppermost point. Pillars rise from floor to ceiling to hold the thing up against the tremendous weight of the mountain above.     On the ground-level, there are a great number of computer consoles built into cocentric, circular desks, as if to allow everyone working to face the center of the chamber-- or away from it. The walls of the room, perfectly cylindrical and stark white, save for some long-abandoned holographic monitors, rise toward the ceiling above.     In the middle of the room is... A hole. A great, terrible gap where there, by all rights, should have been SOMETHING. There are even what look like interlocking bolts to keep that something in place, but it's gone now-- which is impressive, given that that something evidently was large enough to extend several floors below. There's another sealed door at the far end of the room. Claws swipe futiley against the steel bulkhead behind. And there. In the corner of the room. Tucked into the outermost ring of desks... Is a chair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' THROUGH THE GATE AND TO SAFETY! ... but Rory White isn't comforted whatsoever when there's a SEVERED NANOZOMBIE ARM in the room. She directs her own nanoswarm to target it for DEVOURING.     Against the giant quantity outside, this would undoubtedly be a completely one-sided losing battle. HERE though, she can ensure that this thing is completely neutralized.     Not that she needs to devote all her time to that, only a sufficient amount of attention through her sensors will do.     The rest of her attention's on the room. What of it she can muster. For the moment she is...     Uncharacteristically quiet. Just standing there on all fours, the robot feline is completely still apart from the nanoswarm defenders at work...     THAT REALLY RATTLED HER and she needs a few minutes to gather her focus again. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The moment Maaka is through the gate, she slams against the wall and covers the others as they run through. Once everyone is through, she will go and grab whatever is in reach that's heavy like a chair or a heavy crate or whatever at the door to keep it blocked.     She'll also be swapping her EM rifle for a welding torch from her manipulator, just in case. At least until she realizes they may NEED to go through that door to exit this place. "...dammit." She pockets the torch, drawing her 10mm sidearm as she looks around, approaching the console. "Looks like an admin room of some sort, given the consoles." She muses, then looks to the hole in the floor. "Why the hell not. Give me a second, guys.     She produces a flare, setting it off before she drops it into the hole to test how deep it goes, depending how long it takes for there to be a plunk noise of the flare hitting solid ground.     Hearing claws, she levels her pistol to the OTHER sealed door, keeping her distance. "Okay, nobody open that door." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     In the door in the door IN THE DOOR-     Mel rolls through in a practiced motion, coming out of it with her sidearm up and ready. But it's closed, and they're safe, and...     "Some kind of hangar?" she mutters. It's not long until she wanders over to a desk herself, deciding to see what she can get out of the console; though she does glance up at Maaka, waiting to see the results of the flare test. "If there's nothing with teeth, claws or guns down there, lemme know. I can go down there and take a look." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is pulled along by Alexis aqs they now get to cover she slumps down to the ground panting, more out of habit than actual need but she's looking freaked. "That ... was some nanotech horror, I thought what is saw on Rory's earth was bad news but this?" She's shivering at this and just trying to calm down and she's not yet starting to look about, it's mroe she's getting herself centered again. "All right Yamakawa ... calm down." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once they're in the room, August immediately takes a survey of their surroundings. There's a hole. A sealed door. And a really high ceiling where it is /really dark/ up there. That isn't ominous at all! Time to shed some light on things. With fire. The Tin Soldier leaps upwards, bullets firing at a pillar, attempting to chisel FOOTHOLDS in it. If it can make somewhere to stand, it'll climb up, and then aim that gunleg upwards, standing on the regular leg, and begins spraying fire in the air. If, during this mad gout, any torches or anything are spotted, the fire is directed there. August could have really just used a flashlight. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     While everyone else is doing that whole 'safeguarding the area' thing, the Bandits observe a moment of silence for their fallen compatriot, hands over their hearts as they carve the memory of their brief time with the chair into it.     And then they turn around and see the other chair.     They both stride up to it, silent. Molly takes a seat while Irvine spins it sedately.     "Hey Irvine?"     "Yes Molly?"     "This chair has quite a legacy to live up to, doesn't it?"     "Mmm, it certainly does."     What do you mean they're not helping? They're keeping out of the way aren't they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Maaka would be waiting by the pit for a while. The flare just keeps going down, down, down into the depths of the mountain. Its light might have seen bright when she had held it, but within a few seconds, the dark below seems to swallow it up completely, though as it falls, Maaka would likely see what look like pipes or some kind of conduits jutting out of the walls of the shaft. When it does finally make a sound, it's so faint that only properly augmented senses would even have a chance in hell of detecting it. It's pretty clear that something WAS definitely here, but whatever it is, it's definitely gone now. Fortunately, nothing dangerous is actually down there, that she can see. Nothing moving, anyway.     Separated from the rest of the swarm, Rory's nanites have little difficulty digesting the zombified arm. The thing stops twitching relatively soon thereafter. Apparently that door is proof against nanotechnological swarms, because they're clearly not seeping through.     A cursory glance of the room gives some idea about what this room was used for. Many of those holographic projections seem to be maps. Specifically, for anyone with any military background, they look like strategic diagrams, with forces arrayed across a strangely familiar landmass. It's Tellus, with regions marked out in various colors all across the map. Various shapes indicate the presence of what must be force mobilizations. Arrows are attached to each shape, directing them across the map-- But it's... different. The Tellus on those projections seems younger. The landmass seems larger in these projections, more defined. How much has the world changed over the years?     Walls of text are the next order of business on the walls. They're largely unreadable, however, to people of the modern era. The jargon scrolling across the windows is likely full of codespeak anyway. But there is a lot of information here. This place was Important.     Meanwhile, August is commiting HORRIBLE VANDALISM upon a priceless historical relic. The pillars are vulnerable to being shot, it seems. Or rather, vulnerable enough to blow footholds and hand-grips into them. The Tin Soldier shoots up into the ceiling, but the only torches that he might be able to find are all electrical. These people weren't medieval! The puffs of flame do, however, briefly illuminate an enormous set of bulkhead doors at the very top of the room, immediately overtop the huge pit in the floor.     While all this is going on, and while Will catches some badly needed breath, the Bandits go and claim a chair as their own! That chair will feel so much pressure over the foreseeable future. So many people it'll have to carry. And someday it, too, might be expected to make the ultimate sacrifice. ... They might spot, over in that direction, what looks like an old, decaying, and very thoroughly stuffed backpack leaning against a nearby table. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Nothin'." Maaka says after a long pause. She waits to hear something, anything, from that hole, before she shrugs at Mel. "No need to bother looking that way, whatever is down there has to be long dead. Hopefully anyways." She says, approaching the consoles. Codespeak codespeak codespeak. THis is mostly useless jargon and Maaka knows it, before she begins to sift through the data...if only out of curiosity.     She only stops HACKING to look up at what August and his Persona are doing, and she just mutters, "Fuck are you doin?" She's never going to understand some people.     At least, until she notices he's making a means to climb up the pillars. She holsters her Kama before she approaches the pillar. "Kotone, take over for me on that terminal. I'm gonna go for a climb."     Her suit's gloves begin to adapt their properties before she adheres to the pillar, paramagnetics doing their job so she can climb up the pillar like a Friendly Neighborhood Wall-Crawler from Queens, as oddly specific as that sounds, until she stops at the bulkhead. Once she's up there, she begins to look around for a control pad of some kind she can hack to open the doors. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In the course of her languid rotations, Molly spots the stuffed backpack. "Irvine, launch me over there!" Her partner, obliges, grabbing her by the arm and slingshotting her! Her trajectory is curves, making her drift along the edge of the hole before ending up right next to the backpack.     Immediately, she picks it up and starts methodically laying the contents out. She's surprisingly neat for a bizarre criminal. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "More a matter of curiosity," Mel replies to Maaka, "But if the drop's /that/ long I'm not even gonna bother. Not unless we /need/ to know." So instead, she wanders over to the far door, to try something no one's tried yet.     Using the knob. Or the keypad, or whatever. She's gonna try and open it the easy way. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone would watch the flare goe down but it seems she's starting to recover her wits more she's back on her feet and shaking her head a little bit. She has to wonder how deep things is as she only hears the faintest of noies as flare hits the bottom. She now turns to record the maps and text displays. Sure they are in Jargon but they are imporant and if they find a way to translate them later. She also takes a peek at August for a moment and one eyes what August is doing, with the hand holds but the fire? That's got an eyebrow raise but she needs to get back to work. "What the heck was this place for with defences like that and I think I get what happened with the bunk house..." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Now that Rory White's coming back to her senses proper, the panic receding, the feline robot shifts at long last. One paw in front of the other, she starts roving through the chamber, making sure to thoroughly examine every inch of the walls and surroundings - and thus, record it for later analysis. Every letter on every wall, every layout detail. it'll all be fit enough for a VR reproduction in the future!     Whether that'll be of any use remains to be seen.     What she does settle on is... the maps. Instantly she begins an analysis, matching the given continents against her current cartographical knowledge of the planet obtained from orbital surveys...     If the divergence points can be picked out, then perhaps locations marked on the map may yield future scavenging opportunities! Among other possibilities! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     APPARENTLY MAAKA IS PART SPIDER. Like her (possible) distant relatives, she skitters up one of the pillars and comes to the bulkhead in the celing. It's definitely large enough that it could easily have accomodated whatever it was that was in the floor. Having come all the way up here, she notices two things. One: There are markings in the celing on one end of the bulkhead, like something had harpooned itself into the dome. Two, there is in fact a keypad right next to what looks like a lever of some kind. One that WAS beneath a pane of safety glass, but it's obviously broken now. There's a slot to accomodate a keycard of some kind, too. They might have an escape route yet.     On the other side of the room, Mel would find herself staring down what is very obviously another set of double doors, almost identical to the one they entered through, but this one is completely silent. Nothing apparent is trying to claw through from the other side. There IS another keypad here, but it's notably more complicated than the simple numberpads on some of the other doors. This one is a full keyboard mounted to a wall-terminal, and there doesn't seem to be a keycard reader either. This one, evidently, was meant to be somewhat more secure.     Kotone would find the computers to be difficult, but not impossible to hack. Strange for a facility like this one, but it becomes obvious why once she's in. The security suite seems to have been swapped to some kind of military default, and trying to bring up the original is impossible. Files not found, apparently. In fact, many of the applications no longer function; she finds many that seem like they could tap into some kind of tactical network or computer database, but each of those fail utterly when she attempts to access them, spitting out the same set of errors. 'Strategic Analysis Unit - NOT FOUND.' There are a number of archived files, however, that she could probably pull off the computers. With the security system bypassed, it's not a difficult task.     Meanwhile, Rory analyses maps for FAST TRAVEL INFORMATION. She finds several facilities scattered across the planet. Several are in familiar locations, now associated with major population centers. Others are hidden in more esoteric locations; though it's unlikely that these are civilian holdings, given the context in which she finds them. But disturbingly, many of these places no longer exist. They are located in the vast desert that covers a large portion of Tellus' interior, or are located off the southern coast, on land masses that... No longer ARE. Of these places, in the modern day, there is no sign.     Will busies himself with combing the rest of the room, searching for something that might have been left behind- a body, maybe, or some indication of what this place really was. While he does that, the Bandits ARRANGE THEIR LOOT.     The contents of the bag are largely mundane. A bedroll, a few canteens full of by now stagnant, unpotable water, rations that have gone bad. There are a number of weapons, too. Many, many weapons. Some of them are clearly hobbled together by some country gunsmith, but others are far older, and seem to have been refurbished for use. There are clothes... for both genders. It looks like there used to be room for a climbing kit and a set of explorer's tools, but they've gone missing. And... There's an old, leatherbound journal. It's not locked. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel runs her fingers along the double-door, investigating it for durability, She looks around the edges for seams. She wanders over to the keyboard to fiddle with it a bit, and see if there's anything she can figure out. It turns out there's not.     So Mel Brock stands back several paces and holds out both hands, takes a deep breath, and curls her fingers.     Incredible force wraps itself around the doors. Right up to the maximum she can produce with her limiter still in place. Glimmers of purple dance and shimmer faintly and occasionally, like watching purple sunlight reflect off the waves of a lake that isn't there. The Marshal settles her psychic grip in on the doors for a moment, readying herself like a weightlifter about to put their muscles to the test.     And then she heaves. Heaves with every single gram of force she can muster, enough to fling cars by the dozens. She's trying to rip the damn door right out of the wall. Right /through/ the wall if need be. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa doesn't attempt much to get into them she just looks to get visuals on what she can she also does notice a lot of the network is missing and the SAU is gone? Was it destroyed? Wast it removed uin someway. She took a momentlonger but she'll check the files tht she can pull off. She'll keep them in a drive that's not a part of her cyberbrain to be on the safe side. "I pulled some files we can look at later and some sort of Strategic Analysis unit which should be in system is just gone. 404 pretty much." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine walks over as Molly goes through everything! The canteens are opened and sniffed, right before she tosses them over her shoulder, same with the rations. The clothes are checked by both, Irvine taking the men's and Molly the woman's, holding them against themselves to see if they might fit!     Is this how they have so many costumes?     "Now we're talking!" Irvine exclaims as the guns come out! He and Molly methodically check each one for ammo before pointing them, checking the balance with gun twirls before setting them down. And finally, Molly picks up the journal. Kicking off from the table, she rolls around the room, calling out, "Story time~!" before opening it up and reading aloud. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now that Maaka's handling the bulkheads, August moves towards Mel. He fiddles with his laser pistol, as he stands beside her, covering her. It is during this time that the Tin Soldier stops spraying fire everywhere and also leaps down to August's side. If Maaka needed that light...well, she should have said something! 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka had only acquired this to get a way to run across walls, BUT climbing up them works too for her purposes. SHe switches to night-vision in the absence of any light, scanning for details. SHe takes note of the keypad, but doesn't do anything just yet. Pointing to the markings, she makes a curious noise. "Someone was up here too." She mutters, before she leaves the escape route alone for now.     The reports as to what this place is make Maaka's synthetic blood run cold. She had heard stories of WMDs before, but in her world such things were still unthinkable, especially after the mid-2000s. Hehe sighs heavily, before she slides her way down to rejoin the others, going down with a last-minute boost to slow her descent enough to avoid a painful fall, and dropping with a three-point landing.     She draws her pistol immediately after Mel begins to open the door, covering it along with August and his Persona. "Holy shit, Brock..." She says, watching the Psi-Marshal work with some awe. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Hundreds of years, this facility's stood here, largely unmolested. Hundreds of years and barely anything has done so much as scratch it. And then some jerk-ass psychic unleashes the full force of her tremendous telekinetic and power upon what is very obviously a door that's NOT MEANT TO BE EASILY OPENED.     Raw force alone probably wouldn't be enough to do the job. The Ancients built their facilities to withstand the crushing grind of the ages themselves, made very sure to leave very little room for leverage. But psychic power does not need leverage, as such.     Old magnetic bolts hold the door shut against Mel's will, but the points at which the door was anchored into the wall are significantly less well fortified. Slowly, the thing is shaken free. Mysterious alloys screech and groan as Mel pulls. Power conduits flash and shed white sparks as they're suddenly severed. It will take some time, it will take a great deal of effort, but soon the door is off its hinges and tossed aside. As that tremendous clangor ceases, one might notice that Will has suddenly gone very pale. And the Bandits read on: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G0ZDPuz0it_-e9EN5EPkTRIBCutleP3G94zcHVML-NQ/edit?usp=sharing 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     At the end of it, when the door finally rips free, Mel carefully, slowly shifts her arms over to the side, causing the ripped-out chunk of door and wall to float to one side, where she sets it down.     She's breathing pretty hard by the end of this; that constant, straining exertion of all the power she has is a lot different than quick blasts and bursts or telekinetic barriers. "Guh... gimme a sec," she mutters. "Feels like they built that thing to survive the apocalypse." Was that a joke?     She does glance up at August, though, adding, "Anything down that way?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' What very useful data! Rory's optics blink and flicker a few times as she pours over it and files much of it away. She's already working in a part of her processing to figure out good spots to investigate next...     And horrified at the implications.     She's brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a HORRIBLE CLATTER not too far away. Even at that distance, Mel's Telekinetic MAYHEM is a noisy thing! She dives behind one of the projectors and glances around, but doesn't immediately find the cause.     So instead the ROBOTIGRESS clink-clank-pads over towards the Starlight Bandits... to listen. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Molly's voice is light at first. But her tone becomes more neutral as she reads on. It's easy to accuse the pair of being stupid, but they do keep track of things, and this journal is full of key words relating to someone in this room.     Gale.     Solano.     Wordlessly, the woman rises from her chair, walks over to Will, and hands him the journal. Irvine meanwhile, examines the room critically. "No bodies. That means they made it out. There is an exit. Take heart chums!" he shouts over the cacophony that Mel is making right now. "WE'LL MAKE IT OUT OF THIS!" And a big old thumbs-up to punctuate it. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Solano. Gale.     Will.     Maaka looks over to Will as she listens to the journal, and a knot in her stomach forms. She's frowning and that's evident even with a mask that looks more like an angry skull than anything else. She opens her helmet up, eyes bearing sympathy, as she approaches Will.     And then she hugs the Chaser. A very big-sisterly hug around his waist. "I'm sorry." She whispers as she comforts him. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August investigates the pit, quietly listening to Molly as she reads. He shoots fire down there to illuminate if needed, and tells Mel the outcome of whatever he finds, before returning to Mel. "Let's go take a look, shall we?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone looks as Will goes very, very pale she's got hte info she pulled off hte computers to look at later and is now going and she makes for will looking very concerned. She also listens to the journal as well she has an idea of what's happened, and she now htinks she understands with a very sympathic look on her face but she's not going to hug him Maaka's already on it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Not like this.     Will's hands tremble around the journal as Molly hands it over. Coming all this way, after so many years, looking high and low. No, not like this. He didn't want to find out like this. Nobody would. "I--" He chokes, moisture gathering around the normally implacable Chaser's eyes. "I thought... I knew they were still out there, but..." But his father's on the run from something he couldn't explain. But his mother is suffering because of the same thing that turned all these bodies into monsters. And it was years ago. Years.      His arms shake when Alexis pulls him into a hug. He doesn't resist. The wind's been knocked out of him. And so he does what anyone else would do upon learning... That. He sobs. He cries into her shoulder. But who wouldn't? ...     But there is a vault here. James had made that abundantly clear in his notes. And it just so happens that a certain psychic completely bypassed the need to decipher the lock. Likely because the door wasn't opened properly, the vault itself is pitch black except for the light August brings with him... And one other source. The inside is almost disappointing, in a way. It's certainly large, and home to a good deal of treasure. There are more weapons here, possibly to ensure that those operating the control room had a means of defending themselves. The walls humm with activity, and appear to be server racks or some other set of computing hardware. But the most curious object is at the very back of the chamber; a strange device that contains a glass cylinder, inside which is something that looks like a glass marble. Cables snake up and down from the top and bottom of the cylinder and reach for- but never quite touch- the bead.     It gives off its own light. A calm, blue-white glow, which neatly illuminates the incredibly complex network of lines criss-crossing its interior. Electricity arcs from the sphere to the tendrils, as data scrolls down a monitor inlaid into the containment device. The cylinder is removable, apparently. It's just sort of... socketed in there.     ...Upon closer inspection, it's clear that there are dozens more of these devices stretching out in either direction, but all of them are lifeless; either the cylinders contained within are shattered, or are missing entirely. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel finally stands herself up straight again, and turns to look at Will and Maaka for a moment before just... looking away. She's got that handled for now, and he needs it. So for the moment, she's gonna head into the vault.     After a few moments of digging, she comes out with a personal communicator not at all dissimilar from a smartphone, holds it up, and taps the screen. The light it puts out isn't all that great compared to a proper flashlight, but it's something, at least. Enough to get her in there, where she can approach the glowing blue... energy core? Data core? Containment cylinder? She's not sure.     "Hey, Catnip 5000, could you c'mere a sec? Want to see what you can make of this." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Firelight illuminates the pit, because August's idea of a thorough investigation is to shoot fire into mysterious places to see what's inside. Just as Maaka's flare did, he would see a number of different conduits and pipes that seem to have been drawn away or disconnected from some kind of central object. Along the walls of the cylinder, there are what appear to be rail-like tracks that lead all the way into the depths below. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' That form of address is quite a bit much! In fact it takes Rory White a few moments to realize Mel's addressing... her. because Rory White was so thoroughly scanning through the revealed vault - shining lights on everything that sprout from her body as she goes along too - that she was taking it VERY slow.     But she does turn to Mel... and quickly bounds over.     ... which brings her to the matter of the... crystal?     "The intricacy and the lightshow suggests that it's either used for data storage... or an artificial neural network. This is also similar to a device Will showed me that I believe was a q-bit communicator. Quantum entanglement. My guess is one of the three... we'll have to examine what it's CONNECTED TO!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Jeez, quantum entanglement... even back where I come from, that's not cheap, /or/ housed in anything this small." She blows out an impressed breath. "I'll let you do that part, you've got a better head for tech than me." Leaving that to Rory, the PsiMarshal turns to head back into the main room, just as August is preparing to make a Dumb Decision. All on his own? That's just not acceptable.     As she walks past one of the desks, the flat surface rips itself right off the supports, casually dumping any terminals still on it. It floats alongside Mel until she reaches the hole in the middle, whereupon it floats over the hole at precisely the right height for she and August both to step onto. "Going down, ground floor. Spiders, mysterious rails and possible escape routes." Looks like she's going down there after all - it does seem to be the only way out. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Damn it, why won't anyone let anything horrible happen? What are they, good people? As Mel makes them an elevator, August just looks at it, looks at her, and steps on it quietly replying. "Thanks." And then, waits for the descent. Too bad there's no music. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "No kidding." Maaka muses. "Back home you need a computer the size of a buick to handle that level of programming. Not exactly something you can stuff in a rock." She says, before she lets go of William. However, she does remain close in case he needs further support. That's why she's here, after all. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka is stopped from backing off because of Molly. She wiggles weakly in protest, but she just sighs and takes it. "Y-yeah...she's actually right for once." She mutters, not believing her own words. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Is it hug time? Because Molly is all about hug time! She wraps Will and Alexis in her arms and HUGS! She's viciously strong despite her size and actually tries to arch her back to lift them both up. "Get all those tears out now William~! That way, when you see them again, you can greet them with a smile!"     But, Mel is here to provide a means of descent. "Thank you madam! We'll be sure to list you in our tales as our elevator attendant!" Irvine says, without a trace of mockery in his voice to Mel. Clearly, this is a great honor! He gives Molly his hand to help her onto the desk before stepping on himself. What a gentleman. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' SORRY AUGUST, PEOPLE CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU.     Mel is able to tear one of the desks out of the ground easily enough (they ARE anchored in there, just a little bit) and sails both August and herself down into the depths of the earth. The shaft is... Expansive. It goes down a very, very long way, and as August said, there are indeed what look like rails that reach from the bottom of the shaft up to right where the thing terminated in the room above. The conduits that fed into the shaft are more obvious, now. Many of them appear to be enormous cable bundles, all fiber-optic in nature. Others look like they were used to carry some kind of fluid-- a coolant, maybe?     Regardless, it isn't long until they reach what seems to be the bottom of the shaft. It's... Actually kind of cramped. The whole floor is only about a meter larger in radius than the hole they jumped down into. Looking closely downward, there's what appears to be a key-card face-down on the floor. The air seems... Damp, down here. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be panels inset into the walls; it looks slightly ajar, and large enough to fit a particularly short man.     Meanwhile, up above, Will is being hugged and comforted by not one, but two women. His eyes would be bulging at Molly's sudden bout of titanic strength, but he's busy wiping the tears away. "...I'll-- I'll be okay. I'll be okay." He doesn't sound okay. "We can... We can do this when we're out, okay?" "I just... I just need a second," he sniffles, "I'll be okay."     In the Vault, Rory is busy examining a staggeringly advanced piece of technology. It appears to be some kind of... Diagnostic tool. A very specialized one. The readout on the screen is largely in machine-code; it's running simulations, testing computational power, decision-making, and fine-tuning parameters where they fall short. Apparently it's been doing this for... ...Several hundred years. It had finished around a thousand ago. It's probably safe to abort and remove, if she keys in the command. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' She now looks concerned here but she's not close enough to will o give him what he needs nbad there is still the vault which a certian psychic get the lock popped and she watches what happens next. She'll take a more closer look and see only one thing remaining the others are all off line it looks like. "So do we grab it or do we leave it? Will it's yout call on this. and ... I understnd Will." <<Rory need a hand with that?>> Kotone will move to catch up with her long time friend to see if she needs any help with it. She'll come in to take a closer look and seriously wonders what the heck have they dug up? 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "... It couldn't be..." If Rory White wasn't as adept as she was at analyzing machine code on the fly, this would be largely useless gibberish. As it is however... the feline's optics flash with interest. Matter ripples across its shoulder, extending into a long, thin limb with simple digits with which she begins carefully tapping keys.     Directives: 'End test.' 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And the ground floor they have reached. Mel steps off, and opts to leave the loose panel to August; she herself takes a look around the bottom of the shaft itself, then holds out her hand towards the keycard. Unless there's something preventing it, she'll pull it up into her hand, shake off any dust, and give it a curious look-over. "But what the hell did they house down here, though? It looks like this was a holding shaft for something so they could raise and lower it, but... I mean, yeah, the 'something' is gone, but so's the apparatus to raise it. That's weird." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Wheeeeeeee     Maaka stays stone still as Mel carries them to the ground floor, letting August handle the panel. She looks around, landing at the bottom as she kneels down. "Hmmm...bit small for my size, maybe we could get Kotone through here?" She wonders, helping pry the panel right off, assuming it leads to any tunnel. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Rory deactivates the test-computer. Fortunately, with her familiarity with computers (being a stunningly advanced one, herself), she can decipher the code structure well enough to give the right command. The capsule pops loose, the little sphere at its center glowing faintly as the energy feeding into it is removed. Apparently it has an independent power source too? How strange.     Down in the shaft, Mel has picked up a keycard! Like any proper investigator in these sorts of situations, she turns it over to see who it belongs to. There is no hole for a crank on the other side. Instead, there is a rather pale-looking individual who is... not QUITE human. His features are too compact for that, his skin far too pale. But it does read a phrase Mel would recognize: 'Chief of Maintenance.'     The panel comes away easily enough when Maaka lifts it away. There is indeed a tunnel there! The air coming from it also smells damp. Damp in a somewhat earthy, vaguely... salty sort of way. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Down in the hole, Irvine peers into the briny blackness beyond the hole! "Aha! Surely this is how... that man got out!" he exclaims. Holes echo, and he doesn't want to say anything Will might overhear. "If you'll all pardon me, I'll check it out."     And without even waiting, he's climbing in and wriggling to get through!     Meanwhile, upstairs, Molly nods to Will, and produces an embroided handkerchief, wipes his face with it and pressing it to his nose so he can blow it. How motherly she is. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' The only problem with the crystal being loosed to... do what it's supposed to do now is... Rory White has no idea wHAT exactly that is. Others here are now focused on further exploration, but she's found something that her entire principle demands she devote full attention to.     If there IS an AGI here, it's her moral duty to see to it than they don't languish in a forgotten facility, trapped and doomed to insanity. They'll need... mobility. A community. A purpose if they don't have one already.     So for now, the robo-kitty seats herself in front of the 'AI Core' as it's been described...     "... Who knows if that's equipped with a microphone.. can you hear me?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, guys, I found the maintenance keycard." Mel looks straight up the shaft, thoughtful. "Wonder if it'll open the blast doors. If it does, I can get us out of here." She pockets it, then turns to watch Irvine do his thing. "...Gonna be alright in there, man?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Rory for a moment and she moves up to help her firend with getting it out of here. "Wo what do you have here an ai of some sort? Rory? Think we can hook it up to VR space once we get out of here and try to talk to it in infomorph form? I'd be willing to work with you on that, also need me to carry it till we get out and you get something with hands again?" She hears they may have found some other things as well. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Irvine has boldly decided to brave the depths of the maintenance tunnels. He quickly finds that they are... Dark. Tenders are highly light sensitive organisms, and their preferred environs are rather dim overall. But there is still a thin contrail of light that leads ahead, past a number of side-passages even more cramped than this one, and around a distant corner. If he follows the light, that damp scent-- the scent of water-- would only grow stronger as he presses on, but he soon finds himself at an impasse! Or rather, at what appears to be a field of amber energy set up in the middle of the tunnel, and behind that, a set of bulkhead doors similar to the one up above. Almost certainly a security measure. Conveniently, there is a panel with a card reader nearby.     Up above, Will is released from Molly's warm, motherly hug with red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. The handkerchief helps with most of all of that, and he sniffles into it when offered. He looks... Tired. Emotionally drained, probably. But at least he also doesn't look like he's about to break down. "...Thanks, Molly," he sniffs, "I... I needed that."     In the vault, Rory busily stares down the glowing marble. It doesn't appear to respond to her address, at least at first. But then, after a moment, it... Pulses, emitting a low, droning sound with every flash of activity. A split second later, that same sound is echoed from outside. One pulse, then another from out of the vault. Will blinks at the noise. It sounds again, unusually close by. He rubs furiously at his eyes and then grabs for the weapon at his hip. He draws the Solano. It pulses, and drones. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August was debating crawling into that tunnel, but before he could decide, Irvine did! Well, let's hope he doesn't get hurt. Instead, August stands to the side, waiting to crawl in and aid him if needed (he's fairly short, 5'8). But then, there's noises. And as those noises occur, August moves onto the elevator. "Can we have an elevator going up, please?" The Tin Soldier meanwhile, unable to get up there on his own, begins tapping his foot to invisible elevator music. Except he doesn't produce sound, so really, his non-gun foot is just wiggling. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, how's it going in there?" Mel calls into the service crawlway. "Find anything?"     She turns to look over her shoulder at August, then upward, and frowns. "Uhh... shit, I don't want to leave him down here alone." She looks to Maaka next. "Will you be alright down here with him?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka hears something coming. She draws her Kama and nods to Mel. "I got this, go ahead." She says, before she looks toward where she hears the noise. "The hell is that sound anyway?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     It's dark! But Irvine isn't afraid of the dark at all as he pushes through. Eventually, he reaches the end, somehow seeing the card reader immediately. He starts to wiggle back, until his hand is poking out. "That card please!" He wriggles his fingers for Mel to pass it to him.     Meanwhile, back up top, Molly just smiles at Will into he produces the glowing, droning gun. She gasps. "I know what that is! That's... Irvine calls it the 'light of destiny.' Oh William, I knew you were destined for great things!" No sense of danger in this one. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel blinks. "The card? Yeah, sure, here." She hands it over to Irvine, before stepping onto the tabletop again and giving Maaka a nod. "Just give a yell if anything goes weird." She waits for August to hop on, and then starts taking them straight up to the top. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier keeps foot-wiggling as the elevator rises. It only stops when August starts moving towards Will, the robot-man following along and running over to him. "Will? Put down the gun. If that thing's overloading, we need to get out of here." The Tin Soldier then proceeds to point his gun all around at everyone near Will, and fire! Nothing comes out except for the feeling that you are way sturdier. Defense buffs! 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Upon receiving the card, Irvine immediately wriggles back in to use it on the scanner. Fingers crossed! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "The light of... destiny?" Will repeats. He stares down at the inner light flashing through the framework of his favorite firearm and knits his brow in thought. Now, ordinarily, he wouldn't be the type to believe in destiny, necessarily. Bit with all that's happened so far- the GPS leading him here, finding a /command center,/ his father's journal, and now... This. "...Destiny, huh?" August fires. This backfires, because Persona Defense Buffs don't care about physical or mental attacks, so all he does is STRENGTHEN WILL'S RESOLVE.     "...Yeah, I think so," he says to Molly and gives just a little hint of a smile. He moves away, approaching the door to the vault, as the pulsing light grows stronger. Will lifts the Solano to the door as it... Comes apart. But not in the 'exploding' way or the 'spontaneously dismantles' sort of way. Rather, the gun's construction comes apart, suspended in a field of crackling energies to reveal a set of strange rings deep within its mechanisms.     Tiny crystalline fragments within pulse and extend the halo of energy towards the gem in Rory's tendrils. It lifts away with a crackle of power and seems to be tugged through the air by that strange, energetic aura. With a final pulse, it settles into the rings and knits the gun back together. There's a moment where everything goes quiet. And then the Solano bursts with a sudden wave of brilliant, but ultimately harmless energies. Will shields his watery eyes as it passes, but when it does, the Solano is... Well, it's visibly identical to what it once was. ...But. ...     MEANWHILE! Irvine takes the key-card. He swipes the key-card! The energy field dissolves with a quiet *pop* shortly before the bulkhead behind it begins grinding open, revealing a... A cave. But not just a cave. The sound of rushing water is unmistakable, and if he steps out onto the ledge beyond, he'd find himself staring down what appears to be an underground river system, leading inexorably outward to the distant sounds of some mighty cascade. ...Unfortunately, it also seems like they might have to swim down-river. Or, you know, improvise a boat. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' With the crystal ZOOMING OFF, Rory bounds after it at maximum speeds without getting TOO reckless. Just in time to see it merge with the Solano and... ?!?!?!     Well. That was... unexpected.... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Well.     Maaka is about to level her gun at the crystal core, and suddenly Solano falls apart. "The -fuck-?"     She stares in befuddlement as she watches the gun fall to pieces, before it knits itself back together, as if by magic. She is past the point of words here, and at this rate anything's possible. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August did a thing! It wasn't what he intended, but it was a thing! He moves to barrel Will out of the way when everything begins glowing, but before he can intercept, it's all over. He intercepts anyways, with the Tin Soldier tackling Will and his fancy new gun to the ground. "Will! Are you alright?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa help Rory where she can but also does hear something is coming, she has her weapon out and notes to her friend. "Sounds like something's on it's way. We should make ready for it." She now is mkeeping with the group. she watches in awe as Will somehow tkae his gun apart and start to work with it. Then she watches the crystal she gazes on in awe at the whole thing. She's neve seen anything like this before. "Woah..." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Hey, it opens! Irvine wriggles back out and shouts out, "I've found a way out! It might be a bit damp, but it'll certainly lead outside!" Meanwhile, Molly is agog with amazement as Will's gun seems to be a magic gun! "William, are you a chosen one~?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     As the light dies down, Will draws his arm back from where it was protecting his eyes. The Solano crackles, an arc of lightning leaping briefly from the barrel to the floor. "...Uh," he says vaguely in the direction of his weapon and clutches the journal a little more tightly to his chest. "That was kind of... something?"     He's about to say more, but then suddenly he's TACKLED TO THE GROUND by a mechanical hessian. Will makes a pretty solid impact, but the gun itself doesn't leave his hands. A solid grip is an important trait for a gunslinger. "Ow! August, what the heck're you doin'--" A voice, hollow and tinny and otherwise largely devoid of any real inflection.                       --==CORE PROCESSOR RESTORED==--                                             --==DATA INTEGRITY VERIFIED==--                              --==MAIN SYSTEMS: CONDITION YELLOW. MAINTENANCE REQUIRED.==--             "..." Will sniffs, rubbing again at his nose, but his eyes look more focused, now. He has something to focus on. "I," he says, only mildly disbelieving, "I think my gun is talking." He glances over towards Molly, and looks VERY CONFUSED. "I... Don't think so?" He's just a guy with a gun!     But more importantly than ANY OF THAT, Will hears Irvine's cry and jolts upright. "R-right. Let's get out of here." He starts to go, but then... Turns and moves to gather up what remains of his father's belongings. ...Can't just leave them here, after all. "So, um," he asks at the Bandits. "Y'all have that teleport stick, right? Couldn't we have just... used that to leave whenever we needed?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     After Rory did all that talking about AI, Mel is not taking any real chances.     She walks over to Will as he's gathering his father's things, leans down a little, and goes, "Hey. Hey, you. Can you hear us? Can you talk? Are you sapient, or just a particularly smart OS?" She's talking to the gun directly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Okay Mel talking to a gun is a little bit weird but-- "YES. YES. YES. NO." Oh. Well, that answers that. Will kind of stares at his gun like he's not entirely quite sure how to handle this situation. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:''' R    Maaka stares at the gun. "...your gun's talking." She says, baffled. AI in guns isn't exactly something even SHE is expecting, though to be fair, that's mostly because nobody thought of it.     She sighs, shaking her head before she heads for down to join Irvine in the tunnels. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is quiet for a few seconds, then adds, "Are you a smartass?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White decides to speak up. "Wait, let's not leave just yet. We'd have a hard time getting back and there's still a few things to go over. Plus, this AI may have very useful information." She refers to them impersonally, but the AGI's tone still conveys a bit of respect.     "Hello. AGI of the weapon, please identify yourself? I am Rory White, a researcher and engineer. The one who activated you, in fact." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The Solano seems to consider Mel's question for a moment, before replying: "I do not possess a posterior." So, 'yes,' probably. Rory asks a question, herself. The gun answers, which is normally lethal, but in this case is not. "I am the Core Processor Unit administrating Terminal Judgment. 'Judgement' is an appropriate name." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is just sititng back now it seems Will's gun has an ai or some some sort and it's taken the name judgment it also seems to be sane too from it's long time left here deep in the earth. That is good news it's not ranting baout the end of flesh. "Hello Judgement, I am Kotone." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "I am Judgement. Greetings." At least it's polite enough to respond to casual conversation! Will frowns a little bit as he collects up the rest of James' belongings, "Well, I've been calling y'all Solano for years now, so--" "I am Judgement." "...This is gonna be an interesting relationship." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Not an unsolvable dilemma, here," Mel points out. "Just think of Judgement as a passenger inside the Solano. Judgement can be Judgement, your gun can still be Solano. Problem solved." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a pause. "Acceptable, I suppose." Judgement replies. It beeps twice. "As long as the 'Solano' is restored to full functionality as soon as possible." Will shrugs at Mel and the gun and THE WORLD. "...Well. I was intending to... work towards that, at some point." 
}}

4780/CC-SJ-1 Bunker Hill

2016-11-27T05:59:19Z

Stormgear:

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/13
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will invites some friends on an adventure. They find the remains of a long-dead civilization, terrible revelations, and a new light in the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=934, 941, 7, 571, 943, 151, 673, 894
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                              --A FEW DAYS AGO--                                 When Will said that Tellus was about as wide and open as places come, he wasn't exactly kidding. A few days ago, he would have met with whoever might've been interested in this little expedition outside the idyllic town of Gale, home to farms and fields as far as the eye can see. Or at least, as far out as is reasonable for most farmers to farm.     Though things seem to be a bit more tense than usual. Or at least, there's an unusual number of aircraft in the sky; fleets of tremendous airships, each one sailing westward through the clouds to some unknown destination. Or maybe they're just on patrol? Curious. Regardless, Will would have emphasized that flying at the moment is definitely a no-no. Apparently things may not be as peaceful as they seem.     Not that those particular ships are particularly important for THIS expedition, though! After all, once everyone had gathered up, Will would have set them off, travelling due south from Gale, towards a veritable wall of mountains that loom on the horizon even from the plains of Will's home. Fortunately, none of the Tornado Prairie's namesake Awful Weather gets in the way, and the journey to the mountains takes only a couple of days.     Will calls them the Barrier Mountains. They live up to their name; an enormous wall of stone and soil separated from the rolling plains by a series of foothills, rivers and forests. The trek through the mountains is nothing to laugh at either: days of transit from the fringes of the mountain range, beneath the windswept peaks, towards their mysterious destination.                                   --NOW--                                       The fringe of a wide-brimmed hat peeks out from around a sheer cliff face. Somehow, it just barely avoids getting caught by the TORRENT OF WATER pouring down from somewhere high above. Apparently, the entrance to this particular ruin was BEHIND A WATERFALL. Of course it was. Where else would you hide an immense treasure trove!?     Will peeks around the corner and shuffles another few feet off the narrow ledge and onto a much wider cave mouth. The whole place smells faintly of fresh spring water and the depths of the earth. "Alright, I think this is the place!" Will calls back over his shoulder, hefting a great backpack full of Stuff (tm). "If I were to hide a ruin, it would DEFINITELY be back in here. Probably further into the cave," he thumbs towards the tunnel behind him. "Keep an eye out though. If there're traps, they'd probably put 'em out in the tunnel too." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     'Flying is a no-no'? Well that just leaves Mel in a weird spot, that's how she gets most places. She doesn't have any sort of ground vehicle; she's used to at least being able to set down NEAR her destination and walk in, or preferably just land where she needs to be. So in this particular case, she'll have to improvise.     By flying low and slow enough that the Firestarter-C appears to be a hover vehicle.     So that at least gets her to Gale, to meet up with everyone. After that, she'll probably be hitching a ride with someone or other. And/or walking.     "...This is it. Really."     Sigh.     "Pauwel, you sure do pick the places." Calmly, Mel lifts up her hands, holding them at a diagonal with her right lower than her left. The waters of the waterfall suddenly begin falling at an /angle/, away from the mouth of the cave, as if hitting an invisible surface. Mel has made it easier to get in without getting washed away - or even wet. "Alright, folks, let's get inside, can't keep this up forever." She sounds pretty casual about it. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Once again Kotone was on another adventure on a world that wasn't her own world she had kitted herself out for trouble and had a few new things along with her including a spider like drone of some sort which had not proven to be too much of a problem though she did stick out in her stealth armour and well the spider like drone relaly did stick out. Kotone also is deploying a few of the cheap flying scout drones she's taken to using as of late and they get moving hopeflly scouting ahead for everyone else she'll also open up a tac net to anyone who can connect in some fashion to her's own. "This is a new one you got a way with picking locations and right Mel, shall we get to it? Rory are you ready to go?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The Crimson Spectre will remain in orbit as Maaka teleports to the surface. She'll be driving the rest of the way, tearing across the landscape with a sizable buggy-APC hybrid, a particularly menacing railgun mounted on top via turret as its engine roars.     She matches speed with the Firestarter en-route, rolling her window down and throwing Brock a salute casually when she recognizes the Psi-Marshal.     Once she gets there, the cyborg hops out with her EM CASH rifle slung, going William a cheery wave, even if her face is masked. "I got dibs on taking point, let's get going!" She says, approaching the waterfall and the cave behind it. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The Bandits are here! They've been quiet recently, owing to a series of jumps with Terminal Getaway taking them to the edges of the Multiverse, to places where news travels slow, if at all. But they're back in 'civilised' lands now, and are eager to get busy with standard Chaser duties!     So along they tag with Will! Irvine fills the trip with song, strumming away on a guitar and singing such Chaser classics as 'Hiss Hiss BOOM,' 'Grandma Got Crushed By A War Machine' and 'The Stars Are Brightest When You're At The Bottom Of A Pit.' His voice is good, but he always half-remembers the lyrics and improvises the other half.     When they finally arrive, and Mel splits the waterfall, Molly gasps! "That's amazing! Irvine, how is she doing that?!" Irvine calmly restrings his guitar as he answers. "It's quite simple Molly. Through the power of positive upward thinking, she is able to counteract the downward motion of the water." Molly gasps, and looks at Mel with wide eyes. "You're incredible Miss! Such powerful optimism~!"     As Alexis moves in to take point, the two take out their own gear. Irvine pulls a mean-looking machete with a short-barrel pistol built into the hilt, while Molly affixes a hatchet to the butt of a large revolver, the head serving as a stock to steady her aim. They too go through the waterfall! 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley has come to attend the expedition, though she keeps herself well out of the way of the others in the adventuring party because she is not here in a combative capacity and she wants to record the expedition for the sake of having something written down for later reference. Which is why she spent pretty much the entire trek to the actual location scribbling down a map of the path to where they're going.     Once they get to the entrance, she's all smiles and a wiggling tail. "At least it's just deadly traps," she remarks, happy that this has nothing to do with despair-inducing encounters with the concepts of sadism or other such messed up problems. It's just a treasure hunt.     Ainsley spends a moment drawing little doodles of Irvine singing in the shower, a cartoonish picture she is unlikely to show to anyone, with a little note: 'Chaser folk songs???' She circles it once in her book.     She closes her book only when the prospect of getting drenched by a waterfall occurs to her. Even with it diverted, she doesn't want to get the pages damp. Not a disaster but not fun either. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory's in a good mood today! Good enough that she could burst out singing if she was confident enough to do with other people listening.     Good enough to do so if they weren't about to dive into a place that's as dangerous as they come. She's come wearing a traveler's cloak, the better to hide the fact that she's currently sleeved into a form that's far from human. Now that the group's finally reached their destination she neatly removes it. It FOLDS ITSELF UP afterwards, and the body she has to show to the group...     Well. No clothes. No need for clothing. Shiny metal in roughly humanoid shape, no head to speak of. Instead a round mound with several glowing optics and sensors in varying directions. The hands, which WERE human, begin to... melt? They slowly change shape along with the rest of the thing, metallic flesh flowing and rippling jaggedly as millions of microbots change configurations. The robot topples forward onto arms that become forelegs.     The Flexbot's gait is distinctly feline, a clear demonstration of Bio-mimicry at work. Rory White's shape vaguely resembles a tiger, except for the hardpoint-mounted weapon barrels sprouting from her back and sides.     It doesn't MOVE like a robot should. Her stride's too fluid, too impossible. Even a real tiger couldn't bend and shift down the ledge the way she does, and certainly couldn't scale it nearly vertically...     "I for one can't wait to see what we find in there!" At least the AGI's kind and clear female voice remains the same... 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August Kohler is here! Wait, that's August Kohler? He's certainly more sullen than usual. And hasn't talked unless someone talked to him, or introducing himself. But, physically, he's the same! Except for his weird 'local' clothing and nine-gallon hat (too cheap for all ten gallons). It just turns out that there's no visible scars from the Huntsman encounter! And so, when the group arrives at the Waterfall, August looks up at the water, and into his reflection. He feels into his soul..."Persona!" And out of his soul comes a robot in military dress, covered in burn scars and with a gun for a leg. The Tin Soldier floats in front of him, as the redhead entirely ignores Maaka, and replies. "I'll take point." And then the Tin Soldier will fly forward, attempting to spring traps with its body. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will is maybe a little enthusiastic about getting to go off on another far-flung adventure. He even sings along with Molly and Irvine! It's... Kind of awful. He's not very good at this. In fact, he's kind of awful at it, but THAT'S OKAY. Even if he doesn't know the words, he can still kind of join in on the bits he DOES know.     The addition of various vehicles makes the trip a little less tedious overall. For example, Maaka's ATV probably ended up being used to haul around a good deal of the cargo, because backpacking enough supplies to survive in the mountain is a REAL pain.     "Yeah, yeah. Y'all say that now," he sniffs at all of his detractors and doubters, even as Mel's INCREDIBLE PSYCHIC POWER parts an actual waterfall. "But you'll be singin' a different tune once we get inside and this place turns out to be some kind've MOTHERLODE!" Clearly, Will's feeling the Positive Thinking.     "Anyway," Will beams, whipping his TRUSTY SIDEARM from its holster. Its familiar, blue-white light illuminates the cave. "Let's get going!" It looks like Maaka and August are going to be knife-fighting for the position at the front of their column, so Will'll leave them to it. He stays towards the middle of the procession, shedding light and keeping an eye out for danger. ...Danger is apparently taking a sick-day.     As they make their way deeper into the earth, things DO respond, sort of. What used to be turret emplacements spark and twitch as the group proceeds, and the otherwise pristine stone grows to become scorched with old, blackened carbon. But other than that, there's nothing in their way. It's almost eerie, the state of things. "...Don't tell me someone beat us to it," Will mutters under his breath. "This deep in the mountains, can't be."     Ahead, there's a door. One of those big, mechanical gates that the Ancients sometimes put up in front of Important Places. It's... Slightly ajar. "Damnit," Will mutters, "Let's head inside. Maybe it's somethin' else." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "FOr Christ's sake." Maaka deadpans as August just goes right up front. "Don't cut through the queue, junior." She says bluntly, before she picks up the pace and ventures into the cave itself. She switches to night-vision once it gets dark inside.     She cocks an eyebrow behind her mask at the open gate, tilting her head. "I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts they didn't get too lucky inside there. Everyone stay frosty." She says, cautiously approaching the gate and nudging it open with her rifle's muzzle and heading further inside. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley spares a look of concern to August. Not while he's looking, but when he's trying to move ahead past the others and take point. The lizard woman has good reasons to be concerned, but once she's resigned herself to not being the one equipped for addressing them, she refocuses on the task ahead. Past the waterfall, she opens her book again and begins sketching. This time, it's not a map but a collection of drawings.     She draws scribbles of destroyed turrets, of signs of battle. She gets closer to one of the turrets, careful not to get in front of it or too close to it while she records its design for the book. Once they get to the door, she draws that, too. A lot of pen-on-paper sounds from her direction, just constantly scribbling.     "Now if that's not ominous..."     She closes her book and places it in its leather case at her hip. The case is left open in case she has to summon her own Persona on short notice. She then rests her left hand on the handle to the longsword on her hip. Her nerves buzz with unease, worried about those going inside first, even if they're better equipped to do so than she is. Look at that frown! So frowny. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "That's... that's not how I'm doing it at all." Mel says, giving Irvine a slightly incredulous look. "I'm a psychic. I can move things with my mind. It's what I do." She falls in behind Maaka, but not far; she can easily put up a protective shield from here, and also shoot past the merc with her sidearm. The first broken-down turret probably eats a shot from her pistol, before she realizes what's going on and frowns. "The alternative choice," she replies to Maaka, "Is that they /did/, and they're gonna shoot the next heavily-armed party to stride through that door. Be careful." She's got her pistol at the ready, and of course her psionics can go any time. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The pair... don't seem to pay much heed to the real explanation of Mel's power. Either they've both accepted Irvine's explanation... or they already forgot about it. They do seem stupid enough.     And then, as perfect evidence of that, as they stride through the blackened caves, Molly runs a finger down a rock (taking care not to chip her nail) and then... licks it. "Yup, that's soot all right~!" she says, as if there were any doubt.     And then they stand before the ajar doors. "Fret not everyone!" Irvine declares. "If this place was properly plundered, the doors would be wider open to facilitate the movement of loot out of there!"     That... makes a weird amount of sense. Are they really stupid? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' After shouting at each other over the radio for a minute, August falls back into second position! The Tin Soldier does not, and instead just floats over and next to Maaka where applicable. Cheating! "What /were/ you expecting, Pauwel?" The Tin Soldier mimes at Maaka as they approach the door, some sort of 'work together', before moving to help push the door open. Once they succeed, the Tin Soldier thumbs-ups, before moving to spring traps with face (it really, really wants to do that, apparently). 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is excitd she's in a very good mood too she's ready for an adventure ans she's moving ahead seeing that Rory was in good spirits tht August was here and moviing again. She looks at August persona as he takes point and she nods. She'll take a moment to cloak and strt pressing ahead her spider like drone also moves along as she keeps her SMG ready as everyone is now heading out and they look at the door ahead and she tilts her head before shge moves to get inside. <<Easy Alexis easy>> 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This door looks like it wasn't fully closed. It's very possible they went ahead of us, but never returned." Notes the Rory-bot who's padding along with the others. She slinks up next to the door... and extends a paw. One claw elongates with a camera appearing at the end to try and peek around inside... before she goes on in any further. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     That is definitely soot. While the turrets are largely trashed, Ainsely might be able to get at least a decent sketch of them. It's pretty dark in here, even with the light that Will and the others are supplying, so she won't be able to get TOO many details, unfortunately.     "Right!" Will says at Irvine's sage advice. Maybe optimism is just something that Chasers do? "If they left the door like this, then they'd need to be carrying loot out one man at a time. There's gotta still be all kinds of stuff in there. Come on!"     "I was expectin' to have to fight THROUGH those turrets out there," Will answers August as he hinges the front door open and the group makes its way through. "'Course, now we get to think about how that stuff even got busted up in the first place. Careful, there's all kinds've things that'd love to have a place like this for a den."     As the group presses on with Maaka and the Tin Soldier at the helm, they pass from the very obviously natural cavern into somewhere that is very obviously not. The doors lead past something that was very obviously once a security checkpoint, if the ruined body collapsed over the front desk is any indication. It's dessicated and decayed, obviously having been left here thousands of years ago. Beyond that and around a corner is a great hall of monolithic concrete and winding steel. Everything is a stately grey, punctuated by painted signs written in Ancient script, pointing this way and that. Th whole place is clinically illuminated by some unseen source of light. Maybe by the walls and floors and ceilings themselves?     The place they come into is divided into two floors, each linked to the other by staircases at the far end of the room. Rooms wind around both levels, with glass windows allowing for easy identification of their contents. One appears to be a medical pavilion. Another an old hydroponics facility, though now thoroughly overgrown. The water, lighting and fertilization system were still functioning, apparently. One on the far side of the room is an armory, another nearby is festooned with capsule-like berths set into the wall-- sleeping quarters, apparently.     The middle of the room seems to be a common area, with a few tables set up here and there-- though majority are set up as a sort of barricade facing the main entranceway. There are more scorch marks here, and several more bodies, each one covered in armor made of that familiar (to anyone who's been in this world before) black material.     "...Alright," Will murmurs, switching his sidearm from a torch to an actual gun. "Looks like whoever was in here, there was a fight. And now... Well. Split up, take a look around. We might find something." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka covers her corners, rifle sweeping and clearing in a very operator fashion. She notes signs of a struggle, as well as the intense age. If Chief and that undersea lab was any indication, this isn't the first time she's seen someplace this ancient in nature.     She brushes dust off of a wall, before she follows it towards a staircase. "HYroponics, medical pavilion...this was some sort of lab, or possibly a compound for other purposes." She muses aloud, going towards a door on the far side leading to an armory.     She'll investigate this room, not caring who accompanies her in.     Kotone gets a simple, short message over internal, private comms. [I know, I know...just worried. About Samira.] SHe never uses the Commander's first name like that usually, this says everything. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This... hm." Rory White paces on into the main chamber, looking around very carefully. The Flexbot-Tiger paws around, taking in the sights of everything and looking around at the signs of battle, the corpse...     "The dessicated corpse leads me to think that they were killed a long time ago. Likely by an invader or uprising of some kind. After all they would have no reason to leave here since the systems are still working. Thus, someone killed them. A long time ago. This place could've been left to rot since then and so perhaps we aren't late. Further logic, there was nobody to remove and process the corpse according to whatever customs are in place. High likelihood this is a result of chaos following the great catastrophe that ended the Ancient civilization... but I am getting ahead of myself."     Rory is recording EVERYTHING, especially the ancient writing. As they are HUMAN, she is quite sure that enough Argonaut endeavor - there's bound to be a linguist who loves a challenge - could crack the code. Failing that, enough pattern matching by AIs and filling in the blanks might lead to something...     "Why is it in such better shape than the other ruins?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In they go! The pair seem unperturbed by the signs of violence. Indeed, they immediately make a move for the bodies, rolling them over and checking any pockets for anything useful. Clearly these two have no respect for the dead, something Irvine only clarifies as he picks up a loose skull.     "Gee whiz fellas, this place is spooking me out of my mind! Oh wait, I don't got one no more! HAHAHAH!" he says in a falsetto while making the jaw move. Molly giggles and applauds the macabre display before going to investigate the medical pavilion... before letting out a delighted squeal. "Irvine, I found the greatest treasure ever!"     Soon she comes out... sitting in an office chair and using her feet to pull herself along. Irvine has a positively giddy look on his face as he rushes over to examine it. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Once it's clear they're not gonna be attacked, Mel decides to go have a look around.     By telekinetically grabbing a table, stripping the legs off of it, and stepping onto it to use as a floating platform.     She's getting a general look at all the various rooms, for the sake of seeing what's there; but she's also specifically looking for anything that looks like some kind of important office. Somewhere that'll have information access. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Rory IS an amazing research-y robot type, so of course she'd be totally into a lot of this kind of stuff. The writing is easily copied into memory- no memetic virus or anything like that. Will is silent for a moment at her stream-of-consciousness logic, though shakes his head as if to clear it once she finishes. "That's... A good point," he murmurs, brow furrowing thoughtfully. "Maybe it's just because of how deep underground this place is? I mean, we're pretty much under a mountain right now."     And then Irvine DOES TERRIBLE THINGS TO A CORPSE, OH MY GOD. "W-wh--" Will gawps. He's. He's not sure whether to laugh or to cringe or to just kind of stare for a little while, but fortunately Molly emerges with the BEST INVENTION EVER in time to distract him from the skull-chattering. Of course, Irvine does find all kinds of things on the bodies; a few ID cards, at least one of which looks PARTICULARLY important, a pocketful of loose change-- apparently the Ancients had coins? Or maybe those are something else. No weapons though.     Meanwhile, Maaka peeks around inside the armory and finds... Well, for a marine like herself, it's a veritable treasure trove. The guns in here look /intact/ what few are actually still on the shelves. Most are covered in a thick layer of dust that must have accumulated over hundreds of years. But still, there are plenty of what must be grenades or similar devices stacked up on shelves, a few spare sets of armor, and a couple of decayed but intact assault weapons. Curiously though, some of the dust looks... thinner than the rest. Did someone come through here recently? If they did, it was still years ago.     Mel finds what she's looking for up on the second floor. She ALSO finds another corridor leading deeper into the ruin, but she probably wants to find what she's after first. It looks like some kind of overseer's office-- no. She'd probably know military when she sees it. The way the desks are arranged overlooking the room below, the framed medal on the desk screams 'I am an officer and I want everyone who walks through these doors to know it.' There's a terminal built into the table that looks like it still has power and a chair for swiveling on behind it. Underneath the desk is where a hidden side-arm /should/ have been, but it's missing now. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka takes a look at the old-ass guns she finds, and thinks for a second. Does she have space for this much firepower in her inventory?     Fuck yeah she does, so she goes to hoover up guns and ammo like crazy, stuffing weapons into her inventory left and right. THis'll make either good additions to her formidable arsenal, or just stuff she can sell later at a good price once she gets them back into working condition. "Damn, if this ain't some nice scratch." She mutters to herself giddily, scooping up weapon after weapon, and ammo following that. She'll have to think about snagging armor, but she does so in the end, stuffing it all in her manipulator before she dusts her hands off. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Well that's interesting.     Mel steps off of her platform and onto the walkway proper, setting the legless table against a nearby wall. She's /very cautious/ when she steps into the office; in fact, she releases the tiniest little 'pulse' of telekinesis, like a gentle wind, to set off any traps that might be there preemptively. Only once she's sure it's safe, does she sit down in front of the console and start trying to dig around. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As the group begins to split up, August /ignores/ Irvine's macabre, instead moving with his robot self towards the hydroponics room. He first checks the door handle. If that fails, he Tin Soldiers the door. Once inside, August does a cursory inspection of the room, and then begins checking the machinery and plants to see exactly what they are. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <> Kotone keeps moving and checking out the chamber for a moment she pauses looking at the corpses. "It makes sense when your in surival mode you won't generally risk your life to burry the dead unless it's to contain a virus or something akin to tht." Kotone records everything she sees as normal, right? Sh tilts for a moment. "No one found it till now? Some sort of maintance system?" She ask as she keeps on moving and looking about to see just what they got there to look at. "Will? Rory? This place could have been sealed until we got here too preventing anything else from getting in right?" She starts to look about Irvine is doning she backs off a bit and starts to look about for any techinal things she might be of use for but it might be best for her to beak off and search her self. <<Maaka you find anything of interest?>> With August heading out to the Hydroponics? She's going to check out the living quarters and her spider drone skitters after her. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "The door was ajar, nothing barred entry. The evidence is inconclusive regarding when someone last visited. However..." Irvine and Molly's shenanigans earn nothing more than a pause from Rory. She might have frowned in Synth mode, but that's an impossibility as a Flexbot-Tiger...     "However, anyone who might've come before did not do so with the intent of scavenging. If they had, the dead would not have to wait until now to be searched. More things would be in disarray, and the machinery might not be functioning so well. Alternatively, they would have set up security of their own... ... or they might still be here, still exploring in other levels. Ah! Don't wander off alone!"     The Tiger-bot dashes after August Kohler, deciding to follow him to the Hydroponics. Because nobody should go off solo in a place like this... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     MAAKA GETS EQUIPPED WITH: FIREPOWER. The weapons appear to be energy weapons of some kind. Just looking at them, the assualt weapons' output seems impressive, but somehow less so than Will's Solano? Weird.     Meanwhile, Mel encounters a man who is very obviously bad at actually Being An Officer. He's very obviously probably some kind of desk jocky, judging by the lack of traps and the fact that apparently he decided that he didn't need a log-off timer on his computer. Of course, much of what's actually ON the computer is kind of... Hard to read. The whole thing is full of jargon and unusable, Ancient language. Though somehow, a few words do stand out as readable- or at least, close enough to modern writing to be legible. "Command Center." "VICTORY." The guy also seemed to have on his equivalent of Alt-Tab a browser filled with several dozen pictures of a specific, adorable cat. It's white and fluffy.     There's also a facility map. It's... Big. Many of the rooms appear to have been blacked out, with corridors leading there indicating that they may have been cut off. Sealed off, maybe? Several other rooms are flashing red. One, at the very center of the facility- but not far from this room- is glowing blue, and has that same word on it. 'VICTORY.' But... this place is way too large to just be a laboratory. And this was an officer's room, so... ...Military?     Meanwhile, Will has just gotten news of a mysterious ash-pile in the medical pavilion, and slips inside (with Molly and Irvine!?) to check it out. But while he does that, August finds his way into the hydroponics lab. The whole place seems to be... overgrown. Massively overgrown. The plants sprouting from their pots are festooned with a veritable cornucopia of different vegetables and fruits and... And they're all growing from the same stem. Each one completely healthy.     And yet each pot has its own, individual label and associated picture. Tomatos here. Potatos there. But each tomato plant is growing potatos, and each potato is also growing tomatos, and all so much more.     The residential room is a mess. Moreso than any of the others. There are bodies strewn around all over the place, people who seemed to have been struggling to get to their beds. Curiously, some of the bed-pods are missing. As if they were disappeared into the holes in the wall. There are buttons on the sides of each of the pods- keypads, apparently, with a single red panel. One is still flashing.     The medical pavilion is much in the same way as the armory. The supplies are all still HERE, though vastly diminished. Stacks of medkits are depleted, and the fridge is bare of all but the last dregs of liquid medicines. And yet... Some of this stuff seems freshly claimed. The dust is disturbed. There's ash on the floor-- wood ash. From... "...A campfire?" Will breathes. "There WAS someone else here," he says. "Someone was here before us. But why'd they leave without taking all this gear?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August harvests a sample of each different vegetable, and also some seeds, looking for something to store them in. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     At the very least, Irvine put the skull back where he found it! As for the ID cards, he has a very skewed idea of what is and is not important. At the very least, he announces "Hey everyone, I found some of those magic cards with people's faces on them!" The coins are pocketed, he's sure he'll find a use for them elsewhere.     Meanwhile, Molly does indeed show Will the ash pile in the medical pavilion. No she's not getting out of the chair. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     [Found a shitload of energy weapons. Probably military issue if I were to guess.] Maaka messages back, exiting the armory once she has her spoils. SHe'll be quick to study those guns when she has the chance, mostly to figure out their capabilities and such, before selling most of them. She'll be Going to the living quarters, to track down Kotone, maybe get a look around while she still can. "Find anything, kid?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Tappity-tap. Huh. Okay. Hmm. -oh my god, are you shitting me, cats. Ancient lost technology of an advanced precusor socity, and even here, /internet cats/.     Mel quietly shakes her head. "We never change, do we?"     But more importantly, a map. A map, with a place indicated that looks very, very interesting. Mel takes out her pocket smartcomm and snaps an image, shifts the map, snaps another. She's taking all this down before she steps out of the office, up onto the second-floor walkway.     "HEY PEOPLE, I GOT US A MAP! THINK THERE'S A ROOM ON HERE WE SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT!"     Having declared this in her 'getting the crowd's attention' voice, Mel then lifts her 'platform' up and floats herself back down to the ground floor. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     August finds a handy dandy NANOWEAVE BAG. It recieves the vegetables and seeds handily. Apparently they just had these things lying around... Or maybe they were meant for exactly what he's doing now-- harvesting vegetables. August's harvest looks delicious and tasty, as it should.     Will emerges from medical with a complex look upon his face. This place doesn't make sense; if someone did come here, why didn't they leave with all this loot? Maaka found a bunch of guns-- those go for TONS of money. There's medical equipment all over. The facility itself is massive, too. Maybe they found something more valuable and got the fuck out? Too many questions. Too little in the way of answers.     But Mel seems to have found a way forward! And Irvine's got stuff that will PROBABLY HELP in that regard. "Alright, let's get a move on iff'n we're done. We can take another look on our way out, but I'm in the mood to get to the bottom of this mess." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Fascinating! These plants... the labels are wrong. I wonder, could they have somehow cross-pollinated and mutated in the millenia? But who or what is doing the pollinating? Or perhaps it was a bioengineering experiment that went wrong..." Rory, too, decides to gather a few samples. Her Flexbot body is sufficient to store a few tissue samples - a few leaves, a few seeds where manageable...     "These plants could be extremely useful if they can survive the Weston plant's soil. I will definitely try cultivating them there if they're safe. But an actual functional hydroponics facility? This is a treasure trove for William's people. A reliable food supply even in winter." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once he's out of the garden with his food, August approaches Maaka. "Got a pistol you can spare? I'm otherwise unarmed, outside of the flying tin man." He stares with a blank face. He's actually serious! Meanwhile, the Tin Soldier goes and pokes at Irvine and Molly. They're interesting. Let's see how they react to a miming robot ghost. Also, August follows around when the majority of the group finally goes forward. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka thinks about it. She REEEEEEAAAAAAALLY thinks about it. THen she eyes August, before producing a laser pistol pilfered from the armory. "Here, don't point it anywhere you don't wanna shoot though." She says, offering the laser gun grip-first to the kid. "And don't say I had anything to do with this." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <<Oh man I'll have to get a look at some later if you'll let me have one??>> Kotone meanwhile is now on her way to check out the living areas and to see what she can find there. She moves past the bodies trying figure out why they were trying to get to their beds and she halts for a moment. <<Found ... what the hell? They were trying to get to the bed pods and some were missing here...>> She goes to chck the key pannel to see just what's going on with it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Kotone investigates the keypad and the shiny, candy red button. The pretty, glowing button. But she somehow resists the siren call to press it, and so she is SPARED WHATEVER FATE MAY HAVE AWAITED HER. But people are moving, mostly because Will is getting tired of cryptic clues and seems keen on discovering what the blazes is even up with this place. And that's why he's hovering over Mel's shoulder.     'Looks real interesting indeed.' "VICTORY?" Will whispers at the map on Mel's screen. "What's so important that they'd call it something like that?" Maybe it's what they used to win the war? "If... If it's what I think it is, then--" He twitches a bit. Or rather, his lips twitch a bit, widening into a downright manic grin, "Mel. Mel do you know what it might mean iff'n it's what I think it is? It means we're all going to be legends!"     Will is... Giddy. So giddy he doesn't even notice when they make their way down the corridor. So giddy he doesn't even realize it when he steps on what looks to be another scorch mark on the floor, only for it to crunch with a sound like sand or ash. He's not giddy enough to fail to notice the terrible sound that follows, though.     It's like a high, keening wail. Like a note played at the very top end of the human audible range. Will winces as it screeches out a stacatto noise. Rory would identify it as... some kind of short-range auditory handshake protocol. "The blazes--" The layer of ash vanishes in a whirl of black smoke.     Movement from behind. From ahead. From the vents in the ceiling. Smoke begins leaking from the dessicated bodies strewn across the floor. Dessicated. They still had flesh. They /still had flesh/ but no weapons and with the smoke billowing, they begin /rising./ Each one rattles as they lift, like marionettes on invisible strings. The black smoke coalesces over their hands and out of their sunken eyesockets and hollow jaws, hardening into jet black spikes.     As they rise, they begin to move. Faster than they should, their legs sweep forward amidst currents of swirling smoke. Others begin literally crawling out of the walls, throwing open ventilation ducts and scrambling into the corridor. There was a trap-- but it wasn't the kind of trap laid to protect something. The kind of trap it is is far, far worse. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Per her own advice, Mel is still being cautious. But with the map to show everyone, she's not going down the corridor gun-first. She does, however, reach out and give Will a brief, light two-fingered 'fwap' on the back of the head. "Hey. Focus, Pauwel, focus. You never know what the hell might hit us, we're not safe until we-"     NOISE, oh god. Mel is immediately covering her ears, grimacing. "Owowowow shit-" For a short while, she dares to be optimistic enough to assume that will be all they have to deal with. Needless to say, she's not so lucky.     "...Pauwel, what the /hell/ is with your world and freaky spiked undead things?!"     Immediately, the PsiMarshal lifts her hand and sends a wave of force down the corridor. She's being careful not to hit any of her allies, but anything /else/ in the blast is gonna have to deal with a couple dozen tons of force. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa knows in the multiverse the shiny red button may well be her doom so she's going to break off from pushing it, it's time to get moving. <<Looks like people died trying to get to the beds and the pods are going I'm thinking something contaminated the complex and the few lucky ones managed to use the escape system here to get our or I think it's one>> E Damn it that Red Button is tempting as she moves to catch up with everyone else she also cringes at the sound from whatever Will has triggered and now she starts to go for her weapon when warnings go off on her HUD.               W A R N I N G NANOMACHINES DETECTED! W A R N I N G               Kotone goes cold she's been to Rorys earth and she knows what hell nanotechnology weapons can do. "NANOMACHINE CONTAIMATION!" She calls out in warning and opens fire on the risen dead as they come for them. She was right people were trying to get out before something horrible killed them. This has gone from creepy to nightmare fuel. She now rebound off a wall trying to keep away form the undead as she opens fire. With Mel giving her a good set up she'll start firing more bursts down at the horror things. "No idea if they are infectious! I'm going to err on the side of YES!" It's not coral thank God, it's not Coral. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August gets ONE LASER PISTOL, which he safely stores on his person. Hopefully he won't get framed for attempted murder again! As the group proceeds, the Tin Soldier sweeps for traps. But then, they find the worst trap of all. Nanozombies! August steps backwards towards the exist, while the Tin Soldier mimes a roar (it does not actually roar). And then it sweeps forward, aiming that gun wildly in every direction containing the nanoswarms. And it fires. Literally! A sweeping wave of fire roars forward, attempting to burn through the swarm. If any try to duck or jump or anything, the fire is pointed to hit them. "GO! EVERYONE GO!" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly were hanging out on the first floor with their precious bounty. And by that, I mean that Molly was sitting in the chair as Irvine spun it, turning her into a whirring top of blue and black. That is, until the dead start rising and the nanomachines start to filter in.     Looking down at one of the corpses, Irvine raises a foot and stamps down HARD. "Your time is past, chum! Best lay there and be properly dead!" As everyone starts to evacuate, he stops Molly's spinning and pushes her along with them! 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory comes barreling out of the hydroponics section at full charge, all four legs pumping and clanging against the ground. Her sensors aren't fine enough resolution to detect Nanoswarms except where they're most concentrated, and that worries her. Her Flexbot's own defenses won't hold against a Nanite-based deconstructive assault. In a panic she directs most of those internal defenses to guard her Cyberbrain with everything they've got.     What she doesn't understand is... why are these Nanoswarms ANIMATING THE DEAD?!     "Revision to previous hypothesis, dessication and decay could be caused by Nanoswarms. So much for that theory! We must retreat! Now!"     The Tiger does have fangs though. Rory's multiple weapons barrels aren't just for show. They're actually railguns. Internal mechanism shift Ammo types after a moment, loading her limited supply of Jammer rounds.     She pelts everything that moves liberally with them!     These rounds don't penetrate or explode or cause much damage. They STICK and emanate electromagnetic scrambling signals. With any luck it'll destroy the nanites' ability to coordinate with each other and get these corpses dropping like flies...     ... But it's not much use against the mobile swarms themselves... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Ah FUCK!" NANOMACHINES seem like a good enough reason for even Maaka to make a run for it. She lets August handle the swarm of microbots, and she bails, grabbing Kotone by the arm as she runs. "C'mon, ain't worth letting these things get into us!" She hollers, before she runs like hell is at at her heels.     To be fair, it is on some level. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Spiked undead indeed. Mel's telekinetic shockwave SLAMS into the undead down the corridor. Their flesh seems to unravel like tattered papyrus, disintegrating into a grotesque mist of corpsedust and nanotechnology. But they don't stop. The whorl of material sweeps back around and swaddles their staggering bodies as shattered bone and torn flesh are harpooned by black spikes and knit back together. It stuns them for a moment- long enough to break past, but...     "I don't know, damnit! This is only the second time!" Will complains back at Mel. "Why is it that every time you come along, it's always zombies!?" The Solano barks a reply at the rising tide of blackening corpses. Blue-white plasma catches one of the host tattered host bodies as it starts to repair itself. The thing catches fire, reeling back as if to scream-- but it continues to regenerate even as the black tendrils are begin to burn. Kotone's shots find purchase as well. One bolt catches the black-matter within one of the shamblers, shattering its cohesion and causing the host to reel back, as if its strings were cut.     Fire seems to be a reasonable answer to these beasts. August's MARAGI- variant blasts into the swarm, which seems to briefly lose coherence. Long enough to cause a corpse to stagger and briefly fall to the ground, but perhaps not long enough to stop their crushing advance. More begin to crawl out of the side-rooms, several bodies rise from the tube-room and shamble into the main chamber. Irvine's foot comes down HARD on one of the corpse's heads as it begins to rise, but more of those tendrils seize the broken shards and begin tugging them back together     The tide seems to stem, however, at Rory's prompt use of electromagnetic rounds. The bolts smash into their intended targets without issue, and a cacophony of electronic noise fills the chamber. The swarm reacts poorly, losing cohesion in its entirety...     Before each corpse begins emitting that same handshake protocol and the swarm immediately comes back together. It's using auditory signals as a backup for its electronmagnetic communication!?     "Damnit, we can't turn back now!" Will yells over the din. "The room's too dang big, too many of them. We'd get buried alive!" Indeed, the swarm seizes upon its opportunity to attack, lunging at the most obvious targets-- August, Kotone, Mel-- and attacking with razor-sharp claws! "We need to get somewhere safe, regroup, plan! Come on!"     Will... Perhaps unwisely charges down the corridor, pelting regenerating corpses with plasma as he moves. "If there's something important in here, it's probably in a sealed room!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Look, just because I have the world's worst luck doesn't mean this is /my/ fault!" Mel has already dialed her pistol's yield up to max and is taking shots wherever she can, but frankly, even that's peanuts compared to the kind of force she can output just by smashing them with her mind. And just now, she used enough force to splatter a normal person, but all it did was force these things to pull themselves back together. So the answer is obvious.     More force.     Around four times as much, to be a little more exact. The lunging nanozombies get within about ten feet before slamming into the wall of telekinetic force that Mel unleashes. This time, it's her full strength. A hundred tons, enough to pitch a battletank through the air a couple times over, and spread out enough to blow back the entire wave of them. "Everyone start falling back! I can keep them from getting too close while we move, but we're not gonna be able to hold out here forever!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Oh shit, fire's not working well enough! There's only one solution...more fire! August WAS going to ignite the Tin Soldier and pull off a kamikaze, but Will requested something different that would probably work better. Therefore, that rifle begins spraying flames in a horizontal line, forming a massive wall of FIRE. And also draining poor August's SP. The human side of the equation, meanwhile, moves to escape with the others, the Tin Soldier miming with a hand 'wait for me!'. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Things are bad, even the Bandits can tell.     "Molly."     "Yes Irvine?"     "We'll have to say goodbye."     "I know..."     And with that, Molly hops off the chair, and the two get to work. Grabbing fire extinguishers from the walls and producing myriad explosives from their bags, they got to work with rolls of duct tape. In moments, the chair is wrapped up with enough explosives and contents under pressure to make a fireworks factory blush.     In synchrony, they give it mighty KICK, sending it rolling towards the shambling hordes and nanoclouds. "Burn it NOW!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now it's time for the ultimate sacrifice. A true friend, one who is willing to give up their life for others. They will be recognized along with Shadow Klaus and Panzercat as 'cool people'. August ignites the chair on fire as it becomes wheeling towards the swarm. Rest in peace, rollychair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' ".... Distressing. That's far beyond what my nanites can do! Who DESIGNED these?!" It reminds her of... things. Things she'd rather not remember. The Tiger starts padding backwards. An A.G.I. Rory might be, but she's capable of the full range of human emotion. And right now...     Primal fear and old traumas are at the forefront of it. She briefly ponders turning tail and just bailing wholesale... but no, she regains control of her instincts.     The life of an A.G.I. like her begins with training after all. Solid training to recognize and control her emotions and not make decisions based on them. Devoting all the processing power she can to thinking through this one, she remembers something important.     "... This Morph is equipped with a disassembler nanoswarm hive!" A disassembler swarm. It's not typically very effective as an offense. It might not help at all - she has no way to tell just how the opposing nanoswarm will react. She'd have to imagine competently.... anyone smart enough to design these must have accounted for an opposing nanoswarm, right?!     Well, only one way to find out.     Rory goes dashing along with Will but her steps are measured.     The moment she has an opportunity she stops near one of the corpses he blasted. A panel opens on the Flexbot's shoulder and a blue mist pours forth. A tiny amount of her Disassembler Nanoswarm. It descends upon the infested remains with directives to rip apart foreign nanites.     It's not self-replicating, but it may be just the weapon she needs if this enemy swarm didn't account for opposition! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Things are getting hot Kotone shockingly has experiance weith nanotech weapons and she's opening fire when she can but she looks to WIll. "WE'll get over run here I'm agreeing not to give up but we need to pull out for now!" She opens fire on them more. "We are dealing with some possible Titan level bullshit here!" In someways this was still better than her Halloween, at least she came here expecting trouble. She's dealing with Zombies agian it's bad but it's just bad news here she is moving to pull back now but she's intending to maybe be the last one out... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' More force.     Mel's casual tremendous telekinetic might is enough to flay flesh from bone, but for these things, it's a mere inconvenience at best. But when she adds more power on top of that, when she turns air solid and blasts bodies across the room with force enough to /liquefy/ ordinary human beings, that's something else entirely. Her power flings the corpses to the far end of the chamber, pinning their slurried bodies against the wall. And then August sets them all on fire.     The swarm gurgles and struggles to escape the flame, but it, too, can do little against that kind of telekinesis. Mel can't keep it up forever, maybe, but she may not need to. She just needs to keep it up for long enough. At least it cleared a path, even though more corpses, unbound by Mel's telekinesis, begin to fill the gap. AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE     THE ANCIENT ROLLY-CHAIR, with its maximized comfort and efficient, ergonomic design, and full range of rotation and reclinement, is sent sailing into the room and the crush of shambling corpses, piled high with enough explosives blast a hole in a mountain. Then August sets it on fire. The explosion is... spectacular.     Fire-extinguishing foam is released by the primary detonation, which rapidly and explosively expands, volatilizes and contributes to the secondary burn. The first boom stirs up thousands of years of dust into the air, which is all set alight by the second. The ante-room explodes.     Like, just actually, truly explodes. The ceiling cracks, crumbles, and begins collapsing. Dozens of corpses are buried under tons of smothering earth in an instant. ...Well. That was a thing.     Meanwhile, Rory unleashes a nanoswarm of her own upon the shamblers still lying in wait ahead. One swarm meets another, and Rory's begins picking its target apart... Before the black smoke adapts and begins a counter-attack, dissassembling its attacker in turn, and repurposing their parts for replacement units...     And then Will starts shooting at them. At the points where they mingle. Blue-white plasma sweeps through the swarms and sets them ablaze. The black smoke takes especially poorly to it, giving Rory's swarm the opportunity to finish off the dregs.     More clawing in the walls. Faint, but growing louder. There are still more out there... But then they reach a door. A great, sealed bulkhead with a card-reader at one side. "...Here. Mel, is this the right place?" Indeed, it is. VICTORY lies beyond, just waiting to be revealed. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "You're telling' me!" Maaka says, drawing a 9mm with her offhand as she fires upon the horde of nannies. She's not stupid enough to think that'll stop them, but maybe they might slow down a bit from pistol rounds as she and Kotone escape.     "Fuck, this is why we don't use nanobots lightly in my world!" SHe says, dragging Kotone to safety as they run the hell out of here. Thankfully, Rory, WIll, and August manage to save the day in time, at least for now anyways.     Vayo con dies, Rolly-Chair. We did not deserve your majesty. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Looks like it," Mel replies. "I'd rip the door out but we wanna be able to close it afterward, get it open fast!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "Key-card reader," Will mutters, as he moves towards the console. "Mister Irvine! Y'all still have that one you found!?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly don't look away as the chair explodes. It deserves to be watched remembered. The man half-hears Will's words and produces the stack of cards, handing them to the boy.     Then the two square up, weapons drawn and pointed. There's no way they went down just to that. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Indeed, there's no way that's all that there is. Even as Will starts swiping cards, the noise of /things/ scraping against the walls grows louder and louder. It's made worse with every 'bee-beep' and every rejected security clearance the card reader makes. Another denial tone. A nearby vent bursts open and a corpse crawls its way out. Another, and the soil begins to shift as black-clawed hands scrape their way out. Another, and a half-dozen fall out of a panel in the ceiling. Then. Finally.                                     BEEP                                         The gate slides open with the churning of millenia-old gears. "Go," Will shouts, "In! Everyone in!" He's the first across the breach, himself, and swings over to one side where another console waits. Once everyone's in, he swipes the card again. A zombie reaches in just as the door slides shut-- and severs the limb at the elbow. ...Safety. But... Where are they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The chamber is... Even larger than the room they'd first found themselves in. The domed ceiling is vaulted high enough to contain a four-storey building at its uppermost point. Pillars rise from floor to ceiling to hold the thing up against the tremendous weight of the mountain above.     On the ground-level, there are a great number of computer consoles built into cocentric, circular desks, as if to allow everyone working to face the center of the chamber-- or away from it. The walls of the room, perfectly cylindrical and stark white, save for some long-abandoned holographic monitors, rise toward the ceiling above.     In the middle of the room is... A hole. A great, terrible gap where there, by all rights, should have been SOMETHING. There are even what look like interlocking bolts to keep that something in place, but it's gone now-- which is impressive, given that that something evidently was large enough to extend several floors below. There's another sealed door at the far end of the room. Claws swipe futiley against the steel bulkhead behind. And there. In the corner of the room. Tucked into the outermost ring of desks... Is a chair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' THROUGH THE GATE AND TO SAFETY! ... but Rory White isn't comforted whatsoever when there's a SEVERED NANOZOMBIE ARM in the room. She directs her own nanoswarm to target it for DEVOURING.     Against the giant quantity outside, this would undoubtedly be a completely one-sided losing battle. HERE though, she can ensure that this thing is completely neutralized.     Not that she needs to devote all her time to that, only a sufficient amount of attention through her sensors will do.     The rest of her attention's on the room. What of it she can muster. For the moment she is...     Uncharacteristically quiet. Just standing there on all fours, the robot feline is completely still apart from the nanoswarm defenders at work...     THAT REALLY RATTLED HER and she needs a few minutes to gather her focus again. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The moment Maaka is through the gate, she slams against the wall and covers the others as they run through. Once everyone is through, she will go and grab whatever is in reach that's heavy like a chair or a heavy crate or whatever at the door to keep it blocked.     She'll also be swapping her EM rifle for a welding torch from her manipulator, just in case. At least until she realizes they may NEED to go through that door to exit this place. "...dammit." She pockets the torch, drawing her 10mm sidearm as she looks around, approaching the console. "Looks like an admin room of some sort, given the consoles." She muses, then looks to the hole in the floor. "Why the hell not. Give me a second, guys.     She produces a flare, setting it off before she drops it into the hole to test how deep it goes, depending how long it takes for there to be a plunk noise of the flare hitting solid ground.     Hearing claws, she levels her pistol to the OTHER sealed door, keeping her distance. "Okay, nobody open that door." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     In the door in the door IN THE DOOR-     Mel rolls through in a practiced motion, coming out of it with her sidearm up and ready. But it's closed, and they're safe, and...     "Some kind of hangar?" she mutters. It's not long until she wanders over to a desk herself, deciding to see what she can get out of the console; though she does glance up at Maaka, waiting to see the results of the flare test. "If there's nothing with teeth, claws or guns down there, lemme know. I can go down there and take a look." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is pulled along by Alexis aqs they now get to cover she slumps down to the ground panting, more out of habit than actual need but she's looking freaked. "That ... was some nanotech horror, I thought what is saw on Rory's earth was bad news but this?" She's shivering at this and just trying to calm down and she's not yet starting to look about, it's mroe she's getting herself centered again. "All right Yamakawa ... calm down." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once they're in the room, August immediately takes a survey of their surroundings. There's a hole. A sealed door. And a really high ceiling where it is /really dark/ up there. That isn't ominous at all! Time to shed some light on things. With fire. The Tin Soldier leaps upwards, bullets firing at a pillar, attempting to chisel FOOTHOLDS in it. If it can make somewhere to stand, it'll climb up, and then aim that gunleg upwards, standing on the regular leg, and begins spraying fire in the air. If, during this mad gout, any torches or anything are spotted, the fire is directed there. August could have really just used a flashlight. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     While everyone else is doing that whole 'safeguarding the area' thing, the Bandits observe a moment of silence for their fallen compatriot, hands over their hearts as they carve the memory of their brief time with the chair into it.     And then they turn around and see the other chair.     They both stride up to it, silent. Molly takes a seat while Irvine spins it sedately.     "Hey Irvine?"     "Yes Molly?"     "This chair has quite a legacy to live up to, doesn't it?"     "Mmm, it certainly does."     What do you mean they're not helping? They're keeping out of the way aren't they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Maaka would be waiting by the pit for a while. The flare just keeps going down, down, down into the depths of the mountain. Its light might have seen bright when she had held it, but within a few seconds, the dark below seems to swallow it up completely, though as it falls, Maaka would likely see what look like pipes or some kind of conduits jutting out of the walls of the shaft. When it does finally make a sound, it's so faint that only properly augmented senses would even have a chance in hell of detecting it. It's pretty clear that something WAS definitely here, but whatever it is, it's definitely gone now. Fortunately, nothing dangerous is actually down there, that she can see. Nothing moving, anyway.     Separated from the rest of the swarm, Rory's nanites have little difficulty digesting the zombified arm. The thing stops twitching relatively soon thereafter. Apparently that door is proof against nanotechnological swarms, because they're clearly not seeping through.     A cursory glance of the room gives some idea about what this room was used for. Many of those holographic projections seem to be maps. Specifically, for anyone with any military background, they look like strategic diagrams, with forces arrayed across a strangely familiar landmass. It's Tellus, with regions marked out in various colors all across the map. Various shapes indicate the presence of what must be force mobilizations. Arrows are attached to each shape, directing them across the map-- But it's... different. The Tellus on those projections seems younger. The landmass seems larger in these projections, more defined. How much has the world changed over the years?     Walls of text are the next order of business on the walls. They're largely unreadable, however, to people of the modern era. The jargon scrolling across the windows is likely full of codespeak anyway. But there is a lot of information here. This place was Important.     Meanwhile, August is commiting HORRIBLE VANDALISM upon a priceless historical relic. The pillars are vulnerable to being shot, it seems. Or rather, vulnerable enough to blow footholds and hand-grips into them. The Tin Soldier shoots up into the ceiling, but the only torches that he might be able to find are all electrical. These people weren't medieval! The puffs of flame do, however, briefly illuminate an enormous set of bulkhead doors at the very top of the room, immediately overtop the huge pit in the floor.     While all this is going on, and while Will catches some badly needed breath, the Bandits go and claim a chair as their own! That chair will feel so much pressure over the foreseeable future. So many people it'll have to carry. And someday it, too, might be expected to make the ultimate sacrifice. ... They might spot, over in that direction, what looks like an old, decaying, and very thoroughly stuffed backpack leaning against a nearby table. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Nothin'." Maaka says after a long pause. She waits to hear something, anything, from that hole, before she shrugs at Mel. "No need to bother looking that way, whatever is down there has to be long dead. Hopefully anyways." She says, approaching the consoles. Codespeak codespeak codespeak. THis is mostly useless jargon and Maaka knows it, before she begins to sift through the data...if only out of curiosity.     She only stops HACKING to look up at what August and his Persona are doing, and she just mutters, "Fuck are you doin?" She's never going to understand some people.     At least, until she notices he's making a means to climb up the pillars. She holsters her Kama before she approaches the pillar. "Kotone, take over for me on that terminal. I'm gonna go for a climb."     Her suit's gloves begin to adapt their properties before she adheres to the pillar, paramagnetics doing their job so she can climb up the pillar like a Friendly Neighborhood Wall-Crawler from Queens, as oddly specific as that sounds, until she stops at the bulkhead. Once she's up there, she begins to look around for a control pad of some kind she can hack to open the doors. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In the course of her languid rotations, Molly spots the stuffed backpack. "Irvine, launch me over there!" Her partner, obliges, grabbing her by the arm and slingshotting her! Her trajectory is curves, making her drift along the edge of the hole before ending up right next to the backpack.     Immediately, she picks it up and starts methodically laying the contents out. She's surprisingly neat for a bizarre criminal. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "More a matter of curiosity," Mel replies to Maaka, "But if the drop's /that/ long I'm not even gonna bother. Not unless we /need/ to know." So instead, she wanders over to the far door, to try something no one's tried yet.     Using the knob. Or the keypad, or whatever. She's gonna try and open it the easy way. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone would watch the flare goe down but it seems she's starting to recover her wits more she's back on her feet and shaking her head a little bit. She has to wonder how deep things is as she only hears the faintest of noies as flare hits the bottom. She now turns to record the maps and text displays. Sure they are in Jargon but they are imporant and if they find a way to translate them later. She also takes a peek at August for a moment and one eyes what August is doing, with the hand holds but the fire? That's got an eyebrow raise but she needs to get back to work. "What the heck was this place for with defences like that and I think I get what happened with the bunk house..." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Now that Rory White's coming back to her senses proper, the panic receding, the feline robot shifts at long last. One paw in front of the other, she starts roving through the chamber, making sure to thoroughly examine every inch of the walls and surroundings - and thus, record it for later analysis. Every letter on every wall, every layout detail. it'll all be fit enough for a VR reproduction in the future!     Whether that'll be of any use remains to be seen.     What she does settle on is... the maps. Instantly she begins an analysis, matching the given continents against her current cartographical knowledge of the planet obtained from orbital surveys...     If the divergence points can be picked out, then perhaps locations marked on the map may yield future scavenging opportunities! Among other possibilities! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     APPARENTLY MAAKA IS PART SPIDER. Like her (possible) distant relatives, she skitters up one of the pillars and comes to the bulkhead in the celing. It's definitely large enough that it could easily have accomodated whatever it was that was in the floor. Having come all the way up here, she notices two things. One: There are markings in the celing on one end of the bulkhead, like something had harpooned itself into the dome. Two, there is in fact a keypad right next to what looks like a lever of some kind. One that WAS beneath a pane of safety glass, but it's obviously broken now. There's a slot to accomodate a keycard of some kind, too. They might have an escape route yet.     On the other side of the room, Mel would find herself staring down what is very obviously another set of double doors, almost identical to the one they entered through, but this one is completely silent. Nothing apparent is trying to claw through from the other side. There IS another keypad here, but it's notably more complicated than the simple numberpads on some of the other doors. This one is a full keyboard mounted to a wall-terminal, and there doesn't seem to be a keycard reader either. This one, evidently, was meant to be somewhat more secure.     Kotone would find the computers to be difficult, but not impossible to hack. Strange for a facility like this one, but it becomes obvious why once she's in. The security suite seems to have been swapped to some kind of military default, and trying to bring up the original is impossible. Files not found, apparently. In fact, many of the applications no longer function; she finds many that seem like they could tap into some kind of tactical network or computer database, but each of those fail utterly when she attempts to access them, spitting out the same set of errors. 'Strategic Analysis Unit - NOT FOUND.' There are a number of archived files, however, that she could probably pull off the computers. With the security system bypassed, it's not a difficult task.     Meanwhile, Rory analyses maps for FAST TRAVEL INFORMATION. She finds several facilities scattered across the planet. Several are in familiar locations, now associated with major population centers. Others are hidden in more esoteric locations; though it's unlikely that these are civilian holdings, given the context in which she finds them. But disturbingly, many of these places no longer exist. They are located in the vast desert that covers a large portion of Tellus' interior, or are located off the southern coast, on land masses that... No longer ARE. Of these places, in the modern day, there is no sign.     Will busies himself with combing the rest of the room, searching for something that might have been left behind- a body, maybe, or some indication of what this place really was. While he does that, the Bandits ARRANGE THEIR LOOT.     The contents of the bag are largely mundane. A bedroll, a few canteens full of by now stagnant, unpotable water, rations that have gone bad. There are a number of weapons, too. Many, many weapons. Some of them are clearly hobbled together by some country gunsmith, but others are far older, and seem to have been refurbished for use. There are clothes... for both genders. It looks like there used to be room for a climbing kit and a set of explorer's tools, but they've gone missing. And... There's an old, leatherbound journal. It's not locked. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel runs her fingers along the double-door, investigating it for durability, She looks around the edges for seams. She wanders over to the keyboard to fiddle with it a bit, and see if there's anything she can figure out. It turns out there's not.     So Mel Brock stands back several paces and holds out both hands, takes a deep breath, and curls her fingers.     Incredible force wraps itself around the doors. Right up to the maximum she can produce with her limiter still in place. Glimmers of purple dance and shimmer faintly and occasionally, like watching purple sunlight reflect off the waves of a lake that isn't there. The Marshal settles her psychic grip in on the doors for a moment, readying herself like a weightlifter about to put their muscles to the test.     And then she heaves. Heaves with every single gram of force she can muster, enough to fling cars by the dozens. She's trying to rip the damn door right out of the wall. Right /through/ the wall if need be. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa doesn't attempt much to get into them she just looks to get visuals on what she can she also does notice a lot of the network is missing and the SAU is gone? Was it destroyed? Wast it removed uin someway. She took a momentlonger but she'll check the files tht she can pull off. She'll keep them in a drive that's not a part of her cyberbrain to be on the safe side. "I pulled some files we can look at later and some sort of Strategic Analysis unit which should be in system is just gone. 404 pretty much." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine walks over as Molly goes through everything! The canteens are opened and sniffed, right before she tosses them over her shoulder, same with the rations. The clothes are checked by both, Irvine taking the men's and Molly the woman's, holding them against themselves to see if they might fit!     Is this how they have so many costumes?     "Now we're talking!" Irvine exclaims as the guns come out! He and Molly methodically check each one for ammo before pointing them, checking the balance with gun twirls before setting them down. And finally, Molly picks up the journal. Kicking off from the table, she rolls around the room, calling out, "Story time~!" before opening it up and reading aloud. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now that Maaka's handling the bulkheads, August moves towards Mel. He fiddles with his laser pistol, as he stands beside her, covering her. It is during this time that the Tin Soldier stops spraying fire everywhere and also leaps down to August's side. If Maaka needed that light...well, she should have said something! 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka had only acquired this to get a way to run across walls, BUT climbing up them works too for her purposes. SHe switches to night-vision in the absence of any light, scanning for details. SHe takes note of the keypad, but doesn't do anything just yet. Pointing to the markings, she makes a curious noise. "Someone was up here too." She mutters, before she leaves the escape route alone for now.     The reports as to what this place is make Maaka's synthetic blood run cold. She had heard stories of WMDs before, but in her world such things were still unthinkable, especially after the mid-2000s. Hehe sighs heavily, before she slides her way down to rejoin the others, going down with a last-minute boost to slow her descent enough to avoid a painful fall, and dropping with a three-point landing.     She draws her pistol immediately after Mel begins to open the door, covering it along with August and his Persona. "Holy shit, Brock..." She says, watching the Psi-Marshal work with some awe. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Hundreds of years, this facility's stood here, largely unmolested. Hundreds of years and barely anything has done so much as scratch it. And then some jerk-ass psychic unleashes the full force of her tremendous telekinetic and power upon what is very obviously a door that's NOT MEANT TO BE EASILY OPENED.     Raw force alone probably wouldn't be enough to do the job. The Ancients built their facilities to withstand the crushing grind of the ages themselves, made very sure to leave very little room for leverage. But psychic power does not need leverage, as such.     Old magnetic bolts hold the door shut against Mel's will, but the points at which the door was anchored into the wall are significantly less well fortified. Slowly, the thing is shaken free. Mysterious alloys screech and groan as Mel pulls. Power conduits flash and shed white sparks as they're suddenly severed. It will take some time, it will take a great deal of effort, but soon the door is off its hinges and tossed aside. As that tremendous clangor ceases, one might notice that Will has suddenly gone very pale. And the Bandits read on: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G0ZDPuz0it_-e9EN5EPkTRIBCutleP3G94zcHVML-NQ/edit?usp=sharing 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     At the end of it, when the door finally rips free, Mel carefully, slowly shifts her arms over to the side, causing the ripped-out chunk of door and wall to float to one side, where she sets it down.     She's breathing pretty hard by the end of this; that constant, straining exertion of all the power she has is a lot different than quick blasts and bursts or telekinetic barriers. "Guh... gimme a sec," she mutters. "Feels like they built that thing to survive the apocalypse." Was that a joke?     She does glance up at August, though, adding, "Anything down that way?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' What very useful data! Rory's optics blink and flicker a few times as she pours over it and files much of it away. She's already working in a part of her processing to figure out good spots to investigate next...     And horrified at the implications.     She's brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a HORRIBLE CLATTER not too far away. Even at that distance, Mel's Telekinetic MAYHEM is a noisy thing! She dives behind one of the projectors and glances around, but doesn't immediately find the cause.     So instead the ROBOTIGRESS clink-clank-pads over towards the Starlight Bandits... to listen. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Molly's voice is light at first. But her tone becomes more neutral as she reads on. It's easy to accuse the pair of being stupid, but they do keep track of things, and this journal is full of key words relating to someone in this room.     Gale.     Solano.     Wordlessly, the woman rises from her chair, walks over to Will, and hands him the journal. Irvine meanwhile, examines the room critically. "No bodies. That means they made it out. There is an exit. Take heart chums!" he shouts over the cacophony that Mel is making right now. "WE'LL MAKE IT OUT OF THIS!" And a big old thumbs-up to punctuate it. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Solano. Gale.     Will.     Maaka looks over to Will as she listens to the journal, and a knot in her stomach forms. She's frowning and that's evident even with a mask that looks more like an angry skull than anything else. She opens her helmet up, eyes bearing sympathy, as she approaches Will.     And then she hugs the Chaser. A very big-sisterly hug around his waist. "I'm sorry." She whispers as she comforts him. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August investigates the pit, quietly listening to Molly as she reads. He shoots fire down there to illuminate if needed, and tells Mel the outcome of whatever he finds, before returning to Mel. "Let's go take a look, shall we?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone looks as Will goes very, very pale she's got hte info she pulled off hte computers to look at later and is now going and she makes for will looking very concerned. She also listens to the journal as well she has an idea of what's happened, and she now htinks she understands with a very sympathic look on her face but she's not going to hug him Maaka's already on it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Not like this.     Will's hands tremble around the journal as Molly hands it over. Coming all this way, after so many years, looking high and low. No, not like this. He didn't want to find out like this. Nobody would. "I--" He chokes, moisture gathering around the normally implacable Chaser's eyes. "I thought... I knew they were still out there, but..." But his father's on the run from something he couldn't explain. But his mother is suffering because of the same thing that turned all these bodies into monsters. And it was years ago. Years.      His arms shake when Alexis pulls him into a hug. He doesn't resist. The wind's been knocked out of him. And so he does what anyone else would do upon learning... That. He sobs. He cries into her shoulder. But who wouldn't? ...     But there is a vault here. James had made that abundantly clear in his notes. And it just so happens that a certain psychic completely bypassed the need to decipher the lock. Likely because the door wasn't opened properly, the vault itself is pitch black except for the light August brings with him... And one other source. The inside is almost disappointing, in a way. It's certainly large, and home to a good deal of treasure. There are more weapons here, possibly to ensure that those operating the control room had a means of defending themselves. The walls humm with activity, and appear to be server racks or some other set of computing hardware. But the most curious object is at the very back of the chamber; a strange device that contains a glass cylinder, inside which is something that looks like a glass marble. Cables snake up and down from the top and bottom of the cylinder and reach for- but never quite touch- the bead.     It gives off its own light. A calm, blue-white glow, which neatly illuminates the incredibly complex network of lines criss-crossing its interior. Electricity arcs from the sphere to the tendrils, as data scrolls down a monitor inlaid into the containment device. The cylinder is removable, apparently. It's just sort of... socketed in there.     ...Upon closer inspection, it's clear that there are dozens more of these devices stretching out in either direction, but all of them are lifeless; either the cylinders contained within are shattered, or are missing entirely. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel finally stands herself up straight again, and turns to look at Will and Maaka for a moment before just... looking away. She's got that handled for now, and he needs it. So for the moment, she's gonna head into the vault.     After a few moments of digging, she comes out with a personal communicator not at all dissimilar from a smartphone, holds it up, and taps the screen. The light it puts out isn't all that great compared to a proper flashlight, but it's something, at least. Enough to get her in there, where she can approach the glowing blue... energy core? Data core? Containment cylinder? She's not sure.     "Hey, Catnip 5000, could you c'mere a sec? Want to see what you can make of this." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Firelight illuminates the pit, because August's idea of a thorough investigation is to shoot fire into mysterious places to see what's inside. Just as Maaka's flare did, he would see a number of different conduits and pipes that seem to have been drawn away or disconnected from some kind of central object. Along the walls of the cylinder, there are what appear to be rail-like tracks that lead all the way into the depths below. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' That form of address is quite a bit much! In fact it takes Rory White a few moments to realize Mel's addressing... her. because Rory White was so thoroughly scanning through the revealed vault - shining lights on everything that sprout from her body as she goes along too - that she was taking it VERY slow.     But she does turn to Mel... and quickly bounds over.     ... which brings her to the matter of the... crystal?     "The intricacy and the lightshow suggests that it's either used for data storage... or an artificial neural network. This is also similar to a device Will showed me that I believe was a q-bit communicator. Quantum entanglement. My guess is one of the three... we'll have to examine what it's CONNECTED TO!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Jeez, quantum entanglement... even back where I come from, that's not cheap, /or/ housed in anything this small." She blows out an impressed breath. "I'll let you do that part, you've got a better head for tech than me." Leaving that to Rory, the PsiMarshal turns to head back into the main room, just as August is preparing to make a Dumb Decision. All on his own? That's just not acceptable.     As she walks past one of the desks, the flat surface rips itself right off the supports, casually dumping any terminals still on it. It floats alongside Mel until she reaches the hole in the middle, whereupon it floats over the hole at precisely the right height for she and August both to step onto. "Going down, ground floor. Spiders, mysterious rails and possible escape routes." Looks like she's going down there after all - it does seem to be the only way out. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Damn it, why won't anyone let anything horrible happen? What are they, good people? As Mel makes them an elevator, August just looks at it, looks at her, and steps on it quietly replying. "Thanks." And then, waits for the descent. Too bad there's no music. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "No kidding." Maaka muses. "Back home you need a computer the size of a buick to handle that level of programming. Not exactly something you can stuff in a rock." She says, before she lets go of William. However, she does remain close in case he needs further support. That's why she's here, after all. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka is stopped from backing off because of Molly. She wiggles weakly in protest, but she just sighs and takes it. "Y-yeah...she's actually right for once." She mutters, not believing her own words. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Is it hug time? Because Molly is all about hug time! She wraps Will and Alexis in her arms and HUGS! She's viciously strong despite her size and actually tries to arch her back to lift them both up. "Get all those tears out now William~! That way, when you see them again, you can greet them with a smile!"     But, Mel is here to provide a means of descent. "Thank you madam! We'll be sure to list you in our tales as our elevator attendant!" Irvine says, without a trace of mockery in his voice to Mel. Clearly, this is a great honor! He gives Molly his hand to help her onto the desk before stepping on himself. What a gentleman. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' SORRY AUGUST, PEOPLE CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU.     Mel is able to tear one of the desks out of the ground easily enough (they ARE anchored in there, just a little bit) and sails both August and herself down into the depths of the earth. The shaft is... Expansive. It goes down a very, very long way, and as August said, there are indeed what look like rails that reach from the bottom of the shaft up to right where the thing terminated in the room above. The conduits that fed into the shaft are more obvious, now. Many of them appear to be enormous cable bundles, all fiber-optic in nature. Others look like they were used to carry some kind of fluid-- a coolant, maybe?     Regardless, it isn't long until they reach what seems to be the bottom of the shaft. It's... Actually kind of cramped. The whole floor is only about a meter larger in radius than the hole they jumped down into. Looking closely downward, there's what appears to be a key-card face-down on the floor. The air seems... Damp, down here. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be panels inset into the walls; it looks slightly ajar, and large enough to fit a particularly short man.     Meanwhile, up above, Will is being hugged and comforted by not one, but two women. His eyes would be bulging at Molly's sudden bout of titanic strength, but he's busy wiping the tears away. "...I'll-- I'll be okay. I'll be okay." He doesn't sound okay. "We can... We can do this when we're out, okay?" "I just... I just need a second," he sniffles, "I'll be okay."     In the Vault, Rory is busy examining a staggeringly advanced piece of technology. It appears to be some kind of... Diagnostic tool. A very specialized one. The readout on the screen is largely in machine-code; it's running simulations, testing computational power, decision-making, and fine-tuning parameters where they fall short. Apparently it's been doing this for... ...Several hundred years. It had finished around a thousand ago. It's probably safe to abort and remove, if she keys in the command. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' She now looks concerned here but she's not close enough to will o give him what he needs nbad there is still the vault which a certian psychic get the lock popped and she watches what happens next. She'll take a more closer look and see only one thing remaining the others are all off line it looks like. "So do we grab it or do we leave it? Will it's yout call on this. and ... I understnd Will." <<Rory need a hand with that?>> Kotone will move to catch up with her long time friend to see if she needs any help with it. She'll come in to take a closer look and seriously wonders what the heck have they dug up? 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "... It couldn't be..." If Rory White wasn't as adept as she was at analyzing machine code on the fly, this would be largely useless gibberish. As it is however... the feline's optics flash with interest. Matter ripples across its shoulder, extending into a long, thin limb with simple digits with which she begins carefully tapping keys.     Directives: 'End test.' 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And the ground floor they have reached. Mel steps off, and opts to leave the loose panel to August; she herself takes a look around the bottom of the shaft itself, then holds out her hand towards the keycard. Unless there's something preventing it, she'll pull it up into her hand, shake off any dust, and give it a curious look-over. "But what the hell did they house down here, though? It looks like this was a holding shaft for something so they could raise and lower it, but... I mean, yeah, the 'something' is gone, but so's the apparatus to raise it. That's weird." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Wheeeeeeee     Maaka stays stone still as Mel carries them to the ground floor, letting August handle the panel. She looks around, landing at the bottom as she kneels down. "Hmmm...bit small for my size, maybe we could get Kotone through here?" She wonders, helping pry the panel right off, assuming it leads to any tunnel. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Rory deactivates the test-computer. Fortunately, with her familiarity with computers (being a stunningly advanced one, herself), she can decipher the code structure well enough to give the right command. The capsule pops loose, the little sphere at its center glowing faintly as the energy feeding into it is removed. Apparently it has an independent power source too? How strange.     Down in the shaft, Mel has picked up a keycard! Like any proper investigator in these sorts of situations, she turns it over to see who it belongs to. There is no hole for a crank on the other side. Instead, there is a rather pale-looking individual who is... not QUITE human. His features are too compact for that, his skin far too pale. But it does read a phrase Mel would recognize: 'Chief of Maintenance.'     The panel comes away easily enough when Maaka lifts it away. There is indeed a tunnel there! The air coming from it also smells damp. Damp in a somewhat earthy, vaguely... salty sort of way. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Down in the hole, Irvine peers into the briny blackness beyond the hole! "Aha! Surely this is how... that man got out!" he exclaims. Holes echo, and he doesn't want to say anything Will might overhear. "If you'll all pardon me, I'll check it out."     And without even waiting, he's climbing in and wriggling to get through!     Meanwhile, upstairs, Molly nods to Will, and produces an embroided handkerchief, wipes his face with it and pressing it to his nose so he can blow it. How motherly she is. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' The only problem with the crystal being loosed to... do what it's supposed to do now is... Rory White has no idea wHAT exactly that is. Others here are now focused on further exploration, but she's found something that her entire principle demands she devote full attention to.     If there IS an AGI here, it's her moral duty to see to it than they don't languish in a forgotten facility, trapped and doomed to insanity. They'll need... mobility. A community. A purpose if they don't have one already.     So for now, the robo-kitty seats herself in front of the 'AI Core' as it's been described...     "... Who knows if that's equipped with a microphone.. can you hear me?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, guys, I found the maintenance keycard." Mel looks straight up the shaft, thoughtful. "Wonder if it'll open the blast doors. If it does, I can get us out of here." She pockets it, then turns to watch Irvine do his thing. "...Gonna be alright in there, man?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Rory for a moment and she moves up to help her firend with getting it out of here. "Wo what do you have here an ai of some sort? Rory? Think we can hook it up to VR space once we get out of here and try to talk to it in infomorph form? I'd be willing to work with you on that, also need me to carry it till we get out and you get something with hands again?" She hears they may have found some other things as well. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Irvine has boldly decided to brave the depths of the maintenance tunnels. He quickly finds that they are... Dark. Tenders are highly light sensitive organisms, and their preferred environs are rather dim overall. But there is still a thin contrail of light that leads ahead, past a number of side-passages even more cramped than this one, and around a distant corner. If he follows the light, that damp scent-- the scent of water-- would only grow stronger as he presses on, but he soon finds himself at an impasse! Or rather, at what appears to be a field of amber energy set up in the middle of the tunnel, and behind that, a set of bulkhead doors similar to the one up above. Almost certainly a security measure. Conveniently, there is a panel with a card reader nearby.     Up above, Will is released from Molly's warm, motherly hug with red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. The handkerchief helps with most of all of that, and he sniffles into it when offered. He looks... Tired. Emotionally drained, probably. But at least he also doesn't look like he's about to break down. "...Thanks, Molly," he sniffs, "I... I needed that."     In the vault, Rory busily stares down the glowing marble. It doesn't appear to respond to her address, at least at first. But then, after a moment, it... Pulses, emitting a low, droning sound with every flash of activity. A split second later, that same sound is echoed from outside. One pulse, then another from out of the vault. Will blinks at the noise. It sounds again, unusually close by. He rubs furiously at his eyes and then grabs for the weapon at his hip. He draws the Solano. It pulses, and drones. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August was debating crawling into that tunnel, but before he could decide, Irvine did! Well, let's hope he doesn't get hurt. Instead, August stands to the side, waiting to crawl in and aid him if needed (he's fairly short, 5'8). But then, there's noises. And as those noises occur, August moves onto the elevator. "Can we have an elevator going up, please?" The Tin Soldier meanwhile, unable to get up there on his own, begins tapping his foot to invisible elevator music. Except he doesn't produce sound, so really, his non-gun foot is just wiggling. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, how's it going in there?" Mel calls into the service crawlway. "Find anything?"     She turns to look over her shoulder at August, then upward, and frowns. "Uhh... shit, I don't want to leave him down here alone." She looks to Maaka next. "Will you be alright down here with him?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka hears something coming. She draws her Kama and nods to Mel. "I got this, go ahead." She says, before she looks toward where she hears the noise. "The hell is that sound anyway?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     It's dark! But Irvine isn't afraid of the dark at all as he pushes through. Eventually, he reaches the end, somehow seeing the card reader immediately. He starts to wiggle back, until his hand is poking out. "That card please!" He wriggles his fingers for Mel to pass it to him.     Meanwhile, back up top, Molly just smiles at Will into he produces the glowing, droning gun. She gasps. "I know what that is! That's... Irvine calls it the 'light of destiny.' Oh William, I knew you were destined for great things!" No sense of danger in this one. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel blinks. "The card? Yeah, sure, here." She hands it over to Irvine, before stepping onto the tabletop again and giving Maaka a nod. "Just give a yell if anything goes weird." She waits for August to hop on, and then starts taking them straight up to the top. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier keeps foot-wiggling as the elevator rises. It only stops when August starts moving towards Will, the robot-man following along and running over to him. "Will? Put down the gun. If that thing's overloading, we need to get out of here." The Tin Soldier then proceeds to point his gun all around at everyone near Will, and fire! Nothing comes out except for the feeling that you are way sturdier. Defense buffs! 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Upon receiving the card, Irvine immediately wriggles back in to use it on the scanner. Fingers crossed! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "The light of... destiny?" Will repeats. He stares down at the inner light flashing through the framework of his favorite firearm and knits his brow in thought. Now, ordinarily, he wouldn't be the type to believe in destiny, necessarily. Bit with all that's happened so far- the GPS leading him here, finding a /command center,/ his father's journal, and now... This. "...Destiny, huh?" August fires. This backfires, because Persona Defense Buffs don't care about physical or mental attacks, so all he does is STRENGTHEN WILL'S RESOLVE.     "...Yeah, I think so," he says to Molly and gives just a little hint of a smile. He moves away, approaching the door to the vault, as the pulsing light grows stronger. Will lifts the Solano to the door as it... Comes apart. But not in the 'exploding' way or the 'spontaneously dismantles' sort of way. Rather, the gun's construction comes apart, suspended in a field of crackling energies to reveal a set of strange rings deep within its mechanisms.     Tiny crystalline fragments within pulse and extend the halo of energy towards the gem in Rory's tendrils. It lifts away with a crackle of power and seems to be tugged through the air by that strange, energetic aura. With a final pulse, it settles into the rings and knits the gun back together. There's a moment where everything goes quiet. And then the Solano bursts with a sudden wave of brilliant, but ultimately harmless energies. Will shields his watery eyes as it passes, but when it does, the Solano is... Well, it's visibly identical to what it once was. ...But. ...     MEANWHILE! Irvine takes the key-card. He swipes the key-card! The energy field dissolves with a quiet *pop* shortly before the bulkhead behind it begins grinding open, revealing a... A cave. But not just a cave. The sound of rushing water is unmistakable, and if he steps out onto the ledge beyond, he'd find himself staring down what appears to be an underground river system, leading inexorably outward to the distant sounds of some mighty cascade. ...Unfortunately, it also seems like they might have to swim down-river. Or, you know, improvise a boat. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' With the crystal ZOOMING OFF, Rory bounds after it at maximum speeds without getting TOO reckless. Just in time to see it merge with the Solano and... ?!?!?!     Well. That was... unexpected.... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Well.     Maaka is about to level her gun at the crystal core, and suddenly Solano falls apart. "The -fuck-?"     She stares in befuddlement as she watches the gun fall to pieces, before it knits itself back together, as if by magic. She is past the point of words here, and at this rate anything's possible. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August did a thing! It wasn't what he intended, but it was a thing! He moves to barrel Will out of the way when everything begins glowing, but before he can intercept, it's all over. He intercepts anyways, with the Tin Soldier tackling Will and his fancy new gun to the ground. "Will! Are you alright?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa help Rory where she can but also does hear something is coming, she has her weapon out and notes to her friend. "Sounds like something's on it's way. We should make ready for it." She now is mkeeping with the group. she watches in awe as Will somehow tkae his gun apart and start to work with it. Then she watches the crystal she gazes on in awe at the whole thing. She's neve seen anything like this before. "Woah..." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Hey, it opens! Irvine wriggles back out and shouts out, "I've found a way out! It might be a bit damp, but it'll certainly lead outside!" Meanwhile, Molly is agog with amazement as Will's gun seems to be a magic gun! "William, are you a chosen one~?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     As the light dies down, Will draws his arm back from where it was protecting his eyes. The Solano crackles, an arc of lightning leaping briefly from the barrel to the floor. "...Uh," he says vaguely in the direction of his weapon and clutches the journal a little more tightly to his chest. "That was kind of... something?"     He's about to say more, but then suddenly he's TACKLED TO THE GROUND by a mechanical hessian. Will makes a pretty solid impact, but the gun itself doesn't leave his hands. A solid grip is an important trait for a gunslinger. "Ow! August, what the heck're you doin'--" A voice, hollow and tinny and otherwise largely devoid of any real inflection.                       --==CORE PROCESSOR RESTORED==--                                             --==DATA INTEGRITY VERIFIED==--                              --==MAIN SYSTEMS: CONDITION YELLOW. MAINTENANCE REQUIRED.==--             "..." Will sniffs, rubbing again at his nose, but his eyes look more focused, now. He has something to focus on. "I," he says, only mildly disbelieving, "I think my gun is talking." He glances over towards Molly, and looks VERY CONFUSED. "I... Don't think so?" He's just a guy with a gun!     But more importantly than ANY OF THAT, Will hears Irvine's cry and jolts upright. "R-right. Let's get out of here." He starts to go, but then... Turns and moves to gather up what remains of his father's belongings. ...Can't just leave them here, after all. "So, um," he asks at the Bandits. "Y'all have that teleport stick, right? Couldn't we have just... used that to leave whenever we needed?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     After Rory did all that talking about AI, Mel is not taking any real chances.     She walks over to Will as he's gathering his father's things, leans down a little, and goes, "Hey. Hey, you. Can you hear us? Can you talk? Are you sapient, or just a particularly smart OS?" She's talking to the gun directly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Okay Mel talking to a gun is a little bit weird but-- "YES. YES. YES. NO." Oh. Well, that answers that. Will kind of stares at his gun like he's not entirely quite sure how to handle this situation. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:''' R    Maaka stares at the gun. "...your gun's talking." She says, baffled. AI in guns isn't exactly something even SHE is expecting, though to be fair, that's mostly because nobody thought of it.     She sighs, shaking her head before she heads for down to join Irvine in the tunnels. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is quiet for a few seconds, then adds, "Are you a smartass?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White decides to speak up. "Wait, let's not leave just yet. We'd have a hard time getting back and there's still a few things to go over. Plus, this AI may have very useful information." She refers to them impersonally, but the AGI's tone still conveys a bit of respect.     "Hello. AGI of the weapon, please identify yourself? I am Rory White, a researcher and engineer. The one who activated you, in fact." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The Solano seems to consider Mel's question for a moment, before replying: "I do not possess a posterior." So, 'yes,' probably. Rory asks a question, herself. The gun answers, which is normally lethal, but in this case is not. "I am the Core Processor Unit administrating Terminal Judgment. 'Judgement' is an appropriate name." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is just sititng back now it seems Will's gun has an ai or some some sort and it's taken the name judgment it also seems to be sane too from it's long time left here deep in the earth. That is good news it's not ranting baout the end of flesh. "Hello Judgement, I am Kotone." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "I am Judgement. Greetings." At least it's polite enough to respond to casual conversation! Will frowns a little bit as he collects up the rest of James' belongings, "Well, I've been calling y'all Solano for years now, so--" "I am Judgement." "...This is gonna be an interesting relationship." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Not an unsolvable dilemma, here," Mel points out. "Just think of Judgement as a passenger inside the Solano. Judgement can be Judgement, your gun can still be Solano. Problem solved." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a pause. "Acceptable, I suppose." Judgement replies. It beeps twice. "As long as the 'Solano' is restored to full functionality as soon as possible." Will shrugs at Mel and the gun and THE WORLD. "...Well. I was intending to... work towards that, at some point." 
}}

4815/CC-SJ-2 Imperial March

2016-11-27T05:47:59Z

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/26
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Iskandria marches on the Frontier. In one such battlefield, someone has sent up a call for help! Elites arrive to fight back the horde, but battle is also joined by a messenger from the heavens. Enter the Hero.
|Cast of Characters=934, 1077, 1010, 385, 1065, 894, 1007
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     This part of the multiverse is typically pretty quiet. The people of The Frontier are a hardy, robust lot, and while they tend to complain (loudly, to whoever might be around to listen), they rarely need any help to solve their problems. That's not the case today, and it's easy to see why.     The signal leads to a town along the northern edge of the great western desert, far enough from its arid center for the landscape to be occupied more by steppe, mesa and scrubland than sand dunes. There's a town here, set up underneath what appears to be a huge stone henge-- or possibly part of what was once an immense highway. But right now, it looks more like a ramshackle fortress than a village. Makeshift wooden walls reinforced with plates of exotic materials have been set up around the periphery of the settlement. Gunnery emplacements squat atop the bit of barely intact highway, which has been buttressed by elbow grease and scavenged steel. They needed to prepare.     A formation of armored infantry marches on the settlement from the west. But they're not the bit that should worry anyone. The chances that they'd break into even a fortress- even a ramshackle one- against a force of Frontiersmen all the way out here is vanishingly slim. No, it's the fact that that little squad is surrounded by a veritable battalion of what look like minotaurs with beam weaponry mounted to their arms is what should worry. It looks, for a moment, as though they're about to start firing. And then one of the soldiers steps out of the horde.     "Ahem. Ahem! If I could have your attention!" The armored man yells, "People of the frontier town of..." He squints, "...Barter...town. Bartertown. Attention people of the frontier town of Bartertown. We come as agents of the Iskandrian Senate and the Imperatrix to extend our invitation into the empire. Your town has been selected above your peers to serve as seat for the empire's new province. Lay down your arms and surrender peacefully, and we shall extend our protection to your settlement. Resist, and we will have no choice but to take your land by--" Something goes splat. It's... It's a rotten tomato.     "We don't want your damn protection!" Someone yells from atop the highway. "We've been handling things just fine out here without you namby-pamby westerners." The soldier's brow twitches. He wipes his helmet clean. "I come in the name of the Imperatrix! Have some respect--" "Imperatrix?" "What's that?" "We didn't vote for no namby-pamby imperatrix!" The soldier sighs, stepping back into formation, "Very well, if that's the way you want it." He raises a hand, then gestures ahead, "Forces, march!" ...It looks like things are about to get pretty bloody. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     "Esp inum lemure cara san."     As a hidden voice calls out, whisps of orange light begin to flit in the area from all around. They float through their air effortlessly, some passing through rock and people alike until they settle in a wide group in front of the approaching army.     "Rek."     The floating lights all dive into the ground and suddenly a wall of fire erupts. The barrier of flames burns between the army and the makeshift town behind for several moments before the center parts. Through the opening walks a young man wearing fairly casual clothes, his long muffler blowing in the wind. His head is bowed, silver-grey hair covering his eyes as he reaches up to grip the hilt of the large sword on his back. As the flames close up behind him, he calls out to the man who appears to be the leader of this formation, "These people have declined your offer of protection. I suggest you leave now in peace, there are surely more important targets you could direct your army towards. It would be a waste to lose them here." 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     ROBOTS     Reinhardt is getting some slight flashbacks to the Omnic war back in the day, when he was young and Overwatch was still around. It isn't, but that doesn't mean the old man can't do some good regardless. When he hears the pleas for help, the aging knight is quick to join the fray.     A conspicuous pile of scrap rumbles besides the advancing forces, and suddenly an explosion of sheer German machismo is upon them.     "ACHJAAAAAAAA!!" He bellows, his hammer swinging wide to send as many of the invaders flying as possible. "YOUR PRESENCE IS UNNEEDED HERE, LEAVE NOW!" His voice echoes through his armor's speakers. It's a rather stern warning. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' When Yuna initially heard the distress signal, she wasn't entirely sure that she'd heard it correctly - but she had Elner plot a course for the signal's source nonetheless, and reviewed the signal along the way, as well as conferring with Elner about how best to deal with it. She doesn't really want to fight an army, robot or otherwise, but she can't ignore the people who are about to be swarmed over, whether they get slaughtered in the process or simply annexed by a government they don't want to be any part of. So when Yuna finally draws attention to her approach, she does so in a relatively simple manner: a big, bright bolt from the Matrix Divider, blasting a hole in the roadway ahead of the imperial army's vanguard. "COMPANY, HALT!!" Yuna calls out in as authoritative a voice as she can manage, soaring in to hover in the army's path, her weapon at the ready just in case she needs to do more than fire a warning shot. At least she's not the only person coming to the town's defense; Gabriel's wall of fire forces Yuna to remain higher in the air than she'd planned to, but she's grateful for the support nonetheless. And as if to underscore that thought, Yuna doesn't remain alone in the air for long: Jiina and Marina descend to flank her, holding their respective weapons but aiming away from the Iskandrian forces, while Elner hovers next to Yuna's shoulder and just a bit behind her. "I don't know who in your government decided it was all right to swoop in and annex Bartertown without any forewarning," Yuna calls out, "but this town doesn't want to be annexed, or conquered, or any subjugated in any manner. I strongly suggest that you all head back into your own nation's territory, before --" Before Reinhardt, apparently; the power-armored knight doesn't give Yuna time to finish whatever she was going to say. But the blonde girl doesn't seem too upset about the interruption .... maybe she recognizes that it's robots that are getting beaten up? 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     Let it never be said the life of a Guardian is ever boring. One moment, Devon-7 was cruising through space, slurping on something fizzy and watching the latest Crucible plays.     "Ah damn, I'm down fifty Glimmer." He grumps glumly watching one Guardian put another down with a well placed headshot. Sigh. That's when the distress signal comes in.     "Devon? Hey Devon, y'better take a look at this." Oakley chimes, the floating little construct bobbing in the air for his attention, turning his head from the carnage. "We're close by, wanna take a look?     "Huh... Yeah let's mosey." He decides before pausing, the ship's systems relaying data and info from the site below. Something about an Imperatrix. "Huh... Bartertown? So who runs it?" He muses. "NOT some Imperawhatsis that's for sure." Oakley replies.     All it takes is a moment for his jumpship to reach prime orbital position for a Transmat drop. There's a shimmer... And the ship is empty. Another shimmer on the ground and he lands atop the wrecked segment of highway, duster coat fluttering in the wind only for a moment before he vanishes. Lucky few may catch glimpse of what looks like a space-armored cowboy. Before he just vanishes from sight, the light rippling around where he used to be almost imperceptibly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     A lot of things happen in a very short period of time. Things that make even the great mechanical legion pause. A wall of fire erupts in the space between the advancing forces and the ramshackle walls of bartertown. Shortly thereafter, a bolt of golden light lances down in front of /that./ Heroes appear as if out of the aether, dropping in from high orbit or screaming through the air. But perhaps most pressingly for the robotic armies, there is a very angry German man taking a hammer to some very unfortunate robots.     "Look at those walls! Those buildings! We bring the promise of safety to these people- we could bring medicine and food, and all we need is their allegiance. The Imperatrix has made her decree-" That same soldier- likely an officer- yells. Though whether that's in response to Yuna or to Reinhardt or to rally his troops or for some other reason isn't quite clear. "Advance," he yells, "-All weapons hot!" The sound of energy weapons charging is unmistakable and universal across all worlds. And just like that, the world is suddenly a terrible storm of red energy. Each of those robots is equipped with not one, but two autocannons, and each one is spitting blood-red bolts at the defenders.     The ones engaged with Reinhardt are... Well, he's been fighting robots for a while, and his hammer is VERY large. Many crumble and shatter, but the ones behind charge forward with heavy, black axes, trying to lock shafts with the ancient German, and then SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE. Robots are cheaters.     Curiously, the people in the town seem to have... Gone quiet? Or rather, their guns are quiet. "Who the heck called in the cavalry?" One of them mutters. "I'unno," another replies, "No skin off our back." It looks like they're... saving ammo? Well, it's not like they have too many supplies out here.                                  MEANWHILE                                       Somewhere in Bartertown, a head pokes out from behind what looks like a hay bale. "Psst, August," someone in a hat whispers. "Do... Do you think they got the message?" Oh. It's Will! "Signal was successfully broadcasted" Another, hollower voice calls, "Also the front of town appears to be on fire." "Shush, you," Will mutters. "Why d'we always run into crap like this when we're in the middle of a trip?" 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     Reinhardt may be ancient, but he's a monster in close-combat, like right now. He's not so sloppy as to let the robots get too close, his hammer swinging once more to take out as many of the advancing robots down as possible.     Assuming he doesn't get a full swing, he uses his boosters to crash right into the horde of 'bots, bringing his helmet down on the unfortunate robot closest to him in a headbutt. "RRRRRRR!!!"     He may not be too nimble in the armor, but he still attempts a kick to give himself some space and catch his breath. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" Yuna shouts (well, practically yelps) as soon as she hears the Iskandrian 'weapons hot' order; her kite shield, the 'Wall of the Guardian Star' as she named it, flares into existence on her left arm JUST in the nick of time, and Yuna pulls most of her petite body behind the shield's cover just before the energy bolts start flying. But even WITH her shield taking most of the punishment, she can't just hove there and tank it. Even if she were in Powered Form, the heaviest mode available to Yuna normally, she wouldn't be able to just hunker down and wait it out; the Light Suit's defensive reserves have limits, and she's in *Flight* Form - arguably her *least* durable mode, which puts a premium on dodging. And the robotic soldiers aren't going to give her time to switch out. There's sort of another option, though, and it's Elner who executes it first: the little robo-faerie simply flies over the wall and down into the relative safety of Bartertown, with Jiina and Marina following suit in a hurry. Yuna glances over her shoulder briefly, then flits back and down to rejoin her allies, the protective aura of her battlesuit crackling a little longer before stabilizing back to its normal, virtually-invisible glow. "They really aren't going to give us a peaceful option, are they ..." sighs Yuna, hoping her heartbeat settles back down to a normal speed quickly enough to let her think, and rejoin the fray while there's still a good chance to protect Barterdown from Iskandrian conquest. *Maybe* she could outfly the massed firepower out there, but her confidence in that is .... really, really low. That only leaves one or two other options, and she needs the cover she's currently got if she's going to enact either of those. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Travelling with William Pauwel: a terrible mistake, one redheaded German has learned. Every single time it ends in chaos. August Kohler glances over the haybale, his nine-gallon hat poking upwards before he dives back down. "I'm pretty sure you're some kind of bad luck magnet. One of these days, you're going to get us killed, Pauwel." And then, Judgment makes a report. August just sighs, gets up, and looks for the closest roof to climb up to. "I'll be right back! Somebody stole my schtick." Once on the roof, August taps into local radio. "<< Hey, who here isn't a terrible dictator? You get a buff. >>" A glance down at one of his buttons, as he tears it off and tosses it into the air, staring straight into the reflective surface. "PERSONA!" Suddenly, the burn-scarred robot soldier with a gun for a leg rises in a crackle of blue energy, before aiming its gun at all friendlys. And it fires, but nothing comes out except a wave of energy. Reinhardt, Yuna, Gabriel, and Devon feel stronger; their attacks will do far more damage than they did before! 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     If Gabriel is grateful for the assistance of those others coming to the town's aid, he doesn't show it. Now's not the time, after all. Instead he lifts his head, his golden eyes staring down the officer, "You've made your choice then. Live with it."     As the army is instructed to prepare their weapons, Gabriel draws his sword and says, "San lista traven una." Gabriel begins to walk forward, additional wisps of light flocking to him from out of nowhere. They group up around Gabriel, merging together into a set of phantasmal armor that covers most of his body.     Gabriel's pace goes from a walk to a run as the army opens fire with its energy weapons. It's the first time he's ever faced such weapons, but he likens them to some spells he's encoutered so doesn't back down. Instead he charges the firing army rather recklessly, many of the shots going wide as he runs. Those better aimed splash against the armor of light.     As Gabriel quickly reaches the front line of the formation he feels the power of August's buff rush over him. He unleashes a battle cry and begins to lash out with his blade, darting quickly from one robot to the next. He uses the close quarters to make aiming their weapons more difficult while he quickly brings his sword down on limbs and slicing towards torsos. 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     Dropping in from orbit? Who? Where? Who could have done that?     Certainly not Deovn-7. He's not even here. The Guardian is nowhere in sight.     But the ripple of motion of something deadly and predatory up above is there. Light bending all around it, little more than a flutter of motion, readying something long-barrelled and deadly.     "Well ain't this a right party." Devon chuckles to himself, Oakley twittering affirmatively where she takes her place hiding in the recesses of his coat as the guardian sights through the scope of his sniper rifle. For a moment he just surveys. The town below, the invading legion of machines, the soldiers, Reinhardt plowing through them and mauling everything in sight. The Hunter whistles under his breath, the clawed fingertips of his gauntlets drumming impatiently on the grip of the gun. He hangs back. He does not join the fray. He lines up a shot.     . o O (There. ... Oh bearer mine. That one. He is the head, is he not?)     The Hunter tenses, gauntlet-clad hand going stiff as he hears the murky whispering giggle at the back of his mind, hands seemingly guiding themselves to sight the rifle on the soldier that had made the initial offer to the town. The man who gave the order to advance. He feels the sudden flow of empowering energy and influx of unbridled strength.     . o O (Do it. ... Oh bearer mine.)     He considers only a beat longer.     "Aydios compadre."     Devon-7 squeezes the trigger.     The report of his rifle is a loud and murderous crack, causing his camouflage to ripple dangerously. It's why he's already moving to another position while he's much more visible in the instant it goes off. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     As the planet of Tellus has proven time and time again, just because something's old doesn't mean it's not going to kick your ass. Though, paradoxically, Reinhardt is actually much, MUCH younger than the robots he's presently smashing into so many tiny bits. But it's more than just the fact that he's pulverizing machines that might conjure memories. It's their sheer /numbers./ He smashes one, only for another to take its place. There are hundreds here. Hundreds, for one small town.     Somewhere else on the battlefield, a sorcerer tries his luck. Bolts of energy smash into the robotic legion and... seem to disperse, draining away into the jet black plate of their armor. That doesn't necessarily help them once he gets into melee, but Gabriel might find that these machines aren't nearly as fragile as he might assume. Fortunately, August's buff seems to pay dividends. His sword cleaves through one, then another, but a third responds with a massive axe-- but there are so many of these things.     "Forward, forward!" The officer roars, "There are only two of them out here! Press foward, they can't stop us all!" And indeed, the robotic legion IS advancing, taking advantage of the wide open space around Bartertown to just sort of flood over the defenders. Energy bolts smash into wooden walls and explode into cinder and fire. "Go, go, G--"                                     BANG                                                                       -splut-                                       The officer collapses, his brain leaking out of a hole in his skull. Behind him, another man grimaces, wiping the gore off his chest, before promptly... Reaching down and seizing the fallen man's helmet. "Keep going!" He roars, "These bastards killed the commander. Lieutenant Secundus, taking command. Now keep going!" Well. They've certainly got discipline, if nothing else.                                  MEANWHILE                                       "Damnit Kohler, it's not that bad here!" Will yells after his BEST BUDDY and travelling partner. "We just keep running into AWFUL THINGS!" And it's true! Usually the threats are pretty tame. Like cave snakes and prairie sharks. But that's not exactly what's at play here. He sighs, rubbing at his face as he goes after August, only to find... A Yuna.     "M-miss Kagurazaka?" Will grins, rushing over to the glowing girl. "I'm glad y'all got my message! We're in a bit of a pickle here, as y'all can see. Uh... Are y'all okay?"                             Somewhere High Above                                 Devon's spacecraft hovers peacefully in high orbit, delicately dodging the passing ruins of some satellite or a wayward space-pen. It's trainquil up here. Nothing but void, and a big, glowing blue marble. ...And then /something/ swerves nearby. An enormous shadow sweeps across the jumpship's starboard side. A set of bright, white eyes stare at the vessel... Before the shadow, set against the glow of the distant sun, turns away and dips into atmosphere-- towards the Frontier far blow. Incoming. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' So, it looks like these guys are more focused on the settlers than the guys they're fighting. And therefore, the Fauxmans are trying to march into the settlement! So, there's only one solution. Set everything on fire. Specifically, August leaps forward, making a very clumsy jump from his rooftop to a ladder leading to the upper frontier walls. Once he's at the top, the Tin Soldier looms in the air over him, as he shouts to the enemy. "Hey, you bastards, I'd make some sort of cheesy punchline, but just burn in hell." And then, the Tin Soldier mimes a roar, as that leggun is pointed forward, fire blasting all in front of the settlement entrance. A massive wall of fire is conjured. If they want to get through it...they'll have to burn. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel finishes slicing through one of the robots, turning to his next target... Only to see it swinging a massive axe towards him. Gabriel quickly brings his own blade up to block, but it's only a small help. The Spirit Knight is smashed through the air by the heavy swing, bouncing across the ground a couple of times before coming to a stop.     Gabriel groans quietly as he gets up to one knee. He looks around at the large force of robots... They're only putting a dent in the numbers. He needs something a bit more intimidating. Gabriel plunges his sword into the ground and chants:     "Kell seni taram est forun pess gaim."     The hard desert ground in front of Gabriel begins to crack and rise up as large boulders, connected by swirling patterns of light. As more of the various sized chunks rise the thing begins to take shape. A torso, arms, legs, head. The Earth Spirit finishes climbing out of the hole created by its awakening and stands tall above the robots around it.     As the large spirit reaches back with one of the large boulders making up its fist, Gabriel jumps up onto it from behind. He uses it as a launching platform to send himself spinning towards the robots with a cry, his blade once more slashing out at them. Meanwhile the Earth Spirit finishes its swing towards a group of them, its boulder fist shaking the ground around it when it hits. 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     The commander falls. Devon watches for a long, silent, moment as the leader is reduced to a bloodied corpse, collapses, and is then replaced by his second. It shows that taking off the head does not always work. Another simply regrows. Or in this case, it shows a force that is not faltered by the loss of a commanding officer, when another man with the right initiative takes his place. The Hunter makes a sound like clicking teeth, from within his helment. That is some good discipline, though, he has to give credit where it's due.     He takes up a new position now, dropping to a knee and sighting through his sniper rifle again, cloaking systems stabilizing and rendering him a glassy shadow once again. But.     "... What the hay... Devon. Devon you oughta take a look at these readings from the ship." Oakley says, muffled by the Guardian's coat, and feeds him the data. That stays his hand.     "What the hell... Oakley open a comm to everyone friendly-like."     "Done."     Bwip.     <<Hey so somethin's inbound from orbit. Thought y'all oughta know.>>     Let it not be said a Hunter never keeps his allies appraised. He's lining up another shot, beginning to open fire, precision shots at joints and vital looking parts on a robot here or there. 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     SMASH! Reinhardt knows how to deal with numbers, and he attempts to scatter the enemy forces. His hammer's thrusters blast as he strikes with added force and speed. "RRRRAGH!"     The attack buffs from August are a welcome boon, and he presses the assault before hearing the mention of something in orbit, and it's not Devon's ship either. What the hell could -that- mean? 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The power-up from August's Persona suffuses Yuna's armored figure, and she gives the German student a quick thumbs-up in thanks while trying to figure out what her best options are. They really boil down to two possibilities. Option 1: Switch to Powered Form, leap over the bulwarks and take the fight back to the army. Pros: Relatively proportional response, and she'd have the firepower and armor to deal with the soldierbots. Cons: It would still be a slugging match and, more likely than not, a battle of attrition. Option 2: Summon El-Line and try to intimidate the army into backing off. Pros: El-Line *is* kind of a siegebreaker-class machine, and the sheer display of it MIGHT be enough to make the Iskandrians back off ... Cons: .... assuming they didn't just decide 'nice robot you've got there, think we'll take it' and start trying to capture it for themselves. Not that they'd really be *able* to capture El-Line intact; Yuna could dismiss the Matrix Figure again just as quickly in a pinch, and it's not like the Iskandrians are going to be able to find their own Savior of Light to summon or pilot El-Line for them - or so Yuna hopes. For now, the report of something coming in from orbit is enough to push her to make a decision, and hope it's the right one. For now, Yuna switches from Flight Form to Powered Form; Erina joins Marina in trying to assist the Bartertown citizens within their walls - providing cover fire over the wall, that kind of thing - while Yuna executes a hoverthruster-boosted leap over the wall and dives back into the fray. Shugoseiheki has been relocated to the left exo-arm, leaving the right arm and its manipulator free while Yuna's own hands hold the Matrix Divider ready. What follows is a lot of blunt-force melee - punching, shield-bashing, and melee attacks with the Matrix Divider; she's not so much trying to 'kill' the robotic soldiers as just try to disable as many of them as she can, as quickly as possible. There are familiar details starting to nag at her memory, too ... she's been on this world before. Maybe not in this part of it ... but not sufficiently far away for comfort. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     Near the back of the Imperial forces, there is an explosion. Followed by another, in a different location. A few more follow - each in a different spot. A man suddenly keels over, a shuriken sticking out of just the tiniest exposed vital point, thrown with pinpoint accuracy.     With all the heavy firepower from the front, the enemy forces have not had any reason to watch their backs. And so the fox is among the chickens.     Swiftly and silently, a cybernetic shadow moves among the mechanized and human strike force. From one to the next, striking wherever he can find a vital spot that his throwing weapons or shortblade can reach. But he's not without aim; no, there are two purposes to the shinobi's seemingly chaotic assault. One is exactly that, though - chaos. To have them alarmed, unsure of their own surroundings, uncertain where the next attack will come from. To throw them into disarray. The other, is to slowly work his way inward. Dropping low, darting between and under and around enemy forces to slowly make his way towards the newly 'promoted' enemy commander.     And to THAT end, he transmits locally; not speaking aloud, but rather, over open radio, so that his voice doesn't come from any one location.     "Having weapons does not make one right. It only forces others to act as if you are. How would you feel, Secundus, if /you/ were the one being told to obey or die? Shall I come for you right now?"     Genji is here. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     There are many, many machines on the battlefield. But they aren't exactly elites, not on their own. Even so, as long as they can just overwhelm the defensive line, they can seize the town. Seize the objective. But it's not a job that's being made easy for them.     Reinhardt, one of the great Crusaders of the Omnic Crisis, smashes into the robotic line with his tremendous, rocket-powered hammer. Metal and metamaterial shatters and splinters before his wrath. Apparently, while they are quite effective at absorbing thermal energy, plain old kinetic force still does wonders for dismembering these things. He carves out a killing field, building a veritable hill of broken machines that their compatriots are forced to climb over to progress.     He's not alone. Gabriel reaches into the earth itself and calls its spirit to action. Now, Tellus doesn't really /have/ that sort of thing, necessarily. But something... Something DOES respond. An ancient intelligence answers his call and stirs into motion. The golem draws itself out of the ground and lays into the robotic army. Behind it, a second wall of fire rises to join the first. A formidable defense- a giant of earth and stone and a wall of flame.     Of course, the machines don't seem TOO perturbed by fire, except that it seems to throw off their aim somewhat. Instead, they focus on the big target, firing their red bolts enmasse into the construct. They don't seem to notice (or mind) too much as they start being picked off by the addition of a sniper and the return of a Savior of Light.     Devon and Yuna tear into the legion, completing the defensive bulwark set up in front of Bartertown. Cover-fire from Erina and Marina join in as Yuna starts smashing machines alongside the golem and the crusader. At first, it seems that the action is all directed to the front, but that's... Not at all the case.     "Advance! Keep pressing forward!" Secundus bellows, though even he has to admit that this is... kind of ridiculous. Who the blazes brought /these/ monsters here? He grunts, levelling something between a lance and a beam rifle to fire off a few shots of his own-- before something explodes BEHIND him. And someone collapses, with a blade in his throat. "Damnit," Secundus growls, "PHALANX!" His troops, the meaty, fleshy ones, fold back into a tight formation of man and steel. Enormous shields are leveraged outwards, forming a bristling shell of wall and gun-spear. "I don't know who you people are, but obeying is what I do. The only safety in this place is in unity. None will stand in the way of that dream!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a sound.     It's a low rippling through the air, like the roar of distant thunder. A sudden rush of force that pummels the ground. Something streaks across the sky-- a shooting star, but... But it's not falling apart. Energy ripples beneath the halo of flame, diverting air away as the figure descends.     Elner would likely detect it first, but only because he's staring into the sky. It looks as though there's just a single power source up there-- at first. But as it descends, it's obvious that there are two.     One is attached to an enormous signature, a thing larger than even a Guardian's dropship. At first glance, it strikes a vaguely draconic shape, with enormous wings and a long, serpentine neck. But then it draws closer, and it's obvious that its body is covered in stark, white armor. Its wings and joints are layered in blue, and its head is encased in a metallic mask, with massive, regularly shaped 'teeth' for a mouth.     The other figure is... Smaller. As white as the thing it's riding, the second figure is perched atop the first. It grips an enormous lance in one hand and a shield in the other. Paradoxically, the latter is... emitting more power than the former. Its shield seems to lens close, the field of energy disperses in a flash of light and heat.     It leverages its weapon at the battlefield. The second figure's lance splits open down the center, and erupts with a blinding ray of blue-white energy. The beam lances across the formation of machines, filling the air with the scent of ozone as what must be a plasma beam cleaves cleanly through a number of the robots.     "You've all made a terrible mistake," a voice bellows from the pair. "This conflict," the thing in the sky yells. "Does nothing but shed needless blood, waste valuable resources." The second figure hoists its weapon again, unleashing a second raking beam, "We do NOT approve!" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Oh, so those are what was coming in from orbit, thinks Yuna as she sees the robotic(?) dragon and its ... rider? Yuna does her best to steer away from where the new arrivals seem to be aiming - But more than the firepower they're suddenly displaying, it's the words which simultaneously chill Yuna's heart and give her some semblance of hope. She immediately calls out on the radio for her allies to break out of combat - and she's suiting actions to words, dismissing her weapons and trying to simply barrel *out* of the battlefield post-haste, hoverthrusters boosting her into another jump. She's not even trying to get back into the Bartertown borders; she's just trying to get *OUT* of the fighting, and hope that the new arrivals - possibly the Iron Angels which Will mentioned local rumors about - will take her termination of combat operations as a good sign. Of course, if the newest arrivals who are plainly about to curbstomp the Iskandrians *don't* realize that she heard, and understood, their ultimatum ... well. She'd probably need to be in El-Line to withstand whatever they can do to her. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Well, that's not good. As soon as the giant robot space dragon, its rider, and the lasers all come down at once, August blinks. And then, he hunkers down on the wall, the Tin Soldier floating upwards, as he shouts to the sky as loud as he can. "What is your intention here? Are you really fighting violence with violence?!" 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "You are mistaken. They are not standing in your way. They simply want no part of it. There are many who would willingly assent, and yet you force your dream on those who would not. You have chosen your battles poorly. Now I will choose your-"     Aaaaw shit.     From where he stands amongst the army, Genji looks skyward. He sees the oncoming storm, so to speak. And he decides to get out of the rain.     All the green lights on Genji's armor switch on as one. And then light is all that's easy to track. Because he's darting /out/ of the Imperial formation, a streak of green weaving its way to safety amongst enemies and wreckage. And while he goes, Genji switches his transmitter up to higher power. "This is Genji Shimada contacting the unknown person riding a dragon. This Imperial force began an unprovoked assault on this town, for the purpose of conquest. If my people and the people of the town agree to withdraw from the fight, will you repel the Imperial invaders in our stead? They are the ones perpetrating a waste of life and resources." 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     "FOOLS!" Reinhardt sends robot after robot hurdling away, "We will not falter in the name of those who otherwise have no defense, not today! WE-"     Suddenly a fucking dragon. Reinhardt GLARES at the giant robot dragon and whoever is riding it, and he levels his hammer at the creature. "We were here defending this village from invaders, those who would force their control over unaffiliated parties. Either leave us be, or help us, I don't care!" He grips his hammer tightly, his shield forming as he braces for the oncoming storm. 

:'''{{#var:1065|Devon-7 (1065)}} has posed:'''     Devon is in the zone.     No, he's more than in the zone. The longer he remains firing, it becomes a horrifying display. Crouched on knee, sniper rifle in hand, for every shot he takes, the Guardian only grows faster on the trigger, more accurate with scope, lining up followups and capping off a different robot faster and faster, only growing in murderous efficiency. Every time he needs to reload, his hands are lightning, replacing magazine and repeating the motion with automatic and mechanical precision.     The Gunslinger's Trance, at its peak, is a terror to behold on a battlefield, as one sniper from the back ranks can score precise kill after kill after kill. His sniper fussilade only stops when the being from orbit finally descends.     It's a gatdamn dragon.     "That is a gatdamn dragon." Devon says.     "Yep... A gatdamn dragon." Oakley echoes, as they both peer up, watching the descent and subsequent decimation of the approaching mechanical forces. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel is far too focused on staying alive amidst the army of robots to notice the robot space dragon coming down from above... That is until its plasma beam sweeps through said army.     As the spirt he summoned continues to rage around him, Gabriel stops and stands, turning his gaze upward towards the source of the beam. He's aware of the existance of dragons... Though he's yet to see a robot version of one. But as impressive as it might be, Gabriel is instead most drawn by its call. He chuckles darkly to himself, saying to no one in particular, "Yes... I've made a terrible mistake... But fighting these soulless constructs pales compared to it."     "Cala seran toremiro set lien esteraph yaro."     A wisp of light similar to those Gabriel summoned before, but blue this time, flits up towards him. It circles him for a moment, before flying towards and sinking into his sword. The sword begins to glow a matching colour, lightning starting to arc across its surface.     Turning towards the nearest robot, Gabriel charges and with a quick swing slashes the lightning enchanted sword at the machine, a trail of light following behind it. He returns to fighting the robot horde. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "What are you--" Secundus asks Genji, moments before he's instead asking empty air, and even more moments before the air TURNS INTO FIRE. Not at him, fortunately. Devon's sniping almost manages to keep pace, impossibly, with the beam raking in from the sky, but the former is far more flashy. Secundus turns and pales at the sight.     Possibly to everyone's mutual horror, the figure on the dragon actually... Responds to hails. The voice, once it's no longer yelling at the top of its lungs like some kind of ridiculous messenger of plasmaic doom, is actually... Rather noble, in many ways, imperious and certain in its course. Hollow, certainly, like it's being spoken through some kind of vocal distorter. "If violence is levereged, then violence is the judgment wrought," it answers the boy on the wall, apparently regarding him as one of the inhabitants of the settlement. "Moreover, these are mere machines. They can be replaced."     "I understand. You are not the instigators of this conflict. Worry not," the voice in the sky says, "You will not be harmed unless you interfere in my task." The Dragon descends, landing just in front of the two walls of fire. Its rider gives them a glance and then dismounts, levering its shield at the mindless mass of machines. The thing lenses open again, revealing an array of crackling emitters. "Instigators of conflict, soldiers and legionnaires, I am the Hand of the Protector," he says, plainly, "The Warrior, Marchosiel." "Stand down," he says, as the weapon begins to glow, "Or I will be forced to fire--"     "What the blazes," Will breathes, staring at the carnage from atop the wall, near August. "A /robot dragon!?/" Something at his side crackles, "LEGION units. Fascinating. But where is their Terminal?"     Marchosiel's head snaps up at the voices. His eyes go wide as he turns-- inducing just enough motion to pull the trigger. Six rays of light spear through the massed army. Somehow, they don't seem to burn, rather... They /shatter/ what they collide with. Raw kinetic energy smashes dozens of machines to bits, and anyone still in the line of fire would find themselves probably wanting to dodge both the beams AND the shrapnel.     The Angel turns its head back as it recognizes its mistake. "...Surrender immediately," it says quietly, though through the magic of radio, his voice still makes its way to almost everyone present. "Or I will fire again." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' From his wall, August considers. This Marchiosel is trying to do good things. But he's not only capable of mass power, he's an idiot who doesn't even know gun safety! The Tin Soldier rises, and fires buffs...on all surviving allies and /live enemies/ in the battlefield, as he maintains his bunker. "What about the soldiers? What about that guy Secundus? Should he die? What gives you the right to kill him, when you so casually misfire? Who made you judge, jury, and executioner?" It is actually somewhat hypocritical, because August believes in vigilantism, he's just sort of peeved that they were doing it first and then this guy came in and started making things worse. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Also, while this is happening, August is giving William Pauwel a death glare. Pauwel, you fucked up. 

:'''{{#var:1010|Reinhardt Wilhelm (1010)}} has posed:'''     Reinhardt realizes he's in the line of fire. He drops his shield.     THEN he proceeds to run as fast as his feet can carry, running like hell before he boosts well clear of the death lasers Marchosiel's dishing out at the Imps. "Almost thought you were going to aim at us, too!" he comments, after skidding to a stop with enough force to kick up a crapton of dirt as he looks up at the wall. "Run now, argue later!" he calls out at the boys, before he takes his own advice and RUNS like hell. Thankfully the buffs to defense may mitigate any damage he sustains. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel is suddenly caught by surprise as one of the blasts of light streaks right past him. He stabs his sword into the ground and ducks down to take cover as things near him begin to explode into shrapnel. This includes the spirit he had summoned, which explodes into bits of rock.     Gabriel's phastasmal armor is buffeted by bits of robot and rock, beginning to show visible cracks. But finally the attack passes and Gabriel is left crouching amidst a battlefield covered in robot parts. He takes a moment to recover, slowly standing and turning to look in the direction of the being that had just fired that blast. He takes a deep breath...     ... Then shouts, over the radio to, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' At the moment Marchosiel pulls the trigger (accidentally or not), Yuna is - thankfully - out of the fray and has the opportunity to just observe what's going on. Rather than dispensing a death-glare or anything (she's in a *bit* too much shock for that right now), she just chides William a little over the Chaser radio band, asking to make sure Judgment doesn't interrupt again. Other than that? She's watching and worrying from to one side of the road which became a battleground. She's also hoping that what's left of the Iskandrian army will do the *SMART* thing and retreat. Even if machines can be rebuilt or replaced from scratch, a reasonable CO would probably want to conserve resources ... and she's caught on (thanks to Elner) that the army's commanders are, in fact, living flesh-and-blood humans. So she's hoping they'll retreat for the sake of their own lives. She may even be praying that they do so, but she doesn't have her hands folded or anything. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     Genji has just reached the perephiry of the fight when-     "What-?!"     It's unexpected. It shreds through the enemy just behind him. Genji whips around in surprise, only just drawing his shortblade in time. Shrapnel pelts the cyborg - or would, if it could get past that lightning-fast blade of his. He parries it neatly, sending it all back into the crowd, then skids to a stop outside it, landing in a cautious crouch.     "...are you young, or just inexperienced in battle? I do not fault what you're trying to do, but lives are in your hand. Lives that have now been lost. Choosing to take them is one thing. But doing so by accident? To someone on your path, that should be unacceptable." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Gun safety doesn't exist in Tellus. August should know that by now. Sure, some Ancient firearms have it, but why would you put a /safety/ on your /giant mechadragon rider?/ It looks like the tremendous display of force has finally tipped the last domino. After losing a majority of their robotic forces to the assembled elites, being faced with (accidental) obliteration by an agent of the heavens is... Too much to handle.     "Damnit," Secundus grunts, "RETREAT! All hands, fall back to the rendezvous point!" At his command, the mechanical legions-- or rather, what's left of them-- turn tail and flee, following after the group of human soldiers leading the way. At least he can legitimately blame this one on Act of God. Also on Primus. Primus was obviously at fault for all of this. Being dead, he also can't defend himself. PERFECT PLAN.     Marchosiel lowers his weapon at the sight of the imperials beating feet. And at the sound of a handful of elites chastizing his lack of trigger discipline. "My apologies," he says with... genuine regret. "I did not mean to endanger you all. I have only reawakened recently, and have not had time to properly acclimate to my protocols. I was also... surprised."     He stares after Reinhardt and- presumably- Will, as they go bobbing off into the sunset. Will kind of has very little way of resisting short of shooting the big guy in the foot, and that would be MEAN AND WRONG, so he's kind of just... Carried along for the ride, leaving Marchosiel and the others behind. "Regardless, it was a mistake on my part. I do not intend to repeat my error." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The giant dragon next to Marchosiel emits a strange, regretful churl. It'd almost be adorable, if it were not coming from an enormous mechadragon bristling with weaponry that includes at least one smoking gunport. Did it fire when it was startled, or was it when it was up in the sky? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August is probably abducted with Will. He'll struggle but he's a scrawny teenager and Reinhardt isn't. "Aaagh, wait, I'm not done here! Marchiosel, next time we meet, I have questions for youuuuuuuuuuu" And then, August disappears with Reinhardt and Will. 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "Though they were the aggressors," Genji replies, now approaching at a calm and steady pace, "Most of them were simply following orders. All of them are men with someone waiting for them at home. A sibling, a lover. Many of them likely working as soldiers to ensure those people a happy, safe home." His voice isn't harsh or chastizing - there is calm to it, a tone that almost implores Marchosiel to self-reflection. "That is the weight of a life. Whatever issue I might take with your philosophy aside, please remember that. Never allow yourself to end a life by accident. That, is the truest tragedy of battle." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna lets out a *deep* sigh of relief, and re-activates her hover-thrusters to skim over to Marchosiel and the others. (She would revert to the basic Light Suit and just walk, but her legs would probably give out underneath her ...) She may want to make sure Bartertown isn't too badly damaged, and possibly even offer to help with some repairs ... but once the adrenaline wears off, she's probably going to just collapse and let Elner worry about getting her back to somewhere resembling 'home'. 

:'''{{#var:1077|Gabriel Volt (1077)}} has posed:'''     Gabriel briefly considers giving chase... But after a tough battle and surviving that last assault from the robot dragon and its rider... He doesn't see much point to the risk. Besides, the anger he'd been feeling about the obviously superior force picking on the inferior townspeople was pretty much gone now. Instead he's more focused on the sudden arrival and near friendly-fire incident.     Still, Gabriel just shrugs it off. He sighs as he moves to sheathe his sword on his back. The lightning spirit that had been inhabiting it floats off and disappears. Likewise those making up his armor and the firewall disperse as things calm down.     Gabriel puts his hands in his pockets and turns, walking back towards the small town that had been saved, eyeing the one called Marchiosel. Over the radio he asks, "Please be more careful, next time." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel regards Genji with a long look as the cyborg speaks. "Do not worry," he says, then. "I am not interested in promoting the unnecessary loss of life. What happened was a mistake. The Protocols are being patched as we speak." By who, though? Maybe Marchosiel can just... do that. The Ancients were kind of weird in that respect. "The Protector is responsible for protecting human life on this world. Accidental death- death that could have otherwise been prevented- is regrettable indeed." That appears to be his answer to Gabriel as well. Marchosiel glances off towards the horizon briefly, and then moves the slide back onto his mount. It looks like he's making to leave. "If that is all, I do have other business to attend to." 

:'''{{#var:1007|Genji Shimada (1007)}} has posed:'''     "That is all, for now," Genji replies, turning to leave - but stopping, to look over his shoulder. "But if you are available some time soon, I would like to speak on philosophical matters more... complex. I have questions to put to you." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Marchosiel stares at the cyborg for a moment longer, his eyes glowing thoughtfully beneath his visor. "Very well. I cannot compromise internal security by providing my contact. However, I will be listening. Call for me and I will come." With that, the Iron Angel's mount stirs. Light blazes beneath its wings and the enormous creature lifts off and races into the sky. All is quiet. "Holy crap! THAT WAS AWESOME." "Someone break out the moonshine!" "WE'VE TAPPED THE KEG. LET'S GET DRUNK." Well, that didn't last long. At least these Frontiersmen are having a good day, right? 
}}

4780/CC-SJ-1 Bunker Hill

2016-11-27T05:46:28Z

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/13
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will invites some friends on an adventure. They find the remains of a long-dead civilization, terrible truths, and a new light to guide their way.
|Cast of Characters=934, 941, 7, 571, 943, 151, 673, 894
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                              --A FEW DAYS AGO--                                 When Will said that Tellus was about as wide and open as places come, he wasn't exactly kidding. A few days ago, he would have met with whoever might've been interested in this little expedition outside the idyllic town of Gale, home to farms and fields as far as the eye can see. Or at least, as far out as is reasonable for most farmers to farm.     Though things seem to be a bit more tense than usual. Or at least, there's an unusual number of aircraft in the sky; fleets of tremendous airships, each one sailing westward through the clouds to some unknown destination. Or maybe they're just on patrol? Curious. Regardless, Will would have emphasized that flying at the moment is definitely a no-no. Apparently things may not be as peaceful as they seem.     Not that those particular ships are particularly important for THIS expedition, though! After all, once everyone had gathered up, Will would have set them off, travelling due south from Gale, towards a veritable wall of mountains that loom on the horizon even from the plains of Will's home. Fortunately, none of the Tornado Prairie's namesake Awful Weather gets in the way, and the journey to the mountains takes only a couple of days.     Will calls them the Barrier Mountains. They live up to their name; an enormous wall of stone and soil separated from the rolling plains by a series of foothills, rivers and forests. The trek through the mountains is nothing to laugh at either: days of transit from the fringes of the mountain range, beneath the windswept peaks, towards their mysterious destination.                                   --NOW--                                       The fringe of a wide-brimmed hat peeks out from around a sheer cliff face. Somehow, it just barely avoids getting caught by the TORRENT OF WATER pouring down from somewhere high above. Apparently, the entrance to this particular ruin was BEHIND A WATERFALL. Of course it was. Where else would you hide an immense treasure trove!?     Will peeks around the corner and shuffles another few feet off the narrow ledge and onto a much wider cave mouth. The whole place smells faintly of fresh spring water and the depths of the earth. "Alright, I think this is the place!" Will calls back over his shoulder, hefting a great backpack full of Stuff (tm). "If I were to hide a ruin, it would DEFINITELY be back in here. Probably further into the cave," he thumbs towards the tunnel behind him. "Keep an eye out though. If there're traps, they'd probably put 'em out in the tunnel too." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     'Flying is a no-no'? Well that just leaves Mel in a weird spot, that's how she gets most places. She doesn't have any sort of ground vehicle; she's used to at least being able to set down NEAR her destination and walk in, or preferably just land where she needs to be. So in this particular case, she'll have to improvise.     By flying low and slow enough that the Firestarter-C appears to be a hover vehicle.     So that at least gets her to Gale, to meet up with everyone. After that, she'll probably be hitching a ride with someone or other. And/or walking.     "...This is it. Really."     Sigh.     "Pauwel, you sure do pick the places." Calmly, Mel lifts up her hands, holding them at a diagonal with her right lower than her left. The waters of the waterfall suddenly begin falling at an /angle/, away from the mouth of the cave, as if hitting an invisible surface. Mel has made it easier to get in without getting washed away - or even wet. "Alright, folks, let's get inside, can't keep this up forever." She sounds pretty casual about it. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Once again Kotone was on another adventure on a world that wasn't her own world she had kitted herself out for trouble and had a few new things along with her including a spider like drone of some sort which had not proven to be too much of a problem though she did stick out in her stealth armour and well the spider like drone relaly did stick out. Kotone also is deploying a few of the cheap flying scout drones she's taken to using as of late and they get moving hopeflly scouting ahead for everyone else she'll also open up a tac net to anyone who can connect in some fashion to her's own. "This is a new one you got a way with picking locations and right Mel, shall we get to it? Rory are you ready to go?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The Crimson Spectre will remain in orbit as Maaka teleports to the surface. She'll be driving the rest of the way, tearing across the landscape with a sizable buggy-APC hybrid, a particularly menacing railgun mounted on top via turret as its engine roars.     She matches speed with the Firestarter en-route, rolling her window down and throwing Brock a salute casually when she recognizes the Psi-Marshal.     Once she gets there, the cyborg hops out with her EM CASH rifle slung, going William a cheery wave, even if her face is masked. "I got dibs on taking point, let's get going!" She says, approaching the waterfall and the cave behind it. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The Bandits are here! They've been quiet recently, owing to a series of jumps with Terminal Getaway taking them to the edges of the Multiverse, to places where news travels slow, if at all. But they're back in 'civilised' lands now, and are eager to get busy with standard Chaser duties!     So along they tag with Will! Irvine fills the trip with song, strumming away on a guitar and singing such Chaser classics as 'Hiss Hiss BOOM,' 'Grandma Got Crushed By A War Machine' and 'The Stars Are Brightest When You're At The Bottom Of A Pit.' His voice is good, but he always half-remembers the lyrics and improvises the other half.     When they finally arrive, and Mel splits the waterfall, Molly gasps! "That's amazing! Irvine, how is she doing that?!" Irvine calmly restrings his guitar as he answers. "It's quite simple Molly. Through the power of positive upward thinking, she is able to counteract the downward motion of the water." Molly gasps, and looks at Mel with wide eyes. "You're incredible Miss! Such powerful optimism~!"     As Alexis moves in to take point, the two take out their own gear. Irvine pulls a mean-looking machete with a short-barrel pistol built into the hilt, while Molly affixes a hatchet to the butt of a large revolver, the head serving as a stock to steady her aim. They too go through the waterfall! 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley has come to attend the expedition, though she keeps herself well out of the way of the others in the adventuring party because she is not here in a combative capacity and she wants to record the expedition for the sake of having something written down for later reference. Which is why she spent pretty much the entire trek to the actual location scribbling down a map of the path to where they're going.     Once they get to the entrance, she's all smiles and a wiggling tail. "At least it's just deadly traps," she remarks, happy that this has nothing to do with despair-inducing encounters with the concepts of sadism or other such messed up problems. It's just a treasure hunt.     Ainsley spends a moment drawing little doodles of Irvine singing in the shower, a cartoonish picture she is unlikely to show to anyone, with a little note: 'Chaser folk songs???' She circles it once in her book.     She closes her book only when the prospect of getting drenched by a waterfall occurs to her. Even with it diverted, she doesn't want to get the pages damp. Not a disaster but not fun either. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory's in a good mood today! Good enough that she could burst out singing if she was confident enough to do with other people listening.     Good enough to do so if they weren't about to dive into a place that's as dangerous as they come. She's come wearing a traveler's cloak, the better to hide the fact that she's currently sleeved into a form that's far from human. Now that the group's finally reached their destination she neatly removes it. It FOLDS ITSELF UP afterwards, and the body she has to show to the group...     Well. No clothes. No need for clothing. Shiny metal in roughly humanoid shape, no head to speak of. Instead a round mound with several glowing optics and sensors in varying directions. The hands, which WERE human, begin to... melt? They slowly change shape along with the rest of the thing, metallic flesh flowing and rippling jaggedly as millions of microbots change configurations. The robot topples forward onto arms that become forelegs.     The Flexbot's gait is distinctly feline, a clear demonstration of Bio-mimicry at work. Rory White's shape vaguely resembles a tiger, except for the hardpoint-mounted weapon barrels sprouting from her back and sides.     It doesn't MOVE like a robot should. Her stride's too fluid, too impossible. Even a real tiger couldn't bend and shift down the ledge the way she does, and certainly couldn't scale it nearly vertically...     "I for one can't wait to see what we find in there!" At least the AGI's kind and clear female voice remains the same... 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August Kohler is here! Wait, that's August Kohler? He's certainly more sullen than usual. And hasn't talked unless someone talked to him, or introducing himself. But, physically, he's the same! Except for his weird 'local' clothing and nine-gallon hat (too cheap for all ten gallons). It just turns out that there's no visible scars from the Huntsman encounter! And so, when the group arrives at the Waterfall, August looks up at the water, and into his reflection. He feels into his soul..."Persona!" And out of his soul comes a robot in military dress, covered in burn scars and with a gun for a leg. The Tin Soldier floats in front of him, as the redhead entirely ignores Maaka, and replies. "I'll take point." And then the Tin Soldier will fly forward, attempting to spring traps with its body. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will is maybe a little enthusiastic about getting to go off on another far-flung adventure. He even sings along with Molly and Irvine! It's... Kind of awful. He's not very good at this. In fact, he's kind of awful at it, but THAT'S OKAY. Even if he doesn't know the words, he can still kind of join in on the bits he DOES know.     The addition of various vehicles makes the trip a little less tedious overall. For example, Maaka's ATV probably ended up being used to haul around a good deal of the cargo, because backpacking enough supplies to survive in the mountain is a REAL pain.     "Yeah, yeah. Y'all say that now," he sniffs at all of his detractors and doubters, even as Mel's INCREDIBLE PSYCHIC POWER parts an actual waterfall. "But you'll be singin' a different tune once we get inside and this place turns out to be some kind've MOTHERLODE!" Clearly, Will's feeling the Positive Thinking.     "Anyway," Will beams, whipping his TRUSTY SIDEARM from its holster. Its familiar, blue-white light illuminates the cave. "Let's get going!" It looks like Maaka and August are going to be knife-fighting for the position at the front of their column, so Will'll leave them to it. He stays towards the middle of the procession, shedding light and keeping an eye out for danger. ...Danger is apparently taking a sick-day.     As they make their way deeper into the earth, things DO respond, sort of. What used to be turret emplacements spark and twitch as the group proceeds, and the otherwise pristine stone grows to become scorched with old, blackened carbon. But other than that, there's nothing in their way. It's almost eerie, the state of things. "...Don't tell me someone beat us to it," Will mutters under his breath. "This deep in the mountains, can't be."     Ahead, there's a door. One of those big, mechanical gates that the Ancients sometimes put up in front of Important Places. It's... Slightly ajar. "Damnit," Will mutters, "Let's head inside. Maybe it's somethin' else." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "FOr Christ's sake." Maaka deadpans as August just goes right up front. "Don't cut through the queue, junior." She says bluntly, before she picks up the pace and ventures into the cave itself. She switches to night-vision once it gets dark inside.     She cocks an eyebrow behind her mask at the open gate, tilting her head. "I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts they didn't get too lucky inside there. Everyone stay frosty." She says, cautiously approaching the gate and nudging it open with her rifle's muzzle and heading further inside. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley spares a look of concern to August. Not while he's looking, but when he's trying to move ahead past the others and take point. The lizard woman has good reasons to be concerned, but once she's resigned herself to not being the one equipped for addressing them, she refocuses on the task ahead. Past the waterfall, she opens her book again and begins sketching. This time, it's not a map but a collection of drawings.     She draws scribbles of destroyed turrets, of signs of battle. She gets closer to one of the turrets, careful not to get in front of it or too close to it while she records its design for the book. Once they get to the door, she draws that, too. A lot of pen-on-paper sounds from her direction, just constantly scribbling.     "Now if that's not ominous..."     She closes her book and places it in its leather case at her hip. The case is left open in case she has to summon her own Persona on short notice. She then rests her left hand on the handle to the longsword on her hip. Her nerves buzz with unease, worried about those going inside first, even if they're better equipped to do so than she is. Look at that frown! So frowny. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "That's... that's not how I'm doing it at all." Mel says, giving Irvine a slightly incredulous look. "I'm a psychic. I can move things with my mind. It's what I do." She falls in behind Maaka, but not far; she can easily put up a protective shield from here, and also shoot past the merc with her sidearm. The first broken-down turret probably eats a shot from her pistol, before she realizes what's going on and frowns. "The alternative choice," she replies to Maaka, "Is that they /did/, and they're gonna shoot the next heavily-armed party to stride through that door. Be careful." She's got her pistol at the ready, and of course her psionics can go any time. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The pair... don't seem to pay much heed to the real explanation of Mel's power. Either they've both accepted Irvine's explanation... or they already forgot about it. They do seem stupid enough.     And then, as perfect evidence of that, as they stride through the blackened caves, Molly runs a finger down a rock (taking care not to chip her nail) and then... licks it. "Yup, that's soot all right~!" she says, as if there were any doubt.     And then they stand before the ajar doors. "Fret not everyone!" Irvine declares. "If this place was properly plundered, the doors would be wider open to facilitate the movement of loot out of there!"     That... makes a weird amount of sense. Are they really stupid? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' After shouting at each other over the radio for a minute, August falls back into second position! The Tin Soldier does not, and instead just floats over and next to Maaka where applicable. Cheating! "What /were/ you expecting, Pauwel?" The Tin Soldier mimes at Maaka as they approach the door, some sort of 'work together', before moving to help push the door open. Once they succeed, the Tin Soldier thumbs-ups, before moving to spring traps with face (it really, really wants to do that, apparently). 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is excitd she's in a very good mood too she's ready for an adventure ans she's moving ahead seeing that Rory was in good spirits tht August was here and moviing again. She looks at August persona as he takes point and she nods. She'll take a moment to cloak and strt pressing ahead her spider like drone also moves along as she keeps her SMG ready as everyone is now heading out and they look at the door ahead and she tilts her head before shge moves to get inside. <<Easy Alexis easy>> 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This door looks like it wasn't fully closed. It's very possible they went ahead of us, but never returned." Notes the Rory-bot who's padding along with the others. She slinks up next to the door... and extends a paw. One claw elongates with a camera appearing at the end to try and peek around inside... before she goes on in any further. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     That is definitely soot. While the turrets are largely trashed, Ainsely might be able to get at least a decent sketch of them. It's pretty dark in here, even with the light that Will and the others are supplying, so she won't be able to get TOO many details, unfortunately.     "Right!" Will says at Irvine's sage advice. Maybe optimism is just something that Chasers do? "If they left the door like this, then they'd need to be carrying loot out one man at a time. There's gotta still be all kinds of stuff in there. Come on!"     "I was expectin' to have to fight THROUGH those turrets out there," Will answers August as he hinges the front door open and the group makes its way through. "'Course, now we get to think about how that stuff even got busted up in the first place. Careful, there's all kinds've things that'd love to have a place like this for a den."     As the group presses on with Maaka and the Tin Soldier at the helm, they pass from the very obviously natural cavern into somewhere that is very obviously not. The doors lead past something that was very obviously once a security checkpoint, if the ruined body collapsed over the front desk is any indication. It's dessicated and decayed, obviously having been left here thousands of years ago. Beyond that and around a corner is a great hall of monolithic concrete and winding steel. Everything is a stately grey, punctuated by painted signs written in Ancient script, pointing this way and that. Th whole place is clinically illuminated by some unseen source of light. Maybe by the walls and floors and ceilings themselves?     The place they come into is divided into two floors, each linked to the other by staircases at the far end of the room. Rooms wind around both levels, with glass windows allowing for easy identification of their contents. One appears to be a medical pavilion. Another an old hydroponics facility, though now thoroughly overgrown. The water, lighting and fertilization system were still functioning, apparently. One on the far side of the room is an armory, another nearby is festooned with capsule-like berths set into the wall-- sleeping quarters, apparently.     The middle of the room seems to be a common area, with a few tables set up here and there-- though majority are set up as a sort of barricade facing the main entranceway. There are more scorch marks here, and several more bodies, each one covered in armor made of that familiar (to anyone who's been in this world before) black material.     "...Alright," Will murmurs, switching his sidearm from a torch to an actual gun. "Looks like whoever was in here, there was a fight. And now... Well. Split up, take a look around. We might find something." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka covers her corners, rifle sweeping and clearing in a very operator fashion. She notes signs of a struggle, as well as the intense age. If Chief and that undersea lab was any indication, this isn't the first time she's seen someplace this ancient in nature.     She brushes dust off of a wall, before she follows it towards a staircase. "HYroponics, medical pavilion...this was some sort of lab, or possibly a compound for other purposes." She muses aloud, going towards a door on the far side leading to an armory.     She'll investigate this room, not caring who accompanies her in.     Kotone gets a simple, short message over internal, private comms. [I know, I know...just worried. About Samira.] SHe never uses the Commander's first name like that usually, this says everything. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This... hm." Rory White paces on into the main chamber, looking around very carefully. The Flexbot-Tiger paws around, taking in the sights of everything and looking around at the signs of battle, the corpse...     "The dessicated corpse leads me to think that they were killed a long time ago. Likely by an invader or uprising of some kind. After all they would have no reason to leave here since the systems are still working. Thus, someone killed them. A long time ago. This place could've been left to rot since then and so perhaps we aren't late. Further logic, there was nobody to remove and process the corpse according to whatever customs are in place. High likelihood this is a result of chaos following the great catastrophe that ended the Ancient civilization... but I am getting ahead of myself."     Rory is recording EVERYTHING, especially the ancient writing. As they are HUMAN, she is quite sure that enough Argonaut endeavor - there's bound to be a linguist who loves a challenge - could crack the code. Failing that, enough pattern matching by AIs and filling in the blanks might lead to something...     "Why is it in such better shape than the other ruins?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In they go! The pair seem unperturbed by the signs of violence. Indeed, they immediately make a move for the bodies, rolling them over and checking any pockets for anything useful. Clearly these two have no respect for the dead, something Irvine only clarifies as he picks up a loose skull.     "Gee whiz fellas, this place is spooking me out of my mind! Oh wait, I don't got one no more! HAHAHAH!" he says in a falsetto while making the jaw move. Molly giggles and applauds the macabre display before going to investigate the medical pavilion... before letting out a delighted squeal. "Irvine, I found the greatest treasure ever!"     Soon she comes out... sitting in an office chair and using her feet to pull herself along. Irvine has a positively giddy look on his face as he rushes over to examine it. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Once it's clear they're not gonna be attacked, Mel decides to go have a look around.     By telekinetically grabbing a table, stripping the legs off of it, and stepping onto it to use as a floating platform.     She's getting a general look at all the various rooms, for the sake of seeing what's there; but she's also specifically looking for anything that looks like some kind of important office. Somewhere that'll have information access. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Rory IS an amazing research-y robot type, so of course she'd be totally into a lot of this kind of stuff. The writing is easily copied into memory- no memetic virus or anything like that. Will is silent for a moment at her stream-of-consciousness logic, though shakes his head as if to clear it once she finishes. "That's... A good point," he murmurs, brow furrowing thoughtfully. "Maybe it's just because of how deep underground this place is? I mean, we're pretty much under a mountain right now."     And then Irvine DOES TERRIBLE THINGS TO A CORPSE, OH MY GOD. "W-wh--" Will gawps. He's. He's not sure whether to laugh or to cringe or to just kind of stare for a little while, but fortunately Molly emerges with the BEST INVENTION EVER in time to distract him from the skull-chattering. Of course, Irvine does find all kinds of things on the bodies; a few ID cards, at least one of which looks PARTICULARLY important, a pocketful of loose change-- apparently the Ancients had coins? Or maybe those are something else. No weapons though.     Meanwhile, Maaka peeks around inside the armory and finds... Well, for a marine like herself, it's a veritable treasure trove. The guns in here look /intact/ what few are actually still on the shelves. Most are covered in a thick layer of dust that must have accumulated over hundreds of years. But still, there are plenty of what must be grenades or similar devices stacked up on shelves, a few spare sets of armor, and a couple of decayed but intact assault weapons. Curiously though, some of the dust looks... thinner than the rest. Did someone come through here recently? If they did, it was still years ago.     Mel finds what she's looking for up on the second floor. She ALSO finds another corridor leading deeper into the ruin, but she probably wants to find what she's after first. It looks like some kind of overseer's office-- no. She'd probably know military when she sees it. The way the desks are arranged overlooking the room below, the framed medal on the desk screams 'I am an officer and I want everyone who walks through these doors to know it.' There's a terminal built into the table that looks like it still has power and a chair for swiveling on behind it. Underneath the desk is where a hidden side-arm /should/ have been, but it's missing now. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka takes a look at the old-ass guns she finds, and thinks for a second. Does she have space for this much firepower in her inventory?     Fuck yeah she does, so she goes to hoover up guns and ammo like crazy, stuffing weapons into her inventory left and right. THis'll make either good additions to her formidable arsenal, or just stuff she can sell later at a good price once she gets them back into working condition. "Damn, if this ain't some nice scratch." She mutters to herself giddily, scooping up weapon after weapon, and ammo following that. She'll have to think about snagging armor, but she does so in the end, stuffing it all in her manipulator before she dusts her hands off. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Well that's interesting.     Mel steps off of her platform and onto the walkway proper, setting the legless table against a nearby wall. She's /very cautious/ when she steps into the office; in fact, she releases the tiniest little 'pulse' of telekinesis, like a gentle wind, to set off any traps that might be there preemptively. Only once she's sure it's safe, does she sit down in front of the console and start trying to dig around. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As the group begins to split up, August /ignores/ Irvine's macabre, instead moving with his robot self towards the hydroponics room. He first checks the door handle. If that fails, he Tin Soldiers the door. Once inside, August does a cursory inspection of the room, and then begins checking the machinery and plants to see exactly what they are. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <> Kotone keeps moving and checking out the chamber for a moment she pauses looking at the corpses. "It makes sense when your in surival mode you won't generally risk your life to burry the dead unless it's to contain a virus or something akin to tht." Kotone records everything she sees as normal, right? Sh tilts for a moment. "No one found it till now? Some sort of maintance system?" She ask as she keeps on moving and looking about to see just what they got there to look at. "Will? Rory? This place could have been sealed until we got here too preventing anything else from getting in right?" She starts to look about Irvine is doning she backs off a bit and starts to look about for any techinal things she might be of use for but it might be best for her to beak off and search her self. <<Maaka you find anything of interest?>> With August heading out to the Hydroponics? She's going to check out the living quarters and her spider drone skitters after her. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "The door was ajar, nothing barred entry. The evidence is inconclusive regarding when someone last visited. However..." Irvine and Molly's shenanigans earn nothing more than a pause from Rory. She might have frowned in Synth mode, but that's an impossibility as a Flexbot-Tiger...     "However, anyone who might've come before did not do so with the intent of scavenging. If they had, the dead would not have to wait until now to be searched. More things would be in disarray, and the machinery might not be functioning so well. Alternatively, they would have set up security of their own... ... or they might still be here, still exploring in other levels. Ah! Don't wander off alone!"     The Tiger-bot dashes after August Kohler, deciding to follow him to the Hydroponics. Because nobody should go off solo in a place like this... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     MAAKA GETS EQUIPPED WITH: FIREPOWER. The weapons appear to be energy weapons of some kind. Just looking at them, the assualt weapons' output seems impressive, but somehow less so than Will's Solano? Weird.     Meanwhile, Mel encounters a man who is very obviously bad at actually Being An Officer. He's very obviously probably some kind of desk jocky, judging by the lack of traps and the fact that apparently he decided that he didn't need a log-off timer on his computer. Of course, much of what's actually ON the computer is kind of... Hard to read. The whole thing is full of jargon and unusable, Ancient language. Though somehow, a few words do stand out as readable- or at least, close enough to modern writing to be legible. "Command Center." "VICTORY." The guy also seemed to have on his equivalent of Alt-Tab a browser filled with several dozen pictures of a specific, adorable cat. It's white and fluffy.     There's also a facility map. It's... Big. Many of the rooms appear to have been blacked out, with corridors leading there indicating that they may have been cut off. Sealed off, maybe? Several other rooms are flashing red. One, at the very center of the facility- but not far from this room- is glowing blue, and has that same word on it. 'VICTORY.' But... this place is way too large to just be a laboratory. And this was an officer's room, so... ...Military?     Meanwhile, Will has just gotten news of a mysterious ash-pile in the medical pavilion, and slips inside (with Molly and Irvine!?) to check it out. But while he does that, August finds his way into the hydroponics lab. The whole place seems to be... overgrown. Massively overgrown. The plants sprouting from their pots are festooned with a veritable cornucopia of different vegetables and fruits and... And they're all growing from the same stem. Each one completely healthy.     And yet each pot has its own, individual label and associated picture. Tomatos here. Potatos there. But each tomato plant is growing potatos, and each potato is also growing tomatos, and all so much more.     The residential room is a mess. Moreso than any of the others. There are bodies strewn around all over the place, people who seemed to have been struggling to get to their beds. Curiously, some of the bed-pods are missing. As if they were disappeared into the holes in the wall. There are buttons on the sides of each of the pods- keypads, apparently, with a single red panel. One is still flashing.     The medical pavilion is much in the same way as the armory. The supplies are all still HERE, though vastly diminished. Stacks of medkits are depleted, and the fridge is bare of all but the last dregs of liquid medicines. And yet... Some of this stuff seems freshly claimed. The dust is disturbed. There's ash on the floor-- wood ash. From... "...A campfire?" Will breathes. "There WAS someone else here," he says. "Someone was here before us. But why'd they leave without taking all this gear?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August harvests a sample of each different vegetable, and also some seeds, looking for something to store them in. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     At the very least, Irvine put the skull back where he found it! As for the ID cards, he has a very skewed idea of what is and is not important. At the very least, he announces "Hey everyone, I found some of those magic cards with people's faces on them!" The coins are pocketed, he's sure he'll find a use for them elsewhere.     Meanwhile, Molly does indeed show Will the ash pile in the medical pavilion. No she's not getting out of the chair. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     [Found a shitload of energy weapons. Probably military issue if I were to guess.] Maaka messages back, exiting the armory once she has her spoils. SHe'll be quick to study those guns when she has the chance, mostly to figure out their capabilities and such, before selling most of them. She'll be Going to the living quarters, to track down Kotone, maybe get a look around while she still can. "Find anything, kid?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Tappity-tap. Huh. Okay. Hmm. -oh my god, are you shitting me, cats. Ancient lost technology of an advanced precusor socity, and even here, /internet cats/.     Mel quietly shakes her head. "We never change, do we?"     But more importantly, a map. A map, with a place indicated that looks very, very interesting. Mel takes out her pocket smartcomm and snaps an image, shifts the map, snaps another. She's taking all this down before she steps out of the office, up onto the second-floor walkway.     "HEY PEOPLE, I GOT US A MAP! THINK THERE'S A ROOM ON HERE WE SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT!"     Having declared this in her 'getting the crowd's attention' voice, Mel then lifts her 'platform' up and floats herself back down to the ground floor. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     August finds a handy dandy NANOWEAVE BAG. It recieves the vegetables and seeds handily. Apparently they just had these things lying around... Or maybe they were meant for exactly what he's doing now-- harvesting vegetables. August's harvest looks delicious and tasty, as it should.     Will emerges from medical with a complex look upon his face. This place doesn't make sense; if someone did come here, why didn't they leave with all this loot? Maaka found a bunch of guns-- those go for TONS of money. There's medical equipment all over. The facility itself is massive, too. Maybe they found something more valuable and got the fuck out? Too many questions. Too little in the way of answers.     But Mel seems to have found a way forward! And Irvine's got stuff that will PROBABLY HELP in that regard. "Alright, let's get a move on iff'n we're done. We can take another look on our way out, but I'm in the mood to get to the bottom of this mess." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Fascinating! These plants... the labels are wrong. I wonder, could they have somehow cross-pollinated and mutated in the millenia? But who or what is doing the pollinating? Or perhaps it was a bioengineering experiment that went wrong..." Rory, too, decides to gather a few samples. Her Flexbot body is sufficient to store a few tissue samples - a few leaves, a few seeds where manageable...     "These plants could be extremely useful if they can survive the Weston plant's soil. I will definitely try cultivating them there if they're safe. But an actual functional hydroponics facility? This is a treasure trove for William's people. A reliable food supply even in winter." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once he's out of the garden with his food, August approaches Maaka. "Got a pistol you can spare? I'm otherwise unarmed, outside of the flying tin man." He stares with a blank face. He's actually serious! Meanwhile, the Tin Soldier goes and pokes at Irvine and Molly. They're interesting. Let's see how they react to a miming robot ghost. Also, August follows around when the majority of the group finally goes forward. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka thinks about it. She REEEEEEAAAAAAALLY thinks about it. THen she eyes August, before producing a laser pistol pilfered from the armory. "Here, don't point it anywhere you don't wanna shoot though." She says, offering the laser gun grip-first to the kid. "And don't say I had anything to do with this." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <<Oh man I'll have to get a look at some later if you'll let me have one??>> Kotone meanwhile is now on her way to check out the living areas and to see what she can find there. She moves past the bodies trying figure out why they were trying to get to their beds and she halts for a moment. <<Found ... what the hell? They were trying to get to the bed pods and some were missing here...>> She goes to chck the key pannel to see just what's going on with it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Kotone investigates the keypad and the shiny, candy red button. The pretty, glowing button. But she somehow resists the siren call to press it, and so she is SPARED WHATEVER FATE MAY HAVE AWAITED HER. But people are moving, mostly because Will is getting tired of cryptic clues and seems keen on discovering what the blazes is even up with this place. And that's why he's hovering over Mel's shoulder.     'Looks real interesting indeed.' "VICTORY?" Will whispers at the map on Mel's screen. "What's so important that they'd call it something like that?" Maybe it's what they used to win the war? "If... If it's what I think it is, then--" He twitches a bit. Or rather, his lips twitch a bit, widening into a downright manic grin, "Mel. Mel do you know what it might mean iff'n it's what I think it is? It means we're all going to be legends!"     Will is... Giddy. So giddy he doesn't even notice when they make their way down the corridor. So giddy he doesn't even realize it when he steps on what looks to be another scorch mark on the floor, only for it to crunch with a sound like sand or ash. He's not giddy enough to fail to notice the terrible sound that follows, though.     It's like a high, keening wail. Like a note played at the very top end of the human audible range. Will winces as it screeches out a stacatto noise. Rory would identify it as... some kind of short-range auditory handshake protocol. "The blazes--" The layer of ash vanishes in a whirl of black smoke.     Movement from behind. From ahead. From the vents in the ceiling. Smoke begins leaking from the dessicated bodies strewn across the floor. Dessicated. They still had flesh. They /still had flesh/ but no weapons and with the smoke billowing, they begin /rising./ Each one rattles as they lift, like marionettes on invisible strings. The black smoke coalesces over their hands and out of their sunken eyesockets and hollow jaws, hardening into jet black spikes.     As they rise, they begin to move. Faster than they should, their legs sweep forward amidst currents of swirling smoke. Others begin literally crawling out of the walls, throwing open ventilation ducts and scrambling into the corridor. There was a trap-- but it wasn't the kind of trap laid to protect something. The kind of trap it is is far, far worse. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Per her own advice, Mel is still being cautious. But with the map to show everyone, she's not going down the corridor gun-first. She does, however, reach out and give Will a brief, light two-fingered 'fwap' on the back of the head. "Hey. Focus, Pauwel, focus. You never know what the hell might hit us, we're not safe until we-"     NOISE, oh god. Mel is immediately covering her ears, grimacing. "Owowowow shit-" For a short while, she dares to be optimistic enough to assume that will be all they have to deal with. Needless to say, she's not so lucky.     "...Pauwel, what the /hell/ is with your world and freaky spiked undead things?!"     Immediately, the PsiMarshal lifts her hand and sends a wave of force down the corridor. She's being careful not to hit any of her allies, but anything /else/ in the blast is gonna have to deal with a couple dozen tons of force. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa knows in the multiverse the shiny red button may well be her doom so she's going to break off from pushing it, it's time to get moving. <<Looks like people died trying to get to the beds and the pods are going I'm thinking something contaminated the complex and the few lucky ones managed to use the escape system here to get our or I think it's one>> E Damn it that Red Button is tempting as she moves to catch up with everyone else she also cringes at the sound from whatever Will has triggered and now she starts to go for her weapon when warnings go off on her HUD.               W A R N I N G NANOMACHINES DETECTED! W A R N I N G               Kotone goes cold she's been to Rorys earth and she knows what hell nanotechnology weapons can do. "NANOMACHINE CONTAIMATION!" She calls out in warning and opens fire on the risen dead as they come for them. She was right people were trying to get out before something horrible killed them. This has gone from creepy to nightmare fuel. She now rebound off a wall trying to keep away form the undead as she opens fire. With Mel giving her a good set up she'll start firing more bursts down at the horror things. "No idea if they are infectious! I'm going to err on the side of YES!" It's not coral thank God, it's not Coral. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August gets ONE LASER PISTOL, which he safely stores on his person. Hopefully he won't get framed for attempted murder again! As the group proceeds, the Tin Soldier sweeps for traps. But then, they find the worst trap of all. Nanozombies! August steps backwards towards the exist, while the Tin Soldier mimes a roar (it does not actually roar). And then it sweeps forward, aiming that gun wildly in every direction containing the nanoswarms. And it fires. Literally! A sweeping wave of fire roars forward, attempting to burn through the swarm. If any try to duck or jump or anything, the fire is pointed to hit them. "GO! EVERYONE GO!" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly were hanging out on the first floor with their precious bounty. And by that, I mean that Molly was sitting in the chair as Irvine spun it, turning her into a whirring top of blue and black. That is, until the dead start rising and the nanomachines start to filter in.     Looking down at one of the corpses, Irvine raises a foot and stamps down HARD. "Your time is past, chum! Best lay there and be properly dead!" As everyone starts to evacuate, he stops Molly's spinning and pushes her along with them! 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory comes barreling out of the hydroponics section at full charge, all four legs pumping and clanging against the ground. Her sensors aren't fine enough resolution to detect Nanoswarms except where they're most concentrated, and that worries her. Her Flexbot's own defenses won't hold against a Nanite-based deconstructive assault. In a panic she directs most of those internal defenses to guard her Cyberbrain with everything they've got.     What she doesn't understand is... why are these Nanoswarms ANIMATING THE DEAD?!     "Revision to previous hypothesis, dessication and decay could be caused by Nanoswarms. So much for that theory! We must retreat! Now!"     The Tiger does have fangs though. Rory's multiple weapons barrels aren't just for show. They're actually railguns. Internal mechanism shift Ammo types after a moment, loading her limited supply of Jammer rounds.     She pelts everything that moves liberally with them!     These rounds don't penetrate or explode or cause much damage. They STICK and emanate electromagnetic scrambling signals. With any luck it'll destroy the nanites' ability to coordinate with each other and get these corpses dropping like flies...     ... But it's not much use against the mobile swarms themselves... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Ah FUCK!" NANOMACHINES seem like a good enough reason for even Maaka to make a run for it. She lets August handle the swarm of microbots, and she bails, grabbing Kotone by the arm as she runs. "C'mon, ain't worth letting these things get into us!" She hollers, before she runs like hell is at at her heels.     To be fair, it is on some level. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Spiked undead indeed. Mel's telekinetic shockwave SLAMS into the undead down the corridor. Their flesh seems to unravel like tattered papyrus, disintegrating into a grotesque mist of corpsedust and nanotechnology. But they don't stop. The whorl of material sweeps back around and swaddles their staggering bodies as shattered bone and torn flesh are harpooned by black spikes and knit back together. It stuns them for a moment- long enough to break past, but...     "I don't know, damnit! This is only the second time!" Will complains back at Mel. "Why is it that every time you come along, it's always zombies!?" The Solano barks a reply at the rising tide of blackening corpses. Blue-white plasma catches one of the host tattered host bodies as it starts to repair itself. The thing catches fire, reeling back as if to scream-- but it continues to regenerate even as the black tendrils are begin to burn. Kotone's shots find purchase as well. One bolt catches the black-matter within one of the shamblers, shattering its cohesion and causing the host to reel back, as if its strings were cut.     Fire seems to be a reasonable answer to these beasts. August's MARAGI- variant blasts into the swarm, which seems to briefly lose coherence. Long enough to cause a corpse to stagger and briefly fall to the ground, but perhaps not long enough to stop their crushing advance. More begin to crawl out of the side-rooms, several bodies rise from the tube-room and shamble into the main chamber. Irvine's foot comes down HARD on one of the corpse's heads as it begins to rise, but more of those tendrils seize the broken shards and begin tugging them back together     The tide seems to stem, however, at Rory's prompt use of electromagnetic rounds. The bolts smash into their intended targets without issue, and a cacophony of electronic noise fills the chamber. The swarm reacts poorly, losing cohesion in its entirety...     Before each corpse begins emitting that same handshake protocol and the swarm immediately comes back together. It's using auditory signals as a backup for its electronmagnetic communication!?     "Damnit, we can't turn back now!" Will yells over the din. "The room's too dang big, too many of them. We'd get buried alive!" Indeed, the swarm seizes upon its opportunity to attack, lunging at the most obvious targets-- August, Kotone, Mel-- and attacking with razor-sharp claws! "We need to get somewhere safe, regroup, plan! Come on!"     Will... Perhaps unwisely charges down the corridor, pelting regenerating corpses with plasma as he moves. "If there's something important in here, it's probably in a sealed room!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Look, just because I have the world's worst luck doesn't mean this is /my/ fault!" Mel has already dialed her pistol's yield up to max and is taking shots wherever she can, but frankly, even that's peanuts compared to the kind of force she can output just by smashing them with her mind. And just now, she used enough force to splatter a normal person, but all it did was force these things to pull themselves back together. So the answer is obvious.     More force.     Around four times as much, to be a little more exact. The lunging nanozombies get within about ten feet before slamming into the wall of telekinetic force that Mel unleashes. This time, it's her full strength. A hundred tons, enough to pitch a battletank through the air a couple times over, and spread out enough to blow back the entire wave of them. "Everyone start falling back! I can keep them from getting too close while we move, but we're not gonna be able to hold out here forever!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Oh shit, fire's not working well enough! There's only one solution...more fire! August WAS going to ignite the Tin Soldier and pull off a kamikaze, but Will requested something different that would probably work better. Therefore, that rifle begins spraying flames in a horizontal line, forming a massive wall of FIRE. And also draining poor August's SP. The human side of the equation, meanwhile, moves to escape with the others, the Tin Soldier miming with a hand 'wait for me!'. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Things are bad, even the Bandits can tell.     "Molly."     "Yes Irvine?"     "We'll have to say goodbye."     "I know..."     And with that, Molly hops off the chair, and the two get to work. Grabbing fire extinguishers from the walls and producing myriad explosives from their bags, they got to work with rolls of duct tape. In moments, the chair is wrapped up with enough explosives and contents under pressure to make a fireworks factory blush.     In synchrony, they give it mighty KICK, sending it rolling towards the shambling hordes and nanoclouds. "Burn it NOW!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now it's time for the ultimate sacrifice. A true friend, one who is willing to give up their life for others. They will be recognized along with Shadow Klaus and Panzercat as 'cool people'. August ignites the chair on fire as it becomes wheeling towards the swarm. Rest in peace, rollychair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' ".... Distressing. That's far beyond what my nanites can do! Who DESIGNED these?!" It reminds her of... things. Things she'd rather not remember. The Tiger starts padding backwards. An A.G.I. Rory might be, but she's capable of the full range of human emotion. And right now...     Primal fear and old traumas are at the forefront of it. She briefly ponders turning tail and just bailing wholesale... but no, she regains control of her instincts.     The life of an A.G.I. like her begins with training after all. Solid training to recognize and control her emotions and not make decisions based on them. Devoting all the processing power she can to thinking through this one, she remembers something important.     "... This Morph is equipped with a disassembler nanoswarm hive!" A disassembler swarm. It's not typically very effective as an offense. It might not help at all - she has no way to tell just how the opposing nanoswarm will react. She'd have to imagine competently.... anyone smart enough to design these must have accounted for an opposing nanoswarm, right?!     Well, only one way to find out.     Rory goes dashing along with Will but her steps are measured.     The moment she has an opportunity she stops near one of the corpses he blasted. A panel opens on the Flexbot's shoulder and a blue mist pours forth. A tiny amount of her Disassembler Nanoswarm. It descends upon the infested remains with directives to rip apart foreign nanites.     It's not self-replicating, but it may be just the weapon she needs if this enemy swarm didn't account for opposition! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Things are getting hot Kotone shockingly has experiance weith nanotech weapons and she's opening fire when she can but she looks to WIll. "WE'll get over run here I'm agreeing not to give up but we need to pull out for now!" She opens fire on them more. "We are dealing with some possible Titan level bullshit here!" In someways this was still better than her Halloween, at least she came here expecting trouble. She's dealing with Zombies agian it's bad but it's just bad news here she is moving to pull back now but she's intending to maybe be the last one out... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' More force.     Mel's casual tremendous telekinetic might is enough to flay flesh from bone, but for these things, it's a mere inconvenience at best. But when she adds more power on top of that, when she turns air solid and blasts bodies across the room with force enough to /liquefy/ ordinary human beings, that's something else entirely. Her power flings the corpses to the far end of the chamber, pinning their slurried bodies against the wall. And then August sets them all on fire.     The swarm gurgles and struggles to escape the flame, but it, too, can do little against that kind of telekinesis. Mel can't keep it up forever, maybe, but she may not need to. She just needs to keep it up for long enough. At least it cleared a path, even though more corpses, unbound by Mel's telekinesis, begin to fill the gap. AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE     THE ANCIENT ROLLY-CHAIR, with its maximized comfort and efficient, ergonomic design, and full range of rotation and reclinement, is sent sailing into the room and the crush of shambling corpses, piled high with enough explosives blast a hole in a mountain. Then August sets it on fire. The explosion is... spectacular.     Fire-extinguishing foam is released by the primary detonation, which rapidly and explosively expands, volatilizes and contributes to the secondary burn. The first boom stirs up thousands of years of dust into the air, which is all set alight by the second. The ante-room explodes.     Like, just actually, truly explodes. The ceiling cracks, crumbles, and begins collapsing. Dozens of corpses are buried under tons of smothering earth in an instant. ...Well. That was a thing.     Meanwhile, Rory unleashes a nanoswarm of her own upon the shamblers still lying in wait ahead. One swarm meets another, and Rory's begins picking its target apart... Before the black smoke adapts and begins a counter-attack, dissassembling its attacker in turn, and repurposing their parts for replacement units...     And then Will starts shooting at them. At the points where they mingle. Blue-white plasma sweeps through the swarms and sets them ablaze. The black smoke takes especially poorly to it, giving Rory's swarm the opportunity to finish off the dregs.     More clawing in the walls. Faint, but growing louder. There are still more out there... But then they reach a door. A great, sealed bulkhead with a card-reader at one side. "...Here. Mel, is this the right place?" Indeed, it is. VICTORY lies beyond, just waiting to be revealed. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "You're telling' me!" Maaka says, drawing a 9mm with her offhand as she fires upon the horde of nannies. She's not stupid enough to think that'll stop them, but maybe they might slow down a bit from pistol rounds as she and Kotone escape.     "Fuck, this is why we don't use nanobots lightly in my world!" SHe says, dragging Kotone to safety as they run the hell out of here. Thankfully, Rory, WIll, and August manage to save the day in time, at least for now anyways.     Vayo con dies, Rolly-Chair. We did not deserve your majesty. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Looks like it," Mel replies. "I'd rip the door out but we wanna be able to close it afterward, get it open fast!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "Key-card reader," Will mutters, as he moves towards the console. "Mister Irvine! Y'all still have that one you found!?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly don't look away as the chair explodes. It deserves to be watched remembered. The man half-hears Will's words and produces the stack of cards, handing them to the boy.     Then the two square up, weapons drawn and pointed. There's no way they went down just to that. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Indeed, there's no way that's all that there is. Even as Will starts swiping cards, the noise of /things/ scraping against the walls grows louder and louder. It's made worse with every 'bee-beep' and every rejected security clearance the card reader makes. Another denial tone. A nearby vent bursts open and a corpse crawls its way out. Another, and the soil begins to shift as black-clawed hands scrape their way out. Another, and a half-dozen fall out of a panel in the ceiling. Then. Finally.                                     BEEP                                         The gate slides open with the churning of millenia-old gears. "Go," Will shouts, "In! Everyone in!" He's the first across the breach, himself, and swings over to one side where another console waits. Once everyone's in, he swipes the card again. A zombie reaches in just as the door slides shut-- and severs the limb at the elbow. ...Safety. But... Where are they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The chamber is... Even larger than the room they'd first found themselves in. The domed ceiling is vaulted high enough to contain a four-storey building at its uppermost point. Pillars rise from floor to ceiling to hold the thing up against the tremendous weight of the mountain above.     On the ground-level, there are a great number of computer consoles built into cocentric, circular desks, as if to allow everyone working to face the center of the chamber-- or away from it. The walls of the room, perfectly cylindrical and stark white, save for some long-abandoned holographic monitors, rise toward the ceiling above.     In the middle of the room is... A hole. A great, terrible gap where there, by all rights, should have been SOMETHING. There are even what look like interlocking bolts to keep that something in place, but it's gone now-- which is impressive, given that that something evidently was large enough to extend several floors below. There's another sealed door at the far end of the room. Claws swipe futiley against the steel bulkhead behind. And there. In the corner of the room. Tucked into the outermost ring of desks... Is a chair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' THROUGH THE GATE AND TO SAFETY! ... but Rory White isn't comforted whatsoever when there's a SEVERED NANOZOMBIE ARM in the room. She directs her own nanoswarm to target it for DEVOURING.     Against the giant quantity outside, this would undoubtedly be a completely one-sided losing battle. HERE though, she can ensure that this thing is completely neutralized.     Not that she needs to devote all her time to that, only a sufficient amount of attention through her sensors will do.     The rest of her attention's on the room. What of it she can muster. For the moment she is...     Uncharacteristically quiet. Just standing there on all fours, the robot feline is completely still apart from the nanoswarm defenders at work...     THAT REALLY RATTLED HER and she needs a few minutes to gather her focus again. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The moment Maaka is through the gate, she slams against the wall and covers the others as they run through. Once everyone is through, she will go and grab whatever is in reach that's heavy like a chair or a heavy crate or whatever at the door to keep it blocked.     She'll also be swapping her EM rifle for a welding torch from her manipulator, just in case. At least until she realizes they may NEED to go through that door to exit this place. "...dammit." She pockets the torch, drawing her 10mm sidearm as she looks around, approaching the console. "Looks like an admin room of some sort, given the consoles." She muses, then looks to the hole in the floor. "Why the hell not. Give me a second, guys.     She produces a flare, setting it off before she drops it into the hole to test how deep it goes, depending how long it takes for there to be a plunk noise of the flare hitting solid ground.     Hearing claws, she levels her pistol to the OTHER sealed door, keeping her distance. "Okay, nobody open that door." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     In the door in the door IN THE DOOR-     Mel rolls through in a practiced motion, coming out of it with her sidearm up and ready. But it's closed, and they're safe, and...     "Some kind of hangar?" she mutters. It's not long until she wanders over to a desk herself, deciding to see what she can get out of the console; though she does glance up at Maaka, waiting to see the results of the flare test. "If there's nothing with teeth, claws or guns down there, lemme know. I can go down there and take a look." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is pulled along by Alexis aqs they now get to cover she slumps down to the ground panting, more out of habit than actual need but she's looking freaked. "That ... was some nanotech horror, I thought what is saw on Rory's earth was bad news but this?" She's shivering at this and just trying to calm down and she's not yet starting to look about, it's mroe she's getting herself centered again. "All right Yamakawa ... calm down." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once they're in the room, August immediately takes a survey of their surroundings. There's a hole. A sealed door. And a really high ceiling where it is /really dark/ up there. That isn't ominous at all! Time to shed some light on things. With fire. The Tin Soldier leaps upwards, bullets firing at a pillar, attempting to chisel FOOTHOLDS in it. If it can make somewhere to stand, it'll climb up, and then aim that gunleg upwards, standing on the regular leg, and begins spraying fire in the air. If, during this mad gout, any torches or anything are spotted, the fire is directed there. August could have really just used a flashlight. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     While everyone else is doing that whole 'safeguarding the area' thing, the Bandits observe a moment of silence for their fallen compatriot, hands over their hearts as they carve the memory of their brief time with the chair into it.     And then they turn around and see the other chair.     They both stride up to it, silent. Molly takes a seat while Irvine spins it sedately.     "Hey Irvine?"     "Yes Molly?"     "This chair has quite a legacy to live up to, doesn't it?"     "Mmm, it certainly does."     What do you mean they're not helping? They're keeping out of the way aren't they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Maaka would be waiting by the pit for a while. The flare just keeps going down, down, down into the depths of the mountain. Its light might have seen bright when she had held it, but within a few seconds, the dark below seems to swallow it up completely, though as it falls, Maaka would likely see what look like pipes or some kind of conduits jutting out of the walls of the shaft. When it does finally make a sound, it's so faint that only properly augmented senses would even have a chance in hell of detecting it. It's pretty clear that something WAS definitely here, but whatever it is, it's definitely gone now. Fortunately, nothing dangerous is actually down there, that she can see. Nothing moving, anyway.     Separated from the rest of the swarm, Rory's nanites have little difficulty digesting the zombified arm. The thing stops twitching relatively soon thereafter. Apparently that door is proof against nanotechnological swarms, because they're clearly not seeping through.     A cursory glance of the room gives some idea about what this room was used for. Many of those holographic projections seem to be maps. Specifically, for anyone with any military background, they look like strategic diagrams, with forces arrayed across a strangely familiar landmass. It's Tellus, with regions marked out in various colors all across the map. Various shapes indicate the presence of what must be force mobilizations. Arrows are attached to each shape, directing them across the map-- But it's... different. The Tellus on those projections seems younger. The landmass seems larger in these projections, more defined. How much has the world changed over the years?     Walls of text are the next order of business on the walls. They're largely unreadable, however, to people of the modern era. The jargon scrolling across the windows is likely full of codespeak anyway. But there is a lot of information here. This place was Important.     Meanwhile, August is commiting HORRIBLE VANDALISM upon a priceless historical relic. The pillars are vulnerable to being shot, it seems. Or rather, vulnerable enough to blow footholds and hand-grips into them. The Tin Soldier shoots up into the ceiling, but the only torches that he might be able to find are all electrical. These people weren't medieval! The puffs of flame do, however, briefly illuminate an enormous set of bulkhead doors at the very top of the room, immediately overtop the huge pit in the floor.     While all this is going on, and while Will catches some badly needed breath, the Bandits go and claim a chair as their own! That chair will feel so much pressure over the foreseeable future. So many people it'll have to carry. And someday it, too, might be expected to make the ultimate sacrifice. ... They might spot, over in that direction, what looks like an old, decaying, and very thoroughly stuffed backpack leaning against a nearby table. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Nothin'." Maaka says after a long pause. She waits to hear something, anything, from that hole, before she shrugs at Mel. "No need to bother looking that way, whatever is down there has to be long dead. Hopefully anyways." She says, approaching the consoles. Codespeak codespeak codespeak. THis is mostly useless jargon and Maaka knows it, before she begins to sift through the data...if only out of curiosity.     She only stops HACKING to look up at what August and his Persona are doing, and she just mutters, "Fuck are you doin?" She's never going to understand some people.     At least, until she notices he's making a means to climb up the pillars. She holsters her Kama before she approaches the pillar. "Kotone, take over for me on that terminal. I'm gonna go for a climb."     Her suit's gloves begin to adapt their properties before she adheres to the pillar, paramagnetics doing their job so she can climb up the pillar like a Friendly Neighborhood Wall-Crawler from Queens, as oddly specific as that sounds, until she stops at the bulkhead. Once she's up there, she begins to look around for a control pad of some kind she can hack to open the doors. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In the course of her languid rotations, Molly spots the stuffed backpack. "Irvine, launch me over there!" Her partner, obliges, grabbing her by the arm and slingshotting her! Her trajectory is curves, making her drift along the edge of the hole before ending up right next to the backpack.     Immediately, she picks it up and starts methodically laying the contents out. She's surprisingly neat for a bizarre criminal. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "More a matter of curiosity," Mel replies to Maaka, "But if the drop's /that/ long I'm not even gonna bother. Not unless we /need/ to know." So instead, she wanders over to the far door, to try something no one's tried yet.     Using the knob. Or the keypad, or whatever. She's gonna try and open it the easy way. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone would watch the flare goe down but it seems she's starting to recover her wits more she's back on her feet and shaking her head a little bit. She has to wonder how deep things is as she only hears the faintest of noies as flare hits the bottom. She now turns to record the maps and text displays. Sure they are in Jargon but they are imporant and if they find a way to translate them later. She also takes a peek at August for a moment and one eyes what August is doing, with the hand holds but the fire? That's got an eyebrow raise but she needs to get back to work. "What the heck was this place for with defences like that and I think I get what happened with the bunk house..." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Now that Rory White's coming back to her senses proper, the panic receding, the feline robot shifts at long last. One paw in front of the other, she starts roving through the chamber, making sure to thoroughly examine every inch of the walls and surroundings - and thus, record it for later analysis. Every letter on every wall, every layout detail. it'll all be fit enough for a VR reproduction in the future!     Whether that'll be of any use remains to be seen.     What she does settle on is... the maps. Instantly she begins an analysis, matching the given continents against her current cartographical knowledge of the planet obtained from orbital surveys...     If the divergence points can be picked out, then perhaps locations marked on the map may yield future scavenging opportunities! Among other possibilities! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     APPARENTLY MAAKA IS PART SPIDER. Like her (possible) distant relatives, she skitters up one of the pillars and comes to the bulkhead in the celing. It's definitely large enough that it could easily have accomodated whatever it was that was in the floor. Having come all the way up here, she notices two things. One: There are markings in the celing on one end of the bulkhead, like something had harpooned itself into the dome. Two, there is in fact a keypad right next to what looks like a lever of some kind. One that WAS beneath a pane of safety glass, but it's obviously broken now. There's a slot to accomodate a keycard of some kind, too. They might have an escape route yet.     On the other side of the room, Mel would find herself staring down what is very obviously another set of double doors, almost identical to the one they entered through, but this one is completely silent. Nothing apparent is trying to claw through from the other side. There IS another keypad here, but it's notably more complicated than the simple numberpads on some of the other doors. This one is a full keyboard mounted to a wall-terminal, and there doesn't seem to be a keycard reader either. This one, evidently, was meant to be somewhat more secure.     Kotone would find the computers to be difficult, but not impossible to hack. Strange for a facility like this one, but it becomes obvious why once she's in. The security suite seems to have been swapped to some kind of military default, and trying to bring up the original is impossible. Files not found, apparently. In fact, many of the applications no longer function; she finds many that seem like they could tap into some kind of tactical network or computer database, but each of those fail utterly when she attempts to access them, spitting out the same set of errors. 'Strategic Analysis Unit - NOT FOUND.' There are a number of archived files, however, that she could probably pull off the computers. With the security system bypassed, it's not a difficult task.     Meanwhile, Rory analyses maps for FAST TRAVEL INFORMATION. She finds several facilities scattered across the planet. Several are in familiar locations, now associated with major population centers. Others are hidden in more esoteric locations; though it's unlikely that these are civilian holdings, given the context in which she finds them. But disturbingly, many of these places no longer exist. They are located in the vast desert that covers a large portion of Tellus' interior, or are located off the southern coast, on land masses that... No longer ARE. Of these places, in the modern day, there is no sign.     Will busies himself with combing the rest of the room, searching for something that might have been left behind- a body, maybe, or some indication of what this place really was. While he does that, the Bandits ARRANGE THEIR LOOT.     The contents of the bag are largely mundane. A bedroll, a few canteens full of by now stagnant, unpotable water, rations that have gone bad. There are a number of weapons, too. Many, many weapons. Some of them are clearly hobbled together by some country gunsmith, but others are far older, and seem to have been refurbished for use. There are clothes... for both genders. It looks like there used to be room for a climbing kit and a set of explorer's tools, but they've gone missing. And... There's an old, leatherbound journal. It's not locked. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel runs her fingers along the double-door, investigating it for durability, She looks around the edges for seams. She wanders over to the keyboard to fiddle with it a bit, and see if there's anything she can figure out. It turns out there's not.     So Mel Brock stands back several paces and holds out both hands, takes a deep breath, and curls her fingers.     Incredible force wraps itself around the doors. Right up to the maximum she can produce with her limiter still in place. Glimmers of purple dance and shimmer faintly and occasionally, like watching purple sunlight reflect off the waves of a lake that isn't there. The Marshal settles her psychic grip in on the doors for a moment, readying herself like a weightlifter about to put their muscles to the test.     And then she heaves. Heaves with every single gram of force she can muster, enough to fling cars by the dozens. She's trying to rip the damn door right out of the wall. Right /through/ the wall if need be. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa doesn't attempt much to get into them she just looks to get visuals on what she can she also does notice a lot of the network is missing and the SAU is gone? Was it destroyed? Wast it removed uin someway. She took a momentlonger but she'll check the files tht she can pull off. She'll keep them in a drive that's not a part of her cyberbrain to be on the safe side. "I pulled some files we can look at later and some sort of Strategic Analysis unit which should be in system is just gone. 404 pretty much." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine walks over as Molly goes through everything! The canteens are opened and sniffed, right before she tosses them over her shoulder, same with the rations. The clothes are checked by both, Irvine taking the men's and Molly the woman's, holding them against themselves to see if they might fit!     Is this how they have so many costumes?     "Now we're talking!" Irvine exclaims as the guns come out! He and Molly methodically check each one for ammo before pointing them, checking the balance with gun twirls before setting them down. And finally, Molly picks up the journal. Kicking off from the table, she rolls around the room, calling out, "Story time~!" before opening it up and reading aloud. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now that Maaka's handling the bulkheads, August moves towards Mel. He fiddles with his laser pistol, as he stands beside her, covering her. It is during this time that the Tin Soldier stops spraying fire everywhere and also leaps down to August's side. If Maaka needed that light...well, she should have said something! 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka had only acquired this to get a way to run across walls, BUT climbing up them works too for her purposes. SHe switches to night-vision in the absence of any light, scanning for details. SHe takes note of the keypad, but doesn't do anything just yet. Pointing to the markings, she makes a curious noise. "Someone was up here too." She mutters, before she leaves the escape route alone for now.     The reports as to what this place is make Maaka's synthetic blood run cold. She had heard stories of WMDs before, but in her world such things were still unthinkable, especially after the mid-2000s. Hehe sighs heavily, before she slides her way down to rejoin the others, going down with a last-minute boost to slow her descent enough to avoid a painful fall, and dropping with a three-point landing.     She draws her pistol immediately after Mel begins to open the door, covering it along with August and his Persona. "Holy shit, Brock..." She says, watching the Psi-Marshal work with some awe. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Hundreds of years, this facility's stood here, largely unmolested. Hundreds of years and barely anything has done so much as scratch it. And then some jerk-ass psychic unleashes the full force of her tremendous telekinetic and power upon what is very obviously a door that's NOT MEANT TO BE EASILY OPENED.     Raw force alone probably wouldn't be enough to do the job. The Ancients built their facilities to withstand the crushing grind of the ages themselves, made very sure to leave very little room for leverage. But psychic power does not need leverage, as such.     Old magnetic bolts hold the door shut against Mel's will, but the points at which the door was anchored into the wall are significantly less well fortified. Slowly, the thing is shaken free. Mysterious alloys screech and groan as Mel pulls. Power conduits flash and shed white sparks as they're suddenly severed. It will take some time, it will take a great deal of effort, but soon the door is off its hinges and tossed aside. As that tremendous clangor ceases, one might notice that Will has suddenly gone very pale. And the Bandits read on: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G0ZDPuz0it_-e9EN5EPkTRIBCutleP3G94zcHVML-NQ/edit?usp=sharing 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     At the end of it, when the door finally rips free, Mel carefully, slowly shifts her arms over to the side, causing the ripped-out chunk of door and wall to float to one side, where she sets it down.     She's breathing pretty hard by the end of this; that constant, straining exertion of all the power she has is a lot different than quick blasts and bursts or telekinetic barriers. "Guh... gimme a sec," she mutters. "Feels like they built that thing to survive the apocalypse." Was that a joke?     She does glance up at August, though, adding, "Anything down that way?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' What very useful data! Rory's optics blink and flicker a few times as she pours over it and files much of it away. She's already working in a part of her processing to figure out good spots to investigate next...     And horrified at the implications.     She's brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a HORRIBLE CLATTER not too far away. Even at that distance, Mel's Telekinetic MAYHEM is a noisy thing! She dives behind one of the projectors and glances around, but doesn't immediately find the cause.     So instead the ROBOTIGRESS clink-clank-pads over towards the Starlight Bandits... to listen. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Molly's voice is light at first. But her tone becomes more neutral as she reads on. It's easy to accuse the pair of being stupid, but they do keep track of things, and this journal is full of key words relating to someone in this room.     Gale.     Solano.     Wordlessly, the woman rises from her chair, walks over to Will, and hands him the journal. Irvine meanwhile, examines the room critically. "No bodies. That means they made it out. There is an exit. Take heart chums!" he shouts over the cacophony that Mel is making right now. "WE'LL MAKE IT OUT OF THIS!" And a big old thumbs-up to punctuate it. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Solano. Gale.     Will.     Maaka looks over to Will as she listens to the journal, and a knot in her stomach forms. She's frowning and that's evident even with a mask that looks more like an angry skull than anything else. She opens her helmet up, eyes bearing sympathy, as she approaches Will.     And then she hugs the Chaser. A very big-sisterly hug around his waist. "I'm sorry." She whispers as she comforts him. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August investigates the pit, quietly listening to Molly as she reads. He shoots fire down there to illuminate if needed, and tells Mel the outcome of whatever he finds, before returning to Mel. "Let's go take a look, shall we?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone looks as Will goes very, very pale she's got hte info she pulled off hte computers to look at later and is now going and she makes for will looking very concerned. She also listens to the journal as well she has an idea of what's happened, and she now htinks she understands with a very sympathic look on her face but she's not going to hug him Maaka's already on it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Not like this.     Will's hands tremble around the journal as Molly hands it over. Coming all this way, after so many years, looking high and low. No, not like this. He didn't want to find out like this. Nobody would. "I--" He chokes, moisture gathering around the normally implacable Chaser's eyes. "I thought... I knew they were still out there, but..." But his father's on the run from something he couldn't explain. But his mother is suffering because of the same thing that turned all these bodies into monsters. And it was years ago. Years.      His arms shake when Alexis pulls him into a hug. He doesn't resist. The wind's been knocked out of him. And so he does what anyone else would do upon learning... That. He sobs. He cries into her shoulder. But who wouldn't? ...     But there is a vault here. James had made that abundantly clear in his notes. And it just so happens that a certain psychic completely bypassed the need to decipher the lock. Likely because the door wasn't opened properly, the vault itself is pitch black except for the light August brings with him... And one other source. The inside is almost disappointing, in a way. It's certainly large, and home to a good deal of treasure. There are more weapons here, possibly to ensure that those operating the control room had a means of defending themselves. The walls humm with activity, and appear to be server racks or some other set of computing hardware. But the most curious object is at the very back of the chamber; a strange device that contains a glass cylinder, inside which is something that looks like a glass marble. Cables snake up and down from the top and bottom of the cylinder and reach for- but never quite touch- the bead.     It gives off its own light. A calm, blue-white glow, which neatly illuminates the incredibly complex network of lines criss-crossing its interior. Electricity arcs from the sphere to the tendrils, as data scrolls down a monitor inlaid into the containment device. The cylinder is removable, apparently. It's just sort of... socketed in there.     ...Upon closer inspection, it's clear that there are dozens more of these devices stretching out in either direction, but all of them are lifeless; either the cylinders contained within are shattered, or are missing entirely. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel finally stands herself up straight again, and turns to look at Will and Maaka for a moment before just... looking away. She's got that handled for now, and he needs it. So for the moment, she's gonna head into the vault.     After a few moments of digging, she comes out with a personal communicator not at all dissimilar from a smartphone, holds it up, and taps the screen. The light it puts out isn't all that great compared to a proper flashlight, but it's something, at least. Enough to get her in there, where she can approach the glowing blue... energy core? Data core? Containment cylinder? She's not sure.     "Hey, Catnip 5000, could you c'mere a sec? Want to see what you can make of this." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Firelight illuminates the pit, because August's idea of a thorough investigation is to shoot fire into mysterious places to see what's inside. Just as Maaka's flare did, he would see a number of different conduits and pipes that seem to have been drawn away or disconnected from some kind of central object. Along the walls of the cylinder, there are what appear to be rail-like tracks that lead all the way into the depths below. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' That form of address is quite a bit much! In fact it takes Rory White a few moments to realize Mel's addressing... her. because Rory White was so thoroughly scanning through the revealed vault - shining lights on everything that sprout from her body as she goes along too - that she was taking it VERY slow.     But she does turn to Mel... and quickly bounds over.     ... which brings her to the matter of the... crystal?     "The intricacy and the lightshow suggests that it's either used for data storage... or an artificial neural network. This is also similar to a device Will showed me that I believe was a q-bit communicator. Quantum entanglement. My guess is one of the three... we'll have to examine what it's CONNECTED TO!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Jeez, quantum entanglement... even back where I come from, that's not cheap, /or/ housed in anything this small." She blows out an impressed breath. "I'll let you do that part, you've got a better head for tech than me." Leaving that to Rory, the PsiMarshal turns to head back into the main room, just as August is preparing to make a Dumb Decision. All on his own? That's just not acceptable.     As she walks past one of the desks, the flat surface rips itself right off the supports, casually dumping any terminals still on it. It floats alongside Mel until she reaches the hole in the middle, whereupon it floats over the hole at precisely the right height for she and August both to step onto. "Going down, ground floor. Spiders, mysterious rails and possible escape routes." Looks like she's going down there after all - it does seem to be the only way out. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Damn it, why won't anyone let anything horrible happen? What are they, good people? As Mel makes them an elevator, August just looks at it, looks at her, and steps on it quietly replying. "Thanks." And then, waits for the descent. Too bad there's no music. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "No kidding." Maaka muses. "Back home you need a computer the size of a buick to handle that level of programming. Not exactly something you can stuff in a rock." She says, before she lets go of William. However, she does remain close in case he needs further support. That's why she's here, after all. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka is stopped from backing off because of Molly. She wiggles weakly in protest, but she just sighs and takes it. "Y-yeah...she's actually right for once." She mutters, not believing her own words. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Is it hug time? Because Molly is all about hug time! She wraps Will and Alexis in her arms and HUGS! She's viciously strong despite her size and actually tries to arch her back to lift them both up. "Get all those tears out now William~! That way, when you see them again, you can greet them with a smile!"     But, Mel is here to provide a means of descent. "Thank you madam! We'll be sure to list you in our tales as our elevator attendant!" Irvine says, without a trace of mockery in his voice to Mel. Clearly, this is a great honor! He gives Molly his hand to help her onto the desk before stepping on himself. What a gentleman. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' SORRY AUGUST, PEOPLE CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU.     Mel is able to tear one of the desks out of the ground easily enough (they ARE anchored in there, just a little bit) and sails both August and herself down into the depths of the earth. The shaft is... Expansive. It goes down a very, very long way, and as August said, there are indeed what look like rails that reach from the bottom of the shaft up to right where the thing terminated in the room above. The conduits that fed into the shaft are more obvious, now. Many of them appear to be enormous cable bundles, all fiber-optic in nature. Others look like they were used to carry some kind of fluid-- a coolant, maybe?     Regardless, it isn't long until they reach what seems to be the bottom of the shaft. It's... Actually kind of cramped. The whole floor is only about a meter larger in radius than the hole they jumped down into. Looking closely downward, there's what appears to be a key-card face-down on the floor. The air seems... Damp, down here. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be panels inset into the walls; it looks slightly ajar, and large enough to fit a particularly short man.     Meanwhile, up above, Will is being hugged and comforted by not one, but two women. His eyes would be bulging at Molly's sudden bout of titanic strength, but he's busy wiping the tears away. "...I'll-- I'll be okay. I'll be okay." He doesn't sound okay. "We can... We can do this when we're out, okay?" "I just... I just need a second," he sniffles, "I'll be okay."     In the Vault, Rory is busy examining a staggeringly advanced piece of technology. It appears to be some kind of... Diagnostic tool. A very specialized one. The readout on the screen is largely in machine-code; it's running simulations, testing computational power, decision-making, and fine-tuning parameters where they fall short. Apparently it's been doing this for... ...Several hundred years. It had finished around a thousand ago. It's probably safe to abort and remove, if she keys in the command. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' She now looks concerned here but she's not close enough to will o give him what he needs nbad there is still the vault which a certian psychic get the lock popped and she watches what happens next. She'll take a more closer look and see only one thing remaining the others are all off line it looks like. "So do we grab it or do we leave it? Will it's yout call on this. and ... I understnd Will." <<Rory need a hand with that?>> Kotone will move to catch up with her long time friend to see if she needs any help with it. She'll come in to take a closer look and seriously wonders what the heck have they dug up? 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "... It couldn't be..." If Rory White wasn't as adept as she was at analyzing machine code on the fly, this would be largely useless gibberish. As it is however... the feline's optics flash with interest. Matter ripples across its shoulder, extending into a long, thin limb with simple digits with which she begins carefully tapping keys.     Directives: 'End test.' 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And the ground floor they have reached. Mel steps off, and opts to leave the loose panel to August; she herself takes a look around the bottom of the shaft itself, then holds out her hand towards the keycard. Unless there's something preventing it, she'll pull it up into her hand, shake off any dust, and give it a curious look-over. "But what the hell did they house down here, though? It looks like this was a holding shaft for something so they could raise and lower it, but... I mean, yeah, the 'something' is gone, but so's the apparatus to raise it. That's weird." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Wheeeeeeee     Maaka stays stone still as Mel carries them to the ground floor, letting August handle the panel. She looks around, landing at the bottom as she kneels down. "Hmmm...bit small for my size, maybe we could get Kotone through here?" She wonders, helping pry the panel right off, assuming it leads to any tunnel. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Rory deactivates the test-computer. Fortunately, with her familiarity with computers (being a stunningly advanced one, herself), she can decipher the code structure well enough to give the right command. The capsule pops loose, the little sphere at its center glowing faintly as the energy feeding into it is removed. Apparently it has an independent power source too? How strange.     Down in the shaft, Mel has picked up a keycard! Like any proper investigator in these sorts of situations, she turns it over to see who it belongs to. There is no hole for a crank on the other side. Instead, there is a rather pale-looking individual who is... not QUITE human. His features are too compact for that, his skin far too pale. But it does read a phrase Mel would recognize: 'Chief of Maintenance.'     The panel comes away easily enough when Maaka lifts it away. There is indeed a tunnel there! The air coming from it also smells damp. Damp in a somewhat earthy, vaguely... salty sort of way. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Down in the hole, Irvine peers into the briny blackness beyond the hole! "Aha! Surely this is how... that man got out!" he exclaims. Holes echo, and he doesn't want to say anything Will might overhear. "If you'll all pardon me, I'll check it out."     And without even waiting, he's climbing in and wriggling to get through!     Meanwhile, upstairs, Molly nods to Will, and produces an embroided handkerchief, wipes his face with it and pressing it to his nose so he can blow it. How motherly she is. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' The only problem with the crystal being loosed to... do what it's supposed to do now is... Rory White has no idea wHAT exactly that is. Others here are now focused on further exploration, but she's found something that her entire principle demands she devote full attention to.     If there IS an AGI here, it's her moral duty to see to it than they don't languish in a forgotten facility, trapped and doomed to insanity. They'll need... mobility. A community. A purpose if they don't have one already.     So for now, the robo-kitty seats herself in front of the 'AI Core' as it's been described...     "... Who knows if that's equipped with a microphone.. can you hear me?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, guys, I found the maintenance keycard." Mel looks straight up the shaft, thoughtful. "Wonder if it'll open the blast doors. If it does, I can get us out of here." She pockets it, then turns to watch Irvine do his thing. "...Gonna be alright in there, man?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Rory for a moment and she moves up to help her firend with getting it out of here. "Wo what do you have here an ai of some sort? Rory? Think we can hook it up to VR space once we get out of here and try to talk to it in infomorph form? I'd be willing to work with you on that, also need me to carry it till we get out and you get something with hands again?" She hears they may have found some other things as well. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Irvine has boldly decided to brave the depths of the maintenance tunnels. He quickly finds that they are... Dark. Tenders are highly light sensitive organisms, and their preferred environs are rather dim overall. But there is still a thin contrail of light that leads ahead, past a number of side-passages even more cramped than this one, and around a distant corner. If he follows the light, that damp scent-- the scent of water-- would only grow stronger as he presses on, but he soon finds himself at an impasse! Or rather, at what appears to be a field of amber energy set up in the middle of the tunnel, and behind that, a set of bulkhead doors similar to the one up above. Almost certainly a security measure. Conveniently, there is a panel with a card reader nearby.     Up above, Will is released from Molly's warm, motherly hug with red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. The handkerchief helps with most of all of that, and he sniffles into it when offered. He looks... Tired. Emotionally drained, probably. But at least he also doesn't look like he's about to break down. "...Thanks, Molly," he sniffs, "I... I needed that."     In the vault, Rory busily stares down the glowing marble. It doesn't appear to respond to her address, at least at first. But then, after a moment, it... Pulses, emitting a low, droning sound with every flash of activity. A split second later, that same sound is echoed from outside. One pulse, then another from out of the vault. Will blinks at the noise. It sounds again, unusually close by. He rubs furiously at his eyes and then grabs for the weapon at his hip. He draws the Solano. It pulses, and drones. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August was debating crawling into that tunnel, but before he could decide, Irvine did! Well, let's hope he doesn't get hurt. Instead, August stands to the side, waiting to crawl in and aid him if needed (he's fairly short, 5'8). But then, there's noises. And as those noises occur, August moves onto the elevator. "Can we have an elevator going up, please?" The Tin Soldier meanwhile, unable to get up there on his own, begins tapping his foot to invisible elevator music. Except he doesn't produce sound, so really, his non-gun foot is just wiggling. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, how's it going in there?" Mel calls into the service crawlway. "Find anything?"     She turns to look over her shoulder at August, then upward, and frowns. "Uhh... shit, I don't want to leave him down here alone." She looks to Maaka next. "Will you be alright down here with him?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka hears something coming. She draws her Kama and nods to Mel. "I got this, go ahead." She says, before she looks toward where she hears the noise. "The hell is that sound anyway?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     It's dark! But Irvine isn't afraid of the dark at all as he pushes through. Eventually, he reaches the end, somehow seeing the card reader immediately. He starts to wiggle back, until his hand is poking out. "That card please!" He wriggles his fingers for Mel to pass it to him.     Meanwhile, back up top, Molly just smiles at Will into he produces the glowing, droning gun. She gasps. "I know what that is! That's... Irvine calls it the 'light of destiny.' Oh William, I knew you were destined for great things!" No sense of danger in this one. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel blinks. "The card? Yeah, sure, here." She hands it over to Irvine, before stepping onto the tabletop again and giving Maaka a nod. "Just give a yell if anything goes weird." She waits for August to hop on, and then starts taking them straight up to the top. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier keeps foot-wiggling as the elevator rises. It only stops when August starts moving towards Will, the robot-man following along and running over to him. "Will? Put down the gun. If that thing's overloading, we need to get out of here." The Tin Soldier then proceeds to point his gun all around at everyone near Will, and fire! Nothing comes out except for the feeling that you are way sturdier. Defense buffs! 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Upon receiving the card, Irvine immediately wriggles back in to use it on the scanner. Fingers crossed! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "The light of... destiny?" Will repeats. He stares down at the inner light flashing through the framework of his favorite firearm and knits his brow in thought. Now, ordinarily, he wouldn't be the type to believe in destiny, necessarily. Bit with all that's happened so far- the GPS leading him here, finding a /command center,/ his father's journal, and now... This. "...Destiny, huh?" August fires. This backfires, because Persona Defense Buffs don't care about physical or mental attacks, so all he does is STRENGTHEN WILL'S RESOLVE.     "...Yeah, I think so," he says to Molly and gives just a little hint of a smile. He moves away, approaching the door to the vault, as the pulsing light grows stronger. Will lifts the Solano to the door as it... Comes apart. But not in the 'exploding' way or the 'spontaneously dismantles' sort of way. Rather, the gun's construction comes apart, suspended in a field of crackling energies to reveal a set of strange rings deep within its mechanisms.     Tiny crystalline fragments within pulse and extend the halo of energy towards the gem in Rory's tendrils. It lifts away with a crackle of power and seems to be tugged through the air by that strange, energetic aura. With a final pulse, it settles into the rings and knits the gun back together. There's a moment where everything goes quiet. And then the Solano bursts with a sudden wave of brilliant, but ultimately harmless energies. Will shields his watery eyes as it passes, but when it does, the Solano is... Well, it's visibly identical to what it once was. ...But. ...     MEANWHILE! Irvine takes the key-card. He swipes the key-card! The energy field dissolves with a quiet *pop* shortly before the bulkhead behind it begins grinding open, revealing a... A cave. But not just a cave. The sound of rushing water is unmistakable, and if he steps out onto the ledge beyond, he'd find himself staring down what appears to be an underground river system, leading inexorably outward to the distant sounds of some mighty cascade. ...Unfortunately, it also seems like they might have to swim down-river. Or, you know, improvise a boat. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' With the crystal ZOOMING OFF, Rory bounds after it at maximum speeds without getting TOO reckless. Just in time to see it merge with the Solano and... ?!?!?!     Well. That was... unexpected.... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Well.     Maaka is about to level her gun at the crystal core, and suddenly Solano falls apart. "The -fuck-?"     She stares in befuddlement as she watches the gun fall to pieces, before it knits itself back together, as if by magic. She is past the point of words here, and at this rate anything's possible. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August did a thing! It wasn't what he intended, but it was a thing! He moves to barrel Will out of the way when everything begins glowing, but before he can intercept, it's all over. He intercepts anyways, with the Tin Soldier tackling Will and his fancy new gun to the ground. "Will! Are you alright?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa help Rory where she can but also does hear something is coming, she has her weapon out and notes to her friend. "Sounds like something's on it's way. We should make ready for it." She now is mkeeping with the group. she watches in awe as Will somehow tkae his gun apart and start to work with it. Then she watches the crystal she gazes on in awe at the whole thing. She's neve seen anything like this before. "Woah..." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Hey, it opens! Irvine wriggles back out and shouts out, "I've found a way out! It might be a bit damp, but it'll certainly lead outside!" Meanwhile, Molly is agog with amazement as Will's gun seems to be a magic gun! "William, are you a chosen one~?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     As the light dies down, Will draws his arm back from where it was protecting his eyes. The Solano crackles, an arc of lightning leaping briefly from the barrel to the floor. "...Uh," he says vaguely in the direction of his weapon and clutches the journal a little more tightly to his chest. "That was kind of... something?"     He's about to say more, but then suddenly he's TACKLED TO THE GROUND by a mechanical hessian. Will makes a pretty solid impact, but the gun itself doesn't leave his hands. A solid grip is an important trait for a gunslinger. "Ow! August, what the heck're you doin'--" A voice, hollow and tinny and otherwise largely devoid of any real inflection.                       --==CORE PROCESSOR RESTORED==--                                             --==DATA INTEGRITY VERIFIED==--                              --==MAIN SYSTEMS: CONDITION YELLOW. MAINTENANCE REQUIRED.==--             "..." Will sniffs, rubbing again at his nose, but his eyes look more focused, now. He has something to focus on. "I," he says, only mildly disbelieving, "I think my gun is talking." He glances over towards Molly, and looks VERY CONFUSED. "I... Don't think so?" He's just a guy with a gun!     But more importantly than ANY OF THAT, Will hears Irvine's cry and jolts upright. "R-right. Let's get out of here." He starts to go, but then... Turns and moves to gather up what remains of his father's belongings. ...Can't just leave them here, after all. "So, um," he asks at the Bandits. "Y'all have that teleport stick, right? Couldn't we have just... used that to leave whenever we needed?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     After Rory did all that talking about AI, Mel is not taking any real chances.     She walks over to Will as he's gathering his father's things, leans down a little, and goes, "Hey. Hey, you. Can you hear us? Can you talk? Are you sapient, or just a particularly smart OS?" She's talking to the gun directly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Okay Mel talking to a gun is a little bit weird but-- "YES. YES. YES. NO." Oh. Well, that answers that. Will kind of stares at his gun like he's not entirely quite sure how to handle this situation. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:''' R    Maaka stares at the gun. "...your gun's talking." She says, baffled. AI in guns isn't exactly something even SHE is expecting, though to be fair, that's mostly because nobody thought of it.     She sighs, shaking her head before she heads for down to join Irvine in the tunnels. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is quiet for a few seconds, then adds, "Are you a smartass?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White decides to speak up. "Wait, let's not leave just yet. We'd have a hard time getting back and there's still a few things to go over. Plus, this AI may have very useful information." She refers to them impersonally, but the AGI's tone still conveys a bit of respect.     "Hello. AGI of the weapon, please identify yourself? I am Rory White, a researcher and engineer. The one who activated you, in fact." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The Solano seems to consider Mel's question for a moment, before replying: "I do not possess a posterior." So, 'yes,' probably. Rory asks a question, herself. The gun answers, which is normally lethal, but in this case is not. "I am the Core Processor Unit administrating Terminal Judgment. 'Judgement' is an appropriate name." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is just sititng back now it seems Will's gun has an ai or some some sort and it's taken the name judgment it also seems to be sane too from it's long time left here deep in the earth. That is good news it's not ranting baout the end of flesh. "Hello Judgement, I am Kotone." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "I am Judgement. Greetings." At least it's polite enough to respond to casual conversation! Will frowns a little bit as he collects up the rest of James' belongings, "Well, I've been calling y'all Solano for years now, so--" "I am Judgement." "...This is gonna be an interesting relationship." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Not an unsolvable dilemma, here," Mel points out. "Just think of Judgement as a passenger inside the Solano. Judgement can be Judgement, your gun can still be Solano. Problem solved." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a pause. "Acceptable, I suppose." Judgement replies. It beeps twice. "As long as the 'Solano' is restored to full functionality as soon as possible." Will shrugs at Mel and the gun and THE WORLD. "...Well. I was intending to... work towards that, at some point." 
}}

4780/CC-SJ-1: Bunker Hill

2016-11-27T05:40:50Z

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/11/13
|Location=Core Tellus <CT>
|Synopsis=Will invites some friends on an adventure. They find the remains of a long-dead civilization, terrible revelations, and a new light in the darkness.
|Cast of Characters=934, 941, 7, 571, 943, 151, 673, 894
|Tinyplot=CODE: Chaser - Shattered Judgement
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                              --A FEW DAYS AGO--                                 When Will said that Tellus was about as wide and open as places come, he wasn't exactly kidding. A few days ago, he would have met with whoever might've been interested in this little expedition outside the idyllic town of Gale, home to farms and fields as far as the eye can see. Or at least, as far out as is reasonable for most farmers to farm.     Though things seem to be a bit more tense than usual. Or at least, there's an unusual number of aircraft in the sky; fleets of tremendous airships, each one sailing westward through the clouds to some unknown destination. Or maybe they're just on patrol? Curious. Regardless, Will would have emphasized that flying at the moment is definitely a no-no. Apparently things may not be as peaceful as they seem.     Not that those particular ships are particularly important for THIS expedition, though! After all, once everyone had gathered up, Will would have set them off, travelling due south from Gale, towards a veritable wall of mountains that loom on the horizon even from the plains of Will's home. Fortunately, none of the Tornado Prairie's namesake Awful Weather gets in the way, and the journey to the mountains takes only a couple of days.     Will calls them the Barrier Mountains. They live up to their name; an enormous wall of stone and soil separated from the rolling plains by a series of foothills, rivers and forests. The trek through the mountains is nothing to laugh at either: days of transit from the fringes of the mountain range, beneath the windswept peaks, towards their mysterious destination.                                   --NOW--                                       The fringe of a wide-brimmed hat peeks out from around a sheer cliff face. Somehow, it just barely avoids getting caught by the TORRENT OF WATER pouring down from somewhere high above. Apparently, the entrance to this particular ruin was BEHIND A WATERFALL. Of course it was. Where else would you hide an immense treasure trove!?     Will peeks around the corner and shuffles another few feet off the narrow ledge and onto a much wider cave mouth. The whole place smells faintly of fresh spring water and the depths of the earth. "Alright, I think this is the place!" Will calls back over his shoulder, hefting a great backpack full of Stuff (tm). "If I were to hide a ruin, it would DEFINITELY be back in here. Probably further into the cave," he thumbs towards the tunnel behind him. "Keep an eye out though. If there're traps, they'd probably put 'em out in the tunnel too." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     'Flying is a no-no'? Well that just leaves Mel in a weird spot, that's how she gets most places. She doesn't have any sort of ground vehicle; she's used to at least being able to set down NEAR her destination and walk in, or preferably just land where she needs to be. So in this particular case, she'll have to improvise.     By flying low and slow enough that the Firestarter-C appears to be a hover vehicle.     So that at least gets her to Gale, to meet up with everyone. After that, she'll probably be hitching a ride with someone or other. And/or walking.     "...This is it. Really."     Sigh.     "Pauwel, you sure do pick the places." Calmly, Mel lifts up her hands, holding them at a diagonal with her right lower than her left. The waters of the waterfall suddenly begin falling at an /angle/, away from the mouth of the cave, as if hitting an invisible surface. Mel has made it easier to get in without getting washed away - or even wet. "Alright, folks, let's get inside, can't keep this up forever." She sounds pretty casual about it. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Once again Kotone was on another adventure on a world that wasn't her own world she had kitted herself out for trouble and had a few new things along with her including a spider like drone of some sort which had not proven to be too much of a problem though she did stick out in her stealth armour and well the spider like drone relaly did stick out. Kotone also is deploying a few of the cheap flying scout drones she's taken to using as of late and they get moving hopeflly scouting ahead for everyone else she'll also open up a tac net to anyone who can connect in some fashion to her's own. "This is a new one you got a way with picking locations and right Mel, shall we get to it? Rory are you ready to go?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The Crimson Spectre will remain in orbit as Maaka teleports to the surface. She'll be driving the rest of the way, tearing across the landscape with a sizable buggy-APC hybrid, a particularly menacing railgun mounted on top via turret as its engine roars.     She matches speed with the Firestarter en-route, rolling her window down and throwing Brock a salute casually when she recognizes the Psi-Marshal.     Once she gets there, the cyborg hops out with her EM CASH rifle slung, going William a cheery wave, even if her face is masked. "I got dibs on taking point, let's get going!" She says, approaching the waterfall and the cave behind it. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The Bandits are here! They've been quiet recently, owing to a series of jumps with Terminal Getaway taking them to the edges of the Multiverse, to places where news travels slow, if at all. But they're back in 'civilised' lands now, and are eager to get busy with standard Chaser duties!     So along they tag with Will! Irvine fills the trip with song, strumming away on a guitar and singing such Chaser classics as 'Hiss Hiss BOOM,' 'Grandma Got Crushed By A War Machine' and 'The Stars Are Brightest When You're At The Bottom Of A Pit.' His voice is good, but he always half-remembers the lyrics and improvises the other half.     When they finally arrive, and Mel splits the waterfall, Molly gasps! "That's amazing! Irvine, how is she doing that?!" Irvine calmly restrings his guitar as he answers. "It's quite simple Molly. Through the power of positive upward thinking, she is able to counteract the downward motion of the water." Molly gasps, and looks at Mel with wide eyes. "You're incredible Miss! Such powerful optimism~!"     As Alexis moves in to take point, the two take out their own gear. Irvine pulls a mean-looking machete with a short-barrel pistol built into the hilt, while Molly affixes a hatchet to the butt of a large revolver, the head serving as a stock to steady her aim. They too go through the waterfall! 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley has come to attend the expedition, though she keeps herself well out of the way of the others in the adventuring party because she is not here in a combative capacity and she wants to record the expedition for the sake of having something written down for later reference. Which is why she spent pretty much the entire trek to the actual location scribbling down a map of the path to where they're going.     Once they get to the entrance, she's all smiles and a wiggling tail. "At least it's just deadly traps," she remarks, happy that this has nothing to do with despair-inducing encounters with the concepts of sadism or other such messed up problems. It's just a treasure hunt.     Ainsley spends a moment drawing little doodles of Irvine singing in the shower, a cartoonish picture she is unlikely to show to anyone, with a little note: 'Chaser folk songs???' She circles it once in her book.     She closes her book only when the prospect of getting drenched by a waterfall occurs to her. Even with it diverted, she doesn't want to get the pages damp. Not a disaster but not fun either. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory's in a good mood today! Good enough that she could burst out singing if she was confident enough to do with other people listening.     Good enough to do so if they weren't about to dive into a place that's as dangerous as they come. She's come wearing a traveler's cloak, the better to hide the fact that she's currently sleeved into a form that's far from human. Now that the group's finally reached their destination she neatly removes it. It FOLDS ITSELF UP afterwards, and the body she has to show to the group...     Well. No clothes. No need for clothing. Shiny metal in roughly humanoid shape, no head to speak of. Instead a round mound with several glowing optics and sensors in varying directions. The hands, which WERE human, begin to... melt? They slowly change shape along with the rest of the thing, metallic flesh flowing and rippling jaggedly as millions of microbots change configurations. The robot topples forward onto arms that become forelegs.     The Flexbot's gait is distinctly feline, a clear demonstration of Bio-mimicry at work. Rory White's shape vaguely resembles a tiger, except for the hardpoint-mounted weapon barrels sprouting from her back and sides.     It doesn't MOVE like a robot should. Her stride's too fluid, too impossible. Even a real tiger couldn't bend and shift down the ledge the way she does, and certainly couldn't scale it nearly vertically...     "I for one can't wait to see what we find in there!" At least the AGI's kind and clear female voice remains the same... 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August Kohler is here! Wait, that's August Kohler? He's certainly more sullen than usual. And hasn't talked unless someone talked to him, or introducing himself. But, physically, he's the same! Except for his weird 'local' clothing and nine-gallon hat (too cheap for all ten gallons). It just turns out that there's no visible scars from the Huntsman encounter! And so, when the group arrives at the Waterfall, August looks up at the water, and into his reflection. He feels into his soul..."Persona!" And out of his soul comes a robot in military dress, covered in burn scars and with a gun for a leg. The Tin Soldier floats in front of him, as the redhead entirely ignores Maaka, and replies. "I'll take point." And then the Tin Soldier will fly forward, attempting to spring traps with its body. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will is maybe a little enthusiastic about getting to go off on another far-flung adventure. He even sings along with Molly and Irvine! It's... Kind of awful. He's not very good at this. In fact, he's kind of awful at it, but THAT'S OKAY. Even if he doesn't know the words, he can still kind of join in on the bits he DOES know.     The addition of various vehicles makes the trip a little less tedious overall. For example, Maaka's ATV probably ended up being used to haul around a good deal of the cargo, because backpacking enough supplies to survive in the mountain is a REAL pain.     "Yeah, yeah. Y'all say that now," he sniffs at all of his detractors and doubters, even as Mel's INCREDIBLE PSYCHIC POWER parts an actual waterfall. "But you'll be singin' a different tune once we get inside and this place turns out to be some kind've MOTHERLODE!" Clearly, Will's feeling the Positive Thinking.     "Anyway," Will beams, whipping his TRUSTY SIDEARM from its holster. Its familiar, blue-white light illuminates the cave. "Let's get going!" It looks like Maaka and August are going to be knife-fighting for the position at the front of their column, so Will'll leave them to it. He stays towards the middle of the procession, shedding light and keeping an eye out for danger. ...Danger is apparently taking a sick-day.     As they make their way deeper into the earth, things DO respond, sort of. What used to be turret emplacements spark and twitch as the group proceeds, and the otherwise pristine stone grows to become scorched with old, blackened carbon. But other than that, there's nothing in their way. It's almost eerie, the state of things. "...Don't tell me someone beat us to it," Will mutters under his breath. "This deep in the mountains, can't be."     Ahead, there's a door. One of those big, mechanical gates that the Ancients sometimes put up in front of Important Places. It's... Slightly ajar. "Damnit," Will mutters, "Let's head inside. Maybe it's somethin' else." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "FOr Christ's sake." Maaka deadpans as August just goes right up front. "Don't cut through the queue, junior." She says bluntly, before she picks up the pace and ventures into the cave itself. She switches to night-vision once it gets dark inside.     She cocks an eyebrow behind her mask at the open gate, tilting her head. "I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts they didn't get too lucky inside there. Everyone stay frosty." She says, cautiously approaching the gate and nudging it open with her rifle's muzzle and heading further inside. 

:'''{{#var:151|Ainsley (151)}} has posed:'''     Ainsley spares a look of concern to August. Not while he's looking, but when he's trying to move ahead past the others and take point. The lizard woman has good reasons to be concerned, but once she's resigned herself to not being the one equipped for addressing them, she refocuses on the task ahead. Past the waterfall, she opens her book again and begins sketching. This time, it's not a map but a collection of drawings.     She draws scribbles of destroyed turrets, of signs of battle. She gets closer to one of the turrets, careful not to get in front of it or too close to it while she records its design for the book. Once they get to the door, she draws that, too. A lot of pen-on-paper sounds from her direction, just constantly scribbling.     "Now if that's not ominous..."     She closes her book and places it in its leather case at her hip. The case is left open in case she has to summon her own Persona on short notice. She then rests her left hand on the handle to the longsword on her hip. Her nerves buzz with unease, worried about those going inside first, even if they're better equipped to do so than she is. Look at that frown! So frowny. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "That's... that's not how I'm doing it at all." Mel says, giving Irvine a slightly incredulous look. "I'm a psychic. I can move things with my mind. It's what I do." She falls in behind Maaka, but not far; she can easily put up a protective shield from here, and also shoot past the merc with her sidearm. The first broken-down turret probably eats a shot from her pistol, before she realizes what's going on and frowns. "The alternative choice," she replies to Maaka, "Is that they /did/, and they're gonna shoot the next heavily-armed party to stride through that door. Be careful." She's got her pistol at the ready, and of course her psionics can go any time. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     The pair... don't seem to pay much heed to the real explanation of Mel's power. Either they've both accepted Irvine's explanation... or they already forgot about it. They do seem stupid enough.     And then, as perfect evidence of that, as they stride through the blackened caves, Molly runs a finger down a rock (taking care not to chip her nail) and then... licks it. "Yup, that's soot all right~!" she says, as if there were any doubt.     And then they stand before the ajar doors. "Fret not everyone!" Irvine declares. "If this place was properly plundered, the doors would be wider open to facilitate the movement of loot out of there!"     That... makes a weird amount of sense. Are they really stupid? 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' After shouting at each other over the radio for a minute, August falls back into second position! The Tin Soldier does not, and instead just floats over and next to Maaka where applicable. Cheating! "What /were/ you expecting, Pauwel?" The Tin Soldier mimes at Maaka as they approach the door, some sort of 'work together', before moving to help push the door open. Once they succeed, the Tin Soldier thumbs-ups, before moving to spring traps with face (it really, really wants to do that, apparently). 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is excitd she's in a very good mood too she's ready for an adventure ans she's moving ahead seeing that Rory was in good spirits tht August was here and moviing again. She looks at August persona as he takes point and she nods. She'll take a moment to cloak and strt pressing ahead her spider like drone also moves along as she keeps her SMG ready as everyone is now heading out and they look at the door ahead and she tilts her head before shge moves to get inside. <<Easy Alexis easy>> 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This door looks like it wasn't fully closed. It's very possible they went ahead of us, but never returned." Notes the Rory-bot who's padding along with the others. She slinks up next to the door... and extends a paw. One claw elongates with a camera appearing at the end to try and peek around inside... before she goes on in any further. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     That is definitely soot. While the turrets are largely trashed, Ainsely might be able to get at least a decent sketch of them. It's pretty dark in here, even with the light that Will and the others are supplying, so she won't be able to get TOO many details, unfortunately.     "Right!" Will says at Irvine's sage advice. Maybe optimism is just something that Chasers do? "If they left the door like this, then they'd need to be carrying loot out one man at a time. There's gotta still be all kinds of stuff in there. Come on!"     "I was expectin' to have to fight THROUGH those turrets out there," Will answers August as he hinges the front door open and the group makes its way through. "'Course, now we get to think about how that stuff even got busted up in the first place. Careful, there's all kinds've things that'd love to have a place like this for a den."     As the group presses on with Maaka and the Tin Soldier at the helm, they pass from the very obviously natural cavern into somewhere that is very obviously not. The doors lead past something that was very obviously once a security checkpoint, if the ruined body collapsed over the front desk is any indication. It's dessicated and decayed, obviously having been left here thousands of years ago. Beyond that and around a corner is a great hall of monolithic concrete and winding steel. Everything is a stately grey, punctuated by painted signs written in Ancient script, pointing this way and that. Th whole place is clinically illuminated by some unseen source of light. Maybe by the walls and floors and ceilings themselves?     The place they come into is divided into two floors, each linked to the other by staircases at the far end of the room. Rooms wind around both levels, with glass windows allowing for easy identification of their contents. One appears to be a medical pavilion. Another an old hydroponics facility, though now thoroughly overgrown. The water, lighting and fertilization system were still functioning, apparently. One on the far side of the room is an armory, another nearby is festooned with capsule-like berths set into the wall-- sleeping quarters, apparently.     The middle of the room seems to be a common area, with a few tables set up here and there-- though majority are set up as a sort of barricade facing the main entranceway. There are more scorch marks here, and several more bodies, each one covered in armor made of that familiar (to anyone who's been in this world before) black material.     "...Alright," Will murmurs, switching his sidearm from a torch to an actual gun. "Looks like whoever was in here, there was a fight. And now... Well. Split up, take a look around. We might find something." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka covers her corners, rifle sweeping and clearing in a very operator fashion. She notes signs of a struggle, as well as the intense age. If Chief and that undersea lab was any indication, this isn't the first time she's seen someplace this ancient in nature.     She brushes dust off of a wall, before she follows it towards a staircase. "HYroponics, medical pavilion...this was some sort of lab, or possibly a compound for other purposes." She muses aloud, going towards a door on the far side leading to an armory.     She'll investigate this room, not caring who accompanies her in.     Kotone gets a simple, short message over internal, private comms. [I know, I know...just worried. About Samira.] SHe never uses the Commander's first name like that usually, this says everything. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "This... hm." Rory White paces on into the main chamber, looking around very carefully. The Flexbot-Tiger paws around, taking in the sights of everything and looking around at the signs of battle, the corpse...     "The dessicated corpse leads me to think that they were killed a long time ago. Likely by an invader or uprising of some kind. After all they would have no reason to leave here since the systems are still working. Thus, someone killed them. A long time ago. This place could've been left to rot since then and so perhaps we aren't late. Further logic, there was nobody to remove and process the corpse according to whatever customs are in place. High likelihood this is a result of chaos following the great catastrophe that ended the Ancient civilization... but I am getting ahead of myself."     Rory is recording EVERYTHING, especially the ancient writing. As they are HUMAN, she is quite sure that enough Argonaut endeavor - there's bound to be a linguist who loves a challenge - could crack the code. Failing that, enough pattern matching by AIs and filling in the blanks might lead to something...     "Why is it in such better shape than the other ruins?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In they go! The pair seem unperturbed by the signs of violence. Indeed, they immediately make a move for the bodies, rolling them over and checking any pockets for anything useful. Clearly these two have no respect for the dead, something Irvine only clarifies as he picks up a loose skull.     "Gee whiz fellas, this place is spooking me out of my mind! Oh wait, I don't got one no more! HAHAHAH!" he says in a falsetto while making the jaw move. Molly giggles and applauds the macabre display before going to investigate the medical pavilion... before letting out a delighted squeal. "Irvine, I found the greatest treasure ever!"     Soon she comes out... sitting in an office chair and using her feet to pull herself along. Irvine has a positively giddy look on his face as he rushes over to examine it. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Once it's clear they're not gonna be attacked, Mel decides to go have a look around.     By telekinetically grabbing a table, stripping the legs off of it, and stepping onto it to use as a floating platform.     She's getting a general look at all the various rooms, for the sake of seeing what's there; but she's also specifically looking for anything that looks like some kind of important office. Somewhere that'll have information access. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Rory IS an amazing research-y robot type, so of course she'd be totally into a lot of this kind of stuff. The writing is easily copied into memory- no memetic virus or anything like that. Will is silent for a moment at her stream-of-consciousness logic, though shakes his head as if to clear it once she finishes. "That's... A good point," he murmurs, brow furrowing thoughtfully. "Maybe it's just because of how deep underground this place is? I mean, we're pretty much under a mountain right now."     And then Irvine DOES TERRIBLE THINGS TO A CORPSE, OH MY GOD. "W-wh--" Will gawps. He's. He's not sure whether to laugh or to cringe or to just kind of stare for a little while, but fortunately Molly emerges with the BEST INVENTION EVER in time to distract him from the skull-chattering. Of course, Irvine does find all kinds of things on the bodies; a few ID cards, at least one of which looks PARTICULARLY important, a pocketful of loose change-- apparently the Ancients had coins? Or maybe those are something else. No weapons though.     Meanwhile, Maaka peeks around inside the armory and finds... Well, for a marine like herself, it's a veritable treasure trove. The guns in here look /intact/ what few are actually still on the shelves. Most are covered in a thick layer of dust that must have accumulated over hundreds of years. But still, there are plenty of what must be grenades or similar devices stacked up on shelves, a few spare sets of armor, and a couple of decayed but intact assault weapons. Curiously though, some of the dust looks... thinner than the rest. Did someone come through here recently? If they did, it was still years ago.     Mel finds what she's looking for up on the second floor. She ALSO finds another corridor leading deeper into the ruin, but she probably wants to find what she's after first. It looks like some kind of overseer's office-- no. She'd probably know military when she sees it. The way the desks are arranged overlooking the room below, the framed medal on the desk screams 'I am an officer and I want everyone who walks through these doors to know it.' There's a terminal built into the table that looks like it still has power and a chair for swiveling on behind it. Underneath the desk is where a hidden side-arm /should/ have been, but it's missing now. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka takes a look at the old-ass guns she finds, and thinks for a second. Does she have space for this much firepower in her inventory?     Fuck yeah she does, so she goes to hoover up guns and ammo like crazy, stuffing weapons into her inventory left and right. THis'll make either good additions to her formidable arsenal, or just stuff she can sell later at a good price once she gets them back into working condition. "Damn, if this ain't some nice scratch." She mutters to herself giddily, scooping up weapon after weapon, and ammo following that. She'll have to think about snagging armor, but she does so in the end, stuffing it all in her manipulator before she dusts her hands off. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Well that's interesting.     Mel steps off of her platform and onto the walkway proper, setting the legless table against a nearby wall. She's /very cautious/ when she steps into the office; in fact, she releases the tiniest little 'pulse' of telekinesis, like a gentle wind, to set off any traps that might be there preemptively. Only once she's sure it's safe, does she sit down in front of the console and start trying to dig around. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' As the group begins to split up, August /ignores/ Irvine's macabre, instead moving with his robot self towards the hydroponics room. He first checks the door handle. If that fails, he Tin Soldiers the door. Once inside, August does a cursory inspection of the room, and then begins checking the machinery and plants to see exactly what they are. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <> Kotone keeps moving and checking out the chamber for a moment she pauses looking at the corpses. "It makes sense when your in surival mode you won't generally risk your life to burry the dead unless it's to contain a virus or something akin to tht." Kotone records everything she sees as normal, right? Sh tilts for a moment. "No one found it till now? Some sort of maintance system?" She ask as she keeps on moving and looking about to see just what they got there to look at. "Will? Rory? This place could have been sealed until we got here too preventing anything else from getting in right?" She starts to look about Irvine is doning she backs off a bit and starts to look about for any techinal things she might be of use for but it might be best for her to beak off and search her self. <<Maaka you find anything of interest?>> With August heading out to the Hydroponics? She's going to check out the living quarters and her spider drone skitters after her. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "The door was ajar, nothing barred entry. The evidence is inconclusive regarding when someone last visited. However..." Irvine and Molly's shenanigans earn nothing more than a pause from Rory. She might have frowned in Synth mode, but that's an impossibility as a Flexbot-Tiger...     "However, anyone who might've come before did not do so with the intent of scavenging. If they had, the dead would not have to wait until now to be searched. More things would be in disarray, and the machinery might not be functioning so well. Alternatively, they would have set up security of their own... ... or they might still be here, still exploring in other levels. Ah! Don't wander off alone!"     The Tiger-bot dashes after August Kohler, deciding to follow him to the Hydroponics. Because nobody should go off solo in a place like this... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     MAAKA GETS EQUIPPED WITH: FIREPOWER. The weapons appear to be energy weapons of some kind. Just looking at them, the assualt weapons' output seems impressive, but somehow less so than Will's Solano? Weird.     Meanwhile, Mel encounters a man who is very obviously bad at actually Being An Officer. He's very obviously probably some kind of desk jocky, judging by the lack of traps and the fact that apparently he decided that he didn't need a log-off timer on his computer. Of course, much of what's actually ON the computer is kind of... Hard to read. The whole thing is full of jargon and unusable, Ancient language. Though somehow, a few words do stand out as readable- or at least, close enough to modern writing to be legible. "Command Center." "VICTORY." The guy also seemed to have on his equivalent of Alt-Tab a browser filled with several dozen pictures of a specific, adorable cat. It's white and fluffy.     There's also a facility map. It's... Big. Many of the rooms appear to have been blacked out, with corridors leading there indicating that they may have been cut off. Sealed off, maybe? Several other rooms are flashing red. One, at the very center of the facility- but not far from this room- is glowing blue, and has that same word on it. 'VICTORY.' But... this place is way too large to just be a laboratory. And this was an officer's room, so... ...Military?     Meanwhile, Will has just gotten news of a mysterious ash-pile in the medical pavilion, and slips inside (with Molly and Irvine!?) to check it out. But while he does that, August finds his way into the hydroponics lab. The whole place seems to be... overgrown. Massively overgrown. The plants sprouting from their pots are festooned with a veritable cornucopia of different vegetables and fruits and... And they're all growing from the same stem. Each one completely healthy.     And yet each pot has its own, individual label and associated picture. Tomatos here. Potatos there. But each tomato plant is growing potatos, and each potato is also growing tomatos, and all so much more.     The residential room is a mess. Moreso than any of the others. There are bodies strewn around all over the place, people who seemed to have been struggling to get to their beds. Curiously, some of the bed-pods are missing. As if they were disappeared into the holes in the wall. There are buttons on the sides of each of the pods- keypads, apparently, with a single red panel. One is still flashing.     The medical pavilion is much in the same way as the armory. The supplies are all still HERE, though vastly diminished. Stacks of medkits are depleted, and the fridge is bare of all but the last dregs of liquid medicines. And yet... Some of this stuff seems freshly claimed. The dust is disturbed. There's ash on the floor-- wood ash. From... "...A campfire?" Will breathes. "There WAS someone else here," he says. "Someone was here before us. But why'd they leave without taking all this gear?" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August harvests a sample of each different vegetable, and also some seeds, looking for something to store them in. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     At the very least, Irvine put the skull back where he found it! As for the ID cards, he has a very skewed idea of what is and is not important. At the very least, he announces "Hey everyone, I found some of those magic cards with people's faces on them!" The coins are pocketed, he's sure he'll find a use for them elsewhere.     Meanwhile, Molly does indeed show Will the ash pile in the medical pavilion. No she's not getting out of the chair. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     [Found a shitload of energy weapons. Probably military issue if I were to guess.] Maaka messages back, exiting the armory once she has her spoils. SHe'll be quick to study those guns when she has the chance, mostly to figure out their capabilities and such, before selling most of them. She'll be Going to the living quarters, to track down Kotone, maybe get a look around while she still can. "Find anything, kid?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Tappity-tap. Huh. Okay. Hmm. -oh my god, are you shitting me, cats. Ancient lost technology of an advanced precusor socity, and even here, /internet cats/.     Mel quietly shakes her head. "We never change, do we?"     But more importantly, a map. A map, with a place indicated that looks very, very interesting. Mel takes out her pocket smartcomm and snaps an image, shifts the map, snaps another. She's taking all this down before she steps out of the office, up onto the second-floor walkway.     "HEY PEOPLE, I GOT US A MAP! THINK THERE'S A ROOM ON HERE WE SHOULD TAKE A LOOK AT!"     Having declared this in her 'getting the crowd's attention' voice, Mel then lifts her 'platform' up and floats herself back down to the ground floor. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     August finds a handy dandy NANOWEAVE BAG. It recieves the vegetables and seeds handily. Apparently they just had these things lying around... Or maybe they were meant for exactly what he's doing now-- harvesting vegetables. August's harvest looks delicious and tasty, as it should.     Will emerges from medical with a complex look upon his face. This place doesn't make sense; if someone did come here, why didn't they leave with all this loot? Maaka found a bunch of guns-- those go for TONS of money. There's medical equipment all over. The facility itself is massive, too. Maybe they found something more valuable and got the fuck out? Too many questions. Too little in the way of answers.     But Mel seems to have found a way forward! And Irvine's got stuff that will PROBABLY HELP in that regard. "Alright, let's get a move on iff'n we're done. We can take another look on our way out, but I'm in the mood to get to the bottom of this mess." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Fascinating! These plants... the labels are wrong. I wonder, could they have somehow cross-pollinated and mutated in the millenia? But who or what is doing the pollinating? Or perhaps it was a bioengineering experiment that went wrong..." Rory, too, decides to gather a few samples. Her Flexbot body is sufficient to store a few tissue samples - a few leaves, a few seeds where manageable...     "These plants could be extremely useful if they can survive the Weston plant's soil. I will definitely try cultivating them there if they're safe. But an actual functional hydroponics facility? This is a treasure trove for William's people. A reliable food supply even in winter." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once he's out of the garden with his food, August approaches Maaka. "Got a pistol you can spare? I'm otherwise unarmed, outside of the flying tin man." He stares with a blank face. He's actually serious! Meanwhile, the Tin Soldier goes and pokes at Irvine and Molly. They're interesting. Let's see how they react to a miming robot ghost. Also, August follows around when the majority of the group finally goes forward. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka thinks about it. She REEEEEEAAAAAAALLY thinks about it. THen she eyes August, before producing a laser pistol pilfered from the armory. "Here, don't point it anywhere you don't wanna shoot though." She says, offering the laser gun grip-first to the kid. "And don't say I had anything to do with this." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' <<Oh man I'll have to get a look at some later if you'll let me have one??>> Kotone meanwhile is now on her way to check out the living areas and to see what she can find there. She moves past the bodies trying figure out why they were trying to get to their beds and she halts for a moment. <<Found ... what the hell? They were trying to get to the bed pods and some were missing here...>> She goes to chck the key pannel to see just what's going on with it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Kotone investigates the keypad and the shiny, candy red button. The pretty, glowing button. But she somehow resists the siren call to press it, and so she is SPARED WHATEVER FATE MAY HAVE AWAITED HER. But people are moving, mostly because Will is getting tired of cryptic clues and seems keen on discovering what the blazes is even up with this place. And that's why he's hovering over Mel's shoulder.     'Looks real interesting indeed.' "VICTORY?" Will whispers at the map on Mel's screen. "What's so important that they'd call it something like that?" Maybe it's what they used to win the war? "If... If it's what I think it is, then--" He twitches a bit. Or rather, his lips twitch a bit, widening into a downright manic grin, "Mel. Mel do you know what it might mean iff'n it's what I think it is? It means we're all going to be legends!"     Will is... Giddy. So giddy he doesn't even notice when they make their way down the corridor. So giddy he doesn't even realize it when he steps on what looks to be another scorch mark on the floor, only for it to crunch with a sound like sand or ash. He's not giddy enough to fail to notice the terrible sound that follows, though.     It's like a high, keening wail. Like a note played at the very top end of the human audible range. Will winces as it screeches out a stacatto noise. Rory would identify it as... some kind of short-range auditory handshake protocol. "The blazes--" The layer of ash vanishes in a whirl of black smoke.     Movement from behind. From ahead. From the vents in the ceiling. Smoke begins leaking from the dessicated bodies strewn across the floor. Dessicated. They still had flesh. They /still had flesh/ but no weapons and with the smoke billowing, they begin /rising./ Each one rattles as they lift, like marionettes on invisible strings. The black smoke coalesces over their hands and out of their sunken eyesockets and hollow jaws, hardening into jet black spikes.     As they rise, they begin to move. Faster than they should, their legs sweep forward amidst currents of swirling smoke. Others begin literally crawling out of the walls, throwing open ventilation ducts and scrambling into the corridor. There was a trap-- but it wasn't the kind of trap laid to protect something. The kind of trap it is is far, far worse. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Per her own advice, Mel is still being cautious. But with the map to show everyone, she's not going down the corridor gun-first. She does, however, reach out and give Will a brief, light two-fingered 'fwap' on the back of the head. "Hey. Focus, Pauwel, focus. You never know what the hell might hit us, we're not safe until we-"     NOISE, oh god. Mel is immediately covering her ears, grimacing. "Owowowow shit-" For a short while, she dares to be optimistic enough to assume that will be all they have to deal with. Needless to say, she's not so lucky.     "...Pauwel, what the /hell/ is with your world and freaky spiked undead things?!"     Immediately, the PsiMarshal lifts her hand and sends a wave of force down the corridor. She's being careful not to hit any of her allies, but anything /else/ in the blast is gonna have to deal with a couple dozen tons of force. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa knows in the multiverse the shiny red button may well be her doom so she's going to break off from pushing it, it's time to get moving. <<Looks like people died trying to get to the beds and the pods are going I'm thinking something contaminated the complex and the few lucky ones managed to use the escape system here to get our or I think it's one>> E Damn it that Red Button is tempting as she moves to catch up with everyone else she also cringes at the sound from whatever Will has triggered and now she starts to go for her weapon when warnings go off on her HUD.               W A R N I N G NANOMACHINES DETECTED! W A R N I N G               Kotone goes cold she's been to Rorys earth and she knows what hell nanotechnology weapons can do. "NANOMACHINE CONTAIMATION!" She calls out in warning and opens fire on the risen dead as they come for them. She was right people were trying to get out before something horrible killed them. This has gone from creepy to nightmare fuel. She now rebound off a wall trying to keep away form the undead as she opens fire. With Mel giving her a good set up she'll start firing more bursts down at the horror things. "No idea if they are infectious! I'm going to err on the side of YES!" It's not coral thank God, it's not Coral. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August gets ONE LASER PISTOL, which he safely stores on his person. Hopefully he won't get framed for attempted murder again! As the group proceeds, the Tin Soldier sweeps for traps. But then, they find the worst trap of all. Nanozombies! August steps backwards towards the exist, while the Tin Soldier mimes a roar (it does not actually roar). And then it sweeps forward, aiming that gun wildly in every direction containing the nanoswarms. And it fires. Literally! A sweeping wave of fire roars forward, attempting to burn through the swarm. If any try to duck or jump or anything, the fire is pointed to hit them. "GO! EVERYONE GO!" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly were hanging out on the first floor with their precious bounty. And by that, I mean that Molly was sitting in the chair as Irvine spun it, turning her into a whirring top of blue and black. That is, until the dead start rising and the nanomachines start to filter in.     Looking down at one of the corpses, Irvine raises a foot and stamps down HARD. "Your time is past, chum! Best lay there and be properly dead!" As everyone starts to evacuate, he stops Molly's spinning and pushes her along with them! 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory comes barreling out of the hydroponics section at full charge, all four legs pumping and clanging against the ground. Her sensors aren't fine enough resolution to detect Nanoswarms except where they're most concentrated, and that worries her. Her Flexbot's own defenses won't hold against a Nanite-based deconstructive assault. In a panic she directs most of those internal defenses to guard her Cyberbrain with everything they've got.     What she doesn't understand is... why are these Nanoswarms ANIMATING THE DEAD?!     "Revision to previous hypothesis, dessication and decay could be caused by Nanoswarms. So much for that theory! We must retreat! Now!"     The Tiger does have fangs though. Rory's multiple weapons barrels aren't just for show. They're actually railguns. Internal mechanism shift Ammo types after a moment, loading her limited supply of Jammer rounds.     She pelts everything that moves liberally with them!     These rounds don't penetrate or explode or cause much damage. They STICK and emanate electromagnetic scrambling signals. With any luck it'll destroy the nanites' ability to coordinate with each other and get these corpses dropping like flies...     ... But it's not much use against the mobile swarms themselves... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Ah FUCK!" NANOMACHINES seem like a good enough reason for even Maaka to make a run for it. She lets August handle the swarm of microbots, and she bails, grabbing Kotone by the arm as she runs. "C'mon, ain't worth letting these things get into us!" She hollers, before she runs like hell is at at her heels.     To be fair, it is on some level. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Spiked undead indeed. Mel's telekinetic shockwave SLAMS into the undead down the corridor. Their flesh seems to unravel like tattered papyrus, disintegrating into a grotesque mist of corpsedust and nanotechnology. But they don't stop. The whorl of material sweeps back around and swaddles their staggering bodies as shattered bone and torn flesh are harpooned by black spikes and knit back together. It stuns them for a moment- long enough to break past, but...     "I don't know, damnit! This is only the second time!" Will complains back at Mel. "Why is it that every time you come along, it's always zombies!?" The Solano barks a reply at the rising tide of blackening corpses. Blue-white plasma catches one of the host tattered host bodies as it starts to repair itself. The thing catches fire, reeling back as if to scream-- but it continues to regenerate even as the black tendrils are begin to burn. Kotone's shots find purchase as well. One bolt catches the black-matter within one of the shamblers, shattering its cohesion and causing the host to reel back, as if its strings were cut.     Fire seems to be a reasonable answer to these beasts. August's MARAGI- variant blasts into the swarm, which seems to briefly lose coherence. Long enough to cause a corpse to stagger and briefly fall to the ground, but perhaps not long enough to stop their crushing advance. More begin to crawl out of the side-rooms, several bodies rise from the tube-room and shamble into the main chamber. Irvine's foot comes down HARD on one of the corpse's heads as it begins to rise, but more of those tendrils seize the broken shards and begin tugging them back together     The tide seems to stem, however, at Rory's prompt use of electromagnetic rounds. The bolts smash into their intended targets without issue, and a cacophony of electronic noise fills the chamber. The swarm reacts poorly, losing cohesion in its entirety...     Before each corpse begins emitting that same handshake protocol and the swarm immediately comes back together. It's using auditory signals as a backup for its electronmagnetic communication!?     "Damnit, we can't turn back now!" Will yells over the din. "The room's too dang big, too many of them. We'd get buried alive!" Indeed, the swarm seizes upon its opportunity to attack, lunging at the most obvious targets-- August, Kotone, Mel-- and attacking with razor-sharp claws! "We need to get somewhere safe, regroup, plan! Come on!"     Will... Perhaps unwisely charges down the corridor, pelting regenerating corpses with plasma as he moves. "If there's something important in here, it's probably in a sealed room!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Look, just because I have the world's worst luck doesn't mean this is /my/ fault!" Mel has already dialed her pistol's yield up to max and is taking shots wherever she can, but frankly, even that's peanuts compared to the kind of force she can output just by smashing them with her mind. And just now, she used enough force to splatter a normal person, but all it did was force these things to pull themselves back together. So the answer is obvious.     More force.     Around four times as much, to be a little more exact. The lunging nanozombies get within about ten feet before slamming into the wall of telekinetic force that Mel unleashes. This time, it's her full strength. A hundred tons, enough to pitch a battletank through the air a couple times over, and spread out enough to blow back the entire wave of them. "Everyone start falling back! I can keep them from getting too close while we move, but we're not gonna be able to hold out here forever!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Oh shit, fire's not working well enough! There's only one solution...more fire! August WAS going to ignite the Tin Soldier and pull off a kamikaze, but Will requested something different that would probably work better. Therefore, that rifle begins spraying flames in a horizontal line, forming a massive wall of FIRE. And also draining poor August's SP. The human side of the equation, meanwhile, moves to escape with the others, the Tin Soldier miming with a hand 'wait for me!'. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Things are bad, even the Bandits can tell.     "Molly."     "Yes Irvine?"     "We'll have to say goodbye."     "I know..."     And with that, Molly hops off the chair, and the two get to work. Grabbing fire extinguishers from the walls and producing myriad explosives from their bags, they got to work with rolls of duct tape. In moments, the chair is wrapped up with enough explosives and contents under pressure to make a fireworks factory blush.     In synchrony, they give it mighty KICK, sending it rolling towards the shambling hordes and nanoclouds. "Burn it NOW!" 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now it's time for the ultimate sacrifice. A true friend, one who is willing to give up their life for others. They will be recognized along with Shadow Klaus and Panzercat as 'cool people'. August ignites the chair on fire as it becomes wheeling towards the swarm. Rest in peace, rollychair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' ".... Distressing. That's far beyond what my nanites can do! Who DESIGNED these?!" It reminds her of... things. Things she'd rather not remember. The Tiger starts padding backwards. An A.G.I. Rory might be, but she's capable of the full range of human emotion. And right now...     Primal fear and old traumas are at the forefront of it. She briefly ponders turning tail and just bailing wholesale... but no, she regains control of her instincts.     The life of an A.G.I. like her begins with training after all. Solid training to recognize and control her emotions and not make decisions based on them. Devoting all the processing power she can to thinking through this one, she remembers something important.     "... This Morph is equipped with a disassembler nanoswarm hive!" A disassembler swarm. It's not typically very effective as an offense. It might not help at all - she has no way to tell just how the opposing nanoswarm will react. She'd have to imagine competently.... anyone smart enough to design these must have accounted for an opposing nanoswarm, right?!     Well, only one way to find out.     Rory goes dashing along with Will but her steps are measured.     The moment she has an opportunity she stops near one of the corpses he blasted. A panel opens on the Flexbot's shoulder and a blue mist pours forth. A tiny amount of her Disassembler Nanoswarm. It descends upon the infested remains with directives to rip apart foreign nanites.     It's not self-replicating, but it may be just the weapon she needs if this enemy swarm didn't account for opposition! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Things are getting hot Kotone shockingly has experiance weith nanotech weapons and she's opening fire when she can but she looks to WIll. "WE'll get over run here I'm agreeing not to give up but we need to pull out for now!" She opens fire on them more. "We are dealing with some possible Titan level bullshit here!" In someways this was still better than her Halloween, at least she came here expecting trouble. She's dealing with Zombies agian it's bad but it's just bad news here she is moving to pull back now but she's intending to maybe be the last one out... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' More force.     Mel's casual tremendous telekinetic might is enough to flay flesh from bone, but for these things, it's a mere inconvenience at best. But when she adds more power on top of that, when she turns air solid and blasts bodies across the room with force enough to /liquefy/ ordinary human beings, that's something else entirely. Her power flings the corpses to the far end of the chamber, pinning their slurried bodies against the wall. And then August sets them all on fire.     The swarm gurgles and struggles to escape the flame, but it, too, can do little against that kind of telekinesis. Mel can't keep it up forever, maybe, but she may not need to. She just needs to keep it up for long enough. At least it cleared a path, even though more corpses, unbound by Mel's telekinesis, begin to fill the gap. AND THEN THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE     THE ANCIENT ROLLY-CHAIR, with its maximized comfort and efficient, ergonomic design, and full range of rotation and reclinement, is sent sailing into the room and the crush of shambling corpses, piled high with enough explosives blast a hole in a mountain. Then August sets it on fire. The explosion is... spectacular.     Fire-extinguishing foam is released by the primary detonation, which rapidly and explosively expands, volatilizes and contributes to the secondary burn. The first boom stirs up thousands of years of dust into the air, which is all set alight by the second. The ante-room explodes.     Like, just actually, truly explodes. The ceiling cracks, crumbles, and begins collapsing. Dozens of corpses are buried under tons of smothering earth in an instant. ...Well. That was a thing.     Meanwhile, Rory unleashes a nanoswarm of her own upon the shamblers still lying in wait ahead. One swarm meets another, and Rory's begins picking its target apart... Before the black smoke adapts and begins a counter-attack, dissassembling its attacker in turn, and repurposing their parts for replacement units...     And then Will starts shooting at them. At the points where they mingle. Blue-white plasma sweeps through the swarms and sets them ablaze. The black smoke takes especially poorly to it, giving Rory's swarm the opportunity to finish off the dregs.     More clawing in the walls. Faint, but growing louder. There are still more out there... But then they reach a door. A great, sealed bulkhead with a card-reader at one side. "...Here. Mel, is this the right place?" Indeed, it is. VICTORY lies beyond, just waiting to be revealed. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "You're telling' me!" Maaka says, drawing a 9mm with her offhand as she fires upon the horde of nannies. She's not stupid enough to think that'll stop them, but maybe they might slow down a bit from pistol rounds as she and Kotone escape.     "Fuck, this is why we don't use nanobots lightly in my world!" SHe says, dragging Kotone to safety as they run the hell out of here. Thankfully, Rory, WIll, and August manage to save the day in time, at least for now anyways.     Vayo con dies, Rolly-Chair. We did not deserve your majesty. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Looks like it," Mel replies. "I'd rip the door out but we wanna be able to close it afterward, get it open fast!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "Key-card reader," Will mutters, as he moves towards the console. "Mister Irvine! Y'all still have that one you found!?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine and Molly don't look away as the chair explodes. It deserves to be watched remembered. The man half-hears Will's words and produces the stack of cards, handing them to the boy.     Then the two square up, weapons drawn and pointed. There's no way they went down just to that. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Indeed, there's no way that's all that there is. Even as Will starts swiping cards, the noise of /things/ scraping against the walls grows louder and louder. It's made worse with every 'bee-beep' and every rejected security clearance the card reader makes. Another denial tone. A nearby vent bursts open and a corpse crawls its way out. Another, and the soil begins to shift as black-clawed hands scrape their way out. Another, and a half-dozen fall out of a panel in the ceiling. Then. Finally.                                     BEEP                                         The gate slides open with the churning of millenia-old gears. "Go," Will shouts, "In! Everyone in!" He's the first across the breach, himself, and swings over to one side where another console waits. Once everyone's in, he swipes the card again. A zombie reaches in just as the door slides shut-- and severs the limb at the elbow. ...Safety. But... Where are they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The chamber is... Even larger than the room they'd first found themselves in. The domed ceiling is vaulted high enough to contain a four-storey building at its uppermost point. Pillars rise from floor to ceiling to hold the thing up against the tremendous weight of the mountain above.     On the ground-level, there are a great number of computer consoles built into cocentric, circular desks, as if to allow everyone working to face the center of the chamber-- or away from it. The walls of the room, perfectly cylindrical and stark white, save for some long-abandoned holographic monitors, rise toward the ceiling above.     In the middle of the room is... A hole. A great, terrible gap where there, by all rights, should have been SOMETHING. There are even what look like interlocking bolts to keep that something in place, but it's gone now-- which is impressive, given that that something evidently was large enough to extend several floors below. There's another sealed door at the far end of the room. Claws swipe futiley against the steel bulkhead behind. And there. In the corner of the room. Tucked into the outermost ring of desks... Is a chair. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' THROUGH THE GATE AND TO SAFETY! ... but Rory White isn't comforted whatsoever when there's a SEVERED NANOZOMBIE ARM in the room. She directs her own nanoswarm to target it for DEVOURING.     Against the giant quantity outside, this would undoubtedly be a completely one-sided losing battle. HERE though, she can ensure that this thing is completely neutralized.     Not that she needs to devote all her time to that, only a sufficient amount of attention through her sensors will do.     The rest of her attention's on the room. What of it she can muster. For the moment she is...     Uncharacteristically quiet. Just standing there on all fours, the robot feline is completely still apart from the nanoswarm defenders at work...     THAT REALLY RATTLED HER and she needs a few minutes to gather her focus again. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     The moment Maaka is through the gate, she slams against the wall and covers the others as they run through. Once everyone is through, she will go and grab whatever is in reach that's heavy like a chair or a heavy crate or whatever at the door to keep it blocked.     She'll also be swapping her EM rifle for a welding torch from her manipulator, just in case. At least until she realizes they may NEED to go through that door to exit this place. "...dammit." She pockets the torch, drawing her 10mm sidearm as she looks around, approaching the console. "Looks like an admin room of some sort, given the consoles." She muses, then looks to the hole in the floor. "Why the hell not. Give me a second, guys.     She produces a flare, setting it off before she drops it into the hole to test how deep it goes, depending how long it takes for there to be a plunk noise of the flare hitting solid ground.     Hearing claws, she levels her pistol to the OTHER sealed door, keeping her distance. "Okay, nobody open that door." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     In the door in the door IN THE DOOR-     Mel rolls through in a practiced motion, coming out of it with her sidearm up and ready. But it's closed, and they're safe, and...     "Some kind of hangar?" she mutters. It's not long until she wanders over to a desk herself, deciding to see what she can get out of the console; though she does glance up at Maaka, waiting to see the results of the flare test. "If there's nothing with teeth, claws or guns down there, lemme know. I can go down there and take a look." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is pulled along by Alexis aqs they now get to cover she slumps down to the ground panting, more out of habit than actual need but she's looking freaked. "That ... was some nanotech horror, I thought what is saw on Rory's earth was bad news but this?" She's shivering at this and just trying to calm down and she's not yet starting to look about, it's mroe she's getting herself centered again. "All right Yamakawa ... calm down." 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Once they're in the room, August immediately takes a survey of their surroundings. There's a hole. A sealed door. And a really high ceiling where it is /really dark/ up there. That isn't ominous at all! Time to shed some light on things. With fire. The Tin Soldier leaps upwards, bullets firing at a pillar, attempting to chisel FOOTHOLDS in it. If it can make somewhere to stand, it'll climb up, and then aim that gunleg upwards, standing on the regular leg, and begins spraying fire in the air. If, during this mad gout, any torches or anything are spotted, the fire is directed there. August could have really just used a flashlight. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     While everyone else is doing that whole 'safeguarding the area' thing, the Bandits observe a moment of silence for their fallen compatriot, hands over their hearts as they carve the memory of their brief time with the chair into it.     And then they turn around and see the other chair.     They both stride up to it, silent. Molly takes a seat while Irvine spins it sedately.     "Hey Irvine?"     "Yes Molly?"     "This chair has quite a legacy to live up to, doesn't it?"     "Mmm, it certainly does."     What do you mean they're not helping? They're keeping out of the way aren't they? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Maaka would be waiting by the pit for a while. The flare just keeps going down, down, down into the depths of the mountain. Its light might have seen bright when she had held it, but within a few seconds, the dark below seems to swallow it up completely, though as it falls, Maaka would likely see what look like pipes or some kind of conduits jutting out of the walls of the shaft. When it does finally make a sound, it's so faint that only properly augmented senses would even have a chance in hell of detecting it. It's pretty clear that something WAS definitely here, but whatever it is, it's definitely gone now. Fortunately, nothing dangerous is actually down there, that she can see. Nothing moving, anyway.     Separated from the rest of the swarm, Rory's nanites have little difficulty digesting the zombified arm. The thing stops twitching relatively soon thereafter. Apparently that door is proof against nanotechnological swarms, because they're clearly not seeping through.     A cursory glance of the room gives some idea about what this room was used for. Many of those holographic projections seem to be maps. Specifically, for anyone with any military background, they look like strategic diagrams, with forces arrayed across a strangely familiar landmass. It's Tellus, with regions marked out in various colors all across the map. Various shapes indicate the presence of what must be force mobilizations. Arrows are attached to each shape, directing them across the map-- But it's... different. The Tellus on those projections seems younger. The landmass seems larger in these projections, more defined. How much has the world changed over the years?     Walls of text are the next order of business on the walls. They're largely unreadable, however, to people of the modern era. The jargon scrolling across the windows is likely full of codespeak anyway. But there is a lot of information here. This place was Important.     Meanwhile, August is commiting HORRIBLE VANDALISM upon a priceless historical relic. The pillars are vulnerable to being shot, it seems. Or rather, vulnerable enough to blow footholds and hand-grips into them. The Tin Soldier shoots up into the ceiling, but the only torches that he might be able to find are all electrical. These people weren't medieval! The puffs of flame do, however, briefly illuminate an enormous set of bulkhead doors at the very top of the room, immediately overtop the huge pit in the floor.     While all this is going on, and while Will catches some badly needed breath, the Bandits go and claim a chair as their own! That chair will feel so much pressure over the foreseeable future. So many people it'll have to carry. And someday it, too, might be expected to make the ultimate sacrifice. ... They might spot, over in that direction, what looks like an old, decaying, and very thoroughly stuffed backpack leaning against a nearby table. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Nothin'." Maaka says after a long pause. She waits to hear something, anything, from that hole, before she shrugs at Mel. "No need to bother looking that way, whatever is down there has to be long dead. Hopefully anyways." She says, approaching the consoles. Codespeak codespeak codespeak. THis is mostly useless jargon and Maaka knows it, before she begins to sift through the data...if only out of curiosity.     She only stops HACKING to look up at what August and his Persona are doing, and she just mutters, "Fuck are you doin?" She's never going to understand some people.     At least, until she notices he's making a means to climb up the pillars. She holsters her Kama before she approaches the pillar. "Kotone, take over for me on that terminal. I'm gonna go for a climb."     Her suit's gloves begin to adapt their properties before she adheres to the pillar, paramagnetics doing their job so she can climb up the pillar like a Friendly Neighborhood Wall-Crawler from Queens, as oddly specific as that sounds, until she stops at the bulkhead. Once she's up there, she begins to look around for a control pad of some kind she can hack to open the doors. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     In the course of her languid rotations, Molly spots the stuffed backpack. "Irvine, launch me over there!" Her partner, obliges, grabbing her by the arm and slingshotting her! Her trajectory is curves, making her drift along the edge of the hole before ending up right next to the backpack.     Immediately, she picks it up and starts methodically laying the contents out. She's surprisingly neat for a bizarre criminal. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "More a matter of curiosity," Mel replies to Maaka, "But if the drop's /that/ long I'm not even gonna bother. Not unless we /need/ to know." So instead, she wanders over to the far door, to try something no one's tried yet.     Using the knob. Or the keypad, or whatever. She's gonna try and open it the easy way. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone would watch the flare goe down but it seems she's starting to recover her wits more she's back on her feet and shaking her head a little bit. She has to wonder how deep things is as she only hears the faintest of noies as flare hits the bottom. She now turns to record the maps and text displays. Sure they are in Jargon but they are imporant and if they find a way to translate them later. She also takes a peek at August for a moment and one eyes what August is doing, with the hand holds but the fire? That's got an eyebrow raise but she needs to get back to work. "What the heck was this place for with defences like that and I think I get what happened with the bunk house..." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Now that Rory White's coming back to her senses proper, the panic receding, the feline robot shifts at long last. One paw in front of the other, she starts roving through the chamber, making sure to thoroughly examine every inch of the walls and surroundings - and thus, record it for later analysis. Every letter on every wall, every layout detail. it'll all be fit enough for a VR reproduction in the future!     Whether that'll be of any use remains to be seen.     What she does settle on is... the maps. Instantly she begins an analysis, matching the given continents against her current cartographical knowledge of the planet obtained from orbital surveys...     If the divergence points can be picked out, then perhaps locations marked on the map may yield future scavenging opportunities! Among other possibilities! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     APPARENTLY MAAKA IS PART SPIDER. Like her (possible) distant relatives, she skitters up one of the pillars and comes to the bulkhead in the celing. It's definitely large enough that it could easily have accomodated whatever it was that was in the floor. Having come all the way up here, she notices two things. One: There are markings in the celing on one end of the bulkhead, like something had harpooned itself into the dome. Two, there is in fact a keypad right next to what looks like a lever of some kind. One that WAS beneath a pane of safety glass, but it's obviously broken now. There's a slot to accomodate a keycard of some kind, too. They might have an escape route yet.     On the other side of the room, Mel would find herself staring down what is very obviously another set of double doors, almost identical to the one they entered through, but this one is completely silent. Nothing apparent is trying to claw through from the other side. There IS another keypad here, but it's notably more complicated than the simple numberpads on some of the other doors. This one is a full keyboard mounted to a wall-terminal, and there doesn't seem to be a keycard reader either. This one, evidently, was meant to be somewhat more secure.     Kotone would find the computers to be difficult, but not impossible to hack. Strange for a facility like this one, but it becomes obvious why once she's in. The security suite seems to have been swapped to some kind of military default, and trying to bring up the original is impossible. Files not found, apparently. In fact, many of the applications no longer function; she finds many that seem like they could tap into some kind of tactical network or computer database, but each of those fail utterly when she attempts to access them, spitting out the same set of errors. 'Strategic Analysis Unit - NOT FOUND.' There are a number of archived files, however, that she could probably pull off the computers. With the security system bypassed, it's not a difficult task.     Meanwhile, Rory analyses maps for FAST TRAVEL INFORMATION. She finds several facilities scattered across the planet. Several are in familiar locations, now associated with major population centers. Others are hidden in more esoteric locations; though it's unlikely that these are civilian holdings, given the context in which she finds them. But disturbingly, many of these places no longer exist. They are located in the vast desert that covers a large portion of Tellus' interior, or are located off the southern coast, on land masses that... No longer ARE. Of these places, in the modern day, there is no sign.     Will busies himself with combing the rest of the room, searching for something that might have been left behind- a body, maybe, or some indication of what this place really was. While he does that, the Bandits ARRANGE THEIR LOOT.     The contents of the bag are largely mundane. A bedroll, a few canteens full of by now stagnant, unpotable water, rations that have gone bad. There are a number of weapons, too. Many, many weapons. Some of them are clearly hobbled together by some country gunsmith, but others are far older, and seem to have been refurbished for use. There are clothes... for both genders. It looks like there used to be room for a climbing kit and a set of explorer's tools, but they've gone missing. And... There's an old, leatherbound journal. It's not locked. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel runs her fingers along the double-door, investigating it for durability, She looks around the edges for seams. She wanders over to the keyboard to fiddle with it a bit, and see if there's anything she can figure out. It turns out there's not.     So Mel Brock stands back several paces and holds out both hands, takes a deep breath, and curls her fingers.     Incredible force wraps itself around the doors. Right up to the maximum she can produce with her limiter still in place. Glimmers of purple dance and shimmer faintly and occasionally, like watching purple sunlight reflect off the waves of a lake that isn't there. The Marshal settles her psychic grip in on the doors for a moment, readying herself like a weightlifter about to put their muscles to the test.     And then she heaves. Heaves with every single gram of force she can muster, enough to fling cars by the dozens. She's trying to rip the damn door right out of the wall. Right /through/ the wall if need be. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa doesn't attempt much to get into them she just looks to get visuals on what she can she also does notice a lot of the network is missing and the SAU is gone? Was it destroyed? Wast it removed uin someway. She took a momentlonger but she'll check the files tht she can pull off. She'll keep them in a drive that's not a part of her cyberbrain to be on the safe side. "I pulled some files we can look at later and some sort of Strategic Analysis unit which should be in system is just gone. 404 pretty much." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Irvine walks over as Molly goes through everything! The canteens are opened and sniffed, right before she tosses them over her shoulder, same with the rations. The clothes are checked by both, Irvine taking the men's and Molly the woman's, holding them against themselves to see if they might fit!     Is this how they have so many costumes?     "Now we're talking!" Irvine exclaims as the guns come out! He and Molly methodically check each one for ammo before pointing them, checking the balance with gun twirls before setting them down. And finally, Molly picks up the journal. Kicking off from the table, she rolls around the room, calling out, "Story time~!" before opening it up and reading aloud. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Now that Maaka's handling the bulkheads, August moves towards Mel. He fiddles with his laser pistol, as he stands beside her, covering her. It is during this time that the Tin Soldier stops spraying fire everywhere and also leaps down to August's side. If Maaka needed that light...well, she should have said something! 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka had only acquired this to get a way to run across walls, BUT climbing up them works too for her purposes. SHe switches to night-vision in the absence of any light, scanning for details. SHe takes note of the keypad, but doesn't do anything just yet. Pointing to the markings, she makes a curious noise. "Someone was up here too." She mutters, before she leaves the escape route alone for now.     The reports as to what this place is make Maaka's synthetic blood run cold. She had heard stories of WMDs before, but in her world such things were still unthinkable, especially after the mid-2000s. Hehe sighs heavily, before she slides her way down to rejoin the others, going down with a last-minute boost to slow her descent enough to avoid a painful fall, and dropping with a three-point landing.     She draws her pistol immediately after Mel begins to open the door, covering it along with August and his Persona. "Holy shit, Brock..." She says, watching the Psi-Marshal work with some awe. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Hundreds of years, this facility's stood here, largely unmolested. Hundreds of years and barely anything has done so much as scratch it. And then some jerk-ass psychic unleashes the full force of her tremendous telekinetic and power upon what is very obviously a door that's NOT MEANT TO BE EASILY OPENED.     Raw force alone probably wouldn't be enough to do the job. The Ancients built their facilities to withstand the crushing grind of the ages themselves, made very sure to leave very little room for leverage. But psychic power does not need leverage, as such.     Old magnetic bolts hold the door shut against Mel's will, but the points at which the door was anchored into the wall are significantly less well fortified. Slowly, the thing is shaken free. Mysterious alloys screech and groan as Mel pulls. Power conduits flash and shed white sparks as they're suddenly severed. It will take some time, it will take a great deal of effort, but soon the door is off its hinges and tossed aside. As that tremendous clangor ceases, one might notice that Will has suddenly gone very pale. And the Bandits read on: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G0ZDPuz0it_-e9EN5EPkTRIBCutleP3G94zcHVML-NQ/edit?usp=sharing 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     At the end of it, when the door finally rips free, Mel carefully, slowly shifts her arms over to the side, causing the ripped-out chunk of door and wall to float to one side, where she sets it down.     She's breathing pretty hard by the end of this; that constant, straining exertion of all the power she has is a lot different than quick blasts and bursts or telekinetic barriers. "Guh... gimme a sec," she mutters. "Feels like they built that thing to survive the apocalypse." Was that a joke?     She does glance up at August, though, adding, "Anything down that way?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' What very useful data! Rory's optics blink and flicker a few times as she pours over it and files much of it away. She's already working in a part of her processing to figure out good spots to investigate next...     And horrified at the implications.     She's brought out of her thoughts by the sound of a HORRIBLE CLATTER not too far away. Even at that distance, Mel's Telekinetic MAYHEM is a noisy thing! She dives behind one of the projectors and glances around, but doesn't immediately find the cause.     So instead the ROBOTIGRESS clink-clank-pads over towards the Starlight Bandits... to listen. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Molly's voice is light at first. But her tone becomes more neutral as she reads on. It's easy to accuse the pair of being stupid, but they do keep track of things, and this journal is full of key words relating to someone in this room.     Gale.     Solano.     Wordlessly, the woman rises from her chair, walks over to Will, and hands him the journal. Irvine meanwhile, examines the room critically. "No bodies. That means they made it out. There is an exit. Take heart chums!" he shouts over the cacophony that Mel is making right now. "WE'LL MAKE IT OUT OF THIS!" And a big old thumbs-up to punctuate it. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Solano. Gale.     Will.     Maaka looks over to Will as she listens to the journal, and a knot in her stomach forms. She's frowning and that's evident even with a mask that looks more like an angry skull than anything else. She opens her helmet up, eyes bearing sympathy, as she approaches Will.     And then she hugs the Chaser. A very big-sisterly hug around his waist. "I'm sorry." She whispers as she comforts him. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August investigates the pit, quietly listening to Molly as she reads. He shoots fire down there to illuminate if needed, and tells Mel the outcome of whatever he finds, before returning to Mel. "Let's go take a look, shall we?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone looks as Will goes very, very pale she's got hte info she pulled off hte computers to look at later and is now going and she makes for will looking very concerned. She also listens to the journal as well she has an idea of what's happened, and she now htinks she understands with a very sympathic look on her face but she's not going to hug him Maaka's already on it. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Not like this.     Will's hands tremble around the journal as Molly hands it over. Coming all this way, after so many years, looking high and low. No, not like this. He didn't want to find out like this. Nobody would. "I--" He chokes, moisture gathering around the normally implacable Chaser's eyes. "I thought... I knew they were still out there, but..." But his father's on the run from something he couldn't explain. But his mother is suffering because of the same thing that turned all these bodies into monsters. And it was years ago. Years.      His arms shake when Alexis pulls him into a hug. He doesn't resist. The wind's been knocked out of him. And so he does what anyone else would do upon learning... That. He sobs. He cries into her shoulder. But who wouldn't? ...     But there is a vault here. James had made that abundantly clear in his notes. And it just so happens that a certain psychic completely bypassed the need to decipher the lock. Likely because the door wasn't opened properly, the vault itself is pitch black except for the light August brings with him... And one other source. The inside is almost disappointing, in a way. It's certainly large, and home to a good deal of treasure. There are more weapons here, possibly to ensure that those operating the control room had a means of defending themselves. The walls humm with activity, and appear to be server racks or some other set of computing hardware. But the most curious object is at the very back of the chamber; a strange device that contains a glass cylinder, inside which is something that looks like a glass marble. Cables snake up and down from the top and bottom of the cylinder and reach for- but never quite touch- the bead.     It gives off its own light. A calm, blue-white glow, which neatly illuminates the incredibly complex network of lines criss-crossing its interior. Electricity arcs from the sphere to the tendrils, as data scrolls down a monitor inlaid into the containment device. The cylinder is removable, apparently. It's just sort of... socketed in there.     ...Upon closer inspection, it's clear that there are dozens more of these devices stretching out in either direction, but all of them are lifeless; either the cylinders contained within are shattered, or are missing entirely. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel finally stands herself up straight again, and turns to look at Will and Maaka for a moment before just... looking away. She's got that handled for now, and he needs it. So for the moment, she's gonna head into the vault.     After a few moments of digging, she comes out with a personal communicator not at all dissimilar from a smartphone, holds it up, and taps the screen. The light it puts out isn't all that great compared to a proper flashlight, but it's something, at least. Enough to get her in there, where she can approach the glowing blue... energy core? Data core? Containment cylinder? She's not sure.     "Hey, Catnip 5000, could you c'mere a sec? Want to see what you can make of this." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Firelight illuminates the pit, because August's idea of a thorough investigation is to shoot fire into mysterious places to see what's inside. Just as Maaka's flare did, he would see a number of different conduits and pipes that seem to have been drawn away or disconnected from some kind of central object. Along the walls of the cylinder, there are what appear to be rail-like tracks that lead all the way into the depths below. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' That form of address is quite a bit much! In fact it takes Rory White a few moments to realize Mel's addressing... her. because Rory White was so thoroughly scanning through the revealed vault - shining lights on everything that sprout from her body as she goes along too - that she was taking it VERY slow.     But she does turn to Mel... and quickly bounds over.     ... which brings her to the matter of the... crystal?     "The intricacy and the lightshow suggests that it's either used for data storage... or an artificial neural network. This is also similar to a device Will showed me that I believe was a q-bit communicator. Quantum entanglement. My guess is one of the three... we'll have to examine what it's CONNECTED TO!" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Jeez, quantum entanglement... even back where I come from, that's not cheap, /or/ housed in anything this small." She blows out an impressed breath. "I'll let you do that part, you've got a better head for tech than me." Leaving that to Rory, the PsiMarshal turns to head back into the main room, just as August is preparing to make a Dumb Decision. All on his own? That's just not acceptable.     As she walks past one of the desks, the flat surface rips itself right off the supports, casually dumping any terminals still on it. It floats alongside Mel until she reaches the hole in the middle, whereupon it floats over the hole at precisely the right height for she and August both to step onto. "Going down, ground floor. Spiders, mysterious rails and possible escape routes." Looks like she's going down there after all - it does seem to be the only way out. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' Damn it, why won't anyone let anything horrible happen? What are they, good people? As Mel makes them an elevator, August just looks at it, looks at her, and steps on it quietly replying. "Thanks." And then, waits for the descent. Too bad there's no music. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "No kidding." Maaka muses. "Back home you need a computer the size of a buick to handle that level of programming. Not exactly something you can stuff in a rock." She says, before she lets go of William. However, she does remain close in case he needs further support. That's why she's here, after all. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka is stopped from backing off because of Molly. She wiggles weakly in protest, but she just sighs and takes it. "Y-yeah...she's actually right for once." She mutters, not believing her own words. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Is it hug time? Because Molly is all about hug time! She wraps Will and Alexis in her arms and HUGS! She's viciously strong despite her size and actually tries to arch her back to lift them both up. "Get all those tears out now William~! That way, when you see them again, you can greet them with a smile!"     But, Mel is here to provide a means of descent. "Thank you madam! We'll be sure to list you in our tales as our elevator attendant!" Irvine says, without a trace of mockery in his voice to Mel. Clearly, this is a great honor! He gives Molly his hand to help her onto the desk before stepping on himself. What a gentleman. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' SORRY AUGUST, PEOPLE CARE TOO MUCH ABOUT YOU.     Mel is able to tear one of the desks out of the ground easily enough (they ARE anchored in there, just a little bit) and sails both August and herself down into the depths of the earth. The shaft is... Expansive. It goes down a very, very long way, and as August said, there are indeed what look like rails that reach from the bottom of the shaft up to right where the thing terminated in the room above. The conduits that fed into the shaft are more obvious, now. Many of them appear to be enormous cable bundles, all fiber-optic in nature. Others look like they were used to carry some kind of fluid-- a coolant, maybe?     Regardless, it isn't long until they reach what seems to be the bottom of the shaft. It's... Actually kind of cramped. The whole floor is only about a meter larger in radius than the hole they jumped down into. Looking closely downward, there's what appears to be a key-card face-down on the floor. The air seems... Damp, down here. Upon closer inspection, there appears to be panels inset into the walls; it looks slightly ajar, and large enough to fit a particularly short man.     Meanwhile, up above, Will is being hugged and comforted by not one, but two women. His eyes would be bulging at Molly's sudden bout of titanic strength, but he's busy wiping the tears away. "...I'll-- I'll be okay. I'll be okay." He doesn't sound okay. "We can... We can do this when we're out, okay?" "I just... I just need a second," he sniffles, "I'll be okay."     In the Vault, Rory is busy examining a staggeringly advanced piece of technology. It appears to be some kind of... Diagnostic tool. A very specialized one. The readout on the screen is largely in machine-code; it's running simulations, testing computational power, decision-making, and fine-tuning parameters where they fall short. Apparently it's been doing this for... ...Several hundred years. It had finished around a thousand ago. It's probably safe to abort and remove, if she keys in the command. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' She now looks concerned here but she's not close enough to will o give him what he needs nbad there is still the vault which a certian psychic get the lock popped and she watches what happens next. She'll take a more closer look and see only one thing remaining the others are all off line it looks like. "So do we grab it or do we leave it? Will it's yout call on this. and ... I understnd Will." <<Rory need a hand with that?>> Kotone will move to catch up with her long time friend to see if she needs any help with it. She'll come in to take a closer look and seriously wonders what the heck have they dug up? 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "... It couldn't be..." If Rory White wasn't as adept as she was at analyzing machine code on the fly, this would be largely useless gibberish. As it is however... the feline's optics flash with interest. Matter ripples across its shoulder, extending into a long, thin limb with simple digits with which she begins carefully tapping keys.     Directives: 'End test.' 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     And the ground floor they have reached. Mel steps off, and opts to leave the loose panel to August; she herself takes a look around the bottom of the shaft itself, then holds out her hand towards the keycard. Unless there's something preventing it, she'll pull it up into her hand, shake off any dust, and give it a curious look-over. "But what the hell did they house down here, though? It looks like this was a holding shaft for something so they could raise and lower it, but... I mean, yeah, the 'something' is gone, but so's the apparatus to raise it. That's weird." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Wheeeeeeee     Maaka stays stone still as Mel carries them to the ground floor, letting August handle the panel. She looks around, landing at the bottom as she kneels down. "Hmmm...bit small for my size, maybe we could get Kotone through here?" She wonders, helping pry the panel right off, assuming it leads to any tunnel. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Rory deactivates the test-computer. Fortunately, with her familiarity with computers (being a stunningly advanced one, herself), she can decipher the code structure well enough to give the right command. The capsule pops loose, the little sphere at its center glowing faintly as the energy feeding into it is removed. Apparently it has an independent power source too? How strange.     Down in the shaft, Mel has picked up a keycard! Like any proper investigator in these sorts of situations, she turns it over to see who it belongs to. There is no hole for a crank on the other side. Instead, there is a rather pale-looking individual who is... not QUITE human. His features are too compact for that, his skin far too pale. But it does read a phrase Mel would recognize: 'Chief of Maintenance.'     The panel comes away easily enough when Maaka lifts it away. There is indeed a tunnel there! The air coming from it also smells damp. Damp in a somewhat earthy, vaguely... salty sort of way. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Down in the hole, Irvine peers into the briny blackness beyond the hole! "Aha! Surely this is how... that man got out!" he exclaims. Holes echo, and he doesn't want to say anything Will might overhear. "If you'll all pardon me, I'll check it out."     And without even waiting, he's climbing in and wriggling to get through!     Meanwhile, upstairs, Molly nods to Will, and produces an embroided handkerchief, wipes his face with it and pressing it to his nose so he can blow it. How motherly she is. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' The only problem with the crystal being loosed to... do what it's supposed to do now is... Rory White has no idea wHAT exactly that is. Others here are now focused on further exploration, but she's found something that her entire principle demands she devote full attention to.     If there IS an AGI here, it's her moral duty to see to it than they don't languish in a forgotten facility, trapped and doomed to insanity. They'll need... mobility. A community. A purpose if they don't have one already.     So for now, the robo-kitty seats herself in front of the 'AI Core' as it's been described...     "... Who knows if that's equipped with a microphone.. can you hear me?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, guys, I found the maintenance keycard." Mel looks straight up the shaft, thoughtful. "Wonder if it'll open the blast doors. If it does, I can get us out of here." She pockets it, then turns to watch Irvine do his thing. "...Gonna be alright in there, man?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa looks to Rory for a moment and she moves up to help her firend with getting it out of here. "Wo what do you have here an ai of some sort? Rory? Think we can hook it up to VR space once we get out of here and try to talk to it in infomorph form? I'd be willing to work with you on that, also need me to carry it till we get out and you get something with hands again?" She hears they may have found some other things as well. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Irvine has boldly decided to brave the depths of the maintenance tunnels. He quickly finds that they are... Dark. Tenders are highly light sensitive organisms, and their preferred environs are rather dim overall. But there is still a thin contrail of light that leads ahead, past a number of side-passages even more cramped than this one, and around a distant corner. If he follows the light, that damp scent-- the scent of water-- would only grow stronger as he presses on, but he soon finds himself at an impasse! Or rather, at what appears to be a field of amber energy set up in the middle of the tunnel, and behind that, a set of bulkhead doors similar to the one up above. Almost certainly a security measure. Conveniently, there is a panel with a card reader nearby.     Up above, Will is released from Molly's warm, motherly hug with red eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. The handkerchief helps with most of all of that, and he sniffles into it when offered. He looks... Tired. Emotionally drained, probably. But at least he also doesn't look like he's about to break down. "...Thanks, Molly," he sniffs, "I... I needed that."     In the vault, Rory busily stares down the glowing marble. It doesn't appear to respond to her address, at least at first. But then, after a moment, it... Pulses, emitting a low, droning sound with every flash of activity. A split second later, that same sound is echoed from outside. One pulse, then another from out of the vault. Will blinks at the noise. It sounds again, unusually close by. He rubs furiously at his eyes and then grabs for the weapon at his hip. He draws the Solano. It pulses, and drones. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August was debating crawling into that tunnel, but before he could decide, Irvine did! Well, let's hope he doesn't get hurt. Instead, August stands to the side, waiting to crawl in and aid him if needed (he's fairly short, 5'8). But then, there's noises. And as those noises occur, August moves onto the elevator. "Can we have an elevator going up, please?" The Tin Soldier meanwhile, unable to get up there on his own, begins tapping his foot to invisible elevator music. Except he doesn't produce sound, so really, his non-gun foot is just wiggling. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, how's it going in there?" Mel calls into the service crawlway. "Find anything?"     She turns to look over her shoulder at August, then upward, and frowns. "Uhh... shit, I don't want to leave him down here alone." She looks to Maaka next. "Will you be alright down here with him?" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka hears something coming. She draws her Kama and nods to Mel. "I got this, go ahead." She says, before she looks toward where she hears the noise. "The hell is that sound anyway?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     It's dark! But Irvine isn't afraid of the dark at all as he pushes through. Eventually, he reaches the end, somehow seeing the card reader immediately. He starts to wiggle back, until his hand is poking out. "That card please!" He wriggles his fingers for Mel to pass it to him.     Meanwhile, back up top, Molly just smiles at Will into he produces the glowing, droning gun. She gasps. "I know what that is! That's... Irvine calls it the 'light of destiny.' Oh William, I knew you were destined for great things!" No sense of danger in this one. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel blinks. "The card? Yeah, sure, here." She hands it over to Irvine, before stepping onto the tabletop again and giving Maaka a nod. "Just give a yell if anything goes weird." She waits for August to hop on, and then starts taking them straight up to the top. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' The Tin Soldier keeps foot-wiggling as the elevator rises. It only stops when August starts moving towards Will, the robot-man following along and running over to him. "Will? Put down the gun. If that thing's overloading, we need to get out of here." The Tin Soldier then proceeds to point his gun all around at everyone near Will, and fire! Nothing comes out except for the feeling that you are way sturdier. Defense buffs! 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Upon receiving the card, Irvine immediately wriggles back in to use it on the scanner. Fingers crossed! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "The light of... destiny?" Will repeats. He stares down at the inner light flashing through the framework of his favorite firearm and knits his brow in thought. Now, ordinarily, he wouldn't be the type to believe in destiny, necessarily. Bit with all that's happened so far- the GPS leading him here, finding a /command center,/ his father's journal, and now... This. "...Destiny, huh?" August fires. This backfires, because Persona Defense Buffs don't care about physical or mental attacks, so all he does is STRENGTHEN WILL'S RESOLVE.     "...Yeah, I think so," he says to Molly and gives just a little hint of a smile. He moves away, approaching the door to the vault, as the pulsing light grows stronger. Will lifts the Solano to the door as it... Comes apart. But not in the 'exploding' way or the 'spontaneously dismantles' sort of way. Rather, the gun's construction comes apart, suspended in a field of crackling energies to reveal a set of strange rings deep within its mechanisms.     Tiny crystalline fragments within pulse and extend the halo of energy towards the gem in Rory's tendrils. It lifts away with a crackle of power and seems to be tugged through the air by that strange, energetic aura. With a final pulse, it settles into the rings and knits the gun back together. There's a moment where everything goes quiet. And then the Solano bursts with a sudden wave of brilliant, but ultimately harmless energies. Will shields his watery eyes as it passes, but when it does, the Solano is... Well, it's visibly identical to what it once was. ...But. ...     MEANWHILE! Irvine takes the key-card. He swipes the key-card! The energy field dissolves with a quiet *pop* shortly before the bulkhead behind it begins grinding open, revealing a... A cave. But not just a cave. The sound of rushing water is unmistakable, and if he steps out onto the ledge beyond, he'd find himself staring down what appears to be an underground river system, leading inexorably outward to the distant sounds of some mighty cascade. ...Unfortunately, it also seems like they might have to swim down-river. Or, you know, improvise a boat. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' With the crystal ZOOMING OFF, Rory bounds after it at maximum speeds without getting TOO reckless. Just in time to see it merge with the Solano and... ?!?!?!     Well. That was... unexpected.... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Well.     Maaka is about to level her gun at the crystal core, and suddenly Solano falls apart. "The -fuck-?"     She stares in befuddlement as she watches the gun fall to pieces, before it knits itself back together, as if by magic. She is past the point of words here, and at this rate anything's possible. 

:'''{{#var:894|August Kohler (894)}} has posed:''' August did a thing! It wasn't what he intended, but it was a thing! He moves to barrel Will out of the way when everything begins glowing, but before he can intercept, it's all over. He intercepts anyways, with the Tin Soldier tackling Will and his fancy new gun to the ground. "Will! Are you alright?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa help Rory where she can but also does hear something is coming, she has her weapon out and notes to her friend. "Sounds like something's on it's way. We should make ready for it." She now is mkeeping with the group. she watches in awe as Will somehow tkae his gun apart and start to work with it. Then she watches the crystal she gazes on in awe at the whole thing. She's neve seen anything like this before. "Woah..." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Hey, it opens! Irvine wriggles back out and shouts out, "I've found a way out! It might be a bit damp, but it'll certainly lead outside!" Meanwhile, Molly is agog with amazement as Will's gun seems to be a magic gun! "William, are you a chosen one~?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     As the light dies down, Will draws his arm back from where it was protecting his eyes. The Solano crackles, an arc of lightning leaping briefly from the barrel to the floor. "...Uh," he says vaguely in the direction of his weapon and clutches the journal a little more tightly to his chest. "That was kind of... something?"     He's about to say more, but then suddenly he's TACKLED TO THE GROUND by a mechanical hessian. Will makes a pretty solid impact, but the gun itself doesn't leave his hands. A solid grip is an important trait for a gunslinger. "Ow! August, what the heck're you doin'--" A voice, hollow and tinny and otherwise largely devoid of any real inflection.                       --==CORE PROCESSOR RESTORED==--                                             --==DATA INTEGRITY VERIFIED==--                              --==MAIN SYSTEMS: CONDITION YELLOW. MAINTENANCE REQUIRED.==--             "..." Will sniffs, rubbing again at his nose, but his eyes look more focused, now. He has something to focus on. "I," he says, only mildly disbelieving, "I think my gun is talking." He glances over towards Molly, and looks VERY CONFUSED. "I... Don't think so?" He's just a guy with a gun!     But more importantly than ANY OF THAT, Will hears Irvine's cry and jolts upright. "R-right. Let's get out of here." He starts to go, but then... Turns and moves to gather up what remains of his father's belongings. ...Can't just leave them here, after all. "So, um," he asks at the Bandits. "Y'all have that teleport stick, right? Couldn't we have just... used that to leave whenever we needed?" 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     After Rory did all that talking about AI, Mel is not taking any real chances.     She walks over to Will as he's gathering his father's things, leans down a little, and goes, "Hey. Hey, you. Can you hear us? Can you talk? Are you sapient, or just a particularly smart OS?" She's talking to the gun directly. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Okay Mel talking to a gun is a little bit weird but-- "YES. YES. YES. NO." Oh. Well, that answers that. Will kind of stares at his gun like he's not entirely quite sure how to handle this situation. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:''' R    Maaka stares at the gun. "...your gun's talking." She says, baffled. AI in guns isn't exactly something even SHE is expecting, though to be fair, that's mostly because nobody thought of it.     She sighs, shaking her head before she heads for down to join Irvine in the tunnels. 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     Mel is quiet for a few seconds, then adds, "Are you a smartass?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory White decides to speak up. "Wait, let's not leave just yet. We'd have a hard time getting back and there's still a few things to go over. Plus, this AI may have very useful information." She refers to them impersonally, but the AGI's tone still conveys a bit of respect.     "Hello. AGI of the weapon, please identify yourself? I am Rory White, a researcher and engineer. The one who activated you, in fact." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The Solano seems to consider Mel's question for a moment, before replying: "I do not possess a posterior." So, 'yes,' probably. Rory asks a question, herself. The gun answers, which is normally lethal, but in this case is not. "I am the Core Processor Unit administrating Terminal Judgment. 'Judgement' is an appropriate name." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone is just sititng back now it seems Will's gun has an ai or some some sort and it's taken the name judgment it also seems to be sane too from it's long time left here deep in the earth. That is good news it's not ranting baout the end of flesh. "Hello Judgement, I am Kotone." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "I am Judgement. Greetings." At least it's polite enough to respond to casual conversation! Will frowns a little bit as he collects up the rest of James' belongings, "Well, I've been calling y'all Solano for years now, so--" "I am Judgement." "...This is gonna be an interesting relationship." 

:'''{{#var:941|Mel Brock (941)}} has posed:'''     "Not an unsolvable dilemma, here," Mel points out. "Just think of Judgement as a passenger inside the Solano. Judgement can be Judgement, your gun can still be Solano. Problem solved." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a pause. "Acceptable, I suppose." Judgement replies. It beeps twice. "As long as the 'Solano' is restored to full functionality as soon as possible." Will shrugs at Mel and the gun and THE WORLD. "...Well. I was intending to... work towards that, at some point." 
}}

4491/Mudbaths

2016-11-27T05:35:46Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/08/31 |Location=The Great Ruin |Synopsis=Nothing can defeat beauty. Not even time. Not even an apocalypse. Beauty shall remain when all else i..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/08/31
|Location=The Great Ruin
|Synopsis=Nothing can defeat beauty. Not even time. Not even an apocalypse. Beauty shall remain when all else is gone. WARNING: FABULOUSITY WITHIN
|Cast of Characters=934, 1017, 391, 673, 707
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Tellus is a pretty big place, as one might expect from the former homeworld to an EXTRAORDINARILY ADVANCED CIVILIZATION. Former being the operating word, of course. The Ancients are long gone, their civilization reduced to dust by a tremendous and yet barely known cataclysm. Their culture has left scattered ruins all across the world- monuments to their technology, their engineering, the devastating power they once wielded, and the incredible luxury in which they lived. Those who search out these ruins are called Chasers. One such Chaser has put out a call for assistance out on the distant reaches of Tellus' frontier. There's a new settlement in peril, the message had said! KILLER ROBOTS! The message had said! HELLLLLLP, the message had said.     The coordinates attached to the message lead to a temperate, heavily forested region cris-crossed by rivers and marked by the rise of a single enormous mountain. The mountain has what looks like a crater on top. It's steaming. The mountain is a volcano.     A small village grows out of the foothills. They're just small log cabins now, but already the people are beginning to clear land for farms and cattle. There's nobody out right now, though. Too many are scared of the things that come out of the woods: mechanical monsters that emerge only to STEAL YOUR FACE. Clearly this must not be allowed to continue. And so one William Pauwel has put out the call for help, and waits at the boundary where one field turns into forest. Surely his friends will respond to his call for aid! 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' ~She flies through the air with the greatest of ease~ ~That daring Rose Quartz drifting down on the breeze~ ~Her movements so graceful, all Gems she could please~ ~And with light cannons blasting away~ That's sort of the impression one gets of Rose Quartz. She's a big, curvy woman with enormous curly hair that floats gently behind her as she warps into view, gently falling through the air above William. Hearing the cry for help across the channels, she's come, armed and armored to the teeth. "Well hello there," she says in a warm, motherly voice. "Has anyone been hurt yet?" 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' Having little to do with her free time, save for an occasional recon mission in the Gurhal system here and there, Reina is actually HAPPY to hear a distress signal come out. For all this time, she's been doing little more than sitting around watching and waiting, seeing if anything comes of what she's been instructed to do from her superiors, and usually coming back empty-handed. At least Laia isn't chewing her out for wasting time after those missions, but they really do little to ease Reina's frustrations. So when Reina arrives in the area, it's obvious she's got a full load of adrenaline going through her! For a moment, there's just a brief flash of light, then the shape of the red-haired woman appears in that light. Finally, the shape materializes as Reina herself. Taking a moment to double-check her ponytail is tied securely enough, she looks to William and says, "Name's Reina, I'm here to help. Can you give me a situation report so far?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' A streak of light from an orbital teleporter's the only sign of Rory deploying near the gathering point. A young woman with smooth, long blue hair, dressed in elaborate white robes and carrying a pearly-colored, oddly smooth-looking rifle with some very ergonomic grips. The teleporter flares a few more times afterwards, depositing four frisbee-sized flying saucers whih quickly take off and hover around for an eye in the sky... and two things that look like... kind of like large robotic spiders. Plenty of legs, and an array of weapon barrels sprouting from the body. When they can get away with it, their feet shift into wheels. Wheels on legs. It's pretty weird.     The Arachnoids, for now, trail behind Rory as she heads over towards the meeting point, all sensors on alert! 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' It's boredom as much as anything that brings Xiaomu out to Tellus; she's fought alongside Pauwel a couple of times before, and ancient killer robots in the middle of what's mostly a fantasy world seem like the kind of weird problem that she should be familiar with investigating. She does kind of wish she had a lightning-element weapon, but that's part of Reiji's gig and he's too busy to go haring off halfway across the Multiverse to reply to a distress call. She'll just have to do the best she can with her normal loadout. She does have a few fire-elemental grenades, and there aren't THAT many things which are immune to big fiery explosions. Or bullet holes. Or getting encased in ice. And there's practically nothing Xiaomu has met which is immune to all three of those at once. Xiaomu's lightcycle zooms in from the nearest warpgate, shedding speed as she spots the group gathering, and finally braking to a halt before the sage fox dismounts, de-rezzes her cycle, and puts the 'baton' away in her carrypack. "Hey everyone," she greets the others with a casual wave. "What've I missed besides 'ancient killer robots on the loose'?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Well, these are some faces that Will's never actually seen before! A few of them, anyway. "Howdy!" The Chaser says with a grin, stepping down off of his trusty all-terrain motorbike. "Don't know some of you. If y'all haven't met me before, the name's Will Pauwel, and this here's a sleepy little town they're callin' Copper Springs." On account of the fresh spring water, and the local copper deposits, apparently.     "Right now, there's been a few injured. One looks like his face got shoved in a woodchipper and chewed right up," Will shakes his head with a sigh. "Biggest problem with settin' up shop on the frontier, never know what you'll find. Sometimes it's robots. That's the bad news. The good news is that robots usually means there's a ruin around somewhere! I haven't found it yet, myself. But that's what I asked y'all here for! Can't just leave a nest of hostile robots be when there's honest folk tryin' to settle nearby, right?" 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' "Oh dear. I should see to the wounded as soon as possible," the pink-haired behemoth says, touching the gem at her belly. "I have healing powers, so I should be able to restore them if they still live. Where did these robots come from?" 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' The description of that one guy's injuries prompts a very clear wince to cross Xiaomu's face. "Sounds like we want to blow these things up at a distance and not let them get close in any state where they can keep posing a danger," she assesses. "Is there going to be some kind of central hub where we can shut them all down by remote, or are we going to have to go into the ruins, kill many robots, and hope we get 'em all the hard way?" Ah good, there's a healer in the group! That more than anything makes Xiaomu smile again - as does the presence of familiar faces; in point of fact, Rose Quartz is the only one Xiaomu *hasn't* met before. "Name's Xiaomu, by the way," she introduces herself to the big beautiful Gem, offering a handshake. "Not quite as human as I look, but you'll get used to that being a thing in the Multiverse." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory FROWNS at Will's description of the casualties. Frowns hard. Although the more natural reaction is probably to cringe. The expression isn't quite natural, but it's there at least...     "It should be criminal to build security systems that can outlive their creators." She comments sadly, without realizing the inherent flaw in that idea. It's good rhetoric at least?     "Good evening, Mr. Pauwel! When you say nest... do we have any idea on how many, how large, what kind of armaments or tactics they use?"     She turns back and forth. Xiaomu she recognizes, if only faintly. Rose Quartz...     The Gem gets a very very solid staring at. And attention from some harmless but noisy scanners. Well, noisy on the electromagnetic spectrum... "A hard-light entity...?! Only seen that once before... hello! Rory White. Artificial General Intelligence, robotics engineer." 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' "A few injured? Are they gonna be OK? Do they need medical assistance?" Reina asks. "I can get some GUARDIANS medical assistance down here if need be." She'd offer to heal them herself, but her Resta TECHNIC drains her mentally and given how bad their injuries sound, she doesn't want to risk passing out. Then she notices Rose Quartz, who she hasn't met before, offering to heal them. "Thanks, that really helps us out a lot." She smiles a little, before turning to face William again, her smile disappearing. "So these hostile robots are roaming around, and it's up to us to take 'em out, huh?" She doesn't arm herself just yet. "What do we know about them? Like how big are they? What are their capabilities?" She asks, wanting to get a better sense of what she's up against. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "If you want to fix them up, the town's right over there," Will says, thumbing towards the collection of log cabins up in the distance. "I'd prefer to get these robots taken care of first. Sooner we go after them, the sooner these people'll have a breather." In other words, the guy with the mangled face isn't exactly going anywhere, but who knows what those robots could get up to in the meantime!?     "From what I've gathered, these ones don't actually have very much in the way of firepower. They've got some kind of... blinding spray, or something, and a bunch of cutting and burning tools, but no firearms to speak of. We should be able to pick 'em off from far away, unless they've got somethin' I ain't been told of yet." Will shrugs, gesturing into the woods, "As far as what direction they're coming from, you're looking at it. They've been moving into town from over here. I reckon the ruin's not far, but I ain't exactly sure where it might be." "If we get to the ruin, we could maybe find the central computer and shut 'em off." The Chaser shrugs, figuring it could really go either way. "But sometimes you get these independent droids that don't care 'bout central command. It'll all depend, but in either case, we'd be going to the source." 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' "These sound more like maintenance or resource-gathering robots than defense units or security systems." Rose says. "Apologies. My name is Rose Quartz, I'm the leader of the Crystal Gems." she says, dipping a curtsey to all and sundry. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, and I agree. If they are not in danger of dying, we can afford to take care of this issue first." 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' "That does NOT sound good!" Reina comments, before looking towards the ruins. After a moment of thought, she snaps her fingers on both hands, and in each hand an energy-bolt firing pistol appears. She looks to the others and says, "Unless someone else wants to take point, I'm gladly willing to do so!" She pauses for now, waiting for anyone who might want to back her up as point or offer another suggestion to speak up. "I hope there's a good scrapyard around here, because we're gonna need one once we're finished here!" She says with a sneer and an evil smirk. 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' There are a few possibilities that the robots could have, at least according to Xiaomu's imagination, but she keeps her mouth shut on the subject. No point in tempting fate, right? "Sounds like they're basically forestry robots, then," she speculates. "The spray is probably some kind of herbicide or the like ... if anyone manages to get a sample without getting blinded or chemically burned by it, maybe it'd be interesting to run it back to a lab for analysis. Short of that -" Suddenly, Xiaomu has a handgun in each hand. She twirls them briefly (and carefully - the muzzles never point at her or her allies while being twirled), catches them in a regular firing grip, and draws the slides back just enough to make sure rounds are properly chambered. Check complete, she clicks the safeties back on both Silver and Platinum before holstering them inside her vest once again, and taking her staff back up with a soft jingle of the rings hanging from its headpiece. "Mr. Pauwel, you seem to be the most knowledgeable about where we're going and what we're doing. If you'd be so kind as to take point ... unless somebody else really wants to?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Agreed. That equipment's not expected of military loadouts. Which means they are either malfunctioning or in some kind of emergency patrol mode... or perhaps, since the current generation lacks all forms of identification the Ancients possessed, they see everyone as an intruder? I could make up far too many theories to list. Here's hoping we can regain control from the central location!" Rory White shows a genuinely hopeful smile!     "The good news is those sound like close quarters weapons. If we can locate and ambush them, the advantage will be thoroughly in our favor." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Nah, Miss Xiaomu's probably right. I've been scouting 'round here for a while, got a pretty good idea of the local lay of the land. That said, iff'n y'all've got any kind of... long-ranged scouting, that'd really make this a lot easier." After all, Will knows the general direction, but the exact location of their destination is still a little bit of a mystery. NOT FOR LONG, HOWEVER.     "Alright, if we're all ready to go," Will says, turning as he makes his way into the woods. "Hopefully these woodcutting robots or whatever ain't eavesdropping on us or anything. They might even have an ambush all waiting for us already." With Will's luck, the cutters're each hiding some kind of horrifying antimatter weapon, too. But that's just the way things go with Will's adventures. If it isn't a super robot, it's a horrifying coral monster.     Unless anyone has any particular objections, Will leads the group some fair distance into the woods. The trees are immense here. There's a sense that some of these might've been around back when the Ancients still dominated the planet. Thick trunks and massive boughs make navigating the forest floor somewhat difficult, save for what looks like it might be an old, dried up riverbed. The earth is damp enough underfoot that this brook must have run dry only relatively recently. Will creeps forward at the head of the group, hand hovering nervously over his favorite sidearm. There's a sense... That something is watching. 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' Rose Quartz is a very obvious woman. She's ten feet tall, wears a brilliant white dress, and has pink hair so massive that it's got its own zip code. She does TRY to be stealthy, but from sheer size, she's got issues with that. "Please, once the fighting starts, allow me to take the vanguard. I will protect you." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "So why would robots require wood?" Rory decides to ask the question rather pointedly. "The Ancients seemed fond of metals and metamaterials over organics..." So the idea of a woodcutting robot is a bit odd. Surely they had better ways of clearing land for construction, too!     One little mental command and two of her four Saucer drones accelerate, heading further out beyond the group. They're a bit slow, but they're high up... and are scanning the forest with infrared and other parts of the spectrum. Also listening for radio waves that might signify robots communicating with each other...     But Rory White herself sticks with Will!     ... And trips. Multiple times. Roots, sticks, and unexpected rocks all get her stumbling and flailing. At one point she slams her head right into a tree... but doesn't even cry out in pain despite the awkward position. Just straightens herself out and shakes her head a bit to recalibrate...     At least, by the time it matters, she's figured out how to follow without making a racket... carrying her rifle at the ready. 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' "I wouldn't put much of a bet on being able to take control of them," Xiaomu asides to Rory as they set off. "We'll be lucky if their programming code is legible enough to figure out what alphabet they were using, never mind sorting out what the code is supposed to do versus what it actually does. Also, her best option for long-range scouting is a pair of binoculars ... which she didn't bring. Hey, this was a rescue mission, not a survey trip. Xiaomu keeps her staff's rings quiet as the group advances into the forest; she's also being extra-careful of her footing - she doesn't want to lose a sandal in the mud or something, although that may be partly because she doesn't want to get her feet muddy if she doesn't have to. Skirting around tree trunks, and ducking under (or climbing over) branches or roots, don't seem to be as much of an issue for her. She keeps her ears perked, literally, to help warn her (and by proxy, the group) if there are any sounds of movement that might be robots. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' Following not too far behind William, Reina says, "Yeah, you best go first. I don't like the look of this, to be honest." She's got pistols in each hand, yet she knows anything can go wrong at any time in any way. Just look at the clusterfalz that was Oregon-313 recently? When she was dispatched to a bank holdup and-- Oh, not now. Ask her about it later! The red-head's boots barely make a sound as she takes each step slowly and deliberately. She looks around from side to side, almost as if she's expecting something to happen. Usually in a situation like this, she might make a joke or one-liner to lighten the mood, but Reina's got a bad feeling about this... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "You've got it," Will says to Rose's offer to TAKE THE LEAD once things actually start getting heated.     "Maybe they used wood as some kind of... Raw material or something?" Will answers to Rory. "I mean, I've got no idea what this black stuff is actually made of, so maybe they figured out how to use wood to make it?" The metamaterial DID seem to be comprised of significant amounts of carbon. Maybe they were literally just burning wood for the charcoal? Or maybe... Maybe these aren't wood-cutters at all? Maybe these are... ASSASSIN DROIDS!?     The woods are quiet. Too quiet, almost. Except for the lilting sounds of songbirds chirping high up above and the quiet crinkling of dead leaves underfoot, everything is almost... idyllic. And then things start rolling out of the bushes.     Rory would likely notice them activating first. The machines come alive as the group draws near, proximity sensors detecting their approach and flooding photoelectronic systems with power. The machines are... approximately five and a half feet in height, and covered in what appears to be an immacculate shell of pastel-colored plastic. Each has a single strip of blue light towards the top, and bristle with... ...Scissors, and razors, and what appear to be curling irons. "WARNING, WARNING," they beep in unison. "CRIMES AGAINST FASHION DETECTED. YOU MUST LET US FIX YOU, DARLING. BEEP." They beep. "BOOP." They boop. Will kind of gives Rory a deeply perplexed look.     And then one lunges at him with what appears to be a can of some sort of compressed air, and he jumps back with a yelp as he gets a faceful of... Something that smells distinctly like hairspray. Will coughs, wheezes, and then shoots the little can with a bolt of plasma. It explodes. Everything smells like hairspray. The robots are not deterred. 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' Rose simply stares. She's UNFASHIONABLE?! How dare they! She banishes her weapons and smoothes out her dress. Fluffing her hair out... She dances. And she's VERY good at it. A little swish, a little sway. And she's off in her own little world, light sparkling around her as the forest comes alive, dancing with her, flower petals drifting on a breeze... She's not just fashionable, she's GLORIOUS. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' When Rory White makes genuine expressions, those that come without thought or sense... they're very rarely too normal. In this case her whole face scrunches up bizarrely and mouth parts unevenly in the FREAKIEST look of lopsided, puzzled, THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE this planet has probably seen in millenia.     "WERE THESE PROGRAMMED BY ROBCO?!" She simply blurts, bringing her rifle up, FULL of alarm and a sickened sensation to be sure.     But she doesn't just STAND THERE, she leaps back behind a log and takes aim... then starts firing. Ballistic shells at least, not energy. The adaptive rounds will hit with crazy force as they shape on impact and alter their density for MAXIMUM damaging power... 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' "Crimes against fashion?!" Reina snaps. "I'll have you know that, well..." Reina frowns as she thinks of something to say, before blurting out, "This hair of mine? It ain't dyed, I'll have you know! It's been natural since the day I was born!" She says nothing about her uniform, since it's less about fashion and more about functionality and things like that. "Enough of that... HAVE AT YOU!" Diving to the side, Reina fires her pistols, shooting off several energy shots at them. After a few shots, she tries to take cover behind a tree while letting her pistols recharge. 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' Okay, so they're not forestry robots. Nobody would make forestry robots that .... pastel. But the way they're armed - equipped, rather - is the real clincher. And Xiaomu didn't hear them until 'too late' because they were powered down, offline, whatever. When the machines DO power up, though, there's basically no missing them - and Xiaomu stares in horror. "Fashion robots? SERIOUSLY?!" She's still staring in horror when Will blows up the can of hairspray. Whether the explosion is forceful enough to knock Xiaomu off her feet or not, the sage fox still goes flying - pushing off from where she was standing with a combination of her legs and her staff - and ... Explodes into gold-colored smoke? A moment later, though, the smoke clears and Xiaomu's new form is revealed - still noticeably foxy, particularly with the ears and tails 'hiding' as her hair, but her qipao and vest have been replaced by a very professional-looking pantsuit, plus she's got a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles balanced on her nose. "Who are you to talk about crimes against fashion?" she chides the 'bots. "You've been underground for centuries, you have no *idea* what's currently fashionable! Here, let me give you a quick refresher ..." Another poof of gold smoke, which clears to reveal Xiaomu in a very flattering school uniform - not a sailor fuku, but one with a white blouse, a gray sweater vest with some school(?)'s badge over the left breast, and a pleated plaid skirt in a few shades of gray. "I mean, every girl likes to look her best, from the classroom -" *Poof!* "- to the beach," Xiaomu continues, now in an extremely flattering one-piece competition swimsuit, navy blue with white trim along the edges. *Poof!* "Going shopping ..." She's now wearing a light green T-shirt with 'I <3 Money' silk-screened on the front in silver and gold and darker green, plus jeans rolled up at the knees and sneakers on her feet. This is probably her worst (deliberate) fashion offense. *Poof!* "... or going to the opera," Xiaomu finishes, posing in a black velvet evening gown with a plunging neckline, the skirt slit up to her right thigh (not QUITE to her hip) and exposing most of her leg, including a black leather pump visible on one foot (and presumably, hidden under the skirt on her other foot). "But all things considered, my *favorite* outfits are -" *Poof!* "The ones I can wear -" shouts a now-miko-vested Xiaomu, leaping at the robots and drawing Suiren to slash at the first. *Poof!* "- while I'm kicking -" continues the nurse-uniformed sage fox, completing her slash with a powerful surge of ice magic. *Poof!* "- your cheap, plastic-coated -" Xiaomu is now wearing a sailor fuku, as she slashes at the next-closest fashionbot. You HAVE to have seen that one coming. *Poof* "- malfunctioning asses!" finishes Xiaomu, now strongly resembling a magical girl with frills, ruffles, ribbons, and sparkles a-plenty, throwing one last surge of ice magic before she lands on a hopefully-frozen fashionbot and *pushing off* as hard as she can. With a little luck, that'll send her target sliding across the forest floor to shatter against a tree, but if nothing else, it'll give her a boost into an arching backflipping leap before she lands on a convenient branch. By the time she lands, she's back in her qipao and vest - and keeping a wary eye out for additional robots while she digs in her carrypack. "Honestly," she grumbles, "*fashion robots*, whose idea was that ... ?" An attentive ear might catch something about 'fried tofu' while she's rummaging. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' THESE ARE NO ROBCO BOTS, NO ROBCO.     It might make a little bit of sense, though; until now, the only robots that Xiaomu and Rory've likely encountered in this particular world have been military machines. Each of those designs were built for war- they were utilitarian, intimidating, and menacing with incredible weaponry. These are... Not.     Reina and Rory stick to the usual method of dealing with rogue robots. TONS OF GUNS. To their credit, the machines are actually made out of some pretty sturdy material, like bakelite, except vastly more durable. It actually stands up to a couple of Rory's adaptive shots before shattering, leaving the robots with nothing to protect them from Reina's pistols. Several go down in quick succession. But what truly devastates them is... The power of FASHION.     Rose's dance and Xiaomu's RAPID COSPLAY SESSION seems to make the robots pause. As ACTUAL DANCE SPARKLES start flowing, one of them begins to spark and sputter, before its optical unit explodes out of its 'face.' The rest of the droid collapses shortly thereafter. "WARNING, WARNING," one says as Xiaomu unveils a black dress that would almost certainly make her partner EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE (in the best possible way), "FASHION OVERLOAD."     "TARGETS TOO FABULOUS. CANNOT COMPUTE. CANNOT COMPU--" A wave of ice swallows the bot up. Then the one next to it. Both are sent careening into a nearby tree trunk, where they fall apart into so many itty bitty shards. There's one left, but it's... Running away. It's obviously overcome by FABULOUSITY. "H-hey!" Will calls, pointing over at the fleeing droid, "After it! It might lead us to where they're comin' from!" 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' Rose isn't going to stop! She's just too fabulously wonderful! But she'll slow her dance, eventually coming to a big finish by simply leaping through the air after the fleeing robot. She'll get a birds eye view as she sails through the trees, keepin an eye on it. "That was quite a fight." she says to Xiaomu as she lands from one of her many leaps. "You aren't a gem, perchance, are you?" 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' More rummaging, followed by a crinkle of plastic getting torn open, and Xiaomu finally manages to recharge a bit. Ah, delicious fried tofu, truly it is sacred manna from on high. *nomf munch chomp* "Little too much transformation at once," Xiaomu explains as she zips the carry-pack closed again. "Now where's that straggler going ..." The terrain is too uneven for her lightcycle, plus Xiaomu's energy reserves are still shaky right now; she settles for leaping from one branch to the next. It's not quite flying like Rose Quartz seems to be doing, but it's good enough in these conditions. "Sage fox," she answers Rose Quartz. "Not sure what you mean by 'gem' - doesn't sound like it's just a compliment ...." She pauses, an ear quirking as she puts a couple of pieces together. Like the big lady's name, and Rory mentioned hard light projection ... "'Gem' is literally what you are, though, it sounds like?" 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' "Don't have to tell me twice!" Reina says as she takes off running after the droid. No longer caring about keeping a low profile, Reina runs as fast as she can manage, grateful her boots are made for all-terrain operations like this. "Don't try anything funny or you're really gonna get a shocking surprise!" She calls out to the droid as she chases after it. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Well, Xiaomu's display does nothing to help Rory's bewildered expression. She stands up from cover though as the group gets the upper hand and their prey goes running off. "This is the most ridiculous scenario..." One she did NOT see coming whatsoever.     Oooooooh well. Still looking BEYOND confused, she trudges after the others through the forest...     But also asks Xiaomu idly, "How did you DO that?!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It's about then that Rory's forward scouts report that they've located what looks like man-made structures off in the distance. Coincidentally, they're all in the same direction as the fleeing droid. Surely it's going off to some kind of terrible Ancient CLOTHES FACTORY, with fashions as out of date as these robots are old! "Keep an eye on 'em," Will yells to the pursuers up above. He has to mostly make do with just his two feet... And the pair of POWERED SKATES strapped to them. Maybe they were right. Maybe Will IS the crime against fashion.     The pursuit continues regardless! Soon the trees seem to clear ever so slightly, the gaps between them growing wider, though the path ahead is almost all uphill. As soon as they crest it, though, the group finds itself passing through a gap in a very manmade wall, and overlooking what appears to be a... garden. One that's surprisingly well-maintained. The hedges and trellises are all aflush with blooming, fragrant flowers. Artfully organized stone arrangements ring lily-covered ponds.     Behind it all, there's a rustic structure not unlike how one might imagine a forest inn might look like; the architecture is almost a blend of Celtic and Japanese. And behind -THAT- is another enclosure that appears to be... steaming. The little pastel robot scoots back into the building as fast as its hoverdrive can take it. "Uh," Will says, staring at the building in front of them. "This is kind of... A first for me." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Not certain what we have come across... the one thing it does resemble couldn't be found out here." Rory exclaims, still rather puzzled at the barrage of insane things that keep happening.     Really, could this place really be one of those? She looks to Xiaomu... maybe she recognizes the setup...     "THIS couldn't have lasted since the Ancients' fell..." 

:'''{{#var:1017|Rose Quartz (1017)}} has posed:''' "Of course!" she says, touching the gem at her core. "This, is me... Everything else is just a projected body of sorts. It gets a little complicated to explain to most people, but think of it like a... Like those giant robots in your Ah Knee May cartoons. The gem is the pilot, and the body is the giant robotic man with rockets for bones." 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' "Shapeshifter," is Xiaomu's one-word answer to Rory's question. Then she focuses on trying to catch up with the outdated fashionbot - not an easy task to begin with, and complicated by which way the terrain is tilting. Well, she also pays some attention to Rose Quartz's answer, and she nods. "Awesome! Gotta talk to you later, I think." Shortly thereafter, they reach the - okay, it's not a clothing factory. Nor is it the kind of place you'd expect robots to be built, stored, or maintained. More than anything, it looks to Xiaomu's experienced eye like a ryokan with a hot spring in back. And with curiosity superceding caution, Xiaomu jumps from her last branch-perch to the main gate, trying to knock some mud and/or bark off the soles of her sandals before she sets foot in the grounds, forging ahead to take a look around. "Even *smells* like a hot spring," she comments, loudly enough for her allies to hear. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' "So you wanna play hide and seek?" Reina asks as the droid disappears inside whatever this place is. "Well, ready or not, here we come!" She slowly approaches the entrance, stopping only as Xiaomu jumps ahead and wipes her sandals off, before letting her go ahead. "A hot spring? What the Falz would a droid be doing in a hot spring? Wouldn't it short circuit or something?" A pause, then Reina mentally slaps herself as she adds, "Unless it's not a droid, but something else?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It sure does look like a hotspring resort. Like an idyllic little slice of heaven out in the middle of the wilderness. But if this is an Ancient structure, then it must be thousands of years old. "This don't make any sense," Will mutters as he forges ahead into the grounds. "What's all this doing in one piece? Don't look too durable; the places I've been've been half wrecked, even underground, but this..." Looks... almost untouched.     If the group proceeds inside, they'd catch sight of the droid zooming off into a nearby hallway. The lobby is... Not exactly spotless. It's worn. Beat-up in places, but there looks to have been fresh repairs to the facility lately. Several desks look almost brand new. A robot, about two feet tall, scoots by and slides a wicker chair behind the front desk. Another droid, like a hovering sphere with a half-dozen tendril-like arms, sweeps in and rises up to replace a plank of rotted wood in the ceiling.     A third robot hover-scoots into the room and pauses as it seems to notice the group. Its optics flicker as it scans over each member of the group, pausing only after it passes Will. "WARNING. CUSTOMERS DETECTED," it says suddenly, "ENGAGE HOSPITALITY MODE."     Immediately, the other two robots zoom out of the room, and the sphere alights over the front desk. "Welcome, guests," it says in a much less OBVIOUSLY ROBOTIC voice. "Unfortunately, our facilities have not yet completed necessary maintenance, and our spa is missing--" Bzzt. "--TWENTY-FIVE OUT OF THIRTY--" Bzzt. "--Members of our automated beautification staff. As such, we are not yet ready to open. Is there any way this unit can be of assistance?" 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' "We don't need the beautification staff," Xiaomu replies casually to the robo-ceptionist. "Mostly we're just looking around, but things look pretty promising ... would you give us a chance to consult? And if you've got an estimate on when the maintenance will be complete - apart from the beautification staff, that is - I'm sure we'd be happy to book a visit for sometime in the future." Really, it DOES seem like a promising place to visit for a vacation getaway ... but given the way-too-aggressive approach of the 'beautification' staff, she's also just as happy not to deal with any more of those. Worst-case scenario, the last five members of that staff might have to also go missing before Xiaomu can really relax around here. But she's going to at least *try* to give a conditional 'yes' rather than an outright 'no'; the way things are going, it's not likely they'd take 'no' for an answer. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Hot springs resort... I thought it was like something out of a vid or XP... being synthetic, I don't quite understand the appeal..." She faces the robot that's being so vocal and bows slightly. "If I might ask, when was the establishment founded to begin with? The surroundings appear to have overgrown most of the available clientele..." 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' "Is this a joke?" Reina asks, with a scowl forming on her face. She's about to ask another question, but she lets the others speak, not wanting to risk saying the wrong thing at a time like this. She snaps her fingers causing her pistols to de-materialize, to show that she's not a hostile threat of any kind. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Not provoking the strange floating tentacle orb is probably a wise decision. But given that the other possible path is one that'll go unexplored (at least for now), it's impossible to really know for sure! "Of course! Please, take a brochure," the orb beeps, boops, and splits in two to reveal a small printer. It produces a brochure for Xiaomu's use. "Maintenance has been underway for TWO. MONTHS. And will be complete in another THREE. WEEKS. Once we have repaired the second floor amenities, we will be ready to reopen for business!"     Rory is on the receiving end of the droid's attention next. It beeps twice. "Confirmed. Customer is synthetic. Welcome, fellow artificial entity. The Sapphire Vista Resort and Spa was founded in the year fifty-zero-two of the Harmonic Era. We were temporarily closed due to-- ERROR, MISSING DATA-- and reopened only recently upon THE ACTIVATION OF PROXIMITY PROTOCOL ALPHA." "In other words, we noticed new customers in the region, and resumed maintenance operations!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' The orb-droid swivels toward Reina and seems to blink its optical sensors. "No. This is not a joke. Welcome to the Sapphire Vista Resort and Spa!" 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' Xiaomu takes the brochure with a polite, "Thank you!" and peruses it briefly. "I think I have a guess about what happened to some of your, er, beautification staff as well ... I doubt you're going to get all of them back, so you might need to recalibrate on the spa side of things. At least until you can update the beautification database about current fashion trends and the like. We can probably help find a local expert for you to overhaul the databanks, make sure the customer-satisfaction code is up to scratch, stuff like that." No, Xiaomu does not know how to reprogram ancient computers. She's hoping that she can come up with somebody who *does* in the near future - and the brochure may provide some clues. Meanwhile, she leans over to whisper to William, "How long did the Harmonic Era run for, and how long has it been since that ended?" 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile Reina can only turn and shake her head in disbelief. "This was all because of some kind of malfunction or other?" She sighs angrily. "I hope Laia doesn't chew me out for this one. I don't even know what I'm gonna tell her when I get back!" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Long enough for a date variable value to overflow." Rory exclaims with a hint of a sigh in her voice. She's pretty good at taking that tone, anyways. But she bows her head nevertheless. "I cannot help but be impressed with your tenacity and durability. To fill you in on the state of things, it has been well over two thousand years since the establishment was founded. The new customers are the very distant descendants of the ones who had the knowledge to make this place and have forgotten everything. Please be very rigorous with your self-diagnostics. I hope you're capable of adapting to this information."     Though after getting out all of those boring and dry words, she does show a bit of a smile and glances over at Xiaomu, engaging a bit more casually. "Miss Xiaomu? Does your kind enjoy bathing in these kinds of places?"     The questions AGIs can ask... 

:'''{{#var:707|Xiaomu (707)}} has posed:''' "Sure, but not just 'my kind' unless you mean 'organics,'" Xiaomu replies to Rory with a grin. "Reiji's kept meaning to take some of us to a hot spring resort back in our home world ..." She sighs, "I need to poke him about that. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' "What makes you think I know?" Will stage-whispers to Xiaomu. "Far as I know, HA came before the war. Latest date I've seen was maybe five-five-hundred or so? That's about all I've got on it." And it isn't exactly definitive. For all they know, the era could have gone on for much longer, and nobody's found proof.     The robotic concierge beeps twice at Xiaomu's suggestion. "We endeavor to accomodate all our guests' needs! If our services our lacking, we must do our utmost to improve upon them! PLEASE FILL OUT ALL NECESSARY FORMS FOR CONSULTATION APPLICATION." The machine splits again, and produces yet another paper. It's... definitely an application form.     The brochure is actually pretty informative! It lists all kinds of neat services, from a beauty salon to a specialty tailor, to a gym, hot spring and wine cellar! The wine is... Probably not wine anymore. Unless the Ancients were really good at preserving their booze. It's certainly possible! The droid beeps at Rory, then. "Confirmed. This facility's automated staffing suite was constructed by ESTRELLA ROBOTICS, a subsidiary of ESTRELLA INCORPORATED. We pride ourselves in our reliability and consistency of design!" Another series of beeps, then a boop. "Confirmed! The marketing department has been informed. We will begin advertising our grand reopening soon! Please inform DISTANT DESCENDANTS that we are here to serve." 
}}

4232/Spooky Action at a Distance

2016-11-27T05:34:28Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/06/19 |Location=The Great Ruin |Synopsis=Rory geeks out. Will watches. It's a little awkward, but science gets done, so it's a net win. |Cast..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/06/19
|Location=The Great Ruin
|Synopsis=Rory geeks out. Will watches. It's a little awkward, but science gets done, so it's a net win.
|Cast of Characters=934, 673
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     In William Pauwel's world, it's no lie that the wonders of the Ancients are all around. Once-great, now-decrepit husks rise from the landscape no matter where you look, standing as lingering testament to the prowess of their fallen civilization. People LIVE near these ruins; those that remain- barely- active often performing some useful function to their new residents.     The town of Gale is no exception. The ruin at its heart is a simple one; all it really does is purify water and enrich the surrounding soil, but that makes it perfect for allowing a small farming community to grow and prosper. Will's home is set amidst rolling fields of golden wheat and vividly green corn. A pasture nourishes beasts that look like a bizarre mixture of bovine and whale. Right next to that field is a bright red barn with clean, white accents; an archetypical barn, in fact. This one isn't used for animals, though, but rather to keep machines... And so very many piles of treasure. That is where Will is now, munching on what remains of a fresh turkey steak, and waiting for a guest to arrive. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' In the Upper atmosphere...     "Remember, geosynchronous orbit!" Rory White says to... another Rory White as she steps into her ship's teleporter. The COGNIZANT ODYSSEY is high, high above Will's humble farming community... and its teleporter glows to life, powers up...     FLASH!     In one blink-and-you'll-miss-it brilliant instant Rory White's human-like Synth materializes a half-minute's walk from the barn, except...     Right at the edge of the creature enclosure. On the inside. A good ten feet off the actual path... and near some of the creatures. The nearest few, somewhat spooked, plod away, but two stay near.... and she's brave enough to reach out and pat the remaining one's side as if to reassure it.     Then she carefully takes a few steps backward and effortlessly leaps over the fencing, marching towards the barn.     This isn't the Rory White he remembers from the encounters in Boston. For one, she's human. Well, she looks human enough... that fantastic casual leap aside. Long blue hair, whcih may or may not be normal for the locale... white robes, fair-skinned and pleasant-looking face, a faint but warm smile on her lips and sky-blue eyes turning back and forth to see things from the ground. She's garbed in white robes - a strange getup rather like an ornate, formal... lab coat, mixed in with the kind of flowery, flowing cascades of fabric oft-associated with mages, healers, scholars, priests...     "Good afternoon! Hope I didn't disturb the animals... the teleporter's calibration is off again." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Being a double bluenette isn't exactly common around this neck of the woods-- but it's not unheard of, either. The Ancients performed a great many genetic engineering projects, and 'fiddling with hair color' was evidently relatively popular as a vanity mod in the Old Times- strange hair colors still turn up here and there. Of course, basically nobody is a super-advanced synthetic machine-lifeform. Those generally want to kill you on sight, not chill out at your grandparents' farm.     Will looks up from his workbench at the SUDDEN LIGHT FROM ON HIGH. It looks like he's tinkering with that gun he carries around wherever he goes. He needs to lean over a rather large capsule- and the RobCo Protectron on standby within- to get a decent look, though. What he sees is... unfamiliar, and his expression turns to one of worry until the mysterious, pretty, blue-haired waif from the sky opens her mouth to speak. "Uh... Miss Rory?" Will asks, squinting his eyes tightly, "Issat you?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Yes, yes... who else would it be?" Answers the robed woman, all bubbly-toned and merry. She's feeling upbeat right now! And she's quick to shuffle over to Will's lunch spot... and pause briefly to examine the RobCo Protectron he did indeed put to use. "I think... the phrase is... you have a heart for machines, isn't it?" She seems to, in hindsight, approve of Will's obsession with the old 'bot!     "...." But she turns about again to peer at Will uncertainly.... it takes about five seconds for realization to dawn in her eyes. "Oh! Oh, my apologies. I keep forgetting Mesh identification isn't ubiqitous... and people aren't used to... right. Yes, it's me. Transferred to a different body, that's all! There's no reason to bring a scary-looking robot into a farming town... right?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will does kind of have a... soft spot for machines. Especially considering his track record with repairing ones that probably shouldn't be put back together. His tinkering is an extension for how much he loves to crack open a robot and fix its broken bits. But having a heart for machines means that heart can be broken every so often, too! And it was, not long ago. But he seems to be doing alright today, at least.     "Oh, uh, is it?" Will blinks, just a little uncertain about having a machine-girl drop out of the sky in a very visible beam of light. "Well, I guess that's true! It's probably best that you came like that, too; though the folks 'round here did catch-eye of your... other form that time with the turkeys. Still, better safer n' sorrier."     Will sweeps something off his desk and into his hands before hopping down from his stool. He flips it like a coin- though it's considerably larger, in fact. Still relatively flat and round, but it looks like it's just large enough to fit comfortably in the palm of the hand. "Well, welcome to the homestead," Will says with a smile. "I'd offer some pie and sweet tea, but I'm uh, not sure if you can do that." "Anyway," he gestures with the strange, disk-shaped thing, "This is the thing I told you about. The one that had that crystal in it." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' Rory bows her head apologetically. "No, afraid I cannot eat or drink... not in a robot body. And biology and I... it's... not very comfortable for me. Hm?" She rises again to her full height, and steps closer... peering caaaaarefully at the disk-gadget.     "And the crystal itself? Let me transport in the mobile lab..."     NOW the teleporter works properly. The insta-beam flashes and down comes a... a... container on legs. And the legs have wheels. It's the size of a horse and its color scheme is black and silver with blue trimming. As it nears the barn... it unfolds into a large table and deploys more legs for stability. Inside... there's all kinds of odd gadgets, though only one holographic display. "... Oh right, everything's Mesh controlled..." She did, at least, account for that. Rory reaches into her pockets and pulls out a pair of gloves and what might look like an extremely thin smartphone. "An Ecto and haptic gloves. Not as convenient as full Augmented Reality and integrated mental controls but... so this is a mobile lab!"     And the laboratory table has a number of tools. The center of it has what looks like a large, clear, wireframe box. "Nanofabrication.." Rory gestures at it, then begins pointing out other sections. "Material analysis, structural analysis..." Varying enclosures with access hatches... "Workbench..." It doesn't look like it, there's only two tools and they look like giant arms over a few clamps... "And since you mentioned that these things are related to computers or power systems..."     She points at the far end of the table.     There's another workbench-like assembly there with a number of jacks and ports and wires plugged into all of them near what look like sensor panels... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will has seen a lot of stuff in his day. Giant robots, giant turkeys, horrible coral monsters that wanted to grow into his brain. You know, Weird Shit (tm). What he has not seen is... This. The little spindly drone-thing that unfolds into a wholly unfamiliar set of tools and gadgets and flashy, glowy, whizz-bang-y stuff. Sure, Will kind of imagines that the Ancients had stuff like this, too. But he's never actually SEEN it.     Will blinks and sort of... stares at the phone and gloves. He does put the latter on, but the fact remains that this shit is just so far out of his wheelhouse that he can barely reason out what Rory is describing. M-maybe he better let her do the tinkering this time. "Uh, y-yeah, the crystal is actually... Hold on," he takes the disk-like thing in both hands and sort of pries the top half off. It looks like there used to be some kind of fasteners keeping it shut, but those have since been pried open and replaced with a simple screw-and-nut lock. They're both absent right now, of course, or else Will wouldn't ever be able to get this thing open!     The inside is a maze of strange, crystalline circuitry and black boxes that may or may not be microprocessors. One bit looks like it could be a projector. Another looks like some kind of off-white ceramic plate wired up to what is probably an inactive power supply. But at the core of the device is a strange set of cocentric rings, and a perfectly spherical, deep, blue gem right at its heart. Will carefully reaches in, and plucks it from the electronics. "I couldn't figure out how to get this one to work, so I'm not sure exactly what it does. Looked like some kind've holoprojector, but..." He offers the gem over, "Here, the crystal." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Let's have a look at it?" She blinks a few times, but Rory leans over at the analysis station and starts doing material and structural analysis. The hologram projector brings up a high-resolution, giant display of the innards and the circuitry, an AI process doing its best to map and analayze and guess at some of the components as Rory plugs in some of her own thoughts more slowly to help guide it. But what she ends up with is... "This is... hmmmmmmmmm. It's very intricate engineering, but what is it? A single component of a much larger machine? Maybe if we provide power, just a little. But I don't know what voltage... for now let's see... very pretty gem!"     But what kind of gem? For now she lets the machine continue to analyze it. Materials, and also... she's examinig the gem for tiny etchings or circuit-like pathways, unusual lattices or anything to suggest it's being used to store data... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Well like I said," Will helpfully suggests, "Looks to me like some of the holographic thingamajigs we've dug up before, just from lookin' and pushin' a few buttons, but I can't get any more n' that out of it." A cursory probe into its circuitry does seem to suggest that it has some kind of built-in motion control sensors and 3D display capability. The strange ceramic plate actually appears to be a solid-state drive-- an ultra-high capacity shape-memory memristor, in fact.     The gemstone is... strange, though. As are the cocentric rings that surrounded it. Those appear to be some kind of... detector. The material is very clearly conductive, and seems to be generating a localized magnetic field- though somehow one that's contained only to the space where the gem would sit.     The gem itself appears to be a pure, nearly /perfect/ sapphire crystal. There are no defects in its lattice, no substitutions in its matrix, and except for a thin layer of some form of highly complex metamaterial on the outside surface, is almost entirely comprised of aluminum and oxygen atoms. There is only one aberration in the crystal-- a small, nanoscale dot, right at the very geometric center of the gemstone. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Starting to see familiar structures... yes, memristor technology! There's the power supply and the power grid circuitry... let's see. The gem's meant to... hover in these rings... and there's projectors... what I don't understand is what the crystal's for..."     Thankfully, the holographic projector SHE brought is naming each component as she deduces what they are and how they connect. She's moving with rapid speed, as if.. behind those focused blue eyes, she's hcarrying on a half-dozen trains of thought at once, all coordinated.     That's probably the case, too.     Finally the display turns towards the center of the gem, zooming in to the very center of the gem... "still analyzing the surface layer, but there's something odd... nothing in the main structure to suggest it's being used for data storage, instead it seems.... everything's focused on a... tiny..."     She frowns. "... A tiny, extremely well-protected, heavily shielded spot in the center... I wonder... anything that small means quantum mechanics..."     She pauses her efforts for now and instead turns to Will. "So. You found this where and doing what, again?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Fundamentally, Will is very much a practical guy. The theories of why and how the things he plays with do what they do goes way over his head. While there's little doubt that he could LEARN such things, his speciality is more in engineering rather than the pure sciences-- and even then, it's somewhat... crude engineering, at that.     "Y-yeah? Well, I kind of figured that this bit here was the power source and this one was the projector," he says, pointing out bits and pieces on the holographic projector. "Y'know, just by trying things to see what changed." Or in other words, taking bits out and putting bits back in to see what broke.     'Quantum mechanics' is something that Will definitely has no earthly clue about. He looks awed, confused, and definitely just a bit excited at the prospect of finally figuring out what the heck those things do. "Oh, uh. We find crystals like that really, really rarely. Usually it's only in the ruins with the worst kinds of security, or ones that're so big they still tell stories about them. But that one in particular was... Underneath a desert, way to the west of here. Found it in an old underground town, after we beat up this... big, black, metal *fog* thing. It wasn't really doing anything down there, but it looked interesting so I brought it home, and found that gem inside."     The outer layer of the crystal is interesting as well. It's surprisingly robust, and looks like it's specifically built to prevent *anything* from adhering to the surface. It's somehow managing to be both hydrophobic and organophobic simultaneously, while also focusing certain bands of electromagnetic waves into the center of the gem, while deflecting all others. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "So this device has... a holographic projector, a microprocessor, solid-state storage... all impressively tiny. Given the crystal is not FIXED IN PLACE but instead held fast by... what looks like superconductor emitter rings that hold it in place with a magnetic field... there's no good reason to build it like this unless physical contact would INTERFERE with whatever the crystal does... you agree? And you say these are quite rare, only found in the most dangerous and well-guarded places? Which means they're expensive to produce, or they're possible security risks, or only need to be in important places. Perhaps for use by leaders and other important figures or systems..."     She frowns as the diagnosis continues... and the materials analysis tries to get a ping on the properties of that. "Okay. Still no idea WHAT the crystal casing's made of, but it's clearly a transceiver. Only signals pass through, look. Not sure what frequency or protocol it expects... alright..."     She steps back from the displays. Somehow she'd been controlling the entire thing using nothing more than mental decisions, which means she's been mostly still apart from her shifting expression.     "This... the housing is a fully-functional computer system, so we can rule out the crystal being either a power source or data storage. All that goes in or out are electromagnetic signals, to a tiny point in the center. The device's only peripheral equipment being a holographic projector... my INTUITION tells me this is some kind of quantum communicator. At the center's probably quantum bits and the like. Though I'm not sure yet how it's CONTROLLED... this device may have been used to talk to people anywhere across the universe in real-time, or access information from far away instantly..." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will continues to listen as Rory thinks aloud, quietly nodding his head when his opinion is required. Though there are times where he actually interjects to answer one of Rory's more rhetorical questions. "Yeah, well, gems that fancy can't be too common, can they? Don't exactly look like the kind of thing you'd just... build a few hundred, or a few thousand of."     Nevermind that it's apparently also coated in some kind of bizarre metamaterial, contains a tiny mote of what is almost certainly some manner of confined subatomic particles, and may in fact be able to communicate with something literally across known time and space.     "Talk... instantly?" Will blinks, canting his head to one side. "But that sounds like it's just like the radio I've got, inn't it? But, you know..." He scrubs mildly at his chin, making a contemplative noise. "I've always kind've wondered what the Ancients used to talk to each other... And they say that some've the stuff in the sky is theirs, too. So maybe it talks to something up there? Or maybe to somewhere, or something... else?" Will grins, "Well, first thing's to try and get it working again, right?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Yes! Instantly... there's a similar device aboard my ship. Though it's only meant for emergencies. Oh... quantum mechanics is the study of physics for things that are small. Very, very, VERY small. Tinier than a grain of sand. They're... the building blocks of matter? Like iron, if you break it down into the tiniest pieces that could still be called iron, that tiniest piece is made up of even smaller components... and the field I'm talking about studies what's even smaller than that. Quantum mechanics is a very quirky science! There's a trick where you can link two... let's say two grains of sand, you can link them so that whatever happens to one can be seen in the other, no matter WHERE you take them. Even across the universe. So this property makes them perfect for sending signals long distances! But it's VERY tricky to do..."     She explains, hoping that's a good enough explanation.     "As for this black fog you mentioned fighting might have been a nanite swarm! Let me demonstrate..."     She gestures to the center of the table, the 'open box' that's the nanofabricator. Lights on it come on - warning lights.     The bottom of the box floods with a fine mist or dust that swarms around. And a thin, barely-visible outline of what looks like a wrench appears on the bottom. Slowly, slowly, the layers add up...     The timer on it says '20 minutes left' and is counting down.     "Nanites here... are incredibly tiny robots, so small that you can only see them when they're gathered by the millions. Like grains of sand but even smaller. What this machine does is... takes raw materials like metals and assembles objects. The nanites put it together piece by piece. THIS is probably the KIND of technology the Ancients used to MAKE the more common parts of their technology... and I -think- it'll be enough to repair it. This... this housing for the crystal, I think if we can restore its power circuitry and any other breaks... we can turn it on!"     But a moment later she frowns. "... But there's no telling WHAT it might do, who it will talk to. These ancients you've mentioned... what do you know about them? Do you have pictures of them? Surely these ruins would have pictures if they lived there!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Uh...huh." Will continues to nod along wth the explanation as best as he can. But he's just a country bumpkin-slash-unusually skilled repairman from out in the middle of a backwater town! Comprehending science as advanced as quantum mechanics is still a bit beyond his present capabilities. Still, he does his best! The nanite exhibition elicits a somewhat more vigorous reaction.     "Oh, yeah! That's the stuff we saw," Will says, watching the swarm slowly build into a nano-wrench. "'Course, this stuff seemed a lot more... hostile. It weren't easy, taking it down, but we managed somehow. Or rather, Nozomi and the others managed. Will just kind of shot it with his gun.     "...But if this stuff'll be able to repair this thing," he continues as the nanite swarm slowly builds the device up. Bit by nanoscopic piece. "I think it's worth a try. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"     The question about the nature of the Ancients gets another shrug. "They were like us, mostly. We've got... some pictures of how people and things looked back then, passed down family, you know? I guess calling them 'Ancients' like they weren't what we all came from ain't exactly right. But they're our ancestors, y'see?" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "... Nanite swarms for defenses. Very dangerous..." Rory winces upon the confirmation being so clear. "Exploring those ruins... bad enough that the security systems are malfunctioning where they're still active, but UNSEEN hazards like nanites are..." She makes a disgusted, vehement noise.     "So... there was, at some point, a regression? Humans here HAD this technology, but something.. TERRIBLE must have happened. A complete societal collapse... the only good part of this is that the technology will be designed for human senses and hands! ...I've heard that one advanced species we found the ruins of saw infrared and ultraviolet and had six arms and could crawl on walls, so their buildings are NOT easily navigated by humans."     The blue-haired girl's starting to smile. "I'm excited... but at the same time... this is worrying! The worst that could happen? The worst... the worst is that we accidentally activate some kind of automated defense system hovering in orbit that thinks we're intruders and sends an automated robot squad to capture us, hold us in a prison, and wait for further action from people who are long gone but the system doesn't realize that..." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' That... Is a distressingly specific worst case scenario. Will's expression curdles into a brief grimace. "Uh. Well, let's just hope that that doesn't happen. Hopefully it just goes to... some computer somewhere, or a friend in space, or something like that!" Or maybe it'll activate a terrible death-laser to kill everything within a few kilometers. Either or.     Will shakes his head at the talk of a... regression. A backsliding. That's not quite right. "There was a cataclysm," Will explains, tapping at the little disk-device. "Some say it took years. Others think it was just a day. One day, the Ancients unleashed their most powerful weapons on the world, and we're all that's left." He shrugs a bit, then. "But they also say that, back then, it wasn't humans that they were fighting. It was the whole world against... something else. But nothing we've found can tell *what.*" 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "So they were fighting ALIENS?" Rory White's expression goes starkly freaked. But only for a bit. "Oh... wait, there are 'aliens' all over the Multiverse... why does that surprise me. Ah..."     She's back to frowning in a hurry though.     "The responsible thing to do would be to check orbit and try mapping whatever's in space around the planet, make sure we're aware of any possibly functional weapon systems still up there first. Also, to activate it with backup plans in mind, and preferably using a drone from some distance away..."     She sighs then. And reaches out to put a hand on Will's shoulder. "The good news is, with enough time and effort, we MIGHT be able to restore some more of the Ancient infrastructure and improve quality of life here. More power, water, communications, maybe manufacturing... unless most of it's as archaic as these odd crystals. I don't know WHAT kind of technological wizardry's going on at the center, or what the casing's made of... but the interface housing's straightforward. If they used THIS then I have to assume most of the rest of their standard technology uses similar materials and structuring!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Wh- aliens? Space aliens?" Will blinks like Rory's grown a second head. "Uh. N-no, I don't think that's a... thing. Or at least, you'd've think that we'd've found sign of aliens around. Unless the Ancients' weapons wiped them out completely, or something..."     "I think we should probably be safe," he says, picking the device up. "Activatin' it from down here, I mean. T' be safe, maybe we go out into the desert n' do it there? I mean, a lot of the stuff we've found with these crystals're workin' and active when we find them. Just... They're usually not portable like this one is, is all."     He nods at Rory, then, and goes into one of his nearby Piles-O'-Scrap to retrieve... what looks like a big chunk of jet black material. It seems to swallow light like a sponge soaks up water. "Here. This is some of the more common stuff we've pulled from the ruins. Use some of that in my armor, anymore! Absorbs energy real good. Iff'n you want more ideas of what they used to build with, I mean." 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "IIiinteresting! more meta-materials." Her eyes go wide with delight and she's quick to lay the piece down on the table for examination too!     In the nanofab, minutes have passed, and the wrench shape is firmly defined. it's constructed out of... a wireframe-like shape? It's very thin and has an ergonomic grip, fine engineering that would be incredibly inefficient through milling and grinding or casting...     Doesn't look like it's made of metal, either.     "So these are probably only for a few special people.. the crystals." She turns her gaze back towards that display, though it's a fairly meaningless thing - she can see all of the displays and readouts in her mind after all! 
}}

4227/DOOM

2016-11-27T05:33:52Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/06/18 |Location=Great Ocean - Western Loop |Synopsis=Will faces his doom. HIS HEART IS IN PIECES. |Cast of Characters=934, 685, 939 |pretty=ye..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/06/18
|Location=Great Ocean - Western Loop
|Synopsis=Will faces his doom. HIS HEART IS IN PIECES.
|Cast of Characters=934, 685, 939
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Several months ago, William Pauwel did something of... questionable wisdom. It was, of course, all out of the kindness of his heart that, when he found an apparently bisected pseudo-mechanical girl, he decided to try to put her back together. It turned out that said pseudo-mechanical girl was, in fact, a HIGH RANK ABYSSAL. That is how Will became an on-again off-again mechanic for Hikari Seaport. We'll just skip over all the 'literally in a doghouse' thing he went through for a little bit there.     REGARDLESS, he has been asked to report to Hikari again for some unforeseeable reason. Someone apparently wanted to talk to him? How strange! Maybe it's Naka, or something, preparing yet another horribly embarassing exercise. Well, he wouldn't give her an (immediate) chance! Naka can't possibly make him spill his spaghetti when he's seated at a table at Mamiya's with a BOWL OF RAMEN. Right? RIGHT!??! 

:'''{{#var:685|Kuma (685)}} has posed:'''     Expecting Naka? You're in for disappointment.     A relatively tall, strongly built blonde walks into Mamiya's. Her uniform would remind of another group of Destroyer sisters, the bouncy, energetic Shiratsuyu and Murasame, the quieter and more subdued Shigure and Harusame... this one, however, is a different beast all together.     Yuudachi's red eyes seem to glow from within, and settle on the only male in the entire seaport, apart from the dockhands that help load and unload the Expedition transports. A chill may run up Will's spine as those eyes land on him, predatory as she approaches. "Are you, like, William Pauwel?" she asks, her tone light and airy, with a bit of a valley-girl twang coming through the translation effect. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It's strange that there aren't many guys on-base. You'd think there'd be at least one male ship-spirit around. Maybe a Russian one, or something. But that's what happens, maybe, when nearly every seafaring civilization around treated their boats like ladies. Not that Will'd know anyhing about that. He's just an extraversal, eating his ramen in peace. When suddenly--! That... That feeling...! The Fleet's Idol, Naka-chan!?     Wait, no. It's someone... else. Will actually shivers as a feeling of incomprehensible dread shoots down his spine. He looks left, he looks right, and then he turns around and sees-- someone unfamiliar? "Uh," Will blinks up at those MILDLY UNSETTLING EYES. He kind of feels like a mouse staring down a cat... A cat with a very disarming accent, perhaps, but still a cat!* "Y-yeah, that's me. Do y'all have something you needed fixed?" (*Or perhaps a doggie!?) 

:'''{{#var:685|Kuma (685)}} has posed:'''     Yuudachi lifts her right hand and taps her cheek with a finger. "Hmmm, I don't think so, but like, I got something to ask you." she replies, then reaches into her serafuku, pulling out a VERY FAMILIAR LOOKING LETTER. "Did you, like, send this letter?" she asks, placing it down on the table before straightening up and tilting her head curiously. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Will's blood is normally BOILING WITH ENTHUSIASTIC HEROISM, but right now, when he sees this mysterious boat pull a FAMILIAR LETTER from her uniform, it all just sort of turns to ice. "Uh," he babbles, reaching for the paper and tentatively begins flattening out the creases. "Uhhhhh." This-- this is... this is--! "H-how," Will asks, his face somehow both deathly pale and BLUSHING BRIGHT RED. His hands are shaking every so slightly. "How did you... get this?" 

:'''{{#var:685|Kuma (685)}} has posed:'''     "When I woke up, it was in my uniform... I guess 'She' found it." replies Yuudachi, canting her head a little further. "I just wanted to, like, let you know. She found it, but... I'm not, like, her... so." she shrugs a bit, then grins. It's not a comforting expression with those glowing red eyes. "Don't worry about it... I didn't like, read it or anything... well, I did, but only to find out who you were so I could like, give it back and stuff." 

:'''{{#var:939|Graf Zeppelin (939)}} has posed:'''      It's been a LONG DAY for Hikari Seaport's favorite Fleet Idol! ...A long day of swabbing the docks and singing all the while. What? Who says she can't sing while performing punishment activities? ...Oh right, Nagato did.      Well.      YOU CAN'T STOP THE BEAT!      But no, Naka was actually hungry now. So it was time to head to Mamiya's! Which is why the orange-clad IDOL OF LOVE AND PEACE strides into the place with a huge smile on her face, humming a happy little tune to herself. Probably the backing track to a song in development.      She was going to order her usual LOVE FILLED CURRY, when she spots something with her NAKA-VISION(tm), and veers her head off to one side of the restaurant!      It's....      IT'S....!      "WIIIIIIILLL!" Naka cries happily, skipping on over to their table, but then she freezes as she spots THAT LETTER on the table. ...And Yuudachi who seems to possess it. "....Eh?"      Tick...tock...tick....tock....      DING!      "AHA!" A clenched fist is smacked into a palm. You can almost see the lightbulb above her. "Yuu-chan! Are you...did you? ...! ....Can it be!?" And suddenly, her face floods red, and she brings her hands to her cheeks, wiggling with glee and anticipation. "OH MY GOD IT'S HAPPENING!"      Suddenly, Naka sobers up with startling speed, folding her arms behind herself and taking a step back.      "Proceed." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     She... She found it in her uniform? Will's fingers tighten into the page, the paper deforming around his grip. "You... She found it. And you..." Aren't her? but then how did she have it with her? There are so many questions! So few answers! "You read it though. You saw it. But you're... not her?" Did SHE read it?     Why does that even matter!? But it does, though. It matters in the terrible gut-clenching grip in his belly. Damnit, Naka, this is ALL YOUR FAULT. But as with all such things, if you speak of the Naka, SHE SHALL APPEAR.     The fleet's idol, NAKA-CHAN charges right into the horrible roiling bubble of embarassment and confusion and dread and ALL KINDS OF OTHER AWFUL EMOTIONS. "N-naka!?" Will gapes, and then gapes even wider when she... does that weird wiggly thing. "I don't-- what's goin' on!? Why'd she have my... my--" LOVE LETTER!? "L-letter to the Destroyer Princess!?" 

:'''{{#var:685|Kuma (685)}} has posed:'''     Naka's arrival is met by a single confused word from the Destroyer. "Poi?"     Then Will starts having an (even worse) breakdown, and Yuudachi responds. "I was Destroyer Princess." 

:'''{{#var:939|Graf Zeppelin (939)}} has posed:'''      Naka tilts her head at Yuudachi, and simply smiles. She knows. SHE KNOWS. And she's just SO AMUSED RIGHT NOW.      Will's embarrassment is DELICIOUS! Her smile spreads even more, and she steps over, patting the poor guy on the back. "It's okay, Will! Y'see, when us Fleet Daughters sink, we usually come up as Abyssals! And when our Abyssal selves are sunk, we usually come back up as Fleet Daughters! Yuu-chan here used to be Destroyer Princess, before she got her keester kicked by Shigure!"      Wow, rude. "And now she's back here with us, and that's why she's got your letter filled with love~" Oh god, she said it. SHE SAID IT. And she griiiiiiins wide, hands clapped together. Why, if it were possible for the idol to sparkle right now, she would be.      She probably is.      Poor Will.      "So! That said; Will!" She gestures to Yuudachi. "This is Yuu-chan! I mean-- Yuudachi!" And then she gestures to Will. "And this is Will of The Eastern South Paw of The Northwest!" Wait, what? 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' She was the Destroyer Princess. SHE WAS THE DESTROYER PRINCESS.     Will's embarassment seems to be reaching the breaking point. His pupils have gone so very, very wide. There's a distinct, bright red line that creeps right up from his neck to his chin all the way up to the very tip-top of his head. It's a palpable thing; you can practically SEE the steam whistling out of his ears. "Aaaaa." Will un-says. His brain is incapable of forming words. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa--" FILLED WITH LOVE     "Waaugh! Agh! No! It was just supposed to be a letter! WHY IS THERE ALL THIS PINK INK ON IT? Why does it say--" He squints desperately, DESPERATELY, at the letters. And then he chokes, staggers back into the table, and... knocks his poor ramen all over the floor. naka. naka why. WHY. NAKA. "Y-you... Nakaaaaaa...!" SHE SAID IT. SHEEEE DID IT. "I'll- I'll--!" 'Eastern South Paw of the Northwest'     "...Buh?" Will just kind of slumps forward, eyes swimming between the girls, his letter, his noodles, and all the injustice in this cold, unfair world. "N-no. It's Pauwel. Will Pauwel. Ain't no directions, just..." Will looks up, his face still glowing bright red-- it goes ALL The way up to his ears. "You... You don't remember anything? About when you were... her?" 

:'''{{#var:685|Kuma (685)}} has posed:'''     Yuudachi is so very confused right now. She was just trying to give the letter back. "Poi?" she says again, confused... and then the question.     She shrugs. "Bits and pieces, like, when someone puts the slides in a slide-show the wrong way around with like, lots of them missing. I remember someone patched me back together... but that's about it." 

:'''{{#var:939|Graf Zeppelin (939)}} has posed:'''      Don't laugh.      DON'T LAUGH.      DON'T. LAUGH. NAKA.      RESIST!      DON'T LOSE YOUR WAY.      With supreme herculean effort, the fleet idol manages NOT TO LAUGH, though her lips, pressed together firmly, quiver subtly as the temptation bears down upon her. "Oh dear. Oh man, this was great! The perfect development! Oh yes, this is inspiration! This is material!" Naka pulls out a pad and pen, scribbling notes down to herself with swirlies in her eyes and a manic smile on her face.      Oh dear. Ohhhhh dear.      So that's why she was so gung ho about this. ...Well, LOVE AND PEACE aside anyway.      She nods along as Yuudachi explains the whole deal about memories of the other side, having not experience that in a ....very long time actually. And then she smiles all pleasant like once Yuudachi gets to the part about someone putting her back together.      "Oh! Oh! I know this one!" She points RIGHT AT WILL "It was him! It was Will! He saw you washed up on a beach, so he just went...." She actually sobers up, and pressed a hand to her chest. "....I....I think I'm in love...." It was so serious. But then she breaks character and goes back to grinning. "So he welded you back together, and the Catmiral got SUPER MAD at him, so she put him on house arrest in the base, but he couldn't stop thinking about you, so I helped him write the PERFECT LOVE LETTER, and then-"      Oh my god she was going to spill everything to join the ramen.      STOP HER. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' She... Remembers that, huh?     "Oh," Will murmurs, still fidgeting with the letter in his hands. "I... You remember being put back together, huh," he sags, breathing a long, resigned sigh. And Naka was just... just using his BLATANT EMOTIONAL DISTRESS as material for... for what, songs? Man, what a terrible person! But at least... at least it's over, right? He can come clean. "That... That was m--" NAKA-CHAN NAKA-CHAN, NO.     Will's arms flail like some kind of wacky inflatable armtube man. "Wagh! Naka--" He leaps like he were more spring than man! But in the span of time that he SCRAMBLES OVER THE TABLE and goes to THROW HIS HAND RIGHT OVER NAKA'S TRAP. Unfortunately, the floor is also covered in both noodle and soup, and so it's just as likely that he'll TACKLE NAKA TO THE NOODLY GROUND. "No! That's not how it went! We just-- we just talked! REALLY." He says that, but would someone who 'just talked' be approximately as red as THE RISING JAPANESE SUN!? "I- I repaired you 'cause I thought you needed help, and then... And then-- everything... happened from there." Everything happened. On that day, his doom was writ. 

:'''{{#var:685|Kuma (685)}} has posed:'''     Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.     "Mmm, I'm hungry... Mamiya~ Can I get something to eat~." calls Yuudachi, who seems completely bored and uninterested with what's going on now. Capricious thing she is.     The blonde skips off towards the kitchen area, poking her head inside to talk to the stewardess of the establishment. 

:'''{{#var:939|Graf Zeppelin (939)}} has posed:'''      "WAUGH!"      And here comes SIR WILLIAN OF THE EASTERN SOUTH PAW OF THE NORTHWEST to TACKLE HER DOWN into that horrible PUDDLE OF RAMEN! And down down down she goes! SPLASH!      "EWWWWW! Will you jerk, I just changed! Ahhhhhhh!" And then she pushes forward, wrestling with him and rolling around on the floor like a pair of school children. "I was just telling the truth! You don't need to be so embarrassed! Isn't that right Yuu-chan?"      Pause.      "Yuu-chan?"      She looks away from Will and over to the convenient dotted white outline of where Yuudachi used to be standing.      "Oops." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     NAKA-CHAN. THIS IS YOUR FAULT. ALLLL YOUUUR FAULT. You deserve every ounce of that ramen soup that's soaking into that adorable idol-outfit you're wearing. "Y'all brought this on yerself! Playin' with a guy's heart like it were some kind'a instrument! Yer punishment is RAME-AUGH!" *Splat*     "Agh! Yer lucky these're my work clothes!" Even though his travel-gear is probably much more easily washable. BUT STILL. He does try to wrestle himself back on top of this weird rolling pile, but Naka is kind of a battleship and he's just an apprentice combat archaeologist. "Anyway, that ain't the truth t'all! Ain't that right, prin--"     "--Cess." Will blinks at the empty space that once contained Yuudachi and then sort of... wilts. "...She doesn't really remember anything, huh?" There's a note of sadness, of palpable regret in his voice. "So the princess is just... Gone." NAKA, WILL IS SAD. WHAT DO. 

:'''{{#var:939|Graf Zeppelin (939)}} has posed:'''      Aw.      Naka may have been hyperfocused on her art, but she wasn't a terrible jerk. At seeing Will deflate, all of the mirth and good cheer she had sort of fizzled out. Oh nooooo... Now she actually felt bad for him.      There's a sigh, and she sits up off of him, patting his head. "I'm sorry, Will. That's just... kind of how it is, usually. But this was an unusual situation to start with." She smiles a bit an teasingly pokes his cheek. "People aren't usually so nice to Abyssals after all."      Ah, but this downer atmosphere would not be tolerated! Naka stood up, clothes partially soaked with ramen soup. It's okay, Mamiya will clean it up! Sorry! "I have an idea! Let's go change, and then go out somewhere! That'll cheer you right up!"      Giving her usual RADIANTLY BRIGHT SMILE, the light cruiser winked playfully as she offered him a hand up.      Didn't she have disciplinary tasks to finish up?      Shhhhh, she'll just beg bi sis Sendai to stand in for her again. Roll up her hair into buns and smile. No one'll notice! Probably. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     So it turns out that even TERRIBLE IDORUS can have a heart. Even if it IS one that delights in the suffering of innocent young men. ARE YOU SURE YOU AREN'T THE ABYSSAL, NAKA-CHAN!?     "...People keep saying they ain't nothing but pure evil, but..." He sighs, sitting up just in time for Naka to pat his head. If he had ADORABLY EXPRESSIVE EARS, they'd still be drooping a bit right now. "You know, she wasn't... that bad. She actually talked to me, you know? And now she's... gone." Will shakes his head, pushing himself up to his feet. A few noodles stick stubbornly to his shoulders, but he sort of just... pulls off the jacket he was wearing, and starts brushing it off. "Go out...?" ...With Naka-chan? IS THIS A TRICK!? "...Sure, okay," he says, still very visibly IN SAD MODE. It doesn't even cross his mind that this could be construed as A DATE. WILL'S DOOM CONTINUES. 
}}

4211/The Great Gale Turkey Shoot

2016-11-27T05:33:22Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/06/12 |Location=The Great Ruin |Synopsis=Turkeys on Tellus are serious business. THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING. |Cast of Characters=934..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/06/12
|Location=The Great Ruin
|Synopsis=Turkeys on Tellus are serious business. THE KING IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE KING.
|Cast of Characters=934, 623, 989, 994, 999, 571, 673, 7, 943
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Gale is a sleepy little town. Great fields of swaying wheat and orchards festooned with late-blooming orapple blossoms surround a marketplace and town square... And what appears to be an enormous green mound that seems to have smokestacks sticking up from out of it. Ancient steel pipes radiate from the mound and creep out between or from within nearby fields like the roots of some great, metal tree stump. Sheltered beneath two of the pipe-boughs, at the center of town, is a picturesque town hall and a quaint little clocktower.     And right now, the whole place also looks like... A warzone. Out at one side of town, the fields give way to a crescent of worn stone barricades and makeshift wooden pallisades. Gale's townsfolk have traded in their linens and cottons for weatherbeaten leather and armor plate. They've put down their ploughs and picked up an entire armory of weapons. Vehicles that are clearly some form of tractor or combine harvester are arrayed out on the vast, rolling prairies beyond the stone gate, each and every one festooned with ramshackle armor and bristling with heavy weaponry.     While most of them are what you might expect from a town like this- leathery-skinned, rural folk, some of the townspeople are... very clearly not human. A handful stand at least ten feet tall and use their great size to manhandle enormous weapons. Others exhibit subtler, but no less unusual traits. Some, particularly those in many of the vehicles, are rather diminuitive, and cover every inch of themselves in heavy cloth.     The one thing that unites the townsfolk of Gale is that each and every one of them is wearing a gas mask, because today is the Great Gale Turkey Shoot. But these are no ordinary turkeys; they wouldn't need this kind of equipment if they were. It comes every year, and every year it's a hell of a party, and Will's put out an open invitation to come check it out.     He's out alongside the rest of the vehicles, waiting for the guests to arrive. There's a mask over his face, too, but his clothes are distinctive enough to easily pick him out of the crowd. And out in the distance, drawing closer with each passing moment, is a roiling cloud of dust, loomin just over the horizon. 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      Earlier:      "Mr. Kaiba. As per your request, we've been looking into various small local events. We heard of a Turkey based event, located in a somewhat backwater community. It's a small event, but it should be perfect for getting you some free press."      "...Mm. The public does go wild for things like turkey pardoning, doesn't it? Prepare my jet for me."      Now:      "I am going to fire that man." Kaiba says this under his breath, to himself. He is on scene in the town, near Will and the others gathering. He arrived not all that long ago, in his Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet. The jet is parked further back, where it shouldn't be damaged in the assault of the winged beasts. If he had known what the event really was? He'd at least bring some more anti-wind/anti-winged beast support cards. As is, all he has ready is the gas mask upon his face, and his standard deck of cards.      For now, he stays somewhat to the side, looking off towards the distance and towards the cloud of dust. His cards are drawn, and he's taken the first move. Wordlessly, he sets two cards face down in the Spell/Trap Zone. And, one monster is placed at the ready, in Attack Mode. The Maiden with Eyes of Blue. His battle strategy is set. But, he perks up a little. While this isn't the sort of event he intended... Well.      "...Mm. This is a bit of a game of sorts, isn't it? Whoever slaughters the most turkeys, wins." 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' "This looks like it's going to be fun. So what's the usual count on these things?" Raquna speaks up, sounding somewhat tense despite trying to appear as anything but. She hasn't fought any sort of foe that's used breath-based attacks before, but she's heard enough to know that it's not going to be pretty without the right preparation. That's why she's decked out in her finest combat gear today: Heavy weathered armor with a gas mask obtained from one of the more paranoid townsfolk, a matching tower shield quite literally as tall as her, a long sword sheathed at her side, and...      A handgun? Yes, a gun! It's called the Great Gale Turkey /Shoot/, after all! Taking a deep breath (partially because of the gas mask), the redhead keeps her hand near her firearm as she turns towards her allies of the day. "Well, if it gets rough? Stick behind me. I might not be the best shot, but I'll keep all of you covered." 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Well other than the heavy machinery present this is the sort of location Athela could actually feel familiar with. But there is no time for sightseeing now, they're here to make sure there will be something left to see later. And live in. And so forth. Make sure there is something left in general.     Though if the locals are that heavily armed and still asking for help, that leaves one to wonder just what they will be up against. But that shall not daunt the brave knight set out to prove herself to the world, and despite a bit of mental perplexity over what she's gotten herself into she strides up to the gathering with all the self-confidence one would expect of a people's hero, with her entourage of pokemon following close behind. "I hath heard there was to be an issue with fowl quite foul to be dealt with?"     The most humanish of her pokemon slaps a hand to his face at her terrible bird pun. 

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     No one's quite sure when or how she got here. She sticks out like a sore thumb. People are probably wondering if the woman is daft for being out here in that incredibly fancy outfit rather than something solid and sturdy.     The sleek, Multiversal-tech gas mask and high-power automatic rifle only make her stick out all the more.     But, yes, there is a woman here in a fancy longtail tuxedo. She's hung the coat up on a tractor for the moment, and is currently giving her weapon a last-minute check before the action starts, with a precision of touch and smoothness that imply years of experience and intimate familiarity with the rifle. She seems either completely oblivious to, or uncaring of, the stares being sent her way.     Sharp eyes, however, might catch occasional glances in the direction of others present; Will especially, but Kaiba, Raquna and Athela are given quick look-overs as well. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     While her armor's seen better days, it's back to functionality for the most part. Maaka's also glad her hand's been repaired as well. Flexing her left arm, Maaka's helmet folds into place Iron Man style, before she hops up from the truck she's sitting on.     She totes a shotgun, a ten gauge Imperium navy issue combat pattern weapon loaded with rifled slugs for this mission. Normally she'd be using a 3" 12 gauge slug, but these turkeys are bad enough for her to go the extra mile in killing them.     Her head glances to Raquina, Athela, Kaiba, and also Emily with some familiarity for the Ontario noble, but otherwise unsure of the others. "Folks. Nice rifle, lady." She greets, noting the butler in particular as she hops to the ground. 

:'''{{#var:673|Rory White (673)}} has posed:''' "Could turkeys really cause THIS LARGE of a dust storm?!" Rory speaks in amazement from not far from Will. Her Flexbot's adopted a feline shape with a humanoid face. A shape Will might think familiar. And since Rory's seen to use it twice, she might be taking a liking to it. Her silvery-grey Flexbot can take any shape, but some shapes are more generally advantageous than others.     Apparently, mimicking nature has its benefits. The feline shape has excellent mobility and isn't too uncanny valley.     So this configuration she's saved, and named Sphinx. Since it's a feline configuration with a human-like head and blue fur for a mane (as her hair is normally blue in her human shape).     The feline's shoulders are hardpoints for weapons though. Double barrels sprout from both front shoulders. And these look like they're actually suited for firing bullets. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa hac once more come to William Pauvvel's world and she hoped that there would never again be anything like the coral from her first trup there. She still had nightmares about it at time,s but here she was clad in her stealth gear with a rifle slung ove her back and she seemd to be in good enough spirits well given how things looked? It didn't last too long as she saw what seemed ot be a warzone here. She seems concerned nowa s she moved in to just check out just what was going on here. <<Good to see your fixed up Alexis.>> KOtone noted as she also fell in with Rory as well. "I have no idea Rory, I really don't but maybe I should have brought a shotgun today..." 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     "Hey, Irvine?"     "How can I help Molly?"     Yes, on this day, the sleepy town of Gale has been blessed by a visit from the Starlight Bandits! After all, they can't say 'no' to a request from William, their number 1 fan! Unlike most here, instead of gasmasks, they've gone for a more kitbashed approach. Wrapped around their mouths are bandannas soaked in traditional counteragents to the foul breath of the turkey. Perhaps it is their overconfidence that demands such an easily foiled countermeasure?     Or is it just because it makes them look more like bandits?     "Turkeys have breath so bad it hurts you, right? How do they do that?"     "Hmhmhmhm... it's really quite elementary, my dear. You know when you're so angry and hateful, it burns in your gut?"     "Hmmm... nope!"     "Hahaha! That is because you are a kind, peaceable sort."     She certainly doesn't LOOK peaceable, as she loads up several revolver speed-loaders with heavy rounds before slipping them into a pocket on her dress. Irvine meanwhile is preparing several clips for that curious gunblade of his and hanging them from his belt.     "Anyway! Turkeys are so angry and hate-filled, it boils up in their stomach as poison, which they then breath out! You see?"     "Ooooo... but won't that make them dangerous to eat?"     "Not at all! You see, there is peace in death, a peace that counteracts their hate and nullifies the poison!"     "Wow, that's so incredible~!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Howdy there, y'all," Will says as friends, acquaintences, SUPER COOL BANDIT BUDDIES and total strangers all file in. Some of Gale's residents give several of the multiversals curious looks. Nothing... unfriendly; though it's hard to tell underneath the masks. Rory, especially, gets particularly odd looks. The only robots these people have met are ones that want to kill them. Well, except for the town's new sheriff, who is apparently missing right now. Huh, strange.     "S' like Irvine says, though. Their breath is all kinds of bad news; turns flesh to bone! Don't stand in the stuff for too long. We've got some reserves held back iff'n things get to wild, but hopefully this year won't be too heavy!" It's an innocent hope; that, maybe, they won't be... too badly tested this season. Unfortunately, Will's dreams seem to exist to be dashed.     Because, in the distance, that cloud is beginning to take shape. It's not actually a dust cloud; the land is far too damp and fertile to kick up that much dust. It's also not... dull gray. The true source of that cloud becomes clear as they rampage into range. Avian shadows, ranging from being approximately the size of some small buildings to standing taller than a house. Will squints into the distance and frowns, massive beaks breaking from the cloud, greyish fumes wafting from hundreds of gobbling, befanged mouths. Hateful black eyes stare out from the haze, punctuating the terrible, heart-shaking, subsonic gobble that seems to echo off the earth itself. They glower around great, spiked, waddles that smash into grey, plate-like feathers, shedding grey ash that quickly recovers, accumulating out of the roiling cloud.     "They're here, y'all!" Will yells, kicking up his stand. The Mistral's engine roars as he revs guns the gas. A full chorus of machine sounds echoes out from all around them as slugs and beams start streaking toward the monstrous horde, sailing out around a fleet of tank-like vehicles. "It's time! Go, go, go!" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     As the cloud gets bigger, the ground starting to tremble at the approach, so too do the Bandits begin to tremble with anticipation. They form up at the very frontline, Molly producing a hatchet and attaching it to her revolver to serve as a stock. Irvine meanwhile tilts his gunblade 45 degrees, using the corner of the pistol hilt to line up his shots.     "Irvine... it would be really cool if we ran in and beat them up-close!"     "Hahaha! That would be quite cool indeed. But! Let's let them come to us first, shall we?     "Hehehe~ Okay!"     And so, they too begin to fire! Irvine fires his pistol quite willy-nilly, aiming at the legs of the horde, trying to collapse some so that others may trip over their forms! Molly meanwhile, is much more careful with each shot, aiming to pick off the larger birds with headshots. But with that hatchet stock, her aim is quite precise whenever she decides to squeeze off a round! 

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     Without even looking up from some last-second scope adjustments, the lady butler repeats Will's advice in a crisp, picture-perfect received pronunciation. "Vicious creatures. Dangerous breath that turns flesh to bone, don't breathe it or make contact with it if we can help it. We're meant to drive them off, not slaughter the lot." Her tone of voice makes her response clear: 'heard and understood'. So, apparently satisfied that she'll be able to use her weapon even through the gas mask, the blonde stands up properly, and then turns to swing herself up onto a vehicle, taking up a practiced shooter's posture.     The weapon is currently switched to semi-auto, but at these ranges just spraying bullets would be a waste. She'd much rather carefully line up a shot and squeeze the trigger. One, then another, taking her time to make slow and accurate shots while she still has the advantage of range. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' The description of the beasts' abilities just makes Athela grimace in an all the more pronounced fashion. "A manner of paralysis, then?" That's the best she can make of the bonefication breath even if it's likely not all that accurate. All the same, it's enough information for her to try and work with to start. "Stay close, Sprite. Your ability to remove status ailments may come of use." The small eevee bobs her head as if nodding."     "Mizzen, stay here, help keep those barriers up. Pound anything that gets away from the flock and tries to bypass them." The Timburr salutes with the hand not holding his log-club and scampers off to do just that. Goomy is already on her shoulder, so Athela restraddles the back of her 'mount' -- the giant armor-bearing sealion like creature known as a Samurott -- and nudges him to follow charge towards the encroaching dust enshrouded horde. She rides that thing on dry land?.. Actually it's not as hard as you might think, as the farmland is mostly smooth and certainly damp enough he needs only enough of the moisture against the smooth surface of his armored underside to hydroplane over it, while Eevee runs along next to them.     They're not quite as fast as some of the charging vehicles, but that's not long before they're closing within range all the same. Athela draws her sword and points the magic weapon ahead of her. "Push them back! Begone with these unsavory beasts!" Lancer opens his maw with a roar, whiskers flaring back to be clear from the torrental gout of water that streams from his mouth with Hydro Pump. The powerful pressure of the aquatic attack will hopefully help with knocking back any of the turkeys from hell it hits. 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      Kaiba stares forward blankly, looking towards the large mass of turkeys. He had heard they were dangerous. He had heard it was a threat. But this? Well. It's a little bit outside of what he was exactly expecting. Still, he maintains his usual poker face. Even if it is hidden behind his gas mask.      He draws a card, calmly. He asked over the radio if anyone might be willing to attack his Maiden with Eyes of Blue for him. But, Kaiba doesn't expect any of them too. Instead, he shouts out orders. "Maiden with Eyes of Blue! Move into position in front of the horde of turkeys!" The female monster, for who all purposes looks like a normal human, moves further ahead. Really, it's only a matter of time until she is struck by one of the turkeys. This is, of course, Kaiba's strategy. If she falls? His strongest monster can be summoned forth.      For, for now, a direct strategy is needed as well. A card is placed down, face up, in attack mode. A large burly man appears, a muscular figure wearing black armor with green trim. A fierce metal helpet is on his head, and in his hands, he holds a metal axe.      "Vorse Raider! Slash apart the turkeys with your axe!"      And wtih that, the axe-wielding monster rushes forward, trying to slash towards a group of turkeys with his blade. 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' So many interesting people again. If nothing else, Raquna certainly isn't in weak company! Probably. Her companions certainly look strong, at least, and most (if not all) of them are significantly more armed than she is.      In Alexis' case, probably even in the literal sense.      "Very foul fowl, yah. We'll be fine, though, as long as we don't spread out too far." Raquna gives Athela a firm nod before looking around again, noticing Emily's interesting choice of combat attire and Alexis' shotgun and raising an eyebrow at the latter. "Nice weapon. Think we'll need something that big for..."      She pauses. No, it's probably better not to underestimate what they're up against. /Especially/ not if support from the Multiverse has been brought in to deal with it. And... Flesh-melting breath? "These masks might not be enough if that's the case, eh? "      The redheaded Protector doesn't have much time to worry about that issue, though, as the dust clouds rise and the crazed gobbling grows louder. It's time to make her own move. Slamming the bottom of her shield against the ground, Raquna drags it along the ground and advances while thrusting it forward, casting a protective spell on the vanguard to augment their defenses against the gassy waddling menace! Afterwards, she takes some potshots at the turkeys, trying to draw their attention her way. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Someone sure knows their shit." Maaka muses, watching Emily work from the vehicle as the turkeys begin to attack en masse. Cocking her shotgun with a satisfying pump, Maaka shoulders the heavy duty scattergun while she takes a look at the turkeys. "Holy shit, that's a lot more than I expected..." She mutters, then synchs with Kotone and Rory's tacnet.     [Thank Rory, she's the one that helped patch me up while I recovered. The arm was the hard part, considering how fast Zwei fixed my suit.] She messages them, before hopping aboard WIlliam's vehicle to ride into battle. It'd be ridiculous engaging the turkeys with a shotgun at this distance, may as well rush them back. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa hooks up with Rory and Maaka in short order she seems to not evne think too much about doing it. Quite a change from the timid little thing she was a few years ago when she first stepped out of the warp gate. She readis her weapon a she's got to worry about Turkies and here they come. She hears the warning and she breaks into a bit of a rapid run as she makes to close with the strange burd things. She just kinda stares at this. "This is kharman for North America's love of eating these things... isn't it?" Kotone Is already opening fire on the things but damn there's so manyt of them and she was not expecting something like this. She is doing controlled shots in small burst mode rather than full on Auto. <<the Multiverse, seriously what the hell!>> Three Years and it still makes her go what the hell about things... 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''                            --==MISSION START==--                                           Victory Condition: Survive the Turkey Migration                        Loss Condition: All units destroyed or Turkeys reach Gale.                                  Mastery Condition: ???????                             Lead slugs and glowing bolts of energy slam into the advancing horde. The beasts at the very front of the horde absorb the storm of projectiles into their armored plumage, slates of bone-like plates sloughing away in cascades of dust and ash. The Bandits' shots, along with many of the others, largely end up absorbed by that armor, but Molly's aimed rounds find purchase in one of the beast's eyes. It squawks wrathfully, blood spraying from its shattered eye before Irvine's own shot fully topples the unbalanced bird, leading it to be... viciously trampled by its brethren.     Emily's bullets and Kotone's aimed shots pound into the next bird to leap over the fallen turkey, joining other rounds in shattering its armor. Another set of shots from Elites and townsfolk alike bring it down, too, and eliminate a handful more turkeys mid-charge.     The horde begins to turn away from the punishing hail of firepower, helped along significantly by the enormous jet of water that knocks over a half-dozen chargers at once, resulting in a twenty-bird pileup... Just in time for the cavalry to smash into their flank. Will opens fire himself, enormous slugs of plasma ionizing the air and burning away layers of armored plumage for Alexis' shotgun slugs to take advantage of. Seto's rider actually charges into melee with the great birds... unwisely, most of the veterans would say. Its axe does decapitate one bird, but it isn't long before the terrible crush of razor-sharp talons and heavily armored avians render it into so much roadkill. The Blue-Eyes Maiden wanders pointedly right into their path, next. To Kaiba's likely delight, she, too, is flattened into Blue-Eyes Pancake.     The Turkeys are upon the others, next. Will turns away as several exhale great clouds of dark-grey fumes across the cavalry. Many of the townsfolk yell warnings, swiveling away from the clouds; though as they emerge from the fumes, several seem to be... covered in more of that weird bone-stuff. Many are shivering like they've suddenly fallen ill. Will's tucked his head down, as if trying to hide from the fumes.     The gunnery team is better off- but not by much. The turkeys fan their tailfeathers-- which suddenly launch like a manticore's spines. Biological quill-missiles sail through the air and smash into the fortifications. Several of the townsfolk appear to be skewered... before some kind of MAGICAL POWER shields them from the projectiles. The bolts knock them back with pure kinetic force rather than impaling them bodily, thanks Raquna! The missiles keep on pounding down, though, and many of the elites are right in the line of fire! 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      The Vorse Raider is slaughtered by the turkey, falling in their paths. Trampled by the countless turkeys. But. One of the beasts fell. One of the creatures is dead. Sure, a number of them were killed by others. But, Kaiba's cards are all falling /exactly/ into place. Especially as his Maiden wtih the Eyes of Blue is trampled as well.      "You turkeys have activated her ability! Now... I can summon forth the BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON! And, in additon to this... I activate a trap card! BOTTOMLESS TRAP HOLE!"      Right near where the Vorse Raider fell, near the turkey that killed it? A massive hole opens up, the earth cracking suddenly. It's large enough that, hopefully, at least one turkey might fall into it. After which? The earth seals back around it. Near Kaiba himself, the Blue-Eyes appears. The massive, powerful dragon.      "AND. MY turn!" Kaiba draws a card. A smirk. Another perfect draw. Though he doesn't believe in the heart of the cards? He believes in his skill at constructing a deck.      "I play the BURST STREAM OF DESTRUCTION! BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON! ATTACK!"      Kaiba plays a card. It's effect, in game, is to destroy all monsters on the opponent's side of the field. Against this many foes? Unlikely. But, either way, the Blue-Eyes attacks. Its mouth opens up, and a hot burst of plasma flies towards a large group of the birds. It is an /intensely/ powerful attack.      "And... to end my turn... I play... MONSTER REBORN!" He flips up a spell card on his Duel Disk. Suddenly, near the Turkey that was cut down by the axe? There is mystical-looking things surrounding it. It is, in fact, just part of the hologram. The hologram is merging with the Turkey's body, to act out the card's effect. Revive a monster, from either graveyard, under the control of whomever casted Monster Reborn.      Kaiba stands there egotistically, with the stance of a man who is playing God. 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' "People actually eat these... These?!" The Multiverse is so weird. Shaking her head briefly, Raquna steadies her hold on the shield as the wave of feathers comes flying towards her and the other gunners. "Brace yourselves!" She calls out before brining up that shield, grunting a bit from the heavy impact and standing tall after the initial surprise wears off.      "Crazy things even have that sort of attack... Keep your eyes open, everyone. I'll try and draw their fire!" Her gun doesn't seem to be nearly as effective as her allies', anyway, so why not try and focus her efforts on doing what she does best?      Okay, maybe there's plenty of reasons. Like, say, not getting turned into a boney mess or getting pecked to death. Staying ssafe(ish) in the back lines isn't really Raquna's style, though, and she charges forward while firing off her gun wildly at the turkeys. "Come on, you stupid birds! I've fought venomflies tougher than you!" Her aim might not be the best, but she is being incredibly loud and shouty as she does it. She stops after running out a fair distance, however, then starts banging an armored gauntlet into her shield to create EVEN MORE NOISE.      She does feel just a little silly trying to shit-talk some weird birds, though. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka doesn't wait long to take the shot. She leans out of the vehicle with her shotgun, firing multiple times while slam-firing the weapon at a rapid rate. There's no use for fancy shooting, all that matters is taking these things down as quick as possible. Thanks to her suit's seals, she's able to survive the gas, but it's definitely making it tricky for her to aim before the shotgun runs dry.     In the corner of her eye, she can see Kaiba summoning monsters with what looks like trading cards. "THe /fuck?!/" Guess the Multiverse takes all kinds, the cyborg supposes. "Is that really a good idea for him to do?" SHe asks William as she slides back into the car, loading some fresh slugs into the shotgun, first round going in the breach and the next in the tube after she racks the pump.     "Back into battery, engaging!" She calls out, leaning where she can aim and shoot freely as she pokes out the window and fires at another turkey. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka doesn't wait long to take the shot. She leans out while on Will's bike with her shotgun, firing multiple times while slam-firing the weapon at a rapid rate. There's no use for fancy shooting, all that matters is taking these things down as quick as possible. Thanks to her suit's seals, she's able to survive the gas, but it's definitely making it tricky for her to aim before the shotgun runs dry.     In the corner of her eye, she can see Kaiba summoning monsters with what looks like trading cards. "THe /fuck?!/" Guess the Multiverse takes all kinds, the cyborg supposes. "Is that really a good idea for him to do?" SHe asks William as she lowers her weapon while they ride, loading some fresh slugs into the shotgun, first round going in the breach and the next in the tube after she racks the pump.     "Back into battery, engaging!" She calls out, leaning where she can aim and shoot freely, then fires at another turkey. 

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     Every time Emily squeezes off a shot, she pauses for a second or so to see what effect it's had, if any. After a few, she's got a reasonable idea: those armored plates are deflecting her shots. It's unsurprising. She'd started with hollow-point rounds for more effectiveness against soft targets. But these aren't really soft targets, are they? Before she can move to correct the situation, the bristling turkey tails become dangerous hails of sharp projectiles. The butler immediately ducks herself into cover on the vehicle she's riding. "Well, that was rather unexpected. I'd hoped they'd be rather easier to kill than this. Ah well, no point wasting any more ammunition."     With swift movements, the woman ejects her current magazine and clears the chamber, then drops it into one of her coat's pockets. She then reaches around to the other, and pulls out a different magazine; this, she shoves in and chambers around, before popping back out. "I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out, I only brought one... well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose."     This time, when Emily pulls the trigger, the bullet fired isn't going to just glance off. It's an armor-piercing round. For a soft target, it'd punch right through, which might be an issue. But for targets like this, well.     Her shots are now being aimed at the turkeys spitting out all that ossifying vapor. She's sure the people on the front lines will be glad to have cover fire involving AP rounds. For the moment, with Raquna's protection, she can afford to focus on them instead. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:'''     The idea was to break some away from the swarm so they'd be easier for the locals to get their feasting birds without facing the entire flock to do so, and the pileup caused by the pressurized water spray seems to do that nicely enough. Athela holds onto the neck armor of her ride as she leans to the side and Lancer does the same, avoiding a plume of fossilizing fumes that billows in their direction from those collapses in the pile.     The fanning of tailfeathers is at least a signal Athela recognizes in a relative sense. It reminds her of the way Skarmory spread out their wings before unleashing their metallic primaries to attack. "Break and flank!" Eevee runs in one direction while Athela and her mount veer in the other, getting on different sides of a demonic turkey. Sprite forms what appears to be tiny stars around her small form, sending them zinging towards the turkey. They're almost impossible to dodge, homing in on the target, but not going to do a lot of harm to the metallic plumage. But that's okay, it's mostly a diversion. A diversion as Athela and her Samurott come around from the opposite side. "You shall make a fine feast for these fearless fending off your fiendish foray!" Athela keeps up the alterative speech even as swings her sword to knock aside the turkey's wing, so her Samurott can lunge in and try to drive the blade-like 'horn' on his helmet deep into the monster's side!     Back at the barricades, dozens of metallic feathers dig into them like bizarre avian missiles. But this is why Athela left her Timburr behind. First he uses Bulk Up to boost his strength and endurance even farther, then slams his log-club up against the barrier to help keep it up, so people can continue to use it for cover. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Ping ping ping goes the bullets against the bony armour of the turkeys. Sure, they bring down one together, but that's just one! Not at all up to their usual self-perceived standards. "Irviiiiiine, they have armour! It's not fair!" Molly pouts. "I know Molly. Remember! Such armour is thinner around points of articulation! Knees, necks..." That's... actually a good point, coming from Irvine.     But now, bladed quills are being launched! In a blink, Irvine is standing before them, raising his Playing Mantis confidently. "Behind me everyone! BEHOLD! The invincible blade work of Irvine Lune!" And with that, he begins twirling and swinging the kukri, incorporating old-west twirling with the trigger guard and defensive swordsmanship to cut the feathers from the air! Some of them slip through and nick him, but most are slashed away, or into the ground!     Molly meanwhile, is unloading her revolver and taking a speed-loader from her pocket, this one a bright orange to differentiate it. "Hehehe~ Let's see that armour hold up to this!" The revolver is loaded, the rounds fired! These ones are packed with extra powder and even a dose of glycerine, for extra power! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' This is the strangest turkey shoot ever, given how dangerous the Turkeys are to everyone. She just cloaksnow, hopefully the dangeorus birst may bemore likely to miss her, when she does this she starts moving again trying to cut down as many of the orde as she can, but ther's so many of them it may need her to use explosives to thin the horde out even as the others do their attacks but they keep coming she'll try to get away from her allies and start putting XCOM plasma grenades to work. <<GRenade out!>> Those who know the weapons would hear the tell tale beep of them arming before they explod and then Kotone would fire several longer burst to keep the birds distracted from the big booms that are fcomming. <<This ... world how do turkeie even get like this?!?>> 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Things are actually going quite well, in full honesty. Will has seen his share of Turkey Shoots, and this one's definitely got more firepower than any other in recent memory. Maaka's shotgun takes down another turkey as she pumps munitions like water into its flank. Armor piercing rounds smash into one turkey, shattering its armor and penetrating its flesh in one fell swoop; the creature squawks and falters, tumbling into a squriming, agonizing pile.     What quills pour in are intercepted further by Raquna's barrier and her Timburr's work in securing that protective shield. The bolts that get through- and there are still many- are... intercepted! "Dang, look at that one!" A voice goes up as a swift kukri cuts a feather away! "Never thought we'd be cheerin' on bandits again! Not since the old man ret-" "Hush! We don't talk about that anymore, you know that!" "Aw, but Paulie--" "No buts!" Well, that was odd.     Projectile stars smash into one of the beasts, causing it to buck right into Athela's charge, skewering its side and ending the life of yet another turkey. A grenade blossomes into a tremendous explosion, blasting away several in a plume of plasma. It seems like things are going really well today! Really... Too well. But... Then--     There are many things that the citizens of this idyllic town have seen in their day, but an ACTUAL DRAGON is not one of those things. Many of the guns go quiet as Seto's summon reaches completion, disgorging the great Blue-Eyes White Dragon into the world. The rampaging turkey horde is suddenly faced with its greatest challenge yet as a wave of destruction eradicates dozens at once, a number that dwarfs the mere two or three that fall into Kaiba's hole. And then he goes and brings one *back to life.* And that's about when the air seems to... change. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     It's a grim breeze. A turning of the wind. The turkey rises from the dead, its eyes glowing with unnatural light. The creature raises its voice in a terrible, warbling squawk and turkey turns against turkey. Which is about when *something* erupts from the midst of the great, roiling fumecloud. The sun is abruptly eclipsed by an enormous shadow. A pair of gnarled, ancient talons grip the traitor's skull in their terrible grasp. The whole thing collapses in a wash of blood and bone as something... gargantuan makes landfall.     It stands, a beast the size of the great mound at the very center of the town of Gale. The beast is covered in plates of ossified feathers, growing out from its body like rings from a tree. Each molt added to the last, building and building and building until the resulting beast is more a dragon in its own right than a mere *bird.* Its talons sink deep into the earth, and yet they only halfway disappear beneath the ground. Great wings spread at either side as it extends its neck and issues forth a great, wrathful, mournful, VENGEFUL gobble. This... This can only be...!                     --==THE EXTINCTION OF THE PLAINS==--                                                 ATLANTOW THE TURKING                                 The Turking turns towards the Blue Eyes, its hooked beak parts, and an enormous wave of jet black gas explodes from deep within. The thing's beak snaps shut, the very tip strikes top against bottom, shedding a spark that transforms the ossifying wave into a great cataclysm of poison and fire.                                MISSION UPDATE                                              MASTERY CONDITION: DEFEAT ATLANTOW THE TURKING               

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     Emily picks her shots, one after another. When Maaka needs to reload, she aims for the turkeys that most directly threaten the cyborg; when Raquna tugs their attention, the butler takes a chance to pick them off neatly. Only one thing brings her pause, and that's when Kaiba brings one back to life. There is a brief grimace on her face, but she pushes it down for just a moment (with plans to bring it up later). All of that goes out the window, however, when their steady thinning of the turkey herd, including that reanimated bird and a /dragon/, draws up a response that can only be called 'Gobblezilla'.     Well. She certainly didn't bring the ordnance to deal with /that/.     Certainly, she has a weapon that would work, but... well, no, not yet. Not here. For the time being, she can stick to a support role. There's still plenty of regular-sized turkeys. Those, she can still shoot. And she can prioritize any of them that threaten friendlies. She's still got about half her magazine of AP rounds left. After that, she'll just have to play it by ear. 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' Of course there had to be a gigantic one. It could never be /that/ easy, right? Raquna goes mildly wide-eyed as the turcloud seems to be getting even BIGGER than before, and the monstrous bird shows up to join the fray! Both fear and excitement mix together as the Protector lets out a quiet noise at the sheer size of the thing, an odd sort of grin forming on her face.      "... Oh. That's a huge one, alright." Now's her time to shine! Probably. Well, it's not like she can shine just shooting it. "... You know what? Forget the gun. I'm going in!" Holstering her gun, Raquna draws her sword next and presses the blade against her shield, the defensive implement glowing with power as she projects a damage-absorbing aura towards those closest to the Turking.      "I've got your backs, everyone. And front, too. Let's take it down!" The explorer lets out a confident shout before charging straight for the Turking, moving into do things the old fashioned way and hacking away with the sword and board! 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      Kaiba looks up. For a moment, he takes the gas mask off, so that he can look at the creature directly. Sure, there is a bit of a risk in this. But. A creature such as this? It is something he has to see with his eyes unshielded. His face looks stoic for a second, emotionless.      Before the sides of his lips curves up into a smirk.      "BLUE-EYES! Defense mode! Hold out. Time for the /real/ battle."      Kaiba draws a card, while his dragon takes on a more defensive position. Kaiba doesn't want his monster destroyed. The Blue-Eyes attempts to tank the poison and flames. It looks in pain. It looks suffering. But, it is at least /surviving/, somehow.      But. Kaiba looks at his card. A smile. He plays it immediately.      "I cast Pot of Greed! This allows me to immediately draw two cards from my deck!" Two cards are pulled. Two more Blue-Eyes. If he can pull Polymerize? The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon will be unleashed.      He just has to pray that his Blue-Eyes can hold up to the continued attack. If it gets slaughtered...? He'd be left with no monsters, and no defenses. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:'''     Even dead the turkey is a pain in the ass, as after dragging it back out of the way of the fighting Lancer can't quite shake the carcass off his horn. Eventually he has to put it on the ground, press it down with his forelimbs and yank, which still takes several tries to get the prongs on his horn-lance past the heavy feathers.     In the meantime Athela slides off his back intending to continue the fight on foot while he recoups, only to step back and stare with some mixture of awe and disgust at the monsterousity that descends into the fight, shredding the reanimated lesser turkey like it was made of wet rotting parchment. At her heels Eevee crouchs, fluff bristling out and ears slanted back in an expression that's is suppose to be distressed, but being what she is still manages to appear cute. "By Xernea's prismatic antlers..." Then as the moment passes Athela clenches her fingers, retightening the grip on her weapon as much as she is reaffirming herself to the task before them. "Do not lose faith! The creature may be large and powerful, but we are the many and the brave!" Then lowers her voice to aside to her pokemon a moment. "Slurry, I need thy rain, quickly." The slug-like blob blurbles a reply, and starts to wiggle around on her shoulder. It looks more like the jiggling of a jello mold than any sort of 'dance', but a Rain Dance is exactly what it is, the Pokemon's supernatural powers forming a light drizzle over Athela. It's enough to allow her to draw more of the moisture to her own water manipulation abilities and empower them.     "Remember why we are here mine allies! Remember what be it we fight for this night!" By this point the gathering aquatic energy is visibly swirling around her as Athela puts her Tide Caller ability to use. "Strength of the tides, drag down this beast before us!" Athela turns her body to give a dramatic sweep of her arm to thrust it out towards the Turking, releasing the aquaphilic force she'd been gathering. As it rushes away from her it churns into itself, taking the form of a large vortex, hurtling towards the monsterous bird like a watery cyclone. Or more accurately, what happens when she uses her abilities to project a Whirlpool across the land instead of the sea. The Turking is too big for her to trap completely, but the vortex of water will continue to batter away at it until it spins itself out. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' The Turkies are still charning at them, even with all the fire power they are letting lose? It doesn't sem to be enough and now something worse is cming though them. she pauses as one Turkey rises from the carnage. She stops for a moment staring at it not sure what to think. She may reconsider eating Turkey ever again should she surive this. The Turking has commeth and now they have to defeat it. <<...This is one of those days.>> she notes over the comms she's also keeping tyrack of some of the newer faces here, well to her she has to wonder about this place even more, she sprints now dropping her cameo. She attempt to leap on the thing'sback and start shooting directly into it if she's able to! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The Turking is faced with perhaps more resistance than it is used to. Moments after the initial shock of that monster's appearance has worn off, the citizens of Gale open fire. Heavy weapons across the ramparts and mounted to the many vehicles begin bombarding the enormous beast. Heavy grey plates of mottled feathers crash to the ground around the Turking, staggering nearby, stampeding birds. Their rampage seems to have been renewed with the presence of their king, and the turkeys surge at its flanks, barreling forward into the collected defenders.     But they're not just standing still, either. One turkey after another is knocked to its knees as armor-piercing rounds continue to cut through their numbers. The colossal turking's own charge is arrested by the bravery of one of Etria's explorers, her power protecting the people trying to push the great beast back, and her sword hacks away at its enormous legs. Another Elite leaps onto its ossified feathers, and begins opening fire into the behemoth from point blank range.     But the Turking has its sights set on the Blue Eyes. The creature presses forward, hammering at the dragon with its massive beak. It tears and rips at the dragon's wings, head and neck, as if sensing, perhaps, the power Seto threatened to unleash. The other turkeys unleash their fury on the rest of the Elites. Now, in such close proximity, they are able to unleash a concerted wave of ossifying gas at the defenders!     But then the weather turns-- rain pours from the sky, the sudden moisture seeming to dampen the clouds of gas, turning them into ash-grey rivers. The Turking glances up too late to avoid being caught up in a whirlpool. It gobbles furiously, battered by that funnel of water, but it seems able to still power through. The Turking takes one step, then another-- And then something explodes near its head.     Near the gate, there's a... It looks like an honest-to-God humvee, except armored entirely in jet, black plates. Huge gatling guns are mounted to swiveling hardpoints on its rooftop. There, an older woman with obviously greying hair manhandles what appears to be a turret-mounted rocket launcher. "Will, y'all need to drive me closer! I missed its eye by a mile!"     "Relax Jane. This is these young folks' fight. We're just here t' provide some covering fire." A man says from the driver's seat as he adjusts his little spectacle glasses. Behind the woman on the roof, a... strange, dome-shaped robot, with a very obvious cowboy hat, swivels around and begins peppering the King with bright red lasers. "Howdy pard-ners," it drawls robotically, "Targets acquired. Designation: Turk-ey. Y'all are in violation of the law. Judgment: Baste in butter, roast."     "Looks like the cavalry's here," Will mutters as he swerves, darting closer to the massive Turking. The Mistral's engine roars, Will pushes it /right/ for the gap between the Turking's feet. "Hey, Maaka! I'll get you as close as I can! Y'all'll need to handle the rest!" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Go!" Maaka claps William on the shoulder, grinning beneath her helmet. SHe fires the remaining slugs she has loaded at the Turking as they get in close, before she slings the shotgun and grabs her grappling wire. "I got an idea, just stay close and get ready to turn when I tell you."     Flinging her grapple at the ankle of the Turking, Maaka makes sure the line is taught before she taps Will's arm again. "Drive in circles around it, four or five passes ought to do it!" She says, holding on tight to the motorbike in preparation.     Hopefully the line remains strong enough to snag the Turking up, or they're going to be in trouble if this fails. 

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     Again and again, Emily picks the most dangerous targets she can. A turkey about to descend on someone here, a bird about to breathe on a townsperson there, cover provided for Maaka and Will, and for that matter anyone else with birds edging a little too close. But she's only got so many rounds left, so even taking it a shot at a time, she's going to run out. Just about the point she goes dry...     "My /goodness/. That is quite the armament they've got back there."     The butler ejects her empty magazine, drops it in her coat's pocket, takes up the coat itself, and with a cheerful, "I'll be taking my leave now. I did quite appreciate the ride, of course," she hops off the side of the improvised armored vehicle.     The next anyone sees of her, she's climbing up onto Jane and Will's humvee, now /wearing/ her coat. And still carrying the assault rifle. "Rather busy today, isn't it? Do you terribly mind if I help man these wonderful heavy weapons of yours?" 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is attacked. Kaiba's eyes go wide. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is ripped into. The beak tears into the wings, and then rips off the head and neck. The flesh gives a bit of a digital effect as ripped, before it bursts into sparks of data. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon is defeated.      Kaiba stands there. He reaches for his deck, pulling out a card. Polymerize. He stares at it blankly.      He stands still. There is absolutely /nothing/ he can do. The monsters in his hand? The levels are too high to summon without tributing. He can't Polymerize the Blue-Eyes White Dragon from the Graveyard, either. A frown.      He is forced to pass his turn. He stays back, eyes locked on the Turking. Rage filling him. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:'''     .... Oooooh, the summoned rain is making the ossifying fumes too heavy to stay in the air. Wish they had known that before, Athela would of ordered that Rain Dance at the beginning! Oh well. Probably still don't want to step in those likely toxic flows, who knows if they still posess the bone forming power.     Better late than never, as they say. Athela will work with it. Timburr is still helping hold the defense line. Athela takes Goomy off her shoulder, setting him on Samurott's back instead. "Stay here, keep the rain going so they can't kick up those fumes again. Lancer, make some ruts so the poisoned water flows -away- from the town." Not a hard task to do with his ironclad claws and fluke to cut the ground with. Athela turns, cloaking flaring briefly behind her with the motion. "With me, Sprite! I need your bolstering spirit." The little eevee nods and keeps on her heels as Athela starts running towards the fight trying to bring down the Turking. She yips and prances around the knightly woman's feet, giving her a temporary boost with Helping Hand.     Which is exactly what Athela wanted. As they close in she clenches the Resolute Blade in both hands and winds back. It allows her to unleash it into a swing that carries the momentum from her run into the motion of the sword. Aquatic force starts to churn around the ancient weapon, drawing on the same powers Athela used to make the whirlpool cyclone before. There's a little splash of water as the tip grazes the ground when Athela makes her swing first with a downward stroke. Only to erupt into a surging current as the Resolute Blade is swung upwards with the followthrough, rushing upwards with launching Athela into a powerful rising slash with her sword, its blade forged to cut through the hardiest of armors.     Contrary to what it's name might first suggestion, 'Waterfall' is not water coming down, it's the force needed to climb UP said waterfalls. Such which force is now being put into Athela's upward strike. 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' Slamming into the Turking, Raquna digs her feet in as she pushes back against the Turking, eternally grateful for the weight of her gear for once in trying to keep the giant gobbler from advancing too far! A small part of her does regret trying to take on a portion of the damage everyone else is sustaining, but at least it'll make for a good war story at the pub later!      Also because she's going to need so many drinks later. Stories go well with drinks, but enough of that. First things first: finishing off the big bird! "I wonder.. You think one'll be safe to eat when we're done here?"      She's certainly got spirit, at least. Raquna keeps stabbing and slashing at the Turking's legs, only able to spare a glance towards the humvee and Alexis. She tries to keep the Turking still as long as she can for that grapple to hopefully hit its mark, too!      "Careful with the aim up there! Gh... This one's really strong down here!" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Triumph! Atlantow throws its head back and unleashes a tremendous gobble! It resounds in the air and rattles men right down in their bones! The Blue Eyes dissolves before it, and with its great foe vanquished, it may turn its attention upon the others. But before it can advance to siege the gates, it'll need to get through Raquna who, despite her relatively diminuitive size, is proving to be inordinately hard to push past.     But rather than hanging back, some actually come to bring the fight to IT. The Turking gobbles furiously as Athela charges in, flapping its wings through the twisting whirlpool tide, but what remains of the maelstrom prevents it from adequately defending against her strike. The knight's blade cleaves deep into the king's armor with enough force to reverse a waterfall. A moment later, a great gout of blood erupts from between the ruined plates. The king squawks and shivers, its tailfeathers fanning out!     Just as with its lessers, the king's motion unleashes YET MORE QUILL MISSILES. They rain down upon the defenders like ballistae bolts! The king's fury distracts it from the boy on the motorcycle between its legs. Will grits his teeth as he weaves back and forth between the Turking's ankles at Maaka's direction. But... "I really hope y'all know what yer doin', Lex! Mistral's engine's good, but I'm not sure it'll be able to hogtie this thing!"     Meanwhile, that elderly woman peers over at Emily's question and gives her a tremendously matronly grin. "My, what a polite girl. Feel free to take whatever you need, dear. It'll all be on the house!" There are gunnery seats at each of the chain guns, and a whole bunch of other heavy weapons besides. Apparently they stuffed the town armory into this thing's boot.     "Hey, boy!" A rather... spectacularly large man rumbles at Kaiba shortly before shoving a hunting rifle into his hands. "Here! If y'all can't use yer fancy gear, you can at least shoot a gun!" 

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     "Quite obliged, ma'am, thank you very much."     Emily drops into cover briefly when a second barrage of quill missiles rains down. But she's soon back up, having laid the empty assault rifle at her feet. Instead, the butler slides into a gunner's seat, and with an experience and confidence that's probably little surprise by now, readies the minigun, spins it up, and opens fire.     Her main targets are still the smaller turkeys, of course, but with that much firepower available to her, giving a little to Atlantow is also an option now! And it's an option she takes. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone's on the thing's back but she's not having too much luck it looks like she's done some damage to the huge thing. She's actually done some damage but it's not enough and with the Blue Eyes? She leaps the hell awya from it to let Kaiba's chief summon do it's thing. Kotone makes a three point landing and is up again on her feet in short oder opening fire, and wishing she'd brought some sort of AP round but she'll have to wait for next time or the day Overclock chose to finally /wake up/. Who knows when that will happen however. She does have more grenade and she sends them flying at the creature. <<This is way too early for October! Maaka? Rory lets bring this turkey shoot to a close!>> 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka holds onto the line as Will makes pass after pass, keeping the line taught without letting them get all tangled up. It won't be much longer now before she runs out of cable but she has PLENTY of it around. It's also industrial strength, able to be used with cranes to lift heavy machinery with ease.     "C'mon...c'monnnnn..." She feels her grapple gun go click, and she claps Will's arm. "Alright, we're good, peel!" She releases the cable, and then wraps her arms around WIlliam's waist. No this isn't romantic, shut up.     It's not like she likes him. Baka. >:| 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      The hunting rifle is handed to Kaiba. He stares at the hunk of metal, looking at it. Something like this? He considers it useless. He believes in fighting with his own might. His own power. The power of his cards. The power of the Duel Disk, he built himself. He has some basic gun training. After all, laser tag is a game. But. It is not his thing. But, still... He holds the rifle in one hand. His other holds his cards. He draws, looking at it.      "...Perhaps there /is/ a use for this hunk of metal after all."      Kaiba holds the rifle under his arm, playing a card. The card is placed face up. Another monster appears. Another Maiden with Eyes of Blue. The beautiful white-haired woman stands there, blue eyes locked upon the Turking. This woman is, in many ways, a special part of Kaiba. He doesn't realize it, yet. He is simply aware of her connection to the Blue-Eyes, as a Card that can help Summon it. How can he possibly know what she was, so far in the past, when even he himself does not realize?      How could he realize this card represents what was once his true love?      He lifts the rifle towards the Maiden. Leveling it at her head. It's bending the rules of the game, /quite/ a bit. Pointing the gun at her head? He fires.      The Maiden with the Eyes of Blue lets out a cry. But, as she falls forward, the Dragon rises. It returns from the Graveyard. Pulled out. The Blue-Eyes White Dragon lives again.      "I PLAY THE SPELL CARD, POLYMERIZATION! Come to me... BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON!"      The two other Blue-Eyes appear on the field. They start to swirl together, merging. A creature appears in the air. A being, larger than the three dragons combined. Three heads are connected to its body. It lets out a massive roar.      "BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE DRAGON! ATTACK!"      And, so the creature obeys. Its wings start flapping. It's mouths open up. A trio of powerful beams blast out. It attacks not just the Turking. Instead, it attacks across the battlefield, trying to slaughter and destroy /everything/ in his path. Before, Kaiba simply wanted to win. Now? He wants revenge. To show /how/ great he is.      He tosses the gun aside, embarrased that he had to use such a thing. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:'''     With the proximity of her attack Athela can do little about the great gout of blood that spews forth from the gouge Resolute Blade puts through the Turking's steel feather hide and flesh. Even if not a direct attack it style gysers from the wound with enough force to send the knight sprawling to the ground with red stains all over. That is going to be a total terror to scrub off her armor later.     "Is anything about this beast NOT vile?!" she protests as she gets back to her feet. Just in time for another flinging of metallic quill missiles. Athela snarls as she quickly backpedals, using her sword to deflect several of the projectiles. A few still manage to zing past too close to comfort, leaving noticable slices in her armor. Her eevee has stopped running around to hide behind her from the wicked barrage of metal pinions.     But Athela catchs a glimps out of the corner of her eye at what Alexis and Will are doing, and that gives her an idea.     "Mizzen!" The Timburr pokes his head up from behind the barricades as he hears his name. "I hath an idea but I require your assistance!" The goblin-like pokemon grabs his log, vaults over the barricade and hustles in her direction. Athela deflects another bladed feather, then points at motorcycle antics. "Do like they are, but aim for the neck!"     It takes a moment for it to sink in, but Timburr's eyes widen a bit as realization sets it. He grabs his log by one end and shoves the other into the ground to anchor it firmly in place.     Then he unfurls the vines that were round about his arms, grabbing their lengths in his hands. He twirls them a few times at his side and then slings the long but durable strands of plant matter towards the Turking's neck.     Then once they wrap around Timburr yanks his ends around his post in the ground then pops it out of the ground. Only to give the log a kick with his foot to make it spin around, winding the vines as it does, so they tighten around the Turking's neck to ensure the grip.     Despite his small stature Timburr was tremendously strong, thanks to posessing Huge Power as one of his abilities and that earlier Bulk Up on top of it. Feet dig into the ground as he growls and pulls, trying to yank in the same direction as Alexis' efforts to trip the great beast and bring him down to the ground. 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' One last push. Just one more, and the bird is going down! Raquna can feel her body straining to keep up with her own demands of it, spurred on by the sight of blood that isn't just her own! The turking's sudden movement send her skidding back some before she brings up her shield up, readying one burst of protective magic to try and mitigate the attack from its tail feathers.      Or would that be the attack OF feathers? Either or, really. Whatever the case is, Raquna's attention is still partially divided between the primary target and her allies. The rattle of gunfire from Emily and Kotone has her on her toes just to make sure she doesn't stray too close to their line of fire, and when Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon returns to the battlefield... It actually gives Raquna an idea. She doesn't have enough energy to sustain protective magic for all of the Elites present at once, but maybe...      Maybe she can boost the dragon's durability, at least. Moving to a position with the Turking between herself and Kaiba's dragon, she raises her shield once more to coat in a more focused protective aura!      And then the redhead falls right over. At least she still has the shield on top of her to keep her relatively safe! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The raw power of KING GATLING is unleashed by Emily upon the Turkey legions! It turns out that this little old lady decided to stock the ammunition feed with /exploding rounds/ because each bullet that connects blossoms into a fireball, cutting right through the bird stampede. "You'll want to feather the trigger a bit, dear. Don't want the rounds cooking off on you!" What a nice old lady.     Atlantow is looking worse for wear as a huge green explosion blossoms right over its bleeding breast, Kotone's grenade cauterizing its largest wound. The King of the Turkeys screeches in indignant agony as vines sling around its bright red neck. It turns out that fighting types can, in fact, hit birds; or rather, they can lassoo them. Atlantow struggles mightily, and for a time, it seems like it'll be able to hold on-- And then Will darts out that final turn. "Y' got it! Hold on ti--" Oh god she's already holding on. Uhhh. Uhhhhhh. Does he... Does he do something? Uh. GUN IT!!     The Mistral's engine thunders as the motorcycle goes racing away. Suddenly, Atlantow's footing is pulled out from under it. With a great gobble, the creature topples, falling to the ground with a heavy, earthshaking impact. Which is when Kaiba does the... Frankly disturbing. The man who handed him that gun looks on aghast when Kaiba summons, and then KILLS what looks to be a beatiful woman. Which somehow brings a dragon back from the dead. Which then combines with two more dragons into an EVEN BIGGER DRAGON. "...." he ellipses as he stares at Seto 'COLD AS ICE' Kaiba. And then he says, "Boy, y'all ain't right in the head."     Not that he can argue with results. Atlantow is helpless before the supreme form of the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. It gobbles, exhausted, at the great dragon's feet as that terrible, pale light grows, brighter and brighter-- And then it seems to realize just what is at stake.     There's a final, triumphant squawk. Atlantow forces itself upright, pushing through the restraints binding it to the ground with a spray of blood as they cut into its body. The King of Turkeys spreads its wings wide as the Blue Eyes unleashes its final attack. That wave of cataclysmic light washes into the behemoth, its wings enfolding around the dragon's breath. The world goes white and sketchy. Atlantow gobbles one last time as its entire being becomes nothing but speedlines. But, when the light fades and the dust settles, the Turking's last stand was not for naught. Its subjects took the opportuity to flee, diverting their migration path around the town of Gale. Dozens of turkey carcasses litter the battlefield, and, right where Atlantow once stood... http://www.simplyrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/roast-turkey-640-old-dm.jpg 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' There's a long moment as the townsfolk of Gale stare at the form of what was once the Turking. And then a voice goes up, "DIBS ON THE DARK MEAT, Y'ALL." "DAMNIT PAULIE, THERE'S ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE." Moments later, an enormous head smashes into the ground mere meters from Gale's gate. Atlantow's, apparently. Now they get to stuff it and mount it somewhere! 

:'''{{#var:999|Emily Branford (999)}} has posed:'''     "Ah, of course, thank you," Emily replies, her smile growing more cheerful. "Goodness, but you have excellent taste in ammunition. I haven't had a chance to work with explosive rounds in ages." Entirely gratifying.     Needless to say, though, even she can't keep her face perfectly neutral when Kaiba does something absolutely frigid-hearted. That's... wow. That's cruel. But she only lets it show on her face for a second or two. One man's blatant cold-heartedness is much less important than killer turkeys. That's a problem she can solve easily, after all!     And to be fair, the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon puts on an impressive light show.     Profuse thanks are given to the lady of the ordnance, before the butler takes her rifle and hops back off. She's quick to get herself some turkey, and later on one or two people will probably say something to the effect of, 'Yeah, she asked me how to prepare the turkey, if there's any detoxifying that needs to be done, that kinda stuff.' But anyone who actually goes looking for her will probably find that she's simply gone.     Can't be late with dinner, after all. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:'''     It's down! It's dow... Aaaaw shit it's getting back up again! Athela grabs onto Timburr to help pull, and keep him from getting yanked in by the Turking thrashing back to his feet. It's a few moments of tug-of-war, up until the hellacious blast from the revived and upgraded dragon sheers through the vine noose, sending Timburr and Athela tumbling backwards from the loss of tension recoiling into them.     "Wretched thing knows not when to stay down." But then again, Athela doesn't really either. But by the time she and her pokemon get back on their feet, the great and terrible Turking has been roasted to a crisp. Literally.     "Well, now." Athela grabs a corner of her surcoat to wipe some of the dead turkey-dragon blood off her brow. "I think this city will not have an issue with food or deranged bird-monsters for some time." 

:'''{{#var:623|Seto Kaiba (623)}} has posed:'''      Kaiba lets the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon remain in the air for some time. He waits, making sure the Turkeys do, in fact, remain fled. Glances are given around. One to the man who gave him the rifle. One towards Emily, and the look from her. The gas mask, which has been sitting on his forehead since the arrival of the Turking, is tossed aside. He smirks, at the side of his lip, just a little.      "If anyone has issues with my methods? Next time I will hold back from helping. Besides. It is a hologram. Not an actual person."      Slowly, he starts walking towards his Blue-Eyes White Dragon Jet. Slow enough that others can banter with him on the way, if desired. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     After everything's said and done, Maaka hops off the bike and returns to get her cable. She retrieves her grapple cord before she stores it in place, and then ambles off towards where she spies Emily. Along the way, she gives Raquna a hand up, grinning as she removes her helmet to reveal golden cybernetic eyes and blood-red hair. "Hey there, you okay?"     Seto seems a right dick, so avoid that guy for now. Even the cold blooded killer cyborg seems uncomfortable around him, which says a lot.     She also gives Athela and Timburr both a thumbs up in thanks for the assist, nodding to them briefly. "THanks for the backup with that takedown, you two. Pretty quick thinking there on both your parts."     Sadly, before Maaka can really question Emily about things, like her training or what kind of butler does double duty as a commando merc, the girl-butler is gone. "Huh." The cyborg just looks around in confusion, before she shrugs and goes over towards one of the downed turkeys to help with getting it to the village. It seriously looks like these folks are gonna be able to live for /years/ on these carcasses, given how big they are. 

:'''{{#var:994|Athela Valemore (994)}} has posed:''' Athela Valemore returns Alexis' gesture with a short salute of her own. "We were merely capitalizing on an already brilliant tactic," she replies modestly. Now, to get the dead birds into town so they can be... however these people divvie up giant turkey meat. Not to mention the wishbones these things must have. At least with her Timburr and Samurott there is plenty of extra carrying power to go around with the cleanup. 

:'''{{#var:989|Raquna Sheldon (989)}} has posed:''' It takes Raquna a few minutes to notice that Atlantow is significantly less alive than it was just a short while ago, and another moment to realize that Alexis is standing there to offer a hand. She blinks at the cyborg lady with an eyebrow raising just a bit, eventually taking her hand to get up somewhat unsteadily.      "Ah. Could be better. Everything hurts, my arms feel like paste, and hibernating doesn't sound too bad. But..." She looks over at the giant fried turkey, then smirks back at Alexis.      "... Some drinks might not be a bad substitute. Looks like we did a real good job out here, eh?" She laughs broadly before sheathing her sword and clutching her side, then turning towards William and locals. "You got a bar around here, right? We'll need a lot of tables tonight!"      Priorities. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Will breathes a long, relieved sigh as the Turking is finally slain. He putters the Mistral over towards the gate and hops off to join the others. "Well, y'all sure did a number on 'em," he says, rubbing at the back of his neck. "I just hope there're enough to keep the other varmints in check." Especially without their king! Well, turkeys are pretty resilient. Why, they're probably busy crowning a new king as they speak! And then... they'll probably swear bloody vengeance or something. That'd be a problem.     The people of Gale seem to have the transport covered, though. The same armored tractors that they rode out to meet the turkeys are being turned to hauling carcasses back to town and rescuing the injured. The armored humvee doesn't seem to be joining in the hauling effort just yet, though. It pulls up next to the congregating Elites, the man the driver's seat popping his head out of his window. "You kids did real well out there. Will, how about y'all take your friends back at the homestead, and we'll play host for tonight, eh?" "Oh Bill, don't keep them from their fun. I'm sure they'd rather go to the saloon than spend time with us old relics." Jane says from her gunnery platform. "Oh, but if y'all do come home, I did bake some custard pie this morning~" "Aheh," Will coughs into a balled fist. "W-well, it's up to these guys. I'm up to do whatever they want to!" 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka looks up at Jane, and then her gunnery platform. "Nothing wrong with a little age if you ask me." She says, chuckling. "'sides, I'm pretty famished myself. All that turkey hunting can work up an appetite, yeah?" No way is she gonna turn down the chance to hang out with MINIGUN GRANNY, oh no. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa has done well enough she gets the heck away from the Turking as it just cut down by the entire team's efforts she takes a moment to make sure the thing is /done/ to make sure it's dead. She pauses for a moment poking the Turking's remains for a moment and backs off. "I think it's goose is cooked." 
}}

4043/Sepulchre of the Giants

2016-11-27T05:32:21Z

Stormgear: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2016/04/23 |Location=The Great Ruin |Synopsis=Beyond the robotic horde is... A robot factory!? The party takes on a giant robot tank and travels de..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/04/23
|Location=The Great Ruin
|Synopsis=Beyond the robotic horde is... A robot factory!? The party takes on a giant robot tank and travels deeper into the base, only to find themselves face to face with a relic of the ancient age. One that doesn't want the people of the present to meddle in his domain.
|Cast of Characters=934, 385, 823, 765, 571, 342, 943, 7
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' A couple weeks ago, Iskandria had a minor crisis far to its north. Ordinarily, disturances would be quelled through the sudden and severe application of the empire's security forces, but this one was a... special case. A mountainside had crumbled away, revealing a great gate underneath, from whence came a veritable onslaught of explosively violent machines- a horde that was more than a match for the Iskandrian Legions. Fortunately, Will Pauwel knows people who know people and, together, a team of Elites collapsed two more cliffs right on top of the robotic army. But just because the immediate threat has passed doesn't mean that there's not still work to do.     There's a much larger robot in there. MUCH larger. Some have even seen it- a towering, mechanical behemoth lurking ominously in the shadow of the great gate. And it just so happens that there's somebody with a vested interest in /getting/ it. For science. Why else would you want a giant robot? Certainly not just to wage a one-woman crusade of revenge. Probably.     Regardless, Will waits on top of the crumbling mound of fallen earth just outside the great gate. There's something worth finding in there- he can practically smell it! So he's called up some friends, and put out some word. All that he needs to do now is wait for them to show up. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna still has a bad feeling about why that woman is so determined to lay claim to a giant robot ... or to have other people claim it for her benefit. And given the amount of war which Iskandria is already seeing, she doubts the woman who wants to find that robot is doing so to pose it in her garden and scare off crows or something refreshingly banal like that. Anyway, misgivings or not, Yuna is here, and as before, the full Matrix of Light is accompanying her: the little robo-faerie Elner, hovering next to Yuna and already running scans, while Jiina, Marina, and Erina are in their armored combat forms, ready to help fight or just provide additional overwatch. "So are we likely to run into any more trouble trying to get to the colossus ... ?" Yuna wonders while the group is gathering. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      DID SOMEONE MENTION GIANT ROBOTS?      Because if they did, Xiao was THERE and ON THE SCENE. For once in her life anyway. The scientist has been cooped up doing gods know what in her lab for months now. It was time for her to stretch her legs! Time to head out and sate her curiosity about these killer machines from a desolate world!      Or something to that effect.      Actually, she didn't even walk at all. Wearing a labcoat and a blue cheonsam, as her usual getup, Xiao comes floating down from the sky, her anklets emanating waves of non-elemental energy. "Oh dear, oh my. Have a look at this." She smirked, her golden eyes peering this way and that. "It looks like an earthquake struck, which then caused an avalanche~"      Upon spotting Will and Yuna, she landed and waved a sleeve cheerily. "Hello person one, and person two. Fine day today, yes yes~?" 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' After what happened the last time he crossed paths with this world, they ended up crawling through an ancient bunker and fighting off hordes of elderitch alien cyborg mutants to shut the place down. Needless to say, after that Gaonoir was a bit sketchy on bringing Erika along. But she was persistant, because this sort of grand discovery of lost ancient things and possible conspiracies around them was so definately the sort of thing she was into, and would have nothing of having to stay behind. Besides, if this goes south, he's going to need her to reach his full power level. As much as he loaths to admit that much reliance on some else still. But it's almost impossible to sway a stubborn nerd, and she's right behind the dark canine digimon as he ambles up to the top of the rockpile, giving Will a brief nod in greeting. Then idly kicks a rock off the top of the pile. "Looks like you guys already had quite the party." "By the looks of it, that party was quite 'rockin'." Gaonoir groans at the terrible joke, while Erika just snickers at herself before holding up her camera and seeing if she can get a decent shot of the gate. Even at a distance it's probably not going to fit entirely in frame though. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Eldricht Alien Cyborg monsters are the last thing Maaka wants to come back to find, but a job's a job after all. Giant Robots drew Maaka's interest, and while she was still patching some damage done to her suit, she was still up for a little adventurer as the cyborg arrives.     Slinging a DLT-19 heavy repeating blaster rifle over her shoulder, a little trophy from Juno's world she plucked from an unlucky Stormtrooper, Maaka whistles sharply as she approaches Yuna, Will, Gaonoir, and Xiao. "Hey folks." She greets with a lazy salute, clapping shoulders and the like.     "So who's the crazy broad that hired us to go get this thing, anyway?" She asks Will, not really expecting much of an answer. SOmeone that intent on getting herself a mecha usually doesn't advertise herself well. 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Nozomi Houken was there for that robotic uprising. Nozomi Houken helped put that uprising down. It was, as usual, something of a difficult time for her. But having had time away to relax, and knowing that she (probably) won't have to combine with Taiga again this time, the Lady has brought her TIGER along for the mission. Because Will is a good person and needs help.     She's gonna be hiding behind Yuna from Gaonoir and Li Yu, though. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     It's not hard to guess why a certain Emilia is here. There's a giant robot in there, you can /literally/ see it, and you expect her to stay away? Sure, most here only knew her briefly, but that brief exposure was more than enough.     One way or another, she's getting that robot.     Emilia arrives, clad again in that labcoat with the modified patch and the leather armour with the holstered grenade launcher. But this time, she doesn't bring any members of the Legion along. This time, she shows up riding one of the robots from the horde. There's some obvious bits where she had to patch it up, but it seems docile enough now.     "Haaaah~ Fresh air that carries the scent of adventure! I've been cooped up in the labs for weeks getting Montgomery here up and running." She gives the robot an affectionate rub, before turning her attention to the Elites. "Alright people! Today, we are getting that big robot! I don't care how we do it, just get me in front of it. But! If any of you lay even a scratch on that beautiful machine..."     Her glasses gleam, obscuring her eyes. "We shall have words. Am I clear?" 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' So here Kotone was once more, she was curious about William's world after that horror show in the lab. What else would be sleeping here? What else would be there to deal with. Either way she was curious were there only horrors burried under the sand or what might else be left here maybe thing that could help people either way here she was coming in on her Knight Motorcycle and skies the craft to a halt and leaps off it as she gets close and she smirks for a moment. "Gao that pun was criminal, oyu know that?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' SOMEONE TOTALLY SAID GIANT ROBOTS.     "Dunno, that's up to whoever built this place," Will answers Yuna, idly adjusting the sleeves on his ~awesome new duds.~ "But places like these, they've usualy got all kinds of traps hidden here and there. Can't have too many more of those littler robots, though. I think we probably took care of most of them!" Probably. Hopefully. It's not really a completely safe bet, given that there were just SO MANY robots. Nozomi knows! She was there. It was pretty awful. He's glad she and her magical mecha tiger are here, though-- for a whole bunch of reasons.     He glances up at Xiao, then, and blinks. That's an unfamiliar one. Also kind of... Similar to someone else he knows- someone who is actually RIGHT HERE, in fact. "Uhh, am I Person One?" Will asks, canting his head in the universal sign of 'I am so confused. "Those're some pretty fancy boots you got there though. I'm Will Pauwel, nice to meet you!"     That goes for everyone else Will hasn't actually introduced himself to. Like Gaonoir's little partner, who is trying so hard to get the whole gate in-frame. It's kind of hard, considering it seems like it was built for use by something approximately the size of a small mountain. Will gives the digimon a nod back in greeting- it's been a while since the last time! Hopefully this one won't be as... traumatizing.     He gives Maaka a wave, too! And then shrugs. "Dunno, she said she wanted to come th--" STOMP. STOMP. Will's hand goes reflexively to his holster-- but relaxes as soon as he realizes what that noise is coming from. "Uh. There she is," Will says, "Howdy, Miss Melchior. Uh. N-no promises about the robot. You never know with these things. Sometimes they just don't take no for an answer." And sometimes they shoot /death barriers/ at you. "Well, uh. It looks like we've got a pretty full posse here," Will concludes with a grin, leaping and skidding down the mound of rubble towards the foot of the great gate. "Y'all know how it goes by now, I'm guessin'! Stay close, keep yer eyes open, and if you see somethin' move, it's probably nothin' good. Let's get a move on!" He's a lot more enthusiastic about this situation than he was about the one on the island. Maybe it's because he doesn't feel the terrible, creeping dread of NIGHTMARISH CORAL MONSTER.                              --SCENE TRANSITION--                                                        --ENTER:=GIANT'S_SEPULCHRE--                               The first thing to come to mind is the sheer size of this place. The great gate opens to a massive, man-made cavern. If there is a ceiling, it's so far overhead that it's literally impossible to find through ordinary sight alone. Light pours in through the great gateway, flooding the cavern. Unlike many of the other ruins that the others have visited in this world, this one is /not/ a cyclopean, black expanse that seems to suck in all light. Rather, the only black in this place is a recessed track that leads from the gate, between two slopes of pale, white concrete, towards the heart of the central chamber: an octagonal panel that appears to be flush with the floor, except for a set of cocentric, metal circles at the very middle of the panel. It branches into two perpendicular pathways, then, and streaks off to far walls on either end, and great, steel shutter-gates that still remain closed. Small doors can be seen adjacent to either of the gates, but reaching them means heading up the concrete slopes, first. More nearby are what appear to be small buildings built into the elevated concrete. A few lights appear to be on, glowing from behind glass windows. Rumbling in the distance, there is a tell-tale clockwork rumbling, unmistakable for anyone in the know. Those are machine noises- sounds from the activity of enormous engines, or perhaps something more esoteric. Will tips his hat slightly as he enters. "Well," he breathes, "This is... Pretty big." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Did someone say Giant robots? Well Kotone is more of a /tiny/ robot really a tiny little robot girl who much like Makka can have a gun bigger than she is when she needs to. She seems to be in a good mood as she looks to Will before joining the rest of the party heading out, she intends to keep with Maaka as she foes and she just looks at Will for a moment as they get near the target. "...Yes you could say it is big William..." She uses her Matter Maniplator to swap out a heavy rail gun that's about as big as she is, which she has no issue carrying she's got the feleign she's going ot need this today, oh is she ever going to need this today. Though some of the people here she has no experiance with, others? She does take notice of Nozomi deploys a drone to keep up with her, in the event she needs a bit of help. "Anything else we should know about the target?" 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' "I know, but it's impossible to get her to stop," Gaonoir replies to Kotone with just the faintest of smirks briefly. Erika finally settles on just getting the upper half of the gate in the view, as that way it at least has some of the mountain around it to help give the impression of how massive it really is. After snapping a few shots she lets the camera hang off her wrist by the strap. "Name's Erika," she replies to Will's brief introduction. "I'm Gaonoir's partner. And an investigator of oddities like this. So this is, like, really something to actually get to see an--" Gaonoir gives her a nudge to keep her from going off into a ramble again. "Then let's get to actually seeing it, hmmm? And for the love of mods, -stay close-." Last thing he needs his 'pet' human wandering off and getting lost. "--Oh, right, of course. Onward to the investigation! Mysterious ruins and giant robots!" The sad thing is this ethusiasm is Erika actually trying to keep some amount of composure instead of just entirely geeking out right now. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Emilia is practically vibrating with glee as they enter the Giant's Sepulchre. "Finally, finally I can do it everyone..." she is muttering to herself. She's walking alongside Montgomery now, one finger stroking the grip of that grenade launcher in a concerning way.     Once they're inside, she seems to snap out of it some. That mania ebbs, replaced by a professional gaze as she assesses the surroundings. "Check the buildings first. I remember this one time we didn't, and Dominic..." She suddenly giggles and snorts. "Oh, we were cleaning up for hours~!"     Well. That's concerning. Either way, she looks among the Elites and says, "Yeah, but for actual? Check the buildings. Meanwhile, I'll take a look at this." She stands over the panel with the concentric circles! "It seems pretty suspicious~"     And with that, she knees down and starts poking at it with tools extracted from her coat. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      Xiao smiled mysteriously at Will at his question. "Person one, Person two, I wonder I wonder..." She didn't actually answer the question. "As for these anklets, they're...nothing special. Just a bit of an aerial aid is all~" She waved a sleeve dismissively as she turned to regard Emilia. ....Immediately, she could sense a kindred spirit.      That probably wasn't a good thing for everyone else.      "Oh we'll do everything in our power to keep it as unscathed as possible." She paused and looked at Will. "Well, some of us." Appending her statement, she didn't actually bother to introduce herself. Nope. No, she was just a curious passer by. No need for names. Of course.      AND INSIDE THEY GO      "Hrm...big indeed." Xiao mumbled, folding her arms into her sleeves casually. She didn't bother to actually take out any sort of weapon, and proceeded inside as she was. Of course, the researcher does NOT stop to convene with the others. No, she simply wanders off on her own, heading towards the aforementioned buildings.      "Let's see what they have in here..." 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Hey." Maaka greets Erika with the briefest of greetings, but there isn't much time to waste on socializing with this job. As she follows with the others, Maaka begins to take point, switching to night-vision when her helmet folds into place and she shoulders her DLT.     Advancing through the hangar bay, she tilts her head curiously for a moment, taking in the size of the place. Judging by how this place is, it can only hint at the size of whatever their quarry is today. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "I'm Yuna," the battlesuited blonde greets those she doesn't know, offering a polite bow in greetings. She's not going to stop Nozomi from hiding behind her; she gives the younger girl a wry smile. "Hopefully we don't need to worry about our allies," she almost-whispers to Nozomi. "Gaonoir's okay; I don't know the Chinese lady, though." They might not have nightmarish coral monsters to deal with, but Yuna is still kind of ill at ease - and visibly so - as the group continues into the cavern. Does it count as a cavern when it looks this artificial? "It's ... almost like a hangar of some kind, isn't it?" is Yuna's first spoken thought, once the group is inside and she's had a chance to look around. "Elner, are your sensors picking up -" She pauses in mid-sentence, peering towards one of those 'buildings'. "Let me rephrase that: Try to map out active power sources and other functional systems, and see if there's any kind of network up and running? Relay map data to Taiga and Kotone as well, if they'd like it." She's not sure who else can make use of digital map data, so she's not going to volunteer any other names for that purpose. Elner is still sticking fairly close to Yuna; the rest of the Matrix of Light has already spread out to help with exploration, each heading towards one of the nearby buildings. 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Well, at least Yuna seems to think /one/ of the scary folks is okay. Nozomi is still sticking close to her, for the moment, but she does at least give the blonde a little nod of agreement.     Taiga, in the meantime, does his usual thing and moves near the front of the pack, keeping his eyes and ears open. There's nothing really supernatural here, so most of his sensor suite won't do him much good. He still has UV, IR and basic radar, so at the very least he can get a basic idea of what's going on. "The map data would be quite helpful," Taiga says simply. "I am going to perform some recon." His plan for now is to go find high places to stand on; the nearby buildings within the cavern, and any other way-up-there spots that present themselves.     One thing does finally take her interest enough to pry Nozomi away from Yuna's protection, though; specifically, whatever Emilia is doing. "Do... do you know what that is?" she murmurs, curious. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     "Uh, it's giant and it's a robot?" Will offers to Kotonoe. Clearly he's about as in the dark as all the rest of them on the particular nature of their mark. "I heard some of the guys at camp talk about it like it was kind of... Shaped like a drum, sort of. And that it had this one, red eye." Which probably indicates some kind of awful laser beam or something like that. He glances over towards Yuna and gives her a nod, too. "Sort of. I wonder what they needed these things for, though? Giant robots ain't exactly the most... practical things." Maybe the Ancients just like gratuitously large machines. Elner's scans get some... interesting readings. The room they're in is actually apparently in some sort of semi-active state; almost as if many of the systems were on standby. Far below, though, there appears to be a truly enormous source of power, throbbing like a beating heart underneath the mountain. Energy flows throughout the structure, terminating irreguarly where circuits are damaged or power has otherwise been cut off, but there are certainly regions where energy seems to be being concentrated.     Here, though, power seems to be isolated to this particular room. The connections leading to either of the doors on the sides of the chamber seem to have been cut off. Power is naturally flowing to the buildings nearby-- out from the central panel, in fact. There also seems to be more structures in the distance, or rather, more of something that seems to be using electricity. There does not seem to be a wireless network, though; that was something she would have noticed at the island base, too. Why would anyone build such a massive structure and only use hard-line connections? There do seem to be active terminals near each of the side-doors and inside the lighted buildings. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     At the center of the room, Emilia is starting to tinker with the strange, cocentric circles! There seem to be maintenance panels nearby, demarkated by subtle lines separating them from the rest of the black material. The cocentric circles themselves appear to have some give to them- almost as if one could turn the two, with enough force; or if the right controls are found. Symbols decorate the outside of either of the circles, as if they served as some kind of guideline. The mechanical thrumming seems somewhat louder here, though.     Meanwhile, the buildings appear to be unattended- there are no noises coming from within; or at least, none that aren't drowned out by the mechanical droning. One of the windows seems to have been blown in, but crawling in through the cracked glass is ultimately unnecessary- the doors are unlocked. They're ajar, in fact; it's like someone forgot to shut them and left the lights on when they left them behind.     The interior is anything but sparse. The front door leads to a corridor that terminates in what appears to be a solid bulkhead door, one that you might expect to find in a ship or a submarine, rather than a building.     To left, the corridor turns into something that looks like some kind of mixture between security building and office-space. There is what appears to be an overgrown bonsai in one corner of the room, its branches trimmed with peerless precision by some unknown hand over the many, many years. The rest of the floor is... impeccable. Every single cubicle and every single desk has been perfectly cultivated to be the ideal, ergonomic office. So much so that it's almost... bizarre to see, in the distance, an abrupt black smear across one of the cubicle walls, further into the room. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Taiga's sojourn to ever higher locations is perhaps more fruitful than he expected. The top of the buildings seems to conceal some kind of rudimentary lift- and an adjacent- and relatively easily climbable- enclosed ladder. If he continues further up, he'd find himself face to face with an elaborate network of heavy, steel beams and machines that are unmistakably enormous motors. There's no power flowing up here right now, though. How strange. But, there, slightly further up there are what appear to be huge, metal /trays/ built into a massive series of racks. Many of them are closed, several are missing, but one appears to be ajar just enough to let someone in to snoop around. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     "No idea!" Emilia remarks cheerfully to Nozomi as she tries to get a screwdriver in under one of the circles. "That's why I'm trying to get it going. Can you hear the humming? It's louder here. All my experience tells me that the best, most important stuff is where it's loudest!"     Eventually though, it seems that this... whatever it is, is not manually operated. Emilia throws down her screwdriver into a huff... which clanks against one of the panels, the sound giving it away. Right away, that screwdriver is in her hands again, as she gets to work on prying those open instead.     And if that doesn't work? She gets Montgomery to rip them open. Hey, what's the point of a big robot if you don't boss it around? 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Snoop around? Not snoop around?     Which choice do you bloody well think Taiga's gonna pick?     Those look like big armament or supply storage racks, and one of them's open enough he can go peeking in. So absolutely yes, he's gonna investigate.     Nozomi gives what she hopes is an encouraging nod, but mostly she just kind of looks bewildered. "That... that doesn't sound very... scientific," she says, a bit hesitant. But she is at least interested in what's being messed with. "Maybe... maybe you turn the circles, though...?" 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:''' Xiao proceeds into the buildings, and immediately makes her way towards the office area. Taking a quick glance around from the entrance, she noted the bonsai, as well as the layout of the space. "My, someone was quite meticulous, weren't they?" She chuckled and shook her head as she stepped further in. "Now then, let's see what we can find here." Offices usually had documents, right? Let's have a look see and find out if any interesting records have been left behind...      She does notice the black smear on one of the cubicle walls looks rather suspect though. While passing by, she leaned closer, observing it first, and then reaching a hand out from her joined sleeves to run a finger across it. Surely nothing terrible would come from contact with an unknown black substance. No way. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' "Not your typical building interior," Gaonoir murmurs to no one in particularly. They're not being attacked yet (thankfully) so there's not much else for him to offer at the moment. Erika takes out her camera again and starts taking more pictures. It's a terrible expedition if you don't have some sort of documentation, after all. "Do we have any idea about who built this place?" The question is aimed mainly at Will. "It's pretty elaborate for just hiding a bunch of robots in." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "It could be worse I guess." She's now got to worry about the horrible eterrible robotic hell thing. Ot it's a hanger she pauses for a moment as she expands out with the map data that Yuna's partner is giing her. She does seem to keep tabs on Maaka and will open up a conneciton to if she'll allow it. She's not about to just sit down on the job to do and she gets the railgun rifle ready to go. She's going to need it looks like. She's also scanning as well. "No wireless again?" Kotone didn't find any when she tehcke and noe she's goin g to go inside and start hunting for a terminal and praying there's no horrible coral level nightmares in here. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "The Matrix Figure, El-Line, was created so that the Savior of Light could do battle with enemies too large for her to combat on her own," Elner explains to Will. "Perhaps the ancient civilization in this world was also beset by giant monsters of some kind." "Or maybe they were at war with someone else who used giant robots?" Yuna suggests, thereby adding the other traditional reason why anyone bothers with giant robots in the first place. "Anyway, what're your scans saying, Elner?" "There's a high-powered energy source deeper down," the robo-faerie reports. "It's likely the main powerplant for this facility; mapping out a route to that sector will take some time. However, there's a wired network running throughout the complex where damage to circuits or systems hasn't interrupted it. Most of this facility is probably still operational; it's most likely a matter of finding control systems and putting them to use." But not necessarily a simple matter, thinks Yuna, or Elner would've said 'simple'. She still isn't quite sure she trusts Emilia, either. For now, though, she leaves the exploration to her allies and wanders over to where Emilia's working. "So how much do you already know about this place and the giant robot that's here?" she inquires, possibly looking for something she can do to help. Gaonoir's question elicits a nod from Yuna as she adds, "Do you know any history, or mythology, or legends that might shed some light on why the people who built it needed to do so?" 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     The ancients build their maintenance panels to last! Or rather, they build them to make sure snoopy spies can't get them open so easily. The panel resists Emilia's screwdriver like the world's most stubborn clamshell. It does not, however, object for too long against Montgomery's attempts. The mechanical minotaur reaches over and digs a clawed hand into the panel, the black material cracking and shearing under its assault. Within is a shiny chrome panel festooned with switches. There's no rhyme nor reason to which way each one is flipped, except for little notes that read anything from 'lights' to 'water pumps' to 'internal security.' There are a couple of dials down at the bottom of the panel, and a shiny, candy-red button between them. Can Emilia resist the urge!? Speaking of feline urges.     Up above, Taiga has decided to snoop! The tray is... dark. It'd make sense that there'd be no light in here. Fortunately, Taiga is cat, and can presumably either see in the dark, or provide his own light source. What he sees is... Concerning.     Row upon row upon row of the same machines they fought outside. The gyrocopters hang like bats from the top of the tray, jam-packed between files of quiescent minotaurs. A single one of these could serve as a small army. And there were so many trays. Dozens. Hundreds, maybe. What kind of war needed so many soldiers? 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     "Thank you Montgomery~" Emilia says to the big robot as she yanks the panel off. She is about to start poking at what's inside when questions are raised about what happened? "Oh, you hear a lot of theories and tales~" she says to Yuna and Gaonoir.     "Some say that the Ancients were engaged in some great war, and razed the planet in a single day~ Although, all the stories say that humanity stood together on that day. So whoever they were warring with... it wasn't other humans." And on that ominous note, time to go to work!     Emilia sees that big red button! Oh boy is she gonna press it! But, she is methodical, first and foremost. The switches have labels, so it's best to find out which position is the 'off' position first.     So, she fiddles with the 'light' switch first. If that happens to turn off the lights there? Well, she's found which position is 'on' and which is 'off.' Then she makes sure that 'internal security' is well set to 'off!' Next, the moves the dials just a little, to see what they happen to effect. She reasons that it might be the circles, so she tries to line them up based on the symbols.     And then, if she manages that, or she's wrong? She slams that button! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     In the offices, Will shakes his head at Gaonoir's inquiry. "The Ancients built all sorts of things. Some ruins're just big water-holes, like the one underneath my home town. But this doesn't feel like one of those to me," he answers, scratching the tip of his nose. "There ain't nothing that smells safe-like about this place."     It doesn't take Kotone long to find an active terminal. They're all over the place in here; each cubicle seems to have its own! There're even a few data jacks here and there. Trying to get in might be tricky, though-- to call the security system heavy is a hell of an understatement. There are firewalls upon firewalls, and certainly other security waiting behind them.     Xiao's initial snooping reveals that most of the documents are... empty. Not that they're blank sheets, but that each and every one of the documents at these cubicles are unfilled. Thousands of forms left untouched. They're all made of some strange, glossy paper though; it's smooth, almost silky to the touch. How strange.     What isn't silky is that black... /stuff./ It crumbles at Xiao's touch, dissolving to dust. It's ash, unmistakably so. And there's more where it came from. The orderly office terminates abruptly around the ash, which itself stops at a precise line where it meets clean walls, floors and ceiling. Even now, this place smells... scorched. Burnt. But why this place in particular? The window nearby is shattered. Glass shards are scattered across the floor, encircling a solidly anchored, swivelling chair-- and a burnt, black mass seated in it, hunched over a flickering, half-shattered screen. A... body? 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Well. Taiga has seen enough. He's even captured a few images for later. Time to make his way back down to ground level with a series of lazy hops and leaps. "I have discovered a large reserve of the same types of units which swarmed out of this facility previously," he announces as soon as he reaches the ground. His voice is loud enough for everyone to hear, in theory.     Nozomi is just kind of quietly watching Emilia work now (after the display 'Montgomery' puts on, like heck she's interrupting), though she does listen to the short story on the Ancients with interest. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' Gaonoir twitchs an ear a bit. "Yeah. Something feels... off about it all." Erika leans into a cubicle to take a picture of it, then lowers her camera and picks up one of the sheets. "Like they left in a hurry and didn't finish their work." Then she turns the form over. "And this doesn't feel like normal pape--" She yelps as Gaonoir grabs the form away from her. "--Hey!" "How many times do I have to tell you not to just pick up random things?" Gaonoir mutters back. "How do you know they're not toxic to humans or something?" Aww, it's almost cute that he's actually trying to keep her safe. Don't say that to his face though. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      Wow. Look at all of these unfilled documents. ...LETS TAKE SOME. And so Xiao folds up a reasonable stack of papers and stuffs them into her sleeves, which then vanish into hammerspace. That black stuff though. "Hmm...this is ash." Obviously. Running it through her index finger and thumb, she hmms quietly, and then looked off towards the diving line where it seemed like this place had gotten torched.      Ah, but the question is why? The researched strode onward, taking sight of the black mass seated in one of the chairs. A body perhaps? She didn't flinch or cringe at all. She stopped right in front of it, and leaned over to have a closer look. "Oh dear, look at this poor person." Xiao had no pity in her voice. She reached out after and poked the body in the chest. Just to make sure! 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Emilia proves her skill as a handyman. As she flicks the 'light' switch, the world suddenly floods with artificial illumination. Panels on the walls flicker to life in sequence. Rings of light rise into the ceiling, terminating around what appear to be an enormous, mechanized network of cranes, hydraulic pistons, iron clamps and metal arms tipped with all kinds of strange attachments. The assembly is... quiescent at the moment, though. This is probably good.     The 'Internal Security' switch is flicked, and something somewhere makes a solid *click*-ing noise. The two dials do indeed control the central circles; Emilia turns them until the two circles align. The middle of the platform seems to rise slightly, then- a pressure plate? But... Then... and then-- THE BUTTON EMILIA SMASHES THE BUTTON.     A dull, bassy noise rumbles through the room. Power shoots over towards one of the side doors as, up above, the massive assembly of machinery begins whirling into motion. Steam hisses as one of the enormous doors at the far sides of the room begins to open. Out rolls... An... enormous set of tank treads? But the cranes are moving towards it, reaching out for the giant tracks. One slams a heavy, boxy chassis on top of them. Another sweeps down and begins building up, assembling mechanism after mechanism until the lower half of a torso begins to take shape. WHAT DO 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Inside the office, Xiao has STOLEN FROM THE WORKPLACE. What a horrible person, this Xiao Li Yu. So horrible that she'd go and poke a dead body. The torso is unresponsive, but as she disturbs it, its arms seem to loosen at the shoulders, and one swings down-- Something clatters to the floor out of the body's grasp. It's... A picture frame? The back has been knocked ajar. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     IT BEGINS.     As the place rumbles to life, Emilia regards everything like a kid in a candy store. The treads, the body... "It's an assembly line..." she whispers with awe as a robot is built up before her eyes. "AN AUTOMATED ASSEMBLY LINE! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!"     Immediately, she's giving hugs to everyone in reach. Yuna, Gaonoir, Montgomery... "Do you know what I could do with this?! I could... I could do anything! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" She dances on the spot, face split into an enormous grin. "And this is just the tip of the iceberg! If we have this AND the giant robot? Nothing can stand before us!"     But, she hasn't forgotten that something else became available to press during her fiddling. That pressure plate? She stamps down on it with her foot! 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Nozomi Houken is within reach.     For the entirety of The Hug, she looks exceptionally startled, and even in the aftermath she looks like a deer in headlights.     Taiga chooses this moment to amble up, and declare simply, "What will you do if the assembled machine realizes that we are not its authorized users and decides this is a breach of security that needs to be addressed as permanently as possible?" 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' Gaonoir and Erika both stop to look up as the place starts to rubble to life. Leaving the poor digimon to get blindsided by a hug happy Emilia. Much pathetic flailing endures as his fuzzy dog-like form is embraces. "WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP DOING THIS?!" He still has issues with being considered 'cute'. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is able to get to a terminal pretty quick she jacks in but whsitles at the level of security here and hse's going to look for low sec information or unsecureed data anything that might tell her more about the palce but she doens't like to well mess with thing too damn hard she doesn't want to set off defence systems after all. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:''' Xiao glances out a nearby window as THINGS START HAPPENING. "Oh my." That gate opened. And those are tank treads. Annnnd that is a mechanical base. ...Annnnnnnd that's starting to look an awful lot like a body. "............Fascinating." She didn't even consider that this could threaten her life. God damn it, Xiao!      A clatter of an object hitting the floor draws her attention back to the body before her, and she kneels down to observe. "Hmm? This is..." A picture frame? She reaches down and picks it up, turning it over to look into the frame, before turning it to the back to take a look at that end as well, opening it more. "What could be in here? How curious..."      She'd leave the TANK BUILDING to the others. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' SOMEBODY STOP THAT CRAZY WOMAN Preferably before she accidentally trips the self-destruct or something.     The factory continues its terrible work. The torso is complete, a barrel-chested, sturdy thing. Two enormous, multi-barreled turrets are mounted to its back. One fully assembled arm is dropped into its shoulder, tipped with no less than /five/ drill-like bits. Its other limb is mounted next, fastening a much more conventional arm into place. The head slowly lowers as it begins to roll forward. And then Emilia hits the pressure plate.     The cocentric rings recess into the floor with a hydraulic hiss. The enormous octagonal platform begins to disengage from the surrounding concrete construction, one panel at a time slide inward like a collapsing fan. The rings spin as the thing begins descending... An elevator!? 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' An automated assembly line for .... if not 'giant robots' per se, then at least robot-esque tanks. Yuna has a distinctly unhappy look on her face now as she eyes the machine being pieced together by the cranes and other machinery - or maybe it's Emilia's glee in having control of the manufacturing plant that has her worried. Even getting hugged doesn't dislodge her growing concern, apparently. Taiga's question is an awfully good one, really. And there are some other questions converging in the back of her mind as well. She still isn't sure what Emilia really WANTS to do with either one giant robot, or an army of them, but 'Nothing can stand before us' isn't really the kind of emotion she wants to hear from another good guy. Yuna is very quiet for a few moments, at least outwardly. She's not sure if Emilia's on the Chaser frequency so she can't pose her concerns to the others through *that* route, and in case Taiga's right and the robots are going to determine that the party are enemies to be eliminated, she doesnt' want to send the rest of the Matrix of Light running around the complex looking for a route to the powerplant down below. While she's thinking, the tankbot is more or less finished - yep, that's definitely a machine of war - and Emilia's stomp on the pressure plate causes the platform to start going down. - and Yuna's stomach decides the elevator's not going down fast enough, or at least that's the feeling she gets. "Elner!" she calls out; the robo-faerie flits right back to Yuna's side, and in the next handful of seconds, Jiina, Marina, and Erina zip over from their respective reconnaissances to form ranks around Yuna, evne if they have to fly down the hole where the platform started to do so. "So, uh, Emilia ..." Yuna's smile is kind of strained, and she knows it, but she smiles anyway. "You didn't mention who you think might try to stand in your way, or why. I hate to ask this, but ... um. Were you planning to, oh ... try to conquer this planet, or anything ... ? It just seems like the kind of thing some of us would like to know ..." Yeah, there had to have been a better way to ask that, but she's not coming up with anything. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' Okay, once the HORRIBLE HUGGING is over with we can get back on track here. Which appears like the place has been started back up again? Oh, wonderful. Now it's building a robot or something. "Kind of reminds me of a giant ass Tankdramon," Gaonoir mutters, even as an elevator is turned on. And now lowering. Towards the factory and -that- thing? Even more wonderful. "Erika, be ready. If it turns into a fight, digivolve me and then get somewhere... uh..." He looks at the constructing robot again. "... I'd say safe, but that may be specifically pointless of a detail in here." "Besides, if I hide I can't take any pictures of you fighting to prove any of this even happened in the first place, Erika replies, even as she's fetching her digivice from her satchel. "You have weird priorities, girl." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' Meanwhile, Xiao, being a terrible person, completely ignores the impending doom implied by the tank-mech being swiftly assembled. The picture in the frame depicts a scruffy-faced man in a smart, well-decorated navy-blue uniform... And a beautiful, dusky-skinned woman, cradling a swaddled child. A picture of family, it seems. The edges are scorched and blackened, but the image still remains.     The back pane comes away when prodded, revealing a slightly thick, card-shaped object with a what appears to be a strip of brassy material across one face. There's also a small, red gem flush against the middle of the card. It's pretty fancy, really. The ruby-like crystal pulses softly. How strange. Meanwhile, Kotone would be able to find a number of miscellaneous messages. Missives on part deliveries and reports on distant bases... And maps, with an ever-approaching red line, creeping slowly towards the base. Another document, a date-- with orders for an evacuation. A third: an official message, and the final one sent to this terminal. Complete evacuation is impossible. Critical personnel will remain to hold position until purification unit 'CODE J' has been completed. The message is signed 'Central Directive Unit - V' 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Looking to the robot tiger (who is also very cool, she things), Emilia offers a smile. "I already disabled the internal security from that panel~ Besides, no one would set up an assembly line where the robots turn on once they're done. If one wasn't put together properly, it could be catastrophic! I think we'll be fine~"     But then, they begin to descend! Quickly, she cups her hands and yells down the other pathways. "WE GOT AN ELEVATOR WORKING! I'LL SEND IT BACK UP, JUST STAND ON THE PLATE TO FOLLOW US!" Quite a pair of lungs on her.     But, Yuna has some questions! Quite reasonable questions too, but Emilia doesn't seem to think so, based on how she giggles. "Take over the world? Nothing so grandiose, silly~ No, I just want revenge... oh, but not against people! Against the monsters who wiped out my last Legion!" She taps her patch, the one that has an extra 'I' appended on the end. "I was the only survivor. Damn ferrets..." 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "Ohhhhh," Yuna nods. NOW she looks somewhat relieved. (Maybe only somewhat, but ... that's still a step up from where she was a moment ago.) "... wait, what kind of ferrets wiped out your Legion? Or was it more than one Legion you lost to them?" Elner just looks like, if this were anime, maybe an OVA or something, there'd be a big ol' sweatdrop adorning the back of the robo-faerie's head. 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     The elevator is going down. Right under Nozomi.     Nozomi is now hiding behind Yuna again. Taiga is, at the very least, tense. He's on his guard, because they have no idea where they're descending to or what might be down there when the elevator stops. "I once had to deal with something similar to a ferret in some ways. Kama-itachi can be rather vicious when angered. I cannot say that I blame her." 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      Aw, how cute. This charred husk of a man had a family.      Moving along.      She opened the picture frame and took out the card-like object that was wedged behind the back pane. "Hmm..." She turned it over, taking note of the brass strip and the gem inset. "Some manner of keycard?" The pulse going through the gem is rather ominous.      Oh well!      This can probably be used somewhere else, no? Well. maybe she'll be able to make use of it. Standing up at that, Xiao left the office...through the window, and pocketed the keycard as she made her way off towards the lowering elevator. While The distance wasn't particularly a probably, even if it was getting away from her. She just hopped over the edge and sailed downwards, her descent slowing until she landed with a soft tap.      "Hello people~" Smiling the girl waved a sleeve. She didn't say what she found just yet. She'd satisfy her curiosity herself! 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna reaches back to give Nozomi's hand a gentle squeeze ... if she can find the girl's hand, anyway. She's willing to be Nozomi's shield and bulwark against the scary people either way, though - that *IS* what Yuna sees as the big part of her job. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa downloads all the files she cna but this now paint a story to her she can come back maybe bringing Rory and others if needed to help with getting into the files here but she gets it something was moving towards the base. A evac was called but a final messge was left they were going to hold it till they finished what they were working on. <<Ko here, I found some data in the network looks like they were trying to ifnish something calle d purifiction unit with Code J....>> She'll then start moving to catch up with the otehrs she will start digging into the files later however but now isn't the time right? She might trip some defence system after all. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' You'd think that the ancients would make sure that their giant tank robot assembly line wouldn't activate the aforementioned machine immediately after it was done building. But then, you'd think that they'd also put a better seal on their suspicious mind-control coral samples. And that they wouldn't let terrible nanoweapons lurk in underground residential blocks. This one... Actually appears well designed, though. The machine rolls off as it completes, ferrying from one massive door to the next just as another set of treads enters the room. Will stares after the enormous frame of the tank-robot as it vanishes, "That... I can't help but feel like we ain't seen the last of those fellas." But, he's got an elevator to catch! Will forces his hat down onto his head and sprints on after Kotone and Xiao. He leaps boldly down the elevator shaft!! And... Actually sticks a pretty good landing, and only kind of hurts his knees when he lands. "Ferrets ain't nothin' to fool around with," Will says with a frown. "Almost as bad as turkeys, I reckon." (Ferrets don't have ossifying venom-breath)     The elevator is actually quite large. Big enough to fit a building on, in fact. The shaft it's attached to is deep. It just keeps going. And going. Down, down, down into the dark, lightless earth- it seems the switch Emilia flipped only turned on the assembly line lights. Finally, it comes to rest with a soft click and the hiss of hydraulics locks sliding into place. Those mechnaical noises are even louder here- almost deafening. And yet, it's... cold. Chill, almost. Like someone was running a massive air conditioner and left the dial turned way down low. Will frowns, staring off into the darkness. His hands grope for the weapon at his hip. Solano's barrel ignites with a crack of coruscating electricity. Something, somewhere, makes a sound like distant thunder.     One set of lights click on. Then another, then another. The world comes into being, and all around them is ruin. Enormous, humanoid husks crumble slowly to dust. Countless empty frames, hundreds of different designs, each one lying lifeless on top of one another in a seemingly bottomless expanse. There are so many- enough that the most recent additions are piled so high that they loom precariously over the explorers, flanking them from all sides but one. A single raised walkway leads away from them, towards a colossal door at the far end of the hall, flanked by a multitude of broken giants. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Emilia seems to pointedly ignore Yuna's follow-up question as the others jump down! "Nice of you to drop in~" Emilia says to those who jump down onto the descending platform. She then snorts and suppresses a giggle, giving the joke far too much credit.     It's a long way down, so the mad adventurer leans against Montgomery, humming a listless tune to pass the time. "See, he gets it. Those things will skin you alive and wear you!" she says, her voice suddenly filled with venom. She's clearly trying to play it cool, but her tapping foot and fingers betray her impatience. This is a girl who wants her giant robot, and she wants it now!     The darkness that envelops them upon arrival only slows her for a moment. "Montgomery, give us so-oh, never mind~" Thankfully, the place lights up, rendering her request needless. Probably a good thing too, god only knows what she loaded that thing up with.     She looks around at the empty husks, her grin only getting bigger. "These must be prototypes or something. How wonderful~ That means the one still here is a final version!" She sprints towards the giant doors, the robotic minotaur lumbering after her. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      As they arrive down to the next area, Xiao blinks as the lights come on one after the other. She still doesn't have any weapons drawn. Instead her arms are folded back into her sleeves. "Oh my, look at all of these remains." She intoned in a passive, observational manner as she proceeded down the walkway. "It certainly makes one wonder just what sort of event took place here, no?"      If they have time, she'll definitely be returning to study these! But for now? She heads directly for the gate, and once she gets there, she pokes around for any sort of scanner or slot or something for a key(card). Certainly, that one she found earlier must be used for this, right? Right? 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' "What did the elevator bring us down to, a funeral parlor?" True to form Erika just starts asking more questions instead of being weirded out too much by the sight they're introduced to. "They -are- dead, right? Hopefully." Okay, maybe a little creeped out, but she just squeezes the digivice a little tighter in her hands for reassurance. "Stinks like it," Gaonoir retorts. He's even less phased by the sight, though it's debatable if he can actually smell death down here or is just being a smart ass about it. "I guess, follow the slightly more crazy girl and her robo-bull." Erika raises a brow behind her glasses, as if to silently ask 'slightly more'? Was Gaonoir comparing Emilia to her?... Granted, being called the less crazy in that regard might be a compliment. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' The lights in the massive underground chamber come on without anyone having to go and flip a switch or anything. That could be a good thing. Yuna just looks worried again. "Nozomi, I think I need to go after her," she says apologetically. "Assuming I don't need El-Line, I'll make sure at least Marina stays with you. Okay?" The orange-and-white member of Yuna's mechanical retinue bows politely to Nozomi. "I'll do my utmost to keep you safe from harm while we're here," the vaguely feminine-looking robot/android/whatever says, even as Yuna steps away and combines with Erina. Once she's in her Flight Form, Yuna takes to the air, zipping across towards the far end of the walkway, the Matrix Divider materializing in her hands - mostly for an independent light source, one that isn't part of the power grid in the ancient installation, rather than out of any anticipation of combat. 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Surprisingly enough, Nozomi is willing to keep up with the rest of the group, though she stays near the back. She seems somewhat reassured by Marina, though.     Taiga once again moves up near the front in case of hostile machinery (which is rather likely, given past history with all the advanced tech in this world). 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' When buried, the dead are supposed to lay, sleeping forever beneath the earth. But as they pass, deep in the darkness, red eyes flicker to life. With each step, more lights flare to life. Heads creak on ancient servos, staring helplessly at these visitors. These tomb robbers. The door at the far end waits. A small podium is raised before the enormous set of double-doors-- a control panel, it seems. There's a slot there, waiting for something to be placed within.     "This is feelin' familiar somehow," Will murmurs, stowing his gun back into its holster. He glances back at the broken giants, and those which have turned to stare after them. "You don't suppose there's some awful black mess back in there, do you?" 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     One can practically see Emilia deflate at the sight of the podium with the slot. "... I don't suppose anyone found anything that would fit? Or brought a ton of explosives?" she asks in a pleading voice. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:''' Xiao observed as the podium came up, and then smirked. "Ah. Well, would you look at that." She didn't even need to look twice. She strode on over and took out a certain keycard from her lab coat's pocket, twirling it between her fingers as she passed by Emilia. "As it turns out..."      She slotted the card in, brass strip first, and then pressed down. "...I did happen to find something like that~"      NOW. OPEN SESAME! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is able to catch up and she leaps after Will and she'll land down in a three pioint landing though she might /damage/ the ground from the force of that much mass hitting it at speed she di but she rises up thankfully and is ready to go but she's moving along with WIll on a bit edge onw but she moves laong as she sets her self to low light mode to see but tht doesn't last lng as the lights come on and she /stares/. "Christ ... what is this?!" 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     By the time the group reaches that podium before a set of doors, Nozomi is visibly quivering. Ohh this place is gonna give her nightmares for a while. There's no doubt about that. Even taiga is a bit more tense. "If there is," he replies to Will, "At least this time we will know what to expect."     That probably explains why his cannons are both trained on the doors. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Xiao inserts the key. The inlaid crystal flashes once, twice, then finally BLAZES with light. The great gate shudders as the command is given; an order: to open wide. The air churns as the door hinges open, sweeping inward to allow passage... To an even deeper hangar. But this one is not empty.     Hardly so, in fact. A pair of massive elevators churn at the back of the room, lowering... familiar tank-mechs down into the chamber. They roll studiously into formation, lining either side of the hangar in single file.     But, between them is a throne that make them seem like childrens' toys. Upon it rests a giant beyond giants, an enormous figure, built more like a skyscraper than a machine. A single eye glows out like a lighthouse from far, far above. That... That appears to be the rumored giant.     It stirs as the door opens. The ground beneath their feet trembles as it moves, its weight shifting onto its legs. Standing, it seems even greater than before. A colossus. A king among giants. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' WHEN WE LAST LEFT OUR HEROES AND THEIR MAD SCIENCTISTS The party made their way into what looked to be some kind of enormous underground vault in search of a giant robot to capture. Built into a hollowed out mountain, the Sepulchre of the Giants turned out to be some kind of mixture of (gigantic) robotics factory and disposal zone. They also found out that it was on the verge of being overrun by... something. Until the completion of what was called 'Purification Unit: CODE J,' that is. After that, the trail seemed to stop dead cold. But something that DIDN'T go cold was the trail that led them here. To the throne of a colossus among colossi. A mechanical giant who even now is rising to its full height. It's flanked by FAMILIAR TANK MECHA who are continuously rolling down from above via a pair of elevator shafts at the back of the room. WHAT DO 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna looks up at the mechanical colossus, briefly trying to remember if she's seen anything else *that* big. It's certainly an order of magnitude or so bigger than El-Line; the scale of it reminds her a lot more of the Chaos Titan that the Noise Marines brought -- And that's a memory she does *NOT* want to entertain, ever, but especially not now. The battle was traumatic enough when it was in her present and in her recent past; she's fought back against the nightmares it left her with and regained the ability to sleep through the night, with no small difficulty getting there. "Elner," she calls out, "do a deep scan, is there ANYTHING alive inside that - ?!" There may be more of a squeak in her voice than she wanted there to be. (See, Nozomi? Yuna gets frightened too.) The robo-faerie looks at Yuna, just for a fraction of a second, then begins the requested sensor scan: very thorough, actively trying to detect any kind of life signs through whatever interference may come from layers of armor or as a side effect of powered-up internal systems. Of course, the way Yuna framed the inquiry, it's just as likely that Elner will try to identify mechanical life-signs (e.g. Cybertronian) as conventional organic .... but either way, Yuna asked - and she really does want, or rather need, to know, before any kind of fight has a chance to break out. Erina and Jiina are moving to rendezvous with Yuna now; Marina hesitates, staying near Nozomi for the moment. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:''' "Ooooooohhhh....!"      Xiao intones with unrestrained wonder, staring up at the giant metal KING OF ROBOTS. So what does she do? Her anklets flare to life, and she rises riiiiiiiight up into the air, ascending...ascending....ascending... All the way up until she's floating at the giant's eye level.      "Hi~" She waves a sleeve cutely, smiling all the while. "You don't mind if I take a few samples from you and the surroundings, right? I simply must know what makes everything here tick!" And she asks the giant robot like this is all some kind of casual get together.      Xiao please. Now is not the time for science. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "Ohhhh boy."     Maaka stares up at the massive mecha, gaping behind her mask as she takes in how BIG it is. It makes anything her world has made look like an RC Car sold by a shitty hobby store. To say the least, it's a miracle the mech's intact despite the facility's abandonment.     She's jarred from her thoughts by the sounds of rolling tanks, the mechanized vehicles giving Maaka reason to draw her repeating blaster. Shouldering the massive automatic, she whistles sharply at the others to get their attention, "Guys, I think they're not taking visitors..." She says. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Emilia has reached a state of giddiness that would make a schoolgirl seem serious by comparison. "Oh, it must be... quite... oooohhhh I'm so excited I can't even do math!" She is actually hopping from foot to foot, looking around the room and noticing the tank mecha whose assembly line she had activated upstairs.     "So, this must be some kind of deployment room or testing area..." Her gaze is still upon the giant, eyes dazzled behind her glasses. But her hand still drops to grasp that grenade launcher in her belt. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' "That is the second biggest monstrousity I have seen in a long time." That's not sarcasm, either, considering it's still said with a fair amount of awe. But considering how big some Digimon get in their alternate forms, Gaonoir probably isn't exaggerating, either. Ears slick back tensely as he clenches his gloved paws a few times. "Do it, Erika. Then stay back so you don't get overrun. Erika flicked her thumb across the touchscreen to fully activate her digivice then looked to Gaonoir again. "You sure? Usually you want to see what you're up against first." "Trust me. After what we saw last time? There's no pulling punches." With that said the digimon sprints away from her, taking a few steps to get closer to the front of the group before leaping into the air to make sure he has room. "Right, then." Erika nudges her glasses up with two fingers, then turns and holds the D-Port up in her other hand. "Digivice, Initiate!" Dramatically pressing her thumb to the activator on the screen. Just as she does and he's leaping into the air the charge in the area engulfs Gaonoir, surrounding him in a brief corona of purple and black digital energies. "Gaomon.... WARP DIGIVOLVE!" Beneath the shroud the digimon's literal essense is stripped down to the code and then reformed, expanding his body as power levels rise, then filling it back in not only with the digital code energies, but with the Dark Digitron infused within his very core surging out and wrapping over to manifest itself into fully formed physical armor. And then the caccoon-like aura shatters into scattering motes as the now towering Knight-like form drops out of it, giving his flowing cape of shadows a dramatic flare behind him. The other arm comes up front of himself with the half-twist, held at an angle as light briefly sheens across the broad vambraces and then the battle claws of glowing darkness extend from the wrist of it. "UMBRA GAOGAMON!" 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     If there's one thing that perpetually throwing herself into the jaws of danger and experiencing mortal terror has taught Nozomi, it's 'survival instincts'. Seeing the immense robot beginning to rise up, she glances briefly at Taiga and bites her lip; the robotic tiger nods faintly, and then leaps into the fray, while Nozomi herself starts looking around. Quick, almost frantic scanning, looking for somewhere she can take cover. Marina probably gets a look that says 'please stay with me'.     Meanwhile, the robotiger is in 'full speed ahead' mode. He goes straight in towards the nearest treadbot, darting from side to side as he scampers with as much agility as he can muster. His cannons track and begin opening fire as he runs, but his real aim is to get in close. If he can break the treads on one and wreck its mobility, he can make it harder for others to roll off the assembly line, possibly backing it up and saving them some hassle. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa look at the giant now and she looks at the thing for a moment the tank mecha show up and the likel Code J is before them iut's huge she was not expecting something bit. She doe howrver cloak at the sight of them and tries to get to cover as she sends a signal to maaka <> She's slinking about as she looks to try and get closer and she'll check for any wireless access points on the huge robots or is she going to have to climb up and get on the machines personally. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' XIAO PLEASE THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR SCIENCE.     Yuna's scans would reveal something simultanously reassuring and... disconcerting. The machine appears to be completely and utterly... mechanical. Its outer shell is utterly devoid of any higher order lifeform more complex than bacteria. Though that may just be because its inner workings are shielded by what appear to be layers of heavy metal alloys and ceramic metamaterials. Penetrative radiation is siphoned into the outer layer of the colossus' armor like water into parched earth. But Elner's scans aren't reliant on ordinary radiation.     The machine /is/ fundamentally nothing more than a complex arrangement of high-end robotics and materials technologies. At its heart thrums what appears to be a fusion furnace. Its brain crackles with enough computing power that it almost certainly contains some manner of electronic intelligence. But there's something else, too-- a strange connection riding out of the machine on a quantum current that leads... somewhere. It's impossible to say exactly where- as one might expect from a connection like that.     The King of Robots regards Xiao with a gaze that is... disdainful, if that's something at all possible. It stares down, past her, as the party begins to mobilize. A voice rolls out like thunder. "Who are you to disturb this place? This tomb must remain sacrosanct!" And then Taiga begins opening fire, shredding one of the tank-robot's treads before it can even begin to roll off the elevator platform. Blossoms of light bloom between the ranks of what machines ARE already present and active.     All at once, a sea of green eyes turn blood red. The King's voice bellows out in a low, keening rumble. "Tomb robbers! Vandals!" It raises its hands, two spheres built into its palms glow with golden light. "Begone from this place! So says the keeper, the protector!"                 =============GARGANTUAN GUARDIAN============                                 ::::::::::::::::::CORE-UNIT:::::::::::::::::                                 =================CODE: JOTUN================                     The spheres on its hands blaze even brighter. Arcing rays of light begin pouring out from its palms, curving impossibly through the air to come down in-between the party's formation, whereupon the beams would bloom into domes of rapidly ionizing plasma! The mecha-tanks begin advancing as well, the heavy autocannons on their shoulders beginning to spool up, but it seems it'll take a moment for them to fire.     MEANWHILE, William Pauwel is cursing his awful luck and has run over to try and SCOOP UP Nozomi! "Miss Nozomi! Y'all hold on!" he says, wheels on his boots engaging. "I'll keep you outta harm's way best I can!" But how long can he dodge HOMING, SCATTER-SHOT PLASMA BLASTS!? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     "GodDAMN IT!" Maaka is almost about to make a break towards Nozomi, to get her out of the line of fire before William opts to do that himself. With him handling things, Maaka's freed up to handle the tanks.     She fires upon one of the tanks, running to make herself as hard a target to hit with her DLT blazing away on auto. Her shots are fired from the hip, with one hand gripping the heavy blaster while her other pops a chaff grenade. It's harmless to her at a distance, but it might play hell with the targeting systems of the tanks. She tosses the grenade towards the treads of one tank, firing upon it immediately after like Rambo would've.     She also wonders who the hell would design tanks like these. With those arms and treads together they look downright comical, either be a robot, or be an automated tank, they don't go well together. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Nooooo, this wasn't how it was supposed to go...! Emilia and the giant robot were supposed to be best buddies and wipe out the weasels together! She actually feels a little betrayed now. But, that's okay. It's a machine, she can MAKE it be her best friend.     But first, to deal with the tanks. "Sic 'em Montgomery!" she yells at her minotauric companion. Immediately, its eyes shift to red as combat mode is engaged! It rushes one of the tank mechs and starts to grapple with its turret! Emilia meanwhile, is searching for any kind of terminal or input for the colossus. Blasting any tanks that look at her funny with that grenade launcher.     She seems quite calm, in spite of the plasma. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:'''             "LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT *UP*!!! EL-LINE!!" The chamber is more than big enough for Yuna to summon the Matrix Figure, and as the Gargantuan Guardian declares its warning and starts charging up to fire, Yuna decides that she needs to take advantage of that. Will is already protecting Nozomi himself, which in turn frees up Marina of the Sea to join her 'sister' units - and just in the nick of time: a pillar of light blossoms into existence around Yuna and the Matrix of Light, their forms fading from view within the column of radiant power. A handful of seconds later, the pillar begins to fade as the sleek, gleaming form of El-Line materializes from within it - armored in white, blue, and gold, its shape and colors echoing the curves and panels of Yuna's own Light Suit. Or perhaps the resemblance is supposed to go the other way ... Either way, Yuna's next word after the Matrix Figure's summoning is a simple, "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" as she invokes her shield, the Wall of the Guardian Star. The kite shield - now proportionally scaled up to El-Line's own size - flares into existence on El-Line's left arm, and Yuna does her best to catch as much of the incoming fire on that shield as she can. On the downside, that's enough incoming firepower that even Shugoseiheki won't hold up underneath the bombardment forever; there are already little arcs and crackles of overload arcing along the super robot's left arm, akin to the way the Light Suit's protective aura flares when it takes potentially-damaging hits. Still, Yuna's not forced totally onto the defensive; El-Line's right arm comes up, and as she calls out, "LIGHTNING SHOOT!!" she tries to blast some of the Gargantuan Guardian's beam-cannons with crackling bolts of her own. Not actually lightning - more like concussive blasts of photonic force - but they look enough like 'lightning,' combined with the attack's name, that it's an easy mistake to make. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' No surprise the boss woke up on the cranky side of the bed. As energy beams sweep through the chamber Gaonoir holds up his arms in front of himself and plants a foot back for bracing, essentially turning the two broad vambraces into one really big shield. A plasma beam sweeps across the surface and detonates, energy billowing out as the force flaps Gaonoir's cape behind him. But the Beast Knight's guard is hopefully enough to give Will the time to grab Nozomi with the cover. It definately gives Erika enough time to scramble back for the far end of the chamber. She's gotten rather good at running -away- from the intense danger after becoming a Tamer. The explosion doesn't do much more at this point than leave some burn marks that are hard to see on the already dark material of Gaonoir's armor. And some smoke sizzling off them as he lowers his arms back to his sides. "That is a miserable way to say hello, by the way," he snarks. Then leaps into the air again. The blades extended from his arms start to glow with dark miasma as he launchs and then whirls around, launching the energy into a shower of crescent shaped energy blades with two swings of his arms. "Umbra Cutter!" However he's aiming not at the tank-robots, but at the machinery delivering them into the chamber, trying to disable or at least slow it down. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:''' Aw.      It was angry. Bringing a sleeve to her mouth, an outline of a finger pressing lightly to her lip, Xiao mumbled. "So I guess that's a no?" Green turns to red, and she blinks. "Oh dear." YEP THAT WAS A NO. The researcher immediately cut the power to her AANS, falling out of the air and tucking this way and that to avoid sudden PLASMA FIRE.      Yuna's summoning of a comparatively giant robot is met with a momentary 'ooooh!', but there were more important things to worry about right now. Like not dying. Can't science when you're dead after all. Well it was most appropriate for a giant robot to handle another giant robot, so--! Xiao focused on the tanks building up energy to fire at them.      She still didn't take out any weapons. Instead, she just smiled and muttered under her breath. "Thundaga." Her body immediately flared to life with electricity, and finally, she brought an arm out of a sleeve, revealing a black metal gauntlet with a gem in the palm. Quite similar to our giant robot friend here. She pointed it at one of the tanks, power channeling to her palm.      And upon landing, she fired, letting loose a beam of lightning from her palm, aiming to disrupt it's machinery with a surge of electricity. Do these things run on that? We'll find out! 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Before Nozomi can actually dive for a hiding spot, someone scoops her up, earning a startled yelp. "Aaah-!" It's something of a chore holding on for dear life. But she does it anyway. Hanging on tight while her rocket-booted savior goes darting and dodging, and- and the robot roars a condemnation. Something in those words gets through to her, even through the haze of mortal terror. There might be something of a peculiar look in her eye for a moment.     Taiga, meanwhile, is leaping and darting as fast as he can, playing his agility to the hilt to keep the robots busy. Those autocannons draw enough attention for him to open fire specifically on those armaments, trying to disable what he can before they open fire. He comes away from one blast of plasma scorched - but still intact, and preparing to circle around to try and flank the tankbots-     "Taiga!"     That was Nozomi. Calling out. It /immediately/ stalls the robotiger's movements. "Nozomi?" Her yells come out somewhat shaky, but the fact she's doing it at all is impressive. "Taiga, come here...!" She adds in a quieter voice to Will, "Take me to Taiga, I... I-I have to... there's something I need to do. I can't... I can't stand this anymore..." 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa gets an idea about the ranks she knows she can't get the main event sure but the tanks might be jackable and recoveirng one would be a hell of a hall in and of itself right? Aslo something less shooting at the party is always a good thing right? She'll spring but that might exposse her she'll then leap from the groun trying to get on to the tank she'll use her body's full power to try to clamp into place and climb up now the trick is to find an access point before something blows her to bits. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Unfortunately for Emilia, the path to the GIANT ROBOT is a little more perilous than she might have preferred. Of course, that doesn't mean she doesn't manage to make her way in, especially with her own minotaur lending its aid AND the firepower being brought to bear here today. Grenades and gunfire and magical mechatiger blasts tear into the hordes of identical (AND COMPLETELY PRACTICAL, THANK YOU) Tank-Mechs, blasting their weapons to bits and blowing off limbs or shattering treads. The Jotun is within sprinting distance now, though how does Emilia plan to SCALE IT!?     Kotone manages to mount one of the mecha-tanks and finds a maintenance panel built into the nape of its neck-- but she also finds herself being targeted by other nearby units. They open fire, unleashing a punishing barrage of high-calibur munitions at Kotone and the party alike. The rounds don't just penetrate, though-- they explode when they get close! EXPLODING GIANT MINIGUNS!!     Xiao's lightning courses through dozens. Thundaga's raw magical power seems to bypass many of the countermeasurs protecting these machines and their comparatively fragile innards. Several burst into flame outright, while others, already confused by Maaka's chaff, begin firing into ONE ANOTHER instead.     Gaonoir's dark power crosses the battlefield and smashes hard into one of the elevators. Its internal mechanisms choke and spasm as it begins to slow. The endless tide of machines flowing into the chamber seems to have abated somewhat!     One might be mistaken in thinking the Gargantuan Guardian's own attacks have let up, but that's only because he has a much larger target to concern himself with. The King growls in mechanized pain as the energy projector in one of its palms is blown apart by Yuna's attack. But even as its limb belches black smoke, the giant reaches over its shoulders and grabs hold of what appears to be a PAIR OF EQUALLY GIANT AXES. "You shall not take this place!" Jotun bellows, surging in with uncanny speed. It swings its axes like a practiced fighter, their edges IGNITING with crackling, coruscating energies as it engages with the Matrix Figure.     As it does battle with its most immediate foe, the smaller cannons at its waist begin angling shots at the group below. They fire GLOWING BLUE HOWITZER SHOTS that burst into cross-shaped columns of superheated gas upon contact with the ground.     And through all this, Will is desperately trying to close the distance between he and Taiga. His expression is... complicated. Concerned and terrified and determined all at once. "Miss Nozomi," he murmurs, "Y'all don't have to keep doing this. That form-- I know you don't like using it, so...!" One of those blue shells cooks off nearby. Will goes flying with the shockwave. Gritting his teeth as he hurtles through the air, he lands in a tumbling mess that he only barely manages to turn into a makeshift roll. Somehow, he gets close enough to Taiga for Nozomi to probably make it there on her own. "Go!" Will says, his handgun coming away from his hip. Bolts of plasma sizzle through the air and blow a pair of autocannons off a nearby tank. "I got this!" He seems to be... kneeling, though, and one of his feet is bent at an... uncomfortable angle. Did he... break something? Again?? 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Oh shit. Jotun's moving. Maaka may have been preoccupied before by the tanks, but she definitely notices Yuna and Jotun's battle, making sure to stay the hell away from that mess for the moment. Instead, she gets in close to one of the tanks, slinging her DLT while using her cloak to remain in stealth.     Tossing a few smoke grenades to mask her approach further, the cyborg uses her grapple to snag herself to the tank, then she climbs aboard, sticking a block of C4 to the side of the machine. Then, she proceeds to try and rip one of the mini guns free with all her strength, forming some tools with a matter manipulator on the fly to rig the liberated mini gun for handheld usage. Hard to use a weapon that has no external trigger, after all.     She then proceeds to turn the mini gun loose after snagging herself a belt's worth of ammo, using the weapon against one of the other tank-mecha with aplomb. "Get some." She grunts under her breath with a grin, hopping off the tank while setting off the C4 as an afterthought. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     "Hrah! They're barely worth the scrap they leave behind!" Emilia barks as the tanks crumble so easily. She only has eyes for her giant robot... w-which is now tussling with ANOTHER GIANT ROBOT!? "OH MY GOD!" she squeaks, hopping from one foot to the other in glee. And, since it's so distracted, she can get up on it!     Right up to the colossus' foot she goes. Now, does she have a grappling gun or somesuch? "Montgomery! Launch me up!" Clearly not. The tamed robot offers a hand for Emilia to stand on... before hurling her straight up into the air, aiming to get her onto the Guardian's shoulder! 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Yuna doesn't exactly breathe easier for taking out one of Code:Jotun's hand-beam-cannons; she's too busy staying worried about the rest of the threats which the group is dealing with. Unfortunately, that leaves its other hand, and the waist cannons which she can't do anything about, and a couple of beam axes whose blades are bigger than El-Line's wingspan. As big as the Gargantuan Guardian is, Yuna barely has time to decide on how she's going to deal with this new aspect to the threat - and normal tactical doctrine wins out. "LIGHTNING SWORD!!" shouts Yuna, and with a crackling flash, El-Line's own melee weapon materializes in the Matrix Figure's right hand. That gives her something to parry the second axe with; she's trusting Shugoseiheki to handle the first one. Of course, even super robots can't TOTALLY flaunt the laws of physics, and just parrying the Jotun Tomahawks straight on will most likely still send El-Line flying into one of the five flat surfaces which define the room in front of the GArgantuan Guardian - and Yuna can only hope it would be a *wall*, rather than the floor (which a number of her friends are on) or the ceiling (which all of her friends are *under*, and she wouldn't be able to deal with all the debris. So Yuna decides she'd better cheat a bit ... namely, by ducking and trying to catch the axes' shafts below the blades, closer to where the other robot is holding its weapons. Physics again: catch the weapons where they're packing less velocity - not to mention *away from the damaging edges*. 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Will is going to be receiving a small surprise.     "...I'm not transforming," Nozomi mumbles quietly.     Taiga doesn't hear that part. So as he's approaching, he's already turning around as if to prepare, but Nozomi says, "Taiga, carry me up! I... I think I need to get close to its head." It's an unexpected-enough request that the TIGER turns to look at her with puzzlement, before lowering himself to let her on his back. She leans down to hold on tight without being told, only to murmur, "And... and hold your fire. Don't attack." He pauses again, then says simply, "As you wish."     And then he's leaping. Straight up, with impressive strength, a high arc that will take both he and his passenger to Jotun's hull. From there, it's a scene right out of Shadow of the Colossus. Climbing, darting, evading defenses as best he can, all the while Nozomi holding on for dear life. He's aiming for the shoulder. Trying to get Nozomi up there, per her request. And as soon as she's as close as Taiga can get her, the girl... raises her voice again. "What... what are you doing?! What are you even protecting?! You're not... you're n-nothing but a great big bully right now, sending out robots to attack innocent people! What's... what's even the point of a protector that attacks people instead of protecting them..." By the end, she has run out of steam. But the fact that the fervor was there is telling.     She has trouble standing up for herself. But after seeing those tankbots rolling out to attack innocent people in the past, she's more than capable of getting upset on behalf of others. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' Gaonoir as more gunfire starts to splay about the battlefield Gaonoir shifts, cloak swirling around the digimon and seeming to fizzle out with a blur of black and purple. Disappear? Not quite. It's more of a short range teleport through a limited medium. More accurately, it's using his ability to shadowstep both to evade the worst of the gunfire and to move across the limited battlefield more quickly. But he needs a shadow to step back out of, which would be why the armored wolfman does so by emerging from one of the robo-tank's shadow. Doing so makes it look like he's rising out of the ground where it's shadow is cast, grabbing onto the tank to lift it up as he does so. Followed by twisting around and swinging said tank towards the others near it, attempting to smash as many as possible before they get any more organized. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa hugs the form of the tank she's on like it's the person she loves most in the world, She reaches for her neck and pulls the cable out moving to jack it into the access point but things re nto going well teh rougns are flying as she's grzed several times and one of them gets close enough to detonate pepping her back with shrarpbnel, Kotone's forced to turn off her taticle senses to prevent her focus from being lost but it could cost her a good bit as she now attempts to get into the tanks code and seize control of it. <> 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:''' So it turns out that combat cyborgs have enough upper body strength to grab tank-sized miniguns and wield them like Rambo wields heavy machineguns. Who'd'a thunk it?     Explosive rounds belch from the liberated weapon, bursting into blossoms of flame and smoke! Maaka rakes her shots across several of the tanks, cratering armor and leaving a couple smouldering before *something* chokes in her new toy. Apparently it doesn't take well to being yanked off its hardpoint... Or maybe it just needs more ammo. Miniguns chew through that stuff fast.     Gaonoir is tearing his way through the dwindling tank formations as well. It helps that he's apparently got Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Armored Vehicles, though. The digimon wields his tank like a particularly awkward club, smashing several nearby before the remaining units close in with their DRILL FISTS. Drill fists that open up into SPINNING PLASMA CLAWS.     Kotone, without as many distractions, is apparently able to break into the tank's code and take control! But it seems to still be fighting her by inches, the machine's movements are relatively sluggish. It seems they've got quite a security system.     Far up above, two titans slug it out. Careful use of her relatively smaller size means Yuna is able to knock the first axe aside... But then Jotun seems to catch on and instead transitions his second swing into a devastating right hook, pivoting his body in such a way that his strength is brought straight into Yuna's crackling blade! Back down below though, two people are deciding to brave the danger and to try and scale the mighty mountain that is CODE: Jotun. Emilia... Has her robot throw her straight up. Montomery is capable of doing a lot of things. He can mangle ferrets, cut open maintenance panels, punch holes in walls and make killer caramel macchiatos. But he's not so capable of body-chucking a grown woman and her grenade launcher fifty meters straight up. Still, an order is an order, and he tries, building cetrifugal force with one or two rotations before chucking Emilia skyward. She gets pretty far! But she'll have to climb the rest of the way.     Will looks surprised-- but glad at Nozomi's response. "Y'all be careful up there," he calls after her as he limps to a broken shell of a tank for cover. "We'll be just fine down here! Y'all do what you can!"     Both Emilia and Nozomi would need to brave a number of dastardly point-defense weapons on their way up. Besides the main guns, it seems that Jotun is also equipped with POINT BLANK HEAT SINKS and ELECTRIFIED PANELS on the way to its shoulders, but they're nothing an experienced Chaser (or mechatiger) can't deal with, probably! As for Nozomi... Well.     Jotun turns its single eye towards her. She can see now why it only has one-- the other appears to have been hewn from its face, the wound covered up by something that looks like a massive steel eyepatch. "What do I protect? Everything! This place. The Masters' Will. These weapons which rest until they are needed. They will be needed. The War is not yet over. And so Jotun stands at the gates, and none shall plumb the depths of this tomb!"     "Those machines," Jotun rumbles, straightening as a port on its midsection lenses open, revealing a glowing, hollow aperture. It begins growing brighter and brighter-- "You ask why I sent them? You should ask why I did not send more! Was it not enough? Do you still strive for the powers sealed here!?"     "You, Inheritors of the Masters," it rumbles, turning the terrible, building light towards Yuna. A column of power erupts with a sound like a thunderbolt. "Do you mean to say that you will not turn this power upon yourselves!?" 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' "KYAAAAAAAAAAAAA---" Yuna shrieks as the punch sends El-Line hurtling towards the side wall, her cry only halting when the shock of impact punts the wind right out of her lungs. So it doesn't trail off so much as get choked off. And the Matrix Figure just ... hangs there, embedded in the wall like some new addition to the decor. What makes things worse is that her shield is on the side of El-Line that's more or less embedded in the architecture, so she can't bring Shugoseiheki to bear when Jotun gets ready to blast her out of existence. Yuna herself barely has the strength at that moment to lift her head, wheezing, "I'm sorry ... I don't want to unleash this power on anyone. I thought ... coming here ... maybe I could stop it somehow. To make sure ... if nothing else ... that one with wisdom ... and compassion ..." Her voice trails off; El-Line's frame sags, the lustre of its armor dimming visibly. Either Yuna can't muster any kind of defense, or she simply *doesn't* - but between that one devastating hit and Jotun's accusation, it certainly seems like Yuna is helpless to put up any more of a fight. And if that blast hits true - well, the best-case scenario is that El-Line is blown apart and Yuna plummets out of the wreckage with a broken Light Suit. The worst-case scenario ... there wouldn't be a Yuna *left* to fall out of the wreckage. 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Nozomi listens. Her scowl deepens. This is exhausting for her on a mental level, mustering up so much fervor, but everything the Jotun says just brings it back. "Your... your masters are /dead/! Th-they're dead, they're /gone/, their war, it... i-it ended in every side losing... a long, long time ago..." She shakes her head vehemently. "If you want to keep these weapons out of everyone's hands, that's fine, b-but... but you /attacked/! You were the one attacking, y-you were the one... you were the one people needed protection /from/. These people... th-they're just... they're trying to live in the ruins of what your masters did... d-did to each other... and you're just... making their lives harder...! Y-you're already turning that power on us, so... so how are you any better?!"     And then she hits it in the face.     It is as completely ineffectual as one would expect a trembling, frightened and angry girl punching solid metal to be. It hurts her. It doesn't do a blessed thing to the hull. She knows it. Jotun can /see/ she knows it. But the more he says, the more this little mouse of a girl ends up fighting against her own nature.     Even Taiga, seared as he is from the trip up (and protecting Nozomi with his body), is watching with quiet fascination. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Emilia clings to the edge of a panel on the Jotun. "I knew I should have sprung for the enhanced pistons!" she mutters grumpily as she begins her ascent, leaping from panel edge to panel edge with the air of an experienced climber. At least, until her hands get partially scorched by a heat sink! "YEEEEEEEEEEOW!"     She bites her lower lip, and keeps climbing! "This won't stop me... nothing will. I WILL GET MY REVENGE! AND YOU'LL HELP ME, ROBOT!" she screams, digging her toes into a gap for purchase... for one final leap, to grab at the shoulder! 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      WHILE ALL OF THIS IS GOING ON...      ...What's that MASSIVE buildup of electricity forming at the far back of the chamber, near the entrace? It's Xiao. And she's just standing there, are arms cross with a calm, amused smile on her face. "Thundaga."      The lightning formed into a huge sphere, only growing larger and larger. "...Thundaga." Another surge of lightning, and it grew bigger. "....Thundaga." Another surge, the fluctuating orb of energy pulsing bigger. It was now several meters in radius, growing more and more unstable each passing moment. She should let it go sometime soon, shouldn't she?      ...But she didn't. She watched, and she waited. Waited to see whether it was even necessary to let it loose just yet. But for good measure...      "...Thundaga~"      FWOOSH. Bigger still it becomes. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa is now locked in a cyberspace battle with the tank itself she's trying to take control and even if she can't well take total control she might be able to turn it off line or even get it at least to flag everyone as allied. She's really hoping if she's lucky she can get this thine for after but she's working to get more control she contiunes her digital assault trying to find wht systems she cna fully take over but she could end up getting locked down pretty bad at this rate. <> 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' While she's staying back and out of the fight like a good Tamer, Erika isn't being useless... Well, mainly she's taking pictures of the fight as it goes on. Though she's also the first to notice one of the remaining tanks behind Gaonoir change it's weapons while he's swinging around the busted remains of one. "Gaonoir, behind you!" Rather that take the extra time to look, Gaonoir reflexively turns around at the shout, and the plasma drill tears into the tank chunk he was still holding. The plasma weapon tears through it, and still hits him, but it's force is lessened somewhat by having to tear through the bottom of one of it's former comrades before burning into his armored torso. Metallic feet screech on the ground as he skids backwards from the blow, tearing a few ruts in whatever material it's made of. Then he gets his bearings back together, eyes narrowing as the tactical feeds within his helmet light up. "Okay, fine, two can play at that game." Muscles beneath armor tense, legs flex briefly, and then mightily launch the Digimon back towards his attackers. "ZENITH CLAW!" He punchs foward with one set of energized warclaws as he hurtles at the remaining tankbots, with enough force to potentially blade-punch his way through several of them from the momentum. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka seems content to keep the mini gun spinning before she realizes she's already wasted the belt. Glancing down at her acquisition, her gut says to dump it, but instead she has a better idea. Storing it in her manipulator, she files a bit of tool time to modify and retrofit this thing for ammo she has plenty of. A conversion to different calibers might be a good call for this thing, if she's gonna keep it.     Otherwise, she just kind of stands there in confusion as she looks up at the Jotun when it begins to talk. "...you can TALK?" She asks out of nowhere, sounding pretty stupid and knowing it too as she shakes her head moments later.     Meanwhile, she swaps to a grenade launcher, firing high-explosive rounds at the tanks, knowing she needs some serious firepower for this one as things press on. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Yes Jotun can talk. Jotun has been pretty vocal on a number of issues. But until now, it's mostly just been roaring one form of wrathful battlecry or another. One would be excused for believing it was on some kind of prerecorded script or something like that.     Now, though. Now he's staring down a giant technomagical robot, half broken on the other side of the room. His own beam continues its inexorable charging process. It seems as though nothing is going to stop it, even as Emilia finally crests the last few feet up onto its shoulder... And gets front-row seats as the Jotun prepares to fire-- *KLANG*     It's a soft blow that rings out louder than it aught to have been capable of. The Jotun turns its eye to the girl glaring down at her. The small, weak, utterly mortal girl except for the beast she rode in on. Jotun growls, turning the blazing bolt building it its midsection aside. A column of raw, blinding *power* shoots across the room, melts through the broken carcasses of a half-dozen tanks, and... Misses Yuna's broken frame by meters. (Though Xiao might find the space immediately above her to be just a little bit molten right now)     "If I had not attacked, they would have come." The Jotun answers. Far below, Maaka's grenades explode, unfolding into glowing, red-orange blossoms of flame and smoke. Gaonoir's claws tear through what she doesn't obliterate, the last of the tanks in the room falling before the force brought to bear against them by the assembled Elites. "I sent my forces to secure this tomb, to protect it from graverobbers. What I found were the broken remnants of a great civilization. /Dregs./ But dregs who did not yet know the curse of power. If I simply withdrew, they would have followed. They needed to fear this place."     The Jotun heaves its great axes back over its shoulders, which mercifully doesn't actually move the armor there enough to unseat Emilia or Nozomi. "Fear is a powerful tool," it says, "I learned this from the Masters. If they would be made to fear, they would not come to look for what is kept in wait here."     "You ask why I sent the forces I did," Jotun rumbles, moving slowly towards its throne. "But not why I did not dispatch more. For the lives that were lost, I apologize. I felt it necessary, to avert even greater loss."     "Nevertheless, you are all here, now. You have destroyed my reinforcements, isolated me here, and you have that weapon," it gestures towards Xiao, "Prepared to fire upon me." "It seems as though I have already failed in my mission," the giant rumbles... almost forlornly. But there's a fire in its voice- a zeal, or maybe a sense of fanaticism. "But you are mistaken. The War is not over. Ceasefire has not been declared. Victory's conditions have not yet been met. The Masters still live and my directive still stands." 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     "...you... you haven't gotten a ceasefire, because there's no one left to give it... th-there's no victory, because there's no one left to fight..." Nozomi sounds... almost defeated. But at the same time, there's something under there. "...a-and yet... you'd... y-you'd rather... you'd rather cling to all that death, than... than help..." Xiao is about to fire. Taiga lunges, shifting his body so that Nozomi will fall onto his back, and then leaps. His user has visibly given up on trying to convince Jotun. But once again he winds up surprised. Because her voice comes out in almost a whimper, speaking his name. "...Taiga." And he knows that tone.                "Disengaging Independent Mode. Rerouting Gensou                                  Engine power to motive and combat systems."                                              "Rampart Mode engaged."                                 The transformation is complete before they hit the ground.     Nozomi banks around and up, taking advantage of the open space here to gain altitude, to climb up high, where she can stop for just a moment. A moment is all it takes to fire up, and then she can descend. Descend with a blade alight in yellow, a blade infused with magical energy intended to hone its cutting edge so that the blade will carve deeply - and then that same energy will explode, causing damage within. She's no fool, not with Taiga's battle experience; she aims, not for the head, but rather the chest, where she can potentially damage its power source, stop it from moving entirely. This is exactly the sort of thing her ultimate attack was made for.                              "EM Siege Breaker."                               

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Well, Yuna thinks, she isn't dead yet. And she can more or less breathe again. El-Line's armor brightens again - maybe only subtly, but it looks more like it did when it was summoned to begin with. Not pristine, maybe, but ... functional. The Matrix Figure doesn't start extricating itself from the wall yet, though; Yuna's will to fight is pretty much nonexistent at this point. She REALLY doesn't want to let anyone else lay claim to the military resources that Jotun has been protecting - and if Nozomi is right about why Jotun's 'War' hasn't 'ended' officially, then ... And the question assembles itself for her. "Who were you at war against?" she asks, El-Line's head lifting and turning to look right at Jotun. Although it may already be too late for the question to elicit an answer, between Xiao Li Yu and Nozomi herself. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' Gaonoir kicks the last chunk of a tank away, and turns his attention to the towering robot as it speaks. Tch. "That's the problem with being a guardian. Sooner or later someone that wants what you're guarding bad enough is going to show up." A bit surprisingly, instead of joining in the attacks he just turns and walks back to where his Tamer is lurking out of the way. There's enough disabling firepower flying around.... And not that he'd admit it, he feels kind of sorry for the big mechanical lug. He kinda knows how the thing feels... well, if it can actually feel the sentiment. You get the idea. Erika.. is too busy trying to get the entire titanic robot in a picture frame before everyone trashes it to comment on the matter. Oi, nerds. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      Hoo boy. Look at that energy blast. It just barely missed Yuna's frame and struck the wall, melting things down and doing all sorts of interesting stuff!      Xiao just smiled all the while, looking more entertained than she really should have been. And as Jotun returns to it's throne. Her smile widens a little more, and she removes a hand from her sleeves, waving cutely towards the towering giant of a robot.      "Hello, hi! Thank you for your riveting speech, but from what I hear, you don't plan on backing down, do you? Well!" She raised that hand back, fingers prepared to snap.                                  "Phantom Weapon"                                  A bright blue sigil formed in the air, facing the giant and creating a portal of some kind before the massive sphere of electricity. And then Xiao snapped her fingers.                                 "Thundaga Cannon"                                  And finally, the sphere of lightning exploded, surging forward and passing through the portal. Upon contact, the wild electricity was molded, reformed, changed into something more uniform...A crackling azure cannon that pierced through the air of the chamber, barreling upwards and aiming to blast Jotun directly. Given the sheer size of that hulking titan, surely there was no way she could actually *punch through it*, but a large enough surge of electricity should at least... Well, shut it down perhaps. Or scramble it into non-threat territory.      Whatever, really. She just had to get rid of this buildup at this point! 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:'''      Immediately following firing that however?      There was a splotch of molten material that landed right next to her, barely missing landing ON her. "EEP!" She leapt aside, scrambling away as the sheer heat proximity seared at her skin. Ow ow ow! 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa has to say the people who made the tank and gets it to finally shut down they can figure out what to do with it later it's quite the bit of salvage though if it has a mind like the j unit? She doesn't know she'll find out later for now she disconnects from the unit and leaps off as the final showdown seems to be pending with the Jotun. She hops off and now attemps to get to some coer she also turns on her pain recepators back on to prevent further extra damage to her self but she doesn't seem to like it she looks up for a moment now to debate what to do next. "..." 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     A misunderstanding? A lack of information? Or maybe this situation has come about simply because there was only one way this was ever going to end. Jotun watches as Nozomi undergoes her transformation. Its single red eye glows serenely from the hollow within its head. Did it expect this to happen? Or does the machine simply not comprehend the implications of its own destruction? Or maybe...     Its hands fold into open palms. Vanes on its wrists hinge outwards and alight like little sattelite dishes. The air around it ripples as a wave of raw force washes outward, meeting Nozomi's descent with light that glows like the fading sun. She's seen this kind of shield before. It's similar to the one the unit in the desert had deployed- but it seems less integrated than that giant had wielded, almost as if someone had modified Jotun's design to make use of it after the fact. Still. It holds. It holds for as long as it can. Xiao's attack smashes into it- a veritable river of electricity flows into the glowing wall, streaming through and around it. The Jotun turns its eye towards the El-Line in the distance, its voice is deep and mirthful. "You ask that of me now? Very well. It is not who we were at war with. It is *WHAT!*" Cracks form in the giant's shield, rays of light lance from the spiderweb fractures as the generators on its arms begin to smoke and smolder. "A scourge that devoured all it touched! A monster the likes of which none had ever known! A foe so great that Victory was the only answer! And yet the Masters brought it upon themselves! Their Salvation!" The shield splinters. "Their Damnation!" "CODE: PA--" What is left is lost in the sound of its barrier breaking to pieces, falling away like shattered glass. Electricity pours into its body as the EM Siege Breaker makes contact. But its arms are raised to protect its chest. The sun that pulses within blazes defiantly against the forces levied against it, until finally it could give no more. Metal and ceramic tear away as Nozomi's blade cracks the hollow of its chest and explodes within. The Jotun's eye dims as a narrow hole is blasted out the back side of its torso. It falls to its knees, smoking and smoldering, whatever was left of its answer lost to the cataclysmic noise of its own destruction. 

:'''{{#var:765|Gaonoir (765)}} has posed:''' "Unfortunately, a war doesn't end just because the ones that instigated it are gone. Soldiers that don't know anything else will keep on fighting, because that's all they have." Gaonoir just folds his armored arms, watching as the titanic robot drops to the ground in a row of metallic noise. Erika lowers her camera to tilt her head back and give him a sympathetic look. "I guess that's a position you know pretty well." "More that I would like to admit." Gaonoir lets out a low sigh, which is followed by a digital crackling as he reverts back to his usual base form. "But I've gotten over that. Mostly. Thanks to... help." "The who were you..." A pause as realization hits Erika. "Ooooo. Right. Your, ahem, old friends." 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     For once, the cold look on Nozomi's face when she breaks away from the target of her attack, is not so simple. There is something under that hardness in her eyes. A complicated set of emotions. Could she have done things differently? Could she have talked the thing down entirely? It was still a potential threat to the people out there. It thought 'put the fear of god in people so they stay away' was an acceptable excuse for human lives. What else would it have done in the name of 'protecting its weapons' for a war that seems long over?     It's a mental debate that she's ill-equipped for in her transformed state. And after she lands, after Taiga folds away and releases her... for once, Nozomi doesn't tremble. She's utterly silent, eyes down towards the ground, lost in thought. 'Wondering if she did the right thing' is a new experience for her. And it's not fun. 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka doesn't have much that can unleash this kind of power, maybe an RPG? She can't spare those on a whim, mind, so she lets the grenade launcher lower before she stores it back in her inventory. She has to wonder what kind of programming would force a robot to act this way, or if it just decided to do so after becoming self-aware somehow.     It's not something that can be easily answered, as such, she just brushes ash and dust from her armor briefly while producing some tools to fix a few chinks in her armor, smoothing over cracks after prying out stray bullet wounds and shrapnel that got lucky in all the excitement. 

:'''{{#var:943|Starlight Bandits (943)}} has posed:'''     Finally, Emilia reaches the shoulder. But she has to hold on, as a beam blasts right through her precious robot! To be honest, she had been tuning it out this whole time. Anything it had to say that wasn't, "Let's destroy the weasels" was simply of no interest to her.     Looking down at the damage that was wrought, she rubs her chin. "That's going to be expensive to fix... but! It'll all be worth it in the end~ Good job everyone!" Now that it's not a combat situation, she can wait on reprogramming it. Thus, she begins her slow descent back down, burned hand be damned. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa watchesw it all play out and she simple close her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath but she's also looking pretty hurt her back is all torn up to the point her4 gear is shredded back there and her robotic internals are expposed for a moment. " She head over to Maaka for a moment. She slumps on the side of the tank she's shut down and she mutters. "I'm not doing ... so good..." She looks sadly at the hulk shuddering a bit, they'd almost got to it...almost but not quite... 

:'''{{#var:571|Alexis Maaka (571)}} has posed:'''     Maaka sighs, her helmet unfolding as she removes it and places it in her lap when she sits down besides Kotone. "C'mere." She stops her own repairs to treat Kotone's injuries, or at least dress them properly until they can get repaired by a qualified expert.     She'll just be at this for a while. 

:'''{{#var:823|Xiao Li Yu (823)}} has posed:''' Once all was said and done...and Xiao was safely away from any errant molten discharge, she smiled and wiped her hands off, before they retreated back into her sleeves, arms folding in her usual manner.      "Well! That's that then. And our dear friend is still mostly intact too. How fortunate~" Quite satisfied with the proceedings, and completely missing the SORROWFUL OVERTONES, the researcher immediately turned and wandered off to the nearest tank remains, beginning to root through them for anything useful or interesting.      "Now for those samples~"      Priorities. 

:'''{{#var:385|Yuna Kagurazaka (385)}} has posed:''' Only now, with the fighting over, does El-Line start seriously trying to extricate itself from the wall. It gives up after a couple of moments - And just vanishes into shimmering light, with Jiina, Marina, Erina, Elner, and a battered- and exhausted-looking Yuna rematerializing. And no sooner has Yuna fully reappeared than she pretty much topples over, only to be caught by Jiina. Not that the Savior of Light would have much to say even if she were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed like she *normally* is ... that fight took too much out of her, physically and emotionally. 

:'''{{#var:7|Kotone Yamakawa (7)}} has posed:''' Kotone Yamakawa says "Thanks Maaka..." She just lets the otehr cyborg work. She's come a long way but she still doesn't like to look at her injuries it causes a dissonace in her mind to see her insides. She just takes a moment and holds still as a corpse while Maaka works. 

:'''{{#var:934|William Pauwel (934)}} has posed:'''     Will crawls out from under the makeshift cover he'd tucked himself into and roughly dusts himself off. Another day, another ruin that proved to be WAY worse than he'd thought they could ever get. At least he's sort of getting used to this sort of thing by now. But... There was something he'd wanted to try. The Chaser digs his oversized handcannon out from its holster and lightly presses it at the broken giant's smoldering right arm.     He-- leaves it there, though. Because Nozomi went and transformed, after he said she didn't need to, and that's... That ain't exactly right. Will stops just ahead of her-- his scuffed boots and limpworthy ankle probably jutt just so into her field of view. "You keep cleanin' up after my messes," Will says, frowning. "Miss Nozomi, are you... Are you going to be alright?" 

:'''{{#var:342|Nozomi Houken (342)}} has posed:'''     Nozomi almost doesn't seem to have realized Will was there. Not until he speaks, anyway. She looks up as if she'd forgotten where she was, giving him a short-lived glance. Shorter than normal. And while last time she transformed, she insisted she'd be fine... now, even though she seems less perturbed by the transformation itself than usual, her response is a mumbled, "I-I..."     "...don't know..." 
}}