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Dr. Vahzilok     Dr. Vasilikos has been trying to get the resources he needs to run a reactor at Vasilikos Laboratories that produces clean energy, with no polluting effects, and which instead produces a regenerative field of healing radiation that can let living tissue repair itself quickly, and preserved tissue to remain viable potentially indefinitely. This could allow transplants to occur years, decades, or longer removed from when the original donor no longer had any 'use' for their organs.

    There were two obstacles, however. The first was that the reactor was expensive for a private medical operation to build and run with all their other costs. The second was that it requires a specific kind of meteorite fragment presently found only in one location: An off-limits locale near the Rogue Isles, Bloody Bay, has those fragments. Dr. Vasilikos is getting some help from a super hero with the reactor, but the ship carrying the meteorite samples managed to get out a distress signal before their transmissions were jammed.

    Thankfully, the coast guard picked it up, but with the news that Arachnos, a despotic criminal government that rules the Rogue Isles, are the ones attacking the ship, heroes have been called in to help.

    The ship is called the Brookhaven's Queen, and when heroes arrive (by rapid-movement power boat if they can't get there on their own, or by whatever other means otherwise), they find the deck to be deserted except for men in black armor and helmets, many of them wielding odd maces and/or firearms.
Alexis It's a good thing Alexis has had her Porygon keeping tabs on signals from Paragon City after the last insurgence of activity had been flaring up. It's also a good thing that she has no limited amount of means of getting out to a ship quickly. Cruising high above the bay on the back of her Flygon it's not long between the warpgate and the Brookhaven Queen coming into view.

They are staying high in the air, though that's probably only a limited amount of effective stealth considering crooks around here are likely expecting flying superheroes. The point is that it does get Alexis quickly into viewing range of the ship through the pair of binoculars she's using from the pokemon's backside. Trying to get tabs on the situation before everyone starts rushing onto the scene of things.
Xiaomu It's been a while since Xiaomu dropped by this part of the Multiverse, but the request for assistance brought her attention back to the Paragon region with interest.

The downside is that she's going to need transport getting out to the Brookhaven's Queen, although if left to her own devices (and without budget restrictions) she'd probably go for a jet-ski rather than something more practical. Since her budget IS limited, she's hitching a ride over on one of those powerboats, or maybe with another of her allies. If she has to be the one to drive the boat ... well, at least she seems to know how to do that without blowing it up, or crashing, or some bizarre combination of both.

Either way, she'll be depending on Alexis's recon, so she's not in a particularly huge hurry to board the Queen - charging in blindly tends to mean bigger-than-necessary trouble.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian will need to use the power boat to get there, yes.  However, he is visibly disturbed on the trip.  The astute or experienced will be able to pick it out-- Dorian has a bad case of seasickness, and it's only made worse by the how fast the boat it moving.  It takes all his control not to lose his lunch.  No, Dorian does not like the ocean.  '''At ALL'''.

    Presumably the power boat will pull up alongside the vessel to allow Dorian and whomever else is aboard it to get onto the ship.  Though Dorian doesn't climb aboard the larger ship immediately.  The mention of the crew not being visible lends itself to uncomfortable thoughts.  What if the crew has been taken hostage and tossed in the hold?  Will these soldiers kill them if they sight heroes?

    For the time being he waits, until he's sure it's safe to board.  Well, reasonably safe.  There will be soldiers shooting at him soon, that's not safe.  He's just wanting to wait until he's not about to sign the death warrants of whatever crew is on board.  So he waits.  And tries really hard not to throw up.
Maya Maya is a bit later in arriving than the otehr sthe blue witch with clear blue energy wings from her back as she moves towrds Alexis to get a lok down at the traget below. "We got quite a mess down there Alexis, we need to figure out just how to go after this. She's got something akin to Alexis binoculars as she's scoping things out.
X As before, X isn't so sure about this mission. The goal is unquestionable for the better of all... yet it once again brings him into violence with people. These acts are not Maverick. They're rational, made with the best of intentions... yet still wrong in their own way.

    Is violence the only path?

    X has not chosen to take the rapid boat. He has... a different approach in mind for this. He took a Ride Chaser much of the way there at blinding speed, slowing down only to slap on some binocular-looking devices and further enhance his telescopic sight range. Seeing the dark figures gets him frowning. "They took over the ship... meaning the crew's probably been taken hostage!" ... NOW this situation just got a heck of a lot worse. Visual confirmation. If he makes the wrong move... and there's hostages aboard... and these criminals are of the extreme and disturbed kind...

    "Why do people DO these things?!" The robot complains, fundamentally not yet comprehending criminal behavior. Not for a lack of trying. Maybe one day he will...

    But X brings the Ride Chaser in low and quiet. It's SMALL, but fast. Hopefully it'll go mostly unnoticed amongst the waves.

    Whatever the case, as soon as X gets up against the mighty ship's hull things get a LITTLE bit noisier. "... Alright, here goes!"

    Leaping from the Ride Chaser's seat he impacts with the hull. MOST people would probably just slip and fall, unable to find a grip. But X's palms and knees are far better at clinging to the metal. With a look of determination and focus in his eyes X hauls himself UP, flying up about three meters only to grab onto the hull and do this strange kicking motion again. He hop-jiffies on up with some clinks and clanks that may or may not just be mistaken for the ship's hull creaking in the waves or someone banging around below decks, ending up holding onto the edge of the deck railing and staying (hopefully?!) out of sight.

    He also makes a point of stopping near any windows the ship might have, if it does.
Dr. Vahzilok     From what the people scouting the ship are able to discern, it seems there's mostly just these armored goons on the ship's deck, though they seem distinctly military-trained, rather than some gang of thugs. Their equipment is all top-notch, not some blackmarket assault weapon or surplus body armor. For those a bit closer, such as within hearing range, they may pick up a conversation between two Arachnos Wolf Spiders.

    "How long is this operation going to take? I thought we were supposed to grab the cargo, take care of any witnesses, and get out before heroes arrived!"

    "Relax. We'd get told if something was wrong."

    Along with the spider-like insignia on their armor and equipment, and the big black high-tech flying machine parked on the ship's deck, there is also a trend towards other arachnid designs and imagery.

    There seem to be about two dozen of these guys in various groups scattered across the deck between the bow and the doors leading below decks, back towards the stern. Some of them can probably be avoided, though some small groups are patrolling and might spot combat if it's not finished quickly.

    When X looks through a port hole, he may see a very spacious interior to the transport vessel, divided by walls, doors, and sliding gates, most of which are open presently. Cargo containers and crates are also visible, as are a bunch more soldiers. There doesn't seem to be any visible sign of the crew... But there are signs of combat, and some kind of mechanical spider-like thing with scythes for 'hands' is sparking and sizzling from battle damage as it follows after a group of limping Arachnos soldiers.

    Could the crew really have put up THAT much of a fight? And if they did, what happened to them as a result? There's still other areas below decks that can't be seen into from this one port hole, so it's not like they couldn't still be down there. But what the invaders were fighting against is still a mystery.
Alexis Alexis gives her aerial ride a nudge with her heel and points past her shoulder towards the deck. There's no need for vocal command as the Flygon gets the idea just fine. The dragon flares her dragonfly-esque wings and dives towards the ship below. With little surprise towards pokemon managing to warp physics a bit she picks up a tremendous amount of speed with such a short dive, thanks to a bit of additional Tailwind. I mean the ability, which increases the user and team's speed for a short period of time.

Just as they're reaching the ship Alexis yanks back to signal to pull up and Flygon does so, hurtling over the ship with enough velocity that it produces a pressurized shockwave in the wake of the passing dragon. One strong enough that not only is the sonic boom loud, but physically and quite uncomfortable felt as well. Boomburst has all the sound and force of being too close to an explosive, but it's just the concussive force rather than the actual explosion and shrapnel and such.

Either way, hopefully it'll shake the guys up on the deck nice and hard so people can actually get onto the ship to investigate what's going on.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian pays attention to the radio in this instance, as he's not totally certain how this needs to be done. The crew could be in danger, or they could already be dead. Or perhaps, as Alexis points out over the radio, it could be that these soldiers were disguised as the crew the whole time? But, speaking of Alexis, she seems to be about to make some noise, so that will be his cue.

    He winces at the loud boom, his stomach -- already making rumbles of rebellion as-is -- giving a nauseating lurch. Swallowing hard to keep his stomach from enacting a full-on mutiny, Dorian throws the grapple up to the railing and climbs up the rope quickly, unhooking it and then dropping it back down to the boat once he reaches it. Quickly he gets over the side, finding some cover quickly.

    Now, he knows he's going to have to rely on something more subtle than just unloading fire and lightning. He's far from a CQC master, but he can definitely bludgeon someone if it comes down to it. Then again that's hardly subtle either. So instead he picks a different tactic. He starts trying to lure away individual guards with odd sounds, lure them behind rows of crates, and then once they're out of sight... freeze them in giant blocks of ice. That should keep them busy for a while.
Xiaomu Time to board the ship like so many heroic pirates, it sounds like to Xiaomu.

She's not out to draw a lot of attention, though; if the bad guys *do* have hostages, all it takes is one person sounding the alarm and said hostages will be at immediate risk of death. Besides, Alexis is already going in loud; that's enough of a distraction for Xiaomu's taste. At the moment. So instead of making a big spectacle of herself, Xiaomu climbs up onto the deck behind Dorian, and helps with the freezing of mooks. She might assist with some of the luring as well.

Hey, letting one or another of the Arachnos mooks think they missed a particularly beautiful civilian has to be worth something as a distraction, right? And Xiaomu's quite fond of some of her 'evening formalwear' cosplay changes ... even if she doesn't quite have the kind of bouncily buxom figure that would make them work even better. Gotta work with what you have in stead of wishing for what you don't, after all.
Maya Maya is just going to keep with Alexis for the momen She looks to her friend for a moment and her pokemon before they drive in she casts a cloaking spell and drops to the deck herself like a dive bomb. She seems ot be enjoying it, and honesly is until she recalls just why she's here and what she's got to do. She'll leave the otehrs to their more direct actions Maya's going to have some fun here as Xiaomu has an iea but hopefully cloaked she can set down on the deck undetected.
X Things for the wounded soldiers and their damaged Mechaniloid quickly go from bad to worse. Because while they're wandering past, maybe chatting or patrolling... there's not only the awful clatter ELSEWHERE on the ship, but...

    X is made of some damn stern stuff. He's no guts man, but compared to the alloys and construction materials and techniques of 21st century Earth?

    He doesn't even need his buster to RIP THROUGH THE PORTHOLE that was, whether or not it was ever designed to be opened, now QUITE wide enough to accept his entry.

    Yes, what the soldiers hear is first a high pitched whine from NOWHERE... then a white hand SLAMMING through the transparent material, RIPPING a hole through the hull... in the next moments?!

    That high-pitched whine becomes a screaming wall of searing plasma erupting from the hand, which rapidly shifts from that to some kind of futuristic gun barrel.

    That blast flies STRAIGHT for the Spider-bot moments before X makes good on his ambush tactic... of LEAPING in and trying to Caaaaaarefully (in as much as this can be said) clothesline one of the soldiers into a wall and wrench away their weapon! "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CREW?"
Dr. Vahzilok     While initially, most the soldiers are knocked down, damaged, thrown through the air (even over the edge of the boat), or stunned by the shockwave attack from Alexis and her pokemon, some among the two dozen soldiers manage to get a few shots off after her, ranging from submachinegun fire to some kind of crimson power blast from maces that could best be termed 'poison rays'. Energy blasts with effects akin to poison or venom. Whether any of them actually hit their target is another matter.

    Dorian's plan to lure the bad guys away is... Not ENTIRELY successful, in that while he does get some people thinking they hear heroes or someone planning to ambush them from behind, and coming to investigate, they aren't coming one at a time. Thankfully, it's still just a couple small groups. Two at the most. Thankfully, Xiaomu is there to deal with them as well! Except, again, her plan is not quite as effective as she might wish. They aren't interested in whether she's a civilian or a hero, and heroes are known to wear all kinds of weird things. This is a cargo vessel, not a cruise ship, and someone in formal evening wear is nine times out of ten someone who doesn't belong here.

    So the fact she's standing up there freezing people with her magic gets her shot at right away with gun fire and some kind of web-grenades that might prove quite immobilizing if they affect her. Not keeping her from acting, but keeping her from leaving her position for a bit, which is still kind of bad when it comes to dodging gunfire.

    But thankfully, as frozen soldiers start accumulating around the pair, and the rest keep shooting up into the sky at Alexis and her flying pokemon, Maya lands undetected with her cloaking spell, able to infiltrate or attack from concealment, depending on what she is planning to do next.

    X, meanwhile, successfuly blasts through the glass porthole and into the cavernous cargo areas below decks. He has a distance to fall to reach the floor, but with his body he can probably handle it no issue... Even if there weren't huge metal cargo containers to land on to reduce the length of the fall. The plasma shot that comes flying through slams into the damaged Fire Tarantula, damaging it further. And... It shoots back with a plasma cannon of its own right after X slams into one of the soldiers hard enough to knock him to the metal floor plating and skid into a wall, and take his rifle away from him! The shot comes at X, along with a few hand gun shots from one of the other Wolf Spiders in this patrolling group.

    The injured guy X just slammed just manages to get out, "Y-you've made a mistake here, hero!" as he struggles to get his bearings back.

    Up on top of the deck, the number of active enemeis has been reduced by about a third, with many blocks of ice, partial or otherwise, and frozen soldiers inside of them. The others are either still dazed from Alexis's attack and weakened enough to get knockd out with another area bombardment, or scrambling towards their Arachnos Flier while firing up into the sky at their attacker or towards Xiaomu at the bow. Dorian still has cover on his side, thankfully, and Maya is cloaked and in position to turn the tides if she takes the right action!
Dorian Pavus     Dorian's trying to remain hidden, but if Xiaomu is making a spectacle of herself, she's also making a target of herself.  And now that they're shooting at her-- and trying to web her to the ship, even-- she probably needs some extra help.  He wastes little time in aiming a Barrier in Xiaomu's direction.  It won't keep her from getting it, or free her from the webs if they can catch her, but it will hopefully buy her a few moments to get herself free.

    Unfortunately he's sort of revealed his own position, since he had to come out of cover to get a look at where Xiaomu was.  But he also '''knows''' this, so he casts a second Barrier in his general area.  In fact, he's going to spend a bit of time doing that, since everyone seems scattered.
Alexis The Flygon does her best to dodge through the gunfire being flung into the air, though with Alexis on her back her choice of aerobatic maneuvers is somewhat limited. As such the viral beam slams right into her chest while she's looping away from the machinegun rounds. It makes Mirage hiss in aggrivation, but being a Dragon/Ground type and resistant to poison, succeeds in shrugging off anything worse than the initial damage of the attack. Some of the gunfire does ignite sparks of being hit as well, but like most dragons her hide is tough enough to take a few shots.

"Guess it's not just Pokemon that shoot poison," Alexis murmurs. They drew a lot of aggro from the enemies but it paid off as the others were able to move into positions to keep trimming down the numbers of foes. Her own attention shifts a bit when she notices the gunmen also running for the aircraft. "You okay yet girl?" Flygon gives an affirmative sound somewhere between a soft growl and an insect-like buzz. "Then see if you can't cut off their escape!..." Pauses at the radio briefly, "But try not to make things worse."

At the command the dragonfly banks off from the attackers to redirect towards the Flier parked on the deck. Eyes narrow behind the protective lenses over them, which actually function as a limited amount of compound magnification much like a normal insect's eyes would. "Flygoooooon!" As she opens her mouth to roar, a stream of sand and grit plumes from the open maw. By the time it reachs the deck it's turned into a sort of minature sandstorm. Being an entrampment move Sand Tomb produces more than enough force with the vortex to suck the Arachnos troopers into it and drag them away from their craft, even if the swirling sand won't do much damage through their armor.

Looks like they decided to take Xiaomu's advice in mind and just keep the men from the vehicle instead of disabling the craft.
X X finds himself shot in the back! ... By an epic amount of plasma. The robot, oddly enough, apparently feels pain, because he halfway clenches down on a scream and staggers forward, losing his grip on the injured soldier. "Guess that wasn't enough to take the Mechaniloid down!"

    And yet... on that matter, IS it a Mechaniloid? The thing reacted WAY too fast. He's not so sure it is one. Most Giant mechanilids are pretty SLOW about reacting to surprise attacks. They take time to analyze what's attacking them, which way it's coming from... acquire target locks, and start shooting.

    Paradoxically, this thing reacted TOO QUICKLY to his ambush. Which means...

    "That's NOT a Mechaniloid?!"

    Now he's not so sure about it. It could be remote controlled by a greater intelligence... but it's big enough that... "... Could be someone in there, but... if they WERE." Would anyone actually DO that? Nahh....

    .. Right?

    On the other hand, if X had NOT been in that shot's way... it could've hit the injured soldier.

    Grimacing and enduring a brigade of bullets, X regains his footing only to freeze indecisively for a few seconds and take a pummeling. It's only when the Fire Tarantula's in position to fire again that leaps atop one of the giant cargo boxes and circle strafes around it, peppering it with shots to joints and weapons. "That thing's a menace to its ALLIES..."

    The smaller arms fire is not as much of a threat as the plasma, but it's ripping gouges into his armor and knocking off his aim. "Is that all you have to say?! I asked a question!" And maybe they'll answer once he brings down this spider....
Xiaomu Getting pinned down kind of sucks, but at least Xiaomu was behind a convenient corner or something when she came under fire. She's also not without defenses of her own, although Dorian's protective spell earns him a quick call of "Thanks!" - and an encroaching web-grenade is met with a couple of bullets, before the sage fox ducks away from Arachnos bullets being directed towards her.

Oh well. She has grenades too, albeit not too many of them; she peeks out of hiding just long enough to check how many are approaching her from what direction, then pulls the pin on one of her grenades and chucks it in the biggest cluster's direction. It looks pretty conventional as grenades go ...

At least until it goes off. That's when the incendiary enchantments worked into the grenade by Shinra's Weapons Division are triggered, enhancing an otherwise-normal explosion with a big boost of fire magic. Mooks tend to be pretty flammable, right ... ?
Maya Maya is on the boat now and she banishes her wings she's going to keep moving now as the other smove in to start taking the attackers down one way or another. She ststs to pres son she know what they want may inside the ship, well that's where her trian of thought is going, these guys are to delay anyone getting deeper into the ship in all likelyhood so she's going to try to get below decks and see where they are going with this. She hopes this isn't the wrong call but she may just be also looking for targets that need to go down on the way as well.
Dr. Vahzilok     Dorian's barrier spell on Xiaomu and himself no doubt reduce the affect of any fire that comes their way, and with a sand storm whipping up on the deck and hurling more enemies into crates or overboard, it's not long before Xiaomu's grenades finish off the remainder of the foes who were weakened by aerial bombardments and aoes, or held in place with magic ice. It seems the way is clear, and Maya is acting as an advance scout. When she goes through the doors, and descends the stairs to a series of metal platforms along the walls, each linked with more steps until they reach the floor of the cargo area, she may see that there appear to be Arachnos troops actively engaged in battle with some towering, glowing monstrosity. Like a slime monster with claws and spines down its back and... What appears to be... A partial human skeleton inside of it. As it is pelted with gunfire, it slashes an Arachnos soldier and sends him flying through the air, then it turns on a Wolf Spider Huntsman, his black and red cape flowing out behind him as he rushes forward, firing poisonous energy blasts from his mace at the thing, and it retaliates with a blast of visible, crackling green energy that makes he air produces sizzling static-like noises that may even interfere with Maya's radio a little bit if she tries to use it.

    What IS that thing exactly!? Maya's radio will still WORK, but her messages may be a bit... Garbled until that creature is disposed. And perhaps awhile afterwards.

    Meanwhile, continued fire from X causes the Fire Tarantula to slump to the floor, legs splaying, as whatever is driving it shuts down or passes out. It doesn't explode, but there's plenty of surface damage from both what appear to be claws and from X's buster weapon. The Wolf Spider with the hand gun tries to keep shooting at the android, but if X remains mobile like this, it's unlikely he'll get to land a hit. Before he needs to stop to reload.

    And then he'd be vulnerable to an attack as well. The dazed Wolf Spider gets to his feet but probably isn't in any condition to keep fighting, as he reaches for a Heavy Pistol of his own, but good luck aiming at anyone accurately like that!

    "We don't know where the crew went! All we found down here were monsters!" the Wolf Spider Enforcer retorts as he tries to get a bead on X.
Dorian Pavus     Dorian breathes a sigh of relief as the coast now seems clear.  He looks to Xiaomu, and then asks, "Are you all right?  Can you head below with the rest of us?"  They do need to continue, unfortunately he doesn't have any healing magic.  He's pretty much focused solely on offense.  But he can try to see to her wounds the normal way.

    Though if Xiaomu's able to go on, he'll head below deck.  It sounds like there's a lot going on down here-- there's so much noise!
Alexis "Welp, I guess this deck is shipshape again." If you don't mind the sand stewn about now, the unconcious bodies, or the men frozen in magic blocks of ice. Flygon's wings flutter at a buzz as she lands on the deck and lets Alexis slide down off her back. Briefly the tomboy pats a hand at the bugdragon's neck before withdrawing her pokeball. "You better take a rest after all that, might still need you to fly back home." A flash of red light and energy returns the Flygon into the spherical device.

It is switched for another, and the discharge of energy materializes into her Meowstic. Seeing as they don't have Cortex along this time she's going to field one of the few psychics she has. "Meowstic. <<Ooh, now that's interesting.>>" Alexis opens her mouth to ask by the psychic feline is already darting off in the direction Maya headed below deck. "Hey wait a mini -- dammit!" With a flustered huff she quickly hustled after her pokemon.

Knowing the sort of things the oft morbidly humored feline finds 'interesting', this could be even more trouble.
Xiaomu "I've taken worse injuries in training, I'm fine," Xiaomu replies to Dorian with a grin. And if she HAS gotten hurt, she's not letting it slow her down at all. She's curious about the report of monsters, though; she double-checks her weapons before heading belowdecks with whomever else. That includes confirming her supply of grenades; she's only got one left, but she doesn't want to use those in a confined space anyway.

If anything, the prospect of dealing with proper 'monsters' actually seems to pep her up some. She knows how to deal with non-human opponents well enough, after all ... although she could use more details about what KIND of monsters are on the ship, and any surviving conscious Arachnos operatives are subject to questoning as she passes.
X Indeed, X may not have radioactivity sensors. He may not have a LOT of bells and whistles... but he has tactics, he has reflexes, he has one HELL of a balancing system for acrobatics and he has a heart that won't stand for deaths.

    So Even though some bullets strike him and a few hit areas where the plasma bolt already compromised his armor, he just winces and presses on despite the damage suffered. His body sparks in places, crimson crystalline plate on his forehead briefly pulses as auto-repair systems start kicking in.

    The INSTANT the Enforcer's forced to reload X slides partially down the cargo crate then presses off with considerable force. It sends him barreling for the guy... a full on TACKLE that may well end with the two smashed up against a wall!

    WHUMPF!

    That's one guy down, probably crumpling to the ground in agony. The very next second, X moves with blinding speed the moment the one he originally tackled fumbles for another weapon. His X Buster is up and aimed directly for the larger target of that bigger pistol.

    He probably doesn't intend to fire it and risk blowing the guy's hand off, but it's the intimidating factor that matters here.

    "Come on, already. You're not going to win this! Just surrender and drop the gun before someone less interested in your health comes down here. Your best bet was that spider bot. Can't you see how that ends?" Although the words may be arrogant, his tone's full of concern and plenty of exasperated frustration.

    To make a point, he proceeds to step on the tackled guy's weapon... and promptly grind it to pieces, even denting the floor.

    "Tell me everything you can about this operation while you're at it, and the monsters. I can't believe anyone would go after supplies destined for medical research."
Maya Maya :is notinc her codec isn't working so well the deeper she gets as her allies keep things busy but there's something else going on here she keep moging now but she's also concerned about just what is going on here. She finds the troops fighting a horror she stares. She states at the laien thing and she's trying to get a comm signal to her allies.

<<Unknown*Static* xeno*static*>>

is all that gets through she moves in now trying to get a drop on the horror it needs to go down and it may be worse than the Arachnos guys /are/ givne they are focused on taking it down.
Dr. Vahzilok     As people make their way down below decks, they may catch sight of the glowing slime-corpse monster, and the weakened Arachnos troops surrounding it as they get blasted backwards by some kind of huge sphere of crackling green energy that erupts into a miniature mushroom cloud. The Arachnos soldiers collapse to the floor, unconscious (probably just unconscious anyway), though the monster seems to still be functional as its roars echo in the cavernous ship interior. But it's apparently taken some serious damage during the fighting as well, since the Huntsman, just this side of consciousness, manages to fire a grenade into its back at close range, blasting the goopy monster forward to ooze all over the floor, before succumbing to the green energy burning him and collapsing as well.

    Maya manages to go unnoticed and thus goes unirradiated, getting out her fragmented message for others to pick up and allow them to locate her. The remains of the creature stay behind though they also seem to be gradually dissolving into green ooze and steam that probably isn't safe to inhale.

    X's questions are mostly refused to be answered by the Enforcer, though the guy with the hand gun is a bit less strong willed and answers, "There's cargo onboard, and we're supposed to retrieve it! That's all I know! Nobody told us there'd be monsters and we don't know what happened to the crew! I thought we were getting research materials for Dr. Aeon, not some 'medical supplies'!

    Clue Obtained!

    Aside from mopping up some stragglers, it seems the mission is mostly completed... The cargo seems to be safe, though some of the crates have been busted open, but it appears to all be here still, and ready to be transported by the Coast Guard when they secure the vessel and sail it into Independence Port.

    Still... Who is this 'Dr. Aeon'? What WERE those monsters? And where did the crew go? Mysteries for another day.
Alexis By the time they catch up to Maya on the lower decks the Meowstic is absolutely giddy, despite the creepy neutrally morbid tone of her voice. "<Oh look, it even has a skeleton submursed in it. How putridly facinating.>" Alexis just makes a blanched expression as she comes up behind the pokemon. "Sometimes I worry about you, cat. That ain't anything but disgusting."

But then the thing starts to melt and ooze out noxious fumes, so it's back into the manner of action for a moment. "Whatever! Catalyst, use Light Screen!" Meowstic's eyes start to glow a bit as she holds up her paws, tapping just a tiny portion of her psychic reserves to form a faintly shimmering barrier of energy between the dissolving fume spewing monster and the other people present. Even the Arachnos guys. Better they survive to go to jail than get contamination from the gases or something else nasty.
Dorian Pavus Dorian makes it down to where the major trouble is just as the glowing thing melts. Unfortunately, his stomach is already queasy from being on the boat. And the stench from that '''thing''', whatever it was, is enough to make his stomach turn! Nausea rises, and he claps a hand over his mouth, looking horribly green. He backs away from the scent, back towards the stairs to the upper deck. Yes, that is very definitely the sound of a dry-heave, though it's muffled by his hand.

    Once he gets control of himself again, he moves his hand away from his mouth, up, to cover his nose as well as he can. "Vishante kaffas!" he sputters. The Light Screen will doubtless at least decrease the stench somewhat. He coughs slightly, once he can breathe again, and looks to Alexis and her Pokemon. "Thank you. I'm queasy enough, and that scent was not helping."
Xiaomu The stink from the now-destroyed monster is bad enough that ... well, not to put too fine a point on it, but Xiaomu doesn't even TRY going belowdecks; she gets one reasonably substantial whiff and retreats back to the edge of the ship's deck, just far enough from said edge to make sure she won't risk getting tossed overboard.

Alternatively, checking out the Arachnos airship might just possibly prove fruitful. As in, there's about a 50-50 chance that Xiaomu will be trying to check the craft's interior out - probably not trying to force access to the computer, but just seeing what they're carrying inside it.

Also disabling any Arachnos mooks who got left guarding their ride home, of course.
Maya Maya has seen horrors before but the multiverse has this habit of twisting things around so she /never/ quite gets hardned or used to such things. She decloaks for a moment and she now looks about However she backs off from the monster she's going to go tend to wounded. She'd not want these guys to miss out on thier court dates or there might be others in need of help.