Scene #5505: Seat of the Ego-3

Owner	Pose
Priscilla	The return sadly cannot be made through the Hall of Doors. According to reports by personnel stationed there, the Observatory has disconnected itself from there (somehow) and another route seems to have taken its place in what the few viable doors connect to. This is as of yeat unexplored because low-level Elites specialized in research and their personal mook staff aren't dumb enough to wander into that. Instead, people are deposited through the artificial warpgate set up using the Concord's resources as a 'checkpoint' in the safe zone between the Observatory's cosmic walls and the gigantic barrier of fiery static that blocks their way forward. Or, at least roughly there. Very concerning is the fact that the warpgate actually deposits them in a seemingly random scatter a hundred meters in every direction. Concerning, because that shouldn't really be possible with everything anyone knows of the Multiverse's impenetrable back-end physics. The implications of some kind of warpgate scrambling process are either extremely valuable, or speak to just entirely unstable this whole place is, and provokes further questions about the nature of what went down. Oddly, the 'watching' presence from the other day seems heavily diminished, and there are a number of light-beams that behave completely normally, like the physics had decided to calm down for five minutes; that is in certain areas. Places where the observation equipment has been removed or accidentally destroyed appear to be less outright dangerous than others, so it might not be as hazardous to go back. On the other hand, the strange energy signature is significantly weaker than before; enough that another, identical one, can now be detected behind the wall. Or, maybe the same one moved? Or it exists in two places at once? Who can tell.
Starbound Flotilla	The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here, in their standard Durasteel equipment! Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body durasteel armor that looks like a powered cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor, glowing cyan at the faceplate. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces to her central piratey longcoat. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a futuristic combat EVA hardsuit that glows a gentle red at the flat faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator. Unfortunately, all are deposited at completely random places. "Cool. Cool! This is fine. Moonie, what the fuck did you do to the Gate?" "Nothing. It is as all others before it, by the readings." "'Tis no strangeness of our gear, it's a strangeness of the space." "Interested. But it seems less warped. Perhaps that mysterious source has moved on?" "Remember! Travel isss weird! Mussst go with flow, follow along." "Hmph. If necessary and efficient. Squad, on me." They need to move on past the Observatory, and fast! It's less of a weird issue to be inside right now, but it's still a place they don't exactly want to /hang around/ in. As such, they get to work immediately. They follow that same method they found before, though this time they've brought along a sort of mobile, flying cart of sorts, individual little hover-buggies designed for low-speed movement along the defined paths of motion within the Observatory. Albert's the one who has the idea here, one that he has Seft work on; the Starbound Flotilla will approach one of the fringes of those weird sensor regions, and point them at the static wall. When you can't see through the static, you need to adjust your set, after all! They are keenly aware of the signatures; the Flotilla is operating with the intent to claim a highly valued prize, and so their movements are direct, purposeful, and unified.
Captain Flint	Flint feels justified in having brought along Dr. Howell this time, upon his five-man squad being dispersed in such a seemingly random fashion. It doesn't seem an auspicious start for this endeavor, but eventually his men will find out what he's been doing with their money, and he doesn't intend to be empty-handed when they start asking questions. The squad consists of Flint, Howell, Silver, the taciturn, katana-wielding Joji, and the young, jovial Mr. Moseby, who favors a pair of hand axes. The five men take a couple of minutes to regroup after being dispersed by the warpgate, each one carrying supplies sourced from the Concord checkpoint. Howell seems none too pleased to be here, nor does Silver. Joji regards everything with a silent, stoic grimace, Moseby with a wide, toothy grin. Flint takes point and motions for the others to follow, pausing by the remains of what was once a load-bearing pillar. "You read the manuals I provided?" Flint quirks a brow at his doctor in a way that dares him to provide an unsatisfactory answer. "I did," answers Howell, producing a modern medical manuscript from his backpack. "I took some medical supplies from the forward base, as well." "Good," Flint says. "We'll no doubt have need of them shortly." With that, the captain makes for Pavo and George, accompanying the two of them to make up for his own lack of sophisticated equipment. "Captains," he calls out. "Hold a buggy for us, if you please." Flint and his men likewise get to work, using grapples to climb up one floating platform at a time until they can hopefully meet and join up with the Flotilla.
Starbound Flotilla	"Heyyy, cap! Back in the day, I could have held one for ya, I could bench that weight easy. These days I've gotta just settle for keeping 'em ready for you to use!" "Aye, come aboard! We'll have ye where ye'll need to go easy and simple, matey. Glad having yer help on this plundering!" Yep, Flint can catch a ride without trouble. And get a healthy dose of the usual Flotilla-brand friendship from his two main contacts in the group!
Mitsu Mirage	Mitsu's following along, the Mage is in her barrier jacket, just strolling along without saying a word... at least she got people into the Citadel, so she had some involvement. She twitches her head a bit, a loud pop escaping from her neck as she preps herself for anything to come, Kratzenfaust's claws charge up with lightning magic, bolts of lightning arcing up between the blades. She doesn't say anything right now, just keeping her eyes out and waiting for her Device to scream out anything.
Haguro	A boat is here! Not in boat form, of course, since Haguro's not quite ready to risk crushing all her allies just to make an entrance. She's got other work to do, after all: GODDAMN PHOTOGRAPHY. First things first: Getting shots of just how far everyone's been split up on coming through the warpgate. :"That's not supposed to happen at al... Hm. This place just has more and more mysteries, doesn't it?" The shipgirl comments aloud while snapping a picture of the Flotilla's flying cart, Flint's split up crew, Mitsu's battle preparations, and especially the artificial warpgate just to see how far she's been dropped from it. "Did all the equipment get removed, or is this a different spot...?"
Metal Man	The last time Metal Man was here? He and Flash Man ran off with some very imporant drives as the monument to hubris came undone he was alone today though comming on his own. His brothers busy with other tasks. He is her and moving with the rest of the group he seems on edge here he does not want to be here. "Heh I remeber when we built this place, hell The Wily army worked on it." He does not have heavy scanning gear he's a combat robot. So he's more here for his experiance with the place before it blew up and as a guard. "Get used to it this place is made of hubris and it hates us all even in death." He now looks away grom Haguro and starts to look for signs of the missing gear, or maybe she's right they are in the weong spot?
Kushiko	Given the instability of the time before, as much as Kushiko might really /want/ to bring say, Nova Prime, the unstable antimatter particles that she actually utilizes, generates and otherwise makes for interesting times for friend and foe alike (good for friend, we swear) so that's right out. This means that her original frame (as it were) is being brought to bear: the aptly name wielder and guardian of electromagnetic forces, Mag. The technorganic frame's almost regal in some strange way, gildings of silver and other little refinements, to say nothing of that weird little maelstrom of Void energy swirling in the upper half of her helmet--head? Floating bits of quantum and electromagnetic force suspending parts of the frame aside, she looks every bit like a classical ninja, right down to the 'tabi' feet configuration. The strange energy signature is merely one part of her focus--tying into the forces she herself uses, but the perversity, the strangeness of it all screwing with physics is something her very essence is at home with, so she's keeping watch as much on those who can effectively /measure/ and record properly, while allowing her suit's systems to do as they can. <"It's certainly chaotic, but that goes without saying. Defiance of intrinsic properties could be a byproduct of what's gone on, and not something as deliberate, hopefully."> The lesser of two evils, as she rejoins where the others are from being deposited unceremoniously several meters away--the benefits of being a goddamn space ninja is the ability to make terrain your unequivocal bitch through parkour and other bullshit skills, after all. <"Also, yes, this is the same Tenno as before. We're using another frame that's a bit less likely to cause certain problems."> She does have some weapons clipped; one of them looks like... some kind of rocket warhammer? And another some odd, sleek and angular sidearm.
Priscilla	There is at least one thing to be thankful for, and that's the fact that the safe routes haven't significantly changed from last time. Despite the incredibly chaotic nature of the Maw of Tyrants, there at least seems to be some method to its madness, like things had broken in some incredibly complex and inscrutable manner rather than being purely random. Moving along the plotted paths in the hovercraft especially is really easy. Nobody even gets attacked by a sentient mini-galaxy or section of exploding space. It probably feels strange, trying to catch up the warpgate where one should have started, but with the consensus point of interest being the strange veil of floor-to-ceiling rippling static, it's a requirement. Arriving before it, it starts to feel kind of like a commensurately huge bonfire, being prickly and uncomfortable to exposed skin, and growing exponentially more awful and even somewhat difficult to breathe the closer one gets. Unless a fire, clearly, nobody would suffer any actual burns; it's more like incredibly bad static electricity all over. Getting really close, tech and super senses start to really screw the pooch, though they regain functionality after stepping back for a moment. Metal man is practically blind up close. /Really/ close, even Haguro's camera just shows static through the viewfinder, which is probably pretty weird for a chemical photo camera. About the only thing that doesn't crap up to some degree is the good reliable stuff Flint's team is using. The Flotilla can absolutely detect the same energy presence behind the barrier. The barrier itself appears to be a kind of spatial anomaly similar to what generates the weird revolving arrangement in the Observatory, and the 'background radiation' coming from the viewpieces that separates the giant room from Somewhere Else. It's quite probable that the area beyond is spatially isolated or stitched together or something, but there's also a weird point of note. By all accounts, it doesn't appear to be solid, nor show any (overt) signs of being physically dangerous. Admittedly, the anomaly pockets hadn't shown much before they imploded a bunch of Staren's drones, but they weren't really readable in the first place. It's easy to forget that this probably wasn't here before, and thus wasn't an intentional part of the Confederacy's design, and thus properly meant to keep potential Union intruders out. Effectively, whether one wants to gamble on it or not, something everyone can agree on (even Ordis if he's paying attention) is that it isn't a purposefully designed security system, and not something the fragment of Vermilion Sunset they had contacted before has any control over.
Captain Flint	Upon drawing nearer to the static, even Moseby falters a little. "What is it?" asks Silver. "I've never before seen its like," says Flint in response. "Nor for that matter, have I seen a warpgate act in so temperamental a fashion. The rules are... different here." The one time it would've done Flint some good to lie, he doesn't. He really has no idea what's going on here, save for the possible explanation that the cataclysm which befell this place altered or broke rules once held as inviolate. When the captain, the Walrus' most vocal supporter of Multiversal exploration and its most frequent extraplanar traveler, is at a loss for words, it's a matter of grave concern for the other Walrus crew present. "Should we be this close?" asks John Silver. He eyes the static warily, rubbing the back of his hand as the spatial phenomenon causes his skin to tingle uncomfortably. "It seems... opposed to us, if that's possible." What he means is 'opposed to life itself.' But perhaps his intent is clear enough without saying it. Flint, for his part, is determined not to let superstition govern the minds of his crew--especially not coming from Silver. Spearing an orange from Nassau on the prong of his grapple, he tosses the implement into the static, waiting for a few seconds before pulling it back to see the anomaly's effect on living matter.
Haguro	Haguro frowns slightly as the camera doesn't seem to be capable of capturing anything besides, the lack of logic inherent in it actually seeming to make some sense to the Cruiser if her 'eh sure' nod is any indication. It's not like she's getting no pictures, at least, but she soon slips the camera away. It does free up her hands, too, so there's that! Stepping closer to the static, the shipgirl inches closer until the horrible tingling gets to be too much, and she jerks back with a startled squeak. "How strange.... Do you think all this static might have something to do with the warpgate's malfunctioning?" She watches John Silver as he tests the static as well, then at Flint when he tosses the orange in. Time to see what else happens with throwing things in. Haguro picks a revolver bulelt out of her pocket, then flicks it at the static and braces, trying to angle her armor towards it in case it fires back at her.
Starbound Flotilla	"Even my Hylotl senses are blinded by this anomaly." "Ohhh, if fish eye isss bad, wooooh, everyone WATCH OUT. Ugh." "Hmph. Seft. Try multiple systems." "Worried. None of our technological paradigms pierce the effect at all." "Yeah, that's not the point, you see? You gotta go with the flow here." "Aye? And what'd be the 'flow' to be going with?" The Flotilla navigate their way back to the camp and get to work on scanning at the static wall using a far wider array of stuff than they should have. Stolen enchantments, reverse-engineered foreign tech, their six native tech systems... No dice and no progress. George's proposition is surprisingly accepted by the other members, though. Moonfin looks to Kushiko for a moment, peering at her and querying, "You've no small measure of experience in dealing with anomalous spaces, from what I am told, yes? Perhaps it may be best that you act a vanguard, George intends to simply stride through and 'follow along', and it would grant my heart a measure of peace to have your blade between him and any death that awaits." "Smart move there, Flint." Pavo says, gesturing at the grapple. "Never balk at danger, but always know how much danger to be not balkin' at." She laughs a quick, easygoing laugh. His results, if they come out too lethal, are something that may well easily abort George's plan, of course. "Yeah, so far, fighting the anomalies isn't the way to go, you gotta go with the current. This is rooted in that same weird energy we caught coming in the Observatory, so maybe being kinda blind is just how stuff is gonna work here. The issue before was /too much/ looking, maybe here the gimmick is not /enough/." George ponders, as he approaches. If the wall is not quite literally a wall, George well intends to just lead through on pushing into and inside the field, walking in a fairly straight line and following any noises or other stimuli that guide.
Kushiko	The problem here, at least in the case of Kushiko is most of her senses are somewhat... otherworldly? They could be tech, they could be magic. Certainly some are more readily definable as tech. Regardless of the actual auspices of this it means she herself can't readily, easily approach this... /thing/. This static and this barrier. Ordis chimes in, loud enough for everyone to hear: "My sensors are--bLEEdINg-g-g." After a brief pause, he continues, "Based on analysis of previous sectors and cross-referencing Concord databases, this is highly unlikely to be a deliberately designed system. Please exercise all caution when probing this anomaly." Last part being a bit obvious, but Kushiko grunts slightly, the sound carrying oddly. The 'static' sense of electricty is something she tentatively reaches out with her own electromagnetic controlling force, more intent to see if she can polarize the energy any, turn it into something a bit less /ick/ feeling and a bit more positive feeling. <"It's possible, but with the way it's reacting..."> The frown is audible in her voice to Moonfin's query. <"We would prefer to watch over him all the same, yes."> There's something of a maternal, protective slant in her voice that's not typically evident. Peculiar. In any event, she's actually going to tentatively 'check' the energy with her own, allowing Void energy to supplement her Warframe's body a bit more. After all, they've gone through worse portals like this. What's one more? Especially since, uh, George's deciding to make the notion of 'once more into the breach' quite literal. Oh dear. So thusly did she quickly advance in order to accompany George and hopefully keep him from being, you know, horribly murdered by space-time.
Staren	Had Staren come out of the warpgate, he'd have remarked that warpgate physics themselves are breaking down here -- at least, Staren's gathered that's the theme -- in the Union's old HQ, everything is flowing together and mixing in unusual ways, while in the Confederacy's, everything is breaking apart and malfunctioning in unusual ways. But he doesn't. Until after everyone's made it back to the gate, and he just walks out none the wiser. "Geeze, everybody's rushed right up to the static, huh?" He approaches himself, but sort of... cringes, like approaching something too bright, then keeps shifting position like he's trying to look at an optical illusion from multiple angles. "That is weird. Can any of you... do any of your vision not go all staticy near this thing, or does it affect organics /and/ machines?" He stares into space for a moment as he writes a macro to pilot a quadrotor forward and then back autonomously, before pulling out a drone and activating it, letting it fly into the static. If the effect is purely sensory and it isn't prevented on the other side, it should return...
Metal Man	Metal Man gets too close and gows blind, error signals are going off. He gets a what the hell look on his face that his face mask can not hide all of the look on his face. He pulls back off from it. "That is not good I can't see if I get close to that." He does not like going near that heck he's going to not go /near/ that now. Nope it's bad news for him to go near that but he wonders whatis causing it. "This is not standard for the Confeds, I don't think this was part of the design." He note while looking to the Foltilla while they do their thing. "I can't even blame Xiang for this..."
Mitsu Mirage	At least Mitsu's got nothing to worry about with sensors.. Kratzenfaust seems to be unaffected as well compared to the others here. She gives a bit of a shrug, looking between everyone here before heading up to that anomaly itself, watching the orange be thrown into it, "Hmmm?" she mutters, "Sorry Kratzenfaust, you're gonna experiment here. See how it reacts to something like you." and without any care for anyone else around... she punches into the anomaly, a bit later than the orange, only to pull her hand out after a few seconds.
Priscilla	There's a consistent theme here. Flint skewers an orange and chucks it through the static, and despite an extremely loud bout of TV speaker hissing and unstable rippling, it seems to more or less land safely on the other side. Reeling it back out, it looks unchanged. Peeling it, nothing inside has melted. Then again, an orange doesn't have any senses or an ability to feel pain, but still. It's still good for that all-important vitamin C. Haguro flicking ammunition through is only slightly different. There's a pop like the primer charge went off, but the cartridge is fine, so it clearly didn't cook off. Staren sends in the commensurately more complex and 'deliberate' drone. It flies straight and fine, then abruptly loses signal on crossing. This is fine, since it's piloting itself, but when it comes back out, it immediately flops to the ground, battery completely dead as if it'd run its entire operational lifespan in those couple of minutes. Despite the incredibly advanced and sentient device on Mitsu's wrist, however, pushing her hand into it is nothing more than fairly painful (like grabbing an electrified door handle) and extremely disorienting to the Device, with no lasting damage. Then, Mag reaching out with her cosmic manipulation of one of the four fundamental forces of the universe, is immediately subject to a powerful flash shock that is outright visible as a tendril of cobalt static leaping from the film and coursing into her shields, flatlining them instantly and leaving the skin of her frame slightly smoking. It reacts /incredibly/ badly to attempts to futz with its physics. There is an underlying pattern forming with last time, that may be applicable in some essential way to the entire Maw. Then George just waltzes through, and contrary to all expectations, this actually works out pretty much fine. It is /extremely/ uncomfortable, and feels incredibly disorienting when crossing the threshold, involving a split second of total sensory deprivation, but he emerges on the other side unscathed, and his tech begins working again a few seconds later (oddly, he'd have noticed no loss in functionality from his Matter Manipulator). Blundering obliviously through the screen has done nothing lasting, compared to all the poking and prodding at it earlier. Those who wish to follow him, experience more or less identical effects, though the sensor equipment Staren, Metal Man, and Kushiko have, malfunctions for longer. As soon as they're through and have their back to the observatory, it disappears from view. As in, the passage itself no longer seems to exist. They are left standing in an utterly massive 'ninja plain' so unspeakably generic that someone could spend 150 episodes there. In the very far distance, mountains can be seen blending into the boring blue horizon, but there's no telling if they're actually physically there. The only indications that they haven't been teleported to a random place in the Multiverse are twofold.
Priscilla	One, is the energy signature now corresponding to a very real, very physical, and very visible sort of orb structure floating thirty feet above the ground in the near distance, just barely capable of fitting in someone's arms, coloured flat black and covered in shifting and intersecting ripples of shimmering cobalt blue light. The other is the garbled voice of two Vermilion Sunsets speaking at once, with all the feedback of going through a loudspeaker, but without any speakers present; it just seems to boom from the sky. FIELD OF TRIALS PROGRAMMING INITIATED FIELD OF TRIALS PROGRAMMING INITIATED LEVEL SIX LEVEL SIX PARTICIPANTS <unidentified> AND <unsigned variable error> AT A TIME LIMIT OF ##integer_overflow--2,147,483,647 LEVEL SIX PARTICIPANTS <unidentified> AND <unsigned variable error> AT A TIME LIMIT OF ##integer_overflow--2,147,483,647 The audio abruptly cuts out with a crackling snap. The blue sky dims into a night full of stars. A gargantuan dome of ornate, marble-framed mirrors appears around the central area, rotating with the exact same kind of speed and position as the configuration of the Observatory outside, complete with missing chunks.
Captain Flint	Flint is nothing if not methodical. When the orange returns unscathed, he pauses to watch some of the other attempts to experiment with the barrier. Indeed, he even peels the orange to make sure there were no obviously harmful side effects. It seems that living matter can pass through it well enough, but whatever it is, it resists observation and actively fights attempts to tamper with it. That means it should be safe to cross through, as long as neither he nor his men attempt to futz with it. "Single file," he says to his crew. "Take hold of this and don't let go until you've crossed." He hands a length of the rope from his grapple to them, each man taking hold of it. Leading the way, he crosses in, followed by Silver, Howell, Joji and Moseby. "Field of Trials?" Flint wasn't a part of either the Confederacy or the Union--the voice of Vermillion Sunset(s) and the proclamations mean nothing to him. Glancing around, he poses an open question to the Elites around him. "Some sort of... training grounds?" In case he's right, he rests his hand upon his saber. Doesn't want to be caught unawares.
Kushiko	An audible hiss of discomfort, the Warframe recoiling and the sound of pain isn't Mag's own as she doubles back from that tendril of furious vengeance and anger at being toyed with in any fashion. Mag's head shakes slightly--more to follow the child's own shake of her head. <"Even through Transference..."> she mutters audibly. Mercifully, even with the smoking ruin of the shields, they eventually blip back to life, but she won't be doing that again anytime soon, the frame unslinging that two-handed Jat Kittag warhammer of hers to actually properly follow after George, but she has to take her time to try and focus her senses not through the sensors that the Warframe posses, and try to at least use that Void aspect of hers to sortof try and focus a bit. <"... is this the simulacrum... er, what some used for simming and training here?"> she wonders aloud briefly as she braces herself. Level Six. Who knows what that /actually/ meant as she moved to take up the Vanguard. The voice she didn't recognize, but the glitchiness, well. Ordis quips, "And I thought I was--CKED up beyond aLL-- ... slightly damaged."
Metal Man	Metal man's optics and anything else he uses to sense the world around him is glitching up still a bit. For a robot? This is scary as all get out, he logically knows what's going on, yet? Maybe he inherited a bit more from Humanity than he thought he did. This echo of the human lizard brain fades though as he foes have his senses mostly working for the moment. Then there's osmething else it's something he knows. "Oh scrap me." He pauses for amoment. "Resever Colonel Metal Man Wily access code Gamma Delta Omega one nine eight seven!" He's busting out his old codes maybe, just maybe it will work.
Starbound Flotilla	"Alert. Onyx-cobalt signature reacquired." "Woah! Plainsss of hunt! Where isss now?" "The same place we were before, obviously." "Squad! Ready!" "Aye, I've a want to take our plunder!" "Woahhh woah woah. Everyone calm down. Maybe if you just... Kinda..." George is riding high on his philosophy's past successes. He doesn't fully understand everything going on, but he does understand one thing: His instincts for operating in a high-order situation under the command and influence of a major big-talking AI or commander are sparking. Don't make a scene. Go with the flow. Follow along. "This a test, big guy...?" He mutters, quietly. "Do we just kinda..." He takes out his Matter Manipulator. Still working. These things have just stayed functional the whole time. So maybe... He points it towards the thing, clearly out of range, more to see if it'll react in any way. Assuming no strange, violently negative reaction... He hops on the buggy that one of the other Flotilla members has pushed through that static. He remembers the flow and the currents before, so maybe... Maybe if he follows those, towards the orb? Just doesn't make a scene about it? "Hey, guys." He calls out, as he mounts up. "I'm definitely about to try something /really/ stupid, so bear with me and be ready to do something smart if this comes back to bite me." Seft, staying behind, explains what's going on. "Worried. That core -- the Onyx-Cobalt signature -- it's in some kind of uncollapsed quantum state, existing in many places at once. It seems to exert a temporospatial effect on navigation around it, and I believe that this correlates to some sort of purpose or intent, but I cannot identify precisely what. George is attempting to run on some form of hunch, it seems..." The rest of the Flotilla stay behind, offering their vehicles to those in need and backup to those not. Time to just go ahead and poke the core in as simple as way as George can manage; he doesn't understand if this is some kind of obedience thing, or some sort of navigation system, or what, but it's seemed so far to respond best to going with the current and not being weird, and that's what George is gonna do now.
Staren	Staren looks briefly surprised as the drone drops, before inspecting it. Soon he's plugged it into a spare battery to check the storage. "...Nothing. What the...?" But people go in anyway. Staren sighs, pulling a bunch of paracord from his bag, tying one end to the gate and the other around his waist, and then setting a tablet on the floor nearby before taking a deep breath and leaping through! Have they moved? Wait, wasn't the Field of Trials what they were looking for? Staren bristles a bit at the voice. Sunset left recordings that continued to sass him long after everything ended, so it's not a fondly remembered voice. "Probably. I don't think we need to worry as long as it doesn't turn on punishment mode or whatever the Feds called it, but I'd be wary anyway." When Metal Man tries to take control, he waits expectantly for a response.
Haguro	If it is a training ground, then it should be safe enough. Or... A-at least if it doesn't turn out like that last warpgate." Haguro's still on edge as she follows the rest of the group into ninja padding land, still shivering considerably from forcing herself through the static. Sure, it didn't hurt as much as it could have, but that doesn't make it any less unnerving! "If it exists in multiple places, then that must mean we're... Wait. Does that mean we're in multiple places, too? Even if we only feel this one, but..." Haguro furrows her brow while loading another bullet into her revolver, the last one's sacrifice noted and filed away for... Well, she's not sure /what/ she could use that info for, but it could be something one day! For now, though, she's got her weapons ready and her camera snapping away without even bothering to use the viewfinder. Some of these are bound to develop properly maybe!
Priscilla	ACKNOWLEDGED. WELCOME, COLONEL METAL MAN. CODE GAMMA DELTA OMEGA ONE NINE NINE EIGHT SEVEN <table_not_found -> boot to -MISSING DIRECTORY- / depreciated argument> Well, it was worth a shot. Seems like a piece of Sunset's personality /this/ fragmented wouldn't have access to any important centralized data, though. Instead, it picks up on the last thing said. By Staren. ACKNOWLEDGED, COLONEL METAL MAN. AUTHORITY ACCEPTED TO ACTIVATE PUNISHMENT MODE. ACTIVATING. George and the buggy crew are unimpeded on their way to the orb. For a while. Pointing the Matter Manipulator only confirms it as a target on the device's display, though with an obvious 'out of range' indicator, though, that in of itself confirms its actual presence. No hand of god lashes out to smite them, nor does space twist on itself and vomit them out its back end. Instead, the problem is a little more direct. The things in the Observatory had been considered (aptly) 'observers', only able to look in, congregate, and grow hungry from the non-existent other side of the collective viewing devices. That does not seem to be the case here. Maybe this even /is/ the 'other side'. There certainly appears to be some element of superposition. Regardless of what it is, it becomes everyone's problem when the mirrors brightly shine the same shade of cobalt blue that pervades most of the Maw's strangeness, and begin disgorging their contents. 'Like sharks' wasn't far off the mark before. Shining apparitions of blue-white starlight, shaped with the kind of organic, streamlined form of a marine predator, seem to be what the mirrors contain. They glide through the air with strange undulations of their coronas, like rows of fins, and quickly enough, school together like the classical circular swarm of a hammerhead pack. There are scores of the things in every direction, twinkling, flashing, and occasionally, letting off a deep, echoing sound not entirely unlike whale song, tuned through some low quality SETI receiver. When a sufficient number have gathered, they organize themselves into streams, and then, many at a time, begin swooping down over the crowd, picking their targets in packs and diving into the individual Elites. They don't seem to have any form of 'attack'. Rather, they just plough straight into people, where the ridiculous core heat of their intangible bodies does all the work of causing immense damage very quickly, as if they 'eat' in the sense that a star does.
Metal Man	Metal Man for a moment he has hope he has got it on line it's listening he should be able to get it. "Punnishment Mode...oh scrap." He knows just what it's for he's seen it used on people. He's going to blame Staren for being here for this what is ever left of Sunset? Still doesn't like Staren. Whelp there's nothin that can be done about that as he now calls out a warning. "This mode was used by the Commanders of the fed to pimp slap unruly Elites it's going to be /bad/ if it's still working." "Cancel Punnishment mode, shut down for matiance!" Oh it's not going to work but he's remiss if he doesn't make the attempt to do so. The attacking thigns come? His blades are summoned and he's opening up on them, for all the good it will /do/. "I have no idea what these things are!"
Haguro	"It's working? Good work, Metal Ma-Aaawha?" Haguro's mouth hangs agape briefly as the fragmented voice falters, stops, repeats, and moves onto something significantly worse sounding. Yep. That's not good. With all those shark-like things swarming in, the cruiser quickly swaps to her more appropriate anti-air shells. Clothing, armor, and vague shipghostgirl flesh sizzle on contact with those creatures, and Haguro yelps in pain while scrambling to keep them from getting to close. "Be careful, everyone! Aah... Th-these things are incredibly hot!" Haguro calls out as she tucks and rolls underneath another creature swooping in over her, just barely avoiding another direct hit before blasting the flak above her in a massive burst of sharp metal garbage!
Captain Flint	Somehow, Flint knew that this would happen. Call it Murphy's law if you want, or just comedically bad timing. "Of course," he mutters bitterly. There's little time before the school of celestial fish descend upon the gathered Elites. Four of the pirates know well enough to draw their weapons. Howell, Flint, and Silver open fire on the descending predators, while Joji takes a more direct route and attacks with his sword. Moseby, however, is enraptured--this is his first foray into anything so bizarre, and he's so engrossed in watching the display that one of the superheated fish nearly strikes him. Nearly, because John Silver spots the Walrus crewman standing dumbly with his axes. "Get down!" Silver tackles the other pirate just as a school of star-sharks goes flying straight overhead. A scream escapes him before he hits the ground as white-hot pain sears through his leg. The being's intangible body burns Silver's leg to a useless, atrophied crisp in mere seconds, the leg of his breeches smoldering and in tatters at the spot. "Silver's down! Form up! Howell, First aid! Moseby, get your goddamn musket out! Reload, reload!" Some of the crew might loathe Flint for his failings, but let it never be said he doesn't know how to take charge. All of that resentment in Howell and Joji is shunted to the back of their minds. Moseby awakens from his starstruck stupor and hastily draws a pair of pepperbox pistols, opening fire on the passing beings. Howell rushes to Silver's side the moment the entities pass overhead and hurriedly unpacks his medical supplies. "It's going to have to come off," he shouts after a grim few seconds of judgment. Flint ducks beneath a creature as it flies above him, drawing his cutlass in an effort to gut it like a fish. "Keep trying," he shouts to Metal Man. Hopefully this AI will wake up or remember some function--it's better than trying to fight a veritable ocean of celestial predators.
Staren	"Oh COME ON!" Staren protests, when, of all people, the controlling AI listens to him. Sort of. He watches the strange creatures warily at first. Are they hostile? As soon as Flint opens fire, he joins in. But will energy beams and plasma missiles even work on these beings? If not... well, he also has bullets, conventional explosives, and the RAISER weapons. Hopefully SOMETHING will work! At least, given the energy-focused nature of the enemy, they're probably not particularly effective against his forcefield -- it's better at absorbing energy than taking impacts, and they probably don't have much mass. Still, energy is less effective, not useless -- the field can't hold forever. And with him manually toggling it on to block sharks and off to shoot out, a shark can get through if he messes up... He's glad, now, that he came as a combat robot. His heavy duty armor and body can take substantially more punishment than his power armor, so hopefully he won't burn to a crisp quite as quick. Which has already happened to someone else, as Silver demonstrates what happens when you take an MDC attack to the leg. "Keep him alive, I'll give him a new leg!" Staren offers. While he's never been on the best of terms with Flint in the past, right now his men are risking themselves for a Concord op, so... it's the least he can do.
Kushiko	For what it's worth, since a sweet ride was available, Kushiko partook of it, clinging in that equally sweet ninja style to it, feet braced on one side in a weird wall-cling and using a hand on. Normally she wouldn't for like, you know, vertical travel but for horizontal, it's pretty smart to do so. And to, you know. Try and keep an eye (so to speak) on George. Jat Kittag is swapped for what looks like a weirdly angular... /cannon/? No, not quite. A keener eye might recognize it for being some kind of pulse rifle, but it's not big enough to be a real /cannon/, though it's definitely on the heavier side of the coin versus the sidearm at her hip. That said, she doesn't have long to wait to actually use it. <"Well that sounds like it's going to be a pleasent time,"> she dryly notes aloud when 'Punishment Mode' is mentioned. Why oh why couldn't people be swift, silent, and highly murderous like her? Speaking of which, the fact that they have a number of murderous plasma sharks in their way, Mag quickly pivots, launching herself high in the air upon their sweeping motion through the group. It's not /quite/ fast enough, as her 'skin' sizzles from the heat simply eating away at her shields to begin with before she twists about in the air to 'glide' towards Flint's group. And there's... kind of a good reason. There's a reverbing noise as she takes a hand off her rifle in order to wrench it, ribbons of energy coalesce and ripple outward in a pulse of Polarizing energy--designed with a bit more focus to strip energy away instead of simply manipulate it. This is coupled with her gesturing again at one of the more tightly packed group of aquatic plasma monstrosities to 'Magnetize' them. Well, more like her trying to create a powerful, physics-defying electromagnetic field to attract the firearms that Flint and his men are using.
Starbound Flotilla	"With the flow, I said with the flow!" "That doesn't /mean/ anything, shut /up/!" "Alert. Incoming combat forms! Ready yourselves!" "Aaaargh! SSSTILL NO MEAT!!" "Will get ye a burger on the way home, just keep these things away!" "The shiver descends! Work quickly!" "Fuck, fuck shit, uhhh..." George mutters, anxiously, surging to a moment of panic. "Shit!!" His hardsuit is meant to be resistant to heat, but it sears his torso badly as he fails to completely dodge around its intangibility. He knows better than to fight while going through these paths. "I surrender!" He calls out, trying a different approach. "Pledging my loyalty right to the Confederacy! I regret everything! Punishment successful! Shit, that burns, shit..." The Starbound Flotilla, elsewhere, are hard at work. Moonfin not only manages to parry heat with a katana, he also manages to fuck it up halfway and still suffer heavy burns on his arm. Biteblade has tried to bite on of these intangible creatures anyway, and has burned her tongue for her trouble, but soon works mostly on deploying medical aid! Silver's the first one in need. "Come off? Floran callsss dibsss!!" She has the absolute worst bedside manner. Albert, Pavo, and Seft have tried to rapidly create fortifications in the holofield, generating erchius-energized cold-elemental environmental projections. It can barely match the concentrated heat, but maybe it'll drive them off...?
Priscilla	For once in Staren's life, the big, hazardous, nebulously evil intelligence listens to him and does exactly what he says, and then ignores everyone else telling it /not/ to listen to him. What a landmark event. Too bad it's also pretty much the worst possible time for the Vermilion Sunset script fragment to stop responding. There is some good news, at least. While the Ring of Philosophy had been a clusterfuck of warped and blurry definitions of things, filled with the quasi-living-quasi-dead bodies of things that may have been people or originally just holograms, and bent on itself like a poisonous, vertigo-inducing pretzel, the Field of Trials seems to work mostly fine by comparison, as evidenced by the fact there isn't visibly slagged and corrupted technology and broken magic everywhere. Compared to the last few places, everyone's powers work perfectly fine, and perhaps due to being forced into the paradigm of 'fighting targets', the stranger things from beyond are completely susceptible to bullets and blades. Not properly being combat programmed either, they act mostly like dumb collective predators; wasps or ants instead of sharks or jaguars. They're easy to hit (if one doesn't strain their eyes looking at them), easy to predict, and easy to outwit. The main danger is the intense harm they can do in an instant, and their sheer numbers, though like any swarm encounter, the difficulty starts to drop off rapidly as they're killed off and reduced in size. Whether flinging saw blades at them that rip them in half and cause them to burst into clouds of ionized fire, filling the air with flak fragments that puncture them like balloons and leak their star-blood, picking them off with heavy slugs and high-velocity flechettes which rip through them with ease and turn them inside out, or else chopping into them with swords and axes where they dissolve into radioactive puddles, they aren't hard to kill, so long as one doesn't touch. As Staren predicted, the energy weapons are practically useless against them, which means it's a good thing the party is so well-specced into kinetics. The sole exception seems to be the pull of the Warframe's magnetization ability, where the electromagnetic vortex interacts with the natural fields of the creatures, drags them into a giant ball, and then fills that ball with accelerating loops of bullets, musket balls and fragments, which pretty quickly become molten streams. By the time they can mass any number of reinforcements, the supercooled barriers have gone up, which rapidly sap away their heat and energy in the area facing outward. It doesn't seem like they're 'fire elemental' or anything in a way that's fundamentally opposed to cold, so maybe the fact that they fall back to a generous distance and just default to circling again, instead of finding a way around or over, has something to do with its composition. Either way, they have some welcome respite, with the orb to themselves, and some time to treat wounds and reload. It may not last for too long. Off in the distance, the sound of whale song grows louder still, and the air seems to quake as if surging out of the way of something huge passing into it. One of the 'bigger' presences seems to have smelled blood in the water.
Kushiko	Indeed, Mag right now doesn't have /proper/ projectiles. But coupling her tribarrel laser repeater that she has in form of the Supra variant she's wielding coupled with the electromagnetic powers she does have? And everyone else's kinetic onslaught--counting on, and happy to see that ensuring Flint's men would want for nothing when it came to hitting their targets--it provides quite the show. She might have to do some things with what remains. Shards, remnants of metals and the like, be it from what was melted into one mass or other fragments, she shifts her position, switching to the massive war-hammer, engines revving as she smashes some of them into usable shards for herself, shards that begin to float a little due to her electromagnetic proximity. <"Staren, get to work on that leg if you can! This isn't over yet, Flotilla, think you can get the orb... well. Deactivated and maybe ready to move?"> At this point, with their temporary bulwark and everyone else in varying states of pain and needing to recover somewhat... may as well brace and try to accomplish what they set out here for, right?
Haguro	Haguro pants lightly as the creatures fall back, stumbling a bit as she backs away towards the orb and reloads all of her turrets. Her clothes and armor are singed and burnt in several spots, but the shipgirl is powering through it! She does cringe visibly at the sound ringing in the air around them, though, and she gets her revolver ready just in case. "That's not a reassuring noise... Um. Y-yes, we should get Mister... Silver?" Silver gets a questioning look as if trying to confirm that she has the right name, then nodding towards Mag. "We should get him stabilized, and then... Yes. If there's something I can do to help deactivate the orb, let me know. Otherwise..." Haguro takes a deep breath, then keeps watch of the area above the group while keeping her turrets ready to fire at a moment's notice. "... I-if something arrives, I'll try to draw its fire. Does that work?"
Captain Flint	"Wait, what?" Silver, obviously in shock to the trained eyes of Biteblade and Howell, sees his leg but doesn't /see/ it. And Biteblade's gallows humor (at least, Howell /hopes/ it's humor) does nothing to make things better. As the creatures beat a temporary retreat, Silver begins thrashing around and gibbering pleas. "No, no--!" "Can it wait?" Flint asks. "The longer it does, the more any infection will spread." The captain kneels beside Silver, a wary eye making constant glances back to the sky. Howell reaches into his supplies and gets a well-used block of wood, forcing it into the maimed pirate's mouth, between his teeth. "Bite down on this or the pain will see your tongue gone, too. Biteblade... hold him down and be ready to seal the wound with whatever means you have." Another scream echoes through the air as a cleaver is brought through the burnt flesh, severing Silver's leg above the knee. The sound is muffled by the wooden block in his mouth, but dies off as the pain pushes Silver past the threshold of consciousness. While the Walrus' doctor works with Biteblade to keep the bleeding under control, Flint narrows his eyes and slowly watches him. "Still think he's a thief now, Mr. Howell?" Of course, he is--but he's a thief that's shown a curious moment of selflessness. It's certainly changed the captain's mind about him, or at least spurred some thought. The Warframe receives a nod of gratitude from the captain, as does Staren. Admittedly, he didn't expect such sudden gestures of support from the members of the Concord. Were it not for the ominous whale call in the air, he'd be more given to inrospection on the generosity of his allies and the selflessness of the man he'd once planned to kill after the Urca hunt. Flint nods at Haguro, confirming that she does indeed have the right name. "Moseby and I will remain here and cover those attempting to aid Mr. Silver with you." With that, he begins reloading his rifle, powder horn, ramrod and all.
Metal Man	The script stops working. Metal keeps leaping and throwing blades at the shark almost falling into a pattern of behaviour as he does this is just nuts. "This isn't over from the sounds of it." He lands takes a moment to pull out an W can and down the contents of it to keep his piower system high. SHe's also trying to not get near Kushiko he does not really want ot bre near her when she's using stuff like this. On the other hand she does have a Rocket Hammer, but that's not in use right now. He's going to be keeping his distance for fear of friendly fire in a melee like this. "Get Ready, we don't have long."
Staren	Staren's eventually settled into using some kind of futuristic rifle, since bullets seem to be the best option. He just gives Kushiko a shocked look. "Dude, this isn't something I can do in the middle of combat! I meant /later/, it's gonna take awhile to make and attach!" He winces, though, as he sees the amputation being performed right now without anaesthetic (Note to self: From now on, carry something for that). In truth he might've been able to keep the leg uninfected for the moment, he just didn't expect their doctor to move so fast. "Need any help?" Staren asks the Starbound captains, while checking his weapons. He's confident he's got options for fighting a big stargasbag if it comes to it.
Starbound Flotilla	Nanobandages! They are the most wonderful thing to have in situations like this. Pre-prepared masses of all sorts of medical treatment and pain relief all wrapped up in a carbon-based fabric strip. She holds the man and then wraps the stump in bandages before it has a chance to begin bleeding properly; the nanoparticle masses surge an unspeakably painful stinging sensation up from the severed limb, before numbing it entirely, terminating the limb in a multi-layer life-preservation. "Floran hasss bessst medicine!" Biteblade declares, pumping both hands into the air. And then she starts eating Silver's leg right in front of him. For some godforsaken reason it applears to be causing a significant boost to her ability to move and act; her passive combat-drug-fueled self-buff is activating with rapid meat metabolization to create a significant leg-powered buff. But jesus goddamn christ Biteblade, maybe do it somewhere else. She stands, draws both daggers, and begins to scream a challenge in response to the soon-to-be-incoming enemies, a tribal, savage roar. Above, the burned man speaks softly. "Okay, okay, almost there, and... Yoink." George, finally having pushed up towards the sphere itself, does the dumbest fucking thing he's done this entire time and just points his Matter Manipulator straight at the Orb and tries to cram this strange, weird, quantum-superpositioned control-freak terror-sphere into his fucking space-flavored bag of holding.
Priscilla	Things don't change too quickly in the shadow of the temporary shelter. Were their enemies the type to leave corpses, the Concord would practically be knee deep in them by now, and so it's easy to imagine why they would be less than eager to keep charging in. It may, however, prove to be wishful thinking. They could be staying away for any number of reasons, and an increasingly likely one is 'having sensed an alpha predator inbound'. It's enough time to get Silver's completely destroyed lef off, at least. Hurriedly and with a lot of shortcuts, but it's off. No significant change transpires with the enemy when it does, seemingly unfazed by the smell and sight of actual flesh and blood, being less interested than Biteblade, somehow. Of course, transporting him afterwards is going to be the real difficulty. As the group fusses, debates, and prepares for the worst, the thrumming in the air grows louder and more intolerable, until at last, the facade of the mountains far off in the 'northern' distance begins to crack. The sight of the distant peaks and nighttime blue blending together starts to waver, to bleach, and burn away, in pretty much the entire cardinal direction, followed by a steady and rapidly increasing spike in everything /else/ feeling like it's burning away, ambiently jumping up almost thirty degrees immediately. It takes a little while to figure it out; to look up far enough into the sky, and see the frame of the mirror, almost invisible for its sheer size, that contains the disappearing reflection of the /south/ mountains, hiding in plain sight for its scale. Then George reaches the orb, and in a feat of incredible under-thinking, he trains the collection beam on it from his Matter Manipulator. The orb shakes, fizzles, shivers, and vibrates more and more rapidly, and then goes: pok The black and cobalt anomaly pops right off the backdrop of warped space, coming 'unstuck' from the air and falling unceremoniously into the Manipulator's inventory storage. It even takes up only a single 'slot' (though, the whole slot). George just . . . picks it up and puts it in his pocket. When he does, almost instantly, the Field of Trials begins to lose its reality. The ninja plain shimmers and boils away as the stars wink out in the sky, and a few garbled malfunction syllables come from the token Vermilion Sunset, before the entire thing shuts down with a sound like a deactivated stage light, taking the whole visual scene, as well as the star creatures, with it. Of course, the Field of Trials doesn't really have a whole apparatus of extensive underlying fusions of technology and magic specific to it. It had been a bit of a bit of mad inspiration to undermine the basics of causality and make wounds and death not 'stick', rather than simulate them. This /seems/ to mean that there is no corresponding physical space to it, at least, anymore, and in lieu of some horrible void dimension to toss everyone in, taking away whatever crystallized around its 'power source' seems to have just dumped them out when it collapse. Straight out into the Hall of Doors again, actually.
Staren	Staren doesn't know that the Field of Trials messed with causality to achieve its effects -- if he did, he'd probably be very concerned indeed about coming here! As it is... the way everything vanishes, aside from the sound effect, doesn't seem unusual for what they've seen of the Citadel so far. Staren's relieved not to have to fight the alpha monster or whatever it was. And now... now they have an artifact from the Maw of Tyrants. Hopefully it can provide some insight into what's going on here...
Kushiko	She was ready. She was even mindful of the more metal-friendly sorts, like Metal Man, like Staren. Even if her electromagnetic power should by all means make him have a very bad day by proximity, she didn't. The pieces floated in the air--seized by that power--just a few inches from the ground. Ready to turn it into slag once more as she paced slightly. As unnerving as her lack of physical gaze, in the thick of a potential fight, she turned into an avenging predator of all things, ready to bring a terrible degree of ruin in moments as the unblinking gaze of hers seemed to 'mark' everyone's activities to the side and behind her. The consumption of the leg by Biteblade didn't bother her; it got the job done, and that's what was important, right? <"Unfortunate,"> is what she offers Staren, <"Suppose we'll have to get it done later then."> Literal minded may be the Tenno right now. Yet with the thrumming in the air reaching its fever pitch, there's no time to dawdle, to think--the terrible heat a suffocating thing as she gathers the maelstrome together, a light twirl of her hammer bringing it into a graceful, yet horribly violent prelude. A prelude that never comes--that distinct little pok draws her attention, and before she knows it everything's making some kind of bizarre metaphysical blender, like everything seemed to be flowing down the drain, bereft, thankfully, of the potential flushing comparison. Melting is fine. Relatively speaking of course. She grunts again once she lands back in the Hall of Doors--only after a few moments does Kushiko allow for the electromagnetic force to dim--if any shards came with her, all the better for later. If not, no matter. <"... we're back?"> her voice without presence resonates. Then a look to George and those injured--her suit's smoldering somewhat, though being out of that area means the shielding and regenerative qualities have time to work now. And presumably in the wake of being out of /immediate/ danger, she moves simply: gesturing towards the center of the group and at her gesture, with a blossom of greenish energy comes a strange disk on the ground. Golden and ornate, white with curious calligraphic-looking script, the disk begins to pulsate some healing energy. Not enough to mend limbs, but enough to help people get their second wind so they can book it properly. <"This should help all of you and myself get moving and get appropriate medical attention. I don't want to assume we're going to have it completely safe going back."> There's been enough weirdness as is.
Captain Flint	Nervous tension grips Flint and those of his men still conscious. Moseby keeps glancing back down towards the unconscious Silver. Howell looks up from the unconscious thief's wound only to blanch at Biteblade's savagery. Flint's thumb rests upon the hammer of his musket, and Joji's on the crossguard of his katana. A tense moment passes, like the eye of a storm, and then George simply /takes/ the anomaly. The Walrus crew share a tense glance--surely, the unspoken words say, the absence of that something will be taken as insult to the presence waiting to appear. But no monsters arrive. Instead, the simulation rapidly begins to unmake itself, and the pirates find themselves dumped into the Hall of Doors. Silver doesn't so much as stir when he's dumped onto the floor, though the rise and fall of his chest at least shows he's still breathing. Flint is the first of the pirates to get back to his feet, and he'll quickly begin making the rounds, checking on everyone and making sure they're all right. Everyone was kind enough to form up on Silver and offer their assistance, so he feels somewhat obligated to do the same. Howell pulls an object that looks like two short rods from his bag. Pulling them apart reveals a synthetic weave between the two, and he continues to pull until a snapping sound locks them into place. It's a collapsible stretcher, sourced from the Concord's forward base, upon which Silver is placed. Flint may not have superpowers per se, but his foresight has kept him alive for years before his world ever unified. He nods to Howell, and the two of them lift the injured man up. "Thank you all for your assistance." says Flint to his allies. "Mr. Staren," the captain states in that unusual, semiformal 18th century way. "You may meet us there at your leisure. I'll see to it your efforts are fairly compensated." With that, Flint and Howell depart with Moseby and Joji escorting them as they carry Silver out on a stretcher. It seems they'd prefer to get Silver to safety sooner rather than later. Every once in a while, Flint does appear to have his crew's interests in mind.
Metal Man	Metal Man didn't expect team killing form Kushiko just habuts formed over his very long life is what behind it then again thought sof asking her for help against Mega Man, with George's stunt however he seems to have done omething to the Field of Trials and she's now stating to shut down. He relaxes a little bit as he moves to get the heck out of here. "Let's not stay any longer for now also we should try to find th pay vaults...too the holiday bonus pile is likely in there."
Starbound Flotilla	"...Huh. That worked." "'Huh'?! What did you just do, George?!" "Alert. Onyx-Cobalt signature lost. And... Every other signature!" "The deck's comin' out from under us, mateys!" "Huh? But Floran isss gonna fight!" "Certainly not! We shall-- Woa-- Woaaaaahhhh!!" And the entire Flotilla is dumped unceremoniously through into the Hall of Doors. "Hell!" George swears when they're dumped out. "I didn't actually expect most of that to work! Or maybe blow us up! Wow, that was a real trip." He says, pushing himself to his feet. "'Fore we dig into the loot, there's crew to keep safe!" Pavo calls out, in a surprising display of something that seems very much like altruism but which definitely is just a certain different kind of greed. She and Biteblade work to help Flint and his crew with getting on out of here, while the rest of the Starbound Flotilla make sure that everything's safe and secure on this other side of the spatial dump. The group seems just plain baffled that this was apparently something that worked, but quite, QUITE eager to start digging into figuring out the results of this.