Within the ruined citadel, whatever hordes of bugbears and hobgoblins lived here have either fled into the shadows, or have spilled over to the other side of a portal now closed. An outside observer might be momentarily forgiven for mistaking that the castle is only currently occupied by a hovering dragon and its similarly (strangely) hovering silvery-grey egg. Strips of the "egg shell" gradually peel away and fall to the ground, though there seems to be no accumulating pile there: the strips are pieces of duct tape that appear to rapidly crackle with age and eventually turn to dust - and then nothing at all. Inside is a hovering sports aircar, the lift of its turbofans unaffected by the imposition of massive layers of crumbling duct tape.

Nearby, the dragon (or wyvern), upon closer inspection, is a creature fashioned of living metal and other artificial materials, with police markings, hovering in place more by the action of its own twin turbofans rather than the slow and probably symbolic beat of its wings. Spotlights on its underbelly scan the wreckage below, and spinning warning lamps project alternating sweeps of red and blue light. It - like the aircar - sports the blinking caution lights typical of aircraft, meant to serve as an aid against midair collisions in the dark. On its back rides a police officer in "bike" patrolman's gear.

The sports aircar is over its normal capacity: in the driver's seat is a businesswoman (judging by her attire and demeanor) somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 years or so. In the passenger's seat, two individuals vie for space: a young man and a creature that seems somewhere between young woman and golden fox-spirit, the latter adorned in what looks for all the world like a prom dress fashioned entirely from black electrical tape.

The HUDs of the aircar and bike-wyvern feature rotating, three-dimensional holographic maps of a region detailed as the Diadem of Worlds. The sun of the map appears to be the same one visible - dimly, as if viewed not only at a distance, but through a smoky lens - in the sky above. The maps don't come from either vehicle's normal satellite feed map update - each one has "signal lost" warning messages that attest to that effect - but rather are courtesy of a broadcast from "RIU." Also according to RIU's feed, the present world would correspond with a location marked as "Cauchemarem" on the map - nearly as far, it would seem as one could get from the sun, and still be on this map.

The course-plotter has been modified with some effort, based on RIU-supplied estimates, to give some approximate travel times and suggested paths to some of the other destinations in the Diadem of Worlds - as if an aircar could be expected to actually fly across the void. Scale is not provided - only estimated travel times by "airship."

* Cauchemarem to Shipwreck (in the center of an endless storm): approximately 16-17 days.

* Cauchemarem to Cadmus and the Sentinel Shards (completely bypassing the Storm): approximately 33 days (or somewhat shorter, depending upon how willing one is to brave the fringes of the storm).

* Cauchemarem to an Unidentified Really Big and Mostly Yellow Shard that seems to be capitol of the Empire of Stars: approximately 3 days.

* Cauchemarem to Ithalbar (completely bypassing the Storm): approximately 36 days (again, or somewhat shorter, depending upon how willing one is to take a shortcut across the lighter extents of the Storm to make a shortcut).

* Cauchemarem to a the Closest Shard Not Part of the Shadow Realm or the Empire of Stars or inside a Storm: 14 days (and it's right on the fringe of the Storm).

With the exception of hopping over to the shards of the Empire of Stars, it looks like a long journey is in order. Alas that the aircar isn't a flying RV, and that one can't exactly pull over for gas and rest stops every so many miles. It seems a distinctly inconvenient arrangement.

"Lovely. Everything is far," Jason mutters as he taps out more distance estimates. "There's no avoiding it, we will need alternate transportation. Just needing a restroom while in here will prove problematic. I don't see any of us peeing in a cup and throwing it out the window."

"Overloaded like this, I'll need to refuel the car in about.. oh.. 9 days at a guess," Holly notes. After the duct tape 'armor' disintegrates, she casts a worried glance at Akiko's conjured up attire. "We need someplace close by, I think."

Akiko wrinkles her nose in distaste. "Well, there is the ground below us, for starters. Perhaps we could put down? I'm sure we can kill anything down there left to bother us."

"We could always jettison excess weight to increase distance," Jason remarks absently.

"And perhaps the Link here can ride the back of his Avatar," Akiko counter-offers.

Randall's voice over the radio: "Didn't you say something about knowing where we could put our hands on a ship, Akiko?" The policeman hovers near the aircar on the ice wyvern Mara's back, providing cover.

Holly begins to bring the car in for a landing in the fortress. "Either of you are welcome to ride with Randall," she points out.

The duct tape strips continue to crackle and peel away, momentarily accelerated by the aircar's sudden movement. As they do so, glowing points of light work loose from the "front" side of the sphere. Below, the aircar's landing lights - where they manage to pierce through the remaining bits of duct tape - illuminate a largely flat surface marked by the occasional broken pillar or fallen statue.

Randall scans the police bands, listening for signs of radio chatter on any frequency. Being out of contact is disturbing for him, especially when we're facing a trip of many days.

The "points of light," once they pull free from the duct tape, follow the aircar slowly down, and then hover in place at varied distances above the ground - averaging about a meter or so - and bob slightly. They look much like the crystal that appeared when Sasha slew the nightmare-creature, except that they're all smaller and not quite so fiery-bright.

"Dead, nothing but radio silence on all lines," says Randall's voice. "Not that I really expected anything else, but... I could be missing the latest episode of Zarathustra right now!"

"Oh look, weird money," Jason remarks at the odd crystal lights. "Could prove useful if we need to bribe anyone. Or buy a ship, or something." When the car lands, he reaches over and opens the door again, noting to Akiko, "You first, I guess; you're still in my lap."

"I hope they come down lower," Holly quips as she powers down the aircar fans and opens her own door.

Akiko - or Inari - leaps out without further encouragement, leaving pieces of black electrical tape in her wake, as they begin to curl and melt and fade into smoke. Her hands hit the ground - but now they're paws. As the tape continues to slough away, she looks like a smaller version of the creature that identified itself as Inari, though still more the size of a large dog than a true fox. (Plus, the gem in her forehead, and the strange markings tend to give away that she's no normal beast.)

"I guess we don't have to worry about clothes for you just yet," Trudeau says to the fox-spirit. "These gems or whatever must have been stuck to the tape, from the critters that got rolled over and squashed."

"If you would prefer to remain more human, you can borrow my coat," Jason says as he slides out, coat in tow. "Buttons closed, it'll give you some modesty." He reaches back in and grabs his pack of tools, too.

The wyvern descends to the ground, and then the fans go quiet as Randall conserves its... He studies the fuel gauge to see if it's showing anything meaningful. Do I feed Mara now, or what?

Altogether, there are a total of 32 crystals revealed, as the last of the duct tape crumbles away. They aren't uniform, but if there are any differences in value or purpose represented in the slight changes, the particulars are beyond telling from casual observation.

"Okay, stuff your pockets," Holly suggests once the crystals have been gathered together. "What do you know about the big yellow island that's close by, Akiko? Can we get an airship there?"

The fox-spirit looks askance to Jason, looks at first as if she's going to be aloof, but then looks about at all the gems and thinks the better of it. She bounds over to Jason, and nips the coat in her mouth. A moment later, and she's back to her humanoid (but not quite human) form, shaking off bits of dissolving electrical tape from within the coat.

"And do you prefer to be called Inari or Akiko?" Jason asks as he experimentally tries to collect gems into his pack.

"I'm Inari," the fox-spirit says. "Akiko is merely a persona." She looks around, and up to the sky, then points. "That faintly glowing yellow point there is Gormenghast. It's the capitol of the Empire of Stars."

"If that name is meant to be descriptive, then the place should be like a giant maze," Holly notes. "Easy to sneak into? Will we need disguises?"

The gems respond to Jason's reach, even before he touches them - springing to him as if magnetically drawn to his hand. They feel light, and only semi-solid, as if he could easily crush them in his hand if he cared.

Inari's comment causes Jason to raise an eyebrow. "As you like, Inari," he remarks, sounding oddly concerned. It takes a moment to boggle over the crystal, then slips it into one of the spare pockets in his tool pack. One can never have enough pockets.

"Easy to sneak into?" Akiko repeats, as if it were a rhetorical question. "Why yes, I believe we could. It's designed to be well-protected against assault by large armies. But for a small force of well-trained individuals, its defenses could be surpassed with some subterfuge. And ... well, I suppose that's my one real strength."

Looking up at this exchange, Randall frowns to himself. He drops down from the wyvern and goes over to whisper to Holly, "I'm not sure I like this notion of Akiko being just a persona. They've brainwashed her."

Jason finds that he can fit more of the crystals into his pocket than he might suppose, given their size. They seem to naturally shrink down once put into a convenient container - whether it be cupped in a hand, or in a pocket.

"We'll worry about it later," Holly replies in whisper. "Once we're in friendlier territory."

"Well trained? Well, I suppose that counts us out," Jason remarks with a sigh and takes a moment to run his hands through is now tangled black hair once he's finished collecting the odd gems.

"Money of a sort, I'm guessing. Like that gem Sasha took from the Nightmare," Jason answers.

Mara lets her turbine-fans rest, as she finds a comfortable perch with her landing-skid-talons on the broken ruins. She turns her neck this way and that, momentarily distracted by the sight of RIU, and then scanning as if to watch for potential lurkers in the shadows.

"RIU, can you scout for anything salvageable? Maybe there's an old ship we can 'borrow' in this wreckage," Jason instructs the small dragon.

"Yes," Inari says, distracted from whatever plotting she was up to. "Gold is used as currency, but the Temples of the Light give Light-dwellers gold as a reward for turning in those crystals - which are evidence that creatures of the Shadow have been slain. For anyone who trusts in the Temples of the Light, those crystals are therefore as good as gold."

"In fact, some people prefer it to gold," she adds. "For some reason, it's nearly impossible to steal those crystals from you, once you claim them. It's some sort of ... spiritual thing."

"And how likely are we to find a Temple of the Light in Gormenghast?" Holly has to ask.

RIU flits up over a fallen column, and flies out over the edge of the plateau, starting his search.

Randall rubs his short, small beard, and is briefly distracted by the thought that he didn't bring his shaving kit. "Hmm, interesting."

Jason tilts his head to look over towards Inari. "Are you a light or shadow dweller?" he asks.

"Hmm," Inari says, looking over to Jason. "I suppose that means it's a fine time to bring up that gold is probably better currency than soul-crystals in these domains. If you turn them over to a merchant, he's likely to charge you a very high exchange rate. And, who knows? In these parts, maybe he'll sell information about you to an agent of the Shadow - since surely you wouldn't have soul-crystals unless you gathered them yourself. Or unless you were a merchant."

"Technically speaking, a North Bend dweller, given she lived up where we just came from," Randall points out with a mustached grin.

"I ... don't even know if that's possible," Inari says, looking momentarily perplexed.

"Lovely thought, but not surprising," Jason mutters. At Holly's comment, Jason laughs. "Oh yeah, they'd believe I'm a big conquering agent of doom," he wheezes.

"Hmm, so no Shadow player characters in the Diadem then, I suppose," Holly says after seeing Inari's confusion.

Randall looks up and around. "So, we need gold, and a ship would be nice. And ah... Jason, can you help me figure out whether I need to refuel Mara, feed her, or what?"

Turning his attention to other matters, Jason peers up towards the yellow spot. "Does Gormenghast respond to any sort of universal distress call? A simple way to get in might be rigging up said distress call, then pretend to be adrift and trapped. Well, that's only semi-pretend, but I think you get my meaning. We let them 'rescue' us," he suggests.

Inari looks momentarily distracted and confused, and her expression changes. "Player characters? No. No, there are no Shadow player characters. They were talking about allowing that for a while ... a new starting area in Gormenghast ... but that was abandoned. Didn't fit the theme. Too much PVP in so many other simulations ... something about how the AIs couldn't handle the conflicting priorities...." She holds her hands to her head as if experiencing a migraine.

"Okay, when we ask you about the game, respond using the Akiko 'persona', Inari," Holly suggests.

Randall grins, "Sure. Mara, don't bite Jason, okay?" He pats the big ice wyvern's side and shows Jason where the controls have migrated.

Inari collapses to the ground, her features momentarily fluctuating and stretching. It doesn't look very comfortable. "Ngh!" she whimpers.

The police officer, distracted, goes to check on Akiko. He shoots Holly a 'what did you do?' look.

Holly kneels down next to the visibly (and physically) confused girl. "Akiko knows this stuff and won't be confused," she tells Inari.

"Holly!" Jason says, exasperatedly and divirts from going to the bike to going to Inari. He crouches down and lifts the girl up. "Don't force anything right now, okay," he says.

"Stop ... stop ... stop!" Akiko/Inari screams, shaking violently. At last, the contortions settle, and she's still in humanoid fox-spirit form. "I ... was confused. I won't let it happen again."

"She's got a pulse," Randall says, holding Akiko's wrist. "Unless she's bleeding or burned though, the academy courses didn't teach me anything about how to deal with seizures."

"We can help Akiko later, Holly," Jason says, "When we better know how to, okay? Good grief." When Inari seems stable enough, he releases the strange woman. "You wanted me to check your bike, right? right," he says to Randall.

And then it's suddenly Jason's turn to wobble and grab his head. "Argh!" he mutters and tips over.

Inari takes several deep breaths, then turns to look at Jason. "Oh, no, not you, too!"

"We'll need to be circumspect in asking her about things," Holly says with a sigh. "Anyway.. assuming we find a usable airship.. Jason?"

"Yeah, that'd be great. I'll stay with Akiko." Randall pats Inari's shoulder, running through the basic 'victim in shock' textbook-- oops. "What's wrong, Jason?"

In a flash, RIU can be seen zipping over the broken wall, and shooting to the side of its fallen master, leaving a bluish streaking afterglow from its ethereal wings in its wake.

"I really wish he would warn me before inflicting images of death and destruction," Jason complains from where he lays on the ground. "There's a battlefield that way," he notes, waving in a direction, "Including derelict ships. Might be enough to cobble a working one together. If it uses tech I recognize, anyway."

RIU makes some murring noises, and has a very dejected, sad-puppy poise to its body as it alights down next to Jason and noses him.

Randall looks about to call to Mara, but is stopped at the sight of RIU's appearance. He sighs and then chuckles. "There, there, Akiko, it'll be all right. Jason just had a vision. You feel all right?"

"Okay then, off we go," Holly says, rubbing her hands together. "Want to ride with me or with Randall, Aki- Inari?"

Jason pushes himself upright. "And wait ... it's not safe," he comments, looking both confused and worried, "Something is still prowling the remains. And I do mean remains. Hundreds of skeletal corpses." He then has to add, "She prefers to be called Inari. I already asked remember?"

Inari blinks, and stands up straight, though drawing the coat around her more tightly. "I suppose the little dragon has found what I was going to tell you about. This ... well, this used to be the site of a citadel housing a great lord of the Shadow."

"Skeletons," Inari says, "the walking kind." She closes her eyes and looks as if she's straining, and her face twitches a bit, but it settles. "We are in the Epic area. We shouldn't be here. You're only supposed to head here if you're part of a strike force, or if you're on a deliberate quest. I ... I don't know how we fit in. I don't see how the pantheon is involving itself. The Black is strong here."

The police officer stands, then checks that Jason is all right under the pretense of dusting off his clothes. "Holly, what do you make of that?"

"Do these skeletons have a weakness?" Holly asks. "Afraid of light, maybe? Fire? Dancing?"

Jason rubs his chin for a bit. "Well, my job is to break into corporate systems. This sometimes involves doing more mundane things, like pretending to be a delivery man and the like, to sneak packages into the building to get past the external security," he explains, thinking. "Inari, you specialize in illusions and tricks, right? Could you make us look like skeletons so we 'fit in'?"

Trudeau looks to Randall.. and just shrugs. "Sounds like something a big group of heroes gets together for," she suggests.

Inari grins at Jason. "I wish. Skeletons are mindless creatures. Specifically, they're supposed to be immune to my illusions." She stops and ponders. "They are weak to fire-based attacks, but mundane fire is of little effect. They'll march right through fire, and then you'll be facing a flaming skeleton before it finally burns up enough to fall apart."

Randall grins. "I'm not sure we're, what's the word, 'epic', but I like Jason's idea. Hmm. What about a diversion?"

"Electricity have any effect? Or, heh. I know. If I can get to one of the ships and if the drive still works ... I rig it to overload," Jason suggests.

"What gets their attention?" Holly asks as a followup. "Oh.. The Black? That sounds familiar. It's the A.D. in charge of.. uh.. quests and challenges I think. They've got color designations in the game."

"Wouldn't that be counterproductive to getting a ship that'll get us out of here?" Randall has to point out. "If you blow up the only one with a working drive... Hmm. What does Black do with players that're in way out of their depth?"

"There's more than one ship," Jason points out, "Or it's a matter of getting the artillery working again without being eaten."

"The White is concerned with assisting the heroes," Inari puts in. "But if you have ignored the warnings of the White, then you are left to the devices of the Black. It would not be fair to more experienced heroes if neophytes were allowed to take on epic challenges and succeed."

Holly rubs her temples and tries to recall details from her conversations with the techs. "Okay, if we're following a quest, then.. challenges should be set so we have a chance of succeeding. If we're just wandering someplace that's way above our challenge rating, we'll see warnings and maybe have some sort of way out arranged for us. If we ignore all that, then we're on our own."

"Maybe we're thinking about this wrong. We don't need to fight them, just sneak past them. What gets their attention? How do they sense?" Jason asks.

"Skeletal humans? No," Akiko says, "not unless they have mounts. But the trouble is, this is the Diadem of Worlds. Flying is in ample supply. I am an oddity in that I cannot fly even in my exalted form. But ... I suppose it's all a matter of where my powers were invested."

"I suppose I could try to make another Hamster Ball of Doom for us," Holly suggests.

Akiko blinks, and rubs her eyes. At some point during all the talking, she seems to have shifted back to human appearance. "Oh no," she says. "I don't have my glasses."

"Folks, if we 'play by the game rules', we can't succeed here. We have to contradict what will be expected. Effectively, confuse the system," Jason says as he gets back to his feet and finally goes to examine Mara and her 'fuel level'. "I think we will be better of sneaking and stealing a ship frum under their noseless faces, as it were."

Display garbage appears in place of the numeric display that normally would show Mara's fuel level. It would seem that whatever sensor is responsible for giving the reading is returning garbage data. Mara's operating system will likely need a driver update to accommodate her new form.

"That means finding one that's ready to fly," Holly points out. "Can RIU do that? If he could fly it back here to us that'd be even better."

Randall nods thoughtfully to Jason. He pats Akiko's shoulder, "It's all right, we'll find you another pair. So, a diversion, or just count on them to ignore us as trivial?"

"They won't ignore us. Higher level enemies in games immediately squish lower level characters," Jason remarks.

Akiko shakes her head, takes a few deep breaths, and then says, "Uhm ... sorry. Skeletons. Life sense. Individually, low level. Even novices could take them. Out here, though, they're likely to have skeletal mounts and whatever armor was left on them. Humans don't leave handy little crystals when they die - otherwise necromancers wouldn't get their skeletons. Same goes for non-Avatar mounts. They're ... bird-things, mostly. Unless you get an exotic rare."

"I don't know that the AI will appropriately scale encounters to our skill level," Akiko says. "I mean ... we don't even have skill levels. We're ... we're real. It's whatever you can do, for real. No interface buffer. How do you measure that? I don't even know if the White would recognize us as players. And if it did ... we're way out of zone. Haven't even gone through initiation." She rubs futilely at her eyes.

"Life sense," Holly comments, "means that they'll attack anything living? Do RIU and Mara or the aircar count as living things?" Looking thoughtful, she opens up her designer purse and reaches inside. "Maybe I have Akiko's glasses in my purse," she mutters, trying to test something.

Randall says in that police officer voice of calmness, "It'll be all right, don't worry. I'll distract them, you three sneak to one of the ships and get it ready to fly." He pats Akiko's shoulder, then leads her to Holly to take care of so he can go check on Jason and Mara.

Jason ponders. "I wonder if RIU's link is strong enough that I can completely work through him. If they don't detect him, maybe I can get a ship working from remote," he remarks.

"This ... I don't know how long it's been," Akiko says. "But last I knew, Cauchemarem was introduced as a new quest objective. The plan was to involve a whole army of players - plus, of course, lots of gratuitous VNPCs who'd be dropping left and right, to make it more dramatic. The whole shard was summoned from the Shadow ... and the castle itself was erected to guard the Shadow Gate, from which a whole stream of newly introduced monster types was coming - monsters who could fly directly to neutral worlds and mount random attacks. Terrorize peasants and all that."

"Oh," Holly says in surprise, pulling a pair of glasses from her purse. "I guess I picked them up somewhere along the way," she says, handing them to the younger woman.

Akiko looks to Jason. "I think RIU's invisibility should work. It's a true invisibility spell. My - I mean, Inari's 'invisibility' is just an applied illusion power."

"That explains a few things," Randall muses. "So what do you make of her, Jason? The fuel display was just... Static."

"Oh!" Akiko says, smiling and taking the glasses. "Thank you." She puts them on, and looks visibly relieved.

"Will there be skeletons in the ships themselves?" Jason asks. To Randall he comments quieter, "I have no idea. It's not exactly a machine anymore. I can't tell if she even needs to eat. Her energy level may just be linked to yours. I know when RIU exerts himself I feel more tired."

"Probably, yes," Akiko says. "Skeletons on the ships. Maybe even a ghost or a banshee, if you're lucky. Ships are special, after all. If only I'd been a necromancer, I'd be all set." She shakes her head. "Why did I think I had such an angle with the skeletons? I don't know what Inari was thinking. I mean, I was thinking, when I thought I was Inari. I am ... so messed up."

Randall sobers. He reaches up to touch Mara's muzzle, and tries asking her himself, "Do you need to eat? Or be refueled? Or are you drawing power from me, or some other source?" He pauses after each question to see if he can sense any reply from her, or himself.

"Well, another question. Do any of the ships have 'lifeboat' ships attached? Smaller, er, runabout' type vessels? Those may be less likely to be occupied and easier to steal." Jason asks as he wanders back towards Akiko. "And, uhm, how did you and Inari become physically linked?"

After the last question, Randall nods once. "She needs sunlight," he says to Jason. "There's sun here but it's very distant and weak. Do you still have the lights on the car rigged?"

Akiko looks pained. "I don't think I'm me anymore. By now, my body has been totally replaced by simulated atoms, I'm guessing. I mean ... just look at my abilities. I shapeshift. Remember how, back in Lycanthrotech, the werewolf would make items catch FIRE when he changed form? That was based off of the idea that nanotech doing that much work would generate an enormous amount of heat - it would really kill the host, not just create some pyrotechnics. There's no way I could survive that, for real."

"If your atoms were replaced by fake ones, then they can be replaced again with real ones," Holly points out.

"It would be inefficient to try and use the car lights to refuel her. Solar cell absorption is like, 20% efficient, Randall. We'd drain the car for probably minimal gain," Jason answers, sounding apologetic. To Akiko, he says, "Well, we'll try to fix you, like Holly says."

"So, unless she needs to be refueled, we shouldn't try that," Jason adds to Randall after some thought.

Akiko clenches and unclenches her hands. "This world responds to me as if I'm 'alive' ... and I guess I - whatever I am - am indeed alive in some fashion. The undead creatures ... well, their ability to 'detect life' really depends upon magic. It's not like they've been programmed to 'detect heat signatures.' If that were the case, they'd be thwarted so easily by fire-type avatars. No, they'll see me as alive simply because the system says I'm alive, and the AIs are directly involved, sending the appropriate signals to anything marked as 'undead.'"

"It really depends," Akiko says, "on what sort of flags have been attached to you, how the AIs are keeping track of you, and how the AIs ... well, how they think of you, that is. Apparently the AIs aren't ignoring you, because the two of you have Avatars. They've had to acknowledge you in some way. And you were attacked by monsters earlier."

Randall nods thoughtfully. "All right, Jason. Looks like we need to rustle up a ship then, 'cause it'll be a while before we get anywhere the sunlight's strong." To Akiko, he asys quietly, "Seven years. I read once that's how long it takes to replace human cells. If we can figure out this mess, we can get you out of here, even if that's what we have to do."

"You are alive, Akiko. Artificial atoms or not. Quit thinking of yourself as less than real, okay?" Jason tells the woman and crouches down beside her.

"I don't think they're seeing us quite the same as players though," Holly murmurs. "These Guardians are customized, aren't they?"

Akiko shakes her head. "That's not what I mean to say. I am real. This place is real. But I don't know for certain that I'm really the Akiko I used to be, anymore. I'm ... I'm at least part Inari now. I can do things that I don't think are even possible back in the world I used to live in. I don't know what would happen if I went back. What part of my body gives the signal to start changing itself? Is it part of me, or is it the universe around me that does the changing? I don't really know."

Akiko turns her attention to Mara and then to RIU. "Customized. Yeah, you could say that. They're ... I mean, just look at them. I'm kind of surprised you weren't automatically booted from the system for being anachronistic. But then ... maybe the system just can't 'boot you out.'"

"We'll find out somehow. There's no point in even dwelling on it until we know there's a way out," Jason remarks and looks out into the desolation. "I guess if the worst thing is I end up a dragon, well ... I'll just discover the 'fun' of shutting a door on my tail a lot," he adds with a smirk.

The formerly-fox-girl then turns her attention to looking over the little dragon, one part out of curiosity to examine its cybernetic features ... but also, judging from her occasional smirks, simply because the little dragon is adorable. (And he does seem to be a glutton for attention.)

"What about conjuring up spools of magical tape.. and other things?" Holly asks Akiko. "Is that a normal player ability?"

Quoting Zarathustra, Randall says, "Nothing is eternal except doubt. And our will to overcome it." He grins and pats Jason and Akiko on the shoulders. "Just hold onto yourselves and we'll get through this. We've got time to talk on the way, let's get ourselves a ship off this rock first."

"Hehehehheheh," Jason starts cackling as he gets a disturbing glint in his eyes. "Booting them out ... I just got an idea on how to get a ship," he comments deviously.

The hispanic police officer eyes Jason suspiciously. "Does it involve exploding things?"

"Uhm? No. Definitely not. Oh ... you did that?" Akiko looks confused. "No, of course you did. You did the whole ... er ... prom gown thing. Ah - thank you for that consideration." She blushes. "No ... I think ... that shouldn't be available to VPCs. The closest I can think of is that you've got some sort of mage package. I know a few details of some of the spells.... Learning magic words or phrases is useless, really. It's like ... I guess once the system decides you're a mage, then you just say something to give it the idea of what you want to do ... and it should do it. Except that since players can't be mages ... aha! I know. In beta! They were considering having mages as a player type. The interface must still be there."

"Alright, I remember a little about that now," Holly says, looking thoughtful. "I'm limited to things in the database, so can't.. uh.. invent stuff, though."

"No. Akiko gave me the idea. The ships likely have some sort of control systems, I would think. Well, if I can get RIU there and interface ... I just turn the ship on its occupants and boot them out," Jason remarks and rubs his hands together. Close doors on skeletons and crush them. Use ejector seats. Spin the ship and throw them off, and so on," Jason says with an evil grin. "As she put it. Boot them off."

RIU purrs loudly, and rolls over for a tummy rub - though instead he just gets poked at an array of odd A/V interface jacks worked into his scales. He seems to be none too picky, and enjoys the attention anyway.

"All right, but don't put RIU at risk," Randall says to Jason. "I'll be waiting on Mara, ready to cover, if they appear to notice your friend, all right?"

Akiko hmms. "The system must be drawing models from ... oh. Right. Blake must have added a few anachronistic items to the extended database. Duct tape. Electrical tape. Right."

"Well, I guess it will depend on if the ships have control systems," Jason admits. So, he asks Akiko, "Do the ships have control systems?"

"I wonder if I can access stuff from the old military sims," Holly ponders, and eyes RIU. "I hope the ship interface is something RIU can manage."

"Control systems?" Akiko looks pensive. "It really depends. Most of them are just like old pirate ships. I mean, you know, big wheel, sails, and all that. Sailing on the aether is, I guess, a lot like sailing on the seas. Somehow. Don't ask me how. It's a fantasy, after all. But there are some crystal ships. And there are things like clockwork. And I don't know ... I guess steam engines might work. Clearly, electronics are possible, or your aircar would have stopped working right when you came through. But then, if electronics didn't work, I guess our nervous systems would all stop, too, huh?"

"The system is really good at handling simulated electrons," Holly notes. "It's the atomic nuclei that it has to fudge."

"Hm. Well, I can at least send him in invisible to look. Better than sitting here on our butts," Jason admits. He withdraws the probably reluctant-to-leave-a-lap dragon. "It's invisible time for you. We need to see what we can swipe," he tells the creature.

RIU makes a smile-like expression, and looks up at its master. It only gives the slightest feeling of reluctance to leave, but then stretches and suddenly looks as if it's intently focusing.

Pop. RIU vanishes into thin air. Nonetheless, Jason receives a tickling sensation as if RIU were teasingly reassuring him that it was still there and okay. With a flicker of its now invisible wings, it shoots off and begins scouting out....

Battleground of the Shadows
Amidst this blackened and cracked plain, toxic smoke rises through fissures, where the reddish glow of deep lava provides most of what faint illumination there is. The plateau and the citadel's ruins rise high above to one side, while to the other stands a large crystal that has been thrust into the ground, around which are arrayed the remains of a fierce battle - the charred remains of skyships of all sorts, and the bones and corroded armor and weapons of many heroes fallen in battle. Amidst the ruin, faint foxfire glows flit about, hinting that all may not be entirely still and peaceful here.

Far above and at what they hope to be a safe distance, Mara the ice wyvern takes point, bearing Officer Randall Cranston, and Akiko Summers - the latter clad in a coat with every button snapped and zipper zipped, one arm wrapped around the police officer's waist, and the other holding onto the frame of her glasses, for fear it might fly off into the night. Behind them is the sports aircar, with Ms. Holly Trudeau at the controls, and Jason Edwards riding shotgun - and focusing intently, as RIU relays mental images of his foray into the battleground below.

The invisibility, so far, works like a charm. Although images have been sent back of restless skeletons and flitting spirits, not a one of them has responded to RIU's presence. Sadly, most everything looks ruined beyond salvage - but considering the sheer number, that still leaves quite a bit. Were one inclined to go to the trouble of wading through the bodies (and occasional undead) to get to it, there are numerous swords, bows, entire suits of armor, and trinkets galore for the taking.

"Wow, I now know what a water balloon must see when it goes whirling through the air," Jason remarks as he rocks back and forth in spite of trying to remain perfectly still. "And boy is there a lot of junk down there. Of course you have to deal with an entire army of the undead, but hey. And once again, Randall ... we should have gotten those bazookas. Bazooka works much better than crossbows!"

Of the ships, it appears that at some point in the battle, they had taken up defensive positions around the massive crystal monument. Here, the crystal glows ever so faintly - but very noticeably - but for some reason, the further away from it one gets, the less distinct it becomes, as if it were magically shrouded.

"Pretty spooky stuff," says Randall quietly to Akiko behind him. "We'll be okay though, I'll keep a wide berth of them old bones." Over the radio, he says, "I don't know where you'd get reloads here, Jason! What is your fascination with exploding things, anyway?"

"I prefer to overwhelm. Fighting fair is for people who don't think creatively," Jason remarks.

One looks a bit more intact than the others - a great, blackened hulk with tattered sails and broken spars, and - wouldn't you know it? - somehow the ravages of time have been such that sculpted wooden figurines have been eaten away to look like skeletal or monstrous forms. The figurehead is relatively spared, but nonetheless the verdigris gives her a gloomy appearance, with corroded tearmarks running down her cheeks.

"Hand grenades might be easier," Holly comments, watching that glowing formation. "What do you suppose that crystal thing is? A gateway?"

Akiko looks toward the great crystal monument. She leans forward to shout over the sound of the wind (and the muffling of the bike helmet) into Randall's ear, "I don't recognize that thing! That wasn't here before! I mean ... I really don't know how long it's been, but it definitely wasn't here originally!"

Randall laughs. "Do you know how much paperwork it is to get a hand grenade out of the armory? We'd be better off whipping up some molotov cocktails." He pauses as Akiko whispers, then relays this to Holly, "Akiko says it's new to her."

Another visual image assaults Jared's mind, amplified by a momentary alarm on RIU's part. He gets the image of some large skeletal birds of prey - no, scratch that, 'giant' is more like it - harnessed to some sort of great flying carriage. It would seem that the carriage isn't likely to go anywhere without them ... except that RIU picks up a faint greenish glow in one of those large empty eye sockets. Perhaps he's relaying this back more as "potential threat" than "potential conveyance."

"Eeek," goes Jason as he slinks down in his seat. "There's a big, ugly, bone-buggered bird carriage out there that looks hungry and dangerous. Maybe using a cup doesn't seem so bad now..."

Yet another looks like a galleon again, but in curious style: it looks as if two galleons have been cut at the waterline, and then fused together there. If one were right-side-up, the other would be upside-down. To land such a thing? It seems like a nightmare. But, somehow, at a glance at least, the craft looks elegant and natural in style - looking as if it has been carved from a single colossal piece of ivory, or else expertly covered in ivory plates with such skill as to make them seem to fuse together. Though, of course, ivory being what it is, it seems to blend in rather well with the excessive number of bones in this battlefield.

But RIU also catches sight of another ship - far removed from the others. This is not part of the defensive formation, but rather looks as if it was forced down over another ridge. This one looks vaguely reminiscent of one of the big steamer ships from the Victorian era: it still sports sails, but also has paddle-wheel like constructions, and mechanical extensions, giving the impression that it could either paddle or flap its way through the void. It's rusty, of course.

"I can use Holly's purse," Jason remarks distractedly. "Wow, that ship rates an 11 out of 10 on the weird-meter. Doesn't seem too useful. Plus, I don't think it would be a good idea for us to look use and scary. We need something small that we can pilot with just a couple people." He then perks up, "Oh, hey, that looks promising. RIU, go closer to that rusty one. Even if it makes me feel like I need a tetanus shot from looking at it."

Randall says to Akiko over the noise of the wind, "What's the deal with all the different kinds of ships? Shouldn't there be just one kind, and big and small ones?"

To everyone but Jason, there's no visible response from RIU. (After all, RIU isn't visible.) Nonetheless, the little dragon sends a mental confirmation back to Jason, and changes course.

Akiko shouts back, "There are different ... erm ... nationalities, I guess you could say! Tasavalta is the beginning area ... it's all sailing ships, pirate ships, the stuff you see on the posters. Ithalbar is all sleek and elfy - I mean, even though there aren't any elves here, but you know what I mean. The Sentinel Shards have flying ships, too, but they're all business, very unfriendly looking. Good guys, but very stern. But the Empire of Stars ... they're even more stern. Mechanical, cold, heartless, imperial."

RIU comes in closer, and sends back Jason a mental image of the fallen mechanical cruiser. It looks like a strange montage of mechanical features, marked with rust and verdigris. While it has paddle wheels and ornithopter-ish wings, its main body is evocative of some sort of submarine, perhaps like the famed Nautilus of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and of the Mysterious Island. Unlike the Nautilus, it has worked brass and steel designs on the exterior, rather than looking strictly streamlined.

"The rusted hulk is Empire of Stars then?" Holly asks. "That could be a good disguise until we get out of their territory."

Several skeletons lie sprawled about, with no immediate sign of the undead - but this being such a place as it is, there's no guarantee the dead won't rise to challenge interlopers.

"Okay, I have to admit this one is cool. Wow," Jason muses as he directs RIU in closer to look for an access hatch. "And if it was downed, maybe it will have less crew aboard. Just get it rolling a bit to shake of the corpses on the outside ..."

RIU flits about, until he finds what looks like an exterior hatch. Unseen - but felt by Jason - RIU's whiskers flit curiously, as it snuffles around the hatch and examines its workings.

"We should move the car and bike slowly closer to this one, since it's away from the defensive fleet. And if it turns out to be good, all the better," Jason remarks distractedly. He's more interested in how the hatch works.

Randall radios, "It looks pretty rusty, we'd have to spend a lot of time polishing it up if they're the kind of empire that likes everything spic-and-span. 'Course they could be the sort that likes rust." He moves up and ahead of the aircar, following Jason's suggestion.

In the distance, at a lower section of the broken plain, where rivers of burning lava flow freely, a herd of nightmares stampedes across the molten rock as effortlessly as if it were a grassy field. They give no hint of noticing the distant airborne vehicles, but their sheer numbers - perhaps two dozen of them - nonetheless stand out as remarkable.

"You can polish it then. I'm sure you've had a lot of practice with your boots," Jason mutters.

Suddenly, from Randall's vantage point, he can see the hatch ... and he can see it opening, letting off a shower of rust flakes, apparently of its own accord.

"Whoo, go little dragon! He opened it," Jason croons. "Now, slowly RIU in. Lets see what's inside ... and if there's a dock for smaller ships to land these things in..."

Another small cloud of rusty particles is briefly kicked up around the hatch, and then it slams shut again - though still partially ajar, as it doesn't seal itself.

The police officer sighs, then settles in. Slow and easy approach, keep an eye out for skeletons that lock on their 'life signatures'.

"Randall, I think I have an idea to keep us hidden," Holly says over the comm. "It's not invisibility, but it might work."

Randall pats Mara's neck, then guides her down into position. It's funny, I don't feel like I'm driving a bike so much as flying with her. Do I even need to use the controls? he wonders to himself. But now's not the time to experiment.

Holly mutters and reaches into her handbag again. It's probably a good thing that Jason is too preoccupied to pay attention to what she's saying.

Mara follows Randall's direction flawlessly, gliding into position and then hovering in place.

Trudeau pulls what looks like a handkerchief from her purse, and drops it out of the open window of the aircar. Ignoring the turbulence from the fans, it flutters down and spreads out into something like a giant bedsheet! The sheet drapes over Mara, with two big cutouts for her eyes, and then fades into semi-translucent gauze so the riders can see out through it. It really appears to be the most basic sort of Halloween ghost costume!

"So far, empty and dark," Jason comments, "Er, wait, no, there's a skeleton. Not sure if it's alive, though..." RIU, does it seem ... active, at all?"

"Holly, I'm not sure if you've confused 'mindless' with 'dimwit'," Randall quips over the radio. Nevertheless, he keeps in position, moving slowly with Miss Trudeau's aircar.

Akiko opens her mouth as if to say something, thinks the better of it, and then just says nothing at all.

"Hey, the duct tape worked before, so don't knock it!" Holly says. "I made one of these for Tracy's first Trick or Treating excursion and she didn't complain!"

"It doesn't seem bad, though there are some shriveled corpses in here that reminds me of Holly when we had to crash at her apartment..." Jason remarks. "RIU, is there any docks where we could park our ships to try and explore this thing too?"

"Sorry, I don't dress up for a person's fantasies on the first date," Jason retorts.

The police officer radios, "Following on your mark. If they pick up on us, I'll break off and distract 'em."

Instead of a Raggedy Andy costume, Holly produces a 'Predator' mask for Jason, complete with dangling rubber dreadlocks and animatronic jaws.

"Wow, this is an impressive ship. I think I found Holly's bedroom in here," Jason remarks, "And it's mostly mechanical, which means I have a hope of tinkering with it." "Okay, RIU, can you tell if the engines can be started? Get close to the, well, ignition stuff, if any."

Finally, Holly pulls out her own disguise; I big pointy witch's hat, complete with oversized buckle in the front. As she puts it on, she warns Jason, "No sass comments on this!"

Over the radio, Randall says wryly, "Do you really think that'll keep him from making one?"

"I was going to say a dog mask would be more fitting of your personality, and it still rhymes with witch," Jason remarks, "And crud, we need a gauntlet hand to fire this thing up. RIU can't start it. We'll have to go in." "RIU, think you can find the armory? Might be gauntlets there."

Jason also finally looks at the mask in his lap. "So, you think I'm this ugly, do you?" he asks.

The police officer's grimace is invisible over the radio com-link, but his chuckle is audible despite the sound of wind. "What are you two doing in there?"

"I think ... hm. You know, id we detonated something under the ship and could knock if off the ground ... do you think it would drift off and away from this place? It would give us time to explore it and try to get it actually running," Jason comments as he tries to figure out how to open the mask and actually put it on.

The stampede of nightmares eventually reaches the end of the lava field, where they all take flight into the air ... and fly over a distant ridge, and out of sight (thank goodness).

Randall checks this with Akiko. "Does whatever make these airships float need power to operate?"

"Okay, gauntlets located. I think we could start this freak-fest up. Now we just need to land in its docks, or ... whatever," Jason muses, pausing in mid-examination of how the mask works.

Akiko says, "Ships of the Light realms only work during daylight hours. At night, they have to rest. So ... uhm ... you sort of run into problems if you want to take a skyship into shadow territories. You basically need someone with the power to feed stored Light into the ship to keep it going. But the Empire of the Stars ... well, they don't rely on the Light. They have their own sort of magi-tech. Nobody quite knows where they get their power from, but it's essentially mechanical - just with a magical fuel source with special effects."

"I might ... I might have to become Inari to be of more use to you here," Akiko adds.

"If you're afraid to do that, then don't," Jason remarks into the radio. "We'll make do."

Randall relays this, and then adds to Akiko, "It's all right - you already said that Inari's illusions wouldn't work against the skeletons. Miss Trudeau seems to think this disguise will work, let's give it a chance. If it doesn't work, we'll break off and distract them, give Jason a chance to get things going."

"That big crystal thing could be a lamp to recharge them then, and their Avatars," Holly suggests. She doesn't comment on what she thinks Jason looks like though.

"Landing bay located. Now we just have to see if we can get in it," Jason muses, still not having put the mask on yet. "Lets not get impatient and end up zombie-jerky..."

"You have to put the mask on before we go in any closer," Holly notes. "It won't do any of us any good if you're detected and we're not."

The police officer thumbs the lock on his gun, getting it ready. "Masks, eh? Since I don't have one, want me to go check out that big crystal? I can lead 'em away, and catch up when you've got it in the air."

"The entrance is tight. Mara will need to fold her wings in. The car will have to go slow," Jason instructs and starts entering coordinates for where the hatch entrance on the ship is. "Follow these points to the entrance. And as far as I can tell, there don't seem to be any active skeletons inside the bay ... so we may be safe enough in there for Holly to uglify you."

Jason also finally puts the mask on and flexes the mandibles. "Wanna snog?" he asks Holly and waggles the dredlocks.

As the vehicle and wyvern descend and approach, they find the rear opening amidst the debris, partially obscured by the collapsed wing-like structures. There's a bit of falling rust flakes as one of the bay doors slowly moves maybe an inch or more further open - as if a tiny little invisible creature were using all its might to try to force it just a little further.

Inside the bay ... well, considering that the aircar isn't going in with headlights on and safety lights flashing, it's dark. Really really dark. Very dark. It's just solid black. Can't see a thing.

Randall says over the radio with a chuckle, "Settle down, you two, or I'm going to have to cite you for 'disturbance of the peace'."

"I'll probably need Akiko with me when I go down to the engine room. It looks pretty crazy," Jason says over the radio. "RIU, is it clear enough to turn our lights on safely in here?"

"Few corpses in the crushed ships ... so should be safe for lights. Lets get this monster show on the road, eh?" Jason comments. "Lights on."

Akiko leans over, and makes a hand sign where Randall can see it - a pantomime slang-sign that he's seen before on certain vid shows, loosely translated as, "Seriously - is there something going on between those two?"

Mara swoops in, flooding the hangar with her spotlight. Inside, Randall catches, through the gauzy sheet, a scene of three or so ornithopterish craft that have slid to one side, crushed one onto the other. As the light hits them, the previously still skeletal remains suddenly spring to life. They let out unearthly wails and begin go thrash about, but there's no sign that they have any way to work their broken forms free of the wreckage. Mara folds in her wings and slides in, using her taloned landing skids to get a good grip on the steeply angled floor, and then finding a perch on a formerly vertical support so as not to block the way for the aircar.

Randall chuckles and whispers to Akiko, adjusting the fans and folding Mara's wings in to make it into the docking bay, "I'm not sure. So far as I know, she hired him to investigate some supposed security violations at Avatars LLC, but he doesn't act like that with most clients of his. Only with people he likes. It's kind of a sign of trust, if they can give as good as they get, at some level they both understand, 'I get you, you get me.'"

The aircar follows quickly behind, and only once the headlights sweep about can Holly see that there's a bit of activity going on down below (or forward, depending upon one's point of view) at the deeper part of the upended hangar, as the undead pilots wrench about in their cockpits.

"I guess we'll need flashlights to go deeper," Holly notes, looking for some place level enough to set down the car.

"And you have to make costumes for them," Jason points out as he gets ready to leave the car.

There's a V-shaped spot where wall meets floor, and where a few supports have fallen across and settled, where the aircar could make a landing - but it's probably not the best place to be, should this craft manage to get airborne anytime soon - and, presumably, upright.

The police officer's face turns grim at the signs of un-life. Over the radio, he calls, "Looks like we've got some undead pilots in their birds. They're trying to get free, doesn't look like they're getting far though."

"This is going to be a fun trip," Randall says with a sigh. He nudges Mara to one side to give Holly and Jason room to pass by her. After dismounting, he offers Akiko a hand down, reassuring her, "I've got it covered."

"I can't do this," Akiko says. "They're just monsters ... but they used to be people. People from this world ... but still people. Dead ... undead...." She shrinks down on Mara's back, not yet taking Randall's proffered hand.

Randall says firmly to Akiko, "They're distractions. Computer-generated, not real people, they're just there to spook us. They can't hurt us. They won't hurt us, I'll protect you."

It takes some careful doing, but Ms. Trudeau manages to land the aircar on what might be - temporarily - a secure enough landing spot. Down for the aircar (and for gravity in general) is about 45 degrees off from the "down" of the crashed ship, though.

"Okay, I have enough left in me to make two more costumes," Holly notes, hoping the car doesn't slide. "Any preferences?"

Jason opens the door to the car and slides out, bag in tow. "RIU, to me and bring the gauntlet," he thinks. "And get costumes made for the others," Jason reminds Holly as he starts down the mess, trying to find better footing.

"Mara, cover them, if they look like they're going to get free, freeze 'em, all right?" Randall pats the ice wyvern on the side. "Surprise me, Holly."

Akiko protests, "They aren't ... computer generated! They aren't pixels! They aren't ... they aren't sprites or bundles of data. They're real flesh and bone ... they eat ... they die. They..." She shudders, and folds in on herself.

Holly thinks, and mutters something. Jason might pick out the words 'Dawn Patrol' and 'cartoon', before the woman pulls out a very lifelike looking Sgt. Duffy dog-head mask from her purse.

Akiko's form shifts, and she leaps to the uneven flooring, a large four-legged fox-spirit again. "Spare your magic for me, mage," the fox-spirit says in an echoing voice. "The undead shall not notice me, unless I provoke them."

The police officer reaches up to pat Akiko's hand. "They're dead, these things are only animated." He looks startled as the hand he was reaching for turns into a paw.

"Okay, Inari," Holly says, and carefully opens her door to leave the car. "Got your mask here, Randall. It's a real blast from the past."

Jason catches the rusty Gauntlet in his hand. While he examines it to make sure it won't try to eat his arm. After Akiko shifts again, he does have to look over and see if his coat survived at all. "Inari ... calm down. Please," he says quietly.

Randall looks bemused. "What's this? Some kinda... Dog?" He examines the mask from all sides dubiously before putting it on. Muffled: "Woof!"

The coat is still intact, and lying across the back of the "bike" seat, though partially obscured by Mara's gauzy "disguise."

Holly beeps the nose of the mask to activate the animatronics. "Rats! I should have gotten the matching donut prop.. oh well."

"I am calm enough," Inari says, mouth open but not moving when she speaks. "This is no place for Akiko. I can see in the dark - and should the dead prove to be more troublesome than expected, I will withstand their attacks more easily than a frail human." Inari pauses a moment, then looks perplexed. "Those glasses seem to have vanished. Hmph. Magery. You had me fooled."

"Retrieve my coat," Jason now instructs RIU. "First thing we need to do," he says as he heads towards Randall and Akiko, "Is get the ship running. So, engine room first. I'd like Inari to come with me. I'll probably need her."

"Hmmm, I suppose that means stuff I conjure vanishes once you stop using them," Holly notes.

Randall says to Holly, voice disguised by the mask's filters to be deeper and gruff, "Where do you get cool stuff like this? I swear, it's got internal air conditioning or something to duct heat away." He tries approaching the zombies to see if the undead take notice of him or not.

Jason's coat lifts into the air, as a dragon-shaped lump is briefly visible working its way underneath Mara's gauzy disguise. Mara turns about and snuffles at the invisible dragon, then follows Randall with her gaze as he approaches the undead. The coat makes its way on to Jason.

"You wouldn't believe the Halloween parties at work," Holly notes, popping the trunk of the aircar to get the flashlight from the emergency kit.

Jason doesn't put the sad-looking gauntlet on yet for fear it may disintegrate on him. Instead, he pulls on his coat once it reaches him. He even jokingly comments, "Phew, smells like fox."

The undead pilots, meanwhile, continue to thrash about and wail, but they evidence no notice of Randall, as close as he gets.

Jason pulls out his trusty miniature LED based flashlight and lights it up. "RIU, shoulder," he comments, then looks around at the others. "Split up or go as a group?" he asks.

"If you're heading for the engine room, then Randall and I should find the bridge, right?" Holly suggests. "Or do you think this hulk can be flown from down there?"

As Randall gets closer, he can see that there are no mere Halloween props. These bones have dried, decayed flesh clinging to them, with eyelids shrunken in on open eye sockets, seen in the ambient glow of the searchlights. They thrash about in inhuman fashion, their own rotten flesh tearing a bit with each movement - as if they've never had cause to defy the stillness of death until now.

"Looks like they work," Randall reports, approaching to within ten feet of them and moving from one side of the bay to the other but noting no significant change in their attention. He shudders at the undead's realism - no, can't think of them as actual real people - and goes to fetch the big maglite from the saddlebag-arrangement that used to be the trunk of the motorbike. The high-intensity LEDs at the front and the actual batteries are quite small, but the grip is made of heavy steel and can be used as a makeshift baton. "Sounds good, Holly."

"No idea. I know where both are, thanks to RIU," Jason remarks. "I just want Inari with me in case I have to make some sense of the odd tech down there. What you two want to do is up to you. Might be better to remain together, though, just in case we get attacked. I can't fight my way out of a paper bag."

"We should hurry too," Holly notes, biting her lower lip. "I can't be sure, but I wouldn't trust the costumes to work for more than an hour."

"Okay, give us directions to the bridge, and tell us how to call down to the engine room," Randall suggests.

"Fascinating," Inari says, passing close to Holly. "You are no mere mage. You must be a conjuror. All your dweomers have self-provided anchor points. They're transferrable, and you can take them on and off at will, until they expire."

"Well.. neat," Holly comments drily. "Let's not test the taking-things-off part just yet. Hopefully we'll find a flight manual on the bridge as well."

A little piece of scrap metal, which happens, by happenstance, to look remotely like a pointing arrow, lifts off of a debris pile, and floats into the air, pointing down to a corridor which seems to follow the main axis of the ship.

Jason digs out some paper and starts drawing a crude map from memory. "Just use the portable radios to keep contact," he suggests absently, "The bridge just has a big ship wheel like the old movies. So I hope it's not too hard." He hands off the map to Randall and adds, "And RIU is pointing the way for you too."

The police officer "dog" adds, "I'm thinking we should dump the bodies overboard before the masks go, too. I'll take care of that once we've got things under way."

"They are undead," Inari says. "Humans leave mortal remains - but once they are animated as the undead, they are no longer human. Destroy them, and the disposal will take care of itself - and you shall get more soul-shards for your trouble."

"Right, under control," Holly says, and heads off in the direction RIU points with the scrap metal.

The scrap-metal arrow bobs along, descending to follow the steep slope of the corridor, occasionally dipping to point at what turns out to be a jutting sharp pointy piece of broken frame that could be a potential pitfall here, or a hole in the plating there.

Randall nods. "All right. Beat them up, got it." He uses his light to illuminate the path for Holly, and goes ahead first, since he's got the body armor and helmet.

"Come on Inari, we have a ship to resurrect," Jason tells the fox and heads out in the direction of where the engine room was.

"Are you so sure you want to lead the way?" Inari asks. "If you get yourself killed, I will lose my guide. Perhaps I should lead, and you should tell me which turns to take."

"I'm going to trust you," Jason tells Inari and motions for her to go first. "No heroics, though. I don't want you getting hurt."

Randall pauses. "Wait a bit," he says to Holly, before they leave the docking bay. "While we have Mara here to back us up, let's see how tough it is to beat up a few zombies that can't see us." He looks about for a big heavy piece of metal to use as a bludgeon.

Nearby is a big section of pipe that has fallen nearby. Really, pipes seem to be fairly common in these corridors. One can only hope that this pipe wasn't important to the operation of the craft, should it ever get started again. In any case, it should really hurt if it's introduced forcibly to one's head.

The police dog hefts the pipe, then tries employing it against one of the zombies. It's clear he had some martial arts training, perhaps at the police academy, as he thrusts with it at the zombie's head rather than trying to swing it around.

Crunch! The skull collapses, but before there's much time to consider the particulars - it dissipates, and in the place of the corpse is now a glowing little crystal, bobbing in place.

Randall shakes his head. "No telling. Get yourself a pipe," he suggests as he goes to collect the crystal and clear the other zombies. "We'll clear the ones on the way to the bridge. After that, well, we'll get in touch with Jason and see how long they're going to need."

The metal arrow continues bobbing along. After they make their way along, they see a corpse sprawled on the floor, down a steep incline. At this point, it's as much climbing as it is walking.

Ms. Trudeau finds a loose piece of pipe that looks like a decent enough candidate for skull-bashing.

The police officer sighs as they make their way down. "No one warned me that there'd be days like this on the job. If this were the real world, I'd be reading 'em their rights an' handcuffing 'em, but point one, these are brainless undead that want to feast on our flesh, point two, I don't have enough handcuffs, and point three, we're a long way from backup." He studies the corpse to be sure it's an undead, shining the light over it.

The zombie suddenly lurches and begins thrashing about and screaming, with agility inappropriate for a long-dormant corpse, as the light shines on it.

"Yah!" Holly yelps and jumps back before shifting her light away from the skeleton.

Randall shifts his stance and jabs at the corpse as if the pipe he's holding were a javelin.

The pipe pierces through the zombie in one blow, making a series of sickening pops as its ribs snap, and finally its spine splits. But, once again - so convenient! - the body suddenly dissipates, and in its place is left a glowing crystal waiting to be collected.

"Just like Resident Evil 200. Let's split the crystals," Randall suggests to Holly, motioning to her to get it. He starts down again, following RIU's metal arrow.

Next, the metal arrow pauses a bit, bobbing up and down several times, before descending into a larger chamber. In the ambient light, the arrow can be seen to spin about a few times, pointing in several directions.

The interior of the bridge seems quite tangled, and there are signs of broken glass. Falling could be quite deadly.

Randall examines the room, playing the light over the bridge fixtures. "I think we're here," he says.

As Randall plays the light over the bridge fixtures, he can see that the bridge apparently was fully crewed at the time the craft went down.

*** Note to GW: Edit the above to remove Greywolf from the log. He does not belong!

There are handholds aplenty in the tangled wreck of the bridge - but these same buttresses and frames also serve as hiding places for the various undead crewmen who lurch out to attack the hateful light.

"So, we either go down in the dark, or... Hey, RIU," Holly calls. "Do you have a red light? Maybe they won't react to a darkroom type light."

Spotting that the creatures are reacting to the light, not to their own presence - which were disguised by the masks, supposedly - Randall calls to Holly, "Take my light, draw them up after you, I'm going to beat them up as they go by!"

RIU seems to be occupied, given that the little metal arrow races across the bridge toward the fore (and lowest) end.

"You think they'll follow the light?" Holly asks. She waves her own flash around to see if that's the case.

Randall hands his maglite to Holly and shifts his pipe to a two-handed grip so defend her.

Crunch! The first skeleton to try to slip past Randall, after the light, gets what-for to the head!

Mayhem ensues! The skeletons clamber, one after another, to try to reach Holly. She holds the light, and all they can "see" would be her (or the light, anyway), while Randall keeps his perch and systematically smacks each one in turn as it comes by. Each one is a resounding success, and one by one the creatures go down, too focused (and too dumb) to realize what just happened. Glowing crystals emerge in their place, but instead of sliding down to the front ... they hover in place. All the rumbling going on doesn't seem to be just from the mayhem of combat. The ship appears to be lifting, and several viewports into pipes running around the chamber begin to glow with an eerie blue light. Back in the passageway, a broken pipe begins to spew glowing blue gas.

Randall grins, breathing hard after the obvious skeletons have gone down. "Looks like I was right. They go after light. Ah... Behind you, Holly, is that pipe leaking?"

"Yes, when stuff spills out that is usually considered a leak," Holly says, handing Randall back his light. "I can go try to tape it."

The little metal arrow sign flies back across the bridge (now dimly illuminated in a low blue cast), and into the corridor, where it bobs around, pointing at what appears to be a rusty shut-off valve wheel. It might not be easy to turn, though - and it's currently right in the path of the blue spray.

Randall nods. "You didn't just happen to have a mask in your purse, I've been thinking," he says. "See what you can pull out." He moves to get ready to do the job.

"You've already got a mask, and who knows what that stuff is," Holly points out, and reaches into her purse. "I'm thinking a powerful fan to blow it out of the way," she says.

From the purse comes.. a handheld, battery-powered personal blow-dryer. Holly aims it at the leak and turns it on.

Randall moves up to try the wheel once the spray has eddied away. It looks pretty rusty -- well, if it's too rusted, I'll try working the pipe through it for leverage.

The blowdryer is surprisingly effective, as the glowing blue spray shoots back the other direction. The metal arrow shoots up and out of the way to avoid the redirected blast. The wheel looks clear now.

With a wrench, and a crackle of rust flakes, the wheel turns at last. The spray shuts off.

Randall whews, extracting the pipe from the wheel. "I... huff... have got to... huff... start working out."

"Maybe Akiko can help you come up with a regimen," Holly comments. "She seems pretty fit."

Returning the blowdrier to her purse, Holly grins. "Well, at least now I'll be able to conjure some proper hair-care product," she notes.

Randall laughs and switches on his com. "Bridge is clear, Jason. How are things on your end?"

"We've just changed the situation on this bleak rock," Jason remarks as he enters the bridge with a humanoid-fox behind him and once again wearing his coat. "The ship that died now lives! Life from death! Granted, it's in bad shape, but it's better than well, being dead and adding to the zombie army. And I have to admit, we wouldn't have made it if we had jettisoned Inari. So ... er, sorry about trying to throw you out of the car earlier."