Resurrected Imperial Juggernaut
This ironclad airship was once a sign of the pride and prestige of the Empire of Stars, a monstrosity of stained steel and burnished bronze, with its pipes and faint interior glow - a long, mostly cylindrical warship flanked by outward folding spined wings/sails. Now, add a considerable amount of rust and decay, and considerable damage, plus some fairly recent slapdash patchwork - and, well, it's still rather imposing, but might not inspire quite as much fear if someone were to see it up close and see how badly under-crewed it is.

Our heroes' first night in the Shadow Realm ended aboard this rusted behemoth, as they spent considerable time scouring the ship to evict its undead occupants, and to strategically shut off pipes to stop the glowing blue sprays. Here and there, as a result, several of the corridors are pitch black or nearly so (as the portals in the pipes seem to provide the only interior illumination - and only a hazy blue at that, when available). It's not exactly a homey environment.

Jason has been particularly busy, undertaking the bulk of the repairs. Although this falls well outside of his normal areas of expertise, nonetheless some basic mechanical assembly seems to fall within his necessary repertoire. A certain bit of handiwork is required to rig up such clever gizmos as the pre-transformed RIU, or the modified power glove, after all. Akiko has been assisting, somewhere along the way scavenging a dusty old Imperial uniform supplemented with additional scraps, and reverting to her human appearance. She also seems to have aged a bit - looking more 20-something now than a schoolgirl.

Part of the bridge has had to be barricaded; the windows have been shattered and a good portion of the framework collapsed in, and it seems to be a prime place for random flying encounters to try to board the craft (since, rusted or not, it's too sturdy for them to try to poke holes in its armored hide). Fortunately, the hangar bay doors still operate, so those were closed off - along with every ajar hatch or portal RIU could find while scanning the ship. Still, it's the sort of situation in which it's hard to feel entirely safe in.

Nonetheless, fatigue has taken its toll, and with the careful selection of some cabins in relatively well-lit areas in the center of the ship - and some attempt at setting up lines of defense and establishing watches for the night - the ship's new crew has managed to get something passing for a decent night's sleep (though it's nowhere near as comfortable as Holly's virtual apartment).

Ms. Trudeau has benefited from a bit of a primer offered by Akiko - the latter recounting as much as she knew of the magical system, either through her capacity as an employee of Avatars LLC (a bit more directly involved with the game than Holly's security role would demand), or from her alter-ego's experience as "Inari." There are a great many spell effects employed by Mages and Links in the universe - many of them identical in effect, but only varying in terms of "trappings" and some minor side-effect. (E.g., fire tends to burn things nicely. Lightning and cold sometimes give stunning side effects. Water attacks can have useful non-combative purposes for putting out fires or washing off corrosive muck.) Although Mages seem to have considerable leeway in the sorts of powers they can invoke, compared to what Links can manage, each new power they invoke in a day is tiring in some way - and with a new morning, Holly can sense that she's free to start anew with a clean slate.

Eventually, morning comes, even though there's no outward sign to this effect, since the planetoid does not rotate, and the designers of the ship cared more about armored protection than scenic views of the outside universe. Rather, the most immediate herald would be the smell of coffee brewing in the (recently de-zombified and thoroughly scrubbed) mess hall.

"So what do you think of calling this ship the Ozymandias?" Randall suggests to the others, scrambling some packaged egg-substitutes - just add water! - for their breakfast. "'Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair - but nothing beside remains of that colossal wreck.'"

"Cute, Randall," Holly agrees. She's well rested, but having another Bad Hair Day apparently. "Will it fly though?"

De-zombified is a bit of a misnomer if the shambling wreck of a human that comes wandering into the mess-hall is any example. Movements are slow, stuttered, and stiff and clothing hangs limply. Oh, wait, it's Jason having woken up far earlier than he usually does. His response to Randall as he shuffles towards a table it to grunt. He sits down heavily, the old metal creaking slightly. "Bluh," he mutters, the unceremoniously falls face forward on the table, using it as a rather uncomfortable makeshift pillow.

Akiko sniffs at a strand of her wet hair, then grimaces at the odor from the water. Apparently she was brave enough to try using one of the showers this morning. "It's flying already," she notes.

The police officer is by contrast pretty alert, uniform neat and in place, as he whisks a mug off the rack, fills it from the coffee pot and sets it in front of the just-woken hacker. "The uniform looks good on you," he comments to Akiko. "Did you find any more where that came from? Our outfits are kind of going to stand out, I'm thinking."

"If anyone comes across any charcoal aboard this ship, I can rig it up to help filter the water a bit more. It'll help kill the smell and remove some of the more toxic compounds, if any," Jason remarks a bit muffledly. He's still face down on the table.

"I pieced this together from a few closets," Akiko says. "There weren't many my size. You'll have a better time of it, I figure. I don't think I'm the body type the Empire had in mind for flying this ship." There is no obvious way to confirm that the ship is airborne - no viewports, anyway. There's only the low thrum of the ship's engines, the faint blue glow from the portals in the ubiquitous pipes running through the ship, and the fact that the ship is currently horizontally aligned, rather than at the steep angle it was at when they first saw it.

"No, that's just the way the IHOF flavor mix tastes," Randall tells Jason. "I haven't brought myself to touch whatever water reserves might be on this ship yet - I'm expecting to turn the faucet and get blood or rust or whatever that glowy blue stuff is."

"I guess navigation is the next thing to check," Holly suggests. "It's still a bit of a flight to the next outpost, isn't it?"

"You'll get something that smells like I do," Akiko says, groaning to Randall. "Minus the soap. At least that didn't go bad. Nothing flowery, to be sure, though. The Empire isn't like that."

RIU, at the mention of navigation, helpfully sends a blast of navigational information directly into Jason's head.

Randall sniffs Akiko, then winces. "Oh boy. Well, the only way I know of to make charcoal is, um, get some wood, stick it in the oven on high, leave it in for a few hours. Maybe we'd be better off flushing the water out when we find a fresh source."

Jason pushes himself upright and leans over to smell Akiko's arm. "Metallic with a hint of sulfur," he comments, "The water has been leaching metal off its containers. Don't drink that; probably moderately toxic. I wouldn't think there would be any really bad heavy metals in it, but still." after rubbing his forehead for a minute, he remarks to Holly, "Minimum of three days to get to Gormenghast. Longer to go elsewhere. I recommend we take a longer, less traveled route, if possible. This ship has seen better days and if this world has anything akin to pirates ... we're one huge flying target."

Randall nods thoughtfully. "This is an Empire of Stars ship, isn't it? They might want to ask us a few questions about where we got this toy."

"Pirates this far out?" Holly asks, thinking back on the map she saw before. "Maybe between Gormenghast as other rocks, yeah..."

Akiko winces at all the sniffing, and takes this moment to go and help herself to some coffee. "Yes, that's probably more likely than pirates out here. We're in the Shadow Realm. I mean, we're right now even past what's usually seen as the Shadow Realm. Pirates don't show up often around the Empire. That would be further in - in the Twilight Realm, mostly, and occasionally further in."

"Are there any containers on this ship that aren't rusted?" Jason asks as he makes himself some instant IHOF coffee. Granted the amount of powder to what he's using looks more like triple thick expresso, but hey.

"Most of the rust seems to be concentrated around the pipes, and areas open to the outside," Akiko observes. "Uhm ... I mean, from what I remember scouting earlier. I think the blue stuff is highly corrosive. I don't know what it's called, though. I thought the Empire's energy source was glowing red, so it must be a new type."

Trying some of the instant coffee and eggs, Holly tries not to wince. "Well.. I suppose I could use this as an excuse to diet," she murmurs. "I don't suppose we have any weapons? Or do we just have to lob buckets of the glowing goo at attackers?"

Akiko frowns. "I don't think this ship is old. Holly? You can probably chime in on this one - but time behaves strangely here. The gate was going to be a future event ... I mean ... it ... when I was still ... in the Real World...." She puts a hand to her head, as if trying to stave off a headache, and brings in her cup to sniff the aroma.

"If we can find a large basin to collect water in, I think I could rig up a cheap system to clear up the ship's water some. Charcoal if we have it to filter out impurities, then evaporative collection to condense out the rest using the latent heat generated by the engines to evaporate the water and leae behind the other stuff. Sort of like a desalinization plant, really," Jason comments, then downs a shot of the thick coffee-like substance. "Blugh," he remarks and smacks his lips to try and kill the flavor.

"And before any of you ask, no, I don't get out much outside of work," Jason has to remark ... after realizing just how geeky that sounded.

Randall shakes his head. "We're all going to be dieting, if we have to make it to Ithalbar on our supplies, 'cording to the map, but I'm thinking we'll start mixing in some 'native' rations before then. If we're lucky, the protocols the Sage described will kick in and we'll be able to find something we can eat somewhere. Keep your eyes out for familiar-looking labels and containers." He reviews the map mentally. "I'd skip past Gormenghast, as the biggest chunk of rock it's sure to have the most officious inquirers. That green rock just a little past might be a good place to get fresh water."

"Right. Time passes in context for players," Holly says. "There's time compression for long journeys and so on when nothing happens, and so on. When no PCs are around, time can pass fast enough to accelerate the creation of ruins and wrecks, I think. If we're seen as PCs, then our three-day trip could be done in a few hours, and this ship could have been dropped in a battle fought the day before we arrived."

"Well," Akiko says to Randall, "you've still got your stocks of water from the IHOF. That should keep you fine for drinking water for a while. I suppose it doesn't really matter as much for me. I'm already 'contaminated,' so there's no sense in spending it on me."

"There is sense given we're going to try and help you escape this place. You need real molecules," Jason comments.

Akiko smirks and says, "I need seven years' worth of molecules, if we're going that route."

"Never underestimate the power of nerdity. Remember what you just said about time compression. We'll just 'game the game'," Jason remarks and smirks right back.

Akiko puts a hand to her forehead. "I ... I don't think time compression works quite like that. I don't think it can make us move faster. I mean ... on a ... metabolic level? We're really here right now." She bites her lip, looking like she's gathering her thoughts.

The police officer pats Akiko's shoulder. "One step at a time, miss," he says kindly.

There are some pounding noises on the outer hull - much as there have been at irregular intervals all night. RIU snaps out of his daze (where he was gleefully breathing in coffee steam and apparently enjoying the aroma moreso than Jason) and shoots out into the hallway.

"When we get to whatever system they were using to try and bring stuff in and out of this reality, we'll all need to eat our weight in real food probably," Holly points out.

"Then we'll just have to figure out how to make you stable outside of this place. Granted you might end up with ears and a tail for the rest of your life ... but that's no more disturbing than some plastic surgery nowadays," Jason quips. He's apparently feeling a little more alert now. "Oh great, with our luck it'll be vacuum salesmen," he remarks as RIU zips off to check the hull. He sets down his cup and just focuses hist houghts on what RIU sees for the moment.

Randall finishes up his breakfast of scrambled eggs. He wrinkles his face. "I don't really want to imagine what these will taste like if I have to use that water."

RIU broadcasts back a view as he zips through the ship - taking various shortcuts through openings too small for a human (or fox or wyvern) to get through. He gets to one of the exterior viewports, and - it's yet another bunch of hellish-looking bats battering vainly against the hull of the hovering craft. They show no signs whatsoever of being able to figure out how to get in, and haven't even the cunningness to hunt around for an opening.

"In the middle ages, everyone drank wine or beer to avoid the bad water," Holly notes, looking at Jason to see if he reacts suddenly to what his pet finds.

"If it comes to that," Akiko says, grimacing again and hunching her shoulders, "I'm becoming Inari. She doesn't seem to be bothered by such tastes, heightened senses or no."

"We're facing a bitter batter from bats attacking our battered hull. Our hull is besting the bats belligerence, though," Jason alliterates. "But really, whevever we go, we should get away from here soon."

The police officer glances at his wrist-comm, which shows nothing but a sullen red light - no signal. He's shut off the display screen to conserve power, leaving just an audio beep should it pick up a signal from the others' PDAs. Looking back up, he tidies away breakfast. "God, Jason, the pain, make it stop!" he says of his friend's alliteration.

"Set a course then, Mr. Sulu," Holly intones. "To.. uh.. what do we call the green rock? Emerald City? Hellbats shouldn't bother us unless one finds a way inside."

"If it helps, Inari is okay; she's just trying to protect you. We had a talk while getting this ship running," Jason remarks to Akiko as he tries to push RIU's feed into the back of his mind so he can focus more on the current room.

RIU flutters back in a moment later. He doesn't look particularly alarmed, and rather flutters over to the table nearest Jason and slumps down to curl up and snooze.

Randall grins and adjusts his hat as if it were a captain's. "Set a course for the Emerald City, Miss Trudeau. Mr. Edwards, engines to cruising speed. Let's get going."

Bridge of the Ozymandias
Sections of the bridge have been cordoned off with barricades of broken pipes and pieces of framework (muscled into place by an oversized fox), so only here and there are there clear viewports that provide a glimpse of the outside universe. It's particularly rusted and battered here, since this portion of the ship took the brunt of the ship's original collision. Crew chairs are mere frameworks, all the cushioning and leatherwork long-since decayed to something less than comfortable - and with securing bolts poking up in uncomfortable ways. The best-preserved console has a hand-shaped indentation in the middle of it, highlighted by a bluish spotlight.

With some jury-rigging, Jason manages to get the navigational map working - again. (It seemed to be working just fine last time, but a fuse must have blown sometime while they were having breakfast. His efforts aren't necessarily up to code, considering the circumstances.)

The hellbats are still stupidly pounding against the port side of the ship, a comfortable distance far from any faint openings on the bridge. (A few limp wings protrude from where the last crowd of hellbats managed to hit the bridge - and several impaled themselves in their fury on jutting broken frames. Nobody's had the wherewithal to clean their remains out quite yet, since that would involve getting on the other side of the barricades.)

Randall eyes the hand-shaped indentation. "If this were a modern ship, I'd be thinking that was a handprint reader, but under the circumstances, I'm going to say it's a job for Power Glove Man," he quips to Jason.

Akiko peers out of a grimy surviving viewport. "Looks like we've drifted a bit. I can still see the citadel ruins and the really big crystal monolith, though - so not far."

"I don't know about you, but rotting bat corpses are not my idea of a good masthead," Jason remarks as he takes some time to peer at the illuminated handprint. "If we're all in agreement on the direction, I'll try to get this beast moving."

Holly pokes at he shard marked in green on the map. "Is this the one you want, Jason?" she asks.

Randall nods. "I'll feel better once we're out of 'Unnamable Darkness' and into just plain 'Shadow Realm'."

Trudeau hmms at the name of the shard. She pokes at the other one close to Gormenghast that appears to be wrapped in lightning.

The lightning-shrouded shard conjures up a name belatedly at Holly's prodding; it takes a few tries for the flickering (steampunk?) display to respond: "Tesliem."

"That's fitting too," Jason says with a laugh, "I wonder if it's named after Nikola Tesla."

"Okay, I'm sticking with the radiation notion," Holly says. "Lightning-Land is named for Nikola Tesla, so Emerald City would be named after Marie Curie, co-discoverer of radium."

"Shocked has less long-lasting effects," Jason points out. "Irradiated means your kids ends up with three heads, for legs,a tail, and a lisp."

Akiko finally pries herself away from the viewport, and comes over to look at the map. "I know that big black one that's ... uhm ... 7 clicks up above Curiem. That's Blackstone. It's a huge quarry used for mining the metals used for these ships. All slave labor. Frequent popular spot for high-level heroes to go rescuing oppressed people. They never seem to run out, though."

"How popular?" Holly asks. "Do you think we could get a ride from some heroes there?"

"Lets avoid that place. We'd either end up slaves or attacked by heros that want to use our ship to dive deep into that territory," Jason points out.

Akiko puts a hand to her chin, pondering. "That's a good idea. I don't know how the Black and the White will deal with it, though. See, there's all sorts of meddling going on anytime 'players' run into each other. We might run into trouble if we're not evenly matched in power. And ... I don't really know what our 'power level' should be."

"Gormenghast may be the best bet after all, as far as getting somewhere," Holly notes. "I'm sure they must have a salvage yard. If we try to avoid the major rocks, we'll need to hop across these little ones and who knows what resources they may or may not have."

"Anyway, notice how Blackstone is so conveniently close to the Storm, and not, say, a lot closer to the capitol?" Akiko adds, pointing. "That's because it's sort of an entry area into the Shadow Realm. A lot of heroes get their introduction to the area by signing on with some big slave-freeing raiding party - and then they can get a lot of exposition and set up for some plot hooks on places to check out next time."

The police officer laughs. "Weren't you calling it a rusty heap of bolts just a little while ago?" He points to the map. "Let's head north to Tesliem, then swing over by Blackstone and see if we can find some of the good guys poking around. If we're lucky, you can convince them we're really from the outside world and try to set up a communication link."

"Yes, but it's my rust bucket," Jason points out. "I leave destination decisions up to you two at this point. I just want to get away from where we are."

Randall nods. "Then we can start cleaning off bats. And rust, if we want to try to persuade the people around here that we're, um, not adventurers who resurrected a wreck from a graveyard of ships."

"Once we're out in 'space,' we can do some cleaning," Akiko says. "There's air out there, despite what you might think, and the ship will have its own center of gravity. If you ever run into any place without air, that's the world's not-so-subtle hint that you've gone into no-man's-land."

Randall says, "Tesliem. We don't have a chance of bluffing our way past a really close inspection."

"We could just get Holly to make our ship appear Yellow and if anyone asks, you're Seargent Pepper," Jason jokes. "But, I tend to agree. Tesliem sounds like a safer port. Holly?"

"Arr, be it Spark City for this band o' scurvy pirates an' their fox wench!" Jason quips in a terrible pirate accent. And before anyone can hit him, he inserts his glove into the glowing indention.

Randall grins. "I'm going to dig up some uniforms for us then. You want the Captain's hat, Jason?"

"Nah, you should have it. That way we can blame you for all our problems," Jason says.

Blue traces of energy light up on the panel around the power glove. A few sparks leap from consoles on the other side of the barricades. A dead hellbat dances a jig, before finally exploding into black mist. (Apparently these little critters are too lowly to warrant giving off any shards.)

A panel opens up next to the map table. With a clicking and whirring, a small platform rises up to flush with the now-open panel - presenting a battered old captain's hat.

"Last chance, Jason," Randall says cheerfully, making no immediate move to pick it up.

Akiko looks between the battered captain's hat, Jason, and Randall, furrowing her brow.

"We could give it to Akiko..." Jason suggests with a grin. "But really, you're better with convincing people than I am. Best front man."

Randall grins. "It's just that whomever picks up the hat is going to have to be the one who talks to whomever we meet, Akiko. Jason's calling it his rust bucket, but I don't think he relishes the idea of talking to some grim-faced admiral wanting to know what we're doing in one of their ships." He picks the hat up and checks the inside to be sure there are no zombie bugs inside.

The police officer doffs his service hat and folds it up into a pocket, then tries the Captain's hat on. "Tesliem, Mr. Edwards," he says. His voice sounds just a bit more stentorian. "It's time to test our wings."

"Officer Randall's a better choice than me, I'm certain of that," Akiko says. "I'm not even sure if the Empire of Stars has female captains ... or female crew. They're all VNPCs, after all, so there's no need to be 'equal opportunity' for the sake of players."

"Select Tesliem, Holly," Jason remarks to the human woman. and after she does so, Jason fiddles with the controls on his gloves, trying to activate the propulsion system and get underway.

The shard lights up on the map ... but it seems almost as if it guessed her intention a split-second before she tapped it.

The Ozymandias rumbles a bit, and turns in place. Outside, a blue, flickering shard can be seen through the grimy viewports, in the distance.

"Saying it out loud first is the key, I think," Holly comments. "It lets the system know your intentions, so what you do next actually works.."

"Engines engage," Jason intones, then. What the heck, even Holly is right once in a while.

The rumbling increases, and the intensity of the blue glow of the pipes running along the bridge builds up. A few dead hellbat wings begin to flutter rapidly, and some of them fall away or break apart (into black mist) as the ship builds up speed and altitude.

Near the navigational map, the ship's wheel turns as if by ghostly hands, and a few levers nearby shift of their own accord as well.

Randall seems to be trying to get into character, leaning forward intently, hands on the bridge railing. "I promise you this, crew. I will see us safely home, no matter what stands in our path. No matter how great the armada that faces us, how mighty the storm or fierce the fire, we will persevere." In a more distinctly Randall tone, he adds, "But I'm hoping we can avoid all three," with his trademark raffish grin.

"Hey, try 'Engage Time Dilation Plot Convenience Device' and see if it gets us there faster," Holly suggests. "And Randall, really.. less TV for you when we get back."

"I would be happy if you could just lead us to a working bath. A few days around you unwashed lot and I'd prefer the zombies!" Jason quips.

The police officer laughs quietly. "It's the hat, Holly, it does things to you. Well, me."

Holly watches the controls move by themselves, as if memorizing their functions. She circles around the control room, and asks the others, "Do you think I tried to conjure a 'cutscene' button it would work?"

Akiko roams around the bridge, looking intently at various gauges and displays - the majority of them distinctly mechanical in operation, though a few with sparking electronics. None of them are so sophisticated as the glowing navigational map, though.

Jason pulls his hand out of the glowing indention and saunters towards the display. "So, I'm I'm engineering and Randall is the captain, what are you two?" he asks Akiko and Holly.

The ship stops rotating. It's still keeping level, and, according to the gauges, it's elevating even as it's moving forward. Although it's unclear just what the units mean, once translated into meters, a glance out the viewport indicates that it's well above "could survive a fall to the surface" altitude.

Randall looks through the open front of the bridge, past the barricades. "All right then, we're on our way. And as much as we'd like to cut to the chase, Holly, let's get us some changes of clothes first so we can make a good impression if we have to actually talk to any Empire patrols... So it isn't us being chased."

"I suppose I'll be cleaning crew, once we get out into the Aether," Akiko says. "Once this ship becomes its own center of gravity, Inari can get those remaining hellbats off the hull. It should be safer for her out there than anyone else here, I think."

"You aren't expendable and neither is Inari," Jason comments towards Akiko. "Even if she does occasionally encourage people to want to throw her out of a moving car." He grins.

"Okay, I'll watch the bridge while you go scrounge uniforms," Holly volunteers. "I think I can pilot this thing in a pinch now."

"No," Akiko says, shaking her head. "What I mean is, she's less likely to--" But before she can finish that thought, a panel in the ceiling pops open, and a box-like device with four horns - one pointing in each direction - drops down, immediately emitting a klaxon cry. Similar alarms can be heard echoing from elsewhere in the ship. More glowing portals open up, with flickering shutters that give a flashing blue strobe effect.

Outside, as seen through the viewports, the starry black sky looks ... hazy and shimmering, and increasingly so.

Randall suggests, "I'll help out on cleaning, and-" Interrupted, he straightens up. "Status report? What have we got out there?"

"Great.. I hope that means hyperdrive is kicking in and not that we're entering dead-space," Holly says, looking back to the map display.

"Crap, have we entered RaveWorld?" Jason complains and covers his ears. "Or ... oh crud, is this some sort of FTL drive about to start up? Everyone sit down or grab onto something!" He hurries back to the control console and tried to get more information.

In the midst of all the clamor, Randall's eyes fall upon a flashing display that says, in plain English (thank goodness!), "COLLISION ALARM." Meanwhile, Jason is assaulted by a very emotional broadcast from RIU, who seems to have slipped off to a better portal: He gets the mental image of a very large, shimmering, magical wall of Light that the ship is approaching - a magical barrier - one large enough to encompass the entire shard!

Akiko fumbles about. "It's an alarm ... uhm ..." She alights upon the same display Randall just noticed. "Collision?!"

"Crap, force shield ahead! Ship stop" Jason declares as he tries to halt their forward progress.

"Hard to starboard," Randall orders, still channeling the evident spirit of the Captain of his favorite pop SF TV show. "Bring us about and cut the engines, Mr. Edwards."

Unfortunately, the ship doesn't seem to be responding so conveniently - or promptly - as it did earlier.

"Need to interface!" Jason blurts, realizing. He tries to hurry back and get his glove re-inserted into the controls

Randall resists the urge to throw himself at the controls. He has to trust his crew. He hangs onto the railing with both hands steadfastly as the shield looms ahead.

Suddenly, the ship's forward momentum cuts out, as Holly spins the control wheel and guns the thrust again to avert the ship's course. She seems to have aptly determined that for airships, hitting "stop" doesn't immediately cause the ship to come to a dead halt as in a video game ... but nonetheless the momentum is very harsh on all the bridge's occupants.

With the sudden turnabout, and the lack of something so basic as seatbelts, Holly very nearly pitches forward over the controls and into the barricade. Jason and Caliban have an easier time of it - though Akiko has to very awkwardly wedge herself in behind a brace to keep from flying across the bridge.

When the rust powder settles (and RIU shoots down a corridor to wrap himself around a shut-off valve and spin himself to close off another pipe leak), it looks like Holly managed it: the ship has come to a halt, parallel-parked next to a huge, shimmering barrier.

Randall, shaken but not stirred, brings himself back upright. "I feel pretty safe in saying that wasn't there a while ago," he says.

"I'm all right, I think," Jason says once he remembers to breathe. "What the heck is that and why is it there? And more to the point, can we get by it?"

Akiko cringes, looking ill. "It's ... Light-based. Inari can feel it. That doesn't belong out here."

Randall frowns. "I've got a feeling." He walks forward to the barricaded part of the bridge to get a better view, and looks for where the monument should be, making sure to have one hand ready to grab for a railing, should the ship suddenly lurch.

"I'll go take a closer look at it," Holly offers. "RIU, can you show me how to get to the closest point? And if it's Light Based.. can your Avatars draw any power from it?"

As Randall peers out the viewport, he can see streams of faint light - with little specks dancing in them, like motes of dust in rays of sunlight - tracing back to the crystal monument, down on the surface below.

RIU bobs about, looking in Holly's direction as if listening to her, but not immediately responding.

"RIU, it's okay to show her what she wants," Jason tells the little dragon. "And if you can recharge off it, you probably should."

"That's what I thought. The big crystal's projecting the shield," Randall says to Jason. "Maybe it's there to contain the Shadow creatures, in which case we should be okay, but maybe it's part of the challenge, and any players that get here have to disable it so they can leave."

The little dragon turns back to Jason and flicks its whiskers, then slowly swims out into the corridor, peeking back over its shoulder at Holly.

"You should be okay," Akiko says, as she slumps down to the deck. "I don't know that I will be. I think you're going to have to leave me behind."

"This is an interesting catch-22. If we disable it, we may release the shadows. If we don't, then we can't leave," Jason notes and rubs his neck. "And no, we are not leaving you behind, Akiko."

The little dragon weaves through the deck, ducking into a little crawlspace ... then suddenly remembering himself (or perhaps with a mental goad from Jason, who gets a mental play-by-play of the whole thing), and backing up to show Holly a way more appropriate to humans. Eventually, they get to a ladder leading up to a top hatch. The little dragon peers through a portal to verify that there are no hellbats lying in wait - but it seems that even the cloud of hellbats battering against the hull earlier has been left in the Ozymandias's wake. No monsters are visible this close to the barrier.

No hellbats attack! Thank goodness. Outside, for a brief moment it looks as if she's in deep space, but a breeze tousles her hair. The upper deck features a narrow walkway (without any handrails, wouldn't you know), but even with only her head poking out, she can clearly see the shimmering field. It becomes less distinct as she follows it in any particular direction, gradually becoming more translucent and vanishing entirely with distance, whereas the closer portions are progressively brighter and more opaque.

"Okay, let's see now," she says, to herself or to RIU, as she stares at the brightest patch and tries to intuit what it is.

Although it looks a great deal like sunlight, it doesn't possess the warmth that, say, the UV lamps or some specialty incandescent lamps would give off. It most probably is not anything the least bit associated with Shadow, and it doesn't seem to have the trappings associated with any of the elements that Akiko described. "Light" seems to be the best descriptor for what sort of power it's associated with. RIU seems to "light up" (figuratively, not literally) at the sight of it, and he leans forward, as if wanting to bask in the glow ... but then he blinks and looks over to Holly with a disappointed look and a droop to his whiskers.

"Okay, so it's not useful light," Holly surmises from RIU's reaction. This time, she pulls out her mobile, unfolds the screen, and aims the camera eye until the brightness fills the display. Using the stylus, she draws a circle on the screen, and chants, "By the power of the Menu and Recognition of Faces, Show Me What This Is!" Then she depresses the camera button.

On the bridge, Jason walks over and kneels down beside Akiko. "You don't think you can pass through the shield because of what you have become?" he inquires, "but we could because we are still part of the light?"

Runes and symbols and a flood of text appear on Holly's display - it would seem that magic is compatible with high technology - at least in her case.

"It.. looks complicated," Holly mutters as she reads through the info for anything useful.

Akiko says, "I'm a Shadow creature. I don't know how it works here, but in Blake's world, even ordinary sunlight is anathema to Inari - as with other Shadow creatures. In either world, Light - that is, with a capital L - is the bane of all things Shadow. They can raid the brighter worlds, but they tend to only come out at night, or in the shadows."

"Right, so what we need to do is open a small hole in the shield and just skip you through. We then pilot the ship through and pick you up on the other side," Jason explains. "Opening a hole the size of the ship would probably be hard, but one the size of a single person. Or better yet, a small fox?"

The police officer adjusts his Captain's hat as he walks back up to Jason and Akiko. "Because of what the game made Inari, if anything," he says to them. "I don't think Inari was originally of Shadow. I think she was an ordinary Avatar, but that Blake changed the story when you, Akiko, were trying to convince the others that they were in a game. Somehow, he merged the two of you, and then convinced you that you were in the service of Shadow. He may have played on feelings of guilt, envy, aloneness..." He shakes his head. "But I'm not going to gamble your life on that, Akiko. We're going to have to go back down and investigate. Jason, still have spare parts? Maybe you can rig some kind of timer, to interrupt the shield for fifteen minutes so we can get away."

Akiko nods. "If you could do that, sure ... but how are you going to make a hole in something like that?"

"Huh, this thing only tries to block Shadow beings," Holly concludes after reading though everything. "And it was really expensive. So, we've got something that's triggering it on the ship."

"We'll figure something out. Like Randall says, we might be able to rig a timer to open a hole for a short period," Jason says with a nod. "Either way, we're not leaving you behind. End of discussion on that topic. Light or Shadow, you're part of our crew now. We leave together."

Wisps of smoke rise from the areas of the bridge exposed to space. The remaining dead hellbats seem to be vaporizing by mere proximity to the shield.

"And, if Inari can hear us, the same applies to her. She's crew and she's earned being a friend. We'll stand by her," Jason says. He waggles a finger at the woman, adding, "So, no more frowning or looking depressed. Otherwise ... well ..."

Akiko nods, not meeting Jason's eyes. "I'll try anything. I don't want to stay here, really. And I don't want to go back, either. Anywhere's better than here ... even if the plan doesn't work, just trying has got to be better than this."

Akiko coughs, and abruptly gets up to her feet. "I'm ... I'm quite all right, thank you. I'll snap out of it, honest!"

While putting the mobile back into her handbag, Holly gets an odd notion. She takes out the aircar keys, and points the remote keyfob at the shimmering barrier. With a little laugh, she says, "Open Sesame!" and presses the garage-door button.

"Light is what? Wave/Particle duality," Jason remarks as he gets to his feet and starts pacing. "So, if we approach it from /that/ perspective, then it should be possible to cancel it out. We just need to create a waveform that's inverse in nature to the waveform of the shield. Which ... would mean if we have a tuned laser set at the inverse wavelength and aimed at the shield, we ought to be able to cancel out a part of it."

A deafening "chirp chirp!" noise echoes, as the shield ripples. Down on the surface, the light from the crystal pillar flickers. The earth, far below, rumbles.

A cloud of black rises from the ground. No ... that's no cloud. That's every single hellbat, as they would say in the old school sense, "aggro'ed," as far as the eye can see.

Randall looks at Jason. "I know you're good, but I refuse to believe you did that just by talking about it."

"Oops," Holly says when she notices the dark cloud of bats. "RIU, could you kindly tell Jason to move us past the barrier?" she says to the little dragon.

RIU's look of amazement suddenly gives away as he lets out a loud squeak and shoots back into the ship!

The shield's glow seems to have momentarily dissipated. However, the crystal down at the surface is building up in intensity again, and streams of dust-mote-flickering sunlight are shooting outward, keeping pace with the waves of Shadow creatures. (Perhaps the shard wasn't deprived of its monster supply after all.)

Holly takes a cue from RIU and retreats down the ladder - pulling the hatch closed behind her.

"Bring us about, hard to port," Randall orders. "Full speed ahead! I'm going to go give us some air cover."

"What?" Akiko cries out. "What's going on? I feel ... something changed!" She scrambles over to one of the consoles, flailing about for something useful to press.

"I'm not even going to question how. We better just go through. "Someone make sure Holly is back inside, I'm getting the engines going!" Jason calls out as he heads to the controls and inserts his glove. "Engines online. Ship, restore course direction, vector normal to the surface of the former shield." And he then thinks, "RIU, make sure Holly is hanging on to something!"

RIU squeaks and noses Holly, then noses the ladder, and demonstrably coils his body a few times around the sturdy (if rusty) metal bars.

Replacing the Captain's hat with the police officer's hat, Randall calls to Holly as he runs by for the hangar, "Come with me, I'm going to fly air cover and I need you to close the door after me! Looks like we have a storm of bats coming for us, but there might be some smarter or faster thugs in the bunch."

The ship rumbles and spins about, turbines churning, as it faces the gap in the field. Streams of sunlight start to hit it, and it begins to fill in - but only enough so that there's a very clearly outlined hole in the center just now, right in front of the Ozymandias.

"You're going out there?" Holly asks as she's intercepted on the way to the bridge, and then turns to follow Randall.

RIU looks surprised as well, and uncorkscrews himself from the ladder, zipping after Holly. Then, he catches Jason's command and eeps a warning to Randall and Holly, again demonstrating by wrapping around the nearest convenient hand-hold.

Randall points out, "That shield was there to hold in the shadows - they probably didn't do it for nothing!" He feels the rumbling and grabs hold of a nearby brace.

"Yeah.. I think it was the chirping that got the bats riled though," Holly admits.

The ship lurches forward at full acceleration, and several leaks spring about on the ship, shooting out corrosive blue fluids. Nonetheless, with the advance warning, no unnecessary tumbling results - and on somewhat more shaky footing, Holly and Randall are free to continue their race to the back. (And, really, it's like running downhill now.)

The cloud of bats gains ground, as do the sunbeams. A few larger shadowy forms seem to be emerging from the cloud. It's quite possible that one or more of them might manage to reach the gap before the reinforcing Light does.

From where he hangs onto the control panel, Jason mutters, "I just know I'm going to have to fix a bunch of stuff once we get outside the shield. Bugger." Shaking his head, "Ship, compile list of damage while at full thrust. I'll review it when we're not about to die!"

Holly reaches into her handbag with one hand as she hurries through the corridor, chanting, "By The Cloudy Cataracts of Cthulhu, Let My Attackers Go Crosseyed!" just before pulling out a pair of miniature disco-ball earrings.

The hangar is as they left it, though a few of the ruined ornithopters (minus their undead pilors) have shifted about in their harnesses. The aircar is still secure, braced in place by the wyvern (who has awakened from her nap, it seems, to keep it from sliding about the chamber).

Handing the gaudy jewelry to Randall, Holly says, "Put these on before going out!"

Randall calls to Mara, "Wake up, sleepy, we've got inbound! Holly, could you get the door open?" Out of trained routine, as he clambers onto the stirring ice wyvern, he hits the 'fast startup' engine ignition sequence. "Huh? Earrings? Um, it's nice of you, Holly, but..."

Fortunately, the unbearably tacky earrings are clip-ons. Or unfortunately, depending upon one's point of view.

The wyvern scrambles out to the main launching area, and seems to bound lightly off of the ground. The ship must be getting far enough out that gravity is behaving differently.

Randall leans forward and attaches the earrings to Mara's ear fans. "They look better on you than on me," he assures the wyvern.

"Ooo, I'm glad breakfast was light," Holly says as she reaches the turn-wheel amidst the varying gravity. Bracing herself, she starts cranking.

Aboard the bridge, a panel opens up, and Akiko leans forward to read the controls. "We're passing out of the shard's gravity effect. I don't think we'll notice anything up here, but anyone bottom-side is going to see things go topsy-turvy."

The hole in the shield slowly creeps inward, as the barrier begins to reseal itself with the streams of sunlight. A few overly-fast hellbats fail to manage to avert their course, and "paf" into nothingness as they hit the Light. There's still enough room to fly an airship through, however, and a few tiny hellbats shoot off into space and freedom.

Rust flakes fly off and seem a bit lost as to which way to fall from the turn-wheel as Holly gives it her all and cranks away. A mechanism takes over, and the cargo doors roll open the rest of the way of their own accord, even as gravity does strange things in the hangar. The center of gravity now seems to be a plane that bisects the hangar between top and bottom - but the acceleration tends to push everything to the back. Bits of debris float out of the back of the ship, where the approaching swarm of hellbats can be seen - flocks spliting up, down, left and right in their eagerness to fly out the hole before it closes.

"In other words, welcome aboard the vomit comet for anyone on the otherside, eh?" Jason remarks. "I don't envy them. Anyway, were you able to get any ships weapons systems online during the repairs, Akiko?"

"Let's get a frost bolt ready," Randall murmurs to Mara. Once the door is open enough, he launches, getting ready to spin her around and deal with whatever the outside gravity is like.

Akiko cries out, over the din, "We've got energy cannons, but they eat up a lot of our fuel - and I don't know how much we have - the gauge keeps bouncing up and down! We've also got catapults - I think I can figure one of those out. You can reload them with Aether debris."

The Ozymandias rolls just a bit, as Jason manages to get the wings to fit between the irregularly shrinking size of the hole. Akiko lets out a sudden scream - but drops off and opens her eyes in disbelief. From the hangar, Randall and Holly can see the barrier shrinking behind them, and the hole continuing to close. A few hellbats struggle to keep up with the Ozymandias ... but of greater concern, something larger emerges from the mass of petty demon-things: a huge carriage pulled by giant skeletal flying beasts.

"I will never look at computer games as fun again!" Jason blurts out as he manages to maneuver the ship through the closing passage. "And see? I told you we would get you through!"

"We're clear!" Akiko shouts, tears welling in her eyes. "We're out!" She rushes across to Jason and throws her arms around him in a big hug. "Thank you for not leaving me behind!"

The ice wyvern lunges out of the hangar! It spins and flips in the air as Randall tries to get his bearings, and then one of the wing turbo-fans jets briefly to stabilize. Randall speaks over his wrist-PDA, catching sight of the carriage, "That's what I was afraid of. Close the doors please, Holly, then Jason'll be wanting your help up there."

"Gwah!" goes Jason as he's suddenly hugged. Trying to regain his composure and look 'cool' about it, he says, "Oh, no problem. We weren't going to leave you behind. You're part of the team and all." The fact he's flushing beat red doesn't help him look very collected, though.

Akiko nods, and quickly dashes out of the bridge. "I'll go find a catapult to man. This is probably one thing I can do better than Inari can. Opposable thumbs, you know."

"If you can find a radio link to the bridge near one, make sure it's on! You can tell me which way to turn the ship," Jason calls after the departing woman. Once she's gone, he lets out a long breath and runs his hands through his hair. "Real smooth, there," he chides himself, then shakes his head sadly.

The control wheel turns back far more easily than it did when opening, and the cargo doors continue to slide closed on their own once they build momentum. Outside, there's a feeling of near weightlessness once Randall gets far enough away from the Ozymandias. Or, rather, there's the curious sensation that, no matter which way the ice wyvern pitches, down is always beneath it. It's rather disorienting. Swarms of hellbats shoot inward, sensing "easy" prey, fangs bared, and eyes glowing red.

"C'mon magic, keep him safe," Holly mutters as she carefully makes her way through the awkward gravity towards the corridor.

Randall replies over the PDA, "I've got my police hat on right now, you can call me just plain Randall." He makes for an intercepting course to the carriage. If he can disable those flying beasts, it should be pretty much dead in the sky, right?

"Blast, going to have to get through the bats," Randall mutters to himself. He powers up for a dive, not entirely certain - but there are just too many of them to take them all out with individual bolts - or bullets.

Mara banks this way and that, trying to feint and throw the bats off, but they continue to swarm around. While individually they may be none-too-bright, together they exhibit a pack mentality, and appear to be flanking the wyvern to close in on it. Just then, something whips by, almost too fast to make out - a big rusted chunk of metal!

Several hellbats suddenly disappear into puffs of black smoke (alas, none of them leaving little glowing shards in their wake), as the hurtling chunk of metal cuts its way through the swarm.

"Woo hoo!" comes a cry over a call-tube - a horn-like device sticking out of a console on the bridge. "I hit something!" It sounds like Akiko's voice.

Slightly out of breath, Holly makes it to the bridge. "Oh.. man.." she wheezes. "This is a lot to deal with without decent coffee."

"Hold on Akiko, I'm going to reposition the ship to try and use the engines as a weapon," Jason replies through the strange comm interface. "Engines cur to manuvering power only, adjust ship trajetory to align engine exhausts in the direction of pursuers. Once trajectory is established, cut engines low, then wait for my command ti fire them again!" he tells the ship.

The ship seems to be amazingly easy to control when Jason tells the universe out loud exactly what he's trying to do. It spins about, exactly as described.

"YIIIIII!" cries a muffled and tinny Akiko's voice from the communication tube, as she apparently hangs on for dear life.

Smack, smack, smack, splat! Hellbats plaster themselves across the viewports as the ship suddenly turns hard and changes course. Clouds of shadow-smoke rush over the ship, from all the bats caught in its paddlewheels and turbines.

Holly heads for the catapult room, muttering a spell as she goes and pulling things from her handbag.

Feeling the heat as the exhaust plume sweeps over the battlefield, Randall and Mara fly through the chaotically buzzing swarm of bats. The odd gravity has made him lose track - where did that carriage go?

Reaching the catapult room, Holly finishes assembling her.. spell. Right now, it looks like four cans of Silly String(tm) taped together around a big 4th of July fire-cracker. "Akiko!" she calls. "Can you shoot this at the carriage?"

In the gunnery deck, Holly finds a neatly folded uniform in the corner, while a giant fox huffs and grunts, hauling a big chunk of wrecked rusty metal into the loading mechanism of the giant "catapult." Inari looks surprised as Holly bursts in with her contraption. "Certainly. But what good will that little thing do?"

"Hah! That got some of them. Are you okay down there Akiko? Do you need me to realign to help target your shot?" Jason calls into the comm. He then thinks about it for a moment, then says to no one in particular, "I wonder if I could ram the bigger nasties and impale it on the nose of this beast... for that matter did we have a sharp front on this thing?"

Holly lights the fuse and drops it into the loading bin. "Just shoot it at the carriage! It's worse than the tape I caught you in before."

Once upon a time, the ship might have had a sharp pointy bit, but it's all rather squashed in at the moment.

Inari's eyes widen. "I'm getting that out of there, then!" She dives behind the controls to shift back to "opposable-thumbs" form.

Outside, screaming undead mounts of indeterminate (but definitely winged) species bear down on Mara and Randall, with toxic-looking glowing green orbs in their hollow, skeletal eye-sockets. Behind them, the "carriage" is a monstrosity, airship-scaled, but nonetheless deliberately styled to suggest the shape and form of a more conventional horse-drawn enclosed carriage.

The green, eerie light of the eyes is reflected in the small, multi-faceted orbs hanging from Mara's "ears," sending a cascade of green light shooting off in various directions, and dazzling the attackers. Mara folds her wings and dives between colossal limb-bones, and evades the carriage's hull as it shoots by.

Barrages of ethereal, screaming, glowing green skulls shoot out from the "windows" of the carriage, as it shoots by. The majority of them scream by harmlessly, only vaporizing a few unlucky hellbats in their wake....

... however, one seems to be rather expertly aimed, and hits Mara squarely. She lets out a shriek of pain, as the green flames burn at her - and Randall can feel it as well. She rolls herself so that she - rather than Randall - takes the brunt of the blast. She's still alive ... but he can feel that there's no way she can take another such blow.

"NO!" Akiko screams, as she gets to her gunnery position just in time to see the green flames enveloping Mara.

"Ahhhh!" Randall's cry over the comm echoes Mara, her controls blazing with red alerts. Instinctively he tries to wrestle her out of the taildive and around and behind the carriage, out of the field of fire of its windows. "Took a hit! She's hurt. Stay with me, Mara! Snap out of it, we can do this!"

Mara shudders, but turns her neck about, gazing at Randall with one icy eye that somehow manages to convey a protective warmth. Wordlessly, they somehow convey to him, "I'm all right," but at the same time, he can tell that not all is quite right ... not yet, anyway.

Randall concentrates on evading further attacks. "Looks like it was a mistake to try and engage it single-handedly, Jason, Akiko wasn't kidding when she said the enemies out here are tough. Whatever they're packing hurts. Anti-ship weapons maybe. It looked smaller from a distance..."

"Fire in the hole!" Akiko cries, as she unloads the big pile of junk - and the bundle of smaller sticky-string junk - into space.

The pile of rusty junk hits squarely, tending up a cloud of rust powder, and knocking the carriage slightly off of course ... but there must be a skilled pilot at the "reins" (so to speak), since it quickly recovers control.

Just when it seems that the carriage is going to get off scot-free, and with a chance to come about on Mara ... the easily-missed canister explodes, sending a cloud of silly string shooting out into all directions, in all "day-glow" colors. The undead giant mounts scream out as they are silly-stringed to ridiculous degree, and thrash in place. In the blink of an eye, the ship is entangled. That doesn't mean that it can't still fire out screaming green skulls, though....

The hell bats seem to have been startled by the exploding, colorful display, and start to get their bearings about them, as they turn about ... and spy what looks like easy prey in the form of a wounded ice wyvern all by its lonesome.

The carriage, meanwhile, rocks to and fro, as its mounts struggle to free it. Glowing green skulls shoot out, screaming as they go - but as the carriage is currently rolled on its "side" (at least, in relation to the iron ship and the wyvern), and unable to position itself for a proper broadside, the shots fail to find any mark.

"I can't believe that worked!" Akiko exclaims. "That's amazing! ... I want to learn how to do that."

While trying desperately to stay on the underside of the carriage, Randall catches sight of the hellbats taking aim. "Breaking off to deal with the bats, if you've got those guns working, see if you can pop the carriage," he calls. "And that's no ordinary silly string!"

"Then watch," Holly tells Akiko, and starts another entangle spell going. She puts the last of her magic into it, and this time it looks like a balled up glowing octopus.

Akiko then shifts back into Inari form, and rolls another hunk of rusted junk in to join the octopus (which reflexively wraps its tentacles around it, clinging tightly). That done, the fox changes back to humanoid form and quickly hustles back into the gunnery chair. "All ready to go...."

Randall touches Mara's shoulder. "Just keep us out of the carriage's line of fire," he tells his ice wyvern. He readies his gun for the hellbats.

The police officer flips the autofire setting to 'burst' and squeezes off a few shots, taking careful aim on those beady little red-glowing eyes.

Paf! Paf! Paf! Precious few of the bats actually are reduced to wispy smoke - but by this point, the reduction in their numbers due to getting grinded by turbines and paddlewheels and hurling hunks of junk is starting to make a mark. They flutter about in disarray.

Akiko cracks her knuckles, and readies the controls. "Wish me luck! I'm going to need it. I feel like mine is running out by now."

Foresightful words indeed, on Akiko's part. "Oh ... no ... wait ... I didn't meant to ... I didn't ... I DIDN'T SHUT THE HATCH! NO NO NO WAIT!"

The catapult cannon suddenly explodes, sending pieces of scrap metal everywhere ... and octopus. But this is no ordinary octopus - it's one conjured by magic, so of course it manages to survive the shrapnel. In fact, somehow it seems a lot larger now, filling the gunnery deck, and entangling everything in range.

Jason can hear panicked screams and suction-cuppy sounds from the gunnery deck, followed by a stream of curses not fit to be repeated for mixed company.

"I've got an idea what to do. I'm going to shove that damn thing back into the light shield while it can't move easily. Akiko, Holly, uh, if you folks can even move. .. keep away from the front off our ship, just in case," Jason remarks into the comm right after the barrage of insults. His hand tightens in his glove. "Ship, adjust trajectory, target, enemy vessel. Adjust engine output to push it back into the Light shield!" he orders.

"We're fine! Do not send help!" Holly yells at the intercom-tube. "Not even RIU!" she adds a breath later.

Randall calls over the com, "Jason, you know you're aiming for the carriage-thing, right? ... Right. Getting out of the way."

The ironclad ship churns its way toward the oversized carriage. Green glowing skulls shoot out every which way, but fail to reach their mark even despite their limited ability to curve and adjust course mid-flight; nonetheless, as they explode at their maximum range, the Ozymandias is limned in green flashes of light to each side as it continues its juggernaut charge.

Randall guides Mara out of the way of harm and around, covering in case something threatening and Mara-sized emerges from the carriage.

Demonic entities of various types appear to be trying to bail their way out of the ship, wrestling with the massive strands of silly string.

The Ozymandias picks up speed ... but controls its acceleration, cutting its engines and then actually working its power in reverse as it approaches, decelerating and coming - almost - to a halt as it approaches the entangled monstrosity.

"As I said when we crossed over into this realm ... Let there be light!" Jason growls as he brings the ship in position to shove the attacking monstrosity back into the light shield.

With unnatural finesse, the partially crumpled, rusted hulk comes right up to nose against the carriage, a few sticky strings getting caught on its hull ... and it pushes. The engines build up a bit as it puts more effort into it ... and then the carriage - silly string and all - flies back. Finally, with just enough force to go, the engines cut, so that the Ozymandias won't join its target. A few strings continue to cling to its nose, however....

"I'm sticking to duct tape after this," Holly complains, as she futilely tries to wiggle from the giant tentacle wrapping her from neck to toes.

The vile cloud of bats swarms over the ice wyvern and her rider, biting and clawing and scraping all the while. Fortunately, the officer has his helmet on, and his protective gear (though it would have been even more effective against bullets, ironically enough), and the ice wyvern, despite being wounded, is still a creature with a hide effectively made of metal. None of the bites score any serious damage, but Randall suffers quite a few little paper-cut scrapes on any exposed skin.

"Yargh! Zarking bats!" yelps Randall, now quite distracted with the swarm of bats.

"Ship! Engage slight fuel vent to melt the string containing us," Jason orders as he tries to get the ship to do a mist-burst of the blue goo to dissolve what holds them.

Glowing blue fluid leaks out of the ship, and, sure enough, it dissolves the silly string. Even though the silly string might only be conveying a magical effect, it seems that this universe honors its chemical composition ... and a suitable antidote to its form negates the spell as well. The Ozymandias is free!

Meanwhile, in the gunnery area, Akiko disappears amidst the tentacles - and then Inari (a small one) appears in her place. "Ngh!"

The fox, however, is no match for the tentacles, and just glances askance to Ms. Trudeau. "It's an improvement ... I think."

"At least we can be rescued.. well, no, scratch that," Holly notes. "Nobody comes in here until the spell wears off, or they'll just get grabbed." Into the com, she says, "Randall, if you can still move, remember: the light barrier won't affect you or Mara!"

Holly's voice crackles over Mara's console ... and the ice wyvern seems to get the idea. With a warning cry and a transmitted empathic ping to her rider, she dives through the swarm of bats and directly toward the barrier.

Randall yelps, "Get away, bats! I used to think you guys were harmless and cute..."

The bats - though apparently through no particular choice on their own - comply. Several of them pull away of their own accord, shrieking in terror as their surroundings become unbearably bright. Those that failed to be so quick disappear without even so much as a puff of smoke as they are overwhelmed. Mara passes through, diving through the Light, and then back out again ... just in time for Randall to catch sight of the silly-string-entangled carriage crashing helplessly into the barrier, its demonic crew still trying vainly to break free.

Portions of the silly-string bundle collapse as they pass into the Light Barrier. Bursts of infernal smoke and fire shoot out every which way, as various of the demonic entities pass from existence in their own melodramatic fashions. The undead colossal steeds are last, exploding in a burst of sickly green ghostly vapors - which quickly dissipate and are burned away by the flaring sunlight. Then, in a moment, the barrier vanishes away, and the dark shard can be seen below - various shadowy creatures sulking about and watching the display - or perhaps congratulating themselves for not getting themselves similarly destroyed in such spectacular fashion.

"That cleared my bat problem up!" enthuses Randall. "Hey! I think you nailed the jerks, Jason. ... How big a shard do you think they're going to leave behind?"

One by one, as the Light Barrier no longer obscures them, glittering shards of varying sizes come into view, hovering in place. This should be worth something, indeed.

Jason just slumps against the console, looking for all the world tired from the excitement. "I have no idea, but get whatever you can find. We'll need the money to fix the ship after this. The screen is showing a dozen leaks I have to go seal." after drawing another breath, he calls into the comm, "Akiko, Holly, need me to come down and help? I'm guessing the door in the gunnery deck is stuck?"

Randall lets out his breath. "I'll go collect 'em and bring 'em back and after that, Mara's going to need some serious TLC time in the hangar," he radios. Not to the radio, he adds, "Sorry for getting you shot up, milady," to the ice wyvern.

"Go open the hangar for Randall, and see if RIU can help Mara," Holly calls down. "There's nothing anyone can do up here until things wear off."

Mara cranes her neck back and nuzzles her rider gently - a cold yet comforting touch, even from such a creature half-mechanical as she seems to be. The empathic thought seems to convey something along the lines of, "All in a day's work."

And remembering his companion, Jason calls RIU out of the spot the poor dragon has been hiding. "Looks like we've got another late night of repairs to do. C'mon, lets go see if we can help Randall," he says. He makes sure the ship is in stable position, then leaves the bridge.

Perhaps an hour's worth of work later, Inari and Holly manage to pull themselves out of the tangled mess of the gunnery deck. Only once they're free, and once nobody is looking, does the octopus conveniently and inexplicably vanish. In that time, Randall has managed to get back into the deck with Mara; the gravity is now quite peculiar in the hangar, with the center of gravity being the empty space in the hangar's midsection, so that the ornithopters, the air car, and Mara simply float in place in their respective "stalls." Although Mara seems to be visibly injured, it's hard to tell just how to describe it - there's no blood to bandage, per se, but neither does it seem like a simple matter of fixing broken mechanics, either.

The crystals numbered in the thousands, but even the large ones proved easily enough to scoop up and store away. Somehow, Jason was able to tell, just by RIU looking at them, how much they were worth - and that came out to conveniently be at the rather round number of 24,000 in total.

Perhaps that will help with some of the repairs. Sure enough, more pipes burst here and there, and that required even more shutting down of them (RIU proving particularly skilled at doing emergency damage control in this case). More sections are darker, and it seems that the pipes aren't merely for lighting: here and there, in darker sections of the ship, doors are harder to open, miscellaneous gizmos don't work, and so on. At least the ship still moves.

Inari disappeared for some time, insisting on checking the outer hull to make sure it's clean (or perhaps just to lick her wounds - who knows?) - but some time later she comes back into the hangar to meet up with the others. Although the central area is virtually "gravity-free" (of a sort), the upper and lower walkways provide more sensible standing room ... except that one viewing area is gravitationally inverted from the other, which can be a bit disorienting.

"Sorry, Randall. I don't know how to fix Mara," Jason apologizes for the fifth time. "It's not really a machine, so I can't just replace parts or weld cracks. I think we may have enough of those crystals to maybe pqay for someone to fix her and for supplies for our ship. Maybe. All depends on where we can find, well, supplies." He waves towards the returning Inari, then asks her, "How bad does the outside look?"

Randall surveys the damage. "Thanks anyway, Jason. She doesn't need fuel, so..." He reaches up to Mara's head and tries to divine what it is she needs - if it's just time, or if she needs food or some kind of treatment.

"We just need to get her some sunlight," Holly suggests, staying near the lower-gravity areas to avoid having to slouch from exhaustion.

Inari, in her large fox form, nods, and opens her mouth to speak, though - as usual - the voice comes out without any movement of "lips." "I see no breaches in the hull other than what we discovered before. The main weak point is in the bridge area, and that is well-barricaded. The hellbats are cleaned off. Unfortunately, I did not find any previously missed crystals to gather."

"If we go to a sunlit area to help Mara, it will hurt you, won't it?" Jason asks Inari. "Even fully Akiko, will it harm either of you?"

Randall's mind is filled with an image of a warm, inviting sun ... and a feeling of wistful longing.

"I've been thinking," Holly comments. "Tesliem is marked with blue energy, so maybe it's where the fleet gets the glowing blue fuel from. It could be crowded."

Inari shakes her head. "I do not know for sure what will happen. At some point, I suppose I shall have to experiment. If indeed sunlight is my bane, then I will know quickly, and shall retreat and hope that it does me little harm in the meantime. I have been wounded and healed before. If I am anything like true Shadow creatures of this world, however, then it will simply be that in the sunlight, I will not regain energy for my powers, and will be rendered uncomfortable and weakened by it."

"The sun here is not the same as in the Other World," Inari says. "There are Shadow creatures that have penetrated to the inner reaches ... though it seems that only the weakest ones penetrate furthest inward, for reasons I am not certain of."

"We'll be able to compensate for a weakened Inari, I think," Holly says. "You may just be restricted to human and small-fox forms, or not be able to change as quickly or as often."

"That's an if, and maybe something that can be changed," Randall says thoughtfully. "Jason, in your experience, would you design a Captain's hat holder in the bridge that gets activated when you unlock it with that glove?"

Inari nods. "I can change effortlessly in the Shadows and at night in the Other World. In the sunlight and in the Light realms, it will cost my energy to do so."

At that, Jason nods, "When you get a chance to experiment, let me know. If it's a real problem for you, I'll try to build some sort of suit to help negate sunlight's effect on you. That is, if you'll let me." Now looking to Holly, Jason says, "I would be fine with that. Given the state of this ship, we could use fuel. I really need to have some time to stablize the flows and get more of the ship stable."

"Would I design a hat vending machine? Not if I was building a real ship. Now if I was designing a game and I needed to bypass all controls, then I might as a symbolic 'captain over-ride'," Jason answers Randall.

Inari nods to Jason. "I am not averse to the use of technology. If you are able to construct a machine that shall enhance my chances of survival, I am not so proud as to turn down such an opportunity. I have my priorities."

"Back to looking for uniforms then, I guess," Holly says. "Although if there are no female sailors in the Empire, it won't matter much for Akiko and me."

"Then you'll need to let us study you. We'll need to monitor how light affects you physically to determine the best counter for it," Jason tells the kitsune. "

"In the Empire," Inari suggests, "I may fare better as myself than as Akiko. I do not know if this is common knowledge, but I believe the Empire has its own versions of Links ... and their entities are akin to myself. If I were to travel with Ms. Trudeau, I could pass myself off as her Avatar. Spellcasters may be able to detect that she is supernaturally attuned, but it is unlikely that they would be able to tell easily what manner of magic she has use of."

"As for clothing tailored for women, we'll have to pick some up at the first port," Jason adds.

"I can probably conjure some up to wear over what I have too," Holly notes. "It won't be permanent though."

"I wouldn't do that, Holly. You might end up naked at the worst possible time," Jason points out.

"Like during dinner. Our food is bad enough,, but a naked Holly ... brr!" Jason can't help but add, then grin.

Randall pulls the Captain's hat back out of his uniform and examines it. "Why don't we test this? It's not necessarily certain they don't have female uniforms. They very well may. Especially if you ask for it the right way."

"The worst possible time has come and gone, trust me," Holly says. "And I'd be wearing it over my real clothes."

"If she were to wear normal clothes, and then conjured attire over it," Inari suggests, "it should seem normal enough. A mage might suspect the over-clothes are conjured, but that in and of itself is not suspicious unless the conjured clothes were, say, a uniform, and she were trying to pass herself off as a male warrior who wouldn't normally be wearing conjured clothes."

"Right now I would vote for priorities of getting the ship in a bit better state to handle longer journeys. Anything we can do to make it less conspicuous would also be good," Jason remarks a she crouches down to take a break from standing. "RIU, how bad is the ship's state? Is it even worth salvaging?"

"I can try to obscure it a bit once I've recovered more magical energy," Holly offers. "Akiko explained to me what I'd need to do to manage it."

RIU dumps a summary of readouts from the ship, and then glimpses of some models of ships he found in the captain's stateroom - apparently representations of other ships in the fleet. The majority of them look much smaller than this one. The general gist seems to suggest that this ship, even in such a sorry state, is no ordinary little tugboat, so to speak.

Inari says, "As long as I am in this form, I can use my powers of illusion ... and as long as we are in the Realm of Shadow, my powers will be at their peak."

"I would like to fix the prow so we can actually ram with it. I would also like to fit a few more weapons to it that are more manageable. Outside of that, honestly, if we're stuck in this universe for a while, we should try to make a few rooms more comfortable." Jason suggests, "And in space, usually once you get moving, you don't have to expend more energy unless you want to accelerate. So, a good engine push and we can coast for a while and fix stuff."

"There's air here, so that means some friction to overcome," Holly notes. "But maybe it means there are currents we can ride too... although those would be used by others."

"Maybe the bridge has previously plotted courses stored somewhere?" Holly suggests.

"Like back to the ship's home dock? I think we'd be better to avoid that," Jason points out.

Inari ponders, then says, "My powers of illusion are a bit more than the standard illusory powers. I can make a space look like something it is not, but the more people I affect in an area, the greater the chance someone will see through it and dispel the illusion as a whole. Conversely, I can target a particular person, and make that person seem like something he or she is not - or even to escape notice. To affect a ship - that is within the realm of a mage." She turns to look at Holly. "I could do so - disguise the whole ship - but I would need your assistance. Essentially, you could be acting as a conduit for my power, to cover the whole ship."

Randall nods thoughtfully and pats Mara's shoulder before their departure. "Let's head up to the bridge. Jason, Holly, call me crazy if you like, but I'd like to try an experiment."

"Maybe not disquise it," Holly notes, then tells Randall, "You are crazy. Anyway.. if this ship looked like it was full of zombies again, would that deter others from investigating it?"

"Wow, Holly getting close to a kitsune. Now that could be interesting to watch," Jason teases, "And zombies would likely get us attacked." He stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket, summons RIU to settle on his shoulder, and heads out of the hanger to return to the bridge.

Randall grins ruefully as Holly calls him crazy - well, he does deserve it, having tried to take on that big pile of dark single-handedly.

Heading for the bridge as well, Holly notes, "Well, we can always cover it in giant Aether-squids too.."

The trip to the bridge takes a little longer, avoiding some of the more recent debris caused by exploding pipes, but once they get there, it's little changed from when they last saw it (though now thankfully totally clean of any remains of hell bats or other monstrosities).

"Right, so, what did you want to try?" Jason asks Randall as they enter the bridge.

Donning the captain's hat, Randall gestures for Jason to place his hand in the console to activate it. He clears his throat. "Please resume our course for Tesliem, Mr. Edwards, where I expect we'll be able to refuel and resupply." he says. "Miss Trudeau, we'll need uniforms, please check the ship's stores. In room C-15..." He draws from the diagram of the ship, naming a room that he doesn't recall they've explored closely. "You should find surplus uniforms. Some should fit you and Miss Summers. Also, stored water and rations." Sotto voce, he adds, "Repeat after me please, Jason?"

Jason snorts as he realizes what Randall is trying. He inserts the glove into the control console and repeats the orders Randall just have, verbatim.

Inari looks confused, then plays along by going to one of the consoles, "standing" up at it, and pawing a few buttons and levers in as persuasive a manner as she can hope for.

"Hmmm," Holly goes as she gets the gist of what Randall is trying. "If this works, it will be mighty suspicious," she notes, and then goes to find room C-15.

Jason watches Inari for a minute, then just has to comment, "Lassie you are not."

"That was meant as a compliment. You're far smarter," Jason has to point out, now grinning. Thinking now to RIU, he asks, "Do you feel we can fully trust her?"

The machine makes some humming and thrumming noises, as it makes its way through the aether, and Holly heads off the bridge to go visit the named room. After a while, there's a "ding" that rings from the console, and a panel flips up. "Cruise speed," it declares, next to the ship's speed indicator.

Randall grins. "Nicely done, Chief Engineer. Inari, can you make anything of the displays?"

"Only those that are legibly labeled," Inari reports. "All these little flags seem to correspond to areas where the pipes have been shut off. And ... oh ... this seems to indicate which stalls in the hangar bay are occupied. That must be where the wyvern is. And the air car."

Randall rubs his short beard - well, it's growing a bit longer, and Holly's house lacked a shaving kit. He'll have to look for a shaving kit. "Good to know. Anything that corresponds to sensors, so we can see nearby ships?"

"How is our fuel level, assistant Engineer Inari?" Jason asks as he looks over gauges now.

It isn't long before Holly returns, and shakes her head to Randall. "Nice try, but everything was rotted or rusted. Looked like there's an automated system for moving stuff from the storerooms to where it's needed though. Doubt it still works."

"By my best guess ... fuel is at ... one-sixth? One eighth? Somewhere like that. It's a little fluid-in-glass gauge and it keeps moving every time the ship thrums," Inari says, leaning in close and sniffing at the gauge. "As for sensors ... I don't think we can see ships other than looking out the viewports ourselves. Oh, wait! There's some sort of ... hmm ... this looks like technobabble here, but I think it might be some sort of detector."

Randall grimaces. "We'll have to make do then. Hmm. An automated system, you say? Which part did you see?"

"Magic sensor, I guess. Probably detects working of Light and Shadow magic," Jason remarks after some thought. "Explains the reaction to the shield."

"Some sort of traumatic ... no, that's not it," Inari says, as she scratches as the corrosion with a claw - then drops out of the way as Jason approaches.

"Mechanical arm-and-conveyor thing," Holly explains. "Could be used for moving stuff when the gravity is wonky."

"Thaumaturgical Detector" is visible - barely - on the sensor display Inari was indicating. It has a number of glassy, almost gem-like panels, and a combination of mechanical and more magical-looking fixtures, with some runic designs in the nearby panels.

Going to look at that sensor now, Holly notes, "To have this means they must face magical defenses or attacks often out here."

Jason idly pats Inari's shoulder as he clears a bit more of the rust away. "What I wouldn't give for a ton of 'Barkeeper's Friend 'right now. This rust is driving me crazy," he remarks.

The erstwhile captain considers this gravely. "The conveyor might bear experimenting with, when we have some time," he suggests. "Is the detector showing us?"

"It might only detect Light-based magics," Holly points out. "I didn't hear it go off when I was casting spells."

Inari leans over to breathe on one of the crystalline domes, then rubs at it with the soft part of a paw. She glances at it, then says, "I don't think this is anything so fine-tuned. I think this is only for detecting large magical effects - like that Light Barrier ... or maybe a nearby ship with an Invisibility effect ... or maybe elementals."

"I was thinking along whether it was meant to detect Avatars," Randall suggests.

"Or maybe you're not much of a mage," Jason teases Holly "I guess it's something, but that means when we're underway, someone will have to main the bridge at all times so we don't hit things."

"Well, if it is," Inari suggests, "that part needs some fixing. We've got a big one in the hangar."

"Any chance you could link into the ship systems and make the whole thing invisible?" Jason asks RIU.

Randall surveys the display. "Or it's tuned to ignore anything very close by. Let's suppose that it serves some sort of useful purpose. I'll look around for a manual." He goes to check the rooms adjoining the bridge for books. And maybe a captain's jacket. The police uniform just doesn't look right with the hat.

Jason rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Hmmm. That is worth looking into. RIU, would you be up for some experimenting with linking into the ship sometime?" he asks the dragon.

Just back down the corridor, Randall finds a portal that he hadn't noticed before, now that some of the debris has been cleared away. Through it, he finds what looks like the captain's stateroom - aha - just like on the ship's map! Inside, there's a library of books (all locked away, in case of the ship tipping this way or that), and over there is a spare uniform (and another hat).

RIU perks up and flicks his whiskers, and by all means seems to be reporting for duty, ready for whatever task his master sets for him!

To Inari, Holly whispers, "In case RIU can't hide the ship, I suppose we should take some time to experiment with merging your illusion ability with my Deflection or Armor spells.."

Randall pauses. Then brings up his wrist com. "Jason, how are you at cracking mechanical locks? And ah. Are you sure you don't want a spiffy little captain's hat of your own?"

"Right. Then we'll retire to the engine room to do some experimenting," Jason tells the little dragon, "Since that's closer to the heart of the ship." He stifles a yawn, then adds, "I suspect it's going to be a long trip." He taps his own communicator, answering Randall, "I'm not a burglar. I usually deal in electronic locks and security."

RIU, however, grins, and lifts one of his little paws. Some of his little claws extend out mechanically. Lockpicks!

"Very well, carry on, please." Randall clicks the transmit off, sighs, then starts digging around for the key to the cabinet. Captain's Log, day three. The voyage of the Ozymandias has just begun, on a mission to bring its crew safely home...