Tuesday, December 3, 2069 - 2:00 PM Eastern
Storm clouds roll in slowly over the horizon, pressing unnaturally toward the Ivory Tower from all directions. It is as if the air were departing upward, vanishing into some unseen vortex. Below, the sea roils, serpents thrashing in the choppy waves that surge upward. Some of the lower-hanging towers, caught up in the waves, part with stately grace from the rest of the hanging buildings, bridges snapping like splinters, pillars and roofs sinking into the water.
Tracy and Cadena look up with surprise to see not-Kimon no longer there. He had been speaking with them just a moment ago, but in the blink of an eye, he's gone, and Jason is wearing what looks like his powered armor suit, except that it's golden, not grey.
"... That girl is crazy," says Jason, evidently finishing his conversation at the same time that Tracy and Cadena had ended theirs.
Inari's hand lingers on Jason's shoulderpad. "Maybe, but--" Her glance toward Tracy turns into a surprised look. It is Lady Tracer of House Trudeau that stands there, taller and slimmer than Tracy, and pale skinned beneath the elaborate black armor that marks her as a high-level character of the Diadem. An anachronic laser gatling rifle hangs from her back and a saber at her side, and a dark winged horse stamps its hoof behind her, its eyes glowing balefully.
Even Cadena appears to have changed from the moment he accepted the soul of his former master. The white glow around his body has intensified, and chains clink as he moves. His collar and boomhound armor are still there, but refashioned into a design that resembles Diadem armor, inlaid with glowing blue runes and what looks oddly like an amaranth flower design over his left shoulder.
"Trying to look prettier than Inari, Jason?" Tracer asks, then looks up toward the vortex in the sky. "We should get going."
"Now, see this is what your mother means about associating with the wrong crowd. Sure, it starts simple enough, you just listen to depressing music ... but soon you're dressing all doomy and not eating enough," Jason remarks without missing a beat when he spots Tracy. "I don't think your mother would approve."
"I have my mother's approval right here," the armored woman says, patting the laser Gatling gun.
"I bet it doesn't work," Jason remarks about the gun. "Or it shoots squids."
Lady Tracer mounts Fuseli, and says, "The inevitable has touched this realm, and draws it to its dark bosom. But we still have a quest, and should be on to it. White Cadena, what do your instincts tell you about the vortex above?"
White Cadena looks to Lady Tracer, and ducks its head in a bow. In a disembodied voice, the dog says, "This realm shall not last long and our fate is uncertain if we remain. The WHITE bids us to leave while we can. I have been shown the way to depart, to reach our next objective." With that, the dog dashes off, glowing brightly, animated chains trailing behind it.
"So, from this grave we boldly leap forward into Hell!" Tracer declares, and sets her nightmare galloping after Cadena.
"Do you want to ride with the GothQueen?" Jason asks Inari as he runs a quick-check on the jet systems of the variant power armor. "Or ... maybe not," he concludes as the pair run off. He shrugs to Inari, then heads after them on the ground. He's not going to jet off and leave Inari stranded.
Inari looks over at Jason. "I'm just expecting Randall and Akiko to show up in full costume now." She breaks into a sprint after him.
The bridge running out from the Ivory Tower turns gradually to office tiles. This corner of the Q-Link facility houses part of the primary injector, the device that maintains the Quantum Core in a high enough state of energy to bring the embedded matrix of entangled quantum dots into a plasma state, allowing data to be transmitted at extraordinary speed between here and the other Q-Links around the world. Or at least that's what it would do if it were working normally - here, the machinery isn't so much torn as warped, swelling into the depths of the strangely green-glowing vortex to become the containing wall of some massive reactor.
Seen through the lense of the vortex, windows in the reactor containment walls open onto some space-going whale, its single visible eye blind with pain as red lightning crackles over its carapace. This lightning appears to get channeled toward a massive refinery of some kind at the top of the bridge that runs through the core of the vortex, into the massive reactor that has taken the place of the Q-Core.
A pulse of unreality washes through the room. The security guard looks horrified as his Avatars LLC armor subtly reconfigures into the black of an Imperial guard's armor, with red trim. "What the-- this can't be happening! I left that life behind!"
Chain mail armor appears on Mark Berkowitz's body, not the fanciful design of the Diadem but the steel gray and black military style of the Gloaming, and a black recurved bow shimmers into place on his back. Seeing his opportunity to break loose, he rips loose from the guard's clutches and dives into the green vortex, disappearing from sight in a weird space-bending way.
Mike Dexter yelps as brown fur sprouts all over his body... And then he crumples to the ground, wracked with pain as he changes into the scrawny werewolf called Yappy. "Noooo! I don't want to die! It hurts! Oh my God, it hurts!"
RIU eeps and clings to Jason's neck - fortunately the powered armor collar saves him from the hazards of being choked by his own Avatar.
Drawing her saber, Tracer points it towards the guard. "What was the reason for bringing the Hunter and the Hound here?" she demands.
Jason rolls his eyes inside the armor. "I'm going to check on the wolf, keep an eye on the guard," he tells Inari. The armored human then makes his way over to Mike. "Uh, it probably hurts less if you don't try to fight it?" he offers a bit lamely. "It should be over soon and you're not going to die..."
The guard stammers. "You! You're a Lightsider! You're not supposed to be here--" He darts a look toward the door as if considering if he could get away. "When all the fuss started, HEL showed up, said bring them here, hold 'em 'til further notice."
"Cooling Touch of Metal!!" White Cadena cries out. The dog ignores the guard, instead rushing over toward the writhing shapeshifter. The animated chains curve and drift down, glowing gently as they rest upon the werewolf's form, bathing it in soft light.
"What do you know of the Tesliem extraction facility?" Tracer asks next, gesturing with her blade to the windowed reactor vaguely visible through the vortex.
Yappy writhes, his form floating off the ground as the chains lift him, but his face changes from anguish to surprise and relief. "That-- it doesn't hurt! Thank you!" In a few seconds, the change is complete, and a thin brown werewolf stands before them.
"Well, at least if a girlfriend ever called you a dog, now it's true, eh?" Jason jokes at Mike. "You'll get used to it. Probably. Inari can give you advice."
The chains withdraw from the werewolf, shrinking back to drift up weightlessly from the white dog's ankle-shackles. The dog then trots over to Fuseli and Tracer. White Cadena looks up, belatedly taking in Tracy/Tracer's transformation, then bows. "Champion."
"I, ah, it was years ago! Feels like forever," the guard says. "I was just one of the quintessence loading guards." He gestures toward the vortex. "You can see they've got one of the Leviathans in now, they're tapping its blood. Goes into the refinery, the primal essence goes into the Arcane Reactor, powers all the crazy experiments they've got going on like the golem project, the quintessence we ship out for refueling the Empire's ships, the dross goes into the Pit. It was a job with, uh, quite a bit of turnover so when the opportunity came up for reassignment somewhere else, I, um, jumped at it."
Inari considers Yappy. "A little underfed," she comments to Jason.
"Heh," Jason replies to that. His attention goes to the odd extraction-system. His armored fingers wiggle as he ponders ways to simply disrupt the whole thing, such as cutting extraction conduits or similar.
"If you'd rather not return to being a slave of the Empire, then you'd best hope for our success in shutting down the flow of quintessence," Tracer says, and then nods to Cadena. "We should destroy the refinery if possible, but may have to kill the Leviathan to provide a temporary disruption if we can't. The Golden Warrior can deal with the wanton destruction of equipment aspect."
Yappy looks woeful. "I'd have to get a girlfriend first," he admits. "I figured the best thing to do was to score a job, so I'd have some money so I could get some bling, so..." He shakes his head, rapidly in canid style so his cheekruffs floof out. "So you're here to break me out, right? Where are we going?"
"Deeper, unfortunately," Jason admits to Yappy as he's looking over the monstrous machine. "We have to shut this mess down. You don't have to help, but you are welcome to join us," he offers. "I'm Jason, we've met. That's Inari. Yes, the Inari. And ... the goth girl is Tracy and that's her dog, Cadena."
White Cadena bows its head to Tracer and Fuseli. "I am honored to fight by your side. It would appear that my ability to heal and to relieve pain works here. I have not yet tested my ability to shield from harm, but I fear the opportunity will soon arise."
"THE Inari?! I'm a big fan! Can you autograph my... my..." The werewolf looks down at his rather shredded clothes and his great lack of anything actually autographable. Somehow, autographing his hand while it's furry doesn't seem like it will work.
Inari rolls her eyes. "Is this how you're going to introduce me to all your friends?" she says to Jason, poking him in the side. Fortunately, his armor protects him from claw jabbings.
"Fuseli and I can be defense - I think we have the best chance of turning away any attackers. Jason is best suited - no pun intended - for breaking the extraction and refinement system. I'd like to have you with me, Cadena, in case things get violent. I don't want to kill anyone if I can avoid it. Inari is best at doing whatever she sees fit, as she is the most flexible. Yappy.. well, I don't know. He might work best at Jason's side. Someone has to watch for Mark the Hunter as well. That could be a good task for the wolf and the kitsune."
The guard backs away slowly toward the door behind him.
"It was faster than explaining," Jason complains. "Can you both keep watch? I'm going to try and blow this device by having it back-feed on itself. If we get company that'll be a bit of a problem. You also might want to secure that guard..."
White Cadena looks toward the guard. "My other self demands that I remember my obligations to Avatars LLC personnel. Before you leave, sir, I must inquire - are you injured, and do you require any assistance?"
"I, uh, I'm fine! I'm just following my orders, which are to evacuate from here in the event of imminent explosive hazards," The guard hammers the 'Open' button on the door.
"Then please carry on," White Cadena says.
Yappy's ears go flat at the idea of going further into the maelstrom that seems to be wrecking the place. Then perk again. "Wow, feels funny to have ears that can do that! But, um. I'd just be a liability. You guys all look like you know what you're doing. Me, I'm no hero!"
"We're not really heroes either, but we manage. Have more faith in yourself. Besides, you might be stuck like that if we don't shut this stuff down," Jason tells Yappy.
"If we can get control of the system, I could probably fix you," Jason adds. "I just need access to the quantum control systems."
The rangy wolf gives this a little thought, then asks Tracer, "You seem like you might know... Do girls like werewolves?"
"It is your choice," Tracer tells the werewolf. "We are all doomed in the end, after all. It is how we face our doom that makes us what we are - and impresses the girls. If you stay out here, you may be safe, but I don't know if you'll be stuck as you are or not. In which case.. you'd best make a good impression on Inari, in case she needs a hairy backup dancer!"
"If you come with us though, you might get a chance to bite Sasha, who set the Wild Hunt on you," Tracy offers with a smile.
The door clicks open. The guard rushes through, and a moment later, the door shuts again. clack
Apparently Tracy added just the right amount of appeal to that smile because Yappy looks as if he's head over heels for her. "I, um... You do raise a good point there, miss. And may I say, you cut a great figure in that armor, too! It's got just the right amount of je ne sais quoi!" His pick-up lines could use work, however. "All right, I guess I'm in!"
"Shall we then?" Tracer asks, from the edge of the vortex.
Fuseli snorts.
Jason tests the jets briefly on his suit. "Well, I'm going in. The longer we wait, the harder this will be to undo," he says. Without further ado, he bursts the jets and sends himself into the green vortex!
White Cadena regards Yappy with an ever-so-slight eyebrow quirk, but otherwise says nothing about the shameless fawning. Instead, the dog nods sympathetically to Fuseli, and focuses upon the rift. "At your command, Champion."
Nodding to Cadena and Fuseli and Yappy, Tracer marches into the green distortion behind Jason.
The black jumpsuited golden vixen lowers her sunglasses and draws her laser sword, but does not ignite it. She sets off after her powered armor boyfriend.
With Tracy gone, Yappy's enthusiasm drops noticably. "If she weren't so pretty..." He scrunches up his courage and runs in after Cadena and Fuseli.
The white tiles underfoot turn subtly into gunmetal gray flooring, and hazy shapes take form in the mists of the green vortex. There are klaxons going off, and shouts in the distance. Up ahead, a massive explosion causes part of the room to collapse. The dark, somehow unclean metal shape of the Tesliem experimental chamber takes shape around them.
It looks as if a team of wild howler monkeys in powered armor have been through, judging from all the destruction that's been wreaked upon the chamber. Sparks fly from various consoles, and one of the supersoldier cyborg prototypes lies crumpled on the floor. The space where the other one should have been is ominously empty. The main exit from the room is blocked, but there are doors in the lower half of the room which proclaim 'SUPERSOLDIER TESTING FACILITY'.
"Well, this looks like it'll be fun," Jason remarks grimly as he charges ahead. He flicks his right hand as he goes. Segments along the wrist of the armor separate and extend outward. Relays click and the extrusions spin up in a whirr of metal and a crackle of electricity. Within moments a blue halo of 'Saint Elmo's Fire' whirls around his wrist. "RIU, stay alert. I doubt we are alone here," he tells the dragon.
RIU takes wing and hovers in place just behind Jason! It beep-eeble-doops, scanning in all directions.
One element of Tracy still finds it way to Lady Tracer - her lips betray her thought processes. "Clearing the debris can take time and energy we'd rather not spare," she says. "We should see if the door to the testing area is clear and leads us out."
Yappy's fur sticks up. "I have a bad feeling about this," he says, peering over the edge of the catwalk. "There's still blood on this equipment."
"I am unfamiliar with the layout of this complex," White Cadena confesses, rushing to keep pace with Tracer and Fuseli.
The golden vixen ignites her laser sword as Jason readies his armor's zapper. A thin red beam extends from the hilt of her Naginata Blade, making not a sound. "Empire style mad science. Wasn't the General's deal that he had a brain because of the chance he could be thrown into one of these... Chopper-slicers? I wouldn't touch them if I were you."
"One of the experiments likely went berserk," Tracer suggests as she looks for a non-blood-covered surface to jump down to over the edge of the catwalk.
Through the debris to the west, they can make out the sounds of high-energy weapons being fired, swords clashing against metal, and shouted battlecries.
"RIU, scout the lower area," Jason tells the little dragon. "No point in jumping to our deaths."
"The forces of Light may be attacking too," Tracer offers once it's clear there's a battle going on outside.
The little dragon dives down and beneath the catwalk!
Glancing at Yappy, Tracer has a thought - and produces her communication orb. "Aldestre of the King's Explorers, heed my call if you are able," she recites to it.
The white dog, apparently not so bold as to take his chances simply leaping off the catwalk and into the space below, dashes along the catwalk in the direction of the observation deck, away from the debris-choked passage.
The minidragon scouts around. The debris fallen from the ceiling in the southern half of the room offers a moderate slope for getting down to the medical floor, or the more adventurous could jump to the top of the equipment, then down, if they were willing to take a chance that the machinery might not spring to life suddenly and grab them.
"I think Mark's brain was stuck in one of the huge bodies. We had best keep our distance from that equipment," Jason tells the others. "And while I could also probably get the other soldier running, we're decidedly out of brains to stick in it. And .. I doubt any of you will volunteer. Safest way down is the collapsed rock pile.."
Yappy looks decidedly ill. "This guy has STITCH marks. No way is that kind of body going to help me get a girl." He glances toward Tracy. "Unless she has really strange taste?"
White Cadena continues to dash along the catwalk, reaching the outer observation deck ring, taking in a view of the Tesliem Lava Core while rushing past. The dog then works its way in a curving circuit along the ring, making it to a slope of debris leading down to the main floor - but very decidedly keeping very clear of anything that might be the least bit related to "brain extraction."
Tracer just shakes her head and purses her lips to the werewolf, while waiting for a response on her orb. "Fuseli, fly to down to the door and stand guard until we get there," she tells her steed.
"She isn't worth losing your head over, Yap," Jason tells the werewolf. He heads after Cadena, choosing to take the debris way down which keeps him away from the brain grabbers.
Following after Jason, Tracer also looks for any signs that Mark really was zombified.. like a black blow or torn chain mail lying around near the machines.
The white dog glances up as it sees Jason tracing the same route. "You might want to spare a glance into the refinery as you go past. I hope you'll be able to make more sense of it than I can."
Inari drops down lithely from the catwalk. Fuseli takes up guard at the door... But it seems ominously quiet, save for the sounds of distant battle.
Yappy looks about, then decides to try jumping down himself.
Jason pauses mid-step as he peers out into the refinery. "No, it couldn't be ... " he mutters. "That's ... bad. How, what?"
As the brown-furred werewolf gets to the edge of the railing, he slips on what looks like a patch of oil. "What-- uh, oh, aiyiyiee!" His arc through the air is decidedly ungraceful, but more importantly, headed straight for an eager-looking collection of surgical machinery.
White Cadena, at the same instant, is already bounding under the catwalk, rushing to intercept the falling werewolf, swirling chains reaching out as if to try to catch the creature on their own. The white dog body-blocks the humanoid, intercepting him mid-air, and they both fall to a tumble to the main floor walkway, clear of any eager-looking sharp-edged machinery.
"Whoa-- whew!" The brown werewolf pants, catching his breath from where he's wrapped his arms around the dog. "That was close! I saw my life flashing before my eyes there. ... I had no idea I was such a cute puppy."
"This isn't the time for puppy-playing," Tracer notes, having only seen the tumbling around part. "And no going after any bones we come across, either, or I'll find a newspaper," she adds in passing.
Yappy looks hangdog.
"Just to cause more worry," Jason remarks as he follows Tracy, "I think General Ironfist is waiting for us ahead ... and he looked very brain-extracted and large."
White Cadena's chains return to their stand-by drift. The dog gets back up, shaking itself out, and trots over to catch up with Tracer, leaving Yappy to tend to his own dignity.
This causes Tracer to nearly trip, she stops so hard. "The General?" she asks. "Maybe we can get some reinforcements by then."
It looks as if there's a simple lever to be pulled next to the door in order to open them. There's only one problem with this... It's meant to be pulled by someone 20 feet tall.
"Wait here," Jason tells the others, "If I kill myself doing this, I expect you to save the world ... and write something nice about me on my gravestone." The armored human then ignites his flight systems to fly up and push the lever!
Inari smirks at the sad puppy eyes that Yappy is giving Tracy, but is distracted by Jason's flying maneuver. "Are you sure that's--" FOOM! "A good idea?"
"Not at all!" Jason calls back.
While Jason has hit the lever successfully, it seems to be made of doughtier stuff than his boot jets were meant to achieve. It may take more force.
While Jason works on the lever itself, Tracer walks over to inspect the actual door and see how tough it might be.
"Oh come on," Jason complains as he works the jets, apparently unable to find just the right angle to achieve the force necessary to move the lever. After a few more tries, he grumbles and slides down the lever like a fire pole.
Warning labels are festooned over the chamber: "GOOD SOLDIERS FOLLOW ORDERS!" "DO NOT ATTACK THE DOCTORS." "SERVE THE EMPIRE - DESTROY HER ENEMIES!" And of course, the ever popular, "EXPLOSIVE HAZARD - NO SMOKING WITHIN 30 FEET."
This last appears to be positioned near the debris that covers the southern half of the room.
The doors are imposingly tough, made of what could be battleship armor.
"So, is the lever jammed?" Tracer asks of Jason.
"It's just stubborn. I think I'll call it Tracy," Jason remarks as he walks back across the room, heading for the downed super soldier!
White Cadena suggests, "As a backup plan, we could return to the upper floor debris, see if we can get the attention of the combatants outside, and beg or goad them into blasting a way through the blockage? Of courage, the problem would then remain of how said combatants might react to our mixed group...." The dog trails off, however, letting that thought go as it appears that Jason has some other sort of plan in mind. The dog, for whatever reason, either lacks the courage or has the sense not to inquire further about its particulars.
"Before Dr. Frankenstein gets his mojo going, how about you try leaning on the lever," Tracer whispers to Fuseli.. who is, after all, a bit more massive than Jason was.
"I have a cunning plan!" Jason declares, "Also crazy and dangerous. But what else is new?"
Inari eyes the lever, then Jason. "I have a bad feeling about this," she says.
Fuseli snorts. It's a very particular kind of snort.
Rolling her eyes, Tracer whispers to the nightmare, "Rear up, put your weight on it. Push, don't pull. Or.." Turning towards Cadena, she asks, "Still got that line in your armor, Cadena?"
The dark warhorse snorts disdainfully, but trots up to the lever. It awaits Cadena's response.
White Cadena looks momentarily distracted, ears twitching, with a faint look of annoyance, as if listening to something no one else can hear. The dog snaps out of it at Tracer's voice. "Yes, Champion, I believe I do. Are you following that suggestion, then?" The dog begins fishing through the pouches of the altered armor.
Jason stops before the downed behemoth. He almost tries to pop his knuckles, then thinks better of it because, well, armor. "Time to violate several laws of nature," he declares as he crouches down near the cybernetic componentry embedded in the super-soldier. "Now .... where is that neural to electrical bridge..."
"The line is for a different backup plan," Tracer says. "Fuseli is going to throw his weight around, but if that doesn't work we can use the line to pull the lever with our combined strength."
Inari positions herself near Jason, to be ready in case any of the machinery comes to life and tries to do... unpleasant things to him.
White Cadena winces slightly. "I hadn't expected you to use Fuseli for ... oh." Something seems to dawn on the dog. "Right." The dog fishes out the cord, and trots over with it to Tracer.
While Jason gets the prototype back into working order, Fuseli rears up impressively and then slams its hooves into the column! Sparks fly from the glowing horseshoes nailed to its hooves. Slowly, then with inexorable force, the lever tilts until it slams against the far end of its traverse. The doors open into the next room.
"Good boy!" Tracer says, as she rewards Fuseli by stroking the nightmare's gaunt neck. If she likes emaciated looking horses, maybe emaciated looking werewolves do stand a chance.
"Oh the brain case is connected to the neural inductor," Jason sings away as he works. "Oops, he won't need that..."
Yappy brushes himself up, trying to restore some dignity, and stands up. "Hey, you got it open! Great, now we can... charge into impending disaster?" He eyes the room revealed, which manages to look ominous despite being made mostly of white tiles. Perhaps it's the hatches on the side, floor, and ceiling, that look as if they're intended to open and provide surprises.
White Cadena tucks the cord back away into its pouch, looking relieved and proudly pleased at Fuseli's accomplishment.
"Do you smell fresh blood out there?" Tracer whispers to Yappy, coming up next to him and patting him on the back.
"Okay, right, so, hmm," Jason says as he closes up one of the access panels. "We had better stand back," he then tells Inari and heads quickly back towards the others.
White Cadena trots up to the door and takes a whiff, then winces. "It smells like burnt ... materials of Imperial origin."
Inari stands well back.
Yappy stands back too... But near enough to the surgery bay that it whines and turns his way. Blades whirr and clippers buzz.
Tracer turns to look back at the fallen cyborg, then looks at Jason. "So.. you're sure you can control Jason Junior if it wakes up?" she asks.
"Come stand next to me, Wile E.," Tracer suggests to Yappy.
Yappy scootches over!
"You sure now how deflate my plans," Jason complains to Tracy when he rejoins the others, "However, I will have my revenge!" Apparently this involves closing his eyes and looking deep in thought. The behemoth on the floor twitches. The groan it makes is ... well, disturbing is putting it mildly. It pushes itself upright and with awkward, jerking, movement lumbers towards the door! The creature groans and moans, "Dooo the maaaash." It then proceeds to ... dance. Well, if you can call it dancing. When something that big shimmies its butt it tends to look a bit ridiculous.
White Cadena recoils slightly in horror.
Tracer puts both hands over her mouth. No, laughing would just not fit her. "Okay," she says through her fingers. "Can you send it out to clear any traps for us?"
Spotlights click on automatically, illuminating the revived supersoldier prototype. As Jason perfects his control, its movements become smoother until it's executing a complex dance routine... And the spotlights, incredibly, switch to different colors as it moves back and forth, red, then blue, then green. At the end it stands and salutes the others, then resumes its normal standing pose, a giant apparently humanoid monstrosity dressed in an armored Imperial uniform.
Yappy applauds! "That was awesome!"
Inari gives Jason a sidelong look.
"Braaaaiiins," the monster moans and marches forward so Jason can send it into the target room. "It could have been worse," Jason remarks while concentrating, "I could make him swish..."
"It has more rhythm than you do, at least," Tracer notes to Jason.
As the robot steps onto the clearly outlined gray square in the next room, the doors begin shutting! A stentorian male voice says, "Automated supersoldier testing will now begin! Soldier, turn to your right and take your rifle from the chamber that has just been opened."
"Hurry!" Tracer says, and dashes through the door before it closes, then immediately moves to the side opposite the rifle closet.
The white dog recovers at Tracer's command (after taking in the others' muted reactions to this ... abomination's antics), and dashes after her.
Fuseli dashes through after his mistress, followed closely by Inari. Yappy is a bit slower on the uptake. "Wait, I heard 'rifle'--"
Jason has to open his eyes and focus on himself. "Come on, RIU, we've got to go through," he tells the little dragon and runs for the door!
The doors slam shut and seal themselves shut. There's no lever on this side; however there are what look like glazed bulletproof windows in the wall to the north, high overhead. From this side they are mirror-like so it's impossible to see what's on the other side.
The male voice repeats, "Soldier, turn to your right and take your rifle! Testing cannot proceed until you have taken your rifle."
"Maybe we should all head to the exit before I have MeatMan pick up the gun," Jason suggests to the others.
White Cadena volunteers, "I can take the lead, in case of any traps."
There are burn marks on the northern half of the room, mostly on the far wall. Doors appear to lead to the west, but are locked securely shut - if they were open, it appears they'd slide into the wall.
Mysterious looking hatches are recessed into the flat white tiles. While there are no obvious things to be shot right now, perhaps these are how such devices will be introduced.
"Or ... maybe this has to pass whatever horrible things happen in here before the doors open," Jason concludes as he eyes the sealed door. "I suggest we hide in the closet where the gun is. It's probably out of the line of fire..."
Jason, in fact, heads that way.
The rifle in the closet is immense, probably far too large for anyone not of extraordinary strength to carry and certainly too large to be wielded comfortably. It appears to be some kind of energy arquebus, requiring the chamber to be charged before it can be fired once.
"All of us in that little space?" Tracer asks, then sighs and gets on Fuseli. "You're sure you can keep the door open?"
"It's either I try or we die. Take your pick," Jason remarks as he looks for an access panel to the closet door controls.
"Okay.. Inari, Yappy.. you may want to ride with me. Cadena can fit between Fuseli's legs once we're inside," Tracer suggests.
Inari looks less than thrilled with the prospect. "Remind me, why are we doing this?" she asks as she walks toward Jason.
"I respect the desire for caution," White Cadena notes, "but I humbly request that we consider the value of haste, given the changing nature of the landscape that we have observed. I would also suggest we risk having at least one of our number outside the closet, in case opening it proves to be a greater challenge than anticipated. I notice a distinct lack of convenient handles and other controls in this room."
The voice says, "Soldier, this is your first day in your new life as a servant of the Empire! It would be a great shame if you were to be marked down for failure to obey the orders of your superiors. Pick up the weapon from the closet to your right!"
"Well, I'm not sure I want to be outside when this test starts," Jason admits to Inari, "But if there is no damage on this end and if we assume they don't want to break a newly made soldier, then it may be safe enough to remain outside." So, Jason heads back out and leans against Inari slightly. "But the downside is I don't get to use the line 'So, come here often'? when we weer crammed in the closet..." He closes his eyes again and focuses on MeatMan, trying to instruct him to go get the rifle.
Inari leans back against the powered armor. "Mm, you can use that line some other time," she says.
The supersoldier prototype marches the closet obediently and lifts the rifle. As it moves back to its previous position, the closet doors begin shutting again.
"Yappy, ride with me anyway," Tracer says. "I don't want you to have another accident."
"Well done! We will now test your accuracy. Begin charging your weapon. Target number one will appear... now." The voice clicks off, and a hatch on the far side of the room opens. A... large cube rises slowly through it, about thirty feet on a side.
"Is that target supposed to be a barn? It's big enough," Tracer notes.
Jason, interfaced to MeatMan, tries to figure out how to charge the gun up before taking aim at the huge cube.
It appears simple enough - pull the lever on the (oversized) rifle, then aim and pull the trigger, then the firing action will reset the lever.
The rifle hums as it warms up. The supersoldier prototype takes careful aim at the cube... Then fires! A giant glowing projectile, brighter than the Sun, slams across the room-- and into the far wall, just narrowly missing it. Flames wash against the back of the room. "Try again, soldier! We expect better from you."
"Think it would know the difference if you just mimed shooting with the rifle, and had RIU blast the target instead?" Tracer asks.
'MeatMan' grunts a bit at that and yanks the 'reloading' lever before taking aim again at the huge cube.
It takes three shots total, but the supersoldier prototype manages to clip the side of the cube! It explodes into a thousand tiny sharpnel.
"Well done, soldier! As you can see, we demand pinpoint accuracy from our soldiers, and we have high hopes that you will live up to our exacting requirements," the voice says. "Commencing test two... Now."
A different hatch opens to the left side of the room. A blue beam appears washing across the room, pale and without force, heading to an opened hatch on the other side. A similar target cube floats into the room slowly.
"Moving target test.. I hope it's the last," Tracer complains.
Blam! The shot goes wild. The cube floats leisurely out of the room, then returns back the way it came.
"This is annoying," Jason mutters as he tries to take aim again.
Yappy stays close to Tracy as instructed, a big grin on his muzzle.
The voice starts to get sarcastic as the soldier prototype continues to miss. "If this test is too difficult for you, soldier, perhaps we should try a different brain--" and then a shot slams dead home into the middle of the cube! It explodes into more flinders, littering the chamber.
"Excellent shot, soldier! For your third test, the target will now shoot back. Destroy the target while advancing through the room, then exit through the door to the left," the voice says.
"Okay, I really think we should do the shooting ourselves this time," Tracer notes.
A hatch opens in the top of the room. This time, it's not a cube, but a robot sphere made of some kind of gray metal. Lights glow on its surface as it surveys the room, a green scanning laser swepping from left to right.
'MeatMan' dutifully starts a slow march across the floor, taking aim at the orb and firing!
"Staying tightly packed together is likely to present too tempting a target," White Cadena notes. "Your orders, Champion?"
"Bzzt! Multiple targets identified. Selecting random target," the sphere drones. It hovers in place, but moves at random to the left and right.
Inari startles as the sphere appears. "What the-- Jason, get behind something!"
"Stay behind the.." Tracer starts to say, until she hears the robot speak. Instead, she urges Fuseli forward to try and distract the bot.. and get close enough to attack it. "Hang on, Yappy!"
The supersoldier prototype fires! The shot goes wild however.
The sphere turns toward the side of the supersoldier prototype, perhaps singling out Inari for having spoken. A low tone begins to rise as its weapon projector charges.
"Inari!" White Cadena cries out, leaping away from Fuseli's side. Chains swirl around the dog as it leaps behind the super-soldier, to push Inari out of the sphere's line of fire!
"Oh now you've done it," Jason growls as his eyes snap open, "You do not target Inari!" He raises his gauntlet-clad hand and takes aim at the projector array on the orb. Energy crackles around it, followed by the scent of ozone.
The supersoldier pulls the lever back as Jason takes aim, but takes no other action, waiting silently as the arquebus charges.
The powered armor suit takes aim, but what should have been a perfect shot gets spoiled as the sphere darts to the side at just the wrong time!
Blue lightning cracks into the far side of the room, making a teeny tiny scorch mark.
Carrying Tracer and Yappy, Fuseli rushes to the left side of the giant. The nightmare then rears up, and slams his front hooves onto the floor. Sparks fly, and chain of jagged, purple-black glowing cracks fan out over the floor from the impact, passing under the robotic sphere before erupting upwards in eldritch flames!
The sphere darts away from the cracks! "Error! Error! Targets using unauthorized weapons of mass destruction!"
But not quite far enough - flames gout from one of the cracks and wash across the side of the sphere, causing it to spark and fly erratically. "Error! Error! Error!"
Yappy clings for dear life to Tracy as she charges forth!
Inari oofs under Cadena, then pulls herself to her feet. "Thanks for the help, Cadena," she says, taking cover behind the supersoldier prototype. "Jason! Get him behind Mr. Meat!"
The announcer's voice says, "Supersoldier! Destroy the target and advance into the next testing chamber, for the glory of the Empire!"
The armed target sphere wobbles around dizzily. "Systems compromised! Rebooting..."
Grumbling something about robots, Tracer slides Mother's Approval off her back and starts mounting it to Fuseli's saddle.
"Whirr. Reboot in progress." It steadies and appears to be doing a self-test of some kind.
Inari tenses behind the supersoldier, ready to spring into action.
RIU darts up into the air, hissing at the nasty ol' sphere thing!
Jason hurries himself to join Inari behind MeatMan. "This is insane," he complains to Inari as he closes his eyes and focuses in on their cyborg-zombie to take another shot at the ball!
The golden vixen looks relieved. "We're running through the Empire of Stars' stomping grounds. Things are normally pretty insane around here."
Pow! The ball smacks right into the sphere as it emits the words, "Reboot com--" KAPOW!
Metal shrapnel flies around the test chamber, leaving quite a mess.
"Target destroyed! Good work. We'll make a supersoldier out of you yet! Please proceed to the Environmental Extremes Testing Chamber," the voice says.
"The phrase 'out of the frying pan' comes to mind," White Cadena says, trotting to the door.
"Right, so note to self, do not use the Empire as a date spot," Jason grumbles. He now has to alternate between sending the soldier towards the exit and following after it as it moves.
The next chamber boasts a similar white tiles design to the target range, but the tiles have been removed from the middle of the room in favor of rows and rows of force projectors. In the first zone, jets fire gouts of what looks like lava or plasma to the ceiling in sequence; in the second zone, outlets in the ceiling wash sheets of cold air downward, cold enough that ice crystals form in midair and crash to the floor with a constant tinkling noise. The third zone is hazy and filled with swirling poisonously green vapors.
A sealed exit at the far right side of the room reads, "TO DEFENSES TESTING ROOM." High up in the walls to the right are smoked glass panels that look onto an overhead corridor. While they're normally mirrored, every now and then a flash light and an explosion overhead illuminates shadowy forms in what looks like a firefight of some kind.
"Well, that looks like fun. My vote is to destroy the projectors. I'm not just walking through that," Jason remarks as he surveys the grim chamber.
"Maybe we should have used the giant to clear the debris from the other door," Tracer mutters.
RIU flutters overhead, looking decidedly nervous about the 'environmental extremes' ahead.
Inari agrees with Jason. "I'm not sticking my fluffy tail into that!"
"Hm," Jason says as he looks up at the projectors and tries to see if there are any control lines leading to them.
White Cadena says, "I hear the voices of Light-aligned forces on the other side. They might be confused by our 'escort mission,' but perhaps we could see if any of them have powers to protect against environmental effects? That is, if we could get their attention from here."
"RIU, do you feel brave enough to climb up into the projectors?" Jason asks the little dragon. "Alternatively, I could have MeatMan shoot them..."
"Do we have any powers that could be used to amplify sound?" White Cadena inquires.
RIU shivers, but gives Jason a brave little nod.
Tracer takes out her communication orb again to see if Aldestre has responded yet. "I might be able to contact them," she says.
Inari shakes her head. "I can't project an illusion that far away," she admits. "Not through the glass."
The orb flickers, a tiny light pulsing at its center. It appears Tracy does have mail!
"Aha," the armored girl says, and activates the message.
"Well, I'll send RIU up to see if he can get safely into the projectors if we can't come up with a better plan," Jason offers.
"Tracy, is that you? Word on the street is that Avatars is under some kind of DOS attack," Aldestre says, his message recorded. "I'm only logging in to check my messages, I hear that things are a real mess out in Tesliem, and after what happened to some poor guys who were logged in when the last sector went kablooie... but I'll stay online for a bit longer. Send me a ping."
Tracer replies, "Adam, your brother and I are in Tesliem right now. There's a group of heroes nearby, and I need to know who they are so I can contact them. Do you know who is leading a Supersoldier Raid right now?"
From the background in the message, it looks as if Aldestre is playing it safe in the Tasavalta area... Or maybe he's hoping that lightning strikes twice in the same spot.
The orb lights again. Aldestre's eyes focus on Tracy. "My bro-- you found Mike? What's he doing there? Can I talk to him?" He pauses as she continues. "Give me a min, I'll check!"
Yappy leans over Tracy's shoulders. "What the... That's my bro's voice," Yappy says. He pulls a face. "Hey! Bro! I'm a wolf now!"
"Things are ... complicated," Tracer adds, shifting the orb so Yappy is in the pickup. "Once we take care of things, Mike should be back to normal."
"There is no guarantee of that," Jason remarks.
"Only I'm allowed to be dark and depressing here, Jason," Tracer notes to the armored man. "Unless you want to paint that suit of yours black?"
Aldestre pulls a face. "Now I'm sure you were adopted," he says to Yappy. "But I like the new looks, it's a definite improvement. Um. All right, Solanca's in the raid. I'll patch you through to him."
White Cadena looks wary of the flames, but paces around, inspecting the surroundings, sniffing here and there, examining anything especially that isn't just a flat, featureless surface.
A silver-haired man in leather armor of a Diadem design appears next to Aldestre in the orb, but the background behind him is definitely that of the Tesliem access corridor. "Solanca, King's Explorers. We're in the middle of taking down the doorman, but I can spare a moment. To whom am I speaking?"
The doors to the target range close silently behind them.
White Cadena suddenly barks, as it turns to look back to the target chamber. "Mr. Edwards! Access hatches for cleaning drones!"
"This is Lady Tracer of House Trudeau," Tracer announces to Solanca. "And I need your aid. A new menace has risen, the ultimate Imperial Supersoldier: General Irongrip. No Hero of the Light has faced him yet in battle."
Jason blinks. "Access hatches?" he asks as he heads over to Cadena to see what he's talking about. That may be a lot safer to send RIU in...
Behind Solanca, voices complain, "Stay on target... Steady... We're losing this!" "It's the lag, it's impossible to keep the beams on target when everything feels like swimming through water!" "Something's seriously borked, are you guys seeing what looks like some kind of modern office building? I'm hearing from my sister, she got sidetracked and now she's looking at this big ladybug robot with four legs..."
Jason is quick enough to see cleaning robots scurrying across the target range, cleaning up the debris, but then the giant doors hiss shut.
"They're cleaning up the mess from the destroyed target," White Cadena explains to Jason. "That's how it stays so nearly spotless clean for the next test run!"
"Aaand, the doors just closed," Jason grumbles. He would facepalm if he wasn't wearign a helmet.
The white dog looks dejected, and quietly resumes exploring for anything else that might be of use.
Solanca looks skeptical. "Lady, I do an Irongrip raid every other week--" "Wait, is that the Lady Tracer? Give her an invite! She's great!" Other people crowd around the orb. Behind them, someone screams, "AUGH!" and a giant armored bear goes flying across the room. "Get your tails back in gear!" Solanca roars.
"We could perhaps make a mess that is in need of cleaning, but I suspect it will prompt no reaction if there is a super soldier still present in the room," White Cadena adds, while snuffling around.
RIU beeps! at Jason consolingly, cuddling around his left ear.
Jason grumbles. Getting impatient, he tries to link up with the cyborg and take aim at the flame projectors...
"Yes, the Lady Tracer, Champion of Light, and all that," Tracer says. "You need to keep working towards the refinery, things should be more stable there. Stay out of any areas that look unfamiliar - there is a massive illusion enchantment at work. And if you make your way up the corridor further, check the floor. There should be a tunnel crossing underneath. If you detect it, try to blast a hole through to it. I'm in the Testing Chambers, and that will let my group get through."
The supersoldier cyborg levels its arquebus and takes aim. KaBOOM! Several of the energy projectors explode, turning into so much shrapnel. "Warning! Unauthorized destruction of testing room equipment detected," a mechanical voice complains. The male announcer orders, "Supersoldier! You are to make your way through the environmental hazards ahead. Do not attempt to destroy them or punitive force will be applied."
White Cadena instinctively hits the deck, then gets up. "Well! That at least creates a mess." He looks around for any hatches that might be useful for little cleaning robots to pop out of, just in case they don't wait for completion of the test.
Turning aside from the orb for a moment, Tracer suggests, "Jason, if you get your abomination through to the other side, maybe the obstacles will just deactivate."
"Or, we might get another shot at interrupting the cleaning process and exploiting any access hatches," White Cadena adds.
"Well, we could walk under his legs," Jason suggests and motions towards the cyborg. "Or, hm. Who here wants to look through the glass?" he asks. "MeatMan could lift someone up to it."
The white dog paws at some of the debris, checking to see if it's too hot to touch before attempting to collect any samples.
"Or, Inari could start cutting out sections of the wall with her laser sword," Tracer offers next.
Aldestre whispers to Solanca, who responds, "All right, very good. I'll send a fire team back to the crossing tunnel. I'm looking forward to working with you, Lady Tracer." Distractedly, he calls to the others, "Throw a heal on Small, get him back into action! Ton Weigh, Phosphemus, head back up the tunnel, twenty meters, I need a hole in the floor."
"Screw punitive damages," Jason remarks and has the golem take aim at another set of projectors.
"May the Light guide and protect you," Tracer tells Solanca. "Also, don't attack our werewolf or pet supersoldier."
"... You have a pet supersoldier?" Solanca swears, "By the Sun! Where do I go to get neat toys like that?"
"I'll tell you later," Tracer says, wincing from the blast of the heavy rifle.
White Cadena braces, and checks to see if the destruction allows him to get any closer to the wall with the observation window.
The supersoldier dutifully plugs away at the projectors, over the protests and complaints of the announcer.
"Warning! Projector damage now at 20%," a mechanical voice says. "Initiating armed repair robot response."
"Inari, if an access hatch opens and deathbots starts spilling out, would you be a dear and try to disable it so it stays open?" Tracer asks.
The energy arquebus smoulders from the efforts of steady fire... But a path has been cleared through the projectors to the side of the room next to the observation window. Spiderweb cracks run through it, presumably from where the last shot hit the frost projector next to it.
"Can anyone help me get up to the window?" White Cadena asks. "It looks like it's cracked. Perhaps we can break through and find a way to disable these infernal contraptions!"
A distant muffled thump comes from the corridor overhead and to the right.
"Sending MeatMan to help you, Cadena," Jason tells the avatar-dog-thing. True to his word, the abomination trundles towards the observation window.
The white dog rushes over to catch up with the super-soldier, daringly putting itself within reach of the monstrosity.
A hatch opens in the far wall. What looks like a giant bulldozer moves slowly outward, protected from attacks by the giant shovel in front of it.
MeatMan picks Cadena up and lifts him towards the window. And in a true fit of odd, the supersoldier says, "I will love him and hug him and call him George..."
Inari looks worried at the hatch opening. "That thing's pretty big."
"Okay, that isn't good," Tracer notes at the sight of the tank. "But then.. it probably can't dodge either." She turns the laser cannon to face the robot, but doesn't fire.
White Cadena's chains draw inward, as the white dog seems very anxious to keep well away from the flames still emanating from the surviving projectors.
As another explosion makes the corridor behind it visible, from his new vantage point Cadena can make out the forms of two men drawing what looks like glowing runes onto a crater in the floor. "Clear!" They run back, and then the first man shouts a command word. The runes explode, opening a hole to the tunnel beneath!
To the right, down the hallway, it appears that the large armored bear has returned to service, wrestling and swatting at some giant bulbous robot that emits sparks and periodically fires arcing lasers across the room. To avoid these, the raiding party is crouching down behind various fallen pieces of debris, or occasionally rotating out into the corridor to catch their breath, and every now and then, a woman dressed in white robes, her head that of a unicorn, steps out to channel healing energies into the bear.
"Cadena, can you break the glass? We can climb up MeatMan and exit through the window," Jason suggests.
The white dog blinks. "They said 'Small'?" With greater urgency, as soon as the dog is within reach of the window, it hurls itself against the glass, trying to hit with its side and back, rather than taking too much glass to the face.
As Cadena throws his armored weight against the window, it shatters inward! "Whoa!" complains the nearby man. "Incoming glass!"
The white dog immediately casts about, looking for any sorts of controls that might seem relevant to the environmental testing chamber - or, failing that, any large shards of glass to knock free to widen the opening through the window to make room for Fuseli and the others to get through.
The repair robot moves fully into the Environmental Extremes Testing Chamber. With a clack, it extends a tiny little camera-arm that sweeps the room until it identifies the supersoldier.
"Right, so everyone up MeatMan and out through the window!" Jason orders. "I'll send him through the rest afterward."
Spotting the camera, Tracer shifts the aim of her laser slightly towards that side of the shovel and fires off a quick 3-shot burst!
The laser gatling whines as the charging chambers spin, each one charging in a second as the previous one discharges! The camera-arm sizzles, then retracts sans camera. "Warning! Damage detected to Armed Repair Response Robot. Beginning deployment of Armed Repair Response Robot Repair Robot."
"Now this is just getting silly," JAson remarks. He waves for Inari to follow and heads towards MeatMan and the observation window. "Up we go!" he says and ignires his jets!
Inari climbs up the supersoldier prototype and out into the access corridor!
RIU darts through after Jason! Whee!
The two men, both dressed in light fantasy outfits of silk and velvet, look surprised at the sudden cavalcade. "I say! Are you the chaps we were sent to open up a way for? You don't seem to have needed the assistance," one says.
Fuseli bursts through the window last, with Tracer bent to hug the nightmare's neck and Yappy bent to hug Tracer's back.
"Don't look at me," Jason mutters. He plots himself down on the floor and focuses on the supersoldier again. May as well march him the rest of the way through. Maybe he'll make it, maybe not.
As soon as the last one is through the window, White Cadena barks happily to the two Light-aligned warriors, approaching them, tail wagging, snuffling at them.
"Oh good, you made the hole!" Tracer says as she sits up and gets her bearings.
A tiny (compared to the bulldozer) robot sphere drifts out of the hatch. It glides slowly toward the bulldozer, carrying a replacement camera.
The supersoldier turns slowly and begins to march through the rest of the room. The announcer appears to have calmed down a bit. "Very good, soldier. You have now cleared half the room. Keep going. Remember, you are a supersoldier, and as such, heat, cold, and airless space or poison gases have no effect on you!"
The men look surprised at the dog. One looks up and at the woman on the horse. "Excuse me, miss, but is this your pet?"
The white dog doesn't wait for any confirmation. It bounds down the hallway toward the sounds of combat, zig-zagging behind pieces of debris as they become available.
"He's.. yes, sort of," Tracer says, waving a hand. "And the golden-armored man here is my Cybernetic Voodoo Shaman. He's controlling the supersoldier. Where are Solanca and the rest of your party?"
Even with the destroyed projectors, the frost crystals from the farther projectors still drift into the access corridor, making it extremely chilly next to the shattered observation window. Another window on the opposite side of the corridor looks into what appears to be a densely forested piece of land, if it weren't for the test chamber walls.
"Down the hall," the first man replies. "I'd love to stay and chat, but we're going to be needed for this last push--"
"I'm your shaman? Since when? Last I checked I was in charge," Jason grumbles from thwere he focuses on moving MeatMan.
"Warning! Internal reactor coolant systems have shut down," comes a loud voice from down the hall. "Final strike laser barrage in one minute."
The second man says, "Oh frotz, all hands on deck!"
"That doesn't sound good," Tracer mutters, and urges Fuseli to follow Cadena.
As Cadena races forward, he comes across a tense scene. Everyone who had been hiding behind various bits of debris or furniture in the oversized reactor control room jumps out now and begins unloading every weapon or spell they have at the door robot, which is a giant black sphere on four round feet, patterned in such a way that it looks like it's wearing a tuxedo.
White Cadena follows their lead, making all haste to approach the target and those engaging it in melee.
The supersoldier trods onward, pushing through the poison gas as if it were no more than a brisk refreshing shower. "Congratulations on completing the Environmental Extremes Testing regime, soldier! Fines for damage to the room will be deducted from your next pay check. Please proceed to the Defenses Testing Room." The door on the far side slides open... But the projectors don't turn off.
And through the door the supersoldier goes. Jason tries to find the hole to pull the soldier up through now.
The giant robot suddenly pops up several flamethrower projectors! "Now!" yells Solanca. The large armored warrior on the far side of the room yells, "Hey DoorBot! I hear your momma's so cheap because Hong Kong outsourced her to Korea!" Roaring at the indignity of this slander, the robot turns to the side and begins incinerating the warrior, while the armored bear slumps in place, taking a breather.
Fuseli runs out between two of the barriers, so that Tracy has a clear shot with her laser. "Hurray for big targets," she mutters, as she swings the cannon around on its gimbal and fires a burst.
The unicorn-headed woman stands out in the open. "Light, give me strength to heal my allies!" she prays. A beam of sunlight shines down on her from no apparent source, and then she stretches out her hands, channeling healing energies into the armored warrior.
POW! The laser shots rip into the door robot, causing sparks to fly. On any ordinary target, that would have shut it right down, so it's a testament to how overengineered this robot is that it continues to attempt to flamethrower the warrior into the ground.
"Nice shot!" says an unnamed character. Says another, "Is that Lady Tracer? I thought this was going to be a total lagfest and a waste of time, but things are turning around!"
Oddly, to Cadena's right, the leather-garbed rogue is running into the wall. "Frotz!" he yells. "Do you guys see me moving? I can't seem to do anything!"
Jason is annoyed on how slow the soldier moves, but what can you do? Onward it lumbers and is now climbing up through the hole in the floor made earlier. "RIU, go help Tracy zap that robot! Inari, help the other if you can, too. I'll join you when I can," he says.
"Got it, go and be indescribably awesome," the golden vixen says with a smirk. She streaks down the hall.
A priest in a brown robe chants and gestures, aiming his actions toward the bear, but it seems as if he's moving in slow motion. "In nomine Lux," he sings. "In the name of the Light..."
The white dog dashes out from behind the debris, sighting the robot, but is then distracted by the sight of the leather-clad thief running into the wall. Feeling a tinge of pity, the dog dashes over and makes a canine whine, tugging on the thief's sleeve and trying to turn him toward the enemy and away from the wall.
Solanca, a silver-haired, salt-and-pepper-bearded man, comes out from behind the boulder he was sheltered behind, and starts toward the DoorBot. He draws his rapier, which shimmers with a bluish light.
The rogue turns and charges headlong for DoorBot! "Oh hey, I've got control! I'm in the game! We've got this now, guys!" he yells. "Blades of WIND!" And across his forearms, blue-white light shimmers into place, wrapping them in gloves, then poking past them to become dual punch-daggers.
The brown-furred wolf clings to Tracy's back. "Ack! What do I do?" he complains. "I don't think my claws or fangs are going to make much of a dent in that monster of a robot!"
One of the heroes calls up what looks like a firebird, except made of ice crystals. "Fan of FROST!" he yells. The flamethrowers shut off briefly, jammed by sheets of ice.
"Just hold tight," Tracy says, as she spurs Fuseli forward again until he's near Solanca. Then she fires another 3-round burst at the robot!
The DoorBot announces, "Fifty seconds to Final Laser Barrage. Prepare to meet your doom, enemies of the Empire." It wouldn't sound quite as scary if the door robot hadn't said that in a passionless monotone, as if it were announcing tea was about to be served.
The laser scorches into the DoorBot's back, carving a red-glowing line through its armor! More smoke billows freely from its body.
Jason, in an annoyance of how slow the soldier is, has the soldier pick him up and just carry him towards the combat!
White Cadena rushes past the rogue, up to the robot, then cuts a path around it to weave over to the side of the armored bear, taking up position to worry the machine's defenses.
Other friendly heroes move into position, or send pets charging in to attack the DoorBot!
"FIAT LUX!" yells the priest, finally completing his spell. Another shaft of light probes through the ceiling, then slams down into the bear, recharging his energy and health.
The white dog sees that as the other Links, Augments and Avatars of the Light engage the creature, there's an opening: there are exposed cables. The dog hasn't a chance to gauge what those cables are for, but takes the chance anyway. Claws enlarge, and the white dog leaps in, slashing at the cables, ripping them free in a shower of red sparks!
The DoorBot threshes and flails about, one if its limbs no longer working! "It's almost down!" yells Solanca. "Flamethrowers are done, it's about to do a Coolant Gas Vent, turn it! Turn it, Small!"
The bear charges into the fray, renewed. It growls something nasty at the DoorBot. Grr-uhn-ARRUM! Apparently in ursine this translates into a deadly insult, because the robot turns back toward Small. One of its pile-driving limbs is out of commission and pistons into the air repeatedly, but the other one smashes repeatedly down onto the deck, forcing Small to dodge.
"Coolant gas venting in three... two... one." FWOOSH! Bilious green-yellow gas floods the door behind the robot. "There are now fourty seconds to Final Laser Strike. Your resistance is futile, enemies of the Empire. Submit now and meet your death peacefully."
The armored warrior who had previously held the DoorBot's attention gasps and then crumples against his shield, which looks rather the worse for wear. "Light... Give me strength," he groans.
"RIU, zap it if you can!" Jason orders as he urges the super soldier to continue running!
RIU takes in a deep breath... And suddenly there's a feeling that even the stars outside have paused to watch. A shaft of light arcs down from above, causing RIU to momentarily glow brightly, its armor strangely more complicated and larger. It spins in a spiral fashion, charging its bolt weapon.
And then fires! What would normally be an ordinary ball of St. Elmo's Fire becomes a ravening bolt of lightning, wrapped around with a helice of golden light, that strikes directly into the hole that Tracy had scorched into its armor.
The DoorBot threshes, all its lights blazing at once, as if something deep inside had turned on spotlights aimed at all the gaps and crevices in its armor... Then collapses, going completely dark. "Countdown... Aborted."
The mini-dragon swoops down and then perches onto the DoorBot's head, looking extremely proud of itself!
"Not that is how you earn belly-rubs," Tracer says approvingly.
The heroes stare at RIU. And then cheers and jubilation break out all over the room. "We did it!" "That was awesome! Way to make an entrance!" "WOOT!"
The rogue jabs at the robot with his punch-daggers, carving out sections of armor. "Take that! And that! And--" He pauses. "Oh, it's down! Great job, everyone!"
Jason gets the supersoldier to put him down. "RIU ... remind me never to make you mad. Good grief, how did you do that?" he asks the perching and proud dragon.
Solanca looks around, then catches sight of Lady Tracer. "Well done! You brought some very capable friends, I see." Glimpsing the soldier prototype lurching in from the corridor, he adds, "And I see you weren't kidding about your pet supersoldier, either."
RIU flops exhaustedly onto Jason. Its armor seems to be reconfiguring back into the normal innocuously cute form that it normally wears. "Eeble deep beep!" it says, still wearing that smug look.
"You have some interesting members on your own team," Tracer notes, glancing at the unicorn-headed healer, and wondering if Inari has noticed her yet.
Inari re-holsters her laser blade. "I was afraid I'd have to actually use this can of whoop," she says dryly. Her glance goes toward the bear and the unicorn-headed woman, and she is not alone in this curiousity, as Cadena also studies them.
The bear flops, looking as if he's all ready for a nap now. The unicorn-headed lady smiles shyly, then kneels by him and runs her gently glowing hands over his fur, healing away the small cuts and burns.
The white dog lets the others regroup and plan their next move, breaking away from studying the bear and unicorn-headed woman, to tend to the obviously wounded.
Solanca raises an eyebrow. "We're a collection of oddballs, I fear," he says to Lady Tracer. "Is there anything in particular that raised your interest?"
"Those two.. do they always team together?" Tracer asks Solanca.
Jason reaches back and activates his helmet remove sequence. It splits apart into numerous fragments that spread out, then settle down on his shoulders. "I wonder if they are who I think they are?" he remarks as he walks over to stand closer to Inari.
"Always," the grizzled fantasy veteran assures Tracer. "I ran into them out in the deep. They seem very shy, I haven't run into anyone who's gotten them to actually talk about themselves... But they are always glad to lend a hand to a mission for good."
Solanca adds, "What's weird is that they don't seem to have any Avatars or Augments. They just have magical powers. They're definitely not sorcerers though."
Tracer dismounts, and walks over to the pair, finally kneeling down to be on an even level. "Princess Heart?" she whispers to the unicorn-woman. "Jenny? Do you remember me? We were Champions together, at the Battle of Blake's Folly?"
The DoorBot's armor falls apart, section by section, revealing its core, a collection of glowing red crystals suspended in midair. "Loot!" crows the rogue. Solanca excuses himself. "I'm going to divvy up the crystals if you don't mind. You'll receive a fair share, of course."
"We don't need any," Jason remarks. Quieter, to Inari, he adds, "Those two, the ones we failed to save back when everything fell apart. Look at them now. I ... nothing. I shouldn't think such things."
The unicorn-headed woman looks up and at Tracer, looking fearful. She shies back a bit, and the bear-- who seems oddly a cross of humanoid and ursine features-- growls, standing up, moving to protect his lady.
"It's okay," Tracer says, holding her hands up. "I'm with... well, the new White, and Jason and Inari. The White fused you and your avatars to save you, didn't it?"
"I... We..." Something in the way Lady Tracer gestures must have soothed her worries, because Princess Heart relaxes a bit. "I don't remember. I woke up like this, a long time ago. Just me and Small, on a tiny little rock way out in the deep," she whispers, so that Tracy has to lean in close to hear.
Small growls. Ursine is unfortunately not one of Tracy's favored languages.
"But.. you remember that you're meant to be together, right?" Tracy whispers back. "Do.. do you want to remember what came before that, if you could?"
The white dog walks up next to Tracer, and looks at the bear. The dog's mouth opens. "We were swept up in a storm. I clinged to my Avatar. Jenny's ... hers came in the very last minute. Up through the waves. The light ... blinding. Glorious."
Inari shakes her head to Jason. "More like me and Akiko, before...?" she asks Jason wonderingly. "But do you have a magic wand to wave this time?"
Small tilts his head at Cadena. Grrf grrmble grr!
"If we get to the core I would. Once I have access to the quantum manipulators I could ... but it's like playing God. Maybe they're happier like that," Jason says and shrugs.
The golden vixen smiles a bit. "At least you can offer them the choice." She leans on Jason. "They were my enemies so many years ago... But was it their fault or was it Blake? How should I feel?"
"You can understand me! I do not know you. Whose Avatar are you?" White Cadena says next, in a gruff voice. Then, changing tones, the dog says, "My ownership is tangled. I am beholden to House Manjari, House Trudeau, and of course, to the Light."
Grateful for the translation, Tracer rubs Cadena behind his ears. "My mother tried to break Blake's false memories for you, Nick. Did it work?" she asks the bear. "Do you remember who you and Jenny really are?"
Heart smiles shyly at the dog. "I don't remember anything before I woke up," she admits. "Small tells me my name is Heart. And he is Small. But no one else can understand him. Except for you."
The bear says through Cadena, "Dimly. I was once a man. I was proud. Maybe too proud. Then I saw my love struck down. Betrayal. I could not leave her. I held on to her, through the storm. It sent us flying. We saw the stars."
"I don't really know," Jason admits. "I think there comes a point when you just have to let it go. Perhaps the right thing to do here is start over. Offer them your hand. As you said, offer them the choice of what to be, a friend or foe. Come on, lets go over there?" He wraps his arm around Inari briefly to offer her a comforting hug, then lets go and walks towards Tracy, the bear, and the unicorn.
Yappy stands back a bit, looking awkward. Solanca comes around to split the crystals bounty.
"Do you want to come with us, to another world?" Tracer asks, "Or are you happy here?"
Inari grins a bit. "Life was easier when all I had to do was rock and kick tail," she mutters, then goes to follow Jason.
White Cadena "breaks character" as translator for a brief moment to give Tracer a sad look, but then returns its attention to the bear and unicorn.
Small leans up against Heart, and she hugs him close. That seems to be sufficient response.
"Lonelier, too," Jason points out.
The golden vixen smirks. "I'm a kitsune, I should embrace change more. It's our calling. Maybe I'm getting old."
"Oh yes, terribly old and wrinkled," Jason quips. Now closer he waves to the bear and unicorn. "Hello," he says.
Tracy's orb chimes. Apparently Aldestre wants to know how they're doing.
Tracer stands up and nods to the couple, then steps aside for Jason and Inari.
Inari kicks Jason in the shin, somewhat ruining the friendly wave.
The unicorn-headed lady in the white dress looks up at Jason and Inari, but there is a look of sadness in her eyes. "H-hi," she says softly, and then to Inari. "I feel like I know you. I've seen you before, in my dreams."
Inari's hand stiffens a bit, where she's holding onto Jason's.
The bear grrs in its throat. "You are the Trickster." Cadena's translation.
Jason looks between the two women. "You two are old friends, torn apart long ago," he offers as the explanation. "Back when chaos was threatening everything, confusing friends as foes." He holds his free hand up as if asking the bear to quiet. "She was imprisoned and made to play a game against her own friends. It's time to see that for what it truly was and mend the damage."
Tracer leans against Fuseli's shoulder, and tells Yappy, "I should be writing a poem about this. Those two.. they're the first. The first real people to be pulled into a virtual world. They don't even remember their real lives anymore."
Inari, about to offer a defense or perhaps a smart-aleck retort, gives Jason a grateful look. "Before I was the Trickster, I was your friend, I think I remember that much about... before the madness," she says quietly. "It wasn't my choice to oppose you. But I just wanted to let you know I'm not your enemy, not now."
Yappy looks a bit confused. "Wait, you mean I'm not the first? Frotz! I was going to rake in some sweet blog deals."
Heart smiles shyly, then extends a hand. "I don't want to be enemies. Not anyone's, not anymore." The bear considers, then lays his paw over Heart's and Inari's.
"Sorry, but you're years too late," Tracer tells the wolf. "It's ironic that your brother's group found them and didn't realize what it meant. They're the proof, and the warning, of what happens when two worlds overlap, and what can happen to someone stuck on the wrong side."
Yappy sulks. "Great, so I'm just another victim." He shakes his head. "I'd feel better if I had a big ol' weapon like the one you're toting. Claws just won't cut it here."
"You've got what it takes, Mike, don't worry," Tracer says, smiling to the wolf and squeezing his shoulder. "I saw the security footage. You might seem meek when it's just your own skin, but you were pretty brave when other people were in danger of being hurt."
"You saw that? The trick with the bathroom chemicals? Yeah, that was an inspired little bit of engineering," Yappy says, perking up. "I was thinking back to when I met Jason, and he showed me what he could do with a li'l ol' multitool."
Tracer grins. "Plus, you actually listened to me when I told you what was going on, even after I flashed you like an idiot," she points out. "That earns you points too."
Yappy grins hugely. "Oh, was that you? You look totally different now! But I like the new look," he hastens to point out.
"You may be able to have back what you lost. Through that door leads ... well, eventually to the source of creation if I want to use a mystical phrase. If we survive, we may be able to give you back what was taken from you. The choice is yours. You have been through enough and I will not force anything upon you that you do not wish. Just ... consider it. There are those who would be happy to see you two again," Jason offers and puts his hand on top of the bear's. "Now, I hope you can forgive us, but we must continue through the door. I guess it's time I pretended to be the hero some people seem to think I am."
Small rumbles, "We are content here. But we will help you if we can." Heart smiles shyly at Jason, as his hand joins the stack.
Inari smiles a bit, but a sincere one.
"All right, listen up, the General fight comes next," Solanca yells at his assembled parties in the background. "Remember, if you're glowing red, stand by the positive terminal, if you've got a blue charge, stand by the negative one! You go the wrong way, you'll blow us all to Kingdom Come! And he switches polarity every thirty seconds..."
"The offer will remain should you change your mind. And, thank you for your help," Jason says as he draws his armored hand back. He reaches up to his neck and activates the helmet control; the segments lifting up and reconstructing the armored shell about his head. He waves for RIu to return to his shoulder, then heads towards the door to meet with the others, leaving Inari to linger with the pair should she choose.
"So.. hmmm," Tracer says, pursing her lips. "I know you can howl, maybe we can use that. And flattery is nice, but don't push it too far."
Inari speaks quietly with Heart and Small for a bit. "... but I have to admit, that bit with swapping the salt and the sugar in the jell-O? Totally not Blake, I was just fed up with being on the outside." Small bites Inari. "Ow! Okay, I guess I deserved that." Heart laughs, like crystal tinkling.
Yappy chuckles a bit. "Well, maybe if I howl at the right pitch, I can shatter some glass!"
Duffy wurfs, "Okay, let's wrap this up! DEP?"
"To get that high.. I think you'd have to be fixed first, wouldn't you?" Tracer asks. "If we really need that though, my saber is sharp and would probably be painless.."
"You might be surprised how useful that could be at times," Jason points out now that he's closer to Tracer and Yappy. "And you know, Tracer ... you really do have a tendency to find yourself real dogs for boyfriends. First Mark ... and now a werewolf. I think you do that to deliberately annoy your mother..."