DeviousMe

((Senty's Blade: "I feel so left out." ))

((Quick question - is this DURING the outbreak, as in basically humaniy is at war with the undead, like in the first part of Dawn of the Dead, or AFTER the zombies have already taken basically the whole planet, more like in Day of the Dead, where only a few refugees still remain in 'secure' locations, surrounded by armies of undead in all directions?))

((How do I keep getting suckered into these things? I've turned into some sort of sap! ))

"Down, yes?"

Acid closed his eyes as the elevator platform released, the walls of the circular shaft rushing by with respectable speed. Stepping off once it had stopped, he took a deep breath as the heat washed over him like a wave of fire.

Finally, he was back. Time to relax. The bubbling of the rock flowing through the twilit magma tunnels was very soothing, the scalding heat a welcome change. Here, he felt well.

Stepping from the elevator completely, he took towards the ops center along the magma tunnel's catwalk, mounted roughly a meter above the flow that provided all the light this tunnel ever needed, at least for his eyes.

The door hissed open, and Acid wasted no time ascending the short steps to the platform of rock and metal that sat suspended over the main magma pool. He sighed again as he slumped into the chair at the center of the semicircular arrangement of free-floating monitors and keyboard.

An explosion sounded in the distance, though it was really just in the next room over. The large transparent wall had turned black from the many tests by now, and there really wasn;t any point in cleaning the armortroplon up when the next test would only spater it again.

"Sample 114 result positive." a mechanical voice announced, "Catalyst holding steady at 1807 percent initial expected yield."

"Increase strangeness one increment." Acid nodded to no one in particular.

"Understood. Adjusting strange feed to N-D furnace 5 by one increment."

Acid smirked. Yes, Christmas time would be very fun this year indeed. Hotrenor would be getting a load of presents he wouldn't soon forget.

"I love Christmastime, heh heh."

"What's this?" he mumbled with a fake Austrian accent as he discovered a piece of transparencefoil stuck to a monitor.

[Ace - went home for Christmas. I know you don't have any biological family, but I think a celebration would do you good as well. Al's sword dropped off something for you. Merry Christmas, the Doc.]

"Hehe." Acid commented as he reached for what stuck to the foil, wrapped in a red material with a gold bow on top. Tearing into it, he found a piece of paper, once more coated in transparancefoil - an invitation, no less.

He had just enough time to read it before the paper ignited. Apparently, he'd torn through the foil as well when he'd 'unwrapped' the thing. Oh well, he'd gotten the message, that's what mattered.

Acid smiled regardless. Yes, why not indeed. Now that the quantum state feed was fully automated and no longer hiccuped every five minutes, he had some time to spare.

"SENECA, do me a favor and finish up here." he requested as he headed for the portal terminal, "I do believe I'll be taking this evening off..."

"Won't do any good." Acid dissuaded Kefetasura's notions, "Moon's our only link right now, and I guess he shut up. All SENECA can pull is from Arcie's systems, and I know for a fact Rosie's too smart to be using captured codes any longer."

He smirked as he saw his car exit the freeway, the pursuers hopefully following it without question. Once it couldn't go anywhere anymore, SENECA would become it and give them a little show.

The truck, however, headed on its old route. Acid was quite intent on not making it appear suspicious right now, at least not until he'd found the transponder.

Oh what luck, there it was!

"Too easy." he grinned toothily, opening the housing for a moment and tossing in a data stick. The rest would take care of itself.

Once well out of sight of the attention-diverting car, he exited the freeway and headed for the coordinates. The transponder would still show the old course without fail, the programming of its hub adjusted ever so slightly - and as it spread, SENECA pulled back her feelers, no longer needed.

It had begun...

--------------------

((Hey Ess, could I have a quick description of Rosie's location? I completely lost track of the group, and have no idea if they're in a street still or inside somewhere, or what kid of district. ))

OOC: I love how Dr. West has developed so intricately with our characters since you first introduced him to us in Final Fight, hehe. I remember back when he was just "he made Essex"...now he's:

- got a Khastrovich for a wife
- made dealings with Vern in the guise of a Siberian researcher (I do wonder if the geographic area is a coincidence? )
- enlisted a gang of Malta as some of his most trusted associates
- being guarded by a sentinet sword
- getting angry at Hal all the time for flirting with Essex

Wow, that's quite a bit already, and we've still got Solid, the SPC...

All I can say is, great job, Ess.

"Several, actually." Vern answered Cobalt's very first question, "but thereneeds to e a little more organization here first. SENECA?"

"Huh?" the pseakers piped up, "What?"

Vern simply cleared his throat in response.

"I wasn't doing anything!"

"Uh-huh, sure. Like you weren't just eavesdropping with subharmonics?"

"I most certainly was not."

"Yes you were. I can hear that crud, and you know it. We've got a job to do, so focus."

"Alright, alright. What do ya need me to do?"

"First I'd like you to take Cobalt down to a junction. If she allegedly doesn't exist yet, we'll just see about changing that. If that doesn't work I can always build a Mecha-Cobalt or something. That sound acceptable?"

The last part of the idea was directed, of course, at Cobalt. Now Vern turned to Essex and Midas again.

"I do apologize, she gets nosey at times." he said to them, "And...yeah, nevermind. I didn't hear anything either if you don't want me to, if you catch my drift."

With that, he hopped onto the chart table again to at last be at eye level with everyone, "Alright people, this isn't going to be easy. We've all got different opinions on how things should be, but I think we can all agree that it's not like they are now. So let's get started. First we'll meet up with the existing resistance. From all I've gathered, one of their bases just got rooted out, and as I know a certain friend of mine, he's already on the way to them as well. Moonscribe here has a set of coordinates we can use to teleport to them, so that's just what we're going to do. Let's go."

Following this, he headed off to the teleport bay. The airship had no fiktive transmitter, and though powerful, its telepads could only operate back and forth, not everywhere in between...

--------------------

Behind the real Cobalt, an assault bot entered the room, waiting for her to make her choice. It would take her to the junction if it was to be...

--------------------

"Ah, perfect." Acid grinned savagely as he spotted what he wanted on the highway - a very unassuming-looking semi complete with trailer and ID patches on its license plates for fast travel through the city gates, which obviously had to be less stringent than the ones at the palace for economic reasons.

"Just what we need." he nodded to Kefetasura, keying in a sequence on the center console. The steering wheel shrank together and away as a machanical voice gently announced, "Auto drive."

"Now all we need is the location of our contacts, and..." Acid wanted to urge on Kefetasura, but SENECA interrupted spontanouly, quickly relaying what had heppened on board the airship and the situation with Rosie.

Smirking, Acid unholstered a pistol. The paralyzer did just what its name implied - it was a nonlethal weapon that went straight for the motor sytem of its target, effecively cutting off the body from all signals of the will for a span of time. With humans, these were motivation muscles and brain, respectively. Smooth and cardiac types were unaffected, since they weren't part of the human body's movement system.

"Nevermind then." Acid decided, grabbing the demon's hand, "Let's go."

With that, they vanished from the car and reappeared out of teleport in the cabin of the semi.

"Sacre bleu!" yelled the driver in shock, as his last moments of control of his truck passed. Acid's paralyzer hissed viciously, and the man instantly slumped over as the reptilian took the wheel from him.

"Merci." Acid smiled deviously, looking at his own car driving away through the tinted windows of the semi. Even with the orange halogen lamps of the highway, any observeing pursuers would likely have great trouble looking into the darkened cabin of the truck - in the night, tinted windows acted almost as perfect mirrors so long as there was something dark behind them. Acid's teleportation had carried no flash, and the paralyzer operated almost invisibly in the EM band, much like a disintegrator...

Why do you think Hal's making this announcement? Okay, just kidding.

But hey, we've all been posting less lately - I know I've had many a reason in the past few weeks, which thankfuly are starting to go away one by one now.

((Hm...now what do we do without Hal? Moonsribe's kinda important around here...))

Acid was quite surprised to find a hold on the Consumed's back so easily - not to mention the guy didn't even seem to notice Danica or him, and that was with his rifle stabbed ino his back.

Well, comme ci, comme ca. He'd just make the best of it, then worry about how things had happened later on.

As the dark giant stapped back towards the wall, Acid made his way up to his head as well, but took the time to discharge the chamber of his gun, then removed the bladed rifle from Consumed's back.

Nothing happened, but that didn't seem to bother Acid as he follwed Danica just before the dark man's back hit the wall.

As he climbed, he took the time to do this quite a few times. Not sure what Danica was up to, he decided it was good to have a backup plan, just in case...

((Well excuse me for having other things to devote my time to. I keep telling you people that your 24-hour day it stupid and too short, but no one ever listens.))

((Yeah, he does. But considering he was near Midas at the time, he'd probably have overheard it either way. Of course, I could have the placement of the '2 groups' all wrong in my head, it's happened before. ))

((Can do. Everyone's bickering right now anyway, and I'm sure I can have Vern come up with several reasons not to leave yet. ))

"Hm, that's a new one." Vern mumbled, more to himself than to Cobalt, "Wonder what it wants...?"

He looked about the room. Damn, there wasn't this much arguing at a lawyer confernce...seemed that Phillis fellow was the main root of it all - and Vern could see why.

"Would you stop calling people 'it' already?" he rolled his eyes at Midas, stepping over to him as he plucked Esex off Tam, "How would you feel if everyone who wasn't like you would refer to you like you weren't a person, huh? Especially if you were all alone among them?"

And then Essex started too, but in the complete other direction, as usual. Yeah, her pesonality sure hadn't canged any - and her story prompted investigation.

"SENECA...?" Vern said to the air, and immediately got a response of "Waaay ahead of you, darling..."

--------------------

"That oughta work." Acid replied to Kefetasura, entering the on-ramp to a highway, "Now let's see what we can find up here..."

Acid was no newcomer to being followed, and he had found that most often, the best way to shake your pursuers was to give them exactly what they wanted.

"We'll need some space." he kept mumbling as he observed the traffic, driving just a bit faster than the flow...

There's such a thing as a serious RPer?

((Aren't ANY of you going to wait for poor Khell? He's gotta feel so left behind by now. ))

Acid grinned toothily as he compressed his detention field into a space the size of a marble. Letting it fall to the ground, he could keep the tiny thing up with barely any concentration at all.

Which was quite nice as the Consumed's wizard's-foot-knockoff suddenly appeared around Acid's feet. Last time the dark man had done this, he'd drained Acid's life energy in an attempt to age his body, to make him weaker - he'd ended up making him stronger instead.

But this time, in reflex, Acid teleported, though he didn't end up where he wanted to. Instead, he suddenly found himself on the Consumed's back. Connecting the dots, he figured he'd somehow tried to rematerialize inside the guy. Since it was a natural guideline of teleportation not to materialize where solid matter already occupied space, Acid had popped out at the closest available space instead.

He swore loudly, quite surprised at this. Hesitating not an instant after his sudden rerouting - for gravity was already yelling at him to come down to the ground again - he did the first thing that came to mind

His right hand stabbed the bladed weapon at the dark man's back while the claws of his left went for it too, as Acid tried to grab hold and not fall off...

Beh, we forgot about the bane of slows:

Twelve Knives flinging caltrops!
Eleven Mushrooms mezzing!
Ten Warwolves howling,
Nine Tsoo Sorcerers,
Eight Madness Mages,
Seven Fiends a-fighting,
Six Morts a-rezzing,
Fiiiiive Super Aaaa-rachnoids!
Four Master Illusionists,
Three Spectral Lords,
Two Air Thorn Casters,
And a Sapper in a Devouring Earth Treeeeee!

((*headdesk*

*headdesk*

*headdesk*

Vern: "Stop."

Me: ". . ."))

"I'm figuring we're already being tracked." Acid answered Kefetasura, "You know, the old lead-me-to-your-hideout scheme. Now, from what SENECA showed me of the data about the rebellion, they've got someone classified as a 'psychic'. I'm hoping they mean telepath. If you can, I'd like you to contact her and see if we can set up a rendevouz point..."

((Since Ivory Engine knew about Rosie, I'm going to assume the SP has a file on Cortianna too. ))

--------------------

"I'll do you one better." SENECA almost giggled as she got an idea, "Watch this."

And suddenly, Cobalt stood right on the Dark Airship's bridge, with everyone around there - however, everything was a bit fuzzy, and it was rather easy for her to tell it was all just a hologram. Still, she could hear everything they said.

"My idea of teleconferencing." SENECA added, "Go ahead, they can see and hear you just fine..."

--------------------

"Ohhh no we don't." was the response from Vern just as the hologram of Cobalt appeared in the bridge, "We're having enough trouble just getting everyone together in the first place. First we meet up with Rosie, then we go from there."

Turning to Cobalt, he continued, "So what happened to you then...?"

Acid didn't say a word as they drove through the Arrondissements, seeking a warehouse district of some sort, like the Batignolles-Monceau or Butte-Montmartre.

With the Gunship no longer part of this operation, and Archlich being unreasonable - though he'd practically known it wasn't going to work, he'd still hoped it somehow would - there weren't many paths left to take.

He couldn't call any outside help in, as just about everybody still clung to the directives of days long past, probably the paramount part of the Law being not to interfere in the evolution of underdeveloped species.

Acid didn't take it too literally, and there were some who sided with him on this, but a lot of people did. No, this would require an altogether different approach.

"Say Kef, how good are you at transmitting telepathic messages securely across short distanes?" he wanted to know of the demon.

Of course, in Acid's definition, 'short' was anything less than the diameter of a 25-world planetary system...

--------------------

"Yes, reunions are all fine and dandy," Vern sighed, and not just in response to Experiment. It looked like just about everyone had gotten distracted.

He turned to Moonscribe, "Hey, I know you've got a lot on your mind, but this isn't the time to play silent brooder. I've no doubt that Archie will put two and two together soon, if he hasn't already, and step up his efforts to wipe out your rebellion before we have a chance to consolidate with them..."

--------------------

"I guess that makes just as much sense as anything else right now." SENECA answered, a very audible shrug in her voice, "Vern? Yeah, I'm with him too. And yeah, I can kinda be in multiple places at once. Perk of the job, so to speak. Though...it's not looking likt the best time to interrupt right now. What ya need, maybe I can help...?"

((Did I catch anything?))

((I still don't get the university thing...beh, whatever. Moving on. ))

The new arrivals were met in the teleport bay by a robot looking very much like a battle drone. Without hesistation, it bade them to follow, taking them to the bridge.

"Good to see you all made it alright." Vern greeted them, still pacing around the chart table, "We're about to meet up with the rest of the rebel movement. Then we'll finally be able to get things going..."

--------------------

Cobalt's outburst was enough for SENECA to take notice. In an instant, the small 'part-that-wasn't-a-part' of her changed completely. In very limited terms, one could almost think of it as SENECA 'posessing' the cybertronic.

"Now, now." SENECA's clearly female voice now came through the mainframe, "What's with all this ruckus...Cobalt, was it? Ah yes, I see. Mhm, we're going to have to do something about that. Oh, sorry, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. Let me see...I'm going to venture a guess that you'd most like to know how the outside world has changed and stuff. After all, nothing of real signficance has happened on this planet in the last 24 hours becsue it's not the planet you know..."

SENECA kept talking, and slowly but surely pained Cobalt a picture of Overmagus Archlich and his empire...

((Not sure if it was a guard, more likely a professor, but he apparently went AWOL anyway. ))

((Oh, and your characters have a message. I'll leave it up to you how it's delivered.))

[ QUOTE ]
"SENECA, please contact Moonscribe," Vern requested of the ship, "and tell him we're ready to sart Phase One. I'd like him here ASAP so we can start collaborating. Oh, and get word to Dr. Phillis as well. Please ask if we should pick him up or if he'd like to come of his own accord..."

[/ QUOTE ]
--------------------

"Heh, been wanting to see Rosie again for a while." Vern commented with a smile, hopping off the chart table again, "So Paris then, hm? That means we'll need something faster. The DA's sturdy, but she's a slug...unless we have a secure LZ? Then we could teleport there..."

--------------------

"Subject would need a very large hammer for this." the mechanical voice retorted with almost a bit of humor. The blue-glowing 'eye' sitting in the domed top of the large cylinder, which seemed to compose the central part of the mainframe, regarded her with indifference.

It was the same design as aboard the Dark Airship, indeed the same as in most things Acid's crew had built that needed a measure of autonomy - as well as a means to defend themselves.

The construction was large, yes, but not too impressive. Attached to the fat main cylinder sat four thinner ones, running down its sides in equal increments. The dome that topped the mainframe was almost a perfect hemisphere, and the single blue lens just sat there, unblinking as ever. However, someone very observant might notice it didn't mesh quit so perfectly with the main cylinder - odd, when one considered everything else here seemed to fit like a glove.

"This unit is once again unable to fulfill your request. This unit has only been active for the time span since the arrival of interfacing subject, when this unit was taken out of standby mode. In addition, this unit is not presently linked to the exterior of this facility. However, this unit can request the information queried. Would interfacing subject like this unit to do so...?"

Shen Yu: "Foolish man often walk into sharp thing." <.< >.> *stabs random guy with Malaysian dagger*

((Billy, you still here?))

"Negative." came the reply to Cobalt, "This unit assesses interfacing subject memory capacity insufficient. Request more specific query..."

((Okay, just don't want you feeling left out or anything. ))

"I believe that was Archie's attempt to impress us." Acid answered Kefetasua, "I have to say, nice little show."

He flipped a switch on the center console, "Zero to AGS-3, what's the deal?"

"Another of those nonexistance-beams." someone answered through the console, "The paratron took care of it. We're fine."

Acid smirked. Ah yes, the paratron. Too bad he couldn't see the structural tear it had created from down here. If Archlich's satellites had any optics, they would see what looked like a blood-red cat's pupil hovering in the blackness of space. Originally developed as a purely offensive weapon, Acid had quickly realized that ducting things into hyperspace made for an excellent kind of 'shield'. Sadly, he'd found out just as quickly that tossing a SVE ship there didn't do anything. Not only were they not composed of matter, which couldn't exist in the overloaded continuum, but their structurally variable energy hulls had quintadimensional components embedded into them - logical, as their power source was hyperspace itself. That one still made Acid grind his teeth.

The beam, however, dispersed into the overloaded dimension, as time was no longer the highest perceived variable there. And as the paratron's working principle was 5-D itself, it had to operate with superluminal speeds - otherwise it coudn't have operated at all.

For a moment, Acid thought of the blood-red rift and the colorful lines of excess energy visible within it. An illusion, that's all it really was, created by their senses to perceive as much as they could of something they couldn't see in its entirety. Maybe one day, they'd figure out what hyperspace really looked like...if it even looked to begin with.

"Gotta say, the big glowing powerup wasn't exactly subtle either." the crewman continued transmitting, "All systems green. But..."

A pause.

"But...?" Acid inquired.

"Sir, we're getting reports of fleet movements in M-13. The Concile's mobilizing for another operation. The General thinks they'll be starting another Purification."

"I see..." Acid took a deep breath, "Captain, you have a new assignment. Your orders are to take the ship and rejoin the fleet. Stante pede."

"Yes...yes, Sir...thank you..."

With that, the connection cut. There was nothing left to say. The galaxy was at war, even though it might not look so.

Acid sighed. Why now? Humanity was an important cornerstone of the Hundred-Year-Plan. But then...it was just one. There were many more. And he couldn't well tell everyone to neglect those. Humanty just...wasn't that important.

Caught in these thoughts for a moment, Acid only now realized something was dreadfully wrong.

Nobody was shooting at them.

Acid hadn't figured on that one. he'd expected Archlich to be the type of "if I can't kill you, then I'll lock you away forever in the deepest darkest dungeon I have, and then feed the key to something really, really nasty."

A clean escape...no, that just didn't seem likely...

--------------------

Vern nodded to Moonscribe once, then stepped over to the chart table, hopping onto it so he could at least be at eye level with everyone else. Being a quadruped did have its disadvantags.

"Alright, we're gonna need a smart plan." he started, "Probably the best idea right now is to link up with the other resistance forces. I do assume there are others, yes...?"

Okay, this was bad. Acid hadn't expected the guy to willfully come apart when someone tried to blow him to smethereens.

Yeah, there was more than one thing fishy about this, and Acid had a good feeling he knew what it was.

"Oh no you don't." he growled, even as the Consumed had just started to reatreat. His clawed hand shot towards the mass of shadows, and in less than half a second, a detention field mainfested.

Once something was inside, it was virtually impossible to break out again against Acid's will. However, if he'd miscalculated and missed the Consumed in the first place, that was really a moot point.

Acid just hoped he'd actually caught something...