Jennifer8

Now," Peppermint muttered to herself, "Where did you come from?"

Chimera remained as an excellent distraction, ensuring that no one paid attention to the Lady, herself. She had been concerned when the fight had first broken out, but people were now flocking to Chimera's side and Peppermint felt that the matter would sort itself out. Those who were facing medical problems were being tended by their assorted teams.

That left the backtracking. Where had they entered?

Yes, here, it must be, in the storeroom...

OOC: I don't know what it is about posting on these threads that brings me bad luck. My video card expired yesterday (siiiiiiiigh.) So, I am doing a bit of catching up. Unfortunately this means I may be slow in posting (double siiiiigh!)

Sugar and Spice had handled the stampede fairly well, all things considered. A temporary force field placed over Julia had ensured that, though bruised and battered, she hadn't been trampled to death. Other force fields had been placed over others that had tripped, left there long enough to ensure their safety, and then removed once the danger had passed. Still other force fields, carefully shaped, had aided the crowd by pushing aside obstacles and clearing a path to the door, or by blocking shrapnel and flying objects.

The PPD had gotten the worst of it, but even there, the worst damage was confined to bumps and bruises. Thankfully, the use of patches had not been necessary, although healing sprays had been liberally dispensed around. Spice spritzed Julia's general area with another dose of healing, while moving down the aisle and lifting a collapsed piece of rubble off of a group of shivering civilians, who promptly broke for the door. The force fields had prevented serious injuries from occurring in the group. Sugar moved down the other side of the auditorium, also searching for those who might be injured or trapped.

From the rafters, Lady Peppermint nodded to herself as she watched all the activity. The impressive display of powers had produced wonderful scans, already being sent to her personal hero/villain database to be sorted and classified. Such painstaking background work was one of the reasons that she enjoyed a reputation for precognition.

With most of the civilians and PPD out of the way of danger, Lady Peppermint moved positions, to get a better view of Chimera. In her hand she held an oddly-shaped gun, unlike anything else in the building. From it she fired a single shot. The pistol made almost no noise anyway; now, under the cacophony of battle, it couldn't be heard.

The air around Chimera shimmered oddly for the briefest of moments. Up in the rafters, Lady Peppermint checked an instrument on her wrist, and nodded in satisfaction. Given Chimera's past history, the Lady doubted that she would stay around long. However, the temporally-sensitive ink with which she had just been tagged was giving a fine reading. The Lady would be able to track her anywhere she went, at least within the immediate solar system. Even in the event that someone were to spot the ink and try to wash it off (something that Lady Peppermint considered unlikely, as the substance was clear and almost impossible to see) it would take much more than soap and water to interfere with the tracking. Ideally, it would remain unnoticed. The substance didn't sting and wouldn't hurt Chimera and, given the activity around, Lady Peppermint doubted that she even realized she had been tagged.

However, she was now curious to know where the attack had come from. A quick analysis of the data she had gathered was sufficient to give her a direction, and so she headed in that direction....

Lady Peppermint remained where she was, and let the others surge forwards. She didn't drop her stealth mode, remaining invisible for the moment. She was more concerned with evacuating the non-meta-powered from the building, rather than defeating Chimera.

Sugar and Spice revealed their positions, but not to attack. Well-placed force fields ensured that the human crowd wouldn't be bothered by shrapnel, debris, or poorly-aimed metahuman attacks. Healing sprays were ready should any injuries occur. Tapped into the computer and police frequencies of the area, Peppermint helped the PPD coordinate the evacuation of the building. There wasn't much she could do about any panic that might occur in the crowd; but she could ensure that evacuation paths remained clear, and the crowd now surging for the exits remained as unmolested as possible. In addition to force fields and healing sprays, Sugar and Spice were also armed with levitation beams which could be used to ensure that no one was trampled. Finally, by means of a specialized pistol, the bots could shoot and activate medical "patches".

Peppermint was reluctant to use the patches. They would transport the target to the nearest hospital facility, using the teleportation network usually reserved for metahuman targets. It wasn't the technical aspects she was worried about. Rather, she knew from experience that everyone in Paragon always got very uptight about any hacking into the teleportation network. There would be no end of trouble. She wouldn't use the patches unless she must.

She kept an eye on both the crowd and the battle, ready to intercept if there should be problems in getting the audience and PPD out of the way.

"Lady Peppermint," Growled a voice in the alley.

Peppermint turned.

Chief Jones was on the cusp of retirement. His lined face showed it, as well as his grizzled salt-and-pepper hair. He was in shape though, and was reputed to lead a tough precinct. He had Peppermint covered at gunpoint, his uniform crisp and his badge shined.

Peppermint seemed unperturbed. "Good evening, Chief," she said pleasantly, pulling up one of the zippers on the suit she was wearing.

"I ought to run you in right now," he snarled.

"But you won't." She smiled at him.

"You robbed the bank two blocks from here. Twice!"

"You don't have any proof of that," she reminded him. "No one was hurt, no witnesses, no video, no money missing, and most importantly no charges."

"Whose police cars do you think those bots of yours smashed through - "

"Now let's not be paranoid. Do you see any bots here? Besides, rumor has it the cars that responded to the call were old and needed to be replaced."

"Peppermint," he growled.

"And I hear unemployment numbers are way down," she continued, zipping another zipper, "Particularly in construction."

"Peppermint!"

"Yes?"

He glared at her for a minute, but she looked calmly back at him. Finally he holstered the sidearm. "What happened to - to whatever it was that you took?"

"I didn't take anything! Remember?" But she relented a little at the look on his face. "There was a rumor, though, about a problem about some scheme originating in the Rogue Isles. Some component missing from a doomsday device, or some such thing. Caused a bit of trouble for a while. That's all sorted now though."

"Hmph." He was still glaring, but seemed a bit mollified. "And why are you here today?"

"I'm not here to make a mess, if that is what you are asking."

"If that was what I wanted to ask, I would have asked it. Why are you here? You only seem to show up for good reason, but every time you appear, half the city ends up in ruins. Somehow it's never your fault but you're a bad outlier."

"Mmm... I suppose I can't fault that point of view," Peppermint looked more troubled by this statement than she had appeared previously. "If you must know, I'm here to watch, and make sure that things don't get... well, out of hand."

"And if they do?"

Peppermint considered this. "Then I am here to see what the game is. Not the show," she waved her hand vaguely at those who were still filing into the assembly hall, two blocks away. "That's the distraction, to keep the short-sighted occupied while the real power is played out, behind the scenes."

"Mmm-hmm. Anything - what is that phrase you use - temporally problematic?"

Peppermint stopped and looked, her eyes narrowing. She looked at Jones, at the alley, the gathering crowd, the sky. She looked very carefully before answering. "No... not at the moment."

"Don't give me that. There's something here that you don't like, or you wouldn't be here. What is it? Humanity First? Edward Mechano?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "My dear police chief, if idiocy of that caliber was temporally problematic, this timestream would have collapsed long ago, with or without an occasional nudge from me. At the moment, I would say that the timestream is stable." She wound up her short, pink hair close to her head, pinning it with a clip. "I am here to keep it that way."

He growled. "Look, I don't know about preservation of timestreams and I am not sure I believe all of this bullsh - erm." He caught himself. "All of this nonsense you keep spouting," he corrected. "But I promise you this - if you slip up, you're history. If I catch you so much as jaywalking, I'll - I'll - "

"I know, I know," Peppermint soothed. "You'll put me under the jail until the timestream rots around my ears. I assure you, I won't start anything. I'll be very careful of damaging your precinct. My only concern is to prevent as much loss of life as I can." She pulled a mask over her face, and disappeared.

"Couldn't you be concerned with keeping your prevention within the boundaries of the law? Just once?" The chief called back, but there was no response from the apparently empty alleyway.

"You really shouldn't tease him like that, you know," came Finder's voice in her ear.

"I know, I know, but I thought I ought to make an appearance for his sake. We haven't many allies in Paragon. I felt we ought to make an attempt to mollify those we do have."

"You're the boss."

"How are things looking from your end?"

"Everything is set up. We've got every temporally-weak spot in the area covered. If something happens outside of the hall, in addition to whatever riot Mechano starts, we've got a very good chance of an intercept, or at least being alerted to whatever is really going on."

"Brilliant. Where are the smores?"

"Battlebots in position here."

The holographic projection in front of her face, keyed to be invisible to anyone save herself, flashed up the image of the city, with a pulsing dot. "Excellent. Sugar and spice?"

"Support bots here," the dot changed location.

"Crackerjack?"

"Poor old assault bot - he's here."

"Good positioning," she approved. "Stealth on the team looks good... yes, I think all of this will do nicely. I am going in. Wish me luck!"

"Peppermint?"

"Yes?"

Finder's holographic face was looking at her piercingly. "Did you take the plans for those bots from Mechano? Or the stealth suit? Or any of the things that you've 'repurposed'?"

"Erm - " she stopped and considered. "No, I don't believe so. Did I? No certainly not... was it? I... hm. To be honest, I don't recall now where I got the original plans from. It hardly matters, did I ever tell you how dreadful the original blueprints were? Shocking! There's not a circuit in them that hasn't been replaced with something more efficient."

"That's not my point. My point is, will he think that you stole them from him?"

"The man is crazed. How am I supposed to know what he will think about anything?"

"Isn't there a diploma specifying the subject of psychology somewhere in that flock of PhD's?"

"I suppose that there could be... look, I haven't time to discuss it right now, people are gathering, I need to get inside."

"Just... be careful, all right?"

"I'm always careful!"

"More careful than your usual," he scolded.

"I promise. I'm heading inside - you'll be able to see and hear everything," Peppermint soothed.

Inside the place was packed, but only on the floor seats. The upper echelons of the building were clear, as was usual in assemblies such as this. Peppermint found a place in the rafters where she could both see clearly and move easily, set up her area, and waited for the show to begin.

As a hero myself, I actually have to chime in on this, and state that I believe the security requirements regarding the release and distribution of contact cell-phone numbers are overly strict. I believe that these requirements should be reviewed and relaxed, particularly in relation to busy contacts that have a great number of tasks with which they require help.

Consider me /signed,

Penny Arcade

I have several one-man bases. I love 'em!

To: Roger Freefall, N. Dublin Faerie Mound, Dublin, Ireland
Codename: "Seeker"
From: Undercover Agent, Location Unknown
Codename: "Penny Arcade"

Seeker:

Sorry about the interruption there. It's more difficult than I anticipated to get used to the life of a spy - I am just thankful that the drop points seem to be working.

At any rate, one of my handlers mentioned your guy to me: I won't insert his name (bad news if the message got intercepted, you see.) If he has been incarcerated in the Zig somewhere, I will find him. I have the impression he is pretty tough, so I am sure he will do fine.

However, interesting things are afoot here. I have earned a reputation as the local village idiot for my insistence that the Rikti will return, which is useful in some ways, but an annoyance in others. Did I tell you I got sent to the Arena? I was scared to death without my suit. Luckily for me the matchup was against one of those big Crey robots, and not even a new one at that. It's double-tough to manage without the suit, but I do know how to deal with Crey robots. Plus I earned a little respect into the bargain, so that's OK, and I am using the experience as a cover to listen to stories about other inmates who have won matches and things. No news of your guy yet, but if he is here, I will find him.

Oh, I should also add here that there are rumors of an Arachnos breakout. Of course breakout rumors are always common in the Zig but this particular one seems to have some teeth to it. A few things have happened (malfunctioning door locks and so on) that lead me to believe larger things may be afoot.

At any rate, sorry I don't have more or better news yet. Your guy may not be in the Zig at all (though it seems logical given what I know of his history.) I will send updates as I can get them.

Thanks
PA

Oh I remember this thread too! I am just back and plan to post here later this evening. Heh, heh, heh....

To: Roger Freefall, N. Dublin Faerie Mound, Dublin, Ireland
Codename: "Seeker"
From: Undercover Agent, Location Unknown
Codename: "Penny Arcade"

Seeker:

Enclosed you will find my first report as per instructions. I have received assurances that this method of transmission is a safe one, as well as promises that you have been given the necessary encryption keys. I hope that this is true.

No offense to you, but I personally feel that this "psych evaluation" thing is a half-cooked idea at the very best. It's too dangerous, not necessarily for myself (I know what I am getting into, after all) but for whoever it is that they pair me with (lucky you.) I tried to explain that to the psych boys, but they insisted that I "needed a contact on the mainland" and this method would "help me keep perspective" etc. I think they are afraid that instead of pretending to be a super-villain and spying on them, I will actually become one. (Needless to say I am skeptical of this.) At least I agree with them that it is too dangerous to write to someone I actually know, but it still feels odd to write such a letter to a total stranger whom I have never met.

Speaking of which, I suppose I should introduce myself. (Does this thing have an "erase" function? Of course not.) My moniker is Penny Arcade. I can't tell you too much about myself (see? Already running into trouble with the "psych evaluation" letters... crazy psych guys!) but first and foremost, you should know that I am a volunteer. The rest of my background should be available to you in the profile that the Paragon City Police should have forwarded to you.

So, the good news (bad news?) is that I have safely arrived in jail. I had thought that they might include some sort of trial, for cover, but you'll note in the records that they didn't do so. Instead they put that I "plead guilty" to "information brokering" and classified the rest of the file. Fortunately I do enough with actual information brokering to pull that off believably.

Maximum security isn't as bad as I was anticipating: however, things are definitely not being run "by the book," to say the least. Apparantly there have been a number of "unexplained" inmate deaths that I strongly suspect are murders. Security is lax in some places and tight in others. The guards are running the place in sort of a "Christians and the Lions" fashion. Did you know we have an underground arena out here? I bet the politicians don't - or didn't before my report.

When I got here there was some question of where to put me, since I am "in" for super-villain "crimes" but don't actually have super-powers without the suit (which was confiscated, of course. I am told it is being smuggled somewhere so that I will have future access to it.)

Whoops, guards are coming - I have more to tell you but I will have to transmit a bit later. I will check in with you soon!

Penny Arcade

[ QUOTE ]
"Right-o." Jake replied, turning around and giving a wave as he tried to contact Penny again. "Penny, you're needed back here at HQ. We're gonna scout ahead along with this guy. Binro, I think."

[/ QUOTE ]

It took Penny some time to find a way back into the building. At length she located another hole in the wall, this one not venting atmosphere, thanks to the energy shield which protected it.

"I'm here," she said as she worked her way through it. "Scouting, huh? Let's go."

In short order she had caught up with Jake. By now she was wearing the silvery dress again, and beamed at him as if nothing had happened.

[ QUOTE ]
"Fair enough..." Jake muttered as he accepted the folder, fully assuming that Eff was still watching from somewhere. He decided to take advantage of this moment of [semi]seclusion to peek at the contents of the folder as Ineffable had predicted, making sure to absorb the information fully before placing it into his trenchcoat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny clanked around on the outside of the building, but all the vents she checked had been closed, which meant someone other than Nemesis had accessed the computer system to do so. She felt faint misgivings about that idea, but wasn't sure why.

Instead she turned to her radio. "Jake! You there?" She called to him. "I've got a great view out here, wanna see?"

She just hoped his goggles would be able to home in on her signal when she sent it.

((OOC sorry for the short post, I have somehow survived moving (How did that happen?) and am back in business!))

[ QUOTE ]


Meanwhile, Cher'tak was fighting for his life against a small regiment of Nemesis Automatons and Jaegers. Rounds clattered off his armor and oversized bayonnets gouged bright lines across it as he drew back one hand and slammed it into the face of one automaton. The fire energies that his gauntlet was now emitting burned hot enough to melt the face of the android, disorienting it long enough for Cher'tak's other fist to come around and punch a hole through its chest.

"Query: Status: Penny Arcade," Cher'tak said as he switched to the channel that he knew Penny's radio was on. "Assistance: Appreciated, Desired. Summoning Androids: Possible: Nemesis Forces: Distracted."

Cher'tak broke off as a Jaeger hit him behind the knee with a wildly swinging mace. The Rikti went down on his uninjured knee, grabbed the Jaeger around the middle, and pitched it at the automatons gathered in front of him. The flailing hunter killer knocked several machines off their feet and absorbed the fire of many others until it exploded, further covering Cher'tak until he could get back to his feet and resume the fight.

[/ QUOTE ]

The radio in her ear suddenly came alive, and Penny Arcade came back to herself when she heard it's words. The force of the impact had been stunning, and she wasn't sure how long she had been out here. Now, she looked up to see where she was.

She was facing a bunch of nemesis robots, but, like Penny herself, they were having to reorient themselves. They were definitely outside, and the stars glittered with a deadly kind of icy beauty. She saw no other lights... but then, she had the impression she was very high up, perhaps on a roof of some sort.

Penny had invested a great deal in stealth gear, and it paid off now. By the time that the Nemesis forces managed to orient themselves, she had turned completely invisible. The hole directly under her feet had more or less sealed itself as the wall had wedged itself firmly against it: but farther down the roof she could see other jets. Unlike many of the Nemesis robots, she still had a firm foothold: her magnetic boots had not failed her.

"I'm here," she called back, "I'm all right. It looks like he's trying to vent the atmosphere - I am going to put a stop to it. The gang will help you out with the Nemesis robots." And, so saying, she began clanking her way down the building - or would have, but her boots made no noise. In the vacuum, all was eerie silence.

As she had hoped, when she got to the first jet of air, it was coming from an actual vent, and not from a hole blown in the wall. That made sense - logically, it would be far easier for Nemesis to trip the vents, and use a bomb as a back-up, so that while the heroes were occupied with one, the other would vent the atmosphere anyway.

But most oxygen-dependant races put manual overrides on vents that lead to vacuum, and the Rikti seemed to be no exception. Penny Arcade was more familiar with Rikti technology than most, having spent some significant time on a Rikti mothership, back on Earth, setting bombs. It took a moment to work past a protective panel and then a small force-field, but in short order a small crank handle had been revealed, and she took this and turned it.

This was not as easy as it looked. Atmosphere was leaking with the force of a jet, and though the crank had been designed in case of a power outage, it had still been designed with a Rikti in mind, not a human. Penny was coated from head to foot in the breakthrough substance Mercurite, which made her all but indestructible, but it did not give her any additional strength, and so she struggled with the crank, tugging with her teeth gritted.

In spite of all of this, in a minute or two, the vent had been closed, and after taking a moment to latch it so it could not be reopened, Penny trooped off to the next one.

+++++
Inside the building
+++++

"The Gang," consisting of five of Penny Arcade's six robots, had paused noticibly when she had been blasted out of the building, waiting for further orders.

Now, they clanked up to Cher'tak and acted as reinforcements. Hardy pointed a small squarish transponder at the wounded Rikti: from it issued a greenish mist, meant to stimulate healing. It worked well enough on the Rikti back on earth, when the occasion demanded, and there was no reason to believe it wouldn't here also. After issuing the healing spray, Hardy also took the time to project a force-field bubble around the Cher'tak.

Buster and the three assault 'bots clustered around, Buster providing fire in every direction, and the assault 'bots acting as his backup. While they weren't as effective as usual, without Penny immediately present, they still provided an impressive amount of firepower. They were attempting to clear a space by sheer force... and it was more than possible that they might have the brute damage needed to succeed.

+++++
Back at Lady Gray
+++++
Laurel had been covered in so many layers of force-fields that it was almost impossible for the 'bot to fire back at any of its attackers. Instead it stood there, simply transmitting the details of the battle, resolutely holding onto the force field generator.
++++++
+++++++

OOC I am moving this weekend, so posting may be sporadic for a couple of days.

[ QUOTE ]
Nemesis didn’t idle about either, groaning with disappointment as Jake managed to be rid of his protective field. Not wasting any time, the brassen madman lobbed a bomb of force at the young man and his mechanoids, intending to send them flying in all directions in addition to inflicting heavy casualties upon them. It would strike in short order.

But of course, plans ran within plans here, and it couldn't be said of Nemesis that he didn't plan ahead.

Even as C'Kelkah arose once more, burning with desire to take on Nemesis and knock his block off, she already tried to inform everyone of the happenings. But Murphy's Law had gotten the better of her, the translator of her suit sputtering only unintelligible gibberish. Nemesis had damaged the device with his earlier strike.

"Quick...bomb...!" the weakened Sah'Teece managed to get out as if by some miracle, still out of breath from being nearly crushed by the HVAS. Fortunately, a certain someone had already thought things through and reacted accordingly.

"You little pests!" Nemesis bellowed angrily at the robots that maintained the force field, beginning to strike at them. Right about know, the lobbed force bomb would be finding its mark at or near Jake as well, "I demand you release that at once!"


[/ QUOTE ]

"Oh, you did not just say that," Penny muttered to herself.

The words had come to her courtesy of Laurel's built-in microphone, and her own visor. It was impossible to hear, and so she had switched from audio to visual mode. Communication was now displayed in text so that she could keep track of what was going on. Anything that Laurel heard, Penny saw.

The readings from the force field generator which Laurel held were worrisome. While it was true that the 'bot had certain repair capabilities, and was able to release small swarms of nanites to keep the projector up and running, it had still taken so much fire that it should have been rendered inoperable. Since the projector had not yet blown itself to smithereens, and didn't look likely to do so immediately, Penny could only deduce that someone (likely Jake) had supplemented the field with one or more fields of his own.

Good as it was, she knew better than to think that it was a permanent fix. There was no way to tell what sort of fight was going on back at Nemesis, and if Nemesis punctured the force field, she didn't like to think of the possible consequences. She needed to patch the hole somehow, and the sooner, the better.

But her immediate concern was the Nemesis attack in her area. She could see them now, and there were more than she had expected. There was no doubt that Nemesis wanted to catch the heroes in a cross-fire between two groups of automatons. The gale winds created by the continuing explosive decompression didn't seem to bother them: like Penny's bots, their feet seemed to be magnetized. This slowed them down to a walk as they clanked up the corridor, but it didn't stop them.

Still, gale-force winds were gale-force winds, and Penny used them to considerable advantage. She set trip-mines, which she normally laid on the floor in hidden places - but now she let them go, where the wind caught them, whirling them like frisbees into the chests of the oncoming horde, scattering them like tenpins. They were firing back, but seemed to be missing badly, shots splashing the wall above and below her, many of them completely bypassing her team of bots.

She let the Gang fire away as she worked on one of the trip mines. She and her support team - the live ones who worked in the Penny Arcade project, not the bots - had discussed different ways in which the mines could be utilized, but this was something she hadn't tried before. After a moment of working with the guts of the mine, she snapped its little maintenance panel closed, activated it, and tossed it at the Nemesis automatons, just as a new volley from them splashed the wall all around her.

A number of things happened all at the same time.

The mine exploded, not in flame and smoke, but into a ball of electricity, arcing from automaton to automaton. As Penny had hoped, a huge swath of them suddenly seemed to float - she had succeeded in disrupting the magnetic field which kept them stuck to the floor. Their superior weight kept them suspended for a moment, and they shot furiously at her as they activated their rocket boots, but it was no good, for the force of the wind took them, and swirled them back out of the gap, into the vacuum on the other side.

It was a phyrric victory.

No sooner had the winds taken them, then her section of wall made a horrible noise, the sound of tearing metal, and sagged alarmingly sideways. Too late she realized Nemesis plan - prevented from firing directly at her, they had instead concentrated such fire at the wall that it had given way -

Then there was a creak and groan and a final enormous cloud of dust, and the room was corkscrewing around her. She had a bare moment to stretch out her mechanical wings in a vain attempt to steer, and it was hard to tell whether it did more harm than good, as she saw the black hole rushing at her and tried to steer towards its center. There was another instant of complete confusion, where she could see nothing, and threw up her arms over her head, expecting to be crushed against the wall -

There was a CLANG that went through her very bones and teeth - and then nothing.

She raised her head and looked around. It was dark, and perhaps there was such an enormous quantity of dust that she couldn't see a thing. The light attached to her helmet didn't seem to help much in the thick dust. The wind, however, had stopped.

She looked down at her feet, and saw that they were still stuck to the wall. The wall itself had remained more-or-less in one piece, and had jammed itself against the hole. It wasn't a perfect fit, and she could still see the whiteness of air leaking around some of the edges, but with luck it might buy more time than they otherwise would have had.

That was the good news.

The bad news was that she was on the outside of the hole. Somewhere in the dark and dust were a bunch of Nemesis automatons, who would presumably be picking themselves up to return the battle. She couldn't hear them. It was vacuum, of course, and eerily silent. At that moment, her uppermost thoughts weren't of the automatons, or her own bots, or even of Lady Gray and the previous atmosphere inside - she turned around as best she could, looking here and there, to see what lay beyond the little corridor, if she was on the surface of the Jade moon, and if so, what it might look like.

[ QUOTE ]


"My thoughts exactly." growled the Dark Watcher, raising his fists, "You slipped up, and this time will be your last."

"We shall see." Nemesis growled with his hollow, mechanical tone, raising a personal force field as the main assault commenced...

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny Arcade shook her head as most of the shots from her 'bots bounced off of Nemesis force shields. It was lucky for them, and unlucky for Nemesis, that they had taken the horse down so quickly, and that reinforcements had arrived. She was pleased at the brief surprise on his face, even though she frowned as another volley bounced off the field in the same manner as the first. She had fought various copies of Nemesis before, and knew that she would get through the shielding eventually, it was just a matter of time -

Wait.

She paused as she suddenly realized that Nemesis plan, as currently revealed by their earlier-than-expected arrival, had a flaw in it. A huge, gaping flaw. A flaw so large that it was obvious, red-neon-blinking-sign obvious. Her eyes slid to Nemesis. Somehow she couldn't believe that Nemesis, who built precise plans and plots with intricate and loving care, would ever have overlooked something so -

The implications of the thought hit her with such force that she nearly staggered, as a stone seemed to drop somewhere in the region of her stomach. She was cold all over.

"Jake!" She called over the radio. "Take care of Nemesis!"

And without another word, she turned and pelted around the corner, back the way they had come, towards the spot where the horse had been. Her 'bots went with her, double-time, like Penny herself. Only two things failed to go: her personal force-field generator followed as far as the hallway, then stopped, its field seeming to shield nothing, covering a point between the room and the hallway. It provided a second barrier, guarding the rear approach - but to what point? There was nothing there. It was madness.

As if to underscore this, one of her two assault bots marched up to the force field generator, which normally floated free, and grasped its tail securely with its servos. It, too, stayed in place, giving a mechanical impression of a child holding a balloon, while Penny and the rest of her group raced past it.

Even Penny's outfit was changing: the silver melted away to reveal a full set of Vanguard armor, and a pair of mechanical wings. They couldn't possibly have fit under the little silver minidress, but there they were. Every inch of her body was covered, as if she expected at any moment to be in a great battle - but there was nothing visible.

At least, not from Lady Gray's side of the battle.

Rounding a corner, Penny Arcade saw what she had both expected, and dreaded, to see.

The floor had cooled after the battle with the horse. Even the radiation, which had an intense but very short half-life, had dropped to safe levels. But now, on the cracked wall beyond where it had entered, the one which the Rikti had said was the outer wall, there was a large, square box. Using her top magnification gave her a glimpse of its face:


00:06
00:05
00:04
00:03 ...

Penny had just enough time to stop in her tracks, and activate the magnetics in her boots, sticking her firmly to the wall, and her 'bots firmly to the floor. Without even time to curse, she shouted over the radio,

JAKE! TAKE COVER N -

Her words turned into a howl of pain as a sonic vibration cut through her ears: and the howl was drowned out in an earthshattering roar as the Nemesis bomb exploded. Everything made of glass shattered instantly. Anything not securely set into place toppled. The ceiling all but wrenched itself apart as large sections of the walls and floor collapsed.

And in the thick outer wall, only partially obscured by the dense smoke, there was a hairline crack. Instantly it spiderwebbed out into countless numbers of cracks. The smoke began to dissipate, sucked into the cracks, and vanishing.

There was the briefest of pauses, in which some part of Penny's mind, the part not frozen in horror, had to admire the brilliance and simplicity of Nemesis plan. He wasn't going to win the battle with Lady Gray... but of course, he had anticipated that he wouldn't. The Dark Watcher, and the Nemesis automatons planted in the Vanguard forces, were a distraction, meant to occupy his true victims for a few brief moments.

There was something graceful about the outer wall, about the way in which it exploded into the vacuum, the way in which the shards of wreckage glittered in the starlight. There was something graceful as well about Nemesis plans, horrifying though they were, they were as cold and simple and efficient as the vacuum outside. Nemesis automatons, after all, didn't need oxygen... only biological beings required that.

She had expected the force of the explosive decompression to be astounding, and so it was, but its actual fury passed anything she had imagined. Everything not bolted down flew out of the hole with the force of the escaping atmosphere. Several items, which she had briefly hoped were large enough to get wedged against the gap, thus closing it, merely bounced at odd angles, knocking more pieces out of the wall, and making the hole even larger. Only one blast door had come down, some distance ahead of her, but she was concerned with any blast doors which come into play between herself and the group. Why weren't the blast doors - oh, of course, Nemesis would have sabotaged -

A burst of laser fire caught her attention.

Penny Arcade, herself, was in no particular distress. Though it couldn't be denied that she was at an odd angle, her magnetic boots were keeping her stuck to the wall in the middle of what felt like rapids. The black Vanguard suit produced its own, self-contained atmosphere, so she had no worries about working in a vacuum. In the violence of the explosive decompression, however, she couldn't see or hear a thing. Even her own bots were merely dark shapes in the howling maelstrom, though she knew that they were anchored securely by their own magnetic feet. It was the flash of the laser that had caught her attention. Were there more shapes in the dust and smoke and chaos as the room emptied itself into the void?

She couldn't tell, but her 'bots seemed to think so. Buster's laser fire was now joined by the rest of the team, and logically, Nemesis reinforcements should be on their way, to ensure that no heroes would somehow survive the sudden lack of atmosphere. A chill took her as she realized that she hadn't thought to ask for backup, a serious oversight.

But it was too late now. Her bots had been set not to shoot at organic life-forms, so it was definitely Nemesis that was coming. Return fire began whizzing around her ears, taking pock marks out of the wall, the debris instantly caught and sucked into the vacuum.

HULL BREACH! She shouted into the radio, not sure if anyone would be able to hear her over the unbelievable noise. Nemesis reinforcements are on their way, we're going to get caught in the crossfire if we don't watch it!

Rather clumsily, she moved her bots into place and returned fire. If she didn't hold the line here, the group would be caught between two groups of Nemesis as the trap closed.


+++++
Back at Lady Gray
+++++

Laurel held on to the force field generator resolutely as the shockwave of the bomb shattered through the room. The atmosphere on the other side of the field suddenly burst from its boundaries, as the explosive decompression took hold.

But the force field kept it back: it was solid enough to maintain atmosphere within the room where the heroes were battling for Lady Gray. Had the force field generator not been placed in the gap, the results of the bomb would have been very different indeed.

Nemesis, however, knew that too. The duplicate Nemesis turned his head to look at Laurel, and suddenly the lone bot was taking a lot of fire. Most of it bounced off the field. But Penny Arcade's force field, like Nemesis' own field, could be overloaded, and once that happened, Lady Gray's room would be subjected to the same explosive decompression as the hallway. The 'bot coldly calculated its chances for survival as minimal as it returned fire...

[ QUOTE ]

"Majority Missing: Wall, Floor. Pure Luck: Outer Wall: Intact," reported the Rikti. "Advise: Waiting: Floor: Cooling."

[/ QUOTE ]

"It wasn't all luck," Penny Arcade looked as fresh and crisp as if she had just stepped into the room, though she dusted herself off carefully. The glittery-silver substance seemed to be completely pristine, undamaged in any way. "The force shielding helped," she nodded towards the debris of her force field generator.

Punching several buttons on her metallic gloves, her fallen robots shimmered eerily, then seemed to suddenly collapse to dust, which itself vanished after a moment. She waited for some seconds, then punched another code, and a new set of bots dropped down in front of her, exactly as they had in the Vanguard headquarters. "So," she said, as she checked and upgraded her team, "What's next, boss?" This question was asked in the general direction of Toy and Randall.

[ QUOTE ]
Jake's bots, naturally, followed suit, taking up their position in the line and constantly shooting lasers and hot plasma at the horse.

This isn't working. This thing can take physical damage like nobody's business. What we need to do is to deactivate the thing.

"Penny!" He suddenly shouted, hoping that it could miraculously rise above the cacophony. "We can't beat this by physical means! Take this!" With that, he tossed a small device, not dissimilar in appearance to the devices he used to teleport in his 'bots.

This served a much different purpose however. This device was completely magnetic, allowing it to stick to the horse without much trouble. Now that alone wouldn't do much, but this was designed to release a fairly large amount of electricity upon being attached.

"It'll hopefully short the thing! Hurry!" He shouted as he pumped out forcefields onto people, hoping they'd realize how they should adjust their aim for the alteration in trajectory.

[/ QUOTE ]

In the middle of battle, Penny Arcade threw back her head and laughed as she caught the device he threw her, briefly flashing one of her own. The two devices were completely different, but it seemed that they both had had ideas about deactivating the horse. It seemed that she felt his had more merit, however, for after a momentary look at his device, she pocketed her own, nodded at him to acknowledge that his was probably the superior, and moved to the horse.

In his ears, her voice sounded: [color= aqua] We have radios, remember? [/color]

It took her a couple of attempts; though the horse apparently had considerable trouble aiming at her, it could produce large explosions which were difficult to avoid. On her third try, however, she managed to get in range. [color= aqua] Ride 'em, Cowgirl,[/color] she said ruefully, and put out her hand to its flanks.

It whirled at once, but Penny stuck like glue - or, more probably, like the magnetic field which her suit was likely generating. She had had the sense to approach it on the side away from all the combat, using it as cover to avoid being hit herself.

Her bots responded immediately, sending such a burst of concentrated laser-fire into such a tiny area that it burned white-hot. [color= aqua] Help me punch through this thing, willya? [/color] She called to him.

Piercing its tough hide, on a scale large enough to shut it down, would be impossible. But Penny's bots had enough firepower to punch a small hole in the horse's carapace - a rather impressive achievement in itself. The electrical bomb could then be placed underneath, where it would be all but certain to short it out. But drilling such a hole, even a small one, would take time by herself. The horse was thrashing wildly and the battle was thick and Penny didn't want to delay any longer than was necessary. [color= aqua] And hurry, willya? [/color] From this angle, she could see behind the horse, through the hole it had come from. [color= aqua] I would like to have it down before its friends get here. [/color]

She gave him a significant look.

[ QUOTE ]

"All melee types to the front, everyone else clear a path!" ordered Toy as he followed his own orders, slamming his back against the opposite wall and bringing up both hands. "Ranged types and heavy droids, file along the outer wall and get a shot in when you can! We've got enough force fields here to keep you covered if you can't dodge!"

[/ QUOTE ]

For all that Penny Arcade looked as if she hadn't been ready... by the time Toy began shouting orders, her 'bots were already acting. It seemed, though, as if she and Toy had reached the same conclusions about what was necessary for the battle, as the actions of the bots exactly reflected his orders.

Perhaps she had not been at her best the last time she had been seen in Paragon City or, more likely, her 'bots had been commanded to use the absolute minimum of force possible. Here, however, there was no such need.

Penny Arcade's 'bots brought a staggering amount of firepower. It became immediately apparent how she had won the quantity of medals and badges which Vanguard had awarded her. Her team had lasers with considerable range and their targeting systems were extremely precise, allowing them to get in almost as many volleys as if they had been alone in the room with the horse, with no other combatants to be concerned about.

Quite fearlessly, Penny Arcade took leave of the others, and wove in among the combat, her rocket-boots maneuvering her with an arresting grace, and she darted to the warhorse itself, her hands moving. It was difficult to tell what she was doing, but a moment later, the telltale laser of a trip mine shot across the room, joined by others in seconds.

She had gotten within inches of the warhorse and now she paid the price: one of its return volleys took her straight in the chest, knocking her backwards into a wall.

The shot should have reduced her to jelly. It didn't. The glittery silver dress should have been shredded to tatters. It wasn't. Penny shook her head briefly, regaining her bearings, then swooped back in near the horse, setting up an acid mortar as if nothing had happened....

[ QUOTE ]
"Always, Penny." Jake replied, smirking and pulling out several of his teleporting devices, getting ready to activate them at a moment's notice. "Do we have a clear image of it, yet?"

Jake, for obvious reasons, wasn't exactly at the front of the group, let alone had taken a peek around the corner. All he knew of the situation was what Ineffable had said and Penny's warning.

[/ QUOTE ]

"Oh, whoops, sorry, just a moment - " Penny frowned for a moment, then held out her hand. In the palm was a disk made of the same silvery substance that her dress was: and from the disk projected an image of the room they were facing. "I would go ahead and summon now," she said thoughtfully.

[ QUOTE ]
"This a private conversation or can anyone hop in?" asked Solid as he moved over to where Penny and Jake were huddled in conversation. "I couldn't help but think to myself that if two known villains were discussing something so earnestly amongst each other that it would be best for everyone to know if something's up? Sound good?"


[/ QUOTE ]

"Really?" Penny's face also lit up - she did love to talk shop with Jake. "Do you know, I interrupted a Crey raid on the Circle last Thursday and I found the most - "

But she broke off abruptly as Solid approached. "Hi, Solid," she said pleasantly enough. "We were just - "

But again she broke off in mid-sentence. "Oh dear... that looks bad."

Though well within range, Penny Arcade hadn't followed the scouts too closely. This was partially due to the less-than-spacious conditions of their entrance point, and partially due to simple praticality: moving six robots around, one of them gigantic, plus the staggeringly large 'bot that Vanguard had assigned to go with her, was hardly conducive to stealth. The 'bots had taken up positions along the outer walls, within immediate access of any conflict that might break out, but as much out of the way as possible, so as not to impede the movement of any of the team.

Hovering only a few inches above Randall's head, the tiny probe, the size of a golf ball, was sufficient to give Penny Arcade a perfectly clear view of what was around the corner, while providing only minimal possibility of counterattack. "Mmmm," she said, frowning behind her visor as the images played across the screen. "Well, it's definitely Nemesis... I don't think this is as deserted as it appears... you guys ready for trouble?" She smiled at them cheerfully.

[ QUOTE ]
Now was the time to blindly follow the leader, simply waiting for the perfect oppurtunity to slip away...

[/ QUOTE ]

"Don't even try it," Penny Arcade's voice was low and light, as casual as if she had been asking about the weather. She was smiling at him, and even gave him a wink. However, there was no doubt that she was quite serious.

Penny Arcade had met him in the past, and wouldn't hesitate to upset even his most carefully-laid plans, if she felt that people would be hurt. And yet, Jake was one of the very few people on the Rogue Isles whom Penny Arcade counted as a friend... or at least as much of a friend as could be found in that treacherous place.

Through various misadventures in the past, Penny Arcade was aware of his true situation. Unable to do much to help him, she had still gone to great lengths to do what she could. It was inevitable that their different situations and viewpoints left them in conflict sometimes. Yet, Penny differentiated Jake himself from the Arachnos organization, and often worked against the one, while ensuring the other wouldn't come to harm.

Now she looked at him not as a hero determined to ride roughshod over villainy, but as a friend who knew him well enough to have some pretty good guesses as to what he was up to, and who wasn't about to see him charging off and potentially getting hurt. She did have a reputation for having unusually good information. "If you leave," she said, far too quietly to be overheard, "Then I am going to have to go after you, and when I catch you - and I will - I am going to be pissed off as hell at you for embarrassing me," she growled at him in a mock-stern way, but her eyes twinkled merrily. "Besides..." she looked around at the assembled group, "You're the only person I know here, and us tech geeks need to stick together." Still watching to make sure no one was listening, she leaned her head in close to him, and whispered, "Can you even summon your bots here, when we are a zillion miles from home and the only nearby extra dimensional portal is... shall we say, wonky?"

She herself, had only encountered perfected microminiaturization less than a month ago, and knew perfectly well that she would have not had the option of resummoning her droids if she hadn't switched to it. Her eyes searched his face in some concern for what his capabilities would be in such a place - she had never asked him how he transported his 'bots in, and if he was using some of the more commonplace transportation methods, she was worried he wouldn't be able to summon any more if his current set was damaged somehow.

Penny flashed a smile at Hikaru, and bowed her head politely towards him. She had met him briefly, though not for some years. Still, she had never forgotten the aid he had given her in her critical first days in the Zig.

When they arrived, she looked around, hovering a few inches off the ground, courtesy of her rocket boots. Though it was not obvious when she had changed - or could have, for that matter - her dress was different, clearly Vanguard make, but glowing softly with circuitry, its silver color gone. Whatever Penny Arcade was wearing, it had some unexpected properties. "Well," she said cheerfully, "That certainly could have been worse. Scanning... infravision... ultravision... sonic... " The odd metal tiaralike thing in her hair turned out to have been a small Vangard visor, which she now pulled down over her face, murmuring to herself for several seconds as she looked this way and that. "The immediate area seems to be clear. So far, so good..." She punched out a code on her bracers. Above her, a small, almost spherical shape burst into sudden life above her, rather like a balloon inflating, then dropped down to hover next to her. It projected a force field, not a large one, but its greenish tint was somehow heartening. "Micro-explosion seems to work well... almost makes me wish I had passed math in school," she smirked. "...and college... graduate school... doctorate work... post doctorate work... meh, I am just as happy that they have hired people to do the math..."

"Fifty yard perimeter seems to be clear of hostile forces," she said to the general group. "Initial air samplings appear to be free of lethal contaminants... no major radiation... the wierdy mystical widgit," she frowned, looking at what was clearly a magical charm attached to one of her scanners, "is not glowing, which is supposed to mean that no magical spells are currently being cast... gravity is just a fraction stronger than earth standard," she frowned ferociously, "JUST enough to put back on the five pounds I JUST lost last week. Bah!"

[ QUOTE ]
Solid slipped in behind Penny and gave her a once over as he followed her to the portal.

"I don't think we're going to a prom, girl," he said to Penny. "I don't think the Rikti will pull their shots just cause you're cute."


[/ QUOTE ]

All around Penny Arcade, heroes and villains, pilots and technicians, were running final checks before the portal fired up. Penny herself paused, seemingly about to do her own check. She had been busy since the last time that she had met Solid Shot: although they were nowhere on display, the badges and medals against her name (listed, by requirement, on her ID) scrolled right off the screen. She, like so many others, had been working her tail off repelling the Rikti invasion, setting bombs on the crashed mothership, and all the other things which were necessary to ensure that the footprint of the invaders of Earth remained as small as possible.

She looked surprised, her eyebrows rising into her hairline. At this range, it was possible to see that she seemed to be entirely covered, head to toe, in a layer of impossibly fine glitter, right down to her eyelashes. Every hair seemed to have been individually coated. This close, there was something about the glitter, perhaps the manner that it was all but invisible on her skin if observed even a foot away, that seemed slightly odd. Her clothing (if it could be called that, for upon close examination it looked suspiciously resilient) appeared to be made of a much thicker version of the same material. "I wouldn't expect them to," she said mildly. She touched several buttons on her bracers, which were immediately recognizable as Vanguard make, and a variety of robots dropped suddenly into view, apparently from nowhere. There were three battle drones, (Larry, Moe, and Curly,) two assault bots (Laurel and Hardy) and the enormous tank bot, Buster. All seemed to have been coated in a layer of the same delicate silver glitter that Penny Arcade herself was wearing.

"You are familiar with the gang of course," she smiled at him, as a force field generator and various other support paraphernalia appeared. "I presume you are packing enough firepower to overthrow the average third world country?" Her eyes twinkled at him as if amused.

Penny Arcade's face was grave... but, then, her affairs had been settled long ago.

Quietly she walked to the portal and waited, flashing a brief smile at Jake.

She looked very different than she had before: the power armor was gone, replaced by a delicate-looking, glittery minidress that emphasized her curves. She looked just as happy to get rid of the clunky armor and be feminine and pretty, at least for a while.

TWO WEEKS AGO

"Well, I'm impressed," Penny Arcade muttered in an undertone.

The Nemesis automaton facing her cocked its head curiously, then turned away, continuing to carry the box across the pavement. Another automaton, on a slightly different direction, approached, stared at her for a moment, then continued about its business.

"Don't get careless," Veronica said, her voice slightly tinny in her ear.

"Says the hot-tempered, reckless superhero," she teased back, before picking up a box. It was much heavier than it appeared, and she didn't speak again until she had carried it across and stacked it with the other boxes. The Nemesis automatons took no notice, wandering about their various tasks. Several of them looked at Penny Arcade, but then looked away again, disinterested, their weapons holstered at their sides and across their backs. None of them seemed to notice that the otherwise normal-looking automaton was wearing, in the most bizarre fashion, a welding mask with a face attached to it.

The equipment preparation was impressive. There wasn't enough hardware to trip the alarms of Arachnos or any of the other local gangs. There was enough to cause Penny Arcade considerable concern... especially considering the presence of the portal nearby. Currently unused and dimmed, the automatons were very busy with it.

"They're going to be firing that puppy up soon," Penny Arcade muttered.

"Have you got everything marked?"

"Working on it," Penny Arcade crawled under one of the tanks, inserting a small metal ball deep within its innards. "You know I'm not going to be able to get all this stuff marked before it's moved."

"Just do what you can and get out. Remember you only have twenty-seven minutes left."

"I doubt that," muttered Penny Arcade as several automatons lit a panel and the gigantic round frame made an ominous humming noise. She crawled out again to discover she was looking right at an automaton: it stared at her, then turned away, bored.

"Explain to me again why this is working," Penny Arcade said as she sidled over to a new stack of boxes. "I know for a fact you got the idea for this welding-mask thing from 'Westworld.'"

"'Futureworld.'"

"What? No it wasn't!"

"Yes, it was."

"Are you sure?"

"'Westworld' had the scary cowboy robot. 'Futureworld' was trying to replace people with robots."

"That still doesn't explain why I am doing a bad movie scene and it is working for me."

"Well, the principle is sound enough. We've replicated the recognition frequencies by which the Nemesis androids recognize each other."

"And that's a property of the Mercurite."

"No. That's a property of the... what was it that you called them..."

"Widgits?"

"The 'widgits' should allow you to move freely for half an hour or so."

"Which I could have done invisibly, it's not like I don't have stealth capabilities."

"Not here you don't," Veronica replied. "They've been a little bit paranoid about their stealth-detecting capabilities. I think they are hiding something."

"I know they are hiding something," Penny Arcade moved to another stack of boxes, dropping tiny silver balls in each one, even opening some and inserting the balls in the mechanical parts she found there. "You're sure you'll be able to trace the Mercurite I am laying out here?"

"No - but you will be able to trace it."

"And that is a function of the Mercurite?"

"No, that's a side-effect of the attunement issue."

"Wait - the attunement problem? I thought only the suits were attuned? Isn't this raw stuff?"

"Yes but you will still be able to track it."

Penny Arcade carefully inserted a delicate silver ball into the each rifle barrel in a long line of them. The silver ball rolled and then seemed to lose coherence, and smeared like a liquid, leaving no apparant sign of its presence. "But not Nemesis?"

"No automaton should be able either to detect inactive Mercurite."

Penny Arcade stepped back to survey her work. "Either that, or they are tolerating my presence here as some part of one of their grand schemes, and use the stuff to lure me into a trap."

"In which case, we are still likely to learn more than we know now."

Twenty feet away, the portal suddenly burst into life. "Whoops - time to go!" Penny hastily got clear, stopping at the top of the nearby hill.

It didn't take long for the party of automatons to go through the portal, for the party wasn't that big. Other than the hand weapons, the portion of tank that went through was the most recognizable piece. Penny Arcade had no idea what most of the other bits and pieces were for. "They are taking it all through the portal now. Presumably its arriving on the other side. Are you watching?"

"Yes... but no trace yet."

"Do I need to be closer?"

"To the portal? No way, we don't know where it comes out."

It took a surprisingly short time for everything to be brought through the portal. "Well?" Penny said as the last two robots began dismantling the round frame of the portal, a process which, she knew from previous experience, would take less than five minutes.

"Mmm... nothing yet... wherever that portal goes, it's not anywhere nearby."

"Well we already figured that... I still say I could have taken them all out." Penny Arcade walked away, taking off the welder's mask.

"But then we would never find out where they are taking this stuff, or why," Veronica pointed out.

"We know why - it's Nemesis, it's some machevellian plot to take over the world..."

+++++
ONE WEEK LATER
+++++

"STILL no trace?"

Veronica looked up from her desk. "Oh that's cute! Model it for me!"

Penny, wearing a silver minidress, twirled obediantly. "It all glitters, this mercurite."

Veronica grinned. "That is how you can tell what it is. Has Jason seen it?"

"Are you kidding? He's actually noticed I am a girl!"

Veronica and Penny both giggled together, sounding like schoolgirls, before returning to serious business. "I've been telling him for years that it is possible to be bulletproof and beautiful."

"I love it," she beamed. "But... no trace?"

"You are as bad as Jason," Veronica teased. "No, no trace yet. I've about reached the end of what I can do from here... I will run it through a few contacts... Vanguard... Portal Corporation... Longbow..."

"Just don't tell Longbow what it is for. They all hate me."

"You on duty this afternoon?"

"Yep, bomb duty. I'll be the sexiest soldier there..."

+++++
PRESENT DAY
+++++

[ QUOTE ]
"Good to hear." the Dark Watcher retorted, "We will depart as soon as this division is fully assembled, then. I take it all of you are prepared...?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny Arcade sidled over to the assembled heroes and Vanguard personnel and listened. The representative from Portal Corporation had been insistant, to say the least, that she should drop everything she was doing and come at once. Details, however, had been scarce, and now she didn't see where she was supposed to go, or who she was supposed to talk to, although the pass she had been given at the front desk indicated she was in the right spot.

At such times, Penny knew, the best way to learn what was up was to listen carefully, and so she took her spot and listened closely....