Jennifer8

"Boss - " Jim was his camera man, and he nodded.

A couple of armored suits had come around the corner, turned their heads in their direction - and raised their weapons. Not at Harris - but at the cameraman. Crey, as always, was on the lookout for bad publicity. Jim looked scared out of his mind, but kept filming.

But the hero had seen them, at least one of them, for clearly there was another - a large blue explosion happened nearby and even over the clouds of smoke it was obvious that Crey operatives were flying. The explosion was followed immediately afterwards by a truly gigantic bolt from the huge robot, which splashed down in the area where the explosion had originated, though it was impossible to tell if it had hit the hero that had caused it. The pair of Crey goons that had spotted Jim and Harris turned their heads.

The Crey personnel were immediately encased in ice, top to bottom. "Are you NUTS?" Penny screamed at the cameraman. She was too far away, without a clear viewpoint but with far too many things on her mind, to recognize Harris at that moment, though she knew him quite well. "Why aren't you three blocks away from here? Haven't you ever heard of telephoto lense- yaaaaa!"

The momentary distraction was fatal. The enormous robot made a surprisingly quick grab with one of its limbs and succeeded in picking Girl Genius up. She cursed magnificently, uncorking an enormous blast that froze the pincer solid, succeeding in making it drop her. However, by that time she was fifty feet over the pavement. Her suit had some flight capabilities, and she tried to dodge the second pincer, but it closed around her ankle. "Dammit!" She threw more ice. "Let go! LET - GO - !"

But she couldn't throw such an enormous blast again so soon; the recharge time wasn't significant, but it was there, and nothing could be done about it. Building up the ice sufficiently to freeze the pincer would take only a moment, but it might be a moment she didn't have....

((Tags all!))

The blue ball of energy scattered his opponents like tenpins. Many of them were knocked cold; the rest were flung aside like toys. Their power armor prevented the worst of their injuries, but they were all knocked down, and would have to get back up.

Above him, though, he heard a mechanical voice: "Secondary threat detected," it droned, followed almost immediately by a sound normally associated with an extremely large energy weapon.

Two things became apparant as the voice spoke: first, he was relatively close to the giant robot and, second, his massive build-up of energy had drawn its attention.

They scattered at the smoke before zooming back in. The smoke, however, did its job well, making it impossible to see anything in the next several alleyways, let alone a hero with stealth capabilities. It looked as if he had lost his pursuit for the moment.

Some of the ground units had fallen back to regroup, but that left the robot. It turned, its massive cannons whirling ominously, before spitting more sparks. Girl Genius again spun out of the way, but this time she was less lucky: her foot contacted water on the street. A hydrant had broken some distance away, soaking its surroundings. The electricity coursed through her, and she swore, the insulation of the suit barely keeping her conscious.

The alleyway did indeed branch out into others. The corporate monkeys - he had at least half a dozen - saw him throw something and took on altitude suddenly. They did not, however, abandon pursuit.

Girl Genius spotted the enormous robot as it turned a variety of barrels towards her general vicinity. "This is just not my day," she sighed, and ran for it just as the automatic shells began bursting in her wake.

But they did not shoot shrapnel: they burst in stars and streaks of lightning. If they got too close, they stood a good chance of knocking her out... leaving her alive, and the suit undamaged.

She ran.

((OOC I am heading to bed for the evening, I work nights so I will be on later. I am leaving it here hoping for some additional posts. ))

The explosion was spectacular. The units closest to the blast dropped at once, and the rest scattered. Several of them looked like they were having trouble with their machines. Any cries they might have made were drowned out in the wails of the equipment.

Their tactics were superb, considering their surprise: a section of them peeled off, blasting in the area where the shot had come from. Girl Genius whipped around briefly, trying to see what had happened, but didn't really have time to consider it.

With a series of THUMPS, the large robot turned the corner. It was an enormous thing, one of Crey's best, a powerhouse of weaponry and armor. It was the sort of thing that a team of heroes might have trouble stopping.

Whatever Crey wanted here... they wanted it bad. There was an investment of tens of millions of dollars stomping down the street, hunting it.

"Another spike," Nurse Jensen said nonchalantly, as she pushed back those few things that had been moved.

"Can't we do something about that?" Riley was only a nurse's aide, but wondered aloud as she helped.

In seconds the room was righted. All delicate instrumentation had already been bolted to the floor, and all glass had been replaced with plastic, so that it was merely a matter of replacing an overtoppled tray, pushing the IV stand back into place, and relocking its wheels.

"They say they are working on it."

"Maybe they will come up with something soon...?" Riley said hopefully as she hung up a fresh bag.

"Don't count on it," Jensen said. "I assure you that the Powers that Be have greater concerns than one comatose paranormal with a tendency to telekinetically break things at random intervals. Trust me, if she had any value to them, she would have been gone long from here."

"It seems sort of sad," Riley said.

Jensen professionally started marking the chart that hung at the foot of the bed. "What does?"

"She hasn't had any visitors in a while."

Jensen replaced the chart. "You don't know the half of it, kiddo," she said, and ushered the trainee out of the room. "You done any paranormal life studies yet?"

"Yes," said Riley proudly. "We've studied powers, physiology, chemist-"

Jensen held up a hand. " Life studies, kiddo, done any of those?"

"Um... I am not sure what you mean?"

"OK, that's a 'no,'" Jensen gestured at the closed door as they walked down the hall. "Here's a lesson. That girl back there is a mutant. Powers manifested just over a year ago. Some sort of psychic, from what they say."

"She went into a coma a year ago - did the manifestation of mutant powers cause it?"

"Not directly," Jensen walked into the nurse's station, checking the charts. "She was taken, the same day, by some group of nutsos. Injected with some drug, or so they say. No one knows what, we have never been able to get an accurate work-up."

"Sounds wild... the sort of story you would invent to cover a habit."

"Yes, but in this case the young lady has medical reports to back her up, along with fifty eyewitnesses and some TV coverage to boot."

Riley looked thoughtful. "And that caused the coma?"

"Not exactly. The effects weren't apparant for maybe forty-eight hours. When they surfaced, and she went to ICU, it became apparant she needed, among other things, a blood transfusion. Certain medical necessities at the time dictated that a transfusion from a direct family member would stand far greater chance of success at saving her life, so they called up her folks." She shook her head as she picked up a different chart.

"And...?"

"Not only did they refuse to give the transfusion, they refused medical aid. Of any kind. That led to some emergency court orders, we won some emergency AMA's... not soon enough, though, and there she is, and there she'll likely be for thirty years or more."

"You're kidding." Riley's eyes were shocked.

"'Fraid not, kiddo, welcome to the world. Now, follow me, we're going to go and see the patient in Room 17..."

As they walked away from the nurse's station, their voices faded. Everything was quiet in the room where the young woman lay unconscious.

Her name had been Crystal, in better times. Most recently she had been "The patient in room 14," a sleeping form in a bed, strapped down for a tendency to float from time to time. Everything looked the way it had looked for a year or longer.

Now, however, one of the monitoring devices next to her gave a sudden beep. The wavy line running across its screen, which had not changed for some time, suddenly began spiking wildly, tracing lines violently from one side of the screen to the other, as if recording an earthquake. This had happened before: even unconscious, Crystal possessed considerable psychic resources. Today, though, the spikes continued to gain momentum until something wonderous happened.

Crystal opened her eyes.

For a time she did not move, simply looking at the ceiling. But when she sat up, the straps holding her down simply undid themselves of their own accord. The IV needles slid out of her arms as the holders scooted aside. Barefoot and hospital-gowned, she approached the door, which flew open before her.

"Hey hey hey! Look who is up - whoof!" Riley had tried to approach her but ran into something invisible - something like a brick wall. A cart that was in her way rolled abruptly aside. She gave no sign that she had heard the nursing aide, looking neither to the left nor to the right. Her expression was rather blank.

"Miss-"

"Riley," Jensen's voice was sharp. "Get back here and get under the desk."

"But - "

"NOW!" Jensen's voice brooked no contradiction and Riley scurried to obey.

Nothing happened to them during Crystal's walk down the hallway. Furniture slid aside to get out of Crystal's way, but nothing else unusual occured... at least, not until she got to the other end of the hallway.

It was a dead end, a glass window showing a drop of fifty feet or more to the alley below. In front of the newcomer, it blew outwards as if explosives had been placed there, showering the street below with tinkling bits of safety glass.

Riley cried out as Crystal stepped right off the edge.

She did not hesitate... but she did not fall. She continued to walk, exactly as if she had stepped onto a solid surface. Luckily there was open space beyond as she strolled out into the clear blue sky.

Riley looked back at her senior. "Ma'am-?"

"I'm already on it," said Jensen, holding the phone to her ear.

(tags!)

Girl Genius had been training hard in her absence from Paragon City, and it showed. She dropped and rolled and the energy blasts missed her by inches.

She didn't even bother trying to touch the van, though she recognized how vital it would be. Blasting through a triple force field in one shot was highly unlikely; blasting through with enough energy to fight afterwards would be even less likely. Coating the field in ice might serve to obscure the vision of the van's occupants, and maybe even muffle transmissions if she was lucky. But coating it would take time...

...time she simply did not have.

There were eight of the flying units immediately visible. She rolled on her back, momentarily pointing both arms straight up. Another energy blast shattered the pavement an inch from her ear, but she ignored it.

The blast of ice didn't make much noise, certainly not as much as the energy blasts that had occured a moment ago. The whitish crystals shone for a moment as they formed around her fists, then shot upwards with considerable force: force enough to completely coat the torso of one of the flying units, gumming its wings and jetpack. It whined in protest - but did not fall. The process had taken only a moment as Girl Genius continued her roll, moving away from the pavement which was blasted to dust as she jumped to her feet.

The ice blast was more useful against one of the ground units that got too close, not damaging him, but encasing him neatly, and leaving her an opening which she took without delay.

The Crey suits were somewhat bulky: but her own suit was a gunmetal-blue metallic color, sleek, and shining, giving her much more manuverability than her opponents, and she used it to its fullest effect. Several units went down under her determined assault, but it was apparant that she was woefully outnumbered. She couldn't help but wonder, as she ducked behind a wall (which splintered immediately under the blistering assault from the other side,) where they had come from - surely they couldn't all have fit inside the van?

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something - a reflection in the windowpane of a building, its image showing another van. She thought at first it was a Crey vehicle - but no, it was all wrong, it looked almost like a...

...news van?

The top of the wall released a cloud of dust as a large chunk was blown out of it, narrowly missing her head. Yes, a news van - how had it come here? Crey had to have this area barricaded off? That was all she needed on top of all this - some reporter who would come along and report (truthfully) that she was attacking peaceful, law-abiding Crey forces. She pictured her face on a paper in the post office, under the word, WANTED.

She just hoped that whatever idiot was driving the vehicle had the decency to have super powers - she had had some experience with rescuing non-super-powered reporters, a tricky job at the best of times. It had its rewards (as she had found out later, to her great surprise) but the rewards were easy to forget in the thick of combat.

Part of the wall shattered as she moved, and she forgot about the van momentarily, blasting twice and noting that the air units took two hits apiece to bring down, keeping an eye on her ever-touchy power reserves, and wondering what the approaching, rythmic BOOMing noises were, just as the van rounded the corner.

((OK tags!))

((OOC: I have been gone for some time and have re-done my suits. Please ignore (more or less) the signature: I will try and get new pictures/info up in a few days.))

Girl Genius was already swearing when she picked herself back up from the floor. The window had been part of a retail store, long ago, but it had been long since abandoned, and the building was mostly empty, except for some junk strewn here and there.

They did not chase her inside - not that she had much choice. It didn't take her a moment to climb back outside. With a chill, she realized they were waiting for her.

The chill deepend when she took in her surroundings. She had been so distracted, so deep into her own thoughts, that it hadn't struck her before. The area was quiet - too quiet. Nothing moved. The old lady and the two hellions were gone.

She had been lured here, and like an idiot, she had fallen for it. They had all been in on it, even the old lady. Now Crey had cordoned off the area, nice and neat, so no one could see the fight. Even if she won, a complaint would devolve into a "he said/she said" scenario, one that deep-pocketed Crey was not likely to lose.

She normally recorded her outings, but she was known for doing so, and Crey had taken that into account. Her visor included a heads-up display, and it was alight with red dots. The hit hadn't compromised the armor, but a number of things were being suppressed - specifically, camera, microphone, and on-line connections, among others. She was cut off.

Crey had been busy for the moment it had taken her to climb back out of the window. The van - and the white-coated men inside of it - were now enclosed in a force field. The field shimmered in such a way that it appeared to be a double or triple bubble, each set up inside the other.

For a moment, they all looked at each other. "Waiting for me to realize what you had done?" She said dryly.

"Well," the white-coated man replied, "That and for the air units."

Girl Genius's eyes automatically went to the appropriate spot in her heads-up display, only to see a flashing red light. "Aw, hell," she spat, dodging just as a series of flashing energy bolts shattered the pavement where she had been standing. On the ground, the armored units swung forth their guns and started blazing away.

Girl Genius hadn't gone half a block before she heard the piercing shriek.

She stopped, turned, and there he was - Charlie Harris, better known as "Switchblade" on the streets. He turned to face her, his hands still full of the purse that he had just taken from the 80 year old grandmother behind him.

"Charlie," sighed Girl Genius.

"You're back? I thought we run ya outta da hood!"

Girl Genius sighed deeply. "Yes, I am back. No, you did not run me out of the 'hood.' And I have had a very long day, so I will cut you a break. Give the nice lady back her purse and we'll call it a day. "

The shotgun blast knocked her clean off of her feet. Surprised, she checked the suit, but it was unmarked. Running over the math in her head, she realized that the shotgun was capable of knocking her down because her weight wasn't sufficient to countermand the force of the shot. However, it was also apparant that the shotgun couldn't penetrate the suit.

When she had come back, Overhaul had become even more focused on her safety than he had been before, with the result that every single one of her suits had had massive armor upgrades... even if it sometimes didn't look like it.

She got to her feet. "Hello, Paul," she sighed.

"It be Darkness! Ya know dat!"

"Yes, yes, yes, it sounds very scary," she waved him off as she walked towards the pair. "I am sure that the people in the jail will be impressed by your scary name." She was prepared for the next shot, which was repelled by her armor as easily as the first one had been - but this time, she was not knocked down. "Now look, both of you are making a mistake. This isn't the Mark III suit that I busted you in last time, this is the Mark II. It has good armor and good weaponry. You're both under arrest and if you make me subdue you it is going to hurt. Come on now, at least make an attempt to show some common sense."

Another shotgun blast was her only reply.

Paul had the nerve to look surprised when enormous ice crystals suddenly blossomed at his feet. He had enough time to try one last shotgun shell before he was struck by something that strongly resembled a snowball. At its touch, ice instantly crystallized on his body, its coldness instantly shocking him into unconsciousness. Charlie tried to run, but he wasn't fast enough to get out of range, and moments later he was lying face-down on the sidewalk. Girl Genius handed the little old lady her purse and waved as she went her way.

"That was very impressive."

She turned.

A van had pulled up. Eight operatives had emerged from it, all of them wearing the symbol of the Cray corporation. The speaker was a man dressed in a white lab coat. "We'll be confiscating that suit now."

"Like hell you will," she spat, turning away. "See you in court."

His voice sounded amused. "You didn't think we were giving you a choice, did you?"

The blast knocked her off of her feet and through a plate-glass window. She landed in a rain of tinkling glass and ice crystals as the Cray operatives moved in.

((OK tags anyone!))

((OOC: After a long real-life absence, I am back! I am hoping to find some of my old role-playing friends again if they are still around. Some storylines never got resolved, so I have left them in an open status, to resolve later. Feel free to jump in!))

Penny rubbed her forehead. "You have got to be joking."

Doc, a tall, thin man in a white lab coat, shook his head. "I am afraid not... there is no doubt about these test results. You are an active mutant."

I can't be a mutant," Penny explained patiently. "Not only am I far too old, but I've been tested extensively in the past and never showed a hint of mutant DNA, not so much as a smidgen. Remember? It was one of the reasons I was chosen in the first place." She leaned back on the table and frowned at him. "If anything, it ought to be showing radiation."

Doc turned a page over on the clipboard. "Nope."

"Or that new Dyne drug I got hit with."

He flipped another page, his face thoughtful. "Nope. No traces of it in your system... clean as a whistle, I am happy to say."

"Well, something is off."

"That is often the case with mutant genetics."

"Doc, how long have you known me?" Penny sounded exasperated. "You know perfectly well I have no mutant DNA."

"Yes, it is rather puzzling," Doc rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Still... there can be no doubts about the current tests. Furthermore, it appears as if you ought to have powers that have manifested themselves... and some time ago, by the looks of this."

"What mutant powers? I can't fly, can't manipulate energy, have no special survival powers, no psychic powers, nothing." She tapped the clipboard. "You have run me through every test half a dozen times, and I have come up normal on everything."

Doc nodded. "Yes, I am aware of it." He put down the clipboard and polished his glasses. "Well... we've done all we can do here. Might as well get dressed. " As Penny nodded, he added, rather hesitantly, "How is Overhaul?"

She hesitated for only a minute, not looking directly at him. "About the same... I think he is glad to be back in Paragon City. We both are."

"You think you will be able to rebuild...?"

She nodded. "Oh, certainly. He's very determined."

"And the lawsuits...?"

Penny thinned her lips.

Things had looked so promising when she had emerged from the sewers last year after stopping the plot with the Vahzilok. Overhaul had been estactic to see her, though her suit had been damaged almost beyond repair. For a shining few hours, it looked as if he was figuring out how he truly felt, and would have the courage to say something about it.

They had received the first of the notices late that same afternoon.

There had been seven lawsuits in all, four of them of them from Cray or its subsidaries, one of them from a broadcasting company, and two from the FDA. Half were still outstanding. Frustratingly, they had had to move from Paragon city to battle them, and had hardly had a chance to say a word to Harris or Dr. Sanstad - or their wives - or anyone, for that matter.

"Some of them are settled, thankfully," she said. "The others... well, we will have to see."

She didn't mention that they had been all but ruined just settling three of the lawsuits. Cray was being relentless with the others. Overhaul had been deeply hurt by the accusations of patent infringement: Penny was horrified at the idea that Cray might be able to take his designs away from him.

She reached, not for her clothes, but for a gleaming silver ball, which pooled in her hand like mercury, before flowing up her frame like a live thing. In moments, she was encased in a silver metallic suit.

Doc looked impressed. "Is that his latest?"

She nodded. "And one of the only ones left." She touched her helmet and the glass visor retreated halfway, so that he could see her face. "Look, Doc... thanks for the tests. Keep the results.... private... will you?"

"You mean from Overhaul?"

"He has enough on his plate."

"I think you ought to tell him."

"I will tell him when we have something more definite."

Doc put his hand on her arm. "Look, if either of you need medical services... I'm here, all right?"

Penny nodded. "All right. Thanks, Doc."

She left his office, and headed out into the bright sunshine.

((Will add a post onto this in a minute. In the meantime, I am baaaack! ))

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Then his hand touched something else.

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"Hey, that is my foot - wait a minute - " There was a pause, a rather muffled sound of breaking glass, and then a greenish light in the darkness - Em had brought chemical glow-sticks. She looked around but was not at an angle to see Tick-Tock right away. Instead she looked at Jack. "Are you all right now?" Her face was semi-suspicious, but hopeful.

OOC: Sorry about the long delay in my responses.... work has been nuts lately and my father was in town to meet the future in-laws. Thankfully all should now be settling down to normal.

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"We are we going." He shouted, trying to keep the sound of panic out of his voice.

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Enid shouted back to him, "Modi has picked up Erik's scent! We are going to try and find him!" Even from here he could see that she was worried about her husband.

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"Had to choose to save Crystal......now I don't even know what happened to her.........."

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"Then find out! " Em didn't so much as flinch from the blow. "Choices are inevitable, even choosing to let someone else choose is, itself, a choice!" She was shouting now. "Who's going to be behind the wheel of your life, Jack? You or someone else? Do you want to save your friends or don't you?" She took him by the shoulders and shook him hard. "Snap out of it!" Then she belted him across the jaw, hard - but not to hurt him. "WAKE UP!" It was a strike to be used on a hysterical person, to make them focus, pay attention.

Then, without warning - a rumble vibrated through the floor at their feet, followed by a massive shockwave, knocking them all down.

The lights went out, leaving them in total darkness.

[ QUOTE ]
Katete was still busy fighting Lust and Averice. He need some way to get their attention drawn away from him without them knowing what his plan was. All he could hope is that the girl who seemed to be a psycic was picking up on some of his thoughts.

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"Non-Hostile... Crystal... Memory banks recall target's name but no other data. Crystal... need suggestion of next move. Targets resist attacks and will not stop. Shall the power restraints be released?"

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"No." Crystal's voice revealed what she herself wanted to hide: she was sick. Very sick indeed. But the word was clearly a command, a command she expected to be obeyed.

She thrust her hands at the Vampiress and the Incubus: they pause for a moment, a blank look passing over their faces, stunned.

As they were mesmerized, and the others had their attention turned to Paul, she turned her attention to the ceiling, to the thought she had caught from the newcomer's mind.

She held her hands up to the ceiling, and gritted her teeth.

For a while, nothing happened. Then cracks began forming in it, becoming larger, the concrete roof swelling outwards as if pushed from the other side by some invisible fist. Both Crystal's nose and her ears were bleeding. She didn't notice.

The concrete crumbled. Through it came a round, flat base... the base of a pedestal that had been sitting on the floor above. The pedestal floated gently down with impossible ease, considering what it must have weighed. On top of it, perfectly balanced, was a small, decorated shape - a ceramic jar. The jar that she had seen in Kagete's mind.

Then, all at once, there was an enormous explosion, somewhere far below them. The ground simply dropped away from their feet, causing everyone to fall down from the impact. The lights went out.

Crystal went flying, along with everyone else, to land on her chin. The pedestal gave a single, violent jerk to the side, then dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. The jar that had been on top of it arced through the air, as gracefully and sweetly as a baseball from the hand of a loving pitcher....

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Erik paused and rubbed his neck. "Oh yeah... I didn't come alone down here to get you. Harris, Master Wonderful, Jack, Crystal, Paul, and SmallArms also came with. And uh... I brought my pets. Well they are bears really... LONG story..."

Erik looked abck at the rubble and winced again. "Assuming I didn't catch them in that... I'm SURE they will find us."

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Enid was clearly displeased as she led their small party back to Magni and Modi. The bears were glad to see their "mother" again, nuzzling her.

"Harris," Enid said, "You and Amy on Magni." Enid normally discouraged riding the bears, but now there was little option: Amy could barely stand, let alone walk. Though Harris had her arm slung around his shoulder, and though she moved her feet obligingly, he was really carrying her.

"We'll take the other." Sarah, for the first time, looked a little nervous at this, but after Enid had showed her how to get on the bear's back, she seemed to adjust quickly enough.

The bears started down the tunnel. The Vahzilok had been scattered, and they met only token resistance.

Then, without warning, the tunnel shook. Rocks rained down from the ceiling. Both bears were fortunately steady but it was all their riders could do to stay on top of them. Somewhere there had been a massive explosion.

Modi suddenly growled and turned - he had caught wind of Daddy's scent. Magni turned also, and Enid, understanding what this must mean, didn't waste time arguing. "Go!" She told the bears. "Go!"

Suddenly they were streaking down the tunnel at full speed, bouncing not only at the motion of the animals, but also at the occasional aftershock...

[ QUOTE ]
"Cry... Crystal... Love..."

"Master's functions to come online in 30. Acessing target... Immobalized threats... Partial recoginition by Master... Non-Hostile."

Again Paul turned to the ghoul, the werewolf, and the lich.

"Targets aquired... Re-commencing attacks."

With that Paul open up full bore on the targets. he lead with a hail of caltrops followed by blast after blast of plasma... The werewolf could barely move but still growled in aggravation...

None seemed to want to give up.

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As ill as she was, Crystal managed to struggle to her feet. She staggered in a not-particularly-straight line towards Paul. The look on her face was impossible to read.

But once there, she attacked again, this time in coordination with him. Hoping that a double attack would accomplish what a single one had not.

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Erik fell to his knees and buried his face in his hands.

"I remember feeling the power of the raw core in my hands... and I threw it. I altered it and threw it at the first Lost I saw and it detonated..."

"Dear God in heaven what have I done?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Penny hesitated, then put her hand on his shoulder, kneeling next to him. She flipped up her face-plate to look at him: her face was tired and pale, her eyes circled in black. The irises of her eyes were an eerily pale green.... there was no doubt that there would be side effects.

But her face held a sort of wisdom as she looked at him, and her voice was both solemn and comforting. "You did the best you could with the knowledge you had," she soothed. "You did what was necessary with no one to guide you. Don't try to second-guess what might have been... you will drive yourself crazy. What is done... is done."

She took a breath, and her voice sounded awkward. "Thank you... for saving my life," she couldn't quite meet his eyes when she said this. More to divert his attention than anything else, she said, "I met Enid.... earlier, I mean. She was with Amy Harris and Sarah somebody-or-other... she's quite a woman. She was actually the one who insisted we stay... make sure Vahzilok couldn't blow up half the city. I tried to find her a safe place when I went into the core..." her eyes dropped. "I wanted to escort her up to the surface... bring her back to you. But I... I failed, in that. I don't know where they are now. " She was silent for a while. "I'm sorry."

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"Lets face it. They are not here. They must have gone or been take some where else."

They had been searching the lab for Penny and Erik for a while and had found no sign of them. Harris decided it was time to say what (he thought) everyone was thinking.

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Enid thinned her lips. It was clear she had come to the same conclusion, and didn't like it a bit. "Then... we should proceed to the surface," she said, and her voice was heavy. "The threat here has been neutralized... and Erik will look for me there."

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Jack suddenly looked like he was filled with deep sadness. He grasped Em but instead of attacking he simply pleaded with her. He seemed close to tears. "Make it stop. I can't deal with this, it hurts too much. Please make it stop."

Then his face changed looking angry again and he pushed her away.

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"I can't make it stop," Em's face was intent. "The only way it will stop is if you face it - all of it." She looked at him, judging his mood, and seemed to come to a decision. She stopped attacking and instead stood still, just watching him. "We're going to get through this, take out the bad guys, and stand tall at the end. And you can choose which side you want to be on. You don't have to be a puppet and you don't have to be a weapon. So go on - choose."

It was a horrible risk. Jack could kill her and she knew it. But she looked at him without batting an eyelash.

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Once Erik and Penny had cleared minimum safe distance Erik immediately hunched over and sat in a ball. He began to turn several shades of red and did his best not to laugh.

"Um... Glad to see you're O.K. Penny. A LOT of weird stuff just went down, not the least of which is the fact that I just blew up a huge Lost lab making the uber-drug... while being buck naked."

Again he flushed a deeper red and tried to smile. "You uh... don’t have a way to make some clothes or something huh?"


[/ QUOTE ]

Penny's reaction was to put her hand to her helmet, covering her mouth. She was torn between sympathy and the desperate desire to laugh. She didn't reply for a moment because she didn't trust herself to speak.

When she felt she could talk without bursting into laughter, she said, "Erik... the only thing I have on under this is ladies underwear. I would offer it to you but you don't seem the type to be wearing ladies underwear." The glare Erik gave her made her stop, struggling not to laugh. "Er... stay here for a minute... let's see what we can do."

She made it all the way around the corner before bursting into giggles. Poor Erik! She was gone for several minutes.

At length she came back with a bundle of cloth in her arms. "Here," she set it next to him, "It's probably pretty awful, but it's the best we are likely to get down here.... I hope it fits, I tried to pick a guy who was about your size."

There was no doubt that the clothing had come from one of the Lost: there were no underthings, but there was a pair of ragged blue jeans, a tattered flannel shirt, and a pair of mismatched sneakers, one a full two sizes larger than the other. The Lost who had donated his clothes had apparantly had bigger feet than the good Professor, but at least Erik could wear the shoes.

Penny turned around to give him some privacy. "I know they are kind of yucky... sorry about that. I tried to pick the cleanest guy I could but down here..." She shrugged.

She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "Erik.... what happened? I don't remember much past the core, and Dr. Vahzilok... where are we? What happened to your clothes? Where is Harris...? Cripes, look at the clock, it's been three days... what happened?"

[ QUOTE ]
Pride meanwhile... was embedded in the ceiling and was cursing loudly. He was far from dead, simply stuck. He began to push slowly but hearing the bones in his neck begin to pop, he paused before realizing he was far past the point of needing to keep his head and body together.

With a mighty heave the lich freed himself and landed in the floor between Gluttony and Crystal. His head rolled about shouting "PICK ME UP YOU LUMMOX!" And began to spit black fire at Paul...

It was utter chaos wrapped in sex and fire...

[/ QUOTE ]

Crystal got to her feet at last. Her hair had risen, as if blowing in a gentle breeze, though there was no wind in this place. She stretched out her arms in fury.

Nothing visibly happened: there was no lightshow or power effects. But everything in that direction - except Paul - was suddenly clutching its head in pain. The werewolf, the lich, and the ghoul were stopped dead in their tracks, howling, holding their ears....

[ QUOTE ]
"What did you do to me?" He shouted. Then he ran at Em with his fist raised high.

[/ QUOTE ]

Em, surprisingly, was quite at home in a street brawl, gracefully dodging Jack's fist. "I've given myself some breathing room!" She spat. She knew martial arts - her foot came up, but it did not connect. Jack was too fast. "And I have given YOU a second chance, you lunatic!"

A second chance... it was exactly what Professor Sanstad had said...

[ QUOTE ]
Both super powered beings had to dodge quickly as the large shell sped down the sewer at them, allowing Emily a chance to get free.


[/ QUOTE ]

Jack had to move, and his hold was broken. Emily, however, was not finished with him. Without batting an eyelash she whipped something from her belt and stuck him with it - a hypodermic needle, filled with pinkish fluid. The Neural Inhibitor that Master Wonderful sometimes took - he wouldn't be using mental powers again until the drug wore off.

Then she dived for cover from the shell.

[ QUOTE ]
"Back off," he shouted.

Then he turned back to Em and spoke more calmly, "Now..... you were going to tell me why you think I have been foolish."


[/ QUOTE ]

Em gritted her teeth. Though there was an audible whimper in her voice from the pain, her words were still surprisingly steady. "It was - foolish of you - to think - that I came down here alone..."

((OOC sending MW a PM to see if he wants to take this one ))

[ QUOTE ]
"God I pray I did the right thing...” he whispered as he knelt down by Penny. “God help me if the mysteryman lied…”

[/ QUOTE ]

The explosion was beyond description. The floor shook, bouncing them around. Things toppled. He could hear screams from the other room just before part of the ceiling caved in.

The jarring seemed to wake Penny. She sat up suddenly, disoriented.

The first in the series of secondary explosions was enough to bring down most of the rest of the roof. The next one shattered the intervening wall, sending shrapnel in every direction. It seemed that Russian Roulette, in its pure form, when stored in large vats, was highly flammable.

Thankfully, they managed to scramble out of the path of the worst of it, and stood panting a little ways down the tunnel. "Erik?" Penny sounded perfectly normal. "Where are we - what - "

Then the next explosion went up, and there was no more time for talking - it was time to run, at least until the collapse of the Lost facility blew over.