Rebel_Scum

(( Whatever it was escaping from can't have had more than one pod? ))

Pax wondered momentarily about the significance of that, whether it was this thing's form of communication or merely a status indicator - either way she didn't understand. And sadly she couldn't investigate, as it was at precisely this point at which the message Kethara had sent her arrived. Pulling a device much the same as the one Kethara had used. Checking the attached coordinates she turned in that direction and was quite abruptly engulfed in a burst of golden light, and was gone.

"...Ouch. Remind me not to piss her off, then", Kethara replied. "Anyway, would you take us to her? Maybe we can negotiate something resembling peace, hmm?" Apparently the kid took the whole 'peacebringer' thing somewhat literally. That or she just didn't want people getting killed and/or eaten, on either side.

Ildela obviously thought little of the idea, but said nothing. Given who raised her, it was only natural that her sister would be the one trying to make peace between everyone, no matter who or what they were. She'd go along with it, for now at least. No way was she dropping her guard though, as of right now she trusted the Gre'shil no further than she could throw them. And she was terrible at throwing things.

Pax didn't. She'd seen nothing even resembling what she was looking for above ground, and had little reason to believe it would be any different underground. Besides, it wasn't as if getting information on this place or why it was here was really that important. It was nowhere near Paragon, nor would it be a threat even if it was. She'd seen absolutely nothing moving since she came here, aside from the guns on the walls. And those were easily avoided, so long as people knew they were there.

So she left, heading back out in roughly the same direction she'd came from. Maybe that egg thing was still there, if so she might go have a look at it.

"You think ordinary roaming charges suck, try calling someone through time", Ildela came back with, almost immediately. "Seriously. That and there's the whole issue of calling them at the right time, and yeah." She shrugged silently. "It's harder than you'd think, you know."

"That it is", Kethara agreed. "Still, at one point they did manage it." She pulled from her pocket a device that somewhat resembled a cellphone, though with other parts added that looked almost like parts cannibalised from an Ouroboros portal device. Which they may well been. Unable to entirely suppress a laugh at the look on Ildela's face, she dialed a number into the device and held it up to her ear.

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Didn't seem like anything was still alive around here. She wondered how long whoever had lived here had been gone, after long enough machines tended to break down. But the ones here were still in a perfectly servicable condition by all appearances. That or they were capable of maintaining themselves.

Either way, there were no living things around aside from the plants. Hence, she searched around for an access terminal or some such, by which she might gain access to whatever system controlled the machines and thus gain some answers.

Ildela put a hand on his arm, not overly forcefully but enough that the intention for him to leave the blade where it was was clear. "Now now, let's not ruin what little peace we have just cause of old grudges. They may see things differently to you, but that doesn't make their way wrong or your way inherently better. Merely different." She turned back as one of the Gre'shil spoke.

"And you can just stop that thought right there, too", she commented, again unthreatening but suggesting terrible things if the lizardman didn't immediately comply. "Carnivorous people are all well and good, but killing sentient people? Not so much. Stick to things that don't talk, at the very least. Ok?"

Kethara spiraled down to land neatly beside him before answering. "I can't, sorry. Mum can but I can't." She looked over at Ildela, who simply shook her head. "She can't either", Kethara added somewhat unnecessarily.

"Now that's more like it", the peacebringer commented to herself, having been thoroughly bored of searching. She made a lazy circle around the first of the small cities. She'd never seen anything like it, which didn't surprise her much. Everything here seemed to be outside her experience, no matter how vast said experience was by now. Still, didn't seem like there was anything particularly interesting in the first one. There was another not far away though, maybe she'd go look at that one before making a more detailed search of both.

Of course, it was then (Or more accurately, some few seconds of flight later) that she ran into a problem, in the form of a number of artillery cannons and more importantly the shells they were suddenly and with no provocation firing at her. Unfortunately, the element of surprise served them well and the first volley scored a direct hit on her, knocking her from the sky like swatting a particularly glowy fly. However, as she plummeted she was engulfed in a flash of energy.

What hit the ground was not human, not anymore. Instead it was the massive bulk of the Kurukt, more commonly known to humans as a White Dwarf. Swearing angrily, she stomped toward the guns with all the subtlty of a thrown brick. She really didn't like being shot at, especially without having done anything to provoke it and without being given any kind of warning before they opened fire.

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"Sounds like a plan to me", Ildela replied. She looked up at Kethara flying above them, who nodded. "Onward, then." With that, the pair of them continued toward Jade and the Gre'shil. Ildela waved to him as they came into his view.

Ildela shrugged. "You're asking me as if I know. Though, I would imagine the fact that we kiled three of them without apparent effort would make them a little wary of attacking us again."

"Hmm, there's an idea. Actually you very well might have, umm..." Ildela gave him a fairly accurate description of a Rikti. "Seen anything like that?", she asked. "From what I know of them they tend to be fairly peaceful to others, it's just humans they really don't like. They think we attacked them first, as I understand it. Which one of us did, technically. Stupid Nemesis and his robots..." She trailed off into a muttered rant about Nemesis and the various ways he's screwed humanity over the years.

Kethara meanwhile was flying along above them. "Hey!", she called down. "I see the robodragon, he's talking to a bunch of those lizard things that attacked us!" Ildela stopped muttering at that. Jade was talking to them? Maybe they were smarter than she thought after all. The way she was walking changed somewhat, not much but enough to be substantially louder. The walk of someone who wanted whatever was in front of her to know she was there.

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Meanwhile, outside of Rauk, Paxtera was growing impatient with the lack of anything useful out here. So she did what impatient time travellers do - she started cheating. Specifically, she gave up flying and started chronoporting instead, appearing somewhere and looking around for about a minute before disappearing and reappearing about a minute earlier somewhere else. Effectively being in several places at once, and covering ground at a near-infinite speed (in real time, that was, to her it still took ages).

"Put it this way, the war walls are called that for a reason", Ildela answered, apparently not caring to explain further than that. Instead she looked down at herself, hmming quietly to herself. Then changed again, much like she had before the Gre'shil showed up. This time it was less drastic, she emerged still human, but decidedly lighter in skin tone and with brown hair rather than the dull orange she'd had before. Her face was different too, not by much but enough that anyone who didn't know wouldn't recognise her. Interestingly, it took her decidedly longer, a good thirty seconds compared to the first time which had been instant.

Kethara, meanwhile, saw fit to explain further why Boomtown was so destroyed. "Might sound weird, but we got invaded by aliens from another dimension. The war walls were put up to keep them out, but they still devastated a lot of the city. And the powers that be haven't managed to scrape up the resources needed to rebuild some places yet." She shrugged. "Hell, I think at this point we've still got a crashed ship lying around somewhere too."

"Anyway," Ildela spoke up again. "Shall we be off?" She gestured in the general direction of Paragon, where the war walls were indeed visible on the horizon.

Kethara stopped, blinking in surprise. Sure she'd been trying really hard, but she honestly hadn't thought she actually had the power necessary to kill something in one hit like that. "Oops...", she commented quietly to herself. Mum was gonna yell at her when she got back. Well, if she found out. Keth decided she just wouldn't tell her, in the hopes of being spared the inevitable lecture regarding her actions having consequences. She knew that, but every time she messed up she got almost the exact same speech. It was annoying.

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Ildela meanwhile regarded the second corpse she'd produced in as many strikes with cool disdain. "Really do need to try harder", she commented to the lifeless body, as though it could still hear her. Then sighed, as she noted the telltale shimmer around her that meant another one of them was trying fruitlessly to get a claw through her shield. "Seriously", she said, turning to face it. "You get points for persistence, but... no. Just join the rest of your group and piss off."

It considered, for a moment. This prey might just be out of its league, given she'd dropped two of them in as many hits. So it took her advice and followed the rest of them. The second one, dropped back to the ground as whatever that pink stuff was that she'd entangled it in dissipated, did the same. Ildela deactivated the pair of energy blades she'd been using, and started to walk back to the group as though she'd done nothing more than have harsh words with the two lifeless corpses now slowly bleeding out onto the pavement. "so, if we're done tangling with the local wildlife... anyone still want that pizza?", she asked, completely calmly.

Kethara just stared at her. How could she be so calm, after three people had died? Did she have no heart at all?

Seemed that one was the leader. Nice of him to paint a giant target on his back like that. Ildela waited patiently as he approached, all but undetectable even to their heightened senses. All Krill might hear would be the faint electrical crackle of a pair of Vanguard-issue Talsorian blades powering up, before said blades were quite abruptly rammed into his back, seeking his heart and lungs. Or at least where said organs were in humans and most other bipedal lifeforms. Only then was the stalker rendered visible again. And from the look of her, if Krill went down the rest of the Gre'shil were next on the list.

Meanwhile, Kethara had been making ready to defend herself as well but Jade's shout to the Gre'shil stopped her. She waited to see if they'd respond. Her mother would always give peace a chance, thus so would she. Of course, if it came to that she wasn't above blasting their faces in either. Not that she was particularly good at said blasting, but meh.

As yet she felt no such desire to find a working example, content to examine the wrecked remains. In her travels across the multiverse she'd picked up a fair amount of knowledge regarding machines of varying kinds, so identifying the purpose of the first ones she came across didn't present much of a challenge. They seemed like fairly standard hunter drones, designed to track and kill something. The specific design was unfamiliar to her, but it was hardly the first to be that. Nor would it be the last, as she came across the ruined Harvester. It would prove more of a challenge, especially with half of it embedded in a building. Presumably the access hatch or similar was on the other half, as she couldn't find one... and surely a machine this big would have such a thing? Or was it autonomous? Without being able to get inside she couldn't really tell, and she was somewhat hesitant to blast her way in, in case it wasn't quite deactivated.

Maybe she would have to go find a working one, she decided. And to that end, rose into the air again and flew off in search of one. Or at least a destroyed one that wasn't stuck in a building.

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"It's not that she doesn't trust you, she just likes to see things firsthand", Kethara tried to explain. "And yeah, immortality tends to make people reckless." She shrugged. Ildela nodded her agreement and started to say something, but stopped abruptly as Jade announced they had more company. She faded out of sight. If the newcomers proved hostile, one of them would receive a very sudden pair of swords through the back.

"Do you think they're friendly?", Kethara asked Jade. A moment's concentration, and a spherical energy shield enveloped her just in case.

"Hmm?" Ildela seemed confused, at first, probably indeed thinking Trisys was asking why she wasn't an EarthChild. But as she went on, realisation dawned in her eyes. "Ahh. Umm, more or less the same reason I'm anywhere. 'Cause I had nowhere better to be. Also because something ripped the door out of my house and stuck it in the sky above.... wherever here is. Kinda wanted to know why." She shrugged.

"...ok?" Kethara seemed unsure as to what to say to that. That laugh of his didn't sound particularly ok to her, sounded like he'd gone crazy almost. Or maybe he was already crazy and this was the first she'd seen of it, who knew. She certainly didn't.

Paxtera smiled at that. "Your concern for others is admirable, but we assure you the city will be fine. Admittedly they've never been dragged totally into another dimension before now, that we know of, but after the Rikti, the Rularuu, Praetorians... Not to mention the city's own criminal element... They're well prepared for such things occuring, trust us."

Paxtera just smiled at him. "No such thing is necessary, the citzens of Paragon City have been through far too much over the years to not recognise trouble when it shows itself. They'll be taking cover already, or making preparations to defend themselves. That and the War Walls will keep out most things."

She caught the look from Jade, but didn't seem overly bothered by it. Being what she was, speaking in broad generalities was a habit she'd gotten into long ago as a means of avoiding the trouble that inevitably came if she gave details. She wasn't likely to break it now, just cause a robot dragon gave her a dirty look.

"We see", Paxtera answered simply. Apparently satisfied with that answer, she turned her attention back to maintaining her shield over the door.

Ildela on the other hand had more to say, or more accurately to ask. "so, you saw that and thought I was another like you?" She sounded as if she wasn't quite sure how to feel about that. "Sorry, but I'm not. I'm.... well, I'm not. Let's leave it at that."

Kethara, meanwhile, had gotten up and gone over to the dragon, looking concerned. "You ok?", she asked. He didn't look ok to her, but what did she know. She was only a kid. And even if he wasn't ok, she wouldn't force help on him if he didn't want it.

"That's good, our elven always was terrible", the older woman commented from her position over by the door, one eye always on the barrier she was projecting across it to make sure it didn't fail. Since introductions seemed to be going around, she continued with her own. "As for us... We are Paxtera, the child is Kethara and the shapeshifter, if she hasn't introduced herself already, is Ildela", she informed them. "And for why it is bad," she went on, "there are things in this world better left undisturbed, to say the least. Not to mention, with Paragon City transported here, what do you think the various villainous inhabitants of the Etoile Islands will do now that their main opposition is so suddenly gone?"

Ildela looked around as Trisys spoke her name. "I see....", she said slowly as she explained that she considered herself a slave, or perhaps just a servant. "His wish is your command, as such? That's gotta suck sometimes." She sounded as though she spoke from experience, there. And indeed she did, having suffered such an experience and having no wish to ever do so again.

"Hmm?" Paxtera looked momentarily confused. "Not that we're aware of, why?"

Duo, actually. Only two of them came to the back of the room and sat down, while the older woman waited by the door. Unable to see Jade through the dust she could only hope he was ok, that no airborne debris carried along by the dust storm had wiped him out. But no, he was fine it seemed. And he'd found another.... an elf? Well, this WAS Paragon. Or he came from one of the other realities of which pieces had landed here. Either way worked. In any case, as soon as the mechanical dragon was inside she raised both hands and projected some form of energy barrier across the doorway to stop the dust getting in, her eyes glowing as she did as peacebringers tended to do when using their powers. "To answer your question, Ildela, 'the kid' is your sister", she answered the demoness belatedly, looking over her shoulder at them.

While Ildela just gave her a dumbfounded sort of stare, the child spoke up. "Wait, you're Ildela?" She seemed almost as surprised as her sister was. "I kinda expected someone who looked at least sort of like Mum..."

That broke the demoness out of her shock. She turned and grinned at the kid, before a sudden burst of what looked almost like lightning enveloped her. As it faded, she appeared transformed. Her clothes remained the same, but the woman inside them was entirely different. Gone were the wings, horns and general demonic appearance, replaced by dull orange hair almost exactly the same colour as the other two and a face that was all but identical to the older woman at the door, even the exact same lightly tanned colour of skin. "Something more like this?", she asked almost innocently, before laughing at the expression on her sister's face. "Mum didn't tell you the story, I take it?

"Not really.... no..." Was all the child said in return.

"It wasn't important, before now", was their mother's only defense. Both of them just looked at her, not quite glaring but clearly displeased.

Neither Ildela nor either of the two newer arrivals had anything like the precise readings Jade's sensors gave him, but they didn't need it. Simple common sense was enough to provide the idea of not standing in the path of the gigantic dust cloud. Especially in the current cirumstances, that dust cloud might possibly be something entirely different. But even if it was merely dust, they didn't want to be standing in its way. "Agreeed", all three of them stated almost simultaneously, looking around for something to take shelter in, behind or under. Fortunately this was still Boomtown, abandoned it might be but many of the buildings were still usable at least for that.

"There", the older woman stated, pointing to a doorway. "Seems as good a place as any." The other two nodded and all three of them lifted off the ground and flew toward said doorway, Ildela apparently by use of her wings while the other two left the energy trails characteristic of Kheldian peacebringers. Landing at the door they hurried inside, the older one waiting at the door for Jade and Trisys.

The room inside was dark, understandable as it had no windows or other entrances. It may have, at some point. At the back were what might be the remains of doorways, almost completely covered by rubble from where the rooms further back had collapsed. Mixed in with this rubble was the remains of what had been the room's furniture, blown inward by some great force from outside. Probably in the Rikti War that'd destroyed Boomtown, Ildela mused to herself. Of course everything with potential value was gone, having been taken years ago by the scavangers and gangs that made Boomtown their home now. But it would do for shelter until that dust storm blew over.

(( Welp, there goes that idea. Oh well, Plan B it is! ))

"Everything...?", she repeated, very obviously confused. Sometimes she had to wonder why she even bothered asking people to explain things. "Would you perhaps care to be a bit more specific....?" She trailed off as the dragon took it and it promptly changed from a simple stone into some kind of technological device. "Why can't things just be simple, for once?", she wondered aloud before adding, "I'm Ildela, by the way. So, do you have a name?" That last question directed toward Trisys. She wondered about the submissive kneel, too. Did the creature believe herself a servant? She didn't know, and she doubted Jade did either. But to her, he didn't seem the type to accept such an arrangement.

Not that there was much time for her to dwell on the matter, as she looked up sharply and turned to not quite glare at an empty piece of pavement, as though she expected someone to be there. "Figures she'd show up after everything goes catastrophically wrong...", she muttered, quite clearly believing that something had indeed gone catastrophically wrong. The mere presence of whoever it was she seemed to be expecting was enough to plant that idea firmly in her mind. to the others, though, she likely appeared to be talking to someone who wasn't there.

Or more correctly, wasn't there yet. Roughly half a minute after She spoke, the precise spot she was looking at abruptly flared with a bright golden light, twisting in on itself into what could only be a portal of some variety. Out of which stepped two people, both female and at least outwardly human. The smaller of them appeared to be a child of perhaps 10 years' age, a youthful face surrounded by shoulder-length hair of a dull orange colour. She was dressed in a simple blue t-shirt and black cargo pants. The other. aside from being substantially taller, didn't look that much different. She had the same dull orange hair and many of the same facial features, but slightly different. That they were related wouldn't be much of a leap to make. She was at least dressed differently, in the more traditional superhero outfit of blue tights with white starburst patterns.

"Well well, look what the cat dragged in", Ildela commented to the two of them, looking vaguely surprised that there were two of them but whatever, she'd run with it. "Who's the kid?", she asked curiously.

(( Cutting it off there, to give the others a chance to react. ))

Still no answer, apparently giving the stone to the dragon was more important. She couldn't help but ask, "What's so special about the stone?" She figured if anyone knew, the satyr did. Of course, whether it'd make sense to her was entirely another matter, but knowing was better than not knowing even if it just confused her more.

(( Devious, any worries about multiple characters? Though I should ask first. ))

"Well don't look at me", she told him, heading off the most obvious of the inevitable questions. "I was hoping you could tell me what was going on, but obviously not." She shrugged, turned and walked over to the other one, the one with the nondetermined form. She offered a hand to help it up, at the same time asking "So who're you then?" All very friendly like, not threatening in the slightest apart from possibly her appearance.