(open RP) Centum Thinktank

Jason shifted uncomfortably, "That lady? Uh... I don't know her. Not really, we just kinda had a thing back then. Sorta. Where is she, anyway?"

Corvus frowned as she looked around, trying to find the woman.

"I don't see her... Is it possible that she was only here as a product of us jumping through possible universes?"

Melissa continued to lie on the floor, waiting for the little droid to recover and respond to her. In the meantime, she focused on the ancient artifact, wondering what else could be inside that.

As the memories of the battle flooded back into Mystic, he suddenly recalled something else. On the news, no more than a week ago, a special report talked about a superpowered vigilante called the Wraith. The report include several of this woman's acts, though some valorous, others were downright criminal and villanous. The latest sighting of the Wraith involved her using innocents as bait to lure some Hellion scum. In the aftermath, only the Wraith lived. The report had no real name or positive identification on what she looked like, except that she appeared only as a dark, feminine shaped cloud in a black dress. "Could she be...," thought Mystic...

"So, what's our next ingenious strategy," said Melissa aloud.

"The Wraith." Mystic said without looking up.

"Excuse me." Someone said.

"I don't know why, but this entire scenario reminds me of the Wraith. I can't help thinking; could she be connected to this?" Mystic looked up to scan the faces of his comrades for some sign of recognition.

"Who's the Wraith? Cool name, but I have no idea who you guys are talking about. Some new kid in town?"

Jason, by this time, had found himself a nice comfortable spot on the floor, and now slouched bonelessly against the wall, fingers laced behind his head.

"Hey you guys, wanna try what we just did again? I promise, it won't hurt as much this time."

Melissa glanced over at Mystic as he suddenly finished typing away at the console and began speaking. "Hey...Zombie-boy. What have you been doing over there so frantically? And what's this sudden wraith talk? You mean the horse-thing...I suppose that could be considered wraith-like. I'm no expert however."

Melissa hoped Mystic might explain himself soon. Meanwhile she glanced over at the unmoving robot. "I'm up for another go Jason. One moment though..." She got up and made her way over to Tock, and started rummaging through his items. Finding a satchel of vials, she took them, "With lugnut over here disabled, we might need these. One more moment."

Melissa headed down the hall where the old lady had indicated rooms were available. Finding a door with her name on it, she took the key card that was there, opened the door, removed the name plate, and stepped inside. The door closed and locked afterwards, but after a few seconds Melissa floated through the door and back into the main chamber, once again a formless black mass with starlight eyes. "Ready."

"You know it's the official definition of insanity to do the same thing and expect different results, right?" Corvus remarked, "Before we rush headlong into another dance with this creature, maybe we should at least plan something out in case things go sour. Obviously our negative energy based attacks don't do a whole lot to this thing. We should probably make sure that Mystic can stick around for more than target practice this time."

Corvus approached the buffet table and began gathering anything with a sharp end which could be used as a projectile, and began tucking them under her belt, securing a few which wouldn't fit with tape taken from a drawer in her console.

"Anyone else handy with throwing weapons? You should take a few, just in case."

Blue gloved fingers worked over the glowing runes that floated above his console and around the holographic representation of the device. "Hmm?" He said looking up at everyone. "Oh, nothing. I'm not at all certain why, but my exeriences made me think of a vigilante named Wraith. Admittedly, I don't know much about her. Neither does anyone else, really, but I was thinking, what if she were a creature similar to this one.

"No, I'm still working on a hypothesis. I think that there is only one and the orientation may determine what it is. Or it could simply be a gateway." Mystic hovered over toward the group. "What's all this about my staying in the fight longer? In my own defense, I didn't know there was going to be a fight."

"Jason, do you think you'd have more success returning us to our own world should things go awry again?" Mystic picked up a cracker and began munching.

Jason stood, extending his hands, palms cupped to describe a small spherical area in front of him. Muttering as he ran through a few trial equations, he seemed to finally find one he was happy with. He held his breath and

a black rod was there before him, defying gravity as it rested gently on nothing right there in the air. Slightly over a feet in length, it nevertheless managed to convey the impression of incredible weight and density, of the immovability of mountains.

Jason let out the breath he had been holding. Looking very relieved that it worked, he grinned as he glanced around the room, hoping for an appreciative audience. Looking slightly depressed at the lack of applause or cheering crowds or swooning women, he turned back to the rod, appearing deep in thought for a moment.

The room spun, dimensions whirling in stately dance around the fulcrum that was the rod. Moments stretched like taffy, losing meaning in the wheeling majesty of worlds. Infinite glittering universes revealed themselves, reflected and refracted off each other and spawning new timelines, splitting and converging in fractal madness. Through this all, the nigh-dark rod held steady, and quickly, the dizzying array of dimensions collapsed into one. The room appeared as it had before, except shaded with a pale silver blue light.

Gesturing theatrically, Jason bowed, "We are now officially no longer in Kansas, ladies and gentlemen. As George Washington said in Bill and Ted's most excellent adventures, party on, dudes!"

Melissa returned just in time to hear the Mystic mention wraith again. "I'm sorry, you say this Wraith is a person? I admit I'm of little help there, I don't watch much television. Perhaps someone else?"

"In the meantime...if this is no longer Kansas as you so put it...where are we? Or maybe, when? And for what Corvus said, it would be insanity to try the same thing again...so why don't we try something different. Choose a different orb this time...and be ready for anything. Should it be worse, I am confident Jason has his end under control...even if he is show-boating."

Melissa floated there, waiting for Mystic to do his thing, recalling to mind her arsenal of abilities.

Once again, Mystic Inferno began his preparations, focusing instead on the device itself, rather than any particular sphere. Completing his incantation, the whole device began moving, each layer of spheres rotating in opposite directions. The arcing energy turned its focus and all began accumulating in the centre of the bowl. Slowly, images began to form within the energy, faces of people both familiar and foreign.

Gradually, the images within the device began to coalesce, until they formed a single image; the very room in which everybody was standing. However, the room was empty, save for the device.

A bright flash issued from the device, blinding everyone temporarily. When vision cleared, there were twice the number of people in the room. Each person had an exact duplicate standing opposite the room from them.

One of the Corvuses spoke.

"Well, that was neat."

Tick-Tok looked at his mirror image.
"Woah, I'm gorgeus!" Tick-Tok said. He threw over the vials of light at melissa as he got closer to his image.

"well, that was neat" Corvus said. Mystic thought it was the original Corvus, as the other one was at the opposite console. Mystic noted the two Tick-Tok's in near proximity. One looking at himself as one would in a mirror, the other simply staring.

He leaned to his left until he saw a black boot on the opposite side of the device. He walked timidly around to see an exact replica of himself, staring at him. "I'm Mystic Inferno, and you are?" He extended his hand to his double.

The "copy" looked at him for a few seconds, then canted his head to one side and said, "I'm Mystic..." The voice wasn't quite right. "I'm Mystic Inferno, and you are?" An exact match for Mystic's voice.

"I'd call this more of an 'additional question' than an answer." Mystic looked back toward the others as he spoke.

"MYSTIC!!" shouted someone as he turned to see his double reaching for his forhead. With one touch, Mystic relived his whole life in an instant.

"Ow." Mystic grabbed his head and swayed a bit but held his hand up to the others as he heard powers flare and the blast doors come down again. "I don't think it was an attack."

The copy spoke. "You've trapped us here. We are not at our destination. Release us." With that, Jason's copy approached him and poked him with a finger, popping him like a bubble. The room shifted directly back to where it was before they started.

Mystic looked at Jason, who looked as shocked as anyone to see things restored so easily.

Melissa looked at her...self. "Two of me. Well, that could be...fun." Before her thoughts could finish however, Jason popped and everything was restored once again. "Oh drats. And I feel we are no closer to knowing anything about this thing. Who were they, and where are they going?"

The sound of the door spiraling open split the air as another person entered the room. He wore an old blue hooded sweatshirt and brown cargo pants, a katana was stuck behind his belt. His eyes were hidden by a thick pair of welding goggles as he surveyed the room and a gas mask covered the lower part of his face.

"Hey, some Bob Marley-lookin' guy said that..." his light-hearted greeting was cut short when he saw the device in the center of the room.
"Crap in a hat!! It can't be!!" He pointed a shaking finger at the device, panic and disbelief in his voice.
"You fools!! You fools!! Don't you realize? It's... it's..." he flung his arms up dramatically. "IT'S A METAL BOWL!!! Quick, get me five gallons of Raisin Bran. Stat!!"

For a couple minutes, silence reigned. Then the stranger's posture suddenly relaxed, his distress seemingly forgotten.

"Anyway," he said conversationally, "I'm the Cowman. The mummy outside said you guys were trying to figure this thing out." He picked up a carrot from the table and munched it noisily. "So, anything interesting happen yet?"

Mystic regarded Jason after watching the entrance of Cowman. "Are you sure we're not still in an alternate dimension?"

Mystic filled in the new arrival.

The Cowman listened to all that had happened up to that point.
"Kooky stuff," he said, scratching his chin. Walking up to the device he pulled his gas mask down around his neck, leaned close to one of the spheres and sniffed it.

"One thing that bothers me," he continued, stepping back from the sphere, "whether this thing's a teleporter or some dimensional gateway; why did the scientists dream of us specifically. I mean, I'm not exactly "Man of the Year" here. This whole thing sounds like some sort of "prophecy" thing."

His forehead creased in a scowl.
"I hate prophecy things."

"Prophecy.... Wait a moment, you're saying this thing asked for each of us specifically? If that's the case, then why are we all stepping into this trap? Whatever was in that orb tried to kill us. Who knows what might be unleashed when we're all here...possibly by our simple presence alone." Melissa's ghostly form hovered there, looking at each individual, the pinpoints of light for eyes being the only indication that she was indeed turning her head slightly. Again her voice came through indistinguishable lips, "We already know that device is full of evil. Maybe it's a prison. I don't know. All I know is that up until we started messing with it, it was leaving well enough alone. I say we keep it that way and ditch it where it was found." Again her eyes swiveled to each individual, looking for responses.

"If it weren't for the fact that we don't know who'd come along and get their grubby little hands on it, I'd be in complete agreement with you. Too bad life's not perfect like that. We may well have opened a Pandora's Box here, but unfortunately, I'm not sure we can just close it and forget about it." Corvus paused for a moment to think. "Either we make good and danged sure that whatever's in there can't get out with someone else's help, or we find some way to blow it to hell without letting our little friend out."

The Cowman picked up another carrot and poked at the strange machine until the vegetable became dried and cracked.

"Could be a trap," he said, taking a bite out of the ruined carrot, "or maybe there's something about us that makes us the only ones to put this thing outta commision for good."

He munched the carrot thoughtfully. "I hate magic," he grumbled, glancing at the reflections in the smooth metal.

"Hey," he said suddenly, "is it me or is there something different about our reflections in this thing?"

"You have got to be kidding me...." Melissa sighs, and she holds what must be her hand against her head, "All this righteousness is giving me a headache. ...Just bury the thing and post a guard. Good enough for me.... And what of the reflection...different how? Of course it's going to look a bit off, it's a curved surface," as she hovers over towards the orb Cowman is looking into to take a look for herself.

"It's a darker hue, for one. Also there is a slightly sinister expression on his face. Hold on, what's this?" Mystic leaned in from hovering behind Cowman. "It appears that your reflection is shoving a carrot up its nose."

Mystic looked down at Cowman. "Right, very funny. Now if we can get on with this examination BEFORE we give our final prognosis of whether it should be hurled into the sun or not..."

The blast doors came down once more and the device changed form. The top four spheres moved closer together and the others began swirling around. At first slowly near the ends and fast in the equatorial region.

The bright, rigid lightning began to twist and expand, and small blue bolts of lightning lanced out at the consoles at random. The device was moving the air around it as well and a quiet hum began to rise as the light it was giving off intensified.

"Whoa, I didn't touch a thing," the Cowman said quickly, stepping away from the spinning machine with his hands in the air. Refastening his gas mask over his face, he watched the orbs shoot off lightening, growing brighter and brighter.

"Um.... you guys can handle this, right?" He nervously edged his way towards the door.

Eyeing the device nervously, Corvus just shook her head.

"Handle what? We don't even know what the heck is happening. How would we know if we can handle it?" She motioned to the blast door. "Besides, I don't think you'll be able to get out anyway."

Corvus watched the device, readying herself for anything.

Mystic flew to his panel and began watching the fluctuations in energy readings. He quickly incanted a spell and his magic vision overlayed the holographic readings from the sensors.

"It's moving." Mystic said as the base began to spin like a drill head. "It's going to emit energy with sufficient force to dislodge it from our gravity well."

The wind was beginning to pick up and Mystic was staring at the hologram, so he couldn't discern who shouted "how do you know?" or something to that effect.

Mystic turned toward the rest of the group and put the wave form up on the overhead display. "There," he pointed to the shape, which resembled a pear. "Now, this is the magical energy that I see." The combined shapes resembled two spheres leaking into one another with a growing reaction where the forces met, and a solid barrier of energy above the four, topmost spheres.

"If I had to guess, and I do, it looks like that reaction will be expelled along the spheres and into that shield, propelling the physical mass forward with great force." Mystic looked around at everyone. "This will likely cause an explosion that could destroy a number of city blocks, despite the construction of our workspace."