OOC: Remember these three important words, Devious. 
Jingo.
Disco.
Leitmotif.
BIC:
"Tsk tsk." The Caldok said to Sydonia as she advanced. "Nobody shall remember you. While I shall be eternally memorialized." The plasma rifle began to glow, but again, that was just a hard-light illusion taking place, emitting no thermal signature. Perplexingly, the Caldok remained disturbingly still, and would remain still until something actually happened.
The backpack extended the tiniest of metallic tendrils to the touchpad, barely making contact with the casing and immediately drawing away, seemingly leaving the device alone. It then proceeded to carefully and silently burrow its way deeper through the arrangement of shelves until it became the proverbial needle in a haystack.
Torcher glanced toward Griffen, face grim but by a pure and primal habit, he couldn't help himself from doing the customary head lift as a sign of 'hello.' He stared at the somewhat strange creature for a moment before turning back to Pyra.
Who was still intent on Burning.
Torcher sighed. Apparently to get attention around here, one had to come within an inch of death and be permanently disfigured.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
((Well, okay. Just remember that without knowing what you're attempting, I can't say what the result is. ))
At the moment of the expected firing, The Tsaiv cyborg was suddenly no longer in the line of fire, a snapped sidestep much in the manner of Synapse having translated her position.
Though surprised by the clear lack of plasma beam where she'd expected one to be right about now, Sydonia certainly wasn't distracted enough to not lunge for Egregore with much the same quickness...
--------------------
"Uh...m...one moment." Griffin excused himself form the orderly after a ginger tap on the man's back, receiving a nod in response. The man stopped and waited with crossed arms as the griffin headed toward Torcher.
"Hye, uhm...hi." he greeted him sheepishly, hands behind his back, which depending on the VB officer's stature may well have appeared quite comical an action by the decidedly tall and muscular griffin in the sleeveless military outfit, "...you okay...?"
--------------------
((Huh, I just realized I forgot to add this last post. ))
Somewhere in China
A dragon stirred. The sort that was red, large, and tired. A black, plated eyebrow sifted uneasily, then came open to allow light into the large, yellow eye beneath. Oddly enough, its pupil was round, though this made its gaze none the warmer, looking unhappily about the cavern as the dragon's long neck rose in tandem with the opening of her second eye.
Okay...where the heck was she...?
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
That's the idea. There always needs to be some surprises. If everything is pre-decided, the entire thing just gets boring.
That being said...Let's get dangerous.
BIC:
The moment Sydonia came in contact with the Caldok, the hard-light disguise unraveled as it encountered more force (about a standard punch in terms of power) than it could handle. Which is when everything went horribly, horribly wrong.
Sydonia was a 4th generation cyborg. Which meant she was gifted with heightened reflexes and reaction times. Unfortunately, this came with a small downside. She also had better comprehension time. And if her amygdala was still intact and functioning properly, she was about to receive a rather macabre sight. Before her was an empty SACK of skin a couple of inches thick. It was almost entirely hollow, with only three interior organs left and missing both its arms. Random flaps of it weren't even physically connected to other parts. The interior of each skin was coated in black and yellow ooze. The head was the only part that bore any semblance to a human still, and what was there was obviously cybernetic. A stripped-down barely basic assembly of skull, mouth and eyes were present.
Of course, Sydonia only got a while to look upon this, since her abnormally heightened abilities regarding her senses only stretched her perception of time so far. Without the solidity of the hard-light disguise to hold it up, the sack of skin sagged and collapsed lifelessly upon the floor. Black and yellow ooze drifted away from the remains, staining the floor. And then the mouth began to speak. Or rather, sing. An upbeat earworm worked its way rather pleasantly throughout the room via a synthetic woman's voice:
"...and believe me I am still alive
I'm doing science and I'm still alive
I feel FANTASTIC and I'm still alive
While you are dying I'll be still alive
and when you're dead I'll be still alive
STILL ALIVE, still alive..."
The mantra repeated over and over and over again until somebody smashed the skull or otherwise interacted with it.
***
[u]Elsewhere[u]
"Well, that could have gone better." An irate voice said in the darkness. A solitary light burst forth, revealing a red, glowing, half-sphere with a hologram of a very old man wearing robes that indicated him as a member of the Circle of Thorns.
"Meh. It would have happened relatively soon anyway." Another half-sphere lit up in the darkness, this one some distance away from the first. A Malta Gunslinger was projected above it. It just happened sooner rather than relatively soon. And we still got what we needed out of this little endeavor anyway. It was about time for a change, if you ask me."
A third half-sphere alit, again a fair distance from the other two. This one projected a member of the Cabal. "I, for one, look forward to the upcoming addition to our Egregore. She technically killed our host. Or at least his hard-light life-support anyway. New minds equates to more knowledge which equates to more power. I agree with #64, we came out of this situation with nothing but profit to show for it."
The old man shook his head at the other two holograms. "We are beginning to abuse our hosts now to the point where it is only for a minor and immediate convenience. We cannot discard hosts so carelessly every time we run into an unforeseen kink. You two have the nerve to say that what we just did was the best course of action? Now we will have to apply to the Eternal Engine from a different dimension than normal, and considering the state of affairs here, this Teivos fellow may very well trace such a connection straight back to the Engine!"
Sixteen lights came into being in the darkness, a garden of corresponding holograms springing up. Most of these remained silent, but several started speaking.
"LET them trace the Engine if they want. They are impotent and unable to hinder it. Let them tremble in fear before its vastness."
"The next member is a cyborg. I think she will be the first one. I wonder how she will deal with the integration process."
"#21 is wise, and we should do well to heed his advice. This situation has degenerated unfavorably to such an extent that retreat is now the only option."
"I oppose this woman's nomination to join our Egregore!"
This last remark gained a lot of attention. At least fifty additional lights sprang into being.
"She did not truly kill our host! WE killed our host when with withdrew and took his apparatus and chassis with us. She just knocked over a corpse that had failed to fall down. There is no reason to integrate her. There is also the risk she may oppose the Egregore even after joining. She is a cyborg! We have no idea of what her mental faculties are! AND she is from a different dimension than the norm. She is too alien. A foreign link in the chain weakens the Egregore as a whole."
This argument sparked lots of shouting between the vast gathering of holograms, until the Gunslinger roared above the entire crowd. "SILENCE, ALL OF YOU! Everybody is to immediately add their opinions to the Device so that the appropriate action may be taken."
There was silence. Several moments passed, and in the dead center of the gathering, something appeared. The death of meaning appeared, and delivered the verdict. The cyborg is to be added to the Egregore as soon as possible. As soon as a new host is built, we will act upon the Host Drive's current plan. We shall take these armaments and make them our own, and we shall construct weapons of great conflict with them. And with these weapons, we shall bring destruction to this plane and chase the interloper from it. The death of meaning vanished. The holograms winked out, their lights fading, one by one, and there was darkness again.
***
Amongst the shelfs of the armory, the central red diode of the backpack blipped. The Egregore Device was dead.
Now it was the Egregore Device's turn.
Torcher looked up in surprise at the sound of someone trying to get his attention. "Huh? Me, nah, I'm fine. I wasn't the one who nearly got vaporized or nothin'." He glanced at Pyra for a moment, to see if his tone would break her constant stare. It didn't.
"How 'bout you? Looks like you got hit with the ugly side of a bad transforming curse, huh? Don't worry, these docs can fix anything." He looked down at Burning, a conflict of emotions rendering his face neutral. "Well, almost anything."
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
The rapid *slapslapslapslapslapslapslapslapslap* of carpet slippers hitting tile at a brisk trot echoed through the upper corridors of Teivos' tower. A brusque young (human) woman wearing a labcoat, frizzy hair, large, coke-bottle glasses, a voluminous robe over the labcoat (it might have been supposed to look mystical, but instead came off more like a huge and rather ratty bathrobe), and a harried expression came up to Teivos' door.
Her pace was somewhere midway between a rush and a flat-out charge, and when the guards showed no signs of getting out of her way, she stopped dead just short of plowing straight into them. She stretched out a hand and wiggled her fingers a little, and when this didn't produce any result other than faintly bemused looks, she made an irritated noise and dug through one of her many pockets, eventually locating whatever she was looking for, doing something that produced a faint 'click' like a switch being thrown, and wiggled her fingers again.
Space deformed slightly around the two guards, pushing them out of her way without actually moving them as her counter-jamming blocked their odcarovat signal, and she slipped neatly through the door, closing it firmly in the faces of the startled guards.
"Honestly, people always assume that mystical inclinations mean you're useless with technology..." she muttered, shutting off her counter-jammer. "Of course, it helps that I have enough clearance to access the specs, but still. Good morning, sir." she greeted Teivos with an absolute minimum of reverence.
"Your aura is muddled- you haven't been eating properly again, you really must take care of yourself better... were you aware that we have the magical equivalent of... I want to say a Nuke, but that would give the wrong impression... sitting in your basement?" Major Renata Dos Santos announced in a single breath, one arm twitching in the start of a salute that got cancelled halfway up as she got distracted again.
"I'm not certain exactly where it's coming from- I didn't bother to track it, as I was assuming you would prefer to know sooner rather than later. It's not exactly dangerous in the traditional sense- as far as I can tell, it won't even singe a living being or damage anything that's part of them, so cybernetics should be safe, but anything else is going to get vapourised. There might be a few injuries from structural failures as a chunk of the building goes bye-bye, but beyond that and some minor embarassment as clothes also go bye-bye, it shouldn't be any more harmful to your personnel than that." Major Dos Santos announced, running a hand through her dark hair and succeeding only in frizzing it still further.
"Also, the Overmagus has wandered off again, and I was wondering if you wished me to take over his magical duties in the interim, and this thing in the basement really needs to be looked at. It feels like sitting on an already-partially-exploded nuke that has relatively peaceful intentions. It is, to be honest, rather distracting."
The major produced a crystal from yet another pocket and waved it at Teivos, a puzzled expression on her face as she apparently forgot he was there, prodding the glowing stone with one slender finger as her tongue stuck out of the side of her mouth. Granted, this was pretty much par for the course with her, and something that Teivos was likely long since used to.
-----
In the CPSR base, the dragon would likely find her awakening unremarked-upon. A cursory glance at the magical flows in the area would reveal wards around the cavern, but they didn't seem to be set to activate unless she did something overtly magical. The sounds of a large fortress in a veritable frenzy of busy activity filtered through occasionally, but beyond that, nobody seemed inclined to provide her any further information.
------
Flashpoint Zeo, in the meantime, sat in the midst of the whirl of flame and doodled idly on the bedsheet with one vast finger. He couldn't reabsorb the magic without risking what he had vented all this magic to prevent in the first place happening, couldn't see out through the vast cocoon of fire, and didn't honestly care that much; he knew he had been moved, and presumably the fortress, if his understanding of tyrants like the Dark Sovereign served him properly, was within shouting distance of Teivos. He could wait.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((Ack...blue text...my eyes! My poor eyes! ))
Staetlov Research Institute
Level P-3, Armory
Sydonia gasped in horror as her supposed opponent literally went to pieces, recoiling with the shock at what for a moment she believed she had done. Almost in reflex, a signal went to the Institute, composed of little more than infinitesimal impulse. Had there been wording, however, it would've come close to someone screaming 'medic!'
The armory doors came open once more, CANINE units marching in through the one-way force field before the security system even had a chance to fully deactivate the door's protocols. Several more personnel came in their wake.
Through confused looks and chatter, a call went out for a medical team and stasis unit even as Sydonia still gingerly scooped up the singing skull, her sensors trying frantically to figure out if there was anything that still remotely fit the definition of 'alive' in there.
Instinct and hope for one told her so - but would they be confirmed...?
--------------------
tátna Zbrojovka
Tower Hospital
"Huh?" Griffin traded sheepishness for confusion at Torcher's words, looking himself up and down. Okay, so his outfit had taken a few rips in that chaos earlier, but...
"Hey!" he exclaimed as he got what the man meant. Why, he never! With hands at his hips and wings pushed just a little wider, "I'll have you know this is the way I've always been, thank you very much..."
--------------------
tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Top Floor
"Excruciatingly." Teivos returned with a short glance up from the paperwork in his hand, tossing the stack back down onto the table, "And pay attention when you speak to me."
The Tsaigon blinked again. Why had he just said that?
"Strike that." he waved the oddity off. She was probably right: he was getting into things too forcefully again, "As I said, I am aware. And how many times do I have to tell you: the detention block is not the basement. That would be the submarine pen...which incidentally I've been putting off on checking up on..."
He gave a huffed sigh, looking to the window gallery, "I swear, everything's gone crazy. Go right ahead. It's the prisoner in cell D-3. Some kind of fire giant. As for Archlich, he is presently feeling, how do you say...under the weather, so I'm sure he would appreciate it..."
--------------------
CPSR Base
If the red dragon took note of the wards, she didn't much seem to care, a long, thorough stretch her only initial reaction to finding herself here. She felt stiff and groggy, making the elimination thereof her first priority. Everything else could wait.
She ended with a stretch and flap of her wide wings, then folded them against her back again. After a glance about, she picked the first-best-looking exit large enough for her. If her senses told her anything about this place, she was bound to run into someone no matter which direction she chose...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
The Egregore Device: An astute observation designation: DeviousMe. Please bear in mind from now on that poor optical sensory input may result from using the City of Heroes forum default blue skin. Our Egregore advises switching to the clearly superior and more stimulating City of Villains forum default red skin, which exerts less overall strain on optical sensory input. So as you can see, our narrator was being quite serious with his previous remark regarding, quote, Let's Get Dangerous Semicolon Parenthese unquote, possibly in regards to inflicting needless pain upon the soft, vulnerable sacks of semi-solid fluid, optical rods and water that you use for eyes.
We would also like to express the hope that designation: Sydonia Teivosovna Korovinova, will remain active within your operation schedule. One could say that we anticipate working with her in the near future. That is all.
BIC:
Sydonia, if she could detect organic matter, or electrical signals, or brainwaves, or anything of the sort, would be able to tell there was genuine organic brain functions within the skull that did not appear to be in danger of ceasing any time soon.
***
Outside the research institution, Legion descended from the sky and examined the building's roof for any ventilation or duct ends he could use to infiltrate the place unseen.
"Oh," said Torcher, caught a little off guard. Yikes... "Sorry. I just don't see that many uh... mutants? These days."
At Griffon's bristling and the ruffle of feathers, Pyra slowly turned. She glanced at him for a moment, muttered, "Morning," then turned back to her vigil.
Of course, for all she knew it could be six o' clock in the evening. The room wasn't exactly naturally lit.
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Major Dos Santos didn't give any particular indication that she'd even heard the reprimand, continuing to poke at the crystal for a while. Eventually, she shook her head. "Your aura appears to be realigning, or some such... I think. It's a very minute change, difficult to track." she commented abstractedly, pocketing the crystal once more.
Another abortive salute. "A fire giant? Nordic, or..?" she asked, scratching her head with the hand that had started the salute. "No, never mind- if you knew, you would have told me."
The major rubbed her chin, then turned that into a salute, nearly jabbing herself in the eye and knocking her glasses askew. "I'll take care of it, sir." she said, and strode briskly back out the doors, slamming them open hard enough that the troopers standing guard were nearly taken off their feet when the doors crashed into them.
As the doors closed, her voice could be heard a final time "And make sure you get some real food into you, none of this processed concentrated ration garbage!"
As soon as she was out of range of the guard's Odcarovats (and around a corner), the Major simply vanished, using her priviledges as a 'friendly' flagged caster to bypass the various magic-dampening devices. Out of consideration for the guards, she, as usual, popped up around a corner.
Then she strode up and started hitting buttons on the control console for the cells. At a strangled exclamation from the closest guard and a hand on her arm pulling it away from the console, she gave him a look.
"Tabs? On collar? I outrank you, soldier. I'm ordering you right now to let go of my arm, and let me go about my duties. If you think you have a better idea of what I'm about to do than I do, feel free to let me know. Without laying hands on a superiour officer. Unless you'd rather explain to the Court Martial panel why you think you have a better idea of what I'm doing than I do."
-----
Somewhere in China:
The red dragon found herself in a huge cave full of excercising men. The air stank of sweat, blood and magic as hundreds of mages, young and old, dueled and trained in combat. A few glanced at her for an instant (and at least one got crispy-fried for having the temerity to take his eyes off his opponent), but beyond that, little note was taken of her.
The chief drill instructor tossed a salute at her on general principles, and went back to overseeing a high-level sparring match.
((RE-EDIT- Right, whatever, getting frustrated with this whole thing, but presumably this is approved. Carry on -_-))
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
[ QUOTE ]
"I hate it when he keeps these people alive." one detention block guard sighed to the other at the 'camera malfunction', "What's yours doing?"
[/ QUOTE ]
There was actually a very good reason why Isabel had blasted the camera, and it only had a little to do with simply annoying the guards. With her powers vastly weakened as they were - they were returning, but it'd take time - she lacked the strength required to simply blow a hole in the wall and leave. However, if she took the small amount she could access and charged it up a bit, she could achieve much the same result. Except the guards would have prevented that by interrupting her, thus the destroyed camera.
Really, she should have informed Flashpoint of her intentions. But, the radio she'd been left to contact him with was almost certainly being monitored, and thus informing Flashpoint would only result in the same interruption she didn't want. So it'd have to be a surprise.
She stood up off the cot, spreading her stance wide for stability as she began building up the power she needed. At this rate it'd take a couple of minutes, and she hoped the guards weren't paying enough attention to notice the soft humming noise her charging was making until it was too late.
----------------
(( Since Crimson's bailed on us, I'm skipping Valerie ahead. Sans bikers. ))
After seeing Isabel on that news report Valerie made all haste out here, unable to sit idly by doing nothing while they did who knows what to her sister in that tower. Somewhere along the way she'd lost the biker gang, which was understandable given what she'd been intending to do. They had no reason to follow her into what was most likely suicide.
Utilising a stolen cloaking device, she'd snuck past the patrols and now lay on a rooftop nearish to the tower where Isabel and her allies were being held. Several times she'd come so close to people that they had to have seen her, but amazingly she'd gone unnoticed. This led to her being slightly paranoid about maybe them wanting her here for whatever reason, and her checking the area around her frequently for any signs that would indicate the presence of anyone else on her rooftop.
In between those checks, she looked through the scope of her sniper rifle (also cloaked by the device, and a handy substitute for the binoculars she no longer had) at the tower a few blocks over, and tried to come up with a plan of how to get Isabel out. Though, if this Isabel was anything like the one Valerie had grown up with, she'd get herself out.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
((To the Egregore Device: as your Egregore has not known me as long as your author, I shall just this once overlook its blatant accusation that I view these boards through the goodie-two-shoes-skinned interface. But don't let it happen again. Me having anything heroic to do with this...why, I never. And yes, this also means that blue really doesn't go well here. 
I suggest something with better contrast, like sky blue or such.))
--------------------
Needless to say, Sydonia was greatly relieved at her findings, especially as the medical team arrived.
"Quick, take this to Daniela's Molvia." she turned the remains over to them, "I will be right with you."
"Search the place." she then told the present personnel, as well as security's CANINE units, sweeping an arm out over the armory shelves. Meanwhile, the one-way barrier across the open door deactivated to let the medical team back out, "He said he'd already gotten what he came for. If so much as a bullet is missing, I want to know about it."
With that, she set out to follow the medical team, the others present already beginning their sweep. If they found the backpack, and it did nothing to alert them to the fact that it was anything but a regular backpack, it would soon be on its way to the Molvia as well, qualified as 'potentially relevant to patient revival'.
Outside, Legion would find his best bet of entering the research institute to be the building's exhaust vents. True, air came out of there, but due to their positive pressure differential, they weren't secured with things such as biofilters and other nasty traps for small intruders. If Legion could go against the flow, he'd have no trouble entering the building.
Of course, that assumed he still wanted to after the medical team emerged from the entrance and stormed to the waiting heavy-lift helicopter...
--------------------
"What, now you're calling me a mutant?" Griffin smirked warmly, the man only stepping further into it making him feel a little better about his own nervousness around strangers, "Relax, don't worry about it. I've already noticed I seem to be the only griffin here. That's my name too, by the way. Don't laugh, okay?"
"Sir, we really need to get going." the orderly fell in giving his wristwatch a tap, "Teivos is expecting you."
"Oh, uhm...right." Griffin glanced back and forth, giving his shoulder a nervous scratch. He knew he was supposed to go...but the man in the bed there, he looked so...he couldn't just leave, could he? He had to be able to do...
Idea!
"Hey, you guys know this guy really well, right?" he quickly wanted to know of Torcher and Pyra, "I mean, as in a lot about him and just what happened to him, right? Good. C'mon, follow me. I've got an idea..."
--------------------
"Gladly." the Caldok soldier retorted gruffly, not releasing her arm. He glanced at the console. Outdated piece of junk. Why hadn't the engineers already gotten rid of that thing? It was nothing but a gaping hole in security. Fortunately, he could at least use his SLI to lock it out temporarily.
"Assuming of course that would happen." he added once he'd done so, "You seem to forget we have slightly different rules - and I am hereby refusing an unreasonable order."
"I note witness." a second guard gave a nod to the Major, and though no one could say if she truly did, chances were she recalled exactly what that meant.
Several species served in the Pozemna Armada, and some operated under different rules than others. Caldok culture, for instance, was that of the warrior, and carried an extremely strict honor code. By logical extension, their divisions' rule set mirrored this code in many an example.
One such example was the right to refuse an order the soldier considered unreasonable, such as executing non-combatants. The situation of an angry officer ordering the crying child be shot, and the soldier 'just following orders' did not exist to a Caldok. He or she had every right to say 'no', as well as follow through with preventative means.
"So, would you care to explain to us why you should like to set upon everyone the volcano in cell five?" the soldier now released her arm, "Or to be more specific, why you are not taking proper precautions, such as bringing with you a containment team, or draining from that clearly super-powered person his or her power before shutting off the containment fields...?"
--------------------
The red dragon's long neck rose, and she blinked with confusion. Last she recalled, Hotaka trained ninjas, not mages. Moreover, none of them had ever saluted her. What was going on here? This was clearly some sort of army. Did they believe her an officer?
Her pupils moved to the top of her sockets. Nope, no cap there - and as far as she could tell nothing on the rest of her either. So what was the deal?
Opting that her best bet for answers was the man who had saluted, she attempted to make her way over to him without stepping on anyone, then get his attention again (maybe by poking him in the back of his shoulder), and asking, "Hey, you - what's going on here? Where am I...?"
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
OOC:
The Egregore Device: Our optical sensors indicate that there is no reason blue text would be harmful in any manner upon the City of Villains default red skin. We are now concerned that you have a previously unknown medical issue regarding the color blue when surrounded by dark red.
BIC:
The moment Legion detected the cybernetic skull moving, they changed plans and started heading for the flier as well, not even trying to be stealthy. Currently, they appeared to be on an intercept course with the medical team...
Back inside, the search team would find nothing out of place save for Sydonia's touch-pad, which she had not retrieved on her way out. Whether or not they decided this was relevant or not was, of course, up to them.
Torcher didn't look too bothered by his second mistake, same for when he learned the griffin's name. He wasn't really one to comment on originality, I mean sure, the name had an awesome double meaning but it kind of got lost when he started working with the VB.
The possibility of being able to help Burning made it through her watch to Pyra's ears. She turned and stood quickly. "Right behind you."
She followed, leaving a frustrated Torcher behind for just a moment before he sighed and joined them.
Left alone, the steady music Burning's breath created with the soft notes of the heart monitors, the undertones of machinery, was free to echo through the room. The sound would lull a listener if they weren't so occupied, and had a doubling effect to keep Burning in his calm, recuperative sleep.
Until a new sound entered that song, one sour note fouling the melody.
'It's time to get up...'
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
"Your questions are irrelevant and potentially dangerous to the well being of everybody in this building, since they are causing me to waste vital time." the Major informed the Caldok.
"And you will remove that hand, or I will remove that hand. At the shoulder, if need be."
Those who worked with Dos Santos in the lab would barely recognize her now. Gone was the dreamy look in her eyes, the perpetually slightly-unfocussed look that seemed to be trying to take in everything at once and think about it all at the same time, to the point that there probably wasn't enough brain capacity left to walk and chew gum at the same time. Now, there was a dangerous glint in her eyes and a laser-like focus on the immediate problem.
"To answer your question..." she began, the arm the Caldok still gripped beginning to burn with white-hot magical flame. She didn't particularly care whether or not it burned him; he had had two warnings, which she considered more than sufficient. "... draining this individual with the equipment in place would be useless, we can't draw it off faster than he generates it. And the containment team would only delay the inevitable and potentially make the ensuing 'volcano' far, far worse."
"This is officially Sigil Branch 2 business; if you dislike it, you may take it up with the Sovereign, as I have his orders to deal with this problem. I am doing so to the best of my ability, and you will have to trust me. The time for explanations is over."
Renata returned to hitting the buttons, using her own SLI to override the trooper's lockout. Setting the shield to iris open slowly, she hoped to direct the worst of the damage away from anything vital by channeling the Tanker's mystic flames into a single beam.
The fire wouldn't harm a living soul, but there was the potential of considerable structural damage to the tower if it were simply allowed to run loose- compressed celestial dragonfire with a sub-component that caused distintegration by disrupting molecular bonds would be horrifically destructive to everything not specifically excluded from the spell, and the Major didn't have any particular confidence that the tower's anti-magic gear would be enough to block the reaction. Teivos' engineers tended to treat magic as merely a slightly esoteric branch of science, and ignored any of the multitude of strange outlier cases that disrupted their comfortable 'all has been explained' viewpoint.
With a sharp nod, the Major hit the final button, the troopers already forgotten.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((!))
Outside of Teivos' conference room, two figures shuffled nervously.
"Way to royally [censored] up, War. Now that we delivered Grif back to them, they'll never trust us, and we're out of cards."
"What're you talking about?" War shrugged back to the Demolition Man. "All we gotta do is fabricate a little feel-good type story, 'bout his friend here, boom, we're top of the heap."
"And speak of the devil, here's our ticket." War gestured towards the approaching Grif. Famine stepped back apprehensively, but the Mercs couldn't help but look relieved to see him.
Staetlov Research Institute
They did not. The touchpad was little more than a paperless notepad, which the cyborg had been using to catalogue her rounds. It was neither connected to anything, nor did it hold any more data than what Sydonia had checked through so far. Well, maybe a few quickly jotted doodles beside when she'd gotten bored a few times.
On the surface, the cyborg herself stormed after the medical team and into the belly of the 'oversized Chinook' that was the Molvia. VB officers did flank, but with Legion's capabilities, it wasn't a far stretch to sneak aboard. It didn't take long at all for the rear ramp to come up, followed by the entire aircraft, and once at altitude, the Molvia teleported.
It arrived at tátna Zbrojovka just as part of a window row of the city-sized facility's upper tower blew out in a gout of smoke and fire; namely, that of the 33rd floor...
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tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Top Floor
"Oh hey there!" Griffin waved at the Horsemen with an excited smile, spotting them as he and those with him stepped from the elevator doors, "Man, am I glad you guys made it. I was already worried when I didn't see you downstairs. That giganto-spark got me pretty good."
"Not just you." Teivos stepped from the door to his office before the mercenaries could reply, a wry smirk directed at the two, Wolfgang at his side, "And in more than one way. But let's talk about that over lunch. I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Come, we-"
A sudden shudder of the floor cut off his words - or rather, the simultaneous two-toned blare of an alarm did. Admittedly though, even if it hadn't, Vlasta's facepalm certainly would've.
"I should've killed them." he grumble-mumbled, speaking purely from his imagination, which in this case just happened to be correct, "I should've just kill them. Wolfgang, why do I never just kill them?"
"Because you don't learn." retorted the cyborg with a shrug of shoulders, "Oh, and because we still want information from them, remember?"
"Wait, what?" Griffin looked from one to the other, visibly confused, not to mention startled at the prospect of killing people, "What's going on?"
"Come, we'll show you." Teivos motioned to follow him, headed back in the general direction of the elevator. He didn't call the one that people had just some from though, instead heading a bit further to an open door that seemed to lead to nothing but a long, circular vertical shaft. It was one of a pair, arranged side by side.
An antigrav lift.
The one he now used had been set on 'down', the field inside maintaining a very comfortable falling speed...
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tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Floor 33
There was a reason Teivos had chosen to bring Zeo and Isabel here with him. It wasn't pride, or overconfidence, or the desire to mock his opponents, or even the want to have them close. No, it was much simpler than that, being merely that the 33rd floor's detention block was the safest place on the planet to stick people like them. Even Zigursky Penitentiary couldn't hold a candle in that category.
But then, the Zig didn't have a Major Dos Santos.
The magical flame exploded into the corridor, triggering the block's defenses. Well, some anyway. The Odcarovat was vaporized before the computer could much get it up to speed, and blast doors weren't exactly known for quick closure. Force fields were good, especially within walls and carrying higher-ordered components, but Zeo had already weaseled his magic through them once, and they didn't hold up long - less than a few microseconds to be precise.
Thus it fell to the redirector - essentially nothing more than a metaphysically present lighting rod - to do just as its name implied and redirect the energies that powered Zeo's disintegration spell; specifically to a place where such energies were in high demand: the capacitors of the oscillocrystal manufactory.
Truth be told, the Esertosians by no means treated magic as but a slightly esoteric branch of science. They treated it as something highly esoteric that they knew fully well they didn't really understand. They did know those that did could use it in very dangerous ways indeed, and thus just as with things that were highly alike to it (such as the energies of hyperspace) had developed means to deal with the fundamental components of the matter.
But not enough.
Down in the manufactory, the elephant-sized Capacitor 3 blew with thunderous applause. it didn't take long for five more to follow, spraying fire, slag, metal, and what any mage would doubtlessly have described as magic crystal all over the place. Antigrav conveyor belts simply disappeared, their cargo spilling everywhere, smoke and flames filling the air, followed of course by a rain of water.
Back on the 33rd floor, the blast of celestial dragonfire now behaved much more like one of more mundane nature, though of course things weren't all they seemed. Not that there was much time to notice, the gout of flame choosing the path of least resistance and spilling out into the open air though the windows its pressure front already shattered into a million pieces.
The detention block was left in shambles, alarms blared, and from darkened corridors, the trample of boots could be just faintly heard.
Of course, the more immediate question was what had happened to those right here, in the block itself. The doors were heavily armored and shielded, so chances were that though Isabel's was now a useless piece of twisted metal, it had very much protected her. But what about Major Dos Santos? What about the guards?
If they'd not been incapacitated, they'd be at least quite stunned for a few moments just from the sudden shock of it all. Their modified plasma rifles, the very same models as that Wolfgang had used to rob Zeo of his shields in the alley, would not speak right away - and if the Major ordered so, not at all for now...
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Somewhere in China
((See last post. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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OOC:
The Egregore Device: A note for the future: From this moment forth, whenever the human host of the Egregore Device is vitally challanged, we shall refer to it as "Gregory" rather than "the Egregore Device." In the host's case this is merely a title. We are the Egregore Device. That is all.
BIC:
Legion was not TRYING to hide OR sneak around. Now, they were trying rather explicitly to gain somebody's attention. And they had quite a bit of data from Gregory's short-lived adventure in the research institute. It had all the details and particulars, and knew exactly how to take advantage of the situation. Since it was apparently so easy to board a military craft, Legion did so while simultaneously calling out to Sydonia.
"Designation: Sydonia Korovinova, General Toy Dispenser has been monitoring the research institute and received notice of an event of interest. He sent me..."
The me sounded forced, but only if one was listening carefully.
"To investigate, as he is unfortunately preoccupied with a different matter currently. I have reviewed the situation with your staff, and I request access to the recovered specimen of the intruder, which I detect is currently on board."
[ QUOTE ]
Chances were that though Isabel's was now a useless piece of twisted metal, it had very much protected her.
[/ QUOTE ]
Even if it hadn't Isabel probably would have been ok or at least alive, having rather hastily redirected the energies she'd been gathering into a personal forcefield. That field remained active as she extricated herself from the wreckage of the door, along with a good chunk of the wall that had held it. "Well. Not entirely according to plan...", she commented in a somewhat amused voice.
With the power dampeners rather offline due to the damage, she was extremely tempted to cut herself a path to the nearest outside wall and leave. However, she realised that'd probably result in her having half an army on her tail again and this time they might not be so reasonable. Besides, the ones she'd met so far didn't really seem the 'evil' type. She was starting to doubt she'd been on the right side after all.
Thus, she stayed. Didn't even leave her cell in fact, though she did poke her head out through the gaping hold that had been the door and inquire as to what the hell just happened.
--------------------
[ QUOTE ]
It arrived at tátna Zbrojovka just as part of a window row of the city-sized facility's upper tower blew out in a gout of smoke and fire; namely, that of the 33rd floor...
[/ QUOTE ]
Valerie had been tracking the Molvia on the way in (and wondering how it hadn't seen her, surely with the equipment those things had they could spot a sniper of a rooftop, especially with it having flown almost directly over her?), until the aforementioned explosion drew her attention.
Well. This certainly changed things. The extra security they'd no doubt put in place after something like that would almost certainly ruin any plans of sneaking in. As it was, the only option Valerie had was to stay where she was and wait, hoping that Isabel would free herself. Needless to say, she wasn't exactly happy to be force into such inaction. She was half-tempted to take a shot at the Molvia just to say she'd done something, but wasn't quite frustrated enough to actually do it just yet.
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: STOP!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WAIT ONE SECOND!
[Admin] Emperor Marcus Cole: WHAT IS A SEAGULL DOING ON MY THRONE!?!?
(([censored]. I wrote a post, hit 'Continue' (with it copied onto clipboard), then forgot and went and did something else... including copying and pasting something. "The form you have submitted is no longer valid." [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] YOU, FORUM BUG!))
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
Torcher started to follow Teivos and the others when he noticed Pyra sighing and turning back toward the med-ward. He grabbed her arm, causing her to stare hard into his eyes at the sudden touch. "This is important," said Torcher.
"So is watching Brawler."
"He'll be fine in there, now let's go. What trouble's he gonna get into lying in a bed in this place, huh?" Their eyes locked for a few moments before her tension released and Torcher let her go. The two walked together, moving quickly to catch up with the others to go down the anti-grav lift.
--------------------
Burning awoke with a start. His body lurched as all his momentum attempted to bring him upward, but the metal restraints held him firmly in place.
'Remain calm... You have been changed by some rather unfortunate circumstances.'
Memories flooded back to him. The blast, the pain, his rampage against the Chinese forces, and his discovery of his changed, scarred, ruined appearance. Rage twisted his features, his teeth clenched so tight they began to grate.
'Ah, ah, ah. Behave like that and you'll never be free of this place.'
For just an instant the restraints clicked open, then locked shut once more before Burning could move himself free.
'They have power dampening technology, best not to waste your energy trying to melt them down. All you can do now is listen carefully.'
Burning's eyes narrowed. He didn't like this strange voice that he couldn't force from his mind. He really had no choice but to do as it requested.
'Your injuries are the result of the Overmagus's carelessness, his lack of thought toward the people. You are living proof of his negligence, and that angers you.'
The revulsion Burning had formerly felt toward the mention of the Overmagus, that abomination of life, it was true that it now was replaced by rage. But the lich was his superior, in rank and power. He shook his head weakly. If the Overmagus didn't care for the people who served the Sovereign under him, what could one man do?
'Exactly,' responded the voice. Burning grimaced, wishing he'd thought of the fact that if a voice was speaking inside his head, it was all too likely that it could also hear his thoughts. 'Alone, you would be destroyed. Alone you are powerless, weak to his might. But the Overmagus is not an invincible being.' Images flashed in Burning's mind like a flash of flame, images of the Overmagus lying on the ground, barely alive, for lack of a better term. 'You could recreate this, and finish it. You could do what dragons could not. But you will need my assistance. Will you accept what is your right?'
Trembling, Burning nodded and the restraints clicked open once more.
'To our business then...'
Arc ID: 475246, "Bringing a Lord to Power"
"I'm only a simple man trying to cling to my tomorrow. Every day. By any means necessary."
-Caldwell B. Cladwell
Had Sydonia's face held eyebrows, one of them quite certainly would've risen at this point. What was...a targeting drone? No, it looked just a little different. Was that one of those bit-things? No. What was going on here?
"I am sure." the cyborg responded sardonically, hand toward the bulk of the others on board, fingers outstretched to stay them. A disappointed frown and her Slavic accent only added to the aforementioned manner, "If this is so, why are you talking to me?"
With a slight bounce, the Molvia's wheels touched down on the runway...
((Can't really do anything else until things move along some, sorry. ))
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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"I thought I had made it clear with my statement that I was requesting access from the vicinity's immediate superior. But since it appears you are demonstrating paranoia due to your recent event, I will not object to your calling up the good General to ask him for confirmation yourself. He will get ahold of this item sooner or later, and if it is later, you will find any credit you might have gained for its retrieval to be reassigned to him. It is to everyones' benefit to get such trivial business out of the way rather than escalating it, no?"
Major Renata Dos Santos brushed her hands together lightly, and then cinched her cotton robe tightly closed, nodding in a satisfied fashion to the exceptionally startled (and now stark naked) Caldoks. "As I would have explained, had we had more time, the spell that was building up in the cell was specifically tuned to be utterly harmless to living beings. However, it was destabilizing, for some reason, and would have reverted to simply being a magical explosion of immense power in fairly short order- and while the cell would have contained it for a time, it would eventually have overloaded the shields after growing at a geometric pace until its growth outpaced our ability to contain it, by which point it could potentially have cracked the planet like an eggshell." The Major didn't bother to clarify that this was probably a worst-case scenario; the spell in question was a very strange one, bizarrely powerful and none too stable- the only probable effect was that all effects would be highly improbable.
She shrugged, peering through the smoke at the fuzzy bright spot that was the huge fire tanker. He hadn't moved, or even shifted position to do more than look around. She shrugged and returned her attention to the Caldoks, noticing for the first time that they were naked. "I'm really going to have to have a word or two with Teivos about getting some cotton undergarments for you lot... I'm sure you'd be a bit less snotty if you actually had comfortable underwear... Right, you, why non-lethal?" she demanded, abruptly switching her focus to Flashpoint Zeo.
The big tanker glanced at her, nonplussed by the abrupt switch of topics and focus. "... did not wish to kill anybody?" he said after a moment.
Dos Santos gave him a fishy glare that was somewhat spoiled by the fact that her eyes were watering fiercely. "And that's it. You blow out the cell, destroy millions in equipment, and then just sit there. What is your problem?"
"Wish to speak to crazed tyrant. Have been lied to since arrival; to be desiring to hear lies of other side, now; at least can make informed judgement as to which side can lie more fluently, then."
"That's an... interesting... way of looking at it." Dos Santos commented drily. Flashpoint Zeo just jiggled his head non-committaly. "Well, I'll pass the word along. I'm sure that at least one of the small army that's going to turn up any second now will be willing to run an errand for me... you two might want to go get dressed, by the way. I have no idea what the penalty for appearing out-of-uniform while on duty is for your lot, since you've made it so clear that your rules are different, but I'd imagine it probably isn't pleasant. Might want to pick up some new weapons as well."
-----
Somewhere in China:
The dragon's English-language question and prodding was met with a puzzled glance, another (somewhat more cautious) salute, and a return of the drill instructor's attention to his students.
"A soft answer turneth away wrath. Once wrath is looking the other way, shoot it in the head." Seven Habits of Highly Effective Pirates
MA Arcs: #12285, "Small Fears", #106553, "Trollbane", #12669, "How to Survive a Robot Uprising"
((I hope not. Bug him in-game or via PM, maybe you can whip up a collaboration. Poke me anytime for info.
And Dogma, you did make the backpack thing pretty obvious with Egregore turning like that. 
Though I do have to wonder...if it's not doing anything to help him, then what is is doing? 
))
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Staetlov Research Institute
Level P-3, Armory
"You will try." the Tsaiv woman replied coldly, the lightly glowing lenses of her artificial eyes narrowing between subdermal metal lids as she tossed the touchpad onto the closest shelf. If that was what Egregore's backpack was after, now was a prime opportunity to nab it, the cyborg's attention focused fully upon its master as she stepped toward him.
'Security' was indeed here, several CANINE units waiting just outside the armory doors. However, 'security' was also very much inside the armory; namely in the form of one Sydonia Teivosovna Korovinova, 4th-generation cyborg and Podplukovník in the Pozemna Armada, the equivalent of a Lieutenant Colonel.
She had no way of knowing Egregore's plasma rifle was a fake (getting no thermals corresponding to such a weapon, the most she could conclude was that either the safety was on, or that it didn't operate with a constant-reaction chamber; and that first one seemed just a little far-fetched), and yet despite this, she very much didn't seem intimidated by the thing one bit.
Not that she didn't have good reason. But what effect did this have on Egregore...?
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tátna Zbrojovka
Tower Hospital
"Via helicopter." one of the present nurses told a very confused-looking Griffin, motioning to Torcher and Pyra while she handed him a glass of clear, fizzing liquid, "I believe you three were about the only ones to get away without something major."
Griffin looked to the badly burnt Brawler. He couldn't help but gulp, imagining himself in the same state at the sight, the thought thoroughly horrifying.
"Please, drink." the nurse insisted, and he raised the small glass to his beak. One smell later, it was already at the end of an outstretched arm, as if it had fled from the griffin's sudden cough.
"Eaugh!" he exclaimed with wide eyes and grit teeth, just a bit green in the face from fighting back the sudden urge wave of nausea, "What is this stuff?! It smells awful!"
"And tastes worse." the nurse nodded casually, motioning with the palm of his hand, "Drink up. You want to get rid of your headache, don't you?"
Griffin grimaced, looking at the bubbling liquid. Yeah...he did...but was it worth the loss of his lunch?
A throb of his head answered that question with a defined 'yes'. With a hand over his nostrils, he downed the foul-flavored stuff, gasping for breath afterward. With a wry smirk, the nurse took the glass from him again, even as he still awaited his insides breaking out in the expected revolution of outrage at what he'd just done to them.
"Huh..." he remarked unsurely after a few seconds of the expected revolt not manifesting, "I...I guess I'm okay. Hey, my headache's gone!"
"Of course it is." chuckled the nurse, indicating one of the orderlies, "Please follow Mr. Sanguine. He will take you to the front desk. There you will be provided with appropriate identification. After that, the Sovereign has requested to see you."
"Uhm...sure..." Griffin gave a nod, slipping off the bed, and looked to Torcher and Pyra again as the orderly turned to be his guide. He wanted to ask them things, but...well, they looked so...and he was supposed to be...
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tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Floor 33
"I hate it when he keeps these people alive." one detention block guard sighed to the other at the 'camera malfunction', "What's yours doing?"
"He's on fire." was the colloquially shrugged response, "Lots and lots of fire. Personally, I think you're right. I can't imagine this guy wanting to do anything but burn Teivos to a crisp. But...hey, orders are orders..."
---------------------
tátna Zbrojovka
Tower, Top Floor
"Okay, that's good to hear." Vlasta smiled at the video of the nurse on his monitor, having just been informed of Griffin's status, "Send him on up."
"Already done, Sir." returned the man, which oddly enough caused Teivos' smile to vanish, several seconds of cold-glaring silence passing before the nurse spoke again, "Um, Sir...?"
"Hmh?" the Tsaigon blinked, the angered expression dissolving into nothing as he wanted to know, "There is something further?"
The nurse shook his head, "Well, no, it's just...I think you spaced out there a moment. You looked very upset."
"Hm." Vlasta gave a nod, a hand passing over his eyes to wipe away something imaginary, "Guess I'm not as back together as I thought yet. No, there's no need to send anyone up for me. I'm fine. Thank you."
He terminated the connection before the nurse could respond. Checking into the hospital again was the last thing he wanted right now. Besides, he was fine. He felt good...strangely good, actually. with all that he'd gotten clocked with, one would've thought...
"Sir?" a uniformed Caldok leaning in the door got his attention, the thoughts scattering away with Vlasta's motion to enter, the man carrying a touchpad into the office while he began he report, "Sir, I know you've already been through a lot this morning, but we need to know if you intend to add anyone else to the list of scheduled e-"
"Suspend it." Teivos fell in harshly, interrupting the now very surprised and wide-eyed officer with the same glare he'd given the nurse. A moment later, a vigorous shake of his head dispelled the visage, the Tsaigon countering with a somewhat confused, "Uhm...no, I mean proceed. I...I don't have anything to add at this time."
The officer didn't seem satisfied with that, looking rather concerned, "Sir, are you feeling well?"
"No." Vlasta answered grumpily, "I think I'm stressed and hungry. I'll feel better after lunch. Thank you. Dismissed."
...and that's Lord Teivos to you.
Another blink, another shake of his head...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
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