VIRGINIA Death, Destruction & Betrayal [The metahumans at the government's Virginia facility have bedded down for the night. Finn has suspicions about Tyler Sterritt, whose aura she's been unable to read. Now she has to decide; take the risk of probing the newcomer's mind, or hope her fears aren't justified?] % Finn % ** Damn damn damn! ** Finn thought to herself upon gazing at Tyler. She didn't want to take the chance, should her idea be correct. That would be just as bad as baiting ... him. That *would* be baiting him, and letting him know about her. If he didn't already. ** Damn! ** Thinking back on what she recalled of Slopes' aura when she viewed him astrally, she didn't remember any sort of veil. Nothing at all [unless you want to change that? ]. She began searching for him, then, wanting to double-check her opinion before doing what she really, *really*, did not want to do. [if she can find him, she'll see if he has the same sort of veil on him as well. If she can't find him, then she'll just return.] It was some time before Finn returned to herself, her eyes opening and closing in the light of the room, and turning to focus on Walt. She managed a weak smile, and apologetic smile. One that she might have worn, had she waited around for him after that night they had spent together recently. "Walt, I'm going to hate to do this, but I don't know, I have to try. Would you mind taking the couch tonight? Or the chair, or even the floor. It's just that ... I don't know, I want to *try* to dream." She got up and paced about the room for a few seconds, then plopped down on the bed with a sigh. "I know, I know, I was so desperate to escape them not that long ago. But something's changed, and I need to find out if I can learn anything from my dreams. My ... powers aren't telling me anything, and I've got conflicting opinions. I ... I don't want to talk about it, not yet. I don't want to influence you at all, you were always pretty good at reading the good in people," she looked at him then with a smile, her eyes having been fixed on something very interesting on her shoes until then, "and I'd like to keep it that way for now." She continued looking at him, her eyes very weary, and body nearly trembling with fatigue, or something else. "Would you mind? I'd like you to stay, if you don't mind. I don't want to be alone, but ... I need to dream. Or to see if I can. And I'd like to have you here when I wake up." Finn fidgeted on the bed, but didn't drop her gaze from Walt's. At least not until he responded to her requests. <><><><><> [GM] Slopes was simply a "blank", whereas Jack, the homeless pyrokinetic vagrant, was difficult to penetrate because his mind was so chaotic and insane. Lawrence, on the other hand, had tangible mindshields, though you didn't recognize them as such at the time. So while Tyler's obscuring "veil" is different from what you've encountered before, you've already experienced various mental defenses that "felt" differently. And the doctors have already pointed out that some metahumans seem to develop similar or identical powers that come from different sources. <><><><><> Walt He runs his fingers through his red hair, too long without a barber, as Finn suddenly becomes edgy. "Well, sure hon, anyway y'all need it. You just do what you gotta do, and ol' Walt'll be there when your peepers open. Just you keep in mind that y'all are human too, no matter what sorta fancy-pants powers popped outa that there skull o' yours. You need to get your zzz's, take care of yourself. And don't think that I won't hold you to it!" His smile belies the edge in his voice. "Do what y'all feel is right, Finn; so far you been doing OK. The way I see it the odds are you'll figure it out." <><><><><> % Finn % The folk singer chuckled at Walt's admonition ... he sounded like a mother, like Finn's mother on occasion, when she had pushed herself too hard. "Thanks Walt." She turned then and laid back on the bed, her mind consciously going over the events of the day, and her previous dream-vision, as she closed her eyes and let the much-delayed sleep claim her. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler made a half-hearted attempt to watch TV, then gave it up, opting instead to get some rest. She fished a travel alarm from her luggage and set it a few hours ahead, laid out a change of clothes, then stripped, showered, and crawled into bed after repacking everything she wasn't going to use when she woke. She wanted to be fast about it, whatever occurred. She'd had enough beers so that sleep came quickly. <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] The alarm wakes you at almost the same time as the insistent pulsing in your head...your master's call, demanding you rise and enact the mission for which you were sent here. It's a simple matter to dress and open a portal in your room. Three men, dressed in black and carrying assault rifles and bandoliers of grenades, come through, the smell of gun oil and leather and death heavy about them. One looks down at you, eyes hard and malevolent above the commando mask that covers the rest of his face. "We will stay by you, to prevent your being harmed. Your task now is to remain intact so we have an escape route." More men pour through. Then what looks like a miniature dinosaur, then a man made of concrete, then two more with strange auras about them. They burst out the door of your room, and you hear gunfire and explosions almost immediately. Whatever the Puppet Master's plan, it seems to involve wholesale death and destruction. [to Mystery] For the past few days, the Puppet Master has left you alone, for the most part. He is quite confident that his control over you is complete enough that he can give your leash some slack...you won't be able to break it. And he's right. You wander St. Louis, enjoy whatever recreation you like, buy whatever suits your fancy...he provides you with whatever money you need. It's like being a slave with no duties and an unlimited expense account. But you aren't able to indulge in your more wild pursuits...the ever- present fetters on your mind slam down hard if you try to do anything risque or bizarre or attention-getting. You aren't able to use your powers at all, because the Puppet Master made sure you stay in Tyler Sterritt's form. He also has you practice her power a bit, gating yourself back and forth between places in New York, California and St. Louis with which you are familiar. Of course he makes sure you do so where there are no spectators, and of course, distance does absolutely nothing to loosen his grip on you. You also hold open gates for other minions of his to pass between. He doesn't have you experiment much with Tyler's ability to call objects out of other dimensions, or wherever they come from. He doesn't seem to want to risk stirring anything up. But, the last few days have been fairly pleasant, considering you're still the mind-controlled puppet of a sadistic mastermind. Then you're driven, late one night, to somewhere about an hour from St. Louis. At least that's what you estimate...it's in a van with windows tinted, so of course you don't really know where you're going. When you emerge from the van, escorted by more silent muscular goons of which the Puppet Master seems to have plenty, you see you're in the parking lot of a small medical clinic, with a few office buildings across the street. You're brought inside, where the Puppet Master is waiting. "Mister Langstrom," he says, with a congenial smile. "You must have been wondering why I've required you stay in Miss Sterritt's form, but given you nothing to do. It is time for you to make yourself useful." He gestures at the medical bay behind him. Several men in white doctor's uniforms stand ready. "You recall the holding facility in Virginia, where you were taken to interrogate the unfortunate Miguel Espinosa and Raol Castana?" "I want them back. I want them, and ALL the other metahumans that the government has imprisoned there. You are going to open a gate to that very room, where the two aforementioned individuals are located...I have already confirmed that they are still there. Igor and Nicholas will be your advance scouts- you will send them ahead." He points at two of the goons, dressed in full black commando infiltration gear, and heavily armed. "A very simple task....to be accomplished with as much stealthy finesse and speed as possible. Do you have any questions?" His mind, boring into yours as deeply as ever, leaves no room for misunderstanding. [to all] KABOOM!!! ohmyGOD! kkkhrrrrroooooooooaaarrr! Brattatataatatatataaattt! Aiiiieeee!!!! WHOOSH! BANG! FRZZZAAPPP! CRUNCH! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeooooop! Oh !&@%%! PKKAKKAKPPPOW! HELP! KLANG!KLANG!KLANG!KLANG! -screams, gunfire, explosions, rumbling that shakes the building, smoke, flames, terror, sirens and alarms- Finn, Walt, Lisa, Harvey and Gordon are jolted out of their sleep by a small war that seems to be erupting all around them. Lisa, who wasn't actually asleep, is the first to hear the explosions, while Finn sits straight up in bed, screaming as she senses the presence of a host of malevolent invaders, those "dark strings" connected to ALL of them- HE is here! Walt blinks his sleepy eyes open at Finn's scream, while Harvey makes a difficult mental adjustment from the nightmares he's usually plagued with to realize these screams and flashes of light and explosive charges are HERE and NOW, he's NOT DREAMING! Gordon's first warning is when his door blows inward, and he wakes to flames pouring into his room as fragments of thick wood rain down on him. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler, clad in a black ribbed silk tank, jeans and lace-up ropers, plopped on the edge of her bed, trying to keep from retching. She lit a smoke while the world went to hell around her, and knew that it was her doing, and simultaneously that she couldn't have done anything about it. At least to this point. There was one little glitch...the puppet master hadn't extended her participation past this point, so that...so long as she didn't disobey his command directly, she was free. All she had to do was remain intact? Super. Maybe she could manage that, and still get some people out, too. "I think...unnh! ...I think I'm gonna throw up," she said, halfheartedly directed at her watchdogs. It wasn't far from the truth, and she certainly looked the part, pale, almost green around the gills. She waved desperately toward the bathroom, then got up, hunched over and covering her mouth, and dashed for it. Once in there, she kicked the door closed, intending to proceed with her plan under cover of nasty barfing sounds and running water. [This is subsequent to Tyler's effort to isolate herself momentarily in the bathroom. If there were watchdogs left, and they allow her a moment of privacy, albeit wretched , she intends to try and open a door to whomever sticks in her memory...likely, Finn . Once she's opened the door twixt her bathroom and Finn's location, she'll say something to the effect of... "Listen, there isn't any time. There..." she'll point, and a door will open from Finn's room onto the Texas prairie, or the wilds of downtown Calgary, or the rolling hills of Wyoming, shadowed by the purple Rockies and a golden sunset... "...is a way out. Get the others, and get out. Now. It's all I can do..." It would be some place familiar to her, like North Texas or a rodeo site, and she'd try for one where PM wouldn't have many agents handy. Whether or not Finn, et.al. use it, she can't control. And she can't go with them, or do anything to contradict PM directly; but he never did actually say "don't help them", now did he? ] <><><><><> % Finn % "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The scream pierced the night as Finn rocketed up in bed, eyes wide with fright and knowledge, scared beyond her own worst fears. ** HE is here! ** She had no time for lamentation, no time to berate herself for things not done, for actions not taken. But she was too paralyzed with fright to move any further, to take any action. Through the tears she wasn't aware had started, she cried out to Walt. "Walt he's here! OhgodHe'shere, He's come for them, I couldn'tstopHim oh Walt..." Her hands covered her face for the briefest of moments, and then they flew off her face as a nearly primal scream was ripped from her throat, her mind lashing out with surety, heading for the one she was certain, all too certain, was the key. "TTTTYYYYYYLLLLLEEEEEEERRRRRRRR!" <><><><><> Walt The explosion has Walt is instantly awake, having expected to be awakened by Finn anyway. "JESUS H. CHRIST!" he sputters, on his feet and fists up before he realizes it. "What the....". His question is drown out by Finn's screaming. What did the explosion have to do with Tyler? Had she been in the explosion? Or had she caused it? "Finn, come on,darnit! Last thing we need is to get caught here with our pants down! Snap out of it girl; we're gettin' the hell out of here now, n' go and find out just what in sam hill is goin' on!" Walt heads over to the door, opens it, then peeks out into the hall. <><><><><> Lisa: At first Lisa thinks there might have been an escape but there's no way the federal agents could have responded so quickly. That leaves only an invasion and the thought flashes through her mind that only Euroninja would try this. Lisa immediately begins to shield her mind thinking only of her favorite music and willing every psychic defense she possibly can into existence to protect her from Euroninja. She'll head for the door in human form, open it, and go out into the corridor looking for enemies. If there's a large group she'll shift to dragon form and fly into them at full speed trying to slam as many as she can to the floor. Otherwise she'll stay in human form until she finds the invaders and wade in using full strength punches to disable them as quickly as possible. <><><><><> Gordon: Being the heavy sleeper that I am, the distant sounds of gunfire, explosions, and screaming don't make a dent in my somnolence. Then, suddenly, the violence invades my personal space. Sleeping face-down as usual, my head bounces up off the pillow as if it had been hit from below with a bat, and my eyes pop open instinctively. Unfortunately, my sleep-addled brain isn't quite as quick; it takes me a second to come fully awake and start to comprehend what is happening around me. "*S**-*-*-*-**!*" I yell as I roll off the bed on the side away from the door, forgetting my near-invulnerability for a moment. Peeking over the top of the bed, my brain finally starts to percolate as my heart pounds a stacato rhythm and my stomach tries to tie itself in knots. I watch to see what comes in behind the flames, praying that Avenger hasn't suddenly come for *me*... <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey takes a minute to pull himself out of a normal nightmare into a meta-normal nightmare. This does not sound good. He heads for the door to investigate and then suddenly turns in the opposite direction, runs back and grabs the tube with the knockout cubes. Silently praying there are enough left to handle whatever could be making all that noise he heads _through_ the door (desolid, much safer that way). Unfortunately he isn't sure where to go. His intense reluctance to go poking around security areas is a definite disadvantage and he tells himself, with mock confidence that after this is over he is going to get a really good orientation. For now, though, all he can do is head towards the loudest noises. <><><><><> [GM] [to Finn] Tyler is where she was before, in her room. But you sense an unnatural manifestation of power, still present and active, and other people are in the room with her. The "veil" still shields her mind, but her mental state is clearly not very good. And other metahumans are rampaging through the facility. [to Lisa] As you step out the door, you see a pair of large men in black commando gear, already levelling rifles. "BRRAAAPP!" they make a rude noise as a burst takes you full in the chest, knocking you off your feet and shredding your top, as the bullets rip through the fabric, bounce off your skin, and ricochet back out. They both play another burst across you, sending bullets bouncing in all directions, then yell something in a foreign language. As you stand up, they jump aside, and you see what you can only describe as a velociraptor, or some dinosaur-like creature very similar to the "villains" of Jurassic Park, skid to a halt, sight you, and come rushing at you with inhuman speed, claws extended and emitting a ferocious scream. [to Gordon] A man in a black commando outfit appears in the doorway, points a machine gun at you, and fires. The impacts shock you, you throw your hands up to shield your face, and it takes you a few moments to realize you aren't hurt. You are glowing more brightly. Gunsmoke fills the room, as shattered glass and wood still rains down on you, your bed and cabinet and the wall behind you blown full of holes. The man snarls something that sounds like an obscenity, tosses something into the room, and seizes the door and jerks it shut behind him. You hear him yelling in the corridor outside, and hear screams and staccato bursts of automatic weapons echoing through the walls. [to Tyler] The two guards don't prevent you from going to the bathroom. You quickly learn why they aren't concerned. The Puppet Master's influence permeates your mind....he has sunk his hooks deeply into you, too deeply to thwart his desires by taking liberties with his orders. You have a limited degree of freedom, to act within the context of his desires...but you CANNOT do something that you know goes against his wishes, like opening a portal and helping to evacuate the people he is clearly trying to kill. You can wish for it, but like wishing that your skin would turn blue, or your hands would detach themselves from your wrist and fly about the room, your body simply refuses to comply. No portal opens. <><><><><> Mystery: "No questions," Mystery replies, nervous but resolved, and resigned to accomplishing the task. With a nod to the scouts, Mystery concentrates on opening a gate to a convenient location within the sleep storage room, remembering where any stationed guards were and taking that into account to give the scouts a good opportunity for surprise. "Toss something back through the gate to signal all clear when the room is secured," Mystery advises, and stands just to one side of the gateway to keep from being hit by any bullets that might be gated back; and will go through when the signal comes, intent on getting it done quickly and efficiently. <><><><><> Gordon: "*YEAGH!*" _*D***!* that hurts!_ Then I see the grenade arcing towards me. _*Holy s***!*_ I grab the edge of the bed and tip it up to make a wall to block the grenade. I move the bed as neccessary to keep it between me and the grenade until it blows. I also back up to the wall so that I won't get flung around. Once it goes off, I intend to fly over to the wall opposite the door and release a full-power blast cone, hoping to catch the commando on the other side. "Serves the b****** right," I mutter to myself. <><><><><> Tyler: **S*****. Now Tyler *really* did feel like throwing up. So...her commitment and forced obedience weren't that loosely bound up in PM's literal words. There was a bigger monkey on her back, one that being clever wasn't going to eradicate, or allow her to elude. What was she supposed to do now? She was already teetering on the edge of a yawning chasm of insanity; she'd always been tough, and intolerant of weakness in others, but she'd never imagined herself smoking idly while contemplating the death of innocent people, all because of her. Maybe she needed to be prepared, in case a chance did present itself. She made a few more tentative retching noises, then decided to try a couple more tricks: First, she wanted a handgun as close to that killer rock and roll rifle she'd used against Lucretia as she could manage; the summoning shouldn't be denied, since she likely could not use it directly against PM. Yet. She concentrated... After that, she attempted a second try. Somewhere, in some sidereal world or wherever her materializations originated, there might possibly be anti-mind control drugs. She tried to wish up a prescription bottle-full, right now. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn ignored Walt, closing her eyes as her shout for Tyler ended, and concentrating solely on her mental ... powers. She was still here. That was good. Finn hoped that Tyler's mental state was due to Euroninja's influence, perhaps contradictions to what she wanted to do, and what he ordered her to. It made sense, when she took her feelings about Tyler into consideration. She wasn't bad, she was just ... forced that way, to modify the old saying. Time to touch that veil then, and see what was beneath it. Finn attempted to break through the barrier that had shielded Tyler's mind from hers, knowing that it might very well alert Euroninja to her presence, but she had no doubts, none at all, that he knew she was here anyway. And besides, wasn't she the one who was supposed to go up against him? The others here, they had no chance, except perhaps Walt. His luck might help him, or his neutralization of others powers ... but she couldn't afford to wait to find out. Maybe she'd distract him enough ** Ha! Fat chance! ** so that the others might be able to stop him, or those he had brought with him. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] WW II movies are full of people bravely throwing themselves on a grenade to save their buddies. Modern soldiers know that this action is futile; today's grenades have a penetration blast sufficient to go through such fragile intervening objects as a human body. Or a mattress. The blast knocks the wind out of you and utterly demolishes everything in the room that wasn't already blown apart by the burst of automatic weapons fire. But, despite the shock of the blast- you seem to be still alive, and with skin intact. If the stinging sensation you got from having bits of schrapnel hit your face at nearly supersonic speeds is any indication, you are probably nearing the limit of your invulnerability, however. You notice as you rise that your glow now lights up the darkened room. Your angry blast tears through the wall like paper...and the wall across the hall...and the next wall.... you stand stunned for a moment at the sight of a cone of destruction neatly carved through this wing of the building. Your blast tore through EVERYTHING. Including the man with the weapon, whose lower half is steaming on the ground in front of you. It appears you vaporized him from the waist up. [to Mystery] The armed men go through the portal. Less than a minute later, they toss a severed ear back through the gate. [to Tyler] Your first summoning brings forth a big, nasty gun. It doesn't look exactly the same as the one you used on Lucretia, but it does look nice and deadly. And weighs too much to be a toy or a prop. You can't concentrate on the bottle of drugs, though. Even your conscious mind can't think of a justification for such a thing that *wouldn't* be contrary to the Puppet Master's wishes. [to Harvey] There is no "loudest" noise...noise is everywhere. You see one of the agents, whose name you hadn't yet learned, crouching at a corner as you step out of your room, dressed in sweat pants and jacket, firing a pistol down the hall. Then bullets blow through him and he tumbles backwards in a spray of blood. In your peripheral vision, you spot a man in black turning towards you, and you hear an explosion, very close by, then suddenly the hall fills with blinding light, as a pillar of fire erupts from the room next to yours, the man you were spinning to face disappears in the blast, as does much of the hallway. Around the corner, from down the hall where the bullets that killed the federal agent came, more automatic weapons go off, then an inhuman screeching sound echoes through the hall. The energy to your left dissipates, with a tunnel carved laterally across the hall, possibly through the entire wing of the building. [to Finn] Pushing through the veil proves harder than you thought; it resists. You see Tyler, briefly, as you suspected struggling with a controlling force that permeates her mind like a cancer, leaving her with volitional control over her actions, but replacing her own motivations with whatever the invader desires, leaving her fully conscious of her mind- controlled status, but unable to do anything about it. Then the dark threads that stretch from somewhere beyond your perceptions into Tyler's mind, wrapping around her and insinuating themselves into her, rear up, and a malevolent presence lashes out. **Who are you?** Black psychic force reaches out for you, hostile and probing. <><><><><> Mystery: *Well, they follow directions, anyway,* Mystery thinks, totally grossed out, and steps over the ear, heading through the gateway to proceed. Once through, she will glance about, take stock of the situation very swiftly, and begin hauling metahumans through the gateway, or gating them by whatever method is most convenient, and fast. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler couldn't think completely clearly, but it was apparent that the vague borders of PM's control were wider than she could imagine. It was going to take some harder thinking, and she felt almost numb from the insensate violence of the confrontation. She hadn't lost all of her presence of mind, though; she practiced the operatrion of the weapon until she could do it without hesitation, then tucked the pistol at the back of her belt with what she hoped was a safety clicked on. She splashed some water in her face. OK. Time to confront the "bodyguards". She couldn't just shoot 'em, at least not outright... not yet, anyway. So they were unlikely to have much to fear from any hardware she might possess. Still, that didn't mean all the bad guys would react the same way, and she felt like she ought to be able to defend herself if one of them came on too strong. *THAT* would not be a threat to PM. She hoped. So far, all the non-threats she'd conceived seemed to set off the same internal PM defenses. She pulled out the tail of her shirt and arranged it over the weapon's butt; she intended to get her denim jacket and put it on as soon as possible, to minimize the chance of exposure. *OK. Get it together, Tyler.* She ran her fingers through her hair, shook her head, then stood up straight, before marching out of the bathroom. <><><><><> Tien Lung: * More clothes destroyed. * She sighs thinking to herself. She shifts to dragon form as she rises. Using her superior size and weight she throws a full strength punch at the velociraptor as it charges her. If the velociraptor is out of the fight Tien will then try and get out into the hallway as close to those two commandoes as possible. If the dinosaur-like creature is still capable of fighting she will continue to attack it with her fists. <><><><><> [GM] [to Lisa] The creature skids to a startled halt as you transform, but recovers quickly. It's faster than it looks; faster than you, and leaps over your claw as you try to batter it against the wall. It leaps onto your back, like the velociraptors attacking the tyranousaurus in "Jurassic Park", and its claws and teeth rake against your scales. To your surprise, you feel them penetrate; this thing is strong! [to Mystery] You step over two dead bodies, one of them dripping blood from a severed ear. The men go about efficiently opening doors, and recovering comatose individuals, including your "friends", the two Hispanics you interrogated before your disastrous trip to Chicago, a lifetime ago. Each of them goes through your gate, with IV tubes and chemical drips attached. [to Tyler] [You visualized something BIG...this gun is a little too big to tuck behind your shirt] You feel something stir, in your mind, though you're not sure what it is. Probably some manipulation of your master? Who knows....it seems for all practical purposes, whatever schemes you might think of, you have to try to execute as if HE was standing over your shoulder, watching everything you do. <><><><><> % Finn % ** oh s*** oh s*** oh s*** ** Finn's mind wanted to backpedal from the dark threat in front of her, and she even physically scooted back on the bed until she slammed up against the headboard (or wall), wishing desperately to flee from that in front of her. She was no match for it, she knew that before, and now it was even more plain to her. But Tyler needed her, the others needed her, and she *needed* to do something other than simply sit by and watch everything that happened. Finn had a feeling she wasn't lucky like Walt, or nigh invulnerable like Lisa, so wading directly into physical combat was out. Which is why she decided to go attack on a mental level. She slammed up a shield, thinking of Slopes' massive mindwall, blank and unyielding, trying to keep the black threads from attaching themselves to her. Finn thought about calling out to Slopes, he might have a chance against Euroninja, provided he could get through the ... metas he would no doubt have around him. But that was futile, there was no chance to reach him, no way to find him ... he was just that ... unreachable because of his shields. Well, maybe she could distract Euroninja for a bit. Make him play with her, making him lose valuable time. He didn't seem to know who she was, at least not now, and she counted that as the highest blessing of all. ** why don't you try and find out ... ** she teased at him, hiding behind her walls. Her body on the bed, once tense with panic and fright, relaxed. She was soon to be dead or soon to be under his control, so she might as well distract him as long as she could. Hopefully buying time for them. **>> Walt, go help the others! <<** she thought quickly at her friend, then concentrated all her efforts on keeping Euroninja from finding out who she was, and latching onto her mind, for as long as she could. <><><><><> Tien Lung: She hisses in anger that this mini-dinosaur has injured her. Tien leaps/flies straight up at the ceiling trying to crush her rider against it with her superior size. Turning on the velociraptor with claws and fangs she tries her best to disable the creature quickly. <><><><><> Gordon: Not having any military background, I had expected more benefit from shielding myself with the bed. Well, at least it absorbed enough energy that my defensive field was able to handle the rest. As I get my breath back I think, _Christ! Looks like I found the limits of my defenses. Well, at least I'm still alive..._ Some back part of my mind absorbs the image of devastation around me even as I move across the room and release my response. My blast shreds and burns everything in it's path. _*Holy f****** s***!*_ This is the first time I have ever released my full power against anything less than a metahuman with defenses nearly equal to my own. I feel a moment of shock and dismay overlaid by a sense of wild thrill at the realization of the power and destructiveness I now wield. The smoking half-carcass stares up at me like an accusation. I struggle for a moment as a flood of emeotions threatens to drown me. With a grimace, I ruthlessly suppress the fear and rage and guilt, knowing that I will have to deal with them all later. I settle into a coldly efficient state of mind that I have only accessed a few times before. In this state, I don't even notice my total lack of clothing. [Sorry, but I really do sleep in the buff.] Having once before caused my defensive field's glow to increase, I now attempt the opposite. _No sense making more of a target of myself than I have to._ Having moved into what I think of as my 'Hunter-Killer' mode, I step over to the door and take a furtive look up and down the hall. Strangely enough, I do know how to move stealthily when I want to. My only thoughts are to find the invaders and put them down as efficiently as possible. <><><><><> Harvey: The night has dissolved into chaos! And if he isn't lucky, or at least careful, Harvey gets the feeling he might get 'dissolved' too! All he can see to do is try to help the federal agents, without any plan or direction or even much hope or sense. He heads off at a trot in the direction the bullets came from (and the scream), being careful to remain desolid. Taking stock of his supply of knockout cubes he gets one in his right hand and tries to be ready for whatever he might find. <><><><><> [GM] [to Finn] The other presence lashes out at you, impacting against your shield, which flexes but doesn't give way. Still it seemed like a much less severe attack than you expected. He's probing you. **So, another telepath. Unfortunate for you.** And then he withdraws. You no longer sense his mental presence in your vicinity. [to Lisa] You smash the ceiling to bits, bringing tiles and plaster and wood raining down on you. The other reptile rolled off you, though not quite fast enough to avoid getting a little battered. It evades your first swipe, snaps back at you, and in moments the two of you are embroiled in a snarling, hissing grappling match. Your fangs sink into its thigh, and you taste blood, which is oddly appealing. Its claws slash across your snout, tearing open a long, painful bloody gash, causing you to jerk your head back. It's faster than you, but you seem to be stronger; it relies on evasion, trying to duck beneath your claws and strike quickly, hit and run, jumping back after each attack. You quickly demolish the walls, floor and ceiling lunging after it, both of you scoring hits on occasion, its blows painful but so far unable to do any severe damage, yours usually lessened by its dodging ability. [to Gordon] As you step into the hall, you hear roaring and screaming from one end of the hallway, shooting and screaming from the other. Harvey is emerging from the room to your right, not even looking at you but heading down the hall towards where it sounds like something inhuman is locked in mortal combat. Two men appear at the other end of the corridor; you recognize them as feds. They stop and blink at you for a moment. "S***! You're one of the metas, Christ, we've got metahumans invading the-" Then both men are blown apart by an explosion from behind them. [to Harvey] You hear shouting and then an explosion behind you, as you round the corner and see a thrashing reptilian nightmare; Lisa, in her dragon form, brawling with what looks like *another* giant reptile, and blasting the corridor apart with their frenzied struggle. [to Walt] Opening the door, you hear several explosions and bursts of gunfire echoing from around this wing of the facility, some very near. [Your room is around an L-corridor from the others'.] And the wall of the room directly across the hall from you suddenly disintegrates, as a solid black figure glowing violet that seems to extend into ultraviolet hues appears in the man-sized hole it just made, spreads its arms to wipe out more wall, then lunges for you. <><><><><> Mystery: Mystery feels distinctly nauseous at the sight of the bodies, idly thanking hollywood producers for not being totally incapacitated by it, and continues with the work in getting everyone through the gateway, listening to the mass destruction being wrought in the building, and hoping Walt and Harvey are allright. *Stealth? This is stealth?* she thinks, wondering what a frontal assault of the compound would have been like. She sighs, nervously, warily waiting for the other goons to return so that she can gate out. <><><><><> Tien Lung: * Blood. Hmmm ... tastes pretty good ... Yuck ! This isn't working. Got to try something new. Maybe... * Tien draws back from the velociraptor and tries to breathe lightning on it. <><><><><> Walt "YIPE!" is all that Walt has time for as he attempts to sidestep the oncoming paranormal nasty. He hopes to God (praying as he goes) that he can 'beat the odds' and accompish the following.... a. Manage to somehow stay out of the way of this evil-looking figure while... b. Somehow touching it and neutralizing his/her/its powers and clobbering it! As this is happening Walt hastily visualizes a pair of dice rolling, hoping for a 'lucky' roll. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey jus gapes for a few seconds, trying to sort out the wild melee going on before him. All he can seem to see is teeth and claws, all over the place they're moving so fast. What the heck can he do about something like this? They're moving around too fast for him to really keep up. Then it dawns on him that unsolid he should be able to stand in the middle of the fight, literally, while it moves _through_ him. Reaching into the tube of cubes he removes another one and holds both in his right hand and then starts moving towards the fight. He tries to tell himself that he doesn't care if they bump into the space he's using, that in fact he wants that to happen so he can get close enough to solidify the 2 cubes inside the attacker, but he only manages to move forward at a measured pace rather than an all out run. Trying to position himself in the middle of the fight so he can get best chance of hitting with the cubes. Inwardly he hopes using 2 cubes isn't a bad idea, between depleting ammo and the possibility of OD, but right now drastic measures seem called for. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn blinked her eyes, once, twice, three times. She was surprised for perhaps the space of three seconds, then it hit her. He had overextended himself. He couldn't fit her into his equation right now, couldn't allow her to distract him. So he left her. Either that, or considered her a non-threat, especially since she was a woman. She considered the possibility of pursuing him, but he may have just hidden himself, or hell, teleported away. Now it was time to center once more on Tyler, and see if Euroninja still had her in his clutches. <><><><><> Gordon: Harvey is already heading away before I have a chance to catch his attention. Turning at the sound of voices, I spot the two Feds. I raise my left hand to waive a greeting. "Ye-" *B-LAMMM*!!! Jumping back in surprise, I find myself hovering in the air again. I settle back to the ground, wiping flecks of flesh and blood from my face. The coldness in my mind and heart grows as I move toward the corner. [From your description, I assume there's little left that is recognisably human.] Ignoring what's left of the Feds, I peek around the corner in the direction of the noise. If the hallway is clear, I will proceed stalking in the direction of any sounds of fighting. If not, I will 'deal with' whoever's there, then continue on. My strategy is simple: take them out before they see me, if possible. If the target is obviously a meta, then they get full power. Otherwise, I use half power (unless that proves ineffective due to armor or whatever, then I up it to 3/4 power). If there is more than one target, I use the 'fan' effect. Metas who get in close get the 'Nova' blast, humans get a fist or side-kick in the chest / stomach region (full ST). If I see any more grenades coming my way, I will attempt to blast them out of the air. <><><><><> [GM] [to Lisa] You don't generate any lightning. Your opponent takes advantage of your pause to slash at your throat. Its claws don't go deeply enough to open an artery, but you feel a hot stinging sensation as it rips through the skin and draws blood. It leaps over your tail-strike, which demolishes the wall behind it, but your sinuous body curls to deflect its next lunge. And suddenly there's a new person in the fray, Harvey, his head sticking through one of your coils, looking a little confused and uncertain. The "dinosaur", startled at his appearance, whirls and slashes, claws and teeth swiping through him with blows that would simultaneously decapitate and disembowel him while ripping his arm off, if he wasn't insubstantial. The creature takes only a split-second to be started at its claws passing harmlessly through him, before jumping and spinning to face you again, while keeping a wary eye on Harvey, difficult to do as the thrashing and twisting of reptilian bodies is so fast and furious that he simply walks unaffected through the center of the melee, and neither opponent can afford to keep too much attention on him, disturbing as his presence may be. [to Walt] The glowing apparition rushes by you, as you duck under its arm. You reach your hand out to touch it, and feel blisters raise on your skin immediately, and your fingers tingle unpleasantly. You have a bad feeling that touching this individual, unless you can neutralize all his powers that very instant, may well result in the loss of the body part doing the touching. He or she keeps going, not looking back at you. It's leaping for Finn, who is still zoned out on the bed! [to Harvey] In a few seconds, you're in the thick of things, and can barely see as coils and scaled limbs and claws and teeth flash past you and through you...it's like standing in the middle of a saurian blender, and though you're safe from being rendered into tiny bits like you should be, it's hard not to close your eyes, or at least flinch each time a set of dagger-like claws tries to rip your face off, or Tien Lung rolls through you with enough force to flatten you if you were solid. [to Finn] Tyler, you see, is still firmly within your unseen adversary's power, but you have no more time to spare for her; screaming psychic warnings alert you of a far more immediate threat, and you jerk your awareness back to your own body so abruptly that you're left shaken and dizzy and see a glowing purple-black silhouette rushing at you, radiating death. [to Gordon] As you fly around the corner, over the shredded bodies of the two agents, you see more men dressed identically to the one you just half- vaporized. They're spraying gunfire up and down every corridor they pass through, see you, and immediately leap into doorways or around corners with such precision that, even without benefit of military training, it's obvious these men are well-trained. You have a quarter of a second for that thought before bullets are zinging off you. A grenade comes bouncing down the hall towards you; you catch it in a fan and melt it before it detonates, then blow part of one corner away to get at the man hiding behind; whether you vaporized him or he jumped back you can't tell. You do notice that your glow is still intensifying, and you feel a mad rush of adrenalin, as scores of bullets whiz past you and smack against you harmlessly...at least for the moment. The commandos or terrorists or whatever they are, seeing that you're still standing (or hovering, actually), begun retreating down the hallway, in alternating leap-frog movements, tossing more grenades behind them as they go. [to Tyler] Your two "guards" are waiting outside, impassive, and look at you with minimal interest as you exit the bathroom. You hear the explosions, gunfire and screams continue all around you, the walls reverberating with impacts and detonations. <><><><><> Tyler: she'll just sort of sidle over to the closet and don her denim jacket, which besides her hanging bag was the only thing left out. Then she'll retreat to the bed and sit. And think furiously. <><><><><> Tien Lung: Fury seethes through her mind, fanned even hotter as she recognizes that she's going to have to take another life. * If Harvey can slow it down even for a few seconds. No. That isn't likely. Damn. If I take the time to concentrate on fog it'll tear my throat out. Double damn. All I can do is fight hard and try to end this as quickly as possible. Triple damn. Why do all the supervillains I meet have to be psychopaths. * She thinks desperately. Tien opens her fists baring her claws and waits for an opening. If she gets one she'll strike with her claws as hard as she can using lethal force. A sense of helplessness grips her as cruel fate brings her to contemplate killing again, fueling her anger to a white hot rage. <><><><><> Gordon: [Actually, I was walking (trying to be stealthy) rather than flying, but I guess it doesn't make much difference. I also take it that my attempt to suppress the glow from my defensive field wasn't very successful? Also, I think I made a mistake previously. When 'I' was going to bed, I posted something about my contacts. However, based on what you had said during the testing scene about 'my' vision, I suspect 'I' would have stopped wearing them as soon as I got my powers. And thus, 'I' wouldn't have them with me in VA. Make sense?] _S***! These guys are professionals,_ I think to myself as I watch the commandos. Ignoring the bullets, I remain with my head and one arm exposed around the corner. I continue to scrap any grenades that come my way. In order to retreat down the hall, the goons have to expose themselves, and when they do, I paste them (1/2 power, as stated, unless that proves ineffective.). [This being GURPS, I assume that using my powers isn't tiring unless I use 'extra effort'. Does this seem to be the case, i.e. is my character getting tired?] <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey finds being surrounded by Tien and the other snaky being disconcerting, also rather dizziing. In fact, although he'd never admit it, it makes him somewhat nauseous - though he can't figure out what to call it; it isn't airsick, or seasick...maybe middle_of_the_dragon_fight_sick? But he sticks it out, still trying to find an opportunity to hit the attacker with the knockout cubes, being very careful not to get Tien by mistake. And hoping the cubes designed for a human have effect of the snaky like being. <><><><><> [GM] [to Tien Lung] As Tien Lung's fighting becomes fiercer and more aggressive, the other reptilian also becomes more frenzied, snarling and hissing and trying to rip her eyes out. A determination to do some serious damage doesn't make it easier to accomplish; your opponent is still fast and deadly herself. The larger dragon does succeed in gouging a long bloody furrow in the "tyrannosaur's" thigh, splashing blood everywhere, but for both opponents, claws and teeth can sink into scaly hides, and draw blood, but it's hard to get a death-grip that will really penetrate into vital organs. If they can grapple, Tien Lung would certainly have the advantage; her opponent is going to great lengths to avoid that. Harvey tries twice to stick a cube into the "enemy" reptile; both times, as he releases it, the target has already twitched or been knocked aside, so the drugged crystal falls into empty air. Harvey recovers both cubes the first time; the second, it's hit the floor and then been stepped on and crushed to powder before he can retrieve it. He holds onto his limited remaining supply, looking for an opening, as more black-clad commandos appear at one end of the hall, and with only a moment's hesitation, raise their rifles and fire down the corridor, filling it with lead, apparently heedless of the fact that their erstwhile ally is in the middle of the brawl. But as bullets whiz past, it's clear that they expect their ally not to get hurt, because the bullets bounce off the smaller creature, just as they do off Tien Lung, while whizzing harmlessly through Harvey. It takes the gunmen only a few seconds to realize their volley was completely ineffective against everybody. Two crouch at either side of the corridor, while the rest duck and sprint off down another branch, out of sight. [to Gordon] Your field is glowing brighter than ever. And yes, your new powers seem to have rendered your contacts unnecessary. Using your powers seems to be about like throwing a punch; no one blast drains you appreciably, though doing it continuously for any length of time will tire you. "Half-power" is still a bolt of lethal energy, and one man you hit as they're retreating down the corridor screams and hits the ground rolling as you take him through the shoulder and all but slice off his arm- it hangs by a strip of broiled flesh. A grenade explosion near you covers the comrade who grabs him and jerks him to his feet. Bits of the ceiling are raining down, and the corridor is on the verge of collapsing entirely; you can't get all the grenades, and they're tossing them like confetti. Some are smoke grenades, obscuring your vision, and some are frags, sending bits of metal that bounce off you ineffectively, but you see holes blown through walls fifty feet away, and know they're sending schrapnel throughout the complex. This entire wing is virtually demolished, and this band of gunmen continues to try to move out of range, into the smoky cross-corridor ahead. How they manage not to blow themselves up, you're not sure, but they're destroying just about everything else in sight, leaving a swathe of devestation behind them. <><><><><> Gordon: I force myself to feel nothing as the commando writhes and screams. Looking up, I see the ceiling weakening from repeated damage. I suspect that if I can collapse the ceiling, it will give these guys something to think about besides lofting grenades. Based on what I have seen of the effects of my blast, I try to guage how much power would be required to bring the corridor crashing down, without vaporizing it. I then release a wide-angle blast of approximately that power angled upwards slightly to try to affect as much of the ceiling of the corridor as possible. Once I see how this works, I will take to the air heading up through the hole and down the corridor. If the ceiling didn't actually collapse, then I will use my strength to fly up through a weakened spot. Perhaps that will be sufficient to bring it down. If the men are trapped then I will make sure they are out of commission, using punches as neccessary to ensure that they won't get up anytime soon. If they are able to flee, then I will follow after them to see where they go. If they look like they are trying to set up to attack me again, or run into comrades, then I will fill the area with searing energy. If I reach a point where I feel I am in danger of becoming seriously fatigued, I will fly high up into the sky and take a short breather. <><><><><> Walt "NO!" Walt cries as the figure runs past him. He casts about desparately for something metal to try and hit the...thing with, while hoping that the thing will trip or something, *anything* so that it does not reach Finn. "Finn, RUN!!!!!!" he shouts, hoping she'll hear him. <><><><><> Tien Lung: She lunges in at the velociraptor using her larger size and strength to grapple with her opponent. Tien is willing to trade some minor dammage to herself for a solid judo grip on her foe. Once she has a hold on the reptile she will rip into it with all of her claws, full force. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] Your beam tears through the ceiling, bringing much of the structure above down. The facility isn't multi-leveled per se, but it does seem to have a lot of space between interior ceiling and exterior roof, containing storage spaces, perhaps, but also a lot of cables and other electronics equipment. The corridor is blocked. <><><><><> Harvey: This isn't going well. Harvey is torn between staying with Tien where he doesn't seem to be fast enough to help and going down the hall and giving the guys with the guns a going over (which looks easier, and where did the other guys go?) but decides to try at least once more. Going to high density sounds very dangerous considering Tien's defenses are so formidable and she's taking a slicing. While wiping the sweat of his forehead, and considering asking Tien to try to hold the blasted snaky guy still for a couple of seconds the sweat gives Harvey (what he thinks is) a flash of insight. The water on his brow reminds him of two things: How much tien likes swimming and how slippery the floor gets when wet. He suddenly, in the middle of the fight begins staring at the ceiling. It probably looks pretty strange just staring into space in the middle of a battle but actually he is looking for something the government mandates (although it probably exempts itself): sprinklers! Assuming he can find sprinklers he air walks up, grabs one, desolidifies it back to the nearest joint - and pulls. Should result in some interesting atmospheric precipitation. (But I wonder what the penalty for flooding a federal installation is?) <><><><><> Gordon: "Wow." That was impressive. I guess I still haven't adjusted to the raw power inside me. Looking up, I spot the electronics cables and such. _Oops! I don't think Gemann's going to be very happy if I hose the electronics systems in the building..._ Unfortunately, the rubble blocks my view of the rest of the hallway. I fly up and attempt to make my way over and past the rubble, flying up into the space above the interior ceiling as necessary. Using my strength and/or small bursts of energy, I clear a path over the destruction. If I find any conscious commandos that I think might be able to free themselves from the rubble, I will stop long enough to subdue them with my fists. Otherwise, I will continue down the corridor seeking other invaders. <><><><><> % Finn % "NO!" Finn shouted at the figure racing at her, her mind reaching out in the same instant, slashing out and attempting to halt the man, to will him to stop in his tracks, trying to override whatever compulsions he might have planted in him, or maybe just his own psychotic mindset (one she's dealt with quite often recently). She waited until he had either chosen a side of the bed to approach her on, or came at her over the end, before dashing to the opposite side. **>> stop stopstop youdon'twanttodo this stopstopSTAY! <<** <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] You begin blasting and tearing your way through the rubble in the corridor. Two more feds appear behind, yelling "Freeze!" They seem unsure who you are, though the fact that you're still naked probably throws them a bit also. As you turn towards them, you hear a rumbling, and the pile of debris shifts. A rocky grey giant explodes through the blocked corridor, sending bits of plaster and wood and steel showering everywhere. He towards over you, as you tumble backwards, and brings both hands down in a double- fisted attack, slamming into you and driving you into the floor with a crunch that puts a dent in the tiles, and rattles your teeth. The shock is numbing, though you can still move, but the strange inhuman giant moves faster than something that big should, and while you're staggered, on all fours, he kicks you, like a football player punting the ball. You go smashing through a wall, hard. Breath wheezes out of you painfully. Your opponent is completely ignoring the bullets that are bouncing off of him, from the two agents down the hall. [to Harvey] There are indeed sprinklers in the ceiling. You phase through the ceiling and yank the pipe out. Though it doesn't set off the rest of the sprinkler system, this one sprays water all over Tien Lung and her saurian opponent. [to Tien Lung] It slashes away at your scales and screeches furiously, drawing blood from half a dozen places. Your weight is an advantage; you can force it into a corner, and coil so that it's boxed in, but it continually surprises you with prodigious leaps, acrobatically flipping over you. The second time it tries that trick, you're ready, and catch it in midair, but as you grab hold, it struggles ferociously, and you can barely apply a judo grip. Your claws sink into its flesh, but one thickly-muscled leg lashes out and kicks you in the face, hard. It bites your arm, sinking teeth into your wrist, and penetrating deeply. The other arm scratches against the floor, ripping up tiles. Suddenly, you feel wet. The sprinkler overhead has gone off, and is showering you with water. Harvey, hovering up there, might have had something to do with it; you can't spare the attention to look, as your opponent is busily trying to gnaw off your claw. [to Walt and Finn] The best Walt can do is the mirror over the dresser. He brings that smashing down on the glowing shadow as Finn frantically rolls off the bed, while the intruder leaps onto it. Her mind lashes out, trying to still his thoughts- she can only get the gist of them, since his surface thoughts are in another language- he's hyped for battle, but doesn't seem as insane as some of the other metahumans she's had to face. The enemy telepath's presence is palpable in his mind...how much of his actions are his own, and how much are the adversary's, impossible to tell. The man pauses, crouched on all fours on the bed, giving Walt the opportunity to smash the mirror over him. He struggles to overcome Finn's compulsion to "stay", and she senses the dark thread twitching as his master takes a direct interest, no doubt working to free him. The man groans as slivers of glass tumble off of him. The blanket on the bed is igniting where his black glowing aura touches the cloth. More importantly, Finn feels extreme danger literally radiating from the man. Less visible than the aura that generates tangible heat, but perhaps more deadly. He's doing it deliberately- **DIE you !%#$$&@s** The thought is still in a foreign language, but the emotional content makes it easy to translate. Finn and Walt are both in deadly danger, just standing here, if they aren't doomed already. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn paused as the mattress she had been resting on suddenly blazed before her, struggling with what to do. She didn't want to just blindly run away, but if the aura she was sensing from the man was at all true, then they were dead if they stayed. What was the saying? Run away, and live to run away another day? "Come on, Walt!" she cried as she leapt toward the door, but her mind reached out once more to touch the man that Euroninja was controlling to kill her. **>> Why? <<** she echoed his last thought back at him, complete with foreign swears. **>> **DIE you !%#$$&@s** Why do you wish me dead? <<** She hoped it might throw him, if he was under Euroninja's control, the question might be odd enough that it would halt him, make him think. But if it didn't, and she managed to get an answer from him, that would be even more useful. If she survived. [AnB, Finn's going to head out into the hall and head toward whatever way might look less dangerous, ie., where there isn't lots of fighting and velociraptors. :)] <><><><><> Gordon: Hearing a shout behind me, I glance back. Seeing the two feds pointing their guns at me, I lift my arms and begin to back out of the rubble to solid ground. The rubble erupts around me as a grey-skinned horror emerges and attacks. I barely have time to think, _What the ...!_ before it's on me, slamming me to the floor. "*UNGH*!" Black dots swim before my eyes as I try to force my legs to work. Something grey smashes into me and I go flying down the corridor and through a wall. "*GHUNH*!" My vision wavers and then focuses. Bullets are ricocheting off the giant's hide, and it's obvious that he hardly even notices them. I can see that this guy is *seriously* tough. Levitating up off the floor so that I can get a good look through the hole in the wall that my body just made, I visualize a bullseye painted on this creature's chest. Taking a deep calming breath as I summon my energy, I let it out slowly and pour a full- power burst into the bullseye. I have no desire to close with this thing. I will use my flight to try to stay out of it's reach, as I continue to blast away. If it appears too agile to hit with a focussed burst, then I will switch to the wide-angle blast. If it gets too close, I'll unleash the Nova blast, unless the agents are dangerously close . <><><><><> Tien Lung: Desperately Tien shifts her grip from a judo hold to an open the dinosaur's mouth grip. She places one foot against its lower jaw and reaches over with her other hand pulling up on its upper jaw with her full strength. If she can she will try to free her trapped hand. If she gets her hand loose she will continue pulling up with both hands and pushing down with her foot so as to break the velociraptors jaw. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey surveys his small contribution to the general destruction, waiting for....er, something...to happen; or to determine that this idea is all wet. Notice that it's the idea that is all wet, Harvey is perfectly dry since desolidification beats an umbrella any day. Well, I guess expecting Tien's opponent to scream 'I'm melting' is too much to hope for (although it would have been nice) he thinks. If the 'snaky dude' doesn't start slipping on the wet floor or something Harvey will have to look for other ideas. He considers how much of the _floor_ he could desolidy, Tien and he wouldn't have much trouble but it ought to cut down the enemy's traction. But the volume would likely exceed his capacity and there's the question of whether he'd risk even a villains life that way. <><><><><> [GM] [to Finn] **Because you're an American bitch!** the glowing man thinks back, but his thoughts are a mix of fury and confusion. Staggering out into the hallway, you find no such luck as a place with little fighting; three men in black commando outfits appear at one end of the hallway, and level nasty-looking guns at you. They bristle with weapons and deadly efficiency, and a purpose- to kill. "ShindellColvinDROP!" comes a shout from the opposite direction. [to Gordon] You don't have much room to maneuver, and you're blasting tiles loose and scorching the walls as you swerve about in the air. But the concrete man is a big target. You clench your hands together and blast him. ++++ZOOORRRRCCCH!!!!++++ The rocky grey surface of his chest glows red hot, and smoking fragments go flying as your blast actually knocks him backwards. The backblast ignites the debris around him and blows it back in your face, but the giant metahuman collapses on his rear, the impact shaking the corridor. He groans/howls, an inhuman sound like a cat being dragged through a rock crusher, then throws his arms wide, smashing stony fists into the walls on either side of him. He shrugs mightily, and tears into the foundation, bringing more of the ceiling crashing down on both of you. [to Tien Lung] The pseudo-dinosaur snarls as you try to pry its jaws open. You can't do it, the jaws are too strong...but its skull isn't. Its snarls change to horrified screeches as bone begins to give way. A little more pressure, and you will probably shatter its skull. On its back, its rear legs thrust upwards, and the talons tear into your belly. You feel hot blood running over your scales, and searing pain, as it tries to disembowel you. Disconcertingly, you also notice it's beginning to *change*. Its head begins flexing unnaturally, becoming more elastic, as if to bend rather than break under the pressure of your strength. And its entire body is beginning to lose its solid reptilian appearance, melting into a vague green shape. <><><><><> Gordon: _Whoa! Mother's not as tough as he looks,_ I think as I see him glow like a brothel light and hit the floor. Ignoring the backblast as it bounces harmlessly off my defenses, I have to stop myself from covering my ears at his inhuman howling. Even the collapsing ceiling seems unimportant under the circumstances. I wince as one particularly large chunk crashes into my shields, but I pay little attention except to provide enough upward thrust to maintain my altitude and even move up a foot or two. _Gotta put this f***** on ice before he gets another chance._ I fire again, aiming for the largest exposed portion of his body. If he is entirely buried beneath the ceiling debris, then I will burn straight through it where I believe his chest to be. <><><><><> Harvey: If Tien has finally gotten a grip on 'snaky', even if by the mouth, and if Harvey notices: he'll grab for his vial of knock out cubes and desperately try to get one out and into the enemy before it gets free or Tien dislocates its jaw (dislocates by about an arms length by the looks of it). Rush, Rush, Rush. Got to strike while the iron is hot, Harvey thinks to himself. Rushing so much trying to get a cube in while the snaky guy moving slow enough to have a chance. He's almost paniced with the need to hurry (and the fear that he's rushing so much he'll drop the vial or something). <><><><><> Tien Lung: Increasing the pressure of her grip Tien tries to break the velociraptors skull and free her hand. She'll also begin lowering the temperature down as close as she can to -10 degrees, right at the edge of her comfort zone, to make things difficult for the small dinosaur. * If the cold doesn't get it the ice might. Now what's it doing ? * She thinks worriedly as she notices it beginning to change. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] The concrete man's efforts bring the entire ceiling down on you. Though your invulnerability protects you, it takes a few seconds to blast your way free, just in time to be the recipient of a section of wall he's ripped free and hurled at you. His strategy seems to be to try to keep you buried under debris. As you blow apart the last chunk of wreckage he dumped on you, you don't see him the smoking rubble that now fills the corridor. Instead, you hear him LOUDLY retreating in another direction through the complex....the hole in the wall makes his path obvious, and the sound of more walls being caved in, and items being hurled about, is audible even over the other sounds of battle coming from up and down the halls. An alarm finally cuts in, and sprinklers go off, spraying water over the mess. [to Tien Lung and Harvey] Alarms have finally triggered the sprinkler system all over. While your weather control isn't instant, the temperature does begin to drop. The creature's skull is now soft and malleable, and becoming more and more featureless. You've gone from grappling with a dinosaur to grappling with what looks like a large green beanbag chair. Pseudopods emerge from its body, and wrap around you. Your claws keep digging into its "flesh", but any vital areas it might have are now impossible to determine. One tentacle wraps around your throat, and constricts. In this new, malleable form, its strength seems much greater. Red blood oozes where your claws tear into it, but you see the gashes closing almost as quickly as you made them. Harvey is able to take the opportunity to descend and plunge his arm into the creature, releasing the two drugged cubes. But the thing's grip on Tien Lung doesn't loosen any. <><><><><> Harvey: When the creature first starts to become amorphous Harvey says to himself, outloud, in wonder, "gee, it is melting". Then it starts to give Tien even more trouble. A cold shiver runs down Harvey neck, it feels just like a draft, cold air; amazing what sensations you experience in the middle of fight and terror, he'd almost think the temperature was dropping. Harvey gets a hold on one of Tien's arms, resolidifiing just his hands so he's in contact with the giant dragon, and concentrates on desolidifiing Tien and just Tien. He's a little concerned for Tien's safety since he hasn't practiced this maneuver very often, but he's a lot concerned for her safety from the previously-snaky-and-now-gelatinous thingy. He makes sure he has a good grip before desolidifiing her just in case. Assuming the attempt to get Tien free is successful Harvey whispers in her ear (so the commandos down the hall and perhaps even the snaky thingy can't hear) "we could see if defenses are cumulative - I could increase your density for greater resistance...or we could see what happens when a hyper dense dragon falls from the ceiling doing a belly flopper onto a gelatinous mass?" he suggests. <><><><><> Tien Lung: " Harvey help me ! Use your power pull me free. " She says quite urgently. Tien will do her best to keep the psuedopods out of her mouth and eyes. If Harvey begins to free her by making her immaterial she will switch to human form to help him and hope changing doesn't kill her. She will continue to claw and scratch at her foe if he doesn't. Tien will continue to drive down the temperature regardless. <><><><><> Gordon: I'm starting to get annoyed by this guy's attempts to turn me into a potted plant. Finally, I work my way free, and see ample evidence of his departure. "*Damn*! He got away," I say out-loud to no one in particular. After all this activity, I'm starting to feel like I just ran a few 100 yard sprints. Feeling that 'Mr. Asphault' is a bigger problem than the commandos, I start walking/stalking in his direction. I breathe deeply as I go, trying to get my wind back. As soon as I feel like I am back within reasonable parameters, I will fly after him, at a much greater speed. <><><><><> % Finn % & Walt Finn growled in frustration as the way appeared to be blocked from both directions, with the newcomers in commando outfits being the latest on the scene. She was about ready to dive back into her room when the shout sounded, and without even waiting, turning, or asking any questions, she dropped and kissed the floor. Walt followed suit right after her, diving down as quickly as he could. Finn turned her head in the direction of the shout, her eyes searching, but her mind also taking a quick scan in the same direction, to see and "see" who it was that had told them to drop. <><><><><> [GM] [to Harvey and Tien Lung] Harvey wills the dragon to become insubstantial. Tien Lung feels the oddest sensation travel along her foreleg and flank, where Harvey has laid hands on her, and for a moment, is lightheaded. Then Harvey's hands slip free....with a few scales. Harvey feels strained....not quite like anything he's felt before, but a definite indication that he just tried to exceed the limits of his power. The green amorphous thing (though its color is slowly changing to a blue-grey hue) continues to strangle Tien Lung, despite her continuing to rip chunks out of it....the gashes keep healing almost as fast as she can make them. [to Gordon] "Mr. Asphalt" is leaving an impressive swathe of destruction in his wake. Walls, desks, computers, stairwells...everything in his path is smashed flat. You're making a turn into the row of rooms that was at an "L" intersection from yours (though you're now coming at them from another direction....you and your quarry took a circuitous scenic route through this wing of the building), and fly over half a dozen bodies as you enter the corridor. One looks like one of the invaders, but most seem to be staff, and a couple agents. You see an open door, and the fact that it's intact, rather than smashed to bits, makes it appear bizarrely out of place. open door ----------------------[ ]-------- \ /can't see past this line \ /can't see past this line ---------{ }---------------------- Gordon (about to go through a breach in the wall) [to Finn & Walt] Agent Gemann opens fire with his automatic as you drop out of the line of fire. One black-garbed gunman at the other end of the corridor falls, brains blowing out the back of his head. An agent you don't recognize is backing up Gemann, is also firing, the second "enemy" gunman curses and drops and rolls as Gemann and his partner both graze him or worse- a third commando swivels around the other corner at that intersection and sprays automatic fire. The man crouched behind Gemann fires back immediately, sending the commando jumping back behind cover. Gemann gurgles and flops backwards in a spray of blood- That fast. [to Tyler] You seem to have little to do but wait for the fireworks to end. A rythmic thumping sound shakes the floor, louder and louder, accompanied by terrible crashing and tearing sounds. One of the men by the door is listening to a walkie talkie, curses, and opens the door. From his pack, he removes what looks like a very compact, telescoping man-portable rocket launcher of some sort. He moves out into the hallway. Then one of the metahumans you gated in earlier, the huge animated "concrete" man, comes lurching into the room. He has a smoking crater in his chest, blackened around the edges. "Send me back," he says, in a voice like a brick being dragged across a sandstone. <><><><><> Tyler: "Y'all look like s***," Tyler drawled, flipping her cigarette in the general direction of a trash can. "Y'all look like mah driveway, back home. Guess y'all forgot to duck, huh?" She contemplated resisting the implied PM directive, leaving the rock man here to face whatever nemesis had drilled him. It was probably useless. The Big Dog wasn't much for loose ends; she simply had to do it, no matter how she felt about the entire thing. Tyler concentrated on the gate... <><><><><> Lisa: She shifts from dragon to human form and reaches out for Harvey's hand. " Try again Harvey, please ! " Lisa's voice is laced with desperation as the blob continues to strangle her. <><><><><> [Walt] "Dammit!," Walt screams, helpless and angry in the face of all this flying lead and smoke... ...or is he? Something 'clicks' in Walt; these fellows have to be stopped...preferably in such a way as to avoid permanent harm to anybody. Walt crouches, concentrating as best he knows how on what is going to happen in the next few seconds. For the one who got Gemann, Walt doesn't care too much whether or not the Fates are kind; he thinks *HARD* about the chances of a hangfire blowing up the gun in his hands and tearing him up a bit. For the other commando, something a bit less permanent, like maybe he slips trying to get up again and badly wrenches his back. "Come on now son," Walt mutters to himself as he lies on the floor, "everybody else been tellin' you that ya'll could do this here kinda stuff; you know you can, so just do it!" Visualizing the 'mental dice' he silently calls a 7, then sees the dice come up 5 and 2. <><><><><> Mystery: Hearing the sounds of continuing carnage, some of which is surely produced by metahumans, Mystery listens fearfully and stands waiting, hoping the goons will arrive soon, and wondering how long the gateway can be kept open, remembering how draining the earlier usages were. <><><><><> Gordon: I do my best to not see, or at least ignore, the bodies as I fly past. I try to convince myself that they're just another part of the rubble. Fying up to the opening, something in my head screams out a warning. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that 'Mr. Asphault' didn't exit through the door on the other side. That leaves three possibilities: a) he never entered the room, though the hole in the wall makes that seem unlikely; b) he exited out another side, since I can't see either of the side walls of the room; or c) he's still in there. While b) is certainly a possibility, prudence would suggest that I should operate under the assumption of c). That decided, I back up to the corridor wall behind me. Starting at about a 45 degree angle to the right, I sweep a wide-angle three-quarter power blast in a 90 degree arc in front of me. This *should* eliminate the entire wall of the room in question, thus showing me anyone hiding inside. I am ready to switch to a full-power blast (wide-angle for multiple commandos, narrow for the concrete man) at the first sign of any hostiles. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey is very confused when he slips free with just a handful of scales (although a handful of scales will confuse you on any given day, this has been a VERY confusing day), and the strange sensation confuses him even more. Something has not gone right. Half of his mind is considering alternate approachs, increase Tien's density? Desolidify the green/brlue-gray amorphous thing instead? The other half of his mind is struggling with what went wrong. To much mass? Or was it a meta-human resistance? But he's made Walt desolid and if anyone was going to be resistant he'd bet on Walt. Hmmm, how much does Tien weigh (and how do you ask either a woman or a dragon how much they weigh?) He's still struggling with both problems when Tien suddenly shrinks,... metamorphs,...de-meta-orphs(?) into Lisa. Well if too much mass was the problem then this is the answer. He reachs out to grab Lisa and desolidify her, before the amorphous thing gets a better grip on the suddenly smaller target, just as Lisa speaks. ('Oh gee', he thinks, 'it sounds like she's starting to panic'. Then he realizes, 'of course I'd probably have paniced 5 minutes ago!') Dang, the knockout cubes aren't working on this thing, better hope desolidification does! <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] The gate opens, then the Puppet Master's "voice" invades your thoughts again. **Wait.** The concrete man, who was glowering down at you, no doubt contemplating the prospect of squishing your head between his thumb and forefinger, and realizing, as you do, that he can do no such thing, blinks (making a slight rasping sound) and shifts uneasily, apparently being contacted by the telepath also. **I have instructed my men to attempt to draw that flaming fool closer** the Puppet Master says. **Mr. Farwick, you will make sure to shield Miss Sterritt if necessary. I want you to try to bring the enemy metahuman through the gate with you." The concrete man frowns, then nods unhappily. **Miss Sterritt, wait until you have an opportunity to gate them both. If you can only get one, send Mr. Farwick back. Teleport yourself back if necessary to preserve your own life; you have a higher priority than either of them.** You don't know if he sent that last part to Mr. Farwick. Somehow, though, you doubt his concern for your well-being is based on any personal fondness. [to Gordon] Actually, it's a corridor you were about to enter, not a room. You blast the wall in front of you apart, revealing almost the entire length of the corridor. No one was standing in the length which you blasted into, but a gunman immediately leans around the corner down to your right (past the open door on the other side) and fires several shots at you through the huge breach, all hitting, but none hurting you. He withdraws just as quickly. [to Lisa and Harvey] As the dragon (which clearly weighs a LOT more than Walt!) turns into Lisa, (who clearly weighs much less), the tentacles continue to constrict around her. She gets a momentary reprieve, as they have to tighten against the much smaller volume of her body, and as she retains her inhuman strength, she isn't squashed by the pressure as a normal person probably would be. It takes a moment for a pseudopod to close around her throat again, but that's all Harvey needs to grab her hand and desolidify her. He yanks her right through the blue-grey blob, and winds up holding a relatively unharmed (except for bruises on her throat and a few angry red marks on her arm and left side) but quite naked Lisa. The blob swipes through the pair with a tentacle, then pulls away, and begins drawing its mass into a new shape, rising above the floor, apparently in the process of making another transformation. Behind it, several commandos appear, send a burst of bullets through the intangible couple, and seeing it has no effect, take positions of cover on either side of the corridor crossway, peeking around the corners at you both and watching their metahuman ally. [to Walt] One of the "enemy" gunmen curses as his gun makes an unpleasant "KCHACK!" sound, and jumps back behind cover- not quite the colorful mishap you were hoping for, but it takes him out of action at least for a few seconds. You can't see the other, so don't know if he's quietly tripping over his own feet or not. [to Mystery] Your grim escorts work quickly and efficiently, opening cells and wheeling out comatose metahumans, with IV's attached, wait for you to open a gate, and send each one back to St. Louis by the Tyler express, where the Puppet Master waits. The worst metahuman criminals captured by the government, psychopaths and madmen with who- knows-what powers, all being delivered to the clutches of someone who may be worse than all of them. There is a heavy locked door at the end of the corridor. The goons want in, but a quick discussion seems to discount the possibility of blowing it down. Fortunately (or not, depending on your viewpoint), they find an electronic card on one of the bodies of the men down here who died when the commandos were gated in. They enter the mysterious room, and their voices, in Russian, filled with astonishment, echo back to you. One emerges, and gestures to you. "Come here," he says gruffly. With great trepidation, you walk into the room. It turns out to be a clean, sterile laboratory of sorts, with monitoring devices and gauges and several computer terminals all around, as well as an auxillary security station- video screens show the corridor outside, with dead bodies bleeding on the floor, and the cells lining it which you just got done emptying. Dominating the room, though, is a large glass case, reinforced with steel brackets and with a forest of wires and tubes penetrating it to wrap around what is suspended prone within. You see a temperature gauge on the side of the case, reading 5 degrees Celsius. The figure...is recognizable as something that might once have been human. Raw flesh is interspersed grotesquely with black and grey fragments of some earthen substance that permeates the entire carcass. As if someone dropped equal parts ground meat and asphalt into a blender, then squeezed the results into a roughly human shape. <><><><><> Mystery: A startled look passes across Mystery's borrowed features, staring at the carefully contained metahuman under glass, as fragments of television, radio, and newspaper accounts gives a name to the creature so restrained. *Terrarizer?* Mystery wonders, wishing she had paid more attention to the news reports of metahuman battles. Yet how to get it gated out with enough time remaining of its stasis for Puppet Master to invade it's mind? Unless telepathic instructions come, or a questioning look brings an idea from the goon, Mystery tries to open a very large gate above the case, to the destination, and attempts to maneuver it downward over the case, to send case, metahuman, tubing and all. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn's mind had swept out and identified only Gemann as someone she knew, from both groups. He must have been the one to shout to the two of them, and without realizing it, Finn's mind stayed in touch with Gemann's, an anchor for her in the sudden craziness of her current world. And so it was still there as the bullets ripped through him, toppling him backwards, blood spraying everywhere, all over everything... Finn felt Gemann spiraling down, pulling away from her, descending toward death. He wasn't there yet, but it was soon, the pit had opened, and he had started to fall. There wasn't much time to catch hold, not much time to reach out for a last lifeline, an anchor in the darkness that was death. She'd seen this once before, and hadn't been able to stop it. Hadn't wanted to stop it. But even after all she had been through with Gemann, all the arguments, all the mistrust, distrust, dislike, she didn't wish him dead as she had the other man (at least in some small part of her mind, she had wanted Jack dead, she admitted that now). She wouldn't let it happen now. "NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!" Finn stood up shouting, calling forth all her pain, fear, anger, rage, and tied it all together with her "god-damned" stubborness, and sending it outwards from her. Her arms were clenched at her sides, her eyes closed in denial to the scene before her, but her mental sight, her memory of what she had seen, burned behind her eyelids, refusing to be shut out. **>> GOD DAMN BASTARDS! NOOOOOO! I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!! <<** Her shout echoed mentally all around her, touching every nearby mind with its intensity, its heartfelt intention, defiantly murderous though it was. She hadn't realized that the scream also had torn loose from her throat, her paralysis from the fear of earlier vanished like a puff of smoke, and all that was left was hurt and anger and death. Her own, or theirs. They'd come for her, but she was damned if they'd take her without a fight. <><><><><> [GM] [To all] In the middle of gunfights and exchanges of energy blasts, desperate battles to escape or pursue, and activities occurring out of everyone's sight, a scream suddenly reverberates through the air- but it's not the air, it's inside your MIND! **>> GOD DAMN BASTARDS! NOOOOOO! I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS!! <<** It's Finn (recognized only by those who know her, of course), blasting her thoughts out like a mental loudspeaker with the volume turned up loud enough to blow out the amps. *Everyone* staggers with the force of her fury, and as her scream fades, recovers from the shock with a raging headache that will undoubtedly last beyond this fight...for those who survive. But in the moments immediately following the scream, there is near- silence throughout the complex. [to Mystery] You open a gate, remembering the one through which Tyler summoned a car, and a monster 4x4. It takes some effort, but you manage to mentally force open a portal through which the entire case should be able to fit. Then you hear the mental scream, shattering your concentration. The gate ripples, and then seawater comes surging out of it...a column of water that hits the equipment like a battering ram, roars through the room, and barely misses slamming you and your escorts into the wall. The wall trembles with the impact, and the door burst open. Fortunately, only an instant later the gate disappears, and while the water bouncing off the wall in a great indoor wave is enough to knock you off your feet, you find yourself fairly intact, though with a terrible headache, and now soaked with freezing cold salt water. The room is kneedeep in water, though it's quickly flowing out into the corridor. You see the dirty, bloody carcass of the encased metahuman lying in the water, face-up, amidst the ruins of the glass and steel case. <><><><><> Tyler: "JEsus," Tyler husked. "What the hell was *that*?" She closed her eyes and tried to will the pounding to go away; when the throbbing had dissapated somewhat, she got up and lit herself another cigarette with shaking hands. "Stony Boy, I hope y'all's ears're ringin' just much as mine. 'S'prob'ly some new freak named Primal Scream or somethin'. Nukes people's concentration...makes 'em watch daytime TV, eat s*** that's bad for 'em, worship graven images and such." She inhaled deeply, then French-rolled the smoke, taking minor pleasure in the petty talent. It seemed to calm her considerably. "What y'all gon' do 'bout that big-a** hole in your chest, Jack? I got to tell ya, it don't look so good." ALmost absently she checked the conspicuous bulge at her back, taking a little comfort in the weapon's presence. Right about now she was wishing she'd ordered up another one of the monster weapons that had fragged Lucretia. At least she knew that sucker worked. <><><><><> Harvey: As Lisa performs her high speed diet Harvey jumps forward and grabs her arm, sighing with relief as he pulls he free of (and through) the blue- gray mass. She doesn't look too much worse for the wear (of course in her present condition Harvey tries not to stare too much or too openly). He's just turning his attention to wondering how to handle the mass on the ground when he's interrupted by a scream. A scream that leaves his head ringing even though his ears aren't! 'Sounds familiar', he thinks, 'and rather important'. Turning to Lisa he comments, "I think that takes precedence over our current little problem", jerking a thumb at the mass. He gets a good grip on Lisa's hand and his stance suggest he's about to start moving, when he stops. "Ah, Lisa, any idea where that came from?" he asks confused. <><><><><> Lisa: As the scream fades from Lisa's mind, to be replaced by a dull throbbing headache, she keeps her priorities straight and kisses Harvey on the lips. " Thank you ! " She says quietly. " I agree there isn't much more either of us can do here. Unless you can think of something to try we should go and see if we can help the others. If that scream was any indication we should hurry. Let's go through the walls to make it harder for the blob to follow us. " She suggests in a whisper to prevent the blob from overhearing. " The blob came with the commandoes. They told it to attack me. All of them must come from this Euroninja person. Unless there's someone else crazy enough to declare war upon the United States like this. " From her voice it's clear Lisa is very angry with this Euroninja. Instead of trying to clasp hands as they walk Lisa carefully wraps her legs around Harvey's waist and her arms around his shoulders to make carrying her easier. She will suspend her attempts to lower the temperature as it seems to be having no affect on the blob at all. She will continue to try and protect her mind. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey is surprised, but not complaining, as Lisa kisses him and says thanks. "Thank you" he replies politely, he's confused, but he's enjoying it. Whispering back "I hate leaving unfinished business behind" nodding slightly at the blob "but I'm a little short on ideas for handling this. The problem is, I don't have any idea where the scream came from." Harvey is surprised as Lisa changes position, he's also a little off balance. He even ends up taking about three steps backwards to recover his stance, but that's o.k. because nothing _can_ be in the way. <><><><><> Lisa: Noting Harvey's confusion she whispers: "The kiss was for saving my life. " She responds to his unasked question. " This section of the complex is L shaped. If they aren't on the main leg of the corridor they must be on the shorter leg. That way. " She says quietly pointing. She continues in the same soft voice: " I'm holding onto you for dear life because I don't want to lose my grip on you and find myself imbedded in a wall or the floor. Also this way your hands are free if you need to defend yourself. " " Let's go ! " She whispers urgently. <><><><><> Harvey: "The thanks was for the kiss", he replies softly. He liked it, but he's also a bit shy. "Here we go!" he offers, picking up speed, directly into a wall. On the other side he slows down and turns, hopping slightly to keep his balance while he gets used to the new distribution of weight and inertia. "And I'm not going to drop you or embed yoiu in a wall, I'll be careful." "And the advantage of this state is that there isn't much to defend yourself against, unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to attack either", he sounds almost sad about his in ability to hurt people more effectively, or maybe it's his inability to help people more. Harvey picks up speed again, moving in the new direction. <><><><><> Gordon: I'm kind of surprise not to see the concrete man. I float into the hallway, looking up and down for further sign of his passage. Searching so carefully, I almost don't notice the bullets bouncing off my defensive shield. Just as I begin to toy with the idea of trying to tag him by burning through the corner he's hiding behind, it hits me! A scream of anger and fear tears through my mind like a bazooka through tissue paper. I clap my hands over my ears in a futile gesture, my eyes closing reflexively. A soft moan escapes my lips. After a minute, my thoughts start to sort themselves out and I recognise the scream as having come from Finn. _Holy s***, Finn! Go easy on us, OK,_ I think. That thought is followed closely by, _Guess my near- invulnerability doesn't extend to my mind. Damn._ If I have any idea which way she is from me, I will head there by the most direct route, burning a path as necessary. If not, I will attempt to determine which direction the giant metahuman went and continue the chase. If he has managed to give me the slip, then I will turn my attentions to the gunman behind the corner (to his lasting regret). <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] [actually, you recognized the scream as Finn's.] The rock-man glowers down at you. "I will be fine." Then you hear a roar, followed by an explosion outside the room. [to Gordon] Finn's telepathic shout didn't tell you anything about her location. And the concrete man is still nowhere to be seen. The easiest option seems to be hosing the commando with the machine gun. Your energy blast blows apart the corner, tearing through yet more interior structure like burning paper. It could be almost addicting, the ability to blow away everything in your path. Through the smoke, you don't see any sign of your target; he could have been vaporized, or what's left of him could be lying in the rubble, or he could have gotten smart and backed WAAY up after shooting at you. Or he could have been distracting you while his buddy draws aim on you from the other end of the corridor. You hear an explosive roar behind you, and turn just in time to see a man with what looks like a mini-rocket launcher on his shoulder. The corridor behind him is erupting in flames, and something small and fast is rocketing towards you- ** * * ** ** ** ** * ** * * *** * ** ** ** ** ** *** * ** ** ** * ** ** **** * **BOOM!** ** * ** ** ** ** ** **** *** *** *** * *** ** *** ** ** * ** ** * ***** ** * **** *** * ** *** * They shot you with a rocket. They actually shot you with a rocket. And it really, really hurts. You think you're still alive. You're lying in more smoking rubble, with most of the ceiling collapsed on you. But you feel a terrible numbness edged with painful little stabs of heat in your back, and your vision isn't too good. You hear movement and sound around you, but it seems to be coming from farther away than it should be. [to Harvey and Lisa] Harvey, with Lisa riding naked piggy-back on his shoulders, heads in the direction where he believes Finn's room was. Past a couple bodies, and running through the wet sprinkler precipitation, half-deafened by alarms and explosions, and they see at a juncture ahead of them two of the "invaders" in their black commando gear, looking a bit worse for wear. One is leaning around the corner and firing a pistol down the corridor, another is about to roll a grenade...but when he sees you, he yells a warning and throws the grenade in your direction instead. His companion turns, and fires a few shots as the grenade comes bouncing towards you. There is a third man next to them, but he doesn't seem to be moving. [to Finn] Following her mental eruption, Finn sways weakly on her feet. Beside her, Walt is groaning, hands to his face trying to recover, and down the corridor, she senses the gunmen in a similar state. In fact, she senses EVERYONE throughout the compex in a similar state- not that she can individually pick out every single mind in the facility, but the background noise of mental radiation coming from the collected minds of everyone in range all reflects the same general feeling- pain and shock. Some seem to be recovering faster than others, though. Unfortunately, one of the faster ones seems to be one of your "friends". You see an arm and a head lean around the corner and squeeze off shots at you. Unable to think quickly enough, you can only take a step backwards, and you fall over Walt, landing painfully on your back, but the bullets snap overhead through where you were just standing. Dimly, you notice one thing that you DON'T sense anywhere, which you did before....those dark strings leading off into astral who-knows where. They seem to be gone. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey considers the grenade bouncing towards them. It's immaterial, he decides, or rather 'they are' he thinks, grinning at his unvoiced pun. He could go solid again and use enhanced density for defense, and Lisa would presumably shrug it off; that way he could throw it back at the commandos. But he decides against it, he doesn't really want to get a close look at what a person looks like when HE blows them up with a grenade (even their own grenade). So he just ignores the grenade, like he does the bullets, smiling slightly. He heads on down the corridor towards the commandos, figuring he'll get to them and go solid AFTER the grenade goes off, which ought to provide shock and or distract them slightly. Then with the threat of the grenade gone he and Lisa can deal with these commandos easily enough in solid form. "get ready to go solid when we get to the commandos" he whispers to Lisa, "_after_ the grenade goes off". He hopes he isn't being overconfident, but at the moment it seems easy enough. "And try not to hit them _too_ hard", he adds, remembering her pressing more weight than a car. <><><><><> Lisa: She will do her best to keep a hold on Harvey when the grenade goes off. If either of them should end up in a wall, floor or any solid object; she will do what she can to get to her feet, airwalking, pulling Harvey up with her if necessary. She hopes this will keep them both from being imbedded in anything. " Damn the grenades full speed ahead. " She says as the grenade is thrown at them. >"And try not to hit them _too_ hard"< " Right. " She replies softly. <><><><><> Mystery: Mystery stares at the floating carcass...floating in the same water she is wading through...and without benefit of shapeshifting power turns decidedly green, the headache pounding, the adrenaline from the mission starting to fade, and with it her ability to cope. Always one to be squeamish, and that not dulled by being blasted, squished, and who knows what else, she loses it; and lets loose with the best prolonged shriek Tyler's vocal chords are capable of, scrambling frantically to get out of the water, or room if necessary, utterly unnerved, not wanting the gory mass to so much as splash near her. <><><><><> [GM] [to Mystery] One of the armed men sloshes his way through the water and grabs you, then gives you a sharp smack across the cheek. "Calm down!" he snaps. "We have no time for you to act like a child! Now open gate!" His companion is picking up the mangled carcass- you see, grotesquely, a mouth full of perfect, intact teeth grimace insensately at you, from behind black and crimson lips. <><><><><> Tyler: "Yeah, well, ah ain't so sure about the rest of us." Tyler sidled around the room in such a manner as to place the solid form of the rock-man between her and the oncoming explosions. "How about y'all standin' *riiiiight* there...y'all don't move, now..." <><><><><> Gordon: _Damn! Looks like 'Asphault' got away. *Damn*! Oh well, there's still the p**** behind the corner._ After blowing out the corner, I'm just about to go have a look when an itch at the back of my neck causes me to look back the other way. Just in time to see some kind of big-ass rocket coming at me with my name written all over it. There is a moment of darkness, and then sensation begins to return. At first, all I feel is pain. _S***s***s***s***s***. F*** that hurt..._ Then I feel stuff lying on top of me, which I soon realize to be rubble from the explosion. It doesn't seem to be in any danger of crushing me, though. Finally, I begin to notice the sound and movement in my vicinity, and realize that I'm a sitting duck here on the floor. I want to blast the F***** with the bazooka to kingdom come, but my eyes are nearly useless at the moment. I seem to have two options: a) lie here and pretend to be dead and hope they don't decide to put another rocket into me just for good luck (bad bet); or b) flee. I suspect that at this point survival to fight later is the better part of valor. Summoning what little energy I have left, I burn a wide-angle hole straight up through the rubble and on up through the roof. Even as I'm still pumping out the energy, I kick on the afterburners and fly straight up through the hole into the night sky. Once I feel the cool of the night air, I begin to peel off. I settle into a large looping orbit of the complex at about a hundred yards off the ground. <><><><><> [Walt] "Ah well, guess I made out better'n most! Now all I gotta do is deal with them there bad guys...." Walt hastily begins scrambing forward, hoping to surprise the unknown attackers with the (suicidal) boldness of his actions. Hoping that his luck holds out a little bit longer. Bad as Finn's 'scream' was, as much as it caused his head to ring like Ma's dinner bell at suppertime, helping her wouldn't do a damn bit of good if they both got riddled full of bullets. "Aw, shoot, I wasn't looking to live to a ripe ol' age anyway!" <><><><><> % Finn % Dazedly, Finn physically and mentally looks around the complex and begins to giggle in an unhinged manner. "Wow," she spoke, a smile pasting itself on her face between bursts of laughter. She *knows* this is not good, this tired, crazy laughter, but she just can't seem to stop it. Trying to concentrate on stopping it only made her laugh harder. Then she saw him. The commando who recovered quicker than the others, and his gun. Pointing at her. THAT sobered her up. Wobbling, she stepped backward and promptly fell over Walt, which caused another brief, and final, burst of giggles. "Missed me," she spoke softly, then the pain of her landing began to hit, the pain that rid her of the mad mirth completely with a muffled groan. The threads were gone. Finn blinked in startlement, and traced back in her mind when they had disappeared. Was it because she had tripped over Walt, and she couldn't sense anyone anymore? No. He had fled. Perhaps because of her scream, perhaps not. Crouching behind Walt, Finn cast out with her mind for the people those threads had been attached to. The man in their rooms, first, but then, most importantly, Tyler. She hoped Tyler was still here. That they hadn't blown their chance to release her from Euroninja's hold. <><><><><> Mystery: Mystery stares stunned at the carcass and its horrible grin, nauseous, exhausted, shaken and hurting from the pounding headache and slap, and is generally overwhelmed by it all, unable to act for a moment. [OOC: Is Mystery mentally free due to the scream, or still enslaved and bound? Does there seem to be some loosening of control to take advantage of?] <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] Your concrete teammate glowers at you again (it seems to be the one expression his stony face can manage well). You hear another eruption outside, and debris comes sailing into the room. A crashing sound tells you that something just went through the ceiling. "He got away," the rocky monolith rasps. Both of you pause, expecting more guidance from the Puppet Master...but none is forthcoming. [to Gordon] You go blasting into the sky, sending more pain surging through your body. You wobble unstably in your descending loop towards the complex, and all the signals you're getting from your backside tell you that the only reason it doesn't hurt more is probably because you're in shock. From your aerial perspective, you see fires and breaches in the walls and roof, and flashes of light and explosions throughout the facility. Whether or not you manage to route the invaders, it's clear they've inflicted catastrophic damage to the complex. [to Walt] The man you charge points his weapon at you and pulls the trigger...without any result. He snarls, drops it and draws a nasty hunting-type knife as you bowl into him. An explosion down the hall sends a gust of hot wind past your face, and something rattles ominously against the wall above you. Right above you is Harvey and Lisa...the latter looking somewhat (i.e. totally) underdressed. You sprawl on the ground with the commando, and grab his wrist just as the point of his knife is angling towards your throat. It becomes a contest of strength...until he jabs his other hand into your groin. He doesn't fight fair, and luck isn't stopping that knife from pressing against the skin of your throat and digging in, while you try to simultaneously ignore the excrutiating pain and hold back imminent death with your grip gone sweaty and weak... [to Harvey and Lisa] Harvey carries Lisa through the grenade blast, which detonates behind you, almost as if it was merely a special effects prop. Just as the two of you reach the first gunman, Walt comes slamming into him, bearing him to the ground. The two of them wind up in a nasty infight, and judging by the position of the terrorist's knife, Walt seems to be losing. Meanwhile, the man across the corridor is pointing a pistol at Walt's back, with his eyes on you. [to Finn] Your search for Tyler is aborted as you scan the commandos, still intent on killing and destroying everything in sight, then the glowing man paralyzed in your bedroom. Not anymore. He's shaking off your mental grip, and staggering towards the door, radiating more furiously than ever. No tangible dark thread is attached to him, but his intent is still murderous even without commands being dictated to him. [to Mystery] You no longer have a direct "connection" to the Puppet Master, but his controls and inhibitions in your mind are still in place. <><><><><> Lisa: " Solidify. I'll get the one with the gun. You help Walt. " As soon as Harvey turns solid, Lisa'll drop off and go after the commando with the gun. She'll run close enough to drive a karate kick into him. Lisa isn't trying to kill the commando but will use enough force, in the kick, to break bones. <><><><><> Mystery: Mystery attempts to clear thoughts and open a gate as directed, sighing inwardly and shuddering. <><><><><> [Walt] Walt suddenly remembers why he didn't want to be a 'hero'; while the hours may not be bad and the benefits are sometimes very nice, theres this little matter of people trying to kill you! And while the blind charge was the best plan he could come up with at the time, in later evaluation it is plainly flawed in some rather serious ways. On the bright side, Walt doesn't have anything in the way of training to get in the way of his 'heroics'; he's just fighting to survive. When he feels the tip of the knife at his throat, he pushes back savagely on the knifehand. Then, if possible, he'll take a big bite out of the commando; hand, nose, anything that is within reach. The only thing that might work at this point is surprise. Walt hopes, anyway ! <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey doesn't bother to say anything in reply to Lisa's advice to 'go solid' but he does nod in acknowledgement. He checks his footing (i.e. not in the floor) swings sidewise so he's facing Walt and Lisa has an easier move to the gunman, while resuming density. As soon as he figures he's back to normal density (how can you tell?) he nearly shouts "Solid!" It isn't much of a battle cry he realizes, but it should get the point across to Lisa. Then he continues to increase his density going for high density and practically falling on the guy with the knife. An enhanced density, puncture resistant person falling directly on the commando should take some of the fight out of him.....besides, Walt needs help NOW and this is the fastest Harvey can think of. (He could alternately have desolidified Walt, but then what would he do about the commando and what if Walt accidentally cancelled his meta-ability?). Gee, is seems to Harvey he must be overlooking something, something kind of important, but he can't seem to put his finger on it. <><><><><> [GM] [to Lisa] Harvey releases Lisa, who takes two steps towards the man with the gun, who only blinks once as a small, naked Chinese woman advances on him, then reasons that if she plans to attack him, he must be able to attack her. Of course, even on bare skin she barely feels the bullets. Her kick sinks into his soft body with a sickening crunch; even at reduced power, people break awfully easy when you have the strength of a dragon. He collapses shuddering to the floor. [to Harvey & Walt] Harvey falls on the commando, heavily. Very heavily. It seems to have taken ALL the fight out of him. He squawks briefly then lies still, as Walt struggles to disentangle himself. [to Tyler] "Rocky" looks around uncertainly, then looks down at you. "I think you should send me back," he grates. "Yes," confirms one of the armed commandos, limping through the door, clutching his submachine gun. "Time to retreat. We done what we come for. Send the rock-man first, I am radioing to others to make way back here." <><><><><> Gordon: "*Unghh*! Damn, that hurts..." I try to concentrate on flying steadily, but the pain is taking it's toll. I stay in the air long enough to make a full circuit of the facility staying at least 50 yards out from the building, looking for obvious points of entry or any vehicles that the commandos might have used for transport here. If I find any, I will make a plan to deal the vehicles and any guards. Otherwise, I will find a place out by the treeline where I can lie down on the grass (on my stomach), and watch the building. [Does the pain feel like the heat of a burn, the ache and clenching of muscles of a bad contusion, the stabbing pain of a cut, or something else? Does it seem very serious (I will bend around and look as best I can)?] <><><><><> Lisa: She stares in horror, just for a moment, at the commando she has just crippled. Then putting it from her thoughts as best she can she looks over at the others and says in a melancholy tone of voice: " If you're through with your commando we should go get Finn and decide what to do next. " Lisa begins walking down the corridor that Walt just came out of. She will go to Finn and see if she needs any help. <><><><><> Harvey: After helping Walt up Harvey heads down the same hallway that Lisa took. The first 10 feet or so he's very cautiouys, checking each doorway carefully. Then he slaps his forhead and moves out with dispatch, desolidly now. He carefully checks each doorway he reachs but seems to pretty determined to make good time. There's a tenseness to his expression, like he's concentrating on something, or trying to remember something. He mutters something about 'can't put my finger on it'. Whatever it was he seems to cheer up a little after that (enjoying the pun about someone desolid not being able to put his finger on something). <><><><><> % Finn % Finn sighed as the death-radiating metahuman turned to her once more, intent on destroying the "American Bitch." "I don't need this crap right now, you know?" she said quietly at him, backing carefully down the hallway in the direction Walt had run off. She looked behind her, seeing Walt's tackle of the commando and rolling her eyes, before turning her attention back to the foreigner. She couldn't spare any more attention for Walt at the moment, he'd just have to hope his luck held out. Finn tried to enter the foreign metahuman's mind, as she had once done with Lawrence, quietly and quickly. Without Euroninja there to block her, she hoped she could get in without any problems. And put him to sleep as quickly as she could. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] You don't see any invaders outside. Your back is scorched and bleeding; raw torn flesh presents a rather gruesome sight. The blast doesn't seem to have exposed bone, but it's no surprise you're in shock. You settle on the ground and watch the building. Explosions and fires continue to flicker through the windows, and sometimes blast out walls. [to Finn, Harvey, Lisa, & Walt] The commandos dealt with, Lisa and Harvey proceed around the corner, to where Finn stands with her back to you, facing a glowing black figure (glowing *black* being a pretty neat trick, but he's doing it) who has just emerged from an open door. Walt extricates himself from the unconscious or dead invader that was just trying to stick a knife in his throat, and stands as Lisa and Harvey waltz past. Walt notices Agent Gemann lying on the ground, gushing blood from numerous bullet wounds. Whether he's still alive is questionable. Finn's mind reaches for her opponent's- and her attempt to penetrate is blocked! The Puppet Master's dark threads no longer connect to this man from elsewhere, wherever the evil telepath may be, but there are still black coils of mental influence entwined in the metahuman's mind. The Puppet Master can no longer control him directly, or communicate with him (as far as Finn can tell), but he has left a telepathic imprint that compels the man to continue obeying his master, insofar as he is able. Not only that, but those dark coils provide some mental protection to the man as well. Not as much as when the Puppet Master was directly countering Finn, but enough to surprise her this time, and thus thwart her attempt to get into his mind and shut it down. The resistance didn't seem great; certainly not as great as when she was trying to get past Lawrence's defenses. But it is a definite obstacle. She got past it last time, in her panic, but her probe "slips" and fails to connect with his consciousness this time. And it might have cost critical moments of time. The metahuman radiates so intensely that *everyone* can see the glow in the air, and then a blast of heat rolling through them and past them. Finn feels her skin blister, though her clothes seem unaffected. Lisa is not so easily cooked, on the outside. Harvey, however, even in his intangible state, feels the heat. Finn and Harvey stagger, feeling their joints blazing with pain as if ignited, and their eyeballs feel like they're about to pop. It's not an ordinary heat. It's like an instant lethal sunburn. Lisa seems more resistant, but even she can feel a distinct unpleasant sensation in her body, an ache spreading throughout her nervous system. <><><><><> Tyler: "Sure," Tyler said. "Then *y'all* get to explain to the Big Dog why you came back without the supernerd, before he told you to. Ain't no skin off mah nose." She concentrated briefly, and the sky irised open beside the stone guy, whorls of rainbow colors spiraling outward to expose the Puppet Master's staging site, from which the pack of bad guys had left. "Be mah guest." <><><><><> Lisa: Her melancholy deepens to depression as she spots the new threat. The ache spreading through Lisa's body warns her that they have to get away from this metahuman quickly. * Isn't this ever going to end ? * She thinks miserably then says: " Finn we have to get out of here. " Lisa begins backing away from the meta towards the two defeated commandoes. She'll look for any grenades. If there are any she'll pick one up for use on the meta if he tries to pursue them. Even if he doesn't pursue and she has a clear shot at him with the grenade she'll take it so long as she doesn't endanger Finn or the others. If there aren't any grenades she'll stick with the others and run when they do. <><><><><> [Walt] "Dagnabbit!" Walt cusses as he pulls himself out from underneath the limp form of the commando. Then he is suddenly grateful that he was down there as he sees the sudden effect that the 'Black Death" is having on the others. He moves in a little closer, concentrating on trying to neutralize BD at a distance, even if only of a few yards. It happened with Harvey and then again with Nancy (maybe!). "Come on, Walt," he mutters, hoping that maybe this will work the wya he wants it to! <><><><><> Harvey: Alarmed, harvey starts forward and _down_. Sliding right into the ground he follows the shortest safe course and goes UNDER the black glowing figure. Moving as fast as possible he surfaces next to Finn and grabs her arm. "Time to prepare for a strategic retreat, i.e. RUNNING". Once he's in contact with Finn they should be able to retreat, but if the enemy makes any kind of fast move towards them Harvey will take them straight down through the floor. "Take deep breath" he advises. <><><><><> % Finn % ** Jesus Bloody F****** Christ! ** One of her more unusual, and least used, swears, Finn thought abstractedly as the heat began to sear her skin. At least she remembered to keep her mouth closed and not speak it aloud, thereby keeping the insides of her mouth from sharing the same sensation as the rest of her body felt at the moment. She staggered once more. With the effects of everything that had happened to her over the past few days, this was just one more addition to the pile, just another straw to break her back. Groaning from where she hit the wall with her "sunburned plus" shoulder, she pushed herself away and a few more steps back from the metahuman, biting her tongue to keep from crying out from the pain, and closing her drying eyes against the sight of him. She didn't *need* to look at him, after all. His image would be burned into her mind (she winced at the unintention pun) forever, just as Jack's had been, just as Lawrence's had been. ** Holy Mary, Mother of God ... I'm going to die. ** Using the pain as a focus for her mind, as she had once before, Finn was struck with sudden inspiration. She knew there was no getting out of this, no one to come and help her, no one to save her. She figured that she was going to die from this, she could not escape in time (especially with the burns...he could easily catch up to Finn should she even be capable of running away), and she had no idea where the others were, or if Walt was even able to help her. What was it the dream had said? Ah yes, she might very well be the next champion to go against Euroninja. What better weapon to fight the dark, black threads with than the power of white light? She ignored how corny this was, pushed aside all the cynical thoughts that kept trying to creep into her overtired, overstressed mind. Instead, she imagined light, white, pure light, like the images people who had seen God, the Virgin Mary, or even Jesus on their refrigerators had spoken of, pouring out of her and her mind. She stepped away from the wall and opened herself up, arms spread wide as if welcoming the death-heat-radiating metahuman into a warm hug, visualizing herself as a shining beacon of white light. And pouring forth that light, that power of love and welcome, security, happiness, and friendship, into the metahuman. Visualizing it not fighting the black bands that surrounded his mind, but instead changing them, turning them from black to grey to white - turning him from Euroninja's tool, filled with hatred and anger, into something else entirely. If he was going to radiate death, then she was going to radiate life. At least until her last moments of life. Of course, until Harvey touched her arm, breaking her concentration momentarily. <><><><><> Gordon: Lying there on the ground watching the explosions and hearing the gunfire, I begin to feel guilty. _Damn! They *need* me in there... Besides, I'm not going to get any medical treatment out here. If I can find a large piece of cloth to wrap around and cover the wound, I ought to be OK for a while._ Since I don't know my way around the complex very well, and the residential wing where I last saw the others is fairly nearby, I decide to head for there. I suspect I can find a sheet or blanket or towel to bandage myself in one of the rooms. I carefully get up off the ground, using my flight to help lift myself to a standing position. I will either walk or fly towards the building, depending on which seems to put less strain on the wound. Once there, I will enter through whatever hole in the wall or roof appears closest to my destination. I will search for a) something to bind my wound, and b) the others. <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] The rock man steps towards the gate, then pauses. "What 'supernerd' are you talking of?" asks the man with the gun. [to Finn, Harvey, Walt and Lisa] Lisa runs back to the bloody intersection, finds a couple of grenades on the belt of one of the commandos. Not that she's ever handled a real grenade before. The pin mechanism doesn't look too complex, but still.... Walt passes Lisa as he approaches the radiating metahuman, and begins to feel his own flesh cooking. Finn steps forward and spreads her arms like a martyr figure, making everyone wonder if she's gone insane. Then a remarkably peaceful and soothing sensation radiates from her- even the others can feel it, somewhere just beyond their awareness. The glowing black metahuman, however, staggers. His furious determination to kill everyone in sight is replaced by confusion and...pain? In his mind, the tight fist of hatred unclenches, just a little bit...and those evil black coils seem to loosen, just a fraction- Then Walt's power hits the metahuman, just as Harvey grabs Finn. The radiation pouring out of the hostile metahuman diminishes radically; it's still coming, but has decreased from a storm of palpable heat to a trickle, still seeping into his environs. The black glow around him also diminishes in intensity; you can almost make out clothes and facial features beneath his light-swallowing aura. And Finn suddenly feels lighter than air, almost ethereal, as Harvey grabs her by the arm and pulls her back down the corridor. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler frowned. She'd always assumed that the Big Dog shared goals with his minions, but apparently this one he didn't. Probably because, had they been aware that they could have been sacrificed to insure her escape and the retrieval of the "good guy", they would have been. She could make some interesting deductions from that; for instance, the PM couldn't make his puppets commit suicide, or probably, even attempt something that appeared suicidal. Hmmm...and if he didn't tell 'em, then he's *afraid* of 'em if they were confronted by that news. Like, maybe it breaks his control, and then they'd be free to retaliate. Well, it didn't matter in her case. "Ah 'magine if he didn't tell you, you ain't supposed to know. Don't matter, anyway; he was the one that got away. Ah wonder if *ah* am s'posed to stay and try and snatch him, her, whoever the hell Chadwick is. Ah 'member Finn Colvin, and Harvey Jones, and Lisa the dragon lady, and Walt as-in-Garrison Shindell, and Gordo whatever the hell his name is... "Guess it's either the dragon lady or that Gordon dude." <><><><><> Lisa: She'll pick up the two grenades. Leaving the pins in for the moment she looks back at what the others are doing. * Finn NO ! * Even with her emotions sinking into a pit of despair her concern for her friend overshadows everything else. Watching Finn move towards the meta causes a chilling fear to grow in her heart. Despite Harvey's best efforts she doesn't think it'll be enough to save Finn. Lisa will keep the grenades ready and move back towards the meta stopping just behind Walt. She'll only use the grenades if she has an absolutely clear shot at the enemy meta. <><><><><> % Finn % "Jesus Christ, I'm a ghost!" Finn spoke(?) as she began to float, her eyes wide as saucers, as big as that character's eyes in that Japanese animation movie one of her dates had shown her one time. Or at least they felt that big. "Harvey, are we dead?" she asked calmly, and also *thought* it at him, amazing herself at how calm she was, since this was the end of everything. "Did we stop him?" Not waiting (or really listening) for a reply, Finn turned back to the figures in the hallway, looking at them, a smile alighting on her face as she recalled that she had stopped him, ** well, sort of ** her plan *had* worked. At least in the beginning. Now, she thought, it was up to the rest of them. A heartbeat. Two. ** Wait a minute? A *heartbeat*?!?! ** Finn swore heavily and strongly, and in a few languages that Harvey probably didn't even recognize. She glared at him, but didn't remove his hand from hers. "I f****** forgot, didn't I? You can do this, can't you? I hadn't ever seen you do it before, but you can ... what is it, go desolid? That's what you did to me? Damn it all to hell, it was *working*, what I was doing was working, and you stopped me!" She angrily turned her attention back to the metahuman, sure now that she was NOT in the right state of mind to continue what she had been attempting before, and succeeding with. "Let's just hope Walt can stop him, I'm not sure I can *do* that again," Finn muttered, but turned her mind to seeing if she could touch the one of the meta before her, in this state. Had she reached him enough that she might be able to stop him now, put him to sleep or something else? It was worth a shot. What else could she lose? <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] "Gordon dude?" the man frowns. "If that is the man shooting fire from his body, he is outside. We are not to endanger operation for any one target." He nods at the rock-man. "You go." With no further delay, the huge stony metahuman steps through the gate. As he does so, the lights flicker and go off, plunging you all into darkness, except for the eerie shimmer of your gate. [to Finn] You try to force your way into the deadly metahuman's mind- it takes more effort, but expecting resistance this time, you are able to slide past those black coils wrapped protectively and bindingly around his mind. {a wartorn landscape, artillery raining down, bodies and starving children- } A flash of mental imagery, along with his emotions, an animosity fanned into psychotic hatred by the Puppet Master, no time to investigate further, just enough insight to glean that he is European, and has reason to dislike Americans, you can't tell what language he's thinking in- stubbornly, he REFUSES to go to sleep, though you try to repeat the same trick you pulled on Lawrence. His natural mental resistance seems to be unremarkable, but maybe it's your weakened state. You have a dread certainty that if you survive the immediate situation, you're still in big trouble, every cell in your body is screaming in pain, and waves of nausea are beginning to wrack you, held off only by adrenalin. Poison permeates your body, poison soaking into your tissues, and Harvey and Walt and Lisa are soaking up that lethal radiation also. You're still in the metahuman's mind, and sense his intention to focus his power, instead of radiating it in all directions, into a narrow beam of energy, hot enough to vaporize steel and aimed directly at Walt.... And the lights go out. Walt and Harvey are both blind, though Lisa can see perfectly well. Finn's vision is plunged into darkness, but her mental awareness still tells her exactly where everybody is, compensating somewhat. [to Gordon] There are shattered windows everywhere, and collapsing sections of ceiling. The closest is where you burst out, but it seems unwise to stick your head into the possible line of fire of another rocket attack. Shock is beginning to wear off, to be replaced by pain. You have a rough idea where the infirmary they showed you on your first day is located, so you head there, through a window (whether it's already broken or not is kind of immaterial, what's one more?) That wing seems to be pretty quiet anyways. The reason it's quiet is obvious...the invaders, or at least one invader, swept through here already. You see bodies, mostly lab techs, a couple who were present during your testing, a few agents. If the attack hadn't been at night, there would undoubtedly be more casualties, but there were people working here at all hours, and everyone on the graveyard shift...well, it became an appropriate name. Oddly enough, the bodies have no apparent bullet wounds. Instead, smoke rises from the corpses, and from the frizzled, crispy hair and scorched clothing, you'd have to guess that the cause of death was electrocution. The wing suddenly goes dark. Lights flicker off, and the corridor is illuminated only by your own phosphorescent glow. The power is down, even the backup generator must have failed, or been destroyed. In the deathly quiet infirmary, you grimly step over a nurse, whose body lies on the floor in a gruesome, contorted position, limbs posed awkwardly and lips shriveled from her teeth, moist fluid covering her face, running from empty eye sockets. As you rummage through cabinets and find sterile white bandages, a movement from the body nearly makes you jump out of your skin. The nurse's arm twitches spastically. [to Mystery] It takes a moment, but you manage to force the gate open. Your "comrade" steps through with the corpse. Not far away, not far at all, you hear a loud crackling sound, as of lightning rippling back and forth across a metal screen, a frightening and ominous noise. Something explodes with an electrical whine, and as the smell of ozone fills the air, the lights go out. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey is alarmed by Finn's panic, but her words run on and on, far faster than he can reply and he can't get even a desolid word in edgewise. Finally she pauses for a breath (boy does she have lung capacity!) and he manages to reply, "Hey, I'm just making sure you can retreat! I'm not stopping anything but you colliding with things. Go back to doing...er...what ever it was you were doing!" Pause, "What were you doing? Who cares, it was working, DO IT!" <><><><><> Lisa: * This isn't working. Even if we defeat this meta there's still the velociraptor/blob and who knows what else Euroninja sent. * She thinks despondently. " Finn we've lost; let's get out of here. Harvey, Walt move away from him. He's going to kill us with that radiation if we stay. " As soon as she speaks Lisa begins to back away from the radioactive meta. Just in case he has other abilities she has yet to see. She'll hold onto the grenades for now. Using them only if he pursues. Should he follow she will pull the pin on one of the grenades and throw it behind him so that it is as far away from her and the others as possible when it explodes. During the retreat Lisa uses her ability to see in the dark to keep an eye out for enemy commandoes or metas. She will try to avoid any more fights while they are wounded. Lisa will lead the way to an outside wall. If there's an exit there she'll leave the building hoping the others will follow. If there's no door but a window or wall she'll make her own door with her superhuman strength. She immediately heads away from the building going towards the trees and will find a place to stop so as to examine all of their wounds in relative safety. <><><><><> Tyler: "Maybe the rest of you guys need to split, too. Ah need to stay and keep it open for the last ones, if there's anyone left after this goofy job. Ah'll be okay; ah can always just wa..." Tyler's dialogue ground to a halt with the sudden demise of the lighting. She didn't like that at all. And, she wasn't going to sit still for it. She held out her hand and concentrated, wishing up a self-powered, top-of-the-line pair of night-vision goggles. Let the cheap help crash into stuff; she wanted to see. <><><><><> Gordon: As I float into the infirmary through the hole in the wall/window, I gasp involuntarily at the multitudinous bodies strewn about. The pain in my back has obviously shattered my coldly unemotional mask. The grisly evidence of their mutual electrocution etches itself across my mind's eye. I turn away abruptly to avoid losing what little dinner is left in my stomach, and begin to search for useful medicines and a sufficiently large bandage for my back. Just then, the lights go out! I immediately spin around, searching the room for anyone who might be trying to get the drop on me. _Thank god for this new vision of mine!_ Seeing noone, I continue my search. As I begin to collect things that I feel will be of use (anti-bacterial, pain- killers, burn cream, etc.) in treating my injury, one body near me suddenly convulses! "*S***!*" I whisper loudly. Looking down at her, I remember hearing a number of times that people who have been electrocuted often exhibit spasms for some time afterwards. Nevertheless, I feel the need to check, just to make sure she isn't still hanging onto life. With another quick scan of the room, I place myself on a side of her such that my back is to the wall and I can see the door(s). Kneeling down, I first check for breathing, and then for a heartbeat. <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] A pair of goggles obligingly materializes in your hand. When you place them to your face, though, you see the same thing you saw before- darkness. Too bad you didn't wish for batteries to come with them. The man with the gun says "I will stay, to ensure everyone gets out." As you curse your capricious power [or the capricious GM ], more people arrive, beating a retreat. Several commandos, who jabber to each other in Russian, and a looming, vaguely reptilian figure, who darts for the gate ahead of the armed raiders. [to Gordon] She has no pulse- she's dead. Her eyes exploded out of her skull with the force of whatever current went through her. The smell of burnt flesh and hair is nauseating. She twitches again as you touch her. What really sends a shiver down your spine, though, is a single set of approaching footsteps in the corridor outside. Even with your superhuman powers, crouching here naked in a dark infirmary, surrounded by gruesomely murdered corpses, and with an unknown killer stalking you, you can't help feeling like the next victim in a horror movie. <><><><><> Mystery: *Wonderful,* Mystery thinks, mind racing between possible hostile and possible metahuman goon, wondering which but not much caring. She dashes for the gate, and tries to get through before whichever it is finds her. <><><><><> Tyler: [Hey! I was wishing for the Gargoyle [tm] ambient-IRUV self-powered goggles, with the lifetime tantalum-niobium-hydride power cell. I just forgot to say . Besides, it says on the package, "batteries included". What a ripoff.] Tyler had nothing better to do that examine the goggles to see what kind of power cell they required, while the flood of bad guys stampeded through the gate. If necessary, she could re-try for a *powered* pair . <><><><><> % Finn % Finn hadn't been really *looking* at the meta, so when the lights went out, she was only peripherally aware of it. All of her attention was focused inward, then outward to the metahuman, and into his mind. ** okay, if you won't go to sleep, then we'll have to go back to Plan A ** Taking a hold of herself again, trying hard to regain that sense of impending loss she had earlier (since she still felt she was going to die, it wasn't *THAT* hard), she ignored Harvey and Lisa's imploring for her to leave, and once more opened up with the emotions. Love. Peace. Happiness. Friendliness. Security. But this time, she added something to the mixture. Not knowing if it would work, she tried her best to undo the damage that Euroninja had done. To take the hurts he had inflicted and heal them. His mind was an open sore, a wound that needed healing, and she fervently hoped that her powers extended in that direction, at least the littlest bit. Once more trying to soothe the metahuman's mind with white, healing light. <><><><><> Gordon: Seeing that she's quite dead as I expected, a memory flutters through my brain. [Strangely, it doesn't hit anything... ] I remember several references when I first arrived to a metahuman working for the agency that electrocuted people. I can't help but wonder if this 'Puppet Master' b****** got a hold of him and turned him against us. Then... footsteps! _Oh f***!_ Having not had a chance to bandage myself yet, I *know* this could be *big* trouble! I take a fast look around for anything I can use for cover. If I find something, I duck behind it. Otherwise, I drop flat on the floor, using the nurse's body for cover. I focus on the door where the sounds are coming from and summon the energy within my body. I hold it ready, waiting for a look at the approaching person. I don't want to take a chance on taking out a friendly by being too eager. However, once I get a look, I won't hesitate to nail 'em if I don't recognise 'em as one of ours. <><><><><> [GM] [to Tyler] It looks like they don't take off-the-shelf Duracells....they look durable and unaesthetic, like military issue, probably powered by a battery designed for this piece of equipment. [to Finn] Your mental power pours over the black threads in his mind, and offers all the positive emotion you can summon to counter his rage and hatred. The result is neither rejection nor acceptance, but confusion. The mind- controller's imbedded programming loosens a little more, and the metahuman's raw, naked fury diminishes somewhat; his immediate reaction is panic and uncertainty. Coupled with the sudden loss of much of his power, his confidence evaporates, and he turns and runs down the corridor in the opposite direction. [to Gordon] There are counters and beds to hide behind, though you can't be too stealthy about moving behind them. But the approaching intruder probably already heard you in here. You jump behind a bed, and crouch there. Appearing in the doorway is a large man with a curly beard and mustache, wearing a plain undershirt, slacks and sandals. Electricity crackles around his clenched fists, and sparks flicker in his eyes. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler tried summoning the correct power-pack for this piece of equipment, polishing her mental description and [if available, as in on a manufacturer's ID plate] adding the item's model number. She'd never done anything this specific before, but...what the hell. It was worth a shot... <><><><><> % Finn % "No wait!" Desperately, Finn called out mentally as well as physically (provided she could speak while in this desolid state, and make it heard to others), trying to stop the fleeing metahuman. "Lisa, stop him, if you can! Don't let him go!" He was her only link to Euroninja, the only way she could find out exactly what he did to those under his power. But it was more than that. His confusion, his uncertainty, they tore at her, making her want to help him, to restore him to what he could have been. She fell to her knees in exhaustion, opening her eyes suddenly when she realized that the pain that should have been associated with the motion wasn't there. She was still desolid. Odd ... how did she manage to stay on the floor, and not sink right through it? But the blackness was still complete ... the power still out. And she didn't know how many metahumans of Euroninja's crew were still here. But it was time now to search, while she still could. And see if she could find Tyler. <><><><><> [GM] [to Finn] There is no force behind your mental cry- the European metahuman keeps fleeing. [Still within Lisa's sight, though.] Your voice seems to be audible even while you're desolid. Besides those in this corridor, you sense Gordon, some distance away, his thoughts dimly perceived, frightened and in an adrenalized state as he deals with whatever threats are in his vicinity, which seems to include at least one other metahuman. You sense dying and wounded men in agony all around. And then there's Tyler...still where you "saw" her last. Only now, her own metahuman power is like a blaze of mental energy, as the gate she has opened radiates in your clairvoyant scan. She's sending people through the gate....helping the invaders retreat. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey feels like he's in the dark as far as what is going on, as a matter of fact he's literally in the dark which is causing part of the problem, he really doesn't know what's going on, but then he never does. The other slight problem is that a man who is intangible can't really navigate by feel, so groping around in the dark isn't much help. 'I hear foot steps' he thinks, which Finn may well have picked up since she is right next to him; but he doesn't say it because it seems so trivial (not to mention obvious). Dang dark, he also thinks, I still had one trick for the black glow guy, but I can't even tell where he is, or even if he's still here. Even if he wanted to retreat as Lisa suggests, he'd be hard pressed to do so in the dark. He still knows where Finn is, and he has his general orientation, but he's unsure about Walt and Lisa, and he's lost track of everything and everyone else. <><><><><> Gordon: Ducking behind the nearest bed and glancing up towards the door, I spot the glint of light - probably from my field - off the metal of the bed's frame. Having worked in engineering at Puget Power for a couple years, I know a bit about electricity. And *one* thing I know is that I don't want to be grounded or touching metal if I get hit by electricty! Duck-walking back a step, I make sure that I have a 6-12" safety margin between me and any large objects on all sides. Just then, a large man steps in. It doesn't take me long to realize that he isn't anyone I know or one of the MIB's or techs that work here. While I would normally go easy at first and test out his defenses, the constant pain in my back convinces me that I don't have the luxury of being careful. I lash out at the intruder with a full-power blast aimed at his chest. <><><><><> Lisa: [OOC: There goes a perfectly good retreat right out the window.(g)] At Finn's cry to stop the fleeing meta, Lisa throws the grenade, using her full superhuman strength, with the pin still in it at him. She tries to brain him right on the head and knock him out. If she misses with the first grenade and he's still in sight she'll try with the second. She hopes for at least a little good luck. If by some stroke of luck she actually manages to knock out the enemy meta and Finn isn't going to keel over dead immediately she'll go collect him. " Harvey turn yourself and Finn solid. I want to look at those burns. Walt stand still or you're going to get to close to them. " She goes over to Finn and examines the burns she suffered. <><><><><> Walt: Walt is going to concentrate on the chance that at least one of the lights in the area, either normal or emergency lights (government buildings almost always have such lights in my experience) kicking in. <><><><><> Harvey: [I can't recall if Harvey was present when Lisa's night sight was discovered, but Harvey has forgotten in the heat of the battle] Harvey, somewhat stressed by extreme distruction, etc, snaps "In the Dark?! That's going to be a good trick!" Then he takes a deep breath, regains his composure and starts trying to comply. "Now where did I put that blasted floor, so I don't end up part of it?" he's heard to mutter to himself. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] You fire a tightly focused beam of energy at the intruder, straight at his chest. Had he stayed put, you'd have blown a hole through him (assuming he's not invulnerable, of course) but he ducks back out of the doorway just in time. Your blast keeps going, through at least two walls and probably beyond. [to Finn, Lisa, Walt & Harvey] Lisa hurls the first grenade, which rockets through the air at the speed of a bullet, passing the fleeing metahuman and impacting against the far wall hard enough to punch a hole in it. Her second shot, more hurried than the first, goes farther astray, and the grenade tears a gouge into the wall of the corridor before spinning off at lethal speed and also smashing against the far wall. The glowing metahuman disappears around the corner, as a light directly overhead sputters and then flickers on, dimmer than normal, but inexplicably shedding light despite the fact that no other lights in the corridor are doing so. Finn looks like she fell asleep on the beach- for about twelve hours- as does Walt. Harvey and Lisa are both marginally less burnt. Lisa now looks like she was half-dipped in dye- her naked frontside is bright red (and not from embarrassment), fading to her usual golden hue on her backside. Everyone is now beginning to feel the effects of the worst sunburn in their life...and growing nausea and a headache as well. <><><><><> % Finn % % "Please no more therapy Mother take care of me Piece me together with a Needle and thread Wrap me in eiderdown Lace from your wedding gown Fold me and lay me down On your bed ..." % Finn cursed herself mentally in disgust for allowing the now-confused metahuman to retreat out of her sight, and out of her mind. She couldn't reach him now, she knew. Whatever she had pulled out of her proverbial hat wasn't going to work over a great amount of distance. At least, not at the first attempt. She feels Lisa brush past her and shudders, not wanting to think about what might happen should she become solid while someone is walking through her. This may *look* somewhat like when she ... astrally projects, but it sure didn't feel like it. % "Or liken me to a shoe Blackened and spit-shone through Kicking back home to you Smiling back home Singing back home to you Laughing back home to you Dragging back home to you..." % She took a brief moment to once more, outside of the heat of panic, figure out what language he was speaking, or rather, *thinking* in. Something foreign that she didn't know, so she was pretty sure it wasn't a Romance language. Finn had toured a bit, when time and money permitted, some parts of Europe, and besides, most of them were friendly with Americans, right? % "I was so wary then The ugly American Thinner than oxygen Touch as a whore I said you can lie to me I own what's inside of me And nothing surprises me anymore..." % But she didn't allow herself to dwell overlong on him. No, there were others here, others that she wanted, *needed* to know about, so she set her tired mind to scanning the immediate area. Gordon's presence, wounded though he was, sent a pleased vibe through her. At least he was still alive, and dealing with whatever was going on in his part of the complex. She scanned for whatever metahumans he might be dealing with, and sent a wordless thought to him, that the rest of the group was still alive ... something to be thankful for. Then it was time to find the rest of the black threads that had been left behind. Not in the least of which was Tyler Sterritt. % "But forests in Germany Kids in the Tuileries Broken-down fortresses In old Italy And claiming his victory Shrouded in mystery He went running away with me..." % The shock when she did find Tyler went through her like an electric current. ** She had a gate! Christ, she *made* a gate! ** Through which she was ushering all of Euroninja's little minions, back to their home, back to their master. No. That, she couldn't allow. Not if she could help it, not even if it killed her. ** Once more unto the breach, dear friends ... once more... ** % "Now I am always amazed Words can fill up a page Pages fill lup the days Between him and me But the vows that we never keep From bedrooms to business-speak Make me remember how cheap Words can be And the letters I wrote you of Were those of the desperate stuff Like begging for love in a suicide threat But I am too young to die Too old for a lullaby Too tired for life on the ledge..." % Taking a deep breath, Finn gathered herself, gathered her emotions, her...powers, everything. She centered herself with her breathing, as they had taught her in those few sessions she had actually managed to attend for self-defense. Striving for a calm that she had felt earlier, and even earlier than that, before she found out that she had these ... powers, back to a time when she was on the stage. Then when she felt she was ready, time perhaps for a few heartbeats ** precious time, hopefully not wasted **, she sent out a small tendril of thought to Tyler, hoping that the threads had removed themselves from her as they had from the other meta she had faced. But she was no fool. Her shields were as strong as she could make them as she reached ... just in case. **>> Tyler ... it's Finn. Can you hear me? <<** A pause, probably not even time enough for a response. She wanted this to be said, even if He was there, was listening. **>> I want to help you be rid of Him. I can't promise anything, but...do you want my help? <<** % "But I had a dream last night Of lovers who walked the plank Out on the edge of time Amidst ridicule They laughed as they rocked and reeled Over the mining fields Coming to rest on this ship of fools But he just took polaroids Of her smile in the light Of the dawn of the menacing sky And before they went overboard She turned and held up a card And it said Valentine." % ["Polaroids" by Shawn Colvin, copyright 1992 AGF Music Ltd/Scred Songs Ltd.] <><><><><> Lisa: " Damn missed ! " She says as the first grenade goes wide. All she does is sigh in exasperation when the second misses by an even greater margin. Lisa looks up as a single light inexplicably comes on. Then turns her attention to her body and the others to see just how badly they were injured. * How could I be burned like this. I'm immune to fire and heat. Even Lawrence and Jack didn't burn me; how could this ? Maybe my guess about what caused this was right. Now what do we do ? * She thinks worriedly. " We have light Harvey if you'll turn solid I have an idea. It's not something I've tried and I don't know if it'll even work. But considering how badly we're burned it's worth a try. What I want to attempt is to extend my healing abilities and try to use them on someone other than myself. Finn's busy and Walt's power might interfere so would you be willing to let me try it first on you ? " Lisa's self confidence has been shaken by what she can only think of as a massacre and self doubt can be heard in her voice as she speaks to Harvey. If he agrees she will lay her hands upon his body and focus her will on healing the burn dammage inflicted on him by the enemy meta. [OOC: Has she noticed any other friendly wounded in the area ?] <><><><><> [GM] [to Lisa [Yes, a couple of badly perforated MIBs, as a matter of fact, including Gemann.] [to Finn] Tyler, while maintaining one gate, is opening another, smaller one. She is startled when Finn's mental call suddenly intrudes on her thoughts. Oh yes, she wants to be freed. She hasn't even begun to reflect on what she's been through, what her life has become, because so long as the Puppet Master controls her, she has no life. Her life is his. Finn can see the desperation beneath the surface, though, the eagerness with which she *tries* to scream "YES!" But so tight is the Puppet Master's control that she cannot even willingly summon an affirmative response to mind. It doesn't matter...Finn heard her anyways. <><><><><> Gordon: _*Damn*! Should have figured he'd be fast; electric characters in the comics always are. Let's see if he can dodge *this*!_ I switch to the wide-angle blast, and start at the edge of the door (on whichever side he ducked behind) and sweep all the way to the corner of the room. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey looks up at the light which has perversely come on now that it is less necessary. "Now it works", he redundantly announces to the ceiling, then realizes he'd rather NOT complain about a little luck. He glances down, finds the floor and resolidifies. Squinting his eyes as he notices the discomfort he's experiencing. "Sorry about snapping like that", he apologizes to Lisa. His sunburn turns even brighter. No, that's him blushing, he just checked out the extent of Lisa's injury forgetting that she isn't wearing anything at all. "Sure, go ahead, I'll play guinea-pig. But are you sure you don't want to see what you can do about yourself? You've gotten rather bright yourself, even if YOU aren't as likely to notice the effects as the rest of us are." (Steadfastly staring at her left eyeball and refusing to let his gaze wander from it). <><><><><> Lisa: " Don't worry about snapping at me, we're all a little stressed. " She replies in a calm friendly voice. " Oh crap ! " She says as she notices the scattering of wounded agents. " Walt could you see if any of them are still alive. If this works on you Harvey I'll see if I can do anything for those agents then Finn and you. I just hope that meta doesn't come back with reinforcements while we're busy or we're all in deep trouble. " " My healing abilities seem to work automatically on myself so I shouldn't have to do anything for myself. I hope ! Now we find out if I can help the rest of you. " She responds to Harvey's question. Lisa reaches out, taking Harvey's hand and focuses her will on healing him. She tries to extend her healing ability from herself into him. She wants to repair _all_ the burn dammage caused by the enemy meta. <><><><><> Harvey: "Under the circumstances you might want to try concentrating on that auto healing ability" Harvey suggests with a shrug "Bu you're the expert. Fire away," he suggests, giving Lisa his hand, still staring at her left eyeball. When she's done, whatever happens, he'll help Walt check the casualties, while they try to decide what to do. Following up on that thought he decides to try to prod things along a little, even though he has no idea what to do next. "Anyone got any ideas for the future? Like what to do for the next ten minutes or so?" With 2 severely raised eyebrows suggesting he's stumped at least for the second. On the otehr hand, just staying there does not seem a long term solution. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn smiled through her poisoned skin. **>> I'm coming... <<** she thought back at Tyler, hope burgeoning in her at Tyler's reply, or her attempt at a reply. She focused on where Tyler was in the complex, then refocused on those who were around her. "Lisa ... get me to Tyler's room. NOW. No arguments. We've got to save her. This way," she gestured in the direction, and waited for the response of those who were with her. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] Your blast rips through the wall like burning paper. You hear a scream of pain, then, in the smoking aftermath, nothing. [to Lisa] In the few moments Lisa has to grab Harvey and concentrate on healing, neither of them notice anything happening. Then Finn interrupts them- <><><><><> Lisa: She doesn't argue, she sighs. Then with a sad look at Harvey drops his hand. " Maybe later; we'll try again. " Even to Lisa there's little hope in her voice. " Let's go Finn. I'll be your seeing eye dragon. " She says as she takes Finn's hand. She stays in human form and will use her ability to change form to surprise anyone they meet. Lisa leads the way to Tyler's room. She will use her darksight to look for enemy commandoes or metas. If they are attacked she will do her best to protect Finn. Even so far as to changing form and throwing herself between Finn and any weapons fired at her. Though she'd prefer to knock the bad guys out before they can shoot. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey helps Walt quickly check the downed agents, nervously casting frequent glances into the darkness down each direction of the corridor. <><><><><> Gordon: I hold my position behind the surgical bed, waiting for the smoke to clear. I peer carefully into the area, looking for any sign of movement. The last thing I want is this b****** to suddenly come at me from some other direction, so I keep all of my senses - especially hearing - sharp for any sign of his return. Once the smoke clears, if I haven't seen or heard any further sign of this guy, I begin to circle towards the door. I loop along the side of the room away from him, moving as quietly and carefully as I can. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler wasn't really capable of doing much of anything, except for hurrying the retreating metas and commandos through the gate. Finn's mental message was cool and all that, but unless they knew some miraculous tricks, things were NOT going to go as smoothly as they'd like. She drew the outsized, nasty-looking pistol from her back, and clicked it on ready. It whined to life with the same eerie upward-dopplering shriek the rifle she'd used on Lucretia had emitted. She settled the goggles atop her head; she'd worry about power for them later. The light had mysteriously reappeared, anyway. The last commandos looked a little nervous. "Beat it," she said. "Ah got the back door." <><><><><> [GM] [to Harvey] The agents, including Gemann, are dead. With nothing more you can do for them, you follow Lisa and Finn. [to Lisa] Lisa in front, Harvey following, holding Finn by the hand to keep her desolidified, and Walt in the rear, hoping his luck will interfere with any attacks from behind, you make your way by the most expedient route to Tyler's room. It really isn't that far away....it only seemed that way, while bullet's were flying from every direction. But the commandos seem to be retreating, the two you spot firing bursts at you as they back down another corridor. The bullets bounce off of Lisa, pass harmlessly through Harvey and Finn, and fortunately, miss Walt. [to Finn] As you follow Lisa, whose nudity no longer even seems odd amidst all the other craziness, and you almost take another hit-and-run spray of bullets from the invaders in stride, something changes in the sensations you're getting from Tyler's room. People have been disappearing through Tyler's gate. But now, someone is appearing. And he carries the imprint of the malevolent telepath, powerfully active. [to Gordon] As you make your cautious way to the doorway (which now runs roughly the length of the wall, thanks to your blast), you hear no more noise. In the corridor outside, you see him...laying on his back, unmoving, and badly burned. Charred flesh and bone is visible, and you can't tell if he's alive. [to Tyler] There are more commandos still in the complex, and these two apparently have orders to be the last to leave, so they shake their heads and stay with you, their own weapons at the ready. Something else attracts your attention though. While you're trying to call another gate with batteries for your night-goggles, you see that your gate is changing slightly in hue. Someone is coming through from the *other* side. <><><><><> Gordon: Looking down at him, bile leaps into my throat and I turn away. But the view back in the other room isn't much better. _Funny, he doesn't look much worse than his victims over here. B******._ Turning back, I reach down and check for a pulse. If he's still alive, I'll drag him back to where I can watch him as I dress my wound. Otherwise, I just return to my pile of bandages and such and get to work. If I manage to get a half-decent bandage applied, I'll check the rest of the room for anyone who might still be alive. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] The man's eyes open. "Bastard!" he growls, faintly. A large hand closes on your naked ankle, and current surges into you with a crackling explosion of burnt hair and burning flesh, sending lightning bolts of agony throughout your body. <><><><><> % Finn % "ohs***ohs***ohs***ohs***ohs***ohs***..." Finn rattled off suddenly, stopping in place. But her mind didn't seem to be on the bullets that had just passed through her, but instead on something else, *somewhere* else. "...f***f***f***F***!!!" she switched words, her murmurs growing in intensity and volume as she looked frantically about her. "He's here," she said plaintively, and if it weren't for the panic in her voice, it would have almost sounded like a whine. Her mind frantically scrambled for something else to do, for another method, another path to help them get Tyler away from Euroninja's influence. Then her mind settled on something, and she looked wildly at Harvey. "Harvey, can you 'sneak' up on Tyler while desolid, then grab her and make her that way as well? It would have to be quick, maybe if you went through a wall...can you do that? I might be able to distract him long enough, and if I can keep him from physically taking Tyler, we might be able to keep her here." [of course, she doesn't know about the cubes. Does Harvey still have some left? ] "I don't think I have to tell you all to beware ... he might try to take us with him. Tyler's got a gate, some sort of...magical gate she's sending them through ... and that's how _He_ got here." She stopped, and looked around at everyone. "We don't have much time." <><><><><> Gordon: "Oh *s***!*" I fling myself backwards reflexively as the man's eyes pop open, trying to summon the power to burn him where he lies. But once again, he proves faster than me. His hand wraps around my ankle and my world shatters in pain. "*A-A-A-U-U-U-G-G-G-H-H-H!!!*" Through the pain, instinct struggles to get away from the source of the pain and reject it from my body. Any scraps of rational thought which find purchase amidst the pain focus on pulling up and away (flight), and pushing as much energy out of my body as possible ('Nova' blast). If the pain stops, I will immediately lash out at him with a focussed blast aimed at his chest, while floating out of reach of his hands. If he is able to dodge while lying down, or reaches his feet, I will switch to the 'fan' effect. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey gulps, and considers the downsides of the plan, but there is never really any doubt that he'll try. "I can grab her and desolidify her, but that isn't going to instantly immobilize her or anything." Then he considers and reachs into his left pocket, "but I've got something that might" withdrawing the vial with his dwindling supply of cubes. "The problem is they aren't necessarily effective on metas", (visions of one particular meta float in his head). "And I can't sneak up on a telepath because I can't sneak without thinking about it." "So, now that I've pointed out all the problems", grin, "let's do it. er...where is she? Maybe I can come up through the floor and surprise her that way." <><><><><> Lisa: She doesn't allow Finn or Harvey's words to distract her even though she pays attention. Lisa keeps her eyes on the enemy commandoes, ready to dodge anything that looks dangerous, as she replies to Finn. " You've confused me all to hell Finn. Do you mean Euroninja when you say he's here ? If Tyler's working for him why are we trying to save her ? " She asks in an almost plaintive voice. She doesn't stop moving towards Tylers room even as she asks her questions. In keeping with Finn's, sort of, warning she will do everything she can to keep telepathic intruders out of her mind. * None of us are in shape for this fight we're all wounded to one degree or another. Maybe... No running won't work now. We're all in this together. Who knows; this is so stupid it might just work. Yeah and pigs can fly too. * Lisa carefully hides these pessimistic and very depressed thoughts from Finn. <><><><><> [GM] [to Gordon] Light blasts all around you, as your panicked explosion blows the walls of the corridor apart. You never see what effect this had on the high-voltage metahuman...after your own discharge, the combination of fatigue and shock is too overwhelming, and you don't even feel the impact as you hit the floor. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn answered Lisa's questions first. "Yes, well, a very nasty telepath stepped through the gate, who do *you* think it is?" she snapped, then shook her head and continued. "She doesn't *want* to work for him, Lisa. He's controlling her, but controlling her so well that she *can't* do anything against him." Then she turned to Harvey, and her eyes lit up with pleasure, as ethereal as they were. "Great! Don't worry about the telepath, that'll be my job, and Walt's." She looked around the group. "Okay, here's the plan, as best as I can do on this short notice. There's a gate that Tyler has opened, and we need to close it. I think that if we knock her out, the gate will close ... most of our powers tend to stop when we're unconscious. "Harvey and Lisa, that's you're job. Get Tyler, and knock her out. Harvey, if the cubes don't work, then stand back and let Lisa take over. Lisa, do what you have to do to knock her out, but remember that she may not have the strength or such that you do, so you may not need so much power." She glanced at Harvey and Walt before turning back to Lisa. "I don't think that, if it came down to it, Harvey and Walt could hit a woman. I could be wrong, but I don't want to risk it." Then Finn turned to Walt. "We're going to distract Euroninja. We need to just try and distract him long enough, as well as try and get him *back* through the gate before it closes. We *don't* want to keep him here, believe me. We're in no shape for this kind of assault, all we can do is get him out of the way, and back to where he came from." She bit her lip, then was surprised she could do it in this desolid state. "I'll try and distract him mentally, and I'm going to rely on you, on what you can do hopefully, to neutralize or lessen his powers, and quite possibly shove him back through the gate, if you can." She looked around for arguments, but was hoping there would be none. <><><><><> Lisa: She's really hurt when Finn snaps at her. There's no way she could've known that Euroninja was the one Finn was talking about. However she doesn't allow even this to distract her. * If Tyler is a slave of Euroninja then we have to try and free her. * She thinks in anguish. Lisa is totally revolted at the thought of one person enslaving another. Euroninja is her antithesis in nearly every way. Lisa continues on towards Tyler's room dodging any attack that looks dangerous. As soon as she arrives at one of the walls to Tyler's room she will shift to dragon form and smash through the wall. Once inside she shifts back to human form and goes for Tyler dodging any attacks. She will get close then kick or punch Tyler, whichever she gets the best setup for, with half of her strength pulling the blow so she doesn't kill Tyler. Once Tyler is down she will look for other bad guys to attack. All the while in accordance with Finn's warning she will do everything she can to keep any telepathic intrusion out of her mind. <><><><><> [Walt] "You got it, darlin'; that theres a mite better plan than we got so far!" <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey's in a ready stance, like he wants to start and get it over with but held back by one little, niggling, problem: "Finn, I don't know anything about how telepathy works, but can you tell WHERE physically Tyler is? 'Cause it's going to be a lot easier to stop her if we can find her, and I don' even know where to look." Harvey is hoping Finn can actually tell precisely where Tyler is and can get him into position with out having to actually stick his neck out (literally, stick his head through a wall, to see). "And we'd probably get more surprise dropping through the ceiling since I cn move faster going down then up." <><><><><> [GM] Finn rattles off her hasty plan, trying to keep track of a multitude of sensations all at once. Gemann is dead, and Dr. Culbrand is in agony, possibly dying, as are many other men she knows only from the brief mental impression their minds or faces made in passing. Slopes might or might not still be alive; whether he's dead or not, Finn still wouldn't be able to sense him. There are still a few invaders in the complex, converging on Tyler's room. All the metahumans except the radioactive one have already escaped through her gate. He's now outside the complex, after burning a hole through the wall, and he continues to run. Off in another wing, she senses Gordon go down, taking another metahuman with him. Problem is, he took down the wrong one, though Finn doesn't have enough time to examine how she knows this. Walt looks around and happens to see a fully-loaded submachine gun lying at his feet. He quickly scoops it up- not the shotgun he's used to, but the basic operation is similar enough that he feels confident that the "point and pull the trigger" principle should work. Then Lisa takes off, without waiting to let Harvey precede her as Finn advised. [Everyone knows where Tyler's room is- it's not like it was a long way off.] Fortunately, Lisa makes an easy trail to follow, plowing through walls like they were made of paper. Harvey, of course, doesn't need the instant exits, but the others follow as Lisa rushes towards Tyler's room. In that room, Tyler stands waiting, with her otherworldy gun at the ready. When a 20 foot long Oriental dragon comes smashing through the wall, she sees Tyler with a nasty pistol and three commandos with their military weapons. One commando is knocked across the room by Tien Lung's violent entrance; the other two, and Tyler, all get a chance to fire. Finn sees something else- the reason why Tien Lung's attack isn't taking them with as much surprise as it should. It isn't the Puppet Master himself who came through the gate; whether cowardice or caution, he chose to send a scout first. But that scout, one of the commandos, has a dark thread leading straight into the astral void from which all the others came, before Finn's panic-fueled mental scream severed all those direct links. More than a direct link back to the Puppet Master, though, the man who now stands next to Tyler IS the Puppet Master, in a sense. A malevolent mental pattern has overlayed itself completely around his minion, and sends out questing probes in all directions. Tyler has already been brought firmly back into his control, and it was his mental senses that told him Tien Lung was coming, and allowed him to instantly alert the others in the room with him. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler couldn't have managed her athletic success if she had not possessed outstanding reactions, even considering the rehabbed knee. She was a competent marksman, and strong for her size; plus... ...she was already fearless, and she had been solidly prepared for Tien Lung's arrival. She didn't even flinch from the place in the wall where the dragon exploded through; the odd weapon whined and spewed a burst at such a phantasmic cyclic rate that it sounded like some gigantic Norse skywarrior ripping cosmic sheets; in the gloom, a pyrotechnic lance of flame and steel moved like a whip of light to intersect with the dragon's path, shredding everything it touched. Even as she fired, Tyler held out her off-hand, and backed toward the gate. A new glow formed, oddly angelic aethyr-light coalescing around her hand. Lucretia could have explained what she was doing. <><><><><> Lisa: Lisa shifts to human form to throw off Tyler and the commandoes aim. She'll try to dodge their attacks. Then she goes for Tyler striking with either a punch or kick, at half strength, pulling the blow so as not to kill Tyler. Lisa's very careful not to knock Tyler through the gate. She'll do anything she can to keep herself or any of her companions from going through the gate either. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey comes running up following Lisa, who politely left a trail of bread crumbs, well crumbs anyways. He sees the commandos, they see him. He could go around and attack from another direction trying for surprise, but he figures they know he's coming and besides, Lisa is creating a diversion. He only has one cube out, and doesn't want to take time to get more from the vial, so he picks a target, Tyler, and makes a straight line towards her. Ignore everything else, worry about it later, don't let anything distract him, that's his plan. Once he gets that cube into Tyler he'll worry about the other targets but this comes first. Somewhere in the back of his mind he spares a second to wonder about the odd gun Tyler holds, but it probably can't hurt him while he's desolid, though a few nasty ideas for alternatives briefly intrude. But there isn't a lot of time for introspection while sprinting across the room. <><><><><> % Finn % ** okay, so it's not him ... it is close enough ... I'm not going to bother to explain it to them, they've already all headed off... ** Finn thought rapidly as her mind took in everything it could as quickly as it could. She thought about her plan, and decided there wasn't time for modifications ... the gate needed to be closed, and closed *now*. But that was up to Harvey, and hopefully Lisa, to take care of. *She* had to deal with Euroninja's "minion." She brought her shields up to "maximum," imagining her mind as the inside of an eggshell (which brought along a giggle, as she was feeling like her brain and insides had been scrambled, like those Ronco Inside the Egg Scramblers they used to sell on TV), and the shell protecting it completely on all sides, a smooth surface from which nothing could gain entry. However, she could still "breathe," ie., still go out with her mental probes, to see what she could see. She waited down the hallway from the room the rest of them had gone into .. she was in no shape for a physical confontration...*Finn* didn't have dragon scales, the ability to turn desolid, or incredible luck. She was just the one with the mind powers... ...which meant it was her job to deal with Euroninja. Or whomever he had chosen to send in his stead. **>> Hello? Anyone hooooooooome? <<** she directed the amused thought at Euroninja's lackey, hoping the direct approach might distract him, or at least confuse him. <><><><><> [GM] A heavy cylinder in Tyler's gun spins, and small shells come ejecting out the barrel, igniting in the same instant and blasting themselves forward with their own internal charge. A swarm of them comes hissing towards the dragon. Some miss, and blow massive holes in the wall across the corridor, behind her. Some hit, and blow somewhat less massive holes in Tien Lung. Blood and scales go flying as one shell that went particularly deep explodes in her flesh. The shock sends the dragon tumbling forward, writhing in pain, more a threat because of her lashing coils and claws than any directed attack she might make at the moment. Harvey rushes towards Tyler, holding a "sugar cube". And an oppressive presence suddenly intrudes into his mind and stops him dead. Harvey stands in the middle of the room, still insubstantial, but unable to move no matter how hard he tries. Finn sees those dreaded dark tendrils of mental energy extending from the armed puppet to Harvey, a brief touch sufficient to paralyze his mind. Her telepathic "knock" distracts the Puppet Master from whatever he might have been about to do next. **Who?** comes a thought back. A cold, hard mental voice, like a knife- edge, and abruptly it slashes at Finn. The mental attack is sudden, but only a probing one- in Finn's imagination, it skids off her mental "shell", but she has a pretty good feeling that this was far from his best effort. **So. You must be the one responsible for that scream in the ether.** Walt, oblivious to the mental exchange, sees Tien Lung go crashing through the wall, go down under a hail of bullets from Tyler's massive pistol, and then spots Harvey standing exactly in the line of fire if he chose to shoot at Tyler or the man with her with his submachine gun. Of course, Harvey is supposed to be insubstantial... <><><><><> Tien Lung: * ::PAIN:: *; terrible, burning pain from deep wounds in her body. Tien lunges towards the nearest wall, other than the one she came in by, smashing her way out in an attempt to save her life. She will leave the rescue of Tyler in the others' hands. She tries to put some distance between herself and Tyler's room once she goes through the wall. She'll avoid fights if possible. Tien does her best to make as little noise as possible by flying instead of walking. She looks around corners before taking the turns. Working her way back towards where Finn and Walt are she tries to stop the bleeding. <><><><><> Harvey: Harvey is running across the room at top speed, desperately trying to 'hit' Tyler with the cube before any of the opponents can come up with something to hit him with. Lisa is creating a dramatic diversion and might just buy him enough time to use the cube, then he can think about what to do next. For now just think about getting across the room. Just think about getting across the room. Just think about thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about thinking about... <><><><><> [Walt] "Oh, hell!" Walt spits, well aware that this has already gone to heck in a hand basket. He maneuvers to the side so as to not chance Harveys solidity. As soon as he gets clear, he'll take draw a bead and take careful aim... ...at the gun. Walt says a little prayer and 'rolls the dice', hoping God is feeling kind, rather than vengeful today. <><><><><> % Finn % **>> So I must be. <<** She thought back at Euroninja with nonchalance, letting him take that as he would. But she couldn't let it go, she really just couldn't... **>> ...hope I didn't give you *too* much of a headache, hon... <<** An echo of a giggle trailed along with that thought, *just enough* so that it might be heard. **>> Oh, that's right ... I'm a _woman_, right ... not _WORTHY_ of your attacks. Can't forget that now, can we? Oh, and let's not forget *self- absorbed American*. Sorry for the _inconvenience_, hon, but we women with our *delusions of significance* are just too *obstreperous* to sit meekly by and watch. <<** Finn wondered how he might take those worse ... those *specific* words, from her future-dream, the words he had thought at her. It might just tick him off enough, knowing that was how he *felt*, but had never specifically expressed to her. Hopefully, it might make him slip up. She doubted it, but it was worth a shot. In the meantime, she saw that Harvey had been stilled. It was her job to make sure he got to Tyler. Time to work on those black threads, to sever Harvey from them, to allow him enough leeway to keep on moving, to reach Tyler. Snip snip. <><><><><> [GM] Finn's mental adversary is perturbed at her taunting, no question. **Who are you?!** he snarls, more angrily now. The next attack on her shields is more determined. Still probing, though, which worries her since the "probe" caused her some minor pain in deflecting it this time. **I don't think so!** he hisses, as Finn reaches for the coils wrapped around Harvey's mind. This time it's Finn who is deflected, and considering her own difficulty in holding up a shield while simultaneously trying to mentally free Harvey, the power this other telepath must have, to be able to attack her while simultaneously parrying her own indirect attack, all through a remote minion, is not lessening her sense of dread....he's at least as good, and as dangerous, as she was afraid he would be. On the other hand, he hasn't won yet, and if he could simply grab all your minds right away, no doubt he would have. The dragon, with an ear-splitting screech, lurches through the far wall, trying to get out of the way of another volley of mini-missiles from Tyler. The man next to her, even as his mind is being used as the conduit for the Puppet Master's mental assault, levels his submachine gun and sprays. Bullets pass through Harvey, and somehow manage to miss Walt again. As Tyler aims for a second salvo, Walt fires. He misses Tyler's gun, and hits her instead. Whether that's lucky or not is debatable; the bullet only wings her, taking a few ounces of flesh off her upper arm, enough to prevent her from pulling the trigger as she instinctively winces from the pain. More importantly, the second gate she was openining ripples, glowing red and yellow, then winks out. <><><><><> Tyler: "*F***!" Tyler's complaint was pithy and to the point. She'd lost her concentration, was bleeding like a stuck pig, and the *real* gun she'd been wishing up was delayed, at the very least. Crapola. Well, the pistol had done a pretty good chunk of damage to the big lizard, who apparently had high-tailed it. But ol' Walt was shootin' at *her*, now! "Sorry, amigo. Ain't mah idea, but..." She actually sounded like she meant it, although it didn't stop her from levelling the pistol at him, steadying it with her off-hand to compensate for the injury, and ripping off another killer burst. She walked the hose- spray of explosive shells and fire through Harvey, too, just in case the machine gunner's effort had been a freak miss. This time she didn't mess with trying to summon reinforcements; she backpedalled rapidly toward her gate, intending to get the hell out of Dodge. <><><><><> [Walt] Walt winces as his shot slams into her flesh rather than the solid metal and plastic of her futuristic firearm; this was *not* what he was trying to get accomplished! He winces harder when he sees that what he has done has garnered him Tyler's undivided attention. That gun of hers tore huge manhole- sized wounds in the *dragon*, fer chrissakes! Time to get the heck out of the way, but fast. Walt slides sideways in search of some kind of cover, taking the time to get off one more shot at Tyler before she vanishes. He's hoping for soemthing decidedly non-fatal, but that will prevent her from getting through the gate. And praying a lot too, of course; seems he's been doing a lot of that lately! <><><><><> % Finn % **>> Who am I? Good question ... <<** Finn had decided her tactic. It might get her killed, but she thought it the only way. Since control was his forte, what he excelled at, what he lived for, what he *killed* for ... she was going to try to make him lose it. He might take her out in the backlash, but it really was her only shot. **>> ...if you really want to know, hon, your probes are going to have to do much better than that. Jesus, I would have thought that Ashiya would have given you a least a *little* bit more information, but hey, we can't all be that lucky now, can we? <<** She saw that Tyler was making her retreat, and Harvey was still standing still. Damn! **>> Me...I'm a _nonsensical_ folk singer ... your _next great opponent_, I suppose, if you care to call it such. I mean really ... you're spreading yourself rather thin, controlling all these ... puppets of yours. If you didn't have to worry about them, about your control of them slipping, hey, you'd have had me in a heartbeat, wouldn't you? <<** Finn took a quick peek at Tyler, seeing if the black bands were still as tight as ever, and then at the man Euroninja was using as his "presence" here. And another try at snipping the threads.... <><><><><> [GM] **It will be interesting tearing your mind apart to learn where you got all this information** the Puppet Master says. Tyler rips off another salvo of shells, demolishing what was left of the far corridor. Walt dives out of the line of fire, and keeps moving as the section of wall he dived behind disappears in an explosive flash. His own snap shot misses both Tyler and her weapon. **Stay** the Puppet Master commands, halting Tyler's retreat towards the gate. Which, incidentally, is sapping a lot of her energy as she continues to hold it open. **Move your gate closer to that insubstantial fool.** By "move", Tyler can only figure he means close the existing one and open a new one, since she hasn't ever been able to actually *move* her gates before. Finn sees Tyler is still quite thoroughly under control. As the Puppet Master begins another assault on her shields- this time, closing in on her from all sides, pressing against her shield gradually but implacably, making her feel like someone is carefully placing the two halves of a vise on either side of her skull- she makes another try for the mental fetters on Harvey. Closer this time, Harvey actually feels Finn's touch in his mind, briefly, but not long enough to free him. <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler groaned mentally at the Big Dog's goofy commands. He was not exactly a Master Tactician, expending assets like they were popcorn, without even communicating any reasonable certainty about what he wanted to accomplish. She closed the gate with an electric snap, polychromatic light flashing outward from it on a globular wavefront as it vanished. Be interesting to see just how much control the retard had *now*, with no gate access. She tracked Walt's exit line with the pistol as she walked over to the immobile Harvey. Her gun-arm was shaking; her own gore covered her bicep like splattered paint, and had soaked the tank top she was wearing, though the shallow wound seemed to have stopped bleeding for the moment. "Howdy," she said softly. "Guess he's got y'all, too, eh?" She switched the pistol to her offhand. "Keep your pals away, if you can. This pistola is f***in' killer." She concentrated, and the actinic spark of a newly forming gate appeared directly on top of Harvey. She didn't think she had enough energy to summon the pistol's big brother, especially if she was supposed to keep holdin' these stupid gates open; but..aha! She did have the sonic weapon she'd created to use against Crystal, and maybe it would do some damage. She scrambled to fish it out of her bag; then she'd have *two* guns. "Ah'm startin' to feel like Annie Oakley," she muttered. "Ah got to work me up some new shtick." <><><><><> [Walt] "Aw, no...." Walt half curses, half sobs. He doesn't like this, not one bit! He'd thought that his fighting days were behind him, but now he was starting to see that in this world, it would always be there. The question was, what was Walt going to do about that? Flick the select switch from single shot to burst, thats what. Much as he hated it, despised it, right here and now there wasn't a peaceful answer. So he'd do what he had to do and deal with the consequences later. Walt stands up and fires at Tyler, trying for center of mass hits. Taking her down,but not killing her, Walt hopes. He doesn't know what he'll do if that doesn't work. Or what it will cost him if it does. <><><><><> Tien Lung: She stops crashing through walls and begins working her way back to Finn's position. Tien will avoid Tyler's room, going around it, to stay away from that gun. She tries to stop any bleeding as she flies through the corridors. Tien desperately tries to pull more power to her as she gets near Finn. * I'm going to need every scrap of power I can lay my claws on. * She thinks to herself; knowing it won't be enough to stop this sadistic monster. <><><><><> [GM] **The objective is to kill or capture as many of these metahumans as possible** the Puppet Master's thought comes needling back at Tyler, with more than a little irritation. **And I am quite capable of tracking them all and deciding when a retreat is necessary.** He demonstrates this as Walt rises and slips out from behind the rubble, to point his SMG straight at Tyler. With her hand rummaging in her bag, for a moment she thinks this is it- not without a little relief, somewhere in her enslaved consciousness. Then Walt jerks and stands stock still, as the Puppet Master lashes out to paralyze him, just like Harvey. Walt struggles bravely, and almost manages to resist the telepath's control. Almost. Finn perceives this; she also notices, a slight weakening in the pressure he's bringing to bear on her shields. He's attacking Finn, deflecting her attempts to free Harvey, assensing the area and communicating with Tyler, AND now spared a little more of his mental concentration to stop Walt. He HAS to be stretching himself pretty thin. But his connection to his minion does not terminate when Tyler closes her gate. **We will discuss my 'retardation' later, Miss Sterritt** he continues, ominously. Then snarls as the gate opens above Harvey **How am I supposed to make him walk through a gate that's floating above his head?** <><><><><> Tyler: Tyler found herself calming down from the adrenaline rush of Walt reappearing with surprising rapidity. Either she was turning into a stone killer, or the Big Dog had a thumb on that control, too. He didn't sound like his sense of humor was running on all cylinders, though. "Well, aren't *we* in a pissy mood," Tyler huffed. After that, she couldn't help but grin at her own temerity, since that was about the limit of her disobedience. Tyler now had two guns, one the vicious explosive autofire pistol, the other an odd-looking chunk that looked like something Flash Gordon might have sported. She levelled them both at Walt, while she made whatever adjustments were necessary to place the gate directly next to Harvey [at the same latitude and longitude, the same approximate distance from the geographical center of the planet, with the same clearance on all sides between Harvey and the edge of the gate. With the opening pointed in the correct fashion. With nothing else in between. With little red and white metal signs with arrows pointing at it that said, "this way to the gate []" <><><><><> % Finn % **>> Yeah yeah, threats and promises, threads and puppets ... <<** He was taking a firmer hand in things, but REALLY spreading himself thin. However, he was going to outlast her, that she was sure of. So she had to take another tack. She wasn't sure she was going to like this, but it was her only thought at the moment. She gathered her shreds of mental energy, every last bit of her own physical energy, and every flailing thought and pushed it forth once more into a telepathic shout. But this time, it had a direction. A specific target, though she expected it to backlash into the area where these thoughts manifested ... the ether, space, what-have-you. Right at Euroninja's "minion." **>> GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, YOU BASTARDS! <<** Recalling how she had felt, how everyone had been "stunned" for a moment, she reserved a very small portion of that energy and directed it then at Harvey, hoping to give him enough impetus to move forward, to break from the bonds that held him in place, and allow him to make the final movement necessary to place the cube into Tyler. Finn just hoped that it worked against her. She was out of options. <><><><><> Harvey: Part of Harvey doesn't seem to be doing anything. In fact both the physical body and most of the mind seem to be taken up with 'thinking about thinking about thinking about...' what little mind is not busy with these intellectual pursuits is busy being scared. In fact one possible explanation for his immobility is that he's petrified with fear, unfortunately that is unlikely to be the case. Harvey would have ducked with fear and surprise when the gate opened directly over his head, if he could have moved that is. Blasted thing was so close it almost cut him in half! He's even less sanguine when it opens patently next to him. He has one out he's saving for last resorts, just sliding through the floor into what ever is below; the problem is that although there are numerous basements in the installation, there are even more things that can go wrong (VERY wrong). That is definitely a last resort maneuver. But thinking of all the things that could go wrong combines with Harvey's desire for something to go wrong to the Enemy. So why not? Concentrating on his shoes, and the floor under them, Harvey tries to make a section of the floor desolid, including the section under the Enemy (ersatz puppetmaster). If it works then crashing into the floor below ought to give the bad guy a tumble for the worse (and a shock and several bruises; probably nonfatal but maybe a diversion to be appreciated). <><><><><> [GM] Alas, the volitional part of Harvey's mind that translates desire to action is as paralyzed where his powers are concerned as is it with his muscles. He can do nothing but stand where he is. But, at least the Puppet Master seems too distracted to compel him to step through the gate, and since he remains insubstantial, Tyler can't push him. The steady pressure against her shield continues...Finn feels "cracks" beginning to appear. He can't get at her immediately, but he is working steadily and painfully on her shield. Her repeated telepathic contests with a superior opponent are costing her, she has little left. Everything she has, she hurls at the Puppet Master's designated "puppet", one last time. As Tien Lung comes crashing through a wall from behind Finn and to the side, she sees Finn's hair rise and whip around her head, caught in a corruscating halo of eerie blue light. Harvey and Tyler see a wavering bolt of energy split the air, emanating from out of sight down the outside corridor and making a zigzag path towards the commando who is playing host to the Puppet Master's personality. Finn "sees" the man's brain smoulder inside his skull, and with a childlike whimper, he sinks to his knees and topples forward. The pressure against her shield suddenly disappears. But Harvey and Walt are still mentally paralyzed, and Tyler remains heavily-armed and still enslaved to the Puppet Master's will (even if she's once again cut off from direct communication with him.) And...Finn did NOT sense either the Puppet Master or his unfortunate brain-fried minion actually die.... <><><><><> Tyler: "Holy s***," Tyler whispered. She had visions of a major electrical short, and afterimages of the energy blast sparkled and wavered in her eyes. Well, she wasn't paralyzed, at least. She tested her ability to improvise by easing toward the gate, just in case Big Dog had relented on her evacuation. "Y'all don't look so good," she said to the now-kneeling minion. "Why don't y'all split, while the door is open. Ah'll help you." He didn't seem up to responding. She decided she couldn't leave the guy, so she approached him gingerly, and tried to help him up while maintaining a 360 degree surveillance with both weapons. It was not an easy task. <><><><><> Tien Lung: The energy Finn flings at Puppet Master gives Tien some small hope that they might just survive. * Allright ! Get him Finn ! * Lisa's thoughts are actually tinged with hope for the first time since being attacked by the velociraptor. * Now to do something about Tyler and her magic guns. Hmmm. I could take Walt's submachinegun and just shoot her. No. Finn says she's a slave of that telepathic monster; shooting her will have to be a last resort. There has to be another way to break her concentration. Yesssss... * The plan that comes to Tien's mind may not be the best one possible but it's the only way she can see to capture Tyler alive. " Finn is there any way you can get those guns away from her ? " Tien asks as she flies over Finn's head towards Tyler's room. This time she uses cover and dodges as she moves forward. Tien will either make some debris to throw at Tyler, by ripping them out of a wall if necessary, or use any that might be handy. She will throw the debris hard enough to hurt, she only wants to break Tyler's concentration on the gate, not kill her. Tien will stay behind cover as much as possible both before and immediatelly after throwing the debris. Hopefully Finn will either free Tyler or get the guns out of her hands so Tien can attack. If at any time Tyler drops the guns in her hands Tien will immediately go all out for a pounce on Tyler and try to pin her prior to knocking her unconcious. [OOC: In game terms: an all out attack if Tyler drops both of her weapons. Pin Tyler first then knock her out.] <><><><><> [Walt] His mental sigh is almost audible to those around him. Walt was expecting this, sooner or later; it had just been a matter of time before the attention got focused on him. All that shooting was bound to annoy the Puppetmaster; after all, good slaves *must* be hard to come by! He tries very ahrd *not* to think about what might happen if Puppetmaster succeeds in carrying *him* off. "What to do?" he muses to himself. By this point things have gotten so far out of control that being afraid seems something of an understatement. There is so much power flying around that such things just don't seem worth worrying about right now. The first thing that Walt tries to concentrate on is the chance that in her haste to pull the whatzit from her 'enslaved former good guy-utility belt', Tyler 'accidentally triggers it still in the pouch. Hopefully the feedback/backfire/whatever would K.O. her. If they couldn't do that, then it looked like this was the end of the road... <><><><><> Harvey: "Dang", I thought this stopped paralysis only effected motion and not meta abilities, apparently not. Which means there's absolutely nothing I can do. Which means I will soon become very claustrophobic in here!!! D***, I can't even curse. WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? WHAT DO I DO? I wonder if I can push back mentally? No reason to assume I can, but no reason I can't. And besides, I'm just standing here, might as well TRY to try something. <><><><><> [Everybody seems to have said that they "...try X , and barring a miracle, then give up". Since X seems to be failing miserably across the board, I graciously accept your *en masse* surrender; please file to the nearest gate for transfer, delousing and a little harmless programming.] Tyler "She who ends up with the most puppet recruits wins" Sterritt <><><><><> % Finn % Finn's jaw fell open as she realized that *she* was the cause of the bolt that took out the minion. She looked at Lisa, spared her a moment for a response, then concentrated once more on Harvey. "I can't ... Euroninja's controlling her too well...I can't even get a toehold on her mind. "Lisa ... I've not very little left at this point, but Walt and Harvey are still paralyzed. I think the guy I fried is still alive ... he could be healing now as we speak, like you did. I'll work on getting Harvey and Walt free, but can you deal with the minion, and Tyler?" She tried, once more, to try and release Harvey, then Walt, from their paralyses. <><><><><> [GM] No "programming" rises to prevent Tyler from lifting the heavily-geared commando from the floor, and grunting under the load, she begins opening one more gate... And feels HIM return, this time flowing into her mind like a tidal wave of black ooze, enveloping her consciousness and smothering all thought. **Excuse me, Miss Sterritt** the Puppet Master says with chilling wryness as she sinks into mental oblivion. **I need to borrow your body.** All of Walt's wishes come to naught, but one of Finn's does: with nearly the last bit of concentration she can muster, she slips the coils from Harvey's mind, and Harvey, with no warning at all, feels control over his body return. And as Tyler suddenly dumps the body she was hoisting, Tien Lung tears down the corridor, literally- her claws rake the walls and rip chunks of wood, plaster and cement out. She has to swerve to avoid overrunning the still-paralyzed Walt, and comes into sight of Harvey and Tyler. <><><><><> Tien Lung: She throws the debris as soon as she can; hard enough to hurt Tyler but not kill. Tien will then dodge behind cover after she has thrown the debris at Tyler. If the guns are knocked from Tyler's hands Tien will pounce on her and try to knock her out. [OOC:Tien has been maintaining maximum psychic defenses and will continue to do so.] <><><><><> [Walt] "Well, alrighty then" Walt thinks to himself, unable to express his frustration and growing apprehension at the whole debacle. "Seein' as how that there little hole card didn't seem to do much other than raise sweat on my brow, I reckon that we'll just have to be trying something else, won't we?" Walt changes tactics trying to extend his 'anti-power' powers and bring them to bear on Tyler. Not quite sure *how* to do it, but willing to try, rather than just stand there like he was waiting for the bus or something! <><><><><> Harvey: Suddenly, and without any particular planning on his part, Harvey starts moving again. A basic principal of physics holds that an object in motion continues in motion, unless stopped by a very powerful outside force; so since there is now no powerful outside force, Harvey continues. His plan had been simple, basic and straight forward: max speed towards Tyler and 'hit' her with the cube; his plan still is. The cube is still in his hand, since paralyzed people can't drop things. He's still desolid since meta-paralyzed meta-humans can't change their state. And he's still heckbent on getting Tyler with the cube. 'Dang the topedoes and full speed ahead'.* Once he gets Tyler with the cube (barring the intervention of torpedoes) he'll see if he can find any other targets or plans, but first - GET TYLER! <><><><><> % Finn % "YES!" she shouted hoarsely as her head nearly exploded with the pain...her concentration was shot, the headache that had been plaguing her earlier was back in full force. Finn fell to her knees, gasping for breath, the little fragments of her mind trying to concentrate on the scene that was taking place ... now before her, since Lisa had ripped out the wall. "...oh jesus, please let this work..." And she waited to see what would happen. <><><><><> [GM] Harvey lurches forward, reaching towards Tyler with his "sugarcube" in hand. And Tyler stares at him with a cold glare, and mere inches from his objective....Harvey feels that constricting mental presence invade his thoughts AGAIN! Feeling like a football player struggling to gain yardage against an overwhelming defensive lineup, Harvey jerks to halt three steps closer to Tyler, hand held out like an offering. Her gate yawns wide, and Tyler steps towards it, finally ready to make her escape. And the gate shrinks and winks out. Tyler snarls, spins around to face Walt, and raises her pistol, the other one, that she'd just retrieved from her bag. She points it at Walt, and Tien Lung zips into sight. Tyler immediately shifts her aim to the dragon, and pulls the trigger as Tien Lung hurls her fistfuls of debris at the woman. No one but Tien Lung hears anything; the gun appears to do nothing but cause a slight shimmer in the air, like heat waves boiling up from hot pavement. The dragon, though, hears the most horrific, ear-splitting shriek imaginable, and pain sears her flank as scales are stripped from her hide like a fish being scraped with a knife. Finn, down the corridor, sees the path of the invisible beam travelling up the dragon's side, leaving raw bloody flesh in its wake. It doesn't stop the chunks of structural material from slamming into Tyler. The helpless puppet is knocked off her feet and crumples beneath the onslaught. Eerie silence settles over the scene. Harvey and Walt remain paralyzed, Finn's head feels like someone's been using it for a soccer ball, and Tien Lung wants to curl up into a ball and nurse her wounds. Beneath the section of wall that the dragon hurled at "half strength", blood begins to pool around Tyler. <><><><><> % Finn % "Did it work?" Finn winced as the sound of her own voice hurt her head, but then the wincing also hurt her, so she let her face relax completely, and tried not to move. She wondered if her telepathy might still work, that seemed pretty simple. But she didn't know if she wanted to try it or not. ** damn ... got to at least *try* ... ** She tried a mental sweep of the area, to see who was alive, who was dead, and who was hurt. If she could. Then she began to crawl over to the hole in the wall, slowly but surely, to see with her own eyes the scene that had played out in front of her. <><><><><> Tien Lung: * Ouch that HURTS ! What kind of weapon was that ? Still more wounds to heal. * Tien thinks; wracked by great pain from the cumulative injuries she has taken in this battle. For a moment Tien is shocked both by the sudden ending of the fight and her new wounds. But she quickly recovers and advances on Tyler with care. She will take Tyler's weapons away if she's unconcious or pounce on her 'prey' then pummel her with 'half strength', carefully pulled nonlethal blows, until she's senseless. Once the weapons are out of reach she will clear the debris and check Tyler to see if it's safe to move her. She looks up at Harvey once she's done, for the moment, with Tyler. " Don't worry. We won't abandon you. I'm going to see if Finn can free you and Walt. Maybe she can even free Tyler, from him, too. " She shakes her head and says just loud enough to be heard by Harvey: " Metahuman freeze tag. I wonder what's next. " [OOC:(g)] If Tyler can be moved Lisa will carefully carry her to Finn and set Tyler at Finn's feet. If she can't be moved Tien'll take the weapons, make sure Tyler will stay unconcious for a while then go to Finn and decide what to do next. <><><><><> [GM] Tyler is lying under the debris, unconscious and with blood trickling out of her nose and mouth, and pooling under her leg where a piece of metal tore a gash in her thigh. Her face is streaked with blood, and her right arm, bare as the sleeve has been half ripped off, is swelling at the elbow is an ugly manner. Her shirt is soaked in blood, still oozing from the bullet wound Walt inflicted. With your first aid training, you know that moving her could be a bad idea, when there is the possibility of spinal injury. Finn staggers closer, and sees Harvey and Walt, still almost comically standing still as statues, amidst the carnage. The dragon hovers anxiously over Tyler, who is unconscious. (And Tien Lung is adding her own blood to that staining the floor around Tyler.)The commando, still alive, is a mental null...either Finn's attack or the Puppet Master's occupation of his mind, or some combination of the two, has left him completely brain-dead. The other commandos who were in the room are also out- one is dead, taken by a bullet from one side or the other, and you'll probably never know who. The other, the one who Tien Lung knocked across the room when she first burst in, looks in not much better shape than Tyler. Tyler's mind is still wrapped in dark coils of bondage, but the Puppet Master does not seem to be an active presence within the range of Finn's senses. <><><><><> Harvey: 'Thanks, but don't expect me to applaud you, at least until you succeed in getting me unparalyzed', Harvey thinks sarcastically. Which is all he CAN do. <><><><><> Tien Lung: Looking down on Tyler's injured body her thoughts are anguished at the harm she has caused. * I just wanted to knock her out not break every bone in her body. Half strength is way too much at least on an innocent person. Maybe I had better cut back to one third strength from now on. Otherwise I'm going to hurt someone who doesn't deserve it. * A shudder passes through Tien's body as that thought occurs. * I'm going to have to be careful with my strength. Injuring someone like Tyler is unacceptable. From now on I'm going to have to be aware of just how fragile everyone around me is. * Tien's thoughts become a promise to herself. Tien carefully takes the guns out of Tyler's reach. Then giving Harvey another reassuring glance goes over to Finn. " Finn do you have enough strength left to free Harvey and Walt ? " She asks in a near whisper waiting to see what Finn will do. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn leaned up against the wall, surveying the damage. She wearily looked up at Lisa's request, then nodded very slightly. "I'll try," she said in a hoarse, whispered voice. And once more tried to release Harvey and Walt from their immobility. She first looked for dark threads, but not finding any (?), she whispered an apology into Harvey's mind, and dipped in, searching for something that Euroninja might have done to cause them to be frozen in place. And then tried to undo his effects. And then went to Walt, and tried the same procedure. <><><><><> [Walt] "YEAH, DARNIT, WE DONE WON!!!!" Walt shouts mentally to himself as Tylers gate winks out and she becomes the new temporary landfill area. So relieved and happy he is that the threat seems to have been dealt with, it takes a few more moments before he realizes that much as he wants to, he's not *really* dancing around in happiness (ala Ed Grimly ). "Well, I done *thought* we won, so why'm I still stiff as a preacher?" he stops to wonder. He watches the others, bruised and battered, crawling slashed and bloody from all over to converge here, and there's not a damn thing that he can do to help! "Well, nobody else that can move seems panicked, so I hope that we are OK; could be just that even when the ol' PM isn't about, his mental 'lariat' lasts a while." "Darn...." is his only thought, wishing that it _would_ hurry up and fade. <><><><><> [GM] With no active resistance from the Puppet Master, Finn is able to unfreeze the paralysis he put over their volitional capacity. Then she nearly collapses into Walt's arms from the strain and accumulated stress. Apparently you are not the *only* survivors in the building. You can still hear the echoes of people moving about, elsewhere in the building, and now and then, an isolated gunshot, or something exploding, possibly because flames are now roaring through much of the complex. <><><><><> % Finn % Finn's smile remained on her face as she fell awkwardly into Walt's arms, no doubt completely negating her powers ... what little of them she had left. But the silence ... that was very nice. No more death, no more destruction, only peace. At least, while her eyes are closed. It took her three tries to actually speak. "Umm...is everyone okay? Walt, could you put me down, somewhere soft? Lisa, Tyler's alive, but unless you can heal her, don't move her for the time being. Stop the bleeding if you can, though. As long as she's unconscious, He can't do much with her." She paused as she heard the sounds from the rest of the building, cringing at the flames and imagining the people it would kill, or had killed. And that caused her to remember that Gemann was dead, and the tears finally began to flow. <><><><><> Tien Lung: " I'm not in all that good shape Finn but I think I'm going to live. " She replies in a voice laced with the pain that burns in her body. Tien glances over at Tyler with a guilty expression on her draconic face as she continues: " I'll bandage Tyler's wounds. They didn't look very deep when I checked her for injuries. That should be enough to stop the bleeding. " " There's also the fires to consider. I'm going to see if I can do anything about them first. This place is already wrecked so I don't think a rainstorm in here is going to do all that much more dammage. As soon as I have the rain started I'll see if there's anything I can do healing wise. " Tien will concentrate on a heavy steady rain. Visualizing a rain storm, complete with miniature clouds, forming inside the complex on this level. She tries to spread her power laterally as far as she can to get at the fires she can hear raging in other parts of the building. Once the rain starts she'll maintain it then go over to Tyler. She'll look for any suitable reasonably clean cloth to bandage Tyler's wounds. If there's nothing handy she'll carefullly rip strips from Tyler's clothes. Tien binds the gunshot wound and the cut in her thigh being very careful not to cause further dammage. [OOC: I'm not exactly certain if her claws are dexterous enough to do this or not. If they aren't she'll stop before she hurts Tyler and get Harvey or Walt to do the bandaging. In the next post that is.] <><><><><> Harvey: Suddenly finding himself again able to move, much to his surprise and relief, Harvey take the opportunity to straighten up and stretch. "Thanks Finn, Lisa, I needed that". He notices the knock out cube, still held in his hand, still unused. He moves to put it away, first in the vial but then decides he may need it sooner than that so he just puts it in his right hand pocket, then he stops. Looking down at the wounded Tyler and the immobile commando asks "Think we should sedate either of these?" <><><><><> % Finn % Tiredly (but who isn't?), Finn answered Harvey's question. "The commando is effectively brain dead." Reaction shivered through her .. SHE had done that to him. Burned his brain out with that electric charge from HER own brain. "You don't need to worry about him. Tyler's out of it as well ... she's as good as sedated right now, and unless she can heal herself, which I don't see happening right now," Finn craned her neck over to look at Tyler's prone body, once more shuddering at the sight, "so there's no need. Thanks for trying, Harvey. I think the concerted effort from *all* of us did it. He was spreading himself too thin, but we can't count on that next time." She glanced once more at Tyler, not seeing the injuries this time, but the woman. "I'm just hoping that I can get rid of his controls over her, and that she can help us nail the bastard. He'll be more prepared for us next time, and don't kid yourself that there won't be a next time." <><><><><> [GM] Lisa quickly realizes that it's awfully hard to apply first aid when you have fingernails the size of small daggers. A bloodied man with dark hair staggers into view from the next corridor. He looks like one of yours, only because the burnt and torn remains of his clothes don't seem to be the black commando garb worn by the invaders. He looks dazed and in shock...and he's holding an assault rifle, which he points in the direction of the surviving metahumans. [to Finn] No time for rest, no time to mourn.... For some reason, this time Walt's touch *doesn't* put an end to the clamoring in your mind. There are still people alive in the complex, some who won't be for long. Including possibly all of you....adrenalin and shock can only hold off the ravaging effects of the fled metahuman's deadly radiation for so long.... But something else keeps you from collapsing. A terrible sense of urgency, from you know not where, that tells you you can't stop, you can't rest here, none of you are safe yet... <><><><><> [Walt] "Well now, Darlin', I'll see just what can be found in the way of 'soft', but I warn you now it don't look right promisin'. Seems that all the soft stuff done got blown to heck and then some!" None the less, Walt examines the wreckage, hoping by some 'lucky chance' that a blanket, pad, mattress, whatever might have survived the confligration. He does it right away, because prior experience left him with the knowledge that he would get mighty stiff once he stopped for any length of time. "Maybe we should try to, um, get out of here? Could be that fires gonna spread over thisaway; I'd hate to have survived a battle with them there 'forces o' evil' only to get toasted by a structural fire!" Walt peers about, only to see the bedraggled commando with the assault rifle. "Aw, no....ain't we done had enough o' that there crap? Jes put the gosh darn gun down and give it a rest, will ya buddy?" [Just in case, however, Walt 'hopes' that the gun is either out of ammo or has jammed due to the dust and heat of the complex.] <><><><><> Tien Lung: " Harvey, I agree with Finn we don't need to give a sedative to someone who's already unconcious. Even worse she might have a concussion. " There's more than a little embarrassment in Tien's voice as she speaks. " Can you help tie these bandages for me. Stopping the bleeding is the best thing we can do for her. " Noticing the man with the assault rifle. " I was going to change back to human form and do it myself but we have a visitor. " " Hello. We're what's left of the governments' metahumans . Are you with the agency ? " She speaks in a calm even reassuring voice. Tien keeps her attention on the man(agent?) not replying to Finn yet. If he makes any attempt to fire on the others she'll try to use herself as a shield for Finn and Walt to stop any gunfire from hitting them. [OOC: Was there any effect from the weather control attempt ?] <><><><><> [GM] Damp mist has begun filling the immediate area, but the effect has never been instantaneous. [I should also remind everyone that 1) Tien Lung is still bleeding a great deal, and is in considerable pain from the gaping wounds in her side, although the bleeding is beginning to slow, and 2) EVERYONE is really beginning to feel the effects of the glowing metahuman's radiation....your skin burns, and you feel feverish. Like having the worst sunburn ever, coinciding with the onset of what promises to be a truly nasty flu....] The gunman blinks, and lowers his weapon, slowly. "Gotta evacuate," he croaks. "Half the complex is dead. And there are dangerous chemicals and things in the labs. And....and...." The man blinks, then his eyes go wide. "Oh my God!" he gasps. "Downstairs.....!" <><><><><> Tien Lung: She continues to try and make it rain right up until she shifts shape. Her vision blurs for a moment from the combined effects of her concentration, pain, blood loss, and burns. Shaking her head to clear it she turns to the others. " Uuughhh ! I'm going to bleed to death if I don't switch back to my human form. " >"Gotta evacuate," he croaks.< " I agree. We'll take Tyler with us when we go. There's no choice but to move her. " >"Oh my God!" he gasps. "Downstairs.....!"< * Oh crap ! I forgot all about them. * Tien thinks worriedly. " If the prisoners break free we're going to be in deep trouble. " She murmurs. The ache from her burns feels worse than any flu she's ever had. Tien hisses shrilly as pain wracks her body again. " I'm going switch to my human form now. There's no telling what will happen. If ... Never mind... Here goes. " Tien's voice is strained even though she seems to be controlling her pain quite well. Tien wills the switch back to human form trying to stop the bleeding as she shifts form. * I hope this doesn't kill me. * Is the last thought that races through her mind right before she shifts form. <><><><><> % Finn % Too tired to even wonder at why her powers didn't fail, she ignored (as best she could) the pain that was beginning to creep in from the radiation burns. They had to get out. And now. The gunman barely rated a second look ... she would have known if he wasn't on their side, even without looking at him. She hoped. No, she was sure. Instinct, survival ... she would have known if he meant them harm. And just as he realized what was down in the basement, she did as well. "Oh, Jesus," she whispered, tears coming again to her eyes, "the psychos." Finn turned to the still-bleeding Lisa, knowing that they all needed a rest, a time-out, but it was the fourth quarter, one yard to go, and they were all out of them. And God, she hated football analogies. "Lawrence," she said simply, looking at the Oriental woman, fear, frustration, and anxiety showing all over her face. "We have to do something..." What, she had no idea...but they had to do *something*. <><><><><> Harvey: "I'm not too concerned about sedating an unconscious meta; just unconscious metas who wake up." Turning to Finn, "I know your exhausted, with good reason, but do you have any idea if there are more commandos around? We're really not in condition to be surprised" (not that anyone ever is, really). Then he goes over to Tyler and does what he can for her injuries, putting the knockout cube away in his pocket. (Unfortuntely, the injuries seem more serious than you can treat with a first aid kit, and I don't think we have a first aid kit). But a mild sense of paranoia causes him to go to enhanced density until he's introduced to the 'visitor' <><><><><> [GM] The dragon turns back into Lisa, who is still naked, and still bleeding. The wounds have shrunk proportionately (else she'd be missing half her torso!), but still make ugly gashes in her golden flesh. Finn's attention turns to the basement...with a deep breath to steel herself against the expected torrent of hateful, insane thoughts, possibly from newly-*awakened* psychopaths, she scans the prison where the government's metahuman prisoners have been placed in "cold" storage.... She finds nothing. No evil mental whispers, no madness and hatred bubbling out of drugged, helplessly raging minds.... They're gone.