Electra
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Freedom City Guidebook
Freedom City PBP: A How-To Guide
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Erin took a sticky ball and affixed it to her shoulder as she'd seen the Lor officer do. "If we're lucky, we shouldn't have to kill anyone. We just have to be fast enough to get down there and come back before the Grue arrive to try and destroy everything." She checked her bat, then passed her knapsack of supplies to Dorothy. "You stay here," she instructed the girl. "We'll be back soon. Stay in radio contact, and if anything bad happens, try and get to a safe place." She gave the younger girl a quick hug, then patted her on the shoulder before turning her attention to Ellie. "It would be better if you stayed here too," she said with the air of someone who knows they probably aren't going to be heeded. "If we have casualties, we'll be transmitting them back here, and you'll be able to work on them in better conditions. I can take the hard drive down and plug Vince in."
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Somewhere along the line, Gina had managed to drag herself free of the access tube and into the body of the ship itself, though the way she sat scrunched down in her chair and avoided looking at anyone suggested that it hadn't been from an excess of sociability. She finished calibrating the sensors even as the ship took to the sky, then just sat back for a moment to watch. The teleport to space brought a moment of both vertigo and redoubled agoraphobia, sending her consciousness rushing all at once out of the sensor network and into the dubious safety of her human body. There was so much pitiless open space everywhere, so many watching stars. She fisted her hands against the sensor console and forced herself to hang onto reality. "Hold on, Steve," she whispered to the stars. "Almost there." Clearing her throat, she managed to raise her voice to a croak. "All systems answer ready for FTL."
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Gina watched the appearance of Redbird with fascination, right up until the point where the AI noticed her presence, at which point she buried her awesomely bruised face back behind the panel she was rewiring in the cockpit. There were too many people here, too many functional, successful, heroic people who could, just by walking around and not freaking out, put her own best efforts to shame. At least they were mostly leaving her alone, not looking at her or coming over to see why she was practically curled up in a fetal position in the access hatch (and when had that happened, anyway?) Anybody noticing just would've made things worse. All she had to do was get her mind organized and preferably out of her body as soon as possible. That was easier said than done, when her augmented brain was racing from worry to paranoia to schematic to failsafe much faster than she could possibly corral it, making the idea of fitting herself into the ordered world of the computer an idea as laughable as jamming a handful of half-set jello into a keyhole and expecting to pick a lock with it. Even with her hands still rewiring on autopilot she was next to useless and if anything bad happened to Steve it was going to be her fault and coming out of her basement had been a crazy idea and she was probably just going to die trying to find him in this rattletrap ship- "Mow?" Gina jerked her head up when something batted her arm, narrowly avoiding another blow to her already-abused head. Midnight's orange kitten, it seemed, had lost his taste for adventure somewhere between the teleporting and trying to find his way around the alien spacecraft. He shoved his head under Gina's arm and climbed into her lap, the two of them making a very tight fit inside the access hatch. He didn't seem to mind, butting her chin impatiently for pettings even as he settled in and began purring. Gina let out a breath that loosened the worst of the tightness on her chest and nearly managed a laugh. "Just make yourself at home, why don't you?" she murmured, freeing up one hand long enough to scratch behind an orange ear. "Guess we could both use a little break from the rush." She closed her eyes and took a few precious seconds to regroup and pet the cat. It actually helped quite a bit. "You can hang out here," she told the kitten, "but no messing with my body while I'm gone, all right?" Deliberately relaxing her body, she sent her mind out into the alien workings of the spacecraft's computer, doing in minutes what would've taken hours or days to program by keyboard. As Dragonfly repaired systems, she brought them online, tying them into Redbird's AI system and preparing the ship for its first flight in decades.
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"That's really weird," Gina muttered, looking up long enough to collect her bearings in the large chamber. She took in and filed away the collection of old supervillain equipment and ephemera, but most of her attention was captured by the large spacecraft that floated tethered in the center of the chamber. Setting down her makeshift detector for the moment, she took a sleek red,white and blue handheld scanner from the equipment bag Emerson carried and began trudging towards the craft with the robot at her heels. "Gonna suck not being able to fly and weld," she observed aloud, then walked into the ship. Her voice suddenly came from Dragonfly's communicator, clearer and more confident. "I'll start on the computer systems if you want to get going on the actual physical repair work."
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Gina reached out and touched two fingers to the monitor with the blueprint on it, then grimaced at the stab of pain from her abused neural pathways as she tried to link up. She was going to need a lot more aspirin for this. Still, it wasn't quite as bad as right after she'd gotten blown out of the robot, so that was a good sign. A second later, a copy of the schematic glowed on Emerson's main body screen. "All right," she said, still looking at the floor. "Let's get a look at it and see what sort of tools we're gonna need. We're also going to need supplies for the trip, medical equipment. No telling what sort of condition they'll be in after weeks away." She swallowed. "I can have my people start getting that together while we're working." Finally she looked to Dragonfly, though she spoke more to that notable's ankles. "The pocket thing again?"
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Koshiro stood back for a minute and just stared, his mind completely blank. Heroes weren't supposed to die. None of them were supposed to die, especially not Sharl who was practically invincible to the million things that were dangerous to Koshiro, and who talked all the time about how he was going to go home to Tronik and be the first superhero there. And how could Sharl be dead and still be around, still be projected? He realized the answer to that a moment later, at least. The emitter was still running, and whatever had ended Sharl had stripped him of consciousness and life, but not of all those lines of code that made up the picture of the physical shell. "What happened?" he asked Kimber, his voice hoarse and tight. "Is Tronik okay?" He shook himself from the shock that covered grief long enough to address Mali. "We can't go yet," he told her. "We still have Erde-Tronik, and all the weapons. We have to do what we came to do. If we can manage it without... without Sharl."
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There was a brief hesitation before Gina called out "Just a minute!" There was a sound of moving parts, the brief pzzt of a welder, and then the sound of Emerson's treads before Gina appeared at the door, cradling an unwieldy-looking conglomeration of circuit boards and wires that seemed mostly held together with electrical tape. She'd obviously taken Mara's permission to heart, since there were bits of several ongoing projects cannibalized into the design. Gina cleared her throat. "It's... it's a detector," she managed, staring down at her invention rather than looking at Mara. "I know exactly what energy frequencies Steve's suit projects. It's slightly different than any other Omegadrone, because of the modifications we've made. Once we're in the same solar system, this should give us the location to within about five yards." With the explanation given, she risked a look around the basement, freezing momentarily when she saw Midnight. Adding more people to this rescue just made things more fraught, but it would make things faster, give them an edge if there was a fight. She'd just have to work around it, she reminded herself. And oddly enough, the blank black mask helped some, dehumanizing his features and making him seem less threatening. It probably didn't hurt, either, that she'd never worked closely with him before and he'd have no grounds for comparison. As for Midnight, there wasn't much to see but a small and somewhat homely woman with too much makeup spackled on to try and cover some impressive facial bruising, who didn't seem able to meet anyone's eyes. She had a robot with her, an odd little thing that looked a bit like a cross between Wall-E and R2-D2 with triangular treads supporting a cylindrical body from which rose a dual-camera head on a slender telescoping neck. "What kind of ship is it?" Gina asked. "It'll be faster if we can get some schematics. I know the League has a database of known designs."
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Gina's spending an HP to create a detector that will pick up Harrier's unique signal due to the special modifications she has helped make to him through the course of their association. With her mental Quickness and the HP expenditure, an invention can be made with eighteen minutes of design and eighty rounds (eight minutes) of building that will last the length of one encounter, so hopefully long enough to let the gang zero in on the abductees. Super-Senses 20 (acute analytical extended 15 [same solar system] radius ranged detect Free Omegadrones [mental]) [20PP]
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"I'm sorry," Fleur told the engineers, frowning in frustration as she studied the ice-covered robot from a safe distance. "I just don't know what happened. I really thought I had him on the line and that he was going to tell us something." She shook her head. "I shouldn't have prompted him to try and contact the others. It seemed like he heard something over his comm that made him self-destruct." Settling her composure back into place, the chlorokinetic smoothed down her ruined sleeves and tunic, then waved a hand at the vines covering the walls and floor. Instantly, the whole mass of plant matter disintegrated into brown dust. Sensing the worry behind Mara's curt dismissal, Fleur headed for the stairs. "Good luck finding everyone," she told them. "Please, let me know how it goes. I know it isn't at all the same, but they're my friends too. And if you need anything from anybody in the city, just let me know and I'll find a way to make it happen." She turned to go, tripping one more time over Charlie as he and Puppy raced past, oblivious to any weightier concerns. Just as she took the first step, she paused and cocked her head to her earpiece. "Okay, great. I'll pass that along. Velocity, one of the League reservists, says that they're taking out the control boxes that relayed commands to the robots. She also says that there's a Claremont hero called Kit who would like to be in on the rescue mission, if you could use the help." Fleur shrugged ignorance. "Unfortunately, that's one hero I haven't met yet. Good luck!" she told them again, then hurried up the stairs.
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Koshiro practically tumbled into the front passenger seat as Mali started the bus, whooping with excitement as they blew backwards out of the ship like they'd been fired from a canon. He let out a few delighted swear words, leaning against the dash to look down below them. "That was insane! Who knew it was just gonna blow up like that? Stupid bastard must not have put any internal shields on it at all. Gonna have to make some new cranes, between that and the helicopters I'm way down on population. Holy crap, look at Glow!" His eyes widened as he took in their telekinetic teammate lifting the massive piece of Curator tech. "That's hardcore. I didn't know she could lift anything near that much." He settled back a little as the adrenaline began to wear off and the gravity of the situation to return. "We better get down to the Sanctum," he told Mali. "Looks like the Curator was wrecking it up pretty good. I hope Sharl and Kimber got to Tronik in time." He turned in his seat and looked back at Indira. "Thanks for the grab, by the way."
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Wander Test Site III (2) Counterfeit Medications (8) And Countless Screaming Argonauts (2) Test Site II (11) Where the Love Light Leads (10) Test Site I (4) Fleur de Joie Scratch Team (8) Arms and the Man (3) Time and Chance (7) Sanctuary: Panacea (6) Miss Americana These Chains on Me (9) Papercut The End of the World (4) War of the Worlds (7) Gina (NPC) Even Angels Fall (22) Love the One You're With (4) All posts first to Wander, then roll over to Papercut.
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"I'm sure it'll all fall into place very quickly," Fleur agreed, flicking a single momentary glance towards the storage room where Midnight and Mara Hallomen were waiting. "But consolidating these early gains is going to be so important. I know that at least a couple of those allies were captured by the Freedom League today, so we can't count on their help. The leader, has he got reinforcements that he can send to us right away? We need to plan with that in mind, so that we can take advantage of today's confusion. People are afraid, they need to know more about who is going to show them the way out of the darkness." Stesha's muscles subtly tensed as she spoke. If the Beekeeper took the questions badly, she might have a fight on her hands.
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Fleur's voice was gently chiding as she responded to the Beekeeper, her own frustration held firmly in check. "Come on now, don't you trust me even after all this?" she asked. "I was listening to the League channels this morning, there were at least several heroes working in concert to try and take down some of the city's worst villains. I know you must have made plans with them ahead of time. It was a brilliant strategy, really, the villains were caught totally by surprise. They expected to get away with it all like they always do, but then suddenly real justice was being meted out! I only wish I could've been a part of it. There's going to be more, isn't there? We must have a way to get in touch with the heroes you laid out your plans with."
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"It will be like paradise," Fleur agreed, sitting down crosslegged on a coil of vines. "But Freedom City is a big place, and there are so many villains! You and I alone aren't going to be able to take on all the criminals and avoid the League at the same time. We need other people on our team." She tapped her chin as though in deep thought. "I heard messages about other heroes who have started fighting crime your way. Maybe we can get in contact with some of them." She looked him directly in the eyes. "What do you think? Who can we trust, who else is with us and willing to fight to the death for Freedom City?" Fleur felt no moral qualms about lying to this doppelganger, but it was decidedly eerie and unpleasant to look at a familiar costume and know that it was not a friend, but a deadly enemy.
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"Perfect," Fleur said with a nod, sprinkling seeds out onto the floor. In moments, as the lights dimmed and the edges of the room faded into misty darkness, vines and lichen covered the floors and spread over the visible walls, making the high-tech room seem very much like a cave. "Here we go," she said aloud, and gestured to one of the thicker vines. A giant yellow flower opened, depositing the Beekeeper back into the real world. "Well, here we are," Fleur told him, sounding a bit breathless but cheerful. "I'm sorry that took so long, I had to do a bit of fast talking to get around that patrol. Everyone's on edge today. Welcome to my secret hideout," she added with a smile, gesturing around the room. "You've seen Sanctuary, and it's lovely, but too many people know about it. To really be safe I come here, underground. How are you feeling?" she asked solicitously. "You weren't hurt in the fighting, were you?"
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"All right..." Fleur set the cat back on the floor to resume his game of puppychase, then approached the containment area. "If we're more interested in trying to get information out of the robot than in disassembling it, I'll probably have more luck if it's not in the containment unit. We can put up some of those dividers to screen off the lab, and you guys can be back there to take it out when it starts getting too aggressive. She brushed her long green tresses out of her face, looking only slightly apprehensive. "I should be able to absorb a hit from him if I have to, but I'd really rather not. Midnight, I seem to recall you can obscure things pretty effectively, could you make it so he can't see the room divider or the stairs at all? Keep him a little disoriented, but not feeling trapped?"
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"We need to find the control center," Erin put in. "We've walked for hours looking for it, but this place is massive. Can you help us get there?" she asked the crew. "We appreciate your offer to take us home, but we can't go. I don't know if you're familiar with Earth, but we're what they call superheroes, we have unusual powers and we use them to help people. It's basically our job, and we can't ignore the fact that people here are in danger." Privately, she wasn't entirely sure what any of them could do to correct the spin on a ringworld the size of a thousand Earths. It seemed like every minute she missed having Trevor around more, to say nothing of the support of computer geniuses like Mara. But they did have one ace in the hole. "Hey Vince," she asked the commlink, "you ever wanted to try your hand at some real piloting?"
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"Baxter!" Erin hissed, though not quite quickly enough to stop the battlesuited teen from breaking cover and stepping out to meet the new arrivals. The kid had guts, she had to give him that much. And at least enough brains not to start a fight intentionally. Unfortunately, with that battlesuit on, he could've been anyone or anything, including another of the thousands of robots littlering the bay. She didn't even know if the Lor planets had bees, but the striped and streamlined battlesuit didn't exactly scream peaceful intentions. Keeping her bat in its holster, she scrambled out after him, putting her own hands up to match the nonthreatening posture of the Lor leader. Unarmored and unarmed, she hoped she didn't look like someone out to pick a fight. "Hello," she called to them, stepping up next to Baxter. "Do you speak any English? We're from Earth, we were kidnapped by the Curator. My name is Wander, and this is Beekeeper III. "
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While his companions took on the endless wave of robotic drones, Papercut focused in on the computer itself. If they could just shut down the computer, maybe it would shut down the drones, maybe it would shut down the things attacking the Sanctum and potentially Tronik. Several of his cranes had managed to wedge their way into an access hatch and stop a fan in one big unit, so that was what he concentrated on. "Come on," he muttered to himself. "Get it together, damn you." The fallen cranes began to flutter to life from where they'd fallen, forming up into a swarm, then into a sort of sideways funnel like a tornado turned on its end. With deadly accuracy the point of the funnel drilled into the open access point, sending cranes and paper bits flying everywhere.
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All right, crane blast to the computer, yay Power attack, yay 1d20+8=20 Bleh, but I'll keep it. DC30 plus any autofire toughness save
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Fleur paused at the elevator door and looked around the lab, nearly getting her toes run over by Puppy and Charlie as the latter chased the former over the threshold and into the lab itself. There seemed to be a half-built containment area already set up, if that's what the sheets of Lucite set in the middle of the room and joined together like a phone booth was supposed to be. Her attention was caught immediately by the robots, and despite knowing better, she went over to take a look. "Oh no, not Harrier too," she said in dismay, looking at the destroyed robot doubles of two friends. "Both of them are so cautious, how could anyone have replaced both of them all at once?" While Fleur spoke, Puppy rolled under one of the lab tables and into a dark corner, its glowing eye peering out of the darkness at the small pursuer. Charlie clearly didn't want to go under the table, so instead he stood at the edge, meowing in plaintive frustration. Fleur scooped him up and cuddled him, earning a scratchy lick on the chin. "I don't know much of anything about engineering," she admitted, "but Midnight's definitely your guy. Hmm, if you could keep the room dark, maybe even set up a projected image of an abandoned building, that might fool him and buy a bit more time. I also have the remains of the Star Knight robot," she thought to add, "but it's mostly charred bits, much more burnt up than what you have."
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Charlie had temporarily abandoned his importuning of Trevor in order to explore the lobby, but he came fully alert when the elevator doors hissed and opened. He noted the ball instantly, and sussed out its true purpose just as quickly: cat toy. With his ears pricked forward and his tail arched cautiously over his back, he began stalking towards Puppy, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make his move. He was certainly in a better frame of mind now than the crying bundle he'd been when Trevor had rescued him, but the unfortunate Puppy might be in for a rough time. Gathering himself up all at once, Charlie went in for the kill, streaking across the floor towards the robot ball, only to lose his footing on the slick tile and go skidding ungracefully into the elevator. He immediately sat down and began washing vigorously in order to show everyone that was precisely what he'd intended to do all along.
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Fleur's expression changed in an instant, shock and sorrow replacing the momentary humor. "Oh no," she murmured. "I hadn't heard, there's been so much going on." She put a comforting hand on his arm, patting the rough fabric. "I'm so sorry! But I know we've got the best minds in Freedom City working on this, and they've never missed yet. She's as good as back already." She raised her voice to include Mara in the conversation as well. "I tricked the Beekeeper robot into my dimensional pocket by pretending he won me over with his "killing criminals and liking bees" rhetoric. There's a chance he may have self-destructed in the pocket, but I'm hoping he's still intact in there, waiting for me to let him out when the coast is clear. You won't have much time once he's out before he realizes he's trapped."
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Just then, one of the security drones chirped a warning as the plants outside the door began moving. One of the potted trees burst forth with an incongruous red flower and Fleur de Joie stepped out, pausing for a moment to get her bearings. The plant controller had obviously been having a busy day; she looked even more disheveled than last time Mara had seen her. Her sleeves and tunic were stained liberally with blood, her pants were grimy with slush and mud, and her hair was escaping from its pins in all directions. Her cowl and mask were long gone. She took a couple of baby wipes from her pouch and cleaned the blood and sap off her hands, then knocked lightly on the front doors. "I came as soon as I could," she told Mara as soon as she was let in. "There were a lot of casualties in the Beekeeper robot fight. I have no idea how many more there are out there, but I left Gaian Knight holding the fort alone at Freedom Hall. I think Gabriel was saying you already have some other robots here?" She spared a quick smile in Trevor's direction as well. "Hello, Midnight. I didn't realize you were here too. Dropping off a robot?"
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"Space pretty much sucks if you can't breathe in it," Erin agreed. "Though zero-g has its good moments." She ahemmed and turned to Quickstep. "I don't want to wear you out, but we're hours' walk away from the ship. I can carry Jill and Blue Jay and run back, with Jill's forcefield to protect us from walls. If you can take Harrier and Beekeeper, we'll all be there within a couple of minutes." She took off her backpack and handed it to Harrier, the better to carry human cargo. "But nobody fight until we're all back together again. Strength in numbers, even when we're outnumbered ten-thousand to one."