Fox
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"YES employees 'may be infiltrated' - kind of noticed that already!" Mara's gritting teeth were almost audible but she got herself back under control as quickly as she'd cracked, taking another deep breath and trying not to let her frustration leak out into the screens of the lab they were in. "Okay," she said, turning back to Gina. "Have a bod--remains. To look at. Going to deliver it to HAX, though; can try to bring it back here, but don't know if I'll be able to. Don't know how paranoid Midnight will be, or how close he or whoever he sends will want to stay to it. Worst case, could open a line to your lab, and you could keep trying to track down other samples with your busy friend?"
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yes "I'd...heard," she carefully replied. "Will be back with you immediately, but one second, have to check something." She muted her microphone and took a deep breath. "Found someone with remains for us to look at, apparently. Called the wrong 'me', though. Mmh...." She crossed her arms, tapping a finger against her bicep for a moment before un-muting the call; she seemed to be evaluating Gina as much as pondering her own position. "Sorry, hello. Can help you with that if you can get remains undamaged to the HAX building in Hanover. Will meet you at the front door - employees probably armed security system as soon as they heard the news. Might have to disarm it to let you in."
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"....going to pretend I didn't hear you talking about bioweapons," Mara noted, making a face like her brain hurt. "Have enough problems already." She leaned back against the nearest sturdy object, impatiently tapping a finger against her arm as she waited. She didn't like waiting - even on the best of days she needed to be doing something, and right now every second she spent standing around was a second that was not spent finding Ellie. It was only because she was idle, though, that she thought to check in with her nearby business now that it was within better range of her suit's systems...and largely by coincidence that she happened to do so in the middle of someone's attempt to call up to her office. what? - now? - couldn't hurt A little microphone slid in from one of the faceplate pieces that had folded away, and she redirected the call to...well, to herself. "Hello? Not sure if you know, but kind of a bad time in Freedom City. Had better be important."
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[bg=#555555]"Yes, that's the idea. Inspection is slightly complicated by the fact that they combust when defeated. Plasma fire. Managed to put one out, wasn't much left. Would be best to get one that didn't get a chance to burn, but easier said than done."[/bg] Dragonfly hesitated for a moment as she stood up, tapping a finger against her leg as she decided on something; the faceplate of her armor split apart on invisible seams, folding and sliding around to the back of her helmet and leaving her tired, worried, angry, and all-too-human face exposed, along with the secret identity of the woman in charge of the up-and-coming HAX. "For what it's worth - didn't notice either. Jill or Steve. All should have noticed, but...us especially."
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Wraith was out of the bus almost before it had stopped moving, skidding to a halt in the shape of something four-legged and agile with long razorblades fingers. The fact that there weren't any immediate threats didn't really put her at ease as she cast her three-eyed gaze around their landing site and down into the obnoxiously-lit tunnel. "We must hurry, but it appears we have only one direction to go," she noted, twisting her head back around to look at the others. "I will go first; with so much metal around there is far less risk if I am hurt."
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Kneeling next to a bruised sort-of-friend who'd just lost someone very dear to her was a situation that desperately needed diplomacy, tact, and a calm, friendly state of mind. Dragonfly was not well-known for any of these things. [bg=#555555]"You are not okay. You are a wreck,"[/bg] she said, though her tone wasn't unkind. [bg=#555555]"Important things first: Steve is probably not dead. Can't guarantee it, but...have to...hope. Impersonator - robot, probably alien. Not just Steve,"[/bg] she added, gesturing at the news feeds playing on the wall - if Gina could even see them properly. [bg=#555555]"All over the city. Harrier, Star Knight, Ji-"[/bg] Her voice cracked, and she tried again, keeping worry out of her voice only by focusing on smoldering anger and a rational brain. [bg=#555555]"Jill O'Cure. Others. All replaced, all became violent, most stopped. Need to find out where the real versions went. Need to get them back. And need you in working shape to help."[/bg]
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Dragonfly didn't say anything for a moment, though she did settle to the ground. This...wasn't actually much like what she was expecting from the secret face behind Miss Americana, but then, she'd tried not to spend too much time thinking about it. From the look of her, she got out even less than Mara did - and, up until fairly recently, was saying something - which would certainly explain the house; with the security on this place, though, that left the mystery of how the young woman had gotten into her state. intruder? - unlikely - probably sealed - excellent security - saw no rogue drones - concerned about someone on the outside - haptic feedback? - implies bad things about robot [bg=#555555]"I am not Sharl,"[/bg] she offered, kneeling down a bit to get a better look at the woman. [bg=#555555]"Am also, however, not a doctor. Need you to focus on what's here, now. Trying to figure out if you're going to be okay, or if I need to fly you to a hospital."[/bg]
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[bg=#555555]"Robots,"[/bg] Dragonfly supplied from where she was standing off to the side frowning at not-Ellie's remains. [bg=#555555]"Alien robots, sophisticated, impersonating people here for...maybe a while. Apparently self-destruct when stopped. Wasn't just Jill - most of the city's having similar issues. Need to find out who in space would be able to do this, but list probably isn't that short. Need-"[/bg] Her head ticked to the side as something her suit had received caught her attention, unfocused for a few seconds as she turned it over in her head. [bg=#555555]"....have to go. Someone needs help. ...half the city needs help. But this person could be...useful. In stopping things, finding people."[/bg] Her wings flared to life, four blades of neon energy lifting her off the ground a bit before she hesitated and turned back to point a finger at them. [bg=#555555]"Do not follow. You have other things to worry about. Will keep suit's radio link open, just in case - share what I learn, let you do the same. Keep your team together."[/bg] And then she was off, flying northeast as fast as her suit would go. had better not be a mistake - cannot spare the time
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have to wonder what the first two options would be [bg=#555555]"Make the lights stop doing that, please,"[/bg] she asked the robot who'd led her down here, though the 'please' was slightly belated. This was a lot more like what she was expecting. It was always interesting to see how another 'genius' worked, how they set up their workspace, how they arranged their servers, how they organized their projects. Not that she had time to ponder, really; she had other priorities, including whoever was audibly hurt. She flared her wings and took the short path, skimming over the top of the computers to see who hid behind the too-perfect face of Miss Americana.
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Well, seeing Emerson certainly and finally confirmed that she did in fact have the right house, anyway. And it was a good thing, too - without him, she would have almost expected that such a spare house must be some kind of trap; the barest impression of a high-tech abode with none of the signs of life. Between her own company, her warehouse, and The Lab Mara didn't spend as much time at her own apartment as she probably should have, but even it had its creature comforts and a spread of gadgets, tools, and half-finished projects on most surfaces. Still, for all she knew there was a whole other house past the security door. She pondered it for a moment before simply replying, [bg=#555555]"Dragonfly."[/bg]
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There was a part of Mara's brain dedicated almost entirely to puzzles; even on her worst day, at her weakest or loneliest or angriest it was there devouring any quandary or equation it could get its metaphorical hands on. So it was that even though the heroine was too angry and distracted to do more than absently sift through incoming communication attempts, this message - given slightly more notice due to the familiarity of the name - got snatched up in the back of her head and turned over, untangled, and solved. Even then the result might just have gotten passed over if she hadn't recognized the neighborhood it referenced. That was not a lab, or a workspace, or a public area. That was a house - a residential address from someone who wasn't inclined to share residential addresses. And, importantly, from someone who could be invaluable in finding exactly where these robotic impersonators had come from. Dragonfly made record time flying to Hanover, landing at the front door of a nondescript house that she almost would have thought was incorrect if she hadn't been able to see the surveillance and drone ports. She tilted her head up toward the nearest camera, wondering if she was impatient enough to just try to take the door off its hinges...or if that would just trigger some defense system and slow her down.
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"Wharton? Odd...it's out of the way, sure, but you'd think someone would notice some big communications array appearing in the middle of the forest. You'd think we've had noticed these robots before now, too, but it's harder to pretend you're a tree. I guess they could have put it underground, but I'd have...noticed....?" He trailed off; as the hero had been talking his eyes had started glowing again as he pushed his senses westward, spreading his mind out through the earth in the hopes of noticing something he'd missed before. And he sure found something. "There's...a large chunk of earth missing from Wharton Forest. That's...." He looked confused and concerned, eyebrows furrowed down into a frown as he spoke. "That was not there before. I think we've found your device."
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Notice Check, DC25 (1d20 + 15=31) Well, at least he can notice things in his realm of expertise....
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Gaian Knight wasn't hard to find - in the time since Myrmidon and Fleur had left he'd turned the situation room into something like a small command center, albeit not a very fancy one. The monitors that still worked were playing news feeds, and a large center table was dominated by the biggest map he'd managed to find. His was a war not so much of fighting the so-called 'Wrathful' than it was fighting the damage they were causing, trying to help coordinate repairs and aid both to the damaged city and to the people - sometimes no less damaged - who would occasionally trickle in. He was finding it was surprisingly like trying to organize a class of first-semester Freshmen on a field trip. "Hello!" He didn't look up from the map, though he didn't seem to be looking at that either, exactly; he seemed unfocused, and even through his goggles a soft golden glow could be seen. "Welcome - though, fair warning, if you're one of these robot things or here to cause trouble, you should know that we have a dragon." The tall redheaded woman leaning against one of the walls snorted. "Hmm...here, I think," he added, though he was talking to one of the few other people at the table as he poked a spot on the map. "There's a big gap under that building, still, that I don't think we got into. There might be people trapped down there. Ah - Myrmidon, right?" The glow faded and he looked up at Myrmidon with a tired but genuine smile. "And you appear to have brought friends, and a gift. Is that what I think it is?"
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Dragonfly was only slightly more subtle than Ironclad, quietly letting others their bigger entrances before she made her own, barreling straight for a window on the opposite side of the building from Fenris; only a few feet from the glass she disappeared, reforming on the other side with gauntlets ready and surrounded with twisted, refracting space just looking for a target. She was frankly a little relieved when they presented themselves. Angry though she was, she had to admit - as the snarled fabric of the world ate away at a robot's armored shell - it would have been pretty awkward if they'd shown up to harass someone who didn't have attack droids.
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Gaian Knight knelt down next to the remains, frowning behind his face cloth. "Seems kind of direct and unprofitable for the Foundry," he somberly mused, pulling back his hood and wishing he'd paid more attention to...well, anything involving fire, really, volcanoes aside. More to study later.... "Usually they're about stealing technology, selling technology, or the odd bid to take over the city for the 'glorious machine'. I guess I could see that last one - soften us up before moving in - but...hmm." He stood up, reflexively straightening his coat. "I didn't have much luck earlier, but I'm going to give the local high-tech heroes and organizations another shot - maybe someone out there can take a look, or already knows something we don't. Star Knight's...." He glanced down at the pile of armor fragments, expression unreadable. "....Star Knight's dead, or gone, so we've got to get back to worry about the people here, and the people who'll be showing up or trying to reach out to us in the crisis."
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[bg=#555555]"I am not part of your team,"[/bg] Dragonfly slowly and carefully pointed out, her emphasis more pointing out Geckoman's use of the word than mocking the team itself. The young heroine's force field twitched, pushing outward - not sharply, but enough to get his hands off her armor. [bg=#555555]"I also do not like to be touched. One: I would not leave Erik to die on a rooftop. Two: I like you all and you are very good and useful but unless you are in immediate danger I will leave you behind if I think it will get me to Ellie faster, and as much as it would hurt I would expect you to, too, if you had to. That is not negotiable. Save empty reassurances for people who need them. We have work to do."[/bg]
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Gaian Knight allowed himself only a few moments to be overwhelmed by the size of it all, the sheer scale on which things were going wrong. By the time Tiamat had finished her surveillance and made her way back down into the building to report he was already halfway through the list of active, out-of-city heroes he knew of or who could be pulled from files, getting the attention of anybody who had a communicator, who'd pick up their phone, or who'd answer their e-mail. This was contained to Freedom City for now, but without knowing what had caused it or why it was happening - not to mention the powers of some of those involved - he wasn't taking any chances. Besides, they'd need all the help they could get. He was no wizard of a coordinator or telecommunications expert, but with Tiamat's help they were nearly through the list of anyone who owed either of them any favors at all (or those to whom they were willing to owe favors in the future) when Fleur's warning came. They'd done what they could; both hero and heroine put their salvaged equipment aside and made a break for the hole that led down to their teammate.
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Even knowing by now that this was not the real Ellie - not her Ellie - Dragonfly felt sick inside watching the robot's throat get crushed. She'd expected it to come to this as soon as the thing's head had spun around, and she'd been worried it could come to this for longer than that, but to see it happen right in front of her was...well, it was going to show up in her worst dreams for a while. It was also distracting enough that the explosion caught her utterly by surprise - the plasma got caught in her force field and harmlessly shunted away, but still: she needed that body. [bg=#555555]"No! Can't--"[/bg] Her wings flared as long and as spread as they were able, their normal distinct hum fading into something a bit outside human hearing as she held out her hands and did...something...to the space around the body. The air grew thick and fragmented, space pinching together around the fire and reacting to the noise of her wings like a thousand tiny shards of glass vibrating to a tune only they and the animals could hear. And as the twisted fabric of the world washed over the imposter's remains, the flames dissolved. [bg=#555555]"Mmh. Need that body. Someone knows where Jill is. The real one. Going to find them. Pretty sure there will be violence."[/bg]
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SCIENCE! Presumably a trick Mara stole from her own company's consulting work (not necessarily on a DARPA project, but something similar). Who needs to put out fire the old-fashioned way when you can just destabilize the reaction and plasma itself? :science:
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Reflex Save vs. Plasma Burst, DC15 (1d20 + 7=11) Toughness Save vs. Plasma Burst, DC17 (Evasion 2) (1d20 + 9=25) No damage.
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Wraith shifted her weight back and forth, trying to get a better handle on her nerves. It was just the giant space machine feared and avoided by entire empires. No big deal, right? Right. "It is not your fault," she assured Sharl. "The Curator is not...it is not a person so much as a thing. It is like a storm - it does what it wants to do, and cannot be easily predicted, baited, or reasoned with. Like a storm, it is perhaps best simply avoided, but....yes. If we are to fight it, I will stand with you - I am not so good at interfacing with systems, but so long as his drones are metal I can fight them for a very long time. It might even be...I do not think 'fun' is the word. A glorious hunt?"
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[bg=#555555]"Have to agree,"[/bg] Dragonfly said, tapping a finger against her leg as she pondered the plan. [bg=#555555]"Don't like the idea of splitting up, but don't like the idea of them getting away, either - space plane will be hard to catch if it gets going. Besides - we'll be split in half, but so will they, and buildings are close enough that support is easy; not like they wouldn't converge as soon as they knew they were under attack. Draw fights outside if possible. Disable plane or planes first, sweep enemies next. Don't give them a chance to use their new weapon."[/bg]
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"It is the what??" Wraith had been largely keeping to herself once she'd gotten free of the ice, embarrassed and a bit upset both at her teammates' risking themselves to save her after she told them to run, and at having been in need of saving in the first place. Sharl's discover more than got her attention, however, and she grew long, thin tendrils to stand on to get a better view of the monitors. " We need to leave." She was afraid; not like someone being directly threatened, but like someone who had just discovered they were in a cave with a giant bear that hadn't quite noticed them yet. "We need to leave, and to go very far away. But- but if it is here, then I do not know if there is anywhere far enough without leaving the planet, or perhaps the galaxy...it is...this is a very, very bad day."
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"Can do - and I'll reinforce the building on my way up," Gaian Knight offered. Stone and dirt had already begun flowing in from the surrounding area and from outdoors, some of it pulling together into a platform for him to step up onto and the rest starting to assemble into a series of pillars organized around the hole in the ceiling - the pillars' progress followed him up as he followed Fleur's vine upward, headed for the situation room. "Give us a shout the moment Star Knight breaks free, and we'll be right back down." As soon as he was through the hole he beckoned Tiamat over, trading places with her so that she could ride his platform up to the roof while he went to the situation room. "I'm going to see what we have on camera, and hopefully we still have lines of communication going - can you give me a fly-by and figure out what's bad in our immediate area? It'd be nice to know if it's coming for us before it gets here. And, er, try not to get into any fights." That last bit was an afterthought, and didn't sound too hopeful. Tiamat's reply to that was indistinct, but amused-sounding, and a minute later there was a sound like a surge of fire and the flap of massive leathery wings as something big took off from the roof.
