Fox

Wraith dutifully closed her eyes, taking another deep breath as she tried to focus. It was pretty easy to see the moment she sorted things out: her face pinched up at the unfamiliar sensation of...well. Of everything. It took the Indian teenager a moment to sort things out, but the smell analogy certainly helped - mind powers were weird, but that she got. In a few moments she opened her eyes again and looked around. It is...this is a very strange ability, she thought - broadcast, really, though she'd at least taken a moment to single out her teammates rather than project to everyone in her still-unknown radius. Very, very strange. It is actually a bit like meditating, only I have turned my stillness inside out. ....though I do not believe that translates very well.

"Um - I did, I believe," Wraith raised her hand, "but they are very strange, and I think I got a human body to go with them." She frowned, trying not to fidget, and trying extra-hard not to think about her fleshy, too-light body full of pulsing organs. "I think I was able to grab one of them with my mind, earlier - Fathom, as he was flying away. I was not able to do the...mind...speaking thing, when I tried, on Granite. I do not think I know how it works."

Wraith could see Edge and Cobalt Templar building up to something big; she imagined they'd need that kind of firepower, too, considering the size of their new foe. For a moment she thought of just sitting back and watching the fireworks - after all, she didn't have any big, glowing energy attacks to throw into the mix. What she did have was an endless supply of sharp things, though..... She made a beeline for the creature, arms lengthening and thinning until they were practically long, flexible razor blades. She didn't stop for even a moment when she reached the monster's foot, either: she went straight up, claws on her hind legs digging into its flesh as she moved and flowed up its side, arms slicing and digging as she went - a razor and a blender in one running across the thing's body. Against a foe so large and so tough, her strikes didn't amount to much on their own - but as she pushed away from the thing and let herself fall back to the ground, she looked up with grim satisfaction at the large sections of hide flayed and made bare, a tough skin made raw. she mused to herself as her back hit sand and the others piled their own attacks on the creature

Gaian Knight Sanctuary: Panacea (11) Vignette 11 posts, plus a vignette Dragonfly Interceptors: Eden (2) Vignette 2 posts, plus a vignette Wraith Enchanted Species (11) Gathering Like Clouds (4) Mile in My Shoes (6) 11+4+6= 21 posts

Wraith blinked, listening as Nick read through the card. The alien hummed for a moment. "We may want to investigate that. Kristina DeVore is irresponsible, but she cannot be the only one. If someone is selling dangerous beasts to people like her, we should talk to them. Or stop them, perhaps, if necessary? We can...." She looked over to Kimber, and her new friend; if she'd had a heart, it probably would have melted. "....we should perhaps take the manticore with us, or leave it somewhere that is safe from civilians and....what is the word...'socialites'."

"He dropped the bauble??" Wraith's voice had an edge of panic to it, her awful, horrible, involuntarily moving meatiness returning to the fore of her mind now that the fighting seemed to be over. "Where? Can we not get it back? If it is in the water, I could walk out to find it, though it might--no, I have to breathe...this...we have to get it back! This is awful; I do not know how anyone-...." She took a deep breath, hoping it was as calming as it seemed when she'd seen humans doing so. It helped, somewhat. "I am...sorry. I believe I am having difficulty adjusting - but I would very much like to fix this as soon as we can."

Opportunity (NPC Limelight; Tiamat [Gaian Knight]) The first thing she saw when she woke up was stone – cool, dark stone, too regular and well-shaped to be natural but forming a room too big to be a normal house. After that were the lights – simple lanterns spread just far enough apart to keep the light low but close enough to let a human see. And then she saw the human. He had a lantern of his own, though it didn’t flicker at all – magic? – and he sat on a stone block perhaps ten feet away. Brown hair, with a metal breastplate and sword— She reared up, scrambling sluggishly to her feet, several tons of red dragon trying to simultaneously get her bearings and preparing to burn the knight to ash if he tried anything. Except he didn’t; he just sat there, watching, his sword still sheathed and lying just within his reach. “Good morning,†he said. She responded by growling. He seemed...’amused’ wasn’t right; it wasn’t that mean. His chuckle was friendlier than that. “Come on, relax. I’m not going to attack you, and I know you’re not some huge animal.†Growl? “You talk in your sleep.†She stared at him for a moment before settling back down, keeping at least one large, red, slitted eye on him at all times as she gave a dignified sniff. He smelled like...old earth and magic? Old, warm magic. “I do no such thing.†Now he laughed, but it was no less friendly. “I must have been mistaken,†he conceded, gesturing helplessly. “So, I’ve had some time to think about how this should probably go, and I figure you deserve as much honesty as possible. What’s the last thing you remember?†The dragon frowned, trying to lift the fog from her mind. She hadn’t been this slow since the last time she’d gotten hurt, when she fell—Falling. Right. “I fought the metal woman,†she rumbled, scowling. “I...lost. I think the pathetic villagers were going to try to finish me off, but I don’t remember much after that; where am I?†“Right. Well, that’s the hard part – you aren’t where you came from. The – ah, metal woman – was from another world. She tried to save you from the villagers by taking you away from them, but she never got a chance to let you go before being sent home. She didn’t really know what to do with you, so she asked for my help, and you’ve been sleeping here pretty much ever since – I was kind of concerned, but you seemed okay. Healing up, I’m guessing?†She cautiously nodded. “Right, well. The bad news is that I’m...not sure we can send you back. I don’t even know exactly where you came from – some other world, or dimension – and she doesn’t know either. Maybe someone out there does, but for now, I think you’re kind of stuck. ...I’m sorry.†He seemed to mean it – was it all still some kind of trick? – but she’d known she wasn’t home since she’d woken up. This place didn’t...smell right; the magic in the air wasn’t the same. “....and? Is that all, or is there good news?†He grimaced. “Well, the good news, I guess, is that now that you’re awake you’re free to go or do whatever you want. Ah – sort of, anyway. There isn’t a lot of food here for a creature your size, if you need much meat, but I can try to help you with that. I can try to look into finding someone who knows much about dragons – real dragons, I mean, not the legends – and maybe they’ll know what we can do for you. And...that’s about all I have, I guess.†He gestured helplessly again, frowning. “Maybe we can talk and figure out something else, if you need anything. I didn’t have much to go on – afraid I don’t know much about you, and didn’t want to assume too much.†There was silence, then, reigning for several long moments as she sized him up and contemplated, expression unreadable. “You do not have dragons, where you are from?†“Ah...no, not really,†the earth magic man replied. “We have stories, but you’re nothing more than...myth, I guess. Seems kind of disrespectful to say when you’re right there in front of me, but there you go.†He blinked, and laughed. “Actually – if you did show up where I’m from, you’d probably make a heck of a hero. Dragons are kind of popular, as myths go, and as long as you were stopping crime and fighting villains people’d probably like you. Though you’d have a hard time fitting through doors, I guess!†His humor dissolved back into awkward silence when his audience seemed a bit less amused than he was, but she wasn’t offended so much as...contemplative. He shifted in his seat, clearly unsure of what else to say – and then blinked in confusion as the dragon disappeared in a wave of fire, melting down into the form of a red-haired, red-eyed woman. She made her way to where he was sitting, waited rather patiently for him to make her a seat, and deliberately placed her heavy steel mace down before sitting in a mirror of the man and sword across from her. “Let me tell you about being a dragon where I was from,†she said. Her face was strong, determined, and perfectly serious. “The kings hate you for even living nearby. Any family or other creatures in the area hate you for having territory they could claim. If you have respect, it is because you are feared. If you have wealth, it is because you stole it. If you eat, it is because you took it or it was offered to you out of terror. If you try to help, what grace and honor you get crumbles as soon as fear overtakes it again.†He wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Tell me about your world.â€

Gaian Knight was quick to pull his read facecloth back up from where it had been resting around his neck, holding it to his mouth and nose with one hand as the green gas washed over them. The other hand he held out, his fingers enveloped in a soft golden glow as the crater's dirt and stone flowed up like a reverse mudslide to coat the parts of the ship that the gas seemed to be coming from, forming what he at least hoped would be a seamless, sturdy seal. "I really hope that was automatic, and not someone trying to find out whether or not we can breathe poison," he said, voice a bit muffled behind his hand. "I don't suppose anyone speaks...whatever that was?"

Reflex Save vs. Gas, DC16 (1d20 + 7=23) Yep. Fortitude Save vs. Gas (Constitution Drain), DC13 (1d20 + 10=13) Yeesh, barely! GK really ought to have better fort than that. I should add that to his List of Things GK Needs and Won't Get For a While Because Sidekicks are Expensive.

Wraith'll shapeshift: Super-Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2) [2pp] Speed 1 (10mph / 100 feet per Move Action) [1pp] Strike 5 (Flaws: Distracting, Feats: Improved Critical 2 [18-20], Power Attack, Mighty) [7pp] [2 + 1 + 7 = 10/10pp] And then's gonna climb a foo'. Wraith's descriptors aren't so great for straight-up combined attacks, but she IS full of sharp things on demand, so she's going to go thin the monster's defenses a bit before the main attack hits. Free action: hero point to waive her fatigue from the last round Move action: Shapeshift. SURGE Move action: Move to (and up!) the monster. Standard action: Combined Attack. She'll keep her power attack at -3/+3, since that's all she needs to hit DC28 and be within 5 of Edge's attack bonus of 33. Melee Attack Roll vs. Gigantosaur (Combined Attack, Power Attack -3/+3) (1d20 + 10 - 3=13) That's not cool, IC. Time to spend more HP! Melee Attack REROLL vs. Gigantosaur (Combined Attack, Power Attack -3/+3) (1d20 + 10 - 3=17) +10 is 27. That'll do; she contributes her +2! Aaand then to get out of the line of fire she'll just let go and drop. That and her actual attack is why it's distracting!

Gaian Knight hopped off his flying rock as soon as it had touched down, but as he took a step or two toward the wreck of a ship his attention seemed to be on...nothing, his gaze clearly vacant even with his goggles still hiding his eyes. He cocked his head, senses stretching out through the air beneath his shoes as he tried to get a feel for the area; a couple little rocks floated up off the ground to hang out behind his shoulders, apparently without him noticing. Man, that's...that must have been one heck of a crash. It was a bit like looking at a negative photograph, really: he could feel the earth, and he could feel where the earth wasn't, but figuring out the shape of all that not-earth took a little doing. "....well, there's at least a little space in there that isn't all mud and debris," he finally reported, pulling his attention back up out of the dirt to glance at the others. "It isn't a lot, but it's pretty cleared out - from how much stone that thing must have scooped out of the ground when it fell, I'm amazed it's still in as good of shape as it is."

GK is incapable of failing that roll. Whee, skills!

Gaian Knight pulled his goggles back down as he took the group back up into the air - carefully, very carefully, so as not to spook their newest passenger. Having a local guide to show them the way was good; having that guide panic and try to jump would probably be less good. He was erring on the side of staying lower to the ground and not quite top speed. "At the very least, we can worry about the bad men less," he agreed, splitting his attention between 'driving' and his passengers. I should probably put an anchor stone out here somewhere so that we can come back in a hurry if we have to.... "Maybe the Captain will know more about them, if it comes up. I'm kind of curious to see the ship - it isn't something you run across every day, after all."

Robot Rumpus (NPC Limelight; Puppy [Dragonfly, Fox] / Emerson [Miss Americana, Electra]) Late nights were a way of life for many of the scientists at The Lab, but even so, nighttimes brought dimmed corridors, locked entrances, and a general scarcity of people. That didn’t mean there was nothing stirring, however. In the shadows on the secured fifth floor, a vent cover popped open just long enough to disgorge a small machine, wedge-shaped and with a single blinking red diode on the pointed front. Humming softly, it sped down the corridor, searching for a single unshielded terminal that it could use to gather information. No human eye was around to see it, and its tiny size and travel pattern kept it out of range of the security pickups. Nothing stood between it and the espionage it had been designed for. Fortunately - or not, if one was a spy - not everything in the building had to stand to be in the way. Puppy wasn’t a too-unfamiliar sight in the halls of the Lab - every so often Dragonfly would bring him along (for ‘exercise’) when she expected to be working late. It seemed to enjoy the late hours, when it could roll its round plastic body around the halls, mapping out the building and not getting under anybody’s feet. The little robot may not have had hands, or legs, or a proper voice, but what he did have was a single, glowing eye that took up a rather large portion of the space inside his body; that and a curious mind were enough to catch sight of the zooming wedge almost as soon as it came into view. Puppy trilled, fixing its gaze on the intruder and hesitantly maneuvering after it. Something interesting! A new friend? The little wedge-shaped machine seemed to take no notice of Puppy for a little while, tracking across the floor and using its sensors to probe for data lines. As it traced its way along the floor, it finally smacked right into the increasingly-assertive Puppy, nearly sliding right under the spherical robot. It backed off hastily, scanning this new unknown. As Puppy approached again, the wedge robot unfolded a servo and brandished a tiny, sparking arc welder in a threatening manner, then rolled away once more. THAT wasn’t very friendly! Puppy only followed it a couple of inches before halting, nervously edging side to side as he tried to figure out what to do. His new not-friend probably wasn’t supposed to be here if it was being so mean, but Puppy was unarmed in every sense of the word - he just wasn’t equipped for this sort of thing. And his Builder was probably locked in Her lab, with the loud music on.... He fretted for a moment more before turning around and taking off to find somebody, anybody, who could do something about little weapon-wielding robo-rodents. There weren’t many options at this hour. A security guard sat at the booth, but he just smiled at Puppy and gave the robot a friendly toe-nudge when it began bumping his feet. “G’wan now,†he told Puppy, “I’m working here. I’d throw a ball for you, but you already got one!†No help there. Puppy took the dumbwaiter tubes to the next floor up, popping out in Misamericana’s main lab. The lights were on in here, but Misamericana herself was inactive, slumped in a chair with her eyes closed. Puppy knew from experience that a human in such a state ought not be disturbed. Before Puppy could leave to look elsewhere, though, Emerson rolled up. Emerson was a much bigger robot than Puppy; Emerson stood as tall as a human’s waist when his neck was fully extended. With durable treads, a barrel-shaped body, and several multipurpose servos for arms, he was an excellent lab assistant robot, and he took pride in his work. Right now, Emerson’s job was to keep the Lab in order and his boss undisturbed, a mission threatened by the presence of the small, round interloper. He pivoted on his treads, tipping his body forward to get a better look, and beeped inquisitively. Puppy gazed upwards, eye refocusing as he sized his fellow robot up. Emerson wasn’t human, but he had arms! That might do. He backed up, turning to roll toward the door before rotating back to give Emerson a meaningful, distressed look and a stressed chirping noise as he backed up another couple feet toward the hallway. The processor light on Emerson’s chassis strobed blue for a moment as he processed the behavior of the little round robot. He swivelled his head towards Miss Americana, who seemed unlikely to reactivate anytime soon, perhaps not until morning. All tasks in the lab were done, so his processors permitted him to seek alternative stimulation. If nothing else, Puppy’s behavior was interesting and worth exploring. Tucking his arms and head down to avoid catching them on anything during travel, he hitched up his chassis and rolled after Puppy, pausing only to secure the door to the lab behind him. Puppy had come a long way since his days of repeatedly banging against things as he aimlessly rolled around a warehouse floor: his path back to where he’d seen the wedge was swift and precise, even considering that Emerson couldn’t take shortcuts through the dumbwaiters. From there it was just a matter of heading in the direction the little spybot had been going last he’d seen it, searching and seeking with his giant friend in tow until, finally, the little vermin was in sight. The wedge-shaped robot had been busy in Puppy’s absence! It had rolled further along the corridor until it found a power outlet, then unscrewed the housing with a slender tool to reveal the wires inside. Now it was picking its way through the wires, searching for the optical cables that would feed it data. Emerson let out a whoop of alarm upon seeing the intruder robot, his processor lights going red and flashing. Ordinarily this would’ve triggered an alarm for Miss Americana to see, but her consciousness was otherwise occupied this evening. The wedge robot spun on its treads, sizing up this new threat. Once again it raised its arc welder, only to have Emerson produce one of his own, substantially larger. He poked at the wedge robot, only to have the welder bounce off a forcefield surrounding the little machine. Emerson peeped indignation at such an unfair tactic. Puppy actually seemed to growl, though his relatively primitive speaker gave it a decidedly electronic, chirpy tone. This was his building and he wasn’t going to have vermin here! The series of little tracks he used to manipulate the inside of his ball rearranged themselves, aligning and spinning in opposite directions to unscrew his own clear spherical case along some nearly-invisible seam. The top half of his over-engineered high-durability plastic bubble popped away, rolling toward Emerson as the newly-exposed Puppy balanced back on what remained on his shell. If you couldn’t smoosh vermin.... Emerson’s processor light strobed for a moment, but he was no dumb cookie. In a moment, he’d tucked away the welding tool and picked up the half-bubble. The wedge robot wasn’t quite as quick on the uptake, and, apparently thinking its forcefield conferred sufficient protection, turned to go back to work. Conveying an air of great robotic nonchalance, Emerson rolled up next to it, inverting the bubble in his servos. Quicker than the human eye could process, he brought the bubble down over the wedge robot, trapping it like an insect under glass. The wedge robot whirred angrily, jabbing its arc welder into the bubble wall as it accelerated into the side of its prison again and again. The transparent bubble didn’t so much as scuff under the rough treatment. With one servo still holding the bubble in place, Emerson looked over towards Puppy, his processor light the clear green of a job well done. It took a while for the night security to discover the robotic duo and their well-caught prisoner, but when they did it was certainly a sight: Emerson and Puppy, sitting proudly and patiently next to the little wedge, the former making sure the little machine stayed put and the latter trying to keep his balance on half a shell with his gears and working bits exposed. The mighty, clever defenders of the Lab. The heroes!

Wraith's face - relatively featureless thought it might be - was the very picture of 'what the hell?', the decidedly human-like expression made all the more exaggerated by her rather distinct and expressive trinity of eyes. "It escaped and turned you to stone, and you would like us to put it back? I am not even certain why you would cage such a creature in a place like this; you clearly do not have respect for what it is capable of doing to you and the innocent people around you. Why do you have a basilisk here at all?"

Wraith turned her head to watch the magic fly through the air, a little insulted that she was being ignored and a little angry that someone else took a hit from her target. She narrowed her eyes, unceremoniously taking advantage of the mad villain's distraction by melting both arms into a single, heavy limb and whipping it in a circle clear back around her body to slam into its target like an oversized horizontal flail. She frowned down at her, splitting her arms back apart and then glancing back up at Edge. "....I am sorry, I do not think she will listen to sense."

Not really in a gamblin' mood. So straight-up attacking, relying on the Inspire to make her attacks pretty reliable. Wraith spends a hero point to waive the fatigue from last round. Move action: Elongate! Because why not, that's why. Standard action: Melee Attack Roll vs. Nightmare Doom (whip-club; Inspired +5) (1d20 + 10 + 5=28) DC25 Toughness. EDIT: nothing below this was necessary! Hiding it to avoid confusing anybody. Mostly myself. Wraith spent 1 hero point.

"I'm afraid I haven't heard of a crashed ship," Gaian Knight admitted; he'd been happy to stand in the background and let the others win the child over, but at the mention of travel he glanced from Scraps to his platform and back again. "I think we'd very much like to see it, though, and the Captain and his daughter. As for speed, well...." He gave a friendly bow, gesturing to his platform as it rearranged itself - stone flowed apart like clay as loose bits of rock and rubble pulled together to fill in the gaps and re-size their improvised conveyance for an extra person, complete with simple, smooth stone seats. "...there's always room for one more."

Gaian Knight had put his goggles back on for the flight over, but quietly pulled them up to his forehead to give the kid a better look. He was fighting an awful urge to clean the poor boy up, but having all the dirt on your body suddenly fall away probably wouldn't be very comforting.... "We live here, sort of - we're from back west," he answered, gesturing off the way they'd come. "Something's happening plants, and we're trying to find out what it is. We weren't expecting to run into anybody out here, though," he added. "You must be pretty tough to be here on your own."

Notice Check, DC20 (+2 situational bonus) (1d20 + 15 + 2=30) Yeup.

"Not a problem," Tarrant nodded, trying to remember what he knew about that end of this world's version of the area. "We may want to fly, though, rather than tunnel. All big underground rooms 'look' the same to me - I can recognize things like acid leaching into the soil because of what it does to the soil, but I don't want to accidentally skim us too close to some bioweapon bunker or something. It'll be a little slower, but not too bad - I can probably get us there in twenty minutes, maybe less." Somewhere just outside Stesha's home there was a quiet rumbling noise as the platform he'd arrived on and some carefully-dislodged stone from beneath the grass pulled together into a simple, lipped construction big enough to comfortably seat three. As always, though, the ground over the reclaimed stone closed back up with only a little dusting of dirt to betray it had been moved - Tarrant knew better than to mess up a plant-lover's lawn. "Guess I'm ready when you two are."

"Awwww." Wraith's tendril pulled back up into the rest of her as the little cub made its way out of its egg; she stretched out her body to descend to the floor as gently as possible, so as not to startle the newborn beast. "It is adorable - and very capable for a creature that has just hatched. I wonder if-" She was cut off as it scrambled up into Kimber's lap. Kimber's immaterial lap. Wraith blinked a couple times, three black eyes trying to figure that out. "It...can touch her? It can touch you? Is that something that manticores can normally do?"

Tarrant wasted no time in pulling out a cell phone and making a couple very careful calls - mostly to people who could pass the request along, so that he wasn't wasting time trying to catch people who may not be available. Whatever the people on the other end of the line thought of his short, strange, and rather context-less requests for research, they apparently didn't dig too deep into it. By the time he'd put his cell phone away he was reasonably sure he'd done what he could - or at least started the ball rolling. He was also reasonably sure he owed at least six people lunch now, but it'd be a small price to pay if they came back with anything. Then it was just a matter of sitting and waiting, for his part. At least for now.

"Hm! Wraith hummed a little, scaling up along the wall to the ceiling where she could get a better view of the egg. She tried to at least sort of temper her curiosity with caution, though - her 'mane' of little air-tasters pulled in and got replaced with a single, mace-tipped tendril curling below her. "Two strange creatures in one day - this is very fortunate. ...ah. I do not mean to imply that I am glad anyone was hurt, of course, but they seem to be alright and it is so rare to see such interesting animals...." Her head was bent back to glance at the other two, she looked very sheepish for a four-legged wall-climbing metal being. "It is just very interesting. I wonder what it is?"

"I could probably make a couple of calls if we want to risk the contact," Tarrant pondered, mentally trying to decide whether it would be better to ask one of his more history-minded peers or just send some students down into the ugly depths of the library for some record-searching. It probably wouldn't hurt to do both. Microfilm builds character, anyway. The thought almost tugged his mouth into a wry grin, but in the situation he couldn't really sustain it. "I could just say I'm concerned with the state of the local soil and groundwater health, which is true enough."