KnightDisciple

Gabriel 8 IC Post 4 IC Posts 3 IC Posts Vignette: Total: 15 IC Posts, 1 Vignette Cobalt Templar 16 IC Posts Vignette: Fenris 8 IC Posts 6 IC Posts 7 IC Posts Vignette: Totals: 21 IC Posts, 1 Vignette GM Posts 10 GM Posts (Count Toward Fenris) Totals as of 8:35 PM, CST, Thursday, February 28, 2013.

FYI, Church day, Gaming day, won't be around until late, late tonight.

Magnus had nearly reached the door when he heard Harrow's exclamation. Curious, he turned back around, walking over to the machine with the watch in it. He raised an eyebrow as one of the techs showed him the very limited amount of scanning they'd done to "trigger" the device. He frowned as he recognized the name. 'Somehow this British Lord just happens to have both a unique time-manipulating device, and a past relationship with the girl in the picture, who will be coming "in town" for a meeting with my company? There's coincidence, and then there's this...' With a smile he turned to Harrow. "Strange but fascinating, Lord Harrow. I think my earlier theory of time travel might have some basis. The boys and girls here have loads of tests for hours and hours left, though, so at this point not much more insight I can give. We'll have to carbon date the watch and photo separately. Then scan them for possible signs of temporal travel, different from that speed-up effect you seemed to generate. Which they'll also measure. Interesting stuff, but hours of work, and I have a company to run and meetings I can't skip. I'll video conference in when I can, and fly back out here when I've got a few hours." Unless stopped again, he headed out of the lab to get back to the business of running the company...

I'm going to have Magnus roll a Knowledge: Technology and Knowledge: Physical Sciences check, to try and determine what the alloy is! K: T: 28 K: PS: 19 TK, Dok, feel free to roll! We'll see what AA tells us about the stuff I guess...

Magnus couldn't hide the grin of delight. "Fascinating! So...this suggests that the Curator isn't just a high-level AI, but one able to produce near-infinite sub-forks of itself to independently control these physical shells. Because if it had each of them engaging in independent action, and none of them have any independence of their own, it has to have the ability to simultaneously concentrate on all of them. It's not a question of processing power; I've taken to understand the Curator has a bloody ringworld. But the coding must be fantastic. Suppose it just shows his age, like the Doctor said." Magnus pulled a pair of insulated work gloves onto his hands before picking out some fine-nosed pliers and a small wire-snipper. He delicately reached in from his spot next to Voltage, slowly lifting just a small bit of the super-conducting wire up, before cutting out a slice. "I don't recognize it immediately, but it's definitely not computronium. Let me put it in the analyzer here..." He slipped over to one of the workstations set up near the "operating table", sliding the sample in to begin analysis. "Is it familiar to you, Doctor?"

"I'd appreciate that, yes. If there's not, that's fine. As for contact information, that's a good idea. I think I gave the others my info, but pass it on to Young Freedom anyways. Let all of them know I'm available if they need help with something." Corbin pulled out his smartphone and made ready to enter Mali's information, giving his own when requested. "Not sure if Kimber's got a phone, but I know Koshiro does, and I think Indira does, to talk to her folks." He finished off the second plate that had come by not that long ago. "Does Young Freedom have any team plans or missions coming up?"

Early January 16th, 2012 Carson Keefe's Southside Apartment Carson sighed as he rested his head against the back of his couch. Any other January night (or morning, he supposed), he'd have been rushing to chose the balcony door. Tonight, he actually appreciated the chill. Despite lacking a coat, socks, or shoes, he was enjoying something to cool him off. It didn't happen often, but every so often he'd find himself feeling flushed and overheated after long stretches of using his powers. It seemed less something specific to his nature, and more "you worked really really hard and your body is overexerted". He was standing to go close the door (finally getting a chill across his arms) when his cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket as he walked over, at first tensing for another call from the Freedom League. It was Sonya, which meant his life wasn't about to be in danger. Probably. He hit the answer button and spoke up just as he slid the door shut. "Hello, Sonya." "Are you still in one piece, Carson?" "It says something that that's literally the first thing out of your mouth, darling. Yes, I'm fine. No major injuries, all the minors already treated. I'm mostly just....exhausted. It's..." "A terrible day?" "Three words that carry so much truth....yes. That...well, I wouldn't say it "sums it up", but it's a start. You know part of the story, but...perhaps you should come over for a bit. Explaining in person would be more...relaxing." "I'm already on my way." "Typical Russian." He hung up with a smile and a slightly hysterical giggle before she could protest further.

Gabriel blinks as Sonya asks what's going on. His voice manages to overcome background noise with surprising ease, all things considered. "Oh, you know. Typical American bravado. I'm not exaggerating. I think I need to take care of this. Yes, we'll talk later if I'm still in one piece. When have I not tried to-wait, don't answer that. Yes, dear." He gives a slight smile as he lowers his hand from the communicator. "Women, huh?" His own expression becomes more serious, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "We're half a mile up and well away from any skyscrapers. If you want to talk, we can do it just fine here. If there's an emergency, then lead the way. But don't get the idea I'm intimidated by loud sounds or serious voices today, Victory. It has been a very long day and it's not even dinnertime yet. What's going on."

GM Post Fenris and Dragonfly's skills, combined with their innate connection to machines, meant it was fairly trivial to tear down the firewalls and dig into the system. Fenris isolated segments of data and code, and Dragonfly ruthlessly eliminated them. First to go were the security and alarm protocols, followed by their collected proprietary data, followed by everything but the most basic operational software. Fenris actually requested Dragonfly not slag the systems, as he thought Baron Magnus might want to recover the facility and turn it to more...wholesome...pursuits. Bee-Keeper's watchful eyes were....kind of bored. Empousa stayed unconscious the entire time, having been propped up near Kobalos. The...man? cyborg? robot?...simply sat there, a smirk on his face, not moving, not talking. Just smirking. Ironclad's progress on the worm was slow going as she analyzed code fragments as Dragonfly and Fenris tore the computers apart (metaphorically), but she had a string of successes in her simulations after several minutes of effort. As the two gray-clad heroes wrapped up, and the heroine in green and gold stepped forward, Kobalos suddenly spoke. "A worm, huh? Not bad, not bad. Sounds like a tasty snack for the boss-lady. She does so enjoy amateur efforts." He chuckled. "I mean, not a bad effort. You stopped this venture, and it looks like you've slagged our recovery of your tech this time. But the fact you think we're "working for" someone makes me wonder how smart you are. We're the Foundry, little girl. We work for ourselves. We decided to try finding a way to wipe out a few of you meatbags, cow the rest of you into compliance. If we wiped this city off the map, how many of you "heroes" would be left, huh? Especially if we followed up with more focused blasts. I'd wager not many." He suddenly snapped his restraints, and Empousa's eyes snapped open as she too stood up alongside her speaking companion. "No matter now. All we can do is take your combat data back to base." Empousa gave a smirk, and actually winked at Bee-Keeper somewhat suggestively. "We can test your hardware out some other time, Bee-Keeper." Kobalos rolled his eyes. "Getting into character a bit much there, Empousa?" She shrugged. "Let's toodle." "Yes, lets." And with that, their eyes suddenly shone bright, electricity arced across their forms, and they both fell down limp. Scans showed their artificial (for both of them) brains utterly wiped of programming. As the light had turned brightest, there had been a surge of radio activity that dropped off only moments later. Likely a mind upload back to their base...

Magnus smiled as Archeville appeared, giving the renowned Doctor a nod. "I'm honored you could join us, Doctor Archeville. Your insight, even, ah, remotely, may well prove invaluable. As well as giving another perspective on matters!" With that, Magnus slipped some safety goggles over his eyes and glanced around, before pointing to a nearby table. "Excellent. We have a drone prepped for us. Looks like this is one of the ones that shut down without damage; it's intact, in great condition." He extracted a couple of tools from his finely-made belt, poking at the exterior of the Drone for the moment. He clucked his tongue as he thought for a moment. "Doctor, your memory might help confirm this, but putting aside the fact this whole room of drones look identical to each other, they appear identical to the last time this planet saw drones from the Curator. Which...well, at this point of his existence that's not entirely shocking, but still. We need to open it up to be sure. Voltage, I hate to ask someone else to dig in, but considering your unique nature, and possible anti-tampering measures, do you think you could help pry open the panels at least?"

Gabriel noted the name of the physicist, but it was unlikely he was related to his girlfriend; the name was close, but not quite close enough. He nodded as Director Powers went over the layout and scenario. He gave himself a few moments to think before continuing. "We should assume worst-case numbers, I would say. As for support..." He glanced at the others. "I know I can navigate pitch-black darkness fine, but I'm not going to speak for everyone else. Perhaps those who need them can get some night-vision goggles? I wouldn't be shocked if he tries to slow us down by turning the lights off. Some re-breathers would be good as well. Also, I would request that AEGIS, the Russians, or both of you have some more "standard" troopers on standby to start securing prisoners as we knock them down. We can't afford to lose our momentum, so we'll need to be the tip of the spear rather than the whole assault. They can secure prisoners, administer first aid, deliver cures, and give us a secure section of the facility to fall back to if things go badly, which we have to assume is possible. I would rather we not be stuck there with our support 5 critical minutes out. We would be the most noticeable section of the force, and thus would attract all the meta-human forces to attack us, leaving, at worst, some of the standard troops for your men. I won't claim to know how you should arrange things precisely, but I do know that something like this would make me feel much better about how this operation is going to go down. "

"We'll get everything on the helicopter, then. And yes, the facility is isolated for more reasons than one, though by its long-term nature there's a bit of a town sprung up around it." Magnus stood and collected his things, leading Harrow out the door. "I'll get the ball rolling, but I have an international company to run, Lord Harrow. I cannot always drop everything for the first shiny doo-dad that finds its way onto my doorstep. Besides, I hire only the best, most competent people. Much of what they'll be doing is the boring, mundane part of science. I'll be calling in when developments have been made." It wasn't long after that that the two men were bound for the mountains of Sweden on a helicopter. ************************************************************************************************************************** Three Hours Later The helicopter landed on a large concrete pad outside...well, it was actually fairly normal-looking. It was a set of reinforced concrete structures, clearly designed to withstand the nastier parts of local weather long-term. The facility itself, and the small village of homes, shops, restaurants, and so forth that had sprung up around it, was nestled at the foot of a respectable stretch of the Scandinavian Mountains. Magnus led Harrow away from the helipad before turning to speak with him. "We have a couple of empty guest houses in town, we'll get you set up in one. I'm going to be having the boys and girls run tests all across the board, trying to figure out how old that thing is, what if any radiation it emits, what it's composed of, what's inside of it, the works."

Fenris blinked from sight and reappeared next to Dragonfly just as she finished tearing up the waldos and welding arms around the wrecked laser. The room was half-full of automated equipment, and much of it was still untouched. He cast his gaze around for a moment before pointing to a wall lined with terminals, only about half of which had actual keyboards. The lupine hero walked over to one, his fingertips now smoothed over, and he began typing. His mind quietly pushed at the computers, the barriers already weakened by the effort of transmitting...well, likely transmitting the minds of the 2 disabled bots. "It looks like we lucked out. They have all the info on file here, but hadn't downloaded any of it into themselves yet. Except...hm. Well, nothing except a couple of the alloy formulas, but honestly I can live with that. Those robots always seem to be using wacky new metals anyways, right? As for the data...I can root it out, but Dragonfly, I'll need your help. Ironclad, bring your prisoner in here, we'll pile them all up and poke at them later. We should wipe the drives first, before the computers fall back on a failsafe and try to transmit everything in a data dump. I've stripped most of the firewalls at the moment."

"Right." He chewed for a moment before continuing. "Miss Americana? Is she having trouble? I mean, Miss A took over Archetech, I'd think she'd be easy to reach. Hm. It's been a crazy few days, I guess. Indira's a private person, she's...probably dealing in her own way. I...I don't think I actually know Kristen. I mean, I know of her, vaguely. And you. But I didn't really know either of you during school." He gave a small laugh as he finished off his plate and signaled for a second round (causing the waitress to raise an eyebrow). "Not that I really knew Sharl, Koshiro, Kimber, or Indira that well either...Anyways. It sounds like everyone's wrestling with it themselves in their own ways. Which is good, I think. Just...just a rough couple days ahead, I suppose. Are you guys going to try to organize a service?"

Well, I would probably treat Ireland in particular a bit like Central and Keystone Cities, in general. That is, there are villains, but they're actually pretty careful to be "punch clock" bad guys, and there's only one or two really bad/crazy ones who are loners. I would say avoid anything relating to the IRA or whatnot like the Black Plague. But it could be fun to run into local villains. Alternatively, we could do something with OVERSHADOW. Those Wacky Nazis have been in the background for a while now, and we haven't really used them much. This could let us bring in some foreign heroes (such as Gabe and Dok A) as well as, say, Myrmidon (for obvious reasons!). And OVERSHADOW's the sort of threat to have fingers in pies everywhere you look. You could even have something that hops to multiple spots! Oh, another idea is someone again trying the "bind someone from a pantheon to a mortal host" thing (OVERSHADOW again?), though perhaps not the Norse deities (just to shake things up). Perhaps someone foolishly tries to bind The Morrigan, and Crow gets dragged in (I know Quinn isn't in here, but still), and perhaps I could toss Fenris into that as it seems both "in his back yard" and something that twigs stuff from his past. I don't know the Night Stone or what it does, but man that sounds like an intense story! And there's nothing inherently exclusive about the Rings. Theoretically you could wield more than one. But it would be extremely hard, except maybe for Blue+Red; you would need to exhibit the various emotions in balance. But combining them with other artifacts? Totally doable. Except, yes, for the PL Budget thing. That sounds very much like a custom build there.

Magnus swiped and typed for a few more moments, before nodding, compacting the palm computer, and tucking it away under his jacket again. "We have a facility about three hours of travel from here, set at the base of some of the mountains further north and west. It is isolated and secure, with a hefty variety of instrumentation and comfortable if simple on-site accommodations. I won't be staying there, but I'll accompany you over there; once we get things started, I need to go to our facility in Örebro anyways." He pulled out his phone and fired off a quick text before looking back up at Harrow. "Will you be needing your luggage picked up or delivered?"

Baron Magnus blinked without speaking or moving for several long moments, before looking Lord Harrow right in the eye. "Now you see, Lord Harrow, if you had opened with that, it would have explained things much better. Have you noticed any...odd sensations when you engage that particular feature? Have you notice any other "optional extras" installed?" He tapped his chin in thought, before reaching under his suit jacket and pulling out and unfurling his custom palmtop PC. He tapped a few keys and scrolled back and forth on it for a few moments. "How thoroughly are you willing to let us scan and examine it? Do you need to stay with it, or would you prefer to simply be housed nearby? I have a few facilities that I believe possess both the equipment and the privacy needed, and this is not one of them."

Evening, January 15th, 2012 Airspace Above Downtown Freedom City "Right, and I'm not hearing quite as many mini-riots. No villain attacks; I think the whole fiasco has them spooked. We're not quite back to normal, but we're getting closer. I think the whole city is bone-tired right now..." Gabriel closed his eyes with a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand while holding his other up to the communicator in his ear. "For the millionth time, yes, I'm fine. I've got a couple bruises. I already got looked at. I'm tired but no blurry vision. Just...Yes, I'm glad you're fine! Why-no, I'm sorry, I shouldn't yell. I was scared to death when I heard about the attack on Freedom Hall, yes. We probably should be careful on the line, Sonya. No I'm not brushing you off. I'll call you later when I'm not 2,000 feet above the street." He really did care about the woman, but she combined classical doctoral nosiness with a stubborn streak firm enough to shatter diamond.

For Gabriel and Victory talking about what just happened on the Day Of Wrath. No rolls anticipated, but just in case.

"You're right. New year. New chances. As much as he and I butted heads, I don't think Sharl would want me being mopey. Part of me just thinks I should have pushed everyone just a little more though, you know? Pushed us all, been just a bit better, a bit stronger...Anyways, I'll probably just need to go sit down in a couple days and draw a lot. Need to make a trip out to Cali to see my girl, too." He gave a lopsided smile. "Which, uh, sorry to like disappoint or whatever there. Not that I got those vibes, but, you know. Anyways. How is...how are the others? You seen them since that day?" While he waited and listened, Corbin consumed pancakes like a local champion.

The Baron checked the instrument containing the slice of Computronium once more, pushing a few more buttons on it before turning back to Voltage. "As fascinating as this material will be, these chunks are easily transportable. We can probably all take a few samples home after they're triple-screened. Button up, let's get inside the real prize." With that, Magnus followed his own advice and secured his snow goggles against his eyes, his hood around his head,and otherwise made sure he was as resistant to the cold as possible. Once Voltage confirmed he was good to go, the Baron Katastrof went to the hut's door and opened it; thankfully it wasn't terribly windy, so only a small breeze came inside. The Baron led the way across a short stretch of snow before they reached the crashed Curator ship. A makeshift stairway had been secured to the side, leading up to the convenient entrance created by Young Freedom's daring entry and escape through one of the "eyes" of the vessel. Once inside, they went down a hallway to find themselves in a half-wrecked main chamber. Disabled or destroyed drones littered the room, and the cut and slagged central computer sat dark and dormant. The room was littered with lights, computer terminals, sensor gear, cameras, and even a few holo-projectors. Magnus eased the goggles up to his forehead and slid the hood back with a grin. "Well, here's the main event, as it were. We can go dig down in the guts themselves in a bit, but we've got loads of drone samples here, and even if it's wrecked that computer's got a story to tell for sure..."

A single blond eyebrow inched upwards slightly as the "interesting" properties were explained. "That is somewhat more unusual, yes. Though considering the rather...chaotic...nature of this world we live in, it may be a time traveler who played a prank on you. I suppose I could have my people at the lab scan it for carbon dating. The function is actually comparatively easier to explain; a miniaturized gene-scanner locked to your signature, and it syncs with one of the dozens of atomic clocks across the globe, something you can get for less than a hundred dollars in a mass-market store. I appreciate the....curiosity....of the piece, but unless the carbon dating scans reveal something extremely peculiar..." He shrugs. "Have you annoyed anyone able to manipulate space-time recently?"

As 3 bad guys are down and 1 is thoroughly trussed up, we are Out of Initiative.

Initiative Order Dragonfly (25): Bruised x1, 5HP Empousa (25): Dazed (Bee-Keeper's Action), Bruizedx1, -HP Unconscious Arachne (25): Disabled, -HP Dead Hekatoncheire (21): Dazed (Dragonfly's Action), Injury x3, -HP Dead Bee-Keeper (13): Dazed (Arachne's Action), Bruised x2, 3HP Kobalos (6): Dazed (Ironclad's Action), Injuredx1, -HP Fenris (5): Uninjured, 0HP Ironclad (4): Uninjured, 4HP Kobalos DC 27 Reflex Save: 15

"I mean, yeah, it's just...I don't even feel like I'm being "supportive". My friends just kind of brushed me off. Friend, really. He raced off to save our friend who'd been replaced. You heard about that, right?" The waitress returned with stacks of pancakes, Corbin thanked her, and he took a few moments to take a huge bite, which seemed to incrementally improve his mood. "I hadn't heard about Summers. I've heard about some of the other swaps, but not him. Gah. I feel like i'm totally disconnected at this point! I only occasionally see my YF buddies, and sometimes it feels like even that is forced. I think I'm frustrated because not only was I not able to help directly really at all, I don't even feel like I have a direction. Right now." He gives a bitter laugh. "Man listen to me. One of my teammates is dead. Damn it. I...damn, I'm sorry Mali. At least..." He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, his whole self seeming to steady and strengthen as he does. "At least he did what he dedicated himself to: He saved Tronik. Twice over."