A Strange Visitor

[Companyman]

Mr. Fix-it was attempting to learn as much as he could about the craft and he tried not to let his frustration with immovable the craft affect his analysis. However, his contemplation was explosive interrupted. The event shook the entire area. Fortunately, Mr. Fix-it was only partially human and the rest was far tougher to damage (Fortitude save = 30, Toughness save = 29).

[Companyman]

Mr. Fix-it was attempting to learn as much as he could about the craft and he tried not to let his frustration with immovable the craft affect his analysis. However, his contemplation was explosive interrupted. The event shook the entire area. Fortunately, Mr. Fix-it was only partially human and the rest was far tougher to damage (Fortitude save = 30, Toughness save = 29).

[Companyman]

Mr. Fix-it was attempting to learn as much as he could about the craft and he tried not to let his frustration with immovable the craft affect his analysis. However, his contemplation was explosive interrupted. The event shook the entire area. Fortunately, Mr. Fix-it was only partially human and the rest was far tougher to damage (Fortitude save = 30, Toughness save = 29).

[Cyrith]

'Wow, getting asked to help with crowd control. I wonder if I can get extra-credit for this?' Gordy was doing much better with the crowd now. The trick was to think of them as an audience, and himself as an actor. With that in mind Gordy could confidently address the throng of people. Just as he was starting to really get into this job, he is rocked by an explosion. 'Crap, I knew I should have had my forcefield up.'

[Cyrith]

'Wow, getting asked to help with crowd control. I wonder if I can get extra-credit for this?' Gordy was doing much better with the crowd now. The trick was to think of them as an audience, and himself as an actor. With that in mind Gordy could confidently address the throng of people. Just as he was starting to really get into this job, he is rocked by an explosion. 'Crap, I knew I should have had my forcefield up.'

[Cyrith]

'Wow, getting asked to help with crowd control. I wonder if I can get extra-credit for this?' Gordy was doing much better with the crowd now. The trick was to think of them as an audience, and himself as an actor. With that in mind Gordy could confidently address the throng of people. Just as he was starting to really get into this job, he is rocked by an explosion. 'Crap, I knew I should have had my forcefield up.'

[Veiled Malice]

Not many people know it, but the infosphere has it's own equivalent of a heartbeat. During times of stress, a human heart beats faster. Same deal with the information transmitted over airwaves during an emergency. Tacnets fill up with police and emergency services calling into their commands, 911 operators deal with frenzied bystanders, and automatic alarms alert their parent stations. The only reason an entire area goes dead, or has a heart attack, to keep with the anthropomorphizing trend stated before, is if something truly catastrophic befalls it.

So it was that Nanowire, fully decked out in armor and trawling the city's information pulse for something to do, took notice when nearly all of Parkside went dark all at the same time. Even hardlines took a severe hit, indicating something big hard just gone down. There was only one thing to do - go out and see what was up. Maybe he could even get out of the funk he'd been in since before the New Year.

Nanowire blasted off, flying high over the city before locating Parkside. He lost altitude quickly as he angled downwards. The entire area had been choked by a smoke cloud, hindering any normal sight from viewing the area from the sky. This helped him out a lot. Though the cloud had no effect on his radar, others that were not so enhanced wouldn't be able to see him enter the disaster zone. Nanowire took up a position down the street from what looked to be a flying saucer, and waited for the smoke to clear before moving in closer.

[Veiled Malice]

Not many people know it, but the infosphere has it's own equivalent of a heartbeat. During times of stress, a human heart beats faster. Same deal with the information transmitted over airwaves during an emergency. Tacnets fill up with police and emergency services calling into their commands, 911 operators deal with frenzied bystanders, and automatic alarms alert their parent stations. The only reason an entire area goes dead, or has a heart attack, to keep with the anthropomorphizing trend stated before, is if something truly catastrophic befalls it.

So it was that Nanowire, fully decked out in armor and trawling the city's information pulse for something to do, took notice when nearly all of Parkside went dark all at the same time. Even hardlines took a severe hit, indicating something big hard just gone down. There was only one thing to do - go out and see what was up. Maybe he could even get out of the funk he'd been in since before the New Year.

Nanowire blasted off, flying high over the city before locating Parkside. He lost altitude quickly as he angled downwards. The entire area had been choked by a smoke cloud, hindering any normal sight from viewing the area from the sky. This helped him out a lot. Though the cloud had no effect on his radar, others that were not so enhanced wouldn't be able to see him enter the disaster zone. Nanowire took up a position down the street from what looked to be a flying saucer, and waited for the smoke to clear before moving in closer.

[Veiled Malice]

Not many people know it, but the infosphere has it's own equivalent of a heartbeat. During times of stress, a human heart beats faster. Same deal with the information transmitted over airwaves during an emergency. Tacnets fill up with police and emergency services calling into their commands, 911 operators deal with frenzied bystanders, and automatic alarms alert their parent stations. The only reason an entire area goes dead, or has a heart attack, to keep with the anthropomorphizing trend stated before, is if something truly catastrophic befalls it.

So it was that Nanowire, fully decked out in armor and trawling the city's information pulse for something to do, took notice when nearly all of Parkside went dark all at the same time. Even hardlines took a severe hit, indicating something big hard just gone down. There was only one thing to do - go out and see what was up. Maybe he could even get out of the funk he'd been in since before the New Year.

Nanowire blasted off, flying high over the city before locating Parkside. He lost altitude quickly as he angled downwards. The entire area had been choked by a smoke cloud, hindering any normal sight from viewing the area from the sky. This helped him out a lot. Though the cloud had no effect on his radar, others that were not so enhanced wouldn't be able to see him enter the disaster zone. Nanowire took up a position down the street from what looked to be a flying saucer, and waited for the smoke to clear before moving in closer.

[Gaea]

As the smoke cleared the horror began.

People were screaming. Children were crying. Rubble fell. The nearest few buildings looked as if they were going to collapse at any moment. In fact some of them were beginning to.

Smoke, and dust, all the particles shed off of human skin and hair and trapped by air ventilation, began to spill out in big bellowing waves. It becomes hard to breathe And then a curious sound. Something that human ears have never heard before. A trillion metal cells reconfiguring themselves, grinding themselves together, forming a new forms. Times two.

Smoke clears further, and this emerges.

It starts to walk towards you in a multi-limbed scurry. A multi-tined gaping maw opens towards you, wanting to swallow you whole, with rows and rows of gaping sharks teeth. It's stopped by a secondary explosion. People scream once more, sure that it's not over. But it's not a secondary explosion. It was a targeted attack.

The Metal Spider shakes, a large chunk missing. Pieces all over the ground. They slowly begin to spool back towards the spider, crawling up it's leg as it reforms.

Smoke clears further, and the thing that attacked the Metal spider emerges:

A brilliant Purple beam emerges from it's body and scans everyone, and everything. It begins to warble, it sounds like a datastream, and then it's warble morphs before your very ear, it's speaking english. "Stand down Vanguard. You cannot succeed."

Same Purple beam, this time from the Spider. "Disagreement. Sentinel, you will be disassembled, your component nan's will be absorbed to fulfill Vanguard's essential function. This world will be perfected. You can do nothing. the Sentinel are weak. You are weak."

"I am at 87.9011375% of total power reserves, and I am a class 8, you a class 6. You will be prevented from sterilizing this world."

"And I am at 88.0971341% of total power reserves. Ha. I absorbed some of your mass when you had me contained. Containing me physically was a new trick, by the way, one doomed to fail. After your mass absorption, we are both Class 7's. It is you who will fall."

The metal man looks around, and his head forms into a human head. He smiles "Doubtful, Initial scan complete, this world contains several Exemplar class Organics. Who will come to my aid as I have come to theirs. Innumerable Prime class Organics, Hundreds of Alpha class. This world's standard Organic frame is quite frail, but check your sensors. The closest Organics are Prime Class or better."

"Fine. Then I will provide a necessary distraction, or eliminate them. Then you will disassemble"

---

The spider forms into many smaller ones, roughly human sized. They move away from one another.

Moving into the buildings that are already on their last legs. That's when the screaming begins again.

[Gaea]

As the smoke cleared the horror began.

People were screaming. Children were crying. Rubble fell. The nearest few buildings looked as if they were going to collapse at any moment. In fact some of them were beginning to.

Smoke, and dust, all the particles shed off of human skin and hair and trapped by air ventilation, began to spill out in big bellowing waves. It becomes hard to breathe And then a curious sound. Something that human ears have never heard before. A trillion metal cells reconfiguring themselves, grinding themselves together, forming a new forms. Times two.

Smoke clears further, and this emerges.

It starts to walk towards you in a multi-limbed scurry. A multi-tined gaping maw opens towards you, wanting to swallow you whole, with rows and rows of gaping sharks teeth. It's stopped by a secondary explosion. People scream once more, sure that it's not over. But it's not a secondary explosion. It was a targeted attack.

The Metal Spider shakes, a large chunk missing. Pieces all over the ground. They slowly begin to spool back towards the spider, crawling up it's leg as it reforms.

Smoke clears further, and the thing that attacked the Metal spider emerges:

A brilliant Purple beam emerges from it's body and scans everyone, and everything. It begins to warble, it sounds like a datastream, and then it's warble morphs before your very ear, it's speaking english. "Stand down Vanguard. You cannot succeed."

Same Purple beam, this time from the Spider. "Disagreement. Sentinel, you will be disassembled, your component nan's will be absorbed to fulfill Vanguard's essential function. This world will be perfected. You can do nothing. the Sentinel are weak. You are weak."

"I am at 87.9011375% of total power reserves, and I am a class 8, you a class 6. You will be prevented from sterilizing this world."

"And I am at 88.0971341% of total power reserves. Ha. I absorbed some of your mass when you had me contained. Containing me physically was a new trick, by the way, one doomed to fail. After your mass absorption, we are both Class 7's. It is you who will fall."

The metal man looks around, and his head forms into a human head. He smiles "Doubtful, Initial scan complete, this world contains several Exemplar class Organics. Who will come to my aid as I have come to theirs. Innumerable Prime class Organics, Hundreds of Alpha class. This world's standard Organic frame is quite frail, but check your sensors. The closest Organics are Prime Class or better."

"Fine. Then I will provide a necessary distraction, or eliminate them. Then you will disassemble"

---

The spider forms into many smaller ones, roughly human sized. They move away from one another.

Moving into the buildings that are already on their last legs. That's when the screaming begins again.

[Gaea]

As the smoke cleared the horror began.

People were screaming. Children were crying. Rubble fell. The nearest few buildings looked as if they were going to collapse at any moment. In fact some of them were beginning to.

Smoke, and dust, all the particles shed off of human skin and hair and trapped by air ventilation, began to spill out in big bellowing waves. It becomes hard to breathe And then a curious sound. Something that human ears have never heard before. A trillion metal cells reconfiguring themselves, grinding themselves together, forming a new forms. Times two.

Smoke clears further, and this emerges.

It starts to walk towards you in a multi-limbed scurry. A multi-tined gaping maw opens towards you, wanting to swallow you whole, with rows and rows of gaping sharks teeth. It's stopped by a secondary explosion. People scream once more, sure that it's not over. But it's not a secondary explosion. It was a targeted attack.

The Metal Spider shakes, a large chunk missing. Pieces all over the ground. They slowly begin to spool back towards the spider, crawling up it's leg as it reforms.

Smoke clears further, and the thing that attacked the Metal spider emerges:

A brilliant Purple beam emerges from it's body and scans everyone, and everything. It begins to warble, it sounds like a datastream, and then it's warble morphs before your very ear, it's speaking english. "Stand down Vanguard. You cannot succeed."

Same Purple beam, this time from the Spider. "Disagreement. Sentinel, you will be disassembled, your component nan's will be absorbed to fulfill Vanguard's essential function. This world will be perfected. You can do nothing. the Sentinel are weak. You are weak."

"I am at 87.9011375% of total power reserves, and I am a class 8, you a class 6. You will be prevented from sterilizing this world."

"And I am at 88.0971341% of total power reserves. Ha. I absorbed some of your mass when you had me contained. Containing me physically was a new trick, by the way, one doomed to fail. After your mass absorption, we are both Class 7's. It is you who will fall."

The metal man looks around, and his head forms into a human head. He smiles "Doubtful, Initial scan complete, this world contains several Exemplar class Organics. Who will come to my aid as I have come to theirs. Innumerable Prime class Organics, Hundreds of Alpha class. This world's standard Organic frame is quite frail, but check your sensors. The closest Organics are Prime Class or better."

"Fine. Then I will provide a necessary distraction, or eliminate them. Then you will disassemble"

---

The spider forms into many smaller ones, roughly human sized. They move away from one another.

Moving into the buildings that are already on their last legs. That's when the screaming begins again.

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie watches the whole scene with horror, then anger. The screaming around her, the people running, the destruction, the fear - it all fed her this emotion. She looks at Velocity and her new metal friend - they seemed ok. Valkyrie herself was feeling a little weak, but otherwise fine... just copious amounts of rage. When the giant spider reforms itstelf into smaller versions of itself, she doesn't hesitate - these things could kill any number of the civilians around. People who just want to get on with their day. People with friends and families and lives. Valkyrie charges in and swings powerfully, but wildly at the nearest mini-monstrosity.

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie watches the whole scene with horror, then anger. The screaming around her, the people running, the destruction, the fear - it all fed her this emotion. She looks at Velocity and her new metal friend - they seemed ok. Valkyrie herself was feeling a little weak, but otherwise fine... just copious amounts of rage. When the giant spider reforms itstelf into smaller versions of itself, she doesn't hesitate - these things could kill any number of the civilians around. People who just want to get on with their day. People with friends and families and lives. Valkyrie charges in and swings powerfully, but wildly at the nearest mini-monstrosity.

[cosmicarus]

Valkyrie watches the whole scene with horror, then anger. The screaming around her, the people running, the destruction, the fear - it all fed her this emotion. She looks at Velocity and her new metal friend - they seemed ok. Valkyrie herself was feeling a little weak, but otherwise fine... just copious amounts of rage. When the giant spider reforms itstelf into smaller versions of itself, she doesn't hesitate - these things could kill any number of the civilians around. People who just want to get on with their day. People with friends and families and lives. Valkyrie charges in and swings powerfully, but wildly at the nearest mini-monstrosity.

[Companyman]

Mr. Fix-it felt a strange kinship to the odd metallic creatures but readies himself for battle anyway (Initiative). Internally he begins to route surplus energy to the power projection units in his forearms. The blast outlets on both palms begin to glow.

Calling out to the strange humanoid, “What is going on here and who are you two?â€Â

[Companyman]

Mr. Fix-it felt a strange kinship to the odd metallic creatures but readies himself for battle anyway (Initiative). Internally he begins to route surplus energy to the power projection units in his forearms. The blast outlets on both palms begin to glow.

Calling out to the strange humanoid, “What is going on here and who are you two?â€Â

[Companyman]

Mr. Fix-it felt a strange kinship to the odd metallic creatures but readies himself for battle anyway (Initiative). Internally he begins to route surplus energy to the power projection units in his forearms. The blast outlets on both palms begin to glow.

Calling out to the strange humanoid, “What is going on here and who are you two?â€Â

[Heridfel]

Kevin braces for impact before the shockwave hits. He can hear the kid beside him say something, but it's lost in the noise.

Somehow, he manages to stay on his feet. He's covered in bruises, but it doesn't feel like anything's broken. The same, however, cannot be said about all the people around him. As he looks around, his eyes flare a verdant green. He falls to one knee and grabs his head as he tries to take all the information in. There are hundreds of people who came to look at the spaceship, and most of them are injured much worse than he is. He can see all of them, and he knows exactly what is wrong with each. Every broken bone, every collapsed lung, every punctured artery and vein... people are going to die here. There's no time for him to try to heal them all, but he has to try.

Rising from the ground, he takes a deep breath. He doesn't think about all the injured and the dying. Instead, he concentrates on two people who somehow avoided all injury. A part of his brain analyzes their bodies, and determines that one is part machine, and the other just seems different somehow, though there isn't any time to go into detail. Then, he projects that wholeness out, all around him. It seems to dim for a moment as it spreads, but as it touches each body, it grows stronger. People don't want to die, and their bodies reflect that desire for health. His eyes fade back to their usual color as he does so, and only someone who was watching him for the couple of seconds would have seen the energy coming out of them.

Kevin remains motionless as the power flows out from him. To anyone looking towards him, it looks like he has gone catatonic in the face of the aliens' onslaught. Unfortunately, he didn't notice one thing: when he saw all of the living things in the area, there was a void where his normal vision would have seen the attackers.

[Heridfel]

Kevin braces for impact before the shockwave hits. He can hear the kid beside him say something, but it's lost in the noise.

Somehow, he manages to stay on his feet. He's covered in bruises, but it doesn't feel like anything's broken. The same, however, cannot be said about all the people around him. As he looks around, his eyes flare a verdant green. He falls to one knee and grabs his head as he tries to take all the information in. There are hundreds of people who came to look at the spaceship, and most of them are injured much worse than he is. He can see all of them, and he knows exactly what is wrong with each. Every broken bone, every collapsed lung, every punctured artery and vein... people are going to die here. There's no time for him to try to heal them all, but he has to try.

Rising from the ground, he takes a deep breath. He doesn't think about all the injured and the dying. Instead, he concentrates on two people who somehow avoided all injury. A part of his brain analyzes their bodies, and determines that one is part machine, and the other just seems different somehow, though there isn't any time to go into detail. Then, he projects that wholeness out, all around him. It seems to dim for a moment as it spreads, but as it touches each body, it grows stronger. People don't want to die, and their bodies reflect that desire for health. His eyes fade back to their usual color as he does so, and only someone who was watching him for the couple of seconds would have seen the energy coming out of them.

Kevin remains motionless as the power flows out from him. To anyone looking towards him, it looks like he has gone catatonic in the face of the aliens' onslaught. Unfortunately, he didn't notice one thing: when he saw all of the living things in the area, there was a void where his normal vision would have seen the attackers.

[Heridfel]

Kevin braces for impact before the shockwave hits. He can hear the kid beside him say something, but it's lost in the noise.

Somehow, he manages to stay on his feet. He's covered in bruises, but it doesn't feel like anything's broken. The same, however, cannot be said about all the people around him. As he looks around, his eyes flare a verdant green. He falls to one knee and grabs his head as he tries to take all the information in. There are hundreds of people who came to look at the spaceship, and most of them are injured much worse than he is. He can see all of them, and he knows exactly what is wrong with each. Every broken bone, every collapsed lung, every punctured artery and vein... people are going to die here. There's no time for him to try to heal them all, but he has to try.

Rising from the ground, he takes a deep breath. He doesn't think about all the injured and the dying. Instead, he concentrates on two people who somehow avoided all injury. A part of his brain analyzes their bodies, and determines that one is part machine, and the other just seems different somehow, though there isn't any time to go into detail. Then, he projects that wholeness out, all around him. It seems to dim for a moment as it spreads, but as it touches each body, it grows stronger. People don't want to die, and their bodies reflect that desire for health. His eyes fade back to their usual color as he does so, and only someone who was watching him for the couple of seconds would have seen the energy coming out of them.

Kevin remains motionless as the power flows out from him. To anyone looking towards him, it looks like he has gone catatonic in the face of the aliens' onslaught. Unfortunately, he didn't notice one thing: when he saw all of the living things in the area, there was a void where his normal vision would have seen the attackers.

[Veiled Malice]

Nanowire went numb at hearing the back and forth between the ones called "Sentinel" and "Vanguard". They were like him - constructed out of nanomachines, but unlike him, they had no static outer layer. All of their component parts were likely held in the semblance of humanoid form by magnetobonding. Either that, or atomic-scale nanobonding. The truest expression of the ultimate form of nanotech. The very possibilities boggled the mind. At that scale, anything was possible. Rebuilding inorganic material into organic material would be child's play. Swap out the silicates for carbon, and you had the building blocks of life itself.

And it was standing no more than a hundred feet away. His cure was so close he could taste it. The other superhumans closed with them. One he recognized from the museum job he'd pulled with Heavy a couple months back. He'd never gotten her name, but it hardly mattered at this point. For now, Nanowire decided to hang back. An opportunity would reveal itself soon enough.

[Veiled Malice]

Nanowire went numb at hearing the back and forth between the ones called "Sentinel" and "Vanguard". They were like him - constructed out of nanomachines, but unlike him, they had no static outer layer. All of their component parts were likely held in the semblance of humanoid form by magnetobonding. Either that, or atomic-scale nanobonding. The truest expression of the ultimate form of nanotech. The very possibilities boggled the mind. At that scale, anything was possible. Rebuilding inorganic material into organic material would be child's play. Swap out the silicates for carbon, and you had the building blocks of life itself.

And it was standing no more than a hundred feet away. His cure was so close he could taste it. The other superhumans closed with them. One he recognized from the museum job he'd pulled with Heavy a couple months back. He'd never gotten her name, but it hardly mattered at this point. For now, Nanowire decided to hang back. An opportunity would reveal itself soon enough.

[Veiled Malice]

Nanowire went numb at hearing the back and forth between the ones called "Sentinel" and "Vanguard". They were like him - constructed out of nanomachines, but unlike him, they had no static outer layer. All of their component parts were likely held in the semblance of humanoid form by magnetobonding. Either that, or atomic-scale nanobonding. The truest expression of the ultimate form of nanotech. The very possibilities boggled the mind. At that scale, anything was possible. Rebuilding inorganic material into organic material would be child's play. Swap out the silicates for carbon, and you had the building blocks of life itself.

And it was standing no more than a hundred feet away. His cure was so close he could taste it. The other superhumans closed with them. One he recognized from the museum job he'd pulled with Heavy a couple months back. He'd never gotten her name, but it hardly mattered at this point. For now, Nanowire decided to hang back. An opportunity would reveal itself soon enough.

[Thevshi]

Velocity watched with a feeling of horror as the giant spider split into smaller ones and headed off in various directions.

“No time to talk, those things need to be stopped!†Velocity said as Mr. Fix-it began talking.

With that she was gone in a blur of movement, a small sonic boom behind her as she broke the sound barrier and speed into one of the buildings one of the spiders had moved into. She ran after the thing and swung a supersonic punch at the thing.

(ooc +11 damage from her pnuch)