Starve Free (IC)

[Electra]

Erin almost said she'd go ahead and jump, just because she'd need the practice, but reconsidered. It would be a long trip up, even with her own leaping, and she would need to find some lifting mechanism anyway to bring anyone with her. Besides, she didn't want to risk exhausting the Omegadrone's patience. It was obvious he did not like being here, not that she blamed him. It was only a matter of time before he would find it necessary to leave, and she needed to learn it all before then.

[Avenger Assembled]

Harrier led Wander up a long, long elevator shaft, pointing out point defenses and perimeter defenses, blasting away a descending car without breaking 'stride' in the sky. When they'd gone perhaps a quarter mile, Harrier finally led them to a small ledge before a set of sliding doors. "This is his private laboratory, where he carries out his personal research. Several hundred Nurses, electronic and biological defenses, but focused inwards rather than outwards." He laid his blank face against the metal with a slight thunk. "Do not allow him to touch you. His body is infected with nanites that he uses to subdue his patients."

[Electra]

"I'll keep that in mind," Erin muttered. "Anything that protects against it? Is it just bare skin contact?" She sized up the door for a moment, then delivered a side kick with twice the force of a hydraulic ram to the space between the doors. They bowed and gave way, and a second kick had one snapping in half. She stepped through, bat at the ready for all the building was empty. Even empty, even in simulation, she shuddered to step into the doctor's sanctum. "What next?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Physical contact that works across a legion of species suggests that armor as such will need to be specially prepared. Beyond that...I don't know." As he stepped into the darkened room with her, his shoulders slumped, the drone looked almost defeated, as if oppressed by the remembered world around him. "I saw him work, but rarely saw any resist. By the time any came this far..." He took a deep breath, the sound rendered tinny and mechanical by his armor. "I should tell you to turn back." Harrier said suddenly. "That there is no mercy here, that this is a place where heroes die in agony, or become the monsters they despised. But if you can pull down these walls and slay the monster within, even for a day, an hour...come prepared for this, child. If you would fight the greatest monsters, you have the greatest responsibility."

[Electra]

Erin stared at the tables, the gleaming instruments, the white surgical lights of a theater of far worse than death, and she was afraid. More afraid than she'd been in a long time. How could she face an entire universe this evil, how could she ask her friends to do it with her? They would fail, and die, or worse, they would end up here on these tables, having accomplished nothing. The butcher who worked here had taken her world, but she had somehow escaped without a scratch, and fallen into a situation that was a hundred times better than she'd had any right to ask for. No one expected her to do this. There was no reason not to turn away.

"And who knows if you were brought to the kingdom for such a time as this?" she murmured aloud, to herself. She looked over at Harrier. "I'll be ready," she told him. "What else?"