Two's Company, Four's a Party(IC)

[GranspearZX]

Something was off.

Marcus hadn't had a whole lot of training when it came to sniffing out magic, but he was quickly learning. When he concentrated, it definitely had a scent all its own, and he could smell it coming from the stairs. He could even feel a gentle pushback from them--and instinct told him that taking a forced step would end badly.

Magical alarm, huh? Probably a ward or something on the stairs... mm. Not really sure how to disable it, so... guess I'll have to go around it.

He closed his eyes and channeled the Beast Rune's power; flowing from his lower body, he allowed it to invoke the Wind rune. He slowly began to rise off the ground, levitating in place for a few moments before attempting to head up the stairs that way.

[Ari]

GM

Arcturus:

Apparently the wizard hadn't thought to repel(or had no fear of) flying intruders, as the barrier was practically nonexistent once Marcus began his levitation. Floating up the stairs what had been a background mumbling lost in the soft breeze turned into a slow incantation. It was addressed to a 'Ghorummaz', and the deep, grinding voice that spoke it appeared very earnest in its desire. The incantation mentioned storms, gales and lightning several times.

[GranspearZX]

Marcus's eyes narrowed a little. In his studies, he'd learned plenty of lore on magical entities and gods. Ghorummaz was no different. Simply invoking Ghorummaz's name wasn't an implicit act of evil or darkness. Ghorummaz was a binder of unnatural things, and held dominion over natural disasters. Nature... in its rawest form. In fact, Marcus's natural power and inclinations ran disturbingly close to the Dragon Within the Earth--an irony that wasn't at all lost on the young mystic.

From what Marcus could gather, the wizardwas conjuring a storm. What exactly was he trying to do? It was more than just bringing rain; Ghorummaz's magic, when used in that way, always heralded destruction, with little exception. Lightning storms, hurricane-force gales... Was he trying to level something? Marcus figured he could always ask... but it seemed far more prudent to get the prince somewhere safe first. He continued his way up, silently floating to avoid the eyes and attention of the chanting wizard.

[Ari]

GM

Arcturus:

The going was quite easy. Until it came time to pass behind the wizard, a powerfully-built man with a full head of long, curly black hair, bronze skin and a think beard streaked with grey that fell to his sternum. As the mystic floated silently past, he was suddenly surrounded by a wall of glowing rocks that erupted from the floor and ceiling, trapping him behind bars of stone. The wizard stopped his incantation with a wave of his hand that ceased the flow of magic around him abruptly and examined Marcus with care, saying at length "Hello rune-maker, who are you? And why have come sneaking into my home? I welcome visitors" he smiled at the young man with a friendly glow in his ruddy cheeks and tawny eyes.

[GranspearZX]

"...uh."

Marcus stopped as the stones impeded his passage, trapping him where he was. He was genuinely surprised when it happened, and he touched down on the ground, not entirely sure how to react. The wizard didn't exactly look like the evil sort--but then, what did evil look like? A twinge of guilt passed over him as he considered the fact that he'd more or less broken into the guy's house, and now he'd been busted red-handed.

"...your door was open." He cleared his throat. "I was sent here after a guest of yours. A prince." He was fairly certain he could break out pretty easily, even without the benefit of the Beast rune's transformative power. still, he thought it best to play it cool for the moment. That was, after all, one of the points of the exercise.

[Ari]

GM

Arcturus:

The wizard slapped his face with his palm "Of course! I always leave the door open when I go to check on the guardian worm! Please accept my apologies, young man. I am Waker, agent of the mighty Ghorammuz. You say you were sent by the prince? But how can that be? I have prevented the boy from communicating by any means for five years now, and he showed no sign of breaking it this morning when I peered into his soul" Waker scratched his chin through his heavy beard with evident confusion before turning his wandering gaze back to Marcus "I fear you have been deceived, he couldn't have sent for you" he smiled brightly, though he did not remove the barrier. Bringing a small thread of the symbols around the circles traced on the floor to his side with a foot, he contemplated it for a moment before asking Marcus cheerfully "Would you like me to remove the barrier? I could use an extra hand summoning a storm to destroy an armada a few hundred miles to the west. It shouldn't take too long" he added hurriedly "I've already gotten about half-way through"

[GranspearZX]

He's been captive for five YEARS?

That didn't sound right at all. Further, he never actually said it was the prince who had sent him--he hadn't said who did, or even given his own name. Something was definitely missing in this equation, and he needed to know what; the last thing he wanted was to jump to unnecessary conclusions.

"...summoning a storm, huh? Hm." Marcus realized that his own powers marked him just as much as the scent of magic carried off of Waker. Certainly no sense hiding it. His tone almost suggested that he was considering helping. "What'd this armada do to you?"

[Ari]

GM

Arcturus:

"Indeed, a valid question young man" answered Waker, rubbing his hands together and sorting out the symbols into a vaguely familiar pattern. "The armada is headed by an old friend and enemy of mine, who is coming in force to secure the young captive from me, the rightful ruler of these lands by virtue of my standing with lord Ghorammuz. The Red Aurochs couldn't get his Lordship to shift a thimble! By destroying his fleet around him" he continued, spinning small threads of lightning around the slowly coalescing forms of strange galleons that rocked on an invisible ocean"I will both preserve my own life and make him reconsider the claim to the throne he makes for himself and his son. He can muster a thousand men? I can call up storms that shatter navies and have the Dragon of the Earth devour his land-borne troops". The ships appeared at first in ones and twos, but soon began to multiply until there were roughly eighty or so ships littering the floor.

[Scuffles]

Kristin's head snapped up as the room filled with the noise of blaring alarms. "Damnit!" she cursed as she gave the computer console a swift kick, then looked around wildly as the sound of booted feet running reached her ears.

"Alright alright.." she said to herself, then looked up at the grill covering the nearest ventilation shaft. An idea struck her, and she reached out with her telekinesis to wrench it off. The grill dropped to the ground with a loud clang as Kristin dashed for the secret passage instead.

Hopefully that will keep them occupied looking in the vents.. she thought to herself as she ducked into the passageway and started towards the cells.

[GranspearZX]

Marcus was thinking. It wasn't something he was accustomed to doing; at this point, the usual plan was something along the lines of 'break out of cage, beat up bad guy'. He could still disable him, sure, but Marcus wanted to avoid physical confrontation entirely. It was a strategy that ran counter to everything he knew, even without the Beast rune prodding at his psyche. He sighed, fully understanding what was going on magically. He had to stop it, of course... but the question became how. Rescuing the prince was his primary goal, but could he really stand here while this wizard's ritual killed an entire army?

Of course not.

"So that's your answer then. Force... tch. Anybody can do that. I'm not gonna pretend that I know all about this succession stuff, but really... This isn't worth thousands of lives. Now, I'm all for giving people the benefit of the doubt..." There was no aggression or malice in Marcus's voice; he was focused on the task at hand. Breathing in deeply, he exhaled slowly closed his eyes and the Beast rune burned against his back, surrounding him in a sphere of magical power. The hunter green field of light lasted only a moment, entirely obscuring Marcus's form until only Arcturus the bear was left. His eyes snapped open, flashing red as he looked squarely into Waker's eyes.

"...so I'm gonna give you one shot. Stop the ritual. NOW."

Arc had no intention of harming the guy. But Waker didn't know that.

[Ari]

GM

Glow:

Kristin heard the resounding thuds as the OVERTHROW agents stormed into the room she had just vacated, cries of horror at the sight of their battered comrades distorted in truly freakish ways by their voice modulators. It didn't take them long to see the fallen ventilation shaft grate and jump to the obvious(to them) conclusion that the attacker had headed directly for the most vulnerable part of the compound. As they raced to intercept the intruder, one of them made sure to turn up the thermostat.

The passageway system was well-lit, simply-designed and laid out, and had not a swerve to it. Clearly it was meant to be actually used by people besides intruders.

Arcturus:

Waker was..frightened. He didn't overreact over the transformation and Macrus' threat, but he did back away and looked nervous. "Why ever would I want to do that?" he asked in bafflement "It is only a thousand or so ungifted humans, what harm is there in making an example of them?" he dispelled the bobbing representations of the vessels currently at his mercy "I could kill them in open battle, if you would prefer that, but that would turn a great deal of this island's forestry into desert, and I would prefer not to dirty my home with the blood of inferiors" despite his words, it was clear that he was currently puzzling over how to dispose of Arcturus rather than risk having him as an open threat, and would most likely soon reach a lethal conclusion.

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus was fairly certain that Waker was fully ready to defend himself, despite being obviously shaken. It wasn't the first time he'd used his bear form purely to scare someone into submission, and there were usually only two results: fight or flight. Most of the time, Arc was aiming for the latter, but occasionally, the former needed to be addressed. He grabbed one of the stone bars with one massive paw and shoved his palm forward, snapping right through with little effort.

"Your gift doesn't make you better. Look at you. Willing to wipe people out... for what? Just to prove a point? Hmph." Arcturus snorted derisively, stepping the entire way through the cage. "This is what's going to happen. I'm going to take the prince and bring him back where he belongs. And you're going to live the rest of your existence peacefully and without destroying that armada or anyone else. If not..." The intensity in Arcturus's eyes rose several crimson shades...

"...you will live to regret it if you do otherwise."

[Ari]

GM

Arcturus:

"Indeed I will live to regret this, young man" Waker replied coldly, his former fright clearly having been only superficial "I will regret not training a better guard worm! But a few pounds of you should suffice as a reward for good behavior" he snapped, removing his heavy grey coat and tossing it into a corner of the room. Stamping his left foot on the floor appeared to dispel the last shreds of the illusory fleet. With a crackle, magic power seemed to surge from out of him to turn into a nearly opaque field around the two "Defend yourself! I doubt that bear's form of yours will avail you though, it is as naught against my mystic might, rune-maker!" he thundered, leaping to nearly the other end of the room, crouched and causing slight jolts of lightning to crackle through the air.

From up above an irritated voice was barely heard "What's going on down their, Waker?"

In a moment Waker was at the foot of the spiral stairs leading up to the third floor, calling up sweetly "Nothing, your majesty!" he signed furiously to Arcturus not to speak as he took up a combat stance again.

[Scuffles]

Kristin jogged down the length of the passage, following the route she had memorized from the security computer. She couldn't help but smile faintly as she heard the shouts of dismay from the simulated OVERTHROW agents, and grinned even more broadly as she heard them apparently take the bait she had left behind.

As she reached the exit adjacent to the cells she stopped and dropped the energy of her telekinetic barrier as low as she dared, then peeked out into the corridor to check for more guards or defenses.

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus frowned as Waker moved to stand right in his way. This... was going to be an issue. He didn't want to fight, but at this point, he didn't think the field Waker had conjured would allow him past. Sound, however, still carried... and Arc was definitely going to use that to his advantage.

"Hello?" His tone was polite--saccharine, even, considering he was still in his bear form. Arcturus grinned broadly; clearly, the prince's direct involvement was a bad thing for Waker, and who was he not to investigate why?

[Ari]

GM

Glow:

Kristin found herself staring at the back of one of the OVERTHROW agents, who clearly was not expecting someone to be using the secret passage system to get around their base. He and several others were aiming their weapons at the interior of the now-opened cells, the two Claremont students not visible but quite audible

"Please, let us out!" a female voice vaguely familiar to Glow's ears called to the guards "Those things will take out anything within four feet of its target, and that includes us!"

The agents were wholly unsympathetic "Sharrup kid!" snapped one of them with a red bar on her shoulder "You're collateral damage if the infiltrator DOES show up in your cell. Besides, only one of you will have to die for luring them in, so why not settle that issue now before it gets ugly?" there were two light robots armed with what looked like bazookas aiming them at sace between the opened cell doors. They were flanked by two agents each armed with some kind of heavy blaster weapon.

Arcturus:

Waker made furious signs to Marcus, but it was too late. A high male voice drifted down the stairs, impatient and curious "Who's that? Is someone else there with you Waker? You know what it will mean for your head if there is!" Waker cringed and glared pure death at Arcturus, shouting merrily through gritted teeth "Certainly NOT, Lordship! It is merely a..homonculus, just created, and wondering what is about it. It will not speak any longer" the glare intensified, if that were possible.

[GranspearZX]

Arcturus looked incredibly annoyed for a second. He knew exactly what a homunculus was, and to be called one was hardly flattering. Still... Waker seemed genuinely afraid of the prince; this definitely seemed like an exceptionally complex situation. There was even more to this than he thought, and now he figured he had sufficient leverage to make Waker explain even further.

He didn't make another sound; instead, he stepped to his side, further into the room--as much as the field would allow, at least. If Waker didn't cooperate... he could always start breaking things until he did.

[Scuffles]

Kristin stepped out into the corridor with her defenses flaring back to full strength around her.

"How about you lot pick on someone who can fight back!" she growled as she thrust her hands out towards the OVERTHROW agents and sent a wave of telekinetic force blasting out into them. Both robots were shattered and went flying back against the wall, and one of the guards went down in a heap as well, but the other three absorbed the impact well and turned towards her with their weapons leveled.

"Aww damn.." Kristin gasped as they opened fire, explosions of light flaring off her shielding as it absorbed the first shot then buckled under the second and third, the energy of the bolts reduced just enough to keep her standing as they blasted into her chest and stomach.

Hurting and winded she was forced back a step, trying to recover and strengthen her defenses in time to absorb the second wave of shots!

[Vahnyu]

For a long, looong time, Net Fly wandered the corridors of the ship. He would be constantly commenting at the marvels he witnessed in the ship's interior, now that he had the time to do so, if not for the fact that he was too busy picking his jaw from the floor all the time. Yes, certainly, this is basically an optical projection of some sort, possibly employing hard light and an advanced AI to dynamically alter the content it creates in direct relation to the user, but still, the level of detail is simply stunning! And most of this stuff is created based on actual, honest-to-goodness alien technology, with just the faintest touches of poetic(or is that, technological?) licence here and there. Words can't even BEGIN to describe how everything about the Doom Room is aeons ahead of my Vibro-Suit.

However, after the wonderment started to recede, the gravity of the situation, however virtual it may be, still came down like tons of brick and hit him. Which amounts to nothing for my situation, really. This thing here may be beyond even my skills to sabotage, and opting for the direct approach would definitely be a pointless suicide. Gotta figure a way to deal with the situation, and figure it fast, before the droids decide to upgrade me against my will and better judgement. I mean, what's up with that? Sure, altering one's body is a radical idea, but it's not inherently bad, at least, not in itself, but what these droids are talking about basically amounts to mass scale violation of individual sentient rights... And good luck convincing them that individualism isn't a bad thing, especially without making them enforce individualism in a fanatical way, and then there's the...

Clutching his temples and massaging them with his right hand, Net Fly stopped that train of thought on it's tracks. Ok, Overthinking much? Remember math, Serge. See the whole problem, once, get a good general idea of what you need to do, ignore it, and start solving the problem, one part at a time. If anything arises afterwards, it will be dealt then. Now, let's see if I can find any good place to hack into the ship's systems and disable its defences, preferably, a spot seldomly, if ever, noticed.

[Ari]

GM

Glow:

With a hissing thud, the kinetic blasts from the strange rifles fired a second salvo at the slightly numbed heroine, one of the blasts missing by a mile and warranting its owner a smack upside the head. As it had knocked her temporarily senseless, the three agents took this golden opportunity to grab her by her arms and toss her unceremoniously into the closer of the two cells, the third putting a pair of power-'cuffs on her forearms behind her back. They were hardly gentle, nicking her left leg on a broken fragment of artillery robot as they dragged her into the containment cell.

With a clank the door shut smoothly, and the agents dashed to a door marked 'ARMORY', which opened before and closed after them noiselessly.

The other student, a stocky girl with close-set features, hurried to Glow's side, carefully turning her over, the soldiers of OVERTHROW having tossed her to the floor face-down. "Are you gonna be alright?" she asked nervously.

Arcturus:

"Thank you so much, young man" whispered Waker, eyes craning up at the ceiling, tensed in case the imperious voice called again "I can scarcely keep the wretch from trying to wander the monster-infested woods as it is. That they're mine and they might not eat him is a chance I don't want to take" he stepped slowly over to one of the bursting shelves full of books that lined the room, which had those and a podium, three chairs arranged at a small table set for tea, and a heavy carpet by way of decoration and furnishing. Turning a few leaves Waker passed his finger down a row of numbers, stopping suddenly with a worried look.

He stepped back quickly to Arcturus "I apologize for my quick words young man, I shall not broach the subject again: it leads to mutual distress. How may I assist you? I cannot let the boy go, before you ask"

Net Fly:

Serge found the inlet he was hoping for: a small network connected through the ship's navigation computers that allowed unrestricted access to every other system, subroutine and exe.-equivalent on the vessel. So long as he timed his attempts right, he could easily slip things into not only every single ship-board but also crew-board computer he wished!

It was almost too easy...

[Scuffles]

Kristin couldn't do much but take the impact and grunt in pain as she was tossed face-first into the cell with her arms cuffed tightly behind her back. The landing most definitely didn't do anything to help ease the discomfort of her battered chest and abs, and she was still grimacing and gritting her teeth as the other captive rolled her over.

"Well that went well!" she hissed as she struggled into a sitting position. "Those guys really play for keeps don't they? Whichever one of them kidney-punched me when they were chucking me in here is going to find his head rammed through the ceiling ten seconds after I get out of here. And yeah, I'm fine, help me up will you?"

Now I'm mad and out for revenge on a hologram. Go me. Still, the simulation is good enough that it will probably be satisfying.. just got to get out of here to do it!

Once she was back on her feet Kristin flexed her arms a little to see if there was any play in the cuffs, then experimentally reached out with her telekinesis, frowning in frustration as she discovered that she wasn't able to focus her powers well enough to even push against the cell door a little. "Okay, so who are you and how long have you been in this little cell?" she asked the other girl. "And what can you tell me about this place? I was kinda dropped in the deep end without much in the way of a briefing here."

[GranspearZX]

Inwardly, Arcturus was incredibly frustrated. He wasn't certain whether the frustration was his or the Beast rune's though; the entire situation was so confusing that he really felt like punching something. Clearly the prince wasn't a traditional hostage... so what was he then? And why did it seem more like Waker was the captive than the prince? None of it made any sense.

Archer was trying to get him to think critically. All it was doing was giving him a migraine.

Arc was still quite comfortable in his bear form; there was no reason to change back, and he didn't feel the overwhelming, debilitating rage that he had during the last exercise. "...okay," Arc finally replied, keeping his voice low. "What exactly is going on? And why exactly can't the prince leave here?"

He paused, trying to consider how to phrase his questions properly. Even though the Beast rune was nagging at him to just snatch the prince and haul tail out of the tower, there had to be more to the story than what he'd heard and seen so far.

[Ari]

GM

Glow:

"I'm Lucy" the other student said promptly, wincing at the cut on Kristin's leg "I've been here for about a week now, I was captured along with Frank in the other cell" she nodded at the wall "when we stumbled upon this lair hidden under an old church. It seems pretty small, but I only saw about ten rooms before we were both captured" she picked up the spork(her hands noticeably lacked power cuffs) and sketched a rude map on the polished floor. "There are three 'main' rooms, a barracks and armory over here" she carved a vaguely rectangular shape "joined by two passageways at the north and east sides to this hall, the surveillance room, and room filled with communication stuff, I think there's a teleporter too. The others are stuff like closets and a few robot holding rooms" she pulled a face at the mention of the synthetics "I hate those things"

Lucy looked closely at Glow "Do you have any idea of how to get out of here? I don't think they'll be back for a few hours or so, we've got some time!"

Arcturus:

Waker looked puzzled, evidently still under the impression Arcturus had come looking for person upstairs through the island he called home. That they had found his home by seemingly total accident was an utter mystery. Shrugging his mighty shoulders he began at once "I am one of a king's twelve children appointed with a portion of his power. My immediate elder was granted the Kingdoms of Red Damask, I was granted his mystical artifacts and this small island filled with terrible beasts. A few months back I offered to instruct my brother's nephew on his wife's side(they have no children of their own yet) in the use of magic. This I have done, but I did not state what I wished in return until the messenger came to retrieve him: one of his Demon artifacts" he noted the look crossing Marcus' face and quickly clarified "I do not mean fiends, but the people who live in Demongard, a continent to the north of my brother's domains, they horns, curled beards, and have been good friends to our people ever since we helped them best the Warlocks several decades ago. Anyway my brother refused, and things have gone on from there"

He sighed, and real regret came into his eyes "I placed a spell on the boy so he cannot call upon the forces I have taught him to use to speak beyond this tower, and now I'm trying to figure out a way to intimidate my brother into letting me have what is rightfully mine, both the artifact and a throne on the Chamber of Kings"

[Scuffles]

"How come you're not in cuffs like me?" Kristin asked her cellmate as she flexed her arms a little, then started to stretch her hips and legs with a series of movements familiar to her from her gymnastics classes. "Mmph alright, I'm going to try something here. If I get myself stuck I'm going to need you to help me out in a minute!"

Limber and flexible, she leaned forwards and tucked her handcuffed arms behind her knees, then slowly rocked backwards onto her butt. As she pulled her knees in tight to her chest she stretched her arms further and scooped scooped them under her feet. "Hey that worked pretty good, never done that one before!" she chuckled as she stood back up with her hands now handcuffed in front of her.

The captured telekinetic leaned down to inspect the cut on her leg with a frown, then straightened. "Alright, I'm sick of this cell already," she decided as she looked around. "Let's see what we can do about getting out of here hey?"

[GranspearZX]

"You can intimidate without resorting to murdering people," Arcturus quipped. He remained standing--mostly because he was afraid that the chairs would give out under him. He quietly processed what was going on, trying to figure out how to help Waker out and get the prince freed without causing anyone any actual, physical harm. In the back of his mind, he cursed Archer for making him do this; in the future, he'd probably thank him for forcing him to think with his brain rather than his fists, but right now, he was just mentally exhausted. Still, he had a job to do, and he was going to see it through, one way or another.

"You must've taught him some serious stuff. No wonder you're trying to keep him happy. If he decides to break out, you've got a serious problem." He nodded, scratching at his chin in thought. An idea popped into his head, and he wasn't exactly sure how he felt about it when it drifted into the forefront of his thoughts. It wasn't exactly the most moral thing in the world, either. He wasn't the most stealthy being in the world--not in his bear form--and if he could somehow take the artifact himself, that would solve at least half of his problem. "Let's start with the artifact... why do you even want this particular one?"