Lord of the Manor (IC)

[Dr Archeville]

'Shadow and darkness'? Now there's a loaded phrase.

Archeville nodded to Edge, "I should be able to, yes; teleporting something that large and that complex would require a lot of power. But I'm more concerned about what we may find on the other end. Is 'my father was shadow and darkness' referring to some darkened lab, an artificial womb in which he was grown? A SHADOW lab, even? Or something more," he fought to control a disdainful sneer, "mystical? Phantom has mentioned shadow and darkness 'mages,' though she said they tend to work subtly. Someone like that wouldn't create a great fire-breathing monster... unless it was to serve as a distraction from its real goal."

The Doktor made more adjustments to his Screwdriver while bouncing ideas off Edge, looking for a teleport signal he could trace. "I'm also wondering if it appearing here, now, was mere coincidence. If someone went to the trouble of making it think I attacked its family, could they be monitoring the area, even now, and released it when they saw me arrive without an AEGIS or UNISON squad escorting me? While the list of people who hate me enough that they would send a fire-breatihng dragon after me is... considerable, the list of those who could send one after me is, mercifully, much shorter."

[Avenger Assembled]

Edge hmmed at that. From all he'd heard, he could certainly understand why someone would be angry at Dr. Archeville. But no hero would send a fire-breathing dragon to kill somebody, even one who turns out to be not that bad like Fafnir. "Yeah, that makes sense. I guess I never really put a lot of thought into the mechanics of making monsters to try and hunt down your enemies. All right, well, whoever it is that's behind this, we'd better get there sooner rather than later. Every minute we're here is another minute they could be destroying evidence...or breeding more dragons! I doubt Fafnir would have stopped with just us, and he was focused as it was..."

Just then, the Screwdriver beeped as it finally homed it on the teleport signal that had brought Fafir there and displaced the rock in the process: it was a powerful beam, but it hadn't traveled far: the origin point had been about twenty miles away, in a site Doc recognized that was supposed to be underneath the old municipal waste treatment plant of the nearby Dunkelstadt, a deserted place where no one would have gone if they could help it.

[Dr Archeville]

You, not putting a lot of thought into something? Well, there's a shock!

Hey, now, no need for that. Just because he's not a genius doesn't mean he's not a valued and cherished member of the heroic community.

Yes, yes, he's far from the smartest, but he is likely the most earnest and honest hero since the Centurion.

"Ah-ha!," he exclaimed, happy to find some solid lead. "About thirty kilometres north-northeast... under Dunkelstadt! Well, well, I've not heard that name in some time -- place had a bad reputation even before the Nazis used it for target practice and made it a ghost town. Perfect place to hide a secret laboratory."

He looked to Edge, to Fafnir and Nina, then back to Edge, "not sure my Belt can handle teleporting all four of us, and I certainly don't want to leave him behind. Do we fly in, or do you think you can teleport us?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I can take all four of us," replied Edge after a moment's consideration. He didn't worry about going in blind, but he did give it a moment's consideration. If Fafnir was teleported in from there, surely he can fit in there, especially if we're going right onto the transport pad. Nina was amenable to being transported as well, and took Edge's hand as he spoke to the dragon. "" The so-melodramatic words were enough to sway the dragon, and Fafnir crowded close as in a shimmer of mystic energy they were all elsewhere.

The world had seemed to fall apart at Edge's command, or perhaps he and his passengers had, and it took a few moments for them to reacquaint themselves with their bodies as they took stock of where they were. They were in a silver-walled room that was clearly the product of advanced super-science, coils on the walls instantly recognizable to Dr. Archeville as souped-up versions of Freedom League-style teleporter technology. Indeed, their illumination in the room, cast in an electric blue light, came from the still-active coils themselves. This was no dragon's lair, at least, no ordinary dragon. "" said the dragon, sniffing the air suspiciously, "" Massive silver doors along the other side of the room, easily large enough for a dragon to pass through, caught Mark's attention, though he was a little busy recovering from the overly large transport to take advantage of them at first.

[Dr Archeville]

Whoa, that felt unlike any other form of teleportation I've experienced. Interesting implications... but, one mystery at a time!

"" the Doktor began as he ran his screwdriver around the area, looking for both life signs and familiar tech, ""

These teleporters look similar to the League's, but Daedalus and his son have incorporated so many technologies into those over the decades, including extraterrestrial tech, that Freedom League teleporters look like a lot of different kinds of teleporters. A control panel would best tell me what I want, but I believe that is in another chamber.

And that is a big door, but I'd prefer to get more readings before going through. Luckily -- heh -- it seems the trip took more out of Edge than I'd expected, so I don't need to worry about him barging on through.

[Avenger Assembled]

"" said the dragon peevishly, his breath smoking flame as he peered suspiciously at the metal walls. "" Scanning more closely, Dr. Archeville was able to make some speculations as what had happened to that world when he found the holographic projection units lodged in the walls.

"" said Mark, distracting the dragon smoothly before he could get angry again, perhaps by blaming the others for the mysterious loss of his world, ""

"" said Nina, reaching down to squeeze Mark's hand for a moment. "

"

[Dr Archeville]

More advanced than what Hitler had... so this probably isn't some secret facility my grandfather set up, and taken over by someone else. Probably. So who?

"" the Doktor said, shaking his head, "" he said as he placed a hand on the door.

"" he paused, ""

He opened the door.

[Avenger Assembled]

Once outside the arrival chamber, followed shortly thereafter by Edge, Archeville found himself in a darkened metal hallway where a faint odor of decay had long since settled in. Lit only by glowing red emergency lights, some of them now faded by time, these corridors looked to have been abandoned for quite some time. "Well, this is unpleasant..." Edge glanced back into the arrival chamber, where Nina was once again distracting the dragon with animated conversation about the filthy beasts who must have laid hands on such a reptilian prince as himself here. "I think we're better off keeping Fafnir from exploring too closely here," Edge suggested to Dok in a low whisper. "If there's something here that might trigger the wrong kind of memory, or some kind of fail-safe..."

[Dr Archeville]

"I'm slightly more concerned about what seeds your girlfriend might be sowing in his mind," he whispered back to Edge, throwing a quick glance back at the dragon and princes behind him, "but only slightly more. ," he said a bit louder, ""

He continued to forge ahead, scanning all the way, trying to suss out who may have built this, how long ago it had been since anyone regularly used it, and what the dragon's deal was. The Science Squad? They'd have the resources and intent, but biological engineering of a dragon seems outside their wheelhouse. They could 'buy' a dragon, exchange favors to some other party... or it could be something they found, somewhere, somehow, and brainwashed into coming after me. Except, no, mental molding like that isn't in their bag, either. Doc Otaku? Dr. Sin? They could, and would, but Otaku'd make an android, and that thing reads as living -- so maybe he's gotten really good at biometric projection? -- and in either case they'd likely prefer an Eastern-style dragon, and Fafnir there's decidedly European. Unless they're trying to throw me off...

[Avenger Assembled]

While Doctor Archeville analyzed the science, it was actually Edge who found the lab, luckily once both of them had moved beyond the sight of Nina and Fafnir. As the old metal doors slid open, Edge snapped on a flashlight to reveal a rusted super-science facility like something out of his father's generation. Rusted old robots stood like acolytes around a circular platform that held brown, dry grass and something more bizarre, the decaying remnants of _something_, brown fragments piled high in the middle of the dead grass, the scent of decaying flesh strong among the remains. Wrinkling his nose, ignorant of what the computers and beakers all around represented, Edge bent his head and sniffed, shaking his head in disgust. "Gross....is this what a dragon nest looks like?"

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville let out a long, low whistle, and took a quick spin around the room. "" He glanced back to Mark, Nina, and the dragon, ""

He spread his arms wide, "" The Doktor trailed off a moment as part of his mind worked on how one might build such a system, until he snapped himself out of it, and approached the pile in the center of the room. ""

[Avenger Assembled]

"," said the dragon with a look of almost a plea at the humans. "" It snuffled at the broken, aged nest for a while, then said, ""

"Makes sense to me," commented Nina with a shrug. "If I found out I was some sort of clone, I'd drown the place and anyone fool enough to linger there."

"I can understand that," said Edge carefully with a glance at Doctor Archeville. "But we'd like to study the place more beforehand. If there's more than one dragon-cloning lab, we may be able to find it, and keep any further horrors like this from happening to any other members of your species..."

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville nodded, a bit more enthusiastically than he intended, owing to the excitement at investigating this mystery. "" he gestured towards the banks of computers, "

Do dragons have a strong parental instinct? Heck if I know, but given how poorly he's reacted to the loss of his siblings, it's a good bet he would.

He began probing the computers with his Screwdriver in one hand, and gestured to Edge with the other, ""

Or your 'luck powers' will help me find a working system in all this ruin. Much as I'd like to take my time, a shortcut is a shortcut.