Sanctuary: Panacea

[Supercape]

GM

A little later, at Lonely Point...

If anything, Lonely Point was even more blasted and ruinous than the rest of the sorry remains of Freedom City. The buildings, the few that were there, had disintegrated to almost rubble. The sound of the sea could be heard in the background. It was a desolate place.

The sun was setting by this time, casting low shadows and a dusky light over the ruins, giving them an even more melodramatic feel.

The journey and landing were easy enough, and hunting around would not be much more difficult. Despite the age of the place, everything was so loose it could be dislodged quite quickly.

In the setting sun, however, a pair of eyes watched, hidden in the rubble...the figure was smallish, and dirty as much, with glinting eyes, sat on his haunches and surveying the three heroes as they landed...

[Electra]

Despite the chaotic visual field of the rubble, all three riders aboard the stone platform were experienced heroes. Stesha spotted the boy at about the same time as the others did, just as they touched down on the top layer of rubble. Although she had no idea how anyone could be alive in a terrible place like this, where the air reeked of bad water and rot, someone obviously was, and that needed to be addressed first thing. She took a few tentative steps towards him, vines snaking out a few feet ahead of her to stabilize the shifting debris into a solid path. Pushing her hood back, she gave the stranger a nonthreatening smile. "Hello," she called out. "We're not here to hurt you. My name is Fleur, and this is Gabe and GK. Who are you?"

[Supercape]

GM

The eyes blinked once, twice. They glinted in an inhuman way, like balls of polished glass.

And then, the boy stood out, cautiously, moving very slowly and with precision, soundless on the rubble. He remained on his haunches, ready to spring away at any moment.

He was a young man, or an old boy, depending on how you looked at it, maybe fourteen years of age at a guess, and a guess it would be. He was dressed in dusty rags, barefoot, and so caked in dirt one could hardly tell what ethnicity he was. His limbs were long, thin, and spindly, with the look of wiry strength. Overall, the boy looked positively feral.

His eyes, however, where not human. A mutation, perhaps? they were a dull white-grey, and glinted like billiard balls. Bigger than human eyes and monochromatic.

"Who are you? What are you doing out here?" he said, slowly, in a rather odd dialect, as if pronouncing words that he rarely spoke.

"Nobody comes out here...almost nobody..." he corrected himself, scratching the back of his neck, causing flakes of dirt to waft away in the wind.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight had put his goggles back on for the flight over, but quietly pulled them up to his forehead to give the kid a better look. He was fighting an awful urge to clean the poor boy up, but having all the dirt on your body suddenly fall away probably wouldn't be very comforting.... "We live here, sort of - we're from back west," he answered, gesturing off the way they'd come. "Something's happening plants, and we're trying to find out what it is. We weren't expecting to run into anybody out here, though," he added. "You must be pretty tough to be here on your own."

[Supercape]

GM

"West, where the green's are?" asked the boy. Now that he was in full view, he did look slightly odd. There were the eyes for one thing, and the limbs, a little too long, a little too gnarled. And his teeth seemed to be black, or rotten...

"Scraps is very tough" he said, smiling, referring to himself in the third person.

"Scraps lives out here on his own, only with the Captain and his daughter for friends. Scraps knows he is all funny, not like others, but he is tough and smart and quick!" he said, hopping from one piece of rubble to another in an almost feral manner. The boy was quick, too.

"And Scraps can eat anything!" he concluded, pulling out a bit of twisted metal, biting into it, tearing it off with those black teeth, and swallowing it.

"Why are the greens dying?" he asked, cautiously.

"Scraps doesn't eat Greens...." he explained.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel knelt nearby, looking at the boy and giving him a friendly smile. He spoke clearly and with obvious warmth in his voice.

"Nice to meet you, Scraps. And yes, we come from where the green plants grow. Fleur's very good with plants, the very best with plants. But the greens are sick. We're trying to find out what made them sick, and if we can fix it. Have you seen anything funny going on out here lately?"

He paused, considering his next question, before continuing.

"Who's the Captain? He sounds like a nice guy. Do you think we could meet him later?"

[Supercape]

GM

There was no arguing with Garbriel - Scraps immediately calmed, and gave a toothy black smile at the hero, taking a shine to him.

"Anything funny going on around here?" he asked "ain't hardly anything going on around here, so when anything happens, it's always pretty peculiar!" he piped up.

His voice was a bit high pitched, and a bit too fast, full of clicks and clacks, but it was perfectly intelligible.

"Scraps finded some odd creatures now and then, all funny-made, bit like how Scraps is. Scraps thinkses Scraps hearded some big bees, once, big, enormous bees!" he said, full of excitement.

"And then, Scraps has seen some of those funny men every so often. Tall men, skinny looking, no hair, dressed in black. Scraps keeps out of their ways when he sees them. They looking bad..." he frowned.

"Scraps knows the Captain, gets him greens and stuff sometimes, to feed Captain's daughter....Scraps likes them, they are Scraps friends! they dont mind Scraps being funny looking and Scraps...habits..." he looked a bit embarressed at that point.

"Scraps not meant to tell anybody about Captain and daughter....not nobody, says the Captain. Dangerous, he says..." he looked at Gabriel carefully at the moment.

"But Scraps can tell you, Scraps thinks you nice, if you thinks Scraps should tell you..." he added.

"Captain lives by big crashed ship!"

[Electra]

"We don't want to hurt anyone, Scraps," Fleur assured him. "Not you, not the captain or his daughter. If you like living here and you're happy here, we don't want to interfere with that. But my greens are sick, and without our greens, my friends and I can't live here, nor can the bees, or the people who have come to live with us in the west. And if the greens stay sick, I worry that my little daughter could get sick as well. So we very much need to speak to anyone who might know about how the world used to be, or about things that might have changed recently. If you could take us to the Captain, perhaps we could speak to him. And if his daughter needs some greens, I could give some to her," she added winningly.

[Supercape]

GM

"Captain could do with some Greens for his daughter" agreed Scraps, momentarily taking his eyes of Gabriel.

"Scraps 'sposes he could take you there, although its quite far. Scraps can run fast, run quiet, but not as fast as you, the way you came..." he said pointing at Giain Knight.

"Do you knows the crashed ship? Captain lives there, he real clever with fixing stuff, hiding away there, using all that ee-leck-trick-hal stuff, you know? he looks after his daughter there, hidden away, says she real important and nobody should see them. But Scraps thinks she is lonely...."

He looked sad for a moment.

"Anyhowsway, Scraps can show you crashed ship and takes you there, takes you to Captain!"

[Fox]

"I'm afraid I haven't heard of a crashed ship," Gaian Knight admitted; he'd been happy to stand in the background and let the others win the child over, but at the mention of travel he glanced from Scraps to his platform and back again. "I think we'd very much like to see it, though, and the Captain and his daughter. As for speed, well...."

He gave a friendly bow, gesturing to his platform as it rearranged itself - stone flowed apart like clay as loose bits of rock and rubble pulled together to fill in the gaps and re-size their improvised conveyance for an extra person, complete with simple, smooth stone seats. "...there's always room for one more."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel nodded as the boy described encountering what sounded like mutations, vaguely like what the poor child himself had undergone.

'We need to try and get this boy, this Captain fellow, and the daughter over to the monastery. The brothers can check them out, make sure they're all healthy...'

He smiled at the mention of the bees, disguising his discomfort with giant stinging insects, before Scraps said something that made him take notice.

"Scraps, you mentioned some men dressed in black, ones you thought were bad. Tell us more about them? Where was the last place you saw them, and how many did you see?"

[Electra]

Fleur climbed back onto the platform, taking her seat with great unconcern in order to demonstrate that it was all perfectly safe. "I wonder if he means the crashed Grue vessel," she commented. "That's the only one I can think of right off, but Lord knows there must be others in this place. Victory mentioned seeing it when he was overflying the ruins for me. That was nearly two years ago, though, and he didn't mention seeing anyone alive around there." She frowned at the second mention of the men in black, wondering exactly how many creatures might be living on Sanctuary with her all blissfully unawares.

[Supercape]

GM

"Scraps, you mentioned some men dressed in black, ones you thought were bad. Tell us more about them? Where was the last place you saw them, and how many did you see?"

Scraps looked like the kind of young man who would run if there was any trouble, a nervous, jittery movement infused him at all times. But he seemed calmer in Gabriel's presence.

"Scraps saw them round here, mister!" he said, eager to please "only one, maybe two, but they could have been the same guy. They were tall, like I said, skinny, funny looking, funny black eyes. But only a little funny looking, not like Scraps..." he looked down at his feet, not without some shame.

"They were talking in some language Scraps didn't understand, but then, Scraps not know long words anywhichwayhow, the Cap'n taught me how to talk...well, the Cap'n and his daughter...not many people like Scraps...."

"Scraps ain't seen the funny men in a while now, 'prolly years. Scraps was young when he saw them last...."

[KnightDisciple]

"Alright. Maybe the bad men left for someplace else. We can always hope. Let's hop on and go see the Captain; I bet Fleur will get him and his daughter taken care of no problem."

With that, Gabriel floated up onto Gaian Knight's platform, settling down onto it before extending a hand to help the young boy up. Once he was on board, Gabriel turned to face the front. He closed his eyes for a moment, before opening them. Out of the blue, Fleur and GK heard his voice whispering in their ear, while Scraps remained "outside the loop"; Gabriel's mouth didn't move, but if they glanced at him he nodded to acknowledge it was him.

"Right, let's keep our eyes peeled, just in case. Scraps says he hasn't seen these "bad men" for a while, but who knows if they've just gotten better at hiding or what. Hopefully we can leave him with this Captain fellow and get over to those bunkers. We need to get this Prion thing nipped in the bud."

[Fox]

Gaian Knight pulled his goggles back down as he took the group back up into the air - carefully, very carefully, so as not to spook their newest passenger. Having a local guide to show them the way was good; having that guide panic and try to jump would probably be less good. He was erring on the side of staying lower to the ground and not quite top speed.

"At the very least, we can worry about the bad men less," he agreed, splitting his attention between 'driving' and his passengers. I should probably put an anchor stone out here somewhere so that we can come back in a hurry if we have to.... "Maybe the Captain will know more about them, if it comes up. I'm kind of curious to see the ship - it isn't something you run across every day, after all."

[Supercape]

GM

Away they sped, Scraps leaning (somewhat perilously) close to the side of the Rock, eyes agape at both the experience of flight, and also of the speed by which they travelled.

"Wheeeeeeeeeee!" was his comment, full of adolescent wide-eyed excitement, throwing a big grin at Giain Knight.

It was not long before the crash site came into view, guided by Scraps' knowledge of the landscape. The young man was able to pick out landmarks, and clearly had an excellent understanding of the nearby geography.

The crash was a mess, a Grue ship, no doubt, but at least half of it disintegrated and wrecked. Not that the other half looked even remotely functional...it was still bent, deformed, and dead. It was even rusting at points, despite the advanced technology of the race that had built and piloted it. A crater had formed around it, from the impact, and a large scar along the landscape indicated where it had fell and gouged out the earth on its descent.

Scraps pointed it out excitedly...

"There it is! The Captains Ship!" he pronounced.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight hopped off his flying rock as soon as it had touched down, but as he took a step or two toward the wreck of a ship his attention seemed to be on...nothing, his gaze clearly vacant even with his goggles still hiding his eyes.

He cocked his head, senses stretching out through the air beneath his shoes as he tried to get a feel for the area; a couple little rocks floated up off the ground to hang out behind his shoulders, apparently without him noticing. Man, that's...that must have been one heck of a crash. It was a bit like looking at a negative photograph, really: he could feel the earth, and he could feel where the earth wasn't, but figuring out the shape of all that not-earth took a little doing. "....well, there's at least a little space in there that isn't all mud and debris," he finally reported, pulling his attention back up out of the dirt to glance at the others. "It isn't a lot, but it's pretty cleared out - from how much stone that thing must have scooped out of the ground when it fell, I'm amazed it's still in as good of shape as it is."

[Electra]

Fleur stepped carefully off the platform, using vines and runners to shore up a path for everyone towards the ship. "It doesn't look as Victory described, he may have found a different one," she mused aloud. Under ordinary circumstances, she might have interacted with the local plant life to get an idea of whether anyone had come this way recently, or whether anyone lived here, but there were simply no plants anywhere besides what she brought along. The air was acrid in her lungs, bitter with the taste of contaminated sea breeze and lingering pollution. "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone there? We don't want to hurt you, we'd like to help if we can. We just have a few questions!"

[Supercape]

GM

The ship remained silent as the trio of heroes and Scraps approached.

Then, out of the blue, there was flicker of light, like a spark, and then another. A hissing noise, and a vague throb of power that was audible, and for Giain Knight, palpable.

A few lanced of electricity arced through the air, striking near them. Powerful arcs - not enough to seriously threaten the heroes, but enough to indicate the ship was very much alive. How functional it was remained to be seen.

"This is good!" called Scraps excitedly "It always does this when I get near. And then the gas comes!"

And so it did, a powerful ejection of faint green gas, smelling a little like chlorine, blew at fast pace straight into the faces of the foursome, as an alien tounge spoke out of speakerphone on the ship exterior!

In Grue: "Xenobiological detected! Activate Emergency Decontamination!"

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel hopped off the floating rock, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. For all that the Grue had harried Earth Prime, he'd never had a chance to see any of their ships up close and personal. He frowned as the electricity arced, even as he tried to stay alert for possible ambush from behind. No such attack was forthcoming, though. Then Scraps got excited about what the ship was doing, and Gabriel's eyes opened in alarm.

"Ack! Watch out, Grue decontamination gas!"

With that, he brought his left sleeve up to his mouth, breathing shallowly as only a few wisps of gas came into his throat. He nearly choked on it, but managed to keep his body under control until the cloud blew past them.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight was quick to pull his read facecloth back up from where it had been resting around his neck, holding it to his mouth and nose with one hand as the green gas washed over them. The other hand he held out, his fingers enveloped in a soft golden glow as the crater's dirt and stone flowed up like a reverse mudslide to coat the parts of the ship that the gas seemed to be coming from, forming what he at least hoped would be a seamless, sturdy seal. "I really hope that was automatic, and not someone trying to find out whether or not we can breathe poison," he said, voice a bit muffled behind his hand. "I don't suppose anyone speaks...whatever that was?"

[Electra]

Fleur wrinkled her nose at the smell of the gas, but seemed otherwise unaffected by the toxic blast. After checking to make sure her comrades were also doing all right, she turned her attention on the ship itself. There was still no sign of life from within, but it was obviously a viable threat, even after all these years. "I don't have any Grue," she told GK, "but that sounded like some kind of alert or alarm. What else usually happens when you come visit the Captain?" she asked Scraps. "Is there any more gas, or lights, or other things you typically see?" She took a few more tentative steps as the gas cleared.

[Supercape]

GM

Scraps inhaled the gas deeply, and let out a "aaaaaah!" sound in delight.

"Smells so good! Scraps always likes coming here! Oh? why you not smelling green smoke? Smells super nice!" he asked, with genuine bemusement.

He turned back to Fleur.

"Smelly only comes out once. Captain says it is to wipe out nasty invisible bugs. Scraps always likes the smell" he grinned.

"Come inside, come inside!" he beckoned to what appeared to be a hatch.

"HALT! WHO GOES THERE!" came the barking sound from an external speaker outside the hatch.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel waited until the "decontamination" cloud was gone before lowering his sleeve and risking speech.

"The smell's too strong, Scraps. It's meant to keep stuff like what's killing the greens out, but it's so strong it might hurt Gaian Knight or myself. We're fine, though; looks like the spray shouldn't be a problem any more."

When the voice demanded their identity, he stepped forward, his hands held out to his sides, giving an impression of someone who wouldn't harm a fly. When he spoke, his words were confident, but very friendly.

"Hello. My name's Gabriel. These are my friends, Gaian Knight and Fleur de Joie. We met this charming young man, and we understand there's a Captain here. We'd like to talk to him, and if he needs it, offer our help. We'd like to be friends. We mean no harm."

His voice was almost enchanting, his tone, posture, and inflection all speaking of someone friendly and trustworthy. Something about how he carried himself made just about anyone want to trust him.

[Supercape]

GM

"Charming?" came the voice on the fuzzy speaker, caught be surprise.

"Scraps?.... Charming?"

The voice warmed into what sounded like a soft chuckle.

"I suppose he has his moments. I'm the Captain. You can come in, as long as you come in peace...." came the voice.

With that, an external hatch opened with a soft hiss and slight tinkle of loose machinery. It was evident that whilst the crashed ship still had some systems running, it was not in the best of repair. The signs of jury rigged and make shift repairs were everywhere.

When the hatch opened, the heroes could see a tall man, dressed in dusty and ragged Grue robes, but with a totally human form. He was about fifty, with a thick lock of silver grey hair and penetrating steel blue eyes. He was quite handsome, like he had stepped out of an old sci-fi black and white film.

"I'm the Captain" he said, a pleasant smile on his lips.

He waved at Scraps, who gave a playful salute, before turning his attention back to the three heroes.

"I don't believe I know you three, although I have a sneaking suspicion who you might be..." he said, pointing at Fleur.

"Care to tell me who you are and what you are doing before coming aboard?"