Sanctuary: Panacea

[Electra]

"If Penny can neutralize Panacea's effects, we need to get her up near the pod," Fleur whispered back, pausing in her attempts to move around the room. "We won't know what we're dealing with until we see it. But it's definitely the source of contamination." She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes for a moment, her hood slipping back to reveal hair that was rapidly turning as blonde and brittle as straw. "I don't think I can get any closer. I'll keep Scraps with me and the rest of you go on." It was a difficult call to make, but she wasn't going to risk slowing them down at this point, not when they were so close!

[Fox]

Gaian Knight gave Fleur de Joie's hair a long look before turning his attention back to the group, his expression largely hidden behind his googles and red face cloth. "Right. Fleur, if you start feeling too bad, you let me know and I'll dig us out of here. Scraps, if something bad happens to her or Penny, you let us know - can you do that for me? I think I've got a leak to stop, at least until things are a little calmer and we can get Penny over there."

He slipped well away from Fleur and the others before stepping away from the wall, striding up behind the crowd with a confidence he didn't entirely feel. Both arms came up and both hands made softly glowing fists; the rocks that had been following him around since the entrance swept forward, spinning and surging and seemingly multiplying until both pods were coated in a solid seal of stone. "Hey there. I'm not really an agent of any god or anything, but I'd sure appreciate it if you all stood down so we could settle this peacefully."

[KnightDisciple]

GM"What...?" he mumbled, his feet still unconsciously shuffling, edging him back to the rest of the Grue at the far side of the facility.

"Who are?... why?...how dare you...?" he mumbled, not even convincing himself in the face of Gabriel. He seemed to shocked to think or reply.

Gabriel kept pace with the shuffling pack of Grue, righteous fury on his face. He continued his sermon as he slowly paced forward, his spear keeping time by tapping against the floor.

"I am Gabriel. I am a shepherd, a watchdog against the ravening wolves. You are the wolves. How dare I? How dare you!"

He stops and points an accusing finger at the cluster of Grue, even as subtle waves of sound begin to emit from his body and creep forward, soon engulfing the subconscious minds of the motley group, driving them into a pit of despair.

"You, who came here to steal, kill, and destroy! You who seek to unleash even more destruction! You who pervert the holy words and rites of the Lord! You dare ask why I do this? You should be on your wretched knees, begging for forgiveness for your mountain of sins! Vile curs! Vipers! Thy words sound holy, but their intent is vile! Thou art like whitewashed tombs! I rebuke thee! I adjure you, treacherous serpents! I adjure you! Tremble! Wail! Gnash thy teeth! Thou face not my wrath, but the WRATH OF THE LORD OF HOSTS!"

At that, the sound waves he'd been sending out surged, and a sudden sense of all-consuming, soul-crushing despair gripped the Grue. The full weight of what they and theirs had done to this Earth, and countless worlds, slammed down on their minds all at once, a terrible sense of guilt of their far-reaching crimes.

[Supercape]

GM

The Grue were affected by Gabriels words, and his psychic force, but their strange alien minds, cracked and warped by decades of separation from the entity, as well as whatever the twin's had done to their genetic code, were elusive, mecurial, and mad. Some cringed, some laughed, some howled, and one even got onto his haunches and hollered like a baboon.

"The time for words has passed, silver tounged devil!" cried the 'real' Captain.

"Do your worst! in cannot match the agonies we have already endured! hahahaha!" he laughed, his voice cracked and whiny, a deranged defiant wail at the universe.

[Electra]

Gaian Knight's wall of stone had an immediate effect on the quality of the air in the chamber. With the source of contamination temporarily sealed off, Fleur mustered her forces to contribute to the effort. She wasn't exactly in fighting form, but that didn't make her powerless! Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out a big handful of seeds, all kinds of seeds, and tossed them into the center of the room. In moments they were growing, not the explosive growth that she could usually manage, but steadily enough, and green with health. The carpet of plants began to spread, leaves and lichen, across the floor and up the walls, almost as though they were going to cocoon the chamber.

[Supercape]

GM

As the vines and lichen crawled up the walls and ceiling of the facility, they waxed and waned in vitality. No sooner had they wilted and browned from the potent Prions in the air, than a new burst of greenery shot over the decaying remains of the old.

"Get back, get back!" shouted the android "Captain" at Scraps and Polly, as he pulled up his rifle and took aim. He fired off a few shots, the powerful green pulse of energy melting and sparking as it hit the instruments and walls of the facility, burning some of Fleurs plant's as it did so.

"Damn sights must be off" he swore, giving the heavily modified rifle a powerful slap with his hand.

[Fox]

"We did try to do this the nice way," Gaian Knight sighed. He held his hands up placatingly...but the gesture wasn't quite as innocent as it seemed. The scattered earth and stone from his pod-encasing structures stretched out, the extra material spreading across the ground and flowing upward in an attempt to grasp the Captain - the non-android one - in a cocoon of flowing rock. "One of these days, I'd really like to meet a crazy alien cult that just wants to sit down, have some coffee, and talk about things reasonably."

[Supercape]

GM

The flowing rock seeped up the real Captains leg, but the Grue was fast. Abnormally fast. As soon as he felt the encroaching rock, he wrenched himself skyward, in a powerful leap, and came down on a knee and hand, lithe like a panther.

He turned his head upwards and gave a confident grin at Giain Knight.

"Clever...an unusuall talent...but let's see how you fare against a psionic blast!!!!"

With that, an exploding mass of pain and confusion hit Giain Knight's head.

"And as for you..." continued the Captain, turning to his android copy "I regret the day I downloaded myself into you, like the snivelling coward I must have been!"

"Deactivate System, Password *" he shouted. And with that the Andriod captain froze, a solitary spark flying from the back of his neck. And slowly, inanimate, he fell to the floor like a tombstone.

* Grue speech!

[Supercape]

GM

The strange, tall, and warped Grue mutants, starting shuffling back, regaining their composure. First a few steps, then a flurry, and then with snarls, they swarmed, encircling Gabriel.

"You are not welcome here, defieler!" hissed a braver one, before they pounced on the hero. As they did, their finger nails grew, like steel and bone, and sharp as any knife.

"We will not fail the holy twins! you shall fall!"

Gabriels words had shaken the wind from them, despite their retorts. They struck with caution and trepidation, and were unable to garner their ferocity, just jabbing ineffectively at their target...

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel narrowed his eyes as the wretched Grue swarmed him and tried to strike. They were still shaken by his earlier condemnation, though, and none were able to touch him. He moved like water around their strikes, his eyes evaluating the situation. He grimaced as the android Captain was shut down.

"Enough."

He floated to the ceiling, disdaining the ground and the rabble beneath him. His voice rang clear in the room.

"Fleur, Knight, if you would be so kind as to take care of the rabble, I will cut the head off the snake."

He pointed his spear toward the fleshy Captain, and a lance of sonic energy flew into the alien's body, enormous energy slamming into his enemy all at once.

[Supercape]

GM

The Grue was slammed to the floor, sprawled out, by the energy. His hands and knees buckled under him, and he lay flat on the ground, his ears ringing and his wind gone.

Nevertheless, he croaked his defiance.

"Strange...I am...overcome....by....a....human...." he wheezed, bemused by his predicament.

"But...my determination...is...as....great....as yours..." he spluttered as he fought for breath, and against the odds started to rise.

[Electra]

"Give me a moment," Fleur told Gabriel, sounding a little distracted as she forced the plants to grow despite the invisible miasma surrounding them. "I need to clear the air in here a little." As she spoke, the plants began to work in unison, fanning wide leaves to circulate air, while others transpirated carbon dioxide and oxygen at many times the natural rate. The overall effect was one of a gentle breeze of fresh air, scented delicately of flowers, that wafted through the entire chamber. As it swept past her, Fleur began to look better, her hair a bit greener, her face a bit less so.

[Fox]

Gaian Knight couldn't argue with results - if Gabriel was going to keep that up against the captain, the very least he could do would be to 'take care of the rabble'. "Right," he called back, and the elemental hero swept his arms out to the side.

The stone that had attempted - and failed - to get a hold of the enemy captain shattered apart into a hundred blunt shards that hung in the air for a moment before being unleashed in a directed stream that swept across some of the gathered Grue like the oversized fire from some unseen earthen machine gun.

[Supercape]

GM

The mutant Grue fell to their feet as the Earthen assault struck them. One did not get up again.

Their leader, the 'Captain' of the downed Grue Vessel gathered his will to slowly rise and gain his breath once more, moving to his hands and knees. The observant would note that his flesh was a bright red, knitting itself back to health with alarming speed.

"Fools..." he gasped. "I was a genius with biological engineering. After the breakthrough with Panacea and Pandora, it was a simple matter to use their particular strengths to...alter myself, even as I was dying. I should never had downloaded myself into the android....I was weaker, then...."

As he spoke his odd Grue underlings continued their assault on Gabriel, leaping up with surprising strength to slash and gash at his legs with their razor sharp nails....

[KnightDisciple]

"No."

Gabriel's voice sounded disdainful. But what it really was, was angry. A cold fury burned in his eyes as he faced down the madman who would condemn this world to die all over again. He was sick of listening to their blasphemy, sick of them attacking him, and most of all sick of this "captain" trying to destroy and kill everyone on this planet.

"You're weak now. You're weak, pathetic, and you're going down."

A quick barrage of sound wave slammed into the flesh-captain again, though Gabriel was going about his attacks more cautiously this time.

[Supercape]

GM

"You're weak now. You're weak, pathetic, and you're going down."

The sound of Gabriel slammed into the captain, kicking up dust and rags. The Grue scientist seemed to be made of horribly stern stuff. His flesh bubbled and bruised, black and purple, but he seemed almost oblivious to the punishment his body was taking.

"I was a genius amongst the Grue centuries ago, and I have had decades to perfect my art. To use the changes that Pandora inflicted on sinew and bone...weakness is a thing of the past!" he laughed in the face of the onslaught. And his mania was apparently not entirely delusional, for as warped as his mind was - and warped it was - his body did not so much have the endurance of an bull, but a whole herd of them.

[Electra]

Clearing the air didn't keep Fleur from feeling unwell, but at least now she could get a breath that didn't feel laden with sickness and death. The plants were doing better too, crisp around the edges but otherwise healthy and strong, strong enough to work with. Despite Gabe's instruction to go for the minions, it seemed like the Grue captain needed some immediate attention. Extending a hand, she directed the largest and thickest of her vines in his direction. Sliding across the floor like leaved snakes, the rapidly moving vegetation lost no time in sliding over the distracted Grue, till in moments he was wrapped like a topiary mummy.

[Fox]

"One of these days you've got to teach me how you do that," Gaian Knight said, giving an eye to Fleur's vines as they found far more success grabbing onto the grue captain than his own stone had.

His appreciation of his friend's handiwork didn't give the cultists any respite, though. Even as he complimented Fleur de Joie's plant-manipulating prowess he swept his glowing hands back, the same storm of blunt shards that had previously eaten into their ranks spinning back around like some vengeful snake to make another pass.

[Supercape]

GM

The power of Giain Knight was not to be underestimated. Like rag dolls, three of the Grue Mutants spun and broke under the fists of stone, but their alien, mutated flesh seemed inhumanly strong. They howled like frenzied dogs, gibbering and screaming, and once again leapt at Gabriel with talons raking.

"Defiler!"

"Unclean!"

"Impure!"

The Captain of the Grue strained ineffectually against the vines of Fleur. He was clearly strong, but not strong enough to gain more than a little wiggle room.

"You think the Grue are strong in body only?" he asked Fleur, fixing her with a steely alien gaze. "I was one of the premier minds in the unity! my power is not merely sinew and bone! my strength is my mind!" he explained, as a blinding burst of pain hit Fleur square between the eyes.

"And now, as you have kindly brought my simulacrum to me....ACTIVATE EXTERMINATION PROTOCOL!" he yelled at the android captain.

A light flickered behind the perfect android copry's eyes. Without moving his lip, a steely prerecorded message played from his mouth.

"Voice recognition positive. Activating Extermination Protocol. Eliminate and decontaminate all non-Grue...."

It was followed by the 'Captain's' real voice.

"Help! Stop me! I can't control myself!" he implored.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel bit down a wince as the pack of mad dogs jumped and sliced, several of them almost getting through his armor's plating.

One of them did; the claws stung, but the worst of it was averted. But the sickening substance that stained the claws seeped into his body, making his teeth grit as his insides suddenly clenched up.

'Not exactly how I planned to spend my day this morning.' he thought ruefully to himself.

He didn't speak as he adjusted his aim a bit and fired another sonic barrage at the organic Captain, striking him in the head and torso with the bolts of solid sound. He smirked a bit, impressed he'd aimed so well despite the adverse conditions.

[Electra]

Fleur reeled backwards from the sudden headache the Grue's attack brought on, blinding in its intensity for the first moments, then fading to only nearly-unbearable as she did her best to focus around it. The real Grue captain was still tied up, for all the good that had done, and it gave her some measure of satisfaction to watch his comeuppance at the hands of her friends. She tried the same trick on the android Captain, but the vines she had to work with right now were thinner and weaker, her own concentration shattered. The vines surged forward, but wrapped around empty air as the android captain stood.

It was time to think about tactical retreat. "Scraps, Penny, come on now," she told the children, keeping her voice as calm as she could as she turned to herd them towards the exit. "Let's get towards the surface now. Everything will be much easier once we get there. Hurry now."

[Supercape]

GM

"Quick get them out" yelled the android Captain.

"I can't control myself! zzrrk zrrrk I am on automated programming that zzzrk zzrk exterminate all alien life forms zzrk zzrk you must destroy me!!!"

"Nooo!" yelled Penny, tears running down her face at the thought of her 'father' being destroyed. Yet, even as she yelled defiance, the android wheeled his rifle around to her.

"zzzrk zzzrk....target invalid....Grue....zzzrk zzzzrk....."

Penny stood deathly still as the realisation set in.

The Rifle twitched a few degrees, to point at Scraps.

"Noooo! Get out of the waaaay!" yelled the android Captain, even as he pressed the trigger, and a beam of bright energy slammed flat into Scraps' chest, sending him flying out of the main chamber, smoke and ozone streaming from his chest....

[Fox]

Gaian Knight's focus was still on the lesser grue when the android captain attacked; the assault on their young friend was enough of a distraction to spare his targets the full force of his earthen storm as his attention shifted from them, to Scraps, and over to the captains.

"No."

It wasn't a cry of horror or a question so much as a statement of something that simply wasn't going to happen. His stream of stone veered off, circling around behind him to stretch and multiply and flow until Fleur and her charges had disappeared behind a solid, floor-to-ceiling wall of stone. There was precisely one opening in the unadorned rock: it faced a blank wall, and was right behind Gaian Knight himself. "If you want to shoot someone, you're going to have to pick a target that'll hit back."

[Supercape]

GM

"Believe me, I have no intention of shooting anyone but my maker right now!" yelled back the Captain, as he fired another few shots into the stone.

"However, my subroutines are controlling my motor responses! Destroy me, I beg of you!"

"You dare! Don't you touch him!" yelled Penny, in response, shaken out of her shock.

The Grue commander, still trussed up like a fly in a web, spared a cruel laugh at the fortunes of the intruders.

"Not so clever now, are you?" he asked, as he reached out into Giain Knight's mind, picking at the synapses telepathically.

"I admit, your strength and determination are far more than I could ever have anticipated from the meagre survivors of this worlds. Survivors that I had hoped, one day, to bring into the fold and join worship of my creations. But I will not risk my greatest accomplishment never seeing the light of day...they will complete their mission! hahahahaha!"

It was clear that whilst the Grue captain had survived the crash in some form, mutated by his own work, and had even retained his intellect and skill, his mind was quite warped. Split from the Grue, he had come instead to worship his mission, his life's work, and created a cult around it. And now, rather than face defeat, he would unleash his horror!

"Minions! Release Pandora! Let the world witness the divine glory of death and plague! and then, Panacea will renew the world after! hahahaha!"

Without question, his jibbering and cavorting mutant worshippers scrabbled over to the earthen mound of that Giain Knight had sealed Pandora and Panacea in. With a wail, they set their inhuman strength to ripping apart that very earth and rock, with nails and sinew tougher than any human...

[KnightDisciple]

"I'm sick of you talking."

Gabriel's tone was short, clipped, and full of barely-restrained anger. He pointed a hand at the organic Grue Captain again, and once more bolts of sound slammed down into the immobile enemy. These bolts carried even more force than his last barrage, though they struck with basically the same amount of accuracy. It was clear Gabriel intended to pummel the Captain into unconsciousness. Preferably far enough he wouldn't wake up until next week.

"So be silent already."