ic Test Site I (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

"Ohhhh, you have to watch out for those heroes, they're a tricky, tricky bunch," agreed Stratos. "You hire them to fly a plane for you and suddenly they get these DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR..." He waved his hands for emphasis, then coughed. "...ahem. What was I saying? Anyway, I can help you get inside, sure. The defenses outside still know me, but they probably don't know YOU if you're a goody two-shoes." He frowned, peering at her. "Where are you from, anyway? I thought I memorized the faces of all you teen hotshots but I don't know you. I even got home addresses sometimes!" he added with a chuckle. "Anyway, I don't like it down here, it's too dark. You never know when _they_ might be listening." He looked around at the darkness suspiciously before adding, "Yes, let's go upstairs and we'll get into Freedom Hall. I can keep the defenses busy by blasting them, and you can sneak in and look around and see what happened. I think I know what it was, though," he winked.

-

Steve was more grateful than words could express that Jill wasn't curious about the story he'd nearly told earlier. The story of why this particular version of Freedom City was so familiar, yet so terribly bizarre all at once. "Yes, we have seen the same," he said over the commlink. There are scenes of battle. The usual remnants of...of carnage, but the scavengers have not come." He looked up at the grey sky overhead and said, "There were birds earlier. Not many, but they were there. If we can find their nests, we can see from whence they came, and perhaps find food." He and Jill had done pretty well for themselves as scavengers of their own, and were already on their way back to the rendezvous point. "If we can create a power source, we may be able to start one of these vehicles."

[Gizmo]

It probably didn't register to the naturally laconic ex-Omegadrone, but Jill was being unusually quiet the entire time they were searching, making only a token effort to chime in with sardonic observations or more useful replies to his queries. As they got closer to the rendezvous point she finally admitted without prompting, "Not gonna lie, Steve, I'm kinda having an internal meltdown here." Her voice was level and tinged with forced wryness but her expression was tight and worried. "Fine, we're stranded and somebody's messing with us, whatever, I can deal with that. But if they tok you and me and Erin, the only thing I can think is that they're going after HAX or maybe just Mara and she's going to be on her own and I can't even warn her." The words came out in a rush and it was clear she was vocalizing her fears more for her own benefit than to inform the somber man walking beside her. "Dios, the last time I went missing she ended up building an orbital death ray and nnngh..." Trailing off, she began rubbing her eyes and grimacing.

[Raveled]

"I'm from around here," Blue Jay said, moving to block Stratos's exit. "I'm from the Terminus, and I'll tell you that making a big noise for the sake of a big noise is a very bad ideas. Better to slit your own wrists rather than bring down the wrath of Annhilists and Omegadrones; it'll be quicker and less painless, and you won't end up in Dr. Friendly's tanks." She peered past the wild man, deeper into the tunnels. "If you can find a sewer drain, I can try to get up it. I'm smaller than you, I can crawl through small spaces better. Then, once I'm inside you can tell me how to turn off the defenses." She met Startos's gaze for a moment before flicking away from that madness. "I'm sure you know exactly how to disable Freedom Hall, if you needed to."

[SpicyWaffle]

Content to let Blue Jay do her thing, Baxter simply stayed as best he could out of sight for the time being, clinging to the shadows of the sewers like an out of place ninja as he looked on through the darkness. The last thing he needed to do was spook the insane doctor; if he was a big enough threat for the Freedom League, there was no telling how much more he'd become in his deranged state. Despite his best endeavors to stay calm though, the Bee-Keeper was a nervous wreck; a torrent of amalgamated emotions that yearned for freedom. It didn't help to hear the archer discuss the Terminus; citing her experiences there and further shocking the armored hero, his heart skipping a beat as she mentioned the Omegadrones. How could she be from the Terminus if she was from right here in Freedom City? Did she know something she wasn't telling the young, frightened would-be hero? Regardless, the pierced teenager seemed to know more about what was going on than he did, and her confident stride into the metaphorical maw of one of Freedom City's most dangerous supervillains only further put him on edge - though her success was enough to warrant Baxter keeping his peace as he quietly battled against the brisk chill permeating the underground waterway.

Stratos himself wasn't doing much to help ease his animosity. He knew things, clearly, though his madness was unsettling. The way he mentioned 'they' was even more disconcerting; his tone striking Baxter as though it were some palpable dread made manifest and cloaking his words in mired evil. And this 'secret' of his... who knew what nefarious truth the loony crook had seen? Perhaps it was the driving point that broke his mind. Perhaps it was the key to unlocking what had happened. It didn't matter. The Bee-Keeper just needed to play it cool; tipping their hand too early wouldn't help, and the sooner they got into Freedom Hall, then the sooner they'd be safe from whatever Omegadrone was stalking them like wild game and uncovering what had transpired and why they couldn't remember it.

[Avenger Assembled]

"If you say so," said Stratos equitably. Having someone to talk to seemed to be calming him down, even if the look in his eye was definitely not healthy. "I think I saw a drain back up that way," he went on, pointing down the sewer line in the opposite direction from whence they'd come. "It leads up to their fancy garden of heroes or something, or as I call it the mushroom garden, because of what they have to fertilize it with!" He chuckled and said, "Anyway, sure, I can probably breach the defenses if I hit it with a big enough bolt of lightning from down here. A little tough of any of the old sewer gas, but they don't call me Dr. Stratos because I like to do things small! Aheheheh!" Dimming his lightning, he clapped Blue Jay on the shoulder and said, "Do you have anything to eat? I've been cooking those weird green geese whenever they fly over, but I think they're learning to avoid me. Too bad!"

-

"Mara has one of the most brilliant minds of your world. She and...the others will find us. It is only a matter of time. I am greatly reassured by the fact that we still live," he said seriously. "And face no horrors greater than this first one." He looked around at the city again and added, "Did I ever tell you how I was captured by piscine humanoids during that incident?" Steve was not a subtle guy, but he was trying hard to tell his friend something reassuring. "It was aboard their large submersible. They were very surprised indeed when I broke out of my restraints and began to beat them with my fists. And then I freed those roe into the harbor. That was...like this. Bad, very bad indeed, but it could be much worse." He smiled, but she could tell he was nervous too. Steve's mind was back on Earth too, thinking about Gina. Would she think he had simply left her if he disappeared? It was a grim thought, she knew he loved her, but doubted she could love herself.

When they reunited with the others, Dorothy still carefully wolfing down the food Erin had set aside for her, it was Steve who said, "I think we should try and find the others. If not now then, then after first light." He could fly, and see in the dark perfectly well, but given how they had reacted to the sight of him in the day, Steve was no fool. "We have seen no sign of other survivors, no sign that there _were_ survivors, it..." He pushed himself past the thoughts that invoked and said, "We cannot leave them here. And they may have more answers than we have yet found ourselves."

[Electra]

"Yes," Erin agreed as she put batteries into a large handheld lantern and flipped it on. "It wasn't worth it to track them down earlier when they were spooked and hostile, not when we had other priorities. But once we get a base established, there's strength in numbers. And even if they are hostile, we want to be able to keep an eye on them. We can try for radio contact again tonight, but save a foot search for tomorrow."

She gave the lantern to Dorothy, then began dropping batterings into a strap-mounted headlamp she'd found in a utility truck up the block. "Meantime, before it gets dark, I want a look inside the Brownstone. Jill, you know the layout in there much better than the rest of us. Do you think you can get us in there so we can see if there's enough intact for us to use? Having even the shell of a hero HQ would be a big advantage."

[SpicyWaffle]

It was clear now that Stratos was going to make his move, thanks in no small part to Blue Jay's smooth talking ways. Baxter was getting impatient - he couldn't hide forever, and he certainly wasn't exactly a master of stealth and subterfuge. Following along quietly was simply out of the question; not to mention a reckless proposition, given how jumpy Stratos was about heroes. But, perhaps, he wouldn't recognize the Bee-Keeper as a superhero...

"I'm coming with you," murmured the armored avenger matter-of-factly, mustering his fractured confidence as best he could for what amounted to an almost sinister, yet nonetheless serious tone. Rounding the corner of the sewage line with heavy footfalls, the Bee-Keeper stepped into plain view for both of survivors to see, fists tightly clenched in faux self-assuredness. Doctor Stratos might have been a dangerous super-villain gone bananas, but three people were better than two - and, if nothing else, if Stratos could keep his mental fragility in check for just a bit longer, then at least Baxter and this young archer would have a heavy hitter of their own should the Omegadrone stalking them or the one from the crash site rear their heads again. In the wake of everything that Baxter had seen, he could deal with the insanity... for a little while.

"Bee-Keeper. Maybee you've heard of me," he insisted, trying his best to sound like a capable sort despite all evidence to the contrary before this terrible day. But it was still a name that had weight - a name that, at one time, took the Freedom League all on their own. "Couldn't help but overhear. Lookzz like we all need to get inzzide," he began again, swallowing his fear hard, the feeling of someone watching him already causing his skin to crawl. "You're gonna need all the help you can get for thizz zzhindig, and I'm not taking no for an anzzwer."

[Raveled]

Blue Jay bit her tongue when the Bee-Keeper stepped out of hiding. She had hoped he could shadow Stratos and slip in when she lowered the defenses, but considering how unstealthy he'd been in the city above perhaps the direct approach was probably better. "We ran into each other on the surface," she muttered. "He was facing down one of the heavy Omegadrones. We managed to escape it. Why don't you show me that pipe?"

It was small, barely big enough for the slim archer to fit inside. The surface was caked with, well, things people threw into the sewer, but it wasn't as, well, fragrant as Jay had been expecting. In fact it was all fairly dry and almost dusty. "I can climb this," she said confidently. "Once I get into the building, I'll contact Bee-Keeper and you can walk me through shutting everything off." She shrugged out of her quiver and collapsed her bow, hanging the latter on the former and pushing the package ahead of her. She glanced at Bee-Keeper and forced a smile. "See if you can't figure out where the showers are. I'll need one!"

[Gizmo]

"Uh, I can try at least," Jill told Erin, uncertainty creasing her usually confident face. "This one isn't even in the right part of the city, so it might be pretty different inside," she pointed out, absently rolling some of the tension out of her shoulders while setting her angular jaw resolutely. "That smashed up MAVERIC looked pretty much like the one mi hermano and the original team had, though, so it's worth a shot." She didn't want to voice the concern aloud, but she was also really hoping that whomever had set up this bizarre version of Freedom City hadn't gone to the trouble of leaving recognizable bodies in the wreckage of the brownstone.

[Avenger Assembled]

"...I have seen this city before," said Steve suddenly, pushing past his fear and guilt to speak out. He'd mentioned it before, but they'd all been too busy, but the thought of Jill going into her brother's headquarters where his body might lie was enough to make him talk. "This city...and its like..." He walked away from the group for a moment, studying a long burn scar that lay across the center of the street. "I was confused at first, because so many of the bodies are gone, and the forges unbuilt, but...The scorch marks, and remains, there and there," he said, pointing to scars on the street and at the corners of buildings. "Those who fought back. With powers, and those without. The damaged buildings, the same. The damage to Freedom Hall, from a carrier landing on the roof. And the marks, and the Hall as it looked, and the Brownstone here...This is a city killed by the Terminus. I know because I was there." He pointed to the ground, and though he could look at Erin when he turned back he could not meet Jill's eyes, or even look at the girl with them. It was hard to hear his own voice over the screaming in his own ears."But that is impossible, because it is gone. This world burned to ash and I witnessed it with my own eyes."

-

"Oh, it's you, Barry," said Stratos sociably, putting his hand on the Bee-Keeper's shoulder in a familiar sort of way. "Little young for you, isn't she?" he asked before adding, "Heh-heh-heh! Anyway, it's good to see you, I thought you were in the nuthouse because you were CRAZY." It was easy enough for Blue Jay to make her way up to the building, despite a few hair-raising moments inside the shaft when Stratos' lightning jetted past her to fry the security systems where she was hidden. The grate turned out to be not even bolted down at the top, a decorative copper plate that led her up into an overgrown, sad-looking memorial garden on a dead world. It was getting dark overhead, and there were no lights in the open garden surrounded on all sides by Freedom Hall. Looking around to get her bearings, she found herself standing between a group statue of the Allies of Freedom on one side and another of a flying man with a cape in a heroic pose. DEDICATED TO OUR GREATEST HERO, CAPTAIN THUNDER, WHO DIED SAVING THE WORLD, 1996.

[Raveled]

Blue Jay paused at the grate. Part of her wanted to push it up slightly and take a look before climbing out, but she had pushed her quiver and bow before her and there was no way she was going to get them behind her, now. So instead she pushed open the grate slowly and slid on out, hand on the quiver. All the quiet was starting to get on the young girl's nerves, and she moved quickly to slip the quiver back on and nock an arrow.

She scanned the area, checking for traces of the Terminus's influence or doors back into Freedom Hall. Her eyes passed over the statues, noting each distantly from her history lessons. She noticed the statue of Captain Thunder, drifted over it, then snapped back. A quick glance at the other statue confirmed that they were all memorials to those who had given their lives to save the world: Scarab, twinned statues of White Rose and White Thorn, and other who had made the ultimate sacrifice. But Captain Thunder was alive, wasn't she? Blue Jay remembered a big, friendly man with the blue cape and the white hair, when she first came to Earth and met the Freedom League. If he was dead... He could easily have died in the invasion, but they surely wouldn't have had time to produce a statue to the man, would they?

She put the question out of her head: it wasn't relevant to her survival. Right now she needed to figure out how to shut off the Hall's defenses. She tapped the commlink in her ear and began broadcasting again. "Bee-Keeper. Bee-Keeper, this is Blue Jay. Can you hear me? I'm inside Freedom Hall."

[Electra]

Erin took a deep breath, deliberately pushing away the surge of dread at the thought of facing the Terminus once again. "All right, this is a Terminus dimension, that's good to know. It gives us a start, anyway. We know that the Terminus attacked three months ago, give or take. By rights, this city should be either on the wrong side of the Doom Coil or crawling with Omegadrones. The fact that it's empty like this means that something went wrong for them in the process. That's good news. Maybe if we can figure out what it was, we'll have another tool to deal with them in the future. But that's for tomorrow, too. First priority is staying alive, so that means shelter. I'll go in first, Jill, you come behind me, then Quickstep, and Steve, you're in the back."

She passed Jill a flashlight and flipped on her own headlamp, drawing her bat as she walked through the open door into the heavily damaged Brownstone. "No bodies visible in here, no signs of fighting," she observed aloud as she cased the first rooms. "Makes sense, the Interceptors wouldn't have stayed inside if the Terminus was attacking. We should try and get to the basement." She looked to Jill for directions.

[Avenger Assembled]

Freedom Hall was an eerie place as Bee-Keeper and Blue Jay explored it. Opened storage lockers with their contents spilled on the ground, security robots in position at the broken windows, decayed food in the cafeteria still on turned-over trays, heavy security doors long since slammed shut and sealed, all speaking to frantic activity and an alert against a disaster that had swept everything away anyway. The building was still secure despite what looked like months of abandonment; as sturdy as Freedom Hall was, the building would stand for years without any further repair. But there was still something _off_ about it: there were no people, no animals, and no remains inside: despite the months-decayed carnage outside, the inside of the Hall had no bodies, no bones, and no sign that any had ever been there. Behind them, Dr. Stratos (who was not a young man) was resting inside the garden, walking around and chuckling over the statues of dead heroes.

-

Steve didn't look satisfied with his conversation with Erin, but fell silent and kept rear watch without a word of complaint once they were inside the building. Perhaps I'm wrong, he thought disconsolately as they walked through the wildly disordered lower floors of the Brownstone. The building looked subtly _wrong_ to Jill's eyes, it was certainly not the place that she had left behind however long ago that had been. There were clearly signs of wild activity here; scorchmarks inside the building itself, but still no bodies or visible remains of anyone she'd known. She did find the melted remains of what might have been one of Colt's rifles near the window, but otherwise the place was eerily silent. Despite the damage outside, the place was largely intact. They were just reaching the doorway downstairs when Steve suddenly spoke aloud.

"Careful. There is a trap below, one that might still be active if the batteries in the lower areas are still empowered. A machine intelligence wielding advanced weaponry." It was getting harder and harder to forget as they got closer and closer. "It was well-armed."

-

"Wait a minute." Blue Jay and Bee-Keeper could hear Stratos in the garden, his voice echoing through the broken windows as they explored the building. "He's dead? He's DEAD?" Stratos was standing before the statue of the dead Captain Thunder, a gleam of pure fury dawning in his eyes. "NO! I won't be tricked by Thunder and his lies! He's not dead! It's this place that's dead! DEAD! I'LL KILL YOU AGAIN THUNDER!" he shouted and suddenly there was a BOOM and flash of light as a bolt of lightning struck the ground inside the hall, hitting Stratos again and again, blue-white electrical fire sizzling around his body and into his eyes as he floated up into the air, the light and sound show visible even across town in the Brownstone: after all, the lightning strikes were the first real 'weather' anyone had seen in the city. "First I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll BLOW YOUR HOUSE IN!"

[Gizmo]

Jill took the flashlight from Erin but ultimately called up the faint glow of her powers in one hand, taking comfort in having her power literally close at hand. She swore quietly when she spotted the ruined firearm, reflexively shooting a look at the youngest member of the party then feeling foolish for doing so with much more important things to worry about. The look she gave Harrier was much sharper when he revealed awfully specific knowledge of the building's shattered defenses. She knew this wasn't even her Brownstone just as she intellectually knew Steve had been forced to commit atrocities as an Omegadrone, but it was still jarring. Before she could say anything about it, his specific words sunk in. "Oh Dios, Vince?" she called, cupping her free hand to her mouth and looking about. "Vince? Are you still...?"

[SpicyWaffle]

"Crazy. Yeah..."

There came a moment where the Bee-Keeper could only stare at the shadow of what was once Doctor Stratos, his insane babbling and supposed camaraderie with his uncle all the more unnerving in the wake of the world around them. A slight blush tinged Baxter's face even as he mentioned Blue Jay; more so out of irritation than being singled out for his tastes. How the raving lunatic could joke at a time like this only furthered the growing ire for everything around poor Baxter.

"Zzometimezz I wonder," the Bee-Keeper replied forcibly, not even bothering to reciprocate the shoulder clap, his attempt at subterfuge lackluster. Following much further along behind Stratos and Blue Jay, the clunkier of the trio was struggling to get through the pipeline; metal grinding against the cold and callous innards of the former city's plumbing as they crept into what was hopefully Freedom Hall's garden, a screeching echo haunting the armored teenager with every inch taken. It was hard to see what was going on, per se, beyond the grizzled mad doctor in front of him zapping security systems with electrical bolts, save for the familiar glow of arcing lightning crackling through the air and beyond wherever his archery-focused comrade remained hidden. But finally, the crackling of his radio came through his helmet as he remained sullenly silent within its confines. With Blue Jay on the other end, a small sigh of relief found him; it must be safe.

"I'm here," Baxter replied stoically, trying his best to retain his confidence as it struggled to flee the scene. "Hang on. We're almozzt through."

Following after the mad doctor as he exited into the gardens, the Bee-Keeper was right behind him. Looking around, it wasn't any surprise to Baxter as he saw the wreckage that was Freedom Hall. The rest of the city was in tatters... it was unlikely that the center of the city's defenses was liable to still be standing. But his heart sank as he caught up with Blue Jay and spied the statue of Captain Thunder and the date of his death. It already felt like his world was turned upside-down, but now, in light of the memorial, he again felt strange - as though his brain had just taken a sudden left turn into confusion.

"But... but Captain Thunder'zz alive," he murmured quietly through his modulated voice, still oggling what might as well have been a gravemarker. "I mean, he wazz zztill alive after the Terminuzz Invazzion. Wazzn't he?" The last bit seemed almost out-of-place as it escaped the boy's lips, mind endeavoring to comprehend the significance of the curious date affixed to the tombstone. The Bee-Keeper was certain he was; as far back as he could remember before this new nightmare, the leader of the Freedom League was still out saving the day alongside Fleur de Joie and all the other more renowned members. He hadn't been dead for more than a decade! He just couldn't have been!

This wasn't home. But if it wasn't home, then where was it? And more importantly, how did they get here?

Brought back into reality with a crack of thunder, the Bee-Keeper was startled by Stratos' sudden beligerence - a cascade of electicity striking from the skies with one tumultuously audible whiplash after another, illuminating everything around them in a flash of showy force. But even as the shock of the scene wore off, the Bee-Keeper said nothing - why bother? The man wasn't all there, and it was unlikely that whatever 'Barry' said to his friend and ally would ultimately fall on deaf ears. He was a broken old man, and Baxter? Baxter was right there with him to a degree; the weight of the world bearing down upon him as he struggled to make sense of this whole ordeal. Maybe those so-called heroes were on to something... maybe that Omegadrone really wasn't as vile as they claimed. Or maybe Baxter really was going crazy, jarred by the unending onslaught of dismay. It was hard to say, with the fear and panic rife in his mind, the uncertainty of his friends and family overwhelming in his thoughts. They were here; and while the doctor's barrage of thunderbolts was no doubt bright enough for everyone - or, worse, everything - to see, they might not have a lot of time left to snoop around. Bee-Keeper and Blue Jay needed to find their answers quick.

"I don't know where we are, but we need to figure it out. Fazzt," barked the armored vigilante just before the pair of heroes began their trek through the ruined sanctum of the Freedom League. Shooting a look towards Stratos as they began their sojourn, the Bee-Keeper thrust an accusatory finger the villain's way, waggling it sternly to illustrate his point. "Zztay here and keep a look out, Zztratozz. If you zzee anything, juzzt... I dunno, if it lookzz bad, zzap firzzt and azzk quezztionzz later."

It was clear to the Bee-Keeper that he wasn't in Kansas anymore, but that still left he and his erstwhile compatriot stranded in a world ravaged by the Terminus. And Blue Jay - from what little she'd conveyed - seemed to know at least something about worlds torn asunder in such a fashion. It was her idea to scour this landmark of the dead; and she was still right. If anyone had answers, it was likely to be found here within Freedom Hall - though not the answers Baxter was originally interested in.

Waiting until they were further out and away from Stratos in his garden-resigned madness, the Hero of the Hive turned back to his arrow-slinging friend, taking charge as he scoured the ruined cafeteria for any sort of clues. "You zzaw that zztatue. No way we're in Freedom Zzity... y'know, our Freedom Zzity. Thizz plazze izzn't right - thizz whole thing izzn't right! We need to find zzomething that can tell uzz how we got here. I don't know if anyone elzze zzaw that lightzzhow back there, but if they did, they're probably on their way here." Pausing for a moment, the Bee-Keeper stopped his scurrying amongst the debris and turned-over tables of the mess hall, pondering their options.

"It could take all day to zzift through thizz... thizz plazze," he said, clearly unnerved by the sights around them. "We need... I don't know. Zzecurity tapezz? Zzome kind of computer? Zzomething. There'zz gotta be zzome kind of info on how we got here, and it'zz all we've got to go on. It'zz not much, but maybee it'll give uzz a clue... I mean, I didn't wake up too far from Freedom Hall, zzo maybee..." he began, though the Bee-Keeper soon trailed off. Out of his element, it took everything he had just to keep himself composed; all he wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry, but he couldn't. Not now. Not while something hunted them on this foreign world burnt to cinders, its perpetual stillness matched only by its eerily chill wind.

"... I don't know. I juzzt... I don't know what to do, Jay. We're zztuck here with a crazzy old man, zzome Omegadrone zztalking uzz, and zzome zzo-called zzuperheroezz working with em'! How're we zzuppozzed to deal with thizz? How're we zzuppozzed to get back home?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The enormous crash of the distant lightning bolt, clearly audible even inside the ruined Brownstone, made everyone jump and cut any response from below. When the echoes cleared, everyone could distantly hear the sound of a clearly identifiable voice singing, "Daisy, daisy, give me your answer true..." Opening the door revealed a Brownstone basement that was untouched by the attack, albeit with a musty smell to the air that suggested just how long it had been abandoned. The untouched room was almost entirely dark after this many months off the grid, with just a few red glowing emergency lights here and there and a single, half-visible electronic spectre sitting on the table. VINCE looked up at them with hollow eyes as they approached, his Archetech jumpsuit looking as tired and tattered as the rest of him, as if not only his signal but his program itself had degraded.

"Hey, Jill," he said wearily. "I don't suppose you're here to tell me that this is all just been one really bad feedback loop and you're gonna drop me back in the real world? Gonna have some laughs about ol' Vince, stuck in the end of the world on his hard drive?"

[Raveled]

Blue Jay crept through the building, bow and arrow held at the ready. She was utterly silent as she moved, not speaking or even making a sound as she walked through the eerily intact and well-kept building, and for a moment it seemed like she had simply ignored Bee-Keeper, but after a moment she spoke up. "I remember there were rooms full of computers, further up," she said. "If there's a recording of what happened, it'll be up there." She swallowed, not wanting to admit that she had no idea how to use a computer -- not wanting to admit any kind of weakness in this situation. "I'll, uh, I'll cover you while you work on them, okay?"

A particularly loud attack from Stratos made her wince. "That old fool is going to call down all sorts of trouble onto his head if he's not careful," she said. "Listen, Bee-Keeper. I can promise you this isn't as bad as it looks. I... I grew up on a world like this one, okay? I got off of it with some help -- Furions. If we can contact them and get to the Silver Tree, then we're home free. But first we should figure out what happened, and where in the Hundred Worlds we are."

[Gizmo]

"Aw, hellmuffins," Jill muttered as she approached the worn out hologram. Her version of Vince rarely projected himself as a three-dimensional hologram, preferring to appear on screens, but then he also wouldn't have been caught decompiled in a ratty jumpsuit. Something about this AI's lack of panache made him all the more tragic to her. "I don't have a lot of good news for you, hermano," she admitted, moving over to stand next to him for whatever support she could provide. "Pretty sure I'm not even the Jill you're expecting; there's some dimensional shenanigans going on. Have you got a portable drive we can use to get you out of here?" There wasn't much point in voicing her suspicions that this was only a copy of a previously destroyed Vince just yet; that was a pretty nebulous topic when it came of sentient computer programs at the best of times and these were hardly the best of times.

[SpicyWaffle]

Despite Blue Jay's surprising knowledge of the Hall's layout and her self-identifying relationship with the Terminus, the Bee-Keeper was surprisingly quiet about it. It was the shock, really - he'd never known anyone from another dimension, let alone one ravaged by the Terminus. He wanted to bombard his pierced colleague with questions; for any shred of hope beyond these Furions and this mysterious Silver Tree from her lips. But the young lady was right - time was short. They needed to find out where specifically they were.

"Alright," agreed the apiary hero, a stoic nod thrown Blue Jay's way as he took a deep breath to steel his nerves. With who-knows-what on its way after Stratos' crazed outburst, they needed to move now more than ever. Freedom Hall probably wouldn't be safe for too much longer if that Omegadrone was still hot on their heels. If there was any hope of finding out how they got here or how to get back, they needed to hustle up. Taking the lead, the armored teenager moved forward, eager to find these computers - he could only pray that they were still operational after the devastation that had befallen the eerily silent remains of Freedom Hall. "Zzoundzz like a deal."

Trekking onward, the Bee-Keeper and his protective hide moved ahead, eyes scouring the shadow of symbolic hope for the room chalk full of PCs Blue Jay mentioned.

[Electra]

Erin startled for a moment when Vince spoke, unprepared to see a "live" person in the dark building. She checked herself when she recognized the Interceptors' AI, then let Ellie take the lead in talking to him. He reminded her strongly of Dr. Atom from her world when she'd first met him, grieving and alone in a dead world, impervious himself but unable to take any action to protect the people around him. That thought led only to places she'd rather avoid, so instead she concentrated on assessing the condition of the bunker itself. "There's some electricity in here," she murmured to the others under her breath. "And climate control, keeping the temperature up and the water out. There must be some kind of working generator."

She looked again to Jill and Vince, hoping that the AI hadn't become unbalanced during his time alone. "Vince, we need a defensible place to hole up while we're here in Freedom City. Is the Brownstone safe for now?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Yeah, sure," said VINCE almost casually, waving his hand at a bank of drives along one way. "It's the green one. I've backed myself up there three times today, so I know it's all still hunky-dory in there. Not much else to do down here." He smiled faintly at Jill and said, "Listen, dimensional shenanigans or not, you're the first Jill since that day who I'm pretty sure isn't just something screwy in my personality servos, so I'll take what I can get. You, and your friends. Even if I don't know you guys, you're with Jill and that makes you okay in my book." He thought hard in response to Erin's question, as if bringing up things he hadn't considered in a long time. "I don't know," he admitted. "If there are any Omegadrones upstairs, you'd have seen them sometime in the last few months, right? As far as I can tell the building's not going to fall down any time soon. Doc A wanted to make the whole place disaster-proof. Too bad the rest of the world didn't get the memo."

He rubbed his eyes at that, evidently wanting to leave that story unsaid, and added, "It's, uh, a mini-fission plant, down in the subbasement. Should still have another five, ten years in it, I guess. Engineering wasn't really my thing," he admitted. "It's still hooked up to all the emergency equipment, the climate control, the water purifier, even the still...Long as the place has power, it'll stay running. Guess I had an advantage over the Atom kids. Their system's got no power at all, and their geothermal thing was supposed to run forever. I haven't heard anything from them, or anyone else on the network, since that big flash hit."

At VINCE's words, Steve slipped down below to check out the power plant, checking in with his commlink to confirm that everything was still active. VINCE wasn't quite done. "Uh, as far as everything else...power's down almost everywhere in the city. And the networks outside are gone. Not just dead, I know what that looks like, but gone. If you're here from another dimension, you probably know about the Omegadrones, so...other stuff...I managed to find one working camera at Freedom Hall, pointed up, and it's been ninety days and the sky hasn't changed color. Just grey, grey, grey. I always figured a robot afterlife at least wouldn't be boring, so seeing you guys makes sense." He fell silent for a moment, then said seriously, "Listen, kids, if you take my drive, and you can't get back to a place where you can plug it in somewhere, anywhere that isn't this, I want you to promise me something. Break it."

Coming up from upstairs, Steve didn't interrupt the conversation, just make a quiet report to Erin. "The power plants all show green. This building should be able to sustain itself for years afterwards. And there are supplies enough below for a few months if we ration it carefully. No one's been at it, not even animal scavengers or mice. Just like everything on the surface."

------

Blue Jay and the Bee-Keeper walked into the unfortified computer room of Freedom Hall, one place left almost completely untouched by the disaster that had afflicted everything else. No one would bother locking down a system in a place this secure, and sure enough on the monitors and computers they could see prominently displayed (if in darkened low-power mode) the hordes of Omegadrones that had poured from the sky over the space of the last few hours on this world, ripping and tearing it asunder, the sky turning red as heroes died in agony across the face of the planet and then suddenly a great flash and a city in torment abruptly became a city in silence.

And then Dr. Stratos blew in the wall. "STRATOS CALLING!" he boomed, lightning flashing from his fingers. "WHO WANTS TO GO FIRST?"

[Raveled]

Blue Jay sprinted for cover as the wall exploded, getting behind a nearby console and snugging in behind it. She peeked out to see Stratos floating the air, the lightning and the dust combining to make a dramatic corona around him as he challenged the whole world to a grudge match. "Merde," she spat quietly, then raised her voice. "Stratos! What are you doing? We need these machines. I thought you were going to work with us to find a way home!" Even as she tried to calm him down, though, she was figuring out the proper angles to take him down. If Bee-Keeper could take his beating and she could get behind him...

[SpicyWaffle]

Thankful at first that the computers they'd found were still operational, Baxter's already somber mood took a turn for the worst as the scene unfolded across the monitors, displaying in graphic detail what had befallen this Freedom City. All he could do was watch in mortified silence, eyes burning as they unblinkingly stared at the carnage recorded for prosperity, unfit for anyone's eyes. He bit his lip hard - it was all he could do to stave off tears of sadness and bitter anger, the unmistakable urge to break the machines playing back the horrors of yesteryear practically palpable in his mind.

But he had to watch, both unwilling and unable to turn away. That is, until Stratos thought it prudent to cave the wall in behind them in a show of force. Ripped from the grisly reel, the Bee-Keeper whirled to meet the mad meteorologist, both surprised and aggravated at his appearance. Shock and dismay quickly shifted to ire, however, as the monomaniacal villain made his threats, made all the worse as it seemed Blue Jay's words fell flat against his diabolical facade. Baxter was angry - at the situation, at himself, at Stratos. But this latest stunt? And at such a critical juncture? No. No, this wouldn't stand.

"That'zz it! I've had it up to here with thizz plazze!" snapped the heavily-armed teenager hidden behind the bug-eyed helmet, his voice frantic and laced with scorn as it rose into a vicious shout, fists clenched in unadulterated fury. Striding right up to the floating man crackling with energy, Baxter took charge of the situation - he'd stand for no more of Stratos' shenanigans. "You lizzten to me, you idiot! I've been tozzed into a hellizzh nightmare a kajillion milezz from home, I have no idea how I got here, no clue how to get back! No friendzz, no family, and everyone who could have pozzibly helped uzz izz pretty much DEAD! I'm being chazzed by Omegadronezz through what'zz left of Freedom Zzity, and now? Now, when we have a chanzze to frickin' get zzome anzzwerzz and figure out how to get away from thizz living Hell, I have to put up with an inzzane, belligerent, overly glorified weather man who can't let go of zzome zztupid grudge or zztop trying to bring everything that wantzz to kill uzz RIGHT HERE!"

The boy seethed, huffing hard into the modulator of his suit as the familiar burning of his eyes began to take hold, emotions roiling inside him like a miasmic tempest on the verge of a deluge. He was so close to a breakdown he could feel it, his body as tense as steel even without the armor; every muscle in his body clenched hard as he grit his teeth and raged at the insane shadow of a supervillain.

"Zzo help me, Zztratozz, if you don't zzit down and zzhut up right now, I zzwear - I ZZWEAR!!! - I will put you down zzo hard you'll wizzh Captain Thunder would zzave you!!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Stratos glared at Bee-Keeper, eyes bugging out in an almost comical paroxysm of rage, before suddenly calming, so fast it was as if a balloon had popped somewhere inside him. "Didn't anyone care, Barry?" he asked, reaching out to pat the armored apian on the arm, a look of deep, manifold pain in his eyes. "It has to have been over a year by now. I know Thunder and his friends probably thought it was funny, but didn't anyone ever come looking for me? Medea, or Shadow, or even old Roman? That's just terrible. What have I been doing with my life?" He slumped, seeming to deflate even further. "You don't have to worry about Omegadrones, girl. No matter how hard I try to make them care about me, no one ever does. I...I don't think I can help you kids any. Just don't go in the water. They've got some of those laser-eyed sharks from Epilson Eridani that Blackstar was always going on about and they really like human flesh. Yuck." And with that, the mad scientist flew away as suddenly as he'd arrived, whiffing off into the opening he'd blown in the wall and vanishing up into the eerie grey sky overhead.

[SpicyWaffle]

As Baxter's temperament cooled, all he could do was watch as Stratos took his leave. At first, the young teenager didn't think anything of the old man's sudden change of heart; the way he almost seemed depressed in the wake of the harshness of words espoused by his supposed friend. Good riddance to the nuisance of a man! He'd caused them nothing but trouble!

But then it began to sink in; the loneliness Stratos must have felt in the wake of the renewed invasion, forgotten by his former friends and allies, forced to live a life amongst the ruins of Freedom City - a place that, perhaps, was just as much the mad doctors' home as it was for Baxter. And, for once, the Bee-Keeper felt true sympathy for a villain. He knew what it felt like now, cast into a world as twisted and ruinous as this. There was no one he could call on for help that he knew beyond Blue Jay: no Fleur, nor Cobalt Templar, or even Gabriel. His friends... Baxter's mind wondered for a moment as Stratos slipped out of sight into the eerie grey sky above through the very hole he'd created in his entrance.

"If I was here... if I was still the Bee-Keeper, did they even try to look for me? Did they even get the chance? Maybe we all just... maybe I..."

The teenager shook his head, rubbing it with one hand where his forehead probably was as he forcibly returned himself to the realm of the now and away from his darkening thoughts. The weight of everything was getting to him; and now? Now he'd lashed out and gone too far. But he couldn't abandon Blue Jay; not even to reclaim Stratos. There was no telling if - or when - anyone would come snooping around the scene of the light show. The two teens needed to get what they needed and beat a hasty retreat.

"Zzorry," the Hero of the Hive whispered after the pitiful doctor before turning back around to face his friend and the monitors beyond.

"... C'mon. Let'zz... let'zz take another look at thozze tapezz. There'zz gotta bee zzomething. There hazz to bee."