ic Even Angels Fall (IC)

[Fox]

It was a bit of a wait, with relatively little to occupy one's self with and nothing but a clock to note the passage of time, but eventually the world turned in on itself again; the vast blankness of Dragonfly's spatial pocket folded outward into...a large, modern elevator.

Dragonfly, for her part, was standing in the elevator's corner to give them space to reappear. As soon as she was satisfied that they were fine she turned around and pushed one of the buttons on the elevator panel, her armor disappearing in a wash of distorted space as they began to descend from what was apparently - according to the display over the elevator doors - the third floor. "Welcome to HAX. Looks like most staff went home; some are still here, but are gathered up in secure areas - labs, mostly. Seem like they're doing okay. Shouldn't have to bother them - have to wait for the robot to be delivered, and won't be using those labs."

[Electra]

"All right, good." Gina clenched her hands into fists with her nails pressing her palms and looked anywhere in the elevator but at Dragonfly. "Miss A got the press tour of this place when it opened, but I've never gotten a look at the labs. That'll be interesting." She focused on studying the design of the elevator and on taking slow breaths, an exercise that worked long enough to get them to the proper floor. "I'm sorry," she finally said, her voice very quiet. "I'm not good with people, or with... you know... being outside. This is hard. But I won't slow things down."

[KnightDisciple]

It had been more than "five minutes, tops" since she'd talked to Gabriel, but suddenly a call came through on her commlink. No longer did she hear the sounds of fighting, simply a man taking long, deep breaths like he'd just finished running a marathon, with a dash of wind flowing around.

"Please be Miss Americana, whoever I'm talking to. Please please please don't be a dead robot that I shoved in a supply closet in the basement of Blackstone. Which I have shoved into a body bag and somehow bluffed my way out of a high-security super-prison on lockdown. Please don't be dead. Hello? Is someone there who is both alive and Miss Americana and not a robot and not a hallucination because of a half-dozen blows to my head?"

There was definitely a noticeable Irish accent, a lot of exhaustion, a bit of panic, and perhaps a bit of "loopiness".

"Because I'm hovering out over the bay holding a fried lady robot body, and I'm honestly a little freaked out right now."

[Electra]

Gina pressed her forehead against the wall of the elevator and closed her eyes. "Calm down, Gabe," she told him, only then remembering that her portable comm didn't have a voice modulator on it. Well, they'd both have to live with that. "I'm not dead. The EMP destroyed my robot, but I'm all right." That was... well, that was a total lie in a lot of ways, but it served the purpose for the moment. "I appreciate you taking care of that for me, it would raise a lot of uncomfortable questions if that were left for the guards to find. Do you know anything about what happened to Harrier?" she asked, trying to keep the urgency out of her voice to avoid winding him up any further.

[KnightDisciple]

"Right, sorry. Just...kind of crashing from an adrenaline high. Glad to hear you're alive."

He was silent for a few moments at her question, before answering with hints of both confusion and frustration.

"He was a robot. Like...he was like one of those Terminators. From the movies. He had the armor. Then fleshy bits. And then, where that was...burned away...I saw some sort of metal endoskeleton or something. He-it-was just...fried. Done for. It's in the infirmary at Blackstone; there was no way I could carry it around too, and I figured them finding out it wasn't the real Harrier won't totally hurt our rep. There might still be questions, but not the same kind of questions at least. I told them to keep it ready to move; I figured you, or somebody tech-y, would want to poke at it. Things are calm enough you could have them take it somewhere, or get it, or someone else get it, and you'd be fine."

He paused for a moment, then spoke again, a bit embarrassed.

"What should I do with, uh, your robot?"

[Electra]

While it was true that Gina had believed Dragonfly when she'd told her about the robot doppelgangers, it was still a great relief to hear the confirmation from Gabriel. "Yes, apparently there are more than a handful of these robot replacements in the city. We need to figure out where they came from, and where the originals are, and quickly. I'd be obliged if you would drop my robot off at my private lab in Hanover." She reeled off the address, one that was part of an industrial office complex in a forest of identical complexes. "The robot will let you in at the door. And if you could bring or have delivered the Harrier robot to HAX as soon as possible, we need any intact specimens. They seem to have a habit of catching on fire and melting."

She pursed her lips, weighed her words. Even just talking on the phone was harder when she was out of "body" as it were, but it needed to be said. "And thanks for, ah, for understanding, and covering for me. I'm sorry I had to leave you to handle the prison on your own."

[Avenger Assembled]

At that, overhead security alarms began to whine with the sound of someone inside the perimeter. Calling up the security cameras revealed Edge, the UNISON agent and Claremont graduate, newly arrived on the roof of the HAX building with a scorched, half-melted robot skeleton at his feet. Edge was known to be a teleporter, which was evidently how he'd arrived up there without any noticing. Edge looked around, hand over his eyes, before he found what he was looking for: a visible security camera that was probably sending a message down to the armored heroine and her allies inside. He held up a hand-written sign for the benefit of what he assumed was a silent security camera. "Robot double of Wander from LL. Need help analysis." He flipped the sign over where he had helpfully added in what looked like black permanent marker. "Didn't want to scare you guys."

[Fox]

The elevator had just reached the main floor when the proximity alarm went off; for lack of a proper monitor in the elevator Mara linked into her security network directly and pulled up the rooftop security camera feeds.

She almost immediately reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose, making a quiet strangled noise. "Teleported it up to the roof," she explained. "Going to have to go back up to get it. Can leave you here, if you want, in case he'll want to ride back down - shouldn't be anybody in the lobby but a security drone."

[KnightDisciple]

While it was true that Gina had believed Dragonfly when she'd told her about the robot doppelgangers, it was still a great relief to hear the confirmation from Gabriel. "Yes, apparently there are more than a handful of these robot replacements in the city. We need to figure out where they came from, and where the originals are, and quickly. I'd be obliged if you would drop my robot off at my private lab in Hanover." She reeled off the address, one that was part of an industrial office complex in a forest of identical complexes. "The robot will let you in at the door. And if you could bring or have delivered the Harrier robot to HAX as soon as possible, we need any intact specimens. They seem to have a habit of catching on fire and melting."

She pursed her lips, weighed her words. Even just talking on the phone was harder when she was out of "body" as it were, but it needed to be said. "And thanks for, ah, for understanding, and covering for me. I'm sorry I had to leave you to handle the prison on your own."

There was a brief sound of air rushing by almost impossibly fast, and then what sounded like a knock at a door.

"Thanks for the directions. Found it without too much trouble. Oh, nice robot. Here you go Mr. Roboto. Um, everything should be in order and-ah, okay, door closed, gotcha."

He gave a quick "hmmm" of thought.

"Give me a minute, I'll get transport arranged for the Robo-Harrier. I'll be flying shotgun on it. It's a nasty day out there..."

He briefly ended the call, but was back within 90 seconds.

"There, I'm headed back to Blackstone, meeting the chopper in the air. We should be on-site within...less than 5 minutes. And you're welcome. About the whole "understanding and covering". I figure you have reasons for what you do. As for the prison, no big. The doors were locked, so it's not like they were all running out. So really all you did was lock them in there with me. Gonna be a lot of headaches in the morning. Needed the adrenaline and stress relief. Anyways, I'll be available via comm, but flying escort on the chopper. We'll be there soon. Yell if something goes pear-shaped."

The line went inactive for the time being as Gabriel met the just-lifting-off chopper in the air and started their flight to HAX.

[Electra]

"All right, you'll be met-" Gina stopped talking with a sigh when the line to Gabriel went dead. She'd had to do some fast double-tasking, getting the Emerson at her private lab alerted to open the door when the flying hero arrived much faster than expected, but Emerson confirmed delivery, so that was one serious problem out of sight for the moment. She ordered Emerson to begin a diagnosis on the robot with an eye towards finding anything salvageable, but she didn't hold out a lot of hope. The EMP had been very thorough.

"Definitely the lobby," she told Dragonfly, switching her attention back to that problem. Working with any hero was going to be difficult, even talking to the ebullient Edge was a daunting proposition. "Gabriel has a copter en route from Blackstone with the Harrier robot, it should be landing in about five minutes." As the doors open, she stepped in the lobby, which was blessedly empty and quiet. Emerson rolled out obediently behind her, whirring softly as he committed the layout of the new building to memory.

[Fox]

The lobby was quiet bar a few small movements that, on inspection, turned out to be a security drone - it wasn't any bigger than a small dog, scuttling around on four metal legs as it surveyed its domain with a single red eye. Gina didn't get more than a curious glance - apparently Mara had told the system that she was a guest, and thus wasn't worth a closer look.

Mara punched the button for the third floor, grumbling something about teleporters and helicopters. Not that there wasn't likely to be room in the intersection outside to land a reasonably-sized helicopter, but it was more attention that she was hoping to draw right now. But, whatever - the more examples of these robots they had to look at, the better.

An elevator ride and a short flight of stairs later, the engineer emerged from the rooftop access door of her building to scowl at Mark. "There's a front door. ....but thank you for bringing the body."

[Avenger Assembled]

"It was all I could do. Literally," said Mark sadly, looking down at the melted robot. "Erin's my second-best friend in the world, and I didn't even know anything was wrong until she was breaking people's necks. Hey, do you need me to get her downstairs, or something?" he offered. "I just know people who get really mad when I teleport into their house, so I didn't want there to be a thing, especially since I figured you'd be pretty jumpy with the evil robots and everything." He shook his head, then added, "Listen, if you don't need me, I need to jet over to Claremont and see what's going on there." He figured Jill Pique's girlfriend already knew the score there. "They're not answering their signals, and I'm the fastest person the Liberty League has right now."

[Fox]

Mara looked very sad for a moment, kneeling down next to the robot duplicate of her head of security. "....yes," she said, tilting her face to the side. "Yes, I know exactly. And better here than inside; security system would have tagged you as an intruder, tried to take you out. It's...."

She shook her head, standing back up with the same expression of determination that she'd had when she opened the door. "Never mind. Go - can manage from here, stronger than I look. Only really have to get it to the elevator, anyway."

[Avenger Assembled]

"Listen," said Mark reassuringly, catching some of her tension. "This may sound a little weird, but when I was sixteen, Omega blew out my heart so my father turned into a reality-warping demigod and brainwashed most of the human race to think it was 1955 again. And..." He coughed. "Well, that's a long story, but anyway eventually everything got better again, and I wasn't even dead. So what I'm saying is, we'll get through this, and we'll get them back. That's the way it works." Did that work? I don't think it did. Man, it's so hard to tell what sciencey people are thinking! "Anyway, uh, I'll see you around." And with that, he disappeared again, leaving Mara, the robot remains, and all alone on the roof as he headed off to a new destination.

[Fox]

Mara just kind of stood there for a moment, looking at where Mark used to be with an expression of utter confusion. what was that supposed to - it - Omega? what? - whatever - no She shook her head, kneeling down next to Wander's double's remains; the heavy steel choker around her neck lit up to fold them into her pocket. "Doesn't matter," she told thin air, just to clear her thoughts. "Priorities."

She took the stairs back down to the third floor, grabbed a cart to unload the fake Wander into, and wheeled that into the elevator to head back down to the lobby. She could ponder the implications of the children of 'reality-warping gods' some other time.

[KnightDisciple]

Not long after Mara had gone back inside, the sound of a helicopter filtered over the surrounding buildings (and the sounds of chaos on the streets). Less than a minute later, a helicopter clearly marked as a medical transport came weaving in, making a couple circling passes to assess the ground. Finally it settled for an area in the parking lot that was empty and just large enough and started descending.

Just as it started its descent, Gabriel flew into view, making a couple of circles of his own before landing a bit further out than the helicopter. He then trotted along to the just-opening rear door, where an orderly was grunting a bit as he dragged out a gurney with the fried Harrier-copy on it, wrapped in an extra-large body bag to avoid panic from random passerby (of which there were few). Gabriel lent a hand, and soon they were headed toward the front door. Gabriel tapped his commlink, calling up Miss Americana again.

"Sorry for the wait, ma'am. Looks like you held the fort down fine, though. In case you missed it, we're bringing the package in now. Should be at the front door in a few moments, if someone could unlock it for us."

Much of his calm had returned, and his accent was less noticeable now, though not entirely gone.

[Electra]

"The front door, right..." Gina looked towards the front door a dozen yards away, then bolted for the nearest hiding place. This turned out to be the broad reception desk that took up a good chunk of the lobby real estate, empty now with the employees of HAX safe in their secured areas. In the kneewell of the central receptionist position, with the chair pulled in front of her, Gina felt considerably more ready to answer Gabriel. "My robot will let you in here too, actually. You can drop the robot off at the elevator and the science team can take it from there. Do we know if there are any more robots available for study?" At her silent order, Emerson trundled to the door, ready to open it for Gabriel and his trolley.

[KnightDisciple]

"The front door, right..." Gina looked towards the front door a dozen yards away, then bolted for the nearest hiding place. This turned out to be the broad reception desk that took up a good chunk of the lobby real estate, empty now with the employees of HAX safe in their secured areas. In the kneewell of the central receptionist position, with the chair pulled in front of her, Gina felt considerably more ready to answer Gabriel. "My robot will let you in here too, actually. You can drop the robot off at the elevator and the science team can take it from there. Do we know if there are any more robots available for study?" At her silent order, Emerson trundled to the door, ready to open it for Gabriel and his trolley.

"Gotcha. Oof, this thing's heavy even on wheels."

The (honestly sorta cute) robot with the long arms opened the door as Gabriel (now by himself as the orderly dashed back to the helicopter, which quickly lifted off) heaved the gurney up the ramp and through the door. He had a better go of it once inside, only resting once outside the elevator.

"I don't know of any other-Wait, hang on."

He kept the line open as he pulled out his secure cell phone.

Stesha breathed a sigh of relief as the mad robot traipsed willingly into her flower portal. As the petals closed around and swallowed the Beekeeper, she activated her commlink to Velocity once more. "The Beekeeper doppelganger is neutralized, at least for now. I want to get him to one of the engineering geniuses as soon as possible, before he makes an escape attempt or self-destructs in there. Did you say that you had casualties on your team?" As she spoke, she sent a quick text to her fellow Aux Team members. Got live Beekeeper Bot in my pocket. Where do I take it?

His eyes widened, then narrowed.

He really, really wanted to hurt whoever was going about kidnapping friends new and old.

"I've got Fleur de Joie saying she's got a live Bot, copying the Bee-Keeper, in one of her dimensional pockets. You want her to bring it here? I'm not sure how we'd take it down without frying it, though..."

Just a sec, Fleur. Might have a place, but checking if they're ready and secure for it.

[Electra]

Under the desk, Gina realized she'd put herself into a bit of a difficult spot vis a vis replying to Gabe over the commlink. With his ears, it was likely he'd be able to hear her talking in person as easily as over the link. She put her fingers on the commlink and tried to project mentally into it, but was rewarded with another blinding flash of pain behind her eyes for her efforts. Hopefully the lingering results of psychic overload would fade quickly, but for now she was stuck with the decidedly subpar physicality she'd been born with.

Picking up the link the normal way, she fiddled with the gain till it was loud as could be, then whispered into it. "Tell her to bring it here, there's a pair of live potted trees just outside the front door and she'll be let in. We'll figure out how to disable the robot." Over the link, it sounded like she'd started whispering oddly loudly, but the words were clear enough. "Someone will be down in a moment to collect the Harrier bot."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel took a moment to respond to Fleur, while he totally held the gurney in place and did not in any way rest against it because he was tired.

'Bring to HAX. 2 potted trees out front. We'll figure out how to disable when it's here.'

He tucked away the phone and spoke again into the commlink.

"Okay, she said she's got to take care of some medical emergencies then she'll be here. She also said we should be prepared to put out a fire, or otherwise fireproof our capture method. I'm guessing some of these bots have blown up?"

He paused, not moving from his spot for a moment. His eyes drifted toward the huge reception desk, but he didn't move. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter, and sounded concerned and sympathetic.

"Are you okay, Miss A? I'm sure this day has been worse for you than me. You're not hurt or anything, are you? I'm not...I didn't do something to make you afraid of me, or not trust me, did I?"

He sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Listen to that. It shouldn't be so easy for us to question our trust...Whoever did this, they want us messed up like this. Whatever help you need, to get Steve and the others back, you've got it from me. Whatever it takes."

Reading between the lines, it seemed like he knew Gina was hiding under the desk, but for the moment wasn't going to explicitly call her out on it or go poking at her. But neither was he budging from his current spot.

[Electra]

There was a long few moments of silence on the line, till it seemed as though she might have withdrawn completely from the conversation. Finally she spoke again, the doubling-over of voice and link sounding a bit odd to Gabriel's enhanced ears. "It's not you. It's not today. It's everyone, all the time. I didn't send out Miss A instead of going myself for no reason. But she's gone, and I have to examine the robots. It's the only way to help find him and bring him back."

From the other side of the room, Emerson rolled over to the gurney Gabe was wielding and took hold of it, attempting to push it towards the elevator. It didn't budge, six hundred pounds being rather outside of the little droid's weight class. That didn't stop him from trying, treads groaning with the effort.

[KnightDisciple]

Only a moment after Emerson came to the gurney, Gabriel stood straight and turned around.

"Here little guy, let me help. You steer, I push."

With that, he planted his feet and began pushing the robot-laden gurney toward the elevator, straining but managing it in no small part thanks to it being on wheels. As he moved the burden, he kept speaking with Gina.

"I...I guess "I'm sorry" doesn't really do much, does it? Can't cover over whatever it is. Wish it could. Like helping people, especially if it doesn't involve knocking other people unconscious. It's refreshing. I...I can respect that you have reasons. I'll do my best today to not push you too far."

His voice became a bit firmer, like someone encouraging a friend who was on the last leg of a marathon race.

"But right now we're stretched thin. You're one of our best resources on robots in the city. No, in the world. Maybe you can't fly and shoot lasers, but your brain can figure out where they came from, how the work, and even more importantly, how you're going to go get them. I believe in you, Miss Americana. I believe you can do this. Not for yourself. For Steve. For the other victims. For this city. This planet. I know, with every fiber of my being, you have the courage to do what needs to be done today, and to face at least a tiny fraction of your fears. I believe in you. Believe in yourself."

[Electra]

Another loud hesitation, broken only by Emerson's impatient tapping on the elevator button. "Cyberknife," she finally said, in a voice so soft the comm hardly picked it up. "Miss Americana is the robot. Call me Cyberknife. I can't... you've gotta go away, Gabe. I can't work until you go. You're too damn pretty." There was a trace of the sardonic humor there that he associated with Miss A, but she obviously meant it, as she made no move to come out from the hiding spot she'd found. "You go take care of the city, and I'll do the science."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel absently reached over and gave the elevator button one firm press, to emphasize Emerson's efforts. He then gave the dutiful robot a pat on the head as the elevator finally opened, and he gave the gurney one last shove into the over-sized metal box. He held the door for Emerson before giving the robot first a jaunty salute, and then a thumbs-up. He turned and headed for the door, speaking as he walked.

"Cybernknife. My apologies. I'm...I'm sorry."

He paused at the door, feeling helpless, his shoulders slumping a bit.

"I'm just a call away, okay? If anything goes down here and it's too hot for you and whoever else is here to handle, you call me, and you've got the Wrath of God on speed dial. Do you want me to wait and help subdue the one Fleur's bringing, or leave right this moment?"

He went outside to await her answer, his back to the glass and his eyes on the streets.

[Electra]

Gina slumped down in the kneewell the moment the doors shut behind Gabriel, feeling as though she could suddenly breathe again. She distantly realized that she'd probably hurt his feelings, but there were only so many problems she could deal with at once. He was gone, and that meant there was some small chance she could function like a not-completely-insane human being for awhile. Her voice was stronger as she answered the comm once more. "I'm sure Dragonfly has a moduated EMP device somewhere around here, or can whip one up. It will hopefully be enough to shut down the robot without slagging it. There's a lot of frightened people out there who could use your help." She paused a moment. "Wouldn't hurt to show the flag a little as well, remind people that they like heroes. A poor or slow spin on this could toss us back to 1985 all over again."