ic Even Angels Fall (IC)

[KnightDisciple]

"Understood. I'll let Fleur de Joie know what to expect. And you're right. about the people."

He took off, moving slowly at first.

"I'll try to work the press as much as I can; it sounds like Freedom Hall has at least somewhat calmed down, so I'll swing by there and do my typical thing. Let me know if you happen to catch wind of a good press opportunity I can hit up."

He gave a tight smile as he picked up speed in his impromptu patrol.

"And give me a shout if something goes down there at HAX. I move pretty quick, and you brainiacs are our best hope right now. No need to make you worry about fighting looters or opportunistic villains. Stay safe, Cyberknife."

The line fell quiet; it was "inactive", wherein if Gina spoke up it'd relay the message, but she wouldn't be receiving constant feed (meaning she wouldn't have to put up with grunts and wind and so forth).

[Fox]

Gabriel had only been gone long enough to let the silence settle before the elevator doors closed on Emerson...apparently without him touching anything. Stranger still, the elevator clearly went down - not such an oddity for an elevator, of course, but usually somewhat unusual in buildings that were not supposed to contain basements. Much less basements as deep as the long elevator trip implied....

He reappeared soon enough, though, accompanied by Mara herself. "Could probably build EMP without trouble," she said, agitatedly fiddling with a screwdriver. On a day like this, she was apparently keeping at least some of her attention on the building's security feeds. "Stopping the fire's easier - building has very aggressive anti-fire systems - but worst case could modify a drone. Basic energy weapon on them, easily repurposed."

She gestured not at the little drone still patrolling the lobby, but up toward a corner of the room; one of the ceiling panels slid aside to reveal another little drone that peeked out curiously before hiding again. "Would need to do it in a cage. Not going to help to blow out building's electronics."

[Electra]

It wasn't until the elevator doors opened again that Gina realized how long she'd been sitting in the kneewell and composing herself after the conversation with Gabriel. He was long gone, though, and she had work to do. Standing up, she brushed herself off as best she could, though with her bruised face she looked a bit like a raccoon crawling out of a garbage bin. "It- it would be helpful if we could get some information on the situations in which the robots self-destruct. Gabriel didn't know, since the Harrier bot never went up. We should try and talk to anyone who saw it happen."

A quick command to Emerson had the robot rolling to the door to watch for any arriving plant controllers. "If Fleur de Joie is bringing in a live one, it's probably going to be in her dimensional pocket. She accesses it through live plants. We need to get a live plant into a containment unit, then point whatever you've got at it that might shut it down before it can start to burn."

[Fox]

"Okay." Mara pulled some hair back behind an ear, frowning and tapping her screwdriver. "...okay. Can meet Fleur de Joie here. But need to not lose too much time - need you to get started. Take the elevator - will send you down to my lab once you're in. Follow you when I can. Can salvage anything - anything - down there if you need parts. Don't care if you have to rip it out of the walls. Personal projects are not more important than rescue, and you're smart enough to not do something stupid."

[Electra]

"Understood." Moving with only slightly undignified haste, Gina headed for the elevator. "I'll leave Emerson with you, he's good for holding doors and moving things around. Keep me updated." The elevator doors shut behind her, sending her down into the undocumented basement levels below HAX. Gina breathed a sigh of relief, happier than she could say to have a chance to look at the robots without the distraction of other people around. She suspected Mara understood that, which was embarrassing, but also increased efficiency quite a bit. As she rode, she drew thin gloves over her hands and pulled her hair back with a mesh cap she had in her bag. It was strange to have to observe normal cleanliness protocols again, but she was, for today, only human. At least there were several disabled robots down there, including two of heroes she didn't know. She'd start with those.

[Gizmo]

If it hadn't been driving at well over double the speed limit for the city streets in Hanover, the blue and black classic motorcycle wouldn't have garnered much attention, nor its helmet wearing rider. As it was, with the city in an increasing state of panic, the average passerby seemed to have other things on their mind than one reckless driver. Pulling up to the HAX building with an odd lack of squealing rubber, the bike spun in a tight arc to come to a stop near the building's doors. The rider dismounted smoothly, dropping his helmet on the handlebars.

Only then was it clear that something was odd about him, his revealed face covered by a black, featureless field punctuated by ruby red lenses over his eyes. Producing a beaten black fedora as he stepped inside, Midnight donned the hat in a brusque gesture and made his way directly over to the building's owner. Towering nearly a foot taller than Hallomen, his imposing figure was undercut by a quiet but insistent mewing from the orange furred feline poking his head out from the neck of the vigilante's jacket. Midnight paused to undo a snap and gently place the cat, barely older than a kitten, down on his white paws to the floor. "Charlie. Erin's cat," he offered by way of explanation, refastening his coat. Even through the gravelly filter on his voice, Mara could hear a terrible weariness and turmoil. When he turned back to her, however, he was all business. "What have you found?"

[Fox]

A pair of drones had poked their heads out from behind ceiling tiles when the motorcycle pulled up, but a wave from Mara as she her way toward the doors to let its rider in had them hiding away again. "Not much yet," she admitted, apparently unintimidated by the towering man and his outfit. "But have acquired two destroyed examples, and expecting one functioning one shortly - preparing for it downstairs. Extraterrestrial, sophisticated duplicate robots - best current theory is the Curator, but need more information than that. Learn what we can from all of them, track to a source - or find and trace communications."

She looked down at the kitten for a moment, sending a silent call out to someone she hoped could keep it out of trouble. "Would include subtle communication ability, if I were building duplicates. Monitoring, recall, override. True autonomy is dangerous."

[Gizmo]

It was subtle, barely a movement at all, but Midnight's shoulder slumped ever so slightly at Hallomen's response. At his feet, Charlie butted his head against reenforced combat boots, purring between calls for attention. "Autonomy... Knew things," the mystery man murmured, his rough voice crisply understandable despite its low volume. His mind replayed the few things the gynoid had said during its rampage, turning each moment over in his mind like pieces of a puzzle. "Memories. Neuromapping, reproduction. Little things wrong. Preferences, context." The director of HAX could see a wisp of inky black smoke rising from the cuff of one of his gloves, apparently unbidden. "Little things." Midnight tugged his sleeve back into place with a cold economy of movement, closing the gap and straightening his shoulders again. Whatever conditioning and adrenaline usually kept the shadowy hero going, at that moment it was nothing but force of will holding him together. It might as well have been titanium. "Engineer. How can I help?"

[Fox]

"Easier to see in hindsight," Mara agreed, looking awfully uncomfortable at the thought; she'd been trying not think about how long the imposters might have been there, and about how far back she could trace all the little things that weren't quite right. It was an awful thought experiment - how could she ever be sure what had been Ellie and what had been her duplicate? How much of what they'd been through had been her girlfriend, and how much had been some meat-and-metal puppet? How could you know?

She could find her, that's how. She straightened up, her face settling back into an angry determination. Everything important - answers and otherwise - lie with finding those who were missing. "Lab," she instructed, pointing toward the elevator at the back of the lobby. "No easy button for it - get in, will send you down. Will be down too as soon as functional specimen arrives. Could use the assistance."

[Electra]

Just then, one of the security drones chirped a warning as the plants outside the door began moving. One of the potted trees burst forth with an incongruous red flower and Fleur de Joie stepped out, pausing for a moment to get her bearings. The plant controller had obviously been having a busy day; she looked even more disheveled than last time Mara had seen her. Her sleeves and tunic were stained liberally with blood, her pants were grimy with slush and mud, and her hair was escaping from its pins in all directions. Her cowl and mask were long gone. She took a couple of baby wipes from her pouch and cleaned the blood and sap off her hands, then knocked lightly on the front doors.

"I came as soon as I could," she told Mara as soon as she was let in. "There were a lot of casualties in the Beekeeper robot fight. I have no idea how many more there are out there, but I left Gaian Knight holding the fort alone at Freedom Hall. I think Gabriel was saying you already have some other robots here?" She spared a quick smile in Trevor's direction as well. "Hello, Midnight. I didn't realize you were here too. Dropping off a robot?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight was silent as Fleur entered and shed some light on the larger situation. He very early responded to her question with a flat grunt but it occurred to him that the florakinetic was one of the very, very few he'd ever actually discussed his relationship with. She had a way of drawing things out of people whether she meant to or not. "...Erin," he said finally, quietly enough that it would have been heard even a foot further away. "Abducted. Getting her back." That was all that really needed to be said. "Functioning android?"

[Electra]

Fleur's expression changed in an instant, shock and sorrow replacing the momentary humor. "Oh no," she murmured. "I hadn't heard, there's been so much going on." She put a comforting hand on his arm, patting the rough fabric. "I'm so sorry! But I know we've got the best minds in Freedom City working on this, and they've never missed yet. She's as good as back already." She raised her voice to include Mara in the conversation as well. "I tricked the Beekeeper robot into my dimensional pocket by pretending he won me over with his "killing criminals and liking bees" rhetoric. There's a chance he may have self-destructed in the pocket, but I'm hoping he's still intact in there, waiting for me to let him out when the coast is clear. You won't have much time once he's out before he realizes he's trapped."

[Fox]

"Will have to make sure we won't need it," Mara grimly noted. She was already planning, trying to anticipate what if anything Gina had done while down in the lab and what she'd need past that to isolate a potentially dangerous robotic foe. fire suppressants - suspend in tube? - difficult to work on him then - disrupt energy flow? - cleaner than EMP - harder - mmh - need parts - security

She absently gestured at the two heroes to follow her, issuing a sharp whistle at...nothing, at first, though the signal became clearer when a series of medium-sized drones dropped out of the ceiling or popped up out of the floor to start following her. Coming down, she thought, little lights dancing behind her eyes as her message was relayed below the earth to the screens in her private lab. Company.

Having hit the elevator button before absent-mindedly doubling back to grab a small potted plant off the reception desk, the young inventor did a double-take when the doors opened to reveal a little drone like a round ball, its clear plastic shell dominated by a large, single eye. "...hello, Puppy. You're late. Come on - time to find Ellie."

[Electra]

Charlie had temporarily abandoned his importuning of Trevor in order to explore the lobby, but he came fully alert when the elevator doors hissed and opened. He noted the ball instantly, and sussed out its true purpose just as quickly: cat toy. With his ears pricked forward and his tail arched cautiously over his back, he began stalking towards Puppy, waiting for the perfect opportunity to make his move. He was certainly in a better frame of mind now than the crying bundle he'd been when Trevor had rescued him, but the unfortunate Puppy might be in for a rough time. Gathering himself up all at once, Charlie went in for the kill, streaking across the floor towards the robot ball, only to lose his footing on the slick tile and go skidding ungracefully into the elevator. He immediately sat down and began washing vigorously in order to show everyone that was precisely what he'd intended to do all along.

[Fox]

Puppy was suitably surprised and backed up a foot before thumping against the rear of the elevator; once he'd realized what the 'threat' was, though, he made a little series of chirps that sounded suspiciously like a sigh and gently rolled toward Charlie to lure him out of the way of Mara, Trevor, Fleur, and Mara's miniature squad of drones.

Once more thankful that she'd gotten elevators big enough to handle large equipment - or, as the case may be, small crowds - Mara ordered conveyance down.

Mara's secret lab wasn't grand, but it was relatively spacious, and quite well-equipped - half-formed and nearly unidentifiable projects were littered across tables and floor, parts taking up all available shelf space that wasn't already claimed by tools and more projects. A few doors were scattered across the walls, mostly closed; the open ones looked like they led into storage rooms.

Two of the larger tables had already been cleared off, though, and were now dominated by the remains of those who thought they could duplicate Freedom City's heroes. going to need a third table "....okay. First: you never saw this room. Second: have a...friend...helping here, but she doesn't like people, so is probably off in another room. Probably best not to look for her, for now. Need to make something to disable or contain a sophisticated android without hurting it. ....mmmh. Said you were an engineer? Could use another pair of hands. And a good mind for contingencies and failsafes, if either of you have one."

[Gizmo]

Midnight took the underground lab in stride, literally stepping with long legs to quickly stand next to Hallomen. "Belt and jacket contain modular components for EMP, localized, directed or pervasive," he began, his tone lacking all inflection as he continued his list. "Faraday net. Chemical adhesives. Retardant foam. Incapacitators for hardware, software, wetware. Magnetic snares. Delivery mechanisms." He paused briefly and although he didn't move the inventor was given the impression he was narrowing his eyes slightly behind his unreadable mask. "Copious explosives." Unfastening and rolling up one sleeve halfway to the elbow revealed a magnificent array of multitools secreted in tight rows on the inner side. "For starters. Will handle 'contingency plans'."

[Electra]

Fleur paused at the elevator door and looked around the lab, nearly getting her toes run over by Puppy and Charlie as the latter chased the former over the threshold and into the lab itself. There seemed to be a half-built containment area already set up, if that's what the sheets of Lucite set in the middle of the room and joined together like a phone booth was supposed to be. Her attention was caught immediately by the robots, and despite knowing better, she went over to take a look. "Oh no, not Harrier too," she said in dismay, looking at the destroyed robot doubles of two friends. "Both of them are so cautious, how could anyone have replaced both of them all at once?"

While Fleur spoke, Puppy rolled under one of the lab tables and into a dark corner, its glowing eye peering out of the darkness at the small pursuer. Charlie clearly didn't want to go under the table, so instead he stood at the edge, meowing in plaintive frustration. Fleur scooped him up and cuddled him, earning a scratchy lick on the chin. "I don't know much of anything about engineering," she admitted, "but Midnight's definitely your guy. Hmm, if you could keep the room dark, maybe even set up a projected image of an abandoned building, that might fool him and buy a bit more time. I also have the remains of the Star Knight robot," she thought to add, "but it's mostly charred bits, much more burnt up than what you have."

[Fox]

The shatter-proof case was certainly a start, and Midnight looked well-equipped to back them up if necessary. But they needed the duplicate online and functioning for the best answers; that was a little harder. An EMP could disabled it (but had a bad habit of frying circuitry), her fire system could keep it from destroying itself (but who knew how much damage it would do first if the fire came from inside), but if she could keep it from--

She went into a flurry of activity all at once, grabbing a tray of tools off a shelf and making her way toward the fallen duplicates, picking through their heads, necks, and torsos with surgical precision. She hesitated only once, glancing over at Midnight and Fleur, before frowning and deciding that some things were just less important; lights danced behind her eyes when she turned back to her work, monitors lighting up with rough schematics of her findings.

"...brain's in the head - odd - not unreasonable; easier to cool, replicates human structure better more room inside main body for power replication - good - excellent even - could re-use synaptic interrupt designs - not as complicated to interrupt wiring, easier to do non-lethally - signal signal signal has to be here; relay, entanglement unit, antenna, something - wouldn't make them autonomous if it were me - have to be able to gather data, alter behavior if HAH! Found you!"

She actually laughed, turning to look at a monitor and the small piece she'd just added to the design. "Yes! Hahaha-- wait, no - tracking - huge distance, would need a triangulation program we don't have time to make while also building oth---yes, okay. Okay." Quickly scribbling some information on a sheet of paper, she gave it and one of the pieces from one of the imposters to a drone and sent it and all but three of the pack off to find Gina.

She stopped to take a breath, organizing her thoughts, when it dawned on her that she wasn't alone at the moment. And that she probably looked and sounded crazy. And that the city had a very bad history of people who looked and sounded crazy.

"Right! Sorry. Okay," she repeated, taking another breath and turning to address the others. "It's...sorry. Brain. Good news: pretty sure I can disable it safely, pretty sure we can trace it to its owner, or close enough. Will be building disabler - could use a hand - and my...friend...can probably get tracking working. Once it's done, though, will want the robot working for as long as possible, on its own: need it transmitting. Seconds, minutes, as much as we can get. And as much information as it can tell us in that time."

[Avenger Assembled]

The zut-zut of Mara, or rather, Dragonfly's communicator given the signal's origin, reached them - checking revealed a signal coming in directly from the Interceptors. It was Geckoman on the line, describing the Curator that he'd learned about at Claremont and its habit of replacing people with sophisticated robot drones in Freedom City's past and on various Lor planets in the years since. It was easy enough to find the coordinates of the Curator's ringworld in the League database left open for recognized heroes today, a ringworld some fifty light years away, invisible from Earth thanks to the all-encompassing glow of the occulting Eta Leporis that stood between Earth and the others like a sentinel. An easy enough trip for a Lor vessel, altogether tougher for even the interstellar-going League ships, and all but impossible for an ordinary human. Luckily there was no one like that around in the entire floor.

[Fox]

"Or...not," Mara corrected, sounding an odd mixture of thankful and frustrated. so much lost time - goose chase - should have stayed with them? - no - needed Gina - wouldn't have others

It took her a minute to relay her new-found information to the others, pulling up whatever data she had or could find on the Curator and his ringworld. "That's...okay. Fifty light-years. Doable, but...mmh. Takes time to build space-worthy vehicles. Only have designs, no actual implementation. Would be much easier to revise working craft...."

She winced as something occurred to her, turning to look over at Fleur. "And still need to do something about live duplicate. Trace no longer necessary, but could have valuable information, if we - you, not very good at manipulating, myself - can get anything out of it. And should disable it before leaving, just in case."

[Electra]

"All right..." Fleur set the cat back on the floor to resume his game of puppychase, then approached the containment area. "If we're more interested in trying to get information out of the robot than in disassembling it, I'll probably have more luck if it's not in the containment unit. We can put up some of those dividers to screen off the lab, and you guys can be back there to take it out when it starts getting too aggressive. She brushed her long green tresses out of her face, looking only slightly apprehensive. "I should be able to absorb a hit from him if I have to, but I'd really rather not. Midnight, I seem to recall you can obscure things pretty effectively, could you make it so he can't see the room divider or the stairs at all? Keep him a little disoriented, but not feeling trapped?"

[Gizmo]

Midnight grunted in confirmation, releasing the beginnings of an smokey curtain from one hand, the light devouring mist hanging in the air like ink spreading through water. The fedora wearing vigilante abruptly lifted his chin, the equivalent of a sudden start in his conservative body language. "Have spacecraft, too," he announced, his free hand going to his chin as he thought things through. "Old. Nearly seventy years, alternate universe Martian saucer--" He lifted the hand again to silence his own train of thought and refocus. "Still needs repairs but mostly intact. Make it space-worthy, associate can outfit with Furion technology," he told Hallomen.

[Fox]

"I can work with that," Mara confirmed, grabbing a tool and setting out to dismantle the containment box. Its clear, shatter-proof panels were efficiently repurposed as doorway blockades, placed against and fastened to the elevator door and a select few other doors leading out of the main workshop. Pretty apparent in the well-lit room as it was now, but maybe in the dark, with smoke in the way.... "Kind of prefer old technology. Haven't worked with anything Martian, but often built to last. Simpler, too - not better, but faster to work with, easier to figure out."

When she was done she tossed her tools back onto a shelf, taking one last look around. "....okay. Think that's it. Can hide behind one of the solid tables, or in another room, watch on cameras. Dim power. Hide drones unless there's violence."

[Electra]

"Perfect," Fleur said with a nod, sprinkling seeds out onto the floor. In moments, as the lights dimmed and the edges of the room faded into misty darkness, vines and lichen covered the floors and spread over the visible walls, making the high-tech room seem very much like a cave. "Here we go," she said aloud, and gestured to one of the thicker vines. A giant yellow flower opened, depositing the Beekeeper back into the real world.

"Well, here we are," Fleur told him, sounding a bit breathless but cheerful. "I'm sorry that took so long, I had to do a bit of fast talking to get around that patrol. Everyone's on edge today. Welcome to my secret hideout," she added with a smile, gesturing around the room. "You've seen Sanctuary, and it's lovely, but too many people know about it. To really be safe I come here, underground. How are you feeling?" she asked solicitously. "You weren't hurt in the fighting, were you?"

[SpicyWaffle]

Spat back out of the pocket dimension, the Bee-Keeper wasn't looking any worse for wear -- well, not really, save perhaps for a few scrapes across the painted shell of the armor and a discernible sense of lethargy from the lengthy interlude from his damnable cause. Indeed, as the robotic duplicate stretched and took in the faux cavern, he still seemed wholly unaware of exactly what sort of predicament he'd been thrust into.

"Nah, zz'all good, Fleur," he groaned lightly, his stance relaxed and calm despite the odd lack of civilization surrounding him. "Juzzt a few bruizzezz from thozze chumpzz I blazzted, but I think I'll live. Hey, could have been a lot worzze if you hadn't zzhowed up to get me outta there. Even I can't take the whole League by myzzelf!" he laughed, though that laughter soon grew into a sigh reminiscent of being hurt. The robotic imitator's body language almost made him look sad as he turned to face Fleur de Joie, his greatest and kindest ally in this whole mess.

"I juzzt wizzh they underzztood, y'know? It'zz hard work keeping Freedom Zzity zzafe, zzo you'd think they'd get it. Oh, well. Maybee they'll get the mezzage onzze they zzee what it'zz like not to have any crime left to fight!"