ic Midnight Dynasty

[Gizmo]

"11.3%. Strength inhibitors disengaged," Blackbird announced, finishing her countdown without regard for any interruptions. The diminutive hologram clenched her fists and bared her teeth while Hematite did the same. "Fiber sync 107.4%! Blood and THUNDAAARGH!"

"RAAARGH!" With an inarticulate roar, the super strong time traveler burst into motion, charging toward the dark figure and leaping into the air. As his feet left the ground, Hematite seemed to fold in upon himself, winking out of existence in a spatial warp only to reappear immediately right behind and above the intruder, one fist folded around the other. His arms swung downward with the force of industrial pistons, cracking into the back of the nearly featureless skull.

The moment he made contact, however, Hematite shouted in agonized pain, arcs of black, light devouring electricity ripping through his body. "Yeargh!" The neon blue lights in his suit flickered as he tumbled gracelessly to the floor and stumbled backward, clutching his chest and breathing hard. Blackbird appeared equally affected, her hologram disappearing from view. "Nnh...! Suit... shoulda stopped... that."

Outside, Daybreak nearly jumped at the sudden noise over the comms. "Who was that?! What's happening in there?!" Shifting the weight of his sledgehammer, the teenager vigilante took a few hurried steps back away from the barrier surrounding the mansion before rushing forward, swinging the weighted implement more quickly than would have been possible for an ordinary human. The blow struck with resounding effect, the impact rippling out across the dome, weakening the barrier though it held for the time being. "Hold on, sis, almost through!"

[Electra]

"All we need is a little bigger can opener." Tensile drew his weapon, which still looked disturbingly like a power pike even knowing he was not an Omegadrone, and fired it at the barrier that was already flickering with Daybreak's attack. The field sputtered a moment and then went down, leaving the way clear. "Come on!" he shouted, beginning to run toward the door. "Just keep making noise guys, we'll find you." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hrn. Troy Hunter and Terminus slave." The shadowed paragon turned on Hematite, eyes burning with malevolent intent as it raised hands that glowed with black light. The field around its body seemed to focus around those hands in a crackling display of shadowy magic. "Could have told you the day rash actions would kill you and all that come after you. But now that is today." It fired a devastating beam of dark energy that cut through to Troy Hunter's very soul with a burning, shadowy touch! The visible effect was as if black tentacles had erupted from its hands and pierced the young hero's armor - a shadowy glimpse of his straining face half-pulled out of the armor was visible before the very stuff of Troy Hunter's personality went rocketing back inside his battered body. 

[Gizmo]

"Nnneeaah!" Hematite fell to one knee, shaking as he struggled to hold onto consciousness under the unexpectedly arcane assault. Shoulders heaving, he forced himself to lift his chin and look his attacker in the eyes, jaw clenching behind his mask. "Blackbird... says... 'All talk... no sh-shock,' feeb."

As the time-traveler spoke defiantly, the temporally native Hunter was walking toward the malevolent shadow creature with steady, measured footsteps that belied the anger smouldering behind ruby tinted lenses. "Don't. Touch. Him." Each syllable grated with gravel being crushed into dust while ribbons on inky black mist rolled from the young vigilante, flowing freely and merging into a tide of darkness that quickly enveloped the melee.

Reaching to his belt, Midnight filled his palm with a half dozen small round capsules. Realizing their would-be temporal assassin would have the advantage of future knowledge, he'd gone well outside his usual bag of tricks in preparing for the fight. He doubted his concealing mist would slow their foe down for long if at all but it had other properties, such as sublimating much like carbon dioxide when brought down to super cool temperatures. Each of the little balls he flung at his target with a snap of his wrist contained a sphere of dry midnight ice, the protective coating shattering on impact. The frostbite of the payload burned like acid, sizzling into the shadowy form at six different points, eating through the enshrouding cloak.

Outside, Mystery wrung her hands, looking between the unconscious men she'd been told to keep an eye on and the force field collapsing under her alternate timeline brothers' assault. As she chewed her lip cleverly hidden defensive weapons unfolded from each side of the dented but still standing gate. "Go ahead, girl," Travis Hunter's voice urged from the nearby speaker as the cannons swiveled about to face the armored truck. "We can keep an eye on this."

Straightening with a start, the teenager nodded quickly, her legs already dissolving into mist. "Ah, thank you, um, sir. I won't let you down," she assured her ancestor softly before flying off as quickly as she could toward the mansion and the battle within.

[Electra]

"Stay back and don't touch him!" Wander snapped to the others, still keeping herself a healthy staff's length away from the slightly amorphous villain. Her grown-up daughters nodded, looked to each other, and got to work. Knightfall drew her bo staff and dropped into a somersault, coming up in time to hit the bad guy in the back of the legs with her staff. It didn't knock him down, but it threw him off balance for a moment while Sojourner took aim. Two bullets aimed precisely for his right shoulder, bouncing off his armor but jarring with their impact anyway.

 

Wander used the opportunity of their attacks to come up from behind, striking him across the back of the neck with her bat with a  thwack sound. The tight quarters and many combatants worked against her and made it a glancing blow at best, but it did seem to hurt a bit at least. 

[Gizmo]

As the expanding cloud of mist rolled past him, Hematite forced himself back to his feet and took another swing at their implacable foe, apparently determined to ignore Erin's instructions to keep his distance. He was moving more slowly than before, however, almost raggedly and the haymaker went wide of his target as the floating shadow simply slid a half pace through the air. With an annoyed grunt, the time traveler rocked back on his heels, regained his balance and retreated a few steps. He was far from out of the fight but had to admit the need for a new strategy.
 
Racing up the stair beside Tensile, Daybreak's eyes tinted red and filled in with black between blinks. "Make way for the party crashers, Smiley!" he called out to the mouthless intruder, scanning the hectic fight for the best opportunity to rush into action.

[Electra]

Tensile flexed his metal-braced legs, glancing around at the layout of the house. "Just like old times," he muttered, "wonder if I'll still get yelled at for doing this." With that, he straightened his legs and took off, up the stairs and around the landing in a precision ping-pong maneuver that spoke of the hours of practice in his past that was his house's future. The walls in this house were certainly far more pristine than they had been after a half-dozen leaping Hunter-White children had grown up in it, but they still bounced the same way.

 

In seconds the battle was in view, close enough for Tensile to draw his pike and aim it at the noseless face of the man who'd killed his parents. In that moment, he had no quip to make, his mouth tight as he fired a beam of orange energy across the room. It struck true, and though it wasn't the knockout blow it should've been, it obviously hurt the bastard. It was something, anyway. 

[Avenger Assembled]

The monster's head snapped back, and it was clear the time-traveling assassin was badly hurt. The ice crystals on its nearly featureless face were beginning to flake off, but that armored obsidian carapace was still cracked and warped in several places, the black fluid it leaked puddling and smoking on the carpet. The blood, if it was blood, bore an ominous resemblance to liquid midnight mist infused with an unholy darkness that seemed to devour the very stuff of light all around it. "Cut the tree at the root," it finally said, heat beginning to melt that cold voice. With a foul word that scorched the very air, it summoned a curling ball of ebony fire that sickeningly sizzled in its palm, and hurled it directly at Midnight himself! Wander intercepted the blast, though, and took it across her midsection like a Secret Service agent diving forward to protect a President under fire. The blast seemed to burn out against her stomach - and then suddenly, as she hit the floor, black flames erupted from her mouth and nose for an agonizing instant! 

 

The creature took this opportunity to disappear in a curl of black flame, but as the mansion's security alarms continued to blare, it was clear they were not alone - and looking outside the open door, the heroes could see where the killer had appeared, not far from the oncoming gas cloud that was Mystery! 

[Gizmo]

The cloud came to an abrupt stop midair, quickly solidifying most of the way back into the recognizable silhouette of Mystery, though her legs remained gaseous and indistinct past the knees as she regarded the shadowy figure on the lawn uncertainly. "Oh, um, I-- I think I found him?" she reported over the radio, backing up slowly and casting about for some sort of cover or weapon as the horrible void that eluded her psionic senses almost leisurely began to turn its attention toward her. "What's going on inside? Is-- is everyone alr--"

Interrupting her question came a great shattering crash as Midnight burst through the second storey window, knees bent and a million shards of glass exploding outward in his wake, a pitch black streak of ice cold retribution arcing through the air. Vaulting with the extended staff in his hands, he landed with a staggering, two-handed overhead blow that the time-traveling intruder blocked with some difficulty.

"Enough." The word has barely more than a whisper but it cut through the air like the whistling slash of a blade, reverberating with ironclad certainty. Continuing with his forward momentum, Midnight smoothly split the staff back into a pair of escrima sticks that whirled about to assault his target from every angle. Weathering the blows, the monstrous assassin was forced back a step, then another, while each impact splashed chemicals across his cloak.

Where the liquids from each blunt instrument met they immediately foamed in a chemical reaction that spread like wildfire for an instant before hardening with the strength of concrete. Within seconds the dark figure was crisscrossed with uneven grey lumps of constricting epoxy, slowing his moments and making it impossible for him to block Midnight's increasingly effective flurry of blows.

"Um, Dad...?" With both arms outstretched, Mystery concentrated and in response the ornate fountain around which the manor's driveway curved shuddered then lifted itself out of the ground and into the air. Broken pipes spurted water about the resulting crater while the huge mass of smooth stone and artistic statues spun slightly like a gigantic, unwieldy discus. "Move." Throwing her arms forward, the teenager pushed with all of her telekinetic might and sent the fountain hurtling right toward the impeded, faceless foe. Midnight somersaulted backward and out of the way just as it came crashing down with enough force to shake the ground under his feet, completely burying its target in rubble.

[Avenger Assembled]

The impact from the falling fountain seemed to make the ground shake - but the tremors went on and on, shaking the grounds and the mansion alike! The ground swayed and flowed ominously from the vibrations from beneath the debris, even as inside the house books fell from shelves and furniture tipped over! Inside the mansion, the air rippled in time with the vibrations in the ground. As those inside watched, three humanoid shapes emerged from the air with a high-pitched wail  like glass scratching on a chalkboard. With glowing white eyes and featureless bodies, they looked like smaller, less-defined versions of the nameless monster who had come for the Hunter family - and their intent was similar as they advanced on the group inside the house with outstretched arms and eerie wails. "Finish it finish it"

 

Outside, the shadow demons had oozed their way up through the rocks to advance on the duo who had slain their master - their very presence on the grounds of the estate (or anywhere in our reality) soul-scratchingly wrong as they advanced on Mystery and her father. "Finish it finish it finish it" 

[Electra]

Wander pushed herself up off the floor with some effort, smoke still trailing from her lips as she got to her feet. For a second she looked towards the window where Midnight had disappeared, then turned to face the danger that threatened close at hand. The shadowy creatures were half-visible, incorporeal things, nothing she was going to be able to hit with her bat or her fists. That made things more difficult, but not impossible, not if they could keep working as a team. "Light or energy," she suggested to the "kids," even as she dropped her bat. Picking up the sofa instead, she launched it across the room, plowing it into the shadowy creatures, then right through them. It didn't seem to harm them, but it was certainly a distraction. 

 

"Can you do that?" Sojourner asked Knighfall, even as she swapped out the loads in her guns with barely-human speed. 

 

"I can do both," Knightfall assured her with a cocky grin, "watch this." A flick of her wrist and the girl's bo staff suddenly crackled with energy, then began to glow with searing red light. It looked not unlike a lightsaber, which Erin had to think was probably intentional. "Hey shadow puppet," she called to the closest of the creatures, twirling her staff like a majorette's baton. It seemed to focus its attention on her, but it didn't seem happy about it. "Your boss is dead, you know. And you're just a smear on the wall." She struck then, grabbing the center of her bo staff with both hands and swinging for the fences. The bright red arc of light cut through the creature with no resistance at all, and continued on into the shadow creature next to it. Both creatures wailed, an unearthly keening noise, before disappearing into nothingness.

 

"Not bad," Sojourner acknowledged with a quirk of her lips. She turned her attention to the remaining shadow, raising her guns in one fluid motion before double-tapping the thing, shots so closely spaced that they sounded almost like one explosion. The bullets she used burst into flames upon contact with the air, passing into the shadow and tearing it away before embedding themselves into the cushions of the sofa. The final shadow creature wailed like its fellows and disappeared, leaving the room silent but for the crackle of burning upholstery. 

 

"There goes another couch," Wander observed dryly. "Two in one night, that might be a record." 

[Avenger Assembled]

The defeated demons dispersed like soap bubbles, leaving behind an unpleasant sort of sheen in the air behind them. It was as if they had somehow stained the very reality they'd touched, leaving behind an glistening, inky wetness that seemed to mar the universe itself where they'd once stood. Outside, the heroes could hear the fight going on in the lawn, where there was no sign of the shadow overlord but there were another three of the shadow demons in combat with the other family members. It hadn't been a good fight for Troy Hunter, who had taken a beating on behalf of his weaker cousins that had left them hale and hearty (and able to stay in the fight and beat the bad guy) but that had damn near killed the iron-bodied young hero. Having all the shadow demons destroyed before he could even make it back into the fight certainly hadn't helped matters - at least until he heard Blackbird's voice in his ears. It was a sensor unit speaking, not the main AI. 

 

"Hunter family DNA detected through the rift" 

[Gizmo]

"Rift?" Hematite grunted in confusion as he pressed one hand to his stomach to help stem the wave the nausea that threatened to wash over him even as the effects of their attacker's sorcerous assault began to fade. The time traveler felt like he'd been dragged down a mile of bad road but the bizarre readings from the space the shadow creatures had occupied until moments before kept his attention focused. "Hnh. Shoulda figured this thing'd get weirder before it was over." Realizing that he was the only one present with anything approaching sealed life-support, Hematite let out a disgruntled huff before starting off toward the oily shimmer in the air. "Blackbird, button us up. Back in a minute, twips. Don't burn down the manor." Without further explanation he stepped through.

[Avenger Assembled]

Hematite didn't so much vanish from view as he suddenly became hazy and indistinct, as if those still in the room were viewing him through smoked glass, or maybe glass smeared with things better left unmentioned. For his part, Troy Hunter could still see the others through the same murky lens. But wherever he was was nearly unrecognizable, because everything, every wall, the ceilings, the floors, the furniture, was painted an almost blinding shade of white that shimmered with a nearly magical radiance. Symbols were carved in the white, mint cream on ghost white, that were completely unfamiliar to the armored powerhouse. The Hunter family DNA was close, very close, perhaps 100 yards away - but before he could process that, he realized that for all the alien color, this room was very familiar - it was the very same parlor room he had left, albeit with the windows removed and door looking very firmly shut. 

[Gizmo]

"Pfft, nerd," Daybreak scoffed at his twin sister's theatrical attack, even as he produced a small silver object from his belt and turned toward the shattered remains of the bay window. He spared a glance at Hematite's hazy form before making a snap decision and focusing on the shadowy creatures menacing Midnight and Mystery on the lawn below. "No way am I telling Gale we went back in time and I didn't get in any hammer time!" Striking the head of his hammer with the tuning fork-like object produced a pure, sweet chord of notes as the metal began to glow with light that reminded Erin of the Silver Tree. Tossing the fork aside, Daybreak raised a wrist and fired a grappling line built into his costume into the remaining window frame. "Alley-oop!"

Sprinting forward the black and gold clad young man swung out into the air, releasing the line at the apex of his arc and letting the momentum carry him into a somersaulting spin accelerated by the weight of his weapon. "WahooOO! Welcome to the mosh pit!" he shouted in an exaggerated, heavy metal growl as he landed with a brutal two handed swing that tore through the closest demon like wet tissue paper. With practiced ease that belied the apparent recklessness of his tactics Daybreak kept the sledgehammer moving in a roundhouse spin that took out another of the things just as quickly. "Hey, nice landscaping, Mysty!"

[Electra]

Tensile brought his weapon to bear on the hostile shadows just a second after his sisters, but it was already too late. He didn't seem put out about it, his face a study in amused resignation. "No matter how far from home I get, some things don't change. Pushy sisters stealing my KOs," he joked. 

 

"Whine, whine," Knightfall retorted, rolling her eyes. "Less talky, more shooty."

 

"I tell you, the youth of today, no respect," Tensile mourned, shaking his head. "Right, Mom?" Even as he spoke, he was lining up a shot out the window, punctuating the question with a blast of light that tore apart the final shadow creature on the grounds. 

 

"I'm pretending you aren't even here right now." Erin used her shoe to beat out the flames on the couch, assiduously ignoring the squabbling heroes.

[Gizmo]

"So, what do you think we've, hnh, gotten ourselves into now?" Hematite asked nonchalantly, rolling one shoulder and breathing heavily through his mask's internal air supply as he tried to shake off the attacks he'd weathered from the faceless assassin. It wasn't simply a question of injuries; he felt as if someone had ripped his heart from his chest and put it back in upside down.

He could hear Blackbird's breath in his ear as well, despite the autonomic machine intelligence's nonphysical nature. She felt what he did when their fiber sync was so high and it took some time for the Furion bloodlust to die down. On a normal day Troy might have given her a hard time about translating that into an unsteadiness in her auditory output but this time they had more important things to worry about. "The symbols..." she began, sensors in the suit feeding information onto the HUD. "Referential to the Cosmic Coil, the branching... haa... paths of all realities, all timelines."

Hematite walked closer to one of the eerily white walls and peered at the pale green glow of the runes there. "So like jumping from our future to Earth-Oddly Chipper Cyborgs or Guns Guns Guns World?" he asked, frowning as he leaned forward and tried to make sense of what the suit and Blackbird were struggling to analyze.

"No, these chart a path back, from the very tips of the highest branches down to the base of trunk. Interesting." Blackbird evidently felt recovered enough to allow her hologram to wink back into view over Hematite's shoulder, walking through the air as she followed the 'sentence' of the symbols. "This substance--"

"Nanotech," Hematite interrupted, taking a startled step away from the wall before realizing that the floor beneath his feet was just as covered. "Has to be but the power requirements alone... If you were in control of this you could change any of the symbols on the fly, right? Make adjustments to the spell or algorithm or whatever. We're deep in 'sufficiently advanced technology' territory here." He glanced around, nerves on edge. "Starting to think this isn't really a punch it 'til it stops sort of situation."

"You may assume I am registering a properly scandalized reaction to that suggestion."

[Avenger Assembled]

Outside and inside, all was quiet with the destruction of the shadow demons. There was no sign of movement from where broken masonry and uprooted pipes had buried and battered  the gigantic assassin that had come to murder the Hunter-White family, but enough bulked visibly underneath the mass hurled by Mystery that it was clear he hadn't escaped either. But the marks left by their passing certainly hadn't gone away; not the superficial damage done to the house where shelves and masonry had cracked and fallen, nor the more serious spiritual damage. With the destruction of the shadow demons, six greasy stains had been left on the face of reality itself, stains that seemed to be more like windows as they showed something hazy and indistinct beyond! The inside group could hazily make out Hematite as he explored a blurry space that was beyond their ability to make out; while the outside group could see the dark outlines of a blurry room lined with regular black rectangles. 

[Electra]

Erin went over to the window and looked out, reassuring herself that Trevor and their allies were all more or less in one piece before returning to the problem at hand. The holes hanging in the middle of the room were definitely a problem, even if one of them hadn't swallowed up the most injured of their number with no indication of where he'd gone. 

 

"Hematite?" Wander called cautiously, looking into the rift where he'd gone. "Can you hear us? Are you okay in there?" 

 

Knightfall shifted impatiently from foot to foot. "There's really only one way to find out," she declared with great certainty. "Beearbee." With one solid swing of her arms for balance, she leapt through the portal after her wayward almost-sibling. 

Edited June 29, 2014 by Electra

[Avenger Assembled]

Knightfall's arrival brought a change to the warped version of Midnight Manor, though not an immediately sinister one. At her arrival, the white floor beneath her feet and Hematite's feet flared up with a bright, steady light that stood out from the surrounding white by its sheer opalescence - forming two pathways of light that led the way out of the room they were in and around a nearby corner. (Luckily, the magical seals that Hematite had detected showed no such sign of renewed activity) There was no sign of what lay around the corner if they followed the paths. After she'd had a few moments to collect herself and take in the new scenery, on the wall over the pathways another symbol had flared to life as it seemed to appear directly out of the wall - two red As, flashing silently on and off with an insistent glow that was obviously meant to be seen - after all, they were the only lights in the room that had any color!

[Gizmo]

As he turned around to face her, Knightfall could see Hematite scowling even through his mask. "What the frell are you thinking?! We've still got no twipping idea what's going on in here, don't just jump in!" Shifting from foot to foot as the floor beneath him began to glow, the temperamental powerhouse clenched and unclenched his fists audibly at his sides. "You're not even wearing a full frelling mask! You do remember we're worried about some sort of infection, right?!"

"Troy." Blackbird's hologram stepped froward from Hematite's shoulder and turned about to float in front of his face with her back to Knightfall, arms crossed and gaze imperious. "We have discussed these behavioural patterns. Desist."

"What? Hey, that's not--" he began in a sputtering objection, raising one hand to point an accusatory finger at the autonomic machine intelligence's avatar.

"Troy."

Groaning loudly, Hematite ran a hand over his face. "Fine. Fine." Once Blackbird had stepped out of the way, he looked back to his extradimensional sibling. "Sorry, Knightfall. Let's just... figure this out and get out of here quickly. Pretty obvious where we're supposed to be going. Do me a favour and at least stay behind me, alright?"

 

*****

 

Outside on the lawn, Daybreak looked upward to the window he'd jumped through, giving Tensile a thumbs up while listening over the commlink. "Nice shooting for an old guy! Is Hematite saying anything?" Hearing his twin's acronym of farewell he stood stock upright and hefted his hammer. "Wha-- Knightie! Did she just jump in one of those things? She totally did, didn't she! Well forget this noise!" Without further preamble, the black and gold clad young man was vaulting through one of the oily slicks hanging in the air where he'd destroyed one of the shadows, disappearing into the hazy parallel scene.

"Daybreak--" Midnight objected, reaching out with one hand a beat too late to stop the impetuous time-traveler. Grating his teeth, Trevor scanned the pile of ruined fountain for any signs that the original intruder was rousing before turning to Mystery. "Do not even think about it."

Looking back and forth between the past version of her father and the rift through which Daybreak had hopped, the teenaged psionic tapped the tips of her index fingers together indecisively, unsure if she could agree to the demand in good faith. "Um..."

[Avenger Assembled]

The pathway led the heroes down a blank hallway, save the lights on the floor and the glowing symbols on the walls, to an oddly affecting scene, at least at first glance. In a room that looked like a completely enameled version of their father's study, a desiccated corpse sat in what had once been Travis's, and then Trevor's, chair. The dead body, completely nude, had once been male, with black hair streaming down its leathery back and a rictus grin on a face that had tilted backwards to stare at the ceiling. From the dark color of the flesh that remained, even down to the bones, it wasn't hard to guess this was someone who had once had midnight mist in his veins. Spread out before him, looking as out of place as his all-too-human corpse in the futuristic room, were a wide variety of leather-bound books, each spread open wide to show scenes of shadowy darkness and bloody rites, engraved with symbols neither of them could necessarily read but that certainly looked fantastical. 

 

All around the corpse, the red symbols  were flashing on and off in an urgent pattern; cascading from the door to the dead body, they were obviously designed to get the viewer's attention. As usual there were no windows in this room and only the one egress, and no sign of furniture that wasn't covered entirely in that eerie white enamel coating of nanotech. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Not for the first time in his life, Daybreak found himself in a dark, dank room that smelled like mildew and decay. But luckily this was an environment with which he was generally comfortable, at least until he looked closely at what he was sharing the room with. This looked something like a Gothic chapel, which made it like nothing he recognized from his own Midnight Manor. Particularly once he looked at the 'pews' and realized exactly what he was looking at - row after row of coffins! Oh, not all coffins; there were urns scattered about as well, but for the most part this room was a macabre chapel where the dead stood in for the worshipers, albeit with nothing actually on the altar where the holy symbols should have been. Looking closely at the mortuary receptacles, he could see where two were missing - one on each side of the aisle, closest to the front. Next to one of those vacant spots, on the left, was an all-too-familiar humble pine box that looked very much like that one that held the mortal remains of his timeline's Travis Hunter.  

 

The nearest name he could make out, on a lovely porcelain urn, bore a brass plate with the names of someone named "Jean Martel Hunter-White" with dates (covering more than 110 years) in the 24th and 25th centuries. Just as he read that date, he realized he could hear voices from outside the chapel door...

[Electra]

Knightfall completely ignored Hematite's sputtering, looking as though she were plenty used to getting the "stop jumping into danger" speech from male relatives. "If the virus was something airborne and contagious, we'd have spread it already just by coming back from worlds and times where our parents have just died," she pointed out coolly, then set down the hallway without waiting for Hematite. She did, however, let him shoulder past her and retake the lead with a minimum of fuss. 

 

"You know," she observed aloud, looking at the signs flashing on the walls, "this kind of reminds me of a setup Dad was planning to setup, kind of a status display for the house. It monitors us all anyway, so he figured why not have icons to show if there's an emergency anywhere. I don't know what the symbol there means, but the idea seems familiar." She startled a bit as they came across the dead guy. "Well, that might be the emergency, for all the good it did him."

[Gizmo]

"What I mean is the white stuff is nanotech," Hematite grated impatiently, not sure if he was more annoyed by Knightfall's laissez-faire attitude or that he'd briefly panicked over a pathogen they'd already discounted before deciding he was more than capable of being annoyed by both simultaneously. "It's not doing much so far but try not to, I don't know, touch it with your bare skin or anything."

Circling around the midnight mist stained corpse cautiously he grimaced behind his mask. "The creep back in the hallway didn't exactly look like flesh and blood," he pointed out, looking over the leather-bound grimoires. "Frelling magic. Figures." As he unconsciously rubbed his chest where their would-be assassin had attacked him something beneath the books caught his eye. Taking a calculated risk, he pushed them slowly aside to reveal a black circle inscribed in the desk with a triangle within pointing to one side. "Play button...?" Glancing up at Knightfall, he shrugged before pressing down on the symbol with one finger.

 

*****

"Aw, that's messed up," Daybreak gulped softly under his breath as he read the nameplate on the urn and quickly surmised whose remains were contained in the rest of the varied containers. Gripping his hammer more tightly, he whispered into his commlink, "Guys, if anybody can hear me, I, uh, I think I figured out why only six of us showed up for this. It's like a cross-time trophy case or collection or something. I don't think we're the only ones here, either..." Going silent, the auburn haired young man stepped silently to one side of the macabre chapel's doors, eyes filling in with onyx black and luminous crimson as he readied his weapon.