ic Metallic Mesozoic Monsters!

[Raveled]

"Seedworld?" Corona half-turned to Memorial, raising an eyebrow behind her mask. "Earth? That old story?" She snorted and stepped out over the middle of the hole, hovering there. "Y'all really think that the planet we came from is generations behind Lor-Van in, well, everything?" She started to sink into the hole, her suit's scrubbers keeping her air pure and sweet-smelling. "If you're goin' for off-tha'-wall ideas, at least keep them relevant to what we're doin'. Like where this all goes!"

Edited November 7, 2014 by Raveled

[souffle_girl]

The bizarre conversation between the two women didn't go unnoticed. Mechanized stared at one, then at the other, and barely managed to keep her jaw from dropping. She'd heard of beings from other planets, or even other dimensions, being on Earth, but she always assumed them to be urban legends. After all, supers of various origin were so different from one another that they could look like anything. Heck, she looked like a character straight out of a Salvatore novel!

Also, judging from Memorial's words, she might think of Earth as "the seedworld for our species," something on which Corona disagreed. She wondered what that meant.

 

"Wait, wait... Are you actually talking about Earth as if you were from somewhere else? Does that mean you're aliens or something? Is this the part where you tell me you're from somewhere near Betelgeuse and to grab my towel?"

 

She'd already said that when she realized that, if they really were aliens, they wouldn't catch the reference. Or did people on their homeworlds pick up Earth communications?

[horngeek]

"Never accept the expected as truth- I'm not discounting Earth just because your people think they're the origin point.  But you're right in one thing, this isn't exactly the place..."

 

Memorial tilted her head at the Betelgeuse comment.  "...I get the feeling that you're making a reference from something with that last one.  Um.  I've only actually been on Earth for... a terran month or thereabouts, I'm not really familiar with the ins and outs.  Um.  But to answer the question, we're all actually the same species here.  What your world calls Homo Sapiens.  Just born on three different planets."

 

She looked at the hole.  "If you want, you can ask me some questions while we explore, as long as we all stay focused.  Don't want to get jumped, after all."

[souffle_girl]

Mechanized walked closer to the hole.

 

"Whoa, this really stinks. I'll go first again, cover my back," Emily said, and dropped into the hole. She activated a flashlight on her armor and looked around, trying to take her surroundings in.

 

"You sure you two aren't pulling my leg? If there's more planets inhabited by humans out there, why don't we know about it? Why keeping it a secret? Also, there's plenty of evidence about human evolution on Earth. Either that's all bogus, Corona, or Memorial is right. Which prompts the question of how and when your ancestors left Earth in the first place."

[Raveled]

Corona sniffed in irritation. "There is plenty of evidence for Lor evolution on Lor-Van," she said with arrogant certainty. "Probably. I ain't a biologist." The heroine made a face as she reached the level of sewage, and quickly made a decision. The suited heroine floated along behind Memorial and Mechanized as they proceeded down the tunnel. "And if Earth's the seedworld, then how under the stars can Lor be so much more advanced, hm?"

[horngeek]

"Well... people here know where humans on Earth expanded on.  I did some looking up, place called Africa, however they got there, and it's definitely in a sorry state compared to here.  As for reasons why... external influence, natural disaster, just didn't have the resources... I can think of a whole lot of ways, and whichever way I think of it, 'of course the most advanced civilisation came first' is just making assumptions.  I mean, by that logic, my people would have a fair claim to the position, and we always knew that Belran wasn't where our species began."

 

Memorial peered down the tunnel.  "I'm not saying Earth's definitely it, either, mind you.  How long does this tunnel go, anyway?"

[souffle_girl]

The argument didn't seem like it was going to die down, as much as just being dropped. Judging by how touchy corona seems to be about the subject, Emily guessed it must be something that started a lot of time ago.

 

"OK, I didn't mean to spark such a debate, I was just speculating. I'm not sure a stinking tunnel is the right place to discuss ancient history or anthropology anyway. So, the two of you come from different places, and even curtures it seems. Where are your homes? And what brings you to this merry ball of mud?"

[horngeek]

"I think this might be the first time two people from our respective planets have met, actually."

 

Memorial paused for a long moment.  "I'm pretty sure I'm pushing five to six hundred years.  I've spent most of that... dormant.  As for why... let's just say I've taken the name Memorial for a reason.  Actually, Corona, while what we're doing now is a more immediate concern, I'd like to have a talk with you after all this."

 

She sighed.  "Let's just focus for now.  If I go into it too far right now, I'll be distracted."

[Raveled]

"My home is." Corona paused, considering if she wanted to get into the centuries of friendly and not-so-friendly competition between Halla and Lor-Vall, deciding against it. "I was assigned to Earth by the Lor Republic," she said. "There's an entire bureau of the government devoted to keeping an eye on underdeveloped planets like this one, and I'm part of it." She didn't mention that the bureau was the perennially underfunded step-child of the Lor military/investigation complex.

The trio turned a corner and realized they had reached their destination. It was kind of unmistakable, a large hole punched into the roof letting much brighter light fall into the sewer. It wasn't difficult to consider that whomever had bashed a hole in their floor to access the sewer had bashed this rough hole to get out of it.

Something moved under the water and Corona stopped in her hovering, peering into the dense, murky liquid. She certainly saw something moving in there, and that intuition combined with her combat training gave her just enough of an edge to avoid the first set flailing, stainless-steel tentacles punching out of the murk.

[Raveled]

Metallic tentacles, spilling murky, dirty water wrapped around the heroine's golden suit, but she turned in a quick spiral and slipped free. She flew up to near the top of the sewer corridor, then turned back to the water and unleashed a blast of golden, actinic light that lit up the sewer tunnel and their attacker. It didn't seem to be much more than a mass of silvery-metallic tentacles sliding around themselves. Corona's blast struck one full-on, but it didn't seem to do much more than annoy the monster.

[horngeek]

Memorial paused for a moment as she lifted up into the air, looking for a spot to hit.  There didn't really seem to be a center of mass or a particular weak spot to hit, after all.

 

She considered following up Corona's blast with one of her own, but decided to vary things a little- after all, maybe physical damage would work better on this foe.  She flew forwards, her fist rushing forwards to deliver a punishing blow to the monster...

 

If one that didn't seem to do more than cause it to pause.  At least it was something, though.  

[souffle_girl]

Mechanized was completely surprised by the sudden appearance of the tentacled thing, luckily it had targeted Corona first or she wouldn't have been able to defend from it!

 

"What the... What's this thing?" she exclaimed. Then she shook herself out of her surprise, pointed her right arm at the thing, and took aim with her force cannon.

 

A white-hot beam of energy hit the thing squarely, but even if it creaked under the impact its armor held. It didn't matter, and she held her aim to fire again.

[Raveled]

Memorial managed to get her hands on some of the writhing tentacles, crushing and tearing one apart, shredding it into scrap. Mechanized's force cannon missed, though, splashing sewer water right up to the ceiling, and Corona was very glad for her sealed suit. As the dirty water rained down again the Lor officer took aim at the moving mass. It tried to wrap around Mechanized's limbs; Corona sent a blast of cosmic radiation and caused it to shy off from its attack.