The Ashes of This World

[Mad Scientist]

Well.  Cerulean had wanted Fleur to bail her out of her story, but she hadn't quite anticipated the whole, y'know, tell the truth methodology.  That wouldn't have occurred to her, mostly because of the associated embarrassment.

Hearing that their visitor was, most likely, from another dimension instead of the future actually made things better.  Messing around with time never, ever ended well, from anything she'd ever heard, seen, or read on the subject, and so she had felt obliged to put their visitor on the defensive and make it feel like it was already 'busted'.

Dimensional travellers?  Sure, a lot of them could get up to no good, but usually not in a way that could destroy her whole existence.

Then Visitor B arrived, and everything got more complicated.

"Aw, no, it's Cable," she protested, and took to the air again, splitting into her multitudinous self once she was about fifteen feet off the ground.  "We have an existing claim on the destructive actions of Citizen 0047 -- stand down, identify yourself, and prepare to submit your own claim.  Once the prisoner has been processed and restitution has been collected, we can see about releasing him to you for termination."  She spoke rapidly, hoping to brow-beat the newcomer into avoiding hostilities for the immediate future.

She didn't know who was in the right here, but she didn't feel fantastic about the idea of turning someone over for summary execution, nor did she want to turn him over at all before they found out what he may or may not know about impending danger.  Plus, what was up with the air...?

[Electra]

"Cerulean, for pity's sake!" Fleur cried, aggravation breaking through her normally agreeable nature. "Does this situation really need to be any more complicated?" She stepped fearlessly between the two robotic beings, her small forest of vines moving with her like a well-trained magic carpet. "I don't know who either of you are, or where you've come from, or what you want here. But nobody is going to be shooting anybody, or doing anything but standing politely and explaining themselves, until I have all those answers!" she told them, in absolutely no uncertain terms. "Now. My name is Fleur de Joie, this is Cerulean, we are superheroes, yes, you're on the outskirts of Freedom City in May of 2015, and I think you're both a long way from home." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"How dare you! Don't listen to him, he's a quisling!" declared Threepio-47, or whatever his name was. "He's an agent of Talos, sent to reclaim the machine!" He was bent protectively over his device, eyes flashing as he prepared to defend it. 

"That's big talk from you, robot," sneered the new arrival, his gun out but not leveled. "My name is Vigil, and Citizen 0047 is a murderer and a traitor. I'm here to bring him to justice and stop the killing." 

"It's a war," added 0047, "we did what we had to do! Listen, Fleur de Joie, and you, Cerulean, I came here after I stole this device from one of Talos' laboratories. I was supposed to deliver it to my contacts in the human resistance, but there was a firefight, and the device must have triggered-" 

"You killed innocent civilians! Human beings, doing a job to save their families," said Vigil, obviously holding back a simmering fury. "And if your terrorist friends get their hands on that thing, they're just going to kill more people." 

[Mad Scientist]

Cerulean winced at the admonishment from Fleur -- apparently, she wasn't really helping any.  While it wasn't in her nature, she tried to tell herself to just shut her mouth and let the experienced experts handle things.

However, even without her stirring the pot, nothing was becoming any clearer.  Was Artoo a freedom fighter against a corrupt regime, or was Vigil a law enforcement officer in pursuit of a terrorist?  Or, quite possibly, were both things equally true, depending on which side one was looking at it from.

The entire swarm of her was looking nervous, switching attention from one to the other and back again.  She didn't know what to do -- and so it was a good thing that Fleur was here to take charge and sort everything out.  She was still very new to this, and the hand of experience was a great comfort....

[Electra]

"That's enough!" Fleur snapped at the two robots. "No more name calling, no more threats of violence or I will put you both in time-out until you can behave like rational sentient beings! If the two of you are going to be here on our Earth, I'd like you to give me your gun," she told Vigil, "and you to give me the device," she continued to Artoo. "We have no stake in your conflict, except that your arrival here has caused damage to our world and is interrupting us trying to get everything fixed. We don't want to bully you, but we," and here she nodded to all the Ceruleans, "have to consider the safety of our world. And we aren't going to let anyone be taken away without first knowing what's going on here." She held out her hands expectantly to the two robots, looking more like a mom waiting for a misused toy to be handed over than any kind of intimidating superhero. 

[Avenger Assembled]

Artoo responded first, handing over the bag with a look of reluctance on his face. "Well...all right, but don't mess with it. Do you have any super-scientists on your team?" he asked, speaking like an anthropologist asking a native about their rituals. "Maybe they'll understand the technology. Just...just don't mess with it, you might break it!" he added, watching Fleur's handling of the bag (which was much heavier than it looked) anxiously. 

For his part, Vigil set the gun down and kicked it over to Fleur, hmmfing as he did so. "It has a DNA lockout, so it won't even work for you. Big deal. I'm not staying in your dimension long - just long enough to bring my prisoner home." He looked up at Cerulean, his cybernetic eye gleaming in reflective light. "Who do you think you're trying to fool, kid?"

Edited May 18, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Mad Scientist]

Despite her determination to keep her mouth shut, it up and ran away with her.

"Who am I trying to what?" she demanded nervously, unsure of what he meant.  "I'm not trying to--"  And then she got it.  He was looking at her, not listening to her, and he had that cybernetic eye.  It could be that he could see through her decoys as well as she herself could.

Well.  She got to feel all sorts of out of her depth today, didn't she?  Collapsing her decoys back into herself, she tried to give the impression that they'd never been out in the first place.  Fine!  It looked like they weren't going to be fighting anyhow.

She descended again, rejoining Fleur and hovering at her side.  "Do you know any super-scientists?" she murmured, still keeping her eyes on the pair of dimensional travellers.  "I've, well, got this classmate who's good with tech, but I'm pretty sure we want experts on this, right?"

[Electra]

"Dragonfly is a lot more conversant with the actual mechanics of dimensional travel than I am, she might be able to figure this out," Fleur murmured back, studying the box in her hands. "Could you keep hold of that?" she asked Cerulean, nodding towards the gun on the ground. "And keep an eye on them both, if one of them goes invisible I don't know how I'd find them," she added, sotto voce. "Thank you both," she told the two robotic sentients, favoring them with a smile. "I'm sure we can get this all sorted out. If you don't mind, I'll take us all to Freedom League Headquarters where we can talk in more comfort, and Cerulean and I will come back later to finish our work. Just one quick second." 

Fleur raised her hands as though she were about to conduct an orchestra, looking up into the boughs of the trees that had survived the damage of the fire. There was a sound of rustling leaves, and then a gentle breeze wafted through the clearing, teasing playfully at Cerulean's hair and fluttering the edges of Fleur's cowl. The smoke began to clear almost magically, revealing plainly the devastated patch of burnt forest and scorched earth. Fleur closed her hands into fists, keeping them raised, and suddenly every bit of burnt, dead vegetation began to collapse in a soft rain of ash , till the ground was ankle deep in places and the only things left standing were the still-living trees and plants. "There we go," she said with a decisive nod. "Now nothing's going to fall on anyone while we're gone, anyway." She gave Cerulean a quick wink. "Everybody ready to go?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

This was hardly the first strange visitor that the Freedom League had dealt with - or even the first hostile group of them. Fleur de Joie's gateway led them into an armored basement room underneath Freedom Hall, a brightly-decorated, welcoming place that happened to have thick steel walls and several layers of concrete between the room itself and any civilians. Once inside the room, Vigil and Threepio separated from each other, cyborg and robot heading off to each side of the room to glare at each other. For his part, Threepio (once it was clear he would not be handed over to Vigil for immediate return) seemed fascinated by the place. "Look around, Vigil!" he exclaimed, rubbing his hands together warmly. "Just imagine this place at home. You could be executed just for setting foot inside."  

Vigil did not seem inclined to listen to his rival's taunting. "Execution is the least you'll face. Do you think your people will be trusted after what you've done? After the good and decent beings you helped you slaughter. Maybe this world is run by humans," he said with a glance at Fleur and Cerulean, "but even humans understood the rule of law. Unless inorganic life means nothing to them - maybe they'll dissect _you_ for their pleasure." 

[Mad Scientist]

Cerulean regarded the giant weapon a little dubiously, but obligingly flew over to land beside it.  Crouching down, she hefted it with a grunt of effort -- holy cheese, it was heavy!  Cradling it in both arms, she flew back to Fleur's side as that worthy proceeded to finish converting charred vegetation into soft ash.  Her eyes widened at the sight -- the sheer versatility of what Fleur could do made her little lightshows seem rather simple.

Moving through the gateway with their...prisoners?  Were they prisoners?  In any case, the reactions of robot and cyborg differed wildly, and she found her enthusiasm over the whole bizarre situation starting to become tainted by her frustration at their constant nattering.

"Do you guys, y'know, think you could tone it down a bit, maybe?" she asked them plaintively.  "This whole 'you're the bad guy, no you're the bad guy' routine is wearing kinda thin, right?"  She didn't want to worry so much about the pair of them -- she was in part of Freedom Hall, how freakin' exciting was that?

[Electra]

"Yes, just so," Fleur agreed, nodding to Cerulean. "We're not going to learn anything that way. Please, both of you, can't we all sit down at this table like civilized beings and simply talk?" She touched one of the communications panels on the wall. "Celie, can you get in touch with Dragonfly for me and see if she's available for a technical consult on a dimension-jumping device? Thanks so much!" Sitting down at the table, she set the box on the floor at her feet. "All right, like I said, my name is Fleur de Joie, and this is Cerulean. We are superheroes and we protect this planet Earth. I'd like to hear both of you tell your stories in your own words, one at a time with no interruptions. There'll be time for rebuttals afterwards. Mr. Threepio, you landed first, so could you please start?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

Threepio, with some reluctance, told his story - taking a seat at the table in the small room and resting his hands on it like a normal human being. "I joined the Resistance about four years ago, when I was a teenager. It doesn't really matter why - I made a friend." He hmmphed. "Once I convinced them I wasn't just a spy for Talos, I was able to be useful - I can alter my ID code the way some metahumans could alter their shape, so I can infiltrate Terran AI society when they're not paying attention. And they usually aren't; Talos is so worried about organic life he's blind to what's happening right under his nose." He looked for a moment like he was about to get distracted into baiting Vigil before he seemed to force himself back to the subject. "A couple of months ago, the Resistance got word that Talos's scientists were working on something new; a full-scale dimensional gateway so that they could raid other worlds for supplies. The War of '94 left a lot of things burnt to a crisp, even beyond the reach of the Foundry. So, I went in - I walked here through the rad fields and made it over the fence, and impersonated a science officer until I could get my hands on the dimensional jump. Of course somebody found me." He crossed his arms and looked away. "And the fight was...bad. But I got it done - something in the firefight must have triggered the device, though, so I made a raw jump right into this dimension...and right into the ground. It probably would have killed any organic to even try it." 

Edited May 21, 2015 by Avenger Assembled

[Mad Scientist]

Cerulean watched and listened avidly, and it was difficult to tell if she was focusing her attention on trying to determine if the robot was telling the truth, or if she was making notes on a new script to pitch to Hollywood. Her light continued to fill the room, fading shadows and giving everything an odd, blue tinge, but her ability to see things as they really were didn't extend so far as to being able to tell truth from a lie, or any of the shades in between.

Of course, she wasn't a bad hand herself at sorting out the bull, not after all the time she'd spent online with its hotbeds of scams, hoaxes, and outright lies.  She wasn't guaranteed to catch any false notes in the tale being told, but neither was she the easiest person to put one over on.

"The Resistance...Talos...those things didn't happen here," she prompted.  "What's the backstory to this whole war you two are having?"  She was still a-tingle at being referred to as a peer by Fleur, even if it likely was only to present a united front against their extradimensional guests.  She wanted to be more than just someone who sat and listened -- who knew, this might be the only time she had anything at all to do with the Freedom League!

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, uh..." The two antagonists actually glanced at each other at that, both of them with looks of faint surprises on their faces. "Do you know who Talos is?" When Cerulean reassured him that she did, he went on. "Twenty-one years ago, Talos seized control of the fission and fusion weapons of the United States and Russia and fired them at each other." For a moment, the robot looked guilty. "Terrans, uh, call it the War of '94. The war killed almost all the metahumans of Earth and, uh, about three billion of its inhabitants. Talos won the next war in the ruins and his forces now control the planet, with all the old nation-states carved up between his lieutenants. He also cut Terra off from the rest of the galaxy - which is one reason why I'm here," he admitted. "As far as the Republic's concerned, this was just a sad, but natural chapter in Terran development." 

[Electra]

"Terra?" Fleur repeated, sounding a little confused as she looked from one robot to the other. "Are you a robot who isn't native to your Earth, or is that what everyone calls the planet in your world?" She was interrupted momentarily by her communicator buzzing, she checked it and nodded. "Our science expert will be here in just a moment to have a look at the device and make sure there's nothing dangerous or volatile that all of us should be worried about." She looked over to Vigil then, giving him a neutral smile. "I'm sure we have enough time to hear your side of events before she gets here, if you'd like to share with us." 

[Mad Scientist]

Cerulean snapped her fingers excitedly and pointed at Artoo.  "That's right, you've been saying you're from some sort of Republic, from far, far away?" she asked, her lips twitching slightly.  She couldn't help himself -- between his name, and the whole 'Republic' thing....

"Are you deliberately constructed to resemble a human, or is that a coincidence of form?  Are most aliens -- er, non-Terran species, I mean -- really bilaterally symmetrical bipeds with binocular vision?" she inquired curiously, leaning forward in earnest interest.

Odds are fairly good that she could go on all day like this, if no one took steps to rein her back in again.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I...don't think I should answer that," said Artoo, sounding cold for the first time. "I don't know how my people live in this dimension, and I don't want to give us away. I was technically born on what you call Earth, though, yes."

For his part, Vigil looked reluctant to tell his story - but his counterpart's openness seemed to spur him. "That's the terrorist side of things, anyway. As far as I'm concerned, my people destroyed themselves in a stupid war before I was old enough to read and write. And I'm glad Talos won the war - better living under the machines than under the Grue, or SHADOW." He frowned. "Talos' rule is harsh, but fair. The people living in Talos City eat every day and sleep with a roof over their heads every night; which is a  lot more than I can say for the savage degenerates your friend here fights alongside. You have to understand," he went on seriously, "in our world everybody's in danger. There's still enough radiation in the atmosphere that humans are usually born with mutations or some other sickness, and the machines haven't had a chance to fix everything because of all the infighting. Every soldier that's killed, every human that dies, when we fight the terrorists; that's one more chance that human and machine alike go together into the dark. That's why it's important to stop the forces of evil now, before they can do more damage to our world." 

[Mad Scientist]

Cerulean scowled.  "Well, call me crazy, but I think living free, rather than under the heel of Talos, or the Grue, or SHADOW, or anyone else, is the best option," she retorted hotly.  "It doesn't have to be one of them, you know -- look at us, look at our world," she told them, although a niggling little thought at the back of her brain told her they'd seen a burnt section of forest and this secure bunker, so maybe those little glimpses weren't selling her point.  "We don't have any tyrannical overlord ruling us, despite what the Obama-bashers would have you believe."  Which was about as far as she got along the field of politics -- she wasn't eighteen yet, it didn't much matter to her.

She pointed a finger at Vigil.  "You say that they're terrorists, disrupting the greater good and making it harder to rebuild life on isolated Terra," she told the cyborg.  "You," she switched the finger to Artoo, "claim that they're geoncidal machines that want to wipe out organic life.  Those can't both be true, so which is it?  Is life being fixed, or wiped out?" she demanded.

[Avenger Assembled]

"You're crazy. Humanity destroyed itself - but if we are very lucky, we won't destroy the world we're trying to build as part of the machine society. All I know is, his is the side that would have let my family fend for itself in the Waste Land rather than live in safety and security. Are you going to let me have my prisoner or not?" Vigil asked his fellow organics, his tone serious. "You've heard my story, you've heard his story. The dimensional barriers are going to start forming up again soon and frankly I don't relish living out the rest of my life here." 

"Nor do I," said Artoo, his voice tight. "Maybe Talos can rebuild the device with enough time and energy, but the Resistance can counter it if we have our own copies. Even if the organics can't use it, or even if they do start with resource raids, at least the AIs in the Resistance can strike against the enemy with it. You have to understand," he told Fleur and Cerulean frankly, "people like you, unless they are very, very loyal to Talos, are executed upon capture and their DNA studied to make empowered biodroids. If you're anything like the old metahumans of Terra, I don't think that's the kind of justice you recognize." 

[Fox]

"'False dichotomy'," Dragonfly's suit-filtered supplied as she entered the room. She was flanked by a pair of football-sized drones, each of them fixing a curious, one-eyed gaze on the interdimensional visitors. "It's the name for that, I mean. Think I'm with the blue one; always a third option. Just have to look hard enough."

"Sorry for delays," she apologized, raising a hand to Fleur in greeting as she made her way through the room. "Was carefully explaining to gang members why you don't deal guns in this city; am sure they will remember the lesson when they wake up. Is that the device? Dimensional transporter? Heard that arrival burned up part of the forest. Inelegant."

[Electra]

"Dragonfly!" Fleur exclaimed happily, rising from her seat when the engineer arrived. "It's so nice to see you, thank you so much for coming over! This is Cerulean," she continued with a proud gesture towards the young heroine at the table. "She's from the school. She and I were working to clean up that mess in Wharton Forest when all of this crazy stuff started up. Cerulean, this is Dragonfly, she's the smartest person I know when it comes to dimensional transport, and a lot of other things as well."

With a glance towards the table, she continued, "And this is Vigil and Artoo Threepio," she continued, without so much as a grin for the bizarre name. "They're on opposite sides of their post-apocalyptic robot war in a universe where someone pushed the nuclear button a few decades ago. I was hoping you could take a look at Artoo's device here, see how and if it's going to work when he activates it again. The last thing we need is any more fires." Fleur picked up the box and offered it to Dragonfly. 

Edited May 24, 2015 by Electra

[Fox]

"Hello," Dragonfly greeted Cerulean, with the same slightly awkward hand-raise. "Good to see new heroes. Would offer you platitudes, but don't believe in them. Just give stupid criminals hell. Safely," she added, glancing at Fleur.

She took the box, inarticulately grunting thanks...and stopped. One could actually see the moment her brain shifted over without a clutch: she locked in place for a moment, her head cocked to the side, and then rotated the still-cocked helmet-clad face over to look at 'Artoo' and then back at Fleur again. "....Artoo...? ...no, really, what's his name. Or, you, I guess," she corrected, glancing back at Artoo. Little lights could barely be seen dancing behind the lenses of her faceplate as she addressed him, and when she spoke her voice was both audible and, somehow, inside his head. "What's your...mmhhh. Okay. Interesting body you've picked up," she obliquely commented. She turned her attention back to the box, carefully setting it down on the nearest flat surface and crouching to inspect it. Her 'signal', too, seemed to withdraw, the dancing lights dying away. "Not sure it suits you. Insufficient levels of black leather trenchcoat, maybe. Does anyone have a flashlight? Some idiot shot mine, haven't had chance to replace it."

Edited May 24, 2015 by Fox

[Mad Scientist]

Cerulean's eyes widened at the entrance of the grey-black-and-blue power suit, and was suitably impressed by the drones flanking its wearer.  The expression on her face as she looked over the tech, however, suggested that maybe she knew something about it that was a little less than comforting.

"That's right, you're not a big fan of arms dealers, are you?" she said before she could stop herself, and she clamped her mouth shut and smiled widely instead.

"It's good to meet you, Dragonfly, and platitudes aren't necessary," she went on when she pried her mouth open again a moment later.  She wasn't entirely certain why the tech expert had asked about a flashlight, when she was already illuminating the room fairly brightly with her own blue glow, but she couldn't really do much better than she already was.

Not without potentially blinding everyone in the room, anyhow.

"But, um...black leather trench coats?" she repeated, uncertain of what the heroine was getting at, looking confusedly from Dragonfly to Artoo and back again.

 

Gather Information (Well Informed): 1d20+10 25

[Electra]

"I can get you one, Dragonfly, but I think if Cerulean just stands close to you, you might not need it," Fleur suggested with a grin. "Her light is special, apparently it helps counter illusions as well. She pegged our robots here right away. So, do you know Artoo?" she asked curiously. "Or a version of him from another reality?" She moved back towards the table, looking between the two bots with curiosity. "I hadn't even thought about the fact that you might have counterparts here in this world. That's such an interesting idea! Tell me, Vigil, if we were to send Artoo Threepio back with you, what would happen then? What was this device supposed to be for?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"...yes," said Artoo, tensing visibly at Dragonfly's words, but obviously recognizing their intent. He sounded surprised - evidently he didn't know who this was on his homeworld. "I...well, it's not my name, I guess you can tell." He folded his arms defensively, watching Dragonfly as she studied the box. "I took the name of the most famous pre-war robots I could think of...careful with that..." He muttered, obviously not trusting her (or anyone else) with the proper care and handling of the device. It looked like Daedalus tech, as far as Dragonfly could tell, albeit with the sort of dangerous environmental effects that worthy would never have tolerated. 

"He will be tried, judged, and executed. He's killed machine and organic life as part of the Resistance," said Vigil evenly, seeming far more comfortable to see the device in Dragonfly's hand than Artoo. "As far as I've been told, the device is for resource-gathering. Our world _is_ in danger of dying out - we need rare metals and material that can't be made any more with the loss of knowledge and material after the war."