You know, for kids!

[MarkK]

"Oh! Well then I must commend you on the spirit of charity and goodwill borne by your entire family as a shared trait. You are all very much a credit to this city in each your own ways."

His smile had a warm sincerity to it as he took the information in, even as his mind picked out from this the more useful conclusions he could apply to helping her out.

"From my own experiences with bureaucracy, it would actually be easy to have a sort of.. paperwork emergency, if you will, crop up with regards your parents' involvement in the celebration. And naturally they would have to go tend to it for several hours. And certainly they would not wish to bog down their daughter, vivacious socialite that she is, with such banalities, leaving you free to wander the park, and thus be active for those hours as Velocity."

He frowned just slightly, chewing on his lower lip for a moment, a suprisingly human affectation.

"That is just a little bit more sneaky than I like to be mind you, but circumstances require, so we will make do."

And then a bit of a blink as some of his words come back to him.

"Also, I did not mean to offend as far as the vivacious socialite comment. I perhaps read too many newspapers."

[Thevshi]

Velocity smiled broadly, letting Emissary know she did not mind the description.  "Oh believe me, my parents are quite use to me making my way off into any one of the many functions they have me attend with them. They are quite use to not seeing me for hours at a time. Its just that I'll need to make the occasional appearance to be on the safe side, considering my mom is rather involved in organizing this event."

[MarkK]

He nods.

"I am certain. We could however have such a distraction occur after you have had some time to be seen at the side of your parents. It then just allows for a stretch where you can present yourself as Velocity without any accompanying issue of your parents attending any performance, booth or event you might be in without having to wonder where their daughter is, since they would be somewhere else anyway."

"I should add, I think it likely you hear this sort of thing a lot, but your mother has been a great help to me in this. If you happen to be able to sort out being able to convey my thanks.. I have already done so enough times from my person directly to be impractical."

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville leads Captain Wonder -- and Gossamer and Rusty, if they wish to come along -- to his home in Hanover, midway between the Hanover Institute of Technology and the Albright Institute. He suggests they fly over, offering (with a bit of nervousness in his voice) to carry Gossamer.

The trip is short, and soon the heroes are in front of what appears to be a completely ordinary light gray one-story housing unit, the sort that's sprung up all over Hanover in the past few years, surrounded by a small but well-manicured lawn. A cobblestone walkway leads from the sidewalk to the front door, flanked by an octet of decorative lawn gnomes. (Captain Wonder could swear their eyes shone bright red for a moment... but surely that was just a trick of the light, right?) Thick white curtains block all view through the windows and a dark gray mailbox seemed bolted to the house near the front door. Archeville stood on the doormat and opened the glass storm door to get to the main front door, opening it with -- to the surprise of some -- an ordinary-looking silvery key.

He then turned back to face the others, hunching a bit. "I bid you velcome to mein sanctum," he intoned with a wicked lil' chuckle. "Enter freely und of your own vill."

Shame we didn't get that trap door installed... or the dungeon.

Oh, stop it.

Looking in, it was instantly apparent that the house's outer appearance was very deceiving. The inside was quite nicely decorated, with beautifully stained wood paneling along the walls and a tiled floor depicting an odd mandala-like design. Three hallways lead off from the entryway, left, right, and straight ahead, and a sparkling chandelier hangs from the ceiling.

The ceiling which was far too high for the building, based on the exterior dimensions. Come to think of it, the entryway alone seemed big enough to take up half the house....

"So, anyvon hungry? Thirsty?"

[Thevshi]

"Well, I would hate for you to have to create a reason to keep my parents busy at the event. The park is pretty big, so it is easy enough to make my way off in the crowds."  Velocity replied.  "Having a private place to change and keep my dress is really the more pressing issue. But if you want to arrange something, I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

[shazam]

Disquieted by the house's eldritch dimensions, Wonder floats up and rotates in the air. "How did you build this?" he asks suspiciously.

[Dr Archeville]

"Science!" he says, sounding somewhat like Magnus Pyke. "Specifically, hypermathematics to create multidimensional tesseracts, allowing zhe interior of mein home to be bigger zhan zhe exterior. Like zhat box on zhat British science fiction programme, Doktor Wer."

Archeville gives a brief tour of the place, showing that dozens of rooms are contained within his home. Most seem fairly average, the type of room anyone might see in the home of a moderately affluent tech-centric person who favors function over form, the only oddity being that there are so many of them. A few, though, stand out. A few are oriented sideways or even upside down, something the host attributes to "localized electromagnogravitic fluctuations" or "rounding off the decimals in the equations too soon." One has a large window looking out to a thick and rich forest, the sort that shouldn't be within miles of Hanover.

As they move throughout Archeville's home, the heroes slowly become aware of a "being watched" feeling, and of movements seen from just out the corner of their eyes. Just as someone begins to ask Archeville about the phenomenon, something looking like a large metallic rat scurries by, clearly seen by all.

Ooh, I hope we've got some of that good beer left! It's been so long since we've had company... oh, and snacks! I think there's stuff for some light sandwiches before we head back...

Hey, I was gonna eat those!

[MarkK]

“Well, I would hate for you to have to create a reason to keep my parents busy at the event. The park is pretty big, so it is easy enough to make my way off in the crowds.†Velocity replied. “Having a private place to change and keep my dress is really the more pressing issue. But if you want to arrange something, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.â€Â

"I will make preparations for said distraction then, but leave it to your decision during the day of. Just give me some sort of signal. But a dressing room is otherwise entirely simple to arrange by comparison."

[shazam]

For all of Captain Wonder's suspicions of the robots, the presence of the architectural blasphemies seem to disturb him the most. Still, he's a good guest, and doesn't actually say anything. "You have a fine place here," he admits. "So where's your 'assistant'?"

[Cotoloti]

"Rat! Don't worry, I'm on it Doc!" yells out Rusty and races towards the creature at high speed.

[Thevshi]

"I will make preparations for said distraction then, but leave it to your decision during the day of. Just give me some sort of signal. But a dressing room is otherwise entirely simple to arrange by comparison."

“Thank you.†Velocity replied. Her stance then became more casual, as it more normally was. “Now, shall we make our way to Freedom Hall to get things ready for when the others arrive?â€Â

[Dr Archeville]

Let's see, I know we've got some chicken and roast beef left, and some rye-wheat bread, and mustard, both brown and yellow. I mean, I know we don't have much time, but I'm sure we can slap together some-

Hey, Betty Krauter, the midget's about to destroy our vacuum.

"Whaoh, Rusty!" Archeville calls out. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't destroy mein vacuum."

The metallic rat kept scurrying about, clinging mostly the the baseboards, and on close inspection did indeed seem to be sucking up bits of dirt and dust from the floor. Occasionally it would stop and use its tail to swing open a tiny concealed panel in the baseboard, revealing a metallic surface underneath, and a few tiny sparks would jump from the wall to the rat. It would then resume scurrying, and the tiny panel would swing pack down into place.

"You've heard of zhe Roomba robotic vacuum, ja? Well, zhat little robot is basically zhe same, just a tiny bit more advanced. Ah, und see zhere, vhere it's connecting to zhe wall? Zhat's both a power conduit and a link to a computer zhat contains a blueprint of zhe house. By contacting zhe metal strip, it both recharges itself und is able to double-check vhere it is in zhe building."

"As for mein 'assistant', NERGAL is downstairs, in zhe robotics workshop. If you'll follow me zhis vay, ve can take one of zhe service elevators down."

[MarkK]

“Thank you.†Velocity replied. Her stance then became more casual, as it more normally was. “Now, shall we make our way to Freedom Hall to get things ready for when the others arrive?â€Â

"By all means. I've wanted to familiarize myself with the Wreck Room controls anyway."

And in short order, likely even shorter for Velocity, he traveled out to the hall, a cheery smile and wave for Cynthia the synthetic receptionist before heading to the booth that oversaw the training field, sliding back into a chair, and typing away to pull up files and protocols.

[shazam]

Wonder follows Archeville down to the cellar, the look on his face of a man trying to be as polite as possible. "This reminds me a little of Dr. Atom's laboratory. The old Doctor Atom, not the one in the computer. He had a radio that fit right on your wrist, just like in the funny papers! I thought that was the best thing ever."

[Dr Archeville]

Oh,h ey, look at the time! We really should be getting back now....

Aw, does the lil' Id fragment not want the Big Hero nosing around in his lab?

The cellar which looked for all intents and purposes to be the storage area for a bar, given all the barrels in it. As astute eye would notice that there were no American beers in sight, they were all imports. An astute eye would also notice the few robots in the room, dusting off and rotating barrels, checking ambient temperature and humidity levels, and so on. Most of the robots were about twice the size of a grown man's hand, but two were the size of German Shepherds. All very vaguely spider-like.

"You vorked mit Doktor Atom?" Archeville asked, seemingly impressed. "Do you, see him still? I vould very much like to meet him: do you zhink you could, er, put in a good vord for me?"

Archeville walked to one of the cellar walls, where a selection of beer taps seemed to be mounted for display. He pulled a series of them, and a concealed door slid open, revealing a series of laboratories which stretched out for hundreds of yards. While tidy, they were not gleaming or pristine, and looked like they'd seen a lot of use. The place had a weird smell, a mixture of antiseptic chemicals, oil, and ozone. The center was dominated by a massive pillar, covered in monitor screens, though from this distance it was impossible to see what was on them.

"Zhis vay, please," he sad as he lead them in, through the maze of tables. Most held either electronic components or flasks of chemicals, though two held assorted plant samples and one held what looked like an assortment of plastic waterguns of various shapes and sizes along with a few chemical testing paraphernalia. Tiny robots scurried about here and there, like ants attending their duties.

Finally Archeville stopped at one long table, covered with assorted tools and components, like what one might expect to see be used in repairing a robot. The super-scientist waited for everyone to catch up with him. "Vell, here ve are, und here... is NERGAL!" A section of the floor split open and a transparent tube rose up. The tube contained a large robot, slightly bigger than Archeville himself, and appeared as he described it: a leonine-featured humanoid robot. It was mostly red, though the entire left leg and arm, right thigh and forearm, and the back of its head were all a dull grey color. "As I said, it's taken quite a bit of vork to get it back up to speed, und I've yet to re-paint most of zhe new parts."

[Heritage]

Luckily for the good doctor, Gossamer is able to rig herself a sort of 'hair sling' so she hangs below him when he flies, so he doesn't have to do anything improper to carry her. As they fly over the city, the blond heroine spreads her arms wide and imagines what it would be like to do this all the time.

"I feel like a bird!" she cries with almost childish glee.

Once they arrive at Dr. Archeville's wondrous home, she frequently stops in awe as she gazes about; without even realizing it, she starts to softy sing a song from 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'.

"Come with me and you'll be

In a world of pure imagination.

Take a look and you'll see

Into your imagination.

We'll begin with a spin

Trav'ling in the world of my creation.

What we'll see will defy

Explanation.

If you want to view paradise

Simply look around and view it!

Anything you want to, do it

Want to change the world, there's nothing to it!

There is no life I know

To compare with pure imagination!

Living there, you'll be free

If you truly wish to be!"

As they walk through the many rooms of the transdimensional mansion, Gossamer's hair tendrils spread out to gently touch the walls, furnishings and apparatus as she continues to hum the tune in her light and airy voice.

"Vell, here ve are, und here... is NERGAL!"

When they finally arrive NERGAL's storage area, Gos is intrigued by the leonine robot. "Well, it certainly is impressive!"

[Thevshi]

Velocity reached the Freedom League’s headquarters ahead of Emissary. By the time he arrived, she had already read over the manual for operating the Wreck Room and was waiting for her teammate to start looking over the controls.

“Here you go.†She said with a smile as she handed him the manual.

[Dr Archeville]

Seriously, we really should be going now!

Now we do't, we've still got- wow, okay, maybe we do.

Archeville actually blushed at Gosamer's comment, "You should see it vhen it's fully operational! Sadly, as you can see," he said as he rotated the container around, showing the open back of NERGAL's head, "he's as empty-headed as a frat boy. But just big enough for Rusty to fit in und pilot, if he'd like."

He then glanced at his watched, and his eyes went a bit wide. "Ach, look at zhat! Emissary und Velocity vill be expecting us soon, und you know how anxious speedsters can get!"

[MarkK]

He smiled back a bit ruefully as he leafed through it, relying on an innate intelligence and learning capacity to absorb basics Velocity's speed let her likely just blaze through.

"Hopefully this goes better than.. well.. last time."

[Heritage]

The good doctor's comment makes Estelle laugh out loud; if she'd been drinking a Coke, it most assuredly would have come out her nose.

At the mention of time, she takes a look at her watch and turns a little pink. "Ooh, you're right; we better make haste! Rusty, I can carry you, if you like."

She extends a friendly lock, if he's interested.

[shazam]

"Yes, let's clear out," agrees Wonder. He looks on as Rusty ad Gossamer debate, and then interjects politely, "You know, I could carry both of you."

[MarkK]

When the others arrive to Freedom Hall, they find Cynthia directing them on through in her polite, if entirely simulated, way. The Emissary waits for them just outside the Wreck Room in a way some may find familliar, though his wave and smile is warm and cheerful all the same, regardless of past incident.

"I'm glad all of you could make it. Velocity and myself will be taking turns on the controls, but I'm certain matters will go smoothly anyway."

[shazam]

Wonder gives his friend a cordial greeting, pleased as punch to be back in friendly company. (Not that Dr. Archeville's house wasn't friendly, mind.) "Somethin' always goes wrong in training, Emissary. That's OK." For a moment it looks like he's about to start narrating an anecdote about that, but the crowd coming up behind him convinces him to head on in of his own accord.

[Dr Archeville]

After Captain Wonder finishes his run-through, Archeville steps up. "Not bad, Herr Kapitän, not bad. But now zhat ve haff seen brawn in action, let us see how far brains go, ja?"

He turns and walks into the testing area, but upon reaching the entryway turns back just enough to see Captain Wonder. "Not zhat I'm implying you are all brawn und no brains, of course. I know you've got qvite zhe mind about you."

We're gonna totally kick ass in there, and she'll see that-

She?

Er, uh, Velocity! Yeah, 'she' being 'she at the controls'....

Riiight....

After stepping through the doorway, a softly glowing force field sprang up, mostly to protect the others from any flying debris or shrapnel. A gunmetal grey combat drone rose up out of the floor in the center of the room; much like the ones Captain Wonder had fought, it had a massive red blinking eye, spiked knuckles, and blaster cannons on its forearms.

And it almost immediately opened fire on him! Coruscating waves of energy pound towards Archeville, but he actually manages to dodge them! He bobs and weaves for a few moments, and though some blasts come close, none so much as singe his coat, though eventually his movements become more measured and certain. "Chapter 3 of Sun Tzu's Art of War tells us zhat if ve know ourselves und our opponents, ve can enter battle mitout fear of injury" he says while dodging, almost as if giving a lecture in a university. "I am familiar mit all zhe common operating systems used in targeting computers, und after a few moments I vas able to vork out zhe pattern zhis robot is using, und can plan mein evasive maneuvers accordingly. Zhis is only so useful, zhough." One of the doktor's hands flies over the control studs of his belt, and his force field springs up around him, glowing softly blue. He stops evading, allowing the drone's blasts to hit him, but they dissipate harmlessly on contact, washing over his shield like so much rainwater.

"If you cannot bend, you must break. If you cannot evade, you must resist. Again, zhough, zhis is only of limited use, for it does not directly address zhe problem." Archeville took one slow step, then another, then another, towards the combat drone, steadily making his way towards it. "It is von zhing to weather a storm, but quite another to stop it altogether. Incidentally, I'm not speaking wholly metaphorically, I've never been able to get mein Weather Dominator to vork properly. I can never get zhe ion flow qvite right... ah, yes, zhe combat drone!" he exclaims as he realizes he's now almost face-to-face with the robot, which had sheathed its blasters and was now pummeling the doktor's force field, causing quite a thunderous ruckus. "All von need do" he shouted, "is exploit zhe weak spots in a foe... such as zhose seams zhere, in zhe drone's 'armpits'. Mit zhe proper tool, a steady hand, und some precise timing...."

The drone raised its mighty fists again to bring them down on Archeville, but suddenly its right arm fell limp to its side. It paused and turned to look at its damaged limb, then back to Archeville, who was holding up what looked like a letter opener-sized lightsaber, with a red beam/blade that made some rather sinister shadows dance across the left side of his face. The drone reached out with its good left hand to grab him, but he ducked down and then slashed up with the blade again, causing the robot to lose all function in its left arm.

The drone looked from side to side at its useless dangling limbs, then looked at Archeville. It began to spin, flailing its arms about like... well, flails. The attacks missed, though, as Archeville ducked and rolled out of the way, then took to the air and flew above the drone. "Vell, I vasn't expecting zhat! My compliments to whoever designed zhis drone! Alas, it is in a vay more a danger now zhan before, so I must-"

The doktor was cut off by the emergence of two more drones, identical to the first but with fully functioning limbs, who now opened fire upon him. Again, his force field protected him, though it did seem to flare more intently at the combined assault.

"Ah, of course, reinforcements!" he exclaimed with almost maniacal glee. He reached down with his mini-lightsaber and tried cutting into the first drone's head, "aright, vhirlybird, time for you to stop zhat." On the third swipe he connected, and the drone stopped spinning, and simply stood still. The other two drones continued firing, and began to advance. "Now, if I can just access zhe firing mechanisms for your blasters, I should be able to..." his hands flew over the drone's right arm, the wand-like device twirling about in his fingers, until at last the arm's cannon unsheathed and began to glow once more. Like a very, very wrong version of the pottery scene from Ghost, Archeville stood behind the drone -- in part to use it as a shield from the other two -- and guided its arm-blaster at the others. Blasts shot out from the doktor's drone, and soon the room was filled with a storm of energy. After a few moments, though, all was suddenly deathly quiet, but as the smoke cleared, Archeville was nowhere to be seen.

"Remember vhat I said about 'knowing the targeting sotware'?" the doktor's voice came from the doorway, as he grinned like a giddy schoolboy. "Seems my own 'targeting software' is just a bit better zhan zhat of zhe drones."

[Heritage]

Gossamer looks slightly embarrassed as she prepares to take her turn in the Wreck Room. "I'm not sure how impressive this will be, but I'm certainly excited to test out my powers in a bigger, more controlled environment; this room really puts the testing lab at Albright to shame."

Before she leaves the control room, she tugs an iPod out of her bodysuit (where exactly was she keeping it?) and nibbles on her thumbnail.

"Is there a place to plug in? I find the right music really helps the workout. It's track's twenty-six and twenty-seven."

After planning a detailed program, the blond heroine steps into the center of the room, swinging her arms and legs and rolling her neck to loosen up; as she does this, her hair expands, contracts, stretches and twists itself into a series of bizarre shapes. Various hoops, bars and odd projections slide noiselessly out of the walls and ceiling, and Gossamer holds up her hand and nods that she's ready.

It's often hard to guess someone's musical tastes; to look at Dr. Estelle de Havilland, one might imagine classical, jazz, maybe Norah Jones. Something sophisticated and vaguely high-brow.

One typically doesn't expect the Offspring. :?

The jagged opening guitar riff of 'Genocide' rips through the air of the Wreck Room, blasting from the recessed speakers high up in the walls, and in no time Gossamer is leaping about as though she were on fire. Two glittering tendrils shoot up some thirty feet in the air, wrap around a set of rings and yank her up as well, while her hands...are playing air guitar.

Now the sequence begins, as hard plastic spears, spheres and jagged polygons are launched at her from all sides as the skate punk rages and Gossamer howls along.

"One, two, three, four!

Dog eat dog

Every day

On our fellow man we prey!

Dog eat dog

To get by

Hope you like my genocide!"

She easily deflects the various missiles, swatting them aside as she does a few simple acrobatic moves as she swings across the room, up and back.

Four combat drones wobble onto the Wreck Room floor, and Gossamer drops like stone towards them, golden lines snapping out to slow her descent so she lands in a smooth three point crouch. The first drone she deftly strikes with a sharp whip, nearly tearing the thing in half. The remaining three adjust their tactics, trying to stay out of her reach, but she closes the distance by swinging; the snags the nearest drone and flings it at one of its fleeing companions, destroying both units.

The last drone is trickier than its departed brethren, and it scoots across the floor as Green Day's 'Holiday' starts playing, followed by the return of the launched missiles; with her focus split, Estelle grimaces as she must keep her eye on both the mad gyrations of the drone and the nasty sharp objects hurling at her from all directions.

And why exactly did I pick this program again? :shock:

There's no time for air guitar this time; finally, after a few endless minutes of constant sensory assault, she manages to grab one of the spears out of the air and fire it right into the last drone's optic sensor, causing its head to explode in a shower of sparks. As the last chord of the song fades, Estelle stands panting on the floor while the hoops and bars slide back into the walls as quietly as they entered and the last missile clatters to the floor.

"Wow. That...that was intense."