Log:Domestic Disturbing

Recommissioned 2020/07/21 Porter Paragon|Paragon? Allison Grimm Kysmette 2

A call goes out over HeroNet, rather than "officially official" reporting channels. Which might be a good thing, as even the reports from verified veteran users seem... odd. There is some kind of domestic dispute in progress in Locke Business Park. Others report a B&E. Still others report property damage, or theft. More than a couple are certain that the answer is D) All of the above.

Speaking of couples, one consistent note across all witnesses is: it's The Porters. Which may explain a few things... or make them unexplainable... Well, it might make the odd seem less odd and more ...expected.

Grimm is pouring over journals, trying to learn more about the history of Victor Price when her phone vibrates on the desk. She picks it up and looks at the alert, her brow creasing slowly. The crease progresses the more she reads, until one brow pops up at the witness accounts. "What in the world?" she mutters, pushing her chair back and getting up. She pulls her jacket from the back of the chair, slips it in, and teleports her way to Locke Business Park to see what the heck is going on.

Late evening tech support calls suck. And like just about any tech support call... it's pretty much a PICNIC... (Problem In Chair Not In Computer). Namely, someone who managed to bork the Temple OS by willful stupidity... or that's what Ally thinks.

She comes out of one of the corporate buildings in the area, her body configured to look human, and not synthetic.

<< I swear. I have no idea how they broke the program. It shouldn't be able to even -do- what they made it do.>> thinks Allison as she steps out...

In her head, Julius replies, <>

A brief pause, and Julius adds, <> After all, one of his programs is to troll Hero Net and prioritize. << Involving unexplainable.... correction, Porter Level Disturbances. Putting directions on your HUD.>>

And that.. gets her focused. She narrows her eyes and takes two steps. By the time she finishes them, she looks fully synthetic once more, and has extruded grav-pods from her hips, back, calves, elbows... and launched into the air to follow Julius's GPS system.

Yep! There's Porter! He's walking with Paragon from a squat building that serves as a development center for a microprocessor firm. Good stuff. Maybe even bleeding edge, at least in the context of private firms.

Ok... so Porter is less walking and more... being walked. He has a grip on a very large cargo case prominently marked by said firm. Paragon does, as well, and Porter appears to be trying to stop her. Which is why he's mostly being dragged along.

She is armored up: in fully armored and operational battle stations. Porter is ... smaller than a womprat.

"Sweetie! It's Ok! We'll fix it! I promise!"

There are two uniformed security guards pointing small arms from the compromised building's front wall. One opening is suspiciously Paragon-shaped. The other is about the same, just with more of a rectangular additional portion about the size of the case. The guards fire a few shots at the pair, which (luckily!) miss Porter and ricochet off of Paragon's plating.

"Stop! Don't shoot!" Porter flails back at them with one hand. "I'll get it back to you! I promise!"

Grimm appears with a swirl of shadow by Porter. "Hey, Porter, What's--ahh!" Gabrielle ducks and cowers a bit at the sounds of gunshots and ricochets, turning quickly into a shadow of her former self to make sure she doesn't get hit. "What the heck is going on??"

Gunshots? Allison descends from above, coming down to land between Paragon and the officers. "That's a good question.." she says as her pods retract to within her body and she turns her head to take in Paragon, and then the officers. She's ready to go -shields up- if there is a sudden need.

"I dunno!" Porter shares his infinite wisdom as he's drug along another heavy stride or three by Paragon. She seems to be ignoring him, the guards, and most all else. "She's not answering! She was out shopping, and then got worried and asked me to come get Kyssie right away! Then I found her here. All she said was something about a directive confirmed!"

"Daddy! Why is mommy shopping more? Why didn't she use the door," calls Kysmette from beside a parked car across the lot. Porter did come get her. Apparently he brought her with him, too. In hindsight, maybe not the best idea.. but he was in a hurry!

"It's Ok, Princess! Just stay right there! Daddy's got this!" He finally lets go of the case and jogs around ahead of his silent wife. Drag anchor wasn't helping. Maybe speedbump will?

Grimm solidifies, looking very confused and concerned. "That's not good, right? That's so not good. I thought you said you couldn't short circuit her anymore!" she complains at the situation while still concerned. More concerning is when she hears Kysmette calling from a car when there was gun shots. "Holy shi....oot! You brought Kyssie here and those guys are firing!" She yells at the security guards, "Hey, knock it off! There's a little girl nearby!"

And that is when Allison's comm protocols reach out to Paragon. "Hey Sis! Phone is for you!" she calls out as she attempts to establish a mind link to Paragon's onboard computers.

But she adds to Porter, "If you want, I can keep an eye on Kyssie there while you do your best to stop Mommy." she says, her shield emitters protruding and charged.

Porter was worried when Para wasn't answering him. Allison may have reason join that worry when her connection attempt is refused. "Please!" Porter answers with a glance to Allison, though he doesn't stop with one as he looks back to the plodding Paragon. It's good that she doesn't seem in a great hurry. "Please! Please stop, Sweetie! It's me! And Ally!" He stops short of reminding her that Kyssie's here, too, though. Just in case? Instead, he holds his hands up and waves them at Paragon.

As she continues to step towards him he stops flailing and puts his hands on her chestplate, as if to stop her. It may one of the few times that he's actually glad her armor is so masculine and unflattering. It might look awkward, otherwise. He's pushed back as Paragon takes another step, and then...

... she stops.

With heroes here, not to mention Grimm having a very good point... and the fact that their weapons weren't having any effect anyhow, the two guards cease firing and stay where they are.

Grimm is about to step in to help Porter, a field of dark energy outlining her, when Paragon stops. "Hey! I think you finally got through to her," she says hopefully. "What...what do we do now? I've never seen her like this," she says, also glad she doesn't need to deal with the guards to keep everyone safe.

Nodding her head, Allison holds a hand out to her niece. "C'mere honey." she says as she bends to scoop Kyssie up in her arms, "Piggyback time!" she announces as she swings Kyssie about to her back with arms up and around the throat.

Then up come her gravitic shields as she steps back a pace. "Look. Isn't that pretty?" she asks as she gestures to the blue-purple-white energy field swirling about her and Kyssie.

Porter just nods, a smile growing wide at Paragon, though the nod is probably meant to Grimm, too. He seems to agree, but doesn't want to do or say the wrong thing and ruin it. Luck is anything if not fickle, right? "That's it, Sweetie. It's me. Eveything's alright." He may well be sending the same thing over their link, in case that helps. He's not even totally sure she's still receiving, since she's been so... silent.

"Oooh! Pretty!" Yes, Kyssie likes purple. And swirling! Not as good as pink, but a strong second!

Paragon is motionless for a moment, and then crouches down some, bringing her down to Porter's level. Her unoccupied gauntleted hand reaches up, open to cup his cheek as they look eye to eye. Well, eye to faceplate.

Grimm smiles a bit at the cheek cupping. "Whew. Okay. I wasn't sure what to do to help there for a moment." She looks over at Kyssie and Allison and smiles seeing them doing alright. She looks back to the Porters. "Hopefully they won't press charges if she returns it and we just explain she was sleep-walking or something." She remains a few meters away from the Porters, between them and Allison whom is carrying Kysmette. She rubs the back of her neck in relief, tired from late nights researching anything about Victor Price or the Source.

Worried that she'll need to reboot Paragon.... again, Allison backs up a bit further. She goes so far as to turn a bit to her right if only so that Kyssie's head over her right shoulder won't be able to turn to see Mommy and Daddy.... just in case.

Her shields are up, (Barrier that is), and she has Kysmet inside her shield perimeter to keep the girl safe. "Para. Are you okay?" she asks as she turns her own head to the left to face her adopted sister.

Radical appears back in the city, on top of one of the buildings in the business park, and furrows his brow. This wasn't really his target location when coming from the other dimension. But he manages to spot people he knows from the rooftop. Maybe it was a subconcious choice on his part? He teleports from the roof and down to the street level, as if he's appearing out of nowhere.

Subconcious location? Possibly... though this wouldn't be the first time someone randomly arrived in Porter's vicinity when they meant to be somewhere else. If that's the bit off odd Porter has to deal with to balance things right now... he'll gladly apologize to Radical afterwards. Buy him a drink. Something.

He exhales a breath he'd been holding the last thirty seconds... which is about as long as he can. "I love you," he reminds Para before turning his head both into her hand and towards the others.

"We're good. I think I got through to h-rrk!"

Maybe Paragon thought that he hand't quite turned his head far enough? With a flick of her thumb and wrist, and a sharp cracking noise, she helps. There. Now he can look behind him. It's not exactly eyes in the back of the head that parents supposedly develop, but it's functionally similar. As well the look of surprise now frozen on Porter's face is ... utterly and completely normal. For him.

Grimm thought everything was going to be okay. Especially when she senses a familiar shape suddenly appearing out of thin air. "Radical!" she says excitedly as she turns towards him with a relieved smile. "I guess you got the Heronet alert too? It's okay. Porter was able to get through to he---errr!" Gabrielle shudders and hunches her shoulders p, a look of stricken horror on her face as she feels bones break in terrible detail.

"Wha...what? No....why?" she says as her eyes well up with tears. She glances to Kyssie quickly to see if she saw that, then quickly turns around, wreathed in dark energy.

Seeing and hearing that, it doesn't take a medical genius to see that there is nothing that Allison can do to help Porter here. "Para. Sis. You are in there, I know." she remarks calmly as she backs away, turning to keep Kyssie from being able to see what is happening. In her head, she is already calculating where she's gonna build a bedroom for the girl, and how she is going to explain to her that she is an orphan, like Allison was. She is not here to fight right now. She is here to keep Kyssie safe at all costs. But she desperately wants to get over there and reach out to touch Para, if only so she can look inside and see where the mind is at.

Radical blinks, unable to actually get out a greeting before he sees...what he thinks is Para killing Porter? Or at least seriously wounding him. Is he in the right dimension? He says to Grimm, "No. I was just off-dimension for a bit." He's hesitant to rush to Porter's aid, knowing how dangerous Paragon can be.

Paragon (or at least the armored being that very much resembles her), rises to her feat. Porter dangles limply as she keeps hold of him via his neck. It serves as a convenient handhold as she flips him over her shoulder like a coat, or sack of potatoes.

"I...." says Allison, pausing to clear her throat. Yeah, the synthetic body reacts like it was flesh and blood, down to grief choking her up. She is so weird. "I need to get Kyssie home." she mutters as she closes her eyes and shakes her head. "Kyssie. It's time to go." She remarks. She does -not- want the girl to see any of this. So she extrudes her grav pods, shields still up.. and begins lifting into the air.

Grimm is frozen for a moment in shock. Her fingers twitch on her right hand as she tries to process this. Not thinking straight, she does rush in to Porter's aid, but all too late. Shadow tendrils sprout from her aura as she takes steps towards Paragon. The tendrils lead ahead quickly, trying to wrap around Paragon. "I...I can't let you go. We have to fix you! Fix this!" she insists, not even realizing there's tears running down her cheeks. She's had trouble keeping her emotions hidden lately.

Grimm looks like she's already straining to keep ahold of Paragon. She knew Porter said she was strong, but she's never actually fought or sparred against Paragon before.

Paragon is ensnared by the tendrils, though her reflexive initial resistance is ...significant, it is not quite enough.

Radical takes the opportunity to try to get Porter out of there. But he's not sure if it'll work. He teleports up behind Paragon and tries to place a hand on Porter...and then teleport just Porter away from the stronger meta.

"Delay her as long as you can..." says Allison as she lifts skyward, and then begins accelerating off. She arrows towards Steele's Gym and is already hearing from Julius, << I am starting up the babysitter protocols. Project pretty pretty unicorn is ready, booted up. Drop her in the gym and I'll take care of her while you return to help out.>>

Radical ends up teleporting away from Paragon again, but without Porter. "Hrm."

Paragon compresses somewhat, momentarily, if just to gain a split second of leverage and momentum. She then strains against the tendrils.

Grimm winces as her tendrils are wrenched free. The tendrils try to wrap around her again to keep her restrained.

Paragon, now that her arms are free (well, mostly), swats away the tendrils. One with the case. Another with Porter.

Paragon's helm turns away from Gabrielle and her tenebrous tentacles, and her body rotates beneath with a pair of steps. Another one, two, three steps follow, knees bending deeply on the last. The asphalt compresses beneath her as her legs straigthen to launch her eastward. She easily clears the tech buildings, warehouses, and even the flat ground of the point beyond. She may even clear the bay, proper, judging by the angle of launch and the rapidity that she passes the structures.

Grimm cranes her head as she watches Paragon leap away. "Shick. I can't let them go," she apologizes to Radical, teleporting after them before he can respond as she focuses to her attunement to Porter. She appears beside Porter an Paragon, floating weightless as a shadow.

Paragon is mid-leap as Grimm appears. Gabrielle may well be flying, whereas Paragon is more falling, with style.

Para's helm turns at the sudden arrival of a rather persistant foe. While maneuvering mid-leap is not precisely possible, she rotates at the waist rapidly, twisting her lower body in one direction to swing her upper body towards Grimm. Specifically an arm and hand. More specifically, the one holding Porter, whipping him off her back as... and impromptu club? Well, maybe whip, as he's quite limp and floppy.

Grimm leans back in the air as Porter's body swings by. "You don't know what you're doing," Gabrielle implores Para. But if Porter couldn't get through to her, what hope has she?

Grimm tries to get through that plate helm of Paragon's with her mind, since words failed. She hopes that nightmares will still affect her and that she can stun her out of this stupor.

-That- certainly seems to get through her thick helm, and solidly. There is a notable reaction, though it's not so rewarding as reeling or loss of awareness. The helm rotates farther and faster than one would think capable. It works for Paragon, not so well with Porter. The container of equipment is dropped to free her hand before there is a sharp counter-rotation to bring the now-empty hand towards Grimm, hand flat and leading with fingertips.

The pointed strike doesn't embed itself into Grimm's chest, though this may only be due to her shadowy protection. To say that it doesn't sting a little would, of course, be wrong. It stings alot, as the impact is enough to flex (and fracture) ribs, and likely bruise organs. Were he breathing, Porter would very much suggest that Gabrielle get her spleen checked. He's had this happen to him before. It always gets the spleen!

Grimm makes a terrible sound as ribs snap and organs bruise and maybe even puncture. She's knocked away and out of the sky, barely conscious and trying to focus her mind through the pain as she begins to fall. But her focus is lost, and the black protective field of energy around her begins to dissipate as she plummets.

The good news is that Grimm didn't really have that far to fall before she hits the water. The bad news is that they -were- alrady moving rather quickly. Paragon and her ...baggage, land feet-first and plummet. Anti-buoyancy may actually be a favor here. Gabrielle, however, impacts the bay at thankfully-still-softer-than-concrete velocity, skipping a few times before 'sticking' enough to stop abruptly. It's disorienting to say the least, and that's not even counting the pummeling already cracked and bruised things take on landing.

When Gabrielle regains her senses, and spits out some unwelcome saltwater, she is alone. Bobbing with the motion of the ocean. And her sense of Porter, both physically and spatially, is ... gone. Maybe there are sharks out here?

Grimm is left bobbing facedown and still for some time before suddenly raises her head to gasp for air, coughing and sputtering after. Everything hurts. She manages to draw enough energy to shield herself again, for all the good it'll do. She looks around the dark waters, letting out a soft, singular sob at her failure. She looks towards the bay, focusing on the closest point before teleporting to land.