Log:SERAF, Issue 13

2011/09/13 	 Ellbeth Kubik Guardian Spectre Dr. Madeleine Richards Cobalt Imaginary Girl Dark Horse Karlie 1

The basement office of SERAF, located in the Federal Building in Downtown Colonial Bay. An FBI Agent in a standard FBI-style attire gives a briefing. He's in his fifties, but still relatively fit for his age. "I'm Special Agent Miles Fuchs," he begins. "For those of you not familiar with the case, I'll summarize."

Cobalt has arrived, maybe much to the shock or chagrin of certain others. The blue skinned teenager is leaning against a wall near the door in case he needs to exit post haste, hands shoved in his pockets and otherwise keeps his head down, enough so that his dark blue hair hides his lighter blue face pretty danged good. When Miles starts to speak he looks up briefly, but without visual aids so far he closes his eyes and just listens.

"A few months ago, Next Generation kidnapped a Chinese meta named Quakezone. She has the ability to start earthquakes with her power, and her father is believed to be responsible for previous earthquake that devastated China back in the '30s. Up until now, we're sure about the location of the base where they were hiding Quakezone."

in the briefing room, Abby is standing off to one side, yellow eyes watching the room with a rather stern look on her face. She's dressed in simple fatigues at the moment and waiting to be told what is happening. She nods to Cobalt as he shows up but otherwise, she doesn't really speak much.

Ellbeth is seated at a desk working on her laptop andlistening to the highlights.

Kao leaves TransMat RRP1 and enters Universal TransMat.

"Just recently, Next Generation attacked this building in an attempt to kidnap me. And they successed. But the person they actually kidnapped was Wonder, disguised as me. And thanks to a little bit of magic, Dr. Wyrd has a way to get us inside their base. Ellbeth, care to elaborate?"

Dark Horse is quietly waiting in the room, leaning against the wall. He looks over to Ellbeth as she's addressed.

Cobalt frowns at the mention of Wonder being kidnapped, "How long has he been kidnapped? I liked Wonder." He says this last bit most to himself, looking up and towards Miles before looking to Ellbeth.

Ellbeth nods and stands, "I have both a mental link with Wonder and a gate location focused on him. At a suitable point in time, when everyone is ready, I can open a gate to the cell where Wonder is being held."

"Excellent. I have a few tactical questions then Ellbeth." begins Abigail, "If you can communicate with Wonder, can you tell us how many guards he can percieve? How large the cell is? Also what materials and any information about the base itself?"

Imaginary Girl's standing on the far side of the room from Cobalt, studiously, and obviously to anyone paying the least bit of attention, looking at anything but the blue-skinned young hero. She's paying attention to what's going on though, as evidenced by her question: "Are we just going there to bust out Wonder, or are we going there to kick butt on the bad guys? ... and what she said..>?", she asks, with a gesture to Abigail, too.

After kidnapping Wonder, Next Generation blindfolded Wonder and took him through the city in a van. They loaded him on a stretcher and from there, took him inside a buliding. Inside the building, Wonder was taking through a Hypersite gate. On the other side, it was much cooler, and he was surrounded by the sounds more dozens of people.

On the other side, Wonder was able to get catch the following conversation:

Spectre says, "So which one do you think we got, Doctor?"

Doctor, in a female voice says, "Not sure yet. Kubik. Scan him."

Kubik says, after a pause. "It's the Shifter."

The Doctor says, "Not the one we were looking for, but his shape shifting DNA may turn out to be exactly what we need to complete the power transferral process. Sedate him, and prepare him for DNA sampling..."

Shortly there after, Wonder is sedated via some kind of injection.

"Well, they know they missed the real target at least." remarks Abigail as this information is relayed. Before they get too far into their plans, we should get there and get him out. Ellbeth, I assume you have a teleport gate location set up here as well for evacuation?"

Ellbeth nods, "I have one on my laptop. If I leave that here we can return to it.

"Power transferral process. That doesn't sound good." Cobalt says with a sigh and he pushes off from the wall, hands still in his pockets. "What's a hypergate? Did they take him to another reality?" He asks curiously but he glances over towards Imaginary Girl briefly, smiling faintly before he looks over towards Ellbeth, Abigail, and the others. "We can worry about getting back once we get there. Right now, it's important to rescue Wonder." Yeah, tactics are not the teenagers strong suit it seems, not group ones anyways.

Dark Horse shakes his head, "The working theory was that they were in a coal mine, if I remember correctly. If that's the case, be careful with powers down there when we appear."

Ellbeth says, "Cobalt, there are three other prisoners to think about too. Quakezone herself. Rampart's brother, and Chen's grandfather."

"Having a way out makes it a rescue mission and not just a suicide attack. Okay so let's make sure the laptop is secure. Miles... can you do that for us?" Abigail looks around to everyone else. "I will not sugarcoat this. This is going to be difficult. We need to communicate and work -together- to make this work." She nods to Dark Horse and remarks, "Okay, first things first, who wants point?"

Cobalt holds up a hand, of course.

 Ellbeth has joined this channel.

Dark Horse nods. "I'm willing to do it, but I think it's safe to assume my style will clash a bit with his." He motions to Cobalt.

 Dark Horse has joined this channel.

Dark Horse sets about adjusting his radio, adding the appropriate frequency for the team's communicators. "It's a matter of whether or not we're going in 'guns blazing'. If that's the case...and it might as well be, as far as I'm concerned, we should lead with him, rather than myself."

"I find myself curious -why- you would think that." says Abby towards DH. "As in styles clashing, but I was thinking IG oughta be first through to just make sure the gate is secure while the rest of us file through. She can take a beating." she adds that last part with a bit of a smirk.

Ellbeth says, "You need to include in your tactics that passing through the gate will induce a momentary disorientation."

"So can I Major. I think I've proven that but..." Cobalt shrugs, "Whatever you guys want." He moves backwards a bit to lean against the wall again. Once more he looks down and closes his eyes, "Just want to save Wonder." He smiles wryly, "If you can send through a tracker... give me gps coordinates I could go orbital and attack the front as a distraction."

Dark Horse chuckles. "I'm basically a normal. A highly skilled one. I sneak around. I'm not able to go toe-to-toe with a tank, like IG would be. Sneaking around when we're going to go 'all in' seems...not as useful. Rest assured, I'll do what I can. But I won't be able to take down someone with IG's level of power." He smiles, barely visible through the mask, "But I owe Kubik a punch or two, I think."

 Imaginary Girl has joined this channel.

Imaginary Girl's quiet for a bit, thinking. "If there's any chance that someone won't be able to breathe or something, on the other side, it'd be smart to send through someone like me... someone who doesn't need to breathe, first, with a way to signal back that it's safe or not for everyone else...", she says, after her silence.

Ellbeth says, "If I may make a suggestion. I would advise IG and Cobalt going through the gate initailly. If there is nobody on the other side we can follow and sneak as far as we can go from that point. If we arrive in a guarded location the first arrivals need to be tough enough to handle it until others of us can join them."

Dark Horse nods in agreement with Ellbeth, "Sounds like a stellar idea to me."

"I have a feeling that you will prove most useful Dark Horse. Now..." Abigail looks to Ellbeth and nods, "That's a good thing to know about. And Cobalt, it's nothing against you. I've just worked alongside Imaginary Girl before and sometimes it comes down to what one's familiar with. But if they can both go through at once, then by all means let's do it. The rest of us will go afterwards." and she gestures to Ellbeth, "Open Sesame?"

"... Do you need to breathe?", Imaginary Girl asks of Cobalt, turning to look in his general direction, though her eyes are on the /table/ instead of on him, when she asks.

"He just mentioned going orbital, I have a feeling that means no." offers Abby with a grin

Ellbeth smiles, "I'd also suggest we go to one of the holding cells to open the gate. It's two-way."

Dark Horse nods. "Makes sense."

"I hafta ask...", Imaginary Girl says, apparently a little distracted when it comes to Cobalt.

"Holding cells it is. Come on', Time's a-wastin'." offers Abby as she turns to head out of the briefing room.

"Well if it's a place where you don't need to breathe, Wonder's dead." Cobalt says seriously, "So, lets hope that isn't an issue to begin with." He deflects that comment, yay teenage deflection powers activate. He shrugs, "I'm fine with going in at the same time. Just saying, you wanted me along it's pointless to hold the artillery back." He grins at that, finally blowing his hair out of his face, "Lets get this show on the road yah?"

Ellbeth walks along the now familiar route, "Ah, Major, I have to congratulate you. I went to the CBSU to ask the geology department to check of recent seismic disturbences. They told me you had already been there. It was that which gave us the abandoned coal mine as our primary suspected base location."

"Save the accolades till we have our people back." offers Abigail, but she's got a mild smile on her face. It's good to know that some effort paid off. "Let's focus on that, and when we have'em all, then we can celebrate." She nods towards Ellbeth, not trying to kill the mood so much as focus.

Ellbeth waits until everyone is in the cell, and casts the opening spell for the gate. Two stone columns grow up from the floor and a cap stone appears across their tops. Inside the doorway made a portal opens to Wonder's location. The columns are wide enough apart for two to pass through at a time.

Imaginary Girl doesn't wait, flitting right up off her feet and through the portal...

Internal name has been changed. Type look to see the new description.

Description has been changed. Type look to see the new description.

"One last thing, if they've been able to copy Wonder's abilities... let's set up a sign-countersign response for when we return to make sure it's really us." offers Abigail. "Miles, if we come through... you call out Golden, and if we don't reply with Earring... then assume we are -not- to be released from the cell and are in fact agents of Next Gen." That said, she steps up towards the portal and waves the point team through.

And Cobalt is there right alongside, got to get through before the other side is alerted after all...

Of the medical beds in the room, 6 are occupied. The patients here include Wonder, Quakezone, Rampart's brother, and Chen's grandfather.

This is a room in an underground base, with rough wall hewn out from solid stone. Fluorescent lights in the ceiling give the room a bluish light and a sterile atmosphere. The floor here is metal grating mostly, set a few feet over pipes and wiring. This room is roughly 10 meters square with only one entrance: a large set of heavy blast-style doors. The area is equipped like some kind of medical lab with a number of beds, examination equipment, and experimental work stations.

Seeing the deploying forces, Abigail mutters softly over the comms, "Shield your eyes, going to try to give a little setup here." and she points a hand towards the far end of the room the portal leads into.. hoping to explode a luminous plasma field against the far wall.

All of the Next Gen people in the lab are blinded.

Dr. Madeliene Richards covers her eyes with her forearm. She's got them pinch tightly shut. She wears a commlink in her ear, and she radios: "Security breach in Lab section!" She turns to Spectre who was roughly at her side when the flash occured. "Get the girl out of here!"

Spectre floats forward towards Quakezone's bed, reaching a hand out to feel for her.

Ellbeth shouts through the gate seeing that surprise hasn't been gained, using her presence to try and startle the opposition and delay them, "Fate and Power, Might and Fury! Unlease the forces of arcana. Freeze by my command of taste the death of souls."

Spectre response to Dr. Richards cool. "Roger that..." He makes contact with Quakezone, and both of them sink through the floor and disappear.

Dr. Richards says, "You don't understand. I'm doing the world a service. Somebody has to, before everything spirals out of control!"

Dark Horse seems to have heard enough from the doctor to realize that she's not being forced to be here against her will. He quickly moves forward to try to take her out...leaving the NG folks leaderless at the moment. He lashes out with a palm strike, attempting to knock her unconscious. He holds back on using all of this strength, though.

Krak! Dark Horse's attack bloodies the Doctor's nose and leaves her seeing stars.

Karlie enters from Universal TransMat.

"Damn." mutters Abby as she steps forward. "All that, and they were still ready to take Quakezone. Okay, priority one, get Wonder back through the portal. Priority two.. turn spectre into one giant bruise."

Imaginary Girl narrows her eyes... and ... waits, floating with her feet just inches off the floor, hands balled into fists...

Cobalt sighs as the guy goes through the ground, "Priority 1, capture miss for the good of humanity nonsense spewer. I bet Spectre can't do anything with Quakezone without her. Get her back asap." He flies over towards Dark Horse and the good (Bad) doctor and makes to grab her, "Lets get her out of here before Spectre can come back and take her away too. It gives us leverage." So that he can toss her through the portal if need be in case of emergency.

Muttering something about bad timing on some innocent person's part, Karlie emerges from the gate immediately on alert, her senses extending out to get an idea of what is in the area that she is able to rip out and use. Next Generation is something that she has been wanting to get a shot at, though preferably with some kind of backup. While it isn't a major one, it's still something.

And Cobalt does just that, with one hand he reaches out to snag the evile doctor by the scruff of the neck and tosses her casually through the portal, "Incoming." He calls through the portal to those still on the other side. It should be noted that Cobalt is -not- throwing the doctor with anything more than enough force to get her over there.

The lock on the giant door to the room shifts from green to red.

Imaginary Girl, waiting, glances at the door and says, "That door's about to open up, gang...!"

Cobalt notes, "Red usually means locked."

Imaginary Girl, waiting, glances at the door and says, "That door's getting locked up, gang!"

Slightly disoriented, Karlie looks at said door. "Not seeing a problem," she says.

Cobalt grins, "It's probably just the preparatory step for the biological purge coming our way."

Dark Horse shouts to the techs, who hopefully can't see him. "All of you on the floor now!" He then moves over to the door to take a quick look at the lock mechanism.

Ellbeth maintains the gate and casts Mental Grasp, telekinetic forces lifting the sedated Wonder and bringing him back through the gate to the FBI building.

"Okay, as I said, Wonder is the priority, not..." And then Wonder is levitated out and Abby nods back towards Ellbeth. "Thank you." she remarks before she rolls her neck and clenches up her fists. As they snap shut, golden plasma erupts all about her and she flies towards that heavy door but at the last second, she impacts the wall to the side of it and her plasma field melts its way through several meters of stone.

On the other side of the door is a long corridor. It's about 4 meters wide and has a set of rail tracks along the floor. It's hard to see quite what's at the other end of the tunnel because about 120m away there's a train car stopped, blocking most of the corridor. A group of 5 NG commandos take cover around the train, aiming weapons towards Abigail.

Abigail catches sight of Spectre, carrying the unconscious Quakezone. He's flying down the hall quickly, and he passes right through the train car as if it weren't even there.

"Spectre! Stop now and turn over your captive, and I can promise that you'll be treated well!" calls out Abigail. She's drawing attention to herself, sure... but she's also pointing out to her teammates that she's located the target.

Cobalt sighs, "I know he was first priority, but with Quakezone being grabbed the game was changed Major. No plan survives contact with the enemy." While explaining, (kids these days, really, it's insufferable) Cobalt goes about moving towards the nearest other person who needs to be rescued, since he doesn't know what's on the other side of the door or past the melted wall for example. He'll show up over there later most likely. "Make sure that doctor is subdued and captured." He calls through the gate.

Ellbeth nods to Cobalt, "Thank you." she says to himas he brings another hostage to safety.

Abigail also mutters into her com...

 Abigail says, "Looks like spectre is escaping, phased... with the kid in tow"

"I'll take care of the grunts," Karlie says, her tone dark. She speeds along through Abigail's hole, reaching the rail car and the commandos' location, touching the vehicle, which lifts into the air with her momentarily before she swings it around to catch a few of them. With a rail car.

"Wha --? Look out!!" The NG Commando shout as the train they were using as cover is lifted and turned into a battering ram against them. Crunch! Three of the armored troopers are slammed between the train and the solid rock of the tunnel wall. They all fall unconscious.

"Some kind of weapon not far out from the grunts," Karlie says. "Hidden on the walls."

Imaginary Girl's off like a shot. Literally... there's a muffled, "Sorry!", just before there's the CRACK of the sound barrier breaking... and she's flashing past and around and over the train and up to Spectre... and 'skidding to a stop in the air' just in front of him, her hand reaching out to grab at him... and falling short!

Ka-

BOOM!

 Abigail says, "sure is nice that they not only were waiting for us, but also had bombs set expecting us to do all this. Man, they got an inside man, that's all there is to it"

 Dark Horse says, "The bombs were probably set for people attacking from outside."

Imaginary Girl's flight sets off some explosives on an infrared beam trigger. When the smoke clears, the tunnel between the train car, the comandos, and the bulk of the heroes is blocked by rockes.

Karlie still has her train car. Rock cannot stop her from exercising her supremacy.

Imaginary Girl has gotten herself in between Spectre and his destination -- the Operations room. The Operations room is a much larger room, 50m square. It's filled with about 20 Next Generation commandos, their musclebound Commander. Kubik is in the Operations center as well, manning a Hypersite Gate

 Imaginary Girl says, "There's one of those big riftgate type of things in here!"

 Ellbeth says, "IG, can you destroy it? That's their escape route."

 Imaginary Girl says, "... Okay!"

 Ellbeth says, "Major, we have two unknowns left in the experiemental area. We can get them out, although they may be Next Generation agents expecting to get meta abilities. Or I can close the gate and follow you?"

On the other side of the portal, a bunch of FBI agents surround Dr. Richards. She spits some blood on the ground and looks up at them. Miles Fuchs says, "Dr. Richards. I'm placing you under arrest. You have the right to remain silent..."

 Abigail says, "Get them out. They may be innocents... and the -chance- that they are, is too much to pass up. Get them out and then follow. I will be melting through the cave in to get some backup to IG. Hear that IG? Backup is on the way."

Ellbeth continues to extract the sedated people, maintaining the gate and levitatingthem out with telekinesis.

Dark Horse completes the evacuation and remains at FBI HQ to guard the two unknown patient-hostages.

Shaking her head, Abigail mutters into the com. "When you get them all out, bring backup. IG will be fighting while we try to get to her." And the golden plasma aura flares up about her as she surges forward on a direct line towards the wall of rock.

 Ellbeth says, "I'm afraid you're effectively on your own. It would take me about sixteen seconds to get there. An eternity in meta conflict. Any FBI agents will take much longer."

Imaginary Girl drops out of the air and trots forward, skidding to a stop as laserlike beams come out of her eyes, striking the side of the hypergate generator...

Imaginary Girl's eyebeams burn straight through the generator and slice upwards slightly. The complicated device belched smoke and shuts down.

Imaginary Girl blinks her eyes as they smoke a reddish smoke after she tried so /hard/ to take out their escape device... then grins and pumps her fist in the air!

 Imaginary Girl says, "Got it!"

"No!" Spectre says as he flies past Imaginary Girl down the tunnel, still holding Quakezone. He shouts towards the commandoes in the Operations center, "Alright men, we're going to have to fight our way out!"

 Abigail says, "yes... be careful what we wish for..."

At the sound of Imaginary Girl being cut off from the others and with people taking care of the sedated folks Cobalt can no longer justify staying out of the action. "I'm comin' IG." He says to himself, not even using the communication system because, well, he's forgotten about it. A flare of blue energy forms around Cobalt and then there is a loud *BOOM* as he too goes supersonic, flying past everyone and down the hall towards the cave in without any signs of slowing down. He tucks his arm in and aims his shoulder at the cave in before....

dirt and dust, sprawling on the other side wholly out of it but for managing an, "Backups here..." Thunk. Head hits the ground.
 * BOOOOOOMM* Cobalt hits the cave in, and crashes through it with a rumble of

Karlie moves closer to the people who are cowering from rail car, and hits the other two with rail car.

WHAM! The other two commandos just on the other side of the cave in are knocked unconscious by the train car.

The train car begins spilling parts onto the tunnel floor as it's chassis is smashed to bits against the wall of the tunnel.

By the time the heroes reach the Operations center, Spectre and Kubik have managed to knock out Imaginary Girl. She crashes to the ground, unconscious, for the moment.

Cobalt is still laying on the ground, not because he can't move, he can, it's just really not a good idea, the world is still spinning. Also because that would make him a target, and not give him a chance to recover. . o O (Come on guys, help IG... I can't do anything... made you a tunnel!) He shouts mentally but... he's still mostly out of it.

Darting through the mansized hole, Abigail mutters something about folks needing to learn a bit of restraint. She comes out of the hole in a tiwsting corkscrew that ends with her basically on the ground and moving at high speed still. She's not -exactly- running, but it does look like she is until she comes to a stop in the doorway right as IG is dropped to the ground. "Alright." she mutters as she rolls her neck and raises her left hand forward, fingers together, and her right hand held behind her and up a bit over her shoulder level. "You know you can't win this right?" she asks. "There's no reason you have to go forward with this and get hurt."

Karlie, and Mirage

At the moment, Kubik stands next to Quakezone, who's unconscious on the ground behind him.

Karlie zips forth, moving at a tremendously rapid pace, "Okay. I'm gonna say this once and only once. Anyone who doesn't want their asses handed to them from a few tons of the metal in this place, toss your weapons down. Anyone else, hope you can deal with a few tons of metal."

Spectre says, "I beg to differ. If we can defeat you, we escape with Quakezone. A stalemate is better than a loss."

Karlie points out, "You don't have a weapon. Option wasn't for you."

Spectre turns to the assembled troopers. "Form into fire teams, and take them out!"

"Only one problem with that conclusion. You're going to have a difficult time defeating us... my advice is.... surrender peacefully." responds Abby

"And spend a lifetime in prison?" Spectre says. "I'd prefer to go down fighting, and so would my men."

Imaginary Girl... groans and pushes herself up off the floor on her hands, groggy, but coming to. "I... I think we can handle that...", she says...

Cobalt takes a deep breath as the world stops spinning and starts to prop himself up on his elbows as well. He bleeds from a few light gashes, one on his right cheek, another above his right temple, and one on his shoulder. It might be worth noting that his blood glows blue... like, neon blue. "Yeah, see... once I get up off this floor, you're all done. Just, done." He says with a never say die grin.

Karlie adds, "It gets worse, by the way."

The commandoes split up into four groups of five, taking cover and taking aim. For now, they focus on Karlie and Abigail, each group firing from about a range of about 10 meters.

Karlie rapidly moves herself into the hallway. "Nice tactics.." she murmurs, slightly off-balance, working to right herself.

Laser fire breaks out as the troopers pour a barrage of shots on Karlie and Abigail.

Incoming blaster fire, Abby just rolls her neck and sidesteps most of the shots, but two of the blasts strike her and don't even singe her clothing. She fully absorbs them and inclines her head, "That's your plan?" she asks.

The commander of the troopers jumps through they air towards Abigail. He tries to smash her with a downward punch.

Boom! His punch lands short of Abigail and mangles of the metal grates that serves as the floor here.

Ellbeth can only think of one possible way she might get to the location of the others in time to assist. And it's probably going to hurt. She casts a Sphere of Life spell, maintains her Shield spell, allows the gate to the FBI building to close... and opens up a gate to her yacht. Yes, the yacht that's currently 200ft under the Bay ocean. Careful positioning of the gate means she's going to get carried along by the immensely powerful jet of high pressure water bursting forth from the gate. The good news is the water will flow around objects and carry her with it, making the line of sight needed for teleporting not required. Even better, Cobalt gets a free ride too. And thoroughly soaked of course.

And another twist lets Abby step out of the way of the commander. Her hands flash as he comes in and she remarks softly, "A storm blows around obstacles..."

Ellbeth floods into the operations room on a wave of sea water that spreads out as it gets free of the narrow tunnel and has an entire chamber to splash and surge into. Much electronics there? How unfortunate.

The tunnel make of solid rock, so it provides a perfect conduit to the Operations room for all of the water. In the wake of the flash flood, lights spark and shut off. Once the water reached the operations room, it falls into the crawlspace beneath the grated floors and behind to fill it in.

Ellbeth says, "I'm not too late for the party am I? That would be a real dampener."

Abigail actually groans at the joke...

Kubik's hands move beneath his cape. He raises his hand, revealing a puzzle cube. He turns and throws it, bouncing it off of a cavern wall to try and land into on top of Karlie. When the cube is close, it explodes!

"Oh come on. I told you that you have zero chance." offers Abigail as she leaps into the air, flipping and kicking the puzzle box out of the air with the top of one foot. It strikes the far wall and explodes. "When will you start to believe me?" she asks.

Cobalt does indeed get swept up in the water and he is laughing in surprise. "Alright, don't need a shower this week!" He calls out, amused, at least one hopes he's joking, but then it's time to get back into the action. It really is.

Kubik twists another puzzle cube. This one, he balances on the stomach of the unconscious Quakezone. Then he turns his attention to the rest of the fight.

"Yeah, you do, stinky...", comments Imaginary Girl from where she's gathering a foot underneath herself.

<SERAF> Abigail says, "So Ellbeth, that gate... can folks go out that way safely?"

<SERAF> Ellbeth says, "That gate will close in a few seconds. I can open another when you wish me to."

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "Really, they're using guns on us? C'mon... guns are useless..."

<SERAF> Abigail says, "right, we need one to get Quakezone out of here. Once we have her safe, we can evacuate."

Imaginary Girl looks up and then darts forward, reaching out one hand to slap the Kubik's device away just before he can set it down atop Quake, ending up on her hands and knees next to the girl.

No entry for 'puzzle cube skitters across the ground. It beeps flashes, and then explodes!'.

The puzzle cube skitters across the ground. It beeps flashes, and then explodes!

While Imaginary Girl is distracted, Spectre floats down behind her. His hand becomes translucent and he tries to reach into her back with it.

Imaginary Girl doesn't even see it coming... and screams in outright pain as Spectre's hand goes right into her back!

The over muscled commander leaps from his crouching position to try to strike Abigail with a Flying Knee.

Jumping to meet the attack, Abigail catches the flying knee with the shin of her own leg. "Your Kung fu is weak." she remarks, trying to infuriate the guy so he focuses on her. "And your men are poorly trained... that speaks of an ineffective commander."

Cobalt shakes his head, "Guns? Who uses guns in this day and age. I don't care if they're fancy lazer guns, I mean really." And then there is a flash of blue energy as the corona that surrounds Cobalt when he's flying flashes into being and in that instant he is no longer on the ground but up in the air floating a few inches off the ground. "Real poor. Duck Major." And with that Cobalt's eyes flare with more raw power the same near neon blue as the color of his blood before twin lances of raw energy go flashing towards the commander so he can free up the major. Being as the guy is sorta, leapy, he even widens the beams a bit.

Cobalt's energy blast carries the Commander clean across the room. He smashes through a bank of computers.

The commander is still conscious and moving, but he's on his back having left a man-sized hole in a bank of machinery.

The commandoes redistribute their fire. Five of them turn their guns on Cobalt. Five of the aim at Karlie and wait for her to reappear. Five of them wait for a clear shot at Ellbeth. The final five switch weapons and fire on Abigail with assorted small arms.

Cobalt gets tagged and he actually is /laughing/ as he goes flying back through the air, "C'mon, really?" He's obviously completely unhurt by the blaster shot, even if there is a large hole in his shirt showing off tone blue musculature beneath. "That's just. OOF." He crashes into some junk, "Ok, THAT hurt more than your stupid guns!" He shouts to the mooks.

Karlie, Mirage, and Regan

Getting a feeling of the locations of both commandos and the broken bits of computer that are lying about, Karlie focuses on the latter to rain holy hell down on the former. Her aim is to remove their weapons from the equation, but hurting them is not beyond her desires...

Twisting about, Abigail actually leaps into the air in a corkscrew evasive pattern than places her feet gently down on the ground where she started. "As I said, piss poor training. You would all fail the marine marksmanship course!" she belts out in her drill sergeant voice. It's an odd tone of voice coming from someone who looks like she just finished playing Bulletproof Monk.

Ellbeth thinks about those commandos, and the time it takes to open a gate. She decides that something needs to be done to lessen the threat from them before she starts a spell that will leave her largely immobile. So she creates wide spread mental images over the area she and the heroes are in of an additional four duplicates of each character, all shifting and acting to distract and give multiple new targets for guns.

The trooper who were waiting to fire on Ellbeth do so, each one targeting one of the five targets.

Ellbeth is slammed back into a wall quite unharmed by the shot.

Kubik raises his arm and fires a grapnel into the ceiling. He shoots skyward, and as he does so drops a cube right on top of Imaginary Girl and Quakezone.

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "so what's up with these cubes? Why are they bad?"

<SERAF> Abigail says, "they explode"

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "Gotcha."

Imaginary Girl turns to start fighting Spectre... but sees the cube falling from above... and turns to dive and wrap herself as much as she can around Quakezone, just before the cube lands on her back... and goes off. When the explosion clears, Imaginary Girl's unconscious, again, sprawled atop the girl the heroes came to rescue.

Kubik drops down from the ceiling and lands in a combat crouch. In an electronically distorted voice, he states: "Predictable."

Spectre says to Abigail. "Perhaps it's time for /you/ to call a retreat..." He sinks to the ground, and reemerges behind the Abigail images, rising up from the ground. He reaches his hand for Abigail, trying the same trick he used earlier against Imaginary Girl.

"Really now.." suggests Abigail as she twists and catches Spectre's wrists in a cross-arm block. She shakes her head and says, "Overconfidence does not suit you." As she turns and grunts as she unleashes a high power ball of plasma towards the troopers, aiming to detonate the sphere behind their cover.

[GAME] OCV 7, DCV 9 Pushing AoE blast at as many troopers as I can get in an 8m radius.

The group of troopers is scattered by the blast, tossed through the air by the explosion. One of them screams, "Ooaaaooorgh!"

Karlie, Mirage, and Regan

Spectre tries to grab on of Abigail's outstretched blasting arms and turn it into a judo throw.

Spectre says, "Marines. I eat Marines for breakf--" He frowns seeing that Abigail is still up.

Her wrist grabbed, Abigail rolls with the throw and lands hard on her feet. "Hope you're hungry then." she remarks as she rolls her neck.

The steroid freak commander picks upself up and returns to the fray.

Cobalt flies up into the air again, well a few inches off the ground as another flash of blue energy bursts into being and he 'picks himself up' in the only way he knows how. "Ok, I told you... I'm just /done/." And he doesn't look pleased, of course, he is bleeding still, which is annoying, and he's been drowned in sea water, and salt in wounds hurts and is annoying, let alone still dirty from the rubble not all being washed off. With a glare he focuses on first Spectre and then Kubik, focusing all his will into as strong a blast as he can mange without taking forever in trying to do so! Twin blasts of energy arc out, at Spectre, and then at Kubik. Both of the blasts are spread a bit to make it easier to hit them as he tries to take them both out in rapid fire fashion!

Cobalt flies up into the air again, well a few inches off the ground as another flash of blue energy bursts into being and he 'picks himself up' in the only way he knows how. "Ok, I told you... I'm just /done/." And he doesn't look pleased, of course, he is bleeding still, which is annoying, and he's been drowned in sea water, and salt in wounds hurts and is annoying, let alone still dirty from the rubble not all being washed off. With a glare he focuses on Spectre and flies towards him, focusing all his will into as strong a blast as he can mange without taking forever in trying to do so! Twin blasts of energy arc out, at Spectre. He's getting tired of this and if a big guy goes down, maybe the others will give up.

The three groups of remaining gunmen turn their guns on Abigail (using assorted small arms), on Cobalt and his duplicates, and on Ellbeth (having connected and sussed out the right duplicate).

Ellbeth is slammed back against the wall she never had a chance to move away from but the shots do no harm to her.

Ellbeth is doubtful of having time to open a gate with Karlie and Imaginary Girl already down. She wonders if Abigail remembers only two people can pass through it at any one time making evacuation a prolonged process especially under fire. She may be able to help by neutralizing Kubik for a period. She came prepared. Standing up and tracing a sigil in the air with her forefinger and incanting, she reaches into her robes with her other hand for a puzzle cube, one previously configured into the most fiendish position Max and her could discover. Tossing the cube to Kubik she commands him, "Solve it!" applying mental pressure to enforce her command, hoping that his ego means he will want to accept the challenge anyway.

Kubik catches the puzzle cube and begins to work on solving it, first turning it around to view all of the sides.

Kubik begins solving the cube, rapidly twisting and turning the sides of the puzzle.

"

The NG Commander has returned to the fight. Spectre points to Ellbeth and orders him: "Take her out!" The musclebound commander nods and leaps towards Ellbeth. He tries to wrap up Ellbeth in a lethal bear hug.

"Cobalt, might think about taking Quakezone back through the hole you so thoughtfully dug for us. Spectre here can't do anything effective, so he won't stop you." offers Abigail. "Ellbeth, great work there... watch your back."

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "Yeah I can do that... jsut let me catch my breath... that last blast took everything I had. I hate that guy."

Ellbeth tells NG Commander, "You're rather brave to tackle a mage. I'd hate to have to turn you into a toad, and trust me on this, catching flies with your tongue is over-rated. Why don't you just sit this one out?"

Grinning, Abby blows a kiss towards the phased Spectre. Then she turns and unleashes another plasma grenade effectively. This one isn't quite as well placed, but it still erupts around a handful of troops. Into her com, she mutter, "Cobalt. If he turns solid, let him attack and then hit'im, I know you're tired but you can do this."

<SERAF> Abigail wants someone to attack him the same phase -he- attacks so he can't abort

Abigail's blast rocks the area, but the armored troopers hang tough.

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "Why do you think I held this time? I wasn't expecting the abort to desolid given everything."

<SERAF> Abigail says, "yup, when you held, I knew why:)"

<SERAF> Abigail Was just making it IC

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "Well, if he doesn't go solid I use the held to recover in 11 then recover in 12, then post 12, and I'm back in this thing"

<SERAF> Jolt says, "Nuke it from Orbit. It's the only way to be sure ;)"

Karlie takes a breather, not forced to but feeling like she needs it.

Another barrage goes flying towards Cobalt, fully half of the blasts hitting him. Most do nothing but tatter his clothes but one tags Cobalt square in the already cut temple, dropping him to the ground... so much for taking a breather...

Ellbeth is short on inspiration at the moment so simply unleashes a mind numbing mental blast at Spectre.

<SERAF> Abigail says, "please be stunned... please be stunned"

"Arrgh!" Spectre grabs his head. "Take her out!" He shouts to the commander. "Cover her eyes!"

Kubik continues to work compulsively on the puzzle cube.

Spectre reaches for Abigail with his ghostly hand.

"Too slow." mutters Abigail to Spectre as he reaches for her. "And don't touch me, you have cooties." She adds as she leaps up and over the man, flipping in mid air to come down several meters away right beside Ellbeth. Of course, as she comes down, she lands and spins to launch a forceful kick towards the commander.

<SERAF> Abigail says, "I figure, spectre can't abort to evade mental blasts:P"

The Commander, still reeling a little bit from Cobalt's energy blast, falls unconscious.

The kick landing, Abigail twists a bit, lifts her hands in a defensive stance and gestures to Spectre, "care to try again?" she asks.

Spectre says, "Whatever you do... take her out!" He points to Ellbeth.

Ellbeth says, "Thank you, Major. It wasn't so much the bearhug, but his obvious lack of a recent shower that was most discomforting.""

Spectre drops beneath the ground. He tries to surface behind Abigail and hit her with a surprise attack.

"Understood, now do me a favor and give spectre there the mother of all Migraines, eh?" asks Abigail as she watches the guy.

Kubik continues working on the puzzle. He's got most of it solved.

Spectre says, "You're tough -- I'll give you that. But by now, you're surely about to drop."

This time he reaches forward with both hands for Abigail.

Gritting her teeth, Abby suffered more pain during basic training. She shrugs her shoulders and looks down where she was struck, "Wow, I'm impressed, you actually did something useful. Now... surrender or you will definitely regret it."

The fifteen remaining commandoes all turn their guns on Ellbeth

Turning sideways, Abby drives an elbow into Spectre's chest before sweeping an arm across his own reach to knock his arms aside. She's trying to position herself to impede the grunts from shooting her friend.

<SERAF> Abigail says, "good call, but was hoping you'd blast Spectre out:P"

<SERAF> Abigail says, "but I can't fault your choice"

<SERAF> Ellbeth says, "I was hoping to, too. But if I'm unconscious I can't do it and that's an aweful LOT of guns pointed at me."

<SERAF> Abigail says, "right"

<SERAF> Cobalt says, "Eh the stun lotta finally swung his way, I'd dodge from 10 if I was you too. Just wish I had taken a recovery instead of holding"

Carefully moving so she is in line of fire only with one of the commando units, Karlie pulls forth the computer system pieces out from the place where it is all smashed, creating a large number of batteries. That is, multiple batterings. If a large number of power cells also go along for the ride, such is circumstance.

Karlie's makeshift battering ram flattens a group of commandoes. They're still up, but in bad shape.