Log:In a Mirror Darkly, Scene 3

In a Mirror Darkly 2009/08/26 	 Drang Imaginary Girl Jennifer Lady Luck Sturm Titan 3

K-chunk. The heavy door opens up in a similar fashion to the first one. The room beyond it is a large, high ceiling space about the size of the gymnasium. There's a flash of light and quickly the surrounding change. It's a training room, like the one at Steel's Gym, and it's now being reconfigured...

The location: A downtown section of a major Chinese metropolis at night. Street lamps and neon signs light the area. The doorway opens onto a busy street. Standing in the middle of the roadway, ahead of the heroes, are two women, twins, in fact identical. If it weren't for the fact that one of the wears an eyepatch over one eye, they'd be the spitting image of Jennifer and Jessica.

One of the Other Twins says: "I was wondering what was taking you so long." Her companion readies her whip and prepares to strike.

"Hey... I thought y'all were twins, not quadruplets!", says Imaginary Girl to the 'old' twins. Smiling brightly as she hovers with her feet a few inches off the floor, she lifts a hand to wave at the 'new' twins, calling out to them, "Heya! Sorry if we're late! Is there a tea-party happening, or something?"

Lady Luck says, "So are you evil twins or robots or from another dimension or clones or what?"

Jennifer says, "Whatever, you ought to quit and give up now. I still have all four eyes. So you're one eye short of being as good."

Jennifer asides to Sable, "I'm going to have to discuss the question of copyright with the Baron next time I see him."

"Or something," says The Other Twin with the Eyepatch, responding to IG. "I was hoping to get all of us here, together, so I could take care of matters in one clean sweep. But your friends are here instead... that's good. It'll make it into an actual challenge."

Jennifer says, "I'd hate to disappoint you. If you want to wait I'll pop along and join the gathering."

Imaginary Girl makes an 'upset' face, putting her hands on her hips. "Aw, man...", she says, then looks at Jennifer. "Are these 'bad guy' twins?", she asks.

Lady Luck says, "How come evil twins are *always* evil?"

Drang says to Jennifer, "Tempting, but no. I'm not about to let you even the odds."

Jennifer says, "To be honest I'm wondering that myself. You see, in this time I should be kind of younger. Which means they probably aren't birth clones. Fast grown maybe? So what's your story anyway?"

Sturm looks to Lady Luck. "You don't seem to understand. We're programmed to be killers. She's the defective one."

Lady Luck says, "Oh, so you *are* bad guys! THat makes it easy!"

Lady Luck points at the 'evil twin' with two eyes, sending forth light motes....

Jennifer shakes her head, "You're not Wolfguard. I can see that. Wrong equipment. You have what I have but my stuff has been modified. So who..." She's cut short by Amy's dancing light motes. "Oh well, we'll talk after then."

Drang shields her eyes and rolls out of the way of the attack.

Sturm completes Jennifer's question: "...who's supplying us? I won't say, but it's not Wolfguard. Our goals are larger than theirs."

Sturm charges towards Lady Luck. As she moves, draws a set of goggles from her harness and lowers them in place over her eyepatch and good eye. She lashes out with her whip and and tries to strike Lady Luck with it.

Lady Luck says, "Ow! That stings!" as she's flipped through the air, somehow happening to fall onto her feet.

Imaginary Girl says, "Hey! Wait!", as Lady Luck sends motes of light at one of the others. Then she says, "HEY!!!" in a louder voice as the other one comes out and lashes out at one of her comrades, darting forward to lash out at Sturm with a fist... which the woman evades by simply leaning back to let it swoosh past her. "Oh... wow! You're /fast/!", says Imaginary Girl. It sounds very much like a compliment, of all things.

Jennifer slips on a pair of googles rather like the ones worn by Sturm. Moving a little forward to close to whip range she strikes out at Sturm, curling the whip around to strike inwards from the side of the missing eye.

Jennifer watches the evasion as Sturm avoids the lashing whip energy.

Jennifer says, "Not bad. But not good enough either."

Sturm says, "Despite the injury, I have no blind spots -- you ought to know."

Jennifer grins, "Just testing."

Imaginary Girl watches Sturm dancing aside of the whiplash from Jennifer, as well, and tries to grab at the woman's arm as she moves...

Sturm sidesteps the attack, without bothering to look. "This might be easier that I'd thought."

Sturm spins quickly and tries to plant her boot into Imaginary Girl's gut.

Sturm's kick misses narrowly.

Drang pulls a grenade from her belt and rolls it over at Imaginary Girl's feet. As the metal egg skitters across the floor, she puts on her goggles.

The grenade explodes in a flash of blinding light!

Lady Luck happens not to be looking at th grenade when it goes off.

Imaginary Girl hears the *tink tink tink* and looks down to see the grenade. "Hey ... is that a...? oh crap!", she says!

Jennifer says in an irritated tone, "I'm really not used to being ignored in a combat situation. Let me remind you I'm here. She looks carefully at Strum, and then sends her own whip lash snaking out in a strike at the eye-patched evil twin.

Jennifer catches Sturm low on the left flank and sends her rolling back several yards across the 'street'. She's not in the slightest surprised as Sturm springs back to her feet again though.

Lady Luck again shoots light motes at the two-eyed twin. Who knows what will happen this time?

Lady Luck's luck motes go wide, alas. A patch of floor might be rather unlucky.

Titan comes running into the training room, and blinks, seeing the 'evil' versions of Jennifer and Jessica. "Huh."

Jennifer says, "Yeah. I'm the one in jeans and teeshirt by the way, Titan."

Lady Luck says, "How come it's bad guys who wear eyepatches? Unless they're
 * good* pirates."

Sturm looks at Jennifer bitterly. "Good move." Drang sees Titan joining the fight. "More of you here that I thought. Let me introduce you to one of my sparring partners..." She clicks a button on her belt, activating a hydralic lift in the floor. A robot rises into the training room and a moment later, it's wrapped in a holographic projection.

Citadel

Ripped. That more than anything describes this fellow. He's six feet or so, with bulging muscle that's quite possibly the most muscular a human can attain. His facial features are rugged yet still handsome, with a strong jaw and angular lines.

Most of his identifiable features are concealed by his costume, a metallic costume with grey accents, and a large grey cape that drapes from behind. Anything above his upper lip is concealed beneath a silver metallic mask, leaving only his jaw and mouth visible. The banded metal seems to be flexible of sort, moving with his body, tightly fitting over it like spandex would. The whole costume is broken up by a darker grey belt that seems to be made of metal, and might be a utility belt. The hands and feet are covered in the matching grey metallic substance as the belt is, and form bulky like gauntlets and boots.

His mood is somewhat concealed considering his costume, but the set of his jaw indicates he's serious and ready for action.

Jennifer says, "I think the 'trained to kill' comment suggests that's not the case. More accurately the boastful manner it was said, seeing it applies to me too as far as facts go."

Jennifer looks over at Sturm, "By the way, hitting you kind of hurt. Looks like we're on the same mental wavelength so to speak."

Titan chuckles, looking to Jennifer, "I did help carry you onto the building in the first place. I remember how you were dressed."

Rubbing at her eyes after the flash grenade totally caught her with her eyelids open, Imaginary Girl says, "That was kinda mean, y'know!... Oh, hey, I hear something big... what is it?" She then flies right along after Sturm, fast, moving as if trying to tackle the woman!

Sturm says to Jennifer, "It will hurt... but I'll get over it. It will be worth it." She draws a hilt from her kit of gear. With the press of a button, segments of metal extend from the hilt to from a katana blade. She launches herself at Jennifer, aiming to bring the balde down on her with an overhead strike.

Jennifer says, "A telescopic katana? My kendo master would smack you hard with a bokken for having that."

Jennifer dances to the side, her hand parry slipping away from the blade before Jennifer has the chance to move Sturm stance off balance and out of position.

Jennifer asks Sturm, "Who are you? Really, I have to know. Damn it, whether you accept it or not, I can feel you. That means you're family."

Titan chuckles. "I'm going to guess an other-dimensional version of you. That means you're the 'same person'."

Lady Luck moves a bit closer to Sturm and tries shooting bad-luck motes at her instead.

Lady Luck doesn't seem to be able to hit anyone....

Sturm says, "Closer than than -- we're one and the same. Only something happened differently in our pasts. That's why we can sense each other..."

Sturm adds, "And that's why you have to go -- I can't have you spreading the news of our plans."

Jennifer says, "You're forgetting something. But I'll leave you to work out what it is."

The Citadel robot begins stalking towards Titan, its footfall growing louder and ouder as it's chasis become heavier and heavier. It leaps into the air and tries to land of Titan with a flying stomp.

Jennifer glances over at the robot, and laughs, "Citadel? You're kidding! If the robot is anything like our version then your odds of winning have just gone down."

Titan had braced himself for impact, only to have Imaginary Girl swoop in to block the robot's attack. He smiles, "I appreciate the thought, but you should concentrate on the evil assassin types. I think they're going to be too fast for me...but not for you, IG. I can take the robot." He steps forward, and lines up a massive punch, winding up for a long moment, preparing to level the robot.

As the big robot leaps, Imaginary Girl snaps her head over, clearly tracking its movement. Flitting over underneath it, she gets under its foot and /catches/ it, keeping it up by simply muscling up under it before it stomps whoever its target is gonna be. Then she hears Titan speak. "Oh, Titan! I can't see right now -- they dropped some flashy-thingie at my feet and I looked /right/ at it!", she explains, as she releases the big thing's foot to hover nearby.

Drang cracks her whip at Titan, aiming to wrap it around his leg.

Drang huffs and tries to swing Titan away from the Citadel robot and over at Lady Luck.

Titan quite literally bounces off the floor, barely scuffed. He doesn't even make a grunting sound as he hits, and rolls to his feet. "Miss, you're going to have to hit a lot harder than that. A LOT harder."

Imaginary Girl hovers there, looking over to where Titan was... and then to where he is. "Aw, man... this mean /I/ hafta take on the big robot, now?", she questions, rubbing at her eyes again...

Drang says, "Give me a moment, and I'll oblige you."

Jennifer says, "steps in closing the gap on Sturm and strikes at her with the whip, being rather more careful while she has the katana in hand. "So what's your dimension like? Oh, and what are your names. I assume you already know mine."

Ching! Sturm wards off the whip attack with her blade. "We have the same names, Jennifer, but I prefer our codenames: Sturm and Drang."

Jennifer sees the whip lash deflected by the blade.

Lady Luck once again tries to make Sturm clumsy, hoping she's distacted by Jennifer!

The Citadel robot tries to slam Imaginary Girl with a high-density fist.

Lady Luck grins as her light motes hit for once.

Imaginary Girl turns her head as the big fist comes her way... and reacts by punching at it with her own, much smaller, fist. There's a loud CLANG as the two fists connect, with the larger one stopped by the smaller - Imaginary Girl's 'counter punch' stopping the incoming attack, noisily!

Drang lashes out at Lady Luck with her whip, looking to score a blow to the head.

Titan jumps over to Drang, behind her. He then takes a swing at her, trying to plant his fist square in her back. He looms over her as he swings, "Best surrender now!"

Drang tumbles with the momentum of the punch and manages to find her feet with feline grace. "Not as slow as you look," she comments.

Titan slams his fist into Drang's back. "I'm convinced...you can't be the exactly the same as our version. Ours is a lot smarter. She'd never let me do that." He grins.

Lady Luck was whipped back by Drang's whip and through a storefront window. Luckily, it proves to be a matress store. Still, she moan in pain as she starts to pull herself off the matresses....

Sturm tenses, about to swing her sword, but she holds back. "You can't run from me all day, Jennifer." She waits, taking a moment to examine Jennifer's stance.

Jennifer nods, "About time you starting getting smart. One on one I'd be kicking your butts."

Drang moves closers to her sister. She tosses a grenade over at Titan. It lands, coating the ground where he stands with some sort of chemical: very slick, very slippery.

Jennifer runs along the street a little and then turns to face Sturm, "Let's get a little room to play in. Come on, what are you waiting for?"

Sturm shoots a spider line to the ledge of a building roof. She zips ahead of Jennifer and above her head, hemming in her escape route.

Jennifer leaps to the side of the road, her whip lash snaking out towards a trash can. As Jenn clears the kerb in her leap she uses her casual strength to tilt the trash can up slightly and curls the tip of the whip inside to trigger the manual detonator of the claymore hidden inside.

Jennifer rolls back to her feet as the claymore blasts out its cloud of deadly steel balls, "Surprise!"

Sturm is thrown airborne by the, but she manages to land at the ready on a nearby rooftop. "Very funny," she says through her teeth. "Let me show you how amused I am...", she says, annoyed. despite being peppered by bomb fragments, she seems relatively alright.

Jennifer says, "You know, you do have a sense of humor, Sturm. At least you shouyld have. I haven't seen you so much as smile. Come on, isn't this challenge fun for you? Be honest."

Imaginary Girl, blinking her eyes, is able to /see/ again! Seeing Titan in the middle of a buncha slippery stuff, she swoops over to him, scooping him up. "Hey, Titan... lemme give ya a hand, here...", she says as she twirls him around and hurls him at Drang! Fastball special, coming right up!

Titan gets tossed, and skids a little on the pavement, getting to his feet. He grins.

Imaginary Girl's game of Titan-tossing ends up with her missing her target. "And... the pitch is just a /little/ outside!", she quips.

Jennifer would go after Sturm, but her own swingline is still bridging the gap between an office building and the bank roof. So she turns to Drang and moves into whip range.

Jennifer slams the whip's hissing energy lash into Drang's right shoulder and sends her spinning away in a stumbling few steps before the evil twin recovers her poise.

Lady Luck gets up from the mattress and surveys the scene.

Lady Luck tries to make Drang as clumsy as her twin.

Lady Luck manages it!

The robotic Citadel turns looks for someone attack. It focuses on Titan again and he rushes forward and tries to ram him with shoulder charge.

Jennifer looks over at Drang, "What would you say to a truce for ten seconds, say? I'd really like to go over and trash Citadel. Evene if it's only a robot and not the real one. Trust me, if you knew Citadel you'd understand."

He misses and wades through streetlamp.

Titan moves to the nearest car, gripping it firmly with his outstretched hands. He then pivots around in a modified hammer throw, whipping the vehicle in the direction of Drang. "Catch!"

Titan's thrown car bounces through the area where Drang was standing, sending debris flying.

Titan grins, "It was so nice of you to provide so much ammunition for me."

Using her swingline, Sturm swings back towards the others, close enough to use her whip to reach Imaginary Girl.

Lady Luck tries to make Sturm still clumsier, since Imaginary Girl has a hold on Drang - and since Sturm may be distracted trying to help Drang.

Imaginary Girl swoops in at the downed Drang, evading a whip-lash from Sturm in the process of scooping the woman up into a bearhug! The flying heroine grunts a little as she puts her strength into the squeeze!

Drang struggles against Imaginary Girl's grasp. "Just a temporary set back."

Jennifer moves to keep Sturm busy, whiplashing at her.

Drang tries to escape from IG's grip.

Jennifer misses connecting with the whip but makes Sturm lose the initiative by blocking it.

Titan jumps over to another car, and repeats the process, keeping the pressure on Drang...whipping the new, pristine vehicle in the evil assassin's direction.

Imaginary Girl hangs onto Drang... then Drang wiggles and starts to poke and prode at the heroine with her fingers. "Hey.. what're you... hey! ... HEY!... That tickles!", Imaginary Girl says, then she starts giggling and Drang slips free when the tickling makes Imaginary Girl lose her grip, the 'bad guy' dropping to land on her feet.

Titan's thrown car is perfectly timed as Drang slips away from IG...only to be met by about a ton of steel as in careens through her area, sending her flying.

"Hey! That's someone's car!", Imaginary Girl complains at Titan, hands on her hips in a 'scolding' sort of stance. Then her eyes widen. "Oh, wait... this is like the workout room at the gym! These aren't real cars!", she then says as a wicked grin comes to her lips.

Drung skids across the simulated pavement, planted in the front grill of the truck that Titan threw at her. She brushes the wrecked vehicle aside with one arm as she props herself up with the other. She growls back at the heroes, "You're going to live to regret that, and not a moment longer... I.. --" She stops short in her sentences raising her head as if hearing something from above. Her face blanches, and Sturm has a similar reaction.

Sturm starts to plead skyward: "I was going to tell you, as soon as I eliminated the threat!.... No!... I can still beat her!"

Jennifer calls out, Wait up everyone. Sure I'm going to kick your butts, but nobody and nothing except me harms family, even a black sheep like you. What's going on? Do you need help?"

Imaginary Girl scoops up a car, inspired by Titan's tactics, and is about to hurl it at Drung... but at Jennifer's words, hesitates, holding the vehicle up over her head with both hands. "Aw, man... I was about to smoosh her, too! .... but, heck... she /is/ your sister, right?"

Jennifer nods to Imaginary Girl, "Sister is near enough. It's rather closer than that actually."

Lady Luck agrees helpfully, "Uh-huh, evil twin sister!"

Imaginary Girl nods, hovering with the car held overhead. "Evil whatever... she's still a sister of Jennifer's", she says, as if that settles it.

Sturm levels a finger at Jennifer. "With you listening in on my thoughts, I'm a liability to the team. One of us has to go." She looks back to the sky. "Let me do this!"

Jennifer tells Sturm and Drang, "Change teams. I did. Best thing that ever happened to me."

Jennifer says, "In case you haven't realised, our links don't work across dimensions. Stay off our world and I would be overhearing your thoughts."

The floor of the training room begins to glow white beneath Drang's feet. Drang looks down. "Oh. Shi--" The ground there erupts in a giant white explosion. The wrecked car, Drang, there's nothing left of them.

Titan raises a brow, "What just happened?"

A computerized voice from above announces: "Self destruct sequence initiated." The hologram of China disappears and just the training room is left. Similar explosions seem to be building up around other spots on the floor.

Lady Luck says, "I dunno! Maybe they went back to where they're from, if they're the type of evil twins from another dimension."

Lady Luck says, "Not *another* self-destruct!"

Lady Luck says, "Come on, let's get out of here!"

Lady Luck includes Sturm in that.

Jennifer says, "Out! Everyone out!" Jennifer extends a open hand towards Sturm, "Come with us."

Titan nods. "We should get going." He starts to move toward the exit, leaping over in that direction. "I might be able to survive it, but I might be the only one."

Lady Luck runs toward the exit. "Oh, I don't know, I've survived all sort of things!"

Jennifer stays in place waiting to Sturm to respond.

Sturm turns and faces Jennifer. "If it's my time to go, then let me do one last thing with certainty... She raises her sword, seeming ready to attack Jennifer.

Titan finds the door locked...and grimaces, winding up before slamming his fist into the metal door with a loud clang and wrenching of metal.

Lady Luck gestures at the door in an attempt to get it to give.

Titan frowns, and winds up to try again. "What's with the blast shelter design?"

Jennifer stands waiting for Sturm, "If Drang is dead then I will join you in seeking vengence should you wish it. In my world family comes above all else. You and I are family, more than family. We are one."

Meanwhile, the training room continues to collapse in a series of explosions.

Lady Luck keeps concentrating 'luck' into the door trying to get it to yield to Titan's blows.

The section of floor beneath Jennifer and Sturm's feet begins to glow, preparing to detonate. Sturm looks over at Jennifer. "We are one. That's why you would understand. Regardless of the odds or the opposition, we must complete our mission."

Jennifer takes a step back, moving out of the area of the floor preparing to detonate. "I could have been like you. I was lucky. Whatever or whoever that voice belonged to, wherever it is, no matter how long it takes, I will find it, and then I will tear down everthing it is and has."

Sturm's grip tightens on the hilt of her sword. She steps towards Jennifer, and then the floor goes up.

Lady Luck keeps trying to weaken the door -though she's getting tired now.

Jennifer collapses on the spot weeping pitifully.

Lady Luck says, "Jennifer! Come on! We've got to get out of here!"

This room is a large, high ceiling space about the size of the gymnasium. There's a flash of light and quickly the surroundings change. It's a training room, like the one at Steel's Gym.

The location: A downtown section of street in a major Chinese metropolis at nighttime. Street lamps and neon signs light the area. The entrance is at one end of the street and it continues forward.

Lady Luck goes back for Jennifer even though tired enough now she's can't go much faster than a walk.

Jennifer is just huddled up in a heap on the floor crying and cursing whatever it was she 'heard' speaking to the evil twins.

Lady Luck bends down and hugs Jennifer and then tugs at her hand. "Come on, we have to go..."

Jennifer looks up at Amy, tears streaming down her face. She starts slowly getting to her feet as she says, "A part of me has died."

Lady Luck nods sadly, beginning to cry herself. But says, "Don't let the rest of you die!"

Jennifer responds to Ludy Luck's tugging, walking with her. Glancing back once. "You will be revenged, Sturm, Drang. My oath on it."

There's an explosion elsewhere in the room, from the flames, a combat droid slides to a halt besides Lady Luck and Jennifer. Charred and smoking, but still functional.

Lady Luck grins suddenly and pulls Jenn toward the droid, opening the robots service panel and playing about with the wires a bit. Amy makes sure she has firm hold of Jenn and the droid as it begins whizzing toward the exit!

Lady Luck rides the droid out of the place with Jennifer - though she's unsually somber with it.

FIN