Log:Menagerie, Part 3

Menagerie 2008/09/19 	 Crater Halcyon Kibin Lightray Michelle Regent Sable 1

The "Farm", is not much more that a small cabin in the woods not far from the Bay, at least at a first glance. It's off the beaten path -- a small trail leads to this secluded location from a main road. Still, the path looks well-worn, and the spots where vehicles may have been parked recently. The lights from the cabin are dimmed. According to the informant an elevator inside the cabin leads down to the laboratory.

Lightray lands softly for all that his arms are full of another hero. He gently sets someone (probably Michell, but maybe not depending on who shows up) on the ground. He looks over at the cabin and smiles as he shakes his head. "All it needs is a still out back and Granny on the porch with shotgun."

Sable has, as is her wont, made her way by foot to the farm, and she slows slightly as she comes within line of sight of the farm, making best use of the terrain as she tries to assess the farm's defences.

Halcyon moves invisibly near Sable, remaining in her general awareness by simple virtue of being viewable when she is near enough.

Lightray looks around and raises a hand. Its easily seen given that Lightray glows in the darkness.

Sable converges quickly on where Lightray stands. "I'd like to check and see if there's any security system in place."

Kibin sneaks stealthily through the woods after the message on HeroNet, sniffing around for the other heroes to meet up with.

Lightray nods to Sable. "That makes sense, but we may not have a lot of time. But go fot it, Sable." He then adds. "And by the way, do you have any idea who Eleven is?"

Sable shakes her head. "Never heard of them."

Kibin finnally finds Lightray and the others, not too hard with the glowing. He waves, looking around to see who's in the area.

A body double of Halcyon appears, though it's not very accurate. It's a very good representation, but clearly not the real thing. It waves to Lightray and Sable.

Sable smiles and waves to Halcyon. "Just everyone stay here, I'll just be a minute."

Kibin asks Lightray after he meets up with the group, "Did you say Eleven might be there?"

Lightray smiles. "Hello Kibin, glad you could make it. And yes, there that chance. A gunman we met earlier said something about not being afraid of us since Eleven had beaten him up. Or words to that effect." He shrugs. "Made me think this eleven might be involved. Um, who is Eleven?"

Sable picks her way forward carefully, skillfully using the terrain to cover her approach as she closes in on the shack and works at a fuse box on its side for a few moments.

Michelle is here as a result of someone else helping her, naturally she could have come by her own methods but still that would have taken more time and effort on her part.

Kibin says to Lightray, "Vigilante gunman, so named because the gun he uses has eleven bullets. Supposed to be a good guy I think... just has an interesting view of good."

Halcyon follows Sable, invisibly, keeping an eye out for her and ready to grab her and take her far from the location.

Michelle hrms at the communicator and thinks "Well I think Sable said its clear to come in now" the skunk lady admits as she starts heading for the cabin.

Lightray nods. "Ah, I see. I probably misunderstood the gunman we fought then." He glances over towards the cabin. "There is supposed to be an underground lab under that shack. We have a key card from a lab assistant thtat is supposed to access an elevator inside the cabin that will take us down to the lab." He follows Michelle towards the cabin.

Kibin says to Lightray, "If you do meet him in there, try to just take his gun out of his hands first." He walks with Lightray and Michelle, looking around for any sort of traps or ambushes, nodding at what Lightray said.

Sable runs her fingers across the keycard slot that activates the front door and waits for the others to catch up.

Lightray murmurs to Kibin as they approach the cabin. "A friend of Crater's is in the lab. Candi is here name."

Kibin whispers back to Lightray, "Do you know why?"

Sable gestures Lightray to the access-card-shaped slot on the door.

Lightray nods to Kibin. "She was asking too many questions about homeless going missing." He takes the access card taken from the 'lab assistant' and slots it. AS he does, a filed of sunlight forms around his body.

Kibin glances back at Lightray and comments, "I suppose you're not planning too much on stealth..."

Lightray smiles slightly. "Sadly, this is about as subtle as I get."

Kibin nods at Lightray. He replies jokingly, "Maybe you should buy a giant tarp to cover yourself with?"

With Sable covering the rear, Halcyon stays near Michelle. There is a tiny image of Halcyon in Michelle's vision (and only in Michelle's vision) corresponding roughly where the small girl is.

Crater arrives on the scene with a pop of displaced air. He takes a few moments at a relatively safe distance to see if there are any posted guards outside.

Michelle hrms and thinks for a moment then grins "Hehe... well either way its probably good to find out whats going on in that lab"

Lightray smiles and waits for the slotted keycard to open toe elevator.

Click. The keycard opens the front door to the cabin.

Lightray pushes the door open.

The inside of the cabin is empty. It looks large enough to house three or four people, though none of them seem to be around right now. The lights are dimmed, but there's a some hum coming from what looks to be a closet.

Crater pops over to join the group, frowny-faced.

Lightray looks around the room from the door and then steps into the cabin, heading towards the closet.

Regent has been tracking on high, making sure no one has escaped from the cabin. he's not very stealthy, But wants to help.

Kibin steps in and sniffs around, paying particular attention to the humming closet.

Regent lands lightly...he walking in behind everyone else.

Halcyon's image appears for Regent, arms folded in a stern manner. It's a fake, two-dimensional. The real one is probably nearby.

Regent stops short..."What?" he whispers.."What did I do?" he gestures overly so in case she doesn't understeand him.

The door to the closet is slightly ajar. Inside it looks like there's an elevator, leading down and operated by a keycard.

Halcyon vanishes, aiming for the basement via shadow-stepping.

Crater hms. He goes to open the door the rest of the way and enter the elevator. "...Crater wonder best way to wreck elevator once down..." he grumbles.

Kibin hmmms, looking over the elevator. He says, "Lab down there all right... though you might not be able to wreck that. Some of the higher-end versions of these are very durable and teleport proof even."

Lightray heads over to the elevator and steps inside. He smiles, "Well, don't wreck it quite yet. We need to get down there first." He waits for the others to get inside before using the keycard. "By the by, can anyone tell if this elevator has any autodefenses? Like gas jets?"

Regent shakes his head..."No..but I don't need to breath, perhaps I should go down first?"

Lightray looks around. "I think we should all go down."

Kibin says, "Er... it's a decontamination elevator. It could be rigged to trap us once we get down there, or with gas jets."

Regent nods, "Ok..lets go?"

Michelle nods some "Yeah lets all go" she admits and begins to look into parallel dimensions as potential escape routes if there are some nasty booby traps or what not.

Lightray nods. "Well, hopefully using the keycard will get us down safely." He grins. "You only live once after all."

Michelle takes a moment to hold her breath too just in case ya know...

Kibin steps in the elevator with the others he supposed... though he still thinks it's a bad idea.

Regent steps in.."Let me be the meat shield..everyone behind me."

The keycard provides access to the elevator. The door closes and the room sinks into the basement before locking into place with an ominous 'kthunk'. The walls brighten and a bar of almost painfully bright light sweeps along the floor, walls, and ceiling, starting from the rear of the elevator, to the front, and the back, sort of how a photocopier might. Once that is complete, the far door opens.

Michelle gets prepared to draw up her shielding that protects her from the dimension she's presently in. Just in case...

Kibin comments to everyone else, "Just standard decon with ultraviolet light," while he looks around the new room.

Regent nods to Kibin.."Damn..you're smart.." he says and readies an elemental attack..

The basement looks like some sort of advanced biotechnology lab with workbenches and computers in the middle of the room. Along the sides of the long room are six glass tubes and four of them seem to be occupied. The tubes are darkened, and the figures inside are still. Their silhouettes make them out to be humanoid, but larger than normal people. At the far end of the room, there's another door. The room itself is 3" wide by 8" long.

Kibin blinks, walking along the tubes, seeing if there's some sort of panel or readouts on them.

Crater cracks his knuckles, frowning as he looks into the room, briefly glancing at the tubes. He then pops over to look at the door.

Lightray shakes his head and mutters. "So, this is what Dr Moreau would have these days." He walks into the lab and takes a look at the beings in the tubes.

Halcyon labels the glass tubes with dark lettering: 'Ugly Lizard-Thing' 'Ugly Scorpion-Thing' 'Ugly Bear-Thing' 'Ugly Bull-Thing'

Regent frowns..."God dammit.." he says under his breath.."Don't touch those tubes..lets get into the other room..unless we see something that can activate these things, and if so we better deactivate that.."

Kibin hmmms. He asks, "You say that this was the result of some man-gator thing?"

Michelle nods some and hrms "Yeah... we don't need to fight a dozen of those things or whatever number there are here"

Kibin works with the tubes some more, trying to do something with them.

Regent waits..

Lightray nods as he follows Crater. "Crater can tell you better, but yes, it does seem to related." He looks around briefly. "Halcyon, have you been beyond this large door?"

Crater reaches the far door. There's a small glass eyeslit in the hatch and on the other side, there's a man monitoring some computers, some of which display the activities in the lab. He's got some sort of device in his hand and he raises it to the side of his face to speak into it like a phone. He turns towards the hatch as he does.

Kibin comments, "That guy was created by someone else, I believe."

Halcyon responds to Lightray with a big question mark painted on the door for a moment. She tries to have a look past it via being there.

Crater shrugs. "Other way. Man-gator result of this, Crater bet. Homeless folk taken here, Crater hear. ... Candi somewhere here. If friend hurt..." His frown deepens as he looks through the hatch. Spotting the guy, he tries to teleport into the room, right next to him. Rash action, perhaps.

"I was afraid that this might happen, when my assistant missed his check-in time." says the man in the room over an intercom. "I won't allow you to interfere in my research and... ahh!" He jumps as Crater teleports into the room next to him. In his excitement he presses a button on his phone/remote. The tubes open spilling blue fluid onto the floor and dumping their contained people into the lab space. They begin to rouse, and they do not look happy.

Regent shakes his head.."Son of a.." he readies for battle. "Crater Finish that guy! get some info from him, like where is your friend!!"

There are four creatures in all. A quick-moving scorpion hybrid with a tail stinger and black chitinous armor. A large, musclebound hybrid with bull horns. A scaly reptilian hybrid with pointy teeth. A lumbering brown furred hybrid that looks something like a bear.

Kibin blinks at something in the data he got, and then looks up at the test subjects escaping. He puts the PDA he was using away and then roars at the test subjects, "GET AHOLD OF YOURSELVES! We're the good guys!"

The reptilian hisses with a forked tongue at Kibin, but starts to edge away from him, warily. The scorpion hesitates too. The bull and the bear seem unphased

The scorpion man shies away from Kibin. Instead he runs quickly towards Michelle his stinign tail curling towards her over his head.

Regent shakes his head, "I'm sorry." his voice full of regret...and swirling winds start to whirl around his hand and you can almost see the sprites playful in the wind that fly at the scorpion before it begins to draw the air from its lungs..

Crater scowls. "Where Candi? You hurt Crater's friend, Crater hurt you," he states, matter-of-factly. He waits to see what he says, ready to act in the event of any funny-business.

The Bear-Man strides across the room and tries to knock Regent to the ground with a downward swipe.

Regent isn't hurt but he's knocked to the floor, 'OOF!" he says as a giant pawhand hits him..

Michelle looks at the scorpion and shakes her head "You really dont want to do that..." she warns/threatens him "I mean unless you want to stink like skunk spray for the next week or more" and yeah she's gets ready to shunt attacks away from her

Lightray looks over at the bullman and nods. "Sorry about this, sir." He then releases a burst of blinding sunight from his elft hand at the mutated man. As this happes a field of sunight forms around Lightray's body.

The burst of sunlight, however, goes wide fo the minotaur and hits harmlessly into a now empty cylinder.

The Bull-Man lowers his head and charges straight at Lightray.

The transformed man narrowly misses Lightray and smashes through an adjacent bio workstation as if it where made of playing cards.

Lightray murmurs, "Oh for a red cape right now."

"Candi?" The man in the side room asks. "The girl. She makes an wonderful lizard, no?" He reaches for a desk drawer quickly.

Crater shouts and tries bringing a foot down upon the man, trying to bring the pain for what he's done.

Crater's foot lands into the man's arm with an sickening crunch. "Aaaah!" he yells in pain, clutching at his injured arm.

Entirely lost in the chaos and unnerved by Kibin, Halcyon remains hidden.

The scientist leers at Crater. "The girl..." he spits. "I know your friend's little secret!"

Kibin continues talking after getting at least Candi's attention. He says to the lizard, "Candi, remember who you are, try to calm down. You don't have to attack us."

Michelle figuring that words are not likely to work with this person she does what anyone else might call crazy and tries to grapple with the Scorpion... Thankfully she's uniquely equipped to deal with the tail by tangling it up with her own hopefully

The Scorpion-Man is very light on his feet. He easily evades Michelle's tail.

The scorpion crouches. His tail snaps at Michelle from over his shoulder.

The Lizard-Woman leaps away from Kibin, trying to find a bank of computers to hide behind. Her skin shifts colors, matching that of the floor and the computer desk, making her harder to spot.

Regent frowns..this is bad..outgunned..he tries again against the bear this time. "No more paddycakes with me.." he says from the floor, not even bothering to get up.

The Bear-Man staggers away from Regent, choked by a cloud dotted with pixies.

Kibin hmmms as the lizardwoman moves away for now, talking to her later. He focuses on the rest of the subjects, looking over at the scorpion man. He leaps over, swinging his tail around and trying to knock him into a wall.

Kibin connects and the Scorpion-Man slams face first into the wall before landing in a heap. He turns and look at Kibin angrily.

Crater, not satisfied with breaking an arm for now, moves to grab the man, intending to take him into the room to see what his 'creations' want to do to him.

Lightray shakes his head as he turns to follow the Bull-Man. "Sorry about this, sir." He then lets loose with a blast of concentrated sunlight at the Bull-Man.

Crater pops out of the other room, and back into the room with the others. "See what they think of you," he practically growls, gripping tightly and looking around at the creatures.

The Bull-Man snorts and lowers his head. He charges in the direction that he thinks Lightray lies in.

The Bull-Man misses Lightray by a mile, but he avoids hitting the wall; instead he just scrapes his horns along it.

Halcyon slips in near Crater, and the sound in their immediate vicinity ceases for them. She shakes her head to him, looking worried.

Kibin runs towards the scorpion-man again, trying and hitting him back into the wall. He says, "Sorry, not going to let you hurt my friends!"

The Scorpion-Man snaps up to his feet at the last possible moment, and he springs just over Kibin's tail.

Kibin slams his tail into the wall, jumping back ready for another attack.

Regent Still on the ground hits the bearman up again..

The sprites that draw the air from his lungs laugh gleefully, the sound of their laughter like tinkling bells as the bearman holds his throat clawing for air that wont come before his eyes roll in the back of his head and he falls to the ground unconscious. It is only then that the sprites disappear into shimmering motes of nothingness.

Crater glances at Halcyon, still scowling. He tries to twist a bit of the guy he's holding, since the critters don't seem to be noticing him yet.

The man gasps, and then goes limp in Crater's arms.

Lightray turns to follow the Bull-Man. He shakes his head. "I hate to do this, but you need to lay down." He then gathers sunlight into his hands and blasts the Bull-Man with it.

The Bull only seems mildly affected by the blast. He turns towards the direction the blast came from.

Kibin swings his powerful tail again at the scorpion-man, commenting slightly, "I hope we can return these people to normal..."

Kibin's tail strikes and spins the Scorpion-Man around before he bumps against the wall, back first. He falls to the ground again.

Michelle watches as Kibin basically starts kicking ass of the scorpion man. She's not able to do too much so she waits for an opportunity to present itself

The Bull-Man kicks his foot at the ground as he focuses, trying to discern Lightray's location. He steps forward and flails with a wild punch.

The Bull-Man's fist catch nothing but air.

Vanishing again, Halcyon remains a non-target for the enemy.

Kibin spins around yet again, with another tailslap. Four times in a row, and he doesn't show any signs of letting up.

The scorpion's hardened skin deflects the worst of the blow, but Kibin's blows seem to by taking a toll. It stands slowly and stings back at Kibin.

The Scorpion's stinger misses.

Regent turns his attention to the bullman..."youre next.."

Sprites Bull-man Action! The winds whip at the bull-man, although not to the effects that the bear-man went down. this guy probably didn't have asthma in his prior state...

Crater lets go of the scientist-guy, letting him unceremoniously fall to the floor. He then moves toward where he last saw the lizard.

Lightray shakes his head and lets loose with another bolt of sunlight on the Bull-Man.

The Bull-Man is force backwards by Lightray's blast. He still seems to have an appetite for fighting, however.

Kibin crouches down a bit, and then spins around attempting to deliver a final knockout blow to the scorpion with his tail.

Michelle decides to help Kibin and focuses on attacking the Scorpion even though she's got a bit of a burning sensation in her shoulder where the sting occured. She takes her time to put some extra oomph into the punch though

The Bull gets up and it tries to hear out where its enemies are.

Moving behind Kibin, Halcyon flings shadowy bindings at the scorpion.

Now blinded, the scorpion falls to the floor enwrapped in thin shadows that have no effect upon others trying to do it harm.

The Scorpion-Man tries to break out of its restraints. The bindings flex, but hold.

Regent says, "Another attack of the kiler sprites...bullman time to go sleepytime."

Crater blinkblinks. He looks up, getting ready to move if his suspicions are right.

Lightray sighs and hits the Bull-Man again. "Just lie down," he mutters.

The blast of sunlight briefly outlines the Bull-Man's form. Then, with a hurrmph, the mutated man falls to the floor.

The Lizard-Woman, once camouflaged upon the ceiling tries to pounce on Crater.

Crater upon seeing the lizard dropping down towards him, he bamfs a few feet out of the way.

Crater pops out of one spot, and into a spot a couple of " to the left. "Candi, it Crater!" he shouts. "Bad lizard! No eat friends!"

Lizard-Woman lands on the ground in a crouch as it's target teleports away. She turns spying the heroes surrounding her and then back to Crater. She seems a little spooked by all of the people, but not really anxious to continue to fight.

Regent nods. I'm going to RP pinning them with entangles, but not hurting anyone.

Lightray looks around at the other heroes. "Anyone hurt?"

Before the bull-man or the bear man can rise again, Regent closes his fists grasping them in Gaia's fist before returning his focus on the lizard and the human lab dude. "I think the key is with that guy.." he says pointing to the lab dude.

Kibin checks over the unconscious people, and then takes out the PDA after it's finished downloading stuff looking into more how the hybrids were created.

Michelle shakes her head "Naw other than an annoying sting..."

Lightray nods. "OK." He walks over to the lab guy, moving slowly so as to not spook Candi-Lizard.

At the motion of the people around her, the Lizard-Woman jumps up to the ceiling, pulling a half-turn in the air and landing with her hands and feet sticking to the surface. She scampers around the ceiling and into the corner of the room.

Regent says, "Crater, do you want me to try to hold her? I can do it without hurting her.""

Lightray kneels down next to the lab guy and gathers sunlight into his hands. He seems to then pour it into the man.

Crater blinks. "Not want ta spook. Who knows what been through." He frowns. "Healing guy that hurt Crater's friend? Guy deserve worse than just broken arm."

The man's arm slowly straightens and moves as the sunlight soaks into him. Lightray murmurs as he watches. "Yes, he does, Crater. But that decision doesn't lie with us in this time or place." He shrugs. "Besides, pain distracts from answering questions."

Regent nods, "Crater, this man has immediate answers, we can hope for immediate results."

The scales on the Lizard-Woman's skin shift colors and she vanishes against the like-colored background of the ceiling and upper wall.

Crater grumbles. "...maybe. Crater still want jump off a building with him, though."

The man starts to come around, moaning softly, with his eyes blinking open slowly.

Lightray smiles down at the man. "Good evening. Would you like to answer some questions or would like my friend over there," he gestures to Crater, "to break another limb?"

Regent keeps an eye on the lizardwoman...trying to at least.

The man swallows hard. "Look. I'm willing to cooperate. I want a lawyer, and I want to talk to District Attorney Chamberlain. I want immunity... and witness protection. My name is Dr. Francis Jacoby and I work for Next Generation.

Lightray nods. "Good answers. I have one further question before we do anything else though: Is what you have done to your victims reversible?"

"Maybe for the chameleon sample, but the others, they're too far gone." Jacoby says.

Kibin comments after scrolling through the information on the PDA a bit, "I can reverse the process on Candi, if I work immediately. The other four subjects, I don't think so." He looks up at the man, hmmming.

Regent's aura goes red suddenly...."Too far gone??" his voice raises a timbre anger flooding his tone.

Kibin replies to Regent, "They've been like that for a week, the more time that passes the harder it is to reverse."

Crater pops a knuckle. "Partially reverse for others, at least?"

Lightray looks over at the Bull-, Scorpion-, and Bear-Men, then to Kibin, then back to Dr Jacoby. "Will you assist Kibin, Dr Jacoby? I am certain some show of humanity on your part now will help you later." Lightray's tone is brisk and formal.

Regent turns to Kibin..."So we don't even try?..between you two genius's there's got to be a way..." this is so unjust, these people didn't ask for this, they are victims through and through..

Kibin shrugs at Regent. He says, "I've worked for a while on turning myself back human, it's not as easy as it seems. I might could do it eventually, though it would take a lot of work."

Regent says to the good doctor...his aura still flaring red, deep and angry, his fists almost bursting with a miasmia of darkness..persephone's power, "I think a show of your humanity on your part will help you NOW." his tones short and angry.

Jacoby nods to Lightray, looking over at Kibin. "I can do that... I've been wanting to work with Kibin for some time..."

Kibin stares at Jacoby. He says, "I don't really need help, I'm confident I can do it on my own with the equipment here."

Lightray just nods at this statement of Dr Jacoby's. He looks over at Kibin. "Will two of you be faster? Be able to help them more?"

Kibin replies to Lightray, "Maybe... but I don't trust him. I'd rather work alone than with him."

Regent turns to Kibin. "Whatever yields results. I'll burn him if he trys anything."

Jacoby hmphs. "Alright. You've heard him - he'd prefer to work alone. But for the record I was willing to help." He looks over at Kibin and says, "I've seen your file, you know."

Kibin growls. He asks Jacoby, "Oh, and how much does Next Generation know about me?"

Lightray nods to Kibin. "Granted. I don't trust him either." He then nods to the computers. "But who knows what was not put in those machines. His victims need all the help they can get, yes?"

Regent hands go aflame. "I will burn him down Kibin..I promise you." he says as he approaches the Doctor.

"Let's just say that you're a Person of Interest, Ashton." Jacoby says.

Jacoby scrambles to his feet and looks to Lightray. "I'm cooperating... what more do you want?" He looks back over at Regent.

Kibin sighs. He says to Lightray, "You're probably right..." He asks Jacoby, "What other personel are there in this lab?"

Regent says, "I want more, but I will settle for this for now bastard. .now get to work."

Jacoby says, "I gather that you have my lab assistant. It's just us two. We accomplish a lot with automation."

"Of course now... look at the place." He gestures to some of the smashed, ruined equipment.

Lightray says, "He is in police custody now, Dr Jacoby." He looks over at Michelle. "Ma'am? Can you contact Sable? And if so, can you have her contacts the authorities?"

Kibin comments, "Should still be enough to reverse the process..." He goes back through the notes, getting together some notes on his own on reversing the process.