Log:Completely Snowed, Scene 2

none 2013/05/22 	 Lorelei Ten Titan Sukeban Star Girl Anthony Quinn|Quinn Scrapper 2

The snowball fight eventually runs out of steam about dinner time, with great fun being had by mostly everyone. Thoughts in some minds if that the holiday will be over at the end of tomorrow, and ready from mid-day the next day as the school parties will have to pack and be driven down to various airports.

At dinner, served communally in the restaurant, your 'charges' seem to be rather quiet, although with a degree of whispering among themselves. Eve is seated close enough that one fragment of a whisper comes to her ears sufficiently well to be partially audible.. 'up the east slope... caves... after dark...'

 Scrapper says, "Titan, you wouldn't happen to have extra communicators on you?"

 Titan says, "Nope, sorry."

 Scrapper says, "What do you two think about working in pairs? Say, Star Girl and I, Suke with Quinn and Titan with Eve?"

Star Girl sits at table nearby, perhaps with one of the other bodyguards, grabbing a bite to eat. She smile and comments to no one in particular, "Kind of reminds me of the ski-trips me and my friends used to do..."

 Titan says, "Seems reasonable to me."

Scrapper seems a bit distracted as if her thoughts were elsewhere, but manages to politely reply, "Oh? Any treed bullies on your trips too?"

Eve casually sends a text message to Q and anyone else whose contact details she may have, passing on the info about the caves.

 'Hanako' says, "I've worked with Sutaagi before, but whatever."

 Scrapper says, "Dare I ask what a Sutaagi is? Is that like a chibi?"

Star Girl nods to Scrapper, explaining: "High school." She blinks as the text from Eve pops up across the bottom of her field of vision. "Oh." She sighs. "Jeez. I can totally the appeal of running off," Star says. "But still, it's annoying." She speaks so only Scrapper can hear, hopefully.

 'Hanako' says, "Star Girl"

When dinner is finished a bonfire is lit outside the hotel and a sing-song is organized, hot mulled wine for adults, hot chocolate drinks for the kids. Marshmallows toasted by the hotel chefs. Various children, and adults, go to the impromptu stage and sing, with varying levels of skill.

Scrapper nods to Star Girl. "Text back 'tell Titan and stay close to him.' I think we should pair up and you get me."

 Scrapper chuckles, "No, you get a guy. No need to make your date jealous."

Eve, receiving the text, passes on the news quietly to Titan as people are singing.

As Anthony eats his dinner he chats with another of the resorts guests. Not one of the young charges but a woman closer to his own age. His watch beeps as Eve's text is received and he calls up a small display to read the message. He gives a small sigh and smiles to his dinner companion as he ponders what to do.

Titan nods to Eve, and says quietly, "Alright."

Star Girl makes a call me sign with her right hand, thumb to her ear and pinky towards her lips. She whispers Scrapper's message, and her suit broadcasts it to Eve as a text message.

 'Hanako' says, "Heh. No way Motoko'd be jealous. We're for real."

 Scrapper says, "You getter tell your partner. He's lookin lost."

Anthony forgoes taking part in the talent show, using the time to get a head start on the children as he sets off to the eastern slope. As before he doesn't camp out in the caves themselves but finds a convenient vantage point from which to watch them.

Scrapper pulls Star Girl back away from the bonfire into the semi-darkness. "We can see better back here," she says quietly.

'Hanako' wander off and joins up with Quinn.

Eve sticks with the sing-song, at least as long as the kids are there.

Star Girl nods to Scrapper. o O ( Bonfire is messing with my infrared, though... )

Night steals away the setting sun and it's time for the younger children to head to the dorms. Most protest, asking their teachers for just a little longer. Your group goes off quietly without any hesitation when their teacher beckons to them.

Titan looks to Eve, "What now?"

 Scrapper says, "Guys? Where are you and where are you going?"

[To Star Girl] Scrapper says, "Roof?"

Eve says, "Well, presumably they're going to sneak out. I guess the thing to do is to stay up and spot them as they do so!"

 'Hanako' says, "Eh. Wherever I am? I don't know crap about the outdoors. I'm near tree near a bunch of other trees. Quinn is here, and we got the caves in sight."

Star Girl nods to Scrapper. "Let's go."

 Scrapper says, "We'll be on the roof. What do you think, let them go? They are dying to have an 'adventure'."

Titan nods to Eve, "Or we could head where they're headed...assuming we know where that is. I'm good with staying up and trying to spot them, though. There are others of us near the destination."

From his concealed vantage point Quinn waits with 'Hanako'. Without the benefits of his environmentally controlled armor he's forced to occasionally blow on his gloved hands and stamp his feet to keep warm. "I should have built some environmental settings into this thing," he mutters to 'Hanako'. "Of course I wouldn't be able to use them right now since I don't want to be turning on the force field, so I suppose it doesn't matter."

Scrapper follows Star Girl to the roof. On the way she asks, "You mentioned infrared. You fly too, right? What other senses should I be aware of?"

Eve takes up position where she has a fair view of where the kids are (supposed to be) sleeping. "Best ot stay here in case the others have the wrong cave or something."

'Hanako' grins at Anthony, "I could heat things up, but that'd be more visible than yer field."

Titan nods, and does similarly, though since he doesn't have much sneakiness capability, he grabs a book, and just sits in a public chair. 'Hide in plain sight'

Star Girl frets. "I can't fly -- not for lack of trying. I can run pretty fast and jump kinda far, though. The suits sensors enhance my vision -- I can see further and more clearly than normal."

Eve does similarly to Titan, apparently intent on her PDA, from a slightly different vantage point the better to cover the building.

Scrapper explains, "I can carry you then. Everybody else is paired up. Suke and Quinn are in the woods and Titan and Eve are inside."

Star Girl hedges. "I can run kinda fast."

A couple of hours pass by. Cold hours for those outside keeping watch. Then, just before midnight, the group of children sneak out of their dorm and head east. The twin girls are flying, as is the red unruly haired boy. Mark and Patrica Steel are carrying skis and Peter Wilson (the studious boy) puts on a pair of snowshoes.

 Scrapper says, "Snowshoes is going to have a problem keeping up."

Scrapper grins, "There they go."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Suke. I think they are headed your way. Three of them are flying. Let Quinn know."

<Guard> 'Hanako' says, "Yo."

Eve pursues them. hopefully far enough back that they won't notice. Because her staff glows and could be seen in the dark, she follows on skis. Which she seems to know how to use now.

The kids are moving towards the cover of a wooded area, sneaking until they are out of sight of the lodges and hotel.

'Hanako' nods, "Quinn, they're comin'. I can see heat, so they'll be easy for me to see. Ya got anything to spot them with?"

Titan follows after as well, but doesn't bother with skis, since he doesn't know how to really use them, honestly. He just leaps from place to place, making sure to stay far enough back.

Scrapper easily lifts Star Girl and flies her to the nearest tree top, hovering in its shadow briefly.

Star Girl flies with Scrapper, focusing on keeping tabs on the surroundings as Scraper concentrates on tailing the kids.

Anthony shakes his head to 'Hanako'. "No," he replies with a smile. "I left my radar in my other suit, but I figure if things do go south people are going to light the place up."

When the kids are in the cover of the woods, one of the flying twins picks up Peter. The other flying twin drops a rope. The brother and sister Steels grab the rope and get a tow as the group heads up the east facing slope towards the ridge of that part of the mountains.

[To Star Girl] Scrapper says, "I know I'm no horse, but try to get comfortable. We might be a while. ... And pop me if you want my attention: no light nudges."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Nice teamwork. They are making good time now."

Star Girl nods to Scrapper.

Eve thinks. o O (Darn - I won't be able to keep up. I'll have to change to staff once they're out of sight and hope we've got the right cave....)

Scrapper flies after the group, zig-zagging tree to tree in their wake.

The kids move quickly through the woods, and then revert to sneaking, the flyers returning to earth, as they come out of the trees and angle to the side to avoid a direct climb to the ridgeline.

Eve uses her staff on low power to pull herself along in an attempt not to fall too far behind.

<Guard> Scrapper says, "We lose anybody? Suke, let Quinn know we are just below the ridgeline."

<Guard> Titan says, "I'm back a ways. I can leap decent distances, but I'm being cautious to stay back so I'm not spotted."

'Hanako' whispers to Quinn, "They're just below the ridgeline."

Quinn nods to 'Hanako' and blows on his hands once more. "Good," he says, "because I think I'm beginning to lose feeling in my toes. No doubt about it, I've got to build a covert operations suit. Something with an optical refractory field and a built in heater."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Suke, proceed them into the caves. I have a feeling somebody's in there."

Eve tries to circle round and get ahead of the kids,. if possible.

The kids suddenly drop down into the snow.

<Guard> 'Hanako' says, "Ryoukai"

Scrapper continues to follow from her high vantage and starts with surprise when the kids disappear.

'Hanako' taps Quinn on the shoulder, "Time to move. Try to get in the cave before them."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "was that a pit trap?"

[To Star Girl] Scrapper says, "was that a pit trap?"

Quinn nods to 'Hanako' and begins to follow her to the cave. "Going to need a little bit of help in the dark," he says.

'Hanako' nods, "Keep yer hand on my shoulder."

Scrapper starts to zoom forward from her hiding place in the closest tree but stops herself. "A pit trap won't stop them," she mutters to Star Girl. "Three of them can fly. Lets see if they triggered a bell."

Scrapper says, "... err, an alarm."

Star Girl points out towards the snow for Scrapper's benefit. "There... something's cloaked, but it's leaving tracks in the snow. What kind of track is that...?"

Star Girl adds, "I think it came from the cave...?"

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Suke, do you see tracks? I think we have an invisible person."

Star Girl says to Scrapper, "Let's get down there."

Eve stays hidden and waits, watching at the tracks get closer to her, ready to ambush whatever's making them.

<Guard> 'Hanako' says, "I dunno, maybe. I wasn't really lookin', seein' as I'm headed for the caves."

Eve cunning buries her staff in the snow as she waits....

Scrapper hesitates, "I don't want to expose the whole team if that guy has backup."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Suke, anything in there?"

Two small figures rise up from the snow each side of the unseen track maker. Energy whips lash out.

Eve extends her staff *beneath the snow* and trues to grab the path-makers legs without being seen by the kids!

The whips seem to strike something unseen. A moment later an alien form appears, sprawled across the snow. It looks like a child's stick drawing of a person, drawn with a thick brush. All bones and angles. The alien is wearing a suit of some kind and is holding a obvious weapon.

Eve's staff helps, snatching the legs out from under the alien and making it an even easier target for the energy whips.

Star Girl prepares to jump free of Scrapper and towards the alien. "The kids could be in trouble right now!"

Eve snaps her staff back once the alien has gone down. hoping no one noticed. And watches to see if the kids are in control of this or in trouble.

Scrapper chuckles as the kids take down the alien, "Really? Looks to me like they are making a good accounting of themselves."

The kids, Mark and Patrica Steel, remain standing, shocked into looking around for the source of the staff. Forgetting to duck back into cover.

The brother and sister finally drop back into the concealment of the snow, having failed to see the source of the staff.

Star Girl drops down to the ground, dismissing her image generator to reveal herself as Star Girl. She bounds through the air towards the alien and the Steel twins. One of the twins half rises as Star Girl appears, "Uh.. Oh. Hi. Are you here to stop the alien invasion, too?"

Sukeban dismisses her image costume and releases her flames into her hair and eyes as she roars into the sky on a jet of flame, leaving a long tail of fire behind her.

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Subtle. Okay, switch partners. Suke, where did you leave Quinn?"

Well, sitting back passively and seeing if the kids get in over their heads is all well and good when they are dealing with bullies, off on illicit ski runs, or sneaking away to explore caves, but when the kids start fighting aliens that crosses the line. Things can go south way too quickly. Quinn's forcefield snaps on, glowing with faint, lambent glow as he takes to the air and flies toward the kids.

<Guard> Sukeban says, "Right behind me."

Star Girl says, "Alien invasion..?! Uh... sure?"

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Ah. Missed him in your contrail."

Eve decides to stay hidden for now. Not because she's hiding from the kids, but if any other aliens are about, she might as well keep her position a secret. She can still cover the kids from here.

Scrapper snaps on her own force field and joins the party.

Eve luckily doesn't get cold lying in the snow!

The kids stand. No point in sneaking now Sukeban is painting a fiery trail across the night sky. Peter says, "They haven't noticed anything yet. But they'll miss it," He points to the unconscious alien, "soon."

Quinn comes in for a landing next to the unconscious alien, scooping up the creatures weapon and examining it as he talks rapidly to the kids. "How many of there are there?" he asks. "Any ideas what kind of equipment they have?"

Titan turns off his holo-belt and leaps in closer, no longer worrying about keeping his distance...at least with Sukeban lighting up the sky.

It's Peter who answers. He seems to be speaking for the group. "There's six of them. Uh, five now I guess. They're setting up a beacon for their invasion teleporter. I've been overhearing them since they came about lunch time. Noisy thoughts. It's like shouts in my mind."

Anthony nods to Peter. "Nothing worse than noisy thinkers," he says.

Scrapper says, "Where are they setting it up?"

Star Girl looks down at the unconscious alien. "The Thokk," she says. "They're like the badguy humans from that movie with the planet of naked blue aliens." She turns to Peter. "Can you tell where the beacon is?"

Peter says, "In the cave. That's what their thoughts are saying. Uh. I need to concentrate. I'm keeping up the impression it," He points to the alien again, "is still thinking. Can you ask Graham your questions, please."

Titan walks over, closing the remaining distance. He then looks at the alien that's been downed. "Huh."

Sukeban lands and waits for a plan.

The kids gather around.

[To Titan] Star Girl says, "Peter's uncovered an alien scouting party. We've got to stop them before they can set up a beacon to teleport their main force here."

Eve shows herself after all. Seems like the aliens are inside, and it's better to be in on the plan.

Titan raises a brow. "Oooookay. So, where are the aliens? The cave?"

The unruly haired boy, Graham Sparks, answers, "Yes. That's what Peter told us."

Sukeban grins as flames lick out from her body and swirl around her, "Well, let's go welcome them to Earth."

Anthony nods. "All right," he says. "How much time do we have? Enough for me to go get suited up?"

Titan nods to Graham, "Thanks." He then looks to Star Girl, "Is this alien race part of the Guild? Or independent? I figured you might know."

Eve says, "So only 5 left? Surely that's not a problem?"

Graham says, "Peter said they would be about an hour more. But if Peter can't fool them and they realize this one isn't thinking they'll know someone is here."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "So if you *hadn't* flown here from the cave, Suke, you two might have taken out the aliens before the kids got there?"

Star Girl shakes her head to Titan. "No -- they're strongly anti-Guild. Say what you about about the Guild, but they're not about to let Earth get strip-mined."

Quinn nods to Graham. "Good enough," he says. "You'd be surprised at how quickly I can suit up." And with that he takes to the air once more, though he keeps low as he heads to the van he previously had sent to the resort. "Ski slopes, fresh powder, outdoor Jacuzzis and alien invaders," he says to no one in particular. "This place really does have something for everyone."

Graham asks, "You're not going to send us away are you? Please. I mean, we found them."

Eve decides to suit down: take off her ski suit to reveal her costume underneath. No point in ruining a good set of clothes in a fight. She sticks on her mask too though she doubt her face has been seen much in the dark.

Scrapper considers the kids slowly. "Okay guys, we don't know for certain all five aliens are in there. I need you guys to assist me with several things while Quinn and Suke lead the assault on the cave. Among other things, we will be their lifeline if things go wrong."

Star Girl puts her hands on her hips and looks towards the cave. "Do we have any other ways of finding them? We can split up and start searching the caves. Q don't you have some kind of scanner or something?" she asks hopefully.

Anthony, being momentarily absent, has no response.

Scrapper chuckles, "I expect Suke can light up the whole cave system at once."

Scrapper says, "I once saw her set fire to an entire medieval castle, courtyard and all."

Graham tells Scrapper, "The other five aliens are all in there. Peter would have told us if they weren't, like he told us that this one was coming out to look around."

Star Girl says, "As soon as Q returns, I say we start scouting the caves."

And in a remarkably short time Q does return, now dressed for the occasion in his latest combat suit. Once again he flies low to the terrain to try and keep his approach as circumspect as possible, though with boot jets he's far from silent.

Sukeban sighs, "And what if the aliens have a bunch of combat robots, with no minds, with them?"

Titan shrugs, "Then we tear some robots apart?"

Star Girl takes a moment to radio the situation back to SGHQ.

Sukeban says, "Sure, we can do that. These chibis would be walkin' in like bunnies in a wood chipper." She glares at the kids, "That's why ya leave this to us professionals.""

Eve thinks. o O (Not sure I'd give the wood chipper good odds with these kids.)

The kids look sulky but, good kids, they don't accept the situation and don't protest.

Scrapper chuckles, "Okay, so give me a rundown of your abilities guys. If we are going to be a cavein rescue team, I need to know what we have to work with."

Star Girl says, "I'm a blaster. If we find them, I'll go stealth and try to take out the beacon."

Sukeban looks over at Titan, "So what's the plan, Boss?"

Eve says, "Nearly invulnerability, high agility. Long stick for hitting stuff with. Which also does stretchy and blasty stuff."

[To Star Girl] Scrapper says, ""You don't get rescue team. You get first wave."

Mark and Patrica shyly admit, "I'm, uh we, used to be Wolfguard. We're fourth generation." Peter lifts his hands and sparks fly between his palms, "I can fly and shoot lightning." The twins just grin, "We're supermean. We can fly and we're strong and tough."

Titan shrugs and smiles. "I'm thinking...stride in there. Defeat the aliens. Smash the beacon."

Sukeban nods to Titan, "Sounds good to me. Want to head over there and get it down while O-Chibi-chan is plannin' her picnic?"

Eve grins to Titan. "My plans usually go about like that too."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "I'm trying to help the kids feel useful ... plus I don't trust them to stay put without at least one of us watching them."

Scrapper says, "Then the kids and I dig you guys out after the roof falls in"

"The gun that one alien was carrying was a pretty nasty piece of work," Quinn says. "Probably the best strategy would be to let me fly in there first and pop off a Thunderclap charge. It will knock my visual sensors off line but I can use radar until it reboots. Titan follows immediately after me and then everyone else."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Suke then Titan?"

<Guard> Titan says, "I'm probably more resilient than Sukeban. It makes sense for me to go before her."

Titan nods to Quinn. "Seems reasonable to me."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "I was thinking Thunderclap then inferno."

Star Girl nods and waits for Titan and Quinn to lead the way.

<Guard> Sukeban says, "My Conflagration is pretty weak really, not much use against anyone with powers."

Eve plans to follow Titan in - she usually likes to be close to the front, for the sake of others.

Quinn gives a nod and looks at the assembled heroes. Not having a pretty princess communicator he's unaware of what is being said on that channel. "Everyone ready?" he asks.

Sukeban nods

Scrapper says, "Graham, can you and Peter walk and keep up your pretense?"

Titan doesn't seem to be bothered by the cold in the least. He doesn't even have a hat on. He nods to Quinn, "Ready when you are."

One of the twins says, "I can carry Peter." when Graham seems unsure of the answer.

With everyone ready Quinn takes to the air, boot jets kicking up snow as he kicks the throttle to full combat speed. He's uncertain about the layout of the cave but trusts in his maneuverability, radar, and resistance to glancing shots from the walls to keep him safe.

Scrapper nods, "Okay then, I want as much information as possible before the two teams split up. Locations, routes, whatever you have. After the first team is briefed, I need kids on second team with me to fall back far enough to not get caught when the roof falls in or blows up or alien minions start pouring past the first team."

<Guard> Scrapper says, "Hey, we don't know for certain they don't have kid-safe minions, right?"

OOC: At the last second, Scrapper and Star Girl decide to switch places. Star Girl will stay with the kids and Scrapper will join her team.

As Q moves in he finds a 10m twisty section and past that a large chamber. In the middle is a esoteric device, with parts that seems to fade into other dimensions. The five aliens in the chamber are clustered around the device working on it, and taken by surprise by Q's rapid entry.

With the aliens gathered around the central device Quinn lets loose with his Thunderclap charge. Driving the visual and auditory emitters of his armor to their maximum he emits a beam from his chestplate that streaks to the center of the aliens before erupting in a brilliant flash and deafening roar.

Eve swings into the cave on her staff and gives a quick thwack to whatever alien she reckons seems to be doing the most important thing to the device (or was before being blinded).

Titan does his best to keep up with the others, running full speed through the passage to the area where the aliens are.

Sukeban flies through the twisty passage and snaps her fingers once the room is in view, sending a spark flying into the middle of the alien. The spark blossoms into a ball of fire on impact!

The fireball engulfs the aliens and the device. The aliens are hurled in all directions (only one direction per alien though) by the blast. The device appears unharmed; except about half the odd protrusions seemingly vanishing off into other dimensions are now glowing with a bright blue aura.

Scrapper zooms into the cave, scraping walls with her shoulders in her haste to reach the device before in can be activated. As she enters the chamber, she manifests a sledgehammer

Outside the kids fidget as flashes and booms emerge from the cave entrance. Star Girl keeps them in hand.

The impact with the device is, as far as Scrapper is concerned, non-existent. She flies straight through it without feeling anything except a draining sensation and a rapid deceleration. However as she emerges at a relative crawl from the far side of the device everyone can see that almost every protrusion is now glowing a bright eerie blue.

Eve says, "I think we're feeding the machine energy! Or making it blow up. One or the other."

Eve twacks the same alien again.. She'll leave the glowing gizmo for Q to worry about.

Somehow the alien seemed to be aware of the attack. But it's prone so Ten hits.

Three of the aliens seem to be aware somehow of the heroes locations. They open fire. Two scan with their heads but seem unable to locate the heroes.

One shoots at Ten, one at Titan, one at a rocky spur jutting up from the floor. The two aliens who can't locate targets for their weapons use a different sense.

Titan grunts as the shot bounces off of his body.

Eve isn't hurt much by the shot but falls flat on her face and drop her staff in surprise.

With the heavy impacts being delivered by Ten being less effective than he would hope Anthony tries for an attack hoping to bypass the alien's thick skin. He picks the alien that Ten hit moments before and unleashes on him with a neural blast.

The alien Q fires at has some natural resistance to the neural blast but also seems rather vulnerable as well. It shrieks loudly.

Scrapper lands in front of the mentalist and winds up with her sledgehammer

Titan jumps over to the one that shot up, and takes a swing at it with a standard run-of-the-mill punch...after all, Ten's swings weren't dropping the things.

An alien hits a wall from Titan's punch. Affected by still active. A second later a second alien hits a wall as Scrapper swings mightily with her sledgehammer. That alien isn't moving after that.

Eve doesn't take the time to get up. She rolls just enough so she can pick up her staff again, then expands her staff straight at the alien she's been fighting.

Hit once again, after previous hits by Ten and Titan, a second alien slides limply to the floor of the chamber.

One alien, having located Titan with its mind, fires at Titan from a distance.

Titan grunts again as he's shot. "Ow." He takes a look at his clothing where he's hit. There's now a hole in it. "I need stronger materials to wear."

Another of the aliens manages to locate Ten with an alien sense.

[To Titan] Eve says, "Quinn's invented just the stuff!"

But the alien shot misses and rips a hole in the chamber wall.

The last of the active aliens manages to locate Q with its alien sense.

And this alien misses also. They seem rather poor at aiming at distant targets

Seeing as how Scrapper and Titan's attacks are having a bit more of an effect upon the aliens Quinn revises his initial impressions and tries for something slightly more direct. Given how the creature reacted to a neural blast he begins to channel the energy to his quantum emitters, waiting to allow them to reach their maximum charge before unleashing a quantum bolt at the alien who just shot at him.

Titan jumps over to the next alien about 16m away, and attempts to drive his fist through it in a quick overhand punch, not bothering to wind up at all.

The alien that Titan jumps to has a alien sense lock on Q. It's utterly unaware of Titan's arrival and takes a sucker punch without any chance to avoid it.

The alien Q hits is sent slamming back into the chamber wall but remains moving.

Eve has an idea. It's crazy, but might just work. Or more likely, not. The aliens were working on the device, so seemingly they can interact with it - does this mean they can hit it? Worth a shot. Rolling her her feet, she dashes to the far side of the only alien still remotely close to the device, plants one end of the staff into the ground and expands the staff to force the alien back into the device.

As the alien is shoved back forcefully into the device, the entire mechanism shatters and fragments like a cheap store window hit by a car, falling apart and bouncing in small and large shards across the floor of the chamber, dull, lifeless and inert.

Eve says, "Huh."

The remaining three aliens who were still moving cease doing to. They seem to fall into a catatonic state.

Quinn looks around at the devastated machine. "Well, shoot," he says. "I was hoping to take that apart."

Eve says, "Sorry. Kind of thought stopping an alien invasion was the priority."

Quinn kicks one of the shattered pieces. "Yeah, I know," he says, "and it did do a good job taking the rest of them out. Still, I wish I could have had more of a chance to examine it and see how closely related to a Q-Drive it was."

Eve says, "Oh. Well, um, there are bits of it left?"

From outside the cave a plaintive plea, "Can we come in yet?" from one of the kids, now silence has descended.

Eve says, "Yeah - it should be safe."

Quinn chuckles. "Yeah," he says, "but how much? Part of the problem with something like this is that most likely not all of the pieces fell into this universe. It's like being given a puzzle with only fifteen percent of the pieces and trying to figure out what the picture is."

The kids troop in. "Uh," says Peter, who is no longer having to keep the aliens deceived, "we aren't supposed to use any of our powers during the holiday. You don't have to tell anyone do you? Especially not our teacher."

Quinn's visor pops forward and retracts. "Were you trying to use your powers when you heard them or were you unable to shut them out?" he asks Peter.

Eve smiles. "OK. So long as you don't tell them you saw us using ours."

Peter says, "They were so loud. I couldn't shut them out. And when I found that they were going to invade..." He stops, knowing he's on shaky ground. After all, he could have told an adult.

Graham grins at Ten, "It's a deal."

Quinn makes a brushing away gesture with his hand. "So you weren't really -using- your power when you heard them," he says, "and before you got the chance to tell anyone you had to defend yourself from a scout. Doesn't seem to me like anyone should be upset with you." He flashes a quick grin at the plausibly constructed story.

Peter nods, and with a seriousness at odds with his age he offers his hand to shake to Q.

Quinn gives a solemn nod back to Peter as he shakes his hand. "You did really well," he said.