Connor's Grandmother Session 5

Travellers - Saving Connor's Grandmother 2019/02/02 	 Radical Ramona Timewarp Amelia Moonshadow Jak Amara Matt Regent Nada

5

Six Mile Fillup
This old abandoned gas and service station is roughly half way between Princeton and Kingston. There's a forecourt with three old fashioned hand cranked gas pumps. Gasoline. Not electric charging ports or even H2. A large rusty tank on stilts used to, and maybe still does, hold up to 20,000 gallons of gasoline. The only building is a combined payment office, empty shop, and motor servicing bay.

Terminator terminated
The cyborg has, according to Timewarp, time jumped a short time into the future.

Moonshadow says, "Are we ready for Round 3?"

Radical nods. "I'm all set. Jak, can you get us to the gas station where he's supposed to appear next?"

Nada sighs out, "Round three man this only round two for me." She laughs, "Not that I did much to stop him all I could do was warn the cops."

[To Nada] Timewarp says, "Keeping people safe is the most important thing!"

Jak nods to Radical. "I'm always ready for another round." He says confidently.

"Let's ride." He says, holding his arm out towards the others.

Amelia appears, having finally caught up with the heroes after being left at the University. "Hi. How's everything going? Still on track?"

Timewarp says, "As far as I can tell - the cyborg jumped a few hours into the future, but that fits with the recorded appearances..."

Radical nods to Amelia, "So far everything is matching what we know of the events." He puts a hand on Jak's shoulder.

Once all the other heroes are 'onboard' Jak will leap them towards their next stop on this tactical temporal tour of superheroics.

Amelia puts her hand on Timewarp's shoulder.

Moonshadow holds out her hand to Jak.

Nada holds on to Jak and blinks a few times from the teleporting, "oh I never going get used to that. Every time I feel my stomach move to my throat." She looks up at the woman but said nothing more. When Jak brings the heroes to the disused gas station, Radical's grandmother steps out of the servicing bay with an 18" wench in her hands. For someone recently attacked by a killer she seems surprisingly composed, "Who are you people?" she asks.

Timewarp doesn't really answer the question. "Oh, we're here to protect you from that cyborg! It's probably going to turn up again soon."

Radical takes a deep breath. "We're...here to try to stop the guy who attempted to kill you back at the university, miss." . o O (I can't let her know who I am. That'll cause a ripple in time for sure.)

Jak gives Nada a pat on the shoulder- or what he hopes is her shoulder before he quite literally slides to the back of the assembled heroes with a gentle push with his right foot. One might think he's wearing the modern equivalent to heelies, but in truth he's just about a half a millimeter off the ground- sliding on his forcefield projection. Its a very slick maneuver requiring poise and control.

He's happy to let the other more temporally minded heroes deal with the logistics of dealing with his ally's grandmother.

Amelia is looking abstracted. In this disused gas station she's finding plenty of spiders and mice and even rats. Sufficient for her to use her borrowed senses spell to examine the station and its surrounding area.

Ramona asks, "Are you with the woman who brought me out here?"

Timewarp says, "Kind of - we know Elizabeth, anyway. Where did she go?"

Radical nods slowly. "We're friends of hers. From...way back." So to speak.

Ramona turns to face Timewarp, "Oh. Is that her name? She said she was going for supplies and food to tide me over until the danger was past."

Radical nods. "She told us to be here...to make sure that danger gets driven off."

Nada smiles at Jak for the pat and yes he gets her shoulder. She stays silence but feels better. She decided it better if no one really knows she there stealth is her best friend. She slips away from the group standing to the side just incase.

Timewarp nods. . o O (That makes sense. Elizabeth of this time presumably doesn't know that the attack is to be now - if I've got the order of events right.)

Amelia leaves the talking to others. Going into the service bay she employs her summoning spell to bring in burrowing beatles and sets them to deepening the inspection pit in the bay.

Ramona nods, "Well I'm glad for your help. But why me? Why is a killer after me?"

Timewarp shrugs. "Who knows with people from the future? It's probably about something you're going to do." That should be vague enough not to mess up the timeline. She hopes.

Radical smiles slightly though it's barely visible under his mask. He wants to explain the situation, but...shouldn't say too much. Best to be at least slightly enigmatic. "It will be clear why, eventually. It's not who you are. It's who you become."

Nada taught and speaks up, "um dumb question if we known when he going show up do we know where he going appear?"

With that her nascent suspicions are confirmed. Ramona knows the family history and connection with the Lords of Order. She nods.

Amara is keeping looking for any strange cyborgs, her defense systems dialed up, but her armor is down at the moment to blend in. Although her clothes certainly aren't time-period appropriate, she may just stand out as being foreign with the help of the light accent.

Timewarp thinks. o O (Oh sure. Give away that we're from the future and/or know the killer's turning up. That won't make her suspicious.)

Amelia returns from the servicing bay, "I've deepened the inspection pit that is in the bay. I suggest Ms Cedar uses it as a shelter. I'll stay with her and protect her with a barrier spell."

Radical nods. "That should give you time to evacuate her from the area if need be. Sounds reasonable to me."

Timewarp does a quick scout of the area. After all, we know when the cyborg is supposed to be *here*, but that doesn't rule out that he's already in this time somewhere else.

Amelia nods, "Ms Cedar, would you follow me please." She escorts Radical's grandmother to the relative safety of the enlarged pit and covers it with a barrier spell.

Nada waits for a reply but when she gets none and shrugs, "maybe we can set up a trap. A net or something to stop him."

Timewarp says, "Remember that the thing to do is to drain his batteries - he's pretty much invulnerable till then." There's an old radio in the payment office. Either Ramona or Elizabeth must have switched it on, maybe hoping for news. The radio is speaking of a power outage in South Princeton. The result of an unexplained power surge at an unmanned electrical sub-station.

Jak unholsters his weapon, spinning it on his finger as he keeps his eyes narrowed and his head on a swivel.

Radical nods. "We just have to keep him occupied. We know how this goes. Let's make sure it remains as planned."

Timewarp says, "Wait. That gives me an idea...."

Moonshadow says, "Can we overload his batteries?"

Timewarp goes and reads up on how electricity is supplied, then, with the aid of some tools she's borrowed, sabotages the power grid around the garage - to make sure we're fighting in an area where the cyborg can't recharge!

Time passes slowly, especially with everyone rather on edge. It's a couple of hours later when a truck comes at high speed down the road the gas station is on.

Radical shrugs to Moonshadow, "I'm not sure I have the means to do it. We could try, but I'm not sure exactly how."

Nada listens to everyone talking, "wait there is a plan?" She then moves to lean against the gas station wall.

Jak shrugs towards Nada's general direction. "Kind of? I'm sure it will all work out, all we have to do is keep our VIP safe. Easy." As always, he is the very definition of confident.

Radical looks for a location where there might be a little cover, but otherwise is trusting on his gear that he brought.

Nada nods, "how about I stay with VIP I might be able to keep her out of the fray and distract him if he gets to close."

Amara decides to armor up while they wait, whispering aside to Jak, "Is there always so much waiting with time travel?"

Jak shakes his head to Amara. "Not always- but its not often we're so far ahead of the curve." He replies. "I kind of like it. Its tense. Epic." He grins as if he's eating all this up.

When the fast moving truck gets to about a hundred yards from the gas station the windscreen blows outward as the driver opens up with automatic gunfire. It's not specifically aimed. Fast moving truck on a fairly rough road. But the volume of fire is astonishing. Could it be a mini-gun?

Timewarp fetches a shovel and quickly builds a wall to defend from the gunfire.

Timewarp assembles her earthworks just in time for them to get mostly blown away by the hail of bullets. Still, it has prevented any injuries. The chattering roar of a small caliber minigun is quite distinctive to anyone who's knows the sound.

Radical mutters, "Huh. Wonder where he got that."

Nada sees the van coming and the wall come only to be chipped away at though the wall seems to do it's job for now. She thinks of ways to stop the cyborg there has to be away for her to use her power to stop him. She thinks and thinks and in that moment a new power a power she didn't know she had. A ball of light appears in front of her and then the ball grows brighter and brighter before the ball bust like a bubble sending waves of bright light. The brillant flare of light is low and illuminates the truck's hood rather than the driving cab.

Radical says to the others. "I think I might create a distortion field that'll make his shooting difficult at that range. If any of you can hit him easily from there, let me know, and I'll hold off."

Moonshadow flies upward 10m, then directs a Shadow Bolt down at the front end of the truck

"I'll flank." Jak says in response to Radical's statement before adding, "Let me pop into position first. I'm pretty sure you'll know when." He chuckles.

The front of the truck is devastated by Moonshadow's blast. The cyborg manages to keep the truck on the road as fire breaks out in the engine compartment and one front wheel is blown off and goes rolling ahead of the slowing truck.

Jak teleports himself into the fray but not how most would expect. He's already standing next to a rusted out old vehicle- long since abandoned. He puts his hand on it and then they both vanish...

...only for both to appear a bit above the (slowly) oncoming cyborg-mobile.

The Wandering Gunslinger remains aloft while the derelict car surcumbs to the pull of gravity.

As the car falls, Jak's gun returns to his hand and he levels it cooly as if he were resting in the ready position 20m in the air.

Nada's new power reflects off Jak's blackout shades making him look even cooler- as if that were possible.

The car plummets into the cab of the truck below with a bone-jarring crush and the sound of metals screaming in opposition to their current treatment.

The car crushes the cab pretty throughly and even manages to rupture the gastank. Sparks from the vehicles settling ignite the fuel and cause the truck to erupt in flames.

Radical takes a deep breath as the others engage the van at range. . o O (Guess I better not create the distortion field. I'll bide my time.) He remains in cover and just watches for the moment.

Nada watches the heroes go to work and her jaw drops at the sight, though no one can see that luckily, yep she a newbie to all this and she decides not to get in the middle of that mess and stay close to the VIP, as Jak called her.

The Cyborg tears apart the mangled wreckage of the car and cab and starts a run toward the gas station. There's no sign of the minigun. Likely it got damaged and left in the truck, but the cyborg is festooned with weapons.

Moonshadow flies back down, landing behind Amara. Uses Shadow Magic to create eight duplicates of Amara. Four to either side of her.

Timewarp gets busy with the shovel, digging a tunnel both down and in the general direction of the cyborg.

Amara looks to her left and right at the duplicates and smiles, then tightens her grip on her hammer and charges forward, eyes on the cyborg. She travels fast on foot, raising her hammer to call the Cyborg out as she charges.

Jak drifts slowly to the ground, somehow falling forward as he does so quite unnaturally but his gun was already unholstered and his target sighted.

He pulls the trigger, hoping to bring the cyborg to ground- and perhaps sliding towards his monarch's waiting hammer.

Jak's shot goes wide and the sound of the air being collapsed by the wavefront is nothing more than a loud pop but that's hardly useful.

Radical sees the others moving to engage, and does similarly. He doesn't have the protection that say...Amara has, though. So he keeps away from her and maintains a lower profile as he disappears from his location in cover to one that's significantly closer.

Nada has an idea when seeing Amara and all her "clones" She turns to the VIP, damn what was her name she should asked that before the action started, "I got an idea, Hold prefectly still." She close her eyes and around the VIP a image of Nada appears. " The cyborg races forward and gets to Amara and the images of Amara. Forgoing any ballistic weapon the cyborg draws a wicked looking serrated blade from within its jacket and slashes at the one and only real Amara. The viciously swung blade strikes Amara across the abdomen but the royal hero stays her ground.

Amara sucks in her stomach as the blade swings towards it. The blade tears a gouge through her white armor with the cyborg's strength. Even though the blade cuts into her suit, it skims over the inertia field, which provides a considerable amount of resistance to protect Amara's vulnerable belly. But not enough to avoid a small but painful slice into her flesh. She grits her teeth and grunts from the sudden sharp pain.

Timewarp digs 18m horizontally, 20m straight up under the cyborg (again, using her existing tunnel to help aim), and a final 4m back toward where she started and up to regain the surface. The cyborg is a silent deadly killer. He is also, as previously noticed, kind of on the heavy side. Suddenly the cyborg is gone, as a hole opens up under his feet.

Timewarp grins as she regains the surface, and the cyborg does the opposite.

Amara readies to raise her shield when the cyborg suddenly drops, surprising him and her. She leans over to look down as it descends, aiming her hammer-wielding arm towards it as she tries to take a chance at damaging its systems. The motes strike home and tear into the usually invulnerable structure of the cyborg, ripping more holes in the seeming leather clothing and then deeper into the main body. One arm of the cyborg appears to freeze up solid.

Timewarp hurries back to the bottom of the pit, the long way round, and starts shovelling again filling in the non-vertical exit.

Radical finds that his target disappears from sight, and he doesn't want to get directly into line of fire, either. So, he waits patiently. Well, as patiently as he can.

The duplicate Amaras vanish as Moonshadow blasts the edge of the hole with Shadow Bolt (trying to collapse the hole).

The top of the shaft collapses as Moonshadow blasts it, sending earth showering down atop the cyborg.

For several seconds you hear noise and feel rumbling movements of the ground near where the cyborb was buried. These become fainter and quieter, and then stop.

Radical looks around. "That can't be it? Can it?"

And after several more seconds it can be deduced the cyborg didn't have the power reserves left to dig its way out after the structual damage Amara's hammer inflicted.

Timewarp finishes filling in the side-tunnel, just in case.

Timewarp says, "Can anyone tell if he's still down there? I wonder if he ran out of power entirely or time-skipped out...."

Moonshadow says, "Can he change location when he time-skips?"

Radical shakes his head, "I can't look down there, personally."

Radical takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. . o O (Fat lot of good I was here. At least it's taken care of, though.)

Timewarp shrugs. "I dunno. I don't know what tech he has. But some time travellers have teleportation ability too." Evidently, since Elizabeth lent her such a gadget recently!

Amara lowers her hammer and releases it, letting it disassemble at an atomic level to get reabsorbed into her armor. "It seems to have stopped attempting to break out. Is it a danger leaving it there?" she asks as she holds her stomach.

Nada thinks for a moment, "I might be able to." the image around the VIP vanish and she makes a image of herself again. She has the image walk over and stick it's face throught the rubble.

Timewarp says, "Yes. It's not that deep. It'll be found when its tech is still futuristic."

Radical says, "If we can get it back up here...I should be able to transport it elsewhere, where it won't be a problem. But we should make sure that it's definitely deactivated."

Timewarp says, "Let's skip a few years into the future, then dig it up. Then we can be sure it's out of power!"

Jak teleports to Amara's side in a flash, his feet touching down gently. He puts his hand on her shoulder and he lowers his voice as he speaks to her privately, "Are you ok?" The concern in his voice is palpable, but his glasses cover any visble inkling of it.

Radical shakes his head as he looks at Timewarp. "No. We should do it right now if it's done. After all, it might get dug up in the intervening years."

Radical rubs his chin, "I might not be able to transport enough mass, though. Depending on how heavy it is."

Amara offers a reassuring smile to Jak as he asks about her. "Nothing a trip to SCEPTER won't put right. My armor and the bracer protected me from the worst of it."

Timewarp says, "Yeah, you're right. They're not likely to do any major construction here in that time, but a vil could dig it up.."

Moonshadow says, "How far down is it?"

Timewarp says, "Um - 75 feet maybe?"

Radical nods. "Tali...if you would please...dig it up? Then I'll head down there and get rid of it, if I can."

Radical says, "We might need Amelia's help if I can't."

Timewarp says, "Ok. Everyone get ready in case it's playing possum, though!"

Jak nods. "Alright. Good. We'll wrap this up and once we're back in our time zone I'll escort you there straight away." Jak responds before falling silent to listen to what the others have decided to do with their adversary. He thinks they should leave him where he is.

He chimes in after Radical, "I'll back Radical up." He unholsters his weapon and 'leaps' to Radical's position.

Timewarp digs down to the cyborg once more. After sighing, looking at her already badly blistered hands.

Radical waits until Tali gives an indication that the robot can be reached. He just needs to touch a part of it, after all. He then teleports down to it and places a hand on it...intending to try to transport it to a pocket dimension, one of the many that he traversed while he was the Cartesian.

Jak follows, just in case the robot is faking its immobility. He jumps into the hole- falling unnaturally slow again before vanishing and appearing at the bottom of the hole next to Radical. When you reach the Cyborg... its eyes open and using the last of its stored energy the cyborg expands a energy sapping field. Only to discover that the local grid is quite dead and there's no available energy in its range to sap. The baleful light in the cyborg's eyes dims and the eyes close again, for the final time.

Nada walks over to Jak, "Hey do you guys need a light?" She form a ball of light forms in front of her.

Over the Traveler comms Amelia asks, "It's gone quiet. Anyone still alive." She's trying to sound humorous but cannot fully conceal the hidden worry in her voice.

Radical grimaces and concentrates, putting his full effort into controlling the dimensional field...and then...they're gone. Both Radical and the cyborg disappear from sight, only to appear in a pocket dimension of darkness and floating asteroids in a Kirby-eque environment. Radical takes a few deep breaths, "The only people able to find you here will be looking for you. I can't imagine anyone will stumble across you here." He can't really lift the cyborg easily, so he leaves it on a floating chunk of rock. A few seconds later, after a little recalibration, he returns to where the others are waiting at hte gas station, but above ground again.

As the light from the cyborg's eyes appears, Jak pulls his weapon- ready to fire. But the being's reserves are clearly spent and it falls back over.

Jak turns towards Nada's appearant location with a smirk as he holsters his weapon. "Not me. But I bet Radical could use a ..." He turns to indicate towards Radical where Nada should shine her light, only to find the former Cartesian gone with their target in tow. "Well, guess not him either." He gives her one of his patented shrugs. It's so aloof you'd almost think he was incapable of caring about anything but he jumps when Cartesian returns unexpectedly.

Timewarp says on comms. "Yeah, we all are. The cyborg's been taken - elsewhere. Safe to come out!"

Radical nods slowly and rubs his temples, "I think...we're good to go. Thank you all for your help with this."

"So the timeline has been maintained?" asks Amara, still unclear on what other events have to be protected.

Amelia helps Ramona out of the pit. Over the comms, "Pass the word around, party at my place tomorrow night. Uh.. Well in fifty years and one day."

Radical nods to Amara, "I believe so. The whereabouts of the attacker after the fact were never found out. And what I just did...would maintain that."

[To Radical] Moonshadow says, "May I speak with you privately?"

"Its no problem." Jak says to the Travellers, leaving his comms open so Amelia will hear him too. He clasps Radical and where he suspects Nada's shoudler is and teleports the trio to the surface where he smiles and nods to Amara. "Looks like we 'maintained the timeline'." He says, as if it were the tagline for a movie.

Timewarp grins. "The Travellers - making sure nothing interesting happens."

Amara chuckles at that, then looks to Jak. "That must drive you mad."

Radical nods to Moonshadow, "Sure. Right now? Or when we get back?"

Moonshadow says, "Soon. There is an imbalance to be rectified."

Jak chuckles at Timewarp's comment, still grinning as he replies to Amara, "Oh- as you can tell, its plenty exciting for me. And that's all I need to have a good time."

Moonshadow says, "And we stopped the Terminator! Yay us!"

Jak misses her shoulder and grabs something else which gets a squeeze out of Nada then he teleports and well Nada sick again, "oh god. How do you handle doing that all the time." Sheforgotten about jaks hand and where it grabbed not that she can made at him for it, he can't see her after all.

Radical nods to Moonshadow again, "Alright...after we're back, then. Unless it needs to be immediately dealt with."

"Exciting, yes. But no fame or glory for you," Amara teases at Jak's motivations a little. He's almost always chasing his legend, so seeing him do something altruistic with no reward is refreshing.

Radical walks over to Ramona before the group heads back to the present. "You should be safe now. Be sure to let Elizabeth know when she gets back."

Ramona nods, "I don't know how to thank you all. And you never introduced yourselves. I don't even know your names."

Moonshadow says, "That is as it should be."

Amara knows him too well! His smile slips giving away the fact that her barb hit home.

"Well, as long as you don't tell anyone no one will ever know about this little mulligan here. Plus, it was for a friend's happy ending- well, beginning. Still." He says, bringing his left index finger to his lips as if to shush his Monarch.

Jak looks at Ramona one last time. "Plus, our damsel in distress was pretty good looking for a grandma." He chuckles.

Moonshadow cast an Image of a large gloved cartoon hand over Jak's mouth.

Nada recovers and chuckles, "so are we done here? There a new anime on TV tonight.... Well I guess in 50 years or what ever."

"Ahh!" Amara says accusingly as she points to Jak's fallen smile. She knew it!

Radical nods to Ramona, "I...am afraid that we'll have to remain a mystery for now. But you'll know who we are eventually. In due time."

Timewarp says to Ramona, "Best not to know. History says we're 'unknown heroes'. But yes, we'll meet again, I'm sure."

Moonshadow says, "I think we are."

Radical nods to Ramona again, "Give my regards to Elizabeth when you see her next."

He heads back over to the others, "Let's go before someone says something stupid, hmm?"

Timewarp says, "Before? I've been saying stupid things all day."

Moonshadow says, "Anything else stupid then."

Jak nods to their VIP and gives her a charming smile before turning his attention back to Amara & Nada's voice. "Well, its not like we'll be late or anything."

Moonshadow lays her hand on top of Radical's. "Let's go then."

Radical puts a hand on Tali's shoulder so she can get them back to the correct time.

Nada nods and takes Jaks arm and leans against him, "I guess so. You can come over and watch it with me. It's called Puff Puff Power Princesses."

Amara holds a hand over the rent in her armor, slowly repairing the damage until it's good as new. "I'll be glad to be out of the dark ages," she murmurs to herself, then prepares to go with the others.

Timewarp take people back to the future once everyone's holding on. At least, that's where she's aiming for...

Jak looks horrified at the name of the show. "Um- I think I'll pass on that one. Unless... we pick up some of that weird fruit you had before. Then, I'm in." Jak says, changing his mind half-way through it. Nada may not be much to look at (rimshot), but she's got a great palette and the skill to cook off-world food.

Jak follows along with the others to TW before being hurled forward in time...

Radical waits until they're back before he speaks again, "Thank you again, everyone."

Amelia grins, "One for all, and all for one."

Timewarp grins to Amelia. "See you at the party!"