Log:New Starguard Adventures, Scene 8

New Starguard Adventures 2016/05/30 	 Chen Grimm Malcolm Mayfly Stinger Ten The Torus Victory

8

Chen shrugs, "So we go look over the ship, right? Do we have the authority to do that or is this a do it first and ask permission after case?"

Grimm rubs the back of her head. "Well, if it's registered, maybe we can run a query on who owns that ship, what its cargo registry's supposed to be...see if anything doesn't add up once we get there. Y'know, check for inconsistencies. Find out how big the ship is, expected crew size, it's home port..."

Chen nods to Grimm, "Sounds good. But having had dealings with Next Gen and Kubik before I'd suggest when we go we go in force."

Ten shows up late in response to the mail room alarm, having had difficulty changing IDs unnoticed.

"I don't doubt we should have backup. But trusting what one Vil is giving us about another vil group? Just call me suspicious of being tricked about something," Gabrielle comments as she leans against a wall. "I'm not used to villains being helpful with tip offs."

The Torus beeps once idly as the Old-Styles make their decision.

Chen says, "It's more likely a trap. But if there's bad guys there Im ready to go kick some villian butt."

Ten catches up with the others. "Someone say butt-kicking is needed?"

Malcolm returns from wherever it was that he disappeared to in a hurry after helping to solve the puzzle box. He looks around curiously, one hand rubbing the back of his head absently before he inquires, "So. What's the battle plan? We goin' in all Mission: Impossible or are we rolling in like the fourth act of an A-Team episode?"

Grimm leans over to Malcolm and whispers aside, "I'm betting money on A-Team. Can we get a tank for the motor pool? Do you guys even have tanks?"

Ten says, "Sneaky isn't generally my strong suit. I do a pretty good human shield, though, if we do go in the front door."

Ten says, "Though - what front door is this?"

Chen grins to Ten, "Sneaky is my middle name. Not as much fun as charging in though."

"This one will accompany your party in any event for observational purposes." The Torus says, "But I will provide transport as needed- which I believe should be decided as a group. This way- the most are served."

The vantablack sphere says. Its perfectly smooth- so as it floats, it looks more like a hole in reality. A black too black for words.

Ten says, "Charging in is usually faster, too."

Grimm looks over the roster, eyebrow raised. "Huh...none of this screams Next Gen to me, but maybe they decided to go with robotics instead? Or the whole roster is fake." Shrugging helplessly, she jerks a thumb towards Ten. "May as well just charge in guns blazing and ask questions later."

Chen looks over the results and reaches out with a extended finger to point at the robots item. "Someone hacked that drone fighter. Maybe they did the same to these robots?"

"Pff. Tanks," replies Malcolm. He gestures around at the assembled team before noting, "We've got three tanks here by my count and at least one artillery piece."

Malcolm rolls his shoulders and folds his arms neatly behind his back as he considers the assemblage of metahumanity. Tipping his head to one side, Malcolm intones, "So what I'm hearing is blitz the place and see what shakes out once we've got the ship secure?"

Ten says, "Ok, so the mission is secure the ship against something, maybe robots? Anything else I need to know? Or is that another question to ask later?"

The Torus shifts subtly- almost queasily for a few seconds. Then suddenly- two solid black beams shoot out approximately 2m to the right of Malcolm and 2m to rest gently along the ground. There the arms makr 45 degree turns to meet again- creating a doorway after deciding the group has made its choice.

"You have a number of options yet. Where would you like to be transported to- inside of the cargo vessel, deck level or outside- nearer to the vessel, yet not on or within." The Torus offers. Perhaps that is a qyestion for later.

Chen asks, "Deck level on board? Any better ideas?"

Ten says, "Fine by me."

"Cargo hold where the bots are? There's probably the most fighting to be had there. Or robots to disable. Or we might not get noticed right away," Gabrielle suggests idly as she moves towards the doorway created by the Torus.

Ten shrugs, and lets the others decide, since they have more notion of what the mission is.

"Like my grandaddy used to say," comments Malcolm, "If you're gonna be a bear, be a grizzly. May as well start in the cargo area and work our way out of the ship."

"It seems we have a tie." The Torus says drolly. If you didn't know better, it might be annoyed.

Chen says, "Cargo hold is fine by me."

Ten nods. "Ok then, let's go."

"Confirmed." The Torus says. The air within the sheer black frame shimmers a split second before the depth of field warps drastically. The light bends in on itself infinitely before the physics breaking display reverses- yet the place within the gateway is clearly not the same place.

It looks like the inside of a ship's cargo hold.

"Location locked- Sea vessel Agnes James; Cargo level."

The field of view shimmers again, and finds a place between the containers, cleverly hidden from view from all around.

Chen leaps through. If there's a ambush it should be either Ten or her that triggers it.

Ten has the same idea but is a fraction of a second slower than Chen

This is a massive cargo container ship, nearly 200m in length. Most of the deck is covered with cargo containers, stacked three stories tall, with narrow, claustrophobia inducing passageways between them. Towards the rear of the ship is tower with the bridge located near the rear of the ship. It's several stories up, high enough to see over the containers on the deck.

The heroes emerge from the portal amidst the stacks of cargo containers. There's not great visibility here, but it does offer excellent concealment.

Chen listens carefully, and then if nothing suspicious is heard she stretches her neck until she can just peek over the containers to see what's around the heroes.

Grimm steps through the gate behind one of the Heavies, on guard as her shadow sight pours over their surroundings and the containers' contents. She doesn't need to worry about visibility unless there are force fields at work.

Ten sets off stalking between the containers. She's a lot more flexible than she looks, which helps in confined spaces.

It's the middle of the day, there's the normal amount of activity aboard the ship and on the surrounding ships. A giant container crane operates above the Agnes James, it's being used to lower another container onto the deck.

Malcolm steps out of the portal and onto the cargo containers, grey eyes swivelling to and fro for a few seconds. He pauses, however, when he sees the ladies set to work with a far more impressive cadre of investigative talents. Rubbing the back of his head, he absently comments to himself, "I guess I'll just... Y'know. Hold the line."

Grimm turns her head over to Malcolm and grins, sticking near him. "How about you get my back, Special Agent Gibbs?" she whispers with some flirtation once she thinks the others are out of earshot.

Once everyone is through, the Torus closes the portal the framework folds down and teleports itself through to the location. There it shrinks to a sphere withthe same radius as a ballpoint pen.

It locks to Malcolm Gibbs and begins rotating around him just outside of his perspective. It seems he has the Metal Man's back, even if he doesn't know it.

"Always got your back, Miss Grimm," replies Malcolm. He smiles broadly at her, offering a fist for a respectful knuckle bump, as he comes to rest in a comfortable stand-by position near where the Torus' gate was erected just moments ago.

Ten says over comms, "Don't look, but there someone suspicious on the crane."

Victory steps through the portal. One of the last through. His shield is currently off, not wanting to draw too much attention.

Ten tries to manoeuvre to a position where she could grab the figure by surprise with her staff.

Mayfly A slender fly-woman hybrid. She's dressed in a dark blue uniform with black trim, cut to allow her fly-wings to buzz freely on her back. She has a mix of bug feature and human features: red bug eyes, gray-black skin, red hair cut in a short bob, slender bust and hips.

Grimm grins playfully at Malcolm as he calls her Miss Grimm. Her mind may be a bit off mission at the moment. She offers him a fist bump. "I know you do." At the announcement of suspiciousness on the crane, she turns her long reaching senses up towards it to see what's going on.

Grimm feels about the ship and adds to the comms, "We also have some people in the bridge, and some in the engine room. Crane seems out in the open, you may get spotted by the bridge people if you're not stealthy about it." She looks to Malcolm (and Torus by Proxy) and grins. "Want to take the bridge with me?"

Malcolm fistbumps Grimm. His attention quite intentionally does not deviate toward the crane. Quirking an eyebrow at Grimm, he playfully inquires, "What? Afraid of a little engine oil and grease?"

Looking over his shoulder at Victory (and Torus), Malcolm inquires, "What do you say? Bridge or engine room?"

Ten says, "I'll try not to attack her till you're in place on the others then. Tell me when to go."

Victory says, "We dont' know what we're looking for, do we? I'm inclined to head toward the bridge first."

Ten keeps still, among the crates, her staff braced to shoot at the person on the crane when the others are ready - or the presumed villain notices the heroes, whichever come first.

The Torus continues orbiting idly, but it speaks loud enough to be heard. "I am agreement. The Bridge is the best choice."

Disappointed Malcolm is disappointed. He tries not to let it show through by smiling cheerily and shrugging his shoulders. "Let's go secure the bridge then."

"We'll get to the engine room afterwards," Gabrielle promises Malcolm, knowing better about how disappointed he probably is to not get a chance to be around some super heavy machinery. "Alright, so three out of four say Bridge. Let's get prepared to run interference. Or for them to be just workers who have no idea what's going on. Whichever," she grins as a field of black begins to outline her form protectively.

Victory shrugs, "I won't feel bad if we split up." He chuckles quietly and then starts to sneak toward the bridge as best he can.

Grimm whispers to Victory, "Don't worry, if I can keep an eye out through the bridge window, I can provide the others with a little backup." She winks and taps her temple to indicate her little mental tricks. Just as she performs one. "I'll be sticking with you guys physically, though," she says as her voice and body fade out.

Chen shifts form to that of a mangy dock cat with bitten off ear and dirty fur. She figures even if seen she'll be ignored.

Malcolm shrugs at Grimm and Victory, stooping a little bit to keep himself low. He gestures for Victory to take the lead in approaching the bridge, the tall man waiting patiently to fall into line.

Victory sneaks over to the first doorway, and hten heads inside. He cautiously looks around before heading upward toward the bridge, being careful on the metal stairs.

Chen stays close to Victory, even getting under and around his feet like a normal cat would do.

Grimm follows with Victory and Malcolm, her presence clouded in the minds of most. She tries to keep a physical eye on the crane area and where Mayfly is.

Victory furrows his brow as he looks down the hallway. He points out something down the hall to those behind him. He whispers, "Cobwebs. No one's been here recently." He continues upward toward the bridge.

The Torus says over comms, "Ten, are you going to be ok going after our Crane-bound assiliant alone?"

Ten says, "That was the plan. Should I go for it yet?"

On the crane, Mayfly's wings buzz to life as she prepares to move, seemingly alreted to something.

Grimm blinks, her expression confused at the Torus' announcement over the comms, and Victory's announcement of cobwebs. That's particularly weird. She maintains stealth rather than asking questions, not wanting to break her cloaking illusion. Suddenly, she stops as her eyes go wide. Her illusion drops and she fades into view again. "Shick, guys, they just went active," she whispers. "The people on the bridge are running to look out the windows, and everyone in the engine is moving about. I feel that villain starting to move her wings, too."

Ten blasts her staff at Mayfly as soon as she twitches. It's braces against the deck, so the full force of the repulsers blasts the staff toward Mayfly.

Mayfly shrieks as she's caught off guard by at blast from Ten. She's knocked off of the crane, but she manages to tumble wand right herself in midair before stabilizing herself with her beating wings.

"Starguard," Mayfly says. "Welcome to the party!" She hovers until she's overhead Ten and in a position where she can spot the open door to the main structure. "Looks like she brought friends." She returns her attention to Ten and fires a yellowish bolt of energy from her fists at Ten.

Ten just laughs. "Was that supposed to hurt, Bugly? It didn't even tickle!" she taunts, as usual trying to draw fire.

Mayfly grimaces a bit, still feeling the effects of the blast. "Cheap shot. Let's see you try to hit a moving target this time..."

"Sounds like I'm up, Vee," comments Malcolm to Victory. The tall man plants a hand lightly on Victory's shoulder as he strides confidently ahead of the pack. Malcolm may even do a little jig to avoid stepping on Chenkitty. Even as Malcolm makes his move for the head of the column, liquid metal starts to surge out of his pores and spread across his body.

Forge strides a few steps ahead of the others in the group. His Colossus' Flesh engulfs his form entirely, rendering him more statue than man, but Forge keeps pouring liquid metal out of his newly crafted flesh. It rapidly forms into a pair of batons, one in each hand, as he strides onward and upward.

"Keep your eyes on a swivel, Vee. This is gonna be a freaky one."

Victory turns on his shield and hurries after Malcolm. "Shouldn't take us too long to get to the bridge."

Chen briefly considers the combat options. There's four, including her, heading to the bridge and Ten on her own facing the winged Mayfly and possibly others. No problem. Ten can handle that. So she stays with the main group and advances to take the lead while toughening her skin and flesh.

Grimm keeps up with the group as they charge, shadow stepping as needed to match their pace. She does try to keep an eye out for any windows that will give her a clear view of Mayfly so she can perhaps provide some support for Ten.

Now tiny, The Torus is free to observe as it wishes. It shifts form, from unmistakable black dot, to its model of a drosophila melanogaster- known to most anyone native to this planet as the Common Fruit Fly.

It keeps pace no problem, and monitors everything in a full 360 degree radius.

It is a perfect replication of a fruit fly, only its flight is unnaturally silent.

The Torus focuses his attention through the door- and his quantum awareness follows.

Inside he finds 2 people inside Though only one seems to be an immediate threat- considering he's NOT hiding.

The Torus says over comms to is associates, <> //Full move to keep pace. PAssed on info he found acceptable to share So holding move in case its needed later.

Thunderous footsteps echo throughout the ship from the lower decks, as something comes charging up through the ship towards the heroes from the direction of the engine room.

Mayfly keeps her distance from Ten, firing yellow bolts of bio-energy at her from 30m up.

Ten is rendered unsteady of footing my the blast for a moment, but otherwise seems unaffected.

Ten once more sets her staff to blast the insect woman, but this time she concentrates more on accuracy than power.

Mayfly dodges the blast with some aerial acrobatics. "Too slow!" she says.

Ten says, "Made you dodge, though!"

"Vee, you're on breach," intones Forge. He pulls up short of the door to the bridge and spins around, marching back toward the rear of the group. Shooting a smile and a thumbs up over his shoulder, "I'll take care of the clean-up crew coming up from the engine."

Chen switches form to a sabre-tooth tiger (with extra arms from each shoulder. She tries to door to the bridge, with 40 STR, and if she can open it pads inside and lets loose with a snarling roar.

Chen storms through the door. On the other side there's one crewman standing watch at the controls of the ship. He turns to she Chen.

His reaction is oddly subdued -- he barely reacts to the extinct, predator monster that's just burst into the room. He turns back to the controls.

Chen sniffs the air, someone hiding in a cabinet. She's more confused about the lack of reaction. . o O(I'm lossing my touch?)

Victory follows Chen onto the bridge and assesses the situation.

Victory continues over to the cabinets, since Torus mentioned something about someone hiding. He goes to open them up.

Chen pipes up, "Second one on the left, Victory."

A crewman is hiding inside the cabinet, the captain of the ship, judging by his ball cap. He cowers defensively as Victory exposes him. "Please don't hurt me!" he shouts. "Please!"

Victory raises a brow, "Uh...I won't." He looks back over to the person at the controls.

Grimm watches as Forge spins around and marches past her in the rear. "Let me know if you need back up?" she asks him, knowing he'll probably be fine on his own. She continues on to the bridge to try and help them and maybe get a view to help Ten.

Grimm squints out the window and murmurs over the comms, "Ten, you got another person trying to sneak up behind you. Watch your back!"

Stinger

Looking like a cross between a woman and a jellyfish, Stinger stands five and half feet tall, with an average build. Her body is translucent, and it appears to be mostly composed of water held together by humanoid membrane. Instead of hair, dark tendrils extend from her scalp, falling halfway down her back.

The other crewman remains at his post, watching the controls, but not doing anything at the moment.

Ten looks about for this other assailant - after all, Mayfly doesn't seem much of a threat.

The captain opens his eyes and sees Victory. He relaxes a little bit... "I - I'm sorry -- I thought you were one of those animal freaks..."

The Torus/Small fruit fly lands on the back of the sabertoothed Chen and rubs its front legs together after a moments pause.

As Victory exposes the crewman, the bug jumps into the air and flies over to land on the crewman's cap, where it rubs its legs together again.

After the Captian speaks, The Torus replies across the room "Are you all not animals? How can I designate them apart from... non-animal freaks?" Considering present company, its not too terrible of a question.

As it poses the question, the fly opens a portal behind the crewman at the controls who's head its currently on.

Then it buzzes through- it buzzes after Ten and her mysterious boogie.

Ten doesn't taunt this time, seeing another half-animal meta. "Ouch. I'm sorry. Looks like you had some really bad luck when you got your powers."

Ten thinks. o O (And *I* was feeling sorry for myself.... Puts it in perspective....)

Stinger's coloration shifts, becoming less translucent, and a bit easier to see. "I didn't think I'd get a chance to tangle with Starguard again. What's your codename supposed to be?"

Ten says, "Ten. Hence the great big 10 on... rather prominent display. And you?"