Log:Chandrika Heads to Zu, Scene 3

Chandrika Heads to Zu 2009/12/22 Silver Spider Prometheus Epimetheus 3

A remote location in northern Zu, where scrubland is the most common terrain feature. There's a large crater where the Starguard shuttle crashed to earth here in the wilderness. The area has been cordoned off with small wooden barricades, and there are several small buildings around the site, all apparently owned by the government.

Prometheus takes off into the air with the jets from his boots, charging headlong toward Silver Spider, spear extended in front of him, clearly intending to try to skewer her.

Prometheus thunders past, and pivots his body around to look at you, still in the air.

Silver Spider nimbly rolls aside, gracefully dodging as the spear rockets past. "Oh, thank god you're not a master of Spear of The Earth's Strength..." She murmurs as as the blow rips past her, watching as Prometheus sails past. "I thought I was done for there..." Fortunately...you're also dumb...This is now one on one..." She lowers her hand and fires at Epimetheus, still picking himself up off the ground. "I don't stand a chance against the two of you...so lets do this..." The roar of energy shreds the air as it hurtles towards the recovering villain.

Epimetheus falls backward just as he starting to get up, and lands flat on his back, his arms outstretched. The spear clings to his hand, like it's magnetically linked.

Prometheus seems to consider something, hesitating for a brief moment. Like he's doing a quick analysis of the situation. Or kind of a cost-benefit analysis. He then shuts his shield down, and flies in the direction of Epimetheus, reaching out with one hand to grab his downed brother's arm as he flies past, and off to the north.

He flies a good 50 meters, pulling along Epimetheus with his one arm. Again, it's almost like there's a magnetic connection.

Silver Spider turns to look at them as they begin flying off. "Whoa..." She manages as he scoops the two of them up. "That was a good move...Guess you don't like it when other people play by playground rules..." She raises an eyebrow. "A magnetic connection...wait a minute...if I rub them the wrong way...I've never tried anything like this...I could demagnetize them with the right electric shock...maybe if I use the webline as a brush..."//They're not out of combat. But I know which way they wanted to go to track Enemy Ace. Plus, they already told me they bribed the government, so fighting them is pointless. I take a recovery on this action, as planned.

Silver Spider turns to look at them as they begin flying off. "Whoa..." She manages as he scoops the two of them up. "That was a good move...Guess you don't like it when other people play by playground rules..." She raises an eyebrow. "A magnetic connection...wait a minute...if I rub them the wrong way...I've never tried anything like this...I could demagnetize them with the right electric shock...maybe if I use the webline as a brush..."

Silver Spider swings forward between two of the buildings, closing the distance, landing in a graceful combat stance and settles back, bending her knees. She lifts her hands and takes aim. "Not to be a party pooper..." She says cooly. "But all I want is his helmet, really. I don't need to capture you, or fight you, but I do need to track them. And since he has a way to track them inside that helmet, I need his helmet...don't worry. I'll take it off from the back. I'm old school. I'll even put a mask on him...Oh, and sorry about shooting Mr. Unconscious. But you know...playground rules..."

Silver Spider leaps forward between two of the buildings, closing the distance, landing in a graceful combat stance and settles back, bending her knees. She lifts her hands and takes aim. "Not to be a party pooper..." She says cooly. "But all I want is his helmet, really. I don't need to capture you, or fight you, but I do need to track them. And since he has a way to track them inside that helmet, I need his helmet...don't worry. I'll take it off from the back. I'm old school. I'll even put a mask on him...Oh, and sorry about shooting Mr. Unconscious. But you know...playground rules..."

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Ahhh, nuts...)

Prometheus doesn't seem to be concerned. He hasn't spoken through half the battle, focused instead on his task at hand. And now is no exception. He accelerates, zipping off into the distance. Based on where he is now, he might be in Botswana.

He's slower than Imaginary Girl, but far faster than most fliers, at least the ones you've met. It leaves you alone with the remains of the base, and a lot of dust kicked up.

Silver Spider blinks. "God...I wish I had that kind of technology..." She mutters. "Oohhh kay. Time to search the area, find out a little more about which way they went, and follow up. Maybe I kept ACRO off the trail...I hope I did..." She sighs. "What a mess this is..." She heads off to search the ruins, in the hope of finding some information amid the rubble and the shanties.

Silver Spider thinks. o O (Did I just...hey...Yeah...I DID...)

Silver Spider thinks. o O (No one else in the WORLD did what I just achieved. And there was no one here to see it. At least people will believe it when they show up for a rematch and they attack me in preference to everyone else.)

This time, you spot it. Earlier, right before the fight, you had walked right past a small building...a barrack, apparently. Now you actually notice what's inside. Inside, you find seven corpses laid out, all wearing Zu military uniforms.

They're stacked moderately neatly. No obvious markings or blood on them, either.

Silver Spider moves through the corpses, checking for PDAs, insignias, or other information. "Mortua added seven murders to her list. Why didn't Enemy Ace kill any of them, or the mentalist? Hmmm..." She pauses. "I can't call for backup, let's see if there's any data on their mission."

There are a couple of insignias...after all, the uniforms are left untouched. There's one PDA among them. No charge left on it, though. One is clearly a higher rank than the others. Though it's hard to tell exactly what rank he was, given their weird rank insignias. He's the one who had the PDA.

Silver Spider browses through the PDA to see if she can hack into it and get through the security to find out what happened and what they were supposed to be doing here. o O (Maybe if I'm really lucky, I can track Enemy Ace's armor with something they put in the PDA.)

Thankfully they're all Japanese-made...so it makes it easy to use your battery to power it. It looks like it wasn't locked down, since there's no security active. You can see that there are a couple of photos on it as the most recent things saved, as well as several older photos and some voice recordings.

After searching this particular building, you do find a small footlocker. And it does have a couple of extra PDA batteries. The charge on them appears to be low, but there's still a charge.

Silver Spider loots the PDA batteries and leaves five dollars in the footlocker. Then she gathers all the water she can, and begins sifting through the PDA. o O (I can charge these batteries back at the hotel room.)

Silver Spider hmmms. "Seven dead, no marks...Enemy Ace didn't kill anyone...the mentalist didn't kill anyone...WAIT...I'm an IDIOT. Ace let her kill them all because they're planning a long trip through the veldt, and Mortua needs food."

Starting at the oldest item, you start with the voice recordings. Most of them are in Afrikaans. There are a couple in English, though. They sound like official reports. "We've arrived at the crash site, and are setting up camp to investigate. A couple of forensic scientists should be up from Cape Town tomorrow. We have a small team here. Eight total. There likely aren't any survivors, but we need to determine that for sure."

Silver Spider tilts her head. o O (Where's the eighth guy?) She pauses for a moment. o O (The Eighth Guy worked for Enemy Ace...that's my guess...so now there's four of them...great..) "Come on..." She hisses. "Directions, directions..." She moves through the reports, trying to figure out what she can, even moving to the rubble of the other buildings.

Next one: "We've found no survivors yet. Just wreckage. I'm wondering if the escapees from Tranquility managed to jump ship before we shot down the shuttle. It certainly looks that way. Van der Saar looks to have come down with something. He's been taken to our makeshift infirmary."

Then there are a series of photos of the wrecked shuttle. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The other buildings are...another barracks, the infirmary, a small dining area, and the communications building. The barracks is pretty empty, aside from beds and footlockers. The dining area is a mess. Remains of food strewn about. Of course, Epimetheus was thrown through the building, so that might have contributed.

You notice in one of the pictures that there seems to be a fringe on the picture, like a photomanipulation was done. Or that they were taking a picture of an illusion.

The infirmary has three more dead bodies. One looks to be a doctor. The other two are dressed in civilian clothing. They're not orderly, though. Just laying in random spots on the floor.

Silver Spider thinks. "Infirmary. Infirmary...oh, god, I hope I didn't kill him with that stupid tower trick...come on...come on..." She races out of the barracks with her water and her batteries. "Come out!" She calls desperately. "Van Der Saar!" She shouts. "I don't speak any Afrikaans!" She studies the picture for a moment. "Ace edited the footage. Why? Who was he running from? Prometheus and Epimetheus? And if so, why?" She stops again. "Van Der Saar!" She calls. o O (Doctor. Two scientists...Where's the patient...)

You hear two things. First...you think you heard something move behind one of those small white 'privacy walls'. It just gives you the illusion of privacy, really. Second....you think you might hear the sound of a helicopter.

Silver Spider rips the privacy wall down. "Hey!" She says softly. "I'm Silver Spider. Those two guys...they're gone..." She holds out a water bottle. "I don't bite. And I wasn't here...I gotta get going..."

There's a person hiding under a desk, which was obscured from view. He's a white man with red hair, and wearing a military-issue t-shirt and BDU pants, "Don't kill me! Please don't kill me!"

He's currently panicked, and wide-eyed.

Silver Spider looks to the man. "Mr. Van Der Saar. I'm Silver Spider. I'm a Superhero from the states. I was looking for the people who killed your people when I came here. Prometheus and Epimetheus are gone." She walks forward slowly, offering the water bottle. "Calm down. I took this out of your barracks. You need water or you're going to dehydrate."

He hesitates...and then slowly reaches out for the water, and starts to guzzle it down. He coughs and says something in Afrikaans. He then adds, "Thank you."

He also slips out from under the desk, and he looks...pretty thin. Weak. Like he clearly hasn't had enough to eat or drink for a while.

Silver Spider nods slowly. "Listen. Those two guys are gone. I don't know what they're doing around here, but ACRO is not part of this country. You need to tell your superiors that this is bigger than nations, and that I'm going after those people. Enemy Ace needs electrical power for his cybernetics eventually. Mortua needs food. That food is people. That's why she killed ten of your guys and they have no marks. She's going to leave a trail of dead bodies from here to whereever it is they're going. You need to tell your superiors not to have anyone get close to these guys."

Silver Spider looks gently to the man. "I can't stay. If they see me here they'll arrest me. Is there anything you can tell me about where they were going?"

The man shakes his head. "I know only that the two women killed everyone. They took one of the scientists as a driver. I think they drove off to the east. That could mean any number of places, though. Tribal lands. Botswana. The eastern cities."

Van Der Saar says, "One of the women saw me. And chose to ignore me."