Log:SERAF, Issue 12

SERAF 2011/09/08 	 Dark Horse Ellbeth Flyne Karlie Spectre Wonder 1

An office in the basement of the Marshall Federal Building on York Boulevard in Colonial Bay. The room has no windows all of the light is provides from fluorescent tubes on the ceiling. The room is not fancy at all. The walls are cinder blocks, painted over in a yellowish cream color. Exposed water pipes run along the ceiling. The office is large enough for three desks and a handful of chairs. One of them belongs to Miles Fuchs, another to Grace Adler. The third desk is open.

Ellbeth turns up early and drops her laptop on the third usually unoccupied desk, sitting in the chair with a sigh. "I'm exhausted." She says and creates a cup of Latte coffee, the aroma filling the office.

Wonder is already there, as Miles. "A tiring time, Dr Wyrd? A lot of scrying, perhaps?"

Ellbeth chuckles, "A lot of writing. I enjoy writing but that make it any less exhausting. Especially when the publisher is screaming about printing deadlines, Miles."

Dark Horse enters the room from the hall. He nods to those already here, and waves. "Miles. Dr. Wyrd."

Ellbeth adds, "There are many abilities our Meta colleagues have but I think the one I would most wish to have if given the choice would be the ability to forego sleep. Since I seem to do it anyway, although not without consequences."

Wonder smiles. "For all the dangers I've faced in the field, it's still writing reports I find most wearing."

Directed to the office, Karlie walks in with a slight distasteful look at the surrounding featureless walls. With no choice but to see the people present, her attention is drawn to them, "hm."

Ellbeth says, "Good afternoon to all. When Miles calls us to order I have some new information to relate."

Flyne wonders in crawling along the ground, not unlike a salamander or the like. Flyne nods to Ellbeth, Dark Horse, and Karlie. A nod is also given to Miles as Flyne takes a seat itself, with its hands on either side of its tail and in between its tail, almost as if its sitting on its hands. Flyne has its green claws extended, and its leaping muscles at the moment.

Wonder nods. "If we're all here, then let's begin. Dr Wyrd - why don't you explain matters."

Dark Horse quietly takes a seat in one of the chairs, and looks over to Ellbeth.

Ellbeth nods and stands. She gestures to a wall and a map appears superimposed on it. "We have a possible location for the Next Generation base. This the a region of West Virginia. The highlighted area is a nominally abandoned coal mine. Two days ago, at 10:37am, the Geology department at CBSU registered this location as the epicentre of the recent quake. However the geology of the region is stable and no natural cause for the quake is feasible. Now we also have limited information from another confidential source that Quakezone is being held at the NG regional base also with Rampart's brother and Cjen's grandfather."

Ellbeth pauses for any questions so far.

Flyne's attention turns to Ellbeth as she begins to speak, and remains there for the moment. Flyne doesn't appear to have any questions, though some degree of excitement can be seen in the little alien.

Dark Horse nods. "Do you believe Quakezone was forced to create the seismic activity?"

Karlie leans back on her chosen chair, looking over the display in use, listening to everything that is to be said.

Ellbeth continues, "As an aside, the list has now been fully decoded. There's only one remaining name on it, and that name is Miles Fuchs." She gestures to the wall again and the map changes to a cut away drawing of a mine. "Public records show the mine workings extend to 700m depth. There's always the possibility that if this is the NG base they have extended and deepened the tunnels. However 700m is well within my scrying range and within the distance I can open a gate."

Flyne nods to this, then looks to 'Miles' tilts its head, then back to Ellbeth while untilting its head.

Ellbeth answers Dark Horse, "I don't have any information. I can surmise several possibilities; Quakezone was forced to create the quake, she did it to indicate where she was being held but doesn't have sufficient control to limit the quake to non damaging magnitude, or another person has been given she power and was testing it out."

Dark Horse nods. "All possibilities."

"The last one would be very bad for us..." Flyne mutters, seeming to /not/ like the idea of the last possibility.

Wonder says, "All the more reason to act swiftly."

A man in simple all-white military uniform sweater, camo pants and boots. His identity is concealed by a commando mask that covers all but his eyes. He wears a black beret on his head with a Next Generation insignia upon it. He's tall and well built, like a football player.

Flyne briefly nods to 'Miles', before continuing its focus on Ell.

Ellbeth looks at Miles, "I've examined the clinic very thoroughly. I'm convinced there's no direct connection between the kidnappings and the clinic. It's almost certainly a scam, and may be linked to Next Generation, but I've mentally walked every foot of the hallways, both above and below ground, and checked out the staff. I don't think it's worth spending any more time on at this point."

Wonder nods.

Ellbeth says, "My recommendation at this time is to go to near the site of the mine and I'll try to scry it. If I can and it's the NG base I'll find a quiet spot and open a gate through to inside it. If I cannot scry that will mean it is the base and my scrying has been blocked. An option in thatcase is to allow NG to kidnap Miles, as I have focused a gate location on him. Once they have kidnapped him and taken him to their base I can open a gate there."

Suddenly, the fire alarm for the building goes off: white flashing lights accompanied by and alarm bell. Amidst all the noise, the phone on Miles's desk begins to ring.

Dark Horse nods. "I think both options make sense." He freezes as the alarm goes off. "Seems like somewhat ironic timing."

Flyne yelps something in Morphoid and stands up, looking around the room, and assumming a combat stance. Flyne tries to see if it can smell something out of the ordinary. Flyne is very obviously alerted.

Wonder answers the phone. "Fuchs here."

Karlie is already plotting her escape route, through the floor above.

Dark Horse stands up from his chair, and heads over to the door, and places his hand against it, checking the temperature of it. Just in case.

The voice on the other end says: "This is prisoner containment. The Hypersite Gateway we've been holding for you has activated, and some kind of machine came through. It could be a bomb. We're going to evacuate the building and wait for the explosives experts to look at it."

Karlie looks at 'Miles'. "Where is it?" she asks simply.

"What is happening?" Flyne asks, unsure of what a 'fire alarm' in itself is. Flyne seems panicked.

Wonder says, "Somwthing - maybe a bomb - has just been put through the hypersite portal!"

Karlie says that now, that she has an idea of what is happening, since she didn't hear the voice on the other end before.

Dark Horse furrows his brow, "I might be able to defuse it, if it's a bomb."

Ellbeth is enveloped in a bluish aura as she casts a protective spell. "We might want to intervene. No point in walking up to a possible bomb unless you think you might survive it and may be able to help neutralize it. If you want to come, follow me." she says and starts heading towards the holding cells.

Flyne looks toward 'Miles', unsure quite what to say. Flyne relaxes its combat stance a bit, and calms a bit, oddly. "We should dispose of the bomb." Flyne states, oddly calm now. "Though Flyne has no idea how to deal with a bomb. Though Flyne is tough, and has survived things worse than explosions." Flyne's entire demenor seems much calmer now that it knows what its dealing with.

Wonder stays, to keep up the illusion of being Miles. "Good luck!"

Karlie shrugs. "How about containing it, dismantling it without setting it off remotely, moving it to a safe spot." She follows, hands in her pockets.

Flyne follows as well.

Karlie pauses, glancing at 'miles', "You may want t'have someone stay here or something. This stinks of distraction."

Dark Horse heads out with Ellbeth. He sounds pretty confident. "Let's look at what we're dealing with first. It woudln't be the first explosive device I've dealt with."

Wonder says, "Then again, through the portal is the easy way for them to come."

Ellbeth nods to Karlie, "Indeed it does. Flyne, could you stay with Miles? Dark Horse and Karlie have skills that may be useful in dealing with a bomb. I don;t know if you have such skills but someone needs to stay."

Karlie shrugs. "Bomb's just a collection of wires in a shell. n'less it's chemical without any kinda 'lectronic activation. But I can tell you if it is."

Flyne nods, "Flyne would be better as a lookout than a defender though." Flyne leaps into the air and clings to the celing, keeping an eye on this. "Does anyone have a communicator? Flyne might be able to stop some, but not all. Flyne would be more useful if it could call for backup.

Dark Horse shakes his head as he walks with Ellbeth. "Just my own radio. Sorry."

Ellbeth says, "Not even a radio."

The prison holding section is mostly empty. There are cells here capable of holding superhuman prisoners. One of them holds a metahuman from some other case, a second cell holds Rampart, and a third one holds the Hypersite gate generator.

There's a bomb in the cell with the gate generator. It's the size of a refridgerator. Flat metallic panels cover it's internal workings. On the front panel, there's a timer, set to 5 minutes and three puzzle cubes fitted into square sockets.

Rampart is standing up in his cell, by the door. "What the hell is going on?!" he asks.

Karlie looks at Ellbeth, "I can lock it up so that when it goes off, it won't do much of anything."

Karlie lets Dark Horse have a look at it, "I mean, if you wanna risk that gate used again while you're busy figurin' out how to diffuse it."

Ellbeth nods to Karlie, "That sounds like an excellent idea. Meanwhile Dark Horse and I can try to stop it detonating."

Ellbeth pulls out her usually underused PDA and sends a picture of the puzzle cubes to Max. "Max, be a dear and find the solutions to those would you?" she texts the AI.

Dark Horse raises a brow. "Great...why am I thinking that it's going to involve solving the cubes?" He looks to Karlie, "Can you tell if the cubes what the cubes are actually connected to inside? Or if there are actually explosive? I mean, it might be just a timer."

Karlie replies, "I'm still thinkin' this is one big distraction. So I'm thinkin' I'll first lock it so when it goes off it doesn't do much, and then do my best t'set if off."

Ellbeth smiles, "Of course this is a distraction. So let's take our time and give Next Generation time to complete their kidnap attempt."

Fwwwwmmmmm. An energy pistol powers up. The sound comes from behind Wonder, where Spectre has him Covered with the aforementioned weapon. "Don't move," he says. "Either of you."

Karlie takes her time to get a good feel of the bomb, rather than doing something to prevent it from exploding.

Ellbeth uses her Cyberpath spell to determine the bomb's programming.

Wonder stays still. "I was wondering if this might be a distraction."

Dark Horse looks at the panels of the bomb to see if there's an easy way to remove them to get at the interior.

Karlie is ready to lock the bomb up to oblivion when the cell is opened.

Dark Horse takes a look at the door to determine if anything's been connected to it, and then intends to open it.

Meanwhile, Spectre raises his hand to put a controlling grip on 'Miles' shoulder. He watches Flyne carefully as he does.

Wonder says, "What do you want?"

Flyne doesn't move, it just stays where its at for the moment.

Spectre says, "Come with me, and you won't get hurt."

Wonder says, "I've heard that before. Where do you want me to go, and why?"

Ellbeth says, "I can't feel any motion detectors on the bomb's arming system. There are several mechanical systems as well as the electronics. I should be able to solve the cubes easily enough. Dark Horse, Karlie, your thoughts?

Karlie replies, "Remote detonation would make the whole thing pointless."

Dark Horse rubs his chin. "I don't think opening the door is an immediate danger. I think we should do that to get closer to it, so that you can solve the puzzle cubes."

Karlie looks at the hyper gate thingie. "Why're they keeping that here and active?"

Flyne sighs, turns around and tries pouncing Spectre; Flyne wants to draw his attention away from Miles.

Ellbeth nods. "Would locking the bomb up hinder me in any attempt to solve the cubes, Karlie?

Karlie nods. "Probably. If the cube's attached by mechanism."

Ellbeth nods again, "Dark Horse, can you estimate how powerful that bomb is? If Karlie and I combine efforts we can contain a fairly significant explosion I think. Because I don't know this Kubric so don't know if he would cheat and have the bomb detonate even if the cubes were solved."

Dark Horse shakes his head, "Not without cracking the case, and looking inside it."

Dark Horse says, "Let's get a closer look, at least. Standing out here isn't doing us any good."

Dark Horse goes to open the door to the cell, assuming that no one stops him.

Karlie shrugs. "No, I'd say it's doing us a lot more good than if that thing goes off when it's not locked down."

Ellbeth nods.

Dark Horse sighs a bit, and opens the door, and heads over to take a closer look at the bomb proper.

Spectre is about to grab Miles when he sees Flyne charging him. He leans aside and lets Flyne sail past him.

Flies past Spectre...landing on the ground somewhere near him, and /not/ on any of the office-related things.

Spectre abandons his previous casual attempt to grab Miles, instead favoring a double handed full-nelson grab in his next attempt.

Wonder struggles in vain against Spectre's hold.

Dark Horse rubs his chin as he looks the thing over. "Okay...there's three triggers, it looks like. A gyroscope, to get it off if hte device is removed. A power trigger, so if the computer is cut, it'll go off. And...the timer. Lastly, it looks like if you remove the cubes one at a time, solve each, and put them back, that'll defuse the device.

Ellbeth nods to Dark Horse. "Let me guess. The timer starts when the first cube is removed?"#

Karlie shrugs. "Okay. So your options are t'trust that this thing won't go off before you expect and play with it or let me prevent it from doin' damage and forcing it t'go off."

Karlie adds, "You can take out the cubes when I lock it up and play with them if you want, sounds like."

Dark Horse says, "We'll need to be able to put them back, obviously. In the same spots."

Ellbeth says, "Karlie, I'm concerned the scale of the explosion might exceed significantly your locking down ability. But you and Dark Horse have to advice me on that. I know little about explosives."

Karlie shakes her head. "If it's a strong enough explosion that I can't contain it, we should probably get out of the building after I lock it down and not risk blowing yourself to hell."

Karlie adds, "And that gate is active, they know it's in this room, nothing stopping 'em from sending another one through. Should probably fix the active part of it."

Dark Horse nods. "Let me take a look at the payload of the bomb."

Ellbeth casts a sphere of protection spell.

Dark Horse takes a closer look, trying to determine just how much in the way of explosives they're dealing with.

Spectre sinks into the floor, taking Miles with him.

Wonder holds his breath as he's taken through the solid floor!

After about 5 meters of concrete and rebar, 'Miles' and Spectre emerge into a subterranean tunnel. There's two Next Generation troopers waiting there for Spectre's arrival.

Wonder sighs. "Sewers. Typical."

Dark Horse blinks. "Huh. Umm...cruise missile-sized explosion, maybe?"

Karlie nods. "Okay. I'm not riskin' that going off."

Ellbeth looks at Karlie, "I understood your plan was to set it off? Maybe you can clarify your comment?"

Karlie nods. "First I lock it down, wrap it up, then I pick it up and shake it from a distance. If that doesn't set it off, crush it. Sounds like if I pick it up it'll go off though. Thing is, I don't think we want this goin' off inside the building, cushioned or not."

Karlie looks at Ellbeth. "So if you can transport it away, somewhere high up'd be good."

Ellbeth shakes her head, I can open a gate but it would have to be physcially moved through. Which we cannot do without setting it off. So either we try to disarm it or we wrap it up as best we can."

Karlie nods. "Or deflect most of the blast toward the aperture."

Karlie tries to feel for how much of the object is metal.

Dark Horse shakes his head. "Ellbeth, can you solve them each in time?"

Karlie explains, "Explosions are just big release of energy. If we give that energy a direction it won't go just everywhere with th'same force."

Ellbeth says, "I'm not even sure a gate could handle the mass anyway. ... The cubes? I believe it's highly likely that Max and I can solve them witin the alloted time. If that proves to be a false assumption we'll have time to try the alternative approach."

Dark Horse smiles. "I have faith, doctor. So, we'll try to just defuse it that way. I don't think it would help, but I can turn a cube as necessary. But I would need a way to know which way to turn it to make sure I wasn't just slowing things down."

Dark Horse says, "I mean, I'm sure that I can solve one, just perhaps not in time. Ellbeth, why don't you start...and if time gets short, we can try the alternatives mentioned."

Karlie shrugs. "I can shape the hull so that the blast is pointed at a specific direction. Or make a dome, you open up a gate below it and let it fall through, it explodes, th'dome takes the brunt what goes up to it. If any. Might not register that it's been moved until something jars the fall. Not that I doubt your problem solving skills. Just doubt that th'guy who made this."

Ellbeth says, "Okay, Karlie, stand by with your lock down. Dark Horse, you're physically faster than I am. Pull the first cube, show it to Max and I and then follow our instructions for rotating it. Is everyone ready?""

Ellbeth says, "My gates open in a vertical orientation, and as I mentioned, it may simply be too massive to pass through, Karlie."

Dark Horse nods. "You got it." He pulls the first cube, and shows it to Ellbeth.

Karlie shrugs. "Whatever. Mind if I use th'hypergate as scrap metal?"

Ellbeth says, "Top layer, rotate clockwise 180 degrees. Rotate cube to your left. Middle layer 90 degrees counter clockwise...."

Ellbeth rattles off the firections as fast as Dark Horse can apply them to the cubes. It would seem an impressive display to anyone who didn't know that Max is simply relaying the solutions to Ellbeth that already exist on the Net.

Karlie meanwhile takes a guess at the weight of the bomb based on metal content.

Dark Horse finishes up the first cube, and replaces it. He grabs the second one, and shows it to Ellbeth.

Ellbeth says, ".... Invert cube. Rotate top layer 90 degrees clockwise. Done. Replace. Next cube... Max, get ready."

Dark Horse rips through the second one with Ellbeth's instructions, and replaces it back in its place. He grabs the last one, and shows it to Ellbeth.

Ellbeth says, "Okay Max. Let's do this."

Ellbeth says, "Max, that's wrong. Okay, we'll have to crack this ourselves, the Net solution is incorrect."

Karlie mumbles, "or just made different from this..."

Ellbeth says, "It's a highly symetrical solution set, Karlie. The Net solution is much larger than any possible correct set of needed moves."

Karlie asks, "How can it be different for each one? They're all th'same puzzle. You use one system of solution, then either it works for all three or one's a fake."

Ellbeth says, "Each solution has been solved and posted online. Max can scan the cubes and find the solution in seconds. But... either this is an insolvable cube, that is it's not a valid puzzle, or the Net solution is incorrect. If Kubric is too proud to cheat he may have seen the Net solution was wrong and choosen that position intentionally."

Dark Horse nods. "I'll take a stab at it. We've got about 4 minutes left."

Ellbeth says, "No, Dark Horse. Wait. If you change the position we'll have to recalculate"

Dark Horse nods. "Alright."

Abigail enters from Universal TransMat.

Ellbeth says triumphantly, "Got it. Okay, rotate cube to your right, Top layer roate 180 degrees. Invert cube. Top layer 90 degrees clockwise...

Dark Horse turns it as Ellbeth suggests, and the two of them finish the puzzle cube. He then returns it to its appropriate spot.

The timer on the bomb stops around 3:17 left.

Dark Horse chuckles. "I'm going to have to punch this Kubic guy. Just because I'm not so fond of his theme." He offers a hand to Ellbeth, "Well done."

Ellbeth grins and holds up both hands, "High five. Miller time!"

Karlie folds her arms. "Great. You did the puzzle. Now it's an unknown explosion-ready device instead of something we know how long it'd take. So now what?"

Ellbeth says, "And Spector's got Miles. Everything is working out just as we planned."

Ellbeth says, "Well, I'd suggest Darh Horse disassembles the bomb and you turn the Hypersite portal into a petzel."

Karlie asks, "And why didn't we do that before?"

Dark Horse raises a brow and looks to Karlie. "It should be disarmed completely now. I should be able to take it apart now that it's disarmed."

Karlie nods. "Yeah. Should be. Here's my question, what if it isn't?"

Dark Horse raises a brow. "If you really think it isn't...I'd be willing to wager on that. Pick it up and shake it. I'll stand right next to it."

Ellbeth nods, And as a last resort we could have tried sending the bomb back, since we have emperical evidence that the Hypersite portal can handle the bomb's mass.

Spectre and his two Next Generation slip out from underneath the federal building with 'Miles', who's actually Wonder, disguised as the FBI agent. Their path takes them above ground, to a waiting delivery van. They blindfold Wonder and the group drives through the city to another location.

Karlie states, "Already said I don't doubt you. What I doubt is the mind of someone who'd make a puzzle kill switch for a bomb they sent that can take out an entire building if someone isn't all too familiar with how th'puzzles in particular work takes a shot at solvin' them."

Dark Horse shrugs, "He's trying to prove how smart he is. He's challenging his opponents in a way that makes him feel superior. His goal wasn't to completely stump us, though I'm sure he'd be elated if he did. Instead, his goal was to delay us...which he did. With a credible threat. If we had scanned it, and found hte bomb to be too small...or without explosives in it at all, we'd have ignored it,a nd gone back to where Miles was.

Karlie nods. "So you know who sent it pretty well then."

Dark Horse nods. "Relatively. There are some common threads in psych profiles of villains of his ilk."

Ellbeth says, "Oh, the guy is nuttier than a fruit cake, sure. But these themed villains can usually be trusted, of you'll excuse the word, to stay in theme. And often too proud and egoistic to cheat. Althoug I have my suspisions that he planted the false solution.Max found."

Dark Horse nods. "That's not cheating, exactly. At least not in his mind. He may have felt justified by trying to keep you from 'cheating'."

Ellbeth smiles, "I cannot disagree."

Karlie nods. "Okay." She concentrates on the bomb, dismantling it the reverse from how it was mantled.