Log:An Audience with the Queen

All Hail the Carrion Queen 2014/10/21 Porter Paragon 3

So far, Paragon has kept her word about being careful and letting Porter and others try to hunt the units after her. Since coming back from Germany, she's stayed mostly at home and incognito when she's had to go out. She's even, gasp, given up patrolling to ease Porter's worries and they haven't networked since they discovered it could be used to track Para.

Given how Para is so bad at ignoring trouble, it probably isn't a surprise when Porter receives a text from her in the early evening. [I just came across something suspicious going on at Quantinuum Industries. I know I said I wouldn't go out patrolling, but I'm going to investigate.]

At least his PDA is nice enough to notify him of the message, and make it legible. Porter reads it and sighs, though it's through a smile. She's shown a lot of restraint, so he can't really blame her. She is who she is. [Ok. I'll meet you there.] And there's also that. Having his thingamahickey means he can probably get where he needs to quickly. Those are the next buttons he pushes, to vanish in a FLASH-THWUMP and appear, hopefully, near where she's headed.

About a block off. Close enough! He can see Para a block down with two paper grocery bags set on the ground at her feet and her armor down. She still was trying to keep her word and wasn't actually patrolling, but there's something here she couldn't just ignore. She's staring at the wall along the front of Quantinuum Industries. More precisely, a 4 meter round hole that looks like it's just been cleanly cut out of the side of the wall. The wiring of the building is exposed at the edges and spark occasionally.

Porter looks around to orient himself, spies Third, and heads her way. When he gets close, he starts to ask her what's up. That's also when he sees the hole. "Huh. Guessing that's not from a really big rat?"

Paragon scratches the side of her head as she tilts it ponderously. "Well. If it weren't so surgically clean, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case." After she drops her hand to her side, she looks to him and smiles. "Thanks for coming," she says as she leans in to give him a peck on the cheek. "Either there was a science accident, or there's a robbery in progress. That's my bet."

"Awful pretty and clean for an accident," and Porter is pretty familiar with accidents. "So... break in or something? You try calling the company or security or police?"

"I just noticed it and texted you right away. I notified police. The company's closed for the day." Para grins a mischievious grin, which disappears as her armor slides around her, encasing her. "Can we check it out?" her voice echoes in her helm. Her tone sounds like an excited little kid asking to go on a ride.

Porter tries not to grin as he sighs, since he doesn't have a faceplate to cover him. "Ok. This time." Not that he succeeds in hiding the grin, or looking like she had to work to convince him.

Paragon makes a quiet delighted sound and gives him a hug. "Thanks, Partner." She had been going a bit stir crazy, being stuck home mostly for the past few days. Once she lets go, she turns towards the clean hole. "Let's go!"

Porter's grin gets strained as he's hugged. Hopefully not too tight in her excitement. He grunts and clears his throat. "Ok, Partner. Let's go. Ladies first?"

At the grunt, Paragon rubs the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry, Partner. I got a little excited." Once he gives the go ahead, she nods once. "Sure." Paragon takes point, leading the way inside. She steps over the lip of the hole carefully and trudges inside. There's no debris from the hole in the wall on the inside or out. It's just gone. The room it leads into is just an office with a few empty cubicles and an open door leading to a hallway t-junction. It looks like the office staff has gone home for the day already, given the lack of overturned chairs from fleeing, and the lights being off in the office room. The hallway lights are on, and down the hallway straight ahead, there's a similar clean hole at the end. There are doors lining the hallway leading into various lab-like rooms with the lights turned off. The only other lit room seems to be the one where the second hole leads.

Porter is not an investigative genius. He isn't even a non-investigative genius. However, the clean round hole is a big clue. As are the lights. So he points that way, just in case Para missed the obvious. He also tries to stay quiet. Just in case.

Paragon nods silently to Porter as her head follows where he points. She pads down the hallway, trying to be quiet instead of her usual plodding. She succeeds...almost. She doesn't clomp along as she usually does. She treads lightly so long as she moves slowly, the sounds of her joints making only a slight sound of metal sliding against metal, like a sword being slowly unsheathed. But Porter can still hear her despite her attempts. And he is hardly stealthy. Who has to be quiet and careful when you can be lucky?

Porter can hear two quiet voices coming from the room they're approaching, talking in excitement. "Here it....the new prototype....can't wait to add it to my arsenal!" is what he can make out. Paragon's head perks slightly. She hears the chatter, but can't quite make it out.

Porter is probably too busy watching Para's feet and expecting clomping to watch his own feet. They scuff along the floor as listens to the voices. After a moment, he nods to her and whispers, "Sounds like thieves. Wait here for them?"

Paragon looks to Porter and nods. Porter may notice the talking as ceased. Scuffing shoes and the quiet sound of metal on metal still gave the pair away, as a man in his early thirties wearing dark goggles and a white overcoat over a t-shirt with a nerdy physics reference only physicists would get, khaki dockers, and old sneakers steps into view, holding what looks like a futuristic steel blue ray gun with dials, buttons, and a trigger. His black hair is short and wild, like someone who just got out of bed and never bothered to comb it. A wide, mad grin is stretched across his face. He also has a very familiar looking doohickey clipped to his left wrist by a metal arm-band.

"Hah! Thought you could get the drop on Dr. Verse, did you?" smirks the bad Doctor. "With this prototype disintegration ray, not even the mighty Paragon can stop me!" Porter is unlucky or lucky enough to not even be considered a threat or a hero at first. Probably because Paragon's the more noticeable of the two and reads as hero at a quick glance.

Dr. Verse's mad grin grows wider as he levels the blaster at Paragon. Cowering in the corner is Dr. Verse's as of yet unintroduced assistant, who looks more like a college student with a tablet.

Dr. Verse doesn't seem worried at all to be facing off with Paragon and that guy who's always in photos in the background with her. He adjusts a dial and laughs. "I can't wait to see what this baby can do. Maximum disintegration settings. FOR SCIENCE!" He pulls the trigger and fires at Paragon.

Paragon tries to dodge. Move. Raise her hand to block the blast. She's just. Too. Slow. She starts to give Dr. Verse a chance to give up. "If you put the weapon down and surrender, we'll--"

A white beam streaks from the ray gun and strikes Paragon, surrounding and encasing her in a white glow. It doesn't knock her back, or cause her to recoil, or cry out in pain. Her eyes blink off and on. Her head tilts slightly in confusion. She looks down at herself and at her hands, observing the glowing field surrounding her. And then she just starts to...disintegrate starting at the extremities. Her hands and feet disintegrate into smaller pieces, and the chain reaction starts to travel up her limbs, and then up her torso as she turns into small dark particles that begin to fade away. Her head turns to Porter as the process speeds up. "I think--" is all she manages to get out, as her helm is the last to go. And then the glow fades with a FWOP sound, leaving nothing behind. Not even smoke, or ash.

Dr. Verse makes an exciting whooping sound and kisses his new ray gun. "Ohhh, I'm going to have so much fun with you," he croons as he pets it affectionately.

"Para, watch out" Porter warns of the obvious, and late. Then she's hit. At first, he doesn't think anything of it. She's caught buildings, after all! And then... No! His face goes ashen as she starts to... not be there anymore, and looks to her with no idea what to say. Or no chance to get it out before there's nothing left. He blinks, once.

And then the color returns to his face. All of it, all at once, in a flush that sure as hell isn't embarrassment. And not humor at the man's affectionate excitement. "Whatever you did, undo it! Right now!"

Dr. Verse is still fondling his new toy. "Wouldn't even if I could. It's not a re-integration ray. And even without a reverse setting, there's nothing left to re-integrate." He gives the blaster a gunslinging spin with a hand on his waist. "No hero will be able to stand against me with this! Have fun telling the reporters what happened here, kid. Tell them what happens to heroes like Paragon who stand against me. And tell them Dr. Verse plans to rule this town!" He looks to the cowering assistant. "Perkins! Get up from there. The hero's gone, and we should be too. Let's go!"

Perkins starts to get up and scamper over to Dr. Verse.

Gone. That is the wrong answer. If the guy and his toy can't fix the problem, then they really don't have a use, do they? Porter can't let him get out with a device like that... but that is really only a secondary excuse. Gone. But it wasn't her turn... It wasn't some heroic thing... It wasn't... right. Not right. Not fair. Not her. Not now.

So it's a prototype, hmm? Well, that makes it a glowing beacon of a target for all kinds of mishaps. Even when Porter isn't here. Isn't glaring at it. Like it should just spontaneous disintegrate. Like he is, right now.

At that moment, a small little red angry warning light starts to blink on the ray gun from all of Porter's glaring. And the device starts to hum and vibrate, then glow, surrounding in the same white light that it shot out at Para. Dr. Verse stares at it. "Uh oh. No! Stop! Power down!" he blurts out as he tries to dial down the nobs to turn it off, but instead it ramps up and suddenly there's an explosion of light that blasts Dr. Verse away from the ray gun and clear across the room and into the wall with a sickening crack as he hits a wall stud. He bounces off of it and falls flat on his face, unconscious and goggles askew.

The ray gun clatters on the ground where Dr. Verse was standing, powering down and the white glow fading away.

The ray gun is the only real important thing left, now. Porter walks up to grab it. Sure, it could blow up in his hand, but he's not letting anyone walk out with it. He glares at the assistant. "Don't even /think/ about going anywhere..." They'll be waiting for the law, though not exactly idly. Porter only keeps one eye on the intern and the not-so-good doctor. The other is on the spot Paragon formerly occupied. Just to see if maybe that disintegration wasn't complete. Or something. Anything.

The assistant, Perkins, stumbles back a few steps, clutching his tablet. "I-I was just supposed to record the data for extra credit..." he tries to plea his case as he inches towards the exit. "Please..."

As Porter looks over the place where Paragon was, there's nothing. No sign that she was ever there.

--Wait. There's no sign. No ash. Not metallic flecks. No blood. Not even scorch marks where she was standing.

Porter realizes that the assistant could very well mostly innocent in all this. Duped by the other one or something. But he still broke in to what is probably a normally secure place. Also, this is all happening in a part of Porter's brain that isn't exactly wholly in control at the moment. The rational part. But that doesn't mean that Perkins is completely out of luck.

"Can you un-do that?" Porter waves the distegrator thingy at him. He also sounds very flat, drained, and anything but hopeful. The rational part is shoved aside, but the emotional part is also rather drained, and probably in shock at the moment.

Perkins just shakes his head. "I'm just a student. I barely understand this stuff." Noticing Porter's attention on the place Paragon was, he asks nervously, "Was he a friend of yours?" He looks about and tries to think of something useful to get him out of this.

"/She/ is my girlfriend..." Porter's glare is not lessened in the slightest. More the other way around. And he still uses present tense,even though he probably shouldn't. They handled Fourth, survived Eighth. Ariel. EH and crew. And some two-bit, half-wit, cut-rate thief... He doesn't finish the sentence, even in his head, but he does inform Perkins. "Don't even try to run. You won't make it out the door."

Perkins gulps and looks panicked when Porter announces Dr. Verse just disintegrated his girlfriend. Fear overrides reason, and he doesn't want to go to jail. The squirrel looking young man hesitates for a moment, clutches his tablet tightly to his chest, and makes a break for the door.

Porter warned him... but maybe the threat was never meant to be violent. Or maybe Porter isn't as mad at him as he is at Dr. Unconscious. Also, Perkins should really make sure his shoes are tied when trying to run. The laces come undone and immediately tangle with each other into a crazy knotted mess that not even a mother could untie.

Perkins lucks out when that's all that happens to him. He trips and falls over, his tablet skipping away along the ground. "Oww!"

"Told you..." Porter now plays pick up again as he goes to retrieve Perkins' PDA. Are the cops here yet? With the fancy know-it-alls from the company?! Somebody has to know how to re-integrate things! Maybe there's something on the PDA? He doesn't have much else to do, and isn't about to sit around thinking.

Perkin's PDA is opened to a spreadsheet app that was being used to record scientific data and observations. It's pretty heavy on the science. Give the call to the police was made only a few brief minutes ago, the cops may not be here for a little longer.

Hmm. It made a strange FWOPing sound. Do disintegration rays sound like that? And before Dr. Verse used it, he said he was setting it to maximum disintegration. Are there even varying degrees of disintegration beyond dead and not dead? Para had said the name of the place. Quantinuum...Industries? Why does that sound familiar? Sort of sounds like Quantum something. Hmmm...

Flashback

Professor Muller yells out James' name after he spilled his coffee and accidentally knocked over his text book, causing it to land with a loud bang on the ground next to his desk. Ah, the good old college physics requirement. Which James had somehow accidentally got enrolled in his Freshman year, even though it's more of an advanced science class, but he had no clue he was missing requirements to take it, and a glitch in the system allowed him to get signed up anyway.

As James tries to mop up the coffee with his class notes, which are subsequently ruined, Professor Mullen continues his lecture on Quantum Physics.

"Now what that means is, in theory, Quantum Teleportation can be expanded on different frequencies to cross dimensional barriers. Now here's the formula," he turns to the digital touch screen board and uses his finger to write out the formula on the surface. At which point James' eyes glaze over at the sheer complication of it all, but tries to write down the formula on soggy pages.

SNAP! Pencil broke...

End Flashback

Maybe...maybe it's not a disintegration ray after all, and Dr. Verse got it wrong? Maybe, just maybe, it's some sort of dimensional transportational thingamablaster and Para's still alive, somewhere? Out there? Or maybe that's just the desperate wishes of a not-quite rational mind. He's displayed denial, and anger. Maybe he's now well on his way to bargaining out of the five stages of grief.

Porter has no ideas what disintegrations sound like... and he really doesn't know. But... teleportation? He knows how to do that! Mostly. Sort of. Ok, so he doesn't know anything of the science except hitting buttons. Well, he knows it has to discombobulate all his molecules and then put them back together again. Somewhere else. Wait! That's like disintegration, right? And reintegration/undisintegration... whatever it's called, he doesn't care.

Anger? Certainly. Denial? He's still dancing with that. Hope? Bargaining? Wild chance? Dodge? Whatever the other stages are, he'll find them. Or make up new ones. Or, maybe... avoid them altogether? And that's when button-pressing starts. Add that, divide that, carry the 42... If the notes will help (from what he can understand), he'll use it. If not? Making guesses works, too. If there's a chance, he's got to take it. And doing something is infinitely better than doing nothing.

The notes on Perkins' PDA don't seem to be about the disinitgration/discombulating ray, but upon looking at the ray gun, the dial on it isn't based on levels or degrees of disintigration. It's a frequency scale. Right now it's set to some frequency in the mid-range of settings. Dr. Verse had said he set it to Maximum Disintegration...

So, maybe "Doctor" Verse was a MD and not a PhD? Frequency scale. That could be helpful. Or not. But in case it is, Porter includes that in his Kentucky windage and Porterific equations. Heck, eenie, meenie, and moe are helping, now, too. If she wound up somewhere, he'll find her. Or look until he can't anymore. If she wound up nowhere... well, he'll look there, too, damnit!

This wouldn't be the first time he's done something with massive uncertainty to help someone in need. For Porter, getting out of bed in the morning leads to uncertainty. If he makes it that far. So, now, in this situation, it really shouldn't be a surprise that as soon as the light flickers green, meaning the doohickey thinks it will send him... somewhere, he hits the GO button. Maybe the assistant will get his second chance afterall. Maybe even Dr. Discombulator will get away. Para would be very disappointed. Porter doesn't care. He'll be thrilled if she can yell at him.

And then (hopefully) there's a FLASH-THWUMP to... who knows?

Who knows? Even when he gets there, that's still a good question. He's outdoors now, because there's no longer a building around him. It's not night time anymore, but the twilight hour. It looks like a wasteland of dead, blacked twisted trees and broken foundations of buildings that have crumbled and overgrown with dead vines. It's cold and windy.

And what is wrong with the sky? The sky is filled with a dark maelstrom of gray clouds and ash that swirls about of its own accord. And the buzzing! That awful buzzing. Wait, that's not ash. It's flies!

A crow stands on a post nearby and caws at Porter angrily to his left, drawing his attention to a crowd of people shambling away from him in the distance. Post-apocalyptic survivors? And what's with that rotten smell? In other places, the silhouettes of giant grub-like creatures can be made out.

Much closer to Porter, though, are two figures. One is clearly Paragon with her back to Porter, taking a knee before a black-haired woman whose skin is tinted blue, wrapped in black linen bindings that have torn loose in places and fallen away, leaving exposed flesh. She is gaunt, barefoot, and her eyes pools of pure blackness.

Darkened skies. Clouds of ash-no, flies. Blackened ruins. Giant maggots.... Porter takes a quick mental survey and comparison. Ok, this is probably new to him. At least all those things in combination. There's also blue-ish, slightly unwrapped black-eyed girl. How lovely. But, most importantly, there's "Para!" His yell is way louder than it needs to be, since they're right there. "Are you Ok?" Porter takes a knee next to her to check on her.

Paragon doesn't respond. She remains immobile and armored, staring up at the woman.

"The living? -Here-?" The blue woman hisses accusingly as her dark gaze turns to Porter. Her expression before had been completely placid until his arrival and speaking.

A scary woman looking at him angrily? Well, some things aren't so unusual... "Hi. Sorry about that..." Porter forces out a hopefully-friendly-seeming smile and apology as he reaches for Para's shoulders. "Don't worry. We were just leaving. Won't bother you anymore C'mon, Para. Time to go." Then he tries to help her up. Which will probably take more than just his help.

The woman's hair starts to float up slowly, as if she were underwater. "Leave? But she belongs here in my peaceful Domain. The Living do not." Paragon doesn't budge from Porter's attempts to lift her.

"The Carrion Queen controls all here. You are so noisy. Disorganized. Chaotic. Lost," the woman speaks in pitying tones. "Your Queen is generous. I will grant you the peace I gift to all." Her head slowly turns to Paragon. "Grant him mercy," she commands.

At the Carrion Queen's orders, Paragon finally begins to move. She slowly cranes her head towards Porter in a jerky, unsmooth motion. And then her hand shoots forward to grasp him by the throat and starts to squeeze. If Para is in there somewhere, she must surely be screaming.

The Carrion Queen leans towards Porter and inhales his scent deeply, her lips curling as if he smelled offensive to her. Given the smell of decay in her realm, perhaps the living smell pungent to her. "You...are not from my realm, little breather," she croons in discovery. "So many scents of the living on you. A whole other world in need of the peace I bring. I will help them. I will help them all," she speaks as a merciful ruler, but the implications of what her help would be is sinister indeed.

Ok. Porter can't really dispute any of her claims. Not about him, anyhow. But, if she wants to see some Chaos, he can-urk. Porter is surprised when he gets a hand around his throat, and that it's Para's. He probably shouldn't be. He isn't surprised at the grip, though. Peace? Really?

So there's scary dead worlds. And magic dragon-ballooning island worlds. And who can forget the infinite ocean waiting to drown and crush you world? Whatever happened to sparkles and rainbows world? Or filled with fluffy kittens world? Or pizza world? Hell, Porter would settle for kittens eating sparkley pizza world about now.

The errant thought flashes through his head, probably due to the deepening lack of oxygen. Can he break Para's grip? He's pretty sure even /he's/ not that lucky. And he'd have to stay conscious long enough. And still get her out of here. Probably fight off the Black-Eyed Queen, too. Probably not going to happen. So, he boils it down to the simplest thing. Him and Para not here.

Instead of try to fight her off, he just grabs ahold of her arm holding him. The other flails a little blindly (but he's getting good at that) for the GO button on his doodadamawhatcher. If she's bound and determined to throttle the life out of him, the least he can do is give her the comfort of her own world, right?

Third is bound, at the very least. Porter manages to hit the go button and with a flash of light and a THWUMP, the nightmare domain of the Carrion Queen disappears, leaving the Carrion Queen slightly surprised.

The last thing Porter hears as they discombobulate away is the fading promise, "I am coming..."

And finally a breath of fresh air. Or it would be if Porter could breathe. They're back in the labs where Porter departed. Perkins is gone, but Dr. Verse is still unconscious where he fell. Once they fully materialize in this world and the gap between worlds closes, Paragon finally regains her free will and releases him. "P...Porter...I'm sorry..." she says in a shakened, frightened voice. "I couldn't...I didn't want to..." That trembling in her voice. It sounds like she could be crying.

First order of business, Porter takes a deep breath. Second, he uses it to sigh. Third, well, is Para. She lets go of him, but he doesn't of her. He just rearranges so he's hugging her. Armor and all. "It's Ok! You're safe!" Porter could be saying aloud for himself as much as to console her, and the hug may not be entirely selfless, either. He's elated. And a little bruised. And ...crying.

Paragon sniffs and hugs Porter back. "You found me..." she breathes out in relief, snuggling against him. Then she realizes her armor's in the way. Her armor slowly retracts and slides away carefully, leaving behind a devastated looking Para with tear streaked cheeks. With another sniffle, she suddenly realizes Porter is crying, too. A trembling hand reaches up to cup Porter's cheek as she pulls back enough to gaze into his eyes, her other hand still wrapped around him. "I'm sorry I hurt you. Is it painful...?" she asks worriedly.

"Not your fault," Porter sniffs, though he's grinning in the exact opposite of sad or pained. Not that that stopped tears. "And I don't care. You're here." Which is the important thing. Since she is here, and her faceplate isn't in the way, he also intends to add a big, warm, passionate kiss to the holding. Coincidentally, it could keep them both from silly apologies.

Para is caught off guard by the grin and the kiss. It proves very effective at stopping the apologies and worries. She closes her eyes and melts into the kiss, returning the warmth and passion. She's not precisely sure -why- she's suddenly getting such a kiss, but she doesn't really care too much at the moment while she enjoys it.

Sirens in the distance. Great, -now- the boys in blue start making their way to the scene of the crime. And Perkins got away. But at least Dr. Verse was caught.

When the police arrive, they come in with guns drawn. "Alright, freez--" the rookie starts, but his partner nudges him and says, "I recognize that guy. He's one of the good guys." He smiles a little to himself. "Don't bother them...I think we found our crook," the partner says as he holsters his gun and leads the way to Dr. Verse.

Porter still doesn't care. The police can walk around them. He even puts off breathing for a while. When he does release her, at least at the lips, Porter cups Para's cheek. Then gives her ... an angry look(?) "Don't you EVER get disintegrated again. Or even anything that looks like it."

Para is oblivious to the cops' appearance, continuing the kiss without a care in the world for the moment. Once Porter pulls away to angrily scold her, there's that surprised look on Para's face again, caught off guard by Porter's words. "O-okay...?" she nods in agreement, but she's a little uncertain about it at first. And then it clicks, and she realizes why he's upset. "I'll try my best. I'm sorry, Partner," she murmurs softly.

The angry, scolding face melts away like a snowflake under the shining star of her being all in one piece. "Good." And his grin is back, quickly followed by him seeming to realize what's going on. "Well, looks like they've got this one. Coffee?" They're not really needed, now. Not by others, anyhow.

Para's happy to see Porter's grin return, giving him another quick, impulsive kiss. After she pulls back from it, she sniffs one more time, wipes at her tears, and nods while cracking a smile. With a soft laugh, she says, "Coffee sounds great." The cops don't seem to need the pair, and they are free to go.