Log:Ghost Arrival

Ghost's Story 2013/03/18 	 Ghost Anthony Quinn|Quinn Scrapper Ten Xing-Liu 1

Q and Ten are contacted by a police hero-liaison officer. The officer asks if the two of them could escort a prisoner transfer detail when they move a villain from the city jail to Stronghold.

Ten says she will, though it's not exactly the sort of high-profile thing she's waiting for to publicise her name (and costume) change.

Considering all the waivers he constantly needs signed off in order to maintain the active end of an extradimensional wormhole that siphons energy from another reality in the basement of Quinn Tower, Tony is only too happy to be accommodating to the police. Besides, it will give him the opportunity to see how the new equipment he's given to Ten will work. "So who is the prisoner, anyway? What kind of ability do they have?"

City Jail
At the city jail the warden explains the situation. "Massivo, the villain, is so heavy the usual air-transport arrangements aren't feasible. Even if a plane could get off the ground Massivo would most likely fall right through the floor."

Ten says, "He really should go on a diet....."

The warden assures Quinn and Ten that the only powers Massivo has are superstrength and toughness. And he'll be wearing a special neutralizer that weakens him to harmlessness.

Ten says, "So we just have to make sure he doesn't sit on us?"

"So just what does Lard Lord weight in at, anyway?" asks Q

The warden laughs and nods, "Yes. I'm sure you won't be needed. But protocol demands a hero presence when moving meta prisoners by any means other than the usual.

The warden checks, "6,000 metric tons.

Ten says, "Ok. No letting him tread on our toes either."

Quinn gives a low whistle. "So just exactly how are you moving him?" he asks.

The warden says, "We'll have to walk him to TransMat. We don't have any vehicle able to move that kind of load. There'll be a UEMS, that's United Earth Marshal Service, team waiting on the other end of the TransMat. Your job will be complete once Massivo is delivered to them."

Quinn nods. "And what happens if he just decides to sit down and not move?" he asks. "You said you neutralized his strength, but it sounds like he can only move under his own power."

The warden smiles, "If he does that, just remind him he won't be fed until he gets to Stronghold. That will do the trick."

Ten grins, "Sounds to me like he's eaten enough."

Quinn says, "I assume you've got a route laid out, since we can't march him over any sewer tunnels or anything like that?"

The warden smiles at Ten, "He's not that bad. Physically he looks almost normal. Not a pile of blubber."

Ten nods. "I'm just joking."

The warden nods, "Yes. Here is the route." and hands over a marked map. "I can give you that in electronic form as well if you wish."

Quinn nods and looks over to Ten. "Well, I can't think of any other questions to ask," he says. "What could possibly go wrong?"

The warden tells you, "The roads will be closed, so you'll have a clear path to TransMat."

Ten says, "You'ce jinxed it now. I'm figuring alien invasion, if not Armaggedon."

The warden takes you out to the prison courtyard. Massivo is already there with a police presence. He's a well built guy but you wouldn't look twice at him in the street except for the way his feet are about six inches deep in the courtyard concrete. Massivo is shackled, ankles and wrists secured to a waistband. A harness on his torso holds an electronic device against him.

Anthony nods to Massivo. "Hi, my name is Tony," he says. "I'll be your prisoner escort for the day."

Ten says, "And I'm Ten."

Massivo looks a Ten and grins, "Hey, I like this one." he says, ignoring Anthony. "Come on, let's get moving. I'm hungry."

Ten says, "Fine, come on then."

Ten starts off down the route, keeping eyes peeled. . o O (Hope I can use this thing if it comes to it. Still haven't had much time to practice....)

Massivo walks ahead, the chains rattling with every step. He sets a good pace, following the route as people direct him. Behind you is a row of footprints impressed into the sidewalk and road. Something for city maintaince to deal with.

Ten smiles. "One thing abbout the number of metas in this city - people who do repairs will never be out of work. Well, unless you invent something to replace them, Q."

Quinn heads off along with Massivo and Ten, nattering away like a tour guide as he describes the style and histories of the locations that they pass through. The fact that he doesn't know much about the history of Colonial Bay doesn't deter him as he talks about things such as Minuteman, Colonial Bay's first hero valiantly fought against the British, using his power to assemble anything in less than a minute until his powers were drained by the villainous Uncle Ben.

Out of curiosity more than anything, Xing-Liu follows the parade of persons and massive Massivo toward the TransMat. For the time being, she remains unseen by most eyes, unheard, an ignored presence without those around her realizing it.

The walk to TransMat is witout incident. Boring even, apart from Anthony's virtual monologue. TransMat security are on hand to guide you to a TransMat terminal on the edge of the passenger zone. Barriers have been set up to keep all others away from that area.

TransMat Terminal
Ten thinks. o O (Probably safe now. If someone was going to break him out, they'd do it where there was less security? Though I guess they could come in guns blazing through a portal and catch people by surprise....)

The mysterious and unseen Xing-Liu is unseen.

The TransMat security person is just getting to the portal when... it activates, the shimmering interface surface glowing with a swirling rainbow of multi-colored light instead of it's usual dead black. Hissing electric arcs start shooting off in all directions, grounding themselves to everything close by.

Ten doesn't hesitate. She gets between the lighrning-emitting portal and everyone else, transforming her staff into, well, a staff at the same time in anticipation of hostiles coming through.

Scrapper runs in with a hurried, "Sorry I'm late," on her lips. "I really need to get some kind of communication device for these things." The little goth girl doesn't look super at all, for those that don't know her. She pauses when she sees the lightshow, then grins.

A flare of light and a thunderous boom of displaced air comes from the portal as it explodes, not that violently but instead rather in the manner of a huge overload. And stumbling out of it is a small figure in some kind of military uniform. She, for it seems to be a teenage girl, appears stunned and disorientated.

Xing-Liu gets ready to act, getting the impression from the reactions around that there is something amiss about the situation.

Quinn looks over to Scrapper. "No problem," he says. "I can repeat Colonial Bay: A Walking Tour when we are done here. In the meantime, can you stick a wall over that or something?" He nods his head in the direction of the portal.

There's a laugh. A deep booming laugh. Massivo is standing nearby. And the device that is strapped to his torso is a smoking wreck after being hit by one of the long electric sparks.

It doesn't look like the half-expected attack, but Ten decides not to take chances. She whips her extending cluster-staff about the dazed figure - only to realise too late that Massive is free.

Massivo lifts his hands, casually, and the thick chains snap like cotton threads.

Quinn looks over to Massivo and sighs. "You're going to make this difficult, aren't you?" he asks. "Just remember, if you try to run now you'll have to sit through my tour again."

Ten misses with her swing, and the cluster-staff collapses back into a single unit again. . o O (Damn. Need practice.)

Xing-Liu remains hidden at the moment, moving to get the best vantage based view of the situation. Massivo is definitely a threat, but the ones escorting him appear to be at least somewhat seasoned in the game of heroics.

Ten expands her staff whiplike again, this time trying to snag Massivo's ankles. . o O Let's test the bigger-they-are-the-harder-they - oh. But he's heavy, not big....)

Ten's staff grabs the ankles, but she can't budge him - and it releases and snaps back to stafff shape.

The girl who came through the overloaded portal, Ghost, slaps a hand down to her belt and an instant later a silvery force surrounds her. She lifts her other hand, pointing a finger towards Ten. But shakes her head, and instead of using what is probably a weapon she darts around to take cover mostly behind the smoking remains of the portal, "Snackst du Platt?" she calls out.

Scrapper hesitates for the briefest fraction of a second before nodding to Q and quipping back, "Hit him once for me, okay?" then she reaches out with her hands at the nearest section of interior wall. Six extra limbs made of glowing purple energy (with swirls of red and black) extend from her ribs and grab a section of wall over ten feet wide, and then heave, pulling it loose

Scrapper rips loose a section of wall and heaves it toward the portal, her force arms extending to keep it from rotating after it leaves her real arms.

Quinn elects to go ahead and unload on Massivo with a neural blast, seeing as probably nothing else is going to be too terribly effective against him.

Massivo roars as his head takes the neural blast.

Massivo lumbers towards Q. Every step he takes makes the floor shake, as he seems to be getting heavier, forcing Q and Ten to struggle to maintain their footing. Then he slams down a mighty fist at Q.

Massivo's fist misses Q and craters the floor of the TransMat building where it strikes.

Xing-Liu leaps from her vantage point to a spot beside Q, in Massivo's line of vision. She decides to test out Massivo's resistance to her ability to manipulate and disrupt chi.

Ten suspects she'll have to use everythng she has against the likes of Massivo - so she tries something new. She extends her staff to grab the huge ring of diamond that is the inactive portal even as she runs to place herself on the far side of Massive from it, then swerves, swinging on the staff to aid the turn, back straight at him. And at the last instant she causes the staff to contract rapidly, hurling her at him at great speed.

Massivo rubs his chest and looks in disbelief at Ten, "You pack a kick for such a little thing." he rumbles.

Ten grins. "Do my best."

Ghost switches language and calls out again. This time she's speaking a dialect of Fae. A very old form. Like Shakespearian English to modern English, "Where are you people from. What's going on here?"

Scrapper zigs to the side instead of running directly at Massivo, snagging a desk as she runs past it and sending it skidding toward her improvised wall to hold it in place. Her erratic path takes her behind the brute, where she manifests a baseball bat and winds up for a two-handed golf swing.

Quinn looks at the huge hole in the floor that Massivo just created slamming his fist into it. "Now what did that ever do to you?" he asks. "Bad enough you have to leave footprints all over it, but now you have to add insult to injury?" His boot jets roar as he takes to the air, though he doesn't go far. Just far enough to be off of the shaking ground and to force Massivo to either leap or throw something at him if he wants to attack him, before he cuts loose with a second neural blast.

Massivo roars again. He fixes his eyes on Q. "You're irritating me." he warns.

Q chuckles to Massivo. "I'm doing more than that," he says. "How many more of those shots can you take, Champ? Two? Three? And there's no way you can outrun me, either. Better give up now unless you really want to have to go through another walking tour of the city."

Massivo reaches out as he steps forwards to be under Q and grabs a seating bench. The bolts holding it down are as nothing to his strength, and he lifts it up and hurls it like a large spear at Q.

Xing-Liu moves with Massivo's body, keeping in time with every motion he makes, positioning herself to be a nuisance to him. When he picks up and throws the object, the small girl whose features are entirely hidden steps to divert the momentum, deflecting the assault into harmlessness.

The bench is sent to Q, courtesy of Massivo delivery system, but Xing-Liu steps in as the customs agent steps in to inspect and divert packages that are simply not meant to arrive in the correct location. The bench lands amidst others of its kind, doing no harm.

The silent girl then turns her attention back on Massivo, ready for his next attempt at doing something effective.

Ghost stays in cover. She has no idea who's in the right and who's in the wrong. So she'll wait and see.

Xing-Liu moves into Massivo's line of sight again, being a direct and visible nuisance to the enormous man. She even tries getting more of his attention with more of the chi disruption.

Ten wonders what would happen if she had the staff blow itself apart violently but briefly, full repulsor. Grabbing it by the middle, to get full benefit equal and opposite reaction, she lines up to thrust it firmly into Massivo's face simultaneously with it exploding....

"First the floor and now benches," Quinn says, trying to keep Massivo's attention fixed on him rather than everyone else. "You are just hell on furniture, you know that? I mean I had a cat that used to claw things up something fierce, but she had nothing on you." Just to try and make sure Massivo stays focused on him he unloads with yet another neural blast.

Massivo looks up at Q as the neural blast hits home. "This," he says, "is embarrassing." And with that he topples over, slamming into the floor with massive force.

Ten says, "Darn. How am I going to give the new staff a proper test now?"

The silent girl retreats into unseenitude again, returning to the shadows from whence she sprung.

Ten grins, coiling the staff about herself again then, "Seriously though, Q, great new toy!"

o/~WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ARE THE CHAMPIONS, MY FRIENDS

o/~AND WE'LL KEEP ON FIGHTING

o/~'TIL THE END

Suddenly Quinn switches his armor over from Neural Blast to Loudspeaker, Freddy Mercury blaring at an earsplitting volume as Quinn lands, arms raised in triumph.

Ten winces. "Must you? My hearing is extra sensitive...."

Ghost yells, not that it's heard over the music, and clamps her hands over her ears.

The music abruptly cuts out. Mercifully Q wasn't blasting at full volume since that might actually cause ear damage to people, but it was still loud enough. "So that was fun," he says, "but what do we do now? Order up a new neutralizer and wait for Lard Lord to wake back up?"

Ten says, "Pretty much, I guess. And find out what happened to the portal and find a translator so we can find out what this girl's story is."

The police presence comes back, "We'll call the prison." one of then says.

Ten looks at the downed villain. "So close to the portal too. If it hadn't fried we might have been able to lever him through it. With a very long and strong lever."

Ghost steps out now the fighting seems to have stopped. She still has the silvery force glow around her. "Wonaam kummst du vun af?" she says returning to her first language.

Quinn pops the faceplate of his helmet, the sealed system giving a brief hiss of compressed gases before the plate slides up and back. "Sorry," he says to Ghost, giving her what he hopes is a reassuring smile. "No Sprecken, but hopefully we can get a translator here."

Ten says, "Anyone recognise the language?"

Ghost glances back at the smoking ruined portal and frowns. What she says at that moment sounds rather like an expletive.

"Relax," Quinn says to the frowning Ghost, "We can fix it. Heck. There's plenty of others around. We'll just need to figure out where you came from."

Ghost looks back, sees Q's faceplate is raised and touches her belt. The silvery glow pops out of existence.

Ten says, "We should tell the Transmat people. Heck, they may even know where she came from."

Jon Masters is coming over. "Again?" he says cyptically. "They have to stop doing this."

Quinn nods to Ten. "Ten bucks says they won't really know," he says, "though they might be about to figure something out. She doesn't seem to recognize a transmat system, so she's probably not a local.

Ten asks Masters, "Again?"

Quinn raises a gauntleted hand to Jon. "Is this a new problem or something that's been occurring off and on for a while?" he asks.

Jon Masters sighs, "Do you know how much one of these costs?" He looks to Q and Ten, "No, she isn't local. She's from an alternate dimension at a guess, one where they have a poorly designed transport system. This is the second time she, or another version of her, has arrived in this fashion."

Scrapper says to Ghost in Fae, "Could you repeat that?"

Ten says, "If it's the same person doesn't that suggest that it's to do with her and not the particular dimension's transmat system? If you see what I mean."

Ghost looks incredibly relieved, "Thank the Spirits. You speak Sercian. Where am I? Where is this place? What world?"

Scrapper pauses and whips around, "What do you mean, another 'version'? Some people have copies?"

Jon nods, "There are many dimensions. And in those dimensions many versions of each person."

Scrapper translates for everybody else, "She wants to know where she is."

Scrapper says, "anybody have an answer that will make sense?"

Ten says, "Depends where she's from, I guess."

Scrapper says in Fae, "The latest guess is an alternate world. Do you know of such, and how do you navigate them where you come from? They are trying to create a understandable frame of reference for you."

Ten says, "Wait, you say there's another her? Maybe she could explain it to her - any idea where she is?"

Well, everyone has copies in alternate dimensions," Quinn says to Scrapper. "It's a function of quantum indeterminacy. See, at any particular instant a particle might be in one of two stages. Because of the principles of quantum physics the particle is behaves as though it is in both states simultaneously until it is measured. At that point its probability wave form is collapsed and he keeps on talking and talking and at some point you realize that you've actually stopped listening to the words he's saying but his mouth is still moving and he's doing things with his hands as he tries to explain a concept that Einstein had difficulty with and oh my god will he ever shut up?

Ten says, "If that made any sense."

"So does that make sense?" Quinn asks.

Ghost says in Fae, "I've heard of such. But other than one experiemental machine that was destroyed my home nebula knows nothing of travelling to them."

Scrapper asks Quinn, "Yes, the theory is fine. How about a navigation system? Is there an alternate dimension version of 'three blocks north and one east'?

Ghost continues to Scrapper, "I was travelling back to the Royal World of Sercia for an audience with the King. There must have been a transporter mis-jump. Can you send me back?"

Quinn says to Scrapper, "I might be able to figure something out but it will probably take a little time and I'll need to look through Transmat's logs of the event."

Scrapper says in Fae, "There is a permanent portal not far from here to a kingdom called Undermoon, where 'Sercian' is spoken as a native tongue. This world is called 'Earth'. The gentleman in the armor says he needs to figure out where you are from before you can be sent back and that will take time. I'm pretty sure you will miss your audience."

Ten leans up against the wall. SHe's feeling pretty surplus to requirements by this point.

Ghost nods, "I figured that out. I can't recall anyone ever coming back after a transporter mis-jump. And this world is not in Journey's End Nebula. It's a dead world."

Quinn lets Scrapper talk with Ghost and turns his attention back to Ten for a moment. "So yeah, it looks like the staff did pretty well," he says. "Felt good? No problems?"

Ten says, "Very good, yeah, better than I expected! I'm still getting used to it, of course...."

Scrapper says to Ten, "Nice work with the staff, by the way."

Ten nods to Scrapper. "Thanks."

Quinn nods to Ten. "You should get it back into me at the lab," he says, "so I can check it out for microfractures and the like. I don't really expect to find anything but always good to keep an eye on your prototypes."

Ten nods. "Ok. Probably a good idea!"

Scrapper checks on the big guy to make sure he is still good and unconscious.

Ghost points at the unconscious Massivo, "What was that about?"

Scrapper says in Fae, "The mana levels are lower here and some of your items may not work. You may want to test those out when you have some free time and are somewhere where you won't damage the property. I know a 'gym' that is ideal. He's a criminal who took advantage of your arrival to try and escape."

Ghost nods, "So... you are all, what; Planetary Security? Military? Mercenaries?"

Scrapper asks Ten in English, "How would you describe yourself? ... and do you speak Fae?"

Scrapper says in Fae, "I'm a volunteer. It gives me an opportunity sometimes to beat on people bigger than me without getting in trouble for it."

Ghost laughs, "I knew someone like that on Derwood. Are you good at it?"

Scrapper points to the section of wall propped against the ruined portal. "Fair," she says in English, then repeats herself in Fae.

Ten says, "I don't speak fae, no. I didn't know any humans did!"

Scrapper shrugs as if it is no big deal.

Ghost nods to Scrapper, "Boosted." she says. It's a statement, not a question. "Look, if he," she points at Q, "can get me back to where I came from that would be good. But I've never heard of any one who mis-jumped returning. So if I'm going to be stuck here I need to know the ground rules."

Ten watches the villain in case he wakes.

Scrapper hmms, then says in Fae, "I need some reference points. Do the terms 'self defense', 'common law', 'minimum force' or 'innocent until proven guilty' mean anything to you?"

Scrapper expects that at least two of those four will be different concepts.

Ghost says, "Yes to self defense. Common law? That's not something I've heard of. And minimum force? If you have to use force why hold back? Innocent until proven guilty holds in the courts. The corps have their own laws though. As do the great families."

Scrapper says to Ten, "She speaks Fae, or at least a variant, and wants a basic 'ground rules' for getting by here. I'm thinking she will have to be introduced to Undermoon sooner rather than later, so she will have *two* sets of very different rules to follow. Plus she is carrying more weapons than that sword. Any suggestions on how to advise her?"

Ten says, "Hm... I'm not exactly an expert on these matters. If she speaks fae then yeah, the Umdermmon embassy seems a good place for her to contact. Otherwise - well Starguard deal with aliens. Contacting them might be good. And not just a Gamma part-timer like myself."