Log:SGG - No. 8

2012/04/22 	 Jolt Kay Kubik Mindstar Total Babe 1

Total Babe stands ready at the Hypersite portal to be first through.

Mindstar catches up. "Okay, let me get this straight. Next Gen kidnapped Paul to get to to you, Force, for reasons related to your past with them?"

With arms folded across her chest Kay nods, "Yep." She answers Mindstar's question, "I'd been keeping a low profile but when SGG offered... I couldn't resist. Should have changed the code name. Should have come up with a costume to hide my identity... but I didn't think they'd go after someone connected to the government." She frowns, "They're expecting us to come so got two likely possibilities. A) That on the other side is a fully trained team with meta support standing by to take us down. B) It will take us to a holding cell or some place equally nasty." She looks at the others, "You don't have to come if you don't want to. I won't look down on anyone who doesn't want to go."

Mindstar smiles, "So teleporting into a trap with no real idea of what is awaiting us." She looks at Eve, "You first then. I'll see if I can conceal my presence, which might give us an edge if its needed. Shall we go?"

[To Kay] Total Babe says, "So what is the connection to your past?"

Mindstar activates her mind concealment ability, becoming invisible to most living minds.

Jolt shrugs a bit and ponders "A is the more likely option... Would you be eager to send a full team of trained metas into the same holding cell? Not likely" the electrical girl notes

[To Total Babe] Kay says, "They picked me up when I was on the streets and thirteen years old. Trained me, told me I was helping mutants like me or bringing in dangerous escaped mutants. I believed them, for to long."

Total Babe nods. "So not relevant immediately, ok. I'm ready."

Total Babe steps through as soon as the portal is ready.

"Well, as relevant as me working for them as a snatch and grab team leader for six years is relevant." Kay says simply but then activates her force field and follows Total Babe immediately.

Mindstar follows

Jolt follows after the the others. After all it's very likely they'll need her firepower to handle what's ahead.

On the other side of the portal, it's nighttime, perhaps ten to fourteen hours difference from Colonial Bay. Despite the time of day, it's still warm, and muggy. The portal opens out to a clearing in a tropical forest. The canopy obscures much of the sky, but the moon and stars are easy to spot in this setting that's far removed from any city.

Leading away from the forest clearing, there's a single foot path, worn through the growth.

Total Babe says, "One footpath - so, do we follow the yellow brick road or try to avoud walking *straight* into the trap?"

Total Babe tries to work out roughtly where we are.

Kay doesn't say anything, trying to listen for any strange sounds... well strange beyond the fact that it's a freakin' /jungle/ babay... then she looks between herself and Jolt, "Let's get a birds eye view." And she concentrates to activate her flight, a red glow forming around her when she manages it. Then she'll offer a hand to TB.

Mindstar whispers into Total Babe's ear, "Try the GPS function on your PDA?"

Total Babe says, "PDA right. Not used to teleporting to strange places."

Total Babe checks her PDA.

Something is blocking GPS signals.

Jolt nods some to Kay "Well just from the time difference we're on the other side of the world so who knows maybe China or New Zealand or something... pretty sure it's not Austrailia because it's pretty much a desert" she notes as she takes to the air on request

Total Babe says, "I think there's some jungle in the north there?"

Kay remains grounded so as to be a beacon for Jolt, should Jolt of course not get shot down when going airborne. Also with Mindstar being invisible, it'd be easy to 'lose' her. "There's some pretty nasty swampy jungle style in place of Australia." She murmurs to no particularl purpose, more waiting and watching to see what happens to Jolt for now.

Total Babe says, "THis isn't a jungle. It's a simulation. A hologram like the gym, or an artificial construct. Look - these leaves match exactly...."

As Jolt takes to the air, there's a rustling as a flock of bird wakes and rises from the canopy about 40 meters away. They were started by something, and Jolt can see movement over there. A surface-to-air missile launcher whirrs and orients itself towards Jolt.

"Jolt heads up! There's a ceiling! It's not the sky!" Kay calls up as loud as she can to the other woman, giving away location? Sure, but they probably know exactly where they are already. The missile launcher is bad, but so is taking a header into solid roof at max speed trying to avoid a missile! "Alright, they've got to have thermal reads on us, and more."

Jolt makes a grab for the missile coming at her but it doesnt go as planned and hits her hard, sending her flying through the air backwards to who knows where. Note to self: no more fancy stuff blast first and ask questions later.

Total Babe says, "Damn - well, we knew it was a trap, but....." She's not really capable of catching Jolt, not being able to fly, so she just stays alert for other dangers that may take advatange of the distraction.

Kay frowns as she hears and spots the missile, "Damn." Then boom and Kay winces a little. "MS, stay close to TB, don't get separated no matter what. I'll be right back with Jolt. Expect incoming, that was to flush us out." And the red aura around her fades as she focuses her TK in a different fashion. She crouches down and then launches herself into the air at Jolt, trying to grab her so that she doesn't fall to her doom! As a side note: Kay can jump really, really, far.

Kay snags Jolt out of the air, gritting her teeth as electrical current starts burning her and making her muscles spasm already but, what's she gonna do? Drop her?

Mindstar stays close to Total Babe but otherwise just maintains her mental concealment. Even if inanimate sensors are detecting her, any living mind within the range of her ability will see nothing on the sensor displays.

Total Babe notices a rustling in the underbrush just moments before a cloaked figure emerges. It's Kubik, and he tosses a cube towards Total Babe. It lands at her feet after a bounce. Gas begins to jet out of it.

Total Babe kicks the cube far away - not that she thinks the gas will hurt her, but Mindstar is here... somewhere....

Mindstar drops her mental concealment and reaches out with her mind for Kubik's optic nerve cluster, trying to squeeze the nerve with psionic fingers.

Kubik

A masked man in a dark cloak, with his hands in near constant motion. Kubik stands about five and a half tall. His build is hard to judge due to his clothing. He wears a dark blue cape that wraps around and closes fully in the front. The cloak is hooded, shading his masked face. The mask is a hard faceplate, with yellow lenses for eyes and no articulation for the nose and mouth. His hands are in near constant motion, as he twists and rotates an    old-fashioned puzzle cube in his hand. It's possible to catch glimpses of what this person has on beneath the cloak. It looks like light armor, and a belt full of gadgets.

Kubik turns towards Mindstar, seemingly uneffected.

Total Babe springs toward Kubik and lashes out with her 3-section staff, trying to entangle him in it before he can toss another cube. "So who are you - Captain '80s or something?"

Mindstar frowns, "He's an automation of some kind. Not sentient."

Kubik leans back. Just out of the reach of Babe's staff.

Total Babe says, "Hear that, Jolt? A machine. No need to hold back!"

Kay frowns as she lands her leap, setting Jolt down and shaking her hands out, "Damn woman you gotta learn how to turn that *BLEEP* off." She mutters to herself and then she snaps her head over in TB's direction, "A Machine?" She frowns, "Then it's a distraction! Be on your guard and look out for Spectre! He'll try and come up behind you!" She shouts back while thinking, .oO( A /Machine/?! If this is some sort of /test/ that Paul's rigged up I am going to kill him myself.) Otherwise, she waits to make sure Jolt is recovered enough to take care of herself before leaving her team mate.

Mindstar changes to a binding TK grip and attempts to envelop the automation.

Jolt stands up once she's back on solid ground "I cant... it just keeps getting stronger" the electric girl admits to the leader once she's ready for some more action. Of course Spectre probably wont target her first, last time he tried somethign on her he got one of those shocks.

Kay smirks, "A wise puppet once said: There is no can't. There is do, or do not." She pauses, trying to keep an eye out, "Something to work on. We got to get back to TB and MS. I'll carry you if I have to but I'm not letting any of us get picked off individually."

The Kubik's automatic moves quickly and is able to evade Mindstar's telekinetic attack.

Mindstar sighs as Kubik avoids her attempt.

A second Kubik robot emerges from the brush suddenly, rushes Kay, and attacks with a flurry of punches.

As the robot comes charging out of the bush Kay frowns, "Right. Why am I /not/ surprised." She gestures and a red wall of energy flings up in front of the robot stretching 5 meters up and ten meters long right through the 'jungle'. At least it should delay the robot!

The robot tries to smash through the barrier.

The original Kubik robot takes a few steps and launches itself into the air towards Mindstar, trying to snap an armored boot into her chin.

Mindstar tries to pull back from the kick reducing the effect but getting knocked back a way into the fake jungle.

Total Babe thinks. o O (Damn. Looks like she's not as tough as many metas - have to remember that!)

Kay watches her force wall shudder under the impacts but it holds and she nods towards Jolt, "I'll drop this when you're ready to nuke, assuming the robot doesn't break through before that..."

Total Babe sets aside her former plan and stands ready to defend Mindstar while she recovers from the blow.

The Kubik attacking Babe and Mindstar closes his cloak, with his hands disappearing inside. His hands flash forward, hurling two cubes towards Mindstar. The cubes fall apart into individual squares and threaten to shower little bomblets on the mentalist.

Mindstar calls outto Total Babe, "Get back!"

The other Kubik confronts Kay and Jolt. Under the cover of his cloak he twists a cube. He raises the configured block and points it at Kay. With a high-pitched whine, the block generates a sonic blast which he directs towards Kay.

Kubik raises his hand and fires a grappling line into the canopy. He zips up into the darkness of the treeline. One can barely make out the two cubes that he drops in his wake, falling down on Kay's side of the force wall.

Kay hears the snap hiss of the zipline but it's seeing Kubik come up that causes her to react. The force wall fades to nothingness without a sound, just simply no longer being there. "Can't let you robots get away, you're worse than cockroaches in New York..." She says with a smirk as she reaches a hand out and clasps her hand into a fist, clenching it together as a red aura flashes around her hand and out of her eyes. An accompanying red aura tries to grab hold of Kubik-Bot V2 and trap him before he can do anything nefarious! And also give a nice squeeze.

The Kubik robot is grabbed within Kay's telekinetic field.

Jolt focuses energy, charging up energy as she looks over at Kay "Alright time for something to get hurt" and with that she steps towards the robot Kubik and unloads all that stored up energy

Fffzzzt! Kubik-2 sparks as some of its circuits short out. It's still operational, but it took some damage. The entire illusion of the jungle flickers, revealing the plain steel walls of the underlying room. The jungle reappears, though, after the glitch passes.

Total Babe says, "I think I saw the exit - that way!"

Mindstar stands and looks at the Kubik automation, eyes glowing as she attempts to TK smash it.

Kubik-1 is takes a full-force blast from Mindstar. He's flung backwards and is slammed against a holographic tree.

Kubik's robotic nature is revealed as some bits fall off and crumples to the ground.

Mindstar glares, "I'm a mentalist, damn it, Jim. Not a mechanic."

Kubik-2 tries to escape from the grip of Kay's telekinesis

Kay gestures and drags the Kubik-V2 down towards her. Right up close and personal actually, "Listen up Kubik!" She calls out loudly, knowing he can more than hear her but wanting the rest of her team to hear and know where she is, "Give us Paul Van Sterran back or I rip this whole base apart with my TK! You haven't seen but a /fraction/ of my new tricks and you know I can do it!" That said, she winds up and smashes her fist towards V2's body.

Wether it was the punch, or the impact with the tree, but all of that in combination with Jolt's EMP is enough to smash the robot up but good and take it into 'inoperable' status.

Total Babe says, "This way to the door!" and goes that way before she loses track of where it is.

Mindstar follows Total Babe, "Lets wait for the others before going through, don't you think?"

Kay brushes her knuckles off even though they don't need it, being first gloved, and second protected by her tk field. "Alright lets catch up to them, don't break the tree line with your flight Jolt, that missile launcher is still there." And she takes off via flight to try and catch up with the rest of the team.

Total Babe nods. "Of course."

Total Babe says, "Locked. No surprise."

Jolt watches Kay finish off the robot heads towards TB "Should we end this simulation? I can unleash quite a few more of those EMPs" she offers

Total Babe says, "You might break the portal, which may be our only way back. Can you do anythign about the door?"

Kay shakes her head, "Wouldn't help us at this point. Lets try and deal with this door. Anyone have any ideas? I've always got the fallback of rip it apart with a TK drill."

Mindstar says, "I can peek on the other side, see what's there."

Jolt shrugs a bit and stays a few steps away "Gimme a minute I'll try it but let me fry out these illusions first" with that she unleashes at least one EMP because she's sick of the illusionary jungle.

Jolt's EMP surge fries the danger room circuitry. The illusory jungle disappears leaving just the bare walls and the non-defunct missile launcher.

Kay nods towards Mindstar, "Go ahead and take a look."

Mindstar tries, then shakes her head. "I'm not seeing anything. Sorry."

"Well let's do it to it then." Kay smiles mirthlessly, "At least there's no more mosquito's." She says more genuinely good natured to Jolt before she looks back to the door. She cups her hands together and focuses her TK, the red energy forming up and starting to swirl and spin, picking up speed before she spreads her hands apart and widens the 'drill' making it larger before plunging it into the 'door' trying to rip right through it!

Kay's telekinetic powers bore through the door. One the other side is a hallway that ends at the now-ruined door to the holo-sim room you've just exited. White and gray steel walls with space-age construction. It's lit by fluorescents in the ceiling. This hall would fit in easily in an underground lair or in a space station.

Along the hallway, there are glass windows and doors that lead into what appear to be classroom spaces or labs.

Mindstar says, "Look like anywhere you know, Force?"

"Yeah." Kay answers Mindstar, "Looks like a pretty standard training facility. I spent a lot of years in a place just like this." She frowns, "Keep an eye out, it's wierd that they'd want us to come to a place like this. Why wasn't there an overwhelming attack on arrival for example." She looks for any signs of booby traps as she tries to make a guess at where holding cells might be if it's a 'standard' layout. "They might have taken Paul anywhere..."

Total Babe keeps a careful eye, and ear, out for trouble. "Maybe they're gauging our abilities?>

Jolt shrugs a bit and points out "Maybe they thought the simulation would keep us busy or wear us down to make it easy to deal with us or maybe we just stepped into another simulator?"

"That would be easier to do if we were isolated." Kay says simply and to the point, "Pain is a great motivator and educational tool." She says flatly before heading down the hallway towards where she thinks are logical choices for holding Paul, "Can try another EMP if you like, I won't stop you."

Jolt nods some and doesnt hesitate to unload another EMP in the hallway. Worst case scenario collateral damage which she doesnt really care about at the moment.

Total Babe says, "Well, we'r here for some reason. Which likely means someone else is here too."

Kay nods, "I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't the facility I used to be part of. The stripped and closed down look would make sense since I doubt they'd keep it open after I left with it's location. Strange that the training room was operational." She frowns into one window, "This guy used to drill little kids on rubik's cubes... Think his name was Belyakova or something like that."

Kubik's electronically modified voice comes in over loudspeakers. "It's disappointing. I had hoping the simulation room would have fooled you a bit longer. Next time, I won't give my opponent the chase to study the illusion. Total Babe is smarter than she looks..."

Total Babe thinks. o O (Huh, someone noticed.)

"What's the deal Kubik?" Kay asks, "You had plenty of time to hit me before I joined SGG, it wasn't exactly hard to find me. Why kidnap Paul?" She doesn't stop moving however, still heading through the base towards the holding cells. "And really, two of your androids? I could beat that in my sleep."

"Finding you is simple enough," Kubik says. "Colonial Bay is an environment that's hard to predict. This place, easier to control."

Total Babe says, "And control's your thing, huh? I'm guessing."

Kay stops in her tracks, "He wants life to be as easy as his little cubes, that's got to be the point right?" She looks over towards the others, "Suggestions? Opinions? Advice?" She asks the rest of the team. Before doing anything drastic. For once.

"As for the robots," Kubik says. "I'm sorry they weren't an adequate challenge. I'll do better next time. For now, I'll leave you with a familiar voice."

Total Babe says, "All I have is 'find him and smash his stupid face in.'"

Paul's voice comes onto the loudspeaker. "Guy... I'm in some kind of control room, and Kubik has just left."

Jolt shrugs some "I was gonna say the control room would be where you can broadcast over those speakers"

Total Babe says, "Yeah. Didn't figure him for the sort who would stick around."

Kay practically has to check herself from facepalming, "There are multiple places it can be done from, head of security, head administrators office, any of the security stations in a pinch... I expected Paul to be in the holding cells. Was about to tear us a path right to there." She then turns and starts to head towards the head security control station thinking that is the most likely place.

There's a rumbling as the walls of the base shake. It sounds and feels like a rocket taking off.

Total Babe says, "He's not about to blow the base up or something, is he?"

"Maybe." Kay says and she picks up the pace!

Paul asks, "What was that? It felt like something big taking off."

Kay looks for anything resembling a 'you are here' or maybe even an 'emergency exits' type of thing. "Rockets aren't standard issue. If it is a rocket at all. To many variables. I like to think we're not on the moon..."

A computerized voice says: "Auto destruct sequence initiated. T minus 60 seconds and counting..."

Total Babe says, "I called it."

Kay smiles grimly, "Now's not the time to be right. C'mon we've got to move people. Should be an elevator around here. Control center should be up a level." Then of course there is the fly right up option... what will she choose, what will she do?

The heroes manage to escape the base before it blows up.