Log:The Ghost of Dr. Furmano, Scene 1

The Ghost of Dr. Furmano 2009/10/22 	 Dr. Lawrence Furmano Michelle Jade Jennifer Jessica Sable Titan Xing-Liu 1

Jade phones Jennifer though. "... And-I'm-still-working-on-the-other-thing you-aren't-going-to-look-into-this-alone-are-you I think-it-would-be-better-if-you-had-others-with-you..."

Jennifer and Jessica break a few innocuous objects on getting the news. Jade can probably hear the damage being done. "I'm going. If anyone else wants to it's up to them. This is personal." Jennifer's voice is strained and over-loud.

Jade responds, "Well-I'll-come," being worried about Jennifer. "I'll-see-who-else-wants-to-come." And she follows up the email by phone calls to various people (those she can't reach on the Safeguard channel, anyway).

Xing-Liu shows up at the place mentioned for meeting, hearing that assistance is desired.

Titan shows up as well, actually in his costume this time.

Jade lacks a costume, not counting her Riftgate uniform, which she's not of course wearing.

Jennifer and Jessica aren't waiting. But after their confrontation with Jon Masters progress through TransMat is not as speedy as usual and there'll be ample opportunity for the other heroes to catch up with her.

Jade says to the others, "I'm worried the twins might do something stupid - we'll have to catch up with her!"

Titan nods. "Alright...well, let's get going, then. No time to waste."

Jade nods and is heading for the Transmat building before Titan finishes speaking.

Xing-Liu looks somewhat puzzled, but not sufficiently so to interfere with her intention to assist. She moves only as fast as Titan.

Titan moves along as quickly as he can through the hallways.

Jennifer and Jessica are pacing in the TransMat portal area, waiting for their destination to be called. Their faces are masks of anger and frustration.

Jade catches up with the twins there. "Calm-down-Jenn you-should-know-better-than-to-go-into-something-like-this-in-a-temper."

Jessica says, "I AM NOT IN A TEMPER!" at a volume that draws glances from throughout the departure hall.

Titan raises a brow as he finally arrives, being a bit slower.

Xing-Liu is already having a look around the place, not being one she frequents.

Jade glances at Jessica, and raises an eyebrow. And decides not to share the other little bit of information she's learned. She doesn't fancy the twins doing a solo invasion of South America.

Jennifer looks at the departure board, "What's the delay? Jade, go tell them to hurry up will you."

Jade says, "Jenn-if-you're-being-less-patient-than-me-that-should-tell-you-something there's-no-reason-to-suppose-a-few-minutes-will-make-any-differnce-here."

"Now departing," a female voice announces pleasantly. "Transmat service for San Francisco at Gateway C."

Jade, it must be said, seems as relieved to hear that, though, and heads for the gate immediately.

Jennifer and Jessica break immediately into a jogging run for the designated gate.

Titan moves toward the gate as well, watching the twins as he jogs over that way.

Jade makes sure she keeps up with the twins.

Xing-Liu keeps pace, as one might expect of her. She is no clearer than before on what is going on, but it's easy to follow direction such as this.

The West Coast offices for Leading Edge Experiments seem like many other San Francisco tech companies. It's a two story glass and steel structure located an a winding road on a hill overlooking the city. The parking lot is empty, and no signs point to anyone being around now, or ever. The layout is similar to the office building in Colonial Bay, almost a carbon copy.

Jade surveys the scene on arrival. "A-rather-pricey-abandoned-building I-wonder-what-their-game-is...." She looks for signs of security devices.

Jennifer and Jessica has been impatient on the way from the San Francisco TransMat terminal to the establishment in the hills. With no further delay, nor any caution, the twins activate force armor and start jogging straight for the front entrance.

Titan follows the others up to the building. "Huh. I half expected to see someone actually working here."

Xing-Liu keeps quiet, treading lightly but moving at a swift pace.

Jade says, "Jennifer! Hang-on-a-bit!" She activates her own force field and follows the twins inn."

There's no one inside, at least not within sight through the glass walls at the front of the building.

Jade says, "Has-it-occurred-to-you-it-might-be-a-trap?"

Jennifer glances back over her shoulder, "No." She tells Jade. "If it is I'll smash through it."

Jade keeps an eye out for oddities in the environment, while trying to keep up with the twins.

Jennifer slams into the front door leading with her shoulder and not slowing down one fraction of a pace.

The door shatters easily under Jennifer's force and it falls into shards, crunching underfoot. An alarm bell begins to ring.

Jessica looks for an entrance to a danage room or onther sub-ground facility, assuming it's set up in the same manner as the Colonial Bay building.

Jade follows Jennifer in, while truing to avoid treading on the glass.

Inside, the build seems to be unoccupied. The lights are off, and there is a light accumulation of dust on the sparse funishing.

Titan bites his lip, hesitating a moment as the alarm goes off. He mutters something to himself, and then follows the others inside.

Jennifer continues into the building. The receptionist's desk, unoccuplied as it is, gets casually thrown across the entrance lobby as she passes it.

Still being stealthy, Xing-Liu occasionally investigates something, but returns to the group as a whole.

Jade is forced to slow by the lack of light.

Titan just keeps up with the others, mainly due to following the operating force fields.

Jennifer and Jessica have energy whips out now. Twin lashes strike out at the access hatch. The lock is ignored.

Jade follows in the twins' wake - not much option now.

The hatch is super strong, like a vault door. Jennifer and Jessica's attacks are having an effect, but even then it will take some time to break the door down.

Xing-Liu lets Titan handle the assisting portion of the trip.

Titan steps up to the lock. "Let me try..." He winds up for a haymaker, intending to plow his fight through the lock.

Jennifer and Jessica step aside for Titan, scanning the area in the first sign of sensible caution shown.

Jade takes advantage of the respite from chasing the twins to examine the room, to see what she can learn from it.

The room itself doesn't have much to it out of the ordinary beyond the secret hatch. There's heating and air conditioning equipment here, but it's off. There's space for storage here, but that is unused for now.

Even with Titan helping, the door takes a handful of seconds to bust down. What appears beyond the door is probably the first major difference between this building and the one in Colonial Bay...

Description has been changed. Type look to see the new description.

The interior of the underground facility here is industrial and eerily quiet. At a glance, the halls look like passageways taken from a submarine. Pipes and cables line the walls and ceiling. The floor is a steel mech that lets you see the crawlspace beneath, with more pipe and cables. It clanks and shifts slightly underfoot. The layout is like a wagon wheel the corridor bends, forming a circular hallway, consisting of straight segments separated by door-less hatchways and joined at an angle. There are doors on both sides of the hall, with the larger doors seeming to leading to the spokes of the wheel.

Jennifer says, "What the devil is this place?"

Jade says, "Hard-to-say."

Jade immediately sets to examining things on this side of the door, including what's under the floor mesh, trying to make sense of the layout.

Titan raises a brow. "Reminds me of something like a space station. Doesn't Tranquility have a similar layout? In a ring?"

Jessica says, "Never been there."

In frustration Jessica lashes out at a bunch of cabling trying to rip it loose.

Jade says, "It's=a=particle-acceleraor-of-seems-to-be the-particles-go-in-the-pipes-undderneath-us."

Jade says, "The-control-room-is-probaby-in-the-middle."

Titan nods. "Well, let's head there, then." He heads to the first hatchway leading inward, and walks in that direction.

The cabling tears with out much hassle. It seems as the wires are mostly dormant.

Titan continues striding toward where he believes the control room is.

Jade says, "Hm-I-wonder-if-he's-out-of-Phase-or-of-something-odder-is-going-on."

Jennifer and Jessica break into a run towards a door leading towards the center of the facility. jessica is pulling a silvery metal mesh out of her inner jacket pocket.

Jade runs after the twins, realising they must have seen him too.

Jennifer calls out, "Phasing won't help you, Dr Furmano. I'm going to put you out of my misery right now."

Having little understanding of what exactly is going on, Xing-Liu accompanies Titan.

Titan and Xing-Liu's path the the central control room is like this. There's an automatic door that separates the outer ring from the spoke hallway. It opens with the press of a button. There's a hallway, about 20" in length that terminates at another door.

Titan presses the door to open the door to the spoke, and then starts to jog toward the other end.

Sable follows behind Titan, her head swivelling as she surveys the corridors for security devices and sensors, though she quickly matches pace with the larger figure.

The door opens up for Titan, providing access to the central control room for the facility. There are several banks of computers and view screens here, but the central attraction of the room is a solid disc of foot thick metal standing on it's side. It's connected to various pipes and cables in a way that makes it seem unfinished or temporary. It's a little reminiscent of the gateway at Transmat Research, though it has a jury-rigged look to it.

Titan raises a brow, and looks around...being careful to not step on the disc.

Jennifer and Jade chase after a ghostly figure. The door opens revealing a hallway just like the one that Titan and company just passed through. This one however is dark, but only for a moment. One pair of red eyes flicker on, followed by another and another. Soon, six androids step out of the shadows towards Jade and Jennifer. "Life form detected. Commence security protocol. Instead of hands, they have blaster ports.

At the other end of the corridor, is the ghostly figure. He pauses, looking back at Jennifer and Jade, who are on the other side of the robots from him.

Jade says, "Darn."

Jennifer and Jessica charge down towards the ghostly Dr Furmano, barging security androids out of her path with casual strength if she can.

The heroes in the control room can hear a computerized voice announce: "Life form detected. Commence security protocol."

Dr. Furmano says, "At last! I didn't think anyone would ever come!"

There are 11 players connected.

The sounds of something happening cause Xing-Liu to rush off in that direction to see what she can do to help.

Xing-Liu keeps moving, placing herself among the droids and providing a target they can play with while the Wolf Twins go to work on things.

Jade thinks, "So it is a trap. Big surprise. She closes with the robots, but ready to dodge. Her idea was to let the twins actually take out the robots, but if she can manoevre so the robots end up shooting each other when she dodges, so much the better.

Sable looks around and moves after Jade but stops when she sees the array of combatants in the corridor. With a soft shake of her head she focuses her attention on the ghostly figure. "So you win the prize..." She nods to the android. "De-activate the androids."

Dr. Furmano is a wiry middle-aged in a lab coat with whitening hair and wild eyes. He's transparent, and doesn't seem to be touching the floor here. He turns as spots Sable the the other heroes inside the control room. "Yes!" he says, "It's a rescue!"

Jennifer is stopped by an android jumping into herpath. Jessica, following behind, moves trying to get a clear shot at Dr Furmani and when she has the best view she can get, throws the silvery metal mesh at him.

Jessica uses an android as a stepping stool to get the hirght to toss the mesh with a clear shot.

The mesh strikes Furmano and binds him up. As he struggle to get free he shouts, "Idiots! You're supposed to save me from the robots! Get me back into the control room before the rest of them get here!"

There are 11 players connected.

Sable steps forward to hook a gloved hand through the mesh that constrains the ghostly figure to haul him back to where Titan waits

Sable looks over her shoulder. "This is why cryptically threatening pronouncements do not make good introductions."

Michelle sticks back with Titan, the skunk lady having gotten there a few moments ago not really wanting to charge in with the others since you know she's the fragile one in the group more than likely. Although she does boost up her protection in the off chance she catches random weapons fire

The robots take aim at the most convenient targets. Two of them fire at Xing-Liu, while a third on fires and Jennifer.

All of the robots miss, however.

Titan steps up into the entrance to the control room, to help protect Sable. "Figure out what he's going on about. I'm guessing he screwed up an experiment, and got trapped or something."

"Would you free me?" Furmano asks. "I need to show you how to bring me back."

Jade reaches the robots at length.

Sable's lips compress slightly. "You can't show mw while you're tied up?"

Jade chances that the robots aren't all that fast and gives one a kick - not least to see if she can hurt them.

Jade's kick almost double over the robot, damaging it's internal circuitry. It's still functional, if only barely so.

Jade thinks. o O (Good, they're not too tough.)

Furmano shouts, "This is extradimensional physics, not tic tac toe! Unless you know which panel is the particle synchronization motivator, I'd prefer to point everything out."

Sable starts to tear away the net from Furmano, though her body language shows her mis-givings at second-gussing the twins.

Jade prepares herself for the robot counteroffensive.

Sable rips away the netting with a powerful scything open-hand strike that tears through the strands binding the insubstantial form.

Jennifer snarls with unthinking rage. Jessica and her close on Dr Furmano and lash out with energy whips at him, striking with unrestained force and power. Her faces show little thought, just a blinding fury

Furmano gasps, indignant. "Restrain her. If she destroys the equipment in here, then I'll never get back!"

Titan grunts as he's hit, and rolls to his feet.

Michelle smirks some as she follows Titan out into the main room. The Skunk lady overhearing the conversation as she speaks "Well actually we might not even need the equipment... Although it might be nice to have" still keeping her protective dimensional barrier up in the event any robots decide to shoot at her.

Sable turnd and takes two steps to try and wrap Jenn in a bear hug, hauiling her away from Furmano

Jade says, "Look-can't-we-handle-the-robots-first-and-fight-over-Furmano-later?"

Sable's attempted grab is easily swatted wide and she staggers clumsily as Jenn pretty effortlessly eludes her awkward attempt

The droids attack -- two of them busy themselves with Xing-Liu. Two of them attack Jade. Two of them attack the twins. All of them are using their wrist-blasters.

Jade delivers another kick to the droid she damaged earlier.

The robot this time when doubled over by the kick remains bent over.

Furmano casts a curious glance at Michelle. "What sort of field is that around you, by the way?"

Jennifer and Jessica continue to be focused solely on Furmano. So when a pair of the androids get between her and the Doctor she lashes out at them. Anyone watching might think that the twins would have struck at anybody who got between them and their target.

Jennifer lashes at the androids between her and Furmano, damaging one and ripping the second android's head clean off the shoulders.

Jade takes a chance and kicks another robot.

Jade's surpringly rapid kick slams the robot, now wavering, into a wall.

Furmano doesn't wait long for an answer from Michelle. He turns his attention to the immediate task -- not being killed by Jennifer and Jessica.

Sable recovers her balance. "Amber! Azure! Stand down! This is not the target! You're jeopardsing the mission." She hopes that by appealing to militrary conditioning she may touch some nerve. If that proves ineffective she seems prepared to try grabbing one of them again.

Jennifer and Jessica brace up to attention. "Yes, Ma'am." They snap out briskly. For a second or two they remain in the pose, and then look around, "Huh..."

One droid tries to shoot at Jennifer while another blasts at Jade. The remaining two are tied up by Xing-Liu.

Sable blinks and looks a bit surprised. "Jenn, Jess? We need to help rescue the doctor so he can help us rescue and protect the others."

Michelle smiles some at the trapped scientist "Actually its a field that pushes attacks on myself into a nearby dimension harmlessly" the skunk lady informs him "And the same sort of thing that does this" and with that she rips open a rift, a downed live power line falls hopefully onto the robot infront of Jennifer and Jessica that they didnt rip to shreds already. A bit overkill but hey...

Michelle watches a the power line comes into contact with the robot. Naturally theres a good deal of sparks and smell of fried electrical circuits as it takes several hundred or thousand volts more than it's designed to take. A moment later it just tumbles over a heap of scrap... Hopefully that answers the scientist's question.

Titan moves back between the twins and Furmano. He looks at the twins, "Take out the robots, already! Then this can all be sorted out."

Furmano watches, seeming truly awestruck. "Amazing," he says, smiling. He eyes Michelle in a not so wholesome manner.

Jade brings her foot around in an attempted to finish off the robot.

Jade breaks the already badly-damaged robot.

Jennifer nods to Titan. "Got it."

Jennifer and Jessica switch to swords, the katanas sliding out of back slings and slicing at the remaining two androids.

Jennifer cuts deep into one, knocking it back into the wall hard enough to finish it off. Jessica simple slices her target straight down from head to torso.

Dr. Furmano says, "Well done! Now close the door before reinforcements arrive, and then we can get started."

Jade says, "What-door-and-what-reinforcement-and-get-started-doing-what?"

Jennifer turns to look at Furmano, "You have one chance to explain why I shouldn't kill you right now. You killed me, you *&$&*!"

Michelle takes a few moments and focues her sight across dimensions to see what information she might be able to get about the doctor's condition.

Furmano begins to busy himself with the studying the state of one of the computer banks. "Make sure the door leading out to the outer ring is closed. I don't want us being interrupted by more of the robots while I'm telling you how to bring me back fully to this dimension." He glances to Jennifer. "I don't recall killing you. Really, I have no idea at all what you're talking about."

Jade ahs and promptly starts examining the equipment - she wants to make sure Furmano is being honest about what he's up to!

Michelle hrms and examines Furmano for a few moments with her vision giving her some insight into his problem "So where were you trying to go with this device you were working on?" the skunk lady asks him as the others presumably work towards closing the doors and what not.

"I was trying to continue my research into interdimensional travel," Furmano says, responding to Michelle. "When I was sabotaged by my former business partner."

Jade says, "What-business-partner-is-that and-where-are-the-robots-from?"

Michelle hrms at Furmano "Interesting.. well your current predicment doesnt look like interdimensional travel so much as being out of phase in this dimension in regards to timeframe everyone else is experiencing" the skunk lady sharing what she's learned with the doctor and everyone present

Jade says, "Oh-interesting!"

Jade accordingly stats examining another part of the machine to see if she can find what was sabotaged and undo it.