Log:Chaos Reigns, Scene 2

Chaos Reigns 2014/11/13 	 Paragon Porter Amy Chen Munin Paragon

2

The student quarter is north and west of the CBSU campus, and is entirely dependent on the university for its flavor, but its flavor is different. Much of it, especially in the back streets, is cheap housing, with students being the main tenants. On the three main roads, though - Courtland Way heading east, Harrisburg lane northwest, and Stardancer Boulevard south - are one or two grander buildings, most notably the stadium on Courtland and hospital on StarDancer. Along these roads, and scattered through the district, are other services such as students attract: fast food establishments, second-hand stores, laundromats, convenience stores, doughnut shops, and a small park.

The average age of people on the street is markedly lower than elsewhere in the city, whether walking, cycling, hoverboarding or just hanging out.

Much like other days in the city, today starts out quiet. There are plenty of pedestrians walking along the university campus, folks heading to lunch or a local bar. Every so often, sirens pierce the air as an ambulance heads toward the hospital.

Chen is making a delivery to some of the Chinese take-out establishments for her grandfather. For once she's actually in Chen form as she carries the packaged spices in a backpack.

A quiet afternoon. Student Quarter. A perfect time and place for brunch. All the cafes catering to the students give them variety. The time means most of the actual students are probably in class. It's also about right for Porter, who slept in even later than usual. Not too distant and probably attached at the hand is Third. Because brunch is best with company.

Third walks alongside Porter, holding hands as they look for a place to have brunch in the area. Third asks with some concern, "So...what's the longest one of the Book's spells have lasted...?" Third is...different today. She's no longer deathly pale, with ashen lips and a sickly appearance. Her skin is a healthy, living tone, and she has a blush to her cheeks.

Third(#1641POeACcF?)

She's a tall, young woman in her mid twenties with deathly pale white skin and straight chestnut colored hair. The hair tumbles down to mid-shoulder blade, and loose with long side bangs parted to the right. Her lips are ashen, and her eyes are hazel with green flecks. Her eyes look a little sunken with vaguely lavender hue eyelids. She stands at about 6 feet tall, with a well-toned athletic build. While she looks like someone who keeps in shape, her deathly pallor makes her appear unhealthy.

Currently, she's wearing a black peacoat that reaches down to mid-thigh, black leggings, and brown leather lace-up knee-high boots. A long, deep red cotton jersey scarf is wrapped loosely twice around her neck, the ends left hanging long and billowing.

A 2-inch widebrown leather wrist cuff sits on her right wrist embossed with a stylized lightning bolt. Wrapped several times around the outside of the wrist cuff is a black rawhide strip. The strip is threaded through the center of a 5 yen coin centered in the middle of the cuff.

Porter(#2528POQeACcF?)

This young man is several inches under six feet with an average build. Brown hair is cut in a short but current style and coffee eyes are bright yet generally unremarkable. As a whole, he could probably be overlooked in a crowd fairly easily.

His clothes are fairly common, with comfortable jeans, name-brand sneakers, and a tee that varies by mood. Most common are popular bands or catchy quotes. When it's cold or wet outside, he covers up with a jacket.

Chen(#2559PeACcF?)

Chen Li is pretty much indistinguishable from any other young Chinese girl. Maybe a little shorter and slimmer than the average even allowing for the smaller physical stature of those of Chinese descent. She wears casual clothes, jeans and teeshirts normally. Add a coat in cold weather. Her hair is the typical raven black like most Chinese girls, trimmed short. Her face is pretty rather than beautiful and usually animated and lively with unrepressed energy.

A man and a woman, both in power armor, come streaking in from the west, landing next to the park.

Hugin and Munin(#1792TOn)

Two individuals in power armor. Hugin is apparently female, and Munin is male, based upon how the armor bulges in particular places. The armor is mostly flat black, and has a bird motif to it. The helmets look kind of like raven's heads, and there are painted 'feathers' on most of the armor. Hugin seems to have a weapon of some variety on her right gauntlet. Munin has no apparent weaponry. Both seem to have some kind of bootjets as well.

Munin says to his companion, "It was spotted in this immediate area, I think. We need to start a thorough search."

Third glances over at Hugin and Munin's landing. "Hmm. They don't look familiar. New heroes, you think?" she asks Porter as she leans in to speak quietly with him.

Both Hugin and Munin start to look around slowly. Hugin says, "We have a couple of metas nearby, but I'm not picking up the target."

Chen looks over at the two arrivals with mild curiosity. She doesn't recognise them but out in public in Colonial Bay in daylight. Not what she would expect from villains.

Chen shrugs, "What the heck, it's a distraction from a boring delivery job. Heading towards the two arrivals she calls out, "Hi. Need and hand?"

Munin looks at Chen curiously, tilting his head. He considers the question for a moment, and then says, "We are looking for what you might refer to as a 'demon'. It is about this tall..." He holds his hand up to about 7 feet off the ground. "And it looks kind of like a mantis. With a white and grey mottled carapace."

Chen grins, "Shouldn't be too hard to spot. I haven't seen anything like that today. You figure it's in the park?"

Hugin continues to look around slowly, scanning the area, "We...received intel that it was in the area. It has the ability to cloak itself in some way."

Chen says, "That's a bit vague. Turn invisible? Change shape? Super-ninja ability? It could be standing right here and we might not know."

Amy(#2344PenACcF?)

Standing only 5'1" tall, this young woman is seldom without a smile on her cherubic face, and her the twinkle in eyes is echoed in the the dancing light motes which always surround her, shifting colours with her mood. She wears her chestnut hair swept back behind her ears, but she is always pushing it back again as it falls forward.

She's wearing a T-shirt with the caption "Feeling lucky, punk?" tucked into her jeans; both are tight over her distinctly feminine curves. On her feet are well-worn sneakers.

Amy hurries along the street. "Natasha, come back. What's got into you?" She chases the baby dragon - but Natasha is high above her, excited, it seems, by Pied-a-Ciel.

Amy drops Natasha.

Both Chen and Third get a glimpse of the demon mantis standing about thirty meters away. And then...the world goes black. It's almost like you're all on a stage, with a spotlight on the group of you, and no audience. Just darkness out around you. Chen, Third, Porter, Amy, Hugin, and Munin are all here. But no one else from the park.

Amy says, "Huh? What happened?"

Chen says, "What the he...Uh, can anyone explain what's going on?"

Amy looks about for a clue. And looks up to see if Natasha is still visible.

Third blinks and squeezes Porter's hand, just to make sure he's still there. She looks over to him and says, "I saw this giant mantis thing just before it went dark."

Hugin and Munin both look around. Hugin says, "We're not in the park any longer." In the darkness, you can hear what sounds like skittering. The movement of not one bug...but perhaps dozens. Hundreds. Thousands.

Amy says, "Eeuw, bugs!"

"No idea. Nothing's lasted more than a couple hours." Porter is cut short when the armored people arrive. "Not sure I've seen them before..." Demons? Wha? he looks confused between power armor and Third. Then blinks when everything goes... weird? "Demon bugs? Can't we get one meal in peace?" He gives Third's had a return squeeze and, of course, tries to step between her and the sounds of bugs. Which could be hard since it sounds like its everywhere.

Third squints out at the darkness, and...nothing happens. She tenses her body and...nothing happens. "Oh...right. No armor. No systems. I can't see what's in the dark," she murmurs as Porter moves to shield her.

At the edge of the darkness, shapes start to appear around you. It looks like a dozen of the mantis creatures total...a ring of six, and then another ring of six behind them barely visible in the spotlight shining on you from somewhere up above you.

Chen looks around to see who else might be there, and frowns when she sees Porter holding the hand of yet another female. It takes a second for recognition to kick in. And then, "Sis!? What's happened to you?"

Amy looks about and the mantis shapes. "Who are you, where are we and what did you do with Natasha?"

"A bit of an explanation is required there. But given the lack of time to go over it, I'll just sum it up with: Magic. And Porter," Third explains sheepishly, then looks to the mantis creatures at the edge of the darkness.

Chen glances at the threatening creatures ringing the group. "More important question, sis. Are you impaired in any way by the change?"

The mantis creatures chitter, speaking...something. But it's a language that no one here immediately understands.

Third grins meekly. "Yeah, about that. All my cybernetics are gone," she explains. "But I still have my meta strength. It'll be fine," she assures. She thinks. She hopes.

Chen says, "Sis, can you armor up?"

Porter frowns. "Long story, sort of..." That's to answer Chen as he looks out over the ring of six and six. "Ok, I'm pretty sure we didn't get teleported anywhere... This feels more like... we're in our heads. Or in each others'. Or they're in ours..." He is familiar with both teleporting and having multiple people in his head. Of course, he's also familiar with swimming in lobster bisque at Dr. Destroyer's dinner table. Don't ask.

Amy says, "huh. Our heads are kind of boring then!"

Third shakes her head in the negative. "No armor." She looks to Porter at his explanation. "So this isn't real? Maybe I -can- armor up," she ponders.

"Oh, I don't know. Porter's head is never boring," Third grins. It's one of her favorite places to visit. "So maybe we're in theirs?"

Chen nods, "Sure you can, sis. Just like we've practiced." Extending her arms she grips Third, and pulls herself to here big sis, flowing over Third's body, then changing to replicate Paragon's armor.

Amy says, "Oh, good idea."

Amy sends out her light motes over the area.

"Not sure..." As if Porter's ever sure of much, but grins when Chen does her thing. "But I like Chen's idea. Alot. Just in case." He lets go of Third's hand so he isn't in the way and calls out to the buzzing zhittering bug demon... things. "What do you want?" More quietly, he asks, "Anyone got any bug spray?"

Amy says to the creatures, "Sorry, I don't speak whatever that is. Parlez-vous francais?"

Chen toughens her body and prepares for a battering.

Paragon says without her usual echoing metallic tone, "Heheh, I guess I can. And maybe after all this is over, we can figure out why I haven't returned to normal." For her, being undead and cybernetic is 'normal', instead of being human and living. The main difference now is that Paragon's voice hasn't altered, and her eyeslots are dark and hollow instead of having their usual glow.

Hugin raises an arm, and a rapid fire plasma burst opens up at the nearest couple of mantises. Munin takes a swing at one, his gauntlet charged with some kind of energy aura around it.

Porter shrugs at Amy, but gives it a shot, too. "Bah-weep-graaaaagnah wheep nini bong?" And then energy things are shot and swung. At least they're not at him?

Paragon stares in shock as Hugin and Munin launch an attack. "Wait! They haven't tried to hurt us! They're trying to communicate!" she protests.

Munin misses completely, but Hugin blasts a couple of the ones near her, driving them back into the darkness, creating a brief hole in the circle around you.

Amy says, "Uh-huh, me too!"

Chen continues to harden her body texture but leaves her muscle slack so Third can move almost as freely as if Chen wasn't enveloping her.

Paragon thinks for a moment. "Hey Chen, if this is all in our heads, or their heads, I can't really be cut," she realizes.

Amy won't fight these bugs till she knows if they're friendly! She maintains her protective globe of luck. "Can anyone understand them?"

Chen forms a mouth to answer, "You think I'm going to have a memory of thinking you've been cut in my head would I could have done something to stop it. And if it isn't in our heads then it's even more important that I protect you. End of conversation.

Porter cringes as they start blasting. And here their last surprise trip they were lucky enough that there weren't any shots fired. "Hey, Tin For Brains! What're you doing?! Why are you looking for the one and why are you shooting at all of them? Are you nuts? I don't even think this is REAL..." Not that they'd care what Porter thinks.

Amy says, "I wish Sorciere were here, I bet she could talk to them and even knows what they are!"

Hugin shouts, "It's a chaos demon! It's killed a dozen people in the city already! Stop sitting on your high horses!"

Amy says, "Oh, so they're evil? Why didn't you say so?"

The mantis things press forward, attempting to grab a hold of each of you with their scythe-like limbs. You can see another couple of rows of them filling in behind the initial two that you had already seen.

The group of you are grabbed. They don't squeeze, though. Instead, you can see what looks like a slightly larger mantis appear at the edge of the circle. It addresses you all in that same chittering language.

That definitely makes it end of conversation. Paragon falls quiet as Chen makes her point about the Chen-Armor defense. "Alright, Sis," she agrees with her. When the Mantis surge happens and they grab ahold of everyone, Paragon is more concerned with the others, since she's protected. "Chen! Porter!" she cries out in worry.Her instinct is to break out of the grip, but then she doesn't feel any squeezing. And then the large Mantis comes forward and tries to communicate again. She relaxes a little and thinks for a few moments.

"I don't remember there being anything in the news about a series of murders. Something like that would be noticed. If they wanted to hurt us, they could've done something by now," Paragon reasons. She listens carefully and sighs. "I still can't understand you," she says to the Mantis. "Can you understand us? Nod your head if you can."

The Mantis creature looks at Paragon, and then nods. Apparently it can't speak a language you know, but it understands English.

Paragon smiles behind her faux-faceplate. "Well, now we're getting somewhere. Do you need our help?"

It says something else in its chittering language, waving its scythe arms about. It then pauses, and makes a motion like it's putting a series of things in a row. It then waves its arms around like it's scattering something.

Amy says, "Ooh! Charades!"

Paragon thinks for a moment about what the power armor duo said. "Order...and chaos?" she suggests.

Amy doesn't think of that. "How many words?"

Porter may not be convinced all is bad, but being nabbed by sharp claw-pincer things attached to bug things does make him nervous. Which is eased by Paragon the negotiator. Maybe they should've had her do the talking at Zu, too. He would try to turn on the network, but he can't exactly reach the button at the moment. So he just watches and listens. And tries not to screw anything up.

"Hey, Para... I think you're onto something with that," Porter finally decides. Maybe he's good at charades? "Maybe they ARE chaos demons. Find order, make chaos. But where? Why?" Those are directed at the alleged chaos demon doing the talking...er... charades as much as everyone else.

Porter adds, "I mean, if they're looking for order, I don't think they're looking for me..."

"Make chaos?" Paragon looks at Porter and stares silently for a few moments, pointedly. "You're nothing by chaos, Partner," she chuckles. "Not like they'll find Order here."

The demon tilts its head and crouches, like it's stalking something or someone. It then holds its claws out holding something up. And it throws its arms wide.

Paragon watches quietly. "You ...hrm." She ponders on her crazy life. "You can't find order in this city?" she hazards a wild guess.

Amy says, "Something got away?"

Yeah, he is. Which might explain Porter's insight into the inner workings of beings of chaos? Even his head tilts when he thinks! He also chews on his lips. "Um... they're looking for something. Something ... big. Special. And when they find it..." He stops and looks at Tweedle Tin and Tweedle Can, the armor twins. "You two know anything about this?" If they knew about the chaos demons, he figures they might know about what they're up to.

The demon shakes its arms at Paragon's statement and it chitters again.

Hugin and Munin both shake their heads. Hugin says, "We know it's been looking for something or someone. And we believe it's been feeding on civilians. But we don't know what it's looking for.

Amy says, "Oh, maybe it's looking for what's been eating the civilians!"

Amy says, "Except didn't someone say no one was being eaten?"

"But there hasn't been anything in the news about missing or eaten civilians," Paragon comments.

Munin sighs. "Do you think the news necessarily reports when homeless people go missing?"

Amy says, "Uh-uh but they should!"

Paragon is a bit dumbfounded by that. "I suppose the media does not consider that newsworthy. Is there evidence or witnesses? Perhaps they'll agree to come in for questioning?" She sounds highly doubtful, but hopeful.

"You know, we don't need to give them any ideas about eating people..." Porter points out. Since they're being held, and seem to be the only people around. "Since they didn't already start chewing. Would they be telling us all this if they were just going to eat us?" Porter hopes they're not just playing with their food and looks at the Official Chaos Demon Charadesperson...bug...thing. "Are you going to eat us? Nod your head if you're not, and don't eat us if you are."

In response...the demon mantis looks at Porter, and then screams. The sound is akin to the scraping of fingernails on chalkboards. Not just one, though...dozens of nails on dozens of chalkboards. The sound surrounds you...and the darkness disappears. You reappear in the park, and the mantis creature is standing nearby. You're no longer held, and it looks like Natasha is attacking the demon's head.

Paragon has to think for a few moments, then laughs at Porter's choice options to the Chaos Demon. "Did you break it?" she asks. But as the world fades, she sees the dragon munching on the demon's head. "Ohh. Guess it was...wait!" She eyes Porter suspiciously. "Was this why Pelana was talking about kids and marriage?"

Amy says, "Natasha!" delightedly.

Chen flows off Third back into her own form. "The little dragon is stopping the Mantis thing from keeping the illsuion, or whatever, going." she says with a smile.

The demon screams again, and disappears, fading from view. Best guess, it teleported away. Or jumped dimensions. One or the other.

Amy says, "Yay! Well done, Natasha!"

Hugin and Munin both get to their feet. Hugin says, "That could have gone better. But it could have gone a lot worse."

Amy throws Natasha a treat of some sort, which Natasha snatches from the air.

Porter blinks and looks around, then shrugs at Para. "No, I didn't do it. Must've been the-" He stops and his eyes widen. "No, that's not my little dragon!" He points at Amy, who's cooing at it. And feeding it. "See?"

Amy blinks at Porter. "You have a dragon too?"

Natasha snorts and lands on Amy's shoulder. Making it quite clear that, on the contrary, she has a human.

Both Hugin and Munin look to the assembled heroes and then each other. Munin says, "Thank you for the assist." Then both then launch into the air, heading back east toward the bay.

Amy says, "So did anyone work out what that demon thing was saying?"

Chen watches the duo depart and then asks, "Does anyone have the faintest idea what happened?"

"Uh... sort of? Not a little one, though." Porter smirks to Amy after clearing up that he's not related to Natasha for Para. He watches Hugging and Munchkin take of before offering, "And thanks. We might've been stuck in there longer." Chen gets a patented Porter shrug. "Not really. But that's pretty much a normal afternoon for me."

Amy shakes her head. Natasha looks inscrutable in a way only dragons can.

Third scratches the back of her head as Hugin and Munin fly off. "Better look into the deaths and missing person's reporters," she murmurs. Then she looks back to a wide-eyed Porter and smiles a bit. "Glad it's not," she murmurs.

Chen turns on Porter, "What..." she says forcefully, "do you think you are doing allowing my sis to wander the streets when she doesn't have her armor?"

Amy says, "How come she doesn't have her armour?"

Porter blinks and lifts a hand to rub the back of his head, looking sheepish. "I was escorting her? We just came here for brunch. Good food, quiet. There weren't any chaos demons in the weather forecast..."

Third blinks in surprise at Chen's comments. "Well...lots of people walk around without armor every day," she says reassuringly. "And the plan was just to get food..."

Chen says, "Lots of people don't have metapowered enemies hunting for them, Porter. Third does. Okay, I accept you're with my sis, but you should have called me."

"Well," Third adds, "At least while I'm like this...there's no magic to drain away or systems to download?" It seems to have suddenly occurred to her. But of course, there's always others after her, too.

Porter sighs. "Chen, you know I wouldn't let anything happen to her... and I didn't think it'd last this long. Never has before. But it's not a bad thing. I mean..." He takes the help that's inadvertently offered. "See? No systems or magic!"

Chen wants to wrap Third up in cotton and keep her hidden. What she says is, "Take good care of my sis, Porter." and then she departs to finish her deliveries.