Log:Nightshade

2017/11/24 Mechanica Zero Nightshade 1

The business park, a high-tech gathering of high-tech buildings filled with high-tech. And covered by high-tech security systems. The seismic sensors on some of those have tripped, which has sent out signals to their respective security contractors and possibly even HERONET. Strangely, prompt physical checks by on-site personnel revealed nothing out of the ordinary, and scores of other sensors and systems report all is normal.

In the high-tech block, there is only one conspicuous building due to its utter lack of high-tech: a century-old squat, tiny, single-level brick building that pre-dates the tech- and possibly even prior industrial boom in the area. It is unmarked, but it is not secretive nor hard to determine its owner and use: an ancient data archive for USGS, NASA, and other governmental agencies or departments. Most things stored there probably aren't even digital, and are not likely anything the average gradeschooler can't find in a textbook or online. Very 2D.

"Yes, yes, I checked all those," Mechanica complains to Zero as she checks her systems again. "Nothing else has been tripped or hacked. The only place I can't check on is that one over there," she points out the ancient building. "That fossil doesn't have anything."

She tries a records lookup to find out what it is. "It's probably just an...oh. Pfftt. It's the data archive time forgot," she laughs. "So analog."

"Some of the best things are analog." Zero replies with a tone that implies this is a conversation had many times over. "Ice cream hasn't been digitized. Chocolate. Yoga. Your brain. Well ... maybe not your brain." She shrugs and glances at the building being pointed at. She focuses 'extra' hard on a point a bit further than her natural eyes can attain prompting her mask's systems to compensate- magnifying some of the subtle details of the 'ancient' building.

You both note that, while the building is old and old-looking, the small grounds are definitely nice. The grass is thick and green, there's even flowers blooming in it here and there despite the chill. A tree grows up against one wall and its reddish-orange leaves darn near match the color of the faded brick next to it exactly.

"My brain? I haven't figured out Singularity yet, hermana," Mechanica chuckles as she plants her hands on her hips. Her clawed fingers drum a little there as she thinks. "Well, my resources are limited in this situation," she concludes, but she still flicks on her radar to search for any strange signals. "Your weird intuition picking up anything?"

"You know what else is analog?" Zero asks, in a knowing way implying that she's going to answer before Mechanica has a chance to say anything in response.

"Nature. And she provides." She answers with a grin before walking towards that pretty old tree with the lovely brick red foilage.

"Of course- because that too is analog. Now come on... and make us inconspicuous. Ooh and cute! Like two kittens! Or... trash pandas!" Zero adds excitedly as she turns to look at her friend with a smile.

"Perfect," Mechanica says with an eyeroll. "I'm not getting any transmissions either. I can't figure out what caused the seismic disturbance that triggered the sensors around here." She raises a brow at Zero's recommendations. "Que es un 'trash panda'?" She's skilled in English, but that is a phrasing she somehow missed.

As Zero walks towards the tree, it does something unexpected:

The truck splits and separates, as not a single thick trunk but a series of more slender, woody vines flexible enough to twist and stretch.

Through the opening is revealed a glimpse of a dim office interior. Only small portions, around the figure the emerges through the opening conveniently just the right size, before said opening closes.

Slender, feminine, with blue skin and milky white hair, the humanoid wears a simple, dark bodysuit that covers most of her torso, but leaves arms and legs bare. Red-tinted eyes regard the two with ...disdain? annoyance?

"Go back to your trash pandas, hyoomans. This doesn't concern you."

"You know... a trash panda. A little garbage bandit. Bandito. Umm... you know a raccoon." Zero replies. She'll get Mechanica hip with the slang before the decade is out and all without resorting to SlangDictionary.net

As they get to the tree Zero raises an eyebrow and switches to a quieter mode of communication.

.o0(Ok this is... the weirdest thing I've-) She tries not to sound startled. (Did you see that? Something moved in there!) Of course that something makes itself well known a moment later.

(Everytime I hear that I always suspect it is of great concern to me.) She adds, though remaining silent in front of the blue skinned feminine being. She wouldn't want to give anythign away- especially now that the weirdness needle is climbing. Mechanica's the one with all the super-powered friends, not her. Aliens are definitely just a bit outside of her expertise.

"Ah, si...raccoon. Entiendo ahora," Mechanica mutters as Zero 'splains things to her. And then the tree splits and the blue-skinned being shows up. "Oh, sure, sure. We'll go back," she reassures the blue-skinned feminine being, hands up in the air.

. o O (I'm going to try and make it look like we're teleporting out. Sneak in if you can, but stay close.)

She clicks on a trigger on her bracer, but she's already activated her holo projectors to scan the area and prepare a replica to overlay on their original position. "We don't want any trouble in business that isn't ours," she smiles as the two appear suddenly dissolve into streaks of light that shoot upwards a meter or so before fading out, mimicking a personal translocation beam.

The red eyes of the cerulean creature look over the now seemingingly empty space before turning away, followed by her head and the rest of her as she steps off. Something is said in a (likely) unintelligible language, though the tone suggests it might be snarky or inflammatory and there is a fairly universally-dismissive wave of a hand.

The lush grass before and beneath Mechanica suddenly decidess to be even more lush, and lunging, as it tries to creep rapidly up her. Creepily.

Mechanica gasps silently as the plants surprise her, creeping up and around her cloaked form. As it surrounds her, the grass itself begins to take on Mechanica's struggling shape. Zero can hear Mechanica's thoughts filled with curses, but finding this a surprising and minor annoyance.

Sneaking in just stopped being Zero's number one priority. She takes her Kato-ing very seriously and is about to act instead to free her but the minor level of inconvienence in Elia's mental voice keeps her on task. Though- that task is still now not sneaking in.

A heavy thunk can be heard as Zero pulls out her Meteor Flail from a specially fitted pocket in her jacket that keeps the heavy metal sphere from injuring her when she's freerunning or fighting.

Zero yanks the super-strong elastic webbing surrounding the sphere and flings it forward before giving the line another tug to yank it back. Then she uses that momentum to get the heavy ball spinning overhead. She hopes Mechanica's systems can compensate for the sound of it whirling rapidly.

With another yank the ball is shot towards the ground, but before it can impact its' master twists its angle so it will wrap around her thigh and slide laterally towards Nightshade.

The overhead swing isn't fully inctercepted by the sudden uprising of roots and vines from the earth between them, but it is deflected just enough to cause the heavy sphere to impact the ground rather than the creature.

Mechanica struggles a few moments, looking like a grass copy of herself. That is, before all the tangling grass suddenly crush inwards to flatten her shape when Mechanica activates her suit's quantum shift drive and she invisibly steps out from the grass to walk a few meters from the twisted shape that was once her. The quantum drive eats up a lot of resources, and her holo projections drop away.

As she becomes solid and visible a moment later, she looks very annoyed at getting surprised like that. "Stupid nature. Stupid providing," she mutters as she reaches into her jacket's left breast pocket and tosses a flat desk at tree by the blue girl. It makes a magnetic hum as it attaches to the wood with little claws. "Hasta luego," she grumbles.

Mechanica stares as her disc mine is swatted away. "Bien. You want it that way? Fine," she grumbles as she raises her right hand towards Nightshade. She closes her hand and lowers her wrist as the plasma blaster port pops up from her bracer and lights up, just before she lights up Nightshade.

Plasma blasts can't exactly be swatted away, per se, though the vines to swing in front of it. Unfortunately, it does blast the plants to smithereens.

She's very practiced with this tool, and if it weren't so dangerous it would be mesmerizing. The sphere slices through the air as she spins it behind her- then using her own body as cover she snaps the line arcing the sphere downward.

The switching arms she quickly yanks the line towards the now vine-free Nightshade's feet and then sweep them out from under her.

The young vegetarian heroine is clearly not as practiced with her weapon of choice as she believed or perhaps her prey is more wiley than she believes. In either case, the 'meteor' skips over the ground, rolling and trampling everything in its path that isn't Nightshade. It looses much of its momentum from this all because her transfer from right to left was not as accurate and tightly executed as she thought.

She tries to keep her ego out of the situation and focus on the task at hand but as the seconds wind down this is becoming quite an excerise in frustration. This is only compounded by just how off the mark she seems to have been.

The cerulean creature may have had the deflecting mass of roots and vines obliterated, but she seems nonplussed. Crimson pupils focus on Mechanica, as the obliterator and, prior, the one attempting deception. "You cannot win, mammal. Take that one," her eyes flick to Zero and back, " and leave with your lives." The milky white strands of her 'hair,' and pore nodules along her flesh release nigh-invisible microscopic spores to help enforce her suggestion.

Mechanica scowls at the blue lady and takes a step back, sucking on her teeth a moment. "Mierda, she's right," she mutters as she backs up towards Zero protectively, not turning her back on little girl blue. "We need to go. Maybe get back up."

Mechanica being protective and wanting to 'leave' to call in backup? Something about that feels quite wrong to Zero. She shakes her head at Mechanica even as she sees the Cerulean Conqueror's mental grip take hold thanks to her Sixth or maybe even Seventh Sense.

Zero steps in front of Mechanica as she says to the blue woman- "No. Whatever you're up to is clearly going to be at least two of three things. Wrong. Dangerous. Illegal. My bet is on all three considering how this has all gone on so far. You could have just talked to us like a reasonable and rational person."

She resumes her ready position- hands in open palms in front of her before she tightens the line around her hand. Though she keeps talking a bit more before yanking the line and swinging it out in a parabolic arc aimed straight for whatever analog for a solorplexus this being has.

Zero is not going to be bullied by psychic smurfs.

Zero's strike connects with her torso with a soft *THUNK*. The cerulean creature doesn't move, aside from her head lowering to glance at the fist, then back up to Zero. Its entirely possible that she may not have an internal analog to whatever Zero was hoping for, and even she seems surprised at the end result.

Mechanica blinks in shock as Zero doesn't come away with her. She attempts to grasp at Zero to pull her back, missing her by just -this- much as she goes to strike Nightshade. "No, wait, don't be crazy!" she warns in a panic, thinking Zero's life is in danger.

And then she starts to question herself for panicking in public. Her eyes suddenly narrow. "Wait a minute...argggh. I see," she mutters and gauntlet blaster as Nightshade while she's looking at Zero, then offers a healthy dose of ZOT.

This time, there are not intervening roots and foliage, and the blast catches her square, sending her back several meters to drop her to the grass on her blue behind. This time, her reaction is more energetic than to Zero's strike, though the fluttery, flowing syllables that are pronounced are unintelligible, though the tone makes their expletive nature somewhat obvious.

She regains her feet beneath her and stands, torso looking scorched by the ZOT, but not holed through nor catastrophically injured. "I did speak to you as a rational and reasonable person. You chose to deceive and ignore my advice."

"Yes, rational villains. We're fairly certain -you- do not belong here. But I can't figure out -why- you would even be here. This place is worthless," Mechanica says as she raises her hand and closes them into a fist. Suddenly, a swarm of microbots descend and try to envelope Nightshade in their grasp.

Zero watches Mechanica's swarm of microbots take to the air and then to the Ceruelen Being. She thinks to Mechanica, (Great job! Now what? I get the feeling one of us needs to get into that building- and I can't run through walls.)

Zero prepares to face the blue woman alone while her partner investigates- and so steels herself, mentally and physically.

Mechanica glances at Zero uncomfortably for a moment. She doesn't quite like what Zero is suggesting. Mainly the leaving her alone bit. Maybe it's just residual from the spores, but she's feeling protective over Zero.

But she knows she's right.

. o O (Damn. Fine, I'll go in and investigate if you think you can handle her. I'll leave you with some insurance.)

The blue one is ensnared by Mechanica's microbots, though still seems annoyed, at the worst. "You are right, mammal. This place IS useless. You infested it and ruined it, but that will change."

"Well," Mechanica huffs as she keeps an eye on the blue one. "I can't argue that we haven't invested a ruined parts of it. But that's not up to some non-mammal to change."

Zero speaks up then, "And what'd us mammals ever do to you?! No one is perfect but now I'm detecting some very speciesist attitudes here. That's just not right."

She stays on the balls of her feet so she can leap, roll & move in any direction that might be necessary. Her eyes are closed as she watches her own back quite well when she relies on her mental connection to the world alone. It also lets her keep an eye on Blue-Girl even through the swarming bots.

"And infested?! Like we're cockroaches? Come on- we evolved here. It seems you're the one who doesn't belong here. So why don't you go back to your spaceship and you know... go somewhere else." She adds while trying to unruffle her own feathers. Zero is very tolerant to people of all sorts- regardless of species, genus, race, religion, creed or sex and this being is rubbing her tender (liberal) sensibilities all the wrong way.

"I was doing exactly that when you interfered," the Blue One answers Zero. "Release me, and I will gladly leave."

Mechanica glances to Zero, then back to the blue wonder. "Explain."

Zero merely crosses her arms before saying, "Yeah. Talk. Then we'll let go- after we're sure you aren't here to do something particularly nasty. You didn't really lend yourself to having the benefit of the doubt granted to you."

"I was leaving," she looks down at the swarm of bots, "now I cannot. Release me and I will, as you said, go back to my spaceship and go somewhere else."

"Sure, alright. That's believable," Mechanica mutters, sarcasm in her mind. "Why don't we escort you to your ship and send you off?"

She just shakes her head, not pleased with this at all. Once again she's left longing for her old ability to rip the secrets from the minds of nearly anyone.

Mechanica waits for Nightshade's response. o O (That's why I want to poke around in her ship.) She has no intention of just sending the little angry blue alien off to her ship. o O (I'm not about to let her go after she said she'd make changes to how we ruined the planet.)

.o0(I thought she said something like that- but I wasn't quite sure what she meant by that. Either way, doesn't sound like she was planning on just heading home- not without leaving a little something extra behind anyway.) Zero says mentally with a nod. She is in complete agreement with Mechanica.

Mechanica gives a mental nod. . o O (Or bringing back something as a surprise...)

(Ok- so we're in agreement. If she tries something funny, you go high and I'll go low.) Zero says, not moving an inch until their Blue-ET friend has become a bit more compliant.

Blue rolls her red eyes. "Very well, if you think you must, you can accompany me."

"If you insist," comes the blue one's rather disdainful acceptance regarding the escort, "very well. Release me." Curently pinned by the microbot swarm, it appears that she has no other choice... though holding her and then demanding that she leave still seems contradictory to her.

Mechanica chuckles at Nightshade's request. "Ohhhh, no, sweetheart. You tell us where to go, and we'll carry you."

(Good thinking.) Zero adds with a nod as she takes up a position next to Mechanica. She remains silent, letting Mechanica deal with interfacing with this tricky being. The less of a threat she seems to the alien, the better- though she realizes that to date she's been little more than an annoyance. She is still working on a way to get around that particular problem.

The red eyes vanish a moment as she blinks. When they reappear, they are narrowed. "You will not carry me anywhere, mammal."

Mechanica smirks at the condescending alien. "Ohhhh, so you just want to go to jail? I must have misunderstood. You know, language barrier," she replies playfully.

(I have half a mind to have you squeeze her.) Zero says putting her hands on her hips. (The other half says to call StarGuard and then squeeze her. This racist nonsense is making me irritiable.)

Her own eyes narrow as she tries to pry open the cerulean traveler's mind.

She of course fails. Not even a tingle.

Now blue lips distort in a smile, or, rather, a somewhat unsettling facsimile of one. "No. I will return to my vessel. Whether or not you left here was your choice. You choose poorly."

Mechanica frowns a little at the blue lady's snark. o O (Oh, I was already planning on squeezing her. But now I'm definitely going--). Mechanica's thoughts stop there and she stares off in shock.

Zero's mental acuity isn't everything it once was, but she sees enough to know something isn't right- especially when Mechanica's half of the conversation goes silent mid thought.

She thinks to Elia, .o0(Come on Girl- snap out of it. Focus on my voice- my voice. Not this Alien-Snizz. Remember all we've been through- all you have planned. This visitor wants to see you fail.) A little push in the right direction might go a long way- she hopes.

Zero's mental acuity isn't everything it once was, but she sees enough to know something isn't right- especially when Mechanica's half of the conversation goes silent mid thought.

She thinks to Elia, .o0(Come on Girl- snap out of it. Focus on my voice- my voice. Not this Alien-Snizz. Remember all we've been through- all you have planned. This visitor wants to see you fail.) A little push in the right direction might go a long way- she hopes.

Suddenly at the last possible second before she fears Mechanica is already fallen to the mental whims of this Anti-Mammalian Madwoman.

She tries to make up for the last shot that didn't go so well.

This time, Zero connects. But, hey, Mechanica held her down for her! If she still couldn't hit... The impact is solid, and looks to 'wind' her. A little. Sort of. Maybe?

Nightshade sneers at Zero, now, following the hit. "You cannot hold me. You cannot escape your fate. " More spores alight from her porepods towards Zero.

"I almost believe that- but... I'm a determined, irrepressible and as my friend will tell you when she comes to- though I'm planning on kicking your ass before then." This time Zero sneers as she simultaneously cheers Elia on.

.o0(Come on Elia! We don't have time for this- this Martian Skank is about to blow us to smithereens.)

"I almost believe that- but... I'm a determined, irrepressible and as my friend will tell you when she comes to, 'very difficult ot deal with'**- though I'm planning on kicking your ass before then." This time Zero sneers as she simultaneously cheers Elia on.

.o0(Come on Elia! We don't have time for this- this Martian Skank is about to blow us to smithereens.)

Mechanica shows no reaction to Zero's cheering. It may be that she can't hear it anymore, or just can't react. Her mind thinks it's somewhere else entirely, while her body is frozen in the real world.

Mechanica is left to wander in a world reduced to rubble, overgrown by vines and plants. The flora has reclaimed the cities, and all that's left is the forest. "Madre de dios...donde estoy?" she mutters to herself as she thinks she's taking a few steps towards the grass-strewn rubble. She tries to listen for birds, animals, people. "Hello?" she calls out as she flicks on her radar to try and search for any radio signals.

"Woah..." Zero says, taking a step back as the world lurches and shifts around her. All the plantlife seems to leap forward, growing overgrown & unmanaged in the blink of an eye.

She struggles to maintain a visual lock on her target. But - boy its pretty here. Seems like a nice quiet place where one could get a lot of meditation done. Part of her would really like to stay but... she still has much to do.

"Hello?!" She shouts, "This is a clever trick! But I'll see through it... youjusgivmeaminuteortwo." The last said rapidly and almost in a whisper to sooth herself.

She begins humming an old nursery rhyme- one she learned as a little girl. It helped her focus her talents.

Zero sees as the veil is lifted, thanks in part to her nursery rhyme. The skills learned at the Conservatory have come in handy again, now that she's not at the top of her psionic game. She stiffles the proud part of her inside that wants to scream out at the indignity of falling to such.

She begins strolling around 'aimlessly', still swinging her Meteor Flail. She turns her back on the Blue-Brain-Buzzard and closes her eyes- falling back on her sixth sense.

She turns quickly, snapping her waist, hips and wrists to put everything hse has into the suckerpunch.

This time the impact is even more solid and very displeasing to Nightshade. It is also enough to knock her free of the microbot swarm that has become complacent and stagnant in Mechanica's ...absence. Once more, her blue butt is put onto the green grass.

Her red eyes go momentarily wide, but then they narrow again. And once more, there is that ...smile from someone more imitating the expression than having evolved with it.

"Goodbye, mammal."

Roots and grass where she lies suddenly rises up over her, before pulling her down into and through the ground.

Not signal. No satellite. Civilization may as well be dead. Mechanica spins around slowly to look around her. This is the world that alien wants.

Zero reaches out for the very racist/specist visitor. She's slam her flail into the ground if she thought it'd help- but she doesn't, fearing causing harm to something that isn't Cerulean.

Mechanica, meanwhile, is still trapped in her own mind while her body remains frozen. The mountain of microbots, with no mind to control them, drop to the ground and scatter out, remaining where they fall and bounce.

Zero turns on her heel and marches back for Mechanica. "What am I supposed to tell you?" She sighs before reaching forward to jolt Mechanica loose.

.o0(Snap out of it... she's getting away!)