Log:Rigor Morphus

2019/11/04 	 Spirit Allison Paragon Annie Sentinel Starlight Breach Porter Thunder

1

While continuing to work on Porter, although by now he's out of danger and Starlight is doing her version of a 12,000 mile checkup, she asks loudly without looking away from Porter, "Did anyone else think that was too easy?"

Paragon walks over to Starlight and Porter, blood on her hands from trying to staunch Portennant's bleeding. "...nothing about this was easy," she says hollowly, staring down at her Porter.

Sentinel is stopped by that comment. "Too easy?" He says scoffing. "Lady if that was too easy, then I'm the Queen of Riddersholm. NegaPorter has been a pain in our sides for years now."

"Eeeehhhhhhhh," is Breach's unenthusiastic response to Starlight's question. He may be distracted by investigating the area for bombs. Or traps. Or bombs and traps. Or trapped bombs.

Paragon hear Porter's voice inside her head: << You can at least sense him, now, thought he's not conscious. That's better than before. >>

Starlight nods, still without looking around, "Yes. So I understand. And yet he locked himself in here with us, with no evident escape plan, and couldn't even neutralize me. Something just doesn't feel right about that."

Paragon slowly takes a knee by Porter, giving Starlight room to work. "I can at least sense his mind now, even though he's unconscious. I couldn't before." Her eyes dim at a realization. "Does that mean he was...?"

Nega-Porter/Portennant/NotMeTheOtherGuy still lies where he fell. Someone, somewhere in the mix of people about at least was nice enough to drape a sheet over him. Decency, or maybe they were just tired of seeing that frozen, smug grin.

Starlight spares a moment to look at Paragon, "No. He wasn't dead. Just gravely wounded and deeply unconscious. I'm good but except in controlled circumstances I cannot revive the departed."

Paragon lets out a sigh of relief. She looks over to the sheet-covered tyrant, then looks around for the one who ended him.

Breach is over there. No, no. More to the left. Yes, him. He's busily inspecting the area for signs of suspicious treachery.

Telepathic message from Paragon to Porter: << Sensing their connection again, she feels some weight lifted from her still heart. Even if he's still unconscious, she still thinks, "Sweetie, I'm here. You'll be okay soon. I'm sorry I couldn't keep you safe." >>

Thunder himself is pretty much just doing some clean up. Coming back to the room a few times to go to another corridor here and there. The fact that he was pretty much just going through groups of what's left of enemy soldiers was probably the most people were getting of reports about him right now. Along with his questioning when they were heading back to Earth.

Paragon keeps an eye on Breach as she rises up again and walks towards Antigon to make sure she's shut down for the moment.

There is a sudden gasp or twelve from people working (or mostly milling and/or celebrating) in the bay. Then a scream or three. Maybe a faint. Looking over towards the sound, the likely cause of the sounds is rather apparent.

The sheet-covered dead tyrant is now sitting upright. They don't normally do that. Do they?

"Can I get a tech?" calls Breach, pulling a small piece of alien tech out from behind a console near the machinery section of the rather huge room. He sets it down cautiously and peers at it, trying to figure out what he's looking at. For the moment, he's not immediately aware of the risen Tyrant... Which spares everyone from him making Resident Evil references.

Thunder has just been passing by, trying to avoid that. And well... /that/ catches his attention. Blinking a few times, Thunder makes his way over. The first thought is if this is some sort of magic. The second one, check to make sure if it's undead. He moves over to pull the sheet to see just what the hell is going on now. 'Cause... teenager, horror references, and well... he's fairly sure next to the other heroes, he's able to take whatever might be coming out from under the sheet. Maybe.

The benefits of 360 degree vision. Starlight waves a arm in the direction of the risen to sit Negaporter, "I said it was too easy."

Sentinel flash steps to NegaPorter, eyes ablaze as he prepares to put this revenant down again.

He scans the body with his energy senses to see if we've got a heart beat. IF so- well he's going to put two laser beams through both hemisphers of his brain.

"Too...late," Paragon repeats aloud, then leaps over towards the risen sheet. She's trying to get to him before he has a chance to escape.

He's uncovered by Thunder, now revealed to wear a giant smile. Not smug, per se, but ...excited... giddy? Arms are thrown up in the air and he ...whoops...?

"YES! That slick snoot was right! That was the most ARID. SHICK. EVER!!"

He ...giggles, and then looks to grab Thunder... in a hug?

Griffin let's loose eyebeams at Porternant's Head- fully charged- maximum deadly. He's grimacing already- and about to call his Army Bro to help him finish the job for real.

Well, there's only one response to that from Thunder. The hug is answered by a nice, big punch. A super strong punch at that. "ZOMBIE!" Yells the teen. What the hell? Thunder looks scared and confused.

"I take personal offense to the use of the word Zombie," Paragon states to Thunder, trying to understand the strange behavior. "A ...trick." In time for Halloween?

"Hey!"

Breach looks up at the shout of 'zombie'.

"It's called "differently animated" and I would thank you not to use the z-word."

Portennant's head isn't so rude as to block Sentinel's vision, laser or otherwise. It politely just ...separates, into a brief dougnut shape to let the beam pass by. His flesh turns mostly not solid, to, letting Thunder's punch just sort of ...squish through.

He looks to Sentinel with a frown. Sentinel's frown, even, as Portennant becomes Sentinel, replete with glowing eyes. "Don't you know it's rude to stare at people?"

Thunder pulls his fist back rather quickly, taking a few steps back. "What the hell?" He's not much caring about the whole use of the z-word. They've been calling him kid for a bit, after all. Then he tries another tactic instead. Bringing his stance to solid, he thrusts a palm out, sending a wave of pure sound at the undead clone thingie that punching didn't seem to work so well. That thing needs to go away a bit.

Paragon stands frozen in horror. She's having to watch too many people with Porter's face get decimated. She's thankful when It changes. "Where IS he?" she demands.

Griffin takes a step forwards. "OH- that is not good." He says before clenching his jaw again.

He activates his Coronal Mantle and beging sot move towards Porternant-Not and Thunder, trying to keep this likely Annie-clone between them so his mantle will only effect her.

Portennant-turned-Sentinel looks to Paragon, and becomes her, even. Save that she has a red bow on one side of her helm and a black one the other. The 'faceplate' opens to reveal that wonderful visage from before. At least there's no tongutacle. Though it is smiling.

"Him? He's long gone. No idea where to."

Paragon takes a step back from the horrific visage. It's very unsettling seeing your own face look that way. "And he left you behind."

Glancing at the others, Thunder asks the important question, "How long have you been copying him? And just what the hell are you?"

"... Oh. Oh good. I was afraid you finally got yourself killed, chica," intones Breach as he finally starts putting pieces together in his brain. Breach looks down at the alien tech again before looking back toward the Annie. "You are the you from this universe, right?"

Starlight answers that, "A mesamorph. Shapeshifter. Mimic."

Red/Black lifts her gauntleted hands as Griffin comes in all aglow. "Hey, easer there, hot stuff. We don't know where he's at." Then the smile grows wider. "But it was great, wasn't it! That's the most fun we've had in forever!" She claps once with a CLUNK. "You all were all so excited, al running like 'ooh, moon's going to fall on my head', and then the pewpew laser ships, and the..." She rambles, using her hands to help illustrate some of the moon-fally and ship pewpewy parts.

Paragon is having trouble processing all of this. "This is not a game," she intones flatly, starting to walk towards Red/Black. "People sacrificed to end this."

Griffin bristles as Maybe-Our-Annie's commentary on the whole experience. "Thousands of people died outside, getting here. To you." He says grimly as he thinks about what all they've been through getting here- him personally dropping drop pods full of soldiers for what very well may have been a suicide mission. He cna't help but feel responsible for them- its part of the job.

He feels especially responsible since he's been more lenent on Annie than the otehr NextGen Vat-Grown Slugmonsters- like Alpha who he was planning on vaporizing on site.

Breach takes a seat on the deck plates. He doesn't really know what's going on anymore, so he's just going to take a seat and watch.

Thunder shakes his head. "Damn it. I knew she was trouble." Thunder turns and heads out of the room, growling as he goes. "I'm getting a shuttle back to Earth now. I need to get off this place before I try to seriously hurt that thing." He thumbs at what might be Annie. He looks to the others, "Someone tell me if you managed to contain it or do something to it. 'Cause I seriously am starting to hate it. You can't even tell what side it's on for that matter."

Annie-gon pffts. "They weren't even looking for US, they were looking for HIM." A shift back to Portennant to clarify. He looks between Paragon and Sentinel. "But that what made it so much more EXCITING! So FUN! Everybody going about the dull, daily, same old same old and then WHAM! Totally different! People got to fly into space! Battle aliens! Blow sh!t up! Suck vacuum! Thing they never would've got to do before! We got the whole planet to party!"

Starlight finally turns on Annie(?). "Tell that to the dead and dying outside." she says in a cold disguised voice.

Paragon tries not to slow as she approaches even after Annie-gon transforms into that Porter again. "You are going to face justice for your crimes. You have one chance to surrender." Because she almost always has to give one warning.

Sentinel takes a long, deep breath as he tries to get a grip on what's happening and whether or not this is even an Annie from their world. Sure sounds like her. That is to say, crazier than all the Asylums in the US combined.

He's about to say as much, likely prefaced with "Annie- I think you've taken your fun and games too far this time..." but Paragon says everything required so he just folds his arms and floats up off the deck as his coronal mantle snaps and pops as it ionizes the air around him.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Put on a good show, but everyone's a critic... but Ok." A shrug. "We had enough fun for now. Besides, it wouldn't be nearly as exciting now that everone's all in on it. We just gotta do ONE thing, first." NotReallyPortennant looks around, form shifting into a blonde teen in a white bikini. "We're looking for a friend. He maybe came up here with everybody else." She leans towards Paragon to stage whisper "We wanna surprise him!"

"A...friend?" Paragon's eyes blink off and on. "You are not going to just escape," she says, reaching to try and grab for the now blonde girl's upper arm.

Griffin flashsteps to the bulkhead door console and flips (reverse) the switches he flipped to open the door previously.

Annie has an arm. That gets grabbed! Though its a much cuter arm that Paragon's big metal muscley ones!

Paragon tries to keep a firm hold. "You are under citizen's arrest for...Treason, aggravated assault, aiding and abetting," Paragon starts rattling a list...

Griffin leaps towards the bulkhead door, snagging Thunder en route and tossing him out before it closes. Annie - in any incarnation isn't for kids. She's a mind-bender/breaker at best- deadly at worst. He won't have a child's blood on his hands today. He already has all those outside to account for.

"So, it's treason then," mutters Breach to himself. He peers over at Annie and Paragon, but he remains seated on the floor off to the far end/side of the room.

"Lets get her in a cell and let someone else figure it out." Griffin says with a hint of Rick's grouchiness. He's not pleased with the situation.

Starlight has completed restoring all the physical damage to Porter and switches to reviving him from unconsciousness.

Paragon has a blonde teen in a bikini top held by her upper bicep, having just made a citizen's arrest. She moves to grab her other arm to get Annie's hands behind her back. The heroes are in a room admidship, a few hundred meters deep, where the tractor machinery controlling the moon is located. A few large blast-resistant hatch doors were open and are starting to close again to contain Annie. Starlight is tending to an unconscious Porter near one of the entrance hatches.

Griffin keeps his coronal mantle up and he slides to teh side to make sure he's at teh center of the opening as the bulkhead closes.

Breach continues to sit at the far end of the room. He disarmed himself, voluntarily, after Paragon threatened to arrest him.

Griffin flash steps to the Great Breach-oo's Magic Kit and kicks it over to his Army Bro. Even if that was Porternant- he has no intentions on letting his bestfriend be locked up for doing what was required. He'd love for someone- even Paragon to try to tell him differnt.

"I'll step in if it's necessary, Griff," replies Breach, "But you guys look like you've got her under control."

"We need meta-level restraints and power dampeners if available," Paragon intones as she holds the uncharacteristically cooperative Annie.

Paragon radios that request to any official comms she can connect to.

Annie looks over at the grumpy gus in the corner. "Aww, you can step on over!" She even runs over to grab him by the hand (her arms gooping through Paragon's grip), so she can try to take Breach with her. Back to where she's a prisoner.

Paragon's eyes blink off and on as Annie just slips through her fingers. "Problem identified..."

"Afraid that's not really in my tool kit," says Breach at Paragon's request.

And then there is an Annie dragging him across the floor over to Paragon.

If anyone could see the look of horror and confusion on Breach's face right now...

Starlight pipes up, "You can assume this chamber is proof against that. Otherwise we'd have had several more heroes in here with us."

Paragon looks around to make sure the room is sealed. "Hopefully you are correct, Starlight," she says, sounding weary and uncertain. "Let us hope backup arrives to help restrain this one," she says before marching over to where Porter and Starlight are. "Thank you for your help saving him, Starlight," she says gently.

Starlight smiles tirely, "I'm glad to have helped. Glad I was here."

Paragon takes a knee beside Porter, gently resting a hand on his shoulder. She studies him a moment before looking up to Starlight. "So am I."

Spirit has broken off from the the other portion of the forces to come check on how things are going here. He flies through a few walls, and comes into view near one of the catwalks.

Paragon glances up towards the angelic looking figure. "Spirit, you've made it," she states in relief. "We need your assistance restraining someone that can't be physically contained. We've sealed ourselves in here to prevent their escape. The evil James Porter was never truly here." She points to Annie. "She was impersonating him."

Spirit raises a brow and floats over, becoming more solid as he does so. "I need more details than that. Where IS this alternate Porter that supposedly did all this? And...how is she involved, again?"

"Unknown," replies Breach to Spirit. He looks mystified and is seated on the floor near Annie.

"We haven't located him. The moon's descent has been halted after we fought here to gain access to the machine. Allison is currently working on learning the systems to put the moon back into full proper orbit," Paragon points out to Allison off by the alien tech. "This place was defended by what we thought was James Porter and three Paragons, but it was a ruse. He's supposedly long gone, according to the blonde girl in a bikini. She ...considers all this to be fun and games."

Paragon gently scoops up her Porter to carefully prop him up, now that he's fully healed. She nods her head towards a fallen Paragon with a pink metal bow bolted onto her helm. "That alternate of me is disabled for the moment."

Spirit tilts his head, "She looks familiar. She's from our dimension, right? So...how did she manage to do all of this? Or did he do it and left her behind to take the fall?"

"Uncertain," Paragon responds to which dimension this Annie is from. "Most likely she is just one of his agents. Or was his proxy so he wouldn't expose himself to capture."

Paragon explains, "She's a shapeshifter. Tough. Also able to shift around my grip. I couldn't hold her.

"I'm pretty sure that she's the one from our dimension," agrees Breach. He grits his teeth and starts to climb to his feet, watching Annie cautiously while he does so. "Seems to have been employed to keep an eye on operations up here so that he could bugout."

"I have a recording of her confession in my systems," Paragon offers as she delicately holds onto her Porter.

Spirit nods. "Can I see it?"

Annie was occupying herself poking idly at Breach's back. Now that he stands up, she's lost her latest amusement. That means she now notices Spirit's question and raises her hand. "Ooh! OOh! We know that one! We didn't do all this, it was him. He was the rich snoot. We were just the ... contigency plan!"

Paragon radios what's in her memory systems from the incident. It's just sound at the moment, cut from excerpts:

In Porter's giddy voice, "YES! That slick snoot was right! That was the most ARID. SHICK. EVER!!"He ...giggles.

In Paragon's voice, "Him? He's long gone. No idea where to." And then, "Hey, easer there, hot stuff. We don't know where he's at. But it was great, wasn't it! That's the most fun we've had in forever! You all were all so excited, al running like 'ooh, moon's going to fall on my head', and then the pewpew laser ships, and the...". A pause. "They weren't even looking for US, they were looking for HIM."

And then in Porter's voice again, "But that what made it so much more EXCITING! So FUN! Everybody going about the dull, daily, same old same old and then WHAM! Totally different! People got to fly into space! Battle aliens! Blow sh!t up! Suck vacuum! Thing they never would've got to do before! We got the whole planet to party!"

Paragon's eyes dim after the transmission. "A computer tech will be able to get the full video and audio from my systems later," she explains.

Spirit nods slowly and floats over to Annie, "Which dimension are you from? This one? Or another?"

Annie giggles at Paragon's playback. "We liked that part!" Then she looks to Spirit and his question. "This one. Maybe? What does the other one look like?"

Spirit looks more closely at Annie. "I recognize you, I think. What case did you help the police with within the last couple of months?" He knows the answer already, of course. The body-jumping meta. But if Annie doesn't know it...well, likely not the local one. This is assuming his memory is correct from the briefing he read.

Griffin floats towards Spirit, Paragon & the others now that the door is clsoed. He offers the Commander a fistbump while he lsitens.

Spirit was feeling a little formal, and Griffin managed to call him on it, effectively. He does return the fistbump, all the same.

Annie rolls her eyes. Very well, even, since they look to do a full 360 in their sockets. "We don't really help the police. They're boring most of the time. Except when they're shooting people, maybe?" She rolls her shoulders, now. "Unless they're shooting us, then that's right back to boring."

Spirit says to Paragon, "She's probably not our version. I think she's more addled than our version, I think. Based on reports and what I've seen personally over the years. We'd need an expert to be entirely sure. But either way, it sounds like we need to get her in custody. And the best place would likely be Tranquility for now. I expect her power set is such that holding her planetside would be more difficult."

Griffin nods. "I can't imagine a crazier Annie." He mumbles, looking shocked though he's grateful it wasn't their reality's version.

Paragon nods at Spirit's assessment. "How do we even transport her?"

Spirit says, "Space suit, probably? I can carry her, but I don't have the ability to give her life support."

"Might have to keep her in here for a little bit until we can get a proper pressure suit or personal forcefield device for her," suggests Breach. He looks over at Annie again and inquires, "Unless you're pretty much space-adapted too?"

Paragon nods. "She was able to physically slip out of my grip. It was like holding onto water. Chen Li is capable of something similar."

Spirit nods. "She might slip out of my grip in space, but that's...not really smart. Unless she can survive in space...and come up with a way to propel herself someplace. The former is more likely than the latter."

"Uh... excuse us..." Annie speaks up. "We've walked out onto cargo ships in space before." She leans over to Spirit and holds her hand up to whisper, "Especially ones smuggling kids. Thought they could get away with it. We made them wrong."

Spirit nods and shrugs, "So, you proved my point? You can survive in space. Can you propel yourself once you're floating?"

Annie waggles her hand. "Ehh... not so great. Wings don't work so well without air."

Spirit nods slowly. "Right."

Paragon's eyes dim. "I'm doubtful of your willingness to just surrender," Paragon states. She's still staying at Porter's side for now, keeping him gently propped up in her arms.

Spirit thinks about it. "The best thing would be to get a containment team from Tranquility over here. I know they're busy, though."

Paragon nods to Spirit. "If I can be of any assistance, let me know. Though I fear I cannot contain her, as I've already failed to do so," she offers helpfully. Paragon also seems preoccupied to Porter, who's lightly armored suit has a very large hole opened up at his chest. It's...mess, yes, but the wound is healed up.

Something suddenly occurs to Paragon and she turns her head to Annie. "You. You threatened him. And her. Is he planning on harming my daughter?" she asks, that measured tone loses its objectivity.

Spirit nods. "I think...I should go get one of their containment pods that's used for hot sleep transport, assuming they have any available. That'll be the safest way to transport her. She won't be able to get out of it once it's activated."

Paragon nods to Spirit. "That sounds like a wise decision, Commander," she agrees.

Annie looks to Paragon and shrugs. "That was him, not us. He was just giving us hints on what to say." Then her casual is interupted as she darts in to Paragon to ask, with big puppy eyes. "We were scary, right?!"

Spirit radios over to the prison to see if they had a pod available for transport of the prisoner.

"You were terrifying," Paragon agrees in a deadpan tone. "You said you had a friend aboard. Does he also work for ...the snoot?"

"Don't think so. He's too much of a lame wuss to do anything this exciting. Kinda dull, kinda silly, but ... grows on you?" Annie shrugs. "You know?" She doesn't know if Paragon does or not, though that does remind her to look around...

Paragon doesn't know, really. Except for the silly part, and growing on you. She holds Porter a little closer.

Paragon thinks a few moments. "If they're dull, what makes you think they're on board?" she asks Annie.

Annie waves a hand around at all the people. "Bet most of the people here were dull until a day ago. Maybe he went and Ro-ed out, too?"

"A soldier, then?" Paragon asks, hoping to get Annie to reveal more about herself.

After more questions, the heroes take Annie to Tranquility and begin the task of righting the moon and recovering their fallen.