Riftgate 2 - Surlan's Holocaust 5

Through the Riftgate
The riftgate brings the heroes to a location in the ruins of Colonial Bay City on Drifter's dimension. Rubble blocks the streets around the area. Every building in sight is a blasted shell, skeletonal walls jutting upwards and the western facing surfaces glazed into iridescent ceramic by nuclear fire. Burnt out cars and fire charred human skeletons lay scattered in every direction. Not very far from the riftgate itself the twisted rusting remains of a multi-legged robotic war machine the size of a small battle tank are hanging from a second floor window space.

To the north, about three or four miles away at its nearest point, a force dome bubble can be seen, an opaque hemispherical globe of shimmering energy at least ten miles in diameter. A much smaller force dome that's just a few hundred feet in diameter is visible closer to the riftgate, the hemispherical opaque globe located in the approximate direction of the University Hospital on the heroes' home dimension.

Scene Start
After the fight against the killer war machine, and Karlie's transforming it into a ball of tangled metal, the group can gather itself and decide what to do next.

Not taking chances, Karlie is doing much more than making it a tangled metal ball. She's extracting all of the metal from it, leaving behind any plastics or rubbers or ceramics that might be found, while the group gathers itself and figures out what to do next. Once all of the metal is gathered, it is changed into a number of foot-long metal rods which are bundled together magnetically.

Devil Dog steps through the rift gate and materializes in the new area, commenting into it as soon as he arives at the new world, "DD just jumped through..." he looks about as he steps into the middle of the street, searching for his temporary comrades, "Need an idea of where you are. Might be dying from radiation poisoning soon, lets find out." This being said he stops transmitting, waiting for a reply and glancing over his shoulder for his team mate...

The somewhat loud humming sound from not far off might tip Devil Dog off as to where Karlie is.

Back at the riftgate where Devil Dog stepped throught a small boy with large teddy bear is examining the remote probe that TransMat sent through first. Hearing Devil Dog's arrival the boy awkwardly limps around to hide behind the probe peeking out to look.

Flyne idly is looking around, using both its compond eyes and its antennae...And then hears DD through the communicator. Flyne thinks for a second... then its calf muscles become less bulky as well as its claws fade away as wings sprout from its back. Flyne takes to the area above their location, and looks to see if it can establish line of sight with DD. It then talks into its transmitter, "Flyne is hovering above the area we are at. You can use Flyne to find your way."

(David: This young boy is probably about ten years of age. He's limping, his left leg twisted awkwardly and unable to support his weight. A broken branch has been cut to act as a crutch and is tucked under his shoulder and held tight in his left hand. In his right hand is held a battered teddy bear almost half his size. The boy is thin from malnourishment and disfigured by old badly healed burn scars over much of the left side of his face. He's wearing grubby shorts and a torn Grateful Dead tee-shirt and has a small knife tucked into his belt.)

Loupy steps through with DD and looks around, paws going to his pockets as he looks the place over. "How charming..." he says under his breath, then eyes the remains of the war machine stuck in the buildings. "Oh.. kay, what did I volunteer for again?" as he looks to him. He's here to make sure DD behaves, as the authorities for the gate asked him to do. not that he needs to do much.

Karlie looks up at Flyne's actions, "What're you doing?" she asks, her tone calm.

Devil Dog glances over at the kid peaking out at him, studying the youngster with his glowing red eyes. After a moment he looks away, not interested, and sprouts his flaming wings with a a 'woosh!' of roaring flames. Into his com he responds simply with, "I'm easy to spot, I'll go up myself, send up a...Beacon." The last word is said with some amount of amusement. "You can fly, right?" he asks Loupy.

Loupy nods, then smirks as he looks to DD, "dumb question." he shakes his head, laughing softly and then pulls out a white bead from his belt pouches, holding it in his fingers and casting a quick word of power, breaking it.. on his back a phantasmal pair of angelic wings appear. "ready?"

The child ducks back into cover behind the TransMat probe and crouches down.

Devil Dog grunts to Loupy, crouches a bit, and throws himself into the air. Flapping his fire wings he starts to accelorate into the air, heading high up, probably 300 M or more so that his flames will be easily spotted from a distence.

Rebound finds a place to takes some cover for a bit, as he speaks over the communicator. "Hey guys. We're not too far from the gate. Keep a low profile - they have these hunter-killer robot tanks on patrol." He tries to describe how to get to their current location.

"Flyne is going to try to give DD a way of finding us..." Flyne states over the communicator. Flyne takes notice of DD's flight. Flyne then states over the communcator, "Flyne thought well already got rid of that..."

With flaming wings beating Devil Dog takes to the sky, climbing up over the tallest of the ruined buildings. Then a ruby laser beam strikes down from the empty sky at him.

"I uh. Think you're too late," Karlie tells Rebound. She looks at Flyne, "Tell him to set down and stop ... attracting lasers," she sighs.

From the technicians monitoring the readings from the remote probe a radio message, "The satellite radar signals just spiked to higher intensity."

Loupy launches himself up into the air as well, following close but not to close. and he doesn't have the same NCM as DD has. As soon as he hears about hunter killers he grunts and says, "smoooth move.. just like terminator now," He yeeps at the beam and drops down, quickly aiming for shelter from anything else airborne by ducking into the building through a ruined window. He's not sticking around for that one! "Get down ya fool!" shaking his head...

Flyne considers things..."Maybe we should make our way back to the riftgate, or have one of us head back to guide them here?" Flyne offers, heading back down itself, and letting its wings merge back into its body and letting it claws and leaping muscles return.

Karlie begins moving toward where the laser beam blasted down, noting how much it isn't like a laser in that it's a big red beam. "Stay here. I'll gather them and meet up."

Devil Dog takes the beam full on the back and is sent spinning downward a few M before he flairs his wings, and then coasts into the shadow of an overhang. Pulling up to hover he activates his com, clears his throat, and rasps into it amusedly, "I think they want to play. Got some sort of lasers shooting me, fun fun fun." The spector shakes his head a bit, glancing down at the street far below.

Devil Dog says into his comm, after a moment of pause, "Don't come back to us. Keep moving forward to a landmark and meet us there, we'll beat you to it. What are you headed toward?"

The child crouching behind the remote probe slashs at it with his free hand after the probe relays the radio message, tearing the side out and ripping apart the internal workings.

Karlie feels for the disctinct moving nature of metals found in the area again, even minute things to locate the Devil Dog and anyone else that was sent through. Preceding her is the humming noise as metal vibrates slightly.

Dropping the teddy bear the child watches as the teddy climbs up the side of the building where Loupy and Devil Dog have taken shelter from the aerial attack.

Feeling the kid's knife, Karlie moves toward that, quickly getting a sense of what it is exactly. Then near that, Devil Dog's own blades, his metal buttons and zipper... from there it's just a matter of locating his hiding spot.

Devil Dog grunts, calling over his shoulder to Loupy, "Saw a kid on the street and it looks like he's a hostile. Keep an eye out for our friends, I'm going to go see why he just cut off contact between us and our friends across the gate." Folding his wings, the hero dives down toward the street below, pulling his feet around to land with a heavy THUD in front of the kid who just tore up the probe, only 15 M away from the runt.

"Flyne thinks we might need all the help we get... We have no idea what we might find. The more numerous the stronger we are." Flyne states, sounding a bit frightened.

The teddy keeps climbing up towards Loupy. The child drops his crutch and darts forward in a fast run, claws emerging from his fingertips.

Loupy huffs and then looks around the ruined floor he's on, shaking his head and then walking towards the other side of building, highly annoyed now and unawares of the teddy quite yet. "I don't suppose we coulda picked a better vacation spot." as he stops at hearing about the kid. He just rolls his eyes and shakes his head a bit, then turns to walk back towards the window he came in by.

Devil Dog idly watches the kid charge him, standing calmly up from his crouch and shoving his hands into his pockets. "You don't want to open this can of worms, kid." He growls warningly.

The boy's claws slash across in front of Devil Dog as he evades them.

Devil Dog takes a single, simple step back away from the boy, and withdraws his right hand from his pocket, simply pointing it vaguely toward the kid, "Last chance." He growls, "Back off."

The roboy then just stops moving abruptly as a loud humming noise surrounds him, Karlie's doing probably. The teddy bear is noticed as well, and she moves to investigate that.

The teddy scambles over the window ledge a few meters from Loupy and detonates in a massive explosion.

A huge fireball climbs into the sky from back where the riftgate is located. On the ground Devil Dog and Karlie get rocked but not hurt. The top of the ruined building isn't there any more and large chucks of concrete are falling.

"Someone with you?" Karlie calls out to Devil Dog.

Rebound turns towards the sound of the explosion. "What the -- ?!" He starts bounding towards the where he thought thinks the source is. Over the comm he asks, "What's going on over there?"

Flyne also begins leaping toward the explosion as well, and mostly focusing on the said leaping.

Devil Dog responds casually into his radio, nodding toward Karlie, "bomb whent off on my partner, no word what happened to him, he should be reporting soon if he's alive." Making a soft growling sound, he turns his attention to the frozen boy before him, and asks aside to Karlie, com off,, "You stopped him, this kid a robot or is he a real boy?"

Loupy gets bounced! the fuzzy mage rolling through a bunch of debris and skidding to a halt at the other end of the floor... and he lays there, stunned for a moment.. the only words out of his muzzle? "owwwww..... can I get the number of that teddy that ran over me?"

"I can't stop real kids like that," Karlie responds. She floats up to where the explosion was, checking on Loupy, "Doesn't look too bad. You hear me?" Her senses are still /way/ active. She is not going off-alert with that development.

Rebound says over the comm: "Be careful... he might be a member of the local resistance. We don't want to burn any bridges we might need later on."

A strange voice comes up on the radio channel, "Stop transmitting you idiots. You'll get every killer mech in the area homing in on you."

Devil Dog glances down at the robo kid before him, grunts, and lets hellfire rush through his body. His muscles flexing and wings going a darker shade of red he throws one foot toward the kid's chest. Over his com as he does this he growls, "More mechs? Sounds like fun. I'm in the mood to play."

"No, we don't want more mechs," Karlie says. "Had enough of a headache dealin' with /one."

The boy is knocked free of the entangle and sent tumbling across the blasted roadway. Leaping to his feet he runs back slashing at Devil Dog again.

Three of the incredible sharp finger claws hit Devil Dog tearing across him.

With the impacts Devil Dog is hurled back into a pile of rubble.

"No idea if you comprehend me, but if you're not workin' with the overlords you're not working against us," Karlie says, that magnetic hum surrounding the area again, vibrating through the roboy. "Both of you cut that s!@# out b'fore I tear one of you apart and use the pieces to shred the other one."

"...ne'mind." Karlie says. "Kid's not remotely friendly." She moves over to him to grab from behind and hold him.

"Who were you talkin' to," Karlie asks of Devil Dog, even while trying to grab for the kidbot.

Loupy gets up and shakes himself off, then heads on over to the window, staggering a little but still up and moving. He eyes the fight and snarls a littl as he lifts a paw and aims it at the roboy, "Kiss lightning ya little shiet..." as he crushes a bead in one paw.. and a ball of lighting appears in his paw for a moment before lashing out to hit the ground that the boy is standing on..

The electric arcs crawl over the boy burning off false flesh to reveal the terminator like skeleton underneath but there seems no loss of functionality.

Devil Dog shoves rubble off of himself and flaps his wings once, coming to his feet. "Damn kids." He growls out, blood oozing down his front from the clawed shreds of his shirt and coat. "Think I'm gonna rip his arms off." Karlie gets no responce from the spector, his attention having locked on the kid who is struck by a ball of flashing lightning and revealed to be a robot. throwing himself forward into the air he flaps his wings once, lands crouched a short distence from the kid, and snaps his hand out. A flaming whip materializes and sweeps quickly toward the bot, attempting to smack it out from in front of Karlie. "Stay out from in front of it, going to change tactics." He growls out to the girl.

The mech skeleton is badly crushed down one flank by the impact, bringing one arm to an abrupt halt.

The mech killing machine darts towards Devil Dog and uses the undamaged hand to slash at him.

Karlie floats over to the boy again, "How 'bout we grab hold of it and pound it," Karlie suggests simply.

Devil Dog growls out into his com, "Someone hold this thing still so I can tear it apart, I'm not going to keep getting lucky hits."

"Kay," Karlie says, focusing a much more subtle influence over the roboy, carefully working what she can do to impede it at just the right moment...

Loupy growls a bit under his breath and then loads up a stonger version of his lightning spell, a well and true lightning bolt. He aims at the roboy for a moment.. and waits, trying to time his attack for just after DD attacks and has it's undivided attention.

Devil Dog hits the ground after being slashed again and immediatly jack-knifes to his feet, seeming pissed. Throwing himself over the Mech's head he twists in the air and lands behind it, putting himself between it and Karlie. Bringing his right palm point blank behind the thing's head, he summons up the hellfire from his body and attempts to blast it face-down into the dirt.

The blast does no damage but it knocks the mech boy down to the ground.

Devil Dog roars out, not using his comm, "Blast it damn it!"

Loupy unloads the lightning bolt the moment it hits the ground, a snarl coming from the werewolf as he nails the sucker with a tried and true lightning bolt...

"We need t'take care of this now," Karlie says. "Two much bigger spider-things that're equipped to each deal with a bunch of us incoming."

The lightning bolt envelops the mech, frying circuits and fusing joints. The mech jerks and then stops moving.

"Warn th' others to stay down an' two spider mechs incoming," Karlie says. "We move now."

Loupy snarls... but sastified. Teddie answered for.. a few moments later he disappears from his post and reappears near DD and Karlie, next to the beast and then gives it a good solid kick.. NOW, he's happy. "lets go.. tell me where and I'll teleport us."

Loupy says, "Direction and distance?"

Devil Dog nods his head over to loupy and cocks his head, listening hard to see if he can hear the spiders coming and figure out from which way, "If you can't figure out which way your team mates are, you go rangle them up and head for the smaller of the domes, and I'll draw away the spiders, that's our plan B." He rasps.

"Good question. Let's just move. They don't track people who aren't around and I don't know safe spots by distance yet." Karlie says this, floating away from the incoming, the roboy being dragged along. She has plans for it. She looks at Devil Dog. "I know you hate bein' told what to do so just take what I say as a pretty sensible suggestion. You already drew enough attention to last us a week. Let's be quiet about things from here."

Loupy nods, "yea, and I don't wnat my hide on the wall 'cause you caused problems, ya hear?" with a grin as he pokes DD's chest. "Lets go," and tugs at DD's collar before heading off to find shelter and find the rest of the team.

"I can find the others. Just need time," Karlie says. "If you absolutely gotta face one of the spider mechs, it's got things pokin' out of it that you can break t'blind it. Let's try to avoid it though."

Devil Dog grunts and follows along after the others, his bleeding stomach healing up quickly as they move.

Rebound catches up with the others. "Any idea where the voice over the radio came from?"

"So from what I gather," Karlie says, once everyone is hooked up, "They don't communicate what they find. Else we'd be swarming by now. What voice?"

Rebound says, "The guy who warned us to get off of the comms."

Loupy says, "no idea.. but I be willing to bet we'll see something soon as something like that, has got to interest them."

Devil Dog grunts his agreement with Rebound, staring down at a tear in his leather coat, "Damn kids." He growls, maybe not even paying attention.

"I don't got a comm," Karlie says. "Useless for me. I'd just keep it locked down." She looks at Loupy, "We took down a bigger one earlier, no response. It had plenty of time to send out a signal. Seems they're only monitoring signals and homing in on any they hear." The roboy is set at Rebound's feet. "Similar alloy to the spiders. It's been fried but if anyone can get intel from it, here's your chance. Other than overload it's pretty intact."

Loupy says, "eh.. sorry about the overload. It pissed me off..."

Rebound looks to Karlie. "Can it transmit? If not, let's take it with us. I don't have time to examine it now. I'm not quite as fast as Jade."

Karlie replies, "Right now it isn't capable of doing anything. It's a dead unit."

Devil Dog shakes his head a bit and looks up from his coat, asking the group in general, "We know if it has a tracker planted in it?"

Karlie deeply looks into the thing for anything active.

Flyne shows up a while later, ending a leap in the general area of the party. Flyne stops for a few, and asks, "What happened?" Flyne looks to the Roboy...and sees if it notices anything odd about it with its special senses.

"Nothing's active. If it had a tracker it's not working." Karlie says.

Loupy says, "Yea.. I did a pretty through job on it," as he crouches down and pokes at it again, "So, whats the plan?"

Rebound wraps his hand around the Roboy wreckage. "Ok, let's get out of here."

"Well, we're on a scouting mission, weren't supposed to be detected, but uh. I think we crossed that line." Karlie says that too.

Devil Dog grunts, then turns to walk back in the direction he saw Rebound run up from, saying offhandedly, "I appologize. Ifya know where we're goin though, Loupy can probly take us there. We saw a coupla domes in the distence, that what we're after?"

Karlie looks to Loupy and Devil Dog, "Guessing you guys weren't briefed before y'came through. Someone at Transmat's gonna have some explainin' to do."

Loupy says, "Yea, pretty much.. all I know is DD wanted to go, they called me up and asked me to baby sit him to make sure he behaves. Didn't tell me much else."

Karlie begins moving, carrying with them the much LARGER mass of metal rods that she made from the spider mech.

"We should find the source of that voice." Flyne states, looking from direction to direction. "If anyone, they should know something about this place."

Karlie nods. "Devil Dog, you're already known, probably got seen from pretty far off, s'why the satellite hit. We need t'contact that voice. Move to a far off point, get a location, tell us, then move quiet and meet us there," she indicates a highly visible landmark.

Loupy looks to the landmark to gauge the distance... paw over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

Karlie looks at the others. "Turn radios off for now."

Devil Dog reaches up and casually flips his comm off, continuing on his way toward the domes, seeing as he got no answer on where they should be going.

Karlie looks thoughtful. "Slight order problem. Tell us after you get to us, that is."

Flyne nods to the first part, then shakes its head to the second. "We should leave our radios on. What if they say something again?"

Loupy says, "Hey, DD, come back.. I think I can teleport us there easily."

"For all I know they can track th' radio destination unless it's shielded," Karlie says. "So for now, we keep them off and only one of us makes contact."

Rebound looks to Karlie. "Sounds good. Once we're situated, I'll take a look at the robot kid."

Devil Dog grunts, then, motions to the landmark that is far off, and says aside to Karlie, flipping his radio back on. "You go there, with Loupie, I'll make contact."

Devil Dog continues to walk randomly away from the group, heading in a more or less northern direction.

Karlie nods. "Let's move."

Flyne nods, and turns it off. Flyne looks toward the said highly visible landmark. Flyne looks to Karlie, and nods.

Karlie mentally facepalms. She's the responsible adult here.

Loupy says, "Damnit DD, you know damn well I'm suppose to keep an eye on you..." and growls a bit.. then shakes his head, "Great..." as he glares at DD again."

Rebound says, "I thought the point was to /not/ use the comms. Let's stick together."

There's the start of a transmission from TransMat just before you turn off your radios. Presumably they sent a second remote probe through. The transmission last barely a second before it's cut off.. and in the distance you hear the sound of autocannons firing.

Karlie looks at Loupy. "I trust him to do this."

Devil Dog speaks into his radio as he walks, "This is Devil Dog, from another dimension, attempting to make contact with all hostile and nonhostile life on this planet. Hello, how are you?" He rolls his eyes mentally and keeps walking, "If you're in trouble I'm willing to help, I got contacted by a man named Drifter, Over."

Loupy 's ears perk as he hears the autocannons, then says, "fuck it... hold hands," as he reaches out to take the hands of the two next to him.

Karlie looks back at the autocannons sound. "Bad news, I think we're gonna need timing to get back since they're not gonna keep the gate open."

Rebound looks back at the sound of gun fire. He looks to Loupy. He takes his hand.

"What are those noises?" Flyne asks, idly.

Loupy says, "Trouble."

Flye nods and gets into a battle stance. Flyne scans the area using its smell to try to detect anything unsual...

"It's not trouble for us directly," Karlie says. "It's at the gate, and they aren't gonna leave it open for now. If we go back there it's just going to mean more trouble for us in an immediate sense."

Rebound says, "A Hunter-Killer Spider Tank, I'm guessing, like the one that tried to kill us earlier."

Karlie says, "Two."

Loupy begins incanting... eyes closed and a blue disk of magic forms at everyone's feet that's within easy range of him. anyone whose outside of it is liable to be left behind... the air seems to pick up a bit of a static charge as well, causing hair and fur to stand on end. (phase one of mega teleport)

Karlie mutters. She steps to the teleport zone.

Flyne suddenly looks rather saddened...It doesn't like the prospect of being stranded here till further notice... Flyne looks to to the disks, and steps onto one.

Devil Dog continues to walk away from the group, and transmits again, "Repeat, this is Develdog, attempting to get into contact with life in this world. I've been sent to help by a mutant named Drifter...also, whoever keeps sending out the robots to kill us, I suggest you stop that before I rip your legs off." This last bit is sead with his typical, angry/annoyed tone.

Shortly after the disk forms and those that step on it do, the disk suddenly rises up into the air. as it passes over bodies the lower parts disappear into it.... a soft sound of air displacing is all that remains of the disk and the people that were on it as they reappear inside the landmark if possible, or close to it.

Nobody responds to Devil Dog's transmissions. Apart from a few huter-killers starting to home in on his location as he uses the communicator.

Devil Dog hrrms, stops walking, and transmits one final message, "This is Develdog, for one last message before radio silence. Upon the termination of this message you have one minute to get into contact with me before all transmitions sease. If you are sending the robots, I give you one final warning to stop. Stop. If your part of the resistence, or any other comunities here and you want to talk, leave me a message in a way I can find it, and I will talk to you. If I'm attacked by one more robot I'll topple your civilization and scatter the ashes, they're frustrating me. Over." Standing idly in the shadow of a building, he starts to mentally count out the minute.

Karlie looks around, "We uh... could have just moved here," she says, shrugging. "So now we wait for Devil Dog to return. As I said, I trust him in this."

Loupy says, "yea.. but that's a couple miles of distance to cover here." He huffs as he plops down on his rump and takes a breather, relaxing and waiting. "That took a bit out of me... my kids are smaller then you all."

The minute passes in silence. Although in the distance something moves. Something big, about the size of a spider-mech.

Devil Dog flips off his transmitter and starts to walk through the shadows, moving deeper into them to wait and see what, exactly, is coming at him. He doesn't assume it's a robot.

Flyne looks around the location that its been set, still having its combat stance. It keeps its antannae looking for anything...interesting. "Trusting him..." Flyne mutters, thinking of how negitively he has been downplayed..."Might not have been the best idea..." Flyne considers this for a second... After that, Flyne looks to Loupy, "Even Flyne?" Flyne asks, curious of this.

"Okay. I'm not an expert on teleportin'. But y'may want to wait for emergency to do that again. We weren't in danger." Karlie says calmly. "Unless someone's transmitting that we don't know about. I know for sure it wouldn't be me."

Loupy holds up a paw and says, "all it takes is one good hit and I'm out when I'm doing that.. so no, I can't do that in combat."

As the movement draws closer Devil Dog can see it more clearly, a squat torso on top of six spider like legs, with a turreted head sporting two large autocannons.

Rebound takes some time to examine the captured robot. He tries accessing its memory storage.

Devil Dog grunts softly, shakes his head, and mutters, "Warned you not to send any robots after me." This being said he explodes in a ball of flames and rush of hot air, appearing a good quarter mile away from where the landmark is his team waits beside. Launching himself into the air and sprouting his flaming wings he accelorates to his top speed of almost 90 MPH, moving low and in cover, so as to avoid drawing attention to his area.

Loupy looks to Flyne and says, "ok.. your not bigger than them," and pats Flyne's head before resting once more... waiting, watching the area.

Flyne giggles a bit, and nods. "Flyne is so small in relitive to humans...Though Earth has so much less gravity than Flyne's world."

The powerful laser beam from the orbiting satellite slams Devil Dog down and with his flight speed out of control he smashes through a ruined building from side to side before slamming into the ground and digging a long tench in the road surface.

Devil Dog grunts as he is hit with a giant laserbeam from the sky and tumbles through the air. Attempting to flair his wings and get airborn, he grunts simply again as he impacts with the concrete at 90 MPH and goes into a tumble, seriously road-rasshing himself. Eventually bouncing off a curb and sliding to a hault much further down the road he lies there, having smeared blood and a couple of his organs along the ground behind him, and lets out a quiet, "Alright... I'm pissed." His flaming wings pool around him and he sits there for a moment, then, amazingly starts to stand up, bones cracking back into place as he forces himself to his feet.

Loupy looks up as the beam lashes out and then sighs... "Anyone want to guess who that was?" with a roll of his eyes. "I'll go get'em.."

Flyne nods to Loupy and shakes its head, as well as sighs. "Didn't he learn before?"

Devil Dog stands, idly looking down at the left side of his body and the giant chunk out of his side, made by a random piece of concrete. "Huh." he says, and starts to limp along down the road, letting his body heal himself.

Loupy says, "Not likely.. but.." and shrugs.. He then starts incanting once more, sitting crosslegged on the ground and looking like a zen budda except furry.. and then he's gone... aiming to teleport where the beam had come down in a safe place so he can try and find their errant teammate"

Loupy appears a short distance away from DD and then stands up, walking over to where he's at, "Now.. if your quite done making a fool of yourself.. shall we go?"

Devil Dog glances back at Loupy from where he is walking away, the crator from where he skidded across the ground still slick with his blood, "Shut up." He says simply, "And teleport me. Couldn't appear right beside you my boom makes too much noise." As he talks he idly pushes a hand into his side, feeling what the hole in him might have once been filled with. "I should learn human biology." he comments idly out loud, his own hand pushed into his body up to the wrist. He stands that way, idly waiting to be teleported.

Rebound continues working on the robot.

Loupy smirks at the shutup and then crouches down to rest a paw on DD's side, already incanting once more... first, a heal spell so he's not so much of a grouch.

Devil Dog reaches down to push Loupy's paw away, "Nah, give me a couple minutes, just get us out of here."

Loupy pulls his paw back at the last second to avoid DD's hand and grins as the spell does it's work.. after a few moments he then starts incanting once more, the same blue glow surrounding them and then.. poof once more. The two of them reappearing at the landmark.

Devil Dog appears with Loupy, his clothes in tatters and one half of his body still looking very torn and road-rashed, though it is healing incredibly fast. "No answer." Is all the native American spector growls out, then falls still and silent, picking at one of the tears in him.

Back at the landmark, Loupy appears with DD in tow, and almost immediately drops to his knee, panting a little and closing his eyes, grunting a bit before getting onto his rump and relaxing once more, muzzle pressing into his knees..

Karlie looks at Devil Dog, nodding. "Thank you," she says, something not heard from her in over ten years.

Devil Dog grunts and responds simply to Karlie, "I have an empire to topple, I warned them not to shoot me again, told them plain as day not to cross me. Anyone got an extra pair of pants." He glances down at his, the left leg of them in tatters, though still decent, and his left boot missing completely, "Don't like smashing dreams half dressed."

"Why is it that humans wear 'clothing'? Flyne never understood that..." Flyne asks, innocently.

Loupy says, "DD, give it a rest... you just had the snot beat out of ya by a satellite that you can't even reach. Do you want to hazard a guess as to what other toys they might have?" He shakes his head and closes his eyes, laying back and putting an arm over his head. "dude, sometimes I gotta wonder what's in between your ears there."

Devil Dog asks Loupy, simply, almost all the roadburn gone already, "I can't reach it? Where did you get that idea?"

Karlie nods. "Yeah. You can topple the empire when we are on that part of th' plan," she tells Devil Dog. "This one's a scouting operation. we're not planning t'blow th' whole place up yet. Guessing th' one who contacted you is going silent so they don't track him."

Loupy says, "Because I highly doubt that's the only satellite up there, so when you go up there to smack one two more are going to smack you back down before you even get to it."

Rebound says, "Also, the more attention we attract, the less likely it is that we'll be able to contact any resistance here. It's counterproductive, at least at the present time."

Devil Dog grunts and waves a hand dismissively, "Logic doesn't suit me when I'm pissed." he rasps, then looks down to flyne, "I wear clothes to cover up my sex organs for the most part, it's considered rude to have them flopping about." Stepping slightly away from the group he stretches his arms over his head, stops, and then slips off his right boot to even out his footing.

Loupy huffs, then is quickly napping... one arm over his eyes and the other resting across his chest while he dozes off.

"I can move under their radar," Karlie says. "or at least, I have. And I can scan in buildings for broadcast equipment or shielded stuff. Anything shielded is probably the resistance."

Flyne nods, "Odd. Flyne doesn't know much about human reproduction; only that its much different from the Morphoid's method of doing so." Flyne seems indifferent about talking about this, though still continues to show a bit of uneaseness.

Rebound looks up from the Roboy wreckage. "Basic model, with parts dated from 2018. Not a lot of processing power."

Devil Dog nods aside to Rebound, and then motions to Karlie, "Want to scout then? No idea if it will shoot you out of the sky too, but, that laser beam doesn't like me much."

The relative peace and quiet, and it is quiet; no birds or animal sounds; is suddenly broken by gunfire. Lots of gunfire, autocannons firing, and then several loud explosions. A cloud of back smoke lifts from near the smaller dome.

Karlie looks at Rebound. "It's designed to look human. So it's designed to infiltrate and kill. I think they probably just put scrap to that work."

Rebound nods to Karlie, agreeing.

Karlie looks around. "I'll check it out. Won't stop you from coming along but until we know what's going on, not engaging."

Karlie heads out, staying low, moving with ease and picking up a mass of scrap metal to use as an overhead shield.

Devil Dog grunts, and says aside to the people, glancing off toward the dome, "Looks like I'm off again.." Taking a couple of steps toward the action he looks down at his non-flaming self, and adds, "Wake up loupy in a minute, tell him to take you there, he should have more umph left in him. I can poof there right now and see what's going on, probably make it out without trouble. As long as I don't fly that laser can't detect me."

"Flyne might be of help." Flyne states, follow Karlie if she doesn't object.

Devil Dog watches Karlie head off, sighs, and then explodes, aiming to end up somewhere in the dome area. He leaves two things to chance, 1, that he won't end up smack in front of a bomb, and 2, that the other booms will mask the sound of him ariving on the scene.

Loupy sleeps a bit deeply.. the werewolf unawares of what's going on around him... tailtip twitching at something as he rests up.

Rebound hangs back and looks over Loupy, while he recovers.

Moving to a vantage point where you can see the smaller dome, the group sees a wrecked spider-mech near the edge of the force dome surrounded by craters in the ground. A two man hover vehicle with mounted rocket launchers is moving into the dome through a massive gatehouse set in the side of the force dome.

Devil Dog watches the vehicle move into the dome and comments aside to Karlie, "So. want me to go say hello and you hang back? Perk of being immortal."

"Flyne also isn't an easy creature to kill...And is much smaller than DD. Flyne might not be detected as easily." Flyne states quite simply.

Karlie looks at Devil Dog, "I should go in. I draw less attention when I fly and the ground's got landmines."

Devil Dog grunts aside to Karlie, and asks, "Want to all three go then?"

Karlie says, "not yet. I want to make contact," She looks at Flyne, "And present something that won't have them opening fire out of unfamiliarity for what they see. Also I can force a ceasefire if it comes to that."

Devil Dog hrrrms, then flicks on his radio. "I'll circle the dome then, can you broadcast radio transmitions?"

Karlie replies, "No. Can't use comms. I'm going in person. They'll figure out I'm not there to kill them pretty fast."

Karlie begins moving, the mass of metal to be used as a shield at her side, the humming noise as she moves from the vibrating metal pretty distinct.

Flyne nods to this. "Flyne understands. But for all we know they might be more similar to Flyne than you." Flyne states.

Devil Dog nods, sighing, "Don't like an inside man with no way to keep contact with them, so." He flicks off his radio, "We all go in together. Looking different shouldn't be an issue if they're resistance, one of the leaders is a six armed lizard alien." Motioning to flyne he instructs, "Fly." and takes to the air after Karlie, flying just off to her side.

Karlie nods. "kay." She's not arguing. She's said all that she needs to in objection.

As Karlie gets in sight of the gatehouse an amplified voice booms out. Unless the people inside are using binoculars they won't be making out any details at this range. "Stop right there! Who are you?"

Flyne's claws become non-existant, and its legs return to normal as it sprouts wings. After the wings finish growing, it flies after Karlie.

Karlie slows to a halt, the metal moving below her to act as a kind of platform. "Not here t'fight you," she calls back. "Made contact with one of ours by radio 'bout half hour ago."

Devil Dog stops as instructed, his flaming wings tucking down around him and keeping him airborn in a hover, upright and staring at the dome. He says nothing.

Flyne also hovers in place when instructed.

The voice booms out again, "You're not wastelanders. But you're not anyone from the base I've seen before. Get in here quick before any more kill-mechs come. And you're better have a good explanation for being here."

Devil Dog grunts and shifts forward, his flaming wings spreading out so he can glide toward the entrence, heading for the area directly in front of them and expecting it to open.

University Hospital Dome

The University Hospital inside the force dome is equally as ruined as the rest of the city's buildings. There is some evidence of repair work however, especially in the cleared tracks through fallen rubble and the buildings housing the patient wards and operating rooms. The perimeter inside the edge of the force dome has been cleared to ground level for a distance of some sixty feet from where the force dome contacts the ground. A wire fence runs around the cleared perimeter. Signs on the fence warn of a minefield past that point. Several battered but probably functional hover vehicles ranging from small two person buggies to a large cargo transporter are parked outside the repaired buildings, all with vehicle mounted weapons fitted to them.

Flyne's bat-like wings propel it throught the entrance. Flyne keeps looking using its smell to smell if it smells any unsual smells.

Devil Dog drifts to the cleared non-mine area, setting down in the tattered remains of his erban-cammo outfit. Digging his toes into the sand he retracts his flaming wings into his back, arms still folded across his chest.

Karlie moves the platform forward, landing with it well out of landmine range, changing it with her will into a perfect sphere, moving inside at a casual pace. "Go ahead, do whatever scans. If you got any." THe metal sphere is set down to the side. "Suggest not putting anyone who's trigger happy on us though. I got this thing about extendin' trust and havin' it sent back with gunfire. An' that thing is violent reaction."

"There's a lot of stuff in here..." Flyne states, looking from place to place scanning it with its eyes, taking all the different smells in. FLyne seems to be distracted by this for the moment.

A man steps out of the gatehouse once you're inside. He's wearing VIPER uniform, clamshell body armor, and carrying a energy carbine. He looks you over, expecially Flyne and Devil Dog. "So, you are wasters after all. Look, we don't have any medicine spare to give you. Sorry."

Karlie looks over the uniform. "Huh. Different from what we were told."

Devil Dog stares at the man, simply, and growls, "I'm from another dimention, and I'm looking for information." Unfolding his arms he slowly extends one finger, and points at the gun in the man's arms, "Ever shot an immortal before?" He asks, his rasping, growly voice flat and emotionless.

"Flyne doesn't think medicine works on it." Flyne states, turning its attention to the man. "We're here from another dimension, not here to ask for medicine, just to ask about things."

The man brings the carbine around almost but not quite aiming at Devil Dog, "Don't try anything, Waster. I don't want to shoot you but I will if you make me."

Devil Dog responds again, still pointing at the gun, "If I wanted to do anything, I will point out there is nothing you personally could do about it, and you would need to call for major back up, very quickly. Get out your radio, not your gun. Now, I don't want your medicine, I want to talk with the leader of this establishment. I hope to God that isn't you."

Karlie emits the low humming sound, the weapon points straight up in the uniformed man's hands, and freezes in place. "We aren't here to take what you have. Relax. Y'see the metal ball there? Used t'be a couple of cars. We're here t'talk. Let's talk. Without the weapons at th'ready."

"We're not here to harm anyone." Flyne reassures, as its wings melt back into its body and claws/leg muscles reforms.

The man tugs at his weapon and then looks back at Karlie, "How'd you do that? Hey, looking at you seems you keep yourself clean. Lord Bardford could find a place for you in his household. You're not like the mutie or the other Waster."

Devil Dog hrrms, and, suddenly, vanishes with a 'Fwoop' only to appear behind the man, almost back to back with him, and continue walking toward the exet he came through, heading inside if it's unlocked.

The man stares wide eyed at the spot where Devil Dog vanished from. "Huh. What the hell?"

Karlie folds her arms, regarding the uniformed man. "I'm gonna take a guess. Tell me how close I am. You lost control of whatever you found, it's started makin' an army to eradicate any threatening life forms."

The door DD walks through just leads into the gatehouse. There are several more men inside, dressed the same as the man talking to you and also carrying energy carbines. "One moves to block Devil Dog's progress, "Off limits, Waster. Get back outside."

Rebound checks on Loupy, shaking him lightly. "Ready to move out?"

Loupy grunts as he wakes up and then looks around... then looks around quickly. "Where?" half asleep still but refreshed.

The man outside gapes at Karlie, "What are you talking about?"

Devil Dog reaches out in an attempt to grab the normal human standing before him's gun from his hands, and, very deliberatly and slowly, point it toward his own chest. Holding the gun point blank to himself he says, very deliberatly in his raspy voice, "If it makes you feel better, pull the trigger, but I'm trying to explain something to all of you and your partner outside isn't listening." He continues to hold the gun to his chest, "Lets Do one thing at a time, pull the trigger, I'm interested to see what happens."

"Guess not," Karlie says. "Your uniform, was told that th'VIPER here found alien tech. But you've been fightin' off the automated things."

[To Loupy] Rebound says, "Towards the dome. Sounds like there was some action there, and the others went to check it out."

Inside the gatehouse the now rather scared guard does pull the trigger. A energy blast hits Devil Dog full in the chest.

[To Rebound] Loupy says, "son of a... so nice of them to wait for us," as he sighs.. "ok." as he sits up and looks in that direction, then starts casting once more, the blue disk appearing once more..."

The man outside was about to speak when the sound of a shot makes him spin and rush back to the gatehouse.

Devil Dog is hit full on and thrown backward, having let go of the gun. Hitting his back he then clambers to his feet, motions to his chest and the quickly fading red mark there, and says, "Now, can we talk?"

Karlie floats with him, sighing slightly. "This's getting somewhere I guess."

The man outside sees this. He asks bewilderedly, "What the hell are you people?"

Near Karlie is that blue disk again as it pulses.. this is the recieving end of Loupy's teleport...

"Flyne is an alien from a distant world, Flyne isn't sure about the others." Flyne states, tilting its head at the man.

[To Loupy] Rebound gets ready. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Won't it leave you weakened like before?"

Devil Dog responds to the man, motioning toward himself, "I'm an immortal from another dimention, and if you don't start listening to the words coming out of my mouth, your going to piss me off."Reaching up he pulls off the tattered remains of his face-covering bandana, and tosses it aside, revealing himself to be a teenage-looking native american, not over 17, but for the glowing eyes.

[To Rebound] Loupy says, "I'm good..." and goes back to his casting.. his eyes closed.. soon enough, the disk suddenly rises, both at the source and destination of the teleports and the two are swiftly teleported to near Karlie's backside."

The man speaking for them shakes his head, "What do you want?"

"Dimensionally different visitors," Karlie replies. "This's Rebound. That's Loupy. I'm Karlie. That's Devil Dog, an' the smallest one is Flyne. Guessing by now you guessed that if we're hostile, we can take this place down without much trouble. What we want is information. Also somewhere t'sit down and relax. Sick of bein' on edge all th'time out here."

Loupy puts a paw on his forehead after the teleport completes and he looks around to get his bearings, the sitting werewolf looking to all the guns.. his ears flattening. "ho boy."

Devil Dog simply nods his head at Karlie's words, grunting out, "I need a new para pants and coat if you have one. I got hit by that space satalight a couple times and it burnt mine."

Outside the force dome Loupy and Rebound appear with their noses up against the force barrier, and then drop to the ground... in the middle of the minefield. Fortunately not standing on a mine.

Loupy rubs his nose as he lands on his keyster... wincing a bit. "owwww.." with a wince of pain. He looks around again to get his bearing, then to Rebound, and then sees they're in a bloody minefield.. "Frack. Don't, move." as he looks around and to the wall once more, poking at it and then resting a paw on it's shell. "Wow..."

"We were sent here to find out what happened to this world." Flyne states, quite simply, tilting its head back to not being tilted. "We're hoping you can help with that."

Karlie looks over. "Let 'em inside."

The man says, "It's safe inside the domes. The killer-mechs from the war can't get in here. He gestures to the gatehouse, "Chairs in there. So, another dimension? Really. Like the one through the device Lord Bardford salvaged from that laboratory in the city?"

Rebound looks around, then over to Loupy. "Wow is right..."

Devil Dog nods toward the soldier and steps deliberately past him toward the afore-mentioned area with chairs. As he walks he comments, "Yes. I've heard of that lord, apparently some outsiders payed to use a machine of his and get sent to a new world. The world they came to was ours." He finds a chair, looks it over, then drops into it, sprawling out comfortably, "Now, I need pants."

"Yeh. Let them inside." Karlie says simply. "They're with us."

Loupy looks to Rebound, then to the gatehouse.. "ok... one more time, short distance so no dizziness this time. I'm going to get us over to that gate house." He pulls out a small bead and then crushes it, casting a lesser version of the same spell (no mega teleport) to get them to the gate house.

Flyne stays with Karlie for the time being.

Karlie heads into the gatehouse, seeing as the way is open for the other two, plopping down onto a chair. "I'll let Rebound do th'talking. I'm kinda here as muscle, not t'be a mouth."

Devil Dog grunts simply in agreement with Karlie, lifting one fingerless-gloved hand to give her a thumbs up, and a smirk, now he isn't wearing his facial covering.

Rebound enters through the gatehouse, and he checks the radiation meter on his radsuit to see if it's safe to remove his helmet. "Hey."

Flyne follows Karlie and takes a seat as well, sitting on its tail with its hand on either side of its tail. Flyne continues to listen.

The man sits on the edge of a table. "It's a long story. So the quick version. This alien crashlands on Earth. The big nations start fighting over his ship and all that tech in it. When it goes nuclear the Council decides the only way to keep our families safe is to steal the ship. It had a force field to protect it. That's how we came through the war when everyone else got blasted back to the stone age."

Loupy wanders on in as well. no rad suit on him though. His spell constantly working to ensure he doesn't need it. He looks around a moment and then just quitely falls in line and finds a quiet seat...

Rebound asks, "What about all the killer robots. Where did they come from?"

The man tells Rebound, "Left over from the war. The Chinese invaded Merica. They released the Mech to hunt down the Commies. Supposedly the Merican troops had devices to carry to make them safe but otherwise the mechs hunt down any radio signals or high energy sources."

Flyne asks, "How many do mechs are there?" Flyne tilts its head again.

Devil Dog motions over their heads toward the ceiling, flexing his bare toes now, "What about the bigger dome, and, the other pockets of survivors? What's 'the base' and what's 'the resistence'?"

Karlie waits for everyone else to finish getting answers to their questions, and adds, "When you answer those, I got one."

The man shrugs, "No idea. We never tried to count them. Less now I think. We only see them in ones and twos. Not like at the start when you'd see a dozen or more scuttling about."

Rebound says, "We ran into one that looked like a little boy. We've still got some of its parts..."

Devil Dog motions to his stomach, commenting dryly, "Little punk did a number to my stomach before we flattened it. Has some claws on it, for sure."

Loupy rubs his chin and thinks as he leans back in his seat, listening and watching. He doesn't say anything for the moment, just observing reactions for any sign of duplicity...

The man looks at Devil Dog, "The big dome is where our base is located. Lord Bardford is our Nest Leader. There's Waster's out in the ruins. The resistance is there too. They resent our living better than they do. But we're just getting by ourselves. We don't have any spare to hand out."

"Is there a controlling intelligence behind th'mechs?" Karlie asks.

Devil Dog stands from the chair and nods toward the man who is talking, before starting to prowl the room, eyeing the other guards as he looks about for loose objects, food left out, things of that nature.

The man nods, "David. That one's a real killer. Gets into a encampment and kills until there's nothing left to kill.

Devil Dog responds to the man, "We smashed it up, if there is more they're not a big threat, easy enough to take out."

Loupy says, "Like a fox in a hen house"

The man shakes his head, "Not that I know. Same as the Skynet satellites. Just left over from the war running on whatever orders they were given before everything went to hell."

"Okay," Karlie says, nodding. "So that explains why they don't swarm. They just sort of home in and start killin'. They gotta get ammo from somewhere. What I saw, chain guns?"

The man shrugs, "Maybe they have a stronghold somewhere. Maybe they just have ammo left. We stay in the domes where it's safe apart from travelling from the base to here and back."

Loupy says, "Could always set up a powerful transmitter somewheres to lure them into a trap. Sounds like something you and the resistance could get together and start doing to reduce the robot population a fair bit. Afterwards.. then you have the whole land to yourself and can rebuild. hiding here forever won't solve your problems, and from what I saw, it only takes one of those things to get in here."

Devil Dog hrrrms, flexing a fist so the knuckles crack. "where do you get your food and medical supplies?" he asks, offhandedly.

Rebound says, "I don't know if its been covered or not, but we're explorers from another dimension, a parallel earth. We came here after we met someone from your world named Drifter, who came to swipe medical supplies from our world."

"Seems I'm in a position that can be of considerable help with th'hunter bots," Karlie says. "I can spot th'David units before I see 'em. The bear was kinda a surprise but whatever. Now I know 'bout those. The satellites aren't really in my area of influence. How long will th'radiation last?"

Devil Dog reaches down and picks up one of the fruits from a nearby table, lifting it up for a closer look.

The man nods, "Yeah. They got in by hiding on one of our transport carriers. Killed two of my men and got to the portal device. I remember that."

"If he didn't, we wouldn't be havin' this conversation," Karlie says.

The man scrowls, "It scared the doctor over there. He bumped up the price of supplies. We don't have enough medicines for ourselves now."

Devil Dog grunts, now commenting to Karlie, "So a doctor becoming filthy rich on our side from this."

Karlie looks thoughtful. "What do you pay with?"

The man says, "Whatever we can. Usually gold or silver. We salvage stuff from the ruins. Lose men doing it but we need those medicines."

Devil Dog hrrms, falls silent, and asks, "When and how are your rations distributed?"

"So, let's get the status quo back in force," Karlie says. "What if we brought one of those mechs worth of metal for salvage? Think that might be useful?"

Rebound looks to Karlie. "I wonder if it would be possible to engineer one of the devices that kept friendly soldiers safe from the attack mechs."

The man shrugs, "There's all the metal we need in the ruins. Lots of it. Burnt out cars, reinforcing bars from buildings. But if you can supply medicines cheaper than the doctor on the dimension we go to Lord Bradford would make a deal with you."

Rebound says, "I can almost guarantee that we can supply for cheaper."

Devil Dog responds, now moving toward the back of the gatehouse, "That's simple to do, I'm fairly sure he's ripping you off, seeing as an ounce of gold in our world is worth a rediculous amount of money. Can you set up a meating with him for us, for a later date? I need to find the head of the resistance and have a chat."

The man nods, "I can take you to Lord Bradford if you're ready to go?"

Devil Dog grunts out, "or that."

"Yeh. Easily," Karlie says. "I can get th'doctor t'cooperate if he's from our side of th'portal. Can maybe take some of them mechs down too so you got less things out t'gun for you. Th'davids, how many of those do y'think are round? They came ready-made back during th'war or they a more recent thing?"

Flyne remains sitting with hits hands inbetween its tail and legs, listening to the conversation, thinking.

Rebound says, "Can you give me a list of the supplies that you need?"

The man says, "All the mechs are from the war. Not seen any new ones."

"Davids, they just keep trying til everything's dead or they fall?" Karlie asks.

The man shakes his head, "After the resistance raid we aren't allowed in the hospital. That's all done by Lord Bradford's son and some of the other young nobles. We just guard the gatehouse."

Devil Dog suddenly turns and starts to walk for the entrence, calling over to Karlie, "Keep these punks safe, I need to look around." Stepping out of the gatehouse he looks about, and, explodes from the area only to reform out on the hill he originally spotted the entrence from, from there he starts to walk into the city, padding along barefoot into the distence.

Loupy looks the direction DD went and curses under his breath. "Again?!"

The man nods to Karlie, "Yes. Once they get inside an encampment they kill everything there.

"But you know about 'em. So you stopped one or more," Karlie says.

The man nods, "I go back to the war. I was just a kid then. But we learned about the Davids. Blast them on sight."