Log:Assault on the Cannon III

Out Numbered 2013/07/24 	 Aoi American Dream Bee Spirit Star Girl Ten 3

RECAP: Star Guard, thanks to Q, has tracked the energy signature of the Bifrost Cannon Core to Mount Erebus in Antarctica. After a night-time drop, and a minor attack by three aerial drones, the heroes landed near the rim of the volcano. They swiftly found the entrance to Scaretti's lair. However, the rogue Space and Dimension Patrol Agency ship in orbit picked up on the signature of the aerial drones during the fight and moved into position, dispatching the ancient humanoid weapon 'Ragnarok' to the crater. As Ragnarok advanced, freezing the lava beneath her feet, the heroes entered the lair and collapsed the tunnel behind them.

Inside, they encountered no resistance... Making their way through the base, following the tracker, they came to a large central area, and a massize metal door, with a key plate keyed to a person's 'soul signature'.

Aoi used her neutrion scan to peer inside the room, and saw that the Core was there, being held by a young woman in a blue skinnsuit, with lavendar hair in twin pigtais. The woman seemed to be standing on the other side of a floating circle of runes, her hand with the core thrust through on to the side facing the door. Aoi sensed a spatial discontinuity around the runic circle, and realized it was the same as the gate that the AI drones had come through when they attacked Star Guard HQ!

And the action continues...

Spirit looks to the others, "I can try to mimic the doctor again...that might work. And it might surprise hte person with a weapon aimed at the door." He shifts form to a copy of Dr. Scarletti.

Ten readies herself - in the absence of surprise she may be needed to leap in the way of attacks!

Aoi says, "How do we get through the door?"

Star Girl looks at Spirit and then around to the others. "Get ready..." She engages her cloaking field, vanishing from sight for the moment.

"Uhm... okay", replies American Dream. "We just need to get that thing and bug out. Let's hope this works, 'cause we're already running outta time." That said, she makes a 'move on up' sort of gesture at Spirit, in the general direction of the door itself.

'Dr. Scarletti' shrugs, "I'll try touching it. Everyone get ready." The voice is even different now...matching the mad scientist. She steps up tot he door, and if it doesn't open then, she places her hand on the door or obvious hand plate, if there is one.

The plate spells out in runes that Star Girl can read, "Incorrect Yggdrasil Core signature."

Spirit looks over to Star Girl, "Any ideas? Clearly that didn't work."

Ten says, "Break down the door? Assumiong we can't bypass it."

Star Girl reappears. "'Incorrect Yggdrasil Core signature', whatever that means."

Aoi looks at the plate mechanism trying to work out if she can run a bypass to get the door open.

"Well, hell... let's all of us try our hand on it?", American Dream suggests, walking over to put her hand on the plate to see what happens, then.

Aoi says, "Don't American Dream. It may have a lockout after a number for failed attempts."

Star Girl ers, "It's kind of saying 'incorrect soul'."

Spirit shifts back to his energy form, "I'd have thought the cellular copying would do the trick, but clearly not."

American Dream stops, hand almost on the plate. "Huh... you think it has that kinda failsafe on it?", she asks, glancing over at Aoi. "... and whose soul do ya think it's looking for?"

Spirit says, "Probably Dr. Scarletti's, or her associates."

Aoi points to Spirit in his shapeshifted form, "The original would be my guess, American Dream."

Star Girl looks back towards the way they came. "If Ragnarok is a powerful as hr name implies, it won't take her long to reach us."

Aoi says, "I'll see what I can do. If this doesn't work we can just blast the door down or blast around it through the walls."

Aoi pops the plate off the expose the inner technological workings of the door lock and tries to run a bypass.

Spirit nods to Aoi. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Spirit brings up his energy shields in case he needs to deflect incoming fire when the door opens.

Fox watches the door hijinks, looking at the hijinkers from the side-rear of American Dream.

The door begins to slide open. A young woman's voice calls out, "Hiiiii~! It took you long enough!"

Fox points a portal to the inside of the door as it starts to open. Just in case.

Aoi works on the lock, muttering to herself as she has to combine most of her technological skills to solve the puzzle.

A field of blue glowing energy appears on a wall within.

Aoi calls back a bit preevishly, "If you wanted us to hurry you could have left the door unlocked."

American Dream walks in past the door when it opens. "Hey, excuse me! Are you the one with the mega-super-whatsit that people're trying to use to destroy the whole planet?", she calls out as she enters.

Ten walks forward too, trying to keep herself at the front of the group.

Star Girl backs away from the blocked off tunnel and steps across the threshold into the area beyond the door.

The woman giggles, "Sorry, sorry!" You can see clearly now that its a large room with various odd apparatuses. In the middles stands the young woman in the blue skin suit, the Bifrost Core glowing in the grasp of her hand. Behind herm through the red ring of runes, you can see the iconic profile of the Washington Monument.

Spirit steps forward as well...prepping to potentially block any beams from going through that portal, if need be.

Aoi looks briefly at Spirit, "That's a world killer weapon?"

"Whoa... waitaminit...", American Dream says, as she gets a good look at what's going on. "Why're you, like, in two places at the same time, that way? Will you let us come through there to you, and then close that up behind us?", she asks of the woman with the crystal.

Spirit nods to Aoi. "Most likely, yes."

The woman shakes her head, "Nope! Sorry! My job is to lure you here and then strand you while I take this pretty thing away~! I'm Elf, by the way! Number 11!"

Ten steps forward and lashes out with her staff trying to yank the woman to this side of the portal - hoping she won't blow up the world when she's on it.

Star Girl. o O ( Oh f**k )

Ten grabs the woman and yanks her toward her. "You're not getting away that easily...."

Elf squeaks, "Ahhhhh!!! W-w-w-wait!"

Suddenly, it's -100C

Ten thinks. o O (Suddenly got a bit cool.)

Aoi turns and looks back. "I'll try to hold off what's coming up behind us. Good luck." she says to nobody in particular before heading back along the tunnel.

Spirit pivots, prepared to fire at Ragnarok, who might just be in view now.

Elf squeaks, "Nooo! Don't take that! The Doctor needs that!" She looks around nervously (and seems to not notice the cold, the the air is starting to liquify.

Elf adds, "Um. I sort of started the countdown when you guys opened the door..."

Ten says, "what kind of countdown?"

American Dream extends her hand and the crystal held by Elf glows and rips from the girl's hand and zips away.... right into American Dream's hand. "Got it! Let's scram!", she says... then, "HOLY HELL!", she cries at the sudden change in temperature.

Star Girl's suit shimmers as the temperature drops. "Aoi, wait!" She looks to Spirit. "Any reason we shouldn't just bug out to D.C.?"

Ten says, "It's sound good at the moment...."

Spirit shakes his head, "No reason, as long as it remains open long enough for all of us."

Ten nods. "All together, then....

Elf twiddles her fingers together, "Um, on the the Magmatic Ejection Cannon? Um, the idea was to lure you guys here, and detonated the volano, launching a ball of magama into space to blow up that SDPA ship. Um."

Spirit points to the portal, "Aoi...you too! Let's go!"

Ragnarok steps through the door, the blue gem in her forehed glowing brightly.

Aoi nods and retreats, waiting for the rest to go through while she can still cover them with her deflection system.

American Dream's body glows and she flits through the air towards the portal... as tendrils of her almost-yellow glow extend to everyone else in the place, seeking to 'grab hold' to pull them along with her.

Spirit flies through the portal on his own...more than fast enough.

Ragnarok blinks, and raises her hand, "Fimbulwinter: Glacial Wa--" Her voice is cut off as you zip through the portal and Elf closes it.

Star Girl's eyelets widen. "Do you think she -- ?"

The great volcano in Antarctica. One of the few in the world that is so active that the caldera is always filled with bubbling lava.

On the other side, in Washington, DC, American Dream lands, still shivering from the sudden cold that was on the other side of the portal. Looking back as the portal suddenly closes, she says, "Fry you robobitch!", through gritted teeth... and quickly stuffs the crystal into one of her pockets, so that it's not simply held in her hand.

Aoi says, "I think satellite recon of the area we just left would be informative right now."

Ten frowns. "Did we just - will she be all right?"

Spirit nods, and makes a quick call to the local SGG headquarters to see if they can get some imaging of the area where they were.

Spirit says, "Presumably. It would be foolish to build a weapon like that which couldn't survive its own blast."

"... I think she was asking if Ragnabot could survive the volcano-cannon thingie", American Dream adds.

StarGuard: Sir, Mount Erebus just erupted, are you OK? We're detecting a massive ball of lava heading into orbit!

Ten nods. "But then is she was freezing the lava.."

Spirit responds back, "We're fine. Used a portal to get to DC. Is the SPDA ship in that area?"

Star Girl relaxes a little at Ten's suggestion.

StarGuard: Yes Sir! We're detecting a debris field where the SDPA ship was! Should we move the our cruiser in position to search for survivors? ... One moment Sir, there's som---" *static*

American Dream looks over at Elf, frowning. "That's your fault. If anyone tries to pin the blame on /us/ for that ship getting blown up, I'm taking it outta your hide, Missy!", she says to the girl, levelling a pointed finger at her.

Elf eeps, "Um, y-yes ma'am?"

Spirit looks to the others, "Ask her where her friends are while I deal with SG." He goes back to the radio communication, "Can you read me? If so...send that cruiser to look for survivors."

Star Girl puts her fingers to her ear. "Hello?" she says over the radio. "Starguard D.C.?" She tries to raise them as well.

Ten demand of the woman, "Where are your friends, and what's the plan?" as she toghtesns her staff just slightly.

Elf looks around nervously, "Um... well, the plan was to get rid of you guys and the SDPA ship, and, um, get Dr. Scarletti back."

Ten says, "So they're trying to get Scarlatti, of course."

Spirit says, "...which explains the drop in comms to the DC base."

Ten thinks. o O (I keep forgetting that it was disinformation we hadn't captured Scarlatti.)

Spirit raises a brow, "How'd they know she was still there?"

Porter had the (mis?)fortune of stumbling on the power crystal battery thing for the giant orbital death cannon. While he doesn't know much anything on the topic, it seems to make his opinion valued for no real reason. Like buying a car that turns out to be an alien robot in disguise. At least a trip to the capitol is a change of scenery, and the SGG HQ there doesn't have missile scars.

[To Spirit] Star Girl says, "If it's the Numbers, Scarletti would've told them before turning herself in."

Spirit says, "She didn't know where she'd be taken."

Elf head tilts, "We knew you had the Doctor, since we were in contact with her when she went to you."

Spirit says, "Unless they can track where she is."

Back in D.C. Bee and a few others provide extra security while people are in Anarctica. In theory, she's sitting around a lot, trying to keep from being annoying. She fails. She seems to be physically incapable of sitting still and pokes into every nook and cranny to fight impending boredome.

Spirit says, "Magic. I really...don't like things I don't understand well."

Mirage is enjoying being able to stay out of the sunlight for now, inside the Starguard DC headquarters. He relaxes inside, at whereever the Starguard personnel told him to stand and do security. And watching Bee peering around like a hyperactive kid, apparently.

Elf adds, "And Ein's Inherrent Skill is 'Identical Mind'. She can make it she thinks exactly like someone she's studies, so we know what the Doctor would want us to do."

Ten says, "Huh. Interesting power."

To Ten, American Dream says, "Knock her out, like right now." She clearly is speaking of rendering Elf unconscious. "If they're mind-linked, they're getting REALLY good intel on us right now."

At Starguard HQ, suddenly all the lights go out, then flicker and resume under emergency power. "All Personel. Alert. Alert. Alert. HQ may be under attack!"

Ten nods and tightens her grip to ahieve this.

Elf passes out.

Spirit says, "We should get to the base as fast as possible, just in case. Everyone okay with heading out?"

Porter looks over at Bee with a grin. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be done soon..." His words trail off with the lights and following warning. "Or something could happen..." He looks around. "Not my fault?"

"We should put earplugs in her ears and a sack over her head, and duct-tape her wrists and ankles together, if we're brining her with us", American Dream says of Elf. She does look ready to go, however.

Star Girl says, "We're arresting her... not... kidnapping her..."

Mirage ooohs. Something happening! He shifts into a more agile and lithe panther form, although keeping the fedora on his hat. Fancy cat. "I'll follow you and around you keeping an eye out, should move in a group," he says to the other two, before disappearing completely from sight and sound.

"Mind-linked, remember? If we don't keep her from seeing or hearing what we're doing and saying, anyone on /her/ side knows what we're up to", American Dream says to Star Girl, tapping a fingertip at her own temple as she speaks.

Ten says, "Does that work when she unconscious?"

Bee mutters, as she rushes to find out what is going on, "Why do I always get attacked when I'm just far enough away from Colonial Bay that I can't teleport? If this keeps up, DC's going to buy me a local unit." ... right, like Bee is important enough for that to happen.

Star Girl nods. "You guys go ahead. I'll watch Elf until we can book her properly."

"Well, let's go, then... anyone want or need a ride?", American Dream offers.

Spirit nods to Star Girl, "If you're sure. I was thinking of taking her and holding her at SG as well, but if it's under full scale assault, then it might be wise to not bring her in there yet."

Aoi says, "Do you really want to take that jewel thing to where the people who we just got it back from are located?"

Ten shakes her head. "Bad idea."

Star Girl says, "I can watch that as well."

"If she's not dangerous enough, we could also just drop her off with some cops, along the way?", suggests American Dream. "And is it smart leaving it guarded by only one of us? This thing could destroy the whole planet. We're better off all staying with it."

AT STARGUARD HQ: As the heroes respond, they notice a few things. Outside the windows, everything is gray, and there are no living creatures. There are also no radio or other signal from outside the building.

Star Girl looks to Spirit. "Your call, boss."

Spirit nods. "Bring her along. If need be, we can keep her on the outskirts of the fight...or drop her off with hte local police. I just want to keep people together."

"Then it's settled. Let's get moving", American Dream says, heading out... with or without passengers.

Ten nods. "Lead on." She leaves Elf to someone else to carry and starts swinging toward the HQ.

Mirage invisibly quirks a brow at the grey... greyness outside the windows. He relaxes invisibility a bit so he can talk, saying to Porter and Bee, "We should make our way to check in on Scarletti." He heads off there, occasionally peering back and waiting for the others to catch up.

Porter points out, "Ok, that's definitely not me," when he notices what's outside. He starts moving more quickly, with the others. "Another jailbreak?"

Bee says, "That is not a force field. We are no longer on Earth." Not a theory: a statement of fact, but she doesn't seemed inclined to explain as she follows Mirage's suggestion and heads toward Scarletti's cell.

AT STARGUARD HQ: The guards at the high security holding block salute as the heroes approach, "Good evening folks, is something wrong?" The red emergency lights are flashing and the door to the security block has been ripped off its hinges.

EN ROUTE TO SG HQ: You approach Starguard HQ. A shimmering gray dome surrounds it.

Spirit raises a brow, "Well, that would be the loss of communications."

Ten says, "What the dome made of?"

Mirage stares invisibly at the doors ripped off the hinges, and the guards. He quickly and silently leaps on by, quickly heading up towards where Scarletti is being held, and hoping they're not too late.

Ten says, "Oh, what the heck."

Porter blinks when the guards ask, "Uh... You could say that. That's usually what the red lights and warnings mean..." He can't believe that they're that oblivious, but that's something for HR to worry about later. Porter goes past them to follow Mirage.

Ten tries swinging through the dome.

AT STARGUARD HQ: The guard looks at Porter curiously, "Red lights and warnings, Sir? Everything appears normal to me." The other nods, "Nothing happening here."

Bee doesn't like the idea of mind-controlled people at her back and pauses to talk to the guards to 'snap them out of it'. First, the direct approach: "Explain the condition of these doors!" she snaps in her best military voice.

American Dream, as they travel brings Star Girl up close to herself and has a quick conversation with the other heroine, after which they separate a bit all over again, as the travelling continues. Once at the Starguard HQ, she watches to see what happens when Ten tries to 'Hulk Smash!' bit on the... whatever the grayish dome is.

INSIDE SG: The guard looks at Bee quizicaly, and at the doors, "Ma'am? They're closed an intact. ma'am." Further inside, Mirage creeps along. He sees 11 women in blue suits surrounding a smiling Dr. Scarletti, as she steps out of her cell. One woman looks directly at mirage and speaks. "Invisible intruder, there."

Bee says, "Then where did my companions go?"

Ten cracks in to the grey dome, stops for a moment, then oozes through to the other side.

INSIDE SG: The guards look at each other, as if Bee is crazy, "Ma'am. They opened the door, went through, and closed it again."

American Dream flinches a bit as Ten smacks into the dome, then oozes through it. "... that reminds me of bad belly-flops when I was a kid...", she says, her facial expression one of remembered pain.

Aoi says, "I guess we can't leave her all on her own."

Aoi flies at the gray hemisphere in an attempt to pass through after Ten.

Star Girl tries blasting a hole in the dome.

Ten says to the others, not knowing they can';t see her, "Looks like you can force your way through," and then continues on to the HQ, figuring time may be of the essence.

Spirit waits to see the results of the others' actions before trying anything.

INSIDE SG: Porter is a little behind Mirage and hears the woman call out an invisible intruder.

Porter catches up to Mirage, or at least reaches the Scarletti dozen. "Oh... crap." He's probably had a dream or two in the past about encountering a bunch of women in skintight suits, but this isn't anything like that. Now he has to think of something appropriate to say. "Stop! Give it up! You're surrounded and outnumbered!" Hey, you never know!

Star Girl blasts her way into the dome.

American Dream hops through into the dome via the hole that Star Girl just made, even as it's already starting to fill itself back in.

Mirage frowns as he's spotted. Damn. Expecting that to be the one mentalist in the group, that possibly affected the guards, he quickly pulls shadows up around her, chillingly cold and incapacitating to try and take her out quickly. He turns visible as he does so, giving a shrug of his shoulders. "You must be the intruders we're looking for."

Dr. Julia Scarletti smiles and laughs, "Ahahahhahahaha! How perfect! No, my dear man, it is you that is out 'Number'ed! AHAHAHAHHAHAHA!"

Bee nods and holds up her hands. "No key." Then runs to catch up after her one last attempt to help them break out. She doesn't have time to knock them out and they aren't reacting aggressivly to their preconceptions being challenged.