Duodecimarch Revolution (Warhammer x Metroid x Worm x Transformers Multicross Quest)

[X]: Ranged assault. (Samus and Arne) Use your superior firepower to gun down high priority targets such as spellcasters before they can act, shooting down enemies as they pop up and suppressing them; preventing them from having free movement towards allies.

[X]: Bastion: The least risky and most defensive tactic, the team works primarily to guard each other and prevent people from getting hurt as best they can. Low risk but low offense.

[X] If anyone's religious start praying. Focus on good and righteous things. Certainly couldn't hurt.

Arne


HOLLENMORD HEALTH: 33%

"If you believe in anything, pray to it." You said, holding your cannon and muttering a few words to your Gods, your parents, and your guardians; finishing with a request for the watcher of the dead to forever keep you in her care. Samus had made her own requests to ancient Chozo spirits and ancestor-gods, and both Eudaimonica and Nightcaster made benediction to a number of spirits whose names you didn't recognise. The Vampire recoiled, hissing with seeming pain as the lights in the room seemed to get a little brighter.

"Hey, he's a vampire right?" Assault asked.

"Yes!" Samus responded enthusiastically, seemingly enjoying this way too much as she just about bounced from step to step.

"What's the biggest piece of wood in this place?" He said, realisation flashing before your eyes as you pointed to a broken column.

"If we can impale that through Todesscheri we should be able to end this." You said as you rushed into action, a spray of multiple charged beam shots emerging from your cannon, dancing between the hordes of ghosts that streamed to you, moving too quickly for them to even touch you as you tried to clear a way towards the wood while Heinrich snarled and conjured a blood red mist of death and hurled it forward like a wind; the energy of raw destruction having a considerable tell as it moved towards you with supersonic speeds.

"Clever boy, but cleverness will not be enough to save you. I will have those shards, and I will see you and all your allies as my bloodkin." He howled as Maria let loose a simple sigh and pushed the deathwind closer to you as you dodged around; demons touched by it being rent apart and dissipated into oblivion as the death wind homed in on you like it had a personal vendetta against you. Missile fire from your cannon raked against Hollenmord's wings, tearing holes in them, but as you kept on trying to avoid the wind of death, you noticed that the spell was losing energy far too slowly for you to practically wind it down.

Arne Missile Count: 95/170

HOLLENMORD HEALTH: 25%

It would only dissipate upon contact with you, and until then it posed a risk to your team mates.

To Samus' alarm, you threw yourself into the magic, her shout at your direction being barely audible as the necromantic magic tried to tear at your body, armour, and soul. You endured without harm to your flesh, but you could feel your pulse pounding. Your soul was inviolate, safe both with its progenitor blood and your armour, and your shielding stood up to the foul energies as whispering and howling of death and despair surrounded you. You kept to your feet, and pushed through, continuing to fire at the Vampire as he reflected a charged shot back at you, crashing into you and throwing you out of the dissipated cloud.

The dull ache that pervaded you cleared as you picked yourself up, shaking your head as the fog of the magic vanished.

Arne Energy Count: 05(34)

That hurt for sure, but you weren't properly guarded by the augment magic, and Samus' sigh of relief when it seemed that you were okay made you feel better about yourself while you stood back up.

Winterpyre, shifting some of the invisible chains around their enormous power to let loose with just a bit more of it; conjured forth the powers of abyssal cold and the corrosive potency of hellfire to further shield the team with cryonic and infernal magics that mingled with the shadows and fire of your other allies. The magic tingled slightly as it wrapped around you and you allowed it to seep into you, grabbing at the energy and letting it sink into you; allowing you to enjoy a substantially higher chance to deflect incoming attacks and a sudden infusion of unnatural speed and regeneration interfering enervation while you activated the Berserker Boost; letting the energy surge through you like what you imagined stimulants would have felt like if you weren't so insistent on going completely straight edge.

Hollenmord, with the assistance of the magic of Maria and Heinrich was rapidly patching themselves up; ruined flesh pulling itself into one piece as they let out their hellish howl once again, taking to the skies with a single beat of their wings and spiralling as they swept the ground with their deathshriek, cascades of dark magic infused sound pulverising into the ground with force to rock the earth.

HOLLENMORD HEALTH: 50%

"Keep close and keep them off." You said, looking to Eudaimonica as she directed her demons and fire elementals with the professionalism of a dedicated commander. You smiled a bit at her as she gave you a thumbs up and brought forth her wand, twirling it like a baton and using her cheerleader skills to push the team forward as she threw a wave of magic into the team to reinvigorate them as fast as she could.

"Come on! Hit 'em hard and mop the floor with 'em all over the yard!" She cheered, calling forth her demons and letting them throw a cascade of mystic firepower at Hollenmord's direction, her hellfire whip extending and cracking into Heinrich's face as he prepared yet another spell to augment his creature.

"You really are a wretched little brat aren't you?" Heinrich glowered before you took the opportunity to let the shock coil explode out of your cannon in a storm of neutrinos and the electric pulsation of the shredded atoms following the stream with an eruption of blue-white lightning while Samus let loose with the Laser-Cutter; a red ray stabbing into Hollenmord and stabbing into the bat beast's chest.

"Aaaaaaarghh!" Heinrich snarled as he tried to move his shield into the path of the shock coil, your will moving the stream around his barrier to still stab into his face while Hollenmord stumbled backwards.

"Hey, Gold Render, you up for a teleport?" Eudaimonica asked as Samus grabbed onto Hollenmord with her grapple beam, twisting her body to avoid its raking claws and sweeping the cutting laser downwards, Hollenmord's quills shrieking through the air and glancing off of Assault while he rushed towards a missile launcher left behind by one of the Ubermensch, grunting a bit before hitting the monster in its face with a rocket that made it snarl and stop its flight.

"I uh...sure." She said before a rune flew over her to her surprised yelping, engulfing her and then spitting her out on top of Hollenmord where Heinrich was there to quickly slash his sword at her. She was pushed back by her spacewarp field, but knew she couldn't hope to match the Vampire at this range, and ducked down to grab hollenmord's back and start tearing at his spine. Undying tissue came apart, twisting with an awful noise as she pulled at the directions of its cells, horrific sprays of ichor meeting her before another rune was cast to pull her out just as Maria caught her in a death howl.

You flinched at that sensation, briefly stopping your shock coil as you switched to super missiles. You could feel Gold Render's spirit frayed and body harrowed by the experience as she dropped to the ground, vomiting out blood profusely and shaking as she seemed to have aged a decade in a second while Doctor Black tended to her; holding back the unliving hordes that reached her with black shadows and undoing the curse to the best of his ability.

Arne Universal Ammo Count: 140/240

Arne Energy Count: 08(99)

Samus Universal Ammo Count: 140/240

You took a blood beam and a full power banshee wail and about a dozen hypersonic quills to the face that sent you head over heels and smashing into the wall behind you, groaning a bit before you picked yourself out of the indentation you had made a few dozen rooms behind you, finding yourself face to face with a Vampir whom you quickly impaled through the chest with a nearby piece of wood, not looking at them as you ran back into the fray with your speedbooster.

Arne Energy Count 07(22)

HOLLENMORD HEALTH: 15%


Your heart briefly quailed inside of you at seeing Arne take more hits and Gold Render seemed drained and scarcely able to carry on fighting. Molotok was backing herself into a corner with a group of fire elementals, panting as their heat made her sweat profusely while she was surrounded by ghouls. The team formed a circle around its wounded, Serp's sickle slashing around while Molotok's hammer crashed into the skull of another pair of whites, splintering them while Battery panted and tried to recover her energy after expending it, Winterpyre's hellfire breath scouring the unliving who had the gall to touch it.

But you had almost won, Assault had finished shaping a sharpened point out of the wooden column, using his kinetic energy manipulation to let the axe he stole from a fallen wight do the word of hours in seconds. He just needed a bit more time. And you'd give him that, firing away at Hollenmord's chestpiece with pyromissiles to open up its chestplate and alternating with spazer beam fire at Maria to disrupt her spellcasting whenever possible; using your thrusters to manoeuvre around Hollenmord's flailing.

Making a twist of your body, you flung Hollenmord back onto the ground, arresting its flight and emptying your remaining super missiles into the creature; which staggered backwards with each powerful blow as you made a prayer with each one, asking a different spirit to bless each warhead and tearing increasingly jagged holes into the creature's chest as it vomited out blood and scurried away from you on ragged, damaged wings.

"I fear not the darkness, for I am light's warrior; I stand in the light of Zotek-Xa and I smite the evil of the unliving denied their rest." You said as you charged and fired off the last super missile, exposing Hollenmord's unbeating heart and sending splinters of bone outwards while the beast tried to spread its wings and fly away.

"What sort of warrior are you, girl?!" Heinrich said, alarm in his voice as you dodged around his blood lance and yanked the weapon out of his hand with your grapple beam, roping him towards you off of his footing as you jumped ahead; your arm-sword emerging and clashing against his broadblade briefly atop of Hollenmord's head. You traded sword blows at incredible speed, strikes going between you too fast for the observers to follow until you got in an opening and severed his shield arm at the elbow; the Vampire letting out a howl of outrage as the blade dug into armour weakened by hell-magics before you teleported out of the way of his next swing and shoved him into the path of Maria's banshee wail, getting the Vampire to vomit out blood and his teeth until you shot the Banshee in her face and teleported out once again.

"Heiress of the Chozo. And now, protector of this world. I'm giving you one chance to leave." You said as you shot Hollenmord through the neck with a pair of fully charged shots, tearing open ragged holes in its ruined flesh and creating panic in the beast as it sought to fly away right before you teleported off.

Arne crashed into it hard enough to completely tear off a wing; a red comet of speedboosted energy and his shinespark form arresting its glow as he brought himself to a halt and Winterpyre let forth scalding hellfire on its other wing; Eudaimonica and Nightcaster chanting to bring forth chains of hellfire and darkness around hollenmord.

You and Arne fired off your grapple beams, the Brute's desperate desire to continue its unlife and the magic that the two spellcasters upon it were dumping into it giving it incredible strength. But it could not escape and it fell to a knee as Heinrich realised which way the wind was blowing. Fear clenched at the old vampire's still heart, and his eyes widened with alarm as Assault got onto Jackie Noir with his massive stake in hand. If Hollenmord were to perish; in his bound state; so would he. Good, let the coward run.

"Minions, guard my escape!" Heinrich shouted as he disintegrated into a swarm of bats; the remaining undead hurling themselves at you with all they had, crashing into the demons, elementals and shadows with a wild frenzy in an effort to cover their master's escape while Maria tried to hold you back, only to receive a barrage of beam fire into her ghostly form that made her already transluscent body start to flicker in and out of existence.

"Assault! Come on! Finish him!" You shouted, firing off the grapple voltage to sap energy from Hollenmord and counteract their regeneration; Serp, Molotok, Render, and a newly recovered Battery and Sidewinder focusing on clearing a path for the bounding umbral wolf even as Caustos wreathed their fiery body around Hollenmord to continue burning its flesh; the fire elemental lord whispering prayers of hatred for the unliving as it flowed into the vampire's eyes and mouth.

"God, please let this work." Assault said as the wolf rushed forwards into the Vampire bat and he shoved the stake into its still heart with all the force he could muster, breaking its skin and pushing into its still damaged back. All at once, Hollenmord began to jerk around like a puppet in the hands of a possessed man, shrieking, flailing and howling as its body began to steam. Its regenerating wings stopped dregrowing, and the evil force in its body began to leave like air seeping out of a balloon. With a final jerking motion, it tried to snap its jaws at you and then once more, it was a corpse, greedily drained blood flowing out of it in a foul smelling pool.

The undead, abandoned by their masters, began to crumble once more. Bones clattered to the ground, followed by weapons and armour, Serp's attempt to sword fight a plate armoured Wight who had his black armoured hands around his throat coming to an end when the Wight Knight fell behind him, Molotok's wrestling with dozens of ghouls ending as the ghouls felt a sudden panic and abandoned her, fleeing and hissing before you shot at them to end their miserable existences; dust flowing from their corpses as your prizes were left standing in the open in the wake of the battle; Maria shrieking as her incorporeal body unravelled into tendrils of ectoplasmic smoke, leaving behind some prizes in her wake.

"...Holy shit we did it." Battery said, panting and wiping off her sweat encrusted brow as she threw off a massive monstrosity made out of the bones of hundreds of corpses before it could crumble into a pile of remains, sidestepping away from a loose jaw that rattled towards her with a grimace on her face.

Even better, it seemed that the signals your suit were picking up were indicating that the fighting really was over.




HOLLENMORD DEFEATED

You had won, and you had just the right idea for how to handle it.

You grabbed each and every one of your friends that you could, Arne included; into a fierce hug and jumped a bit with them in hand.

"WE DID IT! OH SPIRITS AND GODS YOU'RE ALL STILL HERE! OOOHHH YOU MADE ME WORRY SO MUCH! AHHH PLEASE DON'T GET HURT LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN FRIENDS! HOW COULD YOU BE SO BRAVE WITH SUCH POOR ARMOUR?! AAAAAAAAAH" You squealed in rapid succession as a choke informed you that some were not quite happy to be hugged by someone who won an arm wrestling contest with a being who could stand upright on a neutron star.

"Oh Please...don't wanna...die being hugged...after all this...please...restrain yourself..." Viktor gurgled before you let him go and he flopped onto his back with a metallic thud, giving you a thumbs up as he hit the ground.

"Good to see such...enthusiasm comrade...I will...call a chiropractor..." He said breathlessly as you and Arne shared another armlock and headbutt gesture that lingered for a moment; your visors going transparent for you to stare into each other's eyes before you pushed a finger onto where his nose would be.

"Arne...don't make me worry like that about you. We've talked about this before." You said as he looked a bit guiltily and nodded.

"It was just the best way to keep anyone important from getting hurt." He said before you shook your head.

"You are important too. Not just to me either." You said as you brushed a hand against the side of his helmet, his own hand resting atop yours and nodding as you gave him leave to separate. "Check on them, okay?" You said as you looked at the lock of the door ahead of you, letting your scan visor get to work at unlocking it. The code was sophisticated by this planet's standards, but hardly beyond your ability to force open. You set it to an open position, and looked behind you at what the foe had left behind.

"Anyone need any assistance?" Arne asked, Doc Black assuring him that everyone would be in fighting shape.

You tapped Arne on the shoulder and directed his attention to the menagerie of upgrades left behind, and he smirked beneath his helmet shortly afterwards. With a nod, the two of you went out to fetch them together.

The items split in two and passed themselves into each other's suits; gathered from the defeated enemies and the prizes they left behind. Heinrich's lance and shield, Todesscheri's body and the armour peeled from its Hollenmord form, and Maria's remaining sonerous screech and her ectoplasm were all pulled into your armoursuits in a flash as you were carried aloft. Brilliant light flickered around your forms as you curled into a ball and then flicked your arms outwards to complete the transformation, all eyes on you with interest and fascination. Winterpyre perhaps most of all, the ancient Demon having the best understanding of what was happening as sorcery, psionics, and science came together to make for a miracle.

Your armour had changed; as did Arne's. It had taken on a ghost green and bedsheet white colour scheme with trimmings of deathly purple and highlights of spectral blue, your visor shifting to a blue colour while your pauldrons had shifted into a more rounded shape, two glowing pools of light in it almost suggestive of eye sockets with glowing orbs within. The armour was a bit more slender now as well, and the limb plating had faint traces of ribbing going across them, as did the chestplate. Your helm changed slightly, with two prongs emerging downwards to the sides of your mouthpiece slightly suggestive of fangs while small hints of wings emerged from the sides of your helm, like a ghostly valkyrie come to collect the dead; completed by the sift of two wings emerging from your armour's back with spectral blue energy membranes that stretched out before curling back into yourself and disappearing as you hit the ground.

Arne's armour changed as well, his suit a combination of indigo and black, with witchfire green trimmings and menacing blood red highlights that made his armour suggestive of an altogether more malevolent sort of spirit than yours did. The blood red highlights of the wings taken from Hollenmord giving him the suggestion of a demon, and the crest of his helmet moved somewhat formward to suggest either a crown or a set of horns depending on how one looked at it. The ribbing on his limb armour was more pronounced, as were the small fangs on the bottom of his helm. His pauldrons had changed into articulated pieces shaped like extended and distorted versions of his helmet, with glowing "eye"pieces at their centre while the frame of the suit had become a bit more slender. He looked at his armour and projected a shield from his left hand, and a scarlet energy blade from the barrel of his cannon.

You however, checked out a rather familiar beam now made accessible to you once more, firing off a burst of sonerous energy that accompanied the electric and light energy of your current beam stack; leaping outwards and passing through a wall with a reverberating jackhammer noise; your armour noting the rapid recovery of your lost shield energy. During the upgrade process, you had also taken the time to "handshake" with Arne, passing on to him a copy of the upgrades you had just as he had to you; and your suit noted the acquisition of the Star Beam, Prism Beam, Quantum Beam, Shock Coil, Lightning Sphere, and Berserker Booster just as his noted the acquisition of the Adaptation Module, the Blink Pack, the Seeker Missile, and the Electro-Wave and Spazer beams.

Not quite what you had in the battle with Trace, Sketch, Kanden, and Weavel or the engagement with the Moon Hunter and Sun Stalker, but definitely a very formidable arsenal all things told.










Energy Tank Acquired (Energy Total now 09(99)

Missile expansions acquired (Missile total now 200/200)

Super missile expansion acquired (Missile total now 40/40)

Universal Ammo Acquired (UA total now 280/280)

Shield Resilience upgrade acquired (Damage reduction now at 90%)

Charge accelerator acquired (Charge speed now at x4)

This was quite the significant haul from a single battle to be sure, and there was still the shard and the two remaining statues to acquire. So overall this had been a good day. But on the other hand, this was a menagerie of alien artifacts and a major invasion focal point. You were unsure of whether other places would be so generous with their bounty. But with everything in hand, you turned ahead and looked down the hall.

"Hrm, we seem to have the run of the facility now. Shall we take the time to examine what is left to us?" Winterpyre offered. It was a tempting offer to be sure...

"Well...as long as we're not going into combat again any time soon because...oww..." Assault said, shaking his hands and rubbing them, a cursory glance telling you his knuckles were bruised and bleeding as he wiped more sweat off of his brow.

"Yeah I...ah...you don't suppose they've got something to drink here? I am...running on like...zero hydration." Nightcaster said, inhaling and exhaling rapidly.

"Da...the tank is...empty as you say." Molotok wheezed out, kicking a skull aside.

While this is a very generous haul, this was a large and complex battle (and a learning experience), and generally most missions won't be quite this generous. This is also the early game where your team is very dependent on you to do a lot of the work or fight a lot of weirder opponents. So you're kind of crutch characters. Consider this a crutch for your player characters to better carry the team until they can start to catch up later.

Suit wise; Arne and Samus' abilities will largely be broadly similar with the exception of some particular upgrade affinities, where they'll diverge is in more spiritual and esoteric abilities once you start unlocking them.


Actions: (Sort in order of priority to finish. The mission is complete and no further combat encounters will be had. Voting period will be shorter due to the next post coming out sooner.)

[]: Collect all pick-ups (The Incarnate Fragments in the Vault, the remaining Chozo and Alimbic artifacts etc)
[]: Check where that team of eight metas went (if they are metas)
[]: Check on survivors and allies (Autobots, remaining security staff, team mates.)
[]: Check the haunted path.
[]: Investigate any leftover clues regarding the Weltreich assault or the other parties involved.
[]: Investigate nature of the facility itself
[]: Write in (You may have up to two.)

Okay going to do a sort of ranked voting for this.

1 and 6 are unanimously:

1 Check on allies

6 Check the Haunted path

Ultralickus, Coffeelatte, Lupercal, Baron, Premise, Steel, and Patrick put pick-up collection second.

3 is split fairly evenly between investigating everything the Weltreich wanted out of this place and finding out who was the other metahuman team, but jwolfe put this at 2, which I'll count as a vote for 3. Putting it at 5 votes to the Weltreich's four.

4 will have investigate the Weltreich's votes filtered into it.

5 will be looking at the facility itself.

6 will be looking at that path where people got demeated.

Samus

You were the somewhat more social out of the two, so you decided to make the call. You cracked into the autobot network to make a quick check for vitals, and were relieved to see that most of them were fine, and the few injuries were already being taken care of. Your heart sank at the sight of how much of the site's security staff were injured. 75% of the security staff was outright dead, much of the research staff was missing, presumably kidnapped. By any reasonable definition this facility was utterly gutted and would never be operating back at its full capacity any time soon.

Arne and yourself were fine, but most of your own team were injured. Only Molotok, Battery, Assault, and Eudaimonica had avoided getting seriously hurt throughout this battle, and Sidewinder had only just finished begin thawed out of the ice she was frozen in. You felt bad, like you weren't able to be there to guard them properly against the beating being thrown their way. You knew academically that there was only so much you could do; you couldn't force your enemies to prioritise you over less agile and durable opponents. But every hit more vulnerable people took made you feel like you hadn't done enough.

Arne remained quiet, looking at the readout with a sigh and muttering that they should have been here sooner.

Winterpyre gazed towards you with a sad look in his eyesockets.

"It is hardly my place to offer comfort, but you have given them rest at least. Take pride in that, if nothing else." He said, as avuncularly as a massive fiery demon could manage.

You let yourself calm down for a bit, shaking and nodding as you used the meditative exercises taught to you by old bird to regain control over yourself.

"Maybe we should...just commhail everyone?" Arne said, trying to push himself back into the focus of duty. Tasks to do, objectives to complete, missions to finish. Those were certain things, there was comfort in certainty, safety. You understood that, but yet you wondered if he was latching onto it too much. The comfort friends could offer was better therapy than work in your experience, yet Arne was always choosing the latter. You then thought more about it, what sort of people raised him after he lost everything on Cylosis...you dropped the thought, chiding yourself for even going down it.

"You're right. You guys are alright at least yeah?" You said, trying a smile beneath your helmet.

"Yeah just epic here. Hey uh...can I try cheering you up?" Nightcaster said, clearing his throat.

"I...sure...go ahead." You said, giving it a thought and then nodding, having a good feeling about it based on your distant sight.

"That was totally BDE as fuck just taking on a thousand-year-old vampire knight in a swordfight like that." Nightcaster said, giving you a thumbs up with his good arm even though his other arm had by now, been fully healed.

"...B...D...E?" You asked, head racing through possible acronyms, eyes narrowing at him.

"You know...big dick energy...just...you were badass." He was fumbling his words, was this some sort of complicated concept important to 2020s culture. But...you didn't have those genitals, let alone a big one...and how would it have energy? Even the Earth Bet humans were confused, quizzically looking to each other and whispering before scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders.

"I'm...still lost? I don't...what?" You said, even more confused now.

"It just means like...confident, you know you had me like, pogging watching you kick ass."

"...What's pogging?" Arne asked, equally confused.

"Well you see it all starts with this streame-" Eudaimonica cast a spell of Silence on Joseph before he could finish and sighed, pinching her brow.

"Please don't get the memelord going." She said as you couldn't help but start to double over and laugh. Ah, you got it now, this was all some sort of joke to make you feel better! Even Arne started to make some wheezing laughing noises at how stupid this all was.

"You're good friends you know! Making such fools of yourselves just to make me feel better. I'm very glad I got to meet you." You said bluntly as Nightcaster seemed to do his best impression of a chameleon trying to hide as he gave off a confusing array of emotions mostly revolving around shame and regret.

"I told you that trying to shitpost in real life wasn't going to get you a date with her." Eudaimonica chided him as if you couldn't hear them just fine as you continued to laugh and shook your head, your mood brightened considerably.

"This conversation is making me feel like my parents...God...I can just feel my hip throwing itself out already." Battery said, rubbing at her side.

"Boomer Alert." Nightcaster said across the room before Eudiamonica pinched his ear and dragged him off to his protests.

"...What?" Battery asked, more confused than offended. Giggling a bit, you decided to patch into the comms before they made you laugh even harder.

"You're good with kids you tell me what that means." Battery asked, Assault simply shrugging.

"I...I have no idea. I...I think I'm scared of the next decade now." He admitted.


Well, it seemed that everyone was fine on that front at least.

There was still the matter of the leftover relics to pick up. The Incarnate fragments were the items that the Reich wanted the most desperately, and so you couldn't let them have it at any cost.

"Come on, let's hurry before any of them get other ideas." You said, gesturing for them to follow you as you rushed forward.

You raced past a menagerie of objects under less than careful guard, all filed into an array of storage units. An archaeologist's dream come true. Your eyes couldn't help but drift over the catalogued and stored items, your visor feeding you a wealth of information about what the people working here were devoting so much resources into trying to understand.


You looked at one such crate under the most scrutiny, and you chanced opening it to find a few scraps of paper covering some broken fragments of crystal and in a box next to it a number of artifacts gathered together in a container labelled "fragment reactant" that drew your interest.


"What's with you guys?" Gold Render asked, touching the relic and the shard and getting absolutely nothing out of it, shrugging and putting them back where she found them. However, the items that were touched by Eudaimonica, Assault, Molotok, Serp, and Nightcaster had disappeared, just as the ones you did had. You felt a bit...different? Good different though, somewhat tingling, almost like you were flying just a bit. But so far, unless you could properly form that connection to the source into a coherent link; it would do relatively little for you besides a few important interactions. But your eyes could also see a faint glow to some of the other objects. As could your visor.



"...Felt like talking to the Politburo blech." Molotok said with a shake of her head, removing her helmet and blinking a few times as she banged on a vending machine to get out some Gatorade and just guzzled that liquid as fast as she could, panting and shaking her head, sweat-stained hair clinging to her face in a less than flattering way and a few bruises already visible on her skin.

Serp coughed a bit as he took a sip for himself, finishing the second bottle in a hurry while Nightcaster sat atop the back of Jackie Black while a groundbridge opened up to reveal Jetfire with an autobot team behind him, getting Nightcaster to almost fumble with the tea he was trying to drink before Doctor Black caught it for him and patted him on the head. You stepped back a bit, unsure of what possessed the autobot to bring him here in humanoid mode, but assuming it was serious based on his demeanour and the force he was bringing.

"Oi, gud work luv. But we've ran some checks an' well...this facility's a bit dodgy. 'Ad meself a look at the dosht rail. It's legit, but ain't connected ta anyone on the up-and-up or anyone down-low either. Lot a' fumbles on the trail though, someone ain't to keen on other people pokin' 'round the trail. Also...twist and twirly..." You....still had some issues following everything he was saying but nodded as if you understood. After finishing his little speech, he looked down to a very surprised looking Gold Render as one of his minicons slid down his shoulder and presented her a pink slip. You got a feeling of unease from the slip, knowing what it signified in this culture.

"'Found this in the company e-mail. Figured ya lot deserved ta know 'fore ya got back to that computers."

"...Termination of employment? What?!" Gold Render said before Sidewinder grabbed it and looked at it quizzically. You felt bad for her, money was so important to cultures like these that to have no source of it was a death sentence.

"Came as soon as the raid breached some of the vaults. Cuttin' loose ends an' focusin' on other prospects." He said before the Minicon offered another slip.

"...A job offer?" She said. Ah, well, at least that would work out well.

"See, this facility's pretty hush-hush...location's the bee's knees. Could do with some Autobot repainting and refitting. But I got word from the big man that we're escalatin'; so we need some new bases. Now, you lot already gone an' seen of us metal lads so we figure if ya can keep it a secret fer now, we could keep the paychecks rollin' in if ya switch jobs?" Jetfire offered.

"I...we...yes...I need the money." Gold Render sighed as she leaned back.

"Smashing luv! Smashing!" He said as the minicons started to catalogue the inventory of the vault closely while Jetfire turned around, hands folded behind his back.

"Aren't you worried about what they're going to do to Brockton Bay?" You asked as Jetfire took a look at some of the relics, opening the container gently with his giant hands, nodding and then putting them back where he found it.

"Damn right I'm worried. Got Rikti and now bloody Nazis and Primus knows what else. Gonna drive me circuits in a tizzy." He said with a sigh as he shook his head.

"Enemy's gone low for now so you'd just be well....long-duration recon is what they call it in the biz." He said, shrugging as you groaned internally. Sitting around for long periods of time waiting for things to happen was the very worst sort of mission to both you and Samus.

"Anyway...I can't make use of these bloody things...but I think these belong to you lot eh?" He said, holding a Chozo item sphere and an Alimbic relic pyramid and lowering them towards you.

The two of you reached out and repeated the fantastical process once again, your suits shifting as a new weapon fitted itself to your other shoulder, an armature fitted barrel with a somewhat wide opening like a mortar, while you both felt a sudden desire to curl into your alt-modes and extend a set of spidery-limbs from them, crawling in a manner somewhat like some rather horrible sort of insect, finding purchase that your more roll prone forms would sometimes struggle with, and extending energy sheathed scythe claws and leaping around a bit, making a few testing stabbing motions before uncurling.



Hrm...rather disappointing, just another weapon and well...a sort of utility upgrade? It wouldn't change a great deal but the option was there you guessed. They couldn't all be winners though.

"Flash innit?" Jetfire said, prompting you to just...nod like you understood that.

"Do you know anything of a second metahuman team sent here?" You asked.

"Yeah, were they from uh, Primal Earth?" Eudaimonica stopped to tilt her head at Jetfire who gave a large shrug.

"Sorry mates, 'aven't the foggiest. Was a portal there though...not from the Sourcewell metaverse. It's from a reality we're monitoring but it's one where I haven't really checked through the files of. Looked through the records, lots of psychic mumbo-jumbo I'll let the city-speaker boffings 'ave a go at. I do on the other 'and, got meself the dimensional siggy of that portal. Any gate to that reality opens anytime soon, we'll know." He said proudly. So...not a whole lot of answers then.

"What sort of psychic powers?" Samus asked.

"TK, TP, PK, whole nine yards, one of 'em could even turn the living into big 'ulkin' things with some kind of beam. Caused a lot of ruckus they did." He said. No that...didn't narrow things down any, but it was good to know you could follow them later on.

"What do they look like?" Eudaimonica asked.

"That's the thing...some kinda cloakin' field. Part of 'ow just eight of 'em could rummage through without being stopped." Well, that was concerning.

"Thank you." You said as you looked at one of the computers here and let your gauntlet rest on it.

"How much of this places files do you have?"

"Most of it...Seems like this place was just...built to stash up weird gubbinz for the "mysterious benefactor" 'ere. Certainly seems to be the draw for the Fash. Best guess, someone blabbed." He said while you looked into the files with your suit, digging through all the various communications in and out of this place. You stopped and had a look at one brief exchange that drew your interest.


Cryptic, but you weren't stupid. The Old Man was the benefactor, whoever he was, the field is fallow; as in he has no further interest in this base. The howl means the attack, the full moon means when they are ready. They're looking for artefacts relating to the Well, to space, to magic, or from other dimensions. The Witch was probably Bose Hexe, and while you weren't sure what the Imperial Apothecary meant, you figured it was Brockton bay.

"They really want to get to Brockton Bay for some reason." You said, passing the conversation out to everyone else's devices.

"I should probably get back to my team then, give them the heads up." Battery said with a sigh as Serp and Molotok shrugged.

"We'd need permits to reach America anyway. We will probably have to sit that one out for...just a bit..." Molotok said before winking at the two of you.

"But if you are in the mood to come to the Soviet Union, visit Arkhangelsk eh? I can show you a good time." Irina said with a wide, mischievous grin.

"So...that just leaves the..." You said before Samus finished for you.

"Path of the Dead." She said.


You had brought Arne to the last hallway, where a number of corpses were strewn about, stripped of flesh; reduced to dust or floating particulates, or reduced to charred remnants. A glowing green ankh symbol that made your stomach churn blocked the way forward, black stone immobile and unmoving. The chill of the air had diminished from earlier as the Ankh's glow began to fade, but the sensation of not belonging here remained strong. As if this was not a place that life was allowed to prosper in.

You scanned the door, hoping to find some manner of entrance.


You backed out of the room and nodded at Jetfire. "Let's get going." You said, letting the groundbridge take you back to the Autobot base in Russia; stepping through the swirling green portal as calmly as you could manage, looking around to see that a number of new Autobots had arrived, being directed to their new stations while Jetfire walked alongside you. A salute was given to Jetfire as he approached a heavy set Autobot festooned with weapons, red in armour plating and clearly heavily armoured, a massive cannon emerging from his centre.


"Heard you needed some help and came rushing over for some KAPOW!" He said with a hearty laugh as Jetfire rested a hand on his shoulder and laughed with him before nodding.

"Good ta see ya ya cheeky bugger. Ya ready ta krump some fash eh?" Jetfire asked.

"Damn right I am! These servos were BUILT to smash some creeps. When do I get started?" He said, slamming his fists together with a resounding thunderclap before

Maulenov harrumped as he held a tablet in his hand to grab the attention of the autobots.

"Jetfire, I have people breathing down my necks demanding to know what on this Earth drove you to trash the University of Muni-" He said before he looked at his tablet as it pinged, his eyes widening as he read the title and abstract of the report before calming down.

"Multiple extradimensional invaders...an entire multiversal empire of nazis...and someone with impossible sums of money we can't even put a name to?" He said before Jetfire gave him a thumbs up.

"...Blyat." He said under his breath as he stroked his moustache firmly before handing the Tablet to Piggot as she got close, ready to belt out the exact same line of questioning and then having a roughly similar response.

"So...Brockton Bay is next, is that right?" She said, gulping a bit hard.

"'Fraid so luv." Jetfire said.

"If the Empire-88 gets word of thi-" She started before Wheeljack once again cut in over the intercom.

"Already have! Have been for YEARS based on the data I'm going through. Got all kinds of people poking stuff in that little city of yours." He said as she paled and looked around at one of the Minicons.

"You...you get me a coffee! I n-n" The minicon shook her head and stepped back.

"I'm not your service maid lady, just ask the fabricator machine for some! Primus...I swear some of you just act so entitled!" She said before storming off to her work station in a huff while you and Arne had a small snigger.

"Oh, by the by; kiddies. Got you your ships back, all spick and spam and ready ta go!" Jetfire said with an excited voice as you looked at Arne with a wide grin.

"Hold up, if we're heading to the bay, can I at least have a word with you two?" Battery said, stepping up and sidestepping some autobots moving some heavy looking equipment to reach you.

"Aw shoot, we were gonna try talking to them first!" Eudaimonica said with a huff, folding her arms.

"...What for?" You asked.

"Well, stuff you should know about like...incarnate stuff...and stuff...hangoutwithusplease." She said, awkwardly and then jolitng a bit forward with her hands clasped in prayer.

"I mean...I've got the ground bridge ready to go so you can just...go whenever and check the bay out, or have a look around. Don't have anything for you right now but give it a bit of time." Wheeljack said over the intercom before something crashed in the background.

"Ah...scrap, hold on a second let me make sure that doesn't blow up and reverse the local flow of time. Or was it invert the strength of gravity and the strong atomic force?" Wheeljack muttered.

"Could I just have...one moment to get a debrief from you two?" Emily managed, looking at the Demon eyeballing her cup of coffee as if it was out to steal her soul through its eyes before the bovine skull managed a grin that made her offer a nervous smile in response.

Choose one. Voting period will be truncated because the next posts will be shorter and less plot-heavy.

[]: Head to Brockton Bay, handle the talking on the way (Arne, Samus, Assault, Battery, Eudaimonica, Nightcaster, Bumbelbee, and Strongarm have all done multiple missions in a row and are at heightened risk of stress build-up without destressing. Thus even if you pick this option, you shouldn't go straight into the first sign of trouble and should instead do some casual stuff, chilling and walking around. Going straight away also means being less prepared for the civilian/social phase which is likely to result in more hijinks).
[]: Speak to Eudaimonica and Nightcaster about the incarnates. (More incarnate and primal earth information, destress)
[]: Debrief with Piggot and Maulenov (More Earth Bet information, starts contact with Parahuman agencies)
[]: Speak to Battery for her advice (Minor destress, more information about life in the bay in particular)
[]: Check around the autobot base (Quick base mechanic tutorial, greater contact with Autobot command)
[]: Check on your ship (Quick introduction to your starships)