First Contact
- Location
- Wherever
Eventually you break the awkward silence. "I think we should just go for the incomplete base." You make a vague motion with your left hand. "But just to look at it for the moment. We clearly need to know more about what's going on, and I think we really ought to find out stuff before committing to anything. I mean, no offense Miss Horseshoe Crab, but it is possible you're lying to us and we're pawns in some crazy intergalactic war or something, and we just don't know what we can do, and seriously we need more information."
Vari raises her hand, clanking, like you're all in school or something, though she doesn't wait to be 'called upon' before speaking. "Yeah, speaking of, I have a question for the crab. Are we waiting for the Andalites to show up, just needing to slow down the not-Yeerks until reinforcements get here, or are we 'waiting for the Andalites to show up'-" Airquotes with fingers, which looks kind of goofy with her armor, not to mention she could only really do it halfway. With one hand, because the shield hides her other hand. You're a little surprised she doesn't drop the sword, honestly. "-by which I mean we're actually on our own and/or any reinforcements will kill us all because we're mind controlled and anyway we don't count?"
You have no idea what she's referring to.
Miss Horseshoe Crab's response is... indifferent-sounding. "Oh please. No one cares enough about this backwater to come 'save' your world."
Xia cocks an eyebrow, leans forward, and says what you're pretty sure you're all kind of thinking. (Well, maybe not Vari) "So why are you here, then?"
Miss Horseshoe Crab scuttles sideways and then back a couple of times. You wonder what it means. When she finally speaks up, she sounds displeased. "Alright, fine. I'd wanted to speak of this later, because it just sounds so transparently manipulative to admit it up front, but the real reason I'm here is because my species needs your help."
Ooookay. "What, you're hoping we'll throw off the yoke, supercharge our space program, and zip off to blast the Overlords out of your sky?" You're not sure why she wouldn't have said that upfront, honestly.
"Not... exactly." Miss Horseshoe Crab does that shuffling motion again. She makes a sound kind of like a sigh, for once with no rainbowification attached. Then she speaks again, with great reluctance. "Context time. You already know Overlords can reprogram people. It's the basis of their entire society; everything in their society is a slave under a psychic yoke, or a robot under a programmed yoke, or is an Overlord, or is very, very dead. Or... a cyborg under a programmed yoke..."
That's... awful-sounding.
"Familiars are immune. They can't reprogram us, they can't dominate us, and without dwelling on the details cybernetic implants fail or kill us when installed. Normally the Overlords would just kill us right out because of all that, but they want the benefit of bonding without having to deal with anything resembling a social equal, so they've got us in labs, studying us. Dissecting us. Sometimes still alive."
She sounds... haunted on that last bit. Alina's hands go to her mouth in horror and/or sympathy. (Just barely avoiding cutting herself) Even Mindy shifts awkwardly, nothing sarcastic to say. Xi blanches a little too, though she seems to be trying really hard to stay stoic. Davion just looks incredibly awkward, but he squeezes your hand tightly so it's pretty obvious he's upset.
Miss Horseshoe Crab continues, either ignoring you all or not noticing your reactions. "Since some of our capabilities present security problems and their highest authorities cannot stand our presence anyway, they decided to move all their labs to some backwards hovel of a world that no one cares about and study us there, where escaping wouldn't let us contact any of the power species that might be sympathetic to our plight and have enough political or military pull to actually do something about our situation. Hence why I'm here, and not talking to a Commodore of the Spacial Guild." That last bit is said particularly bitterly.
Oh wow. Um. Wow.
Somewhat hesitantly, you reach out and pat Miss Horseshoe Crab on her back/head/something, avoiding what you're pretty sure are her eyespots. "Um... there... there?" You continue apologetically. "I'm sorry, I've never had to comfort someone who's lost a family member, let alone anything on this scale."
Everyone else sort of makes like they're going to sit up, looking all sympathetic and feeling-y. (Even Xi) Miss Horseshoe Crab snaps out, "I don't need your sympathy. I will feel better once my people are free." More quietly, seemingly to herself, she tacks on, "And after I've had a year of therapy."
Which rather breaks up the group hug or whatever it was you were all sort of thinking of doing. Everyone sits down a bit heavily, even Vari and Mindy, who had been standing beforehand.
Trying and failing to sound conversational, Mindy speaks up, her voice shaking a bit. "So since the team mascot doesn't want to talk about her trauma, how about we change the topic to something else utterly depressing? Like, seriously? Five bases in our city? How lucky are we to have so many?"
Miss Horseshoe Crab barks out a laugh. "There's forty in this nation's capital. Overlords and Psilinkers can't cover that much ground at a time, and you complicate things with your bizarre 'election' traditions, preventing them from just focusing on the rulers and their heirs. Five isn't even remotely adequate for the size and population of this city."
The color drains out of all your faces when she mentions how many are in DC. Or so you assume for Mindy and Vari. Vari rocks back a bit, anyway.
Mindy tries to make a joke. "New rule: nobody tries to talk to anyone important until after we've destroyed all the DC bases." It ends up coming out completely serious, with all of you nodding along.
You open your mouth to make a half-joke about asking if Davion transforming with you is proof of your True Love, and then close it with a click. It wouldn't be funny. Instead you focus on business. "Let's just... focus on the short term. Hitting the base, looking around. I... guess seeing if there's any Familiars at the base?"
"There won't be. They only move us in once the base is phased, to make it harder to escape."
You cock your head curiously at Miss Horseshoe Crab. "I would've thought you'd push for us to go save some of your friends first thing."
"If you all die, then all I've done is alerted the Overlords to the fact that a Familiar is running around creating problems for them, and they'll start searching for me, while I'm forced to start over with trying to determine if a different girl is compromised or not."
If you all die. Cheery thought. Much confidence. So optimism.
Vari snaps her fingers suddenly. Well. Tries. It makes a weird squealing, scraping sound, which is just as attention-grabbing. "Code names!"
Davion looks at her dubiously. "This isn't actually an anime."
Vari shakes her head sharply. "No, we actually need code names. What's going to happen if we go in, and we're calling out each other's names, and they, I dunno, code people to be on the watch for our names and kidnap us if they hear our names or something? In fact, we might need masks for those of you without helmets."
"Names is a good point. You don't need to worry about Overlords recognizing you by appearance, though. They focus on minds in the first place, which the bonding does a good job of blocking the easy stuff, and they don't have any programmed algorithms for identifying humans as yet. It would take years for them to make good ones, too, and I'd be surprised if the thought even crossed their minds."
Xia cocks an eyebrow. "You mentioned 'slaves' before. Maybe they'll recognize us."
"Missy, I know what the Overlord slaves are like. They just aren't built that way. To be completely honest, the only reason I can tell you apart is the bonding has key markers distinguishing you for me. It took me forty loops to determine the first of you was clean because the first twenty were spent losing track of you and trying to figure out how to identify you when you don't have any of the right markers to be distinguishable from a tree."
Huh. Here you'd thought she wanted to be really certain, or that it was something about... like... Overlord 'reprogramming' speed. It never crossed your mind she might not be able to tell you apart from... seriously, a tree? What kind of senses does she have?
Davion interrupts. "Well, you can call me Tuxedo Scrubs." You roll your eyes tolerantly and elbow him in humor.
Alina raises the hand with a knife like she's in class. "I'll go with Green Beret, then."
You try not to laugh, and end up failing. "Well, I'm not calling myself Sailor anything."
Xi shrugs. "That's fine. We'll call you Boss Lady, if you're really going to be in charge." You make protesting sounds, but everyone else nods agreeably to that (Even Davion! Traitor!), and ultimately you give up, grumbling and leaning against Davion. "As for me, I'm going with..." She glances down at her outfit, making a face. "... 'Fluffy', I guess. At least it'll make it easier to keep the two identities apart."
You chortle, feeling a bit better about being ignored on your own codename.
Mindy shrugs. "I'm the Dark Knight, I suppose. Nothing wrong with being Batman." Everyone rolls their eyes a little. Mindy's love of Batman is well-known, what with the whole 'unorthodox and fairly unpleasant way of righting wrongs' thing. (Okay yes Batman is pretty cool, but it's obvious why Mindy likes him)
Everyone looks expectantly at Vari. "Ariel. Duh."
You all look sort of blankly at her. Xi points out, "Nobody else has a name-name."
Vari shrugs. "Maybe they'll make the mistake of thinking I slipped, and go looking at the wrong people."
Mindy makes a horrified sound. "And what will they do to those people, Vari?"
You suspect Vari's face is falling behind the helmet, and she sounds a bit shaken when she responds. "Okay yeah, bad idea. Mermaid, then."
There's another awkward pause.
"So are you all going to find some new way to stall or are we done?"
You jolt in your seat. Everyone exchanges glances. You return your attention to Miss Horseshoe Crab. "No no, I'm pretty sure we're finally actually done."
"Good. Now, you're going to experience something. I don't know exactly how you'll experience it, but I want you to do your best to feel agreeable at the experience. It'll be a teleport inclusion request."
Ooookaaaay.
...
...
...
Mindy speaks up. "I thought we were supposed to feel something?"
Miss Horseshoe Crab snaps out, "I'm still targeting! You have to account for planetary rotation, shifting gravitational centers, and a whole slew of stuff I'd be amazed if you have the words for it."
Mindy makes a non-apologetic apology, and then it's back to everyone waiting. Davion fidgets uncomfortably. Xi starts kicking her legs back and forth like a kid on a swing set. Come to think, she doesn't look cold, and you don't feel anywhere near as cold as you'd expect. Wonder why. (Pssst: the answer is probably 'magic') Only Alinia seems comfortable holding still.
...
...
"So-"
Sanguine greetings. Grateful dead. Hopalong bard.
...
What?
Oil toil and trouble. Blither me not.
Oh gawd. Okay, feel... accepting? Apparently? How do you mentally click 'yes', anywa-
A burst of light consumes everything.
-------------------------------------
You're standing in a tunnel. It seems to be a hexagonal shape, stretching infinitely in two directions. One direction is shrouded in blackness, ever retreating yet never quite disappearing. The other is a bright source of yellow-white light, ever approaching and yet never quite arriving.
Vari speaks up. "Oh gawd. Everything is rainbow."
Miss Horseshoe Crab testily says, "Cease your whining. The transit is brief."
You all sort of stare at Miss Horseshoe Crab. She's distinctly... not-rainbow-y. She's actually like a little black hole, something you want to mentally characterize as blacker-than-black, lacking the concept of color entirely.
You wonder what it means.
You don't really have time to guess, though. Abruptly, Mindy breaks down into a rainbow cluster of bubbly lights, like a bubble bath, and the cluster shoots off toward the light in the distance. Then Vari. Then Alina. Then you notice Davion isn't here, but-
---------------------------------------------------
You stagger abruptly, feeling... really, really weird.
Your first awareness of the others is your eyes being hypnotically drawn to Xi vomiting rainbows onto what looks like a very ordinary concrete floor. The rainbows flow rather more like a river than like normal vomit, and then drain down into the gaps. Gaps? Yes, gaps, like a sidewalk has gaps.
As your own not-exactly-nausea fades, your attention widens. Xi, Alina, Vari, Mindy, yourself obviously...
... no Miss Horseshoe Crab. No Davion.
Uh-oh.
When Xi is done puking, she calls out in outrage, "Hey missus alien, you coulda warned-"
Alina shushes her. Xi whirls on her angrily, but then recollects herself, perhaps because she can see the steel (?) scaffolding rising off behind Alina.
Vari speaks up. "Our ride out isn't here."
"Of course I'm here."
You all startle, looking about. That sure sounded like Miss Horseshoe Crab, minus the synesthesia.
"I'm maintaining the snapback. It's easier than a fresh teleport, but it means I'm still in between. That's all."
Okay, that's nice, but... "What happened to Davion? He wasn't with us, and he's not here."
"Can't teleport him, not bonded to him. I tried just in case, but it didn't work. You'll have to make do."
Not your concern. "I meant do you know if he's fine?"
"Ah. He should be. Nothing should have happened."
That's... not as reassuring as you'd like.
Mindy speaks up. "Are we sure we want to push on with this?"
"They probably have sensors up. You may have the element of surprise still, depending on whether there's anyone watching the sensor readings, but just having come here means it's a bit late to be backing out."
That would've been ni- "That would've been nice to know beforehand." To everyone's surprise, it's Alina. Even Miss Horseshoe Crab seems taken aback.
...
Wait, why do you think that?
No, never mind. "Focus, gals. We need to... I guess find a command center or something. Hey, do you think the computers will work for us? Are they psychic computers or something stupid like that?"
Vari mutters, "Andalite computers," but you ignore her.
"No, of course not. That's ridiculous, and even if it weren't operating computers is for minions from the perspective of an Overlord. They wouldn't bother with a 'psychic' computer if such a thing existed except as a personal device, if that." That's a bit of a relief. "But you won't be able to read them, and we certainly don't have time to waste trying to teach you the Overlord written language."
... dang.
"Speaking of time wasting, you're wasting it."
What is she, your mother?
But okay yes, fine.
Environment.
It's half-cavern half-building. Most of the ground seems to be something like concrete, but in segmented sections like a sidewalk. Some of the segments have metal plating laid half-over them, like someone stopped in the middle of working on it and just left it there, while other areas, mostly the more complete-looking areas, seem to be seamless metal segments for flooring. There's blue-white lights that look startlingly normal set relatively high, as well as what appears to be a... you want to say a dozer? Something to that effect, probably, unoccupied but the headlight running. (Also blue-white, kind of harsh really)
Right now, the lot of you seem to be standing at something of a dead-end, one end a largely finished gleaming blue-grey steel (?) construction (You reach out a hand to a section next to you, but it... is actually surprisingly warm, and feels almost soft to the touch, though it doesn't give way when you push against it. Not steel) with a sci-fi-looking door closed at one end, lights set seemingly randomly on it. At the other end, your end, things are a chaotic mess that you think is the beginnings of a hallway that branches off into rooms, but is such a chaotic mess right now that you're not entirely sure you aren't imagining such order to it.
Okay. "A-" Crap. "-aaaa. Um. Green Beret! You said you can go invisible. Let's all go to the door, figure out how to open it, and you go through invisible and report back."
Alina nods, then shoves her beret back into place, as it slid a little forward.
Confronted by the inexplicable door...
(dice roll)
.... none of you can make sense of it, and poking at random doesn't yield anything.
Xi in particular gets frustrated. Since this is Xi dealing with a piece of technology, violence ensues, with her kicking at the door while probably cursing it out in Mandarin. (You assume. You've never quite worked up the nerve to ask what she's saying)
To your collective surprise, there's a crackle and a burst of blue-white light on impact. The door's lights flicker, and after a moment it slides straight up (Because scifi door, apparently) and then a hmmmm winds down, with you only realizing at that point the noise was there in the first place.
"Well." You can't quite think of what to add to that.
Vari is more productive. "Green Beret can't sneak through the doors by herself, and there's not much point in her sneaking about invisible if every door is going to require Fluffy's assistance."
You turn your attention to where Alina last was-
-so naturally she's gone.
You look around, and no, seriously, where is she?
Everyone else is accounted for, and after a moment you all risk peeking out into the hallway you've opened the way to. It's a bland hallway, lit by more of those blue-white lights. Off to the right all the doors are closed. Off to the left, the door at the end of the hallway is open, as are about half of the dozen doors in that direction, completely random.
Mindy comments wryly, "I think she's gone ahead."
You're torn between being glad she's proactive when you are all under time pressure here and being frustrated she didn't wait for a decision to actually be made. But okay, fine. "Let's go to the right and see what we can see."
The lot of you don't even bother to try to open the next door manually. You just go to a random door on the right and have Xi punch it (Smirking, and muttering under her breath in Mandarin), which has pretty much the exact same result as the first door.
(die roll)
Only this one opens up on a room full of little flying saucers. Odd, angular arm-looking things clutch at tools, sticking out of the edges of the saucers, and each flying saucer has four pointy bits placed equidistantly about them that appear to crackle with electricity when being used for something. Some of them seem to have power tools sheathed over them. The saucers are hovering pretty much at random as far as you can tell.
"Uuuuh," is Mindy's very articulate observation.
One of the saucers seems to rotate in place, bringing to bear an innocuous-looking boxy object, which projects what looks an awful lot like R2-D2's hologram lightshow, only minus Blue Princess Leia, aimed right at you. You all flinch, but you don't feel anything.
Nonetheless, the one saucer starts making a lot of noise, and the other saucers drop what they're doing and start making their way toward you all.
Oh crap. "Xi, uh, punch them!" Crap, you forgot to call her Fluffy. "Green Beret, get over here! Uh, everybody else... fight things?"
Uuuh, what do you do? You didn't come with a weapon. This dang outfit has no pockets to hide anything in. Do you have some kind of... magical girl blasty magic or something?
(dice)
Xi's fine, of course. She hits the things, they spark and shudder, and usually they 'die' after maybe three hits. Vari seems to be doing okay too, blocking attempted shocks with her shield and making awkward stabs and slashes at the things. Not great, but when something does shock, burn, or take a drill to her, her armor takes it just fine. Mindy is actually whooping and cackling with glee each time she jams her sword right through one of the things.
(You try not to think too hard of the physics of putting a sword through some metal thing that's floating with zero respect for gravity)
You, meanwhile, tentatively try punching one of the things when it gets too close to you, half-hoping you'll get a Xi result, and... nnno. No, not really. All you accomplish is hurting your hand before the thing shocks you.
Which hurts.
And leaves you staggering woozily.
"My love is in danger! Tuxedo Scrubs is here!"
Davion appears in his ridiculous outfit, only now he's flaring colors.
...
Oh my gawd you really are in a magical girl anime.
"Tuxedo Scrubs Medical Examination!"
To your surprise, instead of... you dunno... hurling, say, a rose that is suspiciously good at cutting people, Davion actually turns to you, whips out a heartbeat-listening thingy, and makes mhmm noises to himself.
It abruptly occurs to you that he's the only thing moving right now. Like. The only thing. It's bizarre.
Then time resumes as Davion calls out, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!... so please, my dear, avoid apples, mmkay?" With a flourish, the heartbeat thing vanishes to who-knows-where, and instead he shoves a bundle of red chrysanthemums into your chest, where a burst of red erupts from.
"Tuxedo Scrubs, away!"
He spins and vanishes.
You blink, realizing the wooziness has faded, though now you feel... tired.
(+1 Exhaustion)
"WHAT THE- WHAT. WHAT. WHAT?!? WHAT!!!"
Yeah, that's about how you feel too, Miss Horseshoe Crab.
Alina appears from behind the disc that shocked you, fading in even as she slams her knife into it.
Less than a minute later, you're all standing amid wreckage, Vari's armor singed and scorched all over. Everyone else seems to be essentially fine, other than you feeling a bit tired and Miss Horseshoe Crab apparently still having an aneurysm or whatever.
So.
That didn't really go to plan at all.
Conversationally, you ask Miss Horseshoe Crab, "I don't suppose you know if the base at large is alerted." There's not exactly any alarms blaring or lights flaring, but. Psychic alien invaders. Who knows.
"... it's possible. Those were just construction drones, but in theory they could be hooked into the larger network and have alerted security. Of course, Psilinkers are lazy, and no Overlord would deign to set foot in an incomplete base, so anything is possible."
Alright then.
[]You feel fine, and that was easy. For the other girls, anyway. You'll just... stay back from the fighting next time? You'd rather press on, take advantage of this window of opportunity. Carry on as you've been.
[]You'll leave, and leave the other girls to it. You got injured, even if it's healed (?) now, and you don't really seem to contribute anything...
[]This clearly calls for a change in strategy.
-[]Forget being careful, let's hurry and smash everything we can. That fight was no big deal.
-[]Obviously we need to be even more careful, and have Alina scout ahead and report back, do our best to avoid any fights at all. These weren't even soldier robots!
-[]Honestly, what are we even accomplishing with this hit? We need something concrete. Something like a captive.
-[]Even though Miss Horseshoe Crab said no Familiars would be in the area, maybe she was wrong. Let's search for evidence of a lab, or a storage room, or something like that, and see if we can rescue some Familiars. Obviously we'll fight any guards if we fight anything, but otherwise let's avoid combat.
[]Let's split up and search for clues, gang! (You always wanted to say that) Clearly everyone else can take care of themselves in a fight. You'll go with...
-[]Vari. She got beat up a little already, she's most likely to need help.
-[]Mindy. You get along well. And. Uh. Surely there's a good tactical exc- reason?
-[]Xi. Maybe she'll need the help against non-robots?
-[]Alina. She... probably would be better off on her own, honestly... but let's go with her anyway because... errr...
[]Abort! Abort! This is all too much!
(Current notable numbers: Fia has 1/20 Exhaustion. Nobody else has any Exhaustion)
Vari raises her hand, clanking, like you're all in school or something, though she doesn't wait to be 'called upon' before speaking. "Yeah, speaking of, I have a question for the crab. Are we waiting for the Andalites to show up, just needing to slow down the not-Yeerks until reinforcements get here, or are we 'waiting for the Andalites to show up'-" Airquotes with fingers, which looks kind of goofy with her armor, not to mention she could only really do it halfway. With one hand, because the shield hides her other hand. You're a little surprised she doesn't drop the sword, honestly. "-by which I mean we're actually on our own and/or any reinforcements will kill us all because we're mind controlled and anyway we don't count?"
You have no idea what she's referring to.
Miss Horseshoe Crab's response is... indifferent-sounding. "Oh please. No one cares enough about this backwater to come 'save' your world."
Xia cocks an eyebrow, leans forward, and says what you're pretty sure you're all kind of thinking. (Well, maybe not Vari) "So why are you here, then?"
Miss Horseshoe Crab scuttles sideways and then back a couple of times. You wonder what it means. When she finally speaks up, she sounds displeased. "Alright, fine. I'd wanted to speak of this later, because it just sounds so transparently manipulative to admit it up front, but the real reason I'm here is because my species needs your help."
Ooookay. "What, you're hoping we'll throw off the yoke, supercharge our space program, and zip off to blast the Overlords out of your sky?" You're not sure why she wouldn't have said that upfront, honestly.
"Not... exactly." Miss Horseshoe Crab does that shuffling motion again. She makes a sound kind of like a sigh, for once with no rainbowification attached. Then she speaks again, with great reluctance. "Context time. You already know Overlords can reprogram people. It's the basis of their entire society; everything in their society is a slave under a psychic yoke, or a robot under a programmed yoke, or is an Overlord, or is very, very dead. Or... a cyborg under a programmed yoke..."
That's... awful-sounding.
"Familiars are immune. They can't reprogram us, they can't dominate us, and without dwelling on the details cybernetic implants fail or kill us when installed. Normally the Overlords would just kill us right out because of all that, but they want the benefit of bonding without having to deal with anything resembling a social equal, so they've got us in labs, studying us. Dissecting us. Sometimes still alive."
She sounds... haunted on that last bit. Alina's hands go to her mouth in horror and/or sympathy. (Just barely avoiding cutting herself) Even Mindy shifts awkwardly, nothing sarcastic to say. Xi blanches a little too, though she seems to be trying really hard to stay stoic. Davion just looks incredibly awkward, but he squeezes your hand tightly so it's pretty obvious he's upset.
Miss Horseshoe Crab continues, either ignoring you all or not noticing your reactions. "Since some of our capabilities present security problems and their highest authorities cannot stand our presence anyway, they decided to move all their labs to some backwards hovel of a world that no one cares about and study us there, where escaping wouldn't let us contact any of the power species that might be sympathetic to our plight and have enough political or military pull to actually do something about our situation. Hence why I'm here, and not talking to a Commodore of the Spacial Guild." That last bit is said particularly bitterly.
Oh wow. Um. Wow.
Somewhat hesitantly, you reach out and pat Miss Horseshoe Crab on her back/head/something, avoiding what you're pretty sure are her eyespots. "Um... there... there?" You continue apologetically. "I'm sorry, I've never had to comfort someone who's lost a family member, let alone anything on this scale."
Everyone else sort of makes like they're going to sit up, looking all sympathetic and feeling-y. (Even Xi) Miss Horseshoe Crab snaps out, "I don't need your sympathy. I will feel better once my people are free." More quietly, seemingly to herself, she tacks on, "And after I've had a year of therapy."
Which rather breaks up the group hug or whatever it was you were all sort of thinking of doing. Everyone sits down a bit heavily, even Vari and Mindy, who had been standing beforehand.
Trying and failing to sound conversational, Mindy speaks up, her voice shaking a bit. "So since the team mascot doesn't want to talk about her trauma, how about we change the topic to something else utterly depressing? Like, seriously? Five bases in our city? How lucky are we to have so many?"
Miss Horseshoe Crab barks out a laugh. "There's forty in this nation's capital. Overlords and Psilinkers can't cover that much ground at a time, and you complicate things with your bizarre 'election' traditions, preventing them from just focusing on the rulers and their heirs. Five isn't even remotely adequate for the size and population of this city."
The color drains out of all your faces when she mentions how many are in DC. Or so you assume for Mindy and Vari. Vari rocks back a bit, anyway.
Mindy tries to make a joke. "New rule: nobody tries to talk to anyone important until after we've destroyed all the DC bases." It ends up coming out completely serious, with all of you nodding along.
You open your mouth to make a half-joke about asking if Davion transforming with you is proof of your True Love, and then close it with a click. It wouldn't be funny. Instead you focus on business. "Let's just... focus on the short term. Hitting the base, looking around. I... guess seeing if there's any Familiars at the base?"
"There won't be. They only move us in once the base is phased, to make it harder to escape."
You cock your head curiously at Miss Horseshoe Crab. "I would've thought you'd push for us to go save some of your friends first thing."
"If you all die, then all I've done is alerted the Overlords to the fact that a Familiar is running around creating problems for them, and they'll start searching for me, while I'm forced to start over with trying to determine if a different girl is compromised or not."
If you all die. Cheery thought. Much confidence. So optimism.
Vari snaps her fingers suddenly. Well. Tries. It makes a weird squealing, scraping sound, which is just as attention-grabbing. "Code names!"
Davion looks at her dubiously. "This isn't actually an anime."
Vari shakes her head sharply. "No, we actually need code names. What's going to happen if we go in, and we're calling out each other's names, and they, I dunno, code people to be on the watch for our names and kidnap us if they hear our names or something? In fact, we might need masks for those of you without helmets."
"Names is a good point. You don't need to worry about Overlords recognizing you by appearance, though. They focus on minds in the first place, which the bonding does a good job of blocking the easy stuff, and they don't have any programmed algorithms for identifying humans as yet. It would take years for them to make good ones, too, and I'd be surprised if the thought even crossed their minds."
Xia cocks an eyebrow. "You mentioned 'slaves' before. Maybe they'll recognize us."
"Missy, I know what the Overlord slaves are like. They just aren't built that way. To be completely honest, the only reason I can tell you apart is the bonding has key markers distinguishing you for me. It took me forty loops to determine the first of you was clean because the first twenty were spent losing track of you and trying to figure out how to identify you when you don't have any of the right markers to be distinguishable from a tree."
Huh. Here you'd thought she wanted to be really certain, or that it was something about... like... Overlord 'reprogramming' speed. It never crossed your mind she might not be able to tell you apart from... seriously, a tree? What kind of senses does she have?
Davion interrupts. "Well, you can call me Tuxedo Scrubs." You roll your eyes tolerantly and elbow him in humor.
Alina raises the hand with a knife like she's in class. "I'll go with Green Beret, then."
You try not to laugh, and end up failing. "Well, I'm not calling myself Sailor anything."
Xi shrugs. "That's fine. We'll call you Boss Lady, if you're really going to be in charge." You make protesting sounds, but everyone else nods agreeably to that (Even Davion! Traitor!), and ultimately you give up, grumbling and leaning against Davion. "As for me, I'm going with..." She glances down at her outfit, making a face. "... 'Fluffy', I guess. At least it'll make it easier to keep the two identities apart."
You chortle, feeling a bit better about being ignored on your own codename.
Mindy shrugs. "I'm the Dark Knight, I suppose. Nothing wrong with being Batman." Everyone rolls their eyes a little. Mindy's love of Batman is well-known, what with the whole 'unorthodox and fairly unpleasant way of righting wrongs' thing. (Okay yes Batman is pretty cool, but it's obvious why Mindy likes him)
Everyone looks expectantly at Vari. "Ariel. Duh."
You all look sort of blankly at her. Xi points out, "Nobody else has a name-name."
Vari shrugs. "Maybe they'll make the mistake of thinking I slipped, and go looking at the wrong people."
Mindy makes a horrified sound. "And what will they do to those people, Vari?"
You suspect Vari's face is falling behind the helmet, and she sounds a bit shaken when she responds. "Okay yeah, bad idea. Mermaid, then."
There's another awkward pause.
"So are you all going to find some new way to stall or are we done?"
You jolt in your seat. Everyone exchanges glances. You return your attention to Miss Horseshoe Crab. "No no, I'm pretty sure we're finally actually done."
"Good. Now, you're going to experience something. I don't know exactly how you'll experience it, but I want you to do your best to feel agreeable at the experience. It'll be a teleport inclusion request."
Ooookaaaay.
...
...
...
Mindy speaks up. "I thought we were supposed to feel something?"
Miss Horseshoe Crab snaps out, "I'm still targeting! You have to account for planetary rotation, shifting gravitational centers, and a whole slew of stuff I'd be amazed if you have the words for it."
Mindy makes a non-apologetic apology, and then it's back to everyone waiting. Davion fidgets uncomfortably. Xi starts kicking her legs back and forth like a kid on a swing set. Come to think, she doesn't look cold, and you don't feel anywhere near as cold as you'd expect. Wonder why. (Pssst: the answer is probably 'magic') Only Alinia seems comfortable holding still.
...
...
"So-"
Sanguine greetings. Grateful dead. Hopalong bard.
...
What?
Oil toil and trouble. Blither me not.
Oh gawd. Okay, feel... accepting? Apparently? How do you mentally click 'yes', anywa-
A burst of light consumes everything.
-------------------------------------
You're standing in a tunnel. It seems to be a hexagonal shape, stretching infinitely in two directions. One direction is shrouded in blackness, ever retreating yet never quite disappearing. The other is a bright source of yellow-white light, ever approaching and yet never quite arriving.
Vari speaks up. "Oh gawd. Everything is rainbow."
Miss Horseshoe Crab testily says, "Cease your whining. The transit is brief."
You all sort of stare at Miss Horseshoe Crab. She's distinctly... not-rainbow-y. She's actually like a little black hole, something you want to mentally characterize as blacker-than-black, lacking the concept of color entirely.
You wonder what it means.
You don't really have time to guess, though. Abruptly, Mindy breaks down into a rainbow cluster of bubbly lights, like a bubble bath, and the cluster shoots off toward the light in the distance. Then Vari. Then Alina. Then you notice Davion isn't here, but-
---------------------------------------------------
You stagger abruptly, feeling... really, really weird.
Your first awareness of the others is your eyes being hypnotically drawn to Xi vomiting rainbows onto what looks like a very ordinary concrete floor. The rainbows flow rather more like a river than like normal vomit, and then drain down into the gaps. Gaps? Yes, gaps, like a sidewalk has gaps.
As your own not-exactly-nausea fades, your attention widens. Xi, Alina, Vari, Mindy, yourself obviously...
... no Miss Horseshoe Crab. No Davion.
Uh-oh.
When Xi is done puking, she calls out in outrage, "Hey missus alien, you coulda warned-"
Alina shushes her. Xi whirls on her angrily, but then recollects herself, perhaps because she can see the steel (?) scaffolding rising off behind Alina.
Vari speaks up. "Our ride out isn't here."
"Of course I'm here."
You all startle, looking about. That sure sounded like Miss Horseshoe Crab, minus the synesthesia.
"I'm maintaining the snapback. It's easier than a fresh teleport, but it means I'm still in between. That's all."
Okay, that's nice, but... "What happened to Davion? He wasn't with us, and he's not here."
"Can't teleport him, not bonded to him. I tried just in case, but it didn't work. You'll have to make do."
Not your concern. "I meant do you know if he's fine?"
"Ah. He should be. Nothing should have happened."
That's... not as reassuring as you'd like.
Mindy speaks up. "Are we sure we want to push on with this?"
"They probably have sensors up. You may have the element of surprise still, depending on whether there's anyone watching the sensor readings, but just having come here means it's a bit late to be backing out."
That would've been ni- "That would've been nice to know beforehand." To everyone's surprise, it's Alina. Even Miss Horseshoe Crab seems taken aback.
...
Wait, why do you think that?
No, never mind. "Focus, gals. We need to... I guess find a command center or something. Hey, do you think the computers will work for us? Are they psychic computers or something stupid like that?"
Vari mutters, "Andalite computers," but you ignore her.
"No, of course not. That's ridiculous, and even if it weren't operating computers is for minions from the perspective of an Overlord. They wouldn't bother with a 'psychic' computer if such a thing existed except as a personal device, if that." That's a bit of a relief. "But you won't be able to read them, and we certainly don't have time to waste trying to teach you the Overlord written language."
... dang.
"Speaking of time wasting, you're wasting it."
What is she, your mother?
But okay yes, fine.
Environment.
It's half-cavern half-building. Most of the ground seems to be something like concrete, but in segmented sections like a sidewalk. Some of the segments have metal plating laid half-over them, like someone stopped in the middle of working on it and just left it there, while other areas, mostly the more complete-looking areas, seem to be seamless metal segments for flooring. There's blue-white lights that look startlingly normal set relatively high, as well as what appears to be a... you want to say a dozer? Something to that effect, probably, unoccupied but the headlight running. (Also blue-white, kind of harsh really)
Right now, the lot of you seem to be standing at something of a dead-end, one end a largely finished gleaming blue-grey steel (?) construction (You reach out a hand to a section next to you, but it... is actually surprisingly warm, and feels almost soft to the touch, though it doesn't give way when you push against it. Not steel) with a sci-fi-looking door closed at one end, lights set seemingly randomly on it. At the other end, your end, things are a chaotic mess that you think is the beginnings of a hallway that branches off into rooms, but is such a chaotic mess right now that you're not entirely sure you aren't imagining such order to it.
Okay. "A-" Crap. "-aaaa. Um. Green Beret! You said you can go invisible. Let's all go to the door, figure out how to open it, and you go through invisible and report back."
Alina nods, then shoves her beret back into place, as it slid a little forward.
Confronted by the inexplicable door...
(dice roll)
.... none of you can make sense of it, and poking at random doesn't yield anything.
Xi in particular gets frustrated. Since this is Xi dealing with a piece of technology, violence ensues, with her kicking at the door while probably cursing it out in Mandarin. (You assume. You've never quite worked up the nerve to ask what she's saying)
To your collective surprise, there's a crackle and a burst of blue-white light on impact. The door's lights flicker, and after a moment it slides straight up (Because scifi door, apparently) and then a hmmmm winds down, with you only realizing at that point the noise was there in the first place.
"Well." You can't quite think of what to add to that.
Vari is more productive. "Green Beret can't sneak through the doors by herself, and there's not much point in her sneaking about invisible if every door is going to require Fluffy's assistance."
You turn your attention to where Alina last was-
-so naturally she's gone.
You look around, and no, seriously, where is she?
Everyone else is accounted for, and after a moment you all risk peeking out into the hallway you've opened the way to. It's a bland hallway, lit by more of those blue-white lights. Off to the right all the doors are closed. Off to the left, the door at the end of the hallway is open, as are about half of the dozen doors in that direction, completely random.
Mindy comments wryly, "I think she's gone ahead."
You're torn between being glad she's proactive when you are all under time pressure here and being frustrated she didn't wait for a decision to actually be made. But okay, fine. "Let's go to the right and see what we can see."
The lot of you don't even bother to try to open the next door manually. You just go to a random door on the right and have Xi punch it (Smirking, and muttering under her breath in Mandarin), which has pretty much the exact same result as the first door.
(die roll)
Only this one opens up on a room full of little flying saucers. Odd, angular arm-looking things clutch at tools, sticking out of the edges of the saucers, and each flying saucer has four pointy bits placed equidistantly about them that appear to crackle with electricity when being used for something. Some of them seem to have power tools sheathed over them. The saucers are hovering pretty much at random as far as you can tell.
"Uuuuh," is Mindy's very articulate observation.
One of the saucers seems to rotate in place, bringing to bear an innocuous-looking boxy object, which projects what looks an awful lot like R2-D2's hologram lightshow, only minus Blue Princess Leia, aimed right at you. You all flinch, but you don't feel anything.
Nonetheless, the one saucer starts making a lot of noise, and the other saucers drop what they're doing and start making their way toward you all.
Oh crap. "Xi, uh, punch them!" Crap, you forgot to call her Fluffy. "Green Beret, get over here! Uh, everybody else... fight things?"
Uuuh, what do you do? You didn't come with a weapon. This dang outfit has no pockets to hide anything in. Do you have some kind of... magical girl blasty magic or something?
(dice)
Xi's fine, of course. She hits the things, they spark and shudder, and usually they 'die' after maybe three hits. Vari seems to be doing okay too, blocking attempted shocks with her shield and making awkward stabs and slashes at the things. Not great, but when something does shock, burn, or take a drill to her, her armor takes it just fine. Mindy is actually whooping and cackling with glee each time she jams her sword right through one of the things.
(You try not to think too hard of the physics of putting a sword through some metal thing that's floating with zero respect for gravity)
You, meanwhile, tentatively try punching one of the things when it gets too close to you, half-hoping you'll get a Xi result, and... nnno. No, not really. All you accomplish is hurting your hand before the thing shocks you.
Which hurts.
And leaves you staggering woozily.
"My love is in danger! Tuxedo Scrubs is here!"
Davion appears in his ridiculous outfit, only now he's flaring colors.
...
Oh my gawd you really are in a magical girl anime.
"Tuxedo Scrubs Medical Examination!"
To your surprise, instead of... you dunno... hurling, say, a rose that is suspiciously good at cutting people, Davion actually turns to you, whips out a heartbeat-listening thingy, and makes mhmm noises to himself.
It abruptly occurs to you that he's the only thing moving right now. Like. The only thing. It's bizarre.
Then time resumes as Davion calls out, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!... so please, my dear, avoid apples, mmkay?" With a flourish, the heartbeat thing vanishes to who-knows-where, and instead he shoves a bundle of red chrysanthemums into your chest, where a burst of red erupts from.
"Tuxedo Scrubs, away!"
He spins and vanishes.
You blink, realizing the wooziness has faded, though now you feel... tired.
(+1 Exhaustion)
"WHAT THE- WHAT. WHAT. WHAT?!? WHAT!!!"
Yeah, that's about how you feel too, Miss Horseshoe Crab.
Alina appears from behind the disc that shocked you, fading in even as she slams her knife into it.
Less than a minute later, you're all standing amid wreckage, Vari's armor singed and scorched all over. Everyone else seems to be essentially fine, other than you feeling a bit tired and Miss Horseshoe Crab apparently still having an aneurysm or whatever.
So.
That didn't really go to plan at all.
Conversationally, you ask Miss Horseshoe Crab, "I don't suppose you know if the base at large is alerted." There's not exactly any alarms blaring or lights flaring, but. Psychic alien invaders. Who knows.
"... it's possible. Those were just construction drones, but in theory they could be hooked into the larger network and have alerted security. Of course, Psilinkers are lazy, and no Overlord would deign to set foot in an incomplete base, so anything is possible."
Alright then.
[]You feel fine, and that was easy. For the other girls, anyway. You'll just... stay back from the fighting next time? You'd rather press on, take advantage of this window of opportunity. Carry on as you've been.
[]You'll leave, and leave the other girls to it. You got injured, even if it's healed (?) now, and you don't really seem to contribute anything...
[]This clearly calls for a change in strategy.
-[]Forget being careful, let's hurry and smash everything we can. That fight was no big deal.
-[]Obviously we need to be even more careful, and have Alina scout ahead and report back, do our best to avoid any fights at all. These weren't even soldier robots!
-[]Honestly, what are we even accomplishing with this hit? We need something concrete. Something like a captive.
-[]Even though Miss Horseshoe Crab said no Familiars would be in the area, maybe she was wrong. Let's search for evidence of a lab, or a storage room, or something like that, and see if we can rescue some Familiars. Obviously we'll fight any guards if we fight anything, but otherwise let's avoid combat.
[]Let's split up and search for clues, gang! (You always wanted to say that) Clearly everyone else can take care of themselves in a fight. You'll go with...
-[]Vari. She got beat up a little already, she's most likely to need help.
-[]Mindy. You get along well. And. Uh. Surely there's a good tactical exc- reason?
-[]Xi. Maybe she'll need the help against non-robots?
-[]Alina. She... probably would be better off on her own, honestly... but let's go with her anyway because... errr...
[]Abort! Abort! This is all too much!
(Current notable numbers: Fia has 1/20 Exhaustion. Nobody else has any Exhaustion)
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