trollthumper

Down in the crowd, two young girls pushed forward towards Jessie and Aquaria. Aquaria could tell the younger one had a greenish tint and newly-formed gills. "It's her!" said the older one, pointing to Jessie. "She's the one who punched the pass through the Alara Mountains! She saved the Halans Expedition from Mt. Aran!" "Really?" said the girl with the gills, studying her. "I thought she'd be bigger..." "Ala, Ne'kaa, that's enough," said Kee'lee. "Staring and pointing is rude." She bowed before Aquaria and Jessie. "I am sorry, Dark Mother, Mother's Spear. You must understand the curiosity of youth. Sometimes, giddiness comes before reverence." --- Cavalier could feel the tension among the crowd. Well, both crowds. Bliss's retreat back into the ship wasn't likely to be due to nerves. He looked to Ruby. "Is she, uh... going to be okay?" "We should have known." Cavalier turned back; somehow, Velak and Javeen had managed to push their way to the front of the crowd. "The records show that, of the various members of the Voidrunner, Bliss was most resistant to the idea to genetic diversification. It took some time for her to deal with the idea of adding Xuli'ha traits among the population. For a long time, she saw it as a mockery to her species." "Oh. Good. You know, if there's one thing I'm sure we've got here, it's the luxury of time. You couldn't have set up a controlled landing site and avoided the parade?" "You would have been seen anyway," said Velak. "The anomaly was... not subtle. And we don't exactly have the facilities for subtlety. And..." Velak went quiet. "And?" "Velak," said Javeen, "now is not the time to be quiet. See, Sri Steward, we needed you to understand two things. One: That we were not pirates, not scammers, not liars. We are, in fact, your descendants. And you, and the crew of the Voidrunner, and the crew of the Korata, are our ancestors." A sinking feeling came with that statement, one that Cavalier had spent the last half-hour trying to avoid. "And two...?" "We needed you to understand, just what would be at stake, if you left. If you managed to find a way to break the anomaly." Javeen pointed to the crowd, many of whom were cheering for them - for him. "We don't understand much about temporal mechanics. But this is... one of ours called it 'soft time.' The very quantum mechanics of the anomaly that shunted you back in time may play havoc with causality." "So, if we leave... this doesn't happen. And... you don't happen?" Now it was Javeen's turn to fall silent. "We're not even sure leaving is possible," said Velak. "Not before the waveform collapses. And if it collapses, you will likely be caught in it, so..." Cavalier nodded. "I understand," he lied. He turned back to the crowd and waved in the friendliest fashion he could muster, which sent up a new wave of cheers. Just keep smiling. Keep smiling, and the nice people will be happy. You can scream much, much later.

The telekinetic bolt struck Levant right between the eyes, sending her head reeling back into Cannonade's helmet, resulting in a second impact that definitely didn't help. She reeled, blood flowing from her nose, trying to regain her clarity. The air around her turned freezing cold in half a second, to the point that Cannonade could feel his helmet start to ice up. "You can take me. But before I do... this land shall shatter." Something went zooming past Cannonade at high speed. Another hail stone. Before he could shift his balance, another clocked him right in the skull. His grip loosened, but did not break, as he tried to maintain control over Levant. Similar stones fell amongst his comrades - some the size of baseballs, others the size of soccer balls. They all plunged to the earth below at high speed, not melting or letting up. Goddamnit. It's gonna be one hell of a mess down there...

And Levant is Bruised and Dazed again. Adept: 30, Unharmed, 3 HP Levant: 20, Bruised x3, Dazed (Adept's Action), Shaken, Bound, 0 HP Argonaut: 12, Unharmed, 2 HP Cannonade: 12, Unharmed, 4 HP Ace Danger: 10, Unharmed, 4 HP Levant throws off her Dazed again - another HP for all - and attacks with an Area Blast blizzard. DC27 TOU for all. Cannonade rolls a 16. HP! 22, and right in the HP "sweet zone." I'll take it. Adept: 30, Unharmed, 4 HP Levant: 20, Bruised x3, Shaken, Bound, 0 HP Argonaut: 12, Unharmed, 3 HP Cannonade: 12, Bruised x1, Dazed (Levant's Action), 4 HP Ace Danger: 10, Unharmed, 5 HP Argonaut is up next.

Temperance had seen a lot of weird spirit negotiations - fire and water dancing, songs in harmony and discord, even that thing between the rats and the lightning. This, however... this was definitely the weirdest of them all. She just decided to let Aquaria do her thing, offering mere gestures of praise and thanks to the spirits. Anything else seemed like it might border on cultural appropriation... and she had a feeling these spirits would do more than offer nasty glares if she did that. When the spirits had left, Temperance turned to Aquaria. She was still somewhat shocked by the tone of Aquaria's fervor... but then again, meeting agents of one's god could likely do that. "It seems we have some idolators to put in their place," she said. "I think members of the ladder company who responded to the call may... actually have been responsible for the summoning. This town, sometimes... We don't know the extent of the cult, though, and just barging into a firehouse with blades drawn may not be the wisest idea. We should try for reconaissance first."

"Right. Let me consult the records." Velak pushed his way back on-screen, carrying a small computer tablet in his hands. "It says here that, when the anomaly first presented itself, the Korata hung suspended for 2 hours, whereas you hung suspended for... 17 minutes. When that window elapsed, you were capable of forward motion, but found the suspension effect persisted if you tried to break past the terminus point - I believe you wrote here, Sri Steward, that it was 'less a brick wall, more jogging through Jello.'" "That... sounds like something I might say, yeah." "Right. So. Give us 12, and you should be capable of movement." As Velak had said, 12 minutes later, the Korata and the Voidrunner lurched forward with a start. Cavalier took the opportunity to break away back towards the terminus point... only to find himself slowing rapidly, as if forward propulsion was vanishing from the universe. Let's be honest. If this was a con, and they'd gotten me by just suggesting I shouldn't do it... I'd be kicking myself. With that, he turned, moving - at full speed - towards the planet, managing to catch up with the Voidrunner as it breached orbit. As they approached the surface, Cavalier could see... well, not cities. Not as he might know them. Too small, but... only a few steps down from a Lor settlement. The population density of Cahokia, and the tech level of Silicon Valley. The Korata landed in a large clearing outside of the town, followed by the Voidrunner next to it. By the time Cavalier had touched down, a crowd had gathered to meet them all. Hundreds, at least, and it seemed more were coming out of the city. All with a mixture of features - some human with slight Zultasian features, some a mix of Lor and Deep One, others more Xuli'Ha. Their expressions were a mixture of joy, disbelief, and - in something Cavalier could entirely relate to - nervousness. He lowered his helmet, and as he did, he swore he heard people gasp. "Hi," he said. "It is, uh... good to meet you."

"I, uh..." Cannonade tried to gather the words as he crawled out onto the trunk. "Yeah, I saw the photos. I wanted to talk to you about that after the whole thing with Al-Darsah on the plane, but... well, guess fate kinda dragged us two different ways for a while." He gathered his footing, trying to find the right place for the running leap. "When we make sure she touches down hard, we should probably get some drinks. Talk about that." As they pulled up, Levant seemed to be reeling from the impact of Argonaut's pike. As she tried to gather her composure, the winds around her waned in some places, waxed in others... but they waned just enough for the plane she was trying to tilt to take off, resuming a normal trajectory and speeding off at hundreds of miles per hour. "NO!" she shouted. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS! JUDGMENT MUST BE RENDERED! THE SINS KEPT SECRET MUST BE PUNISHED! HE --"[/color] Cannonade slammed into her like a steam engine hitting a sack of flour. He didn't hit quite as hard as he'd intended, though; one of Levant's thickened air pockets had caught him right before impact, countering his blow with a good dose of air resistance. However, there was nothing keeping him from getting Levant in a headlock, keeping her suspended in thin air. He tried very hard not to look down as he got himself into the right position to hamper Levant's flight potential. "What the hell is it with the assholes who think they're entitled to destroy everything?"

Whoops. Forgot on Concentration. So... as the damage bonus was +14 with the crit, Levant needs to make a DC24 Concentration save. And she's already at -2 thanks to Shaken. So fly, plane, fly. As for the Feint, Levant totally falls for it, and is Flat-Footed. So, Cannonade takes a running leap, thus inspired... ...and sacks her ass. That will be a DC26 TOU save to start, and then there's Improved Grab. So, she makes the TOU save, but she still has to beat a DC36 on her Opposed Grapple. Which, even if she redirects her Move Object, she does not. She really, really does not. Adept: 30, Unharmed, 3 HP Levant: 20, Bruised x2, Dazed (Argonaut's Action), Shaken, Bound, 0 HP Argonaut: 12, Unharmed, 2 HP Cannonade: 12, Unharmed, 4 HP Ace Danger: 10, Unharmed, 4 HP Top of the round. Adept is up next.

"We can't," said Javeen. "Trust me, this place is not lacking for scientists who followed in your footsteps, but even they haven't been able to work out the quantum eccentricities that led to..." She shook her head. "I believe one of you had a proverb about time being a flat circle. This seems to be what you meant. But we're running out of it, so I'm just going to send up something to the Korata, and --" "What?" Cavalier said. "No. Look, our ships are crippled, I'm floating here like a buoy, and if you think you're going to get us to open some of virus-laced data packet, then --" A connection opened up from the Korata, running into Cavalier's armor, Sea Devil's armor, and the Voidrunner. "Star Knight," said the voice on the other end, "this is Captain He'ran Latur. I understand and empathize with the skepticism of you and your comrades. A good portion of my crew is likewise skeptical. But we have just received... we have received files on us all. Detailing everything from childhood to... well, you can imagine. Where we were born, our early lives, why we entered the service--" "Telepathy's a hell of a thing, Captain. It's like Facebook stalking, only more invasive." "I'll... take your word for that. But none of our mentats have detected even a trace of intrusion since we got stuck... or even before that. And... there's a video attached. From me. A much older me, but... I recognize the voice anywhere. Star Knight, we thank you for your protection, but we ask of you... we can't go backwards. We're low on supplies, and were going to jump to a station for restocking before this happened. We can stay up here and try to puzzle it out, but within a day, we'll be down to rationing. We accept the possibility that this may be a ruse... but if it's not, and what they're saying is true, we could probably use whatever assistance is available before this anomaly snaps shut." Cavalier looked to Javeen. "I don't suppose you happen to have any of my home movies?" "We do, but you were very... vocal on matters of mortality and the course of your life. I'm afraid doing so might be... a deterrent. If you want further proof, I suppose I could get the Great Mother on the line, but she's been off in the seas for years and is currently in the midst of a sacred retreat..."

Of course. Cannonade realized that stealth was not his best approach. While he'd gotten better at it over the years, there were still times that he felt like a rhino tap dancing across glass - and tonight felt like one of those nights. Fortunately, he was a hero of some repute - and with that repute came certain allowances. Especially when he had a somewhat well-known means of getting around the city. "Got movement at Jameson," he said to Miras over the phone. "Fancy cars at the wrong time of night for shipping. About to crash the party." He moved back a few blocks, then took a standing leap. As he'd assumed, he landed right on top of the garage - and with enough force to crash through the skylight. He landed right in the middle of the floor, softly, and looked up at the crowd around him. "Damnit!" he said. "Sorry, I'm usually better about that." He made a motion as if moving for his wallet. "I can take care of that. Sorry, guys, just expanding the patrol to a new neighborhood and all..."

Yeah. This was definitely not her department. And likely up her pay grade. Temperance knew of the various water gods, the ones who exerted influence over the ebb and flow, the shifting of the tides, and even the occasional tidal wave. She had a feeling that whoever she spoke to was the kind of high-ranking officer that put their office in the basement but still had veto power over the higher operations. "I did not summon the eye of the one below," she said. "The ones who did either called something they did not understand, or used it as a murder weapon. It has already claimed someone --" HOLOCAUST. Temperance paused for a second, before realizing the spirits were using the much older meaning of the word. "A sacrifice? Why? For some favor?" FOR ENTICEMENT. Enticement? "What sort of..." it hit her. "You mean an appetizer?" The spirits were silent, the concept not really translating all that well to ancient, seabound gods. "...sorry. So, this eye of the one below was invoked by its faithful. But who would that be? People who love fire, or --" RESPECT Temperance groaned as the meaning hit her like a rock. "They were right there..."

Temperance nodded. In a city like Freedom, the best way to get the attention of water spirits was through ritual and offering. Namely, purification. She reached into her coat and pulled out an emergency travel water purification kit, the kind sold to campers and survivalists. She took some of the river water and ran it through the filtration kit, watching the runoff, silt, and other background filth of the city catch in the many sieves. As she did so, she chanted in the secret tongue of spirits - which in this case, was much like the breaking of waves. As she was about to finish the ritual, she recalled what kind of water elementals they would be summoning. She took a pinch of sea salt from a vial in her jacket and added it to the water. A little bit of the sea in the river. She squirted the water back into the river, the offering of purity complete. As she did, the water rose, coalescing into humanoid forms... at first. When Temperance typically associated with water elementals - well, ones that weren't her dad - they took on mercurial forms. As sylphs crafted themselves as beautiful, lithe youths of substantial air, so did undines typically paint themselves as watery, athletic T-1000s. Except for now. One of the elementals opened its head, which shifted from a more human design to some sort of angler of the depths, complete with alluring antenna that caught the sunlight and turned it into a spectrum. The other had an octopoid head, seemingly framed on top of a woman's body with a long skirt - until the skirt opened to reveal hooks set into its sides. Looks like Aquaria was able to phone home after all...

Levant gets shook. And then she gets Bruised again. In fact, since I forgot to apply the -2 to saving throws from Shaken there, she's Dazed, which means goodbye, Concentration powers. Adept: 30, Unharmed, 3 HP Levant: 20, Bruised x2, Dazed (Argonaut's Action), Shaken, 0 HP Argonaut: 12, Unharmed, 2 HP Cannonade: 12, Unharmed, 4 HP Ace Danger: 10, Unharmed, 4 HP The airplane is free to fly the hell off, and Cannonade is up. He's still in transit, though, so I will hold my action until Levant gets in range with Leaping. Which, thanks to Ace Danger's driving, will be his turn. Oh, and Ace Danger is up next.

Velak looked to Javeen with confusion - and, it seemed, a pang of remorse. "I... I'm sorry," he said. "This isn't a ruse. I swear on the stars --" "Great Hydra, Velak." Javeen shoved him aside. "They're stuck, they're confused, and you just decided to drop the mother of all bombshells on them. What did you think would happen? That they'd be all happy shiney?" "I thought if they knew ahead of time, they'd --" "Panic?" "Hey!" said Cavalier. "Wonder Twins. Assuming you are being honest - which, again, I'm not - then you'd know --" "Kyle Steward," Javeen said. "Ackwareeaa In-His-Mouth. Jessie White. Ruby Hawkins. Stahnze Turk. Bliss. I could go on and list the fifty names of all the people on board the Lor-Van science vessel as well, but we don't have all day." "Okay. You know our names. I can think of a dozen ways that could happen. Why should we trust you?" Javeen sighed and reached to her waist. She held up a blaster - no. Kyle's blaster. A relatively distinctive adaptation among the Star Knight armor; most favored energy-based melee weapons, but he favored a ranged option. A ranged option that looked exactly like that one. "Reverse-engineered from your armor, based on years of careful study. We use them on the more voracious game beasts and... other problems." She sighed. "I know this is a lot to swallow, but... the imposition that's got us all knotted has effectively crippled FTL travel and communications. In time, it will expand, and when the waveform collapses, your now becomes our then. Until that happens... we'd like you to come down to our planet. To show you that we're not lying. To help you understand. And... to show you everything that you made."

[Hmmmm. Seems like there's always some new way of working the elements. Good to keep abreast of the other methods. She drew some of her personal store of water close to her, freezing it into bullets. She then turned to Meatheral. "I suppose you would be all right with me borrowing some of this?" With Meatheral's consent, she wicked some of the moisture off of the greater mass of water, adding it to her ammunition. By the time she stepped outside to meet the flagrantly-dressed bandit, the air was thick with suspended hail. "Glamazon. You may wish to step back." A second after saying it, Temperance unleashed a storm of hail, bombarding Fowl Bandid with a near solid sheet of ice. The bullets arced through the air, redoubling and veering back towards their target. By the time it was all done, the hail was pulverized, falling to the ground in shards as thin as ball bearings. With a little more effect, the ice melted, ready to resumed into Meatheral's mass. "Thank you for the assist."

"Yeah, sounds like a plan," said Cavalier. He turned, ready to flee at top speed - only to feel his jets cutting out on him a few thousand miles out. Energy was still flowing into them; it just felt as if he was trapped in Jello. Sea Devil ran into the same problem, as if she had hit some invisible line marking a point of no return. As she did, she felt space... quiver around her, somewhat, like the vibration of water after an octopus had shot ink into it. Soon after, the Voidrunner, despite turning, ran into a similar problem - full power, but no motion. "Damnit," said Cavalier. "No going back at this time, so... is the only option forward?" Cavalier looked to the Lor science vessel, and the planet hanging beyond it. "As space traps go, this isn't the most efficient of them. Seen ship strippers, hunter-killer pulsars, telepathic pitcher plants... this is the least hostile danger I've seen in some time. Why would --" He was cut off as a transmission appeared inside his visor - and likewise, in Sea Devil's monitor and on the comms of the Voidrunner. The image showed a young Zultasian man... at least, he looked fairly Zultasian. His skin had a tone somewhere between gray and pink, and he seemed to have gills running down his neck. "Is that you?" he asked. "Are you there? I'm sorry we had to meet under these circumstances, but gods, I couldn't pass up the opportunity..." "Velak!" A woman with mostly human features, save for the distinctive head ridge of a Xuli'ha, entered the screen. "We can't make contact with them before the appointed time! Think of everything that could go wrong!" "It's better we let them know, Javeen. Give them a chance to prepare and to understand --" "Hey. We're still up here. So you'd better answer quickly. Who are you, and what are we doing suspended up here?" "Ah." Velak looked contrite. "Well, the latter will take a while to explain, but the former... uh... we're... your descendants."

Levant took the blow head on, seeming to go slack in the air. The currents held her aloft as she stirred; there was little chance of her falling. Especially when she roused back to consciousness quickly. The blow hadn't done much for her face, which was quickly bruising, but she still seemed cogent. The air around her thundered. "THE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE! IT NEEDS TO SEE THE ROTTED TOWER FALL! WE CANNOT CLAIM TO BE SAINTS WHEN WE LIE ABOUT THE THINGS WE DO IN THE DARK! JACK POWERS KNOWS HE FACES THE WRATH OF THE DIVINE, BUT HE RUNS AND HIDES FROM JUDGMENT." The airline grew larger behind Levant as she rambled. It seemed to be bearing down on her at incredible speed... only to slow, as if it hit a cushion of air. Soon, it came to a stop, its engines straining against incredible wind currents. The winds seemed to shift, pushing the airplane like a card across the table. The metal on the nose buckled slightly as the plane began to tilt downward. "I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT WHAT I MUST DO. BUT IF IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO FLUSH POWERS OUT OF HIS HOLE AND HAVE HIM FACE HIS GOD... THEN SO BE IT."

And Levant is... Bruised and Dazed, right from the get-go. Let's say she breaks from that - she takes the Bruise, but not the Dazed, and Adept gets a Hero Point. Hannah Levant is devoted all her attention this round to using her Move Object to establish a Grapple on the commercial airliner entering her range of influence. Which she does. Everyone, take another Hero Point, as civilians are involved and there's one round until she hurls that thing like a lawn dart. Adept: 30, Unharmed, 3 HP Levant: 20, Bruised x1, 0 HP Argonaut: 12, Unharmed, 2 HP Cannonade: 12, Unharmed, 4 HP Ace Danger: 10, Unharmed, 4 HP Argonaut is up next.

Here we go. It's an 18, so Temperance takes a Bruise. Temperance would Aid Another on Meatheral, but it appears he's trying to Aid Another her. So, for now, Temperance will more outside and do an Extra Effort attack on Fowl Bandid to reflect that. And... that's a 13. Oh, screw that. Hero Point. And with good cause - 10 + 10 = 20, for 29 total. So, DC26 base + 5 from crit + Autofire.

All right. So, here's how we're doing this: Adept: 30, Unharmed, 1 HP Levant: 20, Unharmed, 0 HP Argonaut: 12, Unharmed, 1 HP Cannonade: 12, Unharmed, 3 HP Ace Danger: 10, Unharmed, 3 HP Adept is up first.

I have talked to insanity spirits that have sounded more cogent. That was an awful thing to think. Temperance knew it, and she kind of hated herself for it. But Aquaria was her best lead right now, and if she knew more about these matters, then she didn't really have many other places to turn. "All right," she said. "Where I sing to my gods..." Something came to mind, and it would be rather appropriate. "Would the coast or the riverbank work? I am attuned to the ways of spirits of the tides, and they are figures of esteem to me. The worship may be a bit different than your faith, but..." Temperance trailed off as her eyes fell on the firefighters. Two of them seemed to be hanging back, trading looks. She knew that look - the look of someone trying to not be suspicious. A third firefighter exited the building and gave them the slightest of nods. Once that happened, the two moved forward into the building. "Some of the firefighters seem a little hesitant to fight the fire. Once we sing to the gods, perhaps we should look into this ladder company..."

It was a small jaunt, all things considered, but soon, the Lor vessel came into sight. From the look of it, Cavalier made it as exactly what they said it was - a science vessel, with a crew that could be anywhere from 50 to 100, depending on the scope of the mission. It did not appear to be on fire, and all the lights seemed on. It just seemed to hang suspended in orbit around a small planet - somewhat Earth-like, though the foliage did not have colors Kyle would associate with Earth. Well, maybe in the fall... "Distress... arrest... crippled..." The signal kept dropping in and out, even at this range. Cavalier tapped his comms. "Weird," he said. "Sea Devil, you and I will go ahead. Everyone on the Voidrunner, stay back until I call you in. We may be dealing with some pure weirdness, and I'd rather get the one-on-one approach first." He sped ahead, entering the range on the ship. As he got closer, he noticed the ship stood stock still - not even drifting. That was reasonable for vacuum, but this close to the planet... gravity should have been acting on it. Then, as if he'd crossed an invisible line, the message came in full on his comms. "-- have run at full power, but we still can't move! We think there may be some trip in this planet's orbit! Send word to the Council, but do not approach!" Cavalier opened his comms. "Uh, guys? We've got a problem..."

Temperance gets what she's looking for, which will be in her IC post. Sea Devil, meanwhile, turns the bronze object over in her hands and swears she feels a glyph that resembles the Lemurian for "star."

It does, in fact. We have achieved adequate amounts of fast, and can be there in a move action.

I think we also need Argonaut's initiative. And Ace's, for when he shows up - which, given the car, will likely need a speed boost to get there faster than 10 rounds (Flight 3 being 50 MPH, which is nice but may not be enough to get you from K Street to Maryland in under a minute, even as the crow flies).

All right. As we're going right into combat, I'll say Adept technically has a surprise round to get the Grapple off. We'll be using AA's Divine Weather Controller build at PL12, with adjustments to match. So, Levant cannot counter, but she can try to use her own wind currents to keep the power off of her. She makes a 31, which means she eludes the grapple - for now. And now we are in normal combat. Roll initiative. Levant goes on 20. Cannonade, when he eventually gets there, goes on 12.