Bride of the Reptile (IC)

[Aoiroo]

Changeling walked over to Glowstar for a second and removed the effects of the spell,

"She will sleep for as long as I can hold the illusion. But it is strange, the poison caused her to transform in such a short amount of time. Do you think the hospital is prepared to change her back? Staying like this cannot be good for her mind."

She looked at the transformed Dr. Marks with a frown, transformations like this were always unpleasant for those who had no say.

[Azuth65]

Wisp walked over to Dr. Mark's unconscious form and scooped her up gingerly. "Okay, let's see if they have a more secured room for her," she said grimly. She was a little worried about hurting the doctor but right now she was more worried about the now reptilian woman waking up too soon and clawing her face off.

"I hate hospitals," Wisp muttered as she walked to the elevator used for bringing air-lifted patients down to the doctors, "Something bad always happens when I'm around one."

[Raveled]

Glowstar gasped as Changeling removed the effects of her magic from him. "Right. Instant headache removal. Remind me to talk to you after chemistry class." With his head cleared, he jogged over and caught Wisp's arm. "I don't think it's such a good idea to take her back into the hospital," he said. "Unless they've got a lizard-doctor on staff, she's just going to wake up and cause havoc again. I think we should take her someplace better equipped to deal with her in her, well, present state? And she does work at a place like that." He turned and pointed due east, where the roof of ASTRO Labs could just be seen a few blocks away. "Think you can make the distance with her, Wisp?"

[Aoiroo]

"No, that will not work. My powers only work if she is close. So we go together or she wakes up midway through."

Looking at Glowstar, she let out a breath,

"If Wisp cannot take us both, than I do have an alternative. Custos?"

It was maybe half a minute before there was a swish than the sound of beating wings. The twelve foot tall, twenty feet across gargoyle came to the roof landing softly dispite his size.

"Glowstar, would you like to carry Dr. Marks while we go? It is hard to stay on his back without holding on."

[Azuth65]

Wisp followed Glowstar's hand and nodded slowly, "Maybe not in one shot but I should be able to manage it." Flexing her muscles a little she said to herself, "So glad I've been working out. I can carry us both, been pushing my weight limit lately," Wisp said before nodding towards the lizard-woman in her arms, "My hands are a little full at the moment so you'll need to grab my shoulder."

Once Etain had, they vanished in the usual smoke plume, reappearing several buildings down the block and repeating the process to the ASTRO Labs front door, looking for security or a handy employee to make space in a high security room.

[Raveled]

GM

Glowstar wasn't far behind the ladies. Three super-powered individuals showing up at reception, dragging a fourth behind them, got an immediate response. Once the security guards cleared them, they managed to get lizard-Marks put in a containment unit, deep underneath the main laboratory. The teen heroes were allowed to observe her from elevated rooms; the transformed Doctor Marks paced her metal cage restlessly, occasionally striking out with her claws but never leaving more than superficial scratches on the walls. After a few minutes of observation the heroes were joined by an older man with a full head of white hair and round-rimmed glasses. He was wearing a lab coat and carried a file folder under one arm. "Gentleman. Ladies. I am Dr. Robert Tanner, head of metahuman biologic research here at ASTRO Labs. We've examined Dr. Marks carefully and, well, the results are not encouraging."

Dr. Tanner walked over to a workstation in the wall and typed at it as he spoke. "We believe Dr. Seidel injected Dr. Marks with a modified version of the cocktail that transformed him. Given your earlier statement to the police, I believe he coated his claws with it, but we can't be sure of that. In any case, it worked much faster than in his own condition, swiftly rewriting Dr. Marks' own genetic code with.. well, what you see." As he talked, a monitor above the workstation flickered to life and displayed images of Dr. Seidel before the accident; Seidel and Marks, arms around each other: Goanna destroying a lab: Dr. Seidel, clothes in tatters, being escorted into ASTRO Labs by Daedalus and the Raven: and finally, two DNA strands side-by-side, presumably that of Marks and her current lizard form, though none of the students had the necessary training to tell which was which.

"Unfortunately, it appears that the mutation is not stable. This is a blood sample we took from Dr. Marks recently; watch what happens when we apply heat to it, speeding up the chemical reaction." The still images were replaced by a view of a dozen or so red blood cells, massively enlarged until each was palm-sized. The background went from black, to orange, to white, and the blood cells started moving erratically. A minute or so into the video, they suddenly contracted and then exploded into innumerable tiny pieces. "The blood cells dissolved into their constituent proteins. We think that will happen to Dr. Marks in at little as seven hours. We're trying to reverse-engineer what Goanna used on her, and Daedalus is allowing us to examine the mixture that transformed Dr. Seidel into Goanna in the first place, but there's no way to tell how long that will take."

Dr. Tanner stepped away from the workstation and turned to face the heroes. "That's where you come in. We need Goanna's notes if we're going to have any chance of returning Dr. Marks to her human self -- or even of saving her life at all."

[Aoiroo]

"So, she is dieing."

She left those words hand in the air. They were what she got from all this even if she did not understand the science behind it completely that much was true.

"Do you have anyway to track Goanna, or do you plan to let him come here? He wants her to be with him, it is why he changed her too. If it does not matter what we do without the notes you should clear all the scientists and advertise her location so he will come."

[Raveled]

"I do not believe that will be necessary. Goanna may be insane, but he's not stupid. He wouldn't try to break into ASTRO Labs, or at least not so soon. We're too well-protected and expecting him. I suspect that his plan was to abduct Dr. Marks and let her transform in whatever lair he's created for himself. Right now, I suspect he's planning how to retrieve her, yes, but we can't wait that long." Dr. Tanner reached into the file folder and pulled out a piece of folded paper, which he handed over to the teens. "The FCPD supplied us with this. It's sighting of Goanna from the last month or so."

Glowstar took the map and unfolded it, showing it to the girls. It showed Freedom City and it's immediate environs. The North End and Hanover was thick with red markings, which radiated sparsely out through the rest of the metro area. "Lots of activity around ASTRO," he pointed out. "I wonder if he wasn't watching Dr. Marks well before this." The teen fell silent for a minute, trying to match the map in front of him with what he knew of the city's sewers. "Wisp, Changeling, Goanna went through the drain at the restaurant, right? I think that might be the best place to start."

[Azuth65]

Wisp, while not fully understanding the science behind the display she felt a new wave of guilt for how she'd failed to protect the woman at the cafe.

She nodded her head in agreement. "Probably," she agreed. "Wouldn't surprise me if he set his lair up in the sewers directly under ASTRO though. Or her home, one or the other because he'd want to be as close to her as possible right?"

She tucked her hair back and cracked her knuckles. When she spoke her voice was cold as ice, "Let's find this scaly bastard."

[Raveled]

Glowstar borrowed a pen from Dr. Tanner and spread the map on the wall. "ASTRO Labs' here," he said, marking the map in blue. "And here's where we met Dr. Marks, right? Where's she live?" The older scientist reached over the teen's shoulder and pointed at a point on the map that soon had a mark. Glowstar ran the pen down a blue bend -- the Wading River. "There's gotta be a storm drain or something along the river. Let's check it out."

Some minutes later the Claremont heroes were standing -- floating, in Glowstar's case -- in front of a storm drain set into the south bank of the Wading River. There had been some kind of mesh there, but it had been torn open and bent back. Glowstar shone a ruddy light from one hand, pushing the darkness back a bit. He peered down the concrete tube and licked one of the flashlights the heroes had borrowed from ASTRO Labs. "What a glorious life," he said sourly, moving into the sewers. "Defending the city and mucking through the sewers."

[Aoiroo]

"I do not see why you see fit to have reason to comment, as the one who's feet do not touch the ground you are very hardly mucking."

Changeling followed behind a bit gingerly. She was pulling up the edge of her skirt as high as it would go without showing her undergarments and before arriving here went with Wisp to a small store to pick up a pair of cheap rubber rain boots to cover her feet. Still the sloshing was very unpleasant, and the smell threatened to void her stomach. Still she kept forward with few other comments as there was a woman dieing not too far away, and this was in a process to save her.

[Azuth65]

Wisp followed behind Changeling, breathing through her mouth and still feeling like her breakfast was going to come rushing up violently. "Oh God. I was expecting it to be horrible but this smell is like getting smacked in the face with a crowbar."

As they moved, despite the boots keeping the much from actually touching her, Wisp couldn't help but think to herself, The smell is never going to come out of this costume. Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, she soldiered on, keeping her eyes peeled for any sign of the reptile.

[Raveled]

The trio of heroes trudged through the sewer, flashlights cutting through the murk and the gloom better then Glowstar's powers could. They took what turnings they recognized, trying to puzzle over the worn markings the construction crews had made when the tunnels were first put down; another thing Mr. Archer's eclectic training sessions had covered. They were putting the information to good use now, helping them navigate the subterranean maze. Suddenly, they heard sounds ahead, like claws scraping on stone; the quality of the sound changed, too, almost like it was coming from a much larger space. Glowstar clicked off his flashlight and turned to caution the two women -- that's when the walls exploded in a flurry of flashing claws and lashing tails! Three human-sized beasts threw themselves at the heroes, skin textures changing at the last moment, from an imperceptible match to the pebbled brick to angry orange and bright green stripes. Rather than Goanna and lizard-Mark's scaly forms, these were slick to the touch, almost slimy -- more like amphibians than lizards. Still, they tore into the heroes with uncommon strength. Glowstar found himself overborne and carried to the ground, where his head bounced off a metal pipe. Stars swam before his eyes as the hideous creature tried to bite into his neck, but the teen's sparking force field saved his life.

At the very least, it kept him alive long enough to gather some of that ruddy energy into his fist, which he struck into the slick monster with a karate yell. It went flying across the cramped space, impacting wetly on the far wall and sliding to the ground.

[Azuth65]

Wisp's skin crawled as they made their way through the sewers, more than one memory of this scenario being played out at the gaming table flashing in her mind. "At least we aren't likely to run into a Gelatinous Cube...," she half-muttered to herself as they trudged. Just as she finished the words when Glowstar pointed the noise he heard out.

Before she could completely ready herself, they were under attack. Wisp dodged the first attacker's claw strike but the second attack caught her across the cheek. It bleed for a few seconds before the wound closed itself as if it had never been. "No. Just, no," she said and in a plume of smoke vanished only to reappear behind each of the attackers. She punched the first one several times and watched with satisfaction as it's eyes rolled back and it fell back, unfortunately the second one was made of sterner stuff and managed to roll with her strikes well enough to avoid taking serious damage.

[Aoiroo]

Changeling tried hard to distract herself from the unpleasantness of the sewer walking, mostly in trying to observe and look for openings and it served her well. When the beasts attack she needed only to side step the one lunging towards her. It was a horrid thing that she'd prefer to not have to touch as a large hammer formed in her hands. With another quick step she plowed the mallet down onto the creatures head knocking it out instantly before scanning the area for more.

"We are getting closer."

[Raveled]

There was a low growling from the chamber before them and the three Claremonters formed up again, marching into the room. It was a huge place, a stone cylinder many feet deep and many across. Some rudimentary scaffolding had been set up to form several rough levels and walkways, stretching across the entire space. The heroes could see what looked like crude chemistry labs on at least two different levels. A loud hissing came from above and they looked up to see Goanna clinging to the ceiling. The lizard monster dropped to the top-most level, making the entire structure tremble. "Stupid heroes," he growled. "You shouldn't have come here. Now I'll chew on your bones and suck out the marrow." He hissed again, crouched on all four limbs, and charged them!

Glowstar flared his force field and stepped forward, deliberately putting himself between Goanna and the girls. "Dr. Seidel! That mixture you gave Dr. Marks isn't working like you thought it would! She's dying, and we need your help if we're going to save her." Unfortunately, the poor doctor didn't seem to be open to rational discussion; he roared again and headed straight at the young hero.

[Azuth65]

Wisp reached down, calling forth some of the energy she felt subtly empowering her physically. She made an active effort and called it into a solid beam of concussive energy and sent it lashing at the formerly human doctor's snake-like face in a light blue and black rush from her out stretched right hand. And stood slackjawed as he shrugged it off entirely. She gave a displeased sighed as more of the energy lingered in her eyes and she muttered, "That is so unfair."

[Aoiroo]

Changeling looked at the creature moving recklessly around. She moved around quietly not needed much movement in the rather enclosed sewer the area of assault as she reheld the same large hammer,

"I wonder what drives such a creature. Love is probably not it at all. The time you have spent hiding and fighting are all seconds taken off the Dr. Marks life and if it shall end it will be all your doing."

Closing in on the creature, she swung the hammer aiming it onto the upper body to get a good solid hit onto it.

[Raveled]

Goanna twisted at the last second and took Wisp's energy blast across his back. He sneered at the oncoming Changeling with her ghostly mallet, but when the weapon passed through his massive lizard-body it seemed to drag something behind it, some ephemeral substance. The monster screamed and twisted in agony, then fixated his yellow pupils on the woman in period dress. He reared up and hocked a wad of something dark green a viscous directly at her, splatting her midsection and neck with the gooey stuff. It tingled and stung where it clung to her bare skin.

Glowstar's aura flared and he began gathering in energy as Goanna leapt away from the group, crawling over the ceiling of his little cave. "Goanna," he shouted after the villain. "You're killing Marks! Calm down and help us on this!" The teen flung energy blast after energy blast at the crawling monster, but all he succeeded in hitting was the walls and ceiling.

[Azuth65]

When Glowstar's attempts to reach Goanna failed, which didn't surprise Wisp in the slightest given his state of mind, she called out to the surrounding area again, looking for more power and gathering it. Her eyes flared as a second blast, less controlled looking but equally more dangerous shot from her hand to streak towards the former scientist's ribs, connecting with an audible pop of energy. As the energy finished washing over his body, his reptilian eyes rolled up into the back of his head. She let of a sigh of relief, "Okay... Glad that worked."

[Aoiroo]

The acid stung something fierce freezing the evermoving Changeling her place. After a few minutes though, she managed to get mobile again, though not as quickly as she moved over to Goanna's limp body than started to look around the lab. The papers were everywhere, various schematics and experiments and notes written in scientific terms,

"It is hard to tell what is useful, it may as well be in another language. You think to be safe we might just transport all of them to be analyzed. We really cannot risk missing something here."

[Raveled]

Wisp's energy blast flattened Goanna to the wall for a moment, and when he fell his limp body crashed through a number of the wooden floors and supports, making the entire structure they were fighting on wobble uncertainly. Glowstar froze for a moment until the shaking stopped, and edged carefully towards the nearest worktable. "Better move fast," he said. "No telling how long this whole tinker-toy mess is going to stay up."

Despite his advice, several minutes later the teen was still pawing through the notes. There was a veritable library of scraps and notes, most of them covered in chicken scratch that he could only assume was Dr. Seidel's handwriting. Even more arcane were the diagrams of long chemical chains, some of which covered multiple sheets. "Of course he didn't number any pages," the teen muttered, flipping through the papers with increasing speed.

[Azuth65]

Wisp looked up from her own pile of papers, a few Russian curses having already left her lips as she searched. She was scanning pages hoping to find something almost painfully obvious as a header as the actual notes made her head hurt. "You know, it might not be a horrible idea to just gather up everything and get it to the 'squints' back at ASTRO," she stated, "Goanna's little floating lab isn't exactly stable and unless one of you is hiding a PhD in genetics, they'd probably be able to figure out what his notes are better than the three of us could."

[Raveled]

Glowstar looked over the papers and felt a headache begin to throb behind his eyes. He sighed and started stacking them carefully, trying to get as much as he could in a manageable package. Suddenly, the trio heard a roar from below and a terrible splintering crash. The entire scaffolding shuddered and tilted to one side; glancing down, Glowstar spotted Goanna standing in the water and rearing back for, apparently, a second strike at the platform's supports. The lizard-man's blow landed and tore out a chunk of wood, and the structure tilted dramatically. Glowstar swore and grabbed a sheaf of papers with one hand, swooping over and grabbing Changeling around the waist with the other. "Wisp! Grab the papers and get topside! We'll meet you at ASTRO!"

[Azuth65]

Wisp didn't need to be told twice. She grabbed as many papers as she could, which given her mobility was nearly all of them. In one last plume of smoke she appeared behind Glowstar and Changeling. Grabbing her boyfriend's roommate at the wrist she called up her will and suddenly the three of them where on the sidewalk back at street level. "Okay, get flying Glow. I'll make with the 'ports and see you back at the lab."

True to her word, she'd made it back to the labs first, albeit barely. She'd gotten more than a few odd looks from passers by and a withering gaze from a guard as she made her way back to the doctor, arms loaded down with Goanna's research notes. "Doc, we weren't exactly sure what was relevant so we kinda grabbed everything."