Sanctuary: Panacea

[Fox]

Gaian Knight frowned as he and Fleur were brought up to speed, but the explanation was...just barely enough. He still wasn't sure what to make of the situation, but the Captain seemed to genuinely care about Penny, and if the girl only had to be in the area, and wouldn't suffer herself...it was good enough. For now, at least.

"No preparations here," he responded, pulling a small, smooth, nondescript stone out of one pocket and distractedly fiddling with it. "I'll probably have to expand our - ah, my - ride again, but that shouldn't take long at all."

[Electra]

"That was what I needed to know," Fleur agreed. "I'm ready whenever everyone else is." She automatically reached a hand towards the flowers in her hair, only to stop with her hand halfway up. If they were going to their best-guess location of where the twin bioweapons might have been contained, her teleportation powers would be as useless there as they had been coming here. No plants meant no end portal. "If you'd do us the honors again?" she asked Gaian Knight, even as she walked towards the hatch of the ship.

[Supercape]

GM

A little later...

Penny had been both terrified and exited on the journey. She had barely left the Ship, having lead an insular life due to the Captain's concern and fears for her. He had done his best to bring her up, educate her, and nuture her, but such a constricted life had left her phobic of the world.

Scraps was as excited as normal, and directed them.

"There! there!" he pointed, at almost exactly the same location the heroes had found him lurking.

"Underneath, there is some kind of building in the rubble. All metal and steel. Scraps never went in. Metal tastes funny..." he said, holding out his tounge and screwing up his eyes.

The Captain gripped his rifle and peered at the land, his vision beyond excellent. He appeared to make out fine details a mile away.

"Yes, yes I can see it know...some kind of door, reinforced, buried. The markings...yes, biohazard. And it still looks sealed. From what you told me about some old chemical weapons facility in the area, this must be the place. Let us hope we find Panacea there..."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel had been flying alongside the rock platform, enjoying a chance to stretch his metaphorical legs a bit. He'd stayed sharp for signs of trouble along the way, but so far it had been quiet. Eerily so, in fact; he missed the more comfortable quiet of the monastery, where other humans lived and worked and slept, if nothing else. When Scraps and the Captain pointed out the target location, he strained a bit to look.

"Hm. Well, if nothing else, if there's some stubborn rubble or doors in the way, I can soften them up so you two can move what's left out of the way. That way at least one of us can keep an eye open and hand free while the others are occupied."

It was clear Gabriel's intent was to go for maximum caution, perhaps even paranoia. The fact that they were dealing with walking bio-weapons capable of killing everything on the planet just meant such measures were likely warranted.

[Fox]

"Rubble's not so much a problem," Gaian Knight assured the others, settling his now fair-sized stone conveyance down not too far from the door. He carefully - gently - reached out, pulling any rubble out of their way like he was directing a pair of giant, invisible hands - though he didn't try to manipulate the door itself. "This stuff is, anyway," he admitted, putting the last of the ruined infrastructure aside and putting his hands back in his pockets to frown at the mostly-exposed door - and its exposed warning signs. A few shards of rock hovered back behind his shoulders, idly hanging in mid-air as if attracted to the geokinetic's gravity. "I don't think it's going to be so easy if anything inside has collapsed - metal's not really my area."

[Electra]

Fleur watched as Gaian Knight removed the debris from in front of the door, marveling slightly that all of this had been buried just under the surface and she'd never known. After this was all over, a more comprehensive survey of her world might be in order. Who knew what surprises might be waiting to jump out next? When the way was clear, she studied the doors, then reached a hand into her belt pouch and scattered a few seeds on the rocky and inhospitable ground.

"Everyone stand back," she warned, then raised her hands as though she were about to conduct an orchestra. All was silent for a moment, then a soft slithering noise began among the rocks and dirt. Vines sprang up, thin at first, then more robust, gaining power and speed as they grew. Leaves unfurled and flowers opened, bright yellow squash blossoms twice the size of a man's hand, and the vines sped towards the door like they had an appointment. When they reached the sealed portal, they began to climb, unfurling spiraling tendrils that caught onto any small protrusion and held tightly, then continued growing. In less than a minute, the door was nearly obscured by greenery. Fleur closed her hands into fists and jerked them back abruptly, taking all that growing energy and focusing it into a single sharp movement of opening.

[Supercape]

GM

The rubble had parted for Giain Knight as if it was no more than feathers in the wind. What remained was a reinforced steel door, rusted and dented, but still sturdy and intact. The facility was obviously built to last.

Despite its construction, the botanical power of Fleur was not to be resisted. The door buckled and bent, and then flew open.

Inside was a dimly lit corridor. It was full of shadows and steel, faint and erratic floor lighting made the place look eerie to say the least. It clearly had some faint power, but it was fading and weak. To have managed to survive over the decades would either mean congratulations to the engineers who built the place, or...somebody had maintained it.

"Cool!" yelped Scraps, his multifaceted shining eyes well equipped to see in such dingy situations.

"This must be it" mumured the Captain, as he took up his rifle and edged forward.

"Stay behind me, Penny, Scraps...this might be dangerous..." he commanded, shielding the two youngsters.

"This is the Panacea's home. The evidence is clear..." he said, nodding towards the decaying and browned plants that Fleur had conjured up, already wilting...

[Electra]

"We may need to split up, look for- oh..." Fleur trailed off suddenly and took a few involuntary steps back, her hands going to her face. Even in extremis, the dying plants responded to her change in mood, twitching and lurching away from the doors. That didn't seem to help much, given the rate of plant decay. "Yes, this is definitely the source of the prions," she agreed faintly. "And with what they do to plants, I don't think I can clear the air here the way I did near my home."

When she lowered her hands, it was obvious that Fleur was feeling the effects too. A livid red rash covered much of her face, running down her neck and disappearing under her costume. "We have to hurry," she told the others firmly. "We can't let this get to the village." Besides the terrible damage to the landscape that would occur, she was clearly thinking of Sanctuary's other plant controller, safe and helpless and entirely too close for comfort.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel took a step forward, almost reaching to support his friend and "adopted sister". Concern was evident on his face when she exposed her rash. His countenance settled into grim determination, and he put himself at the head of the group. In a moment's time, his spear was in hand, and a bit more concentration had it shining as bright as day for a good distance around the weapon, even as he stepped into the gloom of the bunker.

"I'll take the lead. This way we won't trip while we walk. I'll keep my ears open for trouble, too."

When everyone seemed ready to move on, including Fleur, he started moving further downward and inward, taking his time to make sure the path was safe for crossing.

[Supercape]

GM

Gabriels hearing was not to be deceived. He could hear, in what was presumably the center of the facility, a mumbling, a chant of sort. It appeared to be in some kind of corrupted Latin, mixed with flecks of Grue and English. The mumbling itself was largely incomprehensible.

"Praise to death, praise to life"

"Blessed are the children"

"They shall live forever!"

Gabriel knew all kind of theology, but this didn't fit with any of them. There were references to practically every religion on the planet, jumbled up and corrupted. None of it made any sense at all. It was if sa madman had shredded every religious book on the planet and tried to concoct a philosophy around it. Over half of it was made up words, names, and references. It had all the markers of a cult, but not an earth one.

the whispers were not far ahead, in the central chamber of the facility. Even as the foursome approached, a figure walked around a corner and stopped in surprise.

He was tall, over seven feet. And thin as a rake. His face was bald, with deep black eyes, a face that was dysmorphic, protruding in the wrong places, with funny looking brow, cheekbones, and forehead. His cloth was a tattered but deep black robe.

"Defilers!" he gasped.

"The scary men!" said Scraps, ducking behind the Captain.

[Fox]

"We didn't mean to offend!" Gaian Knight assured the...man?...in the black robe, putting both hands up in a placating gesture. Stesha's sudden drop in health had set him on edge, but that didn't mean he wanted to pick any fights he could avoid. Not that they could really afford to be slowed down, either.... "We're pretty sure something in here is making the world sick," he explained. "The plants are dying, and people are in trouble. We're here to see if we can stop that - peacefully, if possible."

[Supercape]

GM

"We're pretty sure something in here is making the world sick. The plants are dying, and people are in trouble. We're here to see if we can stop that - peacefully, if possible."

"Sick? Sick?" stuttered the tall man, taking steps back in disbelief.

"The holy sanctum is defiled!" he roared, pointing a thin, bony, and all too long finger at the group.

"The planet is being purified! as was the plan a hundred years ago! Purified! Purified! Purified! We are not worthy! Purified Purified Purified! The twins are to be preserved forever!"

The man, if it was a man, was clearly insane, there was no question about it.

"Grue...." hissed the Captain, as quietly as possible, drawing up his weapon.

"When the ship went down, the experiments went wild. They...changed....the Grue on board. Both physically and...mentally. These are deviants...."

With that, the tall odd looking man spun on his heel and made to flee into the centre of the facility.

"Defilers! Unpure! Unclean!" he yelled.

[KnightDisciple]

Suddenly the "man's" limbs seized up; his body refused to move, even his mouth. He was left frozen, mid-stride, as his entire nervous system just refused to do anything but tell his body to stay in place. There had been no obvious flash of light, but the air around him had blurred for a moment...

Then Gabriel spoke as he lowered his hand, genuine anger and disgust leaking through the tight control of himself.

"You don't get to call this place holy, wretch. Be silent."

He walked up behind the tall creature and struck the back of its head with the butt of his spear. Its eyes fluttered closed, and it sagged in place a bit, clearly unconscious. A moment later, the ultrasonic-sound-induced paralysis faded, and it collapsed bonelessly to the floor. Gabriel turned to face the others.

"This can't be the only one. We need to move fast. Let's go. Eyes sharp, ears open. I'll light the way."

He turned and strode down the corridor, his spear making the hallway as bright as a noon day in the park, his coat billowing out behind him as he strode with purpose ever-closer to their destination.

[Supercape]

GM

As the posse advanced to the central chamber of the facility, Scraps strange eyes glistened, and he pointed out something.

"Look Captain, like in the ship!" he squeaked, as his long finger aimed at a small camera like device hidden in the dust and cracked walls of the corridor. The technology looked odd, a sleek but strangely formed orb with an oppressive lens. It didn't look like human design, certainly not of the decades past. It looks rather like it was designed and made by

"Grue..." said the Captain, inspecting it, and swiftly dismantling and rewiring it.

"It's salvaged technology, from the ship that crashed. There is no doubt now, these strange men are the Grue crew, warped in body and mind from the power of Panacea and Pandora when all hell broke loose. And this..." he said, holding up the palm shaped orb-camera "...is well made. Its almost as if I did it myself...its exactly how I would have wired it up..." he said, rotating the device and pondering.

"...but that's not possible..." he said, reminding himself, before pressing on to the ever growing sign of insane chants at the centre of the facility.

[Electra]

Fleur rubbed at her face and chafed her arms as they walked, her face growing more blotchy and her hair losing some of its greenness under her hood as they went deeper. When Gabriel felled the guard, she reflexively moved to drop the unconscious man into a flower, only to remember that she'd better conserve her own and the plants' energy while they were here. She let him lay where he fell and followed the others. At the central chamber, she noticed the camera as the Captain did, but was rather relieved he knew how to disable it. She wouldn't have had the first idea what to do with technology like that!

As the Captain disabled the camera and the party moved on, Fleur stuck by Scraps and Penny, well within arm's reach of both children. "Stay close," she murmured to the pair, "and get on the ground if there's any trouble. We'll protect you."

[Fox]

"Not to be too contrary," Gaian Knight quietly noted as they made their way ever deeper, "but if we just saw it then it can't be all that impossible."

He was kicking himself for having missed the little device - he'd only noticed it after the others had pointed it out, and he wasn't entirely sure if that was because he was too used to not using his eyes so much when underground, or because of his growing concern over Stesha's apparently worsening symptoms. Still, if she wasn't worried enough to turn back, he wasn't going to press the issue - it wasn't his place.

And he was pretty sure he could drill them a hole right through these walls if absolutely necessary, for a quick exit to the surface and a breath of fresh air. "Any idea how many Grue we can expect to find down here? I'm kinda bothered by the idea that a bunch of maddened shapeshifters have been living under our noses and we never noticed. We didn't know about you and Scraps and Penny, but you were further out, and you're...well. Not out of your gourd."

[KnightDisciple]

"Indeed. It's best we be prepared for what we may face ahead. And that we try not to make assumptions about what they may or may not possibly be able to do. Clearly they've been doing...something...for a while."

Privately, Gabriel was glad the Captain had been able to handle the camera; the best he could have managed was to simply destroy it. Though, it hadn't been instant...

"What are the chances they know we're here? I know you disabled that thing, but what if one of them saw us before a general alarm went up?"

[Supercape]

GM

"What are the chances they know we're here? I know you disabled that thing, but what if one of them saw us before a general alarm went up?"

"Your guess is as good as mine" replied the Captain, powering up his Rifle. "I am a century out of date. Whatever these Grue mutants, warped by madness over decades, are up to, they are no longer the crew of the ship I remember. For one thing, they seem to have been ripped from the mind of the entity, which may account for their frank insanity..."

"The camera is disabled. I strung it up to loop the feed. It will not reveal our presence. But do they know we are here? I know not. I would prefer to have the element of surprise, however..."

He crept forward, onwards to the center of the facility.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel was still worried. They had 2 children with them, the Captain was not entirely reliable, and Stesha's powers were impeded by the very thing they were hunting in this bunker. He feared no amount of stealth would help them. Not unless something else distracted the enemy...

He stopped and stepped to Gaian Knight's side, speaking softly enough only GK could hear him.

"Keep an eye on Fleur, and be ready to pull her and the kids out if things get too bad."

He then spoke to the rest of the group.

"You all keep heading for where the twins likely are. I'll make sure they don't pay attention to you."

Before anyone could object, the air shifted about Gabriel, and he suddenly seemed to fill the hallway despite not growing at all. His very presence had increased. He began walking forward, his pace not quite that of a jog, before he suddenly rose a few inches into the air and swept down the hall, his coat billowing as he shook his spear with righteous anger, his voice booming down the halls.

"Invaders! Defilers! Murderers! You hide here in your caves beneath the earth, claiming your foul rites are holy! Perverting all that is good and right, threatening all life on this world that you did not destroy lo so many years ago! Thou art unclean! Thou shalt be struck down this day! Thunder shall roll, and this world shall be delivered from your dark schemes! Fear and tremble, for Judgement and Justice come to you now!"

Gabriel continued moving down the hall as he bellowed, working his hardest to be incredibly noticeable so that the others could, hopefully, get to the Twins as quickly as possible while the twisted Grue went after him.

[Supercape]

GM

"Invaders! Defilers! Murderers! You hide here in your caves beneath the early, claiming your foul rites are holy! Perverting all that is good and right, threatening all life on this world that you did not destroy lo so many years ago! Thou art unclean! Thou shalt be struck down this day! Thunder shall roll, and this world shall be delivered from your dark schemes! Fear and tremble, for Judgement and Justice come to you now!"

The rest of the scooby gang followed, unnoticed, as Gabriel barged into the central chamber. It was not large, but it was of adequate size. It was dome shaped, a mixture of ancient earth technology and much more advanced, salvaged and modified Grue Technology. All of it looked in bad repair.

It was dominated by two central coffin like structures, oozing a chilly gas and holding some frozen bodies. It was these two icons that the black robed men seemed to be worshipping.

There were eleven of them, all strange in appearance like the first such crew member they had met. One seemed to be the leader, not deformed, looking like a normal human, of normal height, and bursting with vitality.

As Gabriel entered, he answered in a familiar tone...

"Who dares defile these sacred chambers? Who dares interfere with the holy plan!" he demanded, before pulling back his cowl to gaze at Gabriel squarely in the eye.

His face was as familiar as his voice. It was a perfect copy of the Captains....

[Electra]

Fleur did a bit of a double-take, looking from the Captain to his doppelganger as the latter confronted Gabriel. She didn't know much about Grue and their ways, maybe it was normal for related Grue to be similar in appearance, or to all base themselves on a single model. Seeing how the Captain reacted would hopefully give her a clue on exactly how weird or bad this was. For the moment, she edged quietly along the wall with the children in tow, trying to get a closer look at the contents of those chambers while Gabriel still had the crowd's attention. Normally it would've been a simple matter to drop a vine from the ceiling and get a look, but today she'd do it the hard way.

[Fox]

"Well," Gaian Knight muttered, slipping along the wall behind the kids, "that explains the camera. Otherwise, though, kinda confusing."

He had a careful eye on the crowd and the coffins; the longer they were down here the more cult-like this place became, and even in his relatively limited experience cults rarely meant anything good. More than anything else, though, he was starting to regret bringing Scraps and Penny; sure, Penny might be the key to shutting down a plague, but could she shut down twelve plague-worshiping cultists....?

[Supercape]

GM

The Captain was most shocked of all.

"No! It's not possible! I was dying!!!" he said, perhaps a bit too loudly. He looked at Penny and Scraps, wrestling with what to say.

His gaze turned to Fleur and Giain Knight.

"When the twins hit the ship, I got sick like the rest of the Grue. I knew I only had minutes before I died, or...worse. I did the only thing I could think of. I downloaded my brain into this...."

He tapped his chest.

"An android. My own design...built it to handle dangerous materials, as it is completely impervious to all biotoxins. It worked too, woke up in this body..."

He jabbed his rifle, in the shadows, towards his doppelganger.

"But somehow, it seems I survived after all!" he blurted, fear and confusion hitting him as he wrestled with his identity crisis.

[KnightDisciple]

GM"Who dares defile these sacred chambers? Who dares interfere with the holy plan!" he demanded, before pulling back his cowl to gaze at Gabriel squarely in the eye.

Gabriel floated forward, stopping a few feet in front of the (real) Captain. He slammed the butt of his spear onto the floor, the sound ringing out clear as a silver bell.

"I dare! I declare this place unholy! False prophets! Pretenders! Usurpers of worlds! Destroyers of life, of love, of freedom! For your crimes against the people of this world, of all the worlds whose skies you have darkened, past and present, you face judgement Almighty! Your time has come!"

He leveled an accusatory finger at the Captain, but his gaze and his words struck the whole group of twisted Grue in front of him. His voice was like thunder as he continued.

"I am a servant of the LORD Almighty! Weilder of the mantle of the Archangel Gavriel! Your twisted powers shall not avail you, Grue invaders! Get thee back! Get back, I say! Cease your evil doings! Face Justice! Face Judgement! Tremble!"

[Supercape]

GM

All at once, the Grue shifted backwards, confused and frightened by Gabriels tirade. Only the 'Captain' seemed to have any wits amongst the jumbled up religious phrases and signs the Grue were making.

"What...?" he mumbled, his feet still unconsciously shuffling, edging him back to the rest of the Grue at the far side of the facility.

"Who are?... why?...how dare you...?" he mumbled, not even convincing himself in the face of Gabriel. He seemed to shocked to think or reply.

Meanwhile the 'real' Captain, that is to say the android, nodded his approval.

"Your man's got them shaken, and away from the twins..." he whispered "what now? One of the containers...Panacea, must have a leak, she is excreting her immune system molecules through it...I guess it was only a matter of time before the containment failed. Either that, or those deviants have decided to let the twins loose..."