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REVELATION - Story - Chapter 1: Puzzling Conversations
TRAVEL TO ANOTHER ERA
Original SSQ
SSQ Squared
SSQ Infinity
Date: 7:31:06 PM, December 9th; 5:32:40 PM, December 14th; 7:02:39 PM, December 21st, 2014.
Metal Man (GM): R E V E L A T I O N -- The group is on the Wing Fortress. It's been a couple months in space. The ship's handled itself pretty well. Everything is... kinda weird but functional. Xavier sits in the bridge, casually welding a detached part of the controls onto a wildly incorrect part of the control panel, slicing off excess parts and hammering it into place, it looking like a jagged jigsaw puzzle once in place.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah... about time I had a control panel in this thing that wasn't a piece of garbage!"
Metal Man (GM): He hears a knock on the door--it's Borne and, presumably, the other Questers.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah, let me open the door..."
Metal Man (GM): He flips a switch, then he flips a glass guard up and twists a knob, then he types in a keycode, and then he spins a wheel around sixty times. The door slowly opens, then stops 3/4 up... forcing everyone on the other side to duck a bit to enter. Well, not Gelato.
Gelato: *Well... he has to now, as well. It turns out that chowing down on entire civilizations can cause growth spurts... over the past few weeks, he's been growing until he's about hip-high to Xavier.*
Valron: "...Remind me again. Why do you need to do about seven different things to get the door working when it doesn't even open properly?" *He grumbles softly, before going to duck under the door, then pop back up on the other side.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I... ...thought that it would remind us of our days down in the bottom of the ocean, riding yellow submarines."
Metal Man (GM): Borne casually walks over to the control panel, and pushes a very dusty looking button in the midst of it. The door opens all the way normally.
Valron: "...Right."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hey!"
Commander Borne: "The wires for this one went directly to the door. I see no reason not to use it."
Valron: "Also, that would've been nice to know about five seconds ago, but. Whatever."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I was quite sure I destroyed the correct butt--I mean amazing! I didn't know it existed!"
Metal Man (GM): Xavier grumbles a bit and turns about in his chair, looking to space.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We're almost there now. Pardon the slowdown, but I had to go to every single Space Taco Bell and collect all the Pokemon figurines."
Metal Man (GM): Said figurines are completely lined up on the dashboard... all 700+ of them.
Commander Borne: "You do know we still have enough gold to just buy them all."
Gelato: *He walks over, sniffing them carefully. Each one demands an examination.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm pretty sure I already knew that."
Valron: "...Well, that explains all the smothered burritos. ...Not that I'm complaining."
Metal Man (GM): They appear to have been very carefully duct taped to the board, and are typical cheap fare like any kid's meal toy would be. Not that Xavier seems to care.
Valron: *He covers his mouth for a moment, letting out a muffled burp, before glancing over at the truly astronomical amount of figurines.* "In any case..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We're entering a dangerous part of space, anyway."
Gelato satisfied that they're not attempting to kill the group, he promptly heels next to Xavier, listening intently.
Metal Man (GM): He turns on a bunch of oscilliscopes. They make a vague impression of a green-and-black map on them.
Commander Borne: "And you didn't use the hologram projector because...?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm trying to be edgy and new!"
Valron: "Because that would make sense."
Commander Borne: "There ARE a lot of edges on these square boxes, yes..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Anyway, here's the deal."
Valron: "Come now, Borne. You should know better about how Xavier... well, I'm sure if I should say works, but. I guess that's a good approximation. Anyways."
Commander Borne: "I must admit, I spent the last several weeks analyzing all the data I missed between being dead and not associated with you people."
Valron: "Fair."
Commander Borne: "It made... me a little less familiar than I was last. But I see I will catch up soon."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes, you will get a grand class in how I do things!" *He starts by pointing and stabbing a monitor, breaking the screen.* "OOOOW!"
Metal Man (GM): He then casually chucks it away and plugs a new one in.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So, you're just the first couple of people to see this, but I've been working on this thing."
Commander Borne: "The collection of junk here?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "No. The plan to save the universe."
Commander Borne: "Oh."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Over here is us."
Metal Man (GM): He points to a heavily shielded set of two orbs: one says ALSA, the other says NINTENDUS, all in nice old timey block letter font.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Now... over here is this."
Metal Man (GM): He points to a planet named OPUS and a bunch of satellite dishes and things.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This area is where the Time Cops chased me into Nintendus back when over 50 years ago. The barrier used to be opaque and impossible for us to leave, so they most likely lowered their security watch. Especially after they managed to send all their worst foes into there for us to kill. Indeed. This ship was the one they sent into the world to begin with. I had to reassemble all 7.2 trillion pieces of it by hand over the course of the decades we were hanging out in Nintendus."
Commander Borne: "So that's why there's enough microfractures in the hull to kill us over over 10 times combined."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Bah! I consider them miniature gunports for even tinier gunmen to defend us with!"
Gelato: *He probably stuffed gum into a good few.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So this is where we, the Questers... Time Questers... Time for Tacos... ...whatever we consider ourselves, probably still Questers, come in. Since this ain't no WOLFMAN thing anymore..."
Commander Borne: "But... you have images of that Reploid on the wall, everywhere."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "But not here!"
Metal Man (GM): *Portrait of Wolfman sitting on the controls is staring at Xavier.*
Editor's Note: My future-me's brain has further made that image hilarious by imagining an image of Wolfman trying to lounge atop the controls and finding them very pointy.
Valron: "The time for tacos had kinda already passed. ...Besides, I've already had four of those burritos. ...This afternoon." *He coughs.* "Anyways."
Xavier Ridgecrest glances over to it slowly, then even more slowly moves it to be facedown. "...As I was saying... The Time Cops were the only real group in the universe... with any real numbers, or organization. They never fought another organization worth their salt in this reality, according to Illian. They were so desperate to ensure Illian died they released their worst criminals into our realm to help ensure at least one of them would kill him. Or, failing that, planned to split the universe with him. The tapes he showed me were very interesting..."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier takes out a holodeck tape and reluctantly engages the actual proper hologram.
Omnus: "Yes, Illian. If you can subjugate that worthless hellhole, then we can make you the proper Time Cop coordinator of the area, and let you run it however you please, nullifying the Hands' contract forever."
Illian Macgregor: "And if you renege, I will just kill you and everyone you know, so it's not like you can renege."
Omnus: "Rest assured. We have seen your power!"
Illian Macgregor: "Maybe I should kill half of everyone you know so I make sure you've seen it properly."
Omnus: "That... won't be necessary!"
Metal Man (GM): Message ends.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Obviously we ended him, so the plus side, nobody innocent has to die. Of course now we have to kill Omnus ourselves. Or make him see reason. Or... send him to Taco Bell... ...forever..."
Gelato: *He promptly blows a raspberry.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I wonder if Walther is somewhere here. I need him to cross check whatever insane idea I say."
Commander Borne: "What, I'm not good enough?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Perhaps you're a bit too good, given you saw fit to efficiency-ize away every single person other than you from your government, last I checked."
Commander Borne: *Shrugged.*
Valron: "...I'm not exactly expecting the 'see reason' approach going to go so well, given that he tried to condemn a universe to oblivion just to get rid of an opposing organization, but. I... guess it wouldn't hurt?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, we can always make him see reason by making him see it by taping it to his face... with duct tape of violence... I mean truth."
Commander Borne: "I would roll my eyes, but this is a marked upgrade from my previous employers. Mad Molly would just cackle insanely while contemplating killing everyone, and Jack would... ...cackle insanely, while contemplating killing everyone."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hah! You can't beat me, I had to do what a short guy in a funny hat told me to do... and an even shorter guy with nerd glasses! Anyway. We'll go to Opus and see about getting them out of the Time Cop funk that undoubtedly controls them. Now of course, there are a lot of things to talk about, like how I have found Michael Jackson's Pat collection... I mean Pat's Michael Jackson collection... because--"
Metal Man (GM): The dash lights up red and a bunch of 'incoming call' lights turn on.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Huh. I didn't know we got callers out here."
Metal Man (GM): He flips a single toggle switch.
Gelato: :D *Friends!*
Metal Man (GM): A man in some sort of vague outfit shows up.
???: "Hello there, unknown ship bearing 729XW. We've detected your callsign and... it appears you're not on the Time Cop's side."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Why yes. But how could you tell?"
???: "Your ship violates 9 out of 10 of their restrictions on vessels, is on an outdated wanted poster that says 'WANTED: TIME HOBO', and I think there was a documentary on last week about how you supposedly died in a black hole somewhere."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Time what? Who dares call me a Time Hobo?"
Valron: "Deadliest hobo I've ever met, then."
???: "...Anyway, since you appear to have been outside the loop, we figured we might link up to share intel, since we ourselves have been fleeing the Time Cops for a while."
Gelato: *He promptly rears up and waves his front paws at the monitor. HELLO NEW FRIEND.*
Valron: "Sounds like a pretty good idea, all things considered."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, you are complete strangers, but my Smash Dex should figure it out."
Metal Man (GM): He holds the Smash Dex up to the monitor.
Smash Dex: "...DING! ...Celus Model 6 Holo-Monitor."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Well at least this time it detected something. I think I can risk it, anyway, since I have several other infamous fugitives and people who have fought and defeated Gods before."
???: "Yes, it appears if you have survived falling into that black hole, that you aren't made out of normal flesh... we'll be right there."
Metal Man (GM): The sleekish black ship floats up. Borne stares at it.
Valron: "And it's not like we haven't been through the wringer about twenty times before as it is."
Commander Borne: "I can't help but think that thing is a bit familiar to me, but I don't recall where..."
Metal Man (GM): The ship docks, and the dock ka-clunks open. The man walks in, followed by another.
Deck: "Hi... I'm Executor Deck. Deck for short. I've been out here for quite a while, and I've sort of been the local meet-and-greet for... other vagabounds like ourselves, essentially."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Good, because if you were coming in here serving anything other than cheer and information, I have six kinds of video tape players."
Deck: "You have such strange slang... clearly you have been marooned from civilization for decades."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It was a world of plastic... it was a world of commercialism. It was a world of--hello Nonna."
Nonna nods to Xavier and the others.
Valron: *He glances over at the two, seeming to idly examine them for a few seconds, absent-mindedly flexing his left claw, before giving a nod to Nonna and Deck.* "Valron. Pleased to make your acquaintance" *He then shifts his attention over to Deck.* "I suppose you could put it that way."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Stands there at 6'4", a man in a metal silver armor suit that looks ripped out of bad 80's movies, complete with grungy plating and a dim, faded Q badge on his chest, but his visor is nice and clean and reveals his wrinkled and mischievous but non-hideous, non-evil looking face."
Deck: "I had to come here and see you, since you are sort of an urban legend, like the Loch Ness monster. They say you vanished into a portal, 'Time Hobo', and they never confirmed whether you were alive or dead, but they kept reporting sightings of you everywhere, like UFOs."
Gelato: *He eagerly bounces up to Nonna, examining her. That's a rather small dragon, but a rather large pet... and it appears to be made out of clear gel, looking almost like a living blob of water.*
Deck: "And I don't recall you having an entire group of people with you either... they didn't know of any such thing, anyway. Especially such... ..." *Gulps a bit when he looks at Gelato* "Interesting... ones..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah, you missed the time I had a Renamon who cursed at everyone and smoked and drank and set small fires when I wasn't looking."
Nonna: "Ah... h-hello there." *She examined Gelato as much as he was examining her.*
Commander Borne: "Pardon Xavier's strange speech. He's never had to look at normal people before. He brought me along to be the more level-headed one, so that you could speak without being interrupted by bizarreness when necessary."
Gelato: *He promptly attempts to lick her hand, wiggling in excitement!*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You brought this Nonna here, I see... any particular reason?" *Rubs his chin, making a slight metallic scratching noise, but subtle.*
Nonna allows it, and then even tries to cautiously pet him, clearly unsure of whether or not the act would be interpreted positively.
Deck: "Well, we've been having trouble keeping our ship afloat, as it were. Time Cop attacks have tripled recently. They said somebody big was coming here. It was the Destroyer they were talking about, though."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The Who?"
Deck: "No, not the classic band."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Damn. All my Earth references are perfectly understood out here, I forgot."
Gelato: *He certainly seems to be enjoying it, leaning his head back to lavish in the petting. Goodness, what a friendly thing.*
Deck: "Well, of course! You came from here, did you not?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes and... no..."
Deck: "The Destroyer. He looks like you, but he's been reputed to kill entire dimensions for displeasing him."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I shouldn't tell you who else is on this ship then, I guess."
Valron: "...Ahaha. Funny you should mention that, yes."
Deck: *Pales* "Uh... I guess you shouldn't..."
Valron: "It's... a rather long story. Long, completely ridiculous, and you probably wouldn't believe us anyways."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We convinced him out of destroying things, but he won't come out to see you. I hear him ramble about Garrick and build things in the armory instead."
Valron: "Emphasis on 'completely ridiculous'."
Nonna: "Reality is stranger than fiction."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I tried to convince him to play Duck Hunt once, but he chucked a spinning hammer at my head, then a boomerang. I shut the door before the fireball could hit me."
Deck: "G-glad to see you have him under control, then!" *Pulls at his collar* "Anyway... Nonna is here because... especially with such deadly company... she would be safer here... our ship's been losing life support and--"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Maybe I could fix it!"
Metal Man (GM): *Part of the ceiling falls in and a tube breaks.*
Deck: "I... think you wouldn't know what tech we use."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That's right, Destroyer can fix it for you!"
Deck: "...Reaaaally sure it's unusual so even he couldn't."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Awww... alright, but don't say we didn't offer to help."
Nonna: "...I'm only a cadet, so to speak. Deck doesn't want me in any dangerous combat situations yet, but doesn't want to outright admit that."
Commander Borne: "Understandable. Nobody with a normal fighting regimen for their troops would send cadets into danger. Despite how derelict this ship is, I have made sure to repair it so that it's mostly cosmetic. That tube was some redundant 1960's air conditioner Xavier insisted I leave in here."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's a Dyna-matic! Nothing beats the Dyna!"
Metal Man (GM): *box that fell out of the ceiling bursts into flames.*
Commander Borne: "Nothing is quite so prone to burst into flames, anyway."
Valron: "I'm surprised he actually let you touch the damned thing. I've been wanting to do some work on... well, a lot of things, but he's been so dreadfully cagey about it."
Commander Borne: "He never let me. Rather, I fixed it moments before a catastrophic vacuum hole was about to send his entire collection of Quester medallions into space."
Valron: "...Oh. Well, then. That explains a lot."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I figured compromising my aesthetic a little was worth it, because then my precious collectables wouldn't be lost in space. Imagine what kind of fetch quest THAT would be..."
Gelato: *He yawns boredly at the flaming box.*
Commander Borne: "Illian made it clear that if we encounter any fetch quests, that I either prevent it or he will destroy them."
Nonna: *Went back to petting Gelato while the others kept talking.*
Deck: *Pulls at his collar* "You guys seem to have it under control, so we should go before the Time Cops catch us..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah, but it'd be quite a party, don't you think?"
Valron: "I'll be glad once my own ship's finished so that I can actually do something while goings are slow. ...Mind you, I still need to find a proper AI in case I'm down a co-pilot for whatever reason, but... Hm."
Commander Borne: "We should make sure his cadet is safe and we get to that planet first."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "But... but the violence and explosions!"
Valron: "Those can come later."
Commander Borne: "Do you want the explosions to touch your medallion collection?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...No."
Valron: "Or, knowing us, they'll happen somewhere along the way."
Commander Borne: "I am thankful that you have some limits, anyway. Jack treasured nothing, so there was no convincing him out of erecting the 200 foot tall pillar of death worship in the middle of a major intersection."
Valron: "Hopefully, it'll be more a matter of if than when."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah."
Deck: "So, Nonna... best of luck here, and in case you do need help, you know my radio frequency. Just..." *He glances at Xavier's control panel.* "...Use this, because I don't think they even have the ability to dial individual frequencies." *Hands Nonna a radio.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "My panel is perfectly usable!"
Commander Borne: "Even I struggle to determine why there's a banana and a rotary phone wired into it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The banana is to use if Garrick ever appears on here, and the rotary phone makes noises that are soothing to hear."
Valron: "Because Xavier, Borne. Because Xavier."
Commander Borne: "Soothing wha?" *Shakes head.*
Valron: "That is seriously about the best I can glean, even with having worked with him for as long as I have."
Nonna: *Takes it and looked at him.* "Thank you, Deck. Things will go well here, I think."
Deck: *Whispers to Nonna something, then nods* "So then... best of luck." *Nods a bit, then walks off.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Now, where was I..." *As Deck slowly leaves, closing the door behind him after pausing a moment to hear whatever Nonna might say, if anything.*
Nonna: *Blushed suddenly and looked a bit irritated* "I told you before, don't pamper me just because you liked my Mom. I'll be fine!"
Deck: "...Ouch." *He coughs.* "I'll... uh... ...yeah." *Stumbles off and closes the door behind him, awkwardly.*
Gelato: "...?"
Valron: "...Right. While that's all fascinating to hear..." *He coughs.* "What's our next order of business, exactly?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I detected at least ten kinds of burn from over here, and not because my left hand has a tendency to spontaneously burst into flame." *Spins around his burning hand.*
Commander Borne: *Is busy putting out the air conditioner with a fire extinguisher.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, as I was saying, we go to Opus and liberate them from Time Cop enslavement! ...Somehow."
Nonna: "Um, anyway. once again, I'm Nonna. It's nice to meet you all, and hopefully we can work well together."
Valron: "Ah, yes. Right. Opus."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh, we can work together, all right. This is probably the start of a long and bizarre association, see, since people tend to work with me for a long time... ...also because I'm not sure how many other ships like yours or mine even exist anymore. Last I checked, the Time Cops were killin' everybody, and your ship confirms my suspicions. If even a ship so new as that one was so broken? Cripes... the only good news is this one is pre-broken, making it un-break-breakable."
Nonna: *She went to go find a place to take a seat for the time being.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "By the way, Gelato, you should get my war tapes ready to cue up when we reach hailing distance of Time Cop ships."
Valron: "...I'd say that I really hope logic works like that, but given who you are, I'll just shrug and figure that it does. Somehow."
Metal Man (GM): Nonna would see the assorted chairs... they are bizarre.
Gelato: *He steps up to her, offering a seat on his back.*
Metal Man (GM): There's a bean bag chair, and a patio chair... there's Gelato.... There's an upside down chair made of metal that's been welded to the ground... There's a deformed ceiling fan hanging from the ceiling converted into a chair... And there's a chair made out of small chair sculptures that look crudely welded together.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I had these really cool chairs, but then I sat on them and they broke."
Valron: "You didn't properly reinforce them, did you?"
Metal Man (GM): Xavier, for whatever reason, does have a 1950's esque chair, but it looks like it's been repaired a thousand times.
Nonna: "Oh, uh... thank you." *She accepted Gelato's offer awkwardly.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Reinforcement, SmheintdhoeiathaoiGAK COUGH" *Back of the chair flies off and smacks into a wall.*
Valron: "...I rest my case." *He lightly shakes his head, before going to go settle down in the beanbag chair.*
Gelato squirsh. He feels warm and soft, kind of like sitting on a waterbed... not bad, although very weird. Comfortable, though!
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Now the plan here, is that we go to Opus, and... defeat satellites... ...Does anyone here have experience in defeating floating satellite battlestations? Because you know. I tried it before and had to flee into Nintendus."
Nonna: "By the way, I'm not sure if I've caught all your names..." *she spoke quietly, not wishing to cause an interruption or anything.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh, right. My name is... Xavier Ridgecrest, Time Adventurer! ...Bandit... ...definitely not a hobo!"
Commander Borne: "He's one sack of vittles short of becoming one, I must admit."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Quiet you!"
Commander Borne: "Also, I am Commander Borne. My story is... too complicated to explain in short sentences, or in fact one hour."
Valron: "...Should check back on Ivan about my ship-mecha at some point, but. Eh. That can wait." *He then pauses as he looks over at Nonna.* "Ah. Well, I had already mentioned my name before, but in case you missed it, I'm Valron. Nice to meet you and all that. Hope you don't mind our... general peculiarities too badly. This is... normal for us, to be honest."
Nonna: *To Valron* "To each their own, right?"
Commander Borne: "He tends to be more bizarre when he has nothing to do, anyway. Once things get going, he gets more serious."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Like that time I defeated the EVIL SOLARIAN MATH TEXTBOOK OF ILLIAN, am I right?"
Commander Borne: "...When he's not fighting somebody as insane as he is..."
Valron: "...Our story would probably require a good bit more time than we have at the moment, anyways. It's... really long, and a bit ridiculous, as I had said before."
Commander Borne: "The short version is that there's a world full of insanity past here, which is why those beacons telling you to turn back exist."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes... I must admit, it was strange to encounter someone who actually understood some of my references. It's been a long time since I've been anywhere near home."
Valron: "We managed to make it sane. ...Well, sane enough, anyways."
Nonna: "I... I see."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "In any case, we'll make our way past this big line of horrible death satellites, then go and figure out what's up here. You wouldn't happen to know much, would you? ...Then again if you did, you probably wouldn't have your ship so shot up... ...unless that means you actually did and they were trying to take you out..."
Valron: "...Do we have any proper scanners in use to at least have an idea of what we're- No, wait. If we did, then you wouldn't be asking, huh."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I can detect the giant, New Jersey sized space station infested area."
Nonna: "A cadet isn't really told anything."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oooh... and this." *He holds out his Time device.* "The Time Network rebooted when we left."
Metal Man (GM): He turns it on. A field of dots appear all over the air, showing a holographic version of space. It also shows the current position, moving towards a crescent filled with dots.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "So if I'm correct... this is going to be a very dangerous blockade run. No wonder that ship was so shot up."
Valron: "I meant in more of a sense on the specifications of the satellites and not, well. The fact that they exist." *He pauses for a moment as he takes note of the field of dots, before nodding.* "That would explain things, yes..."
Commander Borne: "Specifications... The Arbiter's Hard Drive."
Valron: "...You still have that?"
Commander Borne: "I downloaded it into my being, so yes. The beams are quite terrifying. And it has enough power to blow us up in one hit."
Valron: "...Speaking of, do we even know what happened to him after that whole incident? Is he back with the Time Cops proper, or...?"
Commander Borne: "I repaired the Charles Magellean Infinity Drive, however, so we should have a good 15 minutes of invincibility to fly past them with."
Nonna: "You're full of surprises, Commander Borne."
Commander Borne: "The Arbiter, I am unaware of what happened to him. It appears he beat us out here, is all I can tell."
Valron: "Hm. He would slip past the cracks again... Oh well. I guess we'll get to him when there's time."
Commander Borne: *Glances at Nonna* "Yes. Well, there is one part to my story I can explain. There was a crewmember named Garrick. In a different universe, he would be where I am right now. He, like me, was about figuring out technological responses to problems. However, he became captivated by the religion of The Destroyer and... ...well, you can guess what happens to people obsessed with destruction."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "He kept screaming 'No More Killing' even though he killed scores and wanted to kill me too. I think he lost his mind completely, by the end."
Commander Borne: *Shrugs* "It was The Destroyer who did it to him, honestly."
Valron: "...To be honest, I'm rather amazed I came out of that temporary affiliation unscathed."
Commander Borne: "He was a trusting fellow. Unlike Valron, who trusts no one fully, as it should be. Or Xavier, who is too insane to actually let anything effect him for long."
Nonna: *Continued to pet Gelato as well* "You're certainly full of surprises, too."
Valron: "It doesn't help that I've had my soul detached from my body until recently."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Wolfman did die, and I do care about the untimely demise of Donald Duck."
Valron: "No, I'm joking about that, either."
Commander Borne: "I'm not even going to ask who Donald Duck was."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It was in a simulation world and he replaced Aribar due to Kuj--"
Valron: "So, ah. Thanks for fixing that up, even if it wasn't intentional, Borne."
Commander Borne: "I said I wasn't asking. Oh, you're welcome. Repairing things... that was what I wanted to do with the nanites. I wanted to repair Garrick."
Gelato: -w- *Purrrrr.*
Commander Borne: "He could have been whole again, free of that wasting disease his worthless creators had left on him. ...But of course, you can only repair the body. The mind belongs to whoever has it. In any case, I felt it was my duty to take the place of Garrick, because while the Destroyer is tech minded, he's not... very general. He specializes entirely in weapons of untold destruction, possibly as a result of his need to destroy something. He explained some of it to me, but it involved destroying the Time Cops, so..." *Shrugs* "He has said he is more interested in being careful about who he defeats, though. Something about 'destroy the wrong things and you never regain yourself from it'."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes. In another dimension, he destroyed the Time Cops and Kuja and everything, but then there wasn't enough left of him to understand destroying Nintendus and Alsa was pointless. He had lost track of what he was doing utterly."
Commander Borne: "So here we are, about to move into combat range of deadly satellites and run a smuggler run towards Opus. ...Any questions before things start catching on fire for real?"
Nonna raises a hand.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I already know everything, so." *Flips through his smash dex using its primitive buttons* "All I need to do is build a giant unsmiley face out of keys and burn Aetos effigies on it to ensure his soul continues suffering in the X-Zone forever... heh heh heh..."
Commander Borne: "Yes? And don't mind Xavier, his brain is part dishwasher."
Nonna: "Is there anything I can do to help?"
Commander Borne: "Plenty."
Valron: "It actually does pretty well, too. My mug came out of it surprisingly clean."
Commander Borne: "We haven't had a lot of fresh recruits lately. Most of us other than I and you and Valron and Walther tend to be either nutty or unusual... you can help man various battlestations as we fly there, and when we do get on Opel, you can probably aid in talking to people and investigating."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm plenty stealthy!"
Nonna: "Understood."
Commander Borne: *Talking a bit softly* "He still doesn't get that sounding like a gigantic collection of trash cans and throwing toasters at people isn't a useful stealth mission component..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Loudly slams his fist on the panel and flips loud, chunky buttons and switches* "I hate how smooth and slippery these new buttons are. I need to put some sand in their joints so they sound as old as I do."
Gelato: "..." '-'
Commander Borne: "...Any other questions? Even old people should ask, if there is something. Because when this place gets hit by lasers it gets too loud to talk... ...which reminds me. You should have a communicator or something... text... device thing. Because we aren't usually in range."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I should give them a smash dex!"
Valron: "...I can also help with battle stations if need be. While I'm much more comfortable flying a smaller ship on my own, I can at least help man a battlestation of some sort. I do have a good deal of experience with it, at least."
Commander Borne: "You could, but those weigh so much they take up too much space and slow people down."
Valron: *He pauses as he glances over at Xavier.* "Make sure it's actually working instead of spewing out a freshly-sliced pastrami like the last one."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's perfectly light!" *Drops dex with enough weight to bend some of the controls.*
Metal Man (GM): Borne casually gives Nonna a slimmer, more modern text/voice communicator.
Nonna: "Oh, um... thanks."
Valron: *He light shakes his head.* "Honestly, I'm glad I have this visor, or else I would just be so tremendously annoyed by how inadequate the Dexes are..."
Commander Borne: "This won't tell you the stats of over 700 roaming monsters and data about what a stupid idiot named Kinnin did 50 years ago, but it should actually be reliable for texting information during loud battles."
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Flips through and plays back a video of an idiotic looking person screaming 'I AM THE NINTENDO MASTER!!!' and falling in a pit* "Ah... you're missing out... feel free to ask if you wish to upgrade to the REAL thing."
Commander Borne: "...His communicator is still using technology they used on 1990's Earth, so it's not much of an upgrade. I made sure to avoid Garrick's mistake and not try to highlight that too much. He's sensitive about it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, there was the fact Garrick made his out of magitek too."
Valron: "...Again, really thankful I have this visor. It cost me some coins, but it's been very much worth it."
Commander Borne: "...I forgot that, actually."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah. Radioactive telephones. Even I figured that was a bad idea! And that radioactive drum set... ...we had to bury it in a giant concrete lined pit."
Valron: "Don't remind me of that thing. I swear that stupid thing is actually evil."
Commander Borne: "The good news is unlike Garrick, I have never been tempted to make a radioactive drum set... ...these people weird even me out, sometimes, and I was razed, I mean raised, by psycho killers."
Valron: "...Reminds me that I should get that guitar fixed up. ...And that other device I stole off that one fellow. In any case..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's all right. In a few minutes the explosions will drown out the sound of my bad jokes... ...so any more questions before we get to that? Oh, I almost forgot. I should feed Gelato." *Offers Gelato a pear, a Ricky Martin CD, and a complete Ghostbusters VHS collection to eat.*
Valron: "Mmhh... Nothing I can particularly think of."
Nonna: "That's what he eats, huh?" *Watching this feeding take place.*
Valron: "He eats a lot of things. There's little he won't digest."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, he can eat anything, but I had to switch away from the live ammunition. It tended to result in explosive belching."
Gelato: *D* *He promptly swallows all three whole, the "Food" sliding down his throat to float in his stomach. Nonna could see the pear quickly beginning to dissolve, though the CD and VHS tapes seem to be taking a lot longer.*
Valron: "...Mind you, his preferred food is ham."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Which reminds me, I'm hungry too." *Picks up a piece of the burnt air conditioner and eats it.*
Valron: "...I already ate, so I'm good."
Commander Borne: "...There is no actual explanation for why Xavier eats those things, on the other hand."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, a magic remote gave me the power to eat anything like Kirby."
Commander Borne: "She doesn't know what Kirby is."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Nobody does anymore! I swear, so uncultured..."
Gelato: *He burps. The faint scent of furn and flesh is there, along with the pear.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hm... I'm guessing that's also why the air conditioner fell from the ceiling... I don't blame Gelato, it tastes better than it did while functional, and I can always warp in another. So then, I guess it's time to get going. Just be prepared to duck occasionally, this thing tends to pop rivets..." *He steps on a weird gas pedal, spins the spinning lever, flips a switch and bends a switch to make the ship move forward at decent speed.*
Commander Borne: "You could have hit the 'go' button."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Such simplicity is for dweebs."
Valron: "Again, that would make sense."
Metal Man (GM): The ship goes on its way towards the danger zone... and I'll pause about here if everyone's okay, feel free to post a reaction just before it. Will continue on weekend to pick up more people... caffeine worked well tonight, though. I'll be sure to tank up with a cup of joe before next session too. Also... yes... I should reward EXP. My todo shall be to give out EXP for this session before the next one. I need to finalize my algorithms. Also, thanks to everyone for showing up on short notice and such.
Metal Man (GM): Introduction: The Questers began their work--specifically flying towards the planet of Opus. The plan being to get past a series of heavily defended stations with laser batteries that prevented Xavier from entering there the previous time. A group of mercenaries dropped off a new recruit, Nonna, as well, after they had encountered difficulty moving through the section. Xavier sits at the controls, as the distance between where the Questers are and the laser batteries decreases, now getting rather close indeed. He watches it on his setup of weird green monotone monitors. As he flips all sorts of random switches all over the messy mess of a control panel he has. Continuation: The other Questers would either be in the room or nearby. The ship would occasionally bump slightly.
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Flips on PA system and speaks* "Just a few minutes until we get into engagement range with those Time Cop defense stations. I figure this is the best time to strap all loose valuables down, and if you have any suggestions, to note them to me. It's probably going to be a bit rough getting through this, but we should be able to use surprise against them."
Valron: "While I'd have suggested the prospect of using whatever ships we do have, mine is... still out getting converted, last I checked. That, and it probably wouldn't be a good idea anyways, seeing as it doesn't have CharlesTech Brand Absurd-o Shields." *He shrugs.* "Regardless, remind me... What's the Wing Fortress armed with, again?"
KitRedgrave meanwhile, face-first down in a pile of scribbled notes and archive holo-books asleep, wakes up with the sudden loud announcement blaring into whatever nook she was working in.
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Flips switches* "Well..."
Nonna: *Hanging around where the action was, but being quiet and preferring to observe everyone else at work. She awaited someone to give her an idea of what to do.*
Metal Man (GM): A bunch of weird, conflicting user interfaces show up, from all over the places.
KitRedgrave would walk in to the bridge, looking exactly as frizzled, messy, half-asleep and annoyed as you'd expect. "What's going on here? Where are we off to now?"
Metal Man (GM): The first one is an old Charles Magellean interface, really broken... think Windows 95. It has a bunch of bars.
Nonna: *Was a little startled by KitRedgrave entering the bridge suddenly* "Ah... hello."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The mostly intact piece of Charles' system... it's a bit buggy though."
Gelato: *Kit's being hugged by a dragon!*
Valron: "Of course it's a bit buggy. I'd be surprised if it actually worked perfectly."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It provides the force field... Illian's damage ensures it is no longer invincible, unfortunately. We'll have to... mine some materials to repair it. It is only... mostly invincible."
KitRedgrave looks over at Nonna for a second before it occurs to her that there's somebody new here! And is being snuggled by a familiar goo dragon, who gets some pettings.
Valron: "Well, let's just jot down the minerals thing as something to do for later. Anything else about it that can be fixed up without minerals, or no? Regardless... What else do we have?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Of course... we have lots of other things. First and foremost... my things."
Metal Man (GM): Xavier presses a button and a bunch of sparks show up, then some analog panels show up with old school vacuum tube counters and numbers all over the place.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I hate UI and nonsensical screens, so naturally my array of stolen Robotnik guns just simply have... percentages and numbers... ...they consist of a ton of laser cannons and machineguns, gatling guns to be exact. Also of course, the ram on the front of the ship. It can ram an enemy ship and take the blunt of the damage."
KitRedgrave: "Hello!" *The fox ears perk up.* "I guess we'll have to get introduced later, since it looks like we're about to get shot by what looks like an entire space navy."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Don't start any Jenga towers when that happens, mind you. In fact I'd suggest we all get in here before impact, given the fact none of the rest of the ship has anywhere near the shielding to not get bent out of shape from an impact. I've gotten a bit older though, and know that my lasers are a bit outdated, as are the bullets. In fact, they failed me the last time I was here, so I have new ones..." *He flips open a much more professional looking UI and dynamic, Linux-like setup.* "Borne has lent his... railgun devices from his Dauntless technology."
Nonna: "Indeed." *She looked to Xavier* "Are there any amplifier devices onboard which we could use? I possess some bombardment magic, but it would be too weak to affect a defense station without amplification."
Valron: "We... should probably update those or something. Mind you, the weapons themselves, not the displays, seeing as you're more than likely going to man those. Presumably." *He pauses as he sees the other UI, giving a nod.* "Good, good..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, yes and no. Amplifiers exist inside the old, derelict MTAs I brought with me. I suspect if you could spot-weld them into the empty gunport positions it would become possible to use them on that level."
Gelato: *He slithers off, heading over to Xavier and tilting his head at the screens.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, normally I'm just used to using a random number generator to push buttons for me, but I guess I can have you actually man the displays... mind the chairs, I think they got a bit bent during the last 200 catastrophic destructions this ship encountered."
Valron: "I'm not going to try my hand with the MTAs. Last time I used one, I kinda came back with... I want to say an arm and a leg? Mind you, that was... Quite a few years back, so. Hm."
Nonna: "I see..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Then there's one final piece in the puzzle, well, two."
Metal Man (GM): He gestures over to something newer... the Phase Cannons.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Borne was so gracious as to put those things on here, after he decommissioned the Black Ship."
Metal Man (GM): Borne walks over, casually sitting in the chair for it.
Valron: "...Ahaha, I see. Wonderful."
Commander Borne: "Yes, because the Black Ship, while powerful, was never going to be able to surprise these people."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We are... also in possession of something else."
Metal Man (GM): Borne casually gestures to the remnants of the Anti-Reality-Drive gun.
Valron: "Probably for the best, in any case." *He shrugs, before glancing over to Xavier.* "And that would be...? ...Oh. ...Oh dear."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We have no means to power it... and no means to fire it. It is here nonetheless, in the case that we need it."
Valron: "I shouldn't be surprised that we still have that thing lying about, but..."
Gelato: owo *He scampers over to examine it more closely.*
Nonna: *Returned to the background, watching everyone else at work.*
Metal Man (GM): The ARD gun possesses what looks like a million little metal plates and highly advanced super-tech, even the chair mag-levs off the ground. However the supertech displays indicate it has, yes, no power and no barrel, as it were.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Personally, I like it, I think it just needs re-engineering... ...we can't do that yet, though. But you know. Perhaps sometime."
Commander Borne: "I realistically only have plans to fire it once more. ...At the home planet of the Time Cop who decided to target Alsa."
Editor's Note: Huh... and he actually did get to do that, one day. Don't mess with Borne!
Xavier Ridgecrest: *Shudders a bit* "Not to worry, though, I'm quite certain we'll... not have to do that..."
Valron: "This does give me an idea for something else. Albeit for later, mind..." *He shrugs as he idly looks over the Reality Reversal Drive for a moment, before going to man the railguns.* "Bah! Never, ever assume you're ever going to need something only once."
Nonna: "Who is that Time Cop, anyway?"
Valron: "Sometimes, people just do not have the decency to learn not to stick their arm into a raging inferno."
Commander Borne: "I don't entirely know. I suspect it was Ael, or Lyx. One of their superiors, probably, since both of them went to Alsa on the orders of somebody else. And not the Arbiter since Lyx apparently hates the Arbiter, but Ael was like some buddy cop with the Arbiter. ...Of course the Arbiter is a creation, so he doesn't have a home planet, anyway. As ironic as it would be to destroy the Arbiter using his own technology... ...he hasn't interfered in a while."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...In any case, we're about there, so we'll need to figure out battle orders or something."
Valron: "A good idea, yes. Doubt any of us would really like to charge in blind..."
KitRedgrave: "Battle orders... against an entire navy. With one ship."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "A good way to put it." *Casually dials up the Charles shield.*
Nonna: "Do we have the element of surprise, at least?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes."
KitRedgrave: "...Why exactly are we flying into an entire navy again?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The ship we're in was one they defeated before. On the outside, it looks the same. The enemy navy blocks our entry to the outer systems. The true barrier between Nintendus and my home world was simply this blockade. Anyone with a Time Engine like we have now can otherwise go between worlds lickety-split."
KitRedgrave: "That is a lot just to make sure you never leave."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The blockade was created long ago due to... ...well I don't really know, but there's a lot of dangerous stuff other than us and Nintendus."
Nonna: "Should we aim to disable rather than destroy, then?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "When I was being chased by the Time Cops, they specifically chased me here. The Nintendus system had killed everyone who entered it without question. Well, my plan in specific is sort of... ...running past them while screaming with lasers. Basically get by them before they can figure out what happened."
Nonna: "I'd imagine the time cops stationed there are just grunts doing their job."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Low level ones at that, because this duty is dangerous and yet, boring."
Valron: "Well, that just screams 'focus on disabling weapon systems' to me."
Gelato: *He seems to be playing with the remnants of the ARD gun.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Few things actually escape this area and go towards them."
Metal Man (GM): *the ARD gun makes weird beepy noises as it is played with.*
Nonna: "Weapons systems and... do we have anything which can confuse their sensors?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Already do. We have a Time Cop engine which gives off a spec of a different ship entirely. When their IFF is activated on the engine, they will think Judge Dredd is coming back from his long-failed war on Alsa."
KitRedgrave: "...Wow. Makes me wish I paid attention at all to what you were doing while I was studying."
Valron: "In any case... Who's handling what? I know we've got Borne manning the Phase Cannons, and that I've got the railguns. Who's got the obsolete gunpile cluster, anyways? That you, Xavier, or will you be too busy with the shields?"
Commander Borne: "He was using his Time Cop device and my stolen Arbiter data to reverse engineer it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The gunpile cluster tends to run itself... but if somebody wishes to utilize that, be my guest."
Gelato: *The beepy boopy noises only spur further and harder play, spinning the seat around.*
Valron: "So that's automatic. Got it. Anything else that needs to be noted, or will that be it?"
Commander Borne: "We have limited ammunition, so we cannot really use too much... we should decide carefully."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I think the main question is..." *Shows diagram.*
Valron: "Hmm... I guess we should look for spots where we should maximize damage, then..."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The St. Excellus is the main laser battery we're flying near, if only because they said things that annoyed me on my way towards Nintendus."
Nonna: "We just need to be invisible to the blockade, and run through it quickly without retaliation or pursuers. Besides disabling their weapons and confusing their sensors, there's the possibility they will attempt to hail us. Our refusal will only increase their suspicion. Is there a way we can get some of them to temporarily leave the blockade first?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yes, that's also where I come in... well actually me and Illian and Borne. As far as they're concerned, we're separate entities. So if we distract them by talking while you attack with the disparate weapon systems, and we scramble the IFF with that Judge Dredd thing, then they get the picture several separate armies are attacking them. ...I did suggest to some of them they come along, but not enough ships remained from that psychotic battle back on Nintendus... if you guys can--"
Metal Man (GM): Illian casually walks in and slams an amplifier into an empty battle station.
Nonna: "Hm... if they do try to contact us... can someone feed me lines that this Judge Dredd is likely to say?" *She checked one of her pockets for the omni-disguise.*
Valron: "...Oh, hey." *He gives a lazy wave to Illian, not even seeming to pay the amplifier slam much mind.*
Commander Borne: "Easily."
Metal Man (GM): Borne would casually send to Nonna's device information on Judge Dredd and his psychotic belief in 'The law' and how he was dealing with Alsa to 'enforce the law' and 'avenge the broken contact' and 'teach the garbage worlders that they are trash'
Gelato: "EeeeEEEEeeeEEEEeee!" *That chair is whirling like crazy behind them all.*
Metal Man (GM): Illian casually attaches a glowing LED light to Gelato so that Gelato makes interesting lines of light as he spins around.
Illian MacGregor: "I put in an amplifier. I only had one that worked. We can go fix up the other stations for that later."
Nonna: "Thank you, Borne." *She'd glance at Illian for a second.*
Illian MacGregor: "I'm going to tell them I have killed everyone in your homeworlds and that I am coming for them next. That should be confusing enough alongside the others to make them wonder if a Chrono-cascade is breaking reality. Which is enough to make them doubt whether it's safe to even fight us, because chrono-shifted targets will simply destroy reality if the wrong weapon hits them."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It should buy us long enough to slam into their block-field with ours and wreck what they're doing."
Valron: "Handy."
Illian MacGregor: "One or more of you can cast magic into this amplifier to further screw them up, anyway." *He sighs to himself.* "I wish I had a chance to get one of those MAC cannons, but that Garrick just had to..." *He trails off and walks over to the side, grumbling to himself continually.*
Valron: "...Oh, hey. If I can do that with the Amplifier, then maybe I can throw around the occasional Charge every so often... Also, it could be possible to make our own variant of those later on down the line, but... Yes. Still a bit bothersome."
Nonna: "Hopefully we won't have to use those." *She looked to the amplifiers.*
Valron: "Something tells me you proooobably shouldn't keep your hopes up..."
KitRedgrave notices the amplifiers and earperks some more. "Those really worked in practice too...?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They were the only part of the machinery from the MTA that was actually any good."
KitRedgrave: "Back home, that was just a theoretical oddity that we weren't sure actually was real. Very interesting..."
Valron: "Why that bit in particular? Was the rest of it too obsolete and rusted, or...?"
Gelato: *He finally hops off the chair, trotting back to the group with the LED on his head.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I must admit we kind of... did things without really figuring out if it was possible first."
Nonna: "One must never lose hope."
Valron: "...Yeah, fair. That is kind of the norm for us, really. If I hadn't already seen enough transcendentally absurd rubbish to last me a lifetime, I'd honestly be a bit more surprised that we lived through all of it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "In any case, we're there in about 5 minutes now... everyone should get to their stations or take cover..."
Commander Borne: "I'm tracking the movement of the enemy battlestation, it's begun to notice our location."
Valron: "Bit late to tell me that. Kinda already made myself comfortable with the railguns."
KitRedgrave: "Okay, how do I use this thing? Do I just cast something at it?"
KitRedgrave: "Can do."
Valron: "Want to me throw out a Charge for you, first?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's dead simple. And for the life of me I don't know why we didn't just rip it out and use it as a standard-issue weapon..."
Nonna: *Prepared the omni-disguise if she needed it. She looked to the amplifiers as well, in case they shoot first before communicating.*
Commander Borne: "Mostly because it's the size of a small car, the functional part anyway."
Gelato: *He pokes Borne's leg, looking up.*
Commander Borne: *Glances at Gelato* "Hmmm?"
KitRedgrave pulls out the book, and flips over to the handy list of spells known.
Metal Man (GM): The massive space station starts to come into view. It's easily nearly the size of half the moon.
Gelato: *owo* *He looks between the guns.* "...Cheep?"
Commander Borne: "Is there something about the guns, Gelato?" *He puts a hand to his chin.*
Metal Man (GM): The station is one of many, that make a gigantic network of shields that extend as far as the eye can see.
KitRedgrave points at the amplifier and starts casting Distraction from it, hopefully looking like... really, anything can happen if we're pretending to be corrupt and broken in time!
Metal Man (GM): And the gigantic shields quite clearly encompass the entire area, blocking this area out... but also apparently isolating Nintendus from the other realms too.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Huh, I don't recall that..."
Metal Man (GM): Borne glances to Kit and makes some gesture. Some other noises start to be heard from the hull--they sound like interference. One kind from inside the ship, another from the Distraction element Kit is casting.
Commander Borne: "I guess Gelato is wondering if he can do something here..."
Gelato: *Nod nod.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Probably in a minute, actually." *Flips some switches* "After the boring discussion thing is over and inevitably parts of things start exploding, I think I might need some shielding when I inevitably have to go outside and repair something."
Commander Borne: "I'd ask how you know that, but then again..." *Glances nervously at the millions of welds in the walls and ceiling.*
Gelato: ^w^ *He runs and sits next to Xavier, then!*
Metal Man (GM): The comms show up; the first one shows up before Xavier.
Valron: *He pauses for a moment, digging into his mantle for a moment, before pulling out... a small, dark blue book.* "Let's see here..." *He flips it open, glancing about for a moment, before going to cast Charge on the amplifier.* "Okay, whatever you plan on throwing out next, it better be somethin' big. That's all I have to say." *He chuckles softly.*
Time Cop Officer 1: "Greetings, unknown space ship. You are violating Treaty 32.5D: That no sub-world will enter the metaverse. Turn back or be destroyed."
Valron: *He then puts the book away, shifting his attention back to his own station, idly humming to himself as he waits.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: *C* "Greetings! It is I, the Time H---Bandit! I... have come back from the dead, and you... are not going to stop me!"
Metal Man (GM): The officer pauses for a moment.
Time Cop Officer 1: "What..." *Flips through a holo-book* "What..."
Metal Man (GM): He stares.
Time Cop Officer 1: "Class III situation! Class III--" *Cuts off.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I hope that confused 'em enough."
Commander Borne: "Enemy laser cannons coming online. Luckily we have the other comms starting as we make evasive maneuvers..."
Metal Man (GM): The main screen shows the giant main laser cannon of the station charging up... most weapons on the Wing Fortress aren't in range to hit it yet. The amplifier is also ready, though... On the side, a video of Illian can be seen.
Illian MacGregor: "Attention, Time Cops: I have come to kill you, after I have killed everyone in this system. There will be no survivors. I am Illian, Emperor of the Solarians. My people have come to destroy everything you cherish and burn all that you know to ashes and build anew. Surrender and you shall die peacefully. Fight... and you shall die painfully."
Metal Man (GM): The Time Cop Officer gets shoved aside as someone familiar to Valron would show up: Omnus.
Nonna: *Looked back and forth for an opportunity to utilize the disguise plan. If not, she would head to the amplifiers to prepare for battle.*
Valron: "...Oh, goody. Just who I wanted to see. The person who I plan on sending straight to hell. ...Well, one of them, anyways."
Metal Man (GM): The laser delays its firing while they try to figure out what's going on, leaving it open to whoever. Nonna would notice she could execute a separate comms instance with the space station, if she wished--the disguise/other things are allowing the ship to masquerade as many other ships, including Dredd's.
Omnus: "What is the meaning of this... Illian is dead... ...or if he isn't, then... ...you cannot come here, Illian. You broke the plan. This universe was never supposed to be--"
Illian MacGregor: "I tire of your worthless non-Solarian ideals. The killing will be stopped. Your energies have been designated as the next to be destroyed. I have destroyed Smash Energy--now Time Cop Energy shall be destroyed."
Omnus: "You cannot prove that you exist! Your ship or ships are under a giant cloak, I am certain, if they even exist. You cannot fire a single laser to prove your point. If you truly master that universe, then why are you talking... yes... let us see who has the better laser. Then perhaps I will take you seriously... old friend."
Nonna: *She used the omni-disguise to transform into Judge Dredd, and activated the comms.* "Hmph. What the hell are you posers doing? I have a sacred mission to complete and you morons are in the way. Clear a path, or face the wrath of the law!"
Metal Man (GM): The comms to Illian turns off. Omnus shoves a different officer aside upon encountering the comms Nonna sends.
Omnus: "What? Wait... how are YOU alive? The other person I can believe, but this is complete nonsen--" *Looks at stats* "What is your ship doing there? You're in between the Time Hobo and The Destroyer! You said very clearly you would tell us you were coming. Isn't it a violation of your law? Wait... why am I even talking to you... it's obvious that you wouldn't talk this way... ..." *The other comms officers stare at Omnus, equally confused.* "Somebody get to the bottom of this, before this gets even more confu--"
Commander Borne: *C* "Attention Time Cops: It is the Alsan defense force, the Black Ship is coming to destroy you."
Omnus: "Aaaaargh! Turn it off! I'm tired of this nonsense!"
Metal Man (GM): Borne then casually puts Gelato in the ARD's control chair.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Isn't that broken?"
Valron: *He stifles a laugh, pondering if he should further add to the confusion, but. Well. Yeah.* "And I didn't even get to say 'hello'. Ah well..."
Commander Borne: "Yes. But it can still make firing noises. The controls are missing... most of the wiring is missing..."
Valron: "So it's just the ultimate toy gun at the moment."
Commander Borne: "So Gelato, just short circuit it to think it has fuel and make it 'fire.' I'm going to have to replace the controls anyway, since whatever I'm using with it... isn't going to work with the old ones."
Metal Man (GM): The amplifier is still set to use charge. Now as to whether it works on energy attacks...
Judge Dredd?: "I AM telling you I'm coming. Right now. The big question is... why are you questioning me while your duty is to take those feeble villains into custody? I was going to offer to take them on alongside you all, but for that insult... that questionable allegiance to the law... you can take care of them yourselves, and maybe, just maybe I'll forgive you!"
Gelato: *He's an expert at breaking things! He starts tinkering with controls, trying to make the gun go pew pew.*
Omnus: *C* "I can't take them out right now, they're under a cloaking field... you however, are under the field. Why don't YOU send me their locations and let me confirm they exist?"
Metal Man (GM): The controls begin to blink rapidly, as Gelato would find wires under the fancy stuff, finding a lot of little safeguard resistors he could eat. Xavier, meanwhile, takes somewhat more drastic measures, plugging the microphone on his station into his flaming golf club. The screen shows one of the comms officers running away from his station as it makes high pitched static noises.
Commander Borne: "It seems like we've confused them... they're powering on all their lasers, but they can't seem to get a firing solution on us. I keep seeing them firing radar bursts and failing to get anything useful on us."
Valron: "Good, good..."
KitRedgrave: "I think I got something in the worst case, if we need to blast them or just dodge everything."
Gelato: *He starts munching on them loudly, sitting on the wires and getting all the power routed through him.*
Judge Dredd?: "You damned lazy... I demand to speak to your CO. NOW. OR I'LL HAVE YOU IMPRISONED AND STRIPPED OF YOUR RANK, BOY!"
Omnus: *C* "Whatever... whoever is beneath that craziness... or even if it IS all of you... you can't get past us. This is our defense line! Those of you who are on my side, prove it! Those who aren't, well... ...go away." *He would cough and chuckle a bit at 'Dredd.'* "I am the highest ranking officer of this station, and leader of the Time Cops... I am quite certain unless they damaged your brain, you'd remember that..." *He taps his hands.* "Of course, you left so long ago, maybe I wasn't then? ...It doesn't really matter, that annoying person before me died."
Metal Man (GM): Gelato glows strangely, and would have a 'thought' of being able to access the controls, since the data is now flowing through him. Suddenly, a massive laser blast issues from the station, missing by hundreds of miles.
Omnus: "I hate outer space... when are you lousy people going to figure out a better firing position?" *Shoves another officer around on camera.*
Gelato: OwO *HE MAKES IT GO PEW PEW!*
Metal Man (GM): Alarms go off on Omnus' stations. Additionally, the power up noise from the ARD can be heard... it makes a chilling noise as the lights flicker violently and some sparks fly about.
KitRedgrave: "Let me know when..."
Omnus: "... We can't risk the field. I detected a legitimate ARD powerup... ..." *He closes the comms, and the stations start moving.*
Metal Man (GM): Specifically, the St. Excellis is moving towards the Wing Fortress, while the others are defending themselves with their own fields.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Wha?"
Valron: "...The hell?"
Commander Borne: "Good news is that they probably can't hit us with all our stuff... bad news is, they're large enough to probably hit us with their inaccurate but close enough knowledge of our location."
Nonna: *Taking the disguise off* "Well, that didn't work. Their commander was unusually sharp."
Valron: "He's annoying like that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Omnus was the one that kept me from escaping this whole time. It appears he hasn't changed."
KitRedgrave: "Guess we need to get fast. Do we have any more charges?"
Commander Borne: "We need to disable their ability to move, or they'll be able to shove us all the way back with one good crash."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm pretty sure we have charges, we hardly used anything."
Commander Borne: "Unfortunately we can't fire up that ARD thing again... but it should be good enough."
KitRedgrave: "I /do/ have a spell of haste... maybe it can work on the entire ship? Is this amplifier even that strong?"
Valron: "The Charge spell I casted on the amplifier should still be in effect. Unless someone already cast a spell after that?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm not exactly sure what would happen if you did that."
Commander Borne: "Me neither."
Nonna: *Went to the amplifiers.*
Valron: "Regardless, I can ready another Charge."
Commander Borne: "The amplifier charge was used on that disguise, which, arguably, bought us time by confusing him anyway. ...We should hurry, that station is picking up speed."
KitRedgrave: "Let's try it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I won't even get to go outside if that thing nails us... we're way too small to survive direct impact."
Valron: "Okay, will do" *Once again, he pulls out the book, flips it open, then casts Charge on the amplifier.*
KitRedgrave: "I have NO IDEA if it'll work ... but that's how we do it."
Valron: "Okay, there. Do it."
Commander Borne: "At this point we don't have a lot of options. If we attack it and destroy its engines, the sheer momentum is still too high."
Nonna: "Tell me when it would be appropriate to use bombardment magic."
Valron: "If we go Plaid as a side-effect, then that's just how it goes."
KitRedgrave flips a few pages, and with a fair bit of uncertainty attempts to cast Agility. On the ship.
Commander Borne: "I'd say do it now, because that thing is coming close to us... ...well do it after Kit is done with that."
Metal Man (GM): The ship speeds up. It becomes a bit hard to stand, as the gravity moves a bit from it trying to maneuver.
KitRedgrave casts it through the charged amplifier, for clarity's sake.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...We won't quite make it but we should be able to move sideways fast enough to scrape by at this rate... and I wouldn't try that again, we're at near maximum gravity tolerance."
Gelato: *He runs over to the comm screen, poking it.*
Metal Man (GM): The ship groans loudly from being stretched.
Valron: "Whoa! Okay, I had a feeling the ride was gonna be bumpy, but jeeze..."
Metal Man (GM): The comm screen indicates that, at least currently, the comms between here and the other ship are cut off; the other ship locked it off.
Valron: "We... We probably shouldn't try Baton Toss, given our current state, huh?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Baton toss???"
Valron: "...Mind you, it's a bit late for that."
Smash Dex: *DING* "Two Pokémon switch places."
KitRedgrave: "...Ahahaha."
Nonna: *A sword-like object emerges from within Nonna. She grabs it, and its form becomes more visible: A blade composed almost entirely of darkness. She pointed it at the amplifier, and unleashed a monstrous amount of dark energy into the receptor.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Well we might have to try it, given the fact we can't escape the sheer largeness of that station if we don't do something insane."
KitRedgrave: "Hahahahawhaawhatareyoudoing?!"
Valron: "...Or our new pal here can unleash darkness and annihilation, sure. Why not."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Huh. That reminds me of the Sword of Darkness. I have no clue why there'd be a second one, but okay."
Valron: "Weren't there like fifteen of those things?"
Metal Man (GM): A gigantic explosion hits the station, causing it to flicker a bit--it continues coming, though.
Nonna: *She uses Hræsvelgr, amplified version!*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Ah, right... ...still, that one isn't setting my sword of light off."
Valron: "And Dracula had one of them for some reason?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Which means it isn't the Sword of Darkness. I woulda felt it otherwise."
Valron: "Don't ask me why I remember that, but that's a thing. ...Also didn't you leave the Sword of Light behind in a microwave."
Commander Borne: "Maybe we can figure out the history of that sword when we're not about to crash into a giant moon-sized space station."
KitRedgrave: "Or else isn't it supposed to not want to leave Nintendus? Anyhow."
Gelato: *He tries to use Baton Toss to switch places with the oncoming ship.* "Eee!" :D
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That's the story I told my insurance adjusters..." *He looks around shifty-eyed.* "I guess if you want to get picky, it's just a sword made of light energy, because the sentient part of it definitely wasn't going anywhere."
Metal Man (GM): For one moment, time malfunctions. Then suddenly everything is sideways and the ship is now hurtling in an unknown direction.
KitRedgrave blinks. What. Just. Happened.
Metal Man (GM): The lights flicker and sparks fly everywhere as the ship is now diagonally flying away from the field and... not directly towards Opus, but definitely outside the field.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Not gonna ask."
Metal Man (GM): The comms lights up again.
Valron: "...U-Urgh. Well, that could've gone better..."
Omnus: "What... ...what did you do? That was a violation of at least 3 rules of time! You... ...you... ...you already have maximum wanted level. ...What do I pay these idiots for???"
Gelato: *D* *He looks into the screen.*
Metal Man (GM): *Officer salutes at Omnus.*
Officer: "We cannot predict the unpredictable, sir!"
KitRedgrave asks quietly, off-comms. "Is that a new record?"
Nonna: *Sat back down calmly, the sword gone.*
Gelato: :D *And there's promptly a bright Flash of light into the screen to blind the officers.*
Omnus: "Yes... that's right... ...the station was filled with low level recruits... ...which was a policy Lyx created... ...damn you, stupid ahhhhhhhh!"
Metal Man (GM): The comms turn off as Omnus covers his eyes. A laser flies by, scraping the side of the shields, but the Wing Fortress flies away faster than Omnus and the station of idiotic people can turn around and attack with.
Valron: "...As amazing as that was, let's. Ah. Try and keep that to a minimum? If we can, anyways"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "More importantly, we're going to need to repair the engine, because all that time shifting has it confused... ...but at least we got through that mess."
Metal Man (GM): The ship makes some groaning and malfunctiony noises as it rumbles shakily towards Opus.
KitRedgrave: "...How many of these amplifiers do we have? I gotta get myself one of those."
Commander Borne: "More importantly, we won't have to sit behind a bunch of desks in space and pray some automated machinery will work when we tell it to do things."
Gelato: 'w' *He helped.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "One for each person on the ship... but they're like, the size of small cars, so you can't carry them... yet!"
KitRedgrave: "...yet?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The tech is old, and we never thought to miniaturize it. In fact until today, MTAs had been thought of having no redeeming tech on them anywhere. We never thought to try casting crazy nonsense into the emitter while hooking it up to a giant power source, you see."
KitRedgrave: "Ah. It's amazing the things we don't think of, and the things we DO..."
Commander Borne: "Yes, I wager most of the traditional weapon systems are obsoleted by it... ...or can probably be controlled by it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "But... but my millions of incompatible user interfaces!"
Commander Borne: "If it hadn't been for that one amplifier, we'd probably have been exploded by that thing flying at us."
Nonna: "Well that was interesting."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "My guns could have--"
Commander Borne: "...uselessly dented their ship's shields."
Valron: "Hm. Well, there's an idea. Hooking up all the weapon systems to amplifiers."
KitRedgrave: "I don't know, there could be an uncomfortably close upper-bound to how much we can throw through it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "In any case... we'll get to get out of this tiresome space thing and do some proper ground stomping tomorrow." *Sets a course and gets up, stretching* "That was... something."
Commander Borne: "You're not quite done yet, you know.?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "What?"
Commander Borne: "The destruction did cause a number of external damages."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh, right. The flaming wreckage effect. Come with me, Gelato, we have to go weld some giant burning holes in the ship."
Valron: "Should I come along/ It's not like I have to worry about something as trifling as breathing, anymore."
Nonna: *Looked visibly tired now, and kept quiet in her seat.*
Commander Borne: "I guess you can if you want... the others should probably get ready to go down on the surface, after some rest."
KitRedgrave is definitely wide-awake by this point, in contrast to the others, and noting down some more things in the Book's notes section.
Valron: "I may as well. While I'm sure those two are good at impromptu patchwork, I'm sure a bit of proper fixing up would help a bit. ...At least, as proper as you can get on this ship"
Commander Borne: "It can be difficult... this ship was blown apart and put together so many times, I don't even know if the parts were even from the same ship original ship anymore."
Valron: "If you have to try and figure that out, it's more likely than not that they aren't. At least, that's how I'm going to figure it being."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I blame Indalecieo. Even though that was just a simulation."
Valron: "No more simulations, please. I've had enough of them after that one creep and his Book knockoff."
KitRedgrave: "If you don't mind, I'm going to just sit here and figure out what exactly we just did. And how anything in this ship works... and the rest of the thousand years of everything I missed..."
Valron: "Go ahead, then."
Nonna: "Is this a normal day?"
Editor's Note: In this game, yeah!
KitRedgrave just keeps staring at the Book, looking clearly tired then.
Valron: "Yes, actually."
Commander Borne: "Illian is going to work on placing in more amplifiers. His note was 'inferior Dr. Light technology occasionally does something useful.'"
Valron: "You learn to appreciate the slow days a lot more in this line of work."
Commander Borne: "Also normal is relative when everyone is from all over the place. It will make more sense after a few more traumatic near death insta--normal days of work."
Gelato: *He finishes eating all those yummy parts, hopping down with a body full of deliciously toxic heavy metals.*
Valron: "It's about the same difference, all things considered. Mind you, I'm only particularly flippant about it, given half of... well, everything I've went through."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Ah, good that you filled up before we left, Gelato. The parts on the outside of the ship are not for eating, because we have to weld them in place until the next time." *Takes out a really terrible looking blast torch* "This torch I salvaged from a submarine I found under the sea ought to be good enough."
Valron: "I go... pretty far back, to say the least. Not as far back as Illian and Xavier, mind you, but... It's something of a difference between 'old' and 'ancient', really." *He chuckles softly.*
Valron: "...Mind you, I'm actually a proper adult if we go into terms of actual age, but given half the stuff I've lived through, well... Yeah." *He coughs.* "Sorry. I'm prattling on again."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The answer is that in Nintendus club, you beat yourself in the face with a club to stop referencing random things that don't mean anything. Right, SIMBER?"
Commander Borne: "I'm not SIMBER."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Oh... right... forgot, we got rid of him a while ago..."
Valron: "...I'd just rather bury my face in a smothered burrito. We still have any of those left?"
KitRedgrave just stares for a second longer, gives up on trying to think much for now, and looks over. "Nonna, is it? I figure now I better introduce myself."
Commander Borne: "A few, yes."
Gelato: *He immediately zips over to Valron, looking up at him with big puppy eyes.*
Commander Borne: "We'll need to stock up at this... 'Opus' place. If they even know what burritos are."
Valron: "Okay, g... ood." *He pauses as he looks at Gelato.* "You want one?"
Nonna: "Yes, I'm Nonna. It's nice to meet you." *She offered a polite smile to Kit's introduction.*
KitRedgrave: "Catherine Redgrave of Alsa, nice to meet you too." *She bows a little.*
Valron: "He chuckles softly, before petting the smaller dragon on the head. "*C'mon then, little buddy. Let's go get some, then.*"He goes to push himself up and out of the seat."
Nonna: "This is all pretty overwhelming, I must admit."
Gelato: *He bounces along with Valron, ready for some munchin'.*
KitRedgrave: "That's how I feel all the time about this."
Valron: *He gives a glance over to Nonna.* "Yeah... it can be like that, especially at first. You... get used to it after a while, but the initial shock is certainly rather understandable." *He gives a nod, before going to walk off with Gelato. BURRITOS AWAIT!*
Metal Man (GM): Xavier casually eats a piece of limestone as he observes them walking off to get burritos.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I wonder what sort of odd building materials I can get to eat from THIS planet..."
Nonna: *Sips some unsweetened lemon juice* "This will be an interesting little adventure."
KitRedgrave: "...I just realized. It's gonna be a long time before any of us go home..." *He slumps.*
Nonna: "Yes... yes it will be."
Commander Borne: "I plan to steal their teleporters. Just a matter of course. Alsa will likely not do so well if we cannot visit it now and again, since it has no magical protective spell on it like Nintendus does."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "...Note to self: Break copyright protection on Nintendus protection contract."
Nonna: "What threatens Alsa while we are away, Borne?"
Commander Borne: "Odd that you care, but it's more of a... ...it's to do with the tendency of new factions to arise and start wars on it, mostly."
KitRedgrave: "Heh, it has one protection... too bad it's stuck out here for now."
Commander Borne: "It is so chaotic there... even after we fixed what we did, it's unlikely to remain magically safe forever. Not that we need to interfere in everything. Just the big ones that are obviously going to wreck the entire planet... if those come up."
Nonna: "Miss Redgrave's home planet is Alsa."
KitRedgrave idly flips through the Book. "Hm... I wonder if I can still even reference it from here."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The Book contains all the data, so it'll still reference it. Its power is probably just not going to exceed that of mundane books all that much."
Valron: *He comes back, burrito in hand. ...Well, on a plate, mind you, but. Yes. Regardless, he goes to settle into the beanbag chair seeing as things have calmed down.* "Can't really say anything about homes, myself. Don't actually have one, really." *He shrugs.* "Regardless... This does bring me back to another matter, speaking of threats. Is there any possibility of Sloan trying to poke his ugly head back in, or is it likely that he's decided to stop directly bothering with Alsa altogether?"
KitRedgrave: "It'd be a disaster and a half if he made a move now..."
Commander Borne: "As far as we know, he left the world faster than we did, and probably had some means to slip through the Time Cop net too."
Valron: "Of course he would."
Nonna: "Is this Sloan person someone we should be concerned about?"
Commander Borne: "He stole several things that I have no comprehension of. The data I found left over indicated that he was trying to do something like Illian was trying, only less advanced. Well, yes. Sloan is a freak in weird colored outfits, and he tried to trick Illian and Xavier into killing eachother so he could rule the universe. Illian was more evil than him, though, so basically he fled screaming, and we have yet to figure out where he went..."
KitRedgrave: "Mark my words, if he does ANYTHING I will personally make his life a living hell. And I'm usually a fox that's TOO NICE."
Valron: "I... also accidentally gave him double superpowers, but. That's a different story... Let's just say I wasn't expecting the test to go weird like that when I decided to just flagrantly ignore him. ...Mind you, I also partially blame that on the fact that he popped up just after I had to deal with Autumnus. So I wasn't exactly in the mood for having to deal with even more ridiculousness."
Nonna: "What was it that that person said earlier; you can't predict the unpredictable?"
Gelato: X3 *He's got the burrito floating around in his tail, digesting it.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "They said it a lot when I was in this realm last..."
Gelato: "..." *URRRRP. Out comes a cloud of Gobbu-blue smoke, after using that magic.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I warped around all over the place and did weird things. Many of them would say that when they saw me fly by them. The Time Cops are all about predictability, which means unusual stuff throws them off."
Valron: "Yeah, they're hilariously inflexible. Ael is probably the worst in that regard."
KitRedgrave: "You'd think they'd prepare better for a world of huge possibility..."
Valron: "...Which probably explains why he exploded twice."
Commander Borne: *Idly waves away the smoke as it gets near him.*
KitRedgrave: "In fact, that makes me think maybe somebody sabotaged things at some point. I sure wouldn't expect things to be the same in every single world."
Gelato: :I *And back to his burrito.*
Valron: *Has just been eating his in-between sentences. Though not while talking. That's just rude.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "There is definitely something off about them, if only because there's no real follow up response. It seems a lot emptier than I expected. We'll have to ask the locals about the Time Cops... ...without drawing too much attention, obviously."
KitRedgrave: "Speaking of which, how long until we arrive? I'm kinda excited to see our first destination outside of the known universe."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Probably a few hours."
KitRedgrave: "Ah, okay. What to do in the meantime..." *He just ponders.*
Metal Man (GM): With this, we'll pause for now, I think. (Just continued since people had a lot of input and questions) Gonna work on EXP and the next session shall be the first 'normal' one, given that it takes place on a planet's surface.
Metal Man (GM): Introduction: The Questers were last on their way towards Opus, having escaped the great Time Cop wall of energy with some... highly dangerous and questionable tactics. The ship limps towards the planet, as Xavier continually flips switches, staring at the glitches on his screen and constantly toggling a switch at them. And I guess I'll use this in-between moment to have some general discussion/interaction and have them land once everyone is warmed up. Continuation.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Stupid... stupid thing... why do you have to do this on me now. We were just at the shop and now you keep malfunctioning." *He toggles the switch.* "Cursed Time Cop technology, why couldn't we invent our own Time Engine?"
Metal Man (GM): Illian is in the background, idly measuring things on the Time Engine, which can be seen through a panel in the wall.
Illian MacGregor: "That maneuver caused the reality compensator to become de-callibrated and the ensuing cascade damaged its control circuit. If we were to try a liftoff with it again, it would probably launch us across the universe to who knows where."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah, and it also keeps putting an error message on my pretty screens! Make the error go away!"
Illian MacGregor: "Until that's fixed, it can't be made to 'go away.'"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Hack it! I don't care!"
Illian MacGregor: "I would but..." *He shrugs.* "Waste of time. We'll be fixing it soon enough." *He walks off.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah, that's what he always says... it's going to be fixed soon, yeah... yeah..." *Smacks control panel* "Not soon enough for me."
KitRedgrave: "Good to know it can be done, though."
Nonna: "What's the plan now, then?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This planet... we gotta get some supplies. Figure out what the situation is. We need to set up an outpost or some friendly place here. It's our first chance to interfere with Time Cop affairs. I have some old associates out there. They've been out in this weather for so long, I don't know if any of them still live. But if we can find them, then they can help streamline this bothersome maintenance thing. They always fixed this thing up for me before, and I must admit, they were better at it than anybody else. Didn't use to be flying a giant wreck. I couldn't have lasted more than 20 seconds that way. The side of me that... well... tolerates this..." *Flips toggle switches* "Only arose because, as far as I'm concerned, the world we just came from was still stuck in the stone ages, technologically. Touch screens went out of favor a couple zillion years ago... ships can run based on your mind now. But I don't even need that... I just need a way to ensure we can warp around minus the damage. ...Ramble in short terms: We go there and go search for stuff. I think I'll stay here, though, in case they notice me."
Nonna: "Let's not assume friendliness on anyone's part before we meet them. Yesterday's friends can be tomorrow's enemies."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah, and they were mercs, so they coulda been bought by somebody else. You guys are the X factor because nobody knows who you are. No reputation, means you can generally build one..."
KitRedgrave: "Though if you don't go, how will we know what we're looking for?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm not Illian, so I don't care if, like, you decide you're evil and want to play that. I just want to get these things done, is all. Well it's a matter of asking for ship repairs for this ship. Your communications devices, dexes, whatever you have, can display this information like so." *Pushes button, showing a model on the primitive screen with a bunch of techno-jargon* "It's been redacted enough that they wouldn't be realizing what it is, too. It's a Time Impulse Engine, they sometimes show up on the used market."
Nonna: "...yes, a readout of the things we'll need would be helpful. Maybe a holographic projected 3d model or two, as well if we're looking for overly specific parts and gadgets."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah, your fancy new communicator thing can do that. These dex things can't... I don't think they need to, but then again..." *He shrugs, revealing that projector thing on his Time Device.* "Even I have sold out enough to have one of those..."
Nonna: "Appreciated."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Know that this world is rather neutral, so they won't, like... eat you or attack you over this. They just probably won't be very friendly if you rub them the wrong way. There's also pirates, so, be wary of those."
Valron: "So, generally just play nice with the locals, stomp any pirates that bother us if we need to... Or want to, in case we want to, say... Take their stuff. Or, y'know. Maybe hand it back and get on someone's good side. Whatever works best, really." *He shrugs.*
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Yeah. I don't want to be too moralizing, since I don't really care so much about it up or down... just don't be dumb, obviously."
Valron: "That's about what I figured, yes."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This is rather simple business, so..." *Shrugs* "We'll probably deal with bigger problems later. Oh... yeah... that's right, one other thing... We don't have a lot of cash... coins... whatever it is."
Nonna: *Aside* "Beats zombified wastelands filled with technocults and moon worship."
KitRedgrave: "So... we're broke, and our vessel is stuck in drydock."
Valron: "I... still have mine, though that... still isn't exactly much."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'd suggest you basically ask them if they need anything done for them, so we can kinda trade."
Valron: "That, and I mainly planned on keeping those aside for personal projects, but... Yes. I feel that that's the best course of action."
Nonna: "Do we have anything to bargain with that isn't promises of temporary labour or threats of violence?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Repair of eccentric objects, knowledge of Time Cop things, ability to build some things ourselves. We need ship services, we have repair and manufacture of armor, weaponry, and some limited equipment here on-ship. Just be careful about some of it, otherwise we might see our own weapons used against us by some distant enemy in the future."
KitRedgrave: "Do we have that above and beyond over what this world has?"
Xavier Ridgecrest: "We have some things they don't and they have other things we don't. Tech is... higher out here than it is in Nintendus, so don't expect anyone to be too surprised that we can warp reality. At the same time, that means it's cheaper to buy some things here."
Valron: "Noted."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "The sort of repairs we need are nearly impossible in Nintendus. Over here it's like repairing a luxury vehicle or large truck."
Commander Borne: *Walks over* "Yes. To be honest, part of the reason I joined the expedition is I have equipment of my own I seek to repair. Nintendus and Alsa are backwards compared to most out here, so... ...Not to mention if I can see enough of what they do, I can copy it."
KitRedgrave: "That must be a useful trick..."
Valron: "We'll just have to make sure to keep you up to date on anything interesting we find, then."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "That was how he... beat the Alsan Questers, so yes."
Nonna: *Looking to Borne and back to the others* "...So, we're splitting up into groups and meeting back here once everything's done?"
Valron: "For lack of a better understatement."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Whatever you think is best, really. Borne will be on his own, he has different ideas."
Commander Borne: "Specifically, some things I need may regard the safety of Alsa and not specifically require Quester involvement, though I will brief Kit of what I find due to their relation to Alsa."
Valron: "Fair. I'm... not exactly sure what I fall under anymore, myself. I mean... I guess I kinda default to Nintendian...?" *He shrugs.* "Not that it matters all that much, anyways... Regardless."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, we will probably carve out our own niche on some other planets here... there's more than enough abandoned ones we can probably set up home bases in. Garrick got one thing right--we'll need our own space bunkers out here... just not yet. Not enough to do that with right now. Gotta get us fixed up... oh, and be careful, I've heard some Time Cops exist out here."
KitRedgrave nods to Borne. "If for some reason you need me along for those tasks, let me know."
Valron: "I suppose. Part of me is tired of... not exactly having a proper home, in any case. For now, we have more important things to focus on, yes."
Commander Borne: "I'll be the first to request you, yes..."
Nonna: "Since I'm the rookie, if anyone believes I'm needed in their group, I will go with them."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "I'm certain you should probably go with Valron, if only because he's the most senior member here, and most likely to be useful for you."
Metal Man (GM): The ship goes to land out in some snow-covered outskirts of a techno-town. It looks like a Western-ish cyberpunk outpost--not specifically ruined or anything, but gritty. The ship lowers a ramp, opening the way to the town. There's really only one major district visible, with a few side streets.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "It's pretty big, so it's best you just seek the area that sells what we need. You can get lost there, anyway... it always seems different every time I go there. Your dexes and devices will always show where this ship is, though, and you can always call if you need air support." *Grins* "If things get too hasty and you need something destroyed from the air, you're welcome to request a bombing."
KitRedgrave: "Air support... for scrounging for dimes."
Commander Borne: *Sighs* "It's what happens when you spend all your effort on repairing a giant warship over the money portion."
Valron: "I'll be sure to keep that in mind, then. Let me see if..." *He taps at his visor for a moment, checking to see if there's a map of the local area available. Couldn't hurt to check.*
Commander Borne: "You have a gigantic warship and no money."
Valron: "That sounds about right."
KitRedgrave shrugs. "Sometimes it's better than money and no warship."
Nonna: "Then I'm in your care, Valron."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, I did suggest we just blow up the bank or go back in time and shoot Garrick for his money, but even Illian thought that was a bad idea. Still, don't hesitate, if we have a legitimate reason to go hot on them, I won't hesitate to melt them into sludge."
Valron: "We could've also just... you know. Checked to see if Jack's castle still had anything left in it that wasn't A) Complete rubbish or B) Cursed."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Well, the issue that Illian noted was that..."
Valron: "Illian couldn't have been that thorough..."
Illian MacGregor: *Walks over* "The Solarian ships took off with the money."
Valron: "...Oooof course. That's going to be fun to sort out later, isn't it."
Illian MacGregor: "One of my goals is to find them. They may or may not still serve the evil me."
Nonna: "Evil... you, huh."
Illian MacGregor: "It is possible they might have fled out here to try and accomplish my goals elsewhere."
Valron: "I do have some knowledge of them given my interactions with your... alternate self, but I'm not sure how much help that will be down the line. So you may want to fill me in on that. Perhaps."
Illian MacGregor: "It stands to reason if my non-broken self is here talking to you, they could have made a simulation of the one you fought..."
Valron: "That's... problematic."
Illian MacGregor: "And he would most likely still want to brutally destroy the universe and kill every Time Cop. However, they only have the money and no superweapon, so if we find them... they're likely to be less of a threat. Plus as a simulation, he wouldn't be able to warp reality."
Valron: "Though he hopefully shouldn't be as... flagrantly absurd as last time. Honestly? I can settle for that."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Honestly, he would just blend in out here, so it's more of a loose end than a world ender. Probably highly aggravating but unable to really win with the other 10 sides jockeying to do that same thing. You can go into the town now, anyway... but it is true. Those Solarians are out there, and they'd be the only ones in this universe, so feel free to ask about them too."
Illian MacGregor: "Just don't approach any Solarian you do find, because odds are they would attack you without hesitation without me to... deal with them."
Commander Borne: "I'm not going to care so much, the real issue is where Mad Molly went. I've heard she's also out here somewhere. We deprived her of founding the Time Cops and--"
Metal Man (GM): Xavier waves his hands about.
Xavier Ridgecrest: "This is all very fascinating, but if the ship isn't fixed, all those nutjobs can run away and we can't go to them."
Nonna: "...So, lots of talk about potential enemies everywhere, but none about allies. This is going to be difficult, isn't it."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "Just be mindful, we can always sell our destructive capacity to non-stupid people if they want us to do something that aligns with our interests."
Valron: "Allies are... something we'll need to gather, as far as I can tell. And there is that, yes."
Xavier Ridgecrest: "You know, clearing out destroyed buildings and such... not blowing up innocents, please, I already tried being evil twice and it failed. Though I'm not a bleeding heart, if the people are neutral-aligned jerks, we can always blow those up."
Nonna: "We'll cross bridges like that when we arrive at them."
Metal Man (GM): Borne walks out into the snow.
Commander Borne: "Ah... terra incognito... and Garrick said I would be killed by him. He only killed my stupidity, is all." *Wanders into the town.*
Nonna: *Looks to Valron* "Ready to depart when you are, sir."
Metal Man (GM): The town ahead is full of various beings, and aliens. Unlike George Lucas, though, I won't spend my time making them all look ridiculously weird or anything. You can just infer most of them are humanoid, though similar to how the team's makeup is mixed, there's both fleshy humanoids and fuzzy ones, and also robotic ones, that's all you can make out at this distance though.
Valron: "Right. Let's be on our best, then." *He gets up out of his... beanbag chair, seeing as he's still been sitting down in that thing, stretching out for a moment before he makes his way out into town.*
Metal Man (GM): Various signs and such are out there, it's a bit cold but once you get in range some sort of climate control makes it feel more warm. Most importantly, floating holo-cubes are in the center of the road, and seem to list off all the different places here... there's a ton of them, and though the city appears to be rather small, it becomes clear there's some weird warping tech going on here that sends people between different sub-parts of the city.... Borne walks into one of the doorways and vanishes to another part of town instantly.
KitRedgrave wanders out with the group, trying to look around while looking like she totally fits in and isn't from a thousand years in the past.
Nonna follows after him, looking around the area to get a grasp of the terrain... and potential safe spots in case they get into a firefight or something.
Metal Man (GM): There's trash dispensers and news terminals about to hide from, in a firefight. Kit would see that there are others like her out here... though they tend to range in height, and some are bear or wolf or other-like rather than fox. It seems the universe is rather varied on the subject, as there's various humanoids, ranging from more pale Solarian types that are kinda elongated to normal Earth-human people. Some news things note that 'universal diversity has been increasing in recent years' and that this is a 'multiuniverse' planet.
Nonna: "Is there anything in particular we should be looking for first?"
Metal Man (GM): Various things note some other news, including 'Mysterious events occur on rim of universe' and 'Dangerous beings, classified as 'ex-Time-Cops', spotted recently' with images of Autumnus and the Arbiter on them.
KitRedgrave: "...*Quietly* how are we able to read any of these signs, guys?"
Metal Man (GM): It's a good question. The signs are holo cubes floating in the air, and though they appear to have sensors on them, it's anyone's guess as to what controls their language...
Valron: "...Good to see he already knows what he wants to do." *He lets out a soft laugh, before going to examine the various bits and pieces of news, lightly cocking a brow as he takes note of the images of Autumnus and The Arbiter.* "...Huh. Fancy that." *He shrugs to himself, before going to check out the cube, not seeming to pay Kit's question much mind, instead checking to.*
Dragoshi: *see... If there's any specific places that have parts shop. Specifically, parts for ships. You know, in case that needs to be specified.*
Metal Man (GM): A bit of hand flicking suggests there's at least 200 of them. The list of parts involve everything from ancient fishing boats to modern space ships. It seems to suggest you can give it input of some kind. But it doesn't say how you'd input it, since you only have the ability to wave your hand over it.
Valron: "Ah. Wide variety. Good to know in case we ever need to repair a fishing boat... again." *He looks amused, before trying to wave away results that aren't related to spaceships. Or warships for that matter, considering the kind of ship he's looking to fix up.*
Nonna: "Let's hope they have ship department stores so we don't have to go to too many places."
Metal Man (GM): Three specific places show up. One of them is Time Cop Official Supply, which is a place that looks like it is run by the Time Cops themselves! The next one is Lee's Wreckers, which looks like some junk yard with a bunch of grimy people on it. A final one is listed as Invision Productions, which appears to be very shiny and expensive, with a bunch of people with I logos on their suits. Others exist but 'they aren't an exact match' or so says the cube. Other people walk by, glancing at you occasionally. They seem to slightly notice you but not so much. Here is one of the few cases where you don't stick out too much. There's even some other people who resemble Borne, complete with being presumably Commanders of some country or somesuch.
Valron: "..." *He just lightly shakes his head as he sees TCOS pop up.* "Let's... let's not chance that one." *He then glances over to Invision.* "Doubt we'd really be able to get anything from there, so I believe that only leaves one logical choice... Unless either one of you have a better idea?" *He glances over to Kit and Nonna.*
KitRedgrave: "Not like we can do it ourselves any time soon..."
Nonna: "They may be more willing to listen to haggling, but there's a chance we may not get what we're paying for."
KitRedgrave gets a little bit of an evil grin. "Then that'll be too bad for them..."
Valron: "Eh. We'll just have to play it smart, then." *He shrugs, before deciding to go to Lee's Wreckers, seeing as that's about the most sensible choice there.*
KitRedgrave: "Those who cheat travellers always do get their comeuppance..."
Metal Man (GM): It recommends gate 135, which an arrow points you over to. The gate will take you to the district it's in. It warns against sticking to the path, noting 'this area has had disturbances in the past.'
Nonna: "Oh... goody."
Valron: "...'Disturbances', it says. Yeah, nothing new, there." *He lightly shakes his head, before deciding to get a move on.*
Metal Man (GM): You move on in, warping to a darker area that appears to be underground. Smokestacks are in the distance and it's a bit smoky here. Those who go here tend to wear thick coats or obscure their identities a bit more, on average; the few who don't seem to be openly carrying rather nasty weapons. The arrow points you past a wrecked "SOUP KYTHEN."
KitRedgrave: "...yeah."
Metal Man (GM): It looks like somebody detonated a bomb in there.
KitRedgrave just sighs. We are so getting jumped.
Valron: "...Mm." *Yep, this is definitely screaming 'trouble'. He glances around for a moment, looking for a way... well, around the 'KYTHEN' that will get them where they need to be.*
Nonna: *Looking uneasily around the area for even more hiding spots and cover.*
Metal Man (GM): You walk by. You glance at an alley. Red eyes look back. You can just keep walking, so far, though. Whatever is out there doesn't seem to have sized you up... There's plenty of broken trash dispensers and some busted old benches to hide behind here.
Valron: *Moving swiftly on! ...by sneaking through trash dispensers. Yes.*
KitRedgrave looks up for some sort of alternate fire escape route, or some other impossible angle.
Metal Man (GM): Kit: There seem to be plenty of those weird doorways to escape through. You note that the one going in here was red, while if you turned back to go where you came from, it is green... So they seem to suggest the danger level right on them. Lee's Wreckers is right there. Somebody goes to swing a pipe at you, but one of the people at the door to Lee's wreckers shoots them in the back.
???: "Ehhh, come in, come in, I detected you swiping my store name... come in before we have to go kill every one of those gutter dogs watching you. I've got my intel, I'm not going to make you waste bullets on scum when you're the only people to be lookin' fer things like mine in a while..." *he walks inside the building.*
KitRedgrave quietly asides "Like we won't anyway?"
Valron: "Sure, sure. Will do." *He doesn't even skip a beat as he walks in.* "Thanks, in any case."
Metal Man (GM): You walk into what was once a marvelous marble floored emporium, but which now is a gutter full of old ship parts, immensely massive ones.
???: "It's no problem, you have a museum artifact! You somehow survived flyin' it in here and I have been wanting to see one of those in decades..."
KitRedgrave just eyes the twitching thug corpse on the way in. That's new.
Valron: "I'm surprised it still works right."
Nonna wanders in behind Valron.
???: "Me too, me too, those parts are rarer n' hen's teeth..."
Valron: "I mean, I seriously want to take steps in un-screwing it, but the guy who operates it is... ludicrously cagey about others touching his hilariously antiquated stuff."
Lincoln: "I'm Lincoln, by the way, what'r yew?"
Metal Man (GM): He leans on a desk and takes out a dingy terminal.
Lincoln: "I have some parts I bought in the teenies that I've been waitin' to sell since Magaret Monrowe was the Prime Chancellor... Heck, I even invested in this garbage just to watch for potential customers..."
Metal Man (GM): He has some weird machine that's showing the ships that are 'made before the Modernization Movement' that are detected nearby the planet.
Lincoln: "Got tired of having to radio random people with weird radar signatures, y'know?"
KitRedgrave: "I would've thought you'd have a booming business, with the apparent traffic to this world from everywhere."
Lincoln: "Well, those... those Invision guys are so slick and live in the clean part of town, y'know? They have layaway plans for decades..."
Valron: "Eh. Guess there's not as many as expected to fill the ni... che. And there is that as well, yes. I'd imagine less savvy customers with more money then sense have their hearts out for 'em."
Lincoln: "And their own personal army to get their money back and steal whatever else if it falls through, y'know? So they stole even the desperate people from me, so I've just been relyin' on rare stuff to float in."
Valron: "Oh, goody. That sounds absolutely fantastic."
Lincoln: "Of course, maybe you could help me... it would be amusing if their headquarters exploded, you know?"
KitRedgrave: "That's certainly direct."
Lincoln: "Well, you landed a warship outside of town and wandered in here with a Class IV Hunter-Killer Nanobot and a bunch of Time radiation... I figured you might be kinda like me, you know? Those poor fools in Sector IV who tried to rob your robot... it makes me laugh to review the footage."
Valron: "Whoa there. Not exactly sure how much of a mess we can make given our current state, but... Tell more about these Invision folks. Kinda sound like slick-lookin' sharks given what you mentioned about the whole 'personal army' thing, but..."
Lincoln: "Yeah, they trap ya. They fix everything, and anything. Then they make sure you have to pay them forever."
Valron: "...They tried to mug him? Oh dear, those obituaries are going to be fun to read."
Lincoln: "And their fixes are, well, spot welds and a bunch of garbage. It looks pretty but god forbid you want to fight something and get hit. They count on you bein' dead, you know?"
Valron: "...Man, my boss has been making those to his ship long before they've probably been in business."
Lincoln: "Their army takes care of messy things... Your boss huh? Well, I guess at least he doesn't tell you they're the best thing ever. And doesn't put special paint on them or nuthin'. Your thing's so broken, my radar thought a rattling soda can bag was landing on the planet."
Valron: "He does do strange and ridiculous things with his ship, but that's more because of the current state it's in more than anything else."
Lincoln: "The locals were gonna fire on it, until they detected it was so broken that firing on it might cause an explosion that destroys half th' town."
Valron: "...Wow."
KitRedgrave: "...I did say those who would cheat travelers would get their comeuppance."
Valron: "So you did."
Nonna: *Awkwardly silent.*
Lincoln: "Plus it matched the description of the Time Hobo's thing, so we figured he was comin' in to raid all my inventory again. You're not him though, so he died or maybe sold it to you. Haha. So I figure I should do you a solid and not let you do the mistakes he did."
Valron: *He ponders mentioning whether or not Xavier's still, well. Alive, but.* "Oh, don't worry. I've seen his work. It's... I am in utter disbelief, let me tell you."
Lincoln: "Here's the trick." *He sticks out a finger.* "If you have a good couple hundred thousand coins, I can probably actually fix that bucket of bolts... or if you don't, there's some odd jobs I need done anyway. It's the only way for me to get some business... I gotta deal with those Invision jerks somehow. Blow 'em up, expose 'em, somethin'. We all know they're up to no good, but anybody who gets close vanishes."
KitRedgrave: "So generally make them unable to do business?"
Valron: "The odd jobs are... probably our only 'realistic' option, I'd think. Don't think what we have would even be enough to fix the paint job, let alone the whole ship."
KitRedgrave: "Yeah. I kinda like this deal."
Lincoln: "Well it's up to you to fix the problem, I need more people in here. I had them before Invision took it over. Or you could get those awful Time Cop freaks to clear them out for us. Those people are nuts... only crazy people go there."
Nonna: .oO(If we're going to go with the violence option, we might as well just steal the money and good parts they have and be done with it...) "S-so, what's the decision, sir?" *Looking to Valron.*
Metal Man (GM): Lincoln spends a moment playing back footage of some fools trying to stick up Borne and Borne standing there as their bullets bounce off them, followed by them running away screaming.
Lincoln: "Even an old geezer like me knows you need an energy disruptor to get one of those bots, not bullets... But the copyright protection is so thick on them, why even bother?"
Nonna: "So, question."
Lincoln: "You guys are the only ones here, so feel free to ask."
Valron: *He lightly shakes his head at the idiot brigade for a moment, before letting out a soft hum.* "Not entirely sure if the Time Cops idea would pan out all that well, so... Honestly, I'm just figuring out where we should start, exactly."
Nonna: "Does almost anyone have access to footage like you do?"
Lincoln: "Yeah, keeps the streets safe. Nobody can do things in public without being seen. Any storekeep can see this. Obviously inside stores there's no footage other than our own that only we see. I'd love to see what those Invision idiots do, otherwise."
Valron: "I'd imagine they'd have something to deal with any attempts at bugging their in-store feeds. At least, that's what I'm figuring... Unless they're not as slick as they look outside of flagrant loan sharking and underhanded personal army business"
Nonna: "So right now they've already seen us land, wanted to shoot us down but couldn't, then we walked into your store, and we're about to damage their business not long afterward, when they're more than aware you hold a grudge against them."
Lincoln: "That's right." *He cackles.* "Obviously I want you to succeed, so you'd best be using stealth about you if you want to stop 'em. I could always send some holograms of you wandering elsewhere so they could go watch those instead. The cameras have bad resolution--we made sure of this because nobody wanted to lose the ability to do that. Even if they saw you, they'd only have a one-in-2 chance of figuring out the real you, especially since I have a lot of grudges..."
KitRedgrave: "If they were smart, they'd be super paranoid about their own property as well."
Valron: "Huh. Good to know that, then."
KitRedgrave: "Maybe we should give the appearance of being people who don't know stealth. Heh... this'll be fun if we can pull it off."
Lincoln: "Up to you, really... I just want you to either get them arrested or blown up. Your choice..."
Nonna: "What I mean is, we could be literally invisible and they'd still be able to figure out it was done for you just based on the evidence they already have."
Lincoln: "I'll fix anything if you do that, it's a matter of no money or money for me... Well, yes. You don't plan on staying here long, yes?"
KitRedgrave: "It surely can't end well for you, is the thing."
Valron: "He seems to know what he's doing. Seems like he's been around the block and back again."
Lincoln: "Well, I've had to shoot some saboteurs, yes... they're a fact of life here... Bribe the right officials, too, yes..."
Valron: "The usual business."
Nonna: "Well, so long as you understand the risks."
Lincoln: "I understand, aye. No reason for me to ask otherwise."
Valron: "In any case... Dunno how many will be out and out arrested, but if we play our cards right, I'm sure we can make the 'blown up' part happen easily enough."
KitRedgrave: "...In fact, I would suspect their camp might be listening in right now just waiting for us."
Lincoln: "Well, you went past the Time Cop barricade well enough. The corporate flacks probably have no clue what you're capable of... or maybe they do. In that case, they should probably run. Their best weapons won't match Time Cop weaponry..."
Valron: "If they are, I wouldn't be surprised if they're laying out a welcome mat that hides a pit leading straight to a coffin. Or something equally absurd."
Lincoln: "Rumors suggest you have some heavily illegal guns on that bird of yours..."
Valron: "...If they aren't bright enough to move, anyways."
Nonna: "Perhaps the dead guy just out the door is wearing a wire."
Valron: "Oh, we have rumors about us already? Good to see we're off to a wonderful start."
Lincoln: "Oh. Well maybe. It's not like I leave the doors open. I should probably have taken the corpse inside though... probably too late, police or scavengers probably got it already."
Valron: "...Regardless. Anything else we should keep in mind before we invariably get right to it?"
Lincoln: "The Invision people are very professional. You'll need to dig to find incriminating stuff. If you want to blow them up, be sure to get deep inside. They've been attacked before. I won't confirm or deny if I was involved in said attempts... heh..."
Valron: "How deep is 'deep', exactly? Are we going to have to bury ourselves halfway through their spine before we get anything done, or...?"
Lincoln: "Nah. Just go a few floors inside to where their nervous system is... think about two floors up I think."
Valron: "So, two floors up from the main lobby. Got it. I'd imagine there's a good bit of security between that, but some of it will have probably been thinned out by the holograms... At least, that's what I'd guess."
Lincoln: "They have some buddies I also hate, I'll send the holograms over there so they send reinforcements to them."
Valron: "Handy. Thanks for that."
Lincoln: "Oh, right... use Gate 453 to get to them. Don't use the cubes, they'll know, heh..."
Valron: "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
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