Still Not Safe [M&M 2nd ed]

[Cubey]

(Out of Character thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118581))

It's late at night. So late that you can expect the sun to rise in an hour or two. Location: a parking lot near a highway, somewhere in northern France. The north has a reputation of being cold and wet, but it's late June so the weather is quite warm. What are you doing here? You were contacted by SECT only a few hours ago. Their orders were simple: a Shifting Entity appeared. You were to be transported to an interception point (that is here), where further details will be revealed. A helicopter (or in case of those of you who weren't near Europe, a private jet and then a helicopter) dropped you down here not so long ago, one Shifter by one, and since then you were so far left to your own devices. You do not have your amplifiers with you... yet.

Although closed off, the lot and the nearby highway are anything but empty. There are SECT operatives everywhere, talking with each other, organising traffic (new operatives arrive all the time in cars and helicopters), or hastily erecting structures - not just tents, but fortification-looking walls and box-shaped bunkers. There's easily more than a hundred of them. Most of them are clad in light gray SECT uniforms, but some also wear black tieless suits that just scream "bodyguard" or "secret agent". There are exceptions to the uniformed mass of people though. First of all, there's you - the orders caught you unprepared so you have whatever clothes you had on at that time (and Shifters don't have any official uniforms anyway). Second, a bit away from all the chaos stands about a dozen agents clad in bulky Alloy Suits - both mark I and II, although most belong to the former category. They're focused on checking their suits' performance and discussing something (probably military tactics), ignoring everything else.
And finally, there is a young girl. She looks no older than 18-19, and wears a light, simple blue sundress. Her fiery red hair is kept in a loose braid of an impressive length. Accompanied by a suit-wearing agent, her gaze is down all the time and she tries to avoid attention. At least until now, because some SECT members whispers to each one of you to gather up in one place - including the girl.

"H... hello." She seems to have something to tell to you all. "My name is Laura Ericks. I am a Shifter... just like you." She smiles uneasily. Those of you who were with SECT for longer, especially Ben, already know her. The others at least heard about her - one of the original Shifter squad (she seems to look much younger than that though). She is quite famous, indeed. And she doesn't seem to cope with the present situation well.
"You are the 'top' squad, aren't you? I think... we should get to know each other, if that's alright. Since we're supposed to work together. Our specific orders and... the amplifiers will arrive in a few minutes, so there is still time." She speaks extremely cautiously. It's obvious that she tries to overcome her shyness.

A new helicopter starts to land on the highway just as she finishes her sentence. It's true - you have a few minutes of free time.

(This is just an introductory post - feel free to react in any way you wish, and if you did anything particular before you all were gathered then post about it as well. Ask questions if you'd like any more details on how the current environment looks like. Like I've written, your amplifiers aren't at hand yet. This is true even for those of you who had them for longer periods of time - you had to give them away for maintenance a few days ago and didn't get them back yet.)

[Haven]

"Good to see you again, Laura," says Lorne, his voice soft and calm despite the stressful circumstances. Despite the warm weather, he is wearing thick black clothes, including gloves.

[Cubey]

"I'm happy to see you too... Lorne. I wish the circumstances were better... but don't worry. I am sure it will end up alright." Another uneasy smile. It seems Laura was trying to persuade herself rather than anyone of you.

[Matar]

He was ready for this. The suddenness of it all caught him off guard, that was true. Still, he was ready. He had been rehearsing this from when he was first contacted by SECT. Even before he went to see Mathieu Battiste, the SECT psychologist. In his hand was a bottle of neon-green finger nail polish, the only thing he had time to grab before being hurried away by the SECT operatives. He painted his nails on the way there, it was the first time all them would meet after all. He needed to look good.

He was grinning and his heart was racing in child like glee. The first battle. The first of many.

He threw the bottle of green finger nail polish in the air, in order to draw some attention to himself, and because he desired to throw something. He took a three steps forwards, and spoke in a loud and charismatic voice.

“Hello team mates!”

The bottle of green nail polish landed behind him with a thud. He spoke on.

“My name is Todd, spelled with two “Dees”, because one just isn't awesome enough! I hope you're as ready as I am, because if you're not I will not hold your hand! This is our first fight, so let it be as epic and colorful as I am!”

[Drascin]

Andrés has spent the helicopter trip warming up a bit - the call caught him sleeping, but he wants to be at peak efficiency. An enemy had appeared, and he was needed to intercept it! He's already picturing the battle in his head and ways it could go before he even arrives. What would that damn thing look like, he wondered?

When he's there, though, he pays attention to the surroundings, and obviously the rest of theam calls his attention. It doesn't take a genius to deduce that the bunch of people out of uniform like him are going to be the other shifters, so he gets near them and raises a hand in a friendly wave, but Laura speaks before he can finish opening his mouth. He bows deeply before doing so, after hearing her speak.

"A pleasure to meet you, miss Ericks" Admiration isn't at all disimuled in his tone, as is the obvious fact Andrés is not much used to talking so politely. He turns a bit and does an open gesture with his hands, adding everyone else as a listener to his following declaration. "I don't think we've ever been introduced - I'm Andrés, Andres Merina, but please just call me Andy. That's what my friends do" he adds with a friendly, big smile that says very directly he would be much pleased to count everyone here among his friends. "I guess you all are the other shifters assembled here, and so my teammates, no?"

[Haven]

Lorne clasps his hands behind his back.

"Ah...hello Todd, Andrés." Turning to the rest of the group, he continues "My name is Lorne. I'm usually employed in a research and development capacity, so although I have logged significant practice hours in my Shifted form, this is a bit of a transition for me."

He manages a small smile at his teammates.

[Cubey]

"The pleasure, umm, is mine." Laura's uneasy smile does not leave her face, probably due to being surprised (or embarassed, maybe?) by Todd's antics. The bodyguard-like agents try to appear stoic, but other SECT operatives who were nearby could be seen smirking under their noses or laughing quietly. Still, their good humour is shallow enough to betray nervousness underneath. The atmosphere is quite tense, despite the efforts of some of the Shifter squad to lighten it up.

[kamikasei]

Catríona is standing a little way away from everyone else, looking like she's still trying to fully wake up - going through a set of start-of-day stretches and exercises. Fortunately for her appearance's sake, she's no longer having to stifle yawns: she was asleep after training at a SECT facility relatively nearby, so she's had more time to adjust to the situation than some of the others. She's dressed in blue jeans and a simple black tee, long blonde hair tied back in a simple ponytail.

When the call comes to assemble she obliges, smiling pleasantly at the others. She has in fact seen Laura before, but they've never quite met - she's careful not to stare.

She waves to the others. "Nice to meet you, Miss Ericks, everyone. I'm Catríona. I haven't been in training that long, so I hope I can keep up..."

[Drascin]

Andy gives Todd a friendly bonk on the head and his smile widens. "Wow, someone woke up with an extra helping of energy today, it seems! Come on, man, we're going to fight for our lives in a few, you probably should try to look a bit more concerned or something!" Andres doesn't seem excessively worried by the "fight for our lives" part, though. He's pretty calm - energetic, even. And he's contagious. He's ready for this. There's a lot of people on the line here - and no hero would ever let them down!

[Matar]

Todd gives Andy a friendly grin, and raises his fist high into the air.

“Concern?!”

Todd laughs, and pats Andy's back a few times.

“Concern is for those who think there is a chance for defeat! I am... no, we ARE determination in it's rawest form! Of this I am sure! Who ever stand against us has no hope of lasting!”

He holds out his hand and shakes Andy's hand, and calms down a little. The grin, however, is still on his face.

“Nice to meet 'cha though.”

[Tengu_temp]

Emi is still half-conscious - she always had trouble waking up, especially when it happens in the middle of the night and they expect you to get ready to move here and now. At least she managed to change into her tan-colored dress and fuchsia jacket (aka, see picture) instead of standing here in her pajamas. And listening to loud music on her iPod (only on one speaker, of course - she wants to actually hear what the others are saying) helps a little - only a little, though, the purple-haired girl still wonders idly if floating bubbles are coming from her head (they don't - that'd be just silly). Emi looks at the others.
"Hello, everyone. I didn't expect to see so many... energetic people here."

[kamikasei]

Cat* smiles at Emi. "Time zones, yeah? I don't suppose we all happened to be conveniently nearby, so no doubt it's not so early in the morning for everyone."

Actually, are we all based nearby? If we haven't met before I assume we've been working out of different facilities until now, but if SECT is largely European-based I suppose they might all be within a few hours of one another.

* Yeah, following Drascin's lead I'll spare myself and you all having to hunt down special characters.

[Cubey]

"Please, call me Laura..." The older Shifter answers Catriona, then gets suddenly interrupted as another SECT operative arrives and quietly hands her several sheets of paper.
"Everyone, please listen." She sounds more worried than before. "The SE's course was confirmed - it will arrive here in 25 minutes. No other Shifter groups will manage to reach us before that point of time..." She looks at the operative next to her, who nods before turning and walking away. Laura holds the papers out in your direction. "Please read this - it's an update on the SE, it was made minutes ago. There are copies for everyone."

(The document's text is coming soon! As for time zones, SECT is not Europe-centric - they have operations all over the globe. Your characters could be anywhere at the time of receiving the order, as long as it's sensible that they could arrive in France using any kind of vehicle, including fastest jets, in ~4 hours time. 4 hours from their perspective.)

[Tengu_temp]

Emi shakes her head. "It is less about the hour and more about monster from a species that was supposedly destroyed five years ago reappearing. And we are supposed to fight it - who would be looking forward to that?"

She takes one of the papers and reads it.

[Haven]

"Hello, everyone. I didn't expect to see so many... energetic people here."

Lorne gives Emi a sympathetic look on hearing this.


"It is less about the hour and more about monster from a species that was supposedly destroyed five years ago reappearing. And we are supposed to fight it - who would be looking forward to that?"

"Agreed. Still...such an anomalous point in the data...it's an opportunity to learn something, at least."

He also takes one of the papers and begins to read.

[Matar]

Todd leaves Andys side and walks up to Laura to get a copy of one of the papers. Though he only over heard the conversation, he had to some sort of comment.

"Timezone are irrelevant! My energy is mighty and eternal! And even if it's not, those four hour energy drink things are only, like, four bucks..."

He grabs a copy of the paper and starts reading.

[kamikasei]

Cat takes it upon herself to take a few copies of the document and distribute them among the others. She smiles sympathetically at Emi while doing so.

"I know what you mean. Still, better to be thinking positively, right?"

[Cubey]

"We're lucky... this SE does not look very scary. We had to fight some very creepy things... it would be hard for a first battle. But - be cautious, okay?" Laura seems relieved. Anxiety in her voice has been replaced by concern.

The report includes a picture taken by an observation plane, as well as a rough sketch made by someone who obviously wasn't an artist:
http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/d8c091b8b4.png

The paper's summary:

The first part of the report, which looks like it was quickly added after the rest of the paper was finished already, contains a simulated flightpath of the SE (numbered 01B). It's technical and rather boring to read, but you can figure out that this Shifting Entity's path is roughly straight since it entered atmosphere, and that it indeed should be arriving at your rough position in around 25 minutes. The calculation is precise - there are high chances it will indeed fly over this very parking lot. Also, this part mentions that the SE was first detected in space by the Stork's Nest space station. The earth-based SE that should accompany it (preemptively named SE 01A) was not detected yet.

The second part is about the SE itself. Its main body is featureless and shaped like a seed of rice. Its surface is moderately reflective and has a dark gray color. The spot in the center of the sketch is not a feature of the body, but rather an area of shining red coloration - it can move around the SE's body and even disappear completely and reappear in different places. Since it was focused on the observation plane, the most likely theory is that it's some sort of an eye that SE 01B uses to see. The lower part of the creature ends in about 40 thin tendrils, each ending in something that looks like a cream-colored flower bud. These tendrils have an unknown function - they just float helplessly as the SE moves, with minimal movement on their own. It is likely that they will serve as the SE's weapon.

Rough measurements (anything more precise is impossible at the moment due to the SE's movement and staying Shifted):
SE main body - 30 meters (100 feet) tall, 12 meters (40 feet) wide
Tendril - 25 meters (83 feet) long
"Flower bud" - 2.6 meters (8.7 feet) long, 1.2 meters (4 feet) wide

The SE's behaviour was not unusual for a Shifting Entity - it ignored human beings and nonliving objects alike, even letting manned aircraft observe and follow it for longer periods of time. It stays Shifted all the time.
Hastily scribbled note: EXTREME HEAT DETECTED WITHIN 01B'S BODY. APPROACH WITH CAUTION!

[Haven]

"Interesting..." murmurs Lorne. "Unusual that it is unaccompanied of yet, but..."


Hastily scribbled note: EXTREME HEAT DETECTED WITHIN 01B'S BODY. APPROACH WITH CAUTION!

"Well, we know this much about its counterpart, whatever it will be: in all likelihood, it will be resistant to heat-based attacks."

((OOC: Can I make Knowledge (probably physical sciences) checks to see if I can pick up any other tactically relevant information from the "boring technical" sections?))

[Drascin]

Andrés picks one paper and starts reading it intently, the grin gone from his face to give way to a look of concentration that might be surprising to everyone who expected him to be a total goof all the time.

"Mmmm. Pretty big, ain't he?" he comments, thinking. "And many tentacles. It seems to me trying to attack it from the upside would be a good idea. I mean, I really wouldn't want to get caught in those. Times like these, I'd love for my armor to have a flying surfboard or something, like in anime"

[Cubey]

(Feel free to do it Haven - you never know what else you might discover)

"Yes, it is big. Not as large as some of others..." Laura shivers visibly. Unhappy memories, maybe? She changes the topic.
"The Commander concocted a plan of action. They will tell us the details soon, I only know that we will ambush the SE. If you stick to the plan, everything should be okay."

[Matar]

Todd over looks the paper, still happy and eager as can be. He listens to Andres and nods his head in agreement. He speaks in a voice that can barely contain his excitement.

“Yeah dude, I agree with you. It wouldn't be a good thing for this to turn into a Lablue situation... So I guess we should try to attack it from above, or find some way to tie up it's tentacles and bring it to the ground for a beating?”


Todd looks over at Laura and asks.

“Hey, how high do these things normally fly off the ground? Or, well, this one? Will we have any trouble getting above it for an attack?”

[Tengu_temp]

"It looks like a giant... microbe." Emi blushes slightly. Microbes are not the only thing this SE reminds her of.
"I think it's better to stay away and attack from a distance, rather than engage it in melee and get burnt to a crisp."

[kamikasei]

Cat doesn't know what Todd's talking about. Cat is perfectly happy not knowing.

"Well, I might be able to do something to cool it down. That might help to bring it to the ground.'

[Fri]

A rumbling sound can be heard from the distance. And a few seconds later, you can see a red and white sport bike came closing.

The rider parks it near the van. He asks something toward the nearest personnel, and then he walks toward the group. Someone tall, wearing a rather battered leather jacket, and a full-face helmet that covers his entire head.

"Sorry, I'm late" he says, as he removes his helmet. "You thought traffic is bad, and then you realized the complete lack of traffic is just as confusing. Is this the new SECT Team that I'm supposed to join?" He then shook his head to mess with his hair. "Did I miss anything?" he continues as he slowly unequips his leather gloves.

[Matar]

"And I could! Uh... uh..."

Todd mutters a couple times, thinking about what he could do.

"I could throw things at it. With great passion!"

Todd looks at the newly joined member as gasps.

"Dude! You get a bike!? Why don't I get a bike?!"

[ChronicLunacy]

Benjamin Brooks

"Zzzzuh? What?" the other member of the group, who had thus far remained quiet, spoke up as the agent handing out the papers poked him in the forehead. He was dressed in a black t-shirt that read, "Hi! My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die!" on a graphic that looked like one of those name stickers, jeans, red Converse sneakers, and a nice, leather jacket without all the excess zippers and metal. He'd been sleeping standing up, leaning against a nearby street lamp that provided light for the little gathering. It was impressive that he'd stayed asleep this long, considering Todd's antics. He blinked blearily a few times until his dark brown, almost black, eyes came into focus and raised a hand to brush some black hair away from his face. His sharp brows furrowed a bit as he seemed to notice the rest of the team for the first time, then he looked down at the data they'd been given.

"Huh...so this is it? The SE..." he said quietly before looking up at the others again. "I'm Ben Brooks. Nice to meet you." he said politely, but grinned when he saw Miss Ericks. "Hey Laura. Fancy meeting you here." he flirted through a yawn.

"Hey, extreme heat?" he noticed the little note on the paper. "That's my shtick. This punk's in my soup." his lip curled a little in annoyance. "Anyway, fire doesn't bother me, so I guess I'll take it head-on and see if he can stand some real heat." he said, crumpling the paper up into a ball and tossing it over his shoulder at a passing agent.

[Drascin]

Cat doesn't know what Todd's talking about. Cat is perfectly happy not knowing.

Andy, on the other hand, is pretty sure he does, what with being around nerd circles and all, and therefore makes very very sure his face does not reveal that. He focuses on the rest of the conversation.

"Ah, that could be a problem... y'see, I don't have exactly a lot of ranged firepower in the best of circumstances, and around here I lack the material for even what I have. I'm this close to wanting to engage it in melee anyway..." he notices the newcomer.

"Ah, welcome! Yes, you missed quite a bit - you're lucky they don't dock points here!" his smile makes obvious he's joking and being nice. "I'm Andy. Here, you should probably read this, it's about the thing" he affably hands him his own piece of paper.

[Cubey]

"Ah, yes..." The young woman looks surprised that someone addresses her directly. "Not all of SEs could fly, but they usually just floated a few feet above the ground. Some were flying higher, I don't know about this one..."
Although if you take a closer look at the picture provided, it seems this Shifting Entity is high in the air. Or at least was when the photograph was taken.

Then the new squad member arrives on his bike. Nobody tried to stop him so he's obviously at the right place.
"Umm... yes, here..." Perhaps surprised by the sudden appearance, and definitely embarassed by Ben's straightforwardness, Laura can only hand out a paper in James's general direction. Andy's faster than her though.

[Tengu_temp]

Even more people are appearing, and all of them seem suicidally overconfident. This only gets better and better.
"If you need help with flying, I think I can give you a hand.", says Emi, to nobody in particular. At least she's not so sleepy anymore.

[kamikasei]

Cat continues looking through the documents, trying to find a map of the area or anything that indicates where the nearest large bodies of water might be.

[Drascin]

Andrés turns to Emi. "Really? That'd be a lifesaver! The God is pretty heavy, though - they tell me it's easily ten times the mass of most other Sophium armors - you think you could carry me anyway? I mean, I'm going to be basically useless stuck here on the ground. Well, I guess I could get some pompoms and cheer you all, but little else. And I'm pretty bad at choreographies, so you probably don't actually want that, either" he jokes. He's pretty contagious, overall. His is not the suicidal overconfidence of the one who wants to fight everything, but of the faithful who is certain that he's going to come through the hardships if he works hard enough.

[Fri]

The new guy frowns as he read the paper. "James Redford, by the way. From SECT France." he says without lifting his eyes from the paper. "I didn't realize that we're supposed to meet for the first time on the field, that caught me off guard. Doesn't matter too much for me though."

[Matar]

Todd shrugs his shoulders, and looks over the paper one more time.

"So, eh, Laura. The Commander... where is he, anyways? I'd like to hear this plan soon."

He slips the hair-tie out of bright-green pony-tail, letting it fall free. He slips the hair-tie on his wrist and tilts his head to the side.

"Battle waits for no one! The sooner we are prepared the better!"

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Time to switch to decaf, pal." Ben said from over by the street light. He was slowly massaging the bridge of his nose with one hand and still looked half asleep, as he rightfully should be after being dragged out to France in the middle of the night. "Where do you get your lines, anyway? Saturday morning cartoons?" he sighed. Who was this flamboyant dude? Was he really as idiotic as he seemed?

[Cubey]

There is no map of the local area attached, but when you were being transported to the place you did not recall seeing any bodies of water.

"Laura Ericks. I am pleased to meet you." Laura seems to regain her composure, making it possible to answer James. She turns her head back at Todd as he asks a question.
"The Commander? I don't know... I think he's somewhere safe far away. It's risky for command staff to be here, he will probably explain the plan using a video conference."

[Matar]

Todd's attention to drawn to the other hot blooded youth. The grin is still on his face.

"My lines?! Hah! They are more then just lines! They are the embodiment of passion and power! Each phrase is lightning! Each word is power!"

He scratches the back of his head, and laughs.

"And a few TV shows, yeah. Most are my own, but sometimes I use the words of others and fill them with my passion!"

[Drascin]

"...says the guy with a Princess Bride t-shirt" Andrés answers Ben with a mischievous look on his face. He's not as energetic as Todd by a large margin, but he seems a lot more attentive. And it's obvious he loves poking people. "But seriously, let's not start arguing. We have twenty minutes tops before we're in battle, ten of which are probably going to be listening to the plan, you know? I'd rather use the other ten to know who I'm going to have the honor of fighting next to. And it's also handy in battle to know what the others can do".

[Fri]

James nods toward Laura, eyes still focused at the papers. "At least this SE got the manner to appear at these hours. Won't be any civilians caught in the battle."

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Ben looks at Andrés with incredulity as he crossed his arms. "You're seriously comparing 'The Princess Bride' with Saturday morning cartoons?" he asked. "What on Earth is wrong with you, man?" He shook his head.

"As for you," he glanced back at The Todd. "Just...keep it down, will you? It's too early and I haven't seen a drop of coffee since they flew me down from Heathrow." he sighed.

[Matar]

"But seriously, let's not start arguing. We have twenty minutes tops before we're in battle, ten of which are probably going to be listening to the plan, you know? I'd rather use the other ten to know who I'm going to have the honor of fighting next to. And it's also handy in battle to know what the others can do".

"Well, I already told everyone my name... but if you want to know what I can do, it'd be my pleasure to tell you! Now... from the start!"

Todd clears his throat, and continues speaking.

"I am Todd! I am the rider of the Green Wizard! It is my soul given form, and it shows! It grants me unmatched strength, and the power to leap to the top of the heavens themselves! It also lets me latch onto enemies too cowardly to fight me up close!

He continues on, but his voice loses some it's power, no doubt because he's talking about a flaw in his PSA.

"Sadly, though, I can't really do much when the enemy is far away. I can rip trees from the very earth itself and throw them at things, but besides that... not all that much I can do with things that are out of my reach."

[Tengu_temp]

Emi smiles slightly - there's no better way of lightening the atmosphere than silly jokes, after all.
"I am not going to lift you on my own. My Genesis has the ability to materialize solid energy, and make shapes from it. I should be able to create flying platforms that can carry you."
She only tried that with crates and other non-sentient objects, not people, and only during training, but decides to leave that part out.
"I... haven't introduced myself yet, have I? Um, my name is Emi. Kurokawa Emi."

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Right...so my PSA is 'Infernal Requiem'. Anything a volcano can do, I can do better." Ben waves it off, a far cry from Todd's flamboyant bravado. He just didn't seem to enjoy hearing the sound of his own voice as much as the Chartreuse Wonder over there did. "France does coffee, right? Are any of those cafés open this early?" he asked, off-subject. Pulling his jacket tighter around himself he shivered in the crisp, morning air. He was tired, cold, and miserable. Where was a Starbucks when you needed one?

[Cubey]

"The area is evacuated, so there wouldn't be anyone around even if it was day. But it means there are no open cafes." Laura smiles apologetically. She tries to take a step towards the nearest hastily set-up tent - but the agent that stands right by her stops her.

"Please remain in this position. I will take care of the coffee." He walks away in a swift stride.

"Umm. Well, then I should explain what does The Great Pretender allow me to do. I can... overwrite local reality. This isn't as powerful as it sounds." Laura lowers her gaze, but only for a moment. "But it should be enough to nullify anything the SE uses to attack you. I will protect you, as long as I am close."

[Drascin]

Ben Brooks

Ben looks at Andrés with incredulity as he crossed his arms. "You're seriously comparing 'The Princess Bride' with Saturday morning cartoons?" he asked. "What on Earth is wrong with you, man?" He shook his head.


"Quoting is quoting. Let Todd have his fun. 'sides, you can actually get some important lessons for our line of work in Saturday morning cartoons, you know." he winks.

"As for me" he turns a bit more towards everyone, "I'm more of an Earth guy. My armor's called The Rumbling War God - but I'm not going to ask you remember all that. I'm pretty good at ground manipulation, and I pack quite a punch too if I do say so myself. But with all this concrete here and the flying enemy, getting into my schtick is going to be a bit hard" he clicks his tongue in annoyance. "Well, at least the wonderful Emi here is going to help me get up there and pound his face, so no problems!" he smiles, as he steps a bit back as if to motivate another person to intervene to fill the hole he leaves.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks


"Quoting is quoting. Let Todd have his fun. 'sides, you can actually get some important lessons for our line of work in Saturday morning cartoons, you know." he winks.

"After five years in SECT, I have to say I disagree with that statement with every fiber of my being. If you think this is going to be like the cartoons, you're in for a crushing disappointment." Ben remarked. He looked a little happier now that the word "coffee" was being thrown around, and followed the agent with his eyes until the man disappeared into a tent.

[Fri]

"Passion is good, but passion alone won't help much, believe me. You'll need something to back it up." James finally finishes reading his papers.

"James Redford, from SECT France. Alternate Ego: Grey Fowl. Never actually fought any SE, but I've done some training mission and I've been field tested. I wonder do we really need to risk this much personnel, but I haven't fought any SE for real, so I can't protest." he shrugs.

"I guess... I punch things really hard."

He breathes at his palm to warm it up. "When's the SE's ETA, miss Laura?"

[Cubey]

"It should be 25... no, more like 20 now, minutes." Laura grabs her left wrist nervously.
Lorne notices something about the report (lack of posts so I assumed take 10 - but it's enough to beat the DC, the test wasn't hard because it's not that the report writers actively tried to hide info from you). According from readings about the SE's travel vectors, and including the Earth's spherical shape in your calculations, you realize that the SE is steadily dropping in altitude as it continues its travel. It should be on a lower height than when it was when the photo was taken - although not much lower, as the drop in altitude is minimal.
Also, before it entered the Earth's atmosphere, its path of travel was absolutely straight. At least since it was detected for the first time (which happened when it was about 500.000 kms from the Earth, more the distance from Earth to the Moon). If the path did not change before that, you could make a straight line across the known universe, and one of places along the line is the origin of this SE. That is, if it didn't change course before it was detected - which is highly doubtful.

(I think we should wait for TooManyQuestions now.)

[Tengu_temp]

Emi's blush deepens.
"Er, I am not really that wonderful..."
She feels as if everyone's attention was gathering at her (even if that is not true), and that makes her feel uncomfortable. In an attempt to change the topic, she asks Ben:
"Sorry, did you say five years? Hmm... I thought everyone here will be a newbie like me, for some reason..."

(EDIT: Ninja-ed by Cubey, of course...)

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Nope. SECT knocked on my door during my twelfth birthday. I've been training and preparing to fight the SE's ever since. Not everyone's a greenie like you." he grinned. "The reason it's a mixed bag of veterans and freshies is only because of the power rating assigned to our PSA's. We're not the elite group because we're the best trained, but because we have the highest potential." he explained. "Don't worry, though. You'll do fine. Laura and I will make sure you're safe, okay?"

[kamikasei]

"Well, my name is Catríona O'Donovan, but people usually call me Cat. My thing is water and cold. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much water around, but I should be able to gather enough to use... and if we're lucky I can counter this particular enemy fairly well. I can lower temperatures over a pretty large area, so it might be that that will weaken or slow it..."

Although it would seem the nature of the enemy is a fortunate match for her powers, it's clear Cat doesn't want to oversell herself. It's clear also she's not quite sure what to make of the more extroverted members of the group - she's smiling politely at their antics, but her eyes are somewhat wary as they watch them.

"Anyway, I was recruited two months ago so I haven't had a whole lot of experience with my armour, but for the most part my affinity seems to be for ranged attacks and disabling techniques. Um, my armour's name is Oisín."

((Also ninja'd - will hold off so.))

[Tengu_temp]

"Thanks.", Emi answers Ben's reassuring words. "But you don't need to worry about me too much. I didn't come here to be the useless shonen anime girl who never does anything and only requires protecting, you know.", she adds in a slightly teasing voice. She's still quite nervous, though.

[Haven]

Lorne files away the second bit of information for later analysis. Stork's Nest is certainly coming in handy...

The first, he remarks on after considering the available data. "Sorry to interrupt, but I've got a bit of good news for those of you who prefer, ah, close-- close-contact combat. It appears the SE is descending at a steady rate, presumably trying to make contact with its counterpart, which should make it a little less difficult to en-engage in melee combat." He also adds the specific altitude and rate of descent he's calculated, and pauses before continuing.

"As for my armor, it's called Aeolus. Capable of flight at over 600 kilometers per hour, precise control of air (including long-range blasts), extensive chemical and spectral analysis--he seems a lot more excited about this--and the ability to adapt its defenses to the enemy's capabilities. Possibly not as powerful as most of you, but..."

He becomes a little more relaxed, though still quite tense "...well, it suits me. So to speak."

[Tengu_temp]

"Air? I see a pattern here..." Emi gives Lorne a long look, and then does the same with Ben, Cat and Andy.

[Matar]

"So uh..." Todd clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and glances at James. "Your PSA's name... Grey Fowl. Well, uh, do I even want to know why it's called that?"

[Fri]

..."the devil flee at the first crowing of a fowl." is his only response as he sips his coffee.

[Matar]

Todd nods his head at James' words of wisdom.

"Even the deepest darkness retreats at the crowing of the mighty rooster!"

Todd pats James' shoulder, almost making him spill his hot coffie all over his lap. His eyes sparkle with the power of youth!

"Brother in arms, I think we will get along just fine! For with my harlequin aura, and the sound of your fowlish fury, nothing will stand in our way on our path to glory!"

[Fri]

James coughs and looks a bit flustered, unsure what to make with this new acquintance.

"You... you got it, uh.. brother." what do teenagers call each other outside the island, these days? He's never really comfortable in groups other than long time fellows...

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"No one gives that kid coffee. I mean it." Ben said, pointedly looking at the agent when he came back to start handing out the hot beverages. If Ben and Todd were going to be working together on a regular basis, he was going to put one of those shock collars for dogs around Todd's neck so every time his voice reached a certain decibel he got zapped. That or he was bribing the kitchen into putting a mild sedative in Todd's food every morning from now on. He couldn't quite hold back the laughter at the thought of it.

[Cubey]

The agent returned quick enough, carrying a vacuum bottle full of coffee and several one-use plastic cups. Laura doesn't go out of her way to engage anyone in discussion - she just stands there, looking moderately worried.

The parking lot seems to steadily get busier. It's probably because you're running out of time and everyone has to finish their work up before SE 01B arrives. What takes the orders so long? You didn't receive any details on the plan yet.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"I wish they'd just give us our amplifiers back already." Ben said, tapping his foot on the pavement. "Isn't it kind of stupid to leave us powerless until the last possible moment? What if 01B shows up earlier than expected?" he frowned. "What do you think, Laura?"

Laura was the "senior" powered individual there, and she'd had the most experience when dealing with the Shifting Entities. Ben usually deferred to her, at least outside of combat, and took whatever she advised to heart. He'd trained and prepared but he'd never really know what it was like until 01B made landfall. He trusted her not to screw around and give him a straight answer, even if was just "I don't know."

[Cubey]

"I thi... think I know what they are doing." Even if she's trying to hide her nervousness in any way, Laura is failing at that. "SECT does not want us to have amplifiers until right before the operation... maybe because it will alert the SE to our presence... or maybe they want to make sure you don't transform right away and get tired before the fight. Or maybe..." She gulps. "Something happened..."
The steadily growing business suddenly doesn't look so innocent.
"Devon..." She whispers quietly, with a note of reproach.

[Drascin]

"Air? I see a pattern here..." Emi gives Lorne a long look, and then does the same with Ben, Cat and Andy.

Andrés can't help but chuckle at this. "Indeed. We're looking like an element-coded Sentai team more and more, aren't we? Well, we're fighting for Earth as a whole, it rather makes a odd, kinda mythic sort of sense when you think about it."


..."the devil flee at the first crowing of a fowl." is his only response as he sips his coffee.

At this, Andy nods. Good answer, and good symbolism. Gotta give it to this Lorne guy - he has the style. More than he does, he thinks to himself.

Well, better start getting ready, he thinks, as his grin evaporates. We're going to start soon. And failure is not an option. He listens to Ben and Laura, but says nothing yet. She seems very worried. This makes Andy uneasy. He knew the plans would undoubtedly go to hell - they always do - but come on! Things going wrong already?!

[Tengu_temp]

Andrés can't help but chuckle at this. "Indeed. We're looking like an element-coded Sentai team more and more, aren't we? Well, we're fighting for Earth as a whole, it rather makes a odd, kinda mythic sort of sense when you think about it."


"And where does a chicken come into this picture?"
The revelation of what lies beyond the name of James' armor only ensured Emi in the notion that everything here is crazy, and her "if I keep being deadpan I might retain my sanity" face shows it. And Laura's words don't help at all.

[Haven]

At this, Andy nods. Good answer, and good symbolism. Gotta give it to this Lorne guy - he has the style. More than he does, he thinks to himself.

((Not that Lorne doesn't--but that was James))


Or maybe..." She gulps. "Something happened..."
The steadily growing business suddenly doesn't look so innocent.
"Devon..." She whispers quietly, with a note of reproach.

Lorne realized the significance of this--he'd read up whatever information was available to him about Devon's armor's capabilities, once he'd heard how, in the sense of providing surveillance abilities, they were similar to his own. "Something happened? Laura, are you saying Devon might be involved somehow?"

[Cubey]

"No..." Laura shakes her head slowly. "But she ought to be here... she was the most determined to fight SEs, and now she... left us behind..." She closes her eyes and takes a heavy breath. When she speaks up again, there is a tone of resolve behind her words.
"I will have to take care of her part too."

[Drascin]

(Ooops. My bad)


"And where does a chicken come into this picture?"
The revelation of what lies beyond the name of James' armor only ensured Emi in the notion that everything here is crazy, and her "if I keep being deadpan I might retain my sanity" face shows it. And Laura's words don't help at all.

Andrés smiles a bit, sardonic, but he doesn't really laugh. He's a bit nervous too, right now- eagerness mixed with curiosity mixed with the slightest twinge of fear for all these people around him. "I could tell you a bit about the mythic applications of chickens and other domestic birds against the forces of evil, but I ramble something fierce and I don't think we have time for a two hour speech. 'sides, I didn't bring any slides" he winks, trying to dispel the mood a bit.

[Haven]

"No..." Laura shakes her head slowly. "But she ought to be here... she was the most determined to fight SEs, and now she... left us behind..." She closes her eyes and takes a heavy breath. When she speaks up again, there is a tone of resolve behind her words.
"I will have to take care of her part too."

"Well, it seems there's no lack of determination here." He says, attempting to be reassuring despite his own ambivalence at the value of hot-bloodedness in this situation, and nodding in the direction of his more enthusiastic teammates.

[Fri]

Sipping his coffee without looking at his team mate, James continues. "Fowls... were used as a bait for evil spirits so they won't attack humans. And that is... my job." he says in his deep voice. "I don't know that this squad is supposed to have an elemental theme, but that's fine with me. I'm the fowl of this squad." he looks at the distance

[Matar]

Todd sighs dramaticly and places the back of his hand on his forehead. He tilts his head back and speaks in a serious voice, bordering on narm.

"Ahhh! The seconds fly by, and the minuets slowly tick past. The sands of time move forward, no matter how much we wish for them to stand still. And as our date with destiny grow ever closer, I must ask one thing."

Todd drops his hand off his forehead, while his face shows some annoyance.

"Is the Commander always cut it this damn close?"

[kamikasei]

Cat smiles at James. "Well, I'm sure it's just coincidence. The armours are a subconscious thing, right? I guess elemental imagery is just a likely thing for people to latch on to. We must just be the unoriginal ones - a cockerel, you must be very imaginative!"

Her smile becomes a theatrical grimace of worry. "But Todd's right - are we going to have enough time to go over the plan?"

[Tengu_temp]

"It seems that Rooster Boy himself doesn't need any slides, though. And his explanation makes a lot of sense. It's almost frightening."
Despite the light tone of the covnersation Emi does not manage to relax as much as she'd want to - Laura's worries make her lose confidence slowly. After all, if the most experienced group member has doubts, how should the rest feel?

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Seeing as the 'plan' is probably just to hit it until it breaks and keep it from touching the other one, I don't think that'll be much of a problem." Ben said, cupping his coffee between his hands to warm them. He was now just trying to ignore Todd and the ridiculous chicken imagery. Fowl, cockerel, whatever...it's a chicken. About as intimidating as a wet toy poodle. Wait, scratch that...the poodle has teeth. It was less intimidating. He rolled his eyes and glanced in the direction of the command tents.

[Cubey]

"Time is not a concern, I assure you." An older male voice suddenly interrupts the conversation. It belongs to a steadily incoming man of about 50 years of age, with dark brown (but graying) hair and a short beard. He wears a high-ranked SECT uniform, complimenting it with a military beret. His identity is obvious to all of you.

"C... Commander! When did you..." Laura is as surprised as the next person. Quite literally - the SECT operative next to her looks quite shocked as well, although he quickly gets over it and salutes.

"I just arrived. Another chopper is carrying your amplifiers - it is landing as we speak." Commander Richard Clayton says the truth - a helicopter is landing.
"An emergency occured - our SE is steadily slowing. We had to make sure 01A is not anywhere close, the results would be catastrophical. But it seems it isn't here, at least yet. So." He responds to the salute with his own, extending it to you all. "Ladies and gentlemen, time for the briefing. This sudden happening bought us an extra 20 minutes at least, but that's no excuse to dawdle." He raises a megaphone to his mouth. "THIS IS COMMANDER CLAYTON SPEAKING. THE OPERATION IS STARTING NOW - MSAS SQUADS, SHIFTER SQUAD, TO THE BRIEFING AREA. NON-ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL, EVACUATE AS SOON AS YOUR WORK IS COMPLETED. EMERGENCY RESPONSE SQUADS, AT STANDBY."

Every person on the plot and its surroundings starts to move at double the pace after hearing the message. Clayton himself walks towards the MSAS-wearing agents who were readying their suits a bit away from the rest - it seems some folding seats were preapared there, as well as a screen and projector. Laura follows in his steps wordlessly, but with a relieved look on her face - that must be the briefing area. You can also notice that, despite most vehicles around being boarded and leaving the area, around ten people in fact leave the helicopter that just arrived. Each one carries a silver metal suitcase.

[Matar]

"Finally! The time to prepare for "Waaaaaagh!" has finally begun! Let us go, brothers in arms!"

Todd heads off to the briefing area, a grin is etched on his face and a small bounce to his step. His eagerness is obvious, even without him having to say anything.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"It's about damn time..." Ben muttered. He tipped back the remains of the brownish liquid in his styrofoam cup and savored the flavor and the heat for as long as he could. The cup got cold so quickly after that. He just frowned and discarded it in the nearest trash bin or gave it to one of the passersby, whichever was easier. Then, adjusting his collar to cover more of his neck, he followed Commander Clayton and Laura to the makeshift briefing area. He stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets and gave a mighty yawn before sitting down in the front row. He turned his chair around and A.C. Slater'ed it, propping his chin up on his elbow.

[Fri]

"What's the plan?"

[Tengu_temp]

Finally something is happening! Emi follows the rest and sits down in one of the chairs - somewhere on the side and away from the main cluster, where she could listen without grabbing a lot of attention.

[Cubey]

Before you have a chance to arrive at the briefing area, the operatives with suitcases catch up to each one of you. They act in similar ways for everyone - after confirming your identity ("Miss/Mister [name]?", followed by an optical inspection, that is gazing at you very intently), they unlock the suitcase with a produced key and unceremoniously hand it to you, then quickly leave. There is another security measure on each suitcase - a fingerprint lock. You can open it without any problem, revealing the precious contents - each suitcase holds a personally customized amplifier. An outside observer could mistake it for an expensive custom wristwatch at a brief glance, but you know that it is so much more.
"You can wear these, but do not activate your PSA yet. Wait until you are given permission - this is a direct order." The commander warns.

There are surprisingly few people at the briefing - only a few technicians who help with the presentation, you as the Shifter squad, MSAS-wearing soldiers who do not occupy any chairs but rather stand behind them (these suits are too heavy for any chair to carry their weight - and you can't bend your knees that well inside them anyway), and of course the commander.
"Is everyone here? Good. I would like to have everyone's undivided attention." Clayton stands by the screen. The projector starts to emit an image - a familiar photograph of the SE.
"You have all received a report on this creature, SE 01B. I take it that everyone is familiar with its contents already. This report is partially outdated - the situation has changed. This SE has visibly slowed down, and will reach this point in roughly half an hour. Perhaps more, but we are monitoring its movement so you should know well in advance." There is little reaction from the Alloy Suit squad. Apparently they already knew.
"Now, our objective is simple - we must not let 01B meet with its Earth counterpart, 01A. 01A's whereabouts are unknown, which only makes our current mission that more important. We must destroy this SE - this is our utmost priority." The image changes into a view of the whole nearby area.
"Taking our somewhat limited resources at the time, I have devised a plan. 01B will be ambushed at this very parking lot. Of course, the problem is that SEs have a supernatural ability to detect those who can harm them. In other words, everyone of you."

"Yeah, we'll harm them alright!" A confident yell from the Alloy Suit part of the audience, which the commander ignores.

"But we will block that ability out. Our engineers constructed four bunkers." He points at various points on the image. Only one of them is on the parking lot, others are elsewhere. "They used mixed Sophium alloys as a building material. Sophium alloys shield against Shifters and SEs, and our past experiences tell us that this affects SEs' senses as well. As long as you are hiding inside, 01B won't be able to detect your presence."

He continues: "The bunkers were built so that they collapse to the outside. It is an easy and fast process, and safe for whomever is inside the bunker as well. Our plan is simple at its base - we wait for the SE to close in, luring it into a good position if necessary, and as soon as it is in range of all the squads, the bunkers will collapse and you will commence your assault. Alloy Suit squads will provide support fire, and Shifters will use their most potent means available. I trust your training and powers, so I know you can do this. If all goes well, you will be able to destroy your target before it has a chance to retaliate." He changes his position - rather than addressing everyone as a whole, Clayton faces you - the Shifters.
"These are instructions for the PSA squad: Do not Shift unless given explicit orders to do so. You will be able to attack this SE perfectly well while unshifted. Should you receive an injury, evacuate immediately at highest possible speed. The MSAS squads will ensure that your escape is covered. If any of your squad receives an incapacitating or..." He pauses for a second. "A mortal wound, everyone evacuate immediately. Do not try to retrieve the body - I know it sounds harsh, but that is what the emergency response squads are for. They cannot Shift, so the SE will not target them. Finally, evacuate immediately if you receive such an order. Do not throw your life away - you can regroup and try to attack a second time, but only if you are not killed in action." He sounds concerned, but not overprotective like a worried parent. Still, it may be surprising that the MSAS-wearers did not respond in any way to such treatment - they must realize that Richard Clayton just indirectly described them as more expendable.
"Group designations: Alpha - the whole PSA squad. Bravo - first support MSAS squad, 7 suits total. Charlie - second support MSAS squad, 6 suits total. Delta - just one MSAS suit. Delta has a special role - your bunker opens first and you serve as a distraction, to draw the SE's attacks away from other squads. I have nominated Frank Symes to this role - it is extremely dangerous so you have an option to refuse now. What do you say, Frank?"

"I'm in." One of the mark II suits nods its head. It's hard to see the face of the man inside, but he sounds calm and mature.

"Excellent. We are counting on you. Each MSAS squad will be accompanied by a supporting engineer, to open the bunker manually in case automatic release mechanisms fail. Alpha squad's members are not encumbered by Alloy Suits and will do it themselves - just pull a marked switch you will find inside. The timing is as follows: currently we are at -30 minutes until contact. -15 minutes: all squads enter their bunkers. -6 minutes: permission granted to activate MSAS materialization. -5 minutes: permission granted for Alpha squad to activate their PSAs. Do it at that moment: if earlier, you will unnecessarily exhaust yourself before the fight, if later, you will not have enough time to react if something goes wrong with the PSA summoning. Contact: flares and spotlights will be used to try to draw our target's attention. Contact +1 second: Delta bunker opens. Contact +1.5 second: Alpha, Bravo and Charlie bunkers open. Attack immediately after your bunker opens. We have built several additional fortifications, using remaining Sophium alloy we had at hand." The commander points at various places on the future battlefield. It's true - you remember constructions were made in roughly the same spots. "So make sure to use them if your first attack is not enough to destroy the SE. You will now receive papers with callsign designations - make sure to memorise them. This is all. Any questions?"

"So our Shifters summon armor while in bunkers already? Damn... I was hoping to see how cool they are before we're all inside metal boxes." Some young guy (different from the previous yell, though) sounds jokingly disappointed, followed by several quiet laughs of other MSAS operatives. The laughter is somewhat nervous.

Some other SECT agents move around and hand a sheet of paper to each person. Like promised, they list the callsign of everyone participating. Alpha Squad is listed as follows:
Laura Ericks - Alpha 1
Benjamin Brooks - Alpha 2
James Redford - Alpha 3
Lorne Leander - Alpha 4
Andres Merina - Alpha 5
Todd - Alpha 6
Catriona O'Donovan - Alpha 7
Emi Kurokawa - Alpha 8


Other squads have 6, 7 and 1 field agents listed, as well as one engineer - but their names do not sound familiar. There is one difference though - apparently Delta's emergency release engineer is no one else but commander Richard Clayton himself!

[Drascin]

Andrés nods gravely, clutching his amplifier and ready for anything. This was it. Now, he had to give it his all to make sure the people around him weren't harmed. He knew in the bottom of his heart that this was it - where he proved whether he had the mettle to be a hero or not. He directs a longer gaze towards Frank Symes, the bait, and will give him a nod of respect if he looks in his direction - that man has balls of solid bronze, to go alone in one of those tin cans. I would've felt much better if I was the bait, I'm more resilient than the suits. He would have to make sure to finish things quickly and decisively, for the good of everyone.

Damn it, he should have worked harder in getting a good finishing hit. But either way, that overgrown squid was going down.

He heads towards their assigned bunker.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks / Alpha 2

Ben strapped the amplifier to his wrist as he listened to the briefing, committing every detail to memory. Every once in awhile he would look up at some landmark that was being pointed to on the map in order to familiarize himself with the actual topography of the situation. He was a little less heated now that they had their amplifiers and there hadn't been some emergency that screwed everything up. The amplifier was like his sword and to go into battle without it he was beyond useless against an SE. Sometimes he wished that they could develop some way to implant the amplifiers into his body or even better some way to allow them to call their PSA's without an amplifier. Having to rely on the devices made them vulnerable, and that was something Ben hated being.

When Frank Symes accepted his role as bait without hesitation, Ben turned to give the man in the bulky Mark II a nod of appreciation. It occurred to Ben that even after five years he hadn't let himself really get to know a lot of the MSAS drivers. When he thought about it, though, he supposed he didn't want to make any friends with them because they were the most likely to be crushed like tin cans or vaporized during an SE fight. If he had to mourn good friends dying that often, Ben might go crazy. He was glad that his new teammates had relatively longer life expectancies. Maybe after this was all over he'd be able to connect with some of them.


"So our Shifters summon armor while in bunkers already? Damn... I was hoping to see how cool they are before we're all inside metal boxes." Some young guy (different from the previous yell, though) sounds jokingly disappointed, followed by several quiet laughs of other MSAS operatives. The laughter is somewhat nervous.

"Don't worry, soldier. You'll be able to see us plenty well once things heat up." he smirked, giving the young guy a thumbs up. "If you take any pictures while you're sitting happy down on the ground, try to catch my good side, alright?" he let that smirk turn into a full grin before his attention was drawn to the callsign sheet.

Alpha 2, huh? he thought, looking over to Laura while they all began to spread out and attend to their duties.

[Tengu_temp]

Emi straps the amplifier to her wrist and stares at the document she was handled, listening to what's happening around her but not commenting. She looks deep in thought, maybe even a bit melancholic.
MSAS pilots face even greater danger than us here, yet this... Frank Symes, yes, basically agreed to be the sacrificial lamb here. Why? I'm certain he knows that if anyone here will die, it's going to be him. Is he suicidal? Is his duty the most important thing for him? Or does he know that someone has to do it? Or maybe he holds a grudge against SEs? I don't know... I don't even know if it's brave, or foolish...
Emi doesn't move from her chair. She will probably sit there until someone grabs her attention, or until it's time to enter the bunker.

[kamikasei]

Cat sits through the briefing looking earnest and uncertain - understandable, as this is quite a sudden jump up from the basic training she's been dealing with up until now, almost all directed towards learning to handle her armour rather than military protocol. While watching the projector screen, her right hand goes to her left wrist, thumb absent-mindedly stroking the amplifier.

When the briefing ends and the squads start dispersing, she remains in her seat, looking around to see who's doing what and take her cue. Seeing Emi lost in thought, she approaches the other girl and taps her on the shoulder.

"Hey, 'Alpha 8'," she smiles. "Shall we join the others? We should probably be coming up with a plan of attack."

[Tengu_temp]

Emi blinks and snaps back to reality.
"Um, yes, that's true - we should." She gets up and heads towards... wherever the others have gone. The bunker, probably.
"You don't have to call me like that, though... It makes me feel devoid of individuality. I'm a human being, not a number."

[Haven]

He's distracting it from us? I suppose it makes sense tactically, to allow us some free time to judge its capacities, but we would be more effective and harder to hit...I guess the commander's done the calculations and decided the cost of us sustaining injuries times the probability is greater than the cost of the man's death... Lorne inwardly shudders a little at this thought.

Having taken his amplifier, he heads over to the bunker and stands in a corner, awaiting the time of action.

[Matar]

Todd's leg couldn't stay still at all during the briefing conference; his foot silently tapping the ground the whole time the commander spoke. He understood full well what was going on. Frank was going to be an expendable distraction. His heart burned when he heard him agree to it. No hesitation, no second guessing, What an incredible man! To be so readily to give his life for the glory of battle!

He had to speak with him, he had to say something.

He walked towards Frank and stood in front of him, staring him straight in the eyes (Or where his eyes would be, seeing as how Frank was in his MSAS armor). His voice was full of pride and determination.

“Know that you are the greatest mankind has to offer!”

Todd bites his palm, hard enough to draw blood. He doesn't wince, and lets the blood pool in his hand for a short moment before laying it on the chest of Franks Mark II.

“And I swear, by the very blood that flows through these veins, that we will see this enemy defeated!”

He grins.

“And I except you to see it as well!”

Todd turns on his heels and walks to his team mates, strapping on his amplifier to his wrist on his way there. We will win he thought. Of that I have no doubt.

[Fri]

"Understood"

James equips his amplifier in silence, though you can see from his eyes that he's nervous too.

There is first time for everything...

He looks around. It seems that everyone is rather taken aback by the MSAS' team seemengly suicidal mission.

"They're not civilians. They willingly take the risk, in full consent, as professional soldiers, trying to defend what they love. Don't think we're better than them or they're sacrificing their life for nothing simply because we got this alien armor and everything.

SECT simply doesn't know our capabilities yet. Let's simply prove that we can handle this."

Actually, the one that's been bothering him is the other PSAs. This is such a a ragtag bunch of crew. Some looks dependable enough... but the others... In fact, he's not sure that, unlike the MSAS' team, they took this job willingly and with real consent. They're minors after all. There are reasons why there are laws like age of criminal responsibility and age of consent.

Especially that irish girl, Cat. She looks... so sad and delicate, so out of her element here. Not that he thought that women are less capable than men. In fact, Sarah... would be far more in her element here than... himself. That's why he's able... to escape then. Because he's not as good as her...

And their senior, Laura. She can't be that much older than themselves. But she got responsibilities this heavy on her shoulders...

He shook his head. It's why he's here. So others won't have to.

He pats Laura's shoulder. "Don't worry. We won't disappoint you."

[Cubey]

"Haha! That's a deal then, I'll take a picture once this whole crap's over." The young soldier answers Ben. One of the mark I suits gives you a thumbs-up, so he's probably inside it.

Todd's actions are met with a calm gaze (the suit's visor is open, so you can see Frank's face - a long one, belonging to a man about 40 years of age, with a barely visible scar on his right cheek).
"I do what must be done. Don't worry - I don't intend to die today." There is a tone of kindness in his words. He puts a hand on Todd's shoulder, then turns around and walks away to his bunker. The whole scene is accompanied by several comments. "Hey, that kid's kinda cool." "Keep it up! The SE's a goner!" And similar appreciation. The spirits are rather high as operatives move out, each one to their own bunker - those who wear mark II suits are accompanied by engineers carrying Weapon Packs (three Ranged support versions and one Main battle - for Frank, unsurprisingly), while the ten mark I suits obviously are not.

At the same time, the commander is approached by no one else but Laura (who only gave a worried smile as a response to James).
"Commander... why have you chosen..."

"We both know that Frank Symes has the greatest chance to survive that task. This is why he serves as a distraction."

"No... that's not it." The young woman shakes her head nervously. "Why have you chosen yourself as Delta's engineer? This is... dangerous! What happens if we lose you?"

"I cannot idly stand aside while you all put your lives on the line." Those of you who are closer see that Clayton smiles reassuringly. "My conscience wouldn't let me. Besides, don't forget - I am only an ordinary human. I cannot Shift, and I do not wear an Alloy Suit. The only way 01B could harm me is if it unshifts itself - and then it's dead on the spot. We have snipers waiting for this opportunity, and artillery and airforce are on standby. Finally... I think Frank could use some company in that lonely little bunker."

"Oh..." Laura holds her wrist again. This time, there is an amplifier there.

"It will be alright. Similar plans worked great in the past, remember?" The commander raises a megaphone to his mouth again. "ALRIGHT! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, ON POSITIONS PLEASE. EVERYONE, GOOD LUCK! BE CAUTIOUS AND TRY TO STAY ALIVE."

The Alpha bunker looks like a four-sided pyramid, with one side lying flat on the ground so that you can enter. It is large enough to accomodate all of you semi-comfortably, and at the moment it's attended by a young, tanned woman with short black pigtails, wearing an engineer's uniform, worker gloves and a baseball cap.
"Phew! All done." She nods, noticing the first one to arrive (probably Andres). "Right on time, too. Welcome! Get inside, I'll show you around." She smiles and walks into the pyramid. The inside is lit - there is a light on each wall. There are no windows, and small ventilation holes are set up only on a wall that will not face the incoming SE. "All the walls will open up to the outside when it's time. Quite nifty, huh?" She points at one of the walls. "Here's the emergency release lever. If the place doesn't open up, pull it strongly. This is the radio - the cables are set up underground, so mixed Sophium walls won't block transmissions at all. And here's the first aid-kit." She shows each subsequent item, all of them located under the walls so they don't get in the way. "But I'm sure you won't need it. Make sure to tell others where everything is. Laters!" She winks and leaves the bunker before you have a chance to react.

Laura is one of the last people to arrive at your bunker. She doesn't say anything by herself, unless spoken to by anyone of you.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Ben just stood silently while everyone crowded into the tiny bunker. They all fit comfortably, but it still felt a little claustrophobic to him. It didn't seem to bother him too much, though, as he just closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. He settled into a sort of meditative state, silently counting down the minutes until the Commander's voice came through and gave them the order to shift into their PSA's. He seemed remarkably calm except for the fact that the muscles in his neck were tensed and standing out as he tightly clenched his jaw.

[Matar]

Todd stands in the bunker, his hand moving over the amplifier constantly. If the SE was in the air, he wouldn't be able to get to it unless he jumped, and if he did that and the SE hit him in mid air, who knows how far he would go flying. No... what he needed was something to throw at it. Something that would do the most damage, something heavy, something...

Todd grinned. He had no idea if the dude would agree to this, but it would be freaking awesome if he did. He walked over to Andy, put an arm around his shoulder and muttered something into his ear.

[Drascin]

(And again, people post a lot while I'm asleep)

Andrés has taken in everything the girl told him, and waited for everyone else to come. He looks calm and focused, contrasting with the average nervousness of the group. He's good at controlling his eagerness. He's always been.

Then Todd approaches him and whispers at him. Andy's eyes express surprise for just a moment - then thoughtfulness. He's enough of a toku and anime geek to recognize the idea instantly, and so isn't weirded out by it at all.

"Oh, a straight fastball special? Yeah, no problem here. You sure you can get enough distance, though? I mean, the God weighs upwards of a ton and is probably unwieldy as hell". He smiles mischievously "Of course, me being dense and full of spikes will probably only improve the effectiveness of the thing, come to think of it. What the hell, I'm in. Gotta warn the armor unit, though - wouldn't want to fall on top of one if it shakes me off".

He approaches Emi, smiling. "Ey, it seems I'm not going to be bothering you for transport. Todd said he can just throw me up there, so don't worry and do your thing. I'll be counting on you to cover my sorry ass if I mess up, though!" he winks. He seems completely nonplussed by the idea of being thrown at near terminal velocity towards a murderous superpowered alien entity. It's not that he's wishing for the fight, like Todd is, but more that he seems to think it's something he has to do and he can get through.

[Matar]

Todd shrugs his shoulders and gives Andy a smile.

"Trust in the Green Wizard, my friend! I assure you, you will get enough distance."

[kamikasei]

"You don't have to call me like that, though... It makes me feel devoid of individuality. I'm a human being, not a number."

Cat holds up her hands in a gesture of apology. "Sorry, this whole soldiering thing is new to me... just wanted to try talking the talk." As they head towards the bunker she sees Todd's little - ritual? - with their pointman, and the contrast with the girl at her side is striking. Mad bastard. She grins. Well, at least the troops seem to like it. Her own anxiety is damped down and back to the level of performance nerves - any weightier concerns are being diverted away from her head and seem to be orbiting around her solar plexus instead, which means once the action's over and she gets a chance to relax a little they'll probably hit her like a punch to the gut.

Reaching the bunker, she looks around at the others. No doubt they all know what they're doing in their armours, most probably better than she does, but do they know how to work together? "Um - so what's the plan for when the bunker comes down? Should we stay where we are, or scatter? Do we try to hit it hard as we can first, or pin it down and hold it in place if we can?"

[Cubey]

"I will try to overwrite the attack this SE tries to use out of existence. That should create an opening for you." Inside the bunker, Laura stands by a wall, her gaze low - perhaps focused on her amplifier, which she rubs intently like if hoping for a reaction to occur. "I cannot offer much offensive power. I'm sorry... I was a support member in the previous squad, too..."

"Alpha squad, do you copy? This is mission control." A female voice comes in from the bunker's radio, as well as from your amplifiers. Despite her professional choice of words, the voice is motherly kind and warm. "Your bunker closes in 4 minutes, 45 seconds. Make sure everyone is inside the building, and stays clear off the eastern wall as it closes. Thank you. Estimated time until 01B's arrival: 19 minutes and 20 seconds."

[Matar]

"Um - so what's the plan for when the bunker comes down? Should we stay where we are, or scatter? Do we try to hit it hard as we can first, or pin it down and hold it in place if we can?"

"Hit it as hard as we can of course! Show it no reprieve, and give it no other option then to be on the defence!"

Todd suddenly grabs Laura's shoulder from behind, and gives it a squeeze. He continues on, though what he says is more directed towards her then anyone else.

"And if it does manage to attack, we will be ready for it. We not try to stop it, we will stop it. We won't try our try our best, we will do our best."

He lets go Laura's shoulder and laughs.

"Let there be no doubts on this!"

Todd rubs his throat, no doubt sore from all the yelling he's done in such a short amount of time.

"Because, honestly, i'd rather not kill my voice box before the battle. Heh."

[Tengu_temp]

Emi gives herself a mental note never to become the greatest mankind has to offer. This Todd is even crazier than Rooster Boy.
"Okay, if I don't have to make any flying platforms..." She sounds a bit disappointed. "Then I will create additional barriers around the SE, to give some extra cover to those who attack from a distance. Um, and if any of you get injured, I can help you out - Genesis has some healing abilities." Emi sounds a bit embarassed. Support and healing - she's not making a good job at ensuring others she is not the Useless Shonen Anime Girl, does she?

[kamikasei]

"Okay... I'll hang back and hit it with whatever I can, so. I might be able to freeze it in place if it gets close enough to the ground, or at least tie up those tendrils, so someone tell me if you want to try that. I can try to lower the temperature in the area too, if that won't slow our people down, or cause problems for you..." she looks at Ben.

[Haven]

Still leaning against the wall, Lorne offers: "Once the battle opens up and we make contact with the enemy, I can scan it and direct the team towards any weaknesses or vulnerable points. Other options will become available to me at that moment as well, but I'll most likely just fly above the SE and harry it with my Air Lance."

He does some quick calculations in his head before adding, "I may also be able to use my armor's power to levitate one of you into a position to strike at the creature's tentacles, though it might take some time depending on where it ceases its descent."

"Emi, a little extra cover will definitely come in handy, although if you can provide an offense against the main body that might be more necessary--at least until we discover what exactly this creature's mode of attack entails, if it has one aside from striking with its tentacles. Speaking of which, I'm not sure, but I think the creature's tentacles will come to within 10 meters of the ground, making them a perfect target for anyone who can't project force at a greater distance."

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks


"...I can try to lower the temperature in the area too, if that won't slow our people down, or cause problems for you..." she looks at Ben.

"It won't bother me, if that's what you mean, since Requiem is the average temperature of molten lava normally. Try to stay on the opposite side of it from me, because I'll be trying to make my side as hot as I can. Your ice will just melt. Anyway, I'll be hitting it from a distance first, then closing in on any weak spot that Lorne offers up." Ben said, eyes opening just slightly to find Cat. His gaze flicks to Todd for a moment and his expression, in no uncertain terms, reads, What an idiot... before he looks away.

[Fri]

"I can jump and engage the SE first when it's still in the air, if you need the time to analyze it. I might be able to fish its attack, so you can see its attack pattern." James breaks his silence as he opened and closed his fist.

"Don't worry, I believe in my speed and ability to dodge its attack." And to make it a bit safer for everyone else...

[kamikasei]

Cat nods at Ben. "Okay. Then I'll ice the area while I move around to its other side. I'll wait until I'm in position before opening up with direct attacks. And I guess I won't try any binding attacks unless it turns out it's immune to heat or something." To Lorne: "I can propel myself, not too fast, but fast enough. It all depends on how much moisture's available... but there should be enough."

She looks back at Ben. "So uh... your armour is hot as lava? The armour you'll be changing into here in about ten minutes? I know they're are supposed to protect us against the elements, but let us get into ours first, yeah?" She smiles at the older boy, clearly not entirely serious.

[Tengu_temp]

"Well, if the monster flies too high for you, I could always try dropping something heavy on it. I'll just have to be cautious not to squash any of you, too." Emi grabs her forearm. She doesn't feel at ease sitting with eight others in a small bunker. "And I can focus on attacking, but I wanted to create extra cover for the guys in MSASs... They can't move as quickly as we do."

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Don't worry, I can hold it in while other people are around. Just don't touch the armor without some protection." Ben advised with a smirk.

[Drascin]

"Emi, a little extra cover will definitely come in handy, although if you can provide an offense against the main body that might be more necessary--at least until we discover what exactly this creature's mode of attack entails, if it has one aside from striking with its tentacles. Speaking of which, I'm not sure, but I think the creature's tentacles will come to within 10 meters of the ground, making them a perfect target for anyone who can't project force at a greater distance."

"Still, if you ask me, we should do as the old story remarked and stay clear from the Kraken's tentacles as much as possible - either try to reach the head, or throw something at the tentacles, or shoot at it, or whatever. I mean, there's a lot of them, and meleeing something with thirty times as many arms as you, if the thing's got good coordination.... pretty hard. I dunno what kind of attack the main head will have, but I personally don't think the chance of being blasted by a heat blast is worse than being grappled" Andrés looks pretty serious. "For one, it's easy to recover people blasted off for healing, while a grappled one is going to have to be there until we kill the thing or manage to cut that kelp forest it has for tentacles".

[Haven]

Ben Brooks

"Don't worry, I can hold it in while other people are around. Just don't touch the armor without some protection." Ben advised with a smirk.

Lorne gags a little.


"And I can focus on attacking, but I wanted to create extra cover for the guys in MSASs... They can't move as quickly as we do."


"Still, if you ask me, we should probably try to stay clear from the Kraken's tentacles as much as possible - either try to reach the head, or throw something at the tentacles, or shoot at it, or whatever. I mean, there's a lot of them, and meleeing something with thirty times as many arms as you, if the thing's got good coordination.... pretty hard. I dunno what kind of attack the main head will have, but I personally don't think the chance of being blasted by a heat blast is worse than being grappled" Andrés looks pretty serious. "For one, it's easy to recover people blasted off for healing, while a grappled one is going to have to be there until we kill the thing or manage to cut that kelp forest it has for tentacles".

"You're both right," Lorne concedes, "that was a little incautious of me." And I certainly wouldn't go against those tentacles myself, so I can't ask the others to...

"I suppose," he adds, with a friendly nod towards Todd, "I simply got swept up in the enthusiasm."

[Cubey]

(I'm assuming a minor timeskip can commence. If your characters were talking about anything else during that time, feel free to still write the dialogue.)

Time passes uneasily... you really feel separated from the world, hiding inside a tiny metal pyramid, with almost no sounds coming from the outside. But you know that a SE is somewhere out there, steadily moving towards your position.
"Six minutes until contact. Bravo squad, Charlie squad, Delta one - MSAS materialization authorized." The operator suddenly speaks from the radio again. It doesn't take much time for other squads to respond:

"Delta, all good." "Bravo, materialization successful." "Charlie, everyone's materialized without difficulties." Frank and a female and male unfamiliar voices speak up respectively.

"Five minutes 15 seconds until contact. Alpha squad - PSA summoning authorized. Please commence the summoning in callsign order, rather than everyone at the same time."

"I... wonder why. I do not remember any accidents occuring with PSA summoning." Laura wonders. "Well, I will start then." She raises her left arm, the one on which she wears the amplifier, and clenches her hand into a fist.
"The Great Pretender!"

The transformation is, like always, nigh-instant. Pieces of armor appear seemingly out of nowhere, covering Laura's body. It takes only a few seconds for her PSA to fully materialize - a silver suit of metal, with distinctive feminine shapes. Its helm does not cover her face from the nose down, although the upper faceplate has no visor or visible openings that would allow vision. However, it does apparently feature an opening for Laura's hair, as it freely tumbles down her back. The whole figure is levitating several inches above the floor, surrounded by gently flowing mists.

"I am in my armor now... we cannot turn back. I have to protect everyone..." Laura sounds determined. The mist slowly spreads throughout the room, covering the floor with light fog. It is shy in its moves though, just like the person who summoned it into being.

(EDIT: Feel free to post without paying attention to the squad order. We can assume it happened in appropriate timing anyway. Or, if your characters are rebellious or hotheaded and don't want to wait for their turn in transforming, then make sure to mention that as well.)

[Matar]

Though Todd was eager, he didn't transform out of sequence. His desire to do battle was strong, but a transformation sequence is just something you do not mess with. He counted down each one, waiting for his turn. One, the shy girl who bends reality to her whim. Two, the hot blooded youth of fire and flames. Three, the furious fowl who's crow turns the tide of darkness. Four, the smart one whom he wasn't really paying attention to when he was talking. Five, the rumbling earth god!

“Six! The Harlequin hero with unrivaled passion!”

Todd makes a fist and raises it high in the air.

“Green Wizard, ACTION!”

The sound of creaking metal echoed across the room as Todd became engulfed by his PSA. It started from his amplifier and quickly covered his entire body in bright green armor. The last part of his body to be covered was his face, though even that was soon covered by the bright green metal. The creaking of metal stops as soon as the transformation is complete.

“Oh, and uh, Andy? I think we should hold off on that whole “Me throwing you at it” idea unless we get under it. If I miss, I could wind up throwing you a good mile, if not more so... so yeah.”

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Ben opened his eyes and they were glowing red. His hair wafted up and out of his eyes, swaying softly in a warm breeze that only he seemed to be able to feel. He brought his amplifier up in front of his face, touching the control with his other hand. The tiny pyramid's internal temperature suddenly shot up ten degrees when he said, "Infernal Requiem, sing for the dead." Then the relative darkness of the bunker was completely overwhelmed with a blinding light as his transformation occurred.

Ben's armor appeared out of thin air the way Laura's had, but it appeared to be made out of molten metal, glowing white hot at first and then settling down from red hot to the normal black and red color scheme. The armor was relatively uncomplicated, marked by a t-visor covering his face and segmented plating protecting his form. He straightened and a gout of hot steam blew from the pair of grills where his cheeks would be. Ben opened his fist and held his arms straight and out slightly to his sides as the armor plates shifted and locked into their final positions.

[Fri]

James closes his eyes and nods when it's time for him to transform. Without further ado, he clenches his fist in front of his face and yelled.

"CROW, Grey Fowl!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxxpboYWs4)

The first thing that you noticed fter the light that covers him subsides is, the striking red scarf that somehow flutters even in the windless bunker.

And in a second, slim grey armor with hard plates at vital places fully covers James.

For the first time, everyone can see why James calls his armor by that name.

As its namesake, it's vaguely... birdlike.

[Haven]

Lorne waits for Ben and James to transform before beginning his own sequence. Holding his left arm, with the amplifier on his left wrist, towards the sky, he says "Keeper of the Four Winds--Aeolus!" with a kind of energy he hasn't yet displayed today, as he brings his left hand down and across his chest.

A gust of wind unsettles the gathered fog, as his armor--colored primarily light blue, with gold trim at the segmentation and heavy grey patterning that seems to swirl about--materializes, starting with his chest: a plate of banded armor with a section of scales in the middle, shooting out to cover his arms and legs, segmenting at his shoulders, elbows, thighs and knees, turning to articulated gauntlets at his hands and boots at his feet. A small cannon shoots out of the armor's left forearm, while two heavy shoulder-pads erupt from his back and fasten themselves across his shoulders.

Finally, the helmet spreads from the crown of his head to meet his armor. It's a Spartan-like helmet, colored like the rest of his suit, except for the Y-shaped slit that would be the exposed parts of the face if this were a normal helmet: instead, it is colored black, until it suddenly activates, at which point it is a riot of colors.

As the helmet activates, Lorne's perception enhances immediately and drastically, something he always looks forward to. He gains new vistas of sensory experience. He can see above and below the usual spectrum available to human eyes, and up to ten times the distance as well. He gains the ability to sense everything around him with electricity, the way certain marine creatures do, but far more efficiently and long-ranging. Everything he sees, his armor gives him an exhaustive list of information about.

Though no one can see it, Lorne is grinning like a maniac."Outstanding," he says, to the group at large. Pulling his legs off the ground, he hovers cross-legged as he waits for the battle to begin.

[Drascin]

Andrés waits for his turn calmly, chatting with the people around him, still trying to dispel the nerves in the air.

Ah, his turn now. He steps forward, and raises his amplifier. His voice seems to echo and rumble when he speaks, with a tone of absolute determination.

"Protector of Earth, Knight of Gaia, thy duty is calling! Awaken, Rumbling God of War!"

The light that surrounds Andy is soft and green, and his blindingly white armor seems to grow from his feet - smooth at first, but then, after it covers his whole body, spikes start to sprout from over it. It looks bulky, and spiky, but above all, weirdly natural in a way, as if this metal and earth monstrosity actually had sprouted naturally and it would be perfectly normal to see it growing alongside an oak in a forest somewhere. The process is done in a couple seconds, leaving a big, unmistakably heroic-looking armorclad figure where Andy was a moment ago.

He steps aside, his steps now resonating under his weight. Even his voice seems to have deepened greatly under the armor. But when he speaks, it's obvious it's still the same Andy underneath, as the first thing he says is "Hey, that's a pretty cool armor you got there, mister Keeper of the Winds"

He then hears what Todd said. "Um, dude, it's like thirty meters tall by ten wide at the least. Are you seriously telling me you can miss that?".

[kamikasei]

Cat takes a deep breath and stretches out her arms. Feeling, as usual when going through this, like a bloody fool, she speaks in an overloud voice.

"Alpha Seven, summoning! Oisín!"

With more-than-natural speed, moisture seems to condense out of the air around her, beading on her skin and clothes without seeming to wet them. In a second she's immersed from the neck down in a thickening layer of water, refracting the light as if far deeper in each direction than could be possible. Her breath mists as she releases it; the air around her begins to do the same.

Seeming, as if by a trick of the light, to emerge from the deeps, metal sections grow and encase her - torso, hips, forearms, shins. Armour in place, the water withdraws, revealing that the unplated areas are now clad in dark blue mail. Before withdrawing fully, the plated sections receive a thick coating of ice. Finally, the waters wrap around Cat's head, forming in a split-second a narrow-vizored helm to match the rest of the armour.

Unlike Laura's, there are no feminine touches to this armour - the closest that could be said to be such are her long hair which spills from the back of the helm, seeming dusted with snow, and the dark blue half-skirt covering her upper legs. Vapour steams around the completed figure. Cat's feet remain on the ground.

[Tengu_temp]

The time has finally come. After waiting for her turn, Emi closes her eyes, raises her amplifier to her face, and takes a deep breath - when she opens them again, she looks determined.
"The source of creation - Genesis!"
Emi's armor appears in layers - a tight-fitting, khaki(ish) metallic form first, and then much more elaborate, teal-colored plates over it, edged in gold and forming an undoubtedly female-looking piece of armor. In the third layer a long plate skirt, a tall, winged helmet and something on the back that a closer inspection reveals to be tightly folded wings appear, and finally a featureless, barring two blue crystal eyes, faceplate covers Emi's features. She is noticably taller in her armor, although between the heels and the helmet, that might just be an illusion.
"I am ready for anything." Her voice sounds more resounding and confident now.

(In case anyone somehow missed it, here's the image, just with the wings out.)
http://ffrpg.republika.pl/img2.PNG

[Cubey]

"Everyone has transformed successfully." Laura floats towards the radio, not moving any part of her body.

"I understand. We have visual on 01B. Prepare for contact in 4 minutes, 10 seconds. We will keep you updated." She is answered by the mission control lady.

These last few minutes are hardest to bear, not only because of the armors' additional bulk and other effects.
"01B follows the predicted path with 98% accuracy. We are making minor adjustments to the operation's timer. Contact in 2 minutes, 25 seconds. All squads, please report your status."

"Delta, ready." Frank Symes sounds stoic as ever.
"Bravo, ready." "Charlie, all set." But the two other squad leaders are restless and nervous.

"A... Alpha, we are ready." Laura seems as if she was broken from a trance. After the message, she continues whispering to herself. Those of you with keenest senses can catch the words: "I must protect everyone... I must..."

"Charlie squad, the target will be beyond the effective range of your weapons at contact. Advance forward before shooting." The operator sounds concerned. That's not good news. "Contact in 90 seconds... 85... 80..."
It feels like an eternity passing between each time update. "30 seconds... 25..."
"6... 5... 4... 3... It's doing something! Watch out!" Your operator almost screams into her microphone.
But you cannot react. With a loud thunk from the outside, Delta bunker opens rapidly - and almost immediately after, so do the other ones - including yours.

The first thing you see is the hulk before you. The SE looks just like on the photograph, but you weren't aware of how big it was until you saw it just now. Especially since it is only about 60 feet away from you, levitating so low that its tendrils almost touch the ground.
And its "eye" is looking straight at you. It's much larger than the photo, and blindingly white rather than red. You can hear sizzling... and feel a wave of heat coming from the SE.
"NO!" A desperate yell escapes Laura's lips. The eye unleashes a wide, crackling hot beam, straight in your direction! But it only travels less than five meters before disappearing in thin air, without making even a sound. The only clue to what happened is the mist around The Great Pretender flowing faster - and randomly changing colors.

"Now! Hit it!" A yell from commander Clayton. But some MSAS operatives acted preemptively - the spears are already flying in the SE's direction. Some of them would even hit - but the tendrils go up, intercepting the ammo with their buds! Each hit tendril falls down lifelessly, but there are many more - and about twenty of them proceed to rip themselves off the main body with awful wet sounds, leaving behind small holes that drip some colorless fluid. These tendrils then proceed to levitate just as well as the SE itself does, and fly in the agents' direction. At the same time, the now-dark red "eye" of 01B starts to get brighter again.

(Now is the time to act! You receive +2 to attack rolls and skill checks because of the Master Plan. You can attack seperate tendrils - they count as minions. Visibility is no issue - there are lamps, flares and spotlights everywhere. You can act now, no need to roll initiative.)

[Haven]

Lorne nods in acceptance of Andy's compliment, and then the battle begins!

Initiative--Lorne
[roll0]

Lorne continuously analyzes the monster with his enhanced senses, and flies upward to a distance of about 200 feet directly above its center of mass. He also allows his armor to adapt itself to the monster's capabilities.

((OOC: Can I learn what information my analytical sight gives me about the monster, and what power my Nemesis ability gives me, before taking my standard action? Since both of those should be free actions?))

[Cubey]

Lorne - the enemy seems not very mobile which would make it easy to hit. It uses extreme heat as its primary weapon, and the smaller tendrils can exist seperately, attacking targets on their own or shielding the main body from harm. You receive Immunity (Fire) from your Nemesis power.
No need to roll for initiative, you all can post your actions now - this is a reminder for other players.

[Haven]

"It's barely mobile! It shouldn't be able to dodge your attacks very well, so I advise you go all out on it! However, the tendrils can protect the main body, but they seem very fragile so I suggest you focus some attacks on them! As for myself..."


You receive Immunity (Fire) from your Nemesis power.

Lorne's armor flares red.

And now for a totally sensible course of action.

As his armor adapts, Lorne alters his course so that he passes directly in front of the "eye"'s line of sight, attempting to get it to track him, and then pulling a series of acrobatic maneuvers to convince it to aim its heat-blast at him.

((Standard action--using Acrobatic Bluff to Trick the eye into firing at me on its next turn.))

[roll0]

[kamikasei]

"Okay!" Cat answers the commander's order - she's too intent on not screwing up to even register gratitude as Laura saves them all from being parboiled, or to pay attention to the actions of the others. Turning some of the ice on her armour back to liquid and gathering more from the air, she surfs off on a miniature wave, circling anticlockwise around the target. As she goes, she stretches her arms out in its direction, palms flat, looking as if trying to force shut an overstuffed suitcase. Around the SE, the air shimmers; condensation begins to bead on it.

((Using Environmental Control: Cold (unlinked) to generate extreme cold around the SE. Should be sufficient to encompass the entire area, I think. Should one round's motion suffice to get Cat on the other side of the thing?))

[Cubey]

The air around your enemy gets considerably colder... in fact, it feels awfully cold, even though you are not directly next to it. It doesn't slow the SE down though, at least not yet.

(No, you are not fast enough to make it all the way through. If you circle around the SE, you should make it about halfway as a move action)

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Don't worry about protecting me, Laura! I can take the heat!" Ben yelled as he shot up and at an angle at over a hundred miles an hour straight toward the SE's "eye". He seemed to just slide on the air as if he was riding it, but those with enhanced senses would notice that his feet were continually moving and he was actually running across the air. He kept one arm behind him as he moved, and in that hand a ball of orange-red light condensed into being.

When he got close enough to the creature he closed his fist on the energy ball and it transformed into an actual flaming sword, spreading out above and below into a hilt and a five-foot-long blade. Fire trailed from the blade as he moved, leaving a curtain behind that followed along in his wake. As he swung the sword up and gripped it with both hands, the curtain whipped up and seemed to become an extension of the blade, increasing its length to fifty feet or more. Then he yelled a battlecry as he brought the sword down in a two-handed overhead cut straight down at SE 01B's "eye".

Strike Attack: [roll0]

[kamikasei]

"I'll try to take out some of those tendrils while I get in to position!" Cat radios back at the others. "Ben, let's see if you can fight fire with fire!"

[Drascin]

Andrés says something in Spanish on being startled by the SE - it's obvious by his tone it wasn't something very nice, either. But when the ray vanishes, he's in front of the whole group. He himself hadn't even realized, he just... stepped forward to shield the others, unconsciously. Good thing Laura vanished it.

"Okay, new plan: throw everything at it and **** this thing over really quick! Todd! Throw me to the head!" he jumps sideways to leave open way for the others (and Cat blasts off through instantly, apparently) and runs towards Todd, to give him some extra momentum on throw. If Todd's ready, he will then jump right before reaching him and make himself as much as possible into a spiky ball of doom so he can grab him easier.

[Tengu_temp]

Nobody can see it, obviously, but Emi's eyes widen underneath the helmet once she sees what is going on around here.
So that is what those things were for! Change of plans...

"I won't let you do that!"
She reaches out with her right hand into the tendrils' direction - something starts to shimmer in the air around it, and swirling green and blue energy appears in the air above them, suddenly crystalizing into a huge, rough shape of an open hand, which falls down on the creatures! Emi takes extra care it won't accidentally squash any allies, and it stays there after the fall, so it can grant cover, and its spread fingers guarantee stability so it won't topple over.

(Create object 10, used for attack.)

[Cubey]

A tendril, ending with a "flower bud", blocks Ben's strike. He cleaves the bud into two, getting sprayed with a transparent, colorless liquid for the trouble (but it seems to be harmless). The tendril falls down, lifeless.

The hand created by Emi squishes most of the buds. Some fly out of its way, the tendril propelling them like a flagellum, and one manages to wriggle its way from under the hand for a total of seven survivors. The rest are lifeless, their fluid soiling the parking lot's pavement.

(Drascin: Andy may be able to perform a Standard action after Todd throws him. Probably right after the impact, or maybe during it.)

[Drascin]

(Drascin: Andy may be able to perform a Standard action after Todd throws him. Probably right after the impact, or maybe during it.)

((Do I get a +1 for momentum if I falconpunch on landing? :smalltongue:

Nah, but seriously, that was the idea, yeah. It takes a smash from me flying into it, and then I start bashing its theorethical face in))

[Fri]

(sorry for the waiting. Sleepy and too tired for the fluff, maybe later. I guess range isn't important here?)

James jumps and kicks one of the tendrils as hard as he can for the opening show.

[roll0] power attack shattering fowl kick

[Fri]

goddamnit. [roll0]

edit: this is so unfair...

[Matar]

"Okay, new plan: throw everything at it and **** this thing over really quick! Todd! Throw me to the head!" he jumps sideways to leave open way for the others (and Cat blasts off through instantly, apparently) and runs towards Todd, to give him some extra momentum on throw. If Todd's ready, he will then jump right before reaching him and make himself as much as possible into a spiky ball of doom so he can grab him easier.

(Sorry about that guys, I needed sleep .__. Still do >_>. So heh, if this isn't up to par sorreh.)

"That's the spirit! RUMBLING SPEAR OF THE EARTH GOD!"

As Andy ran past Todd quickly grabed him from behind. He used the moment to send himself into a spin. If there were any doubts about his strength they were certainly lifted now. Todd used the extra moment from the spin to send Andy flying like a rocket straight at the SE.

[roll0]

[Matar]

((Uh, I guess i'm supposed to say what I am doing in the spoilers before the roll? Uh.))

Throw: Andy, improvised weapon.

-edit: Figured it out >_>.

[Cubey]

Unfortunately, James misses horribly - the tendril curls up out of harm's way.
Todd lifts Andy up and throws him in a powerful toss. Despite having its eye focused elsewhere (on Lorne), the SE seems to anticipate it - the War God's flight path is blocked by all the remaining buds. Andy's momentum is enough to burst two of them apart, but he loses it after that and falls to the ground, not being able to do anything else. At least you could count the remaining (still alive) tendrils - nine of them.

The SE charges up again, unleashing a meltingly hot (although more bearable this time, due to extremely low temperatures around it - it's almost like the extremes cancelled each other out) beam of fiery death. This time it's directed at Lorne though, and deals no damage. He hardly feels anything, too.
"Watch out! Lorne, are you alright?" It's the commander. He sounds incredulous - apparently he gets readings from your amplifiers' life function diagnosis subsystems.

The seven disembodied tendrils crash into Bravo team - the agents were too focused on offense to dodge at all, like if they could in their clunky suits... The "flower buds" open wide and bite into them like maws, accompanied by loud and agonizing human screams. "Send... emergency response... yeeargh!" The female squad leader gasps into her communicator. You can see the only mark II suit grabbing its Hector tracking harpoon - and thrusting it into the flower bud, causing it to fall down to the ground. Three other Alloy Suit operatives struggle as well, but are less successful. As for the rest - one is on the ground, and the remaining two are limp and don't do anything. All of them are being steadily crushed between the buds' petals... or perhaps "jaws" would be more appropriate as a term.

Frank shoots into the Bravo-and-tendrils fray (yes, he's alright), using only one hand and running as fast as the suit allows. Unfortunately, he misses. Charlie squad is close enough to the SE, and so they fire their harpoons - the remaining tendrils block them, so there is no damage to the main body - but two more tendrils are lethally pierced and collapse lifeless.

"Ah... ah...." Laura seems to not take the buds' attack on Bravo squad very well. She moves into their direction, floating above the ground soundlessly. Light mist similar to hers surrounds the struggling agents briefly, but there is no other visible effect.

It is your turn to react now.
The Master Plan's bonus faded to +1. It will disappear completely in the next turn.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"You'll run out of tendrils eventually, monster." Ben remarked as he shot in again, leaving a trail of fire across the air. At the last second he pulled up above the creature and flipped his fire sword up so he was holding it by the blade and brought his other hand over to grab the hilt. Then he seemed to twist the fire-blade apart into two pieces and the material expanded into a tightly packed firestorm flowing between his palms. He threw his arms forward and pointed his hands at the creature's eye, focusing that firestorm into a searing beam of flame that speared downward at it. The beam didn't stay straight like a spear, but curled into the form of a long, Chinese dragon as it twisted and flowed toward its target, its maw opened in a roar of crackling flame.

Blast 10: [roll0]

[Cubey]

It could be that the attack is dealt from too high a position, but no tendril moves in to intercept Ben's fiery blast. The beam hits the SE's black surface - and doesn't leave even a scratch. There is no visible damage.

[Matar]

Todd grunts. The Rumbling Spear of the earth god didn't work?! Blasphemy! He hated having to use this so soon, it took alot out of him and left him off guard. However, the sooner he got rid of all the tentacles the better.

"Guys! Watch my back! This **** takes alot out of me! And get the hell outta the way!"

Todd jumps straight for the underside of the monster, intent on taking out all of the tentacles at once, as well as doing as much damage as possible to the main body as well. His entire body is covered by a blinding green light, and with a mighty shout he unleashes the full force of his attack on the underside of the beast.

"Harlequin Explostion!"

For a breif moment the city was painted green.


Move action: Jumping
Standard action: Corrosion

Fort/Toughness save. If failed, reduce toughness by 10 in 50 foot burst.

Targets in a (Strength bonus x) feet area burst must make a (Reflex = to 10+STR mod) or become dazzled.

Unreliable: May only be used five times before you need to recharge.
Distracing: You lose your dodge bonus until next round.
Fades: After every use you lose one rank, until recharge.

[Cubey]

Small cracks appear on the SE's underside. Translucent liquid immediately starts to drip from them.
(It received 1 injury)
The effect was disasterous for 01B's tendrils - most of them have fallen off, and they lie on the ground, dead. There are only two left, for some reason saved from the attack.

Many of you were too far to be caught in Todd's attack, and others had cover provided by the SE's massive body. But there are exceptions - Andy gets caught in the blast (1 bruise + auditory dazzle - you are deaf, make a fortitude save vs DC 19 each round to fight it off), and the thunderclap reaches Catriona and James (but the reflex save was passed for both of you, so no negative effects here).

[kamikasei]

Cat shrugs off the shockwave from Todd's dramatic attack, entirely focused on the task before her so that the details of her teammates' actions are barely on the edge of her awareness. All her attention is directed towards Bravo squad, her arms uplifted as if conducting an orchestra. Above the melee, water begins to bead, as if condensing on an invisible roof...

"Bravo, heads up!"

With a sweeping downthrust of her arms, Cat turns the gathered water into a swarm of icicles, sending them lancing down among the tendrils below.

(('Blizzard', Area attack (selective) with 50' radius, +10 reflex, +10 damage))

[Fri]

"You're lucky now, cosmic horror tentacle thingyyy..." James said in his deep and cool voice as he flies way, way out of the chart.

The grey humanoid chicken lands and kneel gracefully. With scarf fluttering he springs up, and look at the tentacles with his cold eyes of wild jungle bird.

Ignoring what his comrades are doing now, he focus her mind and stands in a martial stance before running toward the squeamish thingamablob again.

"Crow, Grey Fowl. Let the devil flee from your voice!" the cold tone came from the glittering beak of the grey armor. If voice could have color (or there are people with synesthesia around there), it will be a cold, slate gray of a voice. "Shattering Fowl Kick!"

[roll0] again, shattering fowl kick toward the remaining tentacle

[Cubey]

Cat's icicle rain skewers most of the tendrils. There is only one remaining - it managed to avoid the projectiles, dodging while still carrying a limp SECT member body.
James misses, but for a smaller margin than before.

(I forgot to mention, the two remaining tendrils that Todd attacked are not dazzled. The main body, however, is - it does not act any different because of that, though.
Also note, you can take 10 on attacking minions.)

[Matar]

Todd was on the ground, trying to lift his body up. His breathing was ragged, but he didn't seem to be in any pain.

"Guys! There are cracks on it's underside! ATTACK IT'S WEAK POINT FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE!"

[Drascin]

Adrés lands with a huge CRASH, cracking the pavement around him, and then throws the tendril he had ripped off away without even looking at it. He looks at the SE. His face is obscured by the helm, but if anyone could see it, by now it's an ode to rage and frustration. He was never too good with his temper, and this thing - this damnable, revolting, unnatural piece of **** - was already hurting others, and had completely stopped his attack. And his ears ring like crazy - he was so occupied pulling that he didn't even notice Todd's explosion coming until it was too late. Ouch.

Fortitude roll

Whatever, really. He clenches his teeth and runs forward again, pain only pushing him forward, shouting "Gaia! Heed my voice!" as he raises his hand. There's a rumbling, and he running-jumps just in time to land in the beginning of an irregular rock pillar as it sprouts very fast upward, crashing through the concrete, right below Kraken - and grows very fast towards the crack in Kraken's armor, with one ton of very angry Andy on top of it. If the remaining tendrils don't intercept him, he wil use the upwards momentum and his own huge strangth to deal a shattering earthquake punch straight at it, completely ignoring his own defense.

"Die already! TITAN'S... HAMMER!"

Attack Roll - All Out Power Attack for 5


(Strike 1 Mighty+ Linked Paralyze 10 (Alternate save - Toughness))
Since it's Power Attack for full, Save against 30 for damage and 25 against being rendered unable to act for a couple rounds by the vibratory attack.

[kamikasei]

Cat watches the remaining tendril and its burden as she continues to circle around the SE, before switching her attention back fully to Kraken.

"Is someone in position to help Bravo with that last thing? I'm going to try hitting the main body. Ben, were you able to do anything?"

Water droplets begin to gather about her hands - more, it would seem, than can be accounted for by the reduction in the ice on her armour.

[Cubey]

Andres feels that his fist rips through the outer shell and runs deeper, into something soft... and very hot. Huge cracks appear all over the SE.

And then, the outer shell explodes. Its black shards fly around in a killer rain of sharp, deadly objects. MSAS squads are not in range of this maelstorm - but you all are.


DC 17 reflex save, DC 30/22 toughness save. I've decied to roll for everyone already - if you want to improve any of the rolls with Extra Effort or a Hero Point, please mention that in a post.
Andy shaked off the dazzle, and he regenerated 1 bruise received from Todd's attack. The SE is stunned, staggered and disabled - but not paralyzed.

Lorne
Reflex: [roll0]
Toughness: [roll1]

Ben (has Evasion 2)
Reflex: [roll2]
Toughness: [roll3]

Todd
Reflex: [roll4]
Toughness: [roll5]

Emi (has Evasion)
Reflex: [roll6]
Toughness: [roll7]

James (has Evasion 2)
Reflex: [roll8]
Toughness: [roll9]

Andy
Reflex: [roll10]
Toughness: [roll11]

Cat (has Evasion 2)
Reflex: [roll12]
Toughness: [roll13]


The SE's shell remains only in fragments, that stick to the outside like black spikes. You can see its inside - a cream-colored fleshy substance that used to held the outside surface in its place. In the center of the Shifting Entity is situated a red crystal, larger than a man and so hot that it is literally burning. The two remaining tendrils have been cut off by the shell's explosion, but it seems there were 6 such additional tendrils inside the SE - they are thicker and do not look like they're going to separate from its flesh, but still end in "flower buds" - although these ones are open. The whole form of the SE is dripping with colorless, translucent fluid.

[Fri]

"Curse you you tentacled monstrosityyy..." roars James as he swished past the monster once again. But as previously, he backflips, land gracefully, and kneels.

As he dances gracefully against the dangerous shards, James quips."By the way, Andres" he says. "I heard that you like mythologies... Any idea what should we call this one?"

[Tengu_temp]

Oh God, no... It's my fault...
After hearing the screams Emi stands there, paralyzed with terror - only getting showered with the rain of shards, which miraculously does nothing to her and only bounces harmlessly off her armor, makes her return to her senses.

"I, I'm gonna do it...!", she answers Cat, raising both hands into the direction of the last bud. Two long, crystalline spears appear in front of her, floating in the air, and rush towards the creature.

Precise Autofire Blast 10, crits on 19-20
All-Out Attack 5
[roll0]
Depending on the result I might use Extra Effort to Surge.

[Cubey]

Emi's spears strike unerringly, basically ripping the bud into smaller pieces. The trooper body that it carried falls to the ground - but it's only a few feet so the impact shouldn't hurt the agent inside the suit that much... if whomever is inside is still alive.

[Drascin]

Andy smashes his punch into the SE with a scream of rage, crashing its outer shell and smiling avidly when he feels the squishy stuff inside... and then feels it pulse for a moment, and sees it crack all around. He's seen enough monsters die in series to realize what comes next, but he's too near and too slow and the only thing he has time for is to take the arm back and cross both arms in front of him as an instinctive shield as he goes "Oh, mie-!" *BOOM*.

He, obviously, is blasted away by the strength of the explosion and many shards smashing into his armor at point blank, falling off his pillar and rolling on the ground for a distance before he can manage to stop himself. He gets up slowly, his armor hissing from the heat. "...ouch. Stupid. Shoulda seen that one coming". But at least the hit has cooled him down significantly, and he isn't truly hurt. He looks at the situation.

"Those tentacles look more dangerous than the others. Let's cut them off before..." he then hears James's message. "Uh? Oh, right. Up to now I was calling him Kraken, but with all the autonomous tendrils it's starting to make me feel like I'm fighting a dozen different things and not a huge squid, and then there's the fact its insides seem made in Surt's forge itself" Andy's head is still a bit rattled, and it doesn't quite throw him any valid names. "So for now, I'm going with Omoikane. Take out the fire, and the comparison's pretty apt". His head finally clears a bit and he starts running forward to rejoing the melee.

((Plus that way we honor the Evangelion tradition of giving divine names to murderous aliens :smallwink:.)).

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Nice work, Andy!" Ben said, impressed, from where he was above the thing. He had managed to slide to the right in midair and pull off a triple aerial in order to avoid the flying pieces of armor that exploded off of the thing, and now he was in a perfect position to attack again. That red crystal in the center looked like a prime target if they were going to finish it off, but he didn't think a blast of fire was going to particularly work this time. Fortunately, he had an idea.

Ben held a hand straight out to his side, perpendicular to the line of his body, and grasped at a section of the fiery aura that had remained flowing around his form. The fire froze for a moment, and then flowed into the shape of a khatar, a punching dagger, around his fist, darkening just a bit where he touched it so it looked like something physical. "Time to end this." he thought aloud as he began sprinting directly down at the creature, like he was running down the side of a skyscraper. He aimed directly for the crystal, thrusting his hand straight at it and trying to add the momentum of his motion into it. He was moving so fast he looked like a bright orange-red dart spearing right into the heart of the SE.

Using Extra Effort to attack twice this round. Spending Hero Point to avoid Fatigue.
Charging/All-Out Attack/Power Attack Strike 10 (-7 Defense[+3], +2 Attack [+12], +5 Damage DC [Strike 15])
Strike: [roll0]+1 from Master Plan = 30

[Haven]

That worked? This suit is as amazing in combat as it is in training!

I am unharmed, Commander! Lorne broadcasts, a hint of exuberance in his voice.

After narrowly dodging the thing's exploding shell, Lorne raises his left arm and aims; internal turbines spin and a blast of the air his suit generates fires straight at the red crystal.

[roll0]

Assuming the thing still fires heat blasts, I'll use a move action to do the same trick as last round, but taking 10--giving me a result of 21 (+15 acrobatics bonus, -5 for move action, +1 from the commander's master plan)

[Cubey]

Although Lorne's trickery is unsuccessful this time (probably because the SE is too wounded to pay attention), his wind blast allows the crystal to cool a bit. This lets Ben charge at it so mightily that... the crystal breaks into shards.

Without any warning, SE 01B flops down to the ground, lifeless. Whomever is close gets sprayed with its internal liquid - it's not pretty, but rather harmless. As the SE's body quickly cools down, it suddenly becomes really cold around it. Catriona's environmental effect is still working, after all.

"SE 01B neutralized. Congratulations on a job well done." The mission control lady sounds relieved.

"Alright! We did it!" "Kickass!" "Get the emergency response squad here!" A voice of reason strikes through the victory cries of the MSAS squads. But it was unnecessary - several SECT operatives carrying medical and tech equipment already run towards Bravo squad.

"Is it... really over...?" Laura's surprise is obvious.

[Matar]

Todd walks over to the shards and picks one up. 'I wonder if I can make something out of this...'. He's still in his armor, and doesn't transform back. The earth SE hasn't shown up yet, and if Saturday cartoon shows have taught him anything something always pops out after a fight like this.

"I don't trust this..." Todd mutters. He wasn't talking to any in particular, but he wasn't exactly talking to himself either. "That was too easy. Besides, fights with monsters never end like this."

Todd laughs, having obviously enjoyed the fight, if not being a little disappointed.

"Or, who knows? Maybe the heroes are gonna get a break this time."

[Fri]

The Grey Fowl stands and combs its red plumage coolly with his fingers.

"Mission Accomplished..."

[Drascin]

Andy gets near Omoikane and looks at it intently. He doesn't trust this. The thing had fallen far too quickly - he's half-expecting it to suddenly rise again and attack the distracted humans.

"...Commander, this seems too easy. I would recommend caution for at least the following five minutes - or better yet let's just nuke it whole just to be sure. It might have just fainted from the blows, and I wouldn't like it if it got up when we turned our backs" Then something strikes him.

"Hey, Lorne, was it? You had sensors, didn't you? Does this thing still ping in your radar?"

And then, of course, there's the other one. These always came in pairs, but nobody had detected it yet. It couldn't be coming through the ground, could it? They were supposed to be unable to go through the earth for some reason.

[Haven]

"We shouldn't let our guard down yet. That was far too easy."

Lorne is incredibly skeptical of the thought that the SE is destroyed. He first looks at it, attempting to discern if there are any, say, infrared point sources crawling beneath its surface or something, followed by aerially surveying the area within his visual range to make sure there aren't, for instance, any monsters coming at them. Failing that, he descends to within 20 feet of the SE to use his armor's chemical analysis suite (("analytical smell," awesome)) on the target to see if there are any anamolies there. And keeps his body-tight corrosive aura up, in case a giant tentacle lunges out of the carcass at him.

[kamikasei]

Cat lets out a long, misting breath, looking uncertain.

"Is it really down? Did we do it?" She sounds less surprised that it was so 'easy' than questioning what they should do next. She remains in armour, though the standing wave at her feet flows up and freezes into place around the plates of her armour.

Standing in place, she scans the area. "Do we need to dispose of it before the Earth-based SE shows up? Is there still a risk if they touch?"

[Tengu_temp]

Emi lets out a sigh of relief, and takes several steps towards the Bravo group - the first time she moved significantly from her spot after the combat started. She doesn't go very far, though, as she starts to hesitate - those people might need her healing powers, but what if some of them are...? She's too nervous to finish the though.
"Damnit!" Emi shakes her head, trying to gain confidence, and speaks on the radio. "Emergency response squad, do you need help with the wounded?"

[Fri]

"...Commander, this seems too easy. I would recommend caution for at least the following five minutes - or better yet let's just nuke it whole just to be sure. It might have just fainted from the blows, and I wouldn't like it if it got up when we turned our backs" Then something strikes him.


"Don't mind that now. Let's help Emi to evacuate the wounded."

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Ben stood up from where he had landed in the middle of the ruined remains of SE 01B. There was that clear gunk from the inside of the creature, most likely its blood, all around him, but any that touched Infernal Requiem sizzled and burned right off in a cloud of foul-smelling steam. With the temperature radiating outward from Ben's armor, those looking at him could only see him as if he was standing far away on hot pavement, with waving lines of invisible heat obscuring and distorting his form. The only thing they could see clearly was the t-visor on his helmet, which glowed a burning crimson color. Looking disdainfully at the disgusting remains of the shifting entity, Ben began marching back toward the others. The fire weapon that had been in his hand had disappeared on impact with the creature, but any nearby flames that had survived the low temperature outside of Ben's immediate vicinity were drawn to him as he passed, swirling around him in a vague orbit.

[Cubey]

Lorne's analysis shows that 01B was made from unknown substances. You detect traces of Sophium, mostly in the central crystal - but it doesn't help that it slowly disintegrates before your very eyes. The shard that Todd holds gets visibly smaller every second. The rest of the body decomposes slower, but the process is still there.
Other than that, all hints you managed to collect point to one conclusion - the beast is dead.

"Our current theories say that both SEs have to be conscious when they make contact. This is no longer the case, so we have an excellent opportunity. We can observe what does 01A decide to do after it appears. When detected, we will perform observation rather than interception - unless it deliberately acts against the human population." The Commander answers all voices of concern, after giving it a short moment of thought.

The response team quickly runs towards the fallen troopers. "Open the suit!" "Hello? Can you hear me?" "There is a response here!" "What a mess..."
Someone stands in front of Emi, and whomever else decides to help as well - the leader of the Bravo team, in her mark II suit with a lowered visor.
"Our response squad are pros, they know what they're doing. You really shouldn't be here..." She turns to look at the resulting chaos, with people trying to turn over the seemingly lifeless Alloy Suits and retrieve bodies from within them. "I'll be straightforward. You won't help, you'll only puke. Sorry."

"Hey, this guy's alive!" "Urgh, that arm's a mess..." "We need to get them to a hospital immediatelly!" "Stay with me, soldier!" "Most wounds are from crushing. These monsters weren't able to cut through the suit, only squeeze it." In the distance you can see that the squad managed to open up all three suits and extract bloodied (no details can be seen unless you come closer - maybe it's for the better) people from within, putting them on stretchers and applying all kinds of medical procedures. There is already a medical chopper above them, preparing to land.

"Reporting." You hear a voice in the radio. It's the Charlie squad leader. "All three casualties are alive. Tough guys, huh? But it won't last if they don't get life support. We're getting them out now."

Some medical personnel get on the helicopter, as well as obviously the wounded. It takes off, but when it manages to move less than 100 feet away from the place of action...
"Warning! SE detected!" Mission control suddenly announces!

Something starts to happen, right between you and the whole group of SECT members who helped with the wounded. A huge... thing... leaps out of the pavement! It resembles a giant spider, 4 meters tall and at least just as long. Except that spider limbs do not resemble very thin and long human arms, down to the hands. An unnerving grimace of pain is visible on its face all the time - a face that is almost human, save for spidery eyes. Doubly unnerving is the fact that the face, and the whole being in fact, seems to be upside-down by default.
The SE faces you and screams horribly. The scream carries emotions of pain, longing and absolute loss.
DC 25 will check or you feel depressed - Shaken for a failed save (-2 to attack, defense and checks), absolutely hopeless if you fail by 10 or more (cannot take actions at all). Fearless doesn't help against it - it's not fear but despair.

Lorne: [roll0]
Ben: [roll1]
Todd: [roll2]
Emi: [roll3]
James: [roll4]
Andy: [roll5]
Cat: [roll6]
If you don't like the roll, you can reroll with a Hero Point - if you have any left.


As for other people, the scream works quite well on them - most of them seem so overcome with despair that they cannot act to do anything... this includes not only Laura Ericks, but also the helicopter pilot - the machine cannot fly and crashes to the ground. It doesn't explode, but it still looks very dangerous.

The spider... thing... screams a second time as something that looks like large shards of glass slash into its flesh-colored carapace. They come from a direction away from the parking lot and the highway - where, at the edge of your visibility, a lone black figure stands.

(Roll initiative, you can make your actions for this round - those of you who aren't left in despair.)

[Fri]

*Ba-Dump*

No...

Just as James turned to help Emi, he falls to his knees.

*Ba-Dump*

Supernatural feeling of despair overtaken James.

"Everyone..."

[Fri]

Flaming Chicken Courage!

[roll0]

But despair can also be a source of power...

"Sarah..."

In the darkness of the night, it stands. Its red scarfs flutters against the cosmic horror's scream, its beak glitters like a beacon of hope, its plumage rises like a striking red flag. It slowly moves toward Ben.

"Everyone! On me! We can stand this!"

(Emotion: Hope! Burst centered on The Grey Fowl!)


If a chicken can stand this, everyone can.

[Haven]

Lorne is incredibly disturbed by the thing's appearance and its screams, but not so much that he doesn't react to its appearance. He shifts his armor's focus to it, and...

Initiative: [roll0]

((OOC: Would I have a chance to react to the helicopter losing control? If so I'll switch to Telekinesis and use that to try to at least cushion its descent. In any case, analyzing the SE, switching it to my Nemesis, and what I do in the round depends on what power I get. Also, can I see what the lone figure with the glass shards is? I should be able to since my vision is ten times normal.))

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"YYyyeeeaaAAAGh!" Ben cried out in pain as his head throbbed and twisted, foreign emotions spiking into his brain and overwriting his normal mental activity. He fell to one knee, clutching at his helmet with both hands. "No...NO! I can't...AAah!!" He pounded his gloved fists against the ground, crackng it explosively, then put his head against the pavement and tried to cover his helmet with his arms.

No Hero Points left, so just let me know when I can act again. :smallfrown:

[Matar]

((I take it we are in no turn order still?))

"I feel your dispair! I feel your suffering! I feel your sadness! However, do not think for even a moment that you are the only one here who feels that way! The pain you feel now is only a small taste of what your kind has brought upon humantiy!

For a moment it would seem that Todd is overcome with dispair, however even with tears streaming down his face, he knows what must be done. He charges at the beast, and when gets close to it he reaches out and grabs it, using all the force in his body to bring it down to the ground.

"Know that what you feel now is what we fight against, and know that what we fight for... IS HOPE!"

Grappling/Pin: 1d20

+10+9-2

[Cubey]

Lorne receives Emotion Control (Area - burst, Extended range x2) 2 and Enhanced Feat - Evasion x2.
You can try to cushion the helicopter's fall with Telekinesis.

(everyone acts in roughly the same time in this round, but since round 2, initiative will come into play. So everyone, roll for it)

[Matar]

((Rolling...))

Ini: [roll0]

[Haven]

Enhanced Feat - Evasion x2.

((Well that's good news.))

Upon seeing the helicopter begin to fall, Aeolus' arm cannon quickly retracts, and an aperture appears on the palm of the left hand. Holding it out, Lorne telekinetically cushions the helicopter's fall.

"My analysis suggests it has some sort of area attack, so spread out. W-we can beat this thing!"

He takes to the skies a hundred feet above the monstrosity, and continues to scan it for weaknesses.

((While I'm at it, I'll make an Intelligence check for a Master Plan to be deployed after we get rid of that pesky despair.))

[roll0]

[Cubey]

Lorne tries to cushion the helicopter, and is only moderately successful - your telekinesis is not strong enough and it still crashes. But you know that you reduced its acceleration somewhat, so the damage would be worse if you didn't do that.
Your analysis on the human-spider SE brings results: not only can it manipulate others' emotions (which you felt already), it has lots of long range area attack abilities. Its offensive and defensive capabilities are balanced - and way stronger than those of a single Shifter.
The black PSA you noticed has next to no features, except for carapace-like armor placed on random parts of the body. What parts are not covered by armor seem to visibly bulge out in flesh-like texture, but they're still uniformly black. Your keen senses allowed you to notice that the whole pattern of armored and fleshy parts seems to slowly change at random. The silhouette of this Shifter is tall and very thin.

Todd tries to wrestle the SE down, but it jumps back before he has a chance to grasp it with his arms. It's fast!
(There are OOC discussions on what exactly should James do, so I won't post the result of his action yet.)

[kamikasei]

Cat takes an involuntary step back, shuddering. The warped touches of near-humanity visible in the new SE are much more disturbing than the simple alienness of the Kraken. That had been a monster - this was a horror.

Her gorge rises in her throat and tears bead and freeze, unnoticed, in the corners of her eyes. Even if they can beat this thing, will it matter? Isn't it bad enough already that such a twisted mockery can exist at all? Haven't the Entities - a face seen through ice-covered glass flashes across her mind's eye - haven't they taken enough from them already?

"Gaaaah!" she cries out, slashing her arms crosswise at the creature in an emphatic gesture of rejection, eyes tightly shut. Ice forms around its feet, attempting to freeze it in place.

[roll0]

[roll1] - +8, presumably, unless something lifts the Shaken effect first, in which case +10.

Attempting to Snare the SE.

[Tengu_temp]

Emi lowers her head.
"If they need immediate medical attention, I could help them at least somewhat...", she mutters. Once again, she feels unneeded - even though the part about barfing probably was true.

And then the other SE appears!
Initiative - [roll0]

"Aaaah! No!" Emi bends over from hearing the howl, clutching her head.
"I... I..." With effort, she manages to look up at the horrid creature... And then something inside her changes. "I am not afraid of you!" Standing up, she points her hand at the SE, and a variety of irregular shards of green and blue crystal - pointy and sharp shards - appears in the air around her. And then they rush forward, towards the monster!

Attack - [roll1]

[Cubey]

Unfortunately, both Cat and Emi miss horribly. This one is much more agile than the previous, which was a barely moving behemoth.

[Drascin]

Andrés is completely surprised by the sprouting of the SE, and doesn't have time to steel himself before the wave of despair rushes him. He falls to one knee, clutching his head, as the tendrils of despair attack him.

However, the thing has made a slight error. Some people, when faced with hopelessness, react with apathy, sadness, or fear.

Adrés's instinctive reaction to hopelessness, to something in which he has problems to believe, is pure, simple, primal rage.

"Ah... ah... ragh... rrrrrraaaaaAAAAAAAAAH!" he screams, most of his rational mind gone, as he punches the ground with enough force to create a crater. But something in this, somehow, revitalizes some people. It's subtle, and nobody notices, but he hasn't given up yet - and as long as a hero doesn't give up, hopelessness is just a coward's excuse! "GET... THE ****... OUTTA MY HEAD!" he keeps screaming as he runs forward towards the spider, steps sounding like an avalanche going down a mountain. His attacks are uncontrolled and clumsy, his martial abilities completely forgotten.


[roll0]
[roll1] (Strike 1 Mighty + Linked Stun 10)

He's still shaken, but, in Andy tradition, he tries to fight it off by getting really, really angry. Still have the -2 to everything, though. C'mon Fri, let the **** sing a song of hope!

Those asterisks are obviously a male chicken, by the way. Stupid word filter.

[Cubey]

Andy's furious charge is surprisingly effective - the SE was too busy avoiding others' attacks and it was caught totally off guard. His blind hits cause cracks on the carapace to appear, and the SE tries to cover its head in pain. (1 injury + stun)

Suddenly, the aura of lingering despair disappears! Everyone is able to act and think normally again!
(Round 2 starts now) 01A seems to shake the stun off, and the cracked carapace slowly reforms.

The black figure jumps a few feet into the air and flies into melee with incredible speed, changing direction and spinning to confuse the opponent. It charges into the enemy with a powerful uppercut, followed by more mighty blows - kicks, punches, even powerful headbutts. 01A cannot withstand this assault and falls to the ground - the figure immediately acts on that, as its hands start to shine with bright white light. Both of them punch the Shifting Entity's thorax - causing the shine to move into 01A, and causing a devastating effect. Whole areas of the SE's body turn into glass, and immediately break into millions of small shards. All that is left is several seperated bodyparts that twitch spasmodically for a second, before stopping any movement at all.

The figure's face is fully concealed by uniform black, but it looks in Andres' direction. Wordlessly.

(Everyone can see how this new Shifter looks like now, not only Lorne.)

[Matar]

Todd walks over to the shattered body and picks up one of the glass like shards, hoping that this one won't just vanish like the others. He doesn't seem amazed or confused by the new comer at all.

"So, that was a huge let down. I was hoping for something a bit more explosive... but this works."

[Tengu_temp]

That was so quick...
Emi looks at the newcomer.
"Who are you? Are you Devon?"

[Drascin]

With a huge headache left by the excess of adrenaline used to fight off the SE, Andrés looks at the newcomer. She seems familiar, he's read the description somewhere... His rattled memory throws him a name.

"The famous Devon, I presume?" he holds the gaze pretty well - or so is to be presumed, since the God's helm doesn't really have an eye slit as much as carved statue eyes through which you can't really see Andy's. "Thanks for the help. It caught us completely unaware. Miss Ericks was asking for you earlier, too.". He sounds slightly tired, but otherwise pretty calm.

[Cubey]

"I was tracking this." The figure speaks - the voice is female, and also completely devoid of any emotion. "You wouldn't be able to kill it as easily as I did."

"Devon...! You came!" Laura confirms your speculation with a desperate, but somehow relieved exclamation. There is no reaction other than Devon turning her back on you and slowly walking away.

"Do you do this because you want to, or because you are told to?" She says, not even bothering to face you.

Some of the MSAS troopers have regained their senses, and are commenting on the situation. Some wonder what exactly happened, but you can capture a quiet: "Wow, she's still a total pain in the ass..."

Others quickly go to the fallen helicopter. Some inside it might need help - badly.

"SE... 01A has been neutralized." The operator finally announces.

[Drascin]

Andy is rather taken aback by the manners (and lack thereafter) of the newcomer, but still answers.

"Who, me? Because I want to, obviously. I happen to have a power that can be used to help others. Hence, I do" his voice is a bit garbled by the rumbling of the God, but it's still easy to perceive the "duh" tone. Surprisingly enough, this seems to be the voice of a man who isn't just doing such thing because of duty, but of one who honestly can't really fathom doing anything else under the circumstances.

[Matar]

"Oh come on man!"

Todd pokes Andy in the side a couple, seemingly annoyed by his simple response.

"Put some more power into it! Fill your voice with passion! What would the great hero Kamina say if he heard such a simple answer as to why you fight?!"

Todd gives your head a friendly thump.

"I need to help you work on that man, like, badly."

[Tengu_temp]

The battle is over now, but Emi does not feel satisfaction or relief - her fatigue has finally kicked in, though. She sits down underneath the closest wall and pulls her arms around her knees.
"She came in, stole the show and defeated that thing effortlessly - why are we even needed here? I can't even help with the wounded because I'm not a trained professional and would only puke. Yay."

[Fri]

Dusting his armor, James stands coolly.

"That was quite...."

The Grey Fowl combs its plumage backward.

"quite an anti climax."

[Cubey]

"Don't say that." Commander Clayton's voice sounds over the radio, coming from your amplifiers. The voice is harsher than usual, but it soon mellows down to his normal, empathic tone. "You all performed excellent today - if it was not for you, the mission would fail for sure. Two SEs could even join and create another catastrophe - 01A was closer than we speculated... it emerged from the Earth itself, that's terrible news for us. Ladies and gentlemen - the strongest are those who know when to ask for help. Everyone has their job to do - only fools try to do everything themselves. Devon... doesn't understand that."
"A transport will arrive soon for everyone of you. A team will remain on the area to secure the terrain and search for knowledge we might use against further attacks - it seems we need it badly, with the amount of surprises we had today. I have decided to move you, as members of our best Shifter squad, to our new headquarters. When you arrive home, prepare personal belongings that you want to take with you - you will be transported to the HQ in..." A pause. He might be checking his watch. "Less than 54 hours. SECT will take care of all the official paperwork. This is all - Richard Clayton out."

Surprisingly, nobody tries to stop Devon. Some SECT operatives look like they wonder about that too, but everyone just lets her go into the darkness.

"I..." Laura looks quite shocked by everything that happened recently. But she snaps out of it. "The helicopter! What happened with the wounded?"

"Don't worry." A calm voice comes from behind her. She almost jumps nervously, then turns around to see who said that - it is Frank Symes, still in his suit. He doesn't seem to have even a scratch on himself.
"Everyone inside survived. The wounded, too. Nobody received a serious injury - I do not understand why, but we have your powers to thank for that." His gaze falls on all of you, one by one. Finally, he nods in approval.
"If our plan went well, I'd be a crisp now. But the SE knew where you were hiding. We must discover why. But it's not my job - I am only a soldier."

"When they fought these giant flowers... The Great Pretender fortified their physical endurance... so they won't get wounded." Laura's explanation seems directed to no one, maybe it was just a thought said out-loud. "I'm so glad!" For the first time since you met her, her smile looks sincere.

(You can talk with yourself or the others, or try to search around for clues. If you want the time to progress further, say so.)

[Matar]

Todd rolls the glass like bit of the SE around in the palm of his hand before tossing it in the air. With a might shout he release his armor.

"Green Wizard, sleep!"

The armor creaks and groans as it's seemingly sucked back into the amplifier. Todd catches the crystal he tossed in the air before it hits the ground and shoves it in his pocket. He sees Frank and laughs, running up to meet him.

"Yo, old man! Glad to see you survived, heh."

Todd pats Franks armored chest a couple times with a grin on his face. It's obvious that he'd tired, even wearing the armor is enough to wear a body out. However, his weariness doesn't stop him from standing tall or proud.

"Let's just hope that armor holds up though, because with the sheer dedication and passion I saw I have the feeling that the armor will rust far before your will to fight starts to!"

[Drascin]

Andy is incredibly relieved to hear that there's nobody seriously wounded. He begins to feel quite the tinge of euphoria himself - they'd done it. And they'd done it right! Nobody died, both the monsters were stopped, and the...


"Oh come on man!"

Todd pokes Andy in the side a couple, seemingly annoyed by his simple response.

"Put some more power into it! Fill your voice with passion! What would the great hero Kamina say if he heard such a simple answer as to why you fight?!"

Todd gives your head a friendly thump.

"I need to help you work on that man, like, badly."

"He'd probably want to recruit me. After all, that's exactly why most of the Gurren brigade fought - they had the chance to do something good for everyone, and took it. Andrés says simply. His confidence is obvious, and contagious.

"Besides, rather than Kamina, I always tried to be more like Simon - you know, speak softly, and kick nine shades of ass" he jokes.

"That said" he goes serious again, "gotta say I'm quite annoyed. I should have felt the second one coming. The ground is supposed to be my territory" He sighs. "Oh well. No good'll come of obsessing over it - I just have to get better. Let's focus on more interesting things". He dismisses his armor and approaches the rest of the goup "So, it seems we're now a full-fledged squad, if I understood the boss right, with our own headquarters and living quarters and everything. Well, I hope I don't get too much on y'all's nerves" he winks.

Well, well. Things could certainly be going worse. They did good on their first outing, and for the next time they'll actually be prepared. And his unit looks full of great people - and a couple cute girls, that's always a plus. Yeah, it might be the after-victory euphoria, but right now Andy feels good.

[kamikasei]

Cat, appropriately, is frozen. Aside from the movement of her torso as she breathes heavily, she's still tensed in the pose she attained after attempting to freeze 01A in place - leaning forward, arms to her sides and reaching back, fists clenched. She has the look of a child who screamed "go away!" in a tantrum, then opened her eyes to find the other party had obediently vanished.

Slowly she forces her muscles to relax and straightens up, her focus relaxing and the chatter on the radio sounding like words again. The SE - both SEs - are down, no one has been killed...

With a deep breath and a long exhalation, Cat closes her eyes again and concentrates for a moment, releasing the effect she had placed on the area. Temperatures rapidly begin to return to normal.

"Anticlimax, hell!" she replies to James as she begins walking back to the group - although still in armour, it seems strange to her to use her powers with no enemy present. "We won, didn't we? And without losing anyone, thanks to you," she nods gratefully at Laura. While she looks around at the rest of the group, beaming, she seems to pass over Emi.

[Cubey]

Frank looks puzzled by your discussion - maybe he didn't hear about TTGL. Or maybe he likes Viral more than Kamina or Simon.
"I'll see you in the headquarters." He walks away, waving good-bye with his suit's large arm.

"I... didn't lose my touch yet..." Letting off a sigh of relief, Laura dismisses her suit of armor. And as soon as she does that, she falls unconscious to the ground.

[kamikasei]

"Whoa!" Cat, looking embarrassed that she had forgotten to do it sooner, releases her armour and hurries to Laura's side. "...Miss Ericks has collapsed, can we get someone over here?" she speak in to her amplifier, unsure whether they should try to do anything themselves. Armour gone, her clothes appear quite dry, but strangely although there's still a chill about her as she passes you there's no sign the cold is bothering her.

[Tengu_temp]

Emi touches her amplifier and deactivates her armor - its disappearance is much simpler than summoning, as it just shimmers and fades away. So does the giant hand she created.
"Well, at least both the SEs got defeated and nobody died - that's what really matters, right? I guess I shouldn't complain - it's just that all this looks different from what I expected..." If Emi wanted to elaborate further on this point, then Laura collapsing interrupted her. She looks at the scene with concern, but doesn't stand up - too tired, and Cat seems to be handling it well enough.

[Cubey]

"Of course. Help is on the way." Your mission control lady doesn't sound very surprised at all. Indeed, a medic arrives only a few seconds later, accompanied by assistants carrying a stretcher.

"All normal." After performing basic diagnosis, the middle-aged man removes his hat to rub the sweat off his brow. "Alright, take her away. The doctor's waiting."
"Thank you for letting us know. Miss Ericks likes to do this." The whole group departs carrying their unconscious patient, leaving any questions you might have for Laura unanswered.

[Fri]

"Chicken... out"

A quick flashes, and the fowl turned back into James. He tidied up his clothing and combs his hair, then he pulls a shades from his pocket (never mind that it's not even dawn right now)

"You're right. For a first mission, it's not that bad."

Then he punches himself in the cheek. "But also very disappointing. I'm weak, really weak. I have no excuse on that. I'm a disgrace for all fowlkinds in the world... I joined this because I thought I won't be helpless anymore."

He then pulled a harmonica from his jacket and start to brood in one corner of the wall, and plays a haunting refrain.

[Tengu_temp]

Oh God - Rooster Boy is disappointed too. I'm in one basket with him. Just one mission and I am losing my sanity already.
Emi snorts and starts to laugh, as if chicken angst was one of the funniest things in the world.

[Fri]

"I guess..." James said in between his emotional harmonica playing, "with this, our elite team is formally formed? And they won't be back into wherever they came from?"

more soulful refrain.

"I only said that because... this team hadn't even got a name. We're called here in a surprise from all over the world, suddenly became a team, kicked a tentacled monstrosity's ass, got our asses kicked by a tentacled monstrosity, before we got enough explanation about our current gig. All were thrilling enough that we don't even get time to think about all of it. But now, after everything is cool again, I need to know. What do you want us to do next? Well, not that I'm worried about myself, but Miss Laura's condition is worrying enough, and...

He nodded toward Cat, eyes still covered in shades.

"... this just isn't the place for her to be in these hours."

[Drascin]

Andy had been startled by Laura's fainting spell, but his worries were eased when they took her away. She did entirely too much, that girl. If he knew anything about people, she seemed the self-martyrizing overworking type. He'd have to grow stronger to get some work off her shoulders.


"I guess..." James said in between his emotional harmonica playing, "with this, our elite team is formally formed? And they won't be back into wherever they came from?"

more soulful refrain.

"I only said that because... this team hadn't even got a name. We're called here in a surprise from all over the world, suddenly became a team, kicked a tentacled monstrosity's ass, got our asses kicked by a tentacled monstrosity, before we got enough explanation about our current gig. All were thrilling enough that we don't even get time to think about all of it. But now, after everything is cool again, I need to know. What do you want us to do next? Well, not that I'm worried about myself, but Miss Laura's condition is worrying enough, and...

"Well, I dunno what the others want to do, but as for me, I want a sofa. I kinda was at ground zero when the Omoikane thingy exploded, what with making it explode myself and all, and my knees are sore something fierce" Andy jokes. "But, now seriously, I guess they'll come get us soon, we get home and get our stuff, and then we meet in a couple days at headquarters. We need to be together and ready to answer for next time, after all" he says, more serious. Then he smiles again "So, if you ask me, I'd leave the team naming for then. You know, give everyone time to get used to the idea and think of something cool and all that".


He nodded toward Cat, eyes still covered in shades.

"... this just isn't the place for her to be in these hours."

Andy looks puzzled at this. "Uh, sorry dude, not following you. Yeah, these ain't hours to be anywhere except comfily sleeping in a bed, but that goes for all of us, I'd say. Well, when we stop being jittery from all the adrenaline, I mean"

[Fri]

"I know.. she's just an example" James smiles.

[Drascin]

"Heh, alright, alright. I was just wondering why you singled Cat" Andy raises his arms in a mock apologetic gesture. "But yeah. We're, as James says, a complete elite unit as of now. Well, I suppose it'll not be official until we're all back at our shiny new headquarters, y'know, formalities" Andy does a dismissive gesture. "But as far as I'm concerned, we're a team now." He looks at everyone, with his contagious, confident smile "So, you know, a pleasure to work with you all. Well, as much pleasure as fighting abominations borne from Loki's indigestion-induced hallucination's can be, I mean" he laughs. Again, while he's not loud and he's not overbearing as Todd is, he seems to have a relaxed certainty and humor that fill more space than he does.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

When the aura of despair began to let up, Ben struggled to his feet, though he was still hunched over. Finally it disappeared and Ben straightened up at the waist with a growl, the aura of flames around him exploding outward in concert with his anger. He clenched his fists as he saw that the earth-based SE had already been defeated and the air around him for a mile in every direction got much hotter until it seemed like those gathered were standing in the middle of a blacktop parking lot on a sunny day at high noon. One couldn't see his expression for the mask, but his entire body was rigid and trembling slightly as those flames swirled around him. His head turned to regard Devon as she slowly walked away from them.

Then he was off into the air like a shot, almost leaving those flames behind him as they struggled to keep up. He hit the ground in front of Devon before she could leave, with the aura returning after a second's delay, blossoming out onto the ground as it hit and then reforming around him. Fists still clenched, he pointed one finger directly in Devon's face as he stood in her path. "Where the hell do you get off, girl?" he demanded. "What the hell are you doing here, huh? Just showing up after all this time, after abandoning your teammate and SECT. You think you're some big damn hero? We didn't need your help!" he growled. "Everyone else might be too scared to say it, to let you just walk off into the sunset like the goddamn lone ranger, but this is bullsh*t!" he yelled at her.

Damn you people and your wonky time zones!

[Tengu_temp]

Emi didn't laugh for long before calming down.
"Sorry... When you're tired, you laugh from the weirdest things sometimes."
With a bit of effort she manages to get up again, and yawns, covering her mouth with her hand.
"I wonder how will school look like at the new place..."

[Cubey]

Although the Black Cloud has no visor, no facemask and no other features on the face, Ben feels that Devon gazes at him studiously.
"Hero? I am only myself, and I do what I want to. I want to save my race, and these beings won't stop until humans are all wiped out. You would have killed that one... eventually. It was hesitating and thus weak. But it didn't abandon its goal." Her voice is unchanging in its neutrality. It's almost like if she was giving a philosophical speech to an academic audience, rather than answering a very angry fire-controlling Shifter.
"And the combination of an unattainable goal and weakness is what made it die." She rises into the air, trying to float above you.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"That's not what I asked you, Devon!" Ben said as he jumped upward and landed on the air, staying in front of her and not letting her past. "Why are you here? After just walking away from SECT, what makes you think you have a right to even show your face?! You're just getting in our way! In my way! You listen and you listen good. I'm not going to just stand aside and let you do whatever you want. You're a loose cannon, and if you're not part of the team you're part of the problem. If you don't want to be a part of SECT anymore, fine, but you park your butt on the sidelines. If you show up and try to pull that crap again, I'm going to treat you the same as the enemy. Am I understood?" The t-visor flashed crimson again as the air around them went from hot day to edge of a volcano hot, rising with his temper.

[Haven]

I can't believe it...

After the battle ends, Lorne does a quick reconnaissance, circling the immediate area to make sure nothing else is about to pop up on them. He then Shifts, and goes as far under the Earth as he can in that form, keeping his bearings with his electroreceptive sensors as he searches for any sign of where the terrestrial SE came from. Thanks to Stork's Nest, we may be on the verge of a major breaktrhough about the origin of the space-based SEs...I may be able to make the same for the terrestrial ones.

Devon? He radios in as he searches. If you don't mind, ah, could you tell me about how you tracked the creature, and where you picked up the trail? His voice is a bit nervous--Devon is something of a legend to him.

[kamikasei]

The look on Cat's face during James' and Andy's exchange is no doubt a little odd. In fact, this is because she's trying hard not to succumb to stress and join Emi in the release of highly inappropriate laughter. It also seems as though her body is slowly noticing that, hey, it's pretty tired, and it doesn't need to keep her standing, any more, does it?

"Yeah - I think the getting-to-know-you stuff would work better after we've all cleaned off and gotten a good night's sleep. But I'm looking forward to it. We did some good today." She looks around. "But where's Ben gone, and Lorne?"

[Cubey]

Lorne doesn't notice anything unusual... weird. But then, he cannot travel deep down, it becomes impossible after less than 6 feet. You cannot contact Devon, as you don't know her amplifier-radio's frequency... or if she has any radio inside hers, for that matter.

"Very well. This is how you declare your actions. The future will see if you can live up to them." Devon lands, apparently giving up the flight seeing that you can stop her in air as well. She continues to try to walk forward though. "But I have advice for you. Do not view me as your enemy. I am a very dangerous person. And do not tell me what should I do."

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Yeah? Bite me." Ben shot back. "So you're dangerous. Join the club. Now get lost before I lose my temper." he growled. He seemed to jump off of the air and landed on the ground behind her, giving her a clear road to leave on. He kept his back turned as he started his own walk back to where the others were gathered. As he got closer to the gathered tents and people, the temperature around him began to slowly cool so that he wasn't turning the entire area into the surface of the sun anymore. The area that was being affected shrank as well until it was just very close to him where the temperature jumped, though anything that happened to touch his armor still sizzled and burnt away upon contact.

[Tengu_temp]

"I don't know. They probably did what we should as well - return home to rest. It's a good alternative to hanging around here aimlessly, until you drop for exhaustion."
Emi looks around to check if they might be somewhere near after all - she looks tired and not too attentive at the moment, though.
"Although it's weird neither of them said goodbye... Oh. There's Ben."

[Fri]

James stops playing his harmonica and lowers his shades slightly to look at the floating devon above.

"The problem is that she is strong enough to pull all of it." he says, with a shade of envy.

He know that he isn't exactly what you call a team person. But he's not strong enough...

[Drascin]

The look on Cat's face during James' and Andy's exchange is no doubt a little odd. In fact, this is because she's trying hard not to succumb to stress and join Emi in the release of highly inappropriate laughter. It also seems as though her body is slowly noticing that, hey, it's pretty tired, and it doesn't need to keep her standing, any more, does it?

Andy, as the archetypical experienced class bufoon, however, notices Cat's expression - he's seen it altogether too much. Still in his congratiating voice he says "Hey, Cat, you know, it's not nice, here I am trying my best to make you all laugh or at least chuckle a bit to relax after we fought for our lives, and here you are trying not to laugh. C'mon, no fair!"

"But yeah, Emi's right. We should go and find how we're getting back home. I could sleep right here in the pavement, but I want to get my stuff from home. If I'm going to have to go through more military courses, I'm gonna need my handheld"

[Haven]

Lorne's curiosity is doubled by the lack of any evidence. He leaves the earth, and tries to find Devon before she leaves the area completely. If he can, he lands in front of her.

"Devon? Before you leave, I'd just like to thank you for the help. I've been hoping to compare notes with you since I first activated my armor--I understand yours does surveillance too, and that's my suit's speciality! But more immediately, if you don't mind my asking--how did you locate and track that creature? And where did you first pick up the trail? Knowing this would be invaluable."

[Cubey]

"This one emerged in North Africa. I tracked it since then." Devon doesn't seem surprised at all that Lorne catched up to her. "SEs can see Shifters. I can see SEs. There are similarities, between me and them. But they always act in pairs, and are hopeless alone. I work at my best when alone."

At the same time, many SECT members are leaving from the place, although others stay to secure the parking lot and the immediate surroundings. Choppers land and take off, and cars arrive and drive away.
"Transport has been arranged for you - a helicopter will arrive shortly and take you to the nearest airport. Please do not hurry, the time is not limited anymore and we do not want you to mentally exert yourself any further." You receive a message from mission control.

[Tengu_temp]

"That's nice. All that's left to do is wait, then." Emi sits down at the closest bench, or bench surrogate, and tries to relax without completely falling asleep. She's balancing on a very thin line.
"And I really hope we won't have to do any military courses. I didn't sign up to be a soldier."

[Haven]

But they always act in pairs, and are hopeless alone.

"Well, we certainly saw that today," Lorne says. "If you don't mind my asking, how does your tracking system work? How is it that you were able to detect them long before we were?"

As exhausting as this is, I don't think I could bear to lose my armor while talking toDevon of all people...

[Cubey]

"I can feel an SE's presence. There is no consciously activated system involved." A swift answer. Devon does not elaborate further on any details, even if you try pressing her on the topic.

[Haven]

I was hoping for more than that.

"I see...well, I understand the appeal of solitude, so I'll just say: it was brilliant to see you in action today. ...Take care."

He transforms out of his armor--each segment retracts into the previous, until the whole thing has shrunk into the amplifier--and starts walking back towards the main area where everyone else is gathered around.

[kamikasei]

"Hey, Cat, you know, it's not nice, here I am trying my best to make you all laugh or at least chuckle a bit to relax after we fought for our lives, and here you are trying not to laugh. C'mon, no fair!"

At this, Cat does laugh, lightly and briefly. It switches off like a light, though, and she frowns.

"I don't know where I'm headed, actually. I wasn't at home earlier, I've been at a training camp in Marseilles. Don't know if they expect me to go back there first, or if they'll have sent my stuff home ahead..."

She yawns, and takes a seat beside Emi.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Ben walked into view ahead of Lorne, still looking pretty pissed off. When some of the passersby started to avoid coming too close because of the heat he was giving off, he finally reached up and touched his fist to his chest. Then he flung that arm out wide and his armor suddenly fragmented, glowing red-hot along the lines of separation. Each segmented piece seemed to loosen before increasing to white hot and then seemingly evaporating before your very eyes. Ben was left in the same clothes he'd been wearing earlier. He ran a hand through his hair while his amplifier let off a small cloud of smoke and deactivated.

[Cubey]

Two days later. It's about noon, you are aboard a transport helicopter flying over the North Sea, off the coast of Germany. Your personal belongings are safely packed in the back of the chopper - nobody complained no matter how many of them did you bring with yourself, there was enough place even for James' bike.
Your pilot makes sure the trip isn't monotonous. She sounds like Chuck Yeager if he was a woman - and a talkative one to that.
"I hear you ran into the old squad at your first mission. Bad luck to meet Devon so early - I bet she was all 'I like to talk about pseudo-existentialist crap, and I am also better than you.' Poor Laura. Out of all her teammates, Devon must have survived and everyone else died. I hear she fainted from power overdose. That's normal for her PSA - the first time she rewrote reality, she almost died. But then, she used that power on herself at that time." This sentence sounded different, almost shifty - like if the pilot wanted to tell you a juicy rumor.
"We'll be arriving soon. Take a good look, you can see HQ now."

You lost sight of the coast (be it German, or any other else) long ago, but now you see new land - an island! It is pretty small, about ten by six kilometers. As you fly closer, you can notice more details. Its shoreline are mostly moderately high cliffs, although one side has a port with several small vessels docked. Most of the island is left wild, with even trees standing in loose groups here and there, but you cannot miss a large gathering of buildings, all placed near the highest cliffside. They look modern, with glass and metal used in construction as much as concrete, but there are also many fortifications - the new headquarters of SECT, set in a remote and therefore safe location. Your new home, at least for a while.

The helicopter heads towards a landing pad situated near a tall tower-like structure. It should land in a while.

(If you wanted to do something before the timeskip, then you can freely post about it like if the timeskip didn't happen yet)

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

As per his usual, it seemed, Ben was sitting in the back of the helicopter fast asleep. It was amazing that he could sleep with all the noise the rotors made. Even the earplugs and headsets that had been provided didn't do much to dampen it. The sound was like having an endless freight train going by your head. Still, it seemed like the boy could probably sleep through a parade with a full marching band going by under his window if he put his mind to it. He had a talent for just nodding right off whenever they had any downtime. It was an enviable ability, since they hadn't had much time to really get any sack time with all the moving around and debriefing they'd been doing. He didn't even snore. He just let his chin fall to his chest and he was out like a light in a thunderstorm.

Feel free to have Ben sleep for the rest of the trip then sleepwalk inside following the flow. I, myself, am also going to bed as it's 2:30AM on the Pacific Coast. I'll be back six to eight hours from now to catch up.

[Drascin]

Andy, on the other hand, is quite interested in the travel, and has even put aside his handheld (which is probably whichever console Nintendo came up with after the DS) to look through the windows and chatter with the others. His pack is quite small - just stuff to entertain himself and clothes changes, because he really doesn't have many needs apart from that. And even those don't take much, given the advent of ebook readers and the very simple clothes he uses :smalltongue:.

"Aw, an island? ...Well, I guess it makes sense. It gives our unit that superhero base feel, too, which I have to say is pretty cool. Well, it rather looks like a supervillain's lair, but after all the supervillains are usually the ones who pay attention to security measures, so that's fine by me" he jokes.

[Cubey]

"It's much cooler than the previous HQ." The pilot answers. How can you communicate so easily with each other despite the rotor's noise? Headsets, of course.
"That one was mostly underground. This one has an underground section as well, but the overground is quite a thing to look at. Triumph of modern architecture."

[Matar]

It was obvious Todd was quite tired, however he wasn't able to fall asleep. The noise, mixed with the inability to actually lay down made it damn near impossible for him to.

"So, uh, hey? What about all the stuff at our homes and stuff? I mean, sure, all I had was one small room where I lived but I had some nice stuff there. What gonna happen to that?"

Todd strokes his chin like an evil mastermind.

"Oh, and if anyone thinks these chairs are too hard they are more then welcome to sit on my lap. Just putting that nce in a life time offer out there!"

[Cubey]

"You didn't take it with yourself? If it was a room in SECT building then I think someone emptied it out already and sent all your stuff in a package to your new room in the HQ. If it didn't arrive already, it should in a few days."
"Or you can tell someone to go back to your home and ship some stuff here. I hear Laura Ericks did just that. She was transported straight here from after your mission two days ago, not to her living place."

[Matar]

"Ah, no. It's fine, I guess it just didn't get here yet. I was just confused as to how the hell it all worked, it all."

[kamikasei]

Cat dozes. She has but one suitcase of clothing, mostly due to her father doing the take-this-what-if-you-need-it routine, and a carry-on with a few personal and peripheral belongings. She blinks sleepily and lifts her head to look out the window as the chatter rouses her.

"Looks good to me," she yawns. Then she grins. "Which is hardly surprising. But there's plenty of rock for you to throw around, even if it is an island, right?" This last, of course, is directed at Andy.

[Drascin]

"Yeah, yeah. It's just, never been much for the sea. Always preferred swimming pools. Plus, you know, there's the fact that a misjump in here during training and I'm going to have to climb all the way back from the bottom of the sea" he laughs.

((Gonna be absent for all the afternoon today, as I have an IRL game so don't expect much answering from me))

[kamikasei]

"Don't worry, I can always pluck you out. Just make sure to stay on my good side."

[Matar]

"Hey, so are there training grounds at this place? I know the whole 'Try not to use PSA' things and all, but I haven't exactly logged much fight time in the Green Wizard so... yeah."

[Tengu_temp]

Emi probably took the most stuff with herself - she brought almost all the contents of her room, apart from the furniture, with the case holding her guitar as the most prized possession. Her outfit is different this time - a creme-colored sweater and a blue jean dress, its chest pocket containing her iPod - she concentrates on listening to classic rock (and jRock) rather than participating in the conversations. She feels good - finally a new beginning, away from the toxic atmosphere at home!
"There probably are - where else do they expect us to hone our abilities?", Emi answers Todd's question. She says nothing about his previous offer - that was just too silly.

[Matar]

"Ahhh, yeah. True."

Todd laughs a little and then looks at everyone in the helecopter.

"So! Who wants to be the first person to spare with the Todd man?!"

[Cubey]

"Hold your horses. I hear there won't be a lot of opportunity for your PSAs to get sweaty." Your pilot clicks a button on her console, and starts talking with flight control on the ground. Simultaneously with the current discussion.
"Receiving transmission. All clear, Pineapple Three ready to land. But don't listen to me, I'm not the commander. Pineapple, what kind of callsign is that? I hope not to die from pineapple-related deaths. Flight control, please disregard that statement."

[Tengu_temp]

"Fine by me. I am not a fight-crazy Shonen anime character."
Emi looks into the window - start and landing are the best parts of a flight.
Unlike some other people here...

[Matar]

Todd shrugs his shoulders and makes a rude off hand remark.

"Yeah, your more of the "Sits in the corner and offers little in a fight" anime type of character. Like Sakura! Or Puck! Just, you know, a little more emo about it."

[kamikasei]

"It would be good to get the opportunity to train, though. I'd rather not get all my practice with my armour while my life is on the line..." Cat offers absently, looking out the window. When Todd speaks, her head snaps around to stare at him, but she says nothing.

[Tengu_temp]

"Well, excuse me for being a normal human being instead of an emotionless fighting machine. That was my first real combat, how did you expect me to act? And... you were occupied with the SE so much that you completely ignored the MSASes and the buds that went after them. If I didn't do anything about them, those people would be dead."
Emi folds her arms. She looks offended.

[Matar]

"Emotionless!?"

Todd is grinning. He seems to enjoy arguing, though not nearly as much as a good fashion brawl.

"When I fight, I fight with emotion! Rage, sorrow, love, PASSION! What I do not fight with though, is regret. What I do not fight with is hesitation."

Todd nods his head, and looks deep into your eyes. His eye burn with the fires of youth!

"And I assure you, I felt it when it when they were hurt! Each one of there wounds struck me deep in my soul, and I bled! I bled fury and determination!"

His voice becomes low, yet still retains all of it's fire.

"And after the battle, I did not fall from these wounds. I did not weep in a corner, nor did I ball myself up and hide from the world. I went to the man who was so willing to sacrifice his life for humanity, and I congratulated him. As you should have done."

[Tengu_temp]

Emi looks away - she doesn't like staring contests.
"Okay, then you feel emotions, if only from the 'uber hot blooded macho' category. Fine if that works for you, I don't care. But not everyone is like that! People have the right to be afraid, to feel regret."

[Matar]

Todd nods.

"No, your right. Fear and regret is rather... foreign to me. And yeah you're right, there's nothing with it. However, do you know what is wrong?"

Todd points his two fingers at you, the grin fading from his face. He looks right at you, even though you avoid his gaze you can still feel his eyes on you.

"Being timid. I want to explain something to me, and if you have guts to look me eyes while you tell me. Why did you go off in a corner and weep when the people who bled for us were writhing in pain?"

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

"Leave her alone, Todd." Ben spoke up, interrupting the caffeinated wonder's speech. It seemed that he had just woke up now that they were on the final approach to the island. "Don't you have better things to do than pick on a girl for acting like a human being during her first exposure to violence? Are you really that low?" he asked pointedly, his eyes narrowing at the other kid. He was getting more and more peeved by Todd's lack of connection to reality. He seemed to think that this entire experience was some game or a comic book. It wasn't just him, either. "Saving the world" wasn't some glamorous thing that they threw parades for. Even Devon and her lone ranger thing pissed him off. Todd was just the loudest of the bunch and hence was deserving of the most scorn at the moment.

[Haven]

"Agreed," said Lorne, looking up from a book. "Fighting...is not something that should come naturally to anyone."

[Matar]

Leave her alone, Todd." Ben spoke up, interrupting the caffeinated wonder's speech. It seemed that he had just woke up now that they were on the final approach to the island. "Don't you have better things to do than pick on a girl for acting like a human being during her first exposure to violence? Are you really that low?" he asked pointedly, his eyes narrowing at the other kid. He was getting more and more peeved by Todd's lack of connection to reality. He seemed to think that this entire experience was some game or a comic book. It wasn't just him, either. "Saving the world" wasn't some glamorous thing that they threw parades for. Even Devon and her lone ranger thing pissed him off. Todd was just the loudest of the bunch and hence was deserving of the most scorn at the moment.

"Tch, fine. I'll quit it, for now at least. Just so long as she doesn't go crying in a corner again I'll keep my trap shut."

Todd stops pointing at Emi and leans back.


"Agreed," said Lorne, looking up from a book. "Fighting...is not something that should come naturally to anyone."

"I dunno, other then fear I can't really think of anything that's more natural then fighting. Fight or flight and all that."

[Tengu_temp]

"I... wasn't crying."
Emi doesn't say anything else. The guys handled this pretty well (she remembers to thank them later), and this conversation stressed her enough already.

[kamikasei]

Cat just watches the exchange. Though there's no warmth in the look with which she studies Todd, nor does she make any move to defend Emi.

[Haven]

"I dunno, other then fear I can't really think of anything that's natural then fighting. Fight and flight and all that."

"Well," Lorne's tone quickly goes from confrontational to academic, it may be natural, but it shouldn't come naturally. If it weren't for the SEs, the only outlet for that would be to hurt other people.

Besides which, the flight-or-fight response is generally an obsolete technique, I believe. It complicates everyday life, narrowing our options to only those two in situations where it wouldn't be appropriate. Even in combat it takes more than raw adrenaline to win a fight. You have to understand your opponent, and use tactics, and stay cool. That's what put humans on top of the food chain, no matter how the SEs have tried to knock us off."

[Cubey]

"I don't want to interrupt any squabbles here, but the trip's over. Security procedures finished, proceeding with the landing sequence. The local time is 12:06 and we're arriving at Helipad A, SECT Headquarters. Make sure you do not leave any baggage in the vehicle. Thank you for choosing SECT Airlines." The pilot pretends she's a commercial airplane captain.

The landing is relatively gentle. There is a group of about twenty people waiting for you at the pad - most importantly, Richard Clayton himself!
"Welcome to Seeberg Island! I am glad you arrived safely. First things first." As soon as you leave the chopper, each one of you is approached by a SECT member. They wear uniforms, but look rather laidback and casual, in contrast of the mission's nervousness. You receive an ID badge and some kind of an electronic card.
"Make sure to wear the ID all times - there are security checkpoints all over the HQ. Your keycard grants you level three access, out of five. That's quite high, so try not to lose it, and if you do then tell a security officer immediately." The commander looks happy that he can dump all that information on you. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's proceed to your quarters. I will explain everything during the way there." A horde of assistants moves towards the helicopter to grab your baggage. The whole group walks away from the helipad, towards a nearby... monorail station!
"The headquarters are large, the size of a small town. Over eight thousand people work here, so we need transportation quicker than our own feet." Explaining, Clayton enters the monorail and gestures towards you to do the same. The assistants however load your luggage on some kind of a truck-like vehicle.
"Let me explain a few basics rules to you. There will not be a lot of them - this is not military, unlike what some might think. You will be able to do whatever you want with your free time, even depart for the mainland if you wish to. Just do not forget two most important regulations. First: you should be always ready for an SE alert. When a Shifting Entity is detected, you must listen to all orders given - many lives are at stake so I trust for your cooperation. Second: anything that happens here is classified for the outside world unless otherwise noted. That includes everything that happened on your first mission and any subsequent ones. You cannot mention even the smallest details to people outside SECT, not even your friends or family. These two rules should be taken seriously - if you break them, there will be severe consequences." The commander really looks serious for a moment. He stays silent as various buildings move outside the monorail car you are in. But then, he lightens up just as quick.
"Well, with that out of the way we can move to matters that are less grave. Your quarters are in the underground section. That doesn't mean you should stay underground all the time, to the contrary - feel free to wander around. This is just for your security. Even excluding your baggage there should be enough equipment in each room to live comfortably, but if you find yourself wanting a new piece of furniture or anything like that, inform the supply manager and it will be delivered to your room. There are maps all over HQ, but if you get lost then ask a guard for directions - do not worry, it can happen until you get used to the whole place. Cafeterias are set up in many places, so hunger should not be a problem."
"Your team will have an hour of physical exercises each day at 9 AM. It is important to stay active and healthy, and the supervisor is someone you had a chance to meet already - so do not skip, alright? There will be PSA training every Saturday. It will be focused on pushing the limits of remaining in the armor without significant exhaustion, but we may let you practice your combat abilities as well, just be careful not to get injured."
The monorail stops! Leaving it, you find yourself near an entrance to the underground complex. It is low, wide and looks just like you'd expect an underground base entrance to look like - with a security check point in front for protection, and two larger buildings surrounding it so that it's not easily visible from air.
"Finally, after some consultations we have decided that, even if you might have vacation time now, Shifters are the best humanity has to offer and therefore you should respond to a higher standard. SECT has hired tutors - there's just enough of you for a small class. It starts tomorrow, just like physical exercises. Your rooms should have timeplans of your classes, as well as maps and lists of security regulations. Your baggage should arrive here soon - the staff knows about your assigned accomodations, so ask them on which room each of you have been assigned to."
Commander Richard Clayton clears his throat.
"I officially welcome you as new operatives of the Shifting Entity Crisis Team, stationed in SECT headquarters on Seeberg Island, territorial waters of Germany, starting today!" He salutes, but he's not the only one - a platoon's size of operatives, who were earlier hiding in and around the underground passage, have emerged from their hiding place just a few seconds earlier, and now salute you as well.
"Make sure to ask me if there is anything I can help with. Now, or contact me later if any further questions cross your mind." He stretches his hand out, offering each one of you a handshake - his hand feels strong and more energetic than you'd expect of someone his age, and the shake is equally strong and confident for the male portion of the Shifter squad, but gentle for the girls.

At least for those of you who decide to accept the handshake, that is.

(I forgot one important detail - do you have amplifiers with yourself? The answer is no.)

[Haven]

At least for those of you who decide to accept the handshake, that is.

((Hmmmm))

Lorne's heartrate goes way up, his palms become sweaty inside his gloves, and so on.

That's just what I was talking about...but I can overcome it. I've been working for SECT for a little more than a year, they've been examining me all this time, my tendency is well documented...I WON'T be kicked out of SECT for this...I'm sure...

He claps his hands behind his back and gives the commander a nod and a smile, attempting to keep his discomfort from showing, before quickly looking away in embarrassment--hopefully, the Commander's moved on to the next in line by then.

[ChronicLunacy]

Ben Brooks

Underground again...man, I wish they'd give us a window every now and then. I suppose it's for security reasons, though. We're vulnerable to an assassin's bullet without our PSA's. Ben thought as they approached the underground complex. He was used to being put underground, but it got claustrophobic even for him. At least in London SECT he was able to go out into the city sometimes. He could even drink if he wanted to, seeing as London's drinking age was determined by if you could see over the bartop. Now he'd have to catch a chopper to the mainland if he wanted to do get out to the real world.

When everyone saluted them, Ben felt mildly uncomfortable. They weren't in the military, sure, but all of these other people doing the saluting apparently were. It was like being applauded, only silent, which was eerie. He settled for "Thanks," as he accepted the Commander's strong handshake.

Instead of going to his room, Ben decided to take a walk to get to know the area and hopefully see a few people he knew from the other bases. SECT personnel got moved around a lot so it was likely he'd run into an acquaintance or two. The MSAS pilots might be here, too. There were few enough of them that Ben knew most of them by face if not by name. Mostly, though, Ben just wanted to get out and by himself for awhile. He'd spent hours cramped into the tiny passenger compartment of that helicopter, then hours before that on a plane, always surrounded by people. Moments of solitude were golden.

[Cubey]

The commander does not react in any way to Lorne, so it seems he's okay with it. More likely than not, he knows about Lorne's phobia and does not interpret it as a sign of disrespect.

Nobody bothers Ben as he walks away, so he's free to wander about the base. Passers-by (a large variety of people - technicians, armed guards, general assistants, even white collar looking types and office ladies) do not react to his presence - even if they know who he is, they do not interrupt him. Or maybe they do not interrupt him exactly because they know who he is.
At least there aren't any press or activists around.

[kamikasei]

Cat returns the Commander's handshake firmly. The mass salute makes her a little uncomfortable as well - not to mention the talk of being "the best humanity has to offer" - but she knows how to go with the flow in this sort of situation.

After the Commander leaves, she looks around at the others. "Well, one good thing about so much being classified," she quips. "If we can't tell people where we're based, we can't be pressured to bring back souvenirs - I don't want to think about trying to get lederhosen to fit my dad..."

She follows up this icebreaker with a slightly brittle smile.

[Tengu_temp]

Emi shakes the commander's hand, but her nervousness is noticable in her grip - all those people saluting her, as if she was some kind of a war hero on a parade, give her a barely controlled stage fright. And then there's the whole part with the organized activities. She already skipped school more than she should before, and really hoped that she and the other Shifters will be left to their own devices - but no, they have classes with tutors and everything. During summer vacations.
Did I jinx it? I shouldn't have asked about school two days ago...

[Matar]

Besides which, the flight-or-fight response is generally an obsolete technique, I believe. It complicates everyday life, narrowing our options to only those two in situations where it wouldn't be appropriate. Even in combat it takes more than raw adrenaline to win a fight. You have to understand your opponent, and use tactics, and stay cool. That's what put humans on top of the food chain, no matter how the SEs have tried to knock us off."

"Well, I'm not sure what you mean. The way I look at it, fight or flight is a rule for basically everything. "Should I do this, or should I back?" Retreat or move on, take a risk or back down, stuff like that. I'm no scholar though, so eh."


At least for those of you who decide to accept the handshake, that is.

Obviously Todd accepts the handshake. His grip is firm and strong, especially for someone his age. He asks the commander something.

"Commander? Are there any hard rules about personal training? I mean... I have a few things I need to do and all, but i'd like to clock a few hours of training and stuff after I rest up a bit. Is it against... uh..."

Todd searches for the correct word to use.

"Uh... regulation to activate our PSA when not being supervised or anything?"

[Cubey]

"I'm afraid so. Your only PSA training will be on Saturdays, and it will be fully supervised. You won't have access to amplifiers except for that and SE-related emergencies." Clayton looks like he's in thought.
"But this might change depending on progress with your PSA. We will allow more training if we're sure it won't be dangerous to you or others."

[Matar]

Todd pats the commanders chest.

"I won't feel any pain at all, don't worry. Mwahahaha!"

Todds laughs a little.

"Hah, well uh. Until then, I take it normal training is up to us? Don't take it the wrong way dude, but i'll be a bit upset if I find out I can't train or hit punching bags 'n stuff."

[Cubey]

"There are no limits on non-PSA training - we have gyms and other physical exercise facilities. I think there's even a pool. You can use them all as you see fit."

[Matar]

"Alright!"

Todd jogs off to some random place. He finds a tree that has just the right amount of shade and lays against it. He gives his body and the ground around him a once over to make sure there's cut around him that will hurt him or anything. Though he would normally put something in his mouth to avoid biting his tongue while sleeping, he didn't bother with it this time. After making sure everything was okay he nodded off against the tree in just a few minuets.