Skyside 6: Return of the Cheddar

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Spaceport

Good luck, Minerva. This transport requires a crew larger than the three people she's met so far, though Zee can sense another bio-signature on the shuttle- it's small, but it reads as human. The cyborg Adept of Mars is still aboard, probably counting screws or something.

The overseer accompanying the Sister and Zee makes no sign of having heard the muttered conversation behind him, and the Sentinel pilot is now clunking along to the loading bay. Once they reach the top of the shuttle, a large painted design, daubed in dark red paint mixed with traces of inhuman blood, is visible on the vessel's roof. The symbol is of a wyrm coiled into a circle, with a fanged mouth and spines along its back. The blood in the paint is similar to the genetics of the strange organ the overseer, gunner and pilot all possess. "Veewie is going to be a bit longer, probably. He'll come up from inside."
This close to both men, there's a lot of similarities and some slight differences. The gunner's head is more domed, his nose is smaller, and his skin is a pallid grey. He's wearing goggles, hiding the colour of his eyes, but he's just as bald as the overseer.

Nearly Free Clinic

Liam loses track of where Jason is after he dodges, and rather than turning to follow Jason's movement, he starts patting himself down, trying to find a gun and succeeding only in discovering a spatula, which is tossed aside, and a notebook, which is quickly returned.

[bc56]

Nearly Free Clinic

Since Liam seems distracted, Jason will grab the battery from the forcefield and try to pull it off of the supervillain's suit. If it's securely fastened, the attempt will probably fail; Jason isn't any stronger than a normal human.

[Earl of Purple]

Nearly Free Clinic

It was securely fastened, but not securely enough- tugging on it that hard knocks Liam off balance, and he waves his arms, starts to topple backwards, corrects himself and overbalances the other way, catching himself with a quick step forward to not fall over. But that step pulls the battery free of its housing and there's a flash of purple light as the device is disabled. Jason now has a car battery, altered and adjusted by a science villain who seems easily distracted. It is no longer giving off heat, however, and it's cooling down far faster than it should.

Liam glances over his shoulder, sees Jason and starts to run, headed out of the clinic and towards his four-legged motorbike. He clicks his fingers and his parrot lifts off from its hiding place and follows, shedding a few plastic feathers as it goes.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

Zee gives a nod regarding the gunner.

Can do!

Though...

Frankly she would prefer to disable the weapon.

She knows for sure that she could completely purge the alien biology from at least ONE of these people. But the more she thinks about it the more she suspects that her initial take on the situation might be wrong. All these people are bald! Wasn't being bald one of the hallmarks of genestealers that are several generations old? They LOOK human (or whatever race has been parasitized) but they aren't.

If they were raised in the genestealer cult then simply removing alien biology probably wouldn't do anything.

It's the system they've grown up in.

[bc56]

Nearly Free Clinic

"Stop that man!" Jason shouts, chasing after the fleeing supervillain. He knows he can't keep up with the unusual vehicle, so hopefully he can outpace Liam and catch him before he reaches it. Liam has a second or two of head start though.

[Earl of Purple]

Not Nearly Free Clinic

Nobody tries to get in the way of the fleeing supervillain; they're all too cowed and don't want to get involved. A few break and run, hoping to avoid the displeasure of whoever wins out of the two science-based superhumans. Liam parked quite close to the front of the clinic, since he was expecting the need for a rapid getaway, and he's pressing the buttons that turn it on. Jason might be able to tackle him off the motorhorse, since it seems to be taking a while for him to remember the right sequence.

[bc56]

Not Nearly Free Clinic

Jason isn't faster than a normal person, and he's still carrying the large confiscated battery. Liam will be able to start his vehicle before Jason reaches him. That won't stop Jason from trying to follow on foot, though.

[Earl of Purple]

Not Nearly Free Clinic

Liam's motorhorse takes a while to get up to speed, but once it does it proves fast and reasonably agile, and it occasionally leaps onto another vehicle before bounding off it. Usually it dents the roof when it does so, since it's pretty heavy. Jason might be able to follow the trail of chaos, but unless he acquires a vehicle of his own, probably won't catch up.

Liam did leave his gun behind in the clinic, though. And Jason has his battery, which is starting to feel really cold for some reason. Plus the clinic has kept all its bank notes, its MRI machine's magnets, its x-ray contrast and that bullet-factory manager has kept his digital watch. Not a total loss, even if Jason doesn't follow all the way to Thunderhead's Warehouse 90.

[bc56]

Not Nearly Free Clinic

Jason didn't think to grab the gun. He chases after the mechanical horse, but won't be able to keep up, not while carrying the battery. He does manage to track it though. Liam wasn't exactly sneaky. He arrives quite some time later, still carrying the cold battery.

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 90

This is quite a large warehouse district, and it seems it's a popular place for supervillains to make their lairs- the warehouse next door, number 89, is guarded by a bulky man with an impressive musculature and six arms, wearing a bandanna tied about his lower face and a fedora pulled low over his eyes, standing next to a woman wearing a bulldog mask who blends into the concrete wall she's leaning against, mostly because she seems to be made of the same concrete.

Warehouse 91 has been welded shut, and heavily barricaded from the outside. The large metal door has been dented by something inside, something very strong.

Warehouse 90, however, is currently unguarded, with its big metal door half-open and the motorhorse lying on its side outside, legs splayed and powered down. Light is spilling from the gap underneath, which Jason would have to duck to use, and there's machinery sounds coming from within- hammer against metal, the whine of an angle-grinder and the rumble of a car engine. Mixing with the industrial noise is a man trying to sing along to a stereo, playing a recognisable song. Liam's... not very good.

[bc56]

Warehouse 90

Jason rolls his eyes at this "villain's" antics and crosses the street to the motorhorse. He sets the freezing cold battery down and calmly raps on the metal chassis with his knuckles.
Knock!
Knock!
Knock!

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 90

"Ah! I have visitors! Wonder who that could be. Maybe it's more girl scouts with cookies! Wait, no. Those weren't girl scouts, they were violent thugs. Surprisingly good bakers, though. Hold on out there, I'm on my way, just getting myself presentable! Yes, yes. Polly, turn off the music!" And the music stops. After a few more moments, the parrot starts to talk again.
"Don't forget the door! Don't forget the door!" And with that, footsteps approach and the warehouse door slowly rolls up. Liam is wearing the same clothes as earlier, now much spattered in oil and without the wires or metal plates. His mask has been replaced with a surgical mask. His eyes are heterochromatic, the left an icy blue and the right a darker green. They stand out a lot against his dark skin.
When Liam sees Jason, he frowns. "I recognise you. We met, didn't we... Uh, where was it... Um, hang on, nearly got it. Oh! You stopped me robbing the clinic yesterday! ...Or was it today? Polly, what day is it today?" So Liam wasn't hiding his tracks because apparently he forgot he was being followed.
"Today is: Wednesday, the fifty-second, of October, twenty nineteen. Your last shopping trip was: Zero hours, fifteen minutes and thirty-four, five, six seconds ago. Your shopping list was: Deleted, file not found." Um, that's an odd date.
"Right, so, how can I help you?" Liam smiles, and seems cheeful. There's no grudge for stopping him robbing the clinic, or forcing him to abandon his gun, or stealing his now-really-cold battery.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

Obviously Minerva would need to recruit a new non-heretic crew. While cash isn't her strong suit she's quite good at whipping up a mob if need be.

And her idea of "psykers" is that they mostly work with the mind, which is why it's so important to purge any thoughts that might seem alien. But if Zee can disable the gun alltogether that would probably be more ideal.

"We can wait, there's no rush." She nods and starts to walk along the lined up crew, making sure meet each one of their gazes as she is seemingly inspecting them. Her eyes are quite peculiar, it almost looks like they're filling up with ink from the inside out. Only the edges of the sclera remain completely white while the area around the iris is complete black with lines of black reaching out like tentacles outwards to claim the rest of the eye.
Suddenly she stops and looks to the overseer. "Are you all voidborn? I can't help but to notice an resemblance between you."

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

The archwarlock smirks. "Oh, I didn't do this intentionally. That's what so funny. The video they are going to show- well, let's see what happens shall we?"

She unpauses the video again.

"So who is her real father then?"

"Well, I actually got a video which is showing her mother, Kahuro Tusumi, in the company with a very special man. Let's take a look." All the gnolls turn to look into the camera and a clip rolls. It's low quality compared to the studio, rather shaky, and appears to have been taken from a distance. But there is no doubt that it's showing two people sitting by a table at some rooftop resturant in some quaint-looking town. Between the rooftops in the background one can just get a hint of the sun setting, disappearing behind the offing of the sea.

The woman appears to be of south eastern descent (in real life terms) in a partly see through white dress and there is no doubt that she does carry some resemblance to Tellysandra herself. The man on the other hand is a goblin, but probably not the kind that Anri have seen before. His skin tone is a hue of yellow, giving him an almost golden complexion. He's dressed in rather casual clothes compared to the woman but it's no doubt that he's a handsome goblin.

There isn't any sound in the video but romantic music seems to have been added for effect. After just lingering a few seconds on the two, the video cuts back to the studio where one of the male and female gnolls are openly laughing while the other two can barely restrain themselves either.
The host gestures back at the screen. "Show that again. Let's see if we can make it through it this time."

And the video plays up again, now zooming in on the two, one at the time as the hosts talk over it. "So Magtok isn't the only one, huh?" One of the male gnoll comments.
"Are all famous humans in the nexus related to goblins? Perhaps they should start looking into Mithar and Wenomir too. Must be something there." The other one chimes in which provokes more laughs.

"They're so into each other they're not even noticing their freaky watcher over there." This comment might strike Anri as odd as she can't see any people on the video than the pair. Was he refering to the person taking the video?

"Yes, it's clearly cheating on first sight. No wonder Tellysandra hides her face. It's probably where all the goblin parts of her are hidden." The second female gnoll sounds particularly amused as she makes this comment.

"Seems likely, can you just imagine her goblin ears?"
There are more laughs but they are suddenly cut short and as the video cuts back to the studio the gnolls are giving the camera concerned looks. "Surprising end there." The second male gnoll remarks, despite nothing being out of place on the video as far as Anri could tell. "Kinda freaky." He gives the gnoll showing the video a concerned look as she himself is staring at the camera in sudden shock.

She points at something just above the camera. "That's not- ****." Her curse word even gets bleeped. Though such an effort to maintain a safe rating seems particularly odd considering what happens next.

"What in the waves..."
"Holy *****."
The hosts push themselves up into their own couches as they seem to react in horror to something. There is more bleeped swearing and the host run off screen. Though while Anri still can't see what is so horrifying it seems like their reaction isn't unfounded as the gnoll that was showing the video is suddenly lifted into the air by an invisible force. Her claws have dug into the couch and there are sounds of tearing as she tears up the whole couch while trying to struggle against the unseen while crying out for mercy.

It's all in vain however as he soon finds himself dangling like a ragdoll in the air, which is when the screen suddenly goes black and the lights within the movie theater starts turning on.
"Don't think we need to see the rest, do we? It's quite gruesome. But there is a lesson to be learned here. It wouldn't have happened if people were less careless with what I gave them. Remember that when our business are concluded, Anri. The things I deal can be extremely dangerous so even something as wholesome as breaking a curse can turn out wrong if you missuse it."

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Spaceport

The three- the Sentinel pilot just arrived- line up for the inspection. The overseer and the driver look a little nervous, but the gunner seems quite confident.

"Yes, Ma'am. My family's been voidborne for five generations, and he's my father's sister's son." The overseer points at the Sentinel pilot. So they're cousins, with a similar pedigree of space dwelling. "Aitchvee's grandfather came aboard from a mining world, and he's the first to set foot on a planet since." They are all, in fact, cousins, but none share a fully human ancestor more recently than ten generations ago.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

While everyone is all lined up and paying attention to Minerva Zee will get to work on the gun.

Now... she doesn't want to do anything immediately obvious. She's being stealthy!

Sort of.

First of all, it's pretty great that she's significantly bigger than she looks. Her abilities work best through touch after all, but people don't usually expect her to be able to touch them when they're a hundred feet away. To the discerning eye a vaguely hand-shaped distortion in the air wraps around the rotary cannon as she attacks its form. Like most machines it is a precision device and altering the shape of several pieces even by a very small amount should render it completely inoperable.

A bolt too big here, a feeding slot too small there, a few teeth on a gear flattened out and that should be all that it takes.

The only indication that she's done anything at all will the a metallic popping sounding from the gun, not terribly different from the sound of a house settling due to temperature changes.

Hopefully they'll all be too focused on Minerva to notice.

[Deathkeeper]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Anri stares silently for the proceedings. She is perhaps too used to magic to be unsettled by what she is seeing. The implications are terrible, of course. But she didn’t see any of that. Honestly she isn’t really sure what it is that she did see.
”Of course, Ma’am. I understand. That warning is something a wish-granter knows by our nature.” There’s at least one pony that knows that. Or perhaps not. Anri is sure that she was rather stupid.

[bc56]

Warehouse 90

"You have got to be kidding me." Jason can't help but facepalm. "You're under arrest for attempted robbery." Jason's not sure how Liam will react to that. Honestly this has been such a strange case that he's not sure about anything that will happen.

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 90

"No, I'm not. I provide power to three of the warehouses along here. If you try to arrest me, they'll come and un-arrest me, and probably hurt you." Liam turns and walks back inside, though he doesn't close the door so Jason could follow. If Jason wants to follow a supervillain who builds super-tech into the laboratory where he builds it, anyway. That might be a bad idea; how good an idea would it be for somebody to follow Jason into his lab, if they meant him harm?

[Shadowcaller]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

"'Our' nature? Interesting way of putting it. Tell me Anri, what do you usually look like? Do you have a photo perhaps?" She gestures towards the black screen. "I'll get back to that in a second."

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

"Yes, I know all too well how voidborn families come together." Minerva usually pretended to be one herself, it had so far worked as an explanation to the savages out here in the unclaimed territories of mankind. Though considering her condition she wasn't sure how much longer that would do and these creatures reminded her all too much of it.

"But now that you're all here, let's begin shall we? I know a great deal of hymns to praise Him, but I'm not sure you know any of them considering you special condition so why don't you start with one of your own hymns? That way you can all fall into it easier."
These weren't heathens after all which in a way made it all so much worse. "I'll sing along once I feel I grasp the lyrics." She turns to the overseer. "Do you have an altar or other object of religious importance somewhere? Since we all should turn towards it. No matter where it might be."

[Deathkeeper]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Anri reaches into a compartment in her chassis, eventually withdrawing a wallet. She pulls a picture from the side and shows it to Tellysandra, showing Anri as her usual horned, orange-eyed self. She’s shorter and without the stereotypical Drow shape her golem body provided. Her eyes are a piercing orange, as are those of the enormous bear of a man standing beside her, dwarfing her despite the side of her spider prostheses.
”I did have normal legs once. A speeder and a madman decided to change that. I was looking for a way to get them back and rid myself of the ridiculous prosthetic, but I ended up with bigger problems. My brother, if you’re wondering. A witch, and he looks more like his partner nowadays than his family.”

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Spaceport

The gun seems to struggle against Zee's efforts, but it can't fight back effectively because a lot of what she's trying to do is already in place. It's not the most reliable gun, built from scrap and loose parts lying around; many of the bolts already don't fit perfectly, and the gears are second-hand discards battered into shape.

The overseer's first to start to sing, but the others join in.
"The Emperor's our father, and blessèd is His name,
He first crossed the stars to salvage all our souls,
From a world beyond the worlds, to bring us hope,
We serve and praise our father, and in doing we shall gain
Our faith is pure and bright, and for that we're bold,
He cleanses us as sure as any soap."
It, uh, sounds as though the person who wrote it wasn't very good at writing songs, and it's worse since the three singers here aren't able to keep in tune with each other.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

Zee wiggles one finger in her ear as the hymn rounds up.

"Well! Scripture says to make a joyful noise. Doesn't say anything about how melodious the noise needs to be!" she says with a laugh. "You guys all seem pretty devoted to me at least."

She isn't the one who needs to be impressed, though.

And considering that they are both mutants AND xenos there probably isn't anything they could do to sway Minerva's heart, short of convincing the Emperor to come back to life.

[bc56]

Warehouse 90

Jason looks at the guards on the neighboring warehouses. He could probably take them, but there's an easier way.
It's time
For a stakeout.

He heads back to the NERD labs to drop off the strange generator then returns later in the evening with a large supply of snacks and energy drinks. He finds a concealed spot where he has a good view of Warehouse 90, and waits. He can catch Liam the next time he leaves.

[Earl of Purple]

Warehouse 90

The generator eventually fills up and a little green light starts to glow. At that point, Jason has to start being careful, as it's still trying to gather energy and has nowhere to put it. He could plug it in to something, or just leave it and hope it doesn't explode.

The lights from the Warehouse stay on throughout the night, and the sounds of machinery and hammering continue very late as well. Warehouse 89 does close up after a time, though the guards apparently live on the premises as nobody actually leaves. At about half past five in the morning, most of the sounds from Warehouse 90 cease- though the lights stay on. Liam's probably asleep, as he's not left the building. If Jason fancies trying to break in and disturbing Liam's rest, there's not much telling how long he's going to stay that way.

[Shadowcaller]

Tempest Row Spaceport

Minerva nods approvingly as they sing and then circles around the line and marches behind them. "Zee, lead them." She remarks with a gesture at her.

((And I'm going to say that Zee is standing somewhere in front of them, please correct this if you have an issue with this minor godmodding, Rebo.))

Thankfully Zee won't have to make a fool of herself by revealing she doesn't actually know any hymns. Though if she did she'd probably pull them off better than these people.
No, while the group focuses on Zee who probably is unsure what to do, Minerva puts on her helmet and raises her bolter and handflamer.

Then she starts firing into the line, aiming her bolter at the ones not right in front of Zee so she wouldn't hit her temporary ally. But with the flamer she wouldn't need to care, it didn't have the range to hit Zee anyway.

[Back at the Mad Front]

Affy have returned to Shazhan's lab and the ethereal have just feeded the information Affy has gathered about Jinn into a wall of his lab that has ports fort all sort of applications. "First I need to... ah, yes. Good enough." Assuming there isn't any malicious software/hardware within what Affy handed over, Shazhan will then put it in another port.
"Now let's see..." The wall doesn't actually seem to do anything but Shazhan is still looking at it intently. "Mmm... what he's been doing aren't technically considered serious crimes. But considering how information works within the collective he's been accutely aware of what he's been doing is illegal and yet continued doing it. That should be enough to stop him from ever coming out of the collective again, something he will be keenly aware of as well. Considering his passion, that should be all we need to convince him to help us."

The ethereal turns to Affy. "Once we're in there they will attempt to shut us down. They're quite prepared to track down and eliminate whatever is breaching their network, using any means at their disposal which are quite wast. What kind of countermeasures do you have? The first and most obvious one would be to keep them from tracking our hijacking location. Things can get pretty rough if they find out where we are."

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Telly doesn't actually seem to be looking at the photo, but considering that her eyes were covered by a blindmask, did she actually need to?
She still seem to see it as it were. "Oh, I heard about this. The poor self their bodies to scientists and mages around here don't they? Or perhaps you were kidnapped or joined one of those cults? The sheer desperation makes me shiver. This city really is a testament to how awful the world can be." She shakes her head. "But whatever the case that led you down this path, what is your ideal self? If you could be the one making the wish for once."

[Earl of Purple]

Tempest Row Spaceport

The first to die is the overseer, a bolt round exploding in his skull. The Sentinel pilot draws his autopistol and turns, all in a single motion; he's got slightly faster reactions than a normal human, and might get a single shot with his basic semi-automatic pistol off before he's immolated and/or shot. The gunner also turns, starting to crank the handle on his heavy stubber, but nothing happens as the flames wash over him and his clothes start to burn. He shrieks and turns to Zee, who is closer, to try and club her to death with the useless chunk of scrap.

The autopistol probably won't penetrate Minerva's power armour, since it's a pretty basic semi-automatic pistol that fires autogun rounds.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row Spaceport]

Well.

This is pretty horrible.

People getting blown up and set on fire is always an awful experience.

Always.

And leave it to Skyside to be essentially unmoved by spasms of random violence.

Zee jukes to the side as the gun comes hurtling down toward her, the weapon swishing through empty air. Her footwork is pretty great and considering the speed at which she reacted it's almost as if she knew what was going to happen the moment the gunner had decided on his course of action. She hauls back one arm, a slight glow forming around her left hand, moments before she thrusts it toward the gunner's ribs.

Normally one wouldn't expect an open palm thrust to do much to an augmented human like this.

Should she strike true, there will be a very literal explosion of arcane power, sending Zee's scarf flapping in the back-draft as random bits of debris are sent tumbling away the ensuing shock. Amber-colored, almost crystalline substance will eat at the poor gunner, the air filling with streamers of green and yellow iridescent light. The force of the blast should be sufficient to hurl the man about forty feet away with incredible violence. It doesn't sound like an explosion, though. It sounds more as if a bell had been struck, giving a single, clear, resonating note.

"Empty palm CRUSHES the impure!"

[Deathkeeper]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Anri nods.
”The second one. Madman wanted a test subject to ‘help.’ I was apparently available enough for him.”
She pauses to consider the question posed to her.
”I don’t think I rightly know. I’d like to be tall. Pretty. If it wasn’t for the horns I was rather plain. And libraries can be quite the pain when you’re short. But otherwise...I don’t know. I suppose that with my horns and eyes I haven’t counted as human in some time. And I do understand why some people ask for wings and such at every opportunity. But I’ve never put stock in appearances too much, nor do I plan to.” she muses, staring up at the ceiling.
”Why do you ask?”

[Shadowcaller]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

The archwarlock smiles. "You're a smart gal, Ahri. Why do you think I asked?" She gestures back at the black cinema screen. "But going back to our little event here. What you just saw, or rather didn't see, was a pride-class demon. This variant, and there are many, are invisible as they are ashamed of the way they look. But if someone still manage to see them, they react violently. Killing anyone who've seen what they look like. However, their obsession with their own apperance makes them suseptible to be trapped in mirrors or visual recording devices like that." She waves her hand at the screen.

"They can only exist in one picture or mirror at the time however, which is why we saw it as invisible. It simply didn't exist in the video anymore. But videos like the one they were watching are made up of thousands of single frames so it would have been impossible for them to even notice it unless it started moved through the frames as they were playing the video. However, the fact that demon were trapped in that particular video seems kind of odd don't you think? A bit too convinient, so any theories as to why?"

Tempest Row Spaceport

Yes, that single bullet doesn't have much luck penetrating Minerva's power armor.
Still, the sister of battle makes sure she isn't standing completely still and starts to move to the side to make her slightly more difficult to hit. With the flamer she didn't even need to aim after all, she just continued sending a stream of flame towards the surviving crew while moving after them as they probably started to flee.
She had more than enough flamer ammo in the fueltank on her back to not consider saving any yet. With the bolter she's more restrained however. Only shooting at targets that appeared likely to resist or shoot back.

She's completely remorseless but these people's inhuman apperance made that easy for her.

[Deathkeeper]

[Tellysandra’s Manse]

Anri tilts her head as if confused.
”Because it was planted there. Obviously. You said yourself that you did this. And while I’m not the expert here, I’m fairly sure that demons don’t go wandering into recordings of important people’s family.” She’s not sure what she’s being tested on in this one.
”Though I do wonder how the video was leaked to the press, undoubtedly watched several times so they knew it was noteworthy, but only triggered the demon when it was played in front of the hosts.”